Light in you by which you might clearly and distinctly understand the Letter and truely as yet you belong to the number of the Pharisees Doctor I profess dear Son since the hour I was born I never heard from any man such hard language Layman Very good Mr. Doctor I pray where is now your Sermon See see how you are catch'd but besides though it may be my words may seem hard to you yet intruth it is so as I have said as I shall easily prove even from your self Doctor Really I would willingly see that for I cannot tell that ever I cared for that generation of Pharisees Layman In the first place Mr. Doctor give me leave to shew you how it is that the Letter killeth you you know dear Sir that as soon as ever you came to years of discretion you betook your self to the study of Books in which notwithstanding you did onely seek your self and are not at all even to this day free from that vice but truely you are though secretly in your nature proud and do much relie upon that knowledge and attribute much to that title of Doctor wherewith you were honoured neither have you in all these things purely with love and fervency of mind sought God onely Neither out of love have you any Eye to his Glory in all your studies but do too too much love and seek your self in the applause and favour of poor Creatures and that especially in one certain person towards whom you would oft steal a look and whom I fear you do inordinately love And this is the reason why the Letter killeth you That also which I said is too too true likewise Namely that you possess an empty and an unclean vessel For indeed you do not in all your actions purely and singly Love God but in many things you too well know that you seek and love your self And therefore it is true that I said that your Vessel is empty and foul with Lees from whence it cometh to pass that that good and generous Wine of Heavenly Doctrine and Divine word although in its self excellent and pure yet passing through such a Vessel doth not at all relish to a purged mind that heartily loves and bends towards God neither doth it profit at all such an one That which I said besides namely that you did as yet sit in midnight darkness is also most true which will evidently appear from hence that you cannot say that any of the Sermons or instructions proceeded from a supernatural illumination or Divine Grace but only from art and study Lastly in that I did affirm you were a Pharisee that also I prove to be no less true although I will not say that you are altogether one of those false Pharisees But tell me Reverend Sir did not those false Pharisees seek and love themselves not in all things purely aiming at the Glory of God! And now pray consider your self whether you are not before God a Pharisee and not a whit better You do not I suppose doubt that there are many living this day who in Gods esteem are no better then Pharisees yet are so more or less according to the condition of their lives and conversations When as the Layman had said these things the Doctor affectually embracing him kissed his Cheek and said you bring that passage into my mind which is not unlike to my case and the same things seem to have happend unto me which did to the woman of Samaria near the Well for you have truely laid open and told me all my most hidden and secret miscarriages but especially that that I did sometimes secretly cast a glance at a certain Person who yet notwithstanding knows nothing her self sith I never yet any way discovered to her that I loved her Neither doth any man living I am confident suspect any such thing And therefore I doubt not but this secret was revealed to you by God wherefore I do most earnestly entreat you for Christs passion sake that you would be now unto me a Spiritual Father and accept of me a miserable sinner for your Son Layman Believe it Reverend Sir if you persist thus extravagantly to talk I will stay no longer here but speedily return to my Country Doctor Nay but Son pray do not so let me entreat you to stay a while with me and I will faithfully promise you that you shall have no such Language for the future And believe it I am fully determined to endeavour to amend my Life and take a new course and to that end do earnestly desire the furtherance of your good Counsel and whatever it be that you shall advise me that by the Grace of God I will endeavour to follow and effect Layman Truely Mr. Doctor that is very necessary for you to do for knowledge of the Letter hath miserably puft up and seduced very many learned men some of them who were altogether false Pharisees even to the eternal damnation of Hell but others to a most grievous and horrible Purgatory For believe it 't is no small matter for a Man to receive from God Almighty so subtile a natural understanding and so clear a reason as by them to be able to understand clearly Divine Scripture yet so to mispend this pretious talent as not to study thereby to shape and frame his Life and Conversation according to the Scripture This ensuing Discoursâ— contains a Narration what wonderful and stupendious things God did work by this Layman and also how for this cause besides others he obtained so great Grace and Favour because God found in him an absolute resigned up humility Doct. GOod Son let me desire you to take the pains for God sake to shew me by what means you have attained to so perfect a life how you began what have been your exercises and finally by what rules you have framed your life and conversation Layman I 'le assure you Mr. Doctor your desire is altogether a simple one for certainly should I take it upon me to rehearse or write all those great things which God Almighty within these seven years hath vouchsafed to work in me a miserable finner I dare say you have not a Book of that Volumn as to be able to contain it all nevertheless I shall willingly tell you some things which at this time are most fit for you In the first place it was an exceeding mercy that God did indulge unto me even this very thing â—amely that I were endowed with a true profound and most resigned up humility For my exercises it will not much concern you to know what they were that I observed outwardly in my Body sith that the dispositions natures and complexions are so divers But this is a sure rule that whosoever doth from the bottom of his heart humbly resign up himself to God him God will lead by inward temptations and outward occurences into such exercises as he knows to be most profitable unto him and such as if he will
if compared with the Life of Christ and how as nothing his life was compared with the immence charity of Christ Great contrition and sorrow for all his sins and for all his ill spent and lost time ceazed upon him So that with his whole affection with heart and voice he said to the Lord Ah! merciful and compassionate Lord God have mercy have mercy upon me for the abiss of thy mercies sake because I am not worthy that the earth should bear me Whilest these words were in his heart and mouth being broad awake he heard with his bodily cars yet seeing nothing a voice saying unto him Now receive thy peace and put thy trust in God and take it for certain that when he lived upon earth that whatsoever sick person he cured in body the same he likewise healed in Soul Which words being ended instantly the Doctor fell into an extasie and was deprived of all rational understanding insomuch that he knew not what was done unto him where he was or whither he was snatch'd But after that he was restored to himself he found in himself in his whole nature a new and great power and vigour such as he confessed he had never in all his whole life time felt by experience before as also so clear and enlightned a discerning or illuminated reason as never was in the least known to him before that time But being amazed he wondred with himself from whence these things should so suddenly happen unto him and began to think thus with himself Certainly thou wilt never be able to clear up this matter of thy self send therefore for thy Friend to come unto thee and lay open the whole matter in order unto him And so he did The Layman being sent for readily obeyed the Doctor came to him forthwith the Doctor told him every thing in order as it happened unto him which when the Layman had beard he said How gladly even with my whole heart Sir do I hear this news I know that you have first now truly experienced the true grace of God and are now first touched in the superior powers of your mind Know also that as heretofore the Letter killed you so now the same will quicken you because all the holy Scripture proceeded and flowed from the holy Ghost Neither doubt Sir but the knowledge of the holy Scripture will for the future very much profit you now that you have been found worthy to be illuminated by the light of the holy Ghost For many things now will be made manifest to you by the Scriptures which were altogether unknown to you before For you know that the holy Scripture seemed to you and many other Theologists to be contrary to it self in many places But he who rightly knows how to look into it in the light of the holy Spirit as you hence-forward will be able to do such a one doth plainly know how that it agreeth with it self throughout Wherefore now you will begin wisely to understand Scripture and rightly to follow the true Pattern and Exempler of Truth our Lord Jesus Christ Now also you must again take upon you the care of Preaching which for some time hath been intermitted that by the Word you may edifie and instruct your Neighbours And now the time is come also that you must fetch home your Books again and fall to reading and perusing them And be certain that hereafter one Sermon of yours will be more profitable and fruitful than a hundred of your former for those that shall hear you hereafter will be profited and amended far more than they have been heretofore and that because the Word which you shall hereafter utter will flow from a clean vessel and therefore will be very grateful and acceptable to a clean mind and a lover of God Furthermore know this that as heretofore you have been by many accounted contemptible and appeared to them dispicable so now you will appear to them all an hundred times more amiable and be more acceptable than ever heretofore And now multitudes of people will begin to flock together to hear you so that it will for this cause be exceeding good for you to keep your self very humble and more carefully to watch over your self For as you know he that hath any great Treasure hath the more need carefully to guard them from Robbers And certainly those hellish Robbers the evil spirits are very much affrighted and always terrified as often as they perceive that God Almighty hath bestow'd upon any man so great a treasure And therefore be sure they will turn every stone and make use of all their strength and cunning to steal from you or rob you of this Treasure Therefore it exceedingly concerns you to keep it with all care and vigilancy But you will be able by no means better to preserve it then by a silent true and profound humility Finally as things are with you there is no more need that for the future I should converse with you as an instructer of you No verily I now exceedingly desire to be taught by you and intend here to remain so long till I have heard diverse of your Sermons And because as you have acknowledged you have felt and experienced a certain great power and such as is understood both in Nature and Grace I very much desire if the Lord permit that you would again Preach Master What advice therefore do you give me dearest Son for I have pawned several of my Books and have taken up upon them no less then thirty Crowns Layman Send some body for them and I on Gods behalf will redeem them and will give thee so many Crowns and if after you have redeemed your Books any thing shall remain you shall restore it to God so the Books were brought and redeemed After these things the Doctor caused it to be given out and spread abroad that upon the third day after he intended to Preach which when it was heard every body much wondered and because of the novelty of the thing a huge multitude of People came together The Doctor therefore when he was come and saw so many People come together got up into the Pulpit and covering his Eyes with his hood he thus prayed to himself O Mercyful God of it may be pleasing to thee grant I may so speak and do as that thy most acceptable will may be done in me Presently after he had spoken these Words 2 pang of weeping without any endeavour of his fell upon him he shed many most sweet Tears which continued so long that the People began to be weary of so tedious expectation So that one of the crowd said with a loud voyce How long I pray Sir do you intend to keep us Now it grows late and if you will not begin say so that we may rise and go home And when the Doctor himself did take notice that the time was nigh past he said again unto the Lord. Ah Merciful Lord my God if it be
age and by the Order of my Superiours followed my Studies in a certain Town I be came familiarly acquainted with two Citizens of the place They were both young men and very rich Merchants These two loved one the other entirely and managed their Trade in common they had both of them young Wises much alike who did also no less love one another And when it happened at any time that either of them went from home about business such trust and confidence had they in each other he alwayes committed his Wife his House and all his Goods to the others care It fell out that after I had been acquainted with them about a year One of their Wives came to me at a certain time and privately told me with a mournful voice and many tears That she had been of a long time an heinous sinner and that she should be no better than a fire-brand of Hell Which when she had said she shed such abundance of tears that she could not speak one word more I being moved with her tears and suffering with her in her sorrow I desired her to lay open the cause of so great a sadness promising her by Gods assistance whose mercy I told her was infinite to give her faithful Council At last she taking heart she said Ah Sir my Daughter N. is not ligitimate but begot in adultery by my Husbands Friend For when above five years ago my Husband was a great while from home his Friend upon a certain time abusing that too much confidence which you know we have in one another whilst we were familiarly conversing together fell at last in the sin of adultery with me and of him I conceived my foresaid Daughter N. Furthermore to aggravate my damnation I never made confession of this sin after this my fall but like the Traytor Judas have nine times since received with polluted heart and mouth the most Holy Body of our Lord. When I heard this I wished her if she desired right advice to tell me the naked truth whether she had more then once layn with that adulterer and also whether he knew that her Daughter N. was his or no. She answered that they had but once she thanked God committed that sin and that they had both so much repented them of it that if it could be they would give any money it were undone Neither could he possibly ever know that N. was his Daughter because she for certain reasons had alwayes kept that secret to her self I advised her therefore first that she should find out some way whereby she might safely declare the whole matter to her Husband To which she answered that she durst in no wise do that For if my Husband said she should come to the knowledge of this I am certain that he would either kill the adulterer together with me or else be killed by him and so this thing would straight be spread abroad among the vulgar Then said I if you dare not attempt this Counfel yet at least do this by all means procure that your illigitimate Daughter be placed in some Monastery and let her in no case have possession of any part of your Husbands estate together with his true Heirs to their dammage and the eternal damnation of your Souls for if she should in herit any part of your Husbands estate she would possess it unlawfully And you may tell your Husband that you have devoted that Daughter to Religion and be urgent with him to suffer you to fulfil your Vow Accordingly the woman did very oft endeavour it and I backing her tryed by many reasons to perswade her Husband but all our endeavours were in vain At last I again told her plainly that if she would deliver her own Soul she must find out some means in the sweetest manner she could possibly to declare the whole matter to her Husband that so he might not take the business so heinously as she fear'd and this before her Daughter be disposed of in marriage that so at last she might be delivered from this dangerous and troublesome remorse of Conscience But while she was â—oo long in suspence It fell out that the two Merchants by the Mediation and counsel of Friends made up a match between the ones Son and the others supposed Daughter but indeed between the Brother and Sister who being thus incestuously joyned wonderfully loved one the other When I beheld so great iniquity out of pitty suffering with these miserable People I tryed divers wayes if by any means they might be seperated the one from the other But when I saw I a sailed nothing and that the fore-named Virgin N. was with child by her Brother her Husband and being called home by the commands of my Superiours I counselled her that had committed the first Sin and Adultery that she should discover in confession her whole sorrow to one Brother N. a pious and learned man and follow his advice And so I departed But how unhappily these matters afterwards succeeded with them as that Brother wrote me word I am hardly able to express And truly all this Story is of my own knowledge Therefore how many probably may there be of Brothers and Sisters and other near kindred which I know nothing of which may in other places be joyned together in Matrimony Truly I fear that there is a certain Father which verily is not fit to be spoken of that doth commit Incest and Adultry with his own Daughter Plainly Beloved it can not be spoken how many and grievous sins have their birth and original out of Luxury and Adultry Take it for certain that Adultry is an enormous crime and very odious to God Therefore hath Hell enlarged it's mouch without bound Believe me an Adulterer or Adulteress is in a manner worse then a Thief or Robber For a Thief and a Robber do but take away a man's temporal Goods But an Adulterer or Adulteress do commit a more heinous crime by committing Adultry For God himself instituted Matrimony and therefore it is properly His and He himself doth so strongly joyn twain mutually together in all faithfulness that they are called one Body and ought not to be guilty of the least unfaithfulness one to the other since they have both vowed and promised to God that they would constantly be faithful the one to the other A Thief therefore as I said and a Robber takes away a man's Goods But an Adulterer and Adulteress incur the guilt of perjury and therefore steal that which belongeth to God and asmuch as in them is spoil and rob him For certainly sacred Wedlock is ordained of God himself that it might be his and that men in much faithfulness and sanctity might beget Children to this end that his Kingdom might be filled Hence therefore now you your selves gather whither Adultry be not far worse then Theft and Rapine when as Adulterers steal that which is Gods But Thieves Robbers only take away what is mans Wherefore Beloved
beware of Adultry because it is a grievous and enormous wickedness Truly If I would go about to lay open all the dangers and evills springing out of Adultry this whole day would hardly suffice and yet I fear I have already been to tedious I should now speak of Pride of covetous men of Soldiers their Comrades and Wives of handy crafts men and their Wives but the time doth not permit Truly I have yet many things which I shall say in their due time except I be silenced from preaching But I warn you beloved let not any one hit another in the Teeth with these things which ye have heard because I have only touched the vices of some For we are all guilty and obnoxious to sin But if there be any one here without Sin let him first cast a stone at them whom I have mentioned Believe me as things are with us at present it doth exceedingly concern us that with what speed possible we should amend our lives Otherwise except we so do there are some among you who may live till that time wherein God Almighty may permit some grievous and unusual distress and pressure to happen to men But arise now and let us pray the Lords Prayer and repeat the Angels salutation How after this Sermon the Master was forbidden by his Brethren to Preach again AFter this Sermon all the People of the City did talk much and variously of the Master some praised him some dispraised him but the greater part did commend him saying He is certainly a good man and devout towards God who fears no man but speaks the very meer truth of himself and all others But his Brethren presently after this Sermon being met together in the Chapter-Room unanimously concluded that he should be wholly silenced from Preaching and they studiously enough endeavoured to bring it about that they might send him away to another Monastery of their Order Which when the Rulers and chief men of the City found out they went to those Monks and intreated them to grant License to the Master again to Preach and likewise inquired of them what fault they found in him that they should prohibit him from preaching Who answered He hath offended our best friends and turned them from us To which the Lords said we believe that ye have no better Friends certainly in this City then we who can better take care of your affairs and be more helpful to you then we Therefore we fear that ye rather take it ill that he publickly reproved you But he reproved us also and yet we take it not ill Truly ye ought rather at any price to purchase such a man as he is who dares speak the Truth to men and as it ought to be fears not the face of any man So therefore out of respect to the Lords and for their sakes It was not only permitted to the Master to remain there but also to Preach again Afterwards the Master was intreated by the secular men to Preach again another publick Sermon to them He told them he would do as they desired if the Lord gave him leave the very next Lords day after the ninth Now that Lords day was Judica or the Passion of our Lord in Lent And when the appointed day and hour was come a very great multitude of common People came together thither also came the Master and thus began his Sermon The Masters second Sermon to the vulgar People THE Gospel for this present day Beloved is that where the Lord saith to the multitudes and to the chief Priests Who among you convinceth me of Sin If I say the Truth why do ye not believe me He that is of God heareth the Words of God For this cause ye hear not because ye are not of God This Gospel is long and because I hope most of you have heard it of your Pastors to day omitting it I do make my Discourse so much the shorter But before I begin to obtain Grace let us call upon the Mother of Mercy and all Grace saying Ave Mary c. Truly Beloved of right when as to day the Lords-day after the Lords Passion is Celebrated I ought to Preach of the Passion but I have so many things to speak of that that cannot be done at this time For it is exceeding necessary that we should be spoke to of our sins and failings Nevertheless if it may be commodiously done I have purposed upon some convenient day this week to Preach a Sermon of the venerable Sacrament who namely have right to come unto it and who not and what it is hindreth them who ought not to come Afterwards also I shall make a Sermon upon the most bitter Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ And indeed at this time Beloved I can say nothing to ye unless I do speak of the Community by their several Names and Titles Wherefore also I would have you take this advice that if any be here to whom my discourse shall not belong let not them wrest it as spoken to them neither let them judge them to whom peradventure it shall belong but give God thanks that he hath preserved them from evil But they who shall understand themselves to be guilty and whom my discourse shall note let them the more speedily repent and amend their lives For this will be exceedingly necessary for them to do This common true saying is found in almost every man's mouth when we say that Adam and Eve did exceeding wickedly whilst they followed the Devil and transgressed the Commandment of the Lord their God But if any one rightly did weigh it how many do we think would he find now a dayes entangled in more grievous sins then Adam and Eve were Certainly every rash and swaggering Soldier and his proud and lascivious Wife do commit far more and greater evils then Adam and Eve did Eve indeed followed the Devil and violated the Command of God Adam also had respect to the Woman and being willing to please her he transgressed the precept of God But presently for the violation of this one command they were both driven out of Paradise and in such a manner hath the wrath of Divine vengeance raged against them and all their posterity that from that time for the space of five thousand years it suffered none to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And in the mean while Adam and Eve were compelled so long in the Limbo of Hell to wait in expectation until that fullness of time came wherein God the Father did vouchsafe to deliver them by his only begotten Son Truly Beloved I know that Adam and Eve never neglected but this one command neither have I found in Scripture that they committed any other grievous sin If therefore Almighty God hath so severely horribly revenged upon them this one sin there is no cause certainly why these proud immodest and vain Women do discommend them for many things and accuse them of many crimes For verily be certain
on me And if it would not be too tedious to you I would tell you some things which would be not a little congruous to this place and would be profitable for you to hear it Then very many of the People altogether with one voice said Speak assuredly Sir for you shall find us patient and benevolous hearers I rehearse therefore unto you Beloved a thing that befell my self Upon a certain time I sat alone in a Cell and when I had began to think of the wonderfull things of God and how strange the state of the Church was at this time how all good order was too much neglected and went to rack In the midst of these meditations I heard a certain voice with my bodily ears speaking to me although I saw no body at all But after this manner it spake Arise now you must experience some things wherby you may be enabled so much the more certainly to speak the truth openly to your neighbours And at this last word I were deprived of all my sensual discerning and being taken into an extasie I was in that very rapture permitted to see into Purgatory where I beheld the torments of multitudes of men many of which I knew so painfull and so intolerably bitter and so immense punishments and sorrows so intense and fearfull that no reason no understanding is sufficient to express them In brief take it for certain that I beheld there so many so various and divers kinds of torments in a wonderfull manner painfull that such a terrour and trembling hath seized upon me that all the natural joyes of this life can in no wise make me merry and if I should live yet an hundred years I think I should never be merry except God should make me so by some supernatural means But I beseech you Beloved let not any be offended at this that I would relate such things as these are unto you Truly I fear that some peradventure do think that in divulging these things I seek glory to my self But let me assure you I seek or wish the praise of no man nay nor the wealth of any one for this reason for I am abundantly contented with those things which in our Monastery according to the custom of the Covent are provided for me Nay I am never without fear lest peradventure I should take that which is superfluous of those things which are set before me in our Hall And certainly I believe that there is not one here present who if he had seen and experienced those things which I have seen and experienced namely such horrible and fearfull punishments but would peradventvre have been better contented with a small provision and allowance than I am Therefore let none of you be scandalized at my words fore-spoken In good earnest I find no other cause why God would have me to see such things but because of my sins and iniquities that I might both reform my self and the more boldly speak to others the truth which I have certainly known and in no wise flatter their wickednesses and sins And hence if I were sure for this cause to be put to death I should nevertheless speak the naked and simple truth Truly I saw some in those most vehement pains and was taken with extream admiration that they should desire to remain so long in so great anguish sith some of them had departed this life many years before who whilst they lived I did believe were both good and pious and yet they did undergo in those places of Purgatory so great and ineffable punishments that no man can in this life ponder or understand them as they deserve Wherefore this I from my heart do counsel all that we slight not Purgatory but be speedily converted and seriously reform our selves Certainly if you did know how above measure valuable and profitable the present time is you would not esteem it so little nor suffer it to passe away so foolishly for truly when we are brought out of this transitory time into things future and eternal there exceeding speedy simple right and rigid judgment passeth upon those who suffer this present time foolishly to pass away But what shall I say Beloved for if I attempt to speak any thing to you of divine Justice that is so immeasurable strict and rigid that I fear some of you may take occasion of despair from hence If contrariwise I would discourse of his infinit mercy how ready he is to shew it to all in this life I fear on the other hand some would presume so upon it that they would live worse and more foolishly and so may admit of some such sin as it were to be feared God would not pardon either here or hereafter I fear truly Beloved lest I have been too tedious although many things yet remain to be spoken of divers sorts of men and divers affairs because that we have gone too far astray from the right way And in truth if I did laying aside all things else attend only the duty of Preaching for this whole year I think I could in no wise sufficiently lay open all our defects and sins But when the Lord shall order it I will further speak of this matter Arise now and say the Lords Prayer with the Angels Salutation After these things it fell out on a certain time that the Master made a journey to a certain Inclusory in which there abode five Inclusis which earnestly entreated him to preach to them a Sermon of the true and perfect secluse life To whom he said that he would willingly do what they desired if the Lord so ordered it upon the Lords day next following When therefore that Lords-day was come there came together to that place a multitude of men and the Master began his Sermon thus The following Sermon was preached upon the Lords day of Sexagesima the subject of it was this namely Why St. Paul kept in silence his Rapture into the third Heaven so many years That the Gifts of God come by afflictions or at least are confirmed by afflictions Of a twofold Self-denial one of Nature the other of the Spirit Lastly What belongs to a true Incluse I knew a man in Christ above forty years ago c. 2 Cor. 12.2 SAint Paul Beloved hath delivered unto us in his Epistles to day a wholsom and necessary instruction But because the said Epissle is too long I will not rehearse to you all of it but only part of it The Apostle therefore saith speaking of himself I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years since such a one whether in the body or out of the body I know not God knoweth taken up even into the third Heaven Here my Beloved take notice I beseech you how the holy Apostle kept in silence this his Rapture for full fourteen years together neither would he bring it forth in publick until it was permitted him so to do by God Against rash bablers of their visions He did not