drove the Macedonian hereticks not out of the Citty onely but out of the Country too I cannot blame Gratianus the Emperour that hee interdicted all assemblies to the Manichees Photinians Eunomians And if he had extended his Banne against those other forenamed hereticks it had beene yet better for the Church Hierom's word is a good one It is not cruelty that wee thus doe for Gods cause but Piety But if there be any who with full consent embrace all the Articles of Christian Beleeâ—e and yet erre not contumaciously in some such dangerous consequences as doe in mine understanding though not their owne threaten ruine to the foundation by them yeelded as I dare not exclude them from the Church of God so I dare not professe to abhorre their Communion God forbid wee should shut up Christian brother-hood in so narrow a compasse as to barre all misbeleevers of this kind out of the family of God Doe but turne over that charitable and irrefragable discourse of Christianography Let your eyes but walke over those ample territories and large regions which in most of the parts of the habitable world but especially in Europe Africa and Asia professe the blessed name of God our Redeemer and looke to be saved by his blood and then aske your heart if you dare entertaine so uncharitable a thought as to exclude so many millions of weake but true beleevers out of the Church below or out of heaven above you shall there see Grecians Russians Georgians Armenians Iacobites Abassines and many other sects serving the same God acknowledging the same Scriptures beleeving in the same Saviour professing the same faith in all fundamentall points aspiring to the same Heaven and like Bees though flying severall wayes and working upon severall meadowes or gardens yet in the evening meeting together in the same hive Now if I liv'd in the community of any of these diverse sects of Christians I should hold it my duty to comply with them in all not unlawfull things and if any of them should live in the community of our Church I should labour by all good meanes to reclaime him from his erroneous opinion or superstitious practice when I had wrought upon him my utmost rather then let goe my hopes and interest in him I would goe as farre to meet him without any angariation save that of charity as the line of a good conscience would permit me herein following the sure patterne of our blessed Apostle whose profession it is Though I be free from all men yet have I made my selfe servant unto all that I might gaine the more unto the Iewes I became as a Iew that I might gaine the Iewes And to them under the Law as under the Law that I might gaine them that are under the Law To them that are without Law as without Law being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ that I might gaine them that are without Law To the weake I became weake that I might gaine the weake I am made all things to all men that I might by all meanes save some I doe much feare the Church of Rome hath a hard answere to make one day in this particular Who imperiously and unjustly challenging unto it selfe the title of the Church Catholike shutteth all other Christian professions out of doores refusing all Communion with them and so neglecting them as if they had no soules or those soules cost nothing Amongst the rest I shall give but two instances The great Prince of the Abassine Christians having heard of the fame of the Europaean Churches sends some of his nation of whom he had a great opinion to Rome to be informed of the substance and rites of Religion there professed Zago Zaba was one of the number they with great labour and hazard arrived there made knowne their great errand but were so farre slighted that they were not so much as admitted to Christian society and after many yeares vayne hope were turn'd home disregardfully not much wiser then they came without any other newes save of the scorne and insolence of those who should have instructed them A carriage much sutable to that which they still beare to the Greeke Church a Church which as for extent it may compare with theirs so for purity of doctrine I dare say if that be her voyce which her last Patriarch Cirill of Constantinople hath acquainted the world with all as I was also confidently assured by the late learned Bishop of Saribaris as far exceeding the Roman Church as the Roman doth the Russian or Ethiopick which it most contemneth Let any the most curious eye traveâ—l over that learned confession of faith which after all devises and illusions is proved sufficiently to be the genuine act of that worthy Patriarch and by him published in the name of the whole Greeke Church and let him tell me what one blemish or mole hee can finde in that faire body save onely that one clause concerning the third person of the blessed Trinity The holy Spirit proceeding from the Father by the Sonne wherein there can be no danger whiles he addes in the next words Being of the same substance with the Father and the Sonne and concludes These three Persons in one Essence we call the most holy Trinity ever to be blessed glorified and adored of every creature This errour of his Greek Church as it is now minced is rather a Problem of Scholasticall Divinity then an heresie in the Christian faith In all the rest shew me any the most able and sincere Divine in the whole Christian world that can make a more cleare and absolute declaration of his faith then that Greeke Church hath done by the hand of her worthy and renouned Prelate yet how uncharitably is she barred out of doores by her unkinde sister of Rome How unjustly branded with heresie in so much as it is absolutely forbidden to the Grecian Priests to celebrate their Masses and divine Services in the Roman fashion Neither may the Romans officiate in the Grecian manner under the payne of perpetuall suspension And if a woman of the Latine Church be given in marriage to a Greeke shee may not be suffered to live after the Grecian fashion A solaecisme much like to that of the Russian Churches who admit none to their Communion be hee nver so good a Christian if he doe not submit himselfe to their matriculation by a new Baptisme Sure those Christians that thus carry themselves towards their deare brethren dearer perhaps to God then they have either no bowels or no braynes and shall once finde by the difference of the smart whether ignorance or hard-heartednesse were guilty of this injurious measure Next to the persons the limits of this approach or remotenesse are considerable which must be proportioned according to the condition of them with whom we have to deale If they be professed enemies to the Christian name Beware of dogs beware of the
Faith And being askt how hee did so well know the vertue of such faith because said hee the nation of Christians could not possibly hold out so long by vertue of their workes for they are starke naught therfore it must needs be by the power of their Faith Certainely it were woe with us if lives should decide the truth of Religion betwixt us and unbelievers betwixt us and our ignorant fore-fathers These are not therefore fit umpires betwixt Christians competitioning for the truth The Iew was the sounder for religion yet the Samaritan was more charitable than either the Levice or Priest It were strange if in the corruptest Church there were not some conscionable and no lesse if in the holyest there bee not some lawlesse and inordinate there is no Pomgranate wherein there is not some graines rotten The sanctity of some few cannot boulster out falsehood in the common beleefe neyther can the disorder of Orthodox beleevers disparage that soundnesse of doctrine which their life bâ—lyes And if our Saviour give us this rule for discerning of false Prophets By their fruits you shall know them doubtlesse that fruit was intended chiefely for their doctâ—ine their lives were fayre their carriage innocent for they came in sheepes cloathing What was that other then honest simplicity yet their fruits were evill but withall as a good and holy life is as hee said well a good Commentarie to the sacred Volume of God so their out-breaking iniquities were a good Commentarie upon their vicious doctrines both wayes were their fruits evill And if meere outward carriage should be the sole rule of our tryall nothing could be more uncertaine then our determination How many Dunghills have wee seene which whiles they have beene covered with Snow could not be discerned from the best Gardens How many sowre Crabs which for beautie have surpassed the best Fruit in our Orchard As in matter of reason experience tells us that some falsehoods are more probable then some truths so is it also in matter of practice no face seemes so purely faire as the painted Truth of Doctrine is the Test whither wee must bring our profession for matter of tryall and the sacred Oracles of God are the Test whereby wee must trie the truth of Doctrine §. XIIII The tenth rule of Moderation That wee must draw as neere as wee safely may to Christian adversaries in cases of lesser differences IT will perhaps seeme a Paradox to some vvhich I must lay downe for a tenth rule of Moderation viz. That wee must endeavour to draw as neere as wee may to Christian adversaries in the differences of Religion For some men whose zeale â—â— carryes them beyond knowledge are all for extremities and thinke there can never bee distance enough betwixt themselves and those that oppose them in the controversies of doctrine or discipline For the righting of our conceits in this point we shall need a double dâ—stinction one of the Persons the other of the limits of our approach or remotenesse Of the Persons first for there are Hostes and there are Inimici The former are they who professe open hostilitie to the whole cause of Christianitie as Iewes and Turkes The latter are Adversaries within the Bosome of the Church such as according with us in the maine essentiall Truths maintaine stiffe differences in matters of great consequence both in the judgement and practice of Religion To the first of these wee doe justly professe publique and universall defiance hating all communion with them save that of civill commerce which is not unlawfull with the most savage Infidels And in this name doe wee deservedly crie downe those favours which these avowed enemies of Christ receive at Rome even from the hands of him who pretends to succeed the most fervent Apostle that once said Lord thou knowest I love thee Besides the benefit of a favourable entertainment wee know the Pope on his Coronation day vouchsafes to receive a Present from their hands no lesse then that holy Booke of God which their cursed impietie prophaneth and which in requitall condemneth their impietie whiles those that professe the same Creed more sincerely then himselfe are rigorously expelled and cruelly martyr'd Our stomach doth not so farre exceed our Charitie but wee can pray for those miscreant Iewes they once for all cursed themselves His bloud be upon us and our children wee are so mercifull to them that wee can blesse them in praying that his bloud may be upon them for their Redemption And as wee can pray for their Conversion so wee cannot but commend the Order which is held in some parts of Italy that by the care of the Ordinarie Sermons are made on their Sabbaths in those places where the Iewes are suffered to dwell for their Conviction but whiles wee wish well to their soules wee hate their societie I like well that piece of just prohibition That Christian women should not bee Nurses to the Children of Iewes in their Houses but I cannot brooke the Libertie following that out of their Houses by Licence from the Ordinarie they may My reason is but just because their proud detestation goes so high as to an absolute forbiddance of any office of respect from theirs to us and yet allowes the same from ours to them So by their Law a Iewish woman may not be either Midwife or Nurse to one of ours yet giving way to our Women to doe these services to theirs Not to speake of the same fashion of Garments which however forbidden by the Law they have now learned for their own advantage to dispence with what a curiositie of hatred it is that if one of us Gentiles should make a Iewes fire on their Sabbath it is not lawfull for them to sit by it And why should wee bee lesse averse from that odious generation They have done violence to the Lord of Life our blessed Redeemer what have wee done unto them Bloud lyes still upon them nothing upon us but undue mercie But as to the latter kind of Adversaries wee must be advised to better tearmes if any of them who call themselves Christians have gone so farre as directly and wilfully to raze the foundation of our most holy Faith and being selfe-condemned through the cleare evidence of truth shall rebelliously persist in his heresie Into the secret of such men let not my soule come my glory be thou not joyned to their assembly I know no reason to make more of such a one then of a Iew or Turke in a Christians skin I cannot blame that holy man who durst not endure to be in the Bath with such a monster or those of Samosata who in imitation of this fact of Saint Iohn let forth all the water of that publike Bath wherein Eunomius had washed and caused new to be put therein I cannot blame Theodosius a Bishop of Phrygia however Socrates pleaseth to censure him that hee
CHRISTIAN MODERATION In two Books By JOS EXON LONDON Printed by MILES FLESHER and are to be sold by NATHANIEL BUTTER MDCXL TO ALL CHRISTIAN PEOPLE WHERESOEVER But especially to those of this WESTERNE DIOCESE AND THEREIN To the Honorable NOBILITY the Reverend and Learned CLERGY the Worshipfull GENTRY the honest and Faithfull COMMONALTY OF The Counties of Devon and Cornwall J. Exon Wisheth the continuance and increase of that whereof hee treates All CHRISTIAN MODERATION Both in Opinion and Practice THE CONTENTS THE FIRST BOOK Moderation in Practice § 1. OF the use and necessity of Moderation in generall § 2. Practicall Moderation in matter of pleasure Wherein first of the pleasures of the palate 1. Of the excesse of them 2. Of the other extremity of defect § 3. Of some extremities in other usages of the body § 4. Of the extreames in the cases of lust § 5. The liberty that God hath given us in the use of his creatures both for necessity and lawfull delight § 6. The just bounds of Moderation in the liberall use of Gods creatures And therein our limitation in our respects to God § 7. The limitation of our liberty in respect of the pleasures themselves first for the kind then for the quantity and quality of them § 8. The moderation of the pleasure of conjugall society § 9. The limitation of all our pleasures in the manner of using them § 10. Motives to Moderation in the use of all our pleasures § 11. Of the Moderation of our desires in matter of wealth and honor c. Motives to that moderation § 12. Of the moderation of our Passions and therein first of our sorrow The cautions requisite thereto Of the kinds of sorrow and first of worldly sorrow The temperaments thereof § 13. Of spirituall sorrow and the moderation thereof § 14. Of the moderation of the passion of Feare The dangerous effects of that passion Particularly of the feare of death Strong motives for the remedy of it § 15. Of the moderation of the passion of Anger The ill effects of it The distinction of Zealous and vicious anger Arguments for the mitigation of our anger The second Book Moderation in matter of Iudgement § 1. OF the danger of immoderation in matter of judgment and of the remedy in generall § 2. Lukewarmnesse to be avoided in Religion § 3. Zeale required in the matters of God but to be tempered with discretion and charity § 4. Rules for Moderation in Iudgement The first Rule To distinguish of persons § 5. Second Rule To distinguish of truths and errors § 6. Third Rule The avoidance of curiosity in the disquisition of truths Therein of the simplicity of former times and the over-lashing of ours § 7. Fourth Rule To rest in those Fundamentall Truths which are revealed clearly in the Scriptures § 8. Fifth Rule To be remisse and facile in un-importing verities First in our opinion § 9. And then also in our censure of the otherwise minded § 10. Sixth Rule Not to relie upon the trust of an Opposite in relating the state of an opinion or person Examples of the injurious practices this way § 11. Seventh Rule Not to judge of an adversaries opinion by the Inferences pretended to follow upon it which are commonly very hainously aggravated The ingenuous proceedings of the Ancient Churches herein § 12. Eighth Rule To keepe opinions within their owne bounds not imputing private mens conceits to whole Churches § 13. Ninth Rule We may not draw the actions or manners of men to the prejudice of their cause § 14. Tenth Rule That we must draw as neare as we safely may to Christian adversaries in lesser differences The cautions of complying with them § 15. Eleventh Rule To refraine from all railing termes and spightfull provocations of each other in differences of Religion § 16. Twelfth Rule That however our judgements differ in lesser verities wee should compose our affections towards unity and peace FINIS REcensui dissertationem hanc de Moderatione Christiana duabus partibus absolutam quarum altera de Moribus agit altera de Doctrina utraque bonis moribus doctrinae Ecclesiae Anglicanae consentanea Octob. 4. 1639. Imprimatur Jo ALSOP CHRISTIAN MODERATION THE FIRST BOOK Of Moderation in matter of Practice §. 1. Of the use and necessity of Moderation in generall I Cannot but second commend that great Clerk of Paris who as our witty countryman Bromiard reports when King Lewes of France required him to write down the best word that ever he had learnt call'd for a faire skin of parchment and in the midst of it wrote this one word MEASURE and sent it sealed up to the King The King opening the sheet and finding no other inscription thought himself mocked by his Philosopher and calling for him expostulated the matter but when it was shewed him that all vertues and all religious and worthy actions were regulated by this one word and that without this vertue it self turned vicious he rested well satisfied And so he well might for it was a word well worthy of one of the seven Sages of Greece from whom indeed it was borrowed and onely put into a new coat For whiles he said of old for his Motto Nothing too much hee meant no other but to comprehend both extreames under the mention of one neither in his sense is it any paradox to say that too little is too much for as too much bounty is prodigality so too much sparing is niggardlinesse so as in every defect there is an excesse and both are a transgression of Measure Neither could ought be spoken of more use or excellency For what goodnesse can there be in the world without Moderation whether in the use of Gods creatures or in our own disposition and carriage Without this Justice is no other then cruell rigour mercy unjust remisnesse pleasure bruitish sensuality love frenzy anger fury sorrow desperate mopishnesse joy distempered wildnesse knowledge saucy curiosity piety superstition care wracking distraction courage mad rashnesse Shortly there can be nothing under heaven without it but meere vice and confusion Like as in nature if the elements should forget the temper of their due mixture and incroach upon each other by excesse what could follow but universall ruine or what is it that shall put an end to this great frame of the world but the predominancy of that last devouring fire It is therefore Moderation by which this inferiour world stands since that wise and great God who hath ordained the continuance of it hath decreed so to contemper all the parts thereof that none of them should exceed the bounds of their owne proportion and degree to the prejudice of the other Yea what is the heaven it selfe but as Gerson compares it well as a great clock regularly moving in an equall sway of all the Orbes without difference of poyse without variation of minutes in a constant state of eviternall eavennesse both of beeing and motion
downe upon our anger addes Give no place to the Divell as if this continuing passion did open the gates of the heart for Satans entrance and free possession Thou shalt finde this the great make-bate of the world the beginner of all quarrells For as the churning of the milke bringeth forth butter and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife saith wise Solomon Wrath then brings forth quarrels and quarrels bloodshed manslaughter murders What is it that hath so drowned Christendome in bloud but the anger of discordant Princes what but this is guilty of so many brutish duells so many bloody massacres And where thine anger shall stay when it is once broke loose it is not in thy power to determine I am sure if it staies not the sooner it ends in a curse Cursed bee their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruell Look but upon the the temper of well governed Heathens and be ashamed to heare an Archtyas say to his Bayly I had punisht thee if I had not been angry or that Philosopher say to Xenocrates whip this boy for I am angry or to see a greater Philosopher then hee who when he had discoursed against anger and shewed how unfit the passion is for a wise man one of his auditors purposely spit in his face from whom he received no other answer but this I am not angry but I doubt whether I should not be so or to see a Pisistratus not more troubled with rayling words of an adversary then if an hood-winkt man had reeled upon him heedlesly in his way or to heare a Socrates professe himselfe no more affected with the scolding of his Xantippe then with the creaking of a Cart wheele and when he was uncivilly washed from her chamber to say only After such thunder I lookt for raine or to heare a Cato say that he could and did pardon all offenders but himselfe and when Lentulus spat in his face to heare no other language fall from him then I will now say those men are deceived that deny Lentulus to have a mouth or to heare a Cleanthes when one called him asse to say only he should be then fit to carry Zenoes budget or to see a Crates when Nicodromus struck him with his fist onely to put a board before his forehead with a jeering inscription It were easie to weary a reader with instances of this kind And shall meer Pagans that were without God in the world have such rule over their passions and shall a Christian who professeth a more divine philosophie and whose first lesson is to deny himself to mortifie all evil and corrupt affections give the reyns to the wild and unruly eruptions of his rage how shall these heathens in profession justly condemn us professed Christians who are in practice heathenish Lastly look but upon the termes wherein thou standest with God how grievously dost thou provoke him every day to his face one of thy offences against that infinite Majesty is more then thou canst be capable to receive from all thine enemies upon earth yet how silently doth he passe over all thy hainous affronts and bids his sun to shine and his raine to fall as well upon thy ground as the holiest owners how graciously doth he still invite thee to repentance how sweetly doth he labour to win thee with new mercies and dost thou call thy self the son of that Father whom thou wilt not imitate Dost thou pray daily to him to forgive thee as thou forgivest others whiles thou resolvest to forgive none whom thou canst plague with revenge Looke upon thy deare Redeemer and heare him whiles his cruell executioners were racking out his hands and feet and nailing them to the tree of shame and curse crying Father forgive them for they know not what they do and canst thou give thy self out for a disciple to this Saviour if for every offence of thy brother thou break forth into raging imprecations railing speeches furious actions Lay all these seriously to thy heart in the middest of thy greatest tranquillity and have them ready before thine eyes for the next onset of thy passion and withall plie thy God with thy prayers that hee who moulded thy heart at first would be pleased to temper it aright to coole these sinfull inflamations by the power of his grace that so he may make good in thee that happy word of the Psalmist Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee the remainder of wrath shalt thou restraine Amen FINIS The second Booke Of Moderation in matter of Iudgement §. I. Of the danger of immoderation in matter of Iudgement and of the remedy in generall AS it would be an hard competition betwixt intellectuall errors and practicall whether are the more hainous so would it be no lesse difficult to determine whether moderation in matter of judgement or of practise be more necessary and whethers neglect be more dangerous For surely if the want of moderation in practise doe most distract every man in his owne particular the want of moderation in judgement distracts the whole world from it selfe whence it is that we finde so miserable divisions all the earth over but especially so wofull schismes and breaches in the Christian world wherein we see one Nation is thus dâ—vided from another and each one nation no lesse divided from it selfe For it cannot be since every man hath a minde of his owne not lesse different from others then his face that all should jump in the same opinion neither can it stand with that naturall selfe-love wherewith every one is possessed easily to forsake the childe of his owne brayne and to preferre another mans conceit to his owne hereupon therefore it comes to passe that whiles each man is ingaged to that opinion which either his owne election or his education hath feoffed him in new quarrels arise and controversies are infinitly multiplyed to the great prejudice of Gods truth and to the lamentable violation of the common peace would to God we could as well redresse as bewayle this misery wherewith Christendome is universally infested howsoever it shall not be utterly thankelesse to indeavour it The remedy must goe in the same pace with the disease Whereas therefore there are two things which are guilty of this mischiefe Error in doctrine and Distemper in affection the former I must leave to the conviction of those Polemicall discourses which have beene so learnedly written of the severall points of difference as I suppose no humane wit or industry can give any further addition thereto Onely I shall touch some such generall symptomes as are commonly incident into these controversies of religion My maine drift is to dwell upon the latter and to labour the reducing of mens to a wise and Christian Moderation concerning differences in judgment §. II. Luke-warmenesse to be avoyded in Religion FArre be it from us to allow luke-warmenesse
in the matters of God a disposition which the Almighty professeth so much to hate that he could rather be content the Angell of the Church of Laodicea should be quite cold then in such a mambling of profession And indeed what temper is so offensive to the stomach as this meane fit onely for a medicinall potion whose end is ejection not for nourishment Those whose devotion is onely fashionable shall in vayne hope to be accepted It is a true word of Saint Austen There is no love where there is no zeale and what cares God for heartlesse followers that are led only by example and forme such there are that yawne not out of any inward cause but because they see others gape before them As they say in the Abassine Churches if one man neese all the rest do and must follow Men like unto mosse which takes still the property of the barke it growes upon if upon the Oke it cooles and bindes if upon the Pine and Firre it digests and softens or like unto the Herborists Dodder which is no simple in it selfe but takes both his name and temper from the herbe out of which it arises if out of Time it is Epithimium if out of the Nettle it is Epiurtîca That great Lawgiver of old would have a punishment for neuters and well are they worthy when the division is maine and essentiall such men are meerely for themselves which have the truth of God in respect of persons not caring so much what is professed as by whom Suidas tels us of Musonius so well reputed of that no further question was made of any man if it appeared he was Musonius his friend too many affect no other worth in themselves then a dependance upon others holding it enough that they are the clients of this famous Doctor of that great Saint such men like as we have heard of some Apothecaryes which onely by taking the vapor of some drugge in the stamping of it have beene wrought upon hold it sufficient for them to have received in the very ayre and empty titles of disciples without respect to the grounds and substance of the Doctrine The rule which the blessed Apostle gave for our settlement in some cases is wont by a common misconstruction to be so expressed as if it gave way to a loose indifferency The vulgar reads it Let every one abound in his owne sense as leaving each man to his owne liberty in those things of middle nature whereas his words in their originall run contrary Let every one be fully perswaded in his owne minde requiring a plerophory of assurance and not allowing an unsettled hesitation in what we doe and if thus in matters of the least importance how much more in the great affaires of Religion Here it holds well which is the charge of the Apostle It is good to be zealously affected in a good thing alwayes Nothing is more easie to observe then that as â—t uses to be with stuffes that in their first making they are strongly wrought afterwards in processe of time they grow to be slight both in matter and work so it falls out in religious professions In the first breaking out of a reformation there appeares much heate and forwardnes which in time abates and cooleth so as the professor growes to the temper of our Baldwin Archbishop of Canterbury whom Pope Vrban of old greets in the style of a fervent Monkea warme Abbot a luke warme Bishop a Key-cold Arch-bishop or like unto those kites of whom our writers say that in their first yeares they dare prey upon greater Foules afterwards they sieze upon lesser birds and the third yeere fall upon flyes Whence it is that Melancthon could fore-guesse that the time should come wherein men should bee tainted with this errour that either religion is a matter of nothing or that the differences in religions are meerely verball Farre bee it from us thus to degenerate from our holy Ancestors whose zeale made them true Holocausts to God and sent up their soules in the smoake of that their acceptable sacrifice into heaven that those truths which they held worthy bleeding for wee should sleight as not worth pleading for Wee cannot easily forgive that wrong which our late SPALATENSIS did to our freshbleeding martyrs whom even before by revolt hee blamed of lavishnesse as if they might well have spared that expence of blood although wee may well suppose hee redeemed his errour by dying for the same truthes for which they fryed alive as hee dead Wee know what Saint BASILL answered to that great man who would have perswaded him to let fall his holy quarrell Those saith hee that are trayned up in the Scriptures will rather dye then abate a syllable of Divine Truth It is said of VALENTINIAN that when the rude SCYTHIANS made â—n incursion into the territories of the Romane Empire hee so ore-strayned his Lungs in calling upon his troupes that hee presently dyed so vehement must wee bee when any maine thing is in Question neither voyce nor life must bee spared in the cause of the Almighty The glosse that is put upon the act of Innocent the 4. in the Councell of LYONS who graced the Dignity of Cardinall-Shippe with a redde Hatte is that it was done with an intention as MARTINVS POLONVS construes it to signify they should bee ready to shed their blood for Christ and his Gospell might well fitte every Christian perhaps somewhat better then those delicate mates of Princes whom should wee imitate but him whose name wee beare who fulfilled that of the Psalmist his type The zeale of thine house hath even eaten me up §. III. Zeale required in the matters of GOD but to bee tempered with discretion and charity WE must bee zealous we must not bee furious It is in matter of religion as with the tending of a still if we put in too much fire it burnes if too little it workes not a middle temper must bee kept an heat there must bee but a moderate one we may not be in our profession like a drowzy Iudge upon a Grecian Bench who is fayne to bite upon beanes to keepe himselfe from sleeping neither may we bee like that Grecian player who acted mad Ajax upon the stage but wee must bee soberly fervent and discreetly active S. Paules spirit was stirred within him at Athens to see the Idol-altars amongst those learned Philosophers it breaks out of his mouth in a grave reproofe I doe not see him put his hand furiously to demolish them and if a Iuventius and Maximinian in the heat of zeale shall rayle on wicked Iulian at a feast hee justly casts their death not upon their religion but their petulancy It was a wel-made decree in the Councell of Eliberis that if any man did take upon him to breake downe the idols of the heathen and were slaine in the place hee should not
concision saith the Apostle of the Gentiles Iustly must wee spit at these blasphemers who say they are Iewes and are not but are the Synagogue of Satan If they be coloured friends but true hereticks such as doe destroy directly and pertinaciously the foundation of Christian religion the Apostles charge is expresse Haereticum hominem devita A man that is an hereticke after the first and second admonition avoyd and reject and such an one as he may be that addes blasphemy to heresie it might be no reall mistaking though a verball of that wise and learned Pontifician who misreading the vulgar made two words of one and turned the Verbe into a Noune De vita Supple Tolle put an hereticke to death A practise so rise in the Roman Church against those Saints who in the way which they call heresie worship the Lord God of their Fathers beleeving all things which are written in the Law in the Prophets in the Apostles that all the world takes notice of it seeming with the rap't Evangelist to heare the soules from under the Altar crying aloud How long Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth Surely were wee such as their uncharitable 〈◊〉 mis-construction would make us their cruelty were not excusable before God or men but now as our innocence shall aggravate their condemnation before the just Tribunal in heaven so our example shall condemne them in the judgement of all impartiall Arbiters here on earth For what Client of Rome was ever sentenced to death by the reformed Church meerely for matter of religion what are wee other to them then they are to us the cause is mutually the same only our charity is more our cruelty lesse Neither is this any small testimony of our sincere innocence It is a good rule of Saint Chrysostome if wee would know a Wolfe from a Sheep since their clothing as they use the matter will not difference them looke to their fangs if those be bloody their kinde is enough bewrayd for who ever saw the lips of a Sheep besmear'd with blood It is possible to see a Campian at Tiburne or a Garnets head upon a pole Treasonable practises not meere Religion are guilty of these executions But however our Church is thus favourable in the case of those heresies which are either simple or secondary and consequentiall yet in the cases of hereticall blasphemy her holy zeale hath not fear'd to shed blood witnesse the flames of Ket and Legat and some other Arrians in our memory And the zealous prosecution of that Spanish Cistertian whom wee heard and saw not long since belching out his blasphemous contumelies against the Sonne of God who after hee was given over to the secular power for execution was by the Spanish Embassadour Master Gondemor carryed backe into Spaine by leave from King Iames of blessed memory in which kind also Master Calvin did well approve himselfe to Gods Church in bringing Servetus to the stake at Geneva As for those which are heretickes onely by consequence and interpretation heedlesly undermining that foundation which they would pretend to establish as we may not in regard of their Opinions in themselves utterly blot them out of the Catalogue of brethren so we must heartily indeavour all good meanes for their reclamation strive to convince their errours labour with God for them in our prayers trye to win them with all loving offices neither need we doubt to joyne with them in holy duties untill their obdurednesse and wilfull pertinacy shall have made them uncapable of all good counsell and have drawne them to a turbulent opposition of the truth for as it is in actuall offences that not our sinne but our unrepentance damnes us so it is in these matters of opinion not the errour but the obstinacy incurres a just condemnation So long therefore as there is hope of reformation wee may wee must comply with this kind of erring Christians but not without good cautions First that it be only in things good or indifferent Secondly That it be with a true desire to win them to the truth Thirdly that we finde our selves so throughly grounded as that there be no danger of our infection for we have knowne it fall out with some as with that noble Grecian of whom Xenophon speakes who whiles hee would be offering to stay a Barbarian from casting himselfe down from the rock was drawne down with him for company from that precipice Saint Austen professes that this was one thing that hardned him in his old Manicheisme That hee found himselfe victorious in his disputations with weake adversaries such men in stead of convincing yeeld and make themselves miserable and their opposites foolishly proud and mis-confident Fourthly that we doe not so farre condescend to complying with them as for their sakes to betray the least parcell of divine Truth I◠they be our friends it must be only usque ad aras there we must leave them That which wee must be content to purchase with our blood we may not forgoe for favour even of the dearest Fiftly that we doe not so far yield to them as to humour them in their errour as to obfirme them in evill as to scandalize others And lastly if wee finde them utterly incorrigible that wee take off our hand and leave them unto just censure As for differences of an inferiour nature if but De venis capillaribus minutioribus theologicarum quaestionum spinetis as Staphilus would have theirs or if of matters rituall and such as concerne rather the Decoration then the health of Religion it is fit they should be valued accordingly neither peace nor friendship should be crazed for these in themselves considered But if it fall out through the peevishnes and selfe-conceit of some crosse dispositions that even those things which are in their nature indifferent after the lawfull command of Authority are blazon'd for sinfull and haynous and are made an occasion of the breach of the common peace certainly it may prove that some schisme even for triviall matters may be found no lesse pernicious then some heresie If my coat be rent in peeces it is all one to me whether it be done by a Bryer or a nayle or by a knife If my vessell sinke it is all one whether it were with a shot or a leake The lesse the matter is the greater is the disobedience and the disturbance so much the more sinfull No man can be so foolish as to thinke the value of the Apple was that which cast away man-kinde but the violation of a Divine Interdiction It is fit therefore that men should learne to submit themselves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake But if they shall bee wilfully refractary they must be put in minde that Korahs mutiny was more fearefully revenged then the most grievous idolatry §. XV. The eleventh rule of Moderation To refrayne from all rayling termes