IN 1. Sam. 13.17. thus wee reade, that vpon a day there came, out of the hoast of the Philistines, three garrisons of Champions, all minded to destroie; but, each turning seuerall waies, one to Ophrah, another to Be­thoron, and a third to Zeboim. This was a pic­ture of the Churches condition, not only bo­dily then wasted, and afflicted for the time, but [Page 2]spiritually assaulted to the ends of the world: whome a trebble squadron of conspiring eni­mies all bent to murther and destroy, yet all attempting sundrie means to mischief, do mo­lest continually; the heretique by his poiso­nous and corrupt doctrines, the euill liuer by his scandalous and wicked examples, the schis­matique by his turbulent and vnchristian sepa­rations.

And, against these, the Ionathans of God with their Captain Saul, higher by the head than all the children of Israel, that is the king and his Clergie, must alwaies haue their weapons in readinesse to suppress their furies. We, the wea­kest of ten thousand, doe it as wee may to the vtmost of our power, and haue done it often heretofore in diuers places, encountring them and coping with them, as the occasion guided vs, either iointly all at once, or diuidedly by themselues.

This day wee will single out the Schisma­tick from his fellowes, as in a stage of renown, the greatest disturber (if my mind do not mis­giue mee) that our Church hath complained vnder, these many yeares. And yet we wil pur­sue him nor chase him no further, than S. Paul himself shall giue vs leaue to do, nay ayme and [Page 3]scope how to doe, in the Text now propoun­ded.

The parts whereof are in effect these sixe; please you to peruse them with mee. The first is, The indifferency of the parties offending, in these words, If any man, [...]; Jf any, bee hee who he wil be, high or lowe, rich or poor, great or small, learned or lay, famous or of no re­putation, If any. The second is the Quality of the fact; consenteth not, agreeth not, accordeth not, I had almost saide subscribeth not. The third is the degree of the fault; teach otherwise: not only think, but teach, publish his fancies, pro­claime his conceits, drawe Disciples after him, make a Sect, and blowe a trumpet to sedition with Siba the sonne of Bichri, Euerie man to his Tents, O Jsrael, the 2. of Sam. 20.1. The fourth is the rule of tryall for this matter, the square of truth to discerne and iudge by: It selfe two-folde; eyther the wholesome wordes of CHRIST and of godlinesse, or euerie doc­trine according thereto.

So I say, not only the written word of God, but euery doctrine that is not dissenting or swaruing there-from; not onely that which is expressed, but that which is inferred, and by interposition of lawfull authoritie deducted, [Page 4]not onely that which is originally good, but e­uen that which is consequentially sound, the wholesom words and the doctrine according; that is the fourth part as I said. The fift is the Cen­sure, and this is somewhat intricate: I pray you mark it the better, to saue my labour. First, priuatiue, he knoweth nothing, he is an Idiot, an ignaro, a very childe inwardly, whatsoeuer he pretend & vaunt for outwardly. Secondly, positiue, & that either Causal in the first place & radicall, he is puft vp: for, Radix omnis peccati superbia, Pride is the root of euery sinne, but e­specially of this sinne, Schisme and separation in the Church. Secondly, formall, [...] languisheth about questions: He languisheth indeede, and spendeth his strength in cōtention & brabble. Hippocrates himself could say no more to discouer the nature of the disease. It is a head pain, that I say not a heady; and Caput dolet, caput dolet, as the childe complayned, 2. King. 4.19. But the fathers answer is very wise and good, Carry him to his mother, Let the Church censure him and correct him: That, if any thing, may chaunce to heale him. Thirdly, Euentuall or effectiue, of which commeth enuie, strife, raylings, euill surmises: you may say they are Legion, they are so manie, or heere comes [Page 5]a company, they are so thick; as Leab saide at the birth of Gad, Gen. 30.11. And yet ye haue not al, but last of all disputations, disputations, I say, or at least offers & challenges to disputa­tions: let the times interpret me. Fourthly, qualitatiue, from the dispositions of the per­sons themselues, and that threefolde; In re­garde of their iudgement, in regarde of their affection, and in regard of their practice. In re­gard of their iudgement, destitute of the truth, and therfore blinde. In regard of their affecti­on, corruptly minded, partially minded, & ther­fore crooked; pretending one thing, intending and ayming at another. Thirdly, and lastly in regarde of their practice, thinking gaine to bee godlinesse, or placing their godlinesse in gaine, as the Prophet DAVID sayth of them in the Psalm, Therfore doe the people fal vnto them, and therout suck they no small aduantage. This was the fift mayn part, the Censure. The sixt and last still remaineth: which you may call the Caution or the Jnhibition; From such separate thy selfe. So haue you, to make short, the indif­ferency of the parties, the qualitie of the facte, the degree of the faulte, the rule of tryall or the square of truth, the Censure and the Inhibition: For I omit the seuerall branches of amplifica­tion, [Page 6]til I com to the handling. And of al these, or of som of these, as God shal giue vtterance, you patience, and the time allowance.

I haue propoūded the parts, I must confesse, somwhat otherwise than they ly in the Text (as preferring order of matter before order of wordes in the Apostles writings); and yet I see I must handle them somwhat otherwise than I propounded them: but all shall be directed to the easier apprehensiō of you that are the Au­ditors, & no force offered to holy scripture.

To begin therfore first with the quality of the fact, in those words, If any consent not; the Pela­gian as soone as he heares of this Consent, pre­sentlie dreams a dream of his dearling Freewil, as if all sheaues bowed to hir sheaue, and ima­gines we may do this by the power of Nature, I mean yield assent to the heauenly reuelation.

But if the naturall man perceiue not the things of God, 1. Cor. 2.14. much lesse can hee con­sent to them out of his powers naturall, after once hee perceiues them. For, consenting is the harder, perceiuing is the easier of the two. As for example, I can make a man that hath but an ordinarie capacitie, by my pithie declarati­on, to perceiue what wee meane by the myste­rie of the Trinitie, folded vp in reuerend ob­scuritie, [Page 7]by the incarnation of Christ that swal­lowes vp the sense both of men and Angells: but I cannot make him assent to it nor agree to it; digitus Dei hic est, this point surpasseth our skill, & it is Gods finger alone that can import a consent, though wee can imprint a conceit: he bowes the neck of the inner man, and puts our feete into wisdomes fetters, our hands into her links and chaines, mollifies and intenerates that same neruum ferreum (as Manasses calls it) the iron synew of our vnbeliefe. Nemo pugna­uit in valle Terebinthi (sayth S. Serm. de Temp. Augustine most sweetly) donec Dauid veniret ad praelium, spo­ken by the historie of Dauid and Goliah; that is, no man fought in the valleie of Turpentine trees, till Dauid came and vndertook the chal­lenge. So, no man is of force in this dale of mortalitie to act anie point of ghostly chiual­rie, till the spirit of Christ which is the truer Dauid shall come vpon him, and the power of the most high shall ouershadow him: of Christ I say, who is therfore called, [...] Hebrues. 12.2. The beginner and the en­der, the founder and the finisher, the Alpha and Omega of our faith. For, as he beginnes it in ob­iecto, so he ends it in causa: as he did what wee might beleeue, so hee helpes vs to beleeue [Page 8]what he hath done for vs, shining in the darke­nesse (if at least any will comprehend him) and illightning euerie man that commeth into this world. We reade how Hiram was famous for his working and caruing in brasse. 1. King. 7.14. But the truer praise hereof (if you mark it wel) belongs to him, who only writes his Laws in our hearts, and giues vs heart for heart, Cor carneumpro lapideo, a heart of flesh for a heart of stone, supple and gentle for rough and vn­tractable, and renewes a right spirit within vs in the middest of our bowelles. Anatomize if you please with me the parts of Christian per­fectiō: what are they? I suppose these; Thought, Faith, Wil, Deed, Perseuerance, Martyrdom. What more easie then to thinke? yet wee can­not so much as thinke a good thought of our selues, as of our selues, saith the Apostle. What, next thinking, more easie then beleeuing? yet ye are saued by faith: which faith is not of your selues, it is the gift of God. Ephe. 2.8. What then like willing and affecting? yet it is he that worketh in vs both to will and to doe, accor­ding to his good pleasure. But at least we per­fect and accomplish his onsets after hee hath once begunne them in vs: No, but he which hath begunue the good work in you will fulfill [Page 9]it vnto the end. Much lesse then can we suffer but by his supportance, if we cānot do without his assistance: yea verily; for so we read, to you it is giuen, (marke the word giuen) not one­ly to belieue in him, but to suffer for him. Thus you see, nothing so easie that he disdai­neth for vs; nothing againe so hard, but he ef­fecteth it by vs. As to the one kinde wee are more than weak and feeble, without him: so of the other kind we are more than Conquerors, through him. For, as Christ sayth by vs, With­out me you can do nothing: so we say by him, that in Christ which enableth vs, we can do all things. And, in one word, my deare brethren, whatso­euer progresse we make, whatsoeuer step wee set forward vpon this Jacobs ladder, the way of grace and vertue which conducteth our soules to blisse; stil Dominus super scalam (as S. Serm. de Temp. Augu­stine hath obserued out of Gen. 28.13.) still the Lord is aboue the Ladder, still Christ the An­gell is conspicuous at the toppe.

And yet we read, saies the Pelagian, Esa. 1.19 Jf you consent & obey, you shall eat the good things of the earth: but do we not reade againe; Jt is not of the willer, nor yet of the runner, but of God that sheweth mercy. And yet we read, saies the Pelagian, I haue inclined my hart to keep thy righteous [Page 10]iudgements: but doe we not read againe, in the same Psalme; O Lord doe thou incline my heart vnto thy testimonies, & not to couetousnes. And yet we read, saies the Pelagian, My son, keepe thy heart with all diligence; as if hee were his hearts keeper: but doe we not read again, The peace of God, which passeth al vnderstanding, keep your hearts & mindes in Christ Jesus. Last­ly, and yet we read saies the Pelag. Make you strait steps vnto your feet, least that which is hal­ting be turned out of the waie. Heb. 12.13: but do we not read again, say I, Order (O Lord) my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slide not; and Take thou from me the way of lying, but leade mee in the way euerlasting.

How then is it, my dear brethren? for, I may seem to haue led you into a maze of wādrings: or how may these contradictions so great in shew, be knit vp in any substantial accordance? yes doubtless, very wel: neither delighteth in the others ouerthrow, but both espouse frend­ship in the kiss of peace. Free-wil eats not vp grace, as Pharaohs leane kine eat vp the fat, nor grace deuours not Free-will (Adolet non abolet naturā gratia, saith S. Prosper) as Moses serpents deuoured the Inchanters: but the sword of the Lord and the sword of Gedeon, Gods finger and [Page 11]humane indeuor, may both stand togither ve­ry wel. And in one word, to finish this, because the time spendeth so fast; As in the case of the person of our glorious Sauiour, we search the Scriptures to see what he was, and to redeeme him frō the slanderous deprauation of toongs, some denying him to be God, some denying him to be man; we (I say) search the Scriptures about this point, go into the sanctuarie, & fin­ding him wearie sitting at a Well, finding him hungrie, finding him thirsty, sleeping, bleeding mourning, dying, and such like, we conclude a man; but considering him on the other side, trampling the waters, quieting the winds, cal­ming the tempests, rebuking fevers, taming the diuels, whipping out the Simoniacall bargai­ners of the Temple, we infer a God: So in this doubtfull diuersitie, where some denie grace, som abolish Nature and Free-vvill, we turn the book, the book of decision for the weightie cau­ses and controuersies of God; and if propen­sion on the one side make for liberty, grace on the other side appears in victorie, neither defa­cing nor demolishing the other, like Dagon, and the Arke; but each countenancing and e­stablishing, like the 2. Cherubins that behelde one thing, and yet looked both sundrie waies.

For, if anie man consent not, as you haue it in the Text, If hee consent not, implyes not a consenting power in vs. No, though he had sayd, see that you consent, looke that you con­sent; yet, that proues no ability of doing so: neither supposition, nor imposition, neither si, nor sic can euicte anie such conclusion at our hands: but, Lex imperat, fides impetrat; the Law indeed was giuen by Moses to the end that it should driue vs to the grace that comes by Christ: and commandement may extend far­ther than strength. As when we read Psal. 119. Ver. 4. Tupraecepisti, thou hast charged that we should diligently keepe thy commaunde­ments, he adds not, nor collects not, There­fore I can, or, therfore I will, as the Pelagian would do in all the haste; but, O that my waies were made so direct that I might keep thy statutes. The Imperatiue begets an Optatiue, not a Poten­tial with him: for, Da Domine quod iubes, & iube quod vis, Lord help me but to performe, and then I care not what thou require. And so much might suffice to haue spoken, of Consent; but that the age, which we are fallē into, craues a word more by way of this discourse at my hands. I will obey the times, and yet not neg­lect the time.

Consent, is of three sorts, euen as it may be performed by three distinct Organs; the heart, the mouth, the hand. The Consent of the heart is called Faith, of the mouth is tearmed Confes­sion, of the hand is Subscription. For, so saith S. Paul; not content with one without the other, Rom. 10.10. With the heart we belieue to righte­ousnesse, that is but one step: and, with the mouth we confesse to saluation, that is another step: and he might adde a third, yea hee addes it heer in effect (or at least, for so many as shall be requi­red and called vpon) with the hand we subscribe, to maintain good order and keep all from run­ning into endlesse confusion. Or, if you will haue one speake plainer for this third kinde of Consent, than S. Paul heere doth; take but the Prophet Esay to you, who in his 44. & 5, fore­telling of our times, the times of the new testa­ment, makes subscription of the hand, in direct tearms, one a principal mark of our honorable Christendome; They shall subscribe (saith hee) with their hand.

But alas! what should I say more in this be­half, if neither the Parallel of Scripture, nor the precedent of storie, nor the manifest necessitie of the thing it self, nor your owne practice of com­mon life can perswade you? J wil briefly touch them all.

First, the Parallel of Scripture: The Ma­gistrates generally brought their people to make a couenant with Allmightie GOD, that they woulde continue in his seruice, and in obedience to his lavves as concerning Reli­gion.

First, Josua, 24.25. I vvill make short. The place was Shechem; the Act was, writing the peoples words of Consent, and vvriting them in the book of the lavv of God; the ceremonie vvas a stone rolled vnder an Oke that vvas in the Sanctuarie: vvhich stone vvas to be a vvit­ness of their promised conformitie.

Secondly, Josiah, 2. King. 23.3. He renevv­ed the like couenant again between God and the people, and established vniformitie of vvorship by a vovv. And though there be no mention, in that place, of vvriting, and taking names as in the former; yet either vve must vn­derstand it so by conference of places (though for breuitie sake it be omitted in the one) or at least it hath the same force: & I doubt not but as Job saies of his words, O that my words were written in a book; so, none there professed but could vvell be content to haue it registred, & the honour of that daies Act to remaine vvith Zebulun the handler of the pen, Judges, 5, 14. [Page 15]as well as with Napthali, the delicate Hinde, smooth of language, and giuing goodly words. Gen. 49.21.

Thirdly, and lastly Nehemiah in his 9. and 38. where, in fewe words you haue this, a sure Couenant as Iosiah made; and the writing of it, as in Josuah we sawe; and yet, beside that, the seale put to it: which was more then in anie of the former: So much briefly for Parallel of scripture. As for the precedent of storie, infinite might be alleaged: but J wil insist in only one, so fa­mous as it cannot be denied, and so pregnant as it may by no meanes be despised. Arius (J speake no more than almost all of you know) who driuing ambitiously at a Bishopwrick, Theod. Ec­clesiast. hist. lib. 1. cap. 2 was preuented therein by Alexander his Competi­tor, the worthier man, though perhaps not e­steemed his equall for heate of zeale, missing his suit, pursued his spite by broaching an here­sie as derogatorie to the head, as these of our daies are to the bodie (J meane to Christ, as these bee to his Church) that hee might seem somebody, for all the repulse, and dravve a world of malcontents after him. The Councel of Nice gathered for that purpose by the holie Ghost, to quenche the fire that had kindled so farre, and yet was like to spreade a great [Page 16]deale farther, sent for this Arius, conferred with him, debated the cause, draue him to con­form, & demanded Subscription of him: which in the end he denied not. So antient is the cu­stome of requiring subscription at the hands of Church-men, to preuent faction once a-foot. Now, if Arius subscribed but haltingly, and dissemblingly, retaining the poison of his opi­nion at heart, which he couered so cunningly with the sugar of tearmes, as many doe now a­daies (with whom it is, not as with Pilate, quod scripsi, scripsi, what J haue written, J haue writ­ten; but, the Chapman inuerted, of whome Salonion speaketh, It is good, it is good, and af­terward falls to dispraise it againe) J say, if this be so, yet that detracts not from subscription, as if lesse lawfull and laudable for that cause; but shewes in truth, that some stronger cordes would be prouided, if it were possible, to ham­per these colts (that snuff the winde, as Ieremie saith, and whiske it in the wildernesse of their owne boundlesse and transported fancie) from straying and breaking foorth of the limites a­gaine. Yea verely, let Shimei be confined to the Riuer Kidron for gadding, 1. King. 2.42. and make Renegates constant euen against their will.

The third head was from the manifest necessi­ty of the thing it selfe: wherein, J shall need to say the lesse, because your owne senses may be your owne Iudges, and experience yieldeth her plentifull testimonie. The heart of man (saith the Prophet Ieremy) is like a great sea, huge, and bottomlesse; who can fadome it? and Salomon, This one thing yet haue J found, that GOD hath made man righteous, but bee hath begotten to himselfe manie inuentions: Manie, manie, whereof there is no number; and yet more would, were there no restraint. Certain­lie, my deare Brethren, if Order bee a thing so much to bee desired (Let all things bee done comelie and in good order. 1. Corinthians, 14.40.) And if God be the God, not of confusion, but of peace, & so J teach in al the Churches (saith the Apostle) and if Order bee ranked with Faith in another place, for the excellency of it (as Colossians, 2.5, J delight to see your Order, and your stablished Faith) and, if the Church bee tearmed terrible like an Armie with banners, only because of the goodly arraie that she mar­cheth in; then thinke, what you must needes think of subscriptiō, vnless you wil needs think amiss: without which, we should haue (I trem­ble to speak it) so many parishes, so many part-takings, [Page 18]so manie companies, so manie rents in Christs coate, so manie congregations, so manie distractions, so manie Churches, so ma­nie sects; yea, more than so, quot capita, tot schismata, as S. Jerom saith; so manie men, so manie mindes: and consequently, so many schismes, growing, and budding out of them; Gods inheritance being like Jeremies bird, a bird of diuers colours. Ier. 12.9. and faction mul­tiplying without all measure, like Anacreons fonde loues, some perfect, some pipient, some hatcht, some half hatcht, some peering out of the egge, some riper in the chick; while others had the strength to flie nimbly awaie. Seneca reports, that the wise Senators of antient Rome were content for a time to let the slaues goe distinguished from the free-borne in apparell; the wearing of the cappe making the diffe­rence betweene them and the Citizen: till at last they espyed, there vvas this inconueni­ence in it, that the slaues might happilie fall to numbring of their ovvne side, and so to presume vppon their ovvne strength, till in the end it should breake out into open rebel­lion. Let this bee but practiced heere a lit­tle amongst vs, in the Church of GOD, euery congregation doing as they list, and assuming [Page 19]to themselues what fashion they list, till it be­gin to bee considered, who haue the most of their side; and we shall not neede to be threat­ned Jsmaels fist, though the time was when we were threatned it, as you know; their bold­nesse, no doubt, springing out of some such obseruacion: vvee should haue felt it, J warrant you, walking about our eares euen by this time.

The fourth, and the last, is your owne prac­tice in common life. I confess, I am loth to de­scend to such specialties, that J may not say to such triuialties: but you must be conuicted by your owne proceedings; who, for substantiall assurance, vse the Scriuener, & the Indenture, almost to euerie thing. [...], saith Saint Chrysostome of olde, that is, you bind vs in, with writings, stronger than a­nie iron chaines. So as S. Paul himselfe wri­ting to Philemon, but about a matter of debt, betweene him and Onesimus his runne. awaie seruant, was faine to descend to your tearms, and to your conditions, though he were an A­postle; and, after promise of repayment made, thus to saie, Ego subscripsimanu mea, I haue sub­scribed it with mine own hand, feare not: in the Epistle to Philem. Ver. 19.

Yea, the Naule was vsed in former times, by Gods owne appointment, to bore-through the eare of him, that woulde not depart from his first seruice: Deut. 15.17. And do you think much, if they be put to the pen, to keep them from backe sliding, and from Apostasie, that serue indeed, and serue not at the Tabernacle (which was but the patterne & shadow of hea­uenly things. Heb. 8.5) but are the immediate Ministers of the truth of the liuing God?

But, Subscription they will say, they all allow of, & no bodie takes exception against the vse of the thing; they refuse to subscribe to such, and such Articles. What Articles I praie you? Som dangerous ones, I warrant you, that our Church obtrudeth, that sterne step-mother, and much of kinne to those that Jobs Wife commenced to him; Blaspheame GOD and dye. It were tedious to goe ouer all that is controuerted, and which hath beene iusti­fied vppon our side, ouer and ouer againe, as cleare as it were written with the brightest Sunne-beam vpon a wall of glasse as Lactan­tius speaketh. And, if so much inke, as hath been already spent in the causes, cannot cease the Ring-worme of creeping contention; how then maie J thinke, that my tongue, [Page 21]will be so soueraigne and so medicinable (lick it neuer so cunningly nor so cleanly) as to cure the Lazar of such an inueterate sore? Christ a­lone must be inuoked, and his good spirit im­plored, that shall staunch the wound, and drie vp the issue of festered bloud, that hath vexed our Syrophaenissian woman, the Church of the Gentiles in these Northerne parts of the world, now more than these 8 yeares.

Vnlesse you looke I should defend our Or­ders, and Hierarchies; which they say are Anti­christian, we knowe to be Apostolique: our ha­bite and vestments; which, they thinke, are so farre off from the Camels skinne, that they are made of the Dragons taile: the imperfections of our prayer-book; which they haue made to stinke in the nostrils of men, as much as euer it smelt sweet in the nostrils of God: our praying for all men; which, they say, is against particu­lar election: for all that trauaile by Land, or by water; which, they say, is for Theeues and Pirats: against lightning and tempests; which, they say, is against sparrow-blasting, vnlesse it be at a certaine time of the yeare onely: that our Fathers sins sit not heauie vpon our shoul­ders; which, they say, is to acknowledge Pur­gatorie: that we be hurt by no persecutions; as [Page 22]much in effect, as that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life; the very words of S. Paul. 1. Tim. 2.2: Our entreating Christ by his agony, & bloudie passion; which they call coniuring: our Ministeriall absolution; which to them sa­uors of a Popes pardon: and lastly, our Crosse in holy Baptisme, so scandalous, that same Lig­num iuxta aquas, Serm. de Temp. as S. Austine sweetly calls it, the Tree of the Crosse that is planted by the waters of Baptisme; which these good men, for want of other matter, call idolatry.

I passe by many things: these that I haue me­tioned, are too too vnsauorie; and I am loath to giue you a surfet of distaste. If wise men be not deceiued, they are more offended with our ser­uice-booke, for that which it hath not, than for that which it hath.

As for these that I haue mentioned, what should I say? there are some things so cleare, as they refuse triall; some slaunders so lewde and so base, as they abhorre purgation. Your good apprehension must be our best perswasi­on, & your capacitie our Oratorie.

So much for the first point, The quality of the fact; If he consent not. The 2. followeth, which is, the degree of the fault; If he teach otherwise.

I must be short in that behind is; this 1. hath deuoured so much good time already.

ALl faults are not of one and the same de­gree: some are smaller, som greater, som lighter, some more haynous. There is a mote and a beame, there is stubble and Lead, there is iudgement, or councel, or hel fire pro­portionable. If hee consent not, that is Ianua mortis, to speake with Origen; but, If he teach o­therwise, that is limen inferni. Our Sauiour him­selfe distinguisheth these so: Math. 5.19. Whoso­euer shall breake one of these least commandements (and yet they count some so little & so petite, as they are not worth the keeping; the cere­monies being no better with these men, than a Cupbord of glasses, that they may dash at their pleasure, forsooth): but, as I was saying, Our Sauiour makes a difference betweene whosoe­uer breakes, and breaking teacheth so, one euen of the least commaundements: or rather hee couples them, and ioynes them together; to shew they seldome go asunder. Which is the cause, that S. Paul also reckons them for one here in this place, If hee consent not, and, If hee teach otherwise. For, serpit vt Cancer, as the same Apostle saide of olde, such Doctrine still creepes like a Gangrene, frets, proceedes, stayes not; it hath a power infecting like the [Page 24]eye of a Basiliske: and if Archytas take no plea­sure in vicuing heauen, with all the heauenly beauties thereof, vnlesse he may haue one to tell it to againe, the Diuell (saith S. Cyprian) ea­seth his condemnation, and so doe his agents, with this, if they can draw as many after them, as possibly may be, into the same pit of error.

It is most true, Hoc fonte deriuata clades, and I may well add the rest, in patriam populum (que) fluxit: this is the originall of all our woe, the desperate licentiousnesse of the Teacher. As when a well-spring is poysoned, the trauailer must needes die for it, that drinks thereof, and all the beasts of the Forrest, and all the birds a­mong the branches, and the wilde Asses that quench their thirst there; as the Psalmist spea­keth: so frō the mouth of the Teacher spreads this venome into the veines of the body, till it leaue no place voide of a mortall contagion. But execrabilis ille qui minxit in torrentem, ac­cording to the olde saying; accursed be hee that hath thus poisoned our Current. If Ahab must be deceiued, there is no fitter meanes to deceiue him by, than for spiritus mendacij, a ly­ing spirit, to get into the mouth of one of his Prophets, and from that Pulpit to preach as it pleaseth him 1. Kings 22.22. Al the aberrations [Page 25]and corruptions of the people, both Israel and Iuda, are generally fathered throughout the Bible, vpon the tongues of the Prophets, that taught partially: and God himselfe acknow­ledgeth, that their sowre grape set the peoples teeth on edge; the Serpent gaue it them, and they gaue it the people. For, whereas they should haue beene like an Oracle responsall, without any Philippizing, to the whole King­dome, their lippes preseruing knowledge with indifferencie, and the Lawe beeing to bee re­quired and rendred at their mouth; they on the contrary preacht: what? Visionem cordis, & non ex ore Domini, a vision of their owne heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord: which, to interpret by our times, were a dreame of their owne braine, begotten of choler and a hungry stomach, fore-telling the downefall of the Prelates and the Cleargie, with an imagi­narie scambling after the reuenews of Bishop­ricks.

And if it please you but to heare a little what may be saide in this behalfe for condem­ning of the Teachers, acquitting and releasing the poore ignorant people; you (may they say, turning to their Teachers) taught vs to aban­don the congregation, where prayers were but [Page 26]read out of a booke: you to fling out of the Church in a fume, where any thing sounded but canonicall Scripture, though neuer so wholsom else to be hearkned to you to damn Homilies to the pit of hell, which cōtained the kernell of saluation more liuely, than all your vocall Sermons could euer amount to: you to measure Baptisme by the person that admini­stred it, as if no Preacher were no sufficient baptizer; a thing so contrarie to all the rules of Diuinitie, that the principall Apostle sayes of himself, He was sent to the one & not to the other: you to [...]et the Baptisme of our new born babes, like a thing indifferent at six and seauens; as if the righteousnesse of the Parents made them perfect before God, that were borne in sin and in damnation, and the sauing Sacrament were now but a complement: You to bite the lip, and hang the head, at Supremacie of princes, in each kinde of causes, mentioned in prayers; as if that were but flatterie, beeing cast vpon kings, and the truer right thereof in Ecclesiasti­call menages belonged to the Presbiters. You to flie frō the Surplice & the Cap, as frō a she Beare robbed of her whelps in the wildernesse, whereas that defileth not that goeth into a man, much lesse that which cōmeth vpon him, saith our Sauior, & Rom. 14.14 there is nothing vnclean, but to [Page 27]him that thinketh so. And how shal we reckon vp al your other mysteries, that you were wont to incomber vs with? You, to put great holines, in not bending at Communion; high religion, in refraining from solemne thanksgiuing after child-birth: main discretiō in withholding our children from the most godly confirmation; deep iudgement in abhorring the ring as a ci­uill pledge at Mariage. This may the people say of their Teachers, & this must their excuse be, in the last day, when they shal be charged to haue wakened the spouse of Christ, & troubled her rest afore she would. Oues autē istae quid me­ruerunt? as for these poore sheep, that haue bin thus beguiled, what alas haue they deserued?

Howbeit, heere I cannot excuse the people altogether, of this our Land, so as fain I would, but that a great part of the fault still resteth on thē; who, though at first they were angled with the enticing words of their new Prophets, yet afterward so plaid vpon the hook, as in the end they could not be beaten fro it & the prophets now, if they would please them, might cast no other bait before the but that. So as a man may say, that if at first they were credited because they spoke it, now they were to speake it, be­cause they wold be credited: a very ball of factiō [Page 28]being thus tossed in a manner, to and fro, what betweene the politique drifts of the Teacher, at his first entrance; and the licorousnesse of the Auditors, now, not onely easie to be taken, but iealous, if the taker applied any meanes, but those wherewith they were first taken. And yet euen this againe is no more, than the Church of the Israelites saw in olde times, and had experience of; that we might be like them both waies, as well in our people, as in our Priests. For, euen there Venite praedicate, was the cōmon saying of the people to their Pro­phets, Come and preach to vs such and such things, not as you should, but as wee would haue you, & like best to heare of. O my deare brethren, it was neuer well, since either the people durst presume to giue aime to their Mi­nisters, though neuer so secretly; or the Mini­ster stoopt at the Pulpit dore, to take measure of the peoples feete.

But to returne to the Teachers, because they without controuersie are the principall in this condemnation, and our Text leadeth me by the hand to taxe them most directly; it will be saide (perhaps) that such and such false Teachers there were, in old time, vnder Achab and the rest, but none now a-daies in the time [Page 29]of the new Testament. That indeede were to imagine a pretie popish Common-wealth, where truth had clipther wings, as they say, and could no more flie away; the spirit being as fast bound to the Desk, as euer they imagined it was to the Chaire. But, besides S. Pauls heere If any teach otherwise, if any, which extends to all times; besides that, I say, S. John tells vs, that euen now many spirits are gone abroade into the world, that would be tried before they be trusted, examined afore they bee belieued. S. Peter tells vs, Erant Pseudo-prophetae, and erunt. 2. Pet. 2.1. (I name the place, because it is most obseruable) that is, there shall bee false prea­chers, euen as there were false prophets, and that in populo, among the people: what thinke you of that? Will you haue any more notes of them? that shall priuily bring in damnable Sects, and many shall follow their destructions, and shall make the way of truth to be euill spoken of. And through couetousnesse, they shall make merchan­dize of you with fained words, walkers after the flesh, despisers of gouernment, bolde, standing in their owne conceipt, speaking euill of them that are [...]n dignity; or if they admire them, it is but for ad­uantage sake, contradicting the things, that in ve­ry truth they knowe not, beguiling the vnstable, [Page 30]forsakers of the right way, and turners aside to a balke of their owne, after Balam the sonne of Bo­sor, that loued the wages of vnrighteousnes, whō, because he should not boast too much in his gift of tongue, his owne Asse spake vnder him, and a dumb beast rebuked the madnes of a speaking Pro­phet. Haec Petri sunt ferè, these are all out of S. Peter for the most part, fore-telling the disa­strous euent of our times.

And I might add yet more, collected out of the same place, which place is so worthy for discouerie of the ages that were then to come, and are now vndoubtedly come vpon vs, that S. Iude hath thought good to repeat almost the same, in the selfe same words, after S. Peter, ad­ding moreouer a most famous & memorable mark, one or two, of his owne, that S. Peter had omitted, to demonstrate the men, and to de­cide the question, if it may be, at once, be­tweene vs and them; Murmurers, Complainers, and yet Mockers too, when they thinke good, and last of all separators. Quòd si haec picta vide­retis, non dicta audiretis, now if some painter had but drawne these things with a coale, not an Apostle described them in colours, as hee hath, could you doubt by which side they were to be vnderstoode?

It was our wish a long time, as you may re­member, vtinam omnis populus, O that all the people did prophecie, not only Eldad and Me­dad, but all the people. Such desire there was of that holy encrease. But since we haue lear­ned, by a costly experience, what hurt a Neo­phytus doth by speaking in an assembly, be­cause we would not beleeue S. Pauls aduertise­ments: euery stripling, nay euery boy, beeing flabellum concionis, and flagellum optimatism, an instrument to set the mutinous a gog; and ma­king this his first admittance to popular com­mendation, if he could declaim most lewdly, & yet most loudly, against them that scorned, and had good cause to scorn, to set his fathers, or his fathers fathers, with the curres of their flock, as Iob saith. The truth is, now we might spare som of that seed, which hath abounded so much to our woful decay, & Iuie-like eaten vp the Tree that supported it. Take back, take backe, may we say with Moses, not your stipends, but your La­bourers, vnlesse they could labor any better a­mongst vs. Let goe Church-men, and giue vp your Church-liuings, that you haue with-held an vniustice frō vs. For, not only the people pe­rish there, where prophecie faileth, which is a sentence that these mē haue neuer out of their mouths; but pastores multi, & indeed stulti, many [Page 32]shepheards, manie, indeede too many to bee good, Ier. 12.10 diripuerunt vineam meam (it is Gods owne complaint by Jeremie) are the cause that our vine lieth so waste & so defaced, as it doth at this day.

Wherefore, in the name of God, if any teach hereafter, let them teach; but not otherwise: o­therwise they were as good not teach at all. Let the olde saying of the Chaldees be verified a­mong vs Christians, Mel. Canus in locis. Homo quidam ex Iudaeis re­nit, Sacerdos, neutiquam decipiet nos: there is a certain stranger come to Town, a priest I trow, he will not deceiue vs at anie hand. Such opi­nion they had of the preachers sinceritie. Let the pulpits be no Pasquils; nor the Mosaicall trumpet, a trunke to shoote pellets at gouern­ment and good order: Let no slanderous Cha­racters be drawne in the oile of the Taberna­cle, which no water can cleanse or wash away; and let a man take heed how he come there to clawe sides, where no good man enters with­out quaking. For my owne part, I say, with Iacob, Haecest Bethel, this is Gods house: and let the stone out of the wall witnesse against me, if I decline to partiality, or embrace vntruth.

But to returne to our Text, If a man teach, Si quis docet, splendidum est: but if he teach other­wise, [Page 33] Si quis diuersum docet, lubricum est: tea­ching is honorable, but otherwise is tempting; teaching profiteth, but this otherwise marreth and ouerthroweth all. Yet, Auia Pteridum lu­stro loca, nullius ante Trita solo; I would this were a Poets affectation onely, and not a Pro­phets: but selfe-loue, they say, lookes ouer Pul­pits, as wel as ouer meaner places, and priuate glory is made the purchase of publique decay. Abner calls it play, to haue the young men skirmish and flourish before him, though it be vvith edge tooles: Samsons Foxes make a sport to tosse fire-brandes, though it bee to burne corne fields: the skittish Kine care not what become of the Arke, which they carie, so they may be frisking: and the very confu­sion of tongues and languages, is sweet meate to some, though Babel misse of her aspiring purpose. Well, I say no more but so; In tea­ching is not so much good, but this otherwise brings as much euil with it: like the good Figgs and the bad Figges, Jer. 24.2. none better than the good, none worser than the bad: so the Teachers of olde times, when religion was first restored in this our Land, to those that put an otherwise to their teaching in our daies, and fill all full of singularities.

But to breake off this point, and passe on to the next: The summe of all is, my deere bre­thren, that you make a difference heereafter betweene Teachers and false Teachers, not honouring all promiscuously that beare the name, nor yeelding your eares like a Lute, to be played vpon by euery finger; but distingui­shing wisely betweene the Teacher otherwise (as the Text heere hath it, Jf any teach other­wise) and the Teacher according to the whole­some words, or according to that which is ac­cording thereto. For, as many as walke after this rule (I pray you marke the rule, for it is worth your marking) Gal. 6.16. That Circumci­sion is nothing, nor vncircumcision is nothing, that is, Ceremonie nor no Ceremonie; but the substantiall a new Creature, I say, as manie as walke after this rule, Peace be vpon them, and mercie, and vpon the Jsrael of God. But if anie teach otherwise, opposing indifferencie, and oppugning authoritie, Let no man trouble mee benceforth, saith our Church: for, I beare in my body the markes of the Lord Jesus; and am knowen to be his by the euident prints of his aduersaries in my flesh, whom latelie they would haue blowen vp with hell-powder at once. And is it a small thing for them, thus [Page 35]to fight against me from my youth vp, to vexe mee thus continually: but you, euen you, must set to your hands, and make heauie my yoake, the children of the housholde, and my owne mothers sonnes?

I Come to the third point, with all the speede I can, though I am faine to passe by some things of moment, vnspoken-to here; chief­lie of the Coniunction of the two first parts be­tweene themselues, Consent not, and, teach o­therwise. For, the doore to false teaching, is, the not consenting, or not subscribing at the first. Therefore, S. Paul puts one with ano­ther, Jf hee consent, and, Jf hee teach otherwise. And yet againe hee puts one before another, as namelie, false teaching before refusing to consent, because some first teach otherwise, and then haue no reason to denie Subscription, but onelie because they haue otherwise taught. They are loath that a woman should be said to braine Abimelech with a mill-stone from the wall, loath that lawfull authoritie should cor­rect and curbe their stubborne fancie.

THe third point is, The Rule of Triall, the Square of truth, for iudging of matters that depend in controuersie. A most liuely one, and a most absolute one, that the Apostle here giues, if I misdeeme not; consisting of 2. parts; one, the wholesome words of Christ or of godlinesse, the other, The Doctrine that is accor­ding thereto.

And first, to speake of the wholsom words; I cannot heere discourse in the praise of Theo­logie, as gladly I would haue done at another time, how that it is the onely wholsom science, when all is done; others are but for glosse and for ornament, hanging gold and iewels vpon our apparrell, as Saul did vpon the Israelites garments. Abillis enim salubritas quaedam, or not so much as that; but ingenua animi delecta­tiotantùm: ab hac sanitas & vita ipsa petitur: they put bloud into our face, like the Aliptae, amend our colour and our complexion a lit­tle; but this like the Physician cherishes our sparke, maintaines our life, whom therefore necessitie her selfe compels vs to honour.

And surely, without these wholsom words, all that growes abroade in the greene fields of [Page 37]Philosophie, it is but toxicum, but euen meer poison, and mors in olla, mors in olla, death is in the pott, we may say, where that but enters. Elisaeus his salt only sweetens the broth, which a strange root hath made distastable, while the young schollers, and children of the Prophets doo not discerne vvhat they gather: and Moses his wood, that is the Gospell of Christ Iesus, lignum vitae, and lignum crucis, relishes the Marah of Gentile learning, whose waters are bitter, and end in desperation, without such mixture. Therfore S. Hierome was buffited by an Angell, for studying heathen Authors too much; but, an Angell made S. John not giue ouer the booke of wholsome wordes, that hee brought him, till he had eaten and swallowed it downe.

But, as J said, I may not stand hereupon; no, nor yet vpon the 1. part of this rule, The words of Christ, and that same hunc audite, heare you him; which was spoken when all the rest were vanished and disappeared out of the Mount, both Moses, and Peter, & Elias; that we might knowe his singular prerogatiue ouer the Church, wherin neither Moses, nor Elias, nor Peter nor any communicate vvith him. Hovv­beit, still vve must remember, that there is ano­ther [Page 38] audite left for somebody else too, ano­ther heare you him, though in their rank and in their place, as, qui vos audit, &c. he that hea­reth you heareth me, spoken of the Prelats & Pastors of the Church, that shall succeed con­tinually to the end of the World; and si non au­dit ecclesiam, if hee heare not the Church in in her determinations, let him be counted a­mong the heathen, and the Infidels, let him lose the verie right that hee hath of his Chri­stendome. For so saith the second part of this rule heere in my Text, And the doctrine accor­ding to godlinesse.

For perswading wherof the better, & that we seem not to open a floodgate to popery, to rush in vpon vs all amain, it may please you to distinguish two kindes of Verities, which holy scripture hath distinguished long before vs, in the Ep to the Col. 2.5. Som of Faith, som of Or­der. Now the verities of faith are so plentifully set downe in the Olde and New Testaments, as he addeth to his own plagues, that shal pre­sume to add one iot therto. For the wil of an or dinary man, that dead is; no man dareth to en­terline (saith the Apostle) how much less then his, that witnessed a good confession vnder Pō ­tius Pilate & sealed his Couenant with his own [Page 39]blood? Yet som do, it cannot be denied. In this net sticks the Boar of Rome at this day, & is go­red with more Anathemaes for his presumptiō, than Absolon was with darts hanging between heauen & earth in the tree: though the beagels of the secte, mistaking their sent, leaue him to pursue vs with open volly & crie. The books of the two Testaments they are all in all, for e­uidence of our faith & demonstration impreg­nable; the two pillars to conduct vs out of E­gypt into Canaan, one of smoke, dark like the Old Testament, another of fire, bright like the New; the two great lights, that God reared in the firmament and aduanced, and yet the sun to rule the day, the moone the night, so much clearer is our planet than was the Fathers; the two Cherubins that face the Mercy seat with mutuall counterview, now the Mercie seat is Christ, whom the two Testaments equally ar­gue & demonstrate; the two spies loaded with a cluster of grapes most delicious to ghost­ly taste; the two Oliue branches that stand be­fore the Lord of the whole earth; the two mil­stones that neuer Tyrant yet tooke to pawne from the poore church; the two dugges of the Spouse, the 2. sticks of the widow, the 2. wings of the Eagle, the tvvo mites of Gods treasure­house, [Page 40]exceeding all that was cast in before or besides, the bagg that hath both old and nevv in it, able to make a Scribe learned towarde the heavenly Kingdom. O bevvare hovv you disparage the sufficiency of scripture for mat­ters of faith. O bevvare hovv you detracte from the fulness therof, cuius plenitudinem ado­ro (sayth Tertullian) vvhose absolute perfecti­on I admire at my very heart, and vvorship vvith my face bovved dovvn to the ground.

But, there are other matters of Order beside those, vvhich though they be far less in valuati­on than the former, yet their littleness is not to be drovvned in the others greatness. Et haec facere oportuit, & illa non negligere (saith our Sauiour) these things you ought to doo, and yet not despise those. Faith, Faith (I say) as great as she is, cannot maintaine her self, with­out the rules of good Order, in any state or ctedit, nomore than the king can consist vvith­out the fielde that is tilled, as Salomon sayth, And these things are not expressed in scrip­lure; they are not. For neither neede they, neither could they; they need not, because so obuious; and they could not, because so num­brous: but, Reliqua cum venero ordinabo, sayth the Apostle, Other things J will set in order [Page 41]when J come, these things must be ordered, as they may be, by occasion. Dauid did not all things during his life, as he meant should be done in process of time; but he gaue order to Salomon to see to the execution of them by leasure, because he was a wise man; as himself saith, thou art wise and knowest what is fitte to be done: therfore, after my departure, see that thou doe thus and thus, &c. So, the Christian Ma­gistrate and Regent of the Church, whome God hath indued with the spirit of wisdome, and with whom he is assistant, to the consum­mation of the world, supplies in this case, that which was no imperfection for the scripture to leaue out, but rather an impossibilitie for the scripture to comprehend. I dare be bolde to say it, the scripture which is Christs letter of of loue, penned to his Church, as S. Austine sweetly calls it, must haue exceeded not one­ly mensuram Epistolae, the measure of so small a composition, which should neuer fill more than the left hand of the Reader, if we belieue Seneca; but euen swollen in quantity aboue the Popes Decretals, which LVTHER of zeale burnt in the market place, (they were so irk­some and so tedious) if all things of this nature had been to be registred & ingrossed in them. [Page 42]Fonts, plates, pewes, belles, deskes, can you want them? can you spare them? yea Chur­ches & Chappels too, by your leaue, which the Apostles had none, nor diuers successiōs after the Apostles; and therefore the Brownists like good honest fellows pull them down, as fast as they can, by vertue of this principle, & neuer dissemble for the matter.

If al things were written that our Sauior did, saith S. John, I suppose the world woulde not containe the books: but I may say, if all things were written, that are lawfully incident to the particular worship & seruice of God, a world of worlds would not containe the books, that should conteine them. Yet are not our Cere­monies therfore so many, that they should op­press vs with their multitude & load, as they vniustly cauil at vs; they are in number as few as possibly can bee in a Church, in substance as grave, in choise as discreet, in sight as comly, in obseruatiō as easy, in significance as natural & correspondent: but though we haue confined our selues to paucitie for good respects, yet the thing it self in nature is wonderfull broad.

Now let the scoffers of this our doctrine ap­peare in their likeness, & shew their faces, if they dare for shame. They traduce our cham­pions, [Page 43]& blaze them to the world for blasphe­mers: one because he saith Christ is not the sole Lawe-giuer of his Church, In their Challenge to Disputat. another about the rawenesse of the primitiue times compared with ours; though it cannot be denied but in many respects the church hath bin bettered as well as empaired by continuance. Separate a­while your selues from preiudice, and let not the captiousness of tearms trouble you, con­sider if you can the naked truth. Why should this seeme strange in your eares, that Christ is not the only Lawgiuer of his Church, in the sense that we deny it, or how can it euer be avowed for true in the sense that they obtrude it? Are there no lawes, thinke you, to be obserued a­mong christian men & women, touching mat­ters of church and of Religion, but such as Christ hath established and promulged with his own mouth? Certainlie, I wil produce no hidden arguments, certainly I will not search the depths, as they say, nor scowr the bottoms for this matter; I will alleage no more than you all know, & are all able to iudge of, and yet I wil conclude the thing in question; that you may see the difference between the wholsome words of Christ the Lord, as our Text here hath it, and the doctrine which is according to godlines.

If any of you should commaund your ser­uant, or your son, to carry a Bible with them to Church vpon the Sondaies, vnder paine of your heauie displeasure if they did not, doe you think it were a law that might be broken, or no? A law doubtless it were, as being taxed with punishment vppon the offendor. Your selues would think it fit to be kept, not fit to be broken. And yet it is in matter of Gods ser­uice and Religion. For, let no man deceiue himself my deere brethren, not willingly mis­conster vs; there was none of vs euer placed so much Religion in a garment, as you doe in a Booke. And yet CHRIST neuer badde it, and it is left free; for all sinne not, you must think, that come to Church without their Bi­bles, though they can read.

Winde your selues now out of this net, as well as you can, which is no net, but a sounde and substantial confutation, specially you that delight in ambush, as the twelue reasons, and intorteled Syllogismes. Or, if you say that Christ cōmanded vs to search the Scriptures; well, though that doth not enforce, that wee should carrie them to the Church, to euerie Lecture, or sermon, with vs; yet, let the for­mer supposition hold, but in Lidleyes prayer [Page 45]Booke, or Bradfords Meditations, or some such like, and then see what you can say to it; whether you will allowe your seruant or your sonne to crosse your commandement in such a respect or not. Neither againe maie you ex­cept that the bringing of the Bible helpes to edifie, the ceremonies not: for the ceremo­nies edifie too in their place and order (I will not now compare them with a lay mans Bible) and the question is not so much touching edi­fication (if you mark it) as whether they may be vrged vppon the consciences of beleeuers by lawe, though they be neuer so apt in them­selues to edifie.

How then is it my deare Brethren and si­sters of this Cittie? may your prentises be con­strained, your children compelled, by your priuate law-giuing authoritie, thus and thus to demeane themselues in Gods seruice & vvor­ship, without anie disparagement to the su­preame Law-giuer, and may not they whose iurisdiction is so farre greater than yours, at­tempt the same ouer them that they gouerne? Maie the Housholder do this in his house, and not the king in his kingdomes? Maie the fa­ther and the mother, and not Gods Liefte­naunt and Deputie generall? Naie, maie the [Page 46] Paedant in his flock and not the Prince?

For to say the father commands but a few, and the maister a fewe, the King all the Mini­sters & Preachers of the Land, is an oppositi­on more fit for you to make than for me to re­moue, or rather so vnfit for me to remoue, that indeed it is not fit for you to make: the kings authoritie iustly stretching farther, why? be­cause the limits of his Realms are wider; and if he allow you to be kings in your housholds, you must allow him to be a housholder in his kingdom, at the least.

Again, to say that the one are Ministers and Preachers, the other but children & seruants, is as vain. For, if christian libertie must not be infringed in binding ministers & preachers, no more may it be infringed in binding children, and seruants; & if Ecclesiasticall Canons wrōg the priuiledge that came by Christs blood, so do domesticall: we know no such prerogatiue of one aboue another in these kind of causes, euery mans conscience is as free and as vn­touchable as anothers before God, Coloss. 3.11 one price was paid for all.

I omitte many things, that might be allea­ged, to make this fort not onely strong but inuincible. The Church wee say, may make [Page 47]lavves, and not Christ only. She that may re­peale them, she may make them: Act. 15 The Church repealed the law of abstinence from strangled and bloud, when she saw fit time, & cancelled that which the Apostles by the instinct of the h [...]ghost had enacted, but enacted without any limitation of time. The same I might saie of the kiss of Charitie vsed in Church, and com­maunded in Scripture, 2. Cor. 13.12 Greete yee one another with an holy kiss; now laied aside with as much maturitie as at first it was brought in with ad­uise. The same of widows to be fedd by the Church, an Apostolique sanction, and yet now not so much as called for once, by them that professe the restauration of the golden age to the quick, so as we shall not haue a pinn nor a pegge missing, as they say, in the great worke of their second Tabernacle.

I might proceede to more. Calv. Instit. l. 2. c. 8. sect. 32. et 34. Chemn. in loc. Com. p. 2. de 3. praec. Vrsin. in catech. in 4. pra [...]. Bellarm. de [...]ma­gin. Sanct. l. 2 c 7. vbi. August. Irena [...]et Tho­mam citat in e­andem sent. Ca­techis. Rom. et Chapeaville in eum locum Cat. The Sabbath that wee celebrate euerie seauenth daie, is it not of the Church and her constitution meer? The discourse were impertinent but the * con­sent of writers maie goe for proof in the mean time, and the places are verie pregnant, Rom. 14.5. Colossi. 2.14. Matth. 6.5. with the like, besides a troupe of reasons that perswade that way.

Judas Maccabaeus instituted a Feast, by ver­tue of his place, and of his authoritie among the Iewes, and increased the number of Feasts that God had appointed to his people. Yet our Sauiour sanctified it by his blessed pre­sence; thought it no disparagement to his sole law-giuing. John. 10.22.

The Musicke of the Temple, that Dauid brought in, we read it approoued, wee neuer read it commaunded. What some thinke they maie gather out of obscure consequences, I regarde not a rush: If euer it come to triall I can saie as much, why Dauid should doo it of his owne head, as by anie speciall commaun­dement, for ought that appears by Scripture: Yet, the high Lawe-giuer was not displeased with it. And, if happilie these men had beene by the same Dauid, when he danced naked be­fore the Arke, they would haue greatlie bla­med him, for bringing a nevv seruice into the Church, for somuch as dancing was no where prescribed; and chid him for affecting naked­ness in Gods worship: which, they might doo with better colour than they can chide vs for our apparell. So is our case one with the Fa­thers: so are the actions of the greatest Patri­arches subiect to the same reprehension of the [Page 49]scornefull, that our practices are heer at home; and the Land is not yet rid of her Micholls.

Ionadab the sonne of Rechab interdicted his sonnes the vse of wine, for all their life time; and God commended his seuere Law-giuing. Yet, Jonadabs authority came short of the roi­all, and we haue no such strictness enioined vs, as is the abstinence of wine for a mans whole life time. The brasen Serpent was Gods ovvn ordinance; Ezechias as King brake it in pieces, when he savv cause. No direction from God, no entercourse of the Prophets moouing him thereto: yet, his fact is famous throughout all posterities. Lo, the weapon that they thrust at vs so often in vain, mortally retorted vpō their own brests. Lastly, the K. of Nineueh cloathed cattle in sackcloth, a thing more monstrous & vncouth to behold, than anie surplice vpon a mans backe; Yea further, made children and beasts refraine from meat, a fasting for which he had no foundation in scripture. Was it ther­fore euer a-whit the less accepted? J trow not: God was appeased with it, God turned awaie his wrath vpon it: we put no such confidence in our constitutions, albeit the ceremonies haue their vse.

The antient Fathers, S. Austin in his 5. booke [Page 50] de Baptismo. 9. chap. and Tertullian in his book of the same argument, agree in this that God gaue no direction to S. John Baptist of bap­tizing in particular, but onely in generall ap­pointed him to baptise; the rites and the fashi­ons he was to add himself at his owne pleasure. And therefore it is called, say they, the Bap­tism of Iohn, as being his own for the most part. Yet heer was no iniury to Christ the sole Law-giuer, or else he should haue been sure to haue heard of it. To conclude in a word, we neuer read in all the Scripture, that Christ is the onely Law-giuer of his church: and yet if we should, we haue that smal vnderstanding with vs, as to cōster it no otherwise thā the only Teacher, & yet other Teachers; the only Magistrate, & yet other Magistrates; (for we must desire thē now that we may haue no Anabaptism to trouble vs in our arg. whatsoer they thinke, or whatsoer they wold do at another time:) so the only Cla­uiger of the house of Dauid, & yet the Church hath hir keies too of no small cōsequence; the only foster-father of his flock, & yet many nursing fathers & many nursing mothers (God in­rease the number) of his poore Church; whose milk is disciplin, whose diet is cēsure, whose no­rishment is nurture & good laws. No doubt the soueraign drownes not the subordinate, in all [Page 51]these & the like instāces. But simple folks may be blear'd with tearms, & the one eied man ruf­fles it they say among the stark blind. Forgery ceases in the wise mans presēce. So much ther­fore concerning that. Another thing they carpe at in the doctrine of our men: which be­cause it belōgs to the place that I now handle, I wil speak a word or twain vnto, & so an end. It is for saying the Church cannot er in defining about ceremonies, or any such matter of order arbitrary, & indifferent, define she how she wil. Truly to enquire what the Church may doe, in vtmost extent, without possibility of sliding in­to error, is a thing more meet for schooles than pulpits, & to exercise great iudgements than to tickle curious eares. Yet thus much as a schoolman I wil be bold to vndertake to deter­min by the way, that forsomuch as things indif­ferēt are exceeding diuers in their own nature, & many lawfull that are not expedient, accor­ding to the Apostls saying; yet supposing the assistāce of the spirit of God in ruling his Church, which is rather Christian to belieue than to de­ride or to denie, the church cānot er, define she howsoeuer in such cases: & again, not suppo­sing so, yet she cannot er dangerously, howso­euer shee determine touching such matters. I say determine; for in preferring the ceremonies [Page 52]before the substantialls by waie of obseruation she maie erre, as the Church of the Iewes did, whō God often reprehends eo nomine; & again I say the Church, for if the Papists haue erred e­uen in deuising some of their ceremonies, yet that is since their synagogue lost indeede the honor of that title. So much also briefly may serue for that.

The last thing that I will note out of our ad­uersaries exceptions compared with the doc­trine of this present place, is that which the au­thor of the challenge to disputatiō hath set down in a certaine place, much (as I remember) to this purpose;

That, if we in our opinions, which we main­taine about Ceremonies, vsed in the Church of England, as they are at this day, be right, then our departure from the papists cannot be iustified, and the Pope with his adherents, nay Christ the Sonne of God, and his heauenly truth in them, hath had great iniurie to bee so long novve relinquished vppon no other grounds.

Yea they farther profess, that themselues wil becom papists, and Iesuits (& what not?) if we can but quit our selues in the controuersie. O speech worthy the authors of it! O speech most [Page 53]vnworthy the eares of any christiā mālô speech than which the diuell of hell could neuer haue roared out a more viperous, nor a more dete­stable one, aboue ground. Let it be noted, I would wish you, & noted again, with a pen of Diamond, in tables of brasse, to shewe the dis­position of the sect for euer, that, when they would reuoke it, they may not be able. For, what thinke you my deere brethren & Coun­try-men of this place? Is it matter of Order that we haue left Rome for, or matter of Faith? Is it matter of ceremony, or matter of substance? Is it a straw, or a block, nay a great beame? Is it a gap and a bush, or a countermure of stone, and trench vnpassable, that diuides vs from them? so great, as we cannot imagine that was euer greater, which sometime diuided Abra­ham from the rich man in hell.

And yet beholde; worshipping of Images, adoring of reliques, inuoking of Angels, buil­ding Churches to Saints, sacrificing for the sinnes of quicke and dead with a Wafer-cake, treading downe Kings, the Deputies of God, from their throne of Maiestie, to set vp a foxie Intruder in their roome, whom all ages haue acknowledged their vassall; taking away Bi­bles, mangling of Sacraments, licensing Stews, [Page 54]condemning mariage, vvrapping vp your ser­uice, and the obsequies of your conscience in the strange liuorie of an vnknowen tongue, selling pardons for sixe pence, soule-ease for money, heauen at pleasure, opposing the flax of our transitorie deedes to the vnpartiall fire of the heauenly righteousnesse, mingling the bloud of Martyrs, that I say not of Traytors, with the bloud of the Lambe of God, spotlesse and immaculate, which onely taketh away the sinnes of the world, which onely quencheth the rage of the wrath to come, which onely a­bateth the edge of his fathers iustice, and the sword Cherubicall that glitters afore Paradise, these thinges are now no cause to leaue Rome for, by our mens doctrine; or at least no more cause, then surplice or no surplice, gesture or no gesture, ceremonie or no ceremonie, pres­byterie or Bishopdome amount to heere at home betweene our selues. But as I said be­fore, so I say once againe: Let it bee noted, J would wish you, and noted most heede­fully, to shewe the disposition of the sect for euer, that when they would reuoke it vpon better deliberation, they may not bee able. So much also concerning that. For J doubt not, I, but your knowledge is satisfied, and [Page 55]their phrenzie discouered sufficientlie heere­with.

J should proceed from hence, to some of their obiections, as weake as water, and as vaine as vanitie it selfe vpon the weights: As, Mardocheus his refusing to rise to Haman, though the King commaunded it, will-wor­ships, mans ordinances, Whatsoeuer is not of faith, is sinne; therefore we must haue expresse Scripture for all that wee doe, shewes of e­uill would be abandoned, Reliques of Ido­latrie layed aside, no conformitie with vn­beleeuers, and the like. For, who euer rose vp in contradiction against the Church, but had a scriptum est of his side, and somewhat to say for himselfe? Yet with such stuffe as these (a thing lamentable to be spoken) they vsually sucke the bloud of your soules, and peruert many from the right way. But I must make haste to that which is behinde: and to say truth, whom the former positiue con­firmations will not satisfie, hee will bee lit­tle the better for dissoluing these and the like their cobweb-obiections. I haue done it often, most often, in other places; I pray you once giue mee leaue to passe them o­uer heere.

So much of the third point, The rule of trial, or, the square of truth: which consists not onely in the wholsome words of our Lord Jesus Christ; but in the Doctrines, that are commenced and framed according thereto. Contra Psychi­cos. For, as Tertullian saies most sweetly, Non tantùm seruire debeo Domino meo, sed adulari; wee must not doe all that we doe of Iniunction, but we may honour God with our freest inuention. And S. Pauls limitation is very large, and no way thralled to the narrownesse of those precincts that they imagine, Philippians, 4.8. Whatsoeuer thinges are honest, whatsoeuer thinges are iust, whatsoeuer thinges are pure, whatsoeuer thinges pertaine to loue, and are well reported of, those doe, and the GOD of peace shall bee with you. Doe you but marke the promise that the God of peace shall bee vvith vs? vvhom these men vvould so faine keepe out of our Land, and banish, as they say, by head and shoulders. O the sweet maske of Peace to appeare in! O the gracious forme of peace to maske in! Let him alway appeare to me in that forme: let him al­way present himselfe to me in that shape. Not in fire nor in tempest: for, in them the Lord was not, saith the Scripture: but in the soft and still vvinde. The God of peace shall be with you. [Page 57]This was the promise: but now mark the pre­cept also, I pray you: Whatsoeuer things are ho­nest, whatsoeuer things are iust, whatsoeuer things are pure, whatsoeuer things pertaine to loue, and are well reported of, those doe. Jf there be any vertue, if there be any praise. O notable accom­modation of the Apostles pen to our times! For, what more honest, than that which can be charged with no crime, but onely iealousie & suspicion refuseth! So are our Ceremonies. What more iust, than that which lawfull au­cthoritie hath established, and those lippes that harbour an oracle, ratified and approued? Yet so are our ceremonies. What more pure, than that which is refined in the fornace, and pur­ged from the dregs of all ancient superstition? yet so are our ceremonies. What more pertai­nining to loue, than the pledges of combination betweene the Ministers of one Kingdom, like­ly also to draw the aduersaries to an vnion? yet this is the verie nature & scope of our ce­remonies. As for praise, and vertue, and good report, and such like, the best, & the best-iudg­mented will easilie allow it them: the worst I knowe depraue them, whose iudgment makes them neuer the worse for all that. And where the former titles goe before, as honestie, purity, [Page 58]and the like; these latter must needs follow of their owne accord, they may not bee parted. Wherefore, if your delight be in the God of peace, striue not against such thinges: as for those that put them from them so violently, they shew plainely that peace is not their see­king. But, so much shall serue, as I said, for the third point generall of the Text.

THe fourth point remaines, which is, the indifferencie of the parties, offending a­gainst that which wee haue formerly deli­uered, of consenting to the words that are ac­cording to godlinesse, and, not teaching otherwise. If any man; be hee who he will be, learned or lewd, Clarke or Lay-man, spirituall or tempo­rall, holy or profane, one or many, For there is no rising vp against Iustice for respects, and Salomons sword strikes vnpartiall where it hits; Vlysses must not swarue for Telemachus in the furrow, and a Iudge must haue eares to scanne the causes, but no eyes to discern the persons. If any.

Yet the multitude cries out; The good men, the purer sort, the preciser sort, of great [Page 59]parts, of great paines, they are silenced, they are depriued. Parúmne Sanctus Paulus, vvas S. Paul, thinke you, an Apostle, or no? Did he speake by the instinct of the holy Ghost, or no? that hath so damped the clamours of the iniudiciall multitude, and checked their fond exceptions long afore-hand, with his If any, if any man; be hee who he will be, looke not to his person, trust not to thine eye, make no dif­ference, remember the Church, and the peace of the Church, the coate of Christ, nay the bo­die of Christ, Pereat vnus potius quàm vnitas, and, Nulla charitas ad eam charitatem qua ob­stringimur Ecclesiae: Let Saul take heede how hee spare Agag for pretexts, and slay the meagrer and the wretcheder of the Kine and Cattle, passing by the fairer for his owne lusts sake.

But because they doe so aggrauate the mat­ter against vs, in regard of their worth; we will way the respects that they most trust to, in due ballance, and see what in extreamitie they may challenge at our handes. I am loath, I confesse, to enter into this kinde of comparatiue conflict. For, I haue learned of Aristotle not to be [...]: Ethic. 4. but the importance of the cause, and Saint Pauls [Page 60]If any, ouer-rules my disposition for this once.

Three things they most beard vs with, their life, their learning, their labours. For they are honest men, as they say, painfull men, and pro­found men. And if we goe to leuie them now by the Tribes and the families, and at last by the head and the poll, to see if they be all aun­swerable to this report that goes of them, or no; wee are tolde afore-hand very mannerly forsooth, not all without exception for life, but some; not all so deeply learned, but some; not all so painefull nor industrious in their vocati­on, but some. And so we haue heere in effect bestiam pharmacopolae, that Julian the Pelagian vpbraided S. Austine with, the beast that the Apothecarie promised his patient of wonder­full vertue, which, afore morning was com, had eaten vp her selfe. For, if onely some be thus approued for life amongst themselues, what then shal we say of the other more obnoxious? and yet beholde, they all crie out to haue the vices, and the scandalls of the Cleargie refor­med. And if onely some be thus esteemed for learning among themselues, what then shall we say of the other sort of insufficient? and yet they all require a learned Ministerie. And if [Page 61]onely some be so famous for paines taking a­mongst themselues, what then shall wee say of the other idle Drones? and yet all crie out a­gainst lazie labourers, and would haue Hiue, and Bees, and hony, & all, giuen ouer to them to sucke.

Doe you not see, beloued, by these things most clearely, the beginning, the proceedings, and the end of the whole faction? Set on foote no doubt, by some, that thought well of them­selues, and perhaps had cause so to doe, if they could haue done it, within any good measure, or compasse; afterward helped forward by o­thers, that had no such desert of their owne to raise them; yet thought they would bee follo­wers of the Campe, lending their hands, and their names with the foremost, partly for com­panie, and partly for hope of spoile and booty? at last the poore people caried away with ho­bubs & imaginations, hearing them not one­lie to vaunt of their vertues, but to crake of their forces, and that by the hundreds now and the thousands? Whereas, of all these thinges there is no one true, as I haue shewed, or that they dare stand to, in strict tearmes; and yet if all were as true as they make shewe for, yet number preuailes not against the right, as S. [Page 62] Paul here hath it, If any man, whosoeuer he be, or how many soeuer they be; and excellent gifts bind to excellent modestie, giue no leaue to men to be mutinous.

You see beloued, by these delaies, how loath I am to come to the stricter scanning of their three-folde Comparatiue, their life, their lear­ning, their labours, that they beare down ours so mightily withall, as they think. Yet somwhat must be said, I cannot dwell long vpon it, be­cause I come to it against my will.

First, for their life, that they magnifie so much. Howbeit, I would counsell them to spare this plea, or let some other speake it for them. Alienus laudet te non os tuum, it would sound better in their neighbours mouthes. Surely, vertue neuer dwelt at this signe; surely she is no Dinah that romes abroad to see, and to be seene of the daughters of the Country; but rather an Elizabeth that hides her selfe sixe moneths together breeding childe, and that so famous a childe as S. Iohn Baptist was; nei­ther euer did religion write vpon her posts, My house is the house of prayer. It is no speach of a contrite heart, Stand farther from me, J am pu­rer than thou; but, depart from me Lord, for J am a sinner.

Besides, this is most certaine, no vice euer shewed her face without a vizard yet, in pub­lique, if she could hide it; hypocrisie must lead in heresie by the hand, and vsher it, and make way for it, like the Damosell that led S. Peter into the high Priests Hall, euery body so ab­horres it, if it appeare as it is. But, Speculum consulitur, saith S. Cyprian, cur? nisi quia timet ne sit ipsa, she consults with her looking-glasse, till that at least say shee is faire. Boyes with nuts, like the Jndians with rattles, or such pre­tie toyes; and men many times are caried a­way with shewes, with gloses, and professi­ons. As if Iudas kist not where hee meant to kill, or olde shooes transform'd a Gibeonite, or Jezabels paint were anie better then the plaister of a leaprous countenance, that lur­keth vnderneath. Therefore wee reade of Woolues that shall come in Sheepes clea­thinges, therefore vvee reade of Satan, drest like an Angell of light. False Pre­phets haue vvorne rough garments next their flesh, as well as the good, and Pelagius, was as strict a man for life, as hee vvas re­probate concerning the faith. Did not de­uout women resist S. Paul? so J say, de [...] women, Acts 13.15. and wee heare th [...] these [Page 64]haue the like on their side: no meruaile. Nei­ther are the Monkes of later times yet out of our mindes, with all their painted holinesse & goodly shewes, whose soules, if it were not an error of Pythagorisme, I would not sticke to say had come to take vp their mansions once more in these mens bodies. Pardon vs, pardon vs, if we yeeld not to a second gull, specially serued vpon vs so freshlie in the same kinde, and giue vs leaue to distinguish between Samuel, and the Diuel, whom the Witch of Endor hath subor­ned in his mantle; so farre forth like him, if you wil, but that hee is known by his ascending out of the earth.

I am loath, I protest, to discouer Noah, wal­lowing in his shame, and drunken fits, though their boisterous enormities cannot make them to iudge mildelie of others infirmities. But what thinke you? shall we call that mortificati­on, which wee are sure to finde, not in the Mo­nasterie embracing the dust, nor yet with the Doctors disputing in the Temple; but sitting vpper most at belly cheare, and at Feasts? shall we call that austeritie, which fawnes, and crou­ches, and tells newes for a meale? courage and fortitude, that reiects tythes and properties, to graze vpon a beneuolence? contentment with [Page 65]a little, which hath a hooke in the end of it like a Harpago, and picks as many purses by day, as a thiefe takes praies in the night season? humili­tie, that shaking of the Bishops Iurisdiction, would now be the onelie Pope in the Parish? I passe by many things: patience, which passeth ouer the miseries of prison, with such manner of delicacies & store, that Quailes are no meat with them? chastitie, which placing all perfe­ction in wedlocke, is found many times not to stay there? Charitie, modestie, puritie, they are but names, as Brutus complained when he was a-dying, that vertue her self was no better; and sacrifice hath turned mercie quite out of doores. Why doth Coniah breake downe my Cedar worke (saith almightie God in Jeremie) and then paint it ouer with vermillion? so why do the faire shewes of worship, and the first table, gild ouer the monstrous breaches of the se­cond? But I stand vpon thornes, while I stand vpon comparisons. Nos nec pugnas narramus nec cicatrices nostras, though Thraso may; it is enough for vs, if wee may be found one day a­mongst them, Jn quorum ore nō est inuentus do­lus, in whose mouth there was found no guile, that is as Saint Austine sweetely expounds it, which confessed meekelie that they were sin­ners, [Page 66]and built their glory vpon humility: So much of their life.

Followes their Learning: which if Quinti­lian might haue had his wish, Soli vt artifi­ces de artibus iudicarent, that the people should not presume to iudge of faculties, they woulde not once haue dared so much as to mention: They beeing so farre off from at­taining to the first three, as I may call it, or to anie superlatiue perfection in that kinde, that they haue deuised manie wayes how to ridde the VVorld of such a combersome employ­ment, as cunning is; and put all their commen­dations in this, If they could put all Lear­ning quite out of countenance.

VVho of vs knowes not, what they haue done in Schooles for payring and nimming of the Arts, till they haue made them more bare than the King of Ammon sent Dauids messen­gers awaie, and grubd not onely their beards but their chinnes? And who of you know not, how they haue declamed against them in pul­pits, as if the Captiue Woman were to bee slaine and not to bee shome, as if AGAR stoode ABRAHAM in no vse for procreati­on, and all Philosophie were now but cose­nage? Let vs belieue that they can haue rea­ched [Page 67]to the toppe, that scorned to climbe by the middle staires: let vs belieue that they are such mightie men in Diuinitie, that professe not onely strangenesse, but warre to philoso­phy. Thogh, who sees not what a diuinity they haue coined vs? more ignorant, or more pe­tulant I can hardly saie whether. Once; they will teach their Nurse to sucke, with shame en­ough, and correct Magnificat afore they know quid significat, a Prouerbe so fit, as if it had been made by them: while they impute those errors to the Church of England, both in their teachings, and in their writings, as is a tickling to the aduersaries to heare counted for errors; to vs not so lamētable to be charged by them, as charged for those things, or not so much for those things as by those men for those things, while the cōmon enemie stands by and laughs. And if it were not in a Theater of such conspi­cuity, where whatsoer is spokē one way, is sure to be detorted, and wrested another way, ther­after as is the humor of the Consterer; I would not sticke to saie it, that they haue more er­rours in their doctrine, than they haue haires on their head: and Saint PAVLS verdite is heerein also veresied of them, that he that consenteth not, but teacheth otherwise, knows [Page 68]nothing, nothing, at least as hee should doe. A iust iudgment of God to light vpon them, that thought it nothing worth to be counted wise, vnlesse all the world were fooles besides: wher­as wee stande not so much now to boast our selues, as to keep off scand all from the Church of Christ, and slaunder from the armie of the liuing GOD; which hath not her better vnder the sunne (let not enuie heare mee) for all the glory of Arts & Sciences, howsoeuer these de­milaunces and these Dwarfs (only big in their owne conceipts) proudly defie her.

But to finish this point, and to graunt them their asking for this once; let them bee as wise as all the children of the East, as Hethan, as Chal­col, as Derda, or as Daniel; yet what get they by it, what gaine they by it, to the purpose now in hand? The stronger wit the stronger heretike, said Vincentius of old, & Origen proued it true by his exāple Neuer mean parts set trayterous plots abroach, neither in church against Christ, nor against King in the common-wealth. Were not Core, Dathan, and Abiram, the 3. resisters of Moses their Gouernour (as these are of the go­uernment, at this day) the famosest & the emi­nentest men in the cōgregation? I am sure the Text saies so. And let no man think I doe them [Page 69]wrong to rank them with Core, or his fellovv-conspirators: For as I haue often said, so J will say it once more, that as for the sin of Core and these mens, but a paire of sheeres vvent be­tween. Wherfore, once again, let me enforce S. Pauls Jf any; if any, be he who he will be; and let Saul take heed how he spare Agag for pretexts, and slay &c. when all are a like faul­tie, and liable to censure. So much also haue I spoken vnto their learning, with no other in­tent (God is my witness) quàm vt ista ilia quae sunt inflat a rumpantur, then to prick the blad­der and let out the winde.

The 3. point only remains; their labor, their diligence, & their trauel. Wherin I will vse no dissembling, nor hafting: they haue bin but eue too too diligent, running with Chuzi afore they vvere sent, and yet again, vvith Ahimaaz out running Chuzi because they haue run by the vvay of the plain. A way of such plainness most af them (God helpe them) as J think the like vvas neuer in vse before, and I hope shall ne­uer be in practice again. But to speak to their pains: vvhat meruaile, if the children of light be not alwaies the forwardest in their genera­tion? the Pharises compass sea & land to make one proselite, though they make him doubly [Page 70]more dāned than themselues. While the good man sleeps the enemy is not idle, but sowes his tares very industriously. Mischance is nim­ble, & one Ate outstrips they say a hundred Li­tae. I could wish, our men would imitate their diligence; but by al means they must beware of their pestilence. Who knowes not what hath bin the wonted argument of their sermōs? rai­ling against our seruice book, & defacing prai­er, to take vp the time forsooth in preaching; like the hedge-hog that draue his Host out of dores. For so praier lets in preaching: & by it we can do, if we can do any thing. Yet as Caesar drowned Bibulus his Cōsulship, so they make one of them to liue by the spoile & wrack of a­nother, preaching by praying; though the Ch. be the house of praying nor of preaching, pro­perly so instiled by God himselfe. Then their squibbing at the Prelacie, yea & glancing som­times at the soueraign authority: which I haue heard, to my great grief, with mine own ears in this Citie, whē time was; not without the great applause of the seduced multitude. And now no dumb dogges I warrant you, but (which is worse) barking afore they espie a thief, yea bi­ting true men that com in their way: whose legs would bee broken or their hamstrings cut, by [Page 71]the custom of old Rome, for being so fierce by day; wheras they are set to watch the night, & the Capitoll to giue thē maintenance for such a seruice only, & no otherwise. They tell vs of rigor, & persecution, & hard measure: but it is they with their tongue, not the church with hir hand, that is the persecutor. Hagar beats Sara, & not Sara Hagar, though you would think it otherwise whe you read the story; because Ha­gar is the malepart, as hauing gottē a great bel ly (these being ful & desirus to vent, like a ves­sel stuft with new wine, as Iob saies): Sara doth but as a mistress should (& so the Church) stri­king when shee is prouoked. And shall these paines bee mentioned to their praise, which a mean seuerity wil not serue to chastice? They delighted in bitterness, let it come vnto them; their theme was cursing, let them inherit it; be it as water vnto their bowels, and as the girdle to their loines, that they are girt withall. Preface to the chal­lenge. They tel vs, they haue laied their axe to the Prelacie to hew it down: but if it chance to swerue & hit the striker, let such a man know that it coms of the Lord. This I haue spoken of the matter of their sermons: but now if I should enter to en­treat of their form, the day would fail me. Be it conceiued in a word, The most of them haue made Gods offerings to stinke, like the sons of [Page 72] Eli, & the pulpits to lose much of their antient estimation & credit, that they held in former times, by the vndiscreet handling of their busi­ness. Aristot. was wont to say, it was the reward of a lier not to be belieued when he told truth: so, many men of worth are the worse thought on for their vnworthines. To omit other faults, so retchless & so dissolute they are in their preaching, that now it is become a lavv among thē, as it was among the Tarentines, nemo de nobis, let him be no body in the faction, that brings a stu­died or a premeditate sermon. That were to tythe H. Ghost to an inkhorn, turn the cock & it will run well enough of it selfe, (I think I speak their own Prouerbs:) & there are som worse, as whē they say they bring sermons of Gods own making, because they took no pains in the pen­ning; with others mo, that for honesty sake must be concealed. Thus they tell vs of labor, & la­bor, in their preaching; and when all comes to all, they hold it no preaching, if it be laborious. Alex. would be painted by none but Apelles, grauen by none but Lysippus, one an excellent painter the other an excellēt caruer: these can allow any to handle the word, to touch the mi­sterie with vnwasht hands, [...] as S. Basil saies, base fellows, and (more then so) a [Page 73]degree belowe baseness it self. And therfore no maruaile, if anie thing accounted good e­nough for our Order, when they haue coun­ted any body fit enough for the labour.

But to let go this, because they will saie this is to preach in the euidence of the spirit, and in all demonstration of power and authoritie (though God knowes there is great difference between the two) what think you of that, that they challenge to themselues a conuerting power, (I speak no more than I know by good proof) and deny to others a conuerting mini­stration? In the latter whereof they are not so iniurious against charitie toward men, as in the former hainous in excess of pride and impiety towards God. Certainly, my deare brethren, if we could conuert others, we would first be­gin with the conuersion of our selues: but be­cause no man conuerteth himself; therfore, it is most true, he cannot conuert another. Turn vs Lord and we shall be turned, saies the Prophet himself, though he could preach no doubt suf­ficiently: and our Sauiour likewise, You haue not chosen me, but I haue chosen you, spoken not to the multitudes but to the Apostles them­selues; aboue which leuell the Church men of our times, and the men Apostolique that liue [Page 74]yet, may not seek to soare by anie means. The heart of the King is the hand of God, as are the waters in the South; that we reade in the Pro­uerbs: but we neuer read, the heart of the peo­ple is in the hand of the Minister to turne it which way he wil; But, Paul is nothing, and Apollos is nothing, and, We are not Lords ouer your Faith, and againe, Why gaze you at vs, as if wee by our Vertue had made this Creeple whole? Yet, as the Flie that you haue heard of, which riding vpon a coach-wheel at the games of O­lympus, gaue forth that it was shee that made so glorius a dust; so these as vainglorious, but in a higher kind, arrogate to thēselues the manage of that seruice, whereunto it is enough if they may be reputed but the meanest accessaries.

And now we are not angry with them, for denying vs the fellowship of such a preroga­tiue as cannot be helde without Gods highest dishonor: but leauing them this blasphemie to adorn their head withal, we think it worth the noting that they haue excluded vs from being so much as instrumēts, aswel as inuested them­selues in the principals. For, thither no doubt tendeth that speech of theirs, Preface to their Petiti­on first offe­red to his Maiesty. which you may all wel remember, it was so famous, That all the floure is of their bolting, throughout the land, the [Page 75]bran & the chaffe (if anie be in the Church) is theirs that haue labour'd in a different kind frō them. Ruth could not glean so much as a hād­ful, these mowers haue so carried all into their barne; & the Amnons of the people could not be perswaded to let any cakes go downe, but onely those of Thamars baking. All this night haue we fisht (may we say with good S. Peter) & caught nothing, because we have not fisht with the worm that they haue. New Palaemons in the school of diuinity, that say of themselues, nobis­cum nata, nobiscū peritura, with vs it was born, & with vs it must die, as wisdom should do with Iobs friends. I could wish yet that Philip had left somwhat for young Alexander to conquer: but the frantike Marchant cries aloud frō the key, the shippes are all mine. And if one of vs do but looke out of a pulpit, presently they haue for him, as for Paul, Quid vult hic semini verbius dice re? It is possible for a cōsormer to make a good sermon? (Let the guiltie confcience acknow­ledge his owne speech) and again, as for Saul, nūquid Saul inter Prophetas? is Saul also among the Proph.? To whō our Apology must be, as then it was, Quis pater eorū, who is their father? &, hath not he aboūdance of spirit? or is all in­closed in your brest? &, did the word of God [Page 76]come to you only, or may it come from no bo­die now effectually but you? Doubtless, as I haue heard some Diuines reason, that they had rather be Publicans, than Pharisies, and do no good workes than grow proude or censorious after their dooing, which is the dangerousest temptation that a man can fall into, and which most separateth from Christ: So, it had been better for these men, to haue kept silence, e­uen from good words, than out of their labors to haue growen into such a spirit, as either to intrude into Gods rights by ouerweening, or excluded vs as vnworthie by disdain.

Howbeit, because they magnifie so their paines in preaching, and thinke they beare vs downe so mightilie that waie, wee will end this point, if first we desire them, not to censure all ouer sharpely that shall not ply the pulpit as they doo. For mine owne part, J say with the holy Apostle, vae mihi nisi Euangelizauero, wo to me vnlesse I preach the Gospell, and with Bishop Jewel, stantem me inueniat Christus & praedicantem, let Christ finde me in the pulpit, if it be his will, when hee comes to iudgement. Yet, preaching is no necessary annexum of Orders (as shall bee defended if euer it bee doubted) but that it may yeelde to a more [Page 77]vvaighty dispensation; as the Pilot dooth no small good in the Ship, though he sit still at the helme, stirre not as other Marriners and as the gally-boies stirre about. In a word, as Demo­sthenes said to one of his fellow-Lawyers, that bragged he had receiued a talent for his plea­ding, tush foole, I had more for holding my peace; So it cannot be denied, but some mens silence profits the Church of Christ more than all their tonguinesse can doe it hurt. And so much also, concerning their labours.

I had verelie thought I had done with this fourth part, The indifferency of offendors; when an obiection presented it selfe to my conside­tation, which before was not thought vpon, but novv must be cleared in any case, because euerie mouth is so full of it. For, if the green tree be thus punished, why not then the drie? and if the puritan smart for it (say they) why not the papist much more? for so hath our Text, Jf any. I cannot bee so long as the answers are plentifull, & yet I will point you to much in a word.

One would think the Papist were borne like a flower, in the bosomes of vs English men, that heard these men take exceptiōs so strang­lie; and again, one would think that our State [Page 78]had verie simple Steers-men in it, that heard these Phormiohs reprooue them so boldly. But, if the perpetuall gouernment of our English nation, since religion began first to hold vp the head, be rather a matter of wonder amōg our selues than of repine, of enuie to our neigh­bours than scandall and reproach, of thanksgi­uing to God, vnconceiueable, vnspeakable, then of expostulatiō neuer so little; then think what credit is to be giuen to these exceptours, or what weight their words ought in due to cary with them, which can find no place of enter­tainment in our minds, til Gods mercies be vn­derualued, our nations praise stained, and the very truth & euidence of so long proceedings shamefully denied. As for the affairs of State, I shall speake another time, & shew what reue­rence belongs vnto them, the ark that may not be pried into, the moūtain that a beast may not presume to touch, the sun that dazels curious beholders, the sea that swallows profane ven­turers, the waie of an Eagle in the aire, and the waie of a Shippe in the waters, whose tracte may not be espied nor enquired, but admired and adored a-farre of. For euen of them hath God pronounced an O homo, tu quis es? and none may say vnto a king, Cur sic facis? Why [Page 79]doest thou so? Ecclesiast. 8.4. or to the Princes, you are vniust, as Job hath it: Least of all they, that knovv not so much as the vvaie into the Citty, saies Salomon, but leese themselues in seeking for their own Fathers house; a house, vvhich, of all other houses, might vvell be the most conspicuous to them at this daie, the Church of God in their own Land.

And how then, if the Magistrate, vpon great cōsiderations, should alter his hand in procee­ding against papists, as S. Paul doth change his voice among the Galath? how if he should turn sternnesse into mildnesse, as before mildnesse gaue place to sternness; suspendens verbera, and producens vbera, as the Fathers speake, & pre­ferring suffusion of bloude before effusion, shame before smart with Tertullian? Petilianus a [...] pud Augus [...] Sith this is most certaine that not onely Christianitas (as that author saied) but euen haeresis mortibus crescit, the more they are pruned the more they grovve; and vvhome the horror of their ovvne late vnnaturall proceedings, special­lie illustrated vvith the Commentaries of our patience, cannot reade a Lecture to, of a bet­ter minde, them no bondage nor harde mea­sure can euer be thought able to suppresse or reclaime.

This I might saie in defence of the State, if it had been partiall, and to this I might alleage that out of the psalme; Jf it had been mine ene­mie J could haue borne it, but now my fellowe & mine owne familiar friend, that walked, that tal­ked, & tooke sweete counsell together, &c. Could this be passed ouer vvithout a checke? Neuer­thelesse, the truth is, and experience sheweth to them that haue but half an eie, that the Pa­pists (God be thanked) enioie no such impu­nitie among vs, and Iustice hath not let fall the ballance, nor Censure yet put vp her sword. Jndeed they are not taxed with the same kinds of punishments, because they are not capa­ble of being so punished, as those to whome more fauour hath been alwaies shewed. They are not silenced; for they neuer had bin licen­sed to preach among vs; they are not depriued nor put besides their benefices; for they vvere neuer suffered to enioie any. But in the mean time, they are so curbed and so restrained (as truly fit is) that if the troubles and incommo­dities of the two factions popish and puritane were laied vpon a heap, and euery man allow­ed to share equall, J doubt not but the puri­tanes would greatly refuse it. Jt vvas time the vvheele of administration should turne about, [Page 81]and the Law begin to pricke them a little, that had not felt it, but laught at it a long time, and through conniuence slid into contempt. If it had come any later, the euill had beene almost vnredressable, and euen now wee may say to the most of them, as Christ did to the man of Bethesda, that had layne diseased 38. yeares, Visne sanari, wilt thou be reformed, yea or no? The short of it is, my deere brethren, though the Papists bee troublesome, yet the Puritans must not looke to goe vncontrolled. As whē the enemies assault a Citie or a Town, the children may not be allowed to keep what rule they will in the house in the meane time, but rather liue so much the more orderlie. Or else we shal think there is a cōfederacie, & that they reape more aduantage by the thriuing of Poperie, then they pretend for, and fauour the spreading of Antichrists Kingdome with all their heart, if the tyrannie of the one be the li­bertie of the other, and as they shall haue en­creased, so these must be excused.

To conclude, I might vrge them with this dilemma; If the Papists be not so bad as they make shew for, when they exaggerate their pestilence so much aboue their owne; why are they so eager to haue them punished? and [Page 82]if they be so bad, what praise is it for them, or why doe they place their defence in that, that they come somewhat short of enormious Ma­lefactors? So much may serue to haue spoken to that obiection: and so much also generally of the parties indifferencie.

You would not think how glad I am, hauing passed these rockes, and escaped these quicke sands. Now we shall saile in a gentle streame: now we shal goe forward with tide and winde. Or rather once againe beholde a whirlpoole. For, the fift part followes, which is the Censure, full of dangerous and deuouring waters, Hee is puft vp, he knowes nothing, he languisheth about questions, of which commeth enuie, strife, raylings, euill surmises, &c. Almost there is no bottome in it. Is the sixt any better then (the Inhibition, or the Caution) from such separate thy selfe? We might speake heere J confesse of excommuni­cation administred by one person, as by Timo­thie himselfe. For, this in effect is nothing else. Wee might speake of certaine separators and stragglers from vs heere at home, erecting Church against Church, Altar against Altar, Paul against Peter, and Christ against Jesus, insomuch as they call themselues the brethren of the separation, and openlie delight now in [Page 83]that title; though in truth they deserue that wee should separate first from them. Wee might in one word encrease the punishment by handling the two latter parts, as wee haue layed open the fault by discoursing the foure former. But J am not wont to insult ouer their infirmittes more then needes J must, whose errours and euill courses J cannot choose but pitie from my verie heart. One­lie I had thought to haue giuen a touch tou­ching languishing away, as Saint Paul heere calls it, and hanging their Harpes vpon the wilfull trees, that might make good melodie to the recouering of soules, if they would applie them rightly, and welcomming home of the prodigall sonne againe.

For, let them not tell vs, they would doe it, but for conditions: It is too nice in them of cō ­science, not to reach the cup, but after a seruice of their own; vvhen we that are ready to perish for thirst, are content to drink the wine out of any hand. Remember, I pray you, the Lamen­tation of Dauid ouer Abner being slaine, and see if it fitte not more than ordinarie to our purpose. Howe died Abner, sayes Dauid, howe died hee? his handes vvere not bound, nor his feete tyed vvith setters [Page 84]of brasse, and yet he fell down at the foot of the Conquerour Yesterday a man, to day a coarse. No body compelled him, no body constrai­ned him, no body forced him, but his owne will was his owne ouerthrowe, his owne out­standing his owne vndoing, and the battell was fought betweene him and himselfe. What wilt thou answer to the Lord in that day, what shall thy excuse bee to him, for slacking thy hand, which thou hadst put so manfully vnto the plough, and smothering the talent that he lent thee of his good grace, not in a napkin of vnprofitable modestie, but (which is worse) in snuffe, and pelting discontent?

Is this to stirre vp the gift of God that is in thee, as S. Paul bids Timothie to doe in this E­pistle? is this to become all to all, that thou mightest gaine some? which thou shouldest do by his example; whereas thou standest vpon such strictnesse, as thou wilt bee like none but thy selfe. Is this not to iangle about words to no profit, but onely to the subuersion of the hearers? Is this not to offende thy Christian brother, which offendest the whole congrega­tion of Christ, for feare of offence? Nay, is not this to be deliuered ouer, bound hand & foot to perpetuall doing nothing, before the sen­tence [Page 85]of the last Iudge?

Why might not thy wit be as well occupied henceforth, in explaining the ceremonies, as thy tongue hath beene violent heeretofore in traducing them? why shouldest thou not doe as much for true peace, as thou hast done for erronious truth? what shame is there with wise men in recanting an ouersight? or who euer liued but had his error? and, what greater con­quest than in ouercomming thy self? For, Lib. vlt. in Iul. Pelag. Cum animositatem viceris qua teneris, veritatem po­teris tenere qua vinceris, as S. Austine saide to the loftie Julian. Yea, this were fit newes to be tolde in Gath, this would sound terriblie in the streetes of Ashkelon, that the English nati­on had voyded her faction, that Pisistratus and his sonnes were made friends, linked in the pledge of a long desired, and neuer to be dis­annulled conformitie. This, I say, and much more I had thought to haue spoken, and pro­secuted against the wilfull languisher of our times, the cutter off of himself from the sacred Ministerie without cause; That lets his daies consume in vanitie, his yeares and beauty in trou­ble: whose waters are turned into bloud, so that no man may drinke of their riuers, their fruite is giuen to the caterpiller, and their labours vnto [Page 86]the Grashopper, their vines are destroyed with haile-stones, and their Mulberie trees with the frost. Yea, the fire consumeth their young men, and their maidens are not giuen in mariage (Imagine you by the losse of all their principall studies and endeuours) Nay lastly, their Priests them­selues they are slaine, but not with the sword, and there are no widowes (or but one at the most) to make lamentation. For the wretchednesse of the cause drowneth and banisheth all the com­passion of the case.

BVt another theame expects my handling: which I will not seeke how to apply to the Text (though perhaps I could tell how, if I would) it self is Text enough to the handler; And giue leaue I pray you once, for deedes to beget words amōgst you, since so many words of ours haue brought forth so few good deedes abroad in the world.

We must speak therefore a word or two, of the worthie contributers to the performers of the dutie, that is weekely heere accomplished throughout the yeare, and I for my part haue now laboured to discharge. First, the reuerend [Page 87]Father and somtime Bish. of this Sea, John Ail­mer (how well does it become a Cleargie man to stand first, holding out the candle of directi­on to others, that might in time imitate his good example? and how wel doth this charita­ble ointment of expēce trickling frō the beard of old Aaron the high Priest, till it wet the very neathermost skirts of his cloathing?) First ther­fore, as I said, that reuerend Bishop, as much esteemed by me, as sometimes perhaps dista­sted by the world of the malepert and malig­nant. Next the right honourable Lady Eliza. Countesse of Shrewsburie, that forgetting her ornaments & costly tyres, which the Scripture saies a woman cannot forget (they are so wed­ded and addicted to them) bequeathed her blew-s [...]ke & her purple to the decking of the Tabernacle. Last of all, one Thomas Russell Citizen of this Citie. But I might haue spared that note, for the name it selfe was much, & yet you may knowe him to bee your fellowe-Ci­tizen by his liberall intention. The deede shewes the minde, the minde shewes the man, the man shewes the Cities temper and disposition that hee liued in. They vvere vvont, sayes the olde prouerbe of the Hebrevves, to aske counsell in Abel: for there [Page 88]dwelt the wits: But we may say, they were wont to do deeds of charitie in London; which praise (God be thanked) is not worne away, but re­maineth and lasteth to this day.

All these that J haue mentioned, had this care and this respect, that the feet of the Saints should not be vnwashed vvith Abraham, speci­ally those Saints that bring vvith them the glad tidings of peace, and flie vnto the vvindowes vvith their doue-like murmurings, as Esai spea­keth; that the fighters of the Lords battels, should bee refreshed vvith a competencie of bread and vvine, meeting them in the halfe vvay, as Melchisedech did; that the Prophets, and men of God, should not vvant a chamber, and more than so, a table; and more yet, a can­dlestick, not emptie of a light in it (saith Saint Chrysostome) but all vvell and conuenientlie furnished, vvith Heliseus his hostesse; that vvhō the Innes shut out as too cutting for them, the manger might not receiue vvithout a gliste­ring oblation, vvhich is Myrrhe and Frankin­cense in the nostrils of GOD, vvith the vvise men (not so much vvorldly wise) that came from the East to vvorship Christ: Lastly, that the keeper of the holy Passe-ouer should not lacke for a roome to celebrate his mysteries in, [Page 89]nor a beast to ride vpon into Ierusalem, hauing none of his own, with them that did our Lord the like fauour and curtesie; I mean they haue all prouided, that [...] as the Apostle saith, that your gain should not be our loss, your profit our hinderance & thanklesse vexation both of body & purse: but they haue aduanced & improoued the spiritualls of other men, with the loss & flinging away of their own carnalls as a gage.

Let their owne vvorkes praise them in the gates, let their own actions rise vp to them, & call them blessed. Let the garments of pur­ple bee brought forth, and shewed vnto the people, that these Dorcasses haue wrought with their own hands for the vse of the poore; and let them say to them in this wise, Manie haue wisht, and many haue talked, and many haue meant charitably to this purpose; but you in doing it, you in effecting it, you in preuent­ing their slow and lingring determinations, haue surmounted them all. Chiefly, & before all, let the God only wise, immortal, and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ, which is to be blessed both now and for euer, haue his due honour out of their proceedings: Who first gaue such giftes vnto men that they might bee liberall, [Page 90]and then gaue such mindes to men, that out of their guiftes they were content to bee beneficiall. O how well doth his name soun­ding among their praises! O how well doo his titles amiddest their stile? and O how dead, & dismall, and discomfortable is all, where, ver­tue being commended, the Welspring of ver­tue (which is Christ the Lord) is forgot to be honoured? Let him be magnified, let them be mentioned, and be you excited to the emula­tion of the like religious practice. Redeeme your sins, cancell your bonds, break off your vnrighteousness, trauerse your inditements, defeat Gods iudgemēts, prouoke his mercies, purchase his rewards, enlarge your bowells of compassion towards all. And when you haue done all this, and all that you can doe, or all that you should do, put no confidence in your own works, trust not in your own merits, but let them be to you as dross & dongue to gain Christ, and the shining Robes of his alone in­comparable righteousness. So shal your work of Charitie be accepted, so shall your labour in the Lord be recompensed, so shal your mite be prized aboue all that is cast in by the hand of the swelling Iusticiaries, so shall the seede of your almes deeds shoot into the ripeness of [Page 91]a perfect blade, so shall your cup of cold wa­ter spring into a fountain of euerlasting bliss. For let no man deceiue himself my dear Bre­thren, the fruit of righteousness is sowen in peace of them that seeke peace. Heere wee end for this time.