THE Perfect-Law OF GOD: BEING A Sermon, and no Sermon;-: Preached, and yet not Preached;-: In a-Church, but not in a- Church; To a People, that are not a People-.  
By RICHARD CARPENTER.  
Wherein also, he gives his first Alarm to his Brethren of the Presbytery; As being his-brethrens, but not his-brethrens.  Psal. 84. 10. Secundùm Codicem He●●aeum, Elegi ad limen sedere, in Domo D●i: I 〈◊〉 o● osen to sit at the threshold, in the House of God: Targe: adhae●ere; ●o lie cleaving to the ●●●●sh 〈◊〉, with hands and mouth: Lxx. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ●e as an A●ject in the House of God; than to dwell in the Tents of Wickedness. 
London, Printed by F. L. 1652.   

To all Christian Governors, That are, or shall be: Be These Most Humbly presented, Now, and hereafter, To the World's End.  
Likewise, To all GENERALS, and Governors of Armies.  
Finally, To all People, That desire to govern their Hearts, Agreeably to The perfect Law of God.   

St. BERN ARDUS, Serm. 36 in Cant.  
SUnt qui scire volunt, ●o fine tantùm ut sciant; & turpis Curiositas est. Et sunt qui scire volunt, ut sciantur ipsi; & turpis Vanitas est. Sunt itèm qui scire volunt, ut scientiam vendant, pro P●cunia, pro Honoribus; & turpis Quaestus est. Sed sunt quoque qui scire volunt, ut aedificent; & Charitas est. Et sunt qui scire volunt, ut aedificentur; & Prudentia est.  
Some desire to know, for this End only, that they may know; and it is a foul Curiosity. And some desire to know, that themselves may be known; and it is a foul Vanity. Some likewise desire to know, that they may sell their knowledge, for Money, for Honours; and it is a Gain, foully got. But there are also who desire to know, that they may edify others; and it is Charity. And there are who desire to know, that themselves may be edified; and it is Prudence.   

The Perfect LAW of GOD.  
I Ta planè res est: It is even so. Though the Text of a Sermon, be the first in Dignity; I never lead it up to the first place. A Text of God's Word, expounded in God's Name, is the preaching and publishing of God's Name, and like the Name of God; being Oleum effusum, oil or ointment poured forth; as the Name of God is, Cant. 1. 3. Thy Name is as ointment poured forth. The Auditors or Hearers, are the Vessels. We pour not pure oil, but into clean, and prepared Vessels.  
Holy David sings to his Harp, Psal. 10. 17. Thou wilt prepare their Heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear. Which the 
Editio Vulgata.  Vulgar Latin agreeably tempers: Praeparationem Cordis corum audivit auris tua, Thine ear hath heard the preparation of their Heart; And presupposes, Deum cordibus nostris aliquantisper aurem admovere, that God stands, as it were, holding his ear, some while, close to the Door of our Hearts; and listening, with earnest attention, to apprehend if there be any stir in the House, of Preparation for him, or of Propension towards him. Symmachus puts aside Preparation; and 
Symmachus.  assumes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the first proposal, or proposition; primum murmurillum, the very first little inward murmuring of the Heart, concerning Faith and Good life; the small noise and motion which the Heart makes in the first taking of the pencil in hand, to draw the first lineaments of a good purpose; when we begin to purpose, and before we can open our mouths to pray. Venerable Bede implants here, 
Venerabilis Beda in Psal. 10.  as in a fit ground, bonam Affectionem: and reads, Thine ear hath heard the good Affection of their Heart. His good Affection, being that previous Affection which the School-Divines require as a gracious preparative or Disposition to Faith. (For, a Disposition is ever analogous with the Thing, towards which, or to which, as the last Disposition, it disposeth: except the Disposition disposeth negatively; and only renders the Subject less indisposed.) Wherefore these Divines, (in defiance of Pelagius, and of the Massilienses or Semipelagians,) mark it with the Name of Pia Affectio, a godly or pious Affection; because it is of God, as he is the Author of Grace.  
Remember: That God sends his acts. all and first grace into your hearts; while he stands himself abroad, expecting, waiting, and listening to hear the first attempts and motions of this Preparation, propension, proposition, inward murmuring; to hear the pleasant noise made in the first Draught of this Good Purpose; the grateful▪ stir of this good and pio●● Affection, in the first waking of it: that Himself may open the door for Himself; and Himself come in, to Himself and you, with his habitual and second Grace. Remember.  
Now Three things: and the first, thus. (It relates to the most Angelical Office of a Preacher.) The Latin word, Speculator, is authentically brought home to us in our language: A Watchman from on high. And he that would represent in his thoughts, a lively character of a Watchman, may fitly portrait there, one tanquam in Speculâ positum, taking a full and superior view of these inferior things from the top of a Watchtower. Watchman, what seest thou? What from the Tower? I'll tell you anon, and with more than ordinary boldness. God's Watchman should not appear aloft in a Sermon, as the reflection of the great Angell-Image, recounted by Cardanus, from a Steeple-top in Milan, 
Cardan. lib. 12. Contrad. Medic.  that at one stroke, limbed itself on the Clouds in the Air, of themselves prepared for such an Impression; and only amazed and amused the vulgar Herd; who vainly took the vain reflection of an Image on the Clouds, for a most heavenly Saint or Angel: But should come down out of the Clouds, and speak near, and home, velut Angelus in Carne, as an Angel in the Flesh; and movingly, under God, to the Hearts of the people: and enter like a Wedg-Army; not affecting the Name of a Heavenly Man, but acting the Work of Heaven. It is the paltry Cutpurse (stop him there) that cunningly guides his arm, and fears to touch the quick with his ready little knife; lest in the quick miscarriage of his hand, he should quickly miss of his prey. And, Nusquam legimus scriptum, saith Trithemius, quod bonus spiritus 
Trithem. in Cariosit. Regiâ, Q●aest. 6.  in formâ sit visus muliebri, aut Bestiae cujuscunque, sed semper in specie virili: We read it not where written, that a good Angel did at any time appear in the form of a Woman, or of a Beast, but always in the shape of a perfect Man. The Messenger (or Angel) of the Lord of Hosts, Malach. 2. 7. Angelus Domini Exercituum; And he of whom it is a sealed Truth, as of John the Baptist, (that was, as our Preparation should be, rigid and severe in the preparing of Christ's way,) Matth. 11. 10. Behold I send my Messenger, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, my Angel; hath nothing of Effeminacy, nothing sought or affected, in Prayer, in Preaching, in Pronunciation, or in Matter: nought of the dull, and sensual Beast in him. He is altogether manly, and his words and actions are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they move onwards in the same yoke. Ye cannot exclaim of him; O sweet, O pious, O valiant voice! or say reasonably to him, as the Lacedaemonian 
Plut. in Apophtbeg. Lacon.  in Plutarch, to the dead Nightingale, having found little sap and substance for his nourishment, in her musical Body; V●x es, praetere à nihil, Thou art a voice, and nothing but a voice. He will deny himself to be the Christ, even by his preaching the Christ; and to be Elias, or a Prophet: And he will humbly define himself in his Office; The voice of one crying in the wilderness; as the Baptist did, Joh. 1. And therefore, he shall be most highly approved by the divine Testimony of the Christ, and be declared to come in the Spirit of Elias; and to be more than a Prophet; yea, the choice Angel of the great God, as it was declared of John. O my dear Consorts of Nature: Coelum coelorum, the Heaven of Heavens, or the highest Heaven, which is Coelum Beatorum, the Heaven of the Blessed, wherein the blessed Saints and Angels dwell, is not rapted or carried about, as those Vnder-Spheres are; Nor is a Man from Heaven, being God's Angel or Messenger to Mankind, careered about. And the Messenger qui versatur in circulo, that moves circularly, though he comes from Heaven-ward, comes only from the Sphere of Mercury, or of the Moon, being himself like the nimble Spheres under our Heaven; of the which great Aristotle asserts, That if one of them should 
Arist. lib. 2. de Coelo.  stand a while, while a small Fly could be raised to settle upon it, it would be whirling about, in the very first onset of the silly poor Fly- I hear it Thunder. Psal. 77. 18. The Voice of thy Thunder in the Heaven; or in the Sphere: the Original word with like affection importing a 
Text. Hebr  Sphere, a Wheel, and every thing, the motion of which is circular. Which moved the Vulgar Latin to run parallel with our 
Codex vulgatus.  Sense: Vox Tonitrui tui in Rotâ, The voice of thy Thunder (thy Anger, thy Judgement) is heard in the motion of the Wheel. And the same Prophet reaches even to this Age, and to this Nation, with a prophetical Eye and Prayer; Psal. 83. 13. O my God, make them like a Wheel: that being drawn a little, turns upwards, downwards; towards Heaven, and towards Hell; forwards, and backwards; turning a new way, and to the way from which it lately turned: wheeling about, and about, and about again; this way, that way, the other way; any way, every way, all ways.  
The second of the Three things, stands forth. And it pleads for the maintenance of certain unoffensive Rights, concerning the materials and composure of this Discourse. I have received it flowing from the Pen-Distillations of the mighty Controvertist; whose very Name gives us an Alarm, and sounds Bellum & Arma, War and Arms: that we may wisely return, and run back with our Pitchers to the Greek and Hebrew Fountains; driven 
Robert. Bellarm. lib. 2. de Verbo Dei, cap. 11. Tom. 1.  within the lists and restraint of four Cases or Exigencies. Whereof the third, is; Quandò verbum, aut Sententia in Latino est anceps; when a word or sentence in the Vulgar Bible, is doubtful; and stands upright in aequilibrio, looking at once two ways, or many; but inclining, or propending no way. And the fourth, ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & proprietatem vocabulorum intelligendam, for our clear understanding of the secret energy, or efficacy, and smoothdeep current of words, running majestically, and with grave silence, in their own Channel. As, when the word or phrase in the Fountain, is beautifully big with an Emphasis, or tacit signification. The wise Alchemist, in the whole progress of his Art, extracts Things purer and purer, from grosser Things. And a Text sometimes, is like a double Picture; wherein they wipe off with a wet cloth, the water-colours, that the during oily Picture in recessu, in its withdrawing place, and retiring-Chamber, may now be unveiled, and come in view: which oft times is contrary to the Picture carrying the first face. Brethren, There was a a kind of mortal punishment amongst the old Jews, badged with the title of Combustio Animae, the Burning of the Soul: (My Author is R. Levi Ben Gerson) 
R. Levi Ben Gerson in Levil. 10.  wherein they poured scalding Lead into the mouth of the condemned person; by the which, his inwards were consumed; the shape and outward bark of his body, remaining still with due proportion. So there be Translatours of the lower Classis, (O dismal, and odious name!) that with a leaden sense, yet full of Malignant heat and base passion, scalded away the Spirit, Soul, and Life of the Text: leaving nought often times but a shell, Superfice and outward letter. Moreover, I disclaim and abandon, as I do the Angel of the Bottomeless pit, Abaddon, King of the strange Locusts, Apoc. 9 11. who in the Greek tongue hath his name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, exterminans, exterminating, as the vulgar Latin; as Erasmus, perdens, 
Lectio vulgata. Erasm. Roterodam. in Apoc. 9 Text. Heb.  destroying; according to the letter in the Hebrew, Perdition, destruction, here being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Effecti, a Figurative speech, in the which Effectus loco Causae ponitur, the Effect is honourably substituted for the Cause, after the leading of the Hebrew Dialect: Destruction in the abstract, for a superlative Destroyer. As I abandon this Abaddon, this Devill-angel; I renounce all those, who in their Use (Abuse is the Word) of holy Scripture, God's pure word; as if it were homogeneal with Anaxagoras his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‑ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon Aristotle's Record; draw 
Aristot. de General. Animal. lib. 4 cap. 3.  quidlibet ex quolibet, every thing out of any thing, and make divine Scripture in omnia sequacem, readily following them in their proof of all things, and God the holy Author of Scripture, like a Cunning Man that is versatili ad omnia pari●èr Ingenio, of a wit or nature applying and turning itself to every thing alike; and thus destroy the firmness of Scripture, and exterminate God out of his own Word. These are unnatural Children, who for want of Superior moderation, pull too strongly; and seeking Milk, suck Blood from the soft and tender Breasts of sacred Scripture. It is Aristotle-proof, That Faculties, 
Arist. lib. 1. E●hicor. cap. 1.  powers, sciences, etc. are supreme or subordinate, as their Ends are subordinate or supreme. Therefore those Sciences, those powers, those faculties, which are immediately helpful to the consecution of our last End, are the supreme and superior of all other; and the other are Servants, and waiting-maids in respect of them. How dare those Brethren of the Locusts, so rashly, so rudely settle and fasten upon the highest of Sciences; and employ so unadvisedly, indirectly, irreverently their highest Powers and faculties, belying the blessed Spirit of God? To the matter in hand. Graft a Rosetree; then convey a grain of Musk into a cloven in the stock: and all the Roses that come of the stock, will carry Musk about them. The Scripture that sweetly smells of the grain of Musk in the stock (in the Text prae man●bus, before us to be discussed,) is doubly sweet, sweet of the Musk, and of the Rose.  
The Third thing succeeds: and it serves as well to the Meridian of divine and superior, as of inferior and humane jurisdiction, and to our Hem●sp here. Elohim is a name of God, assisting his providence; by the which he governs the World: and signifies God quatenus est Judex & Vindex, as he is a Judge, and Revenger. Wherefore the Psalmist arraigns the Fool, Psal. 14. 1. The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God. First: The Original saith, Nabhal hath 
Text. Heb.  said in his heart: which the Chaldee says over again, The mad man hath said, etc. 
Chaldaea Paraphrasis.  The Hebrew word signifies, a sottish or doltish fellow; yea, one that hath fallen or lapsed from good actions; such before other being Athesticall: or finally, One that is both a Knave and a Fool; the Latin word Nebulo being an Hebrew born, and coming, by ancient extraction, of this Nab●al. And secondly: 
Text. Heb.  The Original owns, En Elohim, there is no Elohim. And the Chaldee fits it; 
Paraphr. Chald.  Non est potestas Dei in terra, There is no dominion or power of God upon the Earth. And this, the Jerusalem Targ. recounts 
Targum Hierosolymit. in Gen. 4.  to have been cursed Cai●'s plea against his blessed brother, before he butchered him. The Word, Elohim, is lineally descended from El, which is a name of God, reporting him strong; and ala, the translation of which, is, Obligavit, juramento astrinxit, he hath Obliged, he hath bound by Oath: inferring covertly as doctrinal, and purgatis auribus dignum, worthy to be received with clean Ears, That God hath blazoned his Omnipotent strength and power in creating and adorning the world; (Elohim being the first name of God in the Scripture, and most used in the History of the Creation;) and beyond this, hath obliged and most firmly bound us by this excellent and actual Gift of his free Goodness, as by a virtual Oath on our parts, to his actual worship, and to the repayment of real Obedience, and effectual Gratitude: And that, if in our walkings we be retrograde, or, move in transversum quasi Cancer, crossly; if we degenerate, in our carriages, into the Changeling with perverted Hands and Feet; Elohim, that in the first Work of his actual Providence, was Elohim the Creator; will in the later Works of it, be Elohim the Judge and Revenger: He that was Elohim, strong to create us, and other Things for us; will finally approve Himself Elohim, strong to revenge upon us, the vile and various injuries done to him in the abuse of ourselves, and his other Creatures. That therefore we might rectà pergere, go straight-forward, God, for our guidance in the just and right use of his Cretures, engrafted in us, in our Creation, besides our transient, lost, and supernatural Grace; right Reason, and Prudence; being the Rule and Measure of all our Moral Virtues, or Virtues in the Will; Which are Virtues, because conformable to the Dictates and judgement of Prudence; from which, they receive the fair stamp or embellishment of moral Honesty; and that they neither exceed, nor are deficient. And that, as right Reason grew less right, and more warped by contamination from outward, and low things; it might be regulated, and heigthened by communication, from an outward Exemplar on the Mount: Upon the Mount he did promulgate, o'er fulmineo, in a terrible manner, a Moral Law; having betimes proclaimed himself, (as, to Abram Gen. 17. 1.) El Saddai, God All-sufficient, by his Grace, Mercy, Power. Saddai is one of God's ten famous Names which constellate in the Old Testament, and is compacted of Schin a relative article, and the Noun Dai, signifying sufficiency, Aquila, Symm●chus, and Theodotion, as St. Hierom, called Presbyter (quòd 
S. Hieronym. Ep. 136. ad Ma●cell.  plerumque Sacerdotes essent aetate provectiores▪) attesteth in his Epistle to Marcelia; resolve it into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sufficient of and to himself, omnipotent. And Saddai, as it often appears in the Scriptural● use of the Word, turns an Ey to Scaed, a Teat, a Breast; proposing God in his Mercy, as all-Breasts, and full of Milk; and as offering the Breast, that is, cordially reaching forth Grace, and heavenly nourishment, to all the Tribes of Men, and to every particular Man in his Tribe.  
And because Christ came to reconcile the great and general Difference betwixt God and Man, and to satisfy for our Abuse of God's good Creatures, in the Breaches of the Law: He assuming the Nature of Man, assumed something in it, of every Creature; either Created Being, or Vegetation, or Sense, or Understanding and Spirituality. For, In Man, all the Creatures of God in Epitomen reducuntur, are epitomised, abridged, abbreviated. He is (to speak more Scripture-like) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the recapitulation of all Things into one. And for this reason, God is said Ephes. 1. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to gather together in one all things in Christ. Hence Cajetan from the Consistory 
Caiet. in 3. parte Quaest. 1 Art. 1.  of his high Thoughts; Incarnatio est Elevatio totius Vniversi in divinam Personam, The Incarnation of Christ, is the lifting up, or Elevation of the whole Universe into the divine Person. This Pinnacle 
Videatur Salmeron Tom. 3. Tract. 2. explicans illud ad Ephes. 1. 10.  of Truth, is artificially garnished by Salmeron, who brings with him St. Gregory with his▪ Talon; contributing, that in this Consideration, Christ sending his Apostles to preach to Mankind, used this Form of command, Marc. 16. 15. Preach the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to every Creature.  
The Law of Elohim and Saddai, as it comprehends also the Precepts or Counsills of Christ, is the choice Thing here, which I would gladly draw forth by itself and preach to you, and to every Creature in you. The Text is in proximo, very near, and calls for admittance. Now it comes. Receive it, as rich Vessels prepared for it. Receive it as the Law and Love of the great Jehovah, and Lord of us all, and of infinite worlds, lying hid in the dark and void womb of Possibility, if he shall please to will them into Being, as he did this our World.  Psal. 19 7. 
Lex Domini immaculata.  
It speaks English thus:  The Law of the Lord is perfect. 
YEs. But notwithstanding; Tu tuas Res age; Ego meas: Let me modelize my own work. It is joyfully received è Lyceo, out of Aristotle's School, for a 
Arist. lib. 6. E●hicor. cap. 4.  Maxim amongst our Christian Philosophers, waiting dutifully upon Divinity: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, All Edification in Doctrine, grows up from known or accepted, Principles, from Principles clear to the eye of right Reason, or of true Faith. The Text here, is itself a principle, and set forth, standing with a broad bottom, in the full view both of Reason and Faith. The Reasonable Man, à Naturâ nondum ablactatus, not yet weaned from the Breast of naturated Nature, (still the Milk pearls on his lips;) hath willingly transcribed it out of Nature's Original extant in his Heart, (being dead to God;) as a lively Principle of Nature; and acts from it; but hath not assentingly took it upon the best account. If one writ a Will or Testament, and hold the Pen with a dead man's Hand, that Will will not hold in Law: It was not his Will; because it was not writ by him, with virtue derived from any Principle of Life in him. Neither will our Natural Man's Will hold for a Will in God's Law, being his revealed will. Some Works and Acts of the Noctuambulones, or those that walk and talk in their sleep by Night, though the same works, in the trial of Sense, with the works of the same persons when they wake and walk, are not by Reason admitted, or enroled as such. Behold the Ground. Fix your Foot here, as upon a fixed and  Truth. Only the acts and performances issuing from a divine Principle in us above Nature, can suit with the divine Will, supernaturally discovered.  
But the Believer hath religiously copied it into his Heart, out of God's revealed will, and out of God in the best and highest Construction of him; as he is in the supernatural Order, the Author of it; not as the Author of Nature: and therefore, though the same Truth (eadem in Terminis, the same in Terms) be still embraced by both; yet now, it is a Truth of the supernatural Order, and immediately apprehended by an active and fundamental virtue from God in us; and one so perfect, u● nihil suprà, that nothing in this our State, reaches above, or before it; and which is Ground-firm, and only able to meet and close in fit equipage, with the supernaturality of Revelation. And as the Prince of the Thomists divinely 
D. Tho: secunda secundae, quaest. 6. art. 1. in corp.  speaks: Quia Homo assentiendo eis quae sunt Fidei, elevatur supra naturam suam; oportet quòd hoc insit ei ex Supernaturali Principi● interiùs movente, quod est Deus. Because Man by assenting to matters of Faith, is elevated above his Nature; this must come from a supernatural Principle moving inwardly, which is God. The supernaiura● Principle is the main Thing: the principal Thing. Examine your Principles.  
I could render the Text like the Herb called the Tartar. Lamb, that with secret pullings attracts the juice and virtue of, and seems, like a grown Lamb, to put a mouth to, and openly feed upon the Plants and Herbs on every side of it. For, though it be a Principle, it is a Principle in the midst of others; and lies couchant, as it were, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in a rich pictured Pavement.  
I might divide the Text too. But we never wisely divide in this Manner, save claritatis ergô, for perspicuity, and to clear up our Knowledge of Kinds and Particulars. (Nec ad aliorum Exempla me componam.) And, Principia sunt per se nota, Principles are known of themselves. They are also compacted, short, and sprightly. And I will not be so like Vesalius the Anatomist, who commonly did improve his Art, by cutting up Men alive. I shall therefore, Things fairly flowing and growing of themselves, (Rebus probè fluentib us,) gently bind up the whole Doctrine into this fair sheaf.  
The Will, and Law of God; and the Wills of Men in God's place, which correspond with the Divine will, and are therefore Law, are perfect and without blemish.  
The Law of God is most unblemished, and perfect, considered in its Original.  
As the Divine Idea, is Quaedam Ratio in Mente Divinà, a certain Exemplary Cause of Things in the Understanding of God: So there is Ratio quaedam in Divinâ Voluntate, a certain Rule or Measure of Things in the Divine Will; which is Lex aeterna, the eternal Law. The first natural Copy of it, is enstamped in Angelicâ Naturâ, in the Angelical Nature. The Second, in Rectâ Ra●ione, in the Right Reason of Man. And God's revealed Will in his outward Command or Word, is an After-Copy; à Sensu init●um habens, entering upon us by the Sense; as doth all our other knowledge of outward Things. The Apostle album apponit calculum, assents, Rom. 10. 17. Fides ex auditu, Faith is occasioned by hearing. Saint Austin disputing against that numble and whorish-tongued Faustus the Manichean, defineth 
S. Aug. lib. 22. cap. 27. contra Faustum.  Sin, (Peccatum in Commnni,) Dictum, vel Factum, vel Concupitum contra Legem aeternam Dei: A Thing said, or done, or thought against the eternal Law of God. This everlasting Rule in God, because in God, is essentially God and infinite, as God is infinite and everlasting: And quatenus est Ratio Fundamental is Agendorum, as it is the Fundamental Rule of Things to be done in Time, is the very Will of God in God.  
He that will give God a Name, bearing a special engagement to this Law of Essence; must give him his essential Name, Jehovah: of the which, Himself proclaims, Exod. 3. 15. This is my Name Legnolam, for ever. Which Text the later lews, as Petrus Galatinus informs 
Petrus Galatin. lib. 2. de Arcanis Fidei, cap. 10. S. Hterom. Epist. ad Marcell.  against them, have greatly distempered by a little motion or mutation; reading it, Legnalam, to be concealed. This Name of God, is God's proper Name, and incommunicable to a Creature, as his Essence is; and his Original Will, that is both a Will and a Law; Saint Hierom calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; St. John Damascen, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; 
S. Jo. Damasc. lib. 1 Ort●o●. Fidei, cap. 12. Theodor. in Exod. 3.  Theodoret, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Which Epithets conspire in this; That the Name could not be spoken, or uttered: Because the Letters, which tied up into a sweet Posy, composed originally this Name, being Insonae, soundlesse, enigmatically taught, God's Essence, imported by this Name, to be unspeakable. It runs through all the Differences of Time; and is aptly Englished, Who was, who is, who will be: showing, it includes the Law that is essential and essentially eternal. It is much applied to God in his merciful Acts; as Elohim in his Acts of judgement: thereby divulging, That it is in complete Sense, as agreeable to God's Will, to be merciful as to be; yea, that he delights as much in his Will of Mercy, as in his Being: And his giving a Law, was a singular act of Mercy; as generally, it is an act of justice to punish the Breakers and Violators of it. Wherefore Paulus Burgensis contends, that the Mercy of God is insinuated 
Paul. Eurgens. in Scr●tin. Part. 1.  by Adonai standing for Jehovah. The Name jah, being the Name jehovah with a curb or check, or taken up into short; and signifying I am, is enrobed in the same Perfection. A Doctrine stands up here.  
He that breaks the Law of God, sins against the Divine Essence.  
O thou Spirit of Truth, assist me farther. The Prophet David cries out towards Heaven, Psal. 8. 4. What is Man, that thou art mindful of him? Where Enos, which the Interpreters call Man, doth not signify Man, quocunque modo: but, 
Euseb. de Demonstr. Evangel. lib. 2. cap. 7.  as Eusebius learnedly, Man, quatenus est ar●●fex aut architect●s sceler●s, ac immen or Dei & sui. The Paraphrase may be, O what is forgetful Man, that thou art mindful of him, who forgets thee, and himself, and what he does when he sets himself against thy very Essence; against thee as thou art jehovah? Who fears not to make a rude Assault upon the very substantial Essence of God? Upon God, as he is Primum Ens per se subsistens, The First of all Things, subsisting by Himself? As he is Fons Essendi, atque Existendi, The Foutain of all Essence, and Existence; of all Being, and Well Being? Most Good, and most Great; and most greatly Good in being most Merciful? Sin proprium periculum increpuit; But if there be the least noise or crack of Danger in other Things, mean things, starts, and looks pale, and puts wings to his Heels, and runs to save himself; crying, make room for God's sake? And though lying under the Rod, he lets fly a multitude of good Words, and Prayers; and fairly promiseth to be reformed; framing likewise a promising Countenance; adjoining an humble Voice; with some groans; and a goodly number of sighs; the hands, and eyes, all the while, working mainly: yet, the Rod being laid aside; and the smart off; presently ●redit ad ingenium, returns to his vomit; the Rod being yet in sight; and jehovah with all his Divine Essence, being present, and looking upon him? What is Enos (or, Enosh) forgetful Man, that thou art mindful of him?  
This Law of God, is yet more known to be most perfect, by its Contrary. For if this Will or Law of God, were not infinitely great, and good, and perfect, the Thing contrary to it, could not be Malum infinitum, an infinite Evil, (the Truth of this, every Man sees; nemo tam Talpa est, quin videat;) and have infinite Imperfect on in it, as it hath according to Divines, and the Angelical Doctor their Speaker, speaking for them as followeth: Peccatum contra Deum commissum, quandam infinitatem habet ex infinitate 
D. Tho. part. 3. quaest. 1. art. 2. ad 2.  Divinae Majestatis: tanto enim Offensa est gravior, quanto major est ille, in quem delinquitur. Sin committed against God, hath a certain infinity from the infinity of the Divine Majesty: For, an Offence is by so much the more grievous, by how much he is more great, against whom we offend.  
The most adequate, and fundamental Reason is; Because in our Elections of moral Good and Evil, we hold a Balance; weighing in a manner, the Creator and the Creature: O great Indignity! And in our Applications to Evil, as if the Creature were of more weight and worth than the Creator, we scornfully turn from the Creator, and join affectionately with the Creature; bidding defiance to the Creator. And, as the melancholy-She in Trallianus, as he delivers it, Putavit se 
Alexand: Trallian. lib. 1. cap. 16.  uno digito posse totum Mundum conterere, thought she could break to pieces, the whole world with the motion of one short finger; and crush it into a Miscel any, with the clinching of her little Hand: So we, more mad and melancholy, set up ourselves, and stretch out our Hands, for the time, above God and his whole Creation. In the which foul Act, there is Aversio à Deo, & Conversio ad Creaturam; an Aversion from God, and a Conversion to the Creature: And therein consequently, Bonum commutabi e praefertur Incommutabili Bono; a changeable Good, yea, sometimes a villainous and filthy Lust (O Man, Siccine te ip●e abjicies? wilt thou so debase thyself?) is preferred before a Good, and a God that is unchangeable: And the Offender ab im● ever●it ●omnia, overturns the whole Frame of the Universe; exalting Earth to the place of Heaven, and subjecting God and God's Heaven under his dirty feet. From this foresight, Isidor. Pelufiot, St. Chrysustom's apt Scholar, exacts of a 
Isid. Pelus. lib. 1. Ep. 424.  Religious Man, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an honest and truly-faithfull Holder of the Balance.  
And in answer to that Aversion and Conversion; there is in Hell, Poena Damni, the Pain of Loss, by the which, we shall everlastingly be averted from God; and Paena Sensûs, the Pain of Sense, by the which, we shall remain for ever assigned and confined to the Creature; I mean, to Fire; which being the most pragmatical Busy-Body of all earthly Creatures, shall actively revenge the Wrongs done to the Creator, and the Creature; and which, because Sinners have transgressed the Law of Nature, shall be promoted and elevated above Nature, and beyond its own rank, to act upon the Soul; by Him who did not intent the burning of Spirits and Souls, primariâ Intention, quâ rem propter se intent it, with a primar●e Intention, by the which, he intends a thing for itself; sed secundariâ, quando rem vult propter aloud, & praemissa alterius Consideratione, but with a secundary Intention, when he wills a thing, urged to it in the consideration of a thing premised. And thus, our Commission of an infinite Evil, is, rebus nun● aequâ lance pensatis, things now being equally weighed, proportionably and most justly punished. We are averted from an infinite Good; and affixed to a most intolerable Evil; being a material Instrument of justice, and representing our adhesion to material Things: which in Duration à parte post, shall be infinite; and infinitely subject a superior Spirit to an earthly base Body.  
Ye demand: Why God punisheth a Sin, committed in Time, a short Time, a Moment; with Hell, a Place of eternal Torment? Is this Law of God perfect? I answer, First: If he to whose charge a matter of infinite price and worth, is committed, should by his gross default, and 〈◊〉 negligence, lose, yea contemn, and wilfully disavow it: ought he not to pay an infinite price for it? or, if he be not able to pay; ought he not to suffer an infinite punishment; according to the plain Rule and Letter of justice? In like manner; He to whom the infinite God is given, with Grace; he who is entrusted with the infinite Son of God, in the sacred Symbols of our Lord's Supper; he who is redeemed with an infinite price; if by Sin, he shall lose these Infinites, or, this many and one Infinite; and cannot restore an infinite Satisfaction for the loss of it; is it not equal, that the Sentence of justice should pass upon him according to his Fact, and give him over to an infinite Punishment? I answer, Secondly: The Person is infinite, against whom, and the Law is infinite, against which we Sin; and therefore Justice demands, that we should be punished in infinitum, into infinite: and moreover, by reason of the infinite Person against whom we Sin, Sin is an infinite Evil: and should not infinite be punished with infinite? and by Sin, we are turned from our last End, which is infinite; and have turned our Intention to a finite and vile Creature, as to an infinite End. For, as Aquinas answers; 〈◊〉 
D. Tho. ●r●m● secund●, quaest. 1. ●rt. 7. ad. 1.  qui peccant, avertuntur ab eo in quo verè invenitur ratio ultimi Finis, non aut●m ab ipsa ultimi Finis Intention, quem quaerunt falsò in alijs rebus. They who Sin, are turned from that in which the fullness and perfection of the last End is truly found; but not from their intending the last End, which they falsely seek in other things. I answer, Thirdly: Sin, with and in which, the Sinner dies, sticks always to the Soul: Because Death gives utter denial to Repentance, by the which only, the Soul is washed. Therefore, where Sin always sticks, it is just, that Punishment should also adhere. Ye may turn again, and avouch confidently: The Angels being Spirits, changed from good to evil, And why may not a Separate Soul change from evil to good? The Angels were then in Viâ, in their School of Trial, and in their Way: The Separate Soul is ultra Viam, and in Termin●, beyond it, and out of it; and we go not forward, after the end of our journey. I answer, Fourthly: God gives eternal Happiness to us, if we keep his Laws; therefore, if we break them, he may, by a fit Analogy, reward us with everlasting unhappiness. Fifthly, I answer: The Sinner is everlastingly punished, because he would everlastingly Sin 
S. Greg. lib. 34. Moralium in job.  if he could. Which reason St. Gregory illustrates: Ad districti Judicij Justitiam pertinet, ut nu●quam careant supplicio, quorum mens in hâc vit â nunquam voluit carrere peccato: & nullus detur iniquo terminus ●ltionis, quia quamdiù valu●t, hab●re noluit terminum Criminis. It pertains to the justice of strict judgement, that they never want Punishment, whose Mind in this Life, would never be wanting of Sin: And there be given to the unjust Man no End of Revenge, who as long as he could be faulty, would hear of no End of committing faults. The same Divine Author speaks again: Iniqui ide● cum fine delinquunt, quia cum fin● vivunt: 
Idem lib. 4. Dialogorum, cap: 44.  Nam voluissent utique sine fine vivere, no po●uissent sine fine peceare. The  ones, therefore Sin with End, because they live with End: For, their desire is, to live without End, that they may sin without End. This, their Actions testify. The Canon gives in an Evidence: Qui nunquam cessant peccare dum vivunt, oftendunt, 
De Poemit. Dist. 1. cap. Importune, Sect. Sive autem.  quia semper in peccato vivere cupiunt. They, who give not over sinning while they live, tell plainly, and speak it in their behaviour, that they desire to live always in sin. And the justice is founded upon a triple Basis. First: That he who does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, fight against God in suo aeterno, in his own Eternity; which Eternity is the Continuance of his Life; should, being arrested by Sickness, and conquered by Death, God's Messengers and Officers, lie in God's ●aile, and be punished by God, in Deiaeterna, in God's Eternity; which Eternity is the Duration of his Life, enduring for ever and ever. Secondly: That whereas God sees the near Connexion of our Will and Deed in respect of themselves; and whereas an efficatious Will, is as the Deed, putting all the Requisities to it on its own part; It is a firm part of ●ustice, that God should punish an Everlasting Will, as an Everlasting Deed. Thirdly: It is just, that he who would never stop in Sin, if he might live always; and would live always, that he might always Sin; should live always, that he might always be plunged, and engulfed into punishment. Therefore all Sinners, dying in Sin, and everlastingly punished for it, are in the number and black List of those, of whom the Apostle says, Rom. 3. 8. Ending the verse with the End of wicked Men: Quor●m Damnatio ●usta est, whose Damnation is just. 'Tis just so.  
I see before me; that though Sin be not in every turn, Benoni, the Son of Grief: yet, is it always Aboni, the Father of all our Griefs and Sorrows: gliscente in dies malo, this evil growing forth into an evil without End. And therefore, in the Hebrew Language, Sin is most conveniently named Aven: which, as it offers itself to signify Sin, a Lie, an Idol, Vanity, Iniquity, that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, inequality, injustice, injury, perversity; So it signifies great labour, weariness, affliction. And Aven is reduced per Crasin Grammaticam, by a Contraction prescribed also in the Hebrew Grammar, to On; which being translated, sounds Grief. Sic abeunt in vanum Cacodaemones, ingenti post se relicto foetore: So the Devil in his vanishing, leaves a noisome and pestilential stink of all Evils, behind him.  
O most dearly Beloved: Can it be unsavoury now? Is it not apprimè u●ile, greatly profitable, to prevent Grief with Grief; with temporal Grief, Grief eternal? Prov. 22. 9 He that hath a bountiful Ey, shall be blessed. The Vulgar Latin hands it forth, Qui pronus est ad 
Vulgatus Interpres.  Misericordiam, benedicetur: He that is prone to Mercy, shall be blessed. The Hebrew gives immediately, Qui bonus est oculo, 
Text. Heb.  He that is good of Ey. And the Chaldee follows in the footstep, Qui bonum 
Chald. Paraph.  oculum habet, He that hath a good Ey. Then we have a merciful Ey, when we look mercifully upon those who are in misery. Zanchius is ours: Indè dicta est Misericordia, qùod Cordi nobis sit aliena 
Zanch. de Natura Dei, lib. 4. cap. 4. quaest: 1.  Miseria. Thence Mercy was by the Latius called Misericordia; because by Mercy, we lay close to our Heart an other's Misery, Yea, Zanchius; we may be 
Similia habet S. Aug. contr. Advers. Leg. & Proph. lib. 1. cap. 20.  merciful to ourselves, if the misery hath not yet irrevocably attached us; or, if our deliverance from it, stands within the Verge of our own power; or, in a Ray of the Divine Beams, cast upon our Industry. Thus much, Place tu●, with your good leave and favour. And who walks tottering upon the brink and edge of eternal Misery, but he, for whom there waits an infinite Evil of Punishment, soyned with an everlasting Aversion from God our last End? Can a Man that answers in his Catechism, I am a Christian, murmur to himself, in such Circumstances; or, sing with the Bird in his Breast, In tut● sum; mea Res est in tranquilla: I am safe; 'tis a Calm with me? O, look with a merciful Ey upon your selus; your poor selves; your miserable selves: For, He that hath a merciful Eye, shall be blessed.  
And in the Sacred Language here, (which Language was not the slender and curt Invention of Man, but the most accomplished Ordinance of God) the Primitive Word, Hhain, signifies both an Ey and a Fountain: Because merciful Eyes are sweet and crystal Fountains of Tears. Blessed shall the man be, that hath an Ay which is both an Eye and a Fountain: a pure Fountain, running with precious. Tears for his past offences; to the which, the first and chief Motive was the Love of God: and a clear and open Ay, watching over his after-wayes, that he may keep the Door even against the least approaches of these infinite Evils in their Scouts, and first Messengers; to the which likewise, the Love of God is the Motive. The greatest Crocodile was at first harboured in an Egg, which is paulò majus anserino, saith Franzius in his History, a little bigger than a Goose-Egg. 
Franz. in Hist. sacr● Animalium in Crocodilo.  And yet, the Crocodile is a Devourer of Men: & when, being horrour-struck, these can not weep for themselves, mockingly weeps over them; grows huge, and on to the last period of Life; and is different, not a little, from the Goose, in Shape, Substance, Colour, Manners; though they favour one an other in the Egg. Caesarius Ar●latensis gives good aim: Non est minimum, negligere minima, 
Caesar-Arelat. Hom. 8.  It is no little Matter, to neglect Matters that seem little. No sensual Creature spreads to so vast a bigness, from 
Fr●nzius ubi suprà.  so small beginnings, as this Egg-Crocodile. Say the same of Sin.  
Let us run this point low. He that beholds on the right Hand, an Eternity of Good; at the left, an Eternity of Evil; both in Aversion and Couversion; And that his Way carries him away of necessity, to the right or to the left: If he be not emotus ment, mad; or impensè improbus, ambitiously wicked; will be wondrously circumspect.  
Hell is called in the Greek Scripture, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: being in the firstborn and prime signification, a place, accountably to the 
Geographus Nubiensis Arab.  Nubian Geographer in a Map of his, lying humbly at the Foot of a Hill near jerusalem; into which all kinds of despicable and filthy Carcases and Things, annoying and unbeautifying the City, were contemptibly thrown, (the City did ease and exonerate itself into this place, as the World into Hell) and in the which, a continual Fire was maintained, for the quick wasting of the filth, bones and carcases; as R. David Kimchi writes. 
R. David Kimchi in Psal. 27. v. 13.  In this Low place there was also a High-place, called Topheth; wherein the little harmless Children (Sweet Babes) were sacrificed to Moloch, Jerem.. Now as Heretics are the Apes of true Christians, 
S. Cyprian Ep. ad Jubaianum.  (St. Cyprian tells it Jubaianus) So is the Devil, (qui quidem sempèr it odorans quasi Venaticus, who truly goes always about, first scenting all ways, like a Dog in hunting, to find and catch us; then walks about to devour us a Lion, 1 Pet. 5. 8.) Simia Dei, God's Ape. And therefore, with a lift from what God had commanmanded Abraham concerning Isaac, his Worshippers were also raised and heaved on to sacrifice their Children. I find it controverted amongst the gray-haired Rabbins, Whether these little victim were forced to pass thorough the Fire? or whether they were put into the red-hot Hands of the bra●en Idol, and therein consumed? This Idol had the brazen Face of a Calf, saith an old Book, and 
Liber Jal●ut in Jerem. cap.. Aben. Ezra in Levit. cap. 18. v. 21. Idem in Deut. cap. 18. v. 10. R. Moses Maimon. lib. de Idololatr. cap. 6. Sect. 5. Moses Gerund. & Isaac Abravan. in Jerem. 7. v. 31. R. Bechai in Levi●. 18.  large Hands stretched forth, as of a Man opening his Hands wide, with a Quid mihi dabis? What will you give me? And it was hollow. Aben-Ezra, and R. Moses Maimenides, (as ye may read in the Latin Copy of Maimenides, translated by Dianysius Vossius) side in this, That the Children were only drawn, or driven through the Fire; and that this was the last, and chiefest Act of the Worship performed to Moloch. Others of even Authority, as Moses Gerundensis, and Isaac Abrava●el, stand in it, that they were burnt as low as Ashes. A●d the Scriptures bending to this Matter, stand as if they stood on both sides. This they did, saith R. Bechai, because the Priests of Moloch had persuaded the People, first diss●minando in Vulgus, sowing it amongst the Common Brains, the shrubs of People; That a Child being given to Moloch, his Brethren and Sisters should be privileged from Death, and the Parents afterwards live happily. Wherefore josias acted like josias, and much ennobled himself; when, to degrade and otherwise incommodate these idolatrous Priests; and to persecute and profligate this odious worship, agreeably with a stink; he commanded, that all impure and unnclean Things, (singularly hateful to the Jews,) should be cast away into this Gehinnom or Valley of Hinnom, 2 Reg. 23. 10.  
Was this ugly Relict of Devilish Worship, so much hated and abominated by God and all good Men; although in the thoughts of some both Great Ones and Gowned Ones, it was but the mere hasty passing of a simple Child thorough the Fire? And shall we (we Christians) knowingly cast away ourselves into Eternal Fire; there to be averted and estranged from God (the Father of Christ) eternally? O new, and extraordinary Worshippers! O us everlasting Worshippers of our Destroyer's! O us who freely make ourselves Castawaies from an infinite Good; look backward, an infinite Good; to an infinite Evil; look before you, an infinite Evil, prepared for the Devil! O Infinite, O Eternity! what are ye? Of us it will be, though not more truly, yet more thoroughly said, than of the Jews, Deut. 32. 17. They saerifised unto Scedem, Destroyer's, Wasters, Devils. Does not the Fish Torpedo hang upon our Fingers? Does not the Remora cleave to our Souls? When, imbued with Christian Principles, and professing to believe, That Topheth is prepared of old, for the Contemners of God's Original Will, we move no faster in the Performance of this Perfect Law, this most Divine Law and Will; which is of God, in God, and God Himself? (Perfectum est, cui nihil deest: The Thing is perfect, to the which there wanteth no due Thing.) And in the End of all this, we have pumiceos oculos, Eyes as dry as the pumicestone. I have found it. Genus nostrum sempèr siccoculum fuit: It belongs to our intemperate, and lukewarm Kind, to be so in heavenly Matters. (In temporal Affliction, we can yell it.) Who, notwithstanding, may drop a little, by a thaw of tenderheartedness: or, have a Preacher that may perform in earnest, what our Classical Brother so jestingly, and so commonly vaunted; I'll make the People weep to Day.  
The Law of God, is likewise perfect; as his Original Will is copied out into his Word. Which Word in its full Amplitude, fully complies with the End of its coming from God as his Word; and is abundantly sufficient, in its kind, to Salvation. It canonizeth no Falsehood: prescribes no frivolous, or evil Thing. And herein differs our Christian Scripture from the Turkish Alcoran; The Holy Ghost, from profane Mahumet's Pigeon; His Alcoran being a pure Drollery, elemented and engendered in the Conjunction of three Apostatical Brains. In the perusing of which, Averro Sir-named the Commentator, Avicenna, Alsarabius, 
Vide Avicen. lib. 6. Met. cap. 7.  Albumazar, Haly, and other Mahometan Philosophers, Physicians, Astrologers, were so troubled and confounded, that they quickly deserted the Alcoran, as repugnant, even in Matters bounded with the Precincts of Nature, to the Principles of Nature and Reason: And, because it did gloriosè mentiri●●ly gloriously; to prevent their fall into the Desolation of Heart, catched upon Aristotle for their better Information in the learning of Truths, natural and supernatural. The Compilers of the Alcoran, had not learned the Text, Psal. 25. 3. in its Hebrew simplicity: Let them be ashamed who transgress without cause. Where the Septuagint adopt, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
Sept.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Let them be confounded with shame, that act unprofitably without Law; in the which acting, more is always lost than ●ound. The Vulgar Latin 
Edit. Valg.  is the Septuagint vulgarly turned Latin. The fifth Edition is Greek-Hebrew; in the word, Greek; Hebrew, in the sense: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Let them be ashamed 
Sept. Editio V  that apostatise.  
In truth: Holy Scripture proposeth different Laws, serving them forth in different Times; or in the same Time, subordinating one to the other. But the final aim, and ultimate Work, was one and the same. It was a Rule and Pillar-Truth under the Old Law, That when a Precept of the Moral Law, so fell in company with a Ceremonial or Judicial Precept, ut in angustum cogerentur, that both could not hand it together; the Moral Precept should still challenge the place, and be reverenced with Obedience. And whereas the Law of Moses, was partly judicial, partly ceremonial and moral or natural partly: our Evangelical Law turned off, and abrogated the two former, succeeding to them; but spared and settled the last, as the written Foundation of all sound Law▪ because it is the nearest to that unwritten Law of Nature, which is the first Extract in us, out of God's Original. 
Weeker. de Secretis lib. 3. cap. 2.  Weckerus will teach you the Art of making a Candle, the Flame whereof cannot be extinguished: or one that as ardently burneth and flameth under Water, as above it. Such, yea such a Candle is our Law. Psal. 11. 105. Thy word is a Lamp unto my feet. The Textuarie Word holds, a Candle. The Law of Christ, is an everlasting Lamp, or Candle.  
Press on. As Christ, who is Verbum Genitum, the Begotten Word, and Verbum Deus, the Word which is God, and the Founder of the Church, hath a visible and humane Nature: So hath he a divine Nature which is invisible; and his best and richest Nature, is not beheld with mortal Eyes. And Verbum scriptum, the Written Word, which is Verbum Dei, the Word of God, by which the Church, as by a Written Law, is aptly and 〈◊〉 oportionably regulated; as it hath a literal, external, and historical Sense; So doth it rejoice in a Sense that is spiritual, internal, and mystical: and the best and true sense, is not always obvious to our Understanding. Yea, 'tis a lasting Axiom, and stands like an Ol● Monument in Divinity; When God is most observed and served by obedience to the spiritual or mystical Sense; that Sense, though mystical, is most intended by the Holy Ghost; The End of God, speaking to us, being to teach us to know and serve him, through some Degrees of Perfection, answerable to our Model. By the which it appears, velut Solis radiis depi●tum, as if it were painted with the Sunbeams; That the Perfection of Scripture, in a main part, with regard to the Interpretation of the Sense, lies inwardly; like the Soul of a Man, or the Virtue of a Seed, Herb, Plant, Mineral, or jewel. And therefore, as a rare sort of Musical Instruments, require only to their Music, that they be touched with the Sunbeams: So these inward strings, though perfect, yet never give a right sound except they be gently touched by an Understanding, purged of Opacities, and enlightened with the Sun of Righteousness. Yet this doth not any way derogate from the due Perfection of Scripture in itself; & God's Providence towards us, preparing, offering, and affording Helps, general, special, and particular. And, as Aquinas clears it: judicium de re non sumitur secundùm 
D. Tho. part. 1. quaest. 16. art. 1. in Corp.  id quod inest ei per accidens, sed secundùm id quod inest ei per se: We judge not of a thing according to that which is accidental and adventitious to it; but according to that which is in it by or from itself. The same Truth stands like a grown Oak, and is altis defixa Radicibus, deeply rooted, respectively to the Interpretation of the Words.  
I most humbly crave here a Christian, that is, a mild, tender, and pious Examination, in your most retired thoughts, of a Scruple, quem injecit mihi inter studendum profunda Cogitatio. Others have assumed the freedom, to disquiet and invade the Press, in plain English, with some vain shadows of this austere Difficulty, sent abroad like walking Apparitions: and have thereby disorderly perplexed the Stated Hearts of ignorant people, that have learned only to read English. I speak to Scholars, as in the Schools; and in the language of the School. Of Scholars therefore, who try all Things, I reverently demand a Reason of their Faith; as it is their Faith. If I could have reasonably and quietly rested in private Answers; I would not have adventured upon a public Proposal. I desire not the unhinging of any Man's Faith that moves upon a right Pole. I rather wish, we were all attempered to the Spirit of Orderly motion. Our Lord God knows, I never knew this Demand or Difficulty, by the name of an Engine. Apage hin●, Ardelio. In sound earnest, O ye learned heads, I have heard your Adversaries speak. And, in mandatis habeo, I have it written in my Duty, that I must be true to you. I affirm nothing positively; but put only Wind, and Tide, and Sails to the Quaere: that we may leave nothing unsounded, unsifted, unexamined which is not Mysterious. I presume we are not all traiterous-hearted, and afraid to be searched. The wise Mariner rests his Vessel upon a side, and examines the bottom at home in the River, lest he should be lost, by an unsound Bottom, at Sea. The Latin Speech will be sometimes, Oratio resistens, ac salebrosa: Because the Discourse cannot be forcibly and properly delivered, without our acceptance of a few sublimated Terms from School-Divinity. I shall be an Englishman, here and there, for a word or two, in the course of this Discourse: ut Populum, expectatione longiùs hiantem, foveam, demulceam, d●tineam: and to take off, as with a file, the roughness, and strangeness of my thronging so much Latin together.  
These, concerning the Difficulty, when it enters, ye are advertised of it. In the mean time, I shall turn the face of my Endeavour, to the preparing and qualifying of the Matter.  
Scripture is the Word of the most holy God, the Author and Revealer of Truth. I receive it as such, in the posture in which some insigni●ris Notae Sancti, Saints of more illustrious Note, have always read it; that is, upon my Knees. I am induced to this, by these Notes, Marks, and Reasons.  
1  
By the resounding, or Echoing of the New Testament to the old; which sing, the one to the other, like the two Parts of a Choir; and betwixt them make complete Music. The New shows that to be done, which, many Ages before, by the Old was foretold should be done. The singing of the New, is near and at hand: of the Old, far off; but heard clearly, because loud and plain. The Foundation stands upright, both in Divinity and Philosophy: Future Contingents, depending only upon the most free, and close Decree of God; and upon the various Wills, and secret Thoughts of Men, are known to God alone, to whom only, his own Counsills, and the Hearts of Men, are known. God therefore, is the Author of this Scripture, thus resounding.  
2  
Although no Writing may be reasonably believed, speaking in its own Cause, when it wholly resteth upon its own Testimony; yet when it hath miraculously showed itself to have come from God, (as the first Reason evinces, that Scripture hath,) than our Belief may reach a Confirmation from the Testimony of a Writing, testifying for itself. Wherefore when the Scripture professeth often in the old Testament, Haec di●●t Dominus, Thus saith the Lord; and attesteth also in the New, 2 Tim. 3. 16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, etc. We may reasonably throw weight upon the Testimony, even which it giveth of it s●lf.  
3  
It is no way carnal. Not carnal inwardly; because it containeth a Doctrine, consonant altogether to the Spirit, and that elevated by Grace; not to the Flesh. Not externally or outwardly carnal; because neither God the Author, nor the Instruments, the Prophets and Apostles, the Penners of it, gave the least expressions of any carnal Ends, in the commending it to us, or the writing of it.  
4  
The Miracles, that under both Testaments were wrought in ratification of the Doctrine, comprehended in Scripture; which have descended to us, by the Testimonies also of most approved Writers, in all knowing Ages.  
5  
The holy Simplicity, shining in the 
Vide S. Aug. de verâ Relig. per Librum totum.  Style, Phrase, and Disposition, which in those honest Ages, wherein Scripture was written, was not used for Imposture.  
6  
The high Straein of Consent and Agreement, which Scripture above all other Writings, hath with a pious and religious Soul, made after the Image of God, in respect of her Beginning; and for God, in regard of her End. Which Agreement and Conveniency is such, that a good Soul, afflicted or oppressed, thinks herself, as it were, safe and secure in Scripture, the Word of her Creator, Friend, Husband, Saviour, and last End; and feeds there, as upon the choicest Dainties, and most precious Restoratives. She finds a Congruity with all Wants, all Passions, but evil ones.  
7  
The Promises of God in Scripture, promising Eternity, and Himself to a Soul, which cannot be otherwise satisfied. From the result of which, is manifest; That Scripture answers, though not to the desires of corrupted Nature, yet to this nacurall Appetite, engrafted into us in our Creation, by the which we desire our own Perfection, the Consecution of our last End; and not only to continue our Being for Eternity, but also to endow it with all the blessed Conditions and adornments, of which it is capable. For, Man being infinite and immortal in Desire, can not lay his Desire to sleep, but upon an infinite Good; which being infinite in all Things, is withal infinite in Duration. And no Book promiseth Eternity, and God, but as a Borrower from Scripture.  
8  
It is known to be God's Word by the Effects. Because by such a Doctrine of Humility and Mortification, and such calling to difficult and high perfection; as, Matth. 16. 24. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his Cross, and follow me; And Matth. 5. 44. Love your Enemies, bles● them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you, and persecute you; The whole World hath been converted, and turned to performance. For, Acts so contrary to the Pride and Elation of our corrupted Hearts, and so clashing and jarring with Flesh & Blood, could not be done, (the respect to Vainglory, which discovered itself in the Philosophers secluded,) without the Cooperation, Combination, and Influence of the holy Ghost; Which holy Ghost doth not Cooperate with false & fictitious Things, or Things belying the most holy Name of God,  
9  
The Consent, Convenience, and Agreement, which it hath in itself, in respect of every part and particle, though written by divers Persons, and in divers Languages, and Times. For, as the Ordination of inanimate Things in Nature to one End, the Glory of God, arising from the Good of Mankind, shows one Ordinator: So the Ordination of Scripture to one Thing, and the same a most divine one, through so many diversities, shows one and the same Author, God, who is the Cause of all perfect Unity.  
10  
The Martyrs gave up their Lives joyfully in the Confirmation of Scripture, declaring plainly by their Heavenly Courage and Constancy, that they were strengthened from Heaven, and that Scripture was Heavenborn. Wherein is eminent the much different working of God, in Christ the Prince of Martyrs, and the Martyrs his Servants. For, God laid his Son open to all the sufferance, whereby Nature could be afflicted; and assisted his other Martyrs, relieving, and easing Nature in their extremity.  
These Reasons, Notes, and Ma●ks argue sufficiently for Scripture, in the particular Matters from which, these Marks, Notes, and Reasons are taken; Yea, for Scripture in every Letter of it, as it first came from God, or, is rightly conveyed to us. But concerning ordinary Translations, amongst those especially, that heap all the weight of their Belief upon their Translation, as upon the only divine Instrument and ●ule, my Difficulty thus humbly speaks.  
Scriptura Sacra vel in primis illis Incunabilis, aut Hebraicè loquebatur, aut Chaldaicè, aut Syriacè, vel Graecè, vel denique Latinè; Anglicè neutiquàm. I am pro certo nobis est, & pro comperto, Interpretes (non ibo per singulas Classes) haùd infallibilitèr à Deo dirigi. Est enim in aperto, Haereticos ad unum omnes, adolescente post Christum Ecclesiâ, suos habuisse Bibliorum Interpretes. Qui cùm pulchram scilicèt, locarent suis op●ram, ut Res divinas, ac Coeli Negotia Po ●lo praponerent; imò in manus darent, atque ob oculos ponerent; modo purè humano: errârunt toto Coelo.  
Hither I am safely come. Let this descend g●●tatim. Now hear farther; that I may presently return to the People in English.  
Scire nunc percupio, Cur & ista Translatio, quae, mul● is jàm annis, apud no● obtinuit; Erroribus gravitèr obnoxin non fuerit, quemadmodum & Interpretes, quos in Objectum Fidei nastrae, nos ipsi, vel reluctantes ac inviti, compingimus? Et nè verser totus intra Cancellos: An rectè, nec non Pietate saluâ, divinam Authoritatem possimus accommodare Translationi, quae primitùs ortum d●xit a Personis, quibus divinum Spiritum, nè dicam affingere, sed, (ut loquar ore suaviùs formato, nimirùm Sermone Castigato, jucundiúsque prolat●,) non audemus affigere? Addunt Aliqui: quorum● Filios ex luto vario & versatili conflatos videmus, & ad omnia para os pro mutat â Rerum fancy? Sed haec in hâc Re, silentio premenda sunt.  
Sat down here. Take breath; and look about you. Beloved, I am yours instantly. I had a Secret to tell the Scholar in his Ear. Now on.  
Praesertim, cùm nobis in propatulo sit, refertas esse Scripture as divinas, & quasi locu●letatas, Hebraismis, Arabismis, Syrismis, Graecismis; Figuris Dictionis aequè ac Sententiae; Mysterijs omrifariàm eventilatis, & in incertum cadentibus; aliis● velut Aenigmatibus infinitis: qùae Lectores in diversa rapiunt, atque solicitant Argumentis aequo pondere libratis. Quinimò in Hebraicâ Linguâ, Puncta Varia, & in varijs Codicibus alia at que alia, ut ex Lectione Septuaginta Seniorum liquidiùs constat; Sensúsque Radicum multiplices, & in omnia propendentes; vel Doctissimis undique tenebras offundere, nemini uspiàm Docto dubium est.  
This is our last Restingplace. Beloved, I am with you. The End sets a Crown upon the Work. Look now, and observe where the Bullet hits.  
Accrevit Moles ingens huic Difficultati. Nempè quòd, nè pendeamus animis, nè vacillemus; ita profectò securi debeamus nos esse de Translatione nostrâ, ac veneranda Canities Antiquorum, de Scriptis Amanuensium Spiri ûs sancti: modò Fides nostra cum Fide Christianorum Antiquorum in Unum coeat, in idémve reci●at: Et modò (quod est è re nostrâ plurimùm, quippè in quo rei Cardo vertitur,) modò, inquam. Fidem infusam firmare velimus in Objecto. Quandoquidem Virtus divina & Supernaturalis in nobis, uti Fides, planè sibi vendicat Objectum quodammodò supernaturale ac divinum, (utcunque se res habeat aliquotiès in Objecto partiali, aliorsùm accepto,) divinitùs & supernaturalitèr nobis oblatum, (id ●nim omninò res postulat,) per Media infallibilia: ut Objectum Fidei, quatenùs tale, sit & nobis talitèr notum.  
there's all. Go, ponder it; and then, give me some Ease. Meditatio est Clavis 
Ptolomae us in Proaemio Almagesti.  Sapientiae, saith Ptolemy; Meditation is the Key of Wisdom. This thus standing: The Law of God, even in the words thereof, is still perfect. (He that questions a Writing, only as a dispirited Translation; questions not the Writers, but the Translators, and their Spirit.) And the Conveyance is of the same Piece. Neque Res omnis in incerto sita est. Unriddle me this. Now to the People again.  
God hath engraven the Truth of Zion, in Scripture, (in a Sense like a highswelling Sea) as he graved Zion upon his Hands. To which, he saith, Isa. 49. 16. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. The Vulgar Latin assigns, 
●od. Vulg.  Ecce in manibus meis descripsi te, I have copied thee out of myself, or, I have delineated thee upon my hands; or, I have registered thee, My Hands; My Book; which opens, and shuts as the Hand. The Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, ad vivum 
Sept.  depinxi, I have painted thee to the Life. Symmachus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I have made thee fast. 
Sym. Theodot. Aq●il.  Theodotion is English, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I have graven thee. Aquila, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I have done it accurately, painfully. The Written part of God's Will, is a fair Copy of God's Original Will, absolute or permissive, concerning us; of which, the Latin, descripsi te, I have Copied thee, I have drawn thee forth into Lines. After the Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I have Painted thee to the Life: The Ceremonial Law was a Painting; which though it was at first, lively; as it stood exerto Collo, Capite porrecto, oculis apertis atque inquirentibus, and bending towards the Life, the real Things fore-signified by the Symbols and Ceremonies; yet finally all the Painting fell away, the true Bloud-Colour excepted; and the Life outlived the Painting to the Life. The Judicial pertained only to the Jewish Commonwealth, disagreeing from the Ceremonial; because it may be still accepted and established by any, that shall accept it only as a godly Form of good and lawful Government. The Moral Law was made fast, consonantly to Symmachus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I have fastened thee. And the new Testament hath place in God's Volume, like a most invaluable Jewel in a Gold-Ring; as being, though the least, yet the most precious, and the most deepengraven. Which, Theodotion declares without Theodotion: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I have graven thee. And in this little Testament, this Jewel-Testament, the Death of Christ, is the most accurate and elaborate Thing; the very Beam-lustre, and incomparable virtue of the Jewel. Aquila seals it up unwittingly, in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I have accurately, and with great labour, graven the Truth of all my promises, upon the palms of my Hands, on the Cross; When my palms were bored, and my Hands nailed to the Cross for Man, and my Sufferings were entailed effectually to him; and this I have twice graven; graven again in a Book, for the good of Posterity. I could insist upon it; That the palm of the Hand, is not always open; and that being open, it is not always exposed to every dull Ey●, as neither are the Scriptures in their Originals, wherein they are graven. And I could farther diffuse myself here. But I am not of a Genius moving to Controversies, and I desire to maintain a Controversy with nothing but Controversy, except where Sin ambusheth.  
Our next, and orderly step here, is, The right Interpretation of Scripture, both in the Words and Sense, compriseth all things necessary to sound Edification; either, explicitly, formally, openly, plainly; or, implicitly, virtually, covertly, seminally; either in the Conclusion, or in the Principle: either telling the way, as with a Tongue; or, like a Merourial Image, pointing towards it with a finger from the palm; and sending us away to the Interpreter.  
The material Building of the old and outward Tabernacle, adumbrated the Spiritual Edification of our Tabernacle that is inward. The persons elected for the building of the Tabernaclè, are described, Exod. 31. 2. See, I have called by name Bezaleel the Son of Vri, the Son of Hur. And verse 6. And I, behold, I have given with him Aholiab the Son of Ahisamach. If we poise the names of these persons, in a Tropological balance, they will not only not want a grain or two, but will also prove themselves gratefully passable without allowance from our inclinations and propensities in their being accepted. Hur signifies Whiteness, or, Light as White; even such a Light as Faith is, being the first Break of Day in the Soul. And therefore, in Baptism, which is Sacramentum Fidei, the Sacrament of Faith, the 
Dionys. Areop. in Eccl. Hierar. I●● Berosus lib. 4.  Baptised were after Baptization, arrayed in White. Uri signifies Fire; and Ur Chaldaeorum, Ur of the Chaldees, famous in the History of Abraham, was called Ur, because Fire was there honoured with divine worship. And Charity is a Fire. Yea, the holy Ghost, who is Love, (God is Love, 1. Joh. 4. 16.) descended in Fire, when he did inflame his Disciples with Charity. The Textual 
Textus Graec. Edit. Vulg.  Word, is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Dilection; and the Vulgar Latin evens it; Deus est Charitas, God is Charity. For, the holy Ghost notionally considered, is the Love of the Father and the Son. The Construction of Besele●l, is, in umbra Dei, in the shadow of God; shadowing forth to us, the proper Act of Hope; which, as by a proper work, lieth securely down under the special Canopy of divine Providence, as in the cool shadow and refreshment of a most pleasant Arbour; or, as under the Defence of a strong Tower; or, under the spreading of a Buckler; even the Buckler of Him that is in the Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. With and by these The●logicaell Virtues, (which tend, in a direct Line, to God in their first Acts,) and the Virtues accompanying them, is the Soul built up into a Tabernacle, or Templum portatile, Temple of God, moving as we move. And the three Virtues are Material, and Efficient. The Materials, and the Builders. First, the Materials; the Builders, afterwards. The Materials, when the Building is, as it were, in Fieri, in Building; the Builders, when in Facto esse, when it is Built. How may this be? Happily. The Builders with Respect had to continual Augmentations, requisite Ornaments, and certain Reparations. But the Architect or Master Builder, is God. We are God's Puilding. The Scripture is firm and fair in describing, and prescribing these Fundamental Virtues, and their Company. But there were equally called to the Building, Ooliab, which Name the Hebrews interpret, Protectio mea est Pater, the Father is my Protection: 
Interpretes Hebraei.  And Achisamech, which is, also after their casting the word back into its Ingredients, Frater conjungens, a Brother conjoining himself. There is therefore, as needful to us, the Providence of our Heavenly Father, protecting us from Error; providing moreover, outward Helps for us, to the End of the World; and appointing a Christian Brother or Father, holy and learned; or, a Brother who is both a Father and a Brother; having the Wisdom and Providential Care of a Father, and the sweet Fellowship of a Brother; looking over us as a Father, and stooping to us in the Carriage of a Brother; a Father to guide us, a Brother; to join himself to us; as Philip joined himself to the Eunuch. And such a Father-Brother we must find, and have, ut medicinam faciamus furenti volaticóque Morbo; that we may stop the raging and running Disease of strange Doctrine. And having him, we must hold him, and adhere constantly to him, being of ourselves, ingenio facili ac translatitio, easily transported. And, as St. Bernard 
S. Bern. ep. 87.  in the heat of an Inspiration, rightly said, Quise sibi Magistrum consti●uit, stulto se Discipulum subdit: He that sets himself to learn of himself, puts himself to School to a Fool: and not an ordinary Fool, but one desperately partial, and selfconceited.  
Intellectus praefert voluntati lueernam, The Understanding should lead the Will in its own light, and the light of Grace; (God's Helps assisting the Understanding in the form of Light, 1. That he may work conformably to Nature; 2. To perfect Nature:) and our Will should not drag our Understanding after it, and subject both that and itself, to the Passions of Anger, Envy, Malice, Stubborness, Partiality; the Will being a blind power. The Devil's way is, to pervert and confound the Course and Order of Nature; especially, in the Soul of Man. Because he knows, that by the disorderly motions of the Soul, the Fountain of Life, and of the Actions of Life, he is always a prime Gainer: God's Will being always performed orderly, and in the Course founded, and appointed by him.  
Quod ad me a●tinet; Credo Ecclesiam Caetholicam, I believe, that the Catholic Church is directed by Christ, and relieved with vital Influences from its Invisible Head. And that, as Angelus est Nomen Offic●i, non Naturae, Angel is a Name of Office, not of Nature; So it pertains to God's Messenger ex Offici●, even as he is a Messenger or Angel, to clear, explicate, or unfold the Mind of his Lord, who sufficiently instructs him, remaining in the condition of an obedient Angel, (obedient to God and his Church,) for the sufficient Resolution of all necessary Doubts, arising from his Message. And God requires of us, this walking by Faith, by the which, we believe his promises to his Church, for three Reasons. 1. Because Man, having sinned by Pride in eating of the Tree of Knowledge; it was most agreeable to the Via Regia of God's Providence, so to humble him, that notwithstanding his Ambition to know, he should not know the Things, by which he should be brought to Heaven, but only believe them: 2. God would lead Man to Blessedness, by Faith, and not by Science; that the Way might be open, even to the weak, and unlearned: And therefore, the mind of a simple Man, adorned with Faith, excelleth in Light, and Knowledge, (such as it is) not only the Learning of the great Philosophers, but even the natural Knowledge of Angels. 3. For Man's greater advancement in Glory: wherein Faith will be greatly rewarded, as Faith; and rewarded more and more, as the Object is more and more dark, and the Virtue more and more lively. But Knowledge will not be rewarded, simply as Knowledge; but as dignifyed by the Object and End, and also, manner of Aquisition. The former Difficulty seems here to be foiled: but is not, though it seems to be.  
O indulge to me now, that I may without obstruction, make a good purpose. Psal. 16. 7. I will bless the Lord, who hath given me Councils; good and perfect Council in his Holy Word. The Vulgar Latin walks near it; but with a different pace; Benedicam Dominum, 
Editio Vulgaris.  qui tribuit mihi intellectum, Who hath given me Understanding, annexed to a good Will; and made me capable of knowing and taking his Council. St. Hierom; qui dedit mihi Consilium: a mere 
S. Hierom. in Bibl. Chald. Paraphr.  English-Man. And the Chaldee Paraphrast, Consulentem mihi, Counselling me. It is not without a Mystery, That the Holy Tongue calls Council, Sod; which also signifies a Foundation, or Stableness; by virtue drawn from the Root, jasad, to found. Whence in this Language, He that asks or gives Council, is answerably said to found: So Pagninus; Who adds by Course of Surplusage; That Sod signifies 
Pagninus in Thesa●ro.  Council from founding: quòd ita se habeat Consilium ad Opus, ut Fundamentum ad Aedificium; Because Council is the same Thing, turned towards a Work, as a Foundation in Order to a Building. The Scripture understood in the same Sense, and with the same Spirit, with and in which it was written, is a most deep, sure, and perfect Foundation in its Kind. We can never say of one that sticks close to this Foundation, Cec●dit Causâ, he was overthrown in his Cause.  
First then, I set aside by himself (he is one by himself,) the Private Spirit. And I rank him with the person in a pure-white Dress at the Spittle: Whose mouth was big with strange News; and the grand Matter, to the which all the rest did offer, was, That he came lately from Heaven, tanquam Legatus à Latere, as a Legate sent from the presence of God; and had brought with him the perfect Knowledge of Hebrew, the Language of Heaven. And when I addressed my poor skill, to the trial of him; I found, that his Language was a Wild-Irish Welch-Scotch-Dutch-Hungarian Hebrew, a very Defluxion from his own overflown Brain. I found it Spittle-proof; or, as è Trivi● petitas Mendicorum faeculas; a kind of wretched Canting of Beggars, lame in their Limbs and their Tongues.  
A Public Office and Exercise, must receive a Publ●ck allowance, by derivation from that State, spiritual or temporal, in the which its Work and Scene lies. Certainly very many would run, before they are sent; entering otherwise than at the Door; and allege a whole Pack of Private Calls; were it not imposed upon them, to expect a Public and Visible Trial of their Call, and a like Commission for the Exercise of it. And verily, Wicked Men would soon catch an offered occasion to blur and slander God's holy Providence; As if Men by the direction of natural and participated Light, had better provided for themselves, in the Administration of their Commonwealths, than the only-wise God with the infinite Light of his Understanding, hath provided for them in the carriage & managing of his Church. For, If in a Civil Commonwealth, the Laws and Appointments of our Ancestors, being relinquished; that should be Law to every Man, which issues from the dictates of his own natural Prudence; how all things would be mingled, troubled, & confounded? And yet, every Man hath some portion of Knowledge in Civil Matters, and may soon have more; Because the Light is natural, by which, the Laws were contrived, and may be interpreted. What then, would be the Consequence, if▪ every Man should be left to his own Private Way, in that Commonwealth, which is not humane, but divine; and in which Things to be believed, are supernatural; as also, the Things to be done; at least in their Cause, which is Grace; And the one not being believed, nor the other done, by the strength of Man?  
And secondly; I reverently embrace with both arms, those Preachers, who privately called, and publicly admitted, as to a public Office; and who deeply-founded upon the Sense and Sentence of the Holy Ghost, speaking by the Church of God; rise high like a tall Building; and become as the Brethren, James and John, Boanerges, interpreted in the Greek Gospel, Marc. 3. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and accordingly 
Evang. Graec. Syrus Paraphrast. Trost. in Marc. 3.  in the Syriack, or Aramean Parathrast, Fil●i Tonitrui, the Sons of Thunder: By Trostius, Filii Fragoris, the Sons of a great Cracking, (not of Cracking, otherwise height bragging,) They were sir-named Boanerges, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‑ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
S. Greg. Naz. Orat. 19 S. Chrysost. Nom.. 7. ad Popul. Antiochen.  as Nazianzen; (St. john Chrysostom adjecit calculum, Symbolum dedit; hath consented, and signed to it;) Because they should sublimely and perfectly deliver perfect and sublime Things, and with a loud Voice and sublime Expression like Thunder; And because they should (afterwards) always and every where carry (as it is Chronicled of Pericles 
Thucyd. lib. 3.  the Orator) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a perfect and heavy Thunderbolt in their Tongues; wherewith, as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from on high, to strike to the Ground, adverse Sin, and Satan the Adversary; and whatsoever shall oppose itself against God, and the Holy Ghost. To symbolise with such Preachers, the Law to be Preached, was delivered from a Thundering Mountain; and when the Holy Ghost came, There came a sound from Heazen, as of a rushing mighty Wind, Act. 2. 2. These are they, who, as Thunder, utter themselves truly, loudly, plainly, powerfully, terribly. Qui liberant fidem, who stand firm to their Promises made to God in their Ordination; and faithfully perform their Trust. These are they, who make their way before them, like Thunder: and are not of a tender-hoof; but, quorum durata in aspero ungula est; who in their Walking and Preach, have trod the most hard and rough paths (untrodden by Heretics) of austere Life, and severe Learning.  
I wade farther, in the Doctrine. Ancient Writers are unanimous, and firmly settled in this, as the Stars in the Firmament; That the Wills of Governors, if they will be Laws; that is, say they, if they will, and do concentre with God's Law; are also perfect Governors therefore, are obliged and bound up, by the Supreme Lawgiver, to the giving, and authorising of such Laws. Let us reduce this Truth of Superstructure, to it's proper foundation, and former Cause-Truth; and then, this part of the Doctrine will, analytically pondered, empty itself into the Original Will of God, which is the Law Eternal.  
Servitude, as the Civilians do state it, is not the genuine offspring of the Law of Nature, but of Nations. As the Schools colour it, It is the Blackamore-child of corrupted Nature. Butfashionably to the perfect Law of Scripture, and to the divinest Divines both in the School and from the School; Orderly Subjection, and Superiority, bud forth and blossom, raised in the bud, and promoted in the blossom, by a first direction and motion of pure Nature. For, even in Heaven, the Created Spirits are all rallyed in Order. Of these and their Orders, Dionysius Areopagita, that knowing 
Dion●s. A●eop. in Eccles. Hierarch. Vide N●ceph Eccl. Hist. lib. 2. c. 20. Mose. B●r Ce●h. de parud. p. ● Vide Perer. in G●●ej. cap 2.  Scholar of Saint Paul, to whom he had imparted the Secrets of the third Heaven. And in the pure Condition of Innocency, there was a most Eminent Superiority; first, in Man, over all other Earthly Creatures; and of this, Moses Bar-Cephas. Secondly, in Man, over Woman; not only because the Male is by right of Nature, Superior to the Female; and because Reason is more reasonable, and Strength more vivid and strong in him; but also for mystical Considerations. And had they continued in Eden, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in the Garden of Pleasure or Delights, until Adam had been a Father, there should have been Patria Patestas, a Fatherly Power and Superiority; or, the Commandment with a promise, Honora Patrem tuum, Honour thy Father, is not a moral precept. And when Children had broached themselves into Families, even there also must have been Superior Potestas, a Superior Power; or, the best Life upon Earth, must have wanted one of the greatest created Perfections, consequent to Diversity, Disparity, Multiplicity, upon Earth, and in Heaven, which is Order.  
Let not our Brethren of the Scotch Mist, exalt the Perfection of their Parity, with such a noise. Because Disparity in itself, (whatsoever may happen Casually and disorderly,) is not a Witness of Imperfection. For, this very State of Innocency, would not have been void of Disparity, even amongst Men and Women; as in their Sex, so in their Age, Knowledge, Justice. And their Bodies were not so far exempted from the Laws of Nature, that they should not have received divers Helps from Meats; and also, different Dispositions from the Air, and Stars; advanced by which, some should have been greater, fairer, stronger: But with a Restriction, that no Defect should have harboured in those, either in Soul or Body, who should have been excelled, had they been viewed, not comparatively, but in themselves.  
Yet, This Power merely natural, and of Paradise, is only a directive (not a coercive) Power; by the which Fathers should have governed their Children, and the less Wise (such there should have been, to maintain Dependence, and Subordination) have been ruled by the Wiser, Propter Obtemperantium Bonum, chief for the Good of the Persons Obediently Subject. This being , All Governors are engaged from Heaven, to reform and bring back their Government, as home as they can, to the Government of Paradise; (as all our work of Godliness in all Kind's, draws altogether towards Paradise, from the which we fell,) and set before them in all their Acts, the godly Direction, and Christian welfare of those whom they govern. Therefore, O Governor, Si Regiminis tui Acies aliquantulùm hebescat; tu illam excita; when the Edge of your Government grows a little dull, and flat, degenerating Times ever contracting Corruptions, pull it back to the Primitive Edge and sharpness; not sharp severity, (that sharpness was not Primitive,) but the sharpness of Perfection: Severity-being only a Child of Necessity. And no Generation of Men, is so degenerous, or, usque adeò Struthiocamelus, ut ferrum potuerit decoquere, so much an Ostrich, as to digest Iron. For, Princely Honours, and other Privileges of Kings, in their first Fundamentals, were not allotted and heaped, with a full Ey●, or half a look, set upon Imperial or Princely Dignity, But were chief given to the Vigils, Labours, and Troubles of a King, undergone in his industrious Contriving the Good of his People, ut Oneri Honos responderet, that Honour might Answer to the Burden. Otherwise no man would stoop his tender Shoulders, and be a Governor, for the many Cares intending, and lying heavy upon him in his Government. And Aristotle dividing 
Arist. lib. 8. Ethic. cap. 10.  betwixt a King and a Tyrant, parts them by this; That a Tyrant seeks altogether his own profit, as if he were the great and absolute God of the People, and of Nature; a King, or Prince, principally the Good, and Profit of his People.  
Power is not a Virtue; neither are the Acts of Power, morally good or evil in themselves; but are made such or such by their Concomitants; good, if accompanied with Mercy, Justice, Truth, Holiness, if otherwise, evil. Wherefore the Legislative Power, being of God, who as God hath Supreme Dominion over us, and may therefore law us, falls under certain Conditions and Rules. And four Conditions make a Law just. The first, ex Parte Finis, That it be ordained to the Common Good. For, a Princely and just 
Vide Arist. ubi suprà.  Law, differs from a Law that is tyrannical, by this tending to Good, common or private. The second, ex Parte Agentis, That the Law be prescribed by One, in whom resides original Authority. For, no Power can impose a Law, but upon such as are lawfully subject to the Power. The third, ex Parte Materiae, That by the Law, neither Virtue be repulsed, nor discountenanced; nor Vice induced, or indulged to. The fourth, ex Parte Formae, That the Law be constituted, & promulgated after a due Manner and Order; to wit, That the Law keep that Proportion in the distribution of Honours, and imposition of Burdens, which the Subjects have & hold in order to the Commonwealth, 
S. Aug. lib. 1. de libero Arbitrio, cap. 5.  in which, the Law is given. Unjust Laws, are not properly and in right speech, Laws; as St. Austin lawfully declares. Unjust Laws, ratione Materiae, that is, which jar with, and are contrary to divine Right, do not only not oblige, but also should not by any means be received, or observed; in agreement to St. Peter and the other Apostles, Acts. 5. 29. We ought to obey God rather than Men. But the Laws which are unjust, in regard of the End, or Author, or also of the Form, or Manner, may, and must be kept, in case that a Scandal would break in upon us, if they should not. This is evinced, and evidenced, out of the saying of Christ, Matth. 5. 40. And if any Man will sue thee at the Law, and take away thy Coat, let him have thy Cloak also. Verse 41. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. For, the Doctrine hence issuing, is not, that we should thus always departed from our Right, and crumble away our Goods and Privileges; but that we be ready to do it, whensoever the Circumstances beckon us to it, and such a Work or Works shall be called upon, as necessary, and greatly advantageous to the Manifestation of the Glory of God. To this, that place of St. Peter holds a Candle, which Candle we ought not to put under a Bushel, but on a Candlestick, 1 Pet. 2. 18. Servants, be Subject to your Masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. Know further; That of Evils, some are Evil, because they are forbidden by the Law; As, the Profanation of our Lord's Day: And some are forbidden by the Law, because they are in themselves Evil, and are twice evil; (because Evil, and because forbidden,) As, our Violation of the other Commandments. The great Bishop of Hippo, asserts it concerning Adultery; Non Adulterium malum est quia vetatur 
S. Aug. ●bidem, cap. 3.  Lege, sed ideò vetatur Lege, quòd ma●um est, Adultery is not evil, solely and simply because it is forbidden by the Law; but is therefore forbidden by the Law, because it is Evil. And as Evils or Sins, are such, derivatively from their Objects, to the which we are inordinately converted; and Sins applied to Objects of different Kind's, specifically differ; Acts taking their Species or Kinds from their Objects; So Sins greatly differ, compared to the Laws, against which they offend. And therefore, some Sins are Sins of Commission, some of Omission. (We set aside, Whether a Pure Omission be possible, or no?) The Sins of Commission are they, which are acted contrarily to the Negative Commandments; The Sins of Omission, which offend against the Commandments that are Affirmative. And as the Commandment or Law, Divine or Humane, which affirms or denies, deals in a Matter higher or lower; So is the Sin, lower or higher. And if the Laws be more, against which we offend by One Act; this one Act is more heinous.  
Ut unde dudùm digressus sum, refluat ac recurrat Oratio.  
Prudentèr aliquandò in obliquum aspicimus. It is a part of Prudence at some times to look side-long; particularly, in giving a ●igne. But I will not. For, I defy (which others deify) this peevish intermeddling in the State-Business of Public Persons, to whom I am subjected, at any time, by God's Ordinance, be it of Commission or Permission, as they term it. Only thus, in the by, and in general to all the World. There is a stout 
Ni●remberg. Hist. Naturae, lib. 9 cap. 72.  Beast in Africa, by Name, saith Nierembergius, Ejulator; Which repairing near unto Villages, or Towns, in the Evenings, cries like a little harmless Child, But the Person, that fond moved, with pity, comes carefully to seek the Child; is cruelly devoured by the false mouth of the Beast that cried so. Aristotle's Tyrant, that waves the Common Good; that gives Laws derogating from God's Law; cries like a little innocent Child, when he first calls us to him. But, we being come, come, and submitted; and he in his Plenilune, or Solstice of Honour; He that was a sweet Babe in Voice, is oftentimes a most sour Beast in Action. And then, the People cry too, Quantâ de spe decidimus? From how great Hopes have we shamefully fallen?  
My second Fundamental Proof sets forth Civil Governors; whose End, as they are Civil Governors, is the conservation of the People in temporal Peace; and whose Actions, as they are Civil, rest in the Consecution of this End; are obliged (in a Christian Commonwealth) as Principal Members in a higher Community, the Church of God; to direct all their Actions of Civil Government, to the great Intention, aim, and End of the Church of God; Which is, the Salvation of the Souls of the People. Because all Superior Power, which is temporal; is inferior and subordinate, as it is temporal, by the Law of Nature, to Spiritual Power; and subjected to it in Matters pertaining to the Soul, Mind, or Spirit; by the same Law of Nature, by which, the less perfect Things are subjected to the Things more perfect; inferior, to superior; the Body, to the Soul; Sense, to Reason; a Family, to a Commonwealth; external Affairs, to internal Devotions; Earth, to Hewn; our temporal Conservation, to our eternal Salvation; our temporal Peace amongst Men, to our eternal Peace in God: And lastly, to the End, ea quae sunt ad Finem, the Things ordained for us in the way to our End. The Church of God, being the most perfect, and most noble of all Societyes, and the Society without which, we cannot go safe home to our last End. The most low-fetched, and most penetrating Reason of all, is; Because all Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Power is originally founded (not in the Pope; hence with so low, so creeping, so grovelling so poor a Thought; but) in Jesus Christ, the invisible Head of the Church; and the gracious Fountain of all the Graces, by the which we are graciously conducted to our last End. And though it be not required, that the Means and the End should have a Similitude of Being; yet, is it necess●●y, that there be no Dissimilitude or Disagreement, betwixt the Means considered as the Means, and the End as the End. This is the Doctrine of 
* S. Greg. de Curâ Pastorali, p. 2. ca●. 6. Idem Ep. lib. 2. Ep. 61. S. Ambr. de Dignit. Sacerd. cap. 3. S. Chrysost. de Sacerdotio, lib. 3. S. Greg. Naz. in Orat. ad Populu 〈…〉 timore perculsum.  Greg. the Great, St. Ambrose, St. john Chrysostom. St. Gregory Nazianz●●, and indeed, of all the Primitive Doctors.  
Upon the Tower in the top, it is written in fair Characters; That jesus Christ must have the highest Seat in us, and over us. Psal. 89. 15. Blessed is the People that know the joyful sound, they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy Countenance. For, the joyful Sound, in English, we read in the Vulgar Latin, jubilationem, 
Interpres Vulgat. Sept. Interpretes Graeci. Interpres Sophocles. Interpretes Hebraei. Theologi Mystici. Vide Ludovicum Elasium in Monili, & Alvarez. Tom. 3. de Oratione.  the crying out for joy. In the Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; Which the Greek Interpreters, who best sounded their own Language, interpret, the Song of Victory. And in the Interpreter of Sophocles, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‑ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the joyful sound, is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Song of Victory. The Hebrew Divines unfold the Original Word, which they likewise best sounded; The Sound of the Trumpet proclaiming victory and exciting to joy.. The Mystical Divines catch the Word at the rebound; and transfer it to a shout or crying out for joy, That God is God, and reigns over us, and in us; and is above us all, and above all Things. This is the noblest Effluence of our Heart, in the Motions of Joy; our highest joy: As the Belief of Mysteries, is our highest Faith; and our best Hope, is that which strongly beats in the Pulse, when we wander per incerta Nemorum, through the greatest Dangers; and our pure love, which loves God purely for himself, the highest. By these, as the first and highest in their Kind's; our other joys, Beliefs, Hopes, Loves are orderly measured. This joy cannot withhold itself from trumpeting, and singing aloud it's own Comforts. For great and wonderful is our Joy of Spirit, when Carnal Man is Conquered; and the Saviour of Spirits reigns over him. The Flames are pure and refined, because the Matter is clean and heavenly. O blessed Victory! O the sacred Triumph; when this our Spirit-Master, having sweetly conquered our Heart, Pompam ducit, is chief Leader in the Solemnity! The Hebrews, in the relation of Paulus Fagius, report, That the Feast of Trumpets was instituted, to 
Paul. Fagius in Levit. cap. 3.  preserve the memory of Isaac his release from being Sacrificed, and that therefore the Trumpets were Rams-Horns, because a Ram was accepted in place of him. Then, even than does this Trumpetsound sound the Victory of Christ by his Death and Sacrifice, as by the meritorious Cause, over our Hearts, and over his People, as Head of the Church, and as King of Hearts.  
Favour me, pray, with your good leave, to remove here some peremptory Objections, which, datis Habenis, if the reigns were laid in the neck of them, would Reign and Revel in Divinity.  
A good Law may permit Sin indirectly, and, considered with respect to the Lawgiver, illibenter, unwillingly, by giving it line, (such as indirect permission gives) and positively circumscribing it with Limits measured by the End of the Line, as in Usury. For, when the Lender sinneth in his exaction of Use-payments, the Borrower urged by his need, takes without Sin, as instigated to such a Concurrence by mere, and most vehement Necessity, requiring the supportance of ruinous Nature. Wherein, his: oncurrence to the Sinful Act, is material, not formal, and he not willing but unwilling. Who truly, would have joyfully borrowed, without such ungodly Retribution. And that which frees him who borroweth, frees also him who permitteth; upon whom in his permission, he altogether holdeth his Ey. And whatsoever falls otherwise, and extra quadrum, out of the right-sounding Figure; Whatsoever is exorbitant or extravigant, happens prae●●r Intentionem Legis; besides the strict, and firstborn Intention of the Law.  
Yet farther. A good Law confirmeth sometimes a past Act of Sin, but not as a peccaminous or Sinful Act. A Virgin that espowseth herself, without the knowledge or consent of her Parents, is by the Laws of our ancient Canonists 
Canonistae Jurisperiti, & Jurisconsulti paritèr omnes.  and Civilians, both lawfully and unlawfully espoused. Here the Rule bears Rule; Quod infectum, fieri non debet; factum, valet. Some things are validly done, which are not done lawfully. And the Rule pronounces, That which being undone ought not to be done, is valid being done. It stands, when the Prohibition is of Man, in respect of the Circumstances; and the Ordinance in the Substance of it, is of God. Hitherto therefore, Sapientèr instituta Res est, Men are wise and righteous in their Civil Constitutions.  
Will you gird up your Garments, and climb with me, to the Brows of the mountain behind us? God, the first, and everliving Law, and the matchless Original of our Law Givers, permitte●h Sin. Because, as it is a Vomit out of the depth of the Devil's Malice, (qui omnem admovet Machinam, who brings up all his Engines of Battery against us,) to elicit Evil out of Good accidentally: So is it a Coronet on the Height of God's Goodness, to call (in aegris exulceratisque Rebus nostris, & extremâ jam Spe pendentibus, when our Help, Health and Happiness hang, in appearance, by the least, and the last thread,) Good out of Evil; as an eloquent Orator doth sometimes exalt and serve up a Solecism, to the promotion of an Elegancy; and an expert Musician in a Traverse of Hand, of a Discord maketh high Concord and Harmony. For, God the Superlative Good, is so powerfully Good, that he draweth and expresseth from the greatest Evil, the greatest created Good; which is, our Fruition of God in the Beatifical Vision, drawn from the Jewish Cruelty in the Crucifying of Christ; Great Goods, from great Evils, as the relief of old Jacob and his Family, and of all Egypt, from Ioseph's hard usage; and some Goods, from all Evils And it is a better Good, to crush with a skilful Hand, and express by an afteraction, Good out of Evil; than, not to suffer Evil. Because it is a more splendid and radiant Manifestation of God's Wisdom, Dominion, Power. Id●ò, says the most famous Bishop in Africa, melius esse judicavit, 
S. Aug. in Ench●r●d. ad Laurentium, cap. 27.  de Malis Bona facere, quàm Mala nulla esse permittere; Therefore God (as chief provision, and Supreme Moderator of the World) judged it better to draw good Things from Things Evil, than, not to permit Evil Things.  
The permissive Decree of God, at the stair-Head of this Order, though disOrder, is no proper Cause of Sin. Because it is not opperative, as being altogether  to the Sinner, and exercising no kind of Positive Action or Influence upon the Sin. Neither we by any compulsion from this Decree, in praecipiti sumus, aut in proclivi; are tumbled headlong into Hell, or warped towards it. It is an Antecedent only, and such a one, as, it being installed in the place of an Antecedent, Sin followeth not of Necessity, with necessity derived from the Antecedent. But although it be a single Antecedent, in regard of us, yet is it an Act of God's consequent and judiciary Will; and, as it actually permitteth, is an outward Punishment, which we carelessly pull upon us by abusing our Wills, and by strongly wrestling with God, and strangely conquering him; and by snatching ourselves in a Fume, from under the safe wings of his preserving providence. And we are permitted, first to abuse our Wills, because we will abuse them; and we will abuse them, because we will not be regular in the moderation of them; and we will not, because we will not; and the permission of this last will not, (the last in mention, the first in motion, by the which, as a negative Cause, God is moved) comes originally from God's Foresight of our future Negligence, and Disobedience; preservation from Sin, being, under no consideration, due to persons negligent, and disobedient; and the Preserver being now disengaged of his natural Obligation, and gracious Promise; and left in the Hands of his own Arbitrement.  
If a man be obstinate, and go off here, to return more strongly, thus; God permitteth Sin to Damnation, and remitteth Sin, when he may damn up the way before it, by his more puissant Helps; And why is he not therefore the moral Cause of Sin? That is, Why is not Sin imputed to him? This Reason applied to reasonable Creatures, who sometimes by justice, and always by Charity, are charged to defend one the other, from all kinds of Evil, as a Pilot, his Brethren with him at Sea, would be Valiant; But, sticked upon God, it faints, and falls, as the Viper from St. Paul's hand. Because the infinite Excellency of God, and his royal Prerogative requireth, his Dominion to be so absolute over his Subjects; that it should not attend to their Profit, he having fairly performed his part; but to his own Pleasure. Which only pleasure, and the dignity of it, is of greater weight, than all the good of all Creatures. And therefore, It is expedient, that it should be fulfilled; yea, if it should require the Ruin of them all. This Answer gives no countenance to absolute Reprobation; or to that absolute Reprobate, who teaches, That God may damn a reasonable Creature to Hel-Fire, absque Demeritis, as St. Augustin's Language is.  
The return is, That the Christian Governor should conjoin his Will, in his Law-giving, and in all his works, with the revealed Will of God; to the End, his Law may be God's Law, and immaculate; absque Macula, without spot; 
Marinus, & Forsterus in Lexicis.  without, as the Hebrew Word is, Machalah, weakness, infirmity.  
Mystical Divinity calls a Soul, being in this happy state of Conjunction, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, uniform. And Religious persons thus United, are styled by Dionysius 
S. Dionys. Areop. de Eccl. Hier. c. 8.  Areopagita, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, persons closely compacted into one; and like the Pearl, which is united in itself, and called Unio. 1 Cor. 6. 17. He that is joined unto the Lord, is one Spirit; one Spirit in himself, and one with God. The Vulgar Latin, Qui adhaeret Domino, 
Interp. Vulgat. Codex Graecus.  he that cleaves. The Original, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‑ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he that is glued; vehemently joined again, and firmly; that he may not be now severed, or pulled from his Heavenly Comp●●t.  
This Union is not altogether unlike the Hypostatical Union in Christ. Of the which, Franciscus Suarez says, to the 
Fran. Suarez in 3. part. Disp. 53. Sect. 2. pest Conclusionem 2. dam.  very bottom of what men can say; Illa Vnio licèt ex parte Humanitatis sit aliquid Creatum, tamen ex parte Verbi ad quod terminatur, quiddan increatum est; scilicèt verbum per se Vnitum Humanitati; That Union, although on the part of Christ's Humanity, it be created; yet, on the part of the Divine Word, at the which it is terminated, is a certain uncreated Thing, even the Divine Word united by Himself to the Humanity. Here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, profundum fine fundo, a Depth without a Bottom. A Union created, uncreated, uniting God and Man in the person of Christ; and yet, on Goa's part (though it be in the nature of a Union, as it Unites, ut atting at Extrema, that it must touch the Things Vnible and United,) the Creature is vanished, and the only Union is, Verbum per se Vnitum, the Word United by Himself. Well now may the Incarnation of Christ, be set next in place, unto the Trinity in Unity, as an incomprehensible Mystery.  
Brethren, I cannot commend the Lay-Elder amongst you; who, 〈◊〉 Men of Repute, speak, denied the Communion to a Maid, (let her Name be, Susanna;) because she could not answer him to the Question; Young Maid, What is the Hypostatical Union? Was not this Lay-Elder, Inutile in Sambuceto Sarmentum? O the monstrous Productions of Ignorance! Away with him. When the Master of a Family, offended with a stink, kicks a Dog in the Parlour; the Servants kick him too, through the Hall, and out of the Kitchen, until he be quite kicked out of Doors, into the free and open Air, which the Wind purifies. The Master of the Christian Family, is God. I return.  
And our Deiform Will, and Union with God in Love, and Law; is a most gracious Union of God with Man; wherein the Union, on the Soul's part, is Grace given by God; and, on God's part, Deus per se unitus Homini, God by Himself united to Man; that we may be conformable to our Head, Christ.  
This Uniting Spirit of Grace, is that Adopting Spirit (we being adopted Children through the natural Heir, in whom the Right stands;) even the Spirit in our Hearts, Galat. 4. 6. Crying, Abba, Father. Which is a Term of more familiar Compella 〈…〉, saith Ludovicus Cappellus. 
Lud. cappel. in illum locum. Syrus in Marc. 14. 36. Johan. Drus. & Salmant. in Marc.  The Syriack in St. Mark, draws it forth as a Term of Appropriation, and winds it up, to signify my Father; Which in the Targ-Language, it every where doth. Johannes Drusius admits it as a Term of Dignity; Salmanticensis, of Honour. Wherefore this Union, even in the radical part of it, sets us up familiar with God; and appropriats him to us; and entitles us, Most zealous in maintaining his Honour, Crown, and Dignity.  
The Duty therefore, of a Governor, looks three fair ways; by reason that the Object of his Duty, is threefold; God, his Neighbour, Himself. Tit. 2. 12. We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present World. Which words, St. Bernard, having tried them in the fire, sorts thus; Sobriè nobis, justè proximis, 
S. Bern. in Serm. super Ecce nos reliqui mus omnia, etc.  piè autem Deo, Soberly, to ourselves; justly, towards our Neighbours; towards God, godly. This duty is general, and every Man's Duty; but lies more heavy upon the Governor; because his Office is of greater import. King David, his Heart being well-steeped in this Doctrine, prayed for a threefold Spirit, Pal. 51. A right Spirit, verse 10. to guide his walkings with his Neighbour, in Righteousness or Justice. God's holy Spirit, verse. 11. by the which, he might be spiritually built into God's holy Temple. And, verse 12. God's free Spirit, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the Septuagint, his principal, or leading 
Sept.  Spirit; for the principal fitting of Himself in Himself; that he having a principal Spirit, in a principal Place, his Example consequently, might be Principal, yea, Princely, and alios quasi manu ducere, lead others, as by the Hand, into all Godliness, and Honesty. It respondently Follows, verse 13. in the Vulgar Latin, Doce bo iniquos Vias tuas, & impii ad te convertentur: In the English, Then will I teach 
Edit. Vulgat.  Transgressors thy ways, and Sinners shall be converted unto thee. And, Exemplo aliis praeire, to go before others, by a leading and good Example, is, to teach others in this good Sense. And, Qui Dux est aliis Actionum, He that leads others by good Action, is rightly, Dux Viâ, Dux Populi, the Leader in the right Way, the Captain of the People; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in this present World; or, in this Now-World; wherein we enjoy, properly and together, but one short Now of Time. For, Time, as Boetius timely told it, is Nunc fluens, a flowing Now; as, Eternity is Nunc stans, 
Boet. lib. 5. de Con solat. Prosâ ult.  a Now at a full stand. The first, is Nunc Temporis, the Now of Time; The second, Nunc Aeternitatis, the Now of Eternity. The first, is a Now; because it is but no 〈…〉. The second, is a Now; because it is indivisible, and altogether in all Eternity. Governors have more command in the World, and of the World, than other Men; and yet, are commanded to learn, that they cannot command or govern, more than a Now of Time in the World.  
This holy Spirit fills the Heart with Holiness; and principally excludes Emptiness of Spirit. Which hath been always found in Heathenish, and unholy Princes, filled but with Pride. (For, of such only, I desire to be understood; as not being a lawful judge of the emptiness in Christian Princes.) Those of Iob's Time, are shown in the Description of a Proud Man, job 11. 12. Vain Man would be wise; though Man be born like a Wild-Ass-Colt. 
Cod. Vulg.  The Vulgar Latin reaches; Vir Vanus in suberbiam erigitur; & tanquam pull●m Onagri se liberum natum putat; The Vain Man is lifted up into Pride; and thinks himself to be freeborn, as the young Wild-Ass, in the Wilderness. He thinks he was born to do, non quid licet, sed quid libe●; not what lawfully may be done, but what he listeth to do; and that he may run his own wild Course in the World, as a Wild Beast in the Wilderness. Pagninus inserts, Vir Vacuus, the 
Pagnin. Figurin. Reg.  Void Man. Leo Hebraeus, or Figurina, Vir inanis, The empty Man. Regia phrases it, Vir Concavus, The hollow Man. And the Notes upon the Gothick Bible of 
Biblia Gothica S. Isidori.  St. Isidore, sue learnedly, for this Reading. The Hebrew Word, is Nabub; which the English Translators, Exod. 27. 8. aptly render hollow. Surely, This Vain, void, empty Man, and hollow, was long before job, or, his Wild-Ass-Colt; and immediately extracted out of the old Chaos; Of the which, Moses, Gen. 1. 2. Terra eratinanis, & vacua; The Earth was without form, and void. The Original grounds, Tohu Vavohu, a Solitude, and 
Text. H●br.  Void. R. Aquila, called in the Chaldean Language, Onkelos, reads, Desolate, and Void. The Septuagint have, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‑ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Oak. Sept. Aq●il.  invisible and uncomposed. Aquila settles, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Vanity and Nothing. Symmachus consecrates, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ‑ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Sym.  idle and indigested. It was rudis indigestáque Moles, a rude and indigested Heap. Theodotion sanctifies, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Vain and of no profit. Jonathas Chaldaeus, the Author of the 
Theodat. Jonath. Chald.  Jerusalem Targe, gives the Reason of all: Because the Earth was void of Men and Beasts. Our vain Man is empty of Man, and ●oid of Humanity; but hath a vast Wilderness of Beasts in him. Such a one was old Nimrod the Hunter. And such are Turkish and Heathenish Tyrants, that hunt Men, as Men hunt 
Oppianus lib. 4. de Venatione.  Beasts; yea, as the Numidian Hunters hunt Lions; armed with Swords, javelans, and Fire. I dare not presume to retract any of these Readins, whether Hebrew, Chaldean, Greek, Latin, or Gothick, I rather hold here, That each in his Place, is tributary to the Text: and that all, after their several and private Overtures, make a complete Piece of Mosaic Work, as they are wisely placed in their chaste and unravished Sense; and with Colours answering to like Parts; and always provided, that the other Colours do nought but observe, and set off the Gold-Colour of the Original.  
Fetch about again. The Angels that appeared from Heaven, like Men, had no Heart, no solid Entrails or Inwards. But the Cause there, is, Those Inwards or Entrails would have been fruitless, in them; and outwards were sufficiently answerable to an Apparition. Artificial Things, affabrè facta, artificially made, are polite, and fair outwardly: but are inwardly Unpolished. O those jews, not wise beyond a Figure, that embraced the Messiah in Figure, and Shadow; but rejected him in the Thing, and in the Substance! Toads and Serpents have been found in the midst and Heart of the fairest-figured Stone or Marble, being hoilow. Knowledge estranged from Justice, is not Wisdom, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Craft; saith Plato. And where Virtue is not, there is 
Plato in C●atylo.  Emptiness: As nothing sensibly fills, that is airy and unsolid. And Aristotle's Word, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Englished Subtlety; 
Arist. in Eth. & Polit.  is attributed to the Old Serpent, by the Apostle, 2 Cor. 11. 3. And the same Serpent, Gen. 3. 1. in the language of 
Aquil.  Aquila, is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Which properly signifies one that is well-versed in all Things; or, ●um qui omnia experitur, omnémque movet lapidem; tries and does all Things, like an inconsiderate Empirick; in disorderly order to himself, or to an Evil End. Such Governors, (if such there be in Christ's World) have more of Italian Matchiavel in them; than of our Jerusalem jesus, or, of justice; And I humbly pray them to know, That extrajudicial Action, is like eccentrical, or like Violent Motion: And, that the latter End of such Action, will ever be like the Motion of the Wheel, in Dialogo de 
White Dialog. 2. de Mundo.  Mundo. Which was first set on going; and then, carried about and about, round and round with Bags of Sand tied to the Wheel; and falling still as the Wheel moved, more and more forcibly, until the violent Motion kindled fire in it, and burned it out of all Motion, but what the sporting wind bestowed upon the cold Ashes. The Foundation is unsound; And, Quicquid superstruxeris, corruet; What you shall build upon it, will tumble.  
The right Spirit and the principal Spirit manage the Hands and Behaviour of Governors towards all People: effecting, that it be innocent, just, and altogether exemplary.  
If all noble Persons are bound with ligaments from Heaven, to singular Holiness; much more those most noble Personages that give Laewes. And the white Robes of noble Persons, which they anciently wore, are Testes verè Classici, Honourable Witnesses to the Truth supposed here. Whence amongst the Hebrews, a Nobleman was entitled Ben Chorim, the Son of the Whi●e. And the 
Lorinus in Eccl. cap. 10.  Title of a such a Person, in the Ishmaelitish Tongue, as the Rabbins testify, was Filius L●ben, the Son of Whiteness. By this Portal, first entered our Latin Word, Candidati; and the Particular Title, Eloquentiae Candidatus. This Wh●te Garment, did not only put those noble Persons in mind of justice and Innocency, but also by a special Mark, deterred them from Injustice, as from being polluted with Ordure, in their White and clean Garment. For, Aristotle speaks a visible truth; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 
Arist de Gener. Animal. lib. 5. cap. 1.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Little Spots appear in a White Garment. And Sidonius gives the like Sentence, Si vestiatur albo, quisque fuscus fit nigrior; Every Man, black or brown, that is clothed 
Sidon. 〈◊〉. 2. Ep. 10.  in a White Robe; appears by the approximation of the contrary, more brown or black.  
And for, Behaviour that is both Just and Exemplary; and wherein justice sits as in her Triumphant Chair, and clearly demonstrates herself to sing in the Choir with all other Virtues; As Christian Governors possess God's Chair, and govern for God, so they govern, watching over themselves and the People, as in the presence of God, and are like the Princely Persons figuratively introduced Zach. 4. and enstamped with an honourable Mark of Interpretation, verse 14. These are the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole Earth. The Vulgar Latin, and the Abettors of 
Interp. Vulgat.  it, read; ●sti sunt duo Filii Olei; These are the two Sons of Oil. And they have performed Aristotle's justice to the 
Glossa in Zach. Chald. Paraphrastes.  Hebrew, given the Text his own. The Gloss unmasks it; Id est, uncti Oleo; That is, anointed with Oil. The Chaldec shapes it, Isti sunt duo Filii Principum, These are the two Sons of Princes: The precious Gum, as it drops, spreads thus, These are the Two Princely Persons, who sit at the Stern. Aquila, and Theodotion dispense it; Isti sunt duo Filii Splendoris, 
Aquil. Theodot.  or Claritatis; These are the two Sons of Splendour, or, Clarity; that is, illustrious and shining. For, Lamp-Light is the fair Child of Oil; as being born, suckeld, and always nourished of it. Their work is, to waste and spend themselves, as Oil, in the clear enlightening, and plain directing of others; not in seeking themselves, and quaestus extemporarios, extemporary Gains. The Septuagint, Syriack, and Arabic of Antioch, 
Sept. Syrus. Arabicus Antioche●us.  deal out; Isti sunt duo Filii Pinquedinis, These are the two Sons of Fatness: The Kernel is, fat, and fertile, who shall be largely profitable, both to Church and Common-weal. The Arabic of Alexandria walks alone in the presence only of 
Arabicus Alexandrinus.  his own Shadow, but is egregiously substantial, and frames it; Isti sunt Filii Misericordiae, These are the Sons of Mercy. Oil being a royal Symbol of Mercy; and amiably setting forth persons in Authority.  
These Governors, enriched with Princely Virtues, pertaining to Government, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude; shall be to the People, in respect of Externall Powers, Murus aheneus, ac Cingulum Adamantinum, a Brazen wall, and a Girdle of Adamant, defending them from their Enemies; and to the same People, within themselves, Light, Fatness, Mercy; Comforting, Refreshing, Succouring them.  
The Casuists avouch with reason, 
Casuistae.  That we are not obliged in Conscience, to take up the Faith of the Minister Sacramenti, or of the Susceptores; that is of those who Baptised us; either as performing the Sacramental Action, or as Undertaking for us. Yet, they strictly bind us to receive the Faith proposed by Him, in whose Name we are Baptised, being rightly Baptised. So likewise, they who are God's Delegates, and sent by the Lord of the whole Earth, are Heavensteered to do the Will, not of Man, or of the lapsed Minister, but of Him that sent them; that they may be approved of God, the Lord of the whole world; and accepted of God's Servants. For, Melchior Canus is exact when he saith, Si Legatus 
Melch. Canus lib. 5. de Auctor Concil. cap. 5.  contra Instructionem agit, non censetur ex potestate delegatâ agere; atque adeò non est, cur eo modo Acta, Superioris Auctoritate proba●a esse credantur; If a Legate act contrarily to his Instructions, he may not be thought to act by a delegated power; and there is no Reason, why Things acted after that manner, should be received as firmed and seconded by Superior Authority. The Comet is perfectly Circular, except where it Blazes, yet wants the perfection, and perfect influence of a Star; though, because it is nearer, it seems fairer. Besides, It is an Upstart, and risen out of gross Matter. Such a Legate, or Delegate, may still remain a perfect Delegate or Legate; but where he blazes, and where he doth mutare factum, go from himself; and there the influence is Malignant, the Matter, gross.  
I freely give, That Government administered according to the perfect Rule of God's revealed Will, will be very laborious, and dolorous But, Optimi Milites ad durissima mittuntur, as the Sto●ck Seneca; The best Soldiers are 
Seneca ●ib. de Provide etia.  commanded forth for hardest Exploits. And this will evince, That such Governors adhere to him of whom it is Prophesied, Is. 9 6. The Government shall be upon his Shoulder. The Vulgar-Latin-Word, 
L●ctio Valgata.  is, Principatus, the Dominion or Sovereignty. The Primitive Word in the Hebrew, Misra; Which the Masters of 
Text. Heb.  abstruse and hidden Senses, amongst the Hebrews, of themselves acknowledge to be, in Hebraeorum Officinâ non procusum, aut in longius protractum, sed arctiùs contractum, ac velut in serevolvi; rolled up together by Concraction, and the same with Misser sara, ex Spina Imperium; His Government shall arise from the Sharp thorn, from a Crown of Thorns. To the purpose it might be fore known by Prophecy, which was afterwards to become History; That the Messiah, and anointed one, should himself be afflicted, and the King of all true Sufferers, and persons afflicted for Righteousness sake; or, in the patiented and humble performance of the pain-begetting, and thorny Work of Righteousness.  
I have here, concluded the Doctrine in itself. And I now turn to the Doctrinal Inferences; We attend the Text, and the Doctrine. The first, is,  
If God's Revealed Will, as being a Copy of his Original Will, be perfect; then, agreeably to the End for which it was revealed, it should be perfectly Preached, and Published.  
And now, what strange place in our thoughts, should the Preacher have, (for I cannot contain myself from protesting against the works of this barbarous Malefactor, in the first Appearance of him,) that oftentimes, especially Si quid olfecerit lucri, if he scents gain, imperfectly delivers— (What I may call it, it occurrs not on a sudden; it passes for the perfect Law of God,) Traditque quasi Traditor; and what he delivers, delivers asa Betrayer of God, and of his perfect Law? I have much Business with our Quotidian Preachers. But, the Spaniara's pace is, poco poco, by little and little; and the Italian says as much, in his pean peano.  
It is a dishonour to a Physician, that many perish under his Hands. Quae foetum sunt perditurae, saith Hypocrates in 
Hippocr. S●ct. 5. Aphor. 53.  his Aphorisms, iis mammae extenuantur, the Flagging of the Breasts in Women with Child, portend Abortion. Search into your own Bosoms, O ye men of the Pulpit, ye Jocky-Preachers. Are your Breasts, Lacte tumentes, swelling with Milk? The Wiseman speaks wisely, Prov. 11. 29. He that that troubles his own house shall inherit the Wind. So the Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 
Sept.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, because Inheritances came formerly by Lots. The Syriack turning it, 
Syras è Codice Ambrosino.  out of the Ambrosian Code, gives it wholly to me, Qui non congregat in Domo suâ, dividit Ventos filiis suis; He that is not a gatherer in his own House, divides the winds to his Children, that is, hath nothing to divide to his poor Babes. Vixisse de Vento, nemo praesumitur, says the Civil 
C. de Alimentis.  Law, Men presume, that no man hath lived of Wind, of nothing. The Mystical Sense is, He that gathers not, not heaps up sound Learning into his Capacious Breast, and large Heart, will feed the People with Air, Words, Language, Sentences, Expressions, Scripture phrases crowded together, without order, as if their Spiritual Appetite lay in their Ears. Such a one makes a loud blustering for a while. But the loudest Wind, quickly blows itself all away; Words are but wind. O this grand Plot-Master of Hell, how hath he laboured to make holy Scripture Regulam plumbeam, a Leaden Rule, appliable to all Things!  
And, Those Merchantmen, that fly with all the sail they can make, to Peru, not only bring home Gold, but also, Monkeys, Apes, Parrots. Yet, He that Merchandizes for Golden Divinity, should not bring aught in his Return, but pure Gold. He should leave at Peru, the Monkey and Ape with their bad faces of their own making, and the Parrot with his vain Tautologies, and Repetitions. Quam tandem haec, Tragoedia dicam an Comoedia, habitura est Catastrophen? I cannot stay here. Majora molior. The Preacher, that, according to the Discovery made of him in Rhetoric, quasi aliud agens, as treating of holy Things, and looking (good Man, sweet Man, heavenly Man) an other Way, or towards Heaven; wounds the Superior power with collateral Senses, as with Side-Blows; and in every Sermon, for penury of sound Matter, damps the void and airy Brains of the People, with, as the Italian utters it, Raggione di Stato, high Reasons and businesses of State; defiling their Ears; yea, pulling the people by the Ears, till the Blood comes, and qualifying them for Insurrections; is more than somewhat like him, who being Galen's Patient, and very sick, 
Galen. lib. de Differentiá Symptomatu●.  told him, demanding in the morning how he did, That he had been restless, and without sleep; all the night, heaving himself from side to side, and heavily groaning, and ut rem omnem paucis absolvam, had been grievously troubled in seriously thinking, what should become of him (sick Man,) if Atlas, weary now at last, should steal away his outworn shoulder, and Heaven fall upon him lying weak in his Bed. These newfound Pulpit-Men, These Black Knights of the blue Bonnet, (well-feathered outwardly, but Adamites in Understanding) hope devoutly, that weary Atlas will run away, and the Heaven of Superiority and Government, with all the Larks in the Air, come down to them. Their only Grief is (whatsoever Cloak they wear) that they move in a Lower Orb, than their Sulphureous and aspiring Hearts would do; and that they do not, as the Black Abyssine of India, (like to like) sit forward, and rule or guide the great Elephant; and that their nimble and zealous-fingered Party is not armed with Spear and Bucklar, and possessed of the Tower and Castle upon his back. These conscientious and godly Men, would zealously, religiously, & comfortably tuck all Powers under their Geneva-Girdle; with which, they are not able to gird up their own loins.  
David gives out a fair-foul Image of such Night-Ravens, Psal. 11. 2. For lo, the wicked bend their Bow, they make ready their Arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot— The Hebrew 
Text. Heb.  Word, here Supposite for privily, says, taken at the first Word, In tenebris, in darkness. The Vulgar Latin exalts, 
Edit. Valgat. Sym.  in obscuro, in the dark. Symmachus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as in the dark night, when the Sun being set, is lost from our Ey. The Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in a night 
Sept.  when the Moon shines not. An other would interpret it, in tenebris Sco●icis, in the Scotch darkness of their Souls. He that will please himself with this Northern point, may cheerfully do it; and yet, not overact his part with the Wasps in Aristophanes; or, nutrire Vesparium in 
Vide Aristoph. in Vespis.  Pectore, nourish in his Breast a Wasps-Nest. They privily shoot; or, If they bring other men's Works into the Light, they hold them forth by a slight on a sudden, and pull them back as quickly by a slight; (acting consutis ●iè dolis, with pious frauds;) and in effect, render them like the Woven Works of the New-World, recorded by Pancirollus; Which, 
Panciroll. lib 2 Rerun Memurabi●ium, Titulo primo.  according to their manner of being exposed in the Light, show any Colour; black blue, brown, or green; white, red, yellow, or ash-colour. We are Saints, or Devils; Reprobate, or Elect; , or Adulterous; Alive, or Dead; as their sudden sleight is in showing us. They labour, that all People should look upon Men through their odious, and odiouslyfalse Accusations, using the craft of those who make a Lamp of the black water, or Ink of the fish Sepia; Which yields a Light, belying the faces of all that are present, and showing them ugly, and of the Ethiopian Kind. At which time, larvarum plena sunt omnia, they fill all with Ghosts, and Goblins. And in this Darkness, raised by them, they muffle up themselves, and scarf their own Subtlety; and, at their pleasure, disappear, Velut unguento Magico delibuti, as if anointed by the Witch, with her Magical ointment; & as if they, fair Angels of Light, were altogether unacquainted with the slight of casting a Mist, or, the Deeds of Darkness.  
These, in the Dialect of Hesychius, are 
Hesych. saepè saep. u●.  many times named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, persons carrying Men of Arms, and, old Sino●, vanum ●endacemque, with all his Vanity of Lying, under their Tongues; opening, and invading men's Hearts with dark and deceitful words, and, as they think, Hermetically sealing them up again, for themselves. They seem to imitate the old Germans, of whom, Tacitus; Atras in Praelia Noctes legunt; 
Cornel. Tacit. in Annal. lib. 3.  They choose the darkest Nights for their Battles: In the which, they are most furious. Prodeunt è gurgustulis; cursitantes huc illuc velut in myrmiceto, They creep out of their holes, and run here and there in great Multitudes; as animatus Pulvisculus, that living and busy Dust yonder on the Pismire-Hill. And in all this running, there and here and every where, they carry their Kirck behind them. Any Man, a little entered in the Language of old Athens, knows well, that the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, signifies a Tayl. They wag their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, their ugly Tail, and fawn upon the People (the silly dull-eyed people, that know not a Head from a Tail) with shaking their Kirck, the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all Churches; (which they would set over our Head, even with the Ruin of Thousands:) Insinuating to them in the Matter; That they would be kindly pleased, under a Pretence of Zeal, and Reformation, and Godly Strictness, to suffer them, as young, but arrogant, Fathers; and theirs, as ignorant Elders, to make younger Brothers of them. Which no throughly-catechied Christian, would endure for a hundred thousand Worlds, and as many more, ten hundred thousand times told over.  
Then use they the White Genova-Wand in their Hands, as Pallas doth in Homer. Who makes wondrous sport with 
Homer. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 6.  V●ysses, a little Man: He is now small, wrinkled, ragged and torn, and scarcely true; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But she having graciously touched him with her white Wand, he is now again tall, and of a goodly favour and pesonage; And now the gallant Man hath Hair, of a violet, purple, or skye-colour; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And the very selfsame Act, is a Sin and no Sin, as these prime Saints are (it is their own sweet phrase,) conscientiously moved to teach that Day. And the same Text and Sermon, only new vamped, are fitted for a new Leg and Walking; and stretched quasi Den●●bus admotis, Teeth and all being put to them, for the retriving of a Contrary Purpose; with a little bandying of the Matter betwixt; Verily, even so it is, dear Brethren; there is Scripture for it: And, Verily, my dear Brethren, It is not so; there is Scripture for the contrary, even the Scripture used formerly by our Adversaries. And thus, the miserable People, though they hear contrary sounds from their Mouths, yet hearing still the same sound from their Noses; are themselves led by the Nose.  
Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity; Ecclef. 1. 2. Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, 
Acquit. Sym. Theodot. S. Hieron. in Eccles. 1.  and all the Ancients except the Septuagint, saith St. Hierom, expound it, Vapour Vaporum, & omnia Vapour; Vapour of Vapours, and all is a Vapour. Is not all this Preaching, a Vapour? All, is a Vapour, a Vapour of Vapours; the veriest Vapour that ever was a Vapour. Is this, to Preach Jesus Christ; the same yesterday, to day, and for ever? Is this the Birth of so many strange Faces, strained Mouths, and close-closing of Eyes; or, of their Star-Twinckling? Is this the Conclusion, or Use of the Doctrine, that roundly bounds up every Period with Saints? O my immortal Soul, what dost thou here, amongst these Lunatic, these Changeling, these ebbing and flowing Preachers, who are any Thing, every Thing, all Things? what do ye want? what will ye buy? Qui labia omninò diducunt, ut in omnia deducant, Who alalwaies open and stretch their lips wide, that they may stretch and open them to all Things? Vivus vidénsque pereo; I perish, living, and looking upon myself while I perish.  
Is this, O prodigious Preacher, thy Food from Heaven? thy Manna? What? sayest thou Man, that this is Manna? Then hath Hell taken a Vomit; Then are the Manicheans returned to us, out of the Bottomless Pit. Hear thy own Story, in them, and their vapouring Founder. He denied his own Name, and adopted the Name Manes. Which in the Babylonish Tongue (he was a Persian,) signifieth a Vessel. He desired (precious Man) to emulate the Apostle, who is called Vas Electionis, a Vessel of Election; Thus far Epiphanius. This proud Imp 
S Epiphan. Haeres. 66.  named himself an Apostle of Christ, not after the common manner, but in the singularity, wherein the holy Ghost, as being sent by Christ, was an Apostle; So St. Austin paints him. Afterwards, his Disciples in Greece, in regard his adopted 
S. Aug. lib. contra Epist. Fundamenti.  Name had an ill Name and Sound in those Parts, being near to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, signifying Madness; wire-drew his Name into Mannichaeus, à fundendo Manna, (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is fundo;) Because, they said, he 
S. Aug. lib. de Haeresib. Haeres. 46.  shoured and poured Manna, ab ore rotundo, from a round, and perfectly-sweet Mouth. These old, and our young Manna-Masters, may rightly mingle their mad Manna's, in their pouring them forth; by the Rule, Simile Simili gaudet, Like delights in Like. Shall I tell thee Man? Never a Manna better Manna; O thou Scotch Manichean.  
The Novatians were, in their own Language, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, clean, pure; and the Montanists, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Spiritual. All were impure, and unclean to the Novatians, but Novatians; All, except Montanists, were carnal to the Montanists. But Absalon, though he carried in his Name, a Father of Peace; was in behaviour, a Child of Rebellion. And though Judas signifieth Praise; Judas the Betrayer of Christ was not Praiseworthy. I set a Bar here; and add no more Names. Only prosecute the mad Folly of these Preachers in doting on themselves, and their young. The Man that sees the Image of his own face in the Water; and conceiving presently, that he hath seen a Water-Nymph, or Fountain-Goddess, is rapt with admiration of that beauteous Apparition, and wastes his thoughts in the only Contemplation of it, goes for a Madman, and is rightly called Lymphatus. And, when I hear these J●richo bearded Preachers praised by them, my Thoughts revolve 
E●asm. in laudem Moriae.  the Old Records, thus. Erasmus hath written a Book, in the Praise of Foolishness. Lucianus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath a writing which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Commendation 
Lucian. M●. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  of a Fly. We have Pliny's Testimony, That Phainas the Physician, wrote the praises of a Nettle; of which, 
Plin. lib. 22. cap. 13. Aul. Gell. Noct. Attie. lib. 17. cap. 12.  one (surely) was, that it is a Stinger-Phavorinus in Aulus Gellius, praised a Quartan-Feaver; and another Thing as bad, or worse; him that was only the Tongue of a Stout Man, and Homer's Fool, Thersites. A certain riotous Bankrupt, called his Whore's by the Names of the Muses. The Ethiopians, being black themselves; do paint the Devil, in as white a Coat, as we do Angels.  
O who shall reduce the silly Sheep, the bleating People, velut ictum fulmine, & abreptum quasi turbine; as it were blasted from the Pulpit, and caught up in the Air with the Whirlwind of Passion, Prejudice, and Popular Errors; all raised from the Pulpit! Who shall disenchant, and unmantle these jewish Cabalists, attributing divine Strength to Names and Words, used by Persons, even altogether unacquainted with, and ignorant of the Things thereby signified! Who shall unravel the damnable Work of these Conjurers, that impose upon the People, (infimi sub sellii Homines, Men and Women of the lowest Form) with Characters, nothing powerful but by Compact with the Devil! Quantitas Molis est inefficax. And, Figura est Qualitas circa Quantitatem. O these both Preachers and People, decked, like heathenish Indians, with fine Feathers, filched from Birds, that when they were alive, flew near Heaven; while these, because their Feathers are ab extra, from without, and are ascititious, cannot fly; can scarcely creep! O these unseemly Creepers, with Feathers on their Backs! Their Names are, The Saints; the Elect; the dear Children of God; God's holy Ones; the Godly. Godly Names, indeed; good Words, fair Characters. Have they sinned away all right Understanding? all efficacious Helps? all hopes of true Manna? Dum Moses ad pias Preces manus at toll it, Ros de Coelo delapsus in precantis manibus concrevit; the Voice of Josephus; While Moses lifted up his Hands in holy Prayer, when the People wanted Bread, his 
Joseph. Antiq. lib. 3. cap. 1.  Hands open towards Heaven, were first filled with Manna; to give notice, that those holy Hands lifted up in Prayer, had pulled Manna down. Is there not one Moses more to be heard of, that may prevail with God for Bread in the Wilderness of Sin? A Truth of Truths; Proclivius est, evocare ●acodaemona, quàm abigere; It is more easy to raise D●vils, (or Devilish Spirits) than to lay them. O the miserable Gatherers of such Manna; such Doctrine, such Words▪ My Tongue wants Words, and Colours, wherewith to pencil such foul words; and black is not black enough for them. 
Senec. Tragoediogr. Hip. ●ct. 2. Scen. 2.  Curae leves loquuntur; ingentes stupent, Small Cares are talkative; whilst huge-Ones are struck dumb with Astonishment. I will pray as the Original preys, Psal. 56. 9 Propter Aven ejice eos: Cast them out for their Iniquity: or, as the blind-Man's 
Text Heb. Targ. Rab. Joseph. Caeci.  Targe; Propter falsitatem, for their falsehood, and lying; their lying Words; their lying Works; Or lastly, as the Elders, not of England, but of Israel; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for their nothing; Because 
Sept.  they have said and said again, and gainsayed; who, because they have said and gainsaid, have said nothing; and are therefore, Homines Nihili, Men of Nothing, of nought, no worth, no good account. Be not scandalised, Brethren, at these overgone, or, as ye may think, overgrown Expressions. The old Saints (turn over their Works) were as vehement, and as violent against the Deceivers of their Times. And our Scotchsouled Sayer and Gainsayer, Vrtica est; Vrit, si mollius tractetur; is a Nettle; and stings if he be gently touched. Is there not a Godly Violence, a religious Vehemency? When is it reducible to Practice, if not in this Case? But, the Discovery of these Pulpit-Meteors, blowing hard upon me, hath carried me from side to side, besides the Channel.  
I require in a Preacher, that he may perfectly Publish and Preach the Perfect Law of God; (besides inward qualifications, natural and supernatural, and an Outward Call; the necessity of which, is understood with much facility;) acquisite Learning in an excellent Manner; and Adherence to a Church of such Authority as may reasonably ●ut a stop to Controversies. I read in the Perfect Law of God, that God himself is most excellently perfect; and consequently was a free-Agent in the Creation of the World, and the like Actions. An Infidel, or a weak Christian, demands of me, wherein this Liberty consisteth. Without sound Learning, what Answer can I give? But assisted by such Learning, I may answer thus.  
God's Liberty consisteth chief, in this; That he can freely choose an Object, either more or less good; And in this, his Acts of Choice are laudable; because they can still fix upon an inferior good; and are infinitely praiseworthy ex modo tendend, because the Acts of God. Although still, he cannot work better or worse morally. And if we should deprive him of this Liberty; it can never be well-unfolded, why God did not make more and more perfect Worlds, so long till the Angels could not number them. And to say, that God is free only, towards this and that individual Thing; would be to say, that no Honesty or Laudability shined from the Exercise of his Liberty. And the same Objects which God willeth, are handed to us: both by God and Nature, and proposed as unequally good. And this Perfection of Liberty, hath place in God; because he cannot want any kind of Perfection; except he hath a Perfection equivalent, which is incompossible with it: as it happeneth in the Divine Persons, with respect to their Relative Perfections.  
A Man demands, beyond all that I have said already; Why the most holy God hindereth not Sin? Without the concurrence of Sound Learning, we shall never quiet him with a sound and full Answer; As thus.  
Tertullian hath a pressing Reason; and 
Tert. lib. 1. contra Martion.  he presseth it too: Because Man is graciously made by God, a free Creature, undetermined in his Actions, until he be determined by himself; And therefore, may not be drawn away from Sinning by Omnipotency; because God useth not (neither doth it agree with him) to repeal his own Ordinances, or to proceed against them; As, Mercy may not do any thing, contrary to Providence. Now, God doth not so will the Damnation of a Sinner, but that he still leaves him betwixt Heaven and Hell, in respect of his Abilities. He desires earnestly, that he should turn; but willingly, consentingly, and according to the working of his Abilities, appointed by Providence; not by force. Which if he did, he could force him to return. He moves him to a return; and also gives him sufficient ability, by virtue of which, he may return, though he knows he will not. He that said to his Creatures, Increase ye, and multiply; put also a Virtue into them, by virtue whereof, they might multiply and increase. He that commanded the Lame Man, to arise and take up his Bed, and walk; so strengthened his joints, that he might do all this. God sees, that such a Sinner shall not be saved; and he sees likewise, that he will not comply with his Helps. We speak not in this Question, of the Physical, but of the Moral Cause. The Physical Cause is that, which doth truly and really effect; so God concurreth to the entity of Sin. The Moral Cause is, which truly, doth not effect truly; but yet, is such, that the Effect is imputed to it; as an entreating, counselling, or not hindering Cause. And God both entreats & counsils against Sin. And if he doth not hinder it, he is not bound; having assisted us to the hindrance of it. And his Decree concerning Sin, is not absolute, but condionate; though the Scotch Barnacles are otherwise minded. For, to every absolute Decree of God, the Execution of the Decree, is most accidentally, but necessarily subordinate. And so, Adam should have fallen and his Children after him, by a necessity taken from the Divine Decree. And because God is the Author of his Decree, if his Deceee doth operate Sin, and necessitate to it; God in his Decree, operateth Sin. It may not be reasonably said, that every thing is made for its Use, as for an End; and God chief uses the Wicked & their Sins ad Exercitium Bonorum, for the Exercise of the Good; therefore the Wicked were made, and their Sins decreed for this End; this Use of the Wicked, being per accidens; neither did God make the Wicked, as they are Wicked. God absolutely Decrees, that Children shall be begotten and born, yea though being Children and born, they are presently guilty of Original Sin; Because the Child born, is not the Cause of that Sin. Which freeth a Father also, from concurring to that Sin, in the begetting of a Child, he not concurring to that, the whole Commission of which, is passed, and blown over. Indeed, God hath a speculative Knowledge only, of Himself; be-because 
Vide S. Tho. part. 1. q●aest. 14. art 16.  he is not operable. But of all other Things, he hath a speculative and a practical Knowledge: A speculative Knowledge; because he knows all things speculativo modo, after a speculative manner. A practical Knowledge, of those Things which in Time he doth. And the Evils of Sin, although they are not operable by him, yet fall under his practical Knowledge, as he permits, or hinders, or as he order them, and disposes of them; as Sicknesses fall under the practical Knowledge of the Physician, when he cures them by his Art. Whence it goes off clearly; that God knows a thing, which may not possibly be done by him, because it jars with his Perfections.  
A zealous Christian desires to know the fairest Foundation in point of Virtue, upon which he may place his Worship of God. Sound Learning lays it out by the line, in this manner.  
There be many Reasons, and Motives, by the which we are bound and urged, to give and yield all Obedience, Observance, Veneration, and Worship to God. For first, We own him Duty, as one infinitely better and greater than us. And this Act is proper to a Virtue, called Reverence or Observance; whose charge and business is, to make us respectful and submissive to our Betters. Secondly, We own him Duty, as he is the Supreme Lord, whose all Things are, and to whom all things are due, which we have. And this Act is proper to Justice, as far as a man can exercise justice towards God, which is not like the justice betwixt Man and Man: Because the Dominions of Men may be equal and unmingled; when yet, nothing can be exempted from the most high Dominion of God. Thirdly, We own him Duty, as he is the first Beginning, and Creator of all Things; to whom therefore our highest Worship is due, by the direction of the Virtue of Religion. Fourthly, We own him Duty, as a Father; who therefore is Venerable; and who hath made us, being most unworthy of so great a favour, his Children by Grace and Adoption. And the payment of this Duty, is an Act belonging to the Virtues of Christian Piety, and Filial Fear. Fifthly, We are his Debtors, as he is our great and most liberal Benefactor. And the Works of this Consideration, are all under the Protection of Gratitude. Sixthly, We are subjected to him, as being most high, potent, and over all. And the Virtue that performs the Commands of these Thoughts, is Humility. Seventhly, We have a reference to him, as he is our Summum Bonum, and most diligible. And the Virtue that stirs here, is Charity. And as the Ey of Faith and Love discerneth more of these Motives; so the Act hath more Reasous of Honesty, derived from the different Species of these Virtues; being like an Heavenly Rainbow, beautified with many Colours, with which we shoot and wound our Beloved to the Heart.  
If therefore, ye will know with sound Reason, that God made the World, not by Coaction, but with affection to our Good; that the Lawgiver is Himself holy. If ye will know how to make the best of your best Devotions, and Worship, ye must sit at the Feet of sound Learning, as Pa●l, at the Feet of Gama●iel.  
In these close Cabinets of Truth, Thousands of like Truths present themselves. And, I am forced here, to imitate the Painter; who endeavouring to show to the Ey, and gather a great multitude of Men, within the narrow-limited Compass of a small Table; and fearing lest they should offend one another, if crowded together; discovereth in some, only their faces; in others, their backs; of some, the tops of their Heads; of others, one only Foot: and sometimes a small Cheek and one Ay stands for a Man; while he leaves the rest for our Imagination to paint; which truly, performeth a fair deal more in the Table, than the Painter. And, in those rare Works of honest, and laudable Curiosity, those famous Relics of Time, in which, the Shapes of many, both Men and Women, were compelled within the Circle of a Penny; the part that was the Head in one Man, was the Breast of another; and perhaps, another limb in a third; serving for divers parts, as it was diversely applied, and looked upon.  
In Cases of Conscience. An honest Soldier, futurorum anxius, anxious of mind concerning Things to come, is desirous to know the Conditions of a just War; Sound Learning, is only able to answer his Desires: And says, The Conditions of a just War, are, 1 Auctoritas legitima, a lawful Authority. Which is, The Authority of a Supreme power, or of a Prince. Because Princes, and Supreme Powers, have no common Tribunal, at which they may accuse other Supreme Powers, and Princes. 2. Causajusta, a just Cause. Which is, The repulsing of notorious and great Injury; the repulsing of which, is a more eligible Good, than the Good, lost by the Evil of War; that the Supreme Power may defend the People subjected to it, now greatly damnifyed by the Enemy. This Cause must not be doubtful. Yet, in a doubtful Cause, a Person lawfully subjected to the Power, may fight under it; a Stranger may not. Because Persons lawfully subjected, ought not to discuss the Commands of the Supreme Power, in Matter of Doubt; as neither aught an Executioner, to discuss the Commands or Sentence of a lawful Judge. 3. Intentio bona, a good Intention. For, the End of War, being the Peace and Tranquillity of the Commonwealth, in the Possession of her Just Rights; no other End can bear the weight of War. We must therefore, first endeavour, that Satisfaction be made by Peaceable Means. 4. Modus debitus, a due Manner. Which enjoins the taking of all possible Care, that the Innocent be not endamaged. These Conditions, every word being weighed in the Balance of Justice and of the Sanctuary, speak a just War.  
A well-meaning Man, having it larumed hourly in his Ears, that our Kirck-Innocents have had, of late days, their faithful Martyrs; is importunate from the Desires of his distressed and troubled Heart, to know the Conditions required to Martyrdom. Learning readily gives them out of her Store-House. Five Conditions must concur to the baptising of an Adul●us, or grown Man, Baptismo Sangui●is, in his own Blood, by the Name of Martyr, or God's Witness. 1. Death must be inflicted upon him, in the hatred of Christ, or of Christian Religion or of some Verity of Faith; or, because he hath done some Act of Virtue. Causa, non Poena, facit Martyrem, The Cause, not the Punishment, makes a Martyr. 2. Death must be Piously accepted by him. 3. He that is martyred, must not resist his Persecutors, in Act or Desire. And therefore, even Christian Soldiers fight in God's Cause, are not Martyrs, though killed. Because they do not imitate the Prince of Martyrs, who suffered Death without resistance. 4. He that is killed, must believe by a Supernatural Faith, the Truth, in the defence of which, he dyeth; and the Fundamental Truths, for the Propagation of which, Christ died. 5. His Heart must be established with habitual Grace; and though perhaps, he was never baptised Baptismo Fluminis, with the Baptism of Water, yet Martyrdom must find him baptised Baptismo Flaminis with the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. These Conditions throughly considered, the well-meaning Man refers the Matter to the strange Turns and Wonders of the divine Providence; in the admiration of which, he is quite absorbed. And coming to himself again, believes, that many temporal Blessings shall in their due Times, accost the present State, in answer to brave Things which they have done; and in the Head of all, to their suppressing these Blackamore-souled Apostates.  
A religious Man, that most lives and converses inwardly, would fain be informed, for his own inward and sublime Exercise; Whether he may serve God most, with his Understanding, or with his Will. Sound Learning teaches him, That, Whereas there are two chief Faculties of the Soul, the Understanding and the Will; and with the Understanding we know, with the Will we love: It is a greater height of Perfection, to know the Things which are under us, than to love 
D. Tho. 1. 2. quaest. 66. art. 6. ad. 1.  them. But for the Things which are above us, it is more perfect Satisfaction, to love them, than to know, and understand them. And therefore, the Seraphims, or loving Angels, are the first of pure Creatures, and the first allied to the last Person in the Trinity, who is Love. To this purpose, the Divines teach, That the Spiritual Powers of our Understanding and Will, being compared in the Exercise of Contemplation, and considered ex modo procedend, the Acts of the Will excel the Acts of the Understanding; though the Understanding, simply considered, taketh place of the William. Because such is the Nature and Way of the Understanding in Understanding, that the Things which she Understands, she draws, in a manner, and fits to herself. Whence by Understanding inferior Things, she advances them above their Worth and Degree; and by Understanding superior Things, depresses them beneath their Degree and Worth. For, When the Soul, a spiriall Substance or Power, by her Act of Understanding being also spiritual, doth understand sensible and material Things, cast beneath her Condition; she doth not therefore, sensibly apprehend them by her Intellection, neither after a material or corporeal Manner; but by the mediation of a Spiritual Form, or unmaterial Species, and by an Act altogether incorporeal. Whilst the Will doth not draw to herself, the Things which she desireth and willeth; but rather is drawn herself by them; and fits & conforms herself to them. The Will therefore, is more subservient to high Things, and more observant of them, than the Understanding; And we serve God, more by Charity, the principal Virtue of the Will, than by Faith, the prime Virtue of the Understanding; and Faith acts not, but by Charity; as the Body acts not, but by the Soul; And, the greatest of these, is Charity. We cannot turn ourselves, wisely and securely, in Matters of private or public Importance, but we fall into the Hands of Sound Learninng.  
We come to the more excellent, and more satisfactory Knowledge of Scripture, in the Knowledge of Languages. It is most consentaneous to Right and Reason, that Christ's Preachers should be furnished with all substantial and convenient Helps, for the plenary Performance of their Angelical Employment. And therefore, Christ sending his Apostles into all the world, & qualifying them for the Mission, endowed them with Languages. Which Gift being withdrawn, and the End, for which it was extraordinarily given, Ending; the Church of God, supplied the want of it by Industry, and ordinary Means.  
Now, He that ken not beyond his Mother-Tongue, nor is adherent to a Church of sound Learning, and sufficient Authority; is deprived of these convenient and substantial Helps. 1. He cannot conform himself to the Example of Christ and his Apostles; who, though the Septuagint, many times, differ from the Original; yet, many times, in their use of Texts from the old Instrument, (the old Testament was anciently so called) took in at the Septuagint, and walked besides the Original, receiving different, and explicatory Senses; and in them, the Intention of the Holy Ghost; God intending all good Senses, in the giving of Scripture; as in other Gifts, he intends all the Good conveniently arising from them. 2. He cannot reach the Texts and Explications, which fitly solve Doubts and Controversies, depending upon Scripture and the Translations of it. It is doubted by what Sign Cain and Abel knew, th● one that his Offering was accepted of God, the other that God rejected his Offering. The Vulgar Latin tells, Gen. 4. 4. Et respexit 
Edit. Vulgat.  Dominus ad Abel, & ad munera ejus; And God had respect unto Abel; and to his Gifts. The Septuagint spoke it first, 
Sept.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he respected, he looked favourably upon. The Doubt stands still; But Theodotion removes it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he 
Theodot.  set on fire, he consumed with a flame; as afterwards, in such Cases. Ecce Signum, behold the Sign. It is controverted concerning the Text, Jo. 3. 5. Except a Man be born of Water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God; Whether the Text intends a grown Person, or any Person of whatsoever Age or Sex. The Original disbands the Controversy, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉— Except 
Text. Graec.  one be born, including all Ages, all Sexes. 3. He cannot come near the Mysteries that lie couched in the Sacred words of Scripture; As, Gen. 〈◊〉. 1. Where the sacred Trinity, the Author of Scripture, is, (in despite of all Gainsayers,) delineated in the very first Line of Scripture; Bereschil Elohim bara, being exactly 
Text. Heb.  Englished, In the beginning Supreme Perfections he created. For, although the Sacred Persons differ, one from the other, by their Personal and proper Perfections; yet they are all he (as he denotes One God) & the very same in Essence. And though the Name Elohim be not proper to the Persons, in itself, and it's first aim; yet, the Name in the Number, is most proper. 4. He cannot comprise the secret Energy of Words; As, in a million of places; And, besides the Texts interweaved in this Discourse, in that eminent place, Zach. 9 16. They shall be as the Stones of a Crown, lifted up as an Ensign upon his Land. Where the Readins do all wear Crowns, and bear Ensigns. The Vulgar Latin, Lapides sancti elevabuntur super 
Interp. Vulgar.  terram ejus; Holy Stones shall be lifted up upon his land. The Hebrew Text, Lapides 
Text. Hebr.  nezer, that is, Stones of Separation, separated from common Uses; in which Sense, the Word Nazarite is descended from nezer; or, Stones of Consecration. Wherefore Tigurina set it 
Tigur.  forth, Lapides consecrati, Consecrated Stones. Or thirdly, Stones of a Crown, 
Vatabl. Chald. Paraphr. Arias. Mont.  as Vatablus. The Chaldee, Eliget eos ●icut Lapides Superhumeralis, He shall choose them as the Stones of the Ephod, or Superhumeral. Arias Montanus resolves it; that the place alludes to the Stones erected in the Ways, for direction. What an Ocean of Matter is discovered here, in the Power and Efficacy of the Words in the Original? 5. He cannot amplify his Matter, from the exuberancy of the Matter in the Original. The Matter abounds, Psal. 37. 35. I have seen the Wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green Bay-tree. 36. Yet he passed away, and lo, he was not. The Original, Vidi impium validum, seu formidabilem, 
Text. Heb.  I have seen the Wicked mighty, or formidable. The Targe, fortem, strong. 
Targe:  The Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, superexalted. I have seen the wicked strong; 
Sept.  and not ordinarily strong; but mighty; and therefore formidable, and superexalted; formidable to others, and exalted above others, and above himself. And lo, he was not. The Hebrew, Et ecce non ille, and behold, not he. The Targe, Et 
Text. Targe Heb.  defecit ex mundo, and the World failing him, he hath fallen out of the World. Though he was like a green Bay-Tree, spreading its Root, and lifting up its Body, arms, and branches, as growing in its proper soil; yet, this likeness was not long-lasting. For, behold, not he. His Power is deficient, and the World is now wheary of it. I have seen this Text, hisce oculis, with these dear Eyes, and the Amplification of it, verified and made excellently good, in the Kirk-Monster. 6. He cannot relieve the Translation, when it is curt, or otherwise ill fashioned. The Psalmist singeth of the Godly, Ps. 84. 7. They go from strength to strength: The Original sings higher, From Virtue to Virtue; Or, from Army to Army: The Targe, Ex Schola in Scholam, 
Targ.  Out of one School into another. The Original Word is of a large signification, and signifies all our strength, or vigour, inward and outward, of Mind and of Body. And all Translations are almost every where curt, in respect of the Original. 7. He cannot sound the mystical meaning of words: As, in the History of Balac and Balaam. For, Balac signifies one devouring, or licking up, as an Ox licketh up Grass; and allegorically intimates the Devil: Balaam signifies a People of Vanity; shadowing the Scribes and Pharisees, who, instigated by the Devil, would have destroyed Christ, and licked him up with their evil Tongues, and false Accusations: But the Curse was quickly turned into a Blessing. For this fair Note I thank Rabanus the Moor. The History hath been acted 
Raban. Maurus in Numer.  yet again, in the Pharisaical and vain Carriages of our Scotch-Balacs and Balaams, and of their speaking Asses, towards me. 8. He cannot unfold the Hebrew Words continued in the Translation: it being the custom of Translations, (that of the Septuagint which leads the Train, and all others,) to retain sometimes, the Original Words; As, jehovah, Ephod; (these I have opened:) Urim and Thummim; which the Vulgar Latin gives, Doctrinam & Veritatem, Learning & Truth, 
Lectio Vulgat.  or, Science and Conscience; attending to the Translation of the Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. It should here be known, that Urim may be deduced from 
Sept.  the root jara; to teach; and Thummim from aman, he hath believed; and that then, the Septuagint and Vulgar Latin have done us right, Truth being the Object of our Faith and Assent: And likewise, a Teacher should know, that Vrim comes clearly from Or, light, and Thummim, from tamam, he hath completely perfected; and that now, Vrim and Thummim, the words being plural, to show variety, and fullness, signify Illuminations, and Integrities or Perfections; as others have understood them. Beh●moth 
Aq.  is translated by the Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Beasts. It should be learned, that this great 
V de Busthamantinum in Behemoth.  Beast is called Beasts, because he contains in himself, (in one Beast) the strength and bigness of many Beasts; and therefore, with much agreement, adumbrates the Devil. Isa. 15. 6. the Word Nimrim is entertained; Which in the Septuagint, is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Returned to the Original, 
Sept.  it signifies Panthers. The Panther is a Beast that washeth itself in secret Fountains, as willing to be rid of its outward spots, and to pass for a clean Beast amongst Beasts. A profound Hypocrite. Now the Text; The Waters of Nimrim shall be desolate. The Panther's waters shall be dried up. The time is coming, wherein the Hypocrites shall be deplumed of all their colourable Excuses, Pretences, Professions. 9 He cannot, except he can produce the Authority of a known Church, lay his hand upon the Book, and say, This is the Original: especially in the Places where the Hebrews themselves doubt, whether the Text or the Margin be authentical. 10 He knows not; upon what Ground he stands, when the Original-Copies dangerously vary; as they do sometimes, in the most pregnant Places asserting Mysteries and most fundamental Doctrines. As 1 Io. 5. 7. Et high tres unum sunt, And these three are one Thing; many Copies pronouncing, as it were, by the mouth of St. John, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, are one Thing. Where 
Text. Grae. Complutens. Reg.  Complutonsia, Regia, and other ancient Bibles, as it were, speak it over again from the same mouth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, in unum sunt, tend to one; being the Assertion used vers. 8. in a business of a lower Order. And though some Writers meet these Bible's half way, with favourable constructions; yet they favour Arrianisme. 11 He will be lost, when we shall be forced to inquire beyond the Originals; and seek, not the Sense, but the Use of the Word, and the Reason of it. As, in those two main Businesses, the Business of Nabotb, and of Iob's Wife; in both which, the Original cryeth bless for Curse. 12 We must leave him behind us, when we travel beyond the Text, to the jewish Antiquities; for the true Name of God, used in the Place. As, where the jewish Method entereth Adonai, signifying God wlth reference to his Dominion, for jehovah, which signifies God in his Being, Nature, Essence; and sends us to search amongst humane Customs for many sweet Lessons; every Name of God sweetly concording with its Place.  
I have been subdued to treat fairly with you, by the Spirit of Mildness. But, Thunder once up, will not be long quiet: and at length, after much loud noise and tumbling (me thinks I hear it again;) viam inveniet obicibus ●uptis atque prostratis, it will with a mighty force, break its way open, I cannot hold it.  
O thou Vapour of a Preacher; The Law of God is perfect. And it throughly requires of thee, O thou with thy through-Reformation; Of thee? Give me my words again; I mean, of Preachers lawfully called; First, Perfection of Life: and secondly, Perfection of Doctrine. (I could, had my pleasure carried me upon Controversies, have brought also to my last Heap, that a Preacher must Tit. 1. 9 be able by sound doctrine, to convince the gainsayers; there being such, in opposition to all divine Truths, mysterious and others: and that now, sound Doctrine is not compassed, but by help, immediate or mediate, from sound Learning.)  
O give ear to the plain Truth, told plainly. We must not only preach of Saints, but also, be Saints. In Pictures to be set aloft, the Painter sets forth the Things he paints, Con Grandeza, as the Spaniard tongues it, in great and rude shapes, and multiplies light Colours. But the People are near Spectators of your Lives. Ye tell me of your true Faith. Pray, let your Medium probationis be metal of Proof, proving it with a true Proof; and showing me your true Charity. Scotus divinely 
Scot part 3. Dist. 36. Quaest. Vnica. Sect. Ad primum.  calls all other Virtues, informs sine Charitate, without a Form, or, without a Soul, if without Charity. And Charity, as it works after the prescriptions of Faith, leads us, going itself with us, into Heaven, whither all good Souls go: when Faith and Hope are excluded; Faith being de Rebus non vists, of things not seen; and Hope, de non habitis, of things not had.  
Those that would appear to men, greater than they are, in genere Moris et Virtutis; are most little, most dwarfish, (O this dwarf-Devotion!) in the sight of God; as being most contrary to him, who is major omni laude, beyond all words, and understanding; and who can not exactly appear to a Creature, as great as he is. The Image of Stone, Wood, or Metal, or the Representation in a Looking glass, that shows a Face less than it is, may happily be like the Face it shows, and Symmetrical with it: But the Representation, or Image that swells up the Face, and gives it greater; except it be wrought so, for the supplyance of what is lost by Distance, is monstrous, and cannot be like: Because Proportion is retained in Representations which are lesser than the Life: but in such as are greater, the Composition is discomposed, and the Proportion scattered.  
The Hebrew Word, Cados, signifying holy, primordially signifieth, segregated and separated from profane Uses. And the Greek Word, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, signifying likewise, holy, is as much as absque Terra, or extra Terram, one without Earth, or, living in Heaven while he is upon Earth: although the privative Letter, wanting an Aspiration, seems to disown the business: Thus Origen, 
Orig. Hom. 2. in Levit.  and after, and out of him, St. Ambrose, and Venerable Bede. Dionysius Areopagita, that stood Sentinel in the primitive Church, is true to his trust, in saying, that Christian Piety doth not endure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 
S. Dionys. de Eccl. Hier. C. 2.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, divided and dissipated Ways and Lives. What Agreement is there betwixt Light and Darkness? Betwixt a spiritual Discourse full of Words concerning Heaven and Godliness, in the Pulpit; and out of the Pulpit, a most carnal course, full of Works, discovering Devilishness, and earthly mindedness, and even Hell itself upon Earth, and epitomised in a Soul? Nun vides te loqui pugnantia? Dost thou not see O Preacher, that thy Words and Works speak Contradictories?  
Quaelibet Res ex pejoris immixtione sordescit, ut Argentum ex immixtione 
D. Tho. 2. 2. q. 81. art. 8.  Plumbi; saith Aquinas: Every thing grows filthy, being mingled with a thing worse than itself: as Silver is vilified, when it is mixed with Led. And he does not leave his golden Discourse, without Enamel: Ideo Mens humanae inquinatur, ex eo quod inferioribus Rebus conjungitur: 
Idem. ibidem.  Therefore the soul of a Man is defifiled, because it is joined with inferior Things. Did ye never hear of the Manucodiata, or Bird of Paradise? The Word is a Compound, and compounded of two Indian Words, which are, Manuco Diata, Avicula Dei, God's little Bird. The Indians call it so: because it is never seen upon the ground, but dead. O, those contemplative Souls, that are always upon the Wing; not contradicting, that they are Aves Coeli, Birds of the Air, or of Heaven, by their walking in the dirt as the brute Beasts of the Earth: how happy are they!  
The shallow Plot will at length betray itself; and the People will observe the Deceit and Imposture: and look boldly, on the other side of the Vizard. And even the High-Shooe, will take the courage to say, Psal. 12. 2. With a double Heart do they speak. The Vulgar Latin consonantly 
Cod. Vulg. Text. Hebr. Sept. Sym.  with the Hebrew; in Cord et Cord, in a Heart and a Heart. And the Septuagint are Unison: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Symmachus stands in Sight: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in one Heart, and, yet another Heart. The natural Logic of the Clouten-shooe, will drive it thus far beyond simple Apprehension: With one Heart in a Pulpit, and that's their Pulpit-Heart; they pompously speak of heavenly things, speak, (and then he smiles with his Countrey-Face:) and like those old Pharises, give out a hard Lesson to us, poor Folk; But, they make it a Lesson of mere custom: For with another Heart abroad, this is their broad Heart, that accompanies their large Conscience; they covetously seek, and greedily pursue, Things that are earthly. And if he be a Latin-Scholar from the Free-School, he will show it, and moreover say: Incubant suo, inhiant alieno; they lie close upon their own, and fly hover over the Goods of others: Et indies emungunt argento mulieres; and they-dive daily into the women's Purses. All this will be stoutly said by the Man of the Blow. O the weak Power of such Godliness! O the Shortness, and Emptiness of Lip-Devotion! O the vileness of Pen and Paper-Sanctity; stepping from the Pen and the Paper, to the Penny and the Coffer.  
Blessed David gins his Psalms with blessed. And the word there of the Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is indifferently used in Scripture, 
Sept.  either to signify Beatitudinem Viae, the Blessedness of this Life, arising from our walking with God in his Way, or, Beatitudinem Patriae, the Blessedness of the Country, arising from our Union with God in the Beatifical Vision. The Hebrew Word is Ashere, or 
Text. Hebr.  Ashre, signifying Beatitudines, Blessednesses, & is a plural Noun without a singular Number; involving the kinds of true blessedness. It comes by descent, from the Root Asher, beatè incessit, rectis passibus ambulavit; he hath walked rightly, blessedly: That it may point forth to us, not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, those that can bless others, or speak well for themselves, as Isocrates 
Isocrat. orat 4.  uses the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that go in a right 
E●gubin. in Psal. 1. Chald. Paraphr. Scholia Graeca. Theodot.  way, and walk uprightly; as Eugubinus notes. Hence the Chaldee contributes there, for Blessed, Good: The Greek Scholiaest, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, void of reprehension. Theodotion in his digging, throws it up, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, perfect is the young Man: the man that gins early to study Perfection. Astronomers observe, that Stars. which fetch about with a less Circuit, are more near to the Pole. And 
Aldrovaud. in Philomela.  Aldrovandus agrees, that the Nightingale growing fat, can not sing. He that intends to the Blow, may not look another way And he that wars, as a Captain, for the Spirit, may not entertain a Truce, or Pa●l undecently with the Flesh. Because being Terrae Incola, a Dweller out of his Country, upon Earth; he should be Accola Coeli, a Borderer upon Heaven, being his Country.  
I will not compare thee, O Preacher, to Martha in her active Ministration: because she ministered on Christ: But in her passive Distraction, thou art like her. Lu: 10. 40. Martha was cumbered about much serving. The Greek Text is more ample, and serviceable, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: She was distracted and scattered about much Ministration. Here she was, and there, and elsewhere: and here again she would be. She was not where she was. She was every where, and she was not where. She was going, and she turned again: and again, a new thought carried her to a new place, which held her not long. Her mind was in many places, at the same time: and her Body would have been so. Martha in her Ministration, is like the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst us; showing much distraction, in its running to and fro, that it may signify both a Deacon and a Minister: It runs, and turns, and would be where it is not. The Arabic 
●od. Arab.  Translation is admirable, and as much distracted as Martha: Martha autem diligenter Ministrabat plurimum; But Martha diligently ministered very much. And our Saviour tells her of her fault, vers. 41. Martha, Martha; thou art careful, and troubled about many things. Martha must now know, that she is multiplied; and that one Martha is Martha Martha; Martha where she is, and Martha where her Heart is; and that she is many Martha's, though but one Martha; because troubled about many things. Emmanuel Sa explicates it, tumultuaris, And hither directs his Arrow: Many things have 
Em. Sa.  raised many thoughts, which make a tumult in thee. Pray therefore, with him that knew how to pray, Psal. 86. 11. Unite my Heart to fear thy Name. A Metaphysical Axiom acts the Handmaid here: Vnum est quod est indivisum in se, et divisum à quolibet alio: That is one which is undivided in itself, and divided from all other things. And morally understood, presents upon the Knee, an Offering to Divinity. For Symmachus reads, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, aduna Cor meum, unite my Heart; that is, make it one and 
Sym.  undivided in itself: Which in a large sense, is, Cancellis circumscribito Cor meum, keep my Heart from vain effluencies and excrescencies, from impertinent exuberancies and extuberancies. But St. Hierom stoops for it, and takes it up with a more native and Hebrew Face: Vnicum 
S. Hieron. in Bibl.  fac Cor meum, Make my Heart one only: that is, call it aside from the multiplicity of Business, which pulls it many ways, and makes it numerous; and, ex his me Turbis evolve, unfold me from the Rout of the World. And Aquila; Let my Heart be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, one alone: A sense falling and settling upon a most abstracted and Heavenly 
Aq.  Condition.  
The Ground will fasten all. According to the Multitude of Operations, (be they of the same, or of a different Nature,) in which, the Soul doth busy herself; she performeth each particular Operation with less Obsequiousness and ability, and therefore, less perfectly. Because the Soul being finite, and limited; her active Virtue is also limited and finite. And so, fitting and applying her Activity to divers Operations, she gives the Cause, that each participateth a less portion thereof. It is not within the Sphere of humane Power, that one should at the same very Time, observingly contemplate the Feature of a Man's Face beheld with his Eyes; and judiciously bend his Thoughts to the curious and bewitching Strains of Music, intruding upon his Ears: Nor in the same instant, attentively discern the Differences, and several Garbs of Colour and Figure.  
Ye have read in the English Bible, that the Slender-souled Persons, distracted with worldy Blandishments, and attentiores ad rem quàm par erat, over-attentive to Gain, were illaqueati, irretiti, inescati, ensnared, caught in a Net, bait-held; and and went not themselves to the Wedding in the Parable, but sent Excuses, even such as the Master of the Feast would not accept or legitimate: nec inveniebant quasi rimulam, per quam elaberentur: neither was there any way for their escape from the sore, net, hook. And to the end, it may be clear as the Sunbeams, That it is in the Union and Perfection of Life, which God requires of us; our Saviour declares it in. his Exhortation, Matth. 5. 48. Be ye therefore perfect, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect. The Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is an Extract from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, signifying the End, which, as such, is always perfect. And if the End be ultimate, or the last End; it is but One, and obliges to Union and Combination in the Means and Powers. And St. Peter now follows his Master with a near foot, 1 Pet. 1. 15. But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of Conversation: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Holy, and without the Commixtion of Earth, in all manner of Conversation. I had almost translated it. Without the Conjunction of a Body. Let it go. For, Laurentius Justinianus wills his Scholars to enter into God's House, solo spiritu, with their Spirits 
Laurent. Justin. de Discipl. Monast. cap. 17.  alone, and to leave their Bodies at the Door. God, whose Holiness and Perfection is infinite, being set in the light before us, for our Prototype or great and chief Exemplar and Example; We are certainly called to a certain infinite Perfection, and Holiness; that is, to a Perfection, and Holiness, which endure no Bounds, no Limits. In which Sense, St. 
S. Aug. Serm. 15. de verbis Apostoli.  Austin speaks Sense; Si dixeris, Sufficit, periisti; If thou shalt say, It is sufficient, thou art lost. And in another place, demanding of himself, who is the Man that doth not profit in Godliness; he answers to himself, Qui dixerit, Sufficit mihi, quod 
Idem Tract. de Cantico novo, cap. 7. S. Greg. Nyss. lib. de professione Christianan.  sum; He that shall say, It sufficeth me to be, what I am. From hence it was emergent, That St. Gregory Nyssen, the Brother of St. Basil, (quem Honoris causâ nomino,) declared Christianity to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Imitation of God. Which afterwards, the Greek Church tied up, as with a third of Gold, into one Word, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The ground is, Man was made by God, after the Image, and Likeness of God, Gen. 1. 26. And therefore, our work in our lapsed Condition, is, to perfect and embellish this Image in us, by conforming ourselves, through God's Grace, every day more and more, in likeness, to him: this likeness consisting truly, in true Holiness, as it is called, Eph. 4. 24. or, as it is in the Original hue, and returned by the Vulgar Latin, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Sanctitate Veritatis, the Holiness 
Text. Gr. Edit. Val.  of Truth. And a good Man is called, by a new Word, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, holy, from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, colo, veneror, I worship, I honour; Because true Holiness only, makes one, after all the Transactions of Life, truly worshipful and venerable.  
Circumspicite dùm, nè quis nostro Auceps Sermoni sit; Enimverò sunt qui auribus Aucupium faciunt; simplices atque incautos ex insidiis adoriuntur. Look about you, pray, and tell me, if any be here, that come hither a Birding with their Ears; and lie here ambushing, to catch and ravish a Word; or, to antedate the Sense. Dionysius Areopagita, amongst other Excellencies in Christ, holds up before us for our Imitation, his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; 
S. Dyonis. Areop. Eccl. Hier. cap. 3.  not his Impeccability, but his Impeccancy. To the which we must draw by spiritual Access, as near as human Weakness will be drawn after us: being egregiously careful to preserve in their perfect Being and Appearance, all the Titles and Punctilios of God's Honour. Perhaps, your Thoughts now, may turn upon me with a fierce Assault: How comes it that your Life is not thus exact? Strange Things fly abroad concerning you. Beloved, Know, as God knows, that these Strange Things, are the Strange Apparitions, Delusions, Inventions of the Devil, and of devilish Enemies. More afterwards.  
St. Gregory Nazianzen gives holy 
S. Greg. Naz. orat. 4. in Paschate.  Council: Simus ut Christus, quoniam Christus quoque sicut nos. Essiciamur Dii propter ipsum, quoniam ipse quoque propter nos Homo factus est; Let us be as Christ is, because he was as we are. Let us be made Gods for him, because he was made Man for us. And, Nullus est Deificationis Terminus; There is no stop, or enclosure of Deification. Boetius throws an Ey this way: Vltra homines provehere, 
Boet. lib. 4. de Consol. pros. 3.  Sola Probitas potest; True Holiness, and true Honesty will promote a Man beyond a Man. St. Dorotheus names the holy men of old, thus, S S. Antonium, Pachomium, 
S. Doroth. Serm. 1.  Macarium, caeterosque Deiferos Patres: holy Antonius, Pachomius, Macarius, and the rest of the Fathers that carried God in them. Anastasius Synaita, 
S. Anastas. Synait. lib. 7. Hexam.  that strictlived Patriarch of Antioch, entitles such persons, quodammodò veluti Christos in Divinitate simul & Humanitate: after a sort, christs; as partaking both of the Divine and Humane Nature. Acknowledge St. Peter's Phrase, 2 Pet. 1. 4. Partakers of the Divine Nature. Expediam Verbo. In a word. It is the Holy Ghost Himself, that dwells in the righteous Heart, by an abode much remote from his common abiding with us, per Essentiam, Praesentiam, Potentiam, by his Essence, Presence, Power. For besides that holy Scripture manifoldly stands up for it, It is incongruent, That the Devil should be more near to his, and more intimate, by Possession; than the most good God, to his, by Communication; who hath more manifested himself to us, in his Works of Mercy, than of his Justice. And Grace, the Instrument of the Holy Ghost, is more honourably born, than other Things of our Acquaintance.  
It is a deep bottomed Question in Divinity, Vtrùm Gratia producatur per Creationem? Whether Grace be Created, or not Created? The Affirmative seems clear, Ephes. 2. 10. For we are his Workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good Works. We are God's Workmanship, more excellently in respect of the new and inward Man. And Good works, (good in order to our Supernatural End,) cannot be wrought without Grace; which Source or Fountain, is only correspondent, and answerable to the high-flowing of the Stream. The Apostle clears and illuminates it farther, 2 Cor. 5. 17. and Gal. 6. 15. In both which places, he calls a regenerate Soul, novam Creaturam, a new Creature. But, this Opinion would plain and even the way to a dangerous Conclusion; Creatura potest attingere physic è Creationem. School-Divines well know, and have well sounded the danger of it. These Positions therefore, asserted by the Apostle, ye shall understand of Creation in genere moris, in regard of our first Conversion and Justification. For, the first Grace being given without any precedent Works of Grace, is made, as it were, of Nothing in genere moris; it being impossible, and unimaginable, that Man should dispose himself for the reception of the first Grace; because he that produceth the last Disposition, is truly said also to produce the Form called by it, and coming after it: and therefore, he that disposeth himself, by his mere self, to Grace, produceth Grace in his own Heart; of the which, no pure Creature can be the cause. This Opinion therefore, I lay down, and lay me down to rest in another. The revelation of which, if great Clerks will needs extort and wrest from me, they shall receive it secundùm modum recipientium, in their own Dialect. Gratia non creature, sed educitur supernaturaliter ex potentia Subjecti in quo Spiritus sanctus inhabitat: Sicut & aliae Formae supernaturales, Visio Dei, Lumen gloriae, & hujusmodi. I discover here, that there is yet, Terra incognita, a Land unknown to you, in Learning, Religion, Holiness.  
Dear Christians, attend to me. Should I, a reasonable Creature, hear men that Profess and Preach God, and his only Son Christ jesus, together with the holy Spirit, the Sanctifier of Souls, three Persons, and one immortal, invisible, and only wise God, telling me from a Pulpit in the Air, (to the which I must look up, as if the Pulpit Men came even now from Heaven,) of Humility, Continency, Temperance, Contentedness, Guiding of my Tongue, Charity, Peace, and other things of that Feather; and bringing about at every half-turn, our glorious Gad, (for, so they call him,) jesus Christ, the Saints, the humble Soul, let a going with a notable Aspiration; he was a precious, Man; the Lard jesus be with all your Spirits: And should I find, after a most accurate search, eosdem numericè, the very same Men, down from the high-place, to be in their Actions, most high and haughty-minded, and proud as Lucifer; most lustful, and effeminate; most great, and most greedy-Lovers, and Worshippers of their Bellies; most uncontented, and unsatisfyed in their desiring part; most vile Slanderers, and throwers of Dunghill-Dirt and Ink upon all that will not run in the Ring with them; having no relenting Bowels, Mercy, Charity; as if they would strongly prove absolute Reprobation by the absoluteness of their most Reprobate, practices; should I find, that they are Striges ferale stridentes, like Shrych-Owles, noising Death and Mortality; most fiery and most contentious persons, as if another Aetna, or Vesuvius were always embroiling their inwards, and throwing out Flames and fiery stones from their Stomaches; or, quasi rem haberent quotidiè cum Vrticeto, as if they had been taken out of the Nettle-Bed, and were nettled, and nettle-natured by their daily conversing with Nettles; How could these Polygeneous Men, thus giving the  to themselves, cement or solder Hiatum hunc, this prodigious Chasm or gaping betwixt the Word and Work; being as wide as Hell-Mouth, towards the World? And might not I, with great reason, alarm it to the Clouds, that all their spangled Appearance, is nought but Infula Sanctitatis, Probitatis Tiara, an outward Priestly Head-Ornament of Holiness; a Roman, or Persian Dress? and that themselves are notoriously more hurtful, than those old heathenish fumosae Imagines, quae stabant in Larario, smoky Images, or Images black with smoke, that stood still, as they were set in the House-Chappel, and did not pervert the People, either with False Doctrine, or with Evil Example; but only, stood quietly to be worshipped, as the Fools their worshippers had set them? Might not I say, That these Wooden Preachers are as like the savorykeeping Salt of the Earth, as those useless fall away of the Wood exercised with the Saw? Might I not justly fire at them with a Sarcasme; O sad and bad Conclusion of their Ah Lord, Dear Father, Holy God, Father—; of all their speaking good in the Scotch Tone, and their praying God to do good to this People? O Images of Wax, such as Witches abuse to mischievous Ends; call ye this, your improving your Interest in Jesus Christ? Lord, help us. Might I not righteously compare these Men of Clouts, with the Religious Mountebank in Bromiardus: who kneeling to the Priest in Confession, confessed 
Joan. Bromiard. in Summa praedicat. & in Verbo Consessio.  his sins with an humble Mouth, sighed, groaned, looked pitifully, and with a face divided betwixt Sorrow for his Sins past, and Care lest he should offend hereafter; and struck his Breast hard like the poor Publican, with one Hand, his Godly hand, crying mornfully, and grievously, and with tears, Deus, esto propitius mihi peccatori, Lord, be merciful to me a Sinner: And in that moment of Time, in which he named God, the great Lord and Master of Heaven and Earth; in the which he looked Heaven-ward, and implored the Divine Mercy with Tears running down his Cheeks, as if they strived which Cheek should carry them fastest into the Bosom; in the which, he pronounced with a voice framed to the Matter, me a Sinner, and continued knocking at the Door of his Heart with one Hand, his righteous Hand, as if he would have beaten down the Door, House, & all; with his other Hand, his Unrighteous hand, picked the Priest's Pocket, and got away his Purse? Sincere Devotion, and true Holiness, I truly and sincerely honour, but a Mountebank Holiness, a tumbling Devotion, and showing tricks in a round Hoop, are most contemptible, most abominable. Beloved, If in the Church of Christ, all Virtues were not preached by Example, as by a more short and efficacious Manner of Preaching, than by Word or Precept; Men wanting Ey-Dotrine, (the Ey being the Sense that discerns most Differences,) would soon be blind to Godliness, and cry out, The Preachers are Infidels, they believe not what they Preach; if they did they would practise it. Sed alio me vecant Negotia, A new Matter calls me.  
As to the perfect Law of God, there must appliably rebound, and resound, on the Preacher's part, a perfect Life: so likewise, this perfect Law, must bee perfectly preached; and the Sacraments, and Ordinances of God, as they are perfect, must also be perfectly dispensed by him. Hence St. Paul 1 Cor. 4. 2. exacts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of every Steward of God's Word, and Mysteries, that he be found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, faithful; found, when assaulted by Trial. It is imposed upon the jews, as Leo Modena, a late Rabbin of theirs, testifieth, in a certain Italian History, overwritten; 
Leo Moden Histor. Di gli Riti, etc. Part 1.  Di gli Riti Hebraici di questi Tempi, Of the Rites of the Hebrews of these our Times; That when they build a House, they must leave some part unfinished; and thereby recount to the Dweller, the Destruction of jerusalem, and of the Temple. But he that builds for God, must exactly build. Domus Dei, saith Saint Austin, credendo fundatur, sperando erigitur, diligendo perficitur; The 
S. Aug. Serm. 15. de verbis Apostoli. R. Eleaz. in Zohar.  Temple of God in the Soul, is founded by Faith, walled up with Hope, and the Covering is Charity. And Rabbi Eleazar, in the Zohar, fables to the World, under the patronage of Tradition, that when God made this grand Machine, he did of purpose leave a hole in the North. Except the Rabbin Prophesied, that the Preachers of the Gospel in the North, should, for the most part, be hollow, and instead of being holy, should be pleni rimarum, full of chinks and holes, he was a Blasphemer.  
How prompt are we, and how easy is it, to palliate a true Doctrine; or, to skin a false one over with Hypocrisy? To leave a Doctrine like those half-formed Creatures, which the fat slime of Nile produceth, aided by the Sun? to vomit up whole Floods of Contradiction, as the Whale's Head throws up water? to stuff up a Sermon with holy words, as with soft feathers? or dress it up like a lure which calls the Haulke, but hath no real Body of a Bind? (A word in season: Is not the Fool's Coat, Vestis illusa flosculis, a Garment bearing and wearing more of Colour than of Comeliness? such a gaudy Thing is Oratio flosculis intertexta, intorta Calamistris, a flowery, or a purled and curled and frizzled Sermon; a Sermon made up into a Fardel of holy words of several purls and curls and colours.) To show Truth as in a Glimpse, or moving like a Worm by Undulation; and hardly able, but with fetches and pulls, to draw the Tail after the Head? To raise an old 
De His joseph. Quercitan & elii mulci.  Truth, like the Shape of a fair Plant, or Flower in a Glass, and suddenly to draw the Flame or Candle away, and let it fall to dull Ashes again? yea, to stand long in a place, above the People, as God's Lawyer, with a Tongue nimbly running over Hedge and Ditch; and see dissemblingly, plain Truth, divine Truth, sink with plummets at her heels? To speak irreverently, and wickedly of holy and reverend Things: when we might humbly acknowledge our Error, our Delinquency; by throwing presently, Rose-Water into our Mouths? To use those holy Doctors that anciently flourished, and were Stellae primae Magnitudinis, Stars of the first Magnitude; now in their Absence, as the miserable offenders, that are drawn higher, the more to be strapadoed? Beloved, As tender Infants are more subject to fascination, than grown persons; so common people are most easily deluded. And it was not well done of that envious Wretch in Quintilian; who poisoned the Flowers in his Garden; that his Neighbours Bees 
Quinti l. Declam 13.  might not safely suck any more honey from them.  
A Man goes on sometimes in Morality as it were, with Oars; and sometimes his Sails are up, and the Wind helps him on; And now he goes remis velisque, with Sails and Oars. For, when the Mind by the help of our Virtuous Habits and actual Grace, doth operate or work, according to the Rules and Dictates of right Reason, honest Things; we go rowing and failing. But when a certain extrinsecall Force from God, doth advance and elevate the Soul beyond all these Rules, after a more vehement and high Manner, then is the Man transported by some Gift of the holy Ghost; as Appolonia was, when brought to the Fire, (after she had stood a while attending to the holy Ghost,) she cast herself into it. Even so it is also, both in our Praying and Preaching. Let me now therefore, utter a few Words, in the Rapture of my Soul.  
O thou with thy flatuous Knowledge, thy Tympany of Terms; os unpurum, sparsumque, thou with thy wide, and impure mouth thou; how, so meanly blithe and buxom as thou art; Hast thou not learned yet, what it is to send away to Hell, Souls by whole Shoals? Souls, for the which Christ died? Dost thou not know, what a Soul is? Or canst thou make a Soul? a Soul, wherein there is fairly Charactered the Divinity, the Spirituality of God; the Unity of the divine Essence, the Trinity of the divine Persons; the Generation of the Son, the Procession of the holy Ghost? Hither Divines commonly come. But I cannot rest here. A Soul, wherein there is an Evident Character of the Incarnation of the second Person, the Divine Word; when our Will, the second Faculty of our Souls, is conceived in our Words, and made, as it were, incarnate in our Deeds; a Man's invisible Will, being made visible in his Actions; far otherwise than his Understanding or Memory? the Prophet Psal. 22. 20. calls his Soul his Darling, his Darling. The Vulgar Latin styles it, as 
Interpret Vulgar.  the Prophet speaks it in the Hebrew, Vnicam meam, my only one. The Chaldee., Spiritum Corporis mei, the Spirit of my 
Paraph. Chald. Sept. Aq. Sym.  Body. The Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, my only-begotten. Aquila, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, my long-Liver. Symmachus, in the abstract, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, my loneliness, that will soon be totally Abstracted from the World. St. Hierome, 
S. Hier.  solitariam meam, my Solitary Soul. The Soul, which thou so murderously destroyest, is the poor Man's Darling, his onely-one, the Spirit of his Body, his onely-begotten, his lone-Liver, his loneliness, his solitahy Soul. Murder, Murder, a a more horrible Murder was never committed. Dost thou not fear, that such a departed Soul will quasi Vmbra te persequi, Ghost-haunt thee? Where is now thy supernatural Principle, that should move within thee? How wilt thou crutch it up, that thou art a Christian? If thou art, awake the Christian in thee. I could weep the rest. O my God, deliver my Soul from the Sword, my Darling from the power of the Dog 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (the 
Sept.  Septuagint read it so) from the two-hand Sword, or, the Sword that is edged on both sides. The Sword of thy Tongue, O thou fals-tongued Preacher, will cut on either side; as the side is, to which, thy Belly most leans and lissens; cùm intestina tibi crepent, when thy guts murmur for Victuals. Was my Soul, my Darling, my onely-one, the Spirit of my Body, my only-begotten, my lone-Liver, my loneliness my solitary Soul, ordained for an other Man's Belly; Which Man, when his Belly has done with my Soul, will throw it away to the Dog, the Devil? Agnosco Discipulum Haereticorum antiquorum, Thou art a Scholar of the ancient Heretics; For, in respect of their Soul-marketing, the old Romans, saith Lampridius, 
Lamprid. in Alexandro Severo.  contumeliously callded Christum, Christ; Chrestum, from the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, profitable. Here Ends the Rapture.  
Matth. 2. 1. where the Greek hath 
Evang. Graec. Evan. Lat. Evan. Syr. Arab. Egypt.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latin, Magi, the Engiish, Wise Men; and where the Syriack, Arabic, Egyptiack or Coptick, with other Oriental Translations, (the Languages of which, either by a right Line, or sideways, come of the Hebrew,) say the same Thing, yea, the Persian-Gospel-Word is Magusan, wise men; 
Evangelinm Persicum. Evan. Aethiopicum.  (only the  is pleased with a Name caught from their outward Act of Service; which is, Adoratores; Worshippers;) Munster in his Hebrew Gospel, 
Eva. Heb. Munsteri  which he obtrudeth to us as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Saint Matthew, dresses them in the Word mecassephim, praestigiatores, jugglers or Enchanters. Art not thou in the Cause, O thou Blazing-Star of the pulpit; thou Fabula Conviviorum & Fori, almost all the talk of people at Feasts and in Market-places, for thy juggle; that pious, wise, and learned Men, who have most faithfully followed the Star of the East, are sensured to be (as thou art) jugglers?  
The jewish Thalmudists story to us, 
Thalmud. Ord. 4. Tract. 2. & aelibi multoties  that the Soul of one Man passeth into the Body of an other: and that, for Example, the Soul of Abel flew from him into Seth; (I suppose, it parched some where by the way,) and from out of Seth, by another and an other flight, into Moses. The Pythagorean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or, Transmigation of Souls, joined with the Platonical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or, frequent Renascency, had evened this way for the jew. And Pride made julian, though not a jew, yet a Philosophical Pythagorean; 
Niceph. Eccl. Hist. lib. 10. c. 35  who conceived that his little Body was filled with great Alexander's Soul. And now, to make a perfect Diapason, and agreement of Voices, as if all were but one voice; thou hast conveyed with a quick and cleanly Conveyance, the Spirit of a Primitive Apostle into thy own body; and thou art in thy own Thoughts and Words, greater than a Magnifico of the East, or a Western Admirante.  
Rectè admones; It is well thou tellest me so. For, hadst thou not, I should have confidently retorted, That there must be truly, The Spirit of Truth in some true Spirit, to decide the great Differences betwixt thee and others, cùm res caleat, utrobique velis furori permissis; the Matter growing hot, and the persons fire-hot and angry. And that Differences, the Decision of which pertains to all, must be publicly decided; And Differences concerning divine Truths, dignely and truly decided. Because Predestination being that part of Divine Providence, which excellently deals and disposes in the last End of God's People: Providence must needs be suitable with itself; and furnish out other Parts, which concern, prepare and order the Means. And those Parts must, according to God's usual Order of Working, and to the measure of Reason, be more curious in their provision for Generals, than for Particulars: those being more precious. I beseech you then, hid not under a Bushel, a matter of such public advantage and concernment, but run and proclaim it with a Song of Triumph to all Christian People who on Earth do dwell; That, because the variety of Readins in holy Scripture, is wonderful, as it abundantly appears in the jewish Masoret; and the Margin is ofttimes more divine than the Text: They must repair from all quarters of the World, to you or others like you, for a sound and final Resolution of all their Doubts in Religion. And thus our English men having given a Bill of Divorcement to one old Pope beyond the Seas, and beyond the Alps, shall now install and enthrone a goodly number of Popelings, and young little Muftis at home.  
In good sooth, upon second thoughts, I should have turned to you once more, and told you; It is hard for a barefaced linsy-woolsy Thing, ad huc à Matre rubenti, & in omnia praecipiti, childish and heady; to move the Tongue in divine Matters, without Blasphemy, and without enterfeering in every step. There was a great Contest betwixt the Church of God, and heretical Nestorius, which first thickened from a Question, Whether or no the Virgin Mary should be called Deipara, she Mother of God? The Controversy wheeled in this, That the Church called her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Mother of God; Nestorius called her, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Daughter of 
Vide Acta Concil. Ephesin. Generalis  God, (he meant, the adopted Daughter) or, when the Humour came fluent upon him, and he would be liberal, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Christiparam, the Mother of Christ; whom he deemed to have been a pure Man. It was but a small Accent, or matter of Pronunciation, which varied the Words, and Meaning. Betwixt the Nicen Term, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, consubstantial, or, of the same substance, and the Term 
Vide St. Hilar. l●h. de Synodis, prope finem.  of the Arians, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of the like Essence or substonce; there is outwardly but the difference of one Letter. And yet, their Doctrines are, the one of Heaven, the other of Hell, and accordingly manumise, or enthrall those who receive them.  
Howsoever, Be sure to keep in mind, That the Devil was known of all the Fathers, by the name of God's Ape. Dionysius 
S. Dionys. Arcop. lib. de divin.  Areopagita styles God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Unity subsisting after a threefold manner, or, an Essence having three Hypostases or Subsistences. And such an Unity, such an Essence, God is, yea, the sacred Trinity is called by St. Gregory Nazianzen, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, one 
S. Greg. Naz. in Odis.  Torch or Light, shining with a triple Flame. That this might be, in some sort, imitated by the Devil, he gave his chief Oracles, ex Tripod, from out of a certain rich Stool, or, Vessel, which being one, had three Feet, on which it stood. There are admirable Matters delivered by Authors, of large Souls, and deep Breasts; wherein Antichrist the Devil's Darling, and of all his Children the most like to him, and in whom, as fraught with all Devilishness, he shall most vaunt himself; will strive to imitate Christ. But I pass them over; leaving this only, for a Measure of the rest. As the Name, Christ, hath a double sense in Scripture, and is taken sometimes properly, for a certain excellent and singular Christ, who is indeed, jesus Nazarenus Rex judaeorum, and the Saviour. Head, and Prince of the Christian Church: sometimes commonly, for all those, betwixt Christ and whom there interveneth a likeness, quantum ad unctionem; in which consideration, Prophets, Kings, and Priests are all termed Christ's; As, Psal. 105. 15. Touch not mine Anointed; or, as the Vulgar Latin, Nolite tangere 
Edit. Vulgat.  Christos meos; Touch ye not my Christ's. For, the word, Christ, signifieth anointed. So also, the Name, Antichrist, passeth sometimes in Scripture, under a proper sense, for a certain egregious and professed Enemy of Christ's; upon whom the Scripture glances, Io. 5. 43. I am come in my Father's Name, and ye receive me not; if another shall come in his own name; him ye will receive; for your Messiah, say many of the ancient Commentatours; and whom the Scripture pourtraits out to us, in a large and plain shape, 2 Thess. 2. in the middle of the Chapter. And sometimes the name, Antichrist, is wried and warped into a common and less proper acception, and signifies all, that any way set themselves against, resist & impugn Christ, though not formaliter as Christ; of the which 1 Jo. 2. 18. Little Children, it is the last time; and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists, whoreby we know that it is the last time. As if he had said, ye have heard, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Antichrist shall come; and now, though he, the chief Antichrist, the head Villain of all, be not yet come; there be many come already, and in view, who are Seducers and Enemies to Christ and his Truth, and may well he called Antichrists. Behold a great Agreement in things most contrary. But the agreement in the highest flight of it, is; God brought the work of Grace to a Head in his Son Christ, the Head of his Church; And Aquinas saith truly of 
D. Tho. p. 3 Quaest. 8. art. 8. ad. 3  Antichrist, in eo Diabolus quasi malitiam suam ducet ad Caput, per modum, quo dicitur aliquis ad Caput, suum propositum ducere, cùm illud perfecerit; The Devil shall bring his malice to a Head in Antichrist, that Aggregate of Malice and Mischief, after the Manner as one is said to bring his purpose to a Head, when he hath effected it. The holy Ghost dwelleth in us, and some Special Servants are said; in a special mauner, to be filled with him. And familiar Spirits, mentioned 2 Kings 21. 6. have their name from the Hebrew Word Ob, signifying a Bottle. For, the person possessed with an Evil Spirit, oft swells in the Belly as a Bottle, and the Spirit speaketh from his Belly with a low-fetced and hollow Voice, in imitation of God's Inspirations, and secret talk with us within us. Hence the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, one having a Spirit speaking from his Belly, the seat of Lust and Gluttony. As God had his Ark & Oracles; so there were even amongst the Jews also, certain Images, of which, the divine Scripture gives an account, and which it calls Theraphim, either from the Root rapha, to let, or pull down, because they bowed themselves, and fell down before them; for the which meaning, Marinus and Forsterus stand up; or, from 
Marinus & Forsterus in Lexicis.  the Chaldean toraph, to putrify: Whence the Chaldeans call an Idol-Temple Beth Hatturpha, a House of Uncleanness. They were externally, the Statues or Images of Men. They whose Images or Gods they were, did consult with them, as Pagans did with their Oracles, de praesentibus ignotis, aut de futuris contingentibus, concerning things for the present, unknown, or contingent, and hereafter to come. To this known End of Knowing, they were made, saith Aben Ezra, by Astrologers, under certain Constellations, containing 
Aben Ezra in Gen. 31.  and transmitting heavenly Influences, whereby they were enabled to speak. A word to the Learned. This of the Rabbin is a strange Thesis. First, Because Creatures, not entitled to Speech by the Influence of God's fundamental Ordinance, can never be ennobled with speaking, by the aid of secundary Influences depending upon it. (Art certainly, wadeth far in this Business; the business and endeavour of Art, being to imitate Nature.) Secondly, Because Constellations are not infallible Helps, or Directions; For like Constellations, do not always, or ordinarily, produce like Dispositions, or Works. The Devil taught them to speak, not the Constellation. Zach. 10. 2. The Idols have spoken vanity. In the Original, for The Idols, it is The Teraphims. Gen. 31. 30. Laban speaks thus to Jacob, Wherefore hast thou stolen my Gods? In the Hebrew, my Teraphims. And in the midst of other reasons, why Rachel stole away her Fathers Teraphims, or Images, this holds up the head, (and the Fathers give it for a chief-one,) That Laban might not by his consulting with them, learn which way Jacob had fled. And many speak from Pulpits, but not with a right Spirit. And their Lifes dead even the Truth and Good they speak, leaving them like the Image in Davidi Bed, 1 Sam. 19 16. Which the Septuagint render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Statues representing a dead man, but vain ones, and having 
Sept.  no body of a Man; Aquila turns 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Figures or Images: The 
Aq. Chald. Paraph.  Chaldee, Psalmenaia, Representations or Liknesses. O this mock-Godliness; being only the face, and mouth, and wearing apparel of Godliness; the pale Ghost of Godliness! There was scarce any ancient ceremony of the jews, any chief passage or description of the old Testament, which the Devil had not filched & privately conveyed into his Temples; wherein his idolatrous worshippers kept their common Rendezvouz. The Primitive Doctors abound in this Matter. Christ our Lord prescribed the use of Words, in the use of his Sacraments; and the Devil in Magic, prescribes words to Witches and Conjurers, 
Vide Delrio in Disquisitionib. Magicis.  bound to him by a Compact; which words pronounced by the Magician and Witch, though they do not move the Devil ad operandum, to effect their Commands or desires, but he is always stirred propter alia motiva, by other Motives; yet he shapes his behaviour, as if they did move him; and is ready at their pronouncing the Words after his prescription, to compass and bring about their Designs. Non abibo longius, I will not go in pursuit of thee longer in this Road.  
Set aside your Familiar, and hear me discourse a Point Familiarly. Nothing is more instrumentally dangerous than a glimmering and scanty knowledge, coupled with a Pragmatical and overactive Brain. I have read in Forestus; of a young 
Forest. Observat. lib. 10. Observ. 13.  Divine in Louvain, who having wrought his active Head into Madness, cried always in the fits and Paroxysmes of his distemper, that he had a Bible in his Head. But I still forget, you have the Spirit, Nugae, Fabulae, you are a Trifler, a Fabler. Why now rationem turpitudini quasi velum obtendis, you veil your filthiness with reason; (which is, cum ratione insanire,) yea with the glorious name of the Fountain of Grace, the most holy Spirit. Fie, fie, Hast thou not yet found, that these chattering Pies are full of prattle? And that the Wood than cracks and sings in the fire (O this vain cracking!) when it is not yet throughly kindled? The higher the Star is, the less it appeareth to us. The silent Waters, are more deep. Chaff and straw ride in State, upon the back and surface of the River to be seen; when heavy things do sink and hid themselves. The Seminal Virtues of the Earth, are not seen but in their productions; nor the wondrous properties of Herbs, and precious Stones, but in their Effects. The Spirit of God is direct, and reveals not the secret of such reflex Thoughts. Psal. 45. 13. The King's Daughters is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought Gold. The Vulgar Latin gives out the former part, Omnis gloria ejus filiae Regis 
Interp. Vulgat.  ab intus, All the glory of the King's Daughter, is from within. And Franciscus 
Franc. Vatabl.  Vatablus, the French Kings professor of the Hebrew Tongue in Paris, carves out the latter part with a more deep impression from the Original, Ex Vestibus auro ocellatis indumentum ejus, her inward clothing is of Garments wrought or Spangled with little Eyes of Gold; of the which, we may say, Scintillant Oculi, these Eyes cast forth sparks, not of anger, but of brightness. These bright sparkling Eyes are inward, ever open, and viewing always our secret selves, on the part of our inward infirmities. Of these the King's Daughter speaks, if she tells Secrets. The Septuagint begin thus. Omnis Gloria ejus filiae Regis Hesebon. And 
Sept.  the Stranger-Word Hesebon, Didymus 
Didym. in Caetena.  confines to signify 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, cogitation; and returns the sense to flow thus, All the Glory of the Soul, is from the King of good Thoughts, and heavenly Meditations, and of such as are, both Rich like Gold, and like Gold, Modest in their shining, while the main Design of the Heart, is privately driven on betwixt God and the Soul in the Soul, in Anima cogitabunda, in the pensive Soul. Certain Grecians, discovered to posterity by St. Hierome 
S. Hieron. ep. 140.  in place of ab intus, from within, read, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from the inward Thoughts. And they are favoured by an old Copy in Vaticano; yea, Missa Sarum, receiving 
Missa Sarum.  the Text out of that Copy, is appliable; And the Word is of the same force, if Arabically taken. The Soul and the Heart of the Text, is; The best Beauty and Glory of a Righteous Man, is the gracious, inward, and modest carriage of his Heart, from one good act and virtue to an other: as in the Soul of Christ, there was no breaking off or interruption of Good. I now fetch a reason ex Rei Visceribus, from the very Bowels of the Matter. If thy Gifts are, only, Gratiae gratis datae, Graces for the Edification of others; and not Gratiae gratum facientes, Graces for the Sanctification of thyself, thou as yet, art unclean, and hast ugly Sin fermenting in thee, and taking up the room of a glorious inside; and hadst thou a glorious inside, I should have seen it, by not seeing it; and by thy prudent concealment of the best Things.  
I hope, St. Austin may be heard as a wise Man, Meliùs it claudus in via, quàm 
S. Aug. Serm. 15. de verbis Apostoli.  Cursor praeter viam, A lame man goes bétter in the true way, than a Runner or Post in the way out of the way. The lame Walker or Liver is in a sounder condition, than these aereal Spirits without footing on the Ground, or these white quick silvered. Souls; these wandering Preachers of the Post. Indeed, There were anciently in the Church of God, certain Bishops different from the Chorepiscopi, or village Bishops (whose name was of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉:) called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Zonar. in expositione Concil. Laodicen. in Can. 57  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith Zonaras, because they wandered from place to place, ut fideles in officio continerent, that they might keep the faithful in the performance of their Christian duties: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, having no proper Chair. But these were not of the Lapwing kind, bald bodied, long-leged, Weakheaded, showing their white backs in every corner, and hasting up and down, (as Mensarum Asseclae, Haunters of other men's Tables, and as good Trencher-Men,) without a Call from the Mother.  
Blain Truth is the plain way. This our Scotch Imp in his Pulpit-Fort is exectus in spem Lucri, drives furiously in the quest of gain, and popular Applause, at which, he stands erected. Hujus est, fraudis inscios auro tondere, It is this Man's trade, to poll ignorant People of their Gold and Silver: howsoever sometimes in your first acquaintance with him, delicias faciat, he may turn from your coming Hand, and seem squeamish. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Tail, which puts men in mind of the Kirk, is allied nearly to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Vain Lucre. There are also, near Ties of Kindred, betwixt the Hebrew words Able, signifying Vanities, and Chable signifying Ropes; whereof Chebel is the singular number. The Root is Chabal, signifying ligare, to tie or bind as with a Rope. Wherefore the greatest of Ropes, or, the Sea Rope, is called in our Language, (which attracts and pulls from all other Languages, and oft from the Hebrew) a Cable. By the which we are drawn as with a silken Rope, to learn, That Vanities and Vain Things, as Lucre, Applause, etc. are great drawers; and, except we draw, pull and strive greatly against them, will quickly pull us to them, and being pulled to them, we shall be catched away with them, as by the storm called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. For, we know not our strength in such and such Circumstances, but when the Circumstances do Circumstare, actually, quasi datâ Coronâ, stand about us. These our Scotch Pharisees have a way beyond the jewishones in St. Luke Chap. 16. vers. 14. And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things, & they derided him. Those were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Lovers of Silver, These are Lovers of Silver, Gold, Linen, Woollen, Brass, Pewter, and of whatsoever Men call precious. But the jewish Pharisees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or, derided him, by drawing up their Noses into wrinkles, signifying by such contraction of there Noses, that there was not suavis Odor Lucri, sweet smell of Gain, in his Doctrine: which Doctrine our Scotch Pharisees have sophisticated, and set to sale, sub Hasta vendentes. I remember the time when a Minister was Pictured bending, with two Steeples on his shoulders, and a fair one in the middle of his back, He had caught two more under his arms, and two in his hands, one he embraced, and one he held betwixt his Knees, and for one he gaped, standing in a fair bigness before him; it was a Cathedral, and brought with it a Bishopric. This was then a Fancy, a Picture; But see now, if it be not egregiously more than a Picture or a Fancy. O Men of the Kirk, Fraudis abundè est, Desist, ye have cozened the World enough. Of a Truth, Lucre and Applause, inferior Things, can generate no other than inferior and sublunary Divinity.  
And there is a mysterious Coveniency betwixt Scotus, a Scot, living under a dark and cold Climate, and whose heart is also Glacie quasi compede revinctum, hard-frozen like the Northern Waters in the dead of Winter: and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, darkness. He is a seeing Mon in his own sight, but in very deed, excaecatus Avaritiâ, blinded with Covetousness, and little drawing near to him, that says by his Prophet, Accedite ad me, & illuminamini, Draw ye near to me and be enlightened; Or, to him that is, ●0. 1. 9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the light which is the true light; to Jesus, who, as in the Prophets, is also in the China-Language, Sol Oriens, the rising Sun, dispersing the cold mists and shades of the Night. Artemidorus tells, that he knew a Man, who 
Artemid. lib. 1. Oneirocrit. c. 28.  dreamt he had three Eyes, and the sequel was, that waking, he found himself struck stark blind, his Eyes did not wake with him, and he saw nothing, but that he was blind. Peer Mon! he saw wonderfully in his Dream, and in the dark; but his third Ay that came in his Dream, enticed away his other two in act and earnest; and the loss of his Eyes was beyond a Dream. The Tartarians in their Wars, practise a strange work, which is the raising of Darkness and Mists, in the Camps. and Armies of their Enemies. And by these dark Do, many times Victores evadunt, they go Conquerors. We may 
M. Paul. Venet in Hist. & Haitonus in Histor. Sarmatica  say this over again of the Prince of Darkness, without belying the Devil, during the time wherein our Souls are immured in these Walls of Flesh.  
Christians, If ye think, these Kirk-Elves that show so cleanly, are not Beetle-blind with the love of Dung and Money, totus circumfluat Orbis, ut aequo litem dirimat judicio, let all the world stand about me, and judge.  
Matmon, or Mammon in the Hebrew 
Vide Forerium in Is. 32. 7. & 45. 3.  Language, signifies Riches and Treasures, as in the Chaldee, Mammon, or Mammona. And Matmon hath his Origin from taman, in tenebris abdidit, he hath hidden in darkness. And therefore Matmon signifies the Riches of Darkness and Obscurity. In which respect the crooked Serpent, job 26. 13. which in the Vulgar 
Edit. Vulgat.  Latin, is Coluber tortuosus, the Snake or Serpent that windeth and turneth many ways; and which, the Septuagint shape 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Apostate-Dragon, 
Sept.  Symmachus paints with dark Colours, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Serpent that 
Sym.  shuts up Treasures, and keeps them fast with Iron Bars, upon which Treasures he sits, and about which he folds himself. And the Septuagint give fine Gold, 28. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, conclusure, or 
Sept.  shutting up, yea, the Hebrew Word Kelai, Is. 32. 7. Th● Churl, genuinly signifies concludentem, one shutting up, from Kala, conclusit, he hath shut up. Speak World, have not these Cloak't-Harpies turned Stolen Goods into Hidden Treasures? and have they not run with St. Hierom in his derivation, according to whom, the Chaldean Mammona, cast 
S. Hier. c. 6. Mat.  back into his Ingredients, is min mona, signifying, from Violence? Have these covetous Preachers, these lovers of Darkness, perfectly Preached the perfect Law of God; these tempting, these alluring Times, I, or no? The World, and the loud Echoes in the Dark Vaults where their Treasures of Darkness lie hidden, and the Dragons there, cry, no.  
To take up this Apostrophe. Complicabo velae. I will quickly fouled up here, having first showed in a Parable, that our false prophets are Lucre-wise, and, Si quis odor lucri nares afflaverit, Gain-Hunters, and Flycatchers.  
The Church of England in the non age of this latter Age was with Child. And she brought forth her  Son. He grew and was apt to learn, and to make a good Scholar. To him as her Eldest and best she gave her Lands. This was the Bishop. Speedily after, and before the Sun had run with all his haste through the twelve signs of the Zodiac, she brought into the light another Boy, the Prebend. To him, as the second, and loving his elder Brother, she gave goodly Houses, annexed to Cathedral Churches; and therewith, fit Pensions. She was big again presently, with more haste than good speed; and brought into the World, answerably to her Carriage; a poor, weak, rash, dull, simple Boy; for whom she provided as simply, dully, rashly, weakly, poorly. That was the poor Curate, living under the severe Impropriator. To him (having already given away Lands and Houses) she freely gave in a manner, the Wallet behind the Door; and left him in a craving condition; a condition altogether improper. There laid she down her humour of Childbearing, for many years. At length the Humour had taken her again, and she conceived, and bore with great pain, and brought forth in a fright, and with much trouble, and imminent danger of Life. her last Boy; to whom she gave a most hard Greek Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: I will not call it Nomen absoletum, ac velut rubigine infectum, a Name grown out of use, and rusty: But, confidentèr dicam, I will say with courage, that it was never acknowledged before, in the pretended Sense. His Education was mean: For he was not bred up to much Learning. Yet Experience and Practise wrought him into a Pert Youth, but a most unhappy Knave, in the Sense of all English, new and old; and one that would act a part notably, and make mouths and faces at whole Assemblies of his best Friends. His Mother calls him to her, and says: My Dilling, my Dear Boy; Thou art my fourth and last Child: I gave my Lands to my Eldest; to my second, my Houses; my Wallet, to my third: and I have nothing for thee, save my Blessing, and my special Charge: Which is, I Charge thee upon my Blessing, to shift for thyself. And, to know, if this last Boy, this Child of Pain and Trouble, hath not shifted for himself; ask all his poor Brethren; ask the very people, qui eum adeò depexum dederunt, that have so trimmed him up, and plied him with Resocillations.  
This fourth Boy hath surely fallen upon the Gospel of the Nazarites, or Hebrew-Gospel; and there found Matth. 
Evang. Nazar.  6. 11. Mahar, Panem Crastini; Give us this day the bread of the morrow: or, St. Hierom's Note there: and pined 
St. Hier. ibi.  a new Construction upon it. David sings of Persons that were Sceleribus mancipati; the Mancipia, or Slaves of Wickedness, Psal. 53. 5. There were they in great fear, where no fear was; no cause of fear. The vulgar Latin, I llic 
Edit. vulgat.  trepidaverunt timore: There did they tremble with fear. In the plaining of which Verse, Hesychius calls such timorous 
Hesych. in Sept.  and ague-shaken Persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Persons fearing vain Noises, and vain Spectres. And the Hebrews 
Hebraei.  named such Fear, the Fear of a Lie, or, the Fear of an Idol. According to which fashion of Speaking, the Chaldee speaks for David here; Ibi timuerunt 
Chald. Paraphr.  timere mendacii, quo non decebat timore: There have they feared with the fear of a Lie, with which it became them not to fear. Sophocles applies 
Sopb. in Electra.  himself, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, All things make a great Noise in the ears of a timorous Man: and moving or not moving, make him to move Motu Trepidaetionis, with the Motion of Trembling. And Aristotle is an Offerer; averring, 
Arist. in Pol●icis, lib. 7. c. 1.  some to be so fearfully fearful, that they fear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Flies that fly buzzing about them. This Boy fears with an unreasonable Fear, Cold, Hunger, Starving; and that he shall be Fly blown before he is dead.  
If the Jew be more caring and covetous, that having lost the God of Heaven, follows eagerly the Goods of the Earth: judge ye that have, as I, seen both. And now we have entered the jew: I beseech you, inform yourselves concerning Statutum de judaismo: Which Statute was enacted under the Reign of Edward the first, King of England. Ye will there find in the Consequences, that the jews 
Cook's Reports.  of England were at last banished into Scotland. But ye cannot find there, when, or that they returned out of Scotland, or were transported to other Coasts. And the hatred of Perk, and Hog's flesh runs yet in the Blood.  
I leave these hungry Preachers, as I found them, tearing all Milvinis ungulis ant aquilinis, with their Kites-feets, their eagle's Claws: or, as I have hunted them, until I find them, as the crafty Fox, hung up in the Warren by the Teeth, with Self-industry; amongst the dead Vermin. Beloved; In the old Orders of Baptism, the Greek, Syriack, Ethiopick, Armenian, and Coptick or Egyptian; the Catechumenus did first publicly make his Abrenunciation of the Devil and all his Works; with his face turned towards the West. This done, he brought himself about towards the East, and then made as public Profession of his Faith, in the Words of the Nicen Creed: And for me, (I will speak it aloud, nec me Comprimam,) Be I fancied an Energumenus, Competens, Catechumenus, or Neophyt, or what Men of low Knowledge please to scribble me in their Fancies; I will utterly renounce the Devil and all his Works, while our most merciful God continues to me the commerce of Breath betwixt the Air and this my mortal Body; with my Face turned towards the North.  
There is a second Doctrinal Inference, Which I will not set up, but with all its Flags and Colours. Now I make my addresses to the People, the poor plain Hearers of Sermons, which do praeses far legem Dei, make a fair appearance of Gods Law. My dearly-Beloved; Ponder it once more: The Law of God is perfect, God the Father gave the Law. And your Duty is, concerning this Law, given to you by the Lord God of the Hebrews, the natural Father of Christ, and confirmed with a perfect enlargement, by Christ the Son of God: Osculamini Filium, Kiss ye the Son, Psal. 2. 12. The foundest and sweetest of Kisses, is Osculum Charitatis, the Kiss of Charity. Aquila commends it here to you, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Aquil. Sept.  love sincerely. The Septuagint are near in Sense, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The Vulgar Latin latins it rightly; 
Interp. vulgar  Apprehendite Disciplinam, Apprehend Instruction or Discipline. Wherein the Septuagint, saith St. Hierom, shown 
S. Hier. in Prologo Galeato.  their faithful Respects to Ptolemy, Platonizing in the Doctrine of one God: lest he should think that the Word of God spoke of more Gods than one. Symmachus lays it forth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Sym.  worship him purely. O the sweet symphonizing of Interpreters! Summa votorum attigi, I have reached the top of my Desires, in this one Text. For; Behold here, the three Degrees of God's worship; inward, outward, instrumental. Clemens Alexandrinus writeth of 
S. Clem. Alex. lib. 7. Strom.  himself, and of other Primitive Believers, Pedes attollimus in extrema Orationis Acclamatione; We lift up our Feet, in the end of divine Worship: to signify, that we now are going upwards, and ready to practise what we have received in Prayer, or by Preaching. And the Primitive-Church-Word, after the receiving of the Eucharist, or Communication of the Mysteries, was, Evolemus in Coelum; Come, Brethren, let us fly away into Heaven: We are now made one with God, and are no more earthly. These were Christianae Dignitatis insignia, the Signs and Manifestations of Christian Dignity. It is just therefore, that the Hebrews express the Word Tephilah, signifying Prayer, from the Chaldean taphal, interpreted, Copulare, to couple, join, make one. God's Work upon us, is not as the Work of the Workman, that hews and carves the Stone into the Form and Image of a Man; and his Work ended, turns it off a cold hard stone without life, without motion: but as when he breathed into Man the breath of life; and the issue was, Gen. 2. 7. Factus est homo in animam 
Edit. Vul. Parapbr. Chald.  viventem, Man became a living Soul; or, as the Chaldee, in aenimam loquentem, a speaking Soul; because it is one of Man's Excellencies, that he can utter his Soul by Speech. One stair higher; All that were not in the Ark, though some were advanced nearer Heaven than others, by climbing the tallest Trees and Mountains, were drowned: And though some of us, being Sermonum Helluones, may frequent more preaching; and grow perhaps more tall in Morality than our Brethren, if we should be found Extra Arcam Ecclesiae, out of the Ark of the Church; All would be lost, Labour and Cost; and Pejore Res loco non posset esse, our Affairs would move in a bad place.  
If then; the Persons delivering the Law, should be Frontis adeò inverecundae, tam funesti oris, ac fidei sublestae, of so shameless a Forehead, so polluted and barbarous a Mouth, of so weak and faithless a Faith, that the perfect Law, by their disservice in the fomenting of Errors, and embittering your Hearts, should imperfectly come to your Ears: ye would not receive the perfect Law of God. By the help of a Glass, invented by Galilaeus the Florentine, the Heavens are pulled more near to us, than to those of Aristotl's Time: But by the Preacher's Gloss, the Gloss of a pretended Galilean, flourishing, and growing upon the Ignorance of the People, our Heaven is every day removed farther from us. How shall a scattered Soul be swathed up, and succoured in this Case? For, Plato knowingly calls Man, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Plato in Timaeo.  an heavenly Plant; and therefore he wants; and opening himself towards Heaven, begs with silent Oratory, saith Philo (the Jewish Plato) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Philo in lib. de formatione Hominis.  heavenly nourishment.  
Your way must be the way of the old Saints of God in the Primitive Church. That is the Milky way, with some Disparity; and leads us to the triumphant Court. Via lact●ae, saith Fromoudus, nihil aliud est, quàm innumerabiles stellarum 
Fromond. Meteor. lib. 2. cap. 5. art. 2.  fixarum Greges, qui cenfuso et pallenti lumine Tractum illum inalbant; The Milky way is nothing else, but an innumerable number of fixed Star●, which with a pale and confuse Light enlighten and whiten that long Tract. The old Saints were fixed Stars; but their Light was not confuse, or pale. And the Tract whitened, and enlightened by the Primitive Apostles, and their Disciples, is long. The fixed Stars are unchangeable, except in the motion of their Orb: The Moon is not. And therefore, 
Plut. in convivio Sapientum.  Cleobulus in Plutarch, declares it in a Parable: because the Moon cannot be fitted with a new Coat. The People that do not constare sibi, stand up to their Principles; can never be fitted with a Religion: Nunc excrescunt in cornua; nunc in Orbem videntur ire: nunc in acutum, nunc in obtusum desinunt: Sometimes they have Horns, and they are sometimes Orbicular: Sometimes their Horns are sharp, dull sometimes, and obtuse: Stultus ut Luna mutatur, The Fool is changed as the Moon: And Folly and Heresy are both soon weary of themselves.  
Those of the Primitive Descent, and Race, will take thee by the Hand, and lead thee into the way of Salvation. God promised to old Sian, Psal. 132. 16. I will also  her Priests with Salvation. The vulgar Latin accords 
Edit. ● vulg●●  Sacerdotes ejus induam Salutari: And the Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, But the Chaldee goes off, to return 
Sept. Paraphr. Chdld.  more powerfully: Sacerdotes ejus induam vestibus Redemptionis; I will  her Priests with the Garments of Redemption: with one Garment, as Livers; with an other Garment, as Teachers. The true Preacher, or Preacher of Truth, shall be meek, humble, chaste, 
Amphilochius in vita Basilii: De ijsdem quoque clerici Antiocheni. Ep. missa nd joannem Constinopolitanum. Episc. contra Severum Episc. suum haereticum quae lecta est Actione primâ Synodi Generalis Constantinopolitanae.  temperate, a Contemner of the World, and shall recover the People out of their evil Courses, with heavenly Doctrine, firing their affections, and with Example that is Angelical. The safest passage through the Deserts of Arabia, is, when the Passengers join themselves with the royal Caravan. Such Doctors will indeed, Praemansum in os inserere, feed thee being a Babe with chewed Meat; but with sound Nourishment. These will conform thee to God's Ordinances, and prepare thee for them by Ordinances of Preparation. These will evidence to thee, that in the old and venerable Times under the Gospel, over the Places in the Temples, where Baptism and the Eucharist were administered, there were hanging Columbae aurcae vel argenteae, the likenesses of Doves in Gold or Silver, to teach emblematically, that the Holy Ghost is given to the worthy Receivers of the Sacraments.  
If ye object: The Primitive Doctors had their Errors; and they were but Men, as we are. I answer: When any Doctor of the Primitive Church erred, others presently were found, that stood up in the face of the Church, and contradicted him. We require therefore a consent of Doctors of both Churches. (the Latin and Greek) in or about the same Age, by which we shall gather the voice and Doctrine of the Church then-flourishing. To the second Part: They were but Men as we are; if we consider them in their Nature or Essence: But if considered in their gracious Accidents, by the which their Nature was greatly perfected, and spiritually beautified and strengthened; they were not Men, as we are: For, they were more pious, more familiar with God, more near to the Fountain, and the purer streams of Truth; more humble, more industrious, more delighted with Fasting, Watching, Praying. And it utterly betrays your Cause, that ye cry down all the Fathers, to set up yourselves, and your Interpretations of Scripture, above them all: Which true and wel-grounded Humility would never do. And now, the Criers are cried down, and themselves come ad inclinatam fontunam, et prope jacentem; qui, quoniam inciderunt in Foveam, obruantur. Accinat Providentia: Amen.  
If ye farther object. The consent of the Fathers, is but a sign of Likelihood or Probability, according to the Philosopher, Probabile est, quod multis sapientibus 
Arist. lib. 1 Topic. c. 1.  videtur. And the Doctrine of such is but Dogmatic. I answer farther: The Doctrine of the Fathers was not true, because it was the Doctrine of the Fathers, but because it was the Doctrine of the true Church, in the which, and of the which, they were.  
Thou therefore, O Hearer, Keep thy Soul diligently, Deut. 4. 9 Keep it from the Locusts of the North. The Devil is called, answerably to many Greek Copies and to the Printed Arabic, and Gospel 
Evang. Graec. Evang. Arabicum. Evang. S. Matthaei. Heb.  of St. Matthew in Hebrew, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Deus, or Balus Stercoreus, the Dung-Hill-God, or Dung, God: and agreeably to many like Names, which the pious Part of old Jews threw upon him and his Temples. The Syriack Paraphrast names him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, (as the Septuagint 
Syrus Paraphr. Sept  in the old Testament) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Dominus Muscarum, the Fly-God, or Lord of Flies. He was the great Master-Fly, that corrupted our Nature. 
S. Greg. Naz. Orat. 4. in julianum.  And his Image, saith Nazianzen, though it could not fly, was yet hewed into the shape of a Fly, as Dagon had a Dag, that is, a Fish for his Tayl. The Fly flies up to us, on every side of us, buzzing into both our ears. And the Devil in his Instruments, rides up to us, as it were, in a Serpentine Motion We know not by his Motion, on which side he will first set upon us. And in his onset, quos conficit Maeandros? how many turn and wind does he make? The Swarms of Flies, were one of the greatest Plagues of Egypt, Exod. 8. 21. The vulgar Latin affords, Omne genus 
Edit. vulgat.  Muscarum, all kinds of Flies. The Word in the Hebrew is arob: which, if the Root be taken up, viewed, and opened; signifies a mixture or miscellany, without any kind of separate Specification. Some determine it to wild Boasts, as, Josephus the Jew; and the Chaldee 
joseph. Antiq. lib. 2. Chald. Paraph. Pagn.  Paraphrast, that interptets it, Mixturam Bestiarum noxiarum, a mixture of hurtful Beasts; a Rout, a Rabble, Hell broke lose: Also, Pagninus, whose Interpretation is, Omne genus ferarum. all kinds of wild Beasts; Also, R. Solomon, who lets lose, Turbam Serpentium 
R. Solom.  & Scorpionum, a throng of Serpents and Scorpions: And Aben Ezra; 
Aben Ezra.  that affrights us with his Interpretation, being Incursionem Leonum, Pardorum, Luporum, an Incursion of Lions, Pards, and Wolves. Others refer it to Infects, or unperfect Creatures upon the wing; as St. Hierom, the Septuagint, and Aquila; who give it, a Miscellany of Flies; For, Aquila lets it fly, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the 
Aq. Sept. Editio S. Hierom. in Exod. 8. Philo Jadaeus.  Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which is latinized by St. Hierom. Philo the Jew prefers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Dog-Flies, inferring their impudence, importunity, Doggish biting. Philo is carefully followed by Origen, St. Austin, Theodoret. And these our Dog-Flies, Caninâ Rabie furentes, involant in Hominum Bona, & Famam, raging with doggish madness, fly ravenously upon the Goods, and good Names of others. And the People (which tears my Mercy-Bowels, when I think of it) Plagued with them, and bitten by them, are almost incurable. For, as upon the biting of a Mad-D●g, there ensues a Disease called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. a fear of Water. And as persons thus bitten, and fearing Water, fear commonly the Water of Life, that is, the Remedy of their Disease; They think they see an unclean Dog in the Water, even when it is exactly pure and clear; 
Ruffus' apud Paulum Eginetam, l. 5 cap. 3  (yea, Ruffus the Physician alleged by Paulus Aegineta, telleth of them, that they are persuaded from the dumb persuasions of their Imagination, they see in the Water, the very Spectre of the Dog which bitten them;) So the Person intoxicated by the Dog-Fly, will not endure the living Water, or the Doctrine of Life; The Dog-Fly, in his thinking, is every where, but where indeed it is.  
The Witch-Mark; or, the Sign velut inustum Cauterio, given, as it were, with an hot Iron; (let them remember their chief Patron of this abominable Doctrine;) by the which, you shall signally know these devouring Locusts, (with Ira Dei, embroidered upon their Wings) and hungry Dog-Flies; 
Vide S. Bedam in Hist. Ang. lib. 4.  these venomous Corrupters of the perfect Law of God; and in the showing of which, I will hunc tibi eximere scrupulum, unscruple you, and clear it, that they are not unjustly censured by me, as false and profane Teachers; is their Capital Doctrine, which leads up all their other Blasphemies, with as great a Train, as Lucifer draws after him when he moves his Court. Stand off when you hear it, lest you be poisoned with it. That God makes the Wicked, of purpose to damn them; without any consideration of what they will do, or how behave themselves, as reasonable Creatures, and enjoying gracious Proposals, in the way of this World. This is a most damnable Doctrine; and doth faces Hominibus ad quamcunque libidinem praeferre, Usher men with Torchlight to the wilful performance of their various Lusts. The ancient Church explodes it. Fulgentius 
S. Fulgent lib. 1. ad Monimum Regem.  writing to Monimus, condemns it to eternal darkness; Quos praescivit Deus hanc vitam in peccato terminaturos, praedestinavit Supplicio interminabili puniendos; Those of whom God forsaw, that they would end their Lives in sin; he therefore decreed, should live in endless punishment. Prosper of Aquitania, 
Pro●per Aquitanious ad Object. V●ncent. Resp. 3.  throws it away as execrable; Omnium quidem hominum Deus Creator est; sed nemo ab eo ideo creatus est, ut periret; quia alia est causa nascendi, alia pereundi. God in truth, is the Creator, of all Men; but no Man is therefore created by him, that he should be damned; because there is one cause of our being born, an other, of our being damned. These two Doctors chief debated this matter. And the rest publish themselves to be of the same Heart, when the like occasion, or any bordering upon it, invites them. The Scripture treads this Hellish Doctrine under fe●t. Let one place speak for many, 1 Chron. 28. 9 David saith to Solomon his Son, of God & Solomon; If thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever. God's final casting us off, is conditional; if we forsake him. Reason abhors this unreasonable doctrine; yea, sanctified Reason, devoutly waiting upon Scripture. For, if God excludes not a Man from Salvation in time and in effect, until the Man effectually and in time forsakes God; then assuredly he rejecteth no Man in Decree and Purpose, but such a one as he foresaw would forsake and reject him. Observe the Ground. God's Acts in Time, are measured and regulated by his Decrees before Time. There must therefore be a strict and rigid Conformity between them, as between Regulam, et Regulatum, the Rule, and the Thing ruled or regulated by it, You see how this Ignis sopitus, Fire sleeping in Ashes, being stirred a little, rises with a flaming Sword and Point, against Heaven, against Scripture, Grace, Reason, righteous Antiquity.  
The misshapen Doctrines, that this horrible-one twisted with others, draws after it longo Syrmate, in the long Train, are scarcely to be named amongst Christians; As proclaiming God, (Horresco referees, I tremble in the naming it,) who is 2 Cor. 1. 3. the Father of mercies, and one that hath, Ezech. 18. 32. No pleasure in the death of him that dyeth; to be (I'll speak it in short, it must not stay long upon my Tongue) the greatest of (shall I go on? I must, for your Information,) the greatest of Tyrants, and of Hypocrites. Such a one they make their good Gad, their dear Father.  
O Christian Souls, Fear not the shadows of Death, and smoke of Hell; which these Fumivenduli, Smoke-sellers sell in Pulpits. Fear not their evil and uncreated Looks, when they disfigure their faces, as those ill-looked Hypocrites, Mat. 6. 16. For, even with Cave and Cylinder Glasses, we may reflect any shape of Antics, Monsters, Devils, and those hanging in the Air over our Heads. These are of the Family or Faction of Barthochahas in St. Hierom; Barthochabas Auctor Seditionis Judaicae, stipulam 
S. Hieron. Ep● ad R●ssinum.  in ore succensam anheliru ventilabat, ut flammas evomere putaretur. He had so medcined his mouth, and he so managed a Device in it, that he seemed to vomit Fire.  
Beloved, It burns in my Bowels, and I cannot hold it. Some called Separatists, (and they are so, and more than so, as separating from the Church, not in Communion only, but also in Faith;) are better-marrowed, and more Evangelical, than these Pulpit- Ignes-fatui, foolish Fires; than these Preachers, ex argilla et luto conficti, of dirt and clay. He that compares the Independents with the Presbyterians, compares the Nephilim, or Giants that made others to fall before them, with the Pygmie-Archers on the Towers of Tyre in the Vulgar Translation, Ezech. 27. 11. Which are 
Translat. Vulg Prima Editio Aquilae. Lyra, et Forer. in Ezech.  called also in the first Edition of Aquila, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Pigmies They were set there, as Lyra thinks, ad Hostium irrisionem; to mock the Enemies of Tyre, from the top of those invincible Towers: though Forerius tuggs for it, that, the Towers being high, the Watchmen seemed Pigmies to the Beholders on the Ground. The Presbyterian Pulpit-Archers, have crawled up to the top of a little Tyre-Learning; But the Giants, undepending of Tires and Towers, in some of their Doctrines, are well-grounded upon Scripture-Ground that will never perish; and the Pigmies dare not come down to them on the Ground. The Presbyterians on the Walls of Tyre, cry out, that the Independents are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Septuagint in Isaias, Ch. 13. Seducing Sirens. But the Independents might well send their Cries to the tops of the Towers, and hollow it to the Pigmies, that the Presbyterians are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Septuagint, the Monsters divided betwixt Men and Asses, 
Sept.  and the Satyrs of the English Bible; and might plead with reason, that these Asses have formerly drunk up the Moon. The Presbyterian objects, that an Independent 
Videatur Ludovicus Vives in S. Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. 10. cap. 16.  was called to preach, from behind an O●k; But let the Independent reply, that the Presbyterian was called by the Bird in the Ivy-Bush. And if the Courses of Independents, be the Dances of Antics, the Presbyterians began the Dance; Which Dance was not so well begun in any Respect, as in some Respects it is followed.  
My loving Hearers, let me whisper a Word into your Ears. Go to God, in earnest and humble Prayer; Press him upon his Promises, and cry to him, for Denial of yourselves, and of the World; And the Knowledge of the Truth, if ye closely pursue this grand Affair of the Soul, will soon follow, by the help of God; all things lying obedientially under his Feet. Ye shall quickly then be Undeceived, and perceive a large Difference in Doctrines. The Silkworm, and the Spider. What of these? They both work; and both, out of their own Bowels and Substance. So far they work together. Now they differ in their working. One of them only works substantially. The Spider works for his own private end and gain (great gain to gain a little Fly;) The Silkworm wrought for the Tabernacle and the Altar, and still works. The Spider works a poor, thin, weak, black, idle Web; The Silkworm, a rich, fair, Silken Substance. The Conclusion falls thus, The Spider's Work is swept, and swept; swept down, and swept away; The Work of the Silkworm, (Verbo date Veniam) is a Courtier, is worn, and advanced by Princes.  
Certain Corollaries, or Glean remain; quae nè summis qnidem digitis, aut labris adhuc primoribus attigi; which I have not as yet touched. First, The Preachers and Keepers of this Perfect Law, are commonly contemned and slandered. What admirable Helps for the perfect knowing of God's perfect Law, had the Pagans in the blessed Days of the Primitive Church? (As we go, Casaubon denies the Sybilline Oracles, because they have spoken more 
Casaub. Exercit. cap. 1.  plainly, and more particularly, than God's beloved Prophets; and therefore, he father's them all upon our Primitive Teachers and Fathers; But he should have understood, that God acts in relieving us, according to our wants; and the Pagans needed more plain, and more particular Information, than the People of God.) And yet, the Believers and Teachers of that perfect Law, were most greatly dishonoured, and brought into Obloquy; and their Names inquinated, by those unbelieving Pagans, the Contemners of it. For, when Good is raised, and on foot, the Foundation of Hell shakes.  
The Pagans reported, that the Christians were Eaters of Man's Flesh. Which, some think, was occasionally taken from the Words of Christ, delivered Form-wise in the Institution of the Eucharist, Hoc est Corpus meum, This is my Body. That they worshipped the Sun. Which was first blown up and kindled, 
Vide S. Justin. in fine Apolog. 2. & Epist. Pliniis Junioris ad Trajanum. joseph. contra Applon Grammaticum, lib. 1.  as some conceive, by reason of their Praying towards the East; as others, by occasion of their Early rising to sing the Praises of Christ. That they worshipped an Ass his head. Which took fire, Because the Christians under some Consideration, descended from the Jews; And the Jews had been accused of such Folly, though Josephus frees them; Of whom, some notwithstanding, it may be doubted, were stained in that part; because their Inclinations were ever swerving, and Idol-bent; and Samson had acted wonders by the jawbone of an Ass. The Paganish Story of the Wild-Asses going before them, and showing them Water in the Wilderness, is a wild, and airy Fiction. That they came together unlawfully by night, eversâ Lucernâ; Which indeed, was the Sin of those unclean, lustful, and false Professors, the Gnostics. Lastly, That they were the dismal Cause of all the Wars, Earthquakes, Inundations, Pestilences, Famines, and Troubles of those Times. This ye may read in St. 
S. Just. Ap. 1 & 2. Tert. ad Scapulam, & in Apologet. S. Cypr. Contra Demetrianum.  Justin, in the African Doctor Tertullian, and in Cyprian of Carthage: Likewise in others, apologizing for the Christians. The Pagans made the Church of Christ, Asinum Clitellatum, their Pack-Ass: And then, looking upon the Christians, not with all the Requisites to clear Sight and perfect Apprehension of the Object; but through these Calamitous Disasters, and those abominable and loud-crying Reports, cried aloud with them; Christiani ad Bestias, Christiani ad Leones, The Christians to the Beasts, the Christians to the Lions. For, Love and Hatred, are like the two Ends of a Perspective-Glass; whereof the one multiplies, the other makes less. Or, Man in this regard, is like a Turning-Picture, a Lamb on the one fide; a Lion on the other. Yea, Disaffected or angry Persons, are like Persons illaffected in their Eyes; who, as Abenzoar sets them before our Eyes in his Description; see two 
Abenzoar. lib. 1. c. 1 Tractat. 8.  Things, when but one presents itself; Every Man in their seeing, hath two Heads, four Eyes, two Mouths, two Bodies, four Hands, as many Feet; and is twice Himself, and a double Man; and is therefore, Monstrum, Horrendum, Inform, Ingens; a huge, misshapen, horrible Monster.  
Beloved, Cheirsh an Example or two, taken from the Cabinet of mine own Knowledge. To name the Persons, mihi Religio est, I dare not in Conscience. I knew an earnest Teacher of God's Law, publicly dishonoured by Persons wearing the same Sheeps-coat, and vexatious to him, (as beloved by the People for his opening the Scriptures in his Sermons, conformably to the Example of Christ after his Resurrection) and audito nunciantes, speaking by hear-say; and this, in Re gravi, in the aspersion of a most filthy Matter. When as I am superlatively certain, That the Soul of the accused Man abominates the very first Thought of such an Evil, with more abomination than any Stomach did ever abominate the Toad; and hates the remembrance even of the noblest Act in that Kind; although he may, after the common Rule of human Consideration, most honourably conform to it. When I first heard of this unchristian dealing for Christ, Ego continuo mecum, I said presently within myself, The Saints, if these be Saints, are horribly malicious. O ye false and evil Tongues, I will not tell you, that alios ex vestro judicatis Ingenio, ye judge others by your own Acts and Propensities; The Malice of the Blackhellish-Accusers must needs then have been at full Sea, and the Sun of Righteousness, in Apogaeo, in the farthest point from them.  
Moreover, I knew a resolved Teacher of God's Law, who resolutely, and with a bold Spirit, gave chaste Council, from the perfect Law of God, to a rich Woman, poor by a generally-suspected Life; exhorting her to refrain the company of a most lewd, and most execrable Fellow, who boasted commonly, that he commonly devoured qualified Poisons to procure Lust, and to render himself more acceptable to the Vile Prostitute, and who showed in his cortupt and beastly Mouth, that he kept always in his Heart, as in a Seraglio, Variety of lewd shapes. The Sequel was. That Miscreant was presently informed by Her, (O crooked Way!) of such adventurous Council given against him. And, Lust being always impatient, he as presently sought this Counsil-giver, found him, and so mangled him with an Irish Dagger, that he bears in his Body, the Marks of the Lord Jesus. The base Assassin glorying also, that his direct Intention was, to murder him. I know not, what, Men-and-Women Beasts do in the dark: But I know the Saying of Men walking in the light; Homicidium, Adulterium anteit in Praecepto, Subsequitur in Facto; Murder in the Precept, goes before Adultery, follows it, in the Fact. The desire of Babylas, Bishop of Antioch, and Martyr, was commendable; 
Suid. in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, & Catalogus Episcoporum.  qui id Amici● dedit negotii, who left it in charge with his Friends, to bury him in his Chains, lest his dead Body should want its livelyest Ornaments. It is the great Joy of my Friend, that his Body shall bear these Beauty-Marks, when his Soul shall be presented before God.  
I reverently accept it, as a fair Staff of Christ's Song, his Wedding Song, or Spiritual Epithalamie, Cant. 6. 3. He feedeth among the Li●ies. The Lily is the cleanest of all Flowers, and exalted from the Ground, by a long stalk; that it may be conveniently preserved in its Purity. Christ feedeth, that is, abideth and sojourneth with men, whose Conversation is Lilie-white, (O the black-Man, that hath Lilie-white in his mouth only!) and lifted above the ordinary level of the World. The Christian should be the tallest Flower in all the Field, pure in his unknown Actions, as his known End is most pure. But Mahomet's Paradise agrees more homogeneously 
Vide Alco●anum Arabic. azoara 2.  with such a wretched Captive of Lust and Beastliness, usquedum à P●oposito resiliat; than the Blessedness of Christians; Of the which, Aquinas, Ultima 
D. Tho. p. 1. q. 12. art. 1: in Conclus.  Hominis Beaetitudo in altissimâ ejus Operatione consistit, quae est clara divinae Essentiae Visio per Intellectum; The last Blessedness of Man consisteth in his highest Operation; Which is spiritual, and pertaineth to the Understanding, being the highest Power of the Soul. God preserve all Superior Powers, to whom, accordingly with his Will, we own Duty and Obedience; that they be not like, with relation to such dissolute Persons, the kind Ewe, quae Lupae Catulis mammam dabat, that gave suck to the forsaken Whelps of the She-Wolf, which afterwards, destroyed her, and her young, and all the Flock. Such are Luparum vetularum Amasii; Men of exorbitant Courses, now turned over to Carnality. These are the Vultures that watch upon the Tree, while the Lion and the Boar try their strengths on the Ground. These judge all Obstacles to their Wickedness, Ense quasi Falce resecanda, to be cut down with a Sword, as good Corn with a Reaping-Hook.  
Christian People, Of a declared Beast, and one that fears, every Day, the Devil, velut ab Hyposcenio redeuntem, ac Pilis horridis obsitum, as if he were opening the Earth to swallow him alive into Hell; we expect nought besides beastly Conversation, and Helhatcht-Vngodliness. But of a Pulpit-Petifogger, Saint-mouthed Thing in a brown or blue Covering; ye perhaps, expect a Civil and Saintlike Behaviour. O the strength of Imagination! All the Root of that Saintliness, is your in Fancy. And ye expect it ex Imperio voluntatis. Your Expectation is commanded by your Will. But your Will is quickened by your Imagination, not by your Understanding. Can ye but once say to these walking Lanterns, in the Spirit of true Zeal; Ite nunc, atque aliis fucum facite, Go now to others, with all your colourable Deceits, your whole Pack; Go, pack away; ye would be free, and others, fearful.  
But where am I? Ubi sum, ibi non sum; Ubi non sum, ibi est Animus. Wheresoever my Tongue is, let your Hearts wait at the Altar, and sacrifice all the Dishonours of your God-Names, to the Honour of God's great Name.  
Take now thy Son, said God to Abraham, Gen. 22. 2. thine only Son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the Land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-Offering upon one of the Mountains which I will tell thee of. He must take now, presently; Not his Sheep, his Ox, his Servant, but his Son; Nor, one Son of many, but his only Son. And his Son's name is Isaac, which in the Hebrew Tongue sounds Laughture. Take now thy Laughture, thy Joy. If Isaac be sacrificed, with Isaac all thy La●ghture dies: It is denied to thee, O Abraham, to laugh any more. And this Isaac is not a Child, in quo desiderantur Ingentum, Pietas, Obedientia: that hath wrought himself out of the Love of his Parents, by his Disobedience. Behold his Name, and his Praise; Isaac, whom thou lovest; First, for his Wit, sweet manners and Morality. Secondly, for his Piety, and Obedience. Thirdly, because he is Filius Senectutis, the Child of thy Old-Age; and old Abraham going out of the World, is now to leave his new likeness behind him, in young Isaac; in Isaac the laughing Boy, that made all the House laugh. Fourthly, because upon Isaac stood the Promise concerning the Messiah; Gen. 21. 12. He must go into the Land of Moriah, a public Place, and eminent. The Vulgar Latin, in terram 
Inte● p. Vulgat.  Visionis, into the Land of Vision, or, the Land seen afar off. The Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to the High-Land. 
Sept.  Aquila, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Land 
Aq.  that is conspicuous, because in Excelso loco sita. Symmachus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Sym.  It was followed, and interpreted by the Vulgar Latin. He must offer him there for a burnt-Offering; He himself by himself, being his dear and most loving Father, not by an other, must kill him, offer him, burn him; burn Isaac, offer Isaac, kill Isaac; kill his Laughture, offer his Laughture, burn his Laughture. He must tear from his own Heart and Bowels, all Natural Affection, and strike his Son hard, and keep his Ey steadfast upon him, and wound his own sweet Child to death; and his pretty Child's Blood so shed, must run down upon the Ground, in several streams, before him. And then, the precious Body must be burnt in a Holocaust, no solid part remaining, to tell the Ey that Isaac once lived; and the Ashes of Isaac, Abraham's laughture, will now be the Wind's mirth, and recreation. And he must not yet know, which of the Mountains shall be the sad place of Execution. Of that, hereafter. Abraham consents to all this, and riseth early to do it, vers. 3. He tells no tales. His Wife knows nothing. He thinks within him, as Basil of Seleucia assequitur conjecturâ: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Basil. Seleuciae Episc. in Homil. de Abraham.  Mothers overcome by the impotency of Nature, are grievous. He conceals it from his own Nature. Abraham's own Flesh and Blood, must not be of the Counsel. O the Power of God, and of Grace! O the Obedience of Abraham the good old Man!  
And, O thou injured person; Take now thy Good Name, thine only Good Name, which thou lovest; and while these murderous Tongues, not commanded by God, but driven with a firebrand, by the Devil, wound and kill thy beloved Isaac, thy Laughture, not in an uncouth, and unfrequented place, but in a public one; let thy Will, by most humbled and profound Submission to the Will of God, lie prostrate at the foot of the Altar, and then arise by the strength of a new Grace, and Offer itself a perfect Holocaust, in the flames of thy Good-Name, to the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. Let it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, all : 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, let all the fruit be returned to the Glory of God; let it be Calil, Consummated; and Ola, an Ascension; let the whole Sacrifice ascend, in fire and smoke, to God. And protest thou in this thy Sacrifice, that thou art wholly God's, Soul, Body, Scars and all; and that he may demand thy Life, when he shall please. And do thou cry out hearty, Lord, thou art my Goods, my Good Name, Laus me●, my praise, and my All in all, and beyond all that all the World owns.  
My second handful of Glean is, That ordinarily Men are forward, and bend themselves with some strength and alacrity, to the Law of God for a while, after a passionate Sermon, the death of a friend, or some great loss, or sickness; but they quickly wheel about again; and all their forwardness in Godliness, A●guilla est, elabitur; slips from them, Eel-wise. Is it praiseworthy in a Christian Life, to imitate the flying fishes of Brasilia: which, after a fair flight, 
Lerius in Hist. Navigationis Brasilianae, cap. 3.  in their flying from the bigger Fishes; are soon diving again into the Sea, as into a tumultuous and tempestuous World? O Christian Soul, Tibi hoc in manu est, nè fiat: The shunning of this evil, God's Grace puts into your Hand.  
The first Reason of this our neglect, is; Because we are propense by Nature to coolness in good Acts and performances. It must therefore, be your care, that the Customary Acts, which should generate your good Habit, or that flow from it being now generated; be intense and fervent. For, tepid and remiss-Acts, will not expedite, or introduce, and build up a Habit. And, Aliqui Actus ab Habitu procedentes, diminuunt ipsum, as Aristotle 
Arist. lib. 2. Ethic. cap. 2.  clearly proveth; Acts proceeding from a Habit, when they are incompti, impexi, negligently acted; diminish the Habit. Of▪ this thread it is; That by our neglect in the admission of the smaller sins, we are prepared for the Commission of the greater. The Manichean 
S. Aug. super joan Tract. 1.  in St. Austin, who led on the Catholic Christian to a belief, that the Devil was the Creator of the Fly, quickly brought him forward, per Orationem quasi nimia religione attenuatam, by a Speech slendered and attenuated with much Curiosity, to confess the very same of the Bee, as being not much grosser; and afterwards the same again, of the Locust. From the Locust he leapt (the Locust had taught him leap) by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a new Transition or leaping beyond kinds, to the Lizard: From the Lizard, to the Bird; From the Bird, to the Beast of the lesser bulk. From that poor Beast, to the Ox: From the Ox to the Elephant. From the understanding Elephant, to the reasonable Man, not distinguishing betwixt Repraesentationen● vestigii, & Repraesentationem Imaginis, the Representation of God's Foot-step in the Elephant, and of his Image in Man. And at last, bringing both ends together by a Logical Sorites, laid the Man upon his back, and persuaded him unreasonably, and devilishly; that reasonable man was not created by God, but made by the Devil. Where St. Austin concludes; Ita ille miser, cum tadium passus est à Muscis, Musca factus est quem diabolus possideret. So that miserable Man, being troubled by the Flies (which, the Manichean considered) was himself made a Fly, and the Devil caught him. The Devil useth always, a kind of Sorites, in perverting a good Life, so carrying his Discourse, ut ab evidentèr veris (aut veri similibus) per brevissimas mutationes, Disputatio ad ea quae evidentèr falsa sunt, perducatur. Holy Dorotheus also, hath put 
S. Doroth. Serm. 2. de Humimilitate.  upon the Record; That a certain Christian Brother, by degrees contemning others, more and more observed for Sanctity; was in the end engulft into the contempt of the most sacred Trinity. By the like Artifice, we are drawn from better Things to Things good: Whereas the Will, which doth simply embrace Good, is not evil: but yet, if embracing the good, she throw off the better, she is disordinate; not in embracing the good, but in repulsing the better. You will say; outward Things pull you to them; you attend to the pull, and forget your Duty. But I will answer with Thomas à Kempis: 
Tho. à Kemp. ●e Imitat. Christi. l. 2 cap. 1.  Homo internus citose recolligit, quia nunquam se totum ad exteriora effundit: A Man living inwardly by Introversion, soon gathers up himself; because he never turns out, and pours abroad his whole self upon exterior Things: but reserves always to himself inwardly the best part of himself. And if your true Call● are more from the World, your Helps are more, and greater from God. For, his Helps by a kind of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, are more increased and strengthened, when opposed with Contraries: Then Christ is Emmanuel, which Aquila translates, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Strong with us; alluding to the Word oft used by 
Aq. in Is. 8. 8. Sept.  the Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui potens est, he that is powerful: this being one of the ten famous Names of God in the 
Vide S. Hieron. ep. 136. ad Marcell.  Old Testament, and the Name by which the Septuagint always render the Hebrew Word, Ghibbor, a Giant. Then Christ shows himself, as he is called, Is. 9 6. the mighty God: Where the 
Text Hebr.  Hebrews speaks it, El Ghibbor, strong as a Giant for us, and with us. And as God is strong with you, O Christians, so must you validis incumbere remis, row strongly with your strong Oars, and totis initi viribus ut enaviges, endeavour with all your might, to scape safe to shore.  
There is a second Reason of our Neglect. We are of those that Amos marks nigro Carbone, with a Coal; Amos 6. 3. Ye that put far away the evil day. Where the Vulgar Latin attends with, Qui separati estis in diem malum; Ye that are 
Edit. vulgat.  separated, or set aside, as Anathemata, cursed Things, for the Evil Day. But the Hebrew Word, Menaddim, is of an 
Text. Heb.  active Signification, and acts thus, Separantes vos ad diem malum, Separating you for the Evil Day: Whence the Septuagint denote, the Evil Persons to 
Sept.  be the Agents, thus: Qui venitis ad diem malum, Ye that come to the Evil Day. The Chaldee, Clarius, Vatablus, 
Chald. Paraphr. Clar. Vatabl. Rabbiss.  and the Rabbins revolve it otherwise, and set up a Light in the Harbour, for the English; Separantes diem malum, Separating the Evil Day; Or, ye that put the Evil Day beyond itself, that ye may sin more jovially; saying▪ that the Prophets speak of Times a great way off. Tigurina are 
Tigurina.  fashionable, Qui in longinquum rejicitis diem malum; ye that cast back the evil Day, a great way. And Pagninus yields, 
Pagn.  Qui longinquum putant diem malum: They who think the Evil Day to be far away: and fear it not. For, as Aristotle 
Arist. lib. 2 Rhet. cap. 5.  more than Philosophically speaks: Quae longinqua sunt, non metuuntur. Sciunt enim omnes fore ut moriantur; sed quia id propè esse non putant, ideò nullam curam suscipiunt. The Things far off, are not feared. For, all Men know they shall die; but because they vainly think, that Death is not near them, therefore they take no Care. Didst thou positively know, that thy Life hereafter shall be but of twenty years' durance; in the end of which, thy Soul shall be Separate; thou wouldst not Separate the Evil Day; thou wouldst not separate thyself from the visible Church of Christ: O how nice and circumspect wouldst thou be in the government of thy Life thus known? how thou wouldst eam circumquaque polire limâ, file and polish it on every side? But, because thou art encompassed with uncertainties, (which of themselves invite us to watchfulness,) thou art calo obductus, hardened with use, and continual attendance upon them; and called to look farther, by Hope and Expectation; and art therefore, supinely negligent.  
I have a third Handful. The written Law of God, is a Rule to us, while this Life endureth: Which being ended, the Book shall be shut, and no more opened to us. My Brethren, shall I commend a Looking-Glass to you? Take that which the skilful Spaniard made in the Days of our Fathers. In the which Glass, whosoever looked into it, beheld two shapes of himself; the one perfectly representing him alive, and the other showing him as having faciem Cadaverosam, the face of a dead Man. Thomas à Kempis reasons matters as if he had been altogether 
Thom. à Kemp. de Imit. Christi, lib. 1. cap. 23.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, taught of God: Quàm felix & prudens qui talis nunc nititur esse in vita, qualis optat inveniri in morte● O how happy, and how wise is that Man, who now strives to be such a one in his life, as he wishes to be found in his Death! Thou wilt cry then, my Brother, with a doleful Voice, and a woeful Heart, O that I had lived agreeably to the most Perfect Law of God Now therefore, live, as thou wilt then wish to have lived; the World being behind thee, and before thee, Heaven or Hell. The youngman persuaded into a Bed, as his Deathbed; and hearing the Bell, as tolling for him: risen a Penitent. The Hour of Death, is in some, a Seeing Hour. Dost thou not see now, all Things here, tenui pendentia filo, hanging by a small thread?  
In the ancient Greek Church, Excommunication the Greater, was called 
Vide S. Greg. Neocaesariensem in Ep. Canonicâ, quae adjungi solet Canonibus Photii.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Persons manacled with it, stood altogether without the Church; beseeching all whose faces were towards it, as with prayers so with tears, to be humble Suitors to God, who dwelled in that House, for Mercy towards them. Which action of crying and wet Devotion, gave them the Name Plorantes, Weepers. To some was interdicted the use of the Eucharist only. Some were moreover put 
Hospin. Tract. de Templis. Vide Justell: Notas in Codicem Canonum Eccles. Vnivers. ad Can. 25.  into the Chatechumenium, as Hospinian calls it; and, according to Order, departed before the Celebration of the Mysteries, with the Catechumeni; when the word was given towards them, Ite, Depart ye. Another Sort of Excommunicate Persons, were thrown from the majestical Presence of God in the Temple, to attend him in the Porch; according to Vitruvius' his Reason for Porches. All 
Vitruvius' lib. 6. c. 8.  these were ejected from the Communion of the Faithful; but not as Excrements. For, still they might beg, and cry for entrance, and they might be graciously readmitted. But by an evil Death, we are pulled up Root and Branch; and exuti Bonis omnibus ac spoliati, turned out of all.  
After such a Death, there is no place for Prayers or Tears. It is a Truth beyond the reach of Opposition, though Gelasius spoke it, and though it be recorded by Gratianus: Mortuos suscitâsse legimus 
Gela. 1. in comm●nit●rio ad Faustum, Legatum Constantinop●litanum, & allegat Gratianus Causâ 24. Qu. 2 cap. Legatur. Similia habet idem Gelos. Ep. ad Episcopos Dardaniae, & allegat Gratianus. ibid. cap. Nec quisquam. Concil. Cor. thag. 3. Can. 6.  Christum: in errore mortuos absolvisse non legimus. We read, that Christ raised some from Death: We read not, that he pardoned any dying in their Sins. Wherefore the Hebrew Language calls the Grave, Duma; which properly signifies Silence. And the Greeks call the Buryingplace, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Dermitorie; Because there is no crying, or groaning for our Sins, in the Grave. Hither looks an old Canon of a Council of Carthage, in the which St. Austin was present; and to the which he subscribed: Placuit, ut Corporibus Defunctorum Eucharistia non detur. Dictum est enim à Domino, Accipite, & Edite. Cadavera autem nec accipere possunt, nec edere. It hath pleased the Holy Ghost, and us, That no Man shall put the Eucharist into the Mouths of dead Persons; as some unwary Christians have. For, Christ said, Take ye, and eat. But Carcases can neither eat, nor take. O that I could in Animas Hominum irrepere, creep into the Souls of People; and lay this home to them! I yield it, that the Jews even to this Day, call their Burying-places Bat Caiim, the House of the Living: And that the High Dutch know their Churchyards by the Name of God's Glebeland, because our Body is therein sown a natural Body, 1 Cor. 15. 44. But, all thi●does homage to the Resurrection; in the which, our Body shall be raised a Spiritual Body; the Soul in the Saved, transfusing into the Body, as far as may be, her Spiritual Perfections; (it is contrariwise in the Damned.)  
My Heart aches, when I read of Wicked Men, Psal. 9 6. their memorial is perished 
Edit. vulgat.  with them. The Vulgar Latin serveth up, Periit memoria corum cum sonitu; Their Memory hath perished with the noise, or sound. The Lovers of the World, are in this line of Relation, as in others, compared to Hogs. When a Hog is laid hold on, & cries, all the other Hogs, both little and great, that are near, come running from every side, and cry too. O what a mixed noise there is! But when the first Hog that raised the Cry, ceases to cry, though this be because he is dead, and can cry no more; they cease all, and turn themselves presently; to their former digging and tumbling in the mire, without any fear or apprehension, that their turn is also coming to cry, and to raise a cry, and to cry no more. So while a Sick Friend, or other dying Person groans, and cries out, we are moved: Porcos dicam alto grunnitu grunnientes. But the noise and sound ceasing, arescunt lacrymae, our tears dry up, and our memories are short, and we forget the dead Friend; and looking out from ourselves, and seeing the World before us, we turn to our old wallowing in the mire; never considering, that the Law of God is perfect; 
Vide Paracels. in libris de vita longa.  and that, though Paracelsus were alive again, and had the dieting, and keeping of us, we must die, as our Friends die. If ever, O man from the Earth, Earthy, thou wilt meditate upon the night, of which the Gospel, Io. 9 4. the night cometh when no man can work: Do it now, die jam in occasum flexo, & appetente Crepuscule; the day being far spent, and the darkness of the night approuching. Me thinks now, that I preach to myself. For, God oftentimes, speaks to us from our own Mouths.  
Brethren, I greatly desire to die the death of the Saints, precious in the sight of God; That I may, to use the word of 
Theodor. Balls. in Canon's Trullanos, Can. 52.  Theodorus Balsamon in his sense, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, sacrifice everlasting Praises to God, and celebrate a continual Feast with him in his glory; and being loosed from this earthly Tabernacle, be rapted away 
Sept. in Levit. 23. 36. & alihi sem●èr, cùm idem subsit in Orig.  to the blessed Thing anagogically signified by that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Septuagint, to bear a part with the Saints in that heavenly Song in the End. I have professed for you, these many years. And, That a Man may be joined in Communion or Union with the Church of Rome, and yet preach here as a Minister, is a most false Alarm, and the mad bellowing of enthusiastical and fanatical persons, and answerable to Presbyterian Ignorance. I will here unrip my Soul unto you. He that will join with Rome, must unroost here. No Law forbids a Man to groan when his pain comes. O that there had been always in me, Virtus altis defixa radicibus, Virtue Deeply-Rooted!  
I did once expect to have found in England, one bearing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a superhumeral made of Sheeps-Wooll, and signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Isidore Pelusiot, the skin of the Sheep which Christ 
Isid. Pelus. l. 1. ep. 136.  sought, found, and carried home upon his shoulders; and which was always put on in the pronouncing of these Words; according to Simeon Thessalonicensis: Sublatâ 
Sim. Thessaly. in Bibliotheca Patrum.  in humeros, Christ, Naturâ quae erraverat; assumptus, Deo & Patri illam obtulisti. O Christ, thou taking upon thee the Nature of Man which had erred; and having ascended didst prefer it to God thy father. But, Verily, verily, I neither found here, the Patriarch that sent it, nor the Bishop that wore it. I found indeed, the most professing, and most showing People of all others; but amongst all others, the most prodigiously ignorant of Right and Equality concerning Practicable Matters; as is evidenced by the daily practices of the People; their Desires and Works having no Bounds, or their Words Limits, but the Limits and Bounds which the Law of the Land hath forced upon them; over which notwithstanding, they leap, like the Wild-Beasts of the Forest. I hoped to have entered upon, post Magellanicos Tumultus, Aequor pacificum, after foreign Tumults, a peaceable Sea at Home. But by reason of some Kirk-Sea-Monsters, (who disguising their Ends, and bringing Non-Causam pro Causa, a Supposititious Cause for the Cause itself; and bleeding inwardly with grief, that their Congregations grew thin, low and lean; persecuted me:) I have lived here as in the Suburbs of Hell; and as amongst Conjurers, wearing Devils upon their fingers in Rings. In every touch, I felt their Devil stir, and work. And because he wrought not by himself, but by them. I could not command him to desist. The Devil in a round Ring was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Familiar, giving Counsel. They wear the Devil in a Ring, that by devilish suggestions, bring trouble and Hel-fire to every Thing they morally touch. Their moral touches, as their Tongues, are set on fire of Hell, james 3. 6. Fire, fire; the worst of all fires, the fire of Hell; fire, fire, Hell fire. I have dealt in this Nation, with rich-furred Beasts, (their Cases were far better than their Bodies) lurking under the Cinnamon Tree, the Bark whereof is dearer than the whole Bulk. In fine, I have seen the very S●orm, and Loss, which the Triremis, or Gally-Tavern 
Athenaeus lib. 2. Cael. Rhodigin. l. 17. cap. 2.  in the Sicilian Agrigentum, did undergo. And in the last Act, was horribly struck from above me, with a Perhaps you have a Pension from the Pope, tanqu●mè Machina, as out of the highest Seat over the Stage, from the which some feigned God appeared, and spoke Oracles. To Walk before God with a perhaps, is, to walk contrary unto God. Levit. 26. 21. And if ye walk contrary 
Vatabl.  unto me. Vatablus his Reading, is, Si ambulaveritis mecum cum Casu, If ye shall walk with me by chance, or at all adventures: I ye build the vast, and high Towers of your Scotch-Babylon, upon the nodding and shaking foundation of a Perhaps. For the Hebrew word Keri, Occursus, signifieth according to the Hebrew Bias, as well Chance as Contrary. And he that comes contrary to me, occurrit mihi, meets me running; and all Chances eunt obviam eyes, meet those, and are upon a sudden, occurrent to them, in respect of whom they are such. Did this Child of Chance, this honest-Perhaps, ever understand how a Science is raised out of its Principles? or, that Scientia procedit ex evidentibus, All knowledge proceedeth from Things evident, and clear by the Light of Nature, or of Reason? Hic de Grege illo est; This is one of the old Herd.  
And for a Pragmatical, envious, eager Man-Friggo●, stirring up every where, before Women, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Word fight; and larding his Discourses with greasy Language, and the same, a Preacher of Novelties; the Apostle describes him in his walking, Coloss. 2. 18. Intruding into those Things which he hath not seen. The Vulgar Latin devotes, ambulans, 
Edit. Vulg. Text Graec.  walking. The Original, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as it is interpreted by St. Hierom, is, gestu corporis praeferre 
S. Hier. in Colloss. 2.  Mentis Superbiam; in the garb of the Body, to show the pride of the Mind. Vatablus consents, Fastuosus incedens, 
Vatabl.  saith he; is proud, and pompous in his going, and says in his puffed thoughts, with him in the Poet Seneca, Aequalis 
Sen. in Thyeste.  Astris gradior, I walk equal with the Stars. And therefore, the Apostle presses on, Vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. He walks in the stately Galleries of his own Fancy; and his Body walks, as his Soul walks in it. An Act of rash and false judgement, notabile Damnum inferens, at first, may carry a face of justice, but is like a beautiful Apparition, beckoning to us to come, and, we following it into a dark place, suddenly turning into a must horrid shape, and strangling us. For, Difficile est in lubrico diu stare, It is a hard Matter, to stand long safe, in the dark, on a slippery place. I could send this walking Personage, a talking Page to Minister unto him. But, God hath uncased him. The World knows it. Rumour jam raucus factus est. Let me pity the People, that were like the poor Lacedaemonian 
Plut. in Lacon.  youth, who having craftily stole a Fox, ran his way craftily, craftily thinking he had a rich Prize; And who craftily kept the Fox so long warm under his Coat, until the Fox most craftily had bit him through his tender side into his Bowels. The Fox, not able cleanly to make me a Fool, would have made me a most unclean Beast. O most pure God, Knower of all Secrets, thou knowest, that our homespun Jesuits, the Presbyterian Ministers, were, in this Accusation, most false, and most unjust. And yet, although they durst not attest it before me, or before my Friends; they dealt the Matter in secret ●● cunningly, that wheresoever I came to sit down, it flashed in my face: And they have made a wound, which the Weapon-Salve itself cannot cure. What abominable Actions, as being notoriously opposite both to Justice and Purity, have both City and Country discovered to me, in the Lives of Presbyterian Ministers; and my Tongue never yet received an Order from my Heart to tell them? The glory of God hereafter may command a Discovery. Psal. 140 11. The Original pronounces, 
Text. Heb.  Vir linguae non stabilietur in terra: A Man of Tongue shall not be established in the Earth. The Targe, Vir qui loquitur linguâ tertiâ; that is, A man who 
Targum.  destroys three with his Tongue; the Person of whom he speaks, the Person to whom he speaks, and himself. And this is one excellent Reason, why the Presbyterian Ministers shall not be established in the Earth. If we go raking in the sink of the best Man's Life, we shall quickly prove him to be a Man. But, from scandalous Evil in Morality, I hope, God hath kept me.  
Go then, O ye Priestbyterian Ministers; (I may as well mistake a word, as he that told be, the word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and put me in mind of the Shepherd in the Eclog;) Go then, with your lies of Defence, lies of Offence, whole lies, half lies, quarter lies; lies with heads, but not with feet; lies with feet, but not with heads; lies with neither head nor foot; lies that are all belly; short lies, long lies, and lies of a middle size; lies whispered, and loud lies; lies of any breadth, of any length, of any bigness; a lie that plays or sings the tenor, a mean lie, and a base lie; lies of all sorts, of all colours, of all fashions; (a lie will ye buy?) lies that still, and ever lie, and yet, never lie still.  
O these unhallowed Instruments, unfortunate in all their Attempts, because Evil in their Intentions and Practices: And very like that Impure Limb, and Trophy of incarnate Malice, and Mischief, risen from one poor Shift to many: Who stooping in his Drunkenness, to his Vessel to draw Wine; dropped himself as the Droppings of the Vessel, into the Vessel of Droppings; and left the Wine showering upon his Head, until being almost drowned in the Flood & the Shower, he was drawn forth by the heels, and lest uttering his loathed Stomach upon the Ground! May these blind Guides, drunk with Malice, and vomiting their Malice, be called Saints? Can that Soldier be true to his Cause, or General, that encourages with invitation, and with mirth and tacit assent allows his Guests, execrating his General, to call their Unclean Dogs by his general's Name?  
But God forgive them; and grant, that they be scourged with punishments, ad Correctionem, non ad Destructionem, to Correction, not to Destruction: And that their Temptations end, as God intends them, in Triumpho, in Triumph, non in Ruina, not in Ruin, as they are intended by the Devil. Yet, I would fain open to them a Case of Conscience. Zacheus says to Christ, Luk. 19 8. If I have taken any thing from any man by false Accusation, I restore him . The Text proceeds, v. 9 And Jesus said unto him, This Day is Salvation come to this House. Why doth Zacheus engage to restore ? The Casuists answer, Because the Damage was threefold: For, false Accusation is injurious, First, in taking away our good Names; Secondly, in retaining them; Thirdly, in creating much outward loss, and inward vexation. And he restores ; because he will go a degree beyond what his Adversary can require of him. And present Restitution being promised, he that was Lord before, is now Jesus; and Salvation is come to Zacheus his House.  
People will here expect an Account of my Faith. I will here faithfully give it. The Myrrh that sweateth out of the Tree of its own accord, and is called Myrrah prima, or Electa; is far more precious than that which runneth forth, the Tree being cut or pricked. Voluntary Confessions are most sound, and honourable. It is known, that Scholars grow every Day more knowing. I begin.  
1 
I believe, That Worship is due to God, quatenus est Principium Essendi atque Existendi, as he is the Fountain of all Being. And I deny with a Christian Resolution, all such Worship to Saints or Angels; because I received no kind of Being from them, as the Fountain of it. And for a Picture or Image; they are void of Life, and  Motion, and cannot help themselves, much less save, or deliver me.  2 
I believe, That no Man can be saved precisely by his own Merits; or, hath any Merit in him in Order to Salvation, except by the Merits of Christ, and the Grace of God. And, That Prima Gratia non cadit sub Merito, The first Grace cannot be merited: as neither the Death or Incarnation of Christ was or could be.  3 
I believe, That God only is able to forgive Sins, by an Original Power in Himself: But I find, 10. 20. 23. That he delegated this Power to his Apostles, to be ministerially performed by them.  4 
I believe, That Christ is present in the Sacrament: But not so, that a Man receiving the holy Sacrament, chewes the Flesh of Christ with his Teeth; or, that the Body of Christ carnally nourishes the Receiver; or, goes away in the Draught.  5 
I believe, That some Priests were married in the ancient Greek-Church: and that first Marriages of such Persons, were allowable in that Church. But I, a Member of the Western Clergy, have experimentally found little Comfort in Marriage, little outward, and less inward comfort. I only set in public, this my private experience.  6. 
I believe that Men may pray to God in any Language, if they understand it: But to preach to the People in an unknown Tongue, is ridiculous, and besides the end of Preaching, which is, the Edification of the People.   
Hitherto I have said nothing, but what a knowing Papist will say. And therefore, our Pulpits, and the simple ears of our people have been abused by the Devil's janissaries. It remains; that I believe the perfect Law of God, as I have here described it. And I reject the Presbyterians, as Upstarts; and because their Ancestors are not recounted in Sacris Diptychis, and as the causes of Iliads of Ills, and Myriad of Mischief. But I have done; and parumper●os obdam mihi pessulo.  
Well, I have been Terrâ jactatus & alto, tossed both by Sea and Land. Feign would I be a Saved Soul. O then, let 
Tho. à Kemp. l. 3. de Imitat▪ Christi cap. 8. Idem ibid. cap. 13.  me pulverize myself in valle nihilcitatis meae, as it is in Thomas à Kempis, in the valley of my Nothingness; and so humble myself, as the same Author exhorts, ut omnes super me ambulare possint, & sicut lutum pl●tearum conculcare; that all Men may walk upon me if they will, and tread me under feet as the dirt of the streets. For I have singularly deserved it. I have infinitely more cause, than St. Bernard, to bemoan myself in his words; Eg● 
S. Bern. ep. 249 ad Bernardum Priorem & ali●s.  enim quaedam Chimaera mei Saeculi, nec Clericum gero, nec Laicum: I a certain Chimaera (or Monster) of the Age wherein I live; have neither demeaned myself like a Clergyman, nor yet like an upright Layman; But am like some amphibious Beast, living betwixt the Possession of Land and Water; God and the World.  
O my Soul, prepare diligently for the Time wherein thou must leave thy Body: and give an account of thy Conformity to the perfect Law.  
St. john, being in the Island Parthmos, was entertained with many visions. He describes one of them; Apocal. 6. 8. And I looked, and behold, a pale Horse, and his name that sat on him was Death; and Hell followed with him. The Original calls that which we name pale, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Which-Word, truly and fully signifies both pale and green. It signifies in its first, and more native Signification, the green colour of Herbs; and thence, in a second Signification, their Paleness in their withering. The Reason why this Word is assumed by the Holy Ghost here, is, Because the Death of the Godly, and the Death of the , are of different colours: and Death presents himself to the Godly, as upon a Green Horse, adorned with all his trappings of Herbs and Flowers, the Glory of the Spring; Green being the Spring▪ Colour, a Colour that is recreating, and a Mark of Hope, of Cheerfulness, and of Renewing; and which implies the beginning of Comfort, and the nearness of Summer and Harvest. And such is Death to the Godly. But the pale Colour, is the Colour, not of entrance into joy, but of Death as Death; of Horror, of Destruction. And such a ghastly Death's Look, Death casts upon the wicked and ungodly. Though Malice may look Pale upon this green Horse, and will not submit to it: I am confident, the Note is not omitted by any of the most notable Interpreters. The green Horse doth also cast a shadow upon the joyful Resurrection of the Godly, when their bones shall flourish like an Herb, Is. 66. 14. O this blessed Spring-Colour! what shall I do to see it?  
O that blessed Day, when the Bridegroom shall call away the Spouse in these words, Can●. 4. 8. Come with me from Lebanon, my Spouse, and look from the top of Amana! The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Septuagint, signifies 
S●pt.  Frankincense. Come with me from the Mountain of Frankincense; of sweet-smelling Prayers and Meditations, ascending as Frankincense▪ Am●na, saith Lyranus, was a high Mountain in the edge of the Wilderness, overlooking 
Lyran. in Cant.  Candan; from the which, the jews beholding the Land, and the Riches and Beauty thereof, there made Coronets of Flowers, and wore them on their Heads, in sign of Joy and Congratulation. For which cause, the Vulgar 
Interp▪ vulgat.  Latin sends it forth in a sweet Air: Coronaberis de capite Amana, Thou shalt be crowned on (or from) the top of Amana, the top of thy Devotions having in view, and almost in possession, the promised Land. What Land? Heaven. O that blessed Mountain! that blessed view! that blessed Coronation!  
If a poor Man had a fair and beautiful Child, a Boy; and were certain, that he could not have more; And that this Child should have a Kingdom, if he lived to it; And thereby should promote his Parents, and be the joy and Glory of all his Kindred, if he were safely kept, till he came▪ to Age; Would not the Parents of this Child, be careful of him? Would they not follow him with ready Hands, and watchful Eyes, which way soever he turned? Would not the Mother attend upon him, and still say, My sweet Child, take heed you do not fall: O Child, there is a deep Pit, come back, God bless my Child. And though the Child should cry, she would not let him stay there, upon the brink of the Pit; she would rather carry him an other way, and kiss away the thought of the way leading to the Pit. The Father would come home, and his first Saying would be, How does the Child? The little Prince of so great Hopes, that, we hope, will make us all great? Give's the meaning of all this, or, you have said nothing. Every Body, or every one of us, as we consist of flesh and blood, and sense only, hath a most sweet, and pretty Child; a Soul, beautified with God's Image; And we are certain that we shall never have more, more such Children. And this Child is an Heir of Heaven, and shall be a Prince, if it dies not before it comes to Age: And shall promote its Friends, if they keep it well; advance its Body, and Senses, if they betray it not; which otherwise shall never be glorified, and which cannot be glorified by their own Industry: Shall we not watch over our only Child by a good life, and keep it from the Pit of Hell, and from the Falls and Knocks of sin, which bruise it, and break it, and kill it, that it cannot inherit?  
Be thou therefore, O my Soul converted, and conformed to the perfect Law of God, as it opens before thee the perfection of the necessary Parts of a Christian; and as it promotes thee in the perfection of Degrees. Say to the Flesh, Viscus merus es, thou art mere Birdlime. To the World, Abi lutum, Naturam haud amplius urgebo superft●is; Go dirt, I will not any more urge Nature with superfluities. To the Devil, praestigiis tuis detenta jam diu fui, delinita lencciniis, I have been long thy Slave, I belong to jesus the Conqueror. Say to these Preachers, ye are ignavum pecus, a dull kind of Cattles; ye have learned a tumbling trick with the lip and tongue; but for Action. ye know not the behaviour of Zeal, Humility, Charity, or of any true virtue: And I will rather ire ad genua praetereuntium, beg my bread of all others, than close with you. Say to God. Abba Pater, miserere mei: Father of Christ, and Father of Christians; Father of jew, and Father of Gentil; Father before, and Father now; have mercy upon me. And then, look before thee.  
God saith to his People, Numb. 14. 30. Doubtless ye shall not come into the Land concerning which I swore to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the Son of Jephunneh, and Joshua. Why should these two only enter into the Land which typified the heavenly Canaan? Caleb, saith Procopius, one of the learned 
Procop. in Numb. 14.  Grandees in the Hebrew Language, signifieth every Heart (Leb is a Heart.) And Jephone signifies Conversion. And as joshua was a Type of jesus, the Captain of his People▪ and he that won for them the Heavenly Canaan: So joshua, in its true Signification, is jesus, a Saviour▪ The mystical Sense therefore, is; (and it hath something in it, of the tropological, allegorical, anagogical; as it relates to Manners, to the Church militant under the Gospel, to the Church triumphant in Glory:) Doubtless no man shall enter into the Heavenly Canaan, except the Person having a Heart which is the Child of Conversion; and that goes with Jesus, fight under his Banner. For, joshua and Caleb stood for the Head and the Body; Christ and his Church. There may be a Spot in a Garment, quae nullo potest elui lixivio, Which cannot be washed off. But, the Blood of Christ will cleanse thee from all Sin.  
The Bridegroom promiseth to the Spouse, Cant. 1. 11. We will make thee Borders of Gold, with Studs of Silver. For which, the Vulgar Latin exhibiteth; 
Inter p. Vulgat.  Muraenulas aureas faciemus tibi vermiculatas argento, We will make thee little collars or necklaces of Gold, wormed, or embroidered, or checker-wrought with 
R. Abrah. in hunc locum.  Silver. R. Abraham descanting upon this place, (though few of the jewish Rabbins have commented upon the Book,) affirmeth that these Necklaces (in use then) were made of Golden Turtles, dressed and flourished (perhaps on the Bill, Wings, Feet,) with Silver. And therefore, some translate here, for Borders or Necklaces, Turtles; others, jewels; the Hebrew word Thorim sinifying both. The Soul espoused to Christ, must carry for her continual adornment, the mourning Turtles about her. She must remember that her Heavenly mate is gone before her; and, the way by which he went, the Cross; and the occasion of his Coming and Going, her Sins; and be groaning always inwardly.  
Thou knowest now experimentally, O Soul of mine, That many Christian Matters have been proposed here, illegally, confusedly, falsely, and with all the deceiveableness of unrighteousness; and, that Christian Truth, sanctified with the Blood of Christ Incarnate, God made Man, must needs be the highest Thing, and the most Soul-ravishing, of that Order. Enough. My Powers, and the Powers of Hell are now in Procinctu. And, Res est jam in Vado, Here is a shallow place, it is not far to the shore.  
O great God, what shall I say more to the People? The Sins of the People have carried them beyond all that a Man can say. I Will, I must say with David, Psal. 60. 3. Thou hast made us to drink the Wine of astonishment. We stand in the hearing of our perfect Duties, like People astonished, but we stir not a Foot in the performance of these our perfect Duties; And the Fit of astonishment being gone, we idolise ourselves, as before we did. The Septuagint turns it up, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
Sept.  Which, the Vulgar Latin readily turns 
Edit. Vulg.  again, potasti nos Vino Compunctionis, Thou hast given us to drink, the Wine of Compunction. O Heaven and Earth, what strange Compunction may this be? Aquila states, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Wine causing 
Aq. Sym.  Drunkenness. Symmachus puts forward, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Wine causing a rude Storm in our Brains, as Wind causes Commotion in the rude waves of the Sea. In such a troubled plight was Cain, having killed his Brother. For, Cain, according to the Hebrew and Syriack, says the Greek Scoliast upon the Septuagint in Genesis, 
Scoliast. Graec. in Gen.  was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, moving ever to & fro. (Some have said, that the Hair of Cain and judas, was Coloris mustelini, Weesil-coloured; I am sure, their moving Hearts were black and foul.) Hesychius 
Vide Hesych. hic, & in Isaiam.  admonishes, that the Word of the Septuagint, is digged from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the night: whence also falls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I sleep. We are like a person violently waked out of his Sleep, that starts up and stairs about him, and presently lies down again, upon the soft and yielding Pillow, utterly forgetting that he was awake. St. Hierom, full of these thoughts, forms 
Edit. S. H●eronymi.  it; Potasti nos vino consopiente; Thou hast made us to drink wine casting us into a dead sleep. Another Text reaches towards this, Is. 29. 10. For the Lord hath poured out upon you the Spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes. The Vulgar Latin also lets it go, Spiritum 
Inter. Vul. Sept.  S●poris, th●e spirit of sleep. The Septuagint return their old word, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, compunction. Which they seem to have administered, saith Hesychius, for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Soporation. I rather deem, that by compunction, they mean transpunction, either to signify, that when the Ear is boared with an instrument, which breaks through the Organ, the Sense is lost; or, that a boared vessel holdeth not Water. And in this Sense, our Hearts being boared, we have lost our hearing. Which directed St. Cyprian 
S. Cyp. l. 1. Epist. ep. 3  to pronounce of the Obstinate jews, pertusa est illis Mens, their Mind is pierced, it holds nothing. And hence we say, Sermone Plau●ino, in the Phrase of Plautus, In pertusum Dolium dicta ingeris, you pour Words, as into a boared vessel. Our Hearts in a moving Sermon, are full of the Sermon, as a Sieve in the Water, of Water; Remove the Sieve out of the Water, and the Water is out of the Sieve; the Sermon ended, our Sives, our Souls, lose all at the Church-door. Theodotion holdeth up, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, ecstasy, or alienation of Mind; urging, That whereas there may be two ecstasies in respect of one Man, consisting of a Soul and Body; one by the which we may be drawn above ourselves, to the honourable Orders of Angels, with Elias; another by the which we may he thrown beneath our selus, with Nabuchodonosor, to the base and disorderly condition of Beasts: we are fallen out of ourselves, into the last. Aquila useth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Aquila.  the Spirit of profound sleep, otherwise called a Lethargy. The Chaldee spins 
Chald. Paraphr.  it, Spiritum Erroris, the Spirit of Error. The Syriack encountering it in 
Syrus Inte.  St. Paul, Rom. 11. 8. Spiritum Stupiditatis, the Spirit of Stupidity. The Hebrew 
Text Hebr.  Word Tardema, signifies a Sleep that folds us up in the bottom of ourselves, and transports us beyond the use of all our Senses; that we are, in a manner, beneath what the Fool in 
Aelian. Montal. lib. de Morb. c. 2. de M●lancholia.  Montaltus did but conceive himself to be, beneath Shell-fish; which have the Powers of Touching, and of Dilatation & Contraction, in their lowest Degree.  
Our Help must be, to pray for a Heart, even the Heart mentioned in the prayer of Solomon, 1 Kings 3. 9 An Understanding Heart, discerning between good and bad. The Vulgar Latin writes, 
Interp. vulgat.  Cor docile, an Heart apt to learn. The Hebrew found'st it, Cor audience, a hearing 
Text. Heb. Sept: Edit. Sixt.  Heart. And the Septuagint, Sixtinae Editionis, walk up, and set it down, Cor ad audiendum, a Heart to Hear. Regia, and Complutensis stand by, and sentence 
Reg. Complut.  it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Cor Sapiens, a wise Heart. The Chaldee, stamps it 
Chald. Paraphrast.  Cor intelligens, an Understanding Heart. There waits the English. They all teach, It is a chief Part of Wisdom, to hear, and to be quick of learning. Prov. 1. 5. A wise man will hear, and will increase learning. Apoc. 2. 7. He that hath an ear, let him hear: an ear to hear. A wise man will not drink down his Doubts in Religion, and his Scruples of Conscience, as men commonly do. But, as there is Idea, or Forma Idealis in Mente Artificis; an Ideal Form in the Mind of the Workman: So a wise Man will receive an Ideal Impression, in the diligent hearing of a godly Sermon; after the which he will work; and by the which, he will increase learning. And whereas Intùs existens prohibet alienum; And, if the Pupil, or Daughter of the Ay, as the Hebrews call it, were coloured with any colour; it could not see the coloured Object: The Ear wide open, and the Heart emptied of ourselves: spunge-like, imbibe and suck into themselves the perfect Law of God.  
The Earth, which we love so much, in respect of the Heavens, is but a Point; And if the Body of this Earth, should take the Place and Splendour of a Star, it would scarce appear to Men, abiding in the same distance from Heaven in which they now are. Hear from above, O ye Heavens, and look up, O Earth, and observe the difference betwixt a Shepherd of unreasonable Sheep, and a Shepherd of Sheep being reasonable. The first, whose employment stands in the Cure of the Diseases infesting his Sheep, which Diseases are natural, and which Sheep are unreasonable; may cure them, whether the Sheep will or no: But the last, because his Work lies in the Cure of Diseases, which are voluntary, his Sheep being reasonable; can never cure the Sheep, except the Sheep will be cured. And therefore, his Task is much more difficult. Answerably to this; A Secular Judge or Magistrate, whose Business is, to regulate the outward Actions of Men, may compel a man, will he, nill he, to new-mold his outward Manners: But a Spiritual Pastor, whose Work is chief, and for the greatest part, inward, and in the very Heart, a Substance not diaphanons, or transparent; cannot mould a Man, in regard of his Heart and Affections, into the being of a Christian; except the Man himself will, by the virtue of infused Grace, dare manus; praebere collum, submit and yield to him as God's Instrument.  
I pray God for jesus Christ his sake, who was made flesh, and dwelled among us; who lived and died for us; who for us, and our happy Resurrection and Ascension, risen again, and ascended; that, after all is done, we do not die that old Death amongst the jews; wherein the Malefactor was first half-buried in 
Moses Kotsensis in Sanhedrim.  Dung, and then strangled. Death finds us half-buried in the Dung of this World, and taking us by the throat, stops our breath, and strangles us.  
Beloved, I have prayed: Do ye likewise help towards the great work of your Salvation. Coloss. 3. 12. Put on therefore (as the Elect of God, Holy and Beloved, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, beloved with the love of Dilection) Bowels of mercies. Be merciful to yourselves: Let your Bowels be moved with Pity towards yourselves, your distressed selves. Stretch the Orifice of your Hearts open towards Heaven. Pray God to render them of a porous Substance, in respect of Godliness Blow and stir up the Good in you: Cum omnes virtutes currant ad bravium, sola perseverantia coronatur, saith Petrus 
Petr. Bless. ep. 22.  Blesensis: All virtues run the Race; but Perseverance only is crowned with the Crown of Victory.  
I know not what to say more, or how to help you. Did the Witch cleave to you, or the Devil actually possess you; Some strange Disease assault you beyond the Physician; some Lameness, forsaken by the Surgeon, cripple you: I might produce, not a Simon Magus with his Characters, or an Apollovius, qui ex eâdem Officinâ Nequitiae prodiit, and whom Porphyry compareth with 
Porph. contra Christian.  Christ for his Miracles; (the Devil raising up such in the Primitive Age, that he might obscure the Miracles of Christ) but a poor Charactered Man, to do something for you in the Name of Christ, which is not secundùm Legem Ordinariam, according to God's ordinary Course. In the curing of your Souls, I have done what I am able. I look upon you with the Eyes of Compassion: and my Heart is greatly moved within me. In lieu of all my pains, shed one tear for your Sins. When Human Helps falter, we look up to Heaven. jesus help you. O, I hear the Angels, those rejoicing Spirits in the conversion of a Sinner, sing from Heaven, (O sing aloud) Amen: hallelujah, Praise ye jah or Jehovah: or, as Theodotion expounds it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; or, as justin Martyr, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Theodot. in vet. Test S. justin in quaest. Orthodox.  Praise ye, and carefully sing Hymns to him, whose Name is, Apoc. 1. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, who is, and who was, and who is to come; or, who is now coming. Amen. For which the Septuagint, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, be it so; 
Sept. Vide▪ S. Hieron. ep. 136 ad Marcel. & in fine Comment. ad Galat.  Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let it be truly and faithfully done by Him that is most faithful and true, Amen, Amen.  
Soli Deo, Dei Honor et Gloria.  LUC. 1. 49. 
Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est.  
Textus Graecus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, magnalia;  
Syrus Interpres, magnifica;  
Titus Bostrensis, admirabilia.  
FLOREAT ANGLIA:  
Imò, supra ipsam floreat à florendo dictam Florentiam;  
Eiusque Res publicae, privataeque  
Vti Flores in Floridis florentissimè floreant.   

POSTSCRIPT.  
IF any Man be grieved at aught I have here written, and cannot subdue his Grief from festering into a Quarrel: I desire that his Answer may be returned in Latin. First, Because I will not enter the Lists with any Adversary, but a Scholar. And Secondly, Because I will not be Sea-bounded, and judged concerning my future Discourse, by an Island. If the Adversary be obstinate, let him know, that my Pen shall not spend Ink hereafter, but in the Latin Language. And I promise my Reader, That I will not only endeavour to satisfy him in the present Matter; but also dress the Matter in warm and fit Language without varnish, and replenish my Treatise with store of hard Scriptures in their fundamental and choicest Interpretations, and with other pleasant variety of honest and accepted Learning.  
By Me Richard Carpenter; Not a Papist, but a PROTESTANT: As Protesting against all Corruptions, both in Faith and Manners, Whatsoever, and wheresoever: But not, as protesting against aught that is excellent, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy in point of Doctrine or Government, in any Christian Church, Wheresoever, or Whatsoever. Who likewise utterly disclaim, That I am, or ever was, or will be, (Aspirante Deo) A jesuit, From Rome, or from Geneva.  
FINIS.   

ERRATA.  
(Quae in ipso Lectionis transcursu sese inferebant) graviora, miniméque ferenda, Sic referenda sunt ad limam.  
PAg. 11. Lin. 17. Atheistical, p. 15. l. 20. Law and Lore, p. 25. l. 10. to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, p. 28. l. 9 also always adhere, p. 29. l. 8. in marg. Paragr. Sive autem. p. 49. l. 18. Incunabulis, p. 69. l. 20. intruding. p. 76. l. 7. in marg. Sophoclis, p. 78. l. 23. right-founding, p. 80. l. 2. screw up, p. 81 l. 2. operative, p. 84. l. 2. Compart, p. 87. l. 21. Dux viae, p. 89. l. 3. Tigurina, p. 97. l. 12. Missir. p. 97. l. 26. Which attend. p. 105. l. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, p. 109. l. 26. Hominibus, p. 126. l. 27. Bereschith, p. 133. l. 5. in marg. Paragr. Ad primum, p. 142. l. 9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. p. 155. l. 9 Apollonia, p. 155. l. 18. impurum, p. 161. l. ult. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, p. 163. l. 9 Christ, p. 177. l. 22. obsoletum, p. 179. l. 15. timore mendacii quo non decebat timere, p. 179. l. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, p. 190: l. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, p. 195. l. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, p. 204. l. 24. a Saint-mouthed, p. 208. l. 10. humble, p. 210. l. 18. to leap, p. 212. l. 30. O Christian, p. 213. l. 2: eniti, p. 217. l. 31. Houses, p. 222. l. 26. If ye.