the sinnes of the world give us peace Goe the wormes shall eate thee till they are poyson'd with corruption Wise men are madde Our feet slip we tumble and Lord have mercie upon us The gay flower withereth when the common grasse remaineth greene And man is the silly foole of his owne fancie God forgive him who said that he and three of his Cardinals were able to governe so many worlds if God should make them CHAP. V. HOw vaine is the Church of Rome in teaching that the Popes Throne doth so farre overlooke all other Thrones that he cannot be censured by an earthly Judge though ingulfed in the most horrible crimes that in all the extravagancies of the heart were ever committed Let him enter a Fox raigne as a Lion die like a Dog as Pope Boniface Let him commit whoredome upon Altars give Benefices to his Whores and golden Chalices consecrated to holy services which an honest Lay-man cannot touch breake open doores burne houses put out his God-fathers eyes cut off his fingers hands tongues and noses of his Cardinals not remembring what he said when he did first invest them in purple Ego te creo socium Regis I create thee to be the fellow of a King and moreover invocate the Devill and drinke to him as Pope John the twelfth Let him be a most notorious Conjurer and make himselfe over by compact body and soule to the Devill as Pope Silvester the second Let him be carried with the Whirle-winde of ambition and have poysoned sixe other Popes to hew out his owne way before him as Pope Hildebrand Yet he sits above the reach of censure he flies with the Eagle above the Thunderbolt That they may give sinewes to this doctrine they produce an Act of a Councell celebrated in Rome which saith Neque praesul summus a quoquam judicabitur Concil Rom. quoniam scriptum est non est discipulus supra Magistrum Neither shall the chiefe Bishop be judged of any because it is written the Disciple is not above his Master And that they may adde strength to this plausible falshood they bring in the reare an eminent example For when Bassus and Marinianus laid to the charge of Pope Sixtus the third that he had in the rage of his lust defiled a consecrated Virgin Maximus the Consul crie out Non licet adversus Pontificem dare sententiam It is not lawfull to give sentence against the chiefe Bishop Looke how they shuffle the matter and give it from one hand to another amongst themselves But is not this to encourage sinne to permit and flatter evill and to suffer it to grow out and openly spread it selfe when it may be easily beate downe in the blossome This doctrine hath so farre given heart to all kindes of wickednesse that if we search into every succession of Bishops scattered through the whole Christian world and examine every linke of every chaine we shall not meete in any Sea with sinnes that deserve to be called sinnes with relation to the foule enormities of Rome Are not these evill fruits of evill doctrine and yet no man almost doth name the Pope but under the sacred title of his Holinesse But though his Holinesse is not liable to reproofe a man would think his wickednesse should And how silly is the Church of Rome in teaching that although the most holy and most learned Bishops that ever lived should joyne their heads and hearts in a Councell and there using the pious helpe of holy Scriptures of other Councels and Fathers before them and of humble prayers for the powerfull assistance of the holy Ghost should with an unanimous consent decree what is to be preached the Pope notwithstanding might come in the upshot and though a most wicked and illiterate creature lawfully pronounce all the Decrees to be of no weight no effect no validity The generall Councell of Chalcedon upon sound premeditation made an absolute Decree that the Bishop of Constantinople should have equall power through all the great extent and latitude of his government with the Bishop of Rome which Canon Pope Leo and Pope Gelasius quickly rejected and the single authority of one man tooke place because our Saviour had said to Saint Peter I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not But every prayer of Luk 22. 32 Christ was granted therefore the Pope cannot erre It must here follow that either the Decrees of Councels are fallible or the Popes sentence Is it not strange that God should communicate his holy Spirit to the contempt of Councell more fully to a private person for so he is in this matter being one though a publike sinner then to the whole Church the Spouse of Christ Let the Pope claime to himselfe all power in all affaires who now can chide his ambition or give the lie to his infallibility CHAP. VI. ONe of my great admirations concerning the Church of Rome is that whereas there are many Churches yet extant of great antiquity and some wherein Christ was almost if not altogether as soone heard of as in Rome she will not consort and comply with them in things which were wholly in use amongst the Primitive Christians If she desires with a Christian desire and not with a desire onely of her owne advancement to win them why doth she not come as neere to them as it is most evident they come to the Primitive Church This way of the Bishop of Rome was never Gods way Which I will demonstrate in a plaine discourse though not plaine to the plaine that I may a little ease my reader in his journey with various objects God as he was ever God so he was ever good For the most eminent Attribute of God saith Dyonysius is goodnesse The nature of goodnesse is to spread and diffuse it selfe And every good doth spread and diffuse it selfe according to the variety and greatnesse of goodnesse which it hath And therefore God the Father being infinitely good doth infinitely spread and diffuse himselfe upon the Son And the Father and Sonne being infinitely good doe infinitely spread and diffuse themselves upon the holy Ghost And if the Father Sonne and holy Ghost doe not in any kinde spread and diffuse themselves infinitely upon the Angels and us it is because we being creatures and by course of necessary consequence finite are not capable of an infinite diffusion The Charity by which a good man loves good might be infinite if the subject could be infinite Now as in the works of nature and first diffusion of his goodnesse upon his creatures God the first cause would first worke by himselfe and himselfe bring about the most weighty matter of making all these fine things of nothing and moreover of waking nature out of her dead sleepe in the Chaos that it might appeare to us who should afterwards heare the grave and strange story of the Creation that hee was all-sufficient and could not be at a fault for want of help Yet managing the
Priesthood and chayre of Moses striking also at the Priests and high Priest he saith onely Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites The outward acts of divine service being performed in the old Law by way of shadow and figure and with resemblance and relation to the perfection of the new Law and being as it were the first lineaments of perfection we may not think that God would Levit. 11. have excluded the Swan out of the sacred number of his victimes without a firme and solid reason He was not tempted with the choyce cleannesse of her feathers nor with her fore-stalling of death and singing her owne obsequies but because her skinne the root of her feathers and her flesh and entrals the organs of her musick were black he rejected her as an uncleane creature not worthy to teach the world The Ostrich likewise was esteemed profane and never admitted into Gods holy Temple because notwithstanding all his great and glorious furniture of feathers he cannot lift his dull and drossie body above the ground The Moone shineth but because it doth not heat it is not suffered to shine by day It is the property of good to shrowd and cover it selfe God the chiefest good though he filleth heaven and earth with his glory yet he will not be seene Christ though he was perfect God and equall to his Father yet nothing was ordinarily seene in him but a poore homely man Who ever saw the soul of a man his onely jewell as he is a man Christ said to his Apostles Yee are the light of the world And againe Let your light so Math. 5. 4 Ver. 16. shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven It must be light and therefore a true light not a counterfeit and seeming light it must be your light every mans owne light it must be a light by which men may see not onely the good light it selfe but also our good works by the light and it must shine onely to the end that our heavenly Father may be glorified All light is commonly said to be derived from the Sun and the cause of all our shining must be alwayes referred and attributed to God And truly when a man for example giveth almes kindled onely with an intention that his neighbour seeing him may glorifie his Father which is in Heaven his intention is cleane and sufficiently good but he must be a man of proofe that giveth place to such intentions for he lieth wide open to the ticklings of vaine-glory and hypocrisie But I feele a scruple Good example is highly vertuous and in some sort worthy of reward especially in persons of eminent quality because good example is more seene more admired and goes with more credit and authority in them and therefore doth more edifie in respect of the high conceit wee have of their wisedome and knowledge Now the hypocrite teacheth as forcibly by example as the sound and throughly vertuous man For we learne in the great Theater of example by what wee outwardly see and the hypocrite is as outwardly faire as the sincere Christian It seemeth now that an hypocrite doth please God in playing the hypocrite Not so because his intention is crooked for he doth not intend to bring an encrease of good to others but of glory to himselfe If good by chance break in upon his action it falleth besides his intention and it belongeth to Gods providence as to it 's proper fountain which crusheth good out of evill As likewise the prodigall man when hee giveth prodigally to the poore doth not intend to fulfill the law of God but to satisfie his owne wilde lust of giving St. John Baptist was a lamp burning and shining Which moved St. Bernard to say Ardere parum lucere vanum lucere ardere perfectum It is S. Bern. in Serm de nativ S. Io. Bapt. a small thing to burne only a vaine thing to shine onely a perfect thing to both shine and burne Nothing is more naturally proper to the fire then to burne and in the instant in which it first burns it gives light Which is the cause of those golden words in Synesius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes Contra Androm It is the nature of God to do good as of the fire to heat or burne and of the light to give light CHAP. 17. ANd certainly if we search with a curious and piercing eye into the manners of men we shall quickly finde that false Prophets and Deceivers are commonly more queint more various and more polished in their tongues and publike behaviour then God's true and faithfull Messengers who conforme themselves to the simplicity of the Gospel And if we looke neere the matter God prefigured these deceitfull creatures in the creation for hee hath an admirable way of teaching even by every creature it being the property of a cruell beast called the Hyaena to faine the voyce of a man But when the silly Shepheard commeth to his call he ceases to be a man teares him presently and preys upon him Each Testament hath a most fit example Ioab said to Amasa the head of Absolons Army Art thou in health my Brother Could danger lurk under the faire name of 2 Sam. 20. 9. Brother or could death hide it selfe under health a perfection of life They could and did For Ioab making forward to kisse him killed him and robbed him both of health and life whom hee had even now saluted with Art thou in health my Brother Surely he did not think of Cain when hee call'd him Brother Judas came to Christ and saying God save thee Master Math. 26. 49. kissed him Hee talks of God and of Salvation God save thee Hee confesses Christ to be his Master Hee kisses too And yet in the same act gives him up into the busie hands of his most deadly enemies Wherefore St. Ambrose one that had a practicall knowledge of the great difference of Spirits which hee had seene in their actions disswading us from the company and conversation of these faith Impostors saith Nec S. Ambr. vos moveat quod formam praetendere videntur humanam nam etsi foris homo cernitur intus bestia fremit let it not move you that they beare outwardly the likenesse and similitude of men for without a man appeareth but within a beast rageth And that which St. Hierome saith of a quiet Sea is of the same colour with the conceit of St. Ambrose Intùs inclusum est periculum intùs est hostis S. Hier ep ad Heliodor the danger is shut up within within is the Enemy like a rock watching under a calme water St. Cyprian adviseth us to betake our selves presently to our feet and fly from them Simus ab eis tam seperati quà m sunt illi de Ecclesia profugi Let us fly as farre S. Cypr. in ep 3. lib. 1. from them as they have flowne from the purity of
continuance of the worke it pleased him to use the meane assistance of second causes as of Angels and intelligences that he might adde worth and honour to them by so great imployment So likewise in the workes of Grace and second diffusion of his goodnesse upon his creatures the great worke of enfranchizing the world by his Bloud himselfe alone would performe but in applying the merits and vertue of his Passion to the chosen vessels of honour and mercie he doth graciously call in a manner to his aide Apostles and Apostolicall men And as God being the Author of nature fals under himselfe and workes with every creature or second cause in a manner and measure agrreable to their naturall and ordinary way of working So likewise being the Author of Grace and having never yet for some great reasons best knowne to himselfe made two men with a perfect agreement either of face or nature sendeth Apostles and Preachers who have in their commands a speciall injunction of being like to him who saith I am made all things 1 Cor. 9. 22 to all men that I might by all meanes save some And God himselfe not onely in executing the generall Acts and Decrees of his Providence over his creatures but also and more especially in the more notable praxis and speciall exercise of his providence over his Church from the beginning of the world was all things to all men CHAP. VII GOD hath full power and absolute dominion over all his Creatures because he call'd yea catched them out of nothing and because to speake in the Apostles dialect in him they live move and have their being And therefore hee may lawfully give Lawes to them to the due and strict observation of which they are strongly bound under paine of his high displeasure seconded with most heavie punishment Wherefore giving a Law to the Jewes by the mediation of Moses he beginneth with an argument of his authority and dominion over them I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of Exod 20. 2. the land of Aegypt out of the house of bondage This laid for the corner-stone I thus proceed in the building In the infancie and childhood of the world when sinne was not as yet so active so quicke so cunning but dull and clownish and to foreshow the backwardnesse of nature in matters pertaining to Heaven yes to naturall knowledge and even humane society and also that it might fully and plentifully appeare to after-ages how nature is wrought and polished as in materiall things by Art so in spirituall matters by Grace The Law by which God for the most part guided man was onely borne with him was young as he was young and grew as he grew non scripta sed nata lex as the Orator saith being a Law not written and sent in a letter to us from Lycurgus Solon or Moses but borne with us or if written written onely in the soule of man where it continually remaineth in the shape of a light discovering to the view of the Soule the beauty of good and the deformity of evill For Good is faire and amiable and the cleare eye of reason beholdeth in it at the first sight a singular convenience with the will of man and a sympathy with Heaven And therefore they who were bound onely with the looser ties of the Law of nature and who now in strange Countries and in wilde and uncouth places dispense their actions by the light of reason beare a Preacher in their hearts Ill is blacke and deformed and reason in the first glance seeth a loathsomenesse a Toad in it and heareth presently as it were a jarring and disagreement with God and Heaven And therefore the drunkard the lascivious person and others of the same torne and ragged coate loath in deed not by any pious act of Christian vertue but by a deed of nature their owne beastlinesse and can by no meanes endure to be call'd what they are For as the Beast runneth the Bird flieth from danger as the one prepareth his den the other his nest as they looke abroad for daily nourishment provide carefully for their young know what will satisfie their cold of hunger what coole their heate of thirst what complyeth with their different appetites follow the leading of their admirable properties and by a secret instinct cheerefully performe the severall acts of their nature So man since he dealt with the Tree of Knowledge naturally knoweth good as opposed to evill as he naturally distinguisheth light from darknesse Againe some things are good in themselves and not good onely because God commands them to be loved and imbraced and these in the first place the light of nature sheweth to be good And some things are evill in themselves and not evill onely because markt and branded with a prohibition and these chiefely the light of nature showeth to be evill For if the light or law of nature in its owne nature did not make it cleare to Caine that he ought not to have killed his good brother Abel how did he sinne or what branch of law did he breake in killing him sinne being the violation of a law But certainly he trespassed upon that first principle of nature in morality Quod tibi non vis fieri alteri ne feceris what you would that men should not doe unto you doe not you unto them And hither Saint Paul pointeth For when the Gentiles which have not the law doe by nature the things Rom. 2. 14. contained in the law these having not the law are a law unto themselves One step more and we are in the bottome Although the the Sage Aegyptians in Damascius cried out three times in every performance of their heathenish my steries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unknowne darknesse yet by the plaine and easie search of humane power the old Philosophers found that there was a God and that he was but one in Essence that he was every where that he was omnipotent and the like though verily their knowledge both of God and his workes was rather opinion then knowledge it did so hang waver For the Philosopher opening his minde occasionally concerning the birth of the world sometimes he was and sometimes againe he was not Aristotle In one Arist l. 1. de coelo 1. Top. c. 9. booke hee judgeth absolutely that the world stood in the same state in which now it is in all eternity In another he stops like a man come unawares to a place where the way is divided and doubts which path leads to the truth In a third booke discussing the generation of living things Lib. 3. de generatione animalium c. 11. he sayes a man shall not beleeve amisse who shall take it for certaine that the first man and beast upon supposition that they came of the earth were either produced out of a Worme or an Egge and at length breaking the Egge in long handling concludes it is the most consentaneous to
be spoken not to be written because we write with more deliberation and more expence of precious Time and words are more lasting when they are written I will heare what Christ says to his Church in the Canticles Thy lipps are like a thread of Scarlet and thy speech is comely Saint Can. 4. 3. Hierome translates it Sicut vitta thy lipps are like a Fillet or Haire-lace They are compared to a thread of Scarlet for the comlinesse of the colour and therefore it followes And thy speech is comely Thomas Aquinas his lips are like Scarlet and his speech is very comely in the Exposition of this place He sais that as ordinarily women vse a Ribon or fillet in the gathering up of Thom. Aquin in Cant. 4. their haire an extravagancie of Nature So ought we to bind up our lips keep under knot the looseness of vain and idle words that loose thoughts may not gad abroade into words and lose themselves and the Speaker and then our speech will be comly CHAP. 2. GOds great last end in all his actions is himself and his own Glory For the end of the best must be the best of Ends and the best of Ends must be the best of things Our ends if conformable to his end do borrow more or lesse light perfection frō it in bending more or lesse neer to it Our chief end that is our end which all our other ends must observe and wait upon ought to be the same with his end in the World because it is the same with his in Heaven the sight and fruition of him A good end will not sanctifie a bad Action Howsoever we are call'd wee are not Religious if we set on fire the Hearts of Princes and stir them to arms that by the burning of Cities the depopulation of Countries the murdering of men women and children and by unjust intrusion upon the right of others the holy Church may encrease and multiply We are not of the society of Gods people if we devise and labour to blow up the joy and flower of a Kingdome with a powder-mine moved by a pious intention to promote the good of the Catholike Cause These pious intentions and pious frauds have play'd the very devils in the world and they are the more dangerous because they goe drest like Angels of light and are beleeved to come from Heaven The Divines teach good Doctrine when they say Bonum ex integra causa malum ex quocunque defectu Good must be compleat in it's kind and furnished with all requisites one of which being wanting the action is not compleat in morality and therefore not so good as it should be The matter of the Action must be good the manner of the performance good and the End good Which though it be extrinsecall to the Action is intrinsecall to the goodnesse of it I suppose if the matter and manner be indifferent they are good in some degree but the End crowns the goodnesse of the work for it is the most eminent of all that stirre in it Non est faciendum malum vel minimum ut eveniat bonum vel maximum The least evill is not to be done that the greatest good may follow the doing of it And it stands with good reason For the smallest evill of sinne as being laesio infinitae Majestatis the traiterous wounding of an infinite Majestie would be greater than the good which could follow And moreover committed in that kinde would cast a most foule aspersion upon God to wit that hee were either not able or not willing to bring about in it's appointed time the good he would have done but by evill performances It appeareth here that the performance of good is hard of evill easie My end is good and more then good superlatively good For it is God's end God and his Glory in the first place and in the second the good and godlinesse of my neighbours that some may cease to doe evill learne to do well others stand fast En su ser y 1 Es 16 17 puesto as the Spaniard speaks in the being position of wel-being in which God hath placed them and that all may love God and praise him and when they see or neare of this little Book may looke up to the great one above sing to him a love-song the song of the Angels that best know how to sing Glory be to God in the highest And 2 Luk. 14. as my end is good my action is not evill either in the matter or manner or circumstances because the milde relation of one truth which may be lawfully related and the zealous defence of another which may be lawfully defended and all this in a good and acceptable time CHAP. 3. BUt all is not required on my part The Reader likewise hath his task It was an old custome in the Grecian Church in a time when the current of zeale and religion ranne more pure because more nigh to the fountaine Christ Jesus that in the beginning of divine Service the Deacon appeared in the full view of the Congregation and cried aloud Sacra sacris holy things to holy things holy souls to holy services S. Chrysost Basil in Liturgiis The Reader is now upon a high service and his soule must be all Angelicall There is a certaine kinde of shell that lyeth alwayes open towards Heaven as it were looking upward and begging one fruitfull drop of dewe which being fallen it apprehends the greatnes of the purchase shuts presently and keepes the dore against all outward things till it hath made a pearle of it Every man desireth naturally in the first motion of his desire the conservation of himselfe in the second the bettering of his owne estate It is in the reading of pious Books as in the hearing of Sermons If we open our shells our soules the Heavens will drop their dewe into them the fruitfull dewe of Grace to be imployed worthily in making pearles of good works and solid vertue Here is matter of Meditation and matter of Action and they are both entirely conformable to the mixt life which is the most perfect It is the life of the Angels Abram requiring a signe of God by which he might know that hee should inherit the land of Canaan received this answer Take me an Heifer of three yeares old and a shee Goat of three yeares old and a Ram Gen. 15. 9 of three yeares old and a Turtle Dove and a young Pigeon His Sacrifice must consist of creatures that flye and creatures that onely goe upon the ground The Goers must all be of three yeares old in their full strength and vigour of Nature The Flyers were only the Turtle Dove and the young Pigeon whereof the first is a mourner the second a most harmlesse and quiet Liver As our Bookes so our lifes must be divided betwixt action and contemplation and the action must be the Action of youth and strength
in it selfe but altogether in the exercise of it selfe CHAP. 12. IT is the course of the Jesuits at St. Omers to send every yeare in the time of Harvest two missions of English Schollers into remote parts of the Christian world one to Rome in Italy And another to Valladolid or Sevil in Spaine and these places in Spaine receive their missions by turnes In all these places are English Colledges Whereof the Superiours or Governours are Jesuits the rest Schollers chalked out for secular Priests By secular Priests I understand not regular Priests neither Jesuits nor Monks nor Friurs but Priests without any farther addition whose primarie charge in their Institution by which they differ from others is to teach and instruct secular people and to reside in Benefices and be Parish Priests Here I have a notable trick to discover and I shall ever stop and stand amazed and ponder the malice of the Jesuits when I think of it Their best and most able Schollers they send alwayes to Spaine and onely their weaker vessells to Rome in their ordinarie proceedings whereof some are lame some crooked others imperfect in the naturall part of speaking The reason of it is excellent knowledge The Schollers being with them and subordinate to them in their Colledges and now far from their Country it is a great portion of their labour to win them by favours promises threats in the by and much cunning to be Jesuits and so they never leave any if all they can doe will doe withall for the Secular Priests but the leane and bony end and the refuse of them For the Jesuits and the Secular Priests are great opposites and much contrary in their opinions and the weaknes of the one wil help negatively to the strength of the other The Pope being informed of this Jesuiticall device gave a command at Rome where his power is absolute in all kindes that every Scholler the yeare of his probation being expired should bind himselfe by an oath not to enter into any order of Religion till after three yeares durance in England And then they began to set on foot the trick I told you of But if one desires admittance into a mission who by reason of some defect for example the defect of having entred into an order and returned with dislike cannot according to their rules be a Jesuit if hee comes with strong and able commendations they will send him to Rome though he be a deserving man that he and such as he may stand like a good face or a fresh colour over the device that lyeth inward They have a very godly-fac'd answer to this objection and say these imperfect creatures are as God made them and they are sent over by their poore friends to be Priests and we that weare out our bodies and lifes in the education of Youth have good reason to chuse the sounder part and they which come to us are not taken from the Church but restored to it in a more excellent manner But first according to their own Principles they are bound to goe along with the Founders intention and the Founder intended the maintenance for able men Secondly they doe not performe their obligation of Charity towards the body of the Clergie which they notably maime and disable and yet in those places they are onely Stewards for the Clergie Thirdly they doe great injurie both to their Church and their cause which suffereth oftentimes by such Martyrs of Nature and such unskilfull Defenders Some of which cannot read Latine nor yet hard English See how God worketh for us by their sins Fourthly they delude the Popes command concerning the oath and wholly frustrate his purpose and their fourth vow of obedience to his Holinesse stands for a cypher in this businesse And much more What remaineth now but that malice is predominant in the action and that they make themselves Gods and turne all to their owne ends CHAP. 13. AT St. Omers their manner is to make triall of every one that comes what nature and spirit hee is of and what progresse he hath made in learning partly by applying subtill young Lads to him which keepe him company and turne him outward and inward againe and make returne of their observations to the Jesuits and partly by their owne sifting him either in discourse or examination or in some other more laboured exercise Which triall when I had undergone an old Jesuit gray in experience and a crafty one and one whose name you have in your minde when you think Not being then Vice-provinciall of the English Jesuits look'd soberly upon me and told me of a spirituall exercise in use amongst them which would much preferre me in the service of God if I was pleased to make use of it I yeelded And the next day in the evening I was brought into a Chamber where the Curtaines were drawne and all made very dark onely a little light stole in at a corner of the window to a Table where stood pen ink and paper and order was given me by my ghostly Father a cunning man a man that did not walk in the light that I should not undraw the Curtaines or speak with any person but himselfe for certaine dayes and what the spirit of God should inspire into my heart concerning my course of life I should write there being pen ink and paper And he left a Meditation with mee the matter of which was indeed very heavenly and hee brought every day two or three more Hee visited me two or three times a day and alwayes his question was after how doe you childe and so forth What have you wrot any thing Feel you not any particular stirrings of the spirit of God And alwayes I answered plainely and truly no. Having beene kept in darknesse some dayes and alwayes left to a more serious and attentive listning after the holy Ghost and perceiving no signes of a releasement I began to suspect what the man aim'd at And I prayed heartily that my good God would be pleased to direct me Think with me Had these Meditations beene appointed meerely and precisely for the elevation of my soule to God they had beene excellent but perverted and abused to serve mens ends they were not what they were But I thought I would know farther e're long The holy man came againe and still enquired if I knew the minde of the Holy Ghost My answer was I did hope yes but I was loth because ashamed to speak it Being encouraged by him I said That in my last Meditation the spirit of God seemed to call me to the Society Hee knew the phrase and the sense of it was God moved me to be a Jesuit He presently caught up my words and told me I was a happy man and had great cause to blesse God for so high a calling with much to that purpose And when he had his end my Meditations had their end and the Curtaines were drawne and having beene enlightned from Heaven it was granted
that I should enjoy the light of the world and there was all the good man look'd for But had not the Holy Ghost spoke as he did hee would not have beene thought to speake like the Holy Ghost And now I was brought downe from my dark Cell with great joy and lightsomnesse and all the Boyes were unexpectedly sent abroad with me that afternoone to recreate their spirits and be merry with the new-borne childe Yet afterwards a performance being required of what I had promised my heart gave back For I had been counselled by some of the lesse Jesuited Schollers to goe in a mission and read farther in the practice of the Jesuits before I took their habit Which the Jesuits laboured to prevent telling me their numbers in their missions were full I stood to it and gave them no ground saying I would returne to England if I went not and so they sent mee in the mission to Valladolid in Spaine But I saw with both my eyes they were in good hope to gaine me afterwards Many are of opinion that a great cause of these great disturbances in the world is because men walk not in those vocations to which God hath called them The ordinarie vocation is when a man findes after a sit imploring of Gods help in the due examination of his heart that he can best and most proportionably to his abilities serve God in such an honest course lying within the reach and condition of his life And undoubtedly these soule wayes are so many wrestings of Gods spirit Me thinks now a man may throughly meditate every day if he please both whence hee came and whither hee goes in little England where hee may doe it freely and sweetly and where in the doing of it no man will have a plot upon Him or urge him to exact upon the Holy Ghost And lest the Jesuits should imagine wee are here altogether destitute of such helps and for the benefit of my neighbour I will set downe a Meditation in this kinde and he ownes it that desires with all his heart to serve God with all his might and by him they may guesse of others MEDITATION I. I Will fold my selfe inward and ponder seriously what and where I was some few yeares agoe what and where before my Father was borne or when hee was a childe If I lay aside an odde trifle of dayes if I take away a short course of running time No man or woman now living was alive Creeping things though they could but creepe did live and rejoyce in a comfortable being And other little creatures had wings and were able to flie readily here there and here againe and other wayes upwards and downwards And we vvho now goe vvith such a grace and look so full-eyde and build to our selves such Babels in our imaginations had no kinde of Being These Churches these Townes this Kingdome this heap of Kingdoms the vvorld vvere as vvee see them but vvee vvere not heard of not because vvee vvere a great vvay off but because vve vvere not Were not heard vvere not seene vvere no vvhere and all because vve vvere not Quae Arist lib. 4 Met. cap. 4. text 16. non sunt quomodò ambulabunt aut loquentur sayes the Philosopher The things vvhich are not how shall they vvalk or talk The very same Sunne that rises and sets for us did shine now red now pale upon the vvorld and constantly runne his dayes journey and keep the same times Such birds of the same colours did sing merrily to the same tunes and hop from branch to branch and flie from tree to tree as now they doe Beasts and Fishes in the same the very same diversity of shapes followed their severall instincts of nature The Bees made honey that differed nothing from ours but onely because it vvas not the same The vvindes blew cold and vvarme and vvarme and cold againe The Beech and Poplar the Cedar and Oke did grow upwards and downwards and every one vvas knowne by the leafe by vvhich vvee distinguish them Brooks took their courses The Sea ror'd Men and vvomen such as vve are did as vvee doe And vvee vvere nothing O vvonderfull A little vvhile before yesterday the best of us all and the most knowing knew not that there vvas a vvorld that there were Angels that there is a God that such as wee were afterwards to be because we had no knowledge no being the foundation and ground of knowledge MEDITATION II. OPretious peeces that we are we were all as it were borne of the Night and call'd from a dark Nothing And yet truly the most unworthy and most contemptible matter that is yea the Devils and Damned in Hell the lowest in the present order of Spirits are placed many steps of vvorth above nothing as being Gods creatures and bearing his colissons though branded with the foulest marks of dishonour For God is honoured even by the Being Punishments and Dishonour of the damned in which the divine Justice triumpheth But from Nothing no honour can rise to him onely that hee made something of nothing Nothing is so base that for it 's meere basenesse we cannot conceive it nor speake of it but in disgrace by denying it to be any thing which neither sense nor understanding can apprehend It hath no figure shape or colour and is no where because it is nothing It cannot be painted and though the Devill is painted under the forme of another thing yet that cannot that what nothing because it is the meere negation of a thing O cursed negation God never made thee For had God made thee thou hadst beene something And hadst thou been any thing there had beene as many things for ever with God as things had been possible by the power of God It cannot be described but by saying it is not and of nothing we cannot say it is but by adding nothing Of which now thinking or speaking or writing I think or speak or write of nothing And so we being and yet truly not truly being but being nothing God gave us the noble being we have and made us Kings and Queens of all corporal things when hee might have made us with his left hand Toads Vipers or Snakes Spiders to be alwayes watching in catching Flyes and to weave out our bowells to fill our bellies Snails to passe over all our time in creeping and in our passage from place to place to linger in the way and wait for our destruction wormes to be trod to peeces without any pitty or thought of what is done or that such a step was the death of a worme Flyes to play in the light and presently perish by day in a Cobweb by night in a candle leafes of sower grasse or fading flowers unworthy peeces of wood to be carved into any yea the vilest shape or perverted to the basest use Wee might have bin Idols or Images set up in dishonor of God which every one that loves him would not have been for all
of Hereticks very strong on foote in S. Austins time that there were two prime causes of things a faire cause of good things and a foule cause of evill things The unhappy occasion of this opinion was because they discovered many pernicious and hurtfull creatures in the great store-houses of nature which they imagined could not with honour and conveniencie be attributed in him that we call the good God of all goodnesse And Saint Austin hath left behinde him a remarkable story of a Manichee to whom when it was granted that the Flye for its troublesomenesse and continuall importunity was from the Divell he did easily bring on his argument as it were under-hand and by stealth to other creatures that had a greater substance and a more noble being Give not place to the Devill in small things But if these impious Manichees had but stood a while and rightly considered by what crooked entry hurtfull things came into the world at least with leave to be hurtfull and how all things in the visible world even now after Gods heavie curse upon the earth offer themselves to be guided to good ends and are for the most part used by Physitians in the recovering and conserving of health or if they had but examined and scanned the perfections every thing hath in respect it is honoured with a being they would have thought it no absurdity to call God in the sight of Heaven and Earth Creatorem coeli terrae the Creatour of Heaven and Earth and of all things in them God hath made one thing lesse perfect then another to the end we may more highly esteeme his better things For as contraries though enemies are wont to set out one the other and the Swan seemes whiter when the Crow is in presence so in adversity the lesser things make good the greater And if divers creatures had not wanted their due perfections many long stories of great Miracles had beene cut off and the ignorant world had not knowne that it was hee who made nature by whose power she was restored And perfect men should not have had such open admonishment to reflect upon their owne talents and to praise God for his singular benefits to them If no man had ever beene blinde who would thanke God above an easie and ordinary manner for his eyes the windowes of his soule and if none were deformed who would praise beauty And howsoever Aristotle to bring in the phrase calleth monsters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sinnes of nature God was 2. Phys text 82. willing that nature should erre sometimes in the right stroke and looking to his end seemed to erre with nature in the worke And never was any famous picture but the same end was intended by the Painter in the pencilling For monsters doe serve in this great picture of the world like shadowes in pictures to give the eye a fairer view of the fairer colours The darknesse of the night though it hath none in it selfe yet gives a great lustre to the day And Summer is more esteemed because it was usher'd into the world by a wither'd and shaking Winter By which it is manifest that not onely these things passe with change to avoide tediousnesse which hapneth even in the highest ranke of things if they be earthly but also that the meaner sort by onely shewing themselves upon the stage helpe much to the value and estimation of the better O thou delightfull change and vicissitude my thoughts must needs change to praise thee Albeit he made thee who is unchangeable yet he well knew thou wouldest shew well in the world though not in him I will no more to every kinde of change give that foule name Inconstancie I see now that ordered changes are to be desired But in imitation of thee I must change againe It is more certaine then that which is certaine or certainty it selfe that he made all things who moved the three children in Daniel as well to invite Dan. 3. in Apocryph to the praise of God heate fire they being then in the fire cold frost lightning clouds night and darknesse as other creatures though oftētimes they bring in their traine danger and sometimes hurt with them which objection Saint Austin bendeth S. Aug. lib. de natura boni c. 6. against the Manichees For all creatures by waving towards the end for which God made them praise God The Sunne runnes apace to doe his will Let it goe that many things were not fashioned in the first Creation which after the quality of the earth was altered by the curse were seene to appeare in strange and antick shapes being indeed the children of the curse not of the earth as thornes and brambles which come against us with their pikes in so great a number and most commonly without helpe of tillage or other husbandry or any call or signe from us that a Rose cannot grow but secretly armed with thornes even in the place where it is to be plucked And for living creatures given up to mans use they turne head against man because Adam bore armes against God for whom he was made And by this foule cranny came all the scattered troops of crosses into the world and all hurtfull creatures which were more hurtfull to the Manichees then all other people as being cause of their errour For the Jewes have an ancient tradition that Adam before his fall being seated on an eminent place in Paradise other living creatures passed by him in a decent order and bowed their humble heads in signe of honour and duty at which time hee gave them all names some thinke conformable to their natures Moses singeth of God his Deut. 32. 4. Psal 104. 24. worke is perfect and David playeth to the song O Lord how manifold are thy workes in wisedome hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches Consideration 6. GOD as he is infinite in himselfe so he doth certainely steere all his actions to an infinite end which cannot be any thing but himselfe All flouds wander out of the Sea and finding they have lost their way runne hastily another way to finde the Sea These subject creatures are given us to stand in divers places and take us by the hand and so deliver us from hand to hand till at last they leade us to God and put us safe into his hands and to serve us upon supposition that we serve God and therefore I not serving God am a Thiefe and a robber if I take them in my wants to relieve me Since all bread is the bread of children I not being a child cannot use it but I must abuse it And a true lover of God doth not converse and deale with more creatures then will bring him with just conveniencie to his end nor with any but in a measure proportionable to his end And such a one was Saint Austin after hee had beene the space of nine yeares a Manichean S. Aug. l. 10 Confes c.
bee not so rough wipe it off gently remember thy Creation and part of it perhaps was once part of as tall a body as thine owne And for my soule it was made of nothing and if God should step aside and forsake it one posting minute of time it would presently give backe and fall to nothing and nothing can be so vile as nothing Conservatio say the Philosophers est continuata generatio Conservation is a continued generation and therefore where the continuance of generation is interrupted conservation ceaseth The fire in the furnace did not burne the three children because God as he is the worker of miracles ascending as it were above himselfe as he is the Author of Nature denyed the continuance of generation to the power of burning in the fire and so the conservation of it ceasing it perished for a time but the three children being removed God quickly remembred that he was the Authour of Nature and the fire burnt againe And here was another miracle For God having suspended his concourse and held it from that part of the fire where the children walked doubled it above Nature upon that part of the fire which destroyed the Persecutors which now was elevated above the ordinary condition of fire And thus it is evident that my soule now something once nothing hath offended the best thing in the worst manner upon which it and all things hang both in being and operations and by which onely it is the hopefull thing it is as if some good and mercifull man should hold me up from being swallowed into a gulfe or a deepe Well and in the meane time I should enrage him with foule words and stab at him It is part of the first massage which God sent by Moses to the children of Israel I AM hath sent me unto you He Exod 3. 14. cals himselfe I AM because he onely is ens per se subsistens a thing subsistent by himselfe he is the fountaine of all kindes of being he onely stands without a prop. And I AM is Gods most ancient name because Being is the first thing conceiveable in him And I AM had best authority to send because his power cannot be derivative or ministeriall I AM could not be deputed as a Delegate to the office of sending The quality of the injury is alwaies proportion'd to the quality of the person injured and alwayes measured by it with reference to the condition of him who offers the injury It was said long agoe by Aristotle injuria crescit ex indignitate personae Arist lib. 5. Ethic. c. 5. illam inferentis the injury is more great when it is offered by an inferiour person And I a person of no account have injured most highly three most high persons what high persons the three greatest highest persons in one God whereof all are so great that all being most great one is not greater then the other Lord helpe me CHAP. XIII BUt how have I injured God by sin the onely meanes by which he can be injured Now to aske what a kind of thing sinne is is to pose all kindes of learning Logick from which we require the nature of a thing by a definition confesses that she is altogether ignorant how to define it Divinity stands amaz'd and is troubled at the sight of she knowes not what breaking within her holy bounds it is so blacke so deformed such a monster as being halfe something and halfe nothing and wanting due parts not to it selfe but to a good thing and being imperfect beneath all comparison It is no easie taske exactly to tell what is darknesse blindnesse lamenesse sicknesse death But to tell what sinne is is so hard how hard so hard that it cannot be done For as the worthinesse of God cannot be sufficiently expressed for its singular prerogative of excellence so neither sinne by reason of its particular unworthinesse It hath a title or a short description rather and that is malum infinitum It is an infinite evill because extreamly opposite to an infinite good 'T is a thing not a thing which God who is omnipotent and made all things we ever saw and a great deale more and who is able to make more perfect creatures then we have yet seene yea then the Angels cannot with all his heavenly power be the cause of For although impotencie which includeth weaknesse may not touch him that is omnipotent yet some things God cannot doe either because he followes the ordinary law to which he hath obliged himselfe from all eternity or because he is tyed by a Decree or by a promise or because himselfe hath necessarily bound himselfe to himselfe to doe nothing contrary to the perfection of his Attributes and the commission of evill would be most contrary to the perfection of his goodnesse Nam quid saith Saint Ambrose impossibile est Deo non S. Ambro. annot in c. 23. Num. quod virtuti arduum sed quod naturae ejus contrarium Impossibile istud non infirmitatis est sed virtutis majestatis What is impossible to God not that which is simply hard with relation to his power but that which is contrary to his nature This impossibility is not an argument of his weaknesse but of his most perfect power and most high Majesty Mali nulla natura est saith Saint Austin disputing against the Manichees The evill of sinne hath no S. Aug. lib. 11. de civit Dei cap. 9. nature for had it had a nature God had made it Sinne is a mischiefe so malitiously grievous and so grievously malitious that no man not the greatest Doctor that ever flourished in the Church of Christ that no Angell no not the greatest Seraphin of them all notwithstanding all their deepe and searching knowledge sufficiently ever knew the malice and grievousnesse of one sinne And yet I desperately commit many sins and many sorts of sinnes every day O good Lord what doe I when I sinne God onely knowes how venemous a thing sinne is And the reason is as plain as the doctrine is strange God onely knowes knowes perfectly his owne infinite goodnesse and therefore God onely perfectly knowes all extreme opposition to his owne infinite goodnesse For how can we or any power under God made or possible to be made exactly know the nature of a contrary as contrary or that we call the nature of it when wee cannot fully graspe the perfection of that to which the contrary is contrary But sinne is only and wholly contrary to God and in the first place to his infinite goodnesse and that which is contrary to all an infinite must be infinitely contrary to it Hence it is not deduced but runs of it selfe that all Gods Attributes of which every one is all his Essence his Goodnesse Wisedome Providence Mercie Justice Power Purity Infinity Immensity Eternity and all are exceedingly struck at in every sinne Struck at struck beaten buffeted so that no little part as I may say of the
divine Majesty is left unwounded unmaimed unbruised And as all the perfections of goodnesse and honour which are and are found in creatures by creatures as foot-steps of the Creatour are also originally and therefore most perfectly and therefore most eminently and infinitely in God So mark this my soule because sinne is Gods onely enemy and because there is a combination of evill the onely contrary to all kindes of goodnesse linked together in themselves because joyned together in God one sinne containeth and comprehendeth all kindes of filthinesse all kindes of deformity the filthinesse and deformity of all other sins Which is one of the reasons why it is said in Saint James Whosoever shall keepe the James 2. 10. whole Law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all Another cause is The sinner which breakes charity with God and offends him in one point the way being now open and the reasons why he ought not to offend God violated is ready of himselfe to offend him in another and in all and will if power or occasions be not wanting For he can never give a good reason either taken from something in God or from something concerning himselfe why he should offend God in one point and not in another because he can never give a good reason why he should offend him at all and every offence of God is most contrary to reason Sinne is the chiefest evill or rather all evill and therefore so contrary to God the chiefest good or rather all good that although it is permitted because directed to a good end by his Providence yet neither can it be so much as fathered by his Omnipotence nor suffered by his Justice nor yet approved by his wisedome And is it not a most wicked businesse to commit an act of that foule quality that Gods Providence must presently to worke and turn it to Good or he lies open to a reproach for having suffered evill and there must be that which wee name a thing in the world and God the Creator of all things must not be the cause of it nor have any hand in it and God must be forced to strike with his justice as if he delighted in our destruction And if he will know all and be God he must be compell'd to looke upon that which his wisedome cannot like because it hath no being in him as it is the folly of sinne nor any connexion with his wisdome I am certain I thinke not of all this when I sinne Sinne is the destruction of Grace I have said enough And Thomas Aquinas disputing Tho. Aqui. 1. 2. q. 113. art 9. ad 2. of the difference betwixt the justification of a sinner and the creation of the world in the worth of the Act saith Bonum gratiae unius majus est quam bonum naturae totius universi the good of grace in one man though not raised above one degree is a greater good then all the good of nature pertaining to the world then the Sunne Moone Starres Earth Sea then any thing I ever saw or naturally can see then the soule of man with Gods Image in it though of so pure a substance that it cannot bee seene And Grace in the soule may be fitly compared to the light of the Sunne in the world For as there are degrees and differences of this outward light suiting with the time of the day So there is the light of Nature that is of Reason in us the light of Learning the light of Experience the light of Grace This faire light of the Sunne the light of Grace we in the meane time crucifying and killing Christ is all darkened with sinne as the Sunne it selfe was darkened when Christ hung dying upon the Crosse Sinne is the Consumption of goodnesse the death of the soule mans beter part and that by which he resembles his Creatour and is allied to God One evill thought is a secret conspiracie against God and all the triumphant Court of Heaven By every bad word wee scornefully spet in our Saviours face And with every ill action we buffet him This to speake the best of it is Jewish cruelty What a Christian turn'd Jew Now my eyes shut your selves unworthy to behold Gods good light or his Creatures by it whose Maker I have abused and strived to disenthrone though all Creatures and my selfe should have fallen with him With sorrow of heart I will open my owne sinnes before him whether open or secret which must be the more grievous because I was ashamed to act them before men The desperation of Cain shal not come neere me Mentiris Caine saith Saint Austin major est Dei S. Aug. in Gen. 4. super major est iniquitas mea pietas quam omnis iniquitas Caine thou liest Gods mercie is greater then all sin CHAP. XIIII BUt doe not mine eyes runne all this while have not teares opened them True teares of repentance as Chrysologus Chrysol speaketh extinguunt gehennam put out and extinguish Hell-fire which all good men preach to be unquenchable Wee see that when darke clouds cover the Heavens they seeme as it were possessed with horrour and sadnes yet the winde hath no sooner beate upon them shakē them into little drops of Psal 126. 5. rain but the Heavens begin to grow cleare and by little and little to look with a most pleasant face upon the world For they that sow in teares shall reape in joy Because the seed-time was wet and troublesome it shall be faire weather and Sun-shine all the harvest The shedding of teares from the eyes of a true Penitent is a spirituall Baptisme by which the soule is renewed in Christ and when will the Sunne shine if not after so sweet a shower Could I behold such a sweet shower falling from another I hope I should learne to drop my Luke 7. 5. 37. 38. selfe Saint Luke hath an eminent example And behold Behold a watch-word some great matter the Scripture hath to say And behold a Woman in the City A Woman what Woman why she the woman so much talkt of the Sinner A Woman in the City which was a sinner she desires not to be knowne or call'd by any other name but sinner And if you call sinner where are you She is quick of hearing on that part and she knowes you meane her and is ready to answer that 's my name here I come And what with her now she is come Why this Woman the sinner when shee knew that Jesus sat at meate in the Pharisees house brought an Alablaster Box of oyntment Now take a view of her behaviour And stood at his feete She durst not looke higher then his feete and lower she could not looke and she was willing to be trod upon if he pleased Behinde him She did not thinke her selfe worthy that he should look upon her or that she so wretched a sinner and yet not a sinner but the sinner should behold his blessed face
death the grave Ecclesiasticus 28. 21. were better then it The words will beare another sense utilis potius infernus quam illa Hell were more profitable then it And this is proved as easily as written or spokē For the evils of punishment bereave us only of limited and finite goods as sicknesse depriveth us of health death of life But sinne depriveth us of God the onely Good that is infinite And the privation is alwayes by so much the more grievous by how much the good is more good of which we are deprived The evils of punishment come from God flow naturally from him as from their true source cause Go aske the Prophet Amos he will say as much Amos 3. 6. Shall there be evill in a City and the Lord hath not done it God hath nothing to doe with sinne but foure wayes in all which he stands off and comes not neere it In the hindrance in the sufferance in turning it to good ends and in appointing the punishment And all the evils of punishment which God ever heaped upon man on earth and in Hell or is able to heape are not fit punishment my drift is not equall to the mischiefe of one sinne though the Papists thinke otherwise of their veniall sinnes God alwayes punishing under the desert of sinne as he alwayes rewards above vertue as being more prone to the acts of mercie then of justice And neither all Gods Creatures nor God himselfe be it spoken with due reverence and respect to his omnipotencie can shower downe so great evils upon man as he daily pulleth upon himselfe For they can onely sting his body with the evils of punishment he staineth his owne soule with the evill of sin And therefore Saint Chrysostomes Paradox out of which he hath dreined a most learned Homily is not a Paradox Nemo laeditur nisi a seipso No man is hurt but by himselfe For it is plaine that matters of punishment may be turned to vertue which doth not hurt but alwayes from sinne comes dammage and hurt because more is lost then gain'd though all the world bee gain'd it being sure that by sinne God is lost and cannot be gain'd Sinne to speak gently is the sleepe of the soule For as he that sleepeth feares oftentimes what is not to be feared As to be drowned in deepe waters to fall from the top of a high rock into the Sea to be devoured by a Beare or a Lion or some such vaine thing of which he dreames but the Thiefe who comes now in earnest to cut his throat he feares not So the sinner feares some few shadowes of danger but not the sinne that kils him O foolish Horse that starts at the shadow of a tree and when the Drums and Trumpets sound runs gladly among the Pikes thrusting himselfe upon true danger And as he that sleepeth beleeves oftentimes that he is in full possession of that which hee hath not He dreames of gold and of a Palace and in the act the cobwebs of his poore Cottage drop upon his face and wake him The sinner being in danger dreames of safety and wakes environed with danger And lastly as he that sleepeth performes oftentimes the worke of a waking man but imperfectly He speakes but brokenly and with little sense He rises and walkes but seldome without a fall So the habits of vertues being destroyed in a sinner have left a warmth and facility behinde them which seeme vertuous when they are not and therefore delude exceedingly both the person and all the witnesses of his carriage And such a person is more dangerously sicke then the Hypocrite who knoweth his errour or may be soone convinced of it by the light of nature Phoenix in Homer under whose government Achilles was brought up to that great height and perfection of knowledge was directed by the rules of naturall prudence to be two Masters to him For the Poet describes him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a director not onely of his words but of his deeds also But he that is warmed with such a heate when the fire is gone beleeves that he is hot rejoyceth in it and little thinkes what kinde of warmth it is wherewith he is heated From these promises I gather what I had lost I had lost the princely robe of justice the rich garment of needle-worke wherewith the Kings daughter was adorned after the losse of which my soule was not the Kings daughter I had lost the name dignity and credit of Gods good childe the speciall providence and protection with which he shrouds as a Hen her Chickens covers and spreads himselfe over the just O t is warme being under his wings and all the more speciall helpes which imparting to them he denies to sinners I had lost I had lost faith and except hope all infused vertues which are the strength veines and sinewes of the soule by which she is enabled to doe well and orderly in order to salvation and which are as it were the faire pearles with which she is beautified I had lost O I had lost the most unvaluable benefit of Christs merits Christ could not say then to his Father of me Father give him me I have bought him I had lost God and therefore was robbed of all good He that is every where was gone from me He was out of my reach out of my call and hee would not heare me but called by earnest repentance a hard taske and not possibly to bee compassed without his powerfull assistance that was farre from me And which is the top of admiration I had lost my selfe and could by no meanes learne whither I was gone Had I gone out into the streets and asked all passengers if any good man or woman could tell where I was Had I said neighbour pray have you found me I am lost Whatsoever my neighbours had said all sound Christians would have answered that I was lost and so lost that I could never be found but by an infinite power and that for their parts they knew not where I was Indeed I neither know nor shall ever know fully what I had lost Go now all Merchants and Tradesmen henceforth hold your peace speak no more of your losses by Sea or Land I had lost more thou Land and Sea themselves And having lost all good I staid not there but also was over-whelmed with all evill It is a great evill of disgrace to be the childe of a wicked man or willing to serve him Sin had made me the childe of the Devill and more subject then a childe a slave to him and sinne And therefore Christ said to sinners Yee are of your Father the Devill He said likewise Verily verily I say unto you whosoever committeth sinne is the servant of sinne Sin then being all over evill and all the evill that is and I having committed sinne and so being the willing servant of sinne what a strange kinde of evill was I that served so great an evill when
forward but about the City she cannot avoid distraction nor multiplicity of businesse and the Bridegroome will either be neglected or not worthily regarded And so it fell out For she went about the City in the streets where shee met all sorts of idle company a rabble of Night-walkers and some with whom the Communion not of Saints but of sinnes had made her acquainted And now shee was full of businesse and he whom she sayes her soule loveth was forgot And shee sought him in the broad way The way to Hell and perdition is a broad way Shee sought the King of Heaven in the way to Hell And therefore shee found him not And yet she was very forward in the first onset I will rise now She had not made her own the two lessons which are ever coupled together Depart from evill and doe good But Psal 34. 14 Vers 3. what hapned The Watchmen that goe about the Citie found me to whom I said Saw yee him whom my soule loveth Is it so pretty one you that rose up now and thought to watch out the night are you took your selfe by the Kings Watchmen for a straggler for a haunter of the streets and the broad wayes It will be question'd now whether you be honest or no both of your body and your hands The watchmen will tell you having met you at such a time that you doe not look honestly that your sin is plainly written in your forehead This affliction I hope will sift and winnow you You cannot bring the Watchmen within the circle of your fault It is their office to go about the City and to surprize such as you are Resolve them now and with sound reason whence you came and whither you would The poore lost thing hath griefe enough and her afflictions have made her bold She will not be question'd For before the Watchmen can open their mouths and speake to her she is wondrous busie in the examination of them Saw yee him whom my soule loveth And now she makes it plaine that her soule loves him She goes the right way to finde him She sues for direction to her beloveds Watchmen Doe yee heare you Watchmen nay pray let me speake first my late wandring is warrantable I goe in quest of him whom my soule loveth and my love cannot sleepe Speake one of you Did yee see him whom my soule loveth Were my love towards him all tongue or all face I could forbeare his company But because it is he whom my soule loveth while I have a soule I cannot be without him But did yee see him I am in great haste pray tell me While the Watchmen were getting up out of the deepe amazement into which shee had struck them like an unwonted apparition by night She steps aside in a heate And so I come to the rest I would sing to my soule It was but a little that I passed from them but I found him whom my soule loveth I held him and would not let him goe As soone as ever I had passed beyond them presently after I had untwisted my selfe of company And what then Let all the world heare and rejoyce with me I found whom my soule loveth O deare Lord have I found thee Where hast thou beene this many a day I have beene seeking thee by night and upon my bed and about the City and in the streetes and in the broad wayes and I could not finde thee And I have beene found my selfe and tooke by thy officers they are not farre hence and had not my tongue beene very quick and ready and my wit good and my cause better I had beene sent to prison and laid fast enough But I presently tooke them off from all their authority and us'd thy name and said Saw yee him whom my soule loveth But thou hast not yet told me where thou hast beene Indeed I was halfe afraid I had quite lost thee I beleeve I doe I doe that had'st not thou sought me more then I sought thee wee had never met againe And thou didst help me to seeke thee but I could not helpe thee to seeke me as I could not helpe thee to make me For I was lost my selfe not only in my selfe but also in my understanding and I knew not what directions to give for the finding of my selfe because I knew not where I was But since I have extracted from particulars by the Chymistry of experience what a bottomlesse misery it is to be lost from thee and what a solitary labour it is to seeke thee now I have found thee I will hold thee with my heart and with both my hands and armes and I will not let thee goe The soule being now close in the armes of her Beloved must exercise her spirituall acts in a more perfect manner Let me kisse that middle wound that hath foure lesser wounds to waite upon it O those blessed Quires of Angels they sing marvellously well But when they have sung over all their songs no musicke is like to Davids Harp the old instrument of ten strings to wit the keeping of the ten Commandements by the which Gods holy will is performed This All-seeing providence that all over-flowing goodnesse that immensity this infinity Lord Lord whither goe I I am quite swallowed up No tongue can speake it Doe what pleaseth thee O most good and most great whose greatnesse doth most shine in goodnesse O God who can sadome thy eternity And now I cannot hold up my eyes I must needs fall fast asleepe CHAP. XVIII I Know what will happen to many of my Readers What I have wrote will put nature to the start and a little fright the soule And therefore it will worke in them awhile though at length weakly and remissely But other passages pressing upon them passages of mirth of businesse it will grow colder and colder in them weare away and after awhile be quite forgot the Devill hammering out by little and little a golden wedge with one of a base metall If the seed hath not fell upon good ground thus it will be with them And then let them thinke of me and remember that I foretold them what would happen Aethiops in balneum niger intrat saith Saint Gregory niger egreditur The Aethiopian goes blacke into the Bath and comes again blacke out of it The Prophet David hath a divine expression If he turne not he will Psal 7. 12. whet his sword meaning God hee hath bent his bowe and made it ready Whom doe we strike with a sword him that is nigh us Whom shoote with a bow one a farre off Who is nigh God the old man For by the course of nature hee is neare death Who seemes to be farre off the young man but God can reach him with his bow Lord helpe us We are farre gone We cannot learne that which God taught from the beginning of the world And when people began to multiply taught every day and houre And that which he most
which with your leave I borrow of you and turne upon you againe But whereas you conclude all with which he prayes day and night that loves you night and day it had beene a truth of truths if it had run thus which he prayes day and night that loves night more then day And thus a sleight worke I have answered with a worke of as loose a composure CHAP. XX. IN the first Chapter of Genesis where the Vers 2. Latins turne it Spiritus Domini ferebatur super aquas the Spirit of God was carried upon the waters the word in the Originall doth signifie as Saint Hierome observeth S. Hierom. quaest Hebr. incubabat sat brooding And I most heartily pray that the Spirit of God may still sit brooding upon my heart and bring forth the plentifull fruits of a true reformation And because I am a sinner let the Angels sing hymnes and praises in my behalfe to him as Saint Gregory Nazianzen S. Greg. Nazian in hymnis deliciously singeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by whom are Hymnes by whom are praises by whom are the Quires of the Angels And let every one that is a true lover of God that is sound at heart give out from the inwards of his heart and soule with an Eccho Amen And keepe safe in his minde that golden saying of a sober Councell Multa enim bona facit Concil 2. Arausic c. 20 in bomine sine homine Deus sed nihil boni facit homo quod non faciat Deus ut faciat homo Many good things God workes in man without man But man doth no good thing which God is not the cause that man is the cause of Let us ponder alwayes that in all the Psalmes used in divine service still the burden of the song is Glory be the Father and to the Sonne and to the holy Ghost As it was in the beginning And why As it was in the beginning Because the Church acknowledging her extreme want of sufficiencie to glorifie God according to the just exigence of his greatnesse or to adde the smallest point to his perfection desireth to give him the glory which he had in the beginning before the world declaring that she is so farre contented and pleased with him and it that if he were now deprived of it and it were in her gift she would restore it againe to him as to the most worthy which is in a manner to give it him And let us all imitate the Prophet David Ps 115. 1. who cryeth Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy name give glory Pray marke his carriage He thrusteth glory from himselfe and creatures Not unto us O Lord. And as if it did not yet stand farre enough thrusting it with the other hand he saith Not unto us And then with both hands thrusting it home to the right owner he speakes home but unto thy name give glory That glory may be well and fully given to God God must give it to himselfe And the same holy Prophet who spake as he liv'd after Gods owne heart stirring us up with all his art and his heart to praise God in all sorts of instruments that the Quire might be full and as if the straine were not yet high enough in the end as it were falling down for want of breath with the Nightingale after the long varying of her delicate notes sends forth in a faint but a forced manner his last words Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. As if he should have added For I have none I am out of breath And so being spent himselfe he laid the charge upon others And therefore Praise ye the Lord. Psal 107. vers 8 9 10. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse and for his wonderfull workes to the children of men For he satisfieth the longing soule and filleth the hungry soule with goodnesse Such as sit in darknesse and in the shadow of death To God be the glory of this worke not to the Virgin Mary or any other Saint FINIS I humbly desire all clean-hearted and right-spirited people who shall reade this Book which because the Presse was oppressed seemed to have beene suppressed when it was by little and little Impressed but now at last hath pressed through the Presse into publike first to restore it by correcting these Errata Which if I had beene alwayes at hand to prevent I should have more erred in businesses of more present importance Errata quae legenti dicam an currenti occurebant PAge 10. line 2. dele in p. 23. l. 24. d. it p. 30. l. 27. read contemnes and condemnes p. 57. l. 7. r. two p. 62. in marg r. Psal 128. 3. p. 63 l. 15. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 63. l. 16. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 65. in marg r. Rom. 1. 22. p. 68. l. 24. r. in a combate p. 78. in marg dele 32. p. 81. l. 1. r. selfe p. 89. in marg r. agentem p. 120. l. 24. 25. r. quasi existimemus nihil accidere p. 126. l. 7. r. Lord Jesus p. 145. l. 9. r. cast it p. 148. l. 24. r. all so p. 1. l. ult r. more set out p. 2. l. 9. r. are more p. 4. l. 19. r. a treason p. 8. l. 1. 5. d. the p. 17. l. ult r. it 's hold p. 22. l. 4. r. ingreditur p. 28. in marg r. S. Aug. in Medit. p. 31. l. 8. r. a meere lie p. 36. l. 7. r. voide of p. 37. l. 27. and 28. r. beholds p. 39. l. 27. r. with one p. 44. l. ult r. seeing being p. 47. l. penult r. we learn p. 49. l. 28. r. to him p. 50. l. 15. r. to him p. 51. l. 21. r. in a diversity p 53. in marg r. c. 16. p. 57. l. 5. r. coccineas p. 62. l. 6. r. S. Justine p. 64 l. 2. r. receive receive p. 68. in marg r. de part Animal c. 5. p. 69. in marg r. c. 2. p. 69. l. penult r Disciplinantes p. 70. l. 18. r. And also the Priers p. 71. l. 27. r. gifts p. 76. l. 17. r. take them p. 82. l. 26. r. even the rich p. 88. l. 9. r. talking to p. 96. l. 6. r. Crow p. 112. l. 19. r. before now p. 117. l. 16. r. of God p. 118. l. 2. c. pertinent ad finem regulae sequentis p. 119. l 21 r. locks p. 124. l 6. d. it p. 124. l. ult r. Church p. 128. l 22. r. reserve p. 129 l. 21. r. me p. 131. l. 16. Haec historia quae inâ—â—pir And yet pars est sequentis paginae l. 26. locum petit p. 131 l. 24. r. being p. 135. l 13. r priviledged p. 135. l. 19. r. stain p. 136. l. penult r. you lived p. 138. l. 22. Bcause c. ad finem l 23. insert debent in sequentem paginam post l. 9. p. 140. l. 18. r. every p. 143. l. 8. r. the fingers p. 144. l. 7. r. cried p. 145. l. ult r. counsel p. 158. in fine marg r ad Graecos p. 160. l. 28. d. and p. 165. l. 9. r. himselfe came p 169. l. 19. r. is given p. 169. l. 26. r. into p 173. l 8. r. safe at my p. sequente l. 5. r. These are p. 174. l. 9. r. Cicatrice p. 177. l. ult r. feet p 188. in marg r. Plin lib. 2. p. 189. l. 18. r. had read them p. 190. l. 4. r. Bruxellis p. 191. l. 20. r. and cast p. 205. l. 27. r. your owne throate p. 208. l. 4. r. his owne p. 210. l. 21. d. Church p. 210. l. 27. r. Arethusius p. 215. l. 13. r. percutit p. 215. l. 27. r. bodies p. 218. in marg r. S. Aug. in Psal p 226 l. 3. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 230. l. 12. r. similiter p. 233. l. 3. r. dixerit flexis genibus p. 235. l. 13. d. much p. 236 l. ult r. lingua p. 251 l 3 r. ground Repentance p. 257 l. 16 d. to p. 258 l 14 r wormes p 259 in marg d 5 p 268 l 25 r strike us p 271 in marg post Luke 7 d 5 p. 272 l 1 r here l p 274 l. 24 r selfe I doe p. 275 l 2 d. will p 279 l 21 r They p 288 l 1 r Christiane p 289 l 14 r is not p 291 l 1 r workes p. 296 l 13 r onely p. 299. l. 17. d. because p. 301. l. 4. r. her p 317 l 13 r weepe