FIVE SERMONS, UPON SEVERAL OCCASIONS PREACHED AT PAUL'S CROSS, AND AT SAINT MARIES, IN OXFORD.  
BY Humphrey Sydenham, Mr. of Arts, and Fellow of WADHAM College in OXFORD.  
LONDON, Printed for JOHN PARKER. 1626.   

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, HENRY, LORD DANVERS, BARON OF DANCY, AND Earl of DANBY; The glory of both Ages.  
MY GOOD LORD,  
THat service is most free of insinuation, which is so of attendance; whilst others only look on your virtues, with your fortunes, and admire them, I both weigh, and contemplate, and so honour you more than they by how much a just speculation exceeds an outward and partial survey of men, and of their actions. 'Tis my belief in that hath armed my resolution in this bold tender of my labours, which though I acknowledge unworthy either of your judgement, or acceptance, yet the noble encouragements and fair interpretations you have given those formerly delivered in your ear, have taught me a confidence that you will entertain these also offered to your eye; a Judge more severe than the other, because more subtle, and (what is more) more deliberate; however, did I not believe they would pass the mercy of an honourable perusal, I should never have exposed them to the criticism and comment of a censorious Age, which underualues most things because they are common, and many things, because they are good. Though mine can lay no title to the latter in respect of their frame and structure, they may of the subject, that is sacred, and should at lest invite acceptance, if not enforce it. As they are (most Noble Lord) vouchsafe them entertainment; they were published at the importunities of some private, but real friends, to whom they address themselues only for survey, to you (now) for patronage, they may encourage my proceed, but greatness must protect them; your countenance they beg which if you deign to afford, you no less crown them, than the Author, who in all humility devotee's himself  
Your Lordship's unfeigned honourer and loyal servant, HUM: SYDENHAM.   

The ATHENIAN Babbler.  
A SERMON PREACHED AT St. MARY'S in Oxford, the 9 of july, 1626. being ACT- Sunday.  
By Humphrey Sydenham, Master of Arts, and Fellow of WADHAM-Colledge in Oxon.  
LONDON. Printed by B.A. and T. FAUCET, for JOHN PARKER. 1627.   

TO THE HOPEFUL EXPECTATION, BOTH OF HIS NAME, AND Country, Sir HUGH PORTMAN, BARONET, this.  
MY HONOVRED Sr.  
However the publishing of other Labours may entitle me to Ostentation, this cannot but touch upon Humility, since I have exposed that to the Eye only of a Nation, which I had formerly to the Ear of a World, a University; a World more Glorious than that which inuolues it, by how much it exceeds the other, in her judgement, in her Charity, and (what is Noble, too) her encouragement; of the latter, I had some taste in the delivery of this, when I was a fit object of her Pity, than approbation, whether she reflected on Mind, or Body, my Discourse, or Me. But that was the extension of her goodness, nothing that my weakness could expect, or point at, but the Mercy of my worthier Friends, amongst whom, as, you were then pleased to approve it, so, now vouchsafe both to peruse and Countenance; In that you shall glorify the endeavours of him, who looks no higher, than the honour of this title,  
Your Friend that ever serves you HUM: SYDENHAM.   

THE ATHENIAN BABBLER.  Text. ACTS, 17. Vers. 18. 
Some said; what will this Babbler say?  
THe Life of a true Christian the Apostle calls a continual warfare; The life of a true Apostle the Christian calls a continual Martyrdom; Each act of it hath a bloody scene, but not a mortal; A few wounds cannot yet terminate his misery, though they begin his glory. There are diverse tough breathe required to the Celestial race; many a bleeding scar to the good Fight, sweatings, wrestle, tuggings numberless to the crown of Glory. PAUL had long since begun the course and finished it, and can show you a platform of all the sufferings; the scroll is ready drawn with his own hand, 
Vers. 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28.  you may peruse it if you please, 2. Corinth. 11. where cruelty seems to be methodical, and torment accurate, persecution tumbles on persecution, as a billow on a billow, this on the neck of that; one seals not the truth of his Apostleship, 
Act. 14. v. 10.19. Act. 16.18.23.  many shall. He was but now at Lystra, where he cured a Cripple, and he is stoned for it; by and by at Philippi he casts out a Devil, and he is scourged. here's not all; sufferings of the body are not load enough for an Apostle; if he love his Lord and Master (as he aught) he must have some of reputation too; he that hath been so long acquainted with the Lash of the hand, must now feel that of the tongue too: Buffet are not sufficient for Disciples, they must have revile also for the name of JESUS. PAUL therefore shall now to Athens (the eye of the learned world and seat of the Philosopher) where he meets with language as perverse as the Religion, and amongst many false ones, finds no entertainment for the true; The mention of a JESUS Crucified stands not with the Faith of an Athenian, nor a story of the Resurrection with his Philosophy. The Altar there consecrated to the unknown will not so soon smoke to the jealous God. 
Act. 17.23.  The glorious Statues of Mars and Jupiter, cannot yet be translated to the form of a Nazarite. 'Tis not a bore relation can plant CHRIST at Athens, it must be Reason, the sinew and strength of some powerful Argument, and to this purpose PAUL was but now in hot Disputation with the jews there in the Synagogue. 
Act. 17. v. 17.  By this time he hath dispatched; for lo yonder where he stands in earnest discourse with the people in the Market? The tumult is enlarged, and the Athenian already tickled with the expectation of some novelty; Anon, the Gown besets him, and all the rigid Sects of the Philosophers; as the throng increases, so doth the Cry; On that side, Censure,— Some said he was a setter forth of strange Gods, on this side, Prejudice,— And some said, what will this Babbler say?  
In the division of which tumult wilt please you to observe mine.  
1. The persons Prejudicated, masked here under a doubtful Pronoune, Quidam- some,- 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,- some said.- 2. The person prejudiced, clothed in a term of obloquy and dishonour, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉- Babbler,- What will this Babbler say? Thus the Field stands pitched where we may view the parts, as the persons, In a double squadron, no more. PAUL and his Spirit in one part of the Battalio; Epicures, Stoics with their Philosophy, in the other, the rest are but lookers on, no sharers in the conflict. Heeres all; All that's natural from the words, and not wrested; For (mine own part) I'll not pull Scripture into pieces, digging for particulars which are not offered, for that were to torment a Text, not divide it. I affect nothing that is forced, love Fluentness, and (what the majesty of this place may (perchance) look sour on) plainness. However, at this time, I have a little endeavoured that way, that those of Corinth and Ephesus may aswell hear PAUL as these of Athens. I come not now to play with the acquaint ear but to rubbe it, nor to cherish the dancing expectation of those Athenians which cry- News, 
Act 17. v. 21.  News,- but to foil it. And this is well enough for a Babbler, that's the doom at Athens, mine, now, and justly too. I may not expect a greater mercy of the tongue thence, than an Apostle had, especially when a Stoic reigns in it. Whose Religion (for the most part) is but snarling, and a main piece of his learning, Censure; But let's hear first what he can say of the Babbler, next, what the Babbler will say. I begin with the persons prejudicate, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Some said.  

Pars 1.  Some? what some? The front of this verse presents them both in their quality, and number; Philosophers. What of all Sects? No.- 
* Vers. 17.  Certain Philosophers- of old, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, since, by the modesty of PYTHAGORAS a little degraded of that height, as if it trenched too near upon ambition to entitle themselves immediately unto Wisdom, but to the love of it, 
In cap. 17. Act.  and therefore now, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, yet still of venerable esteem amongst the Athenians. ARETIUS calls them their Diuin●●; BRENTIUS, their Patriarches and their Prophets, Each word they spoke was as canonical as Text, and they themselves both Masters of it, and of the people. Of these there were diverse Sects, too (here) specified. Epicures, Stoics; these were extremes in the rules both of their life, and tenant; 
Aretius' in cap. 17. Act.  the Epicure in the defect, the Stoic in the excess. Between them both were the Peripatetics and the Academics, better mixed and qualified in their opinion, stooping neither to the looseness of the one, nor the austerity of the other; but of these no mention in the Text. The Areopagites (intimated in the foot of this Chapter) were not Philosophers, but the Athenian judges, some say, others, their Consuls, or their Senators: In the street of Mars (where the Athenians brought PAUL, 
Act. 17. v. 22.  and enquired of his Doctrine) was their Tribunal, where they sat upon their more weighty affairs, and, 
Gen. not. ibid.  of old, arraigned SOCRATES and condemned him of impiety. But I have no quarrel to these, since I find they had none to the Apostle; The Stoic and the Epicure are the sole incendiaries and ringleaders of the tumult, whom the very Text points out in this,- 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉- some said,- men as opposite in their opinion, as to the truth; one seated his chief happiness in the pleasure of the Body, the other in the virtues of the Mind. The Epicure attributed too much to voluptuousness, 
Aretius' in cap. 17. Act.  the Stoic to the want of it; that would have a vacuity of grief both in mind, and sense; this taught his- 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉- a nullity of all affections in either. These are the broad and common Differences in their opinion, and such as here tread opposite to the Doctrine of Saint PAUL; but there are others more cryticall and nice, which not finding touched by the pen of the Holy Ghost, I presum●● to inquire after in their own Schools, in Zeno's Stoä for one, and in Epicurus Garden for the other. A travail somewhat unnecessary for Athens amongst Philosophers, where they are daily canvased. Yet (perchance) there may be- some Nobles here of Bereä, 
Vers. 17. Vers. 4.  and Chief women of Thessalonica, which have received PAUL with all willingness- which know them not. I shall be only your remembrancer, their informer.  
Epicures (for I begin with them, they have the precedence in the Text) challenge both name, and pedigree, from EPICURUS the founder, and Father of that Sect. He was borne at Athens seven years after the Death of PLATO, where he lived, taught, died. He wrote 300. Books in his own Art, without reference to a second Pen, and (what is strange) observation; no sentence, no precept of Philosopher, but his own; those of DEMOCRITUS, de Atomis, and of ARISTIPPUS, de Voluptate, 
Lib. 2. Hist.  DIONYSIUS HALICARNASSEUS calls his. His deportment and way of carriage in matters of Morality was very remarkable. 
Lib. de Epicur.  In Parents pietas, in Fratres Beneficentia, in Seruos mansuctudo. ('Tis the triple commendation LAERTIUS gives him,) And in lieu of these, and the like virtues, his Country afterwards erected many brazen Statues, and ATHENAEUS wrote certain Epitaphs to the perpetual embalming both of his name and honour. He was one it seems more irregular in his tenant, than his life, abstenious he was, moderate, in his repast, 
A Fero sic in Locum.  in his desires,- Oleribus utens exiguis, HIEROME says, and he confesses himself in his Epistles, that Temperance was his Feast, the lowest stair of it, 
Allexand ab Alex. lib. 3. Genalium Dierum. Cap. 11.  Parcemonie: Aquâ contentus & polentâ. His place of teaching was in Gardens, and the manner not only to the capacity, but the Disposition of his hearer.  
The whole Fabric of his precepts he builds upon this double ground; The one on Man's part, that he is composed of a double substance, a Body, and a Soul, and both these mortal; yea, the Soul vanished sooner than the Body; For when the Soul is breathed out, the Body yet remains the same and the proportion of parts, perfect. Anima mòx ut exierit veluti fumus vento diverberata, dissoluitur, But the Soul is no sooner separate then blown away, like smoke scattered by the wind. So S. AUGUSTINE relates the opinion in his Tract. De Epic. & Stoic. 5. Cap. On this foundation was raised their great opinion, that Man's chiefest happinesses consisted in the pleasure of the Body. The rest of that was the end of all Blessedness, For to this purpose do we all things, 
In Epistol ad Herodotum.  that we may neither be disturbed nor grieved, ('tis EPICURUS own Doctrine.) Yet every pleasure is not so magnified, as that of the palate by superfluity, of the Body by effeminateness; But, when after-a-long toleration of sorrow a greater pleasure ensues, when the Body is no more beaten with grief, the Mind untost and free from all waves of perturbation, there was the true Happiness. He was blessed that enjoyed those Delights in present; future, they neither believed, nor cared for, Death was the slaughterman of all: And therefore SENECA calls the School of the Epicures; Delicatam, 
Senec. lib. 4. de Benefic.  & umbraticam, apud quos virtus voluptatis ministra. For if the Soul also perisheth with the Body, the dirge and requiem that they sing, is Ede, Bibe, Lude, Eat and Drink, for to morrow we shall Die; and after Death what pleasure? And therefore we found their usual Epicaedium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,- Death is nothing to us, for what is dissolved wants sense, 
Lib. 3. Pyrron. Hypotyp. cap. 24  and what wants sense is nothing to us. For if Man be composed of Body and Soul, and Death be the dissolution of both, the burden of their song runs instantly, Cùm sumus, nòn est mors, cùm autèm mors est, non sumus, so SEXTUS EMPIRICUS; Moreover, they would have the Soul a kind of body, otherwise (say they) it would neither do nor suffer. Incorporeum, with them, is all one with Vacuum; and therefore, the Soul (they said) was composed of Atoms, and when the Atoms in a man were dissolved, than the Soul died, as EPICURUS himself in his Epistle to HERODOTUS.  
The other foundation is on God's part, for the Epicure grants there is a GOD, but denies his Providence; howbeit, under a glorious colour- Deum ad Coeli cardines obambulare, 
Gualt. in Locum  & nulla tangi mortalium curâ, as if, forsooth, it would not stand with the majesty of the world to regard what is done in those sublunary parts, 
In Apolog. adversely. gentes. cap. 24.  and so make God (as TERTULLIAN complains) Otiosum, & inexercitum neminem in humanis rebus,- happily conceiting it might detract somewhat from his delight and pleasure, to molest himself with the care of this neither World. Above all things this moved him most,- Homines Religiosos,- that the most Religious men were most of all afflicted, whereas those which did either wholly neglect the Gods, or serve them but at their pleasure, came into no misfortune, or at lest no misfortune like other men. And, in fine, Ipsa etiàm Templa fulminibus conflagrari,- he observed that the Temples also raised for the honour of the Gods, and dedicated to their service were oftentimes burnt with fire from Heaven. Out of which premises the silly Heathen gathers this desperate Conclusion: 
Allexand ab Alex. lib. 3. Genalium Dierum. Cap. 11.  Surely the Almighty walketh in the height of Heaven, and judgeth not; Tush, GOD careth not for those things.  
Stoics (so derived from Stoä where ZENO taught, the Master of that Sect) were of a more sour and contracted brow; their severity drew their name into a Proverb, Stoicum supercilium, gravitas Stoica: their Precepts were for the most part but a Systeame of harsh and austere paradoxes. A wiseman is then blest, 
Tull. 5. de Finibus & 1. Academic.  when under the greatest torments. Metellus life's not more happily than Regulus. A wiseman is free from all passions. He is a fool that doth commiserate his Friend in distress; 
Lypsius in maenuduct ad Stoitam Phylosoph.  Mercy and pity are diseases of the mind, and one with the species and perturbations of grief, Mental sicknesses disturb no wise man's health. He can neither err, nor be ignorant, nor deceive, nor lie. He is alone to be reputed rich, a Master of his own liberty, a King, without sin, equal to GOD himself; Hoc est summum bonum, quod si occupas, incipis Deorum socius essè, non supplex, it is SENECA'S Stoyicisme, in his 31. Epistle. In all Virtues they held a parity, 
Tull. 1. de not. Deorum.  and so in Sins too, He no more faulty that kills a Man, than he that cuts off a Dog's neck. Touching GOD and the nature of him, they strangely varied. Some thought him- an immortal living Creature, 
Tull. lib. 1. de nat. Deorum.  a perfect rational and a blessed; others granted him a Being and Providence; but this Providence they vassal to their Stoyicall fate, 
Diogen. Laert. in vita Zenon. lib. 7  and make God's government not free and voluntary, but necessitated and compelled.  Deus ipse sati necessitate constrictus cum Coeli machina violenter ferretur, (so CALVIN. 
In 17. cap. Act. ) Touching Man, they taught that his chiefest Happiness was placed in the Minds virtue, which opinion though it show fair and glorious, 
In Locum.  tends but to this- Quemvis mortalem faelicitatis suae artificem esse posse, (says BULLINGER.) Every man should be the contriver and squarer out of his own Happiness; and thus weak man is hereby blown up with a proud confidence, that, being virtuous he should be adorned with the spoils of God,- Est aliquid quo sapiens antecedat Deum, ille naturae beneficio, non suo sapiens est. I forbear to translate the proud Blasphemy, it is SENECA'S in his 53. Epistle. But me thinks this vaunting Stoic might easily have been taken down by his own Principles, for ask but any of them, how long their soul shall enjoy that supposed happiness. TULLY makes answer for them, 
5. de Finibus. - Diù mansuros aiunt animos, semper negant,- Like longlived Crows, they last out some years after the body's Death; but by their own confessions grow old continually, and dye at last; and then wherein may the Stoic brag more than the Epicure? In this, little. They both held, 
Laert. lib. de Epicur.  the Soul was of itself a body; the Stoic did extend it a little further, and then, obnoxious to corruption, too. And yet ANTIPATER, and POSSIDONIUS (chief members of that Sect) said, the Soul was a hot spirit, for this made us to move and breath; And all souls should endure till that heat were extinguished, CLEANTHES said, 
Sextus Emper. Pyrron. Hypol. cap 24. lib. 3.  but CHRYSIPPUS, only wisemen's. Thus some are as giddy in their opinions, as sottish; others, as detestable, as giddy; one dotes on the world, and would have it to be- Animal rationale,- The universe must have a Soul, that immortal, and the parts thereof, Animantium animae. A second falls in love with Virtues, and would have them to be glorious living Creatures; but this fool SENECA lashes with an- O tristes ineptiás, ridiculae sunt, in his 113. Epistle. A third adores the Stars, and would have them nourished, the Sun from the Sea, the Moon from the lesser waters. A fourth grows salacious, and hot, and would have a community of Wives, to Wisemen, of Strumpets, to the residue. A fifth, yet more devilish, will have a liberty of Bed from the Father to the Daughter, from the Mother to the Son, from the Brother to the Sister, and so back again: and to make all completely heathenish (and I tremble to breathe it in a Pulpit) A Son may participate of the body of his live Mother, and eat the flesh of his dead Father, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 detestabile; Cries SEXTUS EMPERICUS- Zeno approbat quod apud nos Sodomitae,- in his 3. Book Pyrroniarum Hypotyp●si●v. Cap. 24.  
Thus, with as much brevity as I could, I have traced out the principal positions of these divided Sects. Worthy ones no doubt, to bandy against the sacred Fundamentals of an Apostle, yet if it now please you to follow them,- E● stoä, & hortis, in Synagogam, - From their Gallery and Garden where they taught, into their Synagogue, you shall overtake them there all flocked together about S. PAUL, 
Act. 17. v. 17.  and (as the Text describes it) encountering him. Hear is just matter for observation, if not for wonder. Epicures, Stoics, men which jar as much as any that bear the name of Philosophers can do amongst themselves, are ready (nevertheless) to meet in a tumult and join forces against an Apostle, strange, did we not know that the wisdom of this world were enmity against GOD, and that- CHRIST unto the Jews a stumbling Block, 
1. Cor. 1.23.  unto the Grecians foolishness. What the ground was which should occasion this assault, S. AUGUSTINE conjectures to be (and it is not repugnant to the drift of the Text) Quid faciat beatam vitam? What might make a man most happy? The Epicure he answers; Voluptas corporis, the pleasure, 
Caluin. in Locum.  but with this limitation, the honest pleasure of the body. The Stoic he saith,- Virtus,- The virtue of the mind; 
August. Tract. de Epicur. & Stoicis, cap 7.  the Apostle replies- Donum Dei, it is the gift of GOD: LYRA adds, that from thence the sequel led them to the Resurrection. 
Lyra in cap 17. Act.  For the Epicures joy could last no longer than his subject; his bliss must dye with his body; and the Stoics foresaw not the Souls immortality, and therefore could not promise' everlasting Happiness. But the Apostle he preacheth a Resurrection of body and soul, and by that Eternal life, 
Act 17.18.  and so by consequence everlasting Happiness through CHRIST, both of Soul and Body. This seems to have been the subject of their Dispute, but their Arguments I can by no means collect; Be like they were so silly, that they were not thought worthy to be enroled amongst those more noble Acts of the Apostles, only their impudence, that is so notorious that it may not be omitted. For on what side soever the victory goes, theirs is the triumph; the cry runs with the Athenian, the Philosopher hath nonplussed the Divine, and the Apostle babbles. Thus the wicked have bend their bow and shot their arrows, even bitter words, bitter words against the Church and her true members in all Ages. The natural man led on by the dull light of reason, making Philosophy his Star, endeavours with those weak twinkle those lesser influences to obscure the glory of the greater light, that of Divine truth; so it was in the first dawn and rising of the Church. JANNES' and JAMBRES, the great Magicians of Egypt, withstood MOSES working miracles before PHARAOH. But all the spells of Magic with their black power, never wrought so mischievously against the Church as the subtle enchantments of the Philosopher. Christianity never felt such wounds, as from the School of the Athenian. The Seminary of the wrangling Artist; the Epicure, Stoic, Platonist; they were Philosophers, that's enough; they not only struggled to oppose Fundamentals of Faith, but to destroy them. Every age of the Church, and almost every place of it will give us a world of Instances; one Alexandria affords an Aetius and a Demophylus, against CHRIST; one Constantinople, a Macedonius, and an Eurox, against the Holy Ghost; One Ephesus, an Anthemius, and a Theodore, against the Virgin MARY; One Athens (here) an Epicure, and a Stoic, against PAUL; Nay, the sophistry of one perverse but nimble Disputant, hath cost more lives than are now breathing in the Christian world, and opened such a sluice and Arch through the body of the Eastern Church, which was not stopped again almost in the current of 300. years, when down it blood ran swiftly from the butcheries of Valens & Constantius, and the limbs, the thousand limbs of slaughtered Infants swum with the violence of the Torrent, even then when Christianity groaned under the merciless inventions and various tortures of the Arrian Massacre and persecution. Philosophers were the first Patriarches of that Heresy, 
Socrat. lib. 1. cap. 5.  and hence I suppose was that Edict of Constantine, that as a badge and character of their profession, they should be no more called Arrians, but Porphirians, the venomous brood of their cursed Master, and one that then blew the coal to most combustions of the Primitive Church; For at the Council of Nice (the place, and means ordained by that good Emperor for the suppression of Arrius, 
Sozom. lib. 1. cap. 17.  Anno Christi, 325.) some, if not of his name yet of his profession, (for they were Philosophers) trooped thither in droves and multitudes, not only to oppose the Bishops, but to upbraid them. Odio imflammati quod superstitiosa Gentilium religio antiquari caeperat,- as Ruffinus, lib. 1. cap. 3. And before that (in the Apostles time) about the year of CHRIST 75. they went about from City to City with this pretext only to reform public misdemeanours, and to that purpose had certain Sermons to the people, for rectifying their Conversation in moral carriages, and so seemed industrious to reduce them to a better form, but the main project was to confront the Apostles doctrine, and establish them more immoveably in the former superstition of the Gentiles, thus did Dyon, Apollonius, Euphrates, Demetrius, Musonius, Epictetus, Lucian, and others, as Baronius in his first Tome 777. pag. nay, 
Ad Annun. 75.  the very dregss of them (saith the Antiquary) the Cynic; and the Epicure, so violent (here) against PAUL. Hos prae caeteris infestos sensit Christiana religio.- These were the heathen janissaries, the chief Soldiers and spearemen against the Christian Faith, when at Rome the sides of that Religion were struck through with their blasphemous Declamations, Et petulantium eorum calumnijs & dicterijs miserè proscindebatur, 
Baron. Ad Annum, 164.  the same Baronius in his second Tome, pag. 154. Thus all violent oppositions of Christian truth had their first conception in the womb of Philosophy; The Fathers which trafficked with the tumults of those times, said in effect as much,- Omnes haereses subornavit Philosophia,- MARTION came out of the School of our Stoic, CELSUS, of the Epicure, VALENTINUS, of that of PLATO; all heresies were the flourishings and trim of humane Learning. Ind Aeones, & formae nescio quae, & Trinitas hominis apud Valentinum. Thence those Aeones (I know not what Ideas,) and that triple man in Valentinus, he was a Platonist. Thence Martions quiet God, it came from the Stoics; And the Soul should be made subject to Corruption,- is an observation of the Epicures, and the denial of the Resurrection, the joint opinion of their whole Schools. 
Lib. de Prescript. adverse. Haeres.  And when their- Materia prima is matched with God, it is Zeno's Discipline, and when God is said to be a fiery Substance, Heraclitus hath a finger in it, 
Comment. in Nahun. ad cap. 3.  thus Tertullian. S. Hierome keeps on the Catalogue- inde Eunomius prefert. Thence Eunomius drew his poison against the Eternity of the Son of God, For whatsoever is begotten and borne before it was begotten, was not; Thence Novatus blocks up all hope of pardon for offences on God's part, that he might take away repentance and all suit for it, on ours. Thence Manichaeus double God, and Sabellius fingle person; and to be short- De illis fontibus universa dogmata argumentationum suarum riwlos trahunt:- Menandrians, Saturnians, 
Johan. Baptist. Chrispus de Ethnic. Philos. Caute Legend. Quinar. 1.  Basilidians, Ammonians, Proclians, julian's, and the residue of that cursed Rabble, had from thence their conception, birth, nourishment, continuance. Hereupon the great Doctor of the Gentiles, writing purposely of their Wisdom, allegeth no other reason why they were not wise unto Salvation, but the wisdom of this World. The world through Wisdom knew not God. 1. Cor. cap. 1. vers. 20. And therefore he prescribes the Collossians a- Cavete nè vos seducat, 
Colos. 2.4. - Take heed lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit. Fuerat Athenis, 
De Prescript. adverse Haeres.  S. PAUL had been at Athens (saith Tertullian,) and knew by his often encounter there, how desperately secular and profane Knowledge wounded Divine truth. Insomuch, that the Father is of opinion. Vnâ hac sententiâ omnes haereses damnari, in his 5. Book against Martion, 19 Chapter.  
But whilst we go about to vindicate our Apostle, let us not be too injurious to the Philosopher; The Epicure and the Stoic had their Dross and rubbish, yet they had their Silver too, which had past the furnace, tried and purified enough for the practice of a Christian. Though they had Husks and Acorns for their Swine, yet they had Bread for Men. It was not their Philosophy was so pestilent, but the use of it; our Apostle reprehends not the true, but the vain; no doubt there is that which is Sanctified, as well as the Adulterate, otherwise the Fathers would never have styled Divinity, Philosophy; That is a glorious ray sent down from Heaven by the Father of Light; This but strange Fire, some Prometheus stole thence, and infused into a piece of babbling clay which circumuents weak men, and under a shadow and pretext of Wisdom, oftentimes carries away probability for truth. And it was this latter that inflamed the youth of AUGUSTINE to the study of it; but he was soon cooled when he descried the other; 
Cap. 4.  then- Nomen Christi non erat ibi,- in the 3. of his Confessions. And the words- 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were not now to be read in the great Peripatetique.- Insomuch, that that former asseveration of his- Phylosophos tantùm extuli, quantùm impios non oportuit,- he recants in the first of his Retractations; 
Cap. 1.  and against the Academics he is at once zealous and peremptory.- Hujus mundi Philosophiam sacra nostra meritissimè detestantur, 
Lib. 3. cap 19 - Our sacred Discipline utterly detests Philosophy; But what? The Philosophy of this world, which I know not whether it hath more convinced, or begotten error, or improved us in our knowledge, or staggered us. 
In Col. cum Trypho Indaeo.  And therefore Justin Martyr, after his Conversion from the Philosopher to the Christian, complained he was deluded by reading Plato; and Clemens Alexandrinus reports of Carpocrates and Epiphanes, who reading in PLATO'S Commonwealth that- Wives aught to be common, taught instantly their own to follow that virtuous principle, 
Ad Annun. 120.  it is Baronius Quotat. in his 2. Tom, pag. 76. Thus the Gold which SALOMON transports from Ophir, hammered and polished as it aught, beautifies the Temple, but if it fall into the hands of the Babylonians they work it to the Ruin of the City of GOD.  
And by this time PAUL hath passed his encounter, and gins now to suspect the censure of the Philosopher. He that enters the Synagogue at Athens is to expect nimble Ears, and sharp Tongues. If he Dispute, he must hazard an absurdity; if he Preach, he Babbles. What he doth on the one side less affectedly, and plain, the Epicure wrists instantly to the censure of a Bull, what more tiersely, and polite; on the other, the Stoic to a strong Line. Thus between the acuteness of the one, and the superciliousness of the other, PAUL shall not scape his lash; but the comfort is, except that the Parallel (here) exceeds the pattern, our Critics are not numberless; only, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉- some said; and these some (too) very probably, but Philosophers; that is,- Gloriae animalia & popularis aurae atque rumoris venalia mancipia, as HIEROME characters them. Creatures that will be bought and sold for popular applause; and when those factions are thus met, that is the issue? All they leave behind is but a mere saying,- 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,- some said,- and not said only of late, but done too, done violently against PAUL, not only at Athens, in the Synagogue, 
Act. 17. v. 22.  but in the hill of Mars too, the place of their consultation, where if the rude Epicure and the Stoic cannot cry him down enough, at Corinth, Iewes shall rise against him, and bring him to the judgement seat before Gallio the chief Deputy, for doing things otherwise then the Law; but maugre all their spite, it was found (said the Text) but a- cavil of names and words, 
Act. 18.5. - and he is dismissed the Tribunal with consent of the judge, and little glory to the Persecutor; The story you may find in the 18. of this Book, the application nearer home, thus. There is an outside austerity which looks grim upon offences, and pretends strangely to public Reformation; but the heart is double, and the design base, when it is not out of zeal to the common cause, but envy to the person. There are some which can harbour cleanly an inveterate grudge, and like cunning Apothecaries gild handsomely their bitter Pills; but when occasion of Revenge is offered, like Wind that is crept into the Caverns of the earth, it swells and struggles, and shakes the whole mass and bulk till it hath vent, which not finding close enough by their own persons, they set their pioneers a digging, and their Moles are heaving under earth, thinking to blow up all unseen. There is no malice so desperate as that which lies in ambush, and with her fangs hid, that project is ever merciless, though the stroke miscarry.  
Beloved, if Athens be thus an enemy to Athens, and will nurse up Snakes in her own bosom, and vultures for her own heart, what can she expect from the lips of Asps, and venom of sharp set Tongues, which cry of her as they did sometimes of jerusalem,- Down with it even to the ground?- The Virgin daughter is become an Harlot, the rendeuouz of the Epicure, the Synagogue of Lewdness, the Pap of exorbitancy,- 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,- Some said it. Some, that not only went out from us, but were of us too, but whilst here little better, than professed Epicures, at Rome (lately) bold Stoics, and in a beardless austerity, cry down the Discipline of Athens in open Senate; There are some so ambitious of the thing called Honour, (indeed but a mere tympany, and air of true Honour) that they will venture for it through the jaws of Perjury, forgetting the loyalty they owed to their sometimes Mother, and the fearful engagements made her by way of Oath for the vindicating of her honour; but these have said, and had they said truly, it had been in such a high injustice, and in sons too broadly discovers their little truth of affection, and less of judgement. As for those ignorant cries, the monster multitude casts upon Athens, here, she hath made the object both of their scorn, and pity. The wounds, the unnatural wounds from her own NERO so touch our AGRIPPINA.  
And now the Epicure, and the Stoic, have said, said, and done what they can, against PAUL, and against Athens; you have heard their violence; please you now turn your attentions from the Philosopher to the Divine, and hear- What the Babbler will say.  

What will this Babbler say?  
A GOD, at Myletum? at Lystra, 
Pars 2. Act 28. vers. 6. & Cap. 24, 12.  MERCURY? and at Athens, a Babbler? Sure men's censures vary with the place, and as the Clime is seated, so is the opinion: Had they steeped all their malice and wit in one head-piece, and vented it by a tongue more scurrilous than that of RABSHEKEY, they could not have profaned the honour of an Apostle with a term of such barbarousness and derogation. Babbler; A word so foul and odious, of that latitude, and various signification in the original, that both Translators, and Expositors, 
H●sichius- 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.- Leonardus Aretinus. Beza in locum, Vetus lectio.  have been plunged strangely and divided in the apt rendering it in a second Language; to omit the vulgar ones of- Nugator, Rabula, Garrulus, Blaterator,- as of those which follow the heel and track of the Letter, merely; others, which more closely pursue the Metaphor give it us, by- Seminator- verborum,- a sour of words; 
Erasmus in locum.  others- Semini- verbius- a seeder of them, a third sort,- Seminilegus, - a gatherer of seeds,- and this latter seems to Kiss and affy nearest with the nature of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Caietan in locum.  an Attic one, (says Cajetan) metophorically applied (here) and hath reference to those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Aretius' in locum.  certain Birds (Aretius tells us) so called,- 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉- from gathering of Seeds, or- 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉- from sowing of Speeches,- though this latter derivation affect not some, as doubly peccant, in the Etymon, and the Metaphor; for then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been more genuine, 
Beza ut supra.  so Beza. Birds they were of vile esteem amongst the Athenians, useless, neither for food, nor song,- Sed garritu perpetuo laborantes,- so continually Chattering, that they did rack and perplex the ears of all that heard them, insomuch that it grew proverbial amongst the Atticks, 
Athanaeus citatur ab Erasmo in locum.  that he that was loud in his discourse, or impertinent or profuse, was instantly- 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which seems to sound one with that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanaeus touches,- 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉- quoted by Erasmus. The first (for aught I read) that ever made use of the word in this disgraceful way was Demosthenes, 
Aretius & Erasmo in locum.  and he fling it upon Aeschines, who being an Athenian, dropped it (be like) afterwards amongst some of the Philosophers, and a Stoic takes it up and bestows it here on an Apostle. It was well shouldered from the Philosopher to the Divine; but, me thinks it should not stick there. Babbling ill becomes the lips of the Levite; and it cannot hung truly upon that tongue which hath been touched with a Coal from the Altar; and sure justice cannot put it on us, it must be malice, or prejudice, or both, and both have done it, not only on us, but that great Apostle PAUL himself, though choicely versed in all ways of Learning, a known Scholar, a professed Disputant, a great Doctor of the Gentiles, brought up at the feet of Gamaliell, one that had done so many Miracles to the Conversion of many, astonishment of all, yet he cannot pass an Athenian without his lash, a Philosopher without his Quip,- where the Gown is so frequent hard baulking the Cryticke; Lyvie will not like Trogus, nor Caligula, Lyvie; Athanaeus, Plato, or a third Athanaeus; Tully, Demosthenes, or the Lypsiaen, Tully; so many fancies, so many censures,- no avoiding them at Athens. Nay, were PAUL a second time to arrive it, he might yet perchance meet with an Epicure or a Stoic, would have a fling at him with his Quìd vult Seminilegus iste? What will this Babbler say? And this Venom towards PAUL swells not only at Athens, but at Dirbe, and Lystra, and the chief Cities of Lycaonia; scarce one in a Kingdom but would jerk at a Paul; and if he chance to come before Foelix the Governor, some blackmouthed Tertullus will be bawling at the bar ready billed with a false accusation, 
Act. 24.5. - This man is a mover of Sedition, goes about to pollute the Temple, a chief maintainer of the Sect of the Nazarites.- Thus secular malice (through all ages) hath opposed the true members of the Church, and if it cannot disparage the honour of their title, it will spitefully plot the traducement of their honour.- Up thou Baldpate, 
2. King. 2.23.  Up thou Baldpate, Children can cry at bethel;- and, He is factious, he is unconformable, he is a Babbler, at Athens, is the popular and common Vogue. Hear is a large Field offered me through which I might travel, but this is not my way, it is too trodden; every Hackney roads it, I have found out as near a cut, though the passage may seem more stony and uneven; thither bend I, where I shall show you, how in Divine matters we may be said to Babble? how in Secular? in either how not? The Symptoms of that Lip-disease, the danger, the judgement on it, the cure. Let the Epicure, and the Stoic, (awhile) lay by their censure, and hear, now- What this Babbler will say?-  

Hooker, lib. 5. Eccles. Pol.  Speech is the very image whereby the Mind and Soul of the speaker conveyeth itself into the bosom of him that heareth. 
Charron, lib. 3. Wisdom.  The Stern and Rother of the Soul which disposeth the hearts and affections of men, like certain notes to make up an exact harmony. But this must be soft and gentle then, not overscrued; It is with Speech, as it is with Tunes, if keyed too high, rack no less the Instrument than the ear that hears them, when those which are lower pitched make the harmony both full, and sweeter; your tumid and forced language harrows the attention, when the facile and flowing style doth not so much invite applause, as command it; it is a gaudy, but an emasculate and weak eloquence, which is dressed only in a pomp of words, and glories more in the strength of the Epythet, than the matter; this is the Body, the other but the Garment of our discourse, which we should suit as well to every subject, as occasion; sometimes more liberally, sometimes more contractedly, lest we be said to Babble, 
Heccatus. - for it is true what Archidamus told the Orator of old,- They which know how to speak well, know also their times of silence.- And (indeed) to speak appositely and much, is not the part of one man, 
Ecclus. 21.25.  I am sure, not of a wiseman.- The words of him which hath understanding, are weighed in the balance.- Mark- weigh, in the Balance.- Hear is deliberation of speech, evenness- Pone Domine custodiam ori meo, 
Psal. 141.3. - was the Prayer of David,- set a watch before my lips. And in the Law of Moses, the Vessel that had not the covering fastened to it was unclean; and therefore the inner-Parts of a Fool are resembled to a broken vessel, which hath neither part entire, nor covering, He can keep no knowledge while he liveth, Ecclus. 21.14. 
Plutar.  Hereuppon those more nobly bred amongst the Romans learned first to hold their peace, and afterwards to speak. 
De 3. plici Custodia: ling. man. meant. - For Vnde illi cura Cordis (saith Bernard) cui ne ipsa quidèm adhùc oris circumspectio? He is an ill treasurer of his own thoughts, that keeps not the doors of his lips shut; and that heart is never locked fast upon any secret, where a profuse tongue lays interest to the Key.  
And therefore, Nature hath provided well by fortifying this member more than any part of the Body, setting a garrison of the strong and stout men about it, Eccles. 12. doubly entrenching it with lips and teeth, not so much to oppose a foreign invasion as to alloy mutinies within, for the tongue is an unruly member; and sides much with the perverseness of our will; and therefore Reason should keep strict sentinel upon it, and as well direct, as guard it. Nature hath proportioned us a double Ear and Eye to a single Tongue, and Reason interprets instantly- We should hear and see twice, ere we speak once. And indeed our Tongues would follow our sense (says Augustine) and not our will, 
Ad Fratres in Erem. serm. 2.  and the Father puts the Fool handsomely upon him,- Qui non priùs verbum ducit ad linguam rationis, quàm educat ad linguam oris.-  
Let Reason (saith the Son of Syrach) go before every enterprise and counsel to every Action, 
Ecclus. 37.16. - to every virtuous action, 
Aristotle Elluc. lib. 3.  (besides the latter of these) the Philosopher allows a double adverb,- Scientèr, Constantèr.- So that every discreet design must have besides Reason, Knowledge, Counsel, Constancy; Reason and Knowledge, the pole and card to direct it; Counsel, Constancy, to steer and ballast it. Hence it is that the tongue of a Wise man is in his heart, 
Ecclus. 21.  and where the heart of a Fool is, no ignorance so womanish but tells you.  
So that the observation of S. Bernard comes seasonably here, 
Bernard ut sup. - Nòn personam tibi velim suspectam esse, sed linguam, praesertim in sermocinatione communi,- In common talk we are not to heed the person so much as the tongue, for by the babbling of that we may rove at the weight or weakness of the Master; for commonly he that nothing but talks, talks nothing, nothing of bulk or substance, shells only and barks of things without their pith or kernel.  
To avoid then this disease of Babbling and profuse emptying of vain words, 
Mark, 9  the Disciples were prescribed, 
Levit 12.13. Colos. 4.6. - their- Habete Sal in vobis;- and Salt (you know) was commanded of old, not only to Men, but to Sacrifices and Words. 
Ad Fratres in Erem. serm. 2.  That to words (not savoured aright) S. Augustine calls;- Sal insatuatum ad nullum condimentum,- it seasons nothing as it should do, every thing relishes amiss it toucheth. For the Babbler doth not measure words by their weight, but by their number, neither regards he what he speaks, but how much; Thus whiles he labours to persuade the ear, he wounds it, and to invite his hearer, he torments him. In the Leviticall Law, the man that had- Fluxum seminis,- was unclean;- And Gregory turns the Allegory, on the dispensers of holy Mysteries.- GOD'S Word is the Seed, the Preacher the Sour of it; 
August. in Parab. semi●an.  or, as The Father hath it on the Parable,- Cophinus seminantis,- the Seedesmans' basket.- If he be then- Jncautè loquax,- unpremeditately babbling.- Non ad usum generis, sed ad immunditiam semen effundit,- and such a one in Primitive times was called- Semini-verbius, 
Greg lib. 2. Past. cap. 4. - the Father tells us in the 2. part of his Pastorals, 4. Chapter. And no doubt he that sows overmuch by the Tongue shall seldom fructify, except the seed be choice and orderly disposed, 
Charron. lib. 3.  Speech being the more exquisite communication of Discourse and Reason, which as it should not be too coursely open, so not involved; 
Themistocles.-  Hence the Athenian compared it to a rich piece of Arras drawn out in variety of Stories, which displayed, opened both delight and wonder, but folded up, neither; For, it is with Speech as with some Aromaticks and perfumes, which in the mass and role smell little, but beaten abroad fill the room with fragancy. Matter wound up in obscurity of language grows to the nature of a Riddle, and is not so properly Speech, as Mystery; Things that hammer only on our ears, not our interlectuals, are no more words, but sounds, mere- babbling- air (only,) beaten with distinctless and confused noise, nothing of substance in it for matter, or for form; And the man that affects such marticulatenesse, hear how Gregory plays upon, 
Nazian. in Praefat. Apol. - Ego solertiae nomine admiror, ne dicam, stultitiae. A Wiseman (says the Philosopher of old) when he openeth his lips, 
Socrates.  as in a Temple we Behold the goodly similitudes and images of the Soul,- And indeed that Eloquence that is made the object of our sense, and intellectuals carries with it both majesty and imitation, when that which runs in a mist or veil, Censure for the most part, sometimes, Pity. Let the Babbler then that thus speaks in a Cloud,- Pray that he may interpret, 1. Cor. 14.13. 
1. Cor. 14.13. ●  it will require a Comment from his own industry; others, are too dull to undertake a task of such an endless travail. It is a preposterous way of interpretation, when the gloss grows obscurer than the Text; Sermons which were first intended for the illumination of the understanding, are at length grown like those answers of the Oracles, both intricate and doubtful, They will require the heat of a sublimated brain, either to apprehended their raptures, or to reconcile them. But why at Athens such prodigies of Learning? Such monsters of affectation? Why this elaborate vanity? This industrious Babbling? Let it no more touch the gravity of the Tippet, or the Scarlet, as fit for a Desk then a Pulpit, and a lash, than a reproof. But, soft Stoic. Let me not be censured here too hastily a Babbler. I am not so much a friend to the slovenly discourse, as to loathe that which hath a decent and modest dress; words apt and choice, I hate not, only those tortured, and affected once; I prefer S. Augustine's golden Key before his wooden, though this may unlock Mysteries as well as that; yet would I not give way to the kick-shawed discourse, where there is commonly more sauce than meat; or, as Quintilian spoke of Seneca,- Chalk without Sand,- more of lustre then of weight; It is the well woven and substantial piece tasks me, yet that too, not without the flourishings and intermixtures of discreet language. For it is here as it is in Needle-workes, where we allow light colours, so the ground be sad. The Breastplate of judgement which Aaron wore was made with embroidered works, 
Exod. 28.15.  and in the Ephod, there were as well diversities of colours as of riches,- Blue silk, and Purple, and Scarlet, and fine Linen.- That then of Epiphanius is worthy both of your memory and imitation,- whose works were read of the simple for the words, of the Learned for the matter.- So,- he that will not run the censure of a Babbler, must have as well his deeps for the Elephant, as his shallowss for the Lamb; Knowing that some are transported with heat of fancy, and others with strength of judgement, and it is in the choice of either, as in that of Stuffs, which some buy for the roundness and substance of the thread, others for the lightness of the colour. Matter not clothed in handsomeness of words is but dusted treasure, and like some Gardens where there is fatness of earth, no Flower. Your embellished phrase without sollidnesse of matter, but- Copiosa aegestas (as Saint Augustine styles it) a gaudy poverty, and like some unhappy Tillages, where there is more of Poppy and Darnell, then good Corn; But, where the materials are clean, the language keemed, there is the workmanship of an exact Penman; If they are both well mixed and cemented, there is a choice masterpiece, Apelles himself hath been there.  
And however, the discourse that is so brushed and swept others have thought too effeminate for the Pulpit, yet, in some it is no way of affectation, but of knowledge. High fancies cannot creep to humble expressions, and the fault is oftentimes in the prejudice or weakness of the receiver, not in the elaboratenesse of the Penman. Sermons are not to be measured by their sound, or the haste and uncharitableness of a dull organ; the Ear is a deceitful one, full of winding and uncertain doors, and often carries false messages to the Sense, the Eye as it is a more subtle organ, so a more certain, and though that be sometimes deceived too when it is not master of the distance, yet upon stricter perusal of the object, it gives you uncorrupt intelligence, when words pass (for the most part) by our ears like tunes in a double consort, which we may hear, not distinguish.  
And yet notwithstanding, though at Athens amongst Philosophers, this polite way of discourse may be passable, and draw on sometimes approbation, sometimes applause; yet at Ephesus (where PAUL is to encounter Beasts) it is but mere Babbling; 
Act. 26.13.  And to what purpose those lofty varieties, in sprinkled Congregations? Raptures and high visions are for Caesarea, 
Act. 28.14.  when PAUL is to speak before Agrippa, thinner exhortations will serve the Brethrens at Puteoli.- And when all those descants and quaverings of the plausible and harmonious tongue shall lose their volubility and sweetness, and forget to warble (as the time will come (the Preacher tells us) when all those Daughters of Music shall be brought low) the plain long must take at last, 
Eccles. 12.  that which is set to every capacity and ear; and yet will afford you, as well her varieties of satisfaction, as delight; to the judicious solid fluentness, to apprehensions lower-roofed ways more trodden to advice, and comfort; to the weak and Soul-sick, the still voice, to the obstinate, and remorseless, louder sounds; perchance this thunderclap may breed a shower, that shower, a sunshine. Tears and Comfort are the successory children of reprehension, sometimes, the twins; Let the sword of the Spirit than cut both ways, but more to reproof, then menacing; master thy Vinegar with Oil, so thou shall not so much sharpen the heart of the Sinner, as suppling it; some grow more refractory by rebuke, and some more flexible; For, it is with the word of a Preacher, as it is with Fire, which both mollifies and hardens Steel, according to the variety of heats. If we derive only from one Throne coals of fire, and hot Thunderbolts, we kindle despair in him we teach, not reformation; It is the temperate and gentle fire sparkles into zeal, when that which is too high and turbulent grows at an instant both flame and ashes. Let the Righteous smite me friendly (says the Kingly Prophet) but let not their precious balms break my head. 
Psal. 141.5. - I allow reprehension a Rod, but not a flail, a hand to (lash the transgressions of the time, not as some do to thresh them.  
PAUL will prescribe the Spiritual combatant a Sword, but not a Spear; 
Achilles.  except he had the Grecians,- which would both wound and cure. Marah may have bitter waters, but Gilead must have balm too for the broken heart. Where sins are full kerned and ripe, I deny not a Sickle to cut them down, but the sinner, whither as Corn for the Barn, or Chaff for the fire, I leave to the disposal of the great Haruestman.  
In the apparition of GOD to Eliah, on Mount Horeb, (you know the Text, 
1. King. 19.11.12.  and therefore guess at the allusion.) A strong wind rend the Mountains, and broke in pieces the Rock, before the Lord; but the Lord was not in it, and there was a great Earthquake and a Fire, but the Lord was not in it. And in those winds and fires, and earthquakes which are both seen and heard on our Horeb here, the Lord oftentimes is not in them, for then the mountainous and rocky heart would be cleft a sunder, now it is unbattered and ribbed with Adamant proof against persuasion,  
Knowing that these are but Men of Thunder, sergeant thunder too, and there is a GOD that rules the true, his hot bolts and coals of Fire they quake and tremble at, not those fireworks, and squibs, and flashes here below, which spleenaticke men fling about (as they think) to terror, but they return by scorn. 
Be●nard de tripl●ci Custod.  It is true (says Bernard)- Sermo est Ventus, but it is not always,- Ventus urens,- surge Aquilo, veni Auster, perfla hortum meum, & fluant Aramata illius,- Arise O North, and come O South (the one (you know) is moist, and the other cold) yet both of these must blow on the garden of the Spouse, that the Spices thereof may flow out, 
Cant. 4.6.  Cant. 4.6. In the Song of Moses, did not Doctrine drop as the rain? and Speech still as dew? as the shower upon Herbs? and as the great rain upon the Grasse●? 
Deut. 32.2.  I confess, on Synay once there was a thick Cloud, Lightning and Thunder, and the mountain smoked; 
Exod. 20.18.  but the Text says,- The people fled from it.- But on mount Tabor, the Cloud was bright, the Sun clear, and a Voice heard in stead of Thunder, and then the Disciples cry,- Edificemus Domine, 
Mat. 17.2.4, 5. - Let us build here.  
Amongst the numberless Gods the Heathens had, and the diverse ways of Sacrifice they appeased them with, the Romans' had their- Hostiam Animalem,- in which the Soul only was consecrated to GOD, 〈◊〉 the Host they offered must be pure and choice, not of Bulls or Swine, as creatures fierce and unclean, but of Kids and Lambs, more innocent and mild, and of these too, such as were not lame, or diseased, or had- Caudam aculeatam, or,- Linguam nigram, 
Alexand. ab Alex. lib. 3. cap. 12 - says my Antiquary. You see stings in the tail, and blackness in tongue are exempted here and thought unfit for this sacrifice of the Soul.  
Let the virulent Babbler leave the Letter and take the Allegory, and he hath applied;- For venomous and foul language doth exasperated and obdure even those which the modest and gentle pierces. Let Billows beat against a Rock, they fall back without wounding it, yet if moderate and gentle drops fall on a Stone they hollow it, not by violence, 
In Praefat. Apolog.  but the often Distillation. Sheep (says Nazianzene) are not to be governed by rigour, but persuasion; all those impulsions of necessity and force, carry with them a show of tyranny, and hold neither with Nature nor observation, 
Idem Ibid. - Non secùs ac planta per vim manibus inflexa,- says the Father. bend a Plant (and it is with most men as it is with plants) it turns again. There was never disposition, not cowardly and base, that violence could work upon. Ingenuity if it be not always voluntary, it may be led sometimes, but never drawn; And therefore Peter feeds his Flock, not by constraint, but willingly, and (as your common Babblers never do) not for filtby Lucre, but a ready mind. 1. Peter, 5.2. 
1. Pet. 5.2.  And indeed it is this filthylucre- hath occasioned so many Babblers in our Church, those that will say any thing for the inhauncement of their profit, the improving of their Stipend; Brey at Universities for a morsel of bread; give blows against Learning, make scars in the face of Knowledge, cry down the use of Arts, or what is curiously strung in secular Learnings, abandon them from the lips of the Preacher, and confine him only to a sacred dialect without intermixture of profane Knowledge, or sleek of humane Eloquence; No marrow of the Father, no subtlety of the Schoolman, no gravity of the Philosopher, no policy of the Historian; thereby depriving the Church of variety of Gifts, and manacling and pinning the Holy Ghost to a defect of all outward ornaments, as if that wind which bloweth where it list were forbade to breathe any where but in their new-fangled and brainsick endeavours.  
Hence it is, that the distribution of holy Mysteries grows so to contempt, the dispensers of them entitled to terms of obloquy and scorn, exposed to the Paraphrase and Comment of the jeering adversary. Our Athens disparaged, Learning of no price and value, Preaching, Babbling, and the main reason and inducement why the whole body of Arts thus reels and wavers. I have at length met the Babbler, I desired to grapple with, and we must exchange a few blows ere we part, in which I shall be home without much flourish. Stoic, once more forbear. Stand aloof till we have passed this Duel, then let thy censure fall, as the wounds do, justly. Suppose we then a man harnessed and clad with all the glories and habiliments of Nature, besides the rich dowry and treasure of Art and Knowledge, yet say I not that this man without a supernatural light from the Scripture, is able to utter those Mysteries as he aught, either in their strength, or decency. Doubtless, the best of ours, either for depth of Knowledge, or sublimity of Invention, or accurateness of Composure, or cleanness of Zeal, are comparatively mere Babble, and fall many bows short of those inspired once of old; neither are they God's word (says Hooker) in the same manner that the Sermons of the Prophets were, 
Lib. 5. Ecclest. Polit.  not they are ambiguously termed his Word, 
Doct Cowels Defence, in the Chapter of Preaching.  and are no more the same, then is the Discourse the Theme, or the Line the Rule, by which it is drawn; yet have they a peculiarity both of virtue and success; strange prerogatives over the sudden passions and affections of most men, whom they not lead only but entangle, and not fetter barely, but entrance; in a word, they reign over us and establish a violent empire and command over our very Souls. Divinity we confess the sovereign Lady and Queen of all Sciences, Arts (if you approve the style) her Maids of honour. Are we not sacrilegious then to the state of Sovereignty when we rob it of her train? The chiefest compliment of Greatness is the retinue, take away her equipage you disnoble it. Bar sacred Learning of the attendance of that which is secular, Arts, Sciences, you disrobe it, strip it of its glory. 
Divinity (saith Basill) is the fruit, Arts as the leaves, and leaves are not only for ornament but succour.  * Certain truths in her cannot fully be discovered without some measure of Knowledge in them all. The Axioms and principles of Humanity though they a little run by those of Divinity, yet they do not thwart them, there may be difference, no contrariety, not not in those things which seem to carry a show of contrariety. Reason our Mistress tells us,- Verum vero consonat,- and Truth stands diametrically opposed to Falsehood, not to a second truth; for- Vero nil verius,- Philosophical truths challenge the same source and pedigree Theological do, the same fountain, and Father, GOD, and are of the like Truth, though not of the like Authority.  
Hence flows that admirable consent and harmony between the natural patefactions of GOD, and the supernatural; 
Amand. Polan. lib. 2. Logic. fol. 213.  for from God is both Reason and Scripture, and Reason being obscured by Sin, and blemished by her many errors, the Scripture doth unscale and beams again, and so sets her free from her former obliquities and digressions, 
De Fuga saculi. Cap. 3.  the light of Nature being dimmed (saith Ambrose) was to be cleared by the Law, the wrists of the Law by the Gospel, so that Grace doth not abolish Nature, but perfect it, 
August. in Psal. 100LS.  neither doth Nature reject Grace (saith Augustine) but embrace it. Nay, my Author (and I have gleaned I confess some few ears of Corn from his more plentiful crop) quotes Tertullian too very appositely, 
Theolog. Logic, pag 200.  (and 'tis like Tertullians' both for the marrow and the reach.)- God first sent Nature to be our Schoolmistress, being after to sand Prophecy, that thou being first the Disciple of Nature, mightest afterwards the more easily be induced to believe Prophecy. We may not think then the Ipse Dixit of the Philosopher, or the weighty depositions of profane Authors, to be mere Chimaeraes, fruitless Fancies, Babble of no consequence; though some of them were not true Visions, yet they were not all stark Dreams, PAUL then would never have confuted the Idolaters of Athens with their own 
Act. 17.28.  Text,- Some of your own Poets have said it; There may be much Hay and Stubble amongst them, but there is some Gold, and precious Stones; try them, if they endure not the touch, throw them by as metals too course and drossy; but if there be rich Oar mixed with veins of Earth, why not separated? Why not purged by the fire of God's word? Why may not this stranger to Israel, her head shaved, and the hair of her eyebrows cut be admitted into the Sanctuary? If one Copernicus be troubled with the Vertigo, and would have the earth run round as his head does, shall a whole Sect of Aristotelians be liable to a disease of giddiness? Though a Stoic or an Epicure oppose PAUL, yet at Athens there were Academics, and Peripatetics, Philosophers too, without their tumult, and for aught the Text caueat's me to the contrary, they were his Converts too. And it is evident that the Apostles, and after them the Fathers, 
Doct cowel.  made Arts the Chief weapons against the Enemies of the Church, for as some opinions would not be convinced without humane Learning, 
August.  so others affections would not be persuaded without that eloquence, thus they wounded the Heresies and Apostasies of their times, when the Revolted julian was impelled to say; 
Greg. Nazian. - We are struck through with our own Darts.- All Science whatsoever is in the nature of good; and good is good, wheresoever I find it. 
August. de Baptist. contra Dotist. l●b. 6. cap. 2.  Upon a withered branch (says Augustine to his Donatist) a Grape sometimes may hung, shall I refuse the Grape because the staulke is withered? If on a tempestuous shore I meet by chance a rich piece of Amber, or richer Pearl, amongst oar, and shells, and froth, and sands, shall I refuse either for the stench of the place or the companions? I have seldom read of any thing but a foolish Cock that refused Treasure, though on a dunghill. I know Heathens had their slime and mud, and some of their streams ran impurely, yet they had their Crystal fountains too, especially the Platonists, of which we might draw, and drink, and drink our fill, and drink as our own, too, (Augustine says) they being in the tenure of unjust possessors. 
August. lib 2. de Doct Christiana cap. 40.  For as the Israelites (it is the Father's similitude) took from the Egyptians their Idols, and Rings, and silver, & Gold, and bestowed the same upon the adorning of the Lords Tabernacle, which they had abused by pride and riot, to the beautifying of the Temples of their false Gods, and did this- Non auctoritate propriâ sed praecepto (says the Father) not by the instigation of their own will, but by mandat, sic Doctrinae omnes Gentilium, non solum simulata & superstitiose figmenta, etc. So all those Doctrines of the Gentiles (their superstitious fictions expunged and laid by) their liberal Disciplines and Precepts of manners (which were their Gold and Silver) may be reduced to the use of sacred Learning, and a Christian may challenge them- Ad usum justum praedicandi Euangelij,- they are the Fathers own words.- However he puts in a caveat by the way- a- sed hoc modo instructus,- the Divine that is thus accommodated when he shall address himself to the use and search of these heathen treasures,- Illud Apostolicum cogitare non cesset, 
1. Cor. 8. - Scientia inflat, charitas aedificat,- in his Lib. 2. de Doct Christian. 40. Cap. I never yet read that the true use of secular Learning took from the glory of that which was Divine, I have, that it hath added, nor that any thing gleaned and picked, and culled with a clean hand was distasteful unto GOD, I have that it was approved. I know there is a Venomous eloquence (as Cyprian wrote of that of Novatus) and this perchance the Babbler himself uses, 
Epist. ad Cornel.  when he leads silly Creatures captive, but it is odious both to GOD and Man, and hath been the main Engine in all Ages by which Schisms and Heresies have wrought. In those Sacrifices of old, Levit. 4.5. You know whatsoever was unclean, was an abomination unto the Lord; the Offering itself must be without blemish, the Altar seven days cleansed before it was laid on, the Priest too washed before the Congregation, ere he dared to immolate; and why not so in this Holocaust and Sacrifice of the lips? Why not the Offering without blemish, the Altar cleansed, the Priest so in his Discourse too, that what is kindled here may burn as a sweet Incense unto the Lord? smells that are unsavoury never touch his nostrils, sounds harsh and jarring, never his ears; and therefore, the Bells of Aaron were of pure Gold, 
Greg Nazian. Apolog. - Ne subaeratum aliquod tinniat in Sacerdotio,- saith Gregory.  
It is a sullenness, or rather policy, most in our age have got, that what is in a way of eminence and perfection, they censure as a piece of affectation or curiosity, when (God knows) it is but to colour some sinister pretence, and for a fairer varnish of their own weaknesses. You know the story of the Painter and the Cock, and the Boy that kept the live ones from his shop least coming too nigh, the unskilfulness of that hand should be discovered, which had drawn the other at so rude a posture.  
There is a malicious ignorance possesseth many, by which they undervalue all things above their sphere, and cry down that industry or Art in others, which is beyond the verge and fathom of their own abilities. But why should Moles repined that other see? Or Cripples murmur that others halt not? Tolle quod tuùm est & Vade. 
Hierom. ad Colphurnium.  Yet lo how even those last and gasping times keep up with the manner of those of old, both in their spleen and weakness. There be (saith the Father to his Marcellinus) that account incivility of Manners and rudeness of Speech, true Holiness, 
Hieronimus. - and with such,- Quis non Vicus abundat? Would I could not say,- Quae Academia? These Cynics are in every Tub, these Stoics here at Athens. But why should the talk of such be a burden in our way? Learning unto a Wiseman is as an ornament of Gold, and like a bracelet on his Arm, 
Eccles. 21.15.  but Fetters about the feet, and Manacles about the hands; of whom? of him that (but now) was the burden in the way, the Fool, 
Ecclus. 21.21.  whom lest we should leave without his companion, Syracides brings home to the gates of the Babbler, and I will leave him there, - As a house that is destroyed, 
Ecclus. 21.18.  so is Learning to a Fool, and his Knowledge is but talk without sense, Ecclus. 21.18. the tail of the Verse carrieth the sting; for much of our Babblers knowledge is little better than- Sermo sine sensu, Words without Salt, Speech without Ballast. And yet (good Lord) how these lamps burn in our Tabernacles, these Bells sound in our Sanctuary? They are the thunderbolts of our Congregations, the Hotspurres of our Pulpits. Against the sins of the time they clack loud, and often, but it is like Mills driven by a hasty torrent, which grind much, but not clean; And indeed it is not much they grind neither, in substance, but in show, neither is the labour so superlative, as the noise. Some that have been conversant in the trade, say, that Corn that is clean and massy, will lie long in the womb and body of the Mill and requires all the industry of stone and water, and will not be delivered without some time and travail, when grains which are mixed and course, run through with less difficulty, and more tumult. The Babbler will apply. Thus we see empty vessels sound much, and shallow streams run swift and loud, but on barren grounds, when those deeper ones glide slowly, as with more gravity, so more silence, yet on fat soils, and so the neighbouring Fields grow fertile with their abundance. If all truth of Religion reigned in the Tongue, and the subduing of our manifold rebellions in the mortification of the Look, there were no sanctity but here.- But the heat of this man's zeal, is like that of Glass, which will be blown into any form according to the fancy of him that blows it, sometimes into that of a Serpent, sometimes of a Dove, but more often of a Serpent, then of a Dove, not for the wisdom of it, but the venom. Every word is a sting against the Church, her Discipline, truth of Government, He Babbles shrewdly against each Institution of it, State, Ceremonies, makes them adulterate, the dresses of the Great whore, and sets all without the walls of reformation, which Wheel and Role not with the giddiness of his tenants. The Golden-mouthed Homilist in his fourth upon the Acts, 
Chrysost.  speaking of that miraculous way of the Holy Ghosts descent upon the Apostles in the day of Penticost, observes nimbly, thus;- There came a sound from Heaven,- As it were- of a Rushing and mighty wind, and there appeared to them Cloven tongues,- As it were- of Fire,- Rectè ubique additum est,- Velut- nequid sensibile de Spiritu suspicareris,- says the Father.- And indeed, in those phanaticke Spirits, though the Tongues be fiery, and the voice as the Winds, rushing; yet in themselves there is nothing sensible; For as those which appeared to the Apostles, were but- Velut igneae, 
Chrysost Homil, 4. in Act. - and Velut flatus,- so this oral vehemency is but- Velut Zelus, and Velut Indignatio,- False fire, or, at best, but some hot exhalation in the brain set on fire by continual motion and agitation of the Tongue, and there it burns sometimes to the madness of the Professor, most times, of the Disciple. Again, these Tongues are said to sit upon the Apostles,- Sedendi verbum stabilitatem ac mansionem denotat, the same Father- sitting presupposes Stability and Mansion, but most of these have neither, either in their opinion, or course of life, but as the contribution ebbs or flows; so they hoist, or strike sail, either way, sometimes for the wide main, sometimes for the next harbour. Again, the Apostles are said there, to be filled with the Holy Ghost.- Rectè repleti, nòn enim vulgaritèr acciperunt gratiam Spiritus, sed eosque ut implerentur, the Father still.- Where the Spirit pours out it leaves no part empty, it doth fill, fill up even to the brim, gives power of speaking roundly, and fully; where it doth give power,- no Rheumatic Enthusiasms, no languishing ejaculations, but such as the Spirit indeed have dictated, such as flow from lips immediately touched with the true Cherubin, and a Tongue swollen with inspiration. Again, the Tongues which sat upon the Apostles were cloven Tongues, 
Vide Geneva Notes in 2. chap. Acts.  other tongues, Vers. 4. and S. Mark calls them new Tongues. They were not confined then to a single dialect to Babbling merely in our Mother tongue, but the Text says they had diverse Tongues, of the Parthian, and Mede, and Elamite, Phrygian, and Pamphilian, and of those of Lybia which is beside Cyrene, And in those and (other Tongues too) they spoke the wonderful works of God. Act. 2.11. Lastly, this Vision they saw when they were in the Temple, not in a Cloister, a Barn, a Wood, a Conventicle, and they were in the Temple with one accord too, with one Office, one Spirit, one Mind, one Faith; not here a Separatist, there a Brownist, yonder a Familist, near him an Anabaptist, but as their Faith was one, so was their life, and (if brought to the test) their death too. That was not Religion with them which was divided, 
Plin. lib 18. cap. 2.  nor that not unity of opinion which they would not burn for. Some Heathens have showed such resolution and truth even in their false Religion; such were those- Aruales Sacerdotes- of old amongst the Romans', 
Caesar. lib. 3. Galli.  the Solduni amongst the Aquitans; the Egyptians also had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, so called, because, promiscuously enjoying each others benefits, as in one Religion, so in one Love, they would dye together; 
Alex. ab Alex. Lib. 1. Cap. 26. & Cap. 12. lib. 3.  such were the Huns, Hyberi, Cantabri, and others, which were joynt-sharers of each others miseries, and fortunes; and if one by disaster or disease met with Calamity, or Fate, the other sought it.—  — Placìdamque petunt pro vulnera mortem. 
If in matters therefore as well Moral as Divine, there was such reciprocation of old; and not only in Religions, which were tainted, and smelled not of the true GOD, but in that too which hath been touched and influenced by the Spirit of the Almighty, there was such punctual correspondence then, why such combustion now? Why those daily scars and wounds both by the Tongue, and Pen? Why so much gall in our Pulpit, such wormwood at the Press? Why those Civillwarres in our own tenants? Such stabbings in particular opinions? Such heart-burnings in our Brethrens? to the great disquiet of our Mother, Church, and her Son they so labour to disinherit, the Protestant, the wounded Protestant, who hath been now so long Crucified between the- non- Conformist and the Romanist, that at length he is enforced to fly to Caesar for sanctuary, and in the very rescue and Appeal, like the poor man between Jerusalem, and Jericho, he falls into the hands of Thiefs, two desperate cutthroats and enemies to the Truth, and him, the Pelagian and the Armixian. But no more (beloved) of those Daggers and Stilettoes to our own breasts by the cruelty of our own Tribe; Know, dissension is the very gate of ruin, and the breach at which destruction enters. Civillwarres are as dangerous in matters of Religion as State, and prove the Earthquakes both of Church and Commonwealth. The story of the Romans shafts is both old, and trodden, but very pertinent; in the Bandle they never felt injury of hand, one by one were the conquest of a finger, and Tacitus speaks of Apronius Soldiers;- Satìs validi si simul, etc. as long as they marched in their combined ranks they stood aloof all danger, but, these divided, they grew the prey and slaughter of the Adversary; and thus- Dùm singuli pugnunt, universi vincuntur. A mutiny or rend in an Army is the Soldier's passing-bell, Death follows, or despair of victory, when those which are knitup in one heart of courage and affection trample on distrust as if they had already worn the palm and glory of their Triumph. A●● it speeds no better in a divided Church, where Schisms and Factions like so many rents and breaches, have hewed-out, a way to her overthrow and ruin. Not more struggle then by unnatural twins in the womb of our Rebecca. Not more war in her members, no more Babble in their tongue, no more venom in their Pen, to the great advantage of the Adversary, whose artillery is ready, his bow bend, the arrow on the string and malice levelling at the very bosom of the Church, (I pray God, not of the State too) and waits only opportunity to loosen it. But let us with all humbleness of mind, meekness, 
Ephes. 4. ver. 2.3 4.5.6.  long suffering (supporting one another through love) endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, knowing there is one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one GOD, and Father of all, who is above all, through all, and in you all.  
And now PAUL hath been at Athens, past his bicker with the Epicure, and the Stoic, had their censure,- He is a Babbler.- He is now rigged for Corinth, and by this time arrived there, where I leave him- In earnest Disputation with the Grecians in the Synagogue. 
Act. 19.5.  The Stoic is returned to his Porch too, the Epicure to his Garden. But here is an Athens too, though no PAUL, or at lest no such Paul; and yonder sits a Stoic and he whispers to his Epicure,- What will this Babbler say? He says- Glory to GOD on high, in Earth peace, goodwill towards men. He says, hearty and true Allegiance to his Sovereign,- wishes the budding and continuance of a temporal Crown here, and the assurance of an immortal one hereafter.- He says, flourishing to his Church, his Commonwealth, his People; swift and fierce destruction to his Enemies foreign, and (if he have any such) domestic.- He says courage to his Nobility, unity to his Clergy, love to his Gentry, loyalty to his Commonalty. In fine; He says prosperity to Athens (here) unanimity, true brotherhood, happy success to your studies, to your designs; and The grace of our Lord JESUS CHRIST to you all, and with you all. Amen.  
Gloria in excelsis Deo.   
FINIS.   

JACOB and ESAV: Election. Reprobation.  
OPENED AND DISCUSSED BY WAY OF SERMON AT PAUL'S CROSS, March 4. 1622.  
BY Humphrey Sydenham Mr. of Arts, and Fellow of WADHAM College in OXFORD.  August. lib. 7. de Trinitate. 
Qui videt haec, vel ex parte, vel per speculum in aenigmate, gaudeat cognoscens Deum, & gratias agate, qui verò non, tendat per pietatem fidei ad videndum, & non per caecitatem ad calumniandum.  
LONDON, Printed for JOHN PARKER. 1626.   

TO MY MOST HONOVRED FRIEND William Brouncker Esquire, This.  
Sir:  
WHere I own a just service, and would publish it, I less fear the censure of vainglory, than of unthankfulness; you know the age is both tart, and nimble, in her Paraphrase on those which would be Men in Print; I have found it; yet will rather hazard the imputation of a weak man, than an ungrateful: However, I desire not so much to expose my labours to the world, as my loyalty, that others might take notice how much you have been mine in your cherishing of those, and how I am ever yours in my expressions of this. He that doth but tacitly acknowledge the bounties of a noble friend, in a manner buries them, when he that proclaims them, hath in a part requited; he hath repaid his honour, and therefore him, and so hath satisfied, though not restored. If this public thankfulness of mine, for those daily favours, shall meet with so merciful an interpretation of yours, I esteem not any rigid one of the times; I cannot gloze with them, nor you, yet shall endeavour to be reputed one of those who unfeignedly honours you, and will do, whilst I wear the name, and title of  
Your ever friend, and servant HUM: SYDENHAM.   

JACOB and ESAV.  ROM. 9.18. 
He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy; and whom he will, he hardeneth.  
THe Text holds some Analogy with the Times we live in, fraught with no less subtlety, than danger; and as an undiscreeter providence is soon oreshot in those, so in this too. We are not here then to cheat our Auditory with a thin discourse; Mystery is our Theme and subject, the very Battlement and Pinnacle of Divinity, which he that too boldly climbs, falls headlong into error. A task, though perchance disproportionable to youthful undertake, and may from such challenge the censure of a vainglorious enterprise: yet give me leave to return, though not satisfaction, answer. In sacred Riddles what we cannot resolve, give us leave to contemplate; and what not comprehend, admire: where our pencil fails us to limb in so curious a Portraiture, we'll play Timanthes, and shadow with a veil; and when our reason is once nonplussed, we are hushed in a contented wonder. Where we may behold the Almighty (in a full shower) pouring down his blessings upon some, scarce deawing or sprinkling them on others; softening this Wax, and hardening that Clay, with one and the selfsame sun, (his will) and yet that will not clouded with injustice. Here is that will not only stagger, but entrance a carnal apprehension; Not a circumstance which is not equally loaded with doubt and amazement, and whose discussing will no less invite than command attention. That which in common passages of Divinity doth but transport our thought, in those more mystical will captivated: Every word is knotty, and full of brambles, and requires the hand of an exact industry.  
It behoves us then to be wary of our choice, how either we traffic here with corrupt antiquity (where but to taste were to surfeit) or with that modern Navy of Expositors, where mixture of opinion will rather cloy than feed, and confounded than inform our understanding. I desire not to paraphrase on a reverend error, nor to chastise there where I beg information. I shall only request grey hairs thus fare to dispense with me, that where their Candle burns dimly and uncertainly, I may borrow light of a more glorious flame. Not then to beguile time and so noble an attention with quaintness of preamble, or division; The parts here are, as the persons, and their condition, Two, Mercy for whom he will, and they are Sheep; Hardening for whom he will, and these are Goats. Let us first put them on the right hand, and we shall find a Venite Benedicti. Come ye blessed, here is mercy for you; After, these on the left hand, and we shall meet with an Ite maledicti, Go ye cursed, here is hardening for you: Both which, when we have in a careful separation orderly distinguished, we shall make here the will of the Almighty as free from injustice, as there his censure, He will have mercy on whom he will, etc.  

PART. I. He william.  
THat the will of God is the principal efficient cause of all those works which he doth externally from himself, so that there is no superior or precedent cause moving and impelling it, shines to us no less from the eternity of his will, than the omnipotency; for with that double attribute Augustin doth invest it in his 2. book contra Manichaeos', cap. 2. And seeing there is nothing before his will, as being eternal; nothing greater, as being omnipotent; we infer with that learned Father, that Neque extra, vel ultra illam causa inquirenda; There is no cause either without, or beyond it, that being the source and fountain of all causes, as by a more particular survey of God's works we shall discuss hereafter. For illustration. In his eternal decree, why are some marked out as inheritors of his Zion? others again expulsed, and banished those blessed Territories? they as vessels of mercy, for the manifestation of his goodness; these of fury, for the promulgation of his justice? Doubtless the will, & the beneplacitum of the Almighty as the primary & immediate cause, whereof if there be any more subordinate, they have all alliance and dependency on it, Tanquam à principali intentione primi agentis. Like inferior Orbs which have their influence & motion from a higher mover. I need not travail far either for proof or instance; our Chapter is bountiful in both. What was the cause that God did choose jacob and reject Esau? The mediate and secondary cause, was, because he loved jacob, and not Esau. But why is his love incommunicable, and as it seems, in a partial reservation, peculiar to that more than this? I know not a more plausible and higher motive than his william. Insistendum ergò in particulas, cuius vult, & quem vult. Our enquiry here must be cautelous, and slow of foot, jest we run violently into error. Here is a cuius vult only for him that he hath mercy on, and but a quem vult for him he hardens; ultra quas procedere non licèt, saith Caluin. Here is the utmost Verge & Pillar where reason durst to coast; what is beyond is either unknown, or dangerous; how ever some vainglorious brains (ambitious of mysterious and abstruser knowledge) have inscribed here their Multi pertransibunt, & augebitur scientia. But in so stickle & dangerous a torrent, how are they overwhelmed at last? and whilst they so ventrously climb this steeper turret, thrown desperately into heresy? For mine own part, I have ever thought curiosity in divine affairs but a acquaint distraction, rather applauding an humble (yet faithful) ignorance, than a proud and temerarious knowledge. And had some of the Fathers been shot-free of this curious insolence, they needed not have retreated from former Tenants, & so much endeared posterity, no less in the review than retractation of laborious errors: Amongst whom S. Augustine (though since entitled Malleus Haereticorum) shared not a little in the 83. of his Questions, and 68 Where expounding our place of the Apostle, would thus vindicate the Almighty from injustice; that God foresaw that in some, Quo digni sunt iustificatione; that in others, Quo digni sunt obtusione; so making Gods will to depend on a foreseen merit. A position that doth not only repugn the discipline of holy story, but thwarts the main tide & current of orthodox antiquity, as in a fuller discourse we shall display anon: and therefore in his 7. Book de Praedestinatione Sanctorun, cap. 4. he doth chastise his former tenants with a Deus non elegit opera, sed fidem in praescientiâ; That God did not elect jacob for foreseen works, but faith. But because in saith there is as well a merit, as in works, he once more rectifies his opinion in the first of his Retractations and 23, where he doth peach his sometimes ignorance, and ingeniously declares himself, that— Nondum diligentius quaesivit, nec invenit mysteria, he had not yet throughly sifted that of the Apostle, Rom. 11.5. That there was a remnant according to the election of grace, which, if it did flow from a foreseen merit, was rather restored than given, and therefore (at last) he informs his own judgement, and his Readers thus; Datur quidem fideli sed data est etiam prius ut esset fidelis; Grace is given to the faithful, but it is first given that he should be faithful, Hence Lombard in his 1 book, 41 distinction, pathetically, Elegit quos voluit Deus gratuitâ misericordiâ, non quia fideles futuri erant, sed ut essent, nec quià crediderant, sed ut fierent credentes. God out of the prerogative of his will, and bounty of his goodness, hath chosen whom he pleased, not because they were faithful, but because they should be, and not of themselves believing, but made so. And therefore, that  sim fidelis, 1 Cor. 7.25. bears a remarkable emphasis. I have obtained mercy that I might be faithful, not that I was. Here the Pelagian startles, & lately backed with a troop of Arminians, takes head against this truth, fancying and dreaming of certain causes without God, which are not subsisting in God himself, but externally moving the will of God to dispose and determine of several events, laying this as an unshaken principle, Fidem esse conditionem in obiecto eligibili ante electionem; That faith and obedience (foreseen of God in the Elect) was the necessary condition and cause of their election. I intent not here a pitched field against the upstart Sectary, for I shall meet him anon in a single combat: my purpose now is to be but as a scout, or spy, which discovers the weakness of his adversary, not stands to encounter. And indeed both the time and place suggest me rather to resolve, than debate; and convince, than dispute an error. That faith then, or any praeexisting merit in the person to be elected, was the cause of his election, is neither warrantable by reason nor primitive Authority. For God could not foresee in the elect any faith at all, but that which in after times he was to crown them with, and therefore not considerable as any precedent cause of election, but as the effect and fruit, and consequent thereof.  
The primary and chief motive than is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Ephes. 1.5. the good pleasure of Gods will, which, prompted of itself, without any reference to praeexisting faith, obedience, merit, as the qualities, cause, or condition of it, hath poured grace on this man more than that; Non solum in Christo, 
Synod. Dort.  sed per Christum. And therefore (as that late venerable Synod hath awarded it) Non ex illis conditionibus facta est, sed ad illas; That election was not framed of these conditions, but to them, as to their effect and issue. And if we commerce a little with passages of holy story, we shall found that our election points rather to the free will of God in his eternal council, than to any goodness in us which God foresaw: so Acts 13.48. where we read of the Gentiles, that many believed because they were ordained to eternal life, and not therefore ordained because they formerly believed. And if we will not suffer our minds to be transported either with scruple or novelty, the text is open, Ephes. 1.4. He hath chosen us before the foundations of the world were laid, that we might be holy, not that we were. And in this very Chapter, verse 23. The vessels of mercy are first said to be prepared to mercy, then called: and therefore Saint Austin in his 86. Tract upon john, out of a holy indignation, doth check the insolence of those, Qui praescientiam Dei defendunt contra gratiam Dei; Which in matters of salvation, obscure and extenuate the grace of God with the foreknowledge of God: for if God did therefore choose us, because he did know, and foresee that we would be good, he did not choose us to make us good, but we rather chose him, in purposing to be good, which if it did carry any show either of probability, or truth, we might question our Apostle, who in his 8 here, and 29. no less persuades, than proves, that those which God foreknew he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, and therefore God did not choose us, because before election there was a conformity in us, but because from all eternity he did elect us, in time he made us conformed to the image of his Son. Whereupon St. Augustine in his fift book, contra julianum, 3. chapped. thus, Nullum elegit dignum, sed eligendo effecit dignum. God in the choice of his Elect, found none worthy, but in the choosing made them worthy. Moreover, our election, which is of grace (as I yonder proved) could not stand if works and merits went before it. Haec quippè non invenit merita, sed facit; Grace doth not found works in us, but fashions them, according to that of the Apostle, 2 Thes. 2.13. God hath from the beginning chosen you through sanctification of the spirit, and not of works. Nay, some here so much abolish and wipe off all claim of merit, that they admit not Christ as the meritorious cause of our election. Indeed, say they, the Scripture is thus fare our Schoolmaster, That we are justified by the blood of Christ, 
Synod. Dort.  and reconciled to God by the death of his Son: but where are we informed that we are elected through his blood, or praedestinated by his death? Indeed, in the 3 of john 16. we find a— sic Deus dilexit,— God so loved the world that he gave his Son. So that, not because Christ died for us, God loved, and chose us, but because God loved and chose us, therefore Christ died for us. For so Rom. 5.8. God setteth out his love towards us, that whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. In matters therefore of election, we acknowledge not a cause more classicke than the Cuius vult here specified, He will have mercy on whom he william. Insomuch that in the parable of the householder, Matth. 20. I find but a sic volo, as a sufficient and just cause of his designs. I will give to this last as much as to thee; & yet this Will so clothed with a divine justice, that God is not said to will a thing to be done, because it is good, but rather to make it good, because God would have it to be done. For proof whereof, a sweet singer of our Israel instances in those wonderful passages of creation, where 'tis first said that Deus creavit, God created all things, and the Valdè bonum comes aloof, he saw that they were all good, and the moral portends but this, That every thing is therefore good, because it was created, and not therefore created because it was good; which doth wash, and purge the will of the Almighty from any stain, or tincture of injustice; for though that be the chief mover and director of all his projects, as the prime and peremptory cause, doing this, because he will, yet we find not only sanctitatem in operibus, but justitiam in vijs. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. Hereupon that great treasurer of Learning and Religion, Zanchius in his 3 book, de Natura Dei, and 4 chapter, divides between the cause of God's will, and the reason of his will: That though there be no superior cause of it, yet there is a just reason, and a right end and purpose in it. 
Morl. Clean. Lep.  Hence S. Jerome, Deus nihil fecit quia vult, sed quia est ratio sic fieri; God doth nothing because he will, but because there is a reason of so doing, in regard whereof it is not simply called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the will of God, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the good will of God, Ephes. 1.11. So that in his sacred resolutions and designments, though we meet (sometimes) with passages, wound up in darkened terror, the cause whereof we may admire not scan; yet the drift and main ends of the Almighty have been so backed with strength of a just reason, that we may rather magnify his goodness than tax his power; and applaud the calmness of an indulgent mercy, than repined at the lashes of an incensed justice. Equity and goodness are children of one burden, both the lawful issue of his will, which though foul mouths of libertines have strangely bastardized, making that the throne of tyranny, which is the rule of justice, yet let them know that of Augustine to his Sixtus; Iniustum esse non potest, quod placuit justo. To be God, and to be unjust, is to be God and not God. So fair a goodness, was never capable of so foul a contradiction, and therefore (as the same father prosecutes) Iniquitatem damnare novit, non facere: God knows how to judge, not to commit a crime, and to dispose, not mould it, and is often the father of the punishment, not the fact. Hence 'tis, that the dimness of humane apprehension conceives that (oftentimes) a delinquency in God, which is the monster of our own frailty; making God not only to foreknow, but predestinate an evil, when the evil is both by growth, and conception ours, and if aught savour of goodness in us, Gods, not ours, yet ours too, as derivative from God, who is no less the Patron of all goodness, than the Creator, and 'tis as truly impossible for him to commit evil, as 'twas truly miraculous to make all that he had made good. And therefore Tertullian, in his first book de Trinitate, makes it a Non potest fieri, a matter beyond the list and reach of possibility, that he should be Artifex mali operis, the promoter & engineer of a depraved act, who challengeth to himself the title no less of an unblemished Father, than of a judge. Our thoughts then should not carry too lofty a sail, but take heed how they cut the narrow , and passages of his william. A busy prying into this Ark of secrets, as 'tis accompanied with a full blown insolence, so with danger; Humility (here) is the first stair to safety; and a modest knowledge stands constantly wondering, whilst the proud apprehension staggers, and tumbles too. Here's a Sea unnavigable, and a gulf so scorning fathom, that our Apostle himself was driven to his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, O depth, and in a rapture, more of astonishment, than contemplation, he styles it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, voluntatis suae mysterium, or (as Beza translates it,) Sacramentum, the Sacrament, and mystery of his will, being so full of unknown turnings, and Meanders, that if a naked reason hold the clue, we are rather involved, than guided in so strange a Labyrinth.  
To inquire then the cause of God's will, were an Act of Lunacy, not of judgement; for every efficient cause is greater than the effect, now there's nothing greater than the will of God, and therefore no cause thereof. For if there were, there should something praeoccupate that will, which to conceive were sinful, to believe blasphemous. If any then (suggested by a vainglorious enquiry) should ask why God did elect this man, and not that? we have not only to resolve, but to forestall so beaten an objection: Because he would. But why would God do it? Here's a question as guilty of reproof, as the author, who seeks a cause of that, beyond, or without which there is no cause found, where the apprehension wheels, and reason runs giddy in a doubtful gyre: Compescat se ergò humana temeritas, 
August.  & id quod non est non quaerat, ne id quod est non inveniat. Here a scrupulous and humane rashness should be hushed, and not search for that which is not, jest it find not that which is. For as the same Father, in his 105 Epist. Cur illum potiùs, quàm illum, liberet, aut non, scrutetur (qui potest) iudiciorum eius tam magnum profundum, sed caueat praecipitium—. Let him that can, descry the wonders of the Lord in this great deep, but let him take heed he sink not; and in his answer to the second question of Simplician: Quare huic ita, & huic non ita, homo tu quis es qui respondeas Deo? & cur isti sic, illi aliter? Absit ut dicamus judicium luti esse, sed figuli. Why God doth to this man so, and to that not so, who dare expostulate? and why to this man, thus, to that, otherwise? fare be it, that we should think it in the judgement of the clay, burr of the potter. Down then with this aspiring thought, this ambitious desire of hidden knowledge, and make not curiosity the picklock of divine secrets; know that such mysteries are doubly barred up in the coffers of the Almighty, which thou mayst strive to violate, not open. And therefore if thou wilt needs trespass upon deity, dig not in its bosom; a more humble adventure suits better with the condition of a worm, scarce a man, or if so, exposed to frailty.  
'Tis a fit task and employment for mortality, to contemplate God's works, not sift his mysteries, and admire his goodness, not blur his justice; And it hath been ever the practice of primitive discipline, rather to defend a disparaged equity, than to question it, for so that reverend Father (who ever mixed his learning with a devout awe) in his 3 book, cont. julianum, and 18 chapter, Bonus est Deus, iustus est Deus, potest aliquos sine bonis meritis liberare, quia bonus est, non potest quemquam sine malis damnare, quia iustus est. God is equally good and just, he can save some without reference to desert, because he is good, he cannot damn any man without a due demerit, because he is just: Nay had God delivered all mankind into the jaws of destruction, we could not touch him with injustice, but rather admire so dark and investigable an equity, which we may illustrate by worldly passages and humane contracts. If I were bankrupt of instance, S. Augustine could relieve me. A great man (saith he) lends two sums of money, to two several men, who can tax him of obdurateness, or injustice, if at time of repayment he forgive this man his debt, and require satisfaction of that? for this life's not in the will and disposal of the debtor, but of the creditor. So stands the case between frailty and omnipotency. All men (which through Adam became tributaries to sin and death) are one mass of corruption, subject to the stroke of divine justice, which, whether it be required or given, there is no iniquity in God, but of whom required, and to whom given, 'tis in such debtor's insolence to judge, jest God return their sauciness with a— Non licet mihi quod volo facere? as the householder did the murmuring labourers in his vineyard. Is thine eye evil, because I am good? And indeed I display not a higher cause of election, and reprobation than divine goodness, which that learned Schoolman, Part. 1. quaest. 23. art. 5. doth not only illustrate but prove no less by similitude, than argument. For God (saith he) made all things for his goodness sake, that in things by him made, his goodness might appear, but because that goodness is in itself, one, and simple: and things created cannot attain to so divine a perfection, it was necessary that that goodness should be diversely represented in those things, and hence 'tis that to the compliment and full glory of the universe, there is in them a diversity of degrees required, of which some possess a lower, and some a higher room; and that such a multiformitie may be preserved in nature, God permits some evils to be done, jest much good should be anticipated:— Voluit itaque Deus in hominibus, quantum ad aliquos, quos praedestinet, suam repraesentare bonitatem, per modum misericordiae, parcendo illis, quantum verò ad alios, quos reprobet, suam ostendi bonitatem per modum iusticiae, puniendo eos. God in those he elects, would show his goodness by way of mercy in sparing these, in others he reprobates, his goodness too, by way of justice in punishing them. And therefore our Apostle here not only magnifies the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, vers. 23. but his long patience too, to vessels of wrath, vers. 22. So that in his house there are not only those of gold and silver, but of wood and earth too, and some to honour, some to dishonour, 2 Tim. 2.20. Of which if any mutinous or saucy ignorant desires a reason beyond God's will, I have no answer but that of Augustine, in his 22 Sermon, the verb Apost. Tu ratiocinare, ego mirer, tu disputa, ego credam: altitudinem video, ad profundum non pervenio; Dispute and reason he that durst, while my thought and belief stand at a bay, and wonder; I see there is a height, but cannot reach it, and know this gulf, not fathom it. For as in things natural (it is Aquinas similitude) when all the first matter is uniform, why one part of it should be under the form of fire, another under the form of earth, there may be a reason assigned, that there might be a diversity of species in things natural: but why this part of matter should be rather under the form of fire, and that under the form of earth, depends only on the simplicity of God's will; & as it hangs too on the will of the Architect, that this stone should be rather in this part of the wall, and that in another, although reason and art require that other stones should be in one part of the Edifice, & other in another. Neither is there for this iniquity in God, that he doth not proportion his gifts in a strict equality, for it were against the reason and truth of justice, if the effect of Praedestination should be of debt, and not of grace; for in those thing which are of an unrestrained freedom, every man (out of the jurisdiction of his own will) may give to whom he will, more or less, without the lest disparagement of justice: And therefore to those recoiling dispositions which mutter at a free bounty, heaped on others without reference to desert, I will usurp that of the Parable, Tolle quod tuum est, & vad●. And yet notwithstanding though the will of God be the independent prime cause of all things, so that beyond it there is no other cause, and without it there is no reason of God's actions; yet it is not the sole and particular cause, for there are many secondary concurring with the first, by the mediation whereof, the will of God brings his intendments to an issue. As in matters of our salvation the will and working of man shakes hands with that of God, for though without him we find a Nil potestis facere, joh. 15.5. Ye can do nothing; yet assisted by his will, and the powerful and effectual operations of his grace, our will cooperates with Gods. Else how could David pray to him to be his helper, unless he himself did endeavour something? or how could God command us to do his will, except the will of man did work in the performance of it? 
Lumb. lib. 1. distinct. 42.  It is true (saith S. Augustine) we find a Deus operatur omnia in omnibus, but we no where find a Deus credit omnia in omnibus. Nostrum itaque est credere, & velle, illius autem dare credentibus, & volentibus facultatem operandi: To will, and to believe is ours, but to give the faculty of operation to them that will and bleeve, is Gods. I have laboured more than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God with me, 1 Cor. 15.10. Why God therefore doth save some men, there is more to be alleged than this, God would have them to be saved; for if this laurel do beautify our triumph we must encounter, he that will have this Crown must tug for it, and this prize, must wrestle, Qui creavit te sine te, non saluat te sine te. He that hath created thee without thyself, will not save thee without thyself. And therefore those whom God from all eternity hath destined to salvation, he hath in a like privilege destined to the means: But why those means, not communicable to all, many a busy endeavour hath struggled for a reason, not compassed it. Out of more than a double jury of Interpreters, which I have (not with a little distraction) observed, waving here in doubtful opinion, Hugo de Sancto Victore gives thus his verdict. God's grace is indifferently exhibited to all men, to the elect and reprobate, but all do not equally lay hold on it. Some no less neglect, than repulse God's grace, and when its comfortable beams shall shine upon them, they shut their eyes against it, and will not behold it, and God in justice withdraws his grace from these men, because they withdraw themselves from his grace. Est enim in gratiâ quemadmodum in solis radio (saith he) There is a proportion betwixt the rays of the Sun, and the eye, and betwixt the soul of man, and the grace of God. The eye is ordained by nature to be the organ of the sight, and yet the eye cannot see except the Sun enlighten it; neither can the Sun make any thing else see but the eye in man, for it may shine upon our hand or foot, nevertheless the hand or foot shall see nothing: so the soul hath a possibility to merit by her natural abilities, but that possibility shall be vain and fruitless, unless it be quickened by the powerful operation of God's grace, which grace, if it shall once actuate it, than the soul will be able to attain to that double life of grace here, of glory hereafter. Vnde totum est ex gratiâ, sic tamen ut non excludatur meritum. Whence he would have all to hung on grace, yet so that we exclude not merit. But this inference is many stories above my reach, and in the greenness of my judgement, there is little truth in the consequence, and palpable contradiction in the consequent. For how can the merits of man challenge any thing, if all flow from the grace of God? Yes (saith Hugo) even as a weak child which cannot yet go alone, should be led by the Nurse, a man cannot say that the child goeth of himself, but by the assistance of the Nurse; and yet the Nurse could not make the child go, unless he were naturally inclined to that motion: so the soul of man is said to merit by the aid of grace, and by her own natural inbred ability, but all the glory of the merit must be ascribed to God, because the soul can do nothing without the support and grace of God. Whence I can gather no truth but this, that in solo homine sit petentia logica ad salutem. That a man only maybe saved without apparent contradiction; no unreasonable creature is capable of that everlasting blessedness and beatifical vision; and the soul of a beast is no more able to see God, than a senseless stock to behold a visible object. For man only hath a passive power to salvation, and man before his conversion hath a passive power only. And therefore the similes afore proposed, if they be referred to the soul before the conversion, are false, and bear no proportion, for then the soul is stark blind, and dead in trespasses, and cannot look on the grace offered, or move one jot in the course of Christianity: But after the conversion when God speaks Ephata to the soul, be opened, when the understanding is illuminated, and scales of error once drop from the eyes, than it may hold some correspondency with truth. As therefore in matters of our conversion, so of election too, all hangs on Grace, and this grace in a holy reservation limited to a narrow Tribe, for the cuius vult here insinuates no more, and He will have mercy on whom he will, sounds in a direct aequivalence with this, He will have mercy only on some; of which some there is a definite and see number, uncapable of augmentation, or diminution, however those new sprung Sectaries, 
Arminians.  out of a turbulent brain and thirst of cavillation, blaspheme the eternity of God's decree, making our election mutable, incomplete, conditionate, subject to change and revocation, and what other stranger birth and prodigy of opinion, which I conceive not without a holy impatience and indignation. And whereas our Fathers of old have maintained, even to the sword and faggot, the decree of election to be no less eternal than irrevocable, these would fain lull our belief with innovation of upstart discipline, altering no less the number than the condition of the elect into the state of reprobate, and of the reprobate into the elect. And (as the Devil did to Christ) they urge Text and reason for it. For God (say they) cannot give grace to whom he doth give grace, which if he should do an elect may be damned; and he can give grace to him he doth not give grace too, which if he do, a reprobate may be saved, and so a reprobate may become an elect, and an elect a reprobate. Thus they shoot by an indirect aim, and sail by a wrong Compass, for we inquire not here of God's power, but of his will, not what he can do, but what he hath resolved to do. Again, it seems no consequence, God can save or damn a man, therefore this man can be saved or damned, 
Hugo de Sancto Victore in cap. 9 ad Rom.  Non enim posse Dei sequitur posse nostrum, God's power stands not in relation to ours; as if God would otherwise redeem mankind than by the death of his Son. (As there was another means possible (saith Austin) but not more convenient.) That therefore mankind could otherwise be redeemed; and if God had this in his power, that it should be therefore in man's too? Can not God (if he would) have saved judas? doth it therefore follow that judas could be saved? Not, for though this be too ragged and stony for a popular capacity to dig through; yet if we look back a little into the mysteries of God's decree, we shall find that which will no less relieve our understanding, than remove our scruple; where things from everlasting have such a doom, which is not malleable either by change or revocation, For the Lord of hosts hath determined, and who can disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who can turn it away? Isay 14.27. Seeing then that election is from eternity, and that not obnoxious to mutability or corruption, we neither curtail the elect of their primative glory, nor of their number. Which though they be a little flock, (in respect of that herd and large droue of the damned) yet in those sacred volumes of God's diviner Oracles, we find them numberless. So Apoc. 7.9. These things I beheld, and lo, a great multitude which none could number of all nations and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with long white robes, and palms in their hands. Whence those Factors for the Romish See, would hue out a way to universal grace; making our election general, manifold, indefinite, and would have Christ's death no less meritorious, than propitiatory for the sins of the whole world. A quaere long since on foot between Augustine and Pelagius, and since in a fiery skirmish between the Caluinist and the Lutheran, out of whose mud and corruption there hath been lately bred the Arminian, a Sect as poisonous as subtle, and will no less allure than betray a flexible and yielding judgement. For our own safety then, and the easier oppugning of so dangerous a suggestion, let us examine a little of the extent & bounds of this grace, which Divines cut into these three squadrons, in Gratiam Praedestinationis, vocationis, & iustificationis. Gratia Praedestinationis, is that of eternity, the womb and Nursery of all graces, whereby God loved his elect, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Gratia vocationis, a secondary grace, by which God calls us, and by calling prescribes the means of our salvation. And this grace hath a double prospect. Either to that which is external, in libro Scripturae, or creaturae, where God did manifest himself as well by what he had made, as by what he had written; or to that which is internal, of illumination, or renovation, of that in the intellect only, which a reprobate may lay claim to, of this in the heart, which by a holy reservation and incommunicablenesse is peculiar to the elect. Gratia iustificationis, which is not a grace inherent, but bestowed, and stands as a direct Antipode to humane merit. Yet not that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Schools christian with a gratia gratis data, any gift which God out of his free bounty hath bestowed upon us beyond our desert, as Prudence, Temperance, and the like; for in these the heathen had their share, whose singular endowments have made posterity both an admirer, and a debtor; but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Gratia gratum faciens, a gift perfect, and sanctified, which doth so qualify the receiver, that he is not only acceptable, but glorious in the eyes of the bestower, as Faith, Hope, & the third sister Charity, which no less reconcile than justify us before God.  
We conclude then, that the external grace which the creature affordeth us, is not limited to a private number, but to all; yet we deny the power and virtue of salvation in it. We allow a sufficiency of redargution for convicting the heathen, who when they knew God, worshipped him not as God, and therefore are both desperate and inexcusable. Moreover the grace which the Scripture affordeth us, as it is not universal, so not of absolute sufficiency for salvation, but only in genere mediorum externorum, (as the Schools speak) because it doth prescribe us the means how we may be saved, but it doth not apply the means that we are saved. Again, that grace of Illumination is more peculiarly confined, and if by the beams of that glorious Sun which enlighteneth every man that comes into the world, we attain to the knowledge of the Scripture, yet the bore knowledge doth not save us, but the application. But the grace of regeneration is not only a sufficient, but an effectual grace, and as 'tis more powerful, so 'tis more restrained; they only partake of this blessedness, whom God hath no less enlightened, than sanctified, and pointed out, then sealed, men invested in white robes of sincerity, whose delinquencies, though sometimes of a deep tincture, are now both dispensed with, & obliterated, not because they were not sinful, but because, not imputed: so involucrous, and hidden are Gods eternal projects, that in those he relinquisheth, or saves, his reason, is his will; yet that as fare discoasted from tyranny, as injustice. The Quare we may contemplate, not scan, jest our misprision grow equal with our wonder. And here in a double ambush dangerously lurk the Romanist and the Arminian, men equally swollen with rancour of malice, and position: and with no less violence of reason, than importunity, press the virtue of Christ's death for the whole world. Alas! we combat not of the price and worth of Christ's death, but acknowledge That an able ransom of a thousand worlds; but the ground of our duel tends to this, whether Christ dying proposed to himself the salvation of the whole world. We distinguish then— inter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christi, & gratiam Christi. The merits of Christ and the gracious application of those merits. His merits are able to alloy the fury of his incensed Father, and reconcile unto him the very reprobates: but the application of those merits are restrained to the Elect, for they only are capable of so great a blessedness. For proof whereof we have not only that venerable Bench and Council of Fathers and Schoolmen, but also a higher court of Parliament to appeal unto, the Registers and penmen of sacred Chronicles, Evangelists, & Apostles, which punctually insinuate Christ's death only for his own, for his Church, for his Brethrens, for those whose head he was, laying down his life for some, and shedding his blood for some, for his sheep, his little flock, his peculiar Priesthood, his tabernacle, body, spouse, his Canaan, Zion, jerusalem, his Ambassadors, Saints, Angels, in a word this Cuius vult, The Elect. I'll not beaten your ears with a voluminous citation of text and Fathers, I'll draw only one shalt out of this holy quiver, and direct it to the Roman adversary, which if he shall repel or put by, I'll proclaim hereafter a perpetual truce. The main and chief cause that impelled Christ to die, was his love, john 15. But Christ loved not all, but his own Eph. 5. Therefore Christ died not for all, but for his own. The jesuite here retraicts, and we have none now left to encounter us but the Arminian; who (like a cunning Fencer) hath many a acquaint flourish, and with a false blow sometimes staggers, not wounds his adversary. The part most endangered, is the eye of our intellect, and judgement which he thus dazzels with a subtle nicety. 
Moulin in his Anatomy of Arminianism.  That Christ hath obtained reconciliation for all, for Saul and judas, but not as they were reprobates, but as they were sinners; For God (saith he) did equally intent, and desire the salvation of all, and the reason why they were not saved was their incredulity, and misapplying of this gracious reconciliation and atonement. Thus they would betray weakness into the hands of error; and for a fairer gloss, and gild of this their treachery, they distinguish— inter Impetrationem, & applicationem; Pretending that Christ did impetrate reconciliation for all, but the application of that leans wholly to the elect. How crazy and ill tempered this position is, we'll declare briefly. First, we deny that Christ by his death hath impetrated reconciliation for all, for Saul, or judas: Neither can our thought, much less our belief give way to so strange a Paradox, 
Idem ibidem.  That remission of sins is obtained for those whose sins are not remitted, or that salvation was purchased for those whom God from all eternity had decreed to condemn. Again, we acknowledge Christ's death sufficient for all, all believers, nay all, if they did believe. But that Saul or judas or the residue of that cursed Hierarchy should reap the benefit of his Passion, we utterly disclaim as erroneous and heretical. For if Christ by his death hath reconciled judas, how is't that judas suffers for his sins? for we cannot without impeachment both of his mercy, and justice too, say that Christ suffered for judas his sins, yet judas is damned for those sins; And since Christ as he is God, hath from everlasting destined judas to damnation, how is't that the same Christ, as he is man, and mediator between God and man, should reconcile judas whom from eternity he had reprobated? Again, if Christ hath obtained reconciliation for all men, than none shall be borne without the covenant of Christ, so that of the Apostle will be false: That, By nature we are all borne the children of wrath Ephes. 2. And can we truly be styled the children of wrath, if reconciliation be obtained for all men without exception? And if all infants borne without the covenant are reconciled, Cur non clementi crudelitate in cunis ingulavimus? (saith the learned Moulin) why do we not in a merciful cruelty murder them in their cradles? for then their salvation were sealed; but if they survive, they are nourished in Paganism, infidelity, which are the beaten roads and highways to destruction. And if we scan (saith he) the nicety of these words, the obtaining of reconciliation to be applied, and the application of reconciliation obtained, we shall find it a mere curiosity to barrow and perplex the brain, and torture the understanding, since Christ hath never obtained that which he hath not applied, neither hath he applied that which he hath not obtained. Yet these men either of a headstrong opinion, or learned madness, are so violent in the prosecution of their tenants, that no strength of answer will satisfy their objection, nor modesty of language suppress their clamour, but a foul mouthed Forsterus will bray out his witty spleen with an— Error, & furor Zuinglianorum. His reasons are as slender as they are many (the vertigoes and impostures of a giddy brain) fit for silence, than rehearsal, and for scorn than confutation. We apply then; Is grace universally bountiful, and mercy open-brested unto all? What mean then those Epithets of outcast, cursed, damned, and that triple inscription of death, hell, and damnation? are they either of policy or truth? Are they things real, or fancied only to bugbear and awe mortality? What would the Throne portend? judge, adversary, Sergeant, prison, or those horrid tones of worm, fire, brimstone, howling, gnashing? Is the Scripture the Anvil of untruth, or are these things no more than feigned and imaginary? What will those flames of your threatened purgatory prove at last, but the Chimaera and coinage of a fantastic brain? And a 500 year's indulgence, but the shark and legerdemain of your Lord God the Pope? Either your opinion is sandy, or your prison, both which must fleet with your holy Father's honour, if the arms of mercy be expanded to all. Again, are the merits of Christ appliable to all? Swear, whore, drink, profane, blaspheme, and (if there be in that Alcharon, and cursed roll, a sin of a fairer growth) baffle the Almighty at his face. Thinkest thou that heaven was ever guilty of such treason against her Sovereign? or that it will ever entertain a guest so exposed to the height of dissoluteness and debaushment? Not, thou must know that one day there will be a dreadful summons, either at those particular accounts, at the hour of Death, or at the general audit of the last trump, when thou shalt meet with a new Acheldema and vale of Hinnom, places no less of terror than of torment, the fiery dungeon, and the burning Tophet, where the fury of the great judge reaks in a flood of brimstone, and his revenge boiles in a fiery torrent, limitless, and unquenchable. On the other side happily mayst thou slumber, without howl, or skreeke of conscience, thou wounded and dejected spirit; Thou whose glorious ornaments are but sackcloth and ashes, and thy choicest fare but the bread of sorrow and contrition. Know there is balm of Gilead for the  sinner, and oil of comfort for those which mourn in Zion. Behold, how thy Saviour comes flying down with the wings of his love, and sweeps away thy sins that they shall neither temporally shame thee, nor eternally condemn thee. Who shall wipe off all tears from your eyes, and lodge you in the bosom of old Abraham, where there is bliss unspeakable for ever. And thus I have showed you the happiness of sheep under the state of mercy; Time bids me now to reflect on the misery of Goats, as they are under the condition of hardening.   

PART. II. He hardeneth.  
WHat? he that is rich in goodness, and his mercies above all his works? he that mourns in secret for our offences, and vows that he desireth not the death of a sinner, will he harden? How can this stand either with his promise, or mercy, or justice? God's unrevealed projects are full of wonder, which if our apprehension cannot dive to, our beliefs must sound. Occulta esse possunt, iniusta non possunt, fraught they may be with sullen and darker riddles, never with injustice. Let us first then take a survey of Man's heart, and see to what miseries the hardness of it hath expo●de our irregular predecessors, and after try whether we can make providence the mother of so deformed an issue. And here awhile let us observe S. Bernard tutor his Eugenius, Cordurum, a heart, which the softer temper of Gods working spirit leaves to mollify, and its own corrupt affections gins once to mould. Like that of Naball, to be all stone, becomes at last so cauterised,  semetipsum non exhorreat quià nec sentit, that it is so fare from starting at its own ugliness, that it is non-sensible of deformity. And hence Theodoret defines it to be pravam animi affectionem, a corrupt and depraved affection of the mind, which if man once give way to, he is so screened both from God's mercy and truth; that though it be about him, and in the masterdom and dominion of his best sense, Non ceruit tamen, nec intelligit, yet his eyes are as blind intelligencers to believe, as his understanding. And against such that sweet singer of Israel breaks out into his passionate complaint, Vsquè quò filij hominum, usquè quò? O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my honour into shame, how long? and that of the Protomartyr Stephen, in his Oration to the refractory jews. Durâ cervise, O ye stiffnecked and uncircumcized of heart and ears, ye do always resist the holy Ghost. And indeed such hearts are but the Wardrobes and Exchequers of future mischief, whose keys are not in the custody of the Almighty, but thine own bosom. For so that great Doctor of the Gentiles, Secundum impoenitens cor tuum thesaurisas iram: Accord to the impenitency of thine own heart, thou treasurest up wrath (to thyself) against the day of wrath. How then can that eye which should be fixed either on the tenderness or mercy of his Creator, glance so much on his injustice, as to make that the Midwife of so foul a progeny? Obduration was never the child of goodness, neither can a sin of so base a descent lay claim to omnipotency. It stands not (I dare say) with God's power, I am sure, his will, to reconcile two enemies in such an extremity of opposition. Do sweet water and puddle flow immediately from one and the selfsame spring? light and darkness from the selfsame Sun? I know there is a stiffnecked and blindfold Tribe, which God hath left, not made the story of his vengeance; whose affections are too dull and drowsy in his service. Men crestfallen in devotion, whose hearts are so dead in their allegiance to him, that they seem spiritless, having all the powers & faculties of their soul benumbed, and their conscience without pulse or motion. And of these the Prophet, Inorassatum est cor populi. Their heart is as fat as brawn. These stick not to belch open defiance in the face of the Almighty, and with those Miscreants in job, are ready to expostulate with eternity. Quis est omnipotens ut seruiemus ei? Who is the Lord that we should serve him? Such have forehead of brass, which no shame can boar through: and (as the Prophet spoke of juda) a face of whoredom which refuseth modesty. But Saint Gregory in his 10. Homily upon Ezechiel, hath proclaimed their doom. Frontem cordis in impudentiam aperit culpa frequens, ut quo crebrius committitur, eò minus de illa committentis animus verecundetur: Frequency of sinning doth flesh us in immodesty, assiduity, in impudence. Offences that are customary are not easy of dimission, and if thou once entertain them as thy followers, they will quickly intrude as thy companions. Sins that are fed with delight, with use, are as dangerous as those of Appetite: which oftentimes prove no less inseparable, than hereditary; to do well is as impossible to these, as not to do ill; So can assiduity make a sin both delightful, and natural. Can the Aethiop change his skin, and the Leopard his spots? then may ye also do well which are accustomed to do evil. That sin than is irrazable which is so steeled with custom, and may undergo the censure of that sometime City of God; Insanabilis est dolor tuus: Thy sin is written with a pen of iron, and with a claw of a Diamond is engraven on the table of thy heart. How then can we without sacrilege, and robbing of divine honour, make God the father of so foul and unwashed a crime? Obduration is the issue of thine own transgression. Perditio tua ex te, o Israel: If destruction dog thee, thank thy corrupt affections, not blame thy maker, for he doth but leave thee, and they harden. To lay then (with some depraved libertines) the weight and burden of our sins on the shoulder of Predestination, and make that the womb of those foul enormities, may well pass for an infirmity, not for excuse, and indeed thus to shuffle with divine goodness, is no less fearful, than blasphemous. For, though God from eternity knew how to reward every man, either by crown, or punishment—. Nemini tamen aut necessitatem, aut voluntatem intulit delinquendi, yet he never enjoined any man either a necessity, or a will to sin. If any than fall off from goodness, he is hurried no less with the violence of his own persuasion, than concupiscence; and in those desperate affairs, Gods will is neither an intermeddler, nor compartner, Cuius  scimus multos, ne laberentur, retentos, nullos, ut laberentur, impulsos (saith Augustine.) By whose hand of providence we know many to be supported that they might not fall, none impelled that they should. And in his answer to that 14. Article falsely supposed to be his, Fieri non potest, ut per quem à peccatis surgitur, per eum ad peccata decidatur: for one and the selfsame goodness, to be the life and death of the selfsame sin, is so much beyond improbability, that it is impossible. If any than go onward in the true road of divine graces, no doubt but the finger of the Almighty points out his way to happiness; but if he wander in the bypaths of a vicious and depraved dissoluteness, his own corrupt affections beckons him to ruin. To love then his children, and neglect his enemies, doth neither impair God's mercy, nor impeach his justice. But why God should love this as his child, neglect that as his enemy, Nec possible est comprehendere, nec licitum investigare—, is beyond all lawfulness of enquiry, all ken of apprehension. Let this then satisfy our desire of knowledge, Et ab illo esse, quod statur, & non esse ab illo, quod ruitur: That his providence is the staff and crutch on which we so lean that we yet stand; our corrupt affections, the bruised and broken reed on which, if we do lean, we fall. If any stagger at those unfathomed mysteries, and his reason and apprehension be strooke dead at the contemplation of God's eternal, but hidden projects, let him season a little his amazement with adoration, and at last solace his distempered thoughts with that of Gregory, Qui in factis Dei, etc. In the abstruse and darker mysteries of God, he that sees not a reason, if he sees his own infirmity, he sees a sufficient reason why he should not see. Me thinks this should cloy the appetite of a greedy inquisition, and satisfy the distrust of any, but of too querulous a disposition, which, with the eye of curiosity prying too nicely into the closet of God's secrets, are no less dazzled than blinded; if not with profanation, heresy. Divine secrets should rather transport us with wonder, than prompt us to enquiry, and bring us on our knees to acknowledge the infiniteness both of God's power and will, than ransack the bosom of the Almighty, for the revealing of his intents. Is it not blessedness enough that God hath made thee his Steward, though not his Secretary? Will no Mansion in heaven content thee, but that which is the throne and chair for omnipotency to sit on? No treasury, but that which is the Cabinet and store-house of his own secrets? Worm, and no man, take heed how thou struglest with thy Maker; expostulation with God imports no less peremptoriness, than danger; and if Angels fell for pride of emulation, where wilt thou tumble for this pride of inquiry? As in matters therefore of unusual doubt, where truth hath no verdict, probability finds audience, So in those obstruct and narrow passages of his will, where reason cannot inform thee, belief is thy best intelligencer, and if that want a tongue, make this thy interpreter; so thou mayst evade with less distrust, I am sure, with more safety.  
And at last when thou hast scanned all, what either scruple or inquisition can prompe thee to, in a dejected humiliation, thou must cry out with that jewish penitent; Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief. Yea, but how shall we here clear God from this aspersion, when the Apostle is the Herald to his guilt? whom he will he hardens: Indurat is an active, and doth always presuppose a passive; And if there be a subject that must suffer, there must be a hand too that must inflict. How then can we quit the Almighty of the suspicion either of tyranny or injustice, since he is said to sand on some the spirit of error, 2 Thess. 2. and that great Trumpet of God's displeasure, Esay in his 63. brings in the jews, no less muttering than expostulating with God, Quare errare nos fecisti Domine? Lord why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our hearts from thy fear? These instances (at the first survey,) bear terror in their looks, and like sophisticated lights in a dark room, make things seem more ugly than they are; and are but false bills, preferred against a spotless innocent, which, without search, may convince of public crime, but narrowly scanned, absolve him, no less from the act, than the thought of guilt. How God therefore in this is liable to censure and misprision, and how both a beholder, an intermeddler of depraved actions; vouchsafe me a little your attentive patience, and I doubt not, but I shall inform the understanding of the shallow, and to the portion of my weak Talon, will strive to satisfy the waveringly judicious. Whom he will he hardens. Some (too nicely tender of the honour of their maker) have given way to an interpretation more modest, than authentic, and interpret— indurare— for duritiam manifestare, so that God is not properly said to harden the heart, but rather to manifest how hard it is, And to this opinion Saint Augustine is a close adherent in his 18 Question upon Exodus. But this holds not with the purpose of God, nor with the scope and meaning of the Text, which if we compare with others of that nature, we shall find that Gods will hath rather a finger in this, than his promulgation: for so in the 10 of josua we read, that 'twas the will and the sentence of the Almighty, that the Canaanites should be hardened, that they might deserve no mercy, but perish. Others there are (whose opinions border nearer upon truth) which would have God to be said to harden— non effective, sed permissiuè; Not by way of Action, but permission, and so Damascen in his third book de fide Orthodoxâ, cap. 20. Where his words run thus. Operaepretium est agnoscere—. 'Tis a matter no less worthy of knowledge, than observance, that 'tis the custom of the Scripture to call God's permission, his action. So we read that God sent his enemies the spirit of slumber, which is not to be ascribed to God as an agent, but as a permitter. This gloss suits well with the approbation of Saint Chrysostome; who speaking occasionally of that of the first of the Romans, Deus tradidit illos— God gave them up unto vile affections, he there expounds— tradidit, by permisit, which he thus illustrates by a similitude—; As the General of an Army, in the sweat and brunt of a bloody day, if he withdraw his personal directions from his soldiers, what doth he but expose them to the mercy of their enemies? not that he led them into the jaws of danger, but because they were not backed by his encouragement: So God in this spiritual conflict, he delivers us not into the hands of our arch-enemy, he leaves us to our own strength, and our corrupt affections drag us thither with a witness. And hence that dicotomy of Caietan claims his prerogative, that God doth harden Negatively, but not Positively, which distinction though it be sound & Orthodox, yet it doth not exempt us from scruple, for God hath more in the stiffnecked and perverse, than a naked and bore permission, otherwise we should too weakly distance obduration from a lesser sin, for every sin God permits, and as Saint Augustine in his Enchir. 96. cap. Nihil fit nisi omnipotens fieri velit, vel sinendo ut fiat, vel ipse faciendo. There's nothing done without the consent and approbation of the Almighty, and that either by his person or substitute. If God therefore be only said to harden man because he permits him to be hardened, why should he not be likewise said to steal, because he permits man to steal? No doubt therefore but God hath a greater ore in this sin of hardneing, than in offences of a lesser bulk. And therefore Saint Augustine in his 3. lib. count. julianum, 3. cap. with many a sinewed allegation proves, that God doth concur to the excaecation and hardening both of the mind and heart,— Non solum, secundum patientiam, & permissionem, sed potentiam, & actionem. Not according to his patience and permission only, but his power and action: Which position he thus (after) qualifies with a distinction. Obduration is not only a sin, but a punishment of a sin. Now, that which is in obduration merely of sin hath its pedigree and original from man only; but that which is of punishment for that sin, from God. And therefore I cannot but approve of that of Isiodore, Qui iusti sunt, à Deo non impelluntur, ut malifiant, sed dùm mali iam sunt, indurantur, ut deteriores existant,— Accord to that of Paul, 2 Thes. 2. For this cause God shall sand them strong delusions, that they might believe a lie, that all might be damned that believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness. I have as yet but touched the bark and skin of the controversy, the pith and the kernel is yet unchewed, and that is,— Whether God here (as he is said to harden) be the cause of our transgressions. Which quaere admits a threefore distraction, and difference of opinion. Two of them are extremes, and by hot opposition each of other, they have both lost the truth, the third runs in a midway, and ever directs to safety. Florini● (whose opinion posterity records as the monument of a seduced error) with no less peremptoriness than blaspemy hath arraigned the Almighry, and made him not only the permitter, but the Author of our sins. The Seleuciani, after him, were poisoned with that heresy, & the Libertines laboured in the defence thereof. Manes, and his disciples, dreamt of a summum malum, and upon that fantasy grounded their assertion, that God the summum bonum, is to be seen only in our good actions, but every depraved Act had its derivation from their summum malum. But those of a more solid and well tempered judgement, whom the influence of the Spirit had taught a moderation, or the danger of Inquisition forbade curiosity, dare not with Florinus impute (here) sin unto God, yet maintain against the Manichees, that God is not a bore and idle spectator, but powerful over, although no actor in the sin, Not in the sin, as it is merely a sin, but in the sin as 'tis a punishment of sin. And therefore in every transgression of ours, there are four thing, remarkable, 1 Subiectum, seu materiale, he subject in which sin subsists, and that is twofold. 1 Substantia, the substance, or rather the faculties of the reasonable soul, in which original sin is so riveted, that the natural man can by no means purge himself of that hereditary contagion, or Actio bona, on which all our actual sins are grounded. 2 Formale, the formality, or obliquity of the action. For every sin is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the transgression of the Law, and in the sinner there's nothing sin but this. 3 Reatus, The guilt of this enormity, which makes us liable to eternal death. 4 Poena, the punishment inflicted upon the guilty, whether temporal, or eternal, or both. Now we may not charge God with the obliquity of the action, for that proceeds from a perverse, and a seduced will, but the substance of the action (as the Schoolmen speak) that hath its original from God. And therefore we consider sin, either ut malum culpae, as 'tis a violation of God's law, or ut malum poenae, as a punishment laid upon us for the violation of that Law: So Rom. 1.25. The Gentiles turned the truth of God into a lie, There's malum culpae. And it follows immediately at the 26 verse, For this cause God gave them up into vile affections, There's malum poenae. Now God is author of the second, not the first. If mists still hung on the eyes of clouded error, I thus dispel them with that of Hugo de Sancto Victore— Deus malis potestatem solam tribuit, non voluntatem, quià licet ex ipsius permissione sit, quod malum possunt, ex inspiratione tamen non est quod malum volunt. God only gives power to the wicked, not will, that although it be by his permission that we can do evil, yet it is not by his inspiration that we will do evil. And therefore as the Schools do commonly distinguish of the decree of God, so must we of the execution or that decree, which is either pe● efficientiam; when the divine power doth work any thing with, or without the creature, or secundum permissionem, when the creature hath leave to work without the guidance of that power. Neither will it savour of impertinence, if we insert here that distinction of God's providence in efficientem & descrentem: Into a relieving and forsaking providence, for whensoever God withdraws his especial aid and assistance from us, man is hurried where his own corrupter appetite, not God's grace carrieth him. Adam fell as soon as the influence of God's grace ceased, and without the supportance of the same grace we all fall, with no less certainty of peril, than danger of restitution. When the Sun sets, we see darkness follows immediately upon the face of the earth, and yet the Sun is not the efficient cause of darkness, but the deficient; so when the Sun of righteousness shall forsake us, the darkness of error, must needs possess the understanding, and the will must mistake in her choice and execution. She must nec●ssitate consequentia, non cònsequè●is. The necessity is grounded on a consequent in Logic, not any influence in Nature. And here we may borrow a true glory for that in the 2 Acts, where it is said that Christ was delivered into the hands of the wicked, by the determinate counsel & foreknowledge of God. We must not think that God was the letter in this villainy, that he conspired with judas in his treason, or with Pilate in his bloody sentence: But that he only gave way to their attempts, and offered them to crucify the Lord of glory. Yea, but why did not God curb them in their cruel proceed: Why should his connivance betray the blood of innocence? Saint Austin shall answer for me. Qui● mel●●● iudicavit de malis beneifacere, quàm mala nulla esse permittere. To extract good out of evil was peculiar only to omnipotency and goodness; and therefore no less solid than charitable is that caveat of Du. Blesses— Malè quaeritur, unde malum officiatur. It is an ill curiosity to seek an efficient cause of ill. Let this then satisfy modest enquiry that it is with the sinner as with an vntuned Instrument, and the Musician, the sound is from the finger of him that toucheth it, but the ●arring from the Instrument.  
That our discourse then with the time may draw towards a Period, we involve and wrap up in this one distinction the very juice and substance of the controversy. Sin is considerable two ways, ante commissionem, before the Commission, Sic se Deus habet negatiuè, tum respectu voluntatis, tum productionis. God doth neither work with us, nor countenance us in the act of sinning. Post commissionem, after the Commission, sic Deus determinat, & ordinat peccatum. God sets bounds to the malice of wicked men, and so mannages the disorder in sin, that contrary to the nature of sin, and the intent of the sinner, it shall redound to his glory.  
We inculcate then, that God is not the author, but the orderer of sin. He causeth the work, not the fault; the effect, not the delinquency, working by, not in mischief. Wherein, according to the rules of Logic, the final and impulsiut causes ever so distinguish the actions, that two doing the same thing to a diverse intent, are notwithstanding said not to do the same. So God gave his Son, and Christ himself, and judas Christ, (saith Augustine) why is God here holy, and man guilty? Nisi in re unâ quam fecerunt, non est causa una ob quam fecerunt. I shut up all with that state of Fulgentius in his first book ad Mancinum cap. 1●. Where having long hovered over this question, An peccatafiant ex praedestinatione? He at last thus resolves it. Potuit Deus, sient voluit, pradestinare quosdam ad gloriam, quesdam ad poenam, sed quos praedestinavit ad gloriam, praedestinavit ad iustitiam, quos autem praedestinavit ad poenam, non praedestinavit ad culpam. God when he saves any man doth predestinate him as well to the means, as to the end. But in the reprobation of a sinner, God destinies the sinner only to the punishment; foreseeing, but not determining those sins which shall in time draw God's punishments down upon him.  
Do our corruptions harden then, and God punisheth? Take heed you Pharaohs of the world, you which persecute the poor Israelite in his way to Canaan, spur not the goodness of the Almighty to revenge, or justice. Laesa patientia sit furor—, trample too much on the neck of patience, you will turn it to fury. It is true, God hath leet of Lead (clemency intermixed with slowness of revenge) but he hath hands of iron, they will grind and bruise into powder, when they are dared to combat.  Sera venit, sed certa venit vindicta Deorum. 
Procrastination of divine justice is ever waited on no less with a certainty of punishment than ruin. What shall we do then (wretched, miserable that we are) or to whom shall we fly for secure? The good S. Augustine tells us,— à Deo ●a●o, ad Deum placatum—, from the tribunal of his justice, to his throne of mercy, and compassion. That of Anselmus was most admirable— Et si Domine ego commisi unde me damnare potes, tu tamen non amisisti, unde noc saluare potes—. O blessed jesus, though I have committed those transgressions for which thou mayst condemnemed, yet thou hast not lost those compassions by which thou mayst save me. If our souls were in such a strait, that we saw hell opening her mouth upon us, like the read sea before the Israelites; the damned and ugly fiends, pursuing us behind, like the Egyptians, on the right hand, and on the left; death and sea ready to ingulse us, yet upon a broken heart, and undisguised sorrow would I speak to you in the confidence of Moses— Stand still, stand still, behold the salvation of the Lord. Thou then which art oppressed with the violence and clamour of thy sins, and wantest an advocate either to intercede, or pity, hear the voice of the Lamb,— Cry unto me, I will hear thee out of my holy hill. Is any heavily loaden with the weight of his offences, or groans under the yoke and tyranny of manifold temptations?— Come unto me, I will refresh thee—. Doth any hunger after righteousness? behold, I am the bread of life, take, eat, here is my body. Doth any thirst after the ways of grace? loc, I am a living spring, come; drink here is my blood, my blood that was shed for many for the remission of sins; for many, not for all. Hath sin dominion over thee? or doth it reign in thy mortal heart? are the wounds of thy transgressions so deep that they cannot be searched? or so old, that they corrupt and putrify? where is the Samaritan that will either bind them up, or pour in oil? But art thou not yet dead in trespasses? are not thy ulcers past cure? are there any seeds of true life remaining? is there any motion of repentance in thy soul? will thy pulse of remorse bear a little? hast thou but a touch of sorrow? a spark of contrition? a grain of faith? know there is oil of comfort for him which mourns in Zion. Not a tear drops from thee with sincerity which is either unpitied, or unpreserued,— God puts it into his bottle. On the otherside, is there a Pharaoh in thee? an heart unmollified? a stone that will not be bruised? a flint unmalleable? I both mourn for it, and leave it: But is this heart of stone taken away, and is there given thee a heart of flesh? is it soft and tender with remorse? truly sacrificed to sorrow? know there is balm of Gilead for the broken heart, balm that will both refresh and cure it. Thou than which groanest in the spirit, and are drawn out, (as it were) into contrition for thy sins; thou which hast washed thy hands in innocence, go cheerfully to the altar of thy God, unbind thy sacrifice, lay it on. But hast thou done it sincerely? from thy heart? lurks there no falsehood there? is all swept clean and garnished? doth the countenance of that smile as cheerfully, as the other seems to do of the outward man? if so. thy fire is well kindled, the Altar burns clearly, the savour of thy incense shall pierce the clouds. But is this repentance disguized? hath it a touch of dissimulation in it? is not thy old rank or clean disgorged, but must thou again to thy former vomit? hypocrite, thy Altar is without fire, thy incense without smoke, it shall never touch the nostrils of the Almighty, thy prayers in his ears sound like brass, and tinkle like an ill-tuned Cymbal; all this formality of zeal is but a disease of the lip: give me thy heart my son, I will have that, or none, and that clean too, washed both from deceit, and guilt. That subtle fallacy of the eye pointing towards heaven, that base hypocrisy of the knee kissing the earth, that seeming austerity of the hand martyring thy breast, gains from me neither applause, nor blessing; the example of a Pharisee could have chid thee to such an outside of devotion,— Qui pectus suum tundit, & se non corrigit, aggravat peccata, non tollit, saith Augustine, where there is an outward percussion of the breast, without remorse of the inward man, there is rather an aggravation of sin, than a release; these blanching, and guildings, and varnishings of external zeal, are as odious in the eye of God, as those of body in a true Christian; this gloss, this paint of demureness speaks but our whoredoms in religion, & the integrity of that man is open both to censure and suspicion, that is exposed either to the practice of it, or the approbation. A villain is a villain howsoever his garb or habit speak him otherwise, and an hypocrite is no less, though sleeked over with an external sanctity, & dressed in the affectations of a preciser cut. Let us be truly that what we seem to be, and not seem what we are not; let there be doors & casements in our breasts that men may see the loyalty 'twixt our heart and tongue, and how our thoughts whisper to our tongue, and how our tongue speaks them to the world. Away with those Meteors and false-fires of Religion, which not only by path us in a blinded zeal, but mislead others in our steps of error. Let us put off the old man in our pride, vain glory, hypocrisy, envy, hatred, malice, and (that foul disease of the times, and us) uncharitableness; and let us put on the new man in sincerity, faith, repentance, sobriety, brotherly, kindnesses, love, and (what without it disparages the tongue both, of men, and Angels) charity; then at length all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes, and we shall receive that everlasting benediction.— Come ye children, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.— To which, the Lord bring us for Christ jesus sake, to whom be praise and power ascribed now, and for evermore. Amen.  
Gloria in excelsis Deo.   
FINIS.   

THE ARRAIGNMENT OF THE ARRIAN.  
His 

Beginning.  
Height.  
Fall.    
In a Sermon preached at Paul's Cross, june 4. 1624.  
Being the first Sunday in Trinity Term.  
BY Humphrey Sydenham Mr. of Arts, and Fellow of WADHAM College in OXFORD.  
LONDON, Printed for JOHN PARKER. 1626.   

TO MY APPROVED WORTHY FRIEND Mr. Francis Crossing; This.  
SIR;  
I Was never yet so preposterous in my respects, as to value the worth of him I serve, by the title, but the disposition; He is noble to me, that is so in his actions, not his descent; those high-swollen privileges of blood and fortune are (for the most part) tympanies in greatness, prick them, and they prove winds of honour, not substances. Had I been ambitious of a high Patronage, this weak piece I sand you might have worn an honourable inscription, but I have that within me which chides those insolences, and tells me that the name of friend sounds better than of Lord, and he is less mine that doth only countenance me, than he that feeds me; He only deserves to be a protector of my Labours which hath been a cherisher of my fortunes; to you then this at once flies for Patronage, and acceptance, desiring you to receive it as a monument of his thankfulness, who ever devotee's himself  
Your most-most respective HUM: SYDENHAM.   

THE ARRAIGNMENT OF THE ARRIAN.  JOHN 8.58. 
Before Abraham was, I am.  
Never age afforded a perfection of that eminency which was not exposed to envy, or opposition, or both. Truth is the child of virtue; and, as the inheritress of all her glories; so, her sufferings. Now, virtue grows by unjust wounds, & so doth truth too; and like steel that is be●●●, springeth the other way. She shows her best lustre upon encounter, and like the Sun shines brightest betwixt two clouds, malice, error; both (here) conspire to overcast and darken the glory of those beams which enlighten every man that comes into the world, the suns of righteousness. It hath ever been the stratagem and project of that Arch-enemy of man, for the advancement and strengthening of his great title— The Father of lies—, either to strangle truth in the conception, or smother it in the birth. If he miscarry in his own particular undertake, he will suborn his Factors, Scribes and Pharisees; and these not only to question; but to oppose a deity, fit agents put upon such a damned design, for it is theirs no less by debt, than parentage;— Ye are of your Father the Devil, v. 44. He hath bequeathed you a prodigiously, and you would fain practise it on the Saviour of the world, labouring to nullify his acts, blemish his descent, imposture all his miracles. Where were they ever seconded, but by the finger of a God? or, where contradicted, but by the malice of a jew? could the powers of the grave, and the shackles and bands of death be dissolved, and broken by the mere hand of Beelzebub? or a dead and stinking carcase, enliued and quickened by a Samaritan and his devil? could the kingdom of darkness, and all those legions below, fetch a soul out of the bosom of your Abraham, and reinthrone it in a body four days entombed? no, that— Magnus hiatus inter te, & nos—, returns the lie upon all hellish power, and the prince thereof.— Between you, and us, there is a great gulf fixed, Luke 16.26. Why then exclaim you on the injustice and falsehood of his testimonies? Opera que ego fancy—, the works which I do bear witness of me. Look on them, and if they unscale not your wilful blindness, the axioms and principles of your own law will convince you. It is written in your Thalmud,— That the testimony of two men is true—. Behold then out of your own blood, and Nation, two strong evidences against you, Iewes both, and both speak him a true God,— A virgin shall conceive and bring forth a Son, and his name shall be called Emmanuell, God with us, Isa. 7.14. This is our God, and there shall be none in comparison of him, Baruch 3.36. Why then are ye so startled at his naming Abraham? or why doth your indignation swell, that he says he is before him? Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and saw it, and was glad, verse. 56. (My day of eternity, and my day of incarnation, with the eye of faith.) Why inquire you into the number of his years? a whole age to him is as an hour, two thousand years but as a minute, and all the wheels and degrees of time within his span, and as a nunc or instant; before Abraham was, before the world, before all time I am. jew, take his word, it is orthodox, or if not, his asseveration: and if that be too slight and single, lo, he doubles it, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.  
And now thou that sittest in the chair of Moses, hear what S. Augustine tells thee,— Appende verba, & cognosce mysterium—, the words (indeed) are of a narrow circuit, yet they shrine and involve a mystery, and carry with them both majesty and depth, like rich stones set in Ebony, where though the ground be dark, yet it gives their lustre and beauty clearer; learn here then both propriety, and weight of language, and how to critic between a God, and thy own frailty.— Intellige, fieret, ad humanam facturam, sum verò, ad divinam pertinere substantiam?— Was, points only to a humane constitution,— I am, to a divine substance, and therefore the original hath a— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— for Abraham, & an— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— for Christ. Divinity is not cloistered or confined to time, either past, or future, but commands all as present; and therefore not— I was, but— I am. Neither do the Latins give Abraham a— esset, but a— fieret, nor Christ a— fui, but a— sum. Hereupon the full tide of Expositors, besides 
* Ego latius extendo, Cal. in 8.10.  M. Caluine, and his Marlorate, (who though they a while divide the stream, yet at length they meet in the same channel, and so make the current a little fuller) wave this way, and sand us to that— I am, of Exodus, in the 3. chap. 14. vers. where we find the root with an ●●ieh, Asher Ehich, which though the Chaldee renders,— Ero qui ere, I will be that I will be— (which indeed is the genuine signification of the original) yet the vulgar Edition gives it in the present,— I am that I am— and the Septuagint— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,— I am he that is- (it being both frequent and necessary with the Hebrews to place the future for the present) and by this they imply— God eternal and unchangeable being in himself. The Thalmudists also (whose authority must pass for current, where there is no power to contradict, or scan) allow this,— Ehieh— as much as— S●●— F●i— ere- the comprehension of three times, past present, and to come: So the Rabbins in Elleshemoth Rabbi upon this Text, read;— I that have been, and I the same now, and I the same for time to come. However the Chaldee Paraphrast labours an indifferency, and hath charity enough to afford both interpretations,— He that was, and hereafter will be.— Ad de notandam aeternitatem eias (saith jonathan) to show the eternal being of him who alone can say— Sum, ero- I am, and I will be; for he is the very source and fountain of all life and essence, In whom we live, and move, and been our being—, and by reason of this triplicity of time, and power, Vatablus would derive Ihehovah from this word— E●ich (though some of the Hebrew Doctors fetch the pedigree a little higher) from— Hanah,— He was, and tells us that by the first letter is signified, he will be, and by the second— Ho,— He is; & to this Rabbi Bechai seems to assent, in his 65. page upon Exodi●. But however they war a little in the derivation, they do not in the substance, proportioning both this triple privilege, & where there is such an immensity, we cannot but make a God, & where such a God, eternity. All things besides him once were not, and being, are limited in their natures, neither could possibly persist, unless God preserved them; many also have lost or shall lose their proper essence, and whilst they remain are obnoxious to daily fluctuations; only God eternally— Is— without beginning, limitation, dependence, mutation, end, consisting only of himself, and all other creatures of him, and therefore this— Ehieh— I am— is a peculiar attribute of omnipotency, not determining any other, but indeterminatlie signifying all manners of being, for so it imports— The very immensity of God's substance,— and to this with an unanimous consent all interpreters subscribe, and the whole choir of Fathers. I have now brought— Ehieh— close up with jehovah, this— I am— with him that is- First- and Last, so that we may here rather challenge than borrow that of the Apostle; jesus Christ yesterday, and to day, and the same for ever. Where S. Chrysostome will put Christ upon that triple prerogative to make him a complete God, too.— A yesterday, for time past,- today- present- for ever, to come, though I meet here (as I shall in every cranny and passage of my discourse) a violent opposer, Eniedinum Samosatenianus, who limits the Apostles— Heri— and Hodie— ad Rem nuperam, & recentem-, so in job (he says) men are called— Hesterni— by the Greeks', 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— yesterday- and to day— for their brevity of life; but this interpretation is no less bold than desperate, and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— which follows in the original, will cut off all comment and gloss of transitoriness— The same for ever— and therefore we found him clothed with peculiar titles of the Almighty, and by Saint john four several times fronted with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,— from him that was, and is and is to come;— so that if any murmuring unbeliever should recoil in the acknowledgement of Christ's divinity; he beats on again, a third & a fourth time, that if he cannot pierce the stony heart by a single persuasion, he will batter it by inculcation. However the malice or perverseness of most ages have brought this truth not only upon terms of scruple, but opposition, so that now it is grown disputable, whether Christ suffered more in his body by the fury and violence of the hand, or in his divinity by the scourge and sting of venomous and depraving tongues? one would have him, no God, another no man; this again would have him a mere man, and that denies him a true body; one strips him quite of flesh, another  him with it, but makes it sinful; this would have him an Angel, that little better than a devil, or at lest that he used one. One, no body, another (I believe) nothing— Est illud mirabile (saith Athanasius) Cum omnes haereses invicem pugnent, in falsitate omnes consentire—.  
Every head is frantic with a strange opinion, and that with some wild fancy, which all meet in the same improbability and (which it ever breeds) falsehood. Error and infidelity may blow on divine truth, and shake it too, but not overthrew it; 'tis founded on such a Basis and sure groundwork as is subject neither to battery nor undermining. The Rock, Christ. The jew and the Arrian lay on fiercely here, not only to deface this goodly structure, but to demolish it, and ruin (if possible) his divinity; but lend me a while your noble attention, I'll show you with what weakness they come off, what dishonour. In the traversing of which give me leave to make use of that Apology which in the same subject Saint Ambrose did to Gratian,— Nolo argumento credas (sancte Imperator●) & nostrae disputationi; scripturas interrogemus, interrogemus Apostolos, Prophetas, Christum. Lean not so much to my strength of Argument and disputation, as to a sacred authority & proof, Let us ask the Scriptures, Patriarches, Prophets, Evangelists, Apostles, Christ; let me add (for so both my task and industry require) Fathers, Counsels, Rabbins, Schoolmen, Histories sacred and profane, let's give antiquity her due, and not in a lazy thirst drink of the stream, (which is either troubled or corrupt) when we may have our fill at a clear fountain; to traffic here at home with a few modern Systeames, is no small sin of the age only, but our profession too, if we can fleyle down the transgressions of the time in some few stolen Postellism●s, and piece a sacred line with a worm-eaten Apophthegm, so it be done in a frequent and hasty zeal, we are the Sages and the Patriots of the time, and the lights no doubt of this under firmament; but our discourse grovels not so low; we are here to tread a maze, and thread a Labyrinth, sometimes on hills of ice, where, if we slip in the least punctum, we tumble into heresy; sometimes with Peter in the deep, that if the hand of Christ did not a little succour us, we should sink into infidelity. I will ballast my discourse with as much cautelousness as I may, and where I meet with difficulties which are stony and untrodden, if I cannot fairly master them, I will oppose them with my best strength, and if not find a way smooth to satisfaction, dig on; I may perchance awaken heresies, but I will lull them again in their own slumber, I will only pull aside the veil and show you their ugliness, and shut them up in their own deformities. I know I am to speak to an Auditory, as well seasoned with faith, as understanding, and yet (perchance) not without some mixture and touch of weakness. Here are shallowss then for Lambs to wade, and deeps for Elephants to swim, passages which lie level with humble capacities; others which will venture to stand up with riper judgements, if they stoop sometimes and seem too low for these, and mount again and prove too high for others, it was ever my desire to keep a correspondence with the best, and so to make use of that of Augustine,— Non fraudabo eos qui possunt capere, dum timeo superfluus esse auribus eorum qui non possunt capere—. Yet come I not to fill those ears which are picked and dressed for accurateness I am so fare from labouring to please such, that I intent to vex them; if any charitable ear be prove to a four discourse, pitch that attention here one hour, and I shall make good my promise out of the words of the Text.  Before Abraham was, I am. 
And here we are first to enter lists with that capital and Arch-enemy of Christ, the vexation of the Fathers, and the incendiary and firebrand of the Eastern Church, the Arrian, who out of an envious pride is at once bountiful and injurious, willing to invest Christ with the title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but disrobes him of that glorious, and his own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, granting him a like essence with the Father not the same: equal to him in power, not eternity; but give me leave to strip one heretic to  another, and put on ours what Tertullian did on Martion— Quid dim idias mendacio Christum? why dost thou thus piecemeal and mince a deity, and half god (as it were) the Son of the Almighty?— Totus veritas, he is the spirit of truth, and oracle of his Father, the brightness of his glory, in whom are hid all the treasures of Wisdom, knowledge, by whom God made the world.  
It were too bold a solecism to rank transitoriness with what is sacred, or that which is fleeting with everlastingness, what below eternal dare we make compatible with omnipotency?  
An eternal Intellect, most perfect, and such is God, requires an object equally perfect, and eternal, which from God, holding a relation to God, can be nothing but God itself; and seeing that no Intellect can conceive without the image of that object which it conceives, it will follow of necessity that God, since from all eternity he knew himself most perfect, should conceive and bring forth in himself a most perfect image of himself, his Son. There is no act of understanding without imagination, which naturally presents an image, by so much the more perfect, by how much the object, whose image it is, is more divinely excellent. And this is that the Apostle glanced at, when he styled Christ,— Characterem hypostasis patris— the express image of his Father's person, a son so begotten of and in the substance of the Father, that there can be nothing from it, diverse, or repugning. Seeing then, in God to understand and to be are not so much parallels, as equals. 
Keck. Syst. Theol. l. 1. ca 2.  Intelligi autem sit ipsum filij esse— as the School speaks— strength of consequence will induce, that the substance of Father and Son, sound one both in power and everlastingness; in fine, for as much as the understanding of God is from eternity, active, nay, the very act eternal, and that understanding cannot be without an Image, It follows that this Image which was conceived, the Son, was equal to that which did conceive, the Father, so that the eternity of God the Son, and his equality with God the Father doth arise from that essential Identity of both, for where two persons shall agreed in the same essence, if the one be infinite, the other must rival in the same eternity.  
Here is the Rock then on which we build our Church, and the sure Basis where we foot and fasten our belief.— The Son is begotten of the essence of the Father, and always begotten, 
Tom. 2. hom. 6. in jerem. — Non quòd quotidiè renovetur illa generatio, sed quia semper est,— saith Origen, not because it is daily renovated, but because it ever— Is— or rather— Was. For Saint Gregory in the 29 of his Morals, the first Chapter, plays as well the Critic, as the Divine, and is no less nice, than solid,— Dominus noster Iesus Christus in eo quòd virtus & sapientia Dei est, de patre ante tempora natus est, vel potius quia nec coepit nasci, nec desijt, dicam verius, semper natus, non possumus, semper nascitur, nè imperfectus esse videatur— Our Lord jesus Christ in that he is the power and wisdom of God is said to be borne of the Father before all times, or rather because there was no beginning or end of his generation, we may speak more congruously, he was always borne, not- Is-, for that presupposes some imperfection, and as the same Father prosecutes. 
 aeternus designari valeat, & perfectus, & semper dicimus & natus, quatenus, & natus ad perfectionem pertineat, & semper ad aeternitatem.  That we may declare him both perfect and eternal, we allow him as well a- semper- as a- Natus- for as much as- Natus- hath reference to perfection,- semper-, to eternity. However S. Augustine in his exposition of that of the Psalmist,— Ego hodiè, genui te- Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee, Psal. 2. says that- Hodiè- praesentiam significat and in eternity, neither is the time past any thing, as if it should cease to be, nor time to come, as if it were not yet, but only the time present, Because whatsoever is eternal always- Is- yet at length he understands that place— de sempiterna generatione sapientiae Dei— And Lombard descants on it in his first book ninth distinction, who would have the Prophet to say- Genui- nè nowm putaretur,- hodiè ne praeteritae generatio videretur: I have begotten thee, jest it should be thought new, to day, past, and thence out of the authority of the Text or the interpretation concludes a perpetual generation of the Son from the essence of the Father.  
But here the Heretic interposes, and thus subtly beats at the gates of reason. A thing that is borne, cannot be said that it was ever, for in this respect it is said to be borne, 
Lib. 12. de Trin.  that it might be. S. Hilary, by a modest answer or confutation rather, limits his proposition to things merely secular, which borne here in the course of nature, must necessarily call on time, and tell us they sometimes were not, it is one thing then to be borne of that which always is not, another of that which always was, for that is temporary, this eternal.  
If then it be proper to God the Father, always to be Father, it must be to God the Son, always to be Son, so the Evangelist. 
joh. 1. v. 31. — In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and that word was God, and the same was from the beginning; erat, erat, erat, erat, en quater erat, ubi impius invenit quod non erat? Saint Ambrose in his first to Gratian 5. c. & indeed it was not without a mystery when in that glorious transfiguration on Mount Tabor, Peter saw Christ with Moses, and Elias (when his face did shine as the Sun, and his raiment was white as Snow) what did that vision portend? 
Ambros. ut supra.  Nisi ut appareret nobis quod lex & Prophetae cum Euangelio congruentes sempiternum dei filium quem annunciaverant, revelarent. But that it should appear unto us that the Law and the Gospel going hand in hand with Evangelicall truth (for under Christ and Moses and Elias, 
Aug. in orat. ad Catech. cap. 6.  Saint Augustine also shrines those three) should reveal unto us the everlasting Son of God, whom they had both foretold and shown. And lo yet, as if these were not Oracles loud enough for the promulgation of such a Majesty, the voice of the Almighty fills it up with a- Hic est meus Dilectissimus- This is my beloved Son, My Son of eternity,— Ego ex utero ante Luciferum genui te—. Psal. 34. And a son of mine own substance,— Ex ore Altissimi prodivi— Wis. 7.— primogenitus— before the day was, I am he, Esay 43.13.— Vnigenitus— A just God, and a Saviour, There is none beside me, Esay 45.21. A Son begotten, not created, not of grace, but nature, before, not in time.  
Hereupon Christ taking his farewell of his Disciples, john 20. shows them this Interuallum and distance of generation and adoption: I go to my Father, and your Father, and to my God and your, not to our Father, but to mine and yours. This separation implies a diversity, and shows that God is his Father indeed, but our Creator; and therefore he adds. My God and your God; Mine by a privilege of nature, yours of grace; Mine out of the womb (as it were) of everlastingness; yours out of the jaws of time. Yet the Heretic would fain cell us to unbelief and error, by cheating Christ of an eternal birthright, tossing it on the tides of time, and so make him a creature, and no God.  
Hear to descent merely were both perfunctory and dull, such a falsehood merits rather defiance, than denial,— Negamus? 
Amb. ut supra.  potius horremus vocem-. Errors that are so insolent are to be explosed, not disputed, and spit at rather than controlled. Confutation sways not here, but violence, and therefore the Apostle drives this blasphemy to the head, Coloss. 1.15. Where we find Christ styled primogenitus universae Creaturae, The firstborn of every creature; not the first created,—  genitus pro Natura, & primus pro perpetuitate credatur—. saith Ambrose; borne presupposes divine nature- First, perpetuity, and therefore when the pen of the Holy Ghost sets him out in his full glory, he gives him this title— haeredem omnium—, 
Col. 1. - The heir of tall things, by whom God made the world—, 
Amb. 1. de si. ad Grat. cap. 2.  To make the world, and to be made in it, how contradictory? Quis Authorem inter opera sua deputet ut videatur esse quod fecit? saith the Father. Was there ever malice so shod with ignorance, which could not divide the Artificer from his work, the Potter from his clay, the Creator from the thing created? hear him speak in whose mouth there was no guile.- Ego & pater unum sumus, joh. 10. I and the Father are one. Vnum- to show a consent both of power and eternity,- Sumus- a perfection of nature without confusion. Again,- Vnum sumus- not- unus sum- (so Augustine descants)- Vnum- to confute the Arrian, 
Orat. ad Catech. cap. 5. - Sumus- the Sabellian, the one disjointing and severing the times of Son and Father, the other confounding their persons.- Vnum- then, to show their essence one,- Sumus- the persons diverse.  
I could wish that we were now at truce, but with these there is neither peace nor safety, but in victory; we are still in the Front and violence of our Adversary, who puts on here as Philip did to Christ, with a— Domine ostend nobis-Lord show us the Father, and it sufficeth us, but observe how the Lord replies, and in his reply controls, and in his controlment cures? Have I been so long time with thee, and hast thou not known me Philip? I came to reconcile thee to the Father, and wilt thou separate me? Why seekest thou another? he that hath seen me, hath seen my Father also. Audi Arriane quid Dominus? (saith Augustine) si errasti cum Apostolo, redi cum Apostolo- Hark Arrius how the Lord rebukes him, and if thou hast digressed with an Apostle, return with an Apostle, so his check shall be thy conversion. But whilst we thus shoulder with the Arrian, the Sabellian lies in ambush, who now comes on like lightning and thunder, but goes off like smoke; for looking back to those words of our Saviour, he runs on boldly to his own paradox, and by this harmony of Son and Father would persuade us to a confusion of their persons; but the Text bears it not, and one little particle shall redeem it from such a preposterous interpretation; for it runs not with a— Qui me videt, videt patrem,— He that sees me, sees my father, as if I were both father and son, but with a- Qui me uìdet, videt-&-patrem,- He that sees me, sees my father also. Vbi interpositio unius sillabae, &, patrem descernit, & filium, teque demonstrat, neque patrem habere, neque filium, August. in his contra 5. host. genera cap. 6. It is a rare opinion that hath not something to hearten it either in truth or probability, otherwise it were no less erroneous, than desperate. But here there can be no colour or pretence for either, where both Divinity and Arts breathe their defiance; that two natures should dissolve into one person, religion contradicts; two persons into one nature, reason; but two persons into one person, both reason & religion.— Dixit Dominus Domino meo— saith the Psalmist, The Lord said unto my Lord, sit at my right hand. Hark Sabellius, here is a Lord and a Lord, two then, not one; where is now thy confusion of persons? Ego Deus solus, & non alius extra me, Deut. 32.12. I am God, and there is none beside me-. Arrius where is thy God of eternity, and thy God of power, thy God of time, and operation, and thy God from the beginning? Audi Israel, Dominus noster Deus unus—, The Lord our God is God only, no rival, no sharer in his omnipotency, for if temporary, how a God? if a God, how not eternal? if eternal, how not one? Thou allowest him the power of God, but not the eternity, the operation, not the time; what prodigy of error? what dearth of reason? what war of contradiction? what is this but to be God, and no God? temporary, and yet everlasting? Opinion once seeded in error, shoots-out into heresy, and after some growth of time, blasphemy. Who (besides an Arrian) could have thus moulded two Gods out of one? except a Tritheite, or a Maniche? Who (scarce so grossly neither) deny them not an equality of time, but condition, coeternal, but this good, and that evil. Thus men over-borne with the strength of a self-conceit, are so precipitated and drawn on with the swinge of an unruly fancy, that leaving the road and usual ways of truth, they run into by-paths of error, and so at length lose both their judgement, and their faith. Some have been so busy with stars, that they have forgotten him that gives them influence; and like curious Lapidaries, dally so long with sparkling objects, that they lose the light of that organ which gives life unto their Art. Learning (indeed) in many is a disease, not a perfection, a mere surfeit, rather vomited, than emptied, nothing passeth but what is forced, and as sometimes with a fit of weakness, so of pity. A greedy knowledge feeds not our understanding, but oppresseth it, and like a ravenous appetite chewes more to poison, than to nourishment. Were I to drink freely of what is sacred, I should desire that which flows, not that which is pumped for, waters that are troubled yield mud, and are oftentimes aswell the bane of the receiver, as the comfort. A Pioneer or bold myner which digs on too fare for his rich vein of Ore, meets with a damp which chokes him; and we may find some dispositions rather desperate than venturous, known more by a heady resolution, than a wise cautelousness, whom we may resemble to that silly and storme-tost Seaman, who dived so long for a piece of his shipwrackt treasure, that either want of air, or ponderousness of water deprived him at once of life and fortune. Arrius hath been so long conversant in the school of Philosophy, that he forgets he is a Priest, and now makes that the Mistress of Divinity, which was before the handmaid. S. Augustine therefore in his Oration ad Catechum. expostulates with the heretic, and by way of Prosopopeia doth catechise him thus,— Credis in Deum patrem omnipotentem? Dost thou believe in God the father Almighty, & in his son jesus Christ our Lord? I believe, thou sayest: here, than thou art mine against the Pagan, and the Mahometan. Dost thou believe that the God and man Christ jesus was conceived of the holy Ghost, and borne of the Virgin Mary? I believe; thou art yet with me against Photinus, and the jew. Dost thou believe the father to be one person, and the son another, yet father and son but one God? and this also; here thou art mine too against the Sabellian.— Age si mecum es in omnibus, quare litigamus? saith the Father, if we are one in all these, why contend we? Let there be no strife between thee and me, for we are brethren. But it will fall out here anon as between Lot and Abraham, by reason of our substance we cannot devil together, we must part anon. Tell me then how is the son equal to the father, in operation or beginning, in power or eternity, or both? In operation and power, the heretic allows, but not eternity; for how can that which was begotten be equal to that which was not begotten? Yes, eternity, and greatness, and power in God sound one, for he is not great in one thing, and God in another, but in this great, that he is God, because his greatness is the same with his power, and his essence with his greatness. Seeing then the son is coequal in respect of power, he must be coeternal too in respect of everlastingness. Here the Arrian is on fire, and nothing can alloy or quench these flames but that which gives them an untimely foment, Reason. To prove a principle in nature is both troublesome and difficult, but in religion without the assent of faith, impossible: In matters of reason, it is first discourse, then resolve, but in these of religion, first believe, and the effect will follow, whether for confession of the truth, or conviction of error, or both. The greatest miracles our Saviour did in way of cure or restauration was with a— si credas-, and that to the living, and the dead, and between those, the sick. To the Centurion for his servant with a— sicut credis-, As thou believest, so be it unto thee, Matth. 8.5. To the Ruler of the Synagogue for his daughter, with a- Crede- too,— Fear not, but believe, Mar. 5.36. To all that are dumb, or blind, or lame in mysteries of Divinity, as to those dumb, or blind, or lame in body, with a- Vtrum creditis? Do you believe these things? then your faith hath made you whole, Matth. 9.28. but if we meet with unwieldy dispositions, such as are not only untractable, but opposite to the ways of faith, we shall rather drag than invite them to belief; however the Father labours here by a powerful persuasion, and where he fails in the strength of proof, he makes it out by way of allusion, which he illustrates by a similitude of fire & light, which are distinct things, one proceeds from another, neither can the one be possibly without the other, the father he resembles to the fire, the son to the light, and endeavours to derive it (though obliquely somewhat) from sacred story in Deut. 4.24. God is called a fire,— Thy God is a consuming fire; in Psal. 8. Christ the light, Thy word is a light unto my steps: With this double stone he batters the forehead both of the Sabellian, and the Arrian; first of the Sabellian, for here are two in one, fire and light, yet two still not one, why not so with Son, and Father? The Arrian next, for here also is one borne of another, yet the one not possibly to be borne without the other, neither of them first or last; fire and light coevall, Father and Son, so too. The similitude jars only in this, those are temporary, and these eternal,— pater ergò & filius unum sunt (saith the Father)— Sunt-dico, quia pater & filius,- unum- quia Deus; dualitas in prole, unitas in deitate, cum dico filius, alter est, cum dico Deus, unus est. count. 5. host. genera cap. 7. What more obvious and trodden to the thinnest knowledge, than that there is here- alius and- alius, but not- aliud-, as in bells of equal magnitude, and dimension (pardon the lowness of the similitude) which though framed out of the same mass, and Art, where the substance and workmanship are one, yet the sound is diverse; for though of Son and Father the substance be one as God, yet the appellation and sound is diverse, as Son and Father.  
The Heretic either impatient of this truth, or ignorant, once more makes reason his umpire, but how sinisterly, how injuriously? that which should be the mistress of our sense, and the Stern and arbitress of all our actions, must now be a promotresse and bawd to error. It is bold expostulation that runs us on these shelves of danger, and hath been the often wrack of many a blooming and hopeful truth. There are errors besides these desperate, of will, of understanding, which sometimes are rather voluntary, than deliberative, and ballaced more by the suggestions of a weak fancy, than any strength of judgement; If our thoughts then still lie at Hull in those shallowss of nature, where we coast daily about sense and reason, how can we but dash against untimely errors? but if we keep aloof in principles of Religion, where those winds of doubt and distrust swell and bluster not, faith will be at last our waf●er unto truth. Let's not then any longer root our meditations in valleys under us, but look up to those hills from whence our salvation cometh. Let's converse a little with Prophets and Evangelists, and those other Registers and Secretaries of the Almighty.- In te est Deus, & non est Deus praeter te, Esay 45.5. Infidel, either deny a divinity of Father, or Son, or confess an unity of both; for one thou must do; of the Son thou canst not, for there is a God in him, the Father, Pater qui in me manet ipse loquitur, the Father that is in me he speaketh, and the works which I do he doth, joh. 10. of the Father thou darest not, there is a God in him the Son,- I am in the Father, and the Father in me, joh. 14. Here then is both a propriety of nature, and unity of consent. God in God, yet not two, but one, fullness of divinity in the Father, fullness in the Son, yet the Godhead not diverse, but the same, so that now there is no less a singleness of name than operation. And therefore those words of the Apostle, though in the first encounter and survey, they offer a show of contradiction, yet searched to the quick and kernel, are not without a mysterious weight, Rom. 8.32. It is said of the Father,- Filio proprio non pepercit, sed pro nobis tradidit. He spared not his own Son but gave him for us all to death; yet Ephes. 5. It is said of the Son,- Tradidit semeteipsum pro nobis—,— He gave himself for us—, Hear is a double— Tradidit— an a— pro nobis—, and a— se pro nobis-, if he was given of the Father, and yet gave himself, how can it follow, but that there must be both a sympathy of nature and operation? And indeed it were a mere sacrilege and robbery of their honour, to deprive them of this so sacred a correspondence. We allow to all believers but one soul and one heart, Acts 4 to all those that cleave to God one spirit 1 Cor. 16. to husband and wife one flesh, to all men in respect of nature, but one substance; If in sublunary matters (where there is no alliance or reference with those more sacred) Scriptures approve many to be one, shall we riffle the Father and the Son of the like jurisdiction, and deny them to be eternally one, where there is no jar of will, or substance? Hear how the Apostle doth chalk out a way to our belief, by the rules of divine truth, 1 Cor. 8.6. There is one God which is the Father, of whom are all things, and we of him, and one Lord jesus Christ by whom are all things, and we by him. Here is- Deus- and- Dominus-, a God and a Lord, and yet no plurality of Godhead, and an- ex quo- and a- per quem,- of whom and by whom, yet a unity of power, for as in that he says one Lord jesus Christ, he denied not the Father to be Lord, so by saying one God the Father, he denied not the Son to be God.— In te igitur est Deus per unitatem naturae, & non est Deus praeter te propter proprietatem substantiae. Ambros. lib. 1. de fide ad Gratian 2. cap. With what sacred inscriptions do we found him blazoned, the engraven form of his Father, the image of his goodness, the brightness of his glory? and with these three of an Apostle, 
Esay 9.6.  a Prophet ranks other three not subordinate in majesty, or truth; as if the same inspiration had dictated both matter and form. Counsellor, the Almighty God, the everlasting Father, the everlasting Father in a double sense, either as he is author of it, as jubal was said to be the Father of Music when he was but the Author or inventor, or in respect of his affection, because he love's with an everlasting love; yet some leaning on the word of the Greek Interpreter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which the vulgar renders,— Pater futuri seculi— would restrain it only to the life to come, 
In cap. 9 Esay.  but Caluine extends it to a perpetuity of time and continued Series of all ages; And the Chal dee translation (which with the Hebrew is most authentic) seems not only to assent to it, but applaud it too.- Nomen eius ab antè mirabilis consilio, Deus fortis, permanens in saecula saeculorum. However the Septuagint (terrified with the majesty of so great a name) give it us by— Magni consilij Angelus—; which words though they have no footing in the original, yet both Augustine and Tertullian approve the sense, taking— Angelus— for— Nancius—, so that Christ took not upon him the nature of an Angel (as some would injuriously foize upon Origens' opinion) but the office, by which as a Legate or mediator; rather he appeared to those patriarchs of old, Abraham and the rest, Gen. 18.3.  
I have once more brought Christ as fare as jacob and Abraham, but the Text tolls me a little farther, and so doth my adversary too, till I have verified in Christ the strength of that voice, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of jacob. We may not leave him here with the bore title of an Angel, we must go higher, to that of the Son of God, where we shall lagain meet our implacable Arrian in his violent opposition. If there be a Son, he must be borne, if borne, there was a time when there was no Son, for to be borne, presupposes a beginning, and that time. Saint Augustine divided (as it seems) between pity and indignation, answers. Qui hoc dicit non intelligit etiam natum esse, deo sempiternum esse—. To be borne with God, is to be eternal with God, and he opens himself by his old similitude, Sicut splendor qui gignitur ab igne, as light which is begotten of fire, and diffused, is coevall with the fire, and would be coeternal too if fire were eternal, so the Son with the Father, this being before all time, the other must kiss in the same everlastingness. The Father thinking his reason built too slenderly doth buttress (as it were) and back it with the authority of an Apostle, 
1 Cor. ●  such an Apostle as was sometimes a persecutor, and therefore his authority most potent against a persecutor, where he styles Christ, the power and wisdom of God. If the Son of God be the power and wisdom of God, and that God was never without power and wisdom, how can we scant the Son of a coeternity with the Father? For either we must grant that there was always a Son, or that God had sometimes no wisdom, and impudence or madness were never at such a growth of blasphemy as to belch the latter. If the reverend allegation of a learned Prelate, or those more sacred of an Apostle, cannot bung up the mouth of a malicious Heretic, hear the voice of a Prophet, & a Father warbling upon that too. Before me there was no other God, and after me there shall be none, Esay. 43.10. Quis hoc dicit, pater, an filius? (saith Ambrose) who is here the speaker, the Father or the Son (he comes over him with a subtle Dilemma:) if the Son, thus he saith,— before me there was no other God, if the Father,— After me (saith he) there shall be none, for both the Father in the Son, and the Son in the Father must be known, when thou namest a Father, thou hast also designed a Son, because no man is a Father to himself; when thou namest a Son, thou confessest also a Father, for no man is son to himself, the Son therefore can neither subsist without the Father, nor the Father without the Son, the one being from everlasting, we may not depose the other from the like omnipotency. If truth thus twisted in a triple authority of Prophets, Apostles, Fathers, cannot alloy the turbulence of a contagious heretic, hear the voice of him who spoke as never man spoke; never Father, Apostle, Prophet, (if at length such an authority be passable with an Arrian) the Lamb of God; O Father glorify me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was, joh. 17.5. Hearest thou Infidel? a Son, and glorified, with the Father before the world? what chink now, what by-path for evasion where thou art compassed with such a cloud of witnesses?  
Tell me devil (for heretic is to cheap and low an attribute, when thou art grown to such a maturity and height of profanation) was there a time when omnipotent God the Father was not, and yet was there a God? Gird now up thy loins, and answer if thou canst, for if he began to be a Father, than he was first a God, and after made a Father, how is God then immutable, how the same, one, when by access of generation he shall suffer change? Grant me then a God eternal, and thou must a Father, and if a Father, a son too, they are relatives, and cannot digest a separation either in respect of time, or power. And this thou didst once subscribe to (and I know not what devilish suggestion wrought thy revolt) in an Epistle to Eusebius, if the authority of Brentius will pass for classical, where thou couldst afford him the style of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, plenus Deus, unigenitus- and a little before that he had his beginning, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— ante tempora, ante saecula, why shouldst thou now then rip up the womb of Deity, and inquire how he was begotten? how borne? and when? as if thou labouredst to bastard his descent, and make it temporary. Do not, do not out of the custom of humane generation tie eternity to time, or manner, and so at once vomit error and blasphemy. Hear the voice of the Lord thundering unto thee, Cui me similem existimas? who is like unto me, or to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Me ante montes generavit Dominus, before the mountains were settled, or the hills raised, I was brought forth. 
Ambros. 1. de fide, cap. 5.  Habeat ergo generationis inusitatae gloriam, qui habet potestatis inusitatae gratiam. He that hath an unwonted jurisdiction in respect of power, it were a derogation too capital to lessen his prerogative in way of birth; observe what pomp he carrieth of antiquity, what descent, how derived? by Heralds of no mean rank, a King, & a Prophet, and a Prophet that's a King, I was set up of old, from everlasting, Prou. 8.24. His doings forth have been from everlasting, Mich. 5.2. Thy throne is established of old, thou art from everlasting, Psal. 93.2. Hark, from everlasting, from everlasting, from everlasting, one echoing to another, as if the same pen had been as well the directrix of the languages, as the truth. If thou shalt then hereafter ball an eternity with a— quando, or a— quomodo natus? 
Amb. ut supra.  I go one with the Father still, Quid te ista quaestionum tormenta delectant? Audis Dei filium, aut dele nomen, aut agnosce naturam?— Quaeres that are to nice rather torment the understanding, than inform it, and are more apt to puzzle our judgement, than to rectify it. Subtilty of questions (I know not whether) it hath more convinced, or begotten error, or improved us in our knowledge, or staggered us. And hence I suppose was the substance of the Apostles advice to the Romans, He that is weak in faith receive you; but not to doubtful disputations, Cap. 14.1. Curiosities of question have ever been the engines and stales to heresy, and therefore some of the Fathers have nickenamed Philosophers with an— Haereticorum Patriarchae— It is no less a policy than right in sadder learning to give Divinity the chair, 
Tertull.  for if Arts with their subtle retinue once invade it, sense and reason will hisse faith out of doors. And therefore we find the same Apostle vehement in his— Canote ne vos seducat, Beware jest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ, Coloss. 2.4. In matters of faith he that plays either the Philosopher, or the critic displays neither his judgement, nor his Religion, for the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power, 1 Cor. 4.20. Considera (saith Augustine) quod voceris fidelis non rationalis, Faith, not reason, is our anchor in this depth, and belief, not scruple is our steersman to our port. Wisdom, I mean that which is worldly and feathered (as it were) with transitoriness, must now stoop to simplicity, strength to weakness. How doth the Apostle jump with us? He hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confounded the wise, and the weak things the mighty, 1 Cor. 1.27. Hence it is that the kingdom of heaven belongs unto children, Matth. 19.13. And God hath hid it from the prudent, and revealed it to babes, Matth. 11.25. And therefore S. Augustine makes a proud knowledge strike sail to a modest ignorance in his 188. Serm. de Temp.— Meum est piè ignorantiam confiteri, quam temere mihi scientiam vendicare. In sacred matters your nimble Cryticismes are as obnoxious to desperateness, as danger; to be curious (here) is to be quaintly mad, and thus to thrust into the bedchamber of the Almighty is a frantic sauciness. Who can unlock those Coffers of omnipotency, 
Esay 45.2.  but he that breaks in pieces the gates of Brass, and cuts in sunder the bars of Iron? Who those Cabinets of abstruser knowledge? 
Jdem, ibid.  but he that gives thee the treasure of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places? How can our low built apprehensions but flag in the expression of such a birth, when we find a Prophet so transported with contemplation of it, that he dares the world with an Interrogation,— Generationem eius quis enarrabit? Who shall declare his generation, Esay 53. Yet we have met with some supercilious and daring wits, which venture here to untwist this mystery of generation, as if they would calculate an eternal birthright, leaning upon the authority of S. Hierom in his Commentaries upon Eccl. 1. where he assevers, that in sacred Scriptures— Quis oftentimes is not put for an impossibility, but a difficulty. And he instances in this— Quis— of Esay, Generationem eius quis enarrabit? 
Lib 1. dist. 19  But Lombard doth both vindicate and interpret the Father, thus,— Non dicit quod generatio filij aeterna.— He says not that this eternal generation of the son of God can descend to any mortal capacity in an absolute and full knowledge; but in some measure and degree, for so the Apostle doth peece-out our perfection here, We are happy in part, and know only in part, not a hair, 
Orat. contra Arrianos.  not a feather as we should. Dic mihi (saith Augustine) altitudinem Coeli, profundum Abyssi, etc. Show me the height of Heaven, and the depth of Hell, number (if thou canst) the sands of the Sea, the drops of rain, or the hairs of thine own head. Plane me out by some perfect demonstration the truth of those things which grovel here below, and I will believe thy knowledge may aspire to those which are above; but thou hast no power of compassing the one, nor possibility in the achievement of the other. For when all thy faculties of understanding, will, have fluttered so high as the wings of nature can elevate and mount them to, yet thou wilt at last make up the story of Icarus, and find that these are but waxed plumes, and will melt at the presence of those glorious beams, and so thy fall will be as dishonourable as thy attempt was peremptory; for if the great Doctor of the Gentiles (rapt up into the third Heaven) said that he heard words unexpressable, which no tongue dared to utter, how canst thou dissolve and untie— Paternae generationis Arcana— (as Ambrose styles them) those knots and Riddles of eternal generation, which can never bore a humane intellect, nor lie within the verge of mortal apprehension? Mihi enim impossibile est generationis scire secretum (saith the Father) mens deficit, vox silet, non mea tantum, sed & Angelorum, supra potestates, & sepra Cherubin, & supra Seraphin, & supra omnem sensum, in his 1. de fide ad Gratian. c. 4. It is not then so much ambition in our desire, as madness, to attempt the knowledge of that where there is an impossibility of revelation. Those erterprises are temerarious and over-head-strong, which put on where there is not only danger, but a despair of conquest. How can reasonable man but lie buried under the weight of such a mystery, at which those grand pillars of the Church have not only shaken but shrunk? How must we be struck dumb when the tongues of Saints and Angels stutter? How our minds entranced, when the glorious host of Heaven, and all those feathered Hierarchies shall clap their wings? All reasons tonguetied, all apprehension nonplussed, all understanding darkened; so that I may now speak of this metaphorical depth, as job did of that other natural,— Thou hast made a cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band.  
Mysteries carry with them such an awe and Majesty, as if they would be obeyed, not disputed, and assented to, not controverst. In secrets without bottom (such as carry the stamp of sacred) except faith holds us up like children we swim without bladders, and must either dabble to the shore, or sink, reason hath not an hand to lend us. Faith and reason in respect of mystery, are as a wheel and a bucket at a deep well; faith hath both the power and safety of descent, and nimbly fathoms it, whilst reason wheeles, and rounds it, and is strangely giddied in a distracted Gyre. And indeed who durst lave such an Ocean, 
Esay 44 7.  but he that says to the deeps be dry? or can shut up the seas with doors, that they break not out, and say, 
job 38.8.  hither shalt thou come, no farther, there shall thy proud waves stay? What eye that looks on the Sun, and dazzles not, 
Ecclus' 10.19.  but he that sees from everlasting to everlasting? & sends out lightning that they may come and go, and say, here we are? The star-gazer and bold figure flinger are at a stand here, why lookest thou up thou proud ginger? you men of Galilee, why gaze you into heaven? Thus saith the Lord of hosts, he that formed thee from the womb: 
Esay 44.24, 25.  I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth out the heavens alone, that frustrateth the tokens of liars, and maketh diviners mad, that turneth wisemen backwards, and maketh their knowledge foolishness. Thou, O Lord, shalt have them in derision, thou shalt laugh the heathen to scorn, for the sin of their mouth, and the words of their lips they shall be taken in their pride, as the dust (O Lord) shalt thou drive and scatter them, and in thy wrath thou shalt consume them, that they may know, that it is God that ruleth in jaacob, and to the end of the world.  
Arrius is now in his pomp and height of glory, and flourisheth like a green bay-tree, anon look after him, and he is no where to be found. He is up yet, but it is with the proud man in the Psalms, in slippery places, and (anon) with him, how suddenly destroyed, perished, and brought to a fearful end? The whole Eastern Church is now in a strange combustion, and he must kindle it, by and by those flames shall light him to his own ruin. Heresy may root and bud, and branch, and grow to a goodly height, but the hand of vengeance hovers over it, and when it strikes, it fells it at a blow, and it comes down like a pine from a steep mountain, which in the fall shatters both the branch, and body. It is here, as with mists and fogs which we see first rise as in a thin smoke from a low Fen or Valley, but gathering strength climb the mountain, and at last so thicken in one body of vapours that they seem to dare the Earth with a second night, till the Sun (recovering height and power) by the virtue and subtlety of his beams doth dissipate and open them, and they are seen no more.  
Will you have a precedent? we found Arrius at first a mean Priest of Alexandria in Egypt, a man keen and subtle, as well in wit as learning, Specie, & forma magis, 
Lib. 1.  quàm virtute religiosus, sed gloriae, & novitatis improbè cupidus, (saith Ruffinus) In virtue not so much refined as in the deportment of the outward man, which promised a set gravity, though no truth of Religion, in a thirst and pursuit of honour and novelty, strangely violent,— Dulcis erat in colloquio, persuadens animas, & blandiens. In his discourse no less sweet, than powerful, and where he gains no conquest by persuasion, he mine's by flattery; Thus by the sorceries and enchantments of a voluble tongue, simplicity is betrayed, and under a pretext of truth, silly women (who are ever most affected with levity and change) are first led captive; and these for the enhancement & propagation of their new doctrine, commerce with their allies, and these tickled with new fancies, applaud the design, entertain the novelty, conventicles are both consulted on, and summoned, and in a shorttime, 
Adverse. Haeres. - Septingent as virginitatem professas in unam contraxit— So Epiphanius—. Their Religion is yet in the blade, and green only in a few she disciples, anon it grows by their league with others, Eudoxius, Eunomius, 
Amb. 1 de side cap 4.  Aetius and Demophilus, plura nomina, sed una perfidia-; Coheires though not to the same title, the same villainy; so that those dangerous tumults in the body of the Church could not but now startle the head and governor. Constantine is informed of those pernicious and desperate proceed, who calls a Council of 318. Bishops for the condemnation of the heretic. Some conversant in subtlety of question (as there was never opinion so deformed, but found a Champion to propugne it) favoured Arrius; but at length most of them decreed with one mouth Christ to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 17 a while stick fast to the opinion of the Heretic, 11 whereof by the menacing of the Emperor subscribed, Manu solum, non ment, and the other 6 are now with Arrius upon terms of exile; they betake themselves to Palestina, where partly by strength of Argument, partly by the insinuations of a smooth tongue, they gain other Bishops to their opinion; Anon, Constantius, and Valens Emperors; some they seduce by subtlety, some by gifts, some by power, some by cruelty; those that affied constantly to the profession of Christ's divinity, they invade by persecution, & all the witty tortures that malice or tyranny could device, are now put in practice, for the torment of those professors; insomuch that the hearts of their very enemies, could not but thaw into pity to hear the cries, but constancy of little children under the barbarous hands of their merciless tormentors. Christianus sum, Christum verum Deum, credo, & adoro, as the author in his historia tripartita de persecutione Vandalorum.  
This heresy now is full blown, and at the growth; one Act more makes it ripe, and ready for the sickle. Alexandria is yet infected, and foul dregss of Arrianisme reign not only here, but in the neighbour Provinces; Insomuch that Alexander (than Bishop) daily pestered with those damned innovations, on a Sunday, (for so my Antiquary tells me) earnestly prayed that God would either take him away jest he should be defiled with the like contagion, or that he would show some miracle, 
Epiphanius.  either for the conversion or confusion of the Heretic. Not long after the desires of the holy man were accomplished, and in such a way of judgement, that the relation would suit better with a ring of Scavenger's than a noble throng, his bowels burst, as sometimes judas did, Et sic finem adeptus est, in loco immundo & graneolenti,- his death was equally odious with his life, and that with the place he died in, no sad retinue or pomp of exequy to embalm him, no hearse or winding sheet, but his own entrails, and graved up with excrements, instead of earth, an end as odious, as untimely, as if it proceeded from the hand of vengeance, and not Fate.  
And so Saint Ambrose dilates on it— Non est fortuita mors ubi in sacrilegio pari, poenae parile processit exemplum, 
1 de fide cap. 5.  ut idem subirent supplicium, qui eundem Dominum negaverunt & eundem Dominum prodiderunt—. It is no casual, but a destinated end, that in a like sactiledge, there should be a like example of punishment, and so both meet in one way of ruin which had denied and betrayed their Master.  
I have now brought this heresy to her grave, but the funeral of this is the resurrection of another, and the reintertainment of that of a third. No part of Christ (either in respect of his divinity, or manhood) but is the mint of a new heresy, which (if I should endeavour (here) either to confute or open) would prove an undertaking fit for a volume, than a discourse, and for a Library, than a volume. It cost the hours of an entire age, and the sweat and elaboratenesse of all the Fathers. Those few sands which are now in their constant course will be run out in the very nomination of Marcionites, Valentinians, Hebionites, Apollinarians, and the residue of that cursed rabble, and so I shall be cast upon your censures, if not as I have been weak, yet as I have been tedious. I will then open the mouths of very heathens, and they shall both speak, and confirm this truth, and no less appose our adversaries, than convince them, an authority I know not how unsavoury or unseasonable to a divided Auditory, where a profane quotation sounds sometimes as heathenish as a tradition, which in the very name is cried down as apocryphal, and Romanish; but I must put that upon the hazard, not esteeming the froth either of popular censure or approbation.  
Heathens indeed are little above the condition of beasts, if that only actuate a man which animates a Christian, the soul of faith; yet if God please to cast his pearls before these swine, wherefore hath he made us Lords over them, but to vindicate those hallowed and precious things from the hands of unjust possessors? Praeclara Ethnicorum dicta Theologica abijs, tanquàm iniustis possessoribus, in usum nostrum transferenda. It is Augustine's in his second book De doctrina Christiana. 4. chap. Divine truth in Heathen mouths is like the jewels in Egyptian hands, their wants no Alchemist to refine the mettle, only some discreeter Israelite to transfer the use; he that was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel preaching to the ignorant Idolaters of Athens, concludes against them from the mouth of their own Poets,— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as some of your own Poets have said, Acts 17.28. Text enough to gain, I say, not authority, but applause to his discourse, and to convince the Heathens shame, if not their faith. Dive with me a little farther into their secrets, and we shall found amongst much Hay and Stubble, some Gold and Precious stones, doctrines which want no truth to make them sound, only divine authority to make them authentic. It was not impossible that the true light which shines on every man that cometh into the world, should glimpse into those that sat in darkness, and in the shadow of death; For old Simplicianus in S. Augustine's Confessions 8. Book 2. Chapter, gives encouragement to a particular enquiry, and concludes in certain books of the Platonists— Deum insinuari, & eius verbum—. And of this God, and the Word, the very Philosophers were not ignorant, for we meet with a Hermes, and a— Zenon, styling the maker & orderer of the Universe— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— The Word— which they enlarge with other attributes of— Fate, necessity, God— & what savours a little of a heathenish relic— Animun jovis— taking— jupiter— in the sense that they do God as Lactantius in his 4. book de vera Sapient. cap. 9  
But why do we rob them of their maiden honour, and take their sayings upon Tradition merely? let them speak themselves in their peculiar and mother-tongue. Numenius, a famous Pythagorean (one, who 'twixt Plato and Moses, put no difference but of Language, calling Plato-Mosen, Attica Lingua Loquentem,— Moses speaking the Attic Dialect) Deus primus (saith he) in seipso quidem existens, est simplex, propterea quòd secum semper est, nunquam divisus; Secundus, & tertius est unus: The first God is always existent in himself, simple, indivisible, the second and third one; and a little after, he calls this first God— Creantis Dei patrem,— The father of the creating God. Had they all adored what he here acknowledged, a Trinity in unity (so to be worshipped) I should then propose their precept not only to be embraced, but their practice to be imitated. Search on, and lo that rich mine of Truth is not yet at her dross, or bottom, for Heraclitus next, one who was wont to call S. john, Barbarian, that Evangelist to whom belonged the Eagle, as well for sublimity of Style, as Contemplation; he— censet verbum Dei in ordine Principij, atque dignitate constitutum, apud Deum esse, & Deum esse, in quo quicquid factum sit, fuerit vivens, & vita, & ens, tum in corpora Lapsum, carnemque indutum, hominem apparuisse, ostendens etiam tunc naturae suae magnitudinem: Hark how the Frog chants like the Nightingale, (It is Maximilians, Ethnici audiendi, non tanquam Philomelae, sed Ranae) and curiously counterfeits her in every strain? How closely this obscure Heathen follows not only the Gospel's truth, but the phrase too? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and was God, all things were made by him, every living Creature, life, and thing, than this Word was made flesh, and appeared man, & even then shown the glory of his nature. How sweetly he warbles with his Barbarian, as if by an easy labour of Translation he had bereft him both of Truth and Eloquence? I marvel not now at that Testimony of Basil the Great, upon those words, In principio erat verbum— Hoc ego novi, multos etiam extra veritatis rationem positos— I have known many (saith he) and those put without the pale and list of divine Truth, men merely secular, advancing and magnifying this piece of Scripture, and at length bold to mix it with their own decrees and writings. And S. Augustine seconds it with an instance,— Quidam Platonicus,— A certain Platonist was wont to say that the beginning of S. john's Gospel was worthy to be written in letters of gold, and preached in the most eminent Churches and Congregations, in his 10 book de Civitate Dei, c. 29. O the divine raptures and infusions, that God doth sometimes betrothe to his very enemies! who can but conceive that as the very worst of men have knowledge enough to make them inexcusable; so the best of Heathen had enough to make them Saints, were their faith that he should be their Saviour, as great as their knowledge, that he was the Son of God. With what rich Epithets they bedeck and crown him.— Mentis German, Verbum Lucens, Dei Filius, (it is his saying, who (I know not by what search) found out almost all Truth, Mercurius Trismègistus) the mind's blossom, the word that gave light, the son of God. What else did S. john add, but that the word was light? And S. Augustine gives this farther testimony of that heathen, that he spoke many things of Christ in a prophetic manner— eadem veritate, licèt non eodem Animi affectu— with the same truth the Prophets did, but not with the same affection— pronunciabat illa Hermes, Dolendo, pronunciabat haec Propheta, Gaudendo— in his 8. book de Civitate Dei, 23. chapter. And why should we bar some of their Philosophers of a prophetic knowledge, when a Poet shall fill his cheeks with a— Chara Deum Soboles, Magnum jovis incrementum—? And if we look back to those Oracles of old, the Sibyls sacred Raptures, we shall find them more like a Christians Comment, than a Heathens Prediction.  
Tunc ad mortales veniet, mortalibus ipsis  
In terris similis, natus Patris omnipotentis  
Corpore vestitus—  
Whereof if we inquire a little into the original, Saint Augustine will tell us that the Greek copies give us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— jesus Christ, the Son of God, 
In oration. contra Arrian.  the Saviour; and it is not only probable, but evident, that the Gentiles had a knowledge of Christ as he was the Word, as it appeareth by that of Serapis unto Thulis, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc.  King of Egypt. And it is strangely remarkable: what wonderful Titles, and inscriptions, the Platonists dedicated to his name and memory, with which as (with a wreath and Laurel) they girt & beautify his Temples,- Dei verbum, Mundi Opifex, Idaea boni, Mundi▪ Archetypum, moderate or Distributor, Imago primi entis, rationalis Creaturae exemplar, Pastor, Sacerdos, ulna bumen, Lux, Sol, coelumque candens, mentis germen Divinae, verbum Lucidum, filius primog●nitus, primi dei semper viventis umbra, vita, splendour, virtus, candour lucis, character substantiae eius, and the like, which could not but flow from a heart divinely touched, and a tongue swollen with inspiration, as Rossélus tells us in his Trismegisti Pimandrum, 1 book, 107 page. For these and the like sayings, some of the ancient Fathers have conjectured that Plato either read part of divine story, or whilst he traveled in Egypt, had a taste of sacred truth, out of the sayings of the Hebrews by an Amanuensis, or interpreter; For then many of the Hebrews (the Persians' reigning) wandered in Egypt.  
Moreover, Aristobulus the jew who flourished in the time of the Maccabees, writing to Ptolemy Philometora, King of Egypt, reports that the Pentateuch before the Empire of Alexander the Great, and the Persian Monarchy was Translated out of Hebrew, into Greek, part whereof came to the hands of Plato and Pythagoras; and he is after peremptory, that the Peripatetics out of the books of Moses, and the writings of the Prophets drew the greatest part of their Philosophy, and it may seem strange what the jewish Antiquary traditions of Clearchus (the most noble of that Sect) who in his first— De somno— brings in his Master Aristotle relating that he met with a certain jew, a reverend and a wise man, with whom he had much conference concerning matters both natural & divine, and received from him such a hint and specialty of choicer learning which did much improve him in his after knowledge, especially in that of God, as josephus lib. 1. contra Appionem, & Eusebius in his 11 de praeparat. Euangelica. 6.6. Clement. Alexandrin. 5. Stromaton-.  
And thus I have at length (though with some blood and difficulty) traversed the opinions of the ancient, and shown you the errors of primitive Times in their foulest shapes. I have opened the wiles and stratagems of the adversary, and how defeated by the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof; what Bulwarks and Rampires the Fathers raised for propugning of Christ's divinity, and how besieged by cursed heresies, with what success, what ruin.  
Let us now return where we began, and place Christ where we found him, before Abraham, before the world, where (me thinks) he now stands like a well rooted tree in a rough storm, where though winds blow on him so furiously, that he is sometimes forced to the earth (as if he were merely humane) yet he bends again, and nods towards heaven (to show that he is divine, and but a plant taken thence grafted in our Eden here) where though tossed up and down with blasts of Infidelity, yet when the envy of their breath is spent (as we see a goodly Cedar after a tempest) he stands straight, un-rent, as if he scorned the shock of his late churlish encounter, and dared his blustering Adversary to a second opposition.  
Gloria in excelsis Deo.  
FINIS.   

Errata in the Babbler.  
PAge 6. line 9 read irregular. ibid. l. 11. r. abstemious; in the margin in the same page, r. Alexand. in mark p. 8. r. Alexand. p. 7. l. 16. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. p. 8. l. 25. r. austere. p. 14. l. 3. r. janissaries. p. 23. l. 27. r. should. p. 33. l. 35. r. mists. p. 37. l. 18. r. others. p. 41. l. 7. r. per vulnera. p. 13. l. 27. r. moral.   

Errata in Moses and Aaron.  
PAge 25. line 7. read Lure. p. 24. l. 31. r. and. ibid. l. 32 r. having. ib. l. 34 r. are. p. 21. l. 21. r. crime. p. 18. l. 25. r. from. p. 19 l. 14. after the words Rabbi, Rabbi, read on out of the Text, viz. they Bind heavy, etc. p. 18. line 8. read so.   

Errata in jacob and Esau.  
PAge 2. line 11. read these. p. 6. l. 10. r. quality. ib. l. 28. r. hereupon. p. 11. l. 32. r. become. p. 12. l. 32. r. ignorance. p. 19 l. 22. r. both dispensed with. ibid. l. 35. r. duel. p. 33. l. 24. r. consequence.   

NATURES OVERTHROW, AND DEATH'S TRIUMPH.  
A SERMON PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF SIR JOHN SYDENHAM, Knight, at Brimpton, the 15. of December. 1625.  
BY Humphrey Sydenham Mr. of Arts, and Fellow of WADHAM College in OXFORD.  
Studeat quisque sic delicta corrigere ut post mortem non oporteat poenam tolerare.  August. lib. de verâ & falsa poenitentiâ. 
LONDON, Printed for JOHN PARKER. 1626.   

TO MY MUCH RESPECTED KINSMAN, john Sydenham, Esquire, This.  
SIR;  
THere is as well an obedience in matters of desire, as command, and with me a request hath ever been of larger authority than a Mandate. You were pleased (formerly) to importune me for a transcript of this Sermon; now, for the impression of it; I have obeyed you in either; but I fear 'twill lose some of the lustre in the perusal, which it found in the delivery. I am not so happy a master of my Pen, as of my tongue, nor you (perchance) of your ear, as of your eye, that, some tinkling fancies may (at once) take and delude: this, is more subtle, and perspicacious, and will not be gulled with the bark and shell of things, but pierces the very kernel, and the marrow; 'Tis sometimes with the ear, and eye of a Scholar, as with his fancy, and his judgement; the one hath many a cheat put upon it by weak impostures, which the other both discouer's, and rejects, and sometimes (as it doth here) pity's. What you shall meet with of vigour, and solidity, entertain, cherish, 'tis yours; yours first in the birth, and occasion; now, in the protection, nourishment; what, more languishing, and abortive, lay on the author, 'tis mine, like me, I'll father it; However, 'twill implore your charity, the charity of your fair interpretation, not of your benevolence; which if you shall vouchsafe, you have nobly rewarded the endeavours of  
Your affectionate kinsman, HUM: SYDENHAM.   

NATURES OVERTHROW, AND DEATH'S TRIUMPH.  ECCLES. 12.5. 
Man goeth to his long home, and the mourners walk about the streets.  
MOrtality love's no descant; your plain song suits best with blacks, that which is grauly set to compunction, sorrow, tuned heavily, to sighs, and lamentations. What should warbling airs with darted bosoms, & unbalmed hearts? what your acquaint and youthful raptures, when— Mourners walk about the streets? If Zion be wept for, harps must be hung upon the willows; sad objects require furrows in the cheek, and rivers in the eye, and we then most honour the exequys of our friends, when we embalm the deceased with our tears. Away then with ears wantoned to loser Sonnets; offend not with unchaste attentions these hallowed anthems, here's broken harmony; dirges as sullen, as they are sacred; panting and heart-broke elegies, such as should be rather groaned, than sung. Ask the Preacher (here) and he will tell you. 
Eccles. 12.41. — The daughters of Music are brought low, and the years draw nigh, when we shall say, we have no pleasure in them. He story's of a Sun, 
vers. 2.  and Moon, and Stars which are obscured, and of clouds that return not after rain; as if the world were at her last pang, and gasp, and ready for her funeral. Behold! the little world is— The keepers of the house have trembled, 
Vers. 3.  the strong men bowed themselves, the grinders ceased, and those that look out of the windows, darkened; the Almond tree doth flourish, and the grasshopper is a burden, and desire shall fail.— Because— Man goeth to his long home, 
.3.  and mourners walk about the streets.—  
Without any rack, or violence to the words, they offer themselves to this division. 
Division.  1 the subject, Man. 2 his condition, transitory condition, expressed by way of pilgrimage—,— Goeth—. 3 the non ultra, or terminus ad quem, of this his pilgrimage—. To his home- enlarged with an epithet— Long home—. 4 the state and ceremony, it there meets with.— And the mourners walk about the streets—. 
Pars 1.  Of these in their order: first of the subject, Man.  
To devil with circumstances, and overslip the main, was ever an emblem of negligence, if not of weakness; each fabulist will tell you of a dog, and a shadow, and what they moral. He that jangles (merely) about nominals, where matters of reality and substance fleet by, may speak himself a Grammarian, or a Sophister, scarce a Divine. Of the name of Man, its source, and pedigree, I list not to discourse; not an ignorance so untaught, or understanding dulled, but would forestall me, or should I (by chance) meet with some intellectuals, so thin and tender, that could not (as it is a chance I should) scarce an object but would be both your spokesman, and remembrancer; yonder sad spectacle, that earth, this stone would tell you— Homo ab humo, from the ground, Adam ab Adamah, from the earth, read earth, not that more solid part of it, but the brittlelest, dust, so the curse runs,— Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return—. In the word Man, in the various acceptation of the word Man, 
Am. Pol. c. 35. Syntag.  (wherein some syntagmaticall Divines have unprofitably toiled) I'll not curiously or impertinently travail, but without any figurative, or metaphorical sense, take it properly, and literally, as the Text gives it me,— Man— that is, a reasonable living creature, or rather a reasonable living soul, for so the Spirit of God Christens it,— The man was made a living soul, Gen. 2.7. and the same periphrasis the Apostle uses too, 1 Cor. 15. The first man Adam was made— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— in animam viventem, or anima vivens— A living soul— verse. the 45. yet in the 44 of the same Chapter, he calls him, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— a living body. Either cote he is justly blazoned by, so we give the difference, rational, a difference so specifical, and proper, that it divides him from any other; for reason is an intellective power, peculiar to man only, and not communicable to a second creature; by which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or (as the Scholeman terms it) discurrit; out of one thing he deduces another, and orders this, by that, both in method and discretion. Hence it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and the work or office of it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Jdem, ut supra.  discursus— propter animae celeritatem—, for the volubility and nimbleness of the soul, by which it traverses & moves from one object to another, from effects to causes, and back again, from all things to every thing, and from that (almost) to nothing. And as man was prerogatiued above others, in respect of perspicacity, so of Empire, and dominion, 
Fer. in Gen.  for whereas in other passages of creation, we found a kind of commanding dialect,- with a- fiat lux, and a- producat terra-. Let there be light, let the earth bring forth, 
Gen. 1.27.  In that of Adam, words more particular, of deliberation, and advice.— Let us make man—, Man, a creature of those exquisite dimensions, for matter of body, of those supernatural endowments, of soul, that now omnipotency bethinks itself, and will consult. The privy Counsel of Son, and Holy Ghost, is required to the moulding and polishing of this glorious piece. 
Contra Philo.  Angel's may look on, and wonder; touch, or assist, they may not; not, not so much as to temper or prepare the mettle. Here is work only for a Trinity. A task for jehovah himself, 
Pur. Pilg.  for jehovah Elohim, the Father, by the Son, in the power of the Spirit. No doubt, somewhat of wonder was a projecting, when a complete Deity, was thus studying, it's perfection, somewhat, that should border upon everlastingness, when the finger of God was so choicely industrious, and lo what is produced? Man, the masterpiece of his design and workmanship, the great miracle and monument of nature, not only for external transcendencies, but the glory and pomp of inward faculties, stamped and engraven to the image of his God, through the righteousness of an immortal soul; beside, a body so symmetriously composed as if nature had lost itself in the harmony of such a feature. Man, the abstract, and model, 
Greg. Naz.  and brief story of the universe,— the utriusque naturae vinculum—, the cabbonet and store-house of three living natures, 
Beasts. Angels. Men.  sensual, intellectual, rational, the Analysis, and resolution of the greater world into the less, the Epitome, and compendium of that huge tome, that great Manuscript and work of nature, wherein are written the characters of God's omnipotency, and power, framing it, disposing it, all in it, to the use and benefit of man, of man, especially, of man, wholly; other creatures paying him an awful obedience, as a tribute, and homage, due to their commander in all things, so near kin to Deity, that Melanthon, makes him a terrestrial transitory God: having little to divide him from a- Numen-, but that one part of him was mortal, and that not created so, but occasioned, miserably occasioned, by disobedience.  
A little forbidden fruit (from the hand of a frail creature) shall disinherit it of an eternal privilege, and man is now thrust out of the doors of his everlasting habitation for two pretty toys, an Apple, and a Woman; however death hung not on the fruit, (saith Chrysostom) but the contempt, which was not so voluntary, as suggested; fond man, that is thus cheated of an assurance of immortality, by a false persuasion that he shall be immortal, that- critis sicut Dij— hath dampt all; the Serpent persuades him,— if he do but taste, he shall be as God, when he hath tasted, finds himself worse than man; a worm indeed, no man. Thus he is at once fooled out of everlastingness, and the favour of his Maker: the anger of the Lord is now sore kindled, and his fury smokes in a double curse against him, and what he was framed of, earth; that which hath (hitherto) voluntarily presented her fruitfulness, in herbs, and plants, and all things requisite for his sustenance; now, undressed, and not watered in the bubble and sweated of an industrious brow, affords him nothing but thorns, and thistles; just reward of disobedience, barrenness, and death. Lamentable felicity, which (at height) is but conditionary, & then fatal. There is no misery so exquisite, as the sense of a lost happiness. Calamity is supportable enough, where there is not felt, or seen, a more honourable condition; but, to be tumbled from a bliss we were sometimes master of, is a punctual wretchedness. Man, but now on the pinnacle and spire of all his glory, in a moment shamefully thrown from it, and with him, all posterity. But lo, there is mercy even in justice, and life in the very sentence and jaw of death.— The seed of the woman shall break the Serpent's head—. She that was (erewhile) a chief instrument in his fall, shall be now a main agent in his restauration, not to that state wherein he was created, but to that wherein he shall be glorified. The soul (through faith, and grace) shall still be preserved immortal, but the body must lessen of its primitive condition, the soul as a Sun that is eclipsed, or clouded, shall shine again, the body, like some meteor, for a time exhaled, falleth to the earth from whence it came; and as some metals (laid for a space in the bosom of the ground) grow more refined, and purified, so shall the body, interred a natural one, rise a glorious. In the Interuallum, as a punishment for transgression, it shall resolve into what it was made of, and it must go to its long home, the grave; where we have now brought it, & would have laid it in, but that the captious heretic violently withstands it, and thus he interposes. If man return into earth, as he is earth, than he was mortal before he sinned, and so death seems to be of nature, and not punishment.— It is not answered by denial, but distinction, and we must (here) critic between mortale, mortuum, and mortiobnoxium, mortal, dead, and liable to death. We call that dead which is actually deprived of life; subject to death, what is within the fathom and command of death's power, and tyranny for sin, though not actually, yet in time. Mortal, two ways, either for that which by a necessity of nature aught to die, or for that which as the merit and reward of sin, can die. The body of Adam (before sin) was of itself mortale (as mortal is taken in the last sense) because mutabile, and that is mutable, which of itself can suffer change, although it never do, as the good Angels, and God only is immutable,— Per se, & natura (as Augustine speaks in his book de vera Relig. cap. 13.) But the body of Adam was not moriturun, to die, if he had not sinned, but by a glorious change, without death, had been translated by God into an everlasting incorruptibility. It was sin then that made man obnoxious to the strokes of death, not any condition, or necessity of nature, and therefore I know not whether I may call it an error of the Pelagian, or a blasphemy, who would have Adam (had he not transgressed) die by the law of nature. Hence he might infer, that death was not a punishment for sin, and so by consequence, Christ not died for it; but we find this (by a Council) long since doomed for an heresy, & an heavy Anathema laid on the Patron of that tenant in Concilio Milevitano cap. 1. and more particularly by Augustine in his first book de Peccatorum meritis & remissione cap. 2. You see then that death and all corporal defects, were scourges following the disobedience of the first man, not occasioned by any impulsion or languishment of nature, and Aquinas will reason it thus,— If a man for an offence be deprived of some benefit that is given him, the wanting of this benefit, is the punishment of that offence. To Adam in his state of innocency there was this boon conferred from Heaven, that as long as his mind was subject unto God, the inferior powers of the soul should be obedient unto reason, and the body unto the soul. But, because the mind of man (by sin) did recoil and start back from this divine subjection, it followed, that those inferior powers also would not be totally subject unto reason; whence grew so great a rebellion of the carnal appetite, that the body (too) would not be totally subject to the soul. Upon this breach death enters, and all that pale band of diseases, and corporal infirmities, for the incollumity and life of the body consists in this, that it be subject unto the soul,— Sicut perfectibile suae perfectioni,— as the Schooleman speaks, as a thing perfectable to its perfection. On the other side, death and sickness, and languishments of body, have reference to the defects of the true subjection of the body, to the soul. And therefore necessity of consequence will induce, that, as the rebellion of the carnal appetite to the spirit, was a punishment of our first father's sin, so, mortality, and all corporal imperfections too, as the Schooleman punctually in his 2a. 2ae. 164. quaest. 1. Artic. The curse then due to the lapse of our first Parents hovers not over the soul only, but, for it, the body; the body (before) in a blessed way of incorruptibility, but, not of itself, but from the soul, so Augustine tells his Dioscorus,— Tam potenti naturâ Deus fecit animam, ut ex eius beatitudine, redundet in corpus, plenitudo sanitatis, & incorruptionis vigour— in his 56 Epistle. His body then was not indissoluble by any vigour of immortality existing in itself, but there was (supernaturally) a power in the soul, divinely given, by which man might preserve his body from all corruption, as long as it remained subject unto God. And the Schooleman hath good ground for it; for, seeing the reasonable soul doth exceed the dimensions and proportion of corporal matter, it was convenient, that, in the beginning, there should be a virtue given it, by which the body might be rescued from all infirmities, and conserved above the nature of that corporal matter, as the same Aquinas par. 1. quaest. 97. Art. 1. The whole man then (mixed of body and soul) was in the creation in a glorious state of immortality, but it was with a— Quodammodò— (as Augustine tells us, de Genes. ad Lit. lib. 6. cap. 25.) not absolutely,— Ita ut non posset mori,— but conditionally— poterat non mori—. It is true, he had a power not to dye, if he had not sinned; but it was a necessity he should die, when he had; otherwise God had been as unjust to his promise, as he was severe in his command, for so the charge runs, 
Genes. 2. — At that day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death—. He hath eaten, therefore he must die— But from whence cometh this death? from God or from himself? or both? originally from neither; not from God, he cannot be the cause of it, death being a privation only, having name (saith Augustine) but no essence; besides it is an Omen, and an ill to nature. Whatsoever God made, had an essence, was a species, good; the Text tells us so, six times tells us so, in one Chapter, Genes. 1. God made the firmament, and it was good, He made the earth, and it was good; in a word, he saw all that he had made,— Et erant valde bona— they were very good—. 
Genes. 1. vlt.  We may not think then that God therefore created man, that he should die; or, because death followed his disobedience, God was the cause of it. Death may be an instrument of his justice, not an effect of his producing. It is one thing to give the sentence of death, another to be the author of it. Indeed Augustine says (lib. 1. Retract. cap. 21.) that death (as a punishment) hath reference to God, not, as an obliquity; 
Aquinas.  and the Schooleman is at hand too, with a distinction for a twofold death, one, as an ill of humane nature, or a defect incident from man's transgression, that, he dares not lay on the Almighty, the other, as it hath some species or resemblance of good, to wit, as it is a just penance for his rebellion, this he doth in his 2a. 2ae. 164. quaest. Art. 1.  
As therefore in the creation of the world God is said to make light, and to separate it from darkness, 
Genes. 1.  not to make darkness, as if that were of itself some blind mass and Chaos, and therefore God chid light out of it; so in the creation of man God is said to make life (God breathed into him the breath of life) not death, nay he doth separate that light from this darkness, and doth chide life not out if it, but from it, with a— Cave ne manducas— take heed thou eat not, for if thou dost,— morte morieris— thou shalt die the death. That therefore of the wise man will vindicate the Almighty from this misprision,— God made not death, 
Wisdom 1.13, 14.  neither hath he pleasure in the corruption of the living, for he created all things, that they might have their being, and the generations of the world were healthful, & there was no poison of destruction in them.  
The womb then of this great plague of man the Apostle rips up,— When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is perfected, bringeth forth death, jam. 1.15. The birth then of sin is through a conception of lust, and the strength of death through a perfection of sin. Lo than the cause of this great calamity discovered! but how came that? originally from the man? no. How then?— Through the envy of the devil came death into the world, the 2. Chapter of the same book, 
Aug. in locum.  vers. 24. And therefore Saint Augustine calls it,— mors-à morsu— from the biting of the Serpent. And our Saviour tells us,— Ille homicida ab initio, john 8.— He was a murderer from the beginning; whence perceiving man (by his then obedience) advanced to that place from which he was headlonged, now dissolves, and breaks into secret envy; this envy wrought deceit, deceit concupiscence, that, disobedience, disobedience, sin, sin, death. So that the envy of the devil is the source and springhead, deceit, the Conduit, concupiscence, the pipe, the waters conveied in it, disobedience, sin, the Channel or Cistern into which they fall, death. Tell Adam then of the forbidden fruit, he lays it on his wife,— The woman gave it me. Ask the woman, she puts it on a third,— The Serpent seduced me—. Ask the Serpent, there it stays, and in stead of an answer, we find a curse,— Because thou hast done this, 
Genes. 3.  upon thy belly thou shalt creep, and dust thou shalt eat all the days of thy life. The man then all this while grows not obnoxious in respect of seduction, but assent, the woman of both; so the Apostle— Adam was not deceived,— sed mulier in praevaricatione suâ— the woman being deceived was in the transgression, 1 Tim. 2.14. If God then ask Adam— num comedisti? Hast thou eaten of that tree of which I commanded thee thou shouldest not eat? He answers not with a— Mulier seduxit,— the woman hath seduced me, but only with a— dedit— she gave me, and I did eat. If he ask Euah,— Quid fecisti? Woman, what is this that thou hast done? she as empty of any other evasion, as of strength, lays all on the shoulders of the seducer,— with a— Serpens seduxit me,— the Serpent seduced me. God inquires no farther, but sentences, 
 supra. — I will put enmity betwixt her seed and thy seed, it shall break thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel, as it is nimbly observed on the 2. 
Egidius de Roma.  book of the Sentences, distinct. 22.  
Thus, with some blood, and travail, I have showed you man, in his original, height, fall; how created, in what glory throned, how sunk, what the sin, the occasioner, the punishment; whence he was, what he is, whither he must; earth, from earth, to it; thither he shall without reprivall, the sentence is past, the executioner ready, and he must go, for— Man goeth, that's my second part, his transitory condition expressed by way of pilgrimage. Goeth.  

PARS II. Man goeth—.  
RAre expression of his frailty here, if it may not be more properly said— he is gone, then that he goeth. Our days (saith the Kingly Prophet) are gone even as a tale that's told, Psal. 90. A tale, of no more length than certainty. Again, they are days, not years, as if our being (here) depended upon moments, more than time, or if time, that which is present, not in future; Days are enough, and years, too much, or had we both, lo, they are gone, gone even as a tale that's told, a tale, as momentary, as vain. Seneca tells his Polybius only of three parts of life answerable to those of time, past, present, to come, What we do, God knows is short; what we shall do, doubtful; what we have done, out of doubt; so that our best piece of age is either transitory, or dubious; and where a wise man discovers either, he will at lest suspect change, if not slight it. Pitch man at highest, rank him with Kings, Prophets, Priests; and we shall there find him on his hill of ice, whence he doth not slip so properly, as tumble: one says he is a shadow, another a smoke, a third a vapour, brave resemblances of his station (here) and durability, when the best commendation we can bestow on either, is— they pass, or else they fade,— As if it were a sin to say, they Are, but they Have been. The Grecian then scarce shot home to the frailty of man, when he calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— A creature of a day,— he did, that named him— Hesternum— yesterday—, We are but as yesterday, and know nothing, job 8.9. Alas poor man, no better than a waterish Sun between two swollen clouds, or a breathless intermission between two fevers, misery, and fatc. Lo how they kiss? Man that is borne of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery: accurate calamity; in method, borne, a short time to live, full of misery; and to make frailty complete, the thing Woman is inserted too.- Man that is borne of a woman, etc. David was too prodigal in his similitude, when he beaten out the age of man to the dimensions of a span; an inch, a punctum, had been bountiful enough, the lest Atom types out his glory here, his glory of life here, 'tis breath on steel, no sooner on than off; Sunne-burnt stubble, at once flame, and ashes. We are at a good key of happiness, when we can say— we are transitory— we have scarce (sometimes) so much life as to know we die, even in the very threshold and porch of life, death strangles us; as if there were but one door of the Sepulchre, and the womb; so that man is but a living ghost, breathing dust, death clothed in flesh and blood.  
He goeth, vanisheth rather, vanisheth like lightning, which is so sudden, and so momentary, that we more properly say we remember it, than that we see it. How is't then, that life is sometimes spun to the crimson, and sometimes the silver thread, from the Down and tender wool in childhood, to the Scarlet in the manly check, and the tinsel and snow in old age? Indeed, the white head, and the wrinkled countenance, may read you the Annals of threescore and ten, perchance calculate our life to a day longer; what is beyond is trouble, and so was that, and yet hath not this man lived long?- diu fuit, 
De brevit. vitae cap. 3.  non diu vixit-, Seneca replies, How canst thou say he hath sailed much, whom a cruel tempest takes immediately, as soon as he is of the havens mouth? and after many a churlish assault, of wind, and billow, much traversing his way, waved, and surged to many a danger, he is at length driven back the same road, but now he went out by? this man hath not sailed much, but hath been much beaten. And indeed we have here but our- tempestuosa interualla-, 'tis not life truly, 
Idem Ibidem.  but calamity. A well glossed misery, gaudy unhappiness, glorious vanity, a troubled Sea, tormented with continual ebbs, and flows; sometimes we are shipwracked, always tossed, and thus exposed to daily blustrings, we find no Haven but in death. Hereupon the Graecian called the first day of man's life, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,- a beginning of conflicts-; So that we shall meet with more troops of sorrow, (here) than we have means either to resist, or to appease them.  
Considerest thou not (says that grave Philosopher) what a kind of life it is nature presents us with, 
Seneca ad Lucit. Epist. 70.  when she would tears should be the first presages of our condition in this world? How prettily Augustine emblems it in his tender infant,— Nondum loquitur, & tamen Prophetat, cries are the first Rhetoric he uses, by which e'er he can speak, he prophesies; and by a dumb kind of divination, wailes out the story of man's sorrows here. And now his odours, savours, lassitudes, watchings, humours, meats, drinks, repose, all things, without which he could not live, are but the occasion of his death. And therefore that famous Roman, receiving sudden tidings of the death of his only Son, answered without distraction nobly.— I knew when I begat him he should die—, life being nothing else but a journey unto death, a going to the long home. It is a little part of it we live, the whole course of our age, being not life, but time rather; which we cannot recall being spent, or 'cause it for present, not to spend, but it treads by us, without noise, and so swiftly, that it is here when we expect it coming, and gone by us, when we think 'tis at us. Man goeth—, Goes as some curious watch does, wound up (perchance) for an hour, at most, for a day, and then, 'tis down; which time, if it minute right, it is a rare piece; sometimes, by distemper, it runs too fast, sometimes set back, by the providence of the keeper, sometimes, again, it beats slow, like a dying pulse, by and by, it stands still, as if the whole machine languished; anon some wheele's amiss, or a spring broken, and then we say it is not down, but disordered, so disordered, that 'tis beyond our Art of rectifying, it must be left to the skill of the maker; who, to joint it the better, sunders it, and to make it more firm, for a while destroys it. The great Engineer and framer of the world, will have it so done to our fleshly tabernacles, who by the workmanship of death, shall take the whole fabric of the body into pieces, and for a time, lay it by in the grave, till against the great and appointed day, he shall new wheel and joint it, and set it more gloriously a going, by the virtue of the resurrection. So that man not only goeth, (as I told you) but is gone, twice gone, dissould, by the frailty of the body, to the captivity of a grave, rebodied with the soul, to the honour of a resurrection. You see then, man is still in a place of fluctuation, not residence, and he is said to sojourn in it, not to inhabit. 
Seneca Epist. 70. ad Lucilium.  We sail by our life my Lucilius, (says that Divine Heathen, let no squeamish ear cavil at the title, for it belongs to Seneca.) And as in the Seas the shores and Cities fly; so in this swift course of time, we first lose the sight of our childhood, and then of our youth, and at length discover the straits of old age, at which whether we shall arrive, or not, it is doubtful; and when we have, dangerous. That late famous (but unfortunate Historian) who had run through all ages of man, 
History of the world, lib. 1.  and almost all conditions in them; speaks here not like a speculative, but a practice and experienced man, and resembleth his seven ages, to the seven planets; whereof, our Infancy is compared unto the Moon, wherein we seem only to live, and to grow as plants do. Our second age to Mercury, in which we are tutored and brought up in our first Alphabet and form of discipline. Our third age, to Venus, the days of our love, dalliance, vanity; the fourth to the Sun, the shining, beautiful, glorious age of man. The fift to Mars, in which through fields of blood, we hue out a way to honour and victory, and wherein our thoughts travail to ambitious ends. Our sixth age to jupiter, wherein we begin to take a strict calculation, and accounted of our misspent times, and bud, and sprout up to the perfections of our understandings. The seventh, and last, to Saturn, wherein our days are sullen, and overcast, in which we find by trodden experience, and irreparable loss, that our golden delights of youth, are now accompanied with vexation, sorrow; our lackeys and retinue, are but sicknesses, and variable infirmities, which whispering unto us our everlasting habitation, and long home, we at length pass unto it, with many a thorny meditation, and perplexed thought, and at last by the industry of death, finish the sorrowful business of a transitory life.  
Seeing then our bodies are but earthen cottages, houses of dust, & tenements of clay, the anuils' which diseases & distempers daily hammer, & beaten on; since our life doth pass away as the trace of a cloud, 
Wisd. 2.  and is dispersed as a mist driven by the beams of the Sun, why do we crown our days with rose buds? why do we fill ourselves with voluptuousness, costly wines, and ointments? why say we not to rottenness, 
job 17.14.  than art my father? to the worm, thou art my mother, and my sister? Why do we pamper, and exalt this journey man of corruption? this drudge of frrailtie? this slave of death? why do we not remember the imprisonment of the soul? and that which Cyprian calls, her gaoledelivery? why call we not our actions to the bar? arraign them? check them? sentence them? why do we not something that may entitle us to Religion, while it is called to day? Fool, this night shall thy soul be taken from thee, this hour (perchance) this minute, nay this punctistitium of it. Who would not speedily draw water out of a river, which he knew would not continued long in its running? Who would not suddenly extract somewhat from those wholesome fountains which should cherish and refresh the thirsty and barren soul? 
Seneca Epist. 7. ad Lucilium.  why do we gasp, and pant, and breathe for a little air, which nature (for a time) fann's upon us, and takes off at her pleasure in a moment? why steer we not with desire to our long home? why prepare we not for our progress, since we must needs thither? why crush we not this cockatrice in the egg, 
M●rs.  and so forestall the venom of that eye whose darting is so fatal? Shall I believe (says Seneca to his lucilius) that fortune hath power in all things over him that liveth, 
Epist. 71.  and not suppose rather it can do nothing to him that knoweth how to dye? 'Tis not good to live, but to live well; and therefore a wise man liveth as much as he aught, not as much as he can. We see the frailty of others hourly brought upon the Scene, and how the daily traffic of disease with us prompts us our mortality. Those glorious bulwarks, and fortresses of the soul, are but sanctuaries of weakness; languishing, crazy, and battered constitutions, but nature's warning pieces, the watchwords of a frail body, which keep strict Sentinel o'er the soul, jest it steal from it, unawares, and so the great enemy both invade, and ruin it. How frequent even amongst Pagans' have been their— memento mori'es—? and a death's head (you know) was a chief dish at an Egyptian feast. So should that (yonder) to every recollected Christian, but such presents (as those) have been of late no great dainties with us, a service of every day, almost of every place (the whole land being little better than a Charnell-house) and we cannot but see it, and chew on't too, if we be not dust already, and that fly in our eyes, and blind us, and so the complaint of Cyprian whip us home— Nolumus agnoscere, quod ignorare non possumus.  
Why should then this sad toll of mortality dishearten us? groans, and sighs, and convulsions, are the bodies passing-bells, no less customary, than natural; and, more horrid in the circumstance, than the thing.— Pompa mortis magis terret quàm mors ipsa—, the retinue and compliment of death, speak more terror, than the act. The Adversary, the judge, the sentence, the jailer, the executioner, more daunt the malefactor, than the very stroke, and cleft of dissolution. 
Seneca ad Lucil. Epist. 52.  Are we so foolish (says the good Heathen) to think death a rock which will dash or split us in the whole; not, 'tis the Port which we aught one day to desire, never to refuse; into which (if any have been cast in their younger years) they need repined no more than one which with a short cut hath ended his Navigation. For there are some whom slacker winds mock, and detain, 
Idem Ibidem.  and weary with the gentle tediousness of a peaceable calm; others swifter wafted by sudden gusts, whom life hath rather ravished thither, than sent; which had they a time delayed, by some flattering intermissions, yet at length, must of necessity strooke sail to't. 
Quae nunc abibis in loca, pallidula, rigida, nudula?  Some faint-hearted Adrian will (to his power) linger it, and fearfully expostulate with a parting soul, as if the divorce from the body were everlasting, and there should not be (one day) a more glorious contract; when an heroic Cannius shall rebuke the tears in his friend's cheek, and thus bravely encounter death, and him— Why are you sad? inquire you whether souls be immortal? I shall know presently. Brave resolution, had it been as Christianlike, as 'twas bold.  
Again, some effeminate Rhodian will rather languish under the grindings of a tyrant, than sacrifice the remainder of a famined body, to an honourable death, when a confident Hilarion, shall dare all those grisly assaults,— Soul get thee out, thou hast seventy years served Christ, and art thou now loathe to die? Once more, some spruce Agag, or kemed Amalakite would be palsiestrooke with an— amaramors—, Death is bitter, death is bitter, 1 Sam. 15.32. When a Lubentius, and a Maximinus have their breastplate on, with a— Domine parati sumus—, We are ready to lay of our last garments, the flesh—. And indeed (saith Augustine) Boughs fall from trees, and stones out of buildings, and why should it seem strange that mortals die? Some have welcomed death, some met it in the way, some baffled it; in sicknesses, persecution, torments. I instance not in that of Basil to the Arrianated Valens, ('tis too light) that of Vincentius was more remarkable, who with an unabated constancy, thus stunn's the rage of his merciless executioner.— Thou shalt see the Spirit of God strengthen the tormented more, than the devil can the hands of the tormenter. And that you may know a true Martyrdom, is not dashed either at the expectation, or the sense of torture, a Barlaam will hold his hand over the very flame of the Altar, and sport out the horridness of such a death with that of the Psalmist.— Thou hast taught my hands to war, and my fingers to battle. Seeing then we are compassed with such a cloud of witnesses, what should scare a true Apostle from his— Cupio dissolui—? Let us take his resolution, and his counsel too,— lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth easily be set us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Heb. 12.1. There is no law so inviolable, as this of Nature, that of the Medes and Persians' was but corrupt, to this— Statutum est omnibus semel mori— Every true Christian knows it, and fears it not so much out of opinion, as nature; and why should nature do it, since 'tis called our home, our long home, whither 'tis as certain we shall go, as doubtful, when; and therefore I must now press you with Paul's Obsecro vos tanquàm advenas—, I beseech you as strangers, and pilgrims upon earth, look not back to the onions, and flesh pots here; put forward for your last habitations, know you must at length to them, there is no by-way to avoid them, for— Man goeth to his long home—, that's my third part, the— terminus ad quem—, of this his travail.— His long home.   

PARS. III. His long home.  
LOng home. A periphrasis not of death so properly, as the grave, the bedchamber of the body when 'tis dead; or rather, the bed itself (for so job styles it)— Thou hast made my bed ready for me in the dark, death's withdrawing room, corruptions tiring house, natures Golgotha, her exchequer of rotten treasures, hid there till the day of doom, Regia Serpentum, (as the Son of Syracke calls it) the rendezvous of creeping things, and beasts, and worms, Ecclus' 10. and 11. verse.  
Come hither then, thou darling of the world, thou great favourite of flesh, and blood; thou whose honours (here) are as blooming, as the Lilies, and roses in thy youthful cheek; know, Image, though thy head be of gold and thy body of silver, thy feet are but of clay, and they will lead down to this chamber of death, where thou mayst behold the glory of thy ancestors, as Augustine did at Rome, that of Caesar's in his sepulchre.— An eyeless, cheekelesse, worme-gnawne visage; naught but rottenness, and stench, and worms, and bones, and dust, and now— Vbi Caesaris praeclarum corpus (says the Father) ubi diui●iarum magnitudo? ubi caterua Baronum? ubi actes militum? ubi apparatus delictarum? ubi thalamus pictus? ubi lectus Eburneus? ubi regalis thronus? ubi mutatoria vestimentorum? ubi magnificentia? ubi omnia? Sibi pariter defecerunt, quandò defecit spiritus, & eum in sepulchro, trium brachiorum, reliquerunt cum faetore, & putredine—, in his 48 Sermon, 
Si saltem opus illud sit Augustini.  ad fratres in eremo. Crown, and Sceptre, and Robes, and Treasure, and Sword, and Spear, and Valour, and Youth, and Honour, and (what the world could not (but now) either master or contain) his body, trenched in a grave of six cubits, no more, there Caesar lies in earthen fetters; and so shall all dissolved bodies too, till that fearful arraignment at the great assizes. In the mean time, the soul shall be either wafted hence into Abraham's bosom, or else hurried to that cave of darkness, and everlasting horror; no third place, to purge, and refine it, after death; no Romish trapdoor (through which a bribed indulgence may presume to fetch it of at the pleasure of a cheating Consistory) but it hath here— suum Purgatorium—, One of their Purgatory-mongers tells me so, nay tells a Cardinal so, and bids him pray with Augustine, 
Cupraeus de 4. hom. novissimis. Ser. 3. pag. 56. — Domine hic ure, hic seca, ut in aeternum parcas.  
Thus you see, Man is now brought to his— long home—, his soul gone to its place of rest; but we may not yet inter the body; that we shall do, anon; some ceremony remains to be performed first; for loo, how the Mourners walk about the streets? That's my last part; the state, and ceremony man meets with: in the consummation of his pilgrimage.— The mourners walk, etc.   

PARS FOUR The mourners, etc.  
THe triumph, and honour, death challenges in the solemn interment of the deceased, hath been a ceremony no less venerable, than ancient. 
Demptis 306. Annis. Solomon enim vixit anno mundi- 2930. josiah, Anno mundi. 3324. jacob 2108. Chyt●aeus in Chronol.  'Twas almost 3000 years ago, the Mourners (here) walked about the streets; after them those of Hadadrimmon, in the valley of Mogiddo, when all judah and jerusalem, mourned for josiah, 2 Chron. 35. before both for jacob, in Goren Atad, beyond jordan— where they mourned (saith Moses) with a great, and sore lamentation, Gen. 50.10. Such a pomp of sorrow as was a precedent to all posterity; forty days the body was embalmed, than threescore and ten more, mourned for, before the Funeral, seven after; against the day of interment, all the tribes must be summoned, their families, their allies, and their retinue; only their herds, and their little ones, left in Goshen. I read of no wife, or daughter absent, no trick of Religion, or pretence of retired sorrow, to keep them of these public exequys, to whine a dirge or requiem in a corner. Not doubt they sadly followed the hearse even to the sepulchre, thinking a tear wrung over a parting bed not half so emphatical, as that which is dropped into the grave. Besides, joseph himself must be sent for out of Egypt; no employment at court keeps him of these great solemnities, but he● goes up to Canaan, with all the servants of Pharaoh, and all the Elders of his house, and all the Elders of the land o● Egypt, and all his brethren, and his father's house, and his own too; and they buried him (says the Text) in the ca●● of the field Machpela, which Abraham bought of Ephron th● Hittite, before Ma●●e, Gen. 50.13. And indeed, 'twas a religious providence the old patriarchs had, in purchasing a possession place for their burial, and posterity (a long time) kept it up, even to superstition, thinking their bones never at rest, till they were laid in the Sepulchre of their fathers, which honourable way of interment, in these tympanous and swelling times of ours, (wherein we war more about matters of title, than religion) were a good means to preserve our names from rottenness; if our contention, and pride, and riot, have left so much of a devoured inheritance as will serve the dimensions of a dead body.  
Some noble mansions of the kingdom (heretofore) have now, scarce, that happiness. A green turf, or a weatherbeaten stone, will cover that body, which (ere while) a whole Lordship could hardly clothe; and that life which swum in Tissues, and Embroideries, in death (scarce) finds a black to mourn for't about the streets. Sad Hearse that hath nothing to wait on't to the grave, but the ruins of a family, naught to weep o'er't, but the blubbrings and languishments of a gentle blood, fare more wounding & deplorable, than the condition of some noble caitiff, who rather than he will allow death the lest triumphs in his funerals, will have his treasure, honour, religion too (if he had any) earthed up together in his— Long home:— a ditch were fit, and some unnatural, gouty fisted heir would like it well; ours doth not, you see, the— Mourners have walked about the street— 'Tis well, and an act no less of duty, than religion; and those which have been zealous in't heretofore, have worn the two rich Epithets of charitable, blessed,— Blessed are ye of the Lord, 
2 Sam. 2.5.  (saith David to the men of jabesh Gilead) that you have showed such charity to your master Saul, and buried him. Buried him, is not enough, 'tis too naked and thin a ceremony, except these Mourners too walked about the streets. My Son (saith Tobit) when I die, bury me honestly, Tob. 14.10. And jaakob (on his deathbed) conjured, his Sons to inter him in a prescript solemnity, and therefore the Text saith,— They buried him as they had sworn unto their father, Gen. 50.6, 12. And indeed those— Officia postremi muneris- (as Augustine calls them) those solemn rites which we strew on the funerals of our deceased friend are no effect of courtesy, but debt, and from an able successor, no less expected, than required.— My son (saith Syracides) pour thy tears over the dead, and neglect not their burial, Ecclus. 38.66.  
And therefore those dispositions are little below barbarous, which snarl at a moderate sorrow, or decent interment of the dead, and had never so much learning, or at lest so much charity, as to interpret that of the Apostle,— Let all things be done decently, and in order, 1 Cor. 14. Had not our Saviour all the Ceremonies of this- Long home? the clean linnaen ? the sweet ointments? the new Sepulchre? these Mourners (too) about the streets? He than that in a wayward opinion shall disallow of either, may well deserve the honour of Icholakims' funeral, which is not to be named without pity, and some scorn, 
jer. 22.19.  for the Text saith— he was to be buried like an Ass—. And, for my part, I wish him the happiness of an Anchoret, his Cell be his Church, and he himself both Priest and Gravesman, not a tear to trail after him to his long home, nor a Mourner- seen- about the streets.  
It hath been a custom of some barbarous Nations (but in this not so despicable) to howl their dead to their long home; others dropped them in with a tear only, no more— In ignem posta est, fletur (saith the Comic.) That of the Romans was too gaudy a sorrow, and comes well home to the excess of pomp in the fate of great ones, now, who though in their life time have slaved themselves to the world by an ignoble retreat to obscurity, and miserable thrift, yet at their farewell, and Going hence, to give the times a relish and taste of their generousness, the- Mourners shall walk about the streets. A monument must be built, a statue raised, Escutcheons hung, for the embalming of his honour, whose name (sometimes) deserves more rottenness, than his carcase.  
That worth is canonical, and strait, which is enrolled, and registered in the impartial hearts and memories of the people, not in a perfidious Tombstone, or perjured Epitaph. A virtuous life is a man's best Pyramid.  
Be thy actions unblemished, squared out to Religion, virtue, Every heart's a Tomb, and every tongue an Epitaph. And thus ballaced thou needest not fear any flotings of the times, any moth or gangrene either on thy state, or name; but when death shall take down those rotten sticks wherewith thy earthly tent is composed, thy grey hairs shall go in peace to their long home, and the— Mourners shall walk about the streets.  
They have walked now, and done their devoyer in their last way of ceremony. But where's the body I promised you to inter? sure some Disciple stoleed away by night, and laid it in its long home, where it is now under the bondage of corruption. But there is somewhat left behind which I would willingly preserve from rottenness, his name: to which, though I may lay some challenge in respect of blood, little of acquaintance; that, being as great a stranger to me, as the passages of his life, or death; so what I shall speak, is both traditionary, and short, very short, thus.  
He was a man of more reservedness than expression, both in his act, and word, and of the two, he had rather do courtesies, than profess them. His outward deportment, and face of carriage (where not known) sour, and rough. In his passions (for which the remainder of their age in a discontented contemplation of their misfortunes; and (I pray God) not in murmuring against his Church. And this hath occasioned a main revolt and apostasy of some from the bosom of this our Mother, where not finding shelter under those wings which had bred them, flutter abroad in other Provinces, & at length trained up to the Romish Cure; witness those many Proselytes they have gained from us (not for matter of conscience, but of fortune) who now steeping their pens in Wormwood, and whetting their tongues keener than any Razor, have wounded & struck through the sides of their sometimes Mother, to her great prejudice & dishonour. Where the fault lies, he that hath but slenderly traffiquced with the occurrences of the time, may judge. Spiritual promotions are slow of foot, & come for the most part haltingly, or in a by-way. A calamity which best ages have been obnoxious to (those of the Fathers) but by them cried down with as great violence, as detestation. (S. Ambrose will tell with what justice, 
Ambros. de dign. Sacerd. cap. 5.  I cannot, it makes me tremble)— Videas in Ecclesia passim quos non merita, sed pecuniae ad presbyteratus ordinem provexerunt, nugacem populum, & indoctum, quos si percunctari fideliter velis quis eos praefecerit Sacerdotes, respondent mox & dicunt, Episcopus, & aes dedi, quod si non dederim hodie non essem—. The words are broad enough in their Mother tongue, they need no renderer, but an applier, if there be any guilt here so past blushing, that can do it, let it thaw into horror to reade-on the Father in his— de dignitate Sacerdotali cap. vlt.  
I have been too tedious here, you will say, too bold; but I have done nothing but what Moses should, followed the commandment of my God, he bade me go, I have obeyed him, and he hath promised to assist me, for he will be in my mouth, that's my second circumstance,— Go, and I will be in thy mouth, and will teach thee what thou shalt say.  
And here I should say more, but time hath silenced me; a second opportunity may perfect all, in the mean time, I shall beg God's blessing for you, and your charity to these. To God the Father, etc.  
Gloria in excelsis Deo. Amen.   
FINIS.   

MOSES and AARON OR THE AFFINITY OF Civil and Ecclesiastic power.  
A SERMON INTENDED for the Parliament held at Oxon, August. 7. 1625.  
But by reason of the sudden and unhappy dissolution, then, not preached, but since upon occasion, was; at St. MARIES in Oxford, the 26. of February. 1625.  
BY Humphrey Sydenham Mr. of Arts, and Fellow of WADHAM College in OXFORD.  
LONDON, Printed for JOHN PARKER. 1626.   

TO MY MUCH DESERVING FRIEND AND BROTHER, FRANCIS GODOLPHIN, Esquire, This.  
MY DEAR SIR;  
Whilst others declaim (too justly) against the dull charities of the times, and the coldness of affection in their Allies, and blood, I cannot but magnify their worth, in you, where I have met a virtue, scarce exampled by a second, friendship in a brother. I thought it a high injustice to smother such a miracle, and therefore have here set it upon record; that, as the age may blush at her other prodigies, so glory here, that she hath (at length) brought forth one who hath not lost either his Nature to his alliance, or piety to his Country. A goodness seldom paralleled in these days of ours, these degenerate days of ours, when we may find a more natural correspondence, a livelier heat of affection, amongst those of savage and barbarous condition, than in the bosom of our own Tribe and Nation. But I may not tax, when I am to salute, 'tis out of the road of gratulation; this is intended so, A mere declaration of my thankfulness for all those your noble Offices of a real brotherhood, which though I have not power (as yet) to satisfy, I shall have ever will to acknowledge, and in that loyalty I persist,  
Your most respectfully engaged, HUM: SYDENHAM.   

Moses and Aaron OR The affinity of Civil and Ecclesiastic power.  EXOD. 4.12. 
Go, and I will be in thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.  
HOw strangely God compasses what he projects for his, by the hands of an obscure Agent? 
Cap. 3. v. 9.10.  Israel hath been long enough under the groans of Egypt, it shall be now unyoakt from that heavy servitude; and this must be done by no trodden means, or ordinary instrument, But one that Israel and Egypt too shall stand amazed at to see in such a power of substitution, A shepherd. 
Cap. 3.8.  Moses a feeding his father's flock, not fare from Horeb, the mountain of the Lord, 
Cap. 3.1. Cap. 3.4.  when suddenly a voice doth at once astonish and invite him, Moses, Moses. 'Tshould seem the affairs were both of necessity and dispatch, when the person to be employed was thus pressed by a double summons: 
Cap. 4 18.  what shall he do now? His flock must be left with jethro in Midian, and he shall to Court, there to ransom an engaged and captived Nation, from the shackles of a Tyrant; 
Cap. 2.17.  A simple design for one seasoned in the course conditions of an Hebrew and a Midianite: Men known more by the largeness of their folds, than any eminence for matters of state, most of them being herdsmen, or shepherds. But see how God will extract wonders out of improbabilities, and miracles out of both: Moses shall first see one, 
Cap. 3.2. Cap. 3.3.  & then, do many. Behold an Angel of the Lord in a flaming fire in a bush, the bush burned (saith the Text) and the Bush was not consumed. A vision as strange as the project he is now set upon, and doth not so much take, as stagger him. That it burned and consumed not, ravishes his eyes only, how it should burn & not consume, his intellectuals; So that he is now doubly entranced, in the sense, & in the thought. But there is more of mystery inuoled here than the Prophet yet dreams of or discovers. God in his affairs requires both heat, and constancy: men of cold and languishing resolution are not fit subjects for his employments, but those which can withstand the shock of many a fiery trial; they whose zeal can burn cheerfully in the services of their God and not consume. Moses, therefore shall now to Pharaoh, with as many terrors as messages. 
Cap. 5. vers. 6, 7, 8, 9  Ten times he must bid the Tyrant let Israel go: every Injunction shall found a repulse, every repulse, a plague, and every plague, a wonder. Somewhat a harsh embassy to a King, and cannot be welcomed but with a storm, whose disposition is as impatient of rebuke, as not inur'd to't. Those ears which have been sleekt hitherto with the suppling dialect of the Court, (that oil of Sycophants and temporizers) will not be roug'ht now with the course phrase of a reproof, much less, of menacing. There's no dallying with the eye of a cockatrice; I am sure none, with the paw of a Lion; Ruin sits on the brow of offended Sovereignty, each look sparkles indignation, and that indignation, death. Moses is now startled at the employment, 
Cap. 3.11.  and gins both to expostulate and repined.— Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh? I am not eloquent, 
Cap. 4.10.  but of slow speech and of a slow tongue—? Good Lord! In a Prophet what a piece of modesty with distrust? will God employ any whom he will not accommodate? He hath now thrice persuaded Moses to this great undertaking, The other as often manifests his unwillingness by excuse, as if he would either dispute God's providence, or question his supply. We found therefore this diffidence checked with a new insinuation of rectifying all defects. 
Cap. 4.10. — Who hath made man's mouth, or who makes the dumb or the deaf, or the seeing, or the blind, have not I the Lord? Why should any further scruple or doubt assail thee? I that am the God of the Hebrews will protect thee; let no waverings of Israel, or terrors of Egypt any way dismay thee: particular infirmities in thine own person I will mould anew to perfection, 
Cap. 14.14.  or if those vacillations and stuttering of the tongue yet dishearten thee, Lo Aaron the Levite is thy brother, I know that he can speak well, take him with thee, and this rod too, wherewith thou shalt do wonders as dreadful as vnpatterned. Deliver Pharaoh roundly my commands, if he will not undeafe his ear upon their first Alarm, I will boar it with my thunder. Why standest thou then any longer so divided? Go now, and I will be in thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say—.  
Moses, is dispatched now, hath his commission sealed, each particle of his message punctually delivered him, wherein (as in all saecular and subordinate Embassies) we find A command, 
Division.  A direction, and a Promise. The command, Go; The Promise, I will be in thy mouth; The Direction, teach thee what thou shalt say. So he that is singled out to any service of his God for the advantage of his Israel, must not give back or waver, Go—. If a willing obedience second this command, God promises to assist, I will be in thy mouth; if there, be not dashed at the slowness or unprovidedness of thy speech, I will teach thee what thou shalt say. Once more is there a retired worth, which desires to sit down to obscurity, and seems unwilling to the public services of his God, hearest thou not this proficiscere from heaven? Go. But hast thou once undertook them? be not discouraged, here's an— aperiam, too—. I will be in thy mouth; but am I welcomed there with reverence, and awe? speak boldly then, for, Ego instruam, I will teach thee what thou shalt say—, Go then. But let's first clear the passage. 'Tis not my intent to show you Moses here in the storms and troubles of the Court and State, but of the Church. I may not be too busy with the riddles and Labyrinth's of the two first; the times are both rough and touchy, I will only show you a fare off, how this Proteus and that Chameleon vary both their shape and colour. Moses was indeed forty years a Courtier, and the better part of his life a Statesman, yet he was a Priest too (and so I follow him) if you dare take the authority of Saint Augustine, who though on his second book on Exod. 10. quaest. gives Moses barely Principatum, 
Aug. lib. 2. in Exod. quaest. 10. Aug. in Psal. 98.  and Aaron ministerium, yet in his Commentaries on the 98 Psalms, he thus interrogates, Si Moses Sacerdos non erat, quid erat? numquid maior Sacerdote? and the sweet singer of Israel, put's Samuel among them that call upon God's Name, and Moses and Aaron amongst the Priests, Psal. 99.6.— I have now removed all rubs and obstacles, the way is smooth and passable, what should then hinder Moses any longer, Go,—.  
Command and obedience are the body and soul of humane society, the head and foot of an established Empire, 
Pars 1.  Command sits as Sovereign and hath three Sceptres, by which it rules, Authority, Courage, Sufficiency.  
Obedience, as 'twere the subject, and bears up its allegiance with three pillars, necessity, profit, willingness. Sometimes command grows impetuous and rough, and then 'tis no more Sovereignty but Tyranny—. Again, Obedience, upon distaste, is apt to murmur, and grows mutinous, and so 'tis no more a subject, but a Rebels where they kiss mutually, there is both strength and safety; but where they scold and jar, all grows to ruin and combustion. And this holds not only in matters Civil, but in those more sacred. Command from heaven presupposes in us an obedience no less of necessity, than will, and in God, infallibility both of power, and encouragement. Faintness of resolution, or excuse, in his high designments, are but the Teltales of a perfunctory zeal, however they pretend to bashfulness, or humility. 
jer. 1.  I cannot speak Lord, or, I am unworthy, were but course apologies of those that used them, 
Rom. 1. Exod. 3.  when God had either matter for their employment; or time; And the Quis ego Domine? of Moses, here, finds so little of approbation, that it meets a check; the Text will tell you in what heat and tumult, with an— Accensus suror jehovae, 
Cap. 4.4.  the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and it should seem, in such violence, that Abulensis, after much traverse, 
Tost. in cap. 4. Exod.  and dispute makes that tergiversation of his little less than a mortal sin, & some of the Hebrews have strangely punished it, with the loss of Canaan, persuading us, the main reason why he came not thither, was his backwardness in obeying this— proficiscere, Go. 
Perer. in Exod.  But that's a Thalmudicall and wild fancy, fit for such giddy enrolements, than the ears of a learned throng. And as Moses may not but obey when God lays his command on him, so he must not go without it. Matthew must be called from his receipt of custom; 
Mat. 9.9. Gal. 1.5.  & he is not honoured with a true Apostleship, who wants his— vocatus sicut Aaron. That of God to the Pseudo-prophets, was a fearful Irony,— I sent them not, 
jer. 14.  but they ran—, voluntaries (it should seem) found here neither countenance, nor entertainment, but whom God hath pressed and sealed to this great warfare; yet the other, notwithstanding, in the field, and seasoned once in battle, the retreat is more dangerous, than the adventure.  

Esay cap. 6.  We find Esay more active and forward than any of the Prophets, & yet that spontaneousnesse not chid; who (as if he would anticipate the care and choice of God in his own affairs) makes a hasty tender of his service, 
5  with an— Ecce ego, 
8  mitte me; yet, he had his former convulsions, and pangs too of fear, and diffidence; Woe is me, 
5  for I am a man of polluted lips. But see how God hammers and works what he intends to file, either in person, 
7  or by substitute? an Altar must be the Forge, and a Seraphin the workman, who with his tongs ready, and his coal burning, shall both touch those iniquities, and purge them, and then, and not till then, here am I, Lord, sand me. As therefore to stand still, when God sends out his proficiscere, argues a rusty and sullen laziness, so to run when he sends not, arrogancy, and presumption. That zeal is best qualified, which hath the patience to expect God's summons, and then the boldness to do his errand.  

Aqui. 2a. 2ae. qu. 185. art. 1.  The Schooleman in his 2a. 2ae. 185. question, being to deal of religious persons, strains not the Mitre from his discourse, but moderates the quaere by dividing it, and thinks to take away all scruple by making two, whether it be lawful to desire Ecclesiastical honour (Episcopal he Epithets) or to refuse it being enjoined? 
Greg. de Val. in loc. Aqui. dist. 10. q. 3. par. 2.  Gregory de Valentia (his Amanuensis here) turns the perspective from the object upon the Agent, viewing as well the party desiring as the thing desired, where, though he descry height of sufficiency in personal endowments: 
Quaer. 1.  one Cap-A-Pe, in all points canonical, yet he allows not a bait for his eager appetite to feed on; a disopinioned undervalved man may not desire it for the dignity, nor he that's fortunetroden for the revenue. Be the person otherwise ne'er so completely accommodated, yet the irregularity in his appetite strangles his other eminencies, and so he is (at once) unworthy, and uncapable. Reason and conscience, will betrothe Honours to desert, which yet they divorce from the immodesty and heat of the desire; for, if superintendencie be in the appetite more than the office, 'tis presumption. Aquinas doth censured so, 
Aquinas ut sup.  a common practice of the Gentiles, reproved in the Disciples; Ye know their Prince's love to domineer, Mat. 20. if the honour be superior, 'tis ambition, and so merely pharisaical,— They love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and chief seats at Synagogues, Matth. 23. If the revenue, it allies to covetousness, 
Matth. 23.  and differs from the sin of Simon Magus thus, he proffered money for the gifts, these covet the gifts for the money.  
On the other side, 
Quaer. 2.  to reject the Ephod wherewith authority would invest thee, checks doubly the refuser, in ways of charity, humility. Charity seeks no more her own, 
Aquin. & Greg. ut sup.  than her neighbours good; now the charity we own unto ourselves, prompts us to search out— Otium sanctum (as Augustine phrases it) a holy vacancy from these public cures, but that to the Church binds us to undergo.— Negotium iustum, 
Aug. 19 de Civil. D●i cap. 19  the imposition of any just employment,— quam sarcinam si nullus imponit, intuendae vacandum est veritati, si autem imponitur, sustinenda est propter charitatis necessitatem, the Father in his 19 de Civit. Dei. cap. 19 Again, humility ties us in obedience to Superiors, so that as often as we disobey them we do oppugn it, and this (in respect of God) is not meekness, but pertinacy, 
Magn Gregor. 1. pars Past. cap. 6 — Tunc ante Dei oculos vera est humilitas, cum ad respuendum hoc quod utiliter subire praecipitur, pertinax non est—, Gregory 1. part of his Pastorals 6. Chapter.  
To avoid then all occasions of public service for the Church, under a pretence of humility or reclusenesse, speaks (too broadly) the delinquent, refractory. Your Anchoret that digs his grave in speculation merely, and your Mole that is earthed wholly in an affected solitariness, are not liable so properly to obscurity, as death; such elaboratnes tends not to perfection, but disease; & we find an Apoplexy, and sleep, no less on their endeavours than in their name; all knowledge is dusted with them, and 'tis no more a nursery of virtues, but a Tomb. And (indeed) such Silkworms spin themselves into Flies, disanimate, heartless Flies, life neither for Church, nor Commonwealth. The Laurel and honour of all secular designs is the execution, and the happiness of those sacred ones is not entailed barely to the knowledge of them, but to the fac & vives. And that, not at home only, in thy particular intendments, but abroad also in thy services for the Church; so that he that retraits at any Alarm or summons of his God, for the common affairs of the Church, to hug and enjoy himself in his solitary ends, runs himself on the shelves of a rough censure, that of the Father to his Dracontius, 
Athan. in Epist. ad Drac. Episc. fugient. pars 2. editio ultima. — Vereor ne dum propter te fugis, propter alios sis in periculo apud Dominum. To stand by, and give aim only, whilst others shoot, and thou thyself no marksman, proclaims thy laziness, if not thy impotency. What a nothing is thy arm? thy bow? thy shaft? if not practised, not bend, not drawn up? or if so glorious a mark, the Church? why not levelled at? either she must be unworthy of thy travel, or thine of her. If therefore this thy Mother implore thy aid (so Augustine counsels his Eudoxius) on the one side, 
August. Epist. 81.  hand not with ambition; on the other, lean not to a lazy refusal, weigh not thine own idleness with the necessities and greatness of her burdens, to which (whiles she is in travel) if no good men will administer their help, Certè quomodo nasceremini non inveniretis; God must then invent new ways for our new birth: the Father in his 81. Epistle ad Edoxium.  
You see then our Moses may not hastily thrust himself upon those weighty designs without authority and commission from his God, and yet once summoned, not recoil; but thus having his Congedeleere and warrant from above, we must now accounted him in the place of God, God indeed, with a— sicut— the Text tells us so, thrice tells us so, God to Aaron, God to Israel, God to Pharaoh. 
Exod. 3.4, 5.  'Twere then too high a sacrilege to rob him of any title or prerogative, which should wait on the greatness of such a person. Let's give him (what all ages have) Eminency of place, Office, their attendants, Honour, Revenue. I shall devil my hour with the two first, with the latter only, in Transitu, and upon the by, they being involved in the two former. And that I may punctually go on, I will touch first (where I should) with the Eminency— Go.—  
Which as it was sacred in the first instaulement, 
Eminen. 1. par.  so in the propagation most honourable to the times of Heathens. 
Tert. de Coron. militis cap. 10.  For Tertullian (speaking of the magnificence and pomp which attended their superstitions) tells us, that their doors, and Hosts, and Altars, and dead, and (what glorifies all) their Priests were crowned: in his Corona militis cap. 10. And the first crown which the Romans used, was their spicea Corona, given as a religious ensign in honour of their Priests,— Honosque is, 
Pliu. lib. 8. cap. 2.  non nisi vita finitur, & exules etiam, captosque comitatur— says my Histostorian, naught but death could terminate this honour, which was their companion both in exile, and captivity. They wore the name of Aruales Sacerdotes, 
Alex. ab. Alex. lib. 1. cap. 26.  first instituted by Romulus, and Acca Laurentia, his Nurse, who, of her twelve Sons having lost one, he himself made up the number with that title. But here's not all,— Terminorum sacrorum, & finium, iurgijs terminandis praeerant, & interuenicbant, they were the peacemakers of the time, and fate as Arbitrators in matters of contestation between man and man, 
Plin. ut sup.  as the great Naturalist in the 18. book of his History, 2. chapter. And who fit for such a moral office than the Priest? an honour which these worst of times allow him, though with some turbulence, 
Numb. 16.3.  and indignation: Moses and Aaron, you take too much upon you, was the cry of a jew once, so 'tis now, who would manacle and confine them only to an Ecclesiastic power, and divest them quite of any civil authority, though Moses here had both. But 'twas not without some show of mystery, that in the robes of Aaron (I instance now in him, jest perchance they should cavil with his brother Moses) there was a crown set upon the Mitre, 
Exod. 29.6.  moralising a possible conjunction at lest of Minister and Magistrate in one person. 
2 Tim. 2. Chyt. de ordin. minist. pag. 506.  And Chytraeus hath a pathetical observation from the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— divide aright, that the Metaphor was first taken from the manner of cutting or deuiding the members of the host, Levit. 7. where the fat and kidneys were burnt as a sacrifice to God, but the breast and the shoulder were given to the Priests: the Allegory carries with it both weight and majesty, here's a breast for counsel, and a shoulder for supportation in matters of government. And no doubt in times of old (even these of the Fathers) the Sacerdot all power, was at a great height, in equal scale with that of their honour, 
Si Regum fulgori & principum Diademati inferius est quam si plumbi metallum ad auri fulgorem compares, Ambr. ibid.  which was so eminent, that Saint Ambrose ranks not the Mitre with the Diadem, but in a zealous Hyperbole (pardon the Epithet) prefers it, and makes this comparatively to the other as a sparkle to a flame, or dull Lead to burnished Gold, in his de dignitate Sacerdotali cap. 2.  
I may not follow the Father in his priestly Panegiricke, 'tis too high, and borders too much on the discipline of the triple crown, such a crown as ne'er yet girt the temples of King or Priest, but of him that tramples on the neck of both; let such insolence invade the right of Potentates, and spurn their Crowns and Sceptres in the dust, whilst we seat our Aaron at the beck of Moses, but the people too at that of Aaron: Let the Priesthood do obeisance, and kiss the feet of Sovereignty; but let not the Laity turn the heel, and kick against the sacredness of Priesthood. S. Augustine upon these words of God to Moses,— Tu eris illi in ijs quae ad Deum.— Hec shall be to thee in stead of a mouth, 
Exod. 4.16.  and thou shalt be to him in stead of God, seems entranced awhile, and bringing them to the balance, 
Aug. lib. 2. Exod. 10. quaest.  and weighing precisely every scruple, cries out, Magnum Sacramentum cuius figuram gerat, as if Moses were a medium between God and Aaron, and Aaron between Moses and the people. The moral is plain, Sovereignty stands between God and the Priesthood, and the Priesthood between Sovereignty and the people. However the Ceremonies due to either heretofore, in matters of Instaulement, stood not at such enmity as we can say they differed, they were both anointed, and both crowned; and though the authority were unequal in respect of place, yet not of employment, Ye are full of power by the spirit of the Lord, Micah. 3.8. And Elisha could once tell the King, He should know there was a Prophet in Israel, 2 King. 5.8. And in matters of preservation God was as zealous for the safety of these as them,— Touch not mine anointed, and do my Prophets no harm, Psal. 105.  
But let not my zeal to the Priest dispriviledge my allegiance to my King. I speak not this to set up Moses in competition with Pharaoh, or rival the dignity of the Priesthood with that of Sovereignty; but to mind you in what lustre it sometimes shined, & how the times now conspire to cloud that glory.  
The days have been, when the Laicke was ambitious, not only of the title of a Priest, but the office: for Eusebius examples in many of them, who thrusting upon Bishops of primitive times, Statim concionandi munus obierunt, in his lib. 6. cap. 15. And Tertullian (speaking of the insolences and taunts which the Laity then put upon the Priesthood) tells us that they justified their malice & injuries to the Priest, by usurping the name, or profaning rather, 
Tort. lib. de Monog. cap. 12. — Quum extollimur & inflamur adversus clerum, tunc omnes Sacerdotes, quia Sacerdotes nos Deo, & Patri fecit, quum ad peraequationem disciplinae Sacerdotalis provocamur, deponimus infulas, & pares sumus; in his book de Monogamia, cap. 12.  
It should seem then the office and name passed honourably through all ages, even those of Infidels, though the person were sometimes exposed to the persecutions of the time, and suffered under the blasphemies of  tongues; but now the very title grows barbarous, and he thinks he hath wittily discountenanced the greatness of the calling, that can baffle the professor with the name of Priest. But these, whilst they intent to wound, they honour us, and we accounted them no scars, but glories. Let such children mock on the Prophet, the event (I believe) will prove as horrid as that of old, will you tremble to hear it spoken? you may read it then, and look pale too, in 2 King. 2.24.  

Office 2.  May it please you now, turn your eyes from the dignity, and reflect upon the office. The office, a task indeed, such a one as should rather provoke our endeavours, than appetites. If any man desire the office of a Bishop (let's awhile leave the word Priest, and fasten upon this, the authority may bear it out the better) desires a good work, 1 Tim. 3.1. 
1 Tim. 3.1. Lib. 19 Civit. Dei cap. 19  Quia nomen operis est, non honoris (as Augustine glosses it) 'tis a name of work, not honour; a work no less fearful, than laborious, no where better figured than by Moses, here, to Pharaoh, repriuing Israel from Egypt, from which 'tis scarce any way differenced, but in the difficulty, and therein it exceeds the type; difficulty worthy the travels of the best, were not those labours shouldered and thrust on by vainglory. 
Greg. de Val. in 2 a. 2ae. disp. 10. 43. part. 2.  Istaec cathedra cupientem se, & audacter expetentem, non requirit, sed ornatum, sed cruditum—. So Valentia upon Aquine.— This chair of Moses is no seat of ambition, but desert, it hates either an intruder, or pursuer; He that gains it by covetousness, or bold desire, doth not possess, but invade it, and 'tis not so much his by right of inheritance, as usurpation.  
These honours fawn only upon humble worths, men clad & harnessed with double eminency, of life, of learning, those whose virtues have advanced them above the ordinary level and pitch of popularity. Yet to these neither without this proficiscere— to Moses, Go. Clemens in his first Epistle, will persuade you: 'tis the conclusion of Saint Peter. Augustine goes farther, 
Lib. 19 de Civit. Dei, cap. 19 — Locus superior sine quo populus regi non potest, et si administretur ut decet, tamen indecenter appetitur—. Suppose the man worthy of this place of Eminency, & comes home in matters of administration, yet he is to blame in those of appetite, 
Greg. de Val. ut supra.  for the desire lays open his unworthiness, and the Schoolman will not flatter him, but concludes it plainly for a mortal sin. And if we may guess at the child by the parent, it best countenanceth levity, or arrogance, never read to be the proper seeds of any virtue. Notwithstanding this desire (sometimes) comes not within the compass of presumption, 
Part. 1. Pastor. cap. 8.  if the work be the object of our appetite, and not the honour, or, if the honour, not the revenue,— Appetere colsitudinem Episcopalem, non est semper praesumptio, sed appetere Episcopatum, ratione celsitudinis, appetit enim celsitudinem, supra dignitatem— Gregory will have it so. However, 
1 Tim 3.1.  if it please you to glance on my former quotation from the Apostle, 'twill not so much whet your appetite, as gravel it; 
Beza in locum.  for first Beza limits the desire, If any man desire? and 'tis not meant— de ambitu— of the appetite, or ambition to get the See, but de animo, of the earnest desire to benefit the Church, or admit the words will carry that interpretation, yet the commendation which is annexed truces with the work, not the desire,— Bonum opus de siderat—, not— benè desiderat—, though it be good what he desires, yet he doth not well to desire it. Men unworthy of what they sue for, only because they sue for it. And this in Primitive times hath occasioned in many no less a modesty than unwillingness in those sacred undertake, when the Fathers, with a kind of reluctancy and fear, were towed on to these high employments. Nay some, whether through majesty of the place, or roughness of the times, or guilt of their own weakness, have panted and breathed short in their desires to this great enterprise, and at length exchanged the honour for an exile. 
Greg Naz in praefat. Apol. Athan. in epist. ad Draconi. Episc. fug: ut Gl●ss. in prim. Euan. Marc.  Nizianzen flies into Pontus; Dracontius, into the skirts of Alexandria: and it is traditioned me by Aquinas, (and he quotes Saint Jerome for it) that Saint Mark cut off his thumb,  Sacerdotio reprobus haberetur— They are the Schoolemans own words in his 2a. 2ae. quaest. 185. Artic. 1. But 'twill not be amiss here to take Saint Ambrose— quamuis notandum— with us; that these things were done in the Churches great extremities, when he that was— primus in presbyterio, 
Part. 2. past. c. 3.  was— primus in Martyrio. 'Twould require the temper of a brave resolution, and a better zeal, to desire this Bonum opus, when 'twas made the touchstone and furnace of men's faith and constancy, not only in leading others to the stake, but their own suffering where they were to be a voluntary Holocaust, and sacrifice to the Church, there to remain a monument of their Religion, and others tyranny. 'Tis true, Histories have furnished us with examples of some which have renounced an Empire, and (which is strange) a Popedom; Dioclesian did one, and Celestinus, t'other. The times (we may suppose) were blustering, and the revenues thin at Rome, when the honour of the chair, was at once not desired and scorned. No project now unsifted, no stratagem vndiged for; no reach of policy unfathomed for the compassing of that great See, though by sinister, though by devilish attempt, nay, that's the chief engine by which it works. Tiberius could once tell a Prince of the Celts, that Rome had a sword for her conquest, not an Apothecary's shop; now they are both too little; Sword, and poison, and massacre, and Pistol, and knife, and powder, for the purchase (or at lest the strengthening) of the triple crown.  
And I would Mach●auell had rendeuouzed only in jesuited Territories, and not knocked at the gates of Protestant Dominions; 'tis to be feared he hath Factors nearer home, those which not only know the backdoores to the Staff, and Myter, but are acquainted with the lock, which if they cannot force or pick by the finger of policy or greatness, they turn with that golden key which at once opens a way to a purchased honour, and a ruin.  
Ambition whither wilt thou? nay, where wilt thou not? to the pinnacle of the Temple for the glory of the world, though thou tumble for it to thy eternal ruin.  
The Greek Philosopher will beg of the gods, that he may behold the Sun so near, as to comprehend the form, 
Eudoxus.  beauty, greatness of it, and afterwards he cares not if he burn, as if there were no such Martyrdom, as what Ambition fires. Occidar modò imperet—, 
Tacit. Annals.  was the resolution of Agrippina for her Nero; but lo, how the event crownes the unsatiatenesse of her desires? He gains the kingdom, and first digged out those bowels which had fostered him, and then that heart which was the throne of such an aspiring thought; cruelty shall I call it, or justice, when the vain glory of the mother was penanced with the unnaturalness of the son. Thus lofty minds (furnished with a strong hope of the success of their designs) have embarked themselves into great actions, and proposing humane ends, as scales to their high thoughts, have been wasted into strange promotions, but after they have (a while) spangled in that their firmament of honour, they become falling stars, and so the success proves as inglorious as the enterprise was bold, and desperate. We have seldom met with any eminency that was sudden and permanent: Those which in their dawn of Fortune break so gloriously, meet with a storm at noon, or else a cloud at night. The Sun that rises in a grey and sullen morn, sets clearest; and indeed ambition is too hasty, and is hur●●d violently to the end it aims at without cautelousness and circumspection to the mean; but humility hath a calm and temperate pace, and stoops it along in a gentle posture, yet at length attains her mark, but slowly, as if it went unwilling to honour, and slighted those proffers which others sue for. I envy Scipio Africanus, and Marcus Portius (you know whose 'tis, Traianus to Plutarch) more for contempt of offices, than the victories they have won, because a conqueror for the most part is in Fortune's power, but the contempt of offices lived in prudence. Will you hear the paraphrase? Tacitus give's it, Sapientibus cupido gloriae novissima, exuitur—. Wisemen are so little in the drift of honour that they loathe the sent, 'tis the vanity, they last put off, and there was a time when a modest refusal of them, was no by-way to them; for this shadow once followed, fly's, but fled, 
Chrys. Hom. 35. in Matth.  follows— primatus fugientem desiderat, desideratum horret, says the Father. 'Tis a trick of primacy to fawn where 'tis not croocht too, but look coy where it's over courted, like some weathercocks which in a constant and churlish wind beak fairly towards us, but in a wanton blast, turn tail.  
Hence it is that in matters of authority, and pre-eminence, pride hath for the most part the foil, humility the conquest, that stoops basely to the title, or the profit, and loses either, This in a modest distance keeps a lose, till worth invite it, and at length gains both; so that it is in ways of promotion, as in some water-works, where one Engine raises it to make it fall more violently, another beats it down that it might mount higher. The advice then of S. Peter comes seasonably here, 
1 Pet. 5.6. — Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. The words are not without their strength of emphasis, here is an— humiliamini— crowned with an— ut exaltet, humble yourselves, that he may exalt, as if humility were so necessary a disposition to preferment, that without it God might not exalt. But soft, Impostor; Thou which iuglest both with God and with the times, I call not that humility which is typed in the downfall of the look, or the affected cringe and posture of the body, but the knee of the inward man, which the Wiseman of old called the character of an holy soul, leading noble hearts slowly to the feasts of friends, but speedily to their succour in calamities; So that true meekness is retinued with a double worth, charity, resolution; And the Philosopher will tell you, 
Plato in Timaeo.  'tis A virtue belongs to the courageous part of the soul, seated between two base extremes, Pusillanimity, Arrogance, Not Buffone, and yet no Bafler, supporting sometimes injuries, not out of cowardice, but Patience, allaying all tumults and instigations of the soul to revenge or choler, not exposed to any violence of passion, but as temperate in disposition, as settled; no wave in her design, nor tempest in her thought; she is all calm, not a wind so rough as to move a storm either in her mind or action. But there is a squint-eiea humility, which casts one way, and points another; the look is dejected, still grovelling towards the earth, and with such a dress of mortification, as if it desired no more of it, than would serve it for a grave; when the thought measures out a Diocese, or labours on some greater project, which gained the countenance is cheered, the body droops not, and he can now safely i●st it with that old Abbot, 
Quaerebam prius claues monasterij,  
Quibus inventis, nunc rectus incedo.   
And this subtle Navigator never steers as he sets his compass; the look (haply) points you to a formal meekness, but the thought still coasts upon Ambition; yet this gluttonous desire seldom anchors any where, but goes on still with a full sail, till 't'ath compassed the cape 'tis bound for, 
Seneca. — Habet hoc vitiumomnis ambitio, non respicit, The thirst of Eminency is headstrong, and runs with a lose bridle. 'Tis to see much below satiety, that it still desires, nay 'tis hungry even in surfeit, and is sharpened with the fruition of that it coveted; so that the birth of this title is but the conception of another, one honour rooms not the greatness of his thought, our Aaron is not contented with an Ephod, the rod of Moses, would do well too; Authority is slighted, discipline fall'n, and corruption crept strangely into the times, but  

jumen. Sat. 1. — O fortunatam me consul, Romam. What should a merciful worth do with a Consulship? 'tis a place for thunder, not clemency, one that can strike dead exorbitancy with the furrows of the brow, and quell all vice with the tempest of a look, one that can both unsheathe the sword of authority, and brandish it, if not to reformation, yet to ruin; Thus he would make government the stolen both of his pride and Tyranny, his projects are loftily cruel, so are his actions too, yet still in a hot sent of promotion, which (if they want a trumpet for others commendation) shall borrow one from his own, and so at once applaud his designs, and justify them. And indeed this titillation and itch of honour, if it once find in the bosom of the receiver a fair admittance, doth smoothly insinuate and cheat upon the powers of Reason, But when 'tis throughly seated and enthroned there, 'tis no more a guest but a Tyrant, and leaves the possessor, not a master, but a captive, and in this case, I know not whether Saint Augustine will pity his Aurelius, or excuse him, 
Aug. Epist. 64. ad Aurel. — Et si cuiquam facile sit gloriam non cupere dum negatur, difficile est ea non delectari cum offertur— in his 64 Epistle. However the Father seems there to plead only for the delight in glories offered, not in the unjust prosecution of those denied. But our humble-arrogant walks not to his temple of honour by that of virtue, but invasion; and of some of his colleagues, the Fathers complained of old, Qui nequaquam divinitus vocati, 
Greg. part. 1. past. cap. 2.  sed sua cupiditate accensi, culmen regimini. rapiunt potiùs, quàm assequuntur 'Tis Saint Gregory's line, and a strong one too, such a one as the Prophet once lashed judah with, 
Hos. 8.4.  Ho. 8.4. They have set up a King but not by me, they would make a Ruler, I knew it not. 
Mat. 23.  Would you have a more punctual character, that of the Pharisees is most apposite: They love greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi, Matth. 23.7. Devout cruelty, Religious arrogance (the Father will make it out) Ob pietatem miseri, ob splendorem infaelices, 
Greg. Naz. in praefat. Apol. edict. lat.  in his Apology first Oration 44. pag.  
But I have followed Moses too long as a Magistrate, I must now a while as a Priest, and (what I exchanged him for) a Bishop. I shall not travel fare,  I descry them both in a full career, not far from the road I left the Magistrate, Ambition, but in a more covert, and untrodden way; a way, however doubly obnoxious to the passenger, because unwarrantable, because forbidden; no authority for his progress, no Letters patents from heaven, no proficiscere from his God, Go, yet he runs, runs without command, nay against it, trebly against it, against that, non dominantes in clerum—, feed, 
1. Pet. 5.3. jam. 3.1.  But not as Lords over God's heritage, but ensamples, and against that nolite magistri, be not masters, knowing you shall receive the greater condemnation; nay against the direct prohibition of Christ to his Disciples, 
Matth 20.27. — Will there be any great among you—, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, let him be your servant. 'Tis high time than this bladder were a little pricked, and this imposthume lanced. The body of the Church desire's it, cries for't, she is sick, sick even unto death, yet no Physician in Israel will administer, will? durst not; We are grown so emasculate, and palsie-strooken, in ways of reprehension, the times so censorious, and in a lust of novelty, that this mount of God which was wont to sand out lightnings and thunder to the Israelites below, is now grown a terror to the Moses that shall climb it. And whereas the Pulpit hath been formerly our Tribunal to judge and sentence the lapses and depravations of the people, they have made at length a bar for our own arraignment, & their doom or mercy passes on us, as we shall please or not please, but the verdict runs much to the fancy of the censurer, which is commonly as barbarous and wild, as he that gives it. Discourses (and I am sorry I cannot call them Sermons) are so sleek, and wooing for applause, the ears of the times so coy, and picked for accurateness, that to be plain or home, entitles the speaker to rudeness or stoicism, each offered annotation is a barbarism, and every reproof a libel. The hewing down of a glorious vice, or the whipping of a sin in scarlet, Praemunires him that doth it, and he grows a tributary and slave to the frowns and dishonours of the time, 
Iwen. Sat. 1. — Vnde illa priorum— scribendi quodcunque animo flagrante liberet— Simplicitas? ' Tshould seem Antiquity had a privilege of venting any thing that proceeded from the simplicity and truth of an honest breast; But the thoughts of aftertimes were choked with a— non audeo dicere—, sincerity was turned bankrupt, and truth an exile, plain-dealing, pertinacy, and zeal, madness. But what, shall Moses here be tongue-tied, shall he stutter in the Messages of his God?— Quid refert dictis ignoscat Mutius anon? 
Iu. ibid.  Pusillanimity and dejectedness of spirit in the employment of thy Maker, is the basest degree of cowardice; for my part, I have set up my resolution with that of S. Bernard: 
Ad Fulc. Epist. 2.  Quid me loqui pudeat, quod illis non puduit facere? si pudeat audire quod impudenter egerunt, non pudeat emendare quod libenter non audiant. Let me tell however this child of vainglory, that no touch of malecontentednesse, or spirit of invection puts me on the justice of these complaints; But that which the devout Abbot calls, patiented anger, humble indignation— even that charity wherewith he catechised his ambitious pupil,— Quae tibi condolet, quaemuis non dolenti, 
B●rn. ad Fulc. epist. 2.  quae tibi miseretur, licet non miserabili, & inde magis dolet, quod cum sis dolendus, non doles, & inde magis miseretur, quod cùm miser sit, miserabilis non es, vult te tuum scire dolorem, ut iam non habeas unde dolere, vult te tuam scire miseriam, ut incipias miser non esse, in his 2 Epistle, Ad Fulconem—.  
I never yet envied the prosperity of any, I have sometimes wondered at their ways of advancement, and now have traced them, and find a double stair by which they ascend, zeal, policy,— (please you to translate the terms, you may, they will bear the christening) Faction, Simony—, one of the chief means to gain preferment, is, to cry down the way to it. And he that will have three livings, must first preach violently against two. Nonresidency must be a capital and indispensable crimes. Pluralities, damned, till they be either offered, or possessed, when the fish is caught, what makes the net here then? away with it; the question is stated on tother side. A double Benefice is but one living, and that swallowed with as little reluctation, as 'twas but now thundered against, with all the bitterness that the power of virulence could suggest; all's well now, the conscience is at peace, and (what is strange) the tongue too. E'er long, Nonresidency hangs not in the teeth, but that is easily put off, for the honour of Nicodemus,— To be a great Master in Israel, 
Sueton. — Si violandum sit ius, regnandi caus â violandum,— what matter's it for justice so we gain an Empire? or for equity so we may insult? The application needs no screw, 'twill come home of its own accord to the murmurings of the guilty bosom; In the mean time it much staggers me, to see the reconcilement of two virtuous friends with a base adversary? a Saint in the countenance, an Angel in the tongue, with an Hypocrite at the heart.  
Thus (beloved) upon easy enquiry we may as well descry an equivocation in the look, as in the word, and he that can art it handsomely in ways of dissimulation, hath not so much two tongues, as two faces; one looks towards the world, where demureness lays on her paint and colour, and this oftentimes deludes, shamefully deludes; the other towards heaven, and that's but coursely daubed in respect of it, for the eye of the Almighty cannot be dazzled, that will descry her furrows and deformities, and at length give her a reward answerable to the defert, her portion with the Hypocrite, and there I leave it.  
This fruitless and pernicious branch pruned, and lopped off, t'other buds, no less dangerous than that, and yet more flourishing, it sprouts now to such a breadth and height, that it hath almost overshadowed the body of the Church, insomuch, that the Fowls of the air lodge in the branches thereof. No Vulture or Raven (emblems of rapine and greediness) though they devour and havoc it (so they have a trick of merchandizing) but nests and perches there; nay scarce an Owl or Buzzard (now the metaphors of dulness and simplicity) but hoots and revel's there. Times more than calamitous, when the inheritance and patrimony of the Church, shall be thus leased out to avarice and folly, when those her honours which she entails upon desert, shall be heaped upon a golden ignorant, who rudely treads on those sacred prerogatives, without any warranted proficiscere from God or man. We found Moses trembling here, though encouraged both by the persuasion and command of the Almighty,— Et infirmquisque ut honoris onus suscip at, anhelat, 
Greg. par. 1. past. cap. 7.  & qui ad casum valde urgetur ex proprijs, humerum libenter opprimen●ū ponderibus submittit alienis—. 'Tis Gregory's complaint in the 1. part of his Pastoral, chapter 7.  
Strange monument of weakness! he that reels under his own burden, stoops to be oppressed with the weight of others, and lo how he tumbles to a mortal sin (The Schoolmen doth style it so) directly opposite to a pair of virtues, justice, charity; unjust, that the revenues due to worth should be packed upon bulcklesse and unable persons, 
Greg. de Val. in 2 a. 2 ae. Aqui. dist. 10. q. 3 punc. 2.  and uncharitable for him to undertake the guidance and pasturing of a flock who was never trained up in the conditions of a shepherd. Neither is he an enemy only of a double virtue, but a companion of two such sins which seem to brave, and dare the Almighty to revenge on the profaner, Intrusion, perjury; first, in rushing on the profession not legitimately called, then in purchasing her honours. Yet there are which can say with the Disciple— Master, we have left all and followed thee— our birthright for the Church; left did I say? sold it, exchanged the possessions of our Fathers (their vineyard) to purchase thine; and in stead of that penny which thou givest in lieu of a Crown and recompense to thy labourer, we have given thousands to be possessed one, and so, thou not hiring us, we have, it. But hear S. Bernard schooling his Eugenius, and do not so much blush as tremble,— Quis mihi det, 
Bern. epist. 238. ad Euge.  ante quam moriar videre ecclesiam Dei sicut in diebu● antiquis quandò Apostoli laxabant retia in capturam, non aurd, sed animaerum! quàm cupio te illius hareditare vocem cuius ad●ptus es sedem? Pecunia tua tecum in perditionem—. O vex tonitrui! The Abbot goes on devoutly in the 238. Epistle ád Eugenium.  
If that Father be too calm and modest in his reproof, and cannot rouse blood in the cheeks of the delinquent: S. Ambrose shall startle it, or else scare you with the vision of Simon Magus, 
Amb. de dign. sacerd. cap. 5.  or Gehazi,— Qui non timentes illud Petri, aut Elizei, Sacerdotalem defamant honorem, sanctique Episcopatus gratiam pecunijs coemerunt; in his de dignitate Sacerdotali cap. 5.  
And indeed, in ways of sufficiency and worth, 'tis the— si nil attuleris— damp's the preferment; The age can instance, in some languishing and weak in their intellectuals, men without sap or kernel, who (having their store-house well fraught with that white and read earth) have stumbled on the glories of the time, as if fortune would make them happy in despite of virtue; when others of Christ's followers (were truly his Disciples) are sent abroad with their— ite & predicate— , without bag or scrip, but their Commission large— Omni creaturae— the wide world is their place of residence, no particular roof to shelter them, or place of retiredness to lay their head in. Nay some that have served a triple Apprenticeship to Arts and Sciences, and spent in these our Athens the strength of their time and patrimony, men throughly ballaced for those high designs, well kerned both in years and judgement, lie mouldering for non-employment, and dashed for slowness of promotion; when others of cheap and thin abilities, men without growth or bud of knowledge, have met with the honours of advancement, and trample on those dejected bookewormes which dissolve themselves into industry for the service of their Church, yet meet neither with her pomp, nor her revenue; nay, some that have wasted their Lamp, are burnt their Taper to an inch of years, have spent those fortunes in the travails of Divinity, which would largely have accommodated them for more secular courses, and enforced to retire themselves to the solitariness of some ten-pound Cure, and so spin out 〈…〉 he hath suffered strangely in the censures of the world) somewhat windy, & tempestuous, but such as had authority only from the tongue, not the heart, and as soon o'erblown, as occasioned, naught else but a green leaf in a flame, cracked, sparkled, and so out. His rule of friendship the best, not popular, but choice, & there too, where it found truth, no gloss; there unshooke, nobly-constant, his, both in his heart, & in his purse; not in his purse, (as Seneca writes of Sicilius, where naught could be extracted but an hundred upon a hundred) or as your Hackney Mynt-men for the most part do, ten upon the same number, but that trebled, many times, for nothing, as the clemency of some unpersecuting scrolls can testify. His contribution, and benevolence in way of alms, rather poured out, than given, as if poverty had been the object of his profuseness, not of his relief; yet that without froth of ostentation, without reference to merit, on the grounds of a true charity. His Religion (wherein the world thought he had waved and tottered) upon his accounts to God, and his inlargements and declarations to his friends, on his deathbed, fast to the Church of England; which, (though in the last act) was beleaguered by some emasculate suggestions, yet, blessed be the circumspection of a careful Son, it stood unbattered, and in that loialty, and strength, he penitently gave up his soul into the hands of his Redeemer.  
And now he is gone, let his imperfections follow, and the memory of them rot, and moulder with his body; he had many, some prevalent; and (good Lord) which of us have nor in a large proportion! But they are our earthy and dusty, and ashy part, so they were his; let them then be buried with him; shovel them into his grave; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; let them spring no more, to the soiling and dishonour of his name, or our own uncharitableness, but let his ashes rest in peace; for he is now— Gone to his long home, and the mourners have walked for him about the streets.  
Gloria in excelsis Deo. Amen.  
FINIS.