three; themselves, but one. Besides, at their meals what strictness? Their very disciples were taught, to shame us Christians, if they had forgotten to give thanks, to return from the field to the

board to say grace ** For Divine Service; the Decalogue must be read once a day of every man †: the Scribes say, the first watch; the Pharisees, any hour of the night: others, twice; without moving eye, hand, foot; in a clean place; free from any excrement, and four cubits distant from any sepulchre. For Fasting, they did it twice a week; not Popishly, which Wickliffe justly calls Foolfasting, but in earnest; on Monday and Thursday. Besides, to omit their Alms, which were every way proportionable to the rest, what miserable Penance did they wilfully? They beat their heads against the walls, as they went, till blood came: whence one of their seven Pharisees is called KIZAI, a Pharisee drawblood. They put thorns in their skirts, to sting themselves §: they lay on planks, on stones, on thorns: and Banus |, that Eremitical Pharisee, drenched himself oft, night and day, in cold water, apos yvelaV, for chastity; or, if you read it without an aspiration, it signifies for folly rather. What could that apish and stigmatical Friar have done, either more or worse? This was their Devotion.

The HOLINESS OF THEIR CARRIAGE was such, that they avoided every thing that might carry any doubt of pollution: they would not, therefore, converse with any different religion; and this law went current amongst them, "He, that eats a Samaritan's bread, be as he, that eats swine's-flesh ¶." A Hebrew midwife might not help a Gentile: not books, not wax, not incense might be sold to them. Yea, no familiarity might be suffered with their own vulgar. For, whereas, there were three ranks among the Jews; the Wise (those were the Pharisees), their Disciples, and the populus terræ ** as they called them; this was one of the six reproaches to a novice of the Pharisees, "To eat with the vulgar sort ++:" and lest, when they had been abroad, they should have been touched by any, contrary to the warning of their phylacteries, they scour themselves at their return; and eat not unless they have washed Tuyu, that is, accurately, as the Syriac; oft, as Erasmus; or with the griped fist, as Beza following Jerome: and not with every water §§, mark the niceness! but with that only, which they had drawn up with their own labour. And, to make up the measure of their pretended sanctimony, they vowed continency; not perpetual, as our Romanists urge, but for eight or ten years Thus they did unbidden: how strictly did they PERFORM WHAT

Josephus. Tuxer udati.

**

*Præc. Mosaica cum Expos. Rabbinorum à Munster. ed. + Ibid.' * Δευτέραν καὶ πεμπτην. Epiphan. Hier, in Mat. xxiii. Aculissimas in eis spinas ligabant, ut ambulantes et sedentes pungerentur et admonerentur offcii. Qui comedit panem Samariticum acsi comederet suillam. Præcept. Mos. cum Expos. Rab. x in the New Testament The common people. tt Unum ex sex opprobriis vitandis à discipulis sapientum, Comessatio cum populo terra. Ar, Mont. in Evang. Epiphan. 'Exv μÅ πvyμŋ ví↓water. Mar. vii. 3. Præc. Mos, cum Expos. Rab. Epiphan. I. i.

WAS ENJOINED! No men so exact in their tithes: I pay tithes of all, saith the boasting Pharisee: Of all, as a great Doctor noteth; it was more than he needed *. God would have a Sabbath kept: they over-kept it: they would not on that day stop a running vessel, not lay an apple to the fire, not quench a burning, not knock on a table to still a child; what should I note more? not rub or scratch in public. God commands them to wear, Totaphoth, phylacteries: they do, which our Saviour reproves, Tλarúve, enlarge them: and these must be written with right lines, in a whole parchment of the hide of a clean beast. God commands to celebrate and roast the Passover: they will have it done, in an excessive care, not with an iron but a wooden spit; and curiously choose the wood of pomegranate §. God commanded to avoid Idolatry: they taught their Disciples, if an image were in the way, to fetch about some other; if they must needs go that way, to run; and, if a thorn should light in their foot, near the place, not to kneel, but sit down to pull it out, lest they should seem to give it reve

rence.

I weary you with these Jewish niceties. Consider then how deyout, how liberal, how continent, how true-dealing, how zealous," how scrupulous, how austere, these men were, and see if it be not a wonder, that our Saviour thus brandeth them; Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven: that is, If your doctrine be not more righteous, you shall not be entered of the Church: if your holiness be not more perfect, you shall not enter into heaven: behold, God's kingdom below and above is shut upon them.

The poor Jews were so besotted with the admiration of these two, that they would have thought, if but two men must go to heaven, the one should be a Scribe, the other a Pharisee. What strange news was this, from him that kept the keys of David, that neither of them should come there? It was not the person of these men, not their learning, not wit, not eloquence, not honour, they admired so much, but their righteousness; and, lo, nothing but their righteousness is censured! Herein they seemed to exceed all men; herein all, that would be saved, must exceed them. Do but think how the amazed multitude stared upon our Saviour, when they heard this paradox. Exceed the Pharisees in righteousness! It were much for an angel from heaven. What shall the poor sons of the earth do, if these worthies be turned away with a repulse? Yea, perhaps, yourselves all that hear me this day, receive this not without astonishment and fear; while your consciences, secretly comparing your holiness with theirs, find it to come as much short of theirs, as theirs of perfection. And would to God you could

* Tas ȧnapxas today. Epiph. † Præc. Mos. cum Expos. Mosis in pergameno scripti, soz. Deut. Pagn. § Quod ferrum Ibid.

Montan, in locum.

Vox Egyptiaca. Versus quidam ex lege 14 priores xiii. Exod. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. vi. vim assandi habet, Præc. Mos. cum Expos,

fear more, and be more amazed with this comparison! for, to set yon forward, must we exceed them, or else not be saved? If we let them exceed us, what hope, what possibility is there, of our salvation?

Ere we, therefore, shew how far we must go before them, look back with me, I beseech you, a little, and see how far we are behind them.

They taught diligently, and kept Moses's chair warm; Matthew xxiii. 3: how many are there of us, whom the great Master of the Vineyard may find loitering in this public market-place; and shake us by the shoulder, with a Quid statis, otiosi? Why stand you here

idle

They compassed sea and land (Satan's walk,) to make a proselyte: we sit still and freeze in our zeal; and lose proselytes with our dull and wilful neglect.

They spent one quarter of the day in prayer: how many are there of us, that would not think this an unreasonable service of God? We are so far from this extreme devotion of the old Euchitæ, that we are rather worthy of a censure with those Spanish Priests for our negligence. How many of you, Citizens, can get leave of Mammon, to bestow one hour of the day in a set course upon God? How many of you, Lawyers, are first clients to God, ere you admit others clients to you? how many of you have your thoughts fixed in Heaven, ere they be in Westminster? Alas, what dulness is this! what injustice! all thy hours are his, and thou wilt not lend him one of his own for thine own good.

They read, they recited the Law; some, twice a day; never went without some parts of it about them: but to what effect? "There is not one of our people," saith Josephus, "but answers to any question of the Law, as readily as his own name :" how shall their diligence upbraid, yea condemn us! Alas, how do our Bibles gather dust for want of use, while our Chronicle, or our Statute-book, yea perhaps our idle and scurrilous Play-books are worn with turning! Oh, how happy were our forefathers, whose memory is blessed for ever; if they could, with much cost and more danger, get but one of Paul's Epistles in their bosoms! How did they hug it in their arms, hide it in their chest, yea in their heart! How did they eat, walk, sleep, with that sweet companion; and, in spite of all persecution, never thought themselves well, but when they conversed with it in secret! Lo, now these shops are all open; we buy them not: these books are open; we read them not: and we will be ignorant, because we will. The sun shines, and we shut our windows. It is enough for the miserable popish laity, to be thus dark, that live in the perpetual night of Inquisition: shall this be the only difference betwixt them and us; that they would read these holy leaves and may not, we may and will not? There is no ignorance to the wilful. I stand not upon a formal and verbal

* Correcti à Concilio Toletan. Bellar. † Quilibet nostrúm de Lege interrogatus faciliùs quàm nomen suum respondet. Jos. contr. App. 1. ii.

knowledge: that, was never more frequent, more flourishing. But, if the main grounds of Christianity were thoroughly settled in the hearts of the multitude, we should not have so much cause of shame and sorrow, nor our adversaries of triumph and insultation. Shew less therefore, for God's sake, and learn more; and balance your wavering hearts with the sound truth of godliness, that you may fly steadily through all the tempests of errors. Make God's Law of your learned counsel, with David; and be happy. Else, if you will needs love darkness, you shall have enough of it: you have here inward darkness; there, outward, cnór Tepov; Matthew viii. 12. This is your own darkness; that, his, of whom the Psalmist, He sent darkness and it was dark: dark indeed! A thick and terrible darkness *, joined with weeping and gnashing.

I urge not their awful reverence in their devotion, our sleepy or wild carelessness; their austere and rough discipline of the body, our wanton pampering of the flesh: though who can abide to think of a chaste Pharisee, and a filthy Christian; a temperate Pharisee, and a drunken Christian?

How shamefully is this latter vice, especially, grown upon us with time! We knew it once in our ordinary speech appropriated to beggars; now, gallants fight for it. This beastliness had wont be bashful; now, it is impudent: once, children were wont to shout at a drunkard, as some foul wonder; now, not to be drunk is quarrel enough among men, among friends: those knees, that we were wont to bow to the God of Heaven, are now bent to Bacchus in a paganish, bestial, devilish devotion. To leave the title of Christians, for shame let us be either men or beasts.

My speech hastens to their holy and wise strictness of carriage; wherein I can never complain enough of our inequality. They hated the presence, the fire, the fashion, the books of a Gentile, of a Samaritan: neither was there any hatred lost on the Samaritan's part; for if he had but touched a Jew, he would have thrown himself into the water, clothes and allt: both of them equally sick of a Noli me tangere; Touch me not, for I am holier. Isaiah lxv. 5. Our Romish Samaritans haunt our tables, our closets, our ears: we frown not; we dislike not. We match, converse, confer, consult with them carelessly; as if it were come to the old stay of that indifferent Appelles in Eusebius; Sat est credere in crucifixum. But that, which I most lament, and ye, Fathers and Brethren, if my voice may reach to any whom it concerneth, in the bowels of Christ let me boldly, though most unworthy, move your wisdoms, your care to redress it: our young students, the hope of posterity, newly crept out of the shell of philosophy, spend their first hours in the great Doctors of Popish controversies; Bellarmin is next to Aristotle: yea, our very ungrounded artisans, young gentlemen, frail women, buy, read, traverse promiscuously the dangerous writ

hos Ton Tenebræ Caliginis, Exod. x. 22. In aquam se cum vestibus immergunt, ubi contigerint aliquem ex aliú gente: papir yap nɣarros &c. Epiph.

ings of our subtlest Jesuits. What is the issue? Many of them have taken poison, ere they know what milk is; and, when they have once tasted this bane, they must drink and die. Oh, what pity, what vexation is it to a true heart, to see us thus robbed of our hopes; them, of their souls! I have heard, yea I have seen and envied, the cautelous severity of our adversaries; which, upon the deepest pains, forbid the sale, yea the sight of those authors, which they term infectious. Where was ever Calvin publicly bought in one of their church-yards? Where ever read without licence; without security? I censure not this, as the peculiar fault of this place: would God this open remissness were not a common evil; and had not spread itself wide through all those Churches that are gone out of Babylon! Let no man tell me of the distinction of that old Canonist (Barthol. Brixiensis :) "Some things," saith he, "we read, lest they should be neglected; as the Bible: some, lest they should be unknown; as Arts and Philosophy: some, that they may be rejected; as Heretical Books." True: but let them read, that can reject, that can confute: we distrust not our cause, but their weak judgments. A good apothecary can make a good medicine of a strong poison; must children, therefore, be allowed that box? I know how unworthy I am to advise only I throw down myself at your feet; and beseech you, that our losses and their examples may make us no less wise in our generation.

I follow the comparison. They paid tithes of all they had: not a potherb, but they tithed it; Matthew xxiii. 23. Hear this, ye sacrilegious Patrons, the merchants of souls, the pirates of the Church, the enemies of religion: they tithed all; you, nothing: they paid to their Levites; your Levites must pay to you: your cures must be purchased; your tithes abated, or compounded for: O the shame of religion! How too justly may I usurp of you that of Seneca: "Petty sacrileges are punished, while great ones ride in triumph!" Never excuse it with pretence of ceremony. Moses never gave so strict a charge for this as Paul: ἐν πᾶσιν αγαθοῖς; Galatians vi. 6. communicate all thy goods with thy teacher; All, with an emphasis. Well fare yet the honest Pharisees, whose rule was, Decima, ut dives fias; "Tithe, and be rich." Tithe, and be rich." If ever thou be the fatter for this gravel, or the richer with that thou stealest from God, let me come to beg at thy door.

Woe to you, Spiritual Robbers! Our blind forefathers clothed the Church; you despoil it: their ignorant devotion shall rise in judgment, against your ravening covetousness. If robbery, simony, perjury will not carry you to hell; hope still that you may be saved. They gave plentiful alms to the poor; we, instead of filling their bellies, grind their faces. What excellent laws had we lately enacted, that there should be no beggar in Israel! Let our streets, ways, hedges witness the execution. Thy liberality relieves some poor: it is well but hath not thy oppression made more? Thy usury, extorting, racking, inclosing, hath wounded whole villages; and now thou befriendest two or three, with the plaisters of thy