men for their speciall pattern in these times Nay more then this how are the very Artiticles of Gods holy Religion iâ— self here setled slighted and cast aside by them 〈◊〉 wholly insufficient for our faith to build upon How have many of those men who were bound in speciall to defend the same in regard of their office and calling their frequent Oaths and Protestation to that purpose been the Instruments to alter the 〈◊〉 the waged Balaams to blast and disesteeme them And how have they hereby confirmed the slanders of our Romish adversaries against us who have often said that we had no Church no Established Doctrine no foundation for our Profession How are these hereby raised in their hopes to see a restoration of their Babell in the downfall of our Jerusalme O that those who call themselves the Assembly of Divines by their grosse Apostacy from their first faith and love have been the chief meanes of working all these mischiefes would but read over and lay to heart seriously those passages which they shall find to this purpose in a late Book intituled Englands complaint for the sin of Rebellion written by that constant Brother and faithfull Minister of Jesus Christ M. Lionell Gatford whom most of them well know to be a man of most approved integrity But here 's not all yet not the Articles of our Religion only but the protector of them the Annointed of the Lord himself is in like manner cast aside How hath he been contemn'd of late nay how hath the Majesty and Authority of God been viâ—â—â—â—d in him together with those Scriptures which command our Honour and Obedience How hath His sacred Person been railed upon slandred and reviled How hath He been persecuted hunted tormented for His Conscience sake How hath he been robbed deprived of all his Revenues his Comforts and his Freedom for His love and affections to the Church of God because He was the Head chief Member of it there was too much of Truth as there was of bitterness in that speech which since His Majesty was in bondage I heard uttered from the Pulpit by a Fryer in France who railing against the Protestants of that Kingdome for denying the Pope to be Head of the Church who sayes he would they have the head thereof the King perhaps even like their Brethren in England who first made their King the Head of their Church and now they make Him their Slave Nay more yet with the Kings Person and Authority His graces also are the object of their scorne and hate His magnanimity His patience His care to keep His conscience undefiled yea the maine study and work of these pretenders to conscience these bawlers for Liberty of Conscience hath been for a long time vastare conscientiam Regis to violate the Conscience of their Soveraign and to breake the peace thereof And what dogged spightfulnesse have they discover'd of late against the pitifulnesse of spirit that is in Him How faine would they be torturing and murdering of Him for His tendernesse of heart towards the miseries of His people its well knowne to all the world and to themselves too who began these wicked Wars and at whose doore the guilt of bloodlies yet because the good King seeing them wholy of the Pharisees stampe abhorring to practice the lesson that Christ taught of denying themselves and confessing their sin and yet being desirous to purchase His peoples peace is content for their security of His pardon that He will not bring them to a triall by Law for their past demerits but remit them wholly to the hand of God to connive even at their throwing their dirt in His face what vile Doctrines and cursed Uses do their Pamphleteers and their Pulpiteers raise from thence and presse upon the people why that God hath now resolved the great doubt hath heard his peoples prayers in charging the guilt of blood upon the Kings soule and brought Him to acknowledge that He hath been the cause of all which hath been shed and therefore it belongs to the people now to see unto it that Justice be done upon Him and upon His friends for it Was ever such horrid wickednesse heard of such transcendent villany in mortall creatures would not the Devil himselfe blush to appear in their shapes may we not looke for some strange judgement like that of the earths opening to swallow them up had Davids people when he to have them spared had cryed out t is I that have sinned spake of calling him to account for the losse of 70000 men they had shewne lesse impudence then these have done Nay the malitious Jews though they crucified Christ because he was a King yet were not so super-superlatively vile as to consult his death because he was content in their stead and for their safety to be accounted as a sinner Assuredly therfore these men have out-gone all before them for aske now of the daies that are past since the time that God created man upon the earth aske from the one side of heaven unto the other whether there hath ever been such bloody spunges as these shew themselves to be such monsters of nature amongst men O the basenesse the impiety the wormewood and the gall of their spirits if ever the Title of Rex diabolorum was rightly applyable to the King of this land 't is since the viperine birth of these miscreants And that such only as themselves are might be continued if possible in the Nation there is a speciall course taken that knowledge and good manners might not abound in those that come after for the Universities are metamorphised and purged too as well as the Church of learned and good men Thistles are there set instead of Wheat and Cockle instead of Barly Yea all Orders and degrees amongst men if some may have their will must be abolished presently and confusion planted in all places as 't is already in a great measure Kings and Princes Nobles and persons of Honour must be but as the meane people which God indeed may justly permit in respect of some for those contempts and miseries which even they have help'd to bring upon his Church sure these things are a lamentation and ought to be for a lamentation Never was there so foolish and so mad a Nation under the Sun as we have proved our selves to the derision of all about us the ruine and decay of our Ancient glory our outward Happinesse and of our soules for ever O therefore I say againe that mine head were full of water and that mine eyes were fountaines of teares to bewaile these things O that the people of this Land especially they that are got Highest would but consider what they have done and yet at last before all is lost set some period to their owne doings O that those men of wealth and place who advanced at first their whole might to lay levell this famous Church to take from it all Honours orders and
all those that favour the good of Jsrael more especially settle and inlarge his blessings upon you and your posterity that you may all do worthily in Ephratah and be famous in Bethlehem that you may be on earth instruments of his glory to the good of his Church so shall you be vessels of glory in the kingdome of heaven The which is his daily prayer who is Worthy Sir Yours ever in the Lord to be commanded THEOPH WODENOTE PErhaps some Reader may account prophane Descants from Records as are here humane But yet all wise men know how Humane story Vs'd by Divines tend much unto Gods glory And holy wisdome sweetly does extract A blessed use of each true famed fact As Rich men use in hospitality He first invites thee to this century Somewhat the better that prepare he might And satiate thy purer appetite Whose course of study I so fully know That for this Humane Century he can shew Of Sacred Story Chiliad-observation To gratifie at full all expectation And if unbias'd hearts these entertaiâ—e Hermes next time a Star will shine againe And out of holy Writ communicate His rich Select's in his Sequestred state And though an Olive doe begin the feast A Pearle at last shall helpe all to digest P. M. YOu that wed eHistories and from them draw out Only the Vulgar and the common Rout Of Observations mend your Pens by this Write by this Copy you can't write amisse Each Author here speakes his owne mind and we Receive their writings now for Prophecy For our sad Times they so exactly hit As if they first had seen them and then writ If th' Records Pagan were these Descants shall Bptize them all make them Canonicall P. M. NEW DESCANTS UPON OLD RECORDS IT was the complaint of the Emperour Adrian when he lay a dying Many Physitians have destroyed the Emperour a Their contrary conceipts Xiphilinus in Adriano and different directions he meant had hastened his death and cut him off before his time There are so many Censurers and Correctors of our not sick but sound Religion approved by the sacred Scriptures and attested by the blood of many faithfull Martyrs There are so many Reformers and Rectifiers of all ages sexes and degrees of all professions and trades that take upon them to order our Church according to their severall crooked imaginations that they have reduced all things in it to a Chaos and confusion and defaced and spoiled one of the most compleat Churches if not the principall both for doctrine and discipline now extant in the Christian world II. IF Timotheus had not been we had not had such musique but if Phrynes Timotheus his Teacher had not been we had not had Timotheus saith Aristotle (b) Meta. lib. 2. c. 1. If as he Musick we consider these times of Mourning we may as truly but with detestation say If there had not been discontented people abroad we had not heard of so great contentions and tumults suffered such plunderings and oppressions seene so many wounds and murthers but if there had not been such and such Schismaticall Priests like violent winds moving and troubling the brains of the people and inciting them to Rebellion we had not had such discontented people The people would have been peaceable and tractable as heretofore had not some false Prophets been as bellowes and brands of Insurrection had not seditious Oratours been as Drummers in a Campe and as Trumpetters sounding to a battell III. ANtisthenes the Philosopher being asked What a Feast was Answered That it was an occasion of much surfeiting and many other disorders If you make a question now what our Spirituall Feasts the best liked and most applauded Sermons are They are shiftings and juglings for a wrong Cause they are traducings of the KING and slanderings of the Foot-steps of Gods Anointed They are the countenancers and promoters of Civill Warre contrary to the doctrine of the Scriptures and dictate of Religion and Conscience They are Alarums to stir up Sedition Rebellion Atheisme They are Invectives against all Learning and Loyaltie They are casters out of one Devill by another abolishers of Idolatry by Sacriledge They are the gall of bitternesse and the bond of Iniquity IV. THe Lord Ellesmor the Lord Chancellour of this Realme a great lover of mercy whose memoriall is still blessed was heard to professe as I have read that if he had beene a Preacher this should have been his Text A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast (c) Prov. 12.10 The Propheticall Incendiaries of the late fearfull unnaturall War how far were they from this disposition how far from thoughts and bowels of mercies how far from a desire to preach mercies when it was a common course with them by Vipcrine glosses to eate out the bowels of a mercifull Text when nothing was more usuall amongst them then with stony hearts and brazen faces to alledge the words of the Scripture against the meaning then to wrong and wring the Scripture till it bled but they would mis-construe and misapply it one way or other to stir and incite men to the shedding of blood Arme arme Fight fight Bloud bloud Kill these Cavaliers these Popish Pagans were still with them deductions from their Texts V. CAmbyses demanding of his Counsellors Whether he might not marry his sister by the Law of the Land They answered They found no Law that allowed a brother to marry his sister but one that permitted the King of the Persians to doe as he list (d) Heredotus Our proud peevish Brownists impatient of Government sons of Belial a rebellious and obstinate people having necks as an iron sinew and brows of brasse cannot in all the Scriptures find any sound or seeming proofe for this their foule rebellion Neither can their false Prophets their chiefe Counsellours find out any such places for them but therefore they use in a wrong sense so to inlarge and amplifie the great benefit of our Christian liberty the which indeed is a freedome from all hellish slavish feare but not from a holy and sonne-like feare a freedome from the curse but not from the obedience of the Law that they have now made many simple people little seene in heavenly matters beleeve that the reines are pulled from Christians necks and they left to their owne dispositions that there is a liberty purchased for Christians to doe what every man liketh and to live under no obedience to Ecclesiasticall or Civill Governors VI. WHen Mahomet was now about to establish his abominable superstition wherein he had mingled the lawes and doctrines of Heathens of Jewes of false Christians and Hereticks with the illusions and inventions of his own braine he gave it forth for a maine principle how God at the first to Man-kind sent Moses after him Jesus Christ who were indued with the power to work miracles but men gave small heed to them Therefore he determined to send Mahomet a Warriour without Miracles that whom
humbled his soule by true repentance for the great murther committed by his meanes in Thessalonica for I cannot think that he was excommunicate whatsoever the Canonists say contrary neither standeth Excommunication of Princes upon any good ground seeing they have no superiour Judges upon earth but How wilt thou saith Saint Ambrose according to his duty unto him seeking to save the Princes soule with the hazard of his own life receive the Lords Body with a bloody hand (x) Theod. hist l. 5. c. 18. was never quiet in heart till he was freed from that impediment ceased not in brackish teares to bewaile his wretched estate and day by day with great earnestnesse to crave restitution till he was at last againe received into the Church to praise the Lord in the great congregation and amongst much people How farre from Theodosius his humble spirit and hearty love to the Church are they now a-dayes who have wilfully divided and rent themselves from our Church contemned our Sacraments and condemned our Religion as Antichristian in the meane while betaking themselves to private meetings and secret Conventicles XXXIII PYthagoras boundall those whom he received into his Schoole to five yeares silence that they might not fly before they were fledge that as soone as ever they crept from the shell they might not aspire to the house top that their tongues might not run before their wits that they might hear sufficiently before they spake boldly and so strong was his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so much did his word prevaile with them that faithfully and constantly they observed his commandment Many Tutors now a-dayes though wiser better then Pythagoras yet seeing their young ones too forward to make wing cannot possibly beat them back into the nest yet cannot keep their Pupils within the limits of learners five yeares no nor foure yeares till they have taken some Degree in Schoole but they must needs in all haste take upon them the sacred profession of preaching Gods Word and not onely some thin obscure ignorant Country Parishes but Jerusalem and the chiefe Cities but the greatest congregations and the most knowing people must take notice of their ripe and rare intelligence in their owne though raw in other mens opinions Being drunken with pride they delight to be seen in the most publick assemblies as there are some that must needs shew themselves in the market or Faire being drunken with Wine or some meaner liquor XXXIV THere were three Ambassadours sent from Rome to Bythinia to appease the discords and salve up the differences betweene Nicomedes and Prusias whereof one was troubled with an aking in his head another with the gout in his toes and the third with a fainting in his heart Of this Ambassage what said Cato The people of Rome send an Ambassage that hath neither head nor foot nor heart Were Cato Major now alive againe to see our new counterfeit Legats without any sacred authority without any competent ability taking upon them sacred functions how worthily might he say of them that they have neither heads of true learning nor feet of right obedience nor hearts of godly sincerity Fitter for Innovation then Administration fitter to make differences then to reconcile them and to scatter the sheep of Christ then to gather them together fitter to raise false reports and to put their hands with the wicked to be unrighteous witnesses then to be righteous reformers XXXV ALexander seeing one of his Souldiers going to sharpen his dart when all other were going to fight casheer'd him and cast him out of the Army saying He was unworthy of a place in an Army who was then to provide Armes when he was to use them How much more is he unworthy to be a Leader in the Spirituall Army to ascend into Moses chaire who is then to provide when he is to put on who is then to prepare when he is to preach how can such a one chuse but disguise the holy word of God and prophane it one way or other He that speaketh sodainly shall never speake profitably but presumeth too far upon his owne gifts and too much undervalueth the good of Gods people and the businesse he hath in hand Our 〈◊〉 〈…〉 â—â—â—ation should be as it were seasoned with salt that it may minister grace unto the hearers How much more when the Law of God is publickly sought for at our mouths and to be uttered by us against noted and cunning Schismaticks and Hereticks when we are openly to wrestle not against flesh and blood onely but against principalities against powers against the Rulers of the darkenesse of this world against spirituall wickednesse in high places y Eph. 6.12 XXXVI AVenzoar that greatly learned and experienced Physitian affirmed that he never gave purgation but his heart did shake many daies before though no doubt so 〈…〉 conscionable as long to commune with his owne heart and with the chiefest Masters he could meet withall in his profession that the cure might the better prosper under his hands that successe might answer expectation How audacious then and insensible and dissolute in their undertakings are they who being Physitians of soules never deliberate with themselves what hurt bad physick may doe or take any serious thoughts how their counsell may be most effectuall who never weigh their prescripts by the proportion of faith z Rom. 12 6. never suite their words to the wholsome words of the Lord Jesus a 1 Tim. 6.3 but irreverently and unworthily rudely and rashly administer all their doctrines instructions corrections consolations without either dread of bad haps to fall out or desire of good successe to follow without either art or paines in the reading and composing or awfulnesse and heedfulnesse in recollecting and delivering XXXVII A Lacedemonian having plucked off the feathers of a nightingale that not long before had given a delicate and ravishing sound and seen but a little leane carion left b thou art a voice a Plutarch in Apoph Lacon saith he nought else Your new fashioned Sermons so full of edification as some conceive seeme in the eares of such admirers rare and excellent musick so far over-reaching others notes as the nightingale in melody passeth al the rest of the birds of the wood but pluck off the feathers from the discourses the newes and more newes of the times the seditious contumelies and treacherous invectives the idle digressions and multitude of words as though they knew their hearers could understand nothing except they told it them twenty times over Disrobe them of such their circumquaques and circulations to no purpose wherein they run their rounds and yet perswade their hearers that they goe right forward with great sobriety and gravity Dismantle them of such vaine and frivolous ornaments wherewith they are audaciously clothed and lay them naked to the view of true reason and the body of all their long stories what shew soever it made before the simple is but a poor
world were bound to the breath of other mens mouths shew me a proof for that point thou wouldst have me to beleeve or follow prove what thou preachest if I shall beleeve thee I shall ever imbrace one full proofe before a thousand flaunting protestations Tell not me of uses only and uses upon uses I shall ever be afraid to make use of the roome of that house where I am still in doubt whether the foundation be sure XLIV IT was an heroicall answer which was given by Charles the fifth Emperour to such as would have perswaded him not to send back Luther being come unto him under his safe conduct that though the performances of promises were cleare banished the face of the earth yet they should be kept by an Emperour Going often into the Sanctuary of God and having there clearly found so many precepts for the reverent handling of Gods word the which I hope they have promised to keepe what though Ministers now adaies be earnestly perswaded and urged to take the name of God in vaine and to Preach extempore what though otherwise they are like to loose all esteeme amongst worldly men and to be outed of all their meanes yet is it a good resolution for every Preacher that feareth God to imbrace and observe without exception Be the impudent guize of others applauded and admired and preferred be fear and reverence banished from the Church I will never presume to ascend a Pulpit without private and publick both prayer and premeditation By me the sacred word of God shall never willingly be prophaned XLV THe Lacedemonians banished Ctesiphon for that he vaunted that he could discourse all the day of any subject that was put unto him they thought that words should not be long and empty but short and the subject of much matter but like pretious jewels containe great riches in a little roome They conceived that speech ought to be so precious a treasure as not to be used in vaine and wastfully But have the people such an evill conceit now adaies of copiam verborum of over-flowers with words who for a drop of wit have a floud of elocution who trust more to the slipperyness of their tongues then to the soundnesse of their cause or though they do not banish them do they mislike to hear them Do they not rather thinke their wisdome to be as fluent as their words Do they not rather take them for the best preachers that can most vary phrases and talke longest and loudest though nothing to the business though much mudde of vanity must needs issue out where the sluce of moderation is plucked up and passage given to all that can be spoken And yet how could the Lacedemonians come to hear what we have often heard that for every idle word though neither in it self false nor yet hurtfull and prejudiciall unto others and therefore much more for tedious Sermons full of tautologies besides unreasonable treacherous and prophane matters a strict account there must assuredly be rendred XLVI AUgustus Caesar on a time as he was passing through Rome and saw certain strange women lulling Apes and whelpes in their armes What said he have the women of these Countries no other Children You that so admire and run after those as the only profound Teachers who were never bred as Scholars who understand not one of those tongues wherein the holy Ghost wrote great helps to learne his meaning and therefore cannot convince hereticks as true Ministers ought for the translations often faile and cannot alwaies expresse the force of words in the Originall can you find in neither of our famous Universities so learned and so holy men as these your new mountebanks that can mount from the boate or the coach to the desk from the shop-board to the Pulpit can you meet with no stronger workemen then such weake hinds no better leaders then such blind guides no skilfuller Pilots then such as never sailed one league from the shore XLVII WHensoever Alexander the Great heard any plaintiff he was wont to stop one eare and being asked why he did so answered I keepe the other free for the defence of the accused that so I may stand indifferent till the truth be throughly canvassed If an heretick or schismatick mutineere or Rebell can get the first acquaintance with some men he may easily so forestall and fill both their ears with a false report as to leave no roome for any farther information He may quickly lead them or rather mislead them whither his perverse humour inclineth The first tale cunningly told carrieth thē without baile or mainprize into any crazed opinion or carnal resolution whatsoever against their Country Prince yea God himselfe Alexander was not more reserved and reasonable then they are weake and wilfull XLVIII WE read of them who dwell about the fall of the River Nilus where it tumbleth downe from high mountaines that they are made deafe by the greatness of the sound and noise of the waters The many great and strange lies that in these desperate times have been spread abroad by loud-sounding Trumpets all the Kingdom over the tumultuous noise that all Protestant and conformable Divines are ranke Papists or Popishly affected that their faith and service is cursed and damnable that a set forme of publique Prayer is Antichristian and abominable and no more acceptable to God then the offering of swines flesh was under the Law which the Lord abhorred have made many of the common people and some no doubt who have a devotion atherwise to serve God aright so hard and dull of hearing that they cannot now for their hearts and souls perceive the still and soft voice of the truth XLIX WAlter Mapes sometimes Arch-deacon of Oxford the next age after the Conquest having written of a gross Simoniacall bargaine made by the Pope shutteth up his narration thus Notwithstanding let our Lady and Mother the Church of Rome be as a staffe bowed in the water and let us not beleeve what we see (k) De Nugis Can. Let a true Protestant give but any the least advantage of suspition let him but looke over the hedge be the complaint never so false the proof never so slender the man never so guiltlesse the horse is stoln and he must needs be the man There is no pleading to be made to it there is no beleeving the contrary but let a brother of the faction apparently commit a most foule offence let him be taken in the manner let the case be clear by sufficient witnesses yet we must not beleeve all that we hear or see both our eares and our eyes may be deceived the man may be right still as a staffe in the water how bowed how crooked soever it appear L. PEnelope but a heathenish woman was sollicited by many unchaste wooers to wrong her husband Ulysses who had been absent from her twenty years yet neither by suiters promises nor her owne Parents intreaties could she be drawn to breake her
faith which she had made to her husband at his departure but still remained faithfull What Regiments what Fleets of schismaticall and hereticall wooers are now in the world who under pretence of devotion zeale and good intendments compasse Sea and Land to make one of their profession and what a great cunning crew of them in these Kingdomes every man striving what he may to advance and advantage his cause These wooe the silly and simple sort of people and with words of deceit cease not to entice unstable soules to wrong Christ to breake covenant with him and contract themselves with new husbands new Lords that have new Laws which Christ never used but ô take heed and beware let none of these wooers wooe you or if they wooe you let them not win you be true to Christ your loving Ulysses your true bridegroome your dear Soveraign your gratious Saviour O forget not his parables his precepts his sentences his Sacraments his prayer his peace that he left with you LI. IT was Annibals saying of Marcellus that he had to do with him who could never be quiet neither Conqueror nor Conquered l Plate in vita Annib. but Conquering he would pursue his victories and Conquered labour to recover his losse but much rather may a man say the like of Satan that great ramping Lion the Arch-envier of our peace and happinesse who is the most wrathfull and the most watchfull enemy who is never idle but ever imployed in sowing cockles amongst the Lords good corne who though we stoutly resist him and overcome him for a time yet will never rest nor give over but will be tempting againe yea will not cease to assay us againe and againe with the same temptations hoping at length to win our consents and to give us the foile Wherefore having often well fought against him and subdued him yet watch we still and pray we continually to God that we be not over-mastered by him LII I Would never sit upon that seate said Themistocles from which my friends should receive no more benefit from me then strangers And indeed how often do friends sway the ballance of Justice who hath not seen how private respects cause too many Judges to leave the truth and to hear the falsehood but ô the Scriptures teach Magistrates a clean contrary lesson when they put on the persons of Judges to put off the persons of friends when they sit in the place of Justice not to thinke they are now husbands or parents or kinsmen or neighbours but Judges and therefore without all by respects to discharge that truth which the great God of heaven and earth hath reposed in them and expecteth from them not once remembring their foes for any pressures and altogether forgetting their friends for any partiality LIII I Socrates an Athenian Orator in his counsell to Demonicus a young Gentleman man like to be called to a great place saith thus unto him Depart not from an Office more rich but more honourable then when thou undertookest it The instruction given by this heathen may shame many Christians our Officers regard not with what dishonour or dishonestie they keep or leave their places so they may be rich never fear though they tread their Wine out of other mens grapes reape their corne out of other mens fields so they may store their owne houses with provision so they may make their children great and turne them into gallants they take no care make no scruple though they turne their own souls into hell LIV. IT is written of Charles of Prague that he supped often with a few sentences and arguments in the Schooles m D. Humfred in vita Juelli his meditation was all the meat he had for that meale But if some of the most devout Sequestrators now a daies most abounding with lip holinesse and righteousnesse were restrained and tied for a while to no better allowance the which yet were great kindnesse to their covetous straitnesse and continuall cruelty towards their prisoners there is no doubt to be made but you should quickly hear them complaine of short commons I make no question but you should soone hear them with no small passion exclaime upon their persecutors malice covetousnesse pride seeking by others ruines to be Grandees and to advance their heads above all that is called their neighbour you should then hear at large of their owne good breeding great worth and deserts whereof they were never guilty you should then hear the subjects property displaied and set forth at full and approved by Laws and reasons both humane and Divine LV. HErod as we find in authentick historie making full account to destroy Christ amongst the rest not only slew all the other children near the place where Christ was borne but spared not his own child the fruite of his own loines flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone n Euscb lib. 1. c. 9. Macrob. Saturu lib. 2. cap. 4. what bones made he to pluck up that affection to his child which nature had planted in him or further to set unnaturall murther in the place The which being reported to Augustus the Emperour It is better saith he to be Herods sow then his son To such heavy sufferings to such hard distresses to such evident and extreame calamities have they been driven to in these unmercifull times who have spent their times their spirits their lives their patrimonies for the good of the Church such unconscionable and violent wrongs and oppressions have been practised of late upon grave learned and conscientious Divines the chariots and horsemen of our Israel by the horsemen and footmen in our Israel that just cause have they to cry out and say to such persecutors shame saving the honour due unto God Better be the peoples plowmen then Priests LVI IT was the Poets vaine and groundless conceit of Hector that so long as he lived Troy could not be destroyed terming him the immovable and inexpugnable pillar of Troy But well may it be said of a faithfull man that he is a mighty stay strength a maine defender and upholder of the place where he liveth for whose sake for whose presence and prayers out of the Lords abundant kindnesse to all his even the wicked are often within the shadow of Gods protection spared as for one just Lot the Angels spared the City Zoar Zoar might perhaps be as bad as Sodom but here was a difference It had a righteous Lot within Sodom had none o Gen. 19.21 LVII DIonysius the younger confessed that he maintained many Sophisters not that he did admire them but that for their sakes he might himselfe be admired Though there be no great number now a daies that are further liberall to Scholars and Ministers then only in outward complement yet I fear a great part of them also part not with their kindnesses to please God who requireth it at their hands whom they ought to make reckoning of above all and to