SIX SERMONS. Preached by EDWARD CHALONER, Doctor of Divinity, and Fellow of ALLSOULES College in OXFORD.  
LONDON Printed by W. STANSBY, 1623.   

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, WILLIAM, Earl of PEMBROKE, Lord HERBERT of Cardiff, Lord Par and Rosse of Kendal, Lord Marmion and Saint Quintin, etc.  
Chancellor of the University of OXFORD, Lord Chamberlain of his Majesty's ; Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter: And one of his Majesty's most honourable Privy Council.  
Right Honourable,  
THese fruits of mine, receiving warmth from the good affections of some friends, have budded forth and blossomed too early, to withstand either the Nips or Blasts of this critical Age, unless your Lordship shall vouchsafe to be so hospitable, as to admit them within your Walls, and make them secure under the Shadow of your protection. For, to whom should they fly for Patronage, but to our Honourable Chancellor, under whose Branches they both took Root and grew up; it being the Ordinance of Nature, that the same Hand which creates, should conserve; and that the benign Influence which reigns at the Birth, should be propitious also in continuing Life. Add to these, the contents of the Work, which consisting of diverse pieces, as excitements to piety, maintenance of royal and subordinate Authority, and a vindicating of our Naioths or Nurseries of Piety and Knowledge, from the detractions of the Ignorant, may by virtue of your several Relations, to God, the State, and Our University, challenge a greater share in your Lordship, than any other. Nor can I suspect (were these inducements wanting) your Noble interpretation of my boldness, considering that your Honour, whose study is to express the virtues of ancient times in Life, hath for your zeal to Learning, noble Patterns in holy Writ, both to imitate and parallel. For what was Daniel, 
Dan. 2.28.  but Counsellor to a great Monarch, and Governor over the Schools of the wisemen in Babylon? 
1. King. 18.3.  And what Obadiah, other than Ruler in a King's House, and Patron of the Prophets, the University men of Israel? I, for mine own part, since you succeed them in their Titles and Merits, shall ever pray, that you may partake with them in the Reward, that so, the Divine protection of the One may attend you in this Life, and the blessed memory of the Other Crown you hereafter.  
Your Lordships humbly devoted, ED. CHALONER.   

Errata.  
Pag. 17 leg. Merces. 26 contain, leg. contained. 64 leg. jeduthen 86 lin antepenult. leg. Thus. 89 circa medium, of leg. for. 93 reches, leg. teacheth. 99 Ecclesiastical, leg Enthysiasticall. 104 leg. Rucus. 117 refine, leg. rescue. ibid. reconciling, leg. recoun●ing. 123 leg. assisting, deal on. 126. leg Kepplerus. 137 deal either. ibid. with, leg. which 143 leg. Turner. 144 lin. antepenult. deal that. 149 leg. Petrus. 153 circamed. leg. no sooner. 159 leg defect. 168 unremarkable, leg. remarkable. 174 as leg. and. 184 saith he, bis leg. say they. 187 leg. Rock circamed. 196 as Hercules' pillars, leg. as fare as Herc. etc. 202 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, leg. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 204 ruin, leg. revive. 206 disposing, leg. dispossessing. 288 Verse leg. Verge.   

The Titles of the several SERMONS.  
Babel, or the confusion of Languages.  
Naioth, or the University Charter.  
Ephesus common Pleas.  
judah's Prerogatives.  
The Gentiles Creed.  
Paul's Peregrinations, or the Travellers Guide.   

BABEL, OR THE CONFUSION OF LANGVAGES.  GEN. 11. vers. 7. 
Go to, let us go down and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.  
THe Holy Ghost having in the precedent Chapter, set down unto us, the Propagation and Plantation of Noah's offspring, according to their Countries, Heads, and Families, upon the face of the Earth: in this Chapter he proceeds, Methodo Analytica, by way of Ascent, from the Effects to the Causes of this so great a dispersion: and they were two, the one, Malum culpae, Man's impiety, which incensed God: the other, Malum poenae, God's vengeance, which he inflicted upon man. The offence which the sons of men committed against God, was that arrogant and presumptuous work of building Babel, 
Horat. Car l. 1. Ode 3.  Audax omnia perpeti gens humana, ruit per vectitum nefas. The vengeance which God took upon Man, was the miraculous confounding of their Languages. The proceed of both are described much alike. Go to, say they, go to, saith God, a kind of Consultation in either, but the scope and conclusion of the Consultations were contrary, theirs was Aedificemus, let us build; Gods was Confundamus, let us confound; to note that where God is not a Builder, he will be there found as a Confounder. Suppose the relics of mankind, within little more than an hundred years, either in the Ark, for twelve months continuance setting no foot in the buried Continent, or ●ut of the Ark, and yet not daring ●o descend Armenia's Mountains, at length increasing through that word, which bade them multiply and replenish the Earth, to be compelled to leave Ararat, and journeying from the East westward, to find a Plain in the Land of Shinar. This Shinar, as most Geographers think, was a part of the Garden of Eden, fruitful for the watering of two most famous Rivers, Tigris and Euphrates, fruitful for the temperate situation in regard of the heavenly influence, fruitful for the nature of the soil, returning, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herod. l. 1. cap. 193. Plin. lib. 6. cap. 26.  if Herodotus and Pliny may be believed, the seed sown in it beyond credulity. Who would not have thought, that man lately preserved by God's great mercy from the tyranny of the Deluge, would now by feeling so fresh a taste of his goodness, have consecrated unto him some immortal monument of gratitude and thankfulness? Who could have imagined Man's affections to have been so obdurate, as not to perform some memorable act redounding to God's glory? When, behold, turning this blessing to a curse, they say one to another, Go to, let us build, Non Deo sed nobis ipsis, let us build us a City and a Tower, whose top may reach up unto heaven. What would vain and humane presumption have done, although it could have built a Tower as high as heaven? Tutam veramque in coelum viam molitur humilitas, 
August. de ●mit. Dei, lib. ●6. c. 4.  saith Saint Augustine, low humility is that which best conveys us up to heaven. Their desire belike, was to leave a monument to posterity, no matter how good, so great enough; and there are two ends set down thereof, the one, finis vanitatis, That we may get us a name; 
Horat Car. l. 1. Ode 3.  Nil mortalibus arduum est, coelum ipsum p●timus stultitia: the other, Finis impietatis, Lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the Earth. Now what this scattering should mean, some controversy amongst Interpreters rests yet undecided; 
joseph. l. 1. Antiq.  josephus thinks they feared the danger of a second Flood. Cajetan would rather have it that they would not be dispersed one from another, because, 
Caiet. ad loc.  Homo est Animal politicum & societate gaudens, 
Arist. 1. Polit. c. 1. Hugo S. Victor. in Annot. in G●t.  as the Philosopher teacheth us; but others there are, which not improbably conjecture, that a mere living asunder is not there understood, but rather a division of Kingdoms. For, Nimrod and his Complices, hoping to reduce all men under one government, and by that means to make themselves sole Monarches of the whole Earth, made Babel perhaps the beginning of their Kingdom, 
Aug. sup.  and the subject of their plot; the Tower their Fortress against their Opposites, and the City their resedencie of Estate. For mine own part, having the sacred Scripture for my Star, and craving the Spirit of all Truth for my Steersman, I pass not greatly, so I may conduct some to the Haven of Health, if I strike neither into the Cimmerian or obscure ports of Antiquity, nor yet anchor in the boundless Ocean of modern curiosities. Whatsoever their drift was, scattered they would not be, & therefore we can conceive in it no less than high presumption, and such presumption as incensed the Maker of Nature, to change and confound Nature in his best workmanship, 
Jun. Com. in Gen. 11.  Tanquam si adversus coelestia tela cavere sibi hoc modo possent, saith one, Whether they feared a second Flood, or whether a dispersion, they thought their own inventions had been powerful enough to frustrate the decree of the most High. See here a Babel, a confusion of iniquities, one Work, not one Offence, but many. They should have considered, how that the ways of men are in the hands of God, and that he ordereth them as it best seems unto himself; they should have hearkened unto the voice of aged Noah, who, no doubt, as before the Flood he ceased not to forewarn the old World of the Deluge to come, so since the Flood he was not defective in advertising his untoward offspring of their danger at hand, but they, hard hearted as they were, disobedient to their careful Parent, reprobate to every good work, will needs follow the steps of cursed Cham, and his issue, and so proceed on in their ambitious design. But the Lord in the mean time came down to see the City and the Tower, which the sons of men builded, where see an Omnipotent judge stirred up with just fury against perverse and presumptuous offenders: Multa sed non multum dicit, his speech was full, as befitting the Nature of so high a Court, and short as becoming the Person of so great a Majesty, containing in it a Consultation, and a Decree; an Exaggeration, or an Accusation and a Sentence, the former in the Verse going before; the latter comprehended in the words of my Text, all tending to this effect.  
Secondly, think not thou degenerate issue of old Noah, but that all thy ways lie open before me, thy practices, thy imaginations; the secrets of thy soul are not hidden from my sight, and can yet thy wretched heart be so hardened, can it be so wittingly impious, as to provoke thy Creator, and in the face of Heaven, to dare combat to his Omnipotency? Remember the blessings wherewith I blessed your Fathers, and call to mind my wonders of old time; Did I to that end preserve your Progenitors from the Flood, that Children issuing from their loins, should requite me with this contumely? Did I give you fruitful Shinar to possess, and bless you with the fat of the Earth, that plenty should make you stiffnecked and rebellious against me? Did I endue you with one language & one speech, that you should abuse it in inciting one another to such impieties? Behold, I have hitherto but looked down from Heaven, and said, perhaps Man will turn from his wicked ways, and seek after me; but I will now unsheathe my sword, I will go down to execute judgement; for the sins of your mouth, & for the words of your lips, you shall be taken in your pride, I will confound your Language, that you may not understand one another's speech.  
The total sum is, a brief of God's proceed against the builders of Babel for their arrogancy; in the sentence or decree whereof,  
Observe with me these three parts. 

First, Profectionem, the progress, circuit, or expedition which he would make, Go to, let us go down.  
Secondly, Intentionem, the intention which he had, and there confound their Language.  
Thirdly, Rationem, the reason or end of his intent, that they may nos understand one another's speech.    
Of these in order; as God's grace shall enable me, and your Christian patience afford me leave, and first, de profectione, of God's progress or expedition against these wicked Rebels, which cometh in the first place to be considered, Go to, let us go down, etc.  
Fourthly, It is doubted amongst some Interperters, who they should be to whom this descendamus, let us go down (it being a Verb of the plural number) ought to be referred. The jews ignorant of the blessed Trinity, as also some others, would have it to be spoken to those Angels which God purposed to use as Instruments in the effecting of this miraculous confusion. But were it so, the Phrase would have rather been (go ye) then (let us go) for (let us) imports an equality between the speaker and the hearer, which equality cannot be found between the Creator and the Creature; beside, Angels being of a finite essence, can have but finite and successive operations, but to frame and infuse in one and the selfsame moment, such variety of sounds, and senses into men's brains, argues Gods immediate hand, and that in this action he had no partner. I rather join therefore with our own Interpreters, and amongst the rest with calvin, 
Cal. ad locum. Sic Chrysost. Procop. Rab●n. Rupert. Cyrill. Tertull.  who ex hoc loco non ineptè probatur, subesse in una Dei essentia ●res personas: that from this place the plurality of persons in one essence may be well inferred. But my purpose is not stand upon a point so sufficiently resolved by others. Another doubt here in my Text is, how God may be said to go down; For is it possible, that he which is totus in toto mundo, should now want a local descent to make him aliquid in parte mundi? Whither shall I go from thy spirit, saith David, 
Psal. 139.7.  or whither shall I fly from thy presence? If I ascend up into Heaven, thou art there? If I go down into Hell thou art there also? If I take the wings of the morning, and remain in the uttermost parts of the Sea, even there also shall thine hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. To the clearing of this point, we must observe, that this word descend, hath a double signication in the holy Scriptures, sometimes it is taken properly, for a local motion from a higher place to a lower, and so the Angel of the Lord is said to descend from Heaven, when he rolled away the stone from the mouth of our Saviour's Sepulchre, Matth. 28. sometimes it is taken Metaphorically, when one by manifesting himself in his actions, resembleth a kind of descent in his person, and so God may be said to descend, non mutatione loci, sed patefactione sui, not by changing his place, but by declaring himself; For though God being in his essence considered, is every where present; yet if we consider him in his effects, and in his works: certi huius praesentiae gradus dandi sunt, say the Schools, there be, as it were, certain degrees of his presence to be granted. 
Greg. Com. in Ezech. h●m. 8.  Omnia tangit, non tamen aequaliter omnia tangit, saith Gregory: so that he is present in a several manner to several things: Communiter omnibus, specialiter aliquibus, he descends by his works of Power, to all his Creatures upon Earth; by his works of Grace, to his Servants Elect alone; by his works of Confusion, to the wicked and Reprobates; and in this latter sense I take to be understood the words of my Text, go to, let us go down. Now this going down against these haughty builders is sufficiently expressed in my Text, where God by the similitude of a King, who minding to punish wicked and rebellious subjects, sends not others, but himself goes down in person to do justice, notes out unto us his just severity and vigilant care in rewarding headstrong and ambitious Miscreants; but yet the reason hereof appears better by the coherence of these words with the former Verse: 
Delr●e ex Philon. & Chrysost.  For whereas there God had thoroughly scanned and sifted, as it were, the, thoughts and imaginations of these wicked builders, and by experience found, that they were not now grown to an opinion alone, or a longing to commence this prodigious action for the winning of a name, but that Pride was by this time at her high tide, and that a resolute presumption had gotten the sole suage of their affections, so that he by way of communication with himself, describing, First, their condition, that they had not only imagined, or in their breasts alone conceived this vanity, but had even already begun to do it: Secondly, their resolution, that unless he with his Omnipotent arm should interpose, nothing would be restrained from them which they imagined to do, he addeth immediately these words, Go to, let us go down, which being as it were a Decree grounded upon the former communication, may not unfitly afford us this observation. That to be bend upon a vain resolution of purchasing a name, is a fearful presage of Gods coming down to work confusion.  
Fifthly, no sin is so hateful to God, as this pride and seeking of glory, other sins hurt most ourselves, or our neighbours, but this directly as it were, opposeth itself unto God, by remembering ourselves too much, it utterly makes us forget our Creator. God therefore is said to resist the proud. 1. Pet. 5. to scatter them in the imaginations of their hearts. Luke 1.51. To destroy even their house. Prou. 15. and whosoever is an exalter of himself, to bring him low. Matth. 23.12. Assyrias Monarch affects but a name from his strength and wisdom, and is threatened to be consumed like thorns with a flame, Esay 10. Nabuchadnezzar but triumphs in his Majesty and glory, and that goodly Tree must be hewed down, and exposed amongst the beasts of the Field, Dan. 4. Look upon the Prince of Tyrus, Ezech. 28. or the Israelites, Amos 6. and we shall find that the exalting of their own name for blessings received of God, was that which pulled down plagues and afflictions upon them. To omit many others, we read of Herod, Acts 12. how immediately after the people's shout, terming his Oration the Voice of God, and not of Man; the Angel of the Lord smote him, and why? not for any boasting of himself for aught we find, but for not declining the too great applause of the people. So sudden hath God been in confounding those, which either proudly have sought, or vainly embraced a glorious Name.  
But what will some object, may no Fame be affected or Name be sought for? Hath God enriched some with such admirable gifts and excellent endowments above others, and must all these be buried in obscurity without speaking of? Belove, mistake me not, it is not a good name, neither is it a great Name, which I here dislike, but our own inordinate seeking of it. Things are of two sorts, 
Thom. 2.2. q. 132. art. 1. Valent. Tom. 3. disp. 8. q. 3. punct. 2.  some be bona peruse, good in themselves, and these in themselves are to be sought for, as Faith, Hope, Charity, and the like Virtues; others are not good, but indifferent in themselves, and are to be hunted after only, as they may be instruments of what is good in itself: and amongst these are reckoned Fame and humane Glory. To seek Glory therefore, or a Name, as they may be Instruments of a farther good is no sin, a good Name being rather to be desired then great riches, Prou. 22. For first, as it is meroe● des meritorum, a reward of our deserts, it stirs up a desire of well doing in ourselves, and herein is to be desired: Secondly, as it is signum virtutum, a token of Virtues in us, it makes our good endeavours the more passable amongst others, and herein is to be disired; Lastly, as it is Argumentum cuiusdam excellentiae divinae in nobis, as Thomas speaketh, it worketh an acknowledgement of God's graces towards man in us all, and herein is to be desired. And in these respects Saint Paul bids us provide honest things not in secret only, but in the sight of all men, Rom. 12. And our Saviour adds the reason, Mat. 5. That men may see our good works, and glorify our Father which is in heaven. Whereupon saith Austen; 
Aug a● frat. in Eremo se●m. 52. Iom. 10.  Tenete quod dixi, atque distinguite. Duae suntres, conscientia & fama: Conscientia necessaria est tibi, fama proximo t●●. But to seek a name as these builders did, without relation at all to any higher end, therein consists the vanity. Our heavenly Father, he knows what we have need of, and hath in heaven reserved a name for us, which he hath written in the Book of Life: to grudge because we want it in this world, is to weep for the extinguishing of a Candle, when in stead thereof we are assured of the light of the Sun. And indeed, Saint Paul gives and excellent example, to illustrate and confirm this doctrine: for when some Corinthians began to make more account of the false Apostles, that crept in amongst them, then of him; he that he might by bringing them to esteem of himself, bring them also to esteem of the Gospel which he preached, stuck not to tell them, that he was not a whit behind the chiefest of the Apostles: and to boast, that he had been in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft, 2. Cor. 11. using the magnifying of his name, as an instrument to magnify his doctrine. But when on the contrary side, othersome more fierce in their censures then the rest, would give no equal hearing to his just defence, he appealed from man to God's Tribunal, and plainly showed what he esteemed of a great name, or of men's estimations in themselves; As touching me (saith he) I pass very little to be judge of you, or of man's judgement; no, I judge not mine own self, 1. Cor. 4. As a name therefore may serve for our own encouragements, the edifying of our brother, and the glory of God, we are commanded to let our works shine before men, and to purchase a good report amongst all men, but as it is a thing in itself, merely considered without further use, we strictly are forbidden ambitiously to seek it. What greater tokens of a zealous affection, than prayer, fasting, and almsdeeds? By the one we commune with God; by the other we humble ourselves; and by the third we testify our loves unto our neighbours: yet even these in danger of vainglory, or having not a farther end accompanying them, are to be restrained from the eyes of men. Alms must be so concealed, that the left hand may not know what the right hand doth, Matth. 6.3. Prayers must be so secretly poured forth, that the Chamber door may not stand open when we make them: Verse. 6. and a cheerful countenance must so colour our fastings, that we may not seem to men to fast, but to our Father which is in secret; and our Father which seethe in secret, will reward us openly: Verse. 18.  
Sixthly, I would to God (beloved) that these our soothing times, could be contented to hear this doctrine, not in thesi only, but would also as willingly make use of it in hypothesi. It serves notably first against those, who, live they how Epicurlike they list, be their possessions by fraud or oppression gotten, they care not; a House yet, or some other Monument must they leave behind them, if for nought else, yet to preserve their name. Weak impiety; so much labour, such care, and all but to purchase a name. Why, Achitophel hath a name, judas hath a name, Belzebub hath a name: and, alas, how easy a matter is it to leave a name, if that were all; Babylon's ruins (me thinks) might here lesson us; and one of those aged Sires, if you will, one of japhets' sons, from whom we are descended, were he now living, might thus inform us; Build not Palaces, erect not Marble Monuments to win a name, disce meo exemplo monitus, thy forefather's example may teach thee, that though thou build them, yet God may name them, and to deride thy vanity, term them as he did this Babel, a Confusion. Beloved, there be some here, whom if not now, yet hereafter it may concern; give me leave therefore to add this for their instruction; Are you desirous to have a name. I dissuade you not: but imagine not that it relies in worldly pomp or humane glory: Men think (saith David) that their houses shall continue for ever, and that their dwelling places shall endure from one generation to another, and call their lands after their own names; Nevertheless, they shall not abide in honour, seeing they may be compared unto the beasts that perish; this is the way of them: But if you would get a name, I will show you a way (saith chrysostom,) 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  do good deeds, give to the poor, distribute your Alms to the necessitous, these things will be living monuments, and Statues reared in the minds of men, when those of Stone and Brass shall derive nought but your vanity unto posterity. Dispersit, dedit pauperibus (saith the Psalmist) & iustitia eius manet in seculum, in one day he dispersed his riches, and we see his memory extends unto all ages. But will you needs build you Houses and lofty Palaces? I forbidden you not; only build them not on earth, if you will build, build a Tabernacle in Heaven, Where Cankers cannot corrupt, nor thiefs dig through and steal. Would you adorn your dwelling places? yet first remember, domum interiorem, your own souls, adorn them, and Christ will come in and lodge with you. Would you line your walls with Tapestry and rich Imagetie? yet remember when you have clothed them, that you leave not Christ naked and destitute of clothing. Build you houses for habitation, not ostentation, and be sure of this, that overmuch outward pomp will prove like a  being to big for you, it will hinder you in your way towards the heavenly jerusalem.  
But let me wade a little farther (my brethren) for neither must this Example altogether so literally be applied, 
Perer. Cor. Nell a Lapid. Diod. Sic. l. 3. c. 4. Herod. l. 1. Theod. in quaest. in Gen 59 Hieron. l. 5. comment in Esai c. 14.  but that it may likewise yield some matter of admonition even to us, which in this place have consecrated ourselves to our set professions. Commentators much disputes the question, whether it were this lower, which is so described by Diodore and Herodotus, and whether it were to be seen in Saint Hierome and Theodoret's time; Our latter Voyages affirm the ruins to be yet extant; For mine won part, I would not counsel any man to trauel thither to decide the controversy. No beloved, let him look at home and in a Map decipher his own affections, he needs not with Galileus use perspectrue Glasses to descry Mountains in the Moon. I fear, too many there be, if they would but pluck the beam out of their own eyes would clearly see, that Babel is yet standing, and that not in part only raised, as was this in my Text, but reared to the Battlements; nay, (I am afraid) in too many mounted as high as the Weathercock. If we look abroad and cast our eyes with our Saviour from the top of the high Mountain upon the splendour of the World, no doubt, but there we shall see Towers and Babel's enough a building, we shall easily yield that Princes, and Potentates, and Secular Policies have their hands full of such work; but let's reflect our eyes upon ourselves, and ask whether here may not be some of Babel's builders, whether here may not be some day-labourers, which set their hands to the laying of that foundation? Perhaps one amongst ourselves would reply, that here are none but such as have renounced those forded Trades, and have dedicated themselves wholly to the liberal Professions; but alas; beloved, we are not sharp-sighted enough in our own cause, Cucullus non facit Monachum; let's ask Elezeus Servant, he which could discern the Mountain covered with fiery Chariots, and he would tell us, that there be indeed here many Noah's, many Sem's and Heber's, which bewail the headiness of their Brethren, and would restrain them if possibly they could from such precipitate courses; but, alas, whilst some too much neglectful of their true scope, do day and night lie digging and delving, and hewing out their worldly advancement; whiles it is too common a fault amongst men, to ruff cast and plaster over their own deformities; that with Simon Magus, they may affirm themselves to be some body, whilst not a few with lives and travels stand either measuring others actions, or else as if themselves were the Poles of the world, are taking the elevation of their own worth; how can one choose but say that here also may sit many of those mechanics, who (if I should speak, with my Story) do make Brick and burn it, and carry slime and mortar to the building of this Tower. Babylon (believe it) may as well be built in a Scholar's brain, as in the Plains of Shinar, and vain glory may in the one be as fit an Instrument to promote the Devil's kingdom, as in the other it served for the erecting of Nimrods' Monarchy. Sciences and Disciplines were first invented for use, and contain themselves then within the bounds of Modesty, but vain glory raising them above their proper Sphere, made them in the end take folly for their Centre. Whence grew those infernal Arts of consulting with foul spirits, whence those scrupulous inspection of the higher bodies; but that earth and clay knowing not itself which it was bound to know, to get a name would needs know that which it ought not to know; might I but particularise, I think, there is none ignorant in the several Ages of Learning. What corruptions of Arts arose from Pride? What Sects arose like Locusts to devour the flowers of all good learning? How by them Philosophy losing her profitable uses, was turned to abstractive and sophistical speculations, how Divinity was stuffed out with curious and unnecessary doubts, how preaching itself through postelizing became verbal, & bend only as it were to delight the fancy of fond Auditors. I cannot much censure therefore those Schoolmen, which held Divinity itself to be then a speculative Science, when the Popes to build their Empire thought good to abstract it from the practice. Non sic à principio, it was not so from the beginning.  

Agrip. de vanit. Scient.  An Agrippa could supply my Meditations with Examples, and tell you how all Disciplines assumed first their vanity from the affectation of humane glory, and a Viues could derive unto you the causes of the corruptions of Arts from aspiring cogitations. 
Viues, de causis corrupt. arti.  Till Arrogancy bear Dominion over Truth; the transcendency of the Pope found no footing in the Church. Till ambitious ends blinded the eyes of judgement, the doctrine of massacring Princes was not known. Till School-learning turned Advocate to the pride of Antichrist, we knew no higher judge of Controversies than the Scriptures. But my purpose is not to prosecute this subject any farther; I desire (Beloved) knowledge in you all, but I would have it vestita, clothed with Humility, for as it is in itself nuda, it puffeth up, saith Paul, 1. Cor. 8. but joined with love it edifieth. Let no man therefore presume to understand above that which is meet to understand, but that he understand according to sobriety, as God hath dealt to every man the measure of Faith, lest striving with these builders to get a name, he participate of their confusion; which was the intention of God's descent, and cometh next to be handled; and there confound their Language.  
Seventhly, bow dangerous a weapon the tongue of man is, how liable either to use or abuse, no Author almost is silent to report. With our tongue we will prevail, say the wicked, Psal. 12. Death and life are in the power of it, Prou. 18. And to conclude, It is a fire, a world of wickedness, an unruly evil, full of deadly poison: jam. 3. No marvel therefore, if the Lord, when he saw that man by depriving himself of his original justice, had lost the true skill of using this weapon, did now somewhat shorten the length of it, to the end that some proportion might be found between the wounded and worn Soldier, and his unwieldy blade. Had Adam still continued in his first estate, reason in him like a golden bridle would have kept this member in subjection; At high iam mortui sunt, those Arms which then were lusty and strong, have now lost their vigour, and the tongue as an untamed beast runs over all it meets with, and tramples to the ground all such as give it not way and passage. God therefore since the Rider had not any longer the free power to restrain his beast, thought good to shorten his race, scantle his liberties, and reduce the large Common where before it roved, and went astray into several inclosements. Shemeis' tongue may be free in cursing, but it shall boot no where now but in jury. Athenian Demagogi may be prompt in moving seditions, but their eloquence must end with the bounds of Greece: and Caius Curio may be facundus malo publico; but his Rhetoric shall be powerful only in Rome's Territories.  
From hence we may observe many points worth our consideration, as first, that all the punishments which it pleaseth God to inflict on the wicked in this life, are no other than so many steps and stairs to promote the welfare of his Church. For howsoever, the World abounded as much with wicked after, as before, yet men being divided into as many factions as tongues, and having not so free commerce as before, the Church might now seem to have an indifferent share, being compared with any one part, though to all it bear no proportion. Secondly, we may note the end of God's punishments, how it is to repress the ragings of sin, 
Greg. lib. 34 Moral. & Chrysost. in Gen. c. 11. v. 6.  and to restrain it from growing to that prodigious height which these builders had raised it unto. For no doubt, the Lord seeing the imaginations of man's heart to be evil continually, and that this unity of speech so much served the wicked to win them partners in their wickedness, used this confusion of Languages as a bridle to curb their audacious spirits, that if notwithstanding all this, they should have as much will to sin, yet should they have less power to hurt: and though perhaps there might be as many wicked, yet should there be fewer partakers in the same wickedness. Alas, God might, as he did to Sodom, have reigned down fire and brimstone upon them, and so have consumed their work with them, but then he had not left us the posterity of that wicked consort, as a perpetual argument of his mercy: he might with Lighthings or Earthquakes have demolished their work, and not them: but then he had only deterred them from proceeding in that mischief, not taken away the means of beginning a new. Wherefore he like a prudent judge, that this malum poenae, this punishment which he would inflict upon them, might take some effect in all their Posterity, suits their punishment to their offence: the unity of lunguage caused them to incite one another to build, and the consusion of Languages shall for ever take from them the means to proceed; similitude of speech, made them seek a combination, and a diversity of speech shall cause their final separations; likeness of Tongues, made them conjoin in consultation, and division of Tongues shall divide their humours and affections. Kingdom's be divided by speeches, and speeches by the causes of the divisions of Kingdoms so that now to reunite all men again under one visible form of government, is to re-edify Babel, and to frustrate that course which God by this confusion of languages established in the world. I cannot tell what others may conjecture, but, me thinks, it cannot be but a fond imagination of the Papists, to think that now all Nations should again conspire and agree under one visible head: did God so miraculously scatter & divide men, lest being undivided they should again return to their vomit, and their Commanders incite them afresh to hatch such Monsters as this was; and must all Mankind subject itself once more to the command of one Nimrod, and all concur to the raising of a second Babel? I confess with Aristotle in the third of his Politickes, that a Monarchy is the best form of Regiment absolutely, and the best in one City and one Country, as most symbolising with the order of nature, and being the best preserver of Unity and Concord, which is Aristotle's main ground; yet considering the manifold defects of men, amongst which this confusion of Languages is not the least; (and therefore when our Saviour was to give his Apostles a large Commission to preach unto all Nations, he supplied it with the gift of Tongues) considering, I say, the imperfections of Nature, I deny a Monarchy to be the best form of Regiment, in respect of the whole World, and every part thereof so fare distant and remote one from another. For to omit the impossibility and inconveniences alleged by Ocham, a Schoolman of their own, in the second of his Dialogues and first Tract, who thinks it most dangerous to have all men subject their ears and understandings to one man's Dictates; lest he in whom they put so much confidence by falling into error, like the Serpent, should draw the most part of the stars from Heaven with his tail; to pass by, I say, these Arguments, we may find proofs strong enough in our Text; For if God used this confusion of Languages as a remedy for man's Pride and Arrogancy, because a universal combination of men in the infancy of the World brought forth such prodigious births as was this Babel, into what wickedness may we conceive, might Mankind in its more declining Age headlong throw itself to its greater confusion? This only, I say, old Babylon raiseth the doubt, and new Babylon hath resolved it.  
But whilst we strive to subdue our open Enemies, we must be wary, lest our bosom friends, our own affections, subdue us. Let's see therefore, what lesson each of us in particular may for his private use deduce from the manner of punishing, which God used in this place. The whole Earth was of one Language (saith the Pen man of this story) & dixerunt alter alteri, aedificemus, and they said one to another, let us build us a City and a Tower; & quia unius labij ideo dixerunt alter alteri, had they not been of one Language, they could not have said one to another, Let us build. God resumes the argument in the sixth Verse; Behold, the people is one, and they all have one Language, and this they begin to do. Wherefore he dealt not with them, as sometimes Physicians do, who for a Disease in the head apply the Plaster to the foot, he punished not their eyes with blindness, as he did the men of Sodom, Gen. 19 nor their bodies with the leprosy, as he did Gehazi, 2. Kings, 5. no; that member which stirred them up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to wage war against him, by the same he makes them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Cyp. serm. de lapsis.  in Languages to discord amongst themselves. Ind coepit poena, unde coepit & crimen, saith Cyprian, where the fault began, there began likewise the punishment; It was the tongue that set them on work, and in all justice he makes the tongue to pay for it; some say, ut qui unanimiter per linguam offendissent, linguam ad orandum unanimiter veniam non haberent: that because they had offended jointly by the tongue, they should not now have a tongue whereby they might jointly ask pardon: Austin saith it was,  qui alto superbiae tumore membra contempserant, in fragilissimo substantiae suae membro poenam utique sermonis sentirent, that by the just judgement of God, they which puft up with Pride did contemn and abuse their parts, should in the weakest part they had sustain the punishment of confusion. Howsoever these men having by the tongue so heinously offended, and being by the confusion of tongues so severely punished, may yield a general caveat unto all those which abuse those gifts and good parts, whatsoever they be which God endowes them withal, and may point out unto us this Observation.  
That when good gifts are employed to a wrong end, God oftentimes by them doth scourge those on whom he bestows them, and turns them to be Instruments of their owner's confusion.  
Eightly, All men whoever they be, have some enemies or other which wish them hurt, so that it truly may be said, Neminem habet amicum, qui neminem habet inimicum; but here is the difference, the godly they have their Persecutors without them, but the wicked hath his own members rebellious within him, and he knows not; an suo se iugulet gladio, whether God have reserved him or not to be his own Executioner. If we look no further, yet Saules, Achitophel's, and judas example may win credit to the Assertion. But God's judgements oftentimes are more particular; Eli offends by his Sons, because his Sons ran into a slander, and he stayed them not, and in his Sons God threatened to punish him, 1. Sam. 3. jeroboam put forth his hand to lay hold on the man of God, and straight ways his hand withered, 1. King. 13. Zachary, Luke 1. doubting of the Angels promise, asked, Whereby shall I know this, and the Angel gave him this for a sign, thou shalt be dumb; 
Chrysost.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. saith chrysostom, thy tongue which was so officious in opening the distrust of thine heart, shall now sustain the punishment of thy heart's distrust.  
Ninthly, We need not run through all particulars, 
Cyp. serm. de lapsis.  Cum per orbis multiformes ruinas tam delictorum poena sit varia, quàm delinquentium multitudo numerosa; unusquisque consideret, non quid alius passus sit, sed quid pati & ipse mereatur, saith Cyprian, when through the manifold ruins of the World, the punishment of offences is as various, as the multitude of offenders numerous; let every man consider, not what another man hath suffered, but what he himself deserveth to suffer. We are many of us more backwards then old Eli in reproving, perhaps, as impatient as jeroboam, to hear those men of GOD which reprove us: we are most of us more distrustful of God's promises then righteous Zachary, nay, some perhaps, as presumptuous as these builders, of his mercy. Why, may not that which befell them befall us? Why, may not we sustain the like punishment which do commit the like offences? Examples of this nature are more frequent amongst us, than we are ware of; Though we perceive not many so obvious to the senses, yet are there not a few more hurtful to the soul. It is Satan's main ward, when God permits him not to offer us violence himself, more cruelly to persuade us to be Murderers of ourselves, and by our own parts to work our own confusion. 
Cyp. serm de zelo & livore.  He objects illuring forms to the eyes, that the eyes may expel pure thoughts from the understanding; he fills the ears with the melody of bewitching harmony, that by the eats he may mollify the vigour of Christian zeal; he instigates the tongue to revile, 
Cyp. ibid.  the hands to blows,  dum zelo frater in fratris odio convertitur, gladio suo nescius ipse perimatur, saith Cyprian, That whilst one Brother is incensed with hatred against the other, he may unwittingly become his own Murderer: Famam quidem fratris aut corpus vulneret, at propriam animam excidit, He may hurt his Brother's fame, or wound his body, but he kills his own soul. It is a wonderful advantage, and strange odds that a good man hath of a bad in all quarrels: For, alas, men consider not when they let their hands to do mischief, they do but heap on more coals for themselves against the day of Wrath; when their feet are swift to shed blood, or they suffer them to walk in the broad way, they use them but as Carts or Hurdles which daily convey them on their way to their place of execution; when they are bitter in censuring one another, they do but teach God how to judge them in another life, which in this life were so severe judgers of their Brethren. In observing therefore these homebred and domestic Traitors, it behoves a Christian Soldier to keep narrow watch, and to lie (as it were) perpetual Sentinel. For as those Ulcers which breed of themselves, are fare more incurable, than wounds which proceed from outward causes, because the evil is inward, and the complexion and constitution feed it; so the mischiefs which befall unto us from ourselves, and of which our own members or affections are the Authors, are hardlyest remedied because they are such sins, as to which we give express entertainment, and beside, are tabled and countenanced by the corruption of our natures. And so I come, ab intentione adrationem, from the intention to the reason of this confusion, which followeth in the last place to be spoken of, That they may not understand one another's speech.  
Tenthly,  non exaudiant, implies the original, that they may not hear one another's speech: whereupon some would have a general deafness, either to have gone before, or at the least to have accompanied the beginning of this confusion. But what saith the common Rule, rebus in obscuris quod minimum est sequimur: I am sure that many of the best Interpreters do make great doubt, whether any such deafness were prefixed or annexed to this Miracle or no, but that they understood not one another's speech, all do jointly agree. Wherefore I rather follow herein our own Church's Translation, which by a usual Metaphor hath rendered it; that they may not understand, in stead of, that they may not hear: for, 
Cic. Tusc. quaest. l. 5.  in ijs linguis quas non intelligimus surdi profecto sumus; in those tongues which we understand not, we are but deaf, saith Cicero. And this gives us a good foundation for the answering of that objection which some make upon this place, how the gift of Tongues in the second of the Acts could be as a blessing given to the Apostles, when as here the multiplying of Languages was a curse inflicted upon mankind for their arrogancy and pride? We answer therefore (beloved) that the punishment consisted not in having many Tongues, but in the not understanding of them. The Apostles, they indeed had several Tongues: but to the end that others might understand them, and they others; and therein was the blessing: these builders of Babel had many Languages likewise, but to this end, as my Text speaketh, that they might not understand one another's speech, and therein consisted the curse; so that so fare I am from assenting any thing to our adversaries, which pretend Latin Service to be most profitable and convenient for an illiterate Auditory, that me thinks if other proofs were deficient, yet this one punishment of the builders, might sufficiently confirm us in this position,  
That it is a curse and no benefit for men in Civil matters, much more in Divine and religious, not to understand one another's speech.  
Eleventh, but this may easily be confirmed by other places; for first, Deut. 28. when Moses had told the people, if they served not the Lord their God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, how hard a Captivity it was they should undergo, he amplifies it from their iron yokes, presseth their hunger and thirst, describes their nakedness which they must sustain, quis talia fando temperet à lachrymis, but he goes one degree farther, and signifies, That God will bring a Nation from far against them, a Nation whose Language they shall not understand. Poor men, the tongue is the instrument of imparting the affections, it is the Character of the mind, and bond of humane society; might this but plead his owner's cause, the fury of the enemy perhaps would be assuaged by the supplications of the Captive, the victorious Conqueror would melt and relent at the cry of the oppressed; but when this is taken away, Pity, alas, is banished, Mercy stops her ears, and the sorrowful sigh of the Afflicted are no more heard. jeremy therefore, Chap. 5. after that, for their Atheism and carnal security, he had denounced the terrible judgements of the Lord against the men of Israel, adds this as the accumulation of their misery to ensue, that God would bring upon them an ancient Nation, a Nation whose Language they knew not, neither understood what they said. In Civil conversation therefore, we will see what a tyrant to our wills, and how adverse to our earnest desires, is this, not understanding of one another's speech: But in Ecclesiastical and Divine matters, Saint Paul 1. Cor. 14. seems more purposely to dispute it: for when the Corinthians much glorying in the gifts of strange tongues, did impertinently oftentimes abuse them to the prejudice of their Auditors, the Apostle arguing their vanity, tells them, that Tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. As if he should have said: You see, my Brethren, that this hearing of unknown tongues which you so greedily affect, is no benefit of God to the faithful, but rather a punishment and token of vengeance to come on unbelievers; For with men of other tongues, and other lips, will I speak unto this people, saith the Lord, Esay 28. and it followeth, that they may go and fall backwards, and be broken, and snared, and taken, Verse. 13. Thus the wicked do oftentimes through their sin's cause God to remove from them, even those good means which might the better draw them unto the knowledge and understanding of the truth.  
Twelfthly, but there is a mystical Babylon, which bids me wander no longer in the Plains of Shinar, but return homeward, and take a short view of it by the way. This is Rome, which as in respect of her Civil estate she resembleth Babylon, having lost her Language, left her seven Mountains to plant herself in Campo Martio, changed her face and fashion, and is so entombed in her own ruins, 
Lips. de mag. Rom. l. 3. c. 11.  that Lipsius cannot so much as trace the ancient tract of her walls: even so in respect of her state Ecclesiastical, that which not long since was the Garden of Eden, is now overgrown with weeds; and the Daughter of Zion is become the Whore of Babylon. Many Writers have observed many several circumstances, by reason whereof the holy Ghost rightly termed Rome under Antechrist, by the title of Babylon, for Power, Glory, Whoredoms, Tyranny. But to come home to my Text, me thinks, that nothing may seem wanting to furnish out the similitude, even the confusion of Languages, and not understanding of one another's speech in spiritual Babel may well hold play. For is not their prayer in an unknown Tongue, a present proof of this confusion? What is their prohibiting of vulgar Translations, what their celebrating of Divine Service in Latin only? What the intermixing of barbarous and unsignificant terms in all their missals and Breviaries, but forehead marks of this Babylonish confusion? I am the willinger (beloved) to insist a little upon this point, because Bosius in his sixth Book, de signis Ecclesiae, and fifth Chapter, hath made the gift of Tongues to be an evident note, that the present Church of Rome is the true Church. To let pass his brags of their Linguists, we must observe, that this confusion of Languages consisted not simply in not understanding of Languages and Tongues: but whether we make this one another in my Text to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, vicinum, with the Septuagint and  Paraphrase; or proximum, with Hierom, or with Pagnine and Arias Monta●us to be socium our companion, all argue, that not only the final cause, but also the formal Ire of the confusion consisted, in the not understanding of their speech, with whom they were to converse, and to whom they did associate themselves in their Churches, and public meeting places to join in Prayers, and the worship of God; that then, I say, they understand not one another's speech, than they participate of the curse and punishment of these wicked builders. But see how the Serpent is still a Serpent; if he cannot build Babylon by the unity of Languages, he will do it by the confusion of Languages, if he cannot by a speech which men understand, he will do it by not understanding one another's speech; if he cannot by the abuse of God's blessings, he will do it by the use of his curses. It is strange (beloved) how in other things men are Eagle-eyed, and pry too fare, only in those things which concern regnum coelorum, the Kingdom of Heaven, they desire to be purblind, and wilfully cast a veil over their own eyes: we would esteem him an improvident Champion, which being to combat with a strong enemy, will assail him at such weapons only, as he himself knows not how to use; and is't not the like case with our adversaries, who being encountered by a potent enemy, the devil, will strive to put him to flight by such weapons only, and such prayers as they know not the power of? Say the best of their prayers that may be said, that many of them are zealous, and fervent, penned by the Fathers, received by us; yet let them know, that we have the sword drawn, they have it but in the scabbard; we see the mark we shoot at, they cowardlike wink when they fight, and sottishly hood-blind themselves, when they should see how to direct their strokes. I deny not but that in their rhapsody of Tracts, Sequences, Responsoryes, Graduells, and the like, some Pearls are here and there intermixed, yet to the non intelligent Auditory, they are but as the light which shined in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not, joh. 1. Or as that of jacob in Bethel, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not, Gen. 28. For what absurdities have daily issued from this Romish confusion, not the practice only of the Lay ignorant do testify, who promiscuously apply the same prayers to God, to our Lady, to the Nails, and other Relics, but the writings of the learned do confirm. It boots not much, though Aue Maria, God save thee Mary, which is a pure prayer to God for her, be turned to a prayer and petition to her: neither breaks it square, though to the Image of our Lady, they say, Pater noster qui es in coelis, Our Father which art in Heaven, as the Tredentine Catechism in the fourth part, and sixth Chapter, permits men to do, and as Bellarmine seems to allow, who denies not, but that that prayer may be applied to any Angel or a Saint; in his book de sanctorum beatitudine, and twentieth Chapter. How good their Linguists are, which Bosius vaunts of, in other things I know not, in these cases I am sure the Delphian sword serving for all purposes, and the Philophers, quidlibet ex quolibet comes to short; either they make the Romish dialect more flexible than any other, or else the world hath been defective hitherto of an expurged Priscian. But I will go no farther in the pursuit of our Common adversary.  
O Thou which formest the hearts of thy servants, and openest their eyes, that they may behold the worderful things of thy Law, send knowledge we beseech thee out of thine holy heaven, and from the throw of thy glory, that it being present, the understanding of all men may be so enlightened, and their judgements so re-edified, that they may discern An●ec. rist, not only by the ruffenesse of his hands, but also by the confusion of his Tongue, and that those which are now in bondage to him, as in the house of Egypt, may no longer speak the Language of Babylon, not understanding one another's speech, but the Language of C●naan, and swear to the Lord of Hosts, which liveth and reigneth one God and three persons world without end, Amen.   

NAIOTH OR THE UNIVERSITY CHARTER, A Sermon preached at the Act, upon Sunday in the forenoon at Saint Maries in Oxford, Anno 1620.  
BY Edward Chaloner Doctor of Divinity and Fellow of Allsoules' College in Oxford.  
LONDON, Printed by William Stansby. 1622.   

NAIOTH, OR THE UNIVERSITY CHARTAR.  AMOS 7.14. 
Then answered AMOS, and said unto AMAZIAH, I was no Prophet, neither was I a Prophet's Son, but I was an Herdsman, and a gatherer of Sycomore fruit.  
IT is the beaten policy of Satan, that old Serpent, when he cannot master the Truth by meaner Agents, to interest great ones in his cause, 
1. King. 18. judg. 21.20 john 19.12.  and to pretend the King's Title. Eliah's must be thought Enemy to Ahab, Christ a Corrival with Caesar, and Amos in this Chapter, 
Amos 7.10.  a Conspirator against jerobeams person, at least a figure-flinger of his Fortunes, rather than Amaziah the Priest of Bethel should have his Traffic decay, or his Kitchen, by reason of the others preaching, hazard freezing. Politic Idolatry is ever supported by pillars of the same stuff and making. What other Oratory do the Priests of Bethel now two thousand years since this Emblem perished, pierce the ears of Princes with all, then that they are their trustiest Guard and securest Pensioners, and that in maintaining of them their own safety and assurance doth depend? What other strains doth their pretended Zeal resound, than what Amaziah with the voice of a Trumpet chants in the Court and amidst the Counsellors of jeroboam? It is not private lucre that makes him by profession of Priesthood devoted to peace and quiet, at length to sustain that odious and ungrateful office of a Promoter, the Swords of Amos his Complices hang over thy head, O jeroboam, this, this, is that, which makes Amaziah an accuser, and in accusing vehement. You see then (Beloved) how Satan begins first with violence and cruelty, if this take not effect, as here it did not, then puts he off the frock of a Wolf, and as our Saviour foretold, makes his next encounter in sheep's clothing. False priests are his best Chaplains, 
Matth. 7.15.  and follow him nearer at the heels than any other. Amaziahe enters now, into private parley with Amos, and seeks if possibly he can, to rid his jurisdiction of him by good counsel. He first suggests unto him the danger he was in, and upon this ground counselleth him to fly into judah. Secondly, he presents before him the duty and reverence he ought the King, and therefore wisheth him upon a double respect to forbear Bethel, his Diocese, (as Hugo Cardinalis terms it) the one religious, because it was the King's Chapel, 
Hug. Card. ad locum.  the other civil, because it was the Kings Court. Unhappy jeroboam, in whose Chapel Amoses are silenced; and in whose Courts Prophets are proscribed and banished the Verge. But God will not suffer Mankind to be miserable, though it would be miserable, Let jeroboam repine, and his priests conspire to fortify their works of malice with the King's Signet, yet, hoc unum necessarium, this one thing is necessary for thee, Amos, it is the command of the Lord of Hosts, that great Captain, that thou shouldst stand Centinel in Bethel, & lie Perdu in Israel, what ever betide thee.  
True it is, that Amaziahs' counsel was of as good touch, as the flattering lips of worldly friends do use to impart; who begs not attention, or inoculates not his faithful endeavours into his Friend's Creed and Belief, with a Tale of utile, profit, commodity? But when God hath made it thy calling to prophesy unto his people Israel, there is nullus consultandi locus, no choice left thee, that Roman magnanimity now challengeth to find place in thee, Necesse ut cas, non ut vinas: it is necessary that thou goest, and prophesiest to Israel, it is not necessary that thou livest. And this was indeed, the main substance of Amos reply unto Amaziah, & it is contained in the 15. Vers. of this Chapter; as for my Text it is a Prolepsis, or removing of an Objection, which might be thus framed against such an Answer. Thou sayest, that God sent thee, and that he bid thee prophesy unto Israel; how shall this appear? God is the God of order and not of confusion; Nor may any man take the honour of the Ministry unto himself, 
Heb. 5.4.  but he that is called of God as was Aaron, who gave thee this authority? Produce thy Commission, show thy Orders. The Orders of Prophets, whose calling is extraordinary, as they are written in the Court hand of Heaven, so are they sealed with Miracles. Of Moses we find, Exod. 4. tha● he requiring of God some testimonial of his sending, God gave him the power of turning his Rod into a Serpent, and 2. Kings 2. the Sons of the Prophets which were to view at jericho, seeing Elisha part the waters of jericho, with Eliahs' Mantle, said, The spirit of Eliah resteth on Elisha, thus were these men's callings read in these Miracles, as in Characters of God's writing; nor is it less miraculous that an Herdsman, should suddenly proceed a Seraphical, or illuminate Doctor; it was that one argument which put the subtle and profound Masters of the jews to a non plus, john 7. How knoweth this man Letters, seeing he never learned, and to say the Truth, it is an Epitome, and an abridgement of all other Miracles whatsoever: In this, the blind (so come our souls into the World) are made to see the wonderful things of God; in this the dumb (so poor Grammarians are we by nature, that we salute the lights with none but inarticulate sounds) have the gift of tongues; in this a Steward and Dispenser of God's Word, hath the abiltie to feed five thousand souls at once with the same Barley Loaf, to awaken the very dead out of their graves of corruption, and to raise up even of stones Children unto Abraham. If therefore any in this Assembly prise the Learning required in a Teacher at that low rate, that they conceive the purchase of it to be but a few idle hour's work, or otherwise that by Gamesters it may be found sitting in the fields, let them know, that Amos here was of another opinion, and that such slender provision of theirs, for a work consisting of so many parts, requiring such variety of Tongues, dexterity in Arts, profoundness in Sciences, may be as convertible an Argument to prove them, no Prophets Sons, as it is in my Text urged to prove Amos a Prophet, Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no Prophet, neither was I a Prophet's Son, but I was an Herdsman and a gatherer of Sycomore fruit.  
The sum (you see) of Amos his Answer (as concerning my Text) is a confirmation or proof of his extraordinary calling to the Ministry, from the meanness and simpleness of his education, which he exemplifies two ways principally,  
Viz. First, Negatively, in declaring what he was not, I was no Prophet, neither was I a Prophets Son.  
Viz. Secondly, Affirmatively, in declaring what he was, but I was an Herdsman, and a gatherer of Sycomore fruit.  
In the Negative, we may consider the terms, first, absolutely in themselves, A Prophet, a Prophet's Son; Secondly, with relation to Amos, I was no Prophet, I was no Prophets Son; In the Affirmative, we may observe likewise (if the time could permit) the Trades he was of; the one about Cattles, I was an Herdsman, the other, about the fruits of the earth, I was a gatherer of Sycomore fruit. And now have I presented before your eyes, the Inauguration, or Generation rather (if I may speak Physically in a Divine subject) of a Prophet, his progress, à non esse adesse, his terminus à quo & ad quem, it is a sampler of our new birth in Christ, where the Author of all Prophecy by the anointing Oil of his Spirit, takes us from amongst the herds, whose companions we are by imitation, and the Sycomores or wild Figtrees of whose lineage we are become by barrenness and degeneration, and enrolls us in the lists of his Prophets; He which lifted Amos from an Heardsmans' bank, to a Prophet's Chair, elevate our earthly thoughts from such Objects to the Chair of Prophecy, and confirm his Calling as effectually by the power of his Word, as his Word by the Miracle of his Calling, whilst first I treat of the terms absolutely in themselves, which here are negatively spoken of him, and come in the first place to be handled, A Prophet a Prophet's Son?  
Thirdly, the word Prophet, hath ever enjoyed a sacred and religious use, and although the Heathens were guilty of that Sacrilege, that they stole it from the Church to adorn their Poets with it, yet in its own right, it still contained itself within the Ark of the Covenant, and the Offices of the Sanctuary, and in them received a threefold acception. For first, and most usually it noted that extraordinary Calling of those which attained to the knowledge either of things to come, or otherwise mysteries above the Sphere of man's natural apprehension, by Divine Revelation. And in this classis or rank sit the Prophets which were the Penmen of holy Writ. Secondly, It signified one which celebrated the honour of God in Hymns and Psalms, and Musical justruments, and so David erecting or preparing rather a Choir for the Temple, is said to separate the sons of Asaph and of Heman, and of jedulthion, who should prophesy with Harps, with Psalteries and with Cymbals; 1. Chron. 25. Thirdly, it pointed out any one, as he was an Expounder and Interpreter of the Law, and so of Aaron it is said, Exod. 7. That he should be Moses Prophet, which junius and Tremelius render, constitui Aaronem ut esset interpres tuus, and in this sense Saint Paul opposeth Prophesy as an ordinary gift, to that extraordinary gift of Tongues, 1. Cor. 14. making Prophets and Doctors of the Church (saith Mercer) to be Synonima's and of equivalent sense. Now relatives being best known by their correlatives, the surest way to find out the meaning of this word Prophet in my Text, will be by his sons, quaelis filius talis pater, Like son, like father. A Prophet's son in the old Testament, is not the son of a Prophet so termed, for generation or adoption; no, this were to hold the graces of God in fee simple, and to entail them to a Stock or Lineage, but for institution and education sake. They are mentioned sundry times in the Books of Kings, and by the circumstances of the places, as also the concurrence of Interpreters, are found to be nothing else but young Students, trained up under religious and learned Teachers, as in Schools and Academies of piety. A Prophet then in this place (by the nature of relatives) is the Master or Teacher; and a Prophet's son, the Scholar and Auditor in a University. Yet give me leave to affirm the root of a Prophet in my Text (I speak not grammatically) for this is denied by many, but historically to be Prophets inspired, who have as it seems, bequeathed the name of Prophet, upon such Instructors as these, because they were the Founders of the Order, and their Predecessors in the Chair. For whom do we find standing over the Prophets in that illustrious School of Nayoth, but Samuel? 1. Sam. 19 whom over the Colleges in Bethel, jerico, and Gilgal, but first Elias, and after him Elisha, 2. Kin. 2. and fourth Chapter? So that the Office and function of Teachers in Schools, being adorned with that sacred title of Prophet, and the Chair consecrated by the Prophets themselves, who were the King of Heavens, Professors in those most ancient Academies of the Prophet's sons, warrants me to infer, the institution and erection of Schools, or to speak plainly, of Universities, the ordination of Masters and Instructers in the same, the concourse of Youth reduced under a certain prescript of Discipline therein, not to be a plot (as some imagine) of human invention, but sacred and of Divine institution. 
Vide Iohan Regij. Dantiscani Doruss. orat. 2. de comparatione & Paradisi: Gen. 3.8.  And indeed, where shall we begin, & not discover some Athenian ruins. What was Paradise before the fall of our first Parents, but a glorious School, wherein magnus ille peripateticus, God who was heard walking in the Garden, did till that time possess the Chair? What was the Evening, 
Gen. 2.19.  wherein Adam gave names to creatures according to their Natures, but a Philosophical vespers? 
Gen. 3.1.  What the conference with the Serpent, but a disputation; where such was the fortune of the day, that the Serpent which before was but allowed to ask a Placet, and dispute an argument upon the victory then gotten, mounted the Chair, & ever since opened Schools of his own. Good cause then had the Church to be as sedulous and careful in building staire-cases for Heaven, as the Devil in digging descents to Hell. And do you think it was not? 
joseph antiq. judaic. l. 3. cap. 2.  Cain (saith josephus) found out the Art of Weights and Measures; jabal the Architecture of those days, he was the Father of all such as dwell in tents (saith the Scripture) jubal invented Music, 
Gen. 4.20.21.22.  he was the Father of all such as handle the Harp and Organ; And Tubalcaine an instructor of every Artificer in Brass and Iron. Thus was there a mixed Academy of Mechanics and Mathematics erected within the Serpent's Pale. The Devil might here brag as much as Endemon, 
Endaem. in Causab.  or any jesuite, penes se esse imperium litterarum, that the Empire of Learning was within his Dominion. It had been no disgrace to the Church to say, these were their Drudges to make Instruments and Tools for them to employ in the main work, to wit, in the doctrine of true Religion, as it is no disgrace to a Physician that he hath an Apothecary to compound his Medicines, or an Astronomer, that a Smith makes his Instruments: but yet shall we imagine the Sons of God destitute, or without Schools; nay, complete Academies of these and other Sciences? 
joseph ant●q. jud. lib. 1. c. 2.  Seth (saith josephus) lived in an wonderful happy state with his sons, they were all of a towardly disposition, and inhabited their Country in marvelous tranquillity, without sedition, they found out the knowledge of Astronomy, the which against the malignity of Fortune they wrote upon two Pillars, the one of Brick, the other of Stone. I will not dispute the certainty of this, though josephus affirms, that one of them was to be seen in his time in Syria; thus much is certain, that the Houses of those patriarchs were very Schools of all these Disciplines. I call to witness the Ark, the fabric and building whereof was a very Lecture of exquisite Mathematics, 
Buteo de arca Noe. Berosus Annian. Histor. Scholast. in Gen. joseph. antiq jud. lib. 1. c. 7.  as Buteo upon this point hath learnedly declared. I join that sudden spring of rare knowledge immediately after the Flood: some mentions Cham's Astrology, others Abraham's Lectures to the Egyptians: there are not wanting, that specify the Wisdom which joseph taught the Senators of Pharaoh to be the Arts, which that Country hath been always proud of: and it is worth the inquiry, 
Ps. 107.22.  what that Kiriathsepher, or City of Letters among the old Canaanites doth import; 
judg. 1.19.  plain it is, that Moses is noted in the seventh of the Acts, 
Acts 7.21.  to have been learned in all those Sciences; and it is not credible, that the Egyptians within that small space of time comparatively being but seven hundred and sixty years after the Flood, beside, having their lives shortened, should attain unto that exactness in all Arts, which the long-lived Fathers before the Flood, in one thousand six hundred could not. Well, hitherto the Schools of the Church were contented to share in the fortunes of the temporal state thereof, to be Pilgrims upon earth, and to travel from place to place; and what marvel then if the tracts of them be somewhat the more obscure. Let's see the Ark but once stationary, and the Church well secured from enemies, & than what more eminent thing in the whole Land of jury than these Schools? they are no more couched in valleys, but seated upon Mountains, upon which ground (as junius observes) they were termed Gibha, 
jun. de accad.  which is as much with the jews and Syrians, as an hill or high place, as also Labratha, which amongst the Armenians and Egyptians, the neighbouring Nations of the jews, signifies a place of descent, and so in the first of Samuel, and the tenth, what was the place where Saul meets the Prophet's descending with their Tabrets and Psalteries, but an high place, and the Hill of God? As who would say, that Schools of Learning and Piety are the Beacons which must give light to the whole Land, and therefore aught to be seated in the most conspicuous places. I cannot tell whether the Court envied the Country this felicity, sure I am, that anon after, a King's Palace was converted into an Academy, and himself Regius professor in the same; which confutes that common conceit had of Plato's Commonwealth, 
Plato de repub. lib. 5.  that it is but an Idea of what he would have, and not what ever was: for who can deny it to be in Israel during the reign of Solomon, where they were guilty of that happiness to have a Philosopher to be their King, and their King a Philosopher. I pass by his books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Canticles, which Hierom divides into Moral, 
Hieron. comment. in 1. Ecclesiast.  Theorical, and Supernatural, observing in them Ethics, Physics, and Metaphysics. I omit his learning in the Mathematical Disciplines, wherein it is meant as I suppose, that he excelled the Children of the East, and the Wisdom of Egypt, their chief learning consisting in those kinds. I will not trouble you with his Lectures of Plants, and Beasts, & fowls, and creeping things, whereof a Gesner is fit to discourse then a Preacher, 
Gesner. de stirpibus & ●ist. animal.  thus much let me say of them before I pass farther, that he which thinks Schools even of these subjects superfluous, calls salomon's Wisdom into question, and proves his own folly in confuting him. Well, Schools being thus ennobled by a King, had sacred Heralds to draw from thence forth a perpetual pedigree of their descents, to show how they branched themselves into sundry Families in Bethel, Gilgal, and jericho, 
2. Kin. 2.4. 1. King. 18.  under the auspicious conduct of Elias and Elisha; they had likewise the King's Chroniclers to register their fortunes amongst the acts of the Kings, to tell the divine protection they enjoyed by the means of Obadiah; 
jer. Lament. ●. 7.  they wanted not jeremy to insert their dismal disasters into his lamentations; and yet after all this, to prove the immortal temper they are of, they give the world to understand, that they lived when their Country died, and that in Captivity itself they were free. Then was their poverty and exile beautified with the rich and incomparable learning above all the Chaldeyes, of Daniel, Hananiah, 
Dna. 1.20. Genebrard. l. 2. Cronol. Montan. in Apparatu. Ambros. in 1. Cor. 14.  Mishael, and Azariah: from thence issued that skilful Scribe and perfect Rabbi in the Law, Ezra, whom the jews make the Founder of that Accademie in Jerusalem, in which Gamaliel taught, and in which our Saviour disputed amongst the Doctors; Luk. 2. But leave we the old Testament, and come we to the new, and whom do we first salute there, but john amidst his Disciples, who as Porphyry to Aristotle, reads an Isagoge to Christ, a preface to the Gospel: whom do we next meet but our Saviour himself, whose conversation with his Disciples was nothing else but a School and Lecture of piety. I should burden your patience in recounting the several Sects amongst the jews, 
Acts 6. ●.  as pharisees, Saducees, Herodians, and others, each of which had their petty Academies; the Libertines, Cyrenians, and Alexandrians which had their Colleges; 
Sigonius de repub. Hebr. lib. 2. c. 8.  Scribes and Doctors of the Law, that wanted not their Synagogues, which were Schools of Religion; and were so frequent, that jury itself seemed nothing else but one entire University of Prophets and Prophets Children: and what marvel, Dico illorum hominum (saith Austen) non tantum linguam, 
Aug. contra Faustion. lib. 22. c. 24  sed etiam vitam fuisse propheticam, totumque illud regnum gentis flebraea quendam magnum, quia & magni cuiusdam fuisse prophetam; that is, not only the language, but life also of those people was prophetical, and all the Kingdom of the jewish Nation, was even a great Prophet, because the Prophet of a great one. And now have I derived the race of our Prophets and Prophets sons, through the whole volume almost of sacred Writ, I find yet farther a form of a Scholastical exercise; and though not a syllogstical, yet an oratorical disputation mentioned by Saint Paul, 1. Cor. 14. together with the Laws prescribed, and the style of Prophet retained still with it; Let the Prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge: which gives a glimpse at least, if not an authentic warrant for a Christian School: 
Zanch. orat. de conseru. in Eccles. puro Dei verbo.  thus much Zanchius bids me say, that wheresoever you find Catechising mentioned by the Apostle, you may affirm, that there was training up of Youth in this Discipline: and such (saith he) was at Antioch, whereof Barnabas was Teacher, Acts 13. and this School was extant in the time of Constantine the great. And so having seen the doctrinals of this Prophet and Prophet's son in my Text, let's see what use and application, we may frame thereof unto ourselves.  
You see (beloved) here in my Text an University Charter dated from Heaven, confirmed by the High Parliament of the sacred Trinity, and the words and style of the foundation expressed by those most glorious titles of Prophets and Prophets Children. Other dignities are borrowed from the world, and the world may challenge its own again; but this one privilege to be Prophets and Prophets Children, is the phrase of the Court above; it is the language of the Spirit of God, and this none can take from us. If we be religious in preserving the Liberties and Immunities granted us by the Princes of the earth, we should be sacrilegious in neglecting this which proceeds from the King of Heaven, 'tis high impiety to have one word of this razed, or one tittle altered, it must be engrossed not with letters of ink, but in the Characters of man's life, our actions and professions, that whosoever can understand, may read, and whosoever read may find, as it were engraven in the living frontispiece of this our body, prophetas & prophetarum filios, both Prophets and Prophets sons. First, Prophets, and that is, when in the Schools we have no other Regent's then the Prophets themselves; and this liberty we have recovered again, which once was lost, 
1. Kin. 19.2 1. Ki. 18.13  when the Roman jesabel forced Elias to fly, and the Prophets to hide themselves, to keep their Acts in Caves, and confine their entertainment to bread and water; they are now (thanks be to God) returned from exile, and possess their ancient places: and here I turn to those, who loathing the beauty of their native Soil, vpbraide us with defects and imperfections in our Nurseries, extolling the superficial and histrionical teaching of the jesuits, with the title of Method and Expedition; the barbarousness of the Friars with the appellation of solliditie and soundness, and ask, what are those balances in which they weigh the ware of these men? I am sure there never wanted on our side a David to encounter the stoutest Goliath which they could bring into the field: thus much my Text warrants me to say, that where the oldway, of which jeremy speaks, 
jer. 6.16.  is not stood upon, but via Thomae, the way of Thomas, as the Dominicans speak, and via Scoti, the way of Scotus, as the Franciscans, where the Masters of the Sentences are not the Prophets, but Peter Lombard grows to be a Text, where Moses lies as in Popish conventicles at the Pope's feet, and he usurps his Chair, they may have a trunk or case of an Academy; but the soul and life of it, which are Moses and the Prophets is departed, they have forfeited the privileges given them by God, and let them usurp what Angelical or sublimated titles they please, the best of them can say of himself no otherwise than Amos here, whilst he was an Herdsman, non sum propheta, I am no Prophet. And if the case stands so with the Master, that he hath this sacred name of a Prophet pinned on his sleeve for a monitor, how doth the Prophet's son reflect upon the Scholar. Doubtless no otherwise, than a picture doth upon him that it represents, I may almost say, as a definition upon that which it defines. For, not to speak with that rigour in Logic, a son may analogically be the matter, and a Prophet the form; the one the genus, the other the differentia, in the definition of a Scholar or Disciple. Take the common qualities of a son with the restringent qualifications of a Prophet, and they make that sweet harmony which the Psalmist found in Brethren that dwell together in unity: For as a natural father begets the body of his son, so a Prophet informs the soul of him, and no less restores that life which Adam lost, than the other that which it never had. Again, as our earthly Parents communicate their worldly goods, so these spiritual Parents the Prophets their spiritual treasures to their sons, and make them heirs not by halves as the Pope, but of all that they have. And lastly, as a natural son is a part of his father's family, so whosoever is truly the son of a Prophet, is incorporated into the family of a Prophet, submits himself to live in rank and place and obedience of a son; if otherwise, he either takes the Cell and Hermitage he life's in, to be a King's Palace, and a School of fashions, or with cursed Esau contemns his Birthright, 
Gen. 25.34  and sells his Father's inheritance for pottage, he is no true son of a Prophet but an embryo, an abortive fruit, a Changeling, or rather a Cuckoo hatched in his nest, making perhaps a ridiculous singing in the Spring and May-time of his life, stammering for good reason before the Summer of it, in the Autumn dumb, and when the Winter of old age approacheth, taking no other thought, then how to shroud his nakedness in some obscure hole from the sight of the world. The consideration hereof should rouse up (beloved) every one in his several place to look about him, and see in what rank he is ordered, what is required of him, and how strict an account of so high a Calling we must make. For, if Vices once ascend Gibha, the Hill of God, where shall they not enter? If Satan plant ill manners in the most eminent place of the Church, in the houses of Prophets, what will he not do in private Families? Samuel, the first builder (we read) of Colleges, calleth his College Naioth, that is, 
1. Sam. 19  even beauty itself, now a small spot in beauty is a great blemish; again, Colleges are Epitomes of the Commonwealth, as Athens was of Greece, and what a thing were it in an Epitome to find superfluity? Universities are the Eyes of a Kingdom, and a Mote in the eye is a great trouble; briefly, 
Ezech. 47. Barad. in co●cord. & hist. Fuang. Tom 1. li. 2. cap. 6.  they be ezechiel's Rocks or Bays, where Salt is prepared to season the World, but if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? They are not as some conceive, those Parian Mines, those lapidary materials, wherewith the womb of the Earth travails at our doors, that have raised us from such modest beginnings to this splendour, the polished stones to garnish the house of the Lord are you; not those shady Groves which encircle this Palace of the Muses, that have contributed to our Architecture, the Lebanon from whence Timber must be fetched to build the Temple, are you; not those Appian aquaducts you see, or that sweet confluence of Tigris and Euphrates to to this our Eden, that crown our happiness, the Fountains and Conduits, to derive water into the whole Land, are you; you that Ptolomean structure to be gazed upon, you that common Library of this I'll, the books to be read by every capacity, you, the living Glosses, Commentaries, Institutions, Fathers, Prophets, are you, and you only. Much more do the terms of Prophets and Prophets children in my Text, utter in a real and Laconike fluency, where lest weight should be wanting to words, Amos himself interposeth, and bids us consider them no more absolutely in themselves, but in relation to him which succeeds in the second place to be treated of, I was no Prophet, neither was I a Prophet's son.  
It were to be enquired into by those that are Critics, what reading is most authentic. 
Vulg.  For the vulgar renders it in the present tense, non sum Propheta, I am no Prophet, 
jun. Tremel.  junius and Tremellius in the preterimperfect, non Propheta eram, I was no Prophet, 
A. Mont.  Arias Montanus without any note of time, as if chronology were not herein necessary to be looked into, non Propheta ego, I no Prophet. This variety hath caused interpreters not a little to  in their expositions. 
Greg. lib. 22 Moral. c. 41.  For Gregory thinks that he removes from himself by this negative, the perpetuity or duration of his Prophetical function; 
Hugo Card. & Lyran. ad locum.  Hugo Cardinalis the act of Prophecy, not the habit; some of the Rabbins, a lineal descent from any of that Order, and Lyra the title of false prophet; which meanings being so fare fetched, and impertinent to the matter in question; Amos beside, being now called to the Bench or Consistory of Amaziah the Archpriest, they make the good man herein to play the jesuite or Seminarie, and to use a trick of mental reservation, allowed by Parsons and others, 
Parson.  in case the party conventing be held an Heretic, not much differing from this, I am no Priest, that is, according to the Order of Melchisedech. Wherefore Ribera, 
Riber. Caluin. Pelican. ad loc.  as also Caluin, Pelican, and the best of our reformed Interpreters, are contented that he shall by this negation, shake off the name of a Prophet, not in that superlatine sense, as it notes one enriched with supernatural revelations from above, but only in a common and vulgar acception of those days, as it pointed out any one that being before times trained up in the Schools of the Prophets, became an ordinary Professor or Teacher in the same. And this without fraud or coining, seems to be the very drift of Amos, and suits moreover most nearly with the subject in hand. For, whereas Amaziah seemed to lay to his charge the ignominy of a false prophet, and that he betook himself to prophesying, 
Amos. 7.12.  rather for by-respects, to beg his bread like a Friar mendicant, then otherwise, he falls smoothly upon the most weighty question, how a man that pretends he is a Prophet inspired by God, may be discerned to be such an one or no, and clears himself by two most invincible demonstrations, which contain in effect the decision of that point. The one by the fulfilling of things foretold, according to that rule given by God himself, Deut. 18. And if thou say in thine heart, how shall we know the words that the Lord hath not spoken? why, when (saith he) the thing followeth not, neither comes to pass, thou shalt not be afraid of him; 
Rupertus in prolog. in Hoseam Ribera in praelud. in Expos. omnium Prophet.  Where Rupertus notes, that where a long space of time did intercede betwixt the foretelling of things and the accomplishing of them, as it often happened in the Prophecies of Christ, the Prophets were wont to prophesy of some things of lesser moment, but yet more immediately to ensue, as the destruction of such a Man, or such a Family, and therefore if Amaziah doubt of Amos his extraordinary calling, he tells him, that he should ere long read the truth of it in his own calamities, Namque dies aderit quam non procul auguror esse, 
O●id. Meta. mo●●h.  the day would come, and that it was not fare off, when his Wife should be an Harlot in the City, and his Sons and Daughters die by the sword, and himself die in a polluted Land. v. 17. The other demonstration or rule for the discerning of a Prophet inspired, are Miracles, which are not convertible with this kind of Prophet we speak of, for many did none at all, yet where they are, we may conclude such a man, to have the power of God, and a more immediate calling from above. This is Eliah's sending confirmed by fire from Heaven, 1. Kings 18. The Apostles mission, by signs and wonders, Marc. 16. And to be brief, Amos his extraordinary gift of Preaching, by denying in him the ordinary, I mean, the gift obtained by ordinary means, by instruction in the Schools of the Prophets; and thus he seems to press Amaziah in my Text; If neither at this time he were, nor heretofore had been by pains and industry in his studies, promoted to the place of a Teacher, or Instructor of Youth in the Schools, the which we understand by the word Prophet in my Text, nay if he never went so fare as to been an Hearer or Disciple of such Teachers and Instructors, which is meant by the Prophet's son, then that he now ascends the Pulpit, and like a perfect Scribe in the Law, becomes a publisher of the Mysteries of God, must needs be miraculous, argue his Calling to be immediate from God, and extraordinary, and himself to be a Prophet of an higher rank, taught his lesson from Heaven.  
Many excellent observations may from hence be drawn, as first, what is required of ordinary Pastors in the Church; for, if not to have been instituted and trained up in the Schools of the Prophets, be here produced, as no less than a Miracle to prove Amos his Calling to be extraordinary and immediate from God, it cannot be but an affectation of the like Calling, and a mistake of that order which God hath now settled in his Church, for any man that hath not that immediate Calling to intrude himself into the Function of the Ministry, with the neglect and contempt of that Discipline. No man is borne an Artificer. The Soul of every one comes as naked into the world as his Body, not having so much freedom as to set open Shop in the meanest Trade without serving an apprenticeship. That which the Poets feign of some, that they became most learned, solo Musaruni & Apollinis afflatu, hath a Poetical licence for its Passport; it was the privilege of those Legates, a latere, in the new Testament, the Apostles and the truly Apostolical Nuncio's; 
Matth. 10.19.  the Evangelists, when they were brought before Kings to speak their embassage without cunning, and though (saith Austen, 
August. de doct. Christ. in pro●og.  de doctr. Christ.) it be reported that Saint Anthony could without any knowledge of Letters, repeat the whole Scriptures by heart, and that a Christian bondslave obtained by three day's prayers, to read any book at the first view, yet upon these relations should no man look to be rapt up with S. Paul into the third Heaven, or expect a parley with our Saviour of his instruction. No (beloved) God hath founded his School on Earth, and the Lecturers in Ordinary, to whom he sends us for our lessons, are men. Cornelius, though an Angel certifies him, his prayers found their acceptance with God, yet to read unto him the Doctrine of his Redemption, the Angel meddles not with the task, but refers him to Peter, Act. 10. The Eunuch plods upon the prophecies of Esay, and God, like a tender Master, looks upon him with the eyes of compassion, yet he neither speaks to him himself, nor dispatcheth a winged Messenger from Heaven, to inform him, but sets Philip like a speaking Commentary in the way to be his Guide, Act. 8. Saint Paul found that grace to be spoken unto by Christ, and to have that sweet Oratory of our blessed Saviour, solicit him in his journey, but it was only a general summon; if, Paul, thou wilt know particularly what thou must do, Get thee into the City, and there Ananias shall tell thee, Act. 9 The ends hereof are many, to procure honour and respect to teaching, to make us the true Temples of the holy Ghost, by delivering his Oracles; and lastly, to open a door for Charity, to diffuse and communicate the rich treasures of Knowledge to others. This made the most excellent and most renowned in both testaments for learning, both acquisite and infused, to propose their own education in this kind unto others, for a rule to imitate; joshua under Moses, Samuel under Eli, Elisha under Elias, Solomon under Nathan, Baruch under jeremy, Timothy under Paul, and the Apostles themselves, as domestic Disciples, under our Saviour, were first trained up, before they were sent out to preach. Nay, that most glorious Redeemer, which is the sole founder of this prophetical Order, that chief corner Stone upon which we build, and to whose meritorius intercession unto his Father, we own this sacred Charter in my Text, made choice, Luk. 2. of the Hierosolymitan Academy, and of all times, their Acts, as it seems, to be the entrance and presage of his future Ministry: there is he found, for his place, in medio Doctorum, in the midst of the Doctors; for his gestures, a true Academic & a perfect Schooleman, observing the forms of the Schools in his Questions and Answers. Was it that he would recommend unto us from his own practice; the training up of youth in these exercises, and in this method, or that withal he gave the World hereby to understand, that he offers himself, first, (this being, as it were, the first fruits of his prophetical office) to the Prophets and Prophets sons, such as in the School of piety are industrious and vigilant in the purchase of Knowledge, unless this also may be added for the honour of the Prophets, that he was first saluted God and Man, 
Matth. 2.  by the Wisemen of the East, and presented in the Temple with the style of Illuminate Doctor by Simeon, 
Luc. 2.25. Galat. l. 1. c. 3.  whom Galatinus makes to be the Divinity Reader in the Hierusolymitane University. The Fathers in the primitive Church, who were the Guardians of Christian Religion in its Noneage, knew well the behoof and necessity of this Doctrine, and therefore whom preferred they to the stern of the Church, but such as had not only been sons of the Prophets, but also were worthy in respect of their rare and excellent learning, to be Prophets themselves? For from whence was Polycarp advanced to the See of Smyrna; or Irenaeus to that of Lions; 
Iren. aduer. haeres. l. 3. c. 3. Euseb. l. 5. c. 19 Hieron Epist. 29. Socrat. hist. Eccles. l. 4. c. 22. Nazian. Orat. 2: in julian. & in laudem Basili  but as Irenaeus himself tells us, from that flourishing University of Ephesus, founded by john the Apostle? Whence Gregorius Neocaesariensis lifted to the Pontic Bishopric, but as Socrates recites, from Caesarea, that renowned School of Palestina? Whence Nazianzen set over the Sasimians; or Basil over the Capadocians, but from the Athenian Academy? In a word, whence were Pantenus, Origen, Clemens Alexandrinus, and so many able and victorious Captains, in that desperate and forlorn state of the Church, pressed forth to stand in the Gap, and in the forefront of the Battle, but from the Seminary and Source (as Saint Hierome hath it) of all good Literature, 
Hieron. Catolog. scriptorum Ecclesiast.  erected by Saint Mark himself in Alexandria? The reason is, because when we hope to know any thing by special and immediate revelation from God, we use not to betake ourselves to study and meditation, but to prayer only and other good works; nor to the most learned, but to the most zealous and devout: and therefore we are not to be steered by such as are only more religious and devout than others, but such as are withal more learned, the holy Ghost sending us not now as in the old Testament, 
2. King. 22.14.  to Huldahs' & Amos his Women and Herdsmen, but to the Prophets and Prophets sons; for the Spirit which guideth the Church unto the consummation of the World, Speaks not of itself, but whatsoever it hears that doth it speak. joh. 16.  
A notable lesson (beloved) for these Fanatical times of ours, wherein a bastardly brood descended from the loins of Montanus, and his prophecesses, Priscilla and Maximilla, have multiplied and increased above measure; and as if revelations were parcels of their Trade, Herdsmen have stepped in to the Pulpit with Amos, thinking this warrant sufficient, that they can say with him, Non Propheta eram, neque filius Prophetae, I was no Prophet, neither was I the son of a Prophet. I will pass by the Swinckfeldians and Libertines, 
Sleidan. Comment. l. 10. Meshou. Hist. Anabaptist.  out of whose camps, Storkius in Saxony, Shackerus in Helvetia, and that Leiden Butcher in Munster, laid siege to the very root of Christian institution, by fostering this opinative inspiration, because with such Innovators as destroyed the Principles of Faith, and took away the common Medium of all Disputation, God himself the only Disputant in a desperate case, confuted them with horrible and fearful destructions, as Historians do manifest. I could have wished the funerals of the men and their pernicious doctrine, had been concluded both in a day, and that the same grave had covered them from the view of the World. But the apparitions so talked of in Popery are but their ghosts, and the spirit so much bragged of by some more zealous than knowing, Pythagoras would swear were their souls travailed into other men's bodies. There are degrees (I confess) wherein some stand guilty in a greater measure than others, in the entertainment of this error. Offenders in the highest degree, are those that think neither the skill of the Prophets, nor the attention of the Prophet's sons, to be any whit necessary to the expounding of the Word. The Popish Schoolmen bid me reflect for this tenant upon the Anabaptists in Germany, 
Bellar. l. 4. de verbo Dei, cap. 9 Gerson. Distinct. vision. verarum & falsis. Caietan. tom. 2 opusc tractat. 1. de conceptione Virgins, cap. 5. Bosius, l. 16. de signis Eccles. c. 9  but by their leave, howsoever Bellarmine disclaims new revelations; Gerson excuseth Friars visions with a fit of melancholy; and Cajetan adviseth the Pope not to rely upon them, in as much as Saint Brigit and Saint Katherine of Sienna, pretended contrary revelations for the conception of the Virgin Marie in original sin, yet whilst they make the Bishop of Rome, whether learned or unlearned, whether with advice of others or alone, whether using his reasonable assent, or with Caiphas and balam's Ass, 
Sunt 26. artic. in quibus Magisler non tenetur. Vid. crrares Parisijscondemnat. ad sinem P. Le●●b.  speaking what he knows not, to be so fare assisted by the Spirit of Christ, that in his interpretations of the Scriptures he shall be out of the Sorbons' lash, Magister hic non tenetur, what do they in effect, but put the madman of Munster upon their Lord the Pope, and by supposing him to be such an irrefragable Doctor, without being either this Propheta or Prophetae filio, in my Text, depose him of his ordinary Pastorship, which they so mainly avouch, and commute it, if Amos his Logic be sound, into an extraordinary Calling. Not much inferior in madness are those, who as if perfection still reigned, or the highest points of Religion were a service for a second course, invite the Determinations of the Schools to their private Tables, presume to raise and define more confidently, having never been either Prophets or Prophet's sons, than ever the Pope durst in a general Council, or the perfectest Ezra with the help of a well furnished Liberarie. 
Hieron. in Ep●ad Pau●●n.  Saint Hierome complains in his Epistle to Paulinus, how fare this bold Baiardnesse of blind souls had encrochd in his days; that whereas the Practitioners of all other Arts, contained themselves within the bounds of their professions, Quod medicorum est promittunt medici, tractant fabrilia fabri, only the skill of the Scriptures every one challenged to himself, Scribimus indocti doctique poemata passim, hanc garula anus, hanc delirus senex, hanc sophista verbosus, hanc universi praesumunt, lacerant, docent, antequam discunt. Nor doth Saint Basil enforce less in his sharp reply (mentioned by Theodoret) to one Demosthenes, 
Theod. l. 4. hist. c. 1.  who being but an Officer of the Emperor's kitchen, durst encounter that Doctor of the whole world with wrested Scriptures, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, It belongs to thee to look to the pottage pot, whereby he condemns not the reading of the Scriptures by the ignorant, nor the reasoning upon them by the common sort, but that sottish arrogance which quickly invades the simple, whereby they will undertake to run before they can go, read before they can spell, and adventure with the dim prospectives of their brittle capacities, to judge of things afar off, whilst yet (God knows) they see but glimmeringly and uncertainly, 
judg. 9.36.  and with Zebul in holy story, either take men to be but the shadows of Mountains, or the shadows of Mountains to be men. Let these men inveigh what they list against the Pope, their rash relying upon the Spirit of Truth, not using the means which the Spirit requires; makes them corrivals with him for his Chair, and works a facile belief that there might be a Pope joane at Rome and she Angla, 
Platina.  when experience tells us, there be so many of them of like quality here in England. Good God, is it so that we so lately abandoned Rome, and rescued ourselves from the worship of the Beast, and are we now relapsed again so suddenly to a new Apostasy? Hath the whole frame of nature groaned for so many years, and shrunk under the burden of one Ecclesiastical Head, and must we now play the Arithmeticians and multiply the number? 
Aug. Con. s●ss. l. 8. c. 8.  Surgunt indocti & rapiunt regnum coelorum (saith a Father) the unlearned arise and take by violence, they take indeed, but what? he saith, regnum coelorum, the Kingdom of heaven, not Cathedras Doctorum, the chairs of the Learned. The Church in the Canticles, 
Cant. 3.3.  seeks for him whom her soul loveth, it is the task of every one to seek after our Saviour, but it was à custodibus qui obeunt civitatem, of the Watchmen of the City, those wise and learned Teachers, whom God hath set as so many watchmen upon the walls of his Jerusalem. The parents of our Saviour in the second of Luke (as you have heard) sought for him too, and found him, but it was in medio Doctorum, 
Luc. 2.44.  in the midst of the Doctors, as if one should say, three days they sought for him and found him not, because they sought amiss, they enquired for him in the City, and in private Conventicles amongst their familiars, he which will most expeditely find him out, must first walk into the Temple, and frequent the Schools, and ask of the Prophets and Prophets sons for him. Every body hath a judgement of discretion, to look into the Wells of living Water, to see whether they be conveyed purely or not unto him, but to roll away the stone from the mouth of the Well, that is, to remove difficulties, whereby not only jacob and his sons, that is, the learned, but also the Cattles and the Sheep, 
Origen in Matth. 4. cont. Cells.  that is, the rude and ignorant may drink, as Origen allegorically expounds it, (which pertains to the judgement of Direction) for this we must ask counsel at Abel, 
2. Sam. 20.18.  it is the birthright of the Prophets and Prophets sons to do it.  
Here therefore give me leave with joash, to smite the Earth yet this third time, and with Levi to go in and out from gate to gate amongst mine own Tribe. It is no marvel, if Prophets and Prophets sons be Aliens and Strangers to the children of the world, if they sinned enemies amongst the ignorant, sluttish entertainment amongst the stupid, course diet amongst the barbarous, yet they call you friends and kinsfolks, and shall they salute any in the way with amice, unde venisti, friend, whence camest thou, 
Matth. 22.12.  who finding his nakedness, shall become speechless? or with more courteous language, God speed my Brother, and have this answer returned, Non sum Propheta, neque filius Prophetae, I am no Prophet? neither am I the son of a Prophet? Others may esteem the training up under samuel's and Elisha's, in the Schools of the Prophets, to be a matter of ornament, to thee, which art a Guide of the Blind, a Light of them which sit in darkness, an Instructor of the Ignorant, if thou dreamest not to be inspired with Amos, my Text assures thee, it is to thee necessity. The Calling and Profession we undertake is weighty, the knowledge thereto profound, life short, adversary's subtle, and we have a perpetual combat within the Church against Vices; without the Church, against Errors; being by consequent, reduced to the condition of Nehemiahs' labourers, who building the walls of Jerusalem, 
Neb. 4.17.  held the Spade in one hand, and the Sword in the other, and must repair the breaches of the Church in the face of the Enemy. Now, hast thou an heart to fight the Lords battle and wantest a shield, come to the Schools of the Prophets, behold, the Targets of Solomon, all of beaten gold, are there? 
1. King. 10.16.  Art thou to encounter a blaspheming Philistim, 
1. Sam. 21.  & art destitute of a weapon, come to the Schools of the Prophets, the Sling of David and the Sword, wherewith he smote off Goliahs' head, are there? Hast thou a Spear whose point is blunt and wants sharpening, go down to the Schools of the Prophets, the Grind-stones of the Philistims are there? in a word, 
1. Sam. 13.20.  wantest thou aught for the furniture of so great a War, repair to the Schools of the Prophets, 
August. de d●ct. Christ. l. 2.  for, lo, the gold and silver of Egypt is there? I could instance in particulars, if the time would permit, and show how unprofitable Soldiers they be, who press themselves into this holy War, having neither borrowed Arms from these sacred Armouries, nor taught their hands to war, and their fingers to fight in these Schools of Discipline: Sacred Divinity is that Saint, to whose Shrine the Princes of the Earth do bring their glory; and that Empress, into whose Exchequer the Learned of all Professions cast in their Mite. She wants neither Valesius, 
Valles. de sacra Philosophia. Buteo de arca Noe.  for a faithful Bailiff, to bring in a just account of her natural commodities; nor Buteo for a Shipwright, to take the measure and sum the Tons of her Princely Admiral, 
R●ber, de Templo. ● illalpand. Co●ment. in Ezech.  the Ark of Noah; nor Ribera and Villalpandus, for Masters in Architecture, to oversee the workmanship of her royal Mansion house the Temple of Solomon; nor Ruens for a Lapidary, 
Ruens de gemmis in Scriptura. Lemnius de plantis sacru & herhis Biblicis. Danaei Elenchus haereticorum.  to show her Casket of precious stones; nor Lemnius for a Herbalist, to look to her privy Garden; nor Danaeus for an Advocate, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to convince and display the Sophisms of her adversaries the Heretics; nor lastly, many Stewards of her House, of whom, if thou learnest not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (as Saint Paul bids thee) to divide her food aright, and to distribute it in due season; whilst thou labourest amongst the people to divido the Word, 
2. Tim. 2.15  thou wilt make the Word a mean to divide and distract the people. I speak not this to discourage the endeavours of the weakest of the sons of the Prophets, but only to make good this Argument of Amos, alleged for the proof of his extraordinary Calling, by showing the difficulty of the work, and how many followers they must bid welcome, that would give due entertainment to so worthy a Guest. God himself hath given us a remarkable demonstration hereof in these latter time. For, as in the first plantation of his Gospel in Europe, he shipped the Arts before into Greece, that they might be Harbingers unto it, as Tertullian speaks; or as Saint Hierome, the Munition to batter the Forts of the Wise, meaning to send the Soldiers soon after: so in the reviving of the Gospel, in the days of our forefathers, there seemed to go before it a general resurrection of all humane learning; and the effectual means of all this, a discovery of that most noble Art of Typographie, 
Melan●●b. Chron. Carion. lib. 5.  which seems reserved unto the weightiest times of the Church, even the revealing of Antichrist, that so the whole powers of Nature and gifts of Grace, might unite their forces and join in one battle against the Dragon and the Beast. Be not deceived (beloved) the war is not against the Volscians, 
Liu. lib. 3. Luc. Flor. lib. 1. c. 11. Cic. de sinib. bon. & mal. lib. 2.  where a Cincinnatus, a Dictator, taken from the Blow, will serve the turn; nor against another jericho, where the walls will fall down, if we only walk about them and blow Rams horns, but against the sons of Anacke, those Giantlike voluminous writers of Rome, in regard of whom, ought but a well grown son of the Prophets, will seem but a Grasshopper; and against the aspiring walls of Babylon, to lay siege to which, the whole Armour of God is necessary, and all the furniture of the Prophets but sufficient. This ought not a little to work a true acknowledgement of God's favourable aspect towards us, as in other blessings, so more particularly in the Nurseries of the Prophets, and nursing Farthers of Kings, which we enjoy above other Nations, lest the neglect or contempt of so great benefits, cause God as in the Church of Ephesus, 
Reuel. 2.5.  to remove his candlesticks from us and place them otherwise. We know how heretofore the Eastern Churches contended for houses of the Prophets, with the whole World: where are now those famous Schools of Alexandria? 
Hicron. descript. Eccl. Reuel. 1.20. Sozom. hist. Eccles. l. 1. c. 13. & lib. 6. c. 34.  where those seven renowned Churches of lesser Asia? where those Colleges of Monks dispersed throughout Egypt and Syria? where those Basils, Nazianzens, Chrysostom's, Nissens, Cyrils? were they not (being ungrateful) unworthy of those treasures, and therefore as the barrenness of the good Olive tree, caused the engrafting of the wild, that is, the unbelief of the jews, the communicating of God's mysteries to the Gentiles; so by the just judgement of God, where these means have been despised or abused, 
Matt. 4.18.  the functions of the Scribe have been deputed to Fishermen, and the message of the Prophets and Prophets sons, committed (as here in my Text) to the delivery of Herdsmen, and gatherers of Sycomore fruit, which is the affirmative condition or state of Amos, and should come next to be handled.  
But as to treat of Herdsmen, is a point of husbandry beyond the sphere of my profession, and an admitting of them without licence from the Patriarch of Philosophers, 
Arist. Polit. lib. 7. c. 9  first obtained, within the precincts of the Chair: so were it to conspire with Amaziah the Priest, in removing our Prophet from Bethel, to present him before you in the Plains of Techoah amidst his flocks, 
Amos 1. ●.  and I cannot tell: beside, the unseasonableness of the day for so long a journey, whether the learned palates of my Auditors, could relish such homely entertainment as those barren Deserts do here in my Text promise, of a dish of Sycomore fruits, though it were of Amos his gathering; I will therefore keep home for this time, and circumscribe my Meditations within this present circle of the Prophets and Prophets sons. And so, to GOD the Father, GOD the Son, and GOD the Holy Ghost, be rendered all Honour and Glory, Might, Majesty, and Dominion, from this time forth for evermore. Amen.   

EPHESUS COMMON PLEAS. Handled In a Sermon before the judges in Saint MARIES, at the Assizes held at OXFORD in Lent, An. 1618.  
By ED. CHALONER Doctor of Divinity, and Fellow of ALLSOULES College in OXFORD.  
London, Printed by W. STANSBY, 1623.   

EPHESUS COMMON PLEAS.  ACT. 19.38. 
Wherefore if DEMETRIUS and the Craftsmen which are with him, have a matter against any man, the law is open, and there are deputies, let them implead one another.  
HE which shall peruse the Annals of the Apostles, shall find Satan; not like a Sage of the more ancient and better times, apparelled still in one and the same fashion, but in a copious Wardrobe, no less attiring himself in change of suits; then Proteus amongst the Poets was painted out in variety of hapes: At Lystria he appenres like a Commediun, 
Act. 14.12. Plautus. Amphit.  as if a Scene of Plautus were to be presented upon the Stage, would have jupiter and Mercury be thought to act the parts of Paul and Barnabas. At Antioch he comes like a jesuite with Traditions in his mouth, 
Act. 15.1.  and would choke the proceed of the Gospel by the mixture of abolished Ceremonies: At Athens he sallies out of the Schools like a Philosopher, 
Act. 17.  and under the habit of a Stoic or Epicure plays the Sophister; here at Ephesus he presents himself in his Apron, like an Artificer: and yet surely of all these, I know not wherein he shown more Art and Cunning; either then, when he masked under the Philosopher's Gown at Athens; or now, when he makes himself no better than a Townsman of Ephesus. I am not ignorant, what Sects Philosophy hath been distracted into at Athens, nor what, contentions have arisen amongst the professors of each part, witness the heartburning which sometimes Aristotle cannot dissemble against Plato, but the fray still ended with words, neither was Saint Paul more discourteously, entertained amongst them then with scoffs or sarcasmes, What will this Babbler say? or, 
Act. 17.  We will hears thee again of this matter. In the conclave of these Mechannickes, the wits of Hell are scraped to the uttermost for a plot to ruin him; Profit and Commodity, the most potent arguments of Rhetoric are culled out, 
Vers. 27.  by this man, our Craft is in danger 〈◊〉 be set at nought, and if by great chance Religion lurk in the skirt of some man's Conscience, than a Climax promotes the business, and the Theam● is aggravated from an amicle of their Creed, the Temple of the great Goddess Diana is despised by him, and her magnificency is destroyed whom all Asia and the World worshippeth. Demetrius a Siluer-smith by Trade, that thus artificially blew the coals of commotion amongst his Fellow-artificers, and one that made (as the Text tells us) silver Shrines for Diana; yet pardon me, if I think, not more curious in making of those Shrines, then in the composure of this Oration. 
Plin. l. 36. c. 14.  What the Temple of Diana vilified and set at nought? a place so magnificent for the structure, having been, as Pliny relates it, two hundred & twenty years in building; so renowned for the Oracles of the Goddess; so magnified for the Image supposed fallen down from jupiter; 
V 35.  so honoured by the Oblations of all the Astatike Potentates: no marvel, if the violence of these blasts shake the foundations of Ephesus, 
Solin. Polyhist. c. 52. & Plin. lib. 2. c. 84.  and the City so subject as Geographers relate, to the rackings and tremble of the inferior Element, do now feel and unwonted and unheard of Earthquake in the bowels of her Inhabitants: And think it as soon done as said, only pass forwards, if you please, and imagine this done, what place such a mixrand heady multitude would pick out, to breathe forth those sulphurous and restless vapours which disquiet them within. But my Story travails to your conceit, when in brief, it names the Theatre, a place so dissonant to deliberate consultations, and indeed to the acts of the reasonable faculty, that we may well hold those Commentators excused, if they err, who would have this Day to have been the Time, and this Assembly in the Theatre, the Beasts which Saint Paul, in the 1. Cor. 
Theophilact. in 1. Cor. 15 Thom. Gloss. Haimo, Carthus. Bruno, Anselm.  is said to have fought with at Ephesus after the manner of men. Let me spare, for brevity sake, other passages of the Story, the Ephesians acclamations, Saint Paul's courageous resolution, his friends discreet counsel, Alexander the jews enterprise, and observe what my Text leads me unto, The Towne-clerkes demeanour in stilling the uproar. And here may you behold a Map of a perfect Politician. The commotion and insurrection he would allay, and Paul with his associate, for I know not what affection, he would refine, but the means he stands not upon, whether by reconciling the fabulous original of Diana's Image, or by an unjust excuse of Paul's companions, that they were not speakers against their Goddess. This was not the desire of these Saints, to be freed by such Pleas; Paul, thou hadst lost thine honour, and Demetrius had won the day, if thou hadst paid so dear for thy liberty. The titles and names, wherein thou now livest, had here perished and breathed their last, hadst thou consented to redeem thy safety by such an Advocate. But see our Orator is somewhat mended, he ends better than he begins, reserving his weightiest strokes for the farewell of his speech; where he satisfies Passion with Reason; Fury with justice, and in my Text diverts the rapid stream of an harebrained Assembly, by presenting the majesty of an Assizes or Sessions, where you may observe,  
viz. First, A producing of accusers, Demetrius and the Craftsmen.  
viz. Secondly, Directions for their hearing, The law is open, and there are Deputies.  
viz. Thirdly, A prescription, or a form to be used in this hearing, Let them implead one another.  
Thus have you the parts and parcels of this Text disjointed, let me crave your patience and attention (right Honourable and the rest Beloved) in my handling of them, whilst, first, I shall produce the accusers, for whom I will desire your favour no otherwise then they deserve, Demetrius and the Craftsmen which are with him.  
The best inventions we see are liable to abuse; The Devil hath in all Trades some bound apprentice unto him, whom he teacheth some mysteries or other above their fellows. As here these Silversmiths amongst the rest, whose Trade is approved for use, affected for ornament, warranted by the skill inspired into Bezaliel and Aholiab by the Holy Ghost, Exod. 35. have yet some additions from Satan, and become in many things the fosterers of Idolatry and Superstition. Had Demetrius and the Crasts-men employed their industry only in what their Trade was ordained for, Paul's preaching would neither have prejudiced their commodity, nor they have been his accusers. But now they find sweet gains in making Shrines for Diana, which, whether they were such concave Cells as in Popish Churches the Images of Saints are housed in, 
Lyran.  as Lyranus thinks, or rather Images representing the Temple of Diana, not unlike to those which are now made for our Lady's Chapel at Loretto, as Lorinus conceives, 
Lorin. ad loc.  I will not now stand to dispute; it is sufficient that our Adversaries may know whence to derive the pedigree of their Idolatry, and we not unfurnished of a Lesson for our instruction, learn, how in an honest course of life which men profess, unlawful gains may make them to be unjust accusers. But this practice may challenge prescription, and if Antiquity be any note of Verity and Truth, I doubt not, but that Demetrius and the Craftsmen in my Text, may with ease produce such examples in all Ages, as might warrant their Saintdome in the Pope's Calendar. In the Scripture, what is more familiar then for a Ziba to accuse his Master, 
2. Sam. 16.  or false witnesses to condemn a Naboth for commodities. 
1. King. 21. Marc. 11.15.  When comes Christ to strokes but with the Money-changers in the Temple? or where, as if the remembrance of the Pharsalian Field 'twixt Caesar and Pompey, had yet some impression in the Inhabitants of Philippi, 
Act. 16.19.  are the Apostles worse encountered than there? for that Paul spoils the market of one which made a newfound commodity of the Devil. I could enlarge this passage with variety of patterns, but that our saviour hath foretell, The Servant must expect no better usage than his Master: and let me then ask you, 
Matth. 26.15.  why did judas betray him? the thirty pieces will tell you, it was for gain: why did his accusers brand him with blasphemies? their higher saith, it was for gain: why did the Priests and pharisees conspire his overthrow? their consciences pronounce gain; for they said, If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him, and the Romans shall come and take away our place, joh. 11. Thus do those arguments drawn, à utili, sway the world, whereof our times do yield pregnant testimonies. Look out into the Shrines of our Adversaries; if they were erected only for the advancement of Religion and Piety, their accusations against us, might carry more authority in their foreheads, but if they be but the Pope's Exchequers, and their Priests, but like the Publicans which sit at the receipt of custom, pretend what they can, allege what they will, their quarrel against us is but the same of Demetrius and the Craftsmen against Paul, they fight not so much, pro aris as pro focis, I may english it, for the Chapel as the Kitchen.  
But my desire is to make my application more general. You have hitherto beheld the condition and quality of Paul's accusers, Demetrius and the Craftsmen with him are now vanished; and Time, which hath devoured itself, hath also eaten up both their Shrines and them also; so that I shall not need to implore your aid in insisting of Paul or his companions at Ephesus. But the Devil, though he cannot play upon the open Stage of this world, as in those days, yet creeping into the Temples of men's hearts, and advancing therein the high and shining Idol of Riches, the all-commanding Image of bright Gold, he prompts the Heirs of Demetrius and the Craftsmen, to continue the quarrel against the Ministers of the Gospel, and hath won them to receive fury and madnesse as parcel of what was bequeathed them by their seditious predecessors. I mind not to impose upon you, that the Temple of Diana is yet standing, no, the ruins of that wonder are entombed within the entrails of the Earth, which once bore it; but, good God, other Deities do now bring gains to the Craftsmen, and which is to be pitied rather or admired, I cannot tell, such as fear no period but the dissolution of the world, nor whose Oracles shall cease but with Christ's second coming, as the former did with his first. What Shrines are now erected to Intemperancie, what Altars to Pride, what Phanes to Luxury? Let Paul himself dissuade his auditors from approaching of these Temples, and Demetrius with the Craftsmen will cry out, Our Craft by this man is in danger to be set at nought. Thus are the Preachers of the Word thought ill Commonwealth's men, when they seek to enlarge the territories of the Church, and to beat down the Forts of Satan. If we persuade Sobriety, than those Cages of unclean birds, those Sinkes of drunkenness, exclaim, we deprive them of their customs; If we wound Pride, or correct Vanity, Fashions grow out of fashion, and their Inventors sit down with loss; If we preach Charity and Conscience, Usurer's fear that their dealings are censured and their gains questioned; If we touch Simony, how many Patrons think the Church would deprive them of some part of their just inheritance? O what Logicians are the Devil's scholars, how subtle Sophisters are they in framing conclusions through all figures and moods. Had Saint Paul been Pastor of Ephesus, and then challenged Demetrius for detaining some Tithe or Glebe from him, it had been no unaccustomed Plea, if Demetrius had inflamed the Artificers with, it is your own case; but when Paul only preacheth Christ unto the Ephesians, and wins them unto his Gospel, what Enthemems, what Consequences must Demetrius infer one upon the neck of another, before he can make Paul's preaching to be either his own or the craftsmen's undoing? I congratulate here (beloved) the humility of Divine Sciences, which having sequestered, as it were, themselves from the corruption of the World, do with a dutiful acknowledgement of superiority, without these repine submit themselves to the correction and check of God's Word; Indeed Demetrius might give a good reason of this quiet and still temper of Mercury; for in dealing in principles of Arts and Sciences, the Preacher toucheth no man's commodity; for what was Aristotle the richer for denying Vacuum in the World, or Democritus the poorer for affirming it? what is Galilaeus the wealthier for descrying mountains in the Moon, or Kepplenus the less landed for not seeing them? to be a Nominalist or to be a Realist are held matters of great importance amongst some, and yet make the most they can of Universals, genus & species cogitur ire pedes. I think that neither of them will make any great market of either. But descend to other Problems, convince Bribery, tax Oppression, dissuade Depopulation; or if you list to look over sea, and deny the Pope's Ecclesiastical and Temporal jurisdiction, or question Purgatory, his Market-town; Indulgences and Pardons, his Ware; now you touch Saint Peter's copie-hold, these bold Preachers must look to themselves, there want not Demetriuses and Craftsmen enough to accuse them. But here you may behold as in a Mirror, the state of Christ's Messengers in this Church militant upon Earth; you may see what Bands of Atheists; what Armies of Epicures, what Legions of covetous Mammon's, they necessarily do provoke and incense against them. The General of these Troops is not a bodily but a spiritual Enemy, whose Dragon eyes pries into all advantages against them, intermits no time to entrap them, no stratagem to subdue them. Now, what safety can there be for simple Innocence, where there is so vigilant a Captain, so officious Soldiers? Antichrist may come with Peace in his mouth, when he hath War in his heart; he may court it with the flatteries of an Harlot, when either he hath Poison in his cup, or Powder-plots in his head; we, where Christ hath set up his Flag of defiance, must deliver his Message in his words; we may not either by mental reservations, or verbal equivocations, or secret evasions whatsoever turn either to the right hand or to the left, but that which he puts in our mouths that must we speak. Quid proderit non puniri suo qui puniendus est alieno peccato? (saith Prosper.) What will it boot a man not to be punished for ones own sins, when if he cease or omit to reprehend others, he shall be punished for their sins? so that in this naked Warfare which we undergo, in this plain Song of the Word which we sing, we find a weapon offensive perhaps to some, no way defensive to shield us from their malignity; hence Backbitings, hence Slander, hence Revile, hence false Accusations, how few Paul's, how many Demetriuses how few Patrons of Religion, how many Craftsmen? And how should the chance fall otherwise? for think you that the world will now brook a check of our rudeness, when the Divine eloquence of the Apostles was so harsh unto it? or will the sons of the Earth suffer without indignation the least diminution of their riches by our means, when they welcomed S. Paul himself with such affronts for attempting it? nay, rather perish Religion, fall Churches, cease prayers; be forfeited all the treasures and conduits of grace to the uttermost rack of Salvation, & the loss of Heaven to boot. But I hope better things of this Auditory, I trust (right Honourable) that your grave wisdoms will be a Sanctuary unto those which are accused by Demetrius or their factious complices. Magistrates, as the best commission they can show for their authority, is the Word written; so the best Agents they have to cause that their commands are executed, are the Ministers of this Word. You deal not with Barbarians but Christians, this is our labour; your laws are executed, not of constraint, but willingness; this is our diligence: you are obeyed, not for fear, but conscience; this is our industry. O what an happy thing were it then for England, if the place which I now stand in to defend against the Craftsmen, were less contemned, more reverenced and obeyed, we should then need no Assizes but the judgement Seat of God, no Accusers but Conscience, no Blood to shed but Tears, no Torments to affrighten but Hell, no Death to die but to Sin and Iniquity; As for the rest of this judicious Assembly, whereof the greater part are interested in Paul's cause, my best hopes are, that they will not leave any which possess his room to the bitings of such Dogs, if their merchandise have corrupted any to be favourers of their gains or touched with their loss, I should rather hold them meet to be admitted into the Corporation of Demetrius and the Craftsmen, then to be reputed successors either of Paul or his companions. And so I pass from the accusers produced, Demetrius and the craftsmen, to the directions for hearing, which come in the second place to be treated of, The law is open, and there are Deputies.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith the Original, which in Latin may be rendered, Forenses aguntur, or to use Cicero's phrase, Forum agunt, the Pleas are held, or the Courts are kept. Now, what these Courts should be, I find some difference amongst Writers. The Syriack translation implies (as Tremellius observes) the Corporations of Artificers, to which either Numa, 
Dionys. Halicar. lib. 1. Plin. lib. 34. c. 1. Flor. in Epist. Baron. Annal. Tom. 1.  as Dionysius Halycarnassaeus and Pliny report; or Servius Tullius, as Florus affirms, gave these immunities, to have Causes heard and determined within their own Halls; Baronius would have them to be understood of certain Circuits, which the Roman Proconsul's deputed for Asia, (whom he would have here meant by Deputies) made at set seasons in those Provinces, and were not altogether differing from those which at this time are presented to our view; 
Lorin. ad loc.  and this Lorinus moreover confirms out of Dion, Chrysostomus, and Festus, de verborum significationibus. Howsoever, two things worth our consideration at this time, do in these words offer themselves to be discussed: the one, the free access which ●ourts of justice do yield to all Plaintiffs, argued in that he saith, The Law is open. The other, the due Ministers of justice, for the satisfaction of all complaints, where he adds, And there are Deputies. For the first, where it is here said, The Law is open, the question ariseth how fare the borders of this Liberty do extend. Some distinguish between the duty of the Magistrate, and the duty of private Persons. 
Sot. lib. 4. de inst. q. 4. art. 2.  The Magistrate (saith Sotus) is to proceed according to the injury of the Patient, because the forgiveness of trespasses, which our Saviour enioynes his followers to perform, is an act appertaining to a man in his absolute state of Christianity, and not as he is respectively considered in some Office or Function of the commonwealth; therefore, unless the pardoning of a crime in an Offender, be more expedient for the common good (to which every private person is to submit his Cause) the Law, saith he, is open on the Magistrate's side to all; the consideration whereof made the Courts of justice in all times to set open doors, as we read of the Elders of Israel, They sat in the Gates of the City, that so whosoever went in or out might have their Causes determined, and free access might be given to all Comers, lest the complaint of Absalon against David should be verified, 
2. Sam. 15.  See thy Matters are good and right, but there is no man deputed of the King to hear thee. But if we consider private persons, the reason is different, for concerning these, 
Thom. 2.2. q. 68  Thomas gives two rules. The first, that in matters which concern the common good or common hurt, the Law is open to every man in particular, to be an Actor or Accuser. And indeed in such Cases, beside that (as Ambrose saith) qui indulget indigno, ad prolapsionis contagium provocat universos, in being pitiful to some one, we may be cruel unto many, Achans stealth unrevealed, Eli and his son's defaults unreformed, cost the lives of many Israelites; one jonahs' disobediece almost sunk a ship, wherein were many Innocents'; and by the crime of some one person, oftentimes the whole people are held defiled. The second Rule of Thomas, is, that in matters which concern not the common good or common hurt, but only some men's particulars, there is a larger scope given. Though the Gates of justice, as I said before, stand wide open, yet before we may enter them in our private business; we must consider, first, the End of our entry, that it be not revenge, but either the repair of our own losses, or to amend our adversaries; for in this latter Case (saith Austen) he which meditateth justice, Eleemosynam facit quia misericordiam praeslat, doth Almesdeeds in that he compassionately reclaims his brother from an error. Secondly, we must weigh the quality of the business, if it be weighty and not trifling; if necessary and not friendly to be composed: and, lastly, if such, as is subject to restitution. [As always we must forgive our Adversaries, in respect of hatred to their person, and of private revenge; so some times in respect of Legal satisfaction. He which will go as fare in all points as the Law will give him leave, must hope for an Advocate to plead his Cause at the last Day, and be sure, that Forfeitures and Aduantiges be as currant Law in Heaven, as they are upon Earth. The drink of Gheistians is the soft sliding Siloah, not Esecke, and Massa, and Meribah, the waters of Strife and Contention. We may remember the Doom which lighted upon the Servant in the Gospel, 
Mat. 18.29  that forgave not his fellow Servant the hundred pence which he ought him, when his Lord had a little before forgiven unto him ten thousand Talents. All the while (saith chrysostom) that he had wasted the ten thousand Talents, his Lord was mild unto him; 
Chrysost. in Gen. hom. 27.  now when he grew cruel unto his fellow, O thou wicked servant (saith he) I forgave thee all that debt, those ten thousand Talents, for a little lip service, because thou desiredst me, shouldst not thou in so small a matter, as one hundred pence, have had compassion on an Equal of thine, thy fellow servant? The application is easy, we ourselves ask pardon daily for talon sins, as I may call them, and ought not we to forgive our brother penny offences? But the Law is open (saith my Text) true; that thou mayst use it when necessity requireth it, not when thy Avarice and Malice abett thee: when justice hath absolved thine Adversary, what is that to thee? We say not, forgive us our trespasses, as the jury shall acquit them, which trespass against us, but as we forgive them. It were good that we should mark this Clause more carefully, lest we be constrained to do as Latimer reports of some in his days, 
〈◊〉.  who being not willing to forgive their Enemies, would not say their Pater noster at all, but in stead thereof took our Lady's Psalter in hand, because they were persuaded, that by that, they might obtain such favour as forgiveness of their sins at God's hands, without putting in of so hard a Condition, as forgiveness of their enemies into their bargain. But I need not insist longer upon the explication of our Town Clerks, meaning, where he saith, The Law is open; if he had done this to incite them to Law, under favour, I might justly think that he had either spoken for his commodity, but I think he could not expect large fees from a man so poor and honest, as Saint Paul. 
Act. 24.26.  He which would not have his Cause suspected by bribing Felix, would not now have sought favour by seeing the Town Clerk, and therefore I leave this phrase with its favourable construction. The second point, with the Town Clerk, in this direction mentioneth, was the Ministers of justice, specified here by the name of Deputies. A double way of satisfaction is intimated in my Text, the one private, used at this time by Demetrius, who suspecting, perhaps, the equity of his Cause, brought not the matter before the lawful Magistrates, but caused an uproar amongst the common sort, and thought by their fury to be avenged upon Saint Paul and his Companions. These proceed, the Town Clerk, in my Text, dissuades them from; for, besides the danger which might accrue to the City (being now subject to the Romans) from such commotions; reason would confute these anabaptistical projects, of working Reformation without the authority of the Magistrate: therefore, the Town Clerk tells them of another remedy for their griefs, if they had aught against any man, by making their complaints known in open Courts, & in a lawful Assembly to the Deputies. This course, not the twelve Tables of Rome, not the Edicts of the Emperors, not the Plebiscites of the people, not the Decrees of the Senate do authorise, but the Magna Charta, even the Acts of the blessed Trinity, do warrant for authentical. I might here summon for confirmation, those frequent admonition's ingeminated again and again in the Laws of Moses, 
Exod. 23.6. Exo. 18.21.  to incite the judges to the due performance of their judicial authority; 
Levit. 19.15.  I could fortify it with the presence of the Almighty, whom the Psalmist makes the Precedent of the Bench, Deus stat in medio Deorum, God standeth or assisteth in the midst of the judges, Psal. 82. I might, if it were not prejudicial to the Pope, add that appeal of Saint Paul's to Caesar, Act. 25. or that Patent which he delivers Magistrates from Heaven, that their power is ordained of God, Rom. 13.  
But I desire for use sake to apply these directions in my Text, concerning the deciding of Law Cases, to this present Age. The World is compared to a Theatre; Let the Theatre wherein our Town-clerk is orating, be the Emblem of it; Two sorts of Auditors he had, the one which knew not wherefore they were come together, and may not altogether be unlike to the Anabaptists, and Trinitarians of our times; they suffer Demetrius and the seditious Craftsmen to have their fetches, and by a wilful neglect disarm the Magistrate of his force, and suffer a Fire to increase without quenching. These can distinguish like Utopian Statists, Virum bonum à bone Cive, a good Man from a good Citizen, as if, forsooth, every man were to be a watchman over his own ways, but the care of the Commonwealth were outlawed by Christ, and had pitched her Tabernacle only amongst the Tents of Kedar. To go to the Court of justice for redress, was a thing (say they) permitted the jews, who were but as Children in the knowledge of Divine Mysteries; now in the maturity of the Gospel, our Saviour hath given other precepts; 
Matth. 5.39.  He which shall smite thee on the right Cheek, turn to him the left; he which shall take thy Coat, give him thy Cloak also. Truly, with some contentious Adversaries, this doctrine may liberally hold for good counsel, lest by too much wrangling one spend not his Cloak only and Coat, that is, his outsides, but be stripped of his inside also; yet (as they conceive it) it is more profitable to thiefs and felons, then honest men, to the broachers whereof, I wish but Sergius Paulus Propretor at Cyprus, 
Act. 13.7. Rom. 13.23.  and Erastus Questor of Corinth, both Christians, and Saint Paul's Hearers, to confute them with the Sword of Authority, which their profession (I wis) made them not to depose. So absurd and ridiculous was that objection of julian the Apostata, 
Aret. loc. common. p. 474.  and Proclus in the time of the Fathers, against Christians, as if they had been the Patrons of this error. It is true indeed, that if we speak comparatively, rather than to set our minds upon private revenge, the magnanimity of a Christian should be showed in sufferings, and we should share with Socrates in his choice, who answered, that if his hard lot were such, that either he must bear or offer wrong, for his part he would suffer injury: But when we read these or the like sayings in holy Writ (as are above mentioned) Saint Austin ad Marcellinum, well determines the doubt, that these are precepts and necessary, quoad animi praeparationem, that is, for the inward disposing and preparation of the mind, but quoad executionem externam, for outward proceed, we are ever to do that which we shall see most expedient for the glory of God, the good of the Church and Commonweal; and lastly, their salvation with whom we deal. But me thinks these sort of Sectaries are already gone out of the Theatre, they are soon vanished; and I know not where to find any more which offend in this defective vice, the world is more pestered with the redundant quality, with those Demetriuses which are so fare from not returning evil for evil, that rather than the Magistrate shall fail in retaliating their injuries, will take the Sword into their own hands, and lest they should seem Anabaptists, in taking two blows for one, will give two blows for one. Thus will every man be a Pope in his own cause, depose the Magistrate, at least appeal from him to himself. These are the Ismaelites of our days, their hand is against every man, and every man, and every man's hand is against them. It is pity that an Heathen Orator could rid a Theatre of such wild beasts, and that the persuasions of the Gospel, the threatenings of the law, the authority of the magistrate should not tame them in a Commonweal. If there were no judge in Israel, yet the Law of Nature would backe thee no farther than to defend thyself; but now this Plea is wanting, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, see, The law is open, and there are Deputies, a weapon is lift up to avenge thee of thine adversary, but it is the Magistrate that must award the blow.  
There is nothing so bad which hath not found its Patron and Extoller, Baldness its Synesius, the quartan Fever its Favorinus, Folly its Erasmus, Drunkenness its Furner, the Devil its Bruno, the Pope his Advocates, and I know not with what success our Humorists, concived under Mars and borne in the Dog-days, have found some Italians or other, to up-hold their Paradox of counterfeit valour, against the rule of Equity and square of justice. Be they who they will, seeing their practice savours no more honourably then of Demetrius and the craftsmen's proceed in my Text, who sought not to the Magistrate for satisfaction, but would needs be their own carvers, the justness of the consequence, and the opportunity of the time, prompts me to say somewhat.  
Whatsoever the wits of this Age can pretend, I find no solid Writer ever so bold, as to determine the question affirmatively, Whether in any Case whatsoever, single combats under-taken and accepted, be lawful. It hath been the practice in Livonia, and is an old relic of the Gottish Empire, in some countries of Europe to make it a part of judicial proceeding, that yet few or none do peremptorily maintain the lawfulness of it, nay, most do apologise for themselves, that rather they prescribe cautels for moderating the abuse of it, than any wise allow the use, and the reason given, is this, that whereas it is taken up as a divine lot to discover the Truth, the means is nothing correspondent to the end, in as much as the victory falleth rather to the more strong or more skilful, then to the juster in cause; an example whereof, 
P. Mare. in 1. Sam. 17. Ca●et. in Thom. 25.2. q. 95. art. 8. Valent. in Thom. tom. 3. disp. 3. q. 17. punct. 1. & Navar. in manual. c. 11. & 15.  P. Martyr produceth out of the decretals, de purgatione vulgari, cap. significantibus, where is set down such a Duel, in the which he with whom the theft was afterward found, slew the other which accused him. Cajetan indeed with Valentia and others, put a Case, wherein though the Magistrate may offend in adjudging the Combat, yet it may be lawful for a party to accept it, and that is, when an innocent person is unjustly adjudged, that either he must accept the Combat or suffer death; but these are cases wherein the Magistrate gives toleration to the action; the point which my Text oppugnes, is the proffering, or accepting of these challenges to▪ right one's self against, or without the knowledge or consent of the Magistrate. That this is wholly unlawful; beside, the Antithesis or opposition which it stands in with the Word of God, mihi vendicta ego retribuam, vengeance is mine, and I will repay it, saith the Lord, we may see the goodness of the cause by the persons which ever have been practitioners in this Art. If we search the antiquity thereof in Records, we shall find the original master of this science to have been him, who was a Liar and a Murderer from the beginning; The School which he erected was not amongst the Sons of God, whom the Scripture makes to descend from Seth, these could not be caught with such fallacies, but it was amongst the posterity of Cain, which the sixth of Gen. distinguishing from the seed of faithful Seth, to show what we should expect from them, styles with the name of the sons of men. Amongst these, Cain himself was the first Scholar 
G●n. 4.8.  that practised this Art, who slaying his Brother Abel, seems to have laid down some rough hewed principles thereof, but because he did it not upon terms of honour, in that he drew Abel abroad guilefully, and slew him at too much odds; 
Gen. 4.23.  Lamech his son refined the Art, and brought it to that acuteness and subtility, which we see it hath at this day; he slew a man to his wounding, and a young man to his hurt. cain's murder, no doubt, was detestable to all his kindred, for besides that, he shown himself to be his Fathers own Son, killing his brother, as the other did his whole posterity; he did it grosso modo, basely, but Lamech perhaps seeing the reproach of Cain, painted the face of that ugly monster, revenge, with the beautiful colours of Fortitude, yet in this Action of his, we may note two circumstances; the one, that he dared not make any of the Sages of his time judges of his picture, but his Wives, who could not be thought skilful in martial Laws, hear my voice, ye Wives of Lamech, harken unto my speech; the other, that his conscience told him, a presumptuous and braving murder to be as odious in God's sight as an insidious, If Cain shall be avenged seven fold, truly Lamech seventy seven fold, Gen. 4.24. The example of David's Combat with Goliath, 
1. Sam. 17.  makes nothing for their purpose, for beside, that he was licenced by Saul the King to enterprise this action, all writers do agree, that he did it by an immediate instinct from God, whereas these do it by an immediate instinct from the Devil. Nor of greater moment is the Combat mentioned between twelve of the Tribe of Benjamin, 
2. Sam. 2.  and twelve of the servants of David, for beside, that these were authorised hereunto by two Generals of either side, 
Valent. Navarre. Caiet. utsup.  Abner and joab, Valentia doubts much, whether it be lawful at all for a General to make so bloody an action, the subject of a spectacle, Caietan condemns it, Navarre allows it no way, unless it be to win an opinion of strength and courage in the one side, and so to dishearten the other, as the fall of Goliath did the whole Army of the Philistines, so that unless our Duelists will pretend more subtlety than the Schoolmen themselves, I cannot see any thing in the Scriptures that can avail them. 
Mat. 26.51  Some bring in here Peter smiting off Malchus his ear with his Sword, but this Bellarmine makes to be none of the eight and twenty prerogatives of Saint Peter, nor can more warrant this cause, than the denying of his Master, can be a warrant sufficient for the Pope his pretended successor to do the like. Nay, in his third Book, de Laicis, and two and twentieth Chapter, he confesseth this Action of Peter's to be justly reprehended by our Saviour, because it was done by private authority, beside, an other goodly reason which I cannot omit, tunc enim Petro nondum Pontifex sed discipulus erat, for that Peter was then only a private Disciple and not Pope. So then by his reason it were a laudable thing in the Pope to play the Swordman, to smite off not the ears only of his subjects, that they may not hear the Scriptures read in a tongue known, for this he doth, but to cut off the heads of all powers that dare oppose his temporal Monarchy. I might here say with Saint Bernard, quid tu denuo usurpare gladium tentas, 
Bernard, lib. 4. de consideratione.  quem semel iussus es ponere in vaginam, why dost thou attempt to handle that Sword, which once thou wert commanded to put up into the scabbard? Why doth the Tradentine council excommunicate, 
Concil. Trident. sess. 25. c. 19  even the spectators of single combats, when thou canonizest the actors and plotters of heynours murders? But admit that these challenges did not contradict the Laws of God, nor abrogate the authority of the Magistrate; to whom the execution of justice appertaineth, yet let's consider the little satisfaction which can arise from these Duels to the party wronged. And because there is a new kind of philosophy invented for this practice, I will examine it  to the grounds of Philosophy usually delivered, that so those which are now trained up among us, may when they come into the world remember, how fare differing these combats are from those rudiments which they once embraced. A man you know hath diverse considerations, either in general, whereby he may be wronged in his Naturals, by terming him dull, heavy or sottish; in his Morals, by styling him dishonest, intemperate or covetous; in his Politickes, by branding him with Traitor, or Violator of the Law, or else a man may come to be considered in some particular science or profession which he is of, as Divine, Lawyer, Physician, Tradesman, or the like. Now let me ask the question, when a man chanceth to be wronged any of these ways, how doth the Field redeem his credit, which he thinks is diminished. Lying, Cozenage, or Folly is objected to you, and you would disprove it in single sight; hereby indeed you argue yourself, if you vanquish, to be a better fencer than the other, or more nimble and strong, but who objected a want of these things unto you? who cast a defect of them in your teeth. Opposita must be ad idem, you clear yourself of that which was never objected to you, that which you were upbraided with, that you answer not, no more than if two Painters should contend about their skill in painting, and he should be preferred which overcame at the point of weapon. But some will say, is single fight therefore wholly unlawful; I'll unfold my paradox in few words, single Combats are not only lawful but also necessary, but what Combats are they? why, such as are performed by weapons suitable to the quarrel; if the contention be about cunning and skill, show by skill and cunning that the victory ought to fall on thy side; if about honesty, let honesty by actions proportionable to itself vanqiush the accuser; if about wisdom, let discreet proceed quell the spirit of the ditractor; if about Religion, let Devotion, Sanctity, Obedience, Patitience, and Charity, enter the lists and fight for thee. Here thou dost all things contrary to reason, thou stormest that thou art not held virtuous, and in this action declarest, that thou canst no more moderate thy affections then a mad beast, thou frettest that any conceive thy reputation to be weak or sick, and in this remedy, thou discoverest thyself like an unsound body, which no sore is touched but cries out; thou wouldst make thine adversary repent him which wronged thee; but thou bringest the greater repentance upon thyself; thou wouldst maintain the credit of thy family, but thou stainest it with blood & unchristianlike actions, thou wouldst be highly esteemed of by others, but thou showest a base esteem of thyself, who prizest thy life at so low a rate, as a few rash speeches of an enemy. Time is too precious to be wasted the pursuit of such ignis fatui, such brains which conceive nothing but phantasms and apparent meteors of true Fortitude. I know that they appear outwardly, like Sehons' and Ogges, or as the sons of Anake, to affrighten Israel with their big words and lofty speeches, yet I doubt not, but many punies here meanly grounded in the rudiments of Philosophy, would with ease so abase their high look in a just disputation at this time, that they should rather seem the Grasshoppers of Egypt, or feigned Pigmies, supposed by Geographers beyond Lapland. Yet, if thy constitution be so unproportionably tempered with the elements, that nothing will satisfy thee but fight and combating, I will show you another Duel which is behooveful for thee to accept. God hath set in hostile opposition two enemies, the old man and the new, the flesh and the spirit, for as Saint Paul saith to the Galathians, 
Gal. 5.17.  the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the Flesh: neither, as in any other place, he saith, shall any be crowned, unless in this warfare he have fought lawfully. Perhaps, in this skirmish thou hast seen Widows and Orphans oppressed, and not protected them, the poor destitute, and not shielded them, Passions and Perturbations besiege Reason, and not quelled them; Traitors to Christ and Religion harbour within thy breast, and not expulsed them; O shame and infamy to thy profession of Manhood, that thou shouldst set at nought the glory of these Prizes, and make such rubbish as fillips and blasts, the trophies of the conquest. I know that generous Spirits are awaked and roused up with the just reward of Virtue, Renown, and Glory; why, think not that your actions are done in secret, or obscured within the confines of Lime and Sand; you are placed in a magnificent Theatre, for you are made a spectacle to God, to Angels, and to Men; the Combat is not the turning of an Hourglass, nor the Annual course of one Sun, nor the period of one Olympiad, lest this finished, you should feed your gall with the imperfections of your brethren; but it is the whole journal of this life; the Champions which do en●●r the Lists with you, are not Thirsiteses or Turkish Asapies, rather to tire then to try your prowess, lest you should not think them to be the subject of praise and honour, but the Apostle describes them to be, Principalities, and Powers, and Rulers of the darkness of this world, 
Ephes. 6.12.  and spiritual wickednesses in high places. Hear our Captain and Forerunner sends us into an hard Fight, but most honourable; O let our fury and emulation be spent in this warfare; as for other provocations, let us seek to the gods on Earth, the Magistrates, for justice; if here we are not satisfied, let us appeal to God in Heaven. Remember the saying of Saint Basil, In rixa is inferior est qui victor est, In private contentions he hath the worst that overcomes; it is the summum jus of a Christian in this life, if they have a matter against any man, the law is open, and there are Deputies, they must implead one another; which is the form in my Text prescribed, and cometh last to be handled.  
Amongst all the Symbols of a just judge, that Character which our Saviour fastened upon those, whom he constituted for judges of the World, hath not the least rank, 
Matth. 5.14.  Vos estis lux mundi, ye are the light of the World. The light of the World is the Sun, seated in the midst of the Planets, in Heaven, equally communicating his beams to all inferior vessels of illumination, though some by reason of their unequal density are less capable than others to receive it; in Earth, equally diffusing his influence into all matters, though some, by reason of their imperfect composition, do resolve and putrify, whereas others do purify and enhanse, as it were, the prices of their worth and estimation. So Soles high justitiae, these Suns of justice, a●●se alike upon the good and the bad, upon the just and the unjust; they shine not upon the one, and appear eclipsed to the other, but as a Centre in a Circle do protend equal Lines towards both sides; yet because Vice is exorbitant and irregularly distant from this Centre, the Lines drawn out, make oftentimes sharper Angles in the one then in the other; for, that which the Soul and Heart is in the Body, the same is the Magistrate in the Commonweal; the Soul, we say, in Philosophy is, tota in toto, & tota in qualibet parte, at least in respect of his operations, and the Heart is in the midst of the Body likewise, and disperseth his heat into all parts; yet by the same operations of the one, and vital heat of the other, are excrements and contagious humours expelled, but pure and profitable nourishment refined: so that, justice which in conclusion separates the Goats from the Sheep, with her all-discerning Touchstone tries dross and sophisticat Gold, as well as pure; weighs Lead in her Balances, as well as Silver; and as some conceive of the Needle of a Sea-compasse under the Aequator, is alike affectioned to either Pole, and till Reason conducts the Ship a Degree this way or that, is fixed on neither. Such is the indifferency or Apathy (if I should not seem Stoic) which the Oracles of justice should be possessed with, towards the Accuser and Defendant, till, as my Text saith, they have implended one another. 
Ambros. in Psal. 118. serm. 20.  Nihil paratum & meditatum domo differt, (saith Ambrose, speaking of such an one) sed sicut audit ita judicat. He brings no determinations or divisions with him from home in his tables, but as he hears, so he speaks. The rudiments of this practice were first by God himself delivered in the Arraignment of Adam and Eve; he was nearer to the Offender than the Bark to the Tree, by reason of the presence of his Godhead, which filleth Heaven and Earth; and therefore taking them in the fact, might have condemned them without further proceeding; but to dictate a form unto Mankind of executing justice, from himself the Fountain of justice, he first cities Man to the Bar, Vbi es Adam, 
Gen. 3.9.  Where art thou Adam? there Man making his appearance; God begins an inquiry, but which in effect implies an Accusation against him, and produceth Conscience for a Witness, Hast thou eaten of that Tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? Verdict might forthwith have been given up, where Conscience confessed the guilt; but this merciful judge would hear what the tongue could say, where Adam he first begins: alas, he could not deny the Fact, but extenuates it, by laying it upon the Woman, and she upon the Serpent. What patience, what mercy, what indifferency was here showed by God to Man, what should Man be to Man, Brother to Brother? We read how after this Cain slew Abel, Abel said nothing, but his blood accused Cain; every drop of innocent blood hath a tongue, and is not only vocal, but articulate; yet God proffered the same law unto him, Where is thy Brother Abel? though Cain at his indictment answered stubbornly, and as he had not grace to avoid his sin, for he had not then grace to confess it. God varies not in his works of clemency; almost two thousand years after this, he deals in the like kind with Miriam and Aaron, when in Arabia's Deserts they murmured against Moses, Numb. 12. But he hath not only by example, but by precept also established this form of judicial proceed, in the thirteenth of Deut. saith Moses, If thou shall hear say, that certain men of the children of Belial are gone out from amongst you, and have drawn the Inhabitants of their City, saying, let us go and serve other gods which ye have not known; were they presently to smite the Inhabitants of the City with the edge of the sword? were they upon this rumour to levy an Army, and to raze their Walls level with the earth? no, the Text saith, and that with great Emphasis and weight of words, Thou shall inquire, and not so only, but make search, nor here rest, but ask diligently if it be truth, and the thing certain; see the Stairs and ascents to mature and ripe judgement; enquiring, searching, ask, diligent ask, words of industrious and sedulous inquisition, glossed and expounded by Nicodemus in our Saviour's case, joh. 7. doth our Law judge any man before it hear him? had Pharaoh and Potapher observed this precept; joseph, innocent joseph, had not so long felt the miseries of wrong imprisonment, Gen. 39 Had Irijah, Captain of a Ward in jerusalem, used this preservative; poor jeremiah the Prophet had not been delivered into the hands of his persecutors, jer. 37. Had the Magistrates of Philippi used this equity towards Paul and Silas, these Saints had felt the warmth of some justice, and not been beaten unheard and uncondemned, Act. 16. The law of Reason, therefore hath set this print of her foot in all well-founded Policies, to give free audience to both parties. I must confess, that the manner is diverse, for in the Areopage at Athens, the Accuser might freely accuse, but the Defendant only speak to what was objected, 
Ulpian. in orat. Demost. de falsa legate.  but in the Forum of Rome, whereas the Accuser had but six hours allotted him to accuse, the guilty had nine hours to make his answer; which custom, when it ceased, I know not, thus fare Festus declared the Roman fashion, which my Text aims at; It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the Accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself, concerning the crime laid against him, Act. 25. But whilst I press, the excellency and equity of this form, mistake me not (beloved) as if taxed hereby all those forms, where the Magistrate proceeds against the Offender, not by producing Witnesses to implead, but ex Officio, by virtue of his Office, clearing the doubt by requiring an Oath of the Party suspected; for, I take, that this course is not contrary, but subordinate to that which I have hitherto insisted upon. For in this case the Commonwealth, whose person the judge represents, (as Valentia saith) is the Accuser, 
Greg. de Valent. in Thom. tom. 3. disp. quast. 13.  and allegeth either an infamy, or great suspicions, or at least an imperfect testimony against the Offender; so that in an important business, which concerns the good either of Church or Commonwealth, let not the Party questioned say, that he is brought contrary to the law of Nature to accuse himself, or that he shall be condemned without impleading of Accusers, for the Infamy, the Suspicions, or the Witness, though perhaps not sufficient to condemn thee, have already accused thee, and the Commonwealth in the person of the Magistrate acts the Accuser; do thou see how thou canst purge thyself, ho thou canst preserve that reputation of an honest man, which if thou never hadst been urged by the Magistrate, yet in Conscience thou hadst been bound to do. It is true that Writers do give some advice for the administration of such Oaths; as, First, that the person which is to purge himself thereby, 
Vid. Cousin Apolog. & determ. Episc. Winton. & Less. de just. & iur.  be not such an one, as is likely to forswear himself, that is, such as are known to have formerly perjured themselves. Secondly, that the cause be not Capital; for in such a case, the Devil, who is the author of perjury, hath taught Man his frailty, Pellin pro pelle, & quicquid est●viri daturus est pro seipso, Skin for skin, and all that a man hath, he will give for his life, job 2. Thirdly, that the Crime be not wholly unknown, unless in two Cases; the one, when it doth hinder the execution of an Ecclesiastilall Function, as Simony and Irregularity; the other, when some great scandallior damage will accrue to the Church or Commonwealth from the concealing of it, as in Heresies and Treasons; but that in other Cases it be, semiplent cognita; as they say, half known at the least; and that (as before I told you) either by an infamous report, or manifest signs, or some such witness which alone is not sufficient to convince. But where these Impleaders are present, we find the practice of Moses Law, to warrant the lawfulness of these proceed; the Man suspected of stealth, Exod. 22. the Woman of breach of Wedlock, Num. 5. were both to purge themselves by such an Oath, where if in this, the suspected of Stealth swore falsely, the atonement by Sacrifice is set down, Leu. 6. and a Prayer of Salemons for the pardon of it, 1. Kin. 8.31. So than you see let down, as it were, from Heaven, an Archtriumphant of justice, whose pieces, though they seem not of the same making to the eye, yet are they hewed out of the same Quarry, and raised upon the same Foundation of mutual impleadings. It is a sign of a merciful government, which in doubtful matters goes not to Tortures; of a Prudent, which proceeds not by Lottories'; of a Religious, which heeds not Divinations, nor tempts God for miraculous Revelations. Where impleadings fail (as for crimes of higher nature, I leave) for ordinary, let me say with Saint Austin, Misericorditer corripiat homo quod potest, 
August. lib. 3. Cort. Parmen.  quod non potest patienter ferat. Let Man mercifully correct that which he can, that which he cannot let him patiently bear, until God himself shall either reform it, or defer it till his rooting up of the Tares, and winnowing the Chaff from the Wheat. It is an excellent saying of Chrysostom's, in his six and fortieth Homily, ad populum Antiochenum, God doth neither exact punishment of all men in this life, lest thou shouldest despair of a Resurrection, and desist to expect a future judgement; neither doth he suffer all men to go unpunished, lest thou shouldest surmise his providence to be deficient; but he punisheth and doth not punish; in that he punisheth, he awakens the Sluggard with lessoning him, that even here he taketh notice and account of his offences; in that he doth not punish, he summons the Insolent to a more fearful Assizes and strict judgement to come.  
Thus have I detained you as Sojourners in a strange Land, you have all this while travailed in the East, where to your eyes have been presented the justices and Tribunals of Ephesus. It might be here expected, that having finished this (as I may well fear) so tedious and irksome a voyage, I should in the Port where our Ship is now arrived, make some collation and application of that, which in those remote Countries we have discovered. I must confess, that the Climate is not the same; the Meridian's, diverse; the Cities, many Degrees distant, the one, sometimes the Metropolis of lesser Asia, the other, at this time the Light and Pharos of great Brittany. And truly, amongst other accidents, wherein I cannot but note a great difference, this is not the least unremarkable, that in the same cause which the Town-clerk and myself have undertaken to manage, my felicity hath surmounted his; in that my Auditors have not been Demetrius or the Craftsmen in a turbulent Theatre, but the Pillars of peace and quiet, in a Sanctuary of Piety; where, if my weak oratory hath been deficient, the presence of justice hath (I doubt not) engrafted that which my Text aims at, with a silent Sermon and real persuasion of its own. I shall think mine own task sufficiently discharged, if I have in such wise unfolded the points delivered, that without much difficulty, yourselves may be so fare Preachers, as to make the uses and applications your own; the Time suits, the Occasion suggests, my Text directs. If Demetrius and the Craftsmen have a matter against any man, the law is open, and there are Deputies, let them implead one another. To GOD the Father, GOD the Son, and GOD the Holy Ghost, one essence, and three Persons, be rendered all Praise, Honour, and Glory; Might, Majesty, and Dominion, from this time forth for evermore.  
Amen.   

JUDAH'S PREROGATIVES. Delivered In a Sermon at Saint MARIES in Oxford, upon the four and twentieth of March, being the day of thanksgiving for his MAJESTY'S happy and prosperous succession to this his Crown of England, etc. An. 1619.  
By EDW. CHALONER, Doctor of of Divinity, and Fellow of ALSOULES College in OXFORD.  
LONDON, Printed by W. STANSBY, 1623.   

JUDAH'S PREROGATIVES.  JUDG. 1. Vers. 1. 
Now after the death of josua, it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the Lord, saying, who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them; and the Lord said, judah shall go up.  
GOD which created Man of the dust of the Earth, hath in his School of Nature framed a discipline, so proper for our weak capacities, and used a method therein, so suitable and correspondent to our inbred dulness, that our meditations which Serpent-like seed upon the dust; or as Narcissus, consume their very marrow upon that earthly Cottage which they inhabit, should not want: even there, volumes (I may say) wherein to read most excellent admonitions of our frailty, as necessary dependence upon him. In every person, are they engraven in ordinary Characters, and in a lesser print, so the Son hath them to view in the decease of his Father, the Husband in the departure of his Wife, the Servant in the loss of his Master; but they seem to be written in Capital letters, in Funerals of Princes; wherein, as in one common book, the subject reads not oftentimes so much his Princes as his own mortality. The Tribes of Israel might well hang up their Harps upon the Willows, erect Banners of Sable, and cry, Alas, that Moses; alas, that josua, our victorious Captains are dead, and this they might well do in remembrance of what was past, but let them reflect an eye upon the state and condition they are now in, let them from the top of Nebo discover the potency of their Enemies, whom they had incensed; the Cities, whose walls mounted to Heaven, which they were to besiege; the Giants and Monsters of men, whom they were to encounter; and lastly, their own disjointed and confused regiment, being as Sheep without a Shepherd; and they might now with tears confess, that in out-living them, they survived but their own obsequies; and that it had been good, that either these men had been never borne; or else that being borne, they had never died. And with this mournful Preface doth my Text begin, the sum whereof, is a passage betwixt the Children of Israel, and GOD: the one, in distress craving; the other, in mercy adjudging, who should go up for them, in the pursuit of the wars with the Canaanites. Wherein, for our better proceeding, may it please you to observe with me, a Petition, and a Grant. In the Petition we discover,  
Viz. First, The ground or motive of it, it was an Interregnum, or a Vacancy, intimated in the death of josua. Now after the death of josua, etc.  
Viz. Secondly, Whom they petition, the Lord. It came to pass the Children of Israel asked the Lord, etc.  
Viz. Thirdly, What they petition, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them, etc.  
The Grant is, Who should go up? judah. And the Lord said, judah shall go up.  
Thus have I set out before your eyes, the several parts of my Text; I trust that We, which persuade ourselves to be the Israel of God, and even now journeying to a Canaan which is above, shall not need arguments to stir up our attention, to listen to what befell Israel in their passage into Canaan, whilst I discourse, first, of their Petition, and that of the ground or motive of it, being an Interregnum or Vacancy, intimated in the death of joshua, and comes in the first place to be handled. Now after the death of joshua, etc.  
Civil government under a supreme Magistrate, is so natural to a State, that the Commonweal which is destitute of it altogether, is like to one of those misshapen Blemmij, 
jul. Solin. cap. 44.  whom ancient Geopraphie hath made an headless Nation, and that which is not linked, and united in one over-topping Sceptre; is as a body, each member whereof lives by a several soul, and is prone (as in the Tale of Menenius Agrippa) to join in a civil combustion against his fellows. 
Liu. hist. lib. 2.  And both these prodigies jumped together in the State of the Israclites, after the death of joshua; they neither had a man, nor could agree upon a Tribe, which should go up before them against the Canaanites. This death of joshua, had they not in time implored God's help, had been as ominous to them, as those speeches in the judges, comet-like, portending some ill to ensue. In those days there was no King in Israel (saith the Text, chap. 18) and what follows, but the Danites seizing at once upon the possessions, and Idolatry of Micha: again, in those days there was no King in Israel (chap. 19) and then, alas, the foul action of the Benjamites, and the destruction almost of their whole Tribe succeeds immediately in order. So that the Israelites having this motive of joshuahs' death, to inquire of the Lord for a new Captain, teach us the necessity of a Ruler, and in how bade a case they be, who neither have a judge to determine private contentions at home, nor a Captain to go up before them against the common enemy abroad.  
The first rule which man learneth by experience, is, that he hath need to be ruled and governed by an other, it is sucked in with his Nurse's milk, and dictated unto him in his birth. Other creatures, as if Nature were Tailor unto them, make their first entrance into the world, apparelled; they have weapons, to defend themselves, sharpened (as one might say) to their hands, and their estimative faculty so instructed, that without any more tuition, they can skill each kind their proper architecture, their congruent cookery, their physic and cherurgerie, and to cross the old saying, nascuntur artifices, they are born their craftsmasters. But, Man, how step mother-like doth Nature present him to the light, with not a rag to his back, not a dinner dressed to his belly, not a cottage to his head, his hands unweaponed, his understanding like a razed table-book, wherein nothing is written, as if she bade him in this real language, Go, seek thee a Protector, and submit thyself to some one others tuition. To this end and purpose, God hath be autified the minds of men with variety of Arts and Disciplines, to the perfecting whereof many heads must join together, he hath endowed them with speech and language, to invite one another to society, he hath planted in them the principles of justice and equity, which cannot be exercised, but in a community; 
Arist. 1. Polit. cap. 2.  so that Aristotle saith, that a man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, one of Nature's good fellows, a Creature borne for civil conversation, and that he which life's hermitlike reclused, and flies the company of men, is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, either a God or a Beast. Now, if man's nature do require a sociable life, then doth it necessarily require also a government and a Governor. For it is impossible, that a multitude should long consist, unless some body there be, which hath the care of the common good committed unto him; as in the body of a man, unless there were a soul which kept the parts in subjection, it could not be, but that the whole consisting of contrary elements, should dissolve; and therefore the wisdom of God saith, Prou. 14. where no counsel is, the people fall; which the vulgarrenders, Vbi non est gubernator, populus corruit: to show that the safety of a Land depends upon the having of a Governor. Hereupon Princes are termed, Animus vinculum, 
Senec. 1. de Clement. 4.  & spiritus vitalis reipublicae; and to express it by plainer similitudes; see how necessary a Pilot is to a Ship, or a Leader to an Army; so necessary and more is a Governor to a Kingdom. For, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; 
Chrysost. tom 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  saith chrysostom; as, when thou remoouest the Governor of a Ship, thou sinkest the Vessel; or, if thou singlest the Captain from his Band, thou dost no less, then deliver his Company manacled into the hands of the Enemy; so take away but them which sit at the Helm of a Commonwealth, and we shall live a life more irrational than beasts, biting and eating one another like Cannibals; or as Fish in the Sea, the greater feeding upon the lesser; the rich devouring the poor, the stronger the weaker, and the more audacious, outswearing the milder out of their patrimony. So that in effect, if you would know, what is the greatest freedom in the world, it is to serve under the rule of a Governor; and again, what is the greatest thraldom upon earth, it is to be exempted from subjection to a Governor.  
Here therefore may justly be refuted, that pernicious doctrine of the Anabaptists and Libertines, which abrogates the use of Magistracy amongst Christians, and makes no other square of civil commerce, then Fanatical inspirations. What miserable effects it brought with it in Germany, under the patronage of Muncer Fiferus, and particularly in Munster by Leidensis, and others of his compact, who seemed to no other end to depose lawful Magistrates, then that they might usurp their places themselves, 
Sleyden. Comment. lib. 5. & lib. 10.  I leave to Historians to relate. The greatest grief is, that the Anarchy which hath been held prodigious in a Commonweal, is entertained by some Enthysiasts as most convenient in a Church, but so ill do they cloak their ends, that they which cannot brook one Pope in the world, would be glad, were they of the number, to have ten in a Parish, for mine own part I think some of them half way at Munster, and fit to be john of Leydens' Chaplains, than Pastors in a well governed Church, or a civil Commonwealth; and so I pass from the motive of the Israelites Petition, which was, as I told you, the Interregnum, or want of a Governor, occasioned by the death of joshua, unto the person whom they petition, which succeeds in the second place to be spoken of, the Lord. Now after the death of joshua, it came to pass that the children of Israel asked the Lord, etc.  
What? do they ask the Lord? is this warrantable divinity to make him once counsellor? is not this to tempt God, to try whether he knows or can, or will do that which is proposed unto him? and howsoever it be done, whether by lots or by dreams, by Vrim, or by Prophets, it varies not the case, is it not still tempting? For resolving of which doubt, two things are to be examined, first, what that tempting is properly, which is forbidden in the Scriptures; and secondly, upon what grounds the Israelites here used this extraordinary means, in choosing their Captain's Tribe. For the first, the Schoolmen thus desine tempting of God; tempting of God (saith he) is an irreligious action, 
Thom. Secunda second q. 9●. art. 1.  whereby through a doubt of some perfection which is in God, either his power, that he cannot, or his wisdom that he knows not, or his will, that he will not do something; one doth an action for experiment sake, to try whether God hath perfection in him or no. And this (saith he) may be done two manner of ways, either Explicitè, expressly doubting, and through that doubting, with a formal intention experimenting; or Implicit & Interpretative; when, though one doubteth not of any perfection in God yet doth that which in effect, and in its own nature is nothing else but an experiment of God's perfection; and this happens, when one neglecting the ordinary means constituted by God's providence, doth some action, expecting the effect thereof from God alone, no just or necessary cause moving him thereunto. So then, the rules whereby we are to examine this tempting of God, are chief two; First we must look into the end, and see whether it be too make an experiment of some perfection in God, whereof we doubt; Secondly, we must examine the Means and Necessity; whether, though we do it not, as doubting of any perfection in God; ye, we either neglect therein the own ordinary means afforded us by God, for the effecting of the same thing, or else have no just and necessary cause, to fly so to him in such a matter. If we err in the former, it is an express tempting of God; if in the latter, then is it an implicit and an Interpretive (as they term it) tempting of him. Now to bring this home to the Israelites in my text, and apply their using of this extraordinary means to the question in hand. First, the end they had in it, was not to tempt God, or to make an assay either of his power or wisdom, or will towards them, but only to relieve their own necessities, being now destitute of an Head, and in that of safety. Now, God is tempted (saith Austen) cum signa flagitantur non ad salutem, sed ad experientiam desiderata, when signs are sought, not for safety, but for experiments sake; and to speak with Valentia, the enquiring of God in such a case, 
Greg. de Valent. Tom. 3. in Thom. disp. 6. q. 14.  is not ex dubitatione de divina perfectione, from any doubt of God's perfection, but only ex dubitatione de obiecto quod terminat divinam voluntatem, as if one should say, the doubt was only in the object which terminated the will of God, they believed that God would deliver the Canaanites into their hands, but by whom they knew not, this than they ask. Secondly, as they did it not to a bad end, so neither did they it in a needless case, without just reason, or neglecting any means which God had left them besides this. True it is, that in ordinary States, the ordinary means left to decide such a controversy, as the nomination of a General or Captain, is either election of men, or succession of nature, but the state of the children of Israel, both in their passage into Canaan, and in the enjoying of it, was, quid extraordinarium, an extraordinary thing, of a divine constitution, and religious signification, and therefore required in both of them a divine assistance and direction. All things befell them for a figure (saith the Apostle 1. Cor. 10.) their passage through the Sea, their baptism in the Cloud, their Rook, and Manna, meat and drink were Sacramental. Their Jerusalem below, a type of that heavenly Jerusalem which is above, Gal. 6. Their country a shadow of a bettet country, Heb. 11. to be brief, 
Aug. cont. Faustum. l. 22.  dico illorum hominum (saith Austen) non tantam linguam sed etiam vitam fuisse propheticam, totumque illud regnum, gentis Hebraeae magnum quendam; quia & magni cuiusdam fuisse prophetam, it is not only the tongues of those men, but also the very lives of them were prophetical, and all that Kingdom of the jewish nation, was even a great Prophet, because the Prophet of a great one. So that the land of Canaan, being but a Memento, and a lecture unto them of the celestial Canaan which we expect, what did they in this ask of God, concerning the Tribe which should go up for them, but acknowledge first their own insufficiency, and impossibility of gaining heaven, without the light of his direction, Secondly, the despair they had, of ever casting out the Cananitish affections within them, unless he dained them his own grace to guide and assist them; and lastly, that so excellent a Country could never be recovered against the encounters, of such vast and Giantlike enemies, the Flesh, the World, and the Devil, who like the sons of Anake do amaze and affright us, unless he should bid the Tribe of judah, or rather the Lion of that Tribe, Christ jesus to go up first for them, to fight against them. And thus we see that this ask of God in my Text, who should go up against the Canaanites, was not a tempting of God, but rather a consulting with him in an enterprise of religious use, and holy signification, this extraordinary manner of enquiry of things of so high a nature, whether by lots, or by Vrim, by dreams, or Prophets, being permitted to the Church in her infancy, to supply the obscurity of types, and the paucity or scarcity of sacred books then extant, which to us in the new Testament, who have both the one illustrated, and the other augmented, were no less than a tempting of God, and a running to extraordinary courses, where ordinary means are plentifully offered.  
One use notwithstanding, may Christians make of this ask of the Israelites, and that is, that in the warfare against our spiritual enemies, and voyage to the land of Promise, we follow not leaders of man's constitution, but of God's ordination. The Israelites had for their direction herein God himself, speaking in dreams and visions, in the Vrim and Thummim, and in his Prophets; we have all these included in the written Oracles of God, the old and new Testament, the revealed mysteries whereof are now published complete, and promise no second Edition; we are not to inquire, either of the Pope's Vrim, what King; or Friars dreams, what Saint; or Amsterdamian visions, what Teacher must go up before us: Behold, the Lord hath in his Scriptures proclaimed our Captain, and nominated our General; it is that holy One of the Tribe of judah, which is already gone up before us; it is he that hath subdued the Canaanites for us, and hath taken possession of the Land in our behoof; the holy Martyrs, and best of God's Children march but aloof after, and feast upon the spoils; the Onset, Combat, and Battle is his, and his alone. Others being more passive, in putting on of the armour of God, then active; are rather carried up by his Grace, then go up; and if they go up, yet the victory being won, it is rather mortificare, then pugnare, to kill, then to fight; and if to fight, yet their actions being not communicable, it is pro se, for themselves; not pro nobis, for us; and suppose for us, yet not primi, but secundi; they fight, not as Firsts, but as Seconds; of Christ only we can say, who shall go up, and for us, and against the Canaanites first, and that to fight against them: which is the Israelites Petition in my Text, and cometh next to be handled. Who shall, etc.  
Although we cannot allow that which some Papists require, that every thing in the Scripture may have a quadruple sense, they being diverse applications, rather than diverse kinds from the other; yet in a good sense some things may have a transient and ambulatory Predicate; by reason whereof, they may have a compounded literal sense, one Subject whereof, may direct and point out unto the other of greater excellency. And howsoever the request of the Israelites in so significative, and prefigurative a subject as the ingress into Canaan, and the specification of judah in the Grant, enforce a speculation of the great Leader of that Tribe jesus Christ, who conducts us into the blessed Land, whereof Canaan was but a shadow; yet is not this the only sense; a main one it may be, for the soul of Prophecy seems to breath in it; yet not the only, for according to the letter also, we cannot deny, but that originally it was meant of the personal and particular occurrences of those times. The Canaanites I am sure, found not the war to conclude in tropes, but in blood; and the swords of the Israelites to cut really, what ere they meant figuratively. Now, as the letter sounds, there is no small controversy amongst Interpreters, what the Israelites do here mean or intent in this their Petition. Some say, that they craved a General or Captain over their whole Army, in the place and room of joshua; and of this opinion are most of the old Popish Commentators, who follow herein the corrupt vulgar Edition, which renders it, Quis ascendet ante nos, contra Cananaeum, & erit dux belli, that is, Who shall go up before us against the Canaanite, and shall be Captain of the war. Others think it was, who should go up first to fight, not for the common cause, but for his own lot; and these are some of our new Divines, following the translation of junius, Quis ascendet ex nobis contra reliquum Cananaeum, which of us shall go up against the remainder of the Canaanites. For mine own part, seeing these diverse interpretations do proceed chief from the diversity of translating, I will walk in the midst, and adhere to such a sense, as the most authentic translations shall suggest unto me. Now, the Septuagint, Hierome, Arias, Pagnine, the Complutensian edition, and our own correct vulgar, say, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, nobis, for us, Who shall go up for us? So that, if we collect the sum of all, we shall have a universal, royal, and highest dignity, with which the Israelites are not here as importuned, contented, but as suitors importunate to have conferred on some or other. First, that it should be an highest or supremest dignity, it is plain; for it was, who should be first in wars: now, in wars to be first, whether in battle, or in entry of a City taken, is that highest honour amongst Soldiers. Secondly, that it should be royal; for it was, who should fight against the Canaanites. The Land of Canaan, you know, was long before given to the Israelites; but yet, when one hath right, possession must be taken by order of Law: now, to give possession and dispossess another, is proper only to the chief Magistrate, and to his Officers; so that the Israelites demanding who should fight for them, was as much in effect, as, who should exercise that royal prerogative of putting them in possession, and displacing the Canaanites. Thirdly, they sue that it may be universal, and that in two respects; the one, in respect of themselves; it was not, who shall go up for himself; but, who should go up for us; every body's part (as it should seem) lay therein; and this judah performed as his task; for, beside that he conquered his own lot, in which he requested the assistance of his brother Simeon, Vers. 3. he fought also for the rest, as it appeareth in the 4. Verse of this Chapter; where is mentioned his taking of Besek, a City in the Tribe of joseph, 
Pelican in locum.  noted by Pelican, as an enlargement of his brethren's portions. Another mark or token of this universal and extended dignity, consists in the enemies of the Israelites the Canaanites. Sometimes, I confess, they note a particular Nation of the People inhabiting those tracts; but here in my Text, they design all those Countries which the Israelites were to possess. The reason is evident; for, when they point out some one particular Nation amongst the rest, bearing that name; then do they intimate those parts which are included within Phoenicia, or near adjoining unto it; for, First, who should of right more deservedly bear the name of his father, than the eldest son; now Canaan's eldest son was Sydon, Gen. 10. and Sydon was the chief City of Phoenicia. Again, all ancient Writers make the Carthaginians to be Phoenicians, and the Carthaginians, besides the likeness of Speech, 
Hieron. in Esay 7.  observed by Hierome, upon that of Esay, Behold a Virgin shall conceive; where he notes their congruency in Almath, a Virgin; and by Austin, upon his sixteenth Question upon judges; who there finds their Baal a Lord, and Baalsemon a Lord of Heaven, to be alike in both Languages. The same Father, in his Exposition begun upon the Romans, saith, that the Country people about Carthage, being demanded what they were, would answer in the Punic language, 
Chytr. in comment. ad locum. Procop. de bell● Vandalic●.  that they were Canaanites; and Procopius reports, that the People inhabiting Africa, as Hercules Pillars, used the Semiphoenician Dialect, and that in Tingis, a City built by them; there were two Pillars extant, with this inscription in the Phoenician Language, Nos sumus Canaanaei, quos, fuganit Iesus latro. Lastly, if preservation of a name be authentic proof in a Pedigree, where meets our Saviour in all his Gospel with any of that name, but in Tyrus and Sydon, Phoenicia's Cities? Then jesus departed into the Coasts of Tyrus and Sydon; and, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same Coasts, Matth. 15. So that the lot of judah lying not near unto Canaan, so properly called; nay, Benjamin, Ephraim, Zabulon, Ishacher, & Nepthali, as Geographers show, lying between them; by the Canaanite here cannot be meant any particular portion of the Land so properly called, and destinated for the lot of judah; but the whole Country, designed by God for the Territories of all the Children of Israel, who here do join in one general petition, as in a common cause concerning them all. Now, let me sum all together, the Israelites ask of God, who shall go up first for them; therein they allow supreme dignity; they ask, who shall fight; it was a case of seizure and possession, therein to this dignity they join a Royal authority. Lastly, they ask, Who shall fight for them against the Canaanites; therein they add to this authority, an extent and amplitude of Sovereignty.  
What are we then to learn from this request of the Israelites to God, but that authority, dignity, and sovereignty, come from him, and do depend on him, as on their Founder and Efficient. By me (saith GOD, Pro. 8.) do Kings reign, and Princes decree justice; by me Princes rule, and Nobles, even all the judges of the Earth. Not good Rulers only, but bad also, have this of him, even persecuting Pilat's; Thou couldst have no power at all against me (saith our Saviour, joh. 19) except it were given thee from above. Nay powers, be they what they will, they are of God; and whosoever resisteth them, resisteth the ordinance of God. Rom. 13. Hereupon they are endowed in holy Scripture with such names as should be memorials of their sacred offspring. They are termed Gods, not indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by reason of their Nature; but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by reason of their Office, and that for three respects, as justine Martyr notes, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Iust. Martyr. quaest. & respon and Orthodox quaest. 142.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for their Calling; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for their Order and Place; and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for their great Honour and Respect. They were anointed also in the old Testament with holy and consecrated oil, and that by the high Priest, to represent unto them in types and figures, the sacred original of their Calling. And though (speaking humanely) the beginning of Empire may be ascribed to reason and necessity, yet it was GOD himself that first kindled the light in the minds of men, whereby they saw that they could not live and be perserued without a Ruler and Conductor. Even nature itself, which Scaliger terms the ordinary power of God, and Saint Paul, the Law written in the heart, dictates the same lesson to all creatures; for, the very Bees have their Prince, the Dear their Leaders, and the Cranes by order imposed, watch for their own safety.  
With what face then can the schoolmen defend Thomas in that paradox of his, which he broacheth, 2.2. q. 10. art. 10. Dominium & Praelatio introducta sunt ex jure humano, Rule and preeminency were brought in by the Law of Man. Bellarmine, I confess, in his third Book, de Laicis, and sixth chapter, tempers somewhat the rigour of his Master in this point, and saith, that politic rule considered in general, is by the Law of Nature, and therefore by the Law of God; but yet considered either in special, as in a Monarchy or Aristocracy, or any particular person that sustaineth it; so it is only by the consent of Men and by positive Law. But it seems that Bellarmine's Logic is not the same with ours, for if it were, he could not be ignorant, that quod praedicatur de genere, praedicatur de specie & individuo, that which is affirmed of the general, may also be affirmed of the special and particular; and so, if he makes with Aristotle a Monarchy, Aristocracy, or Democracie, to be special kinds of a commonwealth, and this or that King to be an individual Governor, he cannot deny that to these, which he grants to their genus or common nature. I believe, the Cardinal would not allow of such an answer as currant, from one that should do him wrong; God indeed forbids me to hurt my Neighbour, but not to hurt thee Bellarmine, it would be scarce safe to preach at Rome, that Popes are the successors of Peter by the Law of God, but for Paulus Quinsus, that now is, he is Peter's successor only by the Law of Man. I am sure, that here in my Text, they come not to God to authorize or establish a going up against the Canaanite in general, but rather who should go up for them in special. They acknowledge both from him, and therefore sue to him for both. I ask one Daniel, that great Counsellor of State to two Monarchies, and à secretis to four Kings, what that Mysterium Imperij should be, which translates and entails Crowns to a Family, and he will tell you that it is God, which meditates not upon Kingdoms, as on Platonike Ideas, or summa genera in a predicament, but descends to particulars, remooves Kings and sets up Kings, rules in the Kingdom of men, and appointeth over it whomsoever he will, Chron. 2. and the 5. But here it may be objected, if it be so as we make it, that Princes and Magistrates are jure divino, by the Law of God; how comes it about, that in the 1. Pet. 2. Kings and Governors are styled by no other name, than the ordinance of man: this seems to kill and cut the throat of all that which went before. I answer briefly, that a thing may be said to be an ordinance of man, three manner of ways: first, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in respect of its cause and original. Secondly, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in respect of his subject or object: And thirdly, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in respect of its end. Now, Kings and Governors are termed an humane ordinance, not in regard of their cause and original, as if they were of man's constitution; for so, as we have declared, they are of God; but in regard of their object and end, because they are conversant about humane affairs, and for that their intermediate scope is the government and preservation of humane society. Much more might be said of this point, it is a Kingly Theme, and hath found ere now a Royal Dictator to discuss it. I cannot tell, but pressing so near the Court, I fear I have trespassed in the common fault of it, and suspended you too long in the Petition, I pass to the Grant, in the which brevity shall make amends: judah shall go up.  
And why should judah go up? why should he be graced more than all his brethren, with this Royal and Sovereign execution upon the Canaanites? was it because he surmounted the rest in number and potency? But God is not wooed with these respects, especially, where he means to be seen foremost most in the battle himself, and to purchase himself renown by his own right Hand, and proper Chivalry. What then? why, if you please to look back to the forty nine of Genesis, you shall there find the Kingdom bequeathed by jacob, as a Legacy to judah. judah, thou art he, whom thy brethren shall praise, thy father's children shall bow down unto thee, the Sceptre shall not departed from judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come. The promises of God are sure hold, they are, Yea and Amen: yet because they are performed, not always suddenly and forthwith, but in their due season; therefore it pleaseth the divine Providence, so fare to compassionate our weakness, and to apply himself to our infirmities, as to prop up our feeble beliefs, and to ruin our languishing hopes of things so long to come, by vouchsafing often glimpses and tastes of them, which should serve as gauges and pawns until the things themselves be accomplished; so did he often renew his promises to the Patriarches, for assurance of their enjoying of the Land of Canaan; so did he deal with the Fathers under the Law, by signs and prophecies ever now and anon, rouse them up to a firm confidence in the Messiah to come; the same method he useth with the Tribe of judah, a Kingdom and Sceptre was promised them, and they had, I doubt not, conceived Royal hopes, but the thing was not to be performed, until eight hundred years and more after the date of the promise, where David enjoyed it; yet God all this while lay not as one that slept, or made no account of his Word, whether it was reckoned upon or no, but strengthens (as one might say) the weak hams of judah's credency, with notable and remarkable tokens of his remembrance of them, and seems to continue their Title and Plea to the Kingdom on foot, by giving them sometimes sovereign marks and badges of it; and otherwhile putting them into possession of some parcels of the Prerogatives of it. I pass by that precedency given them, as the Hebrews affirm, in their passage over the Red Sea, where they make that Tribe as dux gregis, to lead the way. In the march of the Israelites through the Deserts of Arabia. What place held the Standard of judah by the Lords command, but the first? Numb. 10. Of what Tribe was their first judge, he which delivered them from the hand of Cushan Rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, but Othniel the son of Kenaz, of the Tribe of judah, judg. 3. When the Israelites ask of God who should go up against the Benjamites, to administer high justice against them for their enormous fact, whom doth the Lord nominate, but judah, jud. 20. and to come home to my Text, Whom doth God prefer in this place to that Kingly office of disposing the Canaanites, but judah. judah shall go up: as if in this nomination he had said, the Kingdom is judah's, it is his by my Gift, by his Father's Will, and excepting those of his Brethren whose graceless demeanour lost them their birthright; it is his by the Law of Nature; joshua is dead, and do you ask who shall go up first for you against the Canaanites? why, by a threefold right, who should but judah? Behold, in this Royal expedition against the Canaanites; I renew and confirm my Grant of the Kingdom to him, he shall have this as a Seal and assurance for the future enjoying of it, judah shall go up.  
Here then doth God by his own example warrant that fundamental maxim of State, observed as a Law of the Medes and Persians, by almost all the renowned Empires that ever were, which entails Sceptres to Tribes, and Crowns to Families. It suits not with this place to discuss the reasons of State, alleged pro and con, by Aristotle, Machiavil, Bodin, johannes Mariana, and others, whether were more expedient for a commonwealth, to have their Princely election or succession; whether in purging and expelling the pestilent humours of a politic body, it be safer to try the sovereign virtue which resides in new Slips, or presume upon that which hath been by long experience found in ancient and well proved Stems; for mine own part, I should hold it but a witty impiety, such as hath been showed by diverse, in the commendations of exorbitant subjects, to magnify any policy of man, above the wisdom of God, who in the kingdom of the jews, which he made his seat of Majesty upon earth, and wherein he more visibly reigned, then in any other Empire of the world, annexed the ensigns of Sovereignty to this one Tribe of judah, and excepting the time of the judges, which were rather Dictator's, extraordinarily stirred up by God, to deliver the people from some special servitude, then ordinary Magistrates; and one Saul, from whose house God rent the Kingdom for his disobedience, we find ever after by the express act of God, the Sceptre committed to the sway of one Family in judah, even the House of David, and that not without special reasons in Religion; for beside, that the blessed Race of which the Messiah was to come, became by this means the more remarkable; the truth also of God's promises and threats, which he extends even to the fourth generation of them which love or hate him, is made by so much the more evident to the eyes of men, by how much the glory of a Family in this wise continued, makes the fortunes of it the more noted and observed by the World.  
And now have I brought the Israelites to their wished Port, there seemed but one thing wanting to secure them of their felicity, a judah to go up before them, and it is fallen into their bosom. It may be now expected according to the solemnity of the day, that I should undergo the task of Plutarch; and no less parallel the fortunes of England's Inhabitants, and the posterity of Israel, than he that life's of Greeks' and Romans: wherein I must confess the constant and even hand of God over his distressed Church in all Ages, hath made the burden wherewith I travail, capable of a more facile birth, which there required the wit and industry of a deep Philosopher. If I would play the Logician, and begin the affinity and kindred (as one might say) of both people, a notation, a likeness might there be found, they come thus near, jacobi filij, jacobi subditi. But I list rather, to build my comparisons on real then verbal foundations. The people of Israel served miserable apprenticeship of bondage, ere they could be free in the land of Egypt; we in more than Egyptian darkness, in the Territories of Babylon. They in servitude to Pharaoh; we to Antichrist. Their manumission and freedom was through the red Sea; ours through a Sea more red than it, of bloody persecutions. Blest were they with the conduct of two most famous and renowned Generals, each of which was an Army royal in himself; whose Faith fought more for the Camp, than the Camp for them. Yet Moses the first of them saw not the Land of Canaan, but from the top of a mountain. He died upon the entry; and truly, those years in which our cause seemed to breathe, under the first Prince that wholly shaken off the yoke of Antichrist, were so few, 
Ed. VI  that in them we might more truly be said to behold our liberty in speculation, then to enjoy it; to view it, then to use it. 
Q. Marry.  There followed an inundation of misery upon it; but God, that would not have us tempted above that we are able, heard our cries; and sent as to the Israelites, 
Q. Eliz.  so to us a joshua to deliver. Then did the walls of Babylon, like those of jericho, fall down, not so much by the noise of warlike Music, as by the blowing of the Levites, the preaching of the Word. Then was the Land divided amongst the Israel of God, and the Cities of refuge pointed out, even all this Canaan of ours was a Sechem, and a Ramah, even our City of refuge to all the persecuted nations of the world. Then did the light of the Gospel, no less than the lights of Heaven at the prayer of joshua, stand still in the midst of our Firmament, until we had subjected our enemies to the obedience of it. But Ioshua's, though their fame and glory be of immortal temper, and therein they seem to outstrip the condition of man; yet their earthly Tabernacles are not of so durable mettle, as not to suggest unto surviving Ages, that they possess so much of Man in them, as makes them mortal. They are lent unto us for our sakes, but we must restore them again for their own sakes. And upon the setting of such Suns, how ever the necessity of Nature's law do lessen the grief of it, yet the succeeding darkness is not therefore awhit the less; both the sons of jacob, and we, must acknowledge in it, ourselves subject to the chances and usual misfortunes of the night. It is true indeed, that the Canaanites, both there and here were much diminished and brought under, yet were they not wholly as yet cast out, they dwelled still amongst the people God, and were as a thorn in their sides; and now or never, when the Ioshuas are gone, when the Cloud by day, and Pillar of fire by night, seem to be vanished, are they in hope, either to expel Israel out of the Land, or at least, ere a new Sun should arise, to compound for a toleration. And let any speak, whether in this point also the Children of Israel, and we, shared not alike in our dangers after the death's of our Ioshuas? And if we did, then doubtless the same reasons must enforce us also, as did them, to seek for some one or other in our Ioshua's rooms to go up before us. But of whom should we ask? It is thought that the Children of Israel went to the high Priest in those days; and therefore some would conclude, that we should ask of the Pope, whom they feign to succeed Aaron in the high Priests Office. But before we condescend to this, two things are to be proved unto us; First, that there is a Vrim and Thummim fixed in his Chair, wherein God doth as visibly deliver his Oracles, as he did in the high Priests breastplate; otherwise the reasons will not be alike. And secondly, that the Pope is the true successor of Aaron, and not rather of Adonibezek, against whom we wanted one to go up for us; for, to whom may more properly be applied that saying of Adonibezek, in the seventh Verse of this Chapter. Threescore and ten Kings having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: Then to the Pope, whose cutting and paring of the authority of Princes, and treading their Crowns under his feet, speak no less. We should have also asked him, they say, who should go up to fight for us; that was indeed expected, his Breves were ready drawn; but, I wis, he would have served us with one of his Carpet Kings, that could neither have fought for us, for want of thumbs; nor gone up before us, for want of toes. Well, if we were not to ask of the Pope of Rome, should we ask of any other Pope at home, which some make to be the people. But, alas, amidst so many Canaanites they lurked and whispered seditions in every corner; what abstract Statist could bow the hearts of so many thousands, as it had been the heart of one man; and if some such were to be found, yet Crowns and Sceptres (as we have showed) are more than of a humane mould, or a Goldsmith's composition; they are of God. Then to God were we to go, and as the Israelites to some extraordinary revelation, so we to the ordinary course which he hath established amongst us, for the knowing, of who should go up before us. Truly, it was no small thing, that we were to ask of God in this case. It was, First, who should go up to fight; therein is intimated, the behoof of military skill. Secondly, against the Canaanites, therein is specified, genus belli, the kind of war, which was to be undertaken, against the Canaanites of the Israelites; it was to be performed, ore gladij, with the edge of the sword; but against ours, whom Christ is to destroy with the power of his Word; it is rather to be acted, gladio oris, with the sword of the mouth, not Mart, but Mercurio; not basta but calamo. Thirdly, it was, who should go up for us, not pro se, for himself only, or but for his own lot, as who should fight only in questions of supremacy; but pro nobis, for us also, in the common cause, and drive out the Canaanile, as well out of the Country, as the Court; and the Suburbs, as the City. And Lastly, it was, who should go up to fight against the Canaanites; first, that is in the forefront of the battle, & in the first rank, and be able not only to be directed by others, but learned also to act himself, and that inter primos primus, chief amongst the chief; and for such a man, God, and none but God, hath answered, that we should have him in judah, in the Tribe of the Kings, in the seminary selected by him for the furnishing of Leaders. It was neither the combination of Inferiors, nor the plot of Superiors, nor the well-wishes of Foreigners, that shapes us our answer; but it was the Lord that appointed us a Captain, and such a one as was able to go up, and expertagainst the Canaanites, and willing to be for us, and most worthy to be first, and all this in domo lacobi, in our judah, that beautiful Garden, wherein for so many Ages, the sovereignty of this I'll hath taken root.  
O Lord, it is thine own right hand that hath planted it, water it with thy dew from above; and blow upon it, that the Spices thereof may flow out, that there never fail of that Stock a judah to go up before us, until the full and perfect fruition of that Canaan which thou hast appointed for us. This grant for jesus Christ his sake, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost, be rendered all praise, honour, and glory, might, majesty, and dominion, from this time forth for evermore.  
Amen.   

THE GENTILES CREED, OR THE NATURAL KNOWLEDGE OF GOD.  
Delivered in a Sermon, by EDWARD CHALONER, Doctor of Divinity, and Fellow of ALLSOULES College in OXFORD.  
LONDON, Printed by W. STANSBY, 1623.   

THE GENTILES CREED.  ACT. 14. v. 17. 
Nevertheless he left not himself without witness in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.  
THe use of miracles in the Apostles time, 
Caiet. Tom. 2. opusc. tract. 1. de conceptione Virgins. cap. 5.  as Caietan shows out of Gregory, if not only yet specially in respect of Infidels, served to make the mysteries of God seem credible to such, as were otherwise averse from them; for whereas the things then taught, were new, strange and incredible to natural ears; how should the Gentiles be induced to believe them? how should so great a portion of mankind emancipated, as it were to Satan, be brought from their father's traditions or diabolical oracles to rely upon them, had not the strange works that followed their publishers made them think, that those things were credible which were accompanied with so strange attendants. Thus fare Saint Paul and Barnabas had proceeded, when by a miracle wrought in Lystria, 
Vers. 7.  by restoring strength and straightness to an impotent cripple, the Lycoanians were roused up to conceive, that something more than flesh and blood was preached unto them; that surely some Ambassadors were come from heaven amongst them. But see the malignity of Satan, he is already confined to the deep, if this Miracle lose not its true use, and by depriving the Author of the work, the honour be transferred upon the instruments. The Apostles before had a task to teach the Gentiles that jupiter was nothing, 
Cor 8.4.1. Plaut. Amphit.  and Mercury nothing, and now as if Amphitruo were to be reacted, they must begin a new with them, and hardly make good that Paul is Paul, and not Mercury, that Barnabas is Barnabas, and not jupiter, Happy Lystrians had they but attended to what was preached, and not too fond overvalued them which preached it; but I would to God, that Lystria only might be branded with this folly, and that it might have there died where it first began in Lyconia, then should these blessed Apostles be no more dishonoured with adoration, nor so many deluded souls in these our days, be forced now again to offer incense unto them. 
V 14. & 15.  The Apostles themselves, I am sure, were moulded of an other temper; whether I should present them to your view, renting their clothes or running amongst the people, or crying with might and main; O men, why do you these things, one cannot but conceive how these Apostles being dis-robed of their flesh, and with that, of their fleshly desires, are now affected, when as being yet clothed, as it were, with temptation itself, they so greatly distasted their own worship. I were more than an Orator, could I fuller express my Apostles Oration, and it would argue no small presumption, should I think with any paraphrase upon their Rhetoric to affect your tender ears, when the substance thereof proceeding from so divine subjects as were these Ambassadors of Christ, could scarcely appease or restrain a ruder Auditory. The force of their Arguments is powerful enough to supply what is wanting: That themselves were not those Gods they took them for, they make good by two irrefragable arguments, the one taken from their nature, by which they profess themselves to be Men, 
Verse 15.  subiest to the like passions that the Lystrians were, and therefore could be no Gods and impatible deities: the other drawn from their office and function, which was so fare from giving them authority to accept of any such worship, that on the contrary side, they declare the end and scope of their coming, to be, to Preach unto them, that they should turn, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the text saith, from those vain things, from those Idols unto the living God: But that God was the Lord, that he was that Ceres which filled their garners with Corn, he that Zeus which uìuificated and made nature fertile, he that Aeolus which bridled and kept the impetuous winds in subjection, might seem a point of more difficulty to make good; surely, the Gentiles might plead ignorance for their excuse, whom for a long time God had suffered to walk in their own ways, and Philosophers themselves might complain they saw but through a mist, and that his mysteries were not so plainly divulged to them as to the jews, yet this one argument which the Apostles here urge, is sufficient to convince them of this, that he left not himself to them also without witness, that he was the only and everliving God, in that he did good, and gave them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness.  
The sum is a prolepsis, or taking away of all such pretences for their ignorance, as the Gentiles might allege in their own defence, in which they proceed by two gadations.  
Viz. First, by an Aphaeresis, or removing of the false opinion upon which they grounded, and laying down the truth; Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness.  
Viz. Secondly, by an Epicurosis, or confirmation of that truth which they laid down, which likewise they prosecute by two Mediums, to wit, by God's benefits, pointed out,  
Viz. Either in 

1. General, in that he did good.  
2. Special, in that he gave them rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness.    
The error which is here removed, may seem to have some dependency upon that question of Aristotle's, 
Aristot: Ethic. 3.  An ignorantia excuset peccatum, whether ignorance doth excuse a fault; it is not expressly set down in the story, but tacitly employed, in that it is refuted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nevertheless, being an Aduersative particle, and here used as Destructive, so, that whereas these Gentiles would perhaps have pleaded ignorance to excuse their Idolatry, the Apostle shows them that their ignorance was crassa & affectata, gross and affected, such as the Pope now a days enioynes his subjects, and such as by the tenors of Philosophy, doth augment rather then diminish an offence. For though the Gentiles knew not God absolutè absolutely, 
Bellar. de great. & lib. arbit. c. 2.  as Bellarmine in his fourth Book, De gratia & lib. arbitr. seems to intimate, yet limitatè with some limitation and restriction, they did; si non simpliciter verum Deum, tamen aliquid veri Dei, if not simply the true God, yet something of the true God; The light of Nature served in gross, to show them that there was a God, that this God was one only, that he was to be worshipped, to be served and adored, though fully who this God was, Nature debilitate ascended not to know, humane frailty could not penetrate: much like was their knowledge to that of Oedipus in the Poets, 
Senec. Traged.  who knew in general that he had a Father, but not who was his Father, only (to see his misfortune) whom he so carefully sought, he unwillingly slew, or as children (saith Aristotle) Quosuis viros appellant patres, 
Aristot. 1. Phys.  & faeminas matres, call all men their fathers, and all women their mothers; so this purblind progeny of Adam, being able to discern no clearer the Godhead, than he in the Gospel, which saw Men walking like Trees, took oftentimes the Shadow for the Substance, calling every Creature a Creator, and mistaking a corruptible Man for an incorruptible God. But for our clearer proceeding, and easier access to our Apostles sense and meaning, when they say, God left not himself without witness, we must note, that the witness which is here understood, is the witness of Nature, and the thing witnessed, is God displayed by his works of nature, the main doubt concerns the extent of this knowledge, quantum Deitatis, how much of the Godhead may be known of us by this witness of Nature. To decide this controversy, we must observe that the knowledge of God is twofold; either of him, as he is considered in himself, or as he is considered in his works; as in himself, so either of his essence, or of his persons: as in his works, so likewise it is either of his works of Creation, or his works of Redemption. As for him considered in his persons, or in his works of Redemption, I take, that the witness which is here implied, (in as much as it confines itself to the light of Nature) extends not further, then to yield limilies to illustrate them; 
Tho. part. 1. q. 32. art. 1.  or as Thomas saith of these points, sufficit probare non esse impossibile quod sides praedicat, it is enough, if we can prove that those things are not impossible which Faith preacheth: For first, concerning the works of Redemption, almost all Divines do assent and agree in this, that Quamuis homo norit Deum esse, 
Morn. de verit. relig. c. 27.  & esse optimum maximum, non norit tamen patrem in filio reconciliatum, though Man by nature knows that there is a God, and that this God is goodness itself; yet the Father reconciled in the Son, he knows not. It was a wonder unto the blessed Angels, much more is it a mystery unto natural men. And touching the doctrine of the three Persons, Thomas in the place above cited, resolves us plainly, that, per rationem naturalem cognosci possint de Deo ea tantum quae pertinent ad unitatem essentiae, non autem ea quae pertinent ad distinctionem personarum, by the light of nature, only those things may be known of God, which concern the unity of his essence, not those which concern the distinction of persons. Many, I confess, have ransacked Nature for Mediums to persuade this doctrine of the Trinity, 
Morn. de verit. relig. c. 5.  one tells us, that a Spring begets a River, and that from both are derived smaller Brooks, all which yet make but one Water; another shows a Root, from which rises a Body, and from thence Branches, and yet all make but one Tree: some more subtle Philosophers produce a Man, which in one Soul hath three faculties; and yet all these, if we believe the Scotists, do differ but formally from the Soul, no not at all, if we believe the Nominals. But this makes not any thing, to deny the defects of this witness of Nature in respect of this high mystery; for who knows not that Natural reason is one thing as it is nuda, bare and naked in itself, an other thing as it is vestita, adorned and clothed with higher gifts; one thing, being considered sine indumento, without the ornaments and perfections which the knowledge of God out of the Scripture gives unto it; another thing, as it is considered cum indumento, being invested with that light which the Word written, like the Sun darting his beams upon the Moon, reflect upon it, before it can shine towards us. The former way Nature's resemblances of the Trinity are not of such power and force, as that by them a man in puris naturalibus constitutus, being left to the light of Nature only, should be able to come to the knowledge of that incomprehensible depth, no more (saith Philip Mornay in his fifth Chapter, De veritate Religionis) then cyphering Characters can show him the sum they import, which was never instructed in their use, though being considered cum indumento, with their perfections and additions which they receive from the light of the Scripture, they make easy that doctrine, being to that purpose invented by those (saith one) qui prius crediderunt quam intellexerunt, who did first believe before they understood. But though these mysteries of the Trinity and of our Redemption, wrought by that incarnate Son of God Christ jesus, are so remote from this witness of Nature, yet in points concerning the essence of God in general, or his works of Creation, not illustrations only or a bare fame may be had from the light of Nature, as Socinus, Ostorodius, and the like, Samosatenian Atheists in Polony do affirm, but also demonstrations and direct conclusions may be deduced. The doctrine therefore which our Apostles in my Text do insinuate unto us, when they say, that God left not himself to the Gentiles without witness, must needs be this.  
That so much may be known of God by the witness of Nature, as is sufficient to confirm unto us, though not his Persons, or works of Redemption, yet his Godhead, and also his handie-worke in creating and governing of the World.  
God is in himself invisible, and yet The invisible things of him (saith the Apostle, Rom. 1.20.) that is, his eternal Power and Godhead are seen by the creation of the World, being considered in his works. To resolve the members of which Verse, were to propose unto you a whole system of natural Divinity, each part being a scale (saith Beza) which whosoever will ascend, 
Beza in annot. ad loc:  may by it attain to the knowledge of God's eternal Power and Divinity. O God, when I consider the works of thine hands, the Sun and the Moon which thou hast created, and that all things which are comprised within the circumference of them, do receive their being and perfection from thee alone, how can I choose but assent that thou thyself art most perfect, most essential? when I confess that thou art the prime cause, and first mover of all things, reason were no reason, if from hence it concluded not, that there is nothing left which can move thee, or make thee mutable; when thou alone madest the fabric of the World by thy mighty power, & dost now sway each iota thereof by the Sceptre of thy Word, it were sacrilege, should I say, thou wert not a Spirit, and that for time, eternal; for place, every where; for power, omnipotent. Now when in Nature there can be but one most perfect, one immutable, one infinite and omnipotent Essence; let it not be presumption, if I go a little farther and infer, that thou, O God, and none but thou, which dost these things, art that one most perfect, immutable, infinite, and omnipotent Essence. Thus you may perceive what wings Nature hath yet afforded Man to soar aloft, if he would but pry into that glorious Cabinet of heavenly treasure: if we look into the four last Chapters of job, we shall see God himself, as it were reading a lecture of these works of Nature, that by them he might demonstrate his wisdom, and by them his power and providence might be conceived. The old Testament is copious likewise in this subject, there you may see how the devout Saints, 
Psal. 148.  that they might provoke themselves and others to sing praises unto God, invited breathless creatures to praise him▪ and feigned them voices and tongues to set forth his power and glory. But the Apostle goes something farther, and saith, not only the invisible things of God are seen by his works, but he adds moreover, that they are so fare seen, as to make the Gentiles without excuse. And indeed it was the very scope of Saint Paul and Barnabas, in my Text, to teach the Lystrians thus much, that howsoever God left not such witness of himself unto them as was sufficient to save them; yet that by his works of Nature he left them such a witness, as that they dishonouring his sacred person by Idolatry, did take from themselves all matter which might excuse them. For what if Nature condemned them not quoad totum, y●t it did quoad tantum; say, Nature reached not to the knowledge of the Trinity, or of Christ the Redeemer, yet in that they went not so fare in acknowledging God as Creator or Governor of all things, as Nature could have directed them, we may well judge them unexcusable: They might thus fare have played the Logicians, and that to good purpose; that God is a Spirit which every where sways the world by his mighty Word, may be confirmed by Reason, and therefore our Idolatry is vicious, by which we adore him in bodily and humane representations; that there is but one God, may be proved by natural deductions, and therefore our Poetical fictions of many gods is vain and ridiculous; that this God was before the World which he made, and that he is justice and goodness itself, which is the judge of good and bad, is evident by the light of Nature, erroneous therefore are our narrations of the gods parentages and of their actions, which were so prodigious, that only they deserved (as Euripides saith) to be banished out of Heaven, 
Clemens in protreptic. ad Gent.  but unworthy also they were to live amongst mortal men. Thus you see how Nature itself passed upon these Gentiles, and found them guilty of wilful ignorance; what might they here say for themselves? should they plead, they had no ears to hear the truth, when as brute creatures with more than a Trumpets voice did every where proclaim it? Should they urge, they could not see the way which leads to the School of knowledge, when as blind creatures, and such as have no eyes at all did point it out and show it unto them? Shall they object, the feebleness of their understandings, where stocks and stones, and things without understanding become masters? O ignorance intolerable, O blindness more than gross, not to see, or seeing, not to discern when the Sun itself lodgeth in his Zenith; Interroga iumenta (saith job) & docebunt te, 
job 12.8.  volatilia coeli & indicabunt tibi, loquere terrae & respondebit tibi, & narrabunt pisces maris; Ask the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee; speak to the earth, and it shall show thee; or the fishes of the sea, and they shall declare unto thee, who is ignorant of all these, but that the hand of the Lord hath made them? 
Rom. 1.19.  That which may be known of God, therefore is manifest in them (saith the Apostle) for God hath showed it unto them; 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. tom. 6.  true (ayth chrysostom) but by what means? what Prophet did he send unto them? what Evangelist? what Doctor? Why he tells us, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The invisible things of him are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; All creatures are Regij professores, professors of that great King, all are his witnesses, all his preachers, and if I may say it, they are all but real postils of his Diumitie. Writers contend in expressing this point with variety of similes. God may be contemplated in his creatures as in a Glass, 
1. Cor. 13.12. Basil. hom. 11. Hexam. Aug. de Gen. Athan. orat. count. idola. Aug. 55. serm. de verb. Dom.  so Saint Paul; read as in a Book, so Basill; heard as in an harp, so Austin; viewed as in a Picture, so Athanasius. The Apostle saith not therefore, (as Saint Austin well notes) eos veritatis ignaros, that the Gentiles were ignorant of the truth, sed quod veritatem iniquitate detinuerint, but that they held the truth in unrighteousness; it seems, they either squinted upon the object, and could not discern the nat●ue colours, or else, when they turned over Nature's Text, they interpreted it by the Devil's comment.  
But I will stand no longer upon the proof of a point so evident, I will now come to apply it to ourselves. Since it hath pleased God to give such evidence and witness of himself, by his works of Nature, we should show ourselves trivants in his school, should we with less attentive ears than is meet, observe their dictates of the God head. Men are happy (saith chrysostom) which have so dextrous and perspicuous Teachers, 
Chrysost. in Psal. 19  for had this testimonial of Nature been written in paper or parchment, the learned indeed might have read it, but the ignorant could have received no benefit from it; the rich might have bought it, but the poor would have wanted it: again, they which understand the language, would have reaped some profit from it, but the Scythian, and Barbarian, and Indian, and Egyptian, whose Tongues it was not written in, would have made no use of it. And indeed, chrysostom than thought this was enough to argue the happiness we have, in that it is not liable to the discommodities of pen and ink; but had that good Father lived in our days, he would have added to these fare more inconveniences worse than the former. Alas (beloved) if Guttenbergius which invented printing, had but committed this testimonial of Nature to the press, I omit how Critics would have transposed whole elements, not of Grammar only, but of the World, at their pleasure; think you that in what Nature itself, so mainly oppugneth Popish transubstantiation, the Council of Trent would not have condemned it as a prohibited book, at the least not have permitted it to pass in the vulgar Tongue amongst the Laiks? But thankes be to God, which hath spread this book of Nature open to every man's view. Nor are we to imagine, the Characters of the Godhead to be imprinted in the more noble Creatures only, and not in others. S. Austin tells us that having gone through all creatures, 
Aug. Soliloquijs. c. 31.  and seriously have inquired of them for God, not one or two, but every one made him this answer, with an audible voice, Non sum ego, sed per ipsum sum ego quem quaeris in me; I am not he, but by him I am whom thou seekest in me. And Hugo de S. vict. affirms, 
Hug. de Sancto Victore, lib. 2. dearca. c. 3.  that every thing speaks these three words unto a man, Accipe, red, fuge; take, restore, flee. The first is, vox famulantis, the voice of a servant, accipe benesicium, receive a benefit of God. The second is, vox admonentis, the voice of a monitor, red, o homo, debitum Deo officium, render, O man, the duty thou owest to God, for giving us unto thee. The third is, vox comminantis, the voice of a threatener, fuge, o homo, supplicium, flee, Woman, the punishment which even we shall inflict upon thee, if thou be'st not grateful for receiving us. We may not be so rigid Philosophers, as to make our natural Philosophy merely speculative, a Christian must ring it further, and convert it to a practical use. In the book of Nature we must think no page unwritten on, we must suppose every creature, even the basest to speak unto us; the stars of the firmament to cry out, and by their light to invite us to that eternal light which is above; the winds in the airy regions to cry out, and admonish us of the Spirit of the Lord which dwelleth in all things; the floods and streams of running water to cry out, and summon us to that crystal river and fountain of living water which is in heaven; the earth when it trembles, and when its massy frame is shaken, to cry out, and put us in mind of the ruin and dissolution of the world. And for as much as God in this world can be discerned by us but in his hinder parts, that is, in his works and his effects, him, lest they which he hath now left unto us as witnesses to inform us, he one day produce against us, as witnesses to condemn us. And so I pass from the Aphaeresis to the Epicurosis, from the Assertion to the Confirmation, which cometh in the next place to be handled. In that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, shilling our hearts with food and gladness.  
The benefits of God, which the Apostles do here produce to confirm the former position, are pointed out by them (as before I shown you) either in general, or in particular. In general, in that he did good; in particular, in that he gave them rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness. As for the general, we are to note, that our Apostles proceed not here with Aristotle, 
Arist. 8. Phys.  à motu ad primum motorem, from motion to conclude a first mover; nor yet with Patricius, 
Patrici. Pan. aug. lib. 1.  à lumine ad lucis luminis patrem, from light to prove the author and father of it; but here they use a strain of Christian Rhetoric, and to gain the benevolence of their auditors, what arguments are most subject to sense, and greatliest do affect the heart of man, those they propose to allure them to acknowledge the true God, to wit, in that he did good. For howsoever we understand things as they are true, or delight in them because they are fair; yet whatsoever we affect, we palpably feel it either good in itself, or good for us. What the Philosopher therefore pronounced in a solemn axiom, as it is undoubted in seculation, so it is daily experimented in action, bonum est quod omnia appetunt, 
Arislot. Ethic. lib. 1. cap. 1.  goodness is that which all things affect. But although goodness be so desirable, yet that goodness which is here meant in my Text, is not the goodness that is in God; but that goodness, which is from God; not goodness in the subject, but in the object; not that which is tanquam lux in lucido, but that which is tanquam lumen in diaphano. From this good which is done, our Apostles draw an argument to the Author which doth it: for it cannot be, but that so divine an offspring, must argue a divine Sire, and that so generous an issue must insinuate unto us somewhat the image and portraiture of its noble Parent. But how proceeds the argument? can the truth of it be discerned by those only which are purified from offences, and are right believers? Because of Israel it is said, he hath not done so to any Nation, therefore poureth he his treasures upon none, but such as in sincere effectual and thirsty hearts seek for him? No, no, (beloved) his goodness no less extendeth her sphere then his omnipotency her might; what man ever lived and enjoyed not the heat and light of this visible Sun; and who ever lived or continued life, but by the beams of his invisible goodness? they were not jews but Gentiles, which our Apostles here deal with; not worshippers of the true God, but a nation possessed with ignorance, and adorers of foul spirits which they contend with: yet they objecting Gods doing good, as a forceable argument to convince even them of their blind superstition, and gross idolatry, do direct us to this plain but most profitable observation.  
That there are none, if they duly considered it, to whom God exhibites not evident tokens of his goodness.  
Besides the special goodness, wherewith God seems in a more especial manner to endue his elect, the general goodness which he confers to all his creatures, consists in twofold kind, to wit, creando & sustentando, in creating, and in sustaining them being created. The goodness which he endowes them withal in their creation, is either absolute, or as the Metaphysics terms it, transcendental, by which, things are good in themselves, as it is said, God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good, Gen. 1.3. or else it is respective, by which things are good, and useful in respect of others. Not that every thing is bonum universale, universally good for all things (as the Schools well distinguish) but that at least it is bonum particular & contractum, every thing is good for something: 
Hie●on. de ●ed ●is in Thom. p. 1. q. 23. art 3.  Vult Deus omnibus bonum, sed non vult omnibus omne bonum. Whence it comes to pass, that that which stands in an antipathy with one thing, sympathiseth with another; and what is poison to one creature, is wholesome food and nourishment to another. For God composed the order and series of things, like a verse of Antithetaes', that so by contrary the same ornaments might be in things which are in words. The not observing of which, gave an advantage to a Manichie, to persuade an ignorant man (as Saint Austin, 
Aug. l. 5. de civit.. Dei, cap. 18.  de Genesi contra Manichcos relates it) to believe, because flies molested him, quod diabolus fecit muscas, that the Devil made them. The like do the manichees of our days, I mean the inconsiderate valuers of God's benefits, conceiving that whatsoever squares not with their humours, is not good. But what saith Saint Austin to this? If (saith he) an ignorant man chance to enter the shop of a cunning Artificer, he sees there many instruments whose use he knows not, and if by chance he falls into a furnace, or cuts himself with a sharp tool through mishandling it, no doubt but he will judge many things there to be pernicious, and perhaps superfluous; but the Artificer himself, because he is his Craftsmaster, and is dextrous in using them, scoffs at the others folly, and contemns his censure. Now, shall men be so sottish, that in a Tradesman's shop they may not dispraise what they are ignorant of, but judge all things they see to be necessary and instituted to some good purpose, and yet in the world whose Maker and Gonernour is God himself, shall they presume to censure the things whose causes they know not, and seem to vilify the instruments of so omnipotent an Artificer? Ego vere (adds the Father) fateor me nescire quare mures & ranae creata sunt aut muscae, aut vermiculae, video tamen omnia suo genere pulchra esse, qu●muis ob peccata nostra, multa nobis videantur adversa. I confess, I know not why Mice, or Frogs, or Flies, or Worms were created, but I see that they are all good in their kind, although for our sins some seem adverse and pernicious unto us. Thus you see, how God communicates his goodness to all things creando, by creating them, making them good both absolutely in themselves, and respectively in relation to others; now how he seconds it, Sustentando, by sustaining them, as every creature is a witness thereof unto itself, so doth the Scripture, as an impartial judge, promulge it unto us all. For do we conceive his goodness to extend to the godly only, and not to the wicked? our Saviour will tell us, that he makes his Sun to rise upon the evil and the good, on the just and on the unjust, Matt. 5.45. or imagine we his bounty to be confined to men only, and that it dilates not itself to dumb creatures also and brute beasts? Hearken then to those words of King David, Psal. 14.5. The eyes of allwait upon thee, O Lord, and thou givest them their meat in due season; thou openest thy hand, and fillest all things living with plenteousness. A true Lover of God therefore (saith Bernard) which way soever he turns himself, hath a familiar admonition of his Creator, he useth all things as a Glass, and from the Creatures to the Creator, thus musing, he is elevated, Si ista bona dulcia & pulchra videntur, quae creata cum tempore mutantur, quid bonitatis & dulcedinis habebit author eorum Deus. If those things seem good & beautiful, which being made of nothing, are changed with Time; what goodness and sweetness may we conceive hath he, which is Maker and Author of them.  
A just reprehension (beloved) for these stupid and senseless times of ours, wherein most men are so corrupt by nature, so possessed with Ehtnicism, that more blind than these idolatrous Lystrians, they can be content to let God every day shower down his goodness in plenty, and yet they will be fresh Sophisters still, and from sound Premises infer none but indirect Conclusions. If their affairs go well, they have but their due; if ill, they will quarrel with God's goodness. Certainly, should Saint Paul and Barnabas produce God's goodness, to induce the Worldlings of our days, to yield Assent to any Assertion, it would be thought to be but Book learning, and they would be held to argue à non concessis; For, to say the truth, when commonly men convert God's benefits to their own hurt, when from his bounty grows their impenitency, from his forbearance their hardness, from his long suffering and goodness it comes to pass, that they treasure unto themselves (as the Apostle saith) wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgement of God; with what Nails or Goads, think you, do they fasten this Doctrine to their consciences? How do they hearty acknowledge God to do any good, when they know no other use of that good, then to convert it to ill? And yet (beloved) when God left not himself without witness, a thousand ways to make proof of his Godhead, the Apostles you see in my Text, as if they would cull out that which was most profitable to be viewed by us, propose only his doing good, on which to fix our Meditations. I cannot tell what to pronounce of Solomon, the Scriptures say this of him, 
1. King. 3.12.  that there was none such before him, nor any such after him; and yet I know not, wherein the Lilies of the field excelled him not: 
Luc. 12.27.  For in all his glory he was not arrayed like one of them; were it not in this, that he was sensible and apprehensive of God's goodness, the other were not. But what should a Christian look abroad, let him look but within himself, and from thence he may take a plentiful Theme of God's goodness; he needs not talk of transitory benefits, those alone which he feels in his breast, are enough to detain his cogitations. 
Basil. in regulis contractiaribus quest. 15.  Si miserationum Dei multitudo numerari & magnitudo mensurari poterit, saith Basil, if the multitude of God's mercies might be numbered, and their greatness measured, then should we but cast our eyes upon the multitude and greatness of our sins, we might chance to despair; but seeing our sins may be numbered, and yet his mercies not measured, we may take courage to ourselves, because he over-comes our evil with his own goodness. 
August. Meditat. c. 2.  Not only being offended he strikes not, but to those also which provoke him, he becomes the Horn of salvation: unhappy as we are, we sin, and he forbears to punish: we transgress, and yet he suffers; if we repent, he spares us; if we return, he receives us; if we linger, he prevents us.  
But some will object, how may it be said that God exhibits such evident tokens of his goodness to all men, when many feel his rod of correction, and in this life are afflicted with sundry and diverse calamities? I answer (beloved) and confess, that some times God seems to frown upon us, and to menace us with utter destruction, but yet when others like drones do gather honey but from the Hive, a true Believer should gather it even from Thistles, and when weaker Vessels bear sail only in a Calm; a true Vessel of Christ's should sail best to his wished Port in a storm. To say the truth, it is so appointed from the beginning of the World, that afflictions and fiery trials should always attend the Church, whilst it wanders in this desert of Sin, but so fare are they from eclipsing the splendour of God's goodness towards it, that rather they do the more illustrate it. For whereas all other things by vexation and oppression do wane and decay, the Church like the Moon when the Sun of righteousness seems to be most in opposition with it, gives ever the most light and is at the fullest. It is usual with the Fathers, to compare the Church of the Ark, 
August. l. 5. de Baptismo cap. vlt.  because as none were saved from the Deluge, but such as were in the Ark; so none are delivered from eternal death, but such as are really existing in the Church; but the similitude holds as well in respect of the Storms and Tempests that always do accompany it; the more the Floods of afflictions do increase, the more it is elevated & lifted up towards Heaven. And as it fares with the Church in general, so doth it with each member thereof in particular; we are all wounded, and need the good Samaritan to refresh us; from the sole of the foot even to the crown of the head, there is no soundness in us, but wounds, and bruises, 
Esay 1.  and putrifying sores; if therefore we would be healed, we must commit ourselves to our Cherurgeon Christ jesus, whither he will lance, or sear, or teint us to the quick, we are to think it tends to our recovery; and if we may not prescribe an ordinary Physician, by what physic he shall remove the disease of our body; how may we be so hardy as to prescribe our heavenly Physician, how he shall deal in the cure of our souls? To think that we need no Cauteries, no bitter Potions, is to think that we have shaken off that hereditary disease, which our first Father derived to all his Posterity; and are we indeed so blind, as to crave God's mercy, to be freed from the true Conductors and Guides to our heavenly habitations? Must we with our hearts look back again towards Egypt, from whence we are freed, because we cannot attain unto the Land of Canaan, unless we pass through the sandy and penurious deserts of Arabia? The vulgar, I know, is so mad and inconsiderate, that when it beholds any of Fortune's Minions, or the World's Darlings, it useth to say, How greatly is this man bound unto God, how good hath God been unto him; for they do measure felicity by those things which are seen by their bodily eyes, but should we look with the eyes of Faith unto God's secret judgements, we should see, that that poor man, that Lazer, that wretch, that abject and despised creature owes more unto God's goodness, than the other; for though all that, which the common sort of men count wretched, were accumulated upon one man, yet compare but the endless and unspeakable happiness which that man shall enjoy, and that perhaps by means of these afflictions, with the momentary and sophisticate felicity, which others do now possess; and who would deem that poor man wise, if he should change states upon so hard conditions, when the rich can hardly part with his wealth, but he must give the Devil to boot, and his fair Lordships have oftentimes so sore encumbrances annexed to their tenure, as hell flames. But beside, say that God's goodness shined not thus unto us through the mists of afflictions, yet me thinks, the reward which one day we shall receive for them, if with patience we abide them, may well persuade us, that it is no Paradoxt to affirm all crosses, which we endure in this life, to be no less than tokens of God's goodness. Doth any win the Prize, that strives not for the Mastery? or is any graced with Conquest, which is loath to enter into the Field? If there were no Foes to combat with, where were the triumphant Palms of them which follow the Lamb? if no persecutions, where were the Crown of Martyrdom? if no toiling in the Vineyard, nor sustaining the brunt of the Day, where were the Penny at night? I will conclude therefore this Point, with that of the Apostle, Rom. 8.28. We know that all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose. Vita mihi Christus & mors lucrum (saith S. Paul) to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If things go well with us, we will say with the Psalmist, Quam bonus Deus Israeli; truly, God is good unto Israel; if ill, we will yet jubilat unto him, Quoniam bonus, and take up this song in our miseries: It is good for us that we are afflicted. And so, I pass from God's benefits in general, in that he did good, to them here specified in particular (which follow in the last place to be handled) in that he gave us rain from Heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.  
Many of the ancient Copies (saith Beza) have not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Bez. Annot.  nobis, to us, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, vobis, to you; and the Syriake and Arabian translation imply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, ijs, to them: but later translations for the most part, either omit the pronoun wholly, as the vulgar, or else agree with ours, and render it dans nobis, giving us rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons, as Beza and Arias Montanus. Howsoever, the matter is not great, all concurring in this, that the Lystrians or Gentiles are here to be understood, and therefore no marvel, if our Apostles by a usual Prosopopaea, speak as it were, in their own persons, what concerned the persons, of them with whom they now argued the matter. Many good observations might from hence be gathered; as first, that seeing God was so bountiful, in conferring such fruitful seasons and blessed showers from Heaven upon the Gentiles, whom with patience and long suffering, he permitted to go awry in the way of salvation, and to be polluted with idolatry, and all sensual conversation; that neither temporal felicity can be a note of the true Church, as Bellarmine in his fourth Book, de notis Ecclesiae and eighteenth Chapter, would fain have it; nor yet plenty, or scarcity, can any way argue the truth or falsehood of a Religion; which notwithstanding we find suggested in this Kingdom to simple and ignorant Papists, as an argument of no small consequence. That Argument which the jews took up against jeremiah, chap. 44. vers. 18. Since we left off to burn Incense to the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword, and by the famine; the same use many deluded souls against us. All things (say they) were more plentiful and cheaper, when the old Religion was professed in this Kingdom, than they are now; we may well retort against them, therefore, that same Argument, which the Apostles here in my Text press the Lystrians withal. God, in times past, suffered them to walk in their own ways, to crave succour of Saints, and implore the aid of Idols and carved Images; nevertheless, he left not himself without witness, that it was he which did good, he which gave them rain and fruitful seasons, he which filled their hearts with food and gladness; he strained courtesies, as you see, with them, if possibly he might, by them, turn them from those vanities unto him alone, which made Heaven and Earth, the Sea and all things that are therein. But because they make England, as before it masked under Popery, to be such a pattern of a happy Church. I demand one question, Wherein consisted that plenty which they so talk of? certainly, so wealthy it was not when the Pope termed it puteum inexhastum, 
Matth. Paris, pag. 683 423.626. , a Well never drawn dry, and yet (saith Matthew Paris) full often almost emptied to the bottom by his Procurations, Provisions and Taxes upon the Clergy and Laiety. To be brief therefore, plenty or cheapness can no way prove their Religion; and I cannot but herein condemn them of an oversight, to make cheapness in the Market, or things out of the Church, to be a note of the true Religion, and yet to require no cheapness in things in the Church, there, Pardons, Dispensations, Masses, Dirges, Absolutions, every thing shall be set at a rack Rend by his Holiness, and the Church must be fain to borrow its mark from the Market. Be not deceived (beloved) though we may contend with any Nation for these out ward blessings, yet we may not obtrude these to our Adversaries, but purity in Doctrine, and sanctity in life. It was not our Saviour's turning stones into Bread, but urging the Word written, 
Matth. 4.  which subdued Satan in the wilderness; plenty and want are common both to good and bad; and Saint Austin in his Book, de civitate Dei, 8. chap. gives the reason;  nec bona cupidiùs appetuntur, quae mali quoque habere cernuntur, nec mala turpiter evitentur, quibus & boni plerunque afficiuntur: that neither these earthly goods should be greedily affected, which we see even wicked men to possess, nor any evil upon earth to be basely avoided, wherewith we see even the godliest full often to be afflicted. But of this I spoke somewhat in the former Part, my purpose is to insist at this time, especially upon the ●●ings mentioned in my Text, the first whereof is, as it were, a general cause, effecting the rest which follow, but yet exists without a man, he gives us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons; the rest are effects of the former, but yet exist within a man; the one touching the body, he fills our hearts with food; the other concerning the mind, he fills our hearts with gladness. Seeing therefore, God witnesseth himself unto us, both by giving us things, which belong to us internally and externally, to our bodies and to our minds, we may well infer this observation.  
That whatsoever concerns the happiness or felicity of a man in this life, is wholly derived from God.  
I will prosecute them as they lie in order in my Text: first therefore for outward blessings, which here are pointed out by the most eminent species of them, rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons; Paraphrastes Hierosolymitanus saith, 
Paraphrast. Hieros'. in c. 30. Gen.  they are one of the Keys which God delivers neither to Angel nor to Seraphin: how God effects them, the Schools much labour; I list not to dispute with Fonseca and Suarez in their Metaphysics, 
Fonsec. l. 5: Metaph. c. 2. q. 9 Suarez Tom. 1. pisp. 22.  whether the action whereby God produceth rain and fruitful seasons, be the same in number with the action of the Heavens, and other secundary causes; it is sufficient, that God's providence hath a hand in all things: we attribute unto it notwithstanding the ordinary course of nature, effection, direction, cohibition: in a word, God worketh not by second causes, as Magistrates govern their Common wealths by inferior Officers; for they so govern by them, that they do nothing or very little themselves, and peradventure never know what is done; God governs not the World so, but in every particular work hath his particular stroke. The Heavens indeed are the ordinary instruments whereby he effects these things, but yet we must remember that they are but second Agents; concerning which it is a memorable saying of the Philosopher, in the second of his Metaphys. and second chapter. Omnia secunda agentia it a essentialiter subijciuntur primo agenti, 
Aris●ot. 2. Metaph. 2.  ut primum agens in eorum actione magis agate, quam ipsa agant; all secundary agents are so essentially subordinated to the first Agent, that the first Agent doth more in their action than they themselves. The chief end wherefore God ordained the heavens, was not for their own sakes, but for man's use; as therefore they conduce to execute his Decrees towards man, so he either binds the sweet influences of the Pleyades, or loses the bands of Orion. 
job 38.31.  It were long to recount, how often the Lord promiseth in the Prophets, to declare his favour towards men, by watering their Fields with dew and rain from Heaven; and again to testify his indignation, by making the Heavens to wax hard like Iron and yield no rain, as it did in the time of Ahab; 
1. King. 17.  but one thing in the Law & Prophets is worth our observing; when God foretelleth either rain, fruitful seasons, or times of scarcity; he looks not upon the stars above, but upon our sins; he gives us to understand, that the best Almanac, which we should rely upon, is our obedience to him, our love towards our Neighbours, and our care of ourselves. He tells us not of the conjunctions and oppositions of the Stars, nor the Eclipses of the greater Lights; but what saith he? If thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and do all his Commandments, the heavens shall give the rain into thy land in his season; but if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes, the heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron, the Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder, and dust, from heaven shall it come down upon thee until thou be destroyed. Deuteron. 28. O foolish Astrologers, how is it, that you look upwards towards heaven, to descry the seasons of succeeding years? you should look downwards into yourselves, the constellations are on earth which produce these effects; We are those wand'ring Stars which decline from the true Ecliptic of God's Word; We those more earthly Globes which stand in opposition, or at least, eclipse the light of the Sun of righteousness; We those irregular Planets which are stationary, or rather retrograde in the Sphere of Christianity. There is not Scorpio above, nor Saturn with his malevolent influence, believe it, they are below; here are Lions, and Bears, and Dragons, and Serpents, and Serpentarius', and Hydra's, and Dog-starres, and I am almost of Copernicus his opinion, that the Sun stands still in the Centre, and we moving in a Lunatic Orb with the Moon, are the causes of such direful and menacing aspects, as are above.  
The latter benefits that are here specified in my Text, concern man more inwardly; the first whereof toucheth his Body, when it is said, He fills his heart with food, the heart being by a Synecdoche of a part for the whole, taken for the whole man: because as food is the principal staff of man's life, so the heart hath a principal operation in man's food; for it is Officina sanguificationis, the very shop, as Aristotle tells us, where our food is converted into blood. But how fare God extends his favour of not only giving, but also filling (as my Text hath it) our hearts with food, may well be questioned? Abraham is termed just, 
Gen. 12.10.  in the holy Scripture, and yet we read how he was constrained to change his habitation for famine; and Saint Paul, who bids us be followers of him, as he was of Christ, gave yet this testimony of himself, 
2. Cor. 11.27.  Often was I in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness. Now, if God so deal with his elect and chosen vessels, which he love's, how may it be said, that he witnesseth his Godhead even unto the Gentiles, a wild Olive which he love's not, by such ample blessings, as filling their hearts with food? The sum of that which Interpreters have, for the deciding of this doubt, is this; God is open handed to all Nations, he fills all things living with his plenteousness; but yet so, that these three rules be observed: The first is, that this filling be not always understood of an immoderate filling, according to the insatiable desires of the flesh, this, God oftentimes debars his own servants of; but of such a filling, as is sufficient to content our weak natures withal. The second is, that we perform the condition which God requires at our hands, that is, that we labour and take pains in a lawful vocation. The third, that this exception be inserted, quatenus scil. expedire Deus noverit, so fare God will fill us, as he shall see it to be profitable and expedient for us.  
The last benefit of God, mentioned in my Text, concerns the mind, in that he fills our hearts with gladness: and here the Heart is likewise taken for the whole Man: for as the heart hath a principal function in converting our food to our substance, so hath it no less a place in exciting and stirring up the affection of gladness. Philosophy tells us, that as when a man apprehends any distasteful object, the heart contracts itself, and so the outward members, wanting the spirits which the heart was wont to send forth, tremble, and wax pale and wan, and the whole man becomes strait affected with some untunable passion, so when one conceives a pleasing object, the heart dilates itself, and sends forth spirits into the outward parts to prosecute the thing it liketh, whereby the whole man becomes more lively and gladsome then before, in which respect it may be said, that God which gives content and joy unto a man, doth fill likewise his heart with gladness. Now, there is a double gladness, the one arising from things temporal; the other, from things eternal; both come from God, and therefore neither simply to be disproved; but I chief commend to your best endeavours the latter, because without a relation unto it, the former is neither good nor solid. For if our true gladness were founded upon things temporal, then (me thinks) wealth, and honour, or authority should have the principal place in effecting it; if Wealth, then should rich men never be sad; if Honour and Authority, then should Princes and Monarches never be pensive or disquieted; but, O these mortal wights, they fix not their thoughts so strongly upon the bags they have, as upon those they would have, or have had and have not; and lo, their gladness is now turned into sorrow and vexation of spirit. A Prince's temples are not so compassed with a Crown, as his mind besieged with cares, nor is he so lifted up with the splendour of his train, as cast down with the multitude of his fears. The heart of man therefore (as some wittily note) is made of the form of a triangle, but the world is round, implying, that if the heart of man should contain the whole world within it, yet as a circle comprehended within a triangle, cannot fill the triangle so completely, but that always there will be left void spaces in the angles or corners for more to be put in; so can it not be, that the heart should be so filled or satisfied with the world, but that always it would crave something above it, and something beyond it. Now, if it be true which Mathematicians teach us, that numbers in Arithmetic do bear a proportion to figures in Geometry, this small triangle of man, the Heart, must be filled by the fruition of that glorious Trinity which created it. Transitory blessings may indeed a little content it; but yet they leave corners for sorrows, and troubles, and anguishs to harbour in: the sacred Trinity fills all the rooms, leaves no chink for distractions to creep in; of all the men therefore, that I know, he only which contemplates that Majesty, is filled with true gladness; for, how can any spark of discontent seize upon that breast, where there is Fountain of living water, and where God hath founded a whole Ocean of joy to extinguish it.  
To come to my conclusion: You have seen Natures testimonial of the Godhead, and how she hath described him, and pourtraited him out in his Robes of goodness: you have beheld him opening the windows of Heaven, to give you rain, and fruitful seasons; and stretching forth his hand, to give you food: you have viewed him filling your Cellars with Wine, to glad your hearts; and your Cruzes with Oil, to give you cheerful countenances: what remains, but (what was the Apostles counsel to the Lystrians in this place) that with thankfulness and gratefulness we should turn unto him, who hath by so many benefits witnessed himself unto us. Be not deceived (beloved) I mind not to dissuade you, either from worshipping, or adoring those gods which the Apostles with such zeal dissuaded the Lystrians from: thankes be to God, you have not so learned Christ, as to want Instructers in this matter. But, alas, these times of ours, are more dangerous and difficult to correct, than those of old; by forgetting the true Author of all these worldly blessings, how many do assume the glory thereof to themselves, and take themselves, as it were, for that Image fallen down from jupiter? We complain not with Micha, 
judg. 18.2.  You have taken away the gods which I made, and what have I more, but you adore not that God which I am; we do not, as Hermes writes of himself, call spirits by Art Magic into Statues, nor allure them by direful spells into the Images of deceased Heroes: 
August. de ciu●tate Dei lib. 8. & 26.  no, we are apt enough to conceive them in our own brains, to dress Altars, and erect Shrines to our own Genius's. Doth our stock multiply and increase, or are our fields fatted with dew and rain from Heaven, we think not upon the Cause above, but our own providence or industry here beneath, these are the gods (O Israel) which brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt. 
Exod. 32.8.  Are our Garners stored with food, or our hearts through any earthly promotion filled with gladness, we go no further; what though Saturn be dejected from his Throne, Plutus be confined to Hell, Phehus resign his Chariot, the world yet shall want no gods to worship, We ourselves will be jupiters' and Mercuries, 
Act. 14.  come down in the likeness of men. A shame it is for us Christians, amongst whom God should be all in all, that we can be content to attribute the most to ourselves, the rest to fortune: Is it so, that we so lately abandoned Rome, and rescued ourselves from the worship of the Beast, and are we now relapsed again so suddenly to a new Idolatry? Do we think much to invocate and adore those glorious Stars of the empyrial Heaven, the Saints and Angels, and shall we be so sordid, as to give divine worship to dust and ashes? Where is the zeal of the Apostles in these our days? Whither is the godly indignation of those patterns of true humility proscribed? I wish you not (beloved) as they did, to rend your clothes; they are but superfluities in our times; rend you your hearts. I desire you not to run amongst the people, or to contend with a heady multitude; take a shorter journey, run but to yourselves, cry out but to yourselves, and be the first that shall witness to your own souls, That it is God only, which hath done you good, and gave you rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, and filled your hearts with food and gladness: tell me, whosoever thou be'st, that makest an Idol of thyself; hath God left himself without witness, to prove, in despite of pride, that thou owest him for whatsoever good thing thou possessest? tell me, if thou be'st so stupid, as not to feel the testimony of thine own conscience, which should be a thousand witnesses unto thee, whether yet thou canst avoid the clamorous cries even of tongueless creatures? God hath been bountiful unto many Nations; France may boast her fertility; Spain, her wealth; Italy, her beauty and magnificence: but England hath had an happy and peaceable State, of long continuance, under most gracious and virtuous Princes; and these will tell thee, that God hath not witnessed himself so to any Nation, in doing good. But good may many ways be enjoyed, there may be peace at home, and war abroad; plenty of gold and silver, enough to lend unto our neighbours, and yet we may have a famine upon our Land, lightnings and hailstones to consume the fruits of the earth, as it was in Egypt, but the blessed times which we have enjoyed will tell thee, that he hath not left himself without witness likewise, in giving us rain, and fruitful seasons: But say, we have fruitful seasons, yet inter pocula extremaque labra multa cadunt, intestine commotions may bereave us of our harvest, foreign invasions may make us turn our Mattocks into Spears, and our Sythes into Swords, but God hath afforded us hitherto this testimonial of his bounty, that he left not himself without witness, in filling our hearts with food also. But when we have our desire satisfied in all these, that God witnesseth himself unto us, in doing good many ways, in giving us rain, and fruitful seasons, and filling our hearts with food; yet for all this, our Harp may be turned into mourning, and our Organ into the voice of them that weep; there may be subtle whisperings, rebellious doctrines, judas-like practices, traitorous attempts upon the pillars both of Church and Commonwealth; but he which keepeth Israel, neither slumbreth nor sleepeth; the wicked he hath made to fall into the pits they invented for others, and this generation may tell it unto another, that God hath not left himself without witness unto us, in filling our hearts with gladness also. To him therefore, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, one God, and three Persons, be rendered all Praise, Honour, and Glory, Might, Majesty, and Dominion, both now and for evermore.  
Amen.   

PAUL'S PEREGRINATIONS, OR THE TRAVELLER'S GUIDE. Delivered in a Sermon at Paul's Cross. Anno 1617.  
BY EDWARD CHALONER, Doctor of Divinity, and Fellow of ALLSOULES College in OXFORD.  
LONDON, Printed by W. STANSBY, 1623.   

PAUL'S Peregrinations, OR The Travellers Guide.  ACT. 17. VERS. 23. 
For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an Altar with this inscription, to the unknown God.  
I Know not, how the Pens of Heathen writers have so bewitched the judgements of many men, that even amongst Christians themselves, they have found not a few Patrons. To omit Viues and Erasmus, who having made their Lines their Consorts and Companions in this pilgrimage on earth, pronounce with no small touch of affection, that one day they shall enjoy likewise their sweet company and society in Heaven. Petrarch in the third of his Inuectives, goes thus fare, Se non credere aliquem de Philosophis aut Poetis idola coluisse, that it cannot sink into his thoughts, that any either of the Poets or Philosophers worshipped Idols. And certainly, I was almost persuaded, that divine Philosophy would have preserved her Professors from vulgar infections, or at least have wrought her Disciples to a more ready acceptance of higher mysteries, till I found her Royalest Palace, renowned Athens, so defiled with Idols, and Saint Paul himself so banded and oppugned by a rout of Epicures and Stoikes. How it should come to pass, that humane learning, forgetting as it were, that divine Original it had, should unnaturally bend itself against God's Divinity; whether, because like the Sunnebeameses lighting upon gross and earthy subjects, it doth recoil back again upon the Fountain and Efficient; or that aspiring to discover the secrets of the Godhead, and wanting the light of the Gospel to direct it, the farther it wades, the farther it draws the mind of man from the mark, and makes its return the more tedious; or that God, to confound the wise in their wisdom, and the prudent in their prudency, doth oftentimes conceal that knowledge from the Learned, which he reveals to Babes and Sucklings, I stand not now to discuss: In no place can we have a more notorious instance to confute that old opinion, that Arts and Disciplines have no Enemies but the Ignorant, then here, where we see the noblest of Arts of Disciplines, even Divinity itself, assaulted by two most famous Sects of Philosophy. Every where did Saint Paul find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Tit. 1.12. Act. 20.29.  evil Beasts; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and grievous Wolves, and yet I know not which seemed more difficult unto him, whether that, when he fought with Beasts at Ephesus, after the manner of men, or this, when he is encountered by Philosophers at Athens, after the manner of Beasts. That we may allow the Epicures deboistness and rudeness, which yet Epicurus himself (if we may believe Seneca) would not have brooked in his Scholars; 
Senec. de vita beata, c. 13.  yet then, where was that composed gravity of the Stoics? where that modesty and civility, 
Lips. Manuduct. ad Stoic. Philos. l. 1. d. 10.  which Zeno and Chrysippus taught in their Schools? the Theme they argue, no less than the salvation of their souls, and yet with less seriousness discussed by them then Problems in Sophistry; 
Lips. ib. lib. 3 dissert. 7.  the Agents against Paul, such as proclaimed passions to be vices in Nature, and incompatible with the temper of a wise man; and yet see, who more vainly breaks out now (as if morality consisted merely in speculation) into terms of passion, than these? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; What will this Babbler say? But their fury stays not here; I see that Arts and Sciences do not always mollify the rough inclinations of men, one would think that Philosophy herself grew cruel, to see such a troup of her followers lay violent hands upon Saint Paul, and to drag him from the place where he disputed as a Doctor in the Schools, to a Tribunal, where he must change his Forms, and plead his Cause as a Prisoner at the Bar. To say little of the judgement place, where you may suppose our Apostle now standing, it was the famous Senate of the Areopage, a noble Court, a more noble Cause; much might we conceive of the Plea of this blessed Prisoner, which was both party accused and Advocate to himself; no Demosthenes was entertained to pour forth his streams of eloquence in his Cause; no thundering Pericles was found, to open his mouth in his defence; for what? that dabitur in illa hora, which Christ bequeathed to his Disciples, was that, which could make Paul a perfect Orator, and an Orator powerful; he needed no penned Oration to affect the minds of his Auditors, for he at whose voice the depths and foundations of the Earth are shaken, did speak in him; But I must remember where it was that Saint Paul pleaded his Cause. It was not in the Forum at Rome, 
Ulpian, in Orat. Demosth. de falsa legate.  where the 12 Accuser had but six hours allotted him to accuse, and the Guilty nine hours to make his answer; but it was in the Areopage at Athens, where the Adversary might freely accuse, but the Defendant only speak to what was objected, and Laconike-brevitie had been Leaguer in that Court so long, that Proems themselves (saith Sigonius) were proscribed the Verse, 
Sigon. de Repub. Athen. lib. 3.  and disused by the Orators of that City. To frame therefore, any long Preface, in handling our Apostles Cause, especially before another Areopage, might seem both improper & impertinent. Wherefore, to come to the words themselves; the whole Oration is but ro convince the Athenians of idolatry and superstition, my Text is an instance by way of induction, to confirm his Thesis or Position in that Point; the sum whereof, if we should consider it in itself, is a relation of his topographical observations in his abode at Athens, whilst he walked the streets, not like that Cynic, to find an honest man at noon, by the light of a candle, but to discover the traps and machinations of Satan, at a midnight of ignorance by the light of the Gospel. The things therein contained, according to the Apostles terms, are two: first, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, what he beheld: and secondly, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in beholding what he had found: the one subordinate to the other. In the things he is said to behold, we may consider, first, the things themselves, their devotions: and secondly, the prudency and cautelousness which he used in beholding them, as he passed by. In the things he found, we are likewise to note, what it was, it was an Altar; and the title it had, An inscription to the unknown God. Of these in order, as God shall enable me, and your Christian patience permit me: and first, for the things he beheld, and the prudency which he used in beholding them; which for the better explaining of either, I shall handle together in the first place. As I passed by, I beheld your denotions, etc.  
Whether it be lawful or no, to view and behold the superstitious Rites of Idolators, is much controverted, both by the Fathers, 
Aug lib. de Haeres. c. 70. Euseh. lib. 6. hist c 28. Adri n. 4. Seul. q. 1.  Schoolmen, and modern Writers. The Priscillianists and Elcesaites, thought it lawful in any case to dissemble one's faith, and for the outward act to join one's self to Idolators. Adrianus, upon the fourth of the Sentences, agrees with them, so it be when God's honour is not diminished thereby, nor our Neighbour's eduication substracted, who indeed in this could not be so much blamed, were it not that he supposeth some outward act of idolatry may be committed, and yet neither God's honour thereby impaired, nor weak ones offended. The most therefore hold the negative part to them, so fare as it toucheth any joining or communicating with them in their actions, but yet for naked inspection, or mere presence, they hold the affirmative and positive with some limitations. These words of Saint Paul contain the whole state of the question, should we but narrowly look into them. The Position is plainly proved, in that he saith, I beheld your devotions; the original hath it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which Vatablus and Erasmus turn, culturas vestras, your worshippings; the vulgar, simulachra vestra, your Images; but both somewhat scantling the extent of the word, as Beza notes, 
Beza Annot. ad loc.  for neither doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imply the Image alone, or alone the worshipping of it, but rather both, so that Saint Paul seems not to limit himself in this place, from beholding either the one or the other. The limitations are found, contained in the former words, As I passed by, etc.  
Where we may observe First, The manner of his seeing. It was so that he might give no offence nor scandal to any; it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as he passed by, etc.  
Where we may observe Secondly, The Person, who beheld. It was not a weak Brother, which was in danger to receive infection, either for lack of knowledge or courage, it was the Apostle; As I passed by, etc.  
Where we may observe Thirdly, The occasion of his looking on. It was not any idolatrous motion, but his way or passing by, As I passed by, etc.  
So then, you see, with what cautions the Apostle, and by his example, every good Christian may take a view of the ceremonies of other Religions, it must be for the manner without offence, for the Person without danger of perverting, and for the occasion, it must be a civil respect and not any idolatrous purpose; but first for the Position.  
The Position seems to sound, that to be present at idolatrous ceremonies, or to view and take a full sight of their superstitions, is a thing in itself not wholly unlawful. But the easier it will appear, if we make a comparison between what Saint Paul did now at Athens, and what the Scriptures do testify, hath been done by the Saints at other times. To omit therefore violent coaction, when by constraint or force a man is compelled to be present at such superstitions, of which there is no question; do we not read how a Prophet of the Lords, was sent to tell his errand to jeroboam, as he stood by the Altar, sacrificing to his Calves, 1. King. 13. how Eliah beheld the Baalites offering incense unto their Baal, and that from early morning to noontide, and that without disturbing them, 1. King. 18. how Moses refused not to be present at the enchantments of the Egyptian Sorcerers, Exod. 7. nor the three Children at the adoration of the golden Image, Dan. 3. I press not this (beloved) as if I maintained any semblance or show of idolatry in any man, or the least badge of dissimulation in a Christian, it is the Doctrine of lies (saith Saint Austin, in his Book de Mendacio) asserere quod liceat diaboli culium mentiri in corpore, quando Dei cultus seruatur in cord, to affirm that it is lawful, to counterfeit the Devil's worship in the body, when we cloister up the worship of God as a reclused Votary in the soul. Let such juggling be the badge of Equivo●●tors and mental Reservers. Yet let me say, that he is no discreet Captain, which plods only upon his own rank, and reflects not his eye sometimes upon his Enemy's order and disposure. Saint Paul knew well, that he was to rescue Athens, not from Rome's jurisdiction, but from the Devil's tyranny; he understood, how that he was to subdue the Gentiles to Christ, and to captivated their minds to the obedience of the Faith, and therefore as a politic General, he pries into the weaknesses of the Adversary; he looks about him, to see what quarter the Devil had left unfortified with the strength of seeming Arguments, what Tower he might batter down upon the Enemy's head. Here the Devil had erected an Altar, and see, Saint Paul puts him to flight with the stones thereof, on which he had espied an inscription, To the unknown God.  
Thus then may you perceive the liberty which Saint Paul assumed, in beholding these devotions of the Athenians. But this were to give the reynes to all licentious impiety, should we here rest. The limitations therefore or cautions used by him, are to be considered. The first whereof (as before I shown you) concerns the manner; it was so that he might give no offence to the weak Ones, neither to the jew nor to the Gentile: He well knew, what his new Converts might object unto him; thou teachest us to fly idolatry, and lo, thou thyself art become a worshipper of Idols; he was not ignorant what Peter might have cast in his teeth, Thou withstoodsts me to the face at Antioch, for playing the jew with the jew, and the Gentile with the Gentile; why dost thou now become an outward Professor of Gentilism? he views these things therefore only, tanquam aliud agens, as if he minded nothing less than to give any observance unto the Idol; no man could say, Paul, thou art out of thy way; what he beheld, was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as he passed by. Neither was Saint Paul more rigid or scrupulous, in this case of conscience, than his fellow Saints: for when the Prophet came to the Altar of jeroboam, what else did he then declaim against it; or Eliah, then mock and deride the Baalites; or Moses, then contend with the Egyptians; or the three Children, then by refusing to worship the Idol, profess against it? Nor was the Case much differing with S. Paul, Act. 28. when he passed the Seas in that Ship, called the Castor and Pollux; no doubt, the Gentiles coming aboard, omitted not according to the Heathen custom, to implore the propitious conduct of those gods, and though Saint Paul's behaviour be in that place silenced by the Evangelist, yet we need not think but that he observed, what once he had given in Lesson to the Corinthians, that they should take heed, 
1. Cor. 8.9, 10, 11.  lest by any means their liberty should become a stumbling block to them that are weak, or that through their knowledge, should the weak Brother perish, for whom Christ died. Sometimes indeed, that Rule of Gregory's and Beda's concerning scandals, may hold plea, 
Greg. hom. 7 in Ezech. Bed. in cap. 9 Ma●c.  that utilius scandalum nasci permittitur, quam veritas relinquatur, it is more profitable that a scandal should be permitted, than a truth forsaken: but we must here distinguish (say the Schoolmen) first, between scandalum pusillorum, 
Thom. 2.2. q. 43. art. 7. Catet. & Greg. de Valent. ib. Alex. ab Alice, part. 2. q. 169.  a scandal of weak ones, and scandalum phariseorum, a scandal given to perverse and obstinate refragants. Secondly, between things necessary and things indifferent. In respect of the malicious and wilful Pharisee, he gives the scandal, which to please him, will make things indifferent to be necessary, or necessary indifferent; but in respect of the weak ones or children in the Faith, which had need (as the Apostle hath it) of Milk, and not strong meats, we must relinquish and omit, though not any necessary duty, yet any indifferent action. In a word, to avoid a scandal (saith Hierome) we must forsake any thing that may be omitted, 
Alex. ab Alice ibid. Gloss. interlin in 15. Matth.  salua triplici veritate, a threefold truth, being not endamaged thereby, to wit, Vita, Institia, & Doctrina, of Life, justice, or Doctrine.  
So then, you see the manner of his beholding, it was without offence; would you see the person which beheld; it was a stout and hardy Champion of our Faith, which had the whole Armour of Christ complete upon him, it was Saint Paul himself; As I beheld. It had need be a pure ray of that Sun of Righteousness, which should insinuate itself into the filth of things sublunary, and yet receive no pollution from them, no taintment. These senses of ours are well termed the cinq Ports of the Soul, at which Death lands all her Agents, Pleasure, Profit, Splendour, Ease, and yet of all others we may say, Mors intrat per fen●stras, when the rest of the senses are slower in receiving these Guests, the Sight, as being quickest in apprehending, admits them within the Haven ere the Soul have warning, or be in a readiness, to resist them. If Plato's assertion had been true philosophy, 
Plato in Timaee.  that visus fit extramittendo, our seeing is made by darting out the visive instruments to the object, there might perhaps have been some hope left, that the things we see and behold, should have no hurtful operation upon our faculties, but seeing our sight exercises itself intramittendo, 
Arist. lib. 2. de Anim. c. 7.  by suffering those Basilisks to enter into us, and seize upon us, and leave their poisonous impressions within us; I appeal, if that complaint of the Poets may not justly too often be taken up, Cur aliquid vidi, cur noxia lumina feci? 
Ouid.  But who then, will you ask, may be a competent spectator of these things; I answer, he which with Paul hath a sufficiet gratia, a courageous heart, and a discerning eye; no man can see the Beam in his Brother's eye, whilst a Beam remains in his own; we read in latter Astronomers, that in the most glorious of the Planets some spots appear, by the help of perspective instruments, which the dulness of our sight cannot attain unto; and may we not well conclude, that in the mists of superstition, fare more spots and blemishes may lie hid, which the blindness of many men's understandings conceals from them. We could not enough deride the folly of him, which would encounter his Foe without Armour, drink poison without Antidotes, enter a Pest-house without preservatives; and shall we deem them better advised, which expose their souls to the blows, drugs, and infectious breaths of Idol worshippers without sufficient safeguard? and yet me thinks a greater folly is here committed when men altogether blind, undertake to judge of colours, and so are many in these days, inpoints of difference, so easy to be deluded; the mark oftentimes lies quite contrary to their aim, and yet they doubt not but to hit it: much like blind Catullus, in the Poet,  
Nemo magis rhombum stupuit, 
Iwenal.  nam plurima dixit,  
In laewm conversus, at illidextra iacebat,— Bellua.  
But let us come then, in the last place, to sift the occasion which brought our Apostle to come where these devotions of the Athenians were done: he intimates that his way lay by them, they stood, as it were, in his passage, so that, the occasion of his approach thither was not idolatrous, to worship; but rather civil, to see them; or rather, to dispatch his affairs. This seems to have been the case of Naaman the Syrian, when he besought Elisha to beseech the Lord for him, if when he entered the house of Rimmon, and he (not to worship the Idol) but only to perform his civil function, which was, to sustain his master walking or kneeling, did bow himself when his master bowed before the Idol; without which action (saith Abulensis) Non poterat sustentare dominum flectentem genua, 
Toslat. in 4. Reg. 6.5.  he could not have borne his master up, when he bended his knee; that then the Lord would be merciful unto him in that one thing. This was the doubt, moved (as Sleidan, in the seventh of his comment. hath it) by a Duke of Saxony to the Protestant Divines, when according to his place, he was cited by Charles the Fift, to bear the Sword before him going to Mass, and it was thus resolved, that he might lawfully do it, quod ad suum officium esset enocatus, non ad Missam velut ad culium druinum, because he was cited to be present at the Mass, only to perform his office, and not to commit any divine worship. And to this purpose is that which Teriullian concludes, 
Tertull lib. de ido olat.  where handling the question, whether it were lawful to be present at the investitures of Heathens with the virile Gown, as also at their Sponsals and Nuptials, because Sacrifices were wont to be offered at such solemnities; That for so much as Idolatry had environed the world with evils, Licebit (saith he) adesse inquibusdam quae nos homini non Idolo officiosos habent, si propter sacrificium vocatus adsistam, ero particeps idololatriae, si me alia causa coniungit sacrificanti, ero tantum spectator sacrificij, it is lawful to be present in some things which import an officious respect to the man, and not to the Idol, if being called to the Sacrifice itself, I come, I am partaker of the Idolatry; if some other cause joins me to him which sacrificeth, I shall be only a spectator of the Sacrifice. The like judgement he gives of Servants, Children, and Subjects, which perform civil duties to their Lords and Parents at such ceremonies, 
Tostat. lot● sup. cit.  and no less thinks Tostatus, and Peter Martyr of captive Maids, whose office is, 
Pet. Martyr in 2. Regum 6.5.  to bear up their Mistress' trains to the Temples of Idols, so that no sign or token be given by them of the least respect or reverence to the Idol.  
Hitherto we have traced Saint Paul, as he walked the streets of Athens, we have observed his gestures, carriage, and demeanour. I would to God, that whom men presume to follow in seeing these novelties, they could as well imitate in his prudent and cautelous seeing of them, Non omnes Pauli sumus, all have not Paul's constancy, nor his knowledge, at quot sunt Petri, how many are there which have Peter's timidity? How many which like Balam, ask counsel of God in things they know forbidden by him? It was a noble answer of Cyprians, which Austin relates of him, 
Aug. serm. in natali Cypriani. come. 10.  when the Proconsul put it to his choice, whether he would renounce his Faith, at least in words, or sustain death, in re tam iusta nulia est consultatio, in so just a cause there is no place left for consultation. What, no place for consultation? why then, a Nicodemite of our Age would reply, that Christianity seems of all Sects the cruelest, which will bear no corrivals, nor allow her professors any guard but naked Truth, for preservation of their lives and liberty? But these observe not the magnificency and bounty of their Mistress; they aim at the society of men, she tells them of the company of Angels; they meditate upon these rotten and decaying tenements upon Earth; she wishes them rather those firm mansion houses in Heaven, they would content themselves with under-offices, she shows them the dominion over ten Cities; they plead for their Provinces, she Kingdoms; they desire a life which leads unto death, she counsels rather to accept of that death which assures them of life. But this counsel fits them best whom necessary occasions detain in Athens, as for those which to satisfy their unsatiat appetites in curiosities, intrude themselves voluntarily into such perils, 
Cyprians sermon. de lapsis.  that of Cyprians suits more fitly, He may complain of torments which is overcome of torments, and pretend pain for his excuse, whom pain hath vanquished, sed hic non fides congressa cecidit, sed congressionem perfidia praevenit, nec excusat oppressum necessitas criminis, ubi crimen est voluntatis: but here Faith fails not being encountered, but the encounter perfidiousness prevented, nor doth necessity excuse the guilty, where the fault is voluntary. But they dissemble (they will pretend) to discover the mysteries of iniquity. Weak impiety, thou seest them perhaps commit folly, but in the mean time, seest not that thou thyself committest greater villainy: thou mayest observe them woshipping, like these Athenians, a god whom they know not; but alas, thou observest not that thou deniest a God which thou knowest: thou mayest perhaps descry in them some treachery to thy state, and yet discriest not that thou thyself art more treacherous to thy God: thou mayest be proud that thy papers are replenished with vanities of others, and lo, thy heart more black than thy ink is died with perfidiousness of thine own. In a word, when thou art returned home; thou hast a few sheets to show of their absurdities; and whole volumes, were they written, of thine own impieties. Mistake me not (beloved) I intent not by this discourse, to condemn travelling; but to propose Saint Paul, 
Ortel. pereg. D. Pauli.  whose peregrinations have filled a Map of more than half the inhabired World, to be a pattern to travellers. 
Ambroslib 1. Epist. ep. 6.  Ambrose upon those words of Esay, Vae ijs qui descendunt in Aegyptum, Woe be to those which go down into Egypt: Non utique (saith he) transire in Aegyptum criminosum est; sed transire in mores Egyptiorum, transire in corum persidiam, escae cupiditatem, luxuriae defor mitatem, qui eò transit, descendit; & qui descendit, cadit. I English it. It is not criminous or unlawful to go into Egypt; but, to go into the manners of the Egyptians, to go into their perfidiousness, to lust after their Pippins and Onions, he which so goes thither, doth descend; 
Vid. Caluin. opusc.  and who descends, falls. I am not ignorant how fare Divines allow a Traveller, to suit and conform himself to the fashions of Idolaters; as first, in civil things, which are common to their Nation, not notes of their Idolatry: 
Tertull. lib. de idololat.  such as Tertullian terms, Nativitatis insignia, non pietatis; generis, non honoris; ordinis, non superstitionis: Distinctions of their births or families, not of any idolatrous honour or authority; and marks of their order, not of superstition. Secondly, in things which though they be necessarily imposed upon the conscience, yet in themselves are indifferent, as abstaining from certain meats, or observing of certain days, which the Apostle mentions in the 1. Corinth. so that we give no sign of agreement in subiecting the conscience to them; but in these we must go ad aras usque, till our Faith interposeth her right, when that is touched or questioned, no man may be still or silent; he which hath a tongue to speak, he must speak; he which hath ears to hear, he must hear; he that hath hands to lift up, he must lift them up; neither action, voice, nor gesture may be deficient in a cause which so nearly concerns our Lord and Master. 
Tertul. ibid.  Quid refert (saith Tertullian) Deos nationum dicendo Deos an audiendo confirms. What matters it, whether thou confirmest the Gods of the Nations by speaking or by hearing. The Lord might have commanded his people, as Baruch hath it, when ye see in Babylon gods of silver, and of gold, and of wood, borne upon men's shoulders, which cause the Nations to fear; say ye in your hearts, O Lord, we must worship thee. 
jer. 10.11.  But jeremiah in his tenth Chapter and the eleventh Verse, tells the remnant of juda, this must not serve the turn; it is not enough that the heart speak, but the tongue also must tell Babel's Inhabitants. The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. In which words, one thing is worth the observing, that whereas all the rest of jeremy is written in Hebrew, this Verse alone is written in the Chaldaicke Tongue; 
Caluin. in loc.  to note, (say Interpreters) that though the Israelites were now in captivity and bondage under the Babylonians, yet the profession of their Faith should be free and ingenuous still, and they should boldly defy the Babylonians Idols, even in the language of Babel, that these Idolaters might understand it. If therefore we would (as Saint Paul here in my Text did) walk up and down Athens, I mean any place given to Idolatry, if we would as freely as he, take an inventory of their superstitions, let us make his constancy, knowledge, and prudency, companions to us in our travels; the former, lest we hurt ourselves; the later, lest we offend our brethren; 
Tertul. ib.  What Tertullian spoke of Heathens, Licet convivere cum Ethnicis, commori non licet; I may say of any Idolaters, it is lawful to live with them, not to die with them. Let us live with all men, and rejoice with them in the community of Nature, not of Superstition, pares anima sumus non disciplina, compossessores mundi, non erroris, we are alike in soul, not in discipline or doctrine, joint possessors of the world, but not of error. And so I come from the things he beheld, their devotions, to what in beholding he found, an Altar with an inscription to the unknown god; but first of the thing itself, the Altar, and afterwards of the Title. I found an Altar, etc.  
That it was lawful for the Gentiles to erect Altars, and offer sacrifices needs no proving, for before the Levitical law were these in practice amongst the Patriarches. Abel and Cain, before the Flood, are mentioned to have sacrificed though Altars are not there expressed; but since the Flood, Noah is said to have offered sacrifices, and also to have built an Altar, Gen. 8. Now, though Altars and Sacrifices were of such antiquity and generality amongst the Nations, yet as Tostatus notes, 
Tostat. in 16. Levit.  the case between the jews and the Gentiles, in offering them was differing; for the Gentiles might sacrifice; first, where they would: secondly, with what living Creatures they listed, so as clean: thirdly, with what ceremonies they pleased, so as decent; whereas the jews were limited and restrained for the Place, to the Sanctuary; for the Oblations, to certain Creatures; and for Rites, to such as were prescribed in the Mount. The main doubt is, how the Gentiles, which were ignorant of that immaculate sacrifice, Christ jesus, of whose cross the Altar was but a type and shadow, should light and jump upon so fit a ceremony. I am not ignorant, that many men are of diverse minds and opinions concerning it, but I take that the sum of all in brief spoken by them, may be this. Partly, they might use them by Tradition, from those which had been the first planters of Colonies in the World, after the confusion of Babel, and had themselves seen them observed by Noah and other Patriarches which then lived: partly, they might creep in by the Devil's cunning, who the sooner to cloak his devices, and to paint them over with fair colours, turns oftentimes God's Ape, and imitates him in his best actions: partly, they might be entertained by men's policy, which the better to keep the people in awe, and to knit them the more firmly together, did invent certain rites and ceremonies for that purpose, amongst which these of Altars and Sacrifices, seemed to work more impression in men's minds, than the rest:  quos ratio non posset, eos adofficium religio duceret (saith the Orator) that whom reason could not persuade, those Religion might master: partly, they might receive much furtherance from men's consciences, which being guilty of rebellion to God, did questionless, promote and advance these Altars, as who should say, that by a Sacrifice on an Altar, must the Maker of Heaven and Earth be reconciled unto his creatures. But natural reason could not direct them the way, to find out the true scope and buit, at which all the Sacrifices and Altars did tend, Quamuis homo norit Deum esse, & esse optimum maximum, non norit tamen patrem in filio reconciliatum (say Divines) though man by the light of nature knows that there is a God, and that this God is Goodness itself, yet the Father reconciled in the Son, he knows not. No man knows the Father but the Son, nor the Son, but he to whom he hath revealed him. These things were wonders to the blessed Angels, much more are they mysteries unto natural men. Nature rather shown the necessity of a Sacrifice; then what that Sacrifice should be, it read, as it were, a Lecture unto man of his wretchedness, but bade him go to the Schools of the Prophets to learn the remedy; so that in conclusion of all, it brought him unto death, something must die for him, but there left him. Whereupon it was, that the Gentiles, in this thick mist of ignorance, being not able to see the mark at which their Altars did aim, fell foully short & wide in applying them; first, in attributing to the Sacrifices, which they offered upon the Altar, a virtue, somewhat resembling the Papists opus operatum, to pacify the indignation of God; Thure Deum placa, appease God with Frankincense (saith the Poet) they considered not, that from us to God the way is unpassable, if God himself be not our way, whereby to come thither. Secondly, they failed in the end, in not respecting in all these things the death of Christ: the Poet's question should have been better canvased by them, Cum sis ipse nocens moritur cur victima pro te, seeing that thou art guilty; tell me why the Beast dies for thee? this indeed should have been their protestation, That whereas the silly innocent Beasts did suffer death, it was they themselves which deserved it both in body and soul, and therefore without a further reference, than the shedding of the blood of a Beast; well might Lucian deride jupiter for delighting in the smell of carcases: and it was truly said of Hierocles, that their Sacrifices were to the fire but a feeding thereof with fuel and vapours, and to the Priests a superfluous maintenance of butchery, I will add, and to their Altars an institution but of a new shambles.  
Thus have you briefly seen the lawfulness of Altars amongst the Gentiles, their original, and withal the abuse of them: let us now travel from Athens into England, from the World under the Law, to the World under the Gospel, and consider what it is, wherein we are to imitate these Gentiles; concerning their Altars, and what it is wherein we must leave and forsake them. Altars, as they are properly so taken, for those on which the typical or supposed real Sacrifices were offered, are now ceased and taken away. Our Saviour, when he was lifted up upon the Cross, bad Altars to be beaten downs; when he rend the veil of the Temple, the Earthquake shaken their foundation; when he died, their parts were acted and went out. The Papists, that they may screw the Pope farther into the mystery of iniquity, will have him maintain one Lesson, which themselves confess to be a note of Antichrist, and that is, that jewish ceremonies are not yet ceased, at the least in matters of Sacrifices and Altars. But perhaps they had rather be beholding to the Gentiles for them. For if we would believe Cardinal Baronius, 
Baron. Annal. ad ann. Dom. 44.  we may see their lustral water, and sprinkling of Sepulchers, in iwenal's sixth Satire; Lights in Sepulchers, in Suetonius' Octavius; Lamps lighted on Saturday, in Seneca's 96. Epist. Distribution of Tapers amongst the people, in Macrobius his Saturnals. But more lively may we see it in their Altars; first, in multiplying the number of them in every Church; God allows but two Altars to the Temple, & Bruschius reckons 51. 
Bruschius de Monast Germa●o, fol 129. Virgil.  in one Church in ulme's, taking their pattern belike from Venus' temple, of which the Poet, Vbi templum illi centumque Sabeo thure calent arae: but God teacheth no such Arithmetic, as to multiply Altars, Because Ephraim (saith he) hath made many Altars to sin, Altars shall be unto him to sin, Hos. 8. Secondly, they imitate the Gentiles in dedicating their Altars to such as it is unknown, or at the least uncertain, if ever any such were in the World, as to Saint George, Saint Katherine, and Saint Christopher, doing no otherwise then did the Romans, 
August. de Ciuit Dei, l. 3. c. 12.  who consecrated Altars, Dijs incertis, to their uncertain gods, or these Athenians, who built them Deo ignoto, to their unknown god. But we need not much seek to know whom they follow in these devotions, when as it is a main Argument urged by Bellarmine, 
Bell. lib. 1. de M●ssa. c. 20.  that Altars and Sacrifices were used by the Gentiles, therefore they must still be retained by Christians: I know not what antiquity they pretend, nor what they can find in the Primitive Church, to prove the lawfulness of them; we deny not, but that the Fathers might term the Table of the Lords Supper an Altar; and that, first, in respect of the similitude it hath to the Altars of the old Testament, for that on it are placed the Sacraments of Christ's Body, which before was figuratively offered up by the Priest upon the Altar. Secondly, because on it were laid the Oblations & Offerings, which well disposed people were wont to bestow upon the Poor; and this we will grant them; but that there were any such Altars in use in the Primitive Church, as they pretend, we absolutely deny. We have an high Priest (saith the Author to the Hebrews) who needeth not daily as those Priests to offer sacrifice, 
Heb. 9.25.  nor that he should offer himself often as the high Priest entereth into the holy place, every year with the blood of others, for than must he often have suffered since the foundation of the World, but now once in the end of the World, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, Chap. 9 v. 25, 28.  
Well then, Altars of stone and metals are now banished the Christian World, by the decree of our Lord Christ jesus, and herein we must observe that Precept of our Saviour to his Disciples; Go not into the way of the Gentiles, 
Matt. 10.5.  in these things imitate them not: but what, do we therefore altogether shun Altars, and Images, and Temples? it was an old imputation indeed, of Celsus and others, against Christians in the Primitive Church, as it is now of the Romans against us, that we abandon these Ceremonies, and relinquish them; to which, my answer at this time shall be no other than what Origen gave Celsus; 
Origen contra Celsum lib. 8.  Celsus affirms (saith he) that we shun Altars and Images, because he takes it to be the belief of that invisible and inexplicable Communion we maintain; when in the mean time he perceives not, that to us the minds of the just are for Altars and Temples; from which doubtless, are sent forth those most sweet odours of Incense, Vows I mean and Prayers from a pure Conscience: We are not therefore ambitious in mounting Altars, or framing Images, which heretofore have been the Tabernacles of Devils, and Cages of unclean Spirits; but rather embrace such living Altars, as one whom we see to burn the true fire of Zeal, kindled not by vestal Virgins, but by the Spirit of God. Let any man (adds that Father) make an inquiry into those Altars which we expound, and compare them with those which Celsus (I'll say which the Pope would bring in) or the Images which are fixed in the minds of them which worship God, with Phydias' or Policletus', or whomsoever men list to select of cunning Artificers, and he shall plainly see, that these inanimate and senseless Colossos', shall decay and corrupt with time, whereas those living Sanctuaries shall be immortal, and continue for ever. Shall we fear (Beloved) lest Altars and Images be taken away, or Churches lose somewhat of their Grace and Ornament? I must tell you with Saint Ambrose, 
Ambros. lib. 2. de office c. 28.  that neither our Prayers nor Sacrifices stand in need of such trimming, Ornatus Sacramentorum redemptio captivorum est, the best adorning of Sacraments, is not Tissues and Silk, or embroidered Canopies, or spangled Crucifixes, or painted Poppets, or any the like face, wherewith Popery sets forth her Altars, more like Pageants than places which savour of Christ's simplicity, but the redeeming of Captives. Let others therefore (saith Hierom) clothe the walls with Marble, 
Hieron. ad Demetriadem.  let others bring in vast and mountainous Columns into Temples, and beguiled the heads of them, which yet are not sensible of their ornature; let them interlace their Portices with silver and ivory, and beset their Tables with Pearls and Diamonds: truly, set superstition apart, I reprehend it not, I dissuade it not, every man abounds in his own sense, and it is a great deal better to do this, then to suffer one's gold to canker and rust in his Coffers (nay, I am constrained to say, that our times need spurs and pricks to rouse men up to be more mindful of God's House then they are) but yet you must think of another thing too; Clothe Christ in the poor, visit him in the sick, feed him in the hungry, entertain him in the destitute, instruct him in the ignorant, offend him not in the weak; then shalt thou raise up Altars unto Christ, not of stone, which moulter and decay with age, but living Altars, which shall send up sweet Sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, both for themselves and thee. I would have no man to object the Temple of Jerusalem, wherein were placed the Table and Cherubins, and Censer, and Ark of pure gold; then, were these allowed of the Lord, when the Priests did offer sacrifices, and when the blood of Beasts made the atonement for their sins, although all things were but then in a figure, and written for our instructions, on whom the ends of the World are come, but now what should we admire those Altars, whose covering our Saviour Christ pronounced to be but unrighteous Mammon, or those Censers whose metal Saint Peter was not ashamed to confess that he had none of; cry not therefore, Templum Domini, templum Domini, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, as did sometimes the jews, 
jer. 7.  jer. 7. He is the temple of the Lord in whom true faith dwelleth, who is clothed with justice as with the veil of the Tabernacle, in whom not Temperance alone, or Abstinence sing their parts, but in whom the whole set of Virtues make a complete Choir; wouldst thou therefore, like the Gentiles, build an Altar, and yet not as did these Athenians to the unknown god? why, see matter and stuff prepared to thine hand, the Prophets and Apostles for the foundation, Christ himself for the chief corner Stone. Wouldst thou lay it over with pure and refined metal? why, see the Word of God; it is like gold seven times purified in the fire. Wouldst have a Beast to slay? mortify and kill thy beastly affections, which otherwise would kill thee. Wantest thou a Knife to kill them; take the Sword of Preaching, not into thine hand, but into thy heart, that is it which is sharper than a two edged sword, and cutteth to the dividing and separating of soul and spirit. Are all these things prepared, and lackest thou yet fire to consume them? why, Zeal must be that fire, without which, all these will profit thee nothing. O Beloved, if these were the Sacrifices of the Romanists, or these the Altars of Papism, I would change my speech, and most hearty request you to join hands with them, and let the seamelesse coat of Christ to suffer rapture and division no more between us: no longer should thy blessed Name (sweet jesus) bear reproach among the uncircumcised Infidels for our separation; but if their Altars be but the Pope's Exchequers, and the Priests but like the Publicans, which sit there at the receipt of custom, Exite è Babylone, Go out of Babylon, let us treat no longer with her upon Articles of agreement. 
Erasin. in annot. ad Hieron. Epitaph. Paul. Bernard. in Auolog. ad Gul elmum Abbatem.  What Erasmus saith of the Altars of our time, the same verdict S. Bernard gives of the Altars of his time: by the sight of such sumptuous and wonderful vanities (saith he) men are more incited to offer then to adore. Thus riches are swallowed up by riches, thus money draws in money, because I know not by what means (but so it is) where men see most, there are they most willing to give. On Altars therefore, is presented the beautiful portraiture of some Saint, and it is thought so much the more holy, by how much the more beautiful. Men run to kiss it, they are invited to enrich it, and more are astonished at things curious then inclined to adore things religious; O vanity of vanities, and yet not greater vanity than madness, the Church abounds in the walls, and wants in her poor; she  her stones with gold, and leaves her sons naked, to the cold; the maintenance of the poor, serves to satisfy the eyes of the rich, the curious find matter to delight them, the distressed find no bread to sustain them. But are these the devotions which Rome so vaunteth of? 
August. in Psal. 41. & Psal. 49.  Well might Saint Austin then wish those of his time to forbear, Sacrificing, and Altars, if this be all the fruit of them. Alas, he shows himself fare from allowing such impostures; Si habes Taurum pinguem (saith he) occide pauperibus, If thou hast a fat Bull, reserve him not for the Altar, as if jewish or Gentilish Sacrifices were in use, but kill him for the poor, though they cannot drink the blood of Goats, yet they can eat the flesh of Bulls, and he which said unto thee, If I hunger, I will not tell it thee, will then tell thee I was hungry, and thou gavest me to eat. But what Altar then would he have us to erect to God? what Sacrifices thinks he, ascend best pleasing in his sight? why, he turns us to the Psalmist, Offer unto the Lord, the Sacrifice of praise, an humble and a contrite heart shalt thou not despise: So then wouldst thou build an Altar? why, the loftiest Altar thou canst build, is a lowly heart: wouldst thou have something to offer; see an oblation, passing the blood of Goats and Calves, a Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Well might we fear, lest God should have required something without us, something in the house that the Moths had corrupted; something in the Garner, which the Mice or Vermine had consumed; something in the field, which the Fox or Wolf had devoured: but he sends us to ourselves, and to our inmost Closet, which none but God can unlock. Ara tua conscientia tua, (saith Austen) thine Altar is thy conscience, offer thereon the Sacrifice of praise. We are secure, we go not into Arabia for Frankincense, neither do we rip up the bowels of the earth for stones, to beautify our Altar, if Paul could find an Altar abroad; know, Christians have it at home, within their own breasts, and thus I come from the thing found by our Apostle, an altar to the Title thereof, An inscription to the unknown God.  
Here doth the Apostle warrant that commendable use among Controversy Writers, of confuting the Adversary by testimonies drawn from their own writings. It was Elephas' Logic against the vain Boaster; thine own mouth condemneth thee, job 15. Saint Paul's against Heretics, that such are condemned of themselves, Tit. 3. to say the truth, seldom hath falsehood proved true Liegeman to itself, but in some circumstance or other hath been its own enemy, and borne witness against itself. Isidore therefore, that I may use his words, terms the argumentation of the Apostle in this place, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, inexpugnable and beyond all contradiction, taking lies in ambushment, and weakening error by setting it at variance within its own doors. It casts out Devils through Belsebub the Prince of the Devils, 
M●t. 12.25.  and a Kingdom divided against itself, cannot stand. The ground of these consequences, is that Maxim in Philosophy, that there is but one truth, which never disagreeth with itself. Hence was it, that the ancient Fathers, Clemens, justine Martyr, Origen, Austen, Hierom, refuted the Gentiles, 
Hieron. Epist. 84.  by the writings of the Gentiles, by Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Trismegistus, and the like; that julian the Apostata cried out, proprijs pennis configimur, We are wounded with our own Quills, out of our books they take weapons, which in fight they use against us. Hence it is, that in imitation of their warfare, we assault Rome's Gates with her own Legions, that we descry mutinies amongst her Captains, dissensions in her Cohorts, whisperings within her Camps, and bring them into the field the one against the other; Schoolman against Schole-man, jesuite against jesuite, Cardinal against Cardinal, Consistory against Consistory, Pope against Pope; and yet, if we would go further, we may chance to meet with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Saint james terms him a double soul'd man, Bellarmine Antibellarmine, in the same Author. In a word, should a Council of all their Writers, both ancient and later, be called, and should some one or other be questioned for any Tenent in Divinity, he should need to use but S. Paul's policy in the council at Jerusalem. Men and Brethren I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, of the hope and resurrection of the dead, I am called in question, or rather, I am a poor Catholic, I hold not the Pope's universal authority, nor his jurisdiction in the temporal affairs of Princes; I am not of opinion that men have free Will, or that the Works of any can be meritorious; he should see straight a dissension would arise and a combustion, which all the holy Water in Rome could not quench; How many would say, 
Act. 23.  We find no evil in this man, if a Spirit or an Angel hath spoken unto him, let us not fight against God. Thus would the multitude, like those pharisees & Saducees, be divided. But I leave this task to those, who have displayed to the World sufficiently the Papal wars, and intestine dissensions of Rome in just Volumes; it is the method of Bellarmine, observed by him almost in every question; first, to set down the sundry opinions of the Doctors of his Church, before he relates his own, and therefore I refer the learned & judicious thither. The principal Lesson I would commend unto you hence, is the citation of Heathenish inscriptions or writings in divine matters. What will some say? is Saint Paul now come to quote inscriptions? why, he hath taught us that the Scriptures are sufficient to teach, 
2. Tim. 3.  to instruct, to convince, to reprove, that the man of God may be perfect in every good work; how is it then, that he flies at this time to the inscriptions of the Gentiles, and dedications of unhallowed Altars? Nay, he which professed his coming, not to be in the wisdom of men, in so short a space as one short Oration, twice seeks he to strengthen his cause by citing the hand-writings of the Gentiles? first, an inscription; and see, scarce three verses between, and another dictate of one of their Poets, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, we also are his generation. 
Vers. 28.  But the Fathers do note on these places, the prudency of our Apostle, which amongst profane men useth the testimony of profane authorities; giving them as it were, their food in due season, and applying physic to the temper of his Patients; becoming all things unto all men, unto the jew a jew, unto the Gentile a Gentile, that he might win them unto Christ. For what more clearness can there be, then to make men themselves parties in the proof, judges in their own case, and witnesses against themselves. How can one better confute the jews, then by their Paraphrasts dispersed, as well in their Cabals as in their Talmud? how should a man reason better against the Epicure and Atheist, then by bringing the world and creatures therein for witnesses; for those are the Records which they love best, and most believe, and from which they are loathest to departed? how can one soundlier confound the Naturalist, then by the things that every man reads in his own nature, which he finds inscribed in his heart, and have been uttered by natural men? Thus God himself doth oftentimes suit his manner of calling men to their condition of life. The wisemen which were Astronomers, he called by a star; Peter a Fisherman, 
Matth. 2. joh. 21. Euseb. l. 4. c. 8. Basil. Orat. ad Adolescent. Ambros. Epist. 25. ad Eccles. vercel.  by a draught of fishes; justine, sometimes a Philosopher, by a sentence of Plato's, as himself confesseth, and Dionysius Areopagita, of the sect of Stoikes or Epicures (as Ambrose supposeth) by these poems and poesies of natural wise men. Certainly, seeing it hath pleased our Apostle to quote the authority of nature's Secretaries, I mean, the Inscriptions and Sentences of Philosophers, in points of so great moment, as the Divinity of Christ, and Man's Creation, and since we see the Spirit of God to have sweetened the waters of cursed jericho, 
2. King. 2.  and made wholesome drink of it for the children of the Prophets, as also to have quickened and made fertile these wild stocks, and caused them to bud and bring forth fruits of righteousness and faith, 
Vide Lorin. in Act.  in so noble a person as was Dionysius, a judge of the Areopage, as likewise in Damaris, and others with them; I cannot, by the way, but condemn those, which either think the study or citing of humane Writers in divine exercises to be altogether unlawful. The main prejudice against these citations happens from a wilful blindness of a perverse generation, which hath not after so many years tutoring, learned to distinguish between the lawful use, and the abuse of a thing. I confess, as it was more in practice in the primitive Church, than now it is, to cite such Authors, so was there then another reason for the same, then now there is. The Fathers were then to deal with Ethnics, and sometimes with judicious and learned Philosophers (as was the case of Saint Paul now at Athens) where it would not have booted to have urged the Prophets or Apostles, which were in no credit with them, and therefore the example of those men can yield no sufficient pretence to any man now a-dayes, to make preaching the Gospel to be a rhapsody or medley of Greek and Latin Poets; 
Barnard. in Cant. serm. 9  Bernard saith truly, that humane erudition, too much of it, is but Vinum inebrians, Wine that maketh a man drunk, implens, non nutriens; inflans, non aedificans; rather glutting then nourishing, and puffing up then edifying; and to such as make their Auditors surfeit upon such raw and immature fruit, we may say with Hierome, 
Hieron. ad Eustach.  Quid cum Psalterio Horatius, cum Euangelistis Maro, cum Apostolis Cicero, What makes Horace with the Psalter, what Virgil with the Evangelists, what Cicero with the Apostles? Nay, we all know how unseemly a thing it is, for a Subject to sit upon the same Throne with his Prince, or an Handmaid to bear equal rule in the house with her Mistress, or the Dogs, as our Saviour terms these foreigners, 
Mat. 15.26  to possess the room and place of the Children; yet let me say thus much, that the Subject may make way for his Prince, the Servant attend his Master, and the Handmaid her Mistress. There is yet an Atheist in the world, which saith in his heart, there is no God; to him we may send Cicero, 
Cicer. 1. l de nat. dear. & 1. Tuscul.  a man as ignorant of the Scripture as he incredulous of them, which shall certify him of the consent of all Nations, in acknowledging a Divine power. There are yet of the Sect of the Epicures, which bid us eat, and drink, and sport; for after death there is neither Heaven nor Hell: to these we may oppose, Homer, if blind, 
Homer. Iliad. 1. in princip.  yet seeing farther perhaps than they into the state of men deceased. There are of the Stoics still remaining, which mind not the providence of God, but refer things to destiny; to these the Orator, 
Cic. l. 2. de nat. dear. Plat. in Timaeo & lib. 10. & 11. de repub.  or Plato that Attic Moses will reply, that God's providence extends itself unto all things, and that there is nothing is so base, which yet he doth not mind or order. Is this now to make the Pulpit a Philosopher's School, or rather the Philosopher's School a footstool unto the Pulpit, and an handmaid unto Divinity, that it may the better proceed in the necessary work. I know not what others may conceive, but me thinks, this meditation should spring up in the heart of every good Christian. Good God, are those perilous times to ensue in our days, which thou foretoldst by thy Apostle, or are the minds of men decayed with the whole fabric of the world, that thus Hethens should profess what Christians do not practise, and the Disciples of Nature prove greater Masters than the Scholars of the Gospel? 
Mat. 12.41.  Believe it (beloved) these are those Ninivites which will rise up in judgement against us, 
Mat. 12.42  these those Queens of the South which will condemn us, for they had not those lights that we have, and yet saw fare more than many of us do; Truly doth S. Hierome observe upon Dan. 1. that if you turn over the books of the Philosophers, you shall find part of the vessels of the house of God there, in Plato, that God was the maker of the world; in Zeno the Prince of the Stoics, you may discover Hell, and the immortality of the Soul; although they yoking the truth with falsehood, may be said with Nabuchadnezzer King of Babylon, to have taken, not all the vessels of God's house, but some only, and those not whole neither, but cracked and broken. Something you may find in Plato that is borrowed from Moses, whom he means always, as some guess; by this phrase, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Aretius' loc. common. pag. ●54.  as the old ancient speech hath it; something in Homer, that he might be beholding to the same for, especially that in his fourth Iliad. Parents are to be honoured that we may be long lived; where he relisheth of the fift Commandment, Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land that the Lord thy God giveth thee. Nay, David Chytreus affirms the writings of Philosophers touching manners, 
Chyt. prolegom. in Gen.  to be as it were, a certain Commentary upon the five former Commandments of the latter Table. Now, tell me I beseech you, why after the great captivity that japhets' posterity hath suffered under Satan, God having sent his Apostles, and us their Successors, in preaching the Word, to build an house unto him amongst the Gentiles, why I say, we may not lawfully use those instruments which once were dedicated to the Tabernacle, or restore those things to the Temple which once were stolen from the Temple, or burn those lamps in our Sanctuary which were lighted at the Altar; and have all this while lain unprofitably in the treasure-house of the God of the King of Babylon. I am not ignorant that this course hath found invayers in all Ages. 
Hieron. Epist. 103.  It is related that Hierome was whipped in his sleep by an Angel for too much addicting himself unto Cicero's works: 
Hieron. in Epist. ad Magnum.  I am sure, that waking, Magnus scourged him, quasi candorem Ecclesiae Ethnicorum sordibus pollueret, as if he polluted the candour of the Church with the filth of the Ethniks. The Fathers therefore, not one or two, took in hand this subject, and were constrained to clear themselves of those aspersions, which the ignorant & unlearned cast on them.  
To be brief, I find, that they deny not the use of humane learning to be lawfully used in Divine and Eccelesiastical exercises, so that these four conditions be observed. The first concerns the end, that it be produced either to illustrate and confirm our own doctrine, or to convince the Heathenish opposers of it; for, Philosophers if they have spoken any thing consonant to our belief, we are not only not to be afraid to meddle with it, 
Aug. de doct. Christ. l. 2. c. 40.  sed etiam ab ijs tanquam ab iniustis possessoribus vindicandum, but also, we are to challenge it (saith Austin) as being detained by unjust possessors. We are not to shun learning, because they say, Mercury was the first inventor of letters, neither are we to reject virtue and justice, because the Gentiles dedicated Temples to the worship of them. Nay rather, whosoever is a good Christian will acknowledge the truth to be his Masters wheresoever he finds it, and think it no villainy, so long as it benefits his Lords work, either to go down to the Philistines to sharpen his Axe, 
1. Sam. 13.20. Ex●d. 12.35.  or to borrow of the Egyptians gold and silver for the building of the Tabernacle. julian the Apostata (saith Hierome) in the Parthian war, 
Hieron. Ep. ad Magnum.  wrote six Books against Christ, and according to that of the Poets, wounded himself with his own sword. Si contra hunc scribere tentavero (saith he) puto interdices mihi ne rabidum canem Philosophorum & Stoicorum doctrinis, id est, Herculis clava repercutiam? If I should attempt to write against him, wouldst thou forbid me to strike this mad Dog, with the doctrines of the Stoics and Philosophers, that is, with Herculeses Club? To omit the practice of the ancient Fathers in the primitive Church, Apollinarius, Dionysius, Tatianus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian, and others, which Hierome names to have defended, during the persecutions, the Christian Faith out of the Dictates of natural men, latter ages have afforded examples of like industry, Aquinas' four books against the Gentiles, Lullies' demonstrations of the twelve Articles of the Creed, out of the book of nature, Marneyes' trueness of Religion, maintained by sentences of Philosophers & Poets against Atheists, Epicures, Pagans, jews, Mahometans, and other Infidels: but what do we stand upon humane testimonies, when we see the victorious Orator S. Paul, who as Origen saith, 
Orig. hom. 31. in Luc.  Sanctificabat prophana & faciebat Ecclesiastica, did sanctify profane writings, and make them Ecclesiastical, not once or twice draw natures Poignard against the Gentiles, and like warlike David smite off Goliahs' head with his own sword. The Athenians he presseth with Aratus testimony, the Corinthians with Menander's, the Cretans with Epimenides, one of their own Poets, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Creets are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies, and as if this were not enough, see how he wrists in this Chapter an inscription, which he spied by chance upon an Altar, and converts it to an argument of Faith.  
The second condition is, that the profaneness or Ehtnicism in them be castrated, not so much in the Press, as in the mouth; for by this means we gather the Rose (saith Theodoret) and yet leave the Briar; 
Theod de affect. Graecor.  we take the gold, and let the dross go; we are to deal in these cases (saith Hierom) as God commanded the Israelites, 
Hieron. Ep. ad Magnun.  Deut. 21. If they saw amongst the captives a beautiful woman, and had a desire unto her, and would make her their wife, they were to shave her head, and pair her nails, and put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and then they might marry her. So, if we be enamoured upon secular wisdom, and for the beauty and decency thereof, do desire of a captive Maid, to make it an Israelite, Quidquid in ea mortuum est idolatriae, voluptatis, erroris, libidinum, vel uraecide, vel rade, whatsoever is dead in it, whether it be idolatry, or wantonness, or error, or lasciviousness, we must either pair or shave, and then we lawfully beget of her household servants unto the Lord God of Sabbath. Neither need she distaste her because she is an alien; for Osee, as we read, took a wife of whordoms, Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, yet lo, of that Harlot is born unto him jezrael, that is, the seed of God.  
The third condition is, that we always so use humane learning, that we ever give the Scriptures the upper hand: we are to remember (saith Austen) that as much difference as was between the riches that Solomon had to build the Temple, 
Aug. lib. 2. de Doct. Christ.  and those which the Israelites borrowed of the Egyptians to build the Tabernacle, so much and more, is between the testimony, which Nature gives to the Godhead, and that which the Scriptures bring to it: which being well considered, the contention (as the Fathers observe) between Hagar & Sarah, may be composed, 
Ambros. 2. de Abraham, c. 10.  if Hagar flout not Sarah, as if she were barren; nor Sarah exclude Hagar, as being her handmaid.  
The last condition is that, which Rethoricians do give in the like case, that humane learning be used in Ecclesiastical exercises, Non ut esculentis sed ut condimentis, not as meet but as sauce. It were a madness, because lace sets out a garment, therefore to make a garment of lace only, or because tapestry and hangings do grace the house, therefore to omit timber & stones, the more substantial stuff in building. Poets and Orators are not the solid meats which must nourish, but the junkers which do provoke the appetite, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (saith Pindarus) sub finem coenae dulcis est placenta, 
Pindar.  whereupon, as Gratian observes, Gregory blames not those Bishops, 
Grat. decret. dist. 37.  which studied and applied these things, Sed qui contra Episcopale officium pro lege Euangelica grammaticam populo exponebant, but those which contrary to the office of a Bishop, in stead of expounding the Gospel read a Grammar Lecture unto the people, such as for wholesome food proposed Pepons and Onions, and I know not what old ends of rotten rags to digest; as if he were no body which compiled not an whole Homer's Cent●ns, or a Virgil's Centons, and vented them all at once to his Auditory. Otherwise, who can deny, that in these things, an intelligent hearer may get some profit by hearing, as well as an other by reading; as for those of the opposite opinion, I could wish them more charity then to grudge that other men see with two eyes, because they can see but with one, and will leave them with that counsel of Hierome to Magnus, Ne vescentium dentibus edentuli invideant, 
Hieron. in Epist. ad Mag.  & oculos caprarum talpae contemnant, that if they want teeth, they would not envy those which eat with them, nor contemn the eyes of Goats, if themselves be Wants and stark blind. And so I come from the formale of the Title, the inscription, to the materiale or substance of it, to the unknown God. I found an Altar with this inscription, to the unknown God.  
In diverse Authors, I find a divers reading of this Inscription, Pausanias in his Atticks, 
Pausan. l. 1.  remembers such a writing, upon an Altar in Athens, but he puts it in the plural number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of the unknown gods. The greek Scholiast relates it otherwise: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to the Gods of Asia, and Europe, and Lybia, to the unknown and foreign god. And to this, most of the Latin Interpreters do cleave, yet it follows not, which Hierome from hence would infer, 
Hieron. in Tit. c. 1.  that S. Paul quoted but part only of this Inscription, to circumvent the Athenians therewith, whereas the former part mentioned more gods than one; for how could they but take him tripping, if with fraud as the jesuits use the Fathers, 
Matth. 4.  or the Devil the Psalms to Christ, he had mis-repeated a writing so ready at the point of every man's tongue. But this seems to have been his scope; The Athenians, more like God Almighty's then men, made or imagined whole armies and bands of Gods; now amongst all those many whom they knew (and, alas, how could they know any that were not) there was one (and he the only one indeed) whom they knew not; him therefore the Apostle urgeth by himself, because they pretended, that him alone they ignorantly did worship, presuming of some knowledge of the rest. Conc earning the occasion which moved the Athenians to frame such an inscription, Writers do not less differ then upon the words; 
Chrysost. ad locum. & in Ep. ad Tit. hom. 3.  chrysostom thinks that they erected this Altar, lest when they had admitted a number of foreign gods, there might be yet some left out that might take it ill or unkindly at their hands, whom they know not. 
Laert. lib. 1. in Epimen.  Laertius in the life of Epimenides, gives this reason of it. When the Athenians (saith he) were afflicted with a sore pestilence, Pythia gave them this answer, that they should expiate the City, and appease the indignation of some higher powers against it; whereupon they rig'd up a ship, and sent it by Nicias the son of Niceratus into Crete, to fetch Epimenides, who coming unto them in the 46. Olympiad, expiated the City, and caused the pestilence to cease, by this means. First, he brought white and black Sheep into the Areopage, and suffering them to stray which way they listed, gave in charge to those which followed them, that wheresoever any of them rested of his own accord, they should there sacrifice it to the unknown God: and he reupon (they say) the plague ceased, and the custom began amongst the Athenians of consecrating Altars with this Title. Howsoever, I can see no probability, 
Lorin. in Act. c. 17.  for Lorinus' dream of God hidden in the flesh, or concealed in Sacramental species; and as small for Baronius' conceit, 
Baron. Annal. Tom. 1.  that the Athenians by unknown, meant invisible, imperceptible, or unessable; the Apostle, especially in the former Verse, noting ignorance in them, of the Godhead, rather than such knowledge, by branding them in the forehead, with a mark of too much superstition for their pains. Many good observations may from hence be gathered; as first, from the worshippers themselves, we may collect the malice and cunning of Satan, that always would draw us as near his confines of darkness as he can; for better considers than we do, how that the will wills no more than the understanding understands, that ignoti nulla cupido, the less we know God, the less we love him; the farther he is from the reach of our apprehension, the farther from the affection of desiring; the more out of sight, the more out of mind: beside, he knows by experience, that ignorance, the mother of blind devotion, is the stepmother to all Religion; that on the contrary side, the sunshine of the Godhead dispels the mists of superstition, that God is so sweet and infinitely full of delight, that whosoever knows him, cannot choose but affect him: Lastly, that knowing is the light of the soul, the enemy to fraud, the tamer of the affections, the bridle of perturbations, the rule of zeal, and the Star which must conduct us to our heavenly Jerusalem; so that the whole powers of hell, seemed to have had a finger in this devilish stratagem, that when the Gentiles should know their jupiter, and Mars, and Diana, and Neptune, which were no Gods, but Devils in Hell, the true God which was the maker and governor of all things, he should not have so much as a name afforded him, he should pass among them, for the unknown God. Note but the form of our Apostles arguing, I perceive (saith he) that in all things you are too superstitious, there is the question, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the conclusion, his proof lies in the Verse following, for, as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an Altar with an inscription to the unknown God; see an argument drawne à proprio, from a proper adjunct of superstition, which is ignorance of the true God. All implying as much as this, that devotion which is practised without the knowledge of God, or presupposing God as unknown, the same devotion is superstitious. A perfect Touchstone, in my mind, whereby a Christian may without much labour and difficulty, make trial of his Religion, and give judgement of the faith he professeth. And, alas, what shall we then say of the Roman Religion? will it, think you, endure the touch of this stone, and not discover itself to be counterfeit? 
Greg. in Mat count. Celsum.  The Scripture which Origen compares to jacobs' Well, where not only jacob and his sons, that is, the learned, but also the Cattles and the Sheep, that is, the rude and ignorant do drink, and refresh themselves, the Pope locking them up in a tongue unknown, that the people may not understand them, doth he not what lies in him, make God to be to the Laity and common sort unknown? Prayers, which are the Masters of request to our heavenly Sovereign, when the Pope restrains them to Latin, and commands them to be uttered in a strange tongue, is not this to parley with God, as with a foreign Prince, and to present our supplications to him, as to a God unknown? Disputations, whereby the falsehood is winnowed from the Truth, like Chaff from Wheat, and the great cause of man's salvation, clears itself before the face of the world, of false imputations; the Pope, by forbidding it to the Laiety, under pain of Excommunication, what doth he but leave men in suspense and doubtfulness of the truth, and as fare as disputes can satisfy, make God in many most needful cases unknown? Faith, the hand which lays hold upon the heavenly promises, and is the very foundation of things hoped for, the Pope extolling the implicit or unfolded belief of the ignorant, what doth he but by this course settle our confidence, and trust, and devotions upon the apprehension of God unknown? Much more might I add to the same purpose; but this ignorance of God is so foul a fault, that if a man excelled Solomon in all the wisdom of the world beside, it would profit him little; nay, I may boldly say, that in the mainest points of his knowledge, the simplest Christian which knows God, would be able to tutor him, and be his Teacher: and therefore, by these few instances of Popish blindness, I hope you may see how little reputation our adversaries do gain by nourishing ignorance and blind devotion in the minds of poor Christians. Not to travel fare for examples, let us consider the Athenians of whom my Apostle speaks, in my Text, famous for their wisdom and policy, having had the most flourishing Empire of all Greece; famous for their justice and equity, having the renowned Areopage, a Court to which Aristides attributed no less force in delivering justice, then to the Oracles in foretelling things to come; famous for their profound knowledge in Philosophy, amongst whom, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, those great lights of Europe were admired and extolled; how shallow yet they were in their professions, how little they waded in many most necessary points of Philosophy, and all because of this unknown God. The Moralist wasted many a tedious night in the discussion of this one point, what was summum bonum, the chief good and felicity of a man in this life; Varro numbers in his time, 288. several opinions of Philosophers, touching this one thing, and yet scarce any of them which stumbled not at the very Threshold of his Art, and all because that this God was unknown. The Naturalists disputed as much, concerning the subject of his science, the World, what might be the first cause of it, and yet after all their debatements, and unreconcilable contradictions, hardly was any found which attained unto it, and all, for that this God was to them unknown. The Astronomers, which gaze upon the Stars, slumber at the first mover of the Spheres, they which could foretell the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon to come; saw not their own Eclipse which was present, and that because God was as then unknown. The Statists and Politicians (it were much to recount the several opinions they broached, about the conversions and period of Empires, whether they were caused by numbers or destiny, or conjunctions of the higher Planets, or an excentrical motion of the Earth, or Comets, or Eclipses) few or none archieued unto the truth herein, the reason whereof can be no other than this, that this God was to them unknown. But let's leave Philosophy awhile, and consider the Art of Arts, Christianity, how God stands there in the forefront of the School, and bids us learn him first, before we turn over a new leaf, if we would be perfect Scholars in other Precepts: he is the rule whereby we are to order and conceive of all things tending to his worship; so fare is a man a good Divine as he knows him; other subtleties are but hedges to fence the truth from the assaults of Heretics, they may scratch and tear both sides in handling, but that unum necessarium, that one thing needful, needful for thee Martha and every good Christian, is the knowledge of this God: we may take a taste, if we listed, in those Religions which have swerved from the truth; whence is it, that most of their errors have proceeded, if not from the not knowing, as they should do, this God? Did the Schoolè-men consider the power of God uprightly, they would never attribute unto him the working of contradictions in the Sacrament, which argue an impotency rather than a power in the Divine Majesty: did the jesuites truly estimate his truth and verity, they would not be so impudent, as to make him the Patron of equivocations and mental reservations, did the Popish Doctors weigh but in right scales his jealousy, they would not make Saints compartners with him in adoration, or in the work of our redemption, nor if they knew his Providence, would they, many of them, in the salvation of men's souls, allow him a mere prescience only or foreknowledge: Nay, we ourselves would not do many things as we do, if God were not to us as he was to these Athenians, yet unknown: we run to unlawful succours in our adversities; is not this because we know him not to be Omnipotent? we play the Hypocrites and double-dealers in his employments, is not this because we know him not to be simple? we set our hearts upon vain pleasures, and decaying treasures, is not this because we know him not to be the sovereign good? we live in sin securely without any repentance, is not this because we know him not to be a just judge? we doubt of his promises, is not this because we know him not to be true? why, if we were but as learned as to know him, we would admire him for his infiniteness and perfection, adore him for his unmeasurableness, unchangeableness and eternity, seek understanding from his understanding, submit ourselves to his will, love him for his love, trust to him for his truth, fear him for his power, reverence him for his holiness, praise him for his blessedness; so that in fine, hence grows our coldness in Religion, hence our back-slidings in piety, hence our benumb'dnes in Christianity, in that our devotions are, as it were, still directed to the unknown God.  
Now, he which concealed the truth of his Godhead from the Prophets and Wise of the world, and hath revealed the same unto the simple, grant that we, using the light aright, walk not still as children of the darkness, and by turning away from him, the only God whom we know, settle our hearts and affections upon false gods whom we know not, through jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be rendered all Praise, Honour and Glory, Might, Majesty and Dominion, both now and for ever more. Amen.  
FINIS.