shine upon it The story of times will make this plain innumerous were the men of the old world yet Gods flock was only contained in the family of Sheth they only were called the Sons of God afterward this flock was compassed in a very narrow fold in Noahs family it was enclosed in one Ark and yet there was one wolf amongst these few sheep Thus it continued in a very narrow compasse till Abrahams time and so downward till it began to multiplie in the land of Egypt and afterward in the promised Canaan as yet it was still tyed to one place there was but one pasture for Gods sheep the rest of the world played the Harlot with other Lovers and went a whoring after their own inventions and in this one pasture there were more goats then sheep for though the number of the children of Israel were as the sand upon the sea shore yet only a remnant was to be saved When the fulnesse of time was come that God had sent his Son made of a woman this Moon did suffer such an eclipse as that the quickest eye could hardly perceive her then she began to recover her light for God broke down the partition wall and rent the veil of the Temple and made no difference betwixt the Jew and the Gentile Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur Then Gods sheep brought forth thousands and ten thousands in the streets then the Vine stretcheth forth her boughs unto the river and her branches unto the lands end then God gave unto his Son the Heathen for his inheritance and the utmost part of the earth for his possession Yet then and ever since the gleanings of Satan have been more then the Vintage of Christ Yet take a survey of the world as it is at this day divide it into three parts with Ptolome or into four with some later Writers nay into six or seven with our last Geographers and you shall not finde much above one of these seven which professe Christ Amongst these separate the orthodox from the heterodox and you shall finde that Christ is now almost banished out of the world so that if the Son of Man should now come he should scarce finde faith in the Earth the true profession of the Gospel is confined in a little corner of the North-west and in this corner remove the Atheists and Hereticks and Worldlings and Neuters and Hypocrites how little will the remainder be after so many substractions And no marvel for many are called but few are chosen and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction Gods sheep have a little narrow path but the Goats have a beaten Cart-way This being so it is strange what Bellarmine meant to make amplitude and multitude to be a note of the true Church especially when he proposeth to speak of such notes by which it may be most easily known and distinguished from the false Religion of the Jews and Hereticks and Pagans and Infidels whatsoever and therefore such as are both proper and inseparable in respect of the Church and again such as though they make it not evidently true yet they make it evidently credible not only probable for that is the imperfection of our notes if you will believe him nay amongst those which admit of the Scriptures and ecclesiastical Histories and writings of the ancient Fathers faciunt etiam evidentiam veritatis Lord how plausible a doctrine would this have been unto Ahab how would it have fitted his turne to plead for Baal what meanest thou Eliah thus to trouble Israel As though we were all Idolaters and thou only a true worshipper of God Consider the matter aright and thou shalt finde what a weak Ground thou standest upon those are the true worshippers of God who are the most in number now thou art but one and the Prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty how pleasantly would it have sounded in the ears of the Jews when Jeremiah thus prophesied Behold might they say all the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem are against thee and is the Spirit of God departed from us all to possesse thee Thus Constantius disputed with Liberinorum Bishop of Rome against Athanasius The whole world is of this opinion and what art thou that thou shouldest take part with a naughty fellow and dissolve the peace of the world If this objection had been urged against Luther when he first began to bait the Popes Bull he might easily have answered in Athanasius his words What Church is there now that doth openly adore Christ if it be godly it is Subject to danger for if there be any that fear God as indeed there are many every where they have hid themselves with Elias in Dens and Caves of the earth But the example of the Jews will not much move our adversary quia non est eadem ratio populi Judaeorum populi Christianorum and might the Church of Christians be still known by the multitude of professors so that a man not yet resolved in the Truth might be guided by this mark to finde her out as the wise men by the star were directed unto Christ Surely no for scimus initio fuisse multo pauciores Christianos quam essent Judaei what better was she in the time of those ten bloody persecutions which indured for the space of three hundred years when a man could no sooner make profession of his faith but he was either killed with the sword or burnt with fire or drowned in the Sea or stoned to death or stean quick or famished with hunger or thrust through with bodkins or thrown to wild Beasts or pulled in pieces with Trees or wild horses or boiled in lead or made away with more exquisite and more Tragicall torments If that be possible then the Perilli of our time have invented to gratifie the Romish Phalaris Come a little lower and compare the Church not with the number of the Gentiles which no Papist in the world can for shame deny to have ever exceeded the number of Christians but with Heretikes I mean not all sorts joyned together for they will subscribe to Austin the Church is every where and Heresie every where but the Church is the same evey where Heresie is not the same but most different but only the Arians which sometimes have so overspread the whole Christian world as that if any had said Loe here is Christ or there is Christ thou wouldest not have believed him The Church was like a Sparrow that sitteth alone upon the house toppe or like a Pelican in the Wildernesse and an Owle in the desait they counted themselves the onely Catholikes but the true Christian they tearmed Scismatikes callâ—ng them Joannites and Ambrosians and Athanasians and Homousians Even as the Papists at this day challenge the name of Catholikes to themselves and call us Lutherans and Zuinglians and Calvinists They did not onely possesse the Church of Jerusalem and Alexandria
spirituall weapons I end seeing the Church is like unto the Moon sometimes in a glorious splendour sometimes clouded with Schism and sometime so darkned with the shadow of heresie and superstition and persecution that the eyes of Linceus can scarce behold her Seeing that the Papists at this day cannot compare neither with the number of Christians taking the name generally for all such as professe the name of Jesus nor with the Protestant Churches if we take an account onely of such as understand the Principles of their Religion I see no reason why Bellarmine should make multitude a Note of the true Church or if it were why the Papists should challenge it themsemselves and therefore he may be well censured with a hic magister non tenetur or not a quod haec nota nihil notat it was onely to make up the number of notes that he may number one note Nam cum non prosunt singula multa juvant though they be of little force being severally considered yet if they be all joyntly taken they will prove like Seleucus his roddes or like a threefold cord which is not easily broken Indeed he had need to be stronger then Hercules that could cut oft all the heads of Hydra at one blow but a simple warricuâ— taking one by one may make an end of them before he be wearied for they are like to the tail of Sertorius his horse which a valiant Souldier taking it altogether could not pull off but a poore Skull pulling one hayre after an other had quickly made it bare Secondly doth Gods flock sometimes consist of a very small number then it behoveth thee beloved Christian with greater diligence to trie and examine thy self whether thou be comprehended in this number for as in that universall deluge of waters all were drowned that were not in Noahs Arke so in the great floud of fire which shall be at the end of the world all shall be swept away with a river of brimstone which are not of this flock it is a common saying he shall never have God for his father which hath not the Church for his mother and he shall never be a member of the Church triumphant which is not first of the Church Militant first then thou art to enquire whether thou be of the true visible Church and this thou shalt know by two marks by the true preaching of the word by the right use of the Sacraments for where these two are performed according to the prescript of Gods word there must needs be a true church this is somewhat but it is not all for what did it availe Judas to be numbred amongst the twelve he was in hell before any of the rest came at heaven all that are in the Church be not of the Church there are both good and bad fish in this net there is wheat and tares in this field Sheep and Goats in this fold thou must goe further and examine whether thou be one of that Company which God from eternity elected unto life and in time effectually calleth by his holy Spirit and makes true Members of his Sonne Jesus Christ which is the head of this body whether thou be of that flock which Christ calleth his garden his sister his spouse his love his doue his undefiled which the pillar and ground of truth 1. Tim. 3. 13. the body of Christ Eph. 1. 23. the temple of the Lord Eph. 2. 21 which the gates of hell shall never prevaile against Matth. 16. 18. Here thou must exercise thy wits this must be thy care to finde thy selfe in this little number but how may this be knowne by the cause that is the will and good pleasure of Gods which dwelleth in light that none can approach unto This is a bottomlesse depth who can sound it Never man looked into this Arke and lived busie thy braines about it and when thou hast done all thou canst thou art but like a flie about a Candle which playeth so long with the flame that at length she burnes her wings and fals downe and good reason it should be so for it is enough for wretched man to be of Gods Couâ—t and it is too much to be of his Privie Councell Thou must therefore doe as Theseus die with the Labyrinth thou must catch hold of the threeds end that hangs without the doore and so by winding steps come at length to the first cause Seeing thou canst not know it a â—riori by the cause thou must know it a posteriori by the effect one effect of Gods immutable decree and an undoubted marke to let all others passe of Gods child is Sanctification for as on the one side it is certainly true that without holinesse of life no man shall see God Heb. 12. 14. So it is as true on the other side that hee which walketh not after the flesh but after the Spirit is ingrafted into Christ and shall never be condemned So then holines of life is the true touchstone to trie whether thou be of this number but here deceive not thy selfe for there is a verball holinesse and a Pharisaical holinesse and a Herods holines and a Popish holines and an Anabaptisticall holines The verball holines is of such as draw neere unto God with their lips but with their hearts are farre from him as the Prophet speakes the Pharisaical holines is of those which devoure widowes houses under colour of long prayers and such as will not leave a mote on the outside of their cup but never care how filâ—hy it be within The Herods holinesse is of them which will quench the fire on the harth and leave it burning in the top of the Chimney will mend their least faults and let their worst bee marring The Popish holinesse is in observing humane traditions and treading under foot the law of God The Anabaptisticall holinesse is of such as are well perswaded of themselves though without all reason but can never have a charitable opinion of any others they are troubled with a Noli me tangere touch me not come not neare me for I am holier then thou but I say unto thee except thy righteous exceed the righteousnes of all these men thou shalt not enter into the Kingdome of Heaven it is another kinde of holines which thou must have if thou wilt assure thy soule that thou art one of Christs flock it is indeed in the tongue but it proceedeth from another fountaine the heart and makes a man say with David thy words have I hid within my heart that I might not sinne against thee It makes a man have a care to approve by outward actions unto men but much more to approve the cogitations of his heart unto God it strives not to breake off some branches of sin such as may be best forgon reserving the rest but it is most severe against those sinnes which are the sweetest to man because such
Bishoprick in respect of Christ the Bishop of our Soules 1 Pet. 2. 25. The sole oecumenicall and universall President of the whole Church So then as there are many Beames proceeding from the same Sun yet one Sun in which they are United many branches growing from one Tree yet one roote wherein they are conjoyned many Rivers yet one Sea wherein they all meet many lines in a circle but one Center wherein they all concur So the Members of Christs Church though in respect of themselves they be divers yet they have all but one beginning one Spring one roote one Head one Center and in this respect all but one as one in respect of the Head so in respect of the Spirit which animateth every Member thereof This is the soule that informs the whole Church it is that Intellectus agens of which Philosophers have so much dreamed which is Vnas numero in every Member of Christs mysticall Body So that as the integrall Members of mans Body though of themselves they be specifically distinct flesh bones nerves muscles veines arteries c. Every one of them having a peculiar essentiall and specificall form yet being informed with one humane Soule they are but integrall parts of the same man So all Christians in the World though in sex and state and degree and calling and Nation and language they be different yet being regenerated and animated with the same spirit they are but integrall Members of one and the selfe same Church 3. One in respect of Faith and Religion and profession contained in the sacred volume of the Bible the two Brests of the Church out of which Christs Lambs do suck the sincere Milke of the word that they may grow thereby The two Cherubims that with mutuall counterview do face the mercy Seate that is Christ the two great lights that inlighten the World the old like the Moon to rule the night the new like the Sun to rule the day that for the Patriarks this for us the two Pillars to leade us from Egypt to Canaan the old of a Cloud dark and obscure in figures and shadowes the other of fire bright and cleare both of them making one and absolute rule of our faith and profession she is then one because one spirit quickeneth her one because one rule directeth her that is the essentiall form this is the proper passion flowing from this form by which the Church a Posteriori may be demonstrated For they are my Sheep saith Christ which heare my voice John 10. 27. thus then briefly one Spouse one love one Dove one Body one Fleece one Arke on Spirit one Faith one Religion one Head one Shepheard one Flock Here to come to so me application give me leave to use the Apostles protestation I say the truth in Christ Jesus Ilye not my conscience bearing me witnesse in the Holy Ghost that I have great heavinesse and continuall sorrow in my heart and with the Prophet Jeremy could wish that my head were full of water and mine eyes a fountaine of teares that I might weepe day and night for the Schismes and divisions that are at this day in the Christian world There was a time there was Woe worth that unhappy Tense there was but Est bene non possum dicere dico fuit I cannot say there is I must needs speak as it is There was a time when the whole Church of God in all places of the world was of one heart and one minde of one accord and of one judgment And howsoever there was and ever will be some difference about some circumstances of no great weight yet was there not the least discrepance amongst them in any one essentiall point of our faith Vna agebat in omnibus membris divini spiritus virtus erat omnibus anima una fidei propositum idem divinitatis celebratio omnibus una Euseb lib. 10. hist Eccl. Chap. 3. in somuch that as when any member of the body is ill affected all the rest do conspire to cure it or when a house is set on fire the whole town will run to quench it So if any heresie happened to spring in any part of the World their common desire was to crush the serpents head to make it like Ionas his gourd of short continuance and to smother it in the birth and make it like the untimely fruit of a Woman which perisheth afore it see the Sun they did conspire to heale the affected member and did concu to stay the flame from further combustion Thus did they from the most parts of the world concur at Nice against Arius at Constantinople against Macedonius at Ephesus against Nestorius at Chalcedon against Entiches Thus was the head of Britaines snake as Prosper Aquitanus tells Pelagius crushed by provinciall Synods in most places of Christendome And long before these times when as yet there was not a Christian Emperour thus they dealt with Montanus in many of their Synods And at Antioch against Paulus Samosatenus they met from all Churches under Heaven as it were against a common theife that stole the Sheep out of Christs flock But now O times the one and undivided spouse of Christ is like a Traytor drawn and quattered the North and the South the Orient and the Occident each differ from other in sundry materiall and essentiall points of Faith And here in the West that Church whose faith was once famous through the whole world which was as a Beacon upon an hill a guide for all the Churches round about her a Sanctuary for orthodoxall exiles one of the four Patriarchicall Seas and that in respect of place and order the first the Empresse of the World the Glory of Kingdomes the pride and beauty of Nations the faithfull City is so estranged from the Bridegroomes Voice and hath so depraved the purity of Christian religion both by loosing of her own and the taking in of Forraine water that as one sayd of Athens we may say of Rome thou mayst seeke Rome in Rome and canst not finde it being become like unto one of the old Aegyptian Temples beautifull without and Cats and Ratts and Crocodiles adored within And whereas shee hath no more reason to be called Catholike then the old Mahometans to call themselves Saracens then the Jewes had to call Herod that was ready to be eaten with wormes a God then the Persians that were shortly afterslaine by the Romans to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then Manes had to stile himselfe an Apostle of Jesus Christ then Celsus the Heathen Philosopher to entitle his Books written against Christian Religion the word of truth or Drunkards to be tearmed good fellowes or light housewives honest women having made the rule of her faith like Glaucus the Sea which loosing some part of his Body by beating upon Rocks and shelves hath the same repaired by rocks and sand that cleave to him yet must shee be called the only Catholike Church of
in the end of Q. Curtius goes under Alexanders name to tell the Athenians that they should overcome their Enemies the Dorenses and the Lacedemonians that they should prevaile against the Persians if their King should be slain in the field and Brutus that hee should have the government of Rome who should first kiss his old Mother the Earth they be things purely contingent and such as the Devill by his owne knowledge could never reach unto What shall we say of the Sybills and their Prophesies peradventure some of them are spurious and illegitimate such as that of Sybilla Erithraea in Eusebius and Augustine where the first letter of every verse being put together make up these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that of the same Sibyll which Munster hath borrowed I know not out of what Author In ultima aetate humiliabitur deus humanabitur proles divina unietur humanitati divinitas jacebit in faeno agnus puellari educabitur officio and that of I know not which Sibylla cited by Lactantius and Austin In manus iniquas infidelium veniet dabunt deo alapas manibus incestis impurato ore expuent venenatos sputus c. He shall come into the hands of the wicked and they shall buffet him with their fists and with impure mouths shall spit upon him c. All which and many such like were I am perswaded forged by Christians to make the Gospel more passable amongst the Gentiles especially seeing amongst none of Gods Prophets no not in Isaiah himselfe whom Hierom calls not only a Prophet but an Apostle and Evangelist are extant such clear testimonies touching Christ Yet surely that in Virgils Eglogs was never as yet questioned by any which the Poet finding in the books of Sibylla Cumaea and gathering by the first letter of every verse as Ludovicus Vives thinkes that the time was at hand when that Prophesie should take place applyed that to Saloninus the sonne of Asinius Pollio which can be fitted to none save Christ the redeemer of the world Vltima Cumaei venit jam carminis aetas What Verses be these Let us heare them at least let us have the sense of them A strange exchange in course of things This present time unto us brings The Maide is come'd the Iron age is spent A new borne Babe Gods dearest Son From highest Heaven is sent Magnus ab integro seclorum nascitur ordo Jam redit virgo redeunt Saturnia regna Jam nova progenies caelo dimittitur alâ—â— Chara dei soboles And what benefit shall he bring to mankinde He shall save his people from their sins Hoc duce si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri Jrrita perpetuà solvent formidine terras And as it followes a little after The Serpent shall be kil'd and th' of poyson dead Our Ladies Rose from Syâ—ian land through all the World shall spread Occidet Serpens fallax herba veneni Occidet Assyrium vulgo nascetur amomum What is this Serpent but that wily Serpent that deceived our first Parents What 's this Fallax herba veneni but sinne And what is this Assyrium amomum but the Balme of Gilead or to give it its English name our Ladies Rose or the Herbe of Jerusalem the Gospel of Christ begun to be Preached at Jerusalem a City in Assyria for Palaestina was then vulgarly accounted part of Assyria according to Christs direction and thence dispersed into every corner of the World See Constantines Oration Ad Caelum sanctorum fidelium cap. 20. in Eusebio These things are so plaine that a learned Rabbin amongst our Adversaries unto whom we appeale in this point Let our enemies be Judges Deut. 32. is not ashamed to confesse that Prophetae demonum non semper loquuntur ex demonum revelatione sed interdum ex inspiratione divinâ And another that God sometimes permitted amongst the Gentiles some Prophets to foretell future things And a third in his Commentary upon this Text that false Prophets have truly Prophesied The truth of this Proposition being confirmed unto us by such a cloud of witnesses I wonder what came in Bellarmines head to make Lumen Propheticum a mark of the true Church especially where he proposeth to speak of such notes by which it may most easily be distinguished from all false Religion of Jewes Hereticks and Pagans and such as are proper and againe such as though they make it not evidently true which is the true Church yet they make it evidently credible not probable onely for that 's the weaknesse of our Notes as he saith nay amongst those which admit the Scriptures and Histories and Writings of the ancient Fathers and all these we admit Faciunt etiam evidentiam veritatis Shall we count him a Master in Israel that speaks thus Doth that make it evidently appeare which is the true Church doth that difference true Religion from all false Religion of Jewes Hereticks and Pagans or is that proper Quarto modo to the Church which all Sectaries Apostates Hereticks Jewes Gentiles Devils may challenge But let us follow Bellarmine a little further and leave these slippery Snakes no think to creep out at I demand had the Gentiles no true Prophesies amongst them Imo multa falsa saith he but because they had many false had they therefore none true Speak plainly were there no true predictions of future things amongst the Pagans No forsooth Nisi forsaâ— fierent in testimoniuÌ„ nostrae fidei ut fuerunt vaticinia Sibyllarum Baalami Very well And if these were true how is lumen prophetitum proper to the true Church But we will not stand upon this advantage let us grant that there were no true Predictions amongst the Ethnicks save onely such as were for the confirmation of the Catholick faith and that all others were of such things as had naturall causes though unknowne to men known to Spirits by reason of their subtill nature and quick apprehension Verily seeing neither the reasons thereof were knowne nor the Spirit from which this knowledge proceeded could be discerned they might and may as truely be tearmed Prophesies as any of those which the Papists brag of and if they were not Prophesies indeed yet were they so in the opinion of men Saltem ipsorum opinione is a strong argument with Bellarmine to infringe the Notes which our Divines have set downe Let some of his side answer it Thales for seeing by Astronomicall Observation the abundance of Olives which would be the next yeare might by the Chians and Milesians which knew not the reason of it be counted a Prophet Columbus was for a lesse prediction little lesse respected by the barbarous Indians then Paul and Barnabas was by them of Lystra when they called Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Merourie This man being in great distresse in an Island the Inhabitants denying him all kinde of releife he understanding that shortly after there would
a dead letter It is like a sword in the warres without a souldier to draw it Many make no more account of transgressing it then Remus did of going over the furrow which Romulus had caused to be drawn Or the frogs in the fable of skipping over the Lion when he was fast a sleep Therefore God hath added the Magistate as the life and soule of the law as a Captain to manage this sword Him he hath made if I may so speak the summum genus of the common-wealth by two generical differences of poena and praemium to coarct and keep his inferiours in their several ranks that as Jehu and Jehonadab went hand in hand together for the rooting out of Ahabs posterity and destruction of Baals Priests so the Magistrate being as Aristotle cals him a living law and the law being a mute and dead Magistrate should joyn hand in hand and proceed valorously to the rooting out of sinne the suppression of Idolatry the protection of justice and maintenance of true religion 4. Now that they have this authority only from God it is a point which I hope in this place I shall not need long to insist upon For if every good and perfect gift be from above even from the father of lights much more this excellent and supereminent gift of governing Gods people must proceed from this fountain And to think otherwise is but with the Epicures to be of opinion that though God made the world yet the government thereof he leaveth to fortunes discretion to be directed by her One of the stiles wherewith God is invested is this that he is the authour of order and not of confusion if of order then of Civil government seeing that an Anarchie is the cause of all disorder and confusion in the state Insomuch that the reason of all the sinnes that were committed in Israel is often in the book of Judges ascribed unto this that they wanted a Magistrate There was at that time no king in Israel Judg. 17. 6. 18. 1. 19. 1. 21. 25. It is a miserable life to live under a tyrant where nothing is lawfull but farre worse to live in an Anarchie where nothing is unlawfull But I shall not need to trouble my self or to tire out your attention by heaping up multitudes of reasons for proving of this point seeing it is a conclusion so plainly averred by the holy Ghost by me kings reign sath the wisdome of God by the mouth of Solomon and Princes decree justice by me Princes rule and the nobles and all judges of the earth As if he had said it is not by the wit and policie of man that the governments of states is committed unto kings and other inferiour Magistrates it is effected by the wisdome and providence of God With which the Apostle agreeth when he tels us that there is no power but of God and the powers that be are ordained of God It was sometime said of Nebuchadnezzar that great king of Babylon that whom hee would he pulled down and whom he would he set up But it is alwayes true of the king of heaven who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the King of Kings and Lord of Lords he pulleth down one and setteth up an other he disposeth of their rooms at his pleasure For if the hearts of kings much more their kingdomes are at his disposition This is a truth to which the very heathen themselves have subscribed It was God alone that did exalt Solomon unto the throne of his father David so the Queen of the South affirmed that did exalt Cyrus to the kingdomes of the earth so he himself confessed Agreeing with that of the prophet David Promotion comes not from the East nor from the West no nor yet from the South And why God is the judge he putteth down one and setteth up another 5. And is this true Here then first the Anabaptists come to be censured which withdraw their necks from the yoke of civil government and condemn it as not beseeming the liberty of a Christian man A lesson which they never learned from the prophet Esay who foretold that in the time of the gospel an assertion which they cannot away with for though they graunt that the Jewes at Gods appointment had their Magistrates yet they think it not fit for a Christian to be subject to such slavery in the time I say of the Gospel he will appoint kings to be patrons and propugnators of his Church Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and Queens shall be thy nurses Nor from our Saviour Christ who though he told his disciples when they strove for superiority amongst themselves that one of them should not domineer over another as did the kings of the nations yet it was never his meaning to withdraw them from obedience to superiour governours but that Caesar should have that which did belong to Caesar Nor from Peter who commands us to honour the King Nor from Paul who commands us to pray for Kings and all that are in authority and that to this end that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty God knowes better what is meet for Christians then the Anabaptists do Hee knowes that wee are strangers on earth and not angels in heaven And being strangers and pilgrims stand in as great need of these helps as of fire of water of aire of apparel of any thing which is necessary for the sustentation of our lives seeing that they are not onely the means that we are partakers of all these while they effect that we may live together in civil society but also the promoters of true religion the advancers of vertue the rewarders of piety the punishers of sin the destroyers of Idolatry superstition and all misdemeanours amongst Christians So that as God said unto Samuel concerning the Jewes when they dislâ—ked their present government they have not cast thee away but they have cast me away that I should not reign over them so I may say of these fanatical spirits it is not the Magistrate but God himself whom they have rejected that he should not reign over them 6. There is an other sort of men who though not directly with the Anabaptists yet indirectly and by a consequent crosse my proposition I mean the Papists These do not altogether take away the civil Magistrate but they tie his thums and abridge his authority It must be only in temporalibus for spiritual matters he must have no more dâ—alings with them then Vzza had to touch the arke of God This they willingly grant that the Magistartes are Gods but as the Aramits said of the Israelites that their Gods were Gods of the mountains and not Gods of the vallies so say they the civil Magistrates are Gods of the montains and not Gods of the vallies they are Gods of the Laity but not of the Clergy This
over the whole globe of the earth is but a God of Gods footstool Your circuit is farre lesse you are but Gods of an out-corner nay a little portion of an out-corner of Gods footstoole Let me then speak unto you in the words of the Tragoedian Vos quibus rector maris atque terrae Jus dedit magnum necis atque vitae Ponite inflatos tumidosque vultus you whom the God of heaven and earth hath so highly extolled as to make Judges of life and death be not proud of your authorities but think with your selves that Quicquid à vobis minor extimescit Major hoc vobis Dominus minatur What hurt soever your inferiours shall sustain by your means there is a greater God that threatneth the same nay a worse unto you Be wise now therefore O yee Gods be learned ye that are Judges ef the earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce before him with trembling kisse the sonne lest he be angry Let his word be a law to direct your sentences his will the line to measure your actions With what conscience can those hands subscribe to an untruth which should be Gods instrument to confirm a right with what faces can those mouthes pronounce an unjust sentence which should be the organes of God to confirm a right When you do amisse you are not only injurious unto man whom yee wrong but contumelious unto God whose sacred judgements ye pollute Give me leave then to say unto you with good king Jehosaphat take heed what ye do for ye execute not the judgements of man but of the Lord and he will be with you in the cause and judgement Wherefore now let the fear of God be upon you take heed and do it for there is no iniquity in the Lord our God neither respect of persons nor receiving of reward Therefore in every cause that shall come unto you between bloud and bloud between law and precept statute and judgement ye shall judge the people according unto right and admonish them that they trespasse not against the Lord. Let me say with Moses Judge righteously between every man and his brother and the stranger that is with him ye shall have no respect of persons in judgement but shall hear the small as well as the great With Jeremiah unto the king of Judah Execute judgement and righteousnesse deliver the oppressed from the hands of the oppressour vexe not the stranger the fatherlesse nor the widow do no violence nor shed innocent blood in this place And finally with my Prophet in this Psalm Defend the poor and fatherlesse see that such as be in need and necessity have right deliver the outcast and poor save them from the hands of the ungodly 16. I speak not this as if I would have you to exceed the limits of justice for commiserating the cause of the poor I know the poor may offend as well as the rich and as the poor is to be pitied so the rich is not to be wronged And he that hath given this law unto the Magistrate that he should not respect the person of the mighty hath given this also that he should not favour the person of the poor It is not the misery of the one nor the felicity of the other that the Judge is to respect For the matters in question sound them to the bottome anatomize them to the least particle and sift them to the branne but for the parties whom they do concern farther then this that ye are to judge between a man and a man ye ought not to enquire The law in the Greek tongue comes from a verb that signifieth to divide because it divideth to every man that which is his own You then which are dispensers of the law should give to every one poor or rich that which is his right Hereupon it is that Aristotle cals the Judge in commutative justice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as some copies have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 medianus or medijurus a mean between two because he should not propend to the one party more then the other but only so farre as the weight of the cause carrieth him and should give to every man that which is his right and that not according to geometrical but according to arithmetical proportion that is not with Xenophons young Cyrus give the greater coat unto the greater man and the lesser coat unto the lesser man but to give the greater coat if it be his due unto the lesser man and let the greater man if he have right to no more be contented with the lesser coat 17. But the principal thing which it beseemeth me to put you in mind of and which is chiefly required at your hands as ye are factors for the God of heaven is the care of religion and the true worship of God Nothing is so dear unto God as his own worship He that toucheth it wounds him to the heart and pierceth the apple of his eye It is an injurie which he will not put up at the hands of any man but will come against him as the fire that burneth up the stubble and as the hammer that breaketh a stone Therefore it most neerly concerneth you who are his deputies to maintain his service and to put what strength you can unto the hammer of justice that ye may as farre as the lawes will give you leave burst into pieces whatsoever shall advance it selfe against his worship 18. The sicknesses in religion that are amongst us are not Novatianisme Brownisme Catharisme No no these hot phrenzies are scarse heard of in this cold climat wherein we live They are cold Epilepsies and dead Apoplexies and sleepy Lethargies and dangerous Consumptions that vexe us The main root whence they all spring is a disease with which this land is sick And that is the bold profession of Popery for hereby the true Christian are mightily discouraged those that are infected with Romish superstition take occasion by little and little to fall away from us The ignorant are doubtful and know not what to do but are ready to embrace any religion or no religion as time and occasion shall require The Atheist a vermine wherewith this whole country swarmes though they cannot be well discovered by reason that they wear vizards upon their faces is hardned and heartned in his impiety For us we do what we can to cut in sunder this bitter root Gladly would we heal them of Babylon but they will not be healed For our privat conferences with any of them if they want wit to answer our reasons they have will to let them alone For our publike work of the ministery lest we should catch some of them they will not come within the compasse of our nets The last weapon of the Church is fulmen excommunicationis to drive them out of our Synagogues And what care they for this who will not come in them no when we do entreat them they
count it but brutum fulmen a thunderclap without a bolt a canon-shot without a bullet it hurts them no more then the dart which old Priamus in the Poet shot at Pyrrhus Quod protinus aere repulsum In summo clypei nequidquam umbone pependit Further then this we cannot go the weapons of our warfare are spiritual Coactive jurisdiction is beyond our spheare What is now behind Vbi desinit Philosophus incipiat medicus where the word leaves them let the sword find them Brachium seculare was the help and assistance that the holy fathers of the Council of Constance implored against the poor Hussites And brachium seculare is the help and assistance that we implore against these Canaanites that are amongst us Which howsoever unto the halting Mephibosheths and lukewarme Laodiceans of our time which can blow both cold and hot out of the same mouth and wear linnen and wollen in the same garment and yoke an oxe and an asse in the same plowe and care not if their fields be sown with mingled seeds they be never a whit noysome yet unto the true Israelite they are thorns in his sides and pricks in his eyes and gives him just occasion to exhibit that bill of complaint against them which the Jewes framed most falsly against the Apostle ye men of Israel nay yee Gods of Israel help these are the men that teach all men every where against the people and the law and this place Moreover they have brought not Grecians as it is in the text but a more pestilent sect Romanes into the land and have polluted this holy place 19. I speak not only of those children of Babylon those sons of Belial the followers of the beast the viperous brood of Rome the Seminary Priests and Jesuites that crawle in every quarter of this land like the frogs of Egypt and travel sea and land to make one of their own profession that he may be two-fold more the child of the devil then they themselves are but also of these limmes of Antichrist these factors and panders for the great whore that are at home and sit under their own fig-trees and drink the water of their own cisterns Quos video volitare in foro quos stare ad curiam quos etiam venïre in senatum as the Orator speaks These these are nostri fundicalamitas the very moths of our region and the cankarworms of our religion Wherefore gird you with your swords upon your thighes and be not faint hearted like Jether the first born of Gideon but let your right hand teach you terrible things No doubt but they will complain of cruelty and persecution they do that already when they have no cause but let not that discourage you but rather let it be a means that they may have the same law which the old Capitolian dogs had when they barked without a cause their legs were to be broken If the difference between them and us be de lanâ caprinâ about toyes and trifles let them be ashamed of their bloudy cruelty that have butchered and massacred so many thousands of our brethren for toyes and trifles Yea and let us be ashamed likewise that have continued so long in schisme and division from the Roman Church for matters of so small moment If they be as I take them to be fundamental points of Christianity alas what worldly respect shall be sufficient to cool the heat of our zeale in Gods cause If our religion be a new religion and theirs the old and Catholique let us forsake our new-fangles and joyne with them The old is the true religion If ours be the old and Catholique religion which the Apostles have taught us the martyrs have confirmed unto us and the faithful till this day have maintained and taught and theirs a new and an upstart religion an hotch-potch and Pandora composed of all the religions in the world scarce heard of for any material point of difference between them and us in the Church of God for six hundred years after Christ let them pare away these rotten rags these filthy and menstrous clouts and beggarly rudiments and let them joyn with us Eâ—ther let us all swear by God or all by Malcham Either let us all serve God or all Baal if God be God let us all follow him if Baal be God let us all go after him 20. I know what some will be ready to answer me though in matters of religion they be different from us yet for civil duties they will be subjects good enough You say true sir and so the kite will be a dove good enough but wote ye when marry when he cannot seaze upon a chicken and make her his prey as Augustins speaks Is it likely that he will be true to an earthly king that in matters of religion is his opposite who is false to the King of Heaven Philosophers though they hold that it is not the same vertue that makes bonum virum and bonum civem yet the best of them agree in this principle that he cannot be bonus civis good in the duties of civil policy which is not first bonus vir perfect in the general duties of morality neither can he be true in practising the virtues of the second table which is false in the first Dost thou think that the oath of Allegiance is a band of sufficient force to tie a Papist in true allegiance unto his Prince Quo teneas vultum mutantem Protea nodo Canst thou binde Proteus that turns himself into every shape Or canst thou make a coat for the moon that is never at a stay Was there ever oath so wisely contrived so religiously taken but the slippery snakes and stretching horse-leaches of Rome could find some chink to creep out at or their Holy Father out of his Papal and transcendent power can dispense with it or cut it as Alexander did Gordians knot or break it as Sampson did the new ropes where with the Philistines had bound him which he brake from his armes as a threed 21. Verily I think there is no probability to be a true Papist and a true subject A few simple seduced creatures amongst us that understand not the mysteries of popery but onely in a generality I speak not of them and yet I know how easily the young cubs may be taught to learn the tricks of the old Foxes but for the rest the time past will help us to discover them in the time to come To say nothing of their damnable and treacherous practises abroad against forrein princes and here at home against Queen Elizabeth of never dying memory and the breath of our nostrils King James that one gunpowder-plot a devise set from the bottome of hell may be an everlasting memento of their disloyalty Accipe nunc Danaûm insidias crimine ab uno Disce omnes By this one fact wee may judge of all the rest
as an asse may be known by his long eares and as the bignesse of Hercules might be gathered by the print of his foot And though some of them to make it lesse hainous call it a particular fact of a few and that temerarious too as though forsooth it had been farre from their hearts to have attempted any such cruelty against the Lords anointed yet it may be truly said of them all as Tullie said of the Catilinarians aliis facultas defuit aliis occasio voluntas profectò nemini And he that in outward shew seems most against it would have lent both heart and hand and put to the very match so that he might have effected that matchlesse treason And why should it be otherwise For what I pray you is any Prince in the world if he do not adhere to the Apostatical Sea of Rome shall I define him unto you out of their Logick books A woolf devouring the sheep an Ahab or Jezabel destroying the Lords Prophets an Holofernes a professed enemy to the true Israelite a Goliath reviling the host of the living God a seducer and deceiver of the people as our Saviour was called by their old grandfathers And must not such a one be made away by one means or other by open hostility or secret conspiracy it makes no matter dolus an virtus quis in hoste requirit Shall not the shepheard do well to kill a wolfe shall not Judeth be highly extolled if she can kill Holofernes though sleeping in his bed And if David kill Goliath deserves he not to be met with the two women of Israel with timbrels instruments of joy singing thus Saul hath killed his thousand but David his ten thousand In a word is it not their assertion that Princes must not be suffered to reign when they draw the people into heresie but must be made away yea by all means possible And therefore I lesse marvel why that reviling Rabshakeh that brasen-faced fugitive Parsons who blusht not to say any thing in his younger years in his old age took upon him a kind of modesty and durst promise no more for his fellowes then this that there was no impossibility for Papists to live in subjection and dutiful obedience unto the king of great Britain For possibility it is not the question but for probability it is no more then that the wind and the sea light and darknesse the Arke and Dagon God and Mammon the unbeliever and the infidel shall be together For what I pray you is it which knits men as it were with chains of adamant in love amongst themselves and in loyalty and obedience unto their Prince Is it fear of punishment Oh no for malus est custos diuturnitatis metus He never reignes long whom every man feareth Caveat multos quem timent singuli let him beware of a multitude whom every particular dreadeth Is it hope of reward not that neither For that is often frustrated and then followeth an alteration in the affections It is neither of these It is religion and the true fear of God This this is it which knits the heterogeneal parts of the same kingdome unto the Prince as the several parts of mans body are by arteries knit and united unto the heart and as the lines of a circle though they be farre distant about the circumference yet concurre in one middle point so must it be with them Though they be different about the circumference of worldly affaires yet must they concurre in one common center of religion A good Christian common-wealth is like unto Peters sheet wherein were all manner of four footed beasts and creeping things and fowles of the heaven There are in it all sorts of men There are nobles flying aloft like the fowles of the heaven there are of the baser sort creeping as it were below and there are of a middle sort men of all conditions and callings But this sheet is knit together as that was a the four corners the most distant and remote parts thereof with the unity of religion 22. This is so plain that Aristotle gives it as an especial rule for a Tyrant if he mean to continue his government to make an outward shew of Religion For such kings saith he as seem to be religious are in least danger of treacherous practises by such as are under them Now where this unity of religion is wanting as wanting it is seeing we differ from the Papists not in a few circumstances but in sundry fundamental points of Divinitie how can this knot be made fast Nay seeing they are so far from counting any Protestant Prince religious that they count him an heretick and the more diligent he is in cleansing and refining his kingdom from the dregs of Romish superstition as our Saviour Christ was in purging the law from the absurd glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees the greater persecutor he is holden with them to be of the Catholick faith Verily I see no probability I had almost said no possibility that they will hereafter prove true and dutiful subjects to the King of Great Britain They may well make protestations and outward shewes of love and duty and obedience towards the Prince but Lupus pilum non ingenium mutat a wolfe is a wolfe though he be clothed in a sheep-skin well may he cast his old hair but still he keeps his own nature Shall their fair speeches make us believe them Sic notus Vlysses Is the craft of the Romish foxes no better known unto us Timeo Danaos dona ferentes I fear their fawning far more then their frowning it was but a frivolous tale which the people of Alexandria told Timothy etsi non communicamus tecum tamen aâ—mamus te although we do not communicate with thee yet we love thee For how can a man love him in his heart with whom he cannot finde in his heart to communicate I am in a field in which I might course at large but I am mindful of the time and will not presume too long upon your patience Some of our worthies do stoutly with their pens oppose themselves against these men and I pray God every Magistrate in his place would be as careful in unsheathing the sword of justice against them Habemus in eos Senatusconsultum satis 〈◊〉 grave we have an act and statute strong enough 〈…〉 but daily encreasing makes me almost say as it followeth in the Oratour habemus inclusum in tabulis tanquam gladium in vaginâ reconditum It is closed in the book as a sword in the scabbart or as Goliaths sword was wrapt in a cloth behinde the Ephod The best that I can say in this case is to use the Prophesie of the Crow in Suetonius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all will be well Est benè non potuit dicere dixit erit Pliny writeth that the tricks of an ape will so vex and move a Lion that he will
Gods foole and the second the Kings To speak a little of either of these by themselves the first is our Statute-Proteâ—tant our indifferent Apelles our hollow-hearted Interimist our luke-warm Laodicean which howsoever he make an outward shew and profession of Religion yet he counts no more of it then the Gaderens did of Christ who made more reckoning of their swine then they did of him And this man rather then for Christs cause he should lose a swine hee can be contented that Christ should part out of his Coasts He will make an outward shew to the world as if he did love and reverence the truth he will perform the outward works thereof as farre as the law of man binds him but all without a simple and sincere heart only upon some sinister respects and indifferent considerations As 1. because he will not be singular but desires to live at unity with the people with whom he converseth 2. For feare of humane Laws 3. Religion is to him as a faire Cloak to a beggerly Swaggerer it hides his rotten rags and keeps him from wind and weather 4. Peradventure it serves him as a ladder to advance him unto some preserment and as soon as he hath attained the top of his hopes he cares not though he push it down with his heels Now because he makes no account of Religion but only as an instrument to effect his owne private purposes hereupon it falls out that he is ready to embrace any Religion or no religion as the circumstance of persons time and place shall require For as they fable of the Sea-god called Proteus that he doth always resemble the colour of the Rock upon which he lies or as Glass reflects the visage of him that shall look upon it or as water forms it selfe according to the fashion of the vessel into which it is powred so he is always ready to joyne in profession with them with whom he liveth and converseth the reason in all is the same the Proteus and the Glasse have no perfect colour nor visage of their owne and therefore they reflect the colour and visage of others that are next unto them The water hath no figure of his owne for humidum suis terminis non est terminabile and therefore it applies it selfe to the vessel that contains it And this man hath no Religion of his owne it is enough for him if he have some species and reflection thereof from others By this unstablenesse and mutability of profession may this hypocrite be discerned and distinguished from a true Professour For as wild Apes are catched while they imitate the motions and dancing of men so may this same Ape be catched and disclosed by framing his Religion to the disposition and affection of others For though hee hath no man save himselfe in his Pater Noster yet hee hath every man in his Creed because every mans Creed for the time is his This Countrey is full of this kinde of Vermin I have found it too often amongst the meaner sort and I pray God that all of you that are Gentlemen and of place and authority in the countrey could wash your hands from this sinne I charge no particular I cannot For no man knows the things of man save the spirit of man which is in him Only let me crave leave to propose a few queries and let every man upon the examination of his own heart at his best leasure return an answer Is there any among you any Pharisee that under a colour of long prayers devours widows houses Any Absolom that under pretence of performing a vow practiseth rebellion against his father Any Jezabel that under a colour of executing Judgement sucketh the blood from guiltlesse Naboth If there be as I hope there will a non est inventus returned upon all these Let me go a little further Is there any Ambidexter that can play with both hands Any Satyr that can blow both cold and hot out of the same mouth Any Jew that can swear by God by Malchom Any Assyrian that can serve God and his Idols Is there any that can be contented to hear a Sermon in the Church and to see a Masse at home That yoaketh an Oxe and an Asse in the same Plow and weareth Linnen and Woollen in the same Garment and soweth his field with mingled seeds To speake plain English that hath not Joshuah's resolution I and my house will serve the Lord but comes himselfe to Church leaves his wife to say over her Beads at home and permits to his children and familie greater liberty in their Religion then in their Garments to shape what fashion they like best I pray God there be no such if there be I pray God turn their hearts that there may be no such but those that will maugre what can be said or done unto them continue such and hang like a Thiefe upon a Gibbet between Heaven and Hell God and the Devil the Pope and the King It were to be wished they were handled by the Magistrate as Tullus Fostilius dealt with Motius Suffetius when hee stood indifferently affected between the Romans and the Fidenates or used as Birds use the flying fish because it is a master in the Sea the Dolphin persecutes it there and because it is a master in the Aire the Fowls set upon it there So because they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither Protestants nor Papists it matters not if they were expelled out of both their Elements If not yet let them fear and heare Laodiceas censure Rev. 3. 16. I speak not these things out of any spleen to any particular persons what soever he that knows the thoughts of my heart knows that I lie not my worst wish to any of you is the salvation of his own soule in the day of Jesus Christ I am perswaded far better things of many of you and for others as far as charity binds me I judge the best and therefore if any be offended at my speech it is scandalum acceptum non datum not I but his owne guilty conscience that deserves the blame If I should in this place seek to please man I were no fit Ambassador of Christ As long as the Chyrurgeon works according to the rules of his Profession let his Patient weep and cry and complain of cruelty yea and scratch him on the face he needs not care for it And he that rides in the street armed on every side from top to toe what counts he if all the dogs of the Town bark at him As long as a man is faithfull in his Vocation and without feare or favour of man doth those things that are proper to his place Hic murus aheneus esto He is armed on every side with Gods protection and therefore may say with David The Lord is on my Side I will not feare what man can do unto me But let us come to the other Hypocrite which I called the Kings Fool this is
she least feares up goes the broom down goes the Spider and web and all and are troden in the dust and there is an end of her pride So it is with the greatest of them that are without Christ when they have seated themselves in the highest roomes the world can afford anon when they least think upon it God sends his broom of death and sweeps them downe into the pit of hell and destruction What was that Lucifer the sonne of the morning Nebuchadnezzar which did advance himselfe above the starres of God and other Potentates of the world Aegyptians Assyrians Chaldeans but as it is said of them of the old world that occasioned the flood great Gyants or as Nimrod is called mighty hunters before the Lord or as the Scripture phraseth them Swords Syths Flayls Axes Hammers Rods wherewith God whipped his children for their disobedience and then cast them into the fire Attila that great scourge of Europe in his time who was wont to boast that the stars did fall from Heaven at his presence and that he made the Earth to tremble wheresoever he came Or Tamberlane the terrour of Asia who led a million of Souldiers against his Enemies what were they but as they stiled themselves the one Flagellum Dei Gods whip the other Ira Dei Gods wrath Neither of the two was Filius Dei a sonne of God Or to speak of present times what is the great Mogor of the Indians or the Cham of the Tartars or Sophi of the Persians or grand Signior of the Turks but Gods hang-men and bondslaves not worthy to lick the dust of the feet of the poorest Christian that endures bondage and miserable captivity under them It s a world to see how many will stand upon their Gentry and busie their braines in deriving themselves from some ancient stock How doth Bonfinius bestir himselfe in deriving Matthias King of Hungarie a man of meane discent if you except his father John Hunniades from the Corvini amongst the old Romans leaning altogether upon improbable conjectures And how do many of no great ranck busie their wits in deriving their discents from the Normans as did Ajax from Jupiter the olde Italians from the Aborigines the Aegyptians from the Earth the Arcadians from the Moone How farre they can climbe this ladder I cannot precisely define Certain it is that the ancientest sirname we have is but of yesterdayes breâ—d in respect of true antiquity and he that is proudest of his Parentage and stands most of the antiquity of his house if he will take pains to climb the line of his discent he may within a few hundreds of yeares run his name out of breath But say that every ordinary Gentleman could derive his Pedigree from the first of his Nation the English from the Saxons or Normans the Spaniard from the Goths or Vandals the French from the Franci or Burgundians c. What were these at their first coming and others which like a generall deluge after the removing of the Emperours seate into the East overflowed these Western parts of the World but godlesse graceless cruel Pagans that usurped other mens rights and reaped where they had not sown Imagine and it s but an imagination thou couldst without interruption derive the line of thy pedigree from Adam what canst thou find there but shame unlesse thou shouldst climbe a degree further as Luke doth in the genealogie of Christ The sonne of Adam the sonne of God What is the ancientest in any Pedigree to him that is called The ancient of dayes Dan. 17. 13 And what is a dead stock unto the living God This this is the specifical Form which gives nomen and esse to a right Gentleman to have God for his Father to have the Almighty the Summum genus and top of his Kinne And without this all Gentry how ancient soever is but losse and drosse and dung and guilded vanity and golden damnation or to give it a milder name it 's but a grace of flesh or as wee commonly call it it s but blood And what is the best blood of it selfe if flesh and bones and nerves and spirits and a soul be not added to make it a perfect man No more is parentage if vertue and grace and religion and other habiliments of body and mind be wanting But now as a sanguine complexion is the fairest and best of all when all the parts and members are correspondent so Gentry when it is adorned and beautified with Religion and other graces from above gives the greatest lustre I may speak of it as Solomon speaks of old age when it is found in the way of godlinesse It 's a Crowne It 's like apples of gold in pictures of silver Quale manus addunt ebori decus aut ubi flavo Argentum pariusve lapis circumdatur auro Like a picture of Ivory curiously set forth by the hand of a skilfull Artificer or like a ring of pure gold beset with a precious Diamond Or like the Kings daughter which was not only outwardly adorned with a vesture of gold but which is better All glorious within Vertue in a meane person is like a Candle under a bushell it gives light to him that hath it but brings little help to others but in a Gentleman it 's like a Taper set up in the midst of a room or like a Beacon upon a hill it gives direction to all that come neer Happy are those Kingdomes Et multos habet Sparta tales Gods name for ever be blessed for it this Kingdome hath many such in whom goodnesse equalizeth greatnesse and like stars of the first and second magnitude as they exceed others in bulk and substance so do they also in light and influence Cato said that the people of Rome were like a flock of sheep let the Shepheard single out one and he will hardly drive it but put them together the greatest will lead the way and the rest will follow Christs Church is a flock of sheep had this poor Country many such Bel-weathers to lead the way it would prove no small case to the Lords Shepheards for driving of the rest into the greene pastures of the Lord that are beside the waters of comfort But if Religion and grace be wanting a man be his parentage never so ancient his Lands and Lord-ships his Honours and Preferments never so great is but like matter without forme like Apuleius his golden Animall or like Polyphemus without an eye And here I cannot choose but censure those for degenerous spirits unworthy the name they bear who think themselves in all points compleat Gentlemen Si venaticam noverint si in alea fuerint damnabilius instituti si corporis vires ingentibus poculis commonstrent c. If they can discourse about Horses Hawks Hounds If they can hunt skilfully and dice damnably and drink profoundly and sweate prophanely and spend riotously and make their recreation their vocation without doing any service to God
presseth the Lord with his sinnes as a Cart is pressed with Sheaves is a filthy Swine and none of CHRISTS Flock The backsliding Hypocrite that like Nebuchadnezzars Image hath â— head of Gold and feet of Clâ—y a good beginning and a bad ending that with Mâ—â—diabilis first offers a golden then a silver then a leaden Sacrifice and with the Gallathians begins in the spirit and ends in the flesh is an unclean Dog licking up his own Vomit and none of Christs Flock the oppressing Land-lord that wringeth and squeezeth his Tenant like a spunge and eates up their guts and puls the skin from the flesh and the flesh from the bones as the Prophet speaketh is a ravenous Wolfe and none of Christs Flock The unjust Magistrate that sitteth to judge according to the law and commandeth to smite contrary to the Law and maketh his place a Monopoly for himselfe is a wilie Fox and none of Christs Flock The deceitfull Lawyer that hides the weakness of his Clyents Cause as the Panther doth the deformity of his head when he would allure other Beasts to follow him is a deceitfull Leopard and none of Christs Flock The Priest and Jesuite that barbours in every quarter of our Land like the Egyptian Frogs and goeth about to poyson the hearts of Christs Sheep with the inchanted cups of the Italian Circe is a venamous Toade and none of Christs Flock All those we wish to be removed and seperated from this little Flock into their own proper Elements The Sow to the Mâ—re the Dog to his Kennell the Wolfe to his Den the Fox to his Earth the Leopard to the Wildernesse the Toade to the stinking Italian Fennes where they be bred And I pray God that you R. H. and others like unto you I mean zealous godly and watchfull Shepheards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might deal with as many of these as are incurable and incorrigible as our Saviour dealt with the Gaderens Swine when they were possessed with Devils Drive them into the Sea that they might be choaked in the waters or as the Legend fables Saint Patrick delt with the Irish Toades or as the Welchmen used the English Wolves root them out that there might not one be left alive to worry the tender Lambs of this little Flock Give me leave in handling the first Point to touch two or three propertyes of a Sheep wherein every man must study to resemble her that will acknowledge Christ for his Shepheard 1. She is Sincerum simplex Sine fraude pecus Simple without all guile and dissimulation 2. Meek without all harme or offence 3. Patient without all desire of revenge Concerning the first We must have this Sheep-like simplicity and that in heart in word in deed we must be plain and simple of heart so we must be wise as Serpents but simple as Doves Matth 10. 16. Plain and simple in speech for we must cast off lying and speak every man the truth unto his Neighbour Ephe. 4. 25. Plain and simple indeed for he that doth uprightly and worketh righteousnesse shall dwell in Gods Tabernacle Psal 15. 1 2. But alas where is that Sheep-like simplicity that should be amongst us where is that true Nathaniell that true Israelite in whom is no guile So far hath deceitful hypocrisie prevailed in mens hearts that amongst all vocation â— in Court and in Country in Church and in Common-Wealth dssimulation is now counted a great part of policy and it is grown a common Proverbe in our mouths but much more in our practise Qui nescit dissimulare nescit vivere And this sheep-like simplicity is contemned and condemned for meer folly and brutish stupidity in so much that a sheep a simple man and a foole are become Symonyma all one in signification to cog to cloak to fawne to flatter to speak what thou never thinkest and think what thou never speakest Oh these are high points of wisdome And as under the fayrest flowers and greenest grass lye the most poysonful serpents so oftentimes under the fairest and sweetest tongues the most poysonful and deceitful hearts Briefly men so live as if our Saviour had not given this Commandement Be wise as Serpents and simple as Doves but Be wise as Doves and simple as Serpents They resemble the Dove and the Serpent too but in contrary qualities the Dove in knowledge the Serpent in simplicity for knowledge I mean saving knowledg it is as far from them as the Dove is from being a great States-man or wise Politician and for plain and honest simplicity it is as proper unto them as it is to the wilie and winding Serpent so that it is plain there is no truth in their hearts and â—eynes Now if the fountaine be polluted is it likely that the streame will be cleane If the root be bitter will the fruit be sweet If the house be full of smoak will the chimney be faire without I the Clock be out of tune below will the Bell strike right above If the heart be full of deceit and hypocrisie will there be truth in our words Surely no For of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh And no marvail therefore seeing we dissemble with our double hearts if that be true also which immediately goes before They speak deceitfully every one to his neighbour And as simplicity is banished from our hearts and tongues so from our actions as we have double hearts double tongues so we have double hands and love double dealing So that we may cry with David Help Lord for there is not a godly man left the faithfull are minished from amongst the children of men They speak deceitfully every one to his neighbour they do but flatter with their lips and dissemble with their double heart Psal 12. 1 2. And here I could be well contented to break off this point and passe to another without discending to any particulars but that I see two sorts of men so directly in my way that I must needs salute them before I goe both which although they converse and live amongst the Lords sheep yet in nothing save in the outward appearance they resemble sheep Beware of them for they come to you in sheeps Cloathing but inwardly they be ravening wolves Or if they will needs be called sheep I will be so bold as call them as they deserve Rotten sheepe Introrsum turpes speciosus pelle decora their hearts are rotten they are wholly corrupted they have nothing but a faire sheeps-skin to cover and conceale their inward deformities from the eyes of the world The first is he that wears a vizard of Religion the other that under a cloak of Law and consequently of Justice worâ—eth his owne private intendments with the losse and hinderance of other men The fiâ—st shrouds himself under God the second under the King both damnable hypocrites and seeing the Scripture will warrant us to call every hypocrite a Fool we may call the first of these