the Apostle Nubes testiuÌ„ a whole cloude of witnesses suddaynly dissolued into the bloudy rayne of death that vpon the consenting testimony of so many dying men we may belieue and still remember that our life when it is at the best is but vapour Iacob 4. 15. Eccl. c. 7.3 ad modicum parens a shining cloude or vapour which in a trice ere one can thinke is vanished The holy Ghost wisheth vs to resort often vnto the house of Mourning wherein we are warned of the end of all liuing thinges Behold here that holy House of Mourning which ringes of this Warning with so sharpe and shrill a sound as may penetrate into the deafest hart For the Auditors of that sermoÌ„ became Preachers in their death crying vnto all men BE READY FOR GOD IN EVERY PLACE AT EVERY MOMENT who will come when men least think This is ours to morow will be your dying day in this dolefull cry we must breath out our soule that the wholsome souÌ„d thereof MAY NEVER DYE IN YOVRS This accident is a Triall not of your Fayth which being built on the Rocke cannot be shaken with the fall a roome Matt. 16.15 Matt. 5.51 yea the same would stand though Heauen and earth should passe away but of your Charity To loue Protestants that in their noble and courteous disposition pittyed the mischance to loue those worthy Magistrates that being in authority did their endeauour to shew their humanity by their deedes Euen as those foure renowned Magistrats of the Citty of Samaria stood against the immanity of their brethren that would haue tyranized vpon them they had taken of the Tribe of Iuda â— Paral. 28 v. 12. sequent crying vnto them Nequaquam facietis grande enim Peccatum est Quid vultis noua cumulare delicta And hauing freed them out of their handes restored them with all kind of courtesy vnto their friends To loue these I say with inmost affections to shew towardes them all kind of gratefull acknowledgment as farre as you are able both by word and fact you will be as Duty requires most foreward You may rather feare promptnes of Nature heerein will preuent or out-runne Grace and so depriue you of a Reward Matt. 5.48 For as our Sauiour sayth If you loue them that loue you vpon human and no higher behoofes what reward shall you haue But to respect them that insult vpon you to requite bitternes with loue iniuryes with good turnes Rom. 1â— 10 to heape the coales of charity on their heades that cast stones of cruelty at yours This is the patience this is the charity of Saynts in the exercise whereof these our Saynts dyed For the pardoning of iniuries the rooting reuenge out of their hart was the Testament last will they made vpon earth in the sermoÌ„ of that subiect by a publick Notary according to the autheÌ„ticall instrumeÌ„t of Gods word And as they haue left you the heyres of their Fayth so likewise they haue made you the executors of their Will neyther can you do them any greater pleasure then to pray for these their enemyes and yours whom for their part in that their last will they did aforehand eternally pardon Excuse this their zeale with all kind of mild interpretation within your hart Belieue that in many it was but a passion in the heate of bloud wherof perchance since they are abashed do not forget to alleadge vnto God our Sauiours excuse of his crucifiers nesciunt quid faciunt Consider with hope that they may happily repent call to mynd the sweet saying of S. Augustine Lib. 1. de ciuit c. 35. sufficient to banish all bitternes out of heart In inimicis nostris latent conciues futuri adhuc ignoti non solum nobis sed etiam sibi Amongst our now enemyes ly hidden those that shall be our fellow cittizens in Heauen as yet vnknowne not only vnto vs but euen to themselues You heard the seuere senteÌ„ce of Gods iustice agaynst theÌ„ That they shall neuer enter into his righteousnes and shall be blotted out of the booke of life Seeke with teares of sorrow and earnest intreaty to blot out this sentence agaynst them offer vnto God your bloud if need be to be shed by their handes for the inke wherewith to write their names amongst the saued O that there were a Moyses now vpon earth so gracious with God so charitable towardes these men that he might and would effectually say Lord â—â—â—don them 〈◊〉 1â— â—â— or blot me out of the Booke of Life But in your Charity towardes other forget not the perâ—ection of â—our owne conscience for which God permitted this accident to giue you an occasion to increase 〈◊〉 mortification pennance 〈…〉 As holy Iob vpon the newâ—◠〈◊〉 the dolefull death of hiâ— children rent in peeces his 〈…〉 and â—ate in sacke-clâ—â—n and ashes so take you hold of 〈…〉 to cast away from you such needâ—esse vanitye 〈◊〉 â—he choyce of youâ—â—art but the 〈◊〉 of tyme hath put vpon you 〈…〉 Now sayth S. Pete◠〈…〉 that iâ— chasâ—isment and affliction 〈…〉 â—f God so that they that are of his household his seruaÌ„ts his Saynts must nyther themselues mortify â—nd chastiâ—â—â—â—eir desires of worldly content or thâ—â—â— expect punishment restrainâ—â— from Gods heauâ—eâ—â—â—nde If we did iudge our selues sayth S. Paulâ— we shoulâ—â—ot be iudged â—â—d when we are iudged we are chastized of God 〈…〉 〈◊〉 with the world we be not damned For the heauenly Father aâ— he loueth you so is he iealous of you he will 〈◊〉 let you liue without a Crosse to puisâ—e you that your Loue may neuer rest vpon earth but still be flying towardes him and your true country 〈…〉 Which â—atherâ— Prouidence he shewed towards his speciall Saynts Meâ—â—eâ— Samuel as Dauid sayth Propitius suit eis vleiscens in 〈◊〉 affectiones eorum as S. Augustine reade He was â—â—â—â—ull vnto them taking reuenge of their affections vnto life by tâ—â— crosse of contradictious people who made life a torment vntâ—â—hem You haue more need of admonitions in this kind now â—hen before as you stande now in greater danger 〈…〉 his life which some mitigation of troubles had â—â—de lestâ— bitter The safe ariuall of your Hopefull â—oâ—â—â—â—â—â—ed Prâ—nce deliuered from the daungers of sea 〈◊〉 〈…〉 of conâ—ent wherein though you were in 〈…〉 Dutifull and Diuine â—spects yet i◠〈…〉 Nature many tymes hath secretly a part And if heâ—â—â— your mortall flesh ouerdesirous of ease from persecution made you sicke of a Plurisy of Ioy you see the carefull hand of our heauenly Surgeon comes in tyme to let you bloud Finally God permitted this accident to be a presage of your approaching Comfort of the speedy ouerthrow of your hoater Aduersaries Their ouerthrow I meane in their errour and heresy not in the life of their bodyes which we desire may not be shortned but runne out according to the full length of Natures race and Gods holy will You
A vvord of Comfort OR A DISCOVRSE CONCERNING The late lamentable Accident of the fall of a roome at a CATHOLIKE Sermon in the Black-friars at London wherwith about fourscore persons were oppressed WRITTEN For the Comfort of Catholiks and Information of Protestants By I. R. P. Printed Anno M.DC.XXIII TO THE READER LET the duty of weeping for the Dead Tempus flendi Eccl. 3.6 in this late dismall Accident so rufull to flesh and blood which from our hartes both common Humanity and priuate Friendship enforce Tempus loquendi giue place vnto the duty of writing in the behalfe of the liuing which at our handes both Christian Charity and Priestly obligation exact Let Nature which at this present makes me more willing to wett my paper with teares then with inke Ipsi pene viuendi vsui cessationem hoc tempus indicit neduÌ„ studijs l. 2. de Consid Cap. 4. 31. Cap. 9. 1. and as S. Bernard sayth of himselfe in a like dolefull disaster weary not only of studying but euen almost of liuing that in lieu of penning discourses of erudition and learning I could much rather powre forth vntaught sighs in the language of Ieremy his Threnes Defecit anima mea propter Inteâ—fectos My soule is gone from me in sorrow of them that are slayne and Quis dabit capiti meo aquam oculis meis flumina lachrimarum plorabo die ac nocte Interfectos filiae populi mei Who will giue me water vnto my head and fluds of teares vnto mine eyes that I may be wayle day and night the Slayne of my Country Let I say this weake inclination of Nature yeeld vnto Gods holy will and vnto the motion of heauenly Grace concurring with Obedience to preferre before priuate sorrow for friendes the publicke defence of our Catholike Cause seeing ignorant zeale is ready vpon any the least occasion to disgrace it Let mourning for corporall Death which the Holy Ghost confines within the compasse of seauen dayes Eccl. 22. v. â—â— Luctus mortui septem dies especially for them whose soules as we with reason hope do raigne in glory be changed into mourning for blind Ignorance and Impiety which the same Holy Spirit will haue commeasured vnto the length of their life luctus fatui impij omnes dies vitae eorum to wit so long as there is hope by teares of instruction to reclayme them This Duty is necessary for foure ends and vndertaken for the satisfaction of foure sortes of persons First to refute their folly who with this darke mist of Gods vnsearchable Counsels seeke to obscure the cleare light of his reuealed Doctrine shyning in the Catholike Church Secondly to still their teares who thinke they cannot weepe inough for their Friendes not so much at their death as at their being taken away by so strange and dreadfull a mischance Thirdly to allay the wondering of them that secretly may complayne of the seuerity of Gods iudgments that in these circumstances he would not spare his owne People not spare his owne Name Fourthly to somewhat asswage their sorrow who grieue not for temporall respects Psal 41.3 but their teares are to them bread day and night to see Gods Enemyes insult vpon his Church to say vnto her where is thy God Which foure kinds of persons styrred vp and troubled with different affections by one and the same commiserable mishappe we shall endeauour to quiet by foure kind of Arguments by Testimonies of holy Scripture by Examples of former Christian tymes by comparison with some more prodigious euents vnto our Aduersaries finally by shewing Gods ends in the permission of this Accident of which we may make our Profit CHAP. I. Comfort from the holy Scriptures THere is not any greater affliction vnto Gods seruants in this life nor any more sharpe corrasiue vnto their hart then the happening of strange dreadfull mischances that carry a shew of his anger agaynst their Religion wherby the enemies therof harden their soules as stone agaynst it And Gods Omnipotent Wisdome as he resolued for reasons best known to himselfe to deuide indifferently amongst the good bad these terrible casualityes of mortall life So likewise in his Mercy Cui vanitati intimandae totum illuÌ„ librum vir Sapientissimus deputauit Aug. l 10. de Ciuit. c. 3. The Preacher c. 8. 14. he would haue his seruants warned heerof abundantly by his holy Word For not only euery Booke of the diuine Scriptures be full of documents agaynst this discomfort but also as S. Augustine noteth one whole booke of that heauenly learning to wit that of Ecclesiastes beginning Vanity of Vanities and all things vanity is entyrely spent in the prosecution of this argumeÌ„t That there is this Vanity vpon earth that there be iust men vnto whome it happeneth according to the worke of the wicked agayne there be wicked men vnto whome things happen as if they were iust that so sayth the same Father Men might loue the life that hath not Vanity vnder the sunne but verity vnder him that made the sunne Out of which booke I will alleadge only one sentence but the same so full and so fit for our purpose Cap. 9. initio as it may seeme written a purpose by the spirit of PrescieÌ„ce to be vsed in this occasion This is the worst of all things vnder the sunne that the same things happen alike vnto all to the iust and to the wicked to the good and to the bad to the cleane and to the vncleane to them that sacrifice and to them that contemne Sacrifice to them that sweare the Truth and to them that are forsworne Hence the hearts of the sonnes of men are filled with malice contempt in their life tyme and afterward shall be carried vnto Hell To these wordes of the Holy Ghost what can be added as more cleare in proofe of our Argument what may be spoken more complete proper and pithy for our comfort in this accident Heere by Gods holy Word we are informed that such is his prouidence in this life that an house or roome may fall no lesse vpon the Iust as they are hearing his heauenly Doctrine then vpon the Wicked as they are blaspheming his blessed Name No lesse vpon the Good that are weeping for pardon and remission of their sinnes then vpon the Badde that feast and banquet riot and reioyce in their sinnes No lesse vpon the Cleane that by humble Confession and penall Satisfaction purify their soules Psal 6.26.2 then vpon the vncleane whose wayes are at all tymes impure the iudgments of God by the doctrine of only Faith being taken away from before their eyes No lesse vpon them that offer the Christian vnbloody Sacrifice of the immaculate Lambe then vpon theÌ„ that contemne this holy Sacrifice would rather massacre the Priests that coÌ„secrate the same Finally no lesse vpon them that sweare the Truth that that doctrine is Christian which from the mouth of Christ
by the instinct of Nature accounted the punishment of God as it were taking the execution of Iustice immediatly into his owne hand Hence it is that they who from the hand of Diuine execution escape afflicted frighted wounded and hurt are to be held as set free by Gods speciall warrant as punished inough according to the equity of his iudgment Wherefore presently to set vpon them as deseruing more punishment is not only iniustice and cruelty but also a kind of impiety and condemnation of God as if he wanted eyther wisedome to know or iustice to hate or power to punish sufficiently the grieuousnes of mans sinnes We will not stand vpon the Deniall but this chance might be sent vpon these persons as a punishment of God in regard of their lesser or veniall sinnes seing euen Martyrdome it selfe the death most glorious of all other may be inflicted as a punishment in this kind ◠Mach. 6.14 as the Machabees Martirs sayd Nos propeccatis nostris ista patimur At least they that suffer may ought to make that accoūt as S. Cyprian counselleth Decet Martyres verecundos esse Cyprian in exort Martyr supplicia sua peccatis ascribere non se de passione iactare Wherfore these woūded Catholike men and women supposing in Christian humility this to haue byn the stroake of Gods hande for their sinnes how properly might one of them haue turned vnto the Puritan with the wordes of holy Iob Iob. 19 22. Haue pitty haue pitty on me for the hand of God hath strucken me for my sinnes as you suppose and I do not deny yet the nūber of them how great or small they are God knowes much better then you do Deserued I punishmēt Behold these bleeding woundes witnesse I haue already had my punishment at the handes of the liuing God Creatures may well spare me at least you my friendes allyed vnto me both in nature and country whome the like mortality may not I say the like iniquity makes liable vnto the same mischance Call to mind the saying of our Sauiour vnto the eager enemyes of the guilty Woman He that amongst you is without sinne let him cast the first stone at her Ioan. 8 7. Quare persequimini me sicut Deus carnibus meis saturamini Why do you pursue me as if your were God Iob. 19.22 innocent from sinne pure from misery your selues yea rather why do you pursue me as if you were more then God eyther more wife to apprehend or more zealous to detest or more stronge to reuenge the greatnes of my sinnes that wheras He after punishment hath set me free you to fill vp the supposed defect of his iudgment would come vpō me with a new supply of your strokes Haue pitty haue pitty on me for the hand of God hath stroken me But these wordes would not haue moued mercilesse harts and so those distressed soules might better as perchance they did lift vp their eyes vnto God in holy Dauid his complaynt Psa 78.27 Quem tu percussisti persecuti sunt super dolorem vulnerum meorum addiderunt ego sum pauper dolēs salus tua Deus suscepit me Whom thou hadst struken they pursued and added new griefe vnto my woundes I am poore and in payne thy saluation hath taken me vp O cruelty of men they had not pitty of me being poore destitute of ayde nor commiseratiō of me bleeding in payne not only outwardly through the woundes of body but also inwardly though griefes and frights of soule They bare no respect vnto me as a thing particularly beholding and belonging vnto thee as one whom thy saluation tooke vp into thy handes out of those ruines If a Tygar or Shee-wolfe hauing a man in her pawes should out of compassion let him free how cruell would he be thought that should seeke to make that man away presently vpon his escape O Lord thyne anger as the Prophet sayth is as fierce as the Shee-beare that hath lost her whelpes Osee 13.8 Whence we may gather how wild and sauage they are that would stone them to death that come bleeding from vnder the hand of thy terrible anger Whome thou hadst struken they pursued and added new griefe vnto my woundes But shall such cruelty passe without punishment No. They shall receaue the greatest punishment that God in his implacable anger can lay vpon men in this life which is set downe in the wordes that next follow Appone iniquitatem super iniquitatem eorum non intrent in iustitiam tuā deleantur de libro viuentium Psal 68.28.29 cum iustis non scribantur Lay vpon them iniquity vpon iniquity and let them neuer enter into thy righteousnes let them be blotted out of the booke of life and not be written amongst the iust And this may be another reason of this permission in regard of Puritans to wit for the greater obduration of the more hoat vnmercifull and obstinate sort of them For as their malice is such as they would if they could loade the Catholike Church with wound vpon wound so God permitting mischances to happen before the eyes of their body that carry some shew of scandall subtracting from before the eyes of their soule the light of his grace to make due inspection vnto them giues them occasions wherby they heape iniquity vpon iniquity filling their hearts more more with malice contēpt till being come to the measure of Gods appoyntmēt they be carried into Hell These iudgmēts of God are so much the more terrible because they least of all regard thē whom they most cōcern being so blinded deluded with the delightful imaginations of selfe-fancy in their interpretation of Scripture as they neuer so much as apprehend the heynousnes of their offence in contēning the perpetuall Christian Tradition of the Church I will not insist vpon this poynt but referre it vnto the inward search of their Conscience desiring them in Christ Iesus and as they tender their saluation that they will call to mind how many thousands of Heretikes haue byn in former Ages that thought thēselues no lesse secure of the truth then they now doe did alledge Scriptures for their errours as fast as they now do and more cleere and expresse then they can doe any yet now burne for euer in hell for their contempt of the Tradition and Authority of the Church Reasons in the behalfe of them that were slayne the happines of their death TO come to the principall intendment of God who in the midst of his iudgments is euer mindfull of his mercyes Psal 33.8 He permitted this mischance for the same cause for which he permitted the misfortune of the Christian army in the holy Land whither by his speciall ordinance they were called agaynst the Saracens Godefred in vita Bern. l. 3. c. 4. Otto Frising in Fred. l. 1. c. 38. Baron Tom. 12. An. 1145. S. Bernard was summoner of
sanctity of the action wherin they dyed the power of grace had the fittest commodity to make them feele contrition of their sinnes The expectation of death was layd before their eyes not by the violence of sicknes but by the verity of Gods Word which caused in theÌ„ not sadnes 2. Cor. 7.10 according to the world but sadnes according to God which as the Apostle sayth worketh pennance with assured saluation Hence their purposes to leaue sinne were as harty as in the sad expectation of present death and their purposes to doe good workes as absolute as in the prudent expectation of long life They then resolued to liue better then the custome of other men Rapti suÌ„t ne malitia mutaret mentem Sap. 4. 11. when they thought as they might they should liue aswell as other men but they were straight taken away and not put to the triall wherein they might haue fayled aswell as other men In them that looke to dye griefe for sinne is stronge but commonly stayned with some seruility of feare in them that thinke to liue though griefe for sinne may be pure yet commonly it is so weake as it doth not conquer the ensuing temptations of sinne The death of these was hidden and sudden hidden from their eyes of flesh that feare might not stayne the purity of their pennance sudden comming in the very instant that tyme might not weaken the constancy of their purposes But some agayne will say their death was dreadfull their bodyes bruyzed their faces disfigured they were not knowne of their friendes Let S. Augustine answere l. 1. de ciu c. 6. Seing sayth he Christians belieue the death of Lazarus among doggs licking his sores more happy then the death of Diues in purple and fine linnen they that lead holy liues Quid illis horrenda genera mortium obfueruÌ„t qui bene vixerunt 1. Reg. 6. v. 24. 2. Reg. 6.6 7. what are they worse in that they dyed terrible deaths God will haue his children feare any the least sinne more then any the dreadfullest death and therfore sometymes he doth punish small offences with horrible slaughters The Bethsamites in the midst of their pious ioy for the returne of the Arke were slayne by fifty thousands only for a curious looke Oza that put his hand to saue the Arke from falling was strucken dead because he did it in lesse reuerent manner In the Bookes of Kings is recorded the death of an holy Prophet presently vpon his working a most strange miracle â— Reg. 13. 24. Greg. l. 3. ep 10 â— killed by a Lion for a sinne of meere ignorance S. Gregory writes of many holy Monkes and Religious Officers that digged out of deuotion for the greater ornameÌ„t of the place about the tombe of S. Laurence because though by chaÌ„ce and agaynst their will they opened his Shrine and saw his body fell presently sicke and dyed all within ten dayes after Viâ—ae Patr. Herebert 〈…〉 libell 〈…〉 In vitis Patrum we read of a godly man going â—o visit an Ermite his friend As he passed in the streete he saw the body of a great rich maÌ„ famous for wickednes that had dyed a still death in bed carryed with great honour vnto his Sepulture When he came to the wildernes he found the Ermite that had lead an holy and austere life deuoured of wild beasts Astonished therat with many teares he besought of God he might know the reason of this proceeding and God thought good for our instruction in like euents to reueale him the mystery by his Angel The richman amongst many enormous crimes had done some smaller good deedes These were rewarded with peaceble death honourable exequyes whilest his soule for the other burned in fire inextinguishable The Eâ—mite with his many dayly excellent workes had mingled some lesser offences which were expiated by that horrible death that his soule might goe preseÌ„tly to enioy his Crowne Can the world discerne any difference of vnhappines betwixt the death of our King Edmund the Martyr and the death of our King Richard the Tyrant They both were defeated in field both killed and couered with an heape of slaughter the dead bodyes of them both came into the power of their enemyes to be scorned Compare the death of King Lewis the Saynt with the death of King Antiochus the wicked no dissimilitude appeares in outward shew Both dyed in a strange country both after a shamefull repulse both stroken with a lothsome pestilent vlcer And yet these deaths such paralells in the aye of flesh and bloud did differ no lesse then Heauen Hell in the sight of God and his Angels Man iudgeth accoâ—ding to the face God looketh into the hart 1. Reg. 10. 7. It is fedity of soule not deformity of body that makes God say vnto some I know you not It little importes the dead that their bodyes be knowne of their friends who when they know them will but lay them vnder earth to be the food of wormes Matt. 25 1â— That which importes theÌ„ is that their soules be knowne of the Angels that going out of their bodyes Luc. 10. â— 22. they may be carâ—â—â—d by them into the bosome of Abraham and into the euerlasting â—â—â—â—rnacles And yet I dare say their bodyes were not so disfiguâ—â—d as they may compare in deformity with the body of their crucified Lord and Sauiour Isa 53.4 of whome the Prophet sayth We saw him and there was neyther shape nor figure in him so we know him not but made esteeme of him as of a leaper and as of a man strocken of God It is a part of their honour they were so like to their Master and the day shall come when the disfigured bodyes of their humility Phil. 5. â—â— shall be configured vnto the body of his clarity then be so much the more beautifull by how much now they seemed horrible Reasons for the Profit of Catholikes and the Conclusion TO Conclude with whome I began You the worthy Children of the Church God hath permitted this Accident to be vnto you a Warning a Triall an Occasion a Presage a Warning of Death a Triall of Charity an Occasion of more Pennance a Presage of Comfort The Deaths of these our Friends are Documents how incertayne life is and Warnings to be at all tymes and in euery place prouided for death God shewed in his Saynts what may happen vnto sinners he stroake their bodyes with suddayne and short oppressioÌ„ of death to strike into our soules longe and perpetuall meditation of death The Chambers of impurity haue no priuiledge agaynst death more then the Chapells of sanctity nor haue riotous feasters in a Tauerne a surer warrant of life then Religious hearers of a Sermon Death which came vpon these as they were in the act of abhorring may likewise set vpon them as they are in the act of committing sinne Behold here Heb. 11.1 as I may say with