A VISION OF BALAAMS' ASS. WHEREIN HE did perfectly see the present estate of the Church of ROME. Written by PETER HAY Gentleman of North-Britaine, for the reformation of his Countrymen. SPECIALLY OF THAT TRULY Noble and sincere Lord, FRANCIS Earl of ERROL, Lord HAY, and great Constable of SCOTLAND. joan: 8. 32. The truth shall make you free. LONDON Printed for JOHN BILL. Cum Privilegio. 1616. TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. MOst Gracious and most sacred Sovereign, It is not without divers reasons, that I have not boldly made a Dedication to your Majesty, of this Treatise put forth for the good of your majesties subjects, and having so much need to be strongly armed, now, while as (like unto a weak Bark upon a raging sea) it entereth on the Theatre of the World, to speak of the peace and union of the holy Sanctuary, amidst so many furious Giants of contradiction as are now in the Church of God: This heavenly voice of Christian harmony hath never been heard, but followed with a malignant Echo of proud and vehement Spirits, qui pascuntur syllogismo sicut boves feno, who delight to feed upon Disputes as Oxen on hay, in such a desperate Paroxysm, that they will not lose the reputation of one crooked syllogism for the peace of whole Christendom, yet the world doth never want some Phoenix, who is content to burn her earthly fame to ashes, in that pure fire of Christian love, to bring forth some seeds of peace: So that I do expect no other, but to hear my cries contumeliously re-echoed, that my conceptions of the reconciliation of Rome shall be esteemed not only paradoxal but smelling of atheism, and that my projects for perfect unity in matter of Ecclesiastical policy and ceremonies within your majesties kingdoms, shallbe said to be a crafty and cunning preparation for superstition to re-enter into the Church, of which unchristian oblatration, the first alarms have been sounded in my ears so hardly, while my Copy was newly delivered to the press, that I would have retired it if I had been one of those, who live in the air of popular applause, as in their natural element, & who (like to Narcissus) will rather die for love of their own image, then suffer one blow for so noble a common cause. But when I consider how many odious calumnies our Saviour and his Apostles did suffer, for plantation of this peace of the Gospel, I hold it a man's truest commendation and comfort, if for the sake of the same he may say with S. Paul to the Corinthians, that he fought with beasts in the manner of men. Seldom is it indeed that goodness is made the scope of our actions, and in this corrupt age, this upright virtue of pacification hath never been seen upon the stage, but waited with an infortunate Genius, we may witness those sweet engines, of Cassander, of Erasme, of junius, of Paraeus, of Causabone, and other Pacificators: And certainly I think it is a silly virtue, that for so brave an end, cannot in the conscience of an honest deed, with a stern countenance outface a guilty Calumniator, for such a Treatise as this can never be altogether fruitless, if it were but to give air enough for discovering and venting of malicious humours that lurk in ill affected men. And howsoever the matter shall work, two things did mightily encourage me, first knowing that under the godly and gracious Reign of your Majesty, in whose ears Moderation and Wisdom do constantly dwell, an Aristides will be permitted to breathe freely without fear of Ostracism or banishment: Next, the private testimonies which I have had of the presence of God's holy Spirit, to inform and to confirm my conscience, whiles I did labour about these, do give me great hope that they shall have sufficient authority with good men, to purge me from these ugly and odious aspersions. And therefore, for the first I did rather choose to betake myself to the candour and nobility of my cause, & to the patience of those benign and blessed Spirits, who have moved before me this divine argument, de amahili Ecclesiaconcordia, then presumptuously to thrust in your majesties bosom my hazardous endeavours, the chiefest protection whereof must be, to be acceptable of God, whiles they are ungracious to men. Allurements to Catholic pacification, Inducements to absolute unity within the Church of this I'll, Defence of the Orthodoxal policy of the Church government, Apology of the most lawful authority of my sovereign Prince, Persuasions to so worthy and so dear a Nobleman, to vindicate himself from the bondage of Idolatry, and such like sacred themes as be treated here, are able to preserve my reputation from blemish or suspicion, unless that Archiecalumniator the jesuit do edge his bloody pen against me, who seeing he doth not spare to bend his murdering tongue against your Majesty, who is the Mirror and Miracle of the world, his malediction or malscription can procure nothing but glory to such as I am. The second reason of my non dedication to your Majesty is, that, although, it be ingens materia, superba inscriptio, a most stately and glorious subject, to write of Christian harmony, yet it cometh in my hands, as an excellent Lute to unskilful fingers, in which respect I knew my pains to be unworthy of your Majesty, as also by reason of my base and humble style, which flieth low, inter aves palustres, and is not composed of those Aquiline pens, which can soar near unto the Sun. Thirdly, I did not wish that any peintured dedication to your Majesty should hide the true face of my labours, and make that to be esteened mercenary which is most sincere. Fourthly, the whole treatise itself is no other than a sacrifice of my devotion to your majesties service, consisting of the most clean and costly pieces, that I could choose to offer, all tending to persuade your majesties people, that the prosperity of the Church and the felicity of this kingdom have no sure fundament now, but such a firm conjunction, as doth reserve, no sparkle, colour, nor pretext of separation hereafter. If that Great King out of the conscience of his Tyranny and proud ambition did say in his time, that he was none of his, who did not favour the Monarch as much as Alexander, how much more need have Princes now adays, that we should all insinuate, urge, write, preach and cry, that he is not an upright Subject, who doth not love both the Royal person and the Royal Majesty, in these dangerous times; while as a spiritual ambition hath so poisoned the souls of men by this Chymique Theology of the jesuit, who presumeth, as it were to Metamorphose nature, and superinduce a new face upon the World, spiritualising the grounds of State, and temporalising the condition of Religion, making Pope's absolute over monarchs, and using Kings like to the shepherds dogs, who are beaten and chased away, when they are not vigilant and barking to his pleasure; that it is to be feared, lest in time (if the oppositions were wanting which are made by your Majesty) the judgements of men should become pyrrhonical and problematical, as if there were no truth in things but all were indifferent, as if it should be as easy for them, having once subiugat the temporal power to the spiritual, to refine S. Peter and by a new Alembication to make him Monarchal Priest and Monarchal Prince over the whole universe: And seeing this discourse containeth a discovery of those abominable maxims, which Hell itself hath vomited to prepare the spirits of men to shake off the divine yoke chiefly of your Majesty, Maxims (alas for pity) whereof when we consider the deplorable events, that partly have come to pass, and partly have been shot at, what Clements, what Chastels, what Ravilliacks, what powder Traitors, they can never be sufficiently charactered, but with tears of blood: These I hope will suffice without any Dedicatory intercession to make your majesties eyes propitious and favourable over my faithful sacrifice of peace and unity, that none of these Ravenous fowls shall have any power to spoil it, or to trouble my oblation; And lastly since by your majesties Gracious permission, I am to publish these, for a trial, of what true Christianity and true wisdom is in the hearts of your majesties Subjects, I have not neither sent them abroad, but presidiat with the favours of that worthy and virtuous Prelate whom your Majesty hath worthily preferred to be the chiefest Speculator and pilot in the ship of the Church. God grant in his mercy, that they may teach your majesties people, to draw their light from no other Sun but from your Majesty, and that they have nothing before their eyes, but God's true worship, the glory of this great and fortunate I'll, the conservation of your majesties person and crown, and the stability of your most Royal succession. Your majesties most humble, most faithful, and most affectionate Subject and Servant PETER HAY. TO THE RIGHT Reverend Father in God, and honourable Lord GEORGE ABBOT'S Lord Archbishop of Canterbury his Grace, Primate and Metropolitan of all England, and one of his majesties most Honourable Privy CO●…NSEL. MY very Reverend Father, and Honourable Lord, when on the one side I do look upon the splendour of this golden Age, wherein our glorious Kingdom of Great Britain doth shine amidst the powers of the world, like to that fire which was placed in the cloud that conducted Israel: and when on the other side I do consider how many be within our own bowels, who cannot discern this great City upon the mountain, nor see the bright Lantern which God hath planted in it to explore the works of darkness, as if they were burnt with the fire of Promotheus, that too much light had made them blind, while as one sort pretending to maintain the Catholic antiquity of the Church, doth spoil all primitive simplicity to establish that most absurd and impious tyranny of the Pope, tending to the extinction of this divine Lamp which burneth so clearly among us, and to the overthrow of our most Sacred Prince and Country. An other sort, under colour of fantastic and Ideal purity, striveth to supplant the ancient and approved policy of the Church to the destruction and danger of the whole State: I think that even as the contagious vapours of corrupted blood ascending ordinarily into the brain, do breed at length a mortal epilepsy of the body, even so the misty exhalations of fearful Ignorance and presumption mounting continually into the seat of the understanding, they do obscure the light of temperate wisdom, and piece and piece beget a spiritual epilepsy of the soul. The contemplation of which pitiful astonishment of men's wits, as if they were stolen away by the enhantment of some new Circe, it hath opened my mouth, (who profess to be a simple Ass) to speak of the causes of their disease, and of the means as well of the peace of Christ's Church in general, as of the intestine harmony which ought to be in every thing amongst us, who are the members of this national Church in particular, and for their help to character in some chief circumstances, the happiness and serenity of our time within this great and fortunate ISLE, while as all the Kingdoms which do environ it be so attainted with pernicious errors less or more, that for upright knowledge (like unto that strong illusion of Ixion) pro junone nubem amplectuntur, in place to enjoy the Queen of Heaven, which is the sincerity of religion and true government, they do but imbra●…e a cloud of deceitful abuses, so hath the insidious Clergy, namely of the jesuit, betrayed the Christian liberties of both. This I do not perform by dogmatical grounds of Theology, but by a brief Empirical discourse of such practices as I did observe in the Church of Rome, and in other Churches during my Peregrination through divers principal parts of Christendom, while as (like to that miserable Ass of Apuleius) I did sustain many changes and disfigurations of mind in matter of my faith, till in the end the Lord in his mercy brought me to act that last transmigration of Apuleius, which made him to be called the Golden Ass, that as he was said to recover his human shape by snatching his mouth full of Roses that were carried by the Priest of Ceres, so I smelling really the sweet odour of that deep died Rose of the Canticles, the Lord JESUS CHRIST, our great Priest, called the savour of life to life, by means thereof I was restored to my lively image, the golden history whereof, and of the notable things which I did remark under those spiritual Metamorphoses, is here set down for the information of such darkened minds, as be yet captived with Circe, and clothed in uncouth shapes. And since, my Lord, this Treatise hath already found an easy access unto your GRACE and so benign acceptation, that your Grace have not only set over it a censorious and skilful Surveyor, but have been content to hear divers points of the same agited before yourself, notwithstanding of the most weighty and assiduous business, wherewith I did see you to be pressed. For this respect amongst many others, I do not see where it can find a surer pass to go abroad, then in the trust of your protection, nor where it can more justly demand the same then from your Grace, whose pastoral vigilance doth well approve that Royal wisdom which did prefer you to be the principal Watchman of this Church, and to carry the touchstone, for trial of all such pieces as should be offered to the Lords Sanctuary: whose extraordinary Exaltation in the house of God, to be, from no Prelate Primate of England ante annum vertentem aut circiter, doth testify that the great Spirit which always ruleth his Majesty our most Gracious Sovereign, hath breathed upon your Election, that you should be tanquam Sol refulgens in Templo altissimi, a bright star of his Church, and a conspicuous mark of his extraordinary grace vouchsafed upon this great Kingdom, I say extraordinary, for if the Papal Bishops while they do impugn the truth of God's word forbidding marriage to authorize the doctrine of their coelibat, they do not the less contaminate the same with lewd and open pollutions, and your Grace all in contrary, while you do stand for the evangelical liberty of Matrimanie, you do in the mean time by the purity of your life, practise the perfection of the cloysterrall Caelibat, taking unto you that religious word of the more innocent and virtuous ages, Si placet licet: I think it is a clear mirror, wherein the world may see that it is the good spirit of God, who doth freely distribute his extraordinary gifts to such faithful Prelates as worship him according to the truth of his word: and that no usurped authority of Popish or human traditions can do so much. And since there is no better means to make your GRACES Excellent and spiritual parts tanquam Thus redolens in Templo Domini, (as was said of that worthy Priest Simon Onia) to smell as a sweet perfume in the LORDS house, then by continuing your delight to cherish the study of virtue where it is found in the most remote parts of the land, which is indeed a savoury presage of that perfect unity which God doth dispose to be in the whole Church of the same. Therefore let it please your GRACE to receive these first and tender Seeds of my public Service to God, to my most Sacred Sovereign PRINCE, and to this Commonwealth, whereof you are the first vital member, and so to nourish them by the kindly air of your virtuous spirit, that they may be found to produce a happy fruit, that is to say, a fruit which hath not aborted, nor hurt his bearer by untimely partting with it, but coming to maturity proveth wholesome to all those who taste it, and leaveth the Tree in full vigour and reputation. Your Grace's humble and affectionate sermant P. Hay. TO THE CHRISTIAN READER. CHristian and courteous Reader, this Treatise which I have framed for the glory of God, the comfort of his Church, and the service of this commonweal, wherein we live, why it is Entitled, A vision of Balaams' Ass, you may perceive in the entry thereof. It containeth in special these three, First the cause of my voluntary recantation of Popery, Secondly a clear discovery of the tyranny of Rome, mounted in our time to her Meridian or Altitude; And of the treacherous trade and doctrine of the jesuit, who doth falsely maintain the Papal Sovereignty tending to the overthrow of Christian Princes and states: Thirdly, a discourse of the apparent approach of her reformation or downfall, and of the probable means, whereby the Lord God doth dispose the restitution of Christian people from the spiritual captivity of this Babel, with a sincere exhortation to you to honour aswell the means, as the instruments, whom God doth pointforth for the advancement of this great work, as you have them here set down in particular: In the which exhortation if any thing be, that upon the sudden seemeth distasteful to you, I do entreat you that you will not for that rashly reject it, but do taste it again and again, remembering how oftentimes disgusts do grow rather by the distemper of our sense, then by any fault which is in our meats: As a diseased person must for the sake of his health control his natural appetite, and as nature in general (who seldom doth err) by offering violence unto her particular members for her common benefit, doth prove a good Physician to herself: So if we cannot strain our private humours for a public weal, we are senseless and cauterized members of the commonweal, and our diseases when they come they shall be desperate and deadly: It was a worthy saying of him who spoke so, Omnis magna lex habet aliquid iniquitatis, that every great law had something of iniquity in it, not that any express injustice was in the law, but because when so many live within their own Spheres, only to themselves, without respect to the commonwealth, it is impossible to establish any great law, which shall not bring displeasure to those particular members, whose actions are not ruled by common equity, common reason, or common good. If we do grudge against our laws, or our lawgivers, because they are not pleasant to our peculiar taste, we be far inferior in true virtue to the Ethnics, who thought it the chiefest mark of their virtuous mind, and their greatest glory, to remit proper losses, proper grudges, and proper opinions to the common wealth. The precise Cato Vticensis, who might have brooked the first dignities under julius Caesar, because it was not to his mind, he chose rather to die then to live distracted in opinion from the state: That upright Philosopher Socrates having in his choice to be banished or to die, he embraced death, saying that a man cast off from his common wealth, was no more a man. Is it not strange then amongst us, in whom that obscure light of nature (which only did guide them) is made celestial, by the divine splendour of Gods revealed word; to see that a Christian Pastor, before he will quit singularity of opinion, and singularity of name to our common wealth spiritual, to the peace and credit of our Church, conforming himself to orthodoxal laws, established by the authority of a most Christian Prince, a settled Church and well governed state, he will first choose either to live at home a seditious tribune, In perpetuo obstrepit●…, or a trasfuga, exiled from his native country. Certainly where there is no perfect unity, there can be no perfect peace nor perfect love, and consequently no Church, because these are the whole scope of the evangel and of all true Religion: unanimity is the bond which maketh the Church strong, Ecce circumdedi te Eze. chap. 4. vinculis, saith God in Ezechiel: Behold I have hedged you about with bands. It is the knot and sinews which tie the members of Christ together in one body, and therefore is so diligently recommended by him to his Apostles, and so oftentimes figured to us in the old Testament by types: By the vestiment of the high Priest, whereof every thing was tied to another, all being but one piece. By the Tabernacle whereof every thing was jointed in an other, the whole standing in conjunction: for we be so called in the Apocal. Ecce tabernaculum Dei cum heminibus & habitabit cu●…ijs, The Tabernacle of God Apoc. 2. which dwelleth among men, By the vessels whereof so many as were not closed together, but were open in divers pieces, they were said by the spirit of God to be unclean, as we see in the Book of Numbers: We are the vessels who be made by the hand of our heavenly Potter, Num. 19 of whom Saint Paul saith, Alia quidem in honorem alio verò vasa in contumeliam. If we be not close and inseparable 2. Tim. 2 among ourselves, we shall be found the unclean vessels of dishonour: Unity is the beauty of the Church now, and it shall be her triunphant song in the end, to cry as the Prophet had foretold of lattet times, Venite ascendamus in montem Domini, Come brethren let us go up together to the mount of God: Therefore these exhortations are to pray the Lord God who hath form us, to make us united vessels of honour: and to that effect to rectify our judgements, that we may esteem no names so sacred under heaven, as the holy names of harmony, peace, and unanimity within the Church in one thing, and in all things, that we may think no opinion more Christian in this age wherein we live, then that of the venerable Zanchius, one of the brightest stars of our own Hemisphere, in his treatise, De verareformandarum Ecclesiarum ratione, written (for that part) as followeth. Whatsoever is in the Church of Rome, or in any other Church, it is either agreeable to the written word, or contrary, or adiaphoron, indifferent: Whatsoever is beside the written word, either in the Fathers, in the Counsels, or in the Papal decrees: they are in like sort under the same distinction, Pro contra, or indifferent. For the first, that which is agreeable with the word, is to be retained, or if it be rejected, it is again to be received: for the second, that which is contrary, is to be refused, or if it hath been followed, is again to be forsaken: for the third, that which is indifferent, we must not think that it doth of itself belong unto salvation, but in such a case we must follow the rule of the Apostle, That nothing be brought into the Church, but that which doth tend to edification, order, or unity: All indifferent ceremonies therefore, may be securely followed for any of those respects; but so to be followed as that we still prefer things which be more ancient, unto those which be more late, aswell for the honour of antiquity, as because that which is most ancient in the Church is most true, for albeit nothing can bind the conscience but canonical Scripture, yet to introduce novelties, or to banish out of the Church any of those things, which from the primitive time hath been allowed by common and Catholic consent, and confirmed by the writs of the ancient Fathers. To reject such things, with out authority of general Council, it is not lawful for any Christian man who feareth God, saith he, Can we maintain more sound opinions, either as good Christians, or as good subjects, than those of Zanchius for unity, tending to the strengthening both of Church & State: we especially of this Isle, the condition whereof, if we consider truly, when it lay thousands of years of our ancestors, divided in weak and dismembered Kingdoms, and as our own eyes have seen it subject to the ambition of so many foreign Pharaohs, as have pressed to bring it under their servitude, by practices now from France, now from Spain, now from Rome: we shall think this age wherein we are, to be like to that fourth generation, wherein God did predestinate (as he foretold Abraham) to bring his posterity out of Egypt, for that same God, called Mirabilis Deus in sanctis suis, miraculous in his Saints, who raised that excellent Moses, to lead his people through the troublesome deserts, to a glorious state in the Land of Canaan, he hath also sent to us a mighty and extraordinary instrument, to lead us through those perilous perplexities now past, unto the joyful jubilee of these conjoined Kingdoms, making this Isle great and fortunate in his royal person, as he made his people of Israel most blessed for the time, by the like conjunction of the tree of joseph, with the tree of juda, saying by the Prophet Ezechiel, That they should be all under one King, and no more a divided people: So that they who delight in disjunction, be they Aaron, be they Miriam, be they Core, Da●…han, or Abira●…, who rebels against Moses, especially: be they jesuited Papists, or heteroclite Puritan, I speak not of any good men who obey God, and the Prince, but of those who carry armed hart●…, factious and vehement spirits against the State, spirits contrary to God because (as the Scripture saith) Non in commotions Dom●…us: The Lord is not in commotion, spirits not of peace nor edification, but of destruction, In spiritu veh●…ti c●…nteres na●…es Tharsis, saith David: Be who they will who grudge against Moses, every well disposed member of the commonwealth, hath great cause to grudge against them, lest they cut the thread of our felicity, and bring upon us (which God of his infinite mercy forbid) by our constant murmurings, that evil which befell the obstinate Israelites, at the waters of contradiction, whose wicked rebellions made Moses to offend the Lord grievously, even that good Moses of whom it is said, Delectus Deo & hominibus, Moses cuius memoria in benedictione est: Though he was dearly beloved of God and men, and though he was the most meek of all living flesh, yet they brought the Lords indignation upon themselves, and upon him, who both were prevented by death, and were not suffered to enter into the Land, nor to taste the fruits of their long and painful voyage in the Wilderness: God of his goodness grant you to loathe these waters of strife, and chiefly these waters which be poisoned with jesuitical wormwood and gall, whereof so many millions of people have died within these threescore years, that you may cry in time with that Prophet, Saluum me fac Domine quoniam intraverunt aquae usque ad animam meam, Deliver me, O Lord, because those waters have gone unto my Soul. God grant (that like unto the holy Dove) you find no resting place among them until you enter into the Ark and unity of the Church, that we may live together in one hope, to see the further mysteries of this happy time, the seal whereof is already opened to the great admiration of all the world. It was forbidden anciently to sacrifice a Swan, because her plumes are white and her heart black, so would I wish that from this peace offering might be debarred all such, whose hearts are incurably blacked with pride of strictness and singularity, and that it should be only handled of those meek and ingenuous spirits who will be contented to found their judgement thereof, upon those three grounds without the which our knowledge cannot be sure, as S. Augustine faith, Contrarationem nemo sobrius, contra scriptur●…s Aug. de Trinit. lib. 4. cap. 6. nemo Christianus, contra Ecclesiam nemo pascificus, That no sober man should make opposition to reason, nor no Christian man to the Scriptures, nor no peaceable man to the Church. And so hoping that the modest Reader will observe these grounds, I do submit myself to his discretion, beseeching him that he would not look upmy pains with his sinistrous eye, nor receive with the wrong hand that which I do present unto him with the right. Epigramma ad Regem. CVI decus immortale triplex, cuique aurea cingit Gloria conspicuum Rex jacobe caput. Prima tibi antiquae fidei quum cura tuendae, Proxima sit populi paxque salusque tui: Procur at quod utrumque lubens, quod promovet ultro, Quid tibi Seruitio gratius esse queat: Tale ministerium libro hoc tibi praestat & offert Hayus, ab antiquis nobile germen avis: Quemque suo Regem populo caput, & caput unum Dum Christum omnigenis gentibus esse probat: Parendum his Solum, invictis rationibus urget, Quas monumenta Patrum, sacraque scripta ferunt: Et fugienda Lupae Babilonis pocula suadet, Et quae seditio turbida monstra parit: Palantesque reducit oves ad ouile, Rebelles Et populos Regum flectit ad obsequium: Dignum opus ingenio Domini, quo munere verum Christigenam, & civem se probat esse bonum: Dignum opus aeterno Genio quoque, quem dabit, O Rex, Aspirans sacri Numinis aura tui. Haec M. E. D. ❧ The Contents of the several Chapters wherein this Treatise is divided. CHAP. I. Folio 1. COntaineth the occasion of the Treatise: Some cl●…ere testimonies of the perfection and plainness of the Scripture: The Apology of the Ass to show the reason of the Title. CHAP. II. fol. 17. Containeth two infallible grounds set down for the better trial of idolatrous worship and prevarication in God's service: The first is the force of our natural light and divine instict of our conscience: The second is a true definition of Idolatry. CHAP. III. 37. Containeth a faithful relation of the lewd & open superstitions, and of the ridiculous jests of pretended Miracles which the author did contemplate in the Church of Rome. CHAP. IU. 51. Containeth a rehearsal of the impiety of Papal Indulgences, that is to say, Pardons and dispensasitions: Of the avowed pollution of the celibate and monastic life, and of other capital vices which be pregnant in the Court, in the Cloisters and in the city of Rome, to the manifest discredit of all Christian doctrine and profession. CHAP. V. 65. Containeth a perfect discourse of the Orthodoxal authority of Christian Princes over the state Ecclesiastical in the primitive Church: Of the pernicious Doctrine of the Jesuits, which do impugn the same contrary to the opinion of the French Church and of that famous Palladium of the Sorbon: A discovery of the ambitious design of this wicked and treacherous Clergy. CHAP. VI 114. Containeth the particular means whereby it pleased God to reclaim the Author from that idolatrous religion, together with his Counsel against superstitious and popish obduration. CHAP. VII. 124. Containeth a parallel or comparison betwixt jerusalem and Rome, that as Rome fell away with jerusalem, so must she be with her subject to reformation and restitution. The order and means of Christian Reformation after the Example of jerusalem: Aiust expostulation against the desperate paroxysm and implacable contentions of the religious Clergy on both sides, with a most Christian admonition to them, to carry simple and upright minds of pacification. The occasion of the evil carriage which hath be●…e in Christian reformations: The reformation of the Church of England most perfect and most happy. CHAP. VIII. 148. Containeth a limitation of the Primitive Church, whereunto, and to no other, all Christian People are to appeal for true reformation. The infallible authority thereof: The judgement aswell of the ancients as of our Archi-reformatours touching the retaining in reformed Churches, of the Primitive and Catholic policy of Episcopal government, and of in different Ceremonies received from antiquity not contrary to God's word. CHAP. IX. 159. Containeth a search of the best and surest policies which be in nature, in the civil state in Oëconomy, in morality, showing that the Monarchical authority is most agreeable with Gods will expressed in Nature. CHAP. X. 171. Containeth a discourse in favour of Episcopal jurisdiction by some chief and ingenuous Reasons which do approve the same. CHAP. XI. 191. Containeth the opinion of all the famous reformators, who have been since Luther hitherto: of the Church Policy: an excellent and necessary point for our information: some grave and pithy speeches touching the weight of Episcopal function. CHAP. XII. 205. Containeth the reasons why we should receive again into the Church Organs and Music, for honour of antiquity for our domestic union with our more than half arch the Church of England, and for the holy and devote importance which is shown to be in Music: together with the like discourse for reception of the clerical garments which be in the same Church. CHAP. XIII. 233. Containeth briefly a survey of the Princes and States which are Catholic Romans, & out of that a consideration of the possibilities to practise an universal Reformation of Christendom. CHAP. XIV. 259. In the last chapter from the present condition of this Kingdom of Great Britain is drawn a principal argument of the falling of Babel, and of the approach of the jubilee of Catholic reformation, the contemplation whereof is here set down in sundry weighty circumstances and worthy of consideration, to rectify the judgement of every well disposed subject, that they may truly understand the mystery of this time, the rare blessings of God so long reserved for our age, and rightly discover the clandestine and pretended grudges of those who carry seditious and distractedmindes from the State. A VISION OF BALAAMS' ASS. Wherein he did perfectly see the present estate of the Church of ROME. CHAP. I. The occasion of the Treatise: The perfection and plainness of holy Scripture: The Apology of the Ass, and reason of the Title. MY very NOBLE LORD, it is certain that Christian faith and Christian virtue go inseparable together, that is the tree, and these are the fruit, and where we see not plenty of these, it is an argument of the Tree decaying: So that our greatest happiness in this world, consists in our constant action of Christian works: howsoever our eternal felicity is chiefly contemplation, yet our contemplative life here upon earth (even where it is most sincere) doth but resemble. Alpestre and mountainous grounds, which be stately but barren, compared with the fruitful Valleys of the virtuous active life, properly observed by that famous Doctor, Greg. Madge: in his Allegory upon the double wives of jacob, Rachael videns & pulchra, sed sterilis, Lea lippa sed faecunda. Among virtues it hath ever carried a great reputation to travel abroad, for increase of knowledge to enter upon the chiefest stages of the world, to see above the vulgar reach; and as the good Merchant's ship, to bring precious wares from far Countries, or like the industrious Bee, to suck the honey of true wisdom from the rarest herbs of experience, the varieties whereof are best found in traveling. As the Scripture saith in Eccles. He who would apply his mind to the meditation of God's Law, he shall travel through strange Countries, where he may try the good and evil among men, and when the great God will, he shall be filled with the spirit of understanding, that he may pour out wise sententences, which is the reason why in men who have traveled, we do look commonly for some accession of knowledge: for that cause it is, that I, who also among others, have brought the eyes of people upon me in this kind of expectation, do find myself bound by some virtuous discharge, to justify my peregrination beyond Seas, esteemed by many in that season of my age, and in so mean a state as I do possess, to have been untimemous, temerary, perilous, and unprofitable. And which hath been most vildly calumniated by divers of your Lordship's profession, among whom, a certain one of good worth did, as I was informed, give this judgement of me, that I had gone abroad the voyage of King Saul, to bring home my Father's Asses, which bitter insectation, with many such like tempests of men's tongues, I have sithence (like a true and upright Ass) borne forth with no other armour, than patience, until now being curious in what sort I might best pay this expectation of good men, and best emancipate myself from this persecution of malignant mouths, I have chosen, to assay if I can inspire into erroneous minds, specially into your Lordship, some disposition to better opinions in this time of your so great exigence, and necessity you stand in to resolve. First, the universal and servant desires of our Country, even from his Majesty, our most gracious Sovereign, to the beggar, to see your Lo: reduced to a saithful sympathy and communion with the rest, being otherways so noble a member of this kingdom, as you are, tam gravis, & constans, tamque bonarum partium in Rempublicam, this doth make it a good service to God and to the common wealth: secondly, the great honour and duty which I owe to your Lordship, for the great honour which I have by you, to be sprung from that ancient and famous blood of your house, doth infinitely tie me to this endeavour, who (if I were a mere stranger to your Lordship) must yet think it my honour to be sufficient for your service: thirdly, the opportunity which I have by this public discharge to render unto the world an ingenious account of myself, it doth conjoin with these a private respect of mine own So it is that the Prelates and Preachers of God's word who bring in their mouths the medicine of Christian souls, they cannot move your Lo: nor enter upon your mind, so have you entrenched the same within the common subterfuges of universality, Antiquity, and succession of the Church: of insufficiency of the holy Scripture, of authority of human supplement and traditions, and while you are brought to the Fathers, now quarreling the edition of books, and now again, betaking yourself to your Implieita fides, like unto that Mariner who having lost his loadestarre in a dark night, he wandereth, but knoweth not his course. The Israelites had no other guide through the deserts than the pillar of fire which was in the cloud, who once looseth the clear light of the evangel, which is a bright star placed to conduct us, through the wilderness of human wisdom, he shall never find out his right course into the land of holiness: And whiles your Lordship remains thus inflexible against so many learned and grave Divines, It would (like enough) be thought presumption, and arrogancy in me to deal with you, if the spirit of God did not testify that in great works the help of weak instruments is not to be despised. When Mosci builded the Tabernacle of God, there came unto him not only all the wise men, to whom the Lord gave wisdom saith the text, Sed quemcunque etiam extulerat animus ut adid opus accederet, but even every man whose heart did encourage him to further that business. The voice of a goose did once preserve the Capitol of Rome, I confess I have gotten no more of Theology, then serveth for my own provision, yet who knows, but by my dealing it may fall forth to your Lordship which hath happened to numbers of diseased persons, who having spent much time and much money among the Physicians, and never a whit recovered, they have in end by good fortune attained unto their health, by hearing some traveling beggar relate, that which hath been done to himself, or to some other man in such a case; even so, I being no Physician, but bringing some Empirical, medicine to your Lordship, who have renounced your physicians; I may possibly, (as God grant it prove so) do some good to you, by a faithful narration of that, which in the like disease hath befallen unto myself and of the chief things which hath bread to me distaste of the Church of Rome, after I had so diligently and painfully considered the same. But before I will enter into this discourse Empirical, or of exeperience, my conscience doth move me to say, this by the way, of the authority and power of God's blessed word, that as it would be reputed a strange dullness, and ignorance in nature, not to prefer those physicians who knowing the right simples, use no medicaments, unto those others who flying the simples, and practising by filthy and composed drugs do more often prove murderers than Physicians: Even so in spiritual eures, what a pity is it, that your Lo: should think the Preachers of God's word (who minister no other food of the soul, but the pure and simple Scripture) to be insufficient to help you: that this lively and incorruptible Word should be rejected of you, to embrace in place thereof a word composed, and mixed with human inventions, that nourishing word whereof it is said, Nor in solo pane vinit home sed in omni verb quod procedit Math. 4. de ore Dei: And which in effect did feed Moses forty days in the mountain, That pure and simple word whereof it is said, Comedetis panes azymos & non firm●…tes, You shall eat simple bread and not that which is leavened, to show that it cannot endure the dross and mixture of human wisdom, That word of true life, Verba qu●…●…go loquor spiritus & vita sunt: the words which I speak are Spirit and life, saith our Saviour in Saint john. john 6. That word of healing and curing, whereof David saith, Psam: 106. Mi●… verbum suum & s●…it 〈◊〉: That word which restoreth to life again those who be already dead, Ossa arida, ossa arida, audite verbum Domini, and presently life entered into them as the Prophet doth testify. That word of final safety whereof Saint james saith, Suspic●… 〈◊〉 quod potest sa●…re animas vestras. That word which is so entire, so plain and like unto itself in old and new Testament, that they be no other than a perfect harmony of spiritual music, The former the prophesy of our Saviour; and the latter his exhibition, the one his portrait, the other his person, the one the cloud which contained the light of God's Church, the other the fire which shined into the cloud, or to speak it more familiarly, as it were to draw this new wine out of these old vessels, this oil out of that Olive, this honey cut of that comb, this corn out of that chaff, this marrow out of that bone, this manna out of that pitcher, this law of grace out of those Tables of damnation. This word which is intellectual and not imaginary, necessary and not superfluous, divine and not human certain and not doubtful, in points necessary plain and not obscure, that from the beginning of 〈◊〉 to the Revelation there is no other difference but of the figure, and the things figured: That like unto that golden propitiatory from the which God spoke, described by Moses to have two Cherubins one of every side, looking directly each upon other; And in manner of these Seraphins Exod 25. seen by Isai, which by alternative voices did continually sing, holy, holy. Even so do those Cherubins of the old and new Testament, mutually breath out the testimony of our great propitiation of the which David saith, Quia apudte Domine propitiatio est, And these two Seraphins in like manner, do●… render alternative echoes in both these Testaments; of that holy, holy Saviour. In such manner that it doth breed incredible joy to a Christian heart to remark the uniformity, and correspondence of the Spirit of God throughout the word: The Scripture (for Example) maketh frequent mention of the waters of life, to understand what is meant by the waters of life in the old Testament, God himself said to to Moses and Aaron: Loquimini ad Petram istam, & ipsa Nomb. 20. dabit vobis aquam, in the new Testament Saint Paul doth expound the mystery bibebant Patres nostri de spirituali consequent illos Petra, Petra autem erat Christus: was there 1. Cor. 10. ever any more clearness or correspondency? Again it is said in Ezechiel: Effundam super vos aquam mundam, Eze. 36. & mundabimini ab omnibus iniquitatibus vestris: And in Esai: Effundam aquam supersitientem, & fluentia super aridam: Isai 24. And in Zacharie: Erit font patens Domui jacob in ablutionem peccatoris & menstruatae, Is not that as plain as Christ himself did speak it to the Samaritan woman, at the same well of jacob, thereafter I give you water to drink, after the which you shall thirst no more: was there ever prophecy or exhibition more correspondent? then to hear Esay crying, Omnes sitientes venite ad Isai 55. aquas, and to hear Christ himself answering by St. john, Si quis fitiat veniat ad me. The law of Moses was written john 35. in Tables of stone, and delivered with horror per ●…mpadas & seni●… Buccinae montemque fumantem saith the Text, to show the austerity thereof, and our impossibility to fulfil it, and doth not the gospel accord most clearly with the same, Hoc jugum neque nos neque Patres nostri pertare potui●…us: The law evangelical and of Grace, was written in the flesh of the incarnate deity, to declare the softness and facility thereof, according to that which was prophesied as our Saviour himself doth testify, jugum meum sua●…e est, & ●…us meum leave: All which things do show the correspondency and plainness of the holy Scriptures. Lastly, it is that omnipotent word where of the Apostle saith, It is inspired from God, and is able to make the man of God perfect in every good work. Then seeing it is such a powerful and perfect word, shall we turn back to judaism and blind ourselves in obduration against the splendour thereof, boldly affirming that it is obscure, imperfect and hath need of human help, how shall we be confounded in that great day, being confronted with that learned jewish Rabbin Barachia, who out of consideration of this harmony, and correspondence of God's word was forced to say in his book entitled Medras Cobel-eth, Redemptor primus Moses, Redemptor ultimus Messias, & sicut Redemptor primus fecit ascendere pute●…m, ita Redemptor secundus fecit ascendere aquas ad salutem. And with that other Rabbin joshua, who doth directly call them the waters of Baptism, which (saith he) succeed to circumcision, Qui baptizatur & non circumciditur ipse erit Gher, id est, Gentilis conversus ad rectam fidem: So that I say for your Loto hold that this word is not sufficient to instruct you, and why? because it is not panis fermentatus it is not corrupted with pharisaical traditions, nor flows not from a Church whose Prelates and members pretend that they cannot err. O but it flows from the three persons of the Godhead, and is inspired from above, as the holy Spirit doth testify, This is a sorrow never to be repent, to maintain that any thing other than God's infallible incorruptible word, can be without error or fault: Man not to err? seeing the Prophet David hath said, omnis homo mendax: seeing God himself hath said, It reputes me to have made man, all the cogitations of his heart are wicked, there is nothing true but God, and his word as the Apostle saith Deus autem verax est, & sermo eius veritas: Rom. 3. What shall we speak of men? no not his very Angels be clear in his eyes, Et reperit pravitatem in Angelis suis saith job: unto the great spirit of God, is only given to be Custos Tabularum Verbi Dei Guardian of God's truth, it is too precious a jewel to be trusted to flesh and blood, for if it had been Gods will to tie his truth to men; why not to his known Saints? Adam whose body was form by the finger of God, whose soul was breathed in his nostrils from the mouth of God, he had this spirit of truth once given him, but it left him by the suggestions of Eva: Noah, the first Preacher of the second World, he had this spirit, but was neglected of him in his drunkenness. The excellent Moses of whom it is said, dilectus Deo & hominibus, Moses cuius mememoria in benedictione est, he had that great spirit in such measure, that he overcame nature by Sea, and Land, he commanded the Angels, and in a manner wrested the will of God, but he was neglected of this great spirit, in his distrustful percussion of the Rock, Aaron had this spirit, but was forgotten of him in the erection of the calf, Miriam also, was forgotten in her grudging against Moses: David, a man to Gods own heart, was fearfully neglected of this great spirit to follow adultery and homicide: Solomon, whose breast the Lord filled with wisdom, was likewise left of this great spirit, when he fell in impious Idolatry: The Archapostle Peter, did not obey this spirit in the denial of his master, yea after the Ascension and coming of the holy Ghost, there was contradictions among the Apostles. It is more than madness, to affirm that the wisdom of any man hath been, or can be without error, other than jesus Christ the Just, or that any cannons, traditions, books, other than that one indicted from the heart of God, and penned by his Spirit, to remain for ever: The unchangeable rule of our faith in Christ, the only sustance thereof and our only infallible example that we are to follow, she●… first in the old Testament darkly to Moses in the mountain, when it was said to him, fac secundum exemplar quod tibi in monte monstratum est 〈◊〉 secondly in the new Testament more clearly in mount Tabor, and now most clearly in the true mount of God. That great spirit is the only inditer who cannot lie; That Scripture the only book which will not be wrested, that jesus the only man who cannot err. Therefore this word as it is said must be sufficient to make the man of God perfect. Christian perfection standeth in knowledge and in action, referring knowledge to our faith, and action, to our practice of faithful works, to hold that the ●…ly Scripture is not accomplished for knowledge, as the evangel saith, sapientia est per fidem jesu Christ; or to hold that Christ was not a perfect Architype and Schoolmaster of all virtues, who hath himself said, discite 〈◊〉, I think it is blasphemy, so that talk what we will, it must be blind ignorance, to affirm, that the original fountains of God's word, as they are comprehended in the holy Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles, are not more sincere and wholesome than the rivers flowing from the same through the channels of human brains, which can no more remain unspotted by man's weakness, then natural waters running from clear fountains can be without alteration of colour or taste, according to the quality of ground, through which they pass. The universal Clergy of the Church of Rome doth damn this opinion of the sufficiency of holy Scripture: what then? it is more strong, the multitude doth abhor the ways of God, to walk in the broad way. If the Gibeonites had securely depended upon the multitude of their neighbours of Canaan they had perished in that common naufrage, certain they are few who truly believe this word: some poor Gibeonites do here the voice of God and are mocked of the world, the multitude like unto the Crow, for love of the sensual carrions which float among the waters of the earth, refuseth to remain within the Ark. This holy Ark of God's word is builded for a small number of his Saints, who find no rest without it. The multitude leaveth the sincerity of this word, to follow the wisdom of men: as the sons of Adam departed from the Orient to build the Tower in the land of Senaar, which is interpreted stink, how many were saved in jericho by that red mark which was upon the house of Ra●…ab? how many doors were marked in Egypt to be spared by the holy Angel? within this small Ark, there was safety, but not without. Now to come to my intended purpose, which is not to play the Theologue with your Lo: there be certain years gone, since I went forth of the Country poussed thereto from a scruple of my conscience, having from my childhood drunken in, some prejudicate and forestalled opinions, which did ever trouble and disquiet my mind so oft as I called to memory, how Plato and other Philosophers had travailed over the world to acquire natural knowledge; I thought it both ignominious and dangerous for me, i●… I should not pain myself to understand the truth of God's worship, whereupon transported with the fury of this prejudice, and closing my eyes against the splendour of the word, which doth shine at home, I resolved once to fine myself intra l●…mina Apostolorum, within the town of Rome, that pretended mother Church, without the which, there was no means of Salvation, as than I did imagine; And this (I do protest before the heavens, and before him who did create them) was the true cause of my voyage, enterprised to seek my father's Ass (as he said) which was so truly spoken of him, that like unto that high Priest Annas he hath uttered a notable verity unknown to himself as I will shortly set down from such grave theological reasons, as shall both free me from passion and idleness in this point, and serve for the Christian edification of others: we see how it is familiar with the spirit of God in the Scripture, to use the names of beasts, to make our gross understanding more capable by that kind of sensible instruction: there is mention of good and evil beasts, and in the legal sacrifices of clean and unclean beasts. By evil beasts generally are meant, the Devil and his Angels, and the dominion of sin into us, it is said by the Prophet, erit se●…ita recta, & via sancta vocabitur, & mala bestia non ascendet per eam: And David, Ne trada●… bestijs animas confitentes●…bi: And Isa. 35. Psal. 73. in the Revelation, & vidi de mari Bestiam asce●… habentem capita septem & cornua dec●…, which beside that true interpretation to be the Antichrist, some do also allegorize to be the seven deadly sins, and ten several transgressions of the commandments, whereby Satan doth make himself Prince of the world, confringam Psal. 74. cor●… peccatorum saith the Lord, And the Prophet Zach. hac sunt▪ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Israel: So the tyranny Zach. 1. of sin into man, makes him to get the names of beasts, as the holy man getteth the style to be called God, or the son of God, as in the Psalms, God judged in the assembly of the Gods: and in St. john, Dedit iis potestatem john 2. Galat 2. fil●…s D●…ifieri: And St. Paul of himself, vi●… ego, iam non ego, vivit vero in me Christus: So are beasts said to live in the wicked man, as the Prophet David saith in 48. Psalms. The cruel man is said to be like the Ostrige, Filia populi 〈◊〉 crud●… quasi 〈◊〉 i●… deserto. Psal. 57 The crafty insidious man as a Bear, Ursus insidians factus Deut. 32. est mihi: the proud man like a Lion, ●…sse quasi Leo in do●…: the obstinate and wilful man like unto the Adder which desperately closeth her ears, sicut a●…is sur 〈◊〉 obt●…rantis aures 〈◊〉: the wrathful man as a Dragon, fold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: the fraud●…lent man as a Ezech 13. Fox, quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prophe●…ae tui Israel: the oppressor Deu. 32. as a wolf, Benjamin lupus rapa●…: the lustful man Eze. 13. Gen 49. Zach. 10. as a Goat, ir●…tus est furor 〈◊〉 & super capr●…s visi●…abo: the lascivious man as a horse, equi am●…tores in faeminas, & emissarij facti saint: the murderer as a serpent, 〈◊〉 Dan jerem. 5 Gen 49. Eccles. 28. jerem. 49. Rhen. 16. 1. Peter 2. ooluber in via: the tyrant as a Pard, quasi Pardus laedet eos: the ambitious man as an Eagle, si exaltatus fueris fieut aquila trahant te dicit Dominus: the backbiter as a dog, quare maledicit canis hic Domino meo Regi: the filthy man as a sow, quasi sus lot●… in volutabro luti. These are noted under the names of Beasts, which make us the sons of that king of beasts the Devil, adversarius vester tanquum 1. Peter 5. Leo rugie●…s, & ipse est Rex super omnes filios superbiae, saith job: The Devil again is noted by the name of the Serpent, Serpens erat callidior cunctis animalibu●…. He is compared to the tortuous serpent full of crooks, qui dissipat sepe●… mord bit eu●… C●…luber, It is ●…aid in Ecclesiasticus and again, Non est caput nequeus super caput col●…bri. There be also goodness and piety signified by beasts in the holy Scripture. The Church of God is said to be a flock of sheep: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 audit vocem 〈◊〉, pasc●… 〈◊〉 me as: Non sum missus nisi ad 〈◊〉 qu●… per●…erunt Domus Israel. Christ himself hath taken the name of a Lion, vicit Leo de tribu juda, to note the difference from that devouring Lion whom he hath overthrown, figured by that Lion which ●…s rend by Samson, who was a typical Saviour as we know. Again, he taketh the name of a Lamb, Agnus Dei qui toll●… peccata mundi: The third person of the Trinity is figured also by a beast, the holy Ghost came down in jordan in form of a Dove, and we are commanded to be simple as Doves, because otherwise the holy ghostcannot lodge with us, albeit God the Father in the fullness and Majesty of his godhead, he who hath said, thou shalt make no graven image, etc. hath not vouchsafed to figure himself by the shape or name of any beast, as he would not name himself to Moses in other terms then, ego sum qui sum, to show how he doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to show that he is indefinite, infinite, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would allege that he spoke in person to M●…ses; ●…nd did appear in a fiery bush to him; no these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his holy Angels; the Apostle testifies that the Tables of the Law were given to Moses by an Angel, 〈◊〉 pr●…pter Gal. 3. transgression●… 〈◊〉 est, & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mediatoris: And St. Steven in the Acts doth witness, that an Angel, under the name of God spoke to Moses in the bush. There appeareth to him (saith he) in the wilderness of mount 〈◊〉, an Angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush: That glorious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Mose●… Acts 7. that no mortal flesh should see his face and live: That great spirit whereof it is said, spirit●… Domini 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sap. 1. terrarum; who is in all things & all things in him at very 〈◊〉 have acknowledged it: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vides: A 〈◊〉 is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and a ●…cle is a centre dilate are or spread out: God is all things that ever have been or shall be to the end, come pleat in that infinite Majesty and power and his glory dilated and displayed in so many noble creatures, how is it than possible to 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 of so great a thing when Solomon coul●… 〈◊〉 his glorious Temple sufficient to 〈◊〉 it, si 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 capi●…nt quanto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ista 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 Saint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The person of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the proper temple wherein he 〈◊〉, whereupon he said, 〈◊〉 templum hoc & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illud, john 2. which also is a manifest argument against the erection of whatsoever images to Christ, because that God the Father in the fullness of his Deity dwelleth in him as the Apostle affirmeth, in quo habitat corporaliter omnis plenitudo Ephes. 1. divinitatis. Always speaking generally of beasts that he mentioned in the Scripture, I say that the spirit of God hath never (as appeareth to me) used any beast so familiarly as the Ass, to be significant of the high The Apology of the Ass. mysteries of our faith, and to be a type of that piety and goodness which should be in Christian people. And first, I show it from this argument a Contrarijs, In the Scripture we find mention only of two beasts to whom God did allot the faculty of speaking, the Serpent, and the Ass, the Serpent opened his mouth to suborn impiety and rebellion against God, the Ass opened his mouth, to reprehend sin in the Prophet. Therefore seeing it was said that the Serpent was the worst of the beasts, neque erat caput nequius super caput Calubri, it must be a just consequence, that the Ass is the best, and most simple of beasts, and most excellent for natural goodness. That by the Ass was signified God's people appeareth by sundry places in holy Scriptures; when Saul was divers times commanded by Samuel to return home and receive the kingdom, he answered him still that he did seek his father's Asses, till at length the Prophet told him the Asses were found, mystically meaning (as divers learned authors do intepret) the people, who as Asses) were to underlie the yoke of his obedience, as they have also expounded that other place of the Ass, when our Saviour going up to jerusalem commanded his Disciples saying, inveniet is afinam alligatam & pullum cum ea soluite Math: ●…1. & addueite mihi: whereby they understood the two people Gentiles and jews, who were fettered and bound to blindness, the one to Ethnic Idolatry, the other to vain legal Ceremonies, and were both to be loosed, and by the liberty and grace of the Gospel, to be reduced to the obedience of Christ, that he might reign over them, as it is said, An judaeorum tantum Deus nonne etiam & Gentium. The great Samson who was a figure of Christ Rome 3. as the spirit of God testifies by the history of his birth (being like unto that of our saviours) annunciat to his mother by the Angel; Thou wast barren but shalt now bear a son which shall be a Nazeret to the Lord and a deliverer to the people, he shall be called Samson, Sol corum, according to the Hebrew Lit●… at his death again he pulled down the house replenished with the Philistines his enemies, destroying great numbers of them there, then in his life, as Clarity did perfectly triumph 〈◊〉 on the Cross o●… that spiritual Philistine, S●…, and o●… all the hosts of ●…ll. The Scripture records of that figuratic saviour Samson that with the cheek bone of an Ass he ouerth●… m●…litudes of his enemies, and that being almost stifled in the battle through excess of heat and thirst, fourth of the cheek tooth of an A●… law-●…ne ●…spring water to refresh him, mystically signifying the Christian virtues of simplicity, humility, patience, painfulness, obedience flowing from Regeneration, and the waters of Baptism (& which in nature be a●…nine qualities) should by the Gospel conquess, multitudes to Christ, to the ruin of Satan's Kingdom. The Ass hath knowledge above the common imaginative sense of beasts. There be certain currant eraditions that Aristophance affirmed, that an Ass was his condisciple in the schools of Philosophy, and that other of Apuleius Maga●… who told that be could not be admitted to the sacred mysteries of his goddess I●…, if he had not changed himself out of a Philosopher into an humble Ass: further to let these fine fellows know how in this a sinn●…●…ge of mine. I have been ●…urious 〈◊〉 ●…orneelie 〈◊〉 w●…th pertaineth to the Ass. The People D●…d saith, Nolita fieri sicus Equus & Mulus q●…bus none 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but Psal. 51. of the Ass the Prophet Esay wonderfully noting perhaps, the particular circumstances of our Saviour (as somethinke) in a Prophetica●…ision hath said, Cog●…nit B●… p●…rem suunt, & 〈◊〉 pr●…sepe D●…. It Isay 1. is manifestly seen that by natural goodness the Ass hath those properties, which every Christian is commanded to follow, so patient of injuries that being ●…ten of any other beast, it taketh no offence, so painful and obedient, that the greater burden maketh it to travel more willingly so simple that it requires no attendance, as horses and other serviceable beasts, so temperate, and soberat food; that while it ●…eth the most percious fruits, oils, coins, spices, it putteth down the mouth to p●…re upon th●…les as it were a figure of that simplicity and a●…ty which ●…ght to be under the Cross, & as some ●…o imagine it hath the mark of a Cross●…pon the back. Tertullian in his days did glory in this. That in the Pri●…e Churc●… the Pagans, and profane 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉, did all the Christians. Asina●… 〈◊〉 holding in the●… those A●…e qualities? Finally, that ass whospake to Bal●…m as he carried him to curse God's people 〈◊〉 and to impugnents Will, So went I beyond Seas ●…ying my head●…ll of false and error ●…pinione, and 〈◊〉 fraughted with desires to sed and 〈◊〉 supper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pleased God of his mercy to open my eyes, 〈◊〉 old to that beast, that I did see such odious 〈◊〉 of his worship, & the judgements which 〈◊〉 the ●…tned against it, it pleaseth him whole ●…ded 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉, to lose me from the bands of ignorant. The Prophet D●…d saith, D●…mint ●…iamea ap●…es, & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anna●… laude●…●…uam, do●… i●…iquos vi●… 〈◊〉 & imp●… add to connuertentur. Since he who opened the mouth of the Ass, hath also for his glory opened my mouth, I must not; neither be silent, although I ●…o Doctor, nor do not presume to instruct your L●…: conscience, yet must I remember that commandment of our Saviour given to one whom he dis●…ssed of many Devils, ●…euertere in domum tuam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quanta tib●… fecer at Dominus. Return homeward, and now become a simple Ass in Christian knowledge; That which the Lord hath done to me, I shall preach it to others, for his glory and their edification, and so I precede to tell your L●… how I was tranformed into ●…his Ass of Balaam. CHAP. II. A Discourse of our natural light and divine instinct of our Conscience. A true definition of Idolatry for the better trial of superstitious worship, and prevarication in God's service. THe Scripture records that the Ass of Balaam went on a pace before he did see the Angel, and that the Angel was divers times seen before obedience was done unto him: so was it with me all the while of my being in France, I did profess the Popish Religion, and as sincerely obey the discipline of that Church, as any man could do of my weakness, and that from upright zeal, and not from design, whereof I could myself give many great proofs, which be not pertinent here, only this far I say, That many times I have heard in one week more than twenty Masses, and that for the greatest part there, where I knew no man, nor yet was known myself of any: Whereof also your Lo; self may bear witness by divers of my Letters written to you in those times, chiefly by one, (if it please you to remember) from Paris immediately before my going into Italy, in the which I did play the Paranymphe to myself, by praising the resolution of my coming forth, from the example of Abraham's calling, who was commanded by God to go forth of his own Country that he might worship the Lord truly, and he blessed of him in a strange land: In such sort, that for the time, I could have been content to remain a Transfuga to my lives end. In this Letter I did allude to the greater light of the Southern Sun, and to the Aquilonar darkness founded upon that Thalmudicall fable which we read in the writs of Rabbi Eleazar, in his book called Zoar, that in the creation of the heavens, God did leave a hole in the Northern parts thereof, that in the beginning the Sun had his first point of motion in the Southeast, that about Damascus in the Southeast, God took that Terra virgo, that most perfect Earth, whereof he form Adam, that the garden of Eden and mount Zion, were planted in the Southeast, that God chose the patriarchs and his peculiar people in the Southeast, remote significations of God's truth to remain for ever in the Climates of the Southeast, according to that in the Canticles Vbi habitabit dilectus 〈◊〉? in meridie: ubicubabit? in meridie. And that the Northern parts of the earth were the seat, naturally, of darkness and iniquity, as being subject to the imperfect parts of the heaven, and to the aforesaid hole whereout Lucifer and his companions did fall, according to that vision of the Prophet, who heard him saying, Sedebo in montibus Aquilonis, & fimilis ero altissimo: alleging this Scripture, Omne malum pandetur ab Aquilone, jerem. 10. and the text of Moses of the seven Candlesticks of the Ark looking from the North towards the South: as if the North were, sinistra Mundi, and the proper habitation of unclean spirits, like as we see the Aquilo to be a tempestuous and destroying wind, whereas by the wholesome and nourishing Auster, is meant, the sweet and peaceable spirit of God, incalled in the Canticles, Ueni Auster & perfla hortum meum: And whereof Abacuc Cant. 4. saith, Deus ab Austro veniet. So that the seven Candlesticks looking to the South, were signs of the perpetuity of the spiritual light there, never to be extinguished by any tempest of Northern heresies. These and such like fond fantasies which were then infused into me, and which have been invented by curious brains to poison simple wits, did I introduce in that Letter. And they were arguments good enough, both of my zeal, and of my ignorance, as if the garden of Eden, were not many thousands of years ago deprived of true light, and consumed with the fire of God's wrath, as if that holy mount Zion, and that mother City jerusalem, who had fairer promises of perpetultie made by God, than Rome, and all the Cities in the world, because she was (like unto Na●…h who preached to two worlds) the mother not only of jewish, but of Christian Religion, as the Apostle saith; The law went out of Zion, even the law evangelical, the perfection of all laws, the Lord jesus Christ, declared to Moses obscurely in Sinai but manifestly published to the world in Mount calvary, as if that great and matchless City, were not long ago abandoned of God: ruined, accursed, and prostrate to the profane yoke of godless turcism: As if Rome itself were not become like to the Cities of the Plain smoking in the abominable pollutions of Sodom: as if Scotland had not been Christian, perhaps, as soon as Rome, as Tertullian writeth in his seventh book contra Iud●…os, Britannorum loca Romanis inaccessa Christo subdit fuere: which divers others learned Authors have affirmed; and as if the Northern parts were not now become the seat of the Candlestick purged from their fornications, while as Rome itself lieth try fling in Types, and Pharisaical Ceremonies, in place of true Religion, defiled with her own blood, refusing to be cleansed, abhorring the voice of reformation, crying with the blinded jews, Templum Domini, Templum Domini. And that I did so long lie in this ignorance, what shall I say? Spiritus spirat ubi vult, & quando vult: yet this far must I say for myself, it was not neither strange in me, who since my youth had been possessed with false opinions: for certainly, there be so many specious veils which cover from a man's eyes the truth of things; to wit, the gravity of their subtle Prelates, the exterior zeal and devotion of the people, the splendour and the richness of their Temples, the majesty and reverence of their Services, the glory of the precessions, their exorbitant works of superstitious Charity, multitudes of Hospitals; and conventual houses, rent by voluntary Contributions, the stoical and stupid austerity of the Proselytes, the voluntary misery of the Capuchins, the profound Preachers of the Dominical and jacobin Orders, the admirable policy of the jesuitical trade; & withal their proud & perilous vaunting of Antiquity, Succession, and Universality; these are sufficient at the first to surprise a judicious mind, and to astonish a man, as if he looked on Medusa's head, who drinketh of Mandragora he is in danger of a long sleep, but who tasteth the cup of Superstition, he is in danger of deadly sleep: That old Circe knoweth all the secrets of enchantment; and albeit she hath amazed Kithing mountains of dead men's bones, yet of those who arrive in her Island and come within the hearing of her voice, they be few who escape her incantations; few who with Ulysses can tie themselves, unto the main Masts, to the end they be not ravished with her Siren's songs, which can keep fast the sacred, Anchor of the pure word of God. Many through ignorance and natural inclination to superstition, many again through avarice and ambition are contented to be tranformed into beasts by the charms of Circe. This evil of superstition among spiritual dangers, it is the great rock of our common shipwreck, it is dangerous first, and especially because of the fearful judgement which God doth inflict against it: For what is superstition, but a false worship of God. Of all the plagues and punishments under heaven, most fearful is that which followeth superstition, the Prophet hath pronounced it against the obstinate follies of the jews, Audite audientes & nolite intelligere, videte visionem & nolite cogitare nec cognoscere, occoeca cor populi huius, oculos 〈◊〉 Isai. 6. claud, aggrava aures eius ne fortevideat oculis, auribus audiat cord intellgat, & convertatur, & sanen eum: which is to be given over by God, absolutely to follow lies & falsehood in place of verity at the Apostle saith, ut credant m●…ndacio qui non crediderunt v●…ritati; great is the honour which is 1. Thes. 2. bestowed on us while we stand in God's true worship. A certain great Divine hath made this the difference betwixt God and good men, Deus homo coelestis, homo autem Deus terrestris, but when we be spoiled with wicked idolatry, it maketh the Lord to say of us, homo cum in honore esset & non intellexit, comparatus est inmentis insipientibus, & factus est similis illis, and was not indeed that mighty Nabuchodonozor for his wrong opinion of God changed into a beast? our other sins for the greatest part proceed of human weakness, but this of wicked presumption, and therefore it is commonly punished with desperate ob●…uration. Secondly, idolatry is dangerous because it is ordinary and quotidian in the world, as every body hath his own shadow, so there was never Religion which had not his own superstition: And as the shadow is longer than the body, except when the Sun approacheth near the Zenith, and sendeth his beams down either perpendicular, or toward a direct aspect upon the earth as we say: Even so when the light of the evangel makes not a direct reflection upon our souls and minds to certify our knowledge, but comes upon us by obliquity, not in purity but mixed with human traditions, then grows superstition to be long. An extraordinary and impious excess of Religion dissolving the true order of God's worship into numbers of forbidden and pharifaicall ceremonies, it is the companion of true Religion: for truth and falsehood are twins borne almost both in one day; God spoke to day in Paradise, the Serpent spoke next morrow: Simon Peter in the evangel spoke to day, and Simon Magus spoke to morrow: There was never Church free from corruption to the end, chiefly from idolatrous worship. Adam who was the first man created by God himself, in whose person was the whole Church of God, he fell away to believe the Devil: Aaron who was the first Priest ordained by God himself, by a legal warrant, he fell away to idolatry: Solomon who was the first king, and first man commanded by God to build him a Temple for his service, he also fell away to idolatry. These no doubt be great arguments of the force of superstition. Thirdly, idolatry is dangerous because it is a popular disease, and so is the more contagious: The Israelites were once become so universally Baalists, that the Prophet cried, there was not one who had not bowed his knee to Baal. The Ecclesiastical histories do record that the Catholic Church was so once generally infected with Arianisme, that there was not a sincere Pastor, who durst minister the sacraments of Baptism in a public Temple. Such is the disposition of our corrupt natures to heresy and prevarication in God's worship: Nature is moved and led by the sense, and in idolatry there be so many gracious and pleasant shows of piety as do bewitch the senses. Lastly, superstition is dangerous because the multitude who are chiefly given unto it, can hardly discover it, they be but pecora campi, as the wiseman saith in the Scripture: I looked out upon the earth, and I saw many beasts but few men: Superstition while it is masked it is a most plausible thing, Satan hath given to it a fair face, and oftentimes fairer than that of true Religion, after the sort of impudent whores, who be more curiously decked then the chaste Ladies, but when the mask is pulled off, there is nothing more ugly and despisefull for even as it is a monstrous deformity, that an Ape being a beast, should resemble a man's face: so superstition well considered, the more it is like to true Religion, the more it is deformed, and because the sum of this discourse shall stand into a consideration of such superstitious abuses and impiety as by experience I did remark in the Church of Rome. Therefore that your Lo: mind may be the better prepared to ponder justly my relation, and to discern what is superstitious and what is not so, I would first lay down two grounds, which if you find reason to admit, they may possibly help greatly to clear your Lo: judgement. The first whereof shall be this: As the World was The Light of nature. never in any time without a God to govern it, so never was it in any age without some divine law felt by the conscience of man, to render him inexcusable as a great Divine saith, cum sit Deus ab humana intelligentia procul absconditus, 1. Institu. cap. 1. tamen suae Maiestatis not as adeo claras & illustres singulis suis operibus impressit, ut sublata sit quamlibet coecis & stupidis, omnis ignorantiae excusatio, for if man had been confirmed in that grace wherein he was created, he needed no law, justo non est lex posita, saith the Apostle; But because as God himself doth testify proni sunt sensus hominum ad malum ab adolescentia, therefore hath God bridled us by a law, and first by the law of nature which he hath so surely stamped in our souls that it is enough to convict us before God: whereof Saint johu saith in his Gospel, haec est lux vera illuminans omnem hominem venientem Rom. 1. in mundum: The Apostle doth stand for this light, saying the invisible things of him that is his eternal power and godhead are seen by the creation of the world, being considered in his worker to the intent they should be without excuse saith he. Of this Light the Prophet David hath said, multi dicunt quis ostendet nobis bona, signatum Psol 4. est super nos lumen vultus tui Domin●…, which ground being conferred with that other of ignorance, maintained in the Pope's Church to be the mother of piety, and of implicita fides sufficient for a man's salvation, I know not what harmony they make. And Bellarmine in his book of controversies, speaking of justification and free will, doth reason farthest of any man for this force and light of our conscience: neither hath any wise Ethnic ever A discourse of three Laws. refused it: Cicero in his book De natura Deorum, nulla est etiam tam barbara natio nulla ge●…tam efferata, cui non in●…idate haec persuasio Deum Esse: But to the purpose, because of the fall of Adam, the Devil did weaken the power of this light, and law natural, that the old world by evil custom, and by the stream of iniquity became blind, esteeming things good and lawful in nature which were notso, therefore God in his mercy made it more clear the second time, by giving unto Moses the written Law, that our knowledge might be again made more inexcusable, as Saint Paul saith, peccatum non cognovinisipor legem, peccatum sine lege mortuum erat, delitescebat. And to the end that the world might know what a fearful thing it Rom. 1. 10. was to transgress this law, it was pronounced in a terrible sort, as I have said, till the astonished people were forced to cry, Ne loquatur Dominus, ne forte mori●…, which was done to breed unto your hearts a horror of sin and faith in God's promises of the Messias, as Moses testifies, ut terror esset in vobis & non peccetis: The Exod. 10. yoke of this law, was so heavy on the one part, & the corruption of our rebellious nature, so violent on the other part, that even as great inundations, by their impetuous force, carry away the ramparts & bulwarks which men have digged to restrain them, and over flows their ordinary banks, even so those obstinate jews by the vehement course of their wicked nature did transgress and dooborde over all the limits of this law, that it had no use among them but for their conviction which hath made the Apostle to say, Lex propter transgressionem posita est: till, God out of his pity did provide a third law and doctrine, which was the help again of this, and the final fulfilling of all Laws, the law evangelical and of Grace: The Lord jesus Christ, beside whom no mortal man hath been or shallbe able to fulsill a law or to please God. So that we see these three laws, every one of them written and as it were indented one in the other, the natural first written in the heart of Adam, but written over again by fairer letters in the Mosaical Tables: And that again more clearly written in the evangel by exhibition of him who was the perfection of all Laws. The second doth expound the first, and the third doth both expound and accomplish, the other two like unto these wheels seen by Ezechiell in a vision, having the one incorporate in the other, every sin committed against the law of Nature is also against the Mosaical law, because the Mosaical is included in the Natural, & what is against the Mosaical, is also against the law of the evangel, which is the perfection of both the former. It is this way and reciprocally, there is no excuse, the jew saith, he will follow the Mosaical, and not be a Christian, the Turk saith he will do neither, but obey the law of nature. They are deceived, for they differ only in this, that the first two serves to show us our sins, and make us inexcusable, the last saves us from our sins and makes us righteous before God, they be all but one law, proceeding from less perfect, to more and most perfect, here it is said Crede & vives, there it was said fac & vives. The seed sown in the ground, it groweth first into the blade, next it shoots up into the stalk, and thirdly it comes up into the grain of corn: the seed of God, which is his word, it was sown in the heart of Adam, where it grew to the blade, and then being in danger to wither, the Lord did refresh it by the Mosaical law, where it brought out the stalk, and again into the Gospel it produced the perfect corn and fruit of life: so that he who is not a good Christian, he is neither a perfect jew, nor a perfect Philosopher: and by the contrary, he who is a right jew he must become a right Christian, they are necessarily complicat. The jew was bound to fulfil the Law, but he could not, & we perform it in and by Christ, so that he can never perform a jewish obligation, unless he be a follower of Christ, omnia possum in Christo, saith the Apostle. This is no paradox, if God be (as he is which none do deny) creator of all men, master and monarch of all the World, the World then must be one family, one City, one kingdom of God, no earthly Prince will willingly have divers Laws in one kingdom, then shall we think that God, who is wiser than men, and wisdom itself would give several laws for the word? no, sure enough all those three be but one Law, the light whereof doth shine into the conscience of the jew and Gentile, Turk and Pagan, Philosopher, and of the stupid multitude, signatum est super omnes lumen vultus Domini: whereupon it must follow, that this light is inextinguishable, it is that which we call our never dying conscience: when a man doth apprehend the knowledge of any thing by the virtue of his intellectual mind it is science, and he is said Scire, to have knowledge, the conscience again is the right application and employment of this knowledge, it is a medium a midst betwixt God and man, and the rule whereby we know if any thing be in the counsels of our mind, or actions of our will, contrary to this natural light, and divine instinct of reason, which God hath placed in our hearts like a clear lamp to illuminate our intellectual spirit, that it might see and discern right from wrong, and truth from falsehood, which is a thing so manifest that the Ethnic Philosophers, and the word of God do jump upon it: The naturallitie of Cicero, and the Theology of Saint Paul concur to prove it almost in the same terms: Cicero in the third Tusculan Question writing to Brutus, sunt enim ingenijs nostris semina innata virtutum, quae si adolescere liceret, neque illa celeriter malis moribus opinionibusque depravatis extingueremus, ipsa nos natura ad beatam vitam perduceret: And the Apostle Paul writing also to the Romans; Quum Gentes quae legem non habent, naturaliter ca quae legis sunt faciunt, eiusmodi legem non habentes, ipsi sibi sunt Lex, qui ostendunt opus legis scriptum in cordibus suis: It is so plain for the light of nature (excepting always the last clause of Cicero concerning beatitude) as if Paul & Cicero had conferred upon it, which ground for the first, being set down in truth as your Lo: sees, I crave that you will be content to examine all the points of this Treatise by the touchstone of the divine light & instinct of your conscience: & where your Lo: find those, (which as is said are inspirations from heaven) contradictory to your opinions, that in that case you will suffer your conscience to be directed by this light, which God hath given you to guide it by, & that your Lo: will forbear your pretence of devote ignorance & implicita fides, things that do merely extinguish this light of nature, if it please you to do so, & not to smother under a bushel this clear candle, which God hath illuminate in your heart, there is no doubt but as Cicero saith, that same Natura Dux, the very light of Nature which hath a Divine stamp in your conscience, shall show you an outgate from the childish Labyrinths of superstition that do involve your Lo: for if any should say to me, seeing there is such power in the instinct of natural reason, flowing from this divine light, how is it that so many millions of those who be endued with the same are induced to idolatry, I can give no other answer then the wise man hath given stultorum infinitus numerus est: the number of fools and those who are mistaken in their own light, is infinite. Now I will take my first advantage of this ground to appeal to the divine light of your Lo: conscience, how you do judge of that which already from so many Texts of Scripture, I have spoken touching the plainness and perfection of God's word, since on the one part the spirit of God doth testify, that it is eternal, incorruptible, and inspired from Heaven, able to make the man of God perfect, and on the other part this intellectual light of nature serving as eyes to receive in our conscience, the brightness of this word, it is so powerful, that very Gentiles have clearly known it: and seeing it is sufficient to convict the conscience of Turks, and Pagans of contempt and ignorance of this word, I ask your Lo: how shall it be with us who beside the having of this light, have been brought up in Christian Religion, have been taught God's word, can read it in several languages, and understand it, when we shall refuse to believe for our faith, this word preached in purity when we shall hold it insufficient for our Salvation, embracing in place thereof, what? an implicita fides an implicit faith, the colliers belief, and what is that? I believe with the Church, and how believes she? she doth believe with the collier: is not this ambulare in circuitu impij as the Scripture saith, to walk in the about-gates of the wicked; well let us remember how it shall be worse in that day with Corazim and Bethsaida then with Sodom, because they had greater light and did despice it; They say ignorance is the mother of Devotion: And the Apostle saith: Qui ignorat ignorabitur, if ignorance cannot excuse a Turk, because of that light of God's face which is stamped in his heart, let any man tell me what it can avail a Christian to brag of his devout ignorance, affected ignorance is never a whit better than knowledge without belief or well doing. Let us here the Prophet Isay, my people is carried captive, because Isai 5. they had no knowledge, neither is now a days any other reason of idolatrous captivity, than this pretended holy ignorance, so that for a Christian man to glory in it, it is to become sicut equus & mulus quibus non est intellectus. Therefore let your Lo: remember you are sealed with this Lumen vultus Dei, and that he hath blessed you with knowledge to understand, that the holy Scriptures are a perfect and never perishing word. The second ground I would have your Lo: to condescend Definition of Idolatry. upon with me for preparation of your more indifferent judgement, is a certain definition of idolatry which may content your Lo: and me both, to the end we may the better reason of idolatrous worship: For as concerning abuse in religion, and impiety in manners, they be trivial points that there can be no mystery in a survey of the same. Idolon is a Greek word which literally signifieth, as much as a little Form, or Figure, form or figured, but taken as it is spoken in Christian schools, and according to the best Doctors it is a representation of a false God, and a false Deity, or a Creature taken and honoured for God. As to say the Statue of Moloch, of jupiter, the Sun, or Moon, the Hebrew word Elil, as I read, have very right this same signification of Idol, and is used in holy Scripture to signify the Pagan gods, which were things false, and so nothing. Esay saith of Isai. 41. the gods of the Gentiles, Behold you are nothing and your works are of no worth. Unto the which, Saint Paul alluding, We know, said he, that an Idol is nothing in the world: because howsoever it be made of metal, timber, or stone, yet because the falsehood which it representeth is nothing, it is said to be nothing. Now so jealous is God of his honour and worship; That he hath not only forbidden material images to bow down to them, but there is also spiritual Idolatry forbidden: whereof there is two sorts; The first is of these, who directly, or indirectly, have society and company with the Devil, and trust in him, as Sorterers, Magicians, Witches, Consulters. The second is of those, who maintain any erroneous opinion, concerning the worship of God, or against the word of God, or who do cherish and defend, any great and odious vice, by a displayed banner against God, as the Prophet Samuel 1 Sam 15. speaking of the disobedience of Saul: Your rebellion saith he, is the sin of Witchcraft, and your transgression, Idolatry, the reason is because he who doth obey God after his own fantasy, and not after God's express Commandment, he doth prefer his own conceit, and make an Idol thereof, as Saint Jerome in this same sense shows, how there was oftentimes Idolatry among the jews when they had no material Idols, as the Gentiles, saith he, worship corporal Idols; so the jews hold for gods, those Idols which they have forged in their souls, and therefore they are Pagans and Idolaters. Saint Austen expounding the meaning of josua when he exhorted the jews newly entered in Palestina to put away their strange gods. It is not to be thought that in this time the jews had any Pagan god, said he, because immediately before he did praise their obedience, neither is it to be thought that he spoke these words without cause; so it was, said he, that the holy Prophet understanding them to have in their hearts erroneous opinions of God, contrary to his honour, he desired them to leave them. Saint Paul doth clearly testify, that the avaricious man, and the glutton, be Idolaters: the one of his gold, the other of his belly, Quorum Deus Coloss: 3. venture est. Many were among the Philosophers, whose wisdom did never suffer them to worship Creatures as Idols, yet were they spiritual Idolaters, by denying of the Resurrection, and of the immortality of the Soul, in that true eternity which God hath appointed for it. The jews and Turks this day do not worship any material Idol, yea they worship the same God whom we do, yet they are Idolaters, because they do not acknowledge him as he is a Divine Essence, distinguished in three persons, but after a fantasy, devised by Mahomet here, and there be the Cabalists, of whom and of of all such, Saint Basil saith, Cursed be the men who forge false imaginatione in their own brains, and Isa. 2. carry spiritual Idolatry in their hearts. And Gregory Nazianzen more plainly; How is it come, saith he, even to this, that every wicked man doth make a God of his wickedness, his filthy passions, his wrath, his murders, his lust, and drunkenness, and other abominable excess. And Saint Jerome writing upon Isay and Orat. 2. de Theol●…. Hosea, in divers places, and Augustine in the City of God doth reckon monstrons numbers of false gods whom poor Gentility had forged to themselves, aswell in their fantasies as in their Temples: both which sorts of jolatrie God hath very well foreseen, and very strictly forbidden, by his precept of no graven image in heaven above nor in the earth beneath, wherein, no doubt, by the heaven are meant not only the Planeticall bodies, but imaginations of Angelical figures to be counted of us for gods: and all intellectual fantasies and falsehoods, contrived by human brain in matters of God's worship, that they shall have no place in our minds: which point your Lo: sees how clear it is. It being so then that the poor blinded Pagans, who are strangers to doctrine of holy Scripture, and kept back from it by the laws of Tyrants, they are thus convicted by the Doctors of the Church, not only for material Idolatry, but even for spiritual, through the excess of every predominant vice, or erroneous fantasy which did transport them, and that Saint Augustine introduces josua as we have heard, exhorting the jews to quit their Idolatry of wrongful opinions, I will in like manner appeal to the divine light of your Lo: conscience, how vigilant you think a good Christian must be about the points of God's worship, or what warrant there is (this description of Idolatry admitted) first, to erect and maintain such number of images in the Popish Church. Secondly, what warrant to equal with God the power of the blessed Virgin. And lastly, and above all, what warrant presumptuously to affirm, that any elementary thing is really the person of God himself. I understand that from such grounds as be in the Roman Church, your Lo: will give pretended reason enough, but that is contrary to my protestation, whereby I have tied your Lo. to that which the Divine instinct of your conscience doth say to you, in favours of the meanest of those superstitions; as for the last two of them, I need not insist much, because I think they be extra controversiam Idolatries; But understanding well, how your Lordship will hold for the Images, by reason of the good meaning and use which is had of them, and from the common ground, ab abusu ad non usum non est argumentum; Certainly, such fearful abuses have I seen, which make me to say, alas, we do not remember what a peremptory, terrible and jealous God he is, in the whole order, and in the smallest circumstances of his worship, he hath said he is a Spirit, and will be worshipped in spirit, and no other will content him; Let us exhauste our whole means, let us distill our brains from never so good a meaning, to worship him, if our doing go not with his own rule, it is hateful abomination in his eyes, and chiefly where any thing is added, or altered to the substance and Essence of God's word, given out by himself, it is Idolatry, (and which is more) in the highest degree, whereof that one instance of King Saul his disobedience might suffice for a thousand examples, who could have doubted of his extraordinary good meaning, in sparing the fat beasts to sacrifice unto the Lord: more, who would not have imagined it should approve his thankfulness towards God, and yet the Prophet Samuel called it the sin of Witchcraft, which is Idolatry in the Superlative degree, and for it, had denounced the renting and transferring of his kingdom: why? because the Lord who knows the heart of man, he did see that Saul by his addition to his Commandment did prefer his own invention thereunto, hunting thereby after a reputation of zeal in God's service, and so honour to himself; God looks to the sincerity of our spirit, to see that no arrogancy be there, nor no discrepance from his holy will in matters of his worship, how many times did he cast off his people Israel, because of their presumptuous confidence in religious Ceremonies, in false and Pharisaical works, because of their lippe-labour, and external show of piety, saying, their heart was far from him, and that he was carried with their tedious and loathsome sacrifices. Sisteterint Moses & Samuel coram me non est anima mea ad populum istum. Even the best earthly Princes are jealous of their Majesty, but this God of Majesty he is a consuming fire of jealousy in points of his worship, he pronounced Saul's reprobation and overthrow by Samuel, for that which appeared to man a light transgression, because it was a point of his Majesty and honour, but by the Prophet Nathan he easily pardoned David for his adultery and murder, which seemed in human eyes most heinous wickedness, because they were not points of his worship, but sins of weakness: next he looked to both their hearts, in the heart of David, it was fleshly corruption which made him to fall, in the heart of Saul it was the pride of spiritual Idolatry, adding to God's worship, thinking himself wiser than God, and saying to the Prophet, he had obeyed God, as it is said in the Church of Rome, that worshipping of Images is a point of God's honour, while as it is directly contrary to his Commandment. Let all the world tremble at that strict dealing of the Lord with his good servant Moses, in a point of his Commandment at the waters of Contradiction, were the Israelites did grudge: God said to Moses and Aaron that they should take up the Rod, and speak to the Rock of Rephidim and it should yield waters, loquimini ad Petra●…, because he did strike the Rock and did not utter his speeches confidently to God's meaning, saying distrustfully, behold rebellious, if we may bring water out of this rock; man would imagine that there was but a Peccadiglio, a small fault, or none at all, yet the Lord did not only impute it for disobedience, because thou hast not honoured me before my people (said he) but he did punish it in most rigorous manner in man's eyes, yet justly, he let him not enjoy the fruits of his long pains in the wilderness, preventing him by death; saying, for this thou shalt never enter into the land: considering then that precise Commandment in special; Thou shalt make no kind of Image in heaven nor earth, nor in the waters: considering secondly the strictness of God's word and will in general, wherein Qui cadit in syllaba cadit in t●…to; And considering thirdly the greatness of his jealousy, what a furious audacity is it, that we should sport with God so manifestly to prevaricate in his worship, by so many Idols and strange invocations, by twenty ave mary's for one Pater noster, avowedly repugnant to his precept, presuming to excuse it, with a good meaning, and with I know not what distinctions of Dulia and Latria, as if God himself could not have put down the distinction. Certainly I think not only Moses, but even Saul had better excuses for his fault, it is no distinction will serve the turn, The Lord he is a jealous God and strict in the point of his worship; They are not founded upon the chimeras of our head, but upon his holy will, and who so pleaseth to be homely with it, shall receive the same doom of Samuel pronounced against Saul that his sin is a sin of Witchcraft. The most profound Doctor and best versed thac ever hath been in God's Law was the Prophet David, who speaking in his first Psalm of the just man, said in lege Domini est voluntas eius, whose delight (saith he) and will is the Law of God: which words are observed to have a good importance of knowledge, noting this much, that we must not wry God's Law to our fancies, though it seem never so holy and devout, nor to our interpretation, our will, or our delight; no, but we must conform our will and delight to be in it. The Law says, sit irreprehensibilis Episcopus: And must we make our own gloze to say it is a Counsel and not a Command. The Law says, Qui viderit mulierem ad concupiscendam eam iam maechatus est in cord, shall we interpret that it is spoken to Married persons: The Law says, Omnis anima subdita sit superioribus potestatibus: shall we gloze it to be so long, as they govern virtuously? The Law says absolutely thou shalt have no kind of image to bow down to it: Shall we forge an exposition with our frivolous distinctions, as if God did sophisticate with us in the directions of his own worship: truly by this sort of doing, Lex est in tua voluntate, non autem tua voluntas in Lege, The Law of of God is in your will and not your will in the Law: therefore David himself did not only press to keep the Law, but kept in his heart also Gods own pure meaning in the Law, In cord meo absc●…ndi eloquia tua: He not only obeyed the Law, but he obeyed it by the right way of obedience, Uiam mandatorum tuorum cucurri. For who knows not this to be true, quod iniustus potest facere justa, sed non just, that an unjust man may do a just act but not justly. Therefore we must not only observe God's precepts according to his own word precisely, but which is more, we must do it as Saint Paul saith, Ex cord puro & conscientia non ficta, for this is to do just things justly, facere secundum substantiam ●…erum & secundum intentionem Legis latoris, to do the substance expressly of that which is commanded, and to do it after the manner and meaning of him who did command it. Out of these it did appear by the divine light of reason, that the worshipping of images in ●…e Popish Church, must be indeed Idolatry, regar●…ed chiefly as they are, which I will shortly tell your Lordship. All the while I was in France, my mind was busied in taking pleasure in those exterior shows so gracious to my senses, and never seen of me before, that I took no leisure to lift up the vail which was so delicately painted, that I might see what poisoned and deadly hooks lay hidden under such pleasant baits, reserving my chief curiosity to have her contentment in the famous City of Rome, a place most proper for true discovery, and chiefest Theatre of the world for knowledge of things, from the which no mystery can remain unseen, of one who hath engine and dexterity to explore it. For agitation of great Counsels, it is like the Primum Mobile, which in his Motu rapto, carries with him the inferior orbs, so it is the main sphere that ●…es many States in Christendom, that beside their own natural course, they are shaken by a violent and contrary motion thereof, as miserable experience doth daily declare '; thither went I about this kind of exploration, to know truth by falsehood; But I protest so free yet from prejudice against Rome, that, all in contrary, so desirous I was to see that truth in Religion, that piety in manners, that upright holiness every way which hath been reported to me, that I might say with the Prophet, Sicut Cernus ad fontes aquarum, ita anima mea sicut terra sine aqua, my heart did boil in these desires, as dry grounds thirsting for rain, and the Dear after fresh fountains; and while it was so yet, I must speak to the truth of God's glory, which is the scope of all this Treatise: I did no sooner feel the air of Italy, than I begun to smell there, with an apprehension of tyrannous Idolatry, in such manner that the practices which I did see there, compared with that which I had seen in France, by the Professors of that same Religion, they represented to my mind the fashions of ancient Gentilism; the things I was earnestly bend to search, were chiefly these: The power of their Miracles, whether they were true things, or impostu●…es and deceits, as their enemies did affirm. Secondly, the weight of the Pope his dispensations, and indulgences, whether they were such impious traffic thereabout, as was also alleged. Thirdly, the condition of their Cloisterall life, and whether it were polluted with such abominable filthiness, as is pretended by others, who call Rome a Sodom, a Babylon. Lastly, the strength of the Pope his Sovereignty as it is now usurped over temporal Princes and States, and from what warrant they could depend. CHAP. III. A relation of the lewd and impudent superstitions of Rome, and of the ridiculous miracles which be pretended thereinto. AS for the working of miracles, together and at once shall a man see the falsehood of that, and the truth of idolatrous worship, and both in such lewd open and impudent manner, that it seems to me the first miracle in the World, how such trumperies should be so long believed: For as true Religion hath the own corruption by reason of our corruption, so every superstition hath the own periods, as experience from time to time hath taught. So soon as I entered in Lombary at Turine the seat of the Savoiard, it was told me there, that the Duke had lately arrived from a Pilgrimage of Loret, & that the Prince his son, was at the Pilgrimage of nostra donna de mondenie. And were to be seen from that towards Rome great multitudes of people, going to divers Churches of the Saints in divers parts of the Country, chiefly in Loret and with such familiar, and affronted idolatry, that if that one did see the Chapel of our Lady in his horyson, presently he went to his knees although in the midst of a puddle, to pray to that image namely of that place, avowing that same image to be lately become a great worker of miracles & that he himself had frequent revelations & comforts from the same: this sort of discourse with such like fabulous traditions of Saints, received from their predecessors, was only to be heard in those voyages, except it should be (for recreation) some rare act of Ribaldry, out of Pogius or Arretine, and perhaps two imitated in that holy journey of devotion, where it was not strange to see both the Priest and the whore lodge together all night: I speak the truth, such pains did I endure about these matters, out of a curiosity to see some miraculous sight, as I may be ashamed to relate, going many miles on foot (for observation of the rite) to the danger of my health and perpetual hurt of my complexion, visiting the most famous Chapels and Churches for miracles, on their own holie-days, where great concourse of people was, many stigmatic and diseased persons, priests, exorcists, devotion, alms, with great promises of wonders to be seen: but O how I did pity to see the ridiculous birth of those swelling mountains, to see how far, minuit praesentia famam. I did in particular see in Saint Peter's Church at Rome, that Cathedra Petri pretended to ease women in the time of their birth, by applying to them a girdle which hath touched this chair, I did see in that same Church, that Pillar of marble said to be the same unto the which our Saviour was tied to be scourged, and now used to dispossess Demoniac persons: I did see the practic of that Chapel in Rome called nostra donna de monte, renowned lately for her emulation with Loret. I did see at Venice upon the owen day, that blood pretended to be of our Saviour, in the Church called the Friary, which no Demoniac person can endure to look upon as they say. I did see another like to that in Naples, and in the Regno nostra Donna de gli angeoli, where lieth the body of Saint Francis the elder: I did see in Lombardie Nostra Donna de Regge highly esteemed for miracles, divers in Milan. That of Piamont, de mondevie, That Nostra Donna betwixt Genova and Marsilia said to deliver many from rapine and Turkish Pirates, I did see in Provence at Saint Maximo the body of Mary Magdalene: I did see in the Land of jais in Sweezerland that called St. Clowes talked of for miracles also; And lastly I did see that arch pilgrimage of Loret itself. To all those I did repair in solemn times, but what did I see? two things as I have said, fearful idolatry, and a base contemptible trade of forged miracles maintained by incredible stupidity, and blindness of besotted people, as it were with the drink of some new Circe, in such sort that I cannot tell how often I called to mind that ground of Machavell in his politics de Repub. whereby, in settling of great states, he doth ascribe more to popular ignorance and simplicity and to the power of Superstition, then to whatsoever laws or stately policies beside, preferring Numa, and his contrived Religion, with his feigned Goddess Aegeria, unto the arms and painfulness of Romulus, which opinion it seemed to me he did conceive by his contemplation of the Christian superstitions of his time: For certainly there is nothing in antiquity which hath been better followed by these of succeeding ages, than the ancient gentilism of Rome appears to be renewed by the foolish idolatry of these days: it is so notorious that I need not to be tedious in bringing forth examples, only this, the Roman History doth tell us that the Statesmen of old were able to lead the popular to what they would by an augure, divination, or presages in Religion, which it pleased them to devise, and I say that now a days a forged revelation of our Lady, a pretended miracle accompanied with a Bull from the Pope, is able to effectuate as much: In Ethnic Rome in her beginning, her chief Senators grudging against the virtuous and watchful reign of Romulus their King, they did secretly murder him, making the people to believe that he was ravished to the Heavens, and relatus inter Diu●…s, and the Jesuits this day, who be the first Senators and Counsellors of the Court of Rome, fearing the superintendency of Christian Princes over her pride, who are deputed by God to be Fathers of his Church; they have vented a pernicious Doctrine through out the World, authorizing the slaughter of Kings, making people believe that it is a Doctrine from Heaven, and an act meritorious before God. In Ethnic Rome Numa by his pretended secrecy with the goddess Aegoria, procured the popular acceptation of his fond and foolish superstitions, and the Jesuits this day by their pretended privity with the blessed Virgin, they have bewitched multitudes of people with false belief in points of Doctrine never heard of before. Ethnic Rome in her beginning, being resolved for her grandeur and increase, to transplant the Town of Alba, to be incorporated with herself, because the fortune had fallen so in the combat betwixt the brethren Horatij and Curiatij. The Albans did withstand it from a religious reverence unto their Gods, until a crafty Roman demanding their chief Idol, vis venire Romam, ' did answer, quod annuit Dea, that she did beckon with her head in token of her consent: And the honest Alban did believe it, holding it for a Divine oracle for their conjunction with Rome. And I did see at nostra Donna de Regge in Lombardy, where there is a portrait of our Lady lately found, old and defaced, but esteemed miraculous: a gentleman, who in my presence did affirm, that in time of the Mass the image did move her countenance, albeit I who also looked on, could perceive no such thing: and many Images in Italy, are said to have spoken at divers times. Ethnic Rome in their conquests, they did still observe this trick, to transport to their Pantheon, the Gods of every conquered Country, & what else doth Rome now, neither altering the form of that Temple Pantheon, nor in effect the name, call it Omnium Sanctorum, of all Saints; of old the receptacle of all Gentile Gods, and now the station of all forged Gods in Christianity: Briefly it seems to me the Gentiles did no other than they do, to take Idols in God's place, will we say the Gentiles embraced many Gods, for the true God; all is one, if it were so, but contrarily there was never Philosopher nor wise man among the Gentiles, who did not acknowledge, that one only great God, and the immortality of Souls (suppose he knew not how) were for opinions of state, the arch-pillers of good policy, and good manners: That plurality of Gods, was but craftily obtruded upon the popular, to illude them for mysteries of government. Let any man read Cicero, in that which he writes de natura Deorum. Let us consider how Socrates gave his life for that opinion, that there was but one God: How Plato doth establish the unity of one God with admirable conceptions of the blessed Trinity, how the Poet junenal doth mock that base and senseless ignorance of the plurality of Gods among the Egyptians, and how the young Lucan speaketh Divinely of the ●…mortalitie of the soul in the death of Pomp●…y: In all which things one shall see preferment of happiness after this life granted to good and virtuous souls, by those Poets and Philosophers: So that in the point of Images, we are as guilty at the Gentiles, and equally idolatrous, they did acknowledge as we do, one omnipotent God: And for the like good ends as be propounded in the Popish Church for Images, had they the plurality of Gods, that is to say to be the Books of the people, to be the instruments of devotion, order, and obedience, if we will say the common people among the Gentiles esteemed a Deity in the Idol, I reply that Christians now a days do it much more, because I have proved it to be so, a hundred times, first how can we say it is abuse or ignorance popular, that causeth Idolatry, for it is not only the multitude that holdeth the real presence in the Sacrament of the Altar, and whether it be idolatrous to do so, and to affirm that a piece of bread is that blessed body of whom the holy Scripture saith in quo habit at corporaliter omnis plenitudo Dictatis. Secondly we cannot say, that by vulgar abuse but by express authority, the Virgin is in all their prayers encalled in the proper terms of God, Saviouresso, Goddess: fons misericordiae, sons salutis & gratia, salus omnium in Te sperantium, which no doubt is to wrong that holy virgin to usurp her name, to derogate from the worship of God: thirdly, touching Images, I know your Lo: will say howsoever there be abuses in them, yet the Popish Church doth not approve it: and if it were so, the strong abuses which be, are reason enough, why to condemn them: but it is other ways & the Doctrine of Rome doth authorize in matter of Images, both falsehood and abuse, & I show it thus: Our prayers are heard and regarded of God, not for the quality of our words which are but a sounding, and as imbassadors to carry our supplications, but they are heard for the disposition of our heart, as God himself hath said this people is full of babbling but their heart is far from me, therefore I will not hear them. Now God himself hath said of himself, that he is only Cardiognostes, only searcher of the rains, and understander of the heart: whereupon I ground my argument, That which may lawfully be prayed unto, doth know the secrets of the heart, But the Church of Rome teacheth, I may pray to the Image of our Lady in Loretto, Ergo, The Church of Rome teacheth, that an Image knoweth the secrets of the heart. And that again is mere falsehood, because it is only proper to God to know the heart; here again, I know it will be answered that it is not the image, sed quod numen ibi est praesentius, and I reply if it were so, is not that truly to put a Deity into the person of our Lady, to make her know the secret hearts of million of people, who at one time be prostrate before her in divers climates of the world and for divers causes, which in like manner is both false and impossible: But I say that the people holdeth that the image itself in Loret, doth hear more, grant more, work more than any other whatsoever, and than the operative virtue is in the image, because the person of our Lady is but one thing like to itself at all times, and not divers, I tell this to your Lo: out of experience, which is most sure of any thing, and I appeal to the Divine light of your Lo: conscience, whether you do not think that Plato, Socrates, Cicero, junenal, Lucan, would not have esteemed this to be idolatry? which is ordinarily practised there, with such strange and strong confidence, of bewitched people, that, (to speak of miracles, & their ridiculous falsehood) God knows there is no sort of common disease of men's persons, no sort of common dangers that be both universal and quotidian through the whole world, which this brutish blindness doth not ascribe to a miracle of one image or other, to the staining of God's good Saints in Heaven, whose names are by these means abused, to colour the false and idolatrous worship of the Creator. If a woman escape the danger of childbirth, if a man a burning ague, or a tempest upon the Sea, or the hands of Brigands, if his horse fall to the earth with him, and numbers of such events as come to pass sometimes by a man's own skill, and foresight, sometimes by Physicians, sometimes by natural alterations, and still by God's ordinary providence, they are all reputed for miracles, and their badges set up in the Chapels of those images, whom these fond fools imagine to to have done it, so that hardly can one find an empty place in such Chapels to receive the vowed gifts, and donations of so many as come daily to offer tokens of such miracles done to them: Of which sort I have seen usque ad nauseam, even to make a man distaste them: but I affirm, that God never vouchsafed me the honour to see a true working of a miracle within the Church of Rome, but by the contrary, I was astonished to behold such frenzy of superstition, blinding the wits of the most understanding people in Christendom, oftentimes repeating to myself the words of the Apostle: Insensati, quis vos fascinavit, O nimium faciles ad illudendum! For howsoever we be of corrupted nature inclined to superstitious vanities, yet to see the best spirits of men so captivate, and of those who know the Histories of Gentilism and Ethnic Idolatry, who can put difference betwixt rude and ignorant times, and times of light and knowledge: what shall I say? as men grow to age, we say they grow to wisdom, that the very age and experience of the world, and this greater light than Gentiles had, should not suffice to save men from the like superstitions to gentiliseme, it seemeth very strange, the like I say, for change but on Idol, and what difference is betwixt Loret and Delphos, change more Idols and what betwixt Pantheon and Omnium Sanctorum: For as for the substance of Idolatry, which is a people credulous, blind, superstitious, above measure, sicut equus & mulus quibus non est intellectus, usurping numbers of creatures in place of the Creator, if we shall parallel those ancient Times of Gentilism with the superstitions of Italy now, even as old men become twice Children, so one would judge, that by the like dotage, the world is fallen into her second Childhood, which is more childish than the first: for to avouch for miracles, the ordinary and quotidian chances of the world, it is worse than to believe that famous rhapsody of the Legendaries, whereof it is wonderful that they should find a reporter setting a side the believer. Always touching this point I will ingeniously confess to your Lo: how it was upbraided to myself at Rome, that I was ●…dice fidei in the behalf of miracles. One day brought to look upon some exorcism, to be done at the aforesaid Pillar in Saint Peter, and in the end being demanded by a learned man, what was my judgement of that which I had seen, I said I was satisfied but that no heretic would have been much moved with that matter as it went: he did reply with some pickquant and sharp words, Aristotle shows, said he, that every man is not Idoneus Auditor Philosophiae, Fools, idiots, base and mechanike minds; those who be subject to pregnant vices, and such are debarred, so said he your heretics are not Idonei spectatores of holy acts, because they are unfaithful. It is written of our Saviour said he in Matthew, that he might not do miracles in Nazareth Non potuit, because in the justice of God, that cannot be done, which ought not to be done: but to do miracles in Nazareth by reason of their contempt and unbelief, it was dare sanctum canibus, to cast pearls before Swine; He told me that text of Isai, nisi eredider it is now intelligetis, Isai 9 Saying, the punishment of Heretics was like unto that of the pharisees, who came to Christ demanding miracles, they did misbeleeve and were scandalised in the holy actions of Christ: Scandalizabantur in eo, saith the Apostle, and so be all those who have no faith, as the Prophet writes of him, Erit in Petram scandali & in Isai. 〈◊〉. lapidem offensionis: and as he himself hath said in the Gospel, Beatus qui non fuerit scandalizatus in me, so said he, if you will be a true spectator of holy mysteries, you must take heed that you be not modicae fidei, for that is to be scandalised in Christ, which pithy speeches I confess did sink so far in my heart, that they moved me many times after, to search with myself how far I might, or aught to be tied to the belief of miracles, wherein, what I have concluded to think by the information of the more learned, I will shortly tell it to your Lo: to the effect that out of the abuse we may make our good and right use. First, I think it is no error to hold that only God, The true end of Miracles. and no man can work true miracles, Christ because he is both God and man, had the inherent power to do whatsoever miracles he pleased, and whensoever he pleased, but none other, either Man or Angel had the l●…e. The Prophet David saith, Tues Dous qui facis mirabilia magna solus: And there is nothing more true, Qui Psalm. 17. solus legem naturalis cursus instituit, ille solus potest illa●… tollere: God only may change the course of nature, because God only did institute the same. Moses, Elias, Elizeus Saint Peter, Saint Paul, did all true miracles, but not they, but God in them, as Saint Peter testifies in the Acts, speaking of the jews who were astonished at his miracles, why, said he, marvel ye at us, as though by our power we had made this Cripple to walk; The God of Abraham, Isaac and jacob, and the name of jesus, Acts 3. whom you have killed, hath made him sound. Always to reason a little of it, it appears that either by their faithful prayers God was moved to work those miracles, or there was in them so me operative virtue of that kind subordinate to the Divine power, as into the works of nature all second causes depend upon the first and supreme cause: if we say that such virtue was in them, it seems contrary to the words of David, Qui solus facis, if we say they had not this power, it seems against the common phrase of the holy Scripture: Peter or Paul did raise the dead, restore sight to the blind, and such other miracles: therefore I say, that to do miracles, it is gratia gratis data: a grace freely granted of God, as is the gift of prophesy, according to Saint 1 Cor. 12. Paul, and as the Saints by their prayers have entreated God to grant them the real gift of prophesy; so no doubt, the faith and prayers of the Saints have obtained from God, for the good of his own people, to be instruments and workers of Miracles: and as the gift of prophesy was not a constant and habitual virtue resident in their persons, by the which they might Prophesy when they would: As we see in Elizeus, who being once demanded of the king upon a secret, Dominus inquit, celavit a me: the Lord hath hidden it from me, Regum 4. when King David was bidden by the Prophet to build the Lords Temple, because God was with him in every thing, the same Prophet did forbid him the morrow after, confessing that he had spoken without God's privity, and therefore falsely: so that the gift of prophesy is a transient passion, as is the power of miracles, which is not neither permanent, but as the Saw hath a virtue to cut a sunder, not at all times, but when the craftsman putteth his hand to it. This extraordinary gift was not only not granted habitually, but it was granted to a few in number, and that in the beginning chiefly of jewish and Christian religion, for establishment of faith in the world, which was then bewitched with Ethnic Idolatry, strenghthned with Diabolical miracles, so that God well knew, Quod contraria contrarijs curantur, by the true miracles of his holy spirit, wrought by divers of his good Saints to the astonishment of people, he did discredit the spirit of Satan, and that was done in the beginning to purchase authority to the faith, as our Saviour saith, Si mihi non vultis credere, operibus credit, john 15. 10. si opera non fecissem quae nemo alius unquam fecit peccatum non baberent. But after the word of God and his Law hath been once established and received, as it was answered to the Rich man in the Gospel, Mosen habent & Prophetas: and therefore they might not look for one to come from the dead, who had the holy Scripture to look upon: even so we, after so many miraculous works done by our Saviour and his Apostles, for confirmation of our faith, and after the Gospel left in perfection by the Spirit of God, and embraced of the Gentiles for eternal verity; we are no more to depend upon miracles, as Christ himself testified after the doing of all these; Scrutamini Scripturas quia illa testimonium perhibent john 5. de me. There is no doctrine more true than this, that miracles have been only appointed of God, for the aforesaid use, for of themselves they are neither necessary nor sufficient for salvation; The Canancan and the Thief upon the Cross they did believe without miracles, and he himself hath said, Blessed are they who believe and have not seen: so as they are not necessary. Again, Pharaoh did see a number of miracles, and was ever the more hardened, which makes that they are not sufficient. Is it not then a great vanity that the Church of Rome should arrogate unto her, that power, which God thought not necessary to leave to his Church, Yea, and which he foresaw to be dangerous by reason of the weakness of human wisdom, to discern betwixt true and false miracles; what was it that did endure the heart of Pharaoh? want of belief in God no doubt, but herewith also, want of knowledge to discern betwixt Mosaical and Magical miracles, so that the leaving of this to the Church had been an ambush to catch men, and lead them to Idolatry and the service of Satan, testified plainly by the Scripture; The Prophet saith▪ Seduxerunt Populum meum in miraculis mendasibus. And in the Apostle, Surgent Pseudo Christi & pseudo Prophetae: jerem. 23. Dabunt signa magna & prodigia in populum, ita ut in Matth. 24. errorem inducantur etiam Electi si fieri potest. How many shall say of those Prophets, in Nomine tu●… prophetanimus, Demonia eijcimus. How mightily did Simon Magus deeeive the multitude so desirous of miracles, and so ignorant of them: Uir quidam Simon Magus seducebat Civitatem Matth. 7. Samariae quem auscultabuntur omnes a minimo ad Summum, dicentes haec est virtus Dei qui vocatur magna co Acts 8. quod multo tempore magicis suis signis dementasset cos. The looking for miracles is a token of jewish & unbelieving hearts, Signa non sunt data fidelibus sed infidelibus, saith the Apostle. Therefore they are most proper to the incredulous Synagogue of the jews, for the which 1 Cor. 14. cause above all the other Apostles, so great power of miracles was given to Saint Peter, the Apostle of the Acts 5. jews, that he did heal the strongest diseases with his shadow, which not only was never done by none of his fellow Apostles, but we do not read the like of Christ himself, judaei signa petunt, Gentes sapientiam quaerunt, saith 1 Cor. 1. Paul. Secondly, is it not more than madness in the Church of Rome, by arrogating unto her this perpetuity of miracles which God hath made only temporary and personal in the beginnings, she doth manifestly clothe herself with those marks whereby the Spirit of God doth point forth the Antichrist. Let us hear Saint Paul, Revelabitur iniquus ille cuius adventus erit secundum operationem Satanae in omni virtute signis & prodigijs mendacibus: 2 Thes. 2. & omni seductione iniquitatis his qui pereunt: And the Spirit of God in the Apocal: speaking of that second Beast which had two horns like to a Lamb, and spoke like a Dragon: Edetquo Signa magna adeo ut faciat ignem c Coelo discendere in conspectu hominum, & seducet Incolas Apoc. 13. Terrae propter signa quae datum est ei ut faciat in conspectu Bestiae: In which places as we see this Traffic of Miracles is plainly called, Operatio Satanae, and a seduction of those who must perish. By these I do appeal unto the divine light of your Lordship's conscience, whither you do not think that we ought to content ourselves with Moses, the Prophets and Apostles, following Christ's own precept Sorutamini Scripturas, to search the Scriptures, for the doctrine of Salvation, and to contemn this ridiculous and impious profession of pretended Miracles: I appeal to your Lordship, as you will be answerable to him who hath said of that light which he hath given you: Est lux vera quae illuminat vm●…m hominem venientem in mundum, Whether you do not think that those who in this Sunshine of God's word, would ground their belief upon Miracles, do not justly merit that answer of Christ to the Scribes and pharisees, demanding miracles, Generatio mala & adultera signum quaerit, and whither you Lordship do not hold all those who believe such poor and childish conceits be not justly given over to themselves as the Apostle saith; ut credant mendacio qui non crediderunt veritati. So I will conclude this point of Miracles and Idolatrous worship with two short observations, first for that exterior splendour and show of Religion by so many pilgrimages, holy days and festival evenings and others devout like exercises which do blind simple people, I say it is the common mark and mask both of Idolatrous service; the very pretended zeal and holy pretext of Balaam when he came to sacrifice upon the mount of Balaac, did bewray his Treachery, he cried to build him seven altars, while as Abraham who was so faithful & sincere a sacrificer, that the Spirit of God doth honour him with this Testimony, Abraham believed the Lord, and it was imputed to him for Righteousness: the first father of all the faithful when he went unto the mount to offer his son Isaac, he did content himself with one Altar, knowing how it is one Altar only that doth please God, and what is that? & what is the sacrifice? the Altar of our heart providing it be in uprightesnesse and faith, the immolation of contrite and faithful prayers, as the Prophet David saith (contrary to Balaam, who would have no less than seven Altars) Quoniam si voluisses sacrificium dedissem, utique holocaustis non delectaberis, Sacrificium Deo est spiritus contribulatus: So that it is ordinary to false worship to cloak and cover their devotion with more specious shows than are commanded by the word, or used by simple or true Professors, because as the Italian saith, Per coprir un gran mal bisognia un gran mantello, there is need of a side cloak to hide a great evil. Secondly I say, of such opinion maintained of miracles and popular credulity, as it was in Gentilism said by Numa Pompillius, Patres consilio valere decet, populo superuacanea est calliditas: The fathers of states should be wise, and subtle, but the people simple: so it is now said in Christian superstitions, that ignorance is the mother of Devotion, & that Apocrypha speech of Esdra, Haec narrabis Populo, & haec abscondes, holden for good Scripture, it is the special Stratagem whereby the devil doth lead men into the snares of idolatry to cry for miracles, and to depend upon them: They have been only ordained by God to beat and break down the hardness of infidelity in the first plantation of the faith, Moses and Aaron were strong in miracles, but the Israelites did no sooner come to the borders of Canaan, than they lost the light of their fiery pillar which conveyed them to it; they had no sooner passed jordan, than the Manna ceased to rain down food upon them. These extraordinary things were to comfort and confirm them in the wilderness, the unspeakable wisdom of God knows that a custom of miracles working, were to make us vilipend his most glorious miracles: So as we must say that as he had been a senseless jew, who would have refused to go forward into Canaan, because he wanted the pillar to convey him, and the Manna to feed him, even so must we esteem him a foolish Christian, who being entered into the clear light of Christ's Gospel, because he sees not the power of miracles which in the beginning of that Christian Progress was granted to Saint Peter and Paul, for conducting of the first believers through the wilderness of Gentilism, or of Pharisaical pride, and for comforting them to reject stoutly the yoke of their spiritual Pharaoh, because of this he will refuse to be guided by the Ark of God's word, wherein are comprehended the whole mysteries of his law; and without the which there is no way to the heavenly Canaan, certain he must be counted more than mad. CHAP. FOUR The impeietie of Papal Indulgences, the open Pollution of the caelibate, and other pregnant vices of Rome, against the credit of all Christian profession. I Come next to speak of that which I did observe touching Indulgence, and dispensation, wherein I need not to be tedious and longsome, the case being so notorious, only summarily and truly relate to your Lordship, of things which I did see, three or four, that did most specially offend me. There can be no more said concerning this abuse now adays, than our fore beeres have said many years ago, Omnia venalia Romae: and certainly no less; if we should speak uprightly: That is to say Rome is a common staple of Pardons for all the sins and crimes that can be committed, and those sold at so high a rate, which is the reason why one should think the Camera de Componendis, within Saint Peter Palace one of the richest houses in Christendom. This moved a fine jest in a certain Germane, who having some dispensation to purchase at Rome, which he looked to have granted to him gratis, but finding an ordinance on the back of it for payment of one hundred Ducats, took a pen and blotted out the date wherein was said Datum Romae, putting in the place of it Emprun Romae swearing, that because they had liberty of Conscience in Germany, that he would rather take it upon his liberty, then buy it so dearly. I did see their divers Monasteries or Conuentuall houses of religious persons, wherein live great numbers, which houses be no way endued with rents nor provided, but only referred to voluntary charity: for help whereof, the Pope doth grant them some privileged Altars, with extraordinary Indulgences, and a peculiar Festival day, upon the which, thither the whole people resorteth, but chiefly profligat and debaushed persons: as, Whores, Bawds, idle Rascals, Charlatanes' Coosoners, who for the offer of some gross alms, bring back with them so many Pardons of sins, so many soul Masses by redemption from Purgatory: enduring which time of the Visitation of this Altar, the people entering at one door, and issuing out at an other, all the day long, without intermission, there is no other voice to be heard at the first port, but calling out aloud, Fate una bellissima divotione: Make, Sirs, a brave devotion; by the which is meant, to give a fat Offering Conferring this ●…oyce with that which is to be heard in their Camera de▪ componendis, it resembleth in my ears that cry of the two Daughters of the Horseleech, mentioned in the Proverbs of Solomon, Dua sunt sanquisugae filiae quae semper clamant affer, affer: all which devotion consisteth in the multitude of those who bought the Pardons, being so under the name of Religious exercise, a Trade of abominable impiety: for while I was curious to ask the Priests of those Altars, upon the importance of their privileges; I did receive no other answer, but what was once granted by the Pope was absolutely good and effectual for all. Again, I saw this, which fell forth during my being there: The Duke of Nevers came there in great and glorious state, extraordinar Ambassador from the French King to the Pope, who, according to the custom of that Seat, with such personages, did grawt him Indulgences very large and bountiful, that one would have thought the ports of hell was not able to prevail against them: and when the Duke's Medals and Beads came to be blessed upon the Pope's Altar, according to the form, there was no famous Whore in Rome who had not also numbers put in for her, saying, (which I have heard with mine ears) The French Indulgences should procure them both English and Spanish money. This kind of Merchandise and public sale of sins is used in so lewd and vile a manner, that the most simple man in the world would count it to be a scurvy ridiculous invention of insatiable avarice. During my being at Rome, there happened to die there a rich Venetian Merchant, who left in Legacy a good sum of money to that Church, standing upon the Monte di Trinita, for celebration of his Funerals, and services for his soul, the same day which was appointed for those Funeral Offices, I did find myself soon in the morning upon that Mount, because it is a fresh and delectable walk, when a number of Friars, with great Torches, coming to enter into the Church, was demanded of a Gentleman of Rome, who was beside me, whither they did go? to whom one of them did answer, Andiamo cavare del purgatorio Lá●…ima di quel mercadante Venetiano chi morse láltro iorno: which is to say, translated sincerely we go to hale out of Purgatory the soul of that Venetian Merchant, who died the last day. The Gentleman replied in bitter speech against the Pope, calling him Cuillione, & Morbidotto, which be ignominious & contemptible words, because (saith he) he doth not keep in Purgatory to the world's end all those wretched souls of Venice, who do so disturb the Apostolic Seat: for it was in the mean time of those late broils betwixt the Pope and the Venetians. Can any jest in the world be more worthy of derision? then this or any thing more like the pitiful Idolatry of the Gentiles, where the Priests made the senseless people to think there was no way to make their gods propitious, but by their rich Offerings. This sort of doing is so frequent there, that we see no other business: and if it be true which they hold, Quell che fa sua santita è fatto, that which the Pope's Holiness doth, is done, certain all those of those Countries must be in heaven before their feet be cold, as we say, because the most wicked and godless among them never departeh this life, but laden with Pardons. And this far I think is enough to prove, that the abuse is not only authorized, but as it were married with Religion, seeing upon the means thereof they do found Cloystrall societies. And this only speaking de facto, for to reason Quo iure, these are practised, it is Theological, always the most learned among them have said to me touching the Pope's power, Ilnostro signore è dio sopta la terra, Our Lord the Pope he is God upon earth, he may dispense what he will: Yea (say they) if the question were to marry the King of Spain to an heretical Princess, the Pope will first dispense him to marry his own Sister. Is not this to go above the power of God, who hath said of his holy Law, that a jot thereof shall not perish not be changed? Well, to urge Theological Arguments I will not, but I remit your Lordship to search-the Scriptures, to see who it is there that doth sit in the Church of God, and exalt Dan. 11. 2. Thes. 2. himself above all that is called God. And now I appeal to the divine light of your Lordship's conscience, whether you do not think that the contemplation of so gross things; first, such Ethnic Idolatry, that while Paul and Barnabas being alive, did tear their clothes, and run upon the people, because they would have adored them, saying, they were but men like unto themselves. Now so much adoration must- be done to the Statues of their dead bodies, that one shall not enter within Saint Peter's Church at Rome, but we must kneel to salute him where he sits in brass, we must lay our head under his feet, and kiss every one of his toes severally. Then such impious and base avarice in this trade of Purgatory and Indulgences, that in their Camera de Componendis there sitteth Simon Magus, under the name of Simon Peter, making sale of the Spirit of God for money, of the mercies of God, of remission of sins, and the Kingdom of heaven, and that with such insatiable hands, that if ever I, who came from a remote Country to honour the Apostolical Seat, would give him largely for dispensation, he would willingly embrace it, as who knows what I did pretend: to be the more assured, I appeal to your Lordship's conscience, whether you think those were not sufficient to breed doubts of Religion in any man, in whom God hath left a spark of his fear, or one grain of right knowledge. Assuredly they moved me to great jealousy, and they were to me (as the first sight of the Angel was to the poor Ass of Balaam) terror albeit (I confess sincerely) the strong opinion which I had drunken so long before, & the plausible show of things, did for a while violently hold me into the same way, as Balaam did force his Ass to go on, after the first sight of the Angel. But when I begun to look upon the manners of the The Manners of Rome. people, and to consider what were the faults which were so ordinarily and easily pardoned (which is the third thing in number of those which I most narrowly observed) what shall I say? I know not how to speak the truth, and therewith to provide that my pen be not slandered for contumelies and Philippicke passions, always I shall so limitate myself, that I shall not blot so grave a purpose with an humour of railing or shamelessness: In the day of visitation and punishment, I shall begin at my sanctuary, saith the Lord, and wherefore is this? because Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis, as the Prelates be, so are the people, the example of the Rulers makes the manners of the multitude, as the Spirit of God doth testify by the Prophet Daniel, Egressa est Dan. 11. iniquitas à Senioribus & ab iis qui videbantur regere populum: Iniquity hath gone out from the Elders and those who seemed to govern the people: For this cause in a just censure of the manners of Rome, it cannot be avoided, first to look upon the Court, wherein is to be seen such fastuous and intolerable pomp, and such a degree of glory as hath never been usurped by any earthly Monarch, to behold the majesty of the Papal carriage, borne one men's shoulders, auro fulgens & smaragdis, shining amidst gold and jewels, those who bear him treading upon fine cloth, wherewith the Church pavement is covered, accompanied with a fearful guard, the thundering of Canons, the sound of trumpets, and all sorts of musical instruments: at whose presence, numbers of Princes, stately Ambassadors, great parsonages, and multitudes of people do fall to the ground, saluting him holy; holy, as if he would not only be Christ's Vicar upon earth, but also emulator of his divine glory in the Heavens, and be worshipped like that glorious Lamb, before whom numbers do fall down to cry holy, holy, holy, that upon the sight thereof I was indeed amazed, as if it had been a vision, and demanding a French Gentleman (who had newly also arrived with me, and was a zealous Papist) how he did esteem of that which he had seen; he answered me in the terms of (be God) that he thought it far different from the carriage of him who said, Regnum meum non est de hoc mundo, and who said to his Disciples, Exemplum de di vobis ut quemadmodum ego feci ita & vos faciatis, which answer I have many times since thought to be as pertinent, as if the holy Spirit had inspired it into him: For if the kingdom of the world be called the kingdom of sin and of darkness, than it is likely that the kingdom of Satan is at Rome, and not the kingdom of Christ: but that the kingdom of the world is called the kingdom of sin, the Scripture doth show, The Spirit of God in the evangel, compriseth the world under the name of sin, & hath divided it in three. Whatsoever saith john is in this world, john 1. 2. it is either concupiscence of the eye, concupiscence of the flesh, or pride of life: we may behold the wonderful harmony and correspondence of the same spirit of God throughout the whole Scriptures, in old and new Testament, as I said before, he hath made this division of the world and of sin here, equal with that diversity of sin which did enter into the world with Eva, in the beginning of the book of God, The text of Moses saith, and the woman saw that the Tree was pleasant to the eye, (there is concupiscence of the eye) that it was good for meat, (concupiscence of the flesh) and that it was to be desired for knowledge, (pride of life, emulation with God) so that the enjoying of these three concupiscences, is the enjoying of the kingdom of the world, as john saith, and that again to be contrary to the kingdom of Christ, no man can deny. For Christ had the offer made unto him of the kingdoms of the world from Satan, as we know, and did refuse it: Haec omnia tibi dabo si cadens adoraneris me. Now whither or not the Popes have taken this dominion of Rome from Christ, who said to their predecessor S. Peter: Exemplum tibi dedi ut quemadmodum ego feci ita & faciastu, or from the devil, Ezech. 16. who is prince of the world, it must be tried from those concupiscences; The Spirit of God bathe said in the Scripture, Haec fuit iniquit as Sodomae abundautia & otium, I will not rashly say, that Rome is Sodom, unless I show reason, but I will ask if ever any town, state or people had more abundance, and idleness then have the Pope, Cardinals, and Consistory of Rome, and all their togall Clergy, who do more truly proclaim Cedant arma Togae, then ever did their predecessor Cicero. For he was overthrown by arms, and the seat of Rome amidst neighbour combustions what doth she, Circundata mart quiescit. For concupiscence of the eye, I would know who they be in the world that may match with Rome, of whose magnificent Palaces, sumptuous vineyards with their royal fountains, votaries, picsaries, walks, umbrages, and all sort of most princely pleasures, one may make such a description as Ovid did of Regia solis, after he had made the materials to be most rare and precious, than he saith, Materiam superabat opus. Which is a sure argument that they have store of that eye concupiscence, which standeth in infinite Treasures of gold and silver, most easily gotten by them, for they lie in the centre of the richest countries in the world, of those a great part be under their subjection, and then they sit above the necks of their people, as the sun is above the inhabitants of the burnt climate, they do exhausted their fogs, and that with such dexterity, that they can move them to quite their very earrings for making of the golden Calse. There is no travaylour who doth not know, that for beauty of buildings for gold and silver, either in money, or in plate, for store of jewels they go beyond the greatest Kings that are, or ever have been. As for concupiscence of the flesh, speaking generally, either of the Court, or of the Cloister, of the Priests, or of the people: Eloquar an siliam: But what is spoken to the glory of God, ought not to be blamed of any man, I do think that as they have more abundance and more idleness than ever was in Sodom, so there be among them villainous lusts never known in Sodom, as for that sin which we call Sodomy, God help us, it is indeed thought a venial transgression, yea, a man shall hear it maintained in reasoning by persons carrying religious dignities, that as they have followed the Idolatry of the Gentiles, they have also followed their pollution and filthiness. And to justify by speeches and admonitions against such thing●… it is thought an idle curiosity thère, and such also as a stanger would find dangerous, while as it is a familiarthing there to know that the Cardinals Illustrissima Signoria hath in the retired place of his Vignia, his Suirginata, that is to say, his gallant wench of brave & fresh blood brought perhaps from the farthest part of Germany to be deflowered by him, and hath his Ganymedes at home to show that his monstrous Religion hath made a monster of himself, one day to obey nature in the actions of his lust, an other day to be contrary to have. And whither their Cur●…isanes have learned this M●…ngiar in tondo as they call it, it is well enough understood of those who have been any while among them: While those be the practices of the Court, and of the Cloister, to ask what is among the popular it is not necessary, nor to defile oliaste and vertnou●… cares with unclean speeches of Bordels, and Bardasches, which be there as ordinarily frequented as the Church, but for the manners of their multitude, otherwise, they are fearful to a heart which feareth God, to hear their more than blasphemous oaths, that one cannot say whither they smell more of i●…pletie, or of Atheism, their secret practices of mutual deceits, their devilish arts to execute their malice, not forbearing clan destiny murders amongst nearest kinsfolks, and their filthy trade of Purgatory founded upon Indulgences of these abominable villainies. To come to the third concupiscence, which is pride of life. Was there ever a pride like unto this pride? a company of pretended Priests to sit at Rome, and presume to subject to them, not only the souls of men, but their bodies and goods: yea, the sacred D●…adems of anointed Kings? Was there ever a pride equal to this, that a Priest shall think it his due, that Kings and monarchs shall kiss his foot? that he shall say to himself, Sup●… basiliscum ●…labo & conoulc●…●…nem? that he shall: arrogate power to sell the Kingdom of heaven, and count himself God upon the earth, saying with Augustus, Divisum imperium cum jove Caesan habet, still following Gentiselime striving as the Ethnic Emperors did, tomake it again Roma caput Mundi. Such perpetual toil & business doth that Consistory keep about this mystery, that it may be said of them, as Lucianus, mocking the plurality & idleness of the Poetical gods, said of jupiter, while some other god one day would have talked with him, it was told him, that he was busy, quid facit? parturit said one, he is a travailing of the birth of Minerva (whom the Poets feign to be bred in the brain of jupiter.) Sowee may affirm of them, Quod semper parturiant, they be ever bringing forth their birth: but what birth? is it Minerva, counsels, books or precepts of wisdom? no, they do not imitate jupiter to bring forth Minerva, true wisdom of piety and peace: they imitate that Goddess of wrath, Nemesis, who did send through the world, with her Pandora, the books of curiosity, contention, malignity, and dissension: the books of vengeance and endless discord, witness their Archipandora, Bellarmine in his Treatise of the Papal Supremacy, whereof I shall speak hereafter: witness their Pandora Mariana the jesuit: here you shall see what is the birth of their travailing, murder of Princes, rebellion of Subjects, blood of legions, desolation of Countries, setting on fire the whole world, for building again that Tower of Babel, which doth keep Christian people in such desperate pacoxisme and division of tongues, that, alas, we are never like to speak one language, so hath the Lord punished their pride, their unspeakable pride, which is like unto the pride of him who said, Ascendam super altudinem nubium, super moxtes Aquilonis, & fimilie ero altissimo. They be in effect, Clouds, high with proud ambition, moist and humid with lechery, bright and shining with glorious ostentation, thundering with arrogance and tumults which they contrive: Hi sunt nubes jud. sine aqua, quae a ventis circumferuntur, saith Thaddeus: this is that fatal Tower builded by that mighty Nimrod the Devil, whereof God hath concluded Tollatur in altum ut lapsu graviore cadat: It must be mounted to great height, that it may also have a great fall: it may be justly called fatal, the very Church doth not escape this blot, but even her first plants have been annoyed with these pernicious weeds of pride and ambition: Aaron and Num. 12. Miriam grudged against Moses, and did strive for authority. The first sacred College of our Christian Religion, the twelve Apostles, were not free of this contagion. james and john, called of Saint Paul the Arch-pillers Mat. 20. Galat. 2. which did sustain Christ's Church, they contended for the right hand of Christ. It is strange, that Divines and Prelates should not learn the wisdom of humility from the very style of the Spirit of God, speaking in these particulars: When this Tower of Babel (unto the which I compare the pride of Rome) was builded in the Land of Senair (which is interpreted to stink, as is said) by the posterity of Noah, the text says, they parted from the Orient, which is interpreted, Christ, as Zachary testifies, Ecce vir, Oriens nomen eius subter eum orietur lux. Gen. 11. Zach. 6. Luk. 1. And Luke, Perviscera misericordiae Dei nostri in quibus visitavit nos Oriens ex alto: they were the sons of Noah who went from this Orient to Sanair: but from that forward the holy Spirit doth no more call them the Sons of Noah, but the Sons of Adam, Descendit Dominus & vidit urbem quam edificanerunt filii Adam. Even so, speaking of this pride of james & john, he doth not vouchsafe them the names of Apostles, nor their own names; but the sons of Zebedoeus, Accessit ad jesum matter filiorum Zebedei which is a notable Art of the Spirit of God to reproach pride. O you blind Prelates of Rome, you sons of Adam, and not of Noah, you sons of Zebedeus, and not Apostles, why have ye through your pride lost your names, and parted from your Orient! if your Tower were firmly established, as that of David upon Zion, no tempest were able to shake it: it is but of stones, taken out of the slime of the earth, forged out of earthly avarice and ambition. That of David was founded upon a sure rock, fundata super firmam Petram, as it is said in the Gospel, Ipso summo angulari Lapide Christo: having Christ himself for the chief corner Stone: therefore shall that of yours fall to the ground, after the example of him who was the first author of such fabrics. While I did behold at leisure in Rome this fullness and overflowing of concupiscence in men's manners, one may easily guess, that it was to me like unto the second appearing of the Angel of God to the Ass of Balaam. In that Town which was one of the first Mother Churches, where poverty, contempt, misery, and glorious martyrdom had been endured for plantation of the faith, where Pastors were merely spiritual, without regard to the world, after the commandment of their Master, where so many Cloystorall and Monastical deserts of true solitude and holiness were to be seen of old, that now adays no vestigium doth remain, no mark of that sanctity, yea, not a cloak sufficient to cover their nakedness: nothing but an Ocean of abuses, the Rulers swelling in pride and riches, polluted with filthiness and lust, defiled with Idolatry, seeking the world and dominion over Princes, contrary to the doctrine of the Apostles: Non quaerimus quae vestra sunt sed vos: Contrary to the doctrine of the Prophets, 2 Cor. 12. mittam vobis venatores multos qui venabuntur vos saith jeremy Vos non vestra: contrary, the doctrine of Christ himself faciam vos piscatores hominum, he saith not piscium nor yet pecuniarum. The people tied to superstition, religion turned to pharisaical ceremonies, the evangel neglected, the law became Mosaical, daily impiety of all sorts, daily sacrifices and pardons for all abominations, the holy deserts opened again to the world, and defiled with pride and vilanons' lechery, the Town smoking in the stink of Sodom, that if those faithful fathers their first foundatours might again look upon their Successores they would cry nec nos Patres, nec vos filly. The first Bishops of Rome who sustained Martyrdom being in number two and thirty before Constantine the great, what would they say to the Pope who walketh upon the necks of monarch, while they succeeded only to Christ his Cross, what would that austere Saint Francis say unto these Idle Bellies who have abused his simple hood to cover their hypocrisy, or what Saint Dominicke against the beastly pride of his successors; and what holy Saint Augustine against idle pretenders of his profession, which was to be Flagellum hareticorum & infidelitatis to plague heresy and infidelity, Now to find among them one of the true succession of those noble Macharij, Hillarij, Antoniuses, Pauli, Ignatij, Tertulliani, Hieronimij, Cyprianij, Augustini or such like of that true christian raze it is a dream; for nothing is to be seen there, but those sometime sacred mountains, and those holy solitudes of retired sanctity, become the deserts of jericho, the darkness of Egypt, the tower of Giants, judg. 4. 2 Reg. 21. Gen. 27. Luk. 10. the Furnace of Babylon the ship of Tarsus, that believe me it did almost move me to tears and make me to say with the Prophet Super montes assumpsi & fletum, lamentum & super speciosa deserti Planctum: Aime Domine clamabo speciosa deserti consunipsit ignis, The fire, alas Jerome: 96. joel, 1, hath consumed the beauty of the deserts, those profane fires of Nadab and Abihu which burn at the daily Sacrifice, that destroying fire of ambition, avarice, and Lechery which is never furnished with fuel sufficient, that fire of the love of the flesh whereat while S. Peter stood to warm him, he denied his master, It doth still burn in the hall of Calphas, O oursed fire which is not on lie content to burn in the country, in the city, in the court, in the Palaces of Prelates and rulers of the Church, but it hath also spoiled the holy deserts, and destroyed the beauty of the Cloister speciosa deserti consumpsit ignis, making our christian religion the opprobry and scandal of Turkish impiety as if there were no verity in God's word: Corruit in plat●…is veritas saith the prophet, Equitas non potuit ingredi, & facta est udritas in oblivionem, O poor and neglected verity, now are come to pass (thought I) the visions of leremie, Quid vides jeremia? ficus bonas bonas valde, quid vides jeremia? ficus malas malas valde, quae comedi non possunt. So to close also this point of fleshly concupiscence or kingdom of the world, I do appeal to the divine light of your Lordship's conscience whether you do not think things being as I have related, That the Pope hath holden the bargain which our Saviour did refuse, in accepting from Satan this worldly kingdom, whether your Lo.▪: do not think that the Rulers of Rome be of such as the Lord God spoke of to his people Israel, by his prophet Esai: My people the Rulers have corrupted the way of thy footsteps: It is they who have burnt up my vineyard, saying again thereafter, Isa 3, I shall enter in judgement with you Rulers: whether your Lord do not think that God is entered in judgement already with them and as it was pronounced against the Scribes and pharisees, auferetur a vobis Regnum Matth, 12, Dei & dabitur Genti facienti fructum: Hath he not taken from them his kingdom by removing the candlestick which keeps the true light the Lamp which keeps the lively oil, the liberty of the Gospel, and hath given them over to induration (which of all chastisements is the most fearful) ut credant mendacio qui non crediderunt veritati, as he also no question some day shall dissipat & destroy their worldly kingdom according as he hath done to the jews if they do not repent. Now for the last of abuses whereof I will speak I go to treat of the papal Soveraignitie, as it is wickedly and injustly usurped over temporal kingdoms, CHAP. V. The Orthodoxal authority of Christian Princes in the primitive Church: The Papal Sovereignty; The jesuitical trade; The opinion of the French Church concerning Princely authority: Detection of the jesuitical ambition. THe pernicious Doctrine of this Tyrannical Supremacy unknown to antiquity, lately conceived in the bosom of the treacherous jesuit, tending to a monstrous ambition as we shall see, to the overthrow of good Princes and people, and dissolution of all Christian discipline and obedience, it doth enuenome the minds of men with devilish errors, and armeth their hearts with odious and treasonable attempts. It is that wormwood whereof the Prophet of the Gospel, Saint john maketh mention in his visions of the apocalypse: Cecidit de coelo stella magna ardens tanquam favilla & nomen stellae dicitur absinthium, & facta est tertia pars aquarum in absinthium, plarimi mortui sunt de acquis, quia amarae factae sunt, saith he, there fell from the heaven a great star, burning like a flame, and the name of the star was Wormwood: and multitudes died by the waters, because they were become bitter. It was no true star which the Prophet did see, because the true stars be fixed and do not fall: Stell●… manentes in ordine suo, & cursu adversus Siseram pugnaverunt, saith the Scripture, the holy Spirit judg. 5. in the word of God doth compare Prelates, Pastors and Rulers of God's people to stars, Qui ad justitiam erudiunt multos quasi stellae ad perpetuas aternitates: saith Daniel, Dan. 12. They who instruct and teach many righteousness and godliness, be like unto stars fixed to perpetuity. As for those which appear to be falling stars, as this vision of Saint john, they are but gross vapours lightened by agitation of the air, which do quickly vanish and keep no true light. So the Jesuits lately bred in the distemperate and tempestuous air of the Papal tyranny, they appear to be, but are not true stars in God's Church, they be but filthy vapours which shall disappear within short time, as the whole Clergy almost of the Roman Church itself doth hold, after the example and fortune of the famous order of the Knights Templarij, whose insolency and pride was abhorred of Christian Princes and Prelates: But in the mean time they have poisoned by the wormwood of this diabolical doctrine the purity of our waters, even the waters of life, the word of the Gospel, the Lord jesus Christ who calleth himself so, of which poison, who would know how many millions have died, let him read the Histories of the holy League, and the Histories of France and the Netherlands for these years passed, and because it is so pregnant and perilous an error, I will insist in it at greater length to deduce it from the fountains of sacred and primitive verity. For your Lordship's information and many others of your profession, who if you will not quit this ground to believe as the Church of Rome doth command, you cannot want a scruple in your conscience for having so absolutely taken the oath of obedience, seeing the contrary is strongly maintained in Rome in meeretermes of a point Doctrinal, which albeit your Lo: would not credit upon my reletion after my coming from thence, where I was both care & eye witness, and brought with me a true transcript of the ordinance itself, yet now all the world doth know it since the high Court of Parliament at Paris hath been perturbed with the agitation thereof sithence. This I think is the best service which I can yield to God, my Sovereign prince and to the common weal, seeing it doth concern every good subject both Theologically and civilly to understand what he doth owe to his King in his conscience for Religion, and civilly it concerns him for the security of his state: The jesuits indeed have most subtly gone about to make an Antithesis or contradiction betwixt the Principautie and Priesthood, holding this to be only divine, and that only human; and therefore that to be subject unto this: upon which Antithesis they build this usurpation over Princes and states, but if your Lo: do not stop your ears against the following discourse, I hope your Lordship shall find that in my peregrination beyond seas, I did furnish myself with as much concerning the substance of this question from the most learned, both writers and speakers, as is sufficient to rid any man whatsoever of this dangerous doubt, unless it be those whose hearts and best spirits are already overcome by the poison of this deadly Absinthium. And first I lay down this general Thesis, that all such authority and power in the Church, which doth disprove Christian & orthodoxal Magistrates, erecting violent usurpations, in their place is manifestly contrary to the voice of Christ in the evangel, the practice of the primitive Church, approved by the great doctors thereof in all following ages: yea and contrary the first ordinance of God in the typical government of Moses, and consequently all such doctrine which do maintain the same, must be heretical and impious: To clear this general Thesis in the fountain, let us look upon the first plantation of Christ's Church, and the condition wherein it was settled, which by the Spirit of God is compared to a vineyard: Homo quidem paterfamilias plantavit vineam & circundedit eam sepibus: and so forth; as we read in the Text, A certain husbandman planted a vineyard, and hedged it about: This is the vineyard of Christianity watered and made fertile by the four floods of the four Evangelists, as is mystically figured in Genesis: A flood went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was divided into four heads, Christ who is the planter of this vineyard, hath fortified it in the Gospel, with three several walls, as so many ditches and rampards to compass it: The first fortification and wall is the word of God and holy Scripture against heresies and heretics; Vt potens sit exhortari in doctrinasana & eos qui contradicunt arguere, to be able to reach Timoth. 1. wholesome doctrine, & to improve them who speak against it. The second Fortification is of spiritual jurisdiction against those who be rebellious, Qui Ecclesiam non audinerit sit tibi tanquam Ethnicus & Publicanus: who is to be excommunicate from the company of the Saints. The Math. 18. third Fortification is of Temporal power against human invasions, Duo gladij. Upon the first of which three Ramparts he hath placed learned Doctors in the Luk. 22. Church, who are furnished with spiritual wisdom to convict heresy. Upon the second, Prelates, with authority to excommunicate those who be disobedient to the voice of Christ. Upon the third, Brachium seculare: Civil power of Princes to guard his Church from the persecution and invasion of ravening Wolves, from without, and from intestine disorders, without any of which three this Vineyard of Christ is never sufficiently fortified. The erroneous dreams of Anabaptists, too much imitated by some pure and foolish Puritans, would deprive the Church of the use of one of those strengths, to wit, of the secular Arm: But specially this jesuitical Clergy hath prevailed mightily to breed a disjunction of the Ramparts, which God, we see, hath conjoined▪ to rend asunder the Church and civil authority, the Prince and the Priest, which although they were contrary in themselves, as they be several, yet the Lord hath knit them together: As of contrary Elements he hath form the unity of man's body, and hath united a man's own constitution of things, merely contrary, soul and body, heaven and earth, Caro adversus spiritum, spiritus autem adversus carnem, saith the Apostle: for even as the soul of man, which receiveth that divine inspiration of wisdom and knowledge to rule our life, is in itself a thing contemplative and abstract, never able to subject the members of our body to this Rule, if it were not that the power of our active spirit, sitting in the chair of our conscience, doth frame and force our will, and the faculties of our mind, to make our body obedient, otherwise it should never obey unto the soul, by reason of the corruption thereof. Our soul is as the Alte of this Music, our flesh as the Counterbase, our active spirit as the Tenor and midcuple that joineth them. This difference of our soul and spirit is clear once by Saint Paul, Ut servetur & corpus, & anima, & spiritus integor in die Domini nostri. Our great Philosopher Christ again did use to say, Tristis est anima meausque ad mortem Matth. 26. Dan. Spiritus quidem promptus, caro autem infirma. And Daniel, Laudate Spiritus & Animae justorum. Even so in God's Church, the Priests and Pastors are the soul which receive the inspiration of Gods will in his law, as the Scripture saith of them, In quorun pectora conduntur Oracula Dei, & ex ore illorum promanant Eloquia divina: to be taught and communicate to the people, who be the body of this Church, if it were not by the power which God giveth unto the Prince, who sitteth in the Throne of authority and active wisdom, like armed Pallas, this body of ours would oftener refuse obedience to the soul, as daily experience doth prove. That Christian Princes, to whose charge is committed the government of States, the rule of the people in piety and justice, the protection of the Widow, the Orphans, the Innocent, the Stranger, the punishment of Malefactors, and advancement of the virtuous to God's glory, that those be not most divine Offices; and that therefore Ethnic Princes have had, granted by God himself, the title to be his servants, who may deny it, the Lords Anointed independent of any but of him alone, and holding of him immediately the Charter of their authority. Into the jewish policy whereof God was the founder himself, for an example to all virtuous and godly States, we see in the person of Moses a conjunction of spiritual and temporal power, not only did God esteem his Vocation Authority of Princes among the jews. divine, but he giveth him the style of a God, Ego te constituam Deum Pharaonis: I shall make thee the God of Pharaoh. Moses did thereafter indeed by the direction of God, separate those functions, but always in these terms, that they should remain in one united concurrence in the government of God's people, like unto the fingers of a man's hand, which albeit they be severally distinguished by nature, yet can we make no use of them but when they are conjoined. The civil Magistrate among the jews, certain it is, he might not offer sacrifice, or perform religious Ceremonies, things proper unto the Priest: as again, military discipline matters of the fisk, and such like, went peculiarly under the name of the Prince: but in points of piety and justice, the rule of the people, judicatura ●…orum, their obedience to God's Law, they were not only conjoined, but in the hand of that government, the civil Magistrate had that place of the finger, which is called the key of the hand. Into jerusalem there was two Sanedrim (for so was their great Council called) one su●…reme in jerusalem, consisting of 70. together, with the Prince and Priesthood: another small Sanedrim in every City of reasonable importance, containing 23. wise men, together with a number of the Priesthood, which was done by a general ordinance of God himself, Populo mandavit ut judices constitueret secundum tribus suas in omni Civitate: That Deu. 16. they should in every City appoint judges according to their Tribes: and again, in the next chapter he made a Law of Appellation, commanding, In omni re d●…fficili constituere Sacerdotes Levitici generis & judices: Deu. 17. To appoint over all difficile causes some of the Priests, and some of the judges: he hath not said, only the Priest, nor only the judge: as neither did Moses when he went into the Mountain make any separation, but left the spiritual and civil Magistrate conjunct, Ecce Aaron & Hur. That the civil Magistrate hath a divine charge, and was so counted among the jews, there it is seent, where after judges were constitute in every town: the King said to them, Uidet●… quid agatis non enim pro Homine sed pro Deo judicia 〈◊〉. 2 Paral. 19 Behold said josua, what you do, because you do not judge for men but for God, Again to show this conjunction he doth subioyne, omnis causa qua venerit ad v●…s de fratribus. Every cause which cometh from your brethren unto you dwelling in the country, where he maketh no separation of spiritual from civil causes, even as Moses hath done before where he or deigns the people to go to the Levites and the judges, si aliqua difficilis causa natafuerit if any difficile question 〈◊〉, in the government of King David those conjunctions are clearly expressed for he did absolutely distribute the peculia●… charges of the Levites, & Hebroni●…s ultra I●…rdanem pr●…cit in omni neg●…tio divino & ministeri●… R●…gis, he did promove the Hebronites beyond lorde●… to all Deu. 19 the functions appertaining to God's house, and to the service of the king, and ●…ine in the la●…t verse of the same h●…s prefecit david s●…per 〈◊〉 & Gad●… in omni neg●…tio Dei & omni negotio Regis, which power of constitution in David, is sufficient to prove that the regal function is negotium divinum, chiefly where it is Christian and orthodoxal, may not Moses and David 1 Par. 26. serve us for matter of light in government, to qualify this conjunction of religion and empire which made the judaical law to be accounted a part of Theology So that we may with great reason conclude that he is not Orthodo●…s Theologus no right meaning Theologue, who would refuse unto christian Kings that authority in Ecclesiastical affairs, which was not only granted but commanded unto the Kings of Israel, and which godly David upon his death bed did render into the hands of Solomon, from the warrant (who made doubt of it) 1 Par. 28. of the holy Scripture, saying, Ecc●… autem distributiones Leuit●…um, ad v●… q●…odque ministeriu●…●…omus. Deipenes te sunt, ad o●…ne opus voluntary? denique omnes Principes & totus populus parati ad verba tua: Behold said he the distributions of all Levitical offices in the house of God, is in thy power, and they be ready to obey thee, as also the princs and people; where in that example we see no exemption of the Levite more than laitiefrom the kingly authority, howsoever princes may not use priestly function, yet are they bound to superintend Christ's vineyard and to guard it not only from foreign invasions but from intestine peril and corruption, which is more frequent and more pernicious of the two, to stop ambition, avarice and dissension from coming among the prelate's, who were never in any time able to rule nor shall not be to theend, without their Pallas be armed with authority of good and lawful kings, who doth not see that of divine functions upon earth the priestly office is the contemplative part and the princely office practical acting the honour and worship of God, by making people to obey his Law. Who was the first instrument of God for redeeming the Church from persecution and the cross, to establish her prosperity, was it kings or priests? was it not Constantine the great, by what means again was the Church redeemed from the flood of the Arrian heresy? was it not by the seculararme of Carolus Magnus and his predecessors Pipino and Carolo Martello, so that to go about to separate things which God hath knit together as the soul and body, it is to make a sacriledgious divorcement; and specially to take from the prince that which is his due, to give it unto the priests, it is just as the serpent did in Paradizeto seduce the weaker party of the two in that conjunction, it is even as if we would send Aaron unto the mount of God to learn the wisdom of active government, and leave Moses with the people to his returning. And since such is the impudent and arrogant malignity of the jesuitical ambition in their doctrine about this point, what if (to meet them in their own language, and pay them home with their own Coin) I should go yet one degree higher in that particular, to say that apparently God himself doth prefer the regal function, when by his Prophet, setting aside all sacrifices and ceremonies (which was the Priest's part) he did require the Office of the civil Magistraten, Quid affertis tanta sacrificia, discite vos reges & Principes qui Isa. 1. populum regit is benefacere; quaerite judicium dirigite oppressum: What shall I do with so many sacrifices, would God say, that is not the substance of my worship, being but religious ceremonies learn ye Kings and Princes to do well, ask judgement to govern the people, and to relceve the oppressed, which (would the Lord say) is the matter of my true worship, to practise my law, and make it to be obeyed. The Deutr. doth show, that the office of a Prince was not to frame his own life after the deuteronomical, but to provide that both Priests and people should keep the same inviolable. If Priests debord and transgress God's law, must not the Prince corect them? yea, if they should sow heretical doctrines, who could stop the growth of them other then the Prince? Of which things, it is most manifest, that God hath laid the whole burden of earthly government upon these two jurisdictions of the Civil authority and Priesthood, as the two divine Arches upon the which the policy of the world is sustained: they are as the two Poles which fix the axle-tree of the celestial Spheres, directly looking one upon the other: which two, if they should never so little incline to obliquity, fall to jar, or press to draw the one the other, it were to disturb and endanger the whole frame of the world, which is carried upon their conjunction: even so the variance of the Temporal and Spiritual Magistrate is to cut the axle-tree, whereupon, as on a mighty Atlas, the Sphere of Christian government doth rely. And this far I add: In the beginning all the patriarchs had the Priesthood coupled with their Kingly office, even from the day of Adam: And in aftertimes, whensoever any constraint or corruption of time bred a necessity to confound them in one person, it hath ever been so, that the civil authority did carry the Priesthood: which conjunction we find to have been twice in the person of one: first in Moses, who was so far preferred to Aaron, or to his particular office, that God said, Aaron shall speak for thee those words which thou shalt put into his mouth, and thou shalt be as his God. And thereafter again, by reason of corruption in latter times, God did suffer the Princes of the Macchabees and Almonei to possess the Priesthood also, as, Simon, joannes, Alexander, Hircanus, and Aristobulus, of whom some are witnessed in the Book of Macchabees to have been rare and excellent men: as, Simon Onia, of whom it is said, Erat tanquam astrum matutinum inter nubes & tanquam Solrefulgens intemplo altissimi: He was like the day Star among the clouds, and as a shining Sun in the Temple of the most High. Which confusion Eccle. 52. of several powers, our Saviour again in his time did clearly distinguish, commanding to give to God, that which was his; and to Caesar that which was due to him: after which Christian Princes & Prelates did long live, every one contented to attend their own function: Prelates to pray for Princes to teach their people, and watch over their souls; Princes again to nourish them, to protect the Church, and minister justice, until the poles of this government began to shake through vanity of the Priesthood, striving so much to invade the Temporal puissance, and to confound the two functions in their own person whereof I will relate what hath been the judgement and practice of the Fathers, of most simple and unsuspected antiquity of the primitive Church: Saint Ambrose saith of these two jurisdictions, that the one doth assist the other mutually. Saint Augustine saith the same in his Epistleto Macedonius. Boniface, in his Letter to the Emperor Honorius saith, it were too great burden for the Church to overwatch spiritual things, if she were tied to any temporal care. Saint Cyprian in his Epistle saith, to involve the Church in worldly affairs, were to estrange her from God. Saint john Chrysost. as also Augustine, against the Manichees, do affirm, there is no power but from God, either that he doth establish it, or permit it, for the execution of his will in mercy, or in justice: for the which reasons, say they, a Christian subject may serve under the commandment of an Infidel or sacriledgious King: and as the iniquity of the commandment doth render the Prince culpable, so doth the band of obedience keep the subject innocent. All Antiquity doth conclude with Saint Augustine in the City of God thus: God only doth ordinate Kings after his secret pleasure, good or bad, according to our merits or demerits: therefore, saith he, it is our part only to obey, unless we will repine against God; for, saith he, the great God, who gave Empire to the Assyrians and Persians, he granted it unto the Romans when he pleased, and as great as he pleased: he raised the power of Marius, he yielded authority to Caesar, to Augustus, yea, to Nero, to Vespasian, and to his gracious son Titus, and to his tyrannous brother Domitian. And finally, saith this holy Father, he who placed into the Empire the most Christian Constantine, he did also honour with the same power the filthy Apostate julian: and howsoever the causes of this proceeding in God be hidden, and mystical, saith he, yet they are undoubtedly just and holy. This is the doctrine of Antiquity, whereupon the Primitive Church did in every thing of exterior government depend upon the temporal sovereignty, whether in civil or criminal cases, if any man did invade Ecclesiastical patrimony or goods, they did remit it to the imperial judicatory, if any man did offer violence, or kill a Bishop, they did the same, as Augustine testifies upon the Epistle to the Romans, these, and such like, be the Precepts which are left to us from Antiquity for Christian policy or government. The practice of the Primitive Church hath been agreeable to this doctrine, for in their government we do observe three things, which have been inviolably kept of them. First not only did the Church serve and obey Pagans, Tyrants, and abominable monsters in the Empire, who refused her for their mother, who did afflict, and persecute her, but she did make ordinary prayers to God for their happiness, so far, that (as Tertullian writeth) divers Ethnics did ascribe it as a peculiar glory to Primitive Christians, that their exercise was to pray for their enemies, showing how far Christian profession doth surmount the doctrine of Philosophy. Secondly, where the Emperors begun to range themselves under the holy ensigns of the Church, becoming her Alumni, and children, she did obey unto the most cruel heretics as to Constantius, Valens, and others, and to the greatest Apostates and mockers of Christianity, as unto julian, notwithstanding of whose bloody persecutions, she never left her obedience, as the Records of her ancient Counsels bear witness: wherein any man may read the process of the Council of Arimini, that worthy Bishop Melitus, the light of Asia in his time, did write unto the Emperor Antonius those words, according to a true version. Ye have sent, saith he, such rigorous edicts against us, for tormenting of us unto death, thinking thereby to extinguish the name of Christians, we know not if these have proceeded from your own will, which if it be, in that case we shall obey you, for nothing can come from you but good: but we do most humbly beseech you to consider, that their are many Calumniators about your person, that seek how to destroy us, that they may possess our goods. In the Histories of France and Spain, we read that the Church did carry the same reverence unto a great number of Princes Visigotti, Arians heretics, yea, and (which should more move us) the Pope's themselves who have possessed the seat of Rome have left unto their successors, notable examples of their faithful obedience unto all the Ostrogotti, who did reign in Italy, among the which Theodoricke was so respected of the Sea of Rome, chiefly of Pope S. Hormisda, that they had almost canonised him as is written, There was no service whereinto they did not obey those princes, if they had any occasion to send any Ambassadors they did undergo it, as Pope Innocent the first, took a legation from Alarico to the Emperor Honorius, to negotiate his peace, and to obtain a dignity to that Arrian King, And further to declare how sacred they did hold their obedience to whatsoever King God did place over them, they did undertake Embassages from Arrian Princes in favour of Artian Churches, for conservation of Arrians, and in case of excommunication, as jean the second, and Pope Agapet were employed by Theodoric and Theodotus. Now to him who will answer to this, that these Princes were not excommunicate, therefore the Church did serve them, I reply that there was greater cause to excommunicate them then, nor nowadays is taken against Christian Princes, and which is more, we find the letters of Hormisda and others to Anastase as full of honour and respect as if he had been free from the sentence of excommunication, and of Gregory the second to the Emperor Leon Iconomachus, albeit he was excommunicate by that same Pope himself, which things we must not imagine to have been done at random, or pro tempore, but from good warrant appearantly, since the jurisdiction spiritual is only over the souls of men, Church gou●…rnours ought not to transcend their ordinary bounds to meddle with the bodies or temporal states of Kings, but their Fulmen Ecclesiasticum, the thunder of excommunication should be only spiritual: and like unto the natural thunder, which can strike a man to the death without the meanest offence done unto the apparel of his body. For I would ask the jesuit, albeit the Church have power over the King's soul, if it be so, that they might rashly excommunicate him, what right have they for this over his kingdom and people? If they have, why did Saint Paul in his time cry, Querimus vos non vestra? And why hath Saint Ambrose and Optatus Milevitanus in his third book Aduersus Parmenianum said, That Emperors and Kings be within the Church, but that the Empire is without it, yea say they the Church is within the Empire, & in token that Antiquity did exempt things temporal from the dint of excommunication, when Pope Marcelline did sacrifice to Idols, and Pope Honorio became a Monothelet Heretic, they were excommunicate, but did not lose their Bishopprickeses, Pope Formose Bishop of Port was chosen successor to the same Pope, who had excommunicate him. And in the Counsel holden at Lions under Pope Gregory the tenth, it was concluded that Cardinals albeit excommunicate, might assist the Pope his election by their vote and presence; So modest were the Fathers in the point of Princely authority, that Paulus Samosetanus, against whom the Council of Carthage was convocate, being deposed from Episcopal charge, he did yet possess a certain territory belonging to the Church, but these Bishops demanded justice thereof of the Emperor Aurelian, albeit an Ethnic, because all that was civil and worldly, did belong unto the Empire, The Church (saith Augustine upon Saint john) doth possess no patrimony nor goods, but jure humano; jure divino, she hath nothing. This jure humano is the Right Imperial of Princes, which being usurped of any other, it hath no more Title nor right upon earth, saith he: So was it the constant meaning and doing of the ancient Fathers to think that they had nothing which they might refuse unto the Emperors, but the only house of God. Nor yet that saith Ambrose, if I were assured that the Emperor In oratione contr. an. (speaking of Valens) would not plant Arrians into it, in which case only I would press to retain it: O, what difference betwixt that and this blind ambitious and impudent age, wherein Church rulers make open doctrine and profession to Master Princes lawful and orthodoxal, and to ●…reade upon their necks, holy antiquity would not adventure to take from an excommunicate Bishop an house belonging to the Church, but by the authority of the Emperor nor would not resist the Emperoer by violence for the Temple of God to one heretic king, although it were to give it to heretical pastors: whereas the plain guise of this time is to be Piscatores piscium non hominum and to abuse excommunication and the papal Thunder to spoil a king of his clothes, to dethrone him of his kingdoms, and to make him naked of his subjects. thirdly we do observe of the primitive Church that whensoever she did enjoy good and godly Emperors, they did not only not repute them as private members of the Church, iudicable by the power Ecclesiastical, but contrary they hold them chief members of their general counsels under their mystical head jesus Christ, yielding to them the authority of convocation, and whole exterior jurisdiction, giving them the tittle of common and external bishops; For we read in Eusebius that Constantine the great was called so of the Church and said to be brother unto the fathers, in which quality of a common Bishop he did exercise his power over the Church exteriorlie, and over Bishops: In like manner we find that in the Calcedonian council the Emperor was called universal Bishops, yea Antiquity did esteem no counsel supreme, wherein an Emperor did not sit and praesidiat. In all the appellationes of the primitive Church (which form of judicatore is fittest to try where the main sway of authority doth lie, because it was absolute sovereign and without declinatour, having power against the Tyrannous government of Popes, against discords of other Prelates, against unjust decrees of counsels themselves. In all these appellations I say we find that none was esteemed supreme but that wherein the Emperor did over rule, as the only power upon earth which is in dependent, The first appellation we read of in the Church was by Cyrillus Bishop of jerusalem from the condemnatory of one Counsel to another more general assisted (saith he) with Seculare brachium with seculare power which he called a provocation unto a greater judgemement, And so his cause was examined in the counsel of Seleucia: As for the cause of Athanasius which did preceded that, it was rather a remission of the process to the counsel of Sardi●… then an appeal, and went always by the direction & will of the Emperor Constantine, to whom Saint Anthony write divers letters directly praying him for the restitution of Athanasius. Saint john Chrisost. in a second appellation did provoke in the same terms with Cyrill to a higher judge a more general counsel assisted with imperial authority, as it clear by a third appellation of Dioscorus Bishop of Alexandria the time of the counsel of Chalcedon, in which appeal he doth expressly protest that the conjunction of the imperial authority doth make the highest jurisdiction which cannot be denied, when all the authorities on earth are conjoined, there can be nothing above that; So we read that Constantius did determine the process of Saint Athanasius, as his father Constantine had designed to do before, for he sent his will touching it unto the Bishops assembled in the counsel of tire, with the governor Archilaus, who did sit and preside in the counsel, yet in the end the Empreour would needs banish that good father into Tr●…ues; After that again, Honoratus the governor with some other senators assisted the counsel convened in the cause of Aetius, and in the counsel of Chalcedon the Senators brought thither by Valentinian the third, and Marcian, did coniunctlie with the father's judge a great number of Bishops, whose requests presented to the Empreour for that effect are yet to be read in the histories, and if any man will say that these were but private bishops, who were censured of the Emperors, let him remember that Constantius did judge and condemn to exile Pope Liberius, at least he gave Commission to do the same unto Bishop Ursatius, that Sextus the third, did underly a criminal judgement of Valentinian the third, assisted with numbers of Civil Magistrates, forty eight Priests, six Deacons. That justinian made the process of Pope Silverius, and banished him, and of his successor, Pope Vigilius, accused of treason, that Theodoricke King of Goths did erercise the same justice against Pope Symmachus, assembling a Counsel where the whole Bishops did remit themselves unto the wisdom of the Emperor: And Gregory the great, behoved he not to purge himself to Mauricius the Emperor, of a disorder fallen out at Rome, and of the death of Bishop Malcus, did he not in his ordinary letters to the Emperors, style them his Signiors and Masters, how like to that is it that Rome is now become Naufragium Principum, the rock upon the which Kings make shipwreck, and the bloody stage whereupon they act their Tragedies. And this touching the form of Ecclesiastical iudicatory in the primitive Church. As for the power of Convocation, that it was granted to Princes, as Sovereigns in the exterior policy of the Church, it is as manifest; we have the testimony of Ruffinus upon the first Counsel of Nice, he saith it was assembled by Constantine the great, with the advise of the Fathers; And Eusebius in the life of this Emperor, for calling of this Counsel, he doth not so much as mention any letter of the Pope Silvester soliciting the same, contenting himself to say this Counsel was assembled by the honourable letters of the Emperor as a puissant army of Christ jesus in the which he did praeside, glorying to call himself a common Bishop among them. As for the Counsel of La●…dicea Sard: Sel●…: Arimini, Milan and Rome which were not universal, Socrates and Sozemen do testify that they were convocate by the only commandment of the Emperor Constant: heretic Arrian, the same Authors bear witness that the second Counsel of Constantinople general was assembled by the authority of Theodose the great, and that of Ephesus by Theodose the younger, and that of Chalcedon consisting of 630. Fathers by Valentinian the third, and Martian; of the fifth Counsel was not the honour due to justinian? and of the sixth to Constantine? Wherein were excommunicate Pope Honorio, Theodore Bishop of Phare, Syrus Bishop of Alexandria, heretics, monothelites; these two preceding Counsels are only comprehended in one called Quinta Sexta Synodus, because their decrees were not ample and severally particularised; Always we read that the Emperor Constantine sent his letters to Pope Donus, requiring him to direct his Legates unto this Counsel, and after his death, Pope Agath●… his successor when he sent to have the confirmation of his pontificat from him, he promised that his Legate should come to that Counsel convocate by the Emperor. As for the sixth Counsel Oecumenicke holden at Constantinople in Trullo, was it not assembled by justinian the second? The seventh concerning the impugnation of images, was convocate by the authority of Constantine, the son of Irene, and so forth through all the rest, until the Empire became feeble and dismembered: which power those Emperors did so absolutely keep and use, over the external policy of the Church, that Theodose the great had once intended to convocate an universal Counsel of all nations, and all sects of Religion, to purge the Church from all sorts of schisms and heresies, And this is the reason why Socrates in the entry of the fifth book of his History saith; he is constrained to introduce the Emperors, because after their being Christians, they did convocate the general Counsels, and carry the sway of Ecclesiastical government: And this is the cause why Augustine in his ninth Epistle De correctione Donatistarum saith, when it begun to be fulfilled which is written, Et adorabunt eum omnes Reges Terr●…, when Emperors and Kings became Christians, then saith he, what man can be so absurd as to say unto Kings, have no rule of God's Church within your kingdoms. This it is which made Pope Leo to write to Leo Augustus, wishing him deeply to consider that Royal power was not only given to him, Ad mundi Regimen, sed praecipue ad Ecclesia, not only for the rule of the world, but more of the Church: as Isod●…re saith, That whither the policy or peace of the Church be diminished or advanced under Princes they are to render count unto the Lord, Qui ab iis exiget rationem Ecclesiae sua quam corum potestati tradiderat, who shall demand from them an account of his Church which he hath committed to their power, In Novellis Constitutionibus 124. The truth thereof is so clearly verified in the whole practice of this Primitive Church, that the Epistles Synodals of the first Counsel of Nice, those holy Bishops did write them in this style. For as much, say they, as by the grace of God and by the commandment of the most sacred Emperor Constantine the great, this holy Counsel hath been assembled, without any mention at all of Pope Silvester his letters, the same tenor is observed in the synodal Epistle of the Counsel of Trullo, where the Fathers did praise justinian the second, because he had assembled them forth of divers nations, to the imitation of Christ, who sought so carefully the straying sheep in the mountain. This authority Temporal over the Church, was exercised even by Constantine the great himself, who was the greatest zealator of the Church of any Emperor, and who called them Gods in the Church, so long as they did minister the Sacraments and holy things, yet when he cometh after that, to speak of the subjection and duty of every Bishop to him, in that letter which he wrote for the assembly of the Counsel of tire, he saith that they should conveine under the pain of exile, and that he should teach all disobedient Bishops to know that they must live under the authority of a sacred Emperor, declaring thereby, that in the points of external policy, he did esteem them as men & ordinary subjects, whom in their spiritual functions he had counted as Gods. The same authority was practised by Charlemagne, who in his time did convocate eight Counsels, and by his son Lewis debonair, who did assemble one. And to show it more plainly, that this power to convocate was Imperial, and not Episcopal, we read how all the Popes of those days did write to Emperors for that effect: Pope Innocent sent to Honorius five Bishops & two Priests to obtain a Council for the restitution of Saint john Chrysostome, as we read in Euagrius. Pope Leo doth beseech Valentine the third, to obtain of Theodose the younger a Council against Eutiches: and in token that the Popes did not so much as pretend this power to assemble, we find in Sozemene, that Pope julius complains only that the Bishops of the Orient did not invite him to the Council of Antioch, saying, that a law of the Church provided that no Decree should pass without the opinion asked of the Bishop of Rome. And in Theodoret Pope Damasus makes the same complaint, and in the same terms against the council of Arimini, in which such honour was done to the Emperor Constantius, and such reverence to his authority, that the Father's convened there, being detained too long, and being pressed to put down some Decrees, which were not orthodoxal, they durst not for all that depart until they had the emperors leave and permission. Further now will we observe the very internal jurisdiction of the Church, and that which is merely spiritual, to wit, the sentence of Excommunication, and how it was exercised: we do find two things in that, one is, we shall not see that the primitive Church did excommunicate any Emperor or King, albeit there were more occasion against them, nor is now contained in the great Bul of the holy Thursday, which is yearly published at Rome against Christian Kings and States. Constantius and Valeus persecuting heretics. Trinitaries, who would have forced the Fathers to confessions against the Catholic faith, were not excommunicate. Theodose the second, and Valentinian the third, Eutichean heretics, were not excommunicate. Basilieius, enemy to the Council of Chalcedon, justinian, and of Kings, Chilpericke King of France, infected with arianism: Theodoricke King of Goths: Atalarichus, Theodotus, Vittiges, and many others, of whom none was excommunicate, no not julian the Apostata, nor Valentinian the second, who fell in an heresy three several times, nor justinian, who fell twice, no, when they had banished Pope's themselves: for we read in an Epistle of Pope Silverius, that being banished by Belizarius, at the command of justinian his Master, he assembled certain Bishops to excommunicate Belizarius, but did not so much as murmurre against justinian, by whose direction he was persecuted. Neither yet, if they did kill a Bishop, a●… Valens, who caused some of them to be drowned. Secondly, we observe on this point of Excommunication, that Bishops in the primitive Church did excommunicate by the consent and permission Imperial: for Princes, fearing that Church Rulers should abuse the spiritual sword, made an ordinance, repeated afterwards justin. Novel. Constit. 123. by justinian, that no person should be excommunicate, unless the cause of their sentence were before the Emperor, clearly proved to be agreeable to the will and meaning of the holy Spirit: which Saint Augustine doth expressly acknowledge in an Epistle to Boniface, saying that the Church doth exercise her power against heretics under the permission and power of Kings. Some Bishops have questioned hardly with Emperors: as a Bishop did command Philip the Emperor, that he should not enter into the Church, but remain without in the place of the Penitentiaries. Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milane, dealt right so with Theodosius the great: but they did not pronounce any Excommunication mayor against them; for than they would not have enjoined them penance, if they had been without the bosom of the Church. As for Anastatius, albeit some Churches, as that, and the Church of jerusalem, did excommunicate him, yet he was ever in peace and union with numbers of Catholic Churches in the Orient, which did declare that it was not magnum anathema, but rather a t●…merarious Act, howsoever this be, such two or three exceptions will not serve against one ordinary rule: for then to meet these, we find in like manner three extraordinary acts of Imperial authority, which caused excommunicate or eject the Popes. Xistus, the third of that name, suspected for adultery, was excommunicate by commandment of Valens the third. Theodoricke King of Goths did eject from the Church Pope Symmachus. And the people of Rome, under the Magistrates, did forbid Pope Pelagius the assembly of the Church: beside, Saint john Chrysostome deposed and expelled from his Church by Arcadius. As for the excommunication of Arcadius, done by Pope Gelasius, it is doubted of in the Ecclesiastical histories: but I do not speak of such extravagant acts, but of that which was ordinarily followed, whereby it is still verified, that the whole sway of jurisdiction Ecclesiastical was in the Emperors. The Convocation was due to them: the process went by their permission and consent, their persons were exempted from excommunication, as we have heard, which be three main points of sovereign Commandment. For the fourth, which is the confirmation of the Popes, it was also due to the Emperors, Constantius the son of Constantine, he banished Liberius, and erected Pope Felix in his place: yea, farther, he recalled that good Prelate, & did establish him with the other. Theodosius the great, a great pillar of the Church, by the right Imperial he settled at Rome together with a Pope, a Bishop of a divers religion, (I think) for satisfaction of a mutinous people Laeonius in his time was Bishop of Rome for the Church of the Novatianes', Honorius his son again coming into Italy while Boniface and Eulalius did contend for the Pontificat, he chased them both away, and after placed Boniface making laws against such ambitious competences: julius Nepos the tyrant overcoming Glicerius the Emperor, he made him Pope as Euagrius doth record; for some hold that he made him only Bishop of Milane, because he is not found in the catalogue of the Popes, Odoacre king of the Horoli being master of Rome, he made an ordinance at the solistation of Pope Simplicius, and to the imitation of proceeding Emperors, That no Pope should be exalted without the consent of Imperial authority. When the Emperors had recovered Rome from the Goths justinian did not only eject Vigilius but made him come to Constantinople to be judged, offering to the people of Rome his archdeacon Pelagius whereupon they thanked the Emperor, willing him to suffer Vigilius, and after his death to establish whom he pleased, which right did so continue with the seat imperial, that Saint Gregory the great durst not honour himself with his titles before he had received the imperial confirmation of his pontificate. Finally if we come to speak of the confirmations of counsels and canons, which is the last point of Ecclesiastical jurisdiction, we also find that nothing was solid until the imperial approbation was conjoined to the spiritual. The Rolls of the decrees of the counsel of Nice and Constantinople were presented to Constantine and Theodosius to be subscribed and authorized by them; against which foresaid policy of the primitive Church so far depending upon the Emperor, I know not what we can pretend, unless we will be like those ignorant Gnostickes of whom Irenaeus doth make mention in the fourth Chapter of his third book, who held this opinion that while God did command us to obey superior powers he did accommodat that command to the condition of persons and times: and that the Church is not now in minoribus as she was then; but out of Pagerie, and able to command, herself. Certain the law of God is immutable and eternal and doth not suffer eclipse, nor is subject to the measure of our fantasies. If one will say the dealing of Arrian Kings with the church under the cross, is not to be drawn in example, what shall we say to the jurisdiction of Constantine the great the first patron of the Church, who took upon him in his time to establish Bishops and had at his death Athanasius under his judicature: and what shall we answer to Charlemagne a great favourer of the Church & to his son Lues Debonair who sent to Rome to judge a Pope for the murder of Theodore a Roman Senator of the French devotion, wherein the Pope was forced to clear himself by the kings own appointment as the letters of Pope Leon to Lues to that effect doth import; Thus, if we have done any thing out of purpose in that process we are ready to amend it by your own officers, whom we●…treate you to send outwell disposed men to take trial of that matter. The ecclesiastical histories, and the lives of Popes where they are written besoful of such testimonies and so plain into them, I thought it not necessary to quote them particularly. So concluding this general Theme in favours of the lawful authority of Kings, I say the primitive Church had never a Bishop nor Pope who did refuse to submit himself to the imperial jurisdiction, after the example and doctrine of Christ, in such manner that we are to esteem all this contrary clergy of Papal parasites, to be a false and bastard theology of ambitious monsters who strive to usurp that power which God hath reserved to himself, of disposing of Kings and Diadems of the world, after the way of his secret and divine providence: which power is so alone to him that no mortal flesh may participate of it, as Daniel doth approve in the Dream of Nebuccadnezar: Altissimus habet Potestatem super Regna hominum & dat illa cuivult, & constituit super illa homines vilissimos: The most High hath power over the Kingdoms of men, he giveth them to whom he will, and placeth in them most vile men. And the Prophet Esay in this point, in the person of the Ethnic Cyrus, he doth prophesy his victories, he calleth him the Lords Anointed; of whom God did say, Whose right hand I have holden to subdue Nations before him: he ordained him to be obeyed, saying, Uae ei qui Esa. 45. litigaverit contra factorem suum: Woe be to him who doth question with his Maker. Numquid lutum dicet factori suo quid facis? Shall the Clay say to the Potter, What dost thou make? Then he concludeth, saying, I have raised him, and he shall let my people go, not for money, but freely. When God commanded, Nolite tangere vn●…s meos, he did not except Saul more than David; Balthasar, more than good King josias: what then, shall these miserable and wretched potshrads of these times reason with their Maker, when he saith, Dedi eis Regem in furore meo & regnare facit hypocritam propter peccata Populi? What, shall they have a count of him? or how do they not hear the voice of the Prophets, of Christ himself, of the Apostles, of the Fathers, of the primitive Church? all consentient, and contrary to that poisoned doctrine of Rome, invented and maintained by the Jesuits, where (in place of these sacred privileges yielded unto Christian Princes, as is said, consisting in four or five points of Sovereignty in the Ecclesiastical government) we shall hear four or five such Maxims as these. To Christ is given all power in Heaven and Earth: and Christ hath given the keys of all to Saint Peter: therefore the Pope his successor hath all power also of Heaven and Earth: he is above Kings, and may translate and destroy their authority: he is above general councils, and may inhibit them, having all power in his own person. In place of Christian Apostolic and reverent speeches of Monarches & Kings, there is to be heard fastuous & contemptible invectives against them, serpentine insinuations to cut the throat of their Royal power, to depose them, spoil their estates, and invade their lives, and these by exoterick or public writs: and who will be curious of their acroamaticke, or hidden and cloysterall doctrine, shall be taught to understand this ground for all, that after the reign of the Antichrist, all Nations are to be collected under one Pastor, and to obey him: and to that effect God doth establish and raise some puissant Christian authority, which should be in the occident, as some Rabbins and jewish Doctors, who became thereafter Christians, have observed by these mystical words of our Saviour upon the Cross, Vouch chi hammassiah chesche vitlash bannesthimneth hu daieth roscho daiphen nalt sarphat dareth rachen nalcha: That is to say, Et erit postquam Messias suspensus fuerit in ligno, ecce ipse inclinabit caput suum, & prespiciens ad occidentem dixit miserebor tui. The French, say they, doth expound this mystery of the Grandor of the French Crown, because their Princes were miraculously brought unto the Christian faith, receiving the Flower-de-Luce sent from heaven, as their Story's record, with a supernatural power to heal the Ecruelles by touching, which Flower is holden sacred, and in holy Scripture is recommended above all other Flowers, being employed in the work of the great Candlestick made by Moses, and after used by Solomon, who built the Temple; whereof Moses drew the figure: so that they esteem this Flower to be the true hyerogliphicke of their faith, and hold it yet for their Armouries: they have been mighty promoters of God's Church by destroying floods of Arrians, Gets, and Visigotti in Spain, in the days of Carollo Martello, and Pipino his son, by their expulsion of Longobards, and succouring of the seat Apostolical, under Carolus Magnus, by their exploits in the Orient, about the conquest of jerusalem, under the Arms of Godfred de Bullion, and his partners; and by their Christian enterprises against the Saracenes, under Lodovicus sanctus, their King. All these do comfort the French (say they) to presume that this mystery upon the Cross was in favours of them. Again, the Spaniard doth take it unto him, because he hath done so many things for extension and securing of the Catholic faith, affronting the Turk in all quarters, and planting Christian Religion among the barbarous Indians: but the secret of the mystery (say they) is, that the power which is prophesied in the Apocalyps, doth pertain to the sea Apostolical, and to the person of the Pope: To him who keepeth my works to the end will I give power over all Nations, he shall rule them with a rod, Apoc. 2. of Iron, and as the vessel of a Potter shall they be broken, saith the Spirit of God in that place: whereby is meant the Pope, who only of all men cannot err. I have always sufficiently cleared to your Lordship the minds and practices of the Fathers of the Primitive Church in this point of Princes. Now that I may not seem to caluminate the jesuit, I will summarily show how he hath perverted this doctrine, and poisoned it with his Absynthium. Next, I will relate how his prevarication and falsehood is impugned by Catholic Romans themselves, the French Church, and that famous Palladium of Sorbon. And lastly, I will discourse a little of the design of this pernicious doctrine, which is a devilish plot of fearful ambition, by length of time, to draw the whole world under the superstitious hyerarchy of Rome, both in temporality and spirituality, if it be not prevented. There be three grounds of this doctrine tied together in one chain, which in effect be but one thing teaching the Sovereign power of the Pope over Princes, which power is extended by three Arms, power over their soul to excommunicate, power over their states and crowns to deprive, and power over their bodies to give warrant to kill them: which indeed is all the power the Pope doth claim on earth. For as touching his being above general Counsels, it is but all one with his being above Christian Princes, to whom belongeth the authority to convocate, and rule Counsels: I will omit for brevities sake to speak of any other writer among the jesuits, but only of Bellar:, who is their predominant planet. Touching the persons of Kings (saith he upon this point) the Pope may not albeit there be just cause, depose them, in the same sort as he doth Bishops, that is to say, as a civil ordinary judge. Nevertheless, saith he, he may as a Sovereign Prince spiritual, if it be necessary for men's souls, change kingdoms, taking from one, giving them to another; the first possessor being excommunicate ●…st country. 3. lib. 5. cap. 6. (as we shall prove) saith he, pag. 1081. of that book imprinted, Anno 1601. Then for proof he doth introduce all the treasonable enterprises of Christian people, which are not only contrary to Gods will in his holy word, but are detestably abhorred by the relation made of them in civil histories, Cap. 7. of the same, whereby one may manifestly note that the intestine calamities of Christendom these many years past, rising from this wicked usurpation over lawful Christian Princes, hath been the truest cause of the increase of the Mahometan Empire. And it is marvelous to see how Bellarmine doth there so impudently strive to confirm that extravagant of unam sanctam de maiorit. & obedient. so solemnly condemned by the greatest part of the Roman Clergy, chiefly by the French Church. Like as the whole body of the jesuits under one generality maintain the same in an Apology of theirs set forth to the same end, under the Title of the Verity defended, and in the last impression of the same, pag. 42. for by that Extravagant, if the Pope should transgress to thunder excommunication unjustly against the best Princes, yet no mortal man might take notice of it, nor crave it to be reform: but not content to deal this way with pretended heretical Princes, he layeth an ambush before the best & most virtuous Kings, he keepeth over their heads Virgam vigilantem. In this manner, he doth exempt generally from Regal jurisdiction whatsoever Ecclesiastical persons contending by many instances and iterations of words to confuse that Text of Saint Paul, Omnis anima subdita sit superio: potestat: Let every soul be subject to superior powers, for there is no power but of God, and the puissances which be, are ordained of him: which he doth repeat in this sort, whosoever doth resist power, doth resist the ordinance of God, and shall receive judgement of God, saith he, reserving the Equivocating of the Text, because he would have us to think that all Supreme power is in the Pope, upon this Text Chrysostome doth observe, that these are not only spoken of the Laicke, but for the Religious, yea and for the Apostles themselves (saith he) But Bellarmine saith in the same Treatise, pag. 255. that the Pope hath taken all Ecclesiastical persons, from the power of Princes secular: So that they are no more their subjects (saith he) which in effect is no other than to build a foreign state within a King's Realm, and so doth he himself affirm in the same place; It is, saith he, as if a Prince should set over a part of his Dominion unto a stranger: for than he behoved to lose it. Thereafter he saith the laws of Princes, albeit they be not contrary to God's word, yet can they not bind a Religious person except it be ad directionem, non autem ad coactionem, pag. 269. of the said clerical exemption, concluding pag. 271. that the Prince doth lose the Clergy, and is no more their Sovereign, maintaining it so obstinately, that he doth obuiat such things as might be objected in the contrary. If, saith he, ye hold it an injury done to Kings, to spoil them of their authority, which they had over those men before they entered into the Clergy, I answer that he that enjoyeth his own right doth wrong to no man: one may choose such a calling as he thinks meetest for himself, therefore he who entereth into the order Ecclesiast: doth no injury to Kings, albeit the King lose a subject per accidens, by that act, (saith he.) This clerical exemption hath a strange consequence, that the attempts of Religious men against their native Princes, shall be no Treason because they are not their Subjects. The assassinate of jaco Clement no treasonable murder. And the jesuit- Emanuel Sa in his Aphorisms of confession doth plainly hold it, treating of this word Clericus, saying, Clerici Rebellio non est crimen laesae maiestat is quia non est subditus Regi: The Rebellion of a religious man is no act of Treason whatsoever he do, because he is not a King's subject. And again, glozing upon the word Princeps & Rex. Potest Rex privari per Rempublicam ob Tyrannidem, & cum est causa aliqua just a elegi alius a maiore part populi: The King for Tyranny may be deprived by the Common weal, and when there is cause, an other chosen in his stead by the greatest part of the people: but then to let you see, that all that process must depend from the Pope: upon the word Tyrannus, they do reason thus, Tyrannice gubernans non potest spoliari sine publico Indicio, lata vero sententia potest quisque fieri Executor, potestque deponi a populo qui iuraverit ei obedientiam perpetuam: He who reigns Tyrannously cannot be spoiled of his dominion until the public sentence be pronounced, which once done, he may be deprived by any: yea by the same subjects who did swear to him perpetual obedience. This public sentence we must understand is Excommunicatio Maior, proceeding from the Pope. How these Aphorisms do agree with the doings of the Primitive Church, let the most ignorant judge whither they be not seasoned with their wormwood. Upon these two foundations of excommunication and deprivation doth of necessity follow the third, to wit murder of Kings, first thundered, next ejected, thirdly, slain, and doctrinal grounds set down to authorize the same, Gean Guignart in his treatise upon the murder of Henry the third a good Prince and a catholic Roman, he doth 'stablish two propositions, one, that the cruel Nero was murdered by a delivering Clement, whose heroical act inspired by the holy spirit was to be reputed just and lawful, yea and most laudable, next, that the crown of France ought to be transposed to another Race, and the Biarnois (so doth he disdainfully call the french king) he ought to have a monastical crown, that is to say, to be shaven and condemned to the cloister (albeit he was become a catholic Roman) which if he would not accept, they should by force of arms eject him, or deprive him of his life. Ambrose Varades principal of the Jesuits College at Paris, was found the instigatour of Barrier against the late king immediately after his conversion to the Church of Rome, Chastell who struck him in the mouth confessed that he was taught by Jesuits that it was an act of extraordinary great godliness to kill him because he was no lawful king although he was converted, until he was received by the Pope, A letter was found of father Commelet a man most famous among them for prudence, and gravity, bearing these words, we must have an Aeod, let him be a monk, a soldier or a shepherd it is no matter, we must have an Aeod, for the assassinat or slaughter of King Henry the third so did their absynthium universally poison all, that even in the Serbon it was concluded in favour of the Pope, that his excommunication and murder was both lawful and well acted, William Parry confessed at his death that Benidicto Paulio & Aniball Codreto Jesuits did persuade him that it was a most religious act to surprise the life of the late Queen of England a good Princess replenished with Piety & virtue And who should hear the true relation of the state of Polonia since the entry of the Jesuits there, he should hear of more wicked & secret practices during that time, then for hundreds of years before, This is the doctrine and these are the practices of Papal pride with the Christian Kings of this age: which being paralleled with these of the primitive fathers, it is easy to mark the antithesis. So to end this particular touching the Maxims of the jesuisticke schools, it is the glory which they do carry as a bright star in the front of all their renown, that they be daunters of puissant kings and it is found in their own books in that treatise called Summa constitutionum imprinted at Lion's Anno 1859. containing the government of that society, it is said Tyrannos aggrediuntur & lolium ab agro Domini evellunt: They invade tyrants and root out the cockle and filth from the Lords field. And so invincible they be in this mischievous doctrine, that albeit they understood Tanquerall was condemned to undergo a great punishment and hardly did escape his life Anno. 1561. for suffering this Theme touching the authority of kings to be called in question of the Sorbon, and to be disputed there, yet, so bold are they that ever since that time they did practise the court of parliament at Paris to favour the same motion, albeit oftentimes it was despitefully rejected upon suspicion of that which in effect was found true, that they had covertly corrupted the Sorbon by sliding in among them some of their own scholars, neither is there any thing in all this more strange then to hear Cardinal Bellarmine his answer for that holy carriage of the fathers of the primitive Church with Emperors and Kings of their Time, it was, saith he, more necessary in that time of the primitive Church, to admonish Christian people to obey temporal powers lest otherwise the preaching of the Gospel had been hindered, The case being altered now when the Church is inful authority & power herself which (fiefor shame) is no other than to make the word of God to be a religion of Foxes, a doctrine of sophistry, a profession of Equivocation & consequently of P●…rle quia qui dubi●…r at his me●…itur & bis peiur at as Cicero saith, as if upon these words Regnum meum non est de hoc mundo, Christ would say to his Apostles and successors, that they should obey Princes so long as they were under the Cross, and could do no otherwise, but when they should begin to flourish and get the wind upon them, that then they should change the style of the evangel, and teach a contrary doctrine, a doctrine not of Christ but of the ambitious school of Machavel, to the stain of God's glory who hath made no law but on for kings of Israel for kings of the primitive Church, and for all who have followed; upon which point, and upon these words of our Saviour Regnum meum non est de hoc mundo we may hear S. August as it were upon the Theatre of the world making a procliamation, to secure all authorities from such fear & jealousy, Audite (saith he) judaei & gentes, audi preputium, audite omnia Regna terrena non i●…podis domination●… ve●…am in hoc mundo, O here ye jews and gentiles, ye circumcised and uncircumcised, here ye all the kingdoms of the earth; Christ maketh no stop nor opposition to your authorities temporal, and we read S. Bernard upon this text in the 12, of Saint Luke, where one said to Christ master tell my brother ut mecum dividat here ditatem that he may divide our heritage, he answered homo quis me constituit Di●…isorem aut Iudic●…m super vos: who appointed me a judge over you or divider of your lands, whereupon Saint Bernard saith stetisse lego Apostolos iudicandos Bernard lib. 1. de conse. sedisse iudicantes non lego: I read (saith he) that that the Apostles stood to be judged: but that they did sit ●…o judge, I read not. Their successors indeed, the Bishops of the primitive Church, at the command of their Sovereign Emperors, did take upon them to be judges, Councillors, Ambassadors, as I have related: and that because being Subjects of the Empire, they were bound to obey, as Constantine the great wrote unto them: but these c●…ill employments were not due to their Episcopal function. Mercy God what wonderful difference 〈◊〉 here? Christ would not usurp so much of temporal power, as to march a small piece of heritage for pacifying of two brethren, being pressed unto it the Pope doth affirm that he hath right of marching; and where? betwixt Cancer and Capricorn, betwixt the Arctique and Antarctique circles, nay, betwixt the North and South Poles, betwixt the Occident and the Orient: he hath the right of division over all the earthly Globe ●…he hath by his ●…lls divided the East from the West Indies, and hath distributed them betwixt the Spaniard and the portugals first: and now again hath given all unto the Spaniard. Next I come to tell your Lordship how this doctrine of Papal Soveraignitie is ●…pugned by the catholic Doctrine of the Roman Churches for Princes. l. b. 2. cap. 8. Romans; Panormitanus that learned Bishop hath written against that opinion of the Pope's being above general counsels. And therefore by Baronius and Bellarmin is counted a schismatic, one Nicholas de Ch●…sa in a treatise de concordia Cathol: hath done the same perfectly, saying, universal consi●…um maioris esse author it at is & minoris fallibilitatis quam Papae tantum: The Counsels have more authority and less fall ability then the Pope alone. Paulus Venetus upon these late distractions of Venice from the Pope, hath made it plain by many Treatises, but the fountain of that truth hath been in France, kept pure and incorruptible, with many disputes at several times, for the liberty of their Princes, as their stories bear: namely in the time of Philip the fair; So that this question is clearly handled of Gerson, who for his excellent learning was Chancellor of the Sorbon, He hath expressly written (forbearing to speak of particular points of the Papal authority) De Auferibilitate Papae ab Ecclesia, of certain cases and possibilities wherein the Church of Rome ought to want a Pope, and hath put it down in twenty several considerations (as he terms them) from which the general Counsels have lawful power to pronounce a N●… of the Pope. All which as any man may perceive who doth 〈◊〉 them, are founded upon the solid conclusion of S. August, Cia●… Regnicael●… dat●… sunt (saith he) P●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The keys of heaven were given to Peter in type of ●…tie of the whole Church. Whereon Gerson in his second consideration doth establish the same gro●…; saying, they were given Non ●…sed 〈◊〉, not to one man, but to the 〈◊〉 of one Church. And in his 〈◊〉 consideration what Christ gave to Saint Peter, (saith he) It was not given unto him, but unto the Church, because it was given 〈◊〉. Therefore saith he, the whole Church may (the Pope being absent) 〈◊〉 authori●… 〈◊〉, ease the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. In that twelfth consideration, he doth induce the Apostolical example, when Paul Galat. 2. did reprehend Saint P●…, that he brought novelties 〈◊〉 the Church. A murmuration grew, Act 10. so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compelled according to his own Doctrine, Para●… esse, as Gerson saith, 〈◊〉 Ecclesia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 Ecclesia es non 〈◊〉, To prepare himself to render an account before the whole Church, otherwise she had not believed him, in the same consideration, again he reason's thuus; The Papal power is given to the Church for her 〈◊〉, and not for her destruction; and therefore such a power may be suspended or taken away from one who would abuse it to her peril; And what else is this then to say that the Pope hath the place of a moderator so long as he is modest, or that he thinks the Church could well enough want the Papal authority; Then doth he pass from the theoric of the question to the practice, by supposing what disorder or insufficiency might fall into the person of a Pope; If (saith he) that the Pope will teach, that the holy Ghost doth not proceed from the Father & the Son; must not the Church resist it? if, said he, an other Pope would or●…n the Kingdom of France to be sacked with fire and sword, r●…sistere debet Rex, the King ought to resist. And so in his tenth consideration, issobe, said he, the Pope should invade a man per●…ce, and this man in his own defence, Si Pap●… M●… proi●… it, if he should fling the Pope into the Sea, he doth it lawfully: then should it much more be permitted and lawful (saith he) for the whole Church to cast out a Pope for her own preservation, by these twenty Considerations of the occasions of the Papal Nullity one may well see how he thought that Popery was a foolish and dangerous human institution, as it is indeed. Lastly, I will in few words open the mystery and design of this jesuitical doctrine, that every one may know how to pull down his mask, and see the leprous face of his ambition. How this Papal Tower hath been builded, Histories be so full of it, and it is so triniall, that I need not to insist in it, by the weakness of the Empire, by the remoteness of Emperors, their naughtiness, by the sub●…ditie of Popes, 〈◊〉 studying to keep some dangerous enemies upon the shoulders of the Empire, till they might get some advantage, by their fostering of perpetual discords among Christian Princes and neighbour States, for the like end, that they might have the better means to overthrow one of the sides, and ro increase themselves upon their ruins, Crescit 〈◊〉 Roma Alba ruivis, by the crafty practising of ignorant Bishops, first, to repair to Rome, as for the commodity of the place: next, to do nothing without their consent: thirdly, to make appellation there, still keeping the seeds of dissension among Prelates for that purpose, till they contrived that invention of the Universal Bishop. Always the Jesuits, who have lately cropen in, that the Cup of iniquity may be the sooner full, and that the world may the sooner see the revelation of the Beast, who seeketh to be adored of all Princes and people. They have a desperate profession not to obey God, nor to obey the Pope, nor the Church of Rome, but to obey their general; per Omnia, & in Omnibus tanquam Christo presenti, as we read in their Summa Constitution●…, pag. 307. The glory of their obedience doth stand in undergoing travails and dangers for propagation of the Church of Rome▪ and to that end they have gone through the World, as I have said, like unto Pandora, that wretched and fatal Ambassatrix of fierce Nemesis carrying their boxes full of all sorts of profound and curious learning: but, alas, rearefully infected with Absynthium, to poison the waters of true knowledge, and corrupt our understanding, they have brave spirits, astonishing tongues, and eloquent words, with all kind of serpentine insinuation that may serve to steal away our minds from the purity of God's worship, and from our dutiful obedience to our Sovereign Princes: Ve●… Psal. 13. aspidum sub labijs corum: under their lips is hidden the venom of Asps: De laquijs 〈◊〉 libera nos Domine: Psal. 90. Deliverus, O Lord, from the snares of the Hunters: Facti sunt quasi arcus dolosus: They are made like a deceitful Hose. 7. bow: Sicut deci●…la plena avibus it a Domus eorum jerem., 5. Plen●… dol●…: As the Fowler's Cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of fraud. To speak briefly of the Cabbal or secret Art of this jesuistique trade, it standeth in their constant observation of certain, sure, and infallible policies, for the exaltation of the Papal Chair, which is the mainescope of all their studies, because one day they think to possess it themselves (as it hath already well near fallen out to be so, when in the election of the late Pope, the conclave did hang six days upon Cardinal Bellarmine) which, whensoever it cometh to pass, than they will prefer so many of their society to the Cardinaltie, that we shall be sure never to see any more a Pope but jesuistique. The Maxims whereupon they do build this fabric, be specially these. First they know that obedience and secrecy are the strongest means to maintain a Sect, and to compass great plots: therefore they have sworn their obedience absolute, not to the Pope nor to the Church, but to their general, in omnibus & per omnia tanquam Christo presenti, as is said: and therefore their arcana imperij, the mysteries of their policies are most close, and reserved from the world. Secondly, they know this to be a true Maxim in government, that no great power can longer flourish than it doth make itself useful, necessary, and formidable to neighbour States: and finding that those things whereby the Popes were steadable and necessary to people and Countries, such as their Dispensations, Purgatoriall Indulgences, force of excommunication, Universal title of Benefices ecclesiastic, were become distasteful and hated of most men, because of their open abuses and impieties, and that wise Kings were begun to pry into them, chiefly those of England, therefore the Jesuits, to repair this breach, did invent this pernicious doctrine of the Pope's Supremacy over the temporality of Princes, to the end that no King should find himself secure but in the favour and trust of Rome. Thirdly, they see, that besides the aforesaid abuses, two things did specially apparel the Papal Seat, one was the Immundities and ignorance of the Cloister, religious men being given to their pleasures, and not to piety and learning, which was the first occasion of the Lutherian separation, as we know: another was, that light and reformation did come into the Church by pastoral vigilance expressed by all means of most powerful preaching, disputing, and writing in that age, which hath followed since Luther: for help of the first of these two, the Jesuits do profess such a purity in their Celibate, as (to give them their due) is admirable: Sive fuerit caste, sive fuerit caute: if it were not that the flames of raging ambition do ordinarily extinguish these humid and bestial passions in any man almost. For help of the second we see what a glory and pride of learning in all Sciences is in them: as one said, Imper●… 'em literarum est penes jesuitas: as if they had resolved to overshoot our reformators in their own bow, and to banish light out of the Church by the same arms that brought it in, for this cause it i●…, why they do attacked themselves to the confessions of great and chief personages, and to the education of the most Noble youth, wheresoever they are, which they do perform with a sort of miraculous dexterity, gathering out among them unto their own society, the most quick, subtle, and vehement Spirits, by whom (tanquam per maxi●…s damones) they do the more easily, surely, and secretly infect all the corners of the earth with their perstiferous traditions. Fourthly, they hold this maxim, which is like enough to be true that religion must shoot out and flourish with a growing state, and therefore presuming that of Spain to be most disposed to monarchy they have devoted themselves to the service of that Crown, for two respects, one that with the dilatation thereof they also may prosper and increase, as they have already by his means planted themselves into the Indeses, an other, that having abused him to the overthrow of other christian princes, he may in end be the more week himself, and obnoxious to their tyranny, knowing how easy it will be for so skilful craftsmen as they are, to suggest rebellion and revolt in his own dominions which are not conjunct and united, but mightily dispersed, so that finally they hope to conclude in their own people that scripture, Homo spiravalis omnia indicat & ipse a nemine judicatur, In such manner that we do now clearly see in them that which the great politic Matchivell said in his time, that if the poverty of the Capuchins and clergy of the Jesuits, had not come tymously in the Church of Rome, to uphold the papal dignity and credit, they had even then fallen to the ground, thus is it no calumny, but a most true & prudent observation of this time to affirm; that no age hath ever seen such fearful firebrands and terrors, such errant stars so malignant and contrarious to christian felicity, as is that society of pretended Jesuits. They do obtrude upon the world that pernicious doctrine of the papal power to excommunicate to deprive, to warrant murders of kings, to the effect that by length of time Pope's being cunning to quarrel with neighbour Princes and to draw their subjects from them, their states may fall into the Ocean of this ambition, which doing is so open and manifest that in the histories of Spain we find it acknowledged that they hold Portugal of the society of the Jesuits, in the union of Portugal printed at Genua. sol: 197. & 214. the chief drift of this doctrine hath been against the kingdom of great Britan and against the French kings these many year since, as we have perceived, because in their designed monarchy they find much more difficulty to pass by these two, then to have over passed the pillars of Hercules, whereupon doth stand that great word of their glory, plus ultra: because they went with the spaineyard to the Indies. Britain and France these be the two pillars which do limitate this jesuistick pride, and whereon they still do read this contrary Mott●…, usque ad metas, which hath been the cause why so many treacherous attempts have partly been executed against King Henry the third of France, and against that most heroical Prince Henry the fourth, whom I think the Lord hath suffered to fall into their bloody hands, because he did contemn the monitions which were made to him before, for after his person had been invaded, and he stricken in the mouth with a knife, whereupon the high parliament of Paris did pronounce the edict of their banishment, and erected a pyramid to remain the perpetual testimony of their villainous perfidy, he did pardon them, restore them, and trust them, and partly I say, these attempts have been in the great mercy of God prevented when they have been plotted against the life of our most gracious Sovereign, as the whole world doth know, namely by that diabolioal machination of thundering massacre, bred in the tempestuous air of these infernal spirits, the Lord God by a miraculous inspiration made his majesty to foresee that hellish cloud of powder, before the fire was yet broken out; The memory whereof should make this whole kingdom to shake for fear, and to cry to God that it would please him to preserve his sacred person from these cruel Hunters, because he is now the principal object of their malignity and that prince of all the earth whom they do most fear & hate, Seeing how God who hath raised his horn, hath also iust●…fied his exaltation by marks more like to Moses and Solomon then unto Cyrus, he hath not only holden his right hand, and possessed it with monarchial state, strong & fearful to his enemies as he hath done to Cyrus & made numbers of strange nations who did before strive to depress him, come to honour and admire his regal throne: come to ask of him the peace of their people which he hath done also unto Cyrus, saying, The labour of Egypt, the merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabines shall come to thee, men of stature shall come to thee and fall down before thy face, saying, God is surely in thee, which we have seen come to pass, by overflowing of his majesties court with foreign people, with foreign riches, and foreign presents, and by the glorious Spainyard his solicitation of his majesties wisdom to further his peace with the Netherlands: But the lord also hath granted unto his majesty the understanding of Moses to build his tabernacle to restore unto his people the primitive Government of the Church, approved by catholic antiquity, for a prognosticat that he intendeth to make him the instrument of farther reformation in Christendom; And he hath granted unto him Solomon like, knowledge and learning to maintain by public writs, the riches of his royal Soveraignitie against all those insidious grounds of the crafty jesuit, which is the reason why I must boldly affirm it, that there is none of that society in the world who doth love his person in other terms than Cicero loved Octanius when he called him bonum puerum & colendum. To proceed, there is neither Prince prelate nor priest within the Church of Rome who hath not his displeasure, against this doctrine derogative to kings, except Italians Spainiards and Jesuits, be cause that Papal supremacy doth challenge to be above the general counsels, taking from Catholic princes that liberty to convocate them, which was due to their predecessors in the primitive church, because it doth debar all Cardinals except Italians from the papal dignity, because it is only granted to the Jesuits to go through and plant religion, having infinite privileges granted unto them for that cause which be hurtful to all other order of secular and cloysterall priests; This is the reason why of these three Italians, Spaniards, Jesuits, there is not on who doth not eschew as a pest the meeting of general counsels, for howsoever they do pretend this quod nunquam acquiescunt heritici they must be unnecessary say they, because heretics will never rest to the voice of counsels: yet this is the mystery and truth, no cardinal must presume to sit in Saint Peter's chair, but an Italian, no king must overrule the consistory in his election but the Spaniard whom also they think to devour in the end, albeit now he thinketh himself their dictator in perpetuum, and no prince but he may aspire to brook an heretical kingdom confiscate by the fulmination of Rome, by which kind of tittles he doth enjoy the Indies and Navarre as the like hath been granted to his father Philip the second, by Pope Pius Quintus, who did excommunicate the late Queen of England, nor no orders of Religion other than the Jesuits may be negotiatours in them, or know the secrets of this government whereof this is a main point to decline general Counsels, lest these abuses should be urged to be reform: lest the King of Great Britain should urge the restitution of patriarchal liberty, for the weal of the Catholic Church, lest a French King urge the residence again of a Pope in Avignon, lest both should concur to control this usurped fiske of Rome, & so leasl the fruits of this forbidden. Tree of their domination should be made common to all Princes alike, and to all Cardinals alike, the which mystery most clearly did appear in the Sessions and circumstances of the Counsel of Trent, for the Emperor Charles the fifth, being a wise and religious Prince, and most studious by all means to pacify the broils of his Countries of Germany, moved by the Lutheran reformation, he did by obstinate instance, hardly obtain from the Pope the Convocation of that Counsel, which as the History saith so soon as it was granted him, Tam cit●… compedes Pontifici iniectos existima●…, he thought that he had put the Pope into chains, having his whole design to reform the Church of Rome in matters of government, of manners, and of grosser points of worship, by advise and concurrence of the whole Christian Ambassadors and Commissioners there; without respect to the Cardinals of Rome, who for all that did so Italini●…e and cirumvent the Ambassadors Tramontani (as they call them) making the French Ambassadors to believe that the Emperor did urge some secret course for himself with the Pope: informing as much again to the Ambassador of the Emperor against the French, they procured in private both their warrants in writ, without knowledge the one of the other, that nothing should be moved in that Counsel but from the mouth of the Nuncio of Rome, whereupon did follow that nothing was disputed there, but points of mere doctrine; and these most rigorously concluded, while as that good Emperor had resolved to heal the Scandalised world, as is well understood by that conference in Germany which is called the emperors Interim, where he himself did condescend to the Matrimony of Churchmen, to the administration of the Sacrament both in bread and wine, and other points which be holden heretical in Rome: and during all his life time, he did mightily lament the deceit of that Counsel, which is to be verified by divers autographical letters, that is to say, written with his own hand, and yet extant in the custody of a Nephew of him who was French Ambassador at Trent in the foresaid Counsel, called Pibracke, dwelling at Paris as I take it: But they did more surely school the son of that Emperor, Philip the second, and this Philip now of Spain, whom they have really incorporate into the seat of Rome, making him to think, that he is perpetual Dictator, as is said: and the Pope's only son and heir. And because all this discourse is of experience, I will tell your Lordship how this was very quickly noted to me by a certain intercourse which did happen to me Being at Milan in Lombardie, I did behold upon the Gates of that City the Arms of Charlequint, gloriously planted, with many stately inscriptions, among the which this was to be read, Ad plantandam fidem & ad colligenda Regna dispersa à Deo destinatus: Destinate by God for the plantation of the faith, and for the union of dispersed Kingdoms of the world: when I did object to one of my acquaintance of good understanding, that Destinatus ad plantandam fidem was rather a title Apostolical then Imperial: He replied to me, that it was Apostolical: for (said he) that Trinity of the Godhead which is in heaven, of Father, Son, and holy Ghost, hath deputed here below another Trinity for earthly government, under whose obedience all power must be ranged: the Pope the Father, the King of Spain the Son, and the Society of the Jesuits the holy Ghost: so that the Inscription is thus to be construed, said he: The jesuit, who takes upon him to be the only Plantator of the faith, being (as the holy Ghost of this Trinity) sent forth among stranger Princes to seduce their people to rebellion, by sowing into their hearts the seeds of superstition and sedition, which so soon as that Prince or King doth offer to punish, the Pope, who hath the place of the Father, he doth excommunicate him: and lastly, give commission to the King of Spain to invade his Dominions, who hath the place of his only Son and heir, who only of all Princes doth understand the right Cabbal of the Court of Rome, and is only destined to execute that which is appointed in the Council of his Father: so that he also is Apostolical, said this Gentleman, who was a Frenchman, and a true enemy to the Spaniard, as may be seen by this ingenious and pretty conceit. Thus it is no more a mystery, but revealed to all the world which way the ambition of this Beast doth tend: first, debarring from the benefit of general Counsels, Lutherans, of whom some were cruelly burnt against their safe conduct and public faith of the world: secondly, debarring Protestants, which ought not to be, because they have still called for reformation: thirdly, debarring the Catholic Roman Clergy itself, giving out for doctrine, that the Pope is above all general Counsels, which is done so impudently, that the Cardinals, Barronio and Bellarmino have not been ashamed to condemn that great Panormitan Bishop, because from this text, Omnis anima subdita sit Superioribus potestatibus: he proveth the Pope to be subject to general councils: and finally, not only spoiling Christian Princes their powers to convocate councils, debarring them also, but usurping over their authorities temporal, and invading their States and lives. I have detained your Lordship so long upon this point of the Papal Sovereignty, and of the jesuitical trade, quia plurimi interest, because it concerns your Lordship, you, I say, and all those who be of your profession, chiefly who be of your Lordship's Noble rank, it concerns you nearly to be well informed here: this is the very place of danger, it is the insatiable mouth of the devouring Monster of our Age: it is the gulf which hath swallowed puissant Kings and flourishing Kingdoms. This venomous doctrine is like unto that Lady, of whom Tacitus writeth, called Locusta, whose singular skill to temper Poison so, that when it was most deadly, it wrought most unperceivedly, made her to be called, Maximum instrumentum imperij: A great and necessary Instrument of the Empire, and much made of under Nero. This doctrine doth attrape and snare the lives of greatest monarch before they can be aware. It is a drink of some new Cyrce, changing men into brutal Beasts, that they have no more sense of humanity, or respect (what shall say?) to themselves, their wives and children: no, that is small, but not to their sacred Princes, nor to our common Mother, their Native Country, not caring to cast into the mouth of this Monster millions of innocent souls, nor making no account to sprinkle the Altars of their Cyrce with the anointed blood of their Sovereign Kings: yea, before she should want her nefand and barbarous sacrifice, they will offer unto her the blood of their own hearts: let us remember Clement Raviliacke, Persie, and his wretched complices: So pitifully are they enchanted with constant and desperate madness. We must be afraid of the jesuit, and of his potion: he will tell us, that constancy in faith is able to overcome all things, as it is indeed when it is inspired by the good Spirit of God: but (alas) he will tell us that constancy to prosecute great actions or enterprises is like to an hectic fever, which scarcely is felt at the first assault, but by continuance it overthroweth the strongest bodies. He will tell us, that oftentimes God doth compassion their tears shed for their brethren, Martyred under tyrannous heretical Kings, even by stirring up within their Courts and Cabinets, a Brutus an Aeod, inspired with courage and constancy to revenge his own cause: God of his mercy preserve Christian Princes from these brutish spirits. That Brutus is a dangerous fellow, be where he will, we read of Brutus, that he did glory in the murder of Caesar in these terms, Non solum non Caesari, sed ne patri quidem meo si reviuiscat concesserim, ego totius orbis terrarum liberator, ut me patient plus legibus ac Senato possit. I the deliverer of the whole world, would not on only not suffer Caesar, but not my own Father to do these things, yet this was but a cause of state, and he was only an heretic in policy: if he than would have murdered his Father, as he did in effect, for he was thought the natural son of Caesar, albeit not lawful, what shall we then look for, from these brutish beasts of our age, who have a cause of conscience, and an error in their soul, which once being infected with that devilish pride, to be called delivering Aeods of God's people, what is so heinous that they will not perpetrat? Brutus was much beloved and bound to Caesar, yet that would not keep up his hand from impious parricide, he was among the first of his percussors, that Cesar said to him, Tu etiam fili Brute: This mental reservation of men's minds, this wicked equivocation of their manners, it maketh that complaint of Momus against jupiter, to seem more just now then ever before, why he did not make an open window into the breast of man, that the deep of his heart might be seen, and God grant it do not betray the foresight of the most witty Princes; but that they in time discern these beasts, and look upon them with the eyes of that king of beasts the Lion, whom nature hath made so vigilant over his own safety, that he doth never sleep but with open eyes; as we have two eyes in our head, and none in the members of our body, so Princes who are heads of the people, they must not only have eyes for themselves, but eyes for the body of their estates to penetrate most hidden things, like unto that Royal foul the Eagle, who being in the high air above, doth see small fishes in the bottom of the waters; and as our head hath a Nose to savour and a Mouth to taste, for the necessary use of our bodies, so they who be our heads, must have, specially in these treacherous and untrusty times, Sagacissimum olfactum, most quick senses able to smell the most secret disposition of their subjects: namely of these who live about their persons, what shall we say then, of these holy Fathers, the Jesuits, who have laid so dangerous nets in the high ways of Christian Kings? and what shall we say of these their holy Disciples, who will not spare to murmur against their punishment, as to calumniate that sentence worthily lead by the Arch Bishop now of S. Androes against john Ogiluy the jesuit at Glasgow, whose traffic avowedly: was to move his majesties subjects after his own example, to disclaim the authority of their most natural and lawful King. Of the jesuits your Lo: hath my opinion, of those, be who they will, who have commerce with them, or favour them, (because I know your Lordship to be far from being such) I say they are hosts Patriae, & hostis Principis, they are no loyal subjects of the Prince; nor upright members of this kingdom. I speak not rashly, I know as much as any of the Papists, who be of that profession, and more than many of them, and of that Act, at Glasgow, I say that many such services should make a man worthy to watch the lions tent, to have his nest next the Eagle, and to sit near the Rudder in the ship of the state. Now to conclude this point, I appeal to the divine light of your Lordship's conscience, whether you do not think in your heart (things being as I have related) that this practising of the Court of Rome, is to play the beast of the apocalypse, who striveth to be worshipped of all the world, whither you do not think that unto her members doth belong the judgement pronounced by Ezek. 39 Ezekiel, against those who courtise the world, and the flesh: Dic omni volucri coeli, & omnibus avibus cunctisque bestijs, concurrite undique, etc. Thus saith the Lord, speak to every feathered foul, and every beast of the field, assemble yourselves, and come gather on every side to my sacrifice, for I prepare a great sacrifice for you upon the mountains of Israel; that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood; ye shall eat the flesh of the valiant, and drink the blood of Princes of the earth, of the Wethers, and the Rams of the Goats of the Bullocks, even of the fat beasts of Basan: Thus ye shall be filled at my Table, with horses and chariots, with valiant men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord God. Here is a fearful Proclamation prepared for the fiends of hell, who are meant by these feathered fowls, as the Prophet in one place says, Malis avibus dedit ad devourandum, he gave them to be devoured of the evil fowls, of which kind of infernal fowls, Christ speaking in the Parable of the grain of corn, Et volucres coeli comederunt illud, and the fowls of the air did eat it up. But who is meant by these Bellators against God, and these fat Bulls of Basan? will one say the Israelites? or the nations about them? O but the word of God is eternal, and the doctrine of the Prophets is perpetual, and Symbolical as that Church was Symbolical, that to the world's end, and in all ages the like sins shall procure the like vengeance: who be they who carry horns of ambition like unto the Ram? was there ever any pride comparable unto that of Rome, where under colour of spiritual care, there is nothing but contriving of monarchical Tyranny, by most wicked means, as if Christ had left that commission to Saint Peter which Anchises left unto Aeneas the Grandfather of the Romans. Tu re gere imperio populos Roman memento, Ha tibi erunt arts. Who be these who carry hearts polluted with filthy and abominable lusts, like unto the goats, minds puffed up with undaunted arrogance like unto the bulls: who be loaden with sordiditie, and riches like unto fat kine; who be like unto Sodom, overflowing with idleness, and wealth. CHAP. VI The means by which it pleased God to reduce this Ass of Balaam, with his Counsel against Papistical, and superstitious Induration. IT were now a great happiness for your Lo: if you could weigh with sound judgement, and out of the divine light, which is in your soul the points of this discourse, in so many impious and superstitious transgressions, but your Lo: doth shut your eyes, and ears; I will yet tell you one jest of my experience. Being at Rome, I did often hear the chiefest Cardinals deplore, Tanquam mortem dilectissimae filiae, as the death of their most tender daughter, the falling away of this kingdom of Great Britain from the seat of Rome, affirming that in former ages we were the most upright Catholic Romans, and most zealous of Christendom, and being most curious to demand a certain understanding man, the reason of that speech, he gave me this answer, Per che crano simplichotti, lontani, may intendevano la cuilloneria di questa sedia: Because said he, your predecessors were simple people, far distant from this, who never did truly understand the trumpery of this seat; because I speak in foro conscientiae, your Lordship ought to believe me. Even so, I say of your Lordship, you are remote from these places, and do not see the truth of things, and when they are brought before you, you do not look upon them with your right eye, but with your sinistrous eye, not with whole eyes, but with sore eyes; For like as those whose eyes are weak or diseased, do see better in shady and dark places, then in presence of the sun, so they who have the eyes of their soul blinded with the shadows of Pharisaical coremonies of superstition, they cannot willingly abide to have their sight tried before the brightness of God's word: As there were among the Babylonians to be found numbers of holy vessels that were brought forth of the Temple of jerusalem, when the people were captived, so in the Church of Rome there be indeed; many good and Christian customs and ordinances, and sundry pure and sincere grounds of Doctrine mixed with these iniquities and idolatry, that we may call it like unto that monstrous Minotaur kept in the Labyrinth of Daedalus, Alter a part hominem, alter a part bovem, when the mother of this monster went in to see it, her natural affection did never suffer her to behold the beastly part of it. It is just so with many men, when they are brought where they may have a perfect discovery of this forged and monstrous worship, their natural inclination to superstition will never permit them to behold the wicked and impious parts of it: and therefore, as multitudes who entered within that Labyrinth, were devoured of that monster, because they knew not the way to return, till Theseus did devise a means of retreat, by tying a thread to the entire by the one end, and carrying the other with him, he did come back by the same. Even so who doth eter within the mystical Labyrinth of these cunning and crafty superstitions, devised by many Dedalean artificers, he is never able to make recourse, nor to save himself undevoured of that monster, without he be tied to the thread of God's word. And he who is so, shall not only pass most securely through the most secret places thereof, but (as David got out of the hands of Goliath that spear wherewith he slew him) so shall he bring as many arguments from that which he shall see among them, as shall suffice to confound themselves, we slide into errors piece, and piece, and piece and piece we must recoil from them, we are not to look for sudden and miraculous conversions, for that blow coming from heaven which struck S. Paul to the ground, suddenly drove the devil out of him; for that divine light which in an instant removed the darkness of his soul, and made him cry, Lord, what wilt thou, I am here. The days of miracles are past, we have Moses, the Prophets and Apostles: we must follow the rule of Christ, Scrutamini Scripturas; search the Scriprures, because they give testimony of me. The way of conversion to God's truth is by diligent Reading of his word, by diligent hearing of the preachers of the same, by diligent prayer, who doth hold the books of holy Scripture insufficient he reads in vain, who prayeth with the Church of Rome, which thinks she cannot err, she hath no need of reformation, such Pharisaical prayers are also in vain. And therefore I mean now to give your Lordship a Christian advise, first by telling your Lordship, by what natural defects many men lie over in this blindness, Secondly by showing unto your Lo: that which happened unto myself, and by what means and degrees I was freed from those errors wherein you are. And thirdly by pointing unto your Lordship out of these, a way which I would wish you to follow in particular for your help: for the first, I say that the devil seeks craftily to overthrow us with our own weapons also, he worketh upon the infirmities of our nature, he maketh advantage of our natural weakness; he assalteth the walls of our minds there, where the breach is likeliest, as he will sooner tempt a man of a fierce and tygrish disposition to commit murder, then him who is naturally mild, modest, and meek: so I hold this ignorance of men given over to Idolatry, to proceed from one of those two faults in themselves; either it is a natural inclination to superstition, that while they will not believe the holy Scriptures to be sufficient, they will give faith enough to the most ridiculous Aniles fabulae, of the legendaries, to the relation of a Straw miracle pretended to be done here, or there: in which kind of foolishness I must say, some of our Catholic Romans within this kingdom be the poorest men under the heaven. Well, Pharaoh did see in the miracles of Moses the finger of God working, Ego te constituam Deum Pharaonis: but he gave more credit to the Magical miracles of his Sorcerers: and why? because his heart was hardened. Let us beware of this fearful judgement therefore, which I have told your Lordship, doth follow upon Idolatry, to be abandoned of the Lord, ut credant mendacio qui non crediderunt veritati: that they may believe lies and follies, who would not believe the truth: Indura cor populi huius, occoeca occulos, claud aures, etc. Obdurate the heart of this people, close their cares, blind their eyes, that they do not hear, see, nor understand, lest they turn to me, and I heal them, saith God to the Prophet. Or, next this obstinate and wilful ignorance, wherein men cannot be broken, no, not from one point of most gross things, it proceeds (as we have observed in many, forbearing to judge so of your Lordship) from a secret self-love, glorying to be called constant and inflexible. Surely constancy and good resolution, it is a Cardinal virtue, and perseverance in faith is the height of all Christian virtues: but believe me, this sort of constancy is a despiteful pride, it is to have that which all the herefiarches have had hereticum ingenium, an heretical, inflexible, and rebellious ingeny of Nature: such were Manicheus, Martion, Arrius, Pelagius, etc. Such an heretic was not the good Father Augustine, who fell but Timide and Languide into the Manichean opinion, and was easily again reform by his good and toward nature, by the inspiration of God's Spirit, willingly to hear the Sermons, disputes, and conferences of the holy Saint Ambrose. Secondly, I will tell your Lordship sincerely by what steps it pleased God to grant me retreait forth of this fearful Labyrinth of Idolatry: your Lordship hath heard how I already did distaste these things, which I did see in Italy; but that did not serve the turn, it was indeed a good beginning: upon my back coming to France, and new conference with that famous Protestant Mounsieur Causabon resident then at Paris in the service of the late King, with whom I was familiar before, who now finding me somewhat better disposed, he did far second those beginnings of mine, saying to me, that howseever it was the trick of the Consistory of Rome to deny any cause of reformation on their side, and to disclaim general councils: yet, if it pleased God to inspire the hearts of Princes to challenge that authority over Ecclesiastical government, which was due to their Predecessors in the primitive Church, that the body of the Catholic Church might be easily reform, he told me that design of Charl. 5. as I have relared it unto your Lordship, he told me, that two Emperors, his successors, Ferdinand & Maximilian did much labour for the same. In token whereof, there be yet extant numbers of their letters sollicitatory, to that most grave and profound Doctor of the Roman Church: George Cassander, most zealously entreating him, touching his opinion of the deciding of Christian Controversies, which Book, with divers other learned Treatises of other pacificators, he gave me to read, as also these Themes written, De auferibilitate Papae ab Ecclesia, as I have shown your Lordship already. He told me, that the seat of Rome was like unto one, who having made unlawful purchase of many neighbour Lands, do so curiously maintain their march stones, that they will not have them to be removed half a foot, quia uno dato incommodo multa sequuntur, because, that one granted, with the like equity, much more were to be demanded. They do well remember (saith he) that Emblem of Sylurus the Scythian unto his eighty sons, for the knot of their unity. A sheaf of Arrows hardly bound, out of the which if one could be taken out, it would quickly make the rest to scatter. The reformation of any one point might possibly (they fear) dissolve the whole Mass of that superstitibus trade. These speeches did in like sort further my better judgement. Next again, upon my arrival at the Court of England, unto the which I brought the Commission of some advertisements of this kind from the same Mounsieur Causabon, and others, to the King's Majesty, where, my hearing his majesties learned discourses sometimes at his majesties Table, I confess did also much shorten my way, seeing all the world do talk of his rare and singular wit, and of the sanctified knowledge which God hath given him in the holy Scriptures: I hope I may, without suspicion of flattery, say of his Majesty, that which one of the first Order of wise men in the Land spoke to myself while he lived, the late Earl of Salisbury, that his majesties knowledge was supernatural: that he was the highest Sphere, and nearest to God, which did receive the first influence of wisdom: that he was like to Solomon, of whom it was said, Beatiserui tui qui coram testant, & audiunt sapientiam tuam: Happy are thy servants who stand before thee, and hear thy wisdom. That his Majesty did bestow upon his servants riches and knowledge, and that himself did profess to have gotten more increase of good knowledge, then of Estate, since his majesties exaltation to the Crown. Thereafter coming to Scotland, upon the occasion of your Lordship's transportation from the Castle of Edingburgh, unto Saint john's town, where you was confined, I did oftentimes hear, as your Lordship did, that great and divine Preacher, now the Bishop of Galoway, who, for your instruction, did expressly choose his Thesis against those fallacious and false grounds of the antiquity, universality, and succession of the Roman Church, which be the points that most entangle your Lordship's wit, and which he did so learnedly clear, that for my part, I do acknowledge, they helped greatly to disentangle myself. After this I went to dwell in Dundie for the space of two whole years, where I did most diligently hear that excellent Preacher Master David Lyndesay and his fellow labourers in the Church of that city, in whose worth I think doth consist no small part of the happiness thereof, I had my private conference with him to my great comfort as he can bear me record. I had my solitary exercises in divers subjects of Theology, whereof I praise the Lord I have extant as many testimonies as will suffice to show my painfulness to study the truth of his worship, till now in the end it hath pleased him of his mercy to give me by faith a sure hold of the thread of his word, which is our only guide through this mystical pilgrimage of human follies: of which thread our great Theseus Lord jesus Christ hath left thee on end here with us upon earth in his word and hath tied the other upon the gate of heaven which he did first open, called for that by the spirit of God, the first borne among the dead, So that there is no means to arrive safely unto that port but to keep our eyes fixed upon the course of this thread as our undoubted Lodestar, Thus I do ingenuously confess my own weakness, to the glory of God, yea if it should be to my shame. my uncertain wandering in the wilderness of my own ignorance, brought up in my infancy in the simple profession of God's word at home, and then contemning it, to go a whoring after strange Gods beyond seas, like in that wise to the swine in the Gospel before whom the precious pearl should not have been cast. And returning homeward to much a Cassandrist halting betwixt two, that at my being at court, the king's Mayest, in perceiving me thus to wander in matters of religion, told me, that I should take heed lest I did imitate a certain English gentleman, who in his youth was a protestant, in his travailing beyond seas a papist, and in his returning a Cassandrist, and now finally a most obdured Papist, which word did wound my heart and spur me to crave of God a happy Resolution, which of his grace he hath so far granted me, as I have sound it by experience, that these who be of the number of his Saints, and of the household of faith, they are chosen of him in the same manner that he called their father Abraham, to whom he spakesaying, thou shalt get thee out of thy own country, that I may blessetheo in an other, which words besides the literal sense, hath also this interpretation by remote theology, that he should not only leave his native country: which was an Idolatrous land, but that he should leave his own Idolatrous disposition, he should quit the wisdom of the flesh, and doctrine of humanity, and so go out of himself to believe God's word absolutely. which he did not upon an instant, for the spirit of God tells us that when the Lord did first promise to him the coming of Isaac, that the knowledge of the flesh told him that it had ceased to be with Sara after the manner of women: Therefore he in his distrust laid himself upon his face and laughed at God saying would to God that Ishmael may live, but in the end he did abjure human wisdom and himself to believe God's word so far, that when he had gotten isaac's he went to sacrifice him willingly, notwithstanding so many promises given him of his succession, whereupon it was said of him by the holy spirit, That Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. Even so the Lord hath made me to quite the Idolatrous land the doctrine of Idolatry piece and piece, the traditiones of humanity, to quite my own weak and dark understanding, and abjuring all other things whatsoever, to betake myself to the incorruptible truth of his eternal word, which doth so shine in my conscience (praised be his holy name) that I confess it joyfully, the more I fled it to follow superstition, and the more I did practise these damones meridionales, the more I lost out of sight the pole-star of the right course to the kingdom of heaven. Now thirdly I come to give your Lordship my counsel how to extricat●… yourself forth of this labyrinth wherein you are, and it shall consist of three several points, the first whereof shall be common to your Lordship and all other men, that you will seek rectified knowledge, of God, in such terms as the wise man commands in the beginning of his book of wisdom, seek the Lord in simplicity of heart, for he appeareth not unto those that be unfaithful saith he, to seek the Lord in the darkness of an implicit faith, and to rely your Lo: faith upon human traditions, as far as upon the written word of God, it is no simplicity of heart, nor no faithfulness, it is to mix the dross with gold, and to corrupt the simple food of God's word with pharisaical leaven and so to be unfaithful believing men more than God, seek the Lord with simplicity of heart, for he will not be found of those who tempt him with infidelity saith Solomon. The second shall be the wishing your Lordship to acknowledge what peculiar and self imperfections possibly in your Lordship's self may occasion this weakness of faith, to doubt of the suff●…ciencie of God's word, which commonly in other men (as I have alleged) are a superstitious mind of nature, a fault proper even to divers good men, therefore the more perilous, & again to be na turally of obstinate and inflexible resolution, a fault which hath overthrown many brave and worthy spirits in special, which two several inconveniences unhappily met together in one who liveth in fide implicita, they make him altogether uncapable of reformation & senseless of any reasonable persuasions as if he were changed into an image of hardest propheir; 'tis no shame to confess our faults but it is the first step to grace, the holy prophet David said omnis homo mendax, and in an other place, dixi confitebor adversum ●…e in justitiam mea●… domin●… & tu remisisti impietatem peccati mei, I said I would confess my iniquity before God, and thou O God diddest remit my iniquity. Therefore the last part of my Counsel shall be that you begin in this sort to mend those: Dimidiu●… facti qui bene caepit habet: A thing well begun, that is to say, in the fear of God is half finished, if you cannot upon the sudden absolutely depart from the Church of Rome, yet (since not only God's word and the light of your conscience do convict your Lo: but that her own doctrine for this wicked usurpation over Princes, hath pulled down the mask that covered her whorish face: revealing thereby to theworldeven in our time, that mystery of iniquity) do at last compassion her, as a kindly child the miseries of his mother: and once becontent to wish her to be reform, for that she hath need of reformation, you have in facto confessed, by taking the oath of fidelity, especially expressed to be against a doctrinal ground of Rome. Yea, which is so far urged for mere doctrine, that I have heard it pronounced with my ears, by a sentence of their Consistory, that he who taketh that oath is no Catholic Roman: and therefore to be debarred from any spiritual benefit of their Church, which is as much as to say, he is no Catholic Roman: but he, who is a Traitor to his King and Country, and their impious Bulls and Emissarij, secretly sent through the world for that effect, to poison the waters of men's knowledge, with that Absynthium as I have recited: I speak with warrant, for I did not forbear to practise any thing which might purchase unto me the true understanding of things; because I was not to return there again for better information. The chiefest Alumni of the Roman Church and her greatest Zealotors Charles the fifth, and his successors in the Empire, the chiefest of her Clergy that hath been, or are, have consulted, negotiated, debated, disputed, written and plotted her reformation. Howsoever God for our sins hath illuded their intention, and our poor Papists of this kingdom cannot have any other thought, but to lie ever in bestial forms under the charms of Circe: never so much as wishing to be restored to the shapes of men: for what can I esteem it but a brutish ignorance, so to Idolatrize open impieties, as to hold that Christian Princes ought not to reform the Church of Rome, and purge her from her abominations, or to hold that it is not a most Christian discharge of every one of God's Saints in particular, Spirare unitatem Ecclesiae, to importune God by our daily prayers, for the great jubilee of this reformation, the reduction of his people from captivity, the resta●…ration of his holy sanctuary, and the destruction of Babel, which hath so long detained them in spiritual chains and servitude: Therefore to dispose your Lo: heart for those wishes, and to prepare for you the easier way of recoil from your wilful errors: I will tell you of the means of this reformation: that you, in your own judgement conforming that which ought to be, with the thing which is very possible to be (if the cup were full, or the period of God's hidden providence were at hand) you may first reform yourself, and then call incessantly to God for this general reformation of Christian people. CHAP. VII. Comparison of Rome and jerusalem: the order and truest means of Christian reformation: expostulation against the implacable debates of the Christian Clergy: an exhortation to the upright study of Pacification. WE can never more rightly ponder the condition of the Church of Rome, then to balance her with jerusalem: howbeit this was typical in regard of their external worship, and that substantial, this a limited Synagogue, and that Catholical and universal, in respect before specified of their profession and faith common to all both circumcised and uncircumcised. The chief cause why the Christian is called Catholic, as by that mark distinguished from the jewish Congregation: yet, I say, the Policy doth in effect remain alike in both, the dealing of God with both is so like, and the sins of men in all ages be so like: the corruption of Religion by the length of time so like: and God's judgements, threatened by his Prophets, do fall out so like upon all, then and now, that makes the comparison pertinent, clear, and true: for concerning the chief point, which Rome usurpeth, as Sovereign to her, to be the perpetual Sanctuary, it is altogether idle, to reason that Rome, or any Christian Church, had so ample promises as jerusalem by their names or places. The Roman faith is indeed as I have said, if we please to call it so, being universal to all, I mean that faith of Saint Peter, whereupon the Church of Rome doth build her pretended Supremacy, Tu es Petrus & super hanc Petram fundabo Ecclesiam: that is, upon his preceding confession, that jesus was the Son of God, did Christ found his Church. That faith, I say, hath the infallible promise of the perpetuity of God's Spirit, that is, the Candlestick which never shall be void of light, the Lamp which shall never want Oil, the great City upon the Mountain which shall never disappear, so lively seen by that Prophet of the old Law, & that other of the New, Ezechiel and Saint john, being both in one ecstasy, whereof Saint john said in his vision in the Apocolyps, Sustulit me Angelus Apo. 21. in montem altissimum, etc. The Angel of God took me up into a high Mountain, and showed me the holy City of jerusalem coming down from heaven, covered with the beauty of God: and whereof Esay saith, Esa. 62. Tu vocaberis quaesita Civitas & non derelicta: Thou shalt be called a City sought for, and not abandoned: And whereof the Prophet David maketh a glorious description, Gloriosa dicta sunt de te Civitas Dei, etc. But speaking Psal. 36. of places, what Christian Church or Town may compare to jerusalem, who was the Mother City, not only of jewish, but of Christian Religion. The Law went out from Zion, saith the Apostle: Et non peribit lex à Sacerdote, saith the Prophet: She was like unto Noah, who preached unto two Worlds, as I have said. And if Rome may brag of God's promise above jerusalem, why hath David said in his Psalm, to the derogation, not only to the Mountains of Rome, but of all others, Why brag ye thus, ye Hills most high, And leap for pride together? Psal. 68 This Hill of Zion God doth love, And there will dwell for ever. Always it is enough by way of comparison: for the first they did both boast of Templum Domini: for the second, as it was long before prophesied, that jerusalem should fall away, and become an adulteress, as the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a Wife of Fornication, Hos. 1. and Children of Fornication, Quia fornicando fornicabitur terra ne eat post jehovam: Because the whole Land shall be defiled, that it should not follow the Lord. So do we find in the evangelical prophecies of the Apoc: a prediction of the falling away of Rome clear enough: thirdly, as jerusalem, now fallen in her filthiness, was said of the Prophets, to have a Whore's forehead, who would not be ashamed. And again, the faithful City was become a Harlot: she who was full of justice, was now full of Murders, her silver was become dross, Esa. 1. her wine mixed with water, her Prince's companions of thieves: even so, during all this fall of the Church of Rome, there hath never been wanting singular men, whom God did stir up to rebuke her for her pollution. And as jerusalem did persecute her Prophets: so hath Rome long since persecuted these, even with cruel martyrdom; as, jerom Savanarola and john hus, in special, with numbers more thereafter in divers Countries: Fourthly, Rome is now in that same condition which jerusalem was in when the Prophet Ezechiel was carried of Ezek. 8: the Angel by the hair from Babylon, and placed in the inner part of the Church of jerusalem, where (saith he) I was commanded to look upon the great Idol of indignation, which was in the entry, whose abomination, saith the Lord, causeth me to depart from my Sanctuary. What other thing, I pray your Lordship, is that Idolatrous worship of Rome, which I have related, than a great Idol of God's indignation, as it is conjoined with that scandalous impiety of manners. Then further it was said to Ezechiel, Turn thee, and thou shalt see greater abominations, enter at the gate of the inner Court, and dig a hole through the wall where thou shalt behold similitudes of all abominable things, and all the Idols of the house of Israel painted upon the walls, and thou shalt see the seventy Ancients of the house of Israel standing with censors in their hands, and the vapours of their incense going up like a Cloud: and yet dost thou not see what they do in the dark? every one in the chalmer of his images, saying to himself, The Lord hath left the earth, and doth not see any more: And I did see one (saith the Prophet) who stood mourning for jerusalem: Can any thing be more like to the College of their seventy Cardinals, who have their Palaces thoroughly adorned with idolatrous images of all sores, and the Altars within them smoking, with daily incense of ascending vapours: and who can dig a hole through the wall, that is to say, who can see through the cloud of these external shows of piety, to behold the secret practices of their Consistorian Council, or to behold the works of darkness which be in their secret Cabinets and sensual solitudes, he would assuredly say, that they did also think the Lord had left the earth, and did no more see their actions. But specially one shall perceive and consider the likeness of jerusalem and Rome, by four points, rehearsed by the Prophet in his sixteen Chapter. First he doth introduce God, objecting to her, the weakness and misery of her youth, saying, O jerusalem, when thou wast Ezech. 16. borne, thy navel was not cut, thou wast not washed in water to soften thee, and when I saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I had pity on thee, and said, thou shouldest live: I did swear unto thee, and thou becamest mine. A vive portrait of the first age of the Church of Rome, the first 300. years of her being under the cross from Christ to Constantine the great, during all which time, the city of Rome did lie pitifully defiled with the blood of the Apostles, Saints and Martyrs under the persecuting Emperors: Secondly, God doth object unto her the Grandeur and beauty whereunto he had exalted her, and made her the most conspicuous city in the world, saying, jerusalem I entered a covenant with thee, and thou becamest mine: I washed the blood from thee, I clothed thee with broidered work, I covered thee with silk, I gave unto thee bracelets, chains, and all kind of ornaments: I put upon thy head a beautiful crown, I made thee eat of fine flower, honey and oil, and thou grewest up unto a kingdom, and thy name was spread: Which doth most competently figure the second age of the Church of Rome, now washed from her blood, and put in prosperity from the days of Constantine, to Pope Boniface the third, who did usurp the universal Popedom, and began to erect in it a kingdom, as no man can take exception against it. Thirdly the Lord doth object against her by his Prophet, her pride and declination, saying, jerusalem, thou didst trust in thy beauty, and play the harlot: because of thy renown, thou hast taken the fair jewels of gold and silver, which I gave thee, and madest Images of them unto thyself: and didst commit whoredom with them: thou hast taken thy sons & daughters which were borne unto me, & sacrificed them to be devoured of those, thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth when thou wast naked and bare, Thou hast builded thy high places upon mounts, and at every corner of the way thou hast made thy beauty to be abhorred. The application whereof to the present condition of Rome is so convenient, Quod etiam ipsares loquitur, One would swear it had been a Type of the future estate of Rome, as the Religion was typical, there was never Diadem nor Crown like unto this which she hath arrogated to herself, to be mistress and Queen over Christian Princes: do not all the corners of that spacious city of Rome, and all her seven mountains look out like that glorious palace of Pryamus, whereof it was said, Regia finitimis invidiosa locis, There was never any artifice comparable with the curiosity of her three sorts of Images in plate pictures, in embroidery on silk and gold, in graving upon all sorts of metals, and upon fine stones, such as Porphyre, Agat, Diasper, Lapis Laznli, Cornioll, Alabaster Oriental, Marble, Crystal: whereof they have more store than all the world, did any city ever more forget her obnoxious and distressed youth, oppressing Princes, whose predecessors the Lord made the instrument of her strength and beauty. Fourthly God by his Prophet doth pronounce the punishment of jerusalem, saying, I will stretch out my hand to diminish thy ordinary. I will gather all these whom thou hast loved, and those whom thou hast hated round about against thee: and will discover thy filthiness unto them, that they may destroy thee, and burn up thy houses with fire, because as I live neither thy sister Sodom, nor her daughters have done as thou and thy daughters have done; which doth no less agree with the Church of Rome: The Lord hath stretched forth his hand for her abominations, and hath begun to diminish her ordinary, the purity of his word which is the only bread of life, he hath withdrawn from numbers of Christian people, the mutual love, concord, and harmony of the Catholic faith, which should be their spiritual food; Hath not Rome seen these two ages bypassed, her lovers and her enemies gathered against her, to destroy and burn her up, that is to say; they who were once knit with her, in a perfect unity of the Catholic faith, did she not see her own bowels rend, and Christian states and cities persecuted with fire and sword by Christian armies: hath she not seen the Turks whom she doth deadly hate, come round about against her in Germany, Hungary, Greece, Italy, and with barbarous cruelty overthrow both towns and floods of Christian people, and purchase to themselves our fairest Countries. Is not this to diminish our ordinary in a fearful sort for the pride of Rome: while I call it our ordinary, I mean that through the impiety of Rome all these are taken away from the ancient splendour, authority and strength of the Catholic Church, whereby she is become more weak. Now since Rome and jerusalem do jump in all these points, we will consider a little, whether they may also meet in that which followeth in the Text of Ezekiel. For five God did limitate his judgement against jerusalem, saying, This will I still do till thou cease to play the harlot, and then my jealousy shall depart from thee: I shall confirm to thee for ever the Covenant which I made in thy youth, that thou mayest know that I am God and be ashamed to open thy mouth any more when I am pacified toward thee, saith the Lord; whereby wesee, that whosoever God did chastise his Church of jerusalem with long and hard captivities, yet he did not altogether abandon her: she was his Church still (albeit now and then a fornicatrix) that even our Saviour himself in his time commanded to obey them so long as they kept the Chair of Moses, that is, so long as they did speak the truth: what reason have we then to despair, nor it may please the Lord to reform the Church of Rome: (so I do call all these Churches throughout Europe that have received the mark of the beast, and are drunk with the cup of her fornication to the great derogation of the holy sanctuary of God.) And what know we but it may please God to restore the ancient candour and integrity thereof? the times of secret providence are unknown we read in the last chapter of Barucke, that it was said to the people of Israel because of your sins you shall be captive to Babel, and ye shall remain there many years, even seven generations, And after that I will bring you away peaceably from thence, And in the chapter preceding it is said O jerusalem be of good comfort, and look towards the East to see thy joy which cometh from thy God. The Lord he incensed some Babylonian Princes to carry them away he inspired others to dismiss them freely▪ to understand then whither apparrantly it will please God to work so in the hearts of Christian Kings that Rome (who for many ages hath been spiritually captived in Babel) may open her eyes to see the joys of God coming from the west, we must try how this reformation of Israel was, whereupon proceeded their restitution to God's favour, and upon that are we to settle our judgement of reformation which hath been or may be in the catholic Church. As there was in Israel frequent Apostasies, so was there frequeat reformations, first as both princes and prelates did err so are they convicted by the prophets for transgressors, aswell as the people, as we see in the ninth chapter of Daniel. O Lord (saith he) open shame belongeth unto us, our kings our princes our people ourselves, unto us all, because we have sinned. secondly the Reformations which have been in juda were performed by the ordinary magistrates, Princes, governors and Prelates did err, and princes prelates and governors did reform; The text of Daniel saith. After the going out of the commandedement for taking back the people and reedification of jerusalem, there were so many weeks as he doth reckon there, whereby we note that it was not done by any extraordinary means, but flowed from a commandment given out. Thirdly we observe that these reformations were by reducing the church of jerusalem to the prmetive institutions of Moses, and God's word: banishing things which had contrary course, so that for Daniel when he prayeth for reformation and restitution of jerusalem, because (said he) we have transgressed thy law, we have sinned against thy servant Moses: therefore all these plagues are come upon us: he doth not appeal unto the church, under Solomon, under David, under Samuel, under joseph, or under josua, albeit all these were upright Rulers of the Church: no, but under the primitive Architype and institution of Moses. But while we come to this point of reformation, here it is where the comparison betwixt the jewish Church, and the Church of Rome doth fail; here it is, Vbi insanivimus Expostu●…t: for Christian discords. omnes: where, for the greatest part, we are all gone astray. The Prophet Ezechiel did see one standing mourning for jerusalem: but (alas) how few do this day mourn for the Sanctuary? that is to say, for the desperate discords of Christian Churches, who doth out of Christian compassion utter unto the Church of Rome these kindly speeches of the Prophet to the Israelites during their captivity: My children, as it came into your mind to go astray from your God, so endeavour yourself ten times more to seek him (saith the Prophet.) We have all here forgotten our exemplar, for the Church of Rome on the one side (contrary to Daniel and the jewish reformation) she crieth, that neither she: nor her Prelates, nor her Priests have transgressed, and that they cannot etre; and therefore they have no need of reformation. Upon the other side again, we, who do see her abominations, wherewith she hath defiled the Sanctuary, and corrupted Christian Religion, in place to say with Daniel, Lord, turn thy wrath from jerusalem, thy holy Mountain, have pity on thy holy City wherethy name was once truly called on. jerusalem is a reproach to all that are about her, we do cry, because the Church, who was sometimes chaste unto thee, O Lord, is now become Fornicatrix: therefore destroy her, because she hath polluted the Catholic saith: therefore divorce us from her, O Lord, thus lying over into implacable paroxysm, and strife, while one says, he ought not to be reform, because he cannot err, and his adversaries exclaim, that he is so contagious, as he is not capable of reformation, one crieth for a sole and sovereign Bishop to command both Church and State, both Prelates and Princes: an other crieth, that he will have no Bishop at all, ctc. There is a sort of enchanted Papists, whom the waters of the jesuitical absynthyum have so venummed, that they will not remit one dram weight of the superstitious worship of their great Idol, if it were for the peace of the whole Sanctuary, There be again a Sect of extravagant and heteroclite Puritan of the late stamp, I speak not of any judicious good man who doth discharge his function in God's fear, and the obedience of his Prince, to Christian education: but of these anabaptistical Clerks, Quiout labouche sans bride, as the French saith, who carry no bridle in their mouths, being in opinion of Governments whatsoever, merely Republicanes against the Architype and order of God, not only despising Princely authority, with the jesuit, but vilipending all Prelates in the Church, in favours of a fantastical Anarchy, or a seditious popular tribunat, forged in their own brains, obstinately refusing to accept for doctrine, for manners, for policy, whatsoever almost have been in the Church of Rome, if it were never so good: these be most wretched and pernicious humours of men, carrying factious and vehement spirits, blown up with the vapours of Pandora's box, and abhorring the peace of Israel: with both which I must expostulate in this place, and say unto them as the Prophet commanded to cry in the ears of the rebellious jews of his time, Confregistis jugum, rupistis vincula: you have dissolved the bands of Catholic love and unity, you have broken the yoke of Christian society, you are obstinate against desires of reformation: you do judaize, but Moses did Christianize, who for the sake of that Idolatrous people would have been razed out of the Book of life. Saint Paul did the same, who would have been anathema for the love of his Christian folk: but all your meditations, your writs, your sermons, be like unto these involved Rolls brought by the Angel unto Ezechiel, wherein was written nothing within nor without, but lamentations, mournings, and woe: you have no spark of Christian charity left, without which it is impossible to please God: know you not, that in the Scripture this charity is properly said to be a fire: we read in Leviticus; Vt ignis in altari semper ardeat, That the fire should never go out upon the Altar, which is a true mystery and type of that Christian love which should be under the evangel: for now there is no Altar leftus, but the Altars of pure hearts before the Lord: nor no Sacrifice, burr of contrition, faithful prayers, and love: The law evangelical (as I said before) is the perfection of the natural and Mosaical; and love again (as the Spirit of God doth testify) is the end of this law, finis legis est charitas: 1. Timoth. 1. in which words the Apostle doth attribute, as much to love, in Theology, as in Philosophy is given to justice, speaking of Cardinal virtues, justitia in se virtutes continet omnes, That justice hath in it all virtues: even so, saith the Apostle, if we have as much faith to cause Mountains remove, and want love, it is all nothing. This love is ever commanded, de proximo, of our neighbour. Thou blind Papist, canst thou have a nearer brother than the Protestant? And you precise Puritans, can you but esteem them your pitiful brethren, who live in Papal ignorance: Dilige pro quo mortuus est Christus, 1. Corinth 8. saith Paul, Will you follow the example of Christ? did he not both pardon, and pray to God for those who slew him, whose ignorance was above all ignorance, their unbelief above all unbelief, and fault above all faults, without unity and love there can be no perfect Church; because that is the whole scope of the evangel, as I have said, and of all true Religion: unanimity is the bond which maketh the Church strong, Ecce circundedi te vinculis, saith God, in Eze. Behold, I have hedged you about with bands. This love is the knot which bindeth together the members of Christ in one body: & therefore is so diligently recommended by him to his Apostles that they should remain fast and conjoined among themselves, & by so many types in the old Testament is figured unto us this Christian concord and unity, by the vestments of the high Priest, whereof every portion was joined to another the wholebeing one piece. By the Tabernacle, whereof every thing was joined into another the whole standing in conjunction, for are we not so called in the apocalypse: Ecce Tabernaculum Dei cum hominibus, & habitat Apoc. 21. cum iis, The Tabernacle of God which dwelleth among men. By the vessels, whereof so many as were not closed together, but were opened and in divers pieces, they were said by the spirit of God to be unclean, as we see in the Book of Numbers: we are the vessels who be made by the hand of our heavenly potter, of whom S. Paul saith, Alia quidem in honorem, alia vero vasa in contumeliam, Numh. 19 some be vessels of honour, and some of reproach, you have your mouth open to spew out contumelies and malignity one against another; and therefore take heed you show not yourselves vessels of dishonour: you have not this Christian fire of charity whereof the spirit of God saith, Quod operit multitudinem peccatorum, That it covereth multitude of sins. The Altars of your hearts are kindled with the profane fires of Nadab and Leuit. 10. Abihu: the fires of pride, arrogancy, and contradiction; fires of mutual railing and Philippicke. invectives, where Pastors, in place to persuade Christian love, unity and mutual compassion, after the example of our Saviour, they feed us with contentious syllogisms, Pascuntur Sillogismo sicut Boves foeno, as Oxen are fed upon hay. O you who call yourself a Christian Pastor, how do you forget that precept of Saint Paul? Vt orationes fiant, 1. Tim. 2. postulationes, & gratiarum actiones pro omnibus hominibus. That prayers, supplications and thanks giving may be made for ●…ll men in general: how do you not remember that he hath commanded your corrections and admonitions to be brotherly, Noniactantiae studio nec contumeliosa obiurgatio, sed in spiritu lenitat is, Not in ostentation or contumelious reproach, but in the spirit of lenity: there is no other reason for this, but because Confregitis jugum, rupistis vincula, you have broken the bonds of Christian fraternity and love. This fire of charity in the soul of a good man, is like to the abundance of heat in the stomach of a strong body, which draweth good nourishment, out of gross and evil matters; the want whereof again doth turn the most delicate substance into phlegm, and noisome humours, if you had abundance of this love you would do through the heat thereof, as the Apostle commands you, Alter alterius onera portare, you would digest the ignorance and weakness of your brethren: by seeking their reformation by all brotherly means: and the want of this again, undoubtedly maketh you to distaste and loathe even the good things which be among them. The want of it makes you to detest the name of a pacificatour, to fly the voice of peace, to cry Crucifige, to carry one against an other murdering tongues, poisoned pens, and vehement spirits of destruction, spirits contrary to God, Inspiritu vehementi Psalm. 48. conteres naves Tharsus saith David, in a vehement spirit shalt thou break the ships of Tharsus. We read in the second of the Kings, while Eliab was commanded to attend the coming of God upon the Mountain, the holy Spirit saith, Behold, there was a wind which did rend the rocks, but the Lord was not therein, therewas a great commotion and earthquake, but neither was he there, and thereafter a huge fire, but he was not yet in it: In the end there came Sibilus aura tenuis, the whispering of a sweet and temperate air, and therein was the Lord: Even so the Christian Clergy who go into the mountain of God to understand the secrets of his will, so long as they thunder out such tempestuous winds of mutual despite, God will never be there to pity our Christian distractions: So long as they raise such vehement commotions and fearful earthquakes to rend the states and lives of Christian Princes, God will not be there neither to restore jerusalem, and to purge his holy Sanctuary of the Catholic Church, so long as you burn yourselves with fire of mutual acerbity and wrath, you shall not yet see the Lord there to pity our Christian discords, that our Christian Religion be no longer a reproach to the dangerous multitudes of infidel nations, who watch their opportunity to assault us, because as the holy spirit doth testify in that same place, Non in commotione Dominus, the Lord in his mercy cannot be in a commotion, but if you should whisper out this Sibulus aurae tennis, ibi Dominus: this gentle and soft air of meekness and brotherly admonition, there possibly you might find the Lord. Now to the effect that this brief exhortation, to dispose ourselves to Christian peace should not be mistaken, and neglected as an indigested fantasy of my brain, I send you all to read that treatise called Eirenicon sine de pace Ecclesiae, of the peace of the Church done by that famous junius, one of the chiefest lights of the Church while he lived, In which treatise he doth call all these of your humour wicked, and seditious Tribunes, and of which he did upon his deathbed protest (as I was informed of those who were present) to have more comfort, having written it immediately before, Tanquam cantum Cygneum, as the spiritual song of his farewell: then of all the religious exercises of his life time, which were many and most laborious: So that to imitate for Reformation the practice of our architype jerusalem, this is the first point which we must observe with Daniel, to make general confession of our transgressions, as well Pope and jesuit, as Puritan: and again to make orations and suppications for all, which as it is a thing we ought to do, so it is strange how we should refuse to do it: while Daniel hath said, Lord to us belongeth open shame, our Kings, our people, ourselves. 'tis strange of the Papist, that you should affirm, thy Pope and thy Priests are holy and cannot err, that they have no need of general councils, nor of general Reformation, as if God had taken corruption & mutability from the earth, and granted us here a general beatitude for the sake of Rome. In God's name let it please you to esteem your Pope no more holy than Daniel was: and if you wish him to be cleansed from his Idolatry and unjust usurpations, to be restored again to the unity of the Catholic faith, and that dignity which he did once lawfully brook to be a chief Bishop of the occidental Church: Then must you cry with Daniel, O God, to our Pope, our Cardinals, and Priests, and to us belongeth open shame, because we have transgressed against thy servant Moses, even our great Moses, jesus Christ, who redeemed us from the bondage of that fearful Pharaoh, Satan. We have turned his faith, and all Religion to superstitious worship: we have turned his spiritual government into a Tyrannous Monarchy, and we have turned the piety of Christian manners into iniquity and abhominion: This must be the voice of thy confession: And thou protestant if thou wilt wish the increase and restitution of Christ's Church, thou must pray for Rome, as Daniel did for jerusalem. Lord be merciful unto the holy City, where thy name was once so truly worshipped, thou must teach and admonish them, preach, and write to them, as the Prophets did to the Israelites in captivity; Brethren as it came in your mind to depart from the Lord your God, so we beseech you to endeavour yourselves ten times more to turn to him again. If you will deny that Rome is your mother Church, that is nothing, either it is lerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Rome, or some other, you cannot deny that she is your sister Church, who once had a concord, and unity of faith with you, and that by her defection the Catholic Church is greatly weakened: You cannot deny that whiles she is fornicatrix, the Lord doth beget in her sons and daughters, who daily turn unto him as he did in jerusalem, when he said to his Prophet Hosea, Go yet and love a woman that was an harlot according to the love of God toward jerusalem, for she looked after strange Gods, and I bought her with silver, etc. You cannot deny but those who did possess the chiefest functions in our Church the times of reformation, that they had their calling derived from the Church of Rome, and those who received calling from them; By the Church of Rome, I mean as before, those Churches that received not the true faith so much at first, as at last corruption and Idolatry from her, who consenting therein with her may be called after her name: You cannot deny that our Ancestors who now live, in whose faith we were baptized, that they had their Baptism from the Church of Rome, and that Sacrament truly administered there, not in the name of the Church of Rome, but in the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost, therefore our fathers were never pressed by any reformed Church to be rebaptized, That confession of S. Peter that jesus was the son of God, no man can deny that it is the faith of Rome, corrupted indeed with Idolatrous worship, & she hath fallen from her spouse Christ to play the harlot. Shall ye not therefore as a member of one body with her, as a kind brother or sister pity her disease? will ye answer me to this, that she is obstinate, reprobate, hath stopped her ears with the serpent so that she cannot hear, but how do you know when God hath appointed her to hear? consider the calling of Ezekiel, and in what terms that spirit which entered into him did send him to the house of Israel, and in his 2. and 3. Chap: you shall find above six several commissions given him in these words, Son of man thou shalt go to them but surely they shall never hear thee, but lay thee in bonds. And how many Prophets were sent unto them whom they did never hear? yet after seven generations captivity, it was said to jerusalem, life up thine eyes and Behold thy joys coming Baru●…●…lt. from the east, thy people who were carried in captivity for their Idolatry, turning back rejoicing in the word of the holy one to the honour of their God saith the Text. jerusalem was but our Type and shadow, she fell from God so absolutely, that Hosea saith jerusalem for many years, shall neither have Prince, priest, sacrifice nor Prophet, because in her captivity she durst not practise her own Idolatries, So that never Church was in more fearful and desperate condition, yet the Lord did restore her; whereupon we have reason to hope that he will in his mercy more favour the body, unless our ingratitude and transgressions do close the door of his mercy. The second point which we note in the Reformation of jerusalem is, that they were performed by ordinary The reformation of jerusalem done by ordinary Magistrates. means of lawful Princes and Prelates; The Prophets indeed whom God appointed to be watchmen over the house of Israel, they were extraordinarily called. but the work was wrought by ordinary Governors, for in that place of Daniel we read, that after his prayers for all, the Angel Gabriel appeared unto him, revealing unto him the designed time of their restitution, by certain circumstances, saying, betwixt the going out of the commandment for taking back of the people, and re-edifying of jerusalem, and betwixt the coming of Messias the Prince, there shall be seven weeks, and threescore and ten weeks, etc. where he shows how that restitution and reformation of jerusalem, proceeded from one ordinance given to Princes and Prelates, who did enterprise it, as we see testified by the Spirit of God in that restitution made by Cyrus' King of Persia, who did proclaim it in these words, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and hath commanded me to build him a house in jerusalem, who is among you, with whom his God is, let him go up to jerusalem and build the house of the Lord. Where he himself professed to have a warrant from God as supreme King, who had power to perform it. And again that he did not depute to that discharge every man, or any man indifferently, no, but he with whom God is, and who were such it is subjoined in the Text: Then the chief Fathers, and the Priests and Levites rose up to go to the work. And Cyrus King of Persia brought forth by the hand of Mithridate his Thesaurour, the vessels of the house of the Lord, and counted them on to Zorobabel Prince of judea, and made the people to be furthered and strengthened by silver, gold, cattle and substance of his own subjects. 'tis clear that the commission was given to the Princes and to the Prelates; it was not done by private pretenders, nor by sedition, nor insurrection; the people did endure the yoke of bondage till it pleased the Lord to reform jerusalem by ordinary Magistrates and means, a point that howsoever is is expressly to beimitated and followed in Christian reformations, yet such hath been the times forepast, that diverse have been forced to do contrary to the same, partly for want of patience to attend Gods secret appointments, or through the fervours of zeal, and partly through the intolerable pride of Rome who would never hearken to any voice of Reformation, touching the which, and the pretenders of extraordinary vocation I will not meddle to speak, because I am no extraordinary Divine, only this by the way. Two Of extraordinary Pretenders in the Church. things do appear to me, one, that such pretexts have ever been the fountain of all disorder and novelties in the Church. For whence have arianism, Pelagianisme, and those other flowed of old; and whence of late Anabaptisme, Brownisme, and besides those so many concussions and afflictions as we have seen moved within this kingdom, by those who urged the Geneva discipline to be accepted for a third essential note of the Church. From whence came all these? but from singularity of opinion, and from holy pretenders, whereof the meanest would take upon him to affirm that A Christian true albeit a country clown, May teach a King to wear a Sceptre and a Crown: So that so long as extraordinary calling shall be pretended or permitted, that spring of curious and Libertine impieties shall never be stopped, as may be seen in Holland, which is become a Prostibulum of damnable sectaries pretending the holy spirit for their dreams. Again for another, it appears looking upon the Scriptures of God, that there is no back door left for such dangerous reformators; God doth indeed frequently illuminate the hearts of men with uprightness and true knowledge amidst universal ignorance, that such may persuade, write and insinuate, why not? but to intrude themselves into the Church, or to attempt Reformation, I know not how, even the Prophets of the old Law who had the extraordinary spirit, they would not go to declaim publicly against manifest Idolaters, but when the Angel of God did specially send them. There be times when God will not vouchsafe his light to men as S. Matthew saith, Ne Sancta dentur canibus, & Margaritae porcis proijciantur: that holy things should not be given Matth. 7. to Dogs, nor pearls cast before swine. And speaking of the Apostolical times, I think they are deceived who say, that Titus or Timothy had an extraordinary vocation; for they were chosen by the Apostle, and were the Scholars of S. Paul, Quae accepi à Domino (saith he) catradidivobis, The things which were taught to me by our Master Christ, these have I teached you. Yea, do we not see how in the very time of the Apostles themselves when the extraordinary spirit was given to many, there was jealous warn among them against extraordinary Pretenders: Audivimus quosdam ex nobis etc. we hear (saith the Apostle) that some have gone out from among us, who have troubled you bidding you to be circumcised quibus mandat a nulla dederamus: to whom no commandment was given: An evident Argument that no man might enter into the Church without Apostolical ordination, notwithstanding the holy Ghost was frequently given, and extraordinarily to many by God himself immediately. Briefly this extraordinary Vocation hath never in no time been seen, but accompanied with such miraculous graces as did sufficiently warrant it from doubt or calumny: which makes me think, that he who is in this Libertine and corrupted age will pretend extraordinary calling, he had need to qualify the same by extraordinary marks: The Lord God indeed who Master of all creation, of all redemption, and of all Reformation, and for common doth work by natural and ordinary means in all these three, when he will to show his power and glory, he will work above and contrary to Nature, and to her order, as he made the Red Sea to divide for Moses, and the Sun to be fixed for his successor josua, as he suffered by way of reformation the Asmoner to be for the time both Kings and Priests in one person, as nature itself following the same doing of God her Sovereign Lord, albeit for the ordinary she worketh to procreation and generation of things, yet sometimes she works devouring inundations and pestilent plagues, which although they seem to destroy, yet they are necessary purgers of nature for the time, even so there hath been in the beginnings of Christian reformation extraordinary things done, by Reformation of Christian Churches. good men in case of so great exigence and necessity as was; but these extravagant interims are never to be drawn in rule: The tyranny of Rome hath enforced that kind of doing, the cruel martyrdom first of Savouarola and then of Hus, for their cries of Reformation: their deceiving of Caroliu 5. and two succeeding Emperors in their designs of reformation; their barbarous persecution of the Protestants of France and Germany, by bringing upon their necks the Arms of the holy league for their protestation to have the Catholic Church reform: These mad Christian people despairing of general reformation by ordinary means and authority of Princes and Prelates, to attempt it with some disorder and violence, wherein some have been better, some worse according to the divers minds and means of reformators in divers places: all tolerable for the time, none perfect, but that which hath been done after these jewish reformations, whereof we speak: and to speak ingenuously of all these which have been, it seemeth that no worse carriage hath been in any, then in those of Scotland and France, albeit moved by godly and reverend men: yet because they were attempted against the authority Royal for the time, which was the reason why they fell forth as a furious Northern tempest threatening a common otherthrow, in place to reform Policy and Prelates, they did destroy both; enrage the people, eject the Prince, shake the whole state, and make their native Countries a bloody stage of domestic and foreign ambition, that it may be justly said thereof as Cicero did reproach to the unhappy Brut us, Bona in●…o optima causa, sed mihi crede foedissimè per acta: a good cause yea a most good cause, but believe it most miscreantly governed. A much better act was that of George Prince of Henault, who being but a civil man did reform the Pontificate of Meresburgh. For albeit he was not ordained by Pontificial authority, yet as he affirms in his Apology for that act, he did procure unto himself an ordinary vocation and canonical Election by the whole Chapter of that Cathedral Church, who had their calling in the Church of Rome, and did ordain him a pastor with power by their advise to reform that seat: for there be divers of the Catholic Roman Clergy, who do not hold every ordination unlawful which is not approved of the Pope, witness the late controversy betwixt him and the Venetians for the Abbey of Policena, where he did ordinate his Nephew Cardinal Burghesio, & they one of their own Citizens who did enjoy it. Better yet were these Reformations of Germany performed by Wicliffe, Luther, Bucer, Farellu●…, Viretus and others; whereof some being questioned before the Emperor, were never demanded upon their calling, because they had gotten order within the Church of Rome, yet perfectly good were none of these German reformations neither, because the greatest part of them were only Presbyters, and had no Episcopal authority to reform: But of all these Reformations which have been lately in the Catholic Church: that of England, hath been most upright, perfect, and agreeable to the Architype of jerusalem, as you shall hereafter more clearly perceive, where Prelates and Princes do err, and Princes and Prelates again (to whom only the authority did belong) did reform both themselves and the people, retaining always in their Church the Primitive Ecclesiastic government, with so many of their religious Rites and Ceremonies, as were agreeable with Catholic Antiquity, and not contrary to God's word; resolved to part no further from Rome, than she hath parted from the verity, which was the reason why this Reformation came not as a storm into the air, nor in a Commotion, but like unto that Sibilus aurae ten●…is, wherein the Lord was, so that amidst the fearful thunder and coruscations of Europe, it did confirm the tranquillity of that kingdom in a miraculous sort, and did truly procure unto the late Queen of blessed memory that brave word, Circundita mart quiesco. So that it might have been said of her feminine Reign, as it was said of the gown of that great Orator, — Cuius sub iure togaque Pacificas saws tremuit Catilina secures: How many foreign machinations did she illude? How many intestine Catelines did she surpresse? how did she cut the crust of the Spanish ambition, with such dexterity, as a second judith cutting off the head of Olophernes. Cranmer Bishop of Canterbury Primate of the English Church; Latymer Bishop of Wighorne; Hooper Bishop of Glocestre; Rialey By: of London: these were lawfully ordinate Bishops in the Church of Rome: King Henry the eight and his Successors, Edward the sixth, and Queen Elizabeth were lawful Princes, to both which, according to the exemplar of jerusalem, and unto that which was due to their Predecessors in the primitive Church did belong the power to reform themselves and their kingdoms and jurisdictions, to the which reformed Church of England, the grave and learned Beza Beza de minist. evang. 18. & 21. gives this virtuous testimony: If (saith he) the reformed Church of England do persist as they are ruled by authority of Bishops, whereof some of our age have been famous Martyrs and most worthy Pastors and Doctors, let England enjoy that singular blessing of God, which I pray the Lord to continue with them, said he; Always for this point we may conclude thus, that in case Prelates should become Papal and Idolatrous, that Presbyters might reform with their tongues, but not with hands, preach reformation, but not pull down Churches, persuade and illuminate men's consciences, but not concitate popular tumults. The third thing which we mark in these reformations of jerusalem is, that things were reduced not to the times immediately preceding, nor other then unto Primitive Institutions: for saith Daniel, We have sinned O Lord (not against David nor Samuel) but against the law of thy servant Moses; who was their lawgiver. And here is the main point wherein doth stand the perfection of all Christian reformation, that the doctrine & government of the Catholic Church should be conformed with every thing, which was in the primitive Church, whereabout there be some little diversities in opinions, but no man yet hath bounded it more narrowly, than the first 300. years, except this heteroclite Clergy of the late Presbyterians, who will precisely limitate it unto the days of Christ and his Apostles: taking advantage that way as they think, to discredit Episcopal Regiment, because forsooth there was no mention then of Diocesan, Metropolitan and Partriarchall Bishops: And so fantasing to reduce the Church policy to the termer, wherein it was immediately after Christ's ascension, at which time there was no need, but of Presbyters, before Cities, Sheriffedomes, Provinces, Nations were converted: who doth not know that the policy of the Church behoved to increase with the increase of faith? it behoved to have a Bishop before a Diocesan Bishop, and him again before a Metropolitan Bishop, & the Metropolitan before the patriarchal authority. But these be heady inventions of poor and clandestine Synagogues who cannot pretend for themselves any learned Patron, except it be falsely; Not Luther, not Melancton, not Bucer, not Zuinglius, not Zanchius, nor Caluine: These were no dreamers, they were grave and sage Divines; far of (as you shall hear by their own testimonies) from bringing into the Church of God such Anarchies and popular Tribunates, yea, they cannot betake themselves to any of our own Protoreformatours, not to john Knox, who howsoever in the point of the Civil Magistrate (to speak ingenuously) he was somewhat extravagant, yet he was a great and good instrument of God, and in this point of Bishops, wise and conform, the time being considered as you shall hear hereafter. CHAP. VIII. A limitation of the Primitive Church: whereunto we are to appeal for Reformation, which the judgement of the best Reformators touching the means thereof. But to proceed touching the Primitive Church, I say that whatsoever is in the Church, it is either Doctrine, Policy, or Ceremonies: what concerns doctrine doth limitate the primitive Church to the days of Christ, the Apostles and Evangelists, that nothing is to be admitted for doctrine but that, which the Spirit of God did pen by their hands; what concerns every particular Act in policy or custom in Ceremonies, it is not to be reckoned so. To make this Distinct: of divine Institut: clear, we are to understand a distinction in divine institution, some being more directly divine than others, as the doctrinal points of Salvation treated by the Apostles, are more divine, then that which the same Apostles did, concerning the policy. The first is the bread of life itself, the second is but the order how it shall be kept & dispensed, so that these things which our Saviour spoke out of his own mouth are immediately divine. The Acts again of the Apostles in establishing the Church after the ascension, no man will refuse them to be divine institutions, so far, that the Apostles might say they did proceed from the holy Ghost, and from themselves, yet no man either must hold them equally divine with the personal doctrine of Christ, in regard whereof, they hold a second degree, & are called Apostolic Traditions: Therefore such as be strict about this distinction, say, that which did immediately flow from Christ himself, is a divine ordinance, and the other only divini juris, that is to say, hath a divine right. Now say they, in regard of the first institution, the difference is but small betwi●…t a divine ordinance, and an Apostolical ordinance, but in respect of continuation or perpetuity, there is a great discrepance, that which is immediately divine, being absolutely and unchangeably necessary to be kept in the Church, from Christ's mouth to the consummation of the world. The other again not so, but as it did not flow directly from Christ's own mouth, nor from the Apostles, immediately after the ascension, but being traditions political for the Church, they were piece and piece delivered and practised according to the increase of the faith; even so they do not imply a necessary perpetuity in the Church in that sort as some do fond reason, saying, if such Policy, or such Ceremonies be Apostolical, than they must be perpetual in the Church, whereupon (by way of advantage) they infer the nullity of many reformed Churches in France, Scotland, Geneva, and others, which is an absurd inconvenient. O, but it is not so: The word of God, and the Apostolical traditions be of like ve●…itie, but not of like authority, nor like perpetuity, nor a like necessity; for that is to be retained in the Church, which is expedient and convenient, as well as that which is absolutely necessary, but the difference is, that of Christ's word one jot shall not perish, it is unchangeable, incorruptible & eternal. Whereas these other Apostolical institutions, which were the fountains and beginnings, from whence did flow the growth of the Church's policy, with the growing of the faith under the successors of the holy Fathers of the primitive Church, these I say, albeit they be from the spirit of verity, yet having but a second place, and being but divini juris, they are not so absolute incorruptible and unchangeable as the first: they are like unto upright gold into which an excellent jewel is mounted, there to be kept, which gold, if it were most fine, it is with time worn, diminished, altered, and perhaps broken, but still again renewed: even so as the Rivers, which after long running do willingly fall again into the bosom of their great fountain, the Ocean, from whence they come and which is their natural seat; so all disordered and strange courses of pretended policies and novelties of the Church government, do by length of time return again into the fountain of the Apostolical institutions (as experience doth show) which are not to be limited to the days of Christ, or to the beginnings of the Apostles, as the word is, but unto the primitive Church under the Apostles, and their Successors, during the first three or four hundred years of her purity, so that from the estate of the Church in that time, are all our Reformations to be sought apparently; and what we have transgressed against that, is to be referred again, and ruled by that, and by no later times. Albeit general councils and great numbers of learned men were more frequent thereafter, for all the world doth know, that as learning grew, so grew corruption, and so grew curiosity to cover the same, so grew contention, ambition, and heresy. To prove by many arguments the sincerity of the Primitive Church, or the reasons why we should appeal to her for reformation, it is not necessary: The holy and great Doctor S. Augustine giveth such a testimony, as leaveth no suspicion; that, saith he, which the holy primitive Church observed, although it was not concluded by Counsels, but always retained, non nisi authoritate Apostolica traditum August. de bap: contra Donat: lib. 4. cap. 24. rectissime creditur, it is most rightly believed to have been no other than an Apostolical institution. Again, saith he, to dispute whether that which the holy primitive Church through the world did observe, should be now received, or not received, insolentissimae est insaniae, it is a most mad insolence. In which we mark these two: First, that he doth not limitate the primitue Church to the days of Christ and his Apostles, but he speaketh of a primitive Church flourishing throw the world: Secondly, that he doth not tie the credit of the primitive Church, to the authority neither of Counsels, although he saith, it was not concluded in councils. Yea farther, all the councils themselves which followed the primitive Church, did clothe them with the authority thereof, their Meetings, Registers, Decrees, Canonical letters, and whatsoever was, were founded upon this, secundum veterem consuetudinem Patrum nostrorum, Concil. Ni●…. cap. 6. according to the ancient custom of our Fathers. For example, long before the Council of Nice, the patriarchal Bishops were in authority, albeit there was no such thing in the days of the Apostles, because there was then no combination of Provinces converted to the faith; and in that Council it was called an ancient custom. And in the Council of Ephesus there was a question decided betwixt a patriarchal Bishop, and the Bishop of Cyprus, where any man may see if it was not said, Secundum vetus decretum Patrum nostrorum. Concil. Ephes. post advent. Episcopi Cypri. And certainly it is an infallible argument of the integrity and upright meaning which hath been in the proto-reformators of Germany, to hear their willingness to follow antiquity, where it was not contrary to God's word. These are the speeches of Luthor, and Bucer, touching the retentions of indifferent ceremonies of the Church of Rome, Sciant publica pacis causa non detracturos etc. we will not (say they) be against the brooking of ceremonies and traditions received in the Pope's Church from antiquity upon these conditions, that the consciences of men be not thereby bound, as by fundamental grounds of faith: but that the doctrine evangelical, of free justification by faith in Christ, remain inviolate: and that, say they, not only speaking of festival days, music, organs, clerical vestments, which be things indifferent, sed etiam de jeiunio & ciborum delectu qua magis pungunt, but also touching fasting and choice of meats, which be more controverted points. O what a holy and Christian disposition was that! what a zeal to the unity of the Catholic Church, and how contrary to many malignant, and seditious spirits, which be now in Christ's Church? who have no voices, as I have said, but of debate and contradiction, contending for Scholastic triumph and victory, in place to cry to God's people, that which the Prophets were commanded, to cry, Ann●…cia populo meo scelera corum, & domui jacob Isa: 8. peccata ill●…rum, Threaten my people for their sins, and the house of jacob for their iniquities; they cry that we should learn subtle and curious controversies of Religion, many of them be as profound as profane they teach Christians to be obstinate and stubborn, in trifling points, they teach them to heat one another, and to abhor all means of pacification, their voice is like unto the voice of the Eagle in the Apocalyps, who tripled her cry, vae, vae, vae habitantibus in terra: woe be to the inhabitants of the earth, because they have broken the bonds of Christian peace and harmony. The fire of our Christian charity is quite extinguished, it is become like unto that fire mentioned in the book entitled Esdras, which before the captivity of Persia, was hidden in a pit by some devout Priest of jerusalem, that it should not die out, and being again sought upon the return of Nehemiah, the Text says, non invenerunt ignem, sed aquam crassam, they found no fire, but a gross water. In place, that through the fire of mutual love we should seek with the Dove, to remain together in the Ark of the Catholic faith; Religious men are gone out with the Raven to hunt carrions among the waters of this world, following the sent of honour, ambition, and wealth: Priests seeking to be monarchs, the Clergy becoming factious and irreconcilable, hunting after the vain glory of learning, Ephraim pascit ventum & sequitur aestum, Ephraim feeds Hos: 12. upon the wind, that I think be pastoral follies and neglect: the world was never so pregnant and raging with the twelve abuses of the earth, A wise man without works, an old man without religion, a youth without obedience, a rich man without alms, a woman without shamefastness, a Master of a house without virtue, a poor man proud, a King unjust, a Bishop negligent, a people without discipline, a Preacher without humility, and finally, a Christian contentious. These be the waters wherein we are drowned; waters whereof the Prophet David hath said, Saluum Domine me fac quoniam intraverunt aquae usque ad animam, mea●…: Preserve me o Lord, because the waters have entered into my soul; and all these for our proud contempt of Christian sympathy and love, whereof if our spiritual Rulers of God's people did retain some true sparkles, aquae multae non poterunt extinguere charitatem, many waters could not extinguish the heat of charity. Miserable are those Pastors, who altogether want this divine inspiration of Christian concord, which was in Luther and Bucer, Uaeijs qui sequuntur spiritum suum & non videt, woe shall be to them, who follow their own spirit, and do not see. Let them remember how the Wiseman saith, durissimum erit judicium his qui praesunt, most hard shall be the judgement of those, who are placed to over-watch people: whereof the Prophet Daniel giveth the reason, Egressa est iniquitas a senioribus & ab iis qui videbantur regere populum, saith he, Iniquity is gone out from the Elders, and from those who seemed to be leaders of the people: and how the Prophet Ezechiel doth in his ninth Chapter practise that hard judgement, where God did command the destroying Angel saying, Incipite à sanctuario meo, Go through, destroy both young and old, and all sex, but begin at my sanctuary, and in that same place commandment was given to him who was clad in linen to mark them with the letter Tau, whom he should find mourning for the abomination of jerusalem. Most blessed are these Pastors, whose delight is with the renowned junius, Spirare unitatem Ecclesiae, to sing as he hath done the sweet harmony, O quam bonum & quam incundum est habit are fratres una, Oh how good a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity; and blessed are those Preachers who mourn for jerusalem, with those who were saved in Ezechiel, for if they mourn, many shall mourn with them, if they shall carry that happy letter in their front, multitudes shall carry it with them, Secundum judicem populi sic & populus saith Solomon, as the Rulers be in heart affected to peace, or distracted, even so are the people, God of his mercy so grant it, that they may still hear in their ears that sound of the great S. Paul, Si distribuero omnes meas facultates pauperibus, si corpus meum ita ut ardeam, charitatem auten, non habuero nihil mihi prodest. If I should, saith he, spend all my riches on the poor, if I should burn my body for zeal and have no charity, it doth avail me nothing. But now to follow our purpose speaking of Christian reformation, a more sure precedent and exemplar than Luther and Bucer, have we for the peace of the Church, to follow all that which hath been observed by antiquity not contrary to God's word. Let us consider the graveiudgement of the worthy & learned Zanchius, chief planet of our own sphere, as you shall read it here sincerely translated from his own Text, De vera reformandarum Ecclesiarum ratione, of the true way of the reformation of Christian Churches. Whatsoever saith he, is in the Church of Rome, it is either agreeable to the written word, contrary to it, or indifferent. For the first, that which is agreeable is to be retained, or if it was rejected, it's again to be received. For the second, that which is contrary is to be refused, or if it hath been followed, it is again to be forsaken: For the third, that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or indifferent. First, we must not account of it, as if it did belong unto salvation, next we must follow the rule of the Apostle, that nothing be brought into the Church, but that which doth tend to edification, order, or unity: all indifferent ceremonies and rites therefore may be followed saith he, for one of these respects, but so followed, as that we do still prefer things more ancient to those which are more late; aswell for the honour of antiquity, as because of the true saying of Tertullian, Quo quid in Ecclesia antiquius eo etiam verius, That which is the more ancient in the Church is the more true: Whatsoever (saith Zanchius) is besides the written word either in the general councils in the Fathers, or in the papal Decrees, they be under the aforesaid distinction, so that albeit nothing can bind the conscience but canonical Scripture, yet to introduce novelties in the Church, or to banish any thing which from primitive times have been allowed by Catholic consent, to do such things without the authority of general councils, it is not lawful for any man who feareth God, saith Zanchius. Seeing this profound and truly reform Divine, who was in his time, Lucidum sidus, a bright star in the Church, doth so reverence antiquity: is it not wonderful that we, I know not who, we who have scarcely been twice or thrice in a pulpit, we job. 9 who ought to say much more than job did, hesterni sum●… & ig●…, that we should contemn antiquity, and mock the primitive policy & ceremonies of the Church, seeing jerem. 9 the Prophet jeremy hath so recommended the credit of antiquity in his time as to say, State super vias antiquas & videte qua sit via antiqua bona; & ambulate in ea & invenietis refrigerinun animabus vestris: Stand upon the way, saith he, and behold and ask which is the ancient good way, and walk in it, and ye shall find refreshment to your souls, Esa. 1. seeing the Prophet Esay foretelling the reformation of the Church, doth altogether ground it upon antiquity, saying: I will restore unto you your judges as they were before; and your Elders as they were anciently, that then you may be called a City of righteousness, and a faithful City. And job a man of God, full of wisdom, ask saith he, the former ages, and inquire diligently of their Fathers: and Christ himself did so honour antiquity Matth. 19 for reformation, that he did reduce them thereunto, saying in the case of matrimony, Non sic fuit ab initio, It was not so from the beginning. In that speech of Zanchius we do mark this, that the rejecting of any ancient Tradition which is not contrary to God's word, it is not only to depart from the Church of Rome (which also is a fault) to break any bond of unity where it may be kept with a good conscience, but it is also a departing from the primitive Church, from the which, these were derived in the Church of Rome, and I do appeal unto the divine light of your conscience (whither you be Papist or Puritan) if you do not think this ground of Zanchius to be a most sure and Christian means to reform the Church of God: for certainly it is not only at Rome, nor only at Geneva where good Christians are made, nor they only who have had the right government of Christ's Church, Ambition and Tyranny, hath spoiled the Ecclesiastical policy there, and nakedness and pretended purity hath made it contemptible here, and both have the like ends to make the world to cry, Great it Diana among the Ephesians, and there is none but she. Always this opinion of Zanchius jump with that of S. Augustine which I have rehearsed, and with all antiquity for acceptation in the Church of the ancient government, and indifferent ceremonies tending to edification or unity, because it doth concern us who be subjects of Noth-britanne, not only for the hope of Catholic or universal reformation which was the thing meant by those Divines, but it concerns us more nearly for intestine unity, and conjunction with our half-arch the Church of England, whose reformation, because it hath been blessed of God and most perfect of all those of later times, we are the more specially bound to embrace it seeing our opposition thereto is not only to be against God's glory by maintaining distraction within the Church, but it is apparently aschismatike alienation from the state, for Religion is the soul of the civil state; And consequently dissension in religion dissension in the state, therefore out of that spirit of Christian love which God willeth to rule us, I wish all men to dispose themselves to this happy Union, and to reverence this time wherein we are, and whereof the chiefest mystery is not yet seen: albeit the seal thereof be already opened and we have already seen miraculous things; If we do Christianly sympathize with the time to honour these glorious preambles of a general reformation, which God doth set a work by the erection of the Monarchy of great Britain in the Royal Person of our most gracious Sovereign, and if we can turn the ambitious craft of the jesuit into a Christian wisdom against himself, that as he striveth to reduce the whole world under the Tyranny of his High Priest; So we may with the force of united minds assist the rising and increase of this great Kingdom, in the hope of a general restoration of Christ's Church, what know we what God intendeth yet to bring about by this mighty Prince, whose exaltation, in the providence of the Almighty, hath already brought the whole world in admiration: what know we what he who did so long prophesy by the mouth of jeremy, the coming of Cyrus to restore jerusalem, he who made Cyrus at his coming to cry, the Lord God of heaven hath given me the kingdoms of the earth, that I should build a house to him in jerusalem, what know we what he hath propounded to do by this virtuous Monarch, whom he hath so extraordinarily raised, and made him Master of puissant Kingdoms, what can we judge of those currant prophesies of our fore fathers for his being Emperor, and for his ransacking of the walls of Rome, do not we see how he hath already begun to shake those walls, and to break the horns of that Beast; Let no man be so simple as to doubt, but one day God hath predestinate by some Christian Cyrus to reform that city, and to restore his people from that spiritual captivity; Yea, let no man doubt but that the time of that great jubilee doth approach, (as I will show hereafter) If we by our obstinate distractions and division do not prevent it, and therefore thou who abhorrest any law or ordinance which may tend to a firm conjunction of this Isle, or who dost repine in any sort against that great instrument whom God hath sent to reform his Church, thou shalt be infinitely blessed of God, if by thy conformity thou can once take away that grievous imputation of the Papist, who to the reproach of the Gospel doth affirm thus; That after Luther who was that Nimrod (as he saith) that enterprised the tower of heresy against the Apostolical seat of Rome; all those who did concur to that building were (like unto those sons of Adam who builded Babylon) punished of God with confusion of tongues, that one did not understand another; All the followers of Luther Lutherians, Semi Luth. Contrr Luth. Hussists, Zwinglians, Semizwing: Melancthonists, Brownists, Anabaptists, Caluinists, Bezaists & many more whom he doth numerate, to all which saith he, Dominus confudit labium, the Lord hath confounded their language, that of all the reformed Churches of Germany, France, Holland, Geneva, Britain, not one doth altogether agree with another, and divers of them disagreeing within themselves, either in doctrine, in ceremonies, in government, or somewhat else; of which fearful and scandalous oblatration, seeing you who are the Puritan cannot deny for your part to be Author, I think it should make the most impudent and affronted face among you to blush, in case their rest in it any drops of good and ingenuous blood; Being in this contemplation of the means of Christian concord, before I speak of the reformation of the Church of Rome, I will discourse some what of the means of our domestic conjunction with the Church of England, because it is more near unto us, and bringeth us also mor near to the possibilities of universal Reformation. CHAP. IX. A Trial of the best and surest Policies which be in Nature, in Civility, in Oëconomy, in Morality. IN matter of Doctrine we make one ptofession with the Church of England founded upon the purity of God's word. The odds be either in the Church policy or in some indifferent ceremonies, I speak of odds in polilicie, by reason of you, who be opponents in your hearts to the State of Bishops: So before I will touch the Ceremonies, I will deal with you upon that head: As for the Theological and more subtle disputation of the Theme of Episcopal Regiment, it is so exactly done by divers reverend and learned Divines, that it hath not much need of my contribution, only I will select some clear, sincere and most disiestable arguments for your information, and because many of you who be thus distracted, have never tasted the pure fountains of true and natural knowledge, which is not the least cause of your Error, therefore I will show you into this chapter, what is the government which God did plant in the creation of nature, and what affinity it hath with such policies as have since followed and fallen out through the world in Church or in state, whereinto, if I do a little insist to express the lawfulness and virtue of the Monarchal Rule, it is not to induce a Monarchal government in the Church which is a Popish invention, and here also sufficiently answered. But first it is to point forth the power of God in anointed Kings, against the pernicious doctrine of those, who teach the contempt and violation of Kingly authority: And secondly it is to show, that as God did frame the government of his first Church of the jews, not much unlike to that of nature, even so if we seek the original Idea of true ecclesiastical policy, in the right Horoschope, and if we pronounce it with a right air, we shall find, and we may say it without offence, that the first image of whatsoever government agreeable to Gods will, hath been conceived into nature, in the order whereof God hath avoided two things, and hath reserved one peculiar to himself, absolute sovereignty or a power merely unical: and an Anarchy or popular confusion, neither of these two hath he willed, that as on the one part no creature should have a Monarchal Supremacy, exempted from necessary correspondence, and sympathy with dependent members, so on the other side no individual parts of one kind, might subsist without a head, through whom they must receive the order and direction of their motions: The unity again of absolute Supremacy in heaven and earth, God hath concluded within the Centre of his divine throne proper to himself, that no particular Creature in nature can be capable thereof, so that it is equally ridiculous to say, the Lion cannot be chief of beasts, unless the Indian, Libyan and Barbarian Lions, be all subject to one Monarchal Lion: The Kings of the earth cannot be lawful Kings, unless there be one supreme Monarch over them all, which cannot be in any but in God, the Primates of national Churches cannot be lawful Bishops, unless they be united under one Hierarchy, which cannot be in any one person but in jesus Christ the second person of the Trinity. And as we see in nature the more excellent creatures tied by a wonderful sympathy to their inferiors, that they are rather fathers to them, than Dominatours over them, as the supernal spheres make perpetual influctions in the body of the Moon, to maintain her operation, and as the Element of the fire doth purge the air below it, and nourish the earth with continual heat. So we see a virtuous Prince under the name of a Monarch, he doth infuse his power into the chiefest of his members, and maketh his Rule in effect Aristocraticke, even so in the Church under predominate names of Bishop, Archbishop Metropolitan, the government is Monarchal in Christ the head, Aristocraticke in the Bishops, and Democraticke, in the Presbyters and lay Elders, by their mutual harmony, as is hereafter more a●…ply declared: Thus is nature the Fountain of knowledge under God, and the fittest school to rectify our judgements, chiefly in matter of Policy, because the Lord hath manifested himself in his works, letting us see how one miraculous hand, and not two, hath framed them by one miraculous Artifice, and not two; to one end, and not to two, breathing motion in them from one spirit, and not from two, subjecting them to one law, and not to two, and to one sort of government, and not to two: as he is God One, and united in himself; so hath he united them Symbolically among themselves, & all conjoined to be the Symbal of his glory, power, and wisdom: So that what natural instinction we find among brute beasts for order, or for subjection and commandment: it is a type to us of that rule which is among the Elements, the Elemental government is a figure of that which is among the Celestial Spheres, and that again doth represent the Angelical policy, and all those considered conjunctly are a shadow of that rule which God hath over the universe. Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis. To proceed for the virtue of the Monarchy, I found my first argument for it in this sort; These Creatures which are nearest to God, are of most noble and perfect of nature, for example: That Sphere which is next unto the throne of God, called by the Cabalists the great Metatron, which receiveth the ten several emanations of God to be distributed among the ten Spheres, called of them, Decem Zephiroth, to make from them several influences into the inferior world, who doth doubt but that Sphere and the great Archangel, who moveth it, are more excellent creatures than the Sphere of the Moon, or the manner thereof, which is called of the Philosophers, Coelum terrestre & terra coelestis, a heavenly earth, and a terrestrial heaven; because it is a mediate Creature betwixt celestial and Elementar things, for as the fire is the Masculine Element or the Agent which giveth life to inferior things: and the earth Feminine or patient who doth receive this life, so the globe of the Moon is the Feminine of that high Sphere, who receiveth in her belly these celestial influxions, and (as pregnant of them) doth deliver them monthly as we see, being in that sort far inferior to the excellence of the other: and as it is in Creatures, that the nearest to God is most excellent, so it is in the order of Creatures, that action which doth resemble the action of God is most perfect: Now for the Hypothesis I subsume, that there is not so noble a Creature of God, as is the holy universe; and therefore no government is more excellent than that whereby the world is governed, which is the monarchial power of God himself, who is Lord over all, for to those who will hold that the rule of God is Aristocraticke, by reason of the Trinity: I answer, that the works of God which be Ad extra, as the Theologes speak: They proceed, à Deo tanquam uno, & non tanquam Trino. Under this supreme rule of God, we do observe monarchial government, both in the constitutions several of the universe, and in the administrations several of the universe: In the constitutions this way, all the several Creatures of the world are under the unity, and common instinction of general nature one mother of all: All the accidents of one subject under one unity thereof, things many in number be under the unity of una species. All men under the Species of mankind, all horses under the Species of that kind, and so forth: Things that be many in kind again, be all under one gender; Man, Beast and Plant are Animalia, and feel a common instinct of that Genus: In the several administrations we do observe it thus, The several persons of the glorious Trinity be in one Godhead. All these ten Zephiroth, receive their virtues from the supreme Metatron, and all the Spheres do obey the motion of one Primum mobile: so that we have the supreme Archangel Michael, over the powers and orders Angelical, who is Christ, because he is called the Angel of the Great Counsel, Et vocabitur m●…gni Consilij Angelus: And he is called the Angel of the Testament: Statim veniet ad Templum Angelus Esay 9 Testamenti quem vos vultis, saith Malachi: We have the sun among the Planets, the fire among the Elements, Man over living Creatures, the Lion over four-footed beasts, the Eagle over fowls, the Whale over fishes, the Diamond among the jewels, the Gold among the metals, the Balm among the Gums, the Cedar among the Plants, the Rose among the flowers, the Wheat among corns, the Bees have their King, the Cranes have their leader, the Herring of the sea, and the creeping Ants have the same, among the Vines one is Masculine, and one Feminine; so it is among the Trees, Herbs, jewels, metals, one Archidiable is over unclean spirits, one head being the seat of all the senses, ruleth all the members of the body, one reason sitteth as a king over all the sensual affections, In Sciences ethical Architectonica is above the rest, in these which becontemplative, the metaphysic hath the place of Mistress, and Theology, as Queen ruleth over all, Reliquae tanquam ancillae famulantur: the rest be as her serving maids: There you see a short Anatomy of the universal and particular rule of nature; in all which we mark nothing but Monarcall and harmonical sovereignty, without any type or Symball of these democratical, Consistorian, Presbyterian or other sorts of popular and confused governments whatsoever, which corruption of time, and the ambition of men have introduced in the world; as all light is derived from one Sun, all humours from one Moon, all waters from one Ocean, so do all lawful and solid governments, flow from God in one Nature, and in one Architype. It rests to consider these governments which be among men, and they are either Spiritual or Temporal, Temporal is either private or public, private is it which we call moral, or a man's rule over himself, and to speak first of that, it is merely monarchial, because it is done by reason as a King. The Philosophers do esteem every wise man to be a Monarch; and the first among Kings, Sapiens uno minor est jove, Rex denique Regum: That no King was greater than a wise man but jupiter: Multoties reges siratio te rexerit: saith Seneca, You shall be many ways a king, if you can be king over yourself: yea, the Spirit of God in the apocalypse saith, as much as these Philosophers, Fecisti nos Deo nostro reges & Sacerdotes, Apoc. 5. You have made us Kings and Priests unto God: certain there cannot be a more princely rule, nor more difficile, then to daunt the dissordered passions of our spirits, which as a seditious popular do still perturb the tranquillity of the mind, if reason do not sit in his throne above their necks to punish those. Bestias animae called by Plato: The temporal government public; of men, it is either Economical or Political: Economical is the rule of a family, and it is merely sovereign: one man is master over the company of one house: political is a rule of many families which make Cities, Countries, Kingdoms, of all the sorts whreof, the Monarchy (I say for the first) is most perfect, because it comes nearest unto the rule of God in the constitution of nature. For the next I reason thus; There be in nature three kinds of Creatures; some with few means do compass small good, as the vermin of the earth which be imperfect Creatures, some more perfect by many means do attain greater good, as man: some lastly most perfect with few means do attain greatest happiness as Angels: these that have the most excellent and supreme dignity do the same, as that Archangel that turneth the Sphere of the first Mobile, is said to move it in every minute of the hour of four and twenty hours, while as there be 60. minutes in every hour 500000. leagues, which is the reason why we must count him a more perfect creature then that Angel who ruleth the globe of the Sun; much narrower than the other, and taketh no less than a whole year for his course. Summarily of divers things which aim at one mark, that is most excellent which doth most easily and most swiftly attain the same; I subsume that of all forms of government, the Monarchy doth most prevail that way, and I prove it thus: Government doth show itself in three things: first, in the power and authority of those who command. secondly, in the diuturnity of estate: thirdly, in the largeness of dominion. For the first, I say that authority hath greater force where it is absolute and unite, then where it is dispersed and limited. Natural reason doth stand for it, vis unita fortior, experience doth approve it. That stately popular Commonweal of Rome in case of any notable danger was constrained to distrust her ordinary Magistrates, and to betake herself to the absolute and unite power of the Dictator, as Livy saith, Videat Dictator ne quid Respub: detrimenti capiat, let the Dictator provide, that the Commonweal incur no evil. which Dictatorship was a most sovereign and powerful authority for the time, and when at length that flourishing Commonwealth became mighty and great, there was no form of government could suffice to keep it in good estate, until it did again piece and piece turn to a Monarchy, first creating Dictator's upon occasions, and by intermission of time, next creating Pompey only Consul. thirdly, Caesar Dictator in perpetuum. And Augustus was received in the state absolute Monarch. And the greatest part of the Commonwealths of the earth this day, which be either Aristocratical (that is to say, where a selected number of the most worthy do govern) as at Venice, or which be democratical, (that is to say, merely popular) as at Genua, they are forced to acknowledge a certain sovereignty by establishing of a Duke. For the second, touching diuturnity of States, Sparta was of the longest continuance eight hundred years; as for Venice, which doth reckon eleven or twelve hundred years, that is true, for the part of their City, by reason of the strength thereof by sea, but their State hath been oftentimes altered, as their Stories do record, and the government itself frequently changed, being for the first tribunitial or popular, next under a Duke more absolute than he is now, then by little and little it became Aristocratical, until in the year 1217. it came to this present condition wherein the great Council was closed, and doth since admit no increase of their number. Sparta howsoever it seem to be Respub: by limitation of their Kings to the Council of the Ephori, yet in actions of warfare and danger his authority was absolute: so that even the Republics in matters of weight and importance, they were forced to rely upon Sovereignty. In the mean time in place of one City which hath stood three or four hundred years, there be numbers of Monarchies which have endured a thousand or twelve hundred years. The Assyrians more than 1300. years. Prester john had his beginning before the incarnation, and doth yet remain flourishing. The Roman Empire which I count Monarchical, 1600. The kingdom of China is said to be 2300. And of all those of Europe the Royal Crown of the house of Scotland known to be infallible of greatest antiquity. For the third concerning largeness of domination, the Monarchy hath that way the greatest advantage. divers kingdoms have been of more large and spacious Territories than the dominions of the Roman Empire, and many have been equal. More large were the dominions of the Assyrians, Medes, Persians, greeks, and of the Scythians, yea forbearing to talk of antiquity, the Ottomanicall Empire is more extended than was that of Rome. Rome was dilated from Atlant to England, 1200. miles, from the straight of Gibalter to Euphrates 3000 miles, whereas the Turkish doth lie 4000 in length, and in breadth 3500. from Asna to Asaph, from Tauris to Buda, from Balsara to Algar. Moreover the Roman territories were yet more ample under the Emperor then before Augustus, there do this day bear rule in Asia, great Cam and the great Mogor, whereof every one may put into the fields three hundred thousand horse. The great Duke of Muscovia whose bounds do reach in length 1800. and in breadth 1600. And in the Spanish domination we have a great example of Monarchical virtue, which doth in largeness equal many Empires that hath been, except that it is weak by disjunction always to brook dispersed states among diversities of people, languages, and manners, in the ancient and new found world under both poles, possessing the most rich Provinces of Europe in the eyes of strong and dangerous emulators, it proves the monarchial rule to be matchless and most solid. Briefly for one Repub: there be great numbers of principalities throughout Europe, Venice, Genua, Raguzia, Luca, Geneva, with the Cantons of the Swissers and Grisons, and 60. Towns in Almanie which be free, all the Remanant being possessed in Monarchy. In Asia and Africa, we hear of no government but sovereign, so that Monarchy doth in effect draw under it the whole world after the instinct of nature, which is the reason why the greatest Clerks & Statesmen both, do hold that God & nature do favour the increase of Monarchy, more than of any other state, and we mark it ordinarily, and it cometh also to pass sometimes, by means which can never be incident in Republics, as many Principalities falling in one by the lot of Succession and heirs of one house, which hath within these few years wonderfully enlarged the Crown of Spain, by the confluence of divers Kingdoms and signiories into it, as Rivers into one Ocean, and as our most fortunate Isle of Great Britain hath been lately erected into a puissant Monarchy, by the like conjunction of divers kingdoms, aspiring in the strength of these to greater height, which things could never arrive into a Repub: quia non moritur Respub: nec habet heredes, the Commonwealth dieth not, nor hath any heirs as Kings do. Moreover we collect by the holy Scripture, that the dilatation of Empires is a benediction of God, which since it falleth out by monarchy, therefore unto it must also appertain the blessing. The reason of this is, because the plurality of petty Princes and Estates, do make them commonly to live in emulation and strife, and make great subjects to be insolent and contentious, which breedeth civil discord, and often times distraction in religion, grievances and annoyances of people, so far that we read how multitude of Princes is permitted by God for the punishment of our sins. As this point now is true, that the virtuous effects of Monarchical government do approve the lawfulness of it, so doth the holy Scripture confirm the same. Christ himself commanded to obey Caesar, the two Archiapostles Peter, and Paul from his inspiration did teach the same. Paul hath shown himself a patron of supreme authority, Let every soul be subject to superior powers, which in his time were only but Ethnic Kings. Peter hath commanded us to submit ourselves to all manner of ordinances of Kings, or of Governors under Kings, whether they be good, or bad. And all the Doctors of the Church have clearly been of this opinion in favour of monarchy, that it was one of the chiefest blessings which God did vouchsafe upon the Israelites, the conjunction of the tree of joseph which was in the hand of Ephraim, with the tree of juda, as we find in the 30. Chap: of Ezechiel, that they should be all under one King, and be no more a divided people, saith God in that place, for the Princely authority. We have justin orat. ad Graecoes, Athanasius orations, contra Idola. Chrysost. Homil. 34. on the 1. Cor. Cyprian de vanitate Idolorum. jerom, Epi. 4. Leon. Sermo. 1. de nativitate. Tho. de Aquin. and all the learned sort of them have preferred it, also all the famous Poets, Orators, Philosophers, Historiographers, have done the same out of the light of nature. Homer 2. Book, Euripides in Andromache, Isocrates ad Nicom: Demosthenes Olym. 1. Dion. Hist. Roma. Lib. 44. Pliny li. 11. cap. 1. Plato in Politicis, Aristot. lib. 12. Metaph. Senec lib. 2. the benef. ca 20. Plutar. de tribus generibus Reipub. and as many more as have written, have left the same ground in their Books. As both these be most true, so it is most true also, and a strong argument for Monarchy, for the third, that the thundering of God's judgements against those who attempted to violate, even wicked and tyrannous Princes, it doth approve that calling to be a true ordinance of God: The banishers of the Roman Kings, first Tarqvinius superbus, then of julius Caesar (who in effect was a King) bearing still the name of Brutus, howsoever these enterprises seemed for the time to be virtuously undergone, against unjust usurpatours or wicked Kings, yet the issue of the actors did show to be a divine vindication: The first Brutus was brought upon the parricied of his own sons, and had his own life spoiled thereafter, the last of them, that pretended brave Brutus, who was called Vitimus Romanorum, because after him none did dream any more of Roman liberty: he after a wretched while of afflictions did die by his own hand: attesting the Gods, Virtuti fortunam defuisse, that fortune was, conspired against his virtue, and leaving behind him to the world a bloody name, which hath no other use, why to be remembered of men, but when it is applied to those treacherous Traitors in whom his spirit bathe made transmigration, to be perfidious murderers of lawful Kings, as I have said before, and all his complices the killers of Caesar, being mightiemen of resolved action and strongly fortified, they did all perish by a sudden revenge as the story tells, Intra annum vertentem, before the turning about of one year; which made Cardan to say, that the ghost of Caesar was Maximus Daemon, a terrible spirit of revenge, and made other Philosophers to say of him, Non mortuus est homo, sed reversus quidem Deus in locum suum, That by the slaughter of Caesar no man was dead, but a certain god returned to his own seat from whence he came; Cassius in like manner the chief contriver of that murder, the night before the battle of Philippi, being visibly terrified with the ghost of Caesar, he procured himself to be dispatched by the hand of his own servant, and nothing did ensue thereafter during the space almost of twenty years; in the time of the Triumuiri, but fires of civil combustion and bloodshed, wherein Antho. Lep. Pomp Sextus, Cicero, and all the ambitious spirits were spent with infinite numbers of the popular, and what violation of Kings and Princes hath not the like event? A more barbarous and more supportable tyranny, yea a more cruel brutish man hath never been then Nero, the surprise of whose life, was accompanied with the murder of three succeeding Emperors, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, all within two years, of whom Otho the worthier of the three was made his own executioner; besides many thousands of Roman Gentlemen, whose lives were the propitiatory sacrifice to the gods, for the contemptible Nero. To come to domestic examples, Richard the second of England degraded as an unworthy Prince: but in their stories we see that an omnipotent revenge did follow upon it: for Henry the fourth in his time had no other actions, but the dispatching and overthrow of those who were of his side against Richard, so was he enraged with fear and jealousy, his son again had some intestine repois and peace by means of his wars in France: but his successor, Henry the sixth was deprived, his son Edward poisoned, his children murdered, by their cruel Uncle the Duke of Gloucester, and his tyranny again intercepted by Henry the seventh. These were the infinite effusions of native blood, during that tempest of Naufrage, wherein their Writers do collect, have been sixteen or 17 several pitched battles, the slaughter of nine Kings, or King's sons, forty Dukes, Marquesses, and Earls, 200000. of the popular. And what extraordinary punishment have we in our time seen inflicted, upon the persons, houses, and states of diverse disloyal subjects, who have attempted to abuse the sacred authority of our most gracious Sovereign: certain it is a ground in reason, a trial in experience, a conclusion of all politics, and warranted by God's word in holy Scripture, strengthened with the opinion of grave Doctors of the Church. That Rebellon doth ever move greater mischief than Tyranny. CHAP. X. A defence of Episcopal government by diverse most clear and ingenuous reasons. NOw we come to conside●… what affinity, the Church government hath with those others whereof we have spoken; before the written Law of Moses God did elect so many patriarchs, to rule his first Church: Enoc, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, jacob, and others: And our Saviour before the written Law of the evangel, or of grace, he did elect so many Apostles to rule the second, whereof the former was the type: when the numbers of the believers did increase, even unto Moses were adjoined seventy to assist him in his charge; so did Christ, next his twelve Apostles elect seventy Disciples. In Israel there were many particular Princes and Elders of the people, who did rule every man his own Centuries, and Chiliads, but these seventy were created to bear universal rule, as we collect from the words of Moses, Ego solus ferre omnem populum istum non possum ay only cannot bear the charge of this people, answer, Congregatibi, gather unto you, which is to be his Colleagues, and yet they were subordinate, for while Moses went to the mountain, he left a deputation over the people, Ecce Aaron & Hur. If any man have controversy let him come to Aaron and Hur; even so these seventy Disciples howsoever they were adjoined to the Apostles, yet they were subordinate and inferior, the Apostles being still chosen to be conversant with Christ, constant witnesses of all his actions, and only entire with him, like unto Moses who only went up to talk with God. We read in the twelfth of the Acts, how the Apostles found justus and Mathias only sufficient of all the rest to succeed in the place of judas, argument enough of the Apostolical superiority over them, Luke again and Mark were of good authorities among the Apostles, because they were the evangelical Historians, yet were they not of the seventy Evangelists, being elected by men and not our Saviour, as Tertullian writeth of Luke, Non Apostolus sed Apostolicus, non Magister sed Tertul. contra. Martion. li. 4. Discipulus utique Magistro minor, Not an Apostle but Apostolical, no Master, but Disciple, and always inferior to the Master. That diverse had the holy spirit as the Apostles, who were not yet their equals it is evident, after their dispersion Philip did evangelize at Samaria, but Peter & john were sent to constitute the churches. The holy spirit without the ministry of S. Paul, did come upon Cornelius and his company: for besides these two orders of Apostles and Disciples, there was a third, among the number of an hundred who were present at the choosing of Mathias, besides the twelve Apostles, and seventy Disciples, there were thirty eight who been in neither ordination were Prophets, as all the learned do affirm who treat of this point, of which number was Annamas, and Agabus endued with prophetical spirits, to impart to the Church divers revelations which they had. Touching these again who were thereafter called Episcopi & Presbiteri, we see that in the Apostles days the Church was a while without them: the first mention of of that order we find it in the Church of jerusalem, in the twelfth of the Acts; for so long as the Apostles and Evangelists did remain, there was neither Episcopus nor Presbyter, but after they were dissevered james being beheaded, and Peter fled, then did they enter, & from that forth, Luke doth conjunctly report of them with the Apostles: Saint Paul so like unto himself in all his Epistles, we cannot think that without a reason in his Epistle to the Philipians, he hath given salutation to the Episcopi and Diaconi, and hath not done so in the rest of his Epistles. In that Epistle to the Romans, he salutes divers whom he calls his cooperarij, or fellow labourers as Andronicus and Vrbanus, famous among the Apostles. And of the Domestic Church which was some while at Ephesus, and somewhile at Corinth, to these he gives Acts 19 28. them their own praises, yet doth he not call them Episcopi nor Presbyteri, as he doth Epaphroditus in that to the Philipians: And Archippus in that to the Colossians, when he came to Rome, we read how he was received, but by no Presbiteri, which had not been omitted, if that ordination had been then among them, more than it is omitted in the 15. and 21. of the Acts, where he is said to be received of Presbyters, all this time there was no Presbiteri yet planted other then Timothy, Titus, Apollo, Luke; Stephen, Fortun. Achai. and a few others whom the Apostles did send upon occasions, nor these Churches had then no other Bishop but S. Paul. In the mean time the Apostles and the Evangelists did at their commodities visit them as Epiphan. and Ambrosiu●… bear witness. Epiphanius thus, while the preaching of the Gospel was but resent the holy Apostle write according to the time, and to things that were, where there were Episcopi he write to them, and unto Diaconi where they were, for the Apostles did not ordinate, saith he, all things upon the sudden, there was great need of Presbiteri and Diaconi, under the Apostles, because by these, Ecclesiastical function is perfect. Where none was found worthy of Episcopal charge, that place did remain without a Bishop, for they being no great multitude of believers, saith he, they were no great numbers found capable of the Presbyterat, therefore the Church at that time did rest under the Apostolic Bishopric till with time things grew to greater perfection; in which words we do observe this, that in the beginning while the Apostolical mission was limited to judea, Christ did only choose 12. Apostles, and 70. Disciples, but after the Legation was general both to jew and Gentile, they took unto them cooperarij, Evangelists, Prophets and others, and when the Gospel began to spread they did institute Episcopi and Presbyteri: So that Christ's Church was planted by the like beginnings, and had the like growth of policy as that of jerusalem; both having their original in the persons of Moses the figure, and Christ the man figured, and both with time divoluing by little and little into a diversity of subordinate rulers, of whom the Apostle setteth down the clear distinction and imparity, giving the first place to Apostles, the second to Evangelists, the third to Prophets, the fourth to Pastors, and the last to Doctors. Whereof the first of the number Apostolus doth comprehend in it as in genere, these whole species, ennumerated of spiritual functions, so that every Apostle was also a Doctor but notreciprocally. By these we do manifestly see that Christ in the foundation of his Church, did follow for government, the same Architype which was given unto Moses, and that one God hath but one meaning of one order in matter of Policy, as I have said; for if ye will hold this comparison betwixt the jewish and Christian Church to be remote and fantastic, because the first was Typical, and is expired, I answer, There was in the Mosaical Law three parts, the typical, the moral, and the political: the daily sacrifice and these ceremonial things which were figurative of Christ's passion, they are finished and have no imitation in Christ's Church, but for the moral it doth remain: the same Law lieth over us which did astrict them, albeit we have easier means to perform it by faith in jesus Christ. And for the political it doth also remain as S. Paul saith: Know you not that those who 1. Cor. 9 minister at the altar, do live by the Altar & c? But for the concordance of these two Churches in matter of Policy, I bring first the testimony of S. Ambrose, who expounding these words of S. Paul to Timothy, Seniorem ne increpaveris, do not reproach an Elder, among other things he saith also thus: unde Synagogaprius, & postea Ecclesia Seniores habuit sine quorum consilio nihil agebatur, first the jewish Synagogue, & then the Church of Christ had their Elders without whose Council nothing was done. Next I bring the testimony of john Caluine, who upon the harmony of the Evangelists hath written thus, Quant au number de 70. ill me semble avoir, etc. Touching the number of the 70. Disciples, it appears to me (saith he) that our Saviour hath followed the same order, whereunto the jews of old were subject and accustomed: So many Apostles were chosen who should be as patriarchs to assemble the members of the real body of the Church, & for the like respect of imitation the 70. Disciples were elected, for we know saith he that Moses being unable to bear the charge, took unto him seventy to govern the people. For of him who would object against the similitude of these Churches for policy, that the 70. of Israel were no spiritual Rulers, and therefore could not be resembled by the 70. Disciples, I would ask you how then did the holy spirit come upon them, that they prophesied in the presence of the people, and how was the spirit of Moses parted among them. Thirdly I give the Testimony of Doctor Beza who hath derived his reformed discipline whereby the Elders be adjoined to the Pastors, from the jewish example. But that which makes this point of the similitude in policy of these two Churches to be most clear and out of doubt, is the opinion of S. jerom the pretended Patron of the Presbyterians, who in the conclusion to the Epistle to Euagrius writeth thus, Quod Aaron & filii eius atque Leuit●… in templo gesserunt, hoc sibi Pr●…sbyteri, Episcopi, & Diaconi vindicent in Ecclesia, ut sciamus traditiones apostolicas de veteri Testamento sumptas esse: saith he, Whatsoever Aaron his sons and the Levites did exercise in their persons in the jewish Church, let Bishops, Presbyters and Deacons take on them to do the same, that we may understand (saith he) the Apostolical Traditions are exemplary drawn out of the old Testament. Always here it is where the Puritan and the Papist meet, to urge one thing upon the Levitical imitation in Of Episcopal Government. policy, the Puritan to infer an inconvenient, the Papist to induce his advantage, first, say they, if you appeal to this exemplar, how can you avoid Priestly Sovereignty, and a supreme Bishop: next they turn it over thus, If your bishops be in the Church for unities sake (as they are) ad ●…ollenda Schismata, than this argument following must be good. Either there is as great unity in a parish under a Minister, as in a Diocese under a Bishop, or else the more Churches make the greater unity. If the second be true then must we allow the Hierarchall Supremacy, because thereby all Churches are reduced under one, so that upon this the Papist will build his Popery, and the Puritan will have our Bishops to be Antichristian. Which objection is so frivolous that Caluine himself (alleged by them to be a fautor of their Presbyterian rule) doth answer unto it, saying, there is not the like reason betwixt a peculiar people as the jewish Synagogue, I●…si. lib: 4. cap 6. and the whole world, under the Gospel; Neither was it the meaning of our Saviour, that as every particular Church should be under one Pastor, so all the world under one head, otherwise why did he choose his twelve together, and in parity? For howsoever we do mark in the particular members of nature, manifest argument of monarchial policy, yet find we no general unity, no●… absolute Sovereignty, but in God. As for example, although the Lion be king of beasts, who did ever hear, that all Lions were subject to one Lion? or that all Kings be ordinarily subject to one Supreme Monarch. The Lord God is only the Centre from whence the diversity of nature hath proceeded, whereupon the Cabalists did found that word, In Centro veritas, in circumferentia nihil, The verity is in the Centre, and in the circumference nothing but shadows, which is confirmed by the holy Scripture, Solus Deus verus, & sermo eius veritas: Only God is true, and his word is only verity, the 〈◊〉 of nature have no other fountain to return unto but God, nor no capital union to repose into, but him. If the Angels have their own Hierarchies, we do not read that they be all under one head, unless it be the Lord jesus Christ called by the Prophet the Angel of the Testament, and the Angel of the great Counsel, as is said before: As God hath reserved the Supremacy of general nature to rest in his own person, so hath Christ in his Church reserved it to himself, to be only head thereof: in such sort that no Bishop can be called Antichristian, but in so far, as he doth depend from the Papal Sovereignty, and as the setting up of a second Bishop in one Diocese, were to be Schismatic from the first Bishop, so to introduce an universal Bishop in Christ's place, is to make defection from him. For even a●… Christ did send his Twelve with equal Commission, and equal graces, that the establishing of our faith should be more miraculous by the unanimity of twelve, then could have been by the consent of one, even so hath it been the meaning of the Apostles and their successors, to maintain Catholic unity, not by Hierarchall Supremacy in the person of one; no, lest it might both seem a work of man, and be the more easily corrupted, but that it might seem the work of God, and be the more miraculous by the harmony of many Bishops, who atall occasions might communicate the confessions of their faith, by their Canonical, Pontifical, and public letters. If any man did err, they first sought him to be reform by those, & failing thereof, they assembled their Counsels to depose him Cyprian saiththat the Catholic Church is one not divided or rend with Schisms, Sed coherentium sibi invicem Episcoporum glutin●… copulata, as it Lib. 4. Epist. 9 were coupled together with the glue of Episcopal Concordance; therefore saith he the body of Bishops is copious, and tied together with the knot of mutual unity, that if any one should be author of heresy, the rest might endeavour to control him, & as this was the true meaning of the Apostles, so (to reason still from experience) it is true that until the coming of Papal tyranny in the year 607 the Church of Christ was ever most free from that superstition, ambition, avarice, and impiety of manners which si●…ce have spoiled all. Seeing we have thus truly and without inconvenience, brought the Ecclesiastical government to the rules of the old Testament, it may suffice to rectify a good and judicious mind in that matter of the Bishops, yet because it is a main point, not only of general reformation, but of our intestine union with that perfect Church of England, & of our sincere conjunction also among ourselves in Scotland, I will insist briefly in it, not into the idle perplexities which the malice and ignorance of you who be opponents doth move, because they be exactly treated by learned divines, only because my discourse is Empirical▪ I will speak two or three words touching the promiscual and common use of the names Episcopus, and Presbyter, (which is 〈◊〉 questionis) affirmed by you to have had no difference at all in the Apostolical days, so that thereupon you doebuild all the Sophistry of the question. Secondly, I will give you the clear testimonies of the Catholic and Consentient Antiquity upon two things, one of the great use and benefit which hath redowned to the Church, by the rule of Bishops; an other of their successive continuation from the days of the Apostles hitherto, without intermission, excepting a few reformed Churches 60. years ago. Lastly I will set down to you the judgement, and meaning concerning Church Policy of all our famous reformators, beginning at Luther even until now, to let you see how they be as far against your Consistorian Discipline, as are our Bishops, who be now in government. And first concerning the community of the words Episcopus and Presbyter, it is true they were as they are still, Unus Episcopat●…, unum Presbyterium, and if you please to say, unus Apostolatus: O●…e and the same thing, touching the substance of their ministery, they preach one doctrine, but we must not from that homonomie of word●… enforce such wrangling conceits, as if we had not learned in the Logical School the definition of Equivoca verba, quorum nomen est common, ea autem quae nomini conue●…unt alia atque alia, which have a common name; but things competent to the name most divers in the one and in the other, they labour about one subject, but they be distinguished by some accidental points, wherein they differ by reason of degree of Ecclesiastical authority. Quae differunt s●…lummodo quantitate, & qualitate, non differunt natura, say the Philosophers, the things which differ only in quantity and quality, they do not differ in nature, as to say that the Archbishop hath within his rule the same power which the Patriarch within his, touching the substance of his charge, excepting some reservations to the patriarchal degree: unto the which by reason of superiority, appellation in some cases was made from the others, and to the which belongeth a power to convocate Archbishops, by reason of more ample presedence: so every patriarchal Bishop, was an Archbishop, but not reciprocally. And every Episcopus a Presbyter, but not reciprocally: while the Episcopal power was in the Apostles themselves, or in Apostolical men, they who had that power, were still called Apostles, as by the worthier style, and therefore Ambrose in some of his Treatises upon the Gospel by Apostles doth understand Bishops: and Cyprian in like manner, Apostolos id est Episcopos 1. Cor. 12. Ephes. 18. 4. Lib. 3. Epist. 9 & praepositos Dominus elegit: The Lord chose Apostles, that is, Bishops and overrulers: for as Theodoret hath well observed in these words, in time past saith he, they called one and the same man Bishop and Presbyter, and these who now are called Bishops, they named Apostles, but in process of time they left the name of Apostles to those who were truly Apostles, and the name of Episcopus or Bishop they took away from Presbyter, and gave it to those who were wont to be called Apostles, by confusion of names, only saith he: which testimony conferred with many others like, will make the truth of the matter to be this, while as the Bishops were Apostles, or Apostolical men: (for so were the first Bishops) the Angels of the Churches were also called Apostles of the Churches, other inferior Pastors were then called Episcopi and Presbyteri, by confusion of names, but when those first Bishops being dead, their successors were to be chosen out of the Presbyters (men neither Apostles nor Apostolical) which jerom noteth to have been done at Alexandria after the death of S. Mark, as you shall hear, and was done in other places where no Apostolical men did rest alive, than I say, and there, they left the name of Apostles: to Apostles indeed who were dead, and for difference from them they called the intrant successor Episcopus, or Bishop, and his inferior minister again Presbyter, allowing no more confusion of names, so that this clear distinction both of names and offices, was embraced in the very first succession of the Apostles. For Ignatius who was Bishop of Antioch in the Apostles time, after that Euodius had been there before him, he did usually distinguish these three degrees of the Clergy, as the Church hath ever done since by these three names: Bishop, Presbyter and Deacon, the difference of which degrees and the superiority of Bishops, is witnessed by the same Ignatius, writing to the Smyrnenses, Let no man do any thing appertaining to the Church, saith he, yea let not the administration of the Eucharist be lawful, but by the Bishop, or by him who hath his authority from the Bishop. Next touching the testimonies of Antiquity upon the use and benefit of Episcopal Regiment, all the Fathers do in one voice applaud that which Cyprian the most modest of Bishops hath written in that point, affirming that all heresies and schisms have ever flowed from discontented humours of those who contemn the authority of Bishops, which is placed to coerce, and correct them. Unde schismata & herese aborta sunt nisi dum Episcopus contemnitur, & homo dignatione Dei honoratus ab indignis hominibus judicatur, from whence are heresies, Cyprian: lib. 4. epist. 9 saith he, but because unworthy men do censure and despise him whom God hath honoured with preferment. Basilius saith, that the unity of the Church doth depend from the unity of the Bishop, and that the erection of a second Bishop within one Diocese (unless it be to help and assist him by his own consent) hath ever been esteemed the breeding of schism: but of all the Ancients Saint Ierom doth best clear the truth of this point, even he who is pretended to be flagellum Episcop●…, the scourge of Bishops, as you shall see. It is true indeed that jerom writing upon the first of the Epistle to Titus, hath once called the Episcopal authority rather a custom then an Apostolical Tradition, saying thus: Before that by instinct of the Devil there were factions in the Church, and that it was said among the people, I am of Paul, I am of Apollo, and I of Cephas, the Church was governed by the common consent of the Presbyters, but after through all the world it was decreed, that one of the Presbyters should be placed above the rest, to whom should appertain the whole Ecclesiastical care and extirpation of schism. Thus far I●…m. Out of which words the Presbyterians do extort this consequence, that the primitive Church was governed by presbyterial policy without Bishops: to this the answer is, first, if it were granted to come in by a consueted and not by a primitive tradition. Yet the consequence is void against Bishops, unless we will say that Presbyters and Deacons were not neither an Apostolical ordination, because in the beginning the Apostles did govern the Church without both these, by consent of the people, as it is manifest by the Epistle to Titus, as Creta, Corinth, Ephesus and Philippi before they had Episcopus or Presbyter, whom when they did receive, the Church did yet remain under the rule of the Apostles. Secondly, it is answered where he speaks of the choosing of one Presbyter above the rest, for taking order with schisms, that schisms were begun in the Apostles ownetime, so that this same election hath been also then begun: or otherwise, that the Apostles have not been so wise as their Successors, which were absurd to hold. Thirdly, it is answered, that reason of jerom taketh away Deacons as well as Bishops, because the murmurations of the greeks against the Hebrews, moved that institution Acts 6. as we know, which was not in the beginning. Fourthly, it is answered, this opinion of jerom is singular, and perhaps of temerarious and discontented humour, he being but a Presbyter. For while he speaketh of a novelty in the Church accepted through all the world, he should have put down the time by particular circumstances, otherwise he leaveth his opinion weak and obnoxious. Lastly, the answer is, The best Doctors of the Church have erred in their writs, and have set down their Retractions, as August●…, so is it of verity, that jerom hath mended himself 〈◊〉 this particular, 〈◊〉 hath made an ample palinode and Recantation, 〈◊〉 in this argument it is over past and suppressed by the presbyterian Clergy, as if none but they could find it out. In his epistle to Euagrius, Alexandria, inquit, 〈◊〉 Marco evangelista ●…sque ad Heracli●… & 〈◊〉 Episcopos; Presbyteri unum ex sese electum in excelsiori grad●… collocatu●… ad tollenda schismata Episcopum 〈◊〉, quomodo si exercitu●… Imperatorem faciat: At Alexandri●… from Saint Mark the Evangelist until Heracli●… and Dionysius Bishops. The Presbyters did ●…ill choose one of themselves to be above them for avoiding of schisms, whom they called Bishop, even a●…if an army should create an Emperor. Again in the preamble of his Commentaries upon Matthe●… he saith, that Mark●… was the first Bishop of Alexandria, that 〈◊〉 dy●… 〈◊〉 th●… times of the Apostles the seventh year of Nero, he doth testify in his Catalogue, Script: ecclesinst. that which is true tha●… Anani●… suereeded him, therefore it must follow of his own words, that he was 〈◊〉 by them, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exeroitu●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a●… an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ate an Emperor. Thirdly, in an otherplace most plain●… Totius Ecclesi●… salut●…m à Summ●… 〈◊〉 dign●…ate 〈◊〉, c●… si non exhorts, & ab●…mnibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 potest●… t●… in Ecelesia efficerē●…r schis●…ta quot Sacerd●… 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 he The Churches prosperitio doth relie●…n the 〈◊〉 of the chief Priest, or Bishop of the Church, 〈◊〉 if he have not granted unto him a free power above the rest, there would be as many schisms as Priest's with●… the Church: so that jerom must confess that ●…rke and Anian●… at Alex●…, and 〈◊〉 and Igna●… 〈◊〉 Antioch were constitute by the ordi●…ce of ou●… S●…our, or then that the Apostles did institute 〈◊〉 to the mind of Christ, which is abs●…d to hol●… 〈◊〉 lastl●… the conclusion of tha●… Epistle, as I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ●…lated, doth refer the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the jewish Church, in which speeches first and last of jerom, we do not only observe the great benefit redounding to the Church by Bishops, and the end why they were created, for unity and avoiding of schisms, but we do in like manner mark the antiquity of that policy, from S. Mark, and the authority and power thereof, as if an Army should choose an Emperor saith he, and the succession thereof to Dionysius, and lastly the universality thereof, Decretum erat in toto orb terrarum, saith he, It was decreed throughout the whole world, whereupon he hath concluded, that the weal of the Church doth depend, à Summi Sacerdotis dignitate, from the worth of the Bishop. After that some of the inferior Clerks, who did assist the informal election of Novatian in the place of Cornelius, were again reduced unto the Catholic Church, their penitence was declared in these words, We are not ignorant, that there is one God, one Christ, one holy Ghost, one Bishop into one Church. whereby we see that unity was the end of Episcopal institution. When Constantine at the instance of the devout Matrons of Rome, licensed Liberius to return, but withal appointed that Church government to be common betwixt him and Felix. The faithful people deriding that ordinance of the Arrian Emperor, cried aloud, as Theodore writeth, one God, one Church, one Bishop. So that antiquity doth ever ascribe the benefit of unity in the Church unto that apostolical and ancient policy. Thirdly, for testimonies for the succession of the Bishops in the Church, from the Apostles hitherto there be so many, that for a short rehearsal one knoweth not what to choose. Against the Bishoprics of Titus and Timothy many things be idly pretended, which are plainly discussed by those Theologues, who have expressly handled this question, but against those who do allege that they remained not at Ephesus and Creta numbers of Authors bear witness, Dorothaus in Synopsi Soph: in Catal: in tot; Ifidorus de vita & morte Sanctorum vincent, li. 10. cap. 38. Antonius' ex Policrate, Part. titul. 6. cap. 28. Niceph. li. 10. cap. 11. who all report that they lived and died, the one at Ephesus, and the other at Creta. And as they were ordained by the Apostles: so were diverse others institute Bishops in diverse places. Eusebius witnesseth that about the year, 45. Euodius was Christi. anno 45. li. 3. created by the Apostle Peter, and Paul Bishop of Antioch, and Ignatius who succeeded him in the Apostles time doth witness, that Peter and Paul ordained L●…nus Bishop of Rome, An. 56. whom Anacletus succeeded, & Ireneus li. 3. after him Clemens observed by Ireneus and Eusebius, By the appointment of Saint Peter, Mark was first Bishop of Alexandria. To whom Ani●…us, Abilius, & Cerdo, all in the Apostles times witnesseth by Niceph. Gregory, Jerome, That james the just was Bishop of jerusalem, institute by the Apostles immediately after the passion of our Saviour: Jerome doth affirm it, Catalogue. scrip. Eccles. Eusebius bringeth the most ancient testimonies of the Church for the same. That to james the brother of our Lord surnamed the just, the throne Episcopal of jerusalem jerom. lib. 14. 6. was committed. In particular he bringeth Clemens, Alexandrinus testifying, that james, Peter and john, did choose james the just, Bishop of jerusalem after the Ascension: and Higesippus, whom Jerome and Eusebius affirm to be of the first successors of the Apostles, do Li. 2. cap. 24. Pro●…m. in Mat. li. 2. ca 19 hold the same of james. Eusebius in his History giveth a Catalogue of 37. Bishops in jerusalem, between james and Macarius. The same is testified by Ambrose, and Euseb. li. 7. 19 Euse b. li. ●…sto. 3 4. 5. 6. 7. Amb. in Gallat. Augustine: yea and all the general Council of Constantinople, whose records prove that james was the first Bishop, to whom the Chair of jerusalem was trusted. Now if any would say, that these were Bishops but of one Church, if there was but one in Crete, how was it said, Opidatim constitues sicut ego te: Irene●… counted among the first of the primitive writers, speaking of the Church of Rome, saith that the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, the foundators thereof, Tradiderunt Lino potestatem administrandi totius Ecclesiae, That as the numbers of Christians did increase at Rome, they were divided in several parochs, under several Presbyters by Evaristus Bishop of Rome, which again were augmented, the Churches I mean, by Higinus in the year 138 as Platina and Onuphrius do testify, de Episcopat. & titul. and Eusebius in his sixth Book cap. 3. doth affirm that under Cornelius Bishop and Martyr in the year 250. there was in the Church of Rome, 46. Presbyters, 7. Deacons, 100 other Clergy men, and but one Bishop. But of this point there is a clear and manifest example, and most free from controversy of the seven Churches of Asia, over which was appointed the seven Angels as Bishops, confessed by Doctor Beza himself, one also of your pretended Patrons: calling the Angel of the Church of Ephesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. the Prelate or governor Antistitem, saith he, ut vocat justinus: Of these Churches I say, that every one comprehended in circuit both City and Country Churches, and every one of them had but one Angel or Bishop: As Polycarp at Smyrna was Bishop 13. years before the Revelation was delivered, as is observed by Bullingerus in Apocal. and he died a glorious Martyr, as Eusebius proveth in his 4. Book, cap. 15. by an Epistle of the Smyrnenses and Onesimus, Bishop of the Church of Ephesus, testifieth by Ignatius ad Epiphanium and Ignatius himself was at Antioch. Epiphanius doth testify that the Church of Alexandria had beside the Church called Caesarea, which was burned in julian his time and re-edified by Athanasius, it had also that Church of Dionysius, that of Thomas, that of Pierius, that of Serapion, of Mepdidius, of Annianus, of Baucalis and Abias', and that in one of those Colluthus was a Presbyter, and in one Carpones, in an other Sarmatas, and Arrius a Presbyter in one. Aps large testimonies have we of those of Asia, that Ephesus was a great Metropolis having a large Country subject to it. That Pergamus was a famous City, sometimes the seat of the Church of Asia, that Smyrna, Sardis, Laodicia, Philodelphia, were great and mother Cities, having within them many Churches. Ignatius to the Smyruenses, Viveremini inquit Episcepum: Reverence your Bishop, saith he, as Christ and his Apostles do command, and in his Epistle ad Trallianos, what is a Bishop saith he, but one, Qui principatum & potestatem super omnes obtinet, who hath power above the rest, and what are Presbyters, saith he, Sed Collegium sacrum, Conciliarij & Coassessores, and in his Epistle add Magnetianos': As Christ saith he, doth nothing without the Father, so must not the Presbyters, or Deacons, do any thing without their Bishops, Aliter iniquum est & Deo odiosum, otherwise it is iniquity and odious to God. Cyprian who was the most indulgent Bishop we read of to his Presbyters, and the most modest Prelate: In the fifth Epistle of his second Book touching one Aurelius, whom he did ordinate, but advice of the Church Clergy. We use dear brother, to deliberate with you before, and to weigh the manners and merits of men by your concurrence: but we need not to look for the testimonies of men, Cumprecedant divina suffragia, when we are strengthened by divine suffrages. Like to this again we find of him in his ordination of one Numidicus, in the tenth Epistle of his fourth Book. Brethren, saith he, I advertise you that Numidic●… by divine inspiration is adjoined to the number of our Carthagine Presbyters, and that he doth sit with us among the Clergy: and what hath been done by Cyprian we read not where it was retracted by any, which I do not put down here: yet any Bishop should delight to imitate this kind of rule, but only to show what doth in cure appertain to the person of a Bishop, and the weight of his authority, as the same Cyprian doth testify in the 27. Epistle, Indeper temporum & suecessionum vices Episcoporum ordinatio, & Ecclesia Ratio decurrit, ut super Episcopes Ecclesiam constituatur. Et omnis actus Ecclesia peripsos gubernetur. So hath it fallen out, saith he, by length of time, that the order of Bishops, and the condition of Ecclesiastical rule is such that it doth altogether rest with them, and every act thereof appertain to them. Now because I intent not to be tedious in this discourse, therefore you are to mark how of all these ancients, I have chosen out three, whose testimonies and opinions in the question of Bishops, is to be esteemed most sincere for the reason following. Of all the Bishops of Antiquity, Cyprian was the most favourable, and most affected to his Presbyters, and in his carriage more like to a Compresbyter then a Prelate. Of all the Bishops of Antiquity whose writings are extant in the Church, Ignatius is most ancient, and hath drawn his knowledge out of the pure fountains of Apostolical wisdom, and not from the rivers as his fellows have done: Of all the Doctors of Antiquity, Jerome is most sought to, by the Presbyterians: The Council of Sardica, cap. 10. 13. hath decreed that if a rich man by means of Court come to be a Bishop, he shall first perform the office of a Reader, Deacon and Presbyter, that by degrees he may ascend to the height of a Bishopric. Nazianzen giveth testimony of Athanasius and Basil, that they ascended into Episcopal dignity by the spiritual Law, through all the degrees of Ecclesiastical offices. The Council of Antioch, that whatsoever things appertain unto the Church are to be governed by the authority of the Bishop by whom say they people are instructed. The Council of Chalcedon decreed that none should build a Cloister, or Monastery, without the consent of the Bishop of the City, and that all Monastical persons should be subject to the Bishop. And if we should search all the Doctors, Fathers, and councils, we should find that Episcopal policy accompanied with a clear consent of all Catholic antiquity to applaud it. So far that for the first thousand years of the Church no man hath been known to deny or decline it, but only Aereus who was therefore counted an Heretic by Augustine in his Catalogue of heresies, and by Epiphanius also, which hath not been rashly, nor with repentance affirmed by Augustine, as some hold, for it was written after his retractation, and after his writing of 230 Books besides his Epistles and Homilies, He saith in his preface, that it is hard to give an accurate definition of an Heretic, he reckoneth up 53. heresies which after Christ's ascenstion were contrary to his doctrine, giving the last place to that of Aereus: And concluding in the end of all, Omnis it aque Christianus Catholicus ista non debet credere. Every Christian Catholic Concilium Nicens'. cap. 8. ought not therefore to believe them. The Council of Nice having decreed that the Catharists or Navatians or a sort of sublimitated Puritans of these days returned to penitence unto the Church, those who had brooked any dignity of before, should be repossessed of any office whatsoever in the Church, except it were to displace a Bishop, which should not be lawful to him who hath been a Novatian Bishop. But he should content himself to be a Priest, unless the Bishop would receive him to be a coadjutor, or communicate to him the honour of the name, or if he like him not to find him a Choro-Episcopat or Presbyterat, To the end as Ruffinus says, Ne in ●…na Civitate duo sint Episcopi, that there should not be two Bishops in one City: Augustine being ignorant of this when he was drawn from Navationisme to be Bishop of Hippona, while yet Ualerius lived, because of his great worth, when Augustine himself became old, and nominated Euodius to be his Successor, and had chosen him himself to be his coadjutor, yet he held it unlawful during his own life to ordinate him Bishop, when Ualerius ordained me Bishop, said he, we were both ignorant of the decree of the Counsel of Nice, but what was reprehended in me, shall not be blamed in my Successor, as Possidon: hath it, Quod sibi factum esse doluit aliis fieri noluit. So did this holy man reverence that ordinance of Nice in favours of orthodoxal Bishops, neither shall we find through all ancient Counsels or Fathers one, who hath not done the like, reposing still the glory of the Church upon the authority of Bishops, according to that which David did foresee in his Prophetical spirit, saying in his 45. Psalm, Instead of Father's children shall be borne unto thee, whom thou shalt make Princes in all the earth, which word Augustine doth interpret instead of Apostolos, who were thy fathers. O Catholic Church sons who are Bishops are created unto thee, therefore think not thyself forsaken because thou seest not Peter nor Paul who begat thee: Agnoscant quiprecisi sunt, veniant ad unitatem, Let them (saith he) who are Opiniators and schismatics acknowledge those sons who be borne to the Church to be her Princes over all the Earth. The like exposition jerom the pretended Patron of Presbyters, maketh upon the words of Esay in the 17. verse of the 60. chapter, according to the Septuagint, speaking to the future estate of the Church, through a Revelation. I will give thy Princes in peace, and thy Bishops in righteousness, whereon Jerome; Herein saith he) the Majesty of the holy Scripture is to be admired, who calleth futuros Ecclesia Episcopos, The Princes and Rulers that were to be of the Church, Bishops whose visitation is all in peace, and the name of their dignity all in righteousness (saith he) So that we find an excess of honour and dignity, which from Primitive and ancient times hath been yielded to this virtuous Prelacy in the Church. Doth not Tertullian who lived in the first 200 years write this of Bishops, not only yielding unto them points of pre-eminence and jurisdiction: but speaking of the celebration of the Sacrament, The Bishop (saith he) hath the right to minister Baptism, and then the Presbyters and Deacons, but not without the authority of the Bishop for the honour of the Church, which being safe, peace is safe. In regard of which Catholic and constant testimonies from time to time, what shall we say? shall we not for once think it impossible, that the successors of the Apostles, all the holy Fathers, so many Martyrs and Saints would have abolished that government whatsoever which Christ and his Apostles left unto the Church, for the next shall we not hold it impossible to fall out, that any policy which was not received from the Apostles could be at one time embraced of the whole Christian world, and approved of all general counsels in the Primitive Church. For the last shall we not think it a scorn beyond all scorns, that all those antiquities and Apostolical traditions witnessed by Apostolical men, general counsels, Fathers, Doctors, Catholic consent without interruption, must be condemned for follies, schisms, corruptions, by some pure and Heteroclite brains, who have start up more than 1500. years after, to impugn the credit of the Church Government, qualified by so many divine men whose faith was tried in the fire of affliction, and who sealed their profession with glorious Martyrdom. Certainly if it must be so, we may say that the true light hath endured a miraculous eclipse, and that great knowledge hath been long reserved to be at length vouchsafed to the Allobrogicall Doctors. CHAP. XI. The opinion of the Archi-Reformatours concerning church-policy. FInally to conclude this point of the Church-Policy, I come to show what have been the opinions of Protoreformatours concerning the same. In the Augustine confession which is the first public Protestant act wherein we can observe it, this Article is contained, we have oft, say they, out of our great desires protested to Hist. confess. August. per Chytr. observe the Ecclesiastical policy in all degrees as it is canonical in the Church, and to reverence the authority of Bishops, providing they do not force us to anything contrary to God's word, which protestation shall excuse us to all posterity, that the overthrow of the ancient policy be not imputed to us, say they: which confession Caluine among others did soon thereafter subscribe Melancthon to Martin Luther. Non credis quanto sum in odio Noricis & aliis. You will not believe (saith he) how I am hated of the Norricians and others; Always it is not well that men should so abhor the restoration of Bishops: for I know not with what a face we can refuse them: If they will permit us to have purity of doctrine, And I do fear that Episcopal authority being dissolved, we shall have more intolerable Tyranny in the place thereof, saith he; And in another place which was not written to Luther, Et mecum semper sensit Lutherus, And Luther did ever judge with me, who saith he, knew himself to be the more loved of mere, because by his means Bishops had been cast out and themselves set at liberty, which shall be dangerous for the posterity; for what state of Church shall we have when the ancient policy shaken off, there shall be no certain Rulers, saith Melancthon, which solid judgement Camerarius doth praise in these words, Quod reclamantibus multis ille hoc suadebat non modo ad stipulatore sed auctore Luthero, ut restituerentur Episcopi si usum purae doctrina permitterent, that against many he did not only by Luther's consent, but Hist. confess. August. pa. 389. by his direction persuade the Restitution of Bishops if they will grant the purity of doctrine. In another little treatise of these times entitled Articuls Protestantium de unitate Ecclesiae. Gradus illos plures Episcoporum, Archiepiscoporum, Patriarcharum, utiles esse existimamus ad Ecclesiae salutem si ij qui presunt faciunt officium, all these degrees of Ecclesiastical policy are profitable for the Church, providing Prelates discharge their duty. Bucer de vi & vs●… ministerij saith thus. Therefore these orders of Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons established in the beginning by the holy spirit, when Churches begun to be multiplied they did ordain to every Province their own Metropolitan. And again thereafter to show how he thought it a divine ordinance, he saith, as the people were more and more frequent in Metropolitan Cities, It a dabat Dominus ut haberent ampliores Episcopos illae Ecclesiae, so did God ordain greater Bishops to those Churches. Hemingi●…s is of that same opinion, and both of them do blame that wrested sense of jerom, aforesaid, saying that howsoever it might be so while Churches were not perfectly constituted, yet all the other Fathers were against him from thence forth, & he contented to acknowledge his error, as you have heard. Philip Hebr●…nerus a great Protestant Theologue, having moved the L●…ci come: in epist. ad Tim●…th: & Titum. question touching these degrees Ecclesiastical; he answereth in favour of them, because the Apostles do mention them in the first place, the Presbyter in the next, and the Deacon in the last, saith he, who is more famous among us, as I have said, than the venerable and learned Zanchius, who hath left us a long discourse of Episcopal government in the Church, which were too long to relate here; and is to be found in his observations 25. in titulo 38. de Disciplina clericali; beginning thus: Tertia pars disciplina clericalis est ea quae gradus infimi subijciuntur superioribus, and it is most plain of any for Bishops, as may be perceived also by those his following speeches in the history of the Augustine confession. My faith (saith he) doth absolutely rest upon the simple word of God: next upon the common consent of the ancient Catholic Church, if it is not repugnant to the holy Scripture, for whatsoever hath been decreed by those holy Fathers assembled in general Cou●…cells in the name of God, if it do not contradict his word, that I take to flow from the holy Ghost, albeit I do not account it in the same degree with the written word, and seeing it is most evident by all the writs of the ancient Fathers, that Bishops and these other orders have been allowed in the Church, Quis ego sum: who am I (saith he) who should take upon me to impugn that which the holy Catholic Church hath approved. Neither durst the most learned of our time disprove them, because they were instituted for good ends, and for edification of God's people. Besides I have respect to these reformed Churches, who having embraced the evangel, do yet retain the order of Bishops in name & authority (meaning the Lutherians) And looking to the Protestant Churches I find they have their Bishops and Archbishops under changed names of Superintendants, and general Superintendants, and where neither the old good Greek names, of Episcopus and Archiepiscopus, nor these new ill Latin names of Superintendant, and general superintendant be acknowledged. Notwithstanding I see their (meaning of Presbyterians) chief men who take upon them all the authority, where therefore these be maintained and Bishops refused, it is but a controversy for names, so when we agree as we do upon the thing itself, why should we strive about the name? Thus far Zanchius. Wherein we see that he doth acknowledge that distinction mentioned by me in the beginning of this Article, of that which is directly divine as the word, and that which is divini juris, as the Policy both being of like verity, but not of like authority, necessity, and perpetuity. This sound judgement of Zanchius is so truly, naturally, and holily conceived, that even the latest and most peremptory Reformators since, be forced to have the same opinion, and to follow the same practice. Calvin speaking of the primitive church before the intrusion of Popery, during all which time, saith he, the Church government hath nothing almost dissonant from God's word. For the Presbyters who had the charge of doctrine, did choose one among themselves under the style of a Bishop, ne v●… fieri solet, dissidia nascerentur ex equalitate, that dissension should not arise of equality, as commonly it doth, saith he. And in his Epistle to Cardinal Sadolett he is contented to obey a Bishop, providing he be reform in doctrine, Talem nobis Hierarchiam si dederint quae à Christo tanquam unico capite pendeat. The opinion of Beza concerning the Church of England I have told already, then for their practice, it is manifest that all the Governors of the Church of Geneva since the Bishop was ejected, have wished by all means to replant that authority, but could not, for the State being altogether changed in a popular government, by repining from the Bishop, who was also their civil head, it was so far from receiving any image of Sovereignty either spiritual or temporal: that Calvin being altogether out of hope to get a Presbytery established of Ministers alone, was contented to comport a mixed Presbytery, of six ministery, and twelve Citizens, always while he lived he was perpetual Precedent in effect of the Ecclesiastical Senate, differing only in name from a Bishop, which name and authority both he could have sustained in his person, if the State had urged him, seeing he was contented himself to obey a reformed Bishop. Beza likewise during ten or twelve years, carried the same authority, they did both, rule over their brethren as a Primate over his Coepiscopi, or a Bishop over his Compresbyte●…, even as Zanchius hath said. And how many Christian Pastors of remote Nations did in all those times depend from their Oracles, as Presbyters under Bishops? If any man will say it was the merit of the men, & no ordination of the Church, I answer if it was so, it is all one to bear authority, whether colourably or openly, only here is the difference, that lawful authority is better than that which men do arrogate without warrant, and it is better to endure a lawful Bishop then an usurping Brother; but to neither of these two do I ascribe any disorder, they were wise, learned, and divine men, who did comport with the policy of the time Inuita Minerva, as we say, of necessity. For even Beza finding things yet to go farther from the Episcopal rule, by the coming thither of Da●…aeus, he did vehemently regrate it to his familiars. And I say that Anthon: Fa●…us, who is now Arch-Presbyter there, is as wise in that kind, as any of his Predecessors, for I know it by experience to be so. It may be indeed said, that the Church of Geneva is yet in purity without faction, but who doth not see the reason of it, because it is parva Respublica, a small Commonwealth, easily ruled, where the Presbyterial Clergy is not above the number of eighteen, counting both Pastors and Doctors, but if it were populous and gross, or if division should fall in that which is, might it not come to pass among them, as it hath done to others in the like, that for want of a spiritual head, the Civil Magistrate behoved to interpose his authority, and perhaps join himself to the wrong side, as sundry Roman Emperors have done in such things, according as Ecclesiastical Stories do record. And what was the doing of our own Reformator john Knox, and of all those who were wise Reformators, was it not like unto the Romans wisdom, who having cast out their Kings, did in every case of danger cloth themselves with the absolute authority of Dictator's: Even so did they after the expulsion of Bishops exercise the same power, as Zanchius hath said, underchanged names, and evil Latin names, as he calls them, of Superintendents, and general Superintendents, until by length of time as the state of Rome was never stayed before it fell again into the own natural centre of Monarchy, Naturam furca expellas licet, usque recurret, Even so the Ecclesiastical policy, hath returned again to the own fountain from whence it did flow. All which considered, I give you my counsel who are Puritan, that you be not ashamed to say with Zanchius, Quis ego sum etc. who are you to oppose yourselves against the rule of God in nature, & in all her members against the rule of wisdom in the Civil state, of Oeconomie in families, of morality in one man's person, of God in the Architype of the jewish Church: of the Apostles, the Primitive Church and all antiquity following thereupon, I give you my Counsel to understand the mystery of time, and the nature of reformation, which is not compassed upon the sudden but with length of time, even as corruption grows with time. We see in the old Law the Priesthood was one thing. and the Priestly transgressions an other: what did Man●…sses, what did Ahas? and other kings of judah? How did Uziah the Priest, and divers others concur with the impiety of their kings to defile the house of God with Idolatry, we may see it in the book of the Kings, and Paralyp: did God therefore take away from the people the Priesthood? no, it was oft times profaned, but never abolished, yea before the Lord should take it away, he did rather suffer both Priesthood and Principautie to be confounded in one person, as is said before: why should you then maliciously transgress against so many examples, to contemn Episcopal regiment, because the Papal tyranny hath profaned it? why do you search argumen for division, and not for unity? It is no Christian part out of the sixteen Archbishops of Antioch, to object alone, Paulus Samositanus, who abused his authority to pride & heresy: would you think the like advantage good against the Apostles to speak of judas? out of multitudes of Bishops you have chosen a few of the most insolent and wicked to be of your side, marking the disorders of Theoph. Alexandrinus, Valens, Vrsatius, Nestorius, Macedon. Phoc. What would you answer to these, who would deal so with yourselves, among hundreds of the like intercourses of your policy, to object but two, your great feast day holden at Edinburgh, which made the seventeenth of December so famous, and again, your carriage after the treason of Gowrie at Perth, where the Lord God stood miraculously for the life of your most Gracious Prince, and that for greater causes (as you have seen) then were revealed at that time, and no doubt for greater ends than you do yet see: what can you answer to the bad behaviour of some brethren, who durst challenge such a king, his majesties reputation and fame, and bring it in question before his people, which things I mentioned here out of my true affection to your reformation: because the Physicians say, Nulla medicamenta magis sunt salutifera quam ea qua dolorem pariunt, There is no medicine more powerful than that which breedeth dolour to the patient, why do you not therefore overpass your malicious caption of men's faults, to lookeupon the benefit which doth depend from lawful policy: why do you not remember that the archiepiscopal authority hath served to repress the Arrian heresy, the most mighty opposition that ever hath been in God's Church: why do you not remember that Samositanus was more times in parting from the troth, and more corrigiable thereafter as is said, then Manicheus, Martion, Arrius, Pelagius, and other heresiarchs who were but Presbyters: why do you not call to memory the holy and reverend names of Gregor. Nazianz. Basil. Nicen. Athanas. Chrysost. Cyprian. Ignat. Polycarp. Iren. Ambros. August. Whose persons were not so remote from this age of ours as the sincerity of their Christian and Catholic government in the Church was different for the present rule of the Roman Bishops. And notwithstanding of the corruption which is this day pregnant in the world, and which you do so much peril to fall in the state of Bishops, by divoluing of that charge in great & noble personages, more through the favour of Princes, then for their Merit as you say, yet do but look a little upon the worthy Prelates which have been in the Church of England, still since the reformation thereof, and who be presently, whom you shall see all to be ordinarily taken out of the prime men of the Universities, and never brought from the Court to that dignity, do witness in special those grave and most Reverend divines, the Archb: now of Canterbury, the Bishops of London, Elie and bath, more shining lights then whom the Church of God hath not within nor without the kingdom, which I in special may affirm, who have heard some of their virtuous names remembered with honour by their chiefest enemies in Christendom, a clearer mark than which cannot be of men's worth. I say no more, but God of his mercy grant that ourmost upright Christian Ministers, may follow their example, in true pastoral vigilance and sincerity, out of those mirrors, let us reverence this beginnings which we see of our reformation, that by our zeal and love, to peace and unity, God may be moved to overthrow that beast of Rome, and to plant again his holy spirit in it, to dissolve the Papal tyranny, & to reduce it to the ancient & regular limits of patriarchal degree; If this Counsel be contrary to your Theology, then learn it from nature, That Princes and Prelates are the Superior Orbs that move you, and therefore that no motion must be within the peculiar Sphere of your Pastoral discharge, to make you disobey their motions, and if you cannot neither do this out of a good instinct of nature, like the celestial Planets, whose proper movements do never hinder them to obey and follow their Primum Mobile, Then for the last, make it a good and necessary policy to imitate that Goose, who knowing her own imperfection, provides for those evils which might fall upon her in perilous places, through too much noise, and so to save herself from the Eagles which frequent the top of mount Taurus, as she flieth along it, she keepeth a low course, and carrieth a stone in her beak to restrain her ordinary cry: Princes and Prelates tanquam aves solares are like the celestial Eagles which go nearest to the sun, they receive the immediate inspiration and deputation of God to rule the inferior world, they are placed in the mountain of government, so that you must take heed, that you do not concitate them by your disordered clamours. Now having said thus far in favours of the Episcopal What ought to be the temperate government of Bishops. authority, to the effect that you may see how I intent here to serve God and not man, I will also lawfully speak of that which ought to be the upright and Christian duty of Bishops: They are to remember that it is the fault of rulers which often times giveth distaste to people of lawful authorities, as the tyranny of Rome hath made the primitive and Orthodoxal government of Christ's Church to be abhorred: it is the wisdom and modesty of their carriage which must cast a good smell in the nose of the multitude, the Popular is like to a dead Ocean, which hath no motion of itself, but from above, from the influence of the Moon, or from the agitation of the air: Bishops are the Spheres placed above them to give them influence, and the Planets which should minister light unto them. So that they are to learn the temperament of their government from the sun, the chief of Planets, which if it should still keep the altitude or summer solstice: howsoever the glory and force thereof should be that way more perceived, yet no man, nor beast could endure the vehemence of that heat, in such manner, that for the benefit of inferior Creatures which be nourished by it, it follows as we see an oblique & temperate course betwixt the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. They are to learn the arts of their government from God himself, who albeit he have both absolute and infinite power, that he could of the stones of the earth raise up seed to Abraham, and bring any thing to pass suddenly, and in a moment in the generation of whatsoever his creatures, yet for the maintenance of their order and policy, he doth adjoin unto his working the ordinary concurrence of second and inferior causes, making things to go on by natural and mutual means: they are to follow the example of Moses in the jewish rule of God's people, not as the Presbyterians do, following the Architype for the Laicke Elders, and refusing it for the Prelacy, they must not only imita●… the Mosaical, where it serveth to establish their power: but also in that which Saint Jerome doth record of Moses, Qui cum solus praeesse populo haberet in potestate: who having in his will to be only over the people, yet he did adjoin unto him seventy to assist him: among the most ancient Canons which be Catholic, this is reckoned with the foremost, Episcopos singulartum Genium scire oportet qui inter eos primus sit, qui habeatur. Caput, praeter cuius Sententiam nihil agant, sed nec ille praeter illorum sententiam faciat. The Bishops of all Nations must understand, that he who in his own jurisdiction is head over the rest, without whose authority they can do nothing, neither he shall proceed, but by their concurrence and advise, Sic enim unanimitas erit, & Deus glorificabieur, saith he, by that means unanimity shall be kept, and God shall be glorified. Ignatius Epistela ad Trallian●…s. the most ancient of the Fathers, hath called the Presbyters, counsellors, and Coasessours: Cyprian followed this temperate rule; Ambrose also doth teach the same. For this sort of government, doth much ease them in their discharge, and nothing derogate from their authority: for who will say that a temperate Monarch who followeth his grave Counsel doth thereby lessen his power, but he is the more advised. The excellent virtues of the Episcopal function are known by the excellent styles given unto it, by the Spirit of GOD in the apocalypse, they are called Angels and Stars: Constantine did call them Gods in his time, and seeing they get celestial styles, they must also imitate the heavens, to be the chief Preachers of God's glory, Caeli enarrant gloriam Dei saith the Prophet David. These be the properties of the heavens which also ought to be in Psal. 18. them; body's most subtle, most high, most lucid, most clean, most perfectly ordered, most round, they do ever move, ever give life and light unto inferior creatures. First, they must be subtle in solid knowledge of holy scriptures, Quia tu Scientiam repulistirepellam & egote, ne Sacerdotio fungaris 〈◊〉 saith the Lord, Hos. 4. Because thou rejectest knowledge, I shall relect thee from the Priesthood: They must be high in the virtuous show of their life, Tantum gregem praecellat sanctitas presulis quantum ones superat vita Pastoris, The sanctity of a Prelate should as far excel that of his flock, as the life of a Pastor is more worth than a sheep. In the virtue specially of charitable frugality they should shine, Eccles. 31. Splendidum in panibus benedicent labia multorum. In nequissimo pane murmurabit civitas. The mouths of many shall bless him who is liberal of his bread, and the City shall murmur against him who doth it not, and they shall call his wretched conquest, Panem nequissimum, A knavish bread. If a Bishop study to be rich he is neither Star nor Angel, nor no matter heavenly, Si terram cogitas terraes, If a man's mind be muddy, he is mud himself, riches are indeed a blessing of God: but we find seldom mention in the Scripture of a rich man in good terms, but with hard title, Solomon saith, Alia infirmitas sub sole, Divitiae conseruatae in malum Domini: Riches heaped up for the mischief of their Master, and the Evangelist speaking of a rich man, Mortuus est Dives & sepultus in Inferno. The rich man died and was buried in Hell. Again, our Saviour saith, It is as impossible for a rich man to enter into heaven, as for a Camel to pass thorough the eye of a needle: and the holy Spirit speaking by Saint john in the second of the apocalypse to the Angel, or Bishop of Laodicea, Dicis, quia Dives sum & nullius egeo, & ecce miser pauper, caecut, & nudus: Thou sayest thou art rich and needest nothing, & behold, thou art miserable, poor, blind & naked. Whereby we see that earthly desires in a Bishop be wretched nakedness, terra inanis erat & vacua, saith the Scripture, The earth was empty and barren, & so be all the Prelates who delight in riches and earthly pleasures. Again, Bishops must resemble the heavens being clean in their very hearts, they must not say, Placet quicquid licet, That very thing doth please them which is lawful, but they must forbear many pleasures lawful to others, that being clean they may cleanse others? Non valet tergere sordes manus qu●… lutum tenet, The hand which is spotted with clay it cannot purge filthiness. They must be well and perfectly ordered in their behaviours, having them seasoned with wisdom and discretion, as Christ faith to his Apostles, habeto in vibis salem, That they should have salt, whereof, we see if there be too much in meat it makes it bitter, if too little unsavoury, if a discreet measure, it makes it pleasant and delicate to the Taste: they must be round as the heavens, we know that a circle is figura capacissima, & simplicima, a most simple and capable figure: which hath no Angle, crook, point, nor division: showing how evil laziness, rest, duplicity, or crooked ways become a Prelate: Finally, they must still move as the heavens do, going from virtue to virtue, from good to better, for the common good of those who be under them. Woe were unto the infeiour world if the Celestial spheres should intermit their course and stand still; even as the round wheel when it beginneth to stand presently it goeth back: so, In via Domini non progredi regredi est, not to go forward in the way of the Lord is to go backward: because in that circular and continual motion which should be in pastoral piety, there is no station nor repose, Hec fuit iniquitas Sodoinae abundantia & otium: Therefore finally they must like unto the heavens, make continual influxion of life and light in the inferior members of Christ Church, seeing it hath pleased God to let unto them his Vineyard, they are to remember the saying of our Saviour Omnis arbor quae non facit fructum bonum excid●… & per ignem mittetur, Every tree which brings not forth good fruit, shall be cut down and cast into the fire: It is neither the blossom, the flower, nor the leaf, which will please God; but the fruit, neither shows of piety, nor learned preachings; but the edification of Christian souls, will content God, Exemplum dedi vobit ut quemadmodum egofeci ita & vos faciatis, saith Christ, I have given you example that as I have done, so might you do. The first Adam did feed upon the fruits of the trees in Paradise, but the second Adam upon the fruits of his Saints, who are the mystical trees of this Vineyard, as may be marked out of that answer given to his Apostles, saying to him, Rabbi manduca, ego habeo alium cibum manducare, quem vos nescitis. I have other meat to eat which you do not know, and this was the fruits of the Garden of Israel even then transplanted: for example, the conversion of the Samaritan woman was his thirst, and upon the Cross he cried, sitio, langushing for the like wing-grapes: seeing Bishops are the chiefest trees in the Vineyard, they must strive to produce the most excellent fruits of Christian virtues, specially that every one of their actions be witnesses of their humility. The tree the more it hath the root humble and deep in the earth, it makes the fairer fruit, the Prophet Esay doth affirm it, Mittet radices deorsum, & faciet fructus sursum. And the Wiseman saith, Odibilis Deo Esay 37: & hominibus superbia, Pride is hateful to God and man. The Prelates be as is said before, the head, the heart and the stomach of the spiritual body, which being in good Eccles. 24. and wholesome constitution, the members have also their full vigour and strength: The Prophet jeremy speaking of the reformation of the people, beginneth at the heads, Si feceritis judicium inter virum & proximum eius, advenae, viduae, & pupillo: If you will judge betwixt a man and his neighbour justly, and if you do justly to the stranger widow, and Orphan; Therefore if Prelates would have people purged from those damnable vices of ambition, avarice, pride and Atheism, they must keep themselves reform, summarily they may cast back their eyes a little, to look upon the ruins of their Predecessors the late Bishops of Scotland, who because they fell away from uprightness and sincerity, and did abandon themselves to public vices, the Lord did spew them out, Malos male perdidi●… & lo●…uit vineam suam aliis, he made the wicked to perish wickedly, and did let his vineyard to others. CHAP. XI. Why the Organs, Clerical Vestments, and ancient Ceremonies which be used in the Church of England are again to be received of us in Scotland. IT follows now for the happiness of our domestic union, to speak of the ceremonies of the Church of England, which, as they are no many in number that I will here treat of, so they require no over long and tedious discourse: They are conversant about our two principal senses, the one (as Aristotle calleth it) the sense De anima lib. 2. sensus disciplina bilis. De arte poetica. of science and discipline, the ear, The other (as Horace showeth) the conduit and inlet of the most deep and firm impressions, our eyes; Segnius irritant animos demissaper aures, quamqua sunt oculis subiecta sidelibus. Upon the first the admirable and divine gifts of Music doth work; upon the second the grave and Majestic, yet plain and sober habit of vestments: both have three operations on us, one natural as we are men, & endued with outward senses, the vestments to defend us from the cold, the Music to move our senses to joyfulness, or to sadness and contemplation, the second is a civil operation, as we are distinct members of a political and well ordered society, as we see the vestments do show the distinction of men's callings or degrees, and the Music is a delight and ornament used by us in feasts and public triumphs. The third is a sacred and sequestered proper application in the setting forth and beautifying (within due and decent limits) the service of Almighty God. The first doth work upon us as men; the second as we are civil men, the third as we are Christian men. Of Music I will speak in the first place, presuming that not only when it is heard acting its own part to the ear in harmonical sounds; but even when the virtues and commendation thereof are made the subject matter of prosaical discourse, presenting the vigour and force thereof though but to the eye of the Reader, yet it will have its wont operation in sweetly charming the affection of those, who have drunk in some prejudice against it; and distaste of the use of it in sacris, so that my Readers mind being set in symbalis bene sonantibus, in good tune; by the impressions of Music (though by me an unskilful artsman rudely fingered) they will I hope the more calmly and temperately accept the other following treatise of vestments, especially while it is so brief. If those who have stopped their ears against not only the vocal sound, but also the vocal defence of Church-Musique, think me too arrogant in hoping that any Enthusiasm can proceed from my Musical discourse to surprise their preiudicat opinions, let them but look into the very nature and instinct proper to an intellectual substance, and they shall find that argument and strength of reason, hath no less unresistible force, to attract and purchase the assent of the reasonable soul, than the actual sound of Music hath to move and mollify the hardest and most stony hearts: as it is written of Amphi●… that he did Saxa movere sono, testudinis & pre●…e bla●…da ducere quo vellet, then should not the true reasons of Musical virtue (which are to the understanding more strong than harmony to the sense) mollify and guide the most obdurate hearts of such as profess a kind of deadly feed against the use thereof. If the Music were a thing only indifferent, that is to say, the instrumental Music i●… the Church were neither commanded not commended by God's word, it is enough for our reception again of it by the argument of Zanch●… for: Unity as is said. But certainly the Church Music or that which is grave, affectioned and holy, it is a true physic of the Spirit, which doth restore it from distemperature and confusion, whither it do proceed from natural melancholy, it recalleth the dispersed faculties of the mind to one centre it doth reconfort the astonished powers thereof, and by little and little lead them back again to the sense of reason by getting their consent to conspire together, and to attend the melodious harmony, so that in that case it is a servant and soldier of the soul, which helpeth her and giveth her the meane●… to pacify a turbulent and disordered spirit, as ancient philosophers speaking metaphysically of this point have said, that the Music doth cure the body by way of the soul, even as physic doth cure the mind oftentimes by ●…ay of the body: What shall I speak of Church Music, when profane histories do record, that among the Greeks the Laconickes, y●…a King Alexander himself did employ the Music to medicine their extraordinary passions: And who doth not understand that there is a kind of furious madness of the mind in Almain called Sa●…uitus which is not cured but by the sound of Musical Instruments, and an other in Italy called Tarantula, which is not cured but in the like sort, or whither it be that the distemperature of the Spirit, doth flow from external causes as from demoniacal Invasion, the Music doth help it much, as we see by that practice of David, who by the sweetness of his harp, did terrify and banish for the time that unclean and disordered spirit which vexed King Saul. Always to proceed, the most apt and open reasons for the profitable use of Music in the publibue service of God, may be drawn out of these two fountains, the one of nature, the other of Scripture, the one will induce credit as we are men, the other as we are Christians. The voice of nature next to our own experience, we may best receive from the judgement of those whom we either approve for Philosophers, or reverence for discerners of that which in nature now corrupted, yet remaineth sincere, useful and lawful. And in vain should I undergo needless trouble if I would search what the ancients have found out and recorded, hereof Plato shall be to me v●…us instar omnium seconded also by Tully in his second book de legibus, Assentior Platoni nihil tam facile in animos teneros ac ●…lles Cicer. de. leg. 2. influere, quam varios canendi sonos, quorum dici non potest quanta sit vis in utramque partem. Namque & incitat languentes & languefacit excitatos, & tum remittit animos tum contrahit. Music hath an incredible power either to stir up the affections when they are dull & heavy, or to allay & compose them when they are incensed and troubled. Martin Bucer giveth a plain natural reason hereof (which I had rather stick to then to search of what harmonical proportion the soul of man is composed) Aminales spiritus quibus affectus animae constant aerae sunt materia, atque Bucer in Psa. 33. ideo ab infracto extrinsecus temporato que commodum aere per aures delat●…, mirum in modum citantur, proque illius temperatura immutantur. The animal spirits of our bodies (the next instruments of the soul) being made of an airy substance are wonderfully affected with the external air when it is tempered with certain proportionable motions and melodious sounds. From hence are the diverse effects of diverse kinds of Music, the Phrygian, Lydian, Doric and jonicke. S. Augustine citeth out of Tully a remarkable instance Aug. lib. 5. contra julian. Cum vinolenti adolescentes etc. When certain younkers well tippled, & whetted with light wanton music attempted violently to break open the doors of a chaste matron's house, Pythagoras called to the Musician, ut spondeum caneret, to play a slow, grave and stately tune, upon hearing whereof by the gravity of that strain, their luxurious humour was presently allayed. Whereby, as also by every man's daily experience it is evident what force there is in Music for inciting, composing and moderating the passions of the mind. But here even out of this example may be objected the abuse and corruption of manners by some kind of light harmony applied to lighter Ditties; whereto I answer, that this itself is no small commendation unto the graver and more divine sort of harmony, that the Devil (whose desire and use is always to pervert the best creatures and gifts of God) hath sought thus infamare rem optimam, to discredit so excellent a gift as Music is. As Bucer saith in Psalm: Haud leviter detestandum rem tam divinam & religioni praecipuè natam abusu ad voluptates sic viluisse ac redditam infamem. The convenient and necessary use of wholesome herbs and commodious minerals is not to be abandoned, but rather with more discretion and diligence to be searched into, because some others are dangerous and poisonous. The Devil hath not only his furnished Quyre for Idolatry (as in the worship of the golden Image) and his Minstrelsy for wantonness, but even his set invocations and Sacraments: yet we do not therefore rob God of his due in these kinds, because the devils apishness hath endeavoured by imitation to derogate from his most decent and formal worship. But this by the way. To return to that kind of Music, whereof only we understand; whatsoever we have or shall in this discourse bring for the advancing the service of God, namely, the grave, constant, and as it is of the Ancients called, Spondaike vain of harmony; that surely hath a natural fitness to allay our incomposed and disordered affections, to imprint in our souls if not the character of virtue, yet the next aptitude thereto, if not to sow the fruitful seeds of piety, yet to make animum subactum, that is, to prepare and ear up the furrows of our hearts, and to leave our passions fertile and ready for receipt of the best impressions. And when I pray you can the use of such external helps be more seasonable, then when we must most of all sequester our thoughts from the dross of carnal and worldly encumbrances, when we are to sublimate our souls and to make them ascend unto the throne of grace? Where can the symphony of decent Music more fitly sound, then where there is already a symphonic and union of desires, yea of souls in a devout congregation of Christians? Where shall the soldiers expect to hear the language of their warfare, the trumpet and drum to give the alarm, to whet their fortitude and incite them to fight fiercely and constantly, but there, where they are in their troops and bands combined together, in battle array? What indeed are the prayers of a full Christian Congregation, but an earnest striving with God, and even wrestling with him for a blessing as jacob did, or withholding him from judgements, as Moses did, nay a kind of besieging and surprising the fortress of heaven itself by violence? Most true it is that the fountain and root of all such powerful intercessions and invocations is the inward zeal of the heart, which the eye of the Almighty hath special regard unto (so that without it the approaching near to God with our lips is not only fruitless but abominable) yet as true is it that this our inward zeal and devotion is the more inflamed and increased even towards God, and illustrated and imparted mutually by one to another by the outward additaments and helps of gesture, tunes, acclamations, melodious harmony of voice and of instrument, by the passionate inflexions whereof the soul is sweetly tempered, and lead with ease and delight to those apprehensions which otherwise it could not without difficulty and laborious intention be framed unto. By the loftiness whereof the soul getteth wings to mount the swifter and soar the higher. Not that the shrillness or sweetness of these sounds doth really pierce the heavens, or that God is delighted with the melodious proportions of sounds, but as vocal prayer is commended and commanded by him who before hand knoweth the unuttered petitions and groans of our hearts, not only in public invocation for a mean of conjunction, but even in private devotions and ejaculations of the soul for the better inflaming of our hearts with fervency by the concurring of bodily expressions; so also is this external and vocal adoration commodiously seconded and strongly redoubled by those instigations and transportations which are suggested by Music. In which, furnishing the service of God, it is not necessary that every note or point in the smallest parts and fractions be significant in itself, (that in Instruments especially being impossible) but it is sufficient that they accompany and concord with the ditty and words of invocation, clothing them as it were with habit and shapes fit for the particular matter and phrase of the hymn; sometime putting on a large habit and deep colour of gravity and slowness, otherwhile with quickness and agility passing more lightly and hastily, sometime advancing with loudness, otherwhile depressing with lowness, still adding a lively and emphatical impression of harmony befitting the character of the subject matter. Most powerfully doth the heavenly vigour of stately and majestic Music both of voice and instruments, set forth itself as upon a fit stage of action, when the universal Church presenteth to God her reverent and awful adoration of his heavenly Majesty, when the tongues of Angels and of all other creatures are represented by the tongues of men, when whatsoever gift is in Art, is in a model shadowed in the artificial Music, all proclaiming the unspeakable power and wisdom of the Creator, the infinite mercy of the Redeemer, the endless glory of him by whom and for whom are all things. Of this strain and style are those divine hymns scattered among the Psalms of David, and recommended to the Church in all ages by the spirit of God: In special the Psalms 33. 104. 135. 136 147. 148. 150. And next to those sacred portions of Scripture, that excellent hymn Te Deum penned by S. Ambrose, and used in the daily Liturgy of the Western Church. These and such like sacred Ditties of glorifying God, and yielding to his throne the tributary duty and thanks of all the creatures, when they are duly consorted with voice and sober grave Instruments, they are like bona merx in bono lumine collocata, precious wares or fair pictures set in a lightsome place. nay they do so naturally symbolise with Instruments, as if they had not been so much composed for Music, as Music invented for them. Another eminent transportation befitting solemn Music is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the lofty strain of triumph of God's Church, which being armed and embellished with harmony, doth not only fortify the hearts of the children of God in their rejoicing, but also seemeth to give a more powerful defiance to the enemies of the kingdom of God, both visible oppressors, and invisible opposers, wicked men, and spiritual wickednesses. Of this sort are the triumphant songs of Moses, Exod: 15. of Deborah, jud. 5. of David, Psal: 114. which, with some others of that kind being poetically penned, seem in their measure of words and periods, to awake the Harp and Lute, and to call for the ornaments of Music to be put upon them, as if bare reading or pronouncing were too cold and thin a clothing for them. Other passions of desire, of spiritual love, of hope, of awe, of sorrow, of charity, of devote humility, & whatsoever else is the exercise of a Christian, may receive from hence their enlargement & extension. He that in remorse of his own vileness would with the Publican beat his breast, and strike sadly and softly at the gate of mercy, for the easier melting of his soul let his ear be possessed with a dolesome, flat, and spondaike strain of Music. Here of S. Augustine is a witness by his own experience, from whose eyes tears were drawn by the public Conf Music of the Church at Milan. And surely that heart must needs be very tough and obdurate, in which grave and well composed Music displaying itself in the house of God doth never beget some good disposition to remorse or devotion. Vere qui norunt quid sit toto cord, tota anima, totisque viribus amare Deum, illi facile agnoscunt, quam apposita religioni fit Musica, propterea quod tantum ad componendum & exci●…andū animum valet. Saith Bucer one of the lights of the reformed Church. So we see that Music hath its part in the Church of God for edification, though not of the understanding directly, because it doth not infuse knowledge, yet of the affections, which are the proper object of Music, as it is operative. The affections are the Sea on which this heavenly light worketh by perpendicular aspect. Their floats, their ebbs, are caused and guided by this planet, their storms and waves are allayed by this sweet influence. As by sleep concentratur calor, colliguntur spiritus, the spirits vital and animal are called in, the natural heat is drawn to the centre, so by the ravishing slumber in which sweet harmony enwrappeth the soul, the senses are suspended, and all exorbitant passions retired. And yet indirectly and by accident it may be said to work upon the understanding also, by suggesting and proposing fit streynes and harmonies, which being but dead in themselves, yet do invite the mind to give a kind of form and soul to them, and to apply suitable contemplations and ejaculations of the soul formerly instructed, and now abstracted, and made in some degree extaticall: In which regard there is some liberty given unto organical Music, not only to accompany the voice, but also sometime for short spaces to hold on when the vocal maketh a pause, that thereby it may be left a little to its own proper and solitary operation, as also that some relaxation and intermission may be afforded both to those that are employed in reading and singing, and to the continual intention of the Auditor's attention, always provided, that in these interims or interscenes, neither to much time be taken up, nor in any Church music, to much curiosity or ostentation of art be used, as the learned and judicious Master Hooker admonisheth, much less any light and wanton tunes or strains: of which abomination in the Popish Quyres Master Bucer complaineth, that their Organists did Spurcissimarum cautionum melos Organis modulari, & sub Ecclesiast. Politic. 5. book. 38. Section. Bucer. in Plal. 33 nomine Christi crucifixi nil aliud quam Veneri sacrificari, play filthy ribald tunes upon the Organs, and under the show of devotion to Christ crucified, offer sacrifice even to Venus. But such profane abuses suggested by the devil cannot prejudice the Godly use of grave music, as before I have noted. Now to proceed in my intended discourse: In the holy Scriptures we find very frequent and diverse motives for the approbation and recommendation of the use of Music in the service of God; In prosecution whereof, my intent is not to take up whatsoever may be to that purpose avouched or collected out of the book of God, but only to touch in brief the principal heads, whereto, any one that will employ more particular pains in this search, may refer other proofs which I shall pass by. The distinct consideration of these proofs, may be ranged according to these several times, into which by the ordinance of the Creator, all time, and even all succeeding eternity is divided: namely the ages before the law, under the law, the current season of the Gospel; and the boundless eternity of future glory. And first under the law of nature, before the Mosaical was instituted, we may observe, that Gen. 4. 21. there is a special mark of recommendation to all posterity set upon Tubal, That he was the father of those that play upon the Organs and haps: that is, that such musical instruments were both intended by Tubal, and afterward frequented and used by his instruction or imitation. From whence I thus collect and argue: whatsoever hath in it a natural fitness for the glorifying of God, was in that age, if not by the inventor intended, yet by the after practices employed to the service of God: But music, whether vocal or instrumental, hath in it a disposition to the advancing of the glory of God, not in a general remote and indirect sort (as all both artificial inventions, and natural creatures have in their particular ends, a secret reference to the last and highest end the glorifying of him, who is all in all) but properly and directly in guiding, conforming, altering and seasoning the best of our affections, our zeal to God's honour, and admiration of his Majesty, as hath been before declared; Therefore it appearing that in that young growth of the world, such instruments were found out & published, it is more than probable, that they were by the best men of that age, & faithfullest employed to the best use, even the help and beautifying of the invocation of the name of God. What, though it do not appear, what was then the form of outward invocation and worship of God, beside sacrificing? What though the Church was not then perhaps grown into a political state? As surely as men had then, both by nature, instinct of the Godhead, and by instruction from Adam, a knowledge of the true God, and of his due worship, so certainly they did use outward invocation with the voice, as well as with the heart: and why not by singing as well as saying: and why not with instrumental music, as well as vocal? Why then not ordained and ordered by the economical regiment of the patriarchs, in whom the Priestly power was united with the Regal, as well as afterward published by more distinct constitution, when the Priesthood was severed from the kingly office. He that is incredulous herein, let him but travail a little further with the Church of God, and follow the footsteps of Israel over the red sea, he shall presently hear sounding in his ears that most Pathetical and Poetical song of triumph, penned and chanted by the man of God, and Prince and Prophet of Israel the great Moses, and not so only, but also echoed with solemn choral responses, by the sister of the high Priest, and to show that all voicing music, though having so noble a precentor, and being celebrated by so full a Choir of all the people of Israel (verse 1.) yet is not sufficient to display the zeal and joy of the Church of God, there cometh in beside, as in Medio Chori, the noise of Timbrels in the hands of Miriam, and of all the women that came out after her (verse 20.) not to yield any new instruction to their understandings, though she were a Prophetess, but (which is the true use of such music) first to give a greater downeweight to their affections, and to make their spiritual joy overflow the banks of ordinary apprehension, and to transport them into an higher degree of heavenly ravishment, by those artificial sounds added to the natural, and secondly to infix deeper in their minds and memories those divine strains, by recording and repeating the same point in the same verses, a thing in Church music, not to be abandoned, if tempered with gravity, as here we may expressly gather. For when Moses and the people had begun their song in this manner. I will sing unto the Lord: for he hath triumphed gloriously, etc. Miriam with her troop and instruments and voices, answered the men, Sing ye unto the Lord: for he hath triumphed gloriously, etc. (verse. 21.) This because it did precede the delivery of the ceremonial law by Moses, I think I may safely refer either to the law of nature, or to the inveterate practice of the most ancient Church of God, even from the first patriarchs and Fathers of mankind. In time of the Law, the very enditer himself Moses, did by the immediate command of God, when he was to die, leave as his last Testament of monition or cygnea cantion, a formal song, which as God put into his mouth, so he into the mouths of the children of Israel, Exod. 31. 19 to be a perpetual witness to and against them: which beginneth with a most rhetorical and Poetical exclamation of adjuring the heavens and earth to be witnesses. This pithy abstract of the admonitions and doctrines of Moses, containing Gods benefits towards his Church, the upbraiding of their ingratitude, God's threats against them, and mysterious predictions of the vocation of the Gentiles, etc. The spirit of GOD did choose to set down to his Church, rather in form of Song then of Sermon, thereby insinuating that it would be with more facility received and with deeper impression retained, which is implied by Moses himself in the following words of the beginning of that song, ver. 2. My doctrine shall drop as the rain and my speech shall distill as the dew. As if he had said this last doctrine of mine which I delivered to God's people by way of song, shall indeed by the divine matter thereof instruct their understandings: but shall by the manner of musical indictment and recording thereof, pierce with the greater sweetness and facility, and by a secret unseen influence, feed and refresh your souls, as the herbs and plants are cherished by the dew and fed by the soft showers. And afterward when the Temple was to succeed the Tabernacle, David did before hand provide Levites and singers: his preparations of that kind were: first, when the Ark had rest (1. Chron. 6. 31.) 1. Chron. 15. And shortly after the Temple was to be builded by Solomon, 1. Chron. 25. At both David appointed Levites and singers with instruments of music, etc. And added thereto the ditties which they were to sing, being a set form of invocation and thanksgiving. 1. Chron. 16. 8. Praise ye the Lord, etc. which also is repeated among the Psalms, Psal. 105. Moreover, in a manner the whole Book of Psalms were by the same Prophet, penned in Meeter to be sung (as they are since in all ages and places) in the Church of God. Amongst which some Psalm. 33. and 150. make especial reference unto the instrumental music. If hereto it be replied that all this furniture of music was proper to the Temple, and merely typical, and part of the pedagogy of the old Testament, I may answer that in regard of the number and distinct offices and certain kinds of instruments, those constitutions of David might well be ceremonial: but the use of instrumental music in general in the public praising of God, was and is moral or natural; not indeed of absolute necessity, as if there were no lawful service in the Church without it, but of convenience and expediency for the natural fitness, and decent fruitfulness which they may have. Neither can it be denied but that where the same cause of constitution yet remaineth, the practice may be well retained, at least as times and circumstances shall require or permit. Now those that are most severely affected against the Church music among Christians, use this as a chief reason why it was established in that Church, because it was a fit Schoolmaster for that people. And are there not and always will be among Christians, some that need to be fed with milk, as well as others with strong meat? Did not Saint Basil Basil in Psa. 48. observe this, and in that regard commend the providence of the spirit of God, who by the Prophet David had provided for his Church perpetually, that heavenly mysteries, might be mingled with sweet melody. That two sort of learners might thus be the better provided for, those that are either young in years, or green in growth of virtue might while they think to delight themselves with the melody, receive some good impression of instruction. But if this cause seem unsufficient, or Saint Basils' authority not strong enough, we may out of the text itself, where this musical furniture for the Temple is instituted. 1. Chron. 16. derive a more constant reason, which must needs hold in both Testaments. Levites were appointed to sing with instruments, etc. that they might make a sound and lift up their voice with joy: whence I think I may thus infer. The end and reason of the institution of such music by David is not (for aught I can find) said to be for any prefiguration of action to be fulfilled by the Messias, or for any cause or consequent proper to the people and Church of the jews, which with the sacrifices and other ceremonies were to expire, but the reason there added is from a natural or rather spiritual affection common to all Churches whether under the Law of Moses or under the Gospel of grace, especially in flourishing times, namely a clear and fervent confession and profession of the mercies and graces of our God with thanksgiving and exultation, which as it is in the congregation to be solemnly performed with the voice, and that lifted up viz. with singing, so that it may be advanced to the highest strain of joy, it must, or at least with conveniency may, have the help of instrumental music which may make a sound and lift up their voice with joy. So if in the Christian Church, where the vail is withdrawn, and the mysteries and mercies of God the Father in his beloved appear more clearly and gloriously, there be no less cause of holy joy (nay unspeakable and glorious, 1. Pet. 1. 8.) why should not this our joy break forth into the like manifestation, and that the best manifesting and enhaunsing thereof, is by music, and that even instrumental, the spirit of God beareth record, as I have noted. And verily if the employment of instruments in the judaical Temple maketh them merely ceremonial, and debarreth the Christian Church of all such use of the like in that kind; why doth not the same reason banish also all use of singing in our Churches, because David instituted singers for the Temple? for as yet I could never here any direct and sufficient proof, why the one should have a moral and perpetual use, and the other only a ceremonial signification. Thirdly, as for the time of grace if sacred music were only a cloud and typical shadow, it should then have vanished when the body came and the most glorious morning star appeared. But we find that even this bright star, when it first began to appear in the earthly Horizon, chose for the blazing forth the beams of his majesty aboveall creatures, or means in heaven or earth, a troop of invisible, yet audible Choristers: who descending from the Temple of the celcstiall jerusalem, Luk. 2. 13. praised God and cheered up man with a short Christmas carol, but of a most sweet and mysterious ditty; which all Christians delight to here still sounding in their ears and hearts, nay the very Angels themselves desire to behold & understand. The same our Saviour, as he coming into the world would be saluted with music, so even with that mouth whence dropped the like honey, the words of grace and life: he vouchsafed to honour that exercise in the end of his last supper, he and his Apostles went to Mount Olive singing an Hymn. Neither after this our bridegroom was taken away Mat. 26. 30. did the children of the bride-chamber, let fall their parts in spiritual songs, but both practised and exhorted to the continuance of this enkindling of zeal and piety. Ephes. 5. 19 Colos. 3. 16. An express injunction for Psalms, Hymns, and spiritual Songs, and making melody. Which use to have continued in the primitive Church, not only Tertullian and other ancient Christians, but even the Ethnic, Plinny in his Epistle to Trajan the Emperor doth testify, Christo cuidam Deo hymnos canentes antelucanes: But here may be, and indeed is objected, that hymns and songs, used by our Saviour, or his Apostles, or continued in the primitive Church, were only vocal and without all artificial instrument. Whereto that I may shape answer, I doubt not (even granting that their melody was only singing) thence to infer à pari, a firm consequence for the addition of the other kind of music, & to avouch without imputation of a Paradox, that the modulating voice of a man and of an instrument are in this respect eiusdem rationis. For if one look into the nature of sounds, in their general cause they are nothing but reverberations of the air, in their form and relation they are deductions or compositions of proportions in the distances or connexion's of high and low, flat and sharp. So that whatsoever the immediate matter and instrument be whether merely natural as the throat, teeth and tongue, or aritificially 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 composed of pipes or strings with metal or wood, the sound itself, as it melodious or symphoniacal maketh no difference of object, but carrieth the same representation to the ear and judgement of the hearers; To this purpose may I, not unfitly, apply that elegant comparison which Theodoret maketh between the voice Theodoret de providentia lib. 3. of a man and a pair of organs in the parts of each. In man (saith he) the lungs are the bellows, which are moved not with foot or hand but by the muscles of the breast, the teeth and roof of the mouth supply the place of the pipes, the tongue by its nimble motion performeth the office of the Musicians hand for the distinguishing and articulating the sounds. Thus in the vivacity of his rhetoric he seemeth in this comparison to make the protasis or proposition in the artificial, and the reddition in the natural by making man a musical instrument. Then presently follows the same resemblance with the terms inverted to the natural order, where he plainly showeth that art hath herein imitated nature in Citeraes and such like instruments wherein the teeth are represented by the strings, the lips by the frets, the tongue by the quill, the understanding by the hand, which moveth and striketh, or stoppeth high and low, loud and soft, slow and quick in diverse forms. The like comparison is also used by Gregory Nyssen in his learned Treatise De opificio hominis, where he resembleth the use and parts of the flute or fife to the instruments of speech in man. Upon which lively and mutual resemblances as Theodoret calleth man a living organ, and the copy of artificial organs, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. so may I term an organ a singing man made with the hand, or rather a lifeless though not breathless guide of many voicesand parts. But here it will be replied, that all artificial instruments made by man, come far short of this one made by God himself, that none of those how elegant soever and cunningly handled, can possibly make a sound properly articulate, much less significant; and therefore that they are to be excluded out of the service of God, whereto the vocal music may be admitted because significative and understandable. To this may answer be made, first by acknowledging with Theodoret that man being the image of God, in imitating his Creatonr can produce no higher works than such as are but shadows of the works of God. That nature is the model after which art worketh, and that art is but the image or resemblance of nature. And therefore that all the most curious instruments in the world are not comparable with an human voice for suavity and lively expressions, neither is instrumental music to be opposed unto, or compared with vocal, but added as an helper, a wife, or second, or if you will an handmaid thereunto. In which respect I do not hold it to be eiusdem gradus though in general eiusdem rationis: as belonging to the same army, but to be ranged in an inferior squadron: a guest of the sacred feast, but at a lower table. Secondly, as for want of signification, I maintain it that the sound and harmony of Instruments though it be not articulate, yet it is significant; in its own kind I mean and proper element, by gentle steps and sweet inflexions working upon the affections, and expressly nay powerfully speaking to them, even persuading, instructing, nay commanding them, and imprinting in them the characters of virtue and devotion, and containing the seeds of good motions in the inward seat of the mind by the outer part of the senses and passions. Thirdly in vocal music I demand what it is that shall make that lawful and convenient for God's service? Is it the signification of the words? or the melody of the tune and symphony? If the first, then singing is not recommended as it is singing, but rather as saying: and then it were better such psalms or hymns were barely pronounced or read: for so their sense and signification is best understood. If the second, then instrumental music must likewise be admitted, wherein the same sounds for tune and concord of parts are by the same rules of art practised and expressed. But it may be overadded that the music of the voice is passable, as having both these together and performing them with one breath. Most true; and therein is the chief excellency of that gift of God, that in one and the same sound it edifieth both the understanding and the affections. Yet the other which cannot act but one of his properties is not therefore to be condemned or contemned. In physic some ingredients work attrahende by their searching and vigorous quality of attraction, others only adiwando by diffusing the stronger simples, and so helping the operation of them: and without these the other would be less active and profitable. Even so in sacred music the chief vigour of our prayers and adoration cometh from the ditty which worketh immediately upon our understanding, but that is much helped and quickened by adding thereto a proportionable temper of artificial harmony, which shall make it penetrate the deeper into our affections. As the Church militant in the three forenamd estates and several times, so and much more the Church triumphant in eternity, doth out of the Scriptures supply us with proof of the conveniency of setting forth the praise of God with melodious harmony. For when in reading the Scriptures I view that little (yet sufficient for our knowlepge) which God hath revealed concerning the state of the blessed Angels & Saints in heaven, me thinks it must needs be great rashness, to condemn that as superstitious or superfluous, if imitated here on earth, which the spirit of God testifieth to be the endless employment of those that see God face to face in heaven. Is not the jerusalem which is above the mother of us all, into whose bosom we hope to be gathered? Is it not that which we hope and groan for in the vale of this flesh to become once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like to the Angels? Is it not that which we daily pray for, that Gods will may be done on earth as it is in heaven? why then may we not, why ought we not even now to imitate the work of the Angels in their adoring the most High, and as far as we can perform that in our Churches (the type of the everlasting Temple) which we shall, when we are hereafter clothed with immortality, intent in heaven perpetually? If we will open the book of God (the very window of heaven) we shall there see & hear the blessed Seraphins thus blessing and adoring him that sitteth on an high throne, crying to one another & saying, Isai. 6. 3. Holy, holy, holy Lord of hosts. The whole world is full of his glory. If we look in further we may see the four Evangelists figured out by the four beasts full of eyes, encompassing the throne & without ceasing day and night singing the like Antiphone Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty Apoc. 4 8. which was, and which is, and which is to come. If we will yet view to the utmost end, we may behold God's champions after their conquest over the beast holding in their hand as banners of that victory displayed more audibly then visibly the haps of God, The melody of which instruments they do animate by singing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great Apoc. 15. 2. and marvelous are thy works Lord God Almighty etc. Apo. 19 6. The voice of a great multitude as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of strong thunderings, saying, Halleluiah, verse 3. And again they said Halleluiah. Lo here we have plainly represented unto us not only singing and that by repetition again & again, but interchangeable chanting in the Seraphins in that they are said to cry one to another holy, holy, holy, which three sacred words the emblem of the ever-blessed Trinity, when I hear in the Te Deum in the vulgar tongue with a point of majestical correspondence gravely and reverently sung in the Cathedral Churches of England, how others are affected I know not, but for myself me thinks the very Celestial Temple of God is brought down among us, or we in these bodies rapt up among the Seraphims, and bearing parts in the Quyre of heavenly soldiers. More over, unto such vocal singing here is distinctly added the other help of adoring and adorning the heavenly Majesty by instrumental harmony, the haps, and they honoured with an attribute, even the haps of God, so styled either in regard of the subject to whose praise they are used, or of the Author by whose gift that and the like blessings are afforded to the best of the creatures, both ways designing one and the same fountain God. I will not here (lest I should lose myself) intrude into the search of hidden secrets treasured up in heaven, how and in what sense Angels and blessed Saints in heaven are to be understood to sing before the throne of the Almighty: whether this be in the Scripture described in a sensible form only for our capacity, but to be interpreted in a spiritual and allegorical allusion; surely if the substance of Angels and souls of men be not merely incorporal, it is not absurd to maintain that they may immediately ex iunatis principijs & similitudine substantiae in the most pure body or space of the heaven of heavens the seat of the blessed, both raise such real and corporeal voices, & also be affected with the sweet harmony and proportions of such sounds. And when after the resurrection, the souls of the faithful shall be clothed again with their bodies, it is not amiss to think that the body shall partake with the soul as of fullness of joy, so of the act and exercise of perpetual adoration. And as our natural eyes shall then really and corporally behold the most beautiful object of our saviours glorified humanity, oculis meis videbo Redemptorem meum, saith job; so it is not against the analogy of faith to think that our tongues and mouths may then employ themselves in endless vocal hymns and songs of thanksgiving, of glory and worship to him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb who by his blood hath redeemed us out of every kindred, and tongue, & people, and nation, and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God his Father. And sithence I have been comforted from probable, sweet, and reverend contemplations of the more learned, to think that some sympathy may be betwixt the musical Harmony and the Angelical nature, it maketh me to presume a little upon these following speeches, to dispute whether there may not also be a secret antipathy and enmity natural betwixt Music and wicked Spirits. The reason of which when we begin to consider, we find it more sublime and remote from our sensible capacity, then to search the causes of these other things, which evil spirits are also thought to abhor: and therefore it doth argue, that Music is a thing supernatural and heavenly. We read that the Devils do mightily hate the presence of fire, of salt, and of Music, the fire because it is life and light, and Satan is the Prince of darkness, and delighteth in darkness; the salt because it hath a virtue to purge corruption, it is the mark of eternity, and he seeketh by all means to corrupt, defile, and destroy, which is the reason why God commanded in the old Law to put salt upon the Table of his Sanctuary, and to have Salt specially in the sacrifice, forbidding by the contrary to put honey or wine therein, to signify that we must offer the sacrifice of our prayers to God with sobriety and prudence, not mixed with flatteries, or bold speeches. God saith in the Law, I shall make with you a covenant of Salt, that is of perpetuity, as many are of opinion, that the changing of the wife of Lot into a pillar of Salt, was, as to say, a perpetual Statue, but when we come to seek the cause why the Music is fled of the Devil, we find it more subtle, if the opinion were true of the Academics, who say that the Devils be not only bodily but elementary, mid-creatures betwixt visible Arist: Metaph: 4. and invisible bodies, animalia scilicet corpore aëria mente rationalia, animo passiva, tempore aeterna. Then might we be induced without running to other mysteries, to acknowledge some reason why they cannot abide the melody of Music, nor no delectable suffumigations, by that which is read of the exorcisms of Solomon, and of the smoke of the fish of Tobia, but the difficulty to know the demoniac nature & substance maketh this contemplation remoter. S. August: saith in his last chap: of the 3. de Trinit: that the Devils are corporal, as Basil, Gregor: Epiph: say as much, whereon this sort of demonstration is founded. There is but one infinite substance, the supreme essence, a substance cannot be finite, but by extremities of superficies, and that doth only belong to corporal things, and therefore those spirits must be corporal because they are finite. Always the more common opinion of theology is, as of Damasc: Greg. Nazianz: Thomas Aquinas, and of the Master of the Sentences, that the Angels and the Devils be forms both pure, and simple, and that both can form themselves in visible bodies, when they would effect any thing bodily, which is testified of the Angels by their apparitions to Abraham, to jacob, to Moses, to Eliah, to Abatuck. Of the Devils again testified by experience inquestionable, of the aquilonar Succubuses and Incubi, testified by the Cabalists, who affirm that unclean spirits do often take the shapes of Bucks, stoned Horses, and such like creatures replete with bestial luxury, whereupon, say they, proceedeth that in Leviticus, that you go not to sacrifice to those Bucks and satires; and that in Esay of the destruction of Babel, Zijm shall lodge there, and their streets shall be full of O him: satires shall dance there, and ●…im shall cry into their Palaces. Testified again by many places of holy Scripture, the Devil spoke bodily to Adam, to Christ. He took the person of Samuel, albeit that justin: Martyr, and many of the Hebrew Doctor's reason that it was Samuel himself, as well because of that Text of Ecclesiasticus, where it is said that Samuel did prophesy after his death, as because of the answer given to Saul, which seemeth to be full of piety, pronouncing the name of GOD six or seven times, holding that Saul was not condemned eternally as they think, but in the estate of that incestuous man, who was ordained by S. Paul to be excommunicate, to the end his body being chastened, his soul might be saved. Yet S. Augustine and the best Divines stand for it that it was Satan and not Samuel, which no doubt is the only sound opinion; Scotus subtilis in the second book of his Sentences saith, that the Angels assumed bodies not to be joined or united with them hypostatically, but to move them and use them as instruments, much more than saith he, the Devils can assume bodies because they are more elementary, as they do change themselves in bodies, so from this same ground it is affirmed that they can also change bodies. For three things we observe in God's works, Creation, which is only proper unto himself, to make of no thing by the power of his word; Generation, which he hath allowed to his Creatures themselves, by a natural instinct and appetite of succession to have a power of generation; and lastly, Transmutation, whereof he hath given power unto Stars and to the Spirits, as saith Them: de Aquin: Omnes Angeli boni & mali habent ex virtute naturali potestatem transmutandi corpora nostra. All the Angels, good and bad, have by a natural instinct power to change our bodies; we see how the Sorcerers of Pharaoh did counterfeit the miracles of Moses. job saith there is no power on earth like unto that of Satan, which proves that the actions of the evil Spirits are actions indeed but extraordinarily, so that we must not think them illusions, or prestigitations of our eyes. Augustine chap: 9 of the third book de Trinitate, saith thus: Mali Angelipro subtilitate sui sensus in occultioribus elementorum seminibus norunt, unde rana & serpents nascuntur & hac per certas temperationum opportunitates occultis motibus adhibendo faciunt creari. The wicked Angels by their subtle sense and knowledge of the secret seeds of nature, know by what means the Frogs and Serpents are made, and by using of certain tymous temperations they can accelerate their Creation. Again they have power of transportation, whereupon some follow the ignorant Viretus, who holdeth it a fortitude of imagination in melancholious women, who apprehend they be carried with the devil, albeit antiquity hath esteemed it for a true ground, that seldom doth a woman die of melancholy, or a man of excessive joy: for melancholy proceedeth of to much heat and dryness, and breedeth wisdom as Galen saith in his Book De atra Bile, to neither of which two is a woman subject, being of nature humid, cold, and passive, and therefore not wise, as Solomon, among a thousand men one, among women none. Besides that the Septentrinall people with whom the unclean spirits are said to be most familiar, they have as little melancholy as those have of phlegm, who dwell in Africa, which showeth the levity and weakness of this opinion of Viret: Always there be two sorts of transportations, one in body and spirit, the other in abstraction only of the spirit, as to say Ezekiel was rapt in his spirit from Babel to jerusalem, it might be in spirit or in body. The Hebrew Doctors hold in their remote Theology, that the Angels make oblation to God of the souls of his Saints, who become dead by way of this abstraction, alleging for it this passage of the 116. Psalm, Speciosa in conspectu Dominimors sanctorum suorum, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints, but to deny that transportation which is both in body and spirit, were to deny the Scripture, Eliah, Enoch, Abacuk, were transported, and in the Evangelists, our Saviour corporally transported by Satan, to the pinnacle of the Temple, and after upon a mountain: The best Theologes hold, that Habacucke was indeed soul and body transported, and so Saint Philip the Apostle, whereupon Thomas Aquinas reasoneth thus: If it be possible in one, it is also possible in more: and in like manner, both he, and Durand Herne, & S. Bonaventure do make this argument. If Satan can abstract the spirit from the body, much more can he transport both, because the separation is more miraculous of the two, and is next unto the verity of God's word, the strongest argument we have for the immortality of the soul, and an argument subjecteth to reason; For saith Aristotle in his ninth book De Animalibus, if the soul can do any thing without the body, than it should be immortal, always this Aphairisis, Exstasis, or ablation of the soul, is a thing most undoubtable: the Scripture approveth it in divers places, specially in the persons of Saint P. aul and Saint john, the greatest Philosophers have acknowledged it, Plato, and Socrates did call the body, Antrum animae: the caverne of the soul, the chiefest Sorcerers who know it by experience have acknowledged it, Zoreaster did call the body the sepulchre of the spirit, and the great Orpheus did call it the prison of the soul, and to reason even naturally, we see that local motion can be some times without touching of bodies, but only by virtue of the agent, as the sea is moved by the moon, which is distant from it more, than 50000. Leagues, and the Iron is drawn to move by Magnes or the Loadstone, without any touching, which being so in things so insensible and Inanimal as Iron, much more it may be in things not only animal: but who have their greatest force and vigour in that local abstraction, as our souls be most Galliard, when they be most remote from the body: And for this point of Satan's power to transport, I say, that while that Cherubin which moves the eight Sphere, wherein there fixed stars, doth role it Millions of miles in one hour: what matter is there of admiration, if Satan can transport a body some few miles upon the earth. Lastly, there is the commerce or copulation of good and bad spirits with men and women, and whether it be really, locally, or per exsta●…n, experience doth commonly teach us, that sundry things which we may call spiritual (because they are invisible and intouchable) do take really possession of our bodies, as the passion of love, which entering by the subtle spirits of the eyes, doth wound the heart, corrupt the blood, weaken the vital faculties, and sometimes spoil the life; yea, the vehemency of love towards God, hath oftentimes hereby wrought as much in his best Saints. Again, the plague of pestilence, and such cotagious things do enter in a man's body in a spiritual sort to possess it. The Scripture doth testify this real, and local copulation of good spirits with good men; our bodies are said to be the Temples of the holy Ghost: Our Saviour hath said that the father and he would dwell in him, who obey his will. The Prophet Ezekiel speaking of his vocation by God, to preach to the jews, I fell down said he upon my face, and the spirit which entered in me, did raise me up, and set me on foot. In like sort, of evil spirits, the evil spirit of the Lord is said to enter into Saul really, and the spirit of Satan into judas, and our Saviour did eject divers real and sensible devils, because their voices were heard: The odds and distinction of these in my opinion is this, the good spirits hath more celestial and subtle bodies, and so their possession of men and copulation with them being more spiritual than others: It is also more perceived by the actions of our spirit, then by any change of our bodies: whereas Demons, as Saint August in his tenth Book De civitate Det, Thomas Aquinus in Summa 2. Questi. 95. Origen in his book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, do affirm, that they be mere corporal, so that Arist. Plato and divers Philosophers who divided them in aereal, terrestrial, and subterrestrial spirits; they hold that the two inferior species of them be in some sort gross and elementary, more removed from the celestial intelligences of the supreme world, and therefore given to a wicked commerce with men and women, by all sorts of deceitful and impious suggestions, whose copulations are both bodily, palpable, and visible, possessing the bodies specially of women, as gross filthy and contagious vapours, breeding inflammation visible in the hearts and breasts, moving, swelling, and dumbness in the tongue, depriving the organicke faculties of hearing, seeing and such like, as daily experience doth teach: Neither let any man imagine the carnal copulation of the evil spirits with women to be a thing extaticke or fantastic, that enemy spirit of whom the Prophet saith, Ad conterendum erit cor eius & ad internecionem gentium non paucarum: whose heart shall be bend for the overthrow Isa, 20. and destruction of many nations and people, he delighteth to defile or extinguish the seed of man even in the mother's womb: so far that the profound naturalist Paracelsus affirmeth, that those gross and unclean spirits of devils do mix themselves with human feed, where it is lost, by natural weakness, or nocturnal dreams, that they do cooperate with it to produce thereby those succumbent, or incumbent spirits, devils, which are found chiefly in the moystie and Northern Regions: To which abomination it seemeth the law of God hath some relation, where it is said, that all these who should couple themselves with the devil Peor should perish wickedly, and who will mark these places in Exod. Leuit. Deut. Where sorcery and brutal Paliardise or luxury is forbidden, will find uncouth and unknown villainies covertly touched, as there where it is said you shall not present to God the wages of a harlot, nor the price of a dog, and again where God doth say: you shall no more sacrifice unto those Bucks and Satyrs after whom you went a whoring: which I do not here introduce impertinently nor curiously, but that we may learn to reverence whatsoever means the Lord hath appointed for us to withstand the malice of Satan, which is so dangerous for two respects. First, because of his craft and skilfulness, who can change himself into what creatures he will, change creatures in what form he will, can transport our spirits and bodies, can enter to possess them, can counterfeit creatures like to ourselves by his wicked abusing of human seed: again, his malice is dangerous by reason of the multitude of seditious spirits, who he doth command, so far, that some allege that every man hath his good and evil Daemon, which for my part I will not affirm, it is enough that the Scripture maketh mention of diverse devils who have practised diverse wickedness: Isa. 12. jerem. 50. Ezech. 9 Gen. 49. Some are called by Esay, Vasa furoris, the vessel of fury: Some by jeremy, the vessels of wrath, some by Ezechiel, vasa interfectionis, the vessels of murder, some by Moses, the vessels of iniquity: some of them have airy bodies and power in that Element, as those four which had the winds in their hands, Quibus datum est nocere mari & terrae, to whom it was given to trouble the earth and the seas, by gendering of pestilence, and destroying thunders, as that of job, which suddenly threw down his house, which sort of airy devils, is said to invade the intellectual spirits of men, to seduce them to Heresy, or ambitious faction in State, and of this kind he is esteemed the Prince who is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or exterminans: others again that be more earthly do traffic with base sorceries, as those who taught the enchanters of Pharaoh: unto all which the Lord hath opposed millions of good Angels to govern his works, and to presidiate and guard the Saints, & so many to rule the spheres Celestial,, which we may perceive by Ezechiel, and in the sixty eight Psalm, where it is said, the Chariots of the Lord are 20000. Angels, and he is among them as in the sanctuary of Zion: whereupon the Chaldean interpreters say, that there be so many principal lights in heaven, and as many Angels to govern them, and Leo Hebreus hath written in his second Book, that the eight heaven, or primum mobile, which maketh his couse in twenty four hours, is moved by a Cherubin with such miracolous swiftness, that every moment's motion ariseth to more than a million of miles. And of the Angelic care of the Saints of God on earth, the Scriptures are full of testimonies, that which guarded the Israelites coming from Egypt, that which wrestled with jacob and blessed him, that Ceraphin which purged the lips of Esay and made him eloquent, that Raphael whose presence Asmodeus cannot abide, those Angels who carried Lazarus into the bosom of Abraham, that which delivered S. Peter out of prison, that which went with Azariah into the furnace, and made him think the flames a soft dew, and so forth. The Lord God doth not only furnish us with spiritual arms against Satan: as by the power of his Angels, by the force of his word, and by our faith in Christ: but he hath taught us some familiar things which they cannot endure in nature as is thought; as the fire, whose presence doth terrify him by a mysterious antipathy, as the presence of the Wolf astonisheth a Sheep, because God who is his enemy is a fire, a lamp, a light of glory and power to the godly; a fire of love, mercy and goodness, and to the wicked a consuming fire of wrath and vengeance: and as by a natural strife the voice of a tyrannous Schoolmaster, doth affray a wayward child, so doth the sound of musical instruments, accompanied with the praises of God, afflict and terrify the devil by a natural Antipathy, wherewith God hath endued them. Again, the harmony of music doth by a natural sympathy collect, and unite the distracted powers of our weak minds to greater strength and devotion, and is quasi vehiculum the conduct of devotion. We read of the Prophet Elisha; who being for scent to prophesy the issue of the battle, he would not do it until he first caused to sound up an instrument of music, and then he fell into his prophesy: we read likewise that when Samuel had consecrated king Saul: God (said he to him) to the Mountain and thou shalt find a company of Prophets who sound instruments and prophesy, thou shalt enter among them, and the spirit of God shall come upon thee there, and thou shalt be changed into another man: the reason of this natural antipathy betwixt Music and the Devil is, because it is a divine thing which draweth the spirit to harmony, concord, love, and heavenly contemplation, and the constitution of his nature is contrary to these, to be seditious, discordant, and implacable. This whole Fabric of the world is nothing else but a musical order of God's works, they stand as the Scripture saith, in numero, pendere & mensura, by number, weight, and measure. All the creatures are but a music, every one having in their kinds, their Supreme or Alt, their Counter Base, and their Tenor, to show it in few examples. Among the Planets, the austerity of Saturn, and the rigour of Mars are tempered, and tied together with the serenity of jupiter, as among the Elements, the repugnance of the fire and water are kept in concordance, by the promiscuall qualities of the air, and speaking of the inteligentiall world, the Angels are a mediate creature betwixt the divine Essence and man: man is a mid couple betwixt good and evil spirits, the Ape betwixt man and fourfooted beasts, the Niriades & Tritoves, which be not things fabulous betwixt men and fishes. The Hermaphrodite betwixt man and woman, the Mandrake betwixt man and plants, betwixt the fruits of the earth, and things which grow within her bowels, there are fruits and corns petrified, that is to say naturally shapen in stones, betwixt the earth and the stone Argillum, is amid couple, betwixt earth and metals the Marcazitae are neither of them, but a mediate thing, so that, as that divine Philosopher, jesus the son of Syrac, hath observed in his Book of Ecclesiasticus, there is first a common antithesis and contradiction in all the works of God, Omnes via Domini secundum dispositionem sapientiae suae: Duo contra unum, unum contra unum: contra malum, bonum, contra vitam mors, contra virum justum peccator, & sic intuere in omnia opera altissimi, saith the Scripture in that place; All the ways of God according to the disposition of his own wisdom, two against one, one against one, good against evil, life against Death, the just man against the reprobate, and so look into all the works of the most high, saith he, which in effect is so true, that there is nothing in the world which can fall into our imagination wanting this contrariety, but God again hath made a concordance in all by this divine Music, not only in natural substances, but in their qualities and accidents, yea in time itself. Summer and Winter be contrary, but by the harmony of the spring time they are conjoined: black and white contrary do meet in mediate colours, heat and cold again contrary agree in tepidity, swift and slow do meet in a temperate motion; the austerity of Hannibal, and the meekness of Fabius agree in mid constitutions: In end, there is nothing which wanteth this sweet combination and harmony, except Satan and his following spirits, betwixt whom and God, betwixt whom and his Saints, betwixt whom & goodness, peace, concord, love, and unity, there is no knot nor ever shall be: but being of their proper corruption enemies to God and nature, rebellious, factious, malicious spirits of discordance, and distraction, they do naturally abhor the sound of Harmony and Music. So that for that point of union with the Church of England, which standeth in the restitution of the Organs, I think this will suffice apparently to persuade any well disposed and judicious man, who hath not his brain set in Symbalis m●…le sonantibus, as I have said before. Now I come to the ceremony of the clerical habit which is in the Church of England, & forbearing to reason Of clerical vestments. in general of the expediency and good and necessary use of grave and Majestic ceremonies in the public actions of state and civil governments, without which it were not so easy to procure and maintain popular reverence to any authority whatsoever, and which be a true edification in God's Church, if not of our understanding, yet of our affections, when out dull and secure minds are stirred up to a greater measure of reverence and devotion, through beholding the exterior Majesty of Religious Ceremonies; only for the Church Minister his habit in particular I will deliver my opinion in sobriety thus. There was never any age in the world which did not distinguish counsellors and State-rulers from the people, and the religious professors from the Laity, by their robes peculiar to themselves, as God we see himself did institute Aaron. Therefore now, while Christian Pastors be more truly venerable and reveuerent, because their function holdeth nothing of types but is perfect, to say that they should not have an honourable and comely apparel proper to them, and not permitted to be carried of others, it is merely idle and absurd. That he who is sequestered from the ordinary civil vocations in the world and consecrated to God, who is the intercessor and ambassador of the people unto the throne of grace, to offer out spiritual sacrifice, to be secret and in a sort familiar with God, that such a sacred person, place and calling should not be clothed with external marked of sanctity and holy profession, which marks ought not to be assumed by civil men, I do persuade myself that no man will affirm it. Which ground breing true in the general, to come to a special consideration of the Church-vestiment and to a comparison betwixt the white surplis and the black gown, I would say the eullours be either in different or not indifferent, if they be indifferent, then there is no great matter of debate, but for unities sake, we ought rather to embrace that which our neighbour Church have received from orthodoxal antiquity, then that they ought for our sake, to follow that which is more late; If they be not indifferent, than the minister ought to carry that colour, which of the two is most suitable to his person, but I subsume that the white is most suitable in his person, therefore it is most fitting that he be clothed therewith, my assumption I take to be true for these reasons, the white is most decent, most ancient, and most useful in the Church. For the first the decency of Apparel standeth in two points, one is in that which doth most vively represent to our minds the nature of a man's calling, his degree or age, as the readdish colour doth fit a soldier, and the black a schoolman and such like, another is in that which doth best distinguish a particular professor from all others of different callings, the first of the two doth note a man himself in his own property, the second doth note the discrepance of other men from him: For distinction of several professors, we must confess the white is more decent for a Pastor, because the black gown is common to the Physician, to the Lawyer, the Schoolman and the Preacher, and is not forbidden to any whosoever: And for noting the discrepance of the properties of our professions, the white is much more significant of Pastoral function than the black as I shall show hereafter. For the second touching antiquity, the white is ancient in the Church, S. Chrysost. maketh mention of it in his time, speaking of the gravity of the administration of the Sacraments, Hom. ad pop. Antioch. 60. for if (saith he to the priests) a beast whose mouth were polluted with filthiness should come to drink in a clear fountain whereof ye had use or benefit, ye would not suffer him to lay down his mouth, and why will ye suffer those who be defiled with odious and abominable vices to put down their mouths in the pure fountain of Christ's blood, Hac vestra dignitas (saith he) hac securitas, haec omnis corona, non quod albam & splendentem tunicam induti circumeatis, In your conscientious distribution of the holy Sacrament, is your dignity, your security, and the crown of your glory more than in that white and splendid Coat which ye carry in the administration of them, as if one should say to a scholar graduate in the university, your honour & reputation which you have abroad, lieth not so much in the gown, or hood, or scarlet robe which you wear, as in the learning & endowment which ye show in your disputations and writings, so as from such speech may be gathered; that in the universities such habits are used for distinction and ornament in degrees of school, even so it is clearly seen by those words of Chrisostome, that the Church service in his time and before him hath been adorned with such vestments; And Saint Hierom, Coutra Pelag. against those who in his time did despise the white clerical vestments, what a madness (saith he) is that to count it enmity with God, if a Bishop, Presbyter, or Deacon, go clothed in their comely white robe in the service of God. For the third, that the white is more useful, it appeareth this way, speaking of a pastoral habit the white hath a more easy open & understandble interpretation then the black: The black we know is a mourning habit, where as the white representeth joyfulness, and therefore is most proper to him who bringeth the glad tidings of the Gospel, while as their is a sympathy between his colours and his commission: We do find in the Scripture often mention of white for a sacred and holy apparel, but never of the black, if the Angels of God, who be his heavenly Ministers have appeared before men in their ministration clothed in white, to say that those who be sacred ministers of the mysteries of God's Church here upon earth, cannot find more divine shapes or colours to appear in before the world, it is an interpretation not extorted, but plain and sensibly offered out of the nature of the thing itself. And as it is necessarily required, in special above the rest, in the Minister, that when he uttereth to God the public prayers of the Church, to which they do resound their Amen, and administereth the holy Sacraments, that then he must come with forethought and foresought purity of soul and body, both free from other studies, and other actions, which at other times were not to be blamed, is it not expedient also, that with his inward sanctity, he shall bring an exterior show thereof, to purchase the greater reverence of the people, and to season their minds with holy apprehensions, and with present desires to consort inwardly in their hearts with that visible habit of purity and integrity which they do contemplate in his person. Wherefore it was a custom in the primitive Church, as we may read in many of the Fathers, that all those, who being Catechumeni presented themselves to Baptism, should be arrayed in white, whereupon this title hath grown of Dominica in albis, white-sunday, wherein we may consider the judgement of the purer age of the Church, who thought it expedient, that by the inward candour and integrity, which the concurring grace of God, the soul and the whole person of the baptised did receive being dipped and drenched in the lavar of regeneration, should be not only infixed by faith in the inward apprehension of the mind of the receiver, but also testified by that public and pure mark of whiteness unto others their spectators, and brethren partakers formerly of the same new birth; whereby we see, what extent the authority and judgement of the guides and governors in God's Church hath, in things, though not enacted nor imposed by the writings or constitutions of the Apostles, yet afterward thought expedient, for the better edifying and furnishing the people of God, in external, and in a sort ceremonial additaments, which of themselves, being not superstitious, but having a holy, sober, and wholesome use of instruction, and reverence in the sacred duties of the church (though perhaps not only afterward, but even then, they might by some private misinterpretation of superstitious and ignorant men be abused) were by the most and best, instituted, maintained, and retained, being indeed not to be abrogated but by the same hand which set them up. But to prosecute my argument for the white vestiment of the Pastor, in showing how it is useful and properly significant, I say all the varieties of Aaron's rob were contrived by intermixing a fine white linen, as you may read. Whensoever mention is made of Christ clothed, it is either in glory and light, or in white linen; Induit enim stola gloriae, amictus erat lumine sicut vestiment●…, Ezech: 9 when Commission was given to fix destroying Angels against jerusalem, the man who stood in the midst having power to save the Saints, who wept for jerusalem (no doubt jesus Christ) he was clothed in white Linen. It is clearly said of Christ, Bissus & purpura indumentum eius, white linen and purple, even so it is said in the Apocalyps of the Church, Mulier illa amicta erat purpura & Bysso, that woman was clothed with purple and white linen. The white linen doth represent purity and innocency, therefore it is said in the Apocalyps, Byssinum sunt instificationes Sanctorum, the justification of the Saints is as white and fine linen pure and Apoc: 18. 19 perfect, so that if any man will say that the rob of Aaron was altogether a jewish type, and that clerical vestments are of no respect after the coming of Christ, I think it idle, that Candlestick of the Ark which was clothed with the Hyacinth and celestial colour, likely might be a Type which is abolished, or what did carry the scarlet and reddish colour in that rob, it may be holden expired, because it did figure the passion which is performed; or in like manner, what was particoloured, as joseph who always figured Christ, he was a Type also by reason of his coat sprinkled with blood, as it is in Ezechiel, sumpsisti vestiment a multicoloria; and again, Quare vestimentum tuum rubrum est? you have chosen Ezech: 16. a rob which is particoloured. what meaneth it thy garments are red? Certes, as these colours were figurative, so are they expired, joseph hath changed his Coat. The text of Genesis saith, mutaverunt vestes eius & ipsum induerunt Bisso, Pharaoh commanded to change his garments and to cloth him in fine white linen, and Christ hath also changed his garments into mere whiteness and justification, as I have said, and his Church hath changed her garments into white, Bissus indumentum eius, & mulier illa amicta erat Bisso. And therefore hath the Wiseman said in Ecclesiast: omni tempore sint vestimenta Eccles: 9 tua candida: so that nothing can be so fitting for a Priestly and Pastoral habit, as the the garment of Christ himself, and of his Church in the holy Scripture. In which respects it seems that we are to reverence antiquity, and to think that not without grave causes they have brought in that Ceremony into Christ's Church, and left it unto us. For whether it was derived from the jewish Church or no, I do not dispute, but who would not say that the Levitical vestments were rather things depending from the policy, then figurative Ceremonies expiring in the exhibition of Christ. I would ask him of those Pomgrannets & Bells which were tied to the fringe of Aaron's rob, to signify that in Priestly actions there should be continually a good smell, and from their mouths a perpetual sound of piety in our ears, and of those twelve gems planted upon the breast plate of Aaron with a Diamond in the midst, which was the most principal, conspicuous, and precious part of the rob, what these did figure in his person, which is not yet most proper and convenient to be figured by vestments in the person of a Christian Prelate, whereupon Epiphanius Archbishop of Cyprus, and after him S. jerom have made these observations, upon these texts of Exod: & Levit The Gems first being excellent things of rare constitution do note the dignity of the priestly Function. Secondly, they signify the doctrine and christian virtues which should be in him who carrieth that dignity, that even as those gems have their secret and miraculous operations, so should Prelates and Priests by the secret inspiration of God's spirit, be able to work in people miraculous and extraordinary effects of God's fear and obedience. Thirdly, as these Gems are full in our eyes, of a celestial beauty and splendour, so should the carriage of religious men shine in our eyes, for a clear mirror and example, that when we look into it we may by the light thereof discern our own blots and darkness. Fourthly, as the gems have divine and admirable forms but small matter, and that a substance more celestial than earthly, as we see. Even so Prelates and Priests ought not to be so earthly as other men are, drowned in mortal passions, spotted with ambition, pride, and avarice, defiled with lust or other fleshly concupiscences, whereunto the greatest part of men are obnoxious, but they should all consist of spiritual forms, and of the purity of exemplary sincerity, like unto Angelical and divine creatures. Fifthly, as the gems have simpathising qualities with the spirit of man, in a sort, as if they were animal creatures, that they will not only change their proprieties and colours, at any great chance which happeneth unto men, but they presege and forewarn our capital dangers, they redeem us from them, as it were by giving themselves for our ransom, they cannot endure that by brutish luxury we should be turned into beasts, things which neither Theology, nor Philosophy make doubt of, as being approved by daily experience. The Coral being carried by diseased persons changeth the colour to better or worse, according to the change of their disease. The Turquine in great peril of man's life bursteth in pieces. The Diamond hath a virtue to encourage the heart against fear or doubts, The Saphir to stir up the mind to devotion, wherefore it is usually carried by Prelates and religious men, as we see, the Smerald to banish the spirit of lust, & to temper that affection in men, whereunto it is opposed by a secret antipathy, that Albertus writes how a king of Hungary who delighted greatly in a rare stone of this kind, one night after he had committed some act of abominable lust, he found it broken in three pieces: and of Nero who took such pleasure in the Smerald, that it was called the jewel of Nero, carrying upon his thumb one of huge quantity, form in table, wherein he did from his Palace see the Amphitheatrall sports, as if he had been there, and with which he did solace and help his sore eyes, a thing proper also to that stone, another night in like sort after some beastly pollution of his body, he found his jewel rend in pieces: Even so Prelates and Priests, who have the charge of men's souls, they are not only to sympathize with them, by feeling of their miseries, changing from joy to sorrow for their iniquities, and from sorrow again to joyfulness for their conversion: like unto Coral, they are not only to supply the place of the Diamond, to inspire into their hearts a courage and constancy in faith, the place of the Saphir to endue them with piety and devotion, the place of the Smerald to cleanse them from the filthiness: but if need be, they must take the place of the Turquine to give their lives for their flock, like unto Moses, who for that people's sake, wished to be raised out of the book of life, like unto Saint Paul, who wished to be made Anathema, for his flock, and like unto the glorious Martyrs in the Primitive Church, and as S. Augustine saith upon the 86. Psalm, By these twelve Gems in the apocalypse, is meant the Church of Christ, founded upon the twelve Apostles, and by that royal infrangible Diamond which is in the midst, the eternal stability of the Throne of Christ, which so oft as it hath been seen by the transported spirits of the Prophets and Apostles, it appeared in their eyes as these fiery and celestial jewels; So that seeing the chief doctors of the Church have so interpreted the breastplate of Aaron, we must not think that all the ceremonies of his Priestly habit did necessarily expire in the coming of Christ. Now if we will say that the Brazen serpent must be broken powder, the white Surplis is daily abused to Idolatry in the Papal Church: and therefore it ought to be abolished, certain if the case were alike, the argument is good, but it is much different: First, the brazen Serpent was the proper and only object of the Idolatry committed by the jews, putting a kind of Deity in that Serpent, but in the Pope's Mass, howsoever polluted with divers superstitions and idolatries; the idolatrous actions therein are not terminated upon, or intended to, the garment which the Priest weareth, the Surplis being only one of the accidentary adjuncts, which, as it were upon the by, do for external ornament, and for the proper and significant representation, accompany that action, even as there were tied to the end of Aaron's robe, Pomegranates & bells, as I have shown before. And as it was never hard, that any spectator of the Mass did adore the Surplis, worn by the Priest, so I think none of the most superstitions worshippers of those incarnate wafers, did ever dream the supposed transubstantiation to be wrought by the virtue of any operative holiness inherent in that vestiment. Secondly, if whatsoever kind of attire (of distinction) was then worn by the Priest in Massing, must be utterly abandoned, as polluted with idolatry: what warrant hath any Minister of the Gospel in Divine Service to wear a black gown, while as Priests do wear such under their Surplices, not wholly covered, but appearing commonly beneath the skirts thereof, and perhaps such Priests have thought their Mass as unperfit without a gown, as without a Surplice. Thirdly, if we would only repine at such particular and individual Surpl●…ces, as have been blotted with superstitious service, the reason were more suitable and probable; as for example, it were evil done to use for the Sacrament in reformed Churches, that very parcel of bread, which hath been consecrated to be the Hostie of the Mass: yet to take for our use of that same lump, or of that same loaf, before the Papal Consecration thereof, it were no wrong, nor just scandal, so to take exception against the white vestiment of the Church of England, because of the Idolatrous Surplice of the Papal Church it is sophisticate, Ab individuo ad speciem, never a man in the Church of England, will hold that the Surplice is operative, or doth confer holiness▪ but because it is a comely habit, received from antiquity, and found by them in their Churches, most decent, and most significant of any: therefore do they carry it, as also to show their meek and ready obedience to the authority of their Church and laws of their state; nor never a man of true Christian wisdom, who doth abhor it, Eo ipso, because it is in the Church of Rome. Among the Babylonians there were some sacred vessels of the holy Temple, as is said; but alas for pity, many of us do build the wall of our separation from Rome, to such disproportionable height, that if it stand, we shall never return to play the true Christians in weeping for the holy Sanctuary. Such was the simplicity and sweet sympathy of the greatest doctors of antiquity, that they would not condemn any thing received from their forefathers in the Church, except it was repugnant to God's word, yea, they would rather turn away their eyes, then look curiously upon that which might breed unto them a scruple against the peace and quietness of the Church; so were they governed with the spirit of charity: but such is our severity now adays, that we do look upon every circumstance, with the jealous eyes of juno, prying into the smallest shadows of occasions, that are not to our humour, so hath one impetuous and vehement zeal extinguished our love, and too much curiosity drowned our meekness, Confregimus jugum & rupimus vincula, we have broken the bonds of Christian concord and harmony, as is said before. The holy Spirit of charity should work among distracted Christians, like unto that animal spirit of the Magnes, or Loadstone, which although it do banish and chase away Iron by the one end, yet it is mightily attractive by the other: even so although we should abhor the Idolatrous points of the Popish Church, yet by our kindly sympathizing with things, which be without error among them: we should contract and draw them as near unto us as is possible, but all in contrary, the name of Popery is become more odious to some of us, than the name of Paganism: and if we do not love the Turk more than a Papist, perhaps we do less hate him, which is the reason why nothing can content us, but absolute derelinquishment of all and whatsoever is into the Church of Rome concerning the worship of God, yea I do think there be among us, who if they knew how the Pope and his Priests do eat, they would strive to take their meat in an other sort, that they might refuse to him the Communion of nature: But as it were an ignorant part to refuse to eat of delicate and wholesome fruits, because we do not see the root whereof they spring, nor the secret conveys of that moisture which doth nourish them, or to refuse to dwell in splendid and commodious houses, because we do not see the fundamental stones whereupon they were builded, even so, no question, it is an idle and evil part in us, if we do not feed upon the spiritual fruits of the Gospel, peace, love, and unanimity; or if we refuse to dwell in one Ark, because we cannot find to our curiosity all the reasons of the artifice, whereby it hath been builded: do not we contemn the fruits of the Gospel, when by our discrepance in matter of ceremonies, indifferent at least, if not useful, we make the Papist to say that the division of our language doth testify that we are the Giants, who enterprised the Tower of heresy, and when one Pastor doth affirm that his brother within the bowels of one Church and one kingdom doth carry an idolatrous habit in the service of God. yea when a Presbyter doth avouch that his ordinary Bishop is Antichristian, is not that a scandalous opposition within one particular church, like to the twins of Rebecca, who shook each other in their mother's womb, whereby she became mightily afraid and dolorous, for if we do flatter ourselves to think these light differences unworthy the name of separation, we must remember that small sparkles do easily concitate a great flame, chiefly when there be such cunning bellows to set it a fire as the jesuitique practices which be lurking among us, as the remanent of the Canaanites among the people of Israel. And to conclude this point I pray God of his mercy, that this kind of unnecessary distraction, do not make us one day to say as Cyprian did, lamenting the Church persecution for the contentions of his time; These evils (saith he) had not come upon the brethren, if they had been linked together in the brotherly concord. As concerning the rest of the Ceremonies being in the Church of England, certainly they are not of that weight that we need to insist on them. And seeing it hath pleased the Lord to bless these disordered beginnings of our Reformation here in Scotland, by our Reunion with the ancient orthodoxal policy of his Church, why should we not meet this merciful dealing of God by our voluntary acceptation of whatsoever indifferent Ceremony not contrary to God's word, which is in our neighbour Church? yea rather in the bowels of our own Church, according to the opinion of learned and sincere Divines, to the effect that we may remove that the obloquy of our enemies, which we underlie, why should we not be altogether consentient among ourselves, to the effect we may be the more apt out of Christian love, to wish and pray for the general reformation of the holy sanctuary of all Christian people, whereof I will return to speak, because it is the point from whence did flow this particular Interim of our conjunction with the English Church, in indifferent Ceremonies. CHAP. XIII. A brief survey of the States and Princes, which be Catholic Romans and of the possibilities of general Reformation. AND because I know that many good and wise men do hold it a thing merely parodoxall, to reason of the reformation of Rome: As I have already spoken of the means whereby it ought to be, after the true imitation of the refomation, & the restitution of jerusalem in three several conditions, so I will now speak of the likelihood and possibility how they may come to pass. It is true that the Church of Rome will not willingly follow that example of Daniel, to confess before the Lord that her Pope, her Cardinals, her Priests, that both her Consistory and her Cloisters, have declined to fearful Idolatry and abuses, but what? yet no man will imagine but God hath destinate a time for the reformation of so many Churches as have drunken of that cup, he hath hung above her head the sword of his great servant Mahomet, wherewith he hath chastised jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and many other mother Churches, he hath the sword of his omnipotent Word, which hath already wrought admirable effects since the time of Luther: If we shall wish her to be reform by Mahometan●… fury, we shall have no Christian hearts towards her, nor wisdom towards ourselves, if we shall wi●… it to be by the force of the spiritual sword of God's Word, we must wish it to be out of Christian love, and brotherly compassion, otherwise our wishes, our prayers, our preachings are to no effect: exhort in the spirit of meekness and love, saith the Scripture. As Abraham did even perturb God in favour of the Sodomites, that he would pardon that abominable people for the sake of tennemen, if there could be found so many upright before him: there be no doubt, in the Church of Rome thousands of good men, who have never bowed the knees of their hearts to ●…aal, thousands of devout souls who groan under that bondage, languishing for their relief, for whose sake we would be heard, if our prayers were founded upon faith and charity, if it were not that God doth repulse them because they are mutual imprecations, as is said, The Lord hath neglected his holy sanctuary and the pace thereof, he hath suffered his people so long to lie in that captivity of darkness, by reason of all our transgressions. The Catholic Church is that ship, Qua agitatur & fluctuat s●…d non sub●…rgitur, which is tossed still with tempests, but doth not perish, her Pilot can preserve her betwixt Scylla and Cary●…dis: And albeit for our iniquities she is become that ship of the Gospel, which was so dangerously shaken with the raging sea, while the Disciples did awake and Christ himself did sleep, he doth not hear our noise, because we be nor astonished enough at the tempest, because our Christian Doctors on both sides do sit in this ship secure, as ignorant's keepers who know not the place of danger, they have no true zeal to pacification and unity, like to the sons of Zebedeus, striving for the right hand of Christ, seeking every one maliciously to condemn his neighbour, craving mutual destruction and not reformation, which is the reason why our Saviour doth sleep: or if he hear us, he gives us the answer he gave to them, 〈◊〉 quid p●…titis: You know not what you ask. If we were right afraid of the fearful storm, if we did fear the inundations of these waters, which have already overflowed the Christian Churches of the Orient, and if we did cry with these watchful Disciples, Lord we do all perish if we be not strengthened with domestic union. Then jesus Christ no question would awake to pacify the seas. Albeit our faith he weak that we despair of a general reformation, yet certainly the Lord would not suffer the ship of his Catholic Church, to be devoured with the tempest, but if Christian Pastors could lay aside their malice & implacable contentions, to beg from God peace and concord, he can lead us by the hand through those ●…ouds of discord, to place us in the bark of unity, to give us the answer which he gave unto Peter, Modicae fidei quare dubitasti? O ye of little faith why do ye so much doubt, Quis unquam speravit in Domino & confusus est; If Christian people could do this, the means of universal reformation were both easy and ordinary, as I will shortly show you. Such is the credit of the primitive Church, for three or four hundred years, that there is not a learned Doctor on either side, who is not content to say, that she may be judge in all controversies, either touching Doctrine, Policy, or Ceremonies: nor is there any so impudent, who will derogate from that age for Christian reformation: They indeed who feed upon the fatness of the Papal tyranny, they will decline the trial, suspend so far as lies in them the convocation of general Commissions, or illude them being assembled. But to take exception against the primitive Church: no, so that nothing is wanting but the means of general Convocations, which as I have before discoursed at length, doth properly pertain to Christian Princes, Cor regis in man●… Dei, whensoever it should please God to inspire these three Monarchies of Christendom, to intend universal reformation, his Majesty of great Brittanne, the French King, and the Spaniard: I think no Christian should be found to put opposition: any man will confess this, The distraction indeed of these Christian Princes, is the mystery of Papal ambition, and so studiously entertained by the seat of Rome, that one may say, we have long to look for that influence which must proceed from so extraordinary conjunction of these chief Planets: and I answer once for my advantage, that whensoever any of the two last Kings, shall join themselves to our most gracious Sovereign, it shall suffice to sway the balance, and to overcome all oppositions. But I keep me on the ground, holding that present state of things doth equally impose upon all Christian Princes, a mere necessity of this concurrence to reform the Church of Rome, because they be equally distressed thereby: for while as unto their predecessors did belong a right to convocate Counsels and to presidiate in them, having in their hands the reins of Christian government, as is before largely proved. Now Rome hath so far delighted in her own beauty, that she hath drawn the whole splendour of the world upon herself, and hath trampled on the necks of the greatest Kings, as she, to whom it was said, Dabo tibi potestatem in Gentes, & reges eas in virga ferrea, & sicut vasa fictilia conterentur: And this hath she done so openly and insolently as you have heard, by violenting both Princes, Prelates, and religious orders within her own bowels, that in our time, and in our eyes, her pride mounted to the Meridian or Tropic, from whence by the very destiny of the instability of this inferior world, she must return to decline again: so that this common injury done by her in common to all Christian Kings, whom God hath deputed to be Pilots within the ship of his Church, doth force them to attention and jealousy, and draweth on this great jubilee of general reformation: And I presume it from this warrant, that all the States in Christendom which be Catholic Romans, do feel the grievous burden of her tyrannous yoke; as far as those who be opponents to her in matter of doctrine and pure religion. These Catholic States I comprehend in 5. the Estate Imperial, the French, the Spaniard, the Venetian, and lastly the duchies within Italy. The story of the French calamities, is so fresh, that I need not renew it, how that brave and puissant Kingdom hath been put in combustion by these profane fires of Rome, and almost burnt into Funeral ashes, her Princes murdered, her laws dissolved, her people massacred, her Churches violated, her cities desolate, and in such a case as Rome was in, when the Poet said of it desunt que manus p●…scentibus aruis. That the Venetians have been equally with the French attainted, albeit not equally wounded, it is as notorious by their late dissensions sor the Abassie of Polliss, and for the expulsion of the Jesuits from their dominions, and both have equally shaken of the bondage of Rome, disclaiming and forbidding in their Territories the execution of the Counsel of Trent, and wishing an universal reformation, it is well understood of those who know the world, and I bear witness for one, to have heard many amongst them of chief mark Catholic Romans to protest the same with much zeal; As for the house of Austria with whom is established the Empire, although it be the fountain of that Demo regnatrice the mother of the Spanish domination, yet any man may find that her constant fears both of intestine and external dangers have so weakened it for want of perfect repose, that there is no State in Christendom whereunto an universal pacification would bring more happiness. As for the Dukes of Italy there be only two of importance: The Duke of Savoy who with the allies of his house, the Dukes of Mantua and Modena have their own Cordoglio and grievance against the grandeur of Rome, and the conjunction thereof with Spain, as may be well perceived by these late tempests amongst them: And the great Duke of Tuscan, who, although first he be next neighbour to the Pope, and secondly, that he be the first of these who have grown fat upon the reversions of S. Peter's Trencher, his whole estate being contrived by Popes or Cardinals of his house, and thirdly, although he be lately allied with the house of Austria, yet for all these, this open and shameless insolence of Rome urged notlong since against the signory of Venice, hath made him Suegliato to stir and rouse up his ears so far, that against and in spite of this jesuitical insidiation which threateneth Christian Potentates, he hath made a Law, that no lands, rents nor movables above a beggarly portion should be legacied to any Church person, jesuit or other without his approbation added thereunto. It followeth to speak of Spain, which although it hath for many years past, been the principal arch of the papal pride, yet when we consider how far that great King hath been frustrated of the ends propounded to him by these who have been the chiefetiers of him to the Seat of Rome, I do also presume that for good respects he may have disposition to fall away from the Idol of her dangerous ambition: Because the jesuit (as is said) having a chief Maxim, that Religion must shoot out and flourish with a growing state, and finding Spain most inclined to Monarchy, as he doth imagine, hath devoted himself to the service of that Crown, that by the increase thereof his society may likewise grow, and bear authority throughout the world, and from this scope hath he been, and still studieth to be the author and broacher of many Christian calamities, and ever so unfortunate for the Spaniard whom he pretendeth to advance, that in place of strengthening his dominions, the jesuit hath been a cankering worm to rip the bowels of the same, and to plague them with consuming fevers of ambitious aspiring. By the jesuitical documents were the brave seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands so entreated of his Deputies, that as one taken with S. Authonies' fire, he hath been constrained to cut them off being one of his most noble members, after he had sent from his treasures of Spain about one hundred million of gold to cure the same. By the jesuitical infusion was likewise moulded in favours of their monarchical projects, that holy league which stood him so dear in France, and whereof he hath seen the like unfortunate Issue, for they having spent a world of money about the surprise of that Kingdom, so did God despise the iniquity of these masked designs, that he did make the restoration of that Land a miracle of this Age, being once in such broken weakness, and in so short a time ●…rme like a Diamond, and terrible to their Enemies. But with the most maugre and poor fortune of all did they embark their ambition, for the conquest of England, where he did not only lose his (Instar mon●… quum) that invincible called Armada, but in place to conquer the same, they do find themselves now counterpoised on this hand by a mighty Monarch, who like to armed Pallas carrieth for his own defence a sword in the one ●…d, and a pen in the other: Summarily, that puissant King hath been redacted to spoil his treasures, and spend his time by the craft of those Archicharlatans' the Jesuits, who like deceitful Alchemists consuming every thing under a vain hope to make gold, have extenuated the body of his estate with the poisonable smoke of their Mercury, so far, that if it had not been the Christian candour and sincerity of our most gracious Sovereign, to establish his peace first with England, and next with Holland, there is no doubt but before now his late domestic conspiracies of his novos Christianos or M●…roscos in Valentia conjoined to his exterior diseases, had sufficed to render him a neighbour pray: That all these Sincops have been bred to him by the pride of Rome, and by the jesuitical arts, it is clearly seen of those, who going through the world have known the remonstrances, invectives, Apologies, and other political insinuations, which have been published for strengthening of factions, chiefly who hath seen that Platonic jest of Doctor Parsons an English jes. his treatise directed with the foresaid Armada, prescribing the order of the new state of England, and the Laws of the first Parliament to be holden after their landing, so mightily was he possessed with that fancy, which did ever after make him a fugitive from Spain, and abhorred as an abuser and treacherous Alchumist, and for these causes it would seem; That of all Princes the Spaniard hath greatest reason to beware of the follies and falsehood of Rome, the maintenance whereof hath so endangered his Kingdoms, while in the mean time the Pope and his Cardinals pigliano buon tempo, make merry days sitting in the calm of their Consistory, giving order to the Legions abroad, as Nero and other voluptuous Emperors, who succeeding Augustus were for a while heirs to his dominions but not to his virtue. Furthermore the Pope draweth more deniers forth of the states of Spain, then of all the world beside, notwithstanding the great revenues Ecclesiastical of Spain, where the Church of Toledo will amount to six hundred thousand crowns, whereof more than the half is proper to the Archbishop himself, diverse of the rest being not far under this, and all in great condition for riches, nevertheless are the greatest part of things so absolute in the Pope's will, and so hardly granted to natural Spaniards, that before any of them can be beneficed in the Church, he must attend at Rome seven years at least, at his own charges, and that with splendour to beautify the Court, & shall not neither have it in the end but with yearly pension given out of more than the third part at least, to some of the Pope's cousins or favourites, so that they are daily heard to affirm that scarcely in all their life time will they redeem their losses, and in the mean time that Court is never without thousands of those poor Pretendenti who follow M●…n Seig●…r Illustrissgratis, living upon the smoke of Alchumie or umbragious hopes; Would not any man think that those be real distastes to so powerful a Monarch, for howsoever the late King Philip was abused by the jesuitical subtleties, yet through a great deal of bitter experience the case is now come to a manifest discovery of intolerable inconveniencies, for if that King being so mighty and full of experience was not able to bear through the jesuitical machinations against the late Queen of England, and against a dismembered and desperate state of France, how shall he who now is there so good and so devote a Prince, think his throne to besure to his successors against the chances of the world which we now see, unless he will concur to extinguish that fire which hath blown abroad so terrible flames against his neighbours to the end it may approach the more fearfully to himself. May not we imagine, that it is a great heartsore to him, to see his fellows so absolute Kings, his Majesty of great Britain like to Solomon disposing at his pleasure of the Levitical functions within the house of God, the Church of France from all antiquity having her liberties exempted from Papal Hierarchy, both those Kings avowedly defying that pretended Sovereignty, while as he, one of the first Christian monarchs, doth underlie the yoke of Priestly Domination: For as touching this late practice of Cardinal Perone, whereby he hath so much strained his wits to stain the glory of the French Crown, and to render the ancient, Christian, and famous privileges thereof obscure and problematicke (as he speaks) that is but an illusion of the Roman Circe, cast in to abuse the weakness offeminine and childish government, which will soon appear in the own colours to any Prince in perfection, to be an act of perfidious 〈◊〉 against the strength and reputation of that brave 〈◊〉, as it is already both clearly and cunningly charactered, by the truly royal answer and defence made by our most gracious Sovereign for his neighbour King in minoribus, & for all Christian Kings in general, against that serpentine and disloyal Oration of the aforesaid Cardinal. Always that jealousy and distraction is easy to grow betwixt Spain and Rome. This is a strong reason for it, and approved by experience; The Spaniards do already possess the richest patrimonies of S. Peter, Sicilia and Naples: that if a violent and heady Pope do recounter a troubled estate in Spain, it is like enough they will redemaund these, whereof the proof was seen in the person of Pope Sixto Quinto, who favoured Henry the third of France against the holy League for that same cause; upon the other side we are to presume from the like reason, that the Spaniard hath no better means to possess these things securely, then by clipping the wings of the Popish pride, since he hath already gotten the fatness of his pot; Experience hath in like manner qualified this, Carolus Quintus of Spain, and Ferdinand and Maximilian his Successors in the Empire, had no greater studies in their times, then to have reform the Church of Rome for Christian peace, and for their own security, as is more particularly before rehearsed, the misgiving whereof did breed so great grief to himself before his death, and so great displeasure to his posterity thereafter. One other point maketh me to apprehend this disposition of the world to Catholic reformation; The whole Clergy of Rome is a thinking how to supplant the jesuitical Traffic, and to extirpate those plagueful weeds, who by their large & unjust privileges granted by ambitious Popes for their ambitious and wicked services have overgone the whole religious orders of the Roman Church, invading their Functions at their pleasure, as one may well see in that little Treatise which some few years ago came out against them, called Introductio in arcam jesuiticam, wherein all their treacheries are perfectly expressed. CHAP. XIV. A contemplation of the present condition of this Isle of Great Britain, by sundry weighty points and worthy of consideration for our better knowledge of this Time. BUT finally of all the circumstances of this present world, there is one which doth most move me to think that this great jubilee of the restitution of the catholic Church doth approach, and that we be already entered into the prime of that new light. First, there is now a mighty Monarch of the Protestant side, alike to whom, hath not been in any time, his Majesty of Great Britain. Secondly, a Monarch of such authority with all the Protestant States and Princes in matters of Religion, that they give unto him the Style of the Great St. Augustine to be flagellum haereticorum. Thirdly, a Monarch of that rare learning accompanied with the true wisdom of a temperate spirit, that even the judicious opponents except these who be jesuitical, do hold his Majesty the most sufficient instrument to go about and bring to pass a general reformation, which points I will pray all those that shall read this discourse, to weigh in sincerity, as I shall compendiously set them down for our edification, that we may thankfully remark the miraculous and merciful dealing of God with our Age. There hath ever been since the first Creation, two generations in the world, one of Cain, one of Abel; one of Isaac, one of Ishmael; one of jacob, one of Esau; one of joseph, one of his malicious brethren; one of David, one of Saul; one of Solomon, one of Absalon; one of Simon Peter, one of Simon Magus etc. Arace of the just, and a race of the reprobate, making that admirable Antithesis, whereupon God doth hang the balance of his glory swayed by his mercy to the one hand, and by his justice to the other, this is the secret and hidden mystery of God's predestination in the government of the world, numero, pondere, & mensura, as the Scripture saith: And because the wicked as impetuous floods do overflow the world, and overcome the Saints of God with multitude of wicked Princes and false Prophets, therefore the Lord doth oftentimes, as the story of the Scripture declareth, raise up both in Church and State some men of extraordinary virtue and goodness to preserve the faithful seed, which hath made the Psalmist to say, Mirabilis Deus in Sanctis suis, the Lord is admirable in his Saints. Psal: 67. In the first age of the original Creation, he had his servant Enoch, of whom it is said, Placuit Deo & translatus est in Paradisum, he pleased God and was translated to Eccl: 44. Paradise. In the second age of universal corruption, he had Noah to be the seminary of the godly, of whom it is said, factus est reconciliatio. In the third, which was the peculiar election of the jews, he had Abraham, of whom it is said, Et non inventus est similis ei qui conseruaret ibid. legem excelsi. In the fourth, which was his manifestation ibid. to be the God of Israel by the written Law, he had his excellent Moses, of whom it is written, Dilectus Deo & hominibus Moses cuius memoria in benedictione. In the Eccl: 45. fist, which was the establishment of the jewish kingdom, he had his Prophet David, whom himself did honour with this testimony, Inveni hominem secundum cor meum. In the sixth, which was the prophetical illumination of 1. Kings 16. the Synagogue, among greater numbers, he had in special his Eliah, of whom it was said, Et quis potest similiter gloriari tibi. So in the seventh, which was the falling of Eccles. 45. the Synagogue, he had his great Priest Simeon Onia, of whom it is said, Quasiignis effulgens, & quasithus redolens in igne, quasi vas auri soliduns ornatum lapide pretioso. Even so in the later ages since the Gospel, albeit things go not by clear revelation from heaven as then, because prophetical actions be all finished, and all Scriptures concluded in our Saviour, yet by the like effects we observe one and the same working of God to maintain the generation of the Just, for looking upon these famous Emperors, Constantinus Magnus, and Carolus Magnus, most devout and Christian Princes, they resemble David and Solomon, the first whereof ejected the Arrians, as David did the Nations. And the last is said to have settled the first means temporal of Christ's Church, whereby they were more able to guard themselves from barbarous persecutions, as Solomon did build the Temple and house of the Lord. Again in Princely exaltations we do observe this, that the Princes who be called Flagellum Dei, and who be so indeed, such as Nimrod, said by the spirit of God to be a mighty hunter before the Lord, such as the wicked kings of Israel, such as the persecuting Emperors, such as Tamberline the Tartarian, such as the formidable Ottomanicall Princes: These I say, and all such, the Lord God doth suffer to rise unnaturally, unlawfully, in fury, a good Prince is a rare jewel, like unto the vision of Ezekiel, where among six destroying Angels, he saw but one man who had power of safety, because the sins of men do merit oftentimes punishments, they come as fearful tempests in the air, which overthrow the strongest Oaks and most firm Towers, they come as impetuous inundations to spoil and destroy, they do all by violence, and nothing can pacify their rage because they are sent to execute the wrath of God. These Princes again who come for the solace and safety of people, sent out in mercy, they rise as it were in the sweetness of Nature, they come in peace and calmness, they shoot up by gentle and lawful means, & from humble beginnings they mount in patience to miraculous greatness, Moses and David from the sheep, Nabuc●…ad-nezzar whom the Lord called his own servant, he was a terrible Prince misknowing God, oppressing his people sub virga ferrea, under a sceptre of Iron, because he was sent by God in justice. Cyrus again a meek and temperate Prince, whose golden sceptre brought comfort with it, because he was directed in mercy: So that it is easy to mark in Kings by their circumstances, what kind of Commissions they bring. To come from this general contemplation to an Hypothesis, to consider the condition of our most gracious Sovereign, whom the Lord hath sent in his mercy, to work pacification and unity in the hearts of Christian People, to be a Father of Peace, Piety, and justice, if we can rightly apprehend it, we shall find great reason to say also Mirabilis Deus in sanctis suis: we shall find this blessed age in this Isle to be like unto that whereof the Lord God did prophesy to Abraham. That in the fourth generation his posterity should be restored from the bondage of Egypt, so far, that one may imagine how the growing of this royal Monarch is not unlike to that of the house of Israel, and how God hath ordained our Sovereign King for services, not unlike unto those of Moses, as I will shortly show, by conferring these circumstances following. First the poverty, division, and constant vexation of this Isle under the Scots, the Pichts', the Danes, the Saxons, the Britons, the English: doth it not well resemble the Egyptian bondage? Next our being obnoxious to much foreign ambition now practised by France, now by Spain, now by Rome; during our Sovereign his Minority, was it not a true servitude of Pharaoh? Lastly our intestine contention for government both in the Church and state these many years past, before the Lord did exalt his horn, and place him upon the throne of this stately Monarchy; were they not like the grudge, and murmurations of the children of Israel in the wilderness? The protection of God Exod. 2. over the life of Moses was miraculous after his birth, when he was cast into the river, and what floods of dangers did fall out about the Nativity of his Majesty, the Stories of our country can record. Moses was called from the sheep to talk with God in mount Horeb, to Exod. 3. receive the mysteries of government, and we may say his Majesty, from humble fields, and dangerous beginnings hath ascended into the top of high government, where the Lord as we see hath inspired him how to settle both Church and state. Moses was obstinate against the ambition of Pharaoh, and would not discontinue the working of his miracles and his instance to have his people Exod. 6. 7. dismissed: and let us sincerely and uprightly ponder what a miraculous constancy was it in his Majesty, before his going into England, to be so confident against the opposition of so many Pharaohs, who laboured to keep his Majesty still in Egypt, how many Spanish, jesuitical and strong machinations did he both contemn and frustrate, which were cunningly urged before he did possess that Crown, and how many, even of his majesties friends and good subjects, did hold his Highness both weak and impotent; thinking of his Majesty that which Moses feared should be said of himself, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, That who was his Majesty without stronger aid to purchase so mighty a state. The host of Pharaoh was drowned in the red sea, while they sought to bring Moses into Egypt. And did not that proud Armada of the Spanish Pharaoh perish in his majesties seas, and in our eyes, while they intended to detain him in Egypt? Moses was a man most painful in his long and tedious voyage in the wilderness, and what were a number of his majesties years, but a wandering in the widernes of our rebellion, & a languishing in the discords of our distemperate stare, as we know; Moses was a man full of mansuetude, patience and affection to his people, notwithstanding their daily murmurations, whther God hath endued his Majesty with such qualities, it is easily seen of those who please to remember, how many grievances his Majesty hath endured of some of his insolent subjects, in settling Civil and Ecclesiastical Policy, and how many there be in Scotland, who be his majesties creatures, Ex gratia, holding their lives and estates of his clemency. Moses was a man replenished with great wisdom, that God is said to have taught him the secret Cabbale of universal nature into the mountain, and how his Majesty doth meet that part, compared at least with the best knowledge of these times, I have already given you the testimony of the world, so that it hath no need ofmine: With this consideration of his majesties person, let us also weigh aswell how he doth possess as what he doth possess in Dominion, and we shall find indoubtable arguments to say, That the Lord God hath sent him in mercy & love, by marks which are not to be seen in any Christian Prince in all the world beside; not only to make of us a mighty nation by erecting among us a virtuous, and a prosperous Monarchy, but that he hath destinate him as he hath Cyrus, for the restitution of jerusalem, for the peace and unity of his Church. The antiquity of the Crown of Scotland in his majesties house, hath nothing comparable with it in Europe, And his Majesty hath not been of late more lawfully, and lovingly installed in the state of England by his subjects, than the Original stock of his royal house King Fergus the first was about two thousand years ago, by our Predecessors called to the Crown of Scotland, he did not invade it, or usurp it over Princes or people. And as the first Stone of his majesties Monarchical foundation was thus laid naturally, in equity and virtue, so hath it followed from that pure fountain to this Ocean of lawful Sovereignty, and grandrue which we see in a righteous line never yet interrupted by any destiny, God hath brought to pass in his majesties person the conjunction of weak and dismembered kingdoms, which neither length of time, nor the industry of watchful and ambitious Princes, or nature itself could perform before his coming: that nature was not mature, before now to produce that great work, I prove by the history of Arthur King of the britains: who being the illegitimate son of Vterpendragon, was by the force of popular affection advanced to the Crown, before the wife of Loath King of Pichtes, lawful sister to the said Vterpendragon, and before her lawful son Moderet, which competency after many debates was so transacted, that Moderet should succeed King Arthur; whereupon both Loath and Moderet, yielded great aid to the Brittannes against the Saxons: And yet notwithstanding in the end, Arthur was constrained to declare Constantine a Briton in defraud of Moderet, without any pretext of reason, other than neighbour indignation, because the people cried, Peregrini sanguinis Regem se nolle, They would not a stranger in blood should reign Polyd. virg. lib. 8. over them: wherein they were so obstinate, that this wrongful exclusion of Moderet was followed with the slaughter of Arthur and Moderet both in battle, and with the barbarous murder of the children of Moderet, for the avoiding of strange claims, as they held it: where we see that nature hath given an overture of this conjunction, but it could not work, for Moderet was then nearer to the Crown of England, nor his Majesty now. To know again how this Union hath been contended for and urged by puissant Kings and all in vain, we may read the disputation of the royal competents of our Crown betwixt Bruce and the Balliol, and the carriage of Edward the first of England in that process, and the dealings of the English Kings with King David Bruce the time of his restraint there. Therefore the case of this great Prince is merely extraordinary, not in fortune, but in God's disposition. There is nothing in the world which doth so lively bear the image of God, as a virtuous and temperate Christian Monarch: and therefore the Lord doth delight to express his power most in such a creature. He who in his wrath raised Assur, and said unto him, woe be to thee Assur the rod of my fury: I will send thee to a dissembling Nation, that thou mayest tread them under thy foot, as mire: he hath raised this print in clemency and hath said of him, as he did of Cyrus, that he should set his people at liberty, both spiritual and temporal within his kingdom. Do we not see what strange changes the Lord hath already performed by him, as a holy and sanctified instrument. Gothofred of Bullen, having in the siege of jerusalem, at one blow cut in two the body of an armed man, and being demanded upon the miracle of his strength: I carry said he, a hand that never did touch a whore, meaning it was rather a divine than a natural strength. Hath not the world seen in his Majesty, a constant sanctity in that degree, which hath been exceeded by none, equalled by few, and honoured by the universal admiration of all. For all which foresaid respects hath God rarely blessed his government, and as he hath made this Isle in his happiness, to be called great, so may she also most justly be called fortunate, we have a tradition of the Fortunate Isles, that because of some sacred Nymphs do remain there, the ground doth yield her fruit without the labour or industry of man: What Isle in the world hath yielded the like fair fruits of virtuous and stately prosperity, and all through being the seat of a sacred and sanctified King: what Isle, or what man hath seen a Prince, Legentem tam opima spolia sine sanguine & sudore, gathering so rich and costly spoils without trouble, sweat, or pains. For while the Lord God hath brought to pass in his Majesty, as we have seen things more than admirable, yet all hath been done without noise or tumult, without violence in any sort, that we have perceived the Axle-tree of our government changed, but heard no motion in the action: because this great Prince he cometh in peace and mercy, for a blessing and consolation of God's people, and for the restitution of his Church. And who will look into the ways of his rising, even through the light of nature and humanity, will think that his chiefest fortunes be yet before him. Since the reign of Ferdinand, and Isabella of Arragon, we have seen within few years the house of Spain, grow unto a great mountain of dominion, and numbers of smaller states to conjoin themselves unto it: we have seen how the Isle of France, which doth not exceed one days journey about Paris, it is dilated into a most ample Kingdom, that as the thread of the Spanish sword, coelitus pendet, begins to grow weak by natural vicissitude, it must be that the thread of Brittanne destiny, beginneth to spin at length, and that order of the French Crown, Immensitremor oceani, is now so old and worn, that we begin already to be masters of the Ocean. And who will search the condition of this Prince supernaturally, shall think that God hath appointed him to be a leader of Christian Potentates, to step upon the disordered Theatre of Christendom, to make an end of Christian Tragedies, to banish the contrivers of bloody Counsels, to set up Actors of peace, to persuade, to urge, and if need be to force general councils of the Church. To try whether the pretended Aaron hath forgotten himself and fallen to the Idolatry of the golden Calf, since his master ascended into the glorious mountain, and so to re-establish Catholic unity. These be the six several points wherein doth appear, the approach of the reformation of Rome: First, her pride hath already come unto the Tropic, from whence it must of necessity turn down again: Secondly, the Christian Princes who be within her own bowels, begin to be wearied under the pressure of her yoke, two chief appearances why the monstrous fabric of this tyranny is in danger to be ransacked: Thirdly, you have heard that the Spaniard, who is the strong Atlas that bears up the same, can above any Christian King, establish the assuredness of his affairs upon the ruins thereof. Fourthly, all the orders of the Papal Clergy are bend to overthrow the Jesuits, who are the only cunning craftsmen, who build and uphold this Babylonian tower. Fiftly, the means which God seemeth to put into the person of his Majesty, our gracious Sovereign, to sway the world to peace and unity in Christian Religion, as well by the weight of his power, as by the virtue of his temperate wisdom and solid learning, which hath procured unto his Majesty authority, not only with all Protestant people, but with the best of the Opponents. Sixtly, the absolute credit given unto the primitive Church, against which there is no side of Christian Clergy that taketh exception. All which things well considered, what I pray you is wanting here to reform the holy Church, but these two, Courage to undertake it, and this one word from the mouth of God, Benedicamus. And seeing the world pointeth at your Majesty, as the only man to whom that courage doth belong, it compelleth me to turn my speech unto you, O great and mighty Monarch: As they have seen how God hath made your Majesty, like Hereules, able to overcome the Gigantine forces of these Kingdoms, dispairefully dissevered by inveterate and implacable emulations; placing your Majesty in a triumphant Throne, over this fortunate Isle, that Cyrus-like your Majesty hath your foot upon the midst of the hide, that no side thereof can revolt, and hath given your Majesty ample dominions without, and that in a miraculous sort, having no concurrence of human help, making your Majesty alone, both the Actor, and the Instrument: Therefore do they look that your Majesty, should in like manner cry with Cyrus, The Lord God of heaven hath given me the Kingdoms of the earth, and hath commanded me to restore jerusalem, and to deliver his people from captivity, because they see how almighty God hath furnished your Majesty with prudence and power, like armed Pallas to execute the same: your Majesty hath hitherto well followed the example of the powerful Moses, in this toilsome government whereunto the Lord hath brought you, but the chiefest praise of Moses was his perseverance, non coronabitur nisi qui legitime certaverit, when he came up to the mountain he was commanded to put off his shoes, to show plainly that he might make himself light and able to walk, to show figuratively that he must shake off all fleshly desires and affections which burden our minds, and pull them downward from a familiar conversation with God: O, what a laborious thing it is to come unto this mount, the valleys be rich, full of sensual pleasures, and of easy passage, and therefore they are inhabited of the multitude of the world, the mountains are steep and precipitious, and it is hard to climb up into them, and yet there it is where the Lord hath ever almost shown himself, as mount Sinai, mount Horeb, mount Tabor, mount Olivet, mount Caluarie, and divers others declare, to signify how difficult a thing it is to exalt ourselves above the sensuality of the world, and how few are worthy to come into the familiar mount of God: only josuah was found worthy to ascend with Moses, all the rest were commanded to remain at the foot of the mountain with Aaron and Hur, which made his charge to be the greater, for not only did God command him to come up, but said the Lord, ascend in montem & esto ibi, Come up, and see thou be there, by which words he would stir him up from laziness to think, that he must not only be there, but be watchful there, as it is said, Non dicitur vemsse qui non steterit: who standeth strait in the mountain, he seeth every thing which passeth by below him, but to him who wearieth and lieth himself down to repose, all the things which are under him be hidden, and if the enemies come to spoil the valleys, he can never discover it. As your Majesty hath been most watchful hitherto; So let your Highness think that the work of God doth but begin in you, and that he hath called your Ma: to come up to the Mount not like a fainting Eliah, who in his voyage to the mountain to talk with God, tired, or delighted with the beauty or freshure of the tree, fell asleep under the Ginobre, but like unto a vigilant Moses who stood upright forty days in the Mountain without refreshment, not like unto a timorous Eliah who was afraid at the voice of a woman, but still like a courageous Moses, who being of his own nature the most mild among men, yet when he found the people in Idolatry of the Calf at his returning from the Mount, he was enraged, and commanded the Levites to be armed, and stood in the gates of the Camp till punishment was executed: Let your Majesty therefore have watchful eyes to penetrate the latent things of your popular valleys, that no distemper grow among them which may renuerse your majesties former cares. Do specially Sr. overwatch these two things: First that this lurking Gangrene of pretended Puritanisme do spread no further, nor lie in wait to trouble the settled order of your majesties government; But to the end your Maieiesty and your Royal posterity may ever hit surely in that mark which your Majesty hath so long shot at, to re-establish into this Isle the primitive and orthodoxal policy of the Church: Imitate the skilful Archer by choosing your arrows of that wood, which is most proper for your majesties aim, by receiving into Episcopal dignities those who be most religious and sincere, rather the best than the most learned, considering how many men in these days do carry Letters as Uria did, to cut his own throat: like unto those unhappy Carpenters who builded an Ark for the safety of Noah and his family while they themselves did miserably perish in the flood: Since your Majesty hath now store of men both of conscience and learning who are resolved enough in the Question of the Church Policy let them see how your Majesty thinketh no man so worthy of the Episcopal chair as he who cometh unto it after the sort of that tradition which we have of Gregorius Magnus, who being chosen for his mere virtue, was said to fly into the wildeines till he was discerned by a pillar of fire which kithed above him; Let the light of their learning, their zeal & integtity of their life shining above them where they are, be their only recommendations to Ecclesiastical preferment, to the effect that your Majesty may in that manner stop malignant mouths, and take away all pretext of discontentment or disconformity, from these who say, that your Majesty doth not prefer the virtuous. So that the treacherous lesuite who like the crafty fish conveyeth himself into troubled waters, may want a covert to hide his head, which is the second thing that in all humility I beseech your Majesty to have your eyes on, remembering how as the crafty goose who flying along Mount Taurus carrieth a stone in her beak to restrain her cry that she be not heard of the Eagles from the top thereof, as I have told before; So he can pass by your Majesty with a closed mouth and masked face, he creepeth into your majesties Kingdom as the Serpent did into Paradise, to overturn the happiness thereof. Look but upon the Tragical examples of strong neighbour Princes; Remember that no jesuit liveth who hath not that mind to your Majesty, which Cic●…ro had to Octavius, bonu●… p●…er & t●…llendus; Let your Majesty consider how one particular man of this great multitude, Doctor Parsons a vile excrement of his country of England, hath presumed himself sufficient to cut the line of the Royal succession, & to render the Estate Spanish, and hath so far proceeded in that dismal design, as to set down out of his own brain the laws and policy of the new common wealth; the acts of the first Parliament as I have said before, and hath put to the ports of England a mighty Armada to execute the same. What shall we then expect from multitudes having the same inspiration, and gaping for the Spirit of this false prophet, if they be suffered to practise your majesties subjects, or to frequent among them: Therefore Sr. consider what dangerous enchanters they be, and let your Majesty like a wise and constant Ulysses be well tied to your Main Mast, Christ jesus, that no Sirens song may illude your majesties perspicuous senses, in the mean time when the subtle Cyrce doth strive to be your Master, so that your Majesty may keep your Kingdom united and firm like a Diamond, and courageously proceed to greater service in God's Church, to enterprise, this general Reformation, whereof the world holdeth your Majesty to be so worthy, which is immensi praemium labour is, the crown and glory of your majesties travels, and which is so easy for your Majesty, that when your majesties admonitory Epistle to Christian Princes came out against the Pope, wherein your Majesty seemeth to appeal to the first 400. years of the Primitive Church for Christian pacification, we know it who was then beyond Seas, that if it had not been, because your Majesty doth call the Pope Antichrist, showing by that rather to be an open Enemy to the Roman Church; then a Pacificatour, (as they said who took the advantage of that word) otherwise your Majesty might have drawn upon your side the whole Church of France, and the whole body of the Roman Church, other then Jesuits, and those who be poisoned with their absinthium, that we have heard with our ears chief members of the Consistory of Rome in contemplation of that business, express with unfeigned sighs their reverence of the simplicity of these times, that nothing is wanting to your Majesty of means, if God shall bless your Majesty in this Mosaical perseverance, to negotiate, to urge, to insist the present disposition of Christendom will so second your majesties beginnings, that certainly no opposition shall be so great, which shall be able to resist, for if any should be, beside, the invincible powers of foreign Estates, who be ready to march under your majesties Colours in that cause. Hath not God given to your Majesty store of warlike men within the bowels of your own Realms? Hath he not provided for you a brave and worthy josua to follow you into this mountain, your majesties hopeful Successor, to whom your Ma●… may confidently say in the own time, Elige tibi viros fortes, & egressus, pugna contra Amalechitas. The seeds of Numb: 17. whose most royal expectation, the Lord God of his mercy bring to such maturity, that they may answer that which is universally thought — non Romula qu●…ndam Ullo se tantùm tellus iactavit Alumno. That the highest Occident did never see a more glorious Orient. God of his goodness strengthen the courage of his great Spirit with the same promise he made to josua, Noli timere quia tecum est Dominus Deu●…tuus, in omnibus ad quaecunque perrexeris; Fear not, because the Lord God is with you in every thing you take in hand. For the next touching this one word from God, Benedicamus, what ought to be the true means of Christian concord, and how near the possibility is to practise them, are both declared, but when the Lord shall pronounce a blessing unto it, there is the mystery; And yet it is no mystery to know the cause why he doth not, even a●… God was not found in the vehement tempest, in the rupture of the rock, nor in the fire, said in fibilo aura tenuis, but in a soft air as is said. God cannot be found in commotion; until the time that both sides of Christian Clergy do cast off the shoes of their malicious curiosities, proud and ambitious emulation, thundering contentions, to walk uprightly in the mountain of God, teaching people to beg from God in humility, and out of the gentle spirit of Christian love, this peace of jerusalem, it shall never be granted: but by the contrary, if we persist in our wicked contempt, God shall make that vermin of the Turks, which have consumed the garden of jerusalem and all the Oriental Churches, to destroy us also. And even as the Lord did procrastinate and defer the entry of the people into the land of Canaan until their rebellious murmurations were spent, that of all the multitude which came from Egypt, only Caleb and josua did enter. So shall he never neither bless those clear possibilities which are in the person of our excellent Moses, to lead us to the triumph of that Christian unity, unto the time that either our murmurations or murmurers against him be finished. Wherefore I exhort every one out of the blessed spirit of peace and harmony, you who are Papists chiefly, and you my LORD for whose service in special this Treatise is destinate, that your Lo.▪ will be content to acknowledge that obstinate and foolish superstitions are the danger of your Soul, the disgrace of your Noble Spirit, the discredit of your House, the extinction of your Honours, which are proper unto your Lo: under your Sovereign Prince, and the nullity of all your faculties and active virtues in this Commonwealth, where you have too great a place to be void, which things besides other perils that may ensue by many and weighty inducements to reformation. If your Lo: cannot upon the sudden become enemy to the Church of Rome, so dearly beloved of you, and esteemed for your Mother, then like a kindly child compassionate her disease, help to cover her nakedness, and concur to see her purged from her fornications, seeing it pleaseth God to offer such visible means to do it, and in his own time to send a gracious Cyrus for the furtherance of her restitution, do abhor like a pest the poisoned counsels and courses of the Jesuits▪ the which I do again, and again, assure you my Lord, doetend to hold off Cyrus, and to bring against her an Assur, a rod of God's wrath to tread her in the mire, and to bring capital judgements upon all those within this kingdom who hearken unto their voice. And seeing your Lo: hath so good a King, whose bounty hath been great toward you, as you know, whose Blood Royal is the brightest Star which you carry in the frontispiece of all your Honours, and whose sacred person you do so faithfully affect, whose wisdom and learning hath that reputation with the best of the Papal Clergy (as I have related) that they could admit his Majesty among the first of judges to pacify Christian dissensions, if the Lord of his mercy should bless this time with so happy a constellation. Therefore let your Lordship be pleased to obey the voice of such a King, who doth enjoin you nothing contrary to holy Scripture. Be with his Majesty in the purchase of this crown of glory, which God hath said before him to obtain by his putting forwards of Catholic Unity, for the safety of Christian Churches and people, from the barbarous invasions of the common enemy the Turk, you my Lord in special, whose special merit conjoined with the virtue of your renowned Ancestors, have made you twice worthy to be next his Majesty in places of public service, do hearken unto the voice of so many good and worthy Subjects in the Land, who do heartily invite you to embrace those Functions in the State, which God, nature, and your peculiar virtue have allotted unto you, to the furtherance of piety and ius●…ice in the Commonwealth. And to be brief, live so, that you may be honoured in this life, and happy in the next, for your constant action of Christian virtues, which be much surer means to strengthen a good Religion, then Cloysterall bigottrie or contemplation, in your Lo: person principally. As much would I exhort those also, who either brook in their hearts latent displeasure against the Church government, or to whom the acceptation of these useful Ceremonies would be distasteful, or who under colour of those, have distracted hearts from the State, seeing the first is you know a most laudable restitution of the ancient Catholic policy; and the second a point allowed for unity, not by the gross and obscure rudiments of reformation, as you would say, by Luther and Bucer, but by Zanchius and others, who shined thereafter as perfect lights in the Church: We may be ashamed to be contentious against such grave judgements, and against the authority of a whole national neighbour Church, whereof you are brethren, and which of all those in Christendom hath only been reform perfectly, by putting forth of all Idolatry, and holding forth of all novelty. Cato Utyconsis, because he found no reason to obey the time, as he thought, he would not live but slew himself, although he might have possessed chief dignities under Caesar. Socrates having in his choice either to die, or to be exiled, he chooseth death, because said he, a man cast from his common wealth is no more a man. Is it not strange that you who hold yourself an upright christian, yea and Pastor, that upon sure and inquestionable points, or upon trifling and indifferent Ceremonies, you will not only refuse to conform yourself, but by the means of your separation you give the opportunity of seditious practices, both of foreign Insidiators and intestine malcontents, which is a cursed and bad part. That we should embrace the name of Separists, to run away and derelinquish that great City upon the mountain, called by the Prophets, civitas quaesita non derelicta, that we should turn back to judaize by clandestine Synagogues, and renounce that ample and famous Title of a true Christian Catholic. Christianus mihi nomen, Catholicus cogno●…, said all the holy Fathers. We do refuse communion with the Church of Rome, and with the greatest part of those in Germany, and if we should lie ever divided from the heads and chiefest members of our own body within this Kingdom, certainly, I know not what way to excuse such open delight of separation and singularity, since the mark of Christian profession is to be Catholic and universal. I know you will say the Saints of God are a handful; true, but the Church of God is not so, it hath by exterior marke●… a large Communion and extent, and cannot be gripped in one hand or in two. What is there, in reason, in nature, in Theology, which doth not teach us this Communion and conjunction, the light of reason doth tell us that, Vi●… unita fortior. Things which be united are most strong; Nature doth show to us, that the dumb Elements communicate qualities among themselves, & that the most distant Climates of the earth have mutual commerce, & beasts which do live together within the precinct of our Isle, will be ordinarily of our society: theology hath taught us to believe it for an Article of our Creed, that their is a Communion of Saints: For the love of this Communion betwixt man and Angel, and for the prosperity of the kingdom of heaven, God did pardon Adam, and retreat his holy word, Thou shalt die the death so soon as thou dost cat of this: And shall not we re●…it one dram of our presumptuous purity for our Christian Communion with our brethren of our Church (without the which this great Isle, our common mother, can never be truly fortunate nor the ports thereof surely closed against the plots and insidiation of our enemies) as if the whole efficacy of Christianity did consist in that one point of Preciseness, while as our good father Saint Augustine did comprise an heretic under that word, Agnosca●… qui precisisunt, veniant ad fidem, & did discriue an upright Christian, by those three properties, Contra rationem sobrius, contra Scripture as nemo Christia●… contra Ecclesiam nemo Catholi●…us. That as a sober man, he must be subject to reason, as a Christian man subject to the Scriptures, and as a Catholic, subject to the Church: The first of which three doth admonish us all in general, that (in any light of reason) if we do not sing one harmony in the public service of God, we are not (as good members of the Church should be) studious of her glory, nor (as good subjects of this kingdom should be) desirous of its felicity: The second doth admonish you who are an obstinate Papist, that you are no true Christian, who will not make the Scripture the infallible rule of your faith: The third doth admonish you who are a Stoical and stiff Puritan, that you are not a peaceable subject, who doth contradict the authority of a settled and Orthodoxal Church. Always to you who do hatch grudges for other Interims of the state, such as pressure of Subsidies, or pretended poverty of the time. I will say this, and if it have no reason. I am content to sing my palinody: The better and worse condition of things earthly standeth in comparison; because there is no perfect condition here, and the truth of our pleasures and displeasures standeth in the fortitude or weakness of our apprehension: therefore to know surely what a Prince, and what a state we have, we are to remember ourselves what may be in Princes, as they are Prnces, and what also is commonly found in them and in their rule. What may be in a Sovereign King, Look to the holy Story of Saul's Creation: He shall appoint your sons for his Chariots, and for 1. Sam. 8. caring of his ground, he shall take your daughters and make them Cooks, he shall take your fields, vineyards, and best Olive trees, and give them to his servants, saith the Lord. Out of this you shall truly observe what a state it is you live in, next to understand what oftentimes is in Princes, I might in this argument send you to contemplate the cruel domination of Nero, the exorbitant government of Caligula, the avaricious reign of Galba, the treacherous Empire of Tiberius, etc. But because it hath no kind of Decorum, to bring those in balance with a most virtuous & most Christian Monarch, I will wish you to call to memory, what was your condition during the Civil calamities of your neighbour Countries, of France and of the Netherlands for a whole age, when under the ●…adow of your Prince's wings you was covered from those miseries while you stood securely on the shore, and beheld the troubled Ocean of those tempests, do not you confess that those countries have felt more afflictions in one month then we in all our time; Or if his Majesty by violent and unlawful ambition should bring such armies upon our necks, whither would you then make any great reckoning of a light Subsidy, or would you cry that his Majesty should make a bridge of gold for your enemies to go forth. Is there any mark of a Prince approved of God, and happy among men so infallible as to become a great Monarch by just and peaceable means, as to enjoy long and introubled tranquillity; Is there any happiness comparable with it? Besides the private joys which peace doth yield unto us, it is the nurse of good letters, and good policies, and of whatsoever is good. As for riches, it is true indeed that the accumulation of treasures is both lawful and necessary for Princes, because they are the Guardians of people and states: And Pecunia est neruus Belli, but speaking of subjects, remember when great Kings be most mechanic there the people are most governed, Sub virga ferrea, whereof we have seen examples enough not far from our coasts. How is it then we should so lightly esteem two such rare benefits of a constant peace, and of a glorious Monarchy reserved for many years to be the most conspicuous blessing of this age: certainly peace is so heavenly and extraordinary a good, that the spirit of God hath allowed (we know) the Church to pray for Infidel and wicked Princes, that they might have peace under them; seeing our peace then and prosperity is matchless as no man can deny, it is wicked ingratitude in us that we should not thank God, and cry, Quis poterit similiter gloriari nobis, If it were not that our ignorance doth parley excuse our ingratitude, for how can he value the sweetness of honey, who hath nevertasted of tartness, and acerbity, the lightness of his yoke, compared with the pride and insolence of many great dominators, and the serenity of his reign, to speak so, hath been without any intermission, that how could you know what a thing is the weight and austerity of domination, and if it should not be that our own follies and evil government should breed unto us more discontents and aggravations than the misgovernment of the state doth, we were apparently the most fortunate subjects under the sun. And if any should grudge in the court, I will speak thus far unto you, (with humble reverence, because you are the most excellent Creatures) that of all the grudges which be within the kingdom that is most pernicious, such a malignant and proud spirit, made Lucifer to be put to the door ', when the court of Heaven was first established, he is not worthy to live at a Prince's elbow, who knows not that as godly and Orthodoxal Kings bear the lively image of God upon earth, so their Courts must resemble the seat of God in the heavens, replenished with innocent Majesty, virtuous glory, noble and active creatures, subject to perpetual sympathy and love, tranquillity, obedience, and order; you have the place of the Spheres, which are nearest unto God. Imaque telluris ventos tractusque coruscos Nimborum accipiunt, nubes exedit Olympus, Pacem summatenent. So should you be free of those clouds which are bred in the inferior air of popular distemper and discontentments; yea by your serenity and secret influence you should purge them, and make the multitude to admire the close harmony of the Court; even as we are astonished to behold the silent murmur, and music of these celestial orbs which are above the troublesome elements. The Lord God hath not found it good to make all his Creatures equally capable of his graces, the Angels are not of like degree, yet all of them take sacrety of God's countenance, the inferior Planets have not bodies sufficient to contain the whole splendour of the Sun, yet they are all satiate of light, to illuminate their own spheres. God did vouchsafe unto Miriam a prophetical spirit, but not in that measure as he did to Moses, therefore she was strucken with leprosy for her grudging: remember that if the sun shine of his majesties bounty, be removed from you for your murmuring, you should be plagued with a sort of Leprosies to descend again into the inferior world, carrying in your faces the visible impressions of consuming and contemptible envy: shall the potsherd say to the Potter, what dost thou make? certainly no: And you who may happen to be principal Planet of the Court, or first mover of the Courtly spheres, if it should please you to learn the right lesson of your motion in the common school of Nature, it should hardly fall forth to you to become an errant Planet: wherefore hath the Lord God made the huge bosom of the great Ocean to be so spacious and receptible of waters, not that she should acquiesce in herself, and be delighted in the largeness of her fountains, but that by secret channels she should continually communicate the use thereof to those rivers, which be appointed to water the earth, and as a common servant in the house of Nature, render to the Sun her ordinary moistures, to furnish rain for the fruits of the earth; wherefore hath God planted this glorious Lamp in the Sun, not that he should pride himself in his own splendour, for that was a Luciferian trick; but that he should illustrate and beautify inferior Planets, and that he should minister life and light to other creatures: Doth not your courtly witted Tacitus tell you, that even the best Princes are jealous of Sovereign points, if any strive to keep a constant eclipse upon a King's face that it may not shine universally, drawing the whole reflex upon himself, he saith it is arcanum imperij a mystery of the Majesty. It is the fault of Prothemeus, to steal the sacred and royal light, to participate of the Majesty, & become guilty of a Sovereign point, it is to eat of the forbidden Tree, seeking to be like unto God: who as in one Universe, he is only one Centre, unto the which the end of all motions and the glory of all actions do return: so is a King in one state a only one Centre, wherein the whole weight and praise of government doth rest. So that you who do abuse the divine bounty, which shineth in some rare good Princes, you become (as the same Tacitus saith) Foedum mancipium & malis artibus ambitiosum, a sordid slave of Ambition, ye do snare yourself into the wicked arts of the same to your ignominious overthrow, and to the eternal testimony of royal piety and justice in him who doth punish you for it. Therefore as his Maiesty●…, our gracious Sovereign, hath been the first happy Prince in the world, by his wise and skilful creation of those, whom he hath preferred to the chief dignities of his favour, witnessed by their great service to the State, of whom many be gone, and numbers yet do live through his majesties dominions: so let you only contend among yourselves for that Angelical happiness, to fly the wicked spirit of proud emulation, that you on the one side may detest that unnatural and monstrous envy of the brethren of joseph, among the son's of one family, and he on the other, who among his brethren findeth himself beloved of his father, do not abuse himself with the dreams of joseph, unless he have also his prophetical spirit. 'tis a fearful thing to consider, how ingrate and rebellious people do oftentimes constrain good Princes to offend against God, and procure his judgements, both against their Princes and against themselves, whereof we have that terrible example of the punishment of Moses, for the murmuration of Israel at the waters of contradiction, therefore that it should not befall unto us as it did unto them; that the Lord do not take from us our great Captain: Let us no more murmur nor grudge, but seeing we see his Oracles have hitherto been from God, and that the Lord hath said to him as he said to Moses, Fear not I shall be with thee, which our conscience will confess if we examine ourselves, how many times we have seen the Lord miraculously upon his side, Let us with Zanchius say, who are we to oppose ourselves against such Laws, as he hath already established, or may hereafter do by the authority of a settled Church, and well governed estate. Let us acknowledge both Papist, Puritan, and Protestant; the revealed mystery of this time wherein we are, and reverence this great Instrument of God who hath opened the seal thereof, and under whom we are come from Egyptian bondage, to be a great and mighty Nation. Let us honour this Orient light which doth arise with him after so long eclipse, both in the Church, and in the Commonwealth; that being confirmed and strong by intestine union, we may by the force of united minds aspire to that Christian ambition to be led under our excellent Moses, or joshua, to that joyful jubilee, of the Catholic harmony of Christendom, and to eject those detestable and vile Amalakites of the Turkish race, that making so our way into the Land of Holiness, we may all cry in one voice as the Prophet foretold of latter times, Venite ascendamus in montem Domini, Come brethren let us ascend together into the mount of the Lord, which is the only scope of an upright Christian, Amen. Now having treated thus far for the glory of God and edification of his Church, I will crave your pardon who are a discreet Reader to speak two words for the justification of my voyage to Rome. The credit whereof hath been so miserably dilacerate by some Papists, who say that I went thither expressly per fare la spia, to play the spy, that I received the Pope's money and paid him back with false measure at my returning homeward. And I affirm in this foro publico contrary to these that I went to Rome out of mere zeal to the Papal Religion: that I should not prove ingrate to so great a parsonage, as the Pope, I confess to have been beholding to his human and courteous behaviour towards me during my residence within his dominions: And to the true affection of some few of his Cardinals, and certain other chief persons, in whose manners (to speak ingenuously and Christianly) I did see nothing, but virtuous conversation, much zealous mention of the Primitive simplicity of the Church, great remorse for her present divisions, and many hearty wishes, that it would please God, to make his Majesty of Great Britain another Constantine, and to bless their days with Christian peace and unity: But I affirm that I did never receive any money nor benefit whatsoever of the Pope, of his Cardinals, Jesuits, or any other persons whatsoever within the Roman Church, except in medals, beads, Agnus Deies. Indulgences, and such childish toys and trash, whereof I made small account even then, much less now: I affirm that I did never wrong the Pope nor any Papist whosoever, except this be wrong, Quod metui danaos & dona ferentes, that is to say, that being Papist myself, I was (as divers were of my Country men professed religious in the Roman Church beyond seas) contrarious to the alluring jesuist, because I knew him to be Enemy to my Sovereign King and Country, and except by my renunciation now of his Idolatrous religion: Further I affirm that I might have pursed the Pope's money and would not: And I swear by that blessed Trinity, whose countenance I hope in the merit of my Redeemer to enjoy; that all these my foresaid affirmations are sincere and true: And what one among a number of you, who have so prodigally and unjustly spent my Reputation, is able to make the like Apology for himself, that he hath neither received nor refused that hostile money, unless he will betake himself unto his lessons of equivocation. What came to my knowledge of the devices of those who seek the destruction of this Kingdom, whereof I am a member, or of the counsels again of such as were known to be faithful friends and fautors of the same, all that I did most sincerely relate by his majesties appointment unto the first watchmen of the State under his majesties self, & all tending to this same end whereunto this present discourse is directed, that is, to the assuring of his majesties Crown from the treacherous craft of the jesuit, for a testimony whereof & of my most humble and loyal affection to the service of his Majesty, and of the commonweal, I had the good luck to have a hand in the coming of Monfieur 〈◊〉 to his majesties service where he died. Which being so, I must have about with you who have so liberally calumniated me, I would to God that you yourself could in these errands prove adeo potens adversus Pecuniam, that you may keep your own hands as free from Spanish, Papal, or jesuitical gold. I would to God you knew as well as I do what it is to converse with a jesuit, and to be defiled with his serpentine breath: Seeing there is no jesuit living doth not in his heart approve that Diabolical plot & machination of the Powder Treason, what do you think of yourselves who are their Disciples, who receive them in your houses and hearken unto their insinuations, are you not a thousand to one a more dangerous Citizen here then Catiline was at Rome who was declared hostis Patriae, because he did practise the change of a civil state, you practise first against the person and life of our Sovereign Prince; next against the stability of his royal Succession and Crown; thirdly against the peace & felicity of your country: Fourthly, against the famous antiquity and natural liberties of the same. fiftly, against the good of every particular Subject of his Majesties, who is not of your lawless league. lastly, you practise to remove the Candlestick of the word of God; and to erect in the place thereof the darkness of superstition, striving to deliver us all, both Prince, Subjects and Country, slaves to the Galleys of Papal pride. These are your practices who do frequent the jesuist, in regard whereof what style shall I give you; are you not indeed the chaff among the corn, the noisome cockle among the wheat, the cankering vermin among the herbs, the filthy weeds among flowers, the moth among robes, a coal in your Prince's bosom, a gnawing worm in the bowels of this Kingdom, a contagious member of the Commonwealth, a thief in the house, a fearful Sanguisuga thirsting after the native bloold of your own Countrymen, because you have drunken of that burning and deadly poison of the jesuitical wormwood, which is never quenched but with the blood of Legions. The Lord God of his infinite goodness inspire in you the lively air of his holy Spirit to purge your hearts from these pestiferous humours, & once open your eyes to behold the splendent light, so much contemned by you, that you may see your own perils, and the perilous condition of Christ's Church: That your souls may at last languish for a general restitution of ancient primitive simplicity, that you may reverence all the means which lead thereunto, To the effect that by our mutual honouring of Antiquity, we may also be honoured of our Successors, and said of them to be a happy age of Christian Reformation. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.