Commentary on the Epistles and Revelation of John

Arts.

T He perfection even of human arts both liberal and mechanic, is to be found in the Church: For, his Ged doth instruct him to discretion (saith the Prophet of the very plow-man) and this also (that is his skill in matters of husbandry) cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is Wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. He it was that filled Bezaleel and Aholiab with the spirit of wisdom for the work of the Tabernacle; and that gave to the prophet Isaiah, the tongue of the learned, that he should know how to time a word to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth my ear to hear as the learned, who are ever listening after more, even to the last breath. As it is reported of David Chytraeus, a Dutch Divine, that when he lay upon his death-bed, and heard some that sat by him, disputing with a low voice (lest they should disturb him) he lifted up his head, as well as he could, and desired them to speak out, for he should die the more cheerfully, if he died learning somewhat. Labenter omnibus omnes opes concesserim, ut mihi liceat, vi nulla interpellante, isto modo in literis vivere, saith Tully. I would give all the good in the world, that I might but sit quietly at my study, and not be called off by any other business. Some delight in horses, some in birds, others in beasts (saith Julian the Apostate) but I, from my youth up, have ever burned with the love of books. A learned and witty man he was, but learned and lend, wittily wicked, ingeniose nequam, as Ca • us Curio. He persecuted, more by persuading, then enforcing men to idolatry; and prevailed more by enticements then by torments: abu • ing his eloquence to the dishonor of God that gave it him, and fighting against God with his own gifts, as David did against Goliath with his own sword, or as John against Jehoram with his own men. He forbad all Christians the use of learned Authors: And one of his bosomebirds, Porphyry, said, It was pity that ever so good a scholar as Paul was cast away upon our religion. S ^t Paul was first brought up at the feet of Gamalial, a grave Doctor: and after that, at the University of Tarsus. That he had read Aratus, Menander, Epimenides, &c. is clear by what he cites out of them: and Scultetus gathers out of 2 Tim. 1.6. that he was well versed in Plato's writings. He was that wise Merchant, that besides the pearl of price, in comparison of whom be counted all but dung and dogs-meat, sought also other goodly pearls, which in their proper place have their use and excellency. How bravely doth he play the orator, when he listeth, as at Athens, and before Agrippa, in setting forth his sufferings, 2 Cor. 11.23? and exhorting to unity, Eph. 44. All the rowlings of Demosthenes are dell stuff to his elegancies? As oft as I hear him Speak, saith Jerome, me thinks I bear not words but thunder-claps. His very enemies could not but acknowledge his worth. His letters, said they, are weighty and powerful: but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible, 2 Cor. 10.10. And why contemptible, but because he came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom (which he could have done better then the best of them) but in demonstration of the spirit, and of power? Human learning (saith one) is to be used in ecclesiastical exercises, non ut esculenta fed ut condimenta, not as meat but sauce. It were a madness, because lace sets out a garment, therefore to make a garment of lace only. Sub finem caenae, dulcis est placenta. S ^t Austin bewailed it as a vanity of his youth, That he had framed-his discourses, Ut placeret magis quam ut doceret, more to please then to profit. And when I first began to preach (saith S. Chrysostom) I was a child, and delighted in rattles, in the applause of the people: but when I grew a man, I began to despise them. A golden-mouthed Preacher he was (according to his name) a master of speech, as Paul was said to be, Act. 14.12. an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures, as Apollos, Act. 1.24. His eloquence (whereby he so drew men in to admiration of him, that it was grown to a common proverb, Better the Sun should not shine, then that Chrysostom should not teach ) he is said to have drawn out of Aristophanes his 28 Comedies, w ^c h he laid usually under his pillow, when he went to sleep. This was (as Theodoret hath it) to gather roses off the thorns, sweet honey out of bitter flowers, wholesome medicines out of venomous beasts and serpents. This was to spoil the Egyptians of the jewels they unjusty detained from the Church, as Austin hath it. See we not, saith he, with what a deal of gold, silver, costly garments Cyprian (that sweet Doctor and blessed Martyr) went laden out of Egypt? With what a deal Lactantius, Victorinus, Optatus, Hilarius, besides innumerable Greek Fathers? And this was first done by that faithful servant of God Moses, of whom it is written, That he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and so became mighty in word and deed. Now the learning of the Egyptians (saith Pererius) was fore-told Mathematics, Physicks, Ethics and Divinity, a chief part whereof was Hieroglyphics. In all these Moses was thoroughly instructed, saith Philo; and in short space excelled not only all his fellows, but his teachers too. So did Daniel and his three companions, all the wise-men of Babylon, whose books they read, and whose learning they looked into, which (had they held it unlawful) they would as little have meddled with, as with the meats that came from the Kings table, saith S. Jerome: But this was (as he elsewhere that it) to wring the sword out of Goliath's hand, and to out off his head therewith: this was to shave the captive woman's head, and pare her nails, and so to take her to wise. Humanity may be fitly used as a hand-maid to Divinity, or as Diers color the cloth with some inferior color first, that they may make it a perfect purple. wisdom sendeth forth the Aris as her maids, to call them into the City, to help hem to the better understanding of the holy Scriptures: which else, they that are unlearned and unstable, wrest unto their own destruction. Theodoret mentioneth S. Basils sharp reply to one Demosthenes, who being but an officer of the Emperors kitchen, durst encounter that Doctor of the whole world with wrested Scriptures, It belongs to the (an unlettered person) to look to the pottage-pot. Our Savior (I grant) chose unlearned men for his disciples; but he made them learned before he made use of them, he gifted them before he sent them abroad. Insomuch as Act. 4.13. the Priests and Scribes (whom for their learning S. Paul called, The Princes of this world, 2 Cor. 2.8.) wondered at their boldness and abilities; as knowing that they were unlearned and ignorant men: they marvelled (as the Nazarens also did at Christ) how they came by that new learning. But besides that, it is well observed, That our Savior excluded not from his discipline learned Nathanael and Nicodemus a master in Israel, lest if he should have called simple ones only, it might have been thought they had been deceived out of their simplicity. True it is (and pity it is) that the greatest Clerks are not always the wilest men in the things of God; because knowledge puffeth up: as it did the Athenians, where no Church was founded, they were so self-conceited: Paul the babbler was nobody with them, the resurrection they derided as impossible in nature, and took it to have been some strange goddess, that Paul sought to bring in amongst them. So when those three famous Bishops Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley were prisoners at Oxford (where also they suffered) one of them complains, That not one scholar come at them, or showed them any countenance. Many for the tree of knowledge, utterly lose the tree of life, saith a Father. The unlearned carry away heaven, when we with all our Arts and Sciences are tumbled into bell. And suffer ye the wise of this world, saith another, that search into natures secrets, and ascend no higher, to descend with all their wisdom into bell: where none are so filed with the wrath of God, as your knowing men and Philosophers, that detained or imprisoned the truth in unrighteousness, Rom 1.18. and were therefore delivered up to a reprobate fence, or an injudicious mind, ver. 28. so that they became the heretics Patriarchs, as Tertullian st •• eth them: For it is no hard thing to show, That divers ancient heretics drew their erroneous opinions out of the writings of the philosophers. The Papists also tell us, That we may find their holy water, and sprinkling of sepulch • es, in Juvenals sixth Satyr: their lights in sepulchers in Su • touius his Octavius; lamps lighted on Saturday in Seneca's 96. Epistle: distribution of tapers among the people, in Macrobius his Saturnals: Purgator) in Virgil's Aeneads, &c. Bembus the Cardinal tells ns of his S. Francis, That he was reckoned by the Romish Church in the number of the gods. He means, he was canonized for a Saint. But the Cardinal affected to deliver himself in Heathen language. So did Pomponius. Laetus that antiquary. His name was Petrus, but he changed it for Pomponius a Roman name: he called himself also Dictator, and worshipped Romulus, saith Ludo: Vives. Such another alate was Castalie the Ciceronian Translatour of the Bible: And before them all, Averroes the Arabian Physician, who so madly admires his Master Aristotle, as that he doubts not to say, that there is no error to be found in his works, that his learning was the chief truth, and that his understanding was the utmost bound of human understanding: that he was the rule and pattern that nature invented, wherein to set forth the utmost perfection of a man, &c. And when he died, cried out, Sit anima meacum Philosophis. Let my soul be where the Philosophers souls are, The Colonienses indeed set forth a book, De salute Aristotelis, of the salvation of Aristotle, and affirm, That he was Christ's fore-runner in naturals, as John Baptist was in supernaturals. And whether Erasmus was in earnest or in jest, I know not; but in his Preface to Tullius Tusculan Questions, he hath this piece of Litany, I can hardly forbear saying, Saint Socrates pray for us. When he was ready to die, he often repeated this speech, Domine, fac finem, fac finem. Make an end. Lord, make an end: but what he meant by those words, I wot not, saith Melancthon. Sure it is, his Saint Socrates could then do him no good. Justin Martyr tells us, That he left his Gentilism upon reading a piece of Plato: and holds (but groundlessly) that those that lived 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (that is, according to the rule of reason ) before Christ came in the flesh, were to be counted good Christians, although they had no hope, understanding, not taste of the future restauration by Christ. This Paradox was stiffly defended in the Council of Trent by Androdius, Soto Vega and Victoria. Venator also the Arminian rageth and saith, I deny this proposition, No man can be saved that is not knit to Christ by a true faitb. But the Scripture affirmeth, That there is no other name under heaven whereby to be saved, but only by the name of Jesus. And S. Austin (though he yieldeth that by the reading of Cicero's Hortensius, he was taken off from the hope of vain things, and the desire of earthly cares, & persuaded to the love of wisdom, and contemplation of the things above) yet the cannot but say, that nothing more cooled his affection toward that book then this, that he found not in it the name of Jesus. this to a true Christian is mel in ore, melos in aure, jubilum in cord; honey in his mouth, music in his ear, jubilee in his heart. S Paul cannot come off it, but names it nine several times in tem verses. All the learning that he cared for was to know Jesus Christ, and him crucified. To know him, I say, not notionally only, and out of the book (for so every Catechism teacheth him) but experimentally: to know the power of his death, and the virtue of his resurrection: to have a Bible stamped in his head, and the counterpane of the Covenant graven in his heart. This, this, is the only learning, without the which all other learning doth but light men into utter darkness, Of Monius a certain Poet it is recorded, that he was for learning every way so absolute and accomplished, that he gave place to no man then alive. Eratosthenes was sir-named 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , because he could dispute excellently in any art whatsoever. Democritus was skillful in all sciences, saith Soudas: there was nothing wherein he could not publicly profess, saith Cicero. Hippias Eleus was wont to boast, That there was nothing in any art which he knew not of, whether liberal or illiberal: for with his own hands he made the ring he wore upon his finger, the coat upon his back, the shoes upon his feet, &c. as Tully tells us. Aristotle was a magazine of learning, and is therefore (as afore-said) over-admired by Averroes, and was abundantly rewarded by Alexander the Great, who gave him for his book, Denatura animalium, eight hundred talents. Gaza, who translated that work of Aristotle into latin, and dedicated it to Pope Sixtus, met not with so good a match, For when he had brought and presented the book very richly bound up in velvet, and bossed with gold, the Pope (that Ass) asked him what the outside stood him in: Gaza made answer forty crowns. The Pope allowed him so much money, and so dismissed that learned man without any further rewards, who deserved a great honourary for so profitable a piece of work. But to return to his Author Aristotle, whom all worthily extol for his learning, not fo for his honesty. In the Town of Siuckard in Germany, a certain Doctor of divinity preached, That the Church might be ruled and taught concerning God, and the things of God out of Aristotle's Philosophy (his Ethics especially) though the Bible were loft out of the world. Whereas he himself confesseth the disability of moral knowledge to rectify the intemperance of nature: and made it good in his practice: for he used a common strumpet to satisfy his lust. He was also accused at Athens, and banished into Chal •• , because he had evil opinions of the Deity, say divers Authors. As for his Divinity, which he calls his Metaphysics, whereof he writes 14 books: It is, saith Ramus, the most foolish and impious piece of sophistry that ever was written. Tully was a great scholar, no doubt, and he knew it. Two things, saith he, I have to glory in, my knowledge of good arts, and my waging of great acts: the first whereof shall never be taken from me, while alive, the second no not when I am dead There was one that wrote an Apology for Tully (saith Melancthon ) and commended him for a holy man, and a good Christian: because he saith somewhere R • prehende peceam men &c. I condemn mine own errors, for that I trusted to Pompey, and took his part. And Lotamus Lovanionsis writes, That there was no other faith found in Abraham then what was found in Cicero. Whereas Abraham saw my day, saith Christ, and rejoiced: he walked with God, and was upright: Not so Cicero. His tongue we all admire, saith Augustine, not so his practice: And how little his learning could dot for him (for lack of faith) when he came to die, that speech of his sufficiently witnesseth, I know not how, but so it is, the medicine is weaker then the disease. It is nothing but true faith, that can fortify the heart against the fear of death. Seneca and such like have set, forth what a mercy mortality is, what a happiness that we can lose our lives when we last, how contented a man should be with life, how courageous in death, &c. A great Philosopher he was, and a close student, as himself testifieth. A mighty man he was surely, saith Lipsins, and a mighty spirit works in them that read him. But yet (by your leave) he that shall read Dio Cassius his testimony of him, will scarce take him for an honest man. He salutes his friend Lucilius thus, Si Philosopharis benee est, ego quidem Philosophor But his practice was most unphilosophicall. He enveighed against Court-parasites, yet was ever himself at Court: he detested flatterers, when none flattered more then he: He taught chastity, but was too in ward with Agrippina the mother of Nero, and taught him by his practice that abhorred trade of unnatural filthiness. He reproved rich men, but gat a vast estate; and condemned luxury, when himself had five hundred stools of Cedar, with feet of ivory, and everything else answerable. Thus Abanah and Pharphar may serve to scour and rinse, but Jordan only can cure the leper. Learning and Philosophy may barb and curb corruption: but it is the Scripture only that giveth more grace, as S ^t James hath it, and doth a perfect cure upon the conscience. And that is only too, when it is seconded and set on by the spirit: who moves upon the face of these waters, stirs them, and makes them medicinal, Wholsome words such as have a healing property in them, as the word signifies. For else the word profiteth not, unless it be mixed with faith: yea the Bare letter killeth (I say not, learning killeth, as that Ignoramus once mistook the matter) but the spirit giveth life. Erasmus was as well seen in the text as another, and did a great deal of good by his latin translation, gave much light to it by his annotations and Paraphrases. Besides his other worthy works, he took infinite pains in furbishing the Fathers. This one thing (saith he) I dare boldly affirm, That S. Jerome's books never cost him so much pains in making them, as they have cost me in restoring them, And yet for all this we cannot tell what to make of him, for matter of religion. Erasmus in religione suit 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith Bucholcerus. He was as soon with Protestants, and as soon with Papists, and so was well thought of on neither side, lost his good esteem with all. Beza thinks he was not sound in the doctrine of the Trinity. And it was a witty truth put upon him by one of his friends (as he himself relates it) concerning his Enchiridion of a Christian soldier, That there was more holiness to be found in his book, then in the Author of his book, Raram facit virtus cum scientia mixturam, saith one. Learning and grace meet not but in a few. Galen the chief Physician derided the Bible. Paracelsus was an Atheist, and (if Eractus belie him not) a Magician. Ulpian the chief Lawyer was a bloody persecutor. Baldus an Arch-patron of the Popes supremacy; and yet they were wont to say of him, That he knew all that was knowable. Tostatus (otherwise called Abulensis) was omnium scientiarum, doctrinarum{que} arca & emporium, A magazine or mart of all sciences: so skillful in each, that one would have thought he had studied noting else but that, all his life long. Besides, of he had had all his works, he is thought to have written as many sheers, as he lived days: and yet carried down the stream of the times with the error of the wicked, as S. Peter hath it, 2 Pet. 3.17. And as Calderinus his contemporary was wont to say, when he went to Mass, Eamus ad communem errorem, he stickled • iti • lie for Antichrist. Laudo acumen viri si in meliora incidisset te ••• ora longe maximi, saith Casaubon. It was his unhappiness that he fall upon such bad times, else he might, likely, have been better. I was an obstinate Papist (saith Latimer of himself) as any was in England; Insomuch that when I should be made Bachelor in Divinity, my whole argument went. against Philip Melancthon and his opinions. Bilney heard me at that time, and perceived that I was zealous without knowledge, and came to me afterwards in my study, and desired me, for gods fake to hear his confession. I did so▪ and, to say the truth, by his confession I learned more then afore in many years. So from that time forward I began to smell the Word of God, and forsake the school-Doctors, and such like fooleries. Horrible barbarism had overspread the eye of whole Christendom. To be a Grecian was grown suspicious, but to be an hebrician, little less then heretical. Rodulphus Agricola, and Joannes Capuio lived together at Heydelberg. Rodulphus interpreted Greek Authors to the young students: Capuio read them an Hebrew lecture, but privately, and to a few only, for fear of the Monks, who were mad at that general resurrection of all good learning and language, a little before the receiving of the Gospel. For as in the first plantation there of in Europe, God shipped the arts before into Greece, that they might be as harbingers unto it, as Tertullian speaketh: So in these later ages, the Lord intending a reformation of religion, set up the Turk to overrun Greece, and by that means sent over into these Western parts divers learned exiles, as Chrysoloras, Trapezuntius, Gaza (who translated Tully de senectute into Greek) Argyrophylus, Chalcondylas, Cydonius (who translated like wise Thomas Aquinas his works) Marcus Musurus (with whom Erasmus lived familiarly) Hermotimus Spartiata, whom Capuio heard in France, as he had done Argyropylus in Italy. These were God's first instruments to restore human learning, that was almost lost out of the world. At which time also he vouchsafed to mankind the knowledge of the Art of Printing, which is said to have been first invented at Strasborow in Germany, by John Guttenberg a Monk, where like wise John Mentelius printed the first book, and that was Tullius Offices: the copy whereof is kept in the public library at Frankford to this day for a monument. After this, the Press was transtated first to Mainz, and then to Rome by Joannes Gallinaccus. And shortly after, there were printed at Paris, Antwerp, Venice, and divers other places, the works of sundry learned men, stirred up by God to fetch the Arts back out of •• anishment. Such as were in Italy, Bembus, Sadoletus, Victorius; in Germany, Erasmus, Melancthon, Camerarius, Sturmius: In France, Budaeus, Silvius, Turnebus, Lambinus: here in England, Ludovicus Vives, S ^r Thomas Moor, Lily, Linaker (my near kinsman by the mothers side) and many others. Buchanan indeed the Scot complains, that he was born, nec coelo, nec solo, nec saeculo erudite, in neither, learned air, foil, nor age. But as the Historian saith of D ^r Cox, 〈◊〉 M. John Cheek (Tutours to K Edw 6) that though they were men of mean birth, yet were they so well esteemed for virtue and learning, that they might well be said to be born of themselves. So may it be said of that Prince of Poets Buchanan, He was an honor to his country, better known by him, perhaps abroad, then he by it, as little Hippo was by great S. Austin.

But to proceed: After that human learning began thus to reflourish and lift up the head, Divinity also, that had been shamefully obscured and flurried with needless and endless doubts and disputes, was vindicated and illustrated by the knowledge of latin, Greek and Hebrew (the dignity and study whereof the holy Ghost seems to intimate that he would have ever kept afoot in theChurch by the inscription of our Savior's title on the cross in those three tongues) and all frivolous and fruitless school-quirks taken out of the way, young students were put upon the reading of the Scriptures, instead whereof, till then, little was heard in the Church, but the dotages of Monks, and legendary fables, Then grew up that foelix proventus, that golden age of glorious Divines famous and matchless for depth of learning and height of holiness. I speak not here of Jesuits, who brag that the Empire of learning is within their dominion, and that we have not a scholar on our side. The Cardinal (such is his candour) in his book of ecclesiastical writers, doth not vouchsafe to name any one of ours: under whose table (nevertheless) it is evident that he scraped together most of the crumbs, that he maketh use of, Great scholars, we grant, they are many of them. And yet we doubt not to say of them, as the Chronicler doth of D. Shaw and frier Pinket) that were Richard the 3. factors to obtrude bastardy on K. Edw. 4. and so to disable his children for succession) That they were of greater learning then honesty, and yet of more repute then learning: being such, that more regarded by the ignorans to be accounted learned, then by the learned to be judged ignorant. Inter indoctos etiam Corydus sonat. To learned men those seem fools, that to fools seem learned, faith Quintilian. Attorneys (saith another) among swains are taken for lawyers, among lawyers they hardly have the esteem of swains. Jesuits have a notable faculty of setting the best side outward (as is noted before of Stephen Gardner ) and of boasting themselves for some great thing, as Simon Magus. The Jebusites boasted and insulted over David, that he should not enter their tower of Zion, though there were but some few blind and lame to defend it. The Jesuits crack as fast of their power and prowess, could they but get us 〈◊〉 our paper-castle of Scripture-testimonies into the open field of Fathers and Councils (as Bristow phraseth it) what they would do to us, what babies they would make of us. But how well they have done it, let all the world see in their concertations and controversies with our Whitaker's and Rainolds (to go no further) many of whose works remain yet unanswered, indeed because they are unanswerable. for D. Whitaker's: one that knew him well, and knew as well what he said of him, gives him this testimony, That never man saw him without reverence, nor beard him without wonder. And for D. Rainolds, He was (saith the same Author) a well furnished library, full of all faculties, of all studies, of all learning: whose reading, whose memory was near to a miracle. He was (saith another foreign writer) a living library a third University. Gentil • s (who yet loved him not) could not but confess, That he knew the civil law as well as himself, who yet was the Kings professor for the laws in the University of Oxford. These came not to the Divinity schools 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , half-dipped, as Lucian phraseth it, but thoroughly died, and well provided of human learning. Spensippus was wont to say to such as came to his philosophy-school without music and Geometry, Get you hence: for you want the handles and handmaids to Philosophy. Plato in his Common-wealth, calleth those bastard Philosophers, who think they can attain to other arts without the help of Logic. Unskilfull Logicians, saith he, tear truths in pieces as curs do clouts. Out Lord Christ (the Arch-prophet and great Doctor of his Church) though he be not tied to schools or means, but can make an Ass confute his master, and doth oft choose the simple to confound the learned (when it was scornfully demanded, Is Saul also among the Prophets? one of the same place answered, But who is their father? As who should say, Prophecy comes not so much by man's teaching as God's; therefore wonder not that Saul prophesies, though not bred a scholar) yet himself honored schools, when be fate among the Doctors, both bearing them (for learning fake,) and asking them questions: when he pitched upon Paul, scholar to Gamalie • , for an elect vessel to bear his name to the Gentiles, and to be able at Athens to dispute philosophically with those Philosopher: when he commanded Timothy to give attendance to reading: when he gave Solomon wisdom to set in order so many Proverbs, and to discourse of so many particulars, from the Cedar to the shrub: when he gave his people a Kiriath-sophe • , a City of letters or books (such as our Universities are) to be unto them, as the library of Alexandria is said to be, physic for the soul. Divers of the Patriarchs are held to have been skillful in physic, and therefore fo welcome to Kings, as Abraham and Isaac to Pharaoh and Abimelech. From the mouth of Adam, saith one, as from a fountain issued all the profitable doctrine, discipline, Wisdom and knowledge that is in the world. The longevity of the Fathers before the sloud was a work of God's providence, for the perfecting of the sciences, saith another. Japheth dispersed abroad his Europe the doctrine of the premised seed, saith a third, which was afterward collected and conserved by the Sibylls, when it began to be forgotten. Hence the ancient Sages fetched whatsoever found thing they held concerning God, the immortality of the soul, the duration of Empires, &c. Abraham's philosophy is thus described by Philo the Jew, who might have it by tradition. He reduced all the eff • cts of the second causes to the first cause immediate. He did not attribute to the Sun the light of the day, nor to the clouds rain, nor to the eyes sight, nor to the ears hearing, nor to the other next instruments of sense the cause of their faculty, but referred all to the Sovereign head, the Creator of substances, the give of forms, the cause of canses, &c. Josephus and Eusebius tell us, That Abraham taught the Mathematiks in Egypt. Neither want there those that show a book that was made, as they say, by Moses and his sister Miriam, concerning Alchymy; which is an Art without art, saith one, A multiplying of something by nothing, saith another. An omne, aliquid, nihil, that Moses, I believe never dreamt of: nor was it any part of the wisdom of Egypt, wherein he was so well instructed and excelled, Act 7 22. And although he were mighty in word and deed, yet he hath left us nothing in writing of his Egyptian learning, nothing of the true rational philosophy, which he both learned and taught long before Mercurius Trismegistus was born (whom yet Iamblicus makes the first author of Egyptian Arts) S. Ambrose gives the reason: because he received God's Spirit, as the servant of God, faithful in all his house, he preferred the heavenly truth before that vain earthly philosophy; and set down such things only, as he judged fit for the furtherance of our faith. Arts are a rich blessing of the Lord, and it was then, and is ever to be wished, that all God's faithful messengers were endued with such excellent parts of human learning, as Moses was. But, what is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord, to those that preached men's devices, and fought out vain things instead of God's word, Ier. 23.28. striving to please the people, and to set up themselves, by ostentation of their own gifts and learning. The 32. Psalm is entitled, David's learning; and was penned to teach the unlearned how to get true happiness. And Solomon calleth this knowledge Wisdoms or Knowledges. And Isa calleth that a learned tongue, that studieth out cases of conscience, and speaketh a word in due season: Job calls him an Interpreter, one of a thousand, that declareth unto man his righteousness, &c. How vain then are those that count nothing worthy to be known, but these earthly learnings, and spend all their time and studies in them? as the Heathen did, till they become almost as heathenish. Their spare-hours indeed, and as it were for recreation sake, many of the ancient Fathers spent, and not unprofitably, in Heathen Authors: partly for the bettering of their style, as Chrysostom: and partly for confutation of heathenish opinions and superstitions, as Clemens Alexandrinus, &c. which made Julian the apostate cry out, Proprys pennis configimur, we are beaten with our own weapons. Thus S. Paul beat the Athenians: thus Arnobius in a lofty and lively style beats the Gentiles, after that himself had written some things against the Christians, before he was converted from Gentilism. He, for this style, was called the Christian Caesar, as Lactanitius (his scholar) was called the Christian Cicero. S. Jerome passeth this censure upon his writings: Lactantius was, as it were, a certain flood of Tullian eloquence: I would he had been as happy at confirming of our religion, as he was at the confuting of the contrary superstition. Sed, non omnia possumus omnes. Tully wished, Would he could as easily find out the true God, as descry the false, And had he consulted the Jews, whom for their calamities he so much slighted, he might haply have heard of him. Something he had read of him, and thereby groped after him in the dark, Act. 17.27. in Plato; who speaketh thus, and is translated word for word by Tully: To find out the maker and Father of all, is a hard task: to tell what he is, when thou hast found him out, is impossible. Hence the Athenians had their alter dedicated to the unknown god, that is, to the true and only God: Of whom they had learned (out of the ancient philosophers and Sibylles oracles) that he was but one invisible, ineffable essence, whose name cannot be uttered, as the Jews held, from whom the best of the philosophers drew their best Divinity. Hence Lucan a Heathen Poet, calleth the Jews God, an uncertain God: Juvenal jeareth, That they worship nothing but the clouds, and an unknown God within them. And Aristophanes brings in Socrates worshipping the clouds, because he worshipped not the same God's, as the vulgar did, but fought to bring in new ones, as Laertius relates it. For which cause also, he was condemned to death in the same court of Areopagus, whither S. Paul was hurried, but by a special providence of God escaped: not being so much as called to his answer, which would have been to the hazard of his life. Athens is called by Euripides, the Greece of Greece: by Demosthenes, the eye, soul and Sun of Greece: by Thucydides, the common school of mankind. There were the finest and most mercuriall wits of the world: and they had the bravest preacher in the world, who took his text oft one of their alters, and expounded it out of their own Authors. But with what success? Some doubted, some derided, a very few only were converted & no Church planted. For the natural man (though never so learned) perceiveth not the things of God, as little as Nicodemus (though a Doctor) did the doctrine of regeneration.

What then? shall learning be the less valued, because by some abused, perverted, and made a hindrance from heaven? The Anabaptists indeed condemned the arts, and other ornaments of grace and nature, for the unworthiness of the persons or subjects, wherein they were found. Luther retorted upon them, Then, belike, matrimony, authority, liberty, &c. are to be despised and avoided. Are not the works of God good, because the men, who use them are, some of them wicked? The Romans, I know not upon what dislike, banished one time, all Philosophers out of their City; but that was not the wisest act that ever they did. Licinius the Emperor was such an enemy to learning, that he called it the plague and poison of the Common. wealth. But that was the braying of an asse rather then the speech of a man. Pope Paul the second pronounced all scholars heretics; and seriously exhorted the Romans not to breed up their children at school; it was enough if they could write and read. It is cautionated by the Duke of Russia, That there be no schools, lest there should be any scholars but himself. The people say in a difficult question, God and our great Duke know all this. The Turks Janizaries upbraided their Emperor with his learning. for when Bajazet the second had cast Achmetes Bassa into prison, those martial men, amongst many other opprobrious words wherewith they shamefully loaded him, as drunkard, beast, rascal, &c. they called him oftentimes by the name of Bengi, Bengi, that is, Scholar. scholar, which amongst them is accounted in a Prince to be no small disgrace. But what said a far wiser man? Happy is that Common-wealth where either Philosophers bear rule, or the Ruler study philosophy. The Doctors and Judges amongst us (to intimate some such thing surely) have one and the same habit (square caps and scarlet gowns) prescribed them. Nebuchadnezzar seems to have been a scholar, Dan. 1.19. for he was able to pose the young students, and to pronounce after he had communed with them, which were the best learned. Yea, it is said, v. 20. That in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the King inquired of Daniel and his fellows, be found them ten times better then all the Magicians (so they called their Philosophers and interpreters of divine and human laws) and wise men (the learned of all Nations were called so, Mat. 23.34. till Pythagoras first in modesty named himself Philosopher, or a well-willer to wisdom) that were in all his realm. Ahasuerus also, when he could not sleep, called for a book; fo did Tamberlane the night before the mortal battle between him and Bajazet, he called for a book (care would not suffer him to sleep) wherein was contained the lives of his fathers and Ancestors, and other valiant worthies: the which he used ordinarily to read, as he then did, not as therewith vainly to deceive the time, but to make use there of by the imitation of that which was by them worthily done, and declining of such dangers, as they by there rashness or over-fight fell into. Alphonsus King of Sicily called his books his best Counselors: for they wound tell him truth, when none else durst. Julius Caesar wrote his own acts, and modestly called them, not Histories, but Commentaries. He would be carved standing upon a globe of the world, and having in his left hand a book, in his right hand a sword, with this title or motto, Ex utro{que}, Caesar. Q. Elizabeth, who was wont to qual • fie the tediousness of her serious affairs with the sweet recreation of letters, either read or wrote some what every day, saith M. Camden: who alto testifieth, that she translated Boetius his books, De consolatione. handsomely into the English tongue; that the took very all that Anagram, Veritas a • mata, according to the queen of Scots name Maria Stuarta: that being perplexed whether or no to put the Queen of Scots to death, the sat many • mes melancholy, and often sighing muttered to herself, Aut for aut seri, and Ne feriare feri, &c. She answered several Ambassadors in their several languages: being herein like Cleopatra, who gave answers by herself to the Ethiopians, Arabians, Hebrews, Syrians, Medes and Parthians, and could tune her tongue like an instrument of many strings (saith Plutarch) to whatsoever dialect she listed. But besides the vulgar tongues (wherein she was ready) Queen Elizabeth understood the learned tongues: as did also, not long before her, the Lady Jane Gray, and that famous Olympia Fulva Morata, of Ferrara in Italy; who publicly and with great commendation professed the Greek and Latin tongue at Heidelburg, anno dom. 1554. I conclude with K. James, whose golden pen (saith a reverend Divine, in whose words I relate if) hath given such a blow to that beast of Rome, that be will never be able to stand upon his four legs again: He hath shot out of his royal bow such keen arrows taken out of the quiver of God's book, which will bang in the sides of that scarlet whore, and make her lams as long as she lives, &c, This learned King after he had moderated as Doctor of the Chair at Oxford in all faculties, when, in the public library there, he beheld the little chains where with the leverall books are fastened to their places, I could wish, said he ( is ever it be my lot to be carried captive) to be shut up in this prison, to be bound with these chains, and to spend my life with these fellow captives that stand here chained. Few Princes have the happiness that Trojan had, who though he were no scholar, yet he truly understood, and accordingly did those things that pertain to a scholar. But he highly esteemed learning in Pliny, and others whom he prized and preferred, no less then did Antoninus the Philosopher; who was not ashamed after that he was Emperor, to resort dally to his Doctor. And after he came to Athens, and was admitted to be of that University, he granted them large privileges, did them great honors, and founded many Lectures with a liberal allowance of maintenance. Aeneas Sylvius (afterwards pope) was woe • t to say of learning, That popular men should esteem is as silver, Noblemen as gold, princes as pearls. His • u • e • ff • ou • N • c • las th • fifth, when it was told him, that there were such and such in Rome that made good verses Nay not good verses, said he, for if they can do so, why come they not, and make themselves known to me, Qui Poetis etiam malis pateo, who am a favourer and rewarder of any Poets be they never so bad? Divers learned men flourished in the times of our Henry 1. (surnamed Beauclark ) because he had in his youth some taste of learning, which put many of his subjects into the fashion of the book: like as all the Court of Sicily was set upon the study of Philosophy, when Dionysius looked that way, and had got the company of Aristippus and Plato: the former of whom, said he, is ever craving money of me, the later defires nothing but books. And indeed how much Plato preferred books before money well appeared, when he gave (as he is reported to do) for three books thirty thousand florens. As of Renchlin it is storied, that he gave the Jew a crown an hour that read Hebrew to him at Rome. Of S. Jerome, That he went by night and by stealth to the Jew that taught him Hebrew: for if it had been known, the Jews would have been the death of them both. This he did, when he was now an old man: as Cato, though old, set himself to learn Greek, and Sigismund the Emperor Latin. The Emperor much bewailed the matter at the Council of Constance, That neither he, nor any of his great Courtiers and Counselors were able to answer a foreign Ambassador in the Latin tongue. He began therefore to learn, though it were late first. And when some of his Nobles that had no learning, and therefore hated it, took it in great disdain and dudgin, that he preferred before them some that were of mean degree, merely for their learning, he answered, That be had good reason to honor scholars above all, as those that were singularly graced and gifted by God. Knights and Lord's, said he, I can make in a day as many as I list; but scholars God only can make, from whom comes every good gift and perfect giving: which in the original Greek is an Hexameter verse, as that of S. Peter is an Iambick, Et poeticum quid spirat. The sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire, &c.

Atheism.

T He fool hath said it: and surely none but a fool would say it. One in whom common reason is faded and dried up, as the sap is in a leaf in Autumn, so the word signifies. The Philosopher goes further, and saith, He that denieth the one God, and his providence in all things, is not only void of reason, but of sense. And yet th s witless, sapless, selflesse creature, this wide asse-colt, is every mothers child of us by nature: witness S. Paul, Rom. 3. where going about to prove all natural men to be sinners, he fetcheth proof out of this Psalm, and the tenth, where the same thing is avowed. It is (I confess) an inviolable principle, and indelebly stamped upon man's nature, That there is a God. The barbarous people of Brasil, that are said to be, Sine Fide, sine Rege, sine Lege, that have neither Religion, Rule nor Raiment, yet they have some knowledge of God, some spice of religion, such as it is: Rather then want a god, they worship the very devil; not inwardly only (for so the most among us do, being acted and agitated by the devil, who is therefore called the god of this World; by whom he is as readily obeved, as God was in the Creation, when he said, Let there be light, &c) but alto with an ••• ward worship. The devil himself, though he be no Atheist, nor can be (for he feels the wrath of God, and so believes and trembles ) yet he doth all he can to make men Atheists: because when there is no fear of God before their eyes, they will sin all manner of sins the devil would have them sin, Psal. 14.1, 2, 3. And Rom. 3.18. After a bedrole of sundry other sins, this is subjoined, as the root of all the rest, There is no fear of God before their eyes: That is, they are flat Atheists if not in opinion, yet in practice.

Atheists in opinion are,

• 1. Such as conclude there is no God.
• 2. Such as suspect as much.

Primus in or be Deos secit Timor.

That Fear first made gods in the world: and that all opinion of a Deity was frivolous, devised by wise men to keep the people in awe and order. For if these were no other argument to prove, that there is a God, these very fears and terrors of conscience, stricken into men's minds after sin, were sufficient. For these must needs come from a Judge that detesteth dishonesty, and exerciseth judgment upon the soul. Richard the third of England felt this. And so did Charles the ninth of France. The former, after the murder of his two innocent Nephews, had fearful dreams: Insomuch that he did often leap out of his bed in the dark, and catching his sword (which always naked stuck by his side) he would go distractedly about the chamber, everywhere seeking to find out the cause of his own occasioned disquiet. The later, after the bloody massacre of Paris, could seldom take any sound sleep; being as terrible to himslef, as he formerly had been to others: and could never endure to be awakened out of sleep without music, or some like diversion. Now could these men possibly either conclude or suspect there was no God?

Some I confess there are that lay violent hands upon all the principles in their heads, and do what they can to tear them our, that they may sin the more freely. They are loath to confess a God, for fear to stand in awe of him, and yet (will they, nill they) the fear of the least things maketh them to confess him. Nay, because they fear not him that made all things, therefore they stand in awe of all things: as Ahaz that trembled as a shaken leaf, and his grandson Manassch, that hid his head among the thorns, and from thence was pulled, and bound with setters, He that had faced the heavens, and neither feared God nor cared for man, is now at his wits ends for the fear of his heart Wherewith he did fear, and for the fight of his eyes which he did see, Deut. 28.67. What would such Atheists then do, did they but see hell? Bellarmine is of opinion that one glimpse of hell were enough to make a man not only turn Christian and sober, but Anchorite and Monk, to live after the strictest rule that may be. And yet he tells us of a certain Advocate of the Court of Rome, that being at point of death, stirred up by the standers by to repents, and call upon God; with a constant countenance, and without sign of sear, he turned his speech to God, and said: Lord, I have a desire to speak unto thee, not for myself, but for my wife and children. For I am bastening to bell, neither is there anything that thou shouldst do for me. And this be spake, saith Bellarmine (who was there present and heard it) as if he had spoke of a journey to some village or town, and was no more affrighted, Surely had this man had a right apprehension of hell-torments endless, easeless, remediless, such as he should never be able to abide or avoid, he could not have made so light account of them. But a discourse of hell is but as painted fire which burns not: or as the painting of the toad, which men can look on and handle without affrightment. Of Pope Clement the fifth it is reported, That when a Nephew of his (whom he had loved sensually and sinfully) died, he sent his Chaplain to a Necromancer, to learn how it fared with him in the other world. The Conjurer shown him to the Chaplain lying in a fiery bed in hell: which when it was told the Pope, he never joyed more after it, but within a short while died also. But to most men it may be justly said, as Cato id once to Caesar, I believe that thou thinkest all that is said of bell to be false and fabulous.

And this is that (2) Atheism in practice, so rife in all places: for of such dust-heaps (that confess god with their lips: but deny him in their lives) ye may find in every corner. All places is full of them, and so is hell too.

1. some think basely of God, as if he were altogether such an one as themselves, because he keeps silence and bears with their evil manners, Psal. 50.21. Averroes the Philosopher hence draws an argument against God's presence and providence here on earth, thinks he meddleth with nothing below the Moon, because of his slowness to anger.

2. There are again that grant a God, but made all of mercy: and thereupon lay the reins in the neck, to do wickedly with both hands earnestly, as presuming of an easy and speedy pardon. Nahum tells us, That God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth: the Lord revengeth, and is furious, &c. And that such as these are but as stubble laid but in the Sun a drying, that it may barn the better: and like grapes let to hang in the sun-shine till they be ripe for the wine-press of God's wrath, Rev. 1.16.

3. Others look upon God as a just Judge, and sharp revenger of sin and disobedience, and hereupon could wish (for their own case) that there were no God. This is Deicidium, God-slaughter. The good soul wisheth with David, Vivat Deus, let God live, and blessed be the God of my salvation. But the wicked is a hater of God, Rom. 1 30. and to a murderer of him, according to that 1 Job 3.15. He that hateth any is a murderer. This is a high and hateful degree of Atheism. If a man curse the King in his heart, and wish him out of the world, the sin is so heinous, that the souls of heaven shall disclose it: How horrible then is this same sin against the King of Kings, and Lord of Lord's.

4. Some again have bald conceits of God, as if he were an old man sitting in heaven, with a crown on his head, a scepter in his hand, and had the parts and proportions of a man, as the Papists picture him. God made man after his image, and men (to requite him) will needs make God after their image, cast him anew in their base mould, and make an idol of him. In they year of Christ 403 this foolish and atheistical question, An Deus corporeus sit? Whether the divine essence be a true body, having hands, feet, &c. as men have, stirred up great strife among the Monks of Egypt: For the ruder and more ignorant sort of them, held that it was so. Xenophanes was wont to say, That if beasts were able to paint, they would pourtray God like to themselves; because they could not naturally conceive any • urther. So do these natural brute beasts (as Peter calleth them) made to be taken and destroyed, speak and think evil of God whom they know not, and so utterly perish in their own destruction, a Pet. 2 12.

5. Other practical Atheists there are not a few, that deny not God indeed, but dethrone him, which is as bad: whiles they are lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God: make their belly their God, their gold their god, yea the god of this world their god, coming to them especially with offers of honors and promotions, All this will I give thee. In too many families (saith one) Venus hath her altars in the chambers, and Bacchus his sacrifices in the butteries: which two having made their divident, and shared their devotoes, alas what a poor third, will be left for God? Thus he. Will a man rob his God? The blind Heathens would not deal so ill by their dung-hill Deities. Yet ye have robbed me, saith the Lord of hosts. Not in tithes and offerings only, but in offering up yourselves, your souls and bodies to be a holy, lively and acceptable sacrifice unto me, yea in loving the Lord your God with all your soul, mind and might, and your neighbor as yourselves, which is better then all burnt sacrifices, as that Scribe understandingly answered. Not but that there may be, and •• e sacrificing Sodomites, as Isa, 1.10. Archatheists, arrant hypocrites, that bring thousands or rams, and rivers of oil, that offer largely, and would give any good for a dispensation, even the sons of their body, for the sins of their souls. But they do worse then lose their labor, they commit sin, For, The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord: how much more when he bringeth it with an evil heart, saith Solomon: as thinking to cozen God with a carcase (as Prometheus would have done his Jupiter) with an outside, a form of godliness, a shadow of religion. Surely God may say to these Atheists, as once Isaac did to his father, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb? Or as Jacob did to his sons that brought him Josephs bloody coat, Here's the coat, but where's the child? Cainis • aa suat, saith Luther, offerentes non personam, sed opus personae. These are of Cain's kindred, that offer to God the work done, but themselves they do not offer: they draw night to God with their li • s, but their hearts are far from him. God also will be as far from them, when they have most need of him, as he was from Saul, that hypocritical Atheist. God hath forsaken me, saith he, and the Phllistims are upon me. so, sickness, death, hell is upon me, and God hath forsaken me: neither is it my Lord, Lord, that can bring him back to my help and deliverance. The Swan in the law was white in feathers, yet reputed unclean, and unmeet for sacrifice, because the skin under them was black. Wash therefore your hands, ye sinners: but withal, cleanse your hearts, ye double-minded, Jam. 4 8. God is not mocked, Gal. 6. not an hypocricicall service accepted: dissembled sanctity is double iniquity.

To end this Discourse (and so this first Decad) David gives us these sure signs of an Atheist, Psal. 14.

First, A disordered life, No sooner doth the fool conceit there is no God, but presently follows, Corrupt are they and do abominable, verse. 1. Yea they prevaricate, till they stink again, v. 3, as the old world did, that was grown sofoul, that God was fain to wa • h it with a flood. All sin is both, 1. from Atheism: for did men believe a God that saw all, and would punish all, they durst not but be innocent: And 2. to atheism. The best that can come of sin is repentance; which if men have no mind to, they will be willing to turn Atheists, and it is the best of their play, to wipe out all notions of a D • ity as much as may be for their own quiet, left they fall into a hell above-ground, and be tormented before their time. Hence flow all exorbitancies in men's lives. Hence there is no hoe in sinning. For what (saith one) should, or can keep the wit and will of man in, when once we conceit, there is no such thing as God? And from the weakness of this spring (saith another) slow all enormities. Men say in their hearts, It may be there is an almighty God, it may be not: and thence they will have some care in the duties of religion, but a full care they have not: whereas, if they did believe it fully, they would serve him with a full and perfect heart. Thus he. David walked before God with an upright heart in all things, save only in the matter of Uriah: In that one particular he despised both god and his Commandment, 2 Sam. 12.11. and that out of the venom of original lust, the master-vein wherein is Atheism. Thus in general. Then

Secondly (for particulars.) The Atheist is a great oppressor of others, a very caitiff-Canniball, verse 4. H'e cats up God's people, as he eats bread. He tears the very flesh off the poor, and sels them (that which he he leaves of them) for old shoes, as the Prophet hath it: David in another Psalm compares these Atheistical men-eaters to a lion couchant and rampant. God is not in all his thoughts, saith he, Psal. 1.4 What follows? He lieth in wait secretly as a lion: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor when he draweth him into his net, that is, into his bonds, debts, morgages, &c. As the Jews in Nehemiah had done their poor brethren, whom therefore he taxeth of Atheism and irreligion, Ought ye not to have feared God, saith he, and not to have dealt thus hardly with your brethren, I pray you let us leave off this usury. So Job to his friends, those uncharitable censurers. To him that is in misery pity should be shown from his friend, but be for saketh the fear of the Almighty, Job 6.14. Or, as David expresseth in the place above-cited, He saith in his heart, God hath forgotten, he hideth his face, he will never see it. Hence it is that he sitteth in the lurking places of the villages, in the secret places doth he murder the innocent, his eyes are privily set against the poor. He not only robs the poor, but ravisheth him: he not only robs the poor, but ravisheth him: he not only murders him, but eats him up as bread: he makes no more conscience to undo a poor man, then to eat a meals meat when he is hungry. A poor man's substance is his life. The poor widow cast into the treasury all that she had, even all her living, saith the text, Mark 12.44. It is in the original, All her life. So she with the bloody issue is said to have spent all her life, that is, her livelihood upon Physicians, Luk. 8.43. For a poor man in his house, is like a snail in his shell: crush that, and ye kill him: which the Atheist cares not to do, as who fears not God, and so regards not man, Luk 18.2.

Thirdly, The Atheist calls not upon God, saith David there, either in Church or chamber; unless it be for fashion sake, and that he may not be held a rank Atheist. The gross hypocrite (whom I have proved an Atheist) may make a goodly prayer for matter, and set a gloss, a grace upon it in the utterance, but it is but lip labor, and so lost labor, the effect of art and parts, not of the heart and spirit of grace and supplication, Zach, 12.10. Some short-winded wishes he may have, Ps. 4 6. not pour out his soul with groans unutterable.

Lastly, Reproaching religion, and casting contempt upon those that profess and practile it, is a note David gives of an Atheist, verse. 6. You have shamed the counsel of the poor, because God is his resuge. See it in Ishmael and Michal, Tobiah and Sanballet, in Herod and Pilate. Whats truth? saith he to our Savior, Job. 1.38. in a scornful profane manner. Herod also having been long desirous to see Christ, and hoping to see tome miracle done by him (as by some base jugler) when he could obtain nothing of him, set him at naught, and mocked him, Luk. 2.11. So did Julian and Lucian the primitive Christians: contemptuously calling them Galileans; Ulpian, deceivers; Demetrian, and other Heathen. Atheists, procurers of all public calamities: crying out therefore, Christianos ad leones, To the lions with these Christians. Tantum maliquia Christians, as Pliny said of them. No otherwise evil then for that they were Christians. So far did ignorance and ma •• ce prevail in the world among those, I mean, that were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 without God in the world, that it was counted a capital crime to call himself a Christian. A sect everywhere spoke against of old, Act. 28.22. and so is still. Every fool, that saith in his heart, there is no God, hath out of the same quiver a bolt to shoot at goodness. Barren Michal hath too many sons, Qui scoptice & scabiose de bonis loquuntur, as one saith, who speak scornfully and scurvily of men much better then themselves, reproaching religion for hypoc •• sie, sincerity for singularity, strictness for silliness. In Italy (saith one, and I wish it were not so in England ) they hold integrity for little better then silliness, and abjectness. And it is notoriously known (saith another) that the most honorable name of Christian, is, in Italy, and at Rome, a name of reproach, and usually abused to signify a Fool or a Dolt, They boast themselves rather in the name of Catholic. So did the Rogatian and Arian heretics before them; calling the true Christians Ambrosians, Athanasians, Homousians, &c. As these their successors did, Wiclevists, Waldenses, Hussites, and now of late Lutherans, Zwinglians, Calvinists, Puritans, and what not? The Atheists in Nehemiah's time thought to have jeered the good Jews out of their for wardnesse to re-build the City. And so did the Papists (herein Atheists) hope by like arts to have weakened the hands of the renowned Reformers. Erasmus also (that mongrell in religion) that was, Mente & dente potens, as one saith of him, how bitter is he against Luther in h • s Hyperaspistis, declaring thereby what spirit he was of? And what a dry wipe was that he gave Wolphangus Capito, Qualem à se Capito decimum sore sperat? He could not deny (sarth M ^r Calvin ) but that Capito Was a holy man, and one that took very good pains to purge the Church, But whereas he held it as bootless a business, and impossible for Christ's Ministers to leek to correct the worlds wickedness, as to make a rive sun backward, under the person of that one man, he condemned us all of inconsiderate zeal. Howbeit wisdom is justified of her children. Mat. 11.19. Or (as some learned men read that text) wisdom 〈◊〉 judged of her children: That is, Those that pretend to be her children (as Erasmus with his fellow-Pharisees did) they perversely and preposterously pass sentence upon their Mother, whom they ought, as dutiful children, to hearkem and submit to. But many learned men are arrant Atheists: as were not only the Sadducees, but these Pharisees also, that out of the venom of their spirits, could not but mock at the precious and heart-piercing Sermons of the Son of God, Luk. 16.14. Religion was not more with them a matter of form, then of scorn, a manifest mark of the worst kind of wicked, Psal. 1.1. a right note of a rank Atheist, Isa. 21.11. and 22.13. 2 Pet. 3.3.