to a liking to a forbearance of his misdeuotion Yea so much the more doth the heart of Asa rise against these puppets for that they were the sinne the shame of his father Did there want thinke we some Courtier of his Fathers retinue to say Sir fauour the memorie of him that begot you you cannot demolish these statues without the dishonour of their Erector Hide your dislike at the least It will bee your glory to lay your finger vpon this blot of your fathers reputation If you list not to allow his act yet winke at it The godly zeale of Asa turnes the deafe eare to these monitors and lets them see that hee doth not more honor a father then hate an Idol No dearenesse of person should take off the edge of our detestation of the sinne Nature is worthy of forgetfulnesse and contempt in opposition to the God of Nature Vpon the same ground as hee remoued the Idols of his father Abijam so for Idols he remoued his Grand-mother Maachah shee would not be remoued from her obscene Idols shee is therefore remoued from the station of her honor That Princesse had aged both in her regency and superstition Vnder her rod was Asa bruought vp and schooled in the rudiments of her Idolatry whom she could not infect she hoped to ouer-awe so as if Asa will not follow her gods yet she presumes that shee may retaine her owne Doubtlesse no meanes were neglected for her reclamation none would preuaile Religious Asa gathers vp himselfe and begins to remember that he is a King though a sonne that she though a mother yet is a subiect that her eminence could not but countenance Idolatry that her greatnesse suppressed religion which hee should in vaine hope to reforme whiles her superstition swayed forgetting therefore the challenges of nature the awe of infancy the custome of reuerence hee strips her of that command which hee saw preiudiciall to his Maker All respects of flesh and blood must be trampled on for God Could that long-setled Idolatry want abettors Questionlesse some or other would say This was the religion of your father Abijam this of your Grand-father Rehoboam this of the latter daies of your wise and great Grand-father Salomon this of your Grand-mother Maachah this of your great Grand-mother Naamah why should it not be yours Why should you suspect either the wisdome or piety or saluation of so many Predecessors Good Asa had learned to contemne prescription against a direct law He had the grace to know it was no measuring truth by so modeme antiquity his eyes scorning to looke so low raise vp themselues to the vncorrupt times of Salomon to Dauid to Samuel to the Iudges to Ioshua to Moses to the Patriarks to Noah to the religious founders of the first world to the first father of mankinde to Paradise to heauen In comparison of these Maachahs God cannot ouerlooke yesterday the ancientest error is but a nouice to Truth And if neuer any example could be pleaded for puritie of religion it is enough that the precept is expresse He knew what God said in Sinai and wrote in the Tables Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any grauen image nor any similitude Thou shalt not bow downe to them nor worship them If all the world had beene an Idolater euer since that word was giuen hee knew how little that precedent could auaile for disobedience Practice must bee corrected by law and not the law yeeld to practice Maachah therefoe goes downe from her seat her Idols from their groue shee to retirednesse they to the fire and from thence to the water Wofull deities that could both burne and drowne Neither did the zeale of Asa more magnifie it selfe in these priuatiue acts of weeding out the corruptions of Religion then in the positiue acts of an holy plantation In the falling of those Idolatrous shrines the Temple of God flourishes That doth he furnish with those sacred treasures which were dedicated by himselfe by the Progenitors Like the true sonne of Dauid hee would not serue God cost-free Rehoboam turned Salomons gold into brasse Asa turnes Rehoboams brasse into gold Some of these vessels it seemes Abijam Asaes father had dedicated to God but after his vow inquired yea with held them Asa like a good sonne payes his fathers debts and his owne It is a good signe of a well-meant deuotion when wee can abide it chargeable as contrarily in the affaires of God a niggardly hand argues a cold and hollow heart All these were noble and excellent acts the extirpation of Sodomie the demolition of Idols the remouall of Maachah the bountious contribution to the Temple but that which giues true life vnto all these is a sound root Asaes heart was perfect with the Lord all his dayes No lesse laudable workes then these haue proceeded from Hypocrisie which whiles they haue caried away applause from men haue lost their thankes with God All Asaes gold was but drosse to his pure intentions But oh what great and many infirmities may consist with vprightnesse What allayes of imperfection will there be found in the most refined soule Foure no small faults are found in true-hearted Asa First the high-places stood still vnremoued What high places There were some dedicated to the worship of false gods these Asa tooke away There were some misdeuoted to the worship of the true God these hee lets stand There was grosse Idolatry in the former there was a weake will-worship in the latter whiles hee opposes impietie hee winkes at mistakings yet euen the varietie of altars was forbidden by an expresse charge from God who had confined his seruice to the Temple With one breath doth God report both these The high-places were not remoued yet neuerthelesse Asaes heart was perfit God will not see weakenesses where he sees truth How pleasing a thing is sinceritie that in fauour thereof the mercy of our iust God digests many an errour Oh God let our hearts goe vpright though our feet slide the fall cannot through thy grace be deadly howeuer it may shame or paine vs. Besides to confront his riuall of Israel Baasha this religious King of Iudah fetches in Benhadad the King of Syria into Gods inheritance vpon too deare a rate the breach of his league the expilation of the Temple All the wealth wherewith Asa had endowed the House of the Lord was little enough to 〈◊〉 an Edomite to betray his fidelitie and to inuade Israel Leagues may bee made with Infidels not at such a price vpon such tearmes There can bee no warrant for a wilfull subornation of perfidiousnesse In these cases of outward things the mercy of God dispenceth with our true necessities not with the affected O Asa where was thy piety whiles thou robbest God to corrupt an Infidell for the daughter of Israelites O Princes where is your pietie whiles yee hire Turkes to the slaughter of Christians to the spoile of Gods Church Yet which was worse Asa doth not onely imploy the
our righteousnesse that must be wherein they failed and we must exceed They failed then in their Traditions and Practise May I say they failed when they exceeded Their Traditions exceeded in number and prosecution faulty in matter To runne well but out of the way according to the Greeke prouerbe is not better than to stand still Fire is an excellent thing but if it be in the top of the chimney it doth mischiefe rather It is good to be zealous in spight of all scoffes Gal. 4.13 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a good thing If they had beene as hot for God as they were for themselues it had beene happy but now in vaine they worship mee saith our Sauiour teaching for doctrines the Traditions of men Hence was that axiome receiued currantly amongst their Iewish followers There is more in the words of the wise than in the words of the Law More Plus est in verbis sapienâ—um quam in verbis legis Galatin Serarius Non malè comparaâ—i Pharisaeos Catholicis that is more matter more authority and from this principally arises and continues that mortall quarrell betwixt them and their Karraim and Minim vnto this day A great Iesuite at least that thinks himselfe so writes thus in great earnest The Pharises saith he may not vnfitly be compared to our Catholicks Some men speake truth ignorantly some vnwillingly Caiaphas neuer spake truer when he meant it not one egge is not liker to another than the Tridentine Fathers to these Pharises in this point besides that of free-will merit full performance of the Law which they absolutely receiued from them For marke Pari pietatis affecta reuerentia Trans iones vna cum libris veteris noui Testamentisâ— spicimus veneramâ—r Decr. 1. Sess 4. Nolo verba quae scripta non sunt legt With the same reuerence and deuotion doe we receiue and respect Traditions that wee doe the Bookes of the Old and New Testament say those Fathers in their fourth Session Heare both of these speake and see neither if thou canst discerne whether is the Pharise refuse me in a greater truth Not that we did euer say with that Arrian in Hilarie Wee debarre all words that are not written or would thinke fit with those phanaticall Anabaptists of Munster that all bookes should be burnt besides the Bible some Traditions must haue place in euery Church but Their place they may not take wall of Scripture Substance may not in our valuation giue way to circumstance God forbid If any man expect that my speech on this opportunity should descend to the discourse of our contradicted ceremonies let him know that I had rather mourne for this breach than meddle with it God knowes how willingly I would spend my self into perswasions if those would auaile any thing but I well see that teares are fitter for this Theame than words The name of our mother is sacred and her peace precious As it was a true speech cited from that Father by Bellarmine Bellum Hereticorum pax est Ecclesiae ex Hilario Bellar. The war of Hereticks is the peace of the Church so would God our experience did not inuert it vpon vs The war of the Church is the peace of Hereticks Our discord is their musicke our ruine their glory On what a sight is this Brethren striue while the enemy stands still and laughs and triumphs If we desired the griefe of our common mother the languishing of the Gospell the extirpation of Religion the losse of posterity the aduantage of our aduersaries which way could these be better effected than by our dissentions Iscâ—â—â—â— That Spanish Prophet in our Age for so I finde him stiled when King Philip asked him how hee might become master of the Low-Countries answered If he could diuide them from themselues According to that old Machiuellian principle of our Iesuites Diuide and Rule And indeed it is concord onely as the Poesie or Mot of the vnited States runs which hath vpheld them in a rich and flourishing estate against so great and potent enemies Concordiâ res paruae crescunt c. Our Aduersaries already brag of their victories and what good heart can but bleed to see what they haue gained since we dissented to fore-see what they will gaine They are our mutuall spoiles that haue made them proud and rich Nostrâ miseriâ tu es magnus de Pomp. Mimus If you euer therefore looke to see the good dayes of the Gospell the vnhorsing and confusion of that strumpet of Rome for Gods sake for the Churches sake for our owne soules sake let vs all compose our selues to peace and loue Oh pray for the peace of Ierusalem that peace may be within her wals and prosperity within her palaces For the matter of their Traditions our Sauiour hath taxed them in many particulars about washings oathes offerings retribution whereof he hath said enough when hee hath termed their doctrine the Leauen of the Pharises that is sowre and swelling Saint Hierome reduces them to two heads In Matth. 23. They were Turpia anilia some so shamefull that they might not bee spoken others idle and dotish both so numerous that they cannot be reckoned Take a taste for all and to omit their reall Traditions heare some of their interpretatiue Praec Mos cum expos Rab. The Law was that no Leper might come into the Temple their Tradition was if he were let downe thorow the roofe this were no irregularity The Law was Ibid. a man might not carry a burden on the Sabbath their Traditionall glosse Ibid. if he carried ought on one shoulder it was a burden if on both none If shoes alone no burden if with nailes not tolerable Their stint of a Sabbaths iourney was a thousand cubits their glosse was That this is to bee vnderstood without the wals but if a man should walke all day thorow a Citie as big as Ninene hee offends not The Church of Rome shall vie strange glossems and ceremonious obseruations with them Sacrarum Ceremoniarum lib. 1. accipit de gremic Camerarij pecuniam vbi nihil tamen est argenti spargensque in populos dicit AuruÌ„ argentum non est mihi quod auteÌ„ habeo hoc tibi do CanoÌ„ Poenitential pag. 1. Numb 12. Ezec. 4. Luc. 5. Otho Frisingensis in praefat In Matth. 23. whether for number or for ridiculousnesse The day would faile mee if I should either epitomize the volume of their holy rites or gather vp those which it hath omitted The new elected Pope in his solemne Lateran procession must take copper money out of his Chamberlaines lap and scatter it among the people and say Gold and siluer haue I none Seauen yeeres penance is enioyned to a deadly sinne because Miriam was separated seuen dayes for her leprosie and God saies to Ezekiel I haue giuen thee a day for a yeere Christ said to Peter Lanch forth into the deepe
Priesthood of the new Law is Leui refined Mal. 3.3 Et purgabit filios Leui which Hierome not vnlikely interprets of the Ministerie of the Gospell They are the sonnes of Leui which signifies Copulation quia homines cum Deo copulant but of Leui purged and purged as gold As much difference betweene them as betwixt gold in the Ore and in the wedge Hence is double honour challenged to the Euangelicall Ministerie yea and giuen Yee receiued me saith S. Paul as an Angell of God yea as Christ Iesus Gal. 4.14 Hence the Angell of himselfe to IOHN I am thy fellow-seruant Woe bee to them therefore which spet in the faces of those whom God hath honoured It is Gods second charge this of his Prophets His first is Touch not mine Anointed his second Hurt not my Prophets And if one disgracefull word spoken but by rude children to a Prophet of the old Testament cost so many throats God be mercifull to those dangerous and deadly affronts that haue beene and are daily offered to the Prophets of the new What can wee say but with the women of Tekoah Serua-ô-rex Wee blesse God that wee may bemoane our selues to the tender and indulgent eares of a gracious Soueraigne sensible of these spirituall wrongs who yet we know may well answer vs with Iacobs question An loco Dei ego sum It grieues mee to thinke and say of our selues that for a great part of this Perditio tua ex te Woe to those corrupted sonnes of Heli which through their insufficiencie and vnconscionablenesse haue powred contempt on their owne faces That proud fugitiue Campian could say Ministris illorum nihil vilius c. As falsly as spightfully Let heauen and earth witnesse whether any Nation in the world can afford so learned so glorious a Clergie But yet among so many pots of the Temple it is no maruell if some bee drie for want of liquor others rustie for want of vse others full of liquor without meat others so full of meat that they want liquor Let the Lords anointed whose example and incouragements haue raised euen this diuine learning to this excellent perfection by his gracious countenance dispell contempt from the professours of it and by his effectuall endeuours remoue the causes of this contempt But as euerie Christian vnder the Gospell is a Priest and Prophet let the people bee these pots or the offerings of the people That shall bee in respect of the frequence or fragrance according to the double acception of that particle of comparison Camisrachim as the bowles for number or qualitie For the frequence A few seething pots serued the sacrifice but bowles they vsed many what for the vse of the Altar of incense what for the receiuing of the bloud of the sacrifice Salomon made too of gold Now then saith God in the dayes of the Gospell there shall be such store of oblations to God that the number of the pots shall equalize the number of the bowles of the Altar not vnlike because of the following words Euerie pot in Ierusalem shall be faine to be imployed to the sacrifices This frequence then is either of the officers or offerings persons or acts For the persons they were few in comparison vnder the Law All Palestine which comprehends all their officers except some few Proselytes was but as Ierome which was a Lieger there reckons it an 160. miles long from Dan to Beersheba and 46. miles broad from Ioppa to Bethleem Now the partition wall is broken downe all Nations vnder heauen yeeld franke offerers to the Altar of God There was no offering then but at Ierusalem now Ierusalem is euerie where So much therefore as the world is wider than Iudea so much as Christendome is larger than the walls of the Temple so many more officers hath the Gospell than the Law And it were well if there were as many as they seeme If but as many as all the world ouer offer their presence to Gods seruice on Gods day leaue those that spend it in the stewâ—â—s and Tauernes to him whom they serue were true offerers how rich would the Altar be and the Temple how glorious But alas if God will be serued with mouthes full of oathes curses bitternesse with heads full of wine with eyes full of lust with hands full of bloud with backs full of pride with panches full of gluttonie with soules and liues full of horrible sinnes he may haue offerers as many as men else as Esay relicta est in vrbe solituda a few pots will hold our sacrifices and what is this but through our wilfull disobedience to crosse him which hath said that in this day the pots of the Temple shall be as the bowles of the Altar The act or commoditie is offerings whether outward or inward The outward fulfilled in those large endowments of the Church by our deuout and bountifull predecessors What liberall reuenues rich maintenances were then put into mort-maine the dead hand of the Church Lawes were faine to restraine the bountie of those contributions the grounds whereof I examine not in stead of MOSES his proclamation Nequis facito deinceps opus ad oblationem Sanctuarij satis enim est adeoque superest Exod. 26.6 Then mons Domini mons pinguis but now the Church may crie with the Prophet My leannesse my leannesse For shame why should sacrilege croud in with religion why should our better knowledge finde vs lesse conscionable O iniurious zeale of those men which thinke the Church cannot bee holy enough vnlesse shee begge It hath beene said of old That Religion bred wealth and the daughter eat vp the mother I know not if the daughter deuoured the mother I am sure these men would deuoure both daughter and mother Men of vast gorâ—es and insatiable Our Sauiour cried out against the Scribes and Pharisies yet the deuoured but widowes houses poore low cottages but these gulfes of men whole Churches and yet the sepulchers of their throats are open for more I can tell them of a mouth that is wider than theirs and that is the Prophets Os inferni Therefore Hell hath inlarged it selfe and hath opened his mouth without measure and their glorie and their pompe and he that reioyceth in it shall descend into it Esa 5.14 In the meane time Oh that our SAMSON would pull this honie of the Church out of the iawes of these Lions or if the cunning conueyances of sacrilege haue made that impossible since it lies not now intire in the combes but is let downe and digested by these raueners let him whose glorie it is not to be Pater patriae onely but Pater Ecclesiae prouide that those few pots we haue may still seethe and that if nothing will be added nothing can be recouered yet nothing may be purloyned from the Altars of God But these outward offerings were but the types of the inward what cares God for the bloud or flesh of bullocks rams goats Non delectaris sacrificio vt
the faults of others He that couereth a transgression seeketh loue Pr. 17.9 Ec. 8.2 but he that repeateth a matter separateth the Prince To these hee is diligent taking heed to the mouth of the King and therefore worthily standeth before Kings and not before the base sort and withall true and faithfull when hee vndertakes anothers suit hee lingers not Pr. 22.29 knowing that The hope that is deferred is the fainting of the heart Pr. 13.12 Pr. 17.8 and though A bribe or reward is as a stone pleasant in the eies of them that haue it and prospereth whithersoeuer it turneth Pr. 19.6 Pr. 21.6 for euery man is a friend to him that giueth gifts yet hee accounteth the gathering of treasures by a deceitfull tongue to be vanity tossed to and fro of them that seeke death SALOMONS SVBIECT §. 9. His duty to His Prince Reuerence Obedience Fellow-Subiects EVery gouernment presupposeth Subiects Pr. 14.18 In the multitude of the people is the honour of the King and for the want of people commeth the destruction of the Prince Of whom God requires in respect of the Prince Reuerence Obedience Pr. 19.6 Pr. 29.26 Ec. 10.20 Pr. 24.21 Pr. 17.11 Ec. 10.20 Pr. 17.11 Pr. 24.22 That they should reuerence and seeke the face of the Prince not cursing the King so much as in their thought nor the rich in their bed-chamber but fearing the Lord and the King and not meddling with the seditious which only seeke euill For as the Fowle of the heauen shall carry the voice and the master of the wing declare the matter so for reuenge a cruell messenger shall be sent against theÌ„ their destruction shall arise suddenly and who knoweth their ruine For their due homage therefore and obedience to lawes they take heed to the mouth of the King and the word of the oath of God Ec. 8.2 and if a law be enacted Ec. 10.8 Ec. 10.9 Ec. 8 3. they violate it not nor striue for innouation Hee that breakes the hedge a serpent shall bite him He that remoueth stones shall hurt himselfe thereby and hee that cutteth wood shall be in danger thereby And if they haue offended they haste not to goe forth of the Princes sight nor stand in an euill thing for he will doe what-euer pleaseth him Ec. 10.4 but rather if the spirit of him that ruleth rise vp against them by gentlenesse pacifie great sinnes §. 10. To his fellow-Subiects in respect of more publike societie is required 1. Regard to Superiors in Estate Desert Inferiors Equals 2. Commerce more priuate societie Iust maintenance of each mans proprietie Truth of friendship Pr. 22.7 Pr. 27.21 IN respect of themselues he requires due regard of degrees whether of superiors The rich ruleth the poore and as the fining pot is for siluer and the furnace for gold so is euery man tryed according to his dignity so as they that come from the holy place be not forgotten in the City Ec. 8.10 Pr. Pr. 11.12 Pr. 14.21 where they haue done right or whether of inferiors for A poore man if he oppresse the poore Is like a raging raine that leaueth no food yea lesse than oppression He that despiseth his neighbour is both a sinner and destitute of vnderstanding or lastly of equals and therein quiet and peaceable demeanour not striuing with others causelesse Pr. 3.30 Pr. 17.14 Pr 25.9 Pr. 25.8 Pr. 26.17 Pr. 6.16 19. not to beginne contentions for the beginning of strife is as one that openeth the waters therefore ere it be medled with he leaueth off and being prouoked debateth the matter with his neighbour And as he goes not forth hastily to strife so much lesse doth he take part in impertinent quarrels Hee that passeth by and medleth with the strife that belongs not to him is as one that takes a dogge by the eare and one of the six things that God hates is he that raiseth vp contentions among neighbours Ec. 5.8 Pr. 8.19 Secondly mutuall commerce and interchange of commodities without which is no liuing The abundance of the earth is ouer all and the King consists by the field that is tilled The husbandman therefore must till his land that hee may bee satisfied with bread for much increase commeth by the strength of the Oxe Pr. 14.4 Pr. 11. â—6 Pr. 24.30 31. and moreouer he must sell corne that blessings may be vpon him which if he withdraw the people shall curse him so that the slothfullman whose field is ouer growne with thornes and nettles is but an ill member Pr. 31.14 And againe The Merchant must bring his wares from farre and each so trade with other Ec. 10.19 P. 22.28 Pr. 23.10 Pr. 23.11 Pr. Pr. 23.4 Pr. 28.22 Pr. 28.20 Pr. 20.21 that both may liue They prepare bread for laughter and wine comforts the liuing but siluer answereth to all For lesse publike society is required due reseruation of propriety not to remoue the ancient bounds which his fathers haue made not to enter into the field of the fatherlesse for he that redeemeth them is mighty not to increase his riches by vsury and interest not to hasten ouer-much to be rich for such one knoweth not that pouerty shall come vpon him and that an heritage hastily gotten in the beginning in the end thereof shall not bee blessed and that in the meane time The man that is greedy of gaine Pr. 15.27 Pr. 18.24 troubleth his owne house 2. Truth of friendship A man that hath friends ought to shew himselfe friendly for a friend is neerer than a brother Pr. 27.10 Pr. 27.6 Pr. 27.9 Thy owne friend therefore and thy fathers friend forget thou not for whether he reproue thee The wounds of a louer are faithfull or whether he aduise As ointment and perfume reioyce the heart so doth the sweetnesse of a mans friend by hearty counsell or whether he exhort Pr. 27.17 Pr. 19.4 Pr. 17.17 Pr. 27 19. Pr. 25.17 iron sharpens iron so doth a man sharpen the face of his friend and all this not in the time of prosperitie only as commonly Riches gather many friends and the poore is separated from his neighbour but contrarily A true friend loueth at all times and a brother is borne for aduersity in all estates therefore as the face in the water answers to face so the heart of man to man who yet may not be too much pressed Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbours house lest he be weary of thee and hate thee neither enter into thy brothers house in the day of thy calamity nor againe Pr. 27.10 too forward in proffering kindnesse to his owne losse A man destitute of vnderstanding Pr. 17.18 Pr. 6.1 2 c. Pr. 6.3 toucheth the hand and becommeth surety for his neighbour If therefore thou art become surety for thy neighbour much more if thou hast stricken hands with the stranger thou art snared with the words of thine owne mouth
Gods ancient law would haue made a quicke dispatch and haue determined the case by the death of the offender and the liberty of the innocent and not it alone How many Heathen Law-giuers haue subscribed to Moses Arabians Grecians Romans yea very Gothes the dregs of Barbarisme haue thought this wrong not expiable but by blood With vs the easinesse of reuenge as it yeelds frequence of offences so multitude of doubts Whether the wronged husband should conceale or complaine complaining whether he should retaine or dismisse dismissing whether he may marry or must continue single not continuing single whether he may receiue his own or chuse another but your inquiries shall be my bounds The fact you say is too euident Let me aske you To your selfe or to the world This point alone must vary our proceedings Publike notice requires publike discharge Priuate wrongs are in our owne power publike in the hands of authority The thoughts of our owne brests while they smother themselues within vs are at our command whether for suppressing or expressing but if they once haue vented themselues by words vnto others eares now as common strayes they must stand to the hazard of censure such are our actions Neither the sword nor the keyes meddle within doores what but they vvithout If fame haue laid hold on the wrong prosecute it cleere your name cleere your house yea Gods Else you shall be reputed a Pandar to your owne bed and the second shame shall surpasse the first so much as your owne fault can more blemish you then anothers If there were no more he is cruelly mercifull that neglects his owne fame But what if the sinne were shrouded in secrecy The loathsomnesse of vice consists not in common knowledge It is no lesse hainous if lesse talked of Report giues but shame God and the good soule detest close euils Yet then I ask not of the offence but of the offender not of her crime but her repentance She hath sinned against heauen and you But hath she washed your polluted bed with her teares Hath her true sorrow beene no lesse apparant then her sinne Hath she peeced her old vow with new protestations of fidelity Do you find her at once humbled and changed Why should that eare be deafe to her prayers that was open to her accusation why is there not yet place for mercy Why doe we Christians liue as vnder Martiall law wherein we sinne but once Plead not authority Ciuilians haue beene too rigorous the mercifull sentence of Diuinity shal sweetly temper humane seuereness How many haue we known the better for their sinne That Magdalene her predecessor in filthinesse had neuer loued so much if she had not so much sinned How oft hath Gods Spouse deserued a diuorce which yet still her confessions her teares haue reuersed How oft hath that scroll beene written and signed and yet againe cancelled and torne vpon submission His actions not his words onely are our precepts Why is man cruell where God relents The wrong is ours onely for his sake without whose law were no sinne If the Creditor please to remit the debt doe standers-by complaine But if she be at once filthy and obstinate flie from her bed as contagious Now your beneuolence is adultery you impart your body to her she her sinne to you A dangerous exchange An honest body for an harlots sinne Herein you are in cause that she hath more then one adulterer I applaud the rigour of those ancient Canons which haue still roughly censured euen this cloake of vice As there is necessity of charity in the former so of iustice in this If you can so loue your wife that you detest not her sin you are a better husband then a Christian a better bawd then an husband I dare say no more vpon so generall a relation good Physitians in dangerous diseases dare not prescribe on bare sight of vrine or vncertaine report but will feele the pulse and see the symptomes ere they resolue on the receit You see how no niggard I am of my counsels would God I could as easily asswage your griefe as satisfie your doubts To M. ROBERT HAY. EPIST. VIII A Discourse of the continuall exercise of a Christian how he may keepe his heart from hardnesse and his wayes from error TO keepe the heart in vre with God is the highest taske of a Christian Good motions are not frequent but the constancy of good disposition is rare and hard This worke must be continuall or else speedeth not like as the body from a setled and habituall distemper must be recouered by long diets and so much the rather for that we cannot intermit here without relapses If this field be not tilled euery day it will runne out into thistles The euening is fittest for this worke when retyred into our selues we must cheerefully and constantly both looke vp to God and into our hearts as we haue to doe with both to God in thanksgiuing first then in request It shall be therefore expedient for the soule duly to recount to it selfe all the specialties of Gods fauours a confused thankes fauours of carelesnesse and neither doth affect vs nor win acceptance aboue Bethinke your selfe then of all these externall inferiour earthly graces that your being breathing life motion reason is from him that hee hath giuen you a more noble nature then the rest of the creatures excellent faculties of the mind perfection of senses soundnesse of body competency of estate seemlinesse of condition fitnesse of calling preseruation from dangers rescue out of miseries kindnesse of friends carefulnesse of education honesty of reputation liberty of recreations quietnesse of life opportunity of well-doing protection of Angels Then rise higher to his spirituall fauours tho here on earth and striue to raise your affections with your thoughts Blesse God that you were borne in the light of the Gospell for your profession of the truth for the honor of your vocation for your incorporating into the Church for the priuiledge of the Sacraments the free vse of the Scriptures the communion of Saints the benefit of their prayers the ayde of their counsels the pleasure of their conuersation for the beginnings of regeneration any foot-steps of faith hope loue zeale patience peace ioy conscionablenesse for any desire of more Then let your soule mount highest of all into her heauen and acknowledge those celestiall graces of her election to glory redemption from-shame and death of the intercession of her Sauiour of the preparation of her place and there let her stay a while vpon the meditation of her future ioyes This done the way is made for your request Sue now to your God as for grace to answer these mercies so to see wherein you haue not answered them From him therefore cast your eyes downe vpon your selfe and as some carefull Iusticer doth a suspected fellon so doe you strictly examine your heart of what you haue done that day of what you should haue done enquire whether
of their Teachers be taught to say Let my death be to the remission of all my sinnes and then that he should haue giuen him a boule of mixt wine with a graine of Frankincense to bereaue him both of reason and paine I durst be confident in this latter the rather for that S. Marke calls this draught 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Myrrh-wine mingled as is like with other ingredients And Montanus agrees with me in the end Ad stuporem mentis alienationem A fashion which Galatine obserues out of the Sannedrim to bee grounded vpon Prou. 31.6 Giue strong drinke to him that is ready to perish I leaue it modestly in the middest let the learneder iudge Whatsoeuer it were he would not die till he had complained of thirst and in his thirst tasted it Neither would he haue thirsted for or tasted any but this bitter draught that the Scripture might be fulfilled They gaue mee vineger to drinke And loe now Consummatum est All is finished If there be any Iew amongst you that like one of Iohns vnseasonable Disciples shall aske Art thou he or shall we looke for another hee hath his answer Yee men of Israel why stand you gazing and gaping for another Messias In this alone all the Prophesies are finished and of him alone all was prophesied that was finished Pauls old rule holds still To the Iewes a stumbling blocke and that more ancient curse of Dauid Let their table bee made a snare And Steuens two brands sticke still in the flesh of these wretched men One in their necke stiffe-necked the other in their heart vncircumcised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one Obstinacie the other Vnbeleefe stiffe necks indeed that will not stoope and relent with the yoke of sixteene hundred yeeres iudgement and seruilitie vncircumcised hearts the filme of whose vnbeleefe would not be cut off with so infinite conuictions Oh mad and miserable Nation let them shew vs one prophesie that is not fulfilled let them shew vs one other in whom all the prophesies can be fulfilled and we will mix pittie with our hate If they cannot and yet resist their doome is past Those mine enemies that would not haue me to reigne ouer them bring them hither and slay them before me So let thine enemies perish O Lord. But what goe I so far Euen amongst vs to our shame this riotous age hath bred a monstrous generation I pray God I be not now in some of your bosomes Aug ad Hit Dâ—m volunt Iudaei esse Christiani nec Iudae sunt nec Christiani that heare me this day compounded much like to the Turkish religion of one part Christian another Iew a third worldling a fourth Atheist a Christians face a Iewes heart a worldlings life and therefore Atheous in the whole that acknowledge a God and know him not that professe a Christ but doubt of him yea beleeue him not The foole hath said in his heart There is no Christ What shall I say of these men They are worse than deuils that yeelding spirit could say Iesus I know and these miscreants are still in the old tune of that tempting deuill Situ es filius Dei If thou bee the Christ Oh God that after so cleare a Gospell so many miraculous confirmations so many thousand martyrdomes so many glorious victories of truth so many open confessions of Angels men deuils friends enemies such conspirations of heauen and earth such vniuersall contestations of all Ages and people there should be left any sparke of this damnable infidelitie in the false hearts of men Behold then yee despisers and wonder and vanish away Whom haue all the Prophets foretold or what haue the prophesies of so many hundreds yea thousands of yeeres foresaid that is not with this word finished who could foretell these things but the Spirit of God who could accomplish them but the Sonne of God Hee spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets saith Zacharie he hath spoken and he hath done one true God in both none other spirit could foresay these things should be done none other power could doe these things thus fore-shewed this word therefore can fit none but the mouth of God our Sauiour It is finished Wee know whom wee haue beleeued Thou art the Christ the Sonne of the liuing God Let him that loues not the Lord Iesus be accursed to the death Thus the prophesies are finished Of the legall obseruations with more breuitie Christ is the end of the Law What Law Ceremoniall Morall Of the Morall it was kept perfectly by himselfe satisfied fully for vs Of the Ceremoniall it was referred to him obserued of him fulfilled in him abolisht by him There were nothing more easie than to shew you how all those Iewish Ceremonies lookt at Christ how Circumcision 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Passeouer the Tabernacle both outer and inner the Temple the Lauer both the Altars the Tables of Shew-bread the Candlesticks the Vaile the Holy of Holies the Arke the Propitiatorie the pot of Manna Aarons Rod the High Priest his Order Line his Habits his Inaugurations his Washings his Anointings his Sprinklings Offerings the sacrifices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what-euer Iewish Rite had their vertue from Christ relation to him and their end in him This was then their last gaspe for now straight they died with Christ now the vaile of the Temple rent As Austen well notes out of Matthewes order Ex quo apparet tunc scissiam esse cum Cirillus emisit spiritam It tore then when Christs last breath passed That conceit of Theophilact is wittie that as the Iewes were wont to rend their garments when they heard blasphemie so the Temple not enduring these execrable blasphemies against the Sonne of God tore his vaile in peeces But this is not all the vaile rent is the obligation of the rituall Law canceled the way into the heauenly Sanctuarie opened the shadow giuing roome to the substance in a word it doth that which Christ saith Consummatum est Euen now then the law of Ceremonies died It had a long and solemne buriall Ceremoniae ficut defancta corpora necessariorum efficijs deducenda erant ad sepulturaÌ„ non simulatè sed religiose nec descrenda continuò Augustin Ego è contrario loquaâ— reclamante mundo libâ—râ voce pronunciem ceremonas Iudaeorum perniciâ—saâ— essâ— mortiferas quicunque eas obsâ—ruauâ—râ—t siue ex Iudaeis siuâ— ex Gentibus in barathrum diaboli deuolutum Hier. Quisque is nunc ea celebrare voluerit tanquam sopitos cineres erucus non erit pius c. as Augustine saith well perhaps figured in Moses who died not lingeringly but was thirty dayes mourned for what meanes the Church of Rome to digge them vp now rotten in their graues and that not as they had beeene buried but sowen with a plenteous increase yea with the inuerted vsurie of too many of you Citizens ten for one It is a graue and deepe
how excellent were her Masculine graces of learning valour wisdome by which shee might iustly challenge to bee the Queene of men So learned was shee that shee could giue present answers to Embassadors in their owne tongues or if they listed to borrow of their neighbours shee paid them in that they borrowed So valiant that her name like Ziscaes drum made the proudest Romanists to quake So wise Didymus veridicus that whatsoeuer fell out happily against the common Aduersaries in FRANCE NETHERLANDS IRELAND it was by themselues ascribed to her policie What should I speake of her long and successefull gouernment of her miraculous preseruations of her famous victories wherein the waters O nimâ—uÌ„ dilecta Deo cui militat aether coniurati veniunt ad classica venti Claud. Pro. 13.29 winds fire and earth fought for vs as if they had beene in pay vnder Her of Her excellent lawes of Her carefull executions Many daughters haue done worthily but thou furmountest them all Such was the sweetnesse of her gouernment and such the feare of miserie in her losse that many worthie Christians desired their eyes might bee closed before Hers and how many thousands therefore welcomed their owne death because it preuented Hers Euerie one pointed to her white haires and said with that peaceable Leontius Soz. l. 3. c. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Dolm. p. 1. p. 2 6. p. 2. p. 117. When this snow melts there will be a floud Neuer day except alwaies the fift of Nouember was like to bee so bloudie as this not for any doubt of Title which neuer any loyall heart could question nor any disloyall euer did besides Dolman but for that our Esauites comforted themselues against vs and said The day of mourning for our mother will come shortly then will wee slay our brethren What should I say more Lots were cast vpon our Land and that honest Politician which wanted nothing but a gibbet to haue made him a Saint Father Parsons tooke paines to set downe an order how all English affaires should be marshalled when they should come to bee theirs Consider now the great things that the Lord hath done for vs. Behold this day which should haue beene most dismall to the whole Christian world he turned to the most happie day that euer shone forth to this ILAND That now wee may iustly insult with those Christians of Antioch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theod. 3.15 Where are your prophesies O yee fond Papists Our snow lies here melted where are those flouds of bloud that you threatned Yea as that blessed soule of Hers gained by this change of an immortall crowne for a corruptible so blessed be the name of our God this Land of ours hath not lost by that losse Many thinke that this euening the world had his beginning Surely a new and golden world began this day to vs and which it could not haue done by her loynes promises continuance if our sinnes interrupt it not to our posterities I would the flatterie of a Prince were treason in effect it is so for the flatterer is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kinde murtherer I would it were so in punishment If I were to speake before my Soueraigne King and Master I would praise God for him not praise him to himselfe Euseb de vita Const l. 4. c. 4. A Preacher in CONSTANTINES time saith Eusebius ausus est Imperatorem in os beatum dicere presumed to call CONSTANTINE an happy Emperour to his face but he went away with a checke such speed may any Parasite haue which shall speake as if he would make Princes proud and not thankfull A small praise to the face may be adulation though it be within bounds a great praise in absence may be but iustice If we see not the worth of our King how shall we be thankfull to God that gaue him Giue me leaue therefore freely to bring forth the Lords Anointed before you 1 Sam. 10.24 and to say with SAMVEL See you him whom the Lord hath chosen Euagr. l. 5. c. 21. As it was a great presage of happinesse to Mauritius the Emperour that an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a familiar Deuill remouing him from place to place in his swathing bands yet had no power to hurt him So that those early conspiracies wherewith Satan assaulted the very cradle of our deare Soueraigne preuailed not it was a iust bodement of his future greatnesse and beneficiall vse to the world And hee that gaue him life a 〈◊〉 Crowne together and miraculously preserued them both gaue him graces fit for his Deputie on earth to weild that Crowne and improue that life to the behoofe of Christendome Let mee begin with that which the Heathen man required to the happinesse of any State his learning and knowledge wherein I may safely say he exceedeth all his 105 Predecessors Our Conqueror King William as our Chronicler reports by a blunt prouerbe that he was wont to vse against vnlearned Princes Malmesbur made his sonne Henry a Beauclearc to those times But a candle in the darke will make more show than a bonefire by day In these dayes so lightsome for knowledge to excell euen for a professed student is hard and rare Neuer had England more learned Bishops and Doctors which of them euer returned from his Maiesties discourse without admiration What King christned hath written so learned volumes To omit the rest his last of this kind wherein he hath so held vp Cardinall Bellarmine and his Master Pope Paulus is such that Plessis and Mouline the two great lights of France professe to receiue their light in this discourse from his beames and the learned Iesuite Salkeild could not but be conuerted with the necessitie of those demonstrations and I may boldly say Poperic since it was neuer receiued so deepe a wound from any worke as from that of His. What King euer moderated the solemne acts of an Vniuersitie in all professions and had so many hands clapt in the applause of his acute and learned determinations Briefely such is his intire acquaintance with all sciences and with the Queene of all Diuinitie that he might well dispute with the infallible Pope Paulus Quintus for his triple Crowne and I would all Christian quarrels lay vpon this duell His iustice in gouerning matcheth his knowledge how to gouerne for as one that knowes the Common-wealth cannot bee vnhappy wherein according to the wise Heathens rule law is a Queene and will a subiect Plato He hath euer endeuoured to frame the proceedings of his gouernment to the lawes not the lawes to them Witnesse that memorable example whereof your eyes were witnesses I meane the vnpartiall execution of one of the ancientest Barons of those parts for the murder of a meane subiect Wherein not the fauour of the blocke might be yeelded that the dishonour of the death might bee no lesse than the paine of the death Yet who will not grant his
they may be found out Wee are not ignorant saith Saint Paul of Satans deuices much more then may we know our owne Were the hearts of men as Salomon speakes of Kings like vnto deepe waters they haue a bottome and may bee fathomed Were they as darke as hell it selfe and neuer so full of windings and blinde waies and obscure turnings doe but take the lanthorne of Gods law in your hand and you shall easily finde all the false and foule corners of them As Dauid saith of the Sun nothing is hid from the light thereof Proue your selues saith the Apostle It is hard if falshood be so constant to it selfe that by many questions it bee not tripped Where this duty is slackned it is no wonder if the heart bee ouer-run with spirituall fraud Often priuy searches scarre away vagrant and disorderly persons where no inquiry is made is a fit harbour for them If yee would not haue your hearts therefore become the lawlesse Ordinaries of vncleane spirits search them oft Leaue not a straw vnshaken to finde out these Labanish Teraphim that are stollen and hid within vs And when we haue searched our best if we feare there are yet some vnknowne euills lurking within vs as the man after Gods owne heart prayes against secret sinnes let vs call him in that cannot be deceiued and say to God with the Psalmist Search thou me ô Lord and trie mee Oh let vs yeeld our selues ouer to bee ransackt by that all-seeing eye and effectuall hand of the Almighty All our daubing and cogging and packing and shuffling lies open before him and he onely can make the heart ashamed of it selfe And when our hearts are once stript naked and carefully searcht let our eyes be euer fixedly bent vpon their conueyances and inclinations If we search and watch not we may be safe for the present long we cannot for our eye is no sooner off than the heart is busie in some practise of falshood It is well if it forbeare whiles we looke on for The thoughts of mans heart are only euill continually and many a heart is like some bold and cunning theefe that lookes a man in the face and cuts his purse But surely if there be any guardian of the soule it is the eye The wise mans eye saith Solomon is in his head doubtlesse on purpose to looke into his heart My sonne aboue all keepings keepe thy heart saith he If we doe not dogge our hearts then in all our wayes but suffer our selues to lose the sight of them they run wilde and we shall not recouer them till after many slippery tricks on their parts and much repentance on ours Alas how little is this regarded in the world wherein the most take no keepe of their soules but suffer themselues to run after the wayes of their owne hearts without obseruation without controlement What should I say of these men but that they would faine be deceiued and perish For after this loose licentiousnesse without the great mercy of God they neuer set eye more vpon their hearts till they see them either fearfully intoyled in the present iudgements of God or fast chained in the pit of hell in the torments of finall condemnation Thirdly If our searches and watches should faile vs we are sure our distrust cannot It is not possible our heart should deceiue vs if we trust it not Wee carry a remedie within vs of others fraud and why not of our owne The Italians not vnwisely pray God in their knowne prouerbe to deliuer them from whom they trust for wee are obnoxious to those we relie vpon but nothing can leese that which it had not Distrust therefore can neuer be disappointed If our hearts then shall promise vs ought as it hath learned to profer largely of him that said All these will I giue thee although with vowes and oathes aske for his assurances if he cannot fetch them from the euidences of God trust him not If he shall report ought to vs aske for his witnesses if hee cannot produce them from the records of God trust him not If he shall aduise vs ought aske for his warrant if he cannot fetch it from the Oracles of God trust him not And in all things so beare our selues to our heart as those that thinke they liue amongst theeues and cozeners euer iealously and suspiciously taking nothing of their word scarce daring to trust our owne senses making sure worke in all matters of their transactions I know I speake to wise men whose counsell is wont to be asked and followed in matter of the assurances of estates whose wisdome is frequently imployed in the triall euiction dooming of malefactors Alas what shall it auaile you that you can aduise for the preuention of others fraud if in the meane time you suffer your selues to be cozened at home What comfort can you finde in publike seruice to the state against offenders if you should carry a fraudulent and wicked heart in your owne bosomes There is one aboue whom we may trust whose word is more firme than heauen When heauen shall passe that shall stand It is no trusting ought besides any further than he giues his word for it Mans Epithet is Homo mendax and his best part the hearts deceitfull Alas what shall we thinke or say of the condition of those men which neuer follow any other aduice than what they take of their owne heart Such are the most that make not Gods Law of their counsell As Esay said of Israel Esa 57.17 Abijt vagus in via cordis sui Surely they are not more sure they haue an heart than that they shall be deceiued with it and betraied vnto death Of them may I say as Salomon doth of the wanton foole that followes an harlot Thus with her great craft she caused him to yeeld Pro. 7.21 and with her flattering lips she intised him And he followed her straight wayes as an Oxe that goes to the slaughter or as a foole to the stocks for correction Oh then deare Christians as euer yee desire to auoid that direfull slaughter-house of hell those wailings and gnashings and gnawings and euerlasting burnings looke carefully to your owne hearts and what euer suggestions they shall make vnto you trust them not till you haue tried them by that vnfaileable rule of righteousnesse the royall law of your Maker which can no more deceiue you than your hearts can free you from deceit Lastly that wee may auoid not onely the euents but the very enterprises of this deceit let vs countermine the subtill workings of the heart Our Sauiour hath bidden vs be wise as Serpents What should be wise but the heart And can the heart be wiser than it selfe Can the wisdome of the heart remedie the craft of the heart Certainly it may There are two men in euery regenerate brest the old and the new And of these as they are euer plotting against each other wee must take the better side and labour
it Right Honourable and beloued that God hath reserued vs to these better dayes of his Gospell wherein the helpes of saluation are more cleare obuious effectuall wherein as the glory of the latter House exceeded the former so the meanes of that incomprehensible glory of the house not made with hands eternall in the Heauens lie more open vnto vs What should we doe but both vti and frui gladly vse and sweetly enioy this vnspeakable blessing which God hath kept in store for vs and walke worthy of so incomparable a mercy The old Iewes liued in the dawning of the day wherein they had but a glimmering of that Sunne which would rise We liue after the high noone of that happy day If we walke not answerable to so great a light what can we looke for but vtter darknesse Ye shall now giue me leaue Right Honourable to carry these words in a meet analogie to the present occasion The Temples vnder the Law were both a figure and a patterne of the Churches vnder the Gospell Within this roofe vnder which we now stand here was both the former and the latter house and euen in these wals doth God make his Word good That the glory of this latter House shall be greater than of the former The first foundation of it was no doubt both pious and rich I shall not need to fetch the Pedegrees of it from Saint Iohn Baptist in Ierusalem Consecrated by Heraclius Patriarch of Ierusalem nor to discourse of either the deuotion or wealth of that religiously-military Order for whom these stones were first laid Imagine the Altar neuer so gay the Imagery neuer so curious the Vestments neuer so rich the Pillars Wals Windowes Pauement neuer so exquisite yet I dare boldly say this present glory of this House in this comely whitenesse and well-contriued coarctation is greater than the former What care I Nay What doth God care for the worke of a Lapidary or Painter or Mason One zealous Prayer one Orthodox Sermon is a more glorious furniture than all the precious rarities of Mechanique excellencies I doe most willingly as what good heart doth not honour the vertuous actions and godly intentions of our worthie forefathers which no doubt it hath pleased God in mercy to accept and crowne but withall it must be yeelded that they liued vnder the tyrannous iniurie and vsurpation of those Pharises who kept the keyes of knowledge at their owne girdles and would neither draw for them nor suffer them to draw for themselues Blessed be God for better conditions the Well of life lies open to vs neither are we only allowed but inuited to those heauenly liquors Inebriamini O Charissimi Drinke yea drinke abundantly O beloued Cant. 5.1 This happy libertie of the sauing Gospell of Iesus Christ daily and sincerely preached to vs Noble and beloued Christians is worthy to be more worth vnto vs than all the treasures ornaments priuileges of this transitory World and this since through the inestimable goodnesse of God ye doe and may finde in this latter House Well hath God verified this word in your eies and eares The glory of the latter House shall be greater than of the former Hitherto the comparatiue praise of the latter House the positiue followes in the promise of a gracious effect In this place will I giue peace wherein I know not whether the blessing doth more grace the place or the place the blessing both grace each other and both blesse Gods people In this place will I giue peace If ye looke at the blessing it selfe it is incomparable Peace that whereby the Hebrewes had wont to expresse all welfare in their salutations and wel-wishes the Apostolicall benediction dichotomizes all good things into Grace and Peace wherein at the narrowest by Grace all spirituall fauours were signified temporall by Peace The sweet Singer of Israel could not wish better to Gods Church than Peace be within her walls and behold this is it which God will giue I will giue peace Dabo pacem yea our eies should stoope too low if they should fix here The sweet Quiristers of Heauen when they sung that diuine Caroll to the honour of the first Christmas Glory to God in the highest heauens in earth peace c. next to Gloria in excelsis Deo said In terris pax Yet higher the great Sauiour of the World when he would leaue the most precious Legacie to his deare ones on earth that they were capable of he saies My peace I giue you And what he there giues he here promises Dabo pacem I will giue it But where Whence In this place Not any where not euery where but in his owne house in his latter house his Euangelicall House as if this blessing were confined to his holy walls he saith In this place will I giue peace This flower is not for euery soyle it growes not wilde but is only to be found in the Garden of Sion It is very pregnant which the Psalmist hath Psal 128.5 and 134.3 The Lord that made Heauen and Earth blesse thee out of Sion He doth not say The Lord that made the Earth blesse thee out of Heauen nor The Lord that made Heauen blesse thee out of heauen but blesse thee out of Sion As if he would teach vs that all blessings come as immediatly and primarily from heauen so mediatly secondarily from Sion where this Temple stood Some Philosophers haue held the Moone to be the receptacle of all the influences of the heauenly bodies and the conueyances of them to this inferiour World so as all the vertue of the vpper Orbes and Starres are deriued by her to this elementary Spheare Such doth both Dauid and Haggai repute the house of God whither as to Iosephs Store-house doth God conuey the blessings of peace that they may be thence transmitted to the sonnes of men How and why then doth God giue peace in this his House Because here as Bernard well Deus audit auditur God heares and is heard here audit orantes erudit audientes he heares his suppliants and teacheth his hearers As this place hath two vses it is both Oratorium and Auditorium so in respect of both doth it blesse vs with peace our mouth procures it in the one our eare in the other God workes in our hearts by both In the first God sayes as our Sauiour cites it Domus mea domus orationis My House shall be called the House of prayer And what blessing is it euen the best of Peace that our prayers cannot infeoffe vs in Salomon when he would consecrate the Church he had built solemnly sues to God that hee would inuest it with this priuilege of an vniuersally gracious audience and numbring the occasions of distressed Suppliants makes it euer the foot of his request Then hearken to the prayer that thy seruant shall make towards this place Heare thou in heauen thy dwelling place and when thou hearest haue mercy If euer therefore
intrude thus into the throne of your Maker Consider and conferre seriously What faith is it that is thus necessarily required to each member in this Constitution Your owne Doctor shall define it Faith required to the receiuing in of members is the knowledge of the Doctrine of saluation by Christ 1 Cor. 12.9 Gal. 3.2 Now I beseech you in the feare of God lay by a while all vnchristian preiudice and peremptory verdicts of those soules which cost Christ as much bloud as your owne and tell me ingenuously whether you dare say that not onely your Christian brethren with whom you lately conuersed but euen your fore-fathers which liued vnder Queene Elizabeths first confused reformation knew not the doctrine of saluation by Christ if you say they did not your rash iudgement shall be punished fearefully by him whose office you vsurpe As you looke to answer before him that would not breake the bruised Reed nor quench the smoaking Flax presume not thus aboue men and Angels If they did then had they sufficient claime both to true Constitution and Church But this faith must be testified by obedience so it was If you thinke not so yours is not testified by loue both were weake both were true Weaknesse in any grace or worke takes not away truth Their sinnes of ignorance could no more disanull Gods couenant with them than multiplicity of wiues with the Patriarchs SECT IX Order 2. Part of Constitution how farre requisite and whether hindered by constraint D. Allis against the Descript Confess of the Brownists Brow State of true Christians Inquire into M. White Ans ibid. Arist Pol. 3. c. 1. WHat wanted they then Nothing but Order and not all Order but yours Order a thing requisite and excellent but let the world iudge whether essentiall Consider now I beseech you in the bowels of Christ Iesus whether this be a matter for which heauen and earth should be mixed whether for want of your Order all the world must be put out of all Order and the Church out of life and being Nothing say we can be more disorderly than the confusion of your Democracie or popular state if not Anarchie Where all in a sort ordaine and excommunicate We condemne you not for no true members of the Church what can be more orderlesse by your owne confessions than the Trine-vne Church at Amsterdam which yet you grant but faulty If there be disproportion and dislocation of some parts is it no true humane body will you rise from the feast vnlesse the dishes be set on in your owne fashion Is it no Citie if there bee mudwalles halfe broken low Cottages vnequally built no State-house But your order hath more essence than you can expresse and is the same which Polititians in their trade call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an incorporating into one common ciuill body by a voluntary vnion and that vnder a lawfull gouernment Our Church wants both wherein there is both constraint and false office Take your owne resemblance and your owne asking Say that some Tyrant as Basilius of Ruffâ—â— shall forcibly compell a certaine number of Subiects into Mosco and shall hold them in by an awfull Garrison forcing them to new lawes and Magistrates perhaps hard and bloudy They yeeld and making the best of all liue together in a cheerefull communion with due commerce louing conuersation submissiue execution of the enioyned lawes In such case Whether is Mosco a true Cittie or not Since your Doctor cites Aristotle Arist Pol. 3 c. 1. Edesius Frumentius pueri à Meropio Tyrio Philosopho in Indiam dâ—portati postca ibi Christianam religionem plantarunt Ruffâ—n l. 1. c. 9. Foemina inter Iberâ—s let it not irke him to learne of that Philosopher who can teach him that when Calisthenes had driuen out the Tyrant from Athens and set vp a new Gouernment and receiued many strangers and bondmen into the Tribes it was doubted not which of them were Citizens but whether they were made Citizens vniustly If you should finde a company of true Christians in vtmost India would you stand vpon termes and enquire how they became so Whiles they haue what is necessary for that heauenly profession what need your curiosity trouble it selfe with the meanes SECT X. Constraint requisite 2 Chr. 33.16 2 Chr. 34.32 33. 2 Chr. 15.13 Barr. against Gyff Brow Reformation without tarrying Greenewood Conference with Cooper Browne Reformation without tarrying Conference with Doctor Andr. Master Hutch Conference with D. Andr. Reformation without tarrying Ber. Fides suadenda non cogenda Counterpoyson Dixit Pater familias seruis Quoscunque inueneritis cogite intrare c. Aug. Epist 48. Pless de Eccles c. 10. Aug. Quod si â—ogip riegem aliquem vel ad bona sicuisset vos ipsi miseri à nobis ad fidem purissimam cogi deluistis sed absit à nostra conscientia vt ad fidem nostram aliquem cogamus Aug. Epist 48. 68. Qui phreneticum ligat qui letharg excitat ambobus molestus ambos amat Ibid. Clâ—mant Neminem ad vnitatem cogendum quid hoc aliud quam quod de vobis quidam Quod volumus sanctum est YOu see then what an idle plea constraint is in the constitution of a Citie the ground of all your exception But it is otherwise in Gods citie the Church why then doth his Doctorship parallel these two And why may not euen constraint it selfe haue place in the lawfull constitution or reformation of a Church Did not Manasses after his comming home to God charge and command Iuda to serue the Lord God of Israel Did not worthy Iosiah when he had made a couenant before the Lord cause all that were found in Ierusalem and Beniamin to stand to it and compelled all that were found in Israel to serue the Lord their God What haue Queene Elizabeth or King Iames done more Or what other Did not Asa vpon Obeds prophesie gather both Iuda and Beniamin and all the strangers from Ephraim Manasses and Simeon and enact with them that whosoeuer would not seeke the Lord God should bee slaine What meanes this peruersenesse You that teach we may not stay Princes leisure to reforme will you not allow Princes to vrge others to reforme What crime is this that men were not suffered to bee open Idolaters that they were forced to yeeld submission to Gods ordinances Euen your owne teach that Magistrates may compell Infidels to heare the doctrine of the Church and Papists you say elsewhere though too roughly are Infidels But you say not to be members of the Church Gods people are of the willing sort True Neither did they compell them to this They were before entred into the visible Church by true Baptisme though miserably corrupted They were not now initiated but purged Your subtill Doctor can tell vs from Bernard that faith is to be perswaded not to bee compelled yet let him remember that the guests must be compelled to come in though
his Church must be framed your ciuill State c. Iust as that Donatist of old in Augustine Quid vobis c. What haue you to doe with worldly Emperours and as that other in Optatus Quid Imperatoricum Ecclesia What hath the Emperor to doe with the Church Yea your Martyr feares not to teach vs that Gods seruants being as yet priuate men may and must together build his Church though all the Princes of the World should prohibit the same vpon paine of death Belike then you should sinne hainously if you should not be Rebels The question is not whether we should aske leaue of Princes to be Christians but whether of Christian Princes we should aske leaue to establish circumstances of Gouernment God must be serued though we suffer our bloud is well bestowed vpon our Maker but in patience not in violence Priuate profession is one thing Publike Reformation and Iniunction is another Euery man must doe that in the maine none may doe this but they of whom God saies I haue said Ye are Gods and of them There is difference betwixt Christian and Heathen Princes If at least all Princes were not to you Heathen If these should haue beene altogether stayed for Religion had come late If the other should not be stayed for Religion would soone bee ouerlayd with confusion Lastly the body of Religion is one thing the skirts of outward Gouernment another that may not depend on men to be embraced or with loyaltie prosecuted these vpon those generall rules Christ both may and doe and must If you cut off but one lap of these with Dauid you shall bee touched To deny this power to Gods Deputies on Earth what is it but Ye take too much vpon you Moses and Aaron 1 Sam. 24.6 Numb 16.3 all the Congregation is holy wherefore lift ye your selues aboue the Congregation of the Lord See if herein you come not too neere the wals of that Rome which yee so abhorre and accurse in ascribing such power to the Church none to Princes Counterpoys pag. 2.30 Let your Doctor tell you 2 Chron. 13. 2 Chr. 14. 15. 2 Chron. 29. 2 Chron. 30. 2 Chron. 34. whether the best Israelites in the times of Abisah Asa Iehosaphat Ezekiah Iosiah tooke vpon them to reforme without or before or against their Princes Yea did Nehemiah himselfe without Arâ—â—hshat though an Heathen King set vpon the wals of Gods City Or what did â—erubbabel and Ieshua without Cyrus In whose time Haggâ—â— and Zechariah prophesied indeed but built not And when contrary Letters came from aboue they â—â—id by both Trowels and Swords They would be Iewes still they would not be Rebels for God Ezr. 4.23 24. Had those letters inioyned Swines flesh or Idolatry or forbidden the vse of the Law those which now yeelded had suffered and at once testified their obedience to authority and piety to him that sits in the Assembly of these earthen gods I vrge no more Perhaps you are more wise or lesse mutinous you might easily therefore purge your conscience from this sinne of wanting what you might not perforce enioy Say that your Church should imploy you backe to this our Babylon for the calling out of more proselytes you are intercepted imprisoned Shall it bee sinne in you not to heare the Prophesies at Amsterdam The Clinke is a lawfull excuse If your feet bee bound your conscience is not bound In these Negatiues outward force takes away both sinne and blame and alters them from the patient to the actor so that now you see your straight bonds if they were such loosed by obedience and ouer-ruling power SECTION XIX The bonds of Gods Word vniustly pleaded by the Separ BVT what bonds were these straight ones Gods Word and your owne necessitie Both strong and indissoluble Where God hath bidden God forbid that we should care for the forbiddance of men I reuerence from my soule so doth our Church their deare sister those worthy forraine Churches which haue chosen and followed those formes of outward Gouernment that are euery way fittest for their own condition It is enough for your Sect to censure them I touch nothing common to them with you * * Aug. Epist 58. Pastores autem Doctores quâ—â— maxime vt discernerâ—m voluisti eosdem puto esse sicut â—ibi visum est vt non alios Pastores alios Doctores intelligeremus sed ideo cùm praedixisset Pastores subiâ—â—xisse Doctores vt intelligerent Pastores ad officium suum pertinere doctrinam Barr. against Gyff inueighs for this cause against the Consistorie of Geneua Fr. Iohns complaints of the Dutch and Fr. Churches Description of a visible Church cannot make a Distinct in the Definition of their Offices State of Christians 119. Description of visible Church H. Clap. Epist before his Treatise of Sinne against the Holy Ghost Brownists 4. Position Trouble and Excom at Amster Fr. Iohns in a Letter to M. Smith While the world standeth where will it euer be shewed out of the Sacred Booke of God that hee hath charged Let there be perpetuall Lay-Elders in euery Congregation Let euery Assembly haue a Pastor and Doctor distinct in their charge and offices Let all Decisions Excommunications Ordinations bee performed by the whole multitude Let priuate Christians aboue the first turne in extremitie agree to set ouer themselues a Pastor chosen from amongst them and receiue him with Prayer and vnlesse that Ceremony be turned to pompe and Superstition by imposition of hands Let there bee Widowers which you call Releeuers appointed euery where to the Church-Seruice Let certaine discreet and able men which are not Ministers bee appointed to preach the Gospell and whole truth of God to the people All the learned Diuines of other Churches are in these left yea in the most of them censured by you Hath God spoken these things to you alone Plead not Reuelations and we feare you not Pardon so homely an example As soone and by the same illumination shall G. Iohns proue to your Consistory the lace of the Pastors wiues sleeue or rings or Whalebones or others amongst you as your Pastor confesseth knit-stockings or corke-shooes forbidden flatly by Scriptures as these commanded Wee see the letter of the Scriptures with you you shall fetch bloud of them with straining ere you shall wring out this sense No no M.R. neuer make God your stale Many of your ordinances came from no higher than your owne braine Others of them though God acknowledges yet he imposed not Pretend what you will These are but the cords of your owne conceit not bonds of Christian obedience SECTION XX. THe first of these then is easily vntwisted your second is necessity The necessity of their pretended ordinance Than which what can be stronger what law or what remedy is against necessity What wee must haue wee cannot want Oppose but the publike necessity to yours your necessity of hauing to the publike necessity of withholding and
sinnes be not attributed to them Thirdly That the Church bee not troubled with their multitude Aug. Epist 86. In his enim rebus de quibus nihil certâ— statuiâ— Scriptura Diuina mos populi Dei vel instituta matorum pro lege tuâ—â—da sunt Liuius Dcca l. 4 Nulla lex sâ—tis â—â—â—moda omnibus est id modo quaeritâ—â— si matorâ— partâ— in suâ—â—â—ma proâ—est Fourthly that they be not decreed as necessarie and not to be changed And lastly that men be not so tied to them but that by occasion they may bee omitted so it be without offence and contempt you see our limits but your feare is in this last contrary to his He stands vpon offence in omitting you in vsing As if it were a iust offence to displease a beholder no offence to displease and violate authoritie What Law could euer be made to offend none Wise Cato might haue taught you this in Liuie that no Law can bee commodious to all Those lips which preserue knowledge must impart so much of it to their hearers as to preuent their offence Neither must Law-giuers euer foresee what constructions will be of their Lawes but what ought to bee Those things which your Consistory imposes may you keepe them if you list Is not the willing neglect of your owne Parlour-Decrees punished with Excommunication And now what is all this to infallibility The sacred Synod determines these indifferent Rites for decencie and comlinesse to be vsed of those whom it concernes therefore it arrogates to it selfe infallibilitie A conclusion fit for a Separatist Cum consedissent sancti â—cligiosi Episcopi â—in Tom. 1. p. 239. Sancta Synod Câ—rthagi 4. sub Anastasio 553. Sancta Pacifica Synod Antiochen 1. p. â—20 Sancta Dei Apostolica Synodus 413. Peruenit ad Sanctam Synodum Can. Nic. 18 309. Sancta Synod Laodâ—ccoâ— 288. You stumble at the Title of Sacred euery straw lies in your way your Calepine could haue taught you that Houses Castles Religious businesses old age it selfe haue this stile giuen them And Virgil vittasque resoluit Sacrati capitis no Epithere is more ordinary to Councells and Synods The reason whereof may be fetched from that Inscription of the Elibertine Synod of those nineteene Bishops is said When the holy and Religious Bishops were set How few Councels haue not had this Title To omit the late The Holy Synod of Carthage vnder Anastasius The Holy and peaceable Synod at Antioch The Holy Synod of God and Apostolicall at Rome vnder Iulius The Holy and great Synod at Nice and not to bee endlesse The Holy Synod of Laodicea though but prouinciall What doe these Idle exceptions argue but want of greater SEP To let passe your Ecclesiasticall Consistories wherein sinnes and absolutions from them are as veniall and saleable as at Rome Is it not a Law of the Eternall God that the Ministers of the Gospell the Bishops or Elders should bee apt and able to teach 1 Timoth. 3.2 Titus 1.9 and is it not their grieuous sinne to bee vnapt hereunto Esa 56.10 11. And yet who knoweth not that the Patrons amongst you present that the Bishops institute the Archdeacons induct the Churches receiue and the Lawes both Ciuill and Ecclesiasticall allow and iustifie Ministers vnapt and vnable to teach Is it not a Law of the Eternall God that the Elders should feed the stock ouer which they are set labouring amongst them in the Word and Doctrine Acts 20.28 1 Pet. 5.1 2. And is it not sin to omit this duty Plead not for Baall Your Dispensations for Non-residencie and Pluralities of Benefices as for two three or more yea tot quot as many as a man will haue or can get are so many Dispensations with the Lawes of God and sinnes of men These things are too impious to bee defended and too manifest to bee denied SECTION XXXIII SOME great men when they haue done ill out-face their shame with enacting Lawes to make their sins lawfull While you thus charge our practise Sinnes fold in our Courts you bewray your owne Who hauing separated from Gods Church deuise slanders to colour your sinne Wee must bee shamfull that you may bee innocent You load our Ecclesiasticall Consistories with a shamelesse reproach Farre bee it from vs to iustifie any mans personall sinnes yet it is safer sinning to the better part Fie on these odious comparisons sinnes as saleable as at Rome Who knowes not that to be the Marâ— of all the World Periuries Murders Treasons are there bought and sold when euer in ours The Popes coffers can easily confute you alone What tell you vs of these let me tell you Mony is as fit an aduocate in a Consistorie as fauour or malice These some of yours haue complained of as bitterly as you of ours As if we liked the abuses in Courts G. Iohns Trouble and Excommunications at Amsterdam as if corrupt executions of wholesom Lawes must bee imputed to the Church whose wrongs they are No lesse hainous nor more true in that which followeth True Elders not yours should be indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This wee call for as vehemently not so tumultuously as yourselues That they should feed their Flockes with Word and Doctrine we require more than you That Patrons present Bishops institute Arch-Deacons induct some which are unable we grant and bewaile But that our Church-Lawes iustifie them wee deny and you slander For our Law if you know not requires that euery one to bee admitted to the Ministery should vnderstand the Articles of Religion Can. 34. not only as they are compendiously set downe in the Creed but as they are at large in our Booke of Articles neither vnderstand them onely but be able to proue them sufficiently out of the Scripture and that not in English onely but in Latine also This competencie would proue him for knowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If this bee not performed blame the persons cleere the Law Profound Master Hooker tels you that both Arguments from light of Nature Lawes and Statutes of Scripture the Canons that are taken out of ancient Synods M. Hookers fift booke of Ecclesiasticall Politic. Pag. 26.3 the Decrees and Constitutions of sincerest times the sentences of all antiquity and in a word euery mans full consent and conscience is against ignorance in them that haue charge and cure of soules And in the same booke Did any thing more aggrauate the crime of Ieroboams Apostasie than that he chose to haue his Clergie the scumme and refuse of his whole Land Let no man spare to tell it them D. Dâ—wnâ—m of the office and dignitie of the Ministery Counterpoys pag. 179. Dist 34. Can. Lector Papa potest contra Apostolum dispensare Caus 25. q. 1. Can. sunt quidaÌ„ Dispensat in Euangelio c. De concess praebend Tit. 8. Ca. they are not faithfull towards God that burden wilfully his Church with such swarmes of vnworthy Creatures Neither is
obscure he might auoid our nice slothfulnesse for there is scarce any thing that can be fetcht out of those obscurities which is not found most plainly spoken else-where And because Bellarmine takes exception at this Ferè Scarce compare this place with the former and with that which he hath in his third Epistle thus The manner of speech in which the Scripture is contriued is easie to be come to of all although it be throughly attained by few Those things which it containeth plaine and easie it speakes like a famliar friend without guile to the heart of the learned and vnlearned c. But it inuites all men with an humble manner of speech whom it doth not onely feede with manifest truth but exercise with secret hauing the same in readinesse which it hath in secrecie Thus AVSTEN To omit IRENEVS and ORIGEN CHRYSOSTOME whom BELLARMINE saith we alledge alone for vs besides many other plaine places writeth thus Who is there to whom all is not manifst which is written in the Gospell Chrysost Hom. 3. de Lazaro Cui non sunt manifesta quacunque in Euangel c. qâ— possis intelligâ—t quâ— ne leuiter quidem inspicâ—e vobis c. s◠〈◊〉 in â—us lege c. Citat ab ipso Bellarm Apostoli verò propheta omnis contra fâ—cerunt manifestae clarâ—que quae prâ—dideruÌ„t exposueruÌ„t exposueruÌ„t nobis veluti câ—nes orbis doctores vt per se quisque discâ—re possit ea quae dicuntur ex sola lectione Chrys hom 3. in Laz. Quaâ—obreÌ„ opus est concionatore omnia sunt plana ex scripturis diuinis sed quia delicatuli estis c. Hom. 3. in 2. Thess Bellarm. lib. 3. de verbo cap. 1. Necessario fatendum est Scripturas esse obscurissimas Lutherus duo effugia excogitauit vanâ— quod Scriptura etiamsi alicubi obscura tamen illud idem alibi clarè proponat c. ibid. § 2. Eckius in Euchirid c. 4 Lutherani coÌ„tendunt Scripturas sacras esse claras Dâ—aeus contr Whitak lib. 6. Rhemists in 2 Pet. 3.16 and in their Preface at large c. Homil. in 4. Dominic ab EpiphaÌ„ Amb. ser 35. Hieron in Psal Dominus narrabit que modo narrabit Non verbo sed scriptura in cuius scriptura in populorum c. Dominus narrabit in scripturis populorum in scripturis sanctis quae scriptura populis omnibus legitur hac est vt omnes intelligant non vt pauci intelligerent sed vt omnes in Psalm 86. Omnis quae post ascens c. quis fidelis vel etiam catechâ—menus antequam Spiritum Sanctum baptizatus accipiat non aequo animo c. Aug. tract in Ioh. 96. and to the same purpose l. 2. de Doct. Christ c. 8. Chrys hom 3. de Lazar Semper hortâ—r horâ—i non desâ—am vt non hic tantum attendatis c. Ego forensibus causis affixus sum c. who that shall heare Blessed are the meeke Blessed are the mercifull Blessed are the pure in heart and the rest would desire a teacher to learne any of these things which are here spoken As also the signes miracles histories are not they knowne and manifest to euery man This pretence and excuse is but the cloake of our slothfulnesse thou vnderstandest not those things which are written how shouldest thou vnderstand them which wilt not so much as slightly looke into them take the booke into thy hand reade all the history and what thou knowest remember and what is obscure run often ouer it So CHRYSOSTOME yea he makes this difference betwixt the Philosophers and Apostles the Philosophers speake obscurely but the Apostles and Prophets sayth hee contrarily make all things deliuered by them cleare manifest as the common teachers of the world haue so expounded all things that euery man may of himselfe by bare reading learne those things which are spoken yea lastly so farre hee goes in this point as that he asketh Wherefore needs a Preacher all things are cleare and plaine in the Diuine Scriptures but because ye are delicate hearers and seeke delight in hearing therefore ye seeke for Preachers You haue heard the old Religion now heare the new BELLARMINE hath these words It must needs be confessed that the Scriptures are most obscure Here therefore saith he LVTHER hath deuised two euasions One that the Scripture though it be obscure in one place yet that it doth clearely propound the same thing in another The second is that though the Scripture be cleare of it selfe yet to the proud and vnbeleeuers it is hard by reason of their blindnesse euill affections so the Lutherans saith Ecchius contend that the Scriptures are cleare and plaine so Duraeus against Whitakers so the Rhemists in their annotations and generally all Papists Iudge now if all these forenamed Fathers and so the ancient Church were not Lutherans in this point or rather we theirs and yeeld that this their old opinion by the new Church of Rome is condemned for hereticall and in all these say vpon your soule whether is the elder Let mee draw you on yet a little further Our question is whether it be necessary or fit that all men euen of the Laitie should haue libertie to heare and reade the Scriptures in a language which they vnderstand Heare first the voice of the old Religion To omit the direct charges of GREGORY NISSEN and AMBROSE thus hath IEROME vpon the Psalms The Lord will declare and how will he declare Not by word but by writing In whose writing In the writing of his people c. Our Lord and Sauiour therefore tells vs and speaketh in the Scriptures of his Princes Our Lord will declare it to vs in the Scriptures of his people in the holy Scriptures which Scripture is read to all the people that is so read as that all may vnderstand not that a few may vnderstand but all What faithfull man saith AVGVSTINE though he be but a Nouice before he be baptized and haue receiued the Holy Ghst doth not with an equall minde reade and heare all things which after the Ascension of our Lord are written in Canonicall truth and authority although as yet he vnderstands them not as he ought But of all other Saint CHRYSOSTOME is euery where most vehement and direct in this point Amongst infinite places heare what hee saith in one of his Homilies of LAzARVS I doe alwayes exhort and will neuer cease to exhort you saith hee that you will not heere only attend to those things which are spoken but when you are at home you continually busie your selues in reading of the holy Scriptures which practice also I haue not ceased to driue into them which come priuately to mee for let no man say Tush they are but idle words and many of them such as should be contemned Alas I am taken vp with law causes I am employed in publike affaires I follow my trade I maintaine a wife and children Vxorem alo
there are that lurke in secret and will not be confessed How loth would we bee after all exclamations that your busie Iesuites could rake out so many confessed quarrels out of all our Authors as I haue heere found in two of yours We want onely their cunning secrecy in the carriage of our quarrels Our few and slight differences are blazoned abroad with infamy and offence their hundreds are craftily smothered in silence Let your owne eyes satisfie you in this not my pen see now what you would neuer beleeue What is it then that could thus bewitch you to forsake the comely and heauenly Truth of God and to dote vpon this beastly Strumpet to change your Religion for a ridiculous sensuall cruell irreligious faction A Religion if wee must call it so that made sport to our plaine forefathers with the remembrance of her grauest deuotions How oft haue you seene them laugh at themselues whiles they haue told of their creeping-crouch kissing the Pax offering their Candles signing with Ashes partiall Shrifts merry Pilgrimages ridiculous Miracles and a thousand such May-games which now you begin after this long hissing at to looke vpon soberly and with admiration A Religion whose fooleries very Boyes may shout and laugh at if for no more but this that it teaches men to put confidence in Beades Medals Roses hallowed Swords Spels of the Gospell Agnes Dei and such like idle bables ascribing vnto them Diuine vertue yea so much as is due to the Sonne of God himselfe and his precious bloud I speake not of some rude Ignorants your very Booke of holy-ceremonies shall teach you what your holy-fathers doe and haue done That tels you first with great allowance and applause that Pope VRBAN the fift sent three Agnes Dei to the Greeke Emperor with these verses Balsam pure wax and Chrismes-liquor cleere Balsamus munda cerae cum Chrismatis vnda conficiunt AgnuÌ„ quod munus de tibi magnuÌ„ c. Fulgura de coelo c. Peccatum frangit vt Christi sanguis angit c. Sacr. Cerem lib. 1. Vt ea quae in hoc equaruÌ„ vesculo praeparato ad nominis tui gloriaÌ„ infundere decreuimê° benedicas quatenus ipsoruÌ„â— veneratione honore nobis famulis tuis crimina diluantur abster gentur maculae peccatorum iâ—petrentur veniae gratia conferantur vt tandem vna cum sanctis electis tuis vitam percipere mereaâ—ur aeternam Fran. a Victoria Ordin Praedicatorum Sum. Sacram art 184. p. 204. Sed quod faciet Confessor cum interrogatur de peccato c. Respondes secundum omnes quod sic Sed fac quod Index aut praelatus ex malitia exigat à me iuramentuÌ„ an sciam in Confessione Respondeo quod coactus iuret se nescire in confessura quia intelligitur senescire ad reuelandum aut taliter quod possit dicere Make vp this pretious Lambe I send thee heere All lightning it dispels and each ill spright Remedies stone and makes the heart contrite Euen as the bloud that Christ for vs did shed It helps the child-beds paine and giues good speed Vnto the birth Great gifts it still doth win To all that weare it and that worthy bin It quels the rage of fire and cleanely bore It brings from shipwracke safely to the shore And lest you should plead this to be the conceite of some one Phantasticall Pope heare and be ashamed out of the same Booke what by prescription euery Pope vseth to pray in the blessing of the water which serues for that Agnus Dei If you know not thus he prayeth That it would please thee O God to blesse those things which we purpose to powre into this Vessell of water prepared to the glory of thy Name so as by the worship and honour of them we thy seruants may haue our heynous offences done away the blemishes of our sinnes wip't off and thereby we may obtaine pardon and receiue grace from thee so that at the last with thy Saints and Elect Children we may merit to obtaine euerlasting life Amen How could you choose but be in loue with this Superstition Magicke Blasphemie practised and maintained by the heads of your Church A Religion that allowes iuggling Equiuocations and reserued senses euen in very oathes Besides all that hath bin shamelesly written by our Iesuites to this purpose Heare what Franciscus Victoria an ingenuous Papist and a learned Reader of Diuinitie in Salmantica writes in the name of all But what shall a Confessor doe saith he if he be askt of a sin that he hath heard in Confession May he say that he knowes not of it I answere according to all our Doctors that he may But what if hee be compelled to sweare I say that he may and ought to sweare that he knowes it not for that it is vnderstood that he knowes it not besides confession and so he sweares true But say that the Iudge or Prelate shall maliciously require of him vpon his oath whether he know it in confession or no I answer that a man thus vrged may still sweare that he knowes it not in confession for that it is vnderstood he knowes it not to reueale it or so as he may tell Who teach and doe thus in anothers case iudge what they would doe in their owne O wise cunning and holy periuries vnknowne to our fore-fathers A Religion that allowes the buying and selling of sins of Pardons of soules so as now Purgatory can haue no rich men in it but fooles and friendlesse Deuils are Tormenters there as themselues hold from many Reuelations of Bede Bernard Carthusian yet Men can command Deuils and money can command men A Religion that relies wholy vpon the infallibilitie of those whom yet they grant haue bin and may be monstrous in their liues and dispositions How many of those heyres of PETER by confession of their owne Records by Bribes by Whores by Deuils haue climed vp into that chaire Yet to say that those men which are confessed to haue giuen their soules to the Deuil that they might be Popes can erre while they are Popes is Heresie worthy of a stake and of Hell A Religion that hood-winks the poore Laitie in forced ignorance lest they should know Gods will or any way to Heauen but theirs so as millions of soules liue no lesse without Scripture than as if there were none that forbids spirituall food as poyson and fetches Gods Booke into the Inquisition A Religion that teaches men to worship stockes and stones with the same honour that is due to their Creator which practise lest it should apeare to her simple Clyents how palpably opposite it is to the second Commandement they haue discreetly left out those words of Gods Law as a needlesse illustration in their Catechismes and Prayer Bookes of the vulgar A Religion that vtterly ouerthrowes the true humanitie of Christ while they giue vnto it tenne thousand places at once and yet no place flesh and no flesh
there should bee granted by Iohn 22. a Pardon for no lesse than a million of yeeres Who can endure since by their owne confession this fire must last but till the conflagration of the world that yet in one little Booke there should be tendred vnto credulous poore soules Pardons of but eleuen thousand thousands of yeeres What should we make many words of this There is now lying by me a worme-eaten Manu-script with faire Rubrickes in which besides other absurd and blasphemous promises there is power giuen to one little prayer to change the paines of hell due perhaps to him that sayes it into Purgatory and after that againe the paines of Purgatory into the ioyes of Heauen Lib. de Indulg Bellarmine had wisely respected his owne reputation if hee had giuen his voice according to that which he confesseth to haue beene the iudgement of some others That these like Bills were not giuen by the Popes but lewdly deuised by some of his base Questuaries for an aduantage But that which he should excuse hee defends What ingenuity of shame is to be expected of Iesuites and how cleane hath an old Parrot as he said of old forgotten the wand Who may abide this vniust and inhumane acceptation of persons that the wealthier sort may by their purses redeeme this holy treasure of the Church and by money deliuer the soules of themselues and their friends from this horrible Prison while the needy Soule must be stall frying in this flame without all hope of pardon or mature relaxation vntill the very last Iudgement day Lastly who can endure that whiles it is in the power of Christs Vicar to call miserable soules out of this tormenting fire which hell it selfe is said to exceed onely in the continuance yet that he should suffer them to lie howling there and most cruelly broyling still and not mercifully bestow on them all the heapes of his treasure as the spirituall ransome of so many distressed spirits Ambr. de Nabâ—th A wretched man is he as Ambrose said of the rich man which hath the power to deliuer so many soules from death and wants the will Why hath God giuen him this faculty of Indulgences if hee would not haue it beneficiall to Mankinde Auth. operis imperfect and where the Owner of the house will bee bountifull it is not for the Steward to bee niggardly Let that Circè of Rome keepe these huskes for her hogges SECTION XIII Concerning the distinction of Veniall and Mortall sinnes PArdons doe both imply and presuppose that knowne distinction of Mortall and Veniall sinne which neither hath God euer allowed neither whiles he gaine-sayes it will euer the Protestants That there are certaine degrees of euill we both acknowledge and teach so as we may here iustly tax the dishonesty and shamelesnesse of Campion Durcus Coccius and the Monkes of Burdeaux who haue vpbraided vs with the opinion of a certaine Stoicall and Iouinianish parity of sinnes yea Bellarmine himselfe hath already done this kinde office for vs. Some offences are more hainous than other yet all in the malignitie of their nature deadly As of poysons some kill more gently and lingringly others more violently and speedily yet both kill Moreouer if wee haue respect vnto the infinite mercy of God and to the obiect of this mercy the penitent and faithfull heart there is no sinne which to borrow the word of Prudentius is not veniall but in respect of the Anomy or disorder there is no sinne which is not worthy of eternall death Euery sinne is a Viper there is no Viper if we regard the nature of the best but kils whom she bites but if one of them shall haply light vpon the hand of Paul she is shaked into the fire without harme done Let no man feare that harmefull creature euer the lesse because he sees the Apostle safe from that poyson So is sinne to a faithfull man Saint Iohns word is All sinne is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Transgression of the Law 1 Ioh. 3.4 Rom. 6. Saint Pauls word is The wages of sinne is death Put these two together and this conceit of the naturall pardon ablenesse of sin vanishes alone Our Rhemists subtill men can no more abide this proposition conuerted than themselues All sinne indeed say they is anomia a transgression of the Law but euery transgression of the Law is not sinne The Apostle therefore himselfe turnes it for vs All vnrighteousnesse saith he is sin But euery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is vnrighteousnesse saith Austen vpon the place For the Law is the rule of righteousnesse therefore the preuarication of the Law is vnrighteousnesse Yea their very owne word shall stop their owne mouth for how is sinne vniuocally distinguished into Veniall and Mortall if the Veniall be no sinne and the wages of euery sinne is death That therefore which the Papists presume to say that this kinde of sinne deserues pardon in it selfe vnlesse they will take the word merit catachrestically with Stapleton And that which Bellarmine and Nauarus adde that Veniall sinnes are not against but beside the Law and lastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Fr. à Vict. summa sacr Poenitentiae nu 100. p. 63. That which Franciscus à Victoria writes that a Bishops blessing or a Lords Prayer or a knocke on the breast or a little holy water or any such like slight receipt without any other good motion of the heart is sufficient to remit Veniall sinne is so shamefully abhorring from all piety and iustice that these open bands both of nature and sinne must be eternally defied of vs. It is an old and as true a ride Decr. 23.4.4 est iniusta c. Petr. Alagâ—â—nae Comp. Manual Nauarri p. 91. p. 267. p. 140. p. 191. p. 352. p. 100. Socr. l. 5.21 â—asinesse of pardon giues incouragement to sinne And beside what maner of sinnes doe they put in the ranke of Venials Drunkennesse adultery angry curses or blasphemies couetousnesse yea stealing lying cursing of parents horrible offences shroud themselues with them vnder this plausible title of veniall He must needs be shamelesly wicked that abhorres not this licentiousnesse Surely Socrates the Historian prophecied I thinke of these men There are some saith he that let goe whoredome as an indifferent matter which yet striue for an holy-day as for their life The ordinarie and not slight Controuersie as Cassander thinketh of the name nature condition punishment of the first sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Originall as Chrysostome calls it I willingly omit Neither doe I meddle with their Euangelicall perfection of vowes nor the dangerous seruitude of their rash and impotent Votaries nor the incoueniences of their Monkerie which yet are so great and many that the elect Cardinals of Paul the third doubted not with ioynt consent to affirme All the Orders of Couents we thinke fit to be abolished but for the condition of that single and solitary life let that be done which Cassander and
we should thinke that the Lord which is the Author and sanctifier of Mariage should hold it in the same rank with surfetting drunkennesse Another was of the same Author i i Tit. 2. Si quis legitimam commixtionem filiorum recreationem corruptionem coinquinationem vocat ille habet cohabito torem daemonem Apostatam Ignat. Epist ad Philadelph teaching vs to deny vngodlinesse and worldly Lusts vs of the Clergy belike the rest need not And who knowes not the witty and learned insinuations of their good Siritius Those that are in the flesh cannot please God These and such like are the forceable insinuations of this imposed continency which euen very boyes and Ideots can hisse out of the Schooles SECT XXII FRom Panormitan hee descends to my alledged Gratian who because he speakes these words by way of explication in a continued tenor with a sentence of Austin is to my mortall sinne cited by me as speaking from Austin The position and the inference of the words is such as might deceiue any eye that would trust a Gratian What might the price be trow we of such a crime in the Apostolique chamber In my next Shrift Refut p. 105. he shall heare meâ culpâ The words are Gratians that Copula Sacerdotalis vel consanguineorum The mariage or as this Clerkly Grammarian translates it the carnall copulation of Priests or kinsfolke is not forbidden by any Legall Euangelicall or Apostolicall authoritie but by Ecclesiasticall Law it is forbidden Wee could not hyre a Proctor to say more But herein C. E. hath detected two foule faults of the citation The one that I trusted his Gratian so far as to make him speake out of Austin which I trust a little Holy-water may wash off The other Refut p. 106. That I concealed the mariage of kinsfolke within the prohibited degrees which saith he although only forbidden by Ecclesiasticall Law yet dares not M. Hall I thinke transgresse it so as this Law hath greater forâ—e then he supposeth it to haue So he Plainly my Refuter knowes not what he faith else he would neuer thus palpably plead against himselfe For whateuer thing was there in all the constitutions of his Church more subiect to variation then the legall supputation of the forbidden degrees which was a long time confined to the third degree inclusiuely another while extended to the fourth and sometime to the seuenth Let him herein reconcile his Pope Nicholas and Gregory with Pope Innocent Whereof the one left all free that were without the pale of the fourth degree the other restrayned all to the seuenth And when he finds an vnalterablenesse in the determination of these degrees let him plead for an equally-fatall necessity of his Ecclesiasticall continence in the meane time let him take it patiently to be beaten with his owne Rod. No diuine Law then he grants hath inioyned this Celebate but an Ecclesiasticall What is this other then I said God neuer imposed this Law of continence Who then k k Espenc ex Test Abb. l 1. c. 3. Facerat igitur Ecclesia boni medici iusta medicinam quae obsit magis quam profit tallentis The Church should therefore doe like a good Physitian in remouing the medicine which he seeâ— to doe more harme then good Refut p. 107. The Church And why may not I goe on to aske Whether a good wife would gain-say what her husband willeth Flourishing will not answer this All the prayses of beauty and fidelity which are giuen to the true Church argue Rome to be the false Whereas therefore the Priest shuts vp thus brauely And this Minister who would make the one to gain-say the other should bring some place or sentence to shew the same which he may chance to doe the next morning after the Greeke Calends or else neuer aâ—ouch so vnchristian a Paradoxe He shall vnderstand that his Greeke Calends are past The Spirit of God saith A Bishop may be the Husband of one Wife The Church of Rome sayes A Bishop may not be the Husband of any wife at all Whether is this a contradiction The Spirit of God sayes Mariage is honourable amongst all men The Church of Rome sayes Mariage is dishonourable to some The Spirit of God sayes To auoid Fornication let euery man haue his wife The Church of Rome like a quick huswife saies Some order of men shall not haue a wife though to auoyd Fornication Let my Masse-Priest shew these to be no contradictions which hee may chance to doe at the Greeke Calends or else grant this to be neither Paradox nor vnchristian SECT XXIII FRom Cardinall Panormitan I ascended to Pope Pius the Second Refut p. 108. whom I vshered in with this Preface Let a Pope himself speake out of Peters Chayre Pius the second as learned as hath sit in that roome this thousand yeeres Two things my Cauiller snarles at in the Preface two in the authority it selfe My first manifest vntruth is that Pius the Second spake this as out of the Chayre A witlesse misprision I hope he sate in Peters Chayre that spake it if he spake it not as from the Chayr I care for no more Is not this sufficient to win respect from a Catholike Priest Otherwise whether it were Stoole or Chaire or if a chayre whether the consistoriall or the Porphyry chaire wherin he sits before his first Triumph l l Lib. sacr cerem tanquam instercoraria it is all one to me Themselues must first agree what it is to speake as from the Chaire ere I can affirme that Pius the Second so spake this Id Populus curet I referred the chaire to the man not to the speech In the meane time C. E. is not so good a groome to the Chayre as Gregory of Valence who attributes infallibility to a Popes sentence though it be m m Vid Rom. Irrecon sine curâ studie My second wrong is the superlatiue lashing so he cals it of other Popes learning in comparison of this I cry him mercy I did not know what sinne it was to commend a Popes learning That is not it I confesse that caries away the Crownes and the Keyes But the comparison offended Perhaps C.E. hath knowne that Chaire more learnedly furnished It may be he thinkes of Boniface the Ninth called before Peter de Thomacellis a Neapolitan n n Theod. Niem lib. 1. c. 6. who could neither write nor sing hardly vnderstanding the propositions of the Aduocates in the Consistorie insomuch as in his time Inscitia ferè venalis facta fuit in ipsa curiâ Ignorance was growne valuable Or it may be he thinks of those ancient ferule-fingred Boy-Popes one of the Benedicts a graue Father of ten yeeres old or Iohn the Thirteenth an aged Stripling of nineteene Or perhaps hee alludes to those learned times within my compasse which were acknowledged in the Councell of Rhemes where when offer was made of requiring the Popes
father of the Protestāts who would haue all Clergie men to marry when his very Rhemists haue checkt him for this slander pleading against that necessity from which we haue oft washt our hands when as the same Author against Iouinian affirmes de facto the same with Athanasius and vs. To say then that Athanasius spoke this onely of lewd licentious Monkes or Bishops is but the lewd liberty of a licentious tongue that hath ouer-runne both Truth and it selfe From hence this Orator this parcell of wit flyes out into a pleasant frumpe as hee thinks but indeed an vgly inhumane lothsome ribaudry ill-beseeming the mouth of any that was borne of a woman I will not say whether ill or well beseeming the pen of a Virgin-Priest forsooth so pure and angelicall that mariage would vn Saint him His vnmanly vnnaturall Stile belcheth thus Thus Luther of Katherine Bore his Sow had sixe Pigs Pag. 137. Away nasty C. E. transformed by Circe Hoy backe to her Styes yea thine where thou maist freely Gruunire in septis cum foedo hoc agmine clausus Then proceeds he enuying the matrimoniall fruitfulnesse of Bucer who surely had hee vnder the vaile of maydenly Priesthood beene farre more fruitfull in a whole swarm of Bastards should neuer haue heard of it vnlesse perhaps he had denied to pay Taxam Camerae As for Ochius allowing Polygamie and perhaps other worse obliquities in his opinions what are they to vs For the mariage of P. Martyr Oecolampadius Pellican c. Let him take for an acquittance that which hath beene payed them thus Nobis nostrae sunt Iunones vobis vestrae Veneres And then I aske Vinat vter nostrum cruce dignior If this will not serue for repayment I must eeke it out with a smal yet currant commodity of two poore verses which I learned of his Mantuan at the Grammar Schoole Sanctus ager scurris venerabilis ara Cynaedis Seruit honorandae Diuûm Ganymedibus aedes Let him take this spoonfull of Holy-water to digest his Hogges flesh SECT III. HItherto my Refuters p p Iob 41.27 Refut p. 138 139. Yron hath beene as Straw his Brasse as rotten Wood his Sling-stones as stubble but now he hath found that will kill me dead and sayes no lesse then Hoc habet q q Cypr. l. 4. Epist 10. Cyprian is by me alledged for the History of Numidicus whom I auouched a maried Presbyter by the same token that hee saw his wife burning besides him with the flames of Martyrdome And Lord what out-cryes are here of fraud and corruption and how could this Masse-Priest wish himselfe neere me when I should be vrged with this imposture to see what face I would make thereon Euen such a one good sir Shorne as is framed by the confidence of honest innocency God deale so with my soule as it meanes nothing but ingenuous sincerity neither hath my pen swarued one letter from the Text My margine said Numidicus Presbyter so doth Cyprian himselfe two or three lines before this report of his wife Numidicus Priest so besides the Text doth the margine of Erasmus And what trechery could it bee to adde the word of Cyprians owne explication But Numidicus was not then Priest when his wife was martyred rather vpon that constancie was honoured with holy Orders How appeares that when Cyprian only sayes Numidicus Presbyter ascribatur Presbyterorum Carthaginensium numero nobiscum sedeat in clero He was before a Priest Let Numid the Priest be receiued into the number of the Priests of Carthage c. for ought this Libeller or any mortall man knowes and now was ascribed into the honoured Clergie of Carthage soone after to be promoted to Episcopall dignitie Before the report therefore of his wiues martyrdome he is named a Priest What haue I offended in seconding Saint Cyprian Let this peremptory babler proue this ordination to be after that noble proofe of his faith I shall confesse my selfe mistaken in the time neuer false in mine intentions Till then he shall giue me leaue to stile the man as I find him Numidicus Presbyter If Cyprian had said Numidicus Praesbyterorum numero ascribatur the case had beene cleare but now doubling the word he implyes him a Priest before Numid Presbyter Presbytererum Carth. numero aser and how long before and whether not before his Confession it will trouble my learned Aduersary to determine How faine would this man crow if he could but get the coulour of an aduantage In the meane while this impotent insultation bewrayes nothing but malice and ignorance SECT IIII. MY Refuter may transpose the Historie of Paphnutius but hee shall neuer answer it After his old guise therefore he falls to his Hatchet Refut p. 140. and when he hath tryed to bow it a little and finds it stiffe he cuts it vp by the roots What one word can he controll in the relation of r r Secr. l. 1. c. 8. Sozon l. 1. c. 22. Socrates or mine Illation The Bishops went about to bring in a new law of Continency to be imposed vpon their Clergie saith Socrates and Sozomen therefore before it was not Paphnutius reclaimed and called that yoake heauy and vnsupportable the vse of the Mariage-bed Chastity The issue was Potestas permissa cuique pro arbitratu Euery man left to his owne libertie the story is plaine there is no place for cauills Refut p. 143. The onely comfort that my Detector and his Tutors finde in the Historie is that Paphnutius is not all ours Hee cals for the vse of Mariage to the wedded Clergie not for wedlocke of the vn-maried True therein I must retort the answer of Sotus that the good Martyr gaue way to the corruption of the Times wherein the wicked mystery had begun with St. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But in the meane time let him know that if Paphnutius pleade but by halues for vs hee pleades against them altogether yea this he knowes already else he would neuer bee so audacious as to condemne the authors for vnsincere and fabulous yea hereticall and to bring the clamours of his Bellarmine to discredit Socrates in three grosse vntruths and Sozomen with Multa mentitur Refut p. 146. O impudency without measure without example Cassiodorus and Epiphanius Socrates Sozomen Nicephorus graue and approued Authors of our Ecclesiasticall Story for but reporting one piece of an History in fauour of Clergie-mens mariages are spit vpon and discarded with disgrace This is no new Song my Refuter hath learned it of Copus Torrensis Bellarmine Baronius and others All whose mouthes together with his in these particular exceptions let mee stop with that ingenuous answer of * * Espen l. 1. de Contin B. Espencaeus there needs no other Aduocate Excipit Torrensis c. But Torrensis excepts against Socrates and Sozomen as though they had lewdly and shamefully belyed this story of Paphnutius and sayes the one was a friend of the
euer they finde with this Italianate generation In Tomis Conciliorum prorsus expunxerunt omiserunt hunc Canonem y y Chemnit hist de Coelib Sacerd. p. 65. In the Tomes of the Councels they haue altogether wip't out and omitted this Canon So as if wee had those blurred Copies which he saw bleeding from the hand of the Inquisitors there could be no fence for this charge but that which serues for all impudent denyals Neither needed my Refuter to take it so highly Refut p. 196. that I obiected to them the tearing blemishing and defacing of this and other Records against them Ere long the World shall see to the foule shame of these selfe-condemned Impostors Erasm Lang. in Niceph. Io Neuizan D. Venatorius P. Crinitus I de solas Polyd. Virg. â—olewinch Thuavus Ignat. Sigebert c. that in the Writings both of ancient and later Authors they haue blotted out more then an hundred places some of them containing aboue two sheetes apiece concerning this very point which we haue in hand This is no newes therefore neither needed my Detector to make it so dainty SECT XIV Refut p. 198. vsque ad 203. I Cited from Gratian the free confession of Pope Steuen the Second acknowledging the open liberty of Mariage to the Clergie of the Easterne Church Matrimonio copulantur They are ioyned in Mariage A place truely irrefragable My Refuter first excepts against the number telling vs that Steuen the Second liued but three or foure dayes at the most and therefore he could not be the man what spirit of Cauillation possesses this Masse-Priest Hee cannot but know that his own Sigebertus ascribes fiue yeares to this Steuen Hermannus Se also Funccius in his Chronol six But fiue is the least And his Binius tels him that the Steuen he speakes of fitting but two dayes exclusiuely z z Bin. Steph. 2. A pluribus è Serie Rom. Pontificum dimittitur is by the most omitted in the Catalogue of the Romane Bishops whence it is that the Chronicle names not two Steuens betwixt the first the fourth But this man he saith called no Councell what is that to me Gratian affirmes it I do not Let him fal out for this with his friends And now according to the old wont after he hath tryed to shift off Matrimonio copulantur with the sleeuelesse euasion of a false glosse i. vtuntur which Cajetan hath sufficiently confuted for vs hee fals to a flat reiection of Gratian Caiet Opus Castit and tels vs out of Bellarmine That Canon to bee perhaps of no authoritie but an errour of the Collectors Good God! what face haue these men That none of their receiued Authors can be produced against them Refut p. 203. but they are straight counterfeit and yet the very same where they speake for them canonicall Their Clyents if they might but know these tricks would be ashamed of their Patrons Refut p. 204. That the Clergie not onely of the East might Matrimonio copulari but of the West also might Matrimonium contrahere which are the words they are vnwilling to know in their owne Canon Law shew sufficiently that they not onely were maried of old but might marry But for the Easterne Clergie it is freely granted by all ingenuous spirits insomuch as Espencaeus tels vs that neuer Author either old or new imputed this for a fault vnto the Greeke Church that their Clergie was maried Refut p. 206 207. What shall we say then to this bold Bayard that compares this toleration of Mariage in the Greeke Church with Mosesses permission of the Bill of Diuorce vnto the Iewes As if Mariage had been onely tolerated not allowed as if vniust Diuorce were a fit match for lawfull Wedlocke whiles he here talkes of Duritia cordis well may we talke of his Duritia frontis It is true euery Church euery Country hath their Customes and Fashions which Ioannes Maior pleads against Beda's Censure of the English and Scottish and Brittish obseruation of Easter and may bee as iustly in this case pleaded for vs This was of old no lesse ours then the Greekes And if any Church will be prescribing against God we haue no such Custom nor the Church of God But what a ridiculous insinuation is iâ— that the Greeke Priests are dispensed with by supreme authoritie Ecclesiasticall Refut p. 207 208. Forsooth by the Pope of Rome Faine would I learne when vpon what termes at what rate the Graecians purchased in the Court of Rome Dispensation for their Mariages I would my Refuter had the Office appointed him to shuffle ouer all the Records of the Apostolike Chamber till he find such a grant made propter duritiem cordis then should a great deale of good Paper escape the misery of being besmeared by his Pen. What strange fantastike Dreames are put vpon the World Where the Papacy cannot preuaile there forsooth his Holinesse dispenseth The Greeke Church admitteth maried Priests the Pope dispenseth with them They deny and defie the Popes Supremacie I trow he dispenseth with them for that too and why not with the Church of England We pay no Peter-pence wee runne not to Rome-market to buy trash I hope his Holinesse dispenseth with vs for these Peccadillo's wee take libertie here to marry rather then to burne why should wee not hope to receiue that Dispensation whereof we heard the newes of late from a poore Bankrupt Carier Ad populum phaleras SECT XV. AS for the contradiction which his sagacitie findes not without much scorne in the two Parliamentall Lawes of the Father and the Sonne Refut p. 209. usque ad 214. King Henry the Eight and King Edward the Sixt whereof the one forbids the other allowes the Mariage of Ecclesiastiques it needed not haue beene any wonder to a learned Priest which might haue knowne Councels enow diametrally opposite to each other what fault was it in the recouer'd blind man that he first saw men vvalk like Trees and after like men Euen the best man may correct himselfe Neither was there here any contradiction King Henry spake with the Romane Church whose one halfe of him then was King Edward spake vvith the Scriptures and purer antiquitie King Henry neuer said God disallowed these Mariages King Edward neuer said they were allowed by the Romish Church And vvhy may not vvee draw out the like absurditie out of Queene Maries Parliaments vvherein shee reuersed many things established by King Edward as in this very case concerning Mariage of Priests May nor vvee herevpon aske What vvill you say to such Parliaments vvherein the Brother is thwarted by the Sister and that vvith the consent of the most of the same Parliament-men enacting in a few yeares contrarily Or as if it were any newes with Popes rescindere acta praedecessorum euen of those vvhich immediately preceded them Who knowes not the Story of Pope Formosus and Stephanus and the
vel nasciturus Nec ipsi etiam virgines essent quia nati non essent Ex foecunditate enim illorum orta est istorum virginitas Magnum igitur bonum est foecunditas de qua sancta praecessit virginitas Quia autem virgines esse debeant qui nuptiarum fructus facientes docet cos verbum quod Deus seminat in cordibus illorum In aliorum enim cordibus seminat verbum bonae foecunditatis nuptiarum fructum facientis in aliorum vero cordibus seminat verbum virginitatis * * Deest opinor pars clausula Illi ergo in quibus seminat verbum virginitatis c. ipsi virginitatem seruare desiderant In quibus vero verbum nuptiarum seminat ipsi facere nuptiarum fructum appetunt WHICH FOR MY COVNTRYMENS SAKE I haue thus Englished I Would faine know who it was that first ordained that Christian Priests might not marry God or Man For if it were God surely his determination is to bee held and obserued with all veneration and reuerence But if it were Man and not God and this Tradition came out of the heart of Man not out of the Mouth of God then neither is saluation got by it if it be obserued nor lost if it be not obserued For it doth not belong to Man either to saue or destroy any man for his merits but it is proper only vnto God That God hath ordained this it it neither found written in the Old Testament nor in the Gospell nor in the Epistles of the Apostles in all which is set down whatsoeuer God hath inioyned vnto men It is therefore a Tradition of Man and not an institution of God nor of his Apostles As the Apostle instituted rather that a Bishop should be the Husband of one Wife which he would neuer haue appointed if it had beene adulterie for a Bishop to haue at once a Wife and a Church as it were two Wiues like as some affirme Now that which hath not authority from the holy Scriptures is with the same facility contemned that it is spoken For the holy Church is not the Wife not the Spouse of the Priest but of Christ as S. Iohn saith He that hath the Bride he is the Bridegroome Of this Bridegroome I say is the Church the Spouse and yet it is lawfull euen for this Spouse in part to marry by Apostolique Tradition For the Apostle speakes thus to the Corinthians because of fornications let euery man haue his owne Wife And I would that all men were as I am but euery man hath his proper gift of God one thus another otherwise For all men haue not one gift namely of Virginity and Continency but some are virgins and containe others containe not to whom he granteth mariage lest Sathan tempt them through their incontinency and they should miscary in the ruine of their vncleannesse So also of Priests some are continent others are incontinent and those which are continent haue receiued the gift of their continence from God without whose Gift and Grace they cannot be continent But those which are incontinent haue not receiued this gift of grace but whether by the intemperance of their humour or the weaknesse of their mind run out into fleshly desires which they would in no wise doe if they had receiued from God the Grace and Vertue of Continence For they also which are deliuered by the Grace of God from the body of this death feele another Law in their members rebelling against the Law of their minde and captiuating them to the Law of sin and compelling them to doe that which they would not This Law therefore holding them captiue and this Concupiscence of the flesh prouoking them they are compelled either to fornicate or mary whereof whether is the better we are taught by the authority of the Apostle who tels vs it is better to marry then to burne Surely that which is the better is to be chosen and held now it is better to marry because it is worse to burne and because it is better to marry then to burne it is conuenient for those which containe not to marry not to burne For mariage is good as August speaks in his booke super Genesin ad Literam in it is commended the good of nature whereby the prauity of incontinence is ruled and the fruitfulnesse of Nature graced For the weaknesse of either Sexe declining towards the ruine of filthinesse is well relieued by honesty of mariage so as the same thing which may be the office of the found is also the remedie vnto the sicke Neither yet because incontinence is euill is therefore Mariage euen that wherewith the Incontinent are ioyned to be reputed not good yea rather not for that euill is the good faulty but for this good is that euill pardonable since that good which mariage hath yea which mariage is can neuer be sin Now this good is three fold the Fidelity the Fruit the Sacrament of that estate In the Fidelity is regarded That besides this bond of Mariage there be not carnall society with any other In the Fruit of it That it be louingly raised and religiously bred In the Sacrament of it That the mariage be not separated and that the dismissed party of either Sexe be not ioyned to any other no not for issues sake This is as it were the Rule of Mariage whereby the fruitfulnesse of Nature is graced or the prauity of Incontinence ruled And this Rule of Mariage and this three-fold good the eternall Truth hath appointed in the order of his Decree and that eternall Law of his against which whatsoeuer is done spoken or willed is sinne which Augustine in his booke against Faustus the Manichee witnesseth saying Sin is either Deed Word or desire against the Law Eternall This Eternall Law is the diuine Will or Decree forbidding the disturbance and commanding the preseruation of due naturall order whatsoeuer therefore commands naturall Order to be disturbed forbids it to be conserued prohibits men to vse Mariage and to attaine to the threefold good thereof Fidelitie Issue Sacrament and commands them to breake that Rule of Eternall Truth whereby the fruitfulnesse of Nature is graced or the prauity of Incontinency is ruled commands men to abhorre those things whereby naturall Order is held and maintained This Commandement I say forbids naturall Order to bee obserued commands it to bee disturbed and therefore is against the Law of God and by consequence is sinne For they sinne that ordaine such a command by which naturall Order is destroyed These men doe not it seemes beleeue that of the children of Priests God takes for the building of his City aboue and for the restoring of the number of Angels For if they did beleeue it they would neuer ordaine such a Mandare because they should wittingly and ouer rashly goe about to effect that the supernall City should neuer be perfited and the number of Angels neuer repayred For if the supernall City be to be
perfited euen of the sonnes of Priests and if the number of Angels be of them to be repayred those that indeuour to procure that they should not be doe what in them lies destroy the supernall City and labour that the number of Angels may not be perfited then which what can be more peruersely done For this is done against the will and predestination of him which hath done those things which shall be for he hath done in his predestination those things which shall be in effect whosoeuer therefore goes about to procure that God may not in effect doe those things which he hath done in his predestination goes about to make void the very predestination of God If then God haue already in his predestination decreed that the sons of Priests shall once be in effect he that goes about to procure that they may not be in effect endeuours to destroy the work of God because he hath already done it in predestination and so striues to ouerthrow Gods predestination and to gain-stand that will of God which is eternall For God would from eternity and before all worlds create all men in the world in that certaine order wherein he pre-conceiued and predestinated to create them He doth nothing disorderly he createth nothing in the world which he hath not fore-ordained by disposing it in the predestination of his mind that went before all worlds Whatsoeuer therefore is by him created in this world doth necessarily follow the predestination of his mind predisposing and preordaining all things because it is impossible that should not be done which God from eternity hath willed and fore-ordained to be done It is therefore necessary that all men should be created in that very Order wherein he willed and from eternity fore-ordained Or else all men are not created as God would haue them nor as he fore-ordained them But because this is inconuenient it must needs bee that they are created as hee willed from eternity and fore-thought and fore-ordained because he hath done all things that he would and neuer did any thing which he willed nor from euerlasting and hath fore-conceiued in his certaine and vnchangcable Decree For neither can his will be frustrated nor his fore-thought deceiued nor his fore-ordinations altered Which since it is so needs must it be that as Laicks so Priests also of whom men are created should yeeld their seruice to the diuine will and preordination to the creating of them For parents are not the authors of the creation of their children but the seruants who if they should not yeeld their seruice they should if it were possible make void the fore-thought of God and resist his ordination which if they should wittingly doe they should offend the more if ignorantly the lesse not onely against God the Father but also against the heauenly Ierusalem the Mother of all Saints because what in them were they should not suffer those to be created of whom it is to be builded and those things to be prepared whereby that Celestiall Country is bestowed But from this offence their impotence frees them because they cannot resist the will of God and crosse his preordination For the will and predestination of God is that eternall Law in which the course of all things is decreed and the patterne wherein the forme of all ages is set forth which can by no meanes be defaced Not to yeeld our seruice then hereunto is euill because to yeeld it is good and especially if it be done with a good intent which is then done when as Parents meet together in a desire of propagation of issue not in an appetite of exercising their lust Of propagation I say that both the present Church may be multiplyed and the celestiall City built and the number of the Elect made vp none of which could be done without such coniugal meeting For if the first Parents of the Saints had continued all either continent or virgins no Saint had beene borne of them in the world none of them had beene crowned with glory and honour in heauen none of them ascribed into the number of Angels But since it is an inestimable good that Saints are borne in the world that they are crowned with glory and honour in heauen and that they are ascribed into the number of Angels thereupon the fruitfulnesse of Parents is more blessed and their meeting holier So then it is better for them to haue begotten such children then not to haue begotten them and to haue brought forth such fruit of mariage then to haue beene continent or Virgins without fruit Although it is good for some to be continent or virgins namely for them whom God eternally willed and preordained to be so created in the world that they should remaine either in Continence or Virginity For as he hath eternally willed and fore-ordained that some should be so created in the world as that they should yeeld the fruit of mariage and beget children so also hath he willed and from eternity fore-ordained some to be so created that they should continue in Continencie or Virginity And as those other yeeld their seruice to the will and preordination of God in the creation of children so these also serue the will and preordination of God in conseruing their continence and virginity and hereupon is both the fruitfulnesse of the one and the Virginity of the other good and laudable which if it did not yeeld seruiceâ— the will and preordination of God would be neither good nor laudable For whatsoeuer is contrary to the wil and preordination of God is neither good nor laudable If therefore God willed and predestinated some to be Virgins others to yeeld the fruit of mariage for if all were virgins no Saint that now is or shall bee borne should either bee now or hereafter borne in the world neither should those virgins be at all because they should not be borne for of the fruitfulnesse of the one arises the others virginity therefore is fruitfulnesse a great good from which holy virginity hath proceeded now that there should be some virgins and others that should beare the fruits of mariage the word which God soweth in their hearts teacheth vs. For in the hearts of some he soweth the word of good fruitfulnesse yeelding the encrease of mariage and in the hearts of others he sowes the word of virginity Those then in whom hee sowes the the word of virginity they desire to keepe virginity but those in whom hee sowes the word of mariage they desire to yeeld the fruit of mariage WHERETO I WILL ADDE FOR Conclusion the wise and ingenuous iudgement of Erasmus Roterodamus The rather because it pleased my Refuter to lay this worthy Author in our dish Jn his Epistle to Christopher Bishop of Basil Habetur Tomo nono Op. Eras pag. 982. concerning humane Constitutions Thus he writes Nam in totum quae sunt humani iuris quemadmodum in morbis remedia c. FOr those things which are
Of the Law IT is but about seuen weekes since Israel came out of Aegypt In which space God had cherished their faith by fiue seuerall wonders yet now he thinks it time to giue them Statutes from heauen as wel as bread The Manna and water from the Rocke which was Christ in the Gospell were giuen before the Law The Sacraments of Grace before the legall Couenant The grace of God preuenteth our obedience Therefore should we keepe the Law of God because we haue a Sauiour Oh the mercy of our God! which before we see what we are bound to doe shewes vs our remedy if wee doe it not How can our faith disanull the Law when it was before it It may helpe to fulfill that which shall be it cannot frustrate that which was not The Letters which God had written in our fleshly tables were now as those which were carued in some barkes almost growne out he saw it time to write them in dead tables whose hardnes should not bee capable of alteration He knew that the stone would be more faithfull then our hearts Oh maruellous accordance betwixt the two Testaments In the very time of their deliuerie there is the same agreement which is in the substance The ancient Iewes kept our Feasts and we still keepe theirs The Feast of the Passeouer is the time of Christs resurrection then did he passe from vnder the bondage of Death Christ is our Passeouer the spotlesse Lambe whereof not a bone must be broken The very day wherein God came down in fire and thunder to deliuer the Law Euen the same day came also the Holy Ghost downe vpon the Disciples in fiery tongues for the propagation of the Gospell That other was in fire and smoke obscuritie was mingled with terror This was in fire without smoke befitting the light and cleernesse of the Gospell Fire not in flashes but in tongues not to terrifie but to instruct The promulgation of the Law makes way for the Law of the Gospell No man receiues the Holy Ghost but he which hath felt the terrours of Sinai God might haue imposed vpon them a Law perforce They were his creatures and he could require nothing but iustice It had beene but equall that they should bee compelled to obey their Maker yet that God which loues to doe all things sweetly giues the law of iustice in mercy and wil not imperiously command but craues our assent for that which it were rebellion not to doe How gentle should be the proceeding of fellow creatures who haue an equalitie of being with an inequality of condition when their infinite Maker requests where hee might constraine God wil make no couenant with the vnwilling How much lesse the couenant of Grace which stands all vpon loue If we stay till God offer violence to our wil or to vs against our will we shal die strangers from him The Church is the Spouse of Christ he will enioy her loue by a willing contract not by a rauishment The obstinate haue nothing to doe with God The title of all Conuerts is A willing people Then Israel inclined to God it was from God he enquires after his owne gifts in vs for our capacity of more They had not receiued the Law vnlesse they had first receiued a disposition fit to be commanded As there was an inclination to heare so there must be a preparation for hearing Gods iustice had before prepared his Israelites by hunger thirst feare of enemies his mercies had prepared them by deliuerances by prouisions of water meat bread and yet besides all the sight of God in his miracles they must be three dayes prepared to heare him When our soules are at the best our approch to God requires particular addresses And if three dayes were little enough to prepare them to receiue the Law how is all our life short enough to prepare for the reckoning of our obseruing it And if the word of a command expected such readinesse what shall the word of promise the promise of Christ and saluation The Moraine of Aegypt was not so infectious as their vices the contagion of these stucke still by Israel All the water of the Red Sea and of Marah and that which gushed out of the Rocke had not washed it off From these they must now bee sanctified As sinne is alwayes dangerous so most when we bring it into Gods sight It enuenometh both our persons and seruices and turnes our good into euill As therefore wee must be alwayes holy so most when wee present our selues to the holy eyes of our Creator We wash our hands euery day but when we are to sit with some great person we scowre them with balls And if wee must be so sanctified onely to receiue the Law how holy must we be to receiue the grace promised in the Gospell Neither must themselues onely he cleansed but their very cloathes Their garments smelt of Aegypt euen they must be washed Neither can cloathes be capable of sinne nor can water cleanse from sinnes The danger was neither in their garments nor their skin yet they must be washed that they might learne by their cloathes with what soules to appeare before their God Those garments must bee washed which should neuer waxe old that now they might begin their age in purity as those vvhich were in more danger of being Foule then bare It is fit that our reuerence to Gods presence should appeare in our very garments that both without and vvithin we may be cleanly but little would neatnesse of vestures auaile vs vvith a filthy soule The God of spirits lookes to the inner man and challenges the purity of that part which resembles himselfe Cleanse your hands ye sinners and purge your hearts ye double-minded Yet euen vvhen they vvere washed and sanctified they may not touch the Mount not onely vvith their feet but not with their eyes The smoake keepes it from their eyes the markes from their feet Not only men that had some impurity at their best are restrained but euen beasts which are not capable of any vnholinesse Those beasts which must touch his Altars yet might not touch his hill And if a beast touch it hee must die yet so as no hands may touch that which hath touched the Hill Vnreasonablenesse might seeme to be an excuse in these creatures that therefore which is death to a beast must needs be capital to them whose reason should guide them to auoid presumption Those Israelites which saw God euery day in the pillar of fire the cloud must not come neere him in the Mount God loues at once familiarity and feare Familiarity in our conuersation and feare in his commands Hee loues to be acquainted with men in the walkes of their obedience yet he takes state vpon him in his ordinances and will be trembled at in his Word and Iudgements I see the difference of Gods cariage to men in the Law and in the Gospel There the very Hill where he appeared may not be
touched of the purest Israelite Here the hem of his garment is touched by the woman that had the flux of blood yea his very face was touched with the lips of Iudas There the very earth vvas prohibited them on which he descended Here his very body and blood is profered to our touch and taste Oh the maruellous kindnesse of our God! How vnthankfull are we if we doe not acknowledge this mercy aboue his ancient people They were his owne yet strangers in comparison of our libertie It is our shame and sinne if in these meanes of intirenesse we be no better acquainted with God then they which in their greatest familiaritie vvere commanded aloofe God was euer wonderfull in his workes and fearfull in his iudgements but hee was neuer so terrible in the execution of his will as now in the promulgation of it Here was nothing but a maiesticall terrour in the eyes in the eares of the Israelites as if God meant to shew them by this how fearfull he could be Here was the lightning darted in their eyes the thunders roaring in their eares the Trumpet of God drowning the thunder claps the voice of God out-speaking the Trumpet of the Angell The Cloud enwrapping the smoake ascending the fire flaming the Mount trembling Moses climbing and quaking palenesse and death in the face of Israel vprore in the elements and all the glory of heauen turned into terrour In the destruction of the first World there were clouds without fire In the destruction of Sodom there was fire raining without clouds but here was fire smoake clouds thunder earthquakes and whatsoeuer might worke more astonishment then euer was in any vengeance inflicted And if the Law vvere thus giuen how shall it be required If such were the Proclamation of Gods Statutes what shall the Sessions bee I see and tremble at the resemblance The Trumpet of the Angell called vnto the one The voice of an Archangell the Trumpet of God shall summon vs to the other To the one Moses that climbed vp that Hill and alone saw it sayes God came with ten thousands of his Saints In the other thousand thousands shall minister to him and ten thousand thousands shal stand before him In the one Mount Sinai onely was on a flame all the World shall be so in the other In the one there was fire smoake thunder and lightning In the other a fiery streame shall issue from him wherewith the heauens shall be dissolued and the Elements shall melt away vvith a noise Oh God how powerfull art thou to inflict vengeance vpon sinners who didst thus forbid sinne and if thou vvert so terrible a Law-giuer vvhat a Iudge shalt thou appeare What shall become of the breakers of so fierie a Law Oh vvhere shall those appeare that are guilty of the transgressing that law vvhose very deliuery vvas little lesse then death If our God should exact his Law but in the same rigour wherein he gaue it sinne could not quite the cost But now the fire vvherein it was deliuered was but terrifying the fire wherein it shall bee required is consuming Happy are those that are from vnder the terrours of that Law which was giuen in fire and in fire shall be required God would haue Israel see that they had not to do with some impotent Commander that is faine to publish his Lawes without noyse in dead paper which can more easily enioyne then punish or descry then execute and therefore before hee giues them a Law he shewes them that he can command Heauen Earth Fire Ayre in reuenge of the breach of the Law That they could not but thinke it deadly to displease such a Law-giuer or violate such dreadfull statutes that they might see all the Elements examples of that obedience which they should yeeld vnto their Maker This fire wherein the Law was giuen is still in it and will neuer out Hence are those terrours which it flashes in euery conscience that hath felt remorse of sinne Euery mans heart is a Sinai and resembles to him both heauen and hell The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law That they might see he could finde out their closest sinnes hee deliuers his Law in the light of fire from out of the smoake That they might see what is due to their sinnes they see fire aboue to represent the fire that should be below them That they might know he could waken their securitie the Thunder and louder voice of GOD speakes to their hearts That they might see what their hearts should doe the Earth quakes vnder them That they might see they could not shift their appearance the Angels call them together Oh royall Law and mighty Law-giuer How could they think of hauing any other God that had such proofes of this How could they think of making any resemblance of him whom they saw could not be seene and whom they saw in not being seene infinite How could they thinke of daring to profane his Name vvhom they heard to name himselfe with that voice Iehoua How could they thinke of standing vvith him for a day whom they saw to command that heauen vvhich makes and measures day How could they thinke of disobeying his Deputies whom they saw so able to reuenge How could they thinke of killing when they were halfe dead with the feare of him that could kill both body and soule How could they think of the flames of lust that saw such fires of vengeance How could they thinke of stealing from others that saw whose the heauen and the earth was to dispose of at his pleasure How could they thinke of speaking falsely that heard God speake in so fearfull a tone How could they thinke of coueting others goods that saw how vveake and vncertaine right they had to their owne Yea to vs vvas this Law so deliuered to vs in them neither had there beene such state in the promulgation of it if God had not intended it for Eternity We men that so feare the breach of humane Lawes for some small mulcts of forfeiture how should vvee feare thee O Lord that canst cast body and soule into hell Of the Golden Calfe IT was not much aboue a moneth since Israel made their couenant with God since they trembled to heare him say Thou shalt haue no other Gods but me since they saw Moses part from them and climbe vp the Hill to God and now they say Make vs Gods we know not what is become of this Moses Oh ye mad Israelites haue ye so soon forgotten that fire and thunder which you heard and saw Is that smoake vanished out of your minde as soone as out of your sight Could your hearts cease to tremble with the earth Can yee in the very sight of Sinai call for other Gods And for Moses was it not for your sakes that he thrust himselfe into the midst of that smoake and fire which ye feared to see afar off Was he not now gone after so many sudden
feet it is enough that he vpholds vs though he cary vs not He that hitherto had gone before them in the cloud doth now goe before them in the Arke the same guide in two diuers signes of his presence The cloud was for Moses the Arke of Ioshua's time the cloud was fit for Moses the Law offered vs Christ but enwrapped in many obscurities If he were seene in the cloud hee was heard from the couer of the Arke Why was it the Arke of the Testimony but because it witnessed both his presence and loue And within it were his Word the Law and his Sacrament the Manna Who can wish a better Guide then the God of heauen in his Word and Sacraments Who can know the way into the Land of Promise so well as he that ownes it And what means can better direct vs thither then those of his Institution That Arke which before was as the heart is now as the head It was in the middest of Israel whiles they camped in the Desart now when the cloud is remoued it is in the front of the Army That as before they depended vpon it for life so now they should for direction It must goe before them on the shoulders of the sonnes of Leui they must follow it but within fight not within breathing The Leuites may not touch the Arke but onely the barres The Israelites may not approach neerer then a thousand paces to it What awfull respects doth God require to be giuen vnto the testimony of his presence Vzzah paid deare for touching it the men ef Bethshemesh for looking into it It is a dangerous thing to be too bold with the ordinances of God Though the Israelites were sanctified yet they might not come neere either the mount Sinai when the Law was deliuered or the Arke of the Couenant wherein the Law was written How fearfull shall their estate be that come with vnhallowed hearts and hands to the Word of the Gospel and the true Manna of the Euangelicall Sacrament As we vse to say of the Court and of fire so may we of these diuine Institutions We freeze if we be farre off from them and if we be more neere then befits vs wee burne Vnder the Law wee might looke at Christ aloofe now vnder the Gospell wee may come neere him He cals vs to him yea he enters into vs. Neither was it onely for reuerence that the Arke must be not stumbled at but waited on afar but also for conuenience both of sight and passage Those things that are neere vs though they be lesse fill our eye Neither could so many thousand eyes see the same obiect vpon a leuell but by distance It would not content God that one Israelite should tell another Now the Arke goes now it turnes now it stands but hee would haue euery one his own witnesse What can be so comfortable to a good heart as to see the pledges of Gods presence and fauour To heare the louing kindnesses of God is pleasant but to behold and feele the euidences of his mercy is vnspeakably delectable Hence the Saints of God not contenting themselues with faith haue still prayed for sight and fruition and mourned when they haue wanted it What an happy prospect hath God set before vs of Christ Iesus crucified before vs and offered vnto vs Ere God will worke a miracle before Israel they haue charge to be sanctified There is an holinesse required to make vs either patients or beholders of the great workes of God how much more when we should be actors in his sacred seruices There is more vse of sanctification when wee must present something to God then when he must doe ought to vs. The same power that diuided the red Sea before Moses diuides Iordan before Ioshua that they might see the Arke no lesse effectuall then the cloud and the hand of God as present with Ioshua to bring them into Canaan as it was with Moses to bring them out of Egypt The bearers of the Arke had need be faithfull they must first set their foot into the streames of Iordan and beleeue that it will giue way The same faith that led Peter vpon the water must carie them into it There can be no Christian without beliefe in God but those that are neere to God in his immediate seruices must goe before others no lesse in beleeuing then they doe in example The waters know their Maker That Iordan which flowed with full streames when Christ went into it to be baptized now giues way when the same God must passe thorow it in state Then there was vse of his water now of his sand I heare no newes of any rod to strike the waters the presence of the Arke of the Lord God the Lord of all the World is signe enough to these waues which now as if a sinew were broken runne backe to our Issues and dare not so much as wet the feet of the Priests that bore it What ayled thee O Sea that thou fleddest and thou Iordan that thou wert driuen back Ye mountaines that ye leaped like Rammes and ye little hils like Lambs The earth trembled at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Iacob How obseruant are all the Creatures to the God that made them How glorious a God doe we serue whom all the powers of the Heauens and Elements are willingly subiect vnto and gladly take that nature which he pleases to giue them He could haue made Iordan like some solid pauement of Chrystall for the Israelites feet to haue trod vpon but this worke had not bin so magnificent Euery strong Frost congeales the water in a natural course but for the Riuer to stand still and runne on heapes and to be made a liquid wall for the passage of Gods people is for Nature to runne out of it selfe to do homage to her Creator Now must the Israelites needs thinke How can the Canaanites stand out against vs when the Seas and Riuers giue vs way With what ioy did they now trample vpon the dry channell of Iordan whiles they might see the dry Desarts ouercome the promised Land before them the very waters so glad of them that they ranne back to welcome them into Canaan The passages into our promised Land are troublesome and perillous and euen at last offer themselues to vs the maine hinderances of our saluation which after all our hopes threaten to defeat vs for what will it auaile vs to haue passed a Wildernesse if the waues of Iordan should swallow vs vp But the same hand that hath made the way hard hath made it sure He that made the Wildernesse comfortable will make Iordan dry he will master all difficulties for vs and those things which we most feared will he make most soueraigne and beneficiall to vs. O God as we haue trusted thee with the beginning so will wee with the finishing of our glory Faithfull art thou that hast promised which wilt also doe it Hee
posterity of Beniamin dâ—generated that their Gibeah should be no lesse wicked then populous The first signe of a setled godlesnesse is that a Leuite is suffered to lye without doores If God had been in any of their houses his seruant had not been excluded Where no respect is giuen to Gods messengers there can be no Religion Gibeah was a second Sodome euen there also is another Lot which is therefore so much more hospitall to strangers because himselfe was a stranger The Oast as well as the Leuite is of Mount Ephraim Each man knowes best to commiserate that euill in others which himselfe hath passed thorow All that professe the Name of Christ are Countrymen and yet strangers here below How cheerefully should we entertaine each other when we meet in the Gibeah of this in hospitall world This good old man of Gibeah came home late from his worke in the fields The Sunne was set ere he gaue ouer And now seeing this man a stranger an Israelite a Leuite an Ephramite and that in his way to the house of God to take vp his lodging in the street hee proffers him the kindnesse of his house-roome Industrious spirits are the fittest receptacles of all good motions whereas those which giue themselues to idle and loose courses doe not care so much as for themselues I heare of but one man at his worke in all Gibeah the rest were quaffing and reuelling That one man ends his worke in a charitable entertainement the other end their play in a brutish beastlinesse and violence These villanies had learned both the actions and the language of the Sodomites One vncleane diuell was the prompter to both and this honest Ephramite had learnt of righteous Lot both to intreat and to proffer As a perplexed Mariner that in a storme must cast away something although precious so this good Oast rather will prostitute his daughter a virgin together with the concubine then this prodigious villany should be offered to a man much more to a man of God The detestation of a fouler sinne drew him to ouer-reach in the motion of a lesser which if it had been accepted how could he haue escaped the partnership of their vncleannesse and the guilt of his daughters rauishment No man can wash his hands of that sinne to which his will hath yeelded Bodily violence may be inoffensiue in the patient voluntary inclination to euill though out of feare can neuer be excusable yet behold this wickednesse is too little to satisfie these monsters Who would haue looked for so extreame abomination from the loynes of Iacob the wombe of Rachel the sonnes of Beniamin Could the very Iebusites their neighbors be euer accused of such vnnaturall outrage I am ashamed to say it Euen the worst Pagans were Saints to Israel What auailes it that they haue the Ark of God in Shilo while they haue Sodom in their streets that the law of God is in their fringes whiles the diuell is in their hearts Nothing but hell it selfe can yeeld a worse creature then a depraued Israelite the very meanes of his reformation are the fuel of his wickednesse Yet Lot sped so much better in Sodom then his Ephraimite did in Gibeah by how much more holy guests he entertained There the guests were Angels heere a sinfull man There the guests saued the oast here the oast could not saue the guest from burtish violence Those Sodomites were stricken with outward blindnes and defeated These Beniamites are onely blinded with lust and preuaile The Leuite comes forth perhaps his coat saued his person from this villany who now thinks himselfe wel that he may haue leaue to redeeme his own dishonour with his concubines If he had not loued her dearely he had neuer sought her so farre after so foule a sinne Yet now his hate of that vnnaturall wickednes ouercame his loue to her Shee is exposed to the furious lust of barbarous Ruffians and which he misdoubted not abuseth to death Oh the iust and euen course which the Almighty Iudge of the world holds in all his retribulations This woman had shamed the bed of a Leuit by her former wantonnesse she had thus far gone smoothly away with her sinne her father harboured her her husband forgaue her her owne heart found no cause to complaine because shee smarted not now when the world had forgotten her offence God cals her to reckoning and punishes her with her owne sinne She had voluntarily exposed her selfe to lust now is exposed forceably Adultery was her sin adultery was her death What smiles soeuer wickednesse casts vpon the heart whiles it sollicites it will owe vs a displeasure and proue it selfe a faithfull Debter The Leuite looked to finde her humbled with this violence not murdered and now indignation moues him to adde horrour to the fact Had not his heart been raysed vp with an excesse of desire to make the crime as odious as it was sinful his action could not be excuseÌ„ Those hands that might not touch a carkais now carue the corps of his own dead wife into morsels and send these tokens to all the Tribes of Israel that when they should see these gobbets of the body murdered the more they might detest the murderers Himselfe puts on cruelty to the dead that he might draw them to a iust reuenge of her death Actions nororiously villanous may iustly countenance an extraordinary meanes of prosecution Euery Israelite hath a part in a Leuites wrong No Tribe hath not his share in the carcasse and the reuenge The desolation of BENIMIN THese morsels could not chuse but cut the hearts of Israel with horror and compassion horror of the act and compassion of the sufferer and now their zeale drawes them together either for satisfaction or reuenge Who would not haue looked that the hands of Beniamin should haue been first vpon Gibeah and that they should haue readily sent the heads of the offenders for a second seruice after the gobbets of the concubine But now in stead of punishing the sinne they patronize the actors and will rather die in resisting iustice then liue and prosper in furthering it Surely Israel had one Tribe too many all Beniamin is turned into Gibeah the sons not of Beniamin but of Belial The abetting of euill is worse then the commission This may be vpon infirmity but that must be vpon resolution Easie punishment is too much fauour to sinne conniuence is much worse but the defence of it and that vnto bloud is intollerable Had not these men been both wicked and quarrellous they had not drawne their swords in so foule a cause Peaceable dispositions are hardly drawn to fight for innocence yet these Beniaminites as if they were in loue with villanie and out of charity with God will be the wilfull Champions of lewdnesse How can Gibeah repent them of that wickednesse which all Beiamin will make good in spight of their consciences Euen where sinne is suppressed it will rise but where it is
cannot haue the heart or the face to stand out against the message of God but now as a man confounded and condemned in himselfe he cryes out in the bitternesse of a wounded Soule I haue sinned against the Lord. It was a short word but passionate and such as came from the bottome of a contrite heart The greatest griefes are not most verball Saul confessed his sinne more largely lesse effectually God cares not for phrases but for affections The first piece of our amends to God for sinning is the acknowledgement of sinne He can doe little that in a iust offence cannot accuse himselfe If wee cannot bee so good as we would it is reason wee should doe God so much right as to say how euill we are And why was not this done sooner It is strange to see how easily sin gets into the heart how hardly it gets out of the mouth Is it because sinne like vnto Satan where it hath got possession is desirous to hold it and knowes that it is fully eiected by a free confession or because in a guiltinesse of deformitie it hides it selfe in the brest where it is once entertayned and hates the light or because the tongue is so fee'd with selfe-loue that it is loath to be drawne vnto any verdict against the heart or hands or is it out of an idle misprision of shame which whiles it should be placed in offending is misplaced in disclosing of our offence Howeuer sure I am that God hath need euen of rackes to draw out confessions and scarce in death it selfe are we wrought to a discouery of our errors There is no one thing wherein our folly shewes it selfe more than in these hurtfull concealements Contrary to the proceedings of humane Iustice it is with God Confesse and liue no sooner can Dauid say I haue sinned than Nathan inferres The Lord also hath put away thy sinne He that hides his sins shall not prosper but hee that confesseth and forsaketh them shall finde mercie Who would not accuse himselfe to bee aquittted of God O God who would not tell his wickednesse to thee that knowest it better than his owne heart that his heart may be eased of that wicednesse which being not told killeth Since we haue sinned why should wee bee niggardly of that action wherein we may at once giue glory to thee and reliefe to our soules Dauid had sworne in a zeale of Iustice that the rich Oppressor for but taking his poore Neighbours Lambe should dye the death God by Nathan is more fauourable to Dauid than to take him at his word Thou shalt not dye O the maruellous power of repentance Besides adultery Dauid had shed the bloud of innocent Vriah The strict Law was Eye for Eye Tooth for Tooth Hee that smiteth with the Sword shall perish with the Sword Yet as if a penitent confession had dispensed with the rigour of Iustice now God sayes Thou shalt not dye Dauid was the voyce of the Law awarding death vnto sinne Nathan was the voyce of the Gospell awarding life vnto the repentance for sinne Whatsoeuer the sore be neuer any soule applyed this remedie and dyed neuer any soule escaped death that applyed it not Dauid himselfe shall not dye for this fact but his mis-begotten childe shall dye for him Hee that said The Lord hath put away thy sinne yet said also The Sword shall not depart from thine house The same mouth with one breath pronounces the sentence both of absolution and death Absolution to the Person Death to the Issue Pardon may well stand with temporall afflictions Where God hath forgiuen though hee doth not punish yet he may chastize and that vnto bloud neither doth hee alwayes forbeare correction where hee remits reuenge So long as hee smites vs not as an angry Iudge wee may indure to smart from him as a louing Father Yet euen this Rod did Dauid deprecate with teares How faine would hee shake off so easie a lode The Childe is striken the Father fasts and prayes and weepes and lyes all night vpon the Earth and abhorres the noyse of comfort That Childe which was the fruit and monument of his odious adultery whom hee could neuer haue looked vpon without recognition of his sinne in whose face hee could not but haue still read the records of his owne shame is thus mourned for thus sued for It is easie to obserue that good man ouer-passionately affected to his Children Who would not haue thought that Dauid might haue held himselfe well appayd that his soule escaped an eternall death his bodie a violent though God should punish his sinne in that Childe in whome hee sinned Yet euen against this crosse he bends his Prayers as if nothing had beene forgiuen him There is no Childe that would be scourged if hee might escape for crying No affliction is for for the time other than grieuous neither is therefore yeelded vnto without some kinde of reluctation Farre yet was it from the heart of Dauid to make any opposition to the will of God hee sued he struggled not There is no impatience in entreaties Hee well knew that the threats of temporall euils ranne commonly with a secret condition and therefore might perhaps bee auoyded by humble importunitie if any meanes vnder Heauen can auert iudgments it is our Prayers God could not chuse but like well the boldnesse of Dauids saith who after the apprehension of so heauie a displeasure is so far from doubting of the forgiuenesse of his sinne that hee dares become a Sutor vnto God for his sicke child Sinne doth not make vs more strange than Faith confident But it is not in the power of the strongest Faith to preserue vs from all afflictions After all Dauids prayers and teares the Childe must dye The carefull seruants dare but whisper this sad newes They who had found their Master so auerse from the motion of comfort in the sicknesse of the Childe feared him vncapable of comfort in his death Suspition is quick-witted Euery occasion makes vs misdoubt that euent which wee feare This secrecie proclaymes that which they were so loath to vtter Dauid perceiues his Childe dead and now hee rises vp from the Earth whereon hee lay and washes himselfe and changeth his apparell and goes first into Gods House to worship and into his owne to eate now hee refuses no comfort who before would take none The issue of things doth more fully shew the will of God than the prediction God neuer did any thing but what hee would hee hath sometimes foretold that for tryall which his secret will intended not hee would foretell it hee would not effect it because hee would therefore fore-tell it that hee might not effect it His predictions of outward euils are not alwayes absolute his actions are Dauid well sees by the euent what the Decree of God was concerning his Childe which now hee could not striue against without a vaine impatience Till wee know the determinations of the Almightie it is free