A commentary or, exposition upon the divine second epistle general, writtenA commentary or, exposition vpon the diuine second epistle generall, written

For Resolution; there must be no reasoning, no disputing; let no man dare to^q speak to the Almighty, or desire to reason with God. It is too far, if with Jeremiah, any man put him to his^r Wherefore; wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? Abraham told not his wife, when he went to offer Isaac. Paul ^sconferred not with flesh and blood, when he went to preach among the Heathen. The Jesuits commend blind obedience: and call the Novices that examine their impositions Quae ristas. They exact a condition of their inferiors, as Nahash did of the Gileadites, that they may thrust out their^t right eyes: otherwise allow them no covenant of peace: yea they put out both the eyes of their people. To God this blind obedience is good taken in that sense, without asking a reason. When man commands, enquire Quid, not Quis; what is bidden, not who bids. When God commands, consider, Quis, not Quid; who charges, not what is imposed. Believe what God saith, though in our thought impossible: do what he commands, though in our judgement unreasonable. Galerius maximus seeking to pervert that blessed Cyprian to idolatry, wished him before sense of punishment to bethink himself; Cave ne perias; take heed, you do not cast away your self. His answer was short, but resolute; In re tam justa nulla consultatio. the case is so clear that it refuses deliberation. Say, goods, liberty, life it self is hazarded, yet God can reward all. The Apostles were cited by Christ to Jerusalem, and commanded not to depart thence,^u but to wait for the promise of the Father, to receive the Holy Ghost: They never allege; Is not this that Jerusalem which was a provocation to anger from the first building? the slaughter-house of the Prophets? the common sink or sewer of all sins: yet wet with the blood of our Master Christ? why Jerusalem? Is not any other place fitter? no, they dispute not, but go thither with joy, what danger or unlikely hoods soever might affront them, they put on the resolution of Esther; Si pereo, pereo; if I perish, I perish. But there can nothing be lost, that we piously trust God withal.