g the Church, robbing it, as Julian the Apostate did, spoile Parsons of their revenews (in keeping halfe back," as a great man amongst us observes :)" and that maintenance on which they should live :" by meanes whereof, Barbarism is increased, and a great decay of Christian Professors: for who wil apply himselfe to these divine studies, his son, or friend, when after great pains taken, they shall have nothing whereupon to live? But with what event do they these things? *Opesque totis viribus venamini, At inde messis accidit miserrima. THEC BIBLI They toyle and moyle, but what reap they? They are commonly unfortunate families that use it, accursed in their progenie, and, as common experience evinceth, accursed themselves in all their proceedings. "With what face (as he quotes out of Aust.) can they expect a blessing or inheritance from Christ in Heaven, that defraud Christ of his inheritance here on earth?" I would all our Symoniacal Patrons, and such as detain Tithes, would read those judicious Tracts of Sr Henry Spelman, and S James Sempill Knights; those late elaborate and learned Treatises of Dr Tilflye, and Mr. Momtague, which they have written of that subject. But though they should read, it would be to small purpose, clames licet & mare cœlo Confundas; thunder, lighten, preach hell and damnation, tell them 'tis a sin, they will not believe it; denounce and terrifie, they have cauterized consciences, they do not attend, as the inchanted Adder, they stop their ears. Call them base, irreligious, prophane, barbarous, Pagans, Atheists, Epicures, (as some of them surely are) with the Bawd in Plautus, Euge, optimè, they cry and applaud themselves with that Miser, simulac nummos contemplor in arcá: say what you will, quocunque modo rem as a dog barks at the Moon, to no purpose are your sayings: Take your Heaven, let them have money. A base prophane Epicurean, Hypocritical rout; for my part, let them pretend what zeal they will, counterfeit Religion, blear the world's eyes, bumbast themselves, and stuffe out their greatness with Church spoiles, shine like so many Peacocks; so cold is my charity, so defective in this behalf, that I shall never think better of them, then that they are rotten at core, their bones are full of Epicurean hypocrisie, and Atheistical marrow, they are worse then Heathens. For as Dionysius Halicarnasseus observes Antiq. Rom. lib. 7. Primum locum, Nicephorus lib. 10. cap. 5. fol. 44. * Euripides. * 1 Tim. 42. 1 Hor. h Lord Cook in his Reports, second part, Sir Henry Spelman, de non temerandis Ecclesiis. m Primum locu apud omnes gentes habet patritius deora cultus, & geniorum, nam hunc diutissime custodiunt, tam Græci quam Barbari, &c. &c. n &c. "Greekes and Barbarians observe all religious rites, and dare not break them for fear of offending their Gods; but our Simoniacal contracters, our senseless Achans, our stupified Patrons, fear neither God nor divel, they have evasions for it, it is no sin, or not due jure divino, or if a sin, no great sin, &c. And though they be daily punished for it, and they do manifestly perceive, that as he said, Frost and Fraud come to foul ends; yet as Chrysostome followes it Nulla ex paná sit correctio, & quasi adversis malitia hominum provocetur, crescit quotidiè quod puniatur: they are rather worse than better,— iram atque animos à crimine sumunt, and the more they are corrected, the more they offend: but let them take their course, • Rode caper vites, go on stil as they begin, 'tis no sin, let them rejoyce secure, God's vengeance will overtake them in the end, and these ill gotten goods, as an Eagle's feathers, P will consume the rest of their substance: It is aurum Tholosa num, and will produce no better effects. "Let them lay it up safe, and make their conveyances never so close, lock and shut door," saith Chrysostome, "yet fraud and Covetousness, two most violent theeves, are still included, and a little gain evill gotten will subvert the rest of their goods." The Eagle in Æsop, seeing a piece of flesh, now ready to be sacrificed, swept it away with her clawes, and carried it to her nest; but there was a burning coal stuck to it by chance, which unawares consumed her, young ones, nest and altogether. Let our Symoniacal Church-chopping Patrons, and sacrilegious Harpyes, look for no better success. A second cause is ignorance, and from thence contempt, successit odium in literas ab ignorantia vulgi; which Junius well perceived this hatred and contempt of learning proceeds out of Ignorance; as they are themselves barbarous, idiots, dull, illiterate, and proud, so they esteem of others. t "Sint Mecænates, non deerunt Flacce Marones:" Let there be bountiful Patrons, and there will be painful Schollers in all Sciences. But when they contemn Learning, and think themselves sufficiently qualified, if they can write and read, scamble at a piece of Evidence, or have so much Latine as that Emperor had, qui nescit dissimulare, nescit vivere, they are unfit to do their country service, to performe or un u P De Nihil n Tom. Is de steril. triu annoru sub Elia sermone. • Ovid. Fast. male quæsitis vix gaudet tertius hæres. Strabo lib. 4. Geog. facilius opes evertet, quam avaritia & fraude parta. Et si enim seră addas tali arcæ & exteriore janua & vecte eam communias, intus tamen fraudem & avari tiam, &c. In 5. Corinth. micu præter ignorantem. • Acad. cap. 7. 'Ars neminem habet ini14 He that cannot dissemble cannot live. 66 X dertake any action or imployment, which may tend to the good of a Common-wealth, except it be to fight, or to do country Justice, with common sense, which every Yeoman can likewise do. And so they bring up their children, rude as they are themselves, unqualified, untaught, uncivil most part. * Quis é nostrá juventute legitime instituitur literis? Quis oratores aut Philosophos tangit? quis historiam legit, illam rerum agendarum quasi animam? præcipitant parentes vota sua, &c. 'twas Lipsius' complaint to his illiterate country-men, it may be ours. Now shall these men judge of a Scholler's worth, that have no worth, that know not what belongs to a student's labors, that cannot distinguish between a true scholler and a drone? or him that by reason of a voluble tongue, a strong voice, a pleasing tone, and some trivantly Polyanthean helps, steales and gleans a few notes from other men's Harvests, and so makes a fairer shew, than he that is truly learned indeed that thinks it no more to preach, than to speak, “ * or to run away with an empty Cart ; as a grave man said: and thereupon vilifie us, and our paines; scorne us, and all learning. Because they are rich, and have other meanes to live, they think it concernes them not to know, or to trouble themselves with it; a fitter taske for younger brothers, or poor men's sons, to be pen and Inkhorne men, pedantical slaves, and no whit beseeming the calling of a Gentleman, as Frenchmen and Germans commonly do, neglect therefore all humane learning, what have they to do with it? Let Marriners learn Astronomy; Merchants Factors study Arithmetick; Surveiers get them Geometry; Spectacle-makers Opticks; Landleapers Geography; Town-Clarks Rhetorick, what should he do with a spade, that hath no ground to dig; or they with Learning, that have no use of it? thus they reason, and are not ashamed to let Mariners, Prentises, and the basest servants be better qualified than themselves. In former times, Kings, Princes, and Emperors were the only Schollers, excellent in all faculties. Julius Cæsar mended the year, and writ his own Commentaries, -+ media inter prælia semper, Stellarum cœlique plagis, superisque vacavit." Antonius, Adrian, Nero, Seve. Jul. &c. a Michael the Emperor, and Isacius, were so much given to their studies, that Epist. quest. lib. 4. epist. 21. Lipsius. * Dr. King in his last lecture on Y Quibus opes & + Lucan. lib. 8. * SparNicet. 1. Anal. Fumis lucubrationum sor Jonah, sometimes right reverend L. Bishop of London. no no base fellow would take so much pains: Orion, Perseus, Alphonsus, Ptolomeus, famous Astronomers: Sabor, Mithridates, Lysimachus, admired Physitians: Plato's kings all: Evax that Arabian Prince, a most expert Jueller, and an exquisite Philosopher; the Kings of Egypt were Priests of old, chosen and from thence,-Idem rex hominum, Phabique sacerdos: but those heroical times are past; the Muses are now banished in this bastard age, ad sordida tuguriola, to meaner persons, and confined alone almost to Universities. In those daies, Schollers were highly beloved, honoured, esteemed; as old Ennius by Scipio Africanus, Virgil by Augustus; Horace by Mecanas: Princes companions; dear to them, as Anacreon to Polycrates; Philoxenus to Dionysius, and highly rewarded. Alexander sent Xenocrates the Philosopher 50. talents, because he was poor, visu rerum, aut eruditime præstantes viri, mensis olim regum adhibiti, as Philostratus relates of Adrian and Lampridius of Alexander Severus: famous Clarkes came to these Princes Courts, velut in Lyceum, as to an University, and were admitted to their tables, quasi divům epulis accumbentes; Archilaus that Macedonian King would not willingly sup without Euripides, (amongst the rest he drank to him at supper one night and gave him a cup of gold for his pains) delectatus poetæ suavi sermone; and it was fit it should be so; Because as Plato in his Protagoras well saith, a good Philosopher as much excels other men, as a great King doth the Commons of his country; and again, quoniam illis nihil deest, & minimè egere solent, A disciplinas quas profitentur, soli à contemptu vindicare possunt, they needed not to beg so basely, as they compel Schollers in our times to complain of poverty, or crouch to a rich chuffe for a meale's meat, but could vindicate themselves, and those Arts which they professed. Now they would and cannot : for it is held by some of them, as an axiome, that to keep them poor, will make them study; they must be dieted, as horses to a race, not pampered, Alendos volunt, non saginandos, ne melioris mentis flammula extinguatur; a fat bird will not sing, a fat dog cannot hunt, and so by this depression of theirs, some want meanes, others will, all want incouragement, as being forsaken almost; and generally contemned. 'Tis an old saying, Sint Mecanates, non deerunt с e Grammaticis olim & dialecticis Jurisque Professoribus, qui specimen eruditionis dedissent eadem dignitatis insignia decreverut Imperatores, quibus ornabat heroas. Erasm. ep. Jo. Fabio epis. Vien. * Probus vir & Philosophus magis præstat inter alios homines, quam rex inclitus inter plebeios. < Heinsius præfat. Poematum. Servile nome Scholaris jam. e Seneca. Haud facile emergunt, &c. mo faber, qua nemo sedebat, qui amen merces. Juv. Sat. 7. Flacce Marones, and 'tis a true saying still. Yet oftentimes I may not deny it the main fault is in our selves. Our Academicks too frequently offend in neglecting patrons, as Erasmus well taxeth, or making ill choice of them; negligimus oblatos aut amplectimur parum aptos, or if we get a good one, non studemus mutuis officiis favorem ejus alere, we do not plye and follow him as we should. Idem mihi accidit Adolescenti (saith Erasmus) acknowledging his fault, & gravissimè peccavi, and so may + I say my self, I have offended in this, and so peradventure have many others. We did not spondere magnatum favoribus, qui cœperunt nos amplecti, apply ourselves with that readiness we should: idleness, love of liberty, immodicus amor libertatis effecit ut diù cum perfidis amicis, as he confesseth, & pertinaci pauperate colluctarur, bashfulness, melancholy, timourousness cause many of us to be too backward and remiss. So some offend in one extream, but too many on the other, we are most part too forward, too solicitous, too ambitious, too impudent; We commonly complain deesse Macenates, of want of encouragement, want of meanes, when as the true defect is in our own want of worth, our insufficiency did Mecenas take notice of Horace or Virgil till they had shewed themselves first? or had Bavius and Mevius any patrons? Egregium specimen dent, saith Erasmus, let them approve themselves worthy first, sufficiently qualified for learning and manners, before they presume or impudently intrude and put themselves on great men as too many do, with such base flattery, parasitical colloging, such hyperbolical elogies they do usually insinuat, that it is a shame to hear and see. Immodice laudes conciliant invidiam, potius quam laudem, and vain commendations derogate from truth, and we think in conclusion, non melius de laudato, pejus de laudante, ill of both, the commender and commended. So we offend, but the main fault is in their harshness, defect of patrons. How beloved of old, and how much respected was Plato to Dionysius? How dear to Alexander was Aristotle, Demeratus to Philip, Solon to Cræsus, Anexarcus and Trebatius to Augustus, Cassius to Vespatian, Plutarch to Trajan, Seneca to Nero, Simonides to Hieron? how honored?" "Sed hæc priùs fuere, nunc recondita Senent quiete," those daies are gone : "Et spes, & ratio studiorum in Cæsare tantum :" + Had I done as others did, put my self for ward, I might have happily been as great a man as many of my equals. Chil. 4. Cent. 1. adag. 1. A Catullus, Juven. As |