that hath been said in the former two books WHICH being so it is now time that in the end of this second book we recapitulate touch in few words the Summe of all that which in these two commonitorie books hath been spoken VVe saied in the premisses that this alwaies hath been and at this day is the custom of Catholikes to try and examine true faith two manner of waies First by the authoritie of the divine scripture secondly by the tradition of the Catholick Church not because the Canonicall scripture is not as to it self sufficient for all things but because very many expounding Gods word at their own pleasure do thereby bring forth and hatch up divers opinions and errours And for that cause it is necessary that the interpretation of the divine Scripture be directed according to the one onely rule of the Churches understanding especially in those questions upon which the foundation of the whole Catholick religion doth depend Likewise we said that in the Church we were to consider the consent both of universality and antiquity so that we be neither carried away from sound unity to schism nor yet cast headlong from antiquity of religion into the dangerous gulf of heretical novelties We said also that in antiquity we were diligently to observe and seriously to consider two things unto which all those that will not be hereticks must of necessity stand The first is that which hath in old time been determined by all the Bishops of the Catholick Church by authority of a generall Councell The second is that if any new question did arise in which the determination of a Councell were not to be found that then we ought to have recourse to the sayings of the holy fathers but yet of these only who in their time and place were approved masters being such as lived and dyed in the unity of the communion and faith And whatsoever we knew that they beleeved and taught with one mind and consent to judge and take that without all sctuple to be the true and Catholick Religion of the Church And least any man might think that we saied this rather of presumption then of any authority of the Church we gave an example of the holy councel holden almost three years thence at Ephesus a City in Asia in the time of the right horourable Consuls Bassus and Antiochus in which disputation was had of constituting and setting down rules of faith â— and least there might by chance some prophane Novelty creep in as happened at that persidious meeting in Ariminum this was reputed and thought the most Catholick holy and best course to be taken by the judgement of all the Bishops there present which were almost two hundred in number that the opinions of those Fathers should be brought forth of whom it was certaine that some of them had been Martyrs divers Confessours all to have lived and died Catholick Priests that by their authority consent and verdict the old religion might be rightly and solemnly confirmed and blasphemous prophant novelties condemned which being so done worthily and justly Nestrius was judged to have taught contrary to the old Catholick religion and blessed Cyrill to have maintained holy and sacred antiquity And to the end nothing might be wanting which procureth credit we put down also the names and number of these Fathers although not remembring their order according to whose tonsent and uniform doctrine both the texts of holy scripture were expounded and the rule of Gods word established Neither will it here be superfluous for memory sake to repeat them all once agam These then be the names of them whose works were cited in that Councell either as judges or else witnesses S. Peter Bishop of Alxandria a most excellent Doctour and blessed Martyr S. Athanasius Bishop of the same sea a most faithfull teacher and famous Confessout S. Theophilus Bishop also of the same City a notable man for faith life and learning next after whom succeeded venerable Cyrill who at this present doth honour the Church of Alexandria And that no man happily should suspect that this was the doctrine of one City or of one Province to the former there were adjoyned those two lights of Cappadocia Saint Gregory Bishop and Confessour of Nazianzene St. Basil Bishop and Confessour of Cesaria and also another Saint Gregory Nyssen worthy for his merit of faith conversation integrity and wisdom of such a brother as Basil was And for proof that not onely the Greek East Church but also the Latine and West were alwayes of the same opinion the letters of Saint Felix Martyr and Saint Julie both Bishops of Rome which they wrote unto certaine men were there read And that not onely the head of the world but also the other parts should give testimony in that judgement From the South they had blessed S. Cyprian from the North S. Ambrose Bishop of Millan These then be the holy Fathers agreeing with that sacred number of the ten Commandements which were alleadged in the Councell of Ephesus as Masters Councellours Witnesses and Judges whose doctrine the blessed Synod holding following whose counsell beleeving whose testimony obeying whose judgement without spite without presumption without favour pronounced and gave sentence concerning the rules of faith And albeit a farre greater number of Fathers might have been set down yet was it not necessary because it was not requisite that time should be spent with multitude of witnesses and further no man doubted but that those ten did little differ in opinion from all the rest of their fellow Bishops After all this we set down the worthy sentence of Cyrill which is to be found in the Ecclesiasticall acts of that Councell For when the Epistle of S. Capreolus Bishop of Carthage was read who intended nothing else nothing else desired but that novelty might be overthrown and antiquity defended Bishop Cyril spake and gave his definition in this sort for I have thought good not to omit it here these then be his words in the end of the acts of that Councell And this epistle quoth he of the venerable and rel gious man Capreolus Bishop of Carthage shall be ad oyned to the faith of the Councels acts whose opinion is plain and perspicuous for he desireth that the doctrine of the old faith may be confirmed and new opinions superstuously invemed and impiously spread abroad may be reproved and condemned To which all the Bishops with one consent cried out This we speake all this we teach all this we desire all What I beseech you said they all what desired they all surely nothing else But that that which was of old time delivered might be still retained and that which was newlie invented might speedilie be rejected After that wee had admired and highly commended the great humilitie and holinesse of that Councell in which were so many Bishops almost the greater part of whom were Metropolitans of such erudition of such learning that they were
exhibite by a personall reverence externall ceremonies and corporall sacrifices Now as all matters are naturally made and ordained for their forms so questionlesse the externall Worship hath a due subordination to the interiour This interiour Divine Worship is nothing else but a righteousnesse and perfection of the interiour man by the which God is most honoured which I prove in this manner Every cause receives most honour from the perfection of its more principall effects whence artizans become famous by the excellence of their master-pieces but there is no visible effect more noble then man who the more excellent he becomes in perfection the more is the Divine Honour increased Now he is so much the more perfect by how much his life is more holy for sanctity is the perfection of the interiour man by which even the whole man is perfected and therefore the chief honour that man does Almighty God is by a virtuous holy and perfect life and in this manner the true and entire worship of Almighty God is the life of an upright and virtuous man becoming so by his actions as they have a reference unto his Creatour We do not worship Almighty God meerly and precisely for himself but also that we may obtain from him that supreme blisse for which man is created wherefore the true Religion is the means and disposition for the gaining of this supreme felicity of man as we see naturall causes exact the congruous dispositions of that subject or matter into which they produce their effects seeing therefore it is manifest that man is much more perfectly disposed for the obtaining his chief blisse by a virtuous life then by sacrifices and exteriour Ceremonies it is no lesse certain that the true Religion consists in the righteousnesse of life Moreover Almighty God not being a body but a pure act man becomes more like him by the purity of his interiour part then by any exteriour integrity and therefore God is more perfectly worshipped by the spirit then by any functions of the body for Almighty God being a Spirit it behoves those that worship him to adore him in spirit and verity CHAP. III. That there is no better life then that of Christians THere is no life more perfect and holy then the life of Christians for if we take a view of all living creatures we shall find in the lowest degree of life those which onely enjoy vegetation or growth as plants thence we raise us unto the animall or sensitive life which degree of life admits a latitude of divers degrees of sensitive perfection whereof that degree is more perfect which enjoyes the perfect degree of sensations Now the intellectuall life farre exceeding that which is onely vegetive and sensible we easily conclude that the life of beasts is farre inferiour to the life of man in which also we distinguish divers degrees of actuall perfection though not of essentiall for we preferre those that follow the light and dictamen of reason before those who swerving from it and neglecting reason give the full scope and rains to sense The reason is clear because the more they neglect reason and addict themselves to sensuall pleasure the lesse they participate the life of man and become more like unto beasts but those who are guided by reason and do suppresse the brute and inferiour part do lead the life of man and not of beasts there being therefore in man a combination of these two degrees of the rationall and brute life and the rationall being farre more excellent of the two it must needs follow that that man is more perfect who addicts himself to a rationall life then he who gives himself over to the life of brutes now amongst those who addict themselves unto an intellectuall life there is a great difference for the soul of man becomes much more perfect by the knowledge and love of the truth of spirituall things then of corporall especially as they are exercised about the divine Perfections hence it is that the life and powers of the soul of man become more perfect the more it refrains from corporall objects and imployes it self in the contemplation and love of spirituall things especially of the divine Perfections Now a Christian life aims chiefly at this that neglecting all created objects whether spirituall or corporall it wholly imployes it self in the contemplation and love of Almighty God so that it becomes in a manner by an intellectuall and affectionate union one and the Spirit with its divine Object wherefore it being a thing impossible to find a life more perfect then that by which a man is united with his first cause and his last end it appears clearly that there can be no life more perfect then that of a Christian Morever the righteous life of man as he is man as I have said before receives its value from the degree of reason which it exercises wherefore the more rationall it is the greater is its worth and value Therefore seeing that those which are true Christians are unwilling to do any thing at all against reason it must needs follow that their life farre excells the life of other Sects and Religions The virtuous life of man hath a chief regard unto that for which it was created to wit the contemplation of the said perfections for which is required a most pure serenity of mind for if a mind be subject to humane and sensuall passions it will be altogether unfit for so sublime and elevated an object But there is no life to be found which more undresses the interiour powers of the soul of man then that of Christians which spends its whole endeavours in uniting it self onely with its Creatour Therefore there is none which surpasses it in true dignity and excellency CHAP. IV. There cannot be imagined the last end of any life better then that of Christians TO the end I may make it appear that there is no life to be compared with that of Christians we must know that there are two changes principally required to a virtuous life to wit a perfect end and proportionable means for attaining to that end First I will shew that there is no end of the life of man so consonant to reason at that which Christians aim at next I shall make appear that the means which Christians are to put in execution for the gaining their end are the most accomplished and excellent of all others And as for the end it will easily appear if we daily consider that there are two sorts of ends of the life of man the end cujus or of which and the end quo or by which that is the thing it self which we seek and the means by which we enjoy the same Nothing questionlesse is so excellent as Almighty God But God is the end of the life of Christians for whose sake and unto whom they addresse all their actions This end therefore of theirs admits no colour of question Their faith also aspires unto the clear vision
and fruition of Almighty God not by the mediation of creatures but immediately by his divine Essence Now man by his clear intuition and fruition becoming united unto Almighty God arrives by the same unto his most consummate and supreme perfection beyond which there remains not the least object of any rationall desire Almighty God being that goodnesse which plenarily satiates all the appetites of the soul of man It remains now that I shew by most pregnant and convincing reasons that the last blisse and felicity of man consists in the clear intuition of the Divine perfections for I have now proved that it cannot be attained unto in this life and if we place it in the contemplation of Almighty God this not being had here it is to be expected in the next life where if it shall consist in the intellectuall possessing of the first verity not known by its own proper species or immediate objective influence but by the intervention of effects or other representatives there will arise many difficulties for first it will not appear how mans intellectuall appetite will be fully satiated and wholly acquiesce in such a mediate contemplation for if the soul of man in the state of separation from the body hath knowledge not onely of materiall objects but of spirituall also and immateriall substances either it hath this knowledge perfectly or imperfectly if imperfectly by their intervention man cannot arrive unto the perfect knowledge of God and all things in the state of imperfection have a capacity and appetite of their respective perfection so the matter seeks its form and that which is foul to become beautifull certainly the soul of man as unsatisfied by such an imperfect knowledge of its object cannot be at quiet which also may be seen in the endeavours of men whose understanding not content with a confused and perfect knowledge of things strives by all labour and industry to arrive unto the perfect knowledge of them If with a perfect knowledge they penetrate the effects they are presently inflamed with a desire to know their causes for man naturally desires true knowledge which consists in the knowing the causes of things That which is naturall cannot be taken from nature and as naturall motion grows more impetuous and swift in the end then it was in its biginning so mans understanding the more perfectly it hath penetrated the effects the more earnestly doth it seek to know the causes of them therefore I do not see how the natural appetite of mans understanding may be satisfied without the clear sight of Almighty God which also is confirmed by experience that the capacity of mans mind is not satisfied by any limitted object beyond which it alwayes apprehends somewhat to remain unknown whence it is that if any limitted dimension or number be presupposed there remains alwayes a faculty of our understanding to add somewhat further and further without end and this is the nature of that infinity which the Mathemacians in their lines and numbers call the infinity of encrease or augment Therefore all created substances being finite and limitted our understanding never rests satiated untill it behold the increated substance of Almighty God which alone as being a pure act admits no bounds or circumscription It is therefore unreasonable to prefix any other end of the life of man then that which our faith hath established to wit the clear vision of the divine Essence For it is manifest to all that Almighty God is the last object in which the soul of man doth finally acquiesce All naturall motion tends to some last end or centre whither being arrived it ceases Now there being no created substance in which the heart of man can fix its finall affection we may conclude that it onely rests then when he shall behold face to face Almighty God then whom there being nothing greater there can be nothing wanting in him to the full satiety of man nor shall he further affect inferiour objects because he shall make no account of them For there is no proportion between things limited and that which is infinite as also because there is no perfection in any effect which is not more perfectly and eminently contained in the first cause and consequently there will be no further desire of any thing because our understanding will be most compleatly perfected as fully possessing its supreme and last object in the which it will most easily behold those other inferiour things towards which it is naturally inclined and this is one difference between the understanding and senses for the senses in the fruition of their principall object are exhausted and corrupted but the understanding is thereby exceedingly perfected But here we must observe Almighty God being infinite and above the sphere of all cleated substances that our understanding by its own proper forces virtue and energy cannot raise it self so high as to behold the divine Essence but there is necessary a supernaturall disposition or quality called by Divines the light of glory which God infuses in the next life into the souls which are free from all guilt of sinne or pain that be may thereby make them capable and fit for this beatificall vision For Almighty God alwayes supplies necessities nor can there be any thing elevated above its own proper sphere unlesse it be assisted by some superiour virtue now the vigour alone of the most intense naturall light of our understanding is no way sufficient to produce the clear vision of Almighty God because the excellence of the object precisely does not elevate naturall power to an act of another kind or of a superiour nature such as is the beatificall vision in regard of a created understanding which therefore ought to be supplied with some supernaturall disposition or quality which we call the light of Glory Whence it appears what a true and rationall judgement our Faith frames of the end of humane life and how easily it dissolves the difficulties of controversie in the which those of other opinions find themselves wholly intangled as in so many Labyrinths Where whatsoever we say either of the end cujus or the end quo there can be found none so good and rationall no nor even imagined as that which Christians professe and teach CHAP. V. There can be no better means to attain unto eternall blisse then a Christian life BEing now to treat of the means by which we are to arrive to the fore-mentioned ends I shall make it appear that there is none which may rationally be compared with those which are approved by the Christian Faith for Almighty God doing nothing in vain I suppose that no man can doubt but man is to arrive unto his last end which is eternall beatitude by some means or other for that thing questionlesse would be altogether vain and to no purpose which could not arrive unto the end for which it was ordained as for example the power of motion in man would be in vain had he no limbs
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
blisse and consequently there is no last end of the life of man Since therefore it would follow the end being the measure or rule of the means by which the end is gained that man would be the most miserable of all living creatures and void of all order would be subject to all casualty and destitute of all providence which is the greatest of all absurdities I conclude therefore that which I intended that a Christian life by true Religion is a most safe and certain way to eternall blisse CHAP. VII The truth of Christian Faith is proved by being the cause of a virtuous life HAving proved the Verity of Christian Religion by Arguments grounded in the virtuous life of Christians now I intend to confirm the same out of the causes of the same life The principall causes of this life is the Faith of our Saviour Christ Jesus crucified informed with Charity that is which works by love the Scripture teaching us Justitia Dei per fidem Jesu Christi in omnes super omnes qui credunt in eum that is The Justice of God is by the Faith of Jesus Christ for all and over all which believe in him and without Faith it is impossible to please God This Faith of Christ informed is that by which we beleeve that Christ crucified is true God and true man the Son of God identified in nature with the Father and the holy Ghost but distinguished in person whom we love above all things Faith therefore altogether with the love of Christ is the cause of the forementioned life That it is so daily experience teaches us for that which is manifest cannot be denied and of this we have a most palpable experience because we see Christians make so much progresse in the righteousnesse of life as they profit in the Faith of Christ and on the contrary for between these two sorts is such a strict connexion as they inferre a mutuall consequence and on the contrary the defect of one inferres the losse of the other for no sooner grows a Christian vitious of life but the form of his Faith which is Churity towards God vanishes and on the contrary If therefore we perceive in the life of man such an effect which men have learned by their own and others experience to have constantly endured from the coming of our Saviour even unto these present times and that all Christians do averre and teach the same why should we not out of admiration of so important a matter play the Philosophers enquiring and searching into the causes of it even as the Philosophers having perceived the effects of naturall things and being ignorant of their causes began first to admire and then by discourse to search into the causes of them First therefore there is no effect perfecter then its principall or totall cause of whom its perfection hath its dependance if therefore the righteousnesse and verity of a Christian life which of all sorts of life is the most excellent hath its dependance of the Faith of Christ it is not possible but that Faith must be true but if it be true it follows that Christ is true God and that his Religion is true which the Christians professe It is no lesse impossible that that which is good and true hath its substantial dependance of that which is evill and false for evill as it is evill false as it is false is a certain nothing or a negation of the positive perfections of goodnesse and verity now if the Faith of Christ should be false and the love of him vitious certainly the perfection of a Christian life which is known to be so good could not substantially depend on that Faith and love which are evill as it is clear Further if the Faith of Christ were false it would be the greatest of all errours for to affirm a man crucified to be true God if it were not true were an extreme madnesse and folly how could the life of Christians therefore it being most perfect as I have proved proceed from so great an errour Seeing that the institution of a well-ordered life is derived from and grounded in the framing a right conceit and understanding of it and all errour in affection and morall actions proceed from its in justice and difformity with the rule of equity Moreover the better any nature or subject is disposed the more is it facilitated for the receiving a more perfect form but the form and perfection of our understanding is verity and the disposition for the receiving of verity is a purity and sincerity of heart and therefore the more a man hath his mind undrossed from the affection of creatures the more it is prepared for the embracing verity and rejecting that which is false but I have proved that there is no disposition more undrossed and purified then that of a Christian life and therefore if the Christian Faith were erroneous none would more easily discern the deceit then Christians But we behold the clean contrary for as they daily arrive to a more elevated degree of sanctity the more constantly and undoubtedly they assever its integrity and as they grow more grounded in their Faith their lives also increase in perfection whence it undoubtedly follows that their Faith is true Almighty God as he is the first mover and first cause of all things doth no lesse produce and cause motions in spirituall things then he doth in materiall and corporall and consequently causes motions in our understanding and will and no man must doubt but he affords the light of verity at least of things necessary to the salvation of reasonable creatures more clearly to them who by their concurrence and sanctimony of life become better disposed for it Now if virtuous and sincere Christians were erroneous in their Faith they should have no prerogative before the vitious and sinfull but as misled and blinded with many enormious deceits and errours would be given over to a reprobate sense which is quite contrary to the goodnesse and present Providence of Almighty God The end is the cause of the means which are ordained for the gaining it wherefore those that erre in the end must needs go astray in the election of the means to attain it for if the end in practicall things is as the principle and cause in things which are speculative seeing therefore that Christians do not erre in the means which serve for the gaining the end to wit in the virtue of their lives but do farre excell all others it follows they erre not in the end But all assuredly confesse Christ to be their end for they onely strive to become most like unto him and with all their endeavours aim to enjoy him therefore we must conclude that which they most constantly professe that Christ crucified is true God The proceedings of Almighty God are alwayes ordinate ordering things by his divine Wisdome so as that he governs the inferiour things by the superiour and hence he subordinates
nobler effects to nobler causes for all causes must be perfecter then their effects now in humane affairs there is no nobler effect then a Christian life which consequently must proceed from the most noble cause now we see this wholly to flow from Christ whom therefore we must acknowledge to be the most perfect of all causes Secundary causes are the instruments of the primary or the First cause a Christian life therefore proceeding from Christ as from his cause we must confesse that Christ being a man crucified is the instrument of producing this excellent effect of Christian perfection now if Christ were not also God as he taught himself to be there could be no man more wicked and execrable and by this means Almighty God would use a most detestable instrument for the production of a virtuous life which is extremely absurd The cause being the measure of the effect by how much the perfection of the effect approaches nearer to the perfection of the cause and becomes more like unto it so much is it nearer its compleat and full perfection but we see the more like a man is to Christ Jesus in his life the more holy he becomes and in a manner Divine which were not possible unlesse he both were true God and his Faith most intirely true We know causes by their effects as we experience in medicines by their successe seeing therefore that Philosophers leave behinde them unto posterity the rules of a virtuous life and yet very few of them have attained unto any considerable degree of perfection notwithstanding great endeavours done to that effect nay in the great abundance of the most excellent of them none almost without the direction of Christian Faith have been able to effect any thing which yet we see in that short time and exactly to be brought to passe by Christian Discipline in the congregation of the faithfull in every sex and age and the reason is because in deed there is no comparison between Philosophicall documents and the rules of Christian life neither for Morality nor Religion For what is more admirable then that a most lewd and wicked man as we are taught by daily examples of all ages as soon as he hath truly converted himself unto Christ crucified becomes a new man of proud and envious humble and courteous of covetous and sordid liberall and bountifull of lewd and luxurious becomes continent and chaste and as it were with the principles of his Faith sucks in the respective antidotes for his particular vices and with a manifold interest recompences and repayes the debts of his former vices which never any sect of Philosophers hath attained unto whence it necessarily follows that Christ is the principall or instrumentall cause of it and a medicine which restores all morality and produces a most perfect life in his faithfull CHAP. VIII That Christian Doctrine containing the Grounds of Faith is from God THe reading hearing and contemplation of holy Scripture is the cause of Christian perfection and the substance of our Religion for the verity of Scripture is the object of Faith and therefore the arguments of Faith are those which are drawn out of holy Scriptures We know that in the understanding of man there is no determinate knowledge of future contingencies of which we can frame no acts nor science which made the most famous and learned of all Philosophers conclude that men could have no knowledge of future things subject to chance and to have it was proper onely to Almighty God who being eternall comprehends in his eternity all things the which are clearly laid open to his understanding and of the which men cannot arrive unto the knowledge unlesse they be revealed unto them by Almighty God seeing therefore that the holy Scripture almost every where but chiefly in the Old Testament doth foretell future contingencies which depend on mens free-will not onely in generall terms but most exactly intending unto particulars and that not those of one ten a hundred or a thousand years but hath foretold those of two three and four thousand years and not onely those which befell unto the Jews and those which were to be done by Christ his Spouse the Church but as it were foretold all the prosperities and adversities which should happen to almost all Nations as the Assyrians Chaldeans Persians Medes Greeks Romans and the rest and that just as it was foretold it most exactly came to passe we must necessarily confesse that the Scriptures came from God and were not written by the industry and wit of men and therefore those which as yet remain to be fulfilled are to be held most infallible as proceeding from the same Spirit who foretold those others which have so admirably beyond all imagination been accomplished And hence we clearly gather that Almighty God hath a most speciall care of men and exercises his divine Providence about humane affairs The foreseeing then of future contingencies appertaining onely to Almighty God humane industry and sagacity cannot so order and dispose such combination of affairs as the heroicall enterprizes and warlike exploits of famous men but oftentimes do beyond all expectation light on most unexpected and variable events God onely therefore can determine these actions of men so that they may be signs of what is to follow in future ages but we see how those things which are already brought to passe in the new Scripture or shall hereafter follow are deciphered and delineated under most proper types and figures in the Old Testament Nor can it rationally be said that those interpretations are vainly raised or feigned by Christians or composed without ground because in so great a variety of things and times in so manifold a composition of words and in so great a diversity of Authours and sacred Writers there could not be so exact an uniformity of the Old Law with the New unlesse some understanding and divine Providence had framed a correspondence of things which were to happen in their due times nor can it be said that it was done by chance for there cannot be found the least thing which is dissonant impertinent or discomposed but every thing with an equall tenour and most sweet harmony makes up the concord so that that which is obscurely toucht in one place in another is found manifest so as the whole Scripture may seem to explicate it self this if it be unknown to those which are ignorant of holy Scriptures it is farre otherwise with those who have enriched their understandings with the treasures gathered out of the most sincere fountain of Verity if therefore they desire to know the truth let them with piety humility and purity search into the same fountain of holy Scriptures and questionlesse they will be of our opinion Wherefore Allegoricall Exposition agrees onely to holy Scripture because this alone is that which hath descended from Almighty God as he exercised his all-seeing and celestiall Wisdome I call an Allegory not the fabulous Interpretations Poets
use and we also do expound Parables without an Allegory nor a parabolicall and literall sense which we use when in a fable or parable we do not intend to signifie that which is couched under the bare notion of the words but onely that which is raised in our conceits by those words and hath a further sense But an Allegoricall sense we call that which contains three things first that without all fiction according to the proper signification of the words the history both concerning the words actions and relations be plainly and sincerely recounted Secondly that there be some future thing signified by that thing which is done at present Thirdly that those things which are done be so fitly disposed and ordered that when they are put in execution there appear in them an insinuation of their future correlatives whence it is manisest that no created industry could ever couch such a confirmation of things in this sense but onely the divine Providence which had an infallibility of all future contingencies Also the manner of speech and context of holy Scripture is so singular that it could not have been used by any the most excellent and skilfull of all Christians although they were most exercised in all kind of knowledge for this manner of order and expression was onely granted unto them unto whom the holy Ghost vouchsafed to dictate and inspire it because although there interceded severall distances of times between those Hagiographers or holy Writers and also some of them used more elegance of writing yet the substance of the expression was alwayes the same in all which is a manifest sign that it was not Humane but Divine The same is also approved by the effects by which we gather the virtue of the cause for as I have already shewed both in this book and in another of the simplicity of a Christian life there is no nobler effect then a Christian life which cannot proceed out of any inferiour and created cause but onely from the free gift and liberall hand of Almighty God seeing therefore that that Doctrine is the chief instrument of a Christian life in which the whole form of Christian Religion doth consist it clearly appears that the same and even the manner of speech could not be Humane but Divine for experience teaches that humane learning little avails mankind to a happy and blessed life because before this light appeared to the world it was wholly drowned in a dark night of vices and confusion but after the rayes of Apostolicall Doctrine displayed themselves and the sound of Evangelicall Preachers was heard all those clouds and mists were disperst and the minds of men replenished with those beams became resplendent with a most shining serenity of truth and virtue But in case that some should deny things so long since past I will relate some domesticall examples of my own experience for I have experienced that men have been by this divine Doctrine and the manner of it more illuminated delighted and converted then by any other wherefore since the Preachers of our times neglecting this sacred Doctrine have betaken themselves to Philosophical proportions and Rhetoricall ornaments they have profited their Auditours very little or nothing at all whereas heretofore making use in their Sermons of a plain manner of speech and content onely with the instruction and textuall frequence of holy Scripture they have wonderfully inflam'd the minds of their hearers who were so mutually delighted that both in prosperity and adversity they did expresse their jubilee of mind whence they were wonderfully stirr'd up to leade most blessed and virtuous lives I call God to witnesse that I have been oftentimes preaching unto the people when I have made digressions to prove the profundity of the sacred Text unto the wits of this age to the learneder sort by Philosophicall subtilties and humane learning I have plainly perceived out of a certain impatience and aversion of my Auditory very little attention in them and this not onely of the moâ—e ignorant but even of the learned sort but as soon as I turned my self again unto the Majesty of sacred Writ either in the Interpretation of divers senses or in the relation of the histories I have seen an admirable attention in every one all fixing their eyes upon me as if they had not been living creatures but meer statues Yea I have experienced that when omitting other questions I have insisted upon the Exposition of sacred Scripture my Auditory hath been so delighted so illustrated and verity appearing so touched to the quick by Divine influence that they have immediately reform'd their lives insomuch that being delighted with no other reading or hearing any other thing renouâ—cing all terrene delights and appetites and stirring themselves up daily more and more they have lived lives more divine then humane And what I now affirm happen'd farre more frequently in those Primitive Ages when Christian Religion was but newly planted This is that Doctrine which is more piercing then the two-edged sword which imbelished the whole with virtues which defaced the worship of the devils and demolished the profane Oracles of their Idols this is that which hath dispersed a world of errours and hath been so fruitfull of all sorts of wonders as I will hereafter declare Our understanding the more purified it is the more capable it is of Verity and hence it is that so many most excellent and elevated wits have not onely extolled the praises of this Doctrine by their writings but giving testimony of it by their preaching life and manners have not doubted to spend their lives in its defence which certainly they would no way have done had they not seen almost a sensible and ocular evidence of its verity Further truth gives testimony of truth and falsity is the cause of division other disciplines arts and faculties are not contrary but as servants unto this whence most learned and skilfull Doctours who are most versed and exercised in all Sciences do most constantly maintain that there is no part of Philosophy which is repugnant or inconsistant nay which is not most fitly coherent with it and therefore it is permitted all Christians to imploy their indeavours in the gaining of all Sciences which would no way be tolerated if it were detrimentary unto the Catholique Faith there are onely some few subject to superstition which are forbidden as that of Divination being no lesse pernicious then unprofitable which by the learnedst even of the Philosophers are hissed at derided and condemned as not to be accounted amongst the Arts and Sciences And if at any time there appear any contradiction between Philosophicall and Christian Principles they are so apparantly reconciled by our Doctours that it clearly appears that all Philosophy is but the servant and hand-maid of the sacred Doctrine for the easie dissolving of objections is the certain sign of Verity It is the nature of Verity that the more it is impugned the more if it have a fit
cruel Emperour of the Gothes after he had destroyed so many thousands by innumerable massacres wasted and consumed whole Nations not being able to suffer the countenance of S. Bennet a poor Monk fell down prostrate on his face and could scarce raise himself when the servant of God commanded and assisted him to rise In like manner Theodosius the Emperour returning to Millain after his cruel slaughter of the Thessalonians was by the authority of S. Ambrose chiding him and reviling his cruelty denied the entrance into the Church untill he had by a publick penance enjoyn'd him by the Bishop expiated his cruelty and injustice I should want time if I should recount the examples in this kind but it is not for my present purpose to prove that which by daily examples is known to all for I have often seen arrogant and wicked men in the presence of the holy and virtuous both to have changed their words and with great sorrow and compunction of heart to have reformed their lives For the divine Spirit doth adorn the exteriour both of men and women the younger with a wonderfull sweetnesse and grace the elder men with the veneration of their white hairs and makes them as the present matter requires to become now amiable to some and now again to some others formidable This effect in the exteriour proceeds out of the supernaturall bounty of the mind that is out of the grace of God adorning the understanding will and other powers of the soul which we gather hence that our soul vehemently altering our bodies by force of the imagination doth exceedingly change the countenance and visage as by lascivious thoughts the body is stirred up to lust and by the instigation of hatred it is inflamed with desire of revenge whnnce we experience that the body is much altered by force of the imagination and by the alteration of the sensible appetite and the commotion of the spirits the face and visage is straightway changed so that by fear men are wont to become pale and wan by anger and bashfulnesse red and blushing and joy and sorrow make their severall impressions in the countenance The reason is because our understanding using corporall instruments and organs what ever passes in the interiour especially any vehement conceits hath its influence into the corporall and exteriour parts especially into the face and eyes for we plainly discern in proud men an arrogance of look in the cruel a stern and fierce cast of their eyes in the light ones a subtil and unconstant deportment and in the lascivious a wanton aspect nay some malevolous old women with the very contagion of their looks are said to infect and fascinate little infants to conclude the good and evill habits of the mind especially if they have taken deep root can scarce by any dissimulation be so hidden that they appear not in the exteriour Every cause therefore likening its effect and every effect making an expression of its cause this exteriour beauty and comlinesse of Christians and this honest and venerable manner of deportment cannot proceed from any other cause then the beauty of the mind and integrity of their life Which effect we daily see to be of such virtue that as we daily experionce there is nothing to be found more energeticall and efficacious for the conversion of sinners for we experience that the examples of simple Christians living uprightly have profited men more then the perswasions of learned and eloquent Philosophers nay even the relations or beholding of miracles For we often see eloquent and learned men whilst they are preaching high and elevated subtilties of knowledge to be hearkned unto with great attention but their lives not corresponding to their words they have profited the Church very little but onely born away the reports and praises of their eloquence and wisdome In past and present Ages there have been many miracles which little conduced to the amendment of life for though we see multitudes of men flock together to see them yet if we look more diligently into it we shall find that very few have reaped the profit of bettering their lives by them but by the perfection of a virtuous Christian we both have known and seen innumerable sorry and contrite for their sins and converted unto Almighty God and those not onely of the vulgar and simple sort of people but most eminent in prudence and learning of the which very many having felt the odour of a good fame and sanctity contemning the pleasures and delights of the world have betaken themselves to these happy and religious Societies and Monasteries where loathing their former courses they passe their lives with exceeding content pleasure and sincerity Hence it is manifest that there is some virtue in Christians by which these admirable effects are produced for a body hath no substantiall influence into a spirit which we see manifestly expressed in the most formall body of all to wit the celestiall which suffer nothing from any corporall virtue for the heavens suffer not from the neighbouring fire much lesse therefore shall a spirit suffer by any corporall influence Those things therefore that are exteriour and visible in a Christian life being corporall they cannot have any proper and substantiall influence into the soul by which it may receive benefit unlesse thereby some virtue be together infused into it but in a Catholique and virtuous man the most eminent and chief virtue from which an upright institution of life exteriour beauty and holy conversation doth proceed is the immaculate Faith and Love of Christ crucified for this Faith and Love being augmented their exteriour ornaments and veneration are increased and of greater efficacy for the conversion of men Faith therefore which operates with love cannot be a deceit seeing that falsity is void of all virtue and cannot penetrate the heart of man Verity is more powerfull then falsity but there was never any virtue or remedy found more efficacious for the living well and virtuously then a Christian life as we are taught by the comparison of Philosophers and other men by whose learning and examples very few have been converted to a good life and by the life of Christians innumerable do daily rise and leade most unspotted lives and therefore a vain and erroneous falsity cannot be the ground or root of this life otherwise men would more easily be reclaim'd to the amendment of their lives by the learning and morality of Philosophers then by Christian examples which we find most false by experience Moreover Almighty God being the first mover without whom there is not the least motion and doing all things by his wisdome he subordinates the nobler effects to the nobler causes but the most excellent of all effects is a Christian life Almighty God therefore by exhortations and chiefly by internall inspirations stirring up men to this life by most conspicuous examples of the faithfull to the end that the cause may produce an effect like it self as the
it consist in the goods that is to say in the pleasures satisfactions of the sensitive part of the soul Every thing the nearer it approacheth to its proper end the perfecter it growes for its end is its perfection if therefore Blessedness consisted in those sensitive delights A man should become so much the more perfect by how much he lived more sensually and gave himself up to all kind of Luxury and voluptuousness that is he should be so much the more a man by how much he lived more like a beast which is very absurd And so againe as was touched in the precedent Conclusion Beasts also would be found capable of happiness as well as men yea rather of a more perfect happiness then man for as much as they have no fear of death no apprehension of future miseries no knowledge of God no feare of Judgement no Lawes no Shame no repugnance of flesh and spirit in brief they have nothing which can either abate the sense or restraine the use of their present pleasures if therefore the Felicity of man did consist in the pleasures of sense we should all desire to be metamorphiz'd and become Beasts why because Beasts upon this supposition are more happy then men But this was confessed to be absurd before The VII Conclusion THat the happiness of man consists in such goods as pertain unto the Intellectuall or superiour part of the soule For as the body is ordained for the soule so of the soule the vegetative or lowest part is ordained for the Sensitive and the Sensitive for the Intellectuall Seeing therefore that the Intellect or Rationall part of the Soul is as it were the end of the Body and the thing whereunto both it and also the inferiour parts of the soul be subordinate and directed it is manifest that in the Act or exercise of this Intellect and in the goods that is to say in the perfections thereto properly belonging the finall happinesse of man doth consist Besides seeing that happinesse belongs onely to a perfect man and that the perfection of man as man consisteth in such goods as belong either to his understanding or will it is hence also manifest that in such manner of goods as are Intellectuall and rationall his proper happinesse consisteth The VIII Conclusion But yet this happinesse of man doth not consist in any created good although intellectuall For as we said before Blessednesse is such a perfect good as doth totally satisfie or fulfill the appetite for otherwise it could not be the ultimate or last end supposing there remained any thing else further to be desired Now the object of the will that is of the appetite of man as man is good in its latitude or the universall good For we find that as the understanding of man comprehends an infinitie of particular verities that is to say it never comprehendeth actually so many but it is still apt and capable to comprehend more successively even in infinitum so also we find that the will of man is as able to desire and effect an infinity of particular goods that is to say that it also never actually desireth so many but it is still ready to accept and embrace more whensoever offered and this successively in infinitum and that therefore it can never be fully satisfied untill it attains to some universall or infinite good which is not to be found in any created Thing for the goodnesse of every Thing created is at best but derivative particular and finite therefore in no created good can the Felicity of man consist The IX Conclusion That the happinesse of man consisteth solely in the contemplation and fruition of God We said before that the understanding of man resteth not that is is not satisfied in the knowledge of particular verities nor his will in the fruition of particular goods The last end therefore of them both must be Truth and Goodnesse universall or in its full latitude which God onely is therefore in the Contemplation and Fruition of God alone the Beatitude of man consisteth Besides man being what he is viz. a creature naturally desirous to know and that our knowledge of every particular thing seems then to be compleat when we comprehend its proper and true cause hence it follows that whensoever we observe any thing to be that is to say any effect we instantly yea naturally desire to know its cause why what or whence it is Now all things beside God appear unto us and in truth are but effects of some other cause and therefore whatsoever a man knows beside God he knows it either perfectly or imperfectly if imperfectly his desire is never satisfied untill he attains perfect knowledge thereof for that is naturall viz. for every thing that is imperfect to desire perfection and seeing that Felicity as we have said is the perfection of man and the full satisfaction of his Intellectuall appetite it is manifest that by such imperfect knowledge of any thing he cannot become happy But if he knows the thing perfectly suppose it be some one singular or many yea perhaps all particular things that be yet he cannot but apprehend them still as effects that is as depending in their very beings upon some other cause Seeing therefore as we said that man observing the effect doth naturally desire to know the cause it is manifest that this appetite of his cannot be compleatly satisfied with the knowledge even of all particular things that be but still it will be endeavouring and desiring to see also the cause of them all and that so much the more earnestly by how much it finds the effects themselves to be more excellent or that it self apprehends them more perfectly for so it is alwayes seen that every naturall motion the nearer it draws to its period or proper term the stronger and stronger it grows In the sole knowledge therefore and fruition of God who is the universall and first cause of all Things doth mans Blessednesse consist according as S. Augustine hath excellently well observed Thou hast made us O Lord saith he for thy self and our heart is restlesse and unquiet untill it findeth its repose in Thee The X. Conclusion That this Beatitude formally and as it were in actu primo consisteth in the understanding or seeing of God as he is but exercitatively operatively and as in actu secundo in the will or in that ineffable pleasure and delight which is enjoyed by the knowledge and contemplation of him The Act of the will alwayes presupposeth the Act of the understanding because the object thereof is alwayes some known or imaginary good Seeing therefore that Beatitude formally and in its own nature is nothing else but the attaining of our last end as soon as ever a man attains that he is happy But man attaineth his last end which is God so soon as ever he sees that is perfectly knows him Therefore in the knowledge and by the knowledge of his last end man becomes essentially
comprehend yea afford all those goods which Secular men do so much desire though not in such manner as they commonly affect and hunt after them but in a better that is in a due and congruous subordination of them unto superiour goods For the Christian life being as it is a life of wisdome a life of most perfect prudence and discretion when we see that the things which the world so much admireth riches honours pleasures c. are by them viz. good Christians in a manner neglected we cannot but conclude that they find themselves satisfied otherwise that is possessed of riches honours pleasures c. of a more noble and more excellent nature then those be which they seem to despise For having the grace of God and our Saviour Christ himself dwelling in them by Faith they conceive themselves thereby in possession of so great a good that in comparison thereof there is little else worthy of their desires They have also hereby an assured hope to recover in the Resurrection whatsoever Beauty or other ornaments of the body here they might seem to want yea in that degree of excellency and glory which the heart of man cannot now conceive and to injoy with Christ for ever that life and endlesse felicity of which the Apostle speaketh Eye hath not seen nor the ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what Things God hath prepared for them that love him And hence we observe that good Christians be generally of a chearfull and pleasing Conversation not seeming either to desire or to fear any thing overmuch in this world and to be as it were out of the Gun-shot of inordinate sorrow according as it is written Nothing shall grieve the Just man of whatsoever happeneth unto him and as it was said of the Apostles of our Saviour They went from the Councell rejoycing that they were held worthy to suffer reproch for the name of Christ The XIX Conclusion THat it is no hard matter to attain Christian life and therein by Gods holp to persevere unto the end The principall thing required thereto is the grace of God that grace I mean which is not onely a meer gift of God or freely given but that which maketh a man formally gracious with God or just This indeed is onely to be had from God but he through his Infinite and Immense Goodnesse being so ready and inclined to give it unto them that ask in that respect there is no difficulty to attain Christian life For if he spared not his own sonne as the Apostle argueth but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us and that easily all Things There is also required some disposition on our part to receive the grace of God which yet renders not the attaining of Christian life nor perseverance therein through Grace difficult or hard For can it be hard for a man to do that which is in his own power Can it be hard for a man to do that which naturall reason tells him is best is for his own good and in his own election Let a man therefore but obserue three precepts and he shall find the attaining and perseverance in Christian life by Gods grace easie The first is That he have continuall Thoughts and reflexions upon the misertes of Humane life and especially upon the hour and issues of his death For seeing that man dyeth as all other creatures do he ought often thus to think and reason with himself To what purpose do I thus labour What good do all these Riches and Honours do me I am sure to dye and leave them all I am sure to dye yet the hour and time of my death is most uncertain What if I dye to day as 't is possible enough what good would it then do me to have had the whole world at command Or thus If the condition of man and beast be alike as in death we seem truly we men are a great deal more unhappy then they for unto bruit beasts Nature it self provideth a convenient food convenient cloathing houses and other necessaries for their life which we men have not but with a great deal of labour and pains Beasts are satisfied with that onely which is present never taking care for the future as man doth who is never contented with what he hath but still desiring insatiably more and vexed with a Million of cares for that which is to come Beasts are not subject to half those in firmities of body which man is sicknesse weaknesse wearinesse c. and for those of the mind tribulations anxieties distresses which we suffer in infinite variety every day they know them not Beasts are content with a little their desire is presently fatisfied with but a small provision but the desires of man are without end his heart is restlesse inscrutably perverse and miserable with all Lastly beasts have no Thoughts of any future life nor of the Immortality of Soul about which men are extreamly perplexed almost in continuall dread and apprehensions of going after all the troubles and toylings of this life unto pains eternall If therefore our soul be not indeed Immortall there is no creature so miserable as man But if it be Immortall then certainly our finall rest is not here but must be sought in some other life And seeing that it were an absurd thing to imaegine that man whom both God and nature have made the most noble and most excellent of all other Creatures should yet be found to be of them all the most miserable we must confesse some other happiness reserved for him or else deny the providence of God over his works For seeing that in the world many Things daily appear new which were not before and that nothing can possibly make it self or give Being to it self it cannot be doubted but that every Thing in the world is made to be by something else which was before it unlesse we will be such fools as to say All things come to passe by chance that is by nothing for chance is nothing but our ignorance or non-praeâ—â—sion of the true cause a paradox sufficiently cenfuted by the very order of the universe and that wonderfull regularity which is observed yea sensible in all the proceedings of nature And seeing again that in causes subordinate we may not run from one to an other in infinitum we must pitch at last upon some one which shall be the first and generall cause of all and This is confessed to be God whence also we see that without any discourse of Argument but by meer instinct or nature men generally acknowledge God and also worship him in some way or other nor was there ever man found that could settle in the opinion that There was no God And that God hath providence over the world the course of nature as we said even now sufficiently sheweth and the Philosophers themselves confesse saying that the work of nature is the
work of an Intellect which erreth not And although it hath come in dispute among them whither God hath providence over humane affairs perhaps in regard of the great irregularities and deviations which seem to be in them more then in other things yet certainly it cannot be denied by any wise man but that he hath over them and over all and over the least as much as over the greatest Because Providence in every Thing is so much the more perfect and more excellent by how much it further extends it self and taketh care of more Things seeing then that the Providence of God must be acknowledged the most perfect of all it must also of necessity extend it self to all Things it must leave nothing unprovided for it must overpasse nothing We observe also in all causes a naturall and vehement inclination as it were to govern and perfect their effects as for example in bruit beasts what an admirable and great care have they of their young ones Seeing therefore that whatsoever good is in the second causes they have it from the first to which they do all naturally desire so much as may be to assimilate themselves it is manifest that the first and generall cause of all things as it were a Common Parent must have a great and exact care over all particular effects seeing he is the cause of all Beside if God hath not providence over humane affairs what is the reason is it because he cannot or because he knows not how to govern them or lastly because he will not none of these can be imagined of God For shall we think of God that he cannot or knoweth not how to execute that which man both knoweth and also is able to do and if but a good man who hath ability and skill to order affairs is also ever willing of his own part to do it shall we think of God who is most able most skilfull and wise and also insinitely good that he should be lesse willing Again if God Almighty had not care of humane affairs why hath he given man such a naturall instinct and inclination to worship him God and nature we use to say do nothing in vain We conclude therefore that it is an argument onely of madnesse or a distempered mind to say There is no God or that God is but hath not providence or care over us men and that it is the part duty of a wife man not onely to know but continually to consider that there is a Governour over the world who hath the same particular providence over men that he hath over other naturall Things that is to conduct guide them all by due means unto their proper and last ends And because it is his property to dispose All Things sweetly he guideth every one of them to their ends in such manner as is most congruous and agreeable to their severall natures and man in particular Freely according to that liberty of his will which is natrnall to him From whence it is also that among men some are good and some are evill The good are they whose life is agreeable to reason conforming themselves to such Illuminations and Inspirations as they have from God in all things studying and endeavouring to please him The evill are those who follow not reason nor observe any rectitude or regularity of life If therefore the Divine Majesty hath providence over humane affairs and be Just as he is he must certainly have determined with himself both to reward the good and to punish such as be evill But this we see not done at least not exactly not particularly in this life therefore we must confesse some other life to come wherein the rewards of the Just and punishments of the wicked shall be more eminently seen Which if it be so how much doth it concern us to please God by a good life And seeing as we have elswhere shewen that there can be no better life then the Christian life is it is to no purpose for us to seek any where else how to live or how to please God for a life so led cannot be without its due reward cannot be frustrated of that happinesse which is promised to it if it could there were no life sure of happinesse for the life of Christians in many respects sheweth that God hath peculiar providence over them and therefore if their faith were not true neither could their life so much be governed by it nor would God suffer them long in that errour whose Goodnesse it is to Illuminate those which are Good and right of heart and to harden and leave in blindnesse onely those which are evil If therefore These Things be so let us believe in Christ and let us live Christianly for so doing as is manifest by what hath been said we cannot perish but must be happy in this world and in the next After a man hath by this first consideration prepared himself and is resolved to do what he can to attain Christian life the second Precept to be given him is this viâ— That he seriously consider what that thing is wherein Christian life doth as it were essentially consist which is the grace of God I mean that grace which as we touched before doth justifie make a man good in the sight of God For we observe some men as soon as they begin to have a desire of living Christianly they presently apply themselves to the Ceremonies of religion and performing them exteriourly they imagine all on the sudden that they are become exceeding good Christians with which vanity many deceive themselves pretending to be Christians but falsly being indeed a foolish lukewarm yet very arrogant sort of people Men indeed looking onely on the outside praise what they see but God beholds the heart and sayes to these men as our Saviour said to the Pharisees ye are they who justifie your selves before men but God knows your hearts for many times that which is of high esteem with men is abomination before God He therefore that desires indeed to live Christianly let him endeavour with the utmost of his power to obtain the grace of God not resting til by some good signs arguments he can probably persuade himself that he hath obrained it And because the Grace of God is given in and by the Holy Sacraments to all those who devoutly and worthily come unto them let him prepare himself in the second place to receive the Sacraments with the best disposition and diligence he can In particular If he be a believer but yet not Baptized let him prepare himself and come to the Sacrament of Baptisme with atrue sincere Faith and good Intention If he be already a Christian but guilty of sins let him come with true Contrition pure Confession and perfect Satisfaction and submit himself to the Sacrament of Pennance and thereby also devoutly fit himself for the Sacrament of the Eucharist and in this course let him persist constantly untill by some
be well conceived and understood Thou shouldst do well to seek out a man both pious and learned or one that is esteemed and reputed so to be by the approbation and consent of many by whose instructions thou mightest become better and more expert and skilfull by his learning Such an one saist thou was not easie to be found it would be some labour and trouble to seek him There was none such in the land wherein thou didst dwell If so what cause could more profitably enforce thee to travell if he lay hid in the continent or firm land or were not there at all thou shouldst sail beyond sea if he were not there to be found by the shore thou shouldest make a voyage even unto those lands wherein the things which are contained in those books are said and reported to have been done O Honoratus have we done any such thing and yet when we were but most wretched and silly boyes we did at our own pleasure and in our own judgement condemn a Religion and that perhaps a most holy one for I speak as yet as though some doubt were to be made thereof whose fame and renown hath already possessed the whole world What if the things which seem in those Scriptures offensive to some that are ignorant and unskilfull be for this cause so written and set down that when such things are read as agree not with the sense of all sorts of men but much lesse with theirs that are holy and wise we may with more care and diligence seek out a secret and hidden meaning thereof doest thou not see how men labour to interpret the pastorall Catamite upon whom the rough shepherd poured out his affections and how they affirm that the boy Alexis upon whom Plato is also said to have made some love-verses signifies I know not what great and mysterious matter but that it surpasseth the judgement and understanding of unskilfull men when as indeed that Poet abounding in his inventions may without any detestable crime or offence be conceived to have published lascivious songs but were we indeed hindred and withdrawn from seeking out the true Religion either by the publishing of some law against it or by the power of them that oppose it or by the contemptible shew and appearance of men dedicated to the service of God or by any base or dishonest report or by the newnesse of the institution or by some hidden profession thereof No no none of these things did withdraw and hinder us all laws both divine and humane do permit men to seek out the Catholick faith and certainly it is lawfull according to humane law to hold embrace it if so long as we erre we be uncertain of the divine law We have no enemie that puts any fright or terrour into our weaknes although truth and the salvation of our souls if it be sought after where it is lawful to seek it with most safety and it cannot be found ought to be enquired for with any danger and hazard whatsoever the degrees of all powers dignities do most devoutly impart their service unto this sacred and divine worship and the very name of Religion is most honourable and hath a very great esteem and renown What hindereth us then at last to seek out carefully and to examine with a pious and diligent search whether here be that truth which though few do know and retain after the sincerest manner yet the favour and good will of all nations doth conspire therein All this being so imagine as I said that we now make our first enquiry what Religion we ought to embrace both for the cleansing and reforming of our souls Without doubt we must take our beginning from the Catholick Church for there are now more Christians then if the Jews were joyned with the worshippers of idols And whereas of the same Christians there be divers heresies and all would have themselves thought to be Catholicks and do call others besides themselves hereticks the Church is one as all do grant greater in multitude if thou considerest the whole world and as those that know do affirm more sincere in truth then all the rest but as for truth it is another question But that which is sufficient for those that seek it is that the Catholick Church is one upon which other heresies do impose divers names when as every one of them is called by its proper name which it dares not deny whereby we may understand by the judgement of Arbitratours not hindred by any favour unto whom the name Catholick which all seek after ought to be attributed But lest that any one should think that this thing ought to be debated with much babling or superfluous discourse there is one Church indeed wherein even the humane Laws are after a sort Christian Yet I will have no preocupation of judgement to be drawn from hence but I judge it to be a most fit beginning for the seeking out of the truth For there is no fear least the true worship of God relying upon no proper force of its own should seem to stand in need to be upheld and supported by them whom it ought to sustain and support but certainly it were a perfect happinesse if the Truth could there be found where with most fecurity it may be sought and retained but if it cannot it ought to be sought for in another place what danger and perill soever be incurred CHAP. VIII Of the way to the instruction of piety and of the wonderfull paint Saint Augustine took to find it out HAving thus resolved and determined these things which in my opinion are so right and just that I ought to prevail in that cause with thee whosoever were against it I will recount unto thee as well as I can what course I took to find out the true Religion when as I sought it with such a mind and resolution as I have now declared that it ought to be sought for When I was departed from thee beyond the Sea now staggering and doubting what I ought to embrace and what to reject which doubting daily encreased in me from the time that I gave ear unto that man whose coming unto us was as thou knowest promised as from heaven for the resolving of all the difficulties wherewith we were troubled and I knew him to be a man like other men but onely that he was eloquent I held a great debate and deliberation with my self being now in Italy not whether I should continue in that sect into which I was sorry and grieved that I had faln but by what means I might find out the truth for the love whereof thou canst bear me witnesse how I sighed and groaned I was often of an opinion that it could not be found out and the great waves of my thoughts and cogitations moved me to assent to the Academicks Oftentimes again when I considered as well as I could that the mind of man is endued with such vivacity and
society Then which degree and step towards heaven nothing can be found more firm and stable Verily such is the force and efficacy of this reason that I cannot resist it for how can I say that nothing ought to be believed unlesse it be known besides all friendship is taken away unlesse something may be believed which cannot be demonstrated and proved by certain reason and oftentimes without offence credit may be given to such stewards as are servants to Lords But in matters of Religion what can be done that is more unreasonable and unjust then that Gods Prelates should believe us when we promise that we come to embrace Religion with an unfeigned mind and we refuse to give credit unto them when they teach and instruct us Finally what way can be more wholesome and profitable then by believing those things which God hath appointed as preparatives for the cultivating and adoring the mind to be first disposed and made fit to understand and receive the truth or if thou beest already sufficiently disposed thereunto rather to go a little about where thou maist walk with the greatest safety then both to be the Authour of danger to thy self and an example of temerity and rashnesse unto others CHAP. XI Of Vnderstanding Belief and Opinion VVE have shewed already how without offence we may follow those that command us to believe it remains that we consider for what cause they are not to be followed that promise to conduct and lead us by reason Some are of opinion that they can hearken and give eare to these promisers of reason not onely without any blame or dispraise but also with some commendation and praise but it is not so for there be two sorts of persons that deserve praise in point of Religion the one which hath already found out the true Religion which we ought to judge most happy and blessed the other which with the greatest care and after the rightest manner doth seek after it the first sort is now in possession of it the second is in the way by which notwithstanding most certainly they will arrive at it There be three other kinds of men which are indeed to be misliked and detested The first is of those that are opinative that is who think they know that which they know not The second is of those who truly do perceive their own ignorance but do not so seek that they may find The third is of those that neither think they know nor have any will or desire to seek There are also three things in the minds of men near as it were the one unto the other most worthy to be distinguished to understand to believe and to think Of which if they be considered by themselves the first is alwaies without offence the second sometimes faultie the third never without a fault and this we ought to reserve to the same beatitude and felicity For in this life how much soever a man knows his knowledge doth not as yet make him most blessed for that there be incomparably more things whereof he is ignorant For to understand great and worthy and divine things it is a most blessed thing But it is not hurt full to understand superfluous things but perhaps it was prejudicial to learn them when as they took up the time of necessary things Also it is not a miserable thing to understand hurtfull things but to do or suffer them For if any one understands how his enemie may be slain without endangering himself he becomes not guilty by understanding it if he desires it not yea if he be free from such a desire who is more innocent and guiltlesse then he In believing a man is then to blame when either he believes some unworthy thing of God or gives too facile and easie credit unto the things reported of man But in other things if a man believes any thing he commits no fault by believing though he understnnds that he knows not the thing which he believes For I believe that in times past most wicked conspiratours were put to death by the power and authority of Cicero but this I do not ogely not know but also I know assuredly that I can by no means attain unto the knowledge thereof To be opinative or to be led by opinion is for two causes an unseemly thing First because he cannot learn a thing if it be to be learned that hath perswaded himself that he knows it already And secondly for that rashnesse is of it self a sign or token of an ill disposed minde For although any one thinks that he knows that which I said touching Cicero as there is nothing that can hinder him from learning it yet because he can have no certain knowledge of it and for that he understands not That there is a great difference whither any thing be comprehended by certain reason of mind which we say is to understand or whither it be committed to common fame or writing to be profitably believed by posterity he erres indeed and there is no errour but hath its foulnesse and deformity Wherefore that we understand we attribute it to reason that we believe to authority and that we are opinative to errour and mistaking but every one that understands doth also believe and so doth every one that is opinative but not every one that believes understands and no man understands that is opinative If therefore these three kinds be referred to those five sorts of men whereof we made mention a little before to wit to the two approved kinds which we put in the first place and to the other three vicious kinds we find that the first kind which is those that are happy doth believe truth it self and that the second kind which is those that are desirous and lovers of truth doth believe authority in both which kinds the believers deserve praise But in the first of the vicious kinds that is of those that think they know that which they know not there is indeed a faulty credulity The other two disallowed kinds that is both those that seek after truth with a despair of finding it out and they that seek not after it do believe nothing and this is onely in things belonging to some doctrine or discipline for how a man can believe nothing in the other actions of his life I understand not Albeit even amongst those that affirm that in their actions they follow probable opinions some there be that will seem rather not able to know any thing then to believe nothing For who doth not believe that which he doth approve Or how is that which they follow profitable if it be not approved Wherefore there may be two kinds of those that oppose the truth the one that opposeth knowledge onely and not faith the other that condemneth both the one and the other But whither any can be found that use such proceedings in humane affairs I am wholly ignorant These things are spoken that we may understand that believing the
between his folly and the most sincere truth of the Divine Majesty For a wise man according to the ability which he hath received doth imitate God and a fool hath nothing nearer unto him which he may profitably imitate and follow then a wise man when because as I said it is not easie to understand by reason it was necessary that certain miracles should be proposed and set before mens eyes which fools do use much more commodiously then their understandings to the end that the life and manners of men moved with authority might first be purged and made clean and so they might be enabled to understand reason And therefore when as man was to be imitated and yet no confidence to be placed in him how could the Divine Majesty shew greater signs of his favour and liberality then that the sincere eternall and unchangeable wisdome of God unto whom it behoves us to cleave and adhere should vouchsafe to take humane nature upon him who did not onely do those things which might serve to invite us to follow God but did also endure and suffer those things whereby we were discouraged from following of him For whereas no man can obtain the most certain and chiefest good unlesse he doth fully and perfectly love it which by no means will be brought to passe so long as men fear the miseries of the body and the things that are subject to fortune and chance he by his wonderfull birth and admirable works hath purchased for us love and charity and hath excluded terrour and fear by his death and resurrection And finally he hath shewed himself to be such an one in all other things too long to be here expressed and set down that we may know and perceive hereby how farre the divine clemency can reach and be extended and how farre mans infirmity can be elevated and extolled CHAP. XVI That Miracles do procure Belief THis believe it is a most wholesome authority this at the first is a withdrawing of our minds from an earthly habitation this is a conversion from the love of this world to the true God It is onely authority which moveth fools to make haste unto wisdome So long as we cannot understand sincere things it is indeed a miserable thing to be deceived by authority but truly it is more miserable not to be moved thereby For if the Divine Providence doth not rule and govern humane affairs we ought not to busie and trouble our selves about Religion but if even the frame and species of all things which we must believe proceeds and flows from some fountain of the truest beauty doth as it were publickly and privately exhort all the more noble and braver spirits both to seek God in I know not what inward conscience and to serve him we ought not to despair but that the same God hath constituted and ordained some authority upon which if we lean and rely as upon a sure step we may be elevated and lifted up unto him This authority reason being set aside which to understand to be true and sincere it is a very hard matter for fools to do as I have often said doth move and excite us two manner of wayes partly by miracles and partly by the great number and multitude of followers It is certain that a wise man needs none of these things but now we are discoursing how we may become wise men that is how we may cleave and adhere unto the truth which is a thing that doubtlesse cannot be done with a foul and impure mind the uncleannesse whereof is to expound it briefly the love of all things whatsoever besides it self and God from which filth by how much any one is more purged and cleansed by so much the more easily doth he behold the truth And therefore to desire to see the truth that thou mayst cleanse the mind when therefore it ought to be cleansed that thou mayest see the truth is certainly a perverse and a preposterous thing Wherefore to a man that is not able to behold the truth that he may be made fit to see it and may suffer himself to be purged and cleansed authority is at hand which without doubt receives her strength and vigour partly by miracles and partly by the number and multitude of followers as I said a little before A miracle I call any hard or unwonted thing whatsoever which appears above the expectation and power of the wonderer In which kind nothing is more fit for the common people and for men that are absolutely sottish and foolish then that which is applyed and proposed to the senses But these again are divided into two sorts for some there be that onely move men to wonder and admiration and others which besides do winne and purchase great favour and good will For if any one should see a man fly he would onely wonder at it because it is a thing which besides the beholding of it yields to the spectatour no commodity nor profit But if any one being afflicted with a grievous and desperate sicknesse shall so soon as the disease is commanded to depart recover his health he shall overcome the wonder of the cure by the charity of the curer Such things were done as many as were sufficient when God appeared to men in the shape of a true man The sick were cured Mat. 9.6 13 15 16. Mat. 9.7 22. Mar. 3.5 10. Joh. 4.53 the leaprous were cleansed Mat. 8.3 Mar. 4 2. Luke 5.3 7.22 going was restored to the lame Mat. 11.5 sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf Luke 18.42 Joh 9.7 The men of that time saw water turned into wine Joh. 2.9 five thousand people filled with five loaves of bread Mat. 14.20 21. men walking upon the sea Mat. 14.25 Joh. 6.19 21.7 and the dead rising from death to life Luke 7.15 8.55 So some miracles were done for the cure of the body by a more manifest benefit and some for the cure of the soul by a more hidden sign but they were all for the help of mankind by the testimony of the Divine Majesty thus did the Divine Majesty then draw unto it the straying souls of mortall men Why sayst thou are not these things done now Because they would not move unlesse they were wonderfull and if they were common and usuall they were not wonderfull For bring unto me a man when he first sees the courses of day and night and the most constant order of celestiall things the 4. changes of the yeare the falling and returning of the leeves unto the trees the infinite vertue of seeds the beauty of light the varieties of colours sounds smels and tasts and if wee can but speak with him we shall find him wholly astonished and quite overcome with the sight of these miracles and yet we despise and we make and account of al these things not because they are easily known for what is more obscure then the causes of them but for that we are accustomed
frequently to see them those things are therefore most fitly done that a multitude of beleevers being gathered together and propagated by them profitable authority might be converted into customes themselves An observation S. Augustine in his first book of his Retractations and 14. Chapter alledgeth these words why sayst thou are not these things done now because they would not move unlesse they were wonderfull and if they were common and usuall they were not wonderfull and expounds them thus This I said because not so great nor all miracles are done now but not that none are also now done CHAP. XVII The Cousent of Nations beleeving in Christ ALl customes have such vertue power to winn the love and affection of men that we sooner can condemne and detest even the things that are naught and wicked in them then forsake or change them and this for the most part comes to passe when as our unlawfull appetites and deseres have gotten a dominion and predominancy over us doest not thou think that great care hath been taken about the affaires of mankinde and that they are put into a good state and condition that not only divers most learned men doe argue and contend that nothing that is earthly nothing that is fierie finally nothing that is perceptible by the corporall senses ought to be worshipped and adored for God but that he is to be prayed unto entreated and supplicated only by the understanding or intellectuall power but also that the unskilfull multitude of both sexes doth in so many and so divers nations both beleeve it and publish it that there is continency and forbearance of meates even to the most slender diet of bread and water and fastings not for one day only but also continued for divers dayes together that there is chastity even to the contempt of marriage and issue that there is patience even to the contemning of crosses and flames that there is liberality even to the distribution of patrimonies to the poore and finally so great a disesteeme and contempt of all things that are in this world that even death it self is wished and desired Few there are that do these things fewer that doe them well and prudently yet the people doe approve them hearken unto them and like them yea they love and affect them and not without some progresse of their mindes towards God and certain sparks of piety and vertue they blame and reprehend their owne weakenesse and imbecillity that they cannot doe these things This the divine Providence hath brought to passe by the predictions of the Prophets by the humanity and doctrin of Christ by the voyages of the Apostles by the contumelies crosses bloud and death of Martyrs by the laudable and excellent lives of Saints and by miracles done at convenient times in all these things worthy of so great matters and vertues When as therefore we see so great help and affistance from God and so great fruit and entrease thereby shall we make any doubt or question at all of retyring into the besome of that Church which even to the confession and acknowledgement of mankinde from the Sea Apostolike by succession of Bishops hath obtained the sovereignty and principall authority heretiks in vain barking round about it and being condemned partly by the judgement of the people themselves partly by the gravity of Councels partly also by the majesty and splendour of miracles Unto which not to graunt the chiefe place and preheminence is either indeede an extreme impiety or a very rash and a dangerous arrogancy for if there be no certain way for the minds of men to wisdome and salvation but when faith prepareth and disposeth them to reason what is it else to be ungraetfull unto the divine Majesty for his aide and assistance but to have a will to resist an authority which was gained and purchased with such labour and paines And if every art and trade though but base and easy requires a teacher or master that it may be learned and understood what greater expression can there be of rash arrogancy and pride then both to have no minde to learne the books of the divine mysteries from their interpreters and yet to have a minde to condemne the unknown CHAP. XVIII The Conclusion by way of exhortation VVHerefore if either reason or our discourse hath any wayes moved thee and if thou hast a true care of thy self as I beleeve thou hast I would have thee to hearken and give eare unto me and with a pious faith a cheerefull hope and sincere charity to addresse thy self to good Masters of Catholick Christianity and to pray unto God without ceasing and intermission by whose only goodnesse we were made and created by whose justice we are punished and chastized and by whose clemency we are freed and redeemd by which means thou shalt neither want the instructions and disputations of most learned men and those that are truly Christian nor books nor cleare and quiet thoughts whereby thou mayst easily find that which thou seekest And as for those verball and wretched men for how can I speake more mildly of them forsake them altogether who found out nothing but mischiefe and evill whilst they seek to much for the ground thereof In which question they stirre up oftentimes their hearers to enquire and search but they teach them those things when they are stirred up that it were better for them alwayes to sleep then to watch and take great pains after that manner for they drive them out of a lethargy or drowsy evill and make them frantike between which discases whereas both are most commonly mortall yet neverthelesse there is this difference that those that are sicke of a lethargy doe die without troubling or molesting others but the frautike man is dreadfull and terrible unto many and unto those especially that seek to assist him For neither is God the author of evill nor hath it ever repented him to have made any thing nor is he troubled with a storme of any commotion or stirring of the minde nor is a particle or piece of earth his kingdome he neither approves nor commands any heinous crimes or offences he never lies For these and such like things did move and trouble us when they did strongly oppose them and inveigh against them and fained this to be the doctrine of the old Testament which is a most absolute falshood and untruth Wherefore I graunt that they doe rightly blame and reprehend those things What then have I learned what thinkest thou but that when they reprove those things the Catholike doctrine is not reprehended so that the truth which I learned amongst them I hold and reteyne and that which I conceived to be false and untrue I refuse and reject but the Catholick Church hath also taught me many other things whereunto those men being pale and without bloud in their bodies both grosse and heavy in their understandings cannot aspire namely that God hath no body that no part of him