little refined for Grace Will for Conscience So a floating knowledge for true wisdom cruelty for Justice covetousness for frugality baseness for humility presumption for hope a distempered heat for true zeal and vaine credulity for faith And the reason of all this is because the best Graces have their Counterfeits and from hence come those many mistakes Now for the power and truth of Religion we shall the better know it if we first briefly discover what it is not and then what it is What it is not It doth not consist in a bare hearing of the word though heard never so frequently nor in a bare performance of other duties which are good in themselves though praiers perform'd ne'r so constantly long prayers wil not excuse the devouring of vvidovvs houses nor the doing of other good duties any the like acts of oppression and violence Thou Preachest thou hearest thou readest thou prayest but how livest thou what doest thou if these questions cannot be well resolved all good performances will prove nothing worth Again the power and truth of Religion is not manifested in a rash censuring and condemning of others I am not as other men are nor as this Publican you know who said it It doth not consist in the exalting of a mans self above others whatsoever his gifts and graces are It is not to be found meerly in an ability to talk or prattle or dispute or wrangle and after to hold the conclusion whatsoever may be said against it in the premises But for the truth and power of Religion if we would briefly and in some particulars know what it is it is that which makes a man labour first to know and then to believe and to do whatsoever is to be beleâ—ved and to be done but to believe and do rather than to know It is that which makes a man put a better esteem upon others than upon himself It is that which puts a guard on the lips a bridle on the tongue a cuâ—b on the will and gives Rules to the affections vvhich vvhen they are high and exalted keep the heart still lovv Because the more acquaintance the heart hath vvith God the more humble it is even beholâ—ing through Gods purity it s ovvn vileness And therefore a man in vvhom the truth and povver of Religion shines vvhen he hears of sinners borrovvs the Apostles language and saith of himself that I am the chief for he keeping a continuall guard and vvatch over himâ—elf can accuse himself of thousand both faylings and sins vvhen he is free from all the vvorld beside This further makes a man to behold indifferent things vvith obedience rather than vvith opposition or dispute knovving that the vvisdom vvhich is from above 〈◊〉 first pure and then peaceable Briefly therefore when the truth and power of Religion is separated from the profession thereof a mans Religion is nothing worth for in this Case there is small difference 'twixt an Israelite and an Ishmaelite 'twixt a Circumcised Hebrew and an uncircumcised Philistine 'twixt a Bapâ—ized Englishman and an unwashen Turk Fâ—r the barren Figtree in Gods Orchard is in no better case than the bramble in the wilderness for God will lap them both up in the same bundle of condemnation It being all one to deny the faith and not soundly and sincerely to profess it It is reason which makes us men it is Religion that makes us Christians woe be to us that we were borne men if we be not Christians woe be to us that we are called Christians if our lives shame our Christianity if we be not Christians in deed and in earnest as well in name and in profession so We quarrell at the superstition and blind devotion of others But let us examine our selves whether superstition in them hath not a great deal of more heat in it than Religion in us whether in their blind devotion the avvfulness in their seâ—vices of God doth not arraign and condemn irreverence in ours Ready we are to judge the Papists for their rash vows of C 〈…〉 y but let not us that do so ever hope thaâ— uâ—cleaneness will bring us to Hea 〈…〉 n. And we that are forward to condemn the Pâ—pâ—sts for their mad conceivings about works of Supererrogation must never think that Faith without works will justifie us before God That we who wonder at such people as I have named in East India as at others for their austeritie of life which they voluntarily and unconstrainedly submit unto in their will-worships must never conceive that doing vvhat vve please what vve vvill can bring us at last to true happiness God hath called us saith the Apostle to glory and vertue to vertue and holiness as the means to glory and happiness as the end That thereforeof St. Hierom is undoubtedly true â—ifficile imò impossibile est quis transeat à deliciis ad delicias c. That it is an hard yea an impossible thing for a man to leap from pleasure to Paradice here to have his belly fill'd continually with the delicacies of the Creatures there to have his mind satisfied vvith the fulness of joy and in both vvorlds to appear glorious Stories are fill'd with rare examples of virtue even in Heathens Seneca the Philosopher Writes of Sixtius that vvhen the day was ended and the night vvas come vvherein he should take his rest he vvould first ask his mind quoa malum sanasti hodie c vvhat evill hast thou healed this â—ay vvhat vice hast thou withstood and in what part art thou bettered I find this recorded of another who was so exact in his walking that his whole life was perpetua censura c. a continuall censure of himself Aristides for his uprightness was called the just And Tully Writes of Fabricius that he was a man who would resolve well and after so unmoveably bent to perform what he had resolved to do ut facilius solem è suo cursu c. that you might as â—oon put the Sun out of hiâ— course as Fabricius from his intended purpose I have obâ—erved before that very many people in East India what lets and impediments soever they have will by no means omit their frequent devotions nor any other thing they esteem themselves bound to perform as to Gâ—d â—he far greater shame for Christians when every trâ—â—â—e is sufficient to make such a Dâ—veâ—sion as may hinder them in Religious dutâ—es And for many of those Heathens I have spoken of they live up even to the very height of nature and want means to lead them further Now what shall I say more of them surely thus that our Blessed Saviour lik'd and loved the young man in the Gospel Mar. 10. 21. even for that moralitie he saw in him Jesus beholding him loved him And so may Almighty God who is infinite in mercy look in favour upon many of these poor Creatures that go as far as they can in shewing them Jesus Christ and in his face beholding them for many shall come from the East and West and North and South and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac andâ—acob â—acob in the Kingdom of Heaven But this is a consideration lockt up amongst Gods secrets and therefore I dare not pry any more or further into it neither shall I for the present enlarge my self in this Miscellany which I could have made to swell into a Volume But if that I have written be as well taken as it is well meant it is enough if not too much However there are two things which I must adde in relation to my self The first that I may not alwaies lye at the mercy of my Reader this though difficile est Satyram non scribere that if my Pen hath let fall any thing in this discourse unbeseeming my calling and years I most humbly beg pardon for that I shall leave the Press to make an ansvver for it self For the Second I shall presume one pardon and that is for the leaneness and lowness of my stile vvherevvith this Relation is cloathed when my Reader considers that I lived amongst Indians vvhich made me rude Dum in vitâ sumus in viâ THis Lif 's our way in which where ere we be We miss our path if that felicitie Be not our utmost aym towards which we meet With Cross-ways Rubs and streights that cause our feet To stumble or to faint yet must we on What â—'re we meet untill our journeys done We seek a Country cannot find it here Here in this Pilgrimage i' th whole world where The streightest smoothest paths which most do please Are clog'd with toyl and trouble but want ease Our God and Country too are both above We keep our way whiles that we thither move But loose it when our motion doth not tend To that hop'd period which may make our end Happy and safe There is no standing still Here in this life we do extreamly ill When we proceed not for if once we slack To press towards the mark we then draw back Who therefore sees beyond his eyes must know He hath a further journey still to go For though he could with weary paces get The world's great round his tyresome progress yet Were not all pass'd still must he think his ear Fill'd with that voice Elias oft did hear What doest thou here Elias up be gone Andafter many days still cry'd go onne Who follows close Gods call and way runs best Till he receives his penny take his rest In three parts of the vvorld I 've been novv come To my last journey that vvill bring me home Ed. Terry FINIS
to learn what should be the true reason thereof it being there very far from any shore and the Sea so deep as that we could fetch no ground The 21. we discovered the main Continent of Asia the Great in which East-India takes up a large part The 22. we had sight of Deu and Damon places that lye in the skirts of India principally inhabited and well fortified by Portugals and the 25 of September we came happily to an Anchor in Swally-Road within the Bay of Cambaya the Harbour for our Fleet while they make their stay in these remote Parts Then after a long and troublesome and dangerous passage we came at last to our desired Port. And immediately after my arrival there I was sent for by Sir Thomas Row Lord Embassadour then residing at the Mogol's Court which was very many miles up in the Countrey to supply the room of Mr. John Hall his Chaplain Fellow of Corpus Christi College in Oxford whom he had not long before buried And I lived with that most Noble Gentleman at that Court more than two years after which I returned home to England with him During which space of my abode there I had very good advantage to take notice of very many places and persons and thing travelling with the Embassadour much in Progress with that King up and down his very large Territories And now Reader I would have thee to suppose me setting my foot upon the East-Indian shore at Swally before named On the banks whereof amongst many more English that lye there interred is laid up the body of Mr. Thomas Coryat a man in his time Not us nimis omnibus very sufficiently known He lived there and there died while I was in those parts and was for some Months then with my Lord Embassadour during which time he was either my Chamber-fellow or Tent-mate which gave me a full acquaintance of him That Greek-travelling-Thomas they which know his story know why I call him so formerly wrote a Book entituled Coryats â—rud 〈…〉 ies Printed in the beginning of the year 1611. and then ushered into the World by very many Copies of excellent Verses made by the Wits of those Times which did very much advantage and improve if not enforce the sale thereof doing themselves much more honor than him whom they undertook to commend in their several Encomiasticks And if he had lived he would have written his last Travels to and in and out of East-India for he resolved if God had spared him life to have rambled up down the world as sometimes Ulysses did and though not so long as he yet ten full years at least before his return home in which time he purposed to see Tartaria in the vast parts thereof with as much as he could of China and those other large Places and Provinces interposed betwixt East-India and China whose true Names we might have had from him but yet have not He had a purpose after â—his to have visited the Court of Prester John in Aethiopia who is there called by his own people Ho Bâ—ot The King and after this it was in his thoughts to have cast his eyes upon many other places which if he had done and lived to write those Relations seeing as he did or should such variety of Countries Cities Nations Things and been as particular in them as he was in his Venetian Journal they must needs have swoln into so many huge Volumns as would have prevented the perishing of Paper But undoubtedly if he had been continued in life to have written them there might have been made very good Use of his Observations for as he was a very Particular so was he without question a very Faithful Relator of things he saw he ever disclaiming that bold liberty which divers Travellers have and do take by speaking and writing any thing they please of remote parts when they cannot easily be contradicted taking a Pride in their feigned Relations to overspeak things being resolved in this case Not onely things to do but or'-do Speaking writing all and more too I therefore for my part believing this Relaton to be none of those have taken some things from his trust and credit in this my following Discourse And because he could not live to give an account unto the world of his own Travels I shall here by the way make some little discovery of his footsteps and flittings up and down to and fro with something besides of him in his long peregrinations to satisfie very many yet living who if they shall please to read this Discourse may recall that man once more into their remembrance who while he lived was like a perpetual motion and therefore now dead should not be quite forgotten In the year 1612. he shipt himself from London for Constantinople now called by the Turks Stombole where he took special notice of all things there most observable In which place he found very great respect and encouragement from Sir Paul Pinder then and there Embassadour to whose House he had free and welcom access whensoever he pleased Being there for some time he took his opportunities to view divers parts in Grecia and in the Hellespont took special notice of those two Castles directly opposed to each other called Sestos and Abydos which stand on the several banks that bound that very narrow Sea which Places Musaeus makes famous in his very antient Poem of Hero and Leander He desired much to see where those seven Churches sometimes famous in Asia the Less stood but since their sin so darkned their light and God removed their Candlesticks from them as before he threatned those Places lye so in the dark that it cannot be well discovered where they once were Onely Smyrna is famous at this present day for Trade but not Religion and Ephesus and some others of them keep their names still though they left and lost their Faith and profession of Truth with the rest He saw what yet remains of the Ruins of sometimes great Troy but Jam Seges est ubi Troia fuit That place which was once so populous as if it had been sow'n with People And seeded thus had after born Millions of men now 's sow'n with Corn. And O jam periere Ruinae the very Ruins of that place are almost all gone to Ruine The most observable thing there yet remaining is part of an exceeding great House which is continued by Tradition to have been sometimes a part of the famous Palace of great King Priamus From Smyrna he found a Passage to Alexandria in Egypt Egypt that is called by some in regard of the Plenty it produceth the Granary or Storehouse of the World And in Egypt near Gran-Câ—iro antiently called Memphis he observed what remains of the once fam'd Pyramids Returning thence back to Alexandria with one Englishman more they found a pass by Sea to Jatta antiently called Joppa and there they met some others going to Jerusalem which is about twenty English miles distant
it and chiefe founder of it was Mahomet an Arabian by birth born as is said in a very obscure place and of very meane low Parentage but a man fill'd with all subtilty and Craft who as they write after that he had much enriched himselfe by wives came to be the Commander of a Company of Arabian Volunteers that followed Heraclius the Emperour in his Persian warrs but not long after himselfe and Souldiers fâ—lling first into Mutiny and after that to Rebellion which was an excellent preparaâ—ve to put an innovationor change on Religion and his Souldiers standing close unto him he himselfe with the help of Sergiues a Christian by profession but an Heretical Nestorian Monke of Abdala a Jew composed a Religion that hath nothing in it or that savours of nothing so much as of rude ignorance and most palpable imposture it being a Monster of many heads a most damnable mixture of horrid impieties if it be considered alltogether Yet because it conteins much in it very pleasing to flesh and blood and soothes up and complies exceedingly with corrupt nature it wanted no followers presently to embrace and assert it so that in a little time like a Gangrene it spred it selfe into many parts of Asia and since that hath enlarged it selfe like Hell so that at this present day it hath more that profess it in the world then those which profess Christanity if we take in all collectively that doe but beare the Names of Christians the world over The poore people that are so much abused by the strong delusions of that great Impostor say for themselves thus that God hath sent three great prophets into the world first Moses and after him Christ and then Mahomet and further adde that when Christ left the world hee promised to send a Comforter into it and that Comforter w Mahomet and therefore they close with him I shall not neede amongst men professing Christianity to write any thing in answer to those their frantick assertions neither will Imake it my business to enlarge my selfe in the discovery of the Mahometan Religion because that hath beene done by so many hands already only this I wil say of it not much more that it hath Will-worship for its Foundation Fables and Lyes for its support and a groundless presumption for its super-structure For its Foundation first abundance of will-worship manifested in many outward performances which are not hard to be performed because the depraved will of man is ready prest and bent to performe things of that kind with readiness Cheerfullness and delight The works of your Father the Devil you will doe saith our Saviour of the obstinate Jews doe them be they never so hard with content and willingness Secondly the Mahometan Religion hath abundance of strange monstrous fables and Lyes for its support their Alcoran for the substance of it being a fardle of foolish impossibilities fit to be received by none but fooles and mad-men for they can gaine no more credit with those that are judicious then what is related in the ryming story of that antient Knight Errant Bevis of Southampton or in the Poems of Orlando the furious where may be found some like such paralel fictions as of Astalpho who mounted a Griffin which carried him up immediately into the Moon where they say Mahomet somtime was the reason I conceive which made himselfe and his followers ever since so full of Lunacy or madness Thirdly it hath a groundless presumption for its superstructure which presumption drawes that misâ—-ed people into a carless security they esteeming themselves the only true believers of the world and none true belivers but themselves Yet it cannot bee denied but that there are some things in the precepts which Mahomet hath prescribed to be received and observed by his followers that are good layd downe in eight commandements which are these First that God is a great God and the only God and Mahomet is the Prophet of God Second that Children must obey their parents and doe nothing to displease them either in word or deed Third that every one must doe to another that and only that which he would have another doe to him Fourth that every man five times every day must repaire to the Mosquit or Church to pray there or wheresoever hee is hee must pray every day so often if not in the Church then elsewhere Fift that one whole moone in every yeare every man come to yeares of discretion must spend the whole day twixt the rising and setting of the Sunneâ— in fasting Sixt that every one out of his store must give unto the poore liberally freely and voluntarily Seventh that every one except those Votaries which renounce marriage must marry to increase and multiply the Sect and Religion of Mahomet Eight that no man must kill or shed blood Now much in these commandements agrees with the word of truth and we neede not wonder at it when we consider that even the Devil himselfe as we may observe in the Gospel hath sometimes had a Scripture in his mouth So have Hereticks and so did Mahomet and his assistants mix some Scripture in their Alcoran to put a fairer gloss upon their irreligion But what Scriptures they all urge are for the most part if not ever wrested by their mayming or perverting or misapplying of them Thus the Devill quotes a Scripture Mat 4. 6. but one part is left out and the rest miss applied Those therefore who wrest or mangle scripture to serve their owne turne we may see from whose schoole they have it Thus Mahomet cites scripture to doe more mischiefe by it let no man content himselfe and think all is well because he can sometimes speak good words have a scripture in his mouth when he considers that Hereticks Hypocrits doe so that Mahomet nay Satan himselfe hath done as much Satan can transform himselfe into an Angel of light and seeme holy to doe mischiefe Thus Simeon and Levi out of conscience pretended could not give their Sister to an uncircumcised man Gen. 34. there was God in their mouthes but Satan in their hearts they hide their Cruelty with Craft and cover their Craft with Religion Of all mischiefes those that smile most are most deadly the uglyest and vilest of all projects well make use of Religion as a Foyle to set them off Poysoned Pills can finde Gold to cover them because the worse that any thing is the better shew it desires to make But to proceed the Mahometan priests are called Moolaas who read some parcells out of their Alcoran upon Frydays which are their sabboths or days of rest unto the people assembled in their Mosquit or Churches and then further deliver some precepts which they gather out of it unto their miserably deluded hearers These Moolaas are they which joyn those of that Religion in marriage and these imploy much of their time as Scriveners to doe businesses for others or to teach their yong Children to write
and reade their language in written hand for as before they have no Printing Those Moolaas are more distinguished from the rest of the Mahometans by their Beards which they weare long then by any other of their habits Their calling gaines and gives them very much reverence and esteeme amongst the People as another sort of priests there have of an high order or ranke which live much retired but when they appeare openly are most highly reverenced they are called Seayds who derive themselves from Mahomet The Mahometans have faire Churches which as before are called Mosquits their Churches are built of Marble or Courser stone the broad side towards the West is made up close like a firme wall and so are both ends in which there are no lights the other broad side towards the East is erected upon Pillars where a man may take notice of excellent workemanship both in vaults and arches the spaces betwixt them pillars stand open Their Churches are built long and narrow standing North and South which way they lay up the bodies of their dead but none of them within their Churches At the four Corners of their Mosquits which stand in great Cityes or in other places much peopled theâ—e are high and round but small Turrets which are made open with lights every way wherein a man may be easily seene and heard their devout Moolaas five times every day ascend unto the tops of those high Turrets whence they proclaim as loudly as they can possibly speake their Prophet Mahomet thus in Arabian La alla illa alla Mahomet Resul-alla that is he re is no God but one God and Mahomet the messenger from God That voyce instead of Bells which they use not in their Churches puts the most devout in minde of the houres of their devotion those Priests being exceedingly zealous to promote the cause and to keep up the honour of their Mahomet as the men of Ephesus sometime were when they feared that the credit of their baggage Diana was like to be called into question they took up a Cry which continued for the space of two houres Crying out with one voyce greaet is Diana of the Ephesians Act. 19. 24. When a mans Religion is right he ought to be very zealous in the maintenance of it very fearefull of the hazard or loss thereof And therefore if these Mahometans or those men of Ephesus had had truth on their side they would both have deserved much commendation for what they did And so Micha too who thus complained when he had lost his jmages Judg. 18. 24. they have stol'n away my Gods and what have I more I confess that the loss of God is the greatest of all losses but those were proper Gods which Micha there bewayled that would be stol'n that could not save themselves who if the fire spare them rust or rottenness or time will consume them But those Mahometans though they doe not endure either Idoles or Images in their houses or Churches yet are they very forward to cry up their irreligion and to shew much zeale for it Zeale is derived from a word that signifies to burne it is a compound made up of many affections as of griefe joy love anger well tempered together and when it is so it hath its due commendation both of God and man and cursed is he that goes about to extinguish that holy fire that holy fire I say which hath light in it as well as Heat and heate as well as light The truth of Zeale may be further discovered of zeale that is good if we confider first the Roote from which it springs and that 's the knowledg and Love of God Secondly the Rule by which it is carryed on and acts and that 's the word and will of God and lastly the end it aymes at and intends and that 's the honour and glory of God and zeale thus ordered cannot be too violent but when for want of these it becomes irregular and shews it selfe over much in bad causes such as before were nam'd it is Cursus celerrimus sed praeter viam a swift violent motion but quite out of the way And if it be good to be zealous in a good cause then it is better to be zealous in the best and the best cause to shew zeale in is the cause of God Pro Aris Focis was the old good Proverb first to stand up for Gods rights and afterward for our owne and to believe that that vnum necessarium which our Saviour commends unto us Lu. 10 42. is that one thing principally and especially necessary though the Devill and our owne corruption will tell us if we will believe them that there is nothing more needless When Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and spake unto him about sacrificing unto the Lord their God Pharaoh replyes yee are idle yee are idle therefore yee say let us goe and sacrifice unto the Lord Ex. 5. 17. the same Devill that there spake in Pharaoh speaks in all ignorant and prophane people who call Religion idleness and hypocrisie a strict and even walking with God singularity or a doing more then God requires us to perform But however that is most true which was spoken by Philo judeus ubi de religione ibi quoque de vita agitur we must act for religion as we would strive for life Philosophy tels us that Tactus est fundamentum animae sensitivae that the very foundation of natural life is feeling so then no feeling no life and the want of spirituall feeling argues a want too of spirituall life The poore seduced Mahometans and many others in the world are very keene and sharp and forward to maintaine that which they call Religion the more shame for those who profess themselves Christians and have a sure word to build their hope upon yet are ferventissimi in terrenis in coelestibus frigidissimi as hot as fire in earthly as cold as ice in heavenly things A sad thing to consider that so many should have their tongues bent like Bowes for lyes as the prophet Jeremy complaines Jer. 9. 37. and Christians not valiant for the truth that others should drive like Jehu furiously madly and that in the waies of error injustice oppression prophaness as in all other kinds of wickedness and Christians in the cause of God more heavily slowly like the Egyptians in the Red-Sea when their chariot wheeles were off Shall Turks and Infidels solicit bad causes so earnestly and Christians those actions which are good so faintly Acrius ad pâ—rniciem quam nos ad vitam make more hast to destruction then Christians to life and happiness It was St. Jeromes complaint considerare pudet quantus feruor quae cura c. That he was asham'd to consider how soliciâ—ous some men were in earthly and how sluggish others in heavenly things as if they durst not so much as to owne the cause of God they were wont to say of cowards in Rome that there was nothing
that their King is about to leave them to remove out of the Hive and be gone Strife and Division in Religion is a sad presage that either God hath or else is about to leave a People It is a principle in Nature that vis unita fortior Strength united receives more strength and Experience shews that Planks and Timber well joyned together make a Ship but disjoyned they cause shipwrack So connexion of Stones and other materialls make an House but dissipation of them a ruin So Agreement of Christians builds up the Church Dissention amongst them pulls it down To him that demanded why Sparta had no Walls the King thereof shewed Citizens well arm'd and unanimous unanimity in the profession of the truth of Religion would make it impregnable Division and subdivision are Tearmes that have their use in Arithmetick but they are dangerous to be heard of in Religion This way therefore and that judgment and the other opinion or perswasion can never repair but make more breaches still in the Church of Christ and I fear that much lesse than half an age will make the Church in this Nation most sadly to feel and to rue the truth hereof for as God is one so is his will one and his way one and oh how happie were it for Christians if they could get into keep in that way How many exhortations have we in the sacred book to peace and unitie live in peace and the God of peace shall be with you How are they reproved in scripture that walk disorderly or are unruly both Metaphors taken from Souldiers that have their severall stations assign'd them and if they break their rankes it is very dangerous Let the same mind be in you which was also in the Lord Jesus saith the Apostle not the like but the same not another but the same And the same Apostle sets a marke upon those which cause divisons And if they shall be called the Children of God who are makers of peace they must look out for another name who are the breakers and disturbers thereof in this Church wherein we live where the connivencie at some whose opinions were thought lesse dangerous hath been unhappily made Genus GeneralissimuÌ„ from whence all the errors that have been heard of late in this Nation have taken their rise for while liberty was given to some it was taken by others and from hence it is come to passe that all those Ancient heresies recorded by Irenaeus and Epiphanius and others which we hoped had been long since buried in forgetfulness have in these late times of liberty I say been raked up out of their corruption revived and with new faces and glosses put upon them presented to this Nation in Printed booksPuncâ— and have been preached by some and applauded by others and defended by more to the endangering of the very life and soul of Religion and the utter overthrow of true Godliness here amongst us It was well resolved by good and reverend Calvin ne decem quidem maria c. that it would not grieve him to sayle over ten Seas about a uniform draught in the profession of Religion Other particular men have wished and I believe most heartily that all these impertinent and unprofitable differences about uniformity in the profession of Religion which so much disturb the peace of the Church of Christ were buried in their Ashes Oh how many are led away with perverse disputings a people of uneven unquiet unpeaceable and untractable spirits quite fall'n off from their first Principles revolted and gone so wedded to their own opinion as that there is no reasoning with them for whatsoever can be said to the contrary they will be sure to hold their conclusions they being wiser in their own conceits than seven men that can render a reason And that great opinion they have of their own wisedome that love and likeing they have to their own false way makes them uncapable either of Counsel or cure they peremptorily refusing to return into the way of truth Many of these have abundance of error which proceeds from their own Pride and ignorance setled in their hearts as Solomon saith Pr. 22. 15. a child hath folly bound up in his heart and in regard that all reasonings and disputings in this case with them will do no good for we leave them still where we first found them it were very well for such and much better for the Church of God in this Nation if the Rod of Discipline and correction were long enough and smart enough to drive it thence Yet the greater part of these pretend conscience for what they do when indeed as before it is the Pride of their hearts the ignorance and darkness of their minds together with the perveâ—sness of their wills which carries them into and keepes them in errour For the conscience and will they are both lodged together in the same soul and therefore may be easily mistaken or taken one for the other as they have often been and still are by people of this Nation wherein we live whence it comes to passe by the righteous judgment of Almighty God that very many here amongst us in these later times have been given up their sin being part of their punishment to believe and to be led away with lies because they would not entertain the truth Now whereas the people in general of those remote parts honour and reverence a Churchâ—an and for that very reason because he is so these before named men of corrupt minds cannot endure us who are the called and allowed minister and publishers of the truth of God and meerely for our office sake bestowing on us all termes of obliquie and scorn they can possibly invent esteeming us as that blessed Apostle St. Paul and other good men of his time were accounted by some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 4. 13. which properly signifieth filth or dirt scraped off mens shoes we are made saith the Apostle as the filth of the world and are the off-scouring of all things unto this day as if we were the very offall or filth of manking unworthy so much as to have being upon the face of the earth And whereas again the Mahometans and heathens give their Priests not only honour but coÌ„fortable maintenance without all grudging there are very great numbers amongst us being very much led away by principles of worldly minded ness coveteousness cannot abide us for our maintenance sake not coÌ„sidering how that they who preach the Gospel must live by the Gospel and that by Divine right we have an honourable maintenance allowed unto us by Almightie God as it is most cleere by many passages of the new Testament as well as the Old And by the Laws of the Land wherein we live we have as great a civil right to what we may challenge from the people for our livelihood as any that would deny it us hath either to his bread or shirt Yet this is contradicted
bosomes will spit in their faces of the wild beasts by their detractions slanders censures prejudices contradictions and what not who make their tongues worse than the tongues of doggs for they are medicinable they cure they heal but the tongues of these are sharpe they wound they kill But in regard that it is the nature of these beast thus to do a wise and a good man who deserves well yet heares ill hath no more cause to be troubled at it than the bright and full Moon going on her course hath at the barking of many doggs And as some speak evill of us because we do not run with them to the same excess of riot to distemper and overthrow our bodies so others will not abide us because we cannot come up to them in a like luxuriency and rankness of opinions to disturb our brains and to destroy our souls Now further how have the Ministers of the Gospel in these last times wherein the world grows worse and worse been discouraged in the neglect that many find for the paines taken in their great work their own proper means and maintenance withheld from them by the fraud and deceit of some and forceably taken away by the power and violence of others and grudgingly paid them by many more as if that greatest of all works the work of the ministry deserved no wages And lastly which is more and worse what grevious heart-breakings do the faithfull Ministers of the Gospell meet withall in their paines a very great abundance of that spirituall seed of the word they sow so continually miscarrying upon the thorny hard rockey barren hearts of their hearers It was an excellent commendation that Quintilian gave of Vespasian the Emperour that he was Patientissimus veri most patient to heare and to entertain truths how happie should we be if our hearers in general deserved the like praise But truth is not for every ones nay for few mens turn Ergo inimâ—â—i a strange conclusion therefore and for this reason this very reason are we esteemed many mens enemies because we tell them the truth as Saint Paul was long since accounted Gal. 4. 16. Some that live in great and grosse sinns cannot endure to have those their sinns ripp'd up or laid open dealing with us herein as a mad-man doth with a Chyrurgiaâ— flying in his face when he goes about to open a Vein that might recover him out of his Madness Or like a deformed person who breaks the Looking-glass that shews him his deformity When our Blessed Saviour fed the people they resolved presently to make him a King John 6. but after when he rebuked their vile manners they cryed Crucifie him Crucifie him let him be crucified John 19. I have formerly heard from many of the Scotish Nation and I do believe the Report is very true that if a man did preach against their Bishops while they were haling them down they would hear him with a great deal of seeming attention it did so please their humour but if the same man told the people afterward of their Swearing Drunkenness Whoring or the like they would cry Wha wha what doth the man ail what would the man have There are very few or none but will be very well content that we should meddle with other mens matters with other mens faults while we let theirs alone as Herod seemed to heare John the Baptist gladly till he mentioned Herodias Thus the Priest of Bethel though he could not abide that Amos in his prophesie should grate upon the house of Israel yet if he would fly into the land of Judah and prophesie there he was not against that And though that the Jewes could not endure that Jeremy should meddle with the burden of Judah and Jerusalem yet if he would prophesie against Edom and Moab and Ammon he might for all them Mens dainty eares cannot endure to have their own sins touch'd because truth like light is of a discerning nature and makes things manifest Hence evill men love darkness more than light because their works are evill As dark-shops are best for bad wares Light is good but to bad eyes offensive Honey is sweet but to wounds smarting So truth is wholesome but to guilty men distastfull like the bloody waters in Egypt sweet and potable to the Hebrews as Josephus reports but so unsavoury to the Egyptians as that they would not down As they write of some creatures that they have gallu in their eare fell in aure so the hearing of some truths distasts many like waters of wormwood which may make a new proverb bitter as truth for this many times puts some men into the Gal of bitterness angers nettles them as ulcerous men use to shrink at the lightest touch yea sometimes to cry out at the very suspition of touching So that we are often driven unto this Dilemma if we desire to please we must not speak truth for if we tell truth we cannot please Tell a Politician this truth that Summaratio est quae pro Religione facit that that 's the best the strongest reason which makes most for Religion and that the best policie which makes most for Piety this truth crosseth his purposes projects designes and therefore he cannot abide it Acquaint a covetous man with that truth spoken by St. Paul that the love of money is the root of all evil because every sin either directly or consequently springs from Covetousness you offer him losse you are a â—respasser to his trade an Enemy And let that truth spoken by St. Peter be pressed upon a filthy voluptuous person that fleshly lusts war against the soul he regards you not but though he perish in his lust he will enjoy the pleasures that are present Thus other sinners either question or quarrell at the truths that are told them Censure and Hatred being the ancient lot of truth Censure of the message and Hatred to the bearer When Lot came unto his Sons in Law then liveing in Sodome and acquainted them with Gods purpose immediately to burn that and other adjacents Cities though he warned them as a prophet and admonished them as a father that if they loved their lives they must presently quit that place they would not harken unto him but as Livie observes of others though in another case nec morbum ferre â—ossunt nec remedium that they were troubled both at their sickness and cure so these sons in lawof Lot might happily be a little startled at the report that Sodome should be destroyed but more troubled at the thought of leaving Sodome which was as the Garden of the Lord before it was destroyed and that special love they did beare to that place might share up their infidelity to question the truth of that threat and to reason the case hap 〈…〉 ily thus Who ever yet knew it to rain fire and whence should that Brimstone come and if it must rain fire and Brimstone why rather upon Sodome and Gomorrah than upon other places
be upon your own heads as if he had said I found you the Children of Death and so I leave you grow in your filthiness and unrighteousnes 〈…〉 you have fullfilled the measure of your Fore-fathers for my own part I wash my hands in innocency I can free my Soul in the sight of God I was carefull â—o apply my Cures unto the hurts of Corinth but they would not be healed Which thing if the Lord in just judgement ever suffer to betall this Land as there are not very many moneths passed since there was a great and strong endeavour by some who fetched their Counsells from the depths of Hell to remove both Candlesticks and Candles cut of it that so the people of this Nation might have returned again to Aegypt and in time become Bruits Atheists and worse than Heathens For if it be tâ—ue of Humane Learning Emollit mores that it softens and sweetens mens Manners it is more true of that Knowledge which is divine and spiritual without whâ—ch people may grow Barbarous as in all probability this whole Nation might have done if the Lord had not appeared in the Mount and by an immediate Providence prevented it I say if any such thing ever happen to this Land they who shall be so unhappy as to live to the fight of that wofull day may borrow those words which that poor distressed woman somtimes uttered in the extream bitterness of her soul saying 1 Sam. 4. 22. The Glory is departed the Ark of God is taken and again the Glory is departed If this I say ever happen to this Land which the Mercy and Goodness of Almighty God forbid it may be then said that Judgment â—ath both begun and made an end with it and that the case of it would be more desperate than if the Ground of this Island had opened her Jaws and in one common Grave buried all her Inhabitants But blessed be God Prophets are yet in England and long may they continue in it the Pearl is yet to be found in our field the Gospell is yet amongst us Oh that as we have the sound thereof daily in our eares the letter of it walking through our lipps so we might see the power thereof more manifested in our lives To speak a few words more of those Indians with reflection still upon our selves let us consider that as the Ground is more or less manured so t is expected it should bring forth fruit accordingly some an hundred and some fifty and some thirty fold some more some less but all some Five Talâ—nts must gaine other five two must return two more and one shall satisfie with less proportion A Child may think and do and speak as becometh a Câ—ild but a Man must behave himself every way as becometh a man An Hebrew must live as an Hebrew not as an Aegyptian A Prophet as a Prophet and not by drudging and digging as an Husbandman A Believer must live as a Believer and not as an Heathen or Infidel A Professor of the Gospell must walke as a Professor of the Gospel not as a Libertine an Epicure or Athiest For a Wilderness to be barren there is no wonder at all in that but if those Trees which have been well husbanded dung'd and dress'd continue still fruitless they deserve cursing Arbori infructuosae debentur duo secur is et ignis Two things belong unto the fruitless tree the Axe to cut it down and the Fire to consume it When I have seriously thought on the many and mighty Nations at this day inhabiting the remote parts of the Earth and how that many of them are people that live in happy and most fruitfull Soils which afford every thing to please deâ—ight and to enrich the Sons of Men in sweet Aires that being most true of the Psalmist The earth hath God given to the Children of men Psal 115. 16. To the Children of men who are meer Aliens and Strangers to God Many of these enjoying as delectable places as the Sun shines on And for the people themselves many of them for flesh and bloud as comely as the Earth bears And further many of them people which are provident to forecast ingenuous to invent and most able and active to perform Concerning whom they who have tryed them may further say surely they are a wise people aâ—d of great understanding but considering again that they enâ—oying every thing want every thing in wanting Christ it makes their condition in all their enjoyments which seeme to make them happy most miserable To which purpose Lactantius speaks well of the Learning of Heathen Philosophers Omnis Doctrina Philosophorum sine capite c. That all their learning was without an head because they knew not God and therefore seeing they were blind and hearing they were deaf and understanding they understood nothing as they ought to have done it So for outvvard things though they have abundance yet they have nothing because they have not God in the right knowledge and understanding of him as he ought to be known in Christ Jesus They want Christ because they are altogether unacquainted with him but if vve who have had such a continuall povver of him and have such advantages to knovv him by hearing him so often teach in our streets if vve vvant him for vvant of closing vvith him and consequently be never a vvhit the better for him it will make our estate by far to be more lamentable than theirs Tyre and Sydoâ— and Gomorrah and Sodome and all the people I have named will speed better at the day of judgement than we shall do These Heathens in East-India as I strongly believe see as far with the eye of Nature as it can possibly reach and nature it self teacheth them and teacheth all the world beside that there is a God but who this God is and how this God is to be worshipped must elsewhere be learn'd Thus nature without Grace being like Sampson when his eyes were out who could not readily find the Pillars of the house wherein he was no more can any man of himself fasten unto any pillar of prop of truth unless the Spirit of God instruct and direct him how to do it Veritatem Philosophia quaerit Theologiâ— invenit Religio possidet saith Mirandula Philosophy seeks truth Divinity finds it but Religion possesseth it not the face or mask or visard or forme but the truth and power of Religion of which something by the way The truth and power of Religion I say for there have been ever many misconceivings about Religion How many stirs and quarrels and Heats have we known about the list and fringe of Christs Garment as one of most high deserving long since observed and these mistakes in Religion have made many to agree no better than the Bricklayers of Babel who when their tongues were divided could not understand one anothers speech but did mistake one thing for another And thus do many now who take nature if but a