The contemplations upon the history of the New Testament. The second tome now complete : together with divers treatises reduced to the greater volume / by Jos. Exon.

1 Cor. 15. 32.

If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, &c. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

OUR Saviour foretold us that these last days should be quarrel∣some; all the world doth either act or talk of fighting: Give me leave therefore to fall upon the common Theme of the times, and to tell you of an holy Combat. Saint Peter tels us [ D] there are many knots in S. Paul's Epistles: this may well go for one of them, which is the relation of his Conflict at Ephesus. There are that have held it literal, and those not mean nor onely modern Authors. Nice∣phorus tels us a sound tale of S. Paul's commitment to prison by Hieronymus the Governour of Ephesus, his miraculous deliverance for the Christening of Eubula and Artemilla, his voluntary return to his Gaole, his casting to the Lion, of the beast couching at the feet of the Saint, of the hail-storm sending away the beholders with broken heads and the Governour with one ear shorn off, of the Lions escape to the mountains. It is a wonder in what mint he had it. There was indeed a Theatre at Ephesus for such purposes; and, Christia∣nos [ E] ad leonem, was a common word, as we find in Tertullian. Ignatius, Tecla, Prisca, and many other blessed Martyrs were corn allotted to this mill. But what is this to S.Paul's Combat? It is one thing to be cast to the beasts as an offender, another thing to fight with beasts as a Champion; a difference which I wonder the sharp eyes of Erasmus saw not. Those were forced by the sentence of condemnation, these Voluntaries as in the Jogo de toros; those were brought to suffer, these came to kill; those naked, these armed. Can any man be so senseless as to think that S. Paul (tricubitalis ille, as Chrysostome cals him) would put himself into the Theatre with his sword and target to maintain a duel with the Lion? Thus he must doe, else he did not according to the Letter 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. [ F] But if it be pleaded that some bloody sentence might cast him into the Theatre to be devoured, and his will and natural care of self-preservation incited him to his own defence; is it possible that so faithful an Historian as S. Luke should in his Acts omit this passage more memorable then all the rest that he hath recorded? Indeed S. Paul, who had reason to keep the best register of his

[ A] own life, hath reported some things of himself which S. Luke hath not parti∣cularized: he tels us of five scourgings, three whippings, three shipwracks; whereas S. Luke tels us but of one shipwrack Act. 27. of one scourging, Act. 16. 23. But so eminent an occurrence as this could not have passed in silence; at least amongst that catalogue of less dangers his own Pen would not have smothered it. Yea let me be bold to say that this not onely was not done, but could not be. Paul was a Citizen of Rome; if that priviledge saved him from lashes, Act. 22. 25. much more from the beasts; their contemptible jaws were no death for a Roman. I am with those Fathers, (Tertullian, Chrysostome, Je∣rome, Theophylact, others) who take this metaphorically of men in shape, beasts [ B] in condition, paralleling it with 2 Tim. 4. 17. I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lion, that is, Nero: and with that of the Psalmist, Ne tradas bestiis animas confitentes tibi, Give not unto the beasts the souls that confess thee, as the Vulgar reads, Psal. 74. 19.

Who then were these beasts at Ephesus? Many and great Authors take it of Demetrius his Faction and their busie tumult, Acts 19. Neither will I strictly examine with S. Chrysostome, whether S. Paul sent away this former Epistle from Ephesus before those broils of their Diana and her Silver-smiths, as may seem to be gathered by conferring of S. Luke's journal with S. Paul's Epistle. Others take it of those Ephesian Conjurers, Acts 19. Tertullian hits it home, [ C] whiles in a generality he construes it of those beasts of the Asiatick pressure, whereof S. Paul speaks 2 Cor. 1. 8. That text glosses upon this at large; turn your eyes to that Commentary of S. Paul: For we would not have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measare above strength; insomuch as that we despaired of life. But we had the sentence of death in our selves. Lo here the Beasts; lo here the Combat. Ephesus was the mother-City of Asia; there S. Paul spent three years with such perpetual and hot bickerings, that his very life was hopeless. As some great Conquerour there∣fore desires to have his prime and most famous victory ingraven in his last Monument, so doth our Apostle single out this Ephesian; I fought with beasts [ D] at Ephesus.

My Text then shall be this one word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. But as this word is a compound, so it compounds my Text and discourse of two parts: the first comprehends the Beasts wherewith S. Paul conslicts; the latter the con∣flicts that he had with those Beasts. Both of them worthy of your most careful attention. My first subjects is harsh, and therefore will need a fair con∣struction.

The world is a wide Wilderness, wherein we converse with wild and savage creatures; we think them men, they are beasts. It is contrary to the delusions of Lycanthropy: there, he that is a man thinks himself a beast; here, he that is a [ E] beast thinks himself a man, and draws others eyes into the same errour. Let no man misconstrue me, as if, in a Timon-like or Cynick humour, I were fallen out with our creation. I know what the Psalmist saies, Thou hast made man little lower then the Angels (Psal. 8. 5.) there is but paulò minùs; I know some of whom it is said sicut Angeli, as the Angels of God; yea yet more, there are those of whom it is said, Dii estis, ye are Gods; besides these, every renewed man is a Saint, his Regeneration advances him above the sphere of mere Humanity: but let him be but a very man, that is, a man corrupted, I dare say, though he be set in honour, he is more then compared to the beast that perisheth. Far be it from us then to cast mire into the face of our Creator: God never made man [ F] such as he is; it is our sin that made our Soul to grovel; and if the mercy of our Maker have not condemned our hands to fore-legs, how can that excuse us from bestiality? Neither let us be thought to strike Grace through the sides of Nature: when it pleaseth God to breath upon us again in our Renovation, we cease to be what we made our selves; then do we uncase the beast, and put on an Angel. It is with depraved man in his impure naturals, that we must main∣tain

this quarrel: we cannot challenge a worse enemy then what we were, and [ A] what in part we are, and what without Gods mercy we should be.

Let degenerated Nature then fee her best Advocate at this barre; he can but plead Shape, Speech, Ratiocination to make himself no beast: and if these prove but some jugling mists to make him seem other then he is, he shall be forced to grant himself other then he seems, a beast.

To begin with the first. The true essence of Humanity lies not in the out∣side: God hath hid the Form of every creature deeper, much more of him that should be reasonable. Let us give leave to holy Austin's credulity, that a man was by a piece of an inchanted Cheese turned into an Ass: tell me now, ye Philosophers, what creature ye will call this. His Soul is the same, the Shape is [ B] altered: Reason is where she was, but otherwise attended. If ye dare say, it might be a beast with Reason, your best fort is lost. The Hide was now rough, the Ears long, the Hooves round and hard, and the whole Habit bestial; but if Reason had not more power to make him no beast then these outward parts had to make him no man, I have what I would. You must of force therefore say it was a man clothed with a beast, and so shall fall upon that of Cleanthes, which Epiphanius mentions, that the Soul is the man. What is the Body then but the Habit of this Spirit, which it may change or put off without change, as under divers sutes we still wear the same skin? If we had been on the Scaffold to see a man challenging the dogs in the disguise of a Bears-hide, would we have [ C] said, Now two beasts are fighting? The Shape therefore may well belie the Substance. Our English Navigations report that on some Indian shores men have been seen with the faces of beasts; and ye know the old verse, Simia quàm similis? Yea both our stories and the Netherlandish tell us of Sea-monsters that have been taken up in the full form of men: if the outside seemed hu∣mane, whiles the inside was mute and reasonless, who would honour that crea∣ture with the style of man? What should I tell you that evil spirits have not seldome appeared in the shipes of men, as that Devil of Endor in Samuel's like∣ness? If the outward Figure could have made the man, the Prophet had sur∣vived his death. To these let me adde, that the Shape is changed with disease [ D] or casualty or age, whiles the man is the same: The Face that was fair, is now distorted and morphew'd; the Hair that was yellow or black, turn'd white or vanished; the Body that was erect, bowed double; the Skin that was white and smooth, turn'd tawnie and writhel'd; and the whole frame so altered, as if it had been molded anew, that whiles all others mis-know it, he that dwels in that tenement can scarce know it to be his own: and yet the owner will not say with that mortified spirit, Ego non sum ego. What shall we say of the proud Monarch of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, during the seven years of his trans∣formation? His outward Shape was not changed, his heart was; it was the word of his Vision, Let his heart be changed from mans, and let a beasts heart be [ E] given unto him, Dan. 4. 16. What was he now for the time but a beast even in his own sense? His diet was with the oxen, his hair like Eagles fethers, his nails like birds claws; all was, obbrutescebat animus, his heart was bestial in a case of humane flesh. It is not therefore the Shape that can forbid man to be a beast. And it was not for nothing that the Cynick sought in the full streets for a man, and would not allow that acclamation to Doxippus in the Olympian games, Doxippus viros vicit.

Let us see what Speech and Reason can doe, Ratio & Oratio. Every living creature hath a peculiar sound whereby to express it self; and that not without some variety of signification and change of note. If man onely speak articulately [ F] words of voluntary formation and arbitrary imposition, yet even brutes have such natural language as whereby each of the same kind do mutually under∣stand other; and what can our words obtain more? If an Apollonius Tyaneus could construe them in their sense, it is all one as if he listened to his Gossips. But besides the natural tone, have we not heard Birds taught so to imitate the

[ A] voice of men, that they have received replies, as not distinguished? Do not our books tell us of the Hyaena, that learns the Shepherds name, and calls him forth to his cost, so cunningly counterfeiting the voice that the man paies his blood for his credulity? A dumb man is no less a man then a pratler. Balaam's Ass was a beast still, and yet not only spake, but spake in a mans voice, 2 Pet. 2. 16. Besides that, man when he comes to his best, shall have no use of Speech; (although there want not some, as Gerson, Salmeron and others, that hold a vocal Quire in Heaven.) The Angels praise God and understand each other, without use of a tongue; once we shall be like them. It is not Speech therefore that makes the man, since man shall be most himself when he shall [ B] not speak.

It is Reason that mainly differenceth man from beast, and the improve∣ment of it in a free deduction of consequences and conclusions: that Divine power dwells onely in the immortal Soul of man, and is not communicable to the lower forme of creatures. Let me have leave still to put you in mind that I speak not of man created in innocence; I speak not of man as renewed by Grace, and by that initiated in Glory: I speak of man as depraved by sin. Now he hath indeed the light of Reason, but so dim and duskie, that we may well say he looks through horn, not through Crystal: He that was an Eagle, is now an Owle to this Sun. As his best Graces are lost, so his se∣cond [ C] powers are marr'd: he is therefore now become like the beast that perisheth, not in frailty only, but in ignorance; for it follows, This their way is their folly, Psal. 49. 13.

Besides, we see the outside of those creatures we call brute, we see not what is within them. Not to speak of the excellency of their Common sense and strength of Memory; surely their Phantasie yields such inferences as would seem to evince an inferiour and mungrel kind of Ratiocination. Who that should see Plutarch's Crow coming to the pail to drink, and finding it not full enough for her reach, carrying stones to raise up the water; who that should see the Beavers framing their den, or some Birds building their [ D] nests; who that should see the Lion plaining the impression of his paws with his sterne; who that should see the Cranes ballasting themselves when they are to fly over the mountains; who that shall see the wily tricks of the Fox, or the witty feats of the Monkey or Baboon; who that shall read of the Elephant learning letters and numbers, and plotting his cunning revenges, would not say that these, and a thousand the like, must needs argue a baser kinde of sensitive discourse, such as wherein Imagination doth notably coun∣terfeit Reason, and in some weak subjects so transcend it, as that Lactantius dares say, (I dare not) Ista non facerent, nisi inesset illis intelligentia & cogi∣tatio? It is true, our reasonable Soul is furnished with higher powers; but [ E] it is not more honour to have had them, then shame to have impair'd them. If God doth not breath upon our dim glasses and wipe them clear, they shew us nothing. To speak plainly; Indeed it is our Illumination that perfects Reason; and that Illumination is from the Father of lights, without whose Divine light natural Reason is but as a Dial without the Sun, eyes without light: For the natural man perceiveth not the things of the spirit of God, nei∣ther can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned, 1 Cor. 2. 14. And in that person it is that Agar the Son of Jakeh speaks, I am more brutish then man, I have not the understanding of a man, Prov. 30. 2. Why this? I have not the knowledge of the holy, vers. 3. The word is remarkable; no other [ F] then 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, whence is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Jumentum, a Beast; the same that Ezekiel uses, when he sayes, I will give thee over into the hands of brutish men, Ezec. 21. 31. and the Psalmist, when he saies, Oh ye foolish, or brutish, among the people, when will ye understand? So as, notwithstanding this muddy and imperfect Reason, God sees a kinde of brutality in the natural man. Whereto it may please you to adde, that in a man debauch'd Reason is so much worse then brutishness,

by how much wickedness is worse hainous then simplicity; and if want of [ A] Reason make a Beast, abuse of Reason makes a Devil. It is a miserable ad∣vantage that make us onely apt to evil, and capable of an Hell: small cause have we to brag of those powers which so distinguish us from beasts, that they make us worse then beasts. In short therefore, notwithstanding Shape, Speech, Reason, a natural (and thereby a vicious) man may well pass for a beast.

And now that we see it apparent that he is so, let us a little inquire how he became so. Certainly, God made man upright, as in shape, so in dispo∣sition: What wrought this miserable Metamorphosis? What could do it but Sorcery? and what Witch could this be but the old Circe of the world, [ B] Sensuality? Man is led and informed by Reason, Beasts by Sense: now when man abandons Reason, and gives himself up to Sense, he casts off the man, and puts on the beast. Neither is this sensuality in the Affection only, but it goes through the whole Soul: there is a sensual Understanding as well as a sensual Appetite: the one makes a beast in Opinion, the other in Pra∣ctice. Gross Errour doth the one, Vice the other. Whosoever therefore is transported with either, is turn'd Beast. Give me a man that is given up to his filthy Lusts, give me a man whose Reason is drawn through his maw or his spleen; let him be otherwise what he will, I dare say he is no other then a beast. [ C]

And now what variety think you is there of several kinds? no wilderness affords so many. Nero is a Lion, 2 Tim. 4. 17. Herod a Fox, Luke 13. 32. the Jewish false-teachers Dogs, Phil. 3. 2. David's persecutors Bulls of Basan, and Unicorns, Ps. 22. 12, 21. the Aegyptian enemies Dragons, Ps. 74. 13. the Scribes and Pharisees Serpents, Vipers, Mat. 23. 33. the Babylonian Mo∣narch an Eagle-winged Lion, the Persian a Bear, the Macedonian a Leopard, Dan. 7. 4, 5, 6. the enemies of the Church wild Boares, Ps. 80. 13. Greedy Judges evening Wolves, Zeph. 3. 3. Schismaticks Foxes cubs, Cant. 2. 15. The time and my breath would fail me if I should reckon up all the several kinds of beasts in the skins of men. Surely as there is thought to be no beast [ D] upon earth which hath not his fellow in the sea, and which hath not his sem∣blance in Plants; so I may truly say, there is no beast in the vast desart of the world which is not parallel'd in man. Yea, as Effects and Qualities are in an higher degree found in Causes and Subjects equivocal then in their own, (as Heat is more excellently in the Sun then in the Fire;) so certainly is bru∣tishness more eminent and notorious in man then in beast.

Look into all heards and droves, and see if you can find so very a beast as the Drunkard. It was S. Austin's reason of old, Those beasts will drink no more then they think enough; and if the Panther (which they say is the drun∣kennest beast) or the Swine be overtaken with unaccustomed liquor, it is upon [ E] ignorance of the power of it; (so a Noah himself may be at first mistaken.) But mans Reason foretells him that those intoxicating draughts will bereave him of Reason, yet he swills them down wilfully; as if it were a pleasure to forgoe that whereby he is a man. The beast when he hath his load, may frisk a little, and move inordinately, and then lye down in an ordinary posture of harmless rest: but for the Drunkard, his tongue reel•• straight either into rai∣ling or ribaldry, his hands into swaggering and bloomed; all his motions are made of disorder and mischief, and his rest is no less odious then his mo∣ving. See how he lies wallowing in his own filthy excretions, in so loath∣some a fashion as were enough to make the beholder hate to be a man. [ F] And now, when we have all done, after all the shame and scorn, here is Sus ad volutabrum. All the world cannot reclaim an habituated Drunkard; that which the beasts know not how to doe, his wit projects when he is sober how he may be drunk; and, which St. Chrysostome well observes, as more tran∣scending all humors of beasts, how he may force others to his own shameful

[ A] excess. Far, far be this abominable vice from any of you, Courtiers. That which the Lacedaemonians scorned in their very Slaves, that which our for∣mer times had wont to disdain in Beggers, let not that stain the honour of a Christian Court. Or if any such should hear me this day, Awake ye drun∣kards and weep, and howle ye drinkers of wine, Joel 1. 5. return back your superfluous liquor into teares: or if ye will not weep, ye shall howl, if ye will not weep with penitents, ye shall howl with hell-hounds; and ye that now pour down vessels more to make then quench thirst, shall one day in vain wish to give all the world for but one drop of water to cool that flaming tongue which a whole Ocean cannot so much as moisten.

[ B] Look if in all the mountains or falls there be any such Goat or Stalli∣on as the Voluptuous man. Those silly beasts are carried with the sway of their natural desires into those actions of lust which are uncapable both of shame and sin; but in their own seasons, and within their own line: these high-fed steeds are ever neighing after strange flesh, and, as was said of beastly Messalina, may be wearied, cannot be satisfied. Those beasts affect not to go in any other then the ordinary road of Nature: but these prodigies of Sodomitical lewdness, as St. Paul speaks to his Romans (even then infa∣mous, for this not-to-be-named villany) burn in lust one towards another, and man with man work that which is unseemly. In that impure City beasts [ C] might have been Saints to the men; even out of that reason which the wan∣ton Roman Dame gave of old for their filly innocence, because they are beasts.

Look into all the cribbs and troughs of brutish diet, and see whether you can finde such a beast as a Glutton. Those irrational creatures take that sim∣ple provision which Nature yields them but to a sufficiency; not affecting curiosity of dressings, varieties of mixtures, surcharges of measures: whereas the liquorous palate of the Glutton ranges through seas and lands for uncouth delicacies, kills thousands of creatures for but their tongues or giblets, makes but one dish of the quintessence of an hundred fouls or fishes, praises that for [ D] the best flesh that is no flesh, cares only to solicit that which others would be glad to satisfie, appetite. What shall I say more? this Gourmand sacrifices whole hecatombs to his paunch, and whiffs himself away in Necotian Incense to the Idol of his vain intemperance, and teares his own bowels, yea his Soul, with his teeth.

Look into all the caves and dens of the wildest desart, see if there be any such Tiger or Wolf as an Enemy, as an Usuring oppressor. Even the sava∣gest beasts agree with themselves, else the wilderness would soon be unpeo∣pled of her four-footed inhabitants. Cruel man falls upon his own kinde, and spills that blood which, when both are shed, he cannot distinguish from his own. [ E] The fiercest beast, if he seize upon a weaker prey, is incited by a necessity of hunger, and led by a natural law of self-preservation, which once satisfind, puts an end to his cruelty: man is carried with a furious desire of revenge, which is as unsatiable as hell it self. Hence are Murders of men, rapes of Virgins, braining and broaching of Infants, mangling of carkasses, carousing of blood, refossion of graves, torturing of the surviving, worse then many deaths; firing of Cities, demolishing of Temples, whole Countries buried in rubbish and ashes, and even the Christian World turn'd to a Shambles or Slaughter-house.

It were too easie for me to prosecute the rest, and in every vicious man to [ F] find more beasts then hides, or horns, or hoofs, or paws can discover. Brag of thy self therefore, O man, that thou art anoble creature, and vaunt of thine own perfections, look big and speak high; but if thou be no other then thou hast made (yea marr'd) thy self, the very brute beasts, if they could speak as thou dost, would in pity call thee, as the Philosopher did in La∣ertius, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Thrice man, in stead of thrice miserable, God and his

Angels and good men look upon thee with no less scorn then thou look'st [ A] upon that which thou art and think'st not, a beast; yea it were well if no worse. Let me say, there is not the most loathly and despicable creature that crawls upon the earth, which thou shalt not once envy, and wish to have been rather then what thou art. Raise up thy self therefore from this wo∣ful condition of depraved humanity (naturam vincat institutio, as Ambrose) and let it be thine holy ambition to be advanced to the blessed participati∣on of the Divine nature, and thereby to be more above thy self then the beast is below thee. Fight with thy self till thou hast beaten away the beast; and wrestle with God till his blessing have sent the Angel away with thee. [ B]

But from the common view of these beasts may it please you to cast down your eyes to the specials. There are beasts of Game, there are beasts of Ser∣vice: neither of these are for this place. They are harmful beasts with which this fight is maintained, and yet not every harmful beast neither. Ye know the Philosopher, when he was ask'd which was the harmfullest of all beasts, answered, Of tame, the Flatterer; of wild, the Detractor. We have nothing to doe with the former; and never may that pestilent beast have ought to doe with this Presence: those Serpents that swell up the Soul with a plausible poison, that kill a man laughing and sleeping, those Dogs that worry their masters, those Vultures that feed on the eyes, on the hearts of [ C] the Great; Hell is a fitter place for them then Christian Courts. The De∣tractor is a spightful beast; his teeth are spears and arrows, his tongue a sharp sword, Ps. 57. 4. (It was a great vaunt that the witty Captain made of his sword, that it was sharper then Slander) and, which is most dangerous, this beast is a close one, mordet in silentio, bites without noise, Eccles. 10. 11. He carries the poison of Aspes under his tongue, as David speaks; and in lingua diabolum, as Bernard. Deliver my soul, O God, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue. St. Paul was vexed with two kinds of them; 1 the Sophisters, 2 the Idolaters: 1 the wrangling adversaries of the Gospel, 2 the superstitious abettors of Diana, Act. 19. Both of them had foenum in [ D] cornu.

The first, after three months confutation, not onely remained refracta∣ry, but blasphemous, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, railing on Christianity, and that openly before the multitude. What beasts were these every way? Beasts, in that they would not be convinced by the clear and irrefragable demonstrations of truth, by the undeniable Miracles of the Apostles; in that as they had no Reason, so they would hear none. Beasts, in that they bellow'd out blas∣phemies against the sacred name of Christ. In analogy whereto let me safe∣ly and not uncharitably say, that whosoever he is that wilfully stands out against a plain evidence of truth, and sharpens his tongue against the way of [ E] God, is no other then a beast. There is a faction of men, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (Tit. 1. 14.) that do not onely turn their backs upon that bright-shining truth whose clear beams have these hundred years glared upon their faces; but also spend their clamorous mouths in barking against this glorious light. What marts of invectives, what Bulls of censure, what thunder∣bolts of Anathemas do we still receive from these spightful enemies of peace? What doth this argue but the litter of the Beast? Revel. 13.

The latter were the superstitious Demetrians, the doting Idolaters of Dia∣na: Beasts indeed, as for their sottishness, so for their violence and im∣petuosity. [ F]

Their Sottishness is notable even in their ring-leader Demetrius. Do you hear his exception against St. Paul? vers. 26. No other then this; He sayes that they are not Gods that are made with hands. Did ever any Ephesian beast bray out such another challenge? Is it possible that humane reason should be so brutified as to think a man may make his own God, as to seek a Deity

[ A] in liveless metals, as to bow his knees to what hath faln from his fingers? O Idolatry, the true Sorceress of the world! what beasts do thine inchant∣ments make of men! Even the fine Athenian (not the gross Theban) wits were fain to be taught that the Godhead is not like to gold, or silver, or stone. And would to God the modern Superstition were less fop∣pish. Hear this, ye seduced souls that are taught to worship a pastry-God. Ergo adeo stolidi opifices ab se fabrefieri Deos credunt? saith our Jesuite Lori∣nus of these Ephesians, These so foolish workmen think they can make their Gods. And why not of Gold as well as of Grain? why not the Smith as well as the Baker? Change but the name, the absurdity is but one. To hold [ B] that a man can make his own fingers, or that those fingers can make that wheat whereof the wafer is made, were a strange folly: but that a man can make the God that made him, and eat the God that he hath made, is such a monster of Paradoxes as puts down all the fancies of Paganisme, and were enough to make a wavering soul say with Averroes, Sit anima mea cum Philo∣sophis. I remember their learned Montanus upon Luke 22. 19. construes that Hoc est corpus meum, thus, Verum corpus meum in hoc Sacramento panis conti∣netur sacramentaliter, & etiam corpus meum mysticum, My true body is sacra∣mentally contained in this Sacrament of bread, as also my body mystical; and withall, as willing to say something if he durst speak out, addes, cujus arca∣nam [ C] & mysteriis refertissimam rationem, ut explicatiorem habeant homines Christiani, dabit aliquando Dominus, whose secret and most deeply-mystical meaning, God will one day more clearly unfold to his Christian people. Now the God of Heaven make good this honest Prophesie, and open the eyes of poor mis-led souls, that they may see to distinguish betwixt a slight corru∣ptible wafer, and an incomprehensible immortal God. And if from this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Bread-worship, I should lead you to their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Cross-wor∣ship, and from thence to their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Image-worship, you would finde reason enough why that man of Sin, the author of these Superstitions, should be called the Beast.

[ D] The Violence and impetuosity of these Ephesians was answerable: for here was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Trouble, verse 23. then 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Concourse, verse 40. then 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Confusion, and that in the whole City, verse 29, and more then that, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a furious rushing into the Theatre, and then 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a boisterous snatching of those that were conceived opposites, besides all their shouting, and out-cries, and savage uproar. What should I need to tell you, that this furious prosecution is no other then an ordinary symptom of Idolatry? and to make it good, what should I need to lay before your eyes all those turbulent effects that in our daies have followed malicious Superstiti∣on, those instigations of publick Invasions, those conspiracies against malig∣ned [ E] Soveraignty, those suffossions of walls, those powder-trains, those shame∣less Libels, those patrocinations of Treasons; and, to make up all, those late Bulls that bellow out prohibitions of justly-sworn allegeance, those bold ab∣solutions from sacred Oaths (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as he said of the Lacedaemonians?) In all these we too well feel that we have to doe with the beast; with S.John's beast, no whit short of S. Paul's.

God knows how little pleasure I take in displaying the enormities of our fellow-Christians. Although, to say as it is, not the Church, but the Facti∣on, is it that by their practice thus merits the title of savageness. Of that Fa∣ction let me say with sorrow of heart, that their wilful opposition to truth, their [ F] uncharitable and bloody courses, their palpable Idolatry hath powred shame and dishonour, and hath brought infinite loss and disadvantage to the blessed Name of Christ.

And now ye see by this time that in the generality natural and vicious men are no other then beasts; that specially all contentious adversaries to the Truth and impetuous Idolaters are beasts of S. Paul's Theatre. Wherefore then serves

all this, but to stir us up to a threefold use; of holy Thankfulness, of Pity, of [ A] Indignation?

The two first are those duo ubera Sponsa, the two breasts of Christs Spouse, as Bernard calls them, Congratulation and Compassion.

The former, of Thankfulness to our good God that hath delivered us, as from the wretchedness of our corrupt Nature, so from blinde and gross mis∣devotion, yea from the tyranny of Superstition. Alas! what are we better, what other then our neighbours, that our Goshen should be shined upon, whiles their Aegypt is covered with darkness? What are we that we should be renewed in the spirit of our mindes, and be created according to the Image of God, whiles they continue in the woful deformation of their bestial cor∣ruptions? [ B] that our Understanding should be inlightned with the beams of Di∣vine truth, whereas those poor souls are left in the natural dungeon of their ignorance, or groveling to base earthly unreasonable traditions? O God of mercies, had it pleased thee to give them our illumination and attraction, and to have left us in their miserable darkness and indocility, we had been as they are, and they perhaps had been as we should be. Non nobis, Domine, Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but to thy Name let the praise be given of this thy gracious se∣questration; and thou that onely hast done it, take to thy self the glory and improvement of thine own work.

Of Pity and yearning of bowels; whether to those careless unregenerates [ C] that cannot so much as complain of their too-pleasing corruptions, but ap∣plaud themselves in the free scope of their own brutish sensuality, as if they had made a covenant with death, an agreement with hell; or whether to our poor seduced brethren, that are nursed up in an invincible ignorance of Truth, and are held down with the imperious sway of Antichristian usurpa∣tion. Alas! it is too true which our learned Spalatensis (why should I not call him ours, who sealed up that truth of ours, which his pen had so stoutly maintained, with his last blood?) hath observed and published, Nam & ple∣bem rudiorem, &c. that the ruder multitude under the Papacy are carried commonly with more inward religious affection toward the Blessed Virgin, or [ D] some other Saint, then towards Christ himself. Whose heart would not bleed at the thought of this deplorable irreligion? and yet these poor souls think they doe so well, as that they cry out of our damnation for not accompa∣nying them. At tu, Domine, usque quò? How long, Lord, how long wilt thou suffer the world to be deluded with these foul and pernicious impo∣stures? how long shall thy Church groan under the heavie yoke of their sin∣ful impositions? O thou that art the great Shepherd, look down and visit thy wandring flock; and at last let loose those silly sheep of thine that are fast intangled in the briars of Antichristian exaction. And we, why do not we as heartily labour to reclaim them, as they to withdraw us? why should they [ E] burn with zeal, whiles we freeze with indifferency? Oh let us spend our selves in prayers, in tears, in perswasions, in unweariable endevours for the happy con∣version of those ignorant mis-guided souls, who having not our knowledge, yet shame our affections.

Of Indignation lastly, as on the one side, at those practical revolters, that having begun in the spirit will needs end in the flesh; that having made a shew of godliness, deny the power of it in their lives, returning with that impure beast to their own vomit; so on the other, at those speculative relapsers, that have out of policy or guiltiness abandoned a known and received truth. Pity is for those silly creatures that could never be blessed with Divine Reason [ F] and upright formes; but for a Gryllus, that was once a man, to quit his hu∣manity, and to be in love with four feet, what stomack can but rise at so affe∣cted a transformation? The Cameleon is for a time beautiful with all pleasing varieties of colours, in the end no skin is more nasty. Wo is me, the swept house is repossessed with seven Devils: This recidivation is desperate: al∣though

[ A] indeed there would not be a revolt, without an inward unsound∣ness. Do ye see an apple fall untimely from the tree? view it, ye shall finde it worm-eaten, else it had held. Avolent, quantum volent, paleoe istae levis fidei, as that Father said, Let this light chaffe flie whither it will; it shews it to be but chaffe. God's heap shall be so much the purer: and, in the mean time, what do they make themselves fit for, but the fire? What shall we say to these absurd changes? Our fore-fathers thought themselves in Heaven when first the bright beams of the Gospel brake forth in their eyes; and shall we, like those fond subterraneous people that Rubruquis speaks of, curse those glorious beams of the Sun now risen up [ B] to us, and lay our eares close to the ground, that we may not hear the harmony of that motion? Our Fathers blessed themselves in this Ange∣lical Manna; and shall our mouths hang towards the onions and garlick of Aegypt? Revertimini filii aversantes, Return ye backsliding children, re∣turn to the fountains of living waters which ye have exchanged for your broken cisternes. Recordamini priorum, as Esay speaks 46. 9. But if their will do lie still in their way, it were happy for them if authority would deal with them as confident riders do with a startling horse, spur them up, and bring them back to the block they leap'd from. But if still their ob∣stinacy will needs, in spight of contrary endeavours, feoffe them in the [ C] style of filii desertores, it is a fearfull word that God speaks to them, Vae eis quoniam vagantur à me, Wo to them, for they have wandered from me, Ose 7. 13. Now the God of Heaven reclaim them, confirm us, save both them and us in the day of the Lord Jesus: to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one infinite God, be given all Praise, Honour and Glory, now and for ever. Amen. [ D] [ E] [ F]

Notes

• Nic. l. 2. ••. 25.
• Act. 19. 29.
• 2 Cor. 11. 24.
• De Ira Dei, l. 1. c. 7.