Host against the enemy should keep themselves clear from all wickednesse nor so much as be stained with any uncleannesse c. The Parallel Nor lesse doubt can there be sure of the personal Valour of our second Moses who though he slew no man that ever I could hear of in any private quarrel yet was known to be alwayes ready to draw his Sword upon a good occasion His Highnesse was never of the temper of those spirits that upon the misconstruction of a word or a cold countenance must presently desire to see a man with his sword in his hand and swear that they will evict reparation from him sealed with his blood No it cannot be but an argument of a base spirit and of ignoble extraction to seek out occasions of quarrelling and Duelling for by that sure they must have some design to blot out some ignominy of their births or other unworthinesse Heretofore truly none but slaves lackies butchers gladiators or such kind of fellows did use that trade of Duells but now forsooth the opinion of some fooles will make it fit for Gentlemen But our first and second Moses ever had such pitiful Hectors in extream contempt who go about by that means to purchase glory out of vice gain hell by their execrable carriage and but acquire on earth the qualities of a Clown They have taught us that we are not to make our selves like Fierabras nor the Knight of the burning-sword in matter of valour and I dare aver that if there were a hundred such like Rodomonts brayed and stamped to powder in a Morter they would not be able to make up one half ounce of true fortitude Nay I have seen some of those most importunate fellows to fight Duells when they come to bear arms in a good cause where they ought to shew true valour and an undaunted resolution they have been the first that have most desperately run away they have passed over hills without being sensible of the ascents through woods without seeing of a tree before them and measured many miles without casting one look behind them nay sometime whole flocks of them together that will run away like sheep with the very appresion of a fear that the noise of their own feet gives them Our first and second Moses were as little given to make discourses of their own Valour Those who brave it most in words are most commonly found most failing in performance When Homer makes his bravest Captains to march he gives them alwayes silence for a guide contrariwise he makes cowards to babble and chatter like Cranes The first passe along like great Rivers letting their streams glide softly with a silent majesty but the second keep a murmuring and bubling like little Brooks Indeed the world is too full of these Rodomonts now called Hectors who are transported with od arrogant and sudden furies like Rabsheketh in Scripture and yet will tremble at the Lancet of a Surgeon and cry out for a little pain more than a woman in Labour in short the true sign of not being valiant is to strive to seem to be so Our second Moses was known to be none of all this Swash-buckler brood sprung from the race of Cadmus derived from the teeth of Serpents and yet never more ready to eat than to fight upon a good occasion nay a Duel out too if there were a cause for it that is either in the Head of an Army by publick consent against some Goliah to defend the honour of his Nation and so to end some notable War and stay a greater effusion of blood or else if justly called to it in his own or any dear friends vindication not upon some silly Chymera of spirit upon the interpretation of some ambiguous words or which is worse for the love of some unchast woman who will not be otherwise propitiated but with the sacrifice of humane blood No this is no part of our Mosaical courage The men of this make were always those that his Highnesse fought against and proved upon them in the end that to be a true compleat Christian Souldier was not to become a braving Cyclop without any feeling of God or sense of Religion but such a one as his Master Moses would have him to be that goes into the field that is clear from all wickednesse and uncleannesse and so accordingly did our second Moses alwayes make his sacred choise of men His inspired wisdom knew full well that none are fitter to go to War than those who had made their peace with God nor can there be any more valourous than he that has a true fear of the Lord before him for first such a mans soul is a Fort impregnable which cannot be scaled with ladders for it reacheth up to Heaven nor be broken with batteries for it is walled with brasse nor undermined by Pioneers for he is founded upon a rock nor betrayed by treason for faith it self has the keeping of it nor be burnt with granado's for that can quench the fiery darts of the Devil nor yet be forced by famine for a good conscience is a continual feast It was not for nothing then that these two great souls of honour our first and second Moses would not onely be so provided themselves but have all that followed them be so likewise and to carry about them the whole armour of St. Paul for undoubtedly there is nothing so strong nothing so invincible and triumphant as a valour which marcheth bravely under the Rules of true Christian Religion Whatsoever Mr. Machiavel would perswade us that Devotion and Piety are the greatest weakners of courage and warlike dispositions and that honesty and vertue do but expose a Prince to dangers the truth of it is of a Prince as he has proposed him he has made little better than a wilde beast and yet would perswade us t is a man and none I presume will believe it but such as carry their eyes in their heels The brave Belizarius sure was of another opinion who was one of the most excellent Captains in the World being to put some lewd souldiers to death for some military crimes declared his mind so freely to his Army in these Terms that Procopius recites Know ye saith he that I am come to fight with the arms of Religion and Justice without which we can expect neither Victory nor Happinesse I desire my Souldiers should have their hands clean to kill an enemy Never will I suffer any man in my Army that hath fingers crooked or bloody were he in arms as terrible as lightning force is of no worth if it have not equity and conscience for companions This now methinks was spoken like a Souldier indeed like the very spirit of our Moses And this is most certain that no man can loose his courage but he that never had it and no man can have it if that he beg it not of the true Lord of Hosts Where is light to be sought for
before that his Highnesse alwayes fought against and proved in the end that to be a true compleat Christian Captain or Souldier was not to become a meer Cyplop without any feeling of God or sense of Religion and that the Lord who has pulled down the mighty from their Seats and does exalt the humble and meek will alwayes blesse the endeavours of such as those Poverty therefore may be said to resemble the Isle of Ithaca which as Archesilas tells us though rough and bushy failed not to breed the bravest men of Greece and has not our great Vlisses proved the same in England and herein his Highnesse has not onely shewed an especial piece of his incomparable Conduct but proved himself to be likewise full of the Divine wisdom which hides alwayes its most precious Treasures under the bark and mantle of persons base and abject in appearance as we read in Scripture Quae stulta sunt mundi elegit Deus God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise For simple Fishermen almost as dumb and mute as the very fishes themselves are set apart and chosen to catch in their Nets Philosophers Kings Cities Provinces and Empires and thus in the old Law the Master Statesman and Captain of the World our Patriarch Moses being but a poor stammering Shepherd in shew is chosen out to carry the Word to a most puissant Monarch to shake and to overturn with a poor wand the Pillars of his Empire to divide Seas to calme Billowes to open the bowels of Rocks to command all the Elements and fill the World with wonders So did he make a like Election of his Officers and Souldiers and do the workes of Gyants with the reputed Pygmies of the world I hope I have not hitherto undeservedly brought him for my late Lord Protectors pattern d Indeed this is the ordinary custom of Almighty God to keep his richest Pearls in shells and most precious perfumes in poor boxes Men of this World we know do quite contrary as we saw manifestly proved by the other party where moved the old Magadepies of the Church and Butter-flies of the Court with some other great things called Lords who because they had it may be a gallant valiant man forsooth for the Grandfather thought that they might very securely be Cowards so spending still upon the stock of their great Antecessors though to be doubted whether they were lawfully begot or not ruined their own selves These pretty gawdy things lived in the world just like Snailes keeping their glorious houses over their heads and in their grave Majestick courses almost as slow as theirs too made very fine long silver traces but were nothing else indeed within but meer froth They had alwayes their backs like Cushions covered with Velvet Sattin and what not but their inwards we see were nothing but hay or straw They made a glorious ostent of leaves to the World and a fair verdure like an over-grown wood but are within replenisht with nothing but Serpents These persons sure having nothing at all praise-worthy in them would dignifie their persons with apparel shewing us plainly that they had like Peacocks little heads lesse brains beautiful feathers and a long taile which yet it seems by their strutting about the streets are non clypt short enough with some of them though in good time I doubt not but they will be So I passe from these pitiful nothings whom his Highnesse inspired prudence and skilful conduct would never admit to serve under his Ensignes to some other more worthy piece of his Mosaical Conduct and the next shall be the exact Discipline our second Moses alwayes observed which is indeed the very soul of an Army and without which they would march as the Historian tells us Multi homines pauci viri Many bodies but a few men or indeed more like Salvages than Christians From the neglect of this it is that we have seen in time of War so many Caniballs in arms that cast nothing but fire and blood from their throats Menaces alwayes marching before them into Quarters and ruine and desolation bringing up the Reare Barbarous villains that think because they have a sword by their side they are therefore to be Masters of the lives and estates of other men It is most certain great courage is necessary to make a true Martial Discipline be observed but yet it is to be done as we see in this very Army of our late Lord Protector that he has left behind him to be in truth a mirrour of Armies and never yet was equalled no not by that which Alexander Severus commanded as Lampridius relates all whose souldiers marched to the Persian War like Senators and the Country Peasants loved them as their Brothers and honoured their Emperour as a god Nor yet by that which Marcus Scaurus writes of whose Regiments encamped round about a great Tree laden with fruit and yet the souldiers were kept in such order as not to dare though they were to depart the next morning to take one apple from the Master of the place In this very manner did our glorious second Moses alwayes conduct his men giving them that Admirable Lesson which the most pious Emperour Aurelian gave to some of his Officers My friends said he if you will be Captains nay if you will live contain your souldiers in their duties I will not that a Peasant so much as complain that he has been wronged in the value of a chicken nor that any has taken a grape from his Vine without his permission I will have an account of every grain of salt or drop of oil unjustly exacted I desire my souldiers should grow rich with the spoiles of enemies and not by the teares of my Subjects I would have them carry their riches on their swords not into their Hutts or Cabbins I would have them chast in the houses of their Hosts and not any the least quarrel or disorder heard of amongst them c. If Heathens could teach us such Lessons of civil deportment in armes what a shame is it then for some Christians to march as we see them do more like Scythians and Arabians and that men who are made we know for the support of men and who are not strong but for the defence of the feeble should be more pernicious one to another than Wolves and Beares nay than fire hail serpents inundations and famins By this means it is that warfare otherwise a most honourable profession is made a detestable trade and the Commanders of those unruly Armies are likely the first that suffer by them themselves and all the countenancers of such debaucht doings must find the cup of Divine anger mingled with gall and the poison of Dragons poured forth upon their guilty heads All this his late most Serene Highnesse alwayes abhorred and prevented for which reason it was sure that all the hearts of the poor people of this Nation which so much sighed under the
immediately following tells us That the Lord repented him of the evil which he thought to do unto his people And when the Lord was angerly resolved at another time utterly to extirpate the people for their incessant rebellions Moses made such another though something longer yet no lesse effectual prayer to the Lord for them and the Lord as if he had been able to deny his Moses nothing or as if with reverence be it spoken good Moses his word had been a Law unto him he presently replied I have pardoned them according to thy word nay how often has the Lord desired Moses to let him alone as if he had been struggling with him and tyr'd with the importunity of his prayer It would make another Book of Numbers to recount the particular Deliverances which that disobedient people had from the Divine wrath how often from being consumed by fire and eaten up by fiery Serpents and the like by our Moses his most powerful and importunate prayers as also their many miraculous Victories over their enemies all of which were obtained more by his prayers than their forces as particularly in the defeat of the Amalekites who were visibly more conquered by the holding up of his hands than by their dextrous managery of armes our Moses his blessings upon and prayers for them being of more force against the enemy and gave them more deadly blows than all their Cuttleaxes and warlike Engins The Parallel By so much as has been shewed in our Ascent of our Moses his happy power in prayer I doubt not but it does plainly appear how great a preservation it was to that perverse people to have a Prince and Captain over them that had so familiar an addresse unto God and I hope it will never more be called in question by any knowing Christian whether that Divine gift of prayer be a qualification equal to the dignity or requisite to the profession of a Prince though I know some of our Modern Politicks have impiously gone about to dispute that too whom for shame I shall forbear to name though I 'le be bold to give the World the ungodly words of one of the Principal of them Non suadeo Principi stupenda in fanis latitatione neglectis iis quorum cura eum maxime solicitum tenere debet omne otium conterere aut sanctuli nomen gestusve affectare bonus animus gratissimus Deo cultus est optimè orat qui officio gnaviter functus patriae incolumitatem procur averit unde tot hominum salus dependet c. Now not to trouble you with a literal translation for I hold the words not worth it he tells us That he would not have a Prince addicted to too much Devotion nor to affect to be a little Saint he sayes his prayers best quoth he that does his businesse happiliest c. It is in my opinion a very pitiful vain and a false presumption that this Gentleman makes and never indeed can be brought into question by any discreet or sober Christian whether a Prince should be so addicted to Devotion as to intend no other businesse at all that were a madnesse in any private person much more then must it be in any man that is concerned in the publick for besides the inconsistency of such a Devotion with every mans particular vocation which God has commanded likewise to be followed it is altogether in its own self unacceptable to God Otherwise we should enter into Religion as if we were to be lifted upon a rack to be tortured and I say besides it is an injury to the Lord himself to think there can be no true piety or devotion in the World if our bodies be not torne in pieces and our spirits quite beaten down And therefore Gilbertus a great Doctor writing upon that sentence of Paul to the Crinthians Glorificate portate Deum in Corpore vestro Glorifie and bear God in your bodies makes this most elegant and remarkable observation You must bear Jesus Christ not drag him Portari vult Christus non trahi So he proceeds Non est foenum Christus sed flos campi fasciculus mirrhae inter ubera sponsae c. Now he plainly drags him who makes himself surcharged with him and who indiscreetly afflicts himself in the service that he rendereth to the Divine Majesty not considering that Jesus Christ is the flower of the field or the poesie of mirrh between the breasts of the Spouse and not a load of hay to be drawn under which we must needs groan like a wheel ill-greased This was so foolish a superstition and so old a one that the Philosopher himself a Pagan could not but find fault with when he said Superstitio amandos timet quos colit violat It is a very fond superstition indeed saith this wise Pagan and raised by simple people onely which through a grosse errour fears what it should love by vertue and very scarcely can have any knowledge of or approach to God but by violating his Clemency a thing most hateful to him through a false presumption of his severity They must be very silly souls indeed and have very little or no feeling of the Divinity that can apprehend God whom we know to be infinitely merciful to be as terrible as a Minos or a Radamanthus mentioned in poetical Fables who were alwayes represented in those fictions to be most spiteful deities to come and pry into all humane actions to number all mens steps and taking pleasure to prepare punishments for them were wont to raise themselves Trophies upon poor mens ruines It would be a very pretty piece of Christianity one would think now to be preached That devotion and all labours in Religion should be undertaken by us without any relaxation perpetual disturbances undergone by Christians without any repose and miseries without any remedy or comfort at all Sure this must be thought the extreme of all extremes and yet our Modern Politicks will suppose so sottish a devotion as this that they may the better lay their foundation of a wretched incuriousnesse in Religion and prophane neglect of that Divine duty But I must not make it my businesse now to enter the lists formally with that sort of people who we know are accustomed upon all occasions to throw dirt in the very face of the Deity it self for I have another way to go at present and so will hasten to our Parallel For my part I am fully satisfied and so I hope will be every discreet and understanding Christian that the frequent exercise of prayer is as necessary to a Prince Governour or Statesman for the well management of all affairs as it is for an animal to breath The spirit of the best man we know is no otherwise than as a Sun-Dial which is of no use at all but when the Sun reflects upon it Nor can any Prince or Statesman in like manner expect that his understanding should receive any true light or
resembling those Rivers which run under the earth choosing to steale from the eyes of the world to seek for the sight of his God onely So his Devotions did ever study solitude and retirements and were alwayes best when shut up within themselves Nay farther yet after the example of a greater than Moses that is our Blessed Saviour himself he used to spend many whole nights in prayer pernoctans in oratione as the Scripture expresseth it and like those best of Christians in the Primitive times that were called the Crickets of the night because at any time if some interruption of sleep happened they ever made it out with ejaculatory prayers and elevations of the heart Those that love God truly will have recourse to him at all hours and upon all occasions not confining their devotions to time or place Jonas and the three Children found sufficient Chappels in the Whales belly and the fiery Furnace because the love of God the wisest Architect had erected them and the Lord was as near them in the intrails of a Fish or the midst of Flames as he would have been in his own most holy Temple In fine our second Moses has not onely reacht after the former as we have already seen but he has sum'd up all example to perfect himself in the practise of this Divine duty He ever distributed his fastings watchings prayer repast counsel study with so prudent an oeconomy for the service of his God and held his life so admirably interlaced between action and contemplation that he made on earth a perfect figure of Angels ascending and descending receiving already a tast of those benefits which he was to hope for in the other insomuch that he seemed to have his soul in Heaven whilst he was on earth to understand mysteries and enjoy an antipast of Paradise it self O thrice and four times happy were we if we could have known our own happinesse to have had such a Person set over us by God and his own Divine vertues that had so clear and free accesse to the Throne of Grace and so near an union to God himself as a finite was capable of with an infinite and might be stiled as the former Moses was The familiar friend of God and was not onely alwayes ready to stand in the gap between us and the Divine vengeance as the first Moses did but was wont to storm Heaven for us and pull down blessings by force upon us though we were a most ungrateful and undeserving people nor so onely but that was alwayes ready to instruct us by his precept as well as practise if we could dare to follow him in all other pieces of Piety and Divine duty as we have in part seen already and shall more at large in the next succeeding Ascents and Parallels The one and twentieth Ascent MOses was a most exemplary Person in all the practical parts of true Piety He had alwayes so reverend and faithful a feeling of the Majesty of God as not to serve him with exteriour shews and semblances onely of Religion but sincerely cordially and constantly Sentiendo de domino in bonitate as the Book of Wisdom describes it alwayes thinking on the Lord with a true good heart This was most eminently visible in the whole current of his thorough Religious life but principally remarkable in the denial of himself and all his own desires when any thing that concerned the glory of his God lay at the stake or was called into the least question submitting alwayes all worldly ends and humane reluctancies to the interests of Heaven and pure Religion Was not this I say first notorious in him when he would hazard the disoblidgement of his wife a thing that men ordinarily fear more than a disobedience to God nay would incur her displeasure so far as to be thought and called by her a cruel hard-hearted person and a bloody husband rather than omit the performance of one Tittle of his Almighty Masters commands Nay State Policy it self which now adayes is held to be almost inconsistent with true Piety could not hinder his heroick practise of piety And this did most manifestly appear in his refusal of all the favours that Pharaohs Court or his daughters countenance could afford him for the service of his God postponing every thing of his own affection and interests to the zeal for his Religion and the quiet of a good conscience This is I say a most remarkable piece of Princely piety indeed to hold all the Maxims of State and proper interests whatsoever under the rules of Religion and Conscience and to be disposed rather to hazard all than to lose God by one sole sin This noble Princely piece of piety to its perfection both of profession and practise our great Patriarch shewed in the whole course of his life loudly proclaiming and as strictly observing to love the Lord God with the whole heart and him onely to serve which no man can do that mixeth any thing of humane with divine obligations that is but to serve God by pieces The Parallel We have alreay gone far in the discourse of our great Patriarchs and his happy Parallel's most Princely and exemplary piety clearly to be collected from the visible zeal they ever bore to Gods glory and devotions to his Service but all this may be said to be as indeed it is in most of this Age but a meer outside onely the very heart and marrow of Religion consisting in the interiour which we can make no other judgement of than by the apparent practise of piety true godly and religious lives of men and a dutiful submission of all humane interest to God and if all this were ever eminent in any Persons it has been in these two great Princes our first and second Moses Now it is very observable that all this Princely practise of true piety is but an effect or consequent at least of that zeal to Gods glory before spoken of and of that precious spirit of prayer for true Devotion as the great Aquinas has described it is nothing but a prompt will to the service of God his words are these Voluntas quaedum prompta tradendi se ad ea quae pertinent ad Dei famulatum a very prompt and affectionate vivacity in things which concern Gods businesse Nay we may find as much said by Porphyry himself a Pagan and one of the most Atheistical ones that ever lived Deus saith he omnium pater nullius indiget sed nobis est bene cum eum adoramus ipsam vitam precent ad eum facientes per inquisitionem imitationem de ipso that is God the Creator and Father of this great Universe hath no need at all of our service but it is our good to honour serve and adore him making our life a perpetual prayer to him by a diligent inquiry after his perfections and a holy imitation of his vertues All this holy Augustin the Oracle
pious late Protector and second Moses could never induce himself to court any thing that had not Heaven and the Stars to give him for a Reward So I hope we may at length happily conclude that under the heart of this our second as well as we have seen under that of our first Moses there remained alwayes prepared a Temple of true Piety and our Parallel in this particular likewise to be accomplisht The two and twentieth Ascent MOses was not onely accomplisht in all points of Piety that were expedient for so great a Prince and Patriarch but he was advanced by God to the highest dignity and perfection of a Prophet and he was endowed with so extraordinary a spirit of Prophesie that never any man before or since him had the like He was that really which the old Poets in their fabulous superstitions fancied of their god Janus with his double face to look both before and behind him The Great Moses was an inspired Prophet à parte Post as well as à parte Ante how could he otherwise have writ the History of the Creation of the World the Deluge and of all those things that happened before his time of which there could be no Record either in writing or secure Tradition at that time so his whole Book of Genesis must of necessity be extracted out of the Chronicles of Heaven onely That he prophesied of futurities of the highest concernment his other four Books give sufficient evidence and to all this the Lord Almighty himself hath set to the seal of his own approbation first that he was faithful in all his house and that with him he would speak mouth to mouth even apparently and not in dark speeches and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold c. Then the Lord is pleased expressely to declare concerning him That there arose not a Prophet since in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knew face to face Over and above all this when prophesying of the Mystery of Mysteries a futurity then of the highest concernment to mankind the incarnation of the Word the Spirit of God is pleased to resemble Moses to the Messiah that was to come saying The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy Brethren like unto me unto him ye shall hearken which words are verbatim quoted for the proof of that Word incarnate both by the Proto-Apostle Peter and the Proto-Martyr Stephen and sure in reason some great similitude of God he must needs contract who had so free frequent and full conversation with the Deity face to face The Parallel That Moses was a great yea the greatest Prophet of the old Law I believe is made abundantly manifest by our Divine Ascent and that our most pious gracious and glorious late Lord Protector and second Moses was a great Prophet too according to his proportion I hope will be made out by the processe of our precious Parallel But now because the name of Prophet here seems to sound something equivocal and is really capable of very various acceptions it may be worth our pains to dilate a little upon and to fix it before we proceed to make up our happy Parallel Indeed there has been an infinite number of persons which have past under the reputation of Prophets that in very truth were no better than Wizards all or Wiseakers in our Country Language that is in plain English mad-men fools or knaves but all such phanatical Prophets as those we shall at present passe by as impertinent to our purpose and not at all worthy of any share in this discourse and enter into a cursory debate onely concerning those who have more justifiable pretensions according to the most genuin signification of the word to that highest and most sacred humane dignity and three sorts of men there are that do and may lay just challenge and claim to that most excellent Title according to all the judgement of Antiquity as well as the present Age. And the first are those inspired witty Prophets or Prophets of phansie which go under the common name of Poets The second sort are those inspired prudent Prophets or Prophets of Affairs received now under the stile of Statesmen And the third sort are those inspired Divine Prophets or Prophets of Religion who though they have the onely true legal and proper right to that Divine honour yet the others are not quite to be cast out or rashly disinherited of that title The first we may call Aery or Poetical Prophets the second more Earthy and Political the third all Fiery and Celestial For this first sort of Prophets our Moses was amongst them too as is sufficiently to be seen in the many Hymnes that he composed for the glory of his God and the comfort of his people as also the many Poetical expressions phrases and prosopopiea's that he useth rendring God as it were coming towards us in his glory and Majesty This first sort of Pretenders then have indeed a pretty fair claim right and title to be taken into this supereminent Degree and that may first here appear from the very name that all good people in all Ages ever gave to the skilful in that heavenly mystery which was alwayes Vates or Propheta as much as Diviner Forseer or Prophet Then none will deny but that they had the onely right in times of Gentilisme being the onely Pagan Prophets and Conservators of Religion in those dayes Nay both Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius themselves confesse that the ancient Poets did receive the mysteries of their Religion from the Jews and preserved them still as sacred though folding of them up in some Fables As first it is plain that the History of Deucaleon was taken out of that of Noe and so kept up the remembrance still of that dismal Deluge The stupendious Story of the retrogradation and going back of the Sun in the time of Ezekiah was continued in that famous fiction of Phaeton They that would behold the building of that proud Tower of Babel which was undertaken by Nimrod and his Associates to climb up as it were by ladders into Heaven and scale its battlements to see what was done there shall find it though under certain alegories amply described in Homer under the fabulous phansie of the Gyants Oetus and Ephialtes sons to Iphimedia where he describes their height and wonderfull vast strength and bignesse and how they went about to lay the mountain Ossa upon that of Olympus and Pelion upon Ossa all which Story Ovid recites likewise with divers others in his Metamorphosis hiding under seeming Fables many of the most Divine and considerable truths but most particularly he recites the manner of the Beginning and Creation of the World just as our Moses did and must of necessity have received it from him Nay Homer Hesiod and Linus must undoubtedly have borrowed from his Books all that they
reprimit omnium irritat Fear is no good Master and frequent punishments provoke more ill blood than they do suppresse The reason is plain for men that lie under any oppression especially if it be for matter of conscience though they are at some times possibly wise and temperate enough doe ordinarily become mad and usually trample down all relations to make way for a deliverance where they have least hopes given them of a remedy and as the condition of mens beings alter so they do most commonly vary their interests and principles His Mosaick Highnesse therefore would not as was said before of him that Cum victor extiterit lictor protinus evasit appear at all severe upon Brethren of the same Faith though differing it may be in some Doctrines he provided more Doctors than Executioners for them knowing that the apprehensions of God and true Religion are to be instilled into the hearts of men by the true Spirit of Prophesie and help of tongues and not by the dint of swords he knew that God had not in these dayes refused his wonted appearance in a soft voice and chosen to remain in thunder as our Boanerges's would have it now as also he considered that to go about to reform any thing in Religion by humane strength is quite contrary to the nature of Reformation it self and as extravagant a course as to attempt the repair of a Castle-wall with a needle and thread He never went about to make decisions of Faith with the edge of his sword or determine controversies in Religion by his armour of proof No the sword of the Spirit he knew did never use to make way to the conscience by cutting through the flesh and he that by force of armes cruelty and persecution goes about to reform or defend any Religion doth but take such courses as are condemned by the same Religion that he would defend His Highnesse therefore alwayes took a softer and securer course like a true Mosaical Prophet indeed knowing that the true Spirit of Prophesie like Amber sweetly draws the slightest straw and like Adamant will court and attract the hardest iron He had observed likewise what some Naturalists tell us That fountains of troubled water would be cleansed with a Honey-comb while violent stirring of them would but foul them worse He reflected frequently upon the Speech of Abner to Joab Num usque ad internecionem hujus macro defaeviet an ignoras quod periculosa est desperatio usque quo non dicis populo ut omittat persequi fratres suos Shall the Sword devoure forever Knowest thou not that it is not a little dangerous to drive men into despairation How long shall it be then ere thou bid the people return from persecuting their Brethren An excellent piece of counsel and as good an example and was as well followed by his late most Serene Highnesse He ever held those to be best and most godly Laws that were least sanguinary and yet maintained order all others he accounted meer Phalarismes and leges Draconis And though it may be objected that to give factions the bridle to entertain and propagate new opinions is the highway to scatter contentions and sow divisions amongst the people and as it were to lend them hand to make a disturbance of the Publick peace there being no bar or obstacle of Lawes to hinder their course yet it may be as well urged that to give factions that very bridle to uphold their opinions is by that facility and gracious favour the ready way to mollifie and reform them at least to blunt their edge which would be otherwise sharpned by rarenesse novelty and difficulty Clemency is a vertue sometimes of as great policy as piety as we have shewed in our former Ascents because it begets love and love breeds loyalty commands the very soul and layes the body at the feet of the obliger Mercy kindles fire and zeale in the hearts of Subjects pitty and pardon as they make the obligation of the offenders greater so it makes them repent to have offended him who hath so obliged them the reason is infallible fidelem si putaveris facies The way to make a faithful friend is to believe him to be so But what has prophesying to do with faction that good spirit sure cannot be guilty of making any publick disturbance for it is a spirit of peace Several prophetick spirits certainly and diversities of perswasions in matter of Religion may live and cohabit together without destruction of one another and though they come not into one Church Congregation or Meeting-place yet may converse together in one Market City or Common-wealth Symmachus though a Pagan yet a most Learned and Vertuous one could say in a Speech that he made to Theodorick That in matter of Religion every man ought to have his rights and ceremonies as his opinion free and gives his reason thus God is a great Secret no wonder therefore if we endeavour to find him so many several wayes And Constantine though a very good Christian profest in a solemn Oration Not to force any man in his Religion but to leave to every one that as free as the Elements I would very fain know now what these men of mighty uniformity will say to these great reasons and greater authorities of our first and second Moses the greatest Princes and gravest Persons in the World and what possibility they can propose to reduce the diversities of mens spirits to this their wonderful accord For it is against common sense and reason that ever men shall be one in opinion we know the Heathen could declare Quot capita tot sensus So many men so many mindes So that they which endeavour this specious unity seem to me to go about to imprison Aeolus and his two and thirty sonnes in a bag as it is said the Lâ—planders use to do since opinion will blow still from every point of the Compasse And as any confinement of the winde torments nature with an earthquake so to rob the soul of its freedom which is far more agil and diffusive must needs cause a cholick with an inflammation in the bowels of a Kingdom Till then these pitiful uniformity-mongers be pointed at as the onely enemies of a State and this wretched perswasion be wrought out of the hearts of men that they ought to make all men walke that way par-force which their byassed Priests cry up for the onely right and till men be lesse in the Letter that they may be more one in the Spirit which none but the spiritual can apprehend and until they leave crying for fire from Heaven against Brethren in the Faith we shall alwayes have our Churches and Country too in a flame though perhaps themselves may be first in the ashes In the mean time it shall satisfie me and I hope all the good people of the Land to contemplate the Idaea and blessed example of our gracious second as he did alwayes that of the first Moses