ATHEISMUS VAPULANS, OR, A TREATISE AGAINST ATHEISM, Rationally Confuting the ATHEISTS of these Times.  
By WILL. TOWERS, B. D. sometime Student of Christs-Church in Oxon.  
Nec cur●●● Deum quenquam Mortalia credis!  Virgil. 
At quae est haec summa Delicti, Nolle Agnoscere, quem Ignorare non Potes! Cypr. De Idol. Vanit.  
Psal. 58.11. Verily, there is a God.  
LONDON, Printed for Humphrey Moseley, and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1654.   

 modern bookplate   

TO THE Right Honourable, the Lord NEWPORT, Lord of High Ercall, his singular good Lord, the Author dedicates the Book and Himself, and implores his Honourable Protection upon both.  
Right Honourable,  
SAlveto, quantumque Cupis, quantumque Mereris. Your Lordship may, perhaps, wonder, to see Me in Print; and you may, above the rest of Honourable Personages (to some of whom, I am only known the Fancy; too others, de Nomine; to Most, not so much, as that there is such a Creature, in Rerum Naturâ; and to your Peculiar Lordship Intimately, quem nôsti, tanquam Te, Such hath been the Humility and Graciousness of your Lordship's Stooping Affection) have store of Reasons for it; your Lordship hath known me, à Teneris, to be very far from Public, or from Private-Great-Commerce; and, had not your Lordship condescended to take notice of me, when I was Nothing, that by your taking Notice of me, I might be Something, your Lordship knows, I had still been only a Contemptible part of that Obscure Crowd, out of which your Extracting Influences have exhaled me, though not to a Solid Consistency, yet, to Hover above it, whenever your eminent Lordship is the Centre of my Meditations, and to Relapse into it, whenever I leave off to think of your Lordship: besides this infirmness of my own Solitary, and Un-conversing Disposition, your Lordship does know, how Unfurnished I am, in the Upper Story of the Man, of that, which some have well called, in relation to Better Heads, 
Agapetus.  an Ambulatory Library; and, your Lordship May know, by the Fate of these times, the Ineluctabile Fatum, and, as to Me, not the One, only, but the  
Fati Series, 
Jo. Secund.  & iniqua Tyrannis Fortunae— the Upper Story of the House too, is, in part, Disspoyled of, and, in part, not Inhabited by, a Stationary Library; and how Such a Man should either Write at all, or Presume to affix your Exactly-Learned, and Critical Name, your Lordship may go on to Wonder, till I have taken off Both these Astonishments from your Collective Self, qui Unus mihi instar Theatries, and from my Common Reader (every of which may, in a Throng, as the Author Himself does, pass, One by one, for a Single Man, and are not, our Several Selves, what your Lordship is, an Entire Sum) by telling Them, and Remembering You (who have so much of the Good Caesar in you, to forget nothing but your own Condescensions, and the Benefits you have done) that, had I no other Books, but That One Volume of Letters, which I have received from your Hand, These alone are enough to Create a Genius in Him, who was, before, as very a Fungus, and Stipes, and Truncus, and Lignum, as myself: Nor is This to Boast aught in Me, besides that I have been so much Favoured, and Taught, by the Familiar skill of Your Lordship's Peneus  
Upon This Stock it is that I dare to write; and must suspect Him to be more Read in Books, than in Men, who though with as Good Authority, as Great Distaste, He throws Me and my Name away, does not Judiciously take them up again, when He Sees, that Your Rays have Enlightened me, and Your Name Supports me: If He Considers This, He will be favourable to me for your Lordship's sake, nay, for His very Own, lest Himself might Incur That Unlearned Name, by which He calls me, in that He is Wholly Ignorant of your Lordship, that is, of the Totum, quod est, in re literariâ; for, You do not only Instill, and Encourage Learning, but you Possess it All; As St. Austin said true of Hierome in a Letter to Cyril, Quae Hieronymus Nescivit, nullus hominum unquam Scivit; So, no doubt, He had said as true, had He told Cyril, or Any else, Had He, and They, known nothing at all of what Hierome knew, they had indeed known nothing at all; let not the Reader Censure too fast, and I will quit His Kindness, and spare the Application; and I have learned from that Hierome (who thought it some Addition to His Fame, that He had 
† G. Nazianzenum & Didimum, in Scriptures sanctis Catechistas habui. L. 2. Ep. 4.  Nazianzen and Didimus for his Teachers) to acknowledge This the best Stake in my Reputation, that my Ears, and Eyes, drank Instructions out of your Mouth and Pen.  
We have, yet, (and we bless God for it) in, and of, England, a Nobility, not only made so, by Both those Bloods, that in their Veins, and the other Wealthy Purple they were Cradled In, and Born To, but made more Noble yet, by the Mother's side, the Present Universities, and by their Other Nurses, Sage, and Learned Authors. But, O! may not After Ages, when Themselves have no Profound, Greek, All-languaged, and All-mattered PERPOINT; no Suddenly-Oratorious SEYMOUR, who, at an Instant, can Hear, and Reply to, the Premeditations of a Whole University; no Scholastically-Learned SCUDAMORE, who knows More of Good Distinction, than others do of Bad Division; no Devoutly-Learned HATTON, who can Write better Piety, than Others can Semble; no Humanely and Naturally-Learned TRACY, who can teach Morality to the Professor, and Prescribe to the Doctors themselves, nay to Him of the Chair too; no NEWPORT, who is, in Himself, All of These, and Loves, and Countenances, in Others, the very Buds and Sprouting of Any of these; may they not, then, misdoubt, that, even we also, had them not? they may, but that we well hope, the Stems, and Derivatives of some of These, will be their Able, and Living Confutations. Your Lordship has, why I writ.  
And why upon this Subject, to Prove That God to Be, who is, not only All, that is , but, Principiatively, and Fundamentally, All, that is Anywhere; not only in Simplici Entitate, but, in complexione Propositionis, as your Lordships, and My, Aristotle hath, long since, distinguished, and, in re omni Cognoscibili; Besides the Particular reason (as the first Motive and Ground of this Design, with which the Entrance of this Book will acquaint your Lordship) the Loud Noise abroad, that there is No God, besides that, which is Diffused (and As it is Diffused) amongst the People, as well as no Power in the State, but, Originally in the People (which Opinion, how dangerous and disloyal it is even to Any Authority, in Any State, if the People have but a Will to Disobey, I leave to the Prudent Wisdom of those Several Authorities, to consider) no Power in the Church, even to Ordain Ministers, but Fundamentally in the People (which Opinion, if not how Destructive it is to all true Christianity, yet how Promoting it is, to the Sowing of Tares, in Christ's Field, if the Some People have a Will to Ordain a Schismatick-Minister, and the Other People an Heretick-Priest, I leave to the Holy Wisdom of my Brethren in the Same Calling, to Consider) and this, so loud a Noise, that it reached even to my Remote, and knocked at my Uninquiring Cell; this unwelcome Noise, which did first put me in Mind of what Heraclitus said, 
Aristotel. l. 1. de Part. Animal. c. 5.  that, In Casulis etiam sunt Dii, and made me so far from disbelieving a God, because I have but a thin Cottage over my Head, and That Ruinated, and, in part, Fallen, that I am rather willing to Cry out, Stantia non Poterant Tecta Probare Deum, 
Martial.  And to Worship my God the more for his Chastizing of Me; and, then made, me Weep with Heraclitus, when I heard that Others were Full, and denied God, 
Prov. 30.9.  and said, Who is the Lord? and then made me Mourn again, that That Observation of Petrarch should be true, in this Unthankful age, 
De Remed. Utr. Fort. Epist. Prae. fat.  in quam nos Deus Reservavit. Qui Damna, Pauperiem, Exilium, Carcerem, Supplicium, Mortem, &, Pejores Morte, Graves Morbos, aequo animo tulerunt, Multos vidi; qui Divitias, Honours, Potentiam, Nullum; It, at length, wrought this Persuasion in me, that, as for the sakes of some of my Countrymen, it is Wretchedly-Seasonable, not only to Catechise Practically, (as He, 
H.H. D.D.  who does all things Incomparably, hath Incomparably done) nor only Doctrinally, (as Many) but to prelude That, without which They could not Teach, nor We Know, and Do as We Ought; and to Compel the Belief and Profession of a God into the Most Doubtful Man, by the Clear, and Deliberate, Dis-passionate, Un-interested, and Most Impartial Testimony of His Own Self and Soul: So, the Mean, Inconsiderable, if not Despicable Condition of the Author, in respect of this World's affluencies, might add some Weight to the Witness-bearing unto the truth of GOD, in that, shall I say, I own Him not the Less? Nay, in that I Reverence Him the more, for the Counsel, and Benefit of His very Rod.  
My Lord, may I not say, of the GOD and Author of them, as a Late Learned Author hath said of the Difficulty of Scriptures, 
J. G. in His Ep. to the L.B. of S.  that, if, while some others, Preach, and Preach, and Preach, and Travel a Sabbath-days, and a Weekdays Journey too, to do it, some one do, as well as he Can, towards the making good of this Groundwork, I think He may be let alone at lest? 
Ovid. Virgil.  and have Veniam pro Laud; Neither— Spolia ampla reportans, nor, Spoliatus Ipse? And may I not wish, that my Brethren, not only in the Profession of Christianity, but in the Ministerial Function too, would all of them do what some of my Fathers, and Brethren do, spend their Wits, and Cares, and Pains, upon Establishing the True Fundamentals, and Raising the True Superstructions, and Edifications out of them, and upon them? that they would Itinerate and Sermon Pertinently and Advantageously, not only to the State (though to the State also) but, Principally, to the Church, the Kingdom of Christ? that they would be Apostles (if they are Apostles) that they would be Ministers, not of Men, neither by Man, but by Jesus Christ? Gal. 1.1. not, but that the Outward Calling, the Mission from Man, is required also; for, This St. Paul Himself, (called not by Man, but by Jesus of Nazareth, Whom He Persecuted, Act. 22.8.) was, Instantly, sent, by the Lord Himself, unto Man, Go into Damascus, and There it shall be Told thee of All things which are Appointed for Thee to Do, ver. 10. that they would remember That Apostolical Precept, Be ye not the Servants of Men? 1 Cor. 7.23. not, but that they are to serve Men also, but, not, in Opposition To Christ, even when they pretend a Compliance With Christ, He that is Called, being free, is Christ's Servant, v. 22. and not a Gratuitous Servant neither, He is Bought with a Price, v. 23. He must Serve Man, but Under Christ, and Christ Himself More; He must not Serve the Pay of Man (Non Tu, Pomponi, 
Martial.  Canae Diserta Tua est) and neglect the Purchase, and Price of Christ; His Blood, and his Supper, is That Purchase, and Price; These are to be Received and Distributed by the Ministerial Man; I, and that Often too; not only, Do ye this, but, Do it often, 1 Cor. 11.25. This is One of the Temptations that our Sayiour has bade them Pray, 
Luk. 22.40.  that they enter not into, that the Wealth of this World may not be overvalued above the Word, and Sacraments of Christ; not only, not Above the Word (for some do Press that, in Season; I, and, in very deed, Out of Season too) but, not above the Sacraments also; for, the Counsel is given, in That very Chapter, in which the Supper is Instituted; and I am not able to apprehend, how the Words of Man, though Upon the Word of God, can nourish Faith half so well, as Those very words of God Himself, 
Ver. 19  This is My Body which is Given for You. This for What I do.  
And for the Manner How, I think I have good reason for That also, both in the Dialectical and Pathetical part of it; The Example of Saint Paul is my Warrant, and His Success my Hope, in that, as He Spoke concerning the Kingdom of God, so I writ concerning God Himself, 
Act. 19.8.  Disputing and Persuading. I know, Man is altogether Corrupt, in Head and in Heart, and therefore I use both ways to enlighten Him, not only with a Common Coal, but with a Torch too, and that of the best-Wrought, and best-Scented Ware I have; I know, Some Men are more Corrupt in Heart, than in Head, and that, having Eyes, they Will not perceive, therefore I use the latter way to Convert them by a Pia Fraus, 
2 Cor. 12.16.  and to Catch them with a Holy Craft, and a Gospel- Guile.  
In the Disputing part, I make use of those Sincere Ancients who were never stained with That Modern Imputation, 
Jo. Sec.  Utilitas Certabat Honesto; who loved Truth more than Expediency, and Counted Truth itself the Best Expedient; who never Swerved from Universal Truth in all those three Branches of Vincentius Lyrinensis' Universality, in Time, Place, and Men, that Truth which was Anciently Believed from the very Beginning of Time, and Every where, and by Joint Consent, and not an Almanac, or Ephemerides-Truth, of such a Climate, which, over the Sea, is False; nor a Politic Truth, 
Omnia pro Tempore; Nihil pro Veritate. Optatus, lib. 1.  of such a Time, which Was Yesterday, and Will be to Morrow, False; nor a Rich Truth, of such a Party, which to Day is False, to a Poorer Man; of Those Ancients, who, though at their Births, and in their Bodies, they were of Several Distant, and Denominating Countries, yet, in their Minds, and Writings, were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and Taught, not Rome, nor Athens, but the World.  
Among These, I make choice of those Arguments, which, in all the Judgement I have, are, Severally, Concluding; and therefore I may, the rather, hope, by All of them, from the most Prejudicated Understanding, what I Promise to myself, by Any of them, from a Sober Mind, that He would first believe, not only, what the Secretary of the Holy Ghost, the Author to the Hebrews, 
Cap. 11. ver. 3. Cap. 3.8. Primus est Deorum Cultus Deos Credere. Sense. Ep. 95.  but what the Secretary of Nature, Epictetus too, would have him, first believe, that God Is; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (and, at length, that He is, not only, as the One, a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him, but, as the Other, a Revenger too, against them that seek Him not) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (else the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉:) If One will not Convince this kind of Gainsayer, I would even Shame that Stubborn, Stomachosum Hominem, with whom I have to deal, into a Confession of truth by a Cloud (but a very Bright one) of Witnesses.  
And, though these Arguments, and More, are Obvious to the Carefull-Learned, out of Several Authors, yet, because this Sin of Atheism is a Popular Sin, the Sin of those Ignorant, though Conceited Heads, who Do know as Little of Latin and Greek, as they Would know of God; and because these Arguments have not, till now, seen any English Light, I deemed it a piece of Charity to some of my Erring Countrymen, to set such a Lamp as This, before their Eyes, whereby they may know Him, 
Jam. 11.17.  who is the Father of Lights.  
And, to take off from your Lordship, and Any Other Learnedly-True Man, the Tediousness, and Nausea of a Crambe, (for, such it is, and but B is Cocta, whatever I serve up to your Lordship, out of the Writings, though of the Ablest Men) I hope I shall not so much Glut Your, and Their Appetite, with my Borrowed Dishes, as Sharpen them, with a Mess or two of my own Providing; Arguments, which (if I mistake not, out of that Partiality, which is Common to Mankind) are of Pregnant behoof, for those who have made us believe they are about Christening some part of Turkey; and by which, I would gladly pay Use, if not to Posterity, to the Present Age, for what I have taken up upon Score from the former; and, yet, not so Credulously upon Score, but that I have Tried their Metal, with my Own Touchstone.  
For the Persuasive part, though Perhaps I do not (what Your Great Lordship does, 
Grotius.  Tanti qui Nominis Imples Mensuram) perform my Undertake, and have not One Word of Rhetoric in all the Book, besides That of Your Name before it (and yet, had I been so Happy to have known Your Lordship as much in these days of Thunder and Astonishment, Cùm Cava Fauce Globos Aera Tonante Vomuere, as I did in the former Halcion-days of Peace and Plenty, (Those themselves being the very Emblem, as well as the Offspring, of Persuasion, and almostall Rhetoric, having of Late taken its flight with Those) I could not choose but have Learned to Persuade, much better, by Your Lordship, who are, as absolutely, Lord of That, as You are of Your Own Lands; nay, as You are, even of Me, for whom You shall never need to Compound; Sooner than That, I myself may be Rich enough to Buy back my Own Twentieth Part, though, Hitherto, I know not What it is in me, that does Offend a Powerful Committee, Asperat & Magnos in Mea Damna Deos, and makes Them keep me Contentedly-Low, as free from danger of Another Stroke, as from Un-Envyable, and yet Opposed Preferment, when I could not fore-apprehend any Reason of my Miscarriage, and have, Since, only therefore learned to Judge it fit, and Equitable, because the Wisdom of the Court denied me; to whose Displeasure I submit, and, more than That, would Crave their Pardon too, were my Obnoxiousness as Manifest as my Plea; whatever, else, was my Gild, I am sure it was not my being Rich, 
Luk. 1.53.  that Caused me to be sent Empty away: But, This Long Parenthesis, is Long Digression; and yet, Perhaps, it may not Altogether be so, if They will be Persuaded by it to a future Tenderness: but, to Return) yet, that I ought to Attempt some Rhetorical Insinuations (how much soever I do Excidere Ausis) so long as a Man has a Heart, and Will, and Affections, as well as a Head, and Judgement, and Understanding; As St. Paul was my Copy in the Whole manner of Prosecution, whose Practice it Was, 
Act. 18.28.  not only Mightily to Convince, but, Elegantly to Allure too; So He is more Peculiarly my Pattern, in this Oratorious branch of my method, and with a Peculiar Appositeness to the very Matter I treat of; witness that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that Short and Sweet, Mining and Prevalent, Yielding and Conquering intercourse betwixt Him and King Agrippa, (not to be matched by Cicero and Demosthenes, though Another Caussine should Compare Both Them to Paul, as One hath done Him to Him) King Agrippa, 
Act. 26. v. 27, 28, 29.  Believest thou the Prophets? I know that thou Believest; Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou PERSUADEST me to be a Christian; And Paul said, I would to God, not only Thou, but also All that Hear me this day, were both Almost, and Altogether such as I am, EXCEPT THESE BONDS; a little before, He says, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I am Persuaded; 
Ver. 26.  He might have Changed the Voice, and said, I am Persuading, for He was, even Then, and by these very Arts, wooing King Agrippa to believe that Christ was the God; and He, that Denies Christ to be the God, as well as He that Denies Any God at all, is an Atheist too, in Saint Paul's Account, Without Christ, 
Ephes. 2.12.  and without God in the World; They are Synonimons; He puts God and Christ together, and Separates Him from Both of them, that is an Alien to Either of them.  
Nay, my good Lord, not only St. 
Mendo. Vim & Potestatem Dicendi, à Spiritu accipere. Lucian. in Philopat.  Paul, but Your, and His Lord too, who, as He is God, hath given to your Lordship the full Streams, and Channels of Both, and to Me, a Scanter Rivulet, and some few Drops of Either, Poured from out Your Cistern which Himself hath filled (in that I, who was Sometimes sent a Moderator, and after I had observed Your Nervous Inferences, went back a Disciple, 
Is. 50.4.  Taught to Argue, from Your Mouth, as well as to Write, from Your Hand) that Lord of Ours, who, as he is God, 
† A Diis, & Prudentes, & Forts, & LOQUENTES, Nascuntur. Pindarus.  does give the Tongue of the Learned, and, as He was Man, did Practice Both these kinds of Learning; witness not only His Name, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which Signifies (though more, even Verbum, and Grammar also, yet, as to this present purpose) Ratio & Oratio, Logic and Rhetoric too, but His Disputing with the Doctors, Luk. 2.46. and His Rhetorizing with the Multitudes in his Sermon upon the Mount; 
Mat. 5.  What could more inflame their Love of those Patiences and Virtues in the Midst (virtue's Own, and Proper Seat) than a Blessedness at large in the Head of Every of them, and a Peculiar Blessedness in the Close? a Portion in the Entry of the Verse, and a Certainty, What, and how very Much the Sum shall be, in the Period of it? Each Verse (which I may call a Purse, or a Coffer rather, a Whole Shire, or a Wholler Heaven rather) of those eight Beatitudes, is a more Complete Form, and Exact Unimitable Idea, how to work upon, and regulate the Passions of Man, than all the Numerously-Erroneous Dictates, which the Heathen hath prescribed in His Volume, de Rhetoricâ, and the Jesuit in His, de Eloquentiâ.  
And yet, though All this, and the Entire frame of the Scriptures of God, abounding with Both of these, do entitle Me to a Shallow and Unequal imitation, yet, since, not Both These already named, nor all the Florilegia and Spicilegia besides, will furnish us with Sufficient, either Precepts or Instances, of a Graceful Well-speaking, and an Un failing Perswasiveness, He will be too blame that exacts me to any other Statera than that of Pro re nata facundia; and He will Wound me beyond remedy, that measures my Dear Lord's River by my Stillicidium; 'tis true, I acknowledge your Lordship (though This itself is not your Masterpiece) to be the Skilfullest Master I know of this Commanding faculty; and Where would I Love to Learn, but where I might Learn Most? Not, Enviously, to Commit your Lordship with the Living, Bishop, or Priest, or Esquire, Hall, or Donne, or Howell, but, Componens Manibusque 
Aeneid. l. 8.  Manus, atque Oribus Ora, to Compare your Pen and Speech (in reference to whom Virgil wrote that Verse) with the Deceased, with Tully, 
Horar.  Quem penes arbitrium est, & Jus, & Norma Loquendi, who Himself was a Cortex to all the rest; and with Self styled Putean, who said of Himself, that He had learned sine Cortice nare, that he was, Nullius addictus Jurare in Verba Magistri; 
Morat.  with Erasmus, who is well-nigh an emulous Competitor with Tully's self in point of Clean Phrase, and Classic Tongue; with Pliny, who reverenced his Trajan; and with Languet, who Loved and Honoured our Sidney, in some degree near to the Love, and Honour, and Reverence I bear to my Lord; and yet all these, in all their Epistles, come as Short of yours, as their Valuations of those whom they would most Extol, come Short of my Esteems of You; who, amongst the rest of your Skills, have this great Conquering Art, Artem Celare; and, as Pliny said of Isaeus, 
L. 2. Ep. 3.  Dicis semper extempore, sed tanquam Diu Scripseris; Multa Lectio in Subitis, Multa Scriptio Elucet; but then, and for all this, He, who so Odiously employs Himself, as to Meet your Lordship's Bushel by my Thimble, notwithstanding I have already told Him, that the Shreds only are Mine, and the Garment Yours, I have no other way left to redeem my Lord's Fame (whom, all I writ, is, as I may, to Honour) from such a disproportioned Scandal, than to take my leave of this Busy-Body-Objector, by telling Him, that, Quintilians self (though He could not Choose but Love those Rules which His very Self had made) Prescribes like One Orator, and Declaims like Another; How much more may I deflect, (though I Out-Love my Lord, more than He did His Self) not only from the overreaching Perfection, but from the Mediocrity too, (if any thing be so, in His Style (as it Lawfully may be in Another Man's, and in an Unbound, Un-feeted discourse; for, That Inhibition, Non Homines, non Dii, non Concessere Columnae, 
Horat.  may only be impleaded against Indifferent Poets) and even That Indifferency would be My Perfection) which Shines in His very Suddennesses, especially when I have so long, and so longly-sad a time, Truanted from my Best of Masters? Cum Magnis Nominibus, etiam Errare, Honestum est: But now, at Length,  
I beseech you give me leave to Come Home to you (for, wherever I am, I am only Tanquam at Home, when I think, and Speak, and Writ of You, and only Then, Really at Home, when I See and Wait on You) and to tell your Lordship, as, Why I Print, and Why This, so Why, Under Your Wing.  
There is, and will be Reason enough for it, so long as I am capable to Understand What Reason is, and what the Gratitude and Demeanour of an Obliged Servant Ought to be to a Merciful, and even-Friendly Lord, in such a stiff Age in which those two Heats, of Anger and Powder, have made the Love of Many to wax Cold.  
To Speak of Your Goodness to me, when it was in Fashion to Be Good, and to Do Good, This Would, Mores Saeculi Celebrare, and not Tuos; but my Acknowledgements must be as Singular, as your Lordship's Affections Are; It might have Satisfied all my Un-meriting Desires, that your Lordship was, Long Since, Unica nata Meis Requies uberrima Curis; but, in that your Lordship does, still, Beneficia Beneficiis Cumulare, and, in your very Actions, speak that piece of Poetry, Aloud, and Unfeignedly, to my Worst Condition, Et, Nuper, Mea Cura, & Nunc, Mea Cura, this it is, that extorts from me a Publication, not so much of my Book, as of my Gratitude; 'tis all that I am able to return to so much Excess, and Wonder of your Bounty, that Goldsmith's Hall, and I, should upon one and the same Day Rifle your Bags; that the Thousands paid in There, could not hinder you, from Raining down a Voluntary Shower of Gold upon Me also; that You should, After, send Reliefs, and Visits too, to so Mean a Person, Enough to make me Suspect I had injured my Fortune (and not Fortune, me) in setting too Light by Her, when the very Ill she did me, had so much of Advancement in it, as that it made me fit (in your Eyes, as Lowly as my own Fortune) to be Considered by your Lordship; I Laid them Both Together, the Reliefs, by yourself, and the Visits, in your Name, by your Chief of Servants, and Concluded out of those Premises, had I been Less, I could not have Received more than the One, had I been Greater, You could not have Done more than the Other, no Otherwise, then, as your Lordship was, After, pleased to Do, to send your Encouraging Letters also, Sealed with your Own Arms; What could you have done More, had I been the very Signet upon your Arm? and what can I do Lesle, than Testify to the World, how Much I Own Your Lordship, and, though You did these Good things, Secretly, Declare, what You did, before all the Israel we have left, and before the Sun? I am sure, it does not break the Command of our God Christ, if, when the Alms-Giver did not let his Left Hand know what His Right Hand Did, 
Mat. 6.  the Receiver Sounds the Trumpet.  
You, my Good Learned Lord, who know All things, (quantum Humana Natura, & Aetas Tua Capere & Portare possunt) know, (and yet this is no Ill Tidings I bring, and therefore not liable to That, Nos Cogimur Omnia Scire) that He, who is Already Noble, is made much more Noble yet, the Less He makes of Himself, whereas He, that is not Noble at all, does make it Impossible for Him, that He should be so, by taking upon Him that He is So: I have Experiment enough that your Lordship is not Soured into One of those, who, instead of Accepting, upon such Presentations as these, are ready to cry out, Quis Mihi? Quid Tecum? Proximus Ipse Mihi. Let them Startle at a Dedication, who have not Worth enough to Challenge it, or have not Paid enough beforehand for it; Both Ways, Your Lordship is a Freeman of England; and therefore, that I may Stop Your Lordship's Message to your Steward, give me leave to tell your Lordship, that This is not a Petition, but an Acquittance;  
Non Posco, neque Gratiam, nec Aera,  
Nec Rubri Spolium Maris, nec Aurum;  
Sed Charus magis Ipse sis, vel Aere,  
Vel Rubri Spelio Maris, vel Auri.  
After all these Confessions, and Acknowledgements, if your Lordship asks me, Why I Printed a Former Book, and made not You the Patron of it, and Me? I shall easily obtain your Lordship's Pardon (for You are Vir Priscae Humanitatis) if I, first, tell you, that I chose no Patron to it, but the Thousand Readers; and next, that I, therefore, Own'd not You, because I disowned myself; and yet, Whereas That Book Was so speedily sold off, for want of the Author's Name to Spoil the Bargain, I thought it a piece of Prudence, when I Hazard the going off of this Impression, by the Unworthiness of My Name, to do myself and my Stationer Right, to make it Sell into Other men's Hands, by your Lordship's passing good Name, and not to lie upon Our Hands, by Mine.  
Let me take my leave of your Lordship, with this Protestation, that I shall study never to forget the Constancy of your Good Will towards Me in these Unsteady times, Sive Prememus Humum, sive Prememur Humo, and shall be Always ready to Press into the Ears of this deaf, froward Age, how much I am (but that Infinitudes cannot be Reckoned up)  
Your Lordship's Infinitely Obliged, and (if it be possible) as Devoted Servant, WILLIAM TOWERS.   

The Names of Authors, and Sententiaries, Ancient and Modern, Christian and Heathen, whose Books, and Speeches, are, occasionally Mentioned, and purposely made use of, in the Following Discourses.  

1 AELian.  
2. Aesop.  
3 Agesilaus.  
4 Agapetus.  
5 Ambrose.  
6 Bishop Andrews, in His MS Notes upon the Common-Prayer-Book.  
7 Anselm.  
8 Aquinas.  
9 Aristainetus.  
10 Aristotle.  
11 Aratus.  
12 Athanasius.  
13 Ausonius.  
14 Michael Auguanus.  
15 Saint Austin.  
16 St. Basil.  
17 Doctor Basire.  
18 Balduin Casus Conscientiae.  
19 Beslarmine.  
20. St. Bernard.  
21 Beza.  
22 Bias.  
23 Bion.  
24 Caussinus, e Soc. Jesus.  
25 Cato.  
26 Caecilius in Cicerone.  
27 Caesar.  
28 Chilon.  
29 Cicero.  
30 St. Cyprian. Cyrill.  
31 St. Chrysostom.  
32 Clemens.  
33 Common-Prayer-Book.  
34 Q. Curtius.  
35 Demosthenes.  
36 Diodorus Siculus.  
37 Diogenes Cynicus.  
38 Diogenes La●rtius,  
39 Dionysius Areopagita.  
40 Dr. Donne.  
41 English College of Douai.  
42 Queen Elizabeth's Injunctions.  
43 Epictetus.  
44 Epicurus.  
45 Epiphanius.  
46 Erasmus.  
47 Estius.  
48 Eucherius.  
49 Eusebius.  
50 Eustathius.  
51 Fagius.  
52 Minutius Felix.  
53 Firmicus.  
54 Dr. Field of the Church.  
55 Galen.  
56 Joannes Galensis Anglus.  
57 John Gregory, late of Christ-Church.  
58 Gregory the Great.  
59 Grotius.  
60 Godfrey Goodman, Bishop late of Gloucester.  
61 Dr. Hall, when He was the R. R. B. of Exon. since B. of Norwich.  
62 Dr. Hammond.  
63 Lord Hatton.  
64 Heinsius.  
65 Heraclitus.  
66 Hesiod.  
67 Hierocles.  
68 St. Hierome.  
69 St. Hilary.  
70 Homer.  
71 Horace.  
72 Jo. Huartus, Hispanus, in His Examen de Ingeniis.  
73 Esquire Howell.  
74 jamblichus.  
75 Irenaeus.  
76 Julian Apostate.  
77 Justin Martyr.  
78 Juvenal.  
79 Lactantius.  
80 Languetus.  
81 Dr. Laud, Late Archbishop of Canterbury.  
82 Levinus Lemnius.  
83 Livy.  
84 Lucan.  
85 Ludovicus Granatensis.  
86 Lucretius.  
87 Machometus.  
88 Macrobius.  
89 Manilius.  
90 Manual of Godly Prayers.  
91 Marshal.  
92 Peter Martyr.  
93 Michael ab Isselt.  
94 Picus Mirandula.  
95 Greg. Nazianzen.  
96 Optatus.  
97 Origen.  
98 Ortelius.  
99 Ovid.  
100 Petronius.  
101 Petrarch.  
102 Philo the Jew.  
103 Pindarus.  
104 Pisanus.  
105 Plato.  
106 Plinius Secundus.  
107 Pliny the Naturalist.  
108 Plutarch.  
109 Angelus Politianus.  
110 Portugallus Atheus.  
111 Primasius.  
112 Proclus.  
113 Propertius.  
114 Prudentius.  
115 Putean.  
116 Pythagoras.  
117 Quintilian.  
118 Raimundus de Sabunde.  
119 C. Rhodiginus.  
120 Rusticus Diaconus.  
121 Ruvio.  
122 Scaliger.  
123 Joannes Secundus.  
124 Seneca Phil.  
125 Seneca Trag.  
126 Severus.  
127 Socinus.  
128 Socrates.  
129 Solon.  
130 Statius.  
131 Suarez. The Schoolmen.  
132 Tacitus.  
133 Tertullian.  
134 Theodoret.  
135 Theodorus.  
136 Tibullus.  
137 Trismegistus.  
138 Maximus Tyrius.  
139 Emanuel Thesaurus.  
140 Theophilus Antiochenus.  
141 Theophylact.  
142 Valerius Maximus.  
143 Varro.  
144 Vincentius Lyrinensis.  
145 Virgil.  
146 Xerxes.    

A Table of the Principal Contents.  

THE Occasion and Purpose of the Book, in the Introduction. Why the Author does, in Part, wave Scriptural Proofs, and that upon Scriptural Practice. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.  
God proved to Be, From the Chain of Causes. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.  
From Motion. 11, 12, 13, 14.  
From the Difference in Entities. 15, 16.  
From the Tendency of all things to a Certain End. 17, 18.  
From the Natural Inclination, and Desire of Man. 19, 20, 21.  
From the known Heavens. 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27.  
This way of Probation, cleared, By the Practice of the Fathers. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33.  
Of the Schoolmen. 34.  
Of the Apostles. 35.  
Of Job. 36, 37.  
The Objection against this truth answered by the Objectors themselves. 38, 39  
In what manner the Author proceeds to Scriptural Proofs, and why he invites the Naturalist to the search of them. 40.  
Because of the Confessed Sinfulness of All Men. 41, 42, 43, 44, 45.  
Because of the Known Displeasure of God against Sin. 46.  
Because of God's Punishing Sin Eternally. 47.  
Because there is no Virtue but from God. 48.  
Because there is no Meritorious Virtue. 49.  
Because there is some Resemblances, of the Father, and Christ, and the Spirit, and of Trinity in Unity, in the very Heathens. 50, 51.  
The very Atheist does Confess God. 52.  
In his very Denying of him. 53  
In the Most Wicked of his Practices. 54.  
A Caveat against his Sottish Sin. 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61.  
The Atheist's Fear proves God. 62, 63.  
The Atheist's Recall, and (si vult Ipse) Recovery. 64.  
The Recall of Semi-Atheists. 65, 66, 67, 68  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 69.  
A Persuasion to the Naturalist, to search Scripture, Because of the Uncertainty amongst Heathens, what Happiness is. 70, 71.  
Because of the Certainty, that Happiness Is to be Desired; that, Nothing is, in Vain, to be Desired; that, in all Natural, Verisimilitude, and Reason, Scripture is the only Declarer what True Happiness is, and how to be Acquired. 73, 74, 75, 76.  
The Author's Apology, again, for these kind of Reasons. 77, 78, 79.  
The Natural Reasons why our Scripture is the Word of God. 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96.  
The Atheist's final Reclaimer. 97, 98, 99, 100   

In the Second Discourse. Deus Unicus.  

THE Fitness and Rationality of it. 1, 2.  
The Probation; that God is One, 

Simplicitate. 3, 4, 5.  
Singularitate. 6.  
Universalitate. 7.    
The taking off Objection. 8.  
The Confirmation. 9, 10, 11.  
Against the Romanists, who apply the true Worship of the True God, to somewhat else. 12.  
Particularly, against English (in all senses) Douai, and Douai- misapplyed Texts. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37.  
Texts, sincerely, and, ex abundanti, urged, against (not Texts, but) Mis-application. 38, 39  
In fine, an Accounting Post script to my Honoured Patron, Ego, sub Illius, Ille, & Ego, sub Dei Alis, donec Haec transeat Calamitas.     

Atheismus Vapulans, OR, There is a GOD.  

The Introduction.  
TO Prove that God Is, (the Theme, and Business, which I am, now, upon, and about) did it only arise out of a Curiosity in Notional, and Speculative Knowledge, would be my own Shame, and not a Rebuke to the Apostasy of this Age and Clime; and I myself, who take upon me (by the help of him who is the Subject of my Discourse) to endeavour the Conversion of others, should stand in need to be Converted by another's Pen, from such a Fantastic Employment; but, since the Undertaking is so far from Humour, that there are, abroad, who need such a Cure as this, I shall not forbear that, which is useful to Some, for fear lest a Medice Teipsum might be applied to myself from Others; if all, I writ, were Digression, and Impertinency; if all, to whom I writ, would echo back to that Heavenly Covenant, I will be their God, and they shall be my People, Thou shalt be, thou art our God, I should esteem this Loss of Time and Pains, to be the most Fortunatus' Error I could ever commit, and should more glory in Confirming my Brethren, than in Converting an Alien; but, since some cry out, with Pharaoh's blasphemy, 
Exod. 5.2.  Who is the Lord? I, and I, and I, know not the Lord, and may compel him (as he was driven to it by the Obstinacy of That Pharaoh) to prove himself to be the Lord, by his own most Authoritative, most Infallible bearing witness to himself, that he is the Lord, three several times in the next Chapter, 
V 2.8.29.  to prove his Power, as he did to Pharaoh, by his Judgements against them who deny his Power, it is necessary for some of us to Preach by a Handwriting (lest God may do it upon a Wall) such a Fundamental Doctrine as This, the rather, because such a Wild Separating People (who, if Authority so pleased, should be almost Compelled into a Congregation, that they might begin at Christ's Cross, and Learn This a, (for That is the Name of God) this first Letter in Divinity, that there is a Christ, and a God) do run away from the Ministerial Vox Viva, lest they should be Converted, and God should heal them: This it is that makes me run after (with a Bleeding Heart, because of their Dry Eyes) such Infatuated Perishing Souls, who Void to themselves, whatever God by Our Ministry, hath taught to Others, of Fearing God, Loving God, being Zealously-Affected to God, and put so much Shame and Dishonour upon our Great and Good God, as to Deny Him, not only in his Attributes, to be Great and Good, but in his very Essence, even to Be; the modest Heathen will not keep pace with them in any of these; even to him, he shall be, not only Deus, but Optimus, and Maximus too.  
Some such there are Abroad; and there are, Abroad too, who impute that there is, at least, some One such within my own Circuit; whatever Profane Languages have slipped out of that Unhallowed Mouth, I would fain hope, they never came out of the Heart too; and yet my Saviour hath almost made me to despair, and not to hope so, in that himself hath said, Out of the Abundance of the Heart, the Mouth speaketh, Mat. 12.34. and hath given me Occasion, by the force of his own Argument, to ask a Question, like his, in the Method, though unlike his, in the Matter, 
Ibid.  How can he, being Good, (Good at Heart, how Can he) speak such evil things?  
Whether this be, indeed, a Sin of Blasphemy, and Atheism amongst us, or a Sin of Slander, and Defamation amongst them, I know not; but, since it must be one of these Sins, and of one of these People, though I am in a great Str●it, yet I could wish to make Choice of the Lesser Evil, for (though Both of them are stark naught) it is surely better to Slander and Defame Man, than God; this only I know, that my present Design is, by the Conversion of him, who is himself the suspected Adversary, and hath given Occasion to the very Servants of God to speak Reproachfully, to make such a bold Report hereafter, to be but a very Slander; and by the Conversion of those his Fratres in Malo, in Another and Another Place, but in the same, and more than the same Iniquity, who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not so much Suspected by us, as Convicted by themselves, that they are the Adversaries of God, not to suffer it (quantum in me est) to be any more the Slander, either of Man or God.  
This is One part of the Design, to have Compassion on him, whose Foot hath well-nigh slipped, 
Judas 22.  and to save him with hope; to Compassionate those, who are not almost, but altogether Gone out from us, who, themselves, have made it Manifest, that they were not of us, and to save them by Fear, Pulling them out of that Fire, into which they have thrown themselves; and it is Another, to Establish, and Keep them in the Love of God, who are, already, and still, Deists, and Christians, that they would earnestly Contend for the Faith, which was once Delivered to the Saints, how eagerly soever some, who neither are Saints, nor have Faith (not so much Faith as to believe a God) contend against them for it.  
For that Conviction, and Conversion-sake of some, and for that Remembrance, and Establishmentsake of others, I shall divide this Treatise into three parts; each Part shall be a Treatise by itself, and the two Latter subordinate to the first.  
The first Treatise shall prove that there is a God.  
The second, that there is but One Only God. And  
The third, that the God of us Christians is He, that One, and that Only God; first, in that he is a Lord and Ruler over us; secondly, in that he is a Rock and Defence unto us.  
And, though I might take one Text of Scripture, to prove all, and every part of this (that of David, in his 18 Psalms, and v. 31. For, who is God, save the Lord? and who is a Rock, save our God That is the first thing, Presupposed, and Granted, by David, and, by all those, who are, as David was, 
1 Sam. 13.14.  Men after God's own Heart, throughout the Double, the Iterated, the Repeated Question, in the whole Verse, that, indeed, a God there is; for, when he asks, Who is a God save— Who is a Rock save— a Rock and a God he presumes there is; and then he, as Equally, and Firmly, though but secondarily, implies, in those Interrogatories of his, that there is but One, True God; That is Inferrible out of his Manner of Limitation; for, when he Confines the Excess and Latitude of the Question, Who is a God— to— the Lord Singularly— Who is a Rock— to — Our God— Unically, he does Convince, that there is but One True God, One Only Lord; and, thirdly, he Proves, and Evinces, that Our God is the One, the Only, the True God, by a twofold Argument; first in that he is Lord and Ruler over us, Who is God, save the LORD secondly, in that he is a Rock, and Defence unto us, Who is a ROCK, save our God?) yet, I must acquaint you with two several Reasons, why I, in part forbear, and, in part, insist, to do this.  
1. I will forbear, because, in my first Treatiso, I am to Prove a God to the Face and Heart of him, whose Face does Confidently, and whose Heart does Hypocritically seem to Deny a God; and, to such a One, I must not prove God by Scriptures, (lest, though perhaps he has not Latin enough to do it, he tell me, without Mood and Figure, and in plain English, that I do Petere Principium) but, rather, Scriptures by God.  
2. I will forbear, because some of this queasy Age, and Innovating Isle (for, I am only seen in my own Vanities, and the misbelief of a few of my Countrymen, who have need to be Reformed out of their very Reformation, as they Injuriously and Dishonourably call it, to that Authority, under whose Cloak they pretend it) who account Preached Sermons, in Actu Exercito, to be the whole Body of Divinity, and the Hearing of them to be all the Practice of it; who esteem of them, Ex o'er only, to be God's Ordinance, and Edifying, and Ex Prelo, to be Man's Inventions, and Corrupting, and therefore will not (though a Wise Man hath bade them do it) Buy Truth, and Wisdom, 
Prov. 23.23.  and Instruction, and Understanding, but account of Sermons, o'er tenus, to be the Wisdom of God, and Printed Sermons to be the Foolishness of Preaching, and, therefore, will not Coelum Stultitiâ hâc Petere; no, by no means, Non hac Itur ad Astra. And yet, though I will rather 
* Although Concio, in Veteri, & Primitiuâ Ecclesiâ Tractatu● nuncupabatur. Bishop Andrews in MS Notes on Common-Prayer-Book. 1.5.11.  Treat, than Sermon to them, I would fain Unbewitch them of such Mispersuasions too; when St. Paul bids his Thessalonians, Edify One Another, would he not have them do it, by that Doctrine, which he Preached unto them? nay by that very Epistolar Sermon, which he wrote unto them? Is not Comfort an especial part of Edification? and does he not Exhort them to Comfort one another with these Words? 
Ch. 4. v. 18.  these Written Words? Does the Spirit of God go along with them, when they are delivered to the Ear? and forsake them, when they are Presented to the Eye? how ill does this suit with that God, whose property is to be Immutable! Himself is One of those two Immutable things, 
Heb. 6.18.  and his Oath Another; Is not this kind of deserting That, which he before allowed of, at least some Variableness, and not None at all? at least a Shadow of Turning? is that, which was Wholesome Meat from the Pulpit, either Mors, or Herb-John in Ollâ, when it has passed through the Shop? are Ecclesiastes, and other Tracts, Catechisms, and Confessions of Faith, Any thing, and Every thing else, Good, and Saleable in Paper? and only That, which is very Hot in the Mouth, and esteemed Best of all There, Cold in Operation, and Good for nothing, when it is Dressed the same way as These? Good God what Sickly and Unsound Palates are we to provide for! For their sakes also it is, as well as for that Atheist's sake, with whom I expostulate, that in the prosecution of what I have in hand, (in Hand I say, and not upon the Tongue) I shall, in much part, decline Scriptural Authority, lest That, which is a Treatise in Volume, might be suspected of so much Jesuitism, as to have changed its Name from that Sermon which it had been in the Chapel, though the Length, as well as the Tediousness of it, (for, these two, are, sometimes, as much From the Same, as Idem, cùm faciunt Duo, is not Semper Idem) and the Debility of my own Lungs might Vindicate it from that Honest Imputation; and yet  
3. As well for the Connexion and Requiringness of the Matter, as for the Integrity of those Settled Heads, who love the Word of God, and the sincere solid Interpretation of it, as their own Souls, I shall, in much part, insist upon Choice and Pertinent Scriptures, a little in the first and second Treatise, (and, in doing this, I shall but transcribe the Policy, and leave out the Infection, of a Ruvio, and a Suarez, (who, in their Logic, and Metaphysics, talk Much, and Unseasonably, of the H. Eucharist, more to Roman than Aristotelical Intent and Purpose) excusably enough, because I would, even at unawares, not only Contest, and Dispute, but Surprise my incurious Reader, into the belief of a Truth, not English, or Spanish, but owned by Mankind) but, more in the third, because the other two do presume him to be a Christian but in Fieri, not fit, at all, for Apostolical strong Meat, and scarce, for Milk, but, in the third, and in Facto esse, for Both; in the Language of this last expression I may tell you, that you know your Fare, wish you Fall too, and pray God to Bless it To you.   

The First Treatise. That there is a God.  
1 TO tell you that Every word of Scripture does prove this, because, as St. Paul tells me, 
2 Tim. 3.16.  All of it was Inspired by God; nay, to tell you, that those very words, which the Devil, in Scripture, hath spoke, do prove this, because it is God, who hath made them Scripture in that he hath vouchsafed to Relate them There, will not serve my turn, nor suit with that ground of Method, which not I make choice of, but the Perverseness of Man proposes to me, and compels upon me; if he Fights with Wood, and Hay, 
1 Cor. 3.12.  and Stubble, and I warred with Gold, and Silver, and Precious Stones, I shall not Componere, but Dilatare his Obstreper as Fauces, for want of a Reply ad Idem; such a Goliath as this, must have the Neck of his Objection cut off, with his own, though a Leaden, Sword; the Other, and Better way, would indeed satisfy Other and Israelited, better and Un-philistined men, to Remember them, that there is a God, who already believe this Truth, but not to make him Know that there is a God, who as yet, Denies it, and, doing that, must, by Miserable Undoing Consequence, Deny this Book to be Made by him, whom himself he Denies to Be.  
2. Therefore, by a Rational Physic against the Pestilence, and Infection of so Ill an Air, (a Disease more dangerous than that other noisome Pestilence, 
Psal. 91.6.  which walketh (as this hath done, though, now, it attempts to waste even at Noonday) in Darkness, for, That does testify a God, though an Angry one, which This out-braves, 
Psal. 65.8.  and the People were afraid of the Tokens of That, as of God's Tokens, whom This out-dares) and with design, that that Ill Air may not only leave off to Poison the Air next to it, but begin to Purge itself, I shall first, Convince the Falsehood, of the Atheists more said and Divulged than Believed opinion, out of those Principles, which it is impossible for Themselves, as they are what they profess themselves, Mere Men to Gainsay; and shall Secondly, in Honour to the Scripture, and the God of them, either Convert Them, who, if they thrust not themselves without the Pale, thrust the Pale from themselves, or, at least Confirm those, who are within the Pale, that they may not be seduced to Pluck One Stake out of it, by a Mixed kind of Natural and Spiritual Argument, from the general manner, and Method and Style, Aim, and sense, and Purpose of the scriptures, that a God is the Author of them.  
3. To apply myself First, to the Quality of the Opponents, 
Acts 5.3, 4.  whose Hearts Satan hath filled, to Lie to the Holy Ghost, not to Lie unto Men, but unto God; (and is not ●his a Sacrilege in grain, to withhold God from the People, and beyond That of them, who withheld the Gift of the People from God?) in Proving that there is a God, out of such Evident and Created Principles, which Themselves will be no more able to Disprove, than a Dog to By't the Moon, at which He Barks; and yet, for the sake of Others, I have heeded that Counsel of Putean, 
Comus.  Cavendum est, ne vel Ipso Latratu Mordeat.  
4. And did not God Himself, and Moses Himself imply as much, that God might be known (though no● in His Simply-Intire essence, eve● by Scriptures themselves, or to Angels themselves, for, Nothing bu● God can thus Comprehensively know God) at least, in His Existence, and Being, in a more Remote, but Certain and Infallible though Confused knowledge, eve● by the Light of Nature? (though there be more of Resplendency, i● the Sun, than in a Candle, yet it is as sure, that we Do See, by a Candle, as by the Sun) When God Himself hath told us by Moses, that I● the Beginning, 
Gen. 1.1.  God Created the Heavens, and the Earth, in the very Beginning of the Word of God, and hath not, First, Expressly told us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that God Himself Is (for, it is never to be said He was, of whom there is not Erat, quando non Erat, but in the same Line and Verse, that He is too; else, 
Revel. 1.4.8. Exod. 9.14.  His Name, I AM, is brought into suspicion) before that Beginning, but hath left the Heavens, and the Earth, that He Made, to tell us That.  
5. And do not the Apostles themselves do the same? and upon the same Ground? and, perhaps in reference to that very First Verse in ●he Written Book of God, being ●aught so to do, by the Example of God and Moses, as well as by Inpiration of God? They do not tell ●s, in Terminis, that God Is, much ●ess do they attempt (that which They well knew to be a thing Impossible) to Prove Him to Be, à Priori; such a very Proof as this (besides the Arrogancy of it, in taking upon them, to be in greater ●avour with God, and to see deeper into Him, 
Exod. 33.23.  than Moses did, who saw Him, but à Posteriori, in His Back Parts) would be but an Artificial, a more Elaborate, and subtle kind of Denying God; They only tell us Involvedly, that He is, when they tell us, that They Do, and We should, Believe in God the Father Almighty; To Believe In Him, He, and They have taught us in Holy Scriptures, but Credere Deum, to Believe Him to Be, the next Words after, teach us That, Maker of Heaven and Earth.  
6. Now, if Any shall say a fresh, as Galen once did, Omnia Dicit, Nihil Probat, that Moses does but Say, God did This, and That, Made Heaven and Earth, He does not Prove it; to Reply to all such (who are themselves as Natural, as was Galens Study) let me take That Heaven, and That Earth themselves, into my Discourse, whereby to Prove their Maker; I begin, with Part of That, which God Made, and, out of which, He Made Us, the Earth, and the Inhabitants thereof. Take the Whole of it, or take it in Pieces, either Way there is a God.  
7. All of it, and the Glory of it all, the Vrbes and the Civitates, the stately Buildings, and the societies of Men, whence were they? the Cities did not Build themselves; the Russet Coontryman knows as much as this comes to, that, not Orpheus ●idle Music, but the Hands of Laborious Men have done all this; but, whence then were Those Men? He in the Woods and Fields, and He in the Grove of City-Houses, knows that too, that, as some of them have Children, so All of them have had Parents; but, whence those Parents? they know that too, that, as some of them Are Grandfathers, so All of them have Had Grandfathers; but whence, still, came they? from their Forefathers, and Those from a First of all; As certainly as you cannot tell, Any man alive Shall have a Future Child (for the same Power, 
Jer. 22.30.  that said Write ye This Man Childless, may, if He please (for, God, and His Power, Attribute and Person are Convertible and th● same) say, Writ ye This Woman untimely, 
Is. 37.3.  for, the Children are come to the Birth, and there is no Strength to Bring forth) so certainly you may know, that there was a First Man of all, that had no Man at all to his Father 
— Orb Novo, 
Juven. Sat. 6.  Caeloque Recenti,  
Vivebant Homines, qui Rupto Robore Nati,  
Compositique Luto, Nullos habuere Parents.   
Such a First Man there must have been, 
Quare etiam atque etiam Maternum nomen adepta Terra tenet Merito, quoniam Genus Ipsa creavit Humanum. Lucret.  or else there must be, (that, which the Philosophers, the mere Natural Men, (and the best knowing of All mere Natural Men,) call a Progressus in Insinitum, a Proceeding even to an Infinitude, which, the mere Natural Men do, Discerningly, and Truly, and Deliberately, Deny to be Possible in Nature; which very word does signify all, I have already said, an● preoccupies somewhat more that 〈◊〉 have still to say, Natura, quasi Aliunde Nata; As All Propagated Creatures which, at this day, have a Being in Nature, received it from the Prae-Being of some of the same kind, so the first Individual, which itself does partake of Nature, in its Composition, though not in the Efficiency of it, must needs have its Being Aliunde still, and therefore from That Which Is, before Nature Was; for, as it is impossible, for the First Man of all, to have Had a Father (else, He was not the First Man; else, He must be Father to Himself, in that He was the First, and His Own Child, in that He had such a Father) as Impossible, as it is for Himself, to Be, at the same Instant and Point of Time, both Before and After Himself; at the same Instant, both to Be and Not to Be, which is One Contradiction in itself, and Another Contradiction to the very First of Principles, in the very Chief of Sciences, Omne, vel Est, vel Non; for, 
Metaphyr.  Whoever Makes Any thing, is as much and as Really before that thing which He makes, as Any of those who Blow their Own Lands, or Plant their own Vines, were in Being, before those Vines were first Planted, or those Lands Last Ploughed, as a Shoemaker Is, Before the , He Makes, a Carpenter Is, Before the Plough he Makes, and a Smith Is, Before the share He makes to that Plough: Now, as a First Man must have been, and That First Man Cannot have made Himself, so (though We already know, who That First Man was, Adam, and who made Him, God, yet, that those who Deny God may be well forced to acknowledge Him, as I am Ill-forced thus to Prove Him) Either it was God, or somewhat Else, that made That First Man: if Any thing else Besides God, the Question returns, Who made that somewhat else? so that, at last, of mere and Undeniable Necessity, God must be (as to our Understanding, as God would be, as from His own Goodness) the First Maker of All; the First Maker of all, must be God, and nothing else but God, because whatsoever is in Him, must Necessarily be in God, and Incommunicably in Any thing else but God; such Properties are these, To have a Being of Himself, not Depending upon any thing else but Himself; To have such a Being, of which All else Depend, as well in Produci as in Conservari; To Be without Beginning; To be Eternal; and these four properties, are proper to God Quarto Modo, they do Convenire Soli, & semper: And thus He is driven in many Words, and per Circuitus & Ambages, to Confess God, Who, in One Only word, Denys Him; nor can His Ignorance, any otherwise be excused, than if we fancy Him to be (what Erasmus does not say, Any man Was, but only Himself fancies some One Man so to be) so besottedly Ignorant, as to believe, that Himself was never Born; This, says that Inventor would be more Pardonable, than to Deny a God; nay Pace Illius dixerim, This would not Deny a God, but pretend Himself to be One, a God, and a Christ too, as being a Stone cut out, 
Dan. 2.34. Deus est Rerum omniCausa. Arist. Meta. Virg. l. 1.  without Hands.  
8. This is that, which they call the Chain of Causes; and as much Evidence as this, will arise out of any Other Cause, in respect of any Other Effect, when it is thus driven up to the Head, to that God, who may Article with some Heady men now, and ask the question of them, 
Jud. 11.8. Virgil. Ovid.  which Jepthah asked of the Elders of Gilead, shall I be your Head! Jovis omnia plena; and Jupiter est, quodcunque Vides; you may see God, on 
† Quid est Deus? quod Vides totum, etc. Senec.  every thing you see; the most Minute, most Contemptible Production in Nature, is not at all Minute, is not at all Contemptible, in that it is a Demonstrative Argument, to Prove a Creator, a God; the very Mice, and the very Frogs will do it, not only when they come upon God's errand, 
Exod. 8.2.  to execute His Judgements upon Pharaoh, and by the wonderfulness of the Judgement, in the Feebleness of the Instrument, had it not been Impower'd from above, to declare a God, whose Name is wonderful, 
Ps. 9.6.  qui Solus facit Mirabilia, but when they Come of their Own Errand, to Feed upon the Crumbs from under thy Table, and to Drink the Dew of Heaven from off Thy Grass, even These, and even Then, will be Arguments and Doctrines, Proofs and Inferences of a Deity; Not to Dispute whence they have their Being, whether as some say, the One out of the Dust, and the Other out of the Air; be it from these, or be it from what else it will, whence had this Dust, and this Air, and this Anything else, their own Beginning, whereby they Contribute to the Origination of these? I must not now tell you, out of Scriptures, that the very Dust, and the very Air, 
Mat. 8.26.27. John 9.6.  the Winds which Christ Commanded, and the Clay which He bade be Physic, and Cure the Blind, did testify Christ to be God, and God to be their Maker, by their Obedience to Him; but I must tell you, out of Nature, that God was the Maker of That, which, by the Descent, and Continuation of second Causes, became Frogs, and Mice; for, if Man, the most Excellent of Sublunary Creatures, and as this self-minded Atheist is apt to believe, the Paramount subsistence amongst all those which have Any Being, was not able to bring forth Himself, but (as we have already proved) must needs be beholden to a Superior Power, an Original Maker, a First Cause, for the Relative, and Dependent Being which He has, much less could those more Ignoble and Servile Creatures, the Air (which itself He is, perhaps as ready to Believe not to Be as the God, and for the same Reason, (which may equally make Him doubt, whether He has a Soul or no) because Both of them, because all three of them are Invisible) or the Dust of the Earth (that sluggish Creature, which He disdainfully tramples under His Foot, not Considering that, That Foot, and the whole Body besides, is, now, but Compacted Clay, and will, anon, be Viler, more putrified (I must speak modestly) Moore Offensive earth than That, and Stand in need of that very earth He Scorned, to 
(p) Pellucidum Tegit, Opacum Abscondit.  Cover, and to Hid too, not his Nakedness only, but His very Stench, lest the Survivers hid their faces at Him) much less could these Senseless, (and therefore, much more, Unvoluntary) Atoms at first, make themselves, and then the World, however one (Himself as Unworthy to be Named as His vain opinion to be Particularly confuted) though he durst not fancy the former, did invent, and vent the latter, and then why does He deny God in One Word, when he Confesses Him in two; that it is the First Cause which hath derived efficiency into all of these? 'tis all one to my Understanding as if he said it were God Himself; and I could well wish these Natural men would learn one more Principle of Nature, Frustra Dicitur per plura quod potest Dici per Pauciora, that they would save some expense of Breath and call Him God in One Sylllable, as well as in a Periphrasis of Two.  
Of Both these Arguments, let me speak two words more in the Persuasive way I proposed; Persequamur & Flores rerum, 
Rhodig. l. 1. c. 5.  ut, si nil aliud, Varietatis Jucunditas, & inde, Genius aliquis non absit.  
9 To the first Argument, from Parentage. Consider, when your Child, which was Born of you, does ask You Blessing, That very Child, and the humble Acknowledging practice of it, does Teach you, (what you should have taught that very Child) to Crave a Blessing from Him who is your Father in Heaven; Let Him not be less your Father, because He is Out of your sight, though you are not out of His, than your own Child is the less your Son, when neither of you see each Other; you see Him not, 
Col. 2.21.  you Touch not, Taste not, Handle not, and therefore, Is He not? O do not un-God Him by such a strange and Answering reason, the very Contrary of which would Un-God Him! for He were a Body, if He could be Touched, a Sapid Body, if He could be Tasted, and a Coloured Body, if He could be Seen, and therefore, not a Spirit; and a God, which does neither Eat nor is Eaten, neither Handle, nor is Handled, any otherwise than in such a Discourse as this; nay amongst all the Bad ones, let Me tell you, the most seemingly-prevailing Argument, that He is not, is, that you yourself Deny Him, unless That of the Poet be an Argument against this; Nullos esse Deos, Inane Coelum, 
Martial. Amantissimus Pater Filiis, quanquam Ingratis, veram felicitatem optat. P. Martyr.  Affirmat Coelius, probatque quod se Factum, dum Negat hoc, Videt Beatum; and yet let me once again, send you to School to your own Child, to be Reclaimed by Him, whom you Begat; It is an Undutiful, and Rebellious Child; but are not you, still His Father? that very Rod you now take in your Hand tells Him that you are so; it is a wayward and Denying Child; yet, because it is a Child, and because yours, you solicit His Obedience to you, with Bribes and Mercery; and is God the less your Father, the more He Loves you? God forbidden;— Patrio pater esse Metu probor; 
Ovid. Met.  I and Patrio Viscere too, His Care, and Fear of, and for you, who care not for the Lord, unless He Thunders, and are fearless of Him, when he has laid his Bolt aside, even this, proves Him to be a God, a Father of Mercies, 
2 Cor. 1.3. Psal. 94.1.  though not, as yet, such a God to whom Vengeance belongeth. When you bless your own Child consider, as, whence it was, from God and you ('tis Sol & Homo, but it is Sol Justitiae, 
Aristot. Mal. 4.9.  quae generant Hominem; from God, as the chief Agent, from you, as His weak Instrument, more weak, and useless, and unactive, when He takes you not into His Hand, and cooperates not with you, than your own lazy Axe, when you take it not into yours, or when the Head of it falls from the heft of it, 
● Ki. 6.5.  into the Water) so, whence you, and your Forefathers and Their First Father was, from the Earth, and That, Originally, from those two Extreme-Opposites, Nothing & God, who, Himself, in Making it, was the Only Agent, and His Power, and Will, and Love (which are Himself) all the Instrument He used; Consider, that He made you of Earth, that sedentary, and grovelling, and underfoot Element, that you should have nothing to boast of, least of all such a vile, and worse than earthly Opinion (nay, even Worse than Hellish too for, 
Jam. 2.19.  the Devils also believe a God, though it puts them into an Ague of Trembling Fits) as if God Himself was such a Nothing against which to Boast; if you are so stouthearted, that Nothing will make you Fall down and Worship, Let such a Nothing as This do it; and yet Consider too, that it is He that made you of that Earth, and therefore, acknowledge Him your Father for Making you, and your God for Making you so Powerfully, out of That, which but a few days before, was Nothing; Beg of that Father that Made you, to Bless you; desire of that God who so Powerfully Made you (what your Re-maker, your Redeemer Christ, hath desired of Him for you) that He would Keep you by His Power, that he would prosper first, the Work of His Own Hands, 
Joh. 17.11.  yourselves, and then Guide and Succeed Your Handiwork.  
10. To the Pursuit of That First; Whatever you see, even the Basest Creature in the account of Man, be it some Apostolical Man, 
2 Cor. 10. v. 10.  who is that Base Creature, whose Presence is Base, as Paul's, and Speech Contemptible as His, or be it He who accounts Him and His speech and His Presence so, 
Act. 28.3.  or be it that very Viper on Paul's Hand, or that Coal of Fire at His Foot; Look again, and see the Dignity of that Office, and of that Creature, in that God hath made the One, and Ordained the Other; Let not the Heathen be more quicksighted than Thou; 
Juven.  Hic putat esse Deos; if He Himself says Jovis omnia plena, say thou so too, only, change that Name of His God into the Etymon of that Name, In every thing, see, and acknowledge One God, 
Ephes. 4.6. Psal. 46.  and Father of All, who is a very present Help in the needful time of trouble; Disdain not any Thing, much less any Person, which He hath Made; thou, who shouldst see a God, in a Frog and a Mouse, nay in a very Viper, be not thou, too suspicious to see a Devil, in a Man and a Woman; nay in a very Saint; Tell the Atheist, who will not see a God in any thing, that thou seest a God in every thing; Wonder at the Atheist, who makes God to be Nothing at all, when thou, even by Nature, knowest Him to be what His own Word tells Thee He is, 
1 Cor. 15.28.  All in All.  
11. Such another Argument is That concerning Motion, which, because it is not Altogether the Former, but Another, I shall Name, and because it is so like the Former, and Such, I shall But Name.  
12. We see Motion every where; and yet we must know, that every thing is Moved of somewhat else besides Itself; Second Movers there are, or else there is no Motion at all; the Tongue, that Denies this, let it lie still, if it can, whilst it Denies this; and yet Second Movers there are not, unless they partake of Motion from the First of all, so that, at length to avoid a process into Infinitude, we must at least in our Concessions, Ascend up to a First Mover, and that is God. 
Anes. l. 7.  This was Aristotle's Argument, to prove a First Mover, and That Term is equivalent to a God; and though in His Entrance upon that Discourse, He says, Corpus Naturale, habet, In se, principium Mot us, yet He says not Habet A Se, the Natural Body hath the Principle of Motion, Within itself, it has it not Of, or From itself. It was that Aristotle, who knew not God at all, by His own Word, but only by that innate Principle which God had grafted into His Soul, and by the Book of Creatures, the Verbum non loquentium, which exerted that innate Principle, and brought it into Act, which blew the Hidden Fire into a Light Flame, and awakened the discursive Faculty, and Power of Knowing God, into an Actual Ratiocination, and Argument, and Discovery Of God.  
13. 
Act. 17.28.  I must not, in this case, apply That of S. Paul, In Him (i. e. in God) we Move, because the Divinity of His Authority is above that Faith, and Capacity, of Him whom I undertake to Instruct, and of those (woe is me, that there are Those, amongst whom we are Constrained to Devil, or They, suffered to dwell amongst us!) whom to Confute; and yet, I may too, apply the Words, and leave out the Paul, as. well as the Saint, because He does not quote God but Man, and Him not Inspired unless with Poetical heat, 
Aratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythagoras.  when He adds— As certain of your own Poets Also (as well as we Evangelists, and Apostles) have said, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are his Of spring too, it is God that Made us, aswel as God that Moves us.  
14. And now, tell the Atheist, how much thou admirest that He will not confess a God, by the great and speedy Volubility of the liveless Heavens (to the Circulations of which, we may adapt that of Pliny, 
The Naturalist.  Inidoneum vel Coeli spectaculum, si tantum Praeterirent, and fit a reason to it, which was none of His, they were a useless spectacle if they did not demonstrate a God above them, which whirled them about, as well as fecundate the earth beneath them) when thou Confessest Him by the lesser and retarded Motion of every Creeping thing, since it is the first Mover, God, that has imparted the Gift of Motion to All of these; As the Philosopher rebuked and silenced Him, by Taking a Turn, and by Gesture, who denied there was any Motion, so, do thou but Walk, and every step thou tak'st, does outpace and out-Argne Him, who denies there is a God.  
15. There is a Third of a distinct kind, but of the same Conviction, the different Degrees of Entity, of Being, which we observe in the Scale of Creatures, which does evince Them to be Creatures, and that there is a God, the Creator of them; we find that there is a lesseness of Entity, a worseness, an Inferiority of Being in some, and a Greater Entity, a more Excellent, and Superior kind of Being in Others; Some things have a Being and not Composition, which, though they are not Compounded themselves, are yet of a Degraded Quality, because they are Ordained to Serve others as the first Ingredients, and Principles of their Composition; some things have a Compounded Being, but no life at all, such, as the Grosser Earth and the Parts of it, Stone and Metal, etc. These are the Foot of this Ladder, and those Before as the Ground upon which it stands; (I will not stay to open and Anatomize the Parts of this unelementall Earth (for it is not, itself One Element, but made up of more) the several Species of Liveless Being's, the several Differences of them, according to the more or less worthy Operations of them, to the more Lazyness, or quicker Activity in Producing their effects; This may be the work of Another Pen, and of another Coat, and to Another Purpose) the Degree of Being, more worthy than This, is in those which have Mere Life and no More, the Lowest, the most Ignoble kind of Life, and nearest of kin to that Earth, within which it Lives, and is quite Dead when it is, All, Above it, only to Grow and Increase, and not to have Any Sense at all, as the several kinds of Plants, Flowers, Herbs, and Trees; for, That which is called Plantanimal, has but Quid Analogum Sensui, and does not Sentire; the Being Above That, is that of Beasts, which have the Advantage of sense, added to the Faculty of Vegetation; the Being Above these, is that of Man, the Lord of these, who has, besides His sense (or else He is Beside Himself) Reason and Understanding; and yet this Man too has one more Created Being Above Him, the Spiritual Being of Angels, and their more Immediate, and Instantaneous, and Intuitive Reason and Understanding; and must there not Be, the Stagyrite's Ens Entium, a Being of Being's Above All these, and from which. All these have their Communicated Being's? the very Difference of these kinds of Being, the More and Less, that Better and Worse, does Evidence that there Must; for, Nothing has Less, and Worse of Being, but as it does more approach to That, which has the Least and Worst of Being, nay to That, which is Less yet, even to Nothing itself; and nothing has more, and Better of Being, but in some. Approximtion, and Likeness, and Reference to That which has (or rather Is) the Most, the Best Being of all, in whom we have our Being afwell as in whom we Move; 
Acts 17.28.  and That Chief, that Best, that Universal, that Original, that Essential Being can be no Less than God; the very Order of these Being's, and the several steps of this Scale does Evidence as much; for, as there is a Lowest Being, that Vilest, and most Depressed, the very Centre and Element of the Earth, which has a Being and nothing else; and a Compounded Being of a Body made of Parts, which is nothing else but Body; and a Being one Step above that, a Body, but yet a Live, a Veget, a Growing Body, which hath Arms, but not of Flesh, and Stomach, but not above ground; a Being, one step higher yet, a Live and growing Body, but a Body that has sense too, aswell as growth, that can Feel, as well as be Felt, that can Tangi, & Angiolella too; and a Being, still one step Higher, partly-Body, partly-Spirit, Man; and a Being one step Higher yet, Purely-Spirit, but Created and Depending Spirit, Angel; so there must be, to make this Scale Perfect (the Top of which must reach not only to Heaven, 
Gen. 28.12.  but to God in it) a Supreme, Sovereign, exact, essentially, and selfly-Spiritual, Independent Being, who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (Nam Veteres Theologi, 
Caeli. Rhid. Praefat.  Centri Nomine, Deum esse intelligendum prudentiortbns insinuarunt) Opposite to the Other extreme, the Centre of the Earth the most Deficient, and beggarly element of Being, nay to the very Nothing, to which the Nobler sorts of Being's Approach, and Of which, All sorts of Being Partake, as well as a weaker, more Infirm, and Partial Being, to which the more Ignoble Beigns do Declien; and That Being must needs be 
† Deum qui non summum putet, Rerum imperitum existimo Caecilius in Cicerone. Philo Jud.  God; so that, even by Natural help, such as this Ladder is, Man might reach up to the Belief of that Jehovah, who is Fons Essentiae.  
16. When thou seest, and observest this Difference of Being's, One to partake more of Entity, and Another, less; One Merely to Be (Est, & Praeterea Nihil) and Another to Be, and Live; One, to Live, and Grow, and Another to Live, and have Sense, 
Virg.  Superatque & Vescitur Auris Aethereis; One to Live Partly Body, and Partly Spirit, as Thyself does, and Another to Live only Spirit, as an Angel does; tell that No-man that denys a Being Above all these, which gave a Being to All of these, that He is not a Man, He has no Reason; He is not a Beast, He has no 
† Improbum & Vislentum est, Rationem its ascribere, qui Notitia Dei Carent. Plutarch. in Gryllo. Qui Deos negant, Abjectum Genus Hominum, & sine sensu. Max. Tyrius Serm. Deo●esse, omnes sana ment praediti, arbitrantur. Plutarch. de Homero.  Sense; He is not a Plant, for He does not Grow, unless it be worse; He is not so much as a Dead Chip, for there was not a Live Tree, out of which He was Cut; He is Nothing; Less than That, for, That Nothing is in an Objective Power, and Can be Produced by the Sovereign Being, and the very Production of it, when it is In Fieri, nay, the very Capacity to Be Produced, while it is but in Posse Fieri does Confess a God; worse then That, for That Nothing Cannot Disbelieve.  
17. There is a Fourth, Natural, and Invincible Argument of a Deity, that All these several Being's do Certainly Operate to a Fixed, Designed End and Purpose; This Concludes, that, not All things, no, not Any thing, is Casual and Fortuitous, by mere Dull, and Ignorant, Frustraneous and End-less Chance; and therefore, they are all guided by an Intelligence greater than They, which hath Created them All for their Distinct uses, and That Intelligence must needs be God.  
Whence is it, 
Jer. 35.7. Domus Antra fuerunt & Densi Feutices, & junctae Cortice Virgae. Ovid. Metam. l. 1.  that Stones, and Wood, have This End (which Themselves know not that they Have) that we may not be Rechabites, but Build Houses, make Fires, Dress Meat, and Live? Whence is it that the Sheep and Oxen, wear their own Hides, and Wool, till they have worn them fit for Our Use, and then, we wear them After, and yet they cannot tell, that they are Stewards and Providers for us? whence is it, that we Live by Air, and yet the Air understands not that we Breath it? or, if it did, knows not in what secret Caverns to hid all of it from our Nostrils, but that we do still in spite of its fleetness and Invisibility Haurire, & Reddere, take hold of it when we List, and bid it Go as Cato came, Ideo Tantum ut Rediret, 
Auson.  etiam dum Loquor, Redi? Whence is it that Men make Laws, whereby Man may Live Innocent, and safe? not safe only Though He be Innocent, but Because He is Innocent? or who is it, that hath taught Man so much Goodness and Protection? why is it, the Bad Man, who knows He should keep Laws, does yet break them, but that Himself proposes an 
† Omuis Homo Agit per Intellectum cujus est, ex Five, Operatio.  End, though a wrong One, to Himself? and whence is it, that the Good Man does not utterly Perish in the overthrow of those Laws, but that the God-Intelligence does supply the Defect of Law, and Protect Him, who Pursued a Right End? Is it not hence, that the very Iniquity of some, does Confirm the Integrity of Others? All would be Casualty, and Breach, and Destruction, were there not a God to Oversee and Overpower All, and Nothing is Casualty, and Breach, and Destruction to the Goodman, because there is (and He knows there is) such a God; whence is it, that the Ill Man is Never at Home? but may answer Truly, and in sober sadness, out of His own Window, as the Merry Man in Erasmus did, 
Colloq.  Ego non sum Domi? that He Lives and Dies, Amazed, and out of Himself, now stupefied, and Anon Terrified in his heart? Fickle and unconstant in Tongue, how undaunted soever he be in haughty Brow, and Forehead of Brass? and whence is it, that the Good Man Lives Above, nay upon his miseries, reckons upon them as the unawares Preferment Bestowed upon him by the very Malice of Man? as the Purposed Medicinal Gifts, and Counsels, and Instructions of his God? then, Dyes., and Conquers Death, 
Moriens, Animam abstulit Hosli. Vir. Aeneid. l. 9  as his Christ did, by † Death itself? Dies, with more Joy, and Comfort, and Triumph, (because it is much deeper than a Face-Joy, and a Comfort Wealthier than all the Indies can administer, and a Triumph over his very self and all his Frailtyes) than those, who make him die, and, in Dying Make him Live? Dies with an unmoveable serenity in his Heart and Mind and Conscience? has the Image and Picture of That serenity, graven and imprinted in the Coutage and steadfastness of his eyes and Countenance, in the solidity and unrecantingness of his expressions? and wishes that his very Words were written, nay printed too in a Book, nay Graven too, and that with an Iron-pen, such words these, 
Job 19.28. v. 24, 25, 27.  I know that my Redeemer liveth, whom these very Eyes of mine shall steadfastly Behold? whence all this? but because as another Poet of their own hath said, Est Deus in nobis, God, the Influences, and Comforts of God, are in him, and upon him, and Men may see (if they will not, Maliciously to their own Soul, Blind the Better ey of their Soul, Reason) in such a Life, and in such a Death, that there is an Everliving, a Neverdying, an Immortal, a providential God.  
18. From the end for which every thing is Made, and to which every thing does Collime; Ask the Atheist, Wherefore He is Made? and to what End He Denies that God, for whose Honour He was made? If He can tell Thee neither this, nor that, believe Him in Nothing else; and if He can tell Thee, believe a God; For, if He deal plainly with thee, Why He denies a God. His only, and Bosom Reason is this, that He would not have a God to Punish Him; and such a Reason as this, does not Deny but Confess God, nor does only Confess God, but Prove Him too. Whence came this Fear of After Punishment, which stands at the elbow of every desperately-bad Attempt? but that it was 
† Non solum Innatum sed etiam Animo Insculptum, esse Deos. Cicero l. 3. de Nat. Deorum; & Laertius in vita Zenonis.  imprinted with indelible Characters into the Soul of Men (who may sooner wash away His own Soul than wash these signatures out of it) by that God who would be Known and Acknowledged (when Protected Man Will not do it by due) by Fear of being Out-Lawd from that Protection, and Providence, by which He Rules and governs the Whole Great World, and that Proud little-Great World Man, who thinks Himself to be Bigger, and of more Consideration, than the Whole.  
19 Which last Epithets of Ruling Protection and Governing Providence, casts me upon a fift Argument, by which Nature Herself in the Best desires, even of the Worst of Men, does testify that there is a God Of Nature, a God Above Nature; And that is, the Natural Inclinations and Propenseness, and even-Beseechings of Man, to partake in the Blessings of God.  
20. That there is such a Natural inclination in Man, in the whole Species, because in every Individuum of it, will appear most dilucidly and uncontradictorily, when Any That Man is surprised and beset with a Weight of Suddenness of Danger and Death, which He would escape, & out of which, He cannot Extricate Himself by all the Wit of Man, so, that He will even Fail, rather than Fail, & Mori, ne Moriatur, 
Mart.  so that He will make Choice of one kind of Death, without any 
† Hic rego, non Furor est. id.  Fury, or Preposterousness, since His design is not, simply, to avoid Death, but Comparatively, a worse and more formidable kind of it, so that, to Him, the less painful Death has some proportion and Analogy to Life itself, in respect of those fiercer anguishes, which He thus avoids, and in some sense escapes Death, by Incurring it: Bring we to such a Test, that most daring Atheist, who all His Life, Denied God, and see, if His Practice, in that eruption and Uncounseldness be not somewhat Godly, in defiance of His Opinion! At That Instant you shall hear Him both Confess God, and Invoke God; Invoke God that He would not Vicem rependere, and Deny Him also, 
Matth. 4.5, 6.  Lege Talionis; Walk up with Him to the Brow of a Hill (suppose it like that Pinnacle upon which the Devil set our Saviour, Himself Tempting One Person of the Godhead to make Him Deny Another, by Tempting God His Father) where all the way, He sees nothing else but Hill; at that Instant and on that Top and Brow of the Hill, do Thou Stand, and suppose Him to Fall, to See nothing, into which He must Fall, but Pitch, and Brimstone, and Flames of Fire; tell me now, Didst thou not hear him Cry out, with as much Acknowledgement as with horror, God Bless me! God Protest me! God Deliver me! Such a Cry, when he had not Leisure to be ill-advised by his depraved Corrupted Reason, must needs flow out of a Natural Inclination to believe, that there is a Supreme Invisible Power, which is the Preserver of Men; 
Job 7. 2●.  and to Believe such a Preserver, such a Governing and providential Power, is to believe a God, in whom such a Power does Reside and Devil; And, that This is a True Belief, does follow out of the Convinced Truth of the Natural Inclination, and the Naturality of the Cry; for Nature herself will bear witness, that no Inclination and Desire, which proceeds merely and Directly, firstly and Originally from Her, was ever in vain.  
21. And then why does the Atheist Rashly deny him, from whom, at his Most Need, by an Innate Impulsion, he does Soberly beg Aid? Thou know'st, that there is a God; and thou hearst That Denying Man, when He is Ready to Perish, cry out, God save me; Remember then that Thy God hath said (said, and sworn) As I live, 
Rom. 14.11.  saith the Lord, Every Tongue shall Confess to God. Every Tongue, the most Blasphemous Tongue Shall do it; when you hear such a Tongue Deny God with the same Oath, with which God hath sworn It shall Confess him; when you hear It swear by the very Name of Him whom it Denies to be, think, that, 
Matth. 21.16.  as Christ hath said, Out of the Mouth of Babes, and Sucklings, thou hast perfected Praise, so, God hath perfected Truth, out of the Mouth of them, who are but Once Born, and are not Newborn Babes, who, either, have not sucked the Sincere Milk of the Word, 
1 Pet. 2.2.  or else by a Devilish Assmilation (for, they themselves, are Satan Manifested in the Flesh, and like Spiders, turn what they feed upon into their vicious selves) have converted That Milk into Poison: Beseech we God, that, as All things, even Persecutitions, and Miseries of All sorts, do work together for Good, 
Rom. 8.28.  to them that Love God, so All things, even Atheisms and blasphemies of all sorts, Believed, and Done, may work together to the Magnifying of God, by all Saints, so much the more, as He is Vilifyed by a Desperate Few, of this Untoward Generation.  
Thus the whole Earth does attest that God who Bears up the Pillars of it. 
Psal. 75.3.  And the whole Heavens do so too.  
22. I must not now rest upon That Text of David, The Heavens Declare the Glory of God, 
Psal. 19.11  and the Firmament showeth his handiwork; I must not stay to Disprove the God-Confessing, though the Christ-God Denying Socinus, in His Comment upon that Text, that the Heavens declare the Glory of God, only by a pre-supposition that God was known to be, before the Heavens were seen, for, That Text Clears itself (and saves me the labour) God, was not only known Before, but Made known by them, the Firmament, says David, showeth his handiwork, showeth by the very Prospect of itself that itself is the handiwork of God; Here, I must not stay; but, as, to Christiaus, the right Method is, to Prove, and Confirm Any Truth in Nature, by the Greater Truth of the Word of God, so, to the Atheists, we must Prove, the very Truth of God himself in his Word, by the lesser Truth, because more evident to them in Nature; the Good Christian, I know, will Pardon me, for his sake, 
Aesop.  who is so Cockish as to Preser One single Grain of Corn, above that Rich Jewel, which might Purchase to him an entire harvest.  
23. And yet, in This (that I may not only dwell upon Nature, or rather, that whilst I do so, I may show you that I have the Authority of the Ancient Fathers (who are Patres though Patrati Patres) and of the more Ancient, and Father to them, the Apostle S. Paul, so to do) I shall confirm that Text, by a Reason of Theodoret's, drawn out of Nature herself, and show, by the Consent of Other Fathers, that Nature herself does much help us in the Inchoative knowledge of a God; nay by the Practice of S. Paul himself, who does Countenance such kind of Arguments as These, by his own example.  
24. First then (perhaps in too much Civility of Compliance; but as Austin said, he would rather speak false Latin, Ossum to Edify, than True Os, not to be understood; 
Veritas in dicto.  so I must rather choose to write a Natural Theology, whereby to reclaim an Atheist, than a Disbelieved supernatural, whereby to leave him still in that Pit, in which there is no Truth) give me leave, as the Importunity of the Atheist Compels me, to wave both the Testimony of David, and of Theodoret too, and to strengthen the Truth of David, with the Reason of Theodoret; When we see any stately Palace Well-built, it is Impossible for us, but to reflect presently upon the skill and Contrivance of the Architect and Master-Builder, whose Wit and Industry brought This to pass; To him we refer all the Praise of the Edifice; what is there more a Palace, more Stately, better Built, than Heaven? (certainly, none, of the Fools Imaginary Paradises upon Earth) and can he be less than God, that Raised such a sumptuous Structure? thou art less than Man, thou art worse than Devil that thinkest so; Satan himself knew, what a Powerful God he was, in shaking heaven, aswell as in Casting him out of it.  
25. 
Luke 10. ●8.  But, though He fell from heaven, like Lightning, Bonum est nob is, esse Hic; 
Matth. 17.4.  I am so in Love with it, that I cannot, on the sudden, let pass the discourse of Heaven, but, in a Continuation, and Inhancement of that Natural Argument, must call upon my Reader, by occasion of those heavens above him, 
Psal. 2.4.  to acknowledge that God, who sitteth in the heavens, and to let his Name, 
Psal. 8.1.  be excellent in all the Earth, who hath set his Glory above the heavens.  
26. In the Motion of them, there is Nihil Temerarium, nihil Fortuitum, nihil Varium, says the great Orator, 
L. 2. de Natura D●●rū.  Nothing Rash, and unadvized; nothing Casual, and by mere Chance; nothing altering and unstable; but a Constancy, and Order in them All; (and yet, were there not This Constancy, but, That Casualty, 
* Quodest ex his, vel, si omniahaec sunt, Philosophandum est; sive nos Inexorabili lege, Fata constringunt; sive, Arbiter Vniverst, Deus, Cuncta disponit; sive Casus Res Humanas, sine Ordine, Impellit, & Jactat, Philosophia nos tue●t debet; Haec adhortabitur, ut Deo Libenter Pareamus; ut Fortunae Contumaciter Resistamus; haec docebit, ut Deum sequaris, Feras Casum. Senec. ep. 16. 1 Cor. 14.33  he that was as great a Philosopher as the other an Orator, would Infer God, and Dispute an Acquiescence in God, even from thence) and therefore he infers That very Deity, to Regulate them, whom Our S. Paul calls, the God of Order and of Peace: If the wit of his mere Speculation, could discover and unveil so much of the Godhead to him, how much more and Better, might he (as he did) have known That God, by the Sense, and experience of those many Benefits, which those heavens distil hourly upon us? Why does the Sun so Constantly, and indefatigably, Travel, but that all we, upon the Globe of the Earth (those who dwell upon the One Face of it, and those, who upon the Other) might have a Vicissitudinary Comfort, and Benefit of his Light? that by It, we might See One Another, See what to do, and how to live? See That Sun itself, and see, through That, 
Psal. 19.6.  to God? Why is nothing hid from the heat thereof, but that the heat of That Sun, might Inanimate and Quicken Us, and All other Living Creatures For us? So much it is of that Nature of God, of which, God would have us to be, 
Gal. 6.9.  Not to be Weary in Welldoing, that we may Piously Imagine, This itself to be One Reason, why God does not suffer the Sun, which does so much Good to us, to Run his own Proper and Natural Course, but to be wheeled about by the Motion of another, and by another Motion Contrary to his own, lest so Beneficial a Giant, as the Sun, might be suspected to do that Good he does, willingly, and knowingly, and thereupon, might be adored, as God: And yet, the Persian Excess of Religion, (though a Lofty and Damnable Crime) in worshipping the Sun itself for God, out of a mistaken Gratitude for those Benefits which he receives by the Influences, but not by the donation of the Sun (which very Benefits themselves do enough teach him that There Is a God, though they do not teach him enough, Who that God Is) this Idolatry, in esteeming somewhat else to Be God, which Is not so, Is more excusable, and will be Less, though Grievously Punished, than the Atheists defect of Reigion (which is a sin, if not the same, to be compared with That against the Holy Ghost,) in worshipping No God at all, and, out of a base 
† Plutarc. in His Book De superstitione, define. Atheism to be Stupor quidam, Deos non sentientium.  Stupidity, not seeing a Footstep, or Image of God in any thing, though every thing he sees, is, either, a dim 
† Creatura, est quosis De● vestiginm. Suarez. Disput. 2. sect. 2.  Footstep at least, or a Brighter 
* Exemplumque Dei, quisque est i● Imagine p●vo. Manil. l. 4. c. ult. Psal. 14.1. & cur dici● insipiens, quod non est Deus? Cur? nisi quia stultus, & Insipiens? Anselm. In cord, non in ore, quiae si velit Hoc verbis eloqui, stultus esse (sicut est) Publici Assensus Judicio arguretur? Hilar. in Psal. 52.  Image of God; since our Schoolmen have told us true, and our own Natural Reason hath approved their doctrine, Imago Dei, in Rationalibus, in Coeteris, Vestigium; sure Our David did not err, when he tells us what a Fool such an Atheist is, though he be (which, yet, is the worst, being so, of all) but in his Heart an Atheist; not only A Fool, but The Fool, no such Fool in the world as he; and how can he be otherwise, who has no Light of Reason in his Soul (for want of such a Light as this same, in the Gospel, though Virgins are called Foolish Ones) or how can he have that Light, 
Mat. 25.  who, by that, does not See, and Grant, an Image, a Delineation, a Reflection of the Godhead, in that very Soul of his?  
27. Let us leave the Atheist awhile, and put him off to another sheet, and let us once more return to our own, our more enlightened David, and cry out with him, Let Heaven and Earth praise the Lord; 
Ps. 69.34.  let us acknowledge that they do so, by exhibiting Copious Matter of Divine Praise, to every eye that beholds them; let us apply that of David once again, and call upon that other Heaven, our Soul within us, 
Ps. 103.1.  which came from thence (Bless the Lord, O my Soul, and all that is within me bless his holy Name) and upon that other Earth, our Flesh about us, which was made of it, that our very Soul may worship Him, and our very Body, all the outward works of our Lives, testify, to Him, to ourselves, and to the World, that we Believe him to be; that we Believe in him, according to his Commands upon us; that we Magnify him, for his Goodness to us.  
28. Hitherto I have (with Sadness enough (but that scarce any Sadness can be enough) that such Times as these force such a Calling as ours to Prove such a Truth as this) evinced such a Fundamental Truth (without which, there can be no Truth, as well as no Salvation) that there Is a God, by the Testimony of Heaven, and Earth, of Man, and of all the Inferior Creatures, and Inferior Principles resulting from these, which, by some, who have the Shape of Men, and the Contradiction of— (there is nothing to Compare them to, but Themselves) are more Believed, and Betrothed Truths, than that Principle of Principles, as well as Being of Being's, that there is a God.  
29. I go on to Confirm this Truth by Nature, with the Countenance which those Spiritual Men, the Fathers (who have had an Oa● in the same Boat) and that more Spiritual Man, the Apostle St. Paul, (whose Example is my Just Warrant) and the general sense and purpose of the Scriptures of God (which make Them, and Him, to be Spiritual Men) do show, to this kind of Argument.  
30. 
In his He●●mer.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (says St. Basil) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The whole World (take it in its Latitude, and full Comprehension, as it is made up of Both Globes) is a School, which does Instruct and Discipline us in the Knowledge of God; So that, in the sense of that holy. Father, we have not done amiss, to prove a God, by the Testimony of the World, the witness-bearing of Heaven and Earth.  
31. Facil ùs credas Prophetiae, Discipulus Naturae, 
〈◊〉 Resurrect.  says Tertullian; we shall, the more easily, be induced to believe the Old, and New Testament, the Prophecy, and Gospel, if we have, first, been the Disciples of Nature, and studied those Lectures which she has read to us, in this Nether Orb, the World Below; so that, in the sense of that Pious Father, we are much Excusable, in drawing arguments through the whole Map of the Earth, to Convince a God; though we cannot choose but be sorry, that Ortelius, who was, never, till now, fit to be quoted in Divinity, is, now, fit, all over.  
32. St. Bernard says, that he had Nullos, aliquando, Magistros, nisi Quercus, & Fagos, no other Masters, and Tutors in Divinity, for some space of time, than the Oaken, and the Beechen Trees; and yet these Dumb Masters, these Unmoved Tutors, who were not more Ignorant in Themselves, than an occasion of Knowingness to him (though no Preacher were closed up in the Hollow of the Trees) even these could Teach him that there is a God; so that, in the sense of that humble Father, we have un-heretically submitted, to ask Counsel of the Meanest Creatures, and to Learn ●●e Power of God, from the very Feebleness of Frogs and Mice.  
33. And though Irenaeus (twenty years Elder than the Eldest of these) hath said, Deus, sine Deo, non cognoscitur, that, as we cannot see the Sun, 
L. 4. advers. Haer. c. 14. Sicut Oculus Luce nos tantùm suâ, sed Solu Ipsum Luce  conspicit, Idemque qui Videtur, & Visum facit. Grot. Silu. l. 1. Eucharist.  but by the * Light of the Sun, so, without God, we cannot Know God: yet that may be, either Cum Favore understood, that we cannot know God at all, not Confusedly, not Remotely, by any, by all of the Creatures, unless we see the Power and Wisdom of God in the Order and Disposition of Every of them; or else Rigidly, that we cannot Savingly know God, without the more Especial Light of his own Word and Gospel; and then the Inference will be, that he that does not know God at all, not so much as by the Creatures, is without God in this World, (without the Acknowledgement of him, 
Natura Humana, nec Rationem, nec Orationem De Diis suscipere potest, sine Diis. jamblicus, c. 26.  not without the Subsistence by him) He, that does not know God savingly, not so much as by his Word, shall be without God, in the Other World (without the Benefit and Mercy of God (unless a Metaphysical Benefit, a mere Notional Mercy, to Be, though in Torments) not without the Severity and Judgement of God) All this it argues, but it argues not at all that God Himself Is Not, no more than we may conclude there is no Wealth in the Womb of the Sea (as, indeed, in some sense there is not, if it be either Use or Possession, and not a Bare Being, which does dare esse to Wealth) because we do not know, what Jewels are bred, or what Gold has been cast away, in the Bowels of the Main.  
34. To all these let me add that Axiom of the Schools, Media Perfecta and quae-Ordinantur, that, as all the Means, which God hath ordained, are Complete and Perfect, to the Production of that Effect for which God ordained them, so the Chain of Causes, the Scale, the Motion, the End, the Inclination of Creatures, the whole World, and every part of it, are Jointly, and Severally, Perfect, and Sufficient Means, whereby to know a God 
* Est quaedam Imperfecta Perfectio, at sciat Homo, se non esse Perfectum in hac Vita. Primasius in Col. c. 1. in Fine  Imperfectly.. (and let none suspect he stumbles at a Contradiction in the repugnancy of those two words; for, is there not a Distinction of Aquinas, Perfectio in Viâ, & Perfectio in Patriâ? and is not that, in Via, an Imperfection, if compared to that, in Patria?) at least that He Is, since they were never ordained to reach out to us, any further, and more Clear; Distinct, and Exact Knowledge of God; though they will not enough speak All the Praises of the Almighty, yet, even They, will enough stop the Mouth of the Atheist, and put his Lying Lips to silence, 
Ps. 31.18.  which speak Derogatory and Blasphemous things, Proudly and Disdainfully, against the Righteous Judge of all the Earth.  
35. And, above all these, let me add, that Paul and Barnabas used the like Natural Argument, to prove the Invisible God; and, if you weigh the Circumstances, you cannot choose but Grant', that such an Argument had great Weight and Power in it, or else you must Condemn those two Great and Greatly-illumined Doctors, to have been unskilful Divines, 
2 Tim. 2.15.  and Workmen that had need to be ashamed, in that they did not Rightly Divide that very word of Truth, which the God of Truth spoke in Nature herself. The Occasion which brought them to such a Proof and Conviction of an Eternal, Allseeing, and Un-seen God, was This; When St. Paul, by a word only, 
Act. 14.10, V 8.10.  had Recovered the Impotent Man, who was a Cripple from his Mother's womb, and so Recovered him, that he Leapt and Walked, the People lift up their Voices, and said, 
V 11.  The Gods are come down to us in the Likeness of Men (This 
* God does some Miracles, to Show his Omnipotency, and to Prove his Doctrine. Jo. Huart. Examen de Ingeniis, c. 2.  Miracle was enough to make them Confess One God at least; and, what is there in Nature, that is not a Miracle, but that it is Ordinary? and yet as Ordinary as it is, is above the Self-Power of Man to produce) Now, when they were so far prepared, as to believe that there Is a God, that they might not Honour Men as Gods, but Believe and Worship the True God, This was the Proof; V. 15 He is the Living God, which made Heaven, and Earth, and the Sea, and all things that are therein, who, in Times past, suffered all Nations to walk in their own ways (and we may Grievingly apply— Who, at this present Time, hath suffered Some Men in This Nation to walk Peculiarly in their own ways; (the Atheist's ways are more Peculiarly than any Man's alive, His own, and therefore I said Some Men—) for whatever else were the Sins of Nations, whatever else were the Sects of Schismatics, whatever else were the Societies and Combinations of Men, there 
* Apud nos, Veritatis Argumentum, Aliquod Omnibùs videri, tanquam Deum esse inter alia, sic colligimus, quod Omnibus de Numine Opinio Insita est; nec ulla Gens unquam ade● extra Leges Moresque projecta, ut non Aliquos Deos credat. Senec. Ep. 118. Nemo Barbarorum, ad Contemptum Deorum excidit unquam, neque in Dubium Vocant Illi, sintne Dii, an non sint? & curentne Res Humanas, an non? Aelian. l. 2. dé Var. Histor. c. 31.  never was an Entire Nation, there never was a Characterised Sect, there never was a Professed Society, and Combination of Atheists; so Ridiculous, as well as so Irrational, it has ever been, and will always be, to Deny a God) and yet, though God has Permitted some Nations, and Sects, and Societies, to Commit such Distinguishing Sins, whereby they might be Known, and some Few Atheists, different from the Guise of the whole World, to be Guilty of a Monstrous and Disowned, Unconfederated and Unsociable Sin, yet, saith St. Paul, God left not Himself without Witness (to either of them, the Several Whole Bodies, or that Small Handful of Men) 
* Illud Pr●fecto, quod Precamur, non fieret, nec in Hunc Furorem, omnes Mortales Concensissent, alloquendo Surda Numina, & Inefficaces Deos, nisi hoc in Aperto foret, Ipsos Benefacere. Senec. de Benef. l. 4. c. 4. Deus est, cui Nomen Omne Convenit; Vis Illum Fatum Vocare? Non errabis; Hic est, ex quo Suspensa sunt omnia, Causa Causarum; Vu Illum Providentiam dicere? Rectè dices; Estenim, cujus Consilio huic Mundo Providetur, ut Inconcussus eat, & Actus suos explicet; Vis Illum Naturam Votare? Non Peccabis; Est enim, ex quo Nata sunt Omnia, cujus Spiritu Vivimus. Id. Natural. Quaest. l. 2. c. 45.  in that He did Good; after he had first made the World by his Power, and ever since Governed it by his Providence, the very Being, and Orderly Being of the World, was, in St. Paul's account, a Witness-bearing to the God that Made it, and Keeps it; He goes on, to Instance, in the most Discerned, and Popularly-Known acts of his Providence, In giving Rain from Heaven, v. 17. every Globular Drop of which, does, in some faint manner, Resemble and Attest, that Eternal Circle, which God Himself Is; and the Fructification, the Plenty, which follows those Drops, does Evidence and Manifest the Goodness and Bounty of that God; That's his second Instance, the second Link of that Chain of Providence, the second Branch of that Accumulative Argument, whereby he proves a Deity, In giving fruitful Seasons upon Earth, every Least Grain of which (to use his own expression elsewhere, 
1 Cor. 15.37.  It may chance of Wheat, or of some other Grain) does Convince a Providential God against the Atheist, as well as a Raising God to the Christian; and then he drives his Proof home, to the very Heart and Soul of Man, in that God does, by these, as the Effect of these, Fill our Hearts with Food and Gladness; He had need be a Blind Man, not to see Rain; a Tasteless Man, not to Eat Bread; that is resolved to be an Ungrateful Man, in being Fed, and Glad, by These, and not giving God the praise for These; He that does not this, at least by acknowledging God to Be (for That itself is some slender part of our Sacrifice of Thanksgiving) takes himself to be more wise and learned, than the most wise, and most learned of all Christ's Disciples; for, here, it is not a beseeching, and you are Inexorable if you grant it not, 'tis not a persuasion, and you are Unkind if you yield not, 'tis not a Counsel, and you are Self-willed if you obey not, nay, 'tis not bare Doctrine neither, and you are Ignorant if you believe not, but it is Doctrine, Argued and proved, powerfully evinced, and even sensibly demonstrated, that there is a God, and you are maliciously stupid, wilfully Blind, if your solitary testimony runs-cross to that of all the world besides, that a God there is.  
36. And did not Holy Job teach St. Paul, or rather, did not the Holy Ghost teach Both of them, that such an Argument as This, was ungain-sayable, that the Contrary to This was undisputable? so far from being Thetical, and Dogmatical, Evident Truth, that it was not so much as Hypothetical, and Problematical, suspicious Truth? when Holy Job proves the validity, and sufficiency of that Aggregate Universal Argument, by Proving that Universal Argument, by Induction, by Enumeration of all Particulars, not only that All the World together does Argue a God, but that every Particle, and Fraction of it, severally, does do as much (Quaeque Probant strictim singula, Juncta Magis) and does effectually do it, even in answer to the most Colourable Objection that ever was, against the Being of God? The Tabernacles of the Robbers Prosper, 
Job. 12.6.  and they that provoke God are secure. When we name a God we Mean a Duty of Piety from Man to God; and, to Encourage that Duty, we mean a Reward from God upon pious Man; we declare what that duty of Piety is, to do that, which is Conscionably Right, what ever 
† Vir Bonus quod Honesti se facturum putaverit, faciet, etiam si Laboriosum erit, & Damnosum. Senec. Ep. 76. Ps. 115.16.  wrong befalls us here, for doing it; we declare When that season of Reward Is, not, always here, in Our World, in that Earth, which God hath given to the Children of Men, but, ever, hereafter, in God's world, in that Heaven, which is the Lords, and which he will give to the Children of the most high; and yet, 
Ibid. 82.6. Damnum Tu●pi Lucro Proterendo Chil●.  the wrong which befalls, here, to Right and Conscionable Men, is the strongest Weapon, which the Natural Man (I can scarce call him so, for Nature, which God made, will never be so Ungrateful, as not to Acknowledge her Maker, which, the Unnatural Man) takes into his hand, wherewith to War against the very Being of God, and to beat down the useless, unprofitable, disadvantageous, nay, sometimes, the dangerous, Ruinating, Capital Integrity of Man, who, not only, in Vain, 
Ps. 73.13. Ps. 35.12.  Cleanses his heart, and washes his hands in Innocency, but, is evilly Rewarded too for his Good, to the spoiling of his Soul indeed, if such an Opinion as this, once enter into it.  
This, the best of Heathen, the wisest of mere Natural Men, Seneca, 
Ep. 74.  does confess to have been a great stumbling-block, whereby to shake the honesty of Man, and to overthrow the very being of God; ex Has Deploratione nascitur, from this deplorable wretchedness, which betides the wisest and best Men, it is, that Men are so Ingrateful Estimators, and Interpreters of Divine providence, and Abrogators of Divinity itself.  
37. The Adversariness to St. Paul's and Job's Argument, is set down to the height by Job, and Seneca; let us see what Job and Seneca themselves Reply, to what themselves, out of worse Mouths than their own, Object. Job goes on, with shame and indignation, that so falsly-confident and undisturbed an inference should be made out of so feeble a Ground, that Men should be more Insensible of a Deity, than the very Beasts, that to them he sends them for better Information, 
V 7.8.  But ask now the Beasts, and they shall teach thee, speak to the Earth (upon which those Beasts feed) and It shall Teach Thee; the Beasts are provided for, and will not that God, which Cators for them, sustain Men? the Beasts, are all alike, neither better nor worse, and they feed all alike, and shall not Men, who have a difference in goodness (amongst themselves, aswel as a difference in being from the Beasts) have a divers Portion? and that divers Portion distributed according to the Rules of Equity and Judgement, Mercy and Truth? Reason itself will tell you, they shall, though not secundum hic & nunc; any, not only Reason, but (if you will take his word, whose Name is word and Reason, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Volatilia will tell you the same, Ask the Fowls of the Air, 
Mat. 6.26.  and they shall tell you; They sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into Barns, yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them; from these our Saviour proves that providence more expressly, which Job only intimates; and proves it by such a Reason, which, is Cognoscible even to Natural Men; and that providence proves a God and a Father too, a powerful God, and a loving Father, a Heavenly God and Father. 
V 8.  Job goes on; the Fishes of the Sea shall declare unto thee; the parts, and joints, of which they are compacted and made, the Fins and Scales, with which they are armed, and dressed, is it not a wise and an infinite power, that made them, and put them on? Is it not, by providence, that they Live, out of that Air, which is Causa sine quâ Non, without which thou canst not Live, and within the glassy Element, under which, thou canst not choose but Die? and is not that wisdom, and power, and providence, the three Letters, which spell a God to thee? and are not those Muta Animalia thy Tutors, to teach thee to read a God in the great Book of Creatures, some scattered leaves of which themselves are? At length he descends, peremptorily, and Irrefragably to his Conclusion, Who knoweth not, (who? 'tis an Universal challenge, and no Atheist will ever dare to give in an Answer; He will rather learn one Lesson more, a sober silence, from those Dumb, and yet Teaching Counselors, V 9 to whom Job sends him to School) who knoweth not, in all these that the Hand of the Lord hath wrought this?  
38. And that Conclusion of Job is as a Premise, which makes way for that other Conclusion of Seneca; 
Ibid.  since there is a God that made all these, since there is a God, who suffers Ill (that, which Appears to be Ill) to befall really good Men, Placeat Homini, quicquid Deo placuit, Let that be acceptable to Man, which Man cannot choose but see to be pleasing to God, and to be allotted to Man by God, whether the Lot be fallen to him in a fair Ground, 
Ps. 16.6.  or whether he hath neither part nor Lot in this matter, 
Acts 8.21.  in any good Ground at all; Let it suffice, for the Child of Abraham by Faith, and the Brother of Abraham by Adoption, as being Son of the same God who was Abraham's Father, that he only Inherits that penurious condition of his Father Abraham, 
Luke 12.13.  that that only No-Inheritance be divided betwixt his Brother Abraham and him, in that, 
Acts 7.5.  God for a while, Gives no Inheritance to either of them, no not so much as to set their foot on, whilst he has some hopeful assurance, that as God was Abraham's, so he will, hereafter be his, 
●en. 15.1.  exceeding great reward.  
39 That other Heathen, who was more Poet, than Philosopher, and less wise, than witty, into what a Maze, 
Ovid in Morte Tibulli.  and Labyrinth, and Intricacy was he brought upon such a Ground as this? Cum Rapiunt Mala Fata Bonos— That's the quarrel he has against God, that Good Men suffer Ill things and untimely Deaths; upon this occasion, how does he strive to Hoodwink his reason? and yet, in his own expression elsewhere, Sic certat, tanquam qui vincere Nollet, for, that reason breaks through the transparent Veil which he puts upon it, and, velit nolit, will be his Clue to bring him back to his right wits again; for, throughout, he does confessingly deny, and Grants against himself; First, Ignoscite Fasso, He would be Pardoned for what he says; and, certainly, it is a fault, that needs a pardon; truth though it cannot always protect, does ever forgive itself; and then— Solicitor Nullos esse putare Deos; 'tis but Solicitor, 'tis not Vincor; his Passion stirred, and moved and tempted him, but it did not quite o'ercome him; and 'tis but Solicitor putare, 'tis not, credere, it moved him scrupulously to doubt, not infallibly to believe, that there is No God; and, at last, All this is but a piece of his Poetry, and Invention, 'twas no part of his Atheism and incredility.  
40. From these preparatives and foundations, with the addition of two more Concessions, one, by the ablest, and the other, by all Natural Men, First, that all Men are sinners, and Secondly that all Men desire to be happy (for the very Nerve of Reason, why some few Men deny a God, is, because they would be happy here; and, because that, which we truly call sin, would be a means to impede their happinesses since themselves (notwitstanding that Comic truth, 
† Non est quod nos magis Asiena judices Adulatione perire qu● Nostra. Senec. de Tranquillit.  Nemo tam alteri adblanditur, quam quisque sibi) cannot so much flatter themselves, as to believe that sin and happiness can go, Hand in Hand together, therefore they take the wise course (the worldly, the helly-wise course) to deny that there is any sin, upon this foundation, because there is No God; for, say they, if there were such a thing as sin, it must be a breach of a command of God, we ourselves, and 
† 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 1 John 3.9.  our God himself, they say, defines it so, Dictum, Factum, vel Concupitum contra Legem Divinam; and, if there be no God, there is no sin; That's the next word in the Atheists Mouth, and that's the very desire of his Heart, that, upon that score, he may do, fearlessly, what he list; (and, because, this, I know, to be his profession, I must to reclaim him, suit my discourse in an Immethodicalness, proportionable to his speech and practice) and, if the foundations be shaken, 
Ps. 11.3. 139.7.  (nay destroyed) if there be no God, what shall the righteous do? whither shall they go, to his spirit? or whither shall they fly, 
1 Cor. 15.19.  to his presence? If there be hope only in this Life, they are, indeed, of all Men most miserable; and, if the foundations be destroyed if there be no God, then there can be no Devil neither, and to what Hell shall the unrighteous go? If there be Hope, only in this Life, 
Job 14.7.  if there be no Hope of a Tree, when it is Cut down, that it shall sprout again (Et Homo est Arbor Inversa; 
2 King. 19.30.  in the grave He takes Root downward; There He lies a Mellowing till the Resurrection, and shall then, bear fruit upward, sprout above the earth) they are, of All Men, the most Happy, I and the most Virtuous too, 
Senec. Trag.  Prosperum scelus Virtus vocetur) from these preparatives, which make way for it, I shall proceed to the scriptural Argument, in the manner I proposed.  
41. That there is a God in Heaven (eminently, and Enthroned there, but essentially every where) is, not only One Part of the Righteousness of Man to Confess, and Another part of His Righteousness to Worship that God, but the very sinfulness of Man does confess as much, in that, Man is, ex ore Ipsius, Confessedly sinful; and in that, sin is, by the Natural and Moral knowledge of Man, a Violation of the Commandments of God.  
42. That, which, long since, cost me some pains (but that the delight I took in it, did defray the Charges of my Industry) after their Vintage and whose Harvest of Morality, to pick up, in my several walks after them, some Glean and Resemblances of Christianity, dropped from the very heathens, may perhaps administer delight to the Reader too, when he shall receive all of them which have a Pertinency to the matter in hand, Bound up in a Sheaf together; for, believe it, as All is not Gold that glisters, and we have, at this day too many Leaden, and falsecoined, and even-heathenish Christians, how fair and shining an outside soever they show to the deluded world, 
1 John. 5.19.  which is not only in Malitia but In Tenebris positus (and, Then, a Glow-worm can do as much) I and those too, such a kind of Tenebrae as I have somewhere read of, when Men did Ingenuously Confess that they were Nimia Luce Occoecati, so, All is not Tares, which grows in a Field situate on the t'other side of Christendom; such humble Confessions as these, if they are not wheat, sure they are not Cockle Neither.  
43. As, That All Men are sinners. 
Annal. l. 20.  If That of Tacitus, Vitia erunt, Donec homines, does only acknowledge the perpetuity of Gild, but not of the Gild of all Men, (and yet, even in him, Vitia seems to have the same extent as Homines, and may perhaps not unfitly be called the Name of Man, as well as of Zoilus, 
Marr.  Non vitiosus homo es, Zoile, sed vitium, if thou art homo, thou art Vitium too) yet That of Propertius will reach Home to, and arrest the most Righteous Man, as being in arrears by sin, Unicuique 
Lib. 2. Eleg. 10.  dedit Vitium Natura Creato; and if That does not Impeach Every Man, as Born in sin; (and yet Vitium seems to have reference to Creato, and to conclude Man a sinner, as soon as He was Man; what? 
Psal. 58.3. Serm. l. 1. sat. 3.  had He read King David? They go astray as soon as they are Borne) That of Horace will swath the whole kind of Man in the Red Mantle of Sin, and that, from His very Cradle, Vitiis sine nemo Nascitur. Here is the Confession of Original sin, even by those, who never heard of an Original Adam; and that without any Romish exception; Nemo; not so much as One Virgin, a single Mary, unattainted.  
And for Actual sin, They are as Copious in their acknowledgements, as we are in our Transgressions; they not only tell Us, that we had a Beginning of sin from another, but that we have no end of it in ourselves, Quis— Peccandi Finem posuit sibi? Quisnam Hominum est, 
Juven. sat. 13.  quem tu Contentum videris uno Flagitio? Every Man is guilty of Many sins; they speak it as plainly, as if they had learned it from S. James, for in Many things we offend All; and every of those Many, 
Ch. 3. v. 2.  is a Grievous sin too; Little in the sight of Man, but Mediocribus esse, non Dii Concessere;— Old Rome was not so mincing in this point, as New Rome is; He would believe no sin to be Venial, 
Tull. Tuse. Quaest. l. 3.  who said Omne Malum, etiam Mediocre, Magnum est.  
44. And, as All are sinners, and, notwithstanding the Pope's Dispensation Grievous ones, so, no sin is allowable in any, notwithstanding that Precise Opinion, that, when two Men commit the same Act, God sees, and detests Murder in One, and does neither detest nor see so much as the Act in the Other, unless with eyes which have left off to be pure, and can behold, 
Hab. 1.13.  but not Chide Iniquity; Peccare, certè, licet nemini; 
Tull. Par. 2.  it is sin, if thou dost it, as well, as if another Man, and thou hast as little leave to offend as he; nay though thou pretendest a very good and holy end, yet, not only S. Paul forbids Thee to do evil that Good may Come thereof, but Seneca himself, 
Rom. 3.38.  would fain Indoctrinate Thee out of it, 
De Ira. l. 1.  Nunquam Virtus vitio adjuvanda est, se contenta; and Reason Thee out of it, Ab sit hoc à Virtute malum, ut unquam Ratio ad Vitia confugiat; and shame thee out of it, 
c. 9 c. 10.  Non pudet virtutes, in Clientelam vitiorum demittere; and abhor thee out of it, Abominandum Remedii genus est, sanitatem debere morbo; and, if none of these will do it (what thou canst least of all endure) Epictetus will even Foole. thee out of it; 
Cap. 12.  he will not suffer thee to think any Colour to be Title enough for a Contradiction, an Impossibility, that That, which is sin in the Deed, should become Not sin because of the Person, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the little great Philosopher seems, 
Cap. 19  in this particular, to be a great, though concealed, Christian, whilst thyself art but a ittle one, though a Professor.  
45. Nor is Man only, by Nature, acknowledged a sinner in those Open Impure and Unholy acts, which man can take cognisance of, and forbidden, and punish by Law, but in those secret deeds, which no man knows of besides the base and unseen Committer, in those Thoughts, and wishes, and desires, against which man could never Frame a Law; for though the nine former Statutes in the Decalogue, are by some of the Heathens, made Precepts and Laws, though in other words, and one of them in the very words of Moses, as that of Solon, Non Furaberis, and that of Diodorus Siculus in the very words of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and that Word of Severus (when He sentenced any to death) which is a Compendium of the second Table, and is the express and Comprehensive Law of Christ, 
Mat. 7.12.  Fac, quod vis pati; but That Non Concupisces, is a Law Purely-divine, and yet even against That guilt, though they could not Sancire Edicta, yet they would, and did advise and warn against, with That exclamation in Lucan, Heu Quantum poenae Misero Mens Conscia Donat, 
Lib. 7.  and with that just terror, and Christian doctrine of a very Juvenal, that the sin is not the less, because there are not more eyes upon it, prima est haec ultio (it is prima, 
Satyr. 13.  it is not sola) quòd se Judice nemo Nocens absolvitur; nay, though he hath only purposed to sin, He must answer for That; for He hath already sinned in the very purpose; (He that looketh upon a woman to this end, 
Matth. 5.28.  that he may Lust, hath not only Lusted, but Adultered too) Has patitur poenas, peccandi sola volunt as; Nam scelus Intrase Tacitum qui Cogitat Ullum, Eacti Crimen habet. Not only Tertullian, (that good Christian, and the less a sinner, for that for Confessing himself to be the more so) would say of himself that He was Omnium notarum peccator, 
De poenitentia De se.  that he had sinned all these kinds of sins; or Theodorus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but a very Seneca too, would Paul-like, and Austin-like writ his own Confessions in the most extensive latitude, Ego in profundo omnium vitiorum sum.  
46. And, as all men, are by nature, sinners, originally, actually, intentionally, so, by nature, they know, God to be offended at the sin of man, and Hell to be Threatened to it.  
47. So certain it was with them, that God was displeased at sin, that they could not invent so much as a Cupidinean God, but, in the same line in which He is a God, He is told to be Fierce and Angry at the sinful lover, 
Aristainet. ep. 10.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. How Gracious soever they acknowledge the Eternal Power, yet, their own sin, they say forces the Bolt from out His Hand, 
Horat. Carm. l. 1. Od. 3.  Neque per nostrum patimur scelus, Iracunda Jovem ponere Fulmina; which though it comes a slow (non Ocius Alti In Terras cadit Ira Jovis) yet it comes a sure pace, 
Statius Theb. l. 3.  and will Metam Figere, Hit the Right Mark, for it comes from Him, whom Homer calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and, of whom Statius says— Sed videt hoc, 
Theb. l. 5.  videt Ille Deum Regnator, & Ausis, Sera quidem, manet Ira tamen— And yet, that none should Courage themselves in Mischief, because, though the Vengeance of God be Certain, yet it is Tardy, Another of them will dishearten Vice by the Weight of the Punishment, which makes amends to the Justice of God for the Lateness and Delay, 
Val. Max. l. 1. c. 1.  Lento Gradu ad Vindictam sui Divina procedit Ira, Tarditatemque, Supplicii Gravitate Compensat.  
48. And the Punishment too of Unreconciled Sinners, even in Their Black Book, is no Less than Hell. Not only Punished they must be, those who are Alive in the Flesh, and Dead in Sin; and Punished they Are, those who are, Both ways, Dead— Exercentur Poenis, 
Virgil. Aenaeid. l. 6.  Veterumque Malorum, Supplicia Expendunt, but they they are Punished in Hell too, so Undoubtedly, as that he is a very Bold and Saucy Sinner who thinks to purchase a Mitigation of his Torments, either with Gold, which is altogether Light in the Balance, or with Counterfeit Holiness, which is but a base Metal within, and only Coloured and Beamed about, like Gold, 
Audax Ille quidem, 
Idem, in Culice.  qui Mitem Cerberon unquam  
Credidit, aut Ulli Ditis placabile Numen.  How particular and express, as well as resolved and peremptory, they are in this Doctrine of Hell! like some good, stayed, Primitive Christians, and Unlike the Modern, Neutral, and Lukewarm Christians! Does Gospel say, that there are Lower Parts of the Earth? 
Eph. 4.9. Act. 2.27.  that there is a Hell, out of which none but that. Christ Returned, who, Alone, was Free among the Dead? 
Ps. 88.5.  Humanity says both This, and That, and says it with a Check to the Boyishness of those who will be Diffident in One Article of our Creed, 
Esse Aliquos Manes, 
Juven. Sat. 2.  & Subterranea Regna,  
Nec Pueri credent, nisi qui nondum Aere Lavantur,  
Sed Tu Vera Puta;  And those such Kingdoms which are Irremeable; 
Senec. in] Morte Claudii.  Avernus est, unde Redire negant Quenquam; does Infallible Scripture say again, 
Luk. 16.26  is a great Gulf betwixt Hell and Heaven, and no Passage from One to Other? Honest Heathenism will say again, 
Noctes, atque Dies, 
Virgil. Aenaeid. l. 6.  patet Atri Janua Ditis,  
Sed Revocar● Gradum, Superasque Evadere ad Auras;  
Hic Labour, hoc Opus est;  And that a Labour, like the washing of a Moor, which is Proverbially called the Labour in Vain; a Work, like that of Sisyphus, to Role a Stone up Hill, that it may Role down itself. Does Christ say, Broad is the Way that Leadeth unto Destruction, 
Mat. 7.13, 14.  and straight is the Gate that Leadeth unto Life, and Few there are that find it? 
Ibid.  Virgil says so too— Facilis Descensus Averni— and— Pauci Laeta Arva tenemus. 
Mat. 8.12. Ps. 49.19.  Is the Un-Christian Christian's Hell a Place of Utter Darkness? in which he shall Never see Light? the Un-Christian Heathen's Hell is so too; 
Scelerata Jacet Sedes in Nocte profundâ  
Abdita, 
Tibull. l. 1. El. 3.  quam Circum Flumina Nigra sonant,  
Tum Niger in Portâ Serpens — and buried and hid from its very self in an Everlasting Darkness, which hath no Communion at all with any Light; 
Queis nunquam Candente Dies Apparuit Ortu, 
Id. lib. 4. Paneg. ad Messal.   
Sive supra Terras Phoebus, sive Curreret Infra.  Does Moses tell us, 
Gen. 3.  that the Devil tempts Man to Sin? Does Peter expound Moses? 
1 Pet. 5.8.  and the Saint declare to us the Devil's Design in his Temptation, that by yielding to his Suggestions, we may Obey ourselves into his Jaws, and he Devour us? that we ourselves may be that Dust, which Moses tells us, 
Gen. 3.14. In Piman. Dial. 1.  the Serpent shall eat? and does not Trismegistus tell us the same? Daemon, ad Patranda Scelera Armat Hominem, ut Turpioris Culpae Reus, Aeriori Supplicio sit Obnoxius.  
49. And, since, by their own Confessions, every Sin does Attest a God, whom That Sin offends, and a Devil, whom God employs to Chastise that Sin, and a Hell, in which to Chastise it, 
* Dux Erebi Populos poscebat Crimina Vita, Nil Hominum miserans ', Iratusque omnibus Vmbris.  Impartially, and without Respect of Persons, Have they not, therefore, rightly charged upon us the Practice of those Atoning Virtues, contrary to those Provoking Sins? One of them, in that One Verse, which Scaliger commends to be the very best of all Virgil's Poetry, Discite Justitiam Moniti, 
Aeneid. l. 6.  & non temnere Dives? And, not only Justice, and Virtue, in Genere, but, Specifically, 
1 Cor. 13.13.  S. Paul's three Theological Virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity? and do they not plentifully tell us, that we have all these, and all the other Good we do, from God? 
Cicero, l. 1. De Naturâ Deorum.  Si inest in Hominum genere, Mens, Fides, Virtus, Concordia, unde haec in Terram, nisi à Superis, defluere potuerunt? They, in whom these Grace's shine, like the Moon at Full, have attained to the Perfection of Virtue; and yet when they have done that, a very Pindarus will tell them who they are to thank for it— Ad summitatem Virtutis pervenerunt, cum Dei autem Favore; and, not only these Choicest Graces, of Gold, and of Silver, 
2 Tim. 2.20.  but every more Feeble Virtue, of Wood also, and of Earth, are Fashioned in us by a Hand from above, by him whom Isaiah calls our Potter; 
64.8.  None at all of them come from ourselves, either by Nature, 
Arist. Eth. l. 2. c. 1.  Nulla fit Virtus Morum in nobis, Natura, or by Art, Non fit ab Arte, 
Maximus Tyrius, Serm. 22.  quòd Evadimus Bon●, but All of them by the Gift and Grace of God, Sed potius Beneficio Jovis, 
Aristainet. Ep. 13.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
50. And yet, these Virtues, how eagerly soever pursued, and in some intense degree practised, since, by the Frailty of Man, they cannot be entirely practised, or, if they were so, could merit nothing at that God's hands, who gave the Virtues, therefore he who is the bright Morningstar, and the very Sun, amongst the Heathens, when he had done all he could, would expect his Reward only by Grace and Mercy; and, had he done more than he could, he would yet have done One thing more, (that which our God and Christ commands us to do, 
Luk. 17.10  When we have done all those things which are Commanded us) confessed, that he was an Unprofitable servant; one of these, He confesses, throughout a whole Book of His, for the Title of it is De Clementiâ, and, almost, in the very entry of that Book, 
Lib. 1. c. 1.  Non est Quisquam cui tam valdè innocentia sua placeat, ut non stare in Conspectu Clementiam paratam humanis erroribus gaudeat; and the other, in His B. De Ira, 
Lib. 2. c. 17.  Quis est islequi se profitetur Omnibus Legibus innocentem, ut hoc ita sit, quàm Angusta Innocentia est, ad Legem Bonum esse? to which purpose is it excellently said by Ausonius (who, though he be wholly Christian in one Copy, is extremely Heathen in 
† Vbi Castissimum Maronem lasciviis inquinat non suis.  Another, and very little Christian in any else, so that I may well suspect that one Copy to be Illegitimate, thrust into his Book by the Charity of another man, and not thrust out of his Head (as the Poet's 
* Minerva. E●yss. 2●  Goddess out of Jupiter's) by his own Devotion) Deliquisse Nihil, nunquam laudem esse putavi.  
51. And as they acknowledge God, 
Jam. 1.17. Plato in Eutryphone c. 47.  to be wrathful against sin, and from whom every Good gift does come, (Nihil nobis est Bonum, quin Dii Praebeant, the same Dii, whom Homer Stilo Jacobino calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, & whom Jamblicus does singularize into Largitor Bonorum Omnium) so, do they not, in some manner too acknowledge the Trinity of Persons? the Father is in every Mouth of them, 
Aristot. l. de Mundo.  Deus, sine dubio, servator omnium est, & Parens eorum quae in Mundo Conficiuntur; and not only the Father of all in this World Below, but of all, in That Above too, the Father which is, Himself, in Heaven, and the Father, of all them which are There with Him, 
Virgil. Ae●aid. l. 10.  O Pater, O Hominum, Divumque aeterna Potestas! The Son, is upon the Tongue of several of them, 
Aenaid. l. 1.  Nate, meae Vires, mea magna Potentia solus; the Godhead of That Son, Ad te Confugio & supplex Tua Numina posco; His Birth of a Virgin, 
Eclog. 4.  Jam Redit & Virgo, redeunt Saturnia Regna; 
Aenaeid. 10.  His Cruel Death, and the Salvation of Man by That, Tua haec, Genitor per Vulnera Servor, Morte Tuâ Vivo; nay, almost, the very Sacrament of His Body and Blood too, which is the Seal to Our Faith, and to His Promises; Miraris Hominem ad Deos Ire? does any wonder that Man goes up to God? Seneca will tell you a more wonderful thing, Deus ad hominem venit, 
Ep. 73.  God Himself, (by His Birth) comes down to Man; imò, quod propius est, In hominem venit; nay, nearer yet, God (by His Sacrament) comes Into Man; Nulla sine Deo, Mens Bona est, the Heathen will say, that no man has a Good Soul within him, unless he has a Good God within that Soul; and the Christian will say, the Soul of the Best Man, is then at Best, when his Christ is, Thus, within it; and the Holy Ghost is within the lips of One of them, of Him, whom a Learned, and right estimatour of All Antiquity, an Author of our own, 
Donne sermon. p. 362.  calls the Moral Man's Holy Ghost, Seneca, what else did he mean, when he describes very much of the Gracious and Peculiar office of the Holy Ghost? when he earnestly desires to know by what Name he might call such an inspiring and sanctifying power, which makes us to forbear That Ill, which we would do, and to do that Good, which we would not? Quid est hoc, quod nos, Aliò Tendentes Aliò Trahit, &, eò, unde Recedere cupimus, Impellit? quod colluctatur cum Animo nostro, nec permittit nob is semel velle? which suffers us not to will an evil thing, Once & only-Once, Once & unalterably? Fluctuamus inter varia Consilia, the Spirit of God draws One way, and the spirit of Man, another; Man's spirit is willing to obey God, but man's flesh is weak and will obey itself; Nihil liberè volumus, we have not so much as a Will, ad Bonum, of ourselves, but we have it by an operation and influx from God, it is he that worketh in us, both Motum ad Actum and Actum too, 
Phil. 2.13.  both to Will and to Do, Nihil Absolutè, Our will is dependent upon Gods, Nihil semper, our will here is fluid, and Alterable, and never fixed and unchangeable, till our state be so in Heaven; Stultitia, inquit, est, cui nihil constat; if you charge Him, and such His Various and Mutable Condition, 
Job 4.18.  as God hath Charged Hit very Angels with folly, His next words do Darkly and secretly implore the Wisdom of the Holy Ghost to Unfool Him, 
All of it, in epist. 5●.  Sed quomodo, aut quando, nos ab illa revellemus? oportet Manum Aliquis porrigat, Aliquis Educat; And who is this Aliquis, but the B. Spirit of God? Thus, severally, both in Human persons Confessing, and in Divine Persons Confessed, they acknowledge a Holy Trinity; and do they not so together too? what else doth Virgil mean in that Mysterious Clause— Numero Deus Impare gaudet? 
Eclog. 8:  what else do the Platonics understand in their Tria Principia, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and Iniellectus, and Mundi Anima? by their Bonum, do they not Antedate a Comment upon that of our Saviour, There is none Good, 
Matth. 19.17.  but One, i e. God? by their Intellectus, do they not Understand that Saviour Himself? and are not they the Greeks to whom S. Paul says, 
1 Cor. 1.24. Col. 2.3.  Christ is the Wisdom of God? in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom? or, is This part of the Gospel hid, quite out, to them that are lost in Obscure Philosophy? by their Anima Mundi, what else could be the thought of their own Souls, 
Gen. 1.2.  but that Spirit which Moved upon the Waters, and hatched the whole Creation into Form and Shape, Light and Life?  
52. All this Heap of Heathen Authorities, and the Correspondency betwixt them and Gospel, agrees, both with the Title, in the head of the Book, and with the Design in the Heart of the Author, in that every, even the most Removed quotation does, at least Inclusively, argue a God; Sin, does do it, and Hell, does do it; Sin proves a God, without the rebellion against whom sin is not sin; Hell proves a God, without the wrath of whom, Hell would not be Hell, but only a Philosophical Fable, or a State-Device; and by the compliance betwixt Scripture and Thief, I would Recall my Atheist, as S. Paul, His Infidel, to the searching of Scriptures, and the worshipping a God by them, since their own Books have some Allusion to the most Abstruse articles of these; He that sees Men walking like trees, may, in time, see so clearly, as to let Trees be Trees, and Men Men.  
53. Nay, not only Sin at large, be it what sin it will but the largest sin, which is every sin in semine, This itself, of Denying God, does prove Him to be, and the adverse Practices of this sinful Denying Man, do, in a secret & clancular way, acknowledge Him, though with an unwilling Fear; and that, because This very Man would have some Hopes in the very God whom he denies; such a principle there is in Him, even in Him also, 
Psal. 65.5.  that God is the hope of all the ends of the earth, although That Principle be much weakened, and That Hope, as to Him, Impaird by his overswaging sin.  
54. The very Denying of God does Confess Him, not only in that, Man has not the power to do this, so much as in a Thought, to say this, so much as in his Heart, but that Himself had his Heart, and that Heart the Power and Faculty of Thinking from his God, though himself hath Poisoned that Innocent heart, which God gave him, and corrupted that advantageous power and faculty, which God gave unto his heart, not only in these (for, though this be in itself true (so true, that no Parcelsus could ever make a Man, and put a live Heart into him, nor any other, but that Infinite Power, which put that heart into a man could put that thought into a heart) yet to this affectedly wilful doubter, all this is but Petitio Petitii) but in that very Reason, (which himself cannot deny to himself, though he disguise it to his opinions enemy, and his own friend) why he denies a God, 
† Hierocles c. 10.  because he would not have a God to sentence, and execute, and torture him; why he denies a God, faintly, but wilily, to this only end, that he may corrupt others, to speak the same wicked Blasphemy; that, of them, he may learn Reasons, and Arguments, to strengthen his very weakness, and to confirm his doubt; to turn his Question— Is there Knowledge in the most high? 
Psal. 73.11.  (and yet, if he be the Most High, there cannot choose but be Knowledge in Him) into a Doctrinal Negation, that there is no such thing as the Most High, much less any knowledge at all in him who himself is Not. Hast thou ever met with this Would_be Atheist? hath he to Thy Face, denied that there is a God? and made thy face blush, for want of that Red in His, which is Virtutis Color, in whom there is not so much as Color Virtutis? 
Quintil.  Search Him, weigh Him, Dive into Him; This is all he means, he would be taught by thee to deny a God, if not, by thy Impossible Reason, either by thy concurrent Testimony, or, at least, by thy unrebuking Patience; something he has got, if thou abhor him not, if not a new string to his Bow, some wax at least to make his old string the sleeker, and he will deny God 
† Turpe est contra Ardenter perversa asserentes nos pro veritate Frigidiores inveniri. Rusticus Diaconus L. adversus Acephalos. Exceed Pietas si modo in nostra Domounquam fuisti. Atreus apud Senes. in Thyestes. Act. 2.  the more, the less Zealously thou dost Confess him, and the less stoutly defend him; If instruction will do no Good upon him, loathe him, despise him let him alone, Let him be alone, and his own solitariness and retirements, and Tremble, will be his effectual Instructers, that a God, and an Angry God there is. For,  
55. Mark the practices of such a gainsaying man; as you can never find any Tincture or Relish of Holiness in all his Words, Actions, and Conversation, who (like the Fixed honest man, but in wrong Constancy) is so resolved a Devil, that he will not so much as Hippocras for Virtues sake, whose very mask he loathes, and will not take it up, though it lies before him in every street; so, This you will always find in him that he loves man, only to undo him, and the Society of man, that That man may Insensibly, be as himself, unsociated, unacquainted with God; he loves the company of Man, only that he may be his companion in sin, and the sin which he commonly makes choice of, is the sin of Riot, and Excess, and Drunkenness; and why all this, but that when he is in Company he may not have leisure for serious Afflicting Thoughts, and when he is Alone, he may not be himself, but fall asleep, charmed with those Inconsidering Fumes, and Wake Another man, till he comes to another Man, and returns to his stupifying Circulation of excess and drowziness.  
56. As this sottish sin is a Gradual and Imperfect, and preparatory Atheism, in those other sinners, who strive, by this perverse Medicine, to Consopite, and stifle all the checks and remorses of busy Conscience concerning their particular heinous sins; so it is a more peculiar Antidote (and yet never any venom more dangerous than such a formenting remedy, 
Angelus Politian.  Quis nescit plus esse in Pharmaco, quam in Morbo Periculi?) to cast into a dead sleep the Schooling conscience of him, who, without this Opinue cannot but have his eyes open, to see, and condemn his deserved but ungrounded Atheism.  
57 Now consider this, all ye who, 
Ps. 50.22:  in any your several sins, forget God; Consider that every sin, even in the most upright person, is a partial, but loathed Atheism, and every loved sin, is a loved Atheism too; Consider, that one Devil tempts you to Chambering and wantonness, to revelling in Beer and Ale and Wine, that these are another Devil, a Trinity of Devils to make you renounce God, 
Mat. 3.9.  and fall down and worship them; These are in some the consequents, and followers, in others, the signs and forerunners of Bestial, of Diabolical Atheism.  
58. The abundance of those Houses, that trade in this, that sell Iniquity by the Quart, are at least a suspicion and scandal to any Parish, and that quartered iniquity is much more, not only a sin and unholiness (if I speak not too Favourably, for— Ebriet as quid non designat? it is never a single sin but a Volume, and Catalogue, and combination of unholiness) and the Factor for that sin of sins, that unholiness, that will not suffer any thing at all to be holy, no not God himself.  
59 And yet, as it is oft times the Receiver, that makes the Thief, so, it is not they, that sell, but we, who buy, that make the Alchouses; our frequenting them (I speak in the name of all England, by imitation of all Holland, who, though they break the word into two pieces, and leave out the house, yet they power in the Ale) is the Licence that sets them up; I excuse not the poor, any where, who misthink they have need to do ill, and then, make that need, their Justice and Magistrate, not to punish but to allow the ill; but I am much more offended at the wealthier, amongst us, and every where, (in that their, and my God is offended) whose countenance does fill those Vessels, and whose unsatiableness does empty them, till we are ready to change conditions with the poor sinners, and, if not enrich them (for this is such a motheaten gain, in quo vix gaudet Tertius Haeres) yet impoverish ourselves, and when that is done, learn of the other poor ones, and begin where they did, to do ill because we have need to do so; It cannot be helped, we must do it, and do it without Control, till our proud sin be above the power of Church or State, Pulpit or Bench, to Preach or to Vote it down.  
60. This is the practice of him that is a beginner, and this will be the practice of him that is a Proficient in Atheism, to this end, that he may be so contrary to those, who fear where no fear is, 
Ps. 53.5.  as to do nothing else, but sensually rejoice, where there is nothing else but fear; 
Prov. 19.13.  they courage themselves in mischief, they rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of their ways.  
61. But, then, as I have named a giddy sickness in this floating British isle, and told you the danger of that sickness, that it is in some a temptation, and, in others, a tempting the temptation to deny the Lord that bought them, 
2 Pet. 2.1.  and therefore, reprehended the love and delight in that sickness, which makes the Disease a death too, 'tis as true of the Ale-pot, as of any else, Mors in Olla, 
2 Kings 3.30.  (for, what St. Paul says of pleasure, and delicacy at large, is more emphatically true of this Swinish pleasure, this Miry 
† Cavis immundus vel Amica Lutosis. Hor. Serm. l. 3. Ep. 2.  delicacy, this Doglike Vomiting, He and She, that liveth in this frail Glassy pleasure, 
1 Tim. 5.6  in this Intoxicating, Murdering Delicacy, is dead whilst he, and she seemed to live, Dead and Buried too— Somno Vinoque Sepulti, 
Virg.  their Bodies are not humane Bodies, but Graves, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and their Souls are not at all reasonable (unless passively) but rottennesses within them) so, I would not name the sickness, but that Beasts might recover into Men, uncharmed from the transforming draughts of Circe; nor tell the danger, but that Men might escape it, as a Lord have mercy is set upon some Doors, to forbid Man an entrance there; nor reprove their love of it, but that they might learn to loathe the sin as much as the Surfeit, this Disgraceful, and Bewitching, this unmanly and un-Godly sin, as the Spartans' taught their Children Sobriety, by showing them the follies of their drunken servants.  
62. Consider therefore, that, as St. Paul says, your Bodies are, in reference to a Corporal Resurrection, from the Grave, so your Souls also are in reference to a Spiritual Resurrection from sin, like a Grain of Corn; that Grain of Corn has seed in itself, and may live and multiply, live, 
Ps. 65.13.  and live happily, Laugh and sing too, and even shout for joy, if it be sowed in the Earth, in the Manured Earth, Ploughed and Harrowed; but, if you Sow it in the Water, it does not only not multiply, but it perishes, it does not only not laugh and sing, but it weeps, and dies, and comes to nothing, to nothing but that, which is most like to nothing, to putrefaction; every Soul in this Nation has seed in itself, and may live, if it will endure, and be the better for, such Harrowing, and Plowing as these, which dig about it, and cut up the Weeds, and open the soars of it, and tell that swimming Soul, that it does not yet live, though it be in a capacity to live, that it may live, and thrive, if it will itself be the good ground to receive this word of exhortation with joy, 
Mat. 13.23.  and to let it take root, that it be not washed away at the next rainy meeting, to receive it into an honest and good heart, and to keep it there, and let it never more be washed away; for the watery, the melting soul, the liquid, the fluid Soul, will as the water itself, take no Impression, no not from the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; the very word of God will not fructify there; 'tis true, without moderate drinking, life itself will not endure, as the earth itself will not bring forth, 
Job. 2.23. Ps. 65.11. Prov. 3.20  unless God give it the former rain moderately, which falls down in drops; only this way, will the Clouds drop fatness, when themselves drop down like Dew, but a Deluge, an Inundation of either, will ruin both; when our Saviour Christ was mercifully minded to forgive a sinful Woman, 
John 8.6.  'twas the dry Earth he wrote upon; he quickly found the tractableness of that, he stooped down, 
V 8.  and wrote on the GROUND again, but he never graced the unstable waters, (which David hath branded with that comparison, that they reel to and fro, 
Ps. 107.20  and stagger like a drunken Man) with one word from one of his Fingers; and in the whole Gospel, we read but of one Man that had the Dropsy, when he was before our Saviour, as the Object of his compassionate cure, he does not presently heal him, but Questions first, and disputes the Case, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is it possible, or, if it be possible, 
Luke 14.3  Is it lawful to do it.  
63. Fear, I told you, sends the Atheist to the Sign-Priest; 
Ps. 10.4.  He goes not thither because God is not in all his thoughts, but that God may not be in any of them; the fear of the superstitious Heathen, that scrupled at every thing, Fecit Deos, This it was, that made Gods for him; if he feared a Disease, he would worship even that, that that might not afflict him; rather than have no God at all, the Ambulatory Gout should be one God, and the Sedentary stone another, and the sudden fear, the mind-startles, the Soul-Agues of profane Atheist, do themselves prove the true God to be; How can such a desperate irreligious Man fear, but at the apprehensions of an eternal, and implacable, and irresistible power of him, who though he is a Galilaean, is a Conqueror too, 
Vicisti Galilac. Julian.  whom his Irreligion does Offend, and Desperateness Provoke, and Imbecility Arm? and how can such a Desperately Irreligious Man, such a Vaunting Worm, Apprehend a God at any time, but that he cannot tell how to tear the Impression of that Deity out of his Soul, which will be acknowledged by the very Heart of the most Resolved Gainsayer? He may wash, as long as he will, in Abana and Pharphar, 
2 King. 5.12.  Rivers of Damascus (for the Rivers of Israel, the Waters of Jordan, are not for his turn) and sooner wash his Soul out of his Body, than such a Sculpture as that, out of his Soul.  
64. That he does fear so, and that because of his Sin, because of this gigantine, and mountainous Sin of his, which involves within it, and is made up of all other and lesser Sins (as, when you break into its several pieces those Giants scaling Fabric. you may say, This is Pelion, and that Ossa, and then, break one of these, you may discover a World of little Hillocks) that he is afraid of that God, in the Night, and Alone (a Tumult, and Throng, being the Scene of his Mirth, and solitude of another Tumult and Throng of Disquietness within himself) whom he defies in the Day, and in the Face of the whole World, of the Sun and of Men, I stand not in need of the Testimony of Minutius Felix, Per Quietem, Deos Agnoscimus, quos Impiè, per Diem Negamus; I require not the witness-bearing of that Man, who, to avenge the Cause of his God, hath tried him in the Dark, with a hollow and terrifying Voice, till he hath Confessed that very Un-known Man, to be his Un-known God; I ask him not to satisfy Me, but I leave him to decide this Question within his own Soul, to answer himself, when he is alone, and, in the Emblem of his Future Hell, wrapped about with a Thick 
* Naturalis Tenebrarum metus, in quas addactura Mors creditur, sed cum persuaseris Ista Fabulas esse, subit Altus Metus; aequè enim Timent, ne apud Inferos sint, quam an Nusquam. Senec. Ep. 72.  Darkness; Let him then hear the Roef crack, like the Gnashing of the Teeth there; let him see the Flakes of Lightning ready to scorch out his Eyes, and to Anticipate to him the Blindness there; Let him hear the Winds, and the Rain, the Hail, and the Thunder roar, like the Howling and Weeping, Storm and Tempest, Fire and Brimstone there; Let him then ask himself, Is there not, now, a God, which Builds up, 
Job 38.35.  and Pulls down? Is it not a God, that sends Lightnings, and makes them Go? Canst thou do this? and make them say unto thee, Here we are? nay, Canst thou Un-do this? and make them say unto thee, Here we will be no more? Is it not a God, that Bringeth the Winds out of his Treasuries? 
Ps. 135.7.  or canst thou, when they are ready to whirl thee away, send them back thither? Hath the Rain a Father? and is not God he? or who hath Begotten the Drops of the Dew besides the Lord? 
Job 38.28.  The Rain is the Dutiful Child of God; he hath commanded it, and it does assault thee; Canst thou command it back, that it should leave off to storm thy Room? to shatter thy Windows? to shake and Astonish thy very Soul? Is it any Less than the Lord God, can say, And ye, O great Hailstones, 
Exek. 13. 1●.  shall fall? Or, art thou more Lofty, and God-denying, than Pharaoh was, 
Exod. 9.28.  who entreated Moses and Aaron to entreat the Lord, that there might be no more mighty Hail? 
* Credidimus Jovem Regnare. Hor. — Coelo Tonante— Will not the rattling Thunder that tears the Skies, rip open thy Breast, and tear this Confession out of it, as it did out of thy Fellow-Heathens, that there is a God which reigns in Heaven? and art thou not afraid of these Tokens of the Lord, when he thus visiteth the Earth? 
Ps. 65.8, 9  Tell all, or any of these, that there is No God; tell them, if thou dare, that they are not sent upon God's Errand to thee, to make thee Confess it is God that sent them; nay, tell thyself, if thou dare, so much as in thy most recluse and undiscoverable thought, that these Insensible Ministers of God do not powerfully, and beyond the resisted efficacy of his own Verbal Ordinance, preach the Divinity itself unto thee; Hold out, now, at this Battery, if thou canst; and, if thou canst not, be faithful to thy own Soul, and inform thy next gainsaying self, how much thou wast, now, even now, taught the Fear of the Lord? how little thou didst dare to deny God now, lest his last Executioner, the Devil himself, should immediately appear, and prove him to thee by an Argument as everlasting as the Active and Passive Torment of the Devil himself, as un-deniable, as it is, now, wretchedly un-deniable, that thou didst, before, deny God, in Tongue, and in Hand, in Profane Voice, and in Godless Life.  
66. Dost thou not, now, begin to feel that Principle which thou hadst hitherto enslaved, to stir and fetch about, to breath and gasp for Life, that there Is a God? 
Ps. 145.9. Joh. 1.3.  a God that is Good to all? a God that made all things? and a God that hateth nothing which he hath made? Dost thou not, now, confess him? and confess him to have been good to thee, in sparing such an Enemy so long, that he might reconcile thee? to have been good to thee, whom he might justly hate, in that thou hadst un-made thyself from all that, which God had made thee? in that thou wert a Rebel, instead of a Creature; and a Foe, instead of a Child; and a Bastard, instead of a Son? Is not he, now, all the Desire and Hope thou hast, who, but a little before, was Nothing at all? As soon as thou beginnest to know him, though thou tremblest at thy former Denial, and with Peter, 
Mat. 26.75  weep'st bitterly, 
* Esto, ego Flagitiosus sum, saltem mecum age paenitentiam. Hieron. Lib. 2. Ep. 3.  Agens Paenitentians with him, with whom thou hadst been Flagitiosus, dost thou not admire the inexpressibleness of his Mercy? thou hast derided him, in his Minister; thou hast mocked him in his other Servants, and in his own Service; thou hast vilifyed him, in forbearing his House; and vilifyed him more, in despising him, in setting light by him in his very House, as if thou thyself wert all the God that wert present there; and what greater Indignity can be offered to the Divine Majesty? what Sin can be imagined more than this? couldst thou imagine it, thou wouldst surely act it too; and yet, how hath God contrived it, (and what but a God could contrive this?) that there should yet be probational hopes of Mercy to such a Hellish Sinner? and that Mercy itself should be Argument and Conviction for itself? Past Mercy, for Future Mercy? To bring thee down upon the knees of thy Soul, to humble thee at his Footstool, and to make thy universal, absolute, entire submission and prostration, acceptable in his sight, and comfortable in thy own, at the same instant, when he sets before thy Eyes so much horror of Iniquity, that thy Eyes loath to see it, and the very Order, in which they are set, does confound thee the more; He sets before thy Eyes too, so much Miracle of Mercy, that thy Eyes are dazzled with it, that, notwithstanding all that horror of Sin, he hath hitherto Reprieved thee; Confess, and adore, and reverence him now, with Person, and Life, and Livelihood, with Soul, and Body, and Estate, and will he not do more, and more spiritual good, for Confessing, and Adoring, and Reverencing— thou, who hath already done so much good, in so marvellous a forbearance, to thee that denyd'st, and scornedst, and revil'dst thy God? thou hadst begun to neglect him, and he connived at that; thou went'st on, to despise him, and he still held his peace; thou wert perfect in sin, and didst even abjure him, and then he held out his Bow in the Sky, but there was no Arrow in it, nay his very Bow was a Testimony of his Love— Ponam Arcum was the Word of a God at Peace with Man; 
Gen. 9.13.  do but begin to serve, and love, and fear him, and see if some good Gabriel does not tell thee, that at the Beginning of thy Conversion, 
Dan. 9.23.  and Supplication, the Commandment went forth, and that he is sent to show thee that thou art Greatly Beloved, to Encourage thy Better Beginning, to Reward thy Wiser Progress, and to Crown thy Holier Perfection.  
66. Let me here confess and deplore the sins, the their sins of Priest and People throughout this Nation, in imitation of That Daniel's Piety, to whom This Message was sent, whiles he was confessing his sin, V 20 and the sin of his People Israel. Let me pursue and magnify the Mercy of God, notwithstanding our unrelented perverseness, and multiplied provocations, Day by Day; and, O, let that Mercy be, what God designs it should be, an Invitatory Means to recall us from our Obstinacy and Customariness in sin; & let who will call this Extravagancy and Digression, it matters not, I am sure his (for he confesses himself soar, and guilty, in that he is so unwilling to be touched) and mine, and all our digressions, and Extravagancies, compel me to it.  
67. What sins are there, that are not our sins? and yet for all that, what Mercies are there to the Nations round about us, which we do not partake of? are not we only a Sodom, and an Egypt here, whilst there is somewhat More, though not Enough, of Goshen and Israel, upon our Right and Left Hand? and yet, have we not still the Light of Goshen, though thrust under a Bushel, as if we, either were, or, if we would, might be, the very Israel of God? What though we are not professed Atheists? are we not practical Atheists neither? do we not all of us do as they do? Drink a Health to the Devil (though we do not Compliment him so much as to say we do it) when in overmuch and useless favour, to the Health of Another, and Another Man, we 
* In Potâ est nulla Salute Salus. Ovid. Nulla, new Stomachi, new Mentu.  drink away our own Health, both of House and Guest, Tabernacle and Inmate, Body and Soul? where is there more Surfeiting and Drunkenness? a Man need not cross the Seas, and hazard his Life that way, to become a Bad Goodfellow, he may be Pleasantly-Mad at home, the Canaries, the Whites and Reds will cross the Seas for his sake, and, without the Expense of a Voyage, drown him upon the Shore; And is not this, to deny that God, which is All Spirit, whilst we make our own Flesh, and the noysomest part of it (that which is itself One Draught-house, and fills Another) our Belly our God? 
Phil. 3.19.  Where is there more Swearing? He is not Gentleman enough, who, though he lowers upon his Tenants, and Charge below him, those under his Roof, and under his Command, does not lower upwards too, and against Heaven itself, and, this very way, challenged Obeisance from men, in that he is to Great, as not to have a very God above him; and does not his Retinue begin to be Rude with God, and to count it a piece of Civility and Service, to swear a Little, because he, that pays them wages, does Much, to whom yet they yield a Prerogative in some great Oath, and will no more dare to meddle with that, than with the Meat upon his Trencher? and is not this to Deny God? do we not, when we take his Name in Vain, make himself also to be a Vain, a No-God? Wh●re is there less of Marriage, and more of Uncleanness? and is not this, to Deny God, whilst God himself, when he would declare his Detestation of this sin, calls the Forsaking of God by this Name? He does so, in the Mouth of David, 
78.27.  They go a Whoring from thee; he does so in his own Mouth too, 
Hos. 4.12.  My People ask Counsel at their Stocks— for— the Spirit of Whoredom hath caused them to err, and they have gone a Whoring from ●●nder their God; Where is there more Covetousness? how many, at this day, sit under Vines, not of their own, and under Figtrees, of other Men, whilst the Owners of them sit sub Dio, and rest their Cold Heads upon Jacob's Pillows of stone? and does not the Covetous Man Deny God by Distrusting his Providence? does he not worship another, and not the true God? St. Paul says, he does, when he tells him he is an Idolater; 
Col. 3.5.  and the True God himself tells him, who it is he Does worship, and who it is he Can Not worship; 'tis his own Mammon which he Loves and Holds to, and therefore He cannot Love, but 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Epictet. c. 18.  Hate, he cannot Hold to, but Despise his Disowned God; Let him not Deceive himself, (for, his Undeceiving God he cannot Deceive, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Plato, in Fine 2. Polit.) to think Christ will be God in the Breast, when Silver is God in the Bag? was it so with Judas think ye? it was not, it cannot be, Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. 
Mat. 6.24.  Where is there more Un-blushing Theft, when one Takes, and will not humble himself to Borrow? Another Borrows, and will not honest himself to Pay? unless it be with a Text of our Saviour's, and a Gloss of his own— Lend, 
Luk. 6.35.  Hoping for Nothing again? when a third would take pains, and pay, and is himself more put by from Emolumental Labour, than another preferred to it? when one Parent would withhold his Child, and cannot, and another Parent breeds up the Child to it, makes it the Child's Trade, and Occupation, and Apprenticeship, and the Parents Livelihood, and Meat, and Income, to Steal? when the Tradesman sells his Ware at an Over-price, and his Soul, and his God, at an Under? when some of the People will sooner take away two Coats, than give one? 
Luk. 3.11.  when some of the Publicans will rather exact more than is Appointed them, 
V 13.  than Mitigate the Taxes? when some of the Soldiers will be readier to do Violence, than to be Content with their Wages? 
V 14.  when some of the Divines will be more Vehement to Preach away Tithes from their Brethren-Divines, than to Preach Salvation, and Baptism, and Eucharist, to their Flock? Some of all sorts do Steal, either with an Oppressing Tongue, or with an Envious Eye, with a Ravening Hand, or a Devouring Heart, and some of all sorts, do give, either an Alms, or a Pity; and though these do, in their Bounty, worship their God (for, Right Charity is a Service of his; 'twas known so to be in Warmer Days— Knowing, 
Q. Elizabeth's Injunct. 25.  that to Relieve the Poor, is a True Worshipping of God— Alms, and Devorion of the People— their very Alms were part of their Devotion, and with such Sacrifices, 
Heb. 13.16  God is well pleased) yet, do not those Others, by their several kinds of Theft, Deny God? this Sin is in the Head of those, against all which God himself in this manner complains— Will ye steal?— and walk after other Gods, 
Jer. 7. v. 9, 10, 11.  whom ye know not? and yet come and stand before me, in this House, which is called by my Name? Is the House, which is called by my Name, become a Den of Robbers in your Eves? Where is there more of Bloodshed, when some Fields in London, after Night has spread her Curtains over them, cannot be walked through, safe and dry, notwithstanding the Law dwells at the next Door to them? and the Highways to it are sprinkled Redder with Blood, than with Sand? and is not this to Deny God, whose very Image they cannot endure to see alive?  
68 These Things are so; and though so they are, what Blessings are we to seek for, besides the Blessings of Holiness and Obedience? of Peace and Love? we are Blessed in our Basket and in our Store (though myself have so Little Store, that I have scarce a Basket to put it in, and am almost in the Condition of those, whom our Saviour sent abroad, 
Mat. 10.10 V. 9 Eph. 4.25.  Without Scrip, as well as without Gold, and Silver, and Brass, yet, in that we are Members One of Another, I put myself into the Number, because I see others, of whom myself, in a Spiritual Alliance, am part, to be Rich, and Full, though they reign as Kings without me) as Blessed, as if we had done all that to which Performances these Blessings are promised, 
Deut. 28.1.  Harkened diligently to the voice of the Lord, to Observe and Do All His Commandments; And, Therefore are we thus Blessed Temporally, that, by these we might be wrought upon, to hearken to the voice of the Lord our God in All things, and by that, be blessed Eternally.  
69. But, if any of those several sinners (all of whom I ●●rive to reclaim as well as that Atheist, who himself is all of them) who shall read how heinous and Atheistick their sins are, would forsake them, because of— I cannot say more then— the Ungodliness of them, and yet fear they can not forsake them, God will not forgive them, because they are so estranged from God, by them; not to tell any such, that Niniveh (as sinful as the most sinful of those, who will stoop to read this) did repent at the first voice of Jonah, I shall conclude this (which by this time, is digression enough) with setting before them the Great Mercies of God against the sim of Paul, and Gods recovering him out of those sins, into which he was plunged all over; but the ears of him, which, by hearing Christ's voice, taught the whole man to worship Him. 
Act. 9.1. — When Saul was yet Breathing out threaten & slaughtters against the Disciples of the Lord,  
We have amongst us, too many of those evil qualities which S. Paul feared to be amongst his Corinth: 
2.12, 20.  Debates, Envyings, Wraths, Strifes, Backbitings, Whispers, Swell, Tumults, Slaughter,— but, God be thanked, None of these are intended against the Disciples of the Lord, at least not Quatenus Ipsum, As they are the Disciples of the Lord, not Therefore and because of that very Reason, but rather, because, Though they are so, they are either suspected not to be so, or, if they are suspicion-proofe, for some Temporal & Collateral reason, which, either the Religion of That Man does not allow, or else the Man of That Religion does Thwart; this, though it be an Atheism, is not a direct and an Irrecoverable one; for, sure it is a much easier task, to persuade This Man to be content with His Estate, and to serve God with that little He hath, to persuade ●hat Man to lay dow the vain The ●hts of Honour, and to esteem the True Worship of His God, to be the Best, Greatest, and most Durable Honour, then to assail, and Unwind Him, who strikes the First Blow against God Himself, and wounds Him, not as Ignorant Saul did, through the sides of His Saints, but through the very substance of Himself; And yet, let me tell every Threatening soul amongst us, that, whether They whom He Threatens, Are, or are Not Disciples of Christ, Himself, who does thus Debate, and Envy, who is thus Wrathful, and Strisefull, who does thus Backbite and Whisper, who is thus swelling and tumultuous, during these pestilent and outrageous Humours, 
Matth. 11.29. Is. 9.6. 2 Cor. 12.11. 1 John 4.16.  is no Disciple at all of the Meek Jesus, the lowly in Heart Jesus, the Prince of Peace Jesus, the God of Love Jesus, and the God Jesus, who is love itself;— When Saul desired Letters— (Authority and Commission from the Heathen and Unchristian states) that if he found Any— (He had made them to hid themselves for fear of his further persecutions, that it was difficult even for Him, who was perniciously zealous in the Cruel Inquest, and for all those Promoters he would employ in the service of the Unbaptized State, to Find them out)— of this Way (professing Christ and his unacceptable Truth)— Whether they were Men or Women— (He would neither show Mercy to his Fellow Men, nor compassion to that weaker Sex, which is unable to Bear, to that Tender Sex, which is apt to Compassionate)— He might bring them bound— (they must be brought, for he would so Bind them, that they could not Come)— to Jerusalem, 
Verse 2. — However we persecute One Another, the most of us do it but in a private Malice; we seek not to Unchristian, unbaptize the State (and, O! may none of us ever seek to do it!) by engaging the Power of That, to be as malicious as ourselves; we do but Threaten, and (what ever in past years we have done) we Wound not Men, we do but slander, we Bind nor women; and yet, do we These? and am I not too Courtly to say we do— But these? And yet, in the very Act and Fury of doing All These, in the very care and Industry (Toiling himself, that he might be Toilsome to Others) when he Journeyed to execute All These, Verse 3 yet, for all this, and the presentness and impetuousness of All this, does Christ Call Saul, and Convert Saul, Blind him, and Cast him down, 
From ver. 4. to ver. 31.  Recover him, and Lift him up, make him Confess Christ, and preach Christ, and protect him for doing This against the hate of Men, who laid wait for him, because he did This.  
O Lord, our God, we are as great Objects of Thy wonderful Mercy, as Saul was, Pardon us, enlighten us, Strengthen us, that we who have lived the Life of Saul against Thee, may live and die, the life and death of Paul for thee, to the honour of that Name of Thine which we have hitherto caused to be evil spoken of among all the People.  
70. As there is sin in every Man, and that sin is a disobedience to the Commands of God in His Jus Naturale as well as in His Jus Positivum, so that the very waywardness of Man, does Prove that God who is the Lawgiver; 
Jam. 4.12.  As there is in Man Power to Discriminate, and Distinguish, sinful, and evil, and unjust, from Holy, and Good, and Righteous, so that this Innate Faculty of separating the One from the Other, of Discerning betwixt Light and Darkness, betwixt Foul and Upright, by reason of which Horace does highly compliment Him, and from the very Foundation and first 
† Aristotle in Ethic. says, Man cannot be Praised for any thing but virtue, because strength, and beauty, etc. Natural perfections, are not, as This, in his own power; and he has no Power to this, but by his discerning faculty.  Principle of Praise, of whom He says— Qui Turpi secernis Honestum, Is, and is used by some for an Argument of the Deity; As This sin, which Man is Guilty of, and which Man Knows Himself to be Guilty of, does hinder Him from That great and Last happiness, which he naturally desires, and which he Naturally Desires of God, so it is God only, which can give to Man that Final, that uninterrupted, that eternal happiness; which happiness, as Man cannot Understand, as well as not Enjoy, without the gift of God, so, because the Scriptures do Teach both these, both what that Blessedness Is, so far forth as the shallowness of the Prosoundest Man is able to Conceive and how Man may attain to this Throughout-unconceivable Blessedness, and nothing else, but Scripture does teach both these. Let this itself be one Argument whereby to prove to the Hitherto doubting man that God Himself Is, not only in Himself, but is too the Author of those very Scriptures.  
71. That 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Aristot. Ethic. l. 1. c. 1.  happiness, the greatest, the chiefest, beyond which there is nothing more, not only to be possessed, but to be Imagined (for, the greatest, the chiefest happiness is much More than so) is the Desire of All those, who have so much of Man, as to be capable of a Desire, is Confessed by All; Ask the very Atheist, who Denys God, if He would not This? and, how much soever He Robs God, not only of his honour, his Bene esse, but of his Esse too, He will not be so ungrateful to the Calls and yearning of his own Appetite, to say that this is not the Desire of his Heart and Soul, to be as Happy as the Nature of Man is Capable to be; And then take Advantage of This Partial, and interested, and self-Concession, and ask Him, if He be not willing, for that very Happiness sake, to grant such a God, who may Grant Him This.  
72. But then, though happiness be the Desire of all, even mere Natural Men, yet, 
Varro, in Philosophia, apud August. de Ci. Dei l. 19 c. 1.  since those Natural Men are so Divided amongst themselves, that they know not, by what Qualities to Describe it, or by what Name to call it (who, amongst the two hundred threescore and eight several Opinions Concerning it, and Names of it, have not hit upon the Right) and are so far from Defining it (and indeed, it is One part of the Christian Man's Happiness that He cannot define it, unless, as many Philosophers do the soul of man, Negatively, not only because it is More than He can Define, but because he knows it so to be) that they cannot so much as give you the right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it; They define it, only Identically, the ignorant result of All, the Ablest of them say Concerning it, is but This, that 
† Praemium, Finemque virtutis, optimum, Divinumque quoddam, atque Beatum esse constat. Arist. Ethic. l. 1. c. 9  Happiness is Happiness— Nothing else, is True, and certain, from them, and therefore such a very Truth, and certainty as This, thus Limited, and Identified, is a part of their ignorance; since amongst the Wise ones of them, One calls that Fortune, which is always Assistant to Good Counsels, happiness; 
Fortuna Consiliorum Bonorum Adjutrix, Felicitas.  Cicero does so; and though He does well, to make Counsels, and Deliberations, and the Goodness of them, to be One Part of Happiness, yet he does Ill, to account of these, as if they were The Happiness of Happynesses, and not the After-Reward of These (even of that earthly Happiness itself) to be It; and He does worse, (to do, as the Poet reprehends the unwiser men to do— Te Facimus, Fortuna, deam) to make Fortune the Goddess, 
Juven.  which succeeds Good Counsels, and Discreet Deliberations; what has such a Fickle thing as she, and Her Updown wheel, to do with the Certitude and Stability of these? She, that has much less of Power, and Jurisdiction, and sovereignty, than the stars? and the 
* Sapiens Dominabitur Astris.  Wise man (such as Cicero was, till he Bowed the knee to Fortune) who, in some sense is well said to Govern them, should govern her much more; or else, Tully himself; as Politic a Statist as he was, as Governing a Head-piece as he had, if That Fortune which is wont to Favour 
† Fortuna Favet Fatuis.  Fools, more than Wise Men, if that Deaf Fortune, whom the most Passionate of his Orations could not so much Inflect and persuade, as the Attentive Multitude, does but look awry & Frown, leaves off to be happy, and a Prosperous Catiline, all whose Counsels are evil, and Deliberations Treasonable, will have as much claim to Happiness as a Defeated Tully, notwithstanding the Sobriety of His Counsels, and Loyalty of His Deliberations, since they do ex aequo divide his definition betwixt them, in that the one Counsels, well, and Fortune Assists the other. Since Another calls That man 
† Bonus qui Rotâ Torquetur, & Malis conflictatur, Felix.  Happy, who Endures the wrack and wheel, and unyieldingly Conflicts with a World of Miseries;— Seneca does so; And he does, in Part, Well, to Call him Happy, whom Adversity and wretchedness does not make Less Good; and in Part, Amiss, for, who will be Encouraged to be Faithful and Perseverant in that Goodness whose only Happiness is, to be Miserably-Good? Quis Virtutem amplectitur Ipsam, Praemia si tollas? if you take away the Future Reward, who will Court a Penurious Virtue? nay, if, instead of the Reward, you give Him Sisiphus' stone, and Ixtons' wheel, who will Court an Ingrateful, an Undoing, a Plaguing Virtue? Since Another calls Pleasure happiness; Epicurus did so; and Xerxes 
† Xerxes, Rex Persarum, Nova Voluptatis Repertori praemium Constituit. Nihil aliud putans esse vitam nisi vescendi & Potandi Licentiam, Firmicus de err. part. Relig.  did so; and the first did, in part, Well, if you Apply to That Word. His sober and Inward sense, if you do, as Seneca would have you do, Propiùs Introspicere, and Confine it to a Mental Gust; if you suffer not the Curiosity of the Palate, and the Insatiableness of the 
† Machometus credidit Beatudinem consistere, in cibo, potu, & delectationibus corporatibus. Joannes Galensis Anglus. l. de Orig. Mach. c. 5.  Belly to be the Seat, and Determinatour of that Pleasure, and thereby, make not the Word, which was more Innocent; and Refined, and subtle, in his purpose, obnoxious to the Misconstruction of him, who wished that he had a Crane's Neck, that he might be a great while a Feeling and Tasting, the Delicacy, and sapidness of His Old wines, and Sybaritique Feasts; for certainly, Xerxes the Persian King, did much mis-understand Epicurus, and the Choiceness, and Intimacy of His Delectation, when he constituted a Reward to him, who should so much vex and trouble himself, even with pleasure, as to take pains to Invent a New one; And yet when you have purged, and stilled and Fined this delight from all its drossiness, Is This Delight itself the Happiness? what then will become of that Good Man who has this Trial put upon his Goodness, to have the Present joy and contentment withheld, and separated from it? must he then, leave off to be Good? & seek out happiness in Another, more Rosy, and less Thorny Road? Since a fourth defines 
† Regnum res est inter Deos Hominesque pulcherrima.  Happiness to Consist in honour, and power, sovereignty, and principability; Livy does so; But than is none happy without that 
† Omnis saec●li, Honour, Diabolo est negotium. Hilarii, can. 3. in Matt.  honour, which is the Traffic and Merchandise of the Devil? and is it in the power of that Satan, who offered the Kingdoms of this world, and all the Glories of them, to that Christ, whose they always were, though without a Contract, and unbargained for, to make a Blessed Man? Is none happy, unless he be a King? None indeed, no not one; but then He must be Rex sui, Himself, and His Passions (and, amongst the roast, this itself, by which he desires to Reign) all the People over whom he Reigns; Is any Other Rule, the only Heaven? and the way to that (Per Fas, per Nefas) the only way to Happiness? Few indeed there are that find this straight Gate, 
Matth. 7.14.  that walk in this Narrow way; nor was it the Well-taught Judgement, but the ungoverned Ambition of Caesar, who said, he would rather be the First at a siege, than the second at Rome; it savours, sure, of more Natural and Rational, aswell as Christian and Gospel Divinity, to desire to be the Least in the Kingdom of Heaven, 
Matth. 11.11.  rather than the greatest in any Kingdom upon earth; if it be so, that it must be, aut Caesar, aut Nullus, how Many of the Nones will there be? if it be so, that it must be-. Only a Prince is happy, into how close a Room is Felicity Penned? how does it Thwart, and Contradict, imprison, and even enslave its own self, in that it is become thus un-diffusive, and incommunicable? and is, Therefore, neither good, nor happy? for, what is Good is Sui Diffusivum, the more Good, the further it reaches, as the Bright and Apparent Sun, is a greater blessing, than when That Sun wears a cloud upon his Face, and goes to Bed in darkness, Hid from our eyes; and what is Happy, is so far from being like a Crown, that it is, Impatiens Non-Consortis, the less happy, 
Lucan. Erasm. in Mor. Encom.  the less others are happy with it; Nulla boni viri (and none, but the Good Man, is the Blessed Man) Jucunda Possessio sine socio. Since therefore a fift makes Wisdom to be This happiness, and the Wise Man This King; 
† Sapiens, uno Minor est Jove, Dives, Liber, Honoratus, pulcher, Rex denique Regum  Horace. does so; and he does well in doing so, had he Rightly known what the True Wisdom is; but, by reason of This Error, He makes That, which he calls happiness, to be Nothing at all, because the Wisest of mere Natururall men, 
Hoc tantum scio me nihil scire.  has so much of Socrates in him, to know, and understand, and Confess, † This is All his wisdom to Arrogate to himself None of this; he has much of Wisdom, but he is Wise enough to apprehend, that there is much more of Wisdom which he cannot comprehend, and therefore, he will not endure to be denominated Wise 
† Omnis denominatie sumiturà Majori.  from the lesser part; he knows much, but, that much is little to what he knows not; He Rules himself well, by that Talon, and Portion of Wisdom which he has, but he does More Misrule himself for want of More of that Wisdom; Since a sixth does define Happiness to Consist in Operation, in Welldoing. Aristotle, in One place, does so; in the Contentment, and satisfaction, and Delight, which follows that Operation, that Welldoing; Aristotle, in another place, does so; But, since happiness, cannot be without a Rest from Labours, for, a Toilsome happiness who can away with? since that delight does not always follow Welldoing here, or, if it does, since That is not the Supreme happiness; From the uncertainty in all These, the wisest of Natural men, what Happiness is; from the certainty in all these, and in all mankind besides, that happiness is, and is to be desired, Let the Natural Man, upon this very ground, search the Scriptures to find that happiness.  
73. Happiness is, in very deed, the desire of all; and yet, it cannot behad upon this earth, if it could, a King, who has the most command of this Earth, is most like to have had it; And yet, that such a one, a very King, who was a mere natural Man, could not have it here, but in Heaven, nor there neither, but in his 
† Summum Bonum Animorum est, Deo Frui. Trismegist. Pimand. Dial. 1.  God and the God of Heaven; for, story has told us, that, when Egyptian Priests told any of their Egyptian Kings, his God would have him leave his Kingdom, and come to him, he presently, and cheerfully, Killed himself, as he thought, up to Happiness, and God and Heaven.  
74. Since all the writing of Heathens will not help us to it, though severally they agree in telling us, that there is such a thing, and yet, severally contradict each other in what that things is, let me go on, as I long since promised, to the honour of God, and his Scriptures, to propose the Scriptures of God, by a Natural reason, even to him, who is, yet, but a Natural Man, out of which he may truly learn, what that happiness is, and how he may reach up to, and be involved in that true happiness.  
75. 
Nemo Malus, Felix. Juven.  Certainly, it is not for nothing, that Man knows, his Sin, if unremedyed, will unhappy; it is, sure, to a good end this; and more, certainly, Man does not desire a vain and impossible thing, when he would be happy; for, † Nature has given an appetite to nothing, 
Sat. 4. Natura nihil Frustra.  but the God of nature has provided something to fill up that appetite; Let me therefore propose to a modest scrutiny, and sober examination, such inquiries as these.  
76. Is it not of necessity, of the very essence of God, that the same God, who is a just God, should be a merciful God too? Is it not exceeding probable, 
Psal. 5.21.  that, as the Justice of God does set our sins in order before our eyes, and, thereby, Naturally make us to fear that punishment, which belongs, and is due, to the disorderliness of our sin, so the mercy of God would set in order before our eyes too, some infallible method of reclaiming us from that sin, and Endow us with a holiness contrary to that sin, and instate us in a happiness contrary to the punishment of that sin? What would better prescribe this holiness, and hold forth this happiness, than the written Law of our teaching God, and the written promises of our gracious God? since, if there were no directing Law, we could not learn to be holy, if there were no encouraging Promises, we could not claim to be happy, and, if neither of them were written, by the corruption of man, and the deceiveableness of Tradition, they might both of them be changed, and interposed, and expurged, till they agree with the humour and wilfulness, and exchequer of man, who, instead of the established universal Religion of God, might obtrude upon us the mutable Doctrines of a Sect and party.  
If it be probable, that such a Law be written (and, upon so indubitate a ground, as to have the choicest attribute of God, that, which God most loves, and man most loves, his very mercy, to attest the Probability of it) that such a Law is written, and we find it not in all the volumes, the most Apophthegmatical discourses of the wisest, the most learned, and most devout of Heathens, whose Books are as dark to any such purpose, as the Ink they wrote with, or the Black Ball we Print with; and if there be such a Book of Books (not only in that, That one Book is made up of several Books, but in that, All the Books in the world together are not comparable to that one-several, that one-every Book) whose design it is, to instruct us in such a Piety, and to Crown us with such a Reward, Is it not highly worth the while to turn over that Book? that we may be sincerely and solidly Religious by it, and truly and eternally blessed by the Author of it? and what Book has such contents in it? can do all this? besides that, which we call the Scripture?  
77. Bring hither, into a comparison, I say not all the choicest writings, of all those, who were the holiest, and hope-fullest of Men, in a Natural Religion (for such a low comparison would be a scandal to this Holy word; and, indeed, any, though less unmannerly, and more approaching comparison, would be so too; but, the Nature of this present discourse does make it somewhat tolerable, if not require it) but bring hither the Extractions of all their holinesses, and hopes, amass into one Treatise, only the Excellencies and Quintessence of all, that all have said, as to an integrity, Here, and a Heaven hereafter, and see, if they are not, all, those halt, and blind, and maimed Religions, which only this Jesus, whom we Preach, è suggesto, and è Praelo, can heal! and that, as he made the world, with a word only, with this very word of God, which we call upon you, to search, and to ask Counsel of! See, how the Gospel of Jesus Christ is, throughout, clean and sanctify'd! 
1 Tim. 5.23.  how, though it allows Wine for the Stomach sake, yet it charges a sobriety, even in Wine too! 
Prov. 23.31.  Look not thou upon the Wine, when it is red— lest it make thee look as red as it when it giveth its colour in the Cup— lest it make thee give thine in thy Face,— when it moveth itself aright— lest it and make thee move wrong, and untowardly, and reelingly, thy Legs carry thee whither thou wouldst not; 
John 21.18.  and it tells you what a mocker it is, and that he that is deceived thereby is not wise, 
Prov. 20.1.  no not Seneca's self, though he says it sparingly, and with an Aliquando— Bibendum est ad ebrietatem usque— no Aliquando at all here, unless such a time, which is neither Day, nor Night, nor a dubious mixture, and instantaneous compound of both; find out such a time, and sin thou mayst, Gospel itself, and the God of it, will not be angry; but, till then, (i. e. for ever) cease from sin; See, how there is nothing, here (as in all other the most pious writings, which are not founded upon this) to be read and heard, cum veniâ & favore! not only a Cato may, without a blush, but a Saint in Heaven does, with an unspotted reverence, look upon these mysteries! how there is much of it consonant to right reason! for otherwise, man could not apprehend it much of it (for, if we stay there; Possibly Man might have compiled it) above the quickest, most exact reason, of the sharpest most piercing Man! and yet (for otherwise, it were not God neither, that made it) nothing at all contrarient to reason! What other Book is there, can tell us, how God without a violation of his Justice against the sins of Man, can, yet, mercifully save sinful, because penitent, Man? No way, was ever yet heard of, besides this way, which could rationally deliver Man from the one Thraldom and captivity of his sin, and the other Thraldom and Captivity of Hell, into which his sin would hurl him; No way, but this, can lead him into that happiness, of which, his sin ought to defraud him; other Books can tell you, that there is a Styx and a Charon, and a Rhadamant; that there are Virgins Furiae, which are uncapable to be vitiated and corrupted with any Bribes; and they tell you true; and they charge you to believe that they tell you true,— Tu vera Puta; but, no Book, besides this, (unless it borrows its Narrative Traditionally from this, and makes it somewhat the worse, because the less plain, for wearing) can, by an infiniteness of the mercy of God, and an assent of the reason of man, 
1 Pet. 5.8. Rom. 5.5.  tell you, of one roaring Lion ready to devour you, and, of another Lion, that of the tribe of Judah, which can challenge you (you who resist not, (for, though the Debt be paid, if a wilful Man, that is in Love with bonds, reject and tear the acquittance, He must pay it again, to the utmost Farthing) you, who take hold by the hand of Faith, of what he hath done for you) as his lawful purchase; which can, and will, deliver you from the Jaws of that Lion, and make him roar again, because the prey has escaped from betwixt his teeth; which can rescue you from the Conveyance of that Charon, and the judgement of that Rhadamant, and the torture of that Styx, and preserve you from the loss of your blood, by the inestimable price of his incorruptible own; O, that all those Heathen- (far abroad, 
Ps. 2.8.  in the uttermost parts of the earth, and at home, and amongst us too of this Natron, which calls upon his Name, and is called by it- which God hath given to this JESUS (who is the Author, and subject of the Book)- for his inheritance (which he was Born to, and had not at all been Born in this world, but for that inheritance sake)- for his possession (which he hath bought with the voluntary laying down of that Life, 
John 10.18.  and powerful taking it again, to which he was Born from the womb, and Reborn, from the Grave) O, that all those Heathens (the professed ones, beyond Christendom, and the secret ones, 
Acts 17.11.  in the Bowels of it) would do as the Bereans did (who are honoured with the stile of Noble for doing it) Diligently and Daily search the Scriptures (the Evangelical Scriptures) whether these things are so!  
77. And I may be excused, even amongst such People as we are, to Honour and Defend the Authority of holy Scriptures, even by such an Argument as this, because of the more than Exact, and Supereminent Holiness of them, 
L. de Veritate Rel. Christ.  in that, not only the Learned and Indefatigable Grotius hath used the like Argument against the Heathens, but the Conscientious Balduin too hath done the same, 
Casus Conscientiae.  whereby to Confirm the Faith, and Settle the Consciences, even of Christians themselves, who might, Possibly, Scruple at the Authority of holy Writ.  
78. Excuse me therefore, my Brethren of the Christian Confession, and give me leave to go on, since such a Method as this, as it may be Instrumental to the Begetting of Faith in him, who, as yet, disbelieves that Book to be the Work, as well as the Gift of God, so it cannot choose but re-mind you, and cherish, and encourage that Faith which you already have, and stir up, and awaken that Love, and Honour, and Reverence, both to God, and the Word of God, which your Hearts bear to Both, when you consider, that by the Style and Method, the Manner, and Matter of it, it can be no less than God, that spoke and made it.  
79. Nay, hath not God himself given way to such a manner of Arguing as this, when (as, Christ, the Son, abridges the Gospel into two Commandments, so God, his Father, 
Mat. 22.40.  Contracts the Law, into a Command, and a Promise, upon Obedience to it, and a Threat, upon Rebelling against it, 
Isa. 1.18.  and makes his Entrance upon it with such a Preface— Come now, and let us reason together— and as an Inference out of the whole— For the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Which intimates to us, 
V 20.  that, as we must Believe, because God hath said it, so, we may Argue, and Reason, that God hath said it, because, what is Delivered there, is above the Power and Capacity of any Creature. I shall for a little while Respite the Promises & Threats of Scripture, which is Isaiah's Argument, that Scripture is the Word of God, because, in right order, I ought to begin with the beginning, and to consider, first, the Style and Method of God, from the very first Word, and so on, throughout his Book.  
80. The Style and Method in which the Word of God gins, does continue to the end; it speaks, as from One having Authority, 
Mat. 7.29.  and not as the Humane Scribes, and Writers, whose occasional sudden Voice, and Considerate, Purposing Pen too, are subject to Error; In the Doctrines of Man, the Method is, to Prove, unless it be only in Re Factâ, that he, who speaks, brings his Eyes with him, as the Witnesses which saw such a thing done; In all else, it is his Reason which sways us, and works upon our Belief, and not his Name; But in holy Scriptures the Case is altered; Moses, in the beginning of them, does only say, that, In the Beginning, 
Gen. 1.1.  God created the Heavens and the Earth: He does not Prove God, nor, that Great Work of God, the Creation; and, in this, the Authority of Moses, nay, of All Mankind, nay, of the very First of them All, is altogether Invalid, and Un-concluding; and, that one Exception, of being an Eye-witness, is, in this case, wholly taken off: For, though the Invisible things of God are clearly seen by the Creation of the World, though Every man may know, 
Rom. 1.20.  by Every thing he sees, that there is a God that made it, and there was a time when it was made; yet Moses was no Eye-witness of the making of the World, for himself was made long after, and himself tells us so; neither could he receive, by the Testimony of Man, in what Order the World was made, because Man was the last thing that was made in the World; not only Scripture tells us, he was the last, but Reason itself tells us, he could not be the first, his Vbi must have been made before himself could be placed in it. He that wrote that Book, and the whole Pentateuch, does every where discover a great measure of Wisdom in himself, and therefore could not possibly be guilty of so much gross and absurd Folly, to think his own Testimony Valid, when, out of himself there are Irrefragable Reasons against the Validity of his single Testimony, or the Joint Concurrency of the whole Rational Creation; and, therefore too, it cannot be, but that he would have the Eternal Creator, qui nec Fallere potest, nec Falli, to be understood the sole Author, and himself only to have been as the Pen in the Hand of God, whilst God himself was the Ready Writer. 
Psal. 45.1.  In Man, Reason is the Authority, but, in God, Authority is the Reason; and therefore Man proves, and God only says; nay, let me say, that this itself is the most powerful proof that can be either urged, or imagined, that God hath said it; t●e very Method, incommunicable, and un-applicable to Creature does signify, that it is that God which spoke these words, who hath acquainted us, that this is his peculiar Style, 
Psal. 82.6.  Dixi— I have said that ye are Gods, Deputed Gods by me, to stand in my Room, to Distribute my Justice, to Execute my Vengeance, 
1 Tim. 6.15. Psal. 97.9.  who myself am the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords, Exalted far above all Gods, so that we may, not only Pardon, as Hyperbolical, but Approve, as Literally true, that Vehement Expression of Raimundus de Sabunde, Dum Minùs Probat, Magìs Probat; 
In Naturali Theologia.  God does prove all he says, the more, in that he does not Prove at all, but Say, because, did he Prove, it would administer Doubt, that the Words were Man's, who, though perhaps he be in Many Things, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is, in Nothing, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; but, to Say, by way of Authority— Non Vox Hominem sonat, This is, indeed, 
Act 12.22.  not the Voice of Man, but of God; and, since so it is, he that would have a Richer Pawn, a firmer Obligation, than the Bare Word of God (and yet I do not well to call it his Bare Word, for, his— Dixit, & Factum est, 
Psal. 33.9.  go together, what he says, is never Bare, but always apparelled with Performance) I know not what to compare him to, but to our Covetous Purchasers, who think their Lease Imperfect, and their Bargain lost, if they have it not For Ever, and, for One Day at least, more than for ever, For Ever and a Day; Thus the Style and Method proves God to be the Author of them.  
The Manner, and Matter does so too.  
The Manner does so, in another manner of Style and Method.  
It finds fault in the whole Creation, 
Gal. 2.17.  though it makes not Fault in any part of it; It is Objurgatory, and Rebuking, to those on Earth, and to those in Heaven too; and what Creature Amongst Us will be so Bold, to Style and Manner it so Loftily, and Majestically, and All-Knowingly? it tells us, not only that All Men are Sinners, 
Jam. 3.2.  but it uses the Hands of those very Sinful Men, to self-acknowledge their particular most grievous and heinous Sins, and makes those Men hold up their Hands at the Bar of Heaven, and not only cry Guilty, in the Mass, as Heathens do, but thus, and thus, thus and thus heinously and specifically Guilty; and what Creature will be so Injurious to his own Fame, to leave his Shame, and Scandal, and Dis-repute, upon Record? not only, as he is one of Mankind, but too, as he is this Individual Man? A Seneca, 
In Vita Beatâ, c. 18. In Alto omn.  though he cries out— In Profundo Omnium Vitiorum sum, would never cry out against his own Covetousness, though he did against the Avarice of other Men; in his own Behalf he is more sparing, and says, Sapiens (for himself did Opine himself to be that Wise Man) non optat Divitias, sed Mavult, and he leaves others to tell us more Loudly, not only of Senecae Praedivitis Hortos, 
Martial.  but of his- Amor Sceleratus Habendi; and, not only this, 
Job 4.18.  but God in Scripture Charges his Angels too with Folly; and Heathen Man will rather Dispute, whether there Be an Angel, whom he never saw, than charge that Invisible Angel to have sinned with him.  
91. Would St. Paul, trow ye, have told us, that he had once been so far from Saint, as to have been a Blasphemer, and Persecuter, 
1 Tim. 1.13.  but that he was overruled by a Divine Power, which draws Good out of Evil? and makes the Penitence of St. Paul, 
V 16.  and the Mercy of God upon it, an Example and Encouragement to Atheistical Blasphemers, and Un-Christian Persecuters, to return from their Evil Ways, and not to Kick out their own Blood against the Pricks? 
Act. 9.5.  to be more Upright, and Just, both to God and Man? Would holy David have told us, that he had been so Un-holy, 
Title of Ps. 51.  as to go in to Bathsheba, but that the Adulterer should, with him, detest and forsake that Impure and Unclean Sin? should come Home, and return to his First Love, be constant to his Spouse Jesus, 
Rev. 2.4. 2 Cor. 11.2.  and not make his Members the Members of an Harlot? Would Moses have told us, that his Anger waxed hot? that he cast the Tables (which were the work of God, 
Exod. 32.19. V 16.  and the Writing within them was the Writing of God, of God's own Commands) out of his hands, and broke them, Et Manus & Duplices Manibus Cecidere Tabellae. 
Ovid. de Remed. Am. l. 2.  But that we should not Fret (as he did) lest we should be moved to do 
Psal. 37.8.  Evil, as he did? and to break all the Commandments of God, in a much worse sense than he did? but that we should imitate him in his Sorrow, in his better Anger against his worse Anger, and in his other more predominant, and denominating Quality, his Meekness, 
Num. 12.3  and his Zealous Keeping all the Commandments of his God? It makes, and offers Promises to All Men, it Pours out, and Denounces Threats upon All Men, even Kings, and Judges, and Magistrates; and what One mere Man will take such a Universal Power to himself, and will not suffer his Empire to be Bounded by any part of that Vast Ocean, all of which has itself a Ne Vltra, 
Ps. 104.9.  Thus far thou shalt go, and no further; were it possible that such a One Man should be King of all the World, yet the Promises, and the Threats, are to That One Man too; and it is as Ridiculous and Absurd, for a Man to make a Promise to, and to Threaten Himself, as if he should have an Action at Law against himself for breach of Promise, or sue himself to be Bound to the Behaviour and Peace, for Threatening himself; there is but one Allowable, nay more, Commendable (and Pity it is, that it is so un-imitated, for want of Pity) way that I know of, for a Man to sue himself; 
The Lord Viscount Scudamore, and Mr. Farrar of Huntingdon shire.  some, whose Predecessors have Impropriated, have had such Berean-Nobility, and high Primitive Christianity in them, as to cause their own Names to be Prosecuted in Chancery, and there have Resigned, and by Law Confirmed Tithet to the Church; and, for their sakes, I could wish this Book might Live, that their Names might give Fame to the Book, and the Grateful Book Perpetuate their Names.  
82. Thus, from the Latitude, and Unlimitedness of Jurisdiction, in both Branches of it, Punitive and Remunerative, Vindictive and Premiative, 
Ps. 145.9.  in doing Good to all, high and low, rich and poor; in calling all Men to Account, even those Cedars, and the Tallest of those, whose Office it is to call Inferior Men to Account here, It must be that Absolute, Universal Monarch, the Maker, the Owner, the Possessor, the Ruler of the World, whose words these are.  
Thus, the Style, and Method, and Manner, Proves God to be the Author of them.  
The Matter does so too.  
83. The Promises are, 
Mat. 5.8.  of Eternal Happiness in Heaven, in the Sight and Enjoyment of the Eternal God; The Threaten are, of Pains in Hell, 
Mat. 25.41.  with the Devil and his Angels for ever; Neither of these can be Apprehended, but by him, who has the faculty of Discourse and Ratiocination; and no Reasonable Creature can Promise or Threaten these; The Good, neither Angel, nor Man, will usurp so much False Power to himself, as to Bestow Heaven, or to Inflict Hell; since Nothing can, 
Nihil dat, quod in se non habet.  of its own Power, give, or cast, that upon another, which it hath not in itself, by its own Power; and no Angel, much less, Man, how good soever, can Possess, and Enjoy God, whether God will, or no; He may as soon be God, and what God is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as, so, Enjoy him; and, whether he be Man, or Angel, if he be Good, he hath not Hell at all; The Bad cannot lift up Another to that Heaven, which himself has Not, nor sentence Another to that Hell, which has himself; All, that go thither, go the same way, and, certainly, the First of All was not so Ill a Lover of himself, as that he would Sciens & Prudens, Damn himself thither; ' 'tis- Nullum Numen ('tis not Nullus Daemon) Abest, 
Juven. Sat. 1.  si sit Prudentia Tecum.  
84. It makes Promises of things, which, had they not been Revealed by God, could never have entered into the Heart of Man to conceive; that there should be, 
Col. 2.9.  in the same Person, Perfect God, and Perfect Man; 
Is. 7.14.  that a Virgin should have a Son, and be a Virgin, when she bears him, 
Mat. 1.23.  and ever after, and so much the more, and more evidently a Virgin, because she had such, and so holy a Son; 
Luk. 1.35.  All Promises, that any Creature makes, must (like the Child that any Creature bears) be Conceived before they are Made; and, since no Creature could ever, by any the most lightsome faculty of its own, Conceive such mysterious Depths as these, therefore, that in which these Promises are made, must needs be the Word of an All-knowing, as well as an All-powerfull God, of that God, who saw his Own, as well as his Father and Servant David's Substance, and, in whose other Book all his Members were written, 
Ps. 139.16  when as yet there was none of them.  
85. 
Mar. 12.33  It Commands a Universal Holiness to God; the Good are so Good, that they will not Command this, in their Own, but only in the Name of their God; and the Bad are so Bad, that they will not Command this at all, no, nor Persuade it, no, nor Suffer it; Since therefore the Scripture is, as Nazianzen says of it, Omni Rationabili facultate Validior, 
Oratio 7.  above the Capacity of any Rational Creature to Compose, it must needs be, it cannot possibly be otherwise than, the Work of that God, who alone is above all Rational Creatures; not only Above them, but with that Reverend Addition of St. Paul— Far above all Principality, 
Eph. 1.21.  and Power, and Might, and Dominion, and Every Name, that is Named, not Only in this World, but Also in that which is to come.  
86. Hitherto I have showed you, how the Style and Method, the Manner and Matter, of Holy, and Making-Holy, Scriptures, does Prove a God, and proposed to the Hitherto-Atheist, the Diligent Search of these, in that they are, not only Holy, and Sanctifying Scriptures, but, because they are so, Blessed and Happifying Scriptures too; the search of these, upon this Ground, I proposed to him, that he might find out, by these, what that True Happiness is (and Confess GOD, not only Essentially to Be, but Mercifully to be the Author, and Fountain, and Giver, both of the Scriptures, and of the Happiness Taught and Reposed in them) which All Men desire, and, concerning the Declaring and Defining of which, all Un-scriptured Men are as Wavering and Unconstant, as the Citizens of Jerusalem were, in telling what was the No-Fault, of Un-guilty, and Saint, Paul, that some cry out One thing, 
Act. 21.34  some Another; some a Prosperous Goodness, and some, an Innocency, though Afflicted; some, Pleasure, and some, Honour; some, Wisdom, and some, Contentful Goodness; so that we can no more know the Certainty, than the Chief Captain of the Band could, who came to Paul's Rescue, because of the Philosophical Tumult; Of which Happiness, let me show you, in one word more, a Glimpse and Taste out of holy Scriptures, how it is much More, and much Better, not only than any One, but than All of those Names, by which they call it; and so I shall, though slowly, Descend to, yet speedily pass through, the Second Treatise, or Second part of the First.  
87. That Happiness is a Prosperous Goodness, for it Consists in Enjoying that God, who, first, 
Mat. 5.8.  made Man Good, and then Happy; and the Security of that Happiness, is beyond the Power of such a Giddy thing as Fortune, either to Bestow, 
1 Thess. 4.17.  or to Deprive Man of; for it is for ever; And that Happiness is much more than all the Successes of this World, and more than that Much More too; for he that has been the most Successful Man here, can yet imagine Happinesses beyond all that Actual Success; but, there, he shall Possess More, than he can Covet here; not only the Excellency of all that God hath Created, and which, in his Infinite and Merciful Wisdom and Goodness, he shall appoint to endure in Heaven, when he Annihilates those unworthier Creatures, which, here, we Enjoyed too much, and Loved too well, because not well enough; and, yet, who can Imagine the Entire, though Inferior, Happiness of the Created All in this World? and, much more, the Things which are in Heaven, 
Wisd. 9.16  who hath searched out? those things which the Prophet Isaiah, 
Isa. 64.4.  and the Apostle St. 
1 Cor. 2.9.  Paul, have told us, the Heart of Man, though it can Enjoy, cannot conceive: and, yet, it shall not only Enjoy All These, in That God, 
1 Cor. 15.28.  who is All in All, but therefore Much More than All these, because that God also; There shall be Tranquill Happiness of the Mind, without the Vexation of the happiest Mind here, which Plots, and Contrives, Studies, and Beats, to be more Happy still; That Happiness shall consist, if not In, yet with, Virtue, and Love, and Knowledge; we shall Love our own Glory, and Love the Glory of God above that, and Love his, even in that he hath Glorified us also; We shall stand up complete in Virtue, 
1 Cor. 10.12.  without bare thinking that we stand (though some, here, will not be contented with a Modest Thinking, but will arrogantly Proclaim too, that they stand, even whilst they lie flat along in that Ditch into which their Blind Guide hath thrown them) and without anxious Taking heed, lest we fall, for, 
Mat. 15.14  our God will take that heed for us, and hold up our Arm with his; we shall be Wise, not in any perplexed Speculation of the Divinity in Things Created, but in the Open Vision of the Essence of God, in the streaming Rays, though not in the whole Sun of that Essence; we shall be like him, in Unsinfull, Un-dangerous Knowledge, 
1 Joh. 3.2.  because we shall see him as he is.  
88 There shall be all the Happiness of the Body too; Beauty, and Health, and Strength; the Body shall shine as the Sun; 
Mat. 13.43 1 Cor. 15.54.  that shall be its Beauty; It shall be Immortal as the Soul (when Man shall be, as it were, Remade, not of Body and Soul, but of Soul and Soul) that shall be its Health, it shall be Impassable, Un-suffering, as the Angels of God, it shall have an eye, which they have not, and yet, no more Tears than they which never had Eyes to weep; 
Rev. 7.17.  nay, the Eyes of it shall be, like those of Christ, as a Flame of Fire, 
Rev. 19.12.  Un-wet, and as Dry as that; Sooner may Contradictions be Verisimilitudes, and Fire weep here, than a Saint there; and that shall be its Strength.  
And, not only the Mind shall be Happy, in that which Peculiarly appertains to It, Virtue, and Love, and Wisdom; not only shall be added to the Happiness of the Mind, that of the Body, in that which Peculiarly appertains to It, Beauty, and Health, and Strength; but, to both these Distinct Happinesses, of the Body, and of the Mind, will be added a third, which will, once again, make both of them jointly Happy, That, which we, here, miscall the Goods of Fortune, and shall, there, rightly understand to be the Wealth of God, for, both Body and Mind shall be (I will not say Fortunate) Happy in the perpetual possession of all manner of Riches; for, as the Body and Mind make the Man ('twas in some refined and limited sense, well said of Pythagoras, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and of Plato, Animus Cujusque Is est Quisque yet, when Pythagoras, and Plato, were dead, his Soul, and his Mind, still were; but that Soul was not Pythagoras, nor that Maxd, Plato; else, Pythagoras was Alive, without any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, even after he was Dead, and Plato was Returned before his own Great Year) and God makes the Man a Saint, so, the same God will make that Saint a Joseph, 
Gen. 41.43.  who shall be Ruler over all his Land, Ruler over all his Goods, over the whole Kingdom of Heaven, for, that itself is, both the Field, and the Treasure, 
Mat. 24.47 Mat. 13.44.46.  and the Pearl in it, for which we should Sell All we have here, and Purchase those, by Selling, by Despising, by Counting All we have here, 
Phil. 3.8.  but Dung, that we might win Christ; Such an un-doting esteem of these Under, and Deceitful Happinesses, will make them to be Dung indeed, such Dung, as will Enrich and Fructify that Field, and make it bring forth that Treasure, and that Pearl for us; Let us, therefore, with a Comparative Contempt of these, cry out, as St. Austin did, Whatever else the Lord our God hath given to us, 
In Psal. 26.  let him (what he hath been, a long time doing) take it all away, and give us these. For  
89. With these, as he will give us an Established, and Persevering, so he will also give us an Un-afflicted Goodness; Sin and Misery go together, and neither of them can enter into Heaven; Sin is a Moth, which will eat a hole into our Happiness, 
Mat. 6.20.  and Misery is a Thief, which will steal it all away, and there is no room for such Guests as these; There was, sometime, a kind of Hell in the Lower Heavens, 
Gen. 19.24.  but all the Fire and Brimstone of them will be reigned down upon the Sodoms and Gomorrahs' here; nay, those very Heavens themselves, will endure the Plague, which they did Inflict, they will Melt away with forvent heat, 
2 Pet. 3.12  and only that Heaven shall endure for ever, in which there is, and will be, nothing else, but God, and Angels, Saints, and Joy.  
90. The Pleasures there, are much more (and much more Pleasures) than Man can either Desire or Apprehend; for, they are not only Pleasures for evermore, 
Ps. 16.11.  but they are too, a whole River of them. Psal. 36.8.  
91. There is Honour; and that more multiplied in the Nature of it, than in all those words of St. Peter, 
1.1.7.  Praise, and Honour, and Glory, and more Magnified still, in that the Father of Jesus Christ will honour those there, 
Joh. 12.26  who serve Jesus Christ here.  
92. The Wisdom there is infinitely beyond all the Wisdom in this World; not only beyond all the Wisdom of the Children of this World (who are so Wise in their Generations, one would scarce think they were ever Children) but of the Children of Life and Light too, whilst they are in this World; The Best, the Chiefest Wisdom of the Children In this World, though not of the Children Of this World, is, to be Wise to Another, a Greater, a Better World; 'tis true, Nemini sapit, qui sibi non sapit, and 'tis as true, as that— Nec sibi sapit, qui sibi non in Aeternum sapit, 
Ps. 111.10.  The Beginning of that Wisdom, is the Fear of GOD, and the Instructers in that Wisdom are the holy Scriptures; 'tis the great Eulogy, that St. Paul gives of them to Timothy, 
2.3.15.  that they are Able to make him wise unto Salvation; and in the verse after, All of them are given by Inspiration from GOD; so that this one Link in the Chain of Happiness, is sufficient to both those ends, for which I insist upon it, both that Scriptures might be searched, as the only Certain Foundation of Future Bliss, and that that God might be acknowledged, whose Gift that Happiness is, and whose Fear does begin to make us Wise unto it; And, if there be so much Wisdom, in the very Way to Salvation, how much more in the Enjoyment of it? As certainly as much More, as that First Principle, which is equally agreed upon by all Mankind, has Certainty in it, Totum est majus suis Partibus, for, Here we know, but it is but in Part, we Prophecy, but, in the most Studious, or most Enlightened of us, it is but in Part; 
1 Cor. 13.9, 10.  but, hereafter, When that, which is Perfect, is come, then that, which is in Part, shall be done away; We are Children, so long as we are here, we speak, we understand, we think, V 11 as Children; Then only, when we are grown up to a Perfect Man, 
Eph. 4: 13.  unto the Measure of the Stature of the Fullness of Christ (and that is only, when we enter into Happiness) shall we cast away Childish Things; for, though in that place, St. Paul was become a Man even below Stairs, and out of Heaven, by a special and bountiful Illumination and Sanctification, yet, how many of us together, in respect of Knowledge and Holiness, cannot make up one St. Paul? And yet the Knowledge which the Man St. Paul had here, was but Weak, and Childish, and that only, Manly and Perfect, which he Now has Above; The Evangelical Knowledge, which he had, and we have here, was indeed, Perfect, if Compared to a Legal Knowledge, but very Lame, and Heavy, Dull, and Ignorant, if set in Competition with that in Heaven; so Theodoret interprets that place; 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  and so St. Paul too, when, in the verse after, he does so far Unman himself, as to wrap up himself, and us, in the same Thick Cloud, for, Now, We see through a Glass Darkly (We, not a very Paul excepted) but, Then, Face to Face; and (lest that might be suspected for a mere piece of Civility, humbly to involve himself in that Ignorance, which is the Lot of All) he speaks more home yet, and to his own Door, Now I know in Part, but, then, shall I know, even as I also am known; and, what Wisdom, what Knowledge, Greater, and more Sublime, than to Know, even as God himself Knows, (sure, if there be a Prius and Posterius in the Knowledge of God, the first thing that he ever knew, was, that himself Always Is from Everlasting) and to be Wise (in some granted Proportion, 
Psal. 93.2.  even by the Testimony of God himself) as he is Wise?  
93: There, is also a Contentful Goodness, a Filling, a Satisfying Happiness— Lord show us the Father, 
joh. 14.8.  and it sufficeth; nay, not only the Father, but the Son, and the Holy Ghost too, are showed sufficiently to all the Saints of God here, in their Exile, and will be showed sufficingly to them all Above, in their Country.  
94. The End why I propose to my Atheist-Reader all these several Branches of our Future Happiness, (which will hereafter be bestowed by the Father of Spirits, and are, 
Heb. 12. ●  in the mean while, attested by the Spirit of the Father) is, that he may (by that Loved Argument of Self-Preservation, and, for his very own sake) be in love with those Scriptures of God, which so much Out-Promise, and Out-Give, all that All Natural Men have written, or can desire, that, by these, he might Know, and Acknowledge, Love with Reverence, and Serve with Fear, that God, who is, even by Natural Reason (which, to the Atheist, is instead of God) convinced to be the Bountiful Author, both of these Scriptures, and of all other Bounties.  
95. May such Reasons as these be effectual upon him, to seek all his Happiness at the hands of that God, who is Rerum omnium Pleroma, 
Irenaeus, l. 2. c. 1.  the One, Only Fullness, and Satisfaction, Centre and Rest of All things, without whose Blessing in a Contentment here, and in making that Contentment an Earnest of a Heaven, our Souls are Empty, when our Chests are Thronged, and our Appetite, even when it is Sated, Hunger's after we know not what.  
96. 
In Enchiridio Orthodoxograph.  'Tis good Counsel of Pisanus, that, since no Creature, without God, can do Enough for himself, and be Satisfactory to himself, he, that would have sufficient, and enough, should seek to enjoy his God; should Study, and Pray, and Live, after that manner, whereby he might have a Title and Interest in that Fundamental Universal Blessing, (without which, Nothing else, not all the Pomp and Prosperity, the Gilded Hooks, and Candid Venom's of this World, is Blessed; and, with which, Nothing, not all the Contempt, and Visible, naked-faced Scorpions of this World, can make Wretched) I will be their God, 
Frequenter, in utroque Codice.  and they shall be my People; Who suffered more than the Apostles of Christ Jesus? and yet, 
2 Cor. 3.4.  because such Trust they had, through Christ, to God-ward, who suffered Less than they? Did they suffer, to whom it was given to suffer? Who ever complained of Liberality, as of Stripes? of Kindnesses done to him, as of a Load and Pressure? What Liberality greater? What more Abundant Kindness, than such a Bounty, which, in St. Paul's account (who had often experimented the Sweetness of that, which Persecuting Man meant Gall and Wormwood) is made Equal, even with Faith in God; His Zealous Disciples would have Envied him, if they might not Partake with him in the Honour of Enduring Afflictions; and therefore he does, not only Comfort his Philippians in these, but these themselves are the very Comforts which he speaks, and God Administers to them— For unto you it is given, 
C. 1. v. 29, 30.  in the behalf of Christ, not only to Believe in him, but also to Suffer for his sake, having the same Conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me; He does not, and he would not have any of those, to grieve, for any of these; nay, he does, and would have those do so too, thank his and their God for them; how weak, and despised, and unwealthy soever they were in this World, yet this was his, and all his Disciples, 
2 Cor. 3.5.  great Support, that— Their Sufficiency was of God; Have God, and you have Sufficient, for— He is All; Have not God, and you have Nothing, for he is All: Paul had Conflicts, and the Philippians had Conflicts; and, these were to them, Signs, and Marks, and Testimonies of true Disciples; nay, they were more, Mercies, and Donations, and Gifts to Beloved Disciples; Not only these, but Christ himself had Conflicts too, and, in the Eye of the World (till the Eye of the World, the Sun, was ashamed to see All of it, and hid both his own Face, and the Face of the whole Earth, in Darkness) Nothing else but Conflicts; and yet in the midst of all these Conflicts, these had All, because they had God; and Christ had All, because He Was, and Is God, and Is to Come, to Reward those, who Patiently Endure these.  
97. By this time, I hope he, to whom I now write, has left off to be he, to whom I Began to write, that he is Austined into— Ego non sum ego, and Paulined into— I live, 
Gal. 2.20.  yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; that he is not only a Deist, but a Christian too; and therefore I shall take my leave of him with two pieces of Sober Counsel; One, from the General Doctrine of God, that he would depend wholly upon him; Another from the Particular Doctrine of Happiness, that he would go on in being a Saint, 
Psal. 85.8.  and not turn again to Folly, in prising Glass above Pearl.  
98. From the First, Learn he not to gape after the Inferior All, but to attend on that God, who, even now, 
Ps. 81.10.  hath brought him out of Egypt, and hath promised, though he open his Mouth never so wide, to Fill it; to labour for a Title, and not to doubt of Sufficiency in him, who is Above Ali, 
Eph. 4.6.  and Through All, and All in All; Let him be Above all, by his Proselytical, and our Renewed Obedience to his holy Precepts; Let him be Through All, by his, and our Resigning all the several Powers he hath given us, back to himself, by employing them in a Subordination to Just and Merciful Power; Let him be All in All; Desire we nothing else but him, Nothing but from him, Nothing but for him. Are we his Children? who is so wise as he, to know what we stand in need of? 
Mat. 6.8. & 32.  Who is so Good as he to supply to all our wants? Who is so Fatherly as he, to Chastise us, and yet to Love us too? Are we not his, but Belial's Children? who is so Gracious as he, to afflict us, that we may be his? who is so Holy and True, Just and Potent as he, to control all our Inordinate and Sinful Desires of Having?  
99 From the Second. Learn we to return that Answer to all the gaudy Temptations, and fond Allurements of this Enchanting World, which Agesilaus did to him, who besought him to hearken to the Voice and Song of one, who well imitated the Various and Pleasant Notes of the warbling Nightingale; No, says he, Ipsam Lusciniam audivi, I have heard the Nightingale herself, and all Imitation I know, comes short of her; Say to any Tully, who bids you ask for Happiness from Humane Plots, and Counsels, and Contrivances, and the Aids and Assistances of Fortune upon these, I will none of that, since I have heard of a Firmer Happiness, which Fortune has Nothing to do with, a Happiness from Above, and to Above, from that God, from whom Every Good Gift does come, 
Jam. 1.17.  and from whom too All Good Counsels do proceed; If it be not Good, 
Common-Prayer-Book.  'tis no Gift, and I will not receive it; If it be Good, 'tis none of hers, and I will not be Accessary to her Theft, nor purchase a Halter, be it never so Silken a one; I remember that of Seneca (whom I once took for Divine too much, and now wish he were more Divine) Fortunae de me Potestatem, non do, and I am Christianed into a new Philosophy, which says, Non datur Fortuna. Say to any Seneca, who calls the Conscience of Welldoing, Happiness, even then, when the Body is in Torture, I am contented with the Yoke now, but I look for a Release anon, 
Ps. 34.19.  since I have heard that though Many are the Afflictions of the Righteous, yet the Lord not only Delivereth them out of all, 
Gen. 15.1.  but is, himself, their Exceeding great Reward; 
Ps. 58.11.  Verily there is a Reward for the Righteous, Verily he is a God that judgeth in the Earth; I believe it enough, because David hath said it, and yet I have learned to put both the Verilieses together, 
Amen, Amen, dic● vobis.  and believe it the more, for David's Sons, and my God's sake, whose Style That Is; though I suffer Many things, 
2 Tim. 1.12.  nevertheless I will not be ashamed, for I know whom I have Believed; What is a little Bloodshed? I have emptied a Vein to Recover from a Sickness, and was well again; Shall I not empty them All, for Christ and Heaven? Say to any Epicure, to any He, that would be more Crane than he is Philosopher, that bids you, to be Happy, to become a Dog, and a Sow, to wallow in your own Miry Vomit, to allow of nothing but Sensual Pleasure, I will none of that; since I have heard, not only that a Friar, 
Erasmus in his Ecclesiastes.  to Torment a Drunkard, bade him be Drunk again, as Conceiving no Torture to be equal to an Overcharged Stomach, nor the Rope itself more Cruelly to stretch a Throat, than a Loathsome Yawning, but that at God's Right Hand there are Pleasures for Evermore, 
Ps. 16.11.  Innocent, and Unsatiating Pleasures, a whole and a clear River of them; not only a River, but the Springhead too, All my Springs are in thee O God, 
Psal. 87.7.  Say to any Livy, who calls Worldly Honour, and Earthly Sovereignty, Happiness, I will none of that, since I have heard, There is no Honour like to that, 
L. Hatton's Preface to the Psalms.  of serving God in a Great Capacity; that this is the only Lawful Way, by which to set up a Royal Priesthood, 
1 Pet. 2.9. Exod. 19.6  a Kingdom of Priests, even amongst the Laity also, when God shall make them, indeed to be, what in both those Scriptures they are called, a holy Nation. Say to any Horace, who, to be Happy, bids you be Wordly-wise, and Wise in your Generation, I will none of that, since I have heard of Another, a Heavenly Wisdom, a Wisdom to all Eternity, and to Salvation in it; This, if compared to the Worlds, is not Another, but an Only Wisdom; the Worlds, if compared to this, is not Another Wisdom, but an Only Folly, Madness, Desperation; What is my Generation, but a Point, a Nothing, to God's Eternity? My Days are but a Hands Breadth, 
Psal. 39.5.  (Diogenes' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in respect of some Longer Liver in the first of Ages) and mine Age is as nothing before thee O God; Might I be as Happy, Latum Unguem, and one Day of my Life, as all this World could make me, and wretched the whole hand-breadth, and all the Life besides, I would not make so Indiscreet and Unpolitique a Choice; All this Life, to all Eternity, is infinitely less than a Day, to all this Life, and shall I choose the Greater Evil; and forfeit the Greater Good, when I have skill enough to refuse the Lesser Good, because of a Lesser Evil? Say to any Aristotle, who comes nearest the Mark, when he bids you be Happy in Welldoing, and in the Satisfaction which arises from thence, I will more than that, since I have heard, that though a Good Conscience, 
Prov. 15.15.  and a Merry Heart, because of That, is a Continual Feast, yet the Reward of that Good Conscience is a much Better, and Merrier Feast, and that therefore I look up to that Jesus, 
Heb. 12.2.  who, as he is the Author, has appointed unto me a Kingdom, and, when he is the Finisher of my Faith, will Crown me in it, that I may Eat and Drink at his Table, 
Luk. 22.29, 30.  in his Kingdom.  
100 And yet, though this Jesus be Another Notion, 
Examinatio Portugalli Atheis. 1617.  or rather Another Person (for there was a Portugal Atheist, who being asked what he thought of the Trinity, answered, 
Examinatio 3. quaest. 6.  Se adorare Trinitatem, sed per al●as Notiones, non sub Nominibus Patris, & Filii, & Spiritus Sancti) yet it is but One, and the Same God, who makes this Feast of Happiness, and fills the Table with all these, and many more, Several and Precious Messes, and who by his Unity with the Father, and the Holy Ghost (to which Unity in Trinity be all Prayer and Praise for ever) calls upon me for my Promised Disquisition, and Determination, That there is One (already Argued) and But One God, to which I proceed, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.    

Polytheismus Vapulans; OR, THERE IS BUT ONE GOD.  Greg. Nazianz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
LONDON, Printed for Humphrey Moseley, and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1654.   

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, THE L. VISCOUNT TRACY, My much Honoured Lord and Patron.  
MY Honoured Lord, Since, by some Unhappynesses (which have made Long Furrows upon your Back, though they could not, 
Psal. 129.3.  upon your Face, and, by your unmatched patience, have left That, as they found it, and have not writhed, nor Afflicted One wrinkle more upon your constant Brow) I cannot, as the Duty of my Place obliges me, Preach to your Ear, give me leave to do it to your Ey, and to be your Chaplain from the Press, when you cannot Hear (unless by others) that I am so from the Pulpit: I may remember your Lordship, that the ONE GOD, of whom I treat, though He binds Himself to None, does usually observe this Method, in repairing worldly Adversities with spiritual Advantages; and, as it is His General design, to better That man, by any Cross, which He lays upon His shoulders, and to bring him nearer to the Favour of That Christ, who bore the Cross for Him, by the similitude of sufferings; so, in your Lordship's Case, he does, not only Prescribe, but Confect too; tells you what is best, and prepares those Ingredients for you, in removing you from him who has less of skill, in the Cure of Souls, to him who has more of it; and who would not bless God the more, for such a Medicinal, and Healing Tribulation? As All eyes see your Patience, 
Luke 21.19. Dionys. Areopag.  in which you Possess your Soul, though, not very much besides, so I beseech That God, who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and sees All things, that the things which have Happened unto you, 
Philip. 1.12. v. 13. Ibid.  may fall out to the furtherance of the Gospel in you; that, as your Bonds are Manifest in All the Palace (and were they not manifest, I would not have named them) so they may be Bonds in Christ, that, even This also may turn to your salvation, through your, and our Prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of JESUS CHRIST. 
V 1●.   
These my god Lord, and many more Inconveniencies and, Encumbrances of life and fortunes, with which you struggle, or, to speak more properly, which struggle with you, have made me believe that such a dedication as This, (upon which your life is Comment, and your Fortune's Notes) would be not an unacceptable piece of service, in recalling to your Lordship's Consideration, That, which all the Circumstances of all your Affairs, do daily Mind you of, that there is but One Heaven, That Above, 
Job 22.14.  but One God, He that Walks in the Circuit thereof.  
When you Tasted, and Tried All the Happinesses of the Earth together, you were, even Then, too wise, to make a God of Any, or of All of These; in that you Had Them, and They Had not you; in that they Served you, and you Ruled them; and an Gbedient God, a Bounden and Chained Deity, a Divinity under Lock & Key, You was never so much Persian to allow of; much less, 
Q. Curtius l. 4. scribit de Persis, quod Deos, quo Certius retinerent, catenis vinciebant.  when Fortune has, now, turned one half of her wheel, will you make the Clay Feet, the Iron legs, the Brazen Belly, and Thighs of That prosperity a God, whose Breast, and Arms of Silver, and Head of Fine Gold, 
Dan. 2.32.33.  you could not endure to worship; Let Men, that wrangle at wealth, and for wealth, the Clent, and the Lawyer, Creep, and Crouch to such Images as These, and think if they will, that they are well awake the while, whilst That they Dote upon, is but an Image, and not the Architype, a Beam, and not the Sun, lest of all, 
Mal. 4.2.  That of Righteousness, and they themselves, when they expect to grasp it, do but Dream; but let my Good Lord look higher, and Pity the Childings at the Bar; Let Him not be Froward with them that are Froward, but buy love with love; with so cheap a Fee, let Him Purchase the One and Only God, who, though He be but One, and Only, Is, and has All things, and will sell them All at the Price of Love; 
Prov. 8.17.  I love them that love Me; (would they have Estates, 
V 18.  and Titles?) Riches and Honour are with Me, (would they have Unmolested Estates, and Unforfeited Titles?) yea Durable Riches, and Righteousness; what ever the violence of Time, or Man, takes away, Is neither Wealth, nor yours; That which Lasts, is Wealth, and That, which Is You, is Yours; the Philosopher said well— Omnia Mea Mecum, 
Bias.  but your Christian Lordship says better, Omnia mea Ego; yourself is, only, and all, your Own; nor can you stand in Need of Any thing from Any Other, but from Christ; may He Cloth you, with His Robe of Righteousness, and no matter though there be never a Pocket in it; with That Robe, you will have Peace with God, and Without That Pocket, Peace with Men too; That you may be blessed Both these ways; and be so like your JESUS, 
Luke 2, ult.  as to Increase in Favour with GOD and Man, whilst you are on Earth, at least, inseparably, and without any Altercation, in Favour with Him, who is God and Man in Heaven, and, yet, in Both those Natures, is but One Person, and, in That One Person, is the same God, with the other Two, Three Persons, and One God, is the Prayer of  
Your Lordship's obliged Chaplain, and faithful Servant, WILLIAM TOWERS.   

Polytheismus Vapulans, OR, There is but One GOD.  
1. HOw Necessarily that First Doctrine, that there Is a God, is to be backed with this second Doctrine, that there Is but one God, will appear, out of the corrupt nature of all, the self-deifying opinions of some, and the Diabolical practices of others.  
2. 'Tis not only so, in this great Case, but it is so also, in almost every Case, where Man has more of passion than judgement, and loves Interest above Truth (and, almost every man has so, and does so) that, when he is convinced, he has been in an unprofitable error, he will never think he can run far enough from that unrewarding mistake, till he runs into another, Equally as bad as that; and then, does not care how irrecoverably he sinks into a second Ditch, so long as he is sure he escapes the danger of the former Pit. 'Tis so in the Religion of Nature, in Morality; 'Tis not enough to tell the Covetous Man, how base his sin is, whilst he does, (as Bion says he days) 
† Sordidi Divites ita facultatum curam habent, quasi propriarum, ita parcunt, tanquam alienis.  take so much care over his wealth, as if it were his own (his beloved Spouse— Incubat Auro) and so much spare it, and forbear it, as if it were another Man's; to tell him, that he starves himself, that he may starve others; to tell him, that it is better to give, then to hoard, and that he hoards up his own Damnation; that his Hell is stole away, when his Bags are Risked, if he grieves more for the sin of him that opened his Chest, then because he left it empty; When you have told him all this, and more, & made him fear to be Rich, 
Is 33.14.  as much as he fears the everlasting burn, you will make him apt to sin as much in prodigality and wastfulness, as he did before in laying up, and going to Bed with the Key in his mouth. Therefore, you must tell him too, that though the sparkling, and yellowness of his Gold, be like the Flame of fire, of which too much, and an ungoverned heap, will burn him, yet a little of it, if it kindles not in the very heart, will warm him; you must not only tell him, 
Josh. 7.21.  that to withhold the Wedge of another Man, and to bury it in his own Tent, will cause him to be put to death, V 26 and to have a heap of stones over him in Earth, (I, and if he repent not, if he testify not his repentance, by dispersing, V 22 by restoring to the owner, and by giving to the poor, a heap of Coals over him, in Hell too) instead of a heap of Gold and Silver under him; but you must tell him too, that, 
1 Tim. 5.8.  if he provides not for his own, he is worse than an Infidel; and, if he provides not of his own, he is the same Man still, worse than Infidel; you must, not only tell him, that his extortion, whereby he makes the poor eat stones, 
Is. 3.15.  instead of Bread, whereby himself grinds the poor people of God, 
Ps. 53.4.  and eats even them up, as it were Bread, that this makes him to be less charitable, 
Mat. 4.3.  than the Devil himself, who besought that stones might be made Bread; but you must tell him too, V 4 that himself must live by Bread also, though not by Bread only; you must not only tell him, as St. 
L. 2. Ep. 6. Non modo aliena non appetas (hoc enim publicae leges p●niunt, He means, when the appetite is filled and not when it yawns) sed Tica, quae sunt aliena, non s●ves.  Hierom does, that he must not covet that, which is another Man's (for, every right Christian St. will say as St. Austin did, that the superfluity, and overplus of a rich Man, is the debt and portion of a poor Man) but you must tell him too, that, though every Man besides, is his neighbour, himself is his neighbour also; (Proximus egomet mihi is a good rule, when it is a common rule, and not an enclosure, when it lets this, and that Man be proximus too; as, in a Circle, though the Line that is first drawn, points in the Circumference, yet every after Line touches as close as that) and though he must not reserve from others, that of his own also, which is another Man's, yet he must not impart to others, that, without which, nothing is left his own; but he must love, and cherish them, and himself, by liberal imparting, and moderate using of what he hath, and not leave off to love and cherish either, by immoderate keeping; else, if you only declaim against his covetousness, till you persuade, and charm, and fright him into a renouncing, and loathing, and ejuring of that, and use not your discreet endeavours to stop him in the right, middle, and virtuous way, you will only dispossess him of one Devil, that he may have room, in which he  another; so, a Prodigal Man may be chid out of his spending vanity, till he does nothing else, but scrape, and neither he, nor he, be, the more, or at all, a liberal Man, for all you have said unto them. So it is in Christian Religion too; A Reformed Anabaptist will sooner turn a persecuting Papist, and a Reformed Papist sooner turn a persecuting Anabaptist, then either of them be a truly-reformed Protestant; though, like Sampsons' Foxes, 
Judg. 15.4.  they turn tails to one another, (and are ready to spit fire too in the Face of each,) yet they have a Firebrand in the midst, with which they burn up all the shocks, V 5 and standing Corn, (as that Corn signifies true Disciples; and tares, Apostates) all the Olives and Vine-yards (as that Vine-yard signifies the true Church of Christ) which the Heathen Poet, 
Ovid. Fast. l. 4.  however it came to his hands, hath acquanted us with, 

† Scilicet vulpem.  Captivam, stipulâ, Foenoque Involvit, & Ignes  
Admovet; Urentes effugit illa Manus;  
Quà Fugit, Incendit Vestitos Messibus Agros;  
Damnosis Vires Ignibus Aura dabat.  Histories are almost as full of those Passionate Changers (with whom the wise Man, 
Prov. 24.21.  bids us to have nothing to do, especially, not to do, what they will not choose but do, Meddle) who have run from One extreme to the other, as of those Judicious changers, who have run from both extremes, to the truth; of all enemies to the Church of England, from an English Jesuit, who hath formerly protested better, Good Lord deliver us; and I would it were well considered, whether in these very days, and in this very Nation, for want of this judgement and moderation, and sobriety (for, there is, and should be, a mental sobriety, aswel as there is, though there should not be, a mental drunkenness, 
Pliny l. 9 Ep. 26. Ex Demosibene. Non Datum.  † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] the office † taken, at any thing, which was, or seemed offensive, has not been the cause of so many real offences amongst us; God in his mercy and wisdom, restore to us, those two great blessings, which always fall off together, truth, and love, that the swords may be beaten themselves, beaten into plowshares, and the spears into pruning Hooks, that the Hedge of Christ's Church may be only pruned by these, to grow the better, and not quite cut down by those. As thus it is, in Morality, and thus in Christianity, that the unguided hate of one fault, in ill practice, and mis-opinion, does beget another; so, thus it is too, in the very beginning, as well as in the progress of true Religion: not only the Cathari (for, that word will be less quarreled at then the direct English of that word) will misdeem themselves so 
† Paenitentiam denegat. Austin. de Haeres. 169. Aetes' nostra tam praesentibus plena est numinibus, ut facilius possis Deum, quam Heminem invenire; 'tis so true of Aetas nostra, that I may spare to quote Petronius for it.  holy and perfect, as if they were a kind of Demigods on Earth, at least the Dii minorum Gentium (for, they are the minors, the inferior sort of people, who artogate to themselves this inferior kind of Divinity) nor only the contracters and Covenanters with Hell, who rather than fail of a Plurality, though they assuredly know, there is but one God, will worship the Devil himself for another; but, out of the infirmity of his unknowing Nature (for, less of knowledge is part of the punishment of Adam's sin, in all Adam's race) and, in the simplicity, and misled zeal of his Heart, he that is, but now, Initiated into the belief of a God, that is convinced of his monstrous crime in denying that there is any God, will so abhor that Atheistical gui●t, as, rather than return to that gross mistake, every thing he sees, and knows, every thing he loves, and fears, shall be a God; there shall not only be, as St. 
† L de Haeresib. Fig. 46. excus. Oxon & adact. Vincenti● Lyrinens. Commonitoriu. duabu● Any 1631.  Austln says the Manichaeans held, Duo Principia, Aeterna & Coaeterna, Boni & mali, but numerosum Principium utriusque and yet, even amongst these too (which would make the very Soul to blush) every good Soul is of the same nature, of which God himself is; This also they say, 
† Ibid.  out of their former absurd principle, although with a Coguntur dicere; and then, uno absurdo dato, sequuntur mille, if ever there were but one thousand of good Souls, (perhaps a thousand of thousands too,) every good Soul of these is an absurdity, a Solecism of the Manichaeans; not only the living Spirit of a Man, but the liveless Body of the Sun shall be one God, and every Star another; and than what 
† Quicquid humus, pelagus, coelum, mirabile signat, Id dixere Deos, colles, Freta, Flumina flammas. Prudentius; the Heathens do worship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. de Natal. Christi.  store of Gods have they! and how above number! though we have store enough of God, in one, and that, innumerable store too, because but one; yet, such a one, as is infinitely more infinite than all else, which, in their own nature, though not by the actual Arithmetic of Man, are capable to be numbered, because he, alone, is more all than they, which I shall presently tell you of, in showing you the several ways, by which God is one.  
3. He is one, simplicitate, because he is not made up of several parts, as all things are, that have this, that they are, of gift, the most simple of them, are, at least, compounded of Actus, and Potentia; All things else, are compounded; and the very composition of them does Un-God all things else; every totum Physicum (and I speak only of substantials which are entire, and have nature in them; for, they, who make the part of a Man, a God, have answered themselves, for, how can that, which is but a part, and that but of a Man, be, yet; a God? and a whole God too? but, when they make the worst part of Man a God, they may safely do it, Nil securius est Lascivo Idololatra; I can only reply to such, 
Phil. 2.  what Tully did to Anthony, Sunt quaedam, quae honestè non possum dicere, 
Phil. 3.  and what to Dolabella, Ea turpitudo est, quae objici, ne ab inimico quidem potest verecundè; and they, who make the Accidents of Man a God, who implore Febrem Deam, to take away Febrem Morbum, who will have a Deus Vagitanus, that their Children may not hurt themselves with crying, and a Deus Fabulanus to teach their Children how to speak, a Deus Statelinus, that they may stand upright, and not fall, and a Deus Potinus, that they may Drink aright, and not fall; and if every such circumstance as these must Deity, any one Man may set himself upon so many employments, and mishap himself into so many postures, till he stands in need of all Hesiods thirty thousand Gods, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  to protect such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and multiform Man; but these, and the suspicions rather than opinions of these, are more worthy a pity, than a disproof) every totum Physicum is made up of its Constitutive parts, matter, and form; there must be matter, that it be not made of nothing; there must be form, that it be not made Incomplete; and, being both these, there must be, an Efficient cause of the union of both these, lest any thing should make itself; and, therefore, being made by another, (and it is all one, if it were possible for any thing, to be made by itself) it cannot be God, because not Eternal, à parte ante, much less, though it were Eternal à parte post, could it, yet be God; and yet, even thus-eternal, the choicest piece of it, is not, of its own prerogatival nature, but only by grant, from that Ens simplicissimum, which gave it the Originals of which it was made. 
Ortum quicquid habet, 
Statius.  Finem timet, Ibimus omnes  
I●imus.  Much less can that Fortune, which this age adores, be a Goddess, because it is not a substance; which if it were, That very Composition word— Te FACIMUS fortuna Deam— is Argument enough against her Goddess-ship; for what Divinity has she, whom such a mortal makes, 
Mat. 5.36.  that cannot make a Hair black or white?  
4. But then, the Metaphysical Being's, which approach nearest to this ens simplicissimum, yet they are, neither It, nor God, and therefore they are not God, because they are not pure, though immaterial acts, but acts, and power too; nor do they, by that spirituality they have, so much recede from the matter below them, as they are, in the very same spirituality, distant from the Fountain Spirit above them; they are, Spirits, but they were not; yet, when they were not, they were in a power and capacity, to be produced; not in a Potentiâ Subjectiuâ, as all Physical Compounds, after the Creation of the First matter, are (when the Earth was, (as the Philosophers say that First matter Is, 
Gen. 1.2.  Informis & formae vacua) without form and void) as they all, besides Man alone, are, without all doubt and controversy, educed è potentiâ materiae, but, in a potentiâ Objectiuâ, essentially inhaerent in God and yet, not Inhaerent in him, as a Philosophical Potentia, in relation to future Acts, for he is Actus Purus, and nothing else but Actus, but as an Actual Potestas) for, of themselves, there was no part existent, till themselves were; this kind of Composition they have; else, they always were, and, of themselves, would always Be, Ab Aeterno, in Aeternum, and therefore, were God in deed, and being so, would always be so; but they were, neither so, nor he; for, if they had not this Composition, and were God (for, Gods, I cannot away to call them, so much as in supposition,) it must be known, that they had not this, and were that, either by the Light of Scripture, or by the Light of Nature; but, neither of these Lights will give in any such false evidence, or bribed verduit; not that of nature; for, in her School, the Captain Disciple of the highest form, will sooner doubt, whether there be any such thing, as Angel, then make such an ambiguous Essence (which is so far removed from demonstration, that there is no such Praecognitum of it, Quod sit, but rather a dispute, and that, rather held in the Negative, An sit) to be his God; if there be, at all, any knowledge of an Angel by Nature, the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of it will tell the Inquisitive natural Man, that an Angel is such a Creature (for, by this time, and because of this Office, I may well call him so) which is to deliver the Message of another to another; and a Godhead that goes on errands, the very natural Man will not allow of; Besides all this, may it not therefore be, that the gracious wisdom of God did conceal the whole Order of Angels from the mere Man, upon this prevision, and foreknowledge, that Man would be apt to adore such spirituities, and, upon this merciful ground, to prevent such Idolatrous adorations? And Scripture, by which we Infallibly know, there are Angels and archangels too, will not Connive at any such Mistake; For, There we know, the Archest of them, is so far from being God that He is much rather, and in that very Word, a Fool in comparison; His Angels, All of them, 
Job 4.18.  He charged with Folly; mark the word, and the Authority of it, 'tis not He suspected them; for a meaner man may suspect a much Better than Himself, and nothing in this world of ours more Common, not Avarice, and Pride more in the Heart and upon the Back of Man; than suspicion and Jealousy, in step He takes, and of every Men he sees; tisnot barely, He knew them Guilty; for, That, the Low, and Poor Man, may do, by the High and Rich Man; 'tis not barely, H. Punished them for their guilt (though He did, some of them, even unto Damnation; one of them, who was too proud in His Office (Angelus, Officii●, & Ministerii vox est) Fell like lightning, (like one Fire●, 
Luke 10.18.  into another, like a Bright One, into a Dark one) for the Cob-Webb-Laws, in All Nations, will vex a Fly, when it does Corvis Ignoscere, not because the Crow is more Innocent, but because the Fly has less wings, and weaker legs; but it is, He Charged them; He pleads the La● against them, and That no Cob-web-Law, but the very same within them, and He pleads till themselves cry Guilty till they do, as the lightning does, like which they Fa●●, Fall of themselves, 
Rom. 13.  till they also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not only by Resisting the power, which is Of God, but which is inseparably In God, in aiming to Independ of Him; and I think I may further explain the explication which a late Judicious † Author hath applied to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not only, 
Dr. Basire in his sacr●lege Arraigned.  as He says Beza says, they shall be Damned, in a passive sense, nor only they shall Damn themselves, in an Active sense, by wilful Perjury, or by wi●full Impenitency, but they shall Damn themselves too, by Approbation of the Sentence against them, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they shall Take Damnation as their Due, as a Right charge against them, as a Just Judgement upon them; 
Coloss. 1.20.  and ever since, the Angels which stand, Confirmed by That Jesus, who hath Reconciled all things, whether they be things in Earth, or things in Heaven, have been very Wary not to admit, but to Reject any Over Humilities of Man to them, to the Derogation from the Honour of Their One only God; and the whole Multitude of them sung, Glory be to God in the Highest; not to GOD'S, 
Luke 2.14.  least of all to themselves.  
5. Thus, from the Finite, and Made Nature of all things else, in Earth, and Heaven too, there is but One God; for I list not to seek out Another God, in that, which is No where, in Purgatory, nor, in That, which is the Worst where, in Hell. And though this might suffice, yet I go on to prove the Unity of the Godhead, from the very Nature of the Godhead.  
6. He is One, singularitate; so, as he is Only One; not so, as the Sun is Only One; for, though there never was, nor will be any more, than One Sun in the Firmament, yet, if God had so pleased, there Might have been, and still May be, as many Suns, as Stars, as well as Certainly there Will be neither Sun, nor Stars; but He is, so, One Only God, that it is Impossible, and Contradictory to the very Nature, and Essence, and Power of God, that there should be More Gods than One; for, if there were More, there were None; and that because each God could not be Infinite, as being Excluded from That somewhat else, which is God as well as He; from which if He be excluded, He is a Finite God, and, as good have no God at all, as a Finite One, which, in very deed, is no God at all; and, if He be Not excluded, He is the very same with That somewhat else, and, so, not More Gods, but One God; Each God, were not Almighty, or not a Free Agent; not Almighty, because He could not do any thing contrary to the Doing of that other God, who is equally Almighty as Himself, i. e. neither of them is Almighty, which is a Tamburlaine and a Quam, Negatively, as good as we can devise to Allow them; or else He is not a Free Agent, because, if He could do it, He must not have Will to do it, till He can obtain leave from His Fellow-God, to surcease the contrary Action; and these, to be Infinite, and Voluntary, and Almighty are the very Nature, and Essence, and Power o● God, without, All, or without Any of which, He is, as Pliny said, some would have the Tribunatus to be, 
Lib. 1. ep. 23.  Inanis Umbra, & sine Honore Nomen, and Lucan, to the same purpose, of Pompey (if I forget not) as if One of them had Read the other, stat Magni Nominis Umbra; Thus, That immutable God, in whom there cannot be so much as a shadow of Changing, 
James 1.17.  would yet Himself be nothing else but shadow, and that upon such a No Ground, as, by the same Reason, Locus est & pluribus Umbris, Nullique Deo, and all Hesiods Three hundred Jupiter's would not be sufficient to make up One. Let me Illustrate This, by occasion of That passage in Lucan with the vanity & Nothingness of a Bandied Power against Power, and a Fight will against will even up on Earth; When the Breach was made so wide betwixt Caesar and Pompey, that One Land would not hold their Power, nor One Verse so much as Their Name; but that— Caesarve Priorem— must stand by Himself, and then— Pompeiusve Parem— by Himself; when they could not knit, and yoke together, unless in Virgil's quarrelsome expression— Pede pes, Densusque Viro Vir; when Caesar would have none Above Him, but would Himself be supreme, and Pompey would have none Equal to Him, but would Himself be more supreme than Caesaer, what followed then, but— Pila Minantia Pilis,- the exact and terrible Picture of their Desires Thwarting their Desires? and when could there be an end of these Discords, till there was an end of one of these Ambitious Pretending Supremes? nay, even After He was deceased, as if there were a new Civil war betwixt His own Putrifying Members, as if one fide of Him did Side with Caesar, and Another, with Himself, One Grave could no more hold All of Pompey, than One Pharsalia could hold Pompey and Caesar too— Jacere— Uno non poterat tanta Ruina Loco; 
Martial.  as if Pompey were as much divided against Himself, even after he left off to be himself, as a third Poet tells us, the very Flames of departed Etheocles and Polynices did point several ways, and held up the Lasting Feud, even after Death itself, which was begun, for Empire-sake, betwixt Both of them Alive, 
— Fratris primos ut Contigit Artue  
Ignis edax, 
Statius. Thebay. lib. ult.  Tremuere Rogi, & Novus Advena Bustis  
Pellitur; exundant Diviso Vertice Flammae;   
Nor shall I yet, let pass this Oneness of singularity, but give you a very good and Rational Account of itfrom that solid probation which, even the Heathens themselves have affixed to it; Those three properties of Ens, (which is one of the first Lessons, we read in all the Metaphysicians) Plato and his followers, have wisely thought fit to apply to God Himself, and to prove the Unity of the Godhead not only by the propriety of Unity, 
Insecuti Doctoris vestigia, singulari Ingenio, eloquentia non Incuriosâ, Platonici multi, unum modò esse Deum, Ratione Triplici probare connituntur; primo, quia summa est Vnitas Nam, si quodlibet summum est Vnicum, quid magis Vnicum est, quam summa Unitas? Est etiam Unus, quia est Veritas, summa enim viritas una est; Nam si Duae summae Veritates esse dicantur, aut Una earum habet quicquid Altera habet, aut Non; si prius datur, una est, non Duae; Si secundum est, Neutra est summa; Dost enim Isti, Illud verttatis, quod in Illa est, & Illi, quod est in Ista; Item unus est Deus, quia summa est Bonitas; summa quippe Bonitas, quicquid Boni reperiri usquam potest, complectitur; Quod si Duas induxeris Bonitates summas, quicquid Boni est in una, est & in Altera; Alioqui Neutra esset summa; &, secundum Boni Ipsius Naturam Unum sunt, non Duo; Neque est aliquid Illis admixtum, praeter Bonitatis Naturam, quia summae non essent, sed Inquinatae, Unum itaque sunt Omnine. L. C. Rhodiginus, Lectionum Antiquarum lib. 22. cap. 4. M. D. XCIX. pag. 1029.  but by those other two of Truth, and Goodness also; there is, say they, a One and an Only God, first, because there is a Chief, Supreme Unity, above which, we cannot after do so much as to imagine any thing; Meditate God; Think himself; and go up higher if thou canst; Think any thing which Is, and Is Not Himself, and thou Thinkest Downwards, of Created spirits, or of some thing else, which is so far off from God, that it is less than They; such a Chief sovereign there Is; for, if every Chief in its own kind (I may Latin both the words, and call it Genus summum) be only One; (as in the kind of substances, That is the chief, which i● Above a●● the rest, abstracted from This and That, and That is but One substance at a●ge, and not This, or That specifical. Individual substance, of the first of which, there are always two, and of the atter, many more) much more is the supreme Chief, which is God Himself, above all these Inferior Chiefs, in th● very Unity also. Again, He is a One, and an Only God, because He is Truth as well as Unity, and the Chief, as well in This as in That; and that the Chief Truths should be One, and but on●y One. Is so Popularly granted, and so upon the Tongue of the mostignerant Man, even then also, when He Believes amiss, and is Wedded to a Falsehood, instead of a Truth, by the Authority and Countenance of the Next Justice, whose Religion He Will follow, that the Derivative Truth from Him, is, Proverbiably, and undisputably, but One. There Can be but One Truth; nay but One Truth, even under the Sun, in the Latitude of its Compass, nay in One Island of which, (that which resembles, as some say, the Form of Pythagoras' Letter, as being like the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Triangular, and which, 
† J. Greg. in Notes upon some passages of Scripture, to the Reader pag. penult.  Another Grievingly says, He is sure 'tis far enough from a square) This Nation of ours, there is but One Truth, though there be many falsehoods, (anabaptistical, Jesuitical, etc. more than I can Name, or than Christians in former ages have felt, Or Catalogists of the Schisms and Heresies, have reckoned) which Rebel against Her, over which she should Reign, and which, because they are Rebellious against Her, she should subdue, and even Enslave in Her own meek Bonds of sincere gospel-truth; and if, so Confessedly even by the Enemies of Truth, there is but One Truth Below, how much less, and Impossibly can the Author of That One Truth, who has His undisturbed, unrioted Throne in Heaven be factious against Himself, as being Divided into several Truths? It cannot be; for supposing there were more Truths than One, though but One Truth more, (I suppose, as Plato did, more Supreme, more Chief Truths, though, at most, but two Chief Truths) either One of those Chief truths, must have All that Truth in it, which the other of those Chief Truths has, or else, it must Not have All. If it Has All, they are so Like, that they are Altogether the same, Et eret is in Veritatem unam, and ye Twain shall be One Truth; If, it has not All the Truth, which the Other has; either One of These, the Really-Chief Truth has All, that Is Truth, in it, and the Other, the but supposedly. Chief Truth, though it has Nothing else, but Truth in it, has not All; and then, the Former only is the Chief Truth, as Lacking nothing, and the latter not so, as being defective, which is Contrary to the nature of Chiefness, and Summity; and therefore, still, but One of These is the Chief Truth; or else Both of them, have some of That Truth, which either of them Lack, and, so, Neither of them is the Chief; though a Chief Truth, there must be, which has neither lack of Truth in itself, nor a Chiefer Truth Above it, à Coneessis, & à Fortiori, because there is but One Chief Truth Below the Sun, derived from That, which is, Absolutely Incomparatively, and exclusively, The Chief Truth above it; it somewhat Pleases me, that Plato Himself, should come, though but Thus-Neere, to That Christ of Ours, 
John 14.6.  whose Name is The TRUTH, and who (though Himself was essentially, and indivisibly, 
Matth. 19 17.  the same Good God of whom He spoke) said also, there is None Good, but ONE, that is GOD; and This, which He thus said, as Truly, as Dogmatically, directs me to give you the English of the third Platonical Reason for the Unity of the Godhead, that there is One, and an Only God, because there is a Chief Bonitas, a Supreme Goodness which Comprehends All, which is Any where, or in any Degree, Good, within its one self; that there is such a Chief Goodness (which has no Admixture of Bad in it, for, else it would not be the Chief Good, which is Nothing else but Good, nothing in any Contrariety to Goodness; and, by being partly-Good, and partly-bad, would be so far from the One only Good, that it would almost break its very self in two) do but place Good a●d Goodness in the room of True, and Truth, and the Former Arguments may be all over, Repleaded; By all of which, it appears that there is bu● One God; who is only More, in this most allowable, Theological, and Orthodox sense, in that He is One, More ways than One; and one way more yet; for  
He is, not only One, simplicitate, by reason of the Composition, and, thereby, of the Finiteness, and Mortality of all things else, unless H● who is simply-One, though He continues them in their Finiteness, Clothes them upon, with Immortality; He is not only One, 
2 Cor. 5.4  singularitate,. as, all things else, besides the Supremes in their kind, are, at least Two; and those, in Genere suo supreme, are less One than He; who, as He is, Ens simplicissimum, so he is Unitas simpliciter summa; but he is also.  
7. 
Picus Mirandula.  One God, & One Only God, Universalitate (as † one well says of Him) Deus est Omnia, God, Is, All that Is: which, once again, besides the Finiteness, and Mortanty of every thing e●s, takes off the Pretence unto Deity, from Any thing else; All things that Are, the One God is All them together; and much More, all them, then All they are themselves; not only, in that, all they are but, severally, themselves; This, is this, and nothing else but this; That, is that, and nothing else but that; and therefore, one by one, are Circumscribed, the Dimensions of their bodies, which have Bodies, being proportionated too, and comprehended within the Dimensions of that place, in which they are; the Bodies, at least, are so, if the created Spirits are not, this way also, circumscribed and comprehended; for as to these very terms, in relation to Those very Spirits, adhuc sub Judice lis est, though it be extra Controversiam positum, that, even These also, severally, and One by One, are so Hic, ●hat they are not Alibi but their Hic & Nunc, and their Anon and Elsewhere, go together: but This One God, is, at once in all places, not circumscribed in any, and Is, all these, In One; not only, the One God is more All things, than all things are themselves, this one way, but he is More All They, than All they are Themselves this Other way too, in that All They are Themselves Preeariò, and He, is All They, Potestatiuè; they were, All, in Him, before they were at all in Themselves, as the effects lie Hid in their Causes, till they are Actually produced; and They having been in Him, before they were made, by way of Power, and Authority, more than in Themselves, After they were made, they, Then, having a Being by Dependency, and Beholdingness, do no more Multiply Him, after they are Created, than they did Multiply Him, before they were Created, when there was nothing in th● world else but He, nay not so much as a world, neither, Himself being, as the Alone God, so, All That world which Himself Inhabited, in whom yet Allthings else, and Millions of worlds besides, even Then were, by way of Eminency, and Power to produce them.  
8. The Best of all these (however they are wrongfully called Gods, in respect of the first and Independent sense of the word, though they are Precarious and Derivative Gods, and that with a much more Authoritative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, than Any Man can speak; 
Psal. 82.6.  Dixi quòd Dii estis) are so far from being Essentially-Really Gods, that they are not Similitudinarily so, not so much as like unto him, Amongst the Gods (the Made-Gods, the Gods made by Man) there is None (they are called Gods, they are not so; they are but Idols, 
1 Cor. 8.4.  and an Idol is Nothing in the World, a whole Multitude of them is but a Repeated Nothing, a deal of Ciphers crowded together, without so much as one Figure to stamp a Being upon them) None like unto thee, 
Psal. 86. ●.  O Lord; Whatever it is, that pretends to this, it must be, either All, or Part, of Heaven and Earth, and the Inhabitants thereof; and yet, All of these, and every Part of these, are the Work of his Hands, 
Gen. 1.1.  In the Beginning, God made them All, and made them too, without Elaboration, on, without putting his Whole Hand to them, for they were (as a Father Dishonours them from the Hand of God) but Opus Digitorum Ipsius, and Fashioned too, In Principio; they, who had a Beginning, are as much Un-Godded, in that they, once, were not, as they, who have a Sepulchre, 
Diogen. Laert. in vita Thaletis.  and are not now, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; and, therefore, upon this Ground, because they were Made, and were the Work of Another, does it well follow, and by way of Powerful Argumentation and Confutation, in King David, Neither are there any Works like unto thy Works; it is not a God, that can either be Idle, or not Work Excellently; unless it makes, and no less than a New Heaven and a New Earth, it will forfeit all the Devotion, and Knees, which it Impotently Challenges; Nay, the Best Counterfeit of all these, is so far from being Like that God, whom it would fain Resemble, that he that takes it so to be, is Like even to it; Their Idols have Mouths, but they speak not; Eyes have they, but they see not; they have Ears, 
Ps. 115.8.  but they hear not; they that make them, are like unto them; and what an Inglorious God is this, when it is the Contumely of Man himself to be such! So senseless, so unseen, 
Ducit, & affictu quodam Interno rapit infirma corda mortalium, formae similitudo, & membrorum imitata compago; Plus valent simulachra, ad Curvandam Infelicem animam quod os habent, oculos habent, aures habent, quam ad corrigendam, quod non loquuntur, non vident, non audiunt, non ambulant.  so unheard-of, so unfit to be spoke of, a thing it is, to believe more Gods than One; And though upon that place St. Austin says, that the Outward the Shape, and Imitated Joyntness of Members, does not only entice, and lead, but compel, and draw, the Affections of Weak Minds after them, yet I cannot choose but wonder, as well as Grieve, that his Observation should be any where true, that such Images should more prevail to humble a wretched Soul before them, because they have Mouth, and Eyes and Ears (or, rather, Holes, instead of these) than to instruct a wretched Soul, that it should not be humbled before them, because those Images can neither speak, nor see, nor hear, especially when the dumb and moveless posture of them speaks this to the Eye of the Beholder, as loudly as the Word of God does speak it (who, if he had pleased, might Comment upon that Text of his, Et mihi si non vis Credere, Crede tibi) that they are made by Man, and therefore cannot be Gods: Worship him therefore, not only all ye, the Subjected People, 
Psal. 27.7.  but Worship him too, All ye, the Ruling Gods, and that, 
V 9  because Thou Lord art high above all the Earth, thou art exalted far above all Gods; whoever he be, that would be worshipped instead of a God, he is, instead of a God, a very Satan, and O, that we could get him hence, not only out of this Isle, but out of the World too, that we, and all else, might neither have his Rome nor his Company! 
Mat. 4.9.  For it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him ONLY shalt thou serve.  
9 And might not these three ways, by which God is One, and but Only One, by Incomposition, by Singularity, and by Universality; and these three Reasons of the Indivisible Oneness of God, drawn from Unity itself, from Truth, and from Goodness, might not either of these three Degrees, or rather Orders of Unity, occasion that Zealous Expression of St. Bernard, in which he calls God On't, in the third Degree, the Superlative of Comparison? who, rather than any else should make another God, would himself (with a modest Parenthesis) make a word, for the Only God, 
Lib. 5. de Consider.  Deus Vnus est, & (si dici potest) Vnissimus: Nay, one of the Better-brained Heathens, Plutarch, was so much too Rational to admit a Plurality of Gods, that he tells us, Apollo (who was his God) was so called ab a Privitiuâ, & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, because there cannot, to any sober Imagination, be more than One; and, though all Wise Men say so (for he is as very a Fool, that says in his heart, 
Psal. 14.1.  there are Two Gods, as he, that says there is No God, no not One) yet I make choice of the Testimony of the first of these, because of the Singularness and Fervency of his Expression, and of the latter, because of the Resolute Authority of the most Judicious of Heathens.  
10. I shall conclude this way of Argumentation, that there is One God, that there is but One God, that nothing else is Really God, with a Note upon Deut. 6.4. and proceed, in one word, openly against the Romanist, who, now, more than ever, lays Snares, to draw us off from the True Worship of the One God; and though he does not make somewhat else his God, in Terminis, yet, in effect, he does, whilst he applies that Worship, which is only Proper to the Only True God, to somewhat else that is not God; though he is not got into the Inner Rooms of the Polytheists, yet I am sure he treads upon their Threshold; and, in another word, against the Opinionist, and Ill Liver of our own, the one being a Recusant, though not a Romanist, and the other robbing God of his honour, as much as he, though not the same way as he.  
11. But before I proceed to these, hear this one Word of God, which itself calls upon you to hear it, Hear, 
Deut. 6.4.  O Israel. (whatever sounds contrary to this, it must not be listened to) the Lord our God is ONE Lord; we should wear this Verse, written in our Heads and Hearts, (we should read and peruse it there, for it is already there, written and engraven by the Finger of God) as it is Recorded of the Jews, 
Fagius, in Exod. 13.  that they writ it out in Parchment, and wore it within their Hair, and upon their Brow, and upon their Left Arm.  
12. And yet, does not Rome at Rome, and Rome in England, sin against the Unity of the Godhead, which she confesses to Believe, whilst, on this side, and on yonder side the Sea, she bows down to Images, and invokes Saints, and, at this instant, labours, though in a Mine; and fights against our Religion, though under the Cloak of it, both in Church and State, to make Proselytes, not only to more Spirits than one, but to less than Spirit, to less than Un-canonized, nay to less than Breathing Man, to Stocks, and Stones, 
Psal. 115.135.17.  Quibus non est Spiritus in Ore Ipsorum? I could wish (but that they are too cunning, not only for me, but, a while, for the State too, to discover) that some Man's Buff was taken off, and sent to his Holy Father, with that Question graven upon it, Haeccine Tunica Filit Tui? Would the Pope himself, trow ye, as his Emissary, Sergeant Protestant, that he might be a Successful Fisher of Men (though the very Success in Error, is the greatest Damage) and draw all of us, as Fish to his Net? I fear me, he would rather draw with the Binding of a Faggot.  
13. He that worship's Images on Earth, and Saints in Heaven, nay, that undoubted Saint, the Virgin Mary (although even we also justly acknowledge that she is 
Quantò splendidior, 
Ovid. Met. lib. 2.  quàm caetera sidera, fulget  
Lucifer, & quantò, quàm Lucifer, Aurea Phoebe,  
Tantò Virginibus Praestantior omnibus—)  More than, or as much as, or besides, the Holy Offspring of that Virgin Mary, gives that Honour of God to another, either Thing, or Person, which God himself saies, he will give to neither; I am the Lord; that is my Name, 
Is. 42.8.  and my Glory will I not give to another, neither my Praise to Graven Images; What greater Glory, than Invocation? what greater Praise, than Prayer? of which, in its Distinction, Praise is part— I will worship towards thy holy Temple, and Praise thy Name; 
Psal. 38.2.  What harm has the Blessed Virgin done us, that we should afflict that Modesty and Humility of hers, (which, no doubt she retains in Heaven, and is, even there also, the Handmaid of her God, though the very Best, and Best-beloved that he has) with an undue Praise, and an unheard Prayer? Not only the Holy Ghost tells us, that when she heard those great Eulogies, and Wellspeakings, 
Luk. 1.28.  Hail, O thou highly Favoured, the Lord is with thee; 
V 29. In Lib. cui Tit. Meditationis Vitae Christi Lat. Dar. à Michaele ab Isselt. c. 2.  Blessed art thou among Women, though from the Mouth of an Angel, who knew better what he said, than either they or we, She was troubled at his saying, but their own Ludovicus Granatensis adds a Timuit to the Turbata est, and gives this reason for it, Nihil enim Humili adiosius est, quàm proprias audire Laudes, Nothing is more Hateful to an Humble Mind, than to hear itself Commended; why then do they, to the very Spirit of her, whom they so much love, that thing which she so much hates? unless they will conceive she hath put off her Humility, with her  of Flesh? and will not afford her as many Virtues in Heaven, as she had on Earth? He goes on, Nihil magis timet, quam hujusmod● Gratulationes, She fears nothing more than a Mess of Praises; and why will they diet her with that she is afraid to taste of? why are they not more Civil, than to put so excellent a Lady (whom they can never enough esteem, only bating her the honour of her God) into a Fright? She is, indeed, Angelical, (whatever they will, below God) she has the Passion of Hope, that they will Convert, the Passion of Joy, when they do Convert, not to her, but God, and the Passions of Fear and Grief, when they do Convert, not to God, but her; and he goes on still, and still wondrously and Pathetically well, Quemadmodum Avarus metuit Latrones, as a covetous Man, when he rides with his Master behind him, a Portmantieu of gold at his back, fears a highway Thief; sic verus humilis metuit laudes hominum, quae sunt fures humilitatis; so, one, that is truly humble, fears an over-praise, which is an enemy (pessimum inimicorum genus laudantes) and a Thief too, 
Tacitus.  to steal away her humility; and why then will they put her, into so great, and so dangerous a fear? as if they suspected, either she is not truly humble, or else would not have her be so hereafter. Let them take heed lest by such Adulatory compliments, themselves be those Thiefs, of whom our Saviour, (the Son of our Virgin Mary, and of their Goddess Marry) hath said, that they shall not come to Heaven, to break through, 
Mat. 6.20.  and steal there; Let them, if they will bow in their Churches, as our late 
† In his Speech in the Star-Chamber June 14.1637.  Archbishop hath observed Moses and Aaron fell down upon their faces at the door of the Tabernacle, Numb. 20.6. as Hezekiah the King and all with him did, they bowed and worshipped, 2 Chron. 29.29. as David calls upon all to do, 
Ps. 95.6.  O come let us worship and b●w down; nay, let me, without offence, (for I hope, none at home, will be angry at the very, and express words of Scripture) add one example more of this kind of veneration; because the reason of it is involved in it, Wherewith shall I come before the Lord? and bow myself before the high God? 
Micah. 6.6.  the Prophet will let them alone, and we will nor quarrel at them; for, this is no part of the pre●ent controversy, whether God is to be worshipped, with the Body also? and holy and good Men of our own, the stoutest adversaries of the errors of Rome, have done all this; but then let them do all this, as a worship only to the only God; let them do it upon the Prophet's account, bow, and be lowly, because God is as high now, as ever he was; and if they tell me, the Prophet joins them together, as there being the same and equal Authority, or, at least, Licence, for bowing before the high God, as for coming before the Lord, if they shall inquire, why we, who know it necessary to come before the Lord, 
Heb. 10.25.  and not to forsake the Assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, do yet call it unlawful, and either Antichristian, or Jewish, to bow before the high God, I confess I have not wherewith to reply; and all this I say, to take off from the scandal, which has been thrown upon the former Pillars of our Church, Holy Scripture itself being the Pillar of their practice, which, that is was not Judaical, the most R. 
† In answer to the tw●lfth Innovation, so called.  Laud hath cleared, in that, long before Judaisme began, Bethel the House of God was a place of Reverence, collected out of Gen. 28.17, etc. To inquire whether All the Negative Commandments do not, all of them, involve a Preceptive Affirmation directly contrary to the prohibition; whether, in the 
† The sccond to us, but, none at all, to Rome.  second Commandment, the Affirmative Duty is not, that we ought to bow to God; whether, to bow to graven Images, be not, therefore, Idolatry, because the Image is thus worshipped with a reverence due to God, non est hujus institu●i & loci; yet this is evidently and expressly enough a command, Thou shalt not make unto thee any Graven Images, 
Exod. 20.4.  or the likeness— Thou shalt not bow down thyself to THEM, nor serve THEM; and I think the Emphasis lies in the last word; These words, however they have an Art and shift, not to call them the Second Commandment, yet they have no shift nor Art at all, not to call them Scripture, they being in their very own Bible, as well as in Gods, one only word being changed, which altars not, and another left out, which touches not, the quick, V 5 and heart of the Objection, 
In the Bible translated by the College of Douai. Printed by John Consturier, 1635. at Roven.  Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them; and this is the result of all their long Notes upon that Commandment; they worship Saints with Dulia, not with Latria; that Saints are to be honoured with Religious Honour, which is greater than Civil, & less than Divine; that they Honour God alone with Sacrifice, and not Saints; that they have Authentical examples, in these Scriptures Gen. 32.48. Exod. 3.32. Numb. 22. Joshua 5.3. Reg. 18.4. Reg. 2. Psalm. 98. for honouring Saints and Relics. Not to meddle with their Dulia and Latria any otherwise, then as, after, they interpret them by Divine, and Religious worship; and not to meddle with these, in the answers already given to them by 
† Of the Church Book 3. C. 20. p. 106. Printed at London 1606.  Doctor Field, any otherwise, than to call to your remembrance that remarkable passage out of St. Austin Honoramus eos (i. e. Saints and Angels) Charitate, non servitute. De verâ Relig. Cap. 55. which, in the sense of that Holy Father, does more expressly and significantly exclude the Dulia to Saints and Angels, by how much Servitus is more Latinely significant, than Dulia, but, to examine a fresh their Distinction of worship, into Divine and Religious, and to determine out of Scripture-probalities at least, by occasion of St. Augustine's distinction of Charitas and Servitus.  
14. I take it, Divine and Civil, are terms directly opposite; and Religious and Civil, are terms so too; and Divine and Religious, in respect of worship, are terms equivalent: All which if so it be, they have much failed in Logic in dividing worship, into three parts, two of which three, against rule, and reason, and disputation, do Coincidere; whether they do so, or not, and how they can, or cannot be distinct, in the sense, in which Douai urges them, let us further try.  
The word Divine, though it does always, does not only relate to God (and the Membra Dividentia of any thing, aught to be plain, and evident, and not only so, but Incommunicable too, as being the essentiales differentiae, which do dare else, and distinguere ab omni alio) else, why is the title of the last Book of God— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Revelation of St. JOHN the DIVINE? of whom I never yet heard that it was a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, called in question even by the Church of Rome, whether he was a Divine, yea or no; And then, as Creature may be Divine, in an Interior degree, as God himself is Divine; so the Creature-Worshippers, (if they may worship at all) may worship Creature (notwithstanding this plausible distinction) with Divine worship, Caveated that the Divine worship be infinitely inferior to that of God; this is all their own sense of Religious worship, and let them evade, if they can, my application of it to Divine worship.  
15. But then, next, let them give me leave soberly to inquire concerning the lawfulness of this Inferior degree as they call it, and but religious worship, as they diminish it: I must confess, that, as Religion is so called a Religando, from the Obligation it lays upon Man to perform it; so, it cannot, as yet, enter into me, that any thing is true Religion, or truly Religious, but what is made so, Vi Praecepti, by such a command, which makes it binding, and obligatory to Man; is any thing Religion, which may be observed, or not observed? is any Act Religious, which may be done or omitted, ad placitum spontanei cultoris? O what an Indifferent, what a Neutral, what a lukewarm Religion is this, which, when Man forbears, God is not offended, and when Man practices, God is ready to spew him out of his mouth, with a Quis ista Requisivit? 
Is. 1.12.  The DIVINE himself tells us as much, so then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth; and let them not tell me, that this threat is denounced upon the lukewarmness of him that pays the worship, and not upon the indifferency of the worship which he pays, lest I tell them, it is the same fault, to obtrude that service with too much fervour, which is, at best, but indifferent, if not an obsequious sin, as to pay that service, with too little fervour, which is so far from being indifferent, that it is a sin of undutifulness, not to pay it: but is it, not a Neutral, not an indifferent worship, but a necessary duty? if so, so it is, by virtue of command, either from God, or from the Church of God; That God hath not commanded this kind of worship, we shall show anon; only, in the mean while let me tell them, that if they pretend th●● to be a duty, & their performance of it to be an obedience to the command of their God, then, this itself, is not, in their sense, a Religious, but, by their own Interpretation, a Divine worship, in that they only obey that God in doing it, who commanded them to do it; If I do not worship God himself, and worship him infinitely, in respect of himself, and, as near to infinitely, as I can, in respect of my own devotion, when I labour to the utmost of my own endeavours, assisted by his grace, to fulfil, all, or any, of his own immediate commands, I would fain know, when it is, or in what it is that they do, or I can, worship the God of us all, with a Divine worship. If they worship Saints or Angels, by virtue of a command from the Church of God (which very Church of God can only command, either that Gods own commands be obeyed, or that her commands be obeyed in the name of God, in those things, which God, by leaving them indifferent, neither charged, nor prohibited, hath left to her prudence to consider, and to her power to determine, not at all that any Sanction of hers be submitted to against the express will of God) than they perform this duty, either simply, as the Church, consisting of such a number of Men, commands it, and then it is not so much as Dulia to Saints or Angels,) but rather a civil worship of the Commanders; for, as the stream will never run up, any higher than the Fountain which feeds it, so, their obedience cannot be denommated by a more excellent stile, then that which belongs to the primary cause of their obedience; or else, they perform this duty, as the Church, not considered as such a number of Men, but as infallibly assisted with the Grace, and direction of God, Injoins it, and then, their worship of Saints and Angels, is not so little as Dulia, but so much as Latria, in that the Direction of God is the principal cause of their worship, and the service performed to Saints and Angels, it being not performed to them, as they are Saints and Angels (for, such they are, though God, and his Church never bids the worship of them) but because God hath commanded it, either by himself, immediately, or by his Spirit residing in his Church, is as much a Latria, and worship of God, as Prayer to God himself, even privately, because he hath commanded it, or Prayer to God, in a set form of Liturgy in his House, because his Church hath prescribed it, is a Latrta and worship of God; eâdem positâ causâ, idem sequitur effectus. Thus, for aught I yet see, their distinction of Latria, and Dulia, and civil worship, grounded upon, and proportioned to (as they tell us most triumphantly) the three several degrees of Excellency, that of God, that of created, but supernatural, grace and glory, that of worldly Excellency, (which, they truly say, are as much different, as God, Heaven, and Earth) is, as to their present use of it fallen to the ground, and hath deserted them to a Palinodia Canenda; for, though in all these, the Excellency Inherent in the several subjects is That, which Is worshipped, yet the Cur sit, in all of them, is the Command of God; else the wisest of the Heathen (who, often, do that, which is Bonum, but not Benè, for want of understanding the Right Cause for which they should do it) do worship aright, because they pay Reverence to the most Excellent object of Worship, though they pay it not according to the Command and Direction of That Chief Excellency; else, the same Heathens Reverence their Kings aright (for, that of the King is the Instanced worldly excellency which Inferior men ought to Reverence) though they do not Reverence them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; 
1 Pet. 2.13.  and is there not more Regard to be had, in the Reverence and Adoration, which we Pay to the Chiefest Excellency of all, even to God Himself, to the Why we do it, then to the Bare doing of it? But, of this no more. Rather,  
16. To take off from the Worshipping of Angels (and by consequent, from the Worshipping Saints too; for, the Reason of their Dulia, drawn from Grace, and Glory, is equally valid, or equally Invalid, as to both) Let me give you two Reasons, One. Negative, out of the History of Moses, and the Other, Positive, from the Command of Christ.  
17. Why is it, that Moses, in the History of the Creation, either speaks not at all of the Creation of Angels, in so much that some say, the Angels were Created long before that History, which Moses wrote? or else, that He speaks of their Creation, so obscurely, that some say, they were Created, when God made the Heavens, others, they were Created, when God said Fiat Lux? why this, either preterition, or Intricacy? but that it is a much less Mistake, and no sin at all, when Man is Invincibly, I or Supinely and Carelessly, Ignorant of the time in which the Angels were Created, or whether they were not Created before any Time Was; (Time, which the Philosopher defines to be Numerus Motus, 
Aristot. c. de quanto.  and which Motus relates to Bodies, being That, which the B●dyless Angels are very little concerned in—) then, to know, so Curiously, of them, till Man does Idolise them? Idolatry, we all know, was apt to creep into the very Cradle of the world; the Serpent (which Himself was the first, and the early Idol, in being listened to more than God) did not account it as any of his small skills, to wrapp a superstitious Adoration in the Mantle of antiquity; In the first Book of God, we hear of an Abraham before any tidings of an Angel, of that Abraham, who is the Father of the Faithful, 
Rom. 4.12.  who, it is like, would teach the people, the same Faith, which himself did bear to God alone; of whom, it is first recorded that He Believed in the Lord, 
Gen. 15.6.  and he counted it to him for Righteousness, or, in the Doway-Books, Abraham believed God, and it was Reputed to him unto Justice, and then, in the Chapter after the first news of an Angel, and the first business of an Angel in Scripture, was, to send back Hagar to her Mistress Sarah, 
Gen. 16.7.9.  from whom she had Fled,— And the Angel of the Lord said unto her, Return to thy Mistress, and submit thyself unto her hands,— perhaps, to signify that, least of all, would they themselves rob That God whose servants, and Ministers they are, of the Honour due to him from any their fellow-servants, when they were so Jealous of the Honour of Sarah, to send back her servant to her, and to charge her, carry her duty along with her; lest of all would they Superstitiate those into a wrong worship, who translate that place— And the Angel of Our Lord said unto Her— And why may not this b● the Reason of the Concealment of the Angel's Creation, 
Douai.  as well as of the Concealment of Moses his Sepulchre, to prevent Idolatry? since themselves say, in their Marginal Note upon That part of the sixth verse of the 34. Chapter of Deuteron:— And no man hath known his sepulchre until this present Day— (so they render it) Only Angels, whose Ministry God used herein, knew the place of his Burial: lest the Jews, prone to Idolatry, might have honoured him for God, I add to their Interpretation. In honouring him, with That spiritual worship, which is due to God, though they never misunderstood his very Body to be God.  
18. And does not Christ Himself seem to Debar the Angels from any, 
Matth. 22.37, 38, 39  the most Minute Adoration, when He says, The First, and Great Commandment, is, Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all thy Heart, and with all thy Soul, and with all thy Mind; and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as Thyself? That first Commandment is the summary of all in the first Table; and that second, the Abridgement, and concise comprehension of all in the sec●nd; That so they are, the very Naming of this Command— Love thy Neighbour, the Second, does sufficiently evidence; else in our account, the Not making of Graven must be the second, and in the Roman account the Not taking in vain— In neither of these, is there room for Angel-Adoration; not in the first; for, if the subordinate love of Angels must be understood there, lest we should bestow more than Love upon them, God is content (as a prevention of That error,) to challenge no more than Love to His very self; 'tis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, both in St. Matthew, and in St. Luke, 
10.27.  'tis, in neither of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, no, nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither, which properly signifies ad Pedes alicujus advolvi; the Devil was as goodly a Grammarian, as He was badly Ambitious, when He said, even to Christ Himself, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Matth. 4.9.  If thou wilt Fall down and worship; and our Saviour's Answer is very considerable in that very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, V 10 thou shalt Worship, thou shalt fall down to ('twas an Ancient, and  practice— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) the Lord thy God, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Him only shalt Thou serve; the Only is to be referred to the worship by Falling down, (for That was it which Satan called for,) as well as to the Latria; does the word thou shalt Love, mean Latria, and That only? then, that meaning of the word does shut out the Angel from any share in it; does it mean Latria and Dulia too? then the next words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Lord Thy GOD, does shut out the Angel from any share even in Dulia too; for, thus to love the Angel, is to esteem him as the Lord our God; and less hope is there for the Angel to be Reverenced in the second Commandment; for, an Angel is not such a Neighbour of ours, as to be our Father, or Mother; I never yet heard of a she-Angell, He is not such a Neighbour, From whom we can take away, or to whom preserve; not such a Neighbour, whom the veriest Sodomite alive can defile, not whom the veriest Saint alive can make more ; not such a Neighbour from whom any High-way-Man can Robb ought, or to whom any Magistrate can Restore aught; if there be any hope at all, 'tis in the next command, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour, which, as it is Principally meant against That kind of false witness, which does Really Prejudice and Indamage my Neighbour, so it is not, at all meant against the Defrauding, either my Brother whom I have seen, or the Invisible Angels of God, of any part of Religious worship; for, I must love my Neighbour as myself, and would I also, be thus worshipped? 
Matth. 7.12.  thus Religiously? What soever ye would that Men should do unto you, do ye even so to them; I would, if it were possible, have the love of all, and, because so I would, let who will Reward with hate for my love, I will Restore That, 
Psal. 69.4.  which I took not away, and pay him back Love for His Hate; but I will neither Take, nor Give to any Man, what I own only to my God; if they say, because of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in that Text, this is the Law only of Man to Man, and none at all of the Law of Man to Angels, or of Whole Man to Half Man, to Saint Departed, from His own Body, as well as from our society, they must give me leave to tell them back, out of my Saviour's words, in the Close of that Text, that This, and nothing else but This, is the Law; if, because in Scripture, God Himself is often Parabled, by the Name of Man, they will needs Include Angels too, in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Let them give me the example of One Good Angel that hath thus worshipped Man, unless him who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and of whom God Himself hath said— Let the Angels of God worship HIM, 
Heb. 1.6.  and I will allow them a whole thousand of Men, to do even so to him, to worship Many Angels more. And, in the last place, if their Excellency above Nature be the Basis to Uphold, and the Diplomata to require a worship above Civil, I would know but one thing more, and I have done with This; According to the Equity of that Rule, that, which is More excellent, does deserve more of This worship; why then is it, that this man chooses a Matthew for his Saint; and the Confess●r of that man puts a Peter upon him for his, aswell as a third makes a choice of a Virgin Mary, and a fourth has a beloved John taskd upon him? if the Virgin be a better Saint, than the Publican, why has Matthew more of one man's Devotion than she? if John, the other Son of the Virgin Mary (Woman, 
John 19.26.  behold Thy Son) is a more excellent Saint than Denying Peter, why is Another, more prostrate to Peter, and less, if at all, to John? or, if Peter must be the better Saint, 'tis but ask the same question backwards; and why, is any one, even the best of these, more worshipped, alone, than herself with the whole Society of Saints, and Angels? Since, if they are Catalogued together; None of Her Excellency is left out, and all of theirs is put in?  
19 The Religious worship of praying to Saints and Angels is. Ex Confesso, part of that worship which is due to God; but then, All, that is due to God, they pay not to Saints, and Angels, because they Sacrifice not unto them; Literal and proper Sacrifices they must mean; for those Other Sacrifices of Praise & Thanksgiving, they offer to Saint and Angel, and those other Sacrifices, 
Heb. 13.1.6.  with which God is well pleased, of doing good and Communicating, they offer even to Men; to their God, and Christ, what do they offer? they offer even Christ Himself; will they thus Pay Him, with nothing else, but his own Coin? 
Heb. 10.14.  will they multiply the offerings of Christ, notwithstanding He, by ONE Offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified? Will they multiply Christ himself, whilst every one, that Receives, has All Christ, and yet All Christ is still in Heaven too, and all this Bodily, notwithstanding that assertory Truth of the Heathen Man, 
Matth. 5.17. In Plauto Amphytrio, S●si●m alloquitur, qui se Domi ait esse, cum peregre sit, Copus Christi, Domi? in Coelorum Coelo & tamen peregre, in terrâ, in Hac Terra, & in Illa? in Hac, & in Illis? in Hoc ore, & in Illo? in Hoc, & in Illis?  founded upon the unalterable Principles of Nature, which, as the Law, Christ came not to destroy, but to fulfil, 
Tun' id dicere audes quod nemo unquam Homo antehac  
Vidit, nec Potest fieri, Tempore uno,  
Homo Idem Duobus Locis ut Simul Sit?  
Quae neque Fieri  
Possunt, neque Fando unquam accepit quisquam, Proffers.   
Were their Christ not yet ascended; were He still, Bodily upon earth, though without any Consecration of theirs, which, as the Poet says his verses can bring down the Moon, — DeCoelo possunt deducere Christum  
Had he erected almost All of Christianity, had and not yet Instituted the Holy Supper, they would then have nothing at all to Offer to their Christ, and to His Father, but of the same kind, Prayer, and Praise, which they offer not to Him alone, but to him, and to Angel, and to Saint too, unless they would relapse into abolished Judaisme, and Sacrifice a Bullock still; since, therefore, we cannot be persuaded to worship, Saint, and Angel, as they do, though in an Inferior, yet in a Spiritual degree, since we cannot be wrought upon to Sacrifice, as they pretend to do, Really, but only, in Commemoration, as Christ hath taught, 
Luke 22.19.  Do this in Remembrance of me, I must take leave, in one word more, to take off this worship from Saint and Angel, in that very word, upon which they Found their Mistaken Duty, by which it may appear, they worship God amiss, in giving that worship, which is Peculiarly His, to that which is not He, and we worship God aright, by the peculiar debt of Invocation, though not by the Impropriety of Sacrifice, 
Heb. 10.18.  since it is as true as Gospel There is no more Offering for sin; which will make way into the Inquiry after those which they call the Authentical examples in Scripture.  
20. Amongst the Rest, it seems to be warily done, that they Name not the 148. Psalms, the Psalm gins, Praise ye the Lord from the Heavens; their Note upon that, is, All ye Heavenly Spirits praise God; V. 2 the Psalm goes on, Praise ye him all His Angels; though in the form of the words, David Here seems to speak to Saints, and Angels, yet Intentionally, He speaks and prays only to God, that Saints and Angels should praise Him, and expects no more to be heard by Saint, and Replied to by Angel, than he believes Sun and Moon, Heaven and Waters can grant a Request, V 3 V. 4 or that Fire and hail, Snow and Vapours, have ears, or that Beasts and Cattles, V 8 Creeping things and flying Fowl can understand, V 10 or that Kings, and Princes, and Judges, V 11 are to be Worshipped more than Civilly, or that People are to be worshipped at all; V. 11 and the Reason why all these should Praise the Name of the Lord (as doubtless, they all do, Omnia precantur, hymnosque 
Proclus. l. de Sacrif.  concinunt ad Ordinis sui Ducem; alia, Intellectuali modo, alia Rationali, alia Sensitivo, alia Naturali) is expressed verse 13.— for, His Name Alone is Excellent; which though they Render Is Exalted, it matters not; since every Exaltation is Excellent in suo genere, and every excellency exalted; and if thus to be excellent, super omnia, to have His glory above the Earth and Heaven, be the Partial cause of spiritual praise (for, the Adequate Cause, is that excellency, and the Declaration of it, and the Command upon it) then, nothing else must at all partake of that kind of Worship, though in an Inferior degree, all eyes being excluded by that Alone-Excellent, to signify, that whatever else it be, which has an Inferior Excellency, 'tis not excellent at all, as to the Claim of this praise; for, throughout the Psalm, David does only say, and often say, Praise him, and Praise him, and not, Praise Him thus, and thus, in summitate, whereby he asserts to God, not only the Chief, but the All of Praise; and in that word, The praise of all his Saints, or, as They, a Hymn to all his Saints, is only meant, that God is the Praise of them all, that God, Verse 14 who Inhabiteth the Praises of Israel, takes possession of them all, 
Psal. 23.3.  and will not divide stakes with an Inmate Saint, not that the Saints should be a Praise, and Hymn, and Song one to the other; else, if their degree of Excellency be Title enough to a Degree of Spiritual praise, if That should chance to be true, which Macrobius out of Plato tells us, 
Plato cùm de Sphaerarum Coelestium volubilitate tractaret, singulas ait Sirenas singulis orbibus Insidere, significans Sphaerarum motu, Cantum Numinibus exhiberi. Macrobius. in Somn. Scipion. l. 2. cap. 3.  and a Council should tell us so too, that there is a several Siren sitting upon each several Heaven, and singing praise to God, we must sing Spiritual Praises, not only to God (though, only to God we must) not only to Saint and Angel (to whom we must not at all) but to that New Society of Sirens too.  
But let us examine their grounds in Scripture. Gen. 32.24. There wrestled a Man with him. Their Note says; this Man was an Angel, and this wrestling Spiritual, as appears by jacob's earnest prayer, and the Angel's Blessing; but whence comes this Man to be an Angel? the Text Says not so; why is not this Man the second Person in the Godhead, who vouchsafed to appear to Jacob, in he would, that manhood, which he would, after, Take? why may not Jacob, V 29 when he says, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name, seem, to desire a further and plainer knowledge of this Mystery? and why may not the answer wherefore is it, that thou dost ask after my name intent, that Jacob should be Thankful for so much Revealing of the Lord unto him, and that the plainer evidence of the second Person, was reserved to after Ages? what Angel will ever take upon him to Bless, and not declare the Commission which God hath given him so to do? and whether it was that Second, or either of the other two persons of the Godhead, V 30 yet, for certain, God it was— I have seen GOD face to face; V 1 In the beginning of that Chapter, V 2 when the Angels of God met Jacob, so apparently, that they were discerned to be Angels, He does not call them God, but God's Host, He does not wrestle, nor pray at all; and, if prayer to One Angel would be prevalent, how not much more, to More? And why did He pray to One, but that He knew him not to be an Angel? why did he not pray to More, but that he knew them to be Angels? If it was an Angel, Jacob did worship him as God, in that he said, I have seen God face to face, and this themselves, upon Exodus, confess to be Idolalatry, and, by consequence, themselves Idolaters, if this be their example; but, They, and we, truly acknowledge Jacob, in that speech of his, to have been no Idolater, therefore Jacob neither must be their example, so much as to Invoke an Angel; for their Authority, how to Interpret that Text, I have neither Leisure enough, nor Book enough to search; but it matters not, since Scripture, under which Head That Argument is made, Answers for itself; it does so again,  
Genes. 48.16. The Angel (that delivereth me, says their Translation) which Redeemed me from all evil, bless the Lads; they say true, that we say, This Angel must be understood of God; they say, we endeavour to prove this, out of the 31. and 32. Chapter, not only so, we are not so far to seek; we will prove this out of the very words, the Context, and your own Translation, and Comment; you say, it is evident from this place, that the Angel (He, that is so called) delivered Jacob from evils, what? from All? you do well to leave out that word, when you mean a Created Angel; but That word is in the Text, because of which you ought to Mean the Creator God; for, who ●●s, can deliver us from All Evil, be-besides that God, 
Matth. 6.13.  to whom our Christ hath taught us to Pray— Deliver us from Evil? Amongst All the evils, from which Jacob was delivered, was not a starving hunger one, when he was Fed first out of Egypt, and then, in Egypt? himself reckons right, when he makes mention only of that great Comprehensive Blessing, to Feed him, without which he could not have Enjoyed any one of all the rest? and was it not God which did this for him? and by contexture, was not. God the Angel, who did this, and all the rest? Look one verse backward, and you may read in your own book; GOD, in whose sight, my Fathers, Abraham, and Isaac, have walked, God, that feedeth me from my youth until this present day, The Angel, that delivereth me from All Evils, Bless— give me leave to tell you, that God and God, and Angel, are the Nominative before the Verb Bless; and certainly, if God does Bless, we are secure enough, though we never Invoke His Angel which he hath Made; and that the Angel, after, is the same with the God before, appears very probably, in that he is no more separated from God, the first and second time named, than God the second time named, is from God the first, not with an And, but only with a Comma; Non quisquam Hanc Verborum Forman Concepit, 
Serm. 4. contra Arrianos.  says Athanasius, Det Tibi Deus, & Angelus, if he meant a Created Angel; 'tis the Son of God, whom Jacob prays to, Hunc enim Magni Consilii Patris Angelum noverat, whom the Prophet calls Angelum Faederis; 
Mal. 3.1.  Your own Note there, is, Christ is the Angel of the Testament; Can you imagine it possible to be Demonstrated, that This Christ is not the Angel, whom Jacob prays to? Yourselves must be somewhat more than Angel thus to Dive into the secrets of His Spirit; 
Lib. 3. Thesaur. c. 1.  Not to desire you, with Cyril's Quaeso to it, that you would not defame That Holy Man, but, with a Quaeso and an Obsecro too, let me even Beseech you, that you would not Dishonour our Christ so far, as, Peremptorily to Robb Him of That Prayer, which, for ought you know, Jacob directed to Christ Himself; to Jacob, Him of doing that good to Jacob, which, for ought you can ever dispute to the Contrary, Christ Jesus may have done by Himself, and without the Ministry of His Angels. In Exod. 2. and 32. not one word of worshipping Saint, or Angels; in the One, there is required a Reverend Address to God Himself, in the Other, is reprehended the Making and worshipping a Molten Calf.  
21. Indeed, in Numb. 22. the same Balaam worshipped the Angel with Religious worship, in their Notes upon the 31. verse, which same Balaam, in their own Notes upon the eighth verse, Consulted his False God, whom he served, and called him the Lord, not knowing our Lord God Almighty; the Author (since such was their Character of Him) might render the practice well worthy suspicion, if not abomination also, even to them who cite him with such a mark of disgrace.  
22. Joshua 5. and (with them) verse 15. Joseph fell flat on the ground, and Adoring, he said— Adoring of him, who said verse before I am a Prince of the Host of our Lord; why not The Prince? which the Word equally bears, why not— The Lord? since there is no Our in the Original; (I have observed that to be a frequent zealous mistake, Our for The) and then, All he denies, is, that he is the same Person, for he is not Lord, and Father; not, that he is the same Nature, for, the Son, is Lord and Prince too; and the Son it is, that said this, who, in the Right opinion of the Ancients, did often in the Old Testament, appear in a Similitudinary flesh, as, in the fullness of Time he came, in a Real Flesh; and who, in this Text, was truly worshipped, if not as the Son, yet, as True God; his Name does attest this, the Lord, Ch. 6. v. 2. (still they call it Our Lord) 'tis Jehovah, a Name incommunicable to any but God; nay, it is the Lord too, in that very stile, in which he delivers himself to Josue— the Prince of the Host of the Lord; All the Angels in Heaven, and all the Saints there, and in Earth, are his Host, and who but God is Prince of all these? if it be an Angel, than that Angel is, in one Notion, a Captain, & Commander in Chief, as being a Prince, and in another Notion, a Subject, and under his own Command, as being Part of that Host, of which himself is Prince. Nay, let me say it, (and not be told of a Petitio Principii, for I have Scripture for what I say) his very accepting of this Honour done to him (since it is evident and unscrupled, that he was no less than Angel) argues him to be more than Angel, as much more as God; I fell, says St. John, at the Angel's feet to worship him, and he said unto me, See thou do it not, 
Rev. 19.10  I am thy Fellow-servant, worship God, in that very form and posture of Worship in which Josue fell down; and you have the same again, totidem Verbis, Ch. 22.8, 9 and, if that may add any thing to the weight, 'tis not only in the last Chapter, but, in the same Chapter too, in which this also follows, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him (he shall do it, no Angel shall stop his hand) the Plagues that are written in this Book; V. 18 enough, with the Grace of that God, to make a Man solemnly bethink himself of that Counsel of St. Paul, not only Let no man Beguile you of your Reward, but, if St. John may interpret him, Let no man Plague you, instead of Not Rewarding you, Plague you with more Plagues than those on Egypt, with all the Plagues which God hath denounced in both his Volumes, Let no Man (nay let no Angel neither) Beguile you, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, being Voluntary in Humility, 
Col. 2.18.  and the Worship of Angels; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; it signifies Religion, that very Name which they put upon it, a Religious Worship.  
23. Their Figure 3, by enquiry into Joshua, is not there concerned; for, though I was apt to believe they borrowed all their Arguments from Bellarmine (in whom I find them all, and to whom, as well as to them, I reply) and, by the preposterousness of 5 before 3, might well conjecture, they did not mean Josue, yet I was willing not to spare my own pains, but to be exact, even against an Imaginary Possibility of Objection, that I had not replied ad Idem, but made choice of Texts which they never urged, and which themselves taught me to answer; therefore, to follow them, and their Bellarmine, I go on to examine  
24. 
* Called with us, the First Book of Kings, cap. 18. ver. 7.  3 Reg. 18. When Abdias was in the way, Elias met him, who when he (Abdias) knew him, fell on his Face, and said, My Lord, art not thou Elias? Their Note says, Abdias adored Elias as the Prophet of God, and a Holy Man, with Religious Honour, called Dulia. Did he so? I trow, not; not only because this Dulia also is due to God, in Christ's own account, and therefore not payable to any else, but God himself; for, when our Saviour Christ says, Ye cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, serve God and Mammon, 
Mat. 6.24.  two such contrary Masters; He says it, upon the neck of this, as a strong probation of it; V. 23 No man can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, serve two Masters, not only two, which are contrary, as God and Mammon, but two, which are two, though in a subordination, as God and Prophet; His Servants ye are, 
Rom. 6.16.  to whom ye obey, says St. Paul, who himself would not be obeyed, no nor followed neither, in his Person, but in his holy Doctrine, and exemplary Life, as, in both of them, he followed Christ, Be ye Followers of me, 
1 Cor. 11.1.  even as I also am of Christ. When he does but leave out the Name of Christ, he does not Command, but Beseech, I beseech you, 
1 Cor. 4.16.  be ye Followers of me; Salute indeed we must all them that have the Rule over us; 
Heb. 13.24  I, and obey them too, V 17 and submit ourselves unto them, but we must only obey their Precepts, and submit unto their Counsels, and not pay (what we own not) a Religious Worship to their very Persons; neither This, which we own not, nor Contempt, which we do owe, not to pay; what we own, and how we are to pay, is involved in the seventh verse of that Chapter, Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God. According to that Express Word, or the Evidently Necessary Deductions thence, we must not only greet, and mind them, but obey and submit unto them— But, after all this, first, is it Obligatory enough, that the Scripture tells us, such a thing was done, though it commands not us to do the like? if so (not to heap up Consequential Inconveniencies, but to be Civil to them whom I must not Adore) the Doway-argument from an Idolatrous Balaam, must still stand in force, and the Bellarmine-argument of an Irreligious Saul Adoring a Diabolical Apparition instead of the Soul of Samuel, must not only be Logically concludent, which it is not, but also Theologically binding, which it much less is; but, secondly, the Prostration of Abdias to Elias, was not a Religious, but a Civil Worship; it was, indeed, to a Prophet, a holy Man, but that does not Specificate the Act, nor any more make it a Holy, than a Prophetical Worship; for, when they say, the Holiness of the Man Bowed to, was the Cause of the Bowing, yet they must mean the Religiousness of the Bowing to be inherent in him who did Bow, and not in him to whom; But not this neither; This falling on the Face was an Outward and Civil Reverence, nor did the Heart itself mean it any more, as far as it is possible for Man to discover; if it be pretended otherwise, let me desire to know where that Perspective is, and of what it is made, which lets in the Eye of one Man into the Heart of another; nor was the Heart of Abdias deceitful, in that it did mean this, this Outward and Civil Respect, which was writ in Broad Letters upon his Bending Face; neither is this Civility of respect confined to the Secularity of the Object, but dilated to those Created Excellencies, which are Spiritual also, not as they are Spiritual, but as they are Created Excellencies, with abstraction, from Spirituality, not Actu Negationis, by Denying them to be Spiritual, but Actu Praecisionis, not Considering them in the Species of Spirituality, but in the Genus of Excellency; Nay, but what if I shall say, a Civil Honour is due to any of these Excellencies (throughout, I mean, as Douai does, the Excellencies which inhere in Living and Rational Subjects, and not, as Persia does, the Excellency of a Liveless, though Life-giving Sun) even in their Spiritual Capacity, and Determination? I am yet to learn wherein the Error consists, if so I shall say; especially, when those Excellencies, even Spiritual, and Quà Spiritual too, are conspicuously before our Eyes, they evidencing their Spirituity to the Eyes of our Mind, though those in our Head see only Bodily Appearances, and either they address to us, or we to them; In the Humbling Posture of Abdias, the Prostration of the Body (which is all the Text tells us of) was solely and entirely Civil; and such a Civil Respect (by Bowing, or, by what other Custom the Fashion of the Country does express Civility by, to stir the Head, or the Hat, or to lay Hand on Breast) is Due to the Pastoral Authority from the Unordered Lay, by a Reason which equally concerns them both, that the one may be Excused, in that he hath Paid it, and the other Satisfied, in that he hath Received it; that neither he, who hath them not, may lie under the Slander of Contemning holy Orders, nor he who hath them, lie under the Suspicion of being Contemned; Would God appoint such an Honour to be paid to his own Officer, for the Receipt of which Debt, that own Officer of his could never give any Acquittance, nor be really sensible that he hath received it? He is Man, though a Spiritual Man, that pays this Honour; He is no more than Man, though a more Spiritual Man, that receives this Honour; and therefore, in respect of both of them, the Honour is to be paid by one to the other, such a way as is cognoscible to Man; and no way is such, but the way of paying Secular, Outward, Civil Honour; He that does this, and does not mean it, does deceive himself more than me, for the Outward Honour is paid, though Un-willingly; He that does mean more than this, even a Religious Honour (any otherwise than as the paying of Civil Respect is a Duty which Religion commands) deceives both himself and me; himself, in paying that which he does not owe; and me, in offering that which I will not receive: the Lay of Rome, and the Lay of England (of Old England) agree in paying this Outward Respect to the Minister of God, and I am persuaded, the Unlearned Lay of Rome (who, as they understand it not, have never heard of this Charm-word Dulia) do it with the same Integrity, as the well-taught Lay of England; Since therefore the Outward Act is equally performed on both sides, let the Romish Teachers either call it as it is, an Outward Worship, if they will not endure the word Civil, or, in respect of the Persons to whom it was performed, Angelical, to Angels, or, to whom it is performed, Humane, to Men, or by any other Allowable Name, and, as to this Point, we will no longer be two sides, but one; or else let them produce one Command in Scripture, or one Lawful and Imitable Example, wherein the Internal, and Religious, and Duliaworship, is as Evident as the External Prostration, and we will, in Seneca's Language, Manus dare, without that Puta of his, and with a more Certain Concord, and in that Apostolical Expression, we will give unto them the Right Hand of Fellowship, 
Gal. 2.9.  and they shall be no more Strangers and Foreiners, 
Eph. 2.19.  but Fellow-Citizens with the Saints; or, if they will not break the Word in two pieces, giving the Angel his part, by himself, and Man his, by himself, let them accept of St. Austin's Charitative Reverence, instead of their Religious Dulia, and we have done again: But because this Controversy, which was begun out of Scripture, should not close with a Father, a Paeter Patratus, I will conclude with a Text out of him, whom Rome does more peculiarly own for a Father, a Text apposite to the whole Matter in hand, and Refutative of their whole Interpretation; 'tis that in 1 Pet. 2.17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Honour all Men, Love the Brotherhood; 'tis a Precept in his ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΗ ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΗ, that's the Title of it, his General, or (if they love that word more) his Catholic Epistle, and therefore does oblige Every Man to the performance of it; What? must Every Man Honour to Every Man? the Greater to the Less? for, the Greater is One in the Every, and the Less is Another in the Every; Upon what Foundation then stands that Distinction (which itself is the foundation of all this Controversy) of Excellencies, into Divine, Religious, and Natural? Whence that Thesis, that the Subjects, in which these are, require from their Inferiors, in all these kinds, a Distinction of Worship, according to the distinction of Excellencies, which are severally in them? Since it is an Apostolical (nay, which with some, is more than that, a Petrine) Truth, that even That, which is, in itself, Less, and Inferior, in respect of Excellency is yet the true and proper Object of Worship, and Honour, even to That which is Greater, and Superior, in respect of Excellency? and yet All Men are to be Honoured, even the Meanest of all, which throws a B●ock in the way of Excellency; and again, All Men are to be Honoured with no more than a Civil Honour, which throws another Block against Dulia; that All Men are to be Honoured, is the express Doctrine of the Apostle; that amongst them all, the Ministerial Men (who are part of all, and therefore involved in the same Worship) are to be Honoured only Civilly, is grounded upon that word which St. Peter in the same verse, (for, certainly, he would not use the same word, in one and the same verse, to one & another sense) uses whereby to express Civil Honour. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Honour All Men, and, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Honour the King, therefore None of All are to be Honoured with Another, a Bigger Honour, than the Biggest, the Chief of All, the King; for, in the King's Name it is that they themselves issue out all their Writs for Civil Honour; 
* In their Notes upon Exod. 20.  No Christian doubteth but he honoureth God with Divine Honour, and the King with Civil; which very expression of theirs, (besides that it is Argumentum ad Hominem, that the Minister must be content with Civil Honour, with that of the same kind, because in the same word, which is due to Kings) is yet one Argument more against their Dulia, for certainly it does more agree with the Principles of Sanctify'd Reason, to believe that, which All Christians believe (a Divine Worship, and a Civil) than that, which only Some Christians believe (a Religious Worship, which is below Divine, and yet not Civil. Above Civil, and yet not Divine) But one word more, and I have quite done; and, in that one word, let me take in the entire verse, and tell you, that that takes in all those Excellencies they have named, and yet takes off the Religious Dulia from the middle excellency, and applies to it only a Charitative Honour; Honour all men, says St. Peter; then he distinguishes those All, into King, and Brotherhood; in King he includes all Heathens, but especially, the Supreme, though a Heathen, the Then-King being such; in Brotherhood, he includes All Christians, but especially, those Prophetical Ministers, the Gospel- Elias' in whom Douai instances; This, I take it, is a very Logical and Rational Interpretation; else the Apostle does not comprehend in the two Species of King and Brotherhood, All those whom he comprehended in the Genus of All Men, and it is well known, Membra Dividentia must be ejusdem Latitudinis cum Diviso, and illud totum absorbere, so that there can be nothing Potentially, in the Genus, which is not Actually, in this, and that Species, Simul sumptis, nothing in All Men, which is not in King and Brotherhood; for, though Estius says, by All Men he means either Men in Authority, or Men of Holiness, and secludes the Ungodly Man from this Honour, yet we must involve him too, in his Person, though not him, in his Impiety; He too, in his Essential and Constitutive parts, and in the Consecutive Propriety of his best part, is the Workmanship of the same God, who made the Hodiest Man alive; and, in this sense, and for that God's sake, is an Object well worthy of Honour; and yet, not in this neither, as if there were any thing of Excellency in him that Is Honoured, above him that Does Honour; but, though not in All things, yet, in reference to the Workmanship of God, an Equality; and because, with Relation to God, the King, and all Heathens, to whom God gave Power and Being; the Minister, and all Christians, to whom God gave Orders and Holiness, are to be Honoured, therefore is the Fear of that God, who is the Cause of the Love to the one, and the Honour to the other, placed in the midst betwixt them both; let them show, that God any where commands that kind of Religious and Dulia-Honour which they apply to Creatures, as we have showed them one, and can show them a whole Sheet of Texts, that God enjoins a Charitative Respect, and, actum est, we will lay down the Cudgels.  
25. 
* With us the second of Kings, 2.15.  4 Reg. 2.15. And the Children of the Prophets said, The Spirit of Elias hath rested upon Elisaeus, and coming to meet him, adored him to the Ground; This Argument is in câdem Navi with the former, and the same Rudder will serve to steer it in its Right Course.  
26. 
* With us, Ps. 99.5. and worship AT his Footsteel.  Psal. 98.5. Exalt ye the Lord our God, and adore his Footstool, because it is holy. Their short Note after that verse, tells us, the Hebrew Doctors understand this, of the Ark, the Doctors of the Church understand Christ's Humanity; their Long Note after the whole Psalm, tells us, that the Humanity of Christ is to be adored in the holy Eucharist: In this they follow Bellarmine to a hair, and will err, and digress honourably, because so they think he does; but the whole objection from hence, if we consider what he and what they would adapt this Text to prove, we may safely enough ne pili quidem facere; he applies it, to prove the invocation of Saints, and they do so too; for, immediately after these words,— the Church honoured Saints and their Relics— follow these, — neither want there authentical examples of holy Scripture, whereby the same (the honouring of Saints, and their Relics) is proved; amongst the Texts, in which they instance, this, Ps. 98. is the last, explicity, though it be backed with— And elsehwere; if, by that footstool is meant the humanity of Christ, and by worshipping that humanity, the honouring of Saints, I must take leave to tell them, such an inference is not Christian, no nor Romish neither it is Socinian, nay; and Mahometan too; if it proves that Saints and their Relics may be honoured, it presumes no more, then that Christ was a Saint, and his humanity the Relic of a Saint; and this, the too Reational, and too ungraceful Socinian will confess, nay, the neither Graceful, nor Rational Turk will not deny, that Christ was a holy Prophet, an exemplary Saint; but, no more of this, because it is only a defect in their Logic, and not a purpose to dishonour their Saviour, by only Sainting of him; only let them pardon me that I take so much notice of their digression, as to digress myself, in the Confutation of it, and, if they will, let them thank me that I call it no more; but ad rem.  
27. There is much to be replied; &, though they talk much of the Fathers who sense it the same way with them, yet I doubt not but they will grant me, that one Scripture, which is evident, and undoubtful, is a more allowable interpretation of another Scripture, which is obscure and ambiguous, than one Father is, and that many Scriptures are more allowable than many Doctors of the Church; Therefore, first let me open that Text, by Text Parallel to it; and, though they will not take notice of the words of our Translation worship at his footstool, yet, 
Ps. 132.7.  in this, I shall not vicem rependere, and look off, every where, from theirs, — we will go into his Tabernacles, we will worship AT his footstool, 
With them, Ps. 131.7.  says our Bible; we will enter into his Tabernacle, we will adore IN the place where his feet stood, says theirs, At the footstool and not the footstool itself, In the place, and not the place itself. Next, consider we all those places, in which the footstool of God is named, and worship we him at every of those foot-stools; and if thus to do, be not more honourable to our God, more edifying that Church of his, which is already his Church, and more increasing that Church of his, by the Accession of those who are not, yet, his Church, then only to worship the Body of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, then, that Interpretation shall have the upper hand of this; and thus to frame an interpretation, with these mighty advantages, out of the Bowels of other Scriptures, which are Consonant to this in the most substantial word of them, if this be not, though not the best way, a very fit way, I leave it to all modest Christians to Judge. And, before I betake myself to this way, I shall only bespeak them that they would not quit Admonitions with me, and call this digression, for the honour of a painful and well deserving 
† R. P. Michael Auguanus Bonon, in his Comment upon the Psalms. Tom. 2. cum licentia & privilegiis. Venitiis M. D. XIII.  writer of their own, who, upon this one Text, and to a much inferior, and more impertinent purpose, makes use of all those other Texts, to which I now hasten. Thus saith the Lord— the Earth is my footstool, Is. 66.1. One part of the meaning of that, in their 98. Ps. and the entire meaning of it, in reference to this Text, is, That, which St. Paul hath commanded 1 Tim. 2.8. I will that Men pray every where. The Lord hath cast down the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool, where the Church of God is the footstool of God; and, thus, the meaning of that in Ps. 98. is that which David hath said in Ps. 89. v. 7. God is greatly to be feared in the Assembly of the Saints. 
2 Chron. 9.18.  There was to the throne a footstool of Gold; not to inquire any further, what that footstool of Gold is, but to accept the interpretation of Auguanus, Scabellum Aureum est Angelica Natura, propter virtutem consummatae Charitatis; but, if so, the meaning of that in their 98. Ps. is, that, for this cause, the Woman and the Man too, aught to worship God, the more reverently, and sincerely, 
1 Cor. 11.10.  because of the Angels. Until I make thine enemies thy footstool Ps. 110.1. Here, the wicked are the footstool of God, in being subjected to his will though against their own; and, in this respect, the worshipping at his footstool, does mean, that we should not refrain, even in the sight of the wicked, to sing that new Song, 
Ps. 40.3.  which God hath put into our Mouth; and which they are unacquainted with, even praise unto our God, to this end, that many, even the wicked, may see it, and fear; and trust in the Lord, in the last place, and out of the first Text, He tells us 
† Pag. 472 Col. 2. in Fine.  Scabellum ejus est ipsa Christi humanitas, the Manhood of Christ is this footstool. To the purpose then, understand we, by this footstool, as Auguanus does, in the simplicity of his heart, the humanity of Christ, quae totaliter Deo conform is est, and not only that, but the whole Earth also; and, in that Earth, not only the Church, the Saints of God, but the very wicked also; and, not only the Church Militant on Earth, but that part of it which is triumphant in Heaven, confirmed in an established undecaying Righteousness by Christ Jesus, the Holy Angels of God; and understand we not, by this footstool, exclusively, the humanity of Christ, and nothing else but that, nay, understand we not that humanity of Christ only Sacramented, as Douai does, in the design of their hearts; and then, if it does not more redound to the honour of God, and to the edifying, and increasing of his Church, that we should sincerely worship God, all the Earth over, not only in the Congregation of the Saints, the more to inflame their devotion by the Conjunction of ours with theirs, but in the presence of the wicked, to make them ashamed of their irreligious folly, and to invite them by our example to draw near unto the Lord, with unfeigned Lips and unfeining Hearts, and all this because of the Angels of God, nay, because of the God of those Angels; if, thus to do, and thus every where to do, and upon these grounds, does not conspire, in a more probable effectuality, (and a more innocent uninsnaring conspiration) to both those ends, then to worship the Body of Christ himself, as, that footstool, and only to worship that Body Sacramented, at some times, in some places, with some few, than we will quit this extensive interpretation, and run, totis pedibus into their limited sentence.  
28. And lest that reason, which David gives, and which they render because IT is holy, might bear sway against this multiform sense, confining the footstool only to one, and the worship to that very footstool; to evade this pretended reason, I must give them to know, not only that that word, in the Original may be equally translated IT or He, but that, in that place, it ought rather to be translated he, because, in the Verse after, is set down what that worship is, to invocate the Lord; and, because though it were so, for IT is holy, yet the worship is not of it, but at it, explained in the last verse of that Psalm, and in both the same words, in which the reverence is charged upon us in the 5. v. Exalt ye the Lord our God, and ad re say they, and worship say we; Hitherto, there is a perfect agreement with the 5. 
1 Cor. 1.10.  and last v. they do (what the Apostle would have us all to do, though Douai will neither hearken to us, nor him) speak the same thing; and the explication follows— In or at his holy Mount, because the Lord our God is holy; the Mount is confessedly holy, yet the holiness of the Mount is not alleged as a reason, why we should worship it, but the holiness of our God, why we should worship in, or at, his holy Mount. I go on, to inquire after their— And elsewhere, by which words, and some search, I find out of their notes upon Gen. 48.5. That they mean the Invocation of Angels, grounded upon Mat. 18. Acts 12.1 Cor. 11. For want of their New Testament, of which I am bereft, they ought to be content (as I must) that I reply out of the Originals.  
29. And first, what says Matthew for them? He says (but not for them) that Christ himself said, 
18.10.  Take heed, that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you that in Heaven, their Angels do always behold the Face of my Father which is in Heaven; what means our Saviour by this? not that we should invoke Angels; himself tells us no such matter; but that we should not despise little ones; that is it, which himself tells us; and, upon this ground because they have Angels, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; had they hence, inferred, that God had appointed Angels, Ministering Spirits, to take care for, and to protect little ones, they had argued right; and we would shake hands with them in this matter; let them tell us, no more than what that Text tells us; let them infer no more than what our Saviour Christ infers, and we are agreed; is it not enough to that purpose, to take off contempt from little ones, that God takes so much care of them, as to appoint Angels over them, though they never pray (as they are never bid so to do) to Angels? and are not those words designed to this purpose by Christ? had Christ said— Despise them not, 
Ps. 115.16.  for, to these Children of Men, I have given the Earth; Despise them not, for it is for their sake, 
Job 38.8.9.  that I have shut up the Sea with doors, and made the Cloud the Garment thereof, and though thick darkness a swaddling band for it; Despise them not, for, for them it is, that I have created the Lights in the Firmament of Heaven for signs and seasons, 
Gen. 1.14 Ps. 104.19  for dares and years; 'tis for them, that I have appointed the Moon for seasons, for them, that the Sun knoweth his going down. His going down, with his Rays into the Bowels of the Earth, and his bringing up from thence Herb for the service both of Man and Child; that God hath done all, or any of these, for mankind, is reason enough not to contemn the least of them; but is it reason enough, that Man should fall down, and first worship, and then eat his Herb?  
(Sarculo Amicas  
Colit hic Fruges  
Et suum hic mandit, Bibit ille, 
E man. Thesourus è Soc: Jesus.  Numen  
If so, Happy the Heathen, that are Heathen still,  
Felice's Gentes, quibus haec nascuntur in Hortis  
Numina) 
Juven.   
That Man should exalt the Sun, and adore the Moon? that Man should bow to the Sea, and kneel down to the Lights? nay to the Cloud? nay to the thick darkness? and do his reverence to these swaddling bands, and to that Garment as to sacred Relics? for all of these, let us bless God that gave them, and not bless the blessings themselves, nor set at nought, the meanest of those, who have an interest in all of these; for his Angels, and Arch-Angels— Let us laud and magnify his glorious Name, which we shall do the more acceptably even to those glorious Angels themselves, whilst we only invoke their and our God; if there be an Angel there, that can be offended at this, I could even suspect Heaven itself not to be altogether so holy a place, as it is a branch, if not an Article, of my Faith to believe it is. And, in good earuest, for what cause is it, that we should invoke the Angels, is it, because we are benefited by them? so we are, in all those other instances; is it because we are spiritually benefited by them? so we are by all of these; for, from the Heavens to the Herb, all of them Declare the glory of God; is it, because the Beneficial Angels can hear us? but— à posse ad esse, is no good Argument; I can, walk ten miles to morrow; but it is inconsequent to conclude, that, Therefore, I will not stay, all day, at home; is it because they do hear us? but we will dispute of that anon; and yet, neither that they can, or do, is expressed or involved in that Text; and, at last, a precept I call for, or (though they have given me some, to which I have already replied) an allowable example; show me (which is impossible) a command to invoke carved Images, and I will presently invoke, and confess, that, all this while, I have much misbelieved King David, for they have ears, 
Ps. 111.6  and hear, show me (which is equally impossible) a command to invoke Angels, and I will become a stooping Proselyte, and profess my sorrow that Epiphanius hath either told us there were no Angelici left, 
Austin de Haeresibus 39  in his age, or, that he hath called them Heretics, in their own, or that St. Austin hath joined with him in that opprobrious Compellation.  
30. But let me look a little further into the Text they bring me; what if these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, are the same little ones, of whom our Saviour says, in the Chapter after, 
Mat. 19.14.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (for, the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Mat. 18.2. was he, by occasion of whom our Saviour said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the little Child v. 2. was the one of these little ones v. 10.) Suffer little Children, and forbidden them not to come unto me; it should seem, by the Context in both places, they are the very same; for, in comparison with these little ones, it is said, Mat. 18.3. Except ye be converted and become as Little Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, and, in Mat. 19.14. it is said Of such (such little Children) is the Kingdom of Heaven; there is the very sameness of matter, and expression, and, almost the sameness of Chapter too, so that, in very good reason, we are to believe those little ones Mat. 18.10. to be the very same with those little ones Mat. 19.14. Now, what little ones, and how little ones these were, we may learn of St. Luke, when he repeats the story, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 18.15. And they brought unto him also Infants— read to the end of the 17. v. and St. Luke's Infants are St. Matthews little ones, whose Angels— let me drive it a little further, and show you that Saint Luke's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, does confine Saint Matthews Little ones to Infants; not only by the Authority of Eustathius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they are Children new Born, ●ut by all these Scriptures. Luke 2.16. Act. 7.19. 1 Pet. 2.2. and before you shall find the word applied to him that is of age, and can speak for himself, you shall sooner find it applied to him that is not yet Born, and therefore, much less, can speak, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luc. 1.44. the Babe leapt in my Womb.  
31. All this being said, it is time to tell you Why; to clear That Text, out of which they pretend to it, from giving any Countenance to Angelical worship; for, whatever lays claim to it out of Scripture, must do it, either from the Command of God, or, from the practice of Saints; That there is no Command is evident; likewise that there is no example, so much as Imaginary, to be gathered out of that Text; for those that were Infants and could not voice a Prayer to God Himself, could, much less, to any Angel, either of God; or of their own; and, for ejaculatory prayers, Intended, though not uttered, although I presume Actual Faith (and such there must be even in Mental Ejaculations) presupposes the use of Reason, yet, in this case, it matters not, though I seem to grant it, since, not the close Purpose, but the Manifest expression of the Heart is only capable to grow into example; and therefore, since, from hence, they have neither Precept, nor Practice, it concludes not so much for them as it might, if they had said nothing at all; for, though that silence of theirs would be very far from a probational argument, yet That silence of theirs would never have been refuted, nor be made an argument against them, as their vain Babbling is. I am in very great haste, and I have many reasons to be so, and therefore I will not trouble, either them, or myself, to overthrow them more; who are already upon the ground; Let us see, if their next Quotation will lift them up, and give them Breath for a New Contest.  
32. Act. 12. And here I thank them, that their Citations and my speed may well agree; there is so little of moment, in that whole Chapter for them; 'tis true, verse 7. that an Angel of the Lord came, and smote Peter on the side, and Raised him up; 'tis more easy to conclude, that the Angel suspected Peter, being down, to worship Him, and that he smote him for it, and bade him arise up quickly, then that Peter did Really worship, or the Angel cheerfully accept; but, not this neither; for, till the Angel parted from him, Peter was not come to himself, verse 10.11. No Precept, no Practice in all this; 'tis true, 
Verse 8. Exod. 3.5.  the Angel bids Him Bind on his sandales; but, when the very ground was Holy, the Shoes were commanded off, and to put on the Sandales, was no sign of worshipping Angelical Purity; the Angel bids Him— Cast Thy Garment about Thee; 
Luke 19.36, 37.  Contrariwise, the garments were strewed in the way, when Christ was Honoured; His Chains fell off from his hands, verse 7. and the Iron-gate opened to them of its own accord, verse 10. I hope, I may believe all this, and be no more of the present Faith of Rome, than Ovid was, who, I know not by what method of Tradition, did light upon the same story, 
Sponte suâ patuisse Foreste, 
Metam. l. 3.  lapsasque lacertis,  
Sponte suâ fama est, nullo solvente, Catenas.   
But, Verse 9 betwixt this, Peter witted not, that it was true, which was done by the Angel, much less did He Adore the Angel for Doing it; and after all this; when Peter came to himself he knew that the Lord had sent his Angel: Verse 11 All concludible from hence is, that, the Angels (who are spirits, by Nanure, and Messengers by office) do that Good to Man, which God Commissions them to do; All this I steadfastly believe, and am a Protestant still— but verse 15. when Peter Himself knocked, they said, it is his Angel; Not to enter into That dispute at present, whither there are Tutelar Angels to Nations, to Particular callings, to Individual Persons; be it which way it will (Unusquisque sensu suo abundet) it matters not, neither does this, nor that, nor the Third way make aught for the Invocation of Angels; That, which should most deeply engage a private Person, to Revere his peculiar Angel, does not Engage him at all, not only from the Incapacity of the Angel, to receive That which is due to God, but from the Incapacity of the Votary, to pay that to his Angel, when he knows not, which is his; will you allow of a Confused worship— Thou My Angel, whosoever thou art— I persuade myself, Thy own Angel, at That Instant, would not be Thine; nor is this a gratuitous persuasion; for, may it not therefore, be, that God Conceals, from Nations, Callings, and Men, who is their Deputed Guardian, lest God, the Lord, might have too little of Honour, and his servant, the Angel, too much? There is but one mention more throughout that Chapter of Angel; and it is he, who punished Idolatry with Death, Herod with worms, for accepting that shout of the People — It is the voice of a God, 
Verse 22.23.  and not of Man, and because he gave not God the Glory; This Text will stead them less than any.  
Thus, having grappled with them, in their main Battalia, and in their Reserve, let me follow them into their Last Hold, and examine the slrength of That, and then wish, that we might both take our Leaves of one another.  
1 Cor. 11.10. for this cause ought a woman to have Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on, or 
† Erasmus renders it in caput.  In her head, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the Angels; a Text, in the last word of which (which is the very sting of the Objection) 
† Vide Heinsium super locum.  Interpreters, both Greek, and Latin, do much differ; Clemens understands by Angels, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Just, and virtuous Men; some interpret it, of the Bishops, and Overseers of the Church, and those Non pauci; says my Author; some understand Angels, but evil ones; and those too, Men of Antiquity, for, Saint Austin tells us of them l. 15. de Civit. Dei; so does * Tertullian, 
In lib. de Virginibus Velandis.  his Elder, by 250. years; Lactantius, De divinis Institutionibus, interprets alike; so does Eusebius, and, ex veteribus plerique Most of the Ancients as another Author tells me; nay, their own Estius, in his first Tome upon S. Paul's Epistles, fol. 396. col. 2. recites these three opinions, and does not dislike the two Former; reliquae secundae expositiones suam quoque probabilitatem habent; He adds a fourth opinion, which, some, though unfitly, held, that women should behave themselves Modestly, lest, by a garish attire, and wanton eye, even the Heavenly Angels might be corrupted to lose thoughts; at length He concludes with a fift, as a Potior sententia, because of the Presence of the Good Angels, who are delighted to see the service of God performed decently, and with singleness both of Heart and Ay; but, even in Him, not one word of adoration, and I am Loath to be quicker-sighted in his own cause, than his learned self: I will conclude this, that, (besides the Reasons already given, and which shall be given after) this is a most unstable, ambiguous Foundation, upon which to erect the Worship of Angels, since it is capable of so many expositions.  
34. Though I am loath to take advantage upon them, by Invalidating that one only Text, which tells us of a Saint in Heaven, who was Really and Actually Invokt, from being an example worthy their or our Imitation, yet, because the beginning of this Discourse against Douai, was commenced against the Invocation of Saints, and because all their Arguments, in that place, are the same with Beauties, and because their— And elsewhere— upon Exod. 20. and their— And the like— upon Genes. 48. may seem to design That very Text, which Bellarmin also makes use of, I shall account it no loss of time, to enervate all his Conclusion, and all their Imaginations from thence.  
35. Luke 16.24. The Rich man Cried, and said, Father Abraham have Mercy upon me; 'tis true, Abraham is here Invoked, but not, in the sense of Rome, as an Intercessor, but in the Rich man's own sense, as an Opitulatour; nay, I may say; He is Invoked, with a perfect Idolatry, not as a Saint, but as a God; at least, not at all to Intercede to God for Him; for, if Miserere mei, be not incommunicable to any other, besides Him, whose Mercy is over all His works (which, I believe Douai will not grant to me, because I find, in a 
† By John Bouturier, M. DC. XXXIII.  Manual of Godly Prayers, and Litanyes, taken out of many Famous Authors (of which I have reason enough to suspect Douai, to be, if not the Compilers, the Approbatours,) the same Frayer, to another Saint 
† By John Bouturier, M. DC. XXXIII.  O Holy Mary, stretch abroad the hand of thy Mercy— 
† By John Bouturier, M. DC. XXXIII.  O Holy Mary have mercy on us;— and, 
Pag. 382.  though Christ is not altogether left out, 
Pag. 383.  yet sometimes, He is prayed to, in that secondary Order, as if His Mother's prayers were more prevalent, and first to be sought, and then, Her Son's after;— 
† By John Bouturier, M. DC. XXXIII.  Virgin Mary, 
Pag. 98.  with her Benign Son, Blessus) yet, the Rich Man being in Hell, would certainly never pray to that God, who had plunged Him thither, and from whom, He knew He was for ever a Castaway; or, if this He did, He would not be an example to us of Praying, even to God himself, for known Impossibilities, much less, to Saint, or Mother of God, as shall liberally appear; though, as a Hopeful preface to all the rest, This, at Best, is but an example from the Damned in Hell; and That opinion is wretched enough, which must seek for secure out of so helpless a pit; I can more easily excuse the Tortured Rich Man (who, by reason of Anguish, said He knew not what) to call upon Abraham, than I can forgive any Bellarmine who takes Himself to he well in His Wits, to make such a Distracted Creature, His Laudable Pattern; But let us dive into the story.  
36. The whole of it is a Parable, in the opinion of many and Learned Doctors; Theophylact is vehement in this persuasion; Justin Martyr and Theophilus Antiochenus, state it with him; Eucherius, in his Questions upon Saint Luke, and Saint chrysostom, in his Homilies, familiarly call it so; And, though 
† Levinus Lemnius.  He, who wrote ex Institutio, of the similitudes and Parables in the Bible, does not mention this for One, yet, besides, that Humana authoritas non valet Negatiuè, He is not to be condemned for his omission, because his declared Purpose was, only to speak of those similitudes and Parables, in which 
† Quae in Bibliis, ex Herbis, & Arboribus desumuntur. tit. lib.  Herbs and 
† Quae in Bibliis, ex Herbis, & Arboribus desumuntur. tit. lib.  Trees are concerned; and, for certain, Abraham was no Herb (for, He was translated from Grace to Glory, and I never yet, heard of an Herb of Glory) though planted in the better than Paradise, nor was Dives a Tree, though He had taken deep Root, even as Deep as Hell; and, if a Parable it is, it is a stated Question, that parabolical Divinity affords no convincing Argument in point of Controversy: But what if it be a History? Gregory in His 40 Homimily, says it is, and calls it Res Facta; Tertullian, and Saint Ambrose think they Prove it, by that Argument, which Origen used against the Jews, that there was such a Man as Job, because the Name of the Man is set down in the Narration; and, because, as we know, there was an Abraham; so, by the same Reason, and in the same story, there must have been a Dives and Lazarus too; but grant we this, what get They hence? when Dives does particularise what He Prays for, That is confessed, by All to be a Metaphor; send Lazarus, that he may Dip the Tip of his Finger— He does not mean that very thing, for which He seems to Pray; or, if it did mean it, Abraham, is deaf, and does not hear, or else, hears, V 25 V. 26 and denies, Thou art tormented, and he cannot come; show me a more successful copy to Pray by, or else, I am as speechless, as the Saint is Earless: And, besides all this, the Pontificii themselves, are not, yet, at one, amongst themselves, whether this be a Parable or a History; from whose discord, this is one Argument, that, all, they conclude from hence, as to the Invocation of Saints, is Inconsequent and Unargumentative; it would look more like Christian Logic, to conclude, as 
† In vitâ Pauli. Non illuc Auro positi neque Thure sepulti pervenient. Lucan. lib. 9  S. Hierome does, Illi quidem pauperculo Paradidisus Patet, Vos Auratos Gehenna suscipiet; and since the poor Man went to Heaven, and the Rich to Hell, Bellarmine had done well if he had retracted one Note, his 15th, of the true Church, which he calls Temporal Felicity, and had well considered, that the Israelites, only upon this ground, deserted the true Church of God, and fell into Foul Idolatry; They answered Jeremiah, saying. 
Jer. 44.15, 16, 17.  As for the word that thou hast spoken to us, in the Name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee; But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our OWN Mouth, to Burn Incense unto 
* Discrtis verbis, the Virgin Mary is called so, O Holy Mary, Queen of Heaven. Manual. p. 382.  the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out Drink-offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our Fathers, our Kings, and our Princes, in the Cities of Judah, and in the Streets of Jerusalem, FOR THAN HAD WE PLENTY OF VICTUALS, AND WERE WELL, AND SAW NO EVIL.  
37. I have now done with the Errors of Authors, which, and with the Piety of Authors, by which, to Oppose, and would hearty wish, Douai, and Doway's Proselytes, to consider, how feeble, ill-grounded, and unfenced such Doctrines are, how Circularly the Proof roves into the Question, and the Question is left Naked, to become its own Proof, and Syllogism, and Champion (for, does not Bellarmine, his own self, imply all this, when he says, God Reveals our Prayers unto the Saints, and yet the Saints deliver up those Prayers of ours, more Prosperously to God?) When the Meanest Minister in the Church of England, even then, when It, and He, are at the Lowest, is Big enough, assisted with the Truth of God, and the God of Truth on his side, to wrestle with a whole Erroneous College; what would become of them, if themselves should be at leisure, from Designs, and Disguizes, and our Learned Fathers should be at Leisure, from those two Controversies, of Want, and Division at home, to enter the Lists with them? I beseech God to Humble Prosperous Mistakers, to Strengthen Poor Truth, and to Save All.  
38. But it shall not be enough to Reply to the Texts, misinterpreted by them; for, though thus to do, does, in some degree, shake the Foundations of Error, yet it does not, so far as Right aught to be Defended, establish the Truth; let me therefore (that I may not only shut the Mouth of the Pit upon Falsehood, but open the Pit, 
Veritas in Puteo.  that Truth may arise, and her Enemies be scattered) conclude against the Religious Worship, and Invocation of Saints and Angels, with some Few Scriptures more, and a little calm Reasoning.  
39 Since Invocation is so highly valued in the Word of God, as to be joined with that Instrument of our Salvation, 
Rom. 10.14.  Faith— How shall they call on him, in whom they have not Believed?— since it is, in both Testaments, the Comprehensive Word, which Involves in it the Entire Worship of God; 
Joel 2.32. — Whosoever shall CALL upon the Name of the Lord, shall be Delivered; by which Expressions, God himself seems as Jealously to Call for our Calling upon him, as for our Believing in him, or, for our Worshipping him at all; for the sake of these, and some more Texts, I would much stagger at any Saint-Invocation, lest otherwise I might perhaps stagger in the Faith; 
2 Kings, 22. ult.  What does King David mean, when he says, Thou, O God, O THOU that hearest Prayer? Psal. 65.2. but that he means it a Peculiar Attribute to God? not only the Good Man is taken away from the Evil to come, that he partake not of it, but that he not so much as See it— I will gather thee unto thy Fathers, 
See more in B. Hall's Old Religion, pag. 140.  and thine Eyes shall not SEE all the Evil which I will bring upon this place;— but, if they Reply, as Bellarmine does, that in the Old Testament the People of God were not wont to say, Ora pro nobis Sancte Abrahame;— what means our Saviour himself (who could best teach us to pray) when he bids us, not to call upon Saint or Angel, 
Luk. 11.2.  but upon Father which is in Heaven; and, though the Church of Rome does that too, yet she has a great Favour done her by those amongst us, who do it not, from whom by such a Continued Omission she may hope, that in time they may forget they ever were Commanded to call upon God only; for, by this, as God is in himself, so we acknowledge him to be our God, our God, in that we pray to him, and our God, in that we pray as he hath commanded us; and is not this, Treason against the Divine Majesty, when, by our Disloyal Prayers, we give those Acknowledgements to another, whereby he, that did make, and should rule us, is testified to be our God, and our King? does not this seem to make him, either a Nescient God, that cannot understand our Requests, unless they are conveyed to him through the Intercession of others? or else a Proud God, that will not admit of an Immediate Access unto himself? as if he, that humbleth himself to behold the things that are in Heaven, and in Earth, 
Ps. 113.6.  would, for all that, take so much State upon him, as not to take notice of the Best things that are, in Earth and Heaven (besides those things which are in God himself, and which are God himself) Humble and Faithful Prayer: God hath never told us, that Saimt, or Angel, does hear the words of our Lips; if any of them do this, at any time, yet, who can tell, that this or that Saint or Angel does hear at this time, when that Litany is prayed, 

Holy Mary, 
Manual, pag. 422.  Pray for us.  
St. Michael Pray.  
St. Gabriel Pray.  
St. Raphael Pray.   And not only St. John, and St. Peter, and St. Paul— Pray— but St. Agnes, and St. Cecily, and St. Anastasia— Pray—? nay, when some pray to this, or that Forged Saint, which are so far from being now in Heaven, that we have no assurance they ever were on Earth? Yet, for those Real and Un-doubted Saints (far be it from me to fasten a Shame upon any of them whom God hath Glorified) I only wish, they may not Rival their God in Honour (and, I am sure themselves wish the same with me) nor be overcharged with Reverence, more than themselves Desire, or God Appoints) who can tell, that their Present Employment, when Busy Man invokes them, is not designed to them by their God elsewhere? and than take we heed, that we do not apply that Ubiquitariness, to be Everywhere at once, which is properly attributed to God, to Saint or Angel; but then, for the especial part of Prayer, that of the Heart (without which, the Lips do only Mutter, they do not Pray) and that of the Heart only; if the Heart prays to Saint, or Angel, does not that Heart make Saint, or Angel, God, though unmeaningly? whose Property alone it is, to search the Heart, 
Rom. 8.27.  and the Reins. Deos, qui Colit, Ille Facit. 
Martial.  He, that worships Religiously, makes that a God, which he Ignorantly Worships; and Prayer is an Especial part of Worship; and that of the Heart, an Especial part of Prayer: And, if Any thing else but God, must be Religiously Invoked, if any thing else but God can pry into the Hearts, notwithstanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does acknowledge that he can do it, and 〈◊〉, 
Act. 1.24.  that he only) Thou, Lord, which knowest the Hearts; how little Honour is there of which we leave God the Sole Proprietary (though the Angels and Saints in Heaven know, themselves cannot honour him enough, much less we) if, as From us, and To us, we may invoke others besides God, others besides God may search into our Hearts! and what though they of Rome often say, and often in a day, and in that Variation, throughout those three Creeds, the Apostolical, as Text, the Nicene, and Athanasian, as Commentary; and perhaps, in one more, and larger than all these, the Tridentine, (all the Deliberations and Conclusions of that Council being sworn to, as if they were all one Creed) that— they Believe in God Almighty, the Maker of Heaven and Earth?— of all things, Visible, and Invisible— that they worship God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity— yet, whilst they worship Saints, and Angels too, and embase the Honour of God down to them, in their several Confessions of Faith, they do not what they say they do, but rather acknowledge what they ought to do, entirely to worship God; which, it is the whole purpose of this Discourse, to Argue, and Persuade, and upon the Knees of my Soul, to Beseech them to do. I shall conclude, with that Advice of holy David, Give unto the Lord, 
1 Chron. 16.28, 29.  ye Kindred's of the People, give unto the Lord, Glory and Strength; Give unto the Lord the Glory due unto his Name, even this, Come before him, Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness; To worship any else, Religiously, is to Rob God of his due; it is unbeauteous, altogether deformed in his Eyes, and in the Eyes of all his Saints and Angels; Therefore, only 
To him, who is the Blessed, 
1 Tim. 6.16. Rev. 15.4.  and only Potentate,  
To him, who is Only Holy,  
To God, Only Wise,  
Be Honour and Power Everlasting, 
Rom. 16.25.   
Be Glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.    

APOSTROPHE, To my Honoured Patron, The LORD TRACY.  
My good Lord,  
HOW your Noble self, and my other dear Lord Newport, will excuse me, to both of whom I have not performed all that I have promised to either, though, as to me, the Performances of both your Lordships have exceeded the Reality of your own, and the Vanity of other men's Promises, (which were spoke into the Air, and writ upon the Water) I cannot tell; and I have but these two empty Reliefs, that my Breach is but a Delay, Et mea sit solo Tempore lapsa Fides. And that there is less of Affliction to either of your Honours, whilst such Trifles as these, do less swell; and perhaps a little more consideration may make amends, in the Substantialness of the rest, for the Froth of these.  
Give me leave, I beseech you, to acquaint your Lordship why I insist so much against Doway-Rome, and why in that particular, against their Worshipping of Saints, and why too I intermit my Advertisements to the English Opinionist, and ill Liver; I have done the first, because in a late Disputation held at Winchcomb, some of my Brethren, 
Nou. 9  and myself, have been accused for Romishly-affected, in the Good Will we are thought to bear to Holidays; how unjust this Imputation was, did then appear, how Rash, and Unadvised, 
G. Goodman, Bishop late of Gloucester.  I collect out of my Ordinarie's Dedication to the Lord General, (and, by the way, the Civil Supremacy was asserted by us, whom some will traduce, as guilty of Disaffection, against the Allowance of those, who, though by a new kind of Popery, would be accounted the main Pulpit-Champions for it) to whom he intimates some holy Thanks for the expected Reviviscency of Festivals. I have done this against Doway-Rome, because I have Rational Presumptions, some of them may be my Early Readers, and because I would divert them from Clancular-Machinations, to a Pen-Contest; I Reprieve my Sentence against the Opinionist, and my Spiritual Physic for his Recovery, because I would both search to the Root and Heart of that Question which concerns the Ministerial Order, opposed by them, who are especially obliged, even by that Order itself, to Defend it; and because, as many have already canvased it, I resolve, not to be a Fidentinus, a Plagiary, but to bring New, as well as More Sacks to this Mill. This being the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of this Seeking Age, a Subject in which Plain, and Evident, and Apodictical Satisfaction, is as Necessary as in any, and in which the Honour of God is of Fundamental Concernment, I hope none will blame me, if I retire a while, and gather new Breath for such a severe Encounter.  
And now, my Lord, I have more Reasons still for such a Postscript, and those of a very Intimate, and Individual Signature, though I esteem it the Duty of my Gratitude, to let our British World partake.  
'Tis very true, (and, though unfortunate sometimes to myself, yet always Honourable to those of whom I make Respectful Mention) I Compliment no Man;— and 'tis, not only his, but my Happiness, that my dear Lord Newport cannot be Flattered; I have told him truly, that no Lord, besides his Excellent self, does quite-out know me; nor does this derogate from your Honour an jota; Salt, and Time, and Constancy of Affection, are the marks, without which it cannot be discerned, but by a Remote Conjecture, what a Man is; His Lordship hath had these Trials of me, and, I humbly thank him, I have had these Tastes of him; Such Characteristical Declarations of the Spirit of a Man, may, hereafter, be as entirely Yours, and I, if it be possible (— pardon my Ancient Zeal to Him, which does not take off from You) as much Inaerated to Your Honour, as His; Preaching is but the One Half of him, who is, at all, a Man, though his Judgement be of so low a Stature as Mine, and is so far from being Commensurate to the Head and Whole, that it will scarce reach up to the Skirts and Half of some Better-grown, and Taller Mind; and One Half of this Half of me, has been Communicated but two years to your Parish (let my Brethren pardon the word, and not afflict Innocency, either Vocabulary, or Personal) and not One to your Lordship, some Necessary Affairs, & some Recesses having withdrawn your Lordship's Ear from out your own Pew; And yet, though but thus Little Known, and Less Deserving, what Plenty of Favours have you heaped upon me, from the time when I was not known at all, to this very day? neither will, to recount this, be a Disparagement to the Clemency of my other Excellent, and Ever-honoured Lord, no otherwise than it is a Shame to have Another tread in his Virtuous Steps, and to do Good as he hath done; I am sure it will not offend his Meekness, if I should ride over, and tell him, concerning your Lordship's Love to me— Amat me (Nihil Possum dicere Ardentius) UT TU: 
Plin. l. 3. ep. 2.  Your Lordship, when you did not know me, nor I your Lordship, and therefore was unbribed so much as with a Desire of mine— Ignoti Nulla, did call me to you, that you might know me, and, ever since, your Indulgence has increased, un-allured with aught, but a Grateful Acknowledgement, as if each humble and welcomed Visit of mine, were an Obligation upon yourself, who, out of all your Treasury of Books, have learned nothing more, than to Oblige; You instantly Considered the Deuce of the place in which you seated me, were so exceeding small, as to the Encouragement of Studiousness, that you feared, without some New Access, I might be rather Studious, how to Live, therefore you annexed, out of your own Store, Ten Pounds, to be Yearly paid by yourself, which I receive, without a Call, and with Increase; the Occasional Rich Favours, and the Daily Improvement of your Kindness, will be more tedious to you to Read, than to Bestow; but I have no other way of Visible retribution, than thus to speak, nor of Real, than still to pray; there are, yet, such Primitive Noble Spirits in our Isle (and I wish them more, for, certainly, this itself is one fair step, though this alone does not reach home, to the making of them Beatifyed Spirits) however we are the Byword of the People, and, sometimes, of one another, God mend it) who see, through our Calling up to God, and, for him, Regard our Function, 
Prov. 3.9.  and Honour him with their Substance, and without Superstition, by imparting some of it to such an Off-scouring of all things, 
1 Cor. 4.13.  as we are at THIS DAY; nay, though some of us are cast in so Rough a Mould, and Uncourtly Frame, as nothing does more prejudice us, than our own Backwardness, and dis-commodious Modesty; such an Indisposition I have suffered under, for many years, and can take no better Revenge upon it, than to tell the World what a Peevish Undoing Tyrant it has been; but you, my good Lord, like the Sun, have searched into Obscurity, and brought forth, and made much of that, which would still have lain in Contemptible Darkness, and be worth nothing, had not you looked upon't; Such an affable and munificent Spirit there is in your Neighbour-Name, 
Sir Humphrey Tracy.  the Bounteous Baronet, who, next to God, loves the Minister of God; His, and your Minister, pray for Him, and You, and that the same Mind may for ever run in the Blood of all the Tracies: Nay, my Lord, not only you, in your Person, have done this, and more, but you, in that, and in your Example too, have done done more than this, whilst yourself, in much part, and your Village, in the rest, have always exempted the Calling of God, (since the first day I served you, and them in Christ) from the Burden of Taxes, so that I am, well nigh, in as good a state now, as when I was, once, Only- Student of Christ-Church. This I desire, with my Name to it, to Record, for the Honour of Toddington, that, in such an Age, when some think that Proverb a Law, to Pinch on the Parson's side, I have Neighbours of so much a better Religion, by how much they will pinch themselves, that their Vicar may escape. Deus Hic, Semper Eadem, Alibi Meliora— And yet, though I do, as I ought, thus liberally acknowledge your Lordship's Liberality, I should be sorry, if any shall take disadvantage from hence, and (because by these grateful Presents, they know where I am) call upon me to pay the Debts of Others; to prevent which Unprosperous Cruelty, let me give them also to understand, what your Lordship has often said, that it is Pity I should have so Much too Little to Live on; and that the good late Bishop of Gloucester hath Printed my dear Father amongst those Reverend Bishops who died Poor, so Poor, that he was not able to leave to his Only Son one Only Score of Pounds; Little I had of the— Res Relicta— and, that I had not much of the— Parta Labour— (though perhaps, more, for want of the— Parta— than of the— Labour—) my present Lowness does Testify; I take leave, to desire the World to bear me witness, that I profess myself  
From my Study. (which your Lordship built) in Todington, Nou. 20. 1653. Your Lordships exceedingly obliged Chaplain, to serve you, WILLIAM TOWERS.  
FINIS.