had not the prophane licentiousnesse of hereticall curiositie by inventing I know not what new opinion spotted and discredited all his former labours whereby his doctrine was accounted not so much an edification as an ecclesiasticall tentation CHAP. VII HEre some man perhaps requireth to know what heresies these men above named taught that is Nestorius Appollinaris Photinus This pertaineth not to the matter whereof we now intreat for it is not our purpose to dispute against each mans particuler error but only by a few examples plainly and clearly to prove that to be most true which Moyses saith that if at any time any ecclesiasticall doctour yea and a Prophet for interpreting the misteries of the prophetical visions goeth about to bring in any new opinion into the Church that the providence of God doth permit it for our proofe and triall But because it will be profitable I will by a little digression briefely set down what the forenamed hereticks Photinus Apollinaris and Nestorius taught This then is the heresie of Photinus he affirmeth that God is as the Jewes beleeve singular and solitary denying the fulnesse of the Trinitie not beleving that there is any person of the word of God or of the holy ghost he affirmeth also that Christ was only man who had his begining of the virgin MARY teaching verie earnestly that we ought to worship only the person of God the father and to honour Christ only for man This then was Photinus opinion now Apollinaris vaunteth much as though he beleved the unitie of Trinitie with full sound faith but yet blasphemeth he manifestly against our Lords incarnation For he saith that our Saviour either had not mans soul at all or at least such a one as was neither indued with mind or reason furthermore he affirmeth that Christs body was not taken of the flesh of the holy virgin MARY but descended from heaven into the wombe of the Virgin holding yet doubtfully inconstantly some time that it was coeternall to the word of God some time that it was made of the divinitie of the word for he would not admit two maner of substances in Christ the one divine the other humane the one of his Father the other of his Mother but did think that the verie nature of the word was divided into two parts as though the one remained in God and the other was turned into flesh that wheras the truth saith that Christ is one consisting of two substances he contrary to the truth affirmeth of the one divinitie of Christ to be two substances and these be the assertions of Apollinaris But Nestorius sicke of a contrarie disease whilest he faineth a distinction of two substances in Christ suddenly bringeth in two persons and with monstrous wickednes will needs have two sonnes of God two Christs one that was God and another that was man one begotten of the Father another begotten of his Mother And therefore he saieth that the holy Virgin MARY is not to be called the mother of God but the mother of Christ because that Christ which was borne of her was not God but man And if any man think that in his books he saith there was one Christ and that he preached one person of Christ I must needs confesse that he lacketh not ground to say so for that he did either of craftie pollicie the rather to deceave that by some good things he might the more easely perswade that which is evill as the Apostle saith By the good thing he hath wrought me death R. 7. Wherfore either craftely as I said in certaine places of his writings he vaunteth to beleeve one person in Christ or else surely he did hold that after our Ladies deliverie two persons became in such sort one Christ that yet in the time of our Ladies conception or deliverie and for some time after there were two Christs and that Christ was born first like unto another man and only was man and not yet joyned in unitie with the person of God the word and that afterward the person of the word descended down assuming and joyning him self to that man in unitie of person and although he now remaine in glorie assumpted for some time yet there seemeth to have been no difference betwixt him and other men Thus then Nestorius Apollinaris Phatinus like mad doggs barked against the Catholick Church Photinus not confessing the Trinity Apollinaris maintaining the nature of the Word convertible and not confessing two substances in Christ denying also either the whol soul of Christ or at least that it was indued with mind and reason beleeving for his pleasure what he liked of the second person in Trinitie Nestorius by defending either alwayes or for some time two Christs But the Catholick Church beleeving aright both of God and of our Saviour neither blasphemeth against the misterie of the Trinitie nor against the incarnation of Christ for it worshipeth one Divinitie in Trinitie reverenceth the equalitie of the Trinitie in one and the same majestie confessing one Christ not two and the self same both God and man beleeving in him one person yet acknowledging two substances but yet beleeving one person two substances because the word of God is not mutable that it can be turned into flesh one person least professing two sonnes it may seeme to worship a quaternitie and not to adore the Trinitie CHAP. VIII BUt it is worth the labour to declare this matter more plainly more substantially more distinctly In God is one substance and three persons in Christ be two substances but one person In the Trinitie there is another and another but not another and another thing In our Saviour is not another and another but another another thing How is there in the Trinitie another and another but not another and another thing Marry because there is another person of the father another of the sonne and another of the holy ghost But yet not another another nature but one the self same How is there in our Saviour another and another thing not another and another because there is another substance of the divinitie and another substance of the humanitie but yet the deitie and the humanitie is not another and another but one and the selfe same Christ one and the same sonne of God and one and the selfe same person of the selfe same Christ and sonne of God As in a man the body is one thing and the soule is another thing but yet the body and the soule are but one and the selfe same man In Peter Paul the soule is one thing the body is another thing and yet the body and the soule are not two Peters nor the soule is not one Paul and the body another Paul but one and the selfe same Peter one and the selfe same Paul subsisting of a double divers nature of the body and the soule So therefore in one and the selfe same Christ there are two substances but one a divine
substance the other humane the one of God the Father the other of the Virgin his Mother the one coeternall and equall to the Father the other substantiall to his Mother yet one and the same Christ in both substances Therefore there is not one Christ God another Christ man not one increated another created not one impassible another passible not one equal to the Father another lesse then the Father not one of the father another of the mother but one and the selfe same Christ God and man the same increated and created the same incommutable and impassible the same changed suffered the same equall and inferiour to the Father the same begotten of his Father before all times the same conceived of his Mother in time perfect God and perfect man in him as God is perfect Divinitie in him as man is perfect humanitie perfect humanitie I say because it had both soule and body yet a true body such as our body is and such as his mothers was and a soule indued with understanding with mind reason There is therefore in Christ the Word the Soul the Flesh but yet all these together is one Christ one son of God our onely Saviour and Redeemer One I say not by any I know not what corruptible confusion of the divinity and humanity together but by a certain perfect and singular unity of person for that conjunction did not change or convert either into other which is the proper errour of the Arians but did rather so unite both in one that as the singularity of one and the same person remayneth alwayes in Christ so likewise the properties of both natures do for ever continue so that neither God ever beginneth to be a body nor now at any time ceaseth to be a body which thing is also more apparent by some humane example for not onely in this world but also in the next every man shall consist of body and soul yet never shall either the body be changed into the soul or the soul ever converted into the body but as every man shall live for ever so for ever of necessity in each man the difference of either substance shall continue So likewise in Christ each property of either substance shall continue for ever saving alwayes and reserving the unity of person And when we often name this word Person and say that the Sonne of God was made man we must take great heed that we seeme not to say that God the Word the second person in Trinitie tooke upon him our actions onely in imitation and and rather in shew and shadow and not as a perfect and very man practised humane conversation as we see used in Theaters and Stages where one man in a little time taketh upon him many parts of which notwithstanding himselfe is none for as often as we counterfeit another mans actions we so exercise his office that yet we be not those men whose actions we take upon us for neither a tragedie player to use prophane examples and such as the Maniches alledge when he playeth the Priest or King is therefore a priest or king for so soon as the tragedie endeth that person also which he played forthwith ceaseth God keep us from this horrible and wicked mockerie Let this madnesse be proper to the Maniches which preaching abroad their owne fantasies affirme God the sonne of God not to have been substantively the person of man but to have fained the same by supposed action and conuersation But the Catholick faith affirmeth that the word of God was so made man that he took upon him our nature the proprieties belonging to the same not deceitfully and in shew but truely and verily and did such things as belong to man as his owne and not as one that imitated other mens actions and was verily that which in life and conversation he did shew himselfe to be as we our selves also in that we speak understand and subsist do not counterfeit our selves to be men but are verily men For neither Paul and John to speak of them especially for example sake were men by imitation but by subsistence neither likewise did Paul counterfeit the Apostle or faine himselfe Paul but was in veritie an Apostle and was Paul by subsistence In like maner God the Word by assuming and having flesh in speaking doing and suffering in flesh yet without any corruption of his nature vouchsafed perfectly to performe this to wit not that he should imitate or counterfeit but exhibit himself a perfect man not that he should seem or be thought a very man but should in veritie so be and subsist Therefore as the soule joyned to the flesh and yet not turned into the flesh doth not imitate a man but is a man and not a man in shew and appearance but in substance so God the Word without any conversion of himself uniting himself to man was made man not by confusion not by mutation but by subsisting Let that exposition therefore of a fained counterfeit person utterly be rejected in which alwayes one thing is in shew another in deed inw eh he that doth ought is never the same person whom he representeth for God forbid that we should believe that God the Word took upon him the person of man after such a deceitfull manner but rather in this sort That his substance remaining incommutable in it self and yet taking upon him the nature of perfect man was himself flesh was himself a man was himself the person of a man not deceitfully but truly not in imitation but in truth and substance not finally after that sort which with action should desist but after that manner which perfectly in substance should persist This unity therefore of person in Christ was not framed and finished after the Virgins delivery but in her very womb For we must diligently take heed that we confesse Christ not onely one but also to have been alwayes one because it is an intolerable blasphemy to grant him now to be one and yet contend that once he was not one but two that is one after the time of his Baptisme but two in the time of his Nativitie which great sacriledge we cannot otherwise avoid but by confessing that man was united to God in unity of person not in his Ascention not in his Resurrection not in his Baptisme but in his mothers womb and immaculate conception by reason of which Unity of Person both the Proprieties of God are indifferently and promiscually attributed to man and the proprieties of man ascribed to God hence cometh that which is written in the Scripture That the Son of man descended from Heaven and the Lord of Majesty was Crucified upon earth Joan. 6. hence also it proceedeth that we say that when our Lords flesh was made when our Lords body was framed that the very Word of God was made the very wisdome of God was replenished with created knowledge as in the foresight of God His hands and feet are
people Thou hast received gold render then gold I will not have one thing for another Do not for gold give me either impudently lead or craftily brasse I will not the shew but the very nature of gold it self O Timothy O Priest O Teacher O Doctour if Gods gift hath made thee meet and sufficient for thy wit exercise and learning shew thy self Beseelel that divine workman in building of the spirituall tabernacle ingrave those precious stones of Gods religion faithfully set them wisely adorn them give them brightnesse give them grace give them beauty That which men before believed obscurely let them by thy exposition understand more clearly Let posterity rejoyce for coming to the knowledge of that by thy means which antiquity without that knowledge had in veneration Yet for all this in such sort deliver what thou hast learned that albeit thou teachest newly and after a new manner yet thou never preach a new religion and deliver a new faith CHAP. XIII BUt peradventure some will say shall we then have no advancement of religion in the Church of Christ no growing on no proceeding forward To which I answer and say Let us a Gods name have the greatest and most that may be For who is either so envious to men or hatefull to God which would labour to stop or hinder that but yet in such sort and with this proviso that it may appear to be truly an increase in faith and not prove to be a change in religion for this is the nature of such things as increase that in themselves they become and grow greater and this is the nature of a change and mutation that something be turned from one thing which it was to an other which it was not Convenient it is and very necessary that the understanding knowledge and wisdome aswell of every man in particular as of all in common as well of one alone as of the whole Church in Generall of all ages and times past should abundantly increase and go forward but yet for all that onely in his own kind and nature that is in the same faith in the same sense in the same sentence In this cafe let the religion of our soul imitate the nature of our bodies which although with processe of time they passe over many years yet they remain the same that they were There is great difference betwixt flourishing youth and withered age yet the self same men become old which before were young so that although the state and condition of one and the self same man be altered yet one very nature and person doth still remain The limbs and members of infants be small of young men great yet not divers but the very same So many joynts as young children have so many have they when they be men and if any parts there be which with increase of years spring forth those before by nature were in man virtually planted so that no new things come forth in old men which before were not contained in them being yet children Wherefore there can be no doubt but that this is the due and right order of growing the most naturall and goodlyest way of increasing onely to have in old years those members those parts and joynts which the wisdome of our Creatour before framed when we were yet but little ones And therefore if a man be afterward changed into some other shape or likenes then his nature requires or if the number of his members be more or lesse then nature prescribeth then of necessitie the whole body must either perish or become monstrous or at least remaine lame and maimed In like manner Christian religion must follow these rules of increasing and growing to wit that with years it waxe more sound with time it become more ample with continuance it be more exalted yet remaine pure and incorrupt and continue full and perfect with each of his parts and as it were with all his members and proper senses And furthermore that it admit no change or mutation sustaine no losse of his proprietie no varietie or mutabilitie in definition for example sake Our forefathers in old time in the spiritual field of the Church sowed the wheaten seed of true faith and religion it were now very injurious and unreasonable that we their posteritie in stead of the perfect and true graine should reape the false errour of cockle And contrariwise it is reason and very convenient that the beginning and ending not disagreing with it self we should of the increase of wheaten seed reape the fruit of a wheaten religion so that when with tract of time any of those first seeds beginne to bud and come forth let them be tilled let them bee trimmed yet without changing ought of the proprietie of the corn springing up and albeit fashion shape and distinction be added and put to yet must the nature of each kind remain and abide For God forbid that those rosie plants of the Catholick doctrine should be changed into thistles and thornes God forbid I say that in this spirituall paradise of the slippes of Cinamon and Balsame should suddenly grow up darnel and poison Therefore whatsoever hath by the grace of God and our Fathers faith been sowen in this Church reason it is that the same be cultivated and maintained by the industry of the children meet that it flourish waxe ripe convenient that it grow and come to perfection lawfull indeed it is that those ancient articles of heavenly philosophie should be trimmed smoothed and polished but unlawfull that they should be chaned mangled and maimed And albeit they receive perspicuitie light and distinction yet of necessitie must they retaine their fulnes soundnes and proprietie For if once this licentiousnes of wicked fraud be admitted I tremble to speak what danger is like to ensue of rasing and subverting religion for if we take away any part of the Catholick faith straight wayes other parts and after that other and againe other and that as it were of custome and by a kind of law shall be abolished And what followeth when every part by little and little is undermined but that in conclusion the whole corps of religion at one blow be come subverted and over thrown And contrariwise if new things and old forreine and domesticall prophane and sacred begin once to be confounded together then must needs this custome generally follow that nothing hereafter remaine in the Church untouched nothing without corruption nothing sound nothing pure nothing sincere and so where before was the sacred school of chast and immaculate truth there shall be a very brothel house of wicked filthie errours But God of his goodnes deliver his servants from such minds and let the impious rather gracelesse follow that furious mad proceeding For the Church of Christ is a carefull diligent keeper of religion committed to her charge she never changeth or altereth in it any thing she diminisheth nothing she addeth nothing What is necessarie she loseth
absolute perfection and therefore the nearer he is unto it the more perfect he is and the more he increases in perfection at the nearer distance he is from it because to grow perfect is nothing else then to approach unto his last end but there hath never any thing been found by coming near unto which by the approaches of the understanding and affection we speak of them here and not of corporal approaches humane nature hath so much profited as unto Christ crucified insomuch that the more nigh it comes unto him the more vehemently it affects him and the more it becomes as I have formerly shown perfect in all morality whence it plainly appears that Christ is the last end of humane life The desire of the last end is most naturall unto all thins and therefore every thing immoveably adheres unto its last end for the last end in practicall things is like the first principles in things of speculation Therefore as the first principles are ingrafted in our nature so is the desire of our last end and therefore it persists immoveable Therefore when a man no way diverted by his vicious appetites doth rationally so firmly fix his affection upon some one thing so tenaciously that he disesteems all others for it and had rather lose his life then forsake it it is a sign that he hath truly found out his last end and hence it is that although others have prefixed unto themselves other last ends yet we have seen none or very few except Christians who had rather lose their lives then forsake those ends of theirs others undergo the extremity of all miseries to conserve their lives for a man will give all he hath rather then lose his life but Christians do not onely patiently willingly and joyfully lose all they have for Christ but even they esteem their lives as nothing for his sake and certainly if Christ were not the supreme Good such men of the greatest wisdome would not lose their lives being the most precious unto them for the defence of the greatest of all errours Moreover things which are of the same nature being ordained for the same end and in that regard being united even as all ponderous bodies are in tending to their centre it is a most manifest argument seeing that there was nothing ever found in which men were so firmly united as in Christ crucified that he is the last end of man for those that believe in him are no lesse united and linked together then all the parts of the earth being compacted into one solid globe are adherent to their centre in the same manner all Christians which truly seek Christ come to have but one heart and one soul in him nay the more they profit in their Faith with greater delight and more ardent charity do they love one another if therefore Christ were onely a man and his Faith contain a clandestine and impious fiction and forgery it would not have taken such effect in so many thousands of men of severall conditions and qualities because those who are onely tyed together by falsity are easily dissolved nor could so many men grounding the union of their friendship on the false foundation of an errour increase their love as the errour grew more enormious spirituall delights they are the greater when our soul approaches nearer to its last end and then they are most perfect when they more attain unto the end it self If man therefore be somewhat delighted when he beholds his end imperfectly afar off he will be farre more when he shall more perfectly possesse it but the delight which Christians do enjoy of Christ surpasseth all the exteriour pleasures of the senses or understanding which appears out of three things first out of the incomparable constancy of Martyrs of whom we reade innumerable who with joy and mirth ran to their torments as to their nuptials and triumphing in the midst of their sufferings have sung hymns unto God as if they had been in some place of pleasure which could no way happen unlesse by the excesse of an immense delight as if all their corporall senses were brought afleep and Christ had defended them from all grief and terrour which truly is a prerogative not granted to any other delight for a grief as experience teaches disturbs the whole man and expelling all pleasure puts him out of himself Secondly out of the infinite examples of the antient Monks who forsaking the world and wandring in the deserts and caves as the companions of wild beasts in abstinence fasting and mortification being in want of all things and naked have neverthelesse lived most joyfully with that unspeakable content which they found in the contemplation of Divine things And as yet we see the imitation and prints of their footsteps in the Religious men who in great numbers as I have said of their own accords subjecting themselves to a willing servitude and to perpetuall clausures do most contentedly and joyfully passe their lives under a most exact obedience as if they were set at liberty by being subjected under this yoke of Grace Thirdly out of the lives of most wise men who flourishing with the erudition of all Sciences having drunk of the sacred fountain of holy Scriptures and tasted the sweetnesse of Christ have given over all other Sciences being onely delighted with his Doctrine unto which they have stuck so firmly as if they could not be drawn from it esteeming all the wisdome of Philosophers and eloquence of the Oratours as dry apples and unsavoury which I can testifie of very many such as I have known to have done so but of these examples it is manifest that the delights which proceed out of the Faith Contemplation of Christ crucified do far surpass all others we must therefore conclude that they proceed from the universal and supreme good and chiefly because the more near access we have unto Christ by Faith and Love the more are those delights augmented And that we may briefly conclude with one argument joyning in one all the proprieties of the last end all the individuall or singular natures of the same kind as I have said are ordained for the same last end and all men do agree in the nature of their last end though not in the thing in which that nature of the last end is contained for this is that which we seek The blisse therefore of man consisting in an act of our understanding we must conclude that that thing to which the nature of the last end agrees is that in which all the most rationall and which are most pure of heart do agree in and with all uniformity seek after it and do immoveably insist upon and which they love above themselves and consequently are most admirably delighted in it and deriving from it the integrity of their lives and the splendour of a celestiall clarity and transformed with a Divine love become even one and the same thing with it and being in a manner
reason to believe and embrace unheard of millions of fables and tales CHAP. VII That we ought not to judge rashly of the holy Scriptures and how and with what care and diligence the true Religion is to be sought for BUt now if I can I will accomplish that which I have begun and I will treat with thee after such a sort that in the mean time I will not expound the Catholick Faith but I will shew unto them that have a care of their souls some hope of divine fruit and of finding out the Truth to the end they may search out the great mysteries and secrets of Faith He that seeks after the true Religion doth without doubt either believe already that the Soul is immortall unto whom that Religion may be commodious and profitable or he desires to find her to be so in the same Religion and therefore all Religion is for the souls sake for the nature of the body howsoever it doth put him to no care and solicitude especially after death whose soul hath taken a course by which it may become blessed Wherefore true Religion if there be any was either onely one chiefly instituted for the souls sake and this soul erres and is foolish as we see untill she gets and possesses wisdome and that perhaps is the true Religion if I seek out and enquire the cause of her erring I find it to be a thing which is extremely hidden and obscure But do I send thee to fables or do I enforce thee to believe any thing rashly I say our soul being entangled and drowned in errour and folly seeks after the way of venty and truth if there be any such to be found if thou findest not thy self thus inclined and disposed pardon me and make me I pray thee partaker of thy wisdome but if thou doest let us I beseech thee both together seek out the truth Imagine with thy self that no not ce had as yet been given unto us nor no insinuation made unto us of any Religion what soever Behold we undertake a new work and a new businesse Professours of Religion are I believe to be sought for if there be no such thing Suppose then that we have found men of divers opinions and in that diversity seeking to draw every one unto them but that in the mean time some amongst these do surpasse the rest in renown of fame and in the possession of almost all people Whether they embrace the truth or no it is a great question but are they not first to be examined and tried that so long as we erre for as men we are subject to errour we may seem to erre with mankind it self but thou wilt say Truth is to be found but amongst a few certain men if thou knowest amongst whom it is why then thou knowest already what it is Did not I say a little before that we would seek after the truth as though we were yet ignorant thereof but if by the force of truth thou doest conjecture that there be but few that embrace it and yet thou knowest not who they be what if those few do lead and rule the multitude by their authority and can dive into the secrets and mysteries of faith and can make them in a manner plain and manifest do we not see how few attain to the height of eloquence and yet the schools of Rhetoricians do make a great noise throughout the whole world with companies of young men Do all those that desire to become good oratours being terrified with the multitude of unskilfull men think that they ought to addict themselves rather to the studie of the orations of Coccilius and Erucius then to those of Tullius Cicero all men affect the things that are strengthened and confirmed by the authority of their ancestours The simple sort of people endeavours to learn those things which a few learned men have delivered unto them to be learned but very few there be that attain unto great eloquence fewer there be that practise it but fewest of all that grow eminent and are famous What if true Religion be some such thing what if a multitude of ignorant people frequents the Churches it is no proof nor argument that therefore none are made perfect by those mysteries and yet if so few should studie eloquence as there are few that become eloquent our parents would never think it fit to have us recommended unto such masters When as therefore the multitude which abounds with a number of unskilfull people invites us to these studies and makes us earnestly to affect that which few do obtain why will we not admit that we have the like cause in Religion the which peradventure we contemne and despise to the great perill and hazard of our souls for if the most true and most sincere worship of God though it be but amongst a few yet it is amongst those with whom the multitude though wholly addicted to their appetites and desires and farre from the purity of knowledge and understanding doth consent and agree which without all doubt may come to passe I ask what answer are we able to give if any one should reprove our rashnes folly for that having a great care to find out the true Religion we do not diligently search it out amongst the masters and teachers thereof if I should say the multitude hath discouraged me Why then hath it not disheartened men from the study of the liberall sciences which hardly yields any profit to this present life why not from seeking after money and getting wealth why not from obtaining dignities and honours moreover why not from recovering and preserving health finally why not from the desire of a blessed an happy life in all which affairs though many men be imployed yet few there be that are eminent and excell You will say that the books of the Old Testament seemed to contain absurd things Who are they that affirm it namely enemies for what cause or reason they did it is not now the question but yet they were enemies you will say when you read them you understood so much by your own reading Is it so indeed if thou hadst no skill in Poetrie at all thou durst not take in hand Terentianus Maurus without a master Asper Cornutus Donatus and a multitude of other Authours are thought requisite for the understanding of any Poet whose verses deserve no greater esteem then the approbation and applause of a stage and thou without a guide doest undertake to reade those books and without a master darest passe thy judgement upon them which howsoever they be are notwithstanding by the confession of almost all mankind published to be holy and replenished with divine matters nor if thou findest some things therein which seem unto thee absurd dost thou rather accuse the dulnesse of thy wit and thy mind corrupted with the infection of this world as the minds of all fools are then those books which peradventure by such kind of men cannot
muscles and joynts to perform it seeing therefore that man naturally thirsts after eternall blisse if the means of attaining it should be taken away certainly his desire of it would be altogether frustrate Therefore there must be some means found by which man is to arrive to this clear vision of God which is his end This means Christians call the purity of heart and the divine Grace supernaturally infused into our souls which makes them perfect and enables them to operate and profit in all sorts of virtues No man can deny but that the purity of heart is the means to raise our selves to the contemplation of the first Verity I call the means that which bears a proportion with the gaining the ends and to the clear knowledge of God there is exacted a great rapt or extasie he being the most supreme object of our understanding and elevated farre above all things which are pervious to the senses Wherefore there is necessary a most exquisite purity of mind that is a sovereign elevation of the soul from the love and affection of visible and corporall things to the intense love of invisible and spirituall objects for that we call pure which hath no mixture in it of any thing which is of an inferiour nature and quality Now our understanding being separated from all corporall organs and out soul being a spirituall and rationall substance the more it abstracts and raises it self from corporall and materiall things and unites it self with Divine objects the more pure it becomes Whatever Philosophers may have established and taught of the purity of heart of virtues and of morall integrity is not onely practised and taught by the Christian Religion but by the same Religion there are found out new wayes and documents for the purifying our hearts with greater sanctity For that purity of heart which is found out and gained by the force of nature is a mean no way proportionable with the end which we have prefixed for Christians for whatever exceeds the forces of any nature cannot be gained without the assistance of another superiour nature even as water or any ponderous body is not raised of it self but by the motion of another but to see the divine Substance as I have said in the precedent Chapter is above the sphere of a created nature and therefore every intellectuall nature operating according to its capacity it must needs follow that a created understanding cannot purifie and undregge it self sufficiently unlesse it be elevated by a superiour assistance and therefore the morall integrity and righteousnesse of which Philosophers have treated bears not a sufficient proportion with the last end and supreme blisse of man Hence it is that Christians with great reason do attribute this proportion to Grace and other virtues supernaturally infused by Almighty God who is wanting to none in the requisits necessary for the directing them how with a most pure intention they may arrive unto their wished end To prove which more at large is not for my present intended brevity having manifestly demonstrated in my Treatise Of the simplicity of a Christian life that it is not derived from a naturall love or imagination or from the light of naturall reason alone or from any celestiall influence or from any other spirituall creature but from the graces and supernaturall gifts which Almighty God infuses into our souls Wherefore not to repeat the same thing oftentimes those that are willing may read that Treatise and see how Christian life is a most perfect mean for the gaining the end of mans life whence it must needs follow that there is no other life so good and absolutely perfect as that of Christians CHAP. VI. By Christian Religion man most assuredly obtains eternall blisse IF it be necessary as I have proved it is that amongst men there be some true Religion which consists in the righteousnesse of life the Christian Religion excelling others in this must of force be the true Religion by the which Almighty God is both exteriourly and interiourly most duly worshipped For the exteriour doth either practise or is an expression of the interiour so that if the interiour be true it is manifest that the exteriour is either a practicall execution or expression of the same verity whilst corresponding to the interiour it is rightly termed a true exteriour worship of which I shall hereafter treat more at large We therefore worshipping Almighty God chiefly to exhibite a true honour unto him and next for the obtaining our own true beatitude it must follow that God is truly worshipped by Christians and that Christians by so doing aim at their own blisse which finally they are capable on and consequently those which do persevere unto the end in a true virtuous and Christian life may safely promise unto themselves eternall blisse Moreover having plainly heretofore demonstrated a divine Providence over humane affairs to which Providence it appertains to direct things to their proper ends by proportionable means and there are no means which bear greater proportion with eternall blisse then those of a Christian life we may not doubt but whoever shall have led a Christian life the Worship of Christian Religion being the most perfect shall be finally elevated to that eternall blisse Further if it be blasphemy to impeach the divine Goodnesse of Injustice Christians who observe this law cannot be frustrate of their blisse for Almighty God being the authour or the first mover of all things to their proper ends either he will promote some mortals to their beatitude or none if none mans creation would be vain and as I have heretofore made appear many absurdities would follow if some then will he most justly preferre Christians whom we know to be the most virtuous of all men For if Christians shining before others in Piety and Religion become destitute of their finall blisse no man certainly must look for it because if that which appears greater have no being at all what may be expected of that which appears lesse As for Christians certainly they appear to have a greater proportion with their blisse then others because as I have proved they have lesser impediments and are more disposed unto it and therefore is the Christian Faith and Religion to be preferred before all others And truly if Christians living according to the prescript of their Religion become frustrate of their expected blisse we must conclude that there is no such thing but a meer fable a fiction a chymera for in naturall causes we see that they produce their severall forms and effects if they be not hindred and the matter subjected have in it congruous dispositions and shall the end and last form of a virtuous life which is eternall blisse to which no life is better disposed then that of Christianity be denied to that which is most habill and disposed Which if it be so then truly there is no finall felicity of man because as I have shown there is no other form of finall
Almighty God in all naturall things as in so many mi rours Christ therefore was the most wise Master of all who most easily brought the whole world to the last end and highest perfection of all Sciences To conclude the delights of the understanding farre exceed the pleasures of the senses and that which chiefly appertains unto the understanding consists in the knowledge of the first Verity from which as it is most perfectly conceived arises the greatest delight The sign therefore of the sovereign Wisdome of Christ is the supreme delight which Christians enjoy in his contemplation then which there hath been none hitherto found so great for there have been innumerable as now-a-dayes there are which for the contemplation of the first Verity contained in the Christian Doctrine forsaking all the pleasures and enticements of the world have betaken themselves to desert and sequestred places and which is most of all they have made such progresse in that contemplation that a man would think they were not men but petty Gods and Angels upon earth for being as it were elevated above the terrene sphere of carnality they do not onely not affect it but do not so much as vouchsafe to look upon it having withing themselves like Gods and Angels that which satisfies and suffices them Out of all which we may easily gather that the Doctrine of Christ is the chief of all and that Jesus Christ himself is the true Wisdome of the eternall Father which onely was able to bring so many and so wonderfull things to passe CHAP. XV. The same Verity confirmed out of the Goodnesse of Christ I Have now shown that Jesus the Nazarean hath so farre surpassed all other men and all the Gods of the Gentiles in Power and Wisdome that if any believe there is a God he must questionlesse judge no other beside him to be so It remains that I make the same appear out of his Perfection and Goodnesse by proving that he is the sovereign of all Goods and the last end of humane life in which we must in the first place observe that humane actions are directed to some end or other for the actions of men as they are humane proceed questionlesse from the free will or election of man by which he differs from brutes Now the object of the will is some good or end prefixt and therefore there being no infinite or endlesse processe of those prefixed ends otherwise the motion of every appetite would cease it is necessary there be one last end of man for it is impossible there should be two substantiall last ends of any thing seeing that beyond the last end there remains nothing to be sought after That is called the last end which doth so satiate the appetite of any thing that it formally includes or at least subordinates all those things which can be desired or sought after and therefore there is but one and the same last end of all men Neverthelesse we must know that all men do not agree about their last end as it is taken materially that is where and in what it is found although all agree in the formall conceit of it that is in the nature of it and in what it consists because the nature of the last end of mankind is the supreme felicity of it Now all men agree in the desire of their chief felicity yet all do not think that that felicity consists in the same thing Having formerly proved that the last end of humane life is the first Verity and first cause that is Almighty God if I shall now shew that Jesus Christ is this last end it will manifestly appear that he is the first Verity the first Cause and true God and the supreme good in which most assuredly doth consist the nature of the last end Which that we may more clearly understand we must consider that when any nature is directed or affected towards any thing as to its last end that by the admixtion of another nature which distracts it it may be so hindred that it do not prosecute its end at all or at least but very remisly for example a weight or ponderous body naturally tends downwards and all gravity or such bodies inclin'd by the form of their weight or of their nature seek their centre but a bird flies upwards because it hath not onely the form of gravity but also that of an animall or sensible living creature and so this animall or living motion suspends and hindring the naturall inclination of its gravity or weight it mounts on high In like manner an insensible mixt body having much air and fire mixt with its earth sinks downward but slowly but if there be any weight which is meerly ponderous it is vehemently carried downwards unlesse some violent obstacle do hinder it and the more purely ponderous it is the more impetuously it is carried of its own nature to its centre wherefore man consisting of a double nature to wit spirituall and corporall or sensible although the understanding and will by their naturall motion tend towards Almighty God yet by reason of the mixture of the sensible part which for its naturall functions hath its sensible organs it is disturb'd with passions and is more frequently distracted then otherwise it would naturally be so that although the superiour and spirituall part cannot be violently forced yet either by errour the understanding being ill informed or by excesse of appetite the will becoming ill affected it is drawn to affect those things which are very inordinate Wherefore if we intend to find out that in which the nature of the last end of man doth consist it is necessary to seek it out of its motion out of the vehemence of its love and ardent affections but our nature consisting of both the rationall and sensible part we must not consider the affections of them who lead their lives like beasts but of those onely which have reason alwayes for the guide of their actions which are onely worthy indeed of the true name of men for if by the experiment of a ponderous body I intend to find out the centre of gravity I must not consider it in the flight of birds but by the motion of bodies which are meerly ponderous but I have formerly proved that there is no life more purely rationall then that of Christians therefore we shall come better to the knowledge of the last end of man by the consideration of the love and affection of Christians which truly and with all propriety are to be esteemed men rather then by the inordinate appetites of others But all Christians which live uprightly with a most vehement affection with a sweet concord and harmony do bend their whole endeavours towards Christ crucified as towards their supreme and last end for whose sake they esteem all other things as dregs and corruption and therefore he is their last end the true God and supreme good of all mankind The last end of man is his compleat and
place CHAP. II. WE must therefore somewhat more diligently enquire into the point propounded viz. Whither the place of buriall may be any advantage to a deceased soul And first we shall not so much look upon the common opinion as examine according to the sacred Scriptures of our religion whither indeed it addeth any thing to the misery and affliction of mens souls after this life if their bodies be not buried at all Out of all doubt that which Virgil some where saith is of little truth Aeneid 6 that the souls of unburied people are forbidden the passage of the Infernall River as if forsooth They might not cross that silent stream of horrid Phlegethon Till Superstition had compos'd the Urns of every one For what Christian heart can be moved with such fictions seeing our Lord Jesus that Christians might dy securely under their hands who for som time were to have power over their bodies assures them that not an hair of their head should perish and therefore exhorts them not to fear those who after they have killed the body have no more to do Upon which subject in my first book of the City of God I suppose I may have spoken sufficiently to stop their mouths who charged the Christians with the calamities of those times especially that which Rome suffered by those barbarous people yea objected that Christ either could not or would not help his own to whom when as I replyed that the souls of the faithfull people were at that time largely rewarded by Christ for their sufferings they objected again or rather reproached me with the dishonour of their unburied bodies whereupon I was forced to inlarge my self somewhat upon that subject concerning the buriall of men which I will here set down in the words I then used Neither indeed was it possible they should all be buried in such a ruine of Carcases Nor will a pious man who beleeveth that saying of our Saviour much fear this nor think that beasts which by chance devour their bodies can at all prejudice their Resurrection being assured that not an hair of their head shall perish For he who is Truth it self would never have said Fear not them which kill the body but cannot kill the soul if it could be any prejudice to the future life of the Saints that which their enemies do to their bodies here Unlesse peradventure a man will be so absurd as to contend that we ought not before our death to fear them which kill the body viz. least they should kill it but yet that we ought to fear least after death they should not suffer that body to be buried which they have already killed For then certainly it were not true which Christ sayes They which kill the body have no more to do if so be they could do any thing more towards the dead carcase that were to be regarded But God forbid that any thing should be false which the Truth hath spoken For we say they which kill do something while they kill the body because in the body there is sense and some feeling while it is to be killed but that afterwards they have no more to do because in a body already killed there is no sense at all Wherefore many bodies of good Christians have happened to want buriall but none of them could be ever excluded from heaven and earth both which he totally filleth with his presence who best knoweth how and whence to restore again that which he once made It is said indeed in the Psalmes They exposed the Bodies of thy servants for meat to the fouls of the air Psal 78. and the flesh of thy Saints to the beasts of the land they poured out their bloud like water round about Hierusalem and there was none that would bury them But this was spoken rather to aggravate the cruelty of those who did such things then to intimate any unhappinesse in them which suffered For although such things at these may seem hard yea horrible in the eyes of men yet precious doubtlesse in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints And therfore all these particulars that is to say provision of a Funerall the quality of Sepulture the pomp and magnificence of Exequies may seem rather to be as it were comforts of the living then any helps for the dead For certainly if a stately Buriall could of it self any thing advantage a wicked man to be poorly buried or not buried at all would be some prejudice to a good which we know to be false for doubtlesse that rich glutton in the Gospell Luc. 16. who was clothed in purple and fared so deliciously every day when he died had a very sumptuous Funerall made him by his kindred and servants but yet far more glorious in the sight of God was that given unto the poor begger by the hands of Angels who carried him out not unto any Tomb of Marble but to the place where he desired to be into the bosome of Abraham 'T is true those against whom we have undertaken to defend the City of God laugh at these things neverthelesse even their own Philosophers oftentimes have seem'd to make as little account of the rites of Sepulture and whole Armies of men when they come into the field with resolution to dy for their temporall countryes of all things mind least where their bodies fall or what beasts shall devour them yea the Poets themselves not without applause have been heard to say Heaven covers him who hath no Cofin Lucan how much lesse ought they then to insult over Christans concerning their bodies lying unburied to whom they cannot but know restauration of their flesh and of all the members of their body is promised by him who is sufficiently able to do it yea and shall be in a moment perfectly made good unto them whether from the earth or from those remotest receptacles of other elements into which the substance of their bodies by never so many changes and changes upon changes may be retired CHAP. III. WHich yet we speak not to the intent the bodies of men especially those of the Faithfull and Just should be neglected after death and thrown out of sight as some other common carcases for as much as the Holy Ghost hath been pleased to use them in their times as his own organs or instruments unto all good works For if but a ring vestment or some other thing belonging to our Father be very dear unto us and so much the more by how much our naturall affection was greater and more lively towards him in no sort certainly may the bodies of men be despised which we carry about us much more intrinsecally and nearly united then any vestment whatsoever for our bodies pertain not unto matter of ornament or any extrinsecall help but to the very substance of our nature Whence it is also that the Funeralls of just men in old time were performed with a great deal of piety