Theologicall axioms or conclusions publikly controuerted, discussed, and concluded by that poore English congregation, in Amstelredam: to whome H.C. for the present, ad-ministreth the ghospel. Togither with an examination of the saide conclusions, by Henoch Clapham. Here-vnto is added a litle tractate entituled. The carpenter.

A litle Tractate / vtteringe the Truth of Christ his Two-Natures.

Mark. 6.3.

Is not this the Carpenter, Maries sonne?

OUr sauiour comminge into a Synagogue he there openeth his mouth and preacheth: ey / he so preacheth / as the hearers were astonished at the powerfull excellency of his speach: in somuch / as they fall of interrogating from whence that learning shold com / and where he shold wyn it / considering they knewe him well inough to be but the Carpenter, Maryes sonne: one / who by reason of his occupation / c••ld haue no leasure also to becom so profound in the scriptures. Where / be∣si••es that the Auditorie tieth the knowledge of the scriptures to the Doctours chaire / we may marke that our Sauiour was a handie-craftes Man / one who by his hand labour erned his bread vntill his heauenly father called him to an hier callinge. For no doubt the people speake according to the knowledge they had of his trayning vp in former tyme: the consideration wherof ma∣keth them admire somuch the more at the mightinesse of his doctrine.

The Euangelist Luke (Ch. 2.51.) testifieth that he was subiect vnto his Father and Mother. And can it be thought that Religions Ioseph wold not set him to som worke? Can it (howsoeuer som haue carped at it in my Bibles breife) be imagined that sweet Iesus / who came to call euerie man to som Christian calling / that he himself wold sit idle? No / no / his excellent cariage herein was so publike and famous / as the people had it on the fingers end / and somuch the more was his theologicall speaches to be admired.

Then I perceiue / that a Manuarie science is no vile thing / seing the oc∣cupation of a Carpenter was sanctified in the person of our Sauiour. Then I perceiue / if the Maister haue not shamed to erne his bread with the sweat of his browes / the disciple shold not be a shamed to tread in the same tract. What then? Whosoeuer wilbe a Christian / he must be possessed with a Chri∣stian calling. A calling saith one: a calling / saith another: what meanes he by a Calling? I meane / thow must haue som such place in Church and

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common wealth / as the vse therof may be profitable and necessarie: as also / that roume it self / must be consecrated out of the lord his word / for lawfull. Such a roume and calling (not anie roume and callinge) the Apostele Paul (1. Cor. 7.20.24.) vnder a generall rule (applied there to certaine particu∣lars) he meanes of / what tyme he saith / Let euery man abide in the saine vocation wherein he was called.

The Catabasileyst wold haue the Maiestrate / becominge a Christian to cast aside his Ciuil callinge (a Callinge notwithstanding / they are forced from. Rom. 13. to graunt / a diuine ordinaunce imposed on the Consciences of all people) but affirme it an ordinaunce diuine / and only without the Church. To say / a maiestrate cannot stand a true christian: and to say / that Majestra∣cie is a diuine conscionable ordinaunce / is / with one mouth to spit out black and white / flat contradictories. Such choppers and chaingers of scriptures in the Lord his Temple / stand much neede that our Carpenter wold also (as somtimes he did / Mark. 11.15.16. Luk. 19.45.) with a whip and whip∣coard / expulse them the howse of prayer. Such scripture-choppers stand more neede of a Maiestrates lash / then a scholers argument. If one sholde aske these fellowes / what office or Calling it was which Christ so exercised / can they say he did it / by vertue of Preisthoode or Prophecie / or only as he was Kinge / and so by power Regall due vnto him (as he was Dauids sonne) thoughe at other tymes he wold not vse it? Will they not giue me leaue to be∣leiue / that in the execution of this ciuil power / he aswell sanctified (in the practise of his owne person) the roome of a Maiestrate? as by his Carpen∣trie / he sanctified Manuarie sciences?

But let the Despiser of gouernment (as Iude calles him) goe / the Apostle Paul willeth euery man to abide still in that Callinge lawfull / where in he was found / when he was called to christianitie: presuming hereby / that euerie one that shold be called to Christ / shold be alredie installed in som legetimate calling: as though God wold hardly call any / that were out of all callinge. And indeed / A man without a callinge / is like a carcase without a sowle: fitter to be pitted for feare of infection / then to be tollerated amongst men. Pharaoh (Gen. 47.3.) cold aske Iosephs brethren of what trade they were? Either because he demed the religious Hebrues wold not liue without som trade: or because it was common with the Egiptians to haue trades: or / for that the integritie of that age was such / as eueri where (ordinarily) people had trades. Many Kyngs we haue / and many people we haue: but fewe kyngs or ru∣lers that enquire after trades: and too many people / that were not able to answer vnto the Demaund / what trade? That is cawse so many drone bees fly by the hy-ways / stinginge horse and Man: and that is cawse that Tyburnes Tripos deuoureth a nomber of bodies / before their sowles haue bene initiated in any rudiment of their redemption.

Paul / a great scholer / he wold play the Tentmakeryer he wold sit idle: and Dorcas wold make garments for the poore (few Dorcasses in these

days) before she wold sit idle. It is neither Pismire / Cony / Grashopper / nor Spider / but Salomon (prov. 30.) he rancks her in a Callinge and sha∣mes not man (who is differenced from them by the hie guifte of Reason) abasheth he not to be out of all callinge? The pismire shal sit vpon him / and the residue of the creatures shall finally condemne him: for the word of the Lord failes not.

But thow replies / I thanke god for it / I haue a Callinge: That may be: but is it a lawfull Callinge? Iesus was a Carpenter: a calling lawfull and much necessarie. Som are Callings shaped in the Deuels shop. and the more they are vsed / the more returnes to the Deuels advauntage. Such is the vpholding and keyinge of Cardinge and dicing howses: wanton dauncin∣ge schooles / and manie moe of like vayne nature. Such persons cannot call for the lords blessinge to light on their labours / and that because they labou•• not in the lord: wheras a Christian must neither in word nor deed do anie thing but in the lord / Coll. 3.17. Famous are the Romaines / as for other things so for this: not a Man went in the streets but he caried in hand or in som other part an ensigne of his callinge: were his callinge singular or vul∣gar. If this law were enioyned vpon the people of England / Scotland and som other parts / what might manie carie? Som might carie a Midianitis∣he stale: som a box of face paintings: som a Portuis booke: And Other∣som an euen payre of cards in the one hand / and dyce shaking in the other. Nay / infinite are the inventious that Hell and Vanity haue invented: and most painfully thes are plijde / because their gaine semes to be greatest. But let such walke on: He that sets them on work / euen he shall pay them their wages.

But hast thow an honest callinge: be thankfull vnto god for that / and be thow industrious and faithfull in the exercution of his parts and offices. Call vpon the Lord by prayer often and manie tymes? Blesse thow oh Lord my handy works &c. Thow maist rise vp earlie and sitte vp late and eat the bread of carefulnes / and yet except the Lord his blessinge associate thy la∣bours / thow but watch••st and labourest in vayne (ps. 127.1.) Be industrious then and faithfull / which don / commit the yssue to him that giues and holds back the rayne / and ministers vnto thes that walke vprightlie / euery thing that good is (Ps. 84.11.) He that hath a care ouer the feild lillies and sparrowes / how much more will he be carefull for vs / oh we of litle faith?

Hast thow a lawfull trade? yea. Art thou the Mr. of it? I can do so / so. yea / but it is not sufficient that thow haue a trade or Callinge and that a lawfull one except thow canst performe the parts of it well. It is not suffi∣cient to Doe / but to Do well. It is not sufficient to councell / but to courn∣cell well. It is not ••ufficient to tylle the ground / but to tyll it well / The con∣sideration herof incited Nebuchadnetsar (Dan. 1.) to select choise youths and accordinglie to initiate them in his learinge. This cawsed Pharaoh

(Gen. 47.6.) to bid Ioseph onlie appoynt ouer his cattle / Men of actiui∣tie. And this vrged holy Paull / not only to wish Timothi to Diuide the-word (2. Tim. 2.15.) but Diuide it aright. The word signifieth to Cut aright: alludinge (no doubt) to the Cutting vp of Beastes / wherin the Leuits were exercised: as though he shold saye / euen as the Leuits are Maisters of their worke in cuttinge vp euerie part of the beast aright: so she∣we thy self dextere and fit for diuidnige the word of the Lord.

To be out of all callinge manie shame / and therfore they vndertake one thing or other: but to liue in the same according to knowledge and iudgment / litle they regarde. Looke into the affaires of Rulers / and tell me how they rule? Looke into the actions of Ecclesiasticall ministers / and tell me how they feed. Looke into the dealings of Marchants and tradesmen / and tell me the breadth of their conscience. Looke into the lyues of subiects / and tell me / how much obedience not for the sword / but for conscience sake / No / nor Rulers haue laid the raynes in Cruelties neck: who let loose for advaunta∣ge / he filleth heauen and earth with blood. Inowe / with Iehu they are zealous for Iehouah / by and by they bowe to Baal / and subscribe to the ab∣hominations of Nebat. As for Churchmen / alas / alas: they are now in in the same predicament as was Esekiels Pastors (ch. 34.) In stead of fe∣dinge the flock / they feede themselues / and cloth their wretched corps with the fleece. Sowles Maladies they knowe not / Or knowe They them / they then will presse their patient no more / then is fitting their patients hu∣mour. Nay / because they shold not set our Saviours sword and fyre amongst the people / (for then it may be / Mr. Parson shall be pincht of his tenth goose and calfe) they huddle sweetly vp / the wicked with the godly / the per∣secuting world and the persecuted church into one Babilonish bodie / why forsooth? The Apostle calleth all he writes vnto / Brethren and Saynts by callinge. Togither with these Clawbaks (Dawbers with vntempered morter Ezek. 13.) the poore people are pestred with stilborne Mattens-men that can say nothinge / but Coax / Coax / croaking in their Pues / like a swarme of Marchfrogs in a pudle. Unto these / talk not of cuttinge the word aright / but of cutting A payre of Cards (the Deuels common seruice booke) and those they can cut at a Knaue. These are the Parson or Patron their ten pound Cure-rats: and if the cursed people catch such a Companyon / oh they are aswell as Michah (Iudg. 17.13.) with his figginge Leuit. But to le∣aue that vermine / cast an ey vnto Marchants and Artificers / and what is there / but slaights for soliditie? quid pro quo, Nay looke into all callings and behold / Gayne is demed godlines: all is for self advauntage.

Thus / whereas our Carpenter Iesus / calleth euery man in his ow∣ne practise to labour / and to labour as A Christian / behold / Satan either de∣barreth men of callings / or he inuests them withsom of his owne infernall shoptrades: or hauing a legitimate roume / he cawseth them to invert all holy rule and order. Well may he be called the Enuyous Man / for (as

he envyes all / so) he wold abash to do good vnto any. A fewe of his Ta∣res / will giue cawse sufficient / of shedding many Teares.

But to shut vp this paynt breifly: if thow woldst not be adiudged a Drone in the common wealth / Do liue in a callinge: for though the ruler of the people do tollerate thy lewdnes / Yet Christ the Carpenter will debarre the his common-weal / 2. Thess. 3.10. Nay / will thow be seldom or neuer tempted / or strongly assailed with ill / then liue in a Callinge / and labour painfully therein: so shal there be no place to vayne thoughts / nor shall the spartous assailements of Satan be able to penetrate thy straits. While Iesus plaid the Carpenter / we read of no tentations / but so soone as he was called from that and went into the wildernes for solitarie / then we heare of a Tempter and his manifold tentations. So much for that.

Tho second part of this peoples question is this: Is not he Maries sonne? Yes forsooth: he is the sonne of Mary / and yet so her sonne / as neither blynd Iewe / nor naturall Gentile is able to comprehend. Maries son he is: not Iosephs son. Truer they spoke then they were aware. But as Caiphas pro∣phecied / and Pilate superscribed / so these pronounce theire owne condem∣nation vnwntinge. Maries son he is / and yet more then Maries son: for behold / God clothed in flesh / our nature assumed of God / wherby (oh euer worthie meditation) God and Man is made One. This doctrine is termed blasphemie by the manie sects of Anabaptistrie / of our tyme. One sort with Arius, Denies him to be eternall / and of the fathers essence / affirming him a Creature with the begining of tyme. Another crue terme him also a Creature / but diduce his begining of Days from Mary: som of them ma∣king him bare man / with Artemon and Samosatenus: som of them / make him a third thing (or a mixt Creature) compounded on God and Man / not Distinguishing / but confounding the natures / as did Apollinaristes. Another feet (and they are most common) do deny Christ to exist one person in two natures: giuing vnto him with Manes one Nature / and that meere Diuyne: som of them saing it was of the essence of his father: som / that is came from heauen: som / they will not define from whence.

Thus the Heretiks stumbel vpon our Carpenters ax: Hacking their owne shynnes / while they permit not Maries son and Maries Lord to hewe them.

Our Arrians say / he is called / the beginning of the Cratures of god, Reuel. 3.14. therfore he had a beginning: foolishlie concluded: for blessed Iohn tellinge the (ch. 1.) that 1. he was the Word: 2. with God. 3 and was God 4. that without him Nothinge was made (he was Somthin∣ge / did he make him selfe?) they shold rather conclud he is called the be∣ginning of the Creatures / because euerie Creature was begon by him: as we say: this Carpenter was the beginner of the Ship? that is / the Maker or efficient cawse of the ship. Where as he is also (Reuel. 1.11.) the First and

the Last / they may as well say / he was the last creatuere / as the first creatu∣re. Our Samosatenists / from the former place of Iohn / as also from Phil. 2.6. He being in the forme of god thought it no robberie to be equal with god / they must knoe themselues to be theiues and robbers / for robbin∣ge him of the fulnes of the God head / which (Collof. 2.9.) dwelt in him essentiallie. Our Appollinarists / must go learne of Athanasius / 1. that Sow∣le and bodie / for making one person Man / are two Natures distinct / not confounded or mingled / as it semeth Aristotle (by callinge Anima, Ente∣lechia) thought: which manie laying hold on / did therfore beleiue / that the sowle died togither with the body. 2. they must learne / that as to the making of Man / there concurreth sowle and body / euen so / to the makinge of the Messiah and Mediatour Christ / there concurred / God head and Manhoo∣••e / not confounded / but distinguished and vnited. This consideratiaon caw∣sed the Author to the hebrues to say / he tooke to himself Abrahams seede. 2. 16. as the sowle in the resurrection is said / to take vnto it the Bodie. And in this sence / our Iesus saith: He will lay downe his lyfe (or body) and then by the other Nature distinguished (not mixed) he will take it vp againe. And so / when the Iues had cast downe the Temple of his body / loe by the other distinct nature / he raised it vp againe / Let our Poly-baptist for shame therfo∣re / leaue of to mix the natures / for making vp a Christ that is neither God nor Man. Our Anabaptisticall Maniches they start out cryinge: Mulier non habet semen, the ••emall hath no seede: or else if the woman haue feede / yet of Mary he cold assume no seede but such as was sinfull.

To the first / what shold I say / The woomans seede shal breake the serpents head / Gen. 3. This they say / is not spoken of Christ but of his mysticall body. Beastly spirits / hath not the Apostle Gala. 4.4. plainly expounded it Christ: or wold they haue the Body to be of one nature / and the head to be of another / how should they then growe togither? shold the iustice of God be satisfied in another nature? They forget / that he which sanctifieth / and they that are sanctified ex henos pantes / are all of One / Heb. 2.11. as also / in all things like vnto vs / syn excepted. And this exception of Syn giueth also answer vnto the second: namely / that he assumed our na∣ture / but without syn? First / euerey meane Alchinist can tell them / that in the generatinge of euerie creature (euen in Minerals) there is the Nature Actiue, and the nature Passiue: secondly / that Syn is no substance / but a bare Axcident / or thing happening to accompanie mans nature / because of the first transgression. Now / of Accidents / or things associatinge a Substance som are seperable. Now / if anie shold say that syn is inseperable / they may aswell say it is of the Essence of Man / and that is apparantly false / inasmuch as Man was perfect without it: yea / in very deed / it is his imperfection. Be∣sides / that which is impossible with man / that is possible with God. And that this Posse sit eius velle / is a possibilitie agreing with his will / let them remember that the holy ghost (Luk. 1.35.) whose office is as fyre to bur∣ne and water to wash / loe he ouershadowes Mary for the perfectinge of this worke.

And much I muse / that any shold think it possible to make the first Adam so glorious a Creature / and that of red earth: and in the meane tyme / deme it so vnable for the second Adam to arise out of our Nature. But say they / The word was made flesh: true / what then? Then Maries seed was not made flesh. I answer: if the word Made / imply a turning of one Na∣ture into another: Then our Apollinarifts Christ will followe. Expound therfore the word Made or Became, by the word Epilambaneraj, he assu∣med, Heb. 2.16. Nor think to ••lip away with sayinge / he tooke a seede for Abraham and the faithfull / but remember the text / He tooke the seede of Abraham, and so the seede of the faithfull. And for this cawse is he termed so oft Dauids sonne: and If haj the roote from whence he shold growe / Isa. 11.1. though in regard of the Nature assuminge / he be called Dauids son and Goote / Ps. 110.1. Reu. 5.5. And in vayne had Mathew and Luke la∣boured to proue him genealogically of Adam / Abraham / and Dauid / if so he had not deriued an humaine nature from them.

Oh saith the false spirit / he was of Dauid in regard of Ioseph his suppo∣sed Father / not by reason of Mary / for she was of Leuj / inasmuch as Eli∣sabet of Aaron / Luk. 1.1.36. was cosen to Mary. Our English Samo∣satenists / som of them deming this but plaine cosenage in the Anabaptists / (and indeed / they propound vnto vs so / but a supposed Christ) they say in secret / that they were Cosens only in regard / that Iudah and Leuj had one and the same Mother / Gen. 29.34.35. This sence is far fetcht and deare bought / good inough for Botchers / that clap any clout on their garment. But consideringe the Shiloh must spring from Iudah, Gen. 49.10. Reu. 5.5. and Dauid lineallie / I must needs hold fast / that Mary his mother was of Iudah, as also Elizabet by the Mother-side (the surest side) thowgh a Daughter of Aaron by reason of her Father.

Simple sowles / though Iudahs men might not Marrie (no more then any of the other 10. tribes) with Leuj / because of confoundinge the enheri∣taunce / Nomb. 36.7.8.9. Yet Leuies Men / who had no such enheritaunce / Iosh. 13.33. (And therfore no such confusion) they might (as they had their maintenance out of the other Tribes / so) Marrie with the other tribes. Such a Mariage se in 2. Chro. 22.11. where the holy preist Iehojadah, is maried with Iehosheba of Iudahs kyng-seede. Besides / Ioseph and Mary hauinge the testimonie of Iust and pleasing god / it cannot without villanous reproach to them and Christ / be thought to make such an illegitimate mon∣grell Mariage / as the Anabaptists wold haue it. Go therfore / which way they and their opposit neighbour Artemon will to worke / till they graun•• him true God and true Man / existinge of two Natures distinct / not mingled their work but shutters in the ioynts / as Belshassars knees knocking ech other. The Iues saw him so verily Man / as they could not beleiue him to be also God: but the Manichests so se him God / as they cannot feele his hu∣maine Nature▪

These are the odde spirits / that teach the odde Doctrine / by which they disire to be distinguished from allothers for odde. If they can dash me and my brethren in the teeth / with holding Christ as doth the Church of England / the Church of Rome etc. oh then they haue won the can••red spurs / and their Christ must be the true Christ. These odde ones (for if they be Englishones they commonly are in fellowship with none / no not amongst themselues / only at league with the Deuell / who sets them all on worke: Euerie one sayinge / he is in the estate of Helias / (he sees no Saynt but himself) but all of them lying Elyasses. They must knoe / that the simplest member of thenglish church is better then the Greatest of them: and whosoeuer in simplicitie beleiueth of Christ his natures and person in the Generall (as doth Rome) they hold that truth which euer hath preuailed against Arius / Manicheus and all hereticall spirits. And were it not that this beleif of Christ / hath in all ages preuailed against hel gates / I shold suspect it / Yea / reiect it. Nay / what if The De∣uel confesse Iesus to be the sonne of Dauid / and the Apostles to be the servāts of the euerliuinge god etc. shold I therfore not professe the same? I prai∣se god for it / that the Corner stone is still bidinge visible though the orderlie building thereunto and thervpon / hath bene notably lackinge.

He that lookes into this Christ with the one ey / he cannot se in the Car∣penter two things: as scholers vse to speake / aliud and aliud / another and another thinge / or nature: not alius and alius / another and another Per∣son? and because aliud and aliud therfore not one thinge / either Diuyne / or Humaine / or Mixt. Both eyes must exquire this Mysterie. But the sword is on the lest ey of Manes / on the right ey of Artemon: and on both the eyes of our Appollinarists.

Thus / while the Lord Carpenter is hewing out his tymber / som log•• proue not only crooked / but knobby and knurry / vnwilling to be cut and squared.. If they giue him Man / they will not giue him God: if they giue him god they will not giue him man: or giue they him of God and Man / it shalbe but a peece of god / and a peece of Man: and thus they peece vp A pat∣ched Christ amongst them. Non est bonum ludere cum sanctis, it is not good iesting with edg-loomes. Maries son / was Maries Lord / and Lord and son was A handicrafts man / a Carpenter in our Nature / for hewing out A better ship / then Noah hewed out of the Pynetrees. Noahs Arke was precious stuffe / so is this spirituall chest the church of gold and siluer / and liuinge precious stones / begotten by A seede as im••ortall as god himself. 1. Pet. 1.23. by reason wherof they communicate with the Nature diuyne. 2. Pet. 1.4. That Ark was One / so is the Church wherein Christ dwelleth by his spirit vnto the worlds end: though these heretiks wold with the har∣lot / 1. King. 3. haue the liuinge childe diuided into two: nay / into as many gob∣bets / as their schismaticall sword can rut. The soldiers wold not diuyde Christs coate / but these dogs of the euening that go grinning about the ci∣ty / they make no conscience to teare it with their teeth in fitters. In Noahs ship / though one / there were 3. roumes / and herein be sondry Mansions.

Noahs ship rid vpon the waues / and the Church must flote through all tem∣pestuous miseries. In it was a Cham and vncleane creatures: and in this wilbe the lurking hypocrite and many vncleane sowles / faring the better for the presence of our Carpenter. That / at the last rested vpon the tops of the Mountaines: and shall not our Carpenters Church after all hurly-bur∣lyes / ariue at A hauen of happines / hier then the Mountaines? Oh blessed Carpenter / when god himself is the Carpenter: and oh worke ineffable when god in the nature of the worke / must hewe out the tymber / square it / ioyne it / polish it.

Thus the head of our nature and first fruites of our lump / he followed the occupation earthly / vntill he fell vnto the occupation heauenly. In the first he was serviceable to the earthlie parent / in the second to the heauenly: but Being once adapted to the second / he leaues of the first / to teach men to cast aside earthly toyle / when by ministring the ghospel / they fall of building the Church. The Apostles / Act. 6. found by experience / that they (though endued with gui••ts extraordinarie) could not attend both on the Word and Tables / but our odde spirits / wold haue vs to waite on the word and Sta∣bles. And indeed / metinge once or neuer in A moneth or two (for they de∣ride the Lord his day: Ismaels seede for prophane mockinge) it shalbe no great matter to followe a manuarie science (though with som false stiches) and then to fadge out A preachment: speciallie / su••h A sermon / as the Cob∣ler pulleth out of the Beasts hyde / as full of diuinitie / as Manes Christ of humanitie. I despise not / but commend the homeliest occupation / but when the following of it / must be preferred to giuing attendance vnto readinge and studie / I despise it / as A darkner of Christs learninge.

Is not this the Carpenter Maries son? The Iewes hearing him speak so learnedly and powerfully / they wonder it shold be in A Man / that neuer had bene trayned vp in letters. They had learned (which I wold the fanaticall spirits had Learned) that with man it is impossible to at∣taine to or comprehend great guiftes / without such ordinary meanes / as are left to man. And indeed / howsoeuer with god all things are possible / speci∣ally when he will worke miraculously / yet with man it is not possible: and therfore must walke in the kings hy-way / as Paul had / who sat at the feete of Gamaliel, and manie others that kept the schooles of the prophets. 1. Cor. 14. Act. 13.1. But our fugitiue ytchinge spirits / because ech of them wold be A teacher in Israel / they skorne all learninge / tongues / arts and readinge / and who so bolde as blynd bayarde?

Som odde Philosophers held / that A man dying / his sowle was con∣uaide into som other Man / or Beast / or for som excellency seated amongst the starres: If this dreane had bene true / I wold haue thought that the Emperour Licinius his ghost / were mingled amongst these men. He held Learning the Common wealths ratsbane / and these cannot abide to heare of schooles of Learninge. They magine their Brother learned inough: if

he can (with som vnlettered ministers) reason thus: The Apostles were Fishermen & Paul a Tentmaker therfore beloued brethren / A figge for Vniuersities: God hath chosen the foolish & the weak to confound the wise and strong / Therfore A rush for Beza / Caluin / ey / for all the Greeke and Latin Fathers / and Doctors. And if this teacher can adde: Peter calleth Christ the son of God / therfore Christ is only God: oh / he shall haue A Comick applause: he may put on the Tragick buskin / and thensforth trudge from Conuenticle to Conuenticle / in the office of an Apostle. What if his neighbour Artemon shold step in / and oppose with this argu∣ment: Christ calls himself the son of man, therfore he is not god but bare man (specially seing Christ must be credited before Peter) what wold thei∣re pseudo-Apostle say? I feare / if a third step not in and say / both scriptu∣res are true / for Christ is true God and true Man / the men wold goe nere to fyre the howse in their heat.

Sweet Carpenter / thus they plowe furrowes on thy back all the day longe. Though Eutiches and Manes shold with Thomas Didimus, sho∣ue their hands into thy side / they will not beleiue thy humanitie: Though Cerinthus and Artemon heare thy Apostle say: In the / the plenitude of the god head dwelleth bodiy, they will not beleiue thy diuyne essence: and though Apollinaris heare the say / My sowle is heauy vnto the death: as also / Into thy hands I commend my spirit, Yet he will not beleiue that the word God assumed with the body / a Sowle / or a reasonable sowle. But rather in his followers make Christ an odde third thinge / as is water and wyne mingled. If the Carpenters are smite not home into the harts of such Diuiders of Ie∣sus / surely they are like to persist reproueable Tymber.

Is not this the Carpenter? Yes. Is not this Maryes son? Yes. When the Hearers were offended in him (en auto) not by him (for the scandale was Taken, not Giuen) they then fall to Whats and Ifs and all sortes of disgracinge Interrogatories. Had he with Noah, Lot, Abraham, Isaac, Iuda, Dauid, Ieremy, Ionah, Peter, Barnabas, Mark: Had he transgressed with these / they wold haue had it vp. But wantinge Syn (and therein he went before all Prophets) they tosse vp and downe (as with a Racket) his Callinge and Birthe homely: not being able to infringe his Doctrine / they labour to disgorge theyr stomake on his Person. The pageant of our odde spirits / vp and downe. If they cannot except with Reason against our Car∣penters ministry theyr Doctrine / then they fly vnto theyr Persons / exqui∣ringe insyde and outsyde / if any spot may be found for stranglinge the Doctri∣ne in theyr bodyes. If they haue delt so with the Grene stock / how will they deale with the dry (though not withered) braunches. Speake vnto this generation as Iohn did to the Pharises / oh generation of vipers (Math. 3.7.) that for bringing your selues to worlds light / do bore holes in the belly of the Church: Or with Paul vnto / Bariesus (Act. 13.) giue vnto them theyr proper Attribute / 1. For resistinge the truth them selues: 2. for seking to

turne others also from the truth: Or with Iesus (Math. 12.32.33.34.) prem••nish them of the grand syn against the holy ghost / oh then they put theyr fingers in the eare and with tooth / tongue and hand they laboure the Ministers disgrace / yea destruction finall. They will accuse such Teachers of want of Meeknes and humility (for they wold rule ouer vs by humble∣nes of Mynd / Colos. 2.18. Creping into howses for leadinge simple sowles captiue / 2. Tim. 3.6.) But let the two edged sword of the word be applied closely to their Reynes / our Philosophers that brag of such patience / will let vs se their venom that before juggled vnder the board.

In the Places of Heb. 6.1.2.3.4.5.6. and Ch. 10.23. vnto 28. verse. is A syn layd downe termed Irremissible. To the effectinge which syn / two par∣ticulars are mentioned: the One a forsakinge of the beginnings of faith, Called also Hope: the other is a forsakinge of fellowship Or communion spirituall with such as with whome they had community spirituall. This Collection is plaine: and other Collection there is not. Such Apostacy and Schisme is termed Willinge: because they do not (as Peter did) fal for∣cebly through feare of Ciuil powre or such externall thinges. For the word (ecousios) Willingly or frely, is such an vnforced fall as was Iulians in the whole foundation: of Arius and many other heretiks in the truth of Christs person: and such hath bene the fall and schisme of Most of these who whetted my pen vnto this treatise. Not Apostates only in the Mouth (as was Ecebolius and Fr. Spiera) but that which is worse / Apostates in the heart (the place of Faithes rootinge) as by theyr owne resistinge the truth (and that bitterly) which once they held and professed with knowledge and much Comfort / it appeareth. For first they haue bene enlightened / tasted of the heauenly guifte and stood in and for that Hope: But afterwards vn∣constrained by outward powre / they haue frely forsaken the grounds / either wholy with Iulian or in part with Arius: nor yet cold we euer se any one of them possessed with Repentaunce: but either swalowe vp more of the Dra∣gons water: or else are one with Papists / Anabaptistes / Arrians / and what sect not (yet condemninge them all) in A word / flat Atheistes. The∣se (consideringe the truth they once held) are sayd (Tit. 3.11.) to be dam∣ned of their owne selues. Nor is this the Nouatians doctrine / for they vn∣derstood this Syn in the Hebrues / not only of Faith / but also of Manners: which is euidently not only ag••inst common experience in the faithfull fal∣ling 70. tymes 7. tymes in Manners and yet arising againe / but also) against the open textes / which propound vnto vs a fallinge from faith / or hope in the foundation / or beginings of Christ. Which syn by som is held irremissable symply: by som irremissable in respect: tha is / in regard it is almost neuer pardoned: vnto which sence Ise not how I may easly oppose.

Such Fallers and withdrawers / seme to vs in worse estate then was Elymas / for these once admitted / Yea reioyced in the light / so had not he: these haue fallen backward from the staires wherby with comfort thei semed to ascend into the Temples Chamber: Elpmas so fell not / but laboured to

hynder others to ascende. These as starres fallen from the firmament / labour with Lucifer to hale others after. Bariesus laboured but to kepe others in the same darknes he was borne and bred in. Peter calleth such / welles dra∣wen dry / clowdes carryed about: and Iude termes them despisers of Go∣uernment / twise dead / pulled vp by the rootes / raging waues / Planets or wandring starres / denying God and our Lord Iesus Christ. Not that euer any one possessed with the beginings of faith did simply fall from all acknow∣ledginge God and Christ (for neuer was such a thinge) and the two Apostles foretel that there shold be many of these spirits) but a fallinge frely (vncon∣strained) from the rudiments of God and Christ first receiued from the Ghos¦pel. These Apostates and withdrawing spirits / vpon the hearinge and rea∣ding herof / They will haue whats and ifs and all sortes of Narrations / wherby to be offended in me. Theyr fathers delt so with the liuing roote of the vyne: and must I (an vnworthy dry braunch / though through god his grace vnblasted) must I scape scotfre? No / no. These spirits must speak euell of the thinges they knowe not: and what they knowe naturally / Iude. 10.) as beastes vnreasonable / euen in those thinges also they corrupt themselues. But our Carpenter hath set downe A lawe / that persecuting his members (specially his Ministers) it is a persecuting of himself (the better may we beare it) as also that such but kick against the prick to theyr owne Perill.

Amiable myld speaches are for such as yet haue not com to the truth: or hauing comprehended som thinges / haue not yet attained vnto other things (for we but se in part) but Mosaical theratnings appertaine to the former spirits. Secondly Euangelical sweetnes is for bruized reedes / not obstinat hearts. Thirdly / all falling through in firmity / is to be supported with meeknes: but backslidinges (as the former) are to heare this speach: The light of the Righteous encreaseth vntil perfect day / but the candle of the wicked shalbe blowen o••t: and vnto them is reserued (what tyme the Ta∣lent is depriued) this sentence: bynd him hand and foote and cast him into vtterdarknes: there shalbe weping and gnashing of teth. He that putteth not A difference (Iude. 22.23.) in the manner of sauing and callinge peop∣le out of sowles danger / he therein is ignorant of the Law and the Ghospel. The Niniuets preuented (by Repentance) the Iudgment denounced by Io∣nah. I wold not with that Prophet fret but reioyce / if these spirits by ty∣mely repentance / wold fly from judgment ensuinge.

Is not this the Carpenter, Maries Son? Yes: this is the Carpenter / on whose edged axe Many shold fall: and this is Maries son in regard of the flesh: but the son of God by the first generation / whose goinge out was before begining of Days: A Rock of offence / and a stone whervpon many shold fall till they were grounded to powder: and yet the light of the Gentiles / and the glory of his people Israel. This Carpenter is the Christ: His ad∣uersary is Anti-christ. Whosoeuer gather not vnto this Carpenter / they scater to him / but gather vnto the Dragon the parent of Anti-christ. His exal∣ted Aduersarie is either Gog / Couered: Or Magog / vncouered. The Coue∣red Antichrist / is that hereticall body which is opposit to Mahomet, of how

contrary sectes soeuer. The Open aduersarie is Iew and Mahomet: But Mahomet giuinge more glory to our Carpenter / then Doth the Iew accur∣sed. But all of them proue Aduersaries exalted against Maries son. All of them joyne (as do the Carpenters / Zechar. 1.20.21.) in One against our Car∣penters howse / but in the end he shall with his Axe of vengeance Cut of the hornes of the wicked.

Well thow art the Carpenter and Maries son: hew out thy work as thow will. Som tymber for thy ship / all the chips for the fyre. And what (by the finger of thy spirit) thow hast begon in me / vouch safe thow to finish vnto the smallest pynne: and that accordinge to the glorious Arch-type / thow brought out of the bosom of the Father: so be it.

Antichristus eat, Christus comitatus ab alto Coelicolis properat. Gog-magog ecce ruit. Ecce ruit regnum: Serpens detrusus ad Orcum; Bestia tum sequitur: Cauda Propheta dein. Cauda Propheta, dein populus seductus ab illis. veh miseris, ter veh.

Labitur omnis gloria falsa.

For the supplyinge of the page accept of Daniel and the Apostles their Prophecy.

THe a 1.1 golden head and a 1.2 Lyon, do portend Kyngdom of Babilon, vnto his end. The b 1.3 Siluery part / the b 1.4 Beare and Ram import Kyngdom of Medes and Persians in Con-sort. The c 1.5 Brasen part / the c 1.6 Leopard and c 1.7 Goate The kyngdom of the Grecians do denote. Two d 1.8 Legges, 2. d 1.9 feete, 4. d 1.10 hornes and them 4. d 1.11 heads, Poynt forth Greece Monarch parted in 4. steads. e 1.12 One of the 4. (and that was Syria) Brought forth blasphemous f 1.13 horne, the Iues decay. But at g 1.14 full tyme (these 4. being one gainst Iew) Downe came the h 1.15 stone, which all these kyngdoms slue. To these 4. Beastes and out of them (as were) The i 1.16 Romaine Monarch came as doth appeare. From whence hath spronge A later Antichrist / Fighting against the k 1.17 Army of the hiest. But feare not Brethren / as the l 1.18 former fell: So shal the m 1.19 Latter be sent downe to Hell.

Crysostomus.

THer be Som which judge badly of all thinges: For if A man study hum••∣lity / they say he is an hypocrite: If he recreate himself / he is fleshly: If patient / he is fearful: If he striue for justice / he is impatient: If simple / A foole: If prudent / then Malitious: If rypened / then Melancholik: If merry / then dissolute▪ If religious / then they terme him singular: If socia∣••le / then secular: If silent and peaceable / a dissimuler.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Dan. 2.38 and 7.4.
• a 1.2

  Dan. 2.38 and 7.4.
• b 1.3

  Dan. 2.39 and 7.5. and 8.20.
• b 1.4

  Dan. 2.39 and 7.5. and 8.20.
• c 1.5

  Dan. 2.39. and 7.6. and 8.21. Isa. 21.2.
• c 1.6

  Dan. 2.39. and 7.6. and 8.21. Isa. 21.2.
• c 1.7

  Dan. 2.39. and 7.6. and 8.21. Isa. 21.2.
• d 1.8

  Dan. 2.40 etc. and 7.6. and 8.8.
• d 1.9

  Dan. 2.40 etc. and 7.6. and 8.8.
• d 1.10

  Dan. 2.40 etc. and 7.6. and 8.8.
• d 1.11

  Dan. 2.40 etc. and 7.6. and 8.8.
• e 1.12

  Dan. 7.8. and 8.8.
• f 1.13

  Dan. 7.8. and 8.9. etc.
• g 1.14

  Gal. 4.4.
• h 1.15

  Dan. 2.45 and 9.25.26
• i 1.16

  Reuel. 13.1 etc. compa∣red with Ch. 17.
• k 1.17

  Dan. 8.10 Reuel. 13.15 and 11.7.
• l 1.18

  Dan. 8.25.
• m 1.19

  Reuel 19. and 2. Thes. 2.8.