Periamma ʼepidemion, or, Vulgar errours in practice censured also The art of oratory, composed for the benefit of young students.

ΠΕΡΙΑΜΜΑ 'ΕΠΙΔΗ'ΜΙΟΝ: Or, VULGAR ERROURS in Practice Censured. Also The Art of ORATORY▪ Composed for the benefit of young Students.

LONDON, Printed for Richard Royston, at the Angell in Ivy-lane. 1659.

ΠΕΡΙΑΜΜΑ 'ΕΠΙΔΗ'ΜΙΟΝ: Or, VULGAR ERROURS in Practice Censured.

Tandem nequitiae pone modum tuae.Horat.

LONDON, Printed for Richard Royston, at the Angell in Ivy-lane. 1659.

The EPISTLE to the READER. Reader,

THou art here presented with a few talents, lai'd up formerly in a Napkin, and now lay'd out in Sheets. Thou hast an account of some unmolested hours and vacant intervals, spent, not in needlesse Controversies, but in necessary Censures. This Tre • tise meddles not with the times, but with the manners of men; though both may admit the Oratour's O tempo • a! O mo • es! Cic. • rat. in L. 〈◊〉 . O! It speaks no • evill of the Rulers of the people; and (withJude v. • 9. Michael) it dares not bring a railing accusation against present Authority: For even all chief Governours have as long Ears as Midas, which entertain intelligence of each particular negotiation. And as they have, with him, Golden Hands, to gratifie pens steeped in oile, which flatter them: so also they have Iron Hands, to terrifie pens dipped in gall, which flout them. The Booke abounds more with savoury then Satyricall Truths, and more with Instructions then Invectives. Although this Iron Age doth even extort a file: Cùm pars Niliacae plebis,Juven. sat. 1. cùm verna Canopi Crispinus Tyrias humero revocante lacernas Ventilet aestivum digitis sudantibus aurum, Nec sufferre queat majoris pondera gemmae; Difficile est Satyram non scribere: nam quis iniqui Tam patiens orbis, tam ferreus, ut teneat se? If thou believest not that the ensuing Myndus is answerable to these gates, that there is not in the succeeding Building what is promised in this Portal • ; enter in, and trust thine eyes: and what thou seest propos • d in Words, follow with Works. The Father of Lights bestow his rayes upon thee. To hi • Tuition I commend thy person; to which if thou once attainest, it wi • l be superfluous for me to bid thee Farewell.

The Introduction.

IN the Microcosme few Comets are above the Moon: There Fire goes not beyond Light, but Knowledge surpasseth Zeal. Men abound in new Notions, but abstain not from their old Vices▪ Many of them can almost (with Berengarius) dispute de omni Scibili; but few comply with Luc. 10. 42. Mary in the choice of the unum neceslarium. They want not the eyes of Argus, but the hands of Briareus. The Disease with which they labour is the Spirituall Rick • ts, whereby their Head swells beyond due proportion, but their Feet abate of their usuall dimensions: their Conscience is not adequate to their Science, Marc. 8. 24. I see men as trees rooted in the earth, having their affections here below; and the longer they continue the deeper root they take. And it is a sad symptome of the decaying health of the Body Politick, when, after so many meals made upon the meat which will make it perish, upon the forbidden fruit of the fruitlesse works of darknesse, it becomes not cold; but is still ardent in its desires after the supposed delicacies of Iniquity. That mens Souls abound thus with peccant humours needs not proof more then a Proleptick notion; and That all the Extravagancies of which men are guilty deserve reproof, that all these unprofitable branches call for the pruning-hook, is as evident as if it were deciphered with a Sun-beam: But to inveigh against the whole catalogue, were a work too difficult even for a single Hercules. I have contributed my weak endeavours towards the stopping of some of these muddy Rivolets, which have not often been molested with Censures, but have passed on in an undisturbed current. I confesse, what I have written came in collaterally and by accident not in the prosecution of the ordinary method of my studies; but I account that in no degree prejudiciall. It is observed of Saint Augustine's Comments, that those Scriptures which come in occasionally, obtain a better Glosse then those which are treated on professedly. The fam'd work of Erasmus was his By-work; his Adagies were his 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : and the Painter, by an immethodicall dash of his pencill, made a lively representation of the Horses Fome, which before he attempted in vain according to the rudiments of his Art. If the lines which I have drawn arrive at a center where they may totally rest, if these my Censures passe uncensured, if this my Ink meets not with the Gall of Momus▪ I shall be fortunate beyond expectation: For he that spits against an Epidemicall wind, spits, for the most part, upon his own Face.

Ad Librum. GO, blot out Errours with thine Ink, and kill, Porcupine-like, those Monsters with thy Quill. Like Lightning, melt the Sword, but spare the Sheath. Spit on the Vice, don't on the Person breath. Kill not the harmless Bees with hurtfull Drones. Tread not, like Dying men, on Pigeons. Into a Lanthorn do thou frame thy Paper, Which may preserve the light of Vertues Taper. Thou Moonet tell faire Phebus of his Spots, And Masters at the Tables of their Blotts. Thou Cubit, unto men of stature reach. Leontia may Theophrastus teach. If worms from th'teeth of Momus would thee eat, Tell • hem Forbidden Leaves are no such meat. Or rather bid them wellcome: Envie's file Will give thine Innocence • brighter smile.

The Contents of the severall Chapters. CHAP. I. A Censure of the Epidemicall practise of reproaching Red-Hair'd men, Pag. 1. CHAP. II. A Censure of the generall Scandall of some Professions, especially that of the Profession of Physick, 18 CHAP. III. A Censure of that common evill practice of reproaching the Feminine Sex, 38 CHAP. IV. A Censure of the practice of the many Writers amongst us, who even wholly neglect the defence of the Deity of Christ, notwithstanding the hell-born nature of the contrary Doctrine, and the potency of its maintainers, and spend their time in writing • upon needlesse Subjects, 53 CHAP. V▪ A Censure of the vanity of affecting Epitaphs, with a declaration of their uselessenesse: where, by way of Praeamble, of the fitnesse of decent Sepulture, occasioned by the neglect of many Sectaries, who bury a Dog with as much solemnity as a Christian. 75 CHAP. VI. A Censure of the common evill practice of Pretenders to Religion, viz. their runing to one Extream to avoid another, in Doctrine or Worship. 98 CHAP. VII. A Censure of the common evil practice of Railing against an Adversary in Opinion. 104

CHAP. I. A Censure of the Epidemicall practise of reproaching Red-hair'd Men.

MEn take no rest in the point of reflexion upon the credit o • each other.Sect. 1. The tongue of2 Sam. 6, 20. Michal is an epidemicall member. As Vitiis, so Convitiis nemo sine nascitur. All, through the degeneracy of their nature, have putrid Lungs, whereby they mutually pollute their names with virulent spittle. Each man disparageth his fellow-creature, and gratifies his haughty humour in the derision of his Brother. And this is often done upon such triviall grounds, that a due perpension would cause an abashment in the face of the Practiser. My present Instance shall be in a common, yet causelesse Calumniation: viz. the vilifying ofPhanaretae ducet filia, rufam • illam virginem. Te ••• . He 〈◊〉 autont. Red-hair'd Men, the putting a disesteem upon Persons, merely because of the native colour of the Excrement of the Head.Scen. ult.

It is scarce conjecturall from whence this opprobrium should take its rise; there being no rationall foundation for such a superstruction. Certainly it began 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (asEpict. Enchirid. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Epictetus counselled in other cases) it had its originall from some petite and slender consideration. Perhaps this usuall practice oweth its producement to the mutuall semblance betwixt the colour of the Hair, and some entities in nature ofAs sand, &c. no considerable value, which, without study, offer themselves to a mean capacity. Now although it might come into comparison with the most sparkling and precious created bodies; yet the soul of depraved man goes according to the byasse • of innate corru • tion, and like Medea in the Medea apud Ovid.—video • neli • ra • roboque, De • eriora • equor— Poet, or the Conclusion in a Syllogisme, evermore followeth the worse part.

2 §. Although Lucian worthily scoffed at the artificiallStoici e • an • t • nsi 〈…〉 Adr. Turneb. Advers. lib. 23. cap. 23. Baldnesse of the severe Stoicks, and made them a by-word with hisTurneb. ad. lib. 15. cap. 16. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and likewise Juv. Sat. 2. Iuvenal with his —Supercilio brevior coma— and Suet. in vita C. J. Caes. non solum tonderetur diligenter ac rad • retur, sed etiam velleretur. Caesar deserved an hisse, for doing violence to his hair by eradication: yet the deriding of a Red-hair'd man comes within the compasse of theEphes. 5. 4. Apostles 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , foolish talking and jesting, which are not convenient.

Red-hair'd men are not, as such, branded with any signall and notable extravagancy above others: Black-hair'd men are as well nigro carbone notandi; and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈◊〉 Homeru • in Odys. & II. quàm saepissim • Gray-ey'd Minerva may, with as much reason, be the mark of calumny. White hair, although it seems to have more of Innocency, yet it hath lesse of Modesty. TheIn plag •• mundi gl • ciali, ca •• didâ 〈◊〉 sunt gen • tes, flav • promissae crinibus. Plin. 〈◊〉 hist. lib▪ cap. 78 Complexion of Red-hair'd men is clear and masculine, and very serviceable to the superiour faculty in laudable atchievements. Those which the mouth of slander calls sandy heads, are seldome barren, but of pregnant intellectuals: and they that endeavour an extraction of poyson out of Red heads, imitate the Spider, which sucks her venome out of the sweetest flowers.

The water of separation,3. §. a purification for sin, wasNumb. 19. 9. made of the ashes of a Red Hei • er. This colour was once Gallia's delight: Mart. lib. • 4. Epig. • 29. Roma magis fuscis vestit • r, Gallia ru • is. In Virgils dayes the Women, who adde all possible lustre to their ex • erior accoutrements, were decked with saffron. coloured rayment. Virg. 9. En. ita ex • ristoph. Vobis picta croco & splendenti murice vestis. The Carthaginian Zygantes esteem'd this Colour farre beyond that which they received from the hanc▪ of Nature, they coloured their bodies with Red Lead. The four antient and primitive Painters, Apelles, Echion, Melanthius, Nicomachus, used butR • nis, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . four colours, and • lbum, sieum, ru •• m, ni •• , Plin. 〈◊〉 c. • . • ub. 〈…〉 • il est g • nus pigme • ti, luteum colorem, quemad • odum ochra, 〈◊〉 Vide J. C. Buleng. de Pict. & stat. lib. 1. ca • . 4. two of them are of this colour. Yellow, the highest step of which is the lowest stair of Red, was in Ovid's time an ingredient in the composition of a Beauty. Ovid. l. 2. Fast. Forma placet, niveúsque color, flavi que capilli. Clay-colour of old was

Turneb. l. 28. Adv. c. 21. Luteus color nuptiis dicatus erat; & non solùm in delitiis erant rubra sandalia, ve • rùm etiam Lutei calcei.

Catul. in Epithal. Iul.

—Luteum pede socc • . Apul. As. Aur. lib. 9. cingulo sub. ligati pede • , Luteis indu • i cal. ceis.

sacred at Nuptials, and they were much enamoured hereon; and not onely Red Sandals were in use and esteem, but also Clay-coloured shooes. The Plin. hist. lib. 15. cap. 22. Cortice earum ruffatur capillus, primùm prodeuntibus nucleis. Wallnut gives the Haire this colour, and therefore we may presume that it is not contemptible: for Plin. ibid. H • nor hi • naturae peculi •• is, gemino protectis ope • imento, pulvinar • primùm calycis, mox lig • ei 〈◊〉 : qu • e causa eas nuptiis fecit religiosas, 〈◊〉 modis 〈…〉 . Nature is a peculiar honourer of that fruit, protecting it with a double guard: whereupon it became venerable at Matrimoniall solemnities; being an adumbration of the like protection of the toe • us. The Lacedemonians made choice of this colour, for their warlike attire, out of a singular piece of Policy, viz. that in the effusion of their bloud no tincture might be perceived, to the cowardise of themselves, or the courage of their enemies. The stately Sabina Poppaea, wise to Domitius Nero, had Amber▪ coloured haire,Burton, in praef. to his Mel. p. 37. from Pliny. and all the Roman Ladies followed her with an artificiall imitation. This colour was of such repute in Tert. lib. de Cultu foem. pag. 514. Video quasdam capillum croco vertere; malè ac pessimè • ibi auspicantur flammeo capite. Tertullian's and Hier. ad Laetam de instit. filiae, Nec caput gemmis oneres, 〈◊〉 capillum erufes, & ei aliquid de Gehennae ignibus auspiceris. Saint Hieromes dayes, that artificiall Red was deem'd an ornament to the Hair. TheAt si virgineum suffuderit ore ruborem. Virg. 1. Georg. Virgin's blush is of this colour; and women are so delighted with it, that if their cheeks want naturall, they adde artificiall Vermilion. The vail of Nature is dy'd in Red; Macrob. Saturnal. lib. 7. cap. 11. Natura pudore tacta, sanguinem ante se p • o velamento tendit: and, without all peradventure, the Colour which that admits is not ridiculous. How dare any Palate disrelish that Colour, by which that matter was visible which went to the composing of theAdam so called from Red earth. Protoplast? Publius Lentulus Vice-Consul, in his Epistle to the Roman Senate written from Hierusalem, deciph • reth at large the body of our Saviour; and amongst many other particulars in his description, he inserteth this one, That the Haires of his Head and Beard were Red. And accordingly the profound Spaniard Huart. in Exam. d • Ing c. 14▪ pag. 259. interpreteth Isaiah 63. 1. Who is he that cometh from the Red Land?

B. Hall Moderat. lib. 2. p. 13 Innocent the Fourth, in the Councill of Lyons, graced the dignity of the Cardinallship with a Red Hat; and Budaeus de Asse & partibus, 5 p. 77 • sordere 〈◊〉 Francia prae mul • tudine •• stantium &c. Budaeus the French man had so high an opinion of it, that he passionately declaimed against it's generall usage, and judged its extension to a multitude, a diminution of its worth.

The excellencies of the Creation resemble the Red Head as to its tincture.4. §. The Fire, the most agile and aspiring body, the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Herodot. Thal. cap. 16. false God of the Persians, andVbi aliquid de igneo allegatur, Heraclitus intervenit. Tertul. de praescript. adv. pag. 98. by Heraclitus ascribed to the true Soveraign Majesty, is of a Ruddy Complexion. So is the richCyprius vocatur in Cypro repertus, vergens in areum colorem, in medicina efficacissi • us. Plin. hist. l. 37. cap. 4. Cyprian Adamant, which is medicinall without compare. Gold is of the like Colour, and that Burtons Melancho • y, part. • 2. Sect. 4. Memb. 1. Subs. 3. Physically c • res Melancholy, and is so pretious, that it denotesThe Gol • en Age. Valer. • axim. happy and peace •• ll enjoyments: it makes Crowns and Scepters, and is adored by those that wear and manage them. Ptolemaeus King of Cyprus was9. cap. 4. •• sulae Rex •• ulo, sed • im • pe • niae ini • rabile • ancipi • n. taken captive by th • s Ruddy champion. The Genuine Spikenard, that Paradise of the smell, that by which the Tibul. l. El. •• opere. venerable Haires of the antient Romans were grac'd with a fragrant redolencie, • art. Sincerum nardum levir • te deprehenditur & coloreruffo. Plin. Nar. 〈◊〉 . lib. 12. cap. 12. is of a Red and modest appearance. The re • plendency of Amber admits this tinct • re; and that is not to be ranked amongst the meanest entities. In Martials judgement, the costlyMacrob. Sat. l. 3. c. 1 • . Cleopatra, she that in her life-time made, not Gold, but Pearls, potable, and after her death Illius puro distillent tempora Nardo. Iamdudum Tvrio mad • factus • empora Na • do. Debueram se • tis implicuisse comas. Quòd madidis Nardo sp • sa corona comis. obtained a proportionable monument, was not entomb'd so richly as the Mart. lib. 4. ep. 59. de vipera electro inclusa. Viper, enclosed alive in an Electrick sepulchre. Nè tibi Regali placeas, Cleopatra, sepulchro, Vipera si tumulo nobiliore jacet. The Sun, whose verySol quasi solus. name s •• aks it the singular artifice of the corporeall Creation, and whose excellency made it deifi'd by the Heathen,Erythr • us Solis equus, Gr • c • rubens significat quòd à matutino Sol lumine rubicundus exsurgat. Fulgent. Mythol. l. 1. in Fab. Apoll. displayes the glory of its radiancy in this Colour, especially at that time when the Persians do it homage, when it makes it's appearance in the comfortable Varro de Lingua Lat. l. 6. Aurora dicitur ab eo quod igne solis aure • a • r aure • s • it. blush of the approaching Morne. This Centre of the Planetick Vortex will cease to be such, as soon as it disrobes it self of its Ruddinesse: for that privation speaks the inactivity of its particles, and the over-prevaling of the Maculae, and consequently the absorption of its Whirlpoole; whereupon the whole Earth would be clad in Sables, and surrounded with Disconsolation.

This mocking at Red Hair is a Declamation against Nature,5. §. which is to be worshipped, nor worried; this is a grand affront put upon the supreme Creatour, it reflecteth unworthily upon his Power, and calleth into question his Contrivance: For such men are Eph. 2. 10. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Homo factura Creatoris est. Tertul. adv. Marc. l. 5. p. 324. his workmanship,Psal. 100 2. It is he tha • made them, and not they themselves: their slender performances cannot attain to theMat. 5. 36. making of one Hair white or black. So that what Tert. lib. de carne Christi. Tertullian replyed to the Hereticall Marcion blaming the structure of the whole Body, may be propounded against the defaming of this singleFor 'tis not properly a Part of the Body. Appendix; Turpe hoc Deo, this derogates from the Divine Majesty, and is a base imputation: This is to speak the same language with him, (who, for his presumption beyond Lucifer's, shall be namelesse) whose voice was the voice of a Devill, not of a Man, Si ego creationi adfuissem, ego res meliùs ordinassem, Had I been at the Creation, things should have been put in a better posture. Now what is vile Dust, and Ashes that it dare thus flie in the face of its Maker through the windinesse of pride? What is Man, that he should controll the Artifice of God? when his understanding is so shallow and incomprehensive, that he is forced into admiration whilst he contemplates the workmanship of inferiour Beings, even the Spiders web, or the Hexagony of the Hony-comb.

If we suppose (which yet is in no wise to be granted) that Red Hair is a bodily defect and imperfection,6. §. yet were it rather to be covered then carped at. It was allowable for Apelles, when he drew the Effigies of Alexander, to lay his finger upon his Scarre: and Alphonsus was not painted wryneck'd, but his Picture was contrived so as if he was viewing the curtains of Heaven. Furthermore, as the Casuisticall Lessiu • de just •• & alii •• virt. li • 2. cap. •• dub. 3. Lessius determines, ob defectus naturales non censetur quis informis: a disgracefull Conclusion follows not from such Premisses; this is not ground sufficient to make it the mark of the arrows of Contumely. The ornament of theNobis non corporis cultus sed vigor animi quaeritur. Hieron. in Epist. ad Furiam de viduit. serv. Mind, not of the Body, is to be look'd upon, according to the practice of S. Hierome, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Xenoph. in orat. de Agesilao Rege pag. 533. and Agesilaus. And the man whose Mind is not deck'd with the Pearle of great price, is,Auro te •• cet & • emmis • ondecores, • ne Christi • core de • rmis es. • ypr. ser. de lapsis, • g. 157. notwithstanding all outward Ornament, deformed and ugly, according to the doctrine of S. Cyprian The Body is Macrob. Som 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and • ip. lib. 1. p. 11. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a bond and a sepulchre, and who blames such things, if they have harshnesse and rottennesse? A crooked Body may be the serviceable associate of an upright Soul: the conjunction of corporall blemishes and mentall ornaments is an usuall Systasie. Cicero, if you will believe his A Cicere in nasum. Vide Pl • tarchum in • a Ciceronis. Name, had a protuberancy on his Nose. TheCicero ad Q. fra • rem de Oratore. fluent Demosthenes had once a stammering tongue.Nicias Gram • ticus Romae, familiaris Pompeio & Ciceroni. Sueton. Nicias the renowned Grammarian, the familiar of Great Pompey and Good Tully, had such ill-shap'd feet, that when one had stole his Shooes, he wished the Thief no worse, then that they might fit him. Galba was eloquent and judicious, but deformed and crooked; whereupon it was said byApud Macrobium in Sat: l. 2. c. 6. M. Lollius, Ingenium Galbae malè habitat, Galba's wit hath an ill habitation. Horace, whom S. Augustine thinks worthy the perusing above all others of his order, because of his ample commendations of Vertues, and bitter invectives against Vices, who made aAugustus. Monarch his Heir, was almost of a Suet. in vita Horat, habitu corporis brevis fuit atque ob • sus. Pygmies stature; which was the cause of that Satyricall speech of Augustus to him, after the presenting of a small Book of his, Vereri mihi videris nè majores tui libelli sint quàm Ipse es, Thou seemest to me to fear that thy Books should become bigger then thy Body. He knows not Letters that is ignorant of the worth of Homer; his Works are of much repute, and comprehendIn Ilias he describeth strength and vigour of Body, in Odyssea, the perfect pattern of the Mind. both parts of Man; his Name is of such credit, that the place of his Birth is deemed a nationall honour, andHomerū Col • phonii civem esse dicunt suum, Chii suum vendicant, Salaminii repetunt, Smyrn •• ver • suum esse confirmant. Cicero pro Archia▪ Sic disticho • apud Agelli • m Noct. At. lib. 3. c. 11. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . severall have with earnestnesse pretended a title to his Nativity: yet was he not master of a comely Personage, yea he was deficient in the most delightfull and usefull of his exteriour organs, he was blind, according to the importance of this hisDictus priùs Melesigenes, natus ad Meletem fluvium, dein Homerꝰ quod apud Iones significat capium oculis. second Name, and the common suffrage of Writers. Onely Suidas in Lex. in verbo 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Suidas is somewhat singular, and must needs allegorize: he explains his blindnesse by an indisposition to Avarice, which thief makes its first 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 qu. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Plotinus. entrance at the window of the Eye. TheCi • . lib. 1 de Nat. Deorum. beauty of Roscius is preferr'd before that of the Gods themselves, and yet his organs of Sight were dull and deformed; erat pulchrior Deo, & tamen oculis perversissimis. If all these testimonies were concealed, there might be had sufficient proof from the Sacred Volume. Let this be established by the mouth of two witnesses.Luc. 19. 3, 5. 6. Zachaeus is somewhat dwarfish; and theZachaeus Publ. ad • nius horae conversionem hospitem habere mer • it Salvatorem. Hier. Epist. ad Lucinium: Vide dominum festinanter praecipientem, & hominem festinanter obedientem. Spera • z • de Z • chaeo, in script. select. punct. 27. shortnesse of his spirituall reparation doth recompense the shortnesse of his bodily stature. The Man that was born blind, Ioh. 9. was notJob 3. 16. and Psal. 58. 8. the untimely birth of a woman, although throughout his whole minority he never saw the Sun. He was happier then those, who in their own towring imaginations presumed theyJoh. 9. 41. were men of acute eyes: he at length obtained the view of a glorious Constellation, the sight of the heavenly fireballs, andOmnis pulchritudo florum, hominum, angelorum, rerum pul • herrimarum, ad Dei pulchritudinem collata nox est 〈◊〉 te. nebrae. Draxel. Nicet. lib. 2. cap. 11. that to which these Lights are a dark shadow, the light of Gods countenance.

Were Red Hair a disease of the Body,7. §. (which is to give a further advantage to the cause, and to suppose a non supponendum) yet were it not to be derided. The Devil mayMarc. 9. 22. fling some into the fire of a Fever, and others into the water of a Dropsie, and yet Psal. 66. 12. both in fire and water God may be with them. It is very observable, that of the innumerable company of diseased persons who had Christ for their Physician,Except the nine ungrateful Leper • , Luc. 17. 17, 18. • oh. 7. 23. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Qui foris ab infirmitate, Ipse etiam in • us fervavit à scelere. Beda in Ioh. 5. 14. scarce any had onely an exteriour Cure, but almost as many as were healed in Body were cured in Soul. No man can loo • up to Heaven, and forget Iob, who was so great a servant of the King of Starres: yet even all men have heard of the diseases of Gods servant Iob: he had as many Diseases as Parts. He was visited with the Gout, Job 13. 27. and 33. 11. his feet were put in the stocks. He was tortured with a cruell Dysentery; Job 16. 13. God powred out his Gall upon the ground. He was afflicted with the dolour of the Reins; Id. ibid. Gods archers compassed him about, and clave his Reins in sunder. He underwent the violence of an hectick Fever, Job 19. 20. so that his bones cleaved to his skin and to his flesh, and he was escaped with the skin of his teeth. 'Twas even deat • to him to do that by which he lived, 'twas troublesome to breathe, for he was wonderfully Asthmatick: he saith, in the Text,Job 17. 1. his breath was corrupt, and in the margin, his spirit was spen • . To omit particulars, take the summe totall, Job 2. 7. Iob was smitten by Satan with sore biles, from the sole of his foot unto his crown.

It is then manifest,8 §. that they that laugh at Red Hair are tickled • y the Devill: that they commit a greater outrage against the Head then the Scythians did, who 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . &c. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Herod. Melpom. c. 65. converted into drinking-Cups the Skulls of the • r most • refull Enemies. I could wish that the minds of men were of a more serene and Dovelike constitution: that what the ingenious Car • esiu • in Meth • do, et in init. med. •• t • phys. Des Cartes abhors in Philosophy, might not take place in Morality, to wit, that men would not hoodwink themselves with their own prejudice; but take an impartiall view of this their practice, and see whether it speaks not a contradiction to an Evangelicall spirit: that so they might not irreverently accost the Manufacture of God, nor disrespectfully excite each other: that so they might not become ridiculous by deriding that which is not a capable subject of a reall Defamation, and thereupon rebounds the Disgrace towards the place of its originall.

CHAP. II. A Censure of the generall Scandall of some Professions, especially that of Physick.

IT is as easily experienced as asserted,1 §. that many Professions are the perpetuall Subjects of the tong • e of Scandall. 'Tis almost proverbiall with us, The first Commodity a young Trades-man sets to sale is his own Honesty. There are some Occupations both lawfull and usefull, in which, notwithstanding, if 〈◊〉 man hath interest, he must allwayes expect in the blaz • ning of his Credit, to have a Sed fo • part of his Motto: The Man is hones • , But he is of such a Calling. In like manner said he of old, Anony • mus apud Tertull. in Apolog ad vers. Gent. pag. 810. Bonus vir Caius Seius, sed malus tantum quòd Christianus, Caius Seius is a good man, but he's a Christian. Bols. in vitâ Calvini. Bolsecus tells tales of Calvin, such in actuall power, though not in name. the Bishop of Geneva; he chargeth him with a large and black Catalogue of Enormities: and one grand Objection against his Testimonie is this, The man is a Physician, and therefore 'tis presumed that what he speaks is neither slander nor truth. Thus men of some Callings are exposed to the finger of the world; they are pointed at for their supposed Dishonesty, as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Demosthenes and—monstror digito praetereunti • m Romanae Fidicen Lyrae. Hor. Carm. lib. 4. Od. 3. Horace were for their known worth.

The Spring-heads from whence this corrupt practice did at first issue,2 §. and the Channels in which it hath successively been conveyed, may, in probability, be these two.

First, the geniall indisposition and naturall aversnesse of many to these employments. — Horat. Serm. lib▪ 1. sat. • . inseverit olim Natura— It was thus with Maximinian, the Lord of an Empire, but the slave of Ignorance, who was a professed foe to all men of clarified Intellectualls and learned attain • ments, because the Muses frown'd upon his ow • dull capacity. Thus the Fox in the Fable sets a low estimate upon those Apples which were too high for his reach. 'Tis too common a Truth, Non ama • hic Artes qui non intelligit Artes. But such Ignorance ought not to be the mother of such Indevotion: for if a naturall non-proclivity to a Profession be a sufficient ground of a quarrell with the Profession it self; then may the Christian Profession be j • stly disrelished by the whole progeny of Adam, because allPer peccarum originis naturalia bona • n ipso ho • ine sunt corrupta gratuitade • tracta. Lombard. l. 2. dist. 25 lost their appetite to Good by his eating of the Tree of Good and Evill. Cyprian. in p • ol. ad serm. de Nat. Christi, p. 290. Omnino rarum est et difficile fieri bonum, facile et pronum est esse malum, & hâc, sine Magistro, sine Exemplo, doctrinâ statim à pubescentibus annis imbuimur & docemur. Then mayAct. 18. 17. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Gallio be excused if he cares not for these things.

Secondly,3. §. the irregular and undecent practices of some Professours. Hor. ser. 1. I. sat. 3. Turpia decipiunt caecum vitia— is as true here, as in the sense that Horace meant it. Thus the exactions of the Publicanes caused the office of Taxe-gathering to be evill spoken of. An honest Publican was accounted at Rome a fallacy of Composition. Quam honestus olim fuerit Publicanorum ordo apud Romanos, & pueri sciunt, illi saltem quibus nova Latinitas M. Tullium nondum è manibus excussit, Is. Casa • . Exer • it ad Annal. Baronii, Ex. 13. p. 220. saith a Learned Critick. Every School-boy whose Lesson is in Tully knows the usuall cozenage of these men. Whereupon Sueton. in Flav. Vesp. c. 1. one Sabinus, for his discreet and punctuall managing of this office, had certain Images erected to the immortalitie of his name, with this inscription, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Upon this account also the spirits of the Iews suffered such an exasperation against the Publicanes, that it became a Rabbinicall Proverb, Casaub. ubi supr • , p. 221. Chuse 〈◊〉 a Wife out of that family in which a Publicane hath his residence, for there all the rest are Publicanes; that is, (according to the Casaub. ibid. omnes sunt Publicani, i. e. Latrones, scelerati, Peccatores, ut dicitur, Mat. 9. 10. exposition of the aforesaid Author All the rest are persons of rapacious hands, and wicked hearts. Yet notwithstanding all these Obloquies, this was a Calling very influentiall upon the publick good, and subservient to the maintenance of a Commonwealth. Neither were all those to whom its management was committed men whose names did swell bigg in the rolls of Satan.Mat. 10. 3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Matthew the Pub • icane made one of the catalogue of the twelve Apostles. AndLuc. 19. 3. Zachaeus, a man of great Faith, though of little stature, whose house had no meaner guests thenLuc. 19. 9. Salvation andLuc. 19. 5. its purchaser, wasLuc. 19. 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a Governour of a society of Publicanes. And that speech of Christ, Mat. 21. 31. Vide Weems in 4. Degen. sonnes, on Mat. 18. 17. p. 36. The Publicanes and Harl • ts goe i • to the Kingdome of Heaven before you, was not utte •• d as a reproach of the Calling of the Publicanes; for no guile was found in, or proceeded out of the mouth of the Lamb; the breath of Christ was pure and Crystalline, and admitted not the drosse and mixture of Reviling: But it referred onely to that ill opinion of the Publicans, which was cherished in the breasts of those to whom he did direct his speech.

Now, if by reason of the bad Conversation of Professours, the Profession be justly vilified and set at nought, and if— Horat. Carm. lib. 3. Ode 2. Incesto additur integer, if because of the iniquity of some, all the rest be worthily brought into a disrepute; then even the sacred Office of Apostleship, and the ministeriall Function, is subject to the lash of lawfull Censure, because Iudas Joh. 6. 70. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . was a Devil, and2 Tim▪ 4. 10. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ▪ Demas preferred the present world before him that did exist before the world.

I shall confine my Discourse to the Profession of Physiok, 4. §. the most common centre of reproachfull lines. This is evident from Chaucer's verses, Physicians know what is digestible, But their study is but little in the Bible. All Man-curers may speak the same language with theTimon 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . • os, apud Horat. serm. l. 1. sat. 1. Man-ha • er, —Populus me sibilat— But they have an Antidote against this Poyson: Almost each of them can comfortably go on with the verse, —at mihi plaudo Ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in arca. The people flout abroad; but I my self Applaud at home, and smile upon my Pelf. Physick is accounted the mother of no lesse monstrous a birth then • hat of Atheisme; and yet itsMedicin • Diis primùm inventores suos assignavit, et coelo dicavit. Plin. hist. lib. 29. cap. 1. first founder was Aesculapius, a God. 'Tis as usuall as an Adage, Ubi tres Medici, duo Athei, Where there are three Physitians, there are two Atheists: which, notwithstanding, is but to sport at Artiasme, Hor. ser. • . 2. sat. 3. Ludere par impar— Scho • . Aristoph. •• d Plutum. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to play, like Boyes, at even and odde; Vox, & praeterea nihil, a Saying, and no reality. And I can no more rationally deduce from hence the Physitian's Atheisme, then I can collect the subordination of the Medick to the Mendicant, from that in Plau • . Rudens Act. 5. Plautus Grip. Num Medicus quaeso es? Lab. imò aedepol unâ literâ plus sum quàm Medicus. Gr. Tùm tu Mendicus es? Lab. tetigisti acu.

Religio Medici is not the product of the Penne alone, but also of the practice of Physitians. The rude Rabble of the world proclaims the contrary; but the words of dying men cry louder for attention then the others noise: and who ever heard a man in such a condition commit outrages against the credit of those from whom he expects the restauration of his Health? unlesse the man be in a frenzy, Horat. Ser. lib. • . sat. 3.—quum sit Pugil & Medicum urget, and then how regardlesse are his words?

It is true,5 §. Physitians often fail in their enterprises, and many of their Patients miscarry. OneB. Halls contempl. Pool of Bethesda. Hebrew word signifies both Physitians and dead men. The pooreMark 5. 25, 26. Haemorrhoissa was twelve years in the Physitians hands, without profit to her body, and with detriment to her purse.Xiphil. in Adriano. Multitudo medicorum perdidit Caesarem, is in every ones mouth; and hereupon many curse them, because they cannot cure them. But if Nature hath resolved that the tenement of clay shall crumble into its primitive constitution, and return to its dust, who can imagine a Physitian can put a stop to its proceedings? Physitians cannot sail beyond the • ine of Humanity: — Hor. Epist. l. 2. ep. 1. quod medicorum est Promittunt Medici— they cannot out-run their abilities: they can promise no more, then what is in that Seneca in epist. 95. Iste versus et in pectore et in ore • it, Homo sum, &c. Verse which Seneca would have entertained in two rooms, in heart and mouth, Homo sum, alienum nil hominis à me puto. It was butParacelsus, who died at Salizburg in the 47. year of his age. one of them who boasted of the performance of a contradiction, in his sense, To put a man into a state of Immortality.

As for the Profession it self,6. §. it is of as lawfull, yeaEcclus. 38. necessary, as universall use: for man is bound by the Law of self-preservation to keep up his crazy cottage with all possible honest reparations; and the Soul is not to break prison, but it must waite till, in despite of means, death's violent approach gives it a Gaol-delivery.Caussin. Polyhist. Symb. l. 1. sym. 28. In the temple of Aesculapius there was a fountain of oyle with a golden arch; the perfect Symbole of Physick, denoting by—liquidi corrumpitur usus olivi. Oyle it's use, byAu • um 〈◊〉 Graeco 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , quo • divitem 〈◊〉 potentem significat. Gold it's Honour. Osiris King of Aegypt thought it not below his crown to have commerce with Physicall rules;Virg. 2 • Georg. it was Helvic. Chron. ad Annu • mun. 2200▪ he from whence Physick received its first institution among the Germanes. The2 King. 〈◊〉 . 7. Prophet was Physitian to Ezechias, and prescribed a lump of Figgs to be applyed to his boyle. Now that such a Cure should be effected by such a Cause, that such a Malady should be removed by such a Medicine, is agreeable to Physicall principles, and not wholly supernaturall. Galen. de arte 〈◊〉 . l. 6. Galen adviseth the same for the ripening of Tumours and Impostumations in the flesh. The great Physitian of Souls was a great Physitian of Bodies; he that redeemed them, repaired them; he went about all Galilee Mat. 4. 23. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , healing all manner of sicknesse and all manner of disease among the people. The Blessed Disciples derived strength from this Almighty Physitian Lu • . 9. 1. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to heal Diseases. Why then do the generality of men accost that Profession with Rudenesse, and not with Reverence, which hath had no meaner Practitioners then the Head and Pillars of the Universall Church?

This Profession is so farre from prompting Atheism,7 §. that it is signally advantagious to an holy life. The D. Brown • n Epist. Ded. ante Hydriot. study of Physitians is Life and Death: They of all men least need artificiall memento's, or Coffins by their Bedsides, to mind them of their Graves. Their frequent conversing with sceletons, and the farewell breath of their departing Patients, is as effectuall to the true Philosophy,Philosophy so defin'd by Plato. the meditation of Death, as Philip's boy's Memento Mori. And what greater spurre to our Christian race, then to be mindfull or Mortality? Hieron. ep. 〈◊〉 . 3. conc. ep. Paulino. Facilè contemnit omnia qui se semper cogitat moriturum, saith Saint Hierome. Hear the suffrage of an Heathen, Epicte • . in Euchir. cap. 28. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which is in brief thus, Daily fix thy meditation on difficult matters, and especially upon Death, and thou wilt contemn so low a thing as earth, and thy desires after its enjoyments will be curbed in the vehemency of their pursuit. Speranz. Script. sel. punct. 125. quod totum est de utilissimâ consideratione mortis. Ex mortis oblivione omnia mala, saith Speranza; The forgetting of Death is the fountain of all the evills of Life. He that makes his bed in a Coffin, will scarce entertain an Harlot; he that drinks in a Death's-head, will scarce adventure to be drunk; he that hath Death in his contemplations, hath Goodnesse in his actions. In the fourteenth of Proverbs v. 32. where we read, The righteous hath hope in his death, the Chaldee hath it, He that hopeth that he is about to die is righteous. He that taketh it into consideration, that the Knife of Atropos is never in it's Sheath, that Death is allwayes in readinesse to put a period to his transitory breath, and that if the associate of his Body hath been faithfull in returns of service to Him from whom it received it's Being, it shall presently after disunion make it's abode in an eternity of Blisse, if otherwise, in an eternity of Woe, either in Paradise with Blessed Souls, or in Hell with cursed Serpents; this man will be any thing, in an Ecstasie of being ever; he will abandon the pleasure of Dalilah's lap, in contemplation of the happinesse of Abrahams bosome; he will forsake this present evill world, in a rapture of a joyous futurity.

Knowledge in Physick and ignorance of the existence of a God,8 §. seem to me even incompossible: because Physitians have, beyond all other men, a multiplicity of palpable proofs of a First Being, all-wise and potent, which continually attends them. In their Botanicall employments every smile and flourish of a Flower darts the mind up towards the Fountain of it's Beauty, Praesentemque refert quaelibet Herba Deum. Every Herb hath a signature of a Divine majesty enstamp'd upon it. Their eyes are so far happifi'd, as to be almost the onely spectatours of the most lively evidence of a Deity that the materiall Creation can produce; I mean their view of the Psalm 139. 15. contextus sum, verbum Hebraeum 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 significat acu pingere. needlework of heaven, of that exact modell and Harmonicall composure of the Body of Man, in their Anatomical negotiations. In contemplation of this the Heathen called God 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the best Artist. The Circulation of the Bloud is a Demonstration of an Eternall Being. Galen was husht into a wonder by some anatomicall observations, and after his amazement for some space, he brake forth in an hymn to the praise of his Creatour, though formerly a professed Atheist. He that contemplates the Tunicles, Humours, and other parts of the Eye; the two orders of Teeth, which prepare the meat for the Stomach by mastication; the many Vertebrae of the Spina disposed most artificially; the Lungs which are spongious, and carry that air to the Heart which they had attracted through the Aspera Arteria, that so its heat might be attempered and allayed by a moderate ventilation; the many conjugations of Nerves arising from the Brain and Spinall Marrow, divided into severall Fibres, and those at length into most slender Filaments, distributed after a most exact order throughout the whole Body, and serving to Motion and Sensation; the various bendings of the Intestina, the Membranes of which they consist, the right and transverse Villi, those serving for Extension, these for Contraction; the Rivulets tending towards the Liver, and conveying the exuccous Chyle; the multitude of little Cels ordained for the retention of Ordure; lastly and especially, the stupendious disposition of the Heart; He must of necessity be enforced to cry out, Digitus Dei hic est, This is the Lords doing.

I must acknowledge that some Physitians Danda est Ellebori multo pars maxima avaris. Horat. serm. l. 2. sat 3. want Hellebore, 9. §. and plant too many of their Simples upon the mountain of Potosi: and that there are those among them, to whom Application may be made in particular of whatPhilomenis 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . he affirmed too generally, viz. That Physitians are ill when none else are ill. Some of them, that they themselves may not want Gold, wish their neighbours may want Health; and we may dispatch another Pollux to them (after the example ofLucian. in Dial. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Diogenes ab inferis to rich men on the earth) with a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; That is in effect, O vain men, why do you watch and ward your treasures, and set your selves upon the rack, whilst you contrive to lay Pelion upon Ossa, to adde one talent to another — Hor. epist. lib. 2. ep. 2. velut und a supervenit undam, as one wave is forced upon the back of its predecessor? when you must come to the grave, where one half-peny is a sufficient treasure, yea a superfluity. But men of all Callings, yea even all men, are peccant as well in this as in all other extravagancies. — Hor. Ser. l. 1. sat. 1. bona pars hominum decepta cupidine falsâ, Nil satis est, inquit— I confesse that the Physitian Eudemus Amicus ac Medicus Liviae, speci • artis frequens secretis, &c. Tacit. An. l. 4. c. • Eudemus was a manager of an adultery, and that in no meaner place thenIn the house of Drusus Caesar. the palace of a Prince, and that under colour of his art. I desire not to palliate the exorbitancies of Cardan and Paracelsus, although the latter was called Divinus vir by Iohannes Montanus.

What I now contend for is, that there are good as well as bad livers of this Profession. — Hor. Ser l. 2. sat. 3. Medicus multùm celer atque fidelis is not a Platonicall Idea, a mere imaginary Chimaera. The Physitians of Tertul. l. de Anima, pag. 641. Tertullians time claimed a propriety in the doctrine of the Soul beyond Philosophers. Pliny, an hater of Physitians, relates no unworthy Practice of Herophilus; and had there any been extant, he would not have spared his own Venome, or the other's Credit: The worst he saith of him is good enough, Plin. Nat. hist. lib. 29 cap. 1. Deserta est haec secta, quoniam necesse erat in ea Literas scire; that is, He had few followers, because he put them upon a necessity of Learning. It was heHerophilus apud Gaffendū in lib. 10. Diog. Laert. p. 457. that at once cured Diodorus of his senselesse Philosophy and his dislocated member. Diodorus denyed locall motion, and endeavoured to perswade others to espouse his opinion with this argument, Si quic▪ quam movetur, aut in loco quo est movetur, aut in loco quo non est. Sed neutrum dici potest: Ergo, &c. It chanced that his Shoulder-bone suffering a dislocation, he came to Herophilus for help; who told him that no such thing could possibly happen to him: for if there were no Motion there could be no Dislocation. Whereupon Diodoru • perceiving his Sarcasmus, and feeling by experience the falsity of his Opinion, desclaimed it with shame. Hippocrates in the Graec. Epig. l. 1. tit. 39. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c Greek Epigramme is allowed no lesse emphaticall a title then, The light of men: and hisTranslated by Sir Tho. More out of 3. book of Grae • . Ep. Epitaph is proportionate, Thessalus Hippocrates, Cou • genere, hâ • jacet urnâ, Phoebi immortalis semine progenitus: Crebra trophaea tulit morborum, armis medicinae; Laus cui magna, nec id sorte, sed arte fuit. Who dares blow upon the glittering name of the renowned Cyrus with reproachfull breath? He was the Monarchs mirrour, one tha • practised nothing unworthy a Diademe: and yet that Physick was his usuall employment, hath as much authority as the word of Xen. de Instit. Cyri, lib. 8. pag▪ 167. Xenophon can afford it; yea his Xenophon. ibid. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . own hands did, in this kind, administer to the necessities of some decaying bodies.

To conclude,10 §. If all the Professours of Physick were beasts by degeneration,Conclusion. and wallowers in sensuality, and Saint Luke the onely Exception to that generall Rule, it were abundantly enough to wash off all the Spots which the hand of Malice can cast upon the Physicall employment; he beingColos. 4. 14. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the beloved Physitian; he being also (that wherein is the Emphasis of Emphasis) the Quill of the Holy Dove, even Heaven's Amanuensis.

CHAP. III. A Censure of that common evill practice of Reproaching the Feminine Sex.

THe Protoplast, 1. §. by his Fall, broke in pieces the frame of evennesse of spirit, and raised a disturbance in the serenity of the Soul. Ever since this Father eat sowr Grapes, his Childrens teeth have been set on edge with reviling language. Since Adam came into compliance with the Serpent, the whole race of Mankind hath plentifully vented the Poyson of Reproach. My purpose is not to create a tedious Discourse, by evincing this in it's latitude: But my present intention is to bring in evidence and inveig • against those arrows of Contumely with which Cedars pierce S •• rubs, with which men shoot at the reputation of the Feminine sexe. Men erect the trophyes of their ambition upon the ruines of the repute of Women. They draw their malice to the dregs, and powre it upon them with a floud of evill words: As if an universall malady possess'd that Sex; as if all Women were of a bad complexion; as if those weaker vessels could not possibly contain any thing that is good. No man can plead ignorance in this particular, if he hath looked but so far as Mantuan or Aretine. If Ch. Fon. seca cited by Burt. in Mel. par. 3. sect. 2. Memb. 5. Subsect. 3. Fo • seca mistakes not, Non possunt invectivae omnes & Satyrae in Faeminas scriptae uno volumine comprehendi. The repute of Women hath been perplexed with Volumes of Invectives. According to Petronius, we may put more confidence in the inconstancy of a Wave then in the Promise of a Woman, —Animaan nè crede puellis, Namque est faemine â tutior unda fide. And Ca • ullus is not of a different opinion, who averreth that Wind and Water are of sufficient stability to receive the speeches of a Woman to him who is amorous, and would captivate her affection, and sues to her for matrimoniall entertainment. —Catul. El. • . Mulier cupido quod dicit A. manti In vento aut rapida scri • ere oportet aqua. One of our own Poets agrees with these, and with his hobling feet thus tramples upon Female Credit: Chaucer. Half so boldly there can • one Swear and lie as Wom • n can. A woman is made by Graec. Ep▪ lib 1. • it▪ 19 ver. per Obsopaeum. some the Morall of Pandora's Box, the emphaticall punishment of the over • bold Prometheus. Est mulier Iovis i • a • gnis vice • radita—

No tongue is so impudent as to affirm that Adams Rib abstracteth wholly from Crookednesse;2 §. that there is no particular Woman whose merits hath not rais'd her above the reach of a just Reproof. I confesse that many of the Daughters of Eve stretch forth their hands towards Forbidden Fruit. These Daughters of Venus have their deformed, as well as their beauty spots. Some Women are censurable for their practises. Some married ones are worthy rebuke for cutting off their own Heads, for their cruelty towards their Husbands: of this number was Hom. Odys. l. 4. Clytemnestra, of whom her husband Agamemnon complains in the Graec. Ep. lib. 1. tit. 19. Ep. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , vers. per Obsop. Epigramme, Uxor me occidit quem non ferus • bstulit Hector. Some unmarried ones, although probably no Virgins, deserve a check for their artificiall allurements, their Rhetoricall Attires, whereby they perswade and entice their Servitours to Folly. This is intima • ed in the Question and Answer of Iovianus, Quid lacteolos sinus, & ipsas Prae • e fers sine linteo papillas? Hoc est dicere, Posce, posce, trado. Which may be thus rendred, without violence to the sense, Why do those fleshy pillows want a vail? This is to say, Ask and thou maist prevail. But the reproach is not a single but a many-headed monster: it imitates the Tyrant Mezentius, tying the living and the dead together; Goo • and Bad are encompassed in generall terms with the chain of Calumny. This dart of Satan strikes not against particular Women, but against the Feminine Sex, for so runs the language of the Mant. Alph • s. Woman-hater, Faemineum servile genus, crudele, superbum. Let him whose tongue is thus generally set on fire, quench it at the reproof of the sage Euripides, who bespeaks him in these words, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 .

The Masculine Gender is the most worthy,3 §. but the Feminine is not worthlesse. The Aristot. l. 9. hist. Animal. Great Naturalist makes this observation upon the Cuttle-fish, That the Female takes vengeance on the Adversary of its Male; but the Male exemplifies friends in Adversity, and departs with speed when the Female meets with Persecution. Modesty abounds most in Women, and where the habitation of Modesty is, there is the tabernacle of Vertue. If the Man be the Sunne of the Creation, the Woman is the Ray. If the Man be 1 Cor. 11. 7. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the glory of God, the Woman is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the glory of the Man: and how sordidly doth he degenerate from the innate dictate of self-preservation, that puts an Eclipse upon his own brightnesse? Woman isGen. 3. 20. the mother of all Living; and shall not Men ratherLuk. 11▪ 27. blesse then curse the wombe that bare them? Woman is theFaemina viri por • io est, atque ex eo sumpta & formata. Cyprian. tract. 2. de hab. Virg. p. 106. Rib of Man; and what an intense degree of folly possesseth him, who biteth in sunder his own Rib with the teeth of Slander? TheIntellexit sapientissimus omnium rerum opifex, in vi • â solitariâ non posse Adamum perfectâ f • ui felicitate. Bidembach. Prompt. Con. p. 10. All-wise God judged Adam's felicitie unaccomplished, untill he enjoyed a meet help, or (as the Heb. tale auxilium quod • it veluti Alter ipse. Jun. & Trem. in not. brev. Hebrew signifies) Another self: and dare presumptuous man account a Pearl of Gods sending a S • one layd in his way, and so to be kicked at? dare he exclaim against a companion of Gods chusing? Vile worme! thus to affront the Wisdome of Heaven, and scorn the workmanship of God's Finger.

Tert. de Habitu mal. initio. Tu es Ianua Diabo • li, &c. Tertullian indeed calls Eve the Devils gate, 4 §. but it was in reference to her Sin, not her Sex: and he afterward declares so much, when he addresseth his speech to her in this • itter sarcasmus, Tert. paul • infrd. Tu es quae eum persuas • sti quem Diabolus aggredi non valuit, Thou art she who didst overcome him who was Temptation-proof against the Serpent. And whereas the Tert. adv. Val. In coe • o non Angelus & Angela, &c. same Father makes it a part of Heavens happinesse, to have Angels and not Angelicalls too, to have a God and not a Goddesse also, he speaketh not in relation to the Feminine Sex, but in relation to the diversity of Sex; which Caus. Holy Court▪ 4. • ome. Pass. of Amity, p. 9. the eloquent Caussin supposeth would alter something of Heavens Tranquillity. It is the Assertion ofCujus cantu tole. rabilius est audire Bafiliscum sibilantem. Cyp. de Sing. Cleric. p. 273. Saint Cyprian, that the hissing of a Basilisk is a more tolerable sound then the singing of a Woman. But (as the Cypr. paulo su • pr • , nunc lacertos ac faemora, &c. nudat. foregoing words evidence) he means this of such a Woman as Aretines Lucretia, of one of a tempting carriage and wanton behaviour: and such words well become such a subject: such a Womans breath will blow up the sparks of Love into the fire of Lust.Ep. to. 2. ad Ctesiph. adv. Pelag. p. 84. S. Hierome hath a large catalogue of Women who were instrumentall in the propagation of the designs of Hereticks: he relates how Helen was subservient this way to Simon Magus, and Prisca and Maximilla to Montanus: besides which he hath variety of Instances. But we may observe, that these Wolves were men, making use not of the Malice, but of the Facility of these Sheep, being Women.

Instances of Good Women are very5 §. numerous. Many of them are inwardly, as Cardan. de Lis. prop. Cardan's Wife was outwardly when he was first enamoured on her) all in white, surrounded with Innocency, and Candour of disposition. Socrates Soc. Hist. Ec. l. 4. c. 14. makes mention of a Wom •• who made a passage through a multitude to the place of Execution of Christians under Valentinian: which fire of zeale in her to suffer for Christianity, turned to water in the breast of that cruell Emperour, and made an abatement of his rage and malice for the future. Evagrii Eccl. hist. l. 1. c. 20. Eudocia the wife of Theodosius did so abound in honorable practices, that a most artificiall brazen Statue was erected to the eternity of her memory: although she had consulted better for her self in that particular,Evag. ib. c. 21, 22. by erecting of Churches. Soc. Hist. Ecc. l. 1. c. 13. Helen the mother of Constantine, who, it seems, found the stage on which was acted the most terrible, and yet the most happy, Tragedy since the foundation of the world, to wit, the Crosse of Christ, together with the Nailes, was of an exemplary life and laudable conversation. Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib. 8. c. 17. Eusebius reports of the Virgin Theodosia, not yet eighteen years of age, too tender a morsell for devouring fire, that with incredible constancy she endured Martyrdome under Diocletian. Ecc. Hist. l. 8. c. 24. The same Author hath registred to after-Ages a pair of Virgins expiring by the same • ate; and gives them this for an encomium, That the earth which they had trampled on was not worthy to bear them. Hier. Ep. to. 1. Ep. ad Eustoch. virg. Epitaph. Paulae Mat • is, ad initium. S. Hierome bestows an Hyperbolicall Hyperbole upon on the vertuous Paula, and speaks thus in her commendation, Si cuncta corporis mei membra verterentur in linguas, & omnes artus humanâ voce resonarent, nihil dignum Sanctae ac Venerabilis Paulae virtutibus dicerem: that is, Were all my Members so many Tongues, and all my Ioynts endued with the gift of Elocution, the expressions which I could then utter would be frigid and diminutive, and come below the worth of the Venerable Paula. Have you not heard of the Maffaeus Hist. Ind. lib. 16. Patience of Eleonora? who with constancy endured commerce with Wolves and Tigres, and with Men more savage then those untamed Beasts. Have you not read in Xenop. Instit. Cyri l. 6. p. 121, 122. Xenophon of Panthea, whom he styles 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , an excel • ent Woman? of whom he relates, that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , her Husband was at home when he was abroad, that she was a faithfull Wife as well in his absence as in his presence. It was she that, as it were, Xen. Inst. Cyri, p. 135 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. changed Sexes with her Husband, and infused courage and magnanimity into his faint • ng spirits. Women were once the best Soldiers of Xerxes, by his own confession, who after their valiant service uttered himself thus, Herodot. Vran. cap. 88. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , The Men have turned their Swords into Distaffs and become women, the Women have turned their Distaffs into Swords and become men. Euseb. in vita Constant. li. 1. cap. 3. The hand of a Woman took away both the Scepter and the Soul of Cyr • s the peerless King of Persia. Amongst the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Herod. in Eut • rpe, cap. 35. Aegyptians of old the Women did negotiate abroad, and the men kept house, betaking themselves to diminutive labours. The Women were more serviceable in their generations; Herodot: ibid. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . they carried burdens upon their shoulders, the men upon their heads. Two Women were mothers to Homer's Offspring, they gave birth to the Issue of his Brain: we have hisVirgil. Brother Poets word for it, Praestitit ergo una Iliadi muliercula causam, Fecil Odysseam scribere Penelope. Vide Bu • t. Mel. part. 3. sec. 2. memb. • . subsect. • . Admetus King of Thessaly being ready to breath out his last and farewell air, was told by the Oracle of Apollo, that he might still live in his own Person, if he could die by Proxie. All his Friends deny'd to perform so much for him; even those that were aged, and ready to return to their primitive dust, would not anticipate their fates some few hours: onely Alcestes his Wife, youthfull and beautifull, too tender a Bud to be cropp'd by Death, took the burden upon her own shoulders with a joyous alacrity.

But why do we wander thus far for Instances, when we are presented with a renowned example at home? that of the Puissant Queen ELIZABETH, one whose actions evidenced the irrationality of the Salique Law. To let my words run without the biasse of partiality, I must acknowledge, with herCamden in Elizab. own servant, that she abandoned part of her Integrity in the • usinesse of Mary Queen of Scots, and Dowager of France. But notwithstanding this Scar in the face of Beauty, what was affirmed ofBy John Speed in the Chron. of his Life. Edward the third may likewise be spoken of Her without a deviation from the Truth, to wit, That few Princes that had so great and Heroick Vertues had sewer Vices.

Had all the forementi • ned proofs been lo • ked up in silence,6 §. yet were there confirmation sufficient by examples written in the Volume of Gods Book. There are registred with honour Jud. 4. Deborah andRuth. 1. 16. Ruth, Mark 16 • . Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Iames and Salome, Luc. 1. Elizabeth andLuc. 2. 36, 37. Anna: and a multitude of others too tedious to insert. AsJob 2. 9. Iob, being a good man, had an evill Wife, who bad him curse God; soMat. 27. 19. Pilat, being an evill man, had a Good Wife, who forbad him to crucifie Christ. Women were more liberall Luk. 23. 28. in shedding of their tears then Men, when the Iews were a shedding their Redeemers blood. What fallen Man could ever come into comparison with the VIRGIN MOTHER? Although she was not without sin, yet was she without parallell; insomuch that the Labata▪ Loc. com. tit. Mari • Excellen. Iesuites expound those places of Scripture of Mary the Spouse of Ioseph, which are spoken of the Church the Spouse of Christ.

And now the successe hoped for from these Lines is,Conclusion. the drawing men from this fruitlesse Vanity,7 §. this pernicious Folly. My hearty Option is, that the Streame of mens words would runne more clearly in this particular Channell: that they would respect and not revile that Sex, the absence of which would cause a well-peopled Universe to become a so • itary Wildernesse: that they would shew themselves Men by countenancing Women: that they would prove themselves of the worthier Sex, by defending the weaker Sex: that they wou • d, at length, bid adieu to this long-liv'd Cacoethes, and no longer be constant to that vitious practice, in which Inconstancy is a Vertue.

CHAP. IV. A Censure of the Practice of the many Writers amongst us who even wholly neglect the defence of Christs Deity notwiths • anding the hell-born nature of the contrary Doctrine, and the potency of its maintainers, and sp • nd their time in writing upon needlesse Subj • cts.

THe worm of Curiosity hath devoured much paper since the invention of the Presse.1. §. The greatest number of Writers, throughout all Ages, have spent their Ink in curing Tetters, not Maladies of concernment in the Body of the Church. They have spent their pains in cutting of Cummin-seed, by their nice division▪ Mat. 23. 23. neglecting weightier things, and dealing with necessary Truths as if they laboured with a Noli me tangere. These Divines (like Aristotle's Commentators) have taken voluminous pains about matters very triviall and of no moment. Iohannes de Rada hath fill'd two large Volumes with the needlesse Controversies in agitation betwixt the Thomists and Sc • tists. And the Dominicans and Iesuites have crowded whole Libraries with their endlesse quarrells about Grace and Free-will. Fr. Ribera in c. 14▪ Apocal. Ribera andLessius l. 13. de Moribus divinis, • . 24. Lessius have spent many fruitlesse thoughts about the locality and extent of the fire of Hell. The latter contends, that one Dutch mile in diameter is sufficient for a locall Hell, because that space cubically multiplied will make a sphere comprehensive of eight hundred thousand milions of damned bodies (allowin • each body six foot square,) which (saith he) is abundantly capable, for there will not be an hundred thousand millions of them. How numberlesse are the Questions of School-men concerning the First Adam and the Mother of the Second; and the things possible in respect of Gods Absolute Power? How many have rais'd such Quaeries as these? How could Adam hear a Serpent speak, and yet be devoid of suspicion? How could he walk out of the Paradise of Innocence into the Wilderness of Sin? out of that spotless state of Life, into the chambers of Death? he having faculties not immers'd in Ignorance, and therefore not to be imposed upon: and he must either be drawn into sin by deceit, or rush into it by wilfullness; and the latter speaks the depravity of his Will, which was good and innocent. How did his own Rib become such a Bow as killed him at the first shoot? he having no inward corruption ready to assent. How could Lazarus Joh. 11. 44. come forth, when his feet were bound with Grave-clothes? How can the body of aMat. 19 24. Camell, exceeding by infinite dimensions the compasse of a needles eye, be, in possibility, circumscribed by so narrow a superficies? or was not the originall word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which signifieth a cable, and not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ? and if so, whether so great a body, being untwisted and reduced to its constituting parts, cannot enter in at so narrow a gate? • ith many more unnecessary Disquisi • ions, quae nec scientem juva • t, nec ignoranti nocent, which neither help him that knows them, nor hurt him that knows them not, (as theRemonst. 〈◊〉 Prfae. ad Conf. Remonstrants speak) and are onely fit for—pleno •• idet Cal •• hurnius 〈◊〉 . Horat. Calphurnius and Democritus to make merry with. Tannerus the Iesuite is in hot pursuit a • ter Tobies Dogge, and with earnestness averrs his existence to be an article of Faith. Dave • antius de Iudice & • orma • i • ei, c. 5. Tobiam Canem habuisse, esse. Fidei nostrae articulum magnis clamor • bus contendit. An English Divine onceIn a Sermon at S. Maries in • amb. on 〈◊〉 Sam. 17. • . entertain'd his Auditory with a discourse concerning the dimensions of Goliah's beam: which extorted this expression • rom one then present, The man hath not di • inity enough to save the soul of a Gnat, About the year 1605. there was a great controversie betwixt master Broughton and Mas •• r A •• sworth, whether the lining o • 〈◊〉 Ephod was Blew, or Sea-water-Gr • en.

Thus Pebbles are ushered in by the hand of corrupt fancy,2 §. and possesse the place of Pearls: and Learned men (with the mighty Navy of Caligula) gather Cockle-shels, and neglect matters of greater value. Thus, by handling nicities, they endeavour to shew their wit, for their own applause, and will not bring a drop towards the quenching of the fire of dangerous Heresies, whereby they may shew their zeal for the glory of God. Thus most of our own Writers, of this present Generation, do bonas horas malè collocare, spend much paper de lana caprina, and scarce a single leaf toward the redemption of the Golden Fleece. Amidst the thousands of Books, there's scarce one Cover for the Deitie of Christ. If I should make enquiry after its Defenders, I should not be answered by one of a thousand. The Arian Devill possesseth many; but how few do endevour to cast him out? Numerous Polemicall pages have daily recourse to the Presse, which might be omitted without detriment to the Christian Cause; of which I mention none, lest I should seem to let slip any: but how few Quills flie the right way? How few hands of these ready writers are lifted up again • t the Giantlike heresie of Arius, which defieth and debaseth GodsHeb. 1. 9. Anointed, which hath many, and those lea • ned and crafty, abettors? This Heresie is the main, if not the one thing necessary in doctrine to be opposed. This is even the whole Militia of the Prince of Darknesse, whereby he fortifies his black Territories; an Engine that strikes at the Ground • work of Christianity; as the ensuing Paragraph doth make manifest.

As earthly Kings are said to be Plato a •• ud Cau • . • n Polyhist. Symb. l. 5. • ymb. • 8. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Gods amongst men: 3 § so the Heavenly King Iesus was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 God-man. Now the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the word of reconciliation of God and Man, having this truth for its foundation, the utterMat. 〈◊〉 25, 39. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Enemy of Mankind, he who is neither God nor Man, hath endeavoured to possesse the world with this destructive Opinion, That Christ is not God, but Man. It hath been the attempt of fallen Lucifer Isa. 14. 12. the son of the morning, in all Ages, to represent theMalac. 4▪ 2. Sun of Righteousnesse not as an Heavenly Light, but as a Sublunary Meteor. This Red Dragon's tail hath been alwayes instrumentall, not onely inRev. 12. 4. drawing down the third part of the Stars, but even him that made them, andi. e. onely making him Man • Homo ab humo. laying him levell with the earth in the mind of credulous Mortality. He hath evermore made his assaults against the Eph. 2 20. chief Corner-stone of Christianity, hereby laying a surer foundation for his strong holds. And what way more compendious? hâc itur ad Astra, by these means the Dominions of Hell are as highly exalted as those of Heaven. For victory over the kingdome of Satan being promised solely1 Cor. 15. 57. through Christ Iesus, if assent be yielded to this perswasion, that thisHeb. 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 this Captain of our Salvation is no more then humane, Hell will still triumph, and march on in it • bloom and verdure, and say, O Christ, where is thy victory? whilest no greater strength then what a Man affords doth wield that Sword which pretends its overthrow. And1 Joh. 5. 5. who is he that overcometh the world, bu • he that believeth that Iesus is the Son of God? This fiery dart of Satan hath been the most pernicious incendiary in the Church of God: and we have no lesse testimony then that of Eras. • chol. in • . Hier. 〈◊〉 2. ep. • amaso. Erasmus to confirm it, who, although a favourer of this Opinion, hath thus written, Nulla haeresis gra • ius afflixit totius orbis Ecclesias, quàm Arianorum: and, you know, the case is plain, when men are judged out of their own mouthes. Horat. 〈◊〉 Arte • oet. Intererit muli ùm, Davúsne loquatur Erós • e.

The men of this Nation may, • 4 §. from the sad Topick of Experie • ce, derive too many Arguments to evince that the Enemy hath sowed these Tares in this Land. It is true, when England was in its glory, a messenger sent out to find an Arian Heretick might have returned with a vix est inventus, Socrate • . as he did with a non est, after search made for a Wiseman. Such traytorous principles against the King of Heaven wereSalvo Episcopo Salva pax est. Tertul. de Bapt. pag. 710. kept in exile by the grave censure of Episcopall jurisdiction. But since the glory departed from our Israel, since Head-pieces were in more request then Mitres, since ruder Drumms and Trumpets outvoyc'd the melody of more sacred Organs, the old Serpent hath cast his skin, and renewed the vigour of his youth, and hath vented this Venome with too plentifull an effusion, and with too great successe. We may utter the • ame now which Hier. ep. Damaso, p. 45. Saint Hierome did of old, Ariana rabies fremit, The rage of the Arian Heresie grows headstrong and tumultuous, it is even become a popular frenzy. Since the Spirituall Courts were thrown down, this Concilium vanitatis (for Cypr. Exp. symb. p. 264. so the doctrine of Arius is called by Saint Cyprian) is reared up. It is a sign the Gardiners Knife is in its sheath, when such venomous Weeds do riot in their growth.

This Socinian Heresie hath of late,5 §. without much regret, found entertainment in the breasts of many, being usher'd in by the plausible insinuation of a blamelesse life. Its Professours pretend to be men of a pious conversation, and to be zealous for the Lord of Hosts: but it is evident that their zeal hath eaten him up; for they deny him who is the same with him whom they affirm they worship. But certainly opinions are not to be taken up meerly upon the seeming, yea, or reall Holinesse of those that hold them. The Vide Petrum Bertium in vita Arminii. orphans of Arminius, according to their duty and his deservings, afforded large Eulogies of the devout life of their deceased Father. Whereupon Vind. Gratiae. Resp. ad praef. exam. lib Per • infiani. one of our Learned Supralapsarians takes occasion to write thus, Quid superest agendum, quàm ut cujusvis Theologi, quantacunque eruditione fulti, quantacunque sanctitate celebra • i, dogmata Isa. 8. 20. ad Legem & testimonium, tanquam ad Lydium Lapidem, explorentur? i. e. The most learned and most religious men's opinions are to be put upon their tryall before the Scripture, the judge of Controversies. But I suppose that, without a transgression of the limits of Charity, I may affirm that the Socinians, for the most part, are good onely in shew, and bad in deed; that, like Harpies, they have the Face of an Angell, but the Talons of an Eagle. For the consistence of the true Catholick Church with one fundamentall Errour in all of its members, is as impossible to conceive, as to frame an Idea of God and Belial in a combination: and it is not ordinary, but barely possible to be a good Christian, and yet erre in one fundamentall Point of the Christian Doctrine. I adde possible; for theMat. 20. 21. Disciples of Christ, after much converse and numerous instructions,Act. 1. 6. thought the gold of the New Ierusalem not re • ined from corporeall drosse, they imagined that the Kingdome of Christ was even like the Paradise of Mahomet, sensuall, not spirituall. And Act. 19. 2 the holy Dove was not so much as arrived at the ears of the C • ristians of Ephesus, They had not so much as heard whether there were an Holy Ghost. And the good Synes • us, whom Evagr. Ec. hist. l. 1. cap. 15. Phot. Myriobib. cod. 26. Ecclesiasticall Story records as richly embellished with Christian graces, and whose life as well as learning advanced him to the dignity of a Bishop of the Catholick Church, • id not fully embrace the doctrine of the Resurrection: although at length Heaven crown'd his Soul with the belief of that necessary Article. And how much soever the modern Socinians have pretended to the maintenance of Piety, 'tis certain (as D. Hammond in Fundam. p. 46, 47. one of the Worthies of our Israel observes) they have taken out one principall Stone from the Foundation of it, the1 Tim. 3. 16. This could not be said, if he were not first God before he was thus made manifest by the means of his Inca • nation. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , God made manifest in or by the flesh. This, I am fully perswaded, is a great truth, that their Heresie is a quencher of the spirit of true Piety. For if it were not the Son of God by eternall generation that was incarnate, the Love of God towards Mankind in Christ Iesus would wax cold: men might without an unholy boldness ask, what needs anJoh. 3. 16. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , so God loved the world that he sent Christ? a sic without a sicut? What needs that expression beyond hyperbole,Ephes. 2. 7. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the excee • ing riches of his grace in his kindnesse towards us through Christ Iesus? and1 Joh. 4. 9. parallell expressions running through the whole vein of Sacred Writ? Upon this account Men would apprehend God to be (asTheod. Ecc. hist. l. 1. c. 14. Sozom. Eccl▪ hist. l. 2. c. 28. Arius was by the just judgement of the Lord) without bowels; and so serve him as Slaves, out of fear, not as Sons, out of love. Again, The issue of the belef of Christ to be mere Man, is the Presumption of some, and the Despair of others. Many will presume, building heaven upon the Quick-sands of their own imaginary Righteousness, and considering that they are men, and Christ no more, will not give audience to the offer of an imputed merit. Many will despair; for they making a more exact enquiry then the former, will experimentally find that Jam. 3. 2. in many things they offend, and that these affronts against an Infinite Majesty cannot be expiated by a finite Man: whereupon they split presently against the Rock of Ages considered as Man, who might support them considered as God. Thus, by this Heresie men make shipwrack of Faith in the very haven of Salvation, and stumble at him who should guide their feet in t • e way of peace.

The weapons which Hereticks use in their encounters against the Deity of Christ are,6. §. most of them, taken out of the armory of carnall Reason. They cannot apprehend the consistence of a Trinity of Persons with an identity of Essence. If w • 〈◊〉 insanire (say they) we do insanire cum ratione, for our Reason tells us that it is a strange Paradox, that Christ • hould be eternall, and yet begotten; that the Essence of the Father and the Son should not admit a numericall difference; with a volume of the like corrupt reasonings: whilest in the mean time they attend not to the dictates of sober and well-regulated Reason, whose language is, ThatQuaedam sic subsunt fidei, quòd secundum communem cu • sum humanae cognitionis non suntdemonstr abilia, ut, De • unum in ess • ntia esse trinum in personis; et, Illud suppositum esse Deum & Hominem. Durand. in Prol. sent. qu. 1. num. 39. the things of God are above reason; That an Elephant may swim in the waters of the Sanctuary; That Greg. Fides non habet meritum ubi humana ratio quaerit experimentum; That an Entitie by participation hath not so comprehensive a capacity, as to have a distinct, clear, and full notion of a Being by essence. The incomparable Gassend. in lib. 10. Diog. Laert p. 647. Gassendus, to pluck the plumes and curb the Curiosity of some Philosophers, who would not content themselves with lesse then the indagation of whole nature, thus reasons against their irrationality; Qualis artifex esset Deus, si posset homuncio metiri comprehendereque ingeniolo suo opus Creationis? What a mean workman would God be, if so narrow an Intellect as that of Man could comprehend the whole frame of the work of his hands? And if this be so high a disparagement to his workmanship, what is the other to his Being? B. Hall, Contem. Angel and Zach. If Reason will be encroaching upon the bounds of Faith, she is presently taken captive by Infidelity. We are not fit to follow Christ if we have not denyed our selves, and the chief piece of our selves is our Reason. Such objections which make Sarah serve Hagar, which make Faith the handmaid o • Reason, are unworthy a serious examination. No arguments are suggested to the Socinians by the Oracles of God: no such Mudde hath commerce with these Waters of Life: no such corrupt Fruit is brought forth by this Tree of Life: this Pot of Manna gives admission to no such Worm: the Word written testifies that Christ is • he Word eternall. Yet these men endeavour to extract their Poyson ou • of this Physick of the So • l; which I shall declare in examin ••• one of • heir Objections from Scripture which I find Fulgent. • bject. Ar. discuss. in Fulgentius, whereby will be discovered, that what the profane Apud Episcop. El. Resp. ad Bellarm. apolog. pag. 260. Scriptura inst • r v • gin • est, quae quemlibet gladium admittit, etiam plumbeum vel ligneum. Costerus asserted concerning the Scripture, they strive to verifie; to wit, that it is a Sheath which will admit any kind of Sword, even a leaden or wooden one.

Object. 7 §. What is Man that he should prie into the arcana of his Maker? If he will soar alo • t and face the Sun, the just recompence of his labour in vain is to be scorched and sent back headlong. What the Scripture proclaims as dubious, and not attainable by the most sublimated endeavours of mortality, that Man must not dare to resolve by a peremptory determination: But the Scripture speaks expresly, Isa. 53. 8. Who shall declare his Generation? therefore it is high presumption thus to determine, The Generation of Iesus Christ is an eternall Generation.

Respons. Thus to determine is not with too curious an eye to peep into the Ark, or to encroach upon the mysteries of heaven: But this is to resound the common voyce of Scripture. As for the place al • edged, it is sent of a wrong errand, and comes in here to no purpose. For to assert the eternall Generation of Christ, is not to declare his Generation: for that speaks a particular explication of the manner of his Generation, and denotes the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , whenas we contend onely for the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Hear how the Elegant Fulg. Obj. Ar. disc. Resp. • d 1. • bj. Fulgentius defeats this weak enemy. Quia Filii generatio enarrabilis est, ignorabilis non est: neque enim consequens est, ut quod non potest enarrari non potest sciri; cùm nullus Deum val • at enarrare, nec impunè tamen liceat ali • ui ignorare. Et paul • •• frd V • ram filii nativita te • datum vobis est cognoscere; licet datum non f •• qualiter na • us fuit enar • are. Propheta non dixit, Generationem ejus quis cogno • it? sed, quis decl • ravit? 'Tis not consequentiall arguing from a not-declaring to a not-knowing: A declaration of God is not possible with man; and yet an ignorance of God shall not go unpunished. We say then concerning the eternall Generation of Christ, what the Great Tilen▪ syntag. Theolog. de Deo ess. uno perso • is •• ino. Tilenus hath written concerning the unsearchable Trin-unity, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 satìs perspicuè tradit Scriptura, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 verò ipsis quoque Angelis est 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . That it is so, we have the evidence of the Scripture; but in what manner it is, we have the Ignorance even of the Angels.

By this single Instance it may appear, how the polluted breath of the Socinians soileth the lustre of the brightest steel, how their corrupt Glosses obscure the perspicuity of Scripture. And, in my opinion, in theseJud. 16. 19. locks of their perverting Gods volume, in their evasions of places which proclaim aloud the falsity of their Tenents, lyeth their chief strength. As the followers of the P • olemaicall Systeme have, by their Cycles and Epicycles, Eccentricks and Concentricks, put the Planets into an heavenly labyrinth and a learned perplexity: so these men by their Distinctions and Criticismes, and Shifts and Querks, make the most plain Scriptures inevident, and put a cloud upon the clearest Truths; making a Labyrinth of a clue, and a Wildernesse of a well-shap'd Grove. Whereupon it is necessary that they be encountred by able Champions.

Now you Lovers of Christ that are men of Learned strength,8 §. come out to fight the battail of Iesus, to help the Lord against the mighty. Quit your selves like men against this uncircumci • ed Goliah. Take1 Sam. 17. 40. stones out of the Scripture, the brook of the water of Life, which may make this Monster surrender his being: fling them with so powerfull an arm, that these dogs may not so much as snarl. Give these Hereticks no rest till you have led them captive. Men of that rank will construe your Silence, though out of contempt, an Overthrow. Fight 1 King. • 2. 31. neither with great Erro • rs, if they be buried in silence and not revived, (if such a supposition may take place in these dayes, wherein all Heresies of former Ages live again by a Diabolicall 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) neither with small Errours, they being not so malignly influentiall upon Christian practice: but principally pursue this King of Heresie. Make no delay.2 Chron. 20. 17. To morrow go out against him, and the Lord will be with you.

Now if any man should call upon me with an Ede tua, 9. §. you who are thus zealous for this cause, make the attempt your self; I must reply, by way of Apology, that my slender accomplishments are unfit for so weighty a work, my strength bears no proportion to my will. Yet although I am not of ability to perform the race, I have not been wholly wanting, but have brought this spur, to quicken men sufficient for these things. I have here brought this drop, making as ample a contribution towards the extinguishing of these unhappy flames as was producible by my weak Endeavours. The tribute of these lines is abundantly due unto the God of Caesar: Now Greg. Epist. before his Observ. Rays of incidency contract no warmth if they be not reflected back towards their originall Sunne. And I should have manifestly declared, that the beamings of the Sun of Righteousness had not enkindled in me reciprocall flames, if I should have denyed to rebound all my received talents towards the redemption of his honour. These poor mites, with the favourable influence of heaven, may tend to the advancement of the glory of my Saviour. ForGazzi pia • ilaria. adinit. Est in tenuibus & pusillis reculis Laus Optimique Maxim • q • e maxima. Small matters do afford Great praise to the great Lord. Now M. Geo. Herbert in his Letter to the • ranslat. of Jo. Valde •• . Div. Considera. as the devout Herbert spake concerning Valdesso's Considerations, which mention with reverence and frequency the name of Christ; I will say concerning these few pages which mention the Deity of Christ, with a desire to have that doctrine res • ued, that, Were there nothing else, I would print them, that with them the honour of my Lord might be p • blished.

CHAP. V. A Censure of the vanity of affecting Epitaphs, with a declaration of their uselesseness: where, by way of Praeamble, of the fitness of decent Sepulture, occasioned by the neglect of many Sectaries, who bury a Dogge with as much solemnitie as a Christian.

IT is not the part of a Man to exercise care and vigilancy over but one Part of Man.1 §. To be somewhat ceremonious about the Body, is neither Dotage nor Superstition: Dust requires a Grave, Ashes an Urne. Let such as Apud Te • t. ad • Marc. l. • p. 324. Marcion declame against their materiall part, and spit the venome of their malice against the handy-work of their Creatour. Let such as Apud P. Gassend. in lib. 10. Diog. Laert. circa pag. 5 • 0. Epicu • us, who terminate their hopes at the approach of Death, and ch • rish no after-considerations, expose the breathlesse Body to hardship and incivilities.

Indeed,2 §. the rude and Eth • ick inhabitants of the Scythian Province Bactra Canes apud illos alunt quos sepulchrales vocant, quibus parentes morbo aetateve confectos objiciunt dilacerandos. One •• crit. have their Sepulchrall Dogs, and in their bellies do savagely en • omb the bodies of the Aged: at which customary Folly amongst these people I cannot cease to wonder, since they had a King, a man of sublimated reason, and theZ • roa • tres Rex Bactriano •• um primus dicitur ar • es Magi • as inve • isse. Ju • tin. Hist. • ib. 1. Primitive searcher into the Arcana of Nature, which • ath pregnant As 1 Cor. 5. 36. in grain, and in the reviving a plant out of i • 's ashes, &c. semblances of the Re • urrection. Mecaenas also is wholly regardlesse of his en • errment, and must needs declare so much in a Poeticall line, Non tumulum curo, sepelit Natura relictos. And I wonder not at his careless mind, since he was practically ignorant of a future state, and by his debauched and dissolute carriage had Teste Petro de Loier lib. de Spect • . & Appar. c. 6. p. 59. made his Body it self a Sepulchre containing nothing but corruption: since it was an object offensive to all the Senses, and a morsell ready prepared for the Palates of Worms. Diogenes throughout his whole life treated the companion of his Soul with harsh usage and severity: and at his death was not willing to gratifie it with so much as a Tub for it's protection. He desired no otherCic. Tus. quaes. lib. 1. jussit cadaver suum inhumatum rejici. Canopy besides the curtains of Heaven, and would not condescend so far as to lye below the superficies of the Earth.Quaerentibus amicis, volucrib • sne & feris corpus suum dilaniandum vellet relin▪ qui, Minime, inquit, sed bacillum apud me, quo illos abigam, to • ito • e. Cic▪ ibid. When his friends, out of a courteous intent, intimated to him how, by this means, he would expose his Body to the cruelty of Birds and Beasts; he replyed in no fairer language then this scoff, Provide me a stick which I may have in readinesse to prevent their approach. Neither is this worthy to be entertained with an admiring thought, for Dogs will bark at the Moon her self, and a Cynick will snarl at the brightest actions.

But true Christians have learned otherwise,3 §. and allow that which Christ hath redeemed a civill deposition, a decent Repose. Adam had a worthy Sepulchre, which D. Kellet in miscellan. of Div. videat • r c. 5. p. 13. some affirm to have been Calvarie, Aquin. 3. pars qu. 46. art. 10. 3. others in Hebron, but few deny to have been. Likewise Abraham and Isa • c had rich and stately Sepulchres in Erasm schol. in Epist. Hier. ad Marcellam. Arbe in the tribe of Iudah. 2 Paral. 35. 24. sepul • us in Mausoleo patrum. Iosiah was buried in the Mausoleum of his Fathers, according to the Vulgar Translation. And Saint Hier. Ep. • o. 1. Epist. ad Ma • c. In David. • rare mausoleo. Hierome makes mention of the Mausoleum of David. Even the heathenish Babylonians were ceremonious about the dead body, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , accordingHerod. Clio, cap. 198 to Herodotus, with much solemnity they buried it in honey. So likewise were the Egyptians, who buried it in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Herod. Thalia, cap. 24. glasse; a perspicuous embleme of its frail constitution. What the crafty Vibulenus Apud Tacit. Annal. l. 1. c. 22. ubi cadaver • bj • ce • is? 〈◊〉 hostes quidem sepul. turam invident. spake pathetically to Blaesus is true and antient, Even Enemies deny not Buriall to each other. The Jews, that denyed their Messias life, objected not a word, that we read of, against his having a Sepulchre. He was entomb'd byIoseph of Ar. Mark 15. & Nicod. John 19. noble hands, and not without usuall ceremonies: and laud abiliter commemor antur in Evangelio qui corpus ejus de cruce acceptum diligenter atque honorifice tegendum atque sepeliendum curarunt, their praise is in the Gospell who were offious in this kind, according to August. l. 1. de Civit. Dei, c. 13. S. Augustines observation. If we will credit Plin. lib. 11. Nat. hist. c. 18. Pliny, we may descend a step lower, and contemplate funerall Exequies in the Commonwealth of Bees: Apes defunctas progerunt, & funer antium more comitantur exequias. Christ pronounced Mat. 23. 29. a Woe against the Scribes and Pharisees building the Sepulchres of the Prophets, and adorning the monuments of the just: therebyNon reprehendit quod • dificarent sepulchra prophetaru •• , sed quod hepocritic • animo • oc facerent & ambi • ioso. Bredem • ach. in locum. not reprehending the act simply considered, and in it self, which was good and warrantable; but that which attended it, to wit, their vanity and ostentation; they endeavoring to palliate their more secret crimes, and gild them over with exteriour performances, and to seem to the world to be zealous followers of those whose very places of buriall they so studiously preserved: which Christ, the searcher of their hearts, perceived, and intimated so much whilst he call'd them Hypocrites. Civill rites performed upon the Body after the dislodging of the Soul, speak aloud our hopes of their re-union. The acute Doctor of the Gentiles draws an Argument as powerfull as a cloud of witnesses, to testifie the Re • urrection, out of the1 Cor. 15. 29. water in which the Corinthians immers'd the body in their funerall solemnities. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ;

But the affectation of Epitaphs is4 §. justly censurable, and the practice triviall and uselesse. Most of those who have been so passionately transported as to write their own Epitaphs, have thereby eternized their Pride and Haughtyness, which above all things abhorrs a Register; and whereby to be immortall is to condescend to the design of the obscure Herostratus. For instance consider that in Aul. Gel. Noct. Att. l, 1. c. 24. A. Gellius of the Poet C. Naevius, Immortales Mortales flere si foret fas, Flerent Divae Camoenae Naevium Poetam. Or that ofGraec. Epig. l. 3. Iulian, into which he thrust a verse out of the third of the Iliads, dedicated by the pen of Homer to the immortality of Agamemnon, who wasAgam. quem Alexander magnus pra • mnibus probavit. Obsopaeus priz'd by Alexander the Great above all other Worthies. Or that upon the fam'dOf Dr. Caius in his Coll. Chappel. laterall Monument of England, Fui Caius, I was Caius. Or that of him, who in good opinion of himself went beyond those of China, supposing himself to have two Eyes, and adjudging all the learned world besides to blindness, Scaligeri quod reliquum est, Here's all that remains of the great Scaliger. In all which the Authours afford themselves most emphaticall commendations.

As for Epitaphs, 5 §. they were ofTheir Orig. was from the Scholars of the Heathen Poet Li • us, upon their Master: whence Aelinus. Pagan institution, and can ple • d nothing but prescription, and that more Heathenish then Christian. Throughout the whole Book of God honourable mention is made of Sepul • ure, none of Epitaphs. And Christians, whose monuments have been thus scribled, for the most part have had their Epitaphs forced upon their Executo • rs by some Poeticall Sycophant, some pursemilking Rimer; or else too willingly contributed by some stinging Satyrist, an avowed enemy of the deceased person. Indeed Epitaphs abstracted from the interest of persons, and considered without the byasse of prejudice or officiousnesse, may passe • olerably in a notion; but the practice will alwayes be accompanied with the fore-mentioned associates.

The learnedM. Camden in his Remains. Clarenceaux enumerates four uses of Epitaphs; 6 §. which, I suppose, he reckons according to the common opinion of those that affect them, and not according to his particular judgement: for then I should scarce presume so highly as to contradict that knowing Worthie; although I am not ignorant, that a man may erre by great Example, and that Nullum magnum ingenium est sine mixtura dementiae, is a Truth in reference to Principles as well as Practises.

The first pretended use is,7 §. Love shewed in them to the deceased. But composers of Epitaphs strive to shew their Wit, not their Love. He shew'd neither, who made himself and his subject ridiculous to after-Ages by the composing of this Epitaph; Hic jacet in requie Woodcock John, vir generosus, Major Londoniae, Mercerus valde morosus. Or the Author of that upon William Longspee base sonne to Hen. 2. by Rosamond daughter to Walter Lord Clifford, in a simple allusion to his name, Flos Comitum, Willielmus cognomine Longus Ensis, vaginam coepit habere brevem. There be passages enough for thee to vent thy Love, and more perhaps then thou wilt willingly make use of; and those of a more noble strain. As by being pathetically ceremonious in the decent Gen. 3. 19. Pulvis es, & in pulverem reverteris. restitution of his Body; as did the Aegyptian Queen towards the departed M. Anthony. By a vindication of his Credit, if called in question by malevolent tongues: As Tertul. Apol. c. 38. Diog. Laert. l. 10. Seneca l. de vita beata. many have shewed kindnesse to Epicurus, in wiping off the aspersions of his sensuality and brutish behaviour, by shewing his obedience to the Hieron. Ep. to. 2. lib. 2. adv. Iovin. Epicurus volupta • is assertor om • es libros suos replevit holeribus & po • is, & vilibus cibis dicit esse vivendum; qui • carnes & exquisitae epulae majorem poenam habent in inquirendo, quam usum in abutendo. Stoicks 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and declaring that his pursuit was after Spirits, not Dregs; after the refined Pleasure of the Mind, not the faeculent delight of the Body. By Liberality of head and hand, in counselling or relieving those of Consanguinity or Familiarity with thy deceased Friend: contrary to the practice of Pedro Mexia, Hist. Rom. Imp. in Iust. 2. Iustinian the second, who having lost his Kingdome and Nose by the cruelty of the Usurper Leontius, and being, after a tedious exile, repossess'd of the former, caus'd some of the friends of Leontius to be put to death, as often as he would have wiped his Nose if he had had it. If thy friend was a good man, endeavour not to express thy love in Verse; for that will be a vain attempt, for thou wilt go beyond his worth, and turn Parasite: now Love and Flattery Non bene conveniunt, scarce admit of a mutuall Copulation. Follow him, not with the feet of a Poeticall Fancy, but with the feet of a godly Conversation: and therein will be the expression of thy Love towards him and his; for so his Memory survives in thee, whilst thou treadest in his steps, and thou livest thy Friend over again. Herein will the fire of thy Love sparkle and shine forth, in that thou art so diffusive of thy goodnesse towards his friends, as to continue in thee the good example which was set before them in him; abolished by Death to their Detriment, but revived by thee to their Benefit. If thy Friend whom Death hath taken into possession was, whilst living, a whelp of the roaring Lion, a son of his father the Devill, a drop belonging to the bottomlesse pit, when thou writest his Epitaph, thou blottest out thine own love. Thou she west not thy Affection, but thy Indiscretion, in the discovery of his Nakednesse, and in the exposing to publick view of present and future times the deviations of his life. Now if thou writest, thou art bound to do this by the law of Sincerity, which layes an engagement upon thee to decipher him with the pencill of truth; and not, where he is defic • ent, to adde colour of thine own: as Xenophon is supposed to have done in his Cyrus, and is therefore accounted by some a Painter rather then an Historian, a setter of a Pattern for a good Prince, not a writer of a Description of a Prince so good. The most sensible evidence of thy Love to such a person, which can come within the compasse of imagination, is, not the writing of his Epitaph, but the not transcribing of so foul a Copy; the making him one of thine Antipodes, and not making him still live by thine imitation: for hereby, in probability, thou wilt cease from contributing more links to his everlasting chains, from heaping more coals upon his head, who is in the midst of an intolerable Furnace. For so some make conjecture from the importunity ofLuc. 16. 27. Dives in the wildernesse of Hell with Abraham in the typifi'd Canaan for a Monitor for his Brethren, that, since there is not a spark of true Charity in the flames of Hell, and that they onely harbour a self-respect, the Torments of the Damned receive addition according to the extensivenesse of their bad Example in the practice of their followers.

The second pretended use is,8 §. that thereby the Memory is continued to Posterity. But how is this agreeable to Epitaphs in their minority? unto the custome in their first inst • tution? when they were onely mournfull Dirges sighed out with affectionate lungs at the interrment of the dead, existing onely vivâ voce, and dying with that breath which gave them life. Gordianus lives, and his memory is with us untill this day, notwithstanding It is pe • ished, though it was in 5. languages▪ the five-fold dissolution of his Epitaph. The memory of Adrian must needs be conveyed to us after a more comely manner then that of his Horse; and yet time hath spared the Beasts Epitaph, but not his Masters. Noble atchievements and Learned accomplishments will transmit the Memory to after-ages, without the favour of the tongue of an Epitaph, and in despite of the teeth of Time; Nam neque Pyramidum sumptus ad sidera ducti,Propert. Nec Iovis Elei coelum imitate domus, Nec Mausolei dives fortuna sepulchri, Mortis ab extrema conditione vacant. At non ingenio quaesitum nomen ab aevo Excidet: Ingenio stat sine morte decus. To which may be joyned that of the Lofty Virgil, Marmora Maeonii vincunt monumenta libelli: virg. Vivitur ingenio, caetera mortis erunt. Caesar will live till the funerall of the world in his Commentaries: and Cardan, in his own opinion,Stella Fomahan • immortalem da. bit. Card. in his Fomahant. Horace was perswaded that his poeticall feet would carry him to Immortality, and make his Name durable beyond brazen Statues and stately Pyramids. Horat. Carm. l. 3. ode 30. Exegi monumentum aere perennius, Regalique situ Pyramidum altius. And Naso told the world, he should live to the end of it in his Metamorphosis: Iamque opus exegi quod nec Iovis ira • nec ignis, Nec poterit ferrum, nec edax abolere vetustas. Neither of them trusted to the courtesie of an Epitaph to enroll their names in an everlasting Register. If the party that hath felt the arrow of death, was o • a bad life and an inglorious Name, wayes had need be invented to obliterate, not to perpetuate, his Memory. What well-regulated mind would desire to be •• remem • red like Thersites for his cowardise? or to exist like Herostratus to succeeding years (and as many subsist in this present Age) by the firing of a Temple?

Some Epitaphs take notice onely of an empty title, as that upon the tomb of that famous Rowland Nephew to Charles le magne, slain in the battell of Roncivalles, and enterred at Blauz in Xantogne, which declared that he was Selden. Tit. of Honour, part. 2. cap. 5. Primus Comes Palatinus. And some make mention onely of a bare Name, as that Holland in vita • jus. of him who was called by those of his Sect, Angliae Res • aura • or Depositum Cardinalis Poli. And how doth the Memory of worthy mortalls ride in triumph to futurity by such despicable supporters? Few Generous spirits are of Cardans mind, Cuperem notum esse quod sim▪ non opto u • scia • ur qualis sim Cardan. i • vita prop. who desired onely that it might be known That he was, not, What he was.

The third pretended use is,9 §. that hereby the Friends of the dead are comforted. Here every Epitaph is supposed to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 commendatory, which is therefore 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 consolatory, according to Erasm. • Epit. Ne • pot. Hie • ep. ad He • • iod. Na • aequiore • nimo fer •• mus • mo • tem nostr •• rum▪ si cu •• laude d •• cesserint 〈◊〉 &c. Erasmus; because the mind is the more calm and serene, when the departed hath left behind him a good Report. There is no mind so replenished with contradiction, as to d • ny that it is comfort to the surviving, Lipsius • Epist. cem • 5. Ep. 7 •• ad H. V. post matris obitum. Magna vobis consolatio (tibi ac s •• rori dico) quod piè vixerit, &c. when their dead relations go out, not like a Candle, but leave a fragrancy and lustre behind them, when they go into the land of rottennesse and the shadow of Death. But consider, that the Flowers strew'd upon the Grave of the deceased are even alwayes more beautifull then those to whom their Merits gave birth. It would have been imagined that the Epitaph of Cyrus could scarce have admitted an Hyperbole; and yetFlattery the worst • n manners. Selden in Epist. before Tit. • f Honour. that which is the worst in manners did take place in so high a degree, thatQuid am • lius prae • tenti & • m • ortali Deo tribui • us, fi quod 〈◊〉 propri • m est eri • imus? Bo • in. de Re. • ub. lib. 1. • ult. God was debased in his exaltation: that what was attempted byIsa. 14. • 4. Lucifer, and commanded by Domi •• m se ac • eum ap • llari jus •• Domitianus. Xiph. & Suet. in vit • . Mart. ep. l. 5. ep. 8. Edictum • omini Deique nostri. Domitian, was ascribed to him, to be1 Tim. 6. 15. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . like the most High; for on his Tomb wasEustath. ad Dionys. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Strabo Geogr. l. 15. written for an Epitaph in Persian Characters 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Certainly this could not be a cordiall to his fainting Friends; this wind of Ostentation could not blow over their showers of Tears; this fire of Pride would rather melt their cloudy thoughts into mournfull waters. Could there possibly have been knowledge of this in the Grave, that modest Prince would not have layn dry. Parallell to this is the Epitaph of that Martel of France, mentioned by Selden Tit. Hon. p • rt 1. c. 2. out of Hi • rom Bignon. M. Selden out of a French Author, Non vult regnare, sed regibus imperat ipse. The Comfort administred to the living at the death of their beloved Friends is, their being registred in the book of God, not their being recorded with praise in an Epitaph by man. If the deceased was not a guilelesse Israelite, no lively branch of the true Vine, no sprig of the tree of Life, but a fruitlesse branch fit for unquenchable fire, his Epitaph will be a memoriall of his evil, and so administer a conduit of tears for Sorrow, not a cruse of oile for Joy.Isidor. Illi deplorandi sunt in morte quos miseros infernus ex hac vita recipit.

But what if thy deceased Friend meets with aFuit M • r • ialis ingen • o acri, et qui in scribendo et plurimum salis haberet et fellis. C. Plin. apud P. Crinitum in vita Mart. Martial to write his Epitaph? How art thou comforted concerning him if he meets with ink which hath salt mixt with it? if the writer of his Epitaph hath in the place of a pen, the point of a Diamond, which cutteth glasse, defaceth the perspicuity of his name? What if he meets with a Poet, who, Pilat-like, crucifies him with a Superscription? How comfortable to the pensive spirit of a Mourner is such an Epitaph as Stigand Archbishop of Canterbury obtained, who was notable onely for a single exorbitancy, and that too such an one as, if lay'd in the ballance of these times, would not be found too light, but pass for currant, to wit, his being a little sacrilegious, and a disciple to Simon Magus? His Epitaph was no other then this, Hic jacet Herodes Herode ferocior; hujus Inquinat infernum spiritus, oss a solum. Herod more fierce then Herod here doth dwell; His Body Earth defiles, his Spirit Hell.

The fourth pretended use is,10 §. that hereby the Reader is put in mind of Humane Frailty. But all Epitaphs have not memento's of Mortality: as for instance, that ofGrae • . Ep. l. 3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. Q. Metellus is one of the number, rendred in Latine thus by Obsop. Comm. in Graec. Ep. Obsopaeus, Nè mea praeteriens culpes monumenta, Viator: Nil dignum lachrymis fata tulere mihi. I acknowledge that some of them are spent in the discovery of the brittle estate of man, declaring that even in his pomp and bloom he may fade and wither. Where by the way I cannot but take notice how grosse a soloecism is committed in most of them which are in Villages: their beginnings, for the most part, are with a Siste, viator, or heus Peripatetice, by which are denoted travellers about their affairs, who passe by with speed, and taking small notice of things, being in transitu. Now how improper is this in Parish Churches? few rodes lying through these temples, and few footpaths through the King of Heaven's High-way.

I grant this, that Epitaphs have in them some characters representing a Deaths head, that they contain lessons of Mortality; and every man must grant also, that this is wholly needlesse, for the stones themselves with which the Monument is built will speak so much: the Monument it self is of the self-same use, it beingMonumentum • monendo nos esse mortales. to admonish us of our Frailty. A Common Grave is of sufficient height to give a prospect of the confines of Mortality, to give a view of the transitory existence of mankind. The Sepulchre of what kind soever is sufficiently expressive of that▪ Now Colour upon Colour is ill Heraldry; and a super-addition, a superfluity.

Thus having shaked these four branches,11. §. I am not able to gather from thence those fruits which men of pregnant fancy have created to themselves.Conclusion. And now, if herein I have transgressed the limits of a sober disquisition, and am blame-worthy for not exhibiting a lesse peremptory censure, (which my hope suggests will not be charg'd upon me) I crave the pardon of my judicious Reader, and am already upon my Knees: for it is not my Ambition to walk above others with an exalted crest, or to tread contrary to others with the foot of Singularity.

CHAP. VI. A Censure of the common evill Practice of pretenders to Religion, viz, their running to one Extreme to avoid another, in Doctrine or Worship▪

AN eye lesse sparkling then that of Lynceus is quick enough to discern the wofull desolation of our English Sion. 1 §. Our magnificent Diana is too apparently lay'd in ashes, and it's Lovers clad in sackcloth, by the followers of Herostratus. England had a Church which was the most exact transcript of the originall, the most lively pattern of Primitive constitution: but its native lustre is • efaced by the envious Galliardize of a titular Reformation. We may take up the assertion of Hier. Ep. ad Heliodorum. Epit. Nepot. S. Hierome concerning the calamities of the Church in generall, and apply it in particular to the miseries of our own.Duos historiae Principes nominat, alterum Graecae, alterum Roma, nae; & Fabius Thucydidi oppenit Salustium, Herodoto Livium. Erasm▪ Schol. in locum. Ad haec meritò explicanda & Thucydides & Salustius muti sint, If a compleat narration were required, both Thucydides and Salust might become tongue-ty'd.

If Ambition and Avarice be excepted,2 §. that which hath acted the largest part in these Tragicall Combustions hath been the fiery zeal of some pretending Reformers, whereby they endeavoured not to purge, but burn up the Romish Church; to frame a new Church which was not, and not to repair the Church which was: they would be parents to beget a Church, not Physitians to heal one: they, like Novis •• ma verb • Plut. de superst. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 &c. those in Plutarch's time, embraced Atheisme and Profanation, to avoid Superstition. Happy had been their eyes, if they had not overlooked the decency observable in the Church of England, wherein someInit. Pre Com. Ceremonies were abolished, and some reteined; wherein flourished the happy mediocrity betwixt theProv. 3 • 8. riches of ceremonious vanity, and the poverty of Atheisticall rudeness. It would have been worth their animadversion to have considered, That in the Geography of Religion, the Torrid zone is not under the Aequator but under the Poles; That the Extremes are dangerous, and the Mean amiable; That as he that is in aAurea • quisquis mediocritatem Di ligit, tut • caret obs • leti Sord • bus tecti, caret invi dendâ Sobrius aulâ. Hor. Ca • l. 2. od. 1▪ middle condition, is neither the object of the finger nor of the envy of the world; so he is with Iesus, that is betwixt two Thieves, neither of which can ever challenge the Epithet of Good. But these men make no Isthmus betwixt Scylla and Charybdis: they walk not as strangers, but as Antipodes to the Pope. Because the Papist calls upon Saints, the Puritan will not call them Saints. Because the Papist sometimes even • MS. hist • S. Walst. prefers Saints before God, the Puritan abaseth Saints even below men. Thus Chin • s hatt defies the Courtship of Tartary's shoe. Thus if the —By • ean of • alston • d Gods •• ace. Hor. ser. • . sat. 2. rayment of Malthinus covers all, and sweeps the superficies of the earth, the rest will so epitomize their garb, that those parts of the body at whose non-concealment nature blu •• eth will be destitute of a vail. Malthinus tunicis demissis ambu • at, est qu • Inguen ad obscaenum subductis us que facetꝰ. Thus is one affecteth onely Matrons, the others arms are clos'd to all but the maintainers of a Brothel-hou • e. Horat. • d. Nil medium est; sunt qui nolint tetigisse nis • illas Quarum subsut à talos tegat instita veste; Contrà, alius nullam nisi olen • i in fornice stantem. Thus folly runs against a Rock to escape the violence of a Wave. Stulti dum vitant vitia in contraria currunt. One party must be Antarctick to the other, and the mean neglected. Hier. ad • Vigilant. Episcopos Vigilantiu sui sceler • dicitur h • • ere consortes, si 〈◊〉 men Episcopi nomi nandi su • qui non ordinant Di aconos ni • pris uxo • res duxe rint. Vigilantius is of this opinion, that Deacons must of necessity have she-Associates: whilest he thus imposeth a wife upon the Clergy-man, the Romanist denyes him the solace of a meet help, and will sooner allow him anTurpissimum est quod Officiales permittunt Clericos cum Cencubinis▪ meretricibus & pellicibus co • abitare, liberos procreare sinunt, accepto ab iis certo quotannis censu. Espen • aeus in Tits. cap. primo. Harlot then an Espouse: whilest the true doctrine hath its situation in the middle, and gives a liberty to live in a virginall or matrimoniall estate, according to every mans1 Cor. 7. 7. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , his proper gift and capacity. True Christian liberty stands —partes ubi se via findit in ambas, betwixt wild Licentiousnesse, and tyrannicall Restraint. Remonst. Conf. Fidei in Praefal. Libertate abutitur tam qui ejus fibulam nimis licenter laxat, quàm qui nimis arctè astringit: Extrema omnia vitanda sunt, & mediocritati litandum, quae tyrannidem inter & vagam atque effraenem licentia • media consistit. The true doctrine of providence is in the middle, and hath on one hand the blind fortune of Epicureans, and on the other the irony fatality of the Stoicks andRem. ib. p. 6. de rovid. p. 3. Praedestinarians. The learned Bellarm. ontrov. to. Praef. • 2. Conov. Gen. • nto • ar • re in • tanca • m invehuntur, ut interim ad scopulum ipsi longè duriorem navicu • m suam allidant; dum enim utrique naturae Christi M • diatoris of • cia tribuunt, divinam Christi naturam et à Patris n • tura distin • unt, et rem creatam cum Arianis faciunt. Bellarmine chargeth the Tigurine and Geneva Ministers with complying with Arius, out of a passionate vehemency against Stancarus: But this is judged to be a causeless exprobration.

If these Reformers proclaim Rome wholly Babel, 3 §. and to have nothing of Bethel; wholly Whore, and to have nothing of the Spouse; a denne of Thieves, and not at all to • e called the house of Prayer; If they be hot, and Rome cold; they fire, and Rome water; If they not onely go but runne from Rome, it will be a means, ut si veritas occultata jampridem sit, in aeternum jaceat consepulta, (as Gassend Exerc. Pa • radox. Ex • 2 • . p. 24▪ Gassendus spake of Authority in Philosophy) to keep the Candle eternally under a bushell, to hide the light of Truth from the eyes of both. Whereas if these would abate of their Presbyterian Anarchy, those of their Papall Supremacy; these of their Extemporary Service, those of the superfluities and vanities of their Masse; these of their Solifidiannesse, those of their meritorious works; these of theirHos. 13 9. perditio tua ex Deo, their absolute Reprobation, those of their salus tua ex te, their Condignities, Congruities and Supererogations; these of their Irreverence, those of their Ceremoniousnesse in Gods house, and so in other Extreme particulars; there might be an hopefull Reconciliation of Parties and Opinions, and a gladsome resurrection of the buried glory of the Church of England.

CHAP. VII. A Censure of the common evill practice of Railing against an Adversary in Opinion.

TRuth is so radiant in it self,1 §. that it needs not fetch lustre from the disgrace of another. Flinging dirt upon an Errour tends not to the beautifying of the face of Truth. He that blots his Adversaries name, may defame his Person, but not de • ace his Opinion. The fire of Contumely will not burn up a Falshood, but it serves onely to make the spirit of the maintainer so much the more to boyl over. Rancour in dispute is as Oile poured upon the flame, which is so far from an extinguishing, that it is an encreasing of its rage. As an uttering of some Truths to an Enemy Veritas o •• um parit. Gal. 4. 16. brings an odium upon the speaker: so the Obloquy of the speaker brings an odium upon every Truth. The violent striking of the tongues of Luther and the Pope against each other, was a way too irregular to produce the sparks of Truth, and a practice which deserv'd a reprehension. Ill language proceeds not with decency out of a David's mouth, though he be a man of warre: andZach. 14. 20. Holinesse to the Lord is a Motto to be engraven upon the bridle of the Horse, though a warlike beast. The Ministers dutyTit. 1. 9. is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to confute a Gainsayer with Arguments, not with Obloquies. 1 Sam. 17. 40. Smooth stones are most likely to give an overthrow to the Goliah of Heresie.

The Rasour cuts not the better for its rough edge. In the Act kept betwixt the Archangell and the evil Angell, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Champion of Truth dares not adventure upon foul terms wherewith to asperse the Patron of Falshood; his proceeding is with modesty, not with malice; heIude 9. implores an increpation from the Almighty, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , The Father of Lights rebuke thee the father of Lyes. If the Cynegirus amputatâ dextrâ, navem finistrâ comprehendit: quam et i • sam c • m amisisset, po • tremùm navem norsu detinuit. Justin. lib. 2. hands of Arguments will not doe, 'tis in vain to endeavour to hold the ship of Truth by the teeth of Rancour.

If a man errs in Fundamentalls,2. §. and yet deserves not to be called by the worst name imaginable, to wit, an Heretick, that is, if he hath not so passionately espoused hisErrare potero, haereticus no • ero. Aug. Haeres • s ab haerendo dicitur; ideo siquis ex levitate sentiat in aliquo oppositum Fidei, non dicitur haereticus, nis • vehementer seu ex electione (quae etiam Prohaerefis dicitur) inhaere • suae opinioni. Durand. in Sent. l. 4. dist. 13. qu. 5. Opinion, but that he will give it a divorce, if by a clear conviction he find it Adulterate; he is to be assaulted with Shot out of Reasons Armory, with palpable Demonstration, at the appearance of which he resolves to surrender; and not with the Flashes out of Passions furnace, at the approach of which he is forced into a suspition of his Adversaries weaknesse: for that Cause may justly be deemed to want the patronage of Arguments, and consequently of Truth, which is pleaded for onely with a multiplicity of words, and those unsavoury. If the man be somewhat scurrilous, the way to make him a Proselyte is by the Courtship of fair language. And it is the most compendious way, to invite a man of a serene spirit to a closer embrace of what he holds, to urge against him no stronger Arguments then those which are deduced from the Topick of a virulent Tongue: to have no other weapons brought against him then what every weakConvitiis & diris He • culem vincet muliercula. Clam. Reg. sang. ad coel. pag. 20. Woman, every Xantippe, can afford, to wit, the Sword of the Tongue,Psal. 57. 5. and the Arrows of bitter words.

It will be surmized, that these feet of Clay are not the attendants on an head of Gold, yea, that there is no Head, where there is so much Foot; no Reason that can prove, where there is nothing but kicking, which can nothing but provoke; that these Maculae contrary to theDes Cartes. Philosopher's, are inconsistent with solid particles: and what Amb. in Psal. 118. S. Ambrose hath delivered, will be rightly objected, Quem Veritate non potest, lacerat Convitiis.

In his Cathol. Eng. against the Apol. of K. Iames, parag. 1. Parsons, notwithstanding he wanted nothing but a glasse at any time to view the Effigies of a Rai • er, yet he censureth this practice as unworthy; and makes use of an instance of the lowest degree, taxing King IAMES with an Incivility, for calling the Romish Champion, Master Bellarmine.

If a man errs in Fundamentalls,3 §. and superadds Contumacy to his Mistake; if he be one quem non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris; if he be Adder-ear'd, and hath attain'd to the extremity of deafnesse that he will not hear; if he stops his ears against perswasions advancing soberly under evident Reason; if he will not attend to those of theN • que a • liunde haereses obortae sunt aut nata sunt sehismata, quàm indè, quod sacerdoti Dei non obtem. peratur. Cyprian. Epist. l. 1. Ep. 3. Corn. • ra • ri, p. 6. Tribe of Levi when they lift up their voices as trumpets in Exhortations and Rebu • es, or to the thunder of a delivery to Satan; if after all these Batteries he stands out without remorse, and layes out the utmost of his ability that others may joyn with his hereticall conceptions, and that Truth may not be struck at onely with his single hand; to this man reproachfull words will be no Bridles to restrain, but Spurrs to hasten him in his mad cariere.

Such ill-composed souls, like well-built Vaults, are by so much the stronger, by how much the more pressure they sustain. Here virulent spittle is an eye-sore, not anJoh. 9. 6. eye-salve. The fire of the Tongue will make such stony hearts fly out with speed and violence. Such impetuous minds are like boysterous torrents, which meeting with a stoppage grow the more loud and clamorous. The onely Logick against such a man is argumentum à fustibus: the onely Law is,Possunt haere • ici ab ecclesia damnati temp-poenis, et etiam morte mulctari. Bellarm. Cont. tom. 2. c. 21. de Laicis, l. 3. p. 547. Igne & fuste potiùs agendum cum haereticis quàm cum disputationibus. Ber • . Ep. 190. Breve de haereti • o comburendo.

If a man errs not in Fundamentalls, but is onely of a contrary •• rsuasion to you in some few Superstructions,4 §. which depend upon deduction, what Reproaches you cast upon him, may by the same equity be retorted against you, seeing these are dubi • us, and not generally determined: he may embrace Iuno, and you a Cloud; he may as justly be offended with you, because you comply not with his judgement and apprehension. Be candid, and use ingenuous and rationall Perswasions, not peremptory Threats; and by so doing, if he hath unadvisedly led Truth captive, you may redeem both it and him. Thus Cecilius the Presbyter turn'd Cyprian from a Pagan Rhetorician to an eloquent Christian. So Hier. Cat. script. eccl. in Cyp • iano. S. Hierome witnesseth, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . If you attend without prejudice to sober discourse, and oppose not Reviling to Reasoning, you may in time see that to be erroneous which at present you judge Orthodox: you may (li • e Saint Augustine) write the Retractations of your junior years, and (likeIn Apoc. de mille an. nis. Brightman) you may live to confu • e your self.

This corrupt practice of railing against5 §. a supposed Errour is not of yesterday. Saint Hierome, the father of Fathers, though not in time, yet in the tongues, (asVide Erasmum in vita ejus ante Epist. Erasmus relates, and his a viz.. ers. bibl. Quae • t. & trad. Heb. Catal. script▪ 〈◊〉 . &c. Works demonstrate) was too ready a Practitioner in this Art. Take a single instance, and by that foot you may guesse at the too ample stature of this Christian Hercules. 'Tis in the beginning of his Treatise adversus Vigilantium; where he falls soul upon his name, Exortus est subitò Vigilantius, seu potiùs Dormitantius: where also he layes down a catalogue of fourteen Monsters, and then brings in Vigilantius as the worst at the bottome. Upon which place Erasmus speaks thus, Mirè à convitiis auspicatur, idque suo more. To labour in the proof of this practice in these dayes, in the men of this Nation, were to shew light to the Sunne, or to suppose my Readers wanted Ears or Eyes to give them intelligence from the Pulpit and Press. 'Tis too true that England hath of late abounded more with Firebrands then shining Lights: England hath granted toMegera qu. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Fulg. Myth. l. 1. Megera too large dominions. In the court of Controversiall Divinity, there are few who stand not in need of a Pulch • 'è placitando: we may bespeak almost each of them with the language of Croesus to Solon in the Dialogue, Luc. dialog. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Good words, O Man. I wish that, at length, mens breasts would entertain calmer thoughts; that difference in Judgement may not be a cause of alienation in Affection; that Adversaries in Opinion would be free from Animosity and wrathfull discomposure,Eph. 4. 15. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 that the hearts of both Parties in a Controversie were tuned up to a melodious Unison; that Controversiall Divines would cease to be stinging Satyrists; that they had more of the Pigeon and lesse of the Gall; that the Meeknesse of Moses were more exemplifi'd then the Railing of Michal; that men would tip their tongues with Reason, not with Rashnesse. A mild spirit • equires a modest refute: and it is better to remai • indebted to a Reviler, then to repa • him in his own Coin.

FINIS.