THE ATHENIAN BABLER.

THe Life of a true Christi­an the Apostle calls a continuall warfare; The life of a true Apostle the Christian calls a conti­nual Martyrdome; Each act of it hath a bloody sceane, but not a mor­tall; A few wounds can­not yet terminate his misery, though they begin his glory. There are di­uers tough breathings required to the Coelestiall race; many a bleeding scarre to the good Fight, sweatings, wrestlings, tuggings numberlesse to the crowne of Glory. PAVL had long since begun the [Page 2] course and finisht it, and can shew you a platforme of all the sufferings; the scrowle is ready drawne with his owne hand, Vers. 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28. you may peruse it if you please, 2. Corinth. 11. where crueltie seemes to bee metho­dicall, and torment accurate, persecution tumbles on persecution, as a billow on a billow, this on the necke of that; one seales not the truth of his Apo­stleship, Act. 14. v. 10.19. Act. 16.18.23. many shall. Hee was but now at Lystra, where hee cured a Cripple, and hee is stoned for it; by and by at Philippi hee casts out a Diuell, and hee is scourged. Heere's not all; sufferings of the body are not load enough for an Apostle; if hee loue his Lord and Master (as hee ought) hee must haue some of reputation too; hee that hath beene so long ac­quainted with the Lash of the hand, must now feele that of the tongue too: Buffettings are not suffici­ent for Disciples, they must haue reuilings also for the name of IESVS. PAVL therefore shall now to Athens (the eye of the learned world and seate of the Philosopher) where hee meets with language as peruerse as the Religion, and amongst many false ones, findes no entertainment for the true; The mention of a IESVS Crucified stands not with the Faith of an Athenian, nor a story of the Resurre­ction with his Philosophie. The Altar there conse­crated to the vnknowne will not so soone smoake to the jealous God. Act. 17.23. The glorious Statues of Mars and Jupiter, cannot yet bee translated to the forme of a Nazarite. 'Tis not a bare relation can plant CHRIST at Athens, it must bee Reason, the si­new and strength of some powerfull Argument, and to this purpose PAVL was but now in hot Disputation with the Iewes there in the Synagogue. Act. 17. v. 17. By this time he hath dispatcht; for loe yonder where hee stands in earnest discourse with the people in the [Page 3] Market? The tumult is inlarged, and the Atheni­an already tickled with the expectation of some noueltie; Anon, the Gowne besets him, and all the rigid Sects of the Philosophers; as the throng in­creases, so doth the Cry; On that side, Censure, — Some sayd hee was a setter forth of strange Gods, on this side, Preiudice, — And some said, what will this Babler say?

In the diuision of which tumult wilt please you to obserue mine.

1. The persons Prejudicate, maskt heere vnder a doubtfull Pronoune, Quidam - some, - [...], - some sayd. - 2. The person prejudic'd, cloathed in a terme of obloquy and dishonour, [...] - Bab­ler, - What will this Babler say? Thus the Field stands pitcht where wee may view the parts, as the persons, In a double squadron, no more. PAVL and his Spi­rit in one part of the Battalio; Epicures, Stoickes with their Philosophie, in the other, the rest are but lookers on, no sharers in the conflict. Heeres all; All that's naturall from the words, and not wrested; For (mine owne part) I'le not pull Scripture into pieces, digging for particulars which are not offred, for that were to torment a Text, not diuide it. I af­fect nothing that is forc'd, loue Fluentnesse, and (what the maiestie of this place may (perchance) looke sowre on) plainnesse. Howeuer, at this time, I haue a little endeuoured that way, that those of Co­rinth and Ephesus may aswell heare PAVL as these of Athens. I come not now to play with the quaint eare but to rubbe it, nor to cherish the dancing expe­ctation of those Athenians which cry - Newes, Act 17. v. 21. Newes, - but to foyle it. And this is well enough for a Babler, that's the doome at Athens, mine, now, and justly too. I may not expect a greater mercy of [Page 4] the tongue thence, then an Apostle had, especially when a Stoicke raignes in it. Whose Religion (for the most part) is but snarling, and a maine peece of his learning, Censure; But let's heare first what hee can say of the Babler, next, what the Babler will say. I begin with the persons preiudicate, [...], Some sayd.

Pars 1. Some? what some? The front of this verse presents them both in their qualitie, and number; Philoso­phers. What of all Sects? No. - Vers. 17. Certayne Philoso­phers - of old, [...], since, by the modestie of PY­THAGORAS a little degraded of that height, as if it trenched too neere vpon ambition to entitle them­selues immediatly vnto Wisdome, but to the loue of it, In cap. 17. Act. and therefore now, [...], yet still of venerable esteeme amongst the Athenians. ARETIVS calls them their Diuin [...]; BRENTIVS, their Patriarkes and their Prophets, Each word they spake was as canonicall as Text, and they themselues both Ma­sters of it, and of the people. Of these there were di­uers Sects, two (heere) specified. Epicures, Stoickes; these were extreames in the rules both of their life, and tenent; Aretius in cap. 17. Act. the Epicure in the defect, the Stoicke in the excesse. Betweene them both were the Peri­pateticks and the Academicks, better mixt and qua­lified in their opinion, stooping neyther to the loose­nesse of the one, nor the austeritie of the other; but of these no mention in the Text. The Areopa­gites (intimated in the foot of this Chapter) were not Philosophers, but the Athenian Iudges, some say, others, their Consuls, or their Senatours: In the street of Mars (where the Athenians brought PAVL, Act. 17. v. 22. and enquired of his Doctrine) was their Tribunall, where they sate vpon their more weighty affaires, and, Gen. not. ibid. of old, arraigned SOCRATES and condemned [Page 5] him of impietie. But I haue no quarrell to these, since I finde they had none to the Apostle; The Stoicke and the Epicure are the sole incendiaries and ringleaders of the tumult, whom the very Text points out in this, - [...] - some sayd, - men as opposite in their opinion, as to the truth; one sea­ted his chiefe happinesse in the pleasure of the Body, the other in the vertues of the Mind. The Epicure attributed too much to voluptuousnesse, Aretius in cap. 17. Act. the Stoicke to the want of it; that would haue a vacuitie of griefe both in mind, and sence; this taught his - [...] - a nullitie of all affections in eyther. These are the broad and common Differences in their opi­nion, and such as heere tread opposite to the Do­ctrine of Saint PAVL; but there are others more cryticall and nice, which not finding touch'd by the pen of the Holy Ghost, I presum [...] to enquire after in their owne Schooles, in Zeno's Stoä for one, and in Epicurus Garden for the other. A trauaile some­what vnnecessary for Athens amongst Philosophers, where they are daily canuast. Yet (perchance) there may bee - some Nobles heere of Bereä, Vers. 17. Vers. 4. and Chiefe wo­men of Thessalonica, which haue receiued PAVL with all willingnesse - which know them not. I shall bee onely your remembrancer, their informer.

Epicures (for I begin with them, they haue the precedence in the Text) challenge both name, and pedigree, from EPICVRVS the founder, and Fa­ther of that Sect. Hee was borne at Athens seauen yeares after the Death of PLATO, where he liued, taught, dyed. Hee wrote 300. Bookes in his owne Art, without reference to a second Pen, and (what is strange) obseruation; no sentence, no precept of Philosopher, but his owne; those of DEMOCRI­TVS, de Atomis, and of ARISTIPPVS, de Ʋolup­tate, [Page 6] Lib. 2. Hist. DIONISIVS HALICARNASSEVS cals his. His deportment and way of carriage in matters of Moralitie was very remarkeable. Lib. de Epicur. In Parentes pie­tas, in Fratres Beneficentia, in Seruos mansuctudo. ('Tis the triple commendation LAERTIVS giues him,) And in lieu of these, and the like vertues, his Countrey afterwards erected many brazen Statues, and ATHENAEVS wrote certayne Epitaphes to the perpetuall embalming both of his name and ho­nour. Hee was one it seemes more irreguler in his tenent, then his life, abstenious hee was, moderate, in his repast, A Fero sic in Locum. in his desires, - Oleribus vtens exiguis, HIEROME sayes, and hee confesses himselfe in his Epistles, that Temperance was his Feast, the low­est stayre of it, Allexand ab A­lex. lib. 3. Gena­lium Dierum. Cap. 11. Parcemonie: Aquâ contentus & po­lentâ. His place of teaching was in Gardens, and the manner not onely to the capacitie, but the Dispositi­on of his hearer.

The whole Fabricke of his precepts hee builds 1 vpon this double ground; The one on Mans part, that hee is composed of a double substance, a Body, and a Soule, and both these mortall; yea, the Soule vanisht sooner then the Body; For when the Soule is breathed out, the Body yet remaines the same and the proportion of parts, perfect. Anima mòx vt exierit veluti fumus vento diuerberata, dissoluitur, But the Soule is no sooner seperate then blowne a­way, like smoake scattered by the wind. So S. AV­GVSTINE relates the opinion in his Tract. De Epic. & Stoic. 5. Cap. On this foundation was raised their great opinion, that Mans chiefest happinesses consi­sted in the pleasure of the Body. The rest of that was the end of all Blessednesse, For to this purpose doe wee all things, In Epistol ad Herodotum. that wee may neyther bee disturbed nor grieued, ('tis EPICVRVS owne Doctrine.) [Page 7] Yet euery pleasure is not so magnified, as that of the Pallate by superfluitie, of the Body by effeminate­nesse; But, when after-a-long tolleration of sorrow a greater pleasure ensues, when the Body is no more bea­ten with griefe, the Mind vntost and free from all waues of perturbation, there was the true Happinesse. Hee was blessed that enjoyed those Delights in present; future, they neither beleeued, nor cared for, Death was the slaughterman of all: And therefore SENECA calls the Schoole of the Epicures; Delicatam, Senec. lib. 4. de Benefic. & vm­braticam, apud quos virtus voluptatis ministra. For if the Soule also perisheth with the Body, the dirge and requiem that they sing, is Ede, Bibe, Lude, Eate and Drinke, for to morrow wee shall Dye; and after Death what pleasure? And therefore wee find their vsuall Epicaedium [...], - Death is nothing to vs, for what is dissolued wants sence, Lib. 3. Pyrron. Hypotyp. cap. 24 and what wants sence is nothing to vs. For if Man bee composed of Body and Soule, and Death bee the disso­lution of both, the burthen of their song runnes in­stantly, Cùm sumus, nòn est mors, cùm autèm mors est, non sumus, so SEXTVS EMPIRICVS; More­ouer, they would haue the Soule a kind of body, o­therwise (say they) it would neyther doe nor suffer. Incorporeum, with them, is all one with Ʋacuum; and therefore, the Soule (they sayd) was composed of Atomes, and when the Atoms in a man were dissol­ued, then the Soule dyed, as EPICVRVS himselfe in his Epistle to HERODOTVS.

The other foundation is on Gods part, for the 2 Epicure grants there is a GOD, but denies his Prouidence; howbeit, vnder a glorious colour - De­um ad Coeli cardines obambulare, Gualt. in Locum & nulla tangi mor­talium curâ, as if, forsooth, it would not stand with the maiestie of the world to regard what is done in [Page 8] those sublunary parts, Jn Apolog. ad­uers. gentes. cap. 24. and so make God (as TER­TVLLIAN complaines) Otiosum, & inexercitum neminem in humanis rebus, - happely conceiting it might detract somewhat from his delight and plea­sure, to molest himselfe with the care of this nether World. Aboue all things this moued him most, - Homines Religiosos, - that the most Religious men were most of all afflicted, whereas those which did eyther wholly neglect the Gods, or serue them but at their pleasure, came into no misfortune, or at least no misfortune like other men. And, in fine, Ipsa eti­àm Templa fulminibus conflagrari, - hee obserued that the Temples also raysed for the honour of the Gods, and dedicated to their seruice were often­times burnt with fire from Heauen. Out of which premisses the silly Heathen gathers this desperate Conclusion: Allexand ab A­lex. lib. 3. Gena­lium Dierum. Cap. 11. Surely the Almighty walketh in the height of Heauen, and judgeth not; Tush, GOD ca­reth not for those things.

Stoickes (so deriued from Stoä where ZENO taught, the Master of that Sect) were of a more sowre and contracted brow; their seuerity drew their name into a Prouerbe, Stoicum supercilium, grauitas Stoi­ca: their Precepts were for the most part but a Systeame of harsh and austeere paradoxes. A wise­man is then blest, Tull. 5. de Fini­bus & 1. Aca­dem. when vnder the greatest torments. Metellus liues not more happily then Regulus. A wise­man is free from all passions. Hee is a foole that doth commiserate his Friend in distresse; Lypsius in mae­nuduct ad Stoi­tam Phylosoph. Mercy and Pitie are diseases of the minde, and one with the species and perturbations of griefe, Mentall sicknesses disturbe no wise mans health. Hee can neyther erre, nor bee igno­rant, nor deceiue, nor lye. Hee is alone to bee reputed rich, a Master of his owne libertie, a King, without sinne, equall to GOD himselfe; Hoc est summum [Page 9] bonum, quod si occupas, incipis Deorum socius essè, non supplex, it is SENECA'S Stoyicisme, in his 31. Epistle. In all Vertues they held a paritie, Tull. 1. de not. Deorum. and so in Sinnes too, Hee no more faultie that kills a Man, then hee that cuts off a Dogs necke. Touching GOD and the nature of him, they strangely varyed. Some thought him - an immortall liuing Creature, Tull. lib. 1. de nat. Deorum. a perfect rationall and a blessed; others granted him a Beeing and Prouidence; but this Prouidence they vassall to their Stoyicall fate, Diogen. Laert. in vita Zenō. lib. 7 and make Gods gouernment not free and voluntary, but necessitated and compelled. Ʋt Deus ipse sati necessitate constrictus cum Coeli ma­china violenter ferretur, (so CALVIN. In 17. cap. Act.) Touching Man, they taught that his chiefest Happinesse was placed in the Minds vertue, which opinion though it shew faire and glorious, In Locum. tends but to this - Quem­vis mortalem faelicitatis suae artificem esse posse, (sayes BVLLINGER.) Euery man should bee the contri­uer and squarer out of his owne Happinesse; and thus weake man is hereby blowne vp with a proud confidence, that, being vertuous he should bee ador­ned with the spoyles of God, - Est aliquid quo sapiens antecedat Deum, ille naturae beneficio, non suo sapiens est. I forbeare to translate the proud Blasphemy, it is SENECA'S in his 53. Epistle. But me thinkes this vaunting Stoicke might easily haue beene taken downe by his owne Principles, for aske but any of them, how long their soule shall enioy that supposed happinesse. TVLLY makes answere for them, 5. de Finibus. - Diù mansuros aiunt animos, semper negant, - Like long-liued Crowes, they last out some yeares after the bodies Death; but by their owne confessions grow old continually, and dye at last; and then wherein may the Stoicke bragge more then the Epi­cure? In this, little. They both held, Laert. lib. de E­picur. the Soule was [Page 10] of it selfe a body; the Stoicke did extend it a little fur­ther, and then, obnoxious to corruption, too. And yet ANTIPATER, and POSSIDONIVS (chiefe members of that Sect) sayd, the Soule was a hot spi­rit, for this made vs to moue and breath; And all soules should endure till that heate were extinguisht, CLEANTHES sayd, Sextus Emper. Pyrron. Hypol. cap 24. lib. 3. but CHRYSIPPVS, onely wise-mens. Thus some are as giddy in their opini­ons, as sottish; others, as detestable, as giddy; one dotes on the world, and would haue it to bee - Ani­mal rationale, - The vniuerse must haue a Soule, that immortall, and the parts thereof, Animantium ani­mae. A second falls in loue with Vertues, and would haue them to bee glorious liuing Creatures; but this foole SENECA lashes with an - O tristes ineptiás, ridiculae sunt, in his 113. Epistle. A third adores the Starres, and would haue them nourisht, the Sunne from the Sea, the Moone from the lesser waters. A fourth growes salacious, and hot, and would haue a communitie of Wiues, to Wise-men, of Strumpets, to the residue. A fifth, yet more diuelish, will haue a libertie of Bed from the Father to the Daughter, from the Mother to the Sonne, from the Brother to the Si­ster, and so backe againe: and to make all compleatly heathenish (and I tremble to breath it in a Pulpit) A Sonne may participate of the body of his liue Mother, and eate the flesh of his dead Father, [...] dete­stabile; Cryes SEXTVS EMPERICVS - Zeno ap­probat quod apud nos Sodomitae, - in his 3. Booke Pyr­roniarum Hypotyp [...]si [...]v. Cap. 24.

Thus, with as much breuitie as I could, I haue traced out the principall positions of these diuided Sects. Worthy ones no doubt, to bandy against the sacred Fundamentals of an Apostle, yet if it now please you to follow them, - E [...] stoä, & hortis, in Sy­nagogam, [Page 11] - From their Gallery and Garden where they taught, into their Synagogue, you shall ouer­take them there all flocked together about S. PAVL, Act. 17. v. 17. and (as the Text describes it) encountring him. Heere is just matter for obseruation, if not for won­der. Epicures, Stoickes, men which jarre asmuch as any that beare the name of Philosophers can doe a­mongst themselues, are ready (neuerthelesse) to meet in a tumult and joyne forces against an Apostle, strange, did wee not know that the wisedome of this world were enmitie against GOD, and that - CHRIST vnto the Jewes a stumbling Blocke, 1. Cor. 1.23. vnto the Grecians foolishnesse. What the ground was which should occasion this assault, S. AVGVSTINE conie­ctures to bee (and it is not repugnant to the drift of the Text) Quid faciat beatam vitam? What might make a man most happie? The Epicure hee an­swers; Voluptas corporis, the pleasure, Caluin. in Locū. but with this limitation, the honest pleasure of the body. The Stoicke hee sayth, - Virtus, - The vertue of the mind; August. Tract. de Epicur. & Stoicis, cap 7. the Apostle replies - Donum Dei, it is the guift of GOD: LYRA addes, that from thence the se­quele led them to the Resurrection. Lyra in cap 17. Act. For the Epicures joy could last no longer then his subiect; his blisse must dye with his body; and the Stoickes foresaw not the Soules immortalitie, and therefore could not promise euerlasting Happinesse. But the Apostle hee preacheth a Resurection of body and soule, and by that Eternall life, Act 17.18. and so by consequence euerlasting Happinesse through CHRIST, both of Soule and Body. This seemes to haue been the subiect of their Dispute, but their Arguments I can by no meanes collect; Be like they were so silly, that they were not thought worthy to bee enrolled amongst those more noble Acts of the Apostles, onely their impu­dence, [Page 12] that is so notorious that it may not bee omit­ted. For on what side soeuer the victorie goes, theirs is the tryumph; the cry runnes with the A­thenian, the Philosopher hath non-plust the Diuine, and the Apostle bables. Thus the wicked haue bent their bowe and shot their arrowes, euen bitter words, bitter words against the Church and her true members in all Ages. The naturall man led on by the dull light of reason, making Philosophie his Starre, endeauours with those weake twinklings those lesser influences to obscure the glory of the greater light, that of Diuine truth; so it was in the first dawne and rising of the Church. IANNES and IAMBRES, the great Magitians of Aegipt, with­stood MOSES working miracles before PHARAOH. But all the spels of Magicke with their blacke power, neuer wrought so mischieuously against the Church as the subtle inchantments of the Philosopher. Christianitie neuer felt such wounds, as from the Schoole of the Athenian. The Seminarie of the wrangling Artist; the Epicure, Stoicke, Platonist; they were Philosophers, that's enough; they not onely strugled to oppose Fundamentals of Faith, but to destroy them. Euery age of the Church, and al­most euery place of it will giue vs a world of Instan­ces; one Alexandria affoords an Aetius and a De­mophylus, against CHRIST; one Constantinople, a Macedonius, and an Eurox, against the Holy Ghost; One Ephesus, an Anthemius, and a Theo­dore, against the Virgin MARY; One Athens (heere) an Epicure, and a Stoicke, against PAVL; Nay, the sophistry of one peruerse but nimble Dis­putant, hath cost more liues then are now breathing in the Christian world, and opened such a sluce and Arch through the body of the Easterne Church, [Page 13] which was not stopt againe almost in the current of 300. yeares, when downe it blood ran swiftly from the butcheries of Valens & Constantius, and the limbes, the thousand limbs of slaughtered Infants swam with the violence of the Torrent, euen then when Christia­nity groaned vnder the mercilesse inuentions and va­rious tortures of the Arrian Massacre and persecuti­on. Philosophers were the first Patriarchs of that Heresie, Socrat. lib. 1. cap. 5. and hence I suppose was that Edict of Con­stantine, that as a badge and character of their profes­sion, they should bee no more called Arrians, but Porphirians, the venemous brood of their cursed Master, and one that then blew the coale to most combustions of the Primitiue Church; For at the Councell of Nice (the place, and meanes ordayned by that good Emperour for the suppression of Arrius, Sozom. lib. 1. cap. 17. Anno Christi, 325.) some, if not of his name yet of his profession, (for they were Phylosophers) trooped thither in droues and multitudes, not onely to op­pose the Bishops, but to vpbraid them. Odio imflam­mati quod superstitiosa Gentilium religio antiquari caeperat, - as Ruffinus, lib. 1. cap. 3. And before that (in the Apostles time) about the yeare of CHRIST 75. they went about from Citie to Citie with this pretext onely to reforme publique misdemeanors, and to that purpose had certayne Sermons to the peo­ple, for rectifying their Conuersation in morrall ca­riages, and so seemed industrious to reduce them to a better forme, but the maine proiect was to con­front the Apostles doctrine, and establish them more immoueably in the former superstition of the Gen­tiles, thus did Dyon, Apollonius, Euphrates, De­metrius, Musonius, Epictetus, Lucian, and others, as Baronius in his first Tome 777. pag. nay, Ad Annū. 75. the very dregs of them (sayth the Antiquarie) the Cynicke; [Page 14] and the Epicure, so violent (heere) against PAVL. Hos prae caeteris infestos sensit Christiana religio. - These were the heathen Ianizaries, the chiefe Soul­diers and speare-men against the Christian Faith, when at Rome the sides of that Religion were strucke through with their blasphemous Declamations, Et petulantiū eorum calumnijs & dicterijs miserè proscin­debatur, Baron. Ad An­num, 164. the same Baronius in his second Tome, pag. 154. Thus all violent oppositions of Christian truth had their first conception in the wombe of Philoso­phie; The Fathers which traffick't with the tumults of those times, said in effect as much, - Omnes haere­ses subornauit Philosophia, - MARCION came out of the Schoole of our Stoicke, CELSVS, of the E­picure, VALENTINVS, of that of PLATO; all heresies were the flourishings and trimmings of hu­maine Learning. Inde Aeones, & formae nescio quae, & Trinitas hominis apud Ʋalentinum. Thence those Aeones (I know not what Idaeas,) and that triple man in Valentinus, hee was a Platonist. Thence Marcions quiet God, it came from the Stoickes; And the Soule should be made subiect to Corrupti­on, - is an obseruation of the Epicures, and the deni­all of the Resurrection, the joynt opinion of their whole Schooles. Lib. de Prae­script. aduers. Haeres. And when their - Materia prima is matcht with God, it is Zeno's Discipline, and when God is said to bee a fiery Substance, Heraclitus hath a finger in it, Comment. in Nahū. ad cap. 3. thus Tertullian. S. Hierome keepes on the Catalogue - inde Eunomius prefert. Thence Eunomius drew his poyson against the Eternitie of the Sonne of God, For whatsoeuer is begotten and borne before it was begotten, was not; Thence Noua­tus blockes vp all hope of pardon for offences on Gods part, that hee might take away repentance and all suite for it, on ours. Thence Manichaeus dou­ble [Page 15] God, and Sabellius fingle person; and to be short - De illis fontibus vniuersa dogmata argumentationum suarum riuulos trahunt: - Menandrians, Saturnians, Johan. Baptist. Chrispus de Ethnic. Philos. Caute Legend. Quinar. 1. Basilidians, Ammonians, Proclians, Iulians, and the residue of that cursed Rabble, had from thence their conception, birth, nourishment, continuance. Here­upon the great Doctor of the Gentiles, writing pur­posely of their Wisedome, alledgeth no other reason why they were not wise vnto Saluation, but the wise­dome of this World. The world through Wisedome knew not God. 1. Cor. cap. 1. vers. 20. And therefore hee prescribes the Collossians a - Cauete nè vos seducat, Colos. 2.4. - Take heed least any man spoyle you through Philo­sophie and vaine deceit. Fuerat Athenis, De Praescript. aduers Haeres. S. PAVL had bin at Athens (sayth Tertullian,) and knew by his often encounter there, how desperately secular and prophane Knowledge wounded Diuine truth. Insomuch, that the Father is of opinion. Ʋnâ hac sententiâ omnes haereses damnari, in his 5. Booke a­gainst Marcion, 19. Chapter.

But whilest wee goe about to vindicate our Apo­stle, let vs not bee too iniurious to the Philosopher; The Epicure and the Stoicke had their Drosse and rubbish, yet they had their Siluer too, which had past the fornace, tryed and purified enough for the practice of a Christian. Though they had Huskes and Acornes for their Swine, yet they had Bread for Men. It was not their Philosophie was so pestilent, but the vse of it; our Apostle reprehends not the true, but the vaine; no doubt there is that which is Sanctified, as well as the Adulterate, otherwise the Fathers would neuer haue stiled Diuinitie, Philoso­phie; That is a glorious ray sent downe from Hea­uen by the Father of Light; This but strange Fire, some Prometheus stole thence, and infused into a [Page 16] peece of babling clay which circumuents weake men, and vnder a shadow and pretext of Wisedome, oftentimes carries away probabilitie for truth. And it was this latter that inflamed the youth of AV­GVSTINE to the study of it; but he was soone cool'd when hee descried the other; Cap. 4. then - Nomen Christi non erat ibi, - in the 3. of his Confessions. And the words - [...] were not now to bee read in the great Peripateti (que). - Insomuch, that that former asseueration of his - Phylosophos tantùm extuli, quan­tùm impios non oportuit, - hee recants in the first of his Retractations; Cap. 1. and against the Academicks hee is at once zealous and peremptorie. - Hujus mundi Philosophiam sacra nostra meritissimè detestantur, Lib. 3. cap 19. - Our sacred Discipline vtterly detests Philosophie; But what? The Philosophie of this world, which I know not whether it hath more conuinced, or be­gotten errour, or improued vs in our knowledge, or staggered vs. In Col. cum Trypho Indaeo. And therefore Justin Martyr, after his Conuersion from the Philosopher to the Christi­an, complayned hee was deluded by reading Plato; and Clemens Alexandrinus reports of Carpocrates and Epiphanes, who reading in PLATOES Com­mon-wealth that - Wiues ought to bee common, taught instantly their owne to follow that vertuous princi­ple, Ad Annū. 120. it is Baronius Quotat. in his 2. Tome, pag. 76. Thus the Gold which SALOMON transports from Ophyr, hammered and polished as it ought, beauti­fies the Temple, but if it fall into the hands of the Babilonians they worke it to the Ruine of the Citie of GOD.

And by this time PAVL hath past his encounter, and begins now to suspect the censure of the Philo­sopher. Hee that enters the Synagogue at Athens is to expect nimble Eares, and sharpe Tongues. If hee [Page 17] Dispute, hee must hazard an absurditie; if he Preach, hee Babbles. What hee doth on the one side lesse af­fectedly, and plaine, the Epicure wrests instantly to the censure of a Bull, what more tiersely, and polite; on the other, the Stoicke to a strong Line. Thus be­tweene the acutenesse of the one, and the supercili­ousnesse of the other, PAVL shall not scape his lash; but the comfort is, except that the Paralell (heere) exceeds the patterne, our Criticks are not number­lesse; onely, [...] - some sayd; and these some (too) very probably, but Philosophers; that is, - Gloriae a­nimalia & popularis aurae at (que) rumoris venalia manci­pia, as HIEROME characters them. Creatures that will bee bought and sold for popular applause; and when those factions are thus met, that is the issue? All they leaue behind is but a meere saying, - [...], - some sayd, - and not said onely of late, but done too, done violently against PAVL, not onely at Athens, in the Synagogue, Act. 17. v. 22. but in the hill of Mars too, the place of their consultation, where if the rude Epicure and the Stoicke cannot cry him downe e­nough, at Corinth, Iewes shall rise against him, and bring him to the judgement seate before Gallio the chiefe Deputie, for doing things otherwise then the Law; but maugre all their spight, it was found (said the Text) but a - cauill of names and wordes, Act. 18.5. - and hee is dismist the Tribunall with consent of the judge, and little glory to the Persecutor; The story you may finde in the 18. of this Booke, the applicati­on neerer home, thus. There is an out-side au­steritie which lookes grim vpon offences, and pre­tends strangely to publique Reformation; but the heart is double, and the designe base, when it is not out of zeale to the common cause, but enuy to the person. There are some which can harbour cleanly [Page 18] an inueterate grudge, and like cunning Apothecaries guild handsomely their bitter Pills; but when occa­sion of Reuenge is offred, like Wind that is crept in­to the Cauernes of the earth, it swells and struggles, and shakes the whole masse and bulke till it hath vent, which not finding close enough by their owne persons, they set their Pioners a digging, and their Moles are heauing vnder earth, thinking to blow vp all vnseene. There is no malice so desperate as that which lyes in ambush, and with her fangs hid, that proiect is euer mercilesse, though the stroake mis­carrie.

Beloued, if Athens bee thus an enemy to Athens, and will nurse vp Snakes in her owne bosome, and vultures for her owne heart, what can shee expect from the lippes of Aspes, and venome of sharpe set Tongues, which cry of her as they did sometimes of Ierusalem, - Downe with it euen to the ground? - The Ʋirgin daughter is become an Harlot, the rende­uouz of the Epicure, the Synagogue of Lewdnesse, the Pappe of exorbitancie, - [...], - Some sayd it. Some, that not onely went out from vs, but were of vs too, but whilest heere little better, then profest Epicures, at Rome (lately) bold Stoickes, and in a beardlesse austeritie, cry downe the Discipline of A­thens in open Senate; There are some so ambitious of the thing called Honour, (indeed but a meere tym­panie, and ayre of true Honour) that they will ven­ter for it through the jawes of Periurie, forgetting the loyaltie they owed to their sometimes Mother, and the fearefull engagements made her by way of Oath for the vindicating of her honour; but these haue sayd, and had they said truely, it had beene in such a high iniustice, and in sonnes too broadly dis­couers their little truth of affection, and lesse of [Page 19] iudgement. As for those ignorant cryes, the monster multitude casts vpon Athens, heere, shee hath made the obiect both of their scorne, and pitie. The wounds, the vnnaturall wounds from her owne NERO so touch our AGRIPPINA.

And now the Epicure, and the Stoicke, haue sayd, sayd, and done what they can, against PAVL, and against Athens; you haue heard their violence; please you now turne your attentions from the Phi­losopher to the Diuine, and heare - What the Babler will say.

IACOB and ESAV.

THe Text holds some Analogie with the Times we liue in, fraught with no lesse subtilty, than danger; and as an vndiscreeter prouidence is soone oreshot in those, so in this too. We are not here then to cheat our Auditory with a thin discourse; Mysterie is our Theame and sub­iect, the very Battlement and Pinacle of Diuinity, which he that too boldly climbes, falls headlong into errour. A taske, though perchance disproportionable to youthfull vndertakings, and may from such challenge the censure of a vaine-glorious enterprise: yet giue me leaue to re­turne, though not satisfaction, answer. In sacred Riddles what wee cannot resolue, giue vs leaue to contemplate; and what not comprehend, admire: where our pencill failes vs to limme in so curious a Portraiture, weele play Timanthes, and shadow with a vaile; and when our rea­son is once non-plust, we are husht in a contented wonder. [Page 2] Where we may behold the Almighty (in a full shower) powring downe his blessings vpon some, scarce deawing or sprinkling them on others; softning this Wax, and hardening that Clay, with one and the selfe-same sunne, (his will) and yet that will not clouded with iniustice. Here is that will not onely stagger, but entrance a car­nall apprehension; Not a circumstance which is not e­qually loaded with doubt and amazement, and whose discussing will no lesse inuite than command attention. That which in common passages of Diuinity doth but transport our thought, in those more mysticall will cap­tiuate: Euery word is knotty, and full of brambles, and requires the hand of an exact industry.

It behoues vs then to be wary of our choice, how ei­ther we traffique here with corrupt antiquity (where but to taste were to surfeit) or with that moderne Nauie of Expositors, where mixture of opinion will rather cloy than feed, and confound than informe our vnderstan­ding. I desire not to paraphrase on a reuerend errour, nor to chastise there where I beg information. I shall onely request gray haires thus farre to dispence with me, that where their Candle burnes dimly and uncertainly, I may borrow light of a more glorious flame. Not then to beguile time and so noble an attention with quaint­nesse of preamble, or diuision; The parts here are, as the persons, and their condition, Two, Mercy for whom he will, and they are Sheepe; Hardening for whom he will, and these are Goats. Let vs first put them on the right hand, and we shall finde a Venite Benedicti. Come ye bles­sed, here is mercy for you; After, these on the left hand, and we shall meet with an Ite maledicti, Goe ye cursed, here is hardening for you: Both which, when wee haue in a carefull separation orderly distinguished, we shall make here the will of the Almighty as free from iniustice, as there his censure, He will haue mercy on whom he will, &c.

THE ARAIGNMENT OF THE ARRIAN.

NEuer age afforded a perfection of that eminencie which was not exposed to enuie, or opposition, or both. Truth is the childe of vertue; and, as the inheritresse of all her glories; so, her suffe­rings. Now, vertue growes by vniust wounds, & so doth truth too; and like steele that is be [...], springeth the other way. She shewes her best lustre vp­on encounter, and like the Sunne shines brightest be­twixt two clowds, malice, errour; both (here) con­spire to ouercast and darken the glory of those beames which enlighten euery man that comes into the world, [Page 2] the sunnes of righteousnesse. It hath euer beene the strata­gem and proiect of that Arch-enemy of man, for the ad­uancement and strengthening of his great title— The Fa­ther of lies—, either to strangle truth in the conception, or smother it in the birth. If he miscarry in his owne particular vndertakings, hee will suborne his Factors, Scribes and Pharisees; and these not onely to question; but to oppose a deity, fit agents put vpon such a damned designe, for it is theirs no lesse by debt, than parentage; — Ye are of your Father the Deuill, v. 44. He hath bequea­thed you a prodigiouslie, and you would faine practise it on the Sauiour of the world, labouring to nullifie his acts, blemish his descent, imposture all his miracles. Where were they euer seconded, but by the finger of a God? or, where contradicted, but by the malice of a Iew? could the powers of the graue, and the shackles and bands of death be dissolued, and broken by the meere hand of Beelzebub? or a dead and stinking carkasse, enliued and quickened by a Samaritan and his deuill? could the king­dome of darknesse, and all those legions below, fetch a soule out of the bosome of your Abraham, and re-in­throne it in a body foure daies entombed? no, that — Magnus hiatus inter te, & nos—, returnes the lie vpon all hellish power, and the prince thereof. — Betweene you, and vs, there is a great gulfe fixed, Luke 16.26. Why then exclaime you on the iniustice and falshood of his te­stimonies? Opera que ego facie—, the workes which I doe beare witnesse of me. Looke on them, and if they vnscale not your wilfull blindnesse, the axioms and principles of your owne law will conuince you. It is written in your Thalmud, —That the testimony of two men is true—. Be­hold then out of your own bloud, and Nation, two strong euidences against you, Iewes both, and both speake him a true God, — A virgin shall conceiue and bring forth a Sonne, and his name shall be called Emmanuell, God with vs, Isa. 7.14. This is our God, and there shall be none in [Page 3] comparison of him, Baruch 3.36. Why then are ye so start­led at his naming Abraham? or why doth your indig­nation swell, that he saies he is before him? Abraham reioyced to see my day, and saw it, and was glad, vers. 56. (My day of eternity, and my day of incarnation, with the eie of faith.) Why enquire you into the number of his yeeres? a whole age to him is as an houre, two thou­sand yeeres but as a minute, and all the wheeles and de­grees of time within his span, and as a nunc or instant; before Abraham was, before the world, before all time I am. Iew, take his word, it is orthodox, or if not, his as­seueration: and if that be too slight and single, loe, hee doubles it, Verily, verily, I say vnto you, before Abraham was, I am.

And now thou that sittest in the chaire of Moses, heare what S. Augustine tells thee, — Appende verba, & cog­nosce mysterium—, the words (indeed) are of a narrow circuit, yet they shrine and inuolue a mystery, and carry with them both maiesty and depth, like rich stones set in Ebonie, where though the ground be darke, yet it giues their lustre and beauty clearer; learne here then both propriety, and weight of language, and how to criticke between a God, and thy owne frailty.— Intellige, fieret, ad humanam facturam, sum verò, ad diuinam pertinere sub­stantiam?—Was, points onely to a humane constitution, — I am, to a diuine substance, and therefore the originall hath a — [...] — for Abraham, & an — [...]—for Christ. Diuinity is not cloistered or confined to time, either past, or future, but commands all as present; and there­fore not — I was, but — I am. Neither doe the Latines giue Abraham an — esset, but a — fieret, nor Christ a — fui, but a — sum. Hereupon the full tide of Expositors, besides Ego latius ex­tendo, Cal. in 8.10. M. Caluine, and his Marlorate, (who though they a while diuide the streame, yet at length they meet in the same channell, and so make the current a little ful­ler) waue this way, and send vs to that — I am, of Exo­dus, [Page 4] in the 3. chap. 14. vers. where wee finde the roote with an [...]ieh, Asher Ehich, which though the Chaldee renders, — Ero qui ere, I will be that I will be — (which in­deed is the genuine signification of the originall) yet the vulgar Edition giues it in the present, — I am that I am— and the Septuagint — [...],— I am he that is- (it be­ing both frequent and necessary with the Hebrewes to place the future for the present) and by this they imply — Gods eternall and vnchangeable being in himselfe. The Thalmudists also (whose authority must passe for current, where there is no power to contradict, or scanne) allow this, — Ehieh— as much as — S [...]—F [...]i—ere- the compre­hension of three times, past present, and to come: So the Rabbins in Elleshemoth Rabbi vpon this Text, reade;— I that haue beene, and I the same now, and I the same for time to come. Howeuer the Chaldee Paraphrast labours an indifferency, and hath charity enough to afford both interpretations,— He that was, and hereafter will be.—Ad de notandam aeternitatem eias (saith Ionathan) to shew the eternall being of him who alone can say — Sum, ero- I am, and I will be; for he is the very source and fountaine of all life and essence, In whom we liue, and moue, and bene our being—, and by reason of this [...]riplicity of time, and power, Ʋatablus would deriue Ihehouah from this word — E [...]ich (though some of the Hebrew Doctors fetch the pedigree a little higher) from — Hanah, —He was, and tels vs that by the first letter is signified, he wil be, and by the second— Ho,—He is; & to this Rabbi Bechai seems to assent, in his 65. page vpon Exodi [...]. But howeuer they war a little in the deriuation, they do not in the substance, proportioning both this triple priuiledg, & where there is such an immensity, we cānot but make a God, & where such a God, eternitie. All things besides him once were not, and being, are limited in their natures, neither could possibly persist, vnlesse God preserued them; many also haue lost or shall loose their proper essence, and whilst [Page 5] they remaine are obnoxious to daily fluctuations; only God eternally — Is— without beginning, limitation, de­pendance, mutation, end, consisting onely of himselfe, and all other creatures of him, and therefore this — Ehieh— I am— is a peculiar attribute of omnipotencie, not de­termining any other, but indeterminatlie signifying all manners of being, for so it imports — The very immensi­tie of Gods substance,— and to this with an vnanimous consent all interpreters subscribe, and the whole quire of Fathers. I haue now brought — Ehieh— close up with Iehouah, this — I am— with him that is - First- and Last, so that we may here rather challenge than borrow that of the Apostle; Iesus Christ yesterday, and to day, and the same for ever. Where S. Chrysostome will put Christ vpō that triple prerogatiue to make him a compleat God, too.— A yesterday, for time past, - to day- present- for euer, to come, though I meet here (as I shall in euery cranny and passage of my discourse) a violent opposer, Eniedinum Samosatenianus, who limits the Apostles —Heri— and Hodie—ad Rem nuperam, & recentem-, so in Iob (he saies) men are called — Hesterni— by the Greekes, [...] — yesterday- and to day— for their breuitie of life; but this interpretation is no lesse bold than desperate, and that [...] —which followes in the originall, will cut off all comment and glosse of transitorinesse — The same for euer—and therefore we find him cloathed with peculiar titles of the Almighty, and by Saint Iohn foure seuerall times fronted with an [...],— from him that was, and is and is to come;— so that if any murmu­ring vnbeleeuer should recoile in the acknowledgement of Christs diuinitie; he beats on againe, a third & a fourth time, that if he cannot pierce the stonie heart by a single perswasion, he will batter it by inculcation. Howeuer the malice or peruersenesse of most ages haue brought this truth not onely vpon termes of scruple, but opposition, so that now it is growne disputable, whether Christ suf­fered [Page 6] more in his body by the fury and violence of the hand, or in his diuinitie by the scourge and sting of ve­nomous and deprauing tongues? one would haue him, no God, another no man; this againe would haue him a meere man, and that denies him a true bodie; one strips him quite of flesh, another cloathes him with it, but makes it sinfull; this would haue him an Angell, that little better than a deuill, or at least that he vsed one. One, no bodie, ano­ther (I beleeue) nothing—Est illud mirabile (saith Atha­nasius) Cum omnes haereses inuicem pugnent, in falsitate omnes consentire—.

Euery head is frantike with a strange opinion, and that with some wilde fancie, which all meet in the same Im­probabilitie and (which it euer breeds) falshood. Errour and infidelitie may blow on diuine truth, and shake it too, but not ouerthrow it; 'tis founded on such a Basis and sure ground-worke as is subiect neither to battery nor vndermining. The Rocke, Christ. The Iew and the Arrian lay on fiercely here, not onely to deface this goodly structure, but to demolish it, and ruine (if possi­ble) his diuinitie; but lend me a while your noble atten­tion, Ile shew you with what weaknesse they come off, what dishonour. In the trauersing of which giue mee leaue to make vse of that Apologie which in the same subject Saint Ambrose did to Gratian, —Nolo argumen­to credas (sancte Imperator [...]) & nostrae disputationi; scripturas interrogemus, interrogemus Apostolos, Prophetas, Christum. Leane not so much to my strength of Argu­ment and disputation, as to a sacred authoritie & proofe, Let vs aske the Scriptures, Patriarchs, Prophets, Euange­lists, Apostles, Christ; let me adde (for so both my taske and industrie require) Fathers, Councels, Rabbins, Schoolemen, Histories sacred and prophane, let's giue an­tiquitie her due, and not in a lazy thirst drinke of the streame, (which is either troubled or corrupt) when wee may haue our fill at a cleere fountaine; to traffique here [Page 7] at home with a few moderne Systeames, is no small sinne of the age onely, but our profession too, if we can fleyle downe the transgressions of the time in some few stolne Postellism [...]s, and peece a sacred line with a worme-eaten Apophthegme, so it be done in a frequent and hasty zeale, we are the Sages and the Patriots of the time, and the lights no doubt of this vnder firmament; but our dis­course grouels not so low; we are here to tread a maze, and threed a Labyrinth, sometimes on hils of ice, where, if we slip in the least punctum, we tumble into haeresie; some­times with Peter in the deepe, that if the hand of Christ did not a little succour vs, we should sinke into infidelity. I will ballasse my discourse with as much cautelousnesse as I may, and where I meet with difficulties which are stony and vntrodden, if I cannot fairely master them, I will oppose them with my best strength, and if not finde a way smooth to satisfaction, dig on; I may perchance awaken haeresies, but I will lull them againe in their own slumber, I will onely pull aside the veile and shew you their vglinesse, and shut them vp in their owne deformi­ties. I know I am to speake to an Auditorie, as well sea­soned with faith, as vnderstanding, and yet (perchance) not without some mixture and touch of weaknesse. Here are shallowes then for Lambes to wade, and deepes for Elephants to swimme, passages which lie leuell with humble capacities; others which will venture to stand vp with riper iudgments, if they stoop somtimes and seeme too low for these, and mount againe and proue too high for others, it was euer my desire to keepe a correspon­dence with the best, and so to make vse of that of Augu­stine,—Non fraudabo eos qui possunt capere, dum timeo su­perfluus esse auribus eorum qui non possunt capere—. Yet come I not to fill those eares which are pickt and drest for accuratenesse I am so farre from labouring to please such, that I intend to vex them; if any charitable eare bee prone to a foure discourse, pitch that attention heere one [Page 8] houre, and I shall make good my promise out of the words of the Text.

And here we are first to enter lists with that capitall and Arch-enemy of Christ, the vexation of the Fathers, and the incendiary and firebrand of the Eastern Church, the Arrian, who out of an enuious pride is at once boun­tifull and iniurious, willing to inuest Christ with the title [...], but disrobes him of that glorious, and his owne [...], granting him a like essence with the Father not the same: equall to him in power, not eternitie; but giue me leaue to strip one heriticke to cloath another, and put on ours what Tertullian did on Marcion —Quid dim idias mendacio Christum? why dost thou thus peece-meale and mince a deity, and halfe god (as it were) the Son of the Almighty? — Totus veritas, he is the spirit of truth, and oracle of his Father, the brightnesse of his glory, in whom are hid all the treasures of Wisedome, knowledge, by whom God made the world.

It were too bold a solecisme to ranke transitorinesse with what is sacred, or that which is fleeting with euer­lastingnesse, what below eternall dare we make compati­ble with omnipotencie?

An eternall Intellect, most perfect, and such is God, re­quires an obiect equally perfect, and eternall, which from God, holding a relation to God, can be nothing but God it selfe; and seeing that no Intellect can conceiue without the image of that obiect which it conceiues, it will follow of necessitie that God, since from all eternitie he knew himselfe most perfect, should conceiue and bring forth in himselfe a most perfect image of himselfe, his Sonne. There is no act of vnderstanding without imagination, which naturally presents an image, by so much the more perfect, by how much the obiect, whose [Page 9] image it is, is more diuinely excellent. And this is that the Apostle glanc't at, when he stiled Christ, —Characte­rem hypostasis patris— the expresse image of his Fathers person, a sonne so begotten of and in the substance of the Father, that there can be nothing from it, diuers, or re­pugning. Seeing then, in God to vnderstand and to be are not so much parallels, as equals. Keck. Syst. Theol. l. 1. ca. 2. Intelligi autem sit ipsum filij esse—as the Schoole speakes— strength of consequence will induce, that the substance of Father and Sonne, sound one both in power and euerlasting­nesse; in fine, for as much as the vnderstanding of God is from eternitie, actiue, nay, the very act eternall, and that vnderstanding cannot be without an Image, It followes that this Image which was conceiued, the Sonne, was equall to that which did conceiue, the Father, so that the eternitie of God the Sonne, and his equalitie with God the Father doth arise from that essentiall Identitie of both, for where two persons shall agree in the same essence, if the one be infinite, the other must riuall in the same eternitie.

Here is the Rock then on which we build our Church, and the sure Basis where we foot and fasten our beleefe. — The Sonne is begotten of the essence of the Father, and alwayes begotten, Tom. 2. hom. 6. in Ierem. — Non quòd quotidiè renouetur illa gene­ratio, sed quia semper est,—saith Origen, not because it is dailie renouated, but because it euer — Is— or rather — Was. For Saint Gregory in the 29 of his Morals, the first Chapter, plaies as well the Criticke, as the Diuine, and is no lesse nice, than solid,— Dominus noster Iesus Christus in eo quòd virtus & sapientia Dei est, de patre ante tempora natus est, vel potius quia nec coepit nasci, nec desijt, dicam verius, semper natus, non possumus, semper nascitur, nè im­perfectus esse videatur— Our Lord Iesus Christ in that he is the power and wisedome of God is said to be borne of the Father before all times, or rather because there was no beginning or end of his generation, we may speake more [Page 10] congruously, he was alwayes borne, not - Is-, for that pre­supposes some imperfection, and as the same Father pro­secutes. Vt aeternus de­signari valeat, & perfectus, & semper dicimus & natus, quate­nus, & natus ad perfectionem pertineat, & semper ad aeter­nitatem. That we may declare him both perfect and eter­nall, we allow him as well a - semper- as a - Natus- for as much as - Natus- hath reference to perfection, - semper-, to eternitie. Howeuer S. Augustine in his exposition of that of the Psalmist, —Ego hodiè, genui te- Thou art my Son, this day haue I begotten thee, Psal. 2. sayes that - Hodiè- praesen­tiam significat and in eternitie, neither is the time past any thing, as if it should cease to be, nor time to come, as if it were not yet, but onely the time present, Because whatsoeuer is eternall alwaies - Is- yet at length hee vn­derstands that place — de sempiterna generatione sapientiae Dei— And Lombard descants on it in his first booke ninth distinction, who would haue the Prophet to say -Genui- nè nouum putaretur, -hodiè ne praeteritae genera­tio videretur: I haue begotten thee, lest it should be thought new, to day, past, and thence out of the authoritie of the Text or the interpretation concludes a perpetuall gene­ration of the Sonne from the essence of the Father.

But here the Hereticke interposes, and thus subtilly beates at the gates of reason. A thing that is borne, can­not be said that it was euer, for in this respect it is said to bee borne, Lib. 12. de Trin. that it might be. S. Hillarie, by a modest answer or confutation rather, limits his proposition to things meerely secular, which borne here in the course of nature, must necessarily call on time, and tell vs they sometimes were not, it is one thing then to be borne of that which alwayes is not, another of that which alwayes was, for that is temporary, this eternall.

If then it be proper to God the Father, alwayes to be Father, it must be to God the Sonne, alwaies to be Sonne, so the Euangelist. Ioh. 1. v. 31. — In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and that word was God, and the same was from the beginning; erat, erat, erat, erat, en quater erat, vbi impius inuenit quod non erat? Saint Ambrose in [Page 11] his first to Gratian 5. c. & indeed it was not without a my­sterie when in that glorious transfiguration on Mount Tabor, Peter saw Christ with Moses, and Elias (when his face did shine as the Sunne, and his raiment was white as Snow) what did that vision portend? Ambros. vt su­pra. Nisi vt appareret nobis quod lex & Prophetae cum Euangelio congruentes sempiternum dei filium quem annunciauerant, reuelarent. But that it should appeare vnto vs that the Law and the Gospell going hand in hand with Euangelicall truth (for vnder Christ and Moses and Elias, Aug. in orat. ad Catech. cap. 6. Saint Augustine also shrines those three) should reveale vnto vs the euerlasting Sonne of God, whom they had both foretold and showne. And loe yet, as if these were not Oracles loude enough for the promulgation of such a Maiestie, the voice of the Almightie fils it vp with a - Hic est meus Dilectissimus- This is my beloued Sonne, My Sonne of eternitie, — Ego ex vtero ante Luciferum genui te—. Psal. 34. And a sonne of mine owne substance, — Ex ore Altissimi prodiui— Wis. 7. — primogenitus—before the day was, I am he, Esay 43.13. — Ʋnigenitus— A iust God, and a Sauiour, There is none beside me, Esay 45.21. A Sonne begotten, not created, not of grace, but nature, before, not in time.

Hereupon Christ taking his farewell of his Disciples, Iohn 20. shewes them this Interuallum and distance of generation and adoption: I goe to my Father, and your Father, and to my God and your, not to our Father, but to mine and yours. This separation implies a diuersitie, and shewes that God is his Father indeed, but our Creator; and therefore he addes. My God and your God; Mine by a priuiledge of nature, yours of grace; Mine out of the wombe (as it were) of euerlastingnesse; yours out of the iawes of time. Yet the Heretique would faine sell vs to vnbeleefe and errour, by cheating Christ of an eternall birth-right, tossing it on the tides of time, and so make him a creature, and no God.

Heere to dissent meerely were both perfunctory and [Page 12] dull, such a falshood merits rather defiance, than deniall, — Negamus? Amb. vt supra. potius horremus vocem-. Errours that are so insolent are to be explos't, not disputed, and spit at rather than contrould. Confutation swayes not heere, but violence, and therefore the Apostle driues this blas­phemy to the head, Coloss. 1.15. Where we finde Christ stiled primogenitus vniuersae Creaturae, The first-borne of euery creature; not the first created, —Vt genitus pro Na­tura, & primus pro perpetuitate credatur—. saith Ambrose; borne presupposes diuine nature- First, perpetuitie, and therefore when the pen of the Holy Ghost sets him out in his full glory, he giues him this title — haeredem om­nium—, Col. 1. - The heire of tall things, by whom God made the world—, Amb. 1. de si. ad Grat. cap. 2. To make the world, and to be made in it, how contradictory? Quis Authorem inter opera sua deputet vt videatur esse quod fecit? saith the Father. Was there euer malice so shod with ignorance, which could not di­uide the Artificer from his worke, the Potter from his clay, the Creator from the thing created? heare him speak in whose mouth there was no guile. - Ego & pater vnum sumus, Ioh. 10. I and the Father are one. Ʋnum- to shew a consent both of power and eternitie, -Sumus- a perfe­ction of nature without confusion. Againe, - Vnum sumus- not - vnus sum- (so Augustine descants) - Ʋnum- to con­fute the Arrian, Orat. ad Catech. cap. 5. - Sumus- the Sabellian, the one disioint­ing and seuering the times of Sonne and Father, the other confounding their persons. - Vnum- than, to shew their essence one, -Sumus- the persons diuers.

I could wish that we were now at truce, but with these there is neither peace nor safety, but in victory; wee are still in the Front and violence of our Aduersary, who puts on here as Philip did to Christ, with a — Domine ostende nobis-Lord shew vs the Father, and it sufficeth vs, but obserue how the Lord replies, and in his reply con­troules, and in his controulement cure's? Haue I been so long time with thee, and hast thou not knowne me Philip? [Page 13] I came to reconcile thee to the Father, and wilt thou sepa­rate me? Why seekest thou another? he that hath seene me, hath seene my Father also. Audi Arriane quid Dominus? (saith Augustine) si errasti cum Apostolo, redi cum Apo­stolo- Hearke Arrius how the Lord rebukes him, and if thou hast digrest with an Apostle, returne with an Apo­stle, so his checke shall be thy conuersion. But whilst we thus shoulder with the Arrian, the Sabellian lies in am­bush, who now comes on like lightning and thunder, but goes off like smoake; for looking backe to those words of our Sauiour, he runnes on boldly to his owne paradox, and by this harmony of Sonne and Father would perswade vs to a confusion of their persons; but the Text beares it not, and one little particle shall redeeme it from such a preposterous interpretation; for it runnes not with a — Qui me videt, videt patrem, — He that sees me, sees my father, as if I were both father and sonne, but with a- Qui me vìdet, videt-&-patrem,- He that sees me, sees my fa­ther also. Vbi interpositio vnius sillabae, &, patrem descer­nit, & filium, teque demonstrat, neque patrem habere, ne­que filium, August. in his contra 5. host. genera cap. 6. It is a rare opinion that hath not something to hearten it either in truth or probability, otherwise it were no lesse erroneous, than desperate. But here there can be no co­lour or pretence for either, where both Diuinity and Arts breathe their defiance; that two natures should dis­solue into one person, religion contradicts; two persons into one nature, reason; but two persons into one person, both reason & religion. — Dixit Dominus Domino meo— saith the Psalmist, The Lord said vnto my Lord, sit at my right hand. Harke Sabellius, here is a Lord and a Lord, two then, not one; where is now thy confusion of per­sons? Ego Deus solus, & non alius extra me, Deut. 32.12. I am God, and there is none beside me-. Arrius where is thy God of eternity, and thy God of power, thy God of time, and operation, and thy God from the beginning? [Page 14] Audi Israel, Dominus noster Deus vnus—, The Lord our God is God onely, no riuall, no sharer in his omnipotency, for if temporary, how a God? if a God, how not eternall? if eternall, how not one? Thou allowest him the power of God, but not the eternity, the operation, not the time; what prodigy of errour? what dearth of reason? what warre of contradiction? what is this but to be God, and no God? temporary, and yet euerlasting? Opinion once seeded in errour, shoots-out into heresie, and after some growth of time, blasphemy. Who (besides an Arri­an) could haue thus molded two Gods out of one? ex­cept a Tritheite, or a Maniche? Who (scarce so grosse­ly neither) denie them not an equality of time, but con­dition, coeternall, but this good, and that euill. Thus men ouer-borne with the strength of a selfe-conceit, are so precipitated and drawne on with the swindge of an vn­ruly fancy, that leauing the road and vsuall wayes of truth, they run into by-paths of errour, and so at length loose both their iudgement, and their faith. Some haue beene so busie with starres, that they haue forgotten him that giues them influence; and like curious Lapida­ries, dally so long with sparkling obiects, that they loose the light of that organ which giues life vnto their Art. Learning (indeed) in many is a disease, not a perfection, a meere surfeit, rather vomited, than emptied, nothing passeth but what is forced, and as sometimes with a fit of weaknesse, so of pitty. A greedy knowledge feeds not our vnderstanding, but oppresseth it, and like a rauenous appetite chewes more to poison, than to nourishment. Were I to drinke freely of what is sacred, I should desire that which flowes, not that which is pumped for, wa­ters that are troubled yeeld mud, and are oftentimes as­well the bane of the receiuer, as the comfort. A Pioner or bold myner which digs on too farre for his rich veine of Ore, meets with a dampe which choakes him; and we may finde some dispositions rather desperate than ven­turous, [Page 15] knowne more by a heady resolution, than a wise cautelousnesse, whom we may resemble to that silly and storme-tost Seaman, who diued so long for a piece of his shipwrackt treasure, that either want of aire, or ponde­rousnesse of water depriued him at once of life and for­tune. Arrius hath been so long conuersant in the schoole of Philosophy, that he forgets hee is a Priest, and now makes that the Mistresse of Diuinity, which was before the handmaid. S. Augustine therefore in his Oration ad Catechum. expostulates with the hereticke, and by way of Prosopopeia doth catechize him thus, — Credis in Deum patrem omnipotentem? Dost thou beleeue in God the father Almighty, & in his sonne Iesus Christ our Lord? I beleeue, thou sayest: here, then thou art mine against the Pagan, and the Mahometan. Dost thou beleeue that the God and man Christ Iesus was conceiued of the holy Ghost, and borne of the Virgin Mary? I beleeue; thou art yet with me against Photinus, and the Iew. Dost thou beleeue the father to be one person, and the sonne another, yet father and sonne but one God? and this also; here thou art mine too against the Sabellian. — Age si mecum es in omnibus, quare litigamus? saith the Father, if wee are one in all these, why contend we? Let there be no strife betweene thee and me, for we are brethren. But it will fall out here anon as betweene Lot and Abraham, by reason of our sub­stance we cannot dwell together, wee must part anon. Tell me then how is the sonne equall to the father, in operati­on or beginning, in power or eternity, or both? In operation and power, the heretique allowes, but not eternitie; for how can that which was begotten be equall to that which was not begotten? Yes, eternitie, and greatnesse, and power in God sound one, for he is not great in one thing, and God in another, but in this great, that hee is God, be­cause his greatnesse is the same with his power, and his es­sence with his greatnesse. Seeing then the sonne is coequall in respect of power, he must be coeternall too in respect of [Page 16] euerlastingnesse. Here the Arrian is on fire, and nothing can allay or quench these flames but that which giues them an vntimely foment, Reason. To proue a princi­ple in nature is both troublesome and difficult, but in re­ligion without the assent of faith, impossible: In matters of reason, it is first discourse, then resolue, but in these of religion, first beleeue, and the effect will follow, whether for confession of the truth, or conuiction of errour, or both. The greatest miracles our Sauiour did in way of cure or restauration was with a— si credas-, and that to the liuing, and the dead, and betweene those, the sicke. To the Centurion for his seruant with a — sicut credis-, As thou beleeuest, so be it vnto thee, Matth. 8.5. To the Ru­ler of the Synagogue for his daughter, with a- Crede- too, — Feare not, but beleeue, Mar. 5.36. To all that are dumbe, or blinde, or lame in mysteries of Diuinity, as to those dumbe, or blinde, or lame in bodie, with a - Vtrum cre­ditis? Doe you beleeue these things? then your faith hath made you whole, Matth. 9.28. but if wee meet with vn­weildy dispositions, such as are not onely vntractable, but opposite to the waies of faith, we shall rather drag than inuite them to beliefe; howeuer the Father labours here by a powerfull perswasion, and where hee failes in the strength of proofe, he makes it out by way of allusion, which he illustrates by a similitude of fire & light, which are distinct things, one proceeds from another, neither can the one be possibly without the other, the father he resembles to the fire, the sonne to the light, and endea­uours to deriue it (though obliquely somewhat) from sacred storie in Deut. 4.24. God is called a fire, —Thy God is a consuming fire; in Psal. 8. Christ the light, Thy word is a light vnto my steps: With this double stone he batters the forehead both of the Sabellian, and the Arrian; first of the Sabellian, for here are two in one, fire and light, yet two still not one, why not so with Sonne, and Father? The Arrian next, for here also is one borne of another, [Page 17] yet the one not possibly to be borne without the other, neither of them first or last; fire and light coeuall, Fa­ther and Sonne, so too. The similitude iarres onely in this, those are temporarie, and these eternall, —pater ergò & filius vnum sunt (saith the Father) — Sunt-dico, quia pater & filius, -vnum- quia Deus; dualitas in prole, vnitas in deitate, cum dico filius, alter est, cum dico Deus, vnus est. cont. 5. host. genera cap. 7. What more obuious and trod­den to the thinnest knowledge, than that there is here - alius and - alius, but not - aliud-, as in bels of equal magni­tude, and dimension (pardon the lownesse of the simili­tude) which though framed out of the same masse, and Art, where the substance and workmanship are one, yet the sound is diuers; for though of Sonne and Father the sub­stance be one as God, yet the appellation and sound is diuers, as Sonne and Father.

The Heretique either impatient of this truth, or ig­norant, once more makes reason his vmpire, but how sinisterly, how iniuriously? that which should be the mistresse of our sence, and the Sterne and arbitresse of all our actions, must now be a promotresse and baud to error. It is bold expostulation that runnes vs on these shelues of danger, and hath been the often wracke of many a blooming and hopefull truth. There are errours besides these desperate, of will, of vnderstanding, which some­times are rather voluntary, than deliberatiue, and balla­ced more by the suggestions of a weake fancy, than any strength of iudgment; If our thoughts thē still lie at Hull in those shallowes of nature, where we coast daily about sence and reason, how can we but dash against vntimely errours? but if we keepe aloofe in principles of Religi­on, where those winds of doubt and distrust swell and bluster not, faith will be at last our waf [...]er vnto truth. Let's not then any longer root our meditations in vallies vnder vs, but looke vp to those hills from whence our sal­uation commeth. Let's conuerse a little with Prophets [Page 18] and Euangelists, and those other Registers and Secreta­ries of the Almightie. - In te est Deus, & non est Deus praeter te, Esay 45.5. Infidell, either deny a diuinity of Father, or Sonne, or confesse an vnitie of both; for one thou must doe; of the Sonne thou canst not, for there is a God in him, the Father, Pater qui in me manet ipse loqui­tur, the Father that is in me he speaketh, and the works which I doe he doth, Ioh. 10. of the Father thou dar'st not, there is a God in him the Sonne, -I am in the Father, and the Father in me, Ioh. 14. Here then is both a proprietie of na­ture, and vnitie of consent. God in God, yet not two, but one, fulnesse of diuinitie in the Father, fulnesse in the Son, yet the Godhead not diuers, but the same, so that now there is no lesse a singlenesse of name than operation. And therefore those words of the Apostle, though in the first encounter and suruay, they offer a shew of contradiction, yet searched to the quicke and kernell, are not without a mysterious weight, Rom. 8.32. It is said of the Father, - Filio proprio non pepercit, sed pro nobis tradidit. He spared not his owne Sonne but gaue him for vs all to death; yet E­phes. 5. It is said of the Sonne, - Tradidit semeteipsum pro nobis—, —He gaue himselfe for vs—, Heere is a double — Tradidit—an a — pro nobis—, and a — se pro nobis-, if he was giuen of the Father, and yet gaue himselfe, how can it follow, but that there must be both a simpathy of nature and operation? And indeed it were a meere sacri­ledge and robbery of their honour, to depriue them of this so sacred a correspondence. We allow to all belee­uers but one soule and one heart, Acts 4 to all those that cleaue to God one spirit 1 Cor. 16. to husband and wife one flesh, to all men in respect of nature, but one substance; If in sublunary matters (where there is no alliance or reference with those more sacred) Scriptures approue many to be one, shall we riffle the Father and the Sonne of the like Iurisdiction, and deny them to be eternally one, where there is no iarre of will, or substance? Heare how the Apostle doth chalke out a way to our beleefe, by the [Page 19] rules of diuine truth, 1 Cor. 8.6. There is one God which is the Father, of whom are all things, and we of him, and one Lord Iesus Christ by whom are all things, and wee by him. Here is - Deus- and - Dominus-, a God and a Lord, and yet no pluralitie of Godhead, and an - ex quo- and a - per quem, -of whom and by whom, yet a vnitie of power, for as in that he sayes one Lord Iesus Christ, he denied not the Fa­ther to be Lord, so by saying one God the Father, he de­nied not the Sonne to be God. —In te igitur est Deus per vnitatem naturae, & non est Deus praeter te propter proprie­tatem substantiae. Ambros. lib. 1. de fide ad Gratian 2. cap. With what sacred inscriptions do we find him blazoned, the ingrauen forme of his Father, the image of his goodnesse, the brightnesse of his glory? and with these three of an Apostle, Esay 9.6. a Prophet rankes other three not subordinate in maiestie, or truth; as if the same inspiration had dictated both matter and forme. Counsellor, the Almighty God, the euerlasting Father, the euerlasting Father in a double sence, either as he is author of it, as Iuball was said to be the Father of Musicke when he was but the Author or inuentor, or in respect of his affection, because hee loues with an euerlasting loue; yet some leaning on the word of the Greeke Interpreter [...], which the vulgar renders, — Pater futuri seculi— would restraine it onely to the life to come, In cap. 9. Esay. but Caluine extends it to a perpetuity of time and continued Series of all ages; And the Chal dee translation (which with the Hebrew is most authen­tique) seemes not onely to assent to it, but applaud it too. - Nomen eius ab antè mirabilis consilio, Deus fortis, perma­nens in saecula saeculorum. Howeuer the Septuagint (ter­rified with the maiestie of so great a name) giue it vs by — Magni consilij Angelus—; which words though they haue no footing in the originall, yet both Augustine and Tertullian approue the sence, taking — Angelus— for — Nancius—, so that Christ tooke not vpon him the na­ture of an Angell (as some would iniuriously foize upon [Page 20] Origens opinion) but the office, by which as a Legate or mediator; rather he appeared to those Patriarches of old, Abraham and the rest, Gen. 18.3.

I haue once more brought Christ as farre as Iacob and Abraham, but the Text tolls me a little farther, and so doth my aduersary too, till I haue verified in Christ the strength of that voice, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Iacob. We may not leaue him here with the bare title of an Angell, we must goe higher, to that of the Son of God, where we shal lagain meet our implacable Ar­rian in his violent opposition. If there be a Son, he must be borne, if borne, there was a time when there was no Sonne, for to be borne, presupposes a beginning, and that time. Saint Augustine diuided (as it seemes) betweene pity and indignation, answeres. Qui hoc dicit non intelligit etiam natum esse, deo sempiternum esse—. To be borne with God, is to be eternall with God, and he opens himselfe by his old similitude, Sicut splendor qui gignitur ab igne, as light which is begotten of fire, and diffused, is coeuall with the fire, and would be coeternall too if fire were eter­nall, so the Sonne with the Father, this being before all time, the other must kisse in the same euerlastingnesse. The Father thinking his reason built too slenderly doth buttresse (as it were) and backe it with the authoritie of an Apostle, 1 Cor. [...] such an Apostle as was sometimes a persecu­tor, and therefore his authoritie most potent against a persecutor, where he stiles Christ, the power and wisedome of God. If the Sonne of God be the power and wisdome of God, and that God was neuer without power and wise­dome, how can we scant the Sonne of a coeternitie with the Father? For either we must grant that there was al­wayes a Sonne, or that God had sometimes no wisedome, and impudence or madnesse were neuer at such a growth of blasphemie as to belch the latter. If the reuerend alle­gation of a learned Prelate, or those more sacred of an A­postle, cannot bung vp the mouth of a malicious Here­tique, [Page 21] heare the voice of a Prophet, & a Father warbling vpon that too. Before me there was no other God, and af­ter me there shall be none, Esay. 43.10. Quis hoc dicit, pa­ter, an filius? (saith Ambrose) who is here the speaker, the Father or the Sonne (he comes ouer him with a sub­till Dilemma:) if the Sonne, thus he saith, — before mee there was no other God, if the Father,— After me (saith he) there shall be none, for both the Father in the Sonne, and the Sonne in the Father must be knowne, when thou namest a Father, thou hast also designed a Sonne, because no man is a Father to himselfe; when thou namest a Sonne, thou confessest also a Father, for no man is sonne to himselfe, the Sonne therefore can neither subsist with­out the Father, nor the Father without the Sonne, the one being from euerlasting, we may not depose the o­ther from the like omnipotency. If truth thus twisted in a triple authoritie of Prophets, Apostles, Fathers, cannot allay the turbulency of a contagious heretique, heare the voyce of him who spake as neuer man spake; neuer Father, Apostle, Prophet, (if at length such an authoritie be passable with an Arrian) the Lambe of God; O Father glorifie me with thine owne selfe, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was, Ioh. 17.5. Hearest thou In­fidell? a Sonne, and glorified, with the Father before the world? what chinke now, what by-path for euasion where thou art compassed with such a cloud of witnesses?

Tell me deuill (for hereticke is to cheape and low an attribute, when thou art growne to such a maturity and height of prophanation) was there a time when omni­potent God the Father was not, and yet was there a God? Gird now vp thy loynes, and answer if thou canst, for if he began to be a Father, then he was first a God, and after made a Father, how is God then immutable, how the same, one, when by accesse of generation he shall suf­fer change? Grant mee then a God eternall, and thou must a Father, and if a Father, a sonne too, they are rela­tiues, [Page 22] and cannot digest a separation either in respect of time, or power. And this thou didst once subscribe to (and I know not what deuillish suggestion wrought thy reuolt) in an Epistle to Eusebius, if the authority of Bren­tius will passe for classicall, where thou couldst afford him the stile of [...], plenus Deus, vnigenitus- and a little before that he had his beginning, [...]— ante tempora, ante saecula, why shouldst thou now then rip vp the wombe of Deity, and enquire how he was begotten? how borne? and when? as if thou labouredst to bastard his descent, and make it tem­porary. Doe not, doe not out of the custome of humane generation tie eternity to time, or manner, and so at once vomit errour and blasphemy. Heare the voice of the Lord thundring vnto thee, Cui me similem existimas? who is like vnto mee, or to whom is the arme of the Lord re­uealed? Me ante montes generauit Dominus, before the mountaines were setled, or the hills raised, I was brought forth. Ambros. 1. de fi­de, cap. 5. Habeat ergo generationis inusitatae gloriam, qui ha­bet potestatis inusitatae gratiam. He that hath an vnwon­ted Iurisdiction in respect of power, it were a derogation too capitall to lessen his prerogatiue in way of birth; ob­serue what pompe he carrieth of antiquity, what descent, how deriued? by Heraulds of no meane ranke, a King, & a Prophet, and a Prophet that's a King, I was set vp of old, from euerlasting, Prou. 8.24. His goings forth haue beene from euerlasting, Mich. 5.2. Thy throne is established of old, thou art from euerlasting, Psal. 93.2. Harke, from euer­lasting, from euerlasting, from euerlasting, one ecchoing to another, as if the same pen had beene as well the dire­ctrix of the languages, as the truth. If thou shalt then hereafter ball an eternity with a— quando, or a— quomodo natus? Amb. vt supra. I goe one with the Father still, Quid te ista quae­stionum tormenta delectant? Audis Dei filium, aut dele nomen, aut agnosce naturā?—Quaeres that are to nice ra­ther torment the vnderstanding, than informe it, and are [Page 23] more apt to puzzle our Iudgement, than to rectifie it. Subtilty of questions (I know not whether) it hath more conuinced, or begotten errour, or improued vs in our knowledge, or staggered vs. And hence I suppose was the substance of the Apostles aduice to the Romanes, He that is weake in faith receiue you; but not to doubtfull dis­putations, Cap. 14.1. Curiosities of question haue euer beene the engines and stales to heresie, and therfore some of the Fathers haue nicke-named Philosophers with an — Haereticorum Patriarchae—It is no lesse a policy than right in sadder learning to giue Diuinity the chaire, Tertull. for if Arts with their subtle retinue once inuade it, sence and reason will hisse faith out of doores. And therefore we finde the same Apostle vehement in his— Canote ne vos seducat, Beware lest any man spoile you through Philoso­phy and vaine deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ, Coloss. 2.4. In matters of faith he that plaies either the Philosopher, or the criticke displaies neither his Iudgement, nor his Religion, for the kingdome of God is not in word, but in power, 1 Cor. 4.20. Considera (saith Augustine) quod voceris fidelis non rationalis, Faith, not reason, is our an­chor in this depth, and beleefe, not scruple is our steers­man to our port. Wisdome, I meane that which is worldly and feathered (as it were) with transitorinesse, must now stoope to simplicity, strength to weaknesse. How doth the Apostle iumpe with vs? Hee hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, and the weake things the mighty, 1 Cor. 1.27. Hence it is that the kingdome of heauen belongs vnto children, Matth. 19.13. And God hath hid it from the prudent, and reuea­led it to babes, Matth. 11.25. And therefore S. Augu­stine makes a proud knowledge strike saile to a modest ignorance in his 188. Serm. de Temp. —Meum est piè ig­norantiam confiteri, quam temere mihi scientiam vendica­re. In sacred matters your nimble Cryticismes are as ob­noxious [Page 24] to desperatnesse, as danger; to be curious (here) is to be quaintly madde, and thus to thrust into the bed-chamber of the Almighty is a franticke sawcinesse. Who can vnlocke those Coffers of omnipotency, Esay 45.2. but he that breakes in peeces the gates of Brasse, and cuts in sunder the barres of Iron? Who those Cabinets of abstruser know­ledge? Jdem, ibid. but he that giues thee the treasure of darknesse, and hidden riches of secret places? How can our low built ap­prehensions but flag in the expression of such a birth, when we finde a Prophet so transported with contem­plation of it, that he dares the world with an Interrogati­on, — Generationem eius quis enarrabit? Who shall de­clare his generation, Esay 53. Yet we haue met with some supercilious and daring wits, which venture here to vn­twist this mysterie of generation, as if they would calcu­late an eternall birthright, leaning vpon the authority of S. Hierom in his Commentaries vpon Eccl. 1. where he asseuers, that in sacred Scriptures— Quis oftentimes is not put for an impossibility, but a difficulty. And hee in­stances in this — Quis—of Esay, Generationem eius quis enarrabit? Lib 1. dist. 19. But Lumbard doth both vindicate and inter­pret the Father, thus, — Non dicit quod generatio filij ae­terna.—He saies not that this eternall generation of the sonne of God can descend to any mortall capacity in an absolute and full knowledge; but in some measure and degree, for so the Apostle doth peece-out our perfection here, We are happy in part, and know onely in part, not a haire, Orat. contra Arrianos. not a feather as we should. Dic mihi (saith Augu­stine) altitudinem Coeli, profundum Abyssi, &c. Shew me the height of Heauen, and the depth of Hell, number (if thou canst) the sands of the Sea, the drops of raine, or the haires of thine owne head. Plane mee out by some per­fect demonstration the truth of those things which gro­uell here below, and I will beleeue thy knowledge may aspire to those which are aboue; but thou hast no power of compassing the one, nor possibility in the atchieue­ment [Page 25] of the other. For when all thy faculties of vnderstan­ding, will, haue fluttered so high as the wings of nature can eleuate and mount them to, yet thou wilt at last make vp the storie of Icarus, and finde that these are but waxen plumes, and will melt at the presence of those glorious beames, and so thy fall will be as dishonourable as thy at­tempt was peremptory; for if the great Doctour of the Gentiles (rapt vp into the third Heauen) said that hee heard words vnexpressable, which no tongue dared to vtter, how canst thou dissolue and vntie — Paternae ge­nerationis Arcana—(as Ambrose stiles them) those knots and Riddles of eternall generation, which can neuer bore a humane intellect, nor lie within the verge of mor­tall apprehension? Mihi enim impossibile est generatio­nis scire secretum (saith the Father) mens deficit, vox silet, non mea tantum, sed & Angelorum, supra potestates, & sepra Cherubin, & supra Seraphin, & supra omnem sen­sum, in his 1. de fide ad Gratian. c. 4. It is not then so much ambition in our desire, as madnesse, to attempt the know­ledge of that where there is an impossibility of reuelati­on. Those enterprizes are temerarious and ouer-head-strong, which put on where there is not onely danger, but a despaire of conquest. How can reasonable man but lie buried vnder the weight of such a mysterie, at which those grand pillars of the Church haue not onely shooke but shrunke? How must wee be strucke dumbe when the tongues of Saints and Angels stutter? How our mindes entranced, when the glorious hoast of Heauen, and all those feathered Hierarchies shal clap their wings? All reasons tongue-tied, all apprehension non-plust, all vnderstanding darkened; so that I may now speake of this metaphoricall depth, as Iob did of that other naturall, — Thou hast made a cloud the garment thereof, and thicke darknesse a swadling band.

Mysteries carry with them such an awe and Maiestie, as if they would be obeyed, not disputed, and assented to, [Page 26] not controuerst. In secrets without bottome (such as carry the stampe of sacred) except faith holds vs vp like children we swimme without bladders, and must either dabble to the shore, or sinke, reason hath not an hand to lend vs. Faith and reason in respect of mysterie, are as a wheele and a bucket at a deepe well; faith hath both the power and safetie of descent, and nimbly fathoms it, whilst reason wheele's, and rounds it, and is strangely giddied in a distracted Gyre. And indeed who durst laue such an Ocean, Esay 44 7. but he that sayes to the deepes be drie? or can shut vp the seas with doores, that they breake not out, and say, Iob 38.8. hither shalt thou come, no farther, there shall thy proud waues stay? What eye that lookes on the Sunne, and dazels not, Ecclus 10.19. but he that sees from euerlasting to euerla­sting? & sends out lightning that they may come and goe, and say, here we are? The star-gazer and bold figure flinger are at a stand here, why lookest thou vp thou proud A­strologer? you men of Galilee, why gaze you into heauen? Thus saith the Lord of hoasts, he that form'd thee from the wombe: Esay 44.24, 25. I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth out the heauens alone, that frustrateth the tokens of lyars, and maketh diuiners mad, that turneth wisemen backwards, and maketh their knowledge foolishnesse. Thou, O Lord, shalt haue them in derision, thou shalt laugh the heathen to scorne, for the sinne of their mouth, and the words of their lips they shall be taken in their pride, as the dust (O Lord) shalt thou driue and scatter them, and in thy wrath thou shalt consume them, that they may know, that it is God that ruleth in Iaacob, and to the end of the world.

Arrius is now in his pompe and height of glory, and flourisheth like a greene bay-tree, anone looke after him, and hee is no where to bee found. Hee is vp yet, but it is with the proud man in the Psalmes, in slip­pery places, and (anone) with him, how suddenly de­stroyed, perished, and brought to a fearefull end? The whole Easterne Church is now in a strange combusti­on, [Page 27] and he must kindle it, by and by those flames shall light him to his owne ruine. Heresie may root and bud, and branch, and grow to a goodly height, but the hand of vengeance houers ouer it, and when it strikes, it fels it at a blow, and it comes downe like a pine from a steepe mountaine, which in the fall shatters both the branch, and bodie. It is heere, as with mists and fogges which we see first rise as in a thin smoake from a low Fen or Valley, but gathering strength climbe the moun­taine, and at last so thicken in one body of vapours that they seeme to dare the Earth with a second night, till the Sunne (recouering height and power) by the vertue and subtiltie of his beames doth dissipate and open them, and they are seene no more.

Will you haue a president? we find Arrius at first a meane Priest of Alexandria in Aegypt, a man keene and subtill, as well in wit as learning, Specie, & forma magis, Lib. 1. quàm virtute religiosus, sed gloriae, & nouitatis improbè cupidus, (saith Ruffinus) In vertue not so much refined as in the deportment of the outward man, which pro­mised a set grauity, though no truth of Religion, in a thirst and pursuit of honour and noueltie, strangely vio­lent,— Dulcis erat in colloquio, persuadens animas, & blan­diens. In his discourse no lesse sweet, than powerfull, and where he gaines no conquest by perswasion, he mines by flattery; Thus by the sorceries and enchantments of a voluble tong, simplicity is betrayed, and vnder a pretext of truth, silly women (who are euer most affected with leuity and change) are first led captiue; and these for the enhancement & propagation of their new doctrine, commerce with their allies, and these tickled with new fancies, applaud the designe, entertaine the noueltie, conuenticles are both consulted on, and summoned, and in a shorttime, Aduers. Haeres. - Septingent as virginitatē professas in vnam contraxit— So Epiphanius—. Their Religion is yet in the blade, and greene onely in a few she disciples, anone [Page 28] it growes by their league with others, Eudoxius, Eunomi­us, Amb. 1 de side cap 4. Aetius and Demophilus, plura nomina, sed vna perfidia-; Coheires though not to the same title, the same villany; so that those dangerous tumults in the body of the Church could not but now startle the head and gouernour. Con­stantine is informed of those pernicious and desperate proceedings, who calls a Councell of 318. Bishops for the condemnation of the heretique. Some conuersant in subtiltie of question (as there was neuer opinion so de­formed, but found a Champion to propugne it) fauoured Arrius; but at length most of them decreed with one mouth Christ to be [...], 17 a while sticke fast to the opinion of the Heretique, 11 whereof by the menacing of the Emperour subscribed, Manu solum, non mente, and the other 6 are now with Arrius vpon termes of ex­ile; they betake themselues to Palestina, where partly by strength of Argument, partly by the insinuations of a smooth tongue, they gaine other Bishops to their opini­on; Anon, Constantius, and Valens Emperours; some they seduce by subtilty, some by gifts, some by power, some by cruelty; those that affied constantly to the profession of Christs diuinity, they inuade by persecutiō, & all the wit­ty tortures that malice or tyranny could deuise, are now put in practise, for the torment of those professors; inso­much that the hearts of their very enemies, could not but thaw into pitty to heare the cries, but constancy of little children vnder the barbarous hands of their mercilesse tormentors. Christianus sum, Christum verum Deum, credo, & adoro, as the author in his historia tripartita de persequutione Ʋandalorum.

This heresie now is full blowne, and at the growth; one Act more makes it ripe, and ready for the sickle. Alexandria is yet infected, and foule dregs of Arria­nisme reigne not onely here, but in the neighbour Pro­uinces; Insomuch that Alexander (then Bishop) daily pestered with those damned innouations, on a Sunday, [Page 29] (for so my Antiquary tels me) earnestly prayed that God would either take him away lest he should be defiled with the like contagion, or that he would shew some miracle, Epiphanius. either for the conuersion or confusion of the Heretique. Not long after the desires of the holy man were ac­complished, and in such a way of iudgement, that the re­lation would sute better with a ring of Scauengers than a noble throng, his bowels burst, as sometimes Iu­das did, Et sic finem adeptus est, in loco immundo & grane­olenti, -his death was equally odious with his life, and that with the place he died in, no sad retinue or pompe of exequy to embalme him, no hearse or winding sheet, but his owne intrailes, and grau'd vp with excrements, insteed of earth, an end as odious, as vntimely, as if it proceeded from the hand of vengeance, and not Fate.

And so Saint Ambrose dilates on it — Non est fortuita mors vbi in sacrilegio pari, poenae parile processit exemplum, 1 de fide cap. 5. vt idem subirent suppliciū, qui eundem Dominum negaue­runt & eundem Dominum prodiderunt—. It is no casuall, but a destinated end, that in a like sactiledge, there should be a like example of punishment, and so both meet in one way of ruine which had denied and betrayed their Ma­ster.

I haue now brought this heresie to her graue, but the funerall of this is the resurrection of another, and the re­intertainment of that of a third. No part of Christ (either in respect of his diuinitie, or manhood) but is the mint of a new heresie, which (if I should indeuour (heere) either to confute or open) would proue an vndertaking fitter for a volume, than a discourse, and for a Library, than a volume. It cost the houres of an intire age, and the sweat and elaboratenesse of all the Fathers. Those few sands which are now in their constant course will be runne out in the very nomination of Marcionites, Valen­tinians, Hebionites, Apollinarians, and the residue of that cursed rabble, and so I shall be cast vpon your censures, [Page 30] if not as I haue been weake, yet as I haue beene tedious. I will then open the mouthes of very heathens, and they shall both speake, and confirme this truth, and no lesse appose our aduersaries, than conuince them, an authority I know not how vnsauory or vnseasonable to a diuided Auditory, where a prophane quotation sounds some­times as heathenish as a tradition, which in the very name is cri'de downe as apocryphall, and Romanish; but I must put that vpon the hazard, not esteeming the froth either of popular censure or approbation.

Heathens indeed are little aboue the condition of beasts, if that onely actuate a man which animates a Christian, the soule of faith; yet if God please to cast his pearles before these swine, wherefore hath hee made vs Lords ouer them, but to vindicate those hallowed and pretious things from the hands of vniust possessors? Prae­clara Ethnicorum dicta Theologica abijs, tanquàm iniustis possessoribus, in vsum nostrum transferenda. It is Augu­stines in his second booke De doctrina Christiana. 4. chap. Diuine truth in Heathen mouthes is like the Iewels in Egyptian hands, their wants no Alchimist to refine the mettle, onely some discreeter Israelite to transferre the vse; he that was brought vp at the feet of Gamaliel prea­ching to the ignorant Idolaters of Athens, concludes against them from the mouth of their owne Poets, — [...], as some of your owne Poets haue said, Acts 17.28. Text enough to gaine, I say, not autho­ritie, but applause to his discourse, and to conuince the Heathens shame, if not their faith. Diue with me a little farther into their secrets, and we shall find amongst much Hay and Stubble, some Gold and Pretious stones, doctrines which want no truth to make them sound, onely diuine authoritie to make them authentique. It was not impos­sible that the true light which shines on euery man that commeth into the world, should glimpse into those that sate in darknesse, and in the shadow of death; For old [Page 31] Simplicianus in S. Augustines Confessions 8. Booke 2. Chapter, giues incouragement to a particular enquiry, and concludes in certaine books of the Platonists — De­um insinuari, & eius verbum—. And of this God, and the Word, the very Philosophers were not ignorant, for wee meet with a Hermes, and a — Zenon, stiling the maker & orderer of the Vniuerse— [...]— The Word—which they inlarge with other attributes of — Fate, necessity, God— & what sauours a little of a heathenish relique— Animū Iouis—taking— Iupiter—in the sence that they doe God as Lactantius in his 4. booke de vera Sapient. cap. 9.

But why doe we rob them of their maiden honour, and take their sayings vpon Tradition meerly? let them speake themselues in their peculiar and mother-tongue. Numenius, a famous Pythagorian (one, who twixt Plato and Moses, put no difference but of Language, calling Plato-Mosen, Attica Lingua Loquentem, —Moses spea­king the Atticke Dialect) Deus primus (saith he) in seip­so quidem existens, est simplex, propterea quòd secum sem­per est, nunquam diuisus; Secundus, & tertius est vnus: The first God is alwaies existent in himselfe, simple, in­diuisible, the second and third one; and a little after, he calls this first God — Creantis Dei patrem,—The father of the creating God. Had they all adored what he here ac­knowledged, a Trinity in vnity (so to be worshipped) I should then propose their precept not onely to be em­braced, but their practice to be imitated. Search on, and loe that rich mine of Truth is not yet at her drosse, or bottome, for Heraclitus next, one who was wont to call S. Iohn, Barbarian, that Euangelist to whom belonged the Eagle, as well for sublimity of Stile, as Contemplation; he — censet verbum Dei in ordine Principij, atque digni­tate constitutum, apud Deum esse, & Deum esse, in quo quicquid factum sit, fuerit viuens, & vita, & ens, tum in corpora Lapsum, carnemque indutum, hominem apparuisse, ostendens etiam tunc naturae suae magnitudinem: Harke [Page 32] how the Frog chaunts like the Nightingale, (It is Maxi­milians, Ethnici audiendi, non tanquam Philomelae, sed Ranae) and curiously counterfeits her in euery straine? How closely this obscure Heathen followes not onely the Gospels truth, but the phrase too? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and was God, all things were made by him, euery liuing Creature, life, and thing, then this Word was made flesh, and appeared man, & euen then shewed the glory of his nature. How sweetly he warbles with his Barbarian, as if by an easie labour of Translation hee had bereft him both of Truth and Elo­quence? I maruaile not now at that Testimony of Basil the Great, vpon those words, In principio erat verbum—Hoc ego noui, multos etiam extra veritatis rationem positos— I haue knowne many (saith he) and those put without the pale and list of diuine Truth, men meerely secular, aduancing and magnifying this peece of Scrip­ture, and at length bold to mixe it with their owne de­crees and writings. And S. Augustine seconds it with an instance,— Quidam Platonicus,—A certaine Platonist was wont to say that the beginning of S. Iohns Gospell was worthy to be written in letters of gold, and preached in the most eminent Churches and Congregations, in his 10 book de Ciuitate Dei, c. 29. O the diuine raptures and infusions, that God doth sometimes betroth to his very enemies! who can but conceiue that as the very worst of men haue knowledge enough to make them inexcusable; so the best of Heathen had enough to make them Saints, were their faith that he should be their Sauiour, as great as their knowledge, that he was the Sonne of God. With what rich Epithites they bedecke and crowne him. — Mentis Germen, Verbum Lucens, Dei Filius, (it is his saying, who (I know not by what search) found out almost all Truth, Mercurius Trismègistus) the mindes blossome, the word that gaue light, the sonne of God. What else did S. Iohn adde, but that the word was light? And S. Augustine [Page 33] giues this farther testimony of that heathen, that he spake many things of Christ in a propheticke manner— eadem veritate, licèt non eodem Animi affectu— with the same truth the Prophets did, but not with the same affection — pronunciabat illa Hermes, Dolendo, pronunciabat haec Propheta, Gaudendo— in his 8. booke de Ciuitate Dei, 23. chapter. And why should we barre some of their Philo­sophers of a propheticke knowledge, when a Poet shall fill his cheekes with a — Chara Deum Soboles, Magnum Iouis incrementum—? And if wee looke backe to those Oracles of old, the Sybills sacred Raptures, we shall finde them more like a Christians Comment, than a Heathens Prediction.

Whereof if we enquire a little into the originall, Saint Augustine will tell vs that the Greeke coppies giue vs [...]— Iesus Christ, the Sonne of God, In oration. contra Arrian. the Sauiour; and it is not onely probable, but euident, that the Gentiles had a knowledge of Christ as he was the Word, as it appeareth by that of Serapis vnto Thulis, [...], &c. King of Egypt. And it is strangely remarkeable: what wonder­full Titles, and inscriptions, the Platonists dedicate to his name and memory, with which as (with a wreath and Lawrell) they girt & beautifie his Temples, - Dei verbum, Mundi Opifex, Idaea boni, Mundi▪ Archetypum, moderat or Distributor, Imago primi entis, rationalis Creaturae exem­plar, Pastor, Sacerdos, vlna bumens, Lux, Sol, coelumque candens, mentis germen Diuinae, verbum Lucidum, filius primog [...]nitus, primi dei semper viuentis vmbra, vita, splen­dor, virtus, candor lucis, character substantiae eius, and the like, which could not but flow from a heart diuinely toucht, and a tongue swolne with inspiration, as Rossélus [Page 34] tels vs in his Trismegisti Pimandrum, 1 booke, 107 page. For these and the like sayings, some of the ancient Fa­thers haue coniectured that Plato either read part of di­uine story, or whilst he trauelled in Egypt, had a taste of sacred truth, out of the sayings of the Hebrewes by an Amanuensis, or interpreter; For then many of the He­brewes (the Persians reigning) wandered in Egypt.

Moreouer, Aristobulus the Iew who flourished in the time of the Machabees, writing to Ptolomy Philometora, King of Egypt, reports that the Pentateuch before the Empire of Alexander the Great, and the Persian Monar­chie was Translated out of Hebrew, into Greeke, part whereof came to the hands of Plato and Pythagoras; and he is after peremptory, that the Peripateticks out of the bookes of Moses, and the writings of the Prophets drew the greatest part of their Philosophy, and it may seeme strange what the Iewish Antiquary traditions of Clear­chus (the most noble of that Sect) who in his first — De somno— brings in his Master Aristotle relating that he met with a certaine Iew, a reuerent and a wise man, with whom he had much conference concerning matters both naturall & diuine, and receiued from him such a hint and specialty of choicer learning w ^ch did much improue him in his after knowledge, especially in that of God, as Iose­phus lib. 1. contra Appionem, & Eusebius in his 11 de praepa­rat. Euangelica. 6.6. Clement. Alexandrin. 5. Stromaton-.

And thus I haue at length (though with some blood and difficultie) trauersed the opinions of the ancient, and shewed you the errours of primitiue Times in their fou­lest shapes. I haue opened the wiles and stratagems of the aduersary, and how defeated by the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof; what Bulwarkes and Ram­pires the Fathers raised for propugning of Christs diui­nitie, and how besieged by cursed heresies, with what successe, what ruine.

Let vs now returne where we began, and place Christ [Page 35] where we found him, before Abraham, before the world, where (me thinkes) he now stands like a well rooted tree in a rough storm, where though winds blow on him so furiously, that he is sometimes forced to the earth (as if he were meerely humane) yet he bends againe, and nods towards heauen (to shew that hee is diuine, and but a plant taken thence grafted in our Eden here) where though tost vp and downe with blasts of Infidelity, yet when the enuy of their breath is spent (as we see a good­ly Cedar after a tempest) he stands strait, vn-rent, as if he scorned the shocke of his late churlish encounter, and dared his blustring Aduersary to a second opposition.

Gloria in excelsis Deo.

NATVRES OVERTHROW, AND DEATHS TRIVMPH.

MOrtality loue's no de­scant; your plaine song sutes best with blacks, that which is grauly set to compun­ction, sorrow, tun'd heauily, to sighes, and lamentations. What should warbling aires with darted bosomes, & vnbalmed hearts? what your quaint and youthfull raptures, when— Mourners walke about the [Page 2] streets? If Zion be wept for, harpes must be hung vpon the willowes; sad obiects require furrowes in the cheeke, and riuers in the eie, and we then most honour the exe­quies of our friends, when we embalme the deceased with our teares. Away then with eares wanton'd to loo­ser Sonnets; offend not with vnchast attentions these hallowed anthemes, here's broken harmony; dirges as sullen, as they are sacred; panting and heart-broke ele­gies, such as should be rather groan'd, than sung. Aske the Preacher (heere) and he will tell you. Eccles. 12.41. — The daugh­ters of Musicke are brought low, and the yeares draw nigh, when we shall say, we haue no pleasure in them. He storie's of a Sunne, vers. 2. and Moone, and Starres which are obscur'd, and of clouds that returne not after raine; as if the world were at her last pang, and gaspe, and ready for her funerall. Be­hold! the little world is — The keepers of the house haue trembled, Vers. 3. the strong men bowed themselues, the grinders cea­sed, and those that looke out of the windowes, darkned; the Almond tree doth flourish, and the grashopper is a burden, and desire shall faile. —Because— Man goeth to his long home, .3. and mourners walke about the streets.—

Without any racke, or violence to the words, they offer themselues to this diuision. Diuision. 1 the subiect, Man. 2 his condition, transitory condition, exprest by way of pil­grimage—, —Goeth—. 3 the non vltra, or terminus ad quem, of this his pilgrimage—. To his home- enlarged with an epithet — Long home—. 4 the state and ceremo­ny, it there meets with.— And the mourners walk about the streets—. Pars 1. Of these in their order: first of the subiect, Man.

To dwell with circumstances, and ouerslip the maine, was euer an embleme of negligence, if not of weake­nesse; each fabulist will tell you of a dog, and a shadow, and what they moral. He that iangles (meerly) about no­minalls, where matters of realitie and substance fleet by, may speake himselfe a Grammarian, or a Sophister, scarce a Diuine. Of the name of Man, its source, and pedegree, [Page 3] I list not to discourse; not an ignorance so vntaught, or vnderstanding dull'd, but would forestall me, or should I (by chance) meet with some intellectuals, so thin and tender, that could not (as it is a chance I should) scarce an obiect but would be both your spokesman, and remem­brancer; yonder sad spectacle, that earth, this stone would tell you — Homo ab humo, from the ground, Adam ab Adamah, from the earth, red earth, not that more so­lid part of it, but the brittlelest, dust, so the curse runnes, — Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt returne—. In the word Man, in the various acceptation of the word Man, Am. Pol. c. 35. Syntag. (wherein some syntagmaticall Diuines haue vnprofitably toil'd) Ile not curiously or impertinently trauaile, but without any figuratiue, or metaphoricall sence, take it properly, and literally, as the Text giues it me,— Man— that is, a reasonable liuing creature, or ra­ther a reasonable liuing soule, for so the Spirit of God Christens it, — The man was made a liuing soule, Gen. 2.7. and the same periphrasis the Apostle vses too, 1 Cor. 15. The first man Adam was made — [...]— in ani­mam viuentem, or anima viuens—A liuing soule—vers. the 45. yet in the 44 of the same Chapter, hee cals him, [...]— a liuing body. Either cote he is iustly bla­zoned by, so we giue the difference, rationall, a diffe­rence so specificall, and proper, that it diuides him from any other; for reason is an intellectiue power, peculiar to man onely, and not communicable to a second creature; by which [...], or (as the Scholeman termes it) discur­rit; out of one thing he deduces another, and orders this, by that, both in method and discretion. Hence it is called [...], and the worke or office of it, [...], Jdem, vt supra. discur­sus—propter animae celeritatem—, for the volubilitie and nimblenesse of the soule, by which it trauerses & moues from one obiect to another, from effects to causes, and backe againe, from all things to euery thing, and from that (almost) to nothing. And as man was prerogatiu'd aboue others, in respect of perspicacitie, so of Empire, [Page 2] and dominion, Fer. in Gen. for whereas in other passages of creation, we find a kind of commanding dialect, -with a - fiat lux, and a - producat terra-. Let there be light, let the earth bring forth, Gen. 1.27. In that of Adam, words more particular, of deliberation, and aduice. — Let vs make man—, Man, a creature of those exquisite dimensions, for matter of bo­dy, of those supernaturall endowments, of soule, that now omnipotencie bethinkes it selfe, and will consult. The priuy Counsell of Sonne, and Holy Ghost, is required to the moulding and polishing of this glorious peece. Contra Philo. An­gels may looke on, and wonder; touch, or assist, they may not; no, not so much as to temper or prepare the mettle. Here is worke onely for a Trinitie. A taske for Iehouah himselfe, Pur. Pilg. for Iehouah Elohim, the Father, by the Son, in the power of the Spirit. No doubt, somewhat of wonder was a proiecting, when a compleat Deity, was thus studying, it's perfection, somewhat, that should border vpon euer­lastingnes, when the finger of God was so choicely indu­strious, and loe what is produced? Man, the master-peece of his designe and workmanship, the great miracle and monument of nature, not only for externall transcenden­cies, but the glory and pompe of inward faculties, stampt and engrauen to the image of his God, through the righ­teousnesse of an immortall soule; besides, a bodie so sym­metriously composed as if nature had lost it selfe in the harmony of such a feature. Man, the abstract, and mo­dell, Greg. Naz. and briefe story of the vniuerse, —the vtriusque na­turae vinculum—, the cabbonet and store-house of three liuing natures, Beasts. Angels. Men. sensuall, intellectuall, rationall, the Analy­sis, and resolution of the greater world into the lesse, the Epitome, and compendium of that huge tome, that great Manuscript and worke of nature, wherein are written the characters of Gods omnipotencie, and power, framing it, disposing it, all in it, to the vse and benefit of man, of man, especially, of man, wholly; other creatures paying him an awfull obedience, as a tribute, and homage, due to [Page 5] their commander in all things, so neere kinne to Deity, that Melanthon, makes him a terrestriall transitory God: hauing little to diuide him from a - Numen-, but that one part of him was mortall, and that not created so, but occa­sion'd, miserably occasion'd, by disobedience.

A little forbidden fruit (from the hand of a fraile crea­ture) shall disinherite it of an eternall priuiledge, and man is now thrust out of the doores of his euerlasting habita­tion for two pretty toyes, an Apple, and a Woman; how­euer death hung not on the fruit, (saith Chrysostom) but the contempt, which was not so voluntary, as suggested; fond man, that is thus cheated of an assurance of immortality, by a false perswasion that he shall be immortall, that - critis sicut Dij— hath dampt all; the Serpent perswades him, —if he doe but taste, hee shall be as God, when hee hath tasted, findes himselfe worse than man; a worme indeed, no man. Thus he is at once fool'd out of euerlastingnes, and the fauour of his Maker: the anger of the Lord is now sore kindled, and his furie smoaks in a double curse against him, and what he was framed of, earth; that which hath (hitherto) voluntarily presented her fruit­fulnesse, in hearbes, and plants, and all things requisite for his sustenance; now, vndrest, and not watered in the bubble and sweat of an industrious brow, affords him nothing but thornes, and thistles; iust reward of disobe­dience, barrennesse, and death. Lamentable felicity, which (at height) is but conditionary, & then fatall. There is no misery so exquisite, as the sence of a lost happinesse. Ca­lamity is supportable enough, where there is not felt, or seene, a more honourable condition; but, to be tumbled from a blisse we were sometimes master of, is a punctuall wretchednesse. Man, but now on the pinacle and spire of all his glory, in a moment shamefully throwne from it, and with him, all posterity. But loe, there is mercy euen in iustice, and life in the very sentence and iaw of death. — The seed of the woman shall breake the Serpents [Page 6] head—. She that was (ere-while) a chiefe instrument in his fall, shall be now a maine agent in his restauratiō, not to that state wherin he was created, but to that wherein he shall be glorified. The soule (through faith, and grace) shall still be preserued immortall, but the body must lessen of it's primitiue condition, the soule as a Sunne that is eclips'd, or clouded, shall shine againe, the body, like some meteor, for a time exhal'd, falleth to the earth from whence it came; and as some mettals (laid for a space in the bosome of the ground) grow more refined, and puri­fied, so shall the body, interr'd a naturall one, rise a glori­ous. In the Interuallum, as a punishment for transgressi­on, it shall resolue into what it was made of, and it must goe to its long home, the graue; where wee haue now brought it, & would haue laid it in, but that the captious hereticke violently withstands it, and thus he interposes. If man returne into earth, as he is earth, then he was mor­tall before he sinned, and so death seemes to be of nature, and not punishment. —It is not answered by deniall, but di­stinction, and we must (here) criticke betweene mortale, mortuum, and mortiobnoxium, mortall, dead, and liable to death. We call that dead which is actually depriued of life; subiect to death, what is within the fathome and command of deaths power, and tyranny for sinne, though not actually, yet in time. Mortall, two wayes, either for that which by a necessity of nature ought to die, or for that which as the merrit and reward of sinne, can die. The body of Adam (before sinne) was of it selfe mortale (as mortall is taken in the last sence) because mutabile, and that is mutable, which of it selfe can suffer change, al­though it neuer doe, as the good Angells, and God onely is immutable, —Per se, & natura (as Augustine speakes in his booke de vera Relig. cap. 13.) But the body of A­dam was not moriturū, to die, if he had not sinned, but by a glorious change, without death, had beene translated by God into an euerlasting incorruptibility. It was sinne then [Page 7] that made man obnoxious to the stroks of death, not any condition, or necessity of nature, and therefore I know not whether I may call it an errour of the Pelagian, or a blas­phemy, who would haue Adam (had he not transgressed) die by the law of nature. Hence he might inferre, that death was not a punishment for sinne, and so by conse­quence, Christ not died for it; but wee finde this (by a Councell) long since doomed for an heresie, & an heauy Anathema laid on the Patron of that tenent in Concilio Mileuitano cap. 1. and more particularly by Augustine in his first booke de Peccatorum meritis & remissione cap. 2. You see then that death and all corporall defects, were scourges following the disobedience of the first man, not occasioned by any impulsion or languishment of nature, and Aquinas will reason it thus, — If a man for an offence be depriued of some benefit that is giuen him, the wanting of this benefit, is the punishment of that offence. To Adam in his state of innocency there was this boone conferr'd from Heauen, that as long as his minde was subiect vnto God, the inferiour powers of the soule should be obedient vnto reason, and the body vnto the soule. But, because the minde of man (by sinne) did recoile and start backe from this diuine sub­iection, it followed, that those inferiour powers also would not be totally subiect vnto reason; whence grew so great a re­bellion of the carnall appetite, that the body (too) would not be totally subiect to the soule. Vpon this breach death en­ters, and all that pale band of diseases, and corporall infirmi­ties, for the incollumity and life of the body consists in this, that it be subiect vnto the soule, —Sicut perfectibile suae perfectioni,— as the Schooleman speakes, as a thing per­fectable to its perfection. On the other side, death and sick­nesse, and languishments of body, haue reference to the de­fects of the true subiection of the body, to the soule. And therefore necessity of consequence will induce, that, as the rebellion of the carnall appetite to the spirit, was a punish­ment of our first fathers sinne, so, mortality, and all corporall [Page 8] imperfections too, as the Schooleman punctually in his 2 ^a. 2ae. 164. quaest. 1. Artic. The curse then due to the lapse of our first Parents houers not ouer the soule onely, but, for it, the body; the body (before) in a blessed way of incorruptibility, but, not of it selfe, but from the soule, so Augustine tells his Dioscorus, —Tam potenti naturâ Deus fecit animam, vt ex eius beatitudine, redundet in cor­pus, plenitudo sanitatis, & incorruptionis vigor—in his 56 Epistle. His body then was not indissoluble by any vi­gor of immortality existing in it selfe, but there was (su­pernaturally) a power in the soule, diuinely giuen, by which man might preserue his body from all corrupti­on, as long as it remained subiect vnto God. And the Schooleman hath good ground for it; for, seeing the reasonable soule doth exceed the dimensions and proportion of corporall matter, it was conuenient, that, in the beginning, there should be a vertue giuen it, by which the body might be rescued from all infirmities, and conserued aboue the na­ture of that corporall matter, as the same Aquinas par. 1. quaest. 97. Art. 1. The whole man then (mixt of body and soule) was in the creation in a glorious state of im­mortality, but it was with a — Quodammodò— (as Augu­stine tells vs, de Genes. ad Lit. lib. 6. cap. 25.) not abso­lutely, — Ita vt non posset mori, —but conditionally — po­terat non mori—. It is true, he had a power not to dye, if he had not sinned; but it was a necessity he should die, when he had; otherwise God had beene as vniust to his promise, as hee was seuere in his command, for so the charge runnes, Genes. 2. — At that day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death—. Hee hath eaten, therefore he must die— But from whence commeth this death? from God or from himselfe? or both? originally from neither; not from God, he cannot be the cause of it, death being a pri­uation onely, hauing name (saith Augustine) but no es­sence; besides it is an Omen, and an ill to nature. What­soeuer God made, had an essence, was a species, good; the [Page 9] Text tells vs so, six times tells vs so, in one Chapter, Genes. 1. God made the firmament, and it was good, Hee made the earth, and it was good; in a word, he saw all that he had made, —Et erant valde bona— they were very good—. Genes. 1. vlt. We may not thinke then that God therfore created man, that he should die; or, because death followed his diso­bedience, God was the cause of it. Death may be an in­strument of his iustice, not an effect of his producing. It is one thing to giue the sentence of death, another to be the authour of it. Indeed Augustine sayes ( lib. 1. Re­tract. cap. 21.) that death (as a punishment) hath refe­rence to God, not, as an obliquity; Aquinas. and the Schooleman is at hand too, with a distinction for a two-fold death, one, as an ill of humane nature, or a defect incident from mans transgressiō, that, he dares not lay on the Almighty, the other, as it hath some species or resemblance of good, to wit, as it is a iust penance for his rebellion, this he doth in his 2 ^a. 2ae. 164. quaest. Art. 1.

As therefore in the creation of the world God is said to make light, and to separate it from darknesse, Genes. 1. not to make darknesse, as if that were of it selfe some blinde masse and Chaos, and therefore God chid light out of it; so in the creation of man God is said to make life (God breathed into him the breath of life) not death, nay he doth separate that light from this darknesse, and doth chide life not out if it, but from it, with a— Caue ne manducas— take heed thou eat not, for if thou dost, — morte morie­ris—thou shalt die the death. That therefore of the wise man will vindicate the Almighty from this misprision, — God made not death, Wisdome 1.13, 14. neither hath he pleasure in the cor­ruption of the liuing, for he created all things, that they might haue their being, and the generations of the world were healthfull, & there was no poison of destruction in thē.

The wombe then of this great plague of man the Apostle rips vp, — When lust hath conceiued, it bringeth forth sinne, and sinne when it is perfected, [Page 10] bringeth forth death, Iam. 1.15. The birth then of sinne is through a conception of lust, and the strength of death through a perfection of sinne. Loe then the cause of this great calamity discouered! but how came that? original­ly from the man? no. How then? — Through the enuie of the deuill came death into the world, the 2. Chapter of the same booke, Aug. in locum. vers. 24. And therefore Saint Augu­stine calls it,— mors-à morsu— from the biting of the Ser­pent. And our Sauiour tells vs, — Ille homicida ab initio, Iohn 8.— He was a murderer from the beginning; whence perceiuing man (by his then obedience) aduanc'd to that place from which he was headlong'd, now dissolues, and breakes into secret enuie; this enuie wrought deceit, de­ceit concupiscence, that, disobedience, disobedience, sin, sinne, death. So that the enuie of the deuill is the source and spring-head, deceit, the Conduit, concupiscence, the pipe, the waters conueied in it, disobedience, sinne, the Channell or Cisterne into which they fall, death. Tell Adam then of the forbidden fruit, he layes it on his wife, — The woman gaue it me. Aske the woman, she puts it on a third,— The Serpent seduced me—.Aske the Serpent, there it stayes, and in stead of an answer, we finde a curse, — Because thou hast done this, Genes. 3. vpon thy belly thou shalt creepe, and dust thou shalt eat all the daies of thy life. The man then all this while growes not obnoxious in respect of seduction, but assent, the woman of both; so the Apo­stle — Adam was not deceiu'd, —sed mulier in praeuaricati­one suâ—the woman being deceiu'd was in the transgression, 1 Tim. 2.14. If God then aske Adam —num comedisti? Hast thou eaten of that tree of which I commanded thee thou shouldest not eat? He answers not with a— Mulier seduxit,—the woman hath seduced me, but onely with a — dedit—she gaue me, and I did eat. If hee aske Euah, —Quid fecisti? Woman, what is this that thou hast done? she as empty of any other euasion, as of strength, layes all on the shoulders of the seducer, —with a— Serpens se­duxit [Page 11] me,—the Serpent seduced me. God inquires no far­ther, but sentences, Vt supra. — I will put enmity betwixt her seed and thy seed, it shall breake thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heele, as it is nimbly obserued on the 2. Egidius de Roma. booke of the Sentences, distinct. 22.

Thus, with some bloud, and trauaile, I haue shewed you man, in his originall, height, fall; how created, in what glory thron'd, how suncke, what the sinne, the oc­casioner, the punishmēt; whence he was, what he is, whi­ther hee must; earth, from earth, to it; thither hee shall without repriuall, the sentence is past, the executioner ready, and hee must goe, for — Man goeth, that's my se­cond part, his transitory condition expressed by way of pilgrimage. Goeth.

Moses and Aaron OR The affinitie of Ciuill and Ecclesi­asticke power.

HOw strangely God compasses what he proiects for his, by the hands of an obscure Agent? Cap. 3. v. 9.10. Isra­el hath beene long enough vnder the groanes of Egypt, it shall bee now vnyoakt from that heauie seruitude; and this must bee done by no troden meanes, or ordinary instrument, But one that Israel and Egypt too shall stand amaz'd at to see in such a power of substitution, A shepheard. Cap. 3.8. Moses a fee­ding [Page 2] his fathers flocke, not farre from Horeb, the moun­taine of the Lord, Cap. 3.1. Cap. 3.4. when suddenly a voice doth at once astonish and inuite him, Moses, Moses. 'Tshould seeme the affaires were both of necessitie and dispatch, when the person to be imployed was thus prest by a double summons: Cap. 4 18. what shall he doe now? His flocke must bee left with Iethro in Midian, and he shall to Court, there to ransome an engag'd and captiu'd Nation, from the shac­kles of a Tyrant; Cap. 2.17. A simple designe for one season'd in the course conditions of an Hebrew and a Midianite: Men knowne more by the largenesse of their folds, than any eminence for matters of state, most of them being heards­men, or shepheards. But see how God will extract won­ders out of improbabilities, and miracles out of both: Moses shall first see one, Cap. 3.2. Cap. 3.3. & then, do many. Behold an An­gell of the Lord in a flaming fire in a bush, the bush burned (saith the Text) and the Bush was not consumed. A vision as strange as the proiect he is now set vpon, and doth not so much take, as stagger him. That it burned and consu­med not, rauishes his eies only, how it should burn & not consume, his intellectualls; So that he is now doubly en­tranced, in the sense, & in the thought. But there is more of mystery inuol'd here than the Prophet yet dreames of or discouers. God in his affaires requires both heat, and constancie: men of cold and languishing resolution are not fit subiects for his imploiments, but those which can withstand the shocke of many a fiery triall; they whose zeale can burne cheerfully in the seruices of their God and not consume. Moses, therfore shall now to Pharaoh, with as many terrours as messages. Cap. 5. vers. 6, 7, 8, 9. Ten times hee must bid the Tyrant let Israel goe: euery Iniunction shall find a repulse, euery repulse, a plague, and euery plague, a wonder. Somewhat a harsh embassie to a King, and can­not be welcom'd but with a storme, whose disposition is as impatient of rebuke, as not inur'd too't. Those eares which haue been sleekt hitherto with the supple dialect [Page 3] of the Court, (that oile of Sycophants and temporizers) will not be roug'ht now with the course phrase of a re­proofe, much lesse, of menacing. There's no dallying with the eye of a cockatrice; I am sure none, with the paw of a Lion; Ruine sits on the brow of offended Soueraigntie, each looke sparkles indignation, and that indignation, death. Moses is now startled at the imployment, Cap. 3.11. and begins both to expostulate and repine. — Who am I that I should goe vnto Pharaoh? I am not eloquent, Cap. 4.10. but of slow speech and of a slow tongue—? Good Lord! In a Prophet what a piece of modestie with distrust? will God employ any whom he will not accommodate? Hee hath now thrice perswaded Moses to this great vndertaking, The other as often manifests his vnwillingnesse by excuse, as if he would either dispute Gods prouidence, or question his supply. We find therefore this diffidence check't with a new insinuation of rectifying all defects. Cap. 4.10. — Who hath made mans mouth, or who makes the dumbe or the deafe, or the seeing, or the blinde, haue not I the Lord? Why should any further scruple or doubt assaile thee? I that am the God of the Hebrewes will protect thee; let no wauerings of Israel, or terrours of Egypt any way dismay thee: par­ticular infirmities in thine owne person I will mould anew to perfection, Cap. 14.14. or if those vacillations and stutterings of the tongue yet dishearten thee, Loe Aaron the Levite is thy brother, I know that he can speake well, take him with thee, and this rod too, wherewith thou shalt doe wonders as dreadfull as vnpattern'd. Deliuer Pharaoh roundly my commands, if he will not vndeafe his eare vpon their first Alarum, I will bore it with my thunder. Why standest thou then any longer so diuided? Goe now, and I will be in thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say—.

Moses, is dispatch't now, hath his commission seal'd, each particle of his message punctually deliuered him, [Page 4] wherein (as in all saecular and subordinate Embassies) we finde A command, Diuision. A direction, and a Promise. The command, Goe; The Promise, I will be in thy mouth; The Direction, teach thee what thou shalt say. So he that is singled out to any seruice of his God for the aduantage of his Israel, must not giue backe or wauer, Goe—. If a wil­ling obedience second this command, God promises to assist, I will be in thy mouth; if there, be not dash't at the slownesse or vnprouidednesse of thy speech, I will teach thee what thou shalt say. Once more is there a retyred worth, which desires to sit downe to obscurity, and seemes vnwilling to the publike seruices of his God, hearest thou not this proficiscere from heauen? Goe. But hast thou once vndertooke them? be not discourag'd, here's an — aperiam, too—. I will be in thy mouth; but am I welcom'd there with reuerence, and awe? speake bold­ly then, for, Ego instruam, I will teach thee what thou shalt say—, Goe then. But let's first cleare the passage. 'Tis not my intent to shew you Moses here in the stormes and troubles of the Court and State, but of the Church. I may not bee too busie with the riddles and Labyrinth's of the two first; the times are both rough and touchie, I will onely shew you a farre off, how this Proteus and that Ca­melion vary both their shape and colour. Moses was in­deed forty yeares a Courtier, and the better part of his life a Statesman, yet he was a Priest too (and so I follow him) if you dare take the authoritie of Saint Augustine, who though on his second booke on Exod. 10. quaest. giues Moses barely Principatum, Aug. lib. 2. in Exod. quaest. 10. Aug. in Psal. 98. and Aaron ministerium, yet in his Commentaries on the 98 Psalm, he thus interrogates, Si Moses Sacerdos non erat, quid erat? numquid maior Sa­cerdote? and the sweet singer of Israel, put's Samuel a­mong them that call vpon Gods Name, and Moses and Aaron amongst the Priests, Psal. 99.6.— I haue now re­mou'd all rubs and obstacles, the way is smooth and pas­sable, what should then hinder Moses any longer, Goe,—.

Command and obedience are the bodie and soule of hu­mane societie, the head and foote of an establish't Empire, Pars 1. Command sits as Soueraigne and hath three Scepters, by which it rules, Authoritie, Courage, Sufficiencie.

Obedience, as 'twere the subiect, and beares vp it's alle­giance with three pillars, necessitie, profit, willingnesse. Sometimes command growes impetuous and rough, and then 'tis no more Soueraigntie but Tyrannie—. Againe, Obedience, vpon distast, is apt to murmure, and growes mutinous, and so 'tis no more a subiect, but a Rebells where they kisse mutually, there is both strength and safetie; but where they scold and iarre, all growes to ruine and com­bustion. And this holds not onely in matters Ciuill, but in those more sacred. Command frō heauen presupposes in vs an obedience no lesse of necessitie, than will, and in God, infallibilitie both of power, and incouragement. Faint­nesse of resolution, or excuse, in his high designements, are but the Teltales of a perfunctory zeale, howeuer they pretend to bashfulnesse, or humilitie. Ier. 1. I cannot speake Lord, or, I am vnworthy, were but course apologies of those that vsed them, Rom. 1. Exod. 3. when God had either matter for their emploiment; or time; And the Quis ego Domine? of Moses, here, finds so little of approbation, that it meetes a checke; the Text will tell you in what heate and tumult, with an — Accensus suror Iehouae, Cap. 4.4. the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and it should seeme, in such violence, that Abulensis, after much trauerse, Tost. in cap. 4. Exod. and dispute makes that tergiuersation of his little lesse than a mortall sinne, & some of the Hebrewes haue strangely pu­nish't it, with the losse of Canaan, perswading vs, the maine reason why he came not thither, was his backwardnesse in obeying this — proficiscere, Goe. Perer. in Exod. But that's a Thalmu­dicall and wilde fancie, fitter for such giddy enrolements, than the eares of a learned throng. And as Moses may not but obey when God layes his command on him, so hee must not goe without it. Matthew must be called [Page 6] from his receipt of custome; Mat. 9.9. Gal. 1.5. & he is not honor'd with a true Apostleship, who wants his — vocatus sicut Aaron. That of God to the Pseudo-prophets, was a fearefull Irony, — I sent them not, Ier. 14. but they ranne—, voluntaries (it should seeme) find here neither countenance, nor entertaine­ment, but whom God hath prest and sealed to this great warfare; yet the other, notwithstanding, in the field, and seasoned once in battell, the retrait is more dangerous, than the aduenture.

Esay cap. 6.We finde Esay more actiue and forward than any of the Prophets, & yet that spontaneousnesse not chid; who (as if he would anticipate the care and choise of God in his owne affaires) makes a hasty tender of his seruice, 5 with an — Ecce ego, 8 mitte me; yet, he had his former con­vulsions, and pangs too of feare, and diffidence; Woe is me, 5 for I am a man of polluted lips. But see how God hammers and workes what he intends to file, either in person, 7 or by substitute? an Altar must be the Forge, and a Seraphin the workeman, who with his tongs ready, and his coale burning, shall both touch those iniquities, and purge them, and then, and not till then, heere am I, Lord, send me. As therefore to stand still, when God sends out his proficiscere, argues a rustie and sullen lazinesse, so to runne when he sends not, arrogancie, and presumption. That zeale is best qualified, which hath the patience to expect God's summons, and then the boldnesse to doe his errand.

Aqui. 2 ^a. 2ae. qu. 185. art. 1.The Schooleman in his 2 ^a. 2ae. 185. question, being to deale of religious persons, straines not the Myter from his discourse, but moderates the quaere by diuiding it, and thinkes to take away all scruple by making two, whether it be lawfull to desire Ecclesiasticall honour (Episcopall hee Epithites) or to refuse it being enioyned? Greg. de Val. in loc. Aqui. dist. 10. q. 3. par. 2. Gregorie de Va­lentia (his Amanuensis here) turnes the perspectiue from the obiect vpon the Agent, viewing as well the partie de­siring as the thing desired, where, though hee descrie [Page 7] height of sufficiency in personall endowments: Quaer. 1. one Cap-A-Pe, in all points canonicall, yet he allowes not a baite for his eager appetite to feed on; a disopinion'd vnder-valued man may not desire it for the dignity, nor he that's fortune­troden for the reuenue. Be the person otherwise ne're so compleatly accommodated, yet the irregularity in his appetite strangles his other eminencies, and so he is (at once) vnworthy, and vncapable. Reason and conscience, will be­troth Honours to desert, which yet they diuorce from the immodesty and heate of the desire; for, if super-intendencie be in the appetite more than the office, 'tis presumption. A­quinas doth censur't so, Aquinas vt sup. a common practise of the Gen­tiles, reproou'd in the Disciples; Ye know their Princes loue to dominere, Mat. 20. if the honour be superiour, 'tis ambition, and so meerely pharisaicall, —They loue the vp­permost roomes at feasts, and chiefe seats at Synagogues, Matth. 23. If the reuenue, it allies to couetousnesse, Matth. 23. and differs from the sinne of Simon Magus thus, he proffer'd money for the gifts, these couet the gifts for the mo­ney.

On the other side, Quaer. 2. to reiect the Ephod wherewith au­thority would inuest thee, checkes doubly the refuser, in waies of charity, humility. Charity seekes no more her own, Aquin. & Greg. vt sup. than her neighbours good; now the charity we owe vnto our selues, prompts vs to search out — Otium sanctum (as Augustine phrases it) a holy vacancie from these pub­like cures, but that to the Church bindes vs to vnder­goe.— Negotium iustum, Aug. 19. de Ciuil. D [...]i cap. 19. the imposition of any iust em­ployment, — quam sarcinam si nullus imponit, intuendae vacandum est veritati, si autem imponitur, sustinenda est propter charitatis necessitatem, the Father in his 19. de Ciuit. Dei. cap. 19. Againe, humility tie's vs in obedi­ence to Superiours, so that as often as we disobey them we doe oppugne it, and this (in respect of God) is not meeknesse, but pertinacy, Magn Gregor. 1. pars Past. cap. 6— Tunc ante Dei oculos vera est humilitas, cum ad respuendum hoc quod vtiliter subire prae­cipitur, [Page 8] pertinax non est—, Gregory 1. part of his Pastorals 6. Chapter.

To auoide then all occasions of publike seruice for the Church, vnder a pretence of humility or reclusenesse, speakes (too broadly) the delinquent, refractarie. Your Anchoret that digges his graue in speculation meerely, and your Moale that is earth'd wholy in an affected soli­tarinesse, are not liable so properly to obscurity, as death; such elaboratnes tends not to perfection, but disease; & we finde an Apoplexy, and sleepe, no lesse on their endeauours than in their name; all knowledge is dusted with them, and 'tis no more a nurserie of vertues, but a Tombe. And (indeed) such Silkewormes spin themselues into Flies, dis­animate, heartlesse Flies, life neither for Church, nor Com­mon-wealth. The Laurell and honour of all secular de­signes is the execution, and the happinesse of those sacred ones is not intail'd barely to the knowledge of them, but to the fac & viues. And that, not at home onely, in thy particular intendments, but abroad also in thy serui­ces for the Church; so that he that retraits at any Ala­rum or summons of his God, for the common affaires of the Church, to hugge and enioy himselfe in his solitary ends, runnes himselfe on the shelues of a rough censure, that of the Father to his Dracontius, Athan. in Epist. ad Drac. Episc. fugient. pars 2. editio vltima. — Ʋereor ne dum propter te fugis, propter alios sis in periculo apud Dominum. To stand by, and giue aime onely, whil'st others shoote, and thou thy selfe no markman, proclaimes thy lazinesse, if not thy impotency. What a nothing is thy arme? thy bowe? thy shaft? if not practised, not bent, not drawne vp? or if so glorious a marke, the Church? why not leueld at? either she must be vnworthy of thy trauell, or thine of her. If therefore this thy Mother implore thy aide (so Augustine counsels his Eudoxius) on the one side, August. Epist. 81. hand not with ambition; on the other, leane not to a lazie re­fusall, weigh not thine owne idlenesse with the necessities and greatnesse of her burthens, to which (whiles she is in trauell) [Page 9] if no good men will administer their helpe, Certè quomodo nasceremini non inueniretis; God must then inuent new waies for our new birth: the Father in his 81. Epistle ad Edoxium.

You see then our Moses may not hastily thrust himselfe vpon those weighty designes without authority and commission from his God, and yet once summon'd, not recoile; but thus hauing his Congedeleere and warrant from aboue, wee must now account him in the place of God, God indeed, with a— sicut—the Text tels vs so, thrice tels vs so, God to Aaron, God to Israel, God to Pharaoh. Exod. 3.4, 5. 'Twere then too high a sacriledge to rob him of any title or prerogatiue, which should waite on the greatnesse of such a person. Let's giue him (what all ages haue) Emi­nency of place, Office, their attendants, Honour, Reuenue. I shall dwell my houre with the two first, with the latter on­ly, in Transitu, and vpon the by, they being inuolued in the two former. And that I may punctually go on, I will touch first (where I should) with the Eminency—Goe.—

Which as it was sacred in the first instaulement, Eminen. 1. par. so in the propagation most honourable to the times of Hea­thens. Tert. de Coron. militis cap. 10. For Tertullian (speaking of the magnificence and pompe which attended their superstitions) tels vs, that their doores, and Hoasts, and Altars, and dead, and (what glorifies all) their Priests were crown'd: in his Corona mi­litis cap. 10. And the first crowne which the Romanes v­sed, was their spicea Corona, giuen as a religious ensigne in honour of their Priests,—Honosque is, Pliu. lib. 8. cap. 2. non nisi vita fini­tur, & exules etiam, captosque comitatur—sayes my Histo­storian, nought but death could terminate this honour, which was their companion both in exile, and captiuity. They wore the name of Aruales Sacerdotes, Alex. ab. Alex. lib. 1. cap. 26. first institu­ted by Romulus, and Acca Laurentia, his Nurse, who, of her twelue Sonnes hauing lost one, he himselfe made vp the number with that title. But here's not all, — Termi­norum sacrorum, & finium, iurgijs terminandis praeerant, [Page 10] & interuenicbant, they were the peace-makers of the time, and fate as Arbitrators in matters of contestation be­tweene man and man, Plin. vt sup. as the great Naturalist in the 18. booke of his History, 2. chapter. And who fitter for such a morall office than the Priest? an honour which these worst of times allow him, though with some turbu­lency, Numb. 16.3. and indignation: Moses and Aaron, you take too much vpon you, was the crie of a Iew once, so 'tis now, who would manacle and confine them onely to an Ec­clesiasticke power, and deuest them quite of any ciuill au­thority, though Moses here had both. But 'twas not without some shew of mysterie, that in the robes of Aaron (I instance now in him, lest perchance they should cauill with his brother Moses) there was a crowne set vpon the Myter, Exod. 29.6. moralizing a possible coniunction at least of Mi­nister and Magistrate in one person. 2 Tim. 2. Chyt. de ordin. minist. pag. 506. And Chytraeus hath a patheticall obseruation from the Apostles [...]— deuide aright, that the Metaphor was first taken from the manner of cutting or deuiding the members of the host, Leuit. 7. where the fat and kidneies were burnt as a sacri­fice to God, but the breast and the shoulder were giuen to the Priests: the Allegorie carries with it both weight and maiesty, here's a breast for counsell, and a shoulder for sup­portation in matters of gouernment. And no doubt in times of old (euen these of the Fathers) the Sacerdot all power, was at a great height, in equall scale with that of their honour, Si Regum fulgori & principum Di­ademati inferius est quam si plumbi metallum ad auri fulgorem compares, Ambr. ibid. which was so eminent, that Saint Ambrose rankes not the Myter with the Diadem, but in a zealous Hyperbole (pardon the Epithite) preferres it, and makes this comparatiuely to the other as a sparkle to a flame, or dull Lead to burnisht Gold, in his de dignitate Sacerdotali cap. 2.

I may not follow the Father in his priestly Panegiricke, 'tis too high, and borders too much on the discipline of the triple crowne, such a crowne as ne're yet girt the tem­ples of King or Priest, but of him that tramples on the [Page 11] necke of both; let such insolence inuade the right of Poten­tates, and spurne their Crownes and Scepters in the dust, whil'st we seate our Aaron at the becke of Moses, but the people too at that of Aaron: Let the Priesthood doe obeysance, and kisse the feet of Soueraignty; but let not the Laity turne the heele, and kicke against the sa­crednesse of Priesthood. S. Augustine vpon these words of God to Moses, —Tu eris illi in ijs quae ad Deum. —Hec shall be to thee in stead of a mouth, Exod. 4.16. and thou shalt be to him in stead of God, seemes entranc'd awhile, and bringing them to the ballance, Aug. lib. 2. Exod. 10. quaest. and weighing precisely euery scru­ple, cries out, Magnum Sacramentum cuius figuram ge­rat, as if Moses were a medium betweene God and Aaron, and Aaron betweene Moses and the people. The morall is plaine, Soueraignty stands betweene God and the Priest­hood, and the Priesthood betweene Soueraignty and the peo­ple. Howeuer the Ceremonies due to either heretofore, in matters of Instaulement, stood not at such enmity as we can say they differ'd, they were both anoynted, and both crown'd; and though the authority were vnequall in re­spect of place, yet not of employment, Yee are full of power by the spirit of the Lord, Micah. 3.8. And Elisha could once tell the King, He should know there was a Prophet in Israel, 2 King. 5.8. And in matters of preseruation God was as zealous for the safety of these as them,— Touch not mine anointed, and doe my Prophets no harme, Psal. 105.

But let not my zeale to the Priest dispriuiledge my al­leagiance to my King. I speake not this to set vp Moses in competition with Pharaoh, or riuall the dignity of the Priesthood with that of Soueraignty; but to mind you in what lustre it sometimes shin'd, & how the times now conspire to cloud that glory.

The dayes haue beene, when the Laicke was ambiti­ous, not onely of the title of a Priest, but the office: for Eusebius examples in many of them, who thrusting vpon Bishops of primitiue times, Statim concionandi munus [Page 12] obierunt, in his lib. 6. cap. 15. And Tertullian (speaking of the insolencies and taunts which the Laity then put vpon the Priesthood) tells vs that they iustified their ma­lice & iniuries to the Priest, by vsurping the name, or pro­phaning rather, Tort. lib. de Mo­nog. cap. 12.— Quum extollimur & inflamur aduersus clerum, tunc omnes Sacerdotes, quia Sacerdotes nos Deo, & Patri fecit, quum ad peraequationem disciplinae Sacerdotalis prouocamur, deponimus infulas, & pares sumus; in his booke de Monogamia, cap. 12.

It should seeme then the office and name past honoura­bly through all ages, euen those of Infidels, though the person were sometimes exposed to the persecutions of the time, and suffered vnder the blasphemies of vnchristian tongues; but now the very title growes barbarous, and he thinkes he hath wittily discountenanced the greatnes of the calling, that can baffle the professour with the name of Priest. But these, whil'st they intend to wound, they honour vs, and wee account them no scarres, but glories. Let such children mocke on the Prophet, the euent (I beleeue) will proue as horrid as that of old, will you trem­ble to heare it spoken? you may reade it then, and look pale too, in 2 King. 2.24.

Office 2.May it please you now, turne your eyes from the dig­nity, and reflect vpon the office. The office, a taske indeed, such a one as should rather prouoke our endeauours, than appetites. If any man desire the office of a Bishop (let's a­while leaue the word Priest, and fasten vpon this, the au­thority may beare it out the better) desires a good worke, 1 Tim. 3.1. 1 Tim. 3.1. Lib. 19. Ciuit. Dei cap. 19. Quia nomen operis est, non honoris (as Augu­stine glosses it) 'tis a name of worke, not honour; a worke no lesse fearefull, than laborious, no where better figur'd than by Moses, here, to Pharaoh, repriuing Israel from Egypt, from which 'tis scarce any way differenc'd, but in the difficulty, and therein it exceeds the type; difficulty worthy the trauells of the best, were not those labours [Page 13] shoulder'd and thrust on by vaine-glory. Greg. de Val. in 2 ^a. 2ae. disp. 10. 43. part. 2. Istaec cathedra cupientem se, & audacter expetentē, non requirit, sed orna­tum, sed cruditum—. So Valentia vpon Aquine. —This chaire of Moses is no seat of ambition, but desert, it hates either an intruder, or pursuer; He that gaines it by coue­tousnesse, or bold desire, doth not possesse, but inuade it, and 'tis not so much his by right of inheritance, as vsur­pation.

These honors fawne onely vpon humble worths, men clad & harnessed with double eminencie, of life, of lear­ning, those whose vertues haue aduanc'd them aboue the ordinary leuell and pitch of popularity. Yet to these nei­ther without this proficiscere— to Moses, Goe. Clemens in his first Epistle, will perswade you: 'tis the con­clusion of Saint Peter. Augustine goes farther, Lib. 19. de Ciuit. Dei, cap. 19. — Locus superior sine quo populus regi non potest, et si administretur vt decet, tamen indecenter appetitur—. Suppose the man wor­thy of this place of Eminencie, & comes home in matters of administration, yet he is to blame in those of appetite, Greg. de Val. vt supra. for the desire laies open his vnworthinesse, and the School­man will not flatter him, but concludes it plainely for a mortall sinne. And if we may guesse at the child by the pa­rent, it best countenanceth leuity, or arogance, neuer read to be the proper seedes of any vertue. Notwithstanding this desire (sometimes) comes not within the compasse of presumption, Part. 1. Pastor. cap. 8. if the worke be the obiect of our appe­tite, and not the honour, or, if the honour, not the reuenew, —Appetere colsitudinem Episcopalem, non est semper prae­sumptio, sed appetere Episcopatum, ratione celsitudinis, ap­petit enim celsitudinem, supra dignitatem— Gregorie will haue it so. Howeuer, 1 Tim 3.1. if it please you to glance on my for­mer quotation from the Apostle, 'twill not so much whet your appetite, as grauell it; Beza in locum. for first Beza limits the desire, If any man desire? and 'tis not meant — de ambi­tu— of the appetite, or ambition to get the See, but de animo, of the earnest desire to benefit the Church, or ad­mit [Page 14] the words will carry that interpretation, yet the commendation which is annexed truces with the worke, not the desire,—Bonum opus de siderat—, not — benè desi­derat—, though it be good what he desires, yet hee doth not well to desire it. Men vnworthy of what they sue for, onely because they sue for it. And this in Primitiue times hath occasioned in many no lesse a modestie than vn­willingnesse in those sacred vndertakings, when the Fa­thers, with a kind of reluctancie and feare, were towed on to these high imployments. Nay some, whether through maiestie of the place, or roughnesse of the times, or guilt of their owne weakenesse, haue panted and breath'd short in their desires to this great enterprise, and at length ex­chang'd the honour for an exile. Greg Naz in praefat. Apol. Athan. in epist. ad Draconi. Episc. fug: vt Gl [...]ss. in prim. Euan. Marc. Nizianzen flies into Pontus; Dracontius, into the skirts of Alexandria: and it is tradition'd me by Aquinas, (and he quotes Saint Ierome for it) that Saint Marke cut off his thumbe, Ʋt Sacer­dotio reprobus haberetur— They are the Schoolemans owne words in his 2 ^a. 2ae. quaest. 185. Artic. 1. But 'twill not be amisse here to take Saint Ambrose —quamuis no­tandum— with vs; that these things were done in the Churches great extremities, when he that was — pri­mus in presbyterio, Part. 2. past. c. 3. was — primus in Martyrio. 'Twould require the temper of a braue resolution, and a better zeale, to desire this Bonum opus, when 'twas made the touchstone and furnace of mens faith and constancie, not only in leading others to the stake, but their own suffering where they were to be a voluntary Holocaust, and sacri­fice to the Church, there to remaine a monument of their Religion, and others tyranny. 'Tis true, Histories haue fur­nisht vs with examples of some which haue renounc'd an Empire, and (which is strange) a Popedome; Dioclesian did one, and Celestinus, t'other. The times (we may sup­pose) were blustring, and the reuenewes thin at Rome, when the honor of the chaire, was at once not desir'd and scorn'd. No proiect now vnsifted, no stratagem vndig'd [Page 15] for; no reach of policie vnfathom'd for the compassing of that great See, though by synister, though by diuellish attempt, nay, that's the chiefe engine by which it works. Tiberius could once tell a Prince of the Celts, that Rome had a sword for her conquest, not an Apothecaries shop; now they are both too little; Sword, and poyson, and massacre, and Pistoll, and knife, and powder, for the purchase (or at least the strengthening) of the triple crowne.

And I would Mach [...]auell had rendeuouz'd only in Ie­suited Territories, and not knockt at the gates of Prote­stant Dominions; 'tis to be fear'd he hath Factors neerer home, those which not onely know the backdoores to the Staffe, and Myter, but are acquainted with the locke, which if they cannot force or picke by the finger of po­licie or greatnesse, they turne with that golden key which at once opens a way to a purchas'd honour, and a ruine.

Ambition whither wilt thou? nay, where wilt thou not? to the pinacle of the Temple for the glory of the world, though thou tumble for it to thy eternall ruine.

The Greeke Philosopher will beg of the gods, that he may behold the Sunne so neere, as to comprehend the forme, Eudoxus. beautie, greatnesse of it, and afterwards he cares not if hee burne, as if there were no such Martyrdome, as what Ambition fires. Occidar modò imperet—, Tacit. Annals. was the resolution of Agrippina for her Nero; but loe, how the euent crownes the vnsatiatenesse of her desires? He gaines the kingdome, and first dig'd out those bowels which had fostered him, and then that heart which was the throne of such an aspiring thought; cruelty shall I call it, or iustice, when the vaine glory of the mother was penanc'd with the vnnaturalnesse of the son. Thus loftie mindes (furnisht with a strong hope of the successe of their designes) haue embark't themselues into great acti­ons, and proposing humane ends, as scales to their high thoughts, haue bin wasted into strange promotions, but after they haue (a while) spangl'd in that their firmament [Page 16] of honour, they become falling starres, and so the suc­cesse prooues as inglorious as the enterprise was bold, and desperate. We haue seldome met with any eminency that was sodaine and permanent: Those which in their dawne of Fortune breake so gloriously, meet with a storme at noone, or else a cloud at night. The Sunne that rises in a grey and sullen morne, sets clearest; and indeed ambition is too hastie, and is hur [...] [...]d violently to the end it aimes at without cautelousnesse and circumspection to the meane; but humilitie hath a calme and temperate pace, and stoopes it along in a gentle posture, yet at length at­taines her marke, but slowly, as if it went vnwilling to honour, and slighted those proffers which others sue for. I enuie Scipio Africanus, and Marcus Portius (you know whose 'tis, Traianus to Plutarch) more for contempt of offices, than the victories they haue wonne, because a con­querour for the most part is in Fortunes power, but the con­tempt of offices liu'd in prudence. Will you heare the para­phrase? Tacitus giue's it, Sapientibus cupido gloriae nouissi­ma, exuitur—. Wisemen are so little in the drift of honor that they loath the sent, 'tis the vanitie, they last put off, and there was a time when a modest refusall of them, was no by-way to them; for this shadow once followed, flies, but fled, Chrys. Hom. 35. in Matth. followes— primatus fugientem desiderat, deside­ratum horret, saies the Father. 'Tis a tricke of primacie to fawne where 'tis not croocht too, but looke coy where it's ouer courted, like some weather-cocks which in a constant and churlish wind beake fairely towards vs, but in a wanton blast, turne taile.

Hence it is that in matters of authoritie, and prehemi­nence, pride hath for the most part the foile, humilitie the conquest, that stoopes basely to the title, or the profit, and looses either, This in a modest distance keepes a loose, till worth inuite it, and at length gaines both; so that it is in wayes of promotion, as in some water-works, where one Engine raises it to make it fall more violently, [Page 17] another beats it downe that it might mount higher. The aduise then of S. Peter comes seasonably here, 1 Pet. 5.6. — Hum­ble your selues vnder the mighty hand of God, that hee may exalt you in due time. The words are not without their strength of emphasis, here is an — humiliamini— crown'd with an — vt exaltet, humble your selues, that he may ex­alt, as if humilitie were so necessary a disposition to pre­ferment, that without it God might not exalt. But soft, Impostor; Thou which iuglest both with God and with the times, I call not that humility which is typ'd in the downefall of the looke, or the affected crindge and po­sture of the bodie, but the knee of the inward man, w ^ch the Wiseman of old called the character of an holy soule, leading noble harts slowly to the feasts of friends, but speedi­ly to their succour in calamities; So that true meekenesse is retinu'd with a double worth, charity, resolution; And the Philosopher will tell you, Plato in Timaeo. 'tis A vertue belongs to the couragious part of the soule, seated betweene two base ex­treames, Pusillanimity, Arrogance, No Buffone, and yet no Bafler, supporting sometimes iniuries, not out of cow­ardice, but Patience, allaying all tumults and instigations of the soule to reuenge or choller, not expos'd to any vio­lence of passion, but as temperate in disposition, as setled; no waue in her designe, nor tempest in her thought; she is all calme, not a wind so rough as to moue a storme either in her minde or action. But there is a squint-eiea humilitie, which casts one way, and points another; the looke is deiected, still groueling towards the earth, and with such a dresse of mortification, as if it desired no more of it, than would serue it for a graue; when the thought measures out a Diocesse, or labours on some greater proiect, which gain'd the countenance is chear'd, the bodie droopes not, and he can now safely i [...]st it with that old Abbot,

And this subtle Nauigator neuer steeres as he sets his compasse; the looke (haply) points you to a formall meekenesse, but the thought still coasts vpon Ambition; yet this gluttonous desire seldome anchors any where, but goes on still with a full saile, till 't'ath compassed the cape tis bound for, Seneca. — Habet hoc vitiumomnis ambitio, non respicit, The thirst of Eminencie is headstrong, and runs with a loose bridle. 'Tis to see much below satietie, that it still desires, nay 'tis hungry euen in surfet, and is sharpen'd with the fruition of that it coueted; so that the birth of this title is but the conception of another, one honour roomes not the greatnesse of his thought, our Aaron is not contented with an Ephod, the rod of Moses, would doe well too; Authoritie is sleighted, discipline falne, and corruption crept strangely into the times, but

Iumen. Sat. 1.— O fortunatam me consule, Romam. What should a mercifull worth doe with a Consulship? 'tis a place for thunder, not clemencie, one that can strike dead exorbi­tancie with the furrowes of the brow, and quell all vice with the tempest of a looke, one that can both vnsheath the sword of authoritie, and brandish it, if not to reforma­tion, yet to ruine; Thus he would make gouernment the stale both of his pride and Tyranny, his proiects are lof­tily cruell, so are his actions too, yet still in a hot sent of promotion, w ^ch (if they want a trumpet for others com­mendation) shall borrow one from his owne, and so at once applaud his designes, and iustifie them. And indeed this titillation and itch of honour, if it once finde in the bosome of the receiuer a faire admittance, doth smooth­ly insinuate and cheat vpon the powers of Reason, But when 'tis throughly seated and enthron'd there, 'tis no more a guest but a Tyrant, and leaues the possessor, not a master, but a captiue, and in this case, I know not whe­ther Saint Augustine will pittie his Aurelius, or excuse him, Aug. Epist. 64. ad Aurel. — Et si cuiquam facile sit gloriam non cupere dum negatur, difficile est ea non delectari cum offertur— in his [Page 19] 64 Epistle. Howeuer the Father seemes there to pleade onely for the delight in glories offer'd, not in the vniust prosecution of those denied. But our humble-arrogant walkes not to his temple of honour by that of vertue, but inuasion; and of some of his colleagues, the Fathers com­plain'd of old, Qui nequaquam diuinitus vocati, Greg. part. 1. past. cap. 2. sed sua cupiditate accensi, culmen regimini. rapiunt potiùs, quàm assequuntur 'Tis Saint Gregories line, and a strong one too, such a one as the Prophet once lash't Iudah with, Hos. 8.4. Ho. 8.4. They haue set vp a King but not by me, they would make a Ruler, I knew it not. Mat. 23. Would you haue a more punctuall character, that of the Pharisees is most appo­site: They loue greetings in the markets, and to be cal­led of men, Rabbi, Rabbi, Matth. 23.7. Deuout cruelty, Religious arrogance (the Father will make it out) Ob pie­tatem miseri, ob splendorem infaelices, Greg. Naz. in praefat. Apol. edict. lat. in his Apologie first Oration 44. pag.

But I haue followed Moses too long as a Magistrate, I must now a while as a Priest, and (what I exchang'd him for) a Bishop. I shall not trauell farre, e're I descry them both in a full careere, not farr from the roade I left the Ma­gistrate, Ambition, but in a more couert, and vntroden way; a way, howeuer doubly obnoxious to the passen­ger, because vnwarrantable, because forbidden; no autho­ritie for his progresse, no Letters patents from heauen, no proficiscere from his God, Goe, yet he runnes, runnes without command, nay against it, trebly against it, against that, non dominantes in clerum—, feed, 1. Pet. 5.3. Iam. 3.1. But not as Lords ouer Gods heritage, but ensamples, and against that nolite magistri, be not masters, knowing you shall receiue the greater condemnation; nay against the direct prohibition of Christ to his Disciples, Matth 20.27. — Will there be any great among you—, [...], let him be your seruant. 'Tis high time then this bladder were a little prickt, and this impostume launc'd. The body of the Church desire's it, cries for't, shee is sicke, sicke euen vnto death, yet no [Page 20] Physitian in Israel will administer, will? durst not; Wee are growne so emasculate, and palsie-strooken, in waies of reprehension, the times so censorious, and in a lust of no­ueltie, that this mount of God which was wont to send out lightnings and thunder to the Israelites below, is now growne a terrour to the Moses that shall climbe it. And whereas the Pulpit hath beene formerly our Tribu­nall to iudge and sentence the lapses and deprauations of the people, they haue made at length a bar for our own ar­raignement, & their doome or mercy passes on vs, as we shall please or not please, but the verdict runnes much to the fancy of the censurer, which is commonly as barba­rous and wilde, as he that giues it. Discourses (and I am sorry I cannot call them Sermons) are so sleeke, and wooing for applause, the eares of the times so coy, and pickt for accuratenesse, that to be plaine or home, entitles the speaker to rudenesse or stoicisme, each offer'd annota­tion is a barbarisme, and euery reproofe a libell. The hew­ing downe of a glorious vice, or the whipping of a sinne in scarlet, Praemunires him that doth it, and hee growes a tributary and slaue to the frownes and dishonours of the time, Iuuen. Sat. 1. — Vnde illa priorum—scribendi quodcunque ani­mo flagrante liberet—Simplicitas? 'Tshould seeme An­tiquitie had a priuiledge of venting any thing that pro­ceeded from the simplicitie and truth of an honest breast; But the thoughts of aftertimes were choak't with a — non audeo dicere—, sincerity was turn'd bankrupt, and truth an exile, plaine-dealing, pertinacie, and zeale, madnesse. But what, shall Moses here be tongue-tyed, shall he stut­ter in the Messages of his God? — Quid refert dictis ig­noscat Mutius annon? Iu. ibid. Pusillanimity and deiectednesse of spirit in the imployment of thy Maker, is the basest de­gree of cowardise; for my part, I haue set vp my resolu­tion with that of S. Bernard: Ad Fulc. Epist. 2. Quid me loqui pudeat, quod illis non puduit facere? si pudeat audire quod impudenter egerunt, non pudeat emendare quod libenter non audiant. [Page 21] Let me tell howeuer this child of vaine-glory, that no touch of malecontentednesse, or spirit of inuection puts me on the iustice of these complaints; But that which the deuout Abbot cals, patient anger, humble indignati­on —euen that charity wherewith he catechiz'd his am­bitious pupill, — Quae tibi condolet, quaemuis non dolenti, B [...]rn. ad Fulc. epist. 2. quae tibi miseretur, licet non miserabili, & inde magis dolet, quod cum sis dolendus, non doles, & inde magis miseretur, quod cùm miser sit, miserabilis non es, vult te tuum scire do­lorem, vt iam non habeas vnde dolere, vult te tuam scire miseriam, vt incipias miser non esse, in his 2 Epistle, Ad Fulconem—.

I neuer yet enuied the prosperity of any, I haue some­times wond'red at their waies of aduancement, and now haue trac't them, and finde a double staire by which they ascend, zeale, policie,—(please you to translate the termes, you may, they will beare the christning) Faction, Simo­ny—, one of the chiefe meanes to gaine preferment, is, to crie downe the way to it. And he that will haue three li­uings, must first preach violently against two. Non-resi­dency must be a capitall and indispensable crimes. Plura­lities, damn'd, till they be either offer'd, or possest, when the fish is caught, what makes the net here then? away with it; the question is stated on to'ther side. A double Benefice is but one liuing, and that swallowed with as little reluctation, as 'twas but now thundred against, with all the bitternesse that the power of virulence could suggest; all's well now, the conscience is at peace, and (what is strange) the tongue too. Ere long, Non-residency hangs not in the teeth, but that is easily put off, for the honour of Nicodemus,—To be a great Master in Israel, Sueton. — Si vio­landum sit ius, regnandi caus â violandum,—what matter's it for iustice so we gaine an Empire? or for equity so we may insult? The application needs no skrew, 'twill come home of it's owne accord to the murmurings of the guil­ty [Page 22] bosome; In the meane time it much staggers mee, to see the reconcilement of two vertuous friends with a base aduersary? a Saint in the countenance, an Angell in the tongue, with an Hypocrite at the heart.

Thus (beloued) vpon easie enquiry wee may as well descrie an equiuocation in the looke, as in the word, and he that can art it handsomely in wayes of dissimulation, hath not so much two tongues, as two faces; one lookes towards the world, where demurenesse laies on her paint and colour, and this oftentimes deludes, shamefully de­ludes; the other towards heauen, and that's but coursely dawb'd in respect of it, for the eye of the Almighty can­not be dazell'd, that will descrie her furrowes and defor­mities, and at length giue her a reward answerable to the defert, her portion with the Hypocrite, and there I leaue it.

This fruitlesse and pernicious branch prun'd, and lopt off, t'other buds, no lesse dangerous than that, and yet more flourishing, it sprouts now to such a bredth and height, that it hath almost ouershadowed the body of the Church, insomuch, that the Foules of the aire lodge in the branches thereof. No Vulture or Rauen (emblemes of rapine and greedinesse) though they deuoure and ha­uock it (so they haue a tricke of merchandizing) but nests and perches there; nay scarce an Owle or Buzzard (now the metaphors of dulnesse and simplicity) but hoots and reuels there. Times more than calamitous, when the in­heritance and patrimony of the Church, shall be thus leas'd out to auarice and folly, when those her honors w ^ch she entailes vpon desert, shall be heaped vpon a golden ignorant, who rudely treades on those sacred preroga­tiues, without any warranted proficiscere frō God or man. We find Moses trembling here, though encourag'd both by the perswasion and command of the Almighty, — Et [Page 23] infirmquis (que) vt honoris onus suscip at, anhelat, Greg. par. 1. past. cap. 7. & qui ad ca­sum valde vrgetur ex proprijs, humerū libenter opprimen [...]ū ponderibus submittit alienis—. 'Tis Gregories complaint in the 1. part of his Pastorall, chapter 7.

Strange monument of weaknesse! hee that reeles vn­der his owne burthen, stoopes to be opprest with the weight of others, and loe how he tumbles to a mortall sinne (The Schoolemen doth stile it so) directly oppo­site to a paire of vertues, iustice, charity; vniust, that the reuenues due to worth should be pack't vpon bulcklesse and vnable persons, Greg. de Val. in 2 ^a. 2ae. Aqui. dist. 10. q. 3 punc. 2. and vncharitable for him to vnder­take the guidance and pasturing of a flocke who was ne­uer train'd vp in the conditions of a shepherd. Neither is he an enemy onely of a double vertue, but a compani­on of two such sinnes which seeme to braue, and dare the Almighty to reuenge on the prophaner, Intrusion, periurie; first, in rushing on the profession not legitimate­ly call'd, then in purchasing her honours. Yet there are which can say with the Disciple — Master, we haue left all and followed thee— our birth-right for the Church; left did I say? sold it, exchanged the possessions of our Fa­thers (their vineyard) to purchase thine; and in stead of that peny which thou giuest in liew of a Crowne and recompence to thy labourer, we haue giuen thousands to be possest one, and so, thou not hiring vs, wee haue, it. But heare S. Bernard schooling his Eugenius, and doe not so much blush as tremble,— Quis mihi det, Bern. epist. 238. ad Euge. ante quam moriar videre ecclesiam Dei sicut in diebu [...] antiquis quandò Apostoli laxabant retia in capturam, non aurd, sed animae­rum! quàm cupio te illius hareditare vocem cuius ad [...]ptus es sedem? Pecunia tua tecum in perditionem—. O vex to­nitrui! The Abbot goes on deuoutly in the 238. Epi­stle ád Eugenium.

If that Father be too calme and modest in his reproofe, [Page 24] and cannot rouze bloud in the cheekes of the delin­quent: S. Ambrose shall startle it, or else scare you with the vision of Simon Magus, Amb. de dign. sacerd. cap. 5. or Gehazi,—Qui non timen­tes illud Petri, aut Elizei, Sacerdotalem defamant ho­norem, sanctique Episcopatus gratiam pecunijs coemerunt; in his de dignitate Sacerdotali cap. 5.

And indeed, in waies of sufficiency and worth, 'tis the — si nil attuleris—damp's the preferment; The age can instance, in some languishing and weake in their intelle­ctuals, men without sap or kernell, who (hauing their store-house well fraught with that white and red earth) haue stumbled on the glories of the time, as if for­tune would make them happy in despight of vertue; when others of Christs followers (were truely his Disci­ples) are sent abroad with their— ite & praedicate—bare-footed, without bag or scrip, but their Commission large — Omni creaturae—the wide world is their place of resi­dence, no particular roofe to shelter them, or place of re­tirednesse to lay their head in. Nay some that haue seru'd a triple Apprentiship to Arts and Sciences, and spent in these our Athens the strength of their time and patrimo­nie, men throughly ballac'd for those high designes, well kern'd both in yeeres and iudgement, lie mouldring for non-employment, and dasht for slownesse of promotion; when others of cheape and thin abilities, men without growth or bud of knowledge, haue met with the honours of aduancement, and trample on those deiected booke­wormes which dissolue themselues into industry for the seruice of their Church, yet meet neither with her pompe, nor her reuenue; nay, some that haue wasted their Lampe, are burnt their Taper to an inch of yeeres, haue spent those fortunes in the trauailes of Diuinity, w ^ch would largely haue accommodated them for more se­cular courses, and enforced to retire themselues to the solitarinesse of some ten-pound Cure, and so spin out [...] [Page 25] he hath suffer'd strangely in the censures of the world) somewhat windy, & tempestuous, but such as had autho­rity onely from the tongue, not the heart, and as soone ore-blowne, as occasion'd, nought else but a greene leafe in a flame, crack't, sparkled, and so out. His rule of friendship the best, not popular, but choice, & there too, where it found truth, no glosse; there vnshooke, nobly-constant, his, both in his heart, & in his purse; not in his purse, (as Seneca writes of Sicilius, where nought could be extracted but an hundred vpon a hundred) or as your Hackney Mynt-men for the most part doe, ten vpon the same number, but that trebled, many times, for no­thing, as the clemency of some vnpersecuting scroles can testifie. His contribution, and beneuolence in way of almes, rather powr'd out, than giuen, as if pouerty had beene the obiect of his profusenesse, not of his re­leefe; yet that without froth of ostentation, without reference to merit, on the grounds of a true charity. His Religion (wherein the world thought hee had wau'd and totter'd) vpon his accounts to God, and his inlargements and declarations to his friends, on his death-bed, fast to the Church of England; which, (though in the last act) was beleager'd by some emas­culate suggestions, yet, blessed be the circumspection of a carefull Sonne, it stood vnbatter'd, and in that loialty, and strength, he penitently gaue vp his soule in­to the hands of his Redeemer.

And now hee is gone, let his imperfections fol­low, and the memory of them rot, and moulder with his body; hee had many, some preualent; and (good Lord) which of vs haue nor in a large pro­portion! But they are our earthy and dusty, and ashy part, so they were his; let them then be buried with him; shouell them into his graue; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; let them spring no more, [Page 26] to the soyling and dishonour of his name, or our owne vncharitablenesse, but let his ashes rest in peace; for hee is now— Gone to his long home, and the mourners haue walkt for him about the streets.

Gloria in excelsis Deo. Amen.