before of vs the power and force of the cause is knowne by the effects and work and by the power force the Essence is knowne What maner of power shall it be from whence so great a worke proceeded and if this power be such and so great what an one and howe incomprehensible is that Essence which is knowne by that power This contemplation without all doubt doth farre exceed all humane reach In this we must further consider that all these excellent and great workes not onely as they are but as they might haue beene are as though they were not in the viewe of that diuine power yea after an infinite manner they are lesser for that is infinitely greater to which this power doth extend it selfe Who then will not be astonished considering of the greatnes of such an Essence and of such a power which although a man cannot see with his externall eyes yet he may make a most certaine coniecture and gather of the foresaid reason how great it is how incomprehensible This wonderfull immensitie of God that great Schooleman Thomas Aquinas doth show in his Breuiarie of Diuinitie by this example We see sayth he in things corporall that by how much any thing is more excellent by so much also it is greater in quantitie for we see that the element of the water is greater then the earth and the ayre greater then the water and the fire then the ayre furthermore the first or lowest heauen is greater then the element of fire the second heauen greater thē the first and the third then the second and after the same manner by ascending euen to the tenth Spheare yea euen to that heauen which is aboue all the Spheares whose greatnes is incomparable That any one may plainly see if he haue any consideration how little the Globe and roundnes of the earth and water be if they be compared with the heauens The Astrologers also say that the whole circumference of the earth and water are but as a pricke or a poynt in comparison of heauen which they proue manifestly by their demonstrations For although the circle of the heauen be deuided into the twelue signes of the Zodiacke through which once in a yeere the Sun doth runne yet in eyther Horizon onely sixe are seene for the bignes and standing of the earth dooth take vp and possesse no more place of heauen then a leafe of paper or a tablet will being placed and sette in the Center of the world from whence the compasse of the heauen may be seene without let or impediment Seeing therefore that that heauen which is aboue all the Spheares which is the chiefest and the noblest body of the world is of such an inestimable magnitude aboue all bodies we may easily vnderstand sayth Thomas how God who is without any circumscription the chiefest greatest and best of all things as well of things corporall as spirituall who also is the maker of them ought must exceed all things with a certaine infinite magnitude not in quantitie for he is no body but in excellencie and noblenesse of his most perfect Essence But that we may returne from whence we are digressed after the same manner we may search in all other things how great and of what condition be the magnitudes perfections of this Lord. For it is necessary that they be such as his Essence is Ecclesiasticus confesseth that where he speaketh of Gods mercy According to his greatnes saith he so is his mercy of such sort are all the rest of his perfections Such is his goodnes such is his benignitie maiestie gentlenes wisedome sweetnes noblenes beautie omnipotencie and to be briefe such is his iustice He therefore is infinitely good infinitely sweet infinitely amiable and woorthy whom all creatures should obey feare and reuerence insomuch that if mans hart could containe infinite loue and feare and infinite obedience and reuerence all that should be obliged by the bond and rule of iustice to the dignitie and excellencie of this Lord. For if as euery one is more worthy more excellent so greater reuerence is due vnto him it followeth that seeing the excellencie of God is so infinite that also infinite reuerence is due vnto him Heereupon is inferred that all that which is wanting to our loue and reuerence whereby we doe not come to that measure is therefore wanting because it is indebted to a dignitie of such greatnesse Which thing seeing it is so how great I pray thee is that debt which this onelie title although there were no other doth request of vs in the loue obedience of this Lord What I pray thee will he loue who doth not loue so great a goodnesse What will hee feare who doth not feare so great a Maiestie Whom will hee serue who will not attend vpon such a Lord For what is thy will made if not to loue and embrace that which is good If then he be the chiefest good what is the cause that our will doth not loue embrace him aboue all that is called God And if it bee so heynous an euill not to loue or feare his Lord aboue all things what wil it be not to esteeme or regard him Who would haue euer supposed that the malice of man would haue come to so great impietie Neuerthelesse to that height of peruersitie they are come that for a little beastly pleasure or for a little honour or for a small gaine and filthy lucre doe offend and contemne so great a goodnesse O blindnes to be deplored ô insensiblenes more then bestiall ô deuillish rashnes and presumption What doth not he deserue who dareth such things with what punishment with what kind of torture shall the contempt of so great a maiestie be worthily satisfied It is certaine that it shall be punished with no lesser torment then that which is prepared for such an offence that is that whosoeuer hee be that contemneth God shall be tormented in hell fire euerlastingly and yet neither shall he worthily be punished This then is the first Title which bindeth vs to the loue and seruice of this Lord which bond is so great that all bonds by which by any manner of meanes in thys world we are bound to any person eyther for his excellency or for his perfection are vnworthy the name of bonds if they be compared with this For euen as the perfections of all other things being compared with the diuine are no perfections so neither the bonds which by reason of their perfections and excellencies are named such are bonds beeing compared with this as neyther all the offences made onely to the creatures cannot be called offences if they be compared to them by which the Creator himselfe is offended For which cause Dauid also in that paenitentiall Psalme sayth that he had offended the Lord onely and onely sinned against him albeit he had offended most grieuously against Vrias whō he had commaunded to be slaine being innocent and against
thy glory and of thy greatnesse euery day Vpon which wordes Saint Augustine dooth thus comment What is this euery day Without intermission in prosperitie because thou doost comfort mee in aduersity because thou doost correct mee Before I was because thou madest mee when I was because thou gauest mee health when I dyd offend because thou pardonest me when I was conuerted because thou helpest me when I perseuered because thou crownest me So fully let my mouth be filled with thy praise that I may sing of thy glory euery day and all the day long If the sonne of God himselfe dyd gyue thankes to hys Father for a fewe Barley loafes as it is in the Gospell what great thanks ought we to giue for thys great benefit that wee are so sanctified by his holy Spirit that we are made his Temple and the dwelling and seate of the most sacred Trinitie If wee are bound to giue thanks for our nourishment whereby our Being is vpholden how great thanks are wee bound to giue him for this our well Being For we doe not prayse a horse because he is a horse but because he is a good horse nor wine because it is wine but because it is good wine nor a man because hee is a man but because he is a good man If therefore so many wayes we be bound to him who hath created vs how much more are wee bounde to him that hath made vs good If wee owe so much vnto him for the gyfts of our bodies how much more doe wee owe for the gyfts of our mindes if so much for the gyfts of nature how much more for the gyfts of grace To conclude if so great things be due vnto him because he hath made vs the sonnes of Adam how much more that he hath made vs of the vnhappy sonnes of Adam the sonnes of God For much better is the day in which wee are borne to eternitie as sayth Eusebius Emissenus then in which we are borne to the dangers of thys world Behold brother another chayne and linck which with the former benefits may binde tye thy hart to desire vertue to serue the Lord thy God THE SIXT TITLE That the inestimable benefit of the diuine Predestination doth binde vs vnto Vertue CHAP. VI. AMongst all the benefits before remembred that also of Election is numbred which pertaineth onely to them whom GOD from euerlasting hath elected to eternall life for the which benefite the Apostle as well for himselfe as for all the Elect doth giue thankes to him in these words Blessed be GOD euen the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ which hath blessed vs with all spirituall blessing in heauenly things in Christ as hee hath chosen vs in him before the foundation of the world that wee should be holy and without blame before him in loue who hath predestinated vs to be adopted through Iesus Christ vnto himselfe according to the good pleasure of his will The same benefit the kinglie Prophet commendeth when he sayth Blessed is he whō thou chusest and causest to come to thee he shal dwell in thy courts Therefore woorthily thys benefit may be called a benefit of benefits and a grace of graces A grace of graces because it is gyuen before all desert of the onely infinit goodnes and liberalitie of God who dooing iniurie to none yea giuing a sufficient helpe to euery one to saluation but to some hee extendeth more largely and bountifully the greatnes of his mercy as an absolute and bountifull Lord of his riches It is also a benefit of benefits not onely because it is greater then the rest but because it is also the cause and foundation of all the rest For vvhen as man is elected vnto glory by the meanes of thys benefit by by the Lord doth bestow vpon him all other benefits which are required to the attaynement of thys glory as hee testifieth by his Prophet saying I haue loued thee with an euerlasting loue therfore with mercy I haue drawen thee Thou oughtest not to be ignorant that I haue called thee to my glory that by it thou maiest obtaine my glory The Apostle more plainly doth tell this when he sayth For those which he knewe before hee also predestinate to be made like to the image of his sonne that hee might be the first borne among many brethren Moreouer whom hee predestinate them also he called and whom he called them also hee iustified and whom he iustified them also hee glorified The reason of this is that the Lord disposing of all things sweetly and orderly after that hee hath vouchsafed to elect any man to his glory for that fauour he bestoweth many other vpon him for he giueth all things which pertaine to the obtaining of thāt first fauour For euen as a father who bringeth vp his sōnne that hee may bee a Minister of Gods holy word or a Doctour of hys Church doth accustome him from his young yeeres to ecclesiasticall matters and causeth him to apply his studie directeth the whole course of his life to the proposed end so our heauenly Father after that he hath elected any man to the participation of his glory hee directeth him by his fatherly care to the way of righteousnes which leadeth to that glory and hee fatherly leadeth him in it vntill he come to his wished end For this so auncient and so excellent a benefit they ought to gyue thanks to this Lord who feele in themselues some euidence of this benefite For let vs grant that thys secret is hid from mans eyes yet seeing that certaine marks and tokens of iustification are alwaies knowne certaine signes also of the diuine predestination and election may be had For as amongst the signes of iustification the amendment of life is not the least so amongst the signes of election this is the greatest a perseuerance continuing in a good life Because he that hath lyued many yeeres in the feare of the Lord and with all care and diligence escheweth sinne he may godly and religiously perswade himselfe that as the Apostle sayth the Lord will strengthen him euen to the end that hee may be blamelesse in the day of our Lorde Iesu◠Christ and that as he hath begunne so hee shall make an end Surely it is true that no man ought to be carelesse of his estate and that no man ought to be secure of his perseuerance seeing that the most wise Salomon after that he had liued many yeres godly and religiously in the end of his life failed and playd the back-slider and fell very filthily But thys is but a particuler exception from that generall vse and custome which we brought out of Paule and which Salomon himselfe teacheth in his Prouerbs saying It is a prouerbe teach a child in the trade of his way and when he is old he shall not depart from it So that if hee be a dilligent follower of vertue in his youth he
those things of which he should haue taken and receaued greater causes of louing his Creator of those he receaued and tooke greater occasion of treason and disloyalty Therefore he was thrust out of Paradice and cast into banishment yea and was adiudged to hell fire that as hee was made a companion with the deuill in sinne so hee might be his companion in punishment The Prophet Elizeus sayd to his seruant Gehezi Thou hast receaued siluer and garments of Naaman therefore the leprosie of Naaman shall cleaue vnto thee and to thy seede for euer Like was the iudgement of God against man who seeing that he had affected the riches and treasure of Lucifer that is his pride and ambition it was meete that he should be infected with the leaprosie of the same Lucifer which was the punishment of his pride Behold then man made lyke vnto the deuill being a follower of his fault Therfore when man was so abhominable in Gods eyes and had incurred so great displeasure our most gracious and most mercifull Lord did not disdaine to respect vs he did not looke to the iniurie done to his supreame Maiesty but to the misfortune of our owne misery more lamenting our errour then desirous of reuenge for the contumely offered vnto him he determined to repaire man and to reconcile him vnto him his onlie begotten sonne being our Mediatour But how hath he reconciled man vnto him What humane tongue shall declare this vnto vs Christ hath procured so great friendship between vs and God that not onely God hath pardoned to man all his fault hath receaued him into his fauour hath made him one and that same with himselfe through a certaine vnion of loue but that which passeth all greatnes hath made such a likenes and similitude betweene himselfe mans nature that amongst all things created there can be found no greater conformity thē are the Deity and humanity for they are not one and the same through loue and fauour but also in person Who euer durst haue hoped that a wound so largely gaping should after this manner haue beene drawne together Who euer could haue thought that these two natures betweene which there was so great difference both of nature and of offence that euer they could haue beene so neerely ioyned together not in one house not at one table not in one loue but in one and the selfe same person What two greater contraries may be giuen then God and a sinner And what two things are now more straightly and narrowly combined together what more commixt then God and man There is nothing higher or nobler then God saith Bernard and there is nothing lower or baser then that clay of which man is formed Neuerthelesse with so great humility GOD descended vpon the earth to man and with so great sublimitie earth ascended to God that whatsoeuer God hath done earth may be said to haue done it and whatsoeuer earth hath suffered God may be sayd to haue suffered it Who would haue said to man when he was naked knew that he had incurred the wrath of God when he sought lurking holes and corners in Paradice wherein he might hide himselfe vvho I say would haue then said that the tyme should come when this vild substance should be vnited to God in one and the selfe same person Thys vnion is so neere straight and faithfull that when it was to be dissolued which was in the tyme of the Passion it would rather rent and breake then faint and forsake Death might seperate the soule from the body which was the vnion of nature but it could not pluck GOD from the soule nor frō the body for that vvas the vnion of the Diuine person For what it once apprehendeth with so strong a loue it neuer forsaketh This is that peace this is that health and saluation which wee receaue by the benefit of our Mediatour and Sauiour Although we are such and so great debtors for thys benefit that no mans tongue can vtter it yet we are not lesse bound to God for the manner of our Redemption then for the redemption it selfe O my Lord I am bound to thee in a high degree of dutie that thou hast deliuered me from hell and hast reconciled me vnto thee but much more owe I vnto thee for the manner it selfe by which thou hast deliuered me then for the liberty it selfe which thou hast giuen me All thy works are admirable in all things and although a man doth thinke when he hath considered one thing that not any thing remaineth which may be added to further admiratio◠foorth-with all that wonderment vanisheth when he turneth his eyes to contemplate an other thing O lord the glory of thy greatnes is not diminished if one wonder dooth seeme to expell and put out another but these are tokens of thy greater glory But what was the meane ô my Lord by which thou wouldest take away my euils and wickednesses There were infinite meanes by which thou couldest haue helped me and giuen me perfect saluation without labour and without any price Notwithstanding so great and so admirable is thy liberalitie that to show me more manifestly the greatnes of thy loue goodnes thou wouldest helpe me with so great dolours that the onely cogitation of them was sufficient to extract bloody sweat from all thy members thy passion a little after through dolor to cleaue a sunder the hardest Rocks O my Lord the heauens doe praise thee and the Angels sette forth thy wonders What didst thou neede our good or were our euils any preiudice vnto thee If thou sinnest sayth Iob what doost thou against him yea when thy sinnes be many what doost thou vnto him If thou be righteous what giuest thou vnto him or what receiueth he at thy hand Thys GOD so rich so voyde of all euill he whose riches whose power whose wisedome cannot increase or be greater then it is he that was neither before nor after the creation of the world greater or lesser then he is now he that is neither more illustrious or lesse glorious because Angels sing his prayse and men doe glorifie him nay if all the creatures should curse and blaspheme him thys great Lord not of necessity but of meere charitie it not hindering him that we were his enemies he dyd not disdaine to incline and bend the heauens of his maiestie and to descend into this valley of misery to be clothed with the flesh of our mortalitie and to take all our debts vpon him to cancell them to suffer and vnder-goe greater torments then euer any suffered heeretofore or shall suffer heereafter Ah my Lord for the loue of me thou wast borne in a stable and layd in a Cratch for me thou wast circumcized the eyght day for me thou flying into Egipt liuedst there in banishment seauen whole yeeres and for mee thou diddest sustaine diuers persecutions and wast molested and vexed with infinite iniuries For the loue of
it enlightneth the vnderstanding it inflameth our will it strengtheneth our memorie it tempereth and moderateth our part concupiscible least it runne into all euil it cōfirmeth the part irascible least it be slow too sluggish to work well Moreouer because all our natural passions which are found in these two inferiour powers of our appetite are as it were step-dames vnto vertue dores wherby deuils oftentimes enter into our soules it hath appointed as it were Sentinels in each of these parts which watch and keepe it that is a certaine infused vertue comming from aboue vvhich doth helpe man and maketh him secure in danger which ariseth by meanes of those passions So to defend the soule frō the appetite of gluttonie it sendeth Temperance to defend it frō the lust of the flesh it sendeth Chastitie and to defend it from ambition it sendeth Humilitie and so in the rest But there is one thing which exceedeth all the fore-sayde that is that grace maketh God to dwell in our soule that dwelling in it he may gouerne it defend it direct it in the heauenly way God therefore sitteth in our soule as a King in his kingdome as a Captayne among his armie as a Maister in his schoole and as a Pastour among his flocke that there he may exercise and vndergoe spiritually all these offices and administer all prouidence Goe to therefore if this precious pearle out of which so many good things come be a perpetuall companion vnto Vertue who will not willingly imitate that wise Merchant in the Gospell who sold all that he had that he might buy this alone ¶ Of the third priuiledge of Vertue which is a light and a certaine supernaturall knowledge which our Lord giueth to them who seeke after Vertue CHAP. XV. THE third priuiledge which is graunted vnto Vertue is a certaine speciall light and a certaine wisedome which our Lord doth bestow vpon them that are righteous which also proceedeth from that grace of which we haue hetherto spoken The reason is because it is a function and duty of grace to heale and recure nature beeing weake feeble and decayed Euen as therefore it healeth the appetite and will weakened through sinne so also it recureth the vnderstanding being exceedingly obscured and darkned by the same sinne that by this benefit the vnderstanding may know what it ought to doe and by the will there may be ability power to doe that which now it vnderstandeth is needefull for to be done Not vnlike to this is that Saint Gregory hath in his Morals Not to be able to fulfill that which man vnderstoode was a punishment of sinne as also that was a punishment of the same not to vnderstand that Therefore sayd the Prophet The Lord is my light against ignorance and my saluation against impotencie In one is signified what is to be desired in the other strength is giuen by which we may attaine vnto it And so as well this as that pertayneth to the same grace Hence it is that besides fayth and prudence infused which enlighten our vnderstanding that it may vnderstand what it ought to beleeue what also to doe the gifts of the holy Ghost doe increase also in vs foure of which pertaine to the vnderstanding that is the gift of wisedome which is giuen for the knowledge of high and lofty matters the gift of Science which is giuen that wee may vnderstand lower matters the gift of vnderstanding by which we come to the knowledge of the misteries of God and to the congruencie and beauty of them and the gift of counsaile and aduice by whose helpe we know the actions of this life and how to gouerne and rule whatsoeuer happeneth to vs in it All these beames come from the splendour of grace onely which therefore is called in the holy Scriptures an Annointing or Vnction For it teacheth all things as Saint Iohn speaketh Wherefore euen as oyle among all liquid substances is the fittest to preserue light and to cure wounds so this diuine Vnction doth cure the wounds of our will and doth illuminate the darknes of our vnderstanding This is that most precious oyle better then all oyle of which the kingly Prophet speaketh Thou hast annoynted mine head with oyle It is certaine that he speaketh heere not of a materiall head nor of materiall oyle but of a spirituall head that is of the superiour part of our soule in which our vnderstanding is as very well sheweth a learned man wryting vpon this place and of spirituall oyle which is the light of the holy Ghost by which our lampe is preserued that it is not put out Of the light of this holy oyle this good King had much who thus speaketh of himselfe Thou hast taught me wisedome in the secret of mine hart An other reason may be also giuen of this For seeing that it is the office of grace to make a man endued with Vertue it cannot execute this vnlesse first it moue a man to sorrow and repentance of his former life and stirre vp the feare of God in him Vnlesse before it worketh that man doth deadly hate sinne and desire heauenly blessings with great feruency and altogether contemne these worldly vanities But the will cannot obtayne these and the like vnlesse before it hath the light of vnderstanding and a knowledge proportionable by which the will may be stirred vp For the will is a blind faculty which is not mooued except the vnderstanding goe before carrying a light and shewing good and euill in all things that the affection towards them may encrease or decrease Hence it is that Thomas Aquinas sayth euen as the loue of God doth encrease in the soule of a righteous man so also encreaseth the knowledge of the goodnes fauour and beauty of the same God and that by an equall proportion that if one of them encrease an hundreth degrees so many also encreaseth the other For hee that loueth much he vnderstandeth many causes of loue in the thing beloued but he that loueth little vnderstandeth but few And that which is cleerely vnderstoode of the loue of God this also is vnderstoode of feare hope and of the hatred of sinne From which men would no more abhorre then from other things vnlesse they vnderstood that it was an euill then which nothing in this world is more worthy of horror and execration Seeing therefore that the holy Ghost willeth that these effects should be in the soule of a righteous man he willeth also that there should be causes in it from whence they may come As hee willeth that there should be diuersity of effects in the earth so also he willeth that diuers causes and celestiall influences should be wrought in it Furthermore seeing that it is true as we before haue proued that God doth dwell by grace in the soules of the righteous and that God is light Enlightning euery man that commeth into the world as Saint
thou beleeuest not that thou shalt finde pardon vvith God what greater foolishnesse can there be then to sinne without hope of forgiuenes But if thou beleeuest that thou shalt finde him good gracious fauourable and mercifull vnto thee who albeit thou offendest him often yet he is ready to forgiue thee thy sinnes tell me I pray thee what greater frowardnesse or peeuishnesse can there be then to take further occasion to offend him where there is greater cause that thou shouldest loue him What can be aunswered to this argument What wilt thou say vnto mee as concerning those reares which hereafter thou must plentifully shed for the sinnes which now thou committest For if God call thee out of this life or visit thee euery morsell that thou now eatest shall then be more bitter vnto thee then gall and remember that then thou shalt alwayes lament and deplore that which but once thou didst commit That day at length will come make no doubt of it when thou shalt wish to haue suffered a thousand kinde of punishments then once to haue offended God The time that Dauid enioyed his pleasures was very short but the time that he lyued in sorrow and dolour for them was exceeding long as he testifieth of himselfe saying I am weary of my grouing euerie night wash I my bed and water my couch with my teares So aboundant were his teares that the translation of Ierome hath for I wash my bed I make my bed to swim signifying the great showers and floods of waters flowing out of those eyes which had violated the law of God Why then doest thou vnprofitably consume the time in sowing that of which thou shalt gather no other fruite but teares Besides this thou oughtest also to consider that thou doost not onely sow teares whence thou reapest onely sorrow but also the difficulty and hardnes for euer entring into a better state of life by reason of the long and euill custome For euen as hee that is endangered with a long and a pernitious disease sildome so commeth to his former health that not some reliques of the disease remaine in his body so the greatnes and diuturnity of sinne is sildome healed and cured without some reliques remayning A man alwayes is weaker in that part with which he offended and the tiranny of the deuill rageth more violently in it The children of Israel worshipped a Calfe of the ashes of which being burned Moses made a decoction and caused them to drinke it For this is the punishment with which God is wont to punish certaine sinnes that by his iust iudgmeÌ„t some reliques may remaine in our bones so that may be a punishment and a torment which a little before was our Idoll Wilt thou that I shall tell thee how â—nequall the comparison is to reserue old age for repentance and filthily to spend the flower of youth in iniquities What great madnes I pray thee would it be thought if a man had many and weighty burthens to be carried to some certaine place and he had many Horses sufficient to carry them yet he should lay all the burthens vpon one of the weakest and worst Horses the other being sent away empty like or rather greater is their madnes who doe impose the burthen of repentance to be carried of olde age sparing youth and manly age and letting them goe empty which are much stronger and farre more fit to carry then old age seeing that old age is scarce able to support her owne infirmities It is excellently sayd of Seneca that great Philosopher He that deferreth to old age his goodnes and meaneth onely then to be good he plainly sheweth that he is vnwilling to giue any thing vnto Vertue but that time that is vnfit for all other things And in another place Thou shalt heare many saying when I am fifty yeares old I will take my selfe to mine ease but when I am sixty that will free me from all duties and offices And what surety doost thou take for a longer life Who will suffer these things so to passe as thou hast disposed them Doth it not shame thee to reserue thy selfe to the reliques and dregs of thy life and onely to destinate that time to a good and vertuous minde which is fit for nothing How late is it then to begin to liue when thou must leaue to liue What a foolish forgetfulnes of mortality is it to defer thy peace quiet and thy wholsomest counsels to the fiftith or sixtith yeare of thy life then to purpose to begin a new a better life wheÌ„ as very few reach to those yeares But what wilt thou doe if thou considerest the greatnes of the satisfaction which the infinite maiesty of God will require of thee before thou be disburthened of so great offences For that is so great as a learned man sayth That man is not able to satisfie God for the sinnes of one day and disburthen himselfe of that day Why then doost thou gather the debts of thy whole life as it were into one grosse summe and deserrest the payment and satisfying for them vntill thine old age which not with all the paynes that it can take can satisfie for it selfe This iniquity is so great that S. Gregory calleth it the greatest infidelity as he sheweth it in these words He is farre enough off from sayth who for his repentance expecteth old age For it is to be feared least while he hopeth for mercy he finde iudgement But let vs graunt that all that we haue sayd are of no moment nor any thing worth nor that any of these things shall come to passe Tell me ought not the greatnes and multitude of benefits receaued and the glory promised be onely sufficient to perswade and moue thee so that there be any law reason or iustice remayning in the world that thou shouldest not be so negligent and idle in the time of thy seruice so niggardly towards him who is so liberall in heaping graces and benefits vpon thee O how worthily is it spoken of Ecclesiasticus Be not slow to pay thy vow in good time and tarry not to be iustified vnto thy death because the reward of God endureth for euer Goe to then tell me I pray thee if the reward shall endure so long why wilt thou that thy seruice should be so short and momentany If the reward shall not be ended while God shall raigne in heauen that is it shall neuer perish why wilt thou not that thy seruice at the least should endure so long as thou liuest in this life Furthermore if thou hopest to be saued it followeth of necessity that thou must presuppose that he hath predestinated thee from all eternity to this saluation Tell me then if the Lord was so mindfull of thee that he loued thee from euerlasting after that thou wast made a Christian adopted thee to be his owne sonne made thee an heire of
they as Plutarch sayth that teach that vertue is to be embraced but deliuer not the way and manner how to attaine vnto it they doe as those that light a Lampe to burne but poure in no oyle Certes although the second booke is very profitable yet the first booke if I may so say is most necessarie The reason is because to the knowledge of good euill the very light of nature and reason is much conducent which is bred borne with vs but that wee should loue one and hate another embrace one and flie from another very great contradictions and lets doe meete with vs and doe arise of sinne as well within as without man For seeing that man is compounded of a spirite and flesh both parts desire theyr like the flesh alwayes seeketh for things carnall and fleshly in which vices raigne and beare sway but the spirit desireth spirituall things in which vertues haue dominion and preheminence Therefore the spirit dooth feele and suffer great contradiction and repugnancie of his owne flesh which hath no feeling but of those thinges which delight and bring pleasure which desires and appetites next vnto originall sinne are most vehement when as by that the bridle of original righteousnes is lost with which they were bridled and restrayned Neyther doth the flesh only resist the spirite but also the world Which as S. Iohn testifieth wholie lyeth in wickednes The deuill also a capitall enemie of vertues doth repugne the spirit and so doe our corrupt dispositions and vicious custome which as an other nature especially in those who haue had growth and are confirmed in wickednes through the continuaunce and diuturnitie of tyme. Therefore that a man may passe boldly through the midst of these difficulties and that hee may approch neere vnto vertue in veritie and with the whole desire of his hart to the despight of the flesh and all her powers it cannot be denied but that these difficulties doe happen to man and that ayde and helpe is necessary for him Therefore that we may come vnto thys first part this former Booke is made and sette foorth in the which I haue bestowed much paynes and haue laboured with all my strength that I might gather as it were into a bundle all the reasons which seemed any whit to belong to the qualitie of this matter or to the manner of this writing for the aduauncement of vertue by setting before your eyes the profit and fruites of them who follow vertue as well in this life as in the life to come and by declaring the great bonds by which wee are bounde to vertue seeing that God doth cōmaund it vnto vs whom not to obey is exceeding haynous and to which we are obliged as well for that which it is in it selfe as for that which it is for vs and towards vs. I vvas especially moued to handle this argument for that I dyd dailie see the greater sort number of men to prayse vertue in words but to follow vices in deedes And truely in mine opinion amongst many other causes of this so great enormitie one is because men ignorant of the condition and nature of vertue doe esteeme it to be vnpleasant barraine and painefull For this cause when as they are wholy drowned in vices because they seeme more pleasant vnto them they flie from all vertue supposing that there is no sweetnes in it I pittying the error of these men willingly vnderwent thys labour that I might shew how many and howe great be the riches delights and treasuries how great is the dignitie and beautie of this heauenly Bride and also that I might demonstrate howe vnknowne it is vnto men that these mine admonitions might free them from this errour and inflame them with the loue of so precious a thing For if it bee true that thys is one of the most excellent things that are in heauen or earth and most worthy to be loued had in honour without doubt it is to be lamented that men are such strangers from the knowledge and desire of so great a good A great benefite therefore hee shall doe to all mankinde whosoeuer he be that endeuoureth to restore thys Lady to her honour and to seate her in her royall Throne for shee is the Queene and Lady of all things But before I come to my purpose I will shewe by a certaine example with what minde thys Tractate ought to bee vsed Heathen men doe write of theyr famous Hercules howe when he began to waxe a man which time is gyuen of Nature to choose what course of life euery man will follow and enter into went into the wildernes and there sitting long debating discoursing with himselfe when he saw two waies the one of Pleasure the other of Vertue which it were better to enter walke in at the length after mature deliberation Pleasure being neglected he entred into Vertues path Truely if there bee anie thing in the world woorthy of deliberation and aduise this is it For if wee so often muse vpon those thinges which pertaine to the vse of life and doe so aduisedly deliberate of thē how much more carefully and thorowly ought wee to weigh and consider of life it selfe especially seeing so many and so diuers kindes of lyuing are found in the world Proceede therefore my brother thys is that that I woulde haue thee now to do and to the which I now inuite thee Therfore thou must know that before all things it is needfull that in this short time thou sette behinde thee the whole rabble of the thoughts and busines of this world that thou enter into thys spirituall wildernes and that thou beginne to deliberate with thy selfe of the manner and way of that life which it behoueth thee to follow hereafter Remember that among all humane affaires there is none which ought to bee weighed and examined vvith greater care and attention and which requireth a longer time in deliberating then the election of that kinde of life which is to be followed continued till death For if the beginning be good those things that follow will be lawdable On the contrary part if thy choyce be faultie what soeuer is built thereon will goe frō ill to worse All other consultations with the errors that are committed in them are particuler thys onely is generall which containeth all other vnder it Tell mee I pray thee what may be builded vpon an ill foundation What doe all prosperous euents profit What auaile al admonitions and counsailes if thy life be ill ordered And what doe all aduersities hurt if thy life be well lead For what shoulde it profit a man though he should winne the whole world and loose his owne soule Therefore we can speake of no matter or businesse more weightie vnder heauen of none more proper vnto man or of greater moment for we doe not intreat heere of riches or of honors but of the lyfe of the soule and of euerlasting
of the same fleece and colour yet hee knoweth his owne Damme goeth alwaies with her as though he should say Hence I haue receaued that I haue hence I will require that which I want This almost in all naturall things hath place and also it would come in vse amongst artificiall things if either they had sence or motion If a Painter in delineating pourtraying a picture should leaue the eyes imperfect if that picture could perceiue it or could be admonished of that it wanteth what doost thou thinke that it would doe whether would it goe it is certaine that it would not goe to the pallace of a King or of a Prince because they could not satisfie the desire of it nor supply his want but it would returne to the house of his Maister and there would desire him that he would make it perfect and that he would finish that he began Tell mee ô reasonable man what is the cause that thou doost not that which vnreasonable creatures doe Thou art not yet perfect many thinges are lacking in thee many things are as yet wanting to thee before thou art finished or perfected The first example and patterne as yet is not scarce delineated and drawne as we say after a rough and rude manner the comlines decking trimming of the worke are yet wanting which most plainly conuinceth the continuall appetite of that nature which alwayes as it were feeling her owne necessitie desireth alwayes seruentlie and seeketh carefully that which is wanting to her God will afflict thee with hunger that being compelled by this necessity he might make thee enter in by the right gate and that thou shouldest haue respect vnto him For this cause hee that made thee would not presently finish and make thee perfect and for this cause he would not presently make thee rich Hee dyd this not because hee is couetous but because hee is louing and fauourable to thee knowing that it is good that thou shouldest be such an one not that thou shouldest be poore but that thou shouldest be humble not that thou shouldest alwayes be in neede but that thou shouldest alwaies haue respect vnto him If therefore thou be blinde poore and standing neede of many things why doost thou not runne to thy Father that created thee and to the Painter that shadowed thee that hee may perfect those things which are missing and vvanting See how ready in this busines was King Dauid Thine hands saith he haue made and fashioned me giue me vnderstanding that I may learne thy commaundements As if he should say thy hands ô Lord haue made all that is good in me but thy worke thy frame is not yet perfect absolute in euery part The eyes of my soule among other things are not yet perfect I haue not yet that light by whose benefit I may know and discerne what is wanting in me what is necessary for me But of whom may I request that which remaineth is behind except of him who gaue that I haue that to whom the beginnings are due to him also the end might be due Giue mee therefore ô Lord that light illuminate the eyes of this borne blinde that I may acknowledge thee with them and so that may be perfected which thou hast begune in me If therefore it appertaineth to this Lord to giue the last perfection to thy vnderstanding it shall also pertaine to him to giue the same perfection to thy will and to the other faculties and powers of thy soule that by this maner this frame may bee finished of the same workman that begunne it This therefore shall be done without defect it shall encrease without discommoditie it shall bee enriched without great preparation and quiet rest shall be giuen vnto it without the possession of many things Through him a poore and myserable creature is content with his estate in him rest contented the clothed and the naked the destitute and he that is regarded he that wants all things and he that is happy in possession of all things Wherefore worthily said the wise man He is as rich hauing nothing and is as poore hauing great riches For the poore who hath GOD is rich and on the contrary part he is most beggerly and poore who is without God although hee be the mightiest Monarch in the world For what doe riches power profit a wealthy man beeing distracted with a thousand maner of cogitations beeing wearie of all things and lothing all things which vices proceede of the appetite which can be satisfied with no riches What doe costly garments delicate fare full store-houses and such like profit him to ease the griefes and bitternesses boyling and seething in his soule A rich man with all his riches lying in his bed in one night a hundred times doth tosse and turne himselfe neyther can hee sleepe because he hath not that he desireth hee fearest least that he hath should be taken away Of all those things which hetherto haue beene spoken that is conuinced and prooued that thou maist know how greatly thou art bound to serue GOD not onely for the debt of this benefit but also for the complement finishing of our felicitie and happinesse THE THIRD TITLE How we are bound to the Lord GOD by reason of the benefite of preseruation and gouerning CHAP. III. NOT onely man is bound to the Lord his GOD for the benefit of Creation but also for the benefite of preseruation for it is he that made thee after he made thee hee also preserueth thee so that thou doost depend of his hands and thou canst no more lyue without him then bee without him before thou wast created This is no lesse a benefit thē that former For that was but onely once done for thee but this is alwaie done and renued and the Lord daily by one meanes or other dooth estsoones create thee for him he continually preserueth whom he once created Not lesse power nor lesse loue is required in the one then in the other If thou therefore owest so much vnto him who created thee in a moment how much more shalt thou be indebted to him for that he preserueth thee continuallie thou doost not mooue a foote which hee doth not mooue neither doost thou open or shutte thine eyes without his helpe And if thou doost not beleeue that God doth moue thy members when thou doost mooue thou art not worthy that thou shouldest be called a Christian but if thou doost beleeue that he doth yeeld and bestow vpon thee this fauour and yet darest offend him I doe not know by what name I shoulde call thee Tell me if a man should stand in an high tower and should hold an other man in his hand hanging by a small thred durst he thinkest thou that seeth himselfe in such a case slaunder and rayle at him that holdeth him If thou therefore that art sustained of the Diuine goodnesse as hanging by a very small thred that
me thou didst fast thou didst watch thou didst run hether thether thou didst sweat thou didst weepe and thou didst proue by experience those miseries which my sinnes deserued and yet thou wast without any sinne neyther was there guile found in thy mouth neyther hadst thou offended but wast offended To be briefe for me thou wast taken forsaken of thine denied sold presented now before this Iudge now before that falsely accused before them beaten with fists spette vpon mocked whypped crowned with thornes reuiled with blasphemies hanged vpon the Crosse dead and buried At the length thou didst free me from all euill dying vpon the Crosse and ending thy life thy mother looking on at which time thou wast found in so great neede and misery that in that thine intollerable thirst a small drop of water was denied vnto thee by which thou mightest refresh and coole the heate of thy mouth Not onely thou wast forsaken of all externall things but also of thine owne Father What is worthy of greater admiration then that the God of so great a maiestie should end his lyfe vpon the cursed tree of the Crosse with the title of a malefactour When any man yea of meane estate commeth to that misfortune that he is to be punished with like death for his offence and fault and thou by chaunce dost know him seeing his countenaunce thou canst not sufficiently wonder considering into what an vnhappy estate his misery hath cast hym that hee must vnder-goe a death so cruell and ignominous Wherefore if it be an admirable thing to see a common man of inferiour degree to be compassed with so miserable calamitie what will it be to see not a man but the Lord of all creatures to be so plunged Can a thing be seene with greater admiration then God himselfe to be brought into so great misery for the offences of one malefactour And if by how much the person is more worthy and more noble who is slaine by so much hys case is more admirable and more miserable O yee Angels to whom the height and excellencie of this Lord is so perfectlie knowne vnderstood tel me what was your griefe and discruciatement What was your admiration astonishment when ye saw him hanging vpon the tree The Cherubins whom God in the old Testament commaunded to be placed at the two ends of the Arke of the Couenant theyr faces beeing turned one to another towards the Mercie-seate as though they beheld it admiring wondering doe signifie vnto vs that those high and supreame spirits were astonished when they did see and behold a worke of so great pietie when I say they did see God made the propitiatorie sacrifice of the worlde hanging vpon a tree Nature herselfe stoode astonished and all the creatures were suspended from theyr functions the principalities and powers of heauen were amazed considering this inestimable goodnesse which they knew to be in GOD. What then shall they doe who doe not swimme in waters of so great admiration of the Sea What shal they doe who are not drowned in the Ocean of this goodnes How cannot he but be amazed as another Moses astonished then in the Mount when the figure and patterne of this misterie was reuealed vnto him and he cryed out with a loud voyce The Lord the Lord strong mercifull and gracious slowe to anger and aboundant in goodnesse and truth Beeing able neyther to say nor doe any thing but to proclaime with a high voyce that mercy which God then shewed to him What shall hee doe that couereth not his face as Elias dyd when he saw God passe by him not in the figure of his maiestie but in the forme of his most lowly humility not ouerthrowing Mountaines renting in sunder Rocks by his infinite power but presented to the eyes of a froward Nation commaunding Rocks to be rent and clouen in sunder through his compassion Who then will not shut the eyes of his vnderstanding who will not open the bosome of his will that he may perceiue the greatnesse of thys loue and benefit and loue thys Lord without any meane or measure O the height of loue ô the depth of vnmeasurable humility ô the greatnes of mercy ô the bottomlesse pitte of incomprehensible goodnes O Lord if I bee so greatly indebted to thee because thou hast redeemed me what doe I not owe thee for that manner by which thou hast redeemed me Thou hast redeemed mee with most great dolours with contumelies and ignominies not to be borne in so much that thou wast made a reproch of men and the scorne of the whole vvorld Through thy reproches thou hast honored me through thy accusations thou hast defended me through thy blood thou hast washed me through thy death thou hast raysed me and through thy teares thou hast freed me from euerlasting weeping and gnashing of teeth O good Father who so tenderly louest thy chyldren thou art that good and true Sheepheard which giuest thy selfe foode for thy flocke O thou most faythfull Keeper who lavest down thy life for thy Sheepe which thou tookest to defend keepe vvith what rewards shall I recompence this so great a benefit vvith what teares shall I requite thy weeping vvith what lyfe shall I remunerate thy holy and pure liuing There is too huge and great a difference betweene the life of man and God betweene the teares of the Creator and the creature But if ô man it be apparent vnto thee that thou art not onlie indebted vnto God that hee dyed not onely for thee alone but for the whole world beware thou be not deceiued For so he dyed for all that also he dyed for euery one For by his infinite wisedome all they for whom he suffered were so present to his eyes that they were all comprehended as it were in one and with his vnmeasurable loue he embraced all in generall and euery one in particuler and he so shedde his blood for all as if it had beene for one To conclude his loue was so great and so exceeding that as the holy men of GOD doe say if but one onely amongst all men had been guiltie and faultie yea for him alone he would haue suffered all that which he suffered for all Marke therefore and ponder with thy selfe howe much thou art indebted to thys Lord who hath doone so great thinges for thee and would haue doone much greater if thy necessitie had required greater ¶ Of this afore-said it is gathered how great an offence it is to offend our Sauiour I Would that all creatures would tell mee if any benefit greater if a greater bond if greater fauour thē this may be found Let the whole assembly and company of Angels tell me if God did euer such things for them Who then is he that will refuse to offer himselfe vp wholy a sacrifice to GOD For three causes saith Anselme ô Lord I owe all that to thee that I am First because thou hast created mee
him and leaping at him began to bite him by which thing the wickednes of this priuy murtherer was layd open and vncouered What sayst thou ô man if a dogge be so faithfull for a peece of bread and with so great loue doth affect his Maister Doth ingratitude so please thee that thou wilt suffer thy selfe to be excelled of a dogge in the law of gratitude If thys brutish creture burned with so great anger against the murtherer of hys Maister why art not thou also displeased and out of patience at these which haue killed thy Lord What be they They are thy sinnes these apprehended him these bound him these scourged him these violently drew him to the Crosse. Thy sinnes were the causes of thy Lords death Those cruell butchers and hangmen had not had so great force and power ouer Christ vnlesse thy sinnes had armed them Why then art thou not mad angry why doost thou not whet thy furie against thē which haue slaine thy Lord Wherefore when thou seest thy Lord slaine before thy face and in thy sight and that for thee is not thy loue increased towards him Why doost thou not fret and chafe against thy sinnes which haue procured his death especially seeing that thou art not ignorant that the end of all his sayings dooings and torments was no other then that he might stirre vp anger and hate in our harts against sinne He died that he might kill sinne and that hee might binde and restraine the power of our hands and feete hasting to mischiefe he had hys hands and feete nayled to the Crosse. With what face therefore darest thou liue that all the labors and sweats of Christ for thee should be vaine and of none effect whilst thou still wilt remaine in the same seruitude from which he hath freed thee with the effusion of his owne blood Can it be that thou doost not tremble at the onely mention of sinne when thou seest that God vnder-went terrible and horrible torments that he might destroy and abolish it What could he doe more that he might draw and hold back men striuinglie rushing into sinne then that God himselfe hanging vpon the Crosse might be sent to meete them Who will be so rash and foole-hardie that he dare offend GOD when he seeth before him both Paradice open and hell enlarging her mouth yet it is much greater then that to see God hanging vpon the Crosse. He that is not mooued with thys sight I know not truly vvith what other thing he will be mooued THE FIFT TITLE How wee are bound to follow Vertue by reason of our Iustification CHAP. V. WHat had the benefit of Redemption profited vs if the benefit of Iustification had not followed by which the vertue of that most excellent benefit is applyed vnto vs For euen as a plaister is of no vse if it bee not applyed to the wound or to the diseased place so there had beene no profit of that heauenly medicine if it had not beene applyed by this benefit Which dutie especially appertaineth to the holy Ghost to whom the sanctification of man is attributed For he it is that by his mercie preuenteth a sinner afterwards calleth him and beeing called iustifieth him and beeing iustified directeth him by the paths of righteousnes and so bringeth him by the gyft of perseuerance to the end of his course and race vntill at the length he bestoweth vpon him the crowne of glory for this benefit comprehendeth in it all the other benefits Amongst all these benefits that of Vocation and Iustification is the first which is when as by the vertue of this diuine Spirit the chaynes and snares of sinne beeing broken and burst man escapeth the rule and tyrannie of the deuill is raysed from death to life of a sinner is made righteous of a child of curse malediction is made the child of God Which cannot by any meanes be brought to passe without the peculier help ayde of God which the Lord testifieth in plaine words vvhen hee sayth No man can come to mee except my Father draw him signifying that no strength of mans nature can deliuer a man from sinne and bring him vnto grace vnlesse the arme of the diuine power helpe him Thomas Aquinas dooth thus comment vpon these words Euen as a stone sayth hee alwaies of his owne nature falleth downevvards neyther can lift it selfe vpwards without externall helpe so man by reason of the corruption of sinne dooth alwayes tend downewards that is he doth alwaies slide to the loue and desire of earthly things but if hee be to be lifted vp aboue that is to the loue to a supernaturall desire of heauenly things he hath neede of the right hand of the highest and of the Diuine helpe Thys sentence is to be noted and obserued for by this a man doth come to the knowledge of himselfe and vnderstandeth the corruption of his owne nature and knoweth how necessary the continuall prayer for the Diuine helpe is Therefore that we may returne to our purpose man by his owne strength cannot be deliuered from sinne and brought to grace because necessarily the hande of the Lorde is required which must deliuer him But who can declare what other great benefits are contained in this alone For seeing without all controuersie that by this sinne is banished and expelled out of the soule which ingendereth many euils in it howe great a good will that be which doth cast and driue out all these euills But seeing that the consideration of this benefit doth very much stir vp man to gratitude and to the desire of vertue heere by the way I will declare the great blessings which this onely good is wont to bring with it First by it man is reconciled to God and is brought and admitted to his fauour and friendship For the first and chiefest of all euils which sinne bringeth to the soule is that it maketh man an enemie to God who seeing that he is infinite goodnes aboue all things he hateth and curseth sinne Therefore sayth the Prophet Thou hatest all them that worke iniquitie thou shalt destroy them that speake lyes He addeth furthermore that God abhorreth and detesteth the bloody man and deceitfull Thys is the greatest of all euils and the roote and fountaine of all the rest as on the contrary side to be loued of God is the greatest of all blessings and the cause and originall of them From thys so dangerous an euill by this benefit of Iustification we are deliuered by which wee are reconciled to God and of enemies made friends vnto him and that not in a common degree of friendship but in the highest which may be found of the Father towards the sonne The Euangelist Iohn worthily commendeth this fauour and friendship when he saith Behold what loue the Father hath shewed vnto vs that we should be called and be indeede the sonnes of GOD. He is not content to say
with me hath alwayes beene in me by which I became a solitary and a Monasticall man Histories report of Agathon that hee dying had his eyes three dayes open and neuer shut neyther euer moued them But his brethren touching him sayd ô holy Father where art thou now He sayd I stand in the sight of Gods iudgement his brethren sayd moreouer vnto him doest thou also feare To whom hee aunswered alwayes as much as lay in me I purposed to keepe the commaundements of God but I am a sinfull man and how should I know whether my works please God To whom his brethren sayd doest thou not trust in thy works because they are according to Gods word and rule To whom he aunswered I doe not trust in my works in the sight of God because in his iudgement and sight all our best works are imperfect and full of infirmity but onely in Christ Iesus my Redeemer in whom I assure my selfe to haue all righteousnes and perfection No lesse fearefull is that example which Iohannes Climacus remembreth of an other man that led a solitary life and that we will set downe heere with his owne words for it is especially to be noted to the edefying of mens soules A certaine man called Stephanus sayth hee dwelling in this place loued a solitarie and a quiet life This man when he had liued many yeeres solitarily being adorned with many singuler vertues of Christianity and sanctification built himselfe a Cell at the bottome of that hill in which in times past Elias beheld his holy and diuine vision He so venerable for life and conuersation that he might furnish himselfe with more integrity and purity of liuing hee came to a place of Anchorites which place was called Fayth In which place when hee had passed ouer many yeeres with a most straight kind of life for this place was vtterly remote from all humane consolation and almost not come to of any man for it was almost seauenty miles distant from any dwelling of man in the very last part of his life he departed thence desirous to dwell in the Cell of that holy Hill There were two Disciples of Palestina very religious who also diligently obserued the Cell of this old man In which whē he had continued a fewe dayes he fell into sicknes whereof he dyed But a day before his departure suddainly hee fell into an agonie and astonishment of minde and with open eyes he looked about first to the right side then to the left side of the bed and as though certaine required an account of him all they that stoode about him heard him say some-times thus So in truth it is but for this I haue humbled my selfe and broken of my sinnes by repentance Some-times hee said No truly but yee lie I haue not doone thus Then againe thus So it is indeede this is so but I haue wept and with weeping as with a gunneshot I haue battered downe that partition wall which kept Gods countenaunce from me God hath heard my prayers and my teares And againe yee rightly accuse me In some also some-times he said So it is truly and to these I haue not that I may say vnlesse God be mercifull vnto me and God is more mercifull then man can be sinfull if man will be sorrowful And surelie this inuisible and most sharpe iudgement was a feareful and a terrible sight in which also that which is more terrible they obiected vnto him what he had not done ah woe is me he being a man of such sanctitie and holines of life In many of his sinnes he said that he had not what he might aunswere euen this man said so who had almost forty yeeres ledde a solitarie life and had the grace of those teares that wash and blot out the hand writing of GOD against vs. Certaine affirmed to me of a truth that this man whilst he was in the vvildernes nourished a Leopard with his owne hand And vvhilst thys strict account was required of him and whilst he was in thys sore conflict he departed thys life Hetherto are the words of Climacus which sufficiently declare how greatly carelesse and negligent men ought to feare the seperation of theyr soule and body when as the very Saints themselues are found to feare so greatly But if any one aske why the Saints placed in this danger do feare with so great trembling to this Saint Gregorie aunswereth in the fourth booke of his Morrals in these words The minde of the Elect when it remembreth those things vvhich it hath done is greatly feared with the dread of iudgement Now it looketh perfectly into it selfe but as yet it dooth not raise vp it selfe vnto security because whilst it considereth how great the cumbrance and horrour of the last examination is it carefullie trembleth betweene hope and feare because the iust Iudge comming he knoweth not what of his trespasses hee will impute vnto him what he will forgiue For they are not therefore secure if outwardly in outward action they haue not offended but they are carefull for theyr thoughts by which theyr minde is forced hether thether For as much as they can do that they may not offend outwardly so much they cannot doe that they may not offend inwardlie in their thought Therefore often-times the elect vnwillingly offend in thought which they marke diligently in themselues and consider what great gilt it is before the eyes of God And when as for these things they alwaies feare the strict iudgement of God yet then especiallie they doe feare when they comming to pay theyr debt vnto nature do see themselues approching to the strict exact Iudge And so much more pearcing is the feare by howe much more the eternall retribution is neere Moreouer before the eyes of theyr hart at that time no fantasticall thing doth flie because all such matters beeing taken away they onely consider themselues and him to whom they are approching Feare increaseth by the neere retribution of iustice and by the neerenes of death so much by howe much the strict iudgement is neere as it were touched Although they remember that they neuer offended in those things which they know yet they feare those things which they knowe not because they cannot vtterly iudge of and discerne themselues therefore their end growing neere they are terrified with a greater feare Neither is the soule of man then feared without cause seeing that after a very short time it shall haue that iudgement which neuer can be changed Hetherto Gregorie If therefore holy men with so great reason haue feared thys iudgement what ought not they to doe who are not such ones Yea who haue spent the greatest part of theyr lyfe in following the vanities of this world vvho so often haue offended God vvho hetherto haue liued most carelesly vvho neuer haue had any care of theyr saluation vvho haue neuer beene touched with any regard to prepare themselues for this houre If
so metrically ordered not of foure or fiue voyces as that is which wee now vse but tuned and ruled with the variety of so many numerous and harmonious voyces as there be Elect What great pleasure wil it be to heare theyr most sweet songs which S. Iohn heard in his Reuelation And they worshipped God sayth he saying Prayse and glory and wisedome and thanks and honour and power and might be vnto our God for euermore Amen If the glory and pleasure be so great to heare this harmonie and consent of voyces what wil it be to see the concord of bodies and soules so conformable and vniforme But how much more admirable wil it be to behold so great vnion of men and Angels What doe I say of men and Angels Yea so great an vnion betweene man and God himselfe Aboue al these it cannot fitly be imagined how acceptable and welcome a thing it wil be to see those most spacious fields and fountaines of lyfe and those most delicate feedings vpon the mountaines of Israel What wil it be to sit at that royall table to haue a place amongst those inuited Nobles and to dip thine hand into the dish with God that is to enioy one and the same glory of God There the Saints shal rest shal reioyce sing prayse and going in and out they shal finde pastures of inestimable delight If the rewards of Vertue be so great and so precious which our Catholique faith doe promise vs who wil be so blind slothful negligent and so peruerse that is not moued to contend with his whole strength for the obtayning of a reward so copious ample and large THE TENTH TITLE That the last of those foure last things that happen vnto vs that is Hell fire doth bind vs to seeke after Vertue CHAP. X. THE least of those good things which hetherto we haue remembred ought to be sufficient to beget a loue of Vertue in our minds by which we may obtayne so great blessings Now if to this vnmeasurable glory the greatnes of the torments of hel be added which are prepared for the wicked who wil be so hard harted and of so rebellious a mind that vices being forsaken wil not hereafter willingly embrace Vertue For the vngodly and peruerse shal not comfort themselues with this voyce Be it that I am wicked vngodly what then Shal I not enter into that heauenly glory Shal I not reioyce with God In this consists al my punishment Of other things I am not careful because I shal haue neyther glory nor any other punishment O my brother thou art deceaued the matter stands not so For it is of necessity that one of these must happen vnto thee that either thou shalt raigne eternally with God or that thou shalt be tormented with the deuils in euerlasting flames For betweene these two extreames there is no meane This is excellently shadowed out vnto vs in the figure of those two baskets which the Lord shewed vnto the Prophet Ieremy before the gate of the Temple for one basket had verie good figs euen like the figs that are first ripe and the other basket had very naughty figs which could not be eaten they were so euil The Lord by this spectacle would shew vnto his Prophet two kindes of men one to whom hee would shew mercy the other that he would punish according to his iustice The estate and condition of the first kinde of men was passing good neyther can a better be giuen of the other exceeding ill then which a worse cannot be found The condition and lot of the good is to see God which is the chiefest of al blessings but the misfortune and vnhappines of the wicked shal be to be depriued foâ—â—uer of the sight of God which euil is the worst of al euils These things ought they diligently to consider and alwayes to meditate vpon who feare not to commit sinne when as they see so great a burthen and so cruel and direful punishment appoynted for sinne Porters and Cariers when they are called to carry a burthen on their shoulders first they looke diligently vpon it then they peise and lift it vp and try whether they be able to vndergoe it and whether they can carry it and thou ô miserable man to whom sinnes are so pleasing that for a little pleasure hast enthralled thy selfe to carry the burthen of it ah mad man first prooue and assay how great the waight is of the burthen that is of the punishment which thou shalt suffer for this pleasure that thou mayst vnderstand whether thou hast strength to beare it That this proofe may be made more conueniently I wil bring hether a certaine consideration by the which after some manner thou shalt be able to vnderstand the quality and greatnes of the torments of hel that thou mayst make a triall whether thou beest sufficient to beare the burthen which thou vndertakest to carry when thou sinnest Let this then be the first consideration the greatnes and infinite immensity of God who will chastice and punish sinne that wee may see what an one God is in all his works This is it that I would say that God is great and admirable in al things not onely in the sea in earth and in heauen but also in hel In so much that if the Lord be God in al his works as we see that he is he wil be God also in his wrath in his iustice and in the punishment of sinners For this cause the Lord sayth by Ieremy Feare ye not me or will ye not be afrayde at my presence which haue placed the sand for the bounds of the Sea by the perpetuall decree that it cannot passe it and though the waues thereof rage yet can they not preuaile though they roare yet can they not passe ouer it That is ouer the limits appoynted of me As if he should say is it not meete that ye feare the arme of the Lord so mighty whose greatnes this admirable worke doth sufficiently shew He therfore that is great in al his works shal he not be great in punishing of sinners Hee that for one thing is worthy whom we doe reuerence and adore shal he not be worthy for an other thing that he may be feared For this cause the same Prophet although he was innocent and sanctified in his mothers wombe so greatly feared the Lord when he sayd There is none like vnto thee ô Lord thou art great and thy name is great in power Who would not feare thee ô King of Nations For to thee appertayneth the dominion for among all the wise men of the Gentiles and in all their kingdomes there is none like thee And in an other place I kept me farre off from men because my hart was full of the feare of thy wrath Although this Prophet was certaine that this wrath was not kindled against him yet it was so great that it brought feare vpon him Therefore it was sayd
by her owne nature is a most noble habite Which if it be true it followeth by a common manner of speaking that she will worke and labour with vs with ease and delight for this is proper vnto all habits Thou must remember that God hath not onely promised to his the blessings of glory but also the blessings of grace partly for this life and partly for the other according to that of the Prophet The Lord will giue grace and glory Which two are two store-houses filled with all good things one for this life the other for the other That thereby at the least may be vnderstood that there is somewhat more in Vertue then outwardly is seene To be briefe thou must consider that seeing that the Author of Nature doth not faile in any necessary thing because hee giueth to all his creatures those things that are necessary and seeing that in the world there is nothing more necessary nor any thing of greater moment then Vertue that he would not leaue her in the hands of a will so weake and crased of an vnderstanding so blind of an appetite so ready to all euill and of a nature so disordered and so corrupt through sinne but that he would prouide her of helpe and hability by ayde of which she might saile through this Sea For it was not meete nor conuenient that seeing the Diuine prouidence was so carefull in giuing to flies spiders and pismires hability and all instruments necessary to preserue their life that he should be vnmindfull of man and that he should not giue him those things which are necessary for the attainement of Vertue I will say more if the world and the deuill do bestow vpon their seruants for the seruice that they yeeld them so manie kinde of tasts pleasures and delights at the least so in appearance how is it possible that God should be so barren vnfruitfull to his friends and faithfull ministers that he should leaue them in the midst of their labours tribulations fasting and with hungry and dry mouthes Howe doost thou thinke then that the condition of Vertue hath so much gall and that there is so much honny in the flowers of vices Doost thou thinke that God will permit and suffer that one should enioy delights and another be exercised with troubles and many tribulations Thou art deceiued Heare what God aunswereth to the lamentations of the wicked by the mouth of his Prophet Returne and see what difference is betweene a righteous man and an vnrighteous and betweene one that serueth God and him that serueth him not In so much that God is not content with the preheminence which the iust shall haue ouer the vniust in the lyfe to come but in this present he saith Returne and see as though he should say I would not that you should onely looke to the world to come that you may know the glory of the blessed and the greatnes of their felicitie but returne now and see the difference in this life which is betweene a good man and an ill man consider of the riches of the one and the pouertie of the other the ioy of the one and the sorrow of the other the peace of the one and the vvarre of the other the light in which the one lyueth and the darknesse in which the other walketh and then ye shall know indeede how much more blessed and happy the estate of the righteous is then your opinion of them The like answere God gaue to certaine others who beeing deceiued with the same perswasion error mocked the good saying as it is in Esay Let the Lord bee glorified but hee shall appeare to your ioy and they shall be ashamed As if they should say Let the Lord declare the greatnes of his power and glory and let him show vnto you his fauor that by this way we may know the prosperitie felicitie that they haue which serue the Lord aboue them which serue him not To which words the Lord doth presently annexe the ioy and prosperitie of the righteous saying Reioyce yee with Ierusalem and be glad with her all yee that loue her reioyce for ioy with her all yee that mourne for her that yee may sucke and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolation that ye may milke out and be delighted with the brightnes of her glory For thus saith the Lord Behold I will extend peace ouer her like a flood the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing streame then shall ye sucke ye shal be borne vpon her sides and be ioyfull vpon her knees As one whom his Mother comforteth so will I comfort you and yee shall bee comforted in Ierusalem And when yee see this your hart shall reioyce and your bones shall florish like an hearbe and the hand of the Lord shall be knowne among his seruants As if hee shoulde say as men by the greatnes of heauen of the earth and of the sea and by the beauty of the Sunne of the Moone and of the starres doe come to the knowledge of the omnipotencie and excellencie of God by the meanes of such excellent and famous works so also the righteous doe come to the knowledge of the greatnesse of the power riches and goodnesse of GOD by the ineffable graces and gifts which they receiue of him and which they feele and perceiue in themselues For euen as God by the punishments and scourges which hee inflicted vpon Pharao declared to the whole world the greatnes of his seueritie against the wicked so by the gifts of his graces and vnmeasurable benefits which daily he bestoweth vpon the good he showeth the greatnes of his goodnes and his singuler loue with which hee embraceth them Blessed and happy without all doubt is that soule which by gifts and benefits receiued of God doth shew the greatnesse of his goodnesse but vnhappy and miserable is that soule which by punishments and torments dooth make manifest the greatnesse of the Diuine iustice Wherefore seeing that the greatnes of all these which we haue spoken of is so inestimable what shall the riuers be which flow frō these most fluent fountaines Adde moreouer that to these sayings If that the way of Vertue seeme to thee barren fruitles what is it that diuine Wisedome speaketh of herselfe Riches and honour are with mee euen durable riches and righteousnesse I cause to walke in the way of righteousnesse in the midst of the paths of iudgement that I may cause them that loue mee to inherite substance I will fill their treasures What be these riches what be these goods if not of the heauenly which exceede all the riches of this world what may bee compared to them who walke in the way of righteousnes which is Vertue herselfe of the which we speake For if heere there be not found riches more excellent and by this name more worthie then those which the world promiseth why doth the Apostle
all their tribulations This Dauid confesseth in his Psalmes when he sayth Thou vpholdest me in mine integritie and doost sette mee before thy face for euer That is thou neuer turnest thine eyes from me for that contitinuall care thou hast of mee Also hee sayth in another place The eyes of the Lord are vpon the righteous and his eares are open vnto theyr cry But the face of the Lord is against them that do euill to cutte off theyr remembrance from the earth But because the greatest riches of a good Christian is the prouidence which God beareth ouer him this the more certaine it is and better knowne vnto man the greater is his ioy confidence I thinke that I shall doe a thing worth the labour if I shall adde and bring hether moe places and testimonies of the sacred Scripture seeing that euery one of them are as the Charters and Letter-pattents of a King and new confirmations of the rich promises and legacies of his diuine will Therefore Ecclesiasticus sayth The eyes of the Lord are vpon them that feare him and he knoweth all the workes of man hee is their mighty protection and strong ground a defence from the heate and a shadow for the noone day a succour from stumbling and an help from falling he setteth vp the soule and lightneth the eyes he giueth health life and blessing Hetherto are the words of Ecclesiasticus out of which it is euident and plaine to euery man how many kind of duties there be which GOD supplyeth in the preseruation of man This the Prophet Dauid confirmeth The paths of man are directed by the Lord for he loueth his way Though he fall he shal not be cast of for the Lord putteth vnder his hand Consider I pray thee heere what ill can happen vnto him who falleth vpon a bolster so soft as is the hand of the Lord our God And in another place Many great sayth he are the troubles of the righteous but the Lord deliuereth him out of them all He keepeth all his bones not one of them is broken In the New Testament also more excellent magnificent things are spoken of this diuine prouidence where the Lorde sayth that he onely hath not a care of the bones of the righteous but also of euery one of theyr haires that they fall not nor perrish without his prouidence willing after this manner of speaking to insinuate and intimate vnto vs his greatest and speciallest prouidence towards them For of what thing shall not he haue care who hath a care of all our haires If this seeme too much vnto thee heare that which is no lesse which God speaketh by his Prophet Hee that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye It had beene sufficient to haue sayd hee that toucheth you toucheth me but it is more that he saith he that toucheth any part of you toucheth the apple of mine eye Neyther is our most bountifull Lord content that he hymselfe should alone watch-ouer our safetie but he also willeth that the Angels should be ready to doe vs seruice for so wee read in the Psalmes Hee hath giuen his Angels charge ouer thee to keepe thee in all thy waies they shall beare thee in theyr handes that thou hurt not thy foote against a stone Didst thou euer see I pray thee such a Chariot or Wagon as are the hands of Angels See therfore how the Angels who are our elder brethren doe beare the righteous in their armes who are their younger brethren who as yet know now how to walk alone but must be carryed in the armes of their elders And this they doe not onely in life but also in death at the history in the Gospell testifieth of the rich Glutton in which we see that the begger Lazarus after death was carryed of Angels into Abrahams bosome The diuine Psalmographer confirmeth this The Angell of the Lord pitcheth round about them that feare him and deliuereth them How mightie and strong this garde is the translation of S. Ierome dooth more expresse The Angell of the Lorde compasseth and encircleth them that feare him that he may deliuer them What King was euer founde that had such a garde as our Lord hath giuen vnto vs This is most manifestly seene in the bookes of the Kings the King of Syria comming to take the Prophet Elizeus brought a great Armie with him vvhich the seruaunt of the Prophet seeing feared and began to tremble But the Prophet turning to his prayer prayed the Lorde that hee would vouchsafe to open the eyes of his vnbeleeuing seruant that he might see the Armie which stoode for the defence of the Prophet being stronger by infinite thousands then that which came to hurt and wrong him And hee opened the eyes of his seruant and he saw the Mountaine ful of horses and of fierie Charrets for the defence and gard of Elizeus Like to this gard is that which is mentioned in the Canticles in these words What shall you see in the Shulamite which is the Church or any soule liuing in the state of grace but as the company of an Army that is an Armie of Angels This same also in the same booke is explaned by an other figure when it is said Behold Salomons bedde threescore strong men are rounde about it of the valiant men of Israell They all handle the sword and are expert in warre euery one hath his sword vpon his thigh for the feare by night What other thing is this then that the holy Ghost by this figure might teach and show the great care singuler prouidence by which God defendeth and watcheth ouer the soules of the righteous For whence is it I pray thee that man being conceaued in sin liuing in a corrupt flesh bent to all euill should passe so many yeeres among so many snares and dangers without destruction and vtter ruine of himselfe if hee were not preserued sustayned by the Diuine prouidence Which is so great that it dooth not onely preserue men from euill but also oftentimes it dooth turne the very euills into which men fall through carelesnesse and negligence into a matter of greater good that is as often as by that they are made more wary more humble and more thankfull vnto him who hath drawne them back from so great danger and hath pardoned them so great a sinne For this cause the Apostle sayth Vnto them that loue God all things worke together for the best If this fauour and friendship be worthy of admiration that shall be more worthy that God doth not onely shew this mercy to his seruants but also to their sonnes and Nephewes and to all things that appertaine vnto them as God himselfe testifieth saying I am the Lord thy God a iealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers vpon the children vpon the third generation and vpon the fourth of them that hate me And shewing mercy
that which was lost and bring againe that which was driuen away and will binde vp that which was broken and will strengthen the weake but I will destroy the fat and the strong and I will feede them with iudgment And a little after And I will make with them a couenant of peace and will cause the euill beasts to cease out of this Land and they shall dwel safely in the wildernes and sleepe in the woods And I will set them as a blessing euen round about my mountaine and I will cause raine to come downe in due season and there shall be raine of blessing Tell me I pray thee what could our good sheepheard promise more Or how could he describe this his meaning with words more sweet more louing or more elegant For it is certaine that God speaketh heere not of a materiall flocke but of a spirituall which are men where-vpon concluding this chapter he sayth And yee my sheepe the sheepe of my pasture are men Neyther promiseth he grosse or aboundance of temporall blessings which are common to good and euill but aboundance of spirituall graces and of speciall prouidence with which the Lord doth gouerne and rule this spirituall flock as a shepheard so sayth Esay He shall feede his flocke like a sheepheard he shall gather the Lambs with his arme and carry them in his bosome and shall guide them with young What I pray thee can be spoken more louingly or more cherishingly Of the offices and benefits of a sheepheard that whole Psalme speaketh whose beginning is The Lord doth guide me for which S. Ierome translateth The Lord is my sheepheard After this beginning he proceedeth to remember all the duties of a sheepheard which in this place we will not set downe because they are in euery place found and this psalme may be reade of any one Neyther heere in like maner will I remember that as he is called a sheepheard because he doth feede so is he called a King because he doth gouerne and defend a Maister because he teacheth a Phisition because he healeth a Carier because he beareth vs in his armes a Watcher because he watcheth for our defence of which names the Scriptures are full Among all these names there is none more louing which also demonstrateth this prouidence then the name of a Bride-grome by which name in the Canticles and in other places of Scripture he is called By thys sweet and louing word hee inuiteth the soule of a sinner to call vpon him Call mee and still cry vnto me sayth he by the Prophet Thou art my Father and the guide of my youth and virginity The which name is greatly honoured of the Apostle For after those words with which he that was first formed spake to his wife Eue Therefore shall a man leaue his Father and his Mother and shall cleaue to his wife they shall be one flesh the Apostle addeth This is a great secrete but I speake concerning Christ and concerning the Church Which is his Bride as is euery soule of man placed in the state of grace What therefore is not to be hoped of him who hath such a name as this is especially seeing that it is vndoubtedlie true that this name is not giuen vnto him in vaine or vvithout reason But why in searching the Scriptures doe we seeke for thys name or that when as all names which promise any good doe agree to this Lorde especially seeing that whosoeuer loueth him or whosoeuer seeketh him may finde in him all good that he desireth Thys is that which Saint Ambrose saith in a certaine Sermon Christ is all vnto vs If thou desirest to heale thy woūds he is a Phisition if thou beest ouer-heated with feauers he is a fountaine to coole thee if thou beest burdened with vnrighteousnes hee is righteousnesse if thou neede helpe hee is strength if thou fearest death he is life if thou desirest heauen he is the way if thou hatest darknes he is light if thou seekest for meat he is foode See I pray thee my brother with hovve many names and titles Christ is noted and set out vnto vs who notwithstanding is one in himselfe and most simple For although he is one in himselfe yet he is all things in vs that for the releeuing of all our necessities which are innumerable There should be no end if I would recite all the authorities of the Scripture which pertaine to this matter yet I haue brought a fewe of many to the comfort of them who waite attend vpon God and that we might prouoke and allure those to his obedience which doe not serue him for it is certaine that there is no greater treasure vnder heauen then this For euen as he that hath warred in any voyage vnder an earthly King and hath gotten Letters in which great rewards are promised vnto him he keepeth them with great care he often looketh vppon them he is reioyced at them they comfort his heauy hart in tribulation and at length he commeth to the King with them desiring that was promised to him so the seruants of GOD doe keepe all these words and diuine Charters and Letter-pattents in their harts which are more certaine then the Letters of all Kings which are vpon the earth In these is theyr trust vvith these they are comforted in their labors for these they are confident in dangers and in tribulations they adde consolation vnto them to these they runne in all theyr needes these doe inflame their mindes with the loue of this Lord and binde them vnto him to lay and pay out sustaine all things for his worshyp seruice seeing that he himselfe so faythfully doth promise himselfe wholy for our vse who is all things in all In thys appeareth one of the principall foundations of a Christian life to haue knowne by experience this truth Tell me I pray thee can any thing be imagined richer precioser better or more to be desired then he Can any one think of a greater good in this life then to haue GOD a Sheepheard a Phisitian a Maister a Supporter or Caryer a strong vvall a defence a garde and to conclude a Bridegrome and all in all What can any one haue in the world that he can giue to his friend to be compared to the least of these benefits Great cause therefore haue they to reioyce and be glad who possesse so great a good neyther onely to reioyce but also to comfort themselues and to cheere vp their drooping spyrits to glory in him aboue all things Be glad yee righteous and reioyce in the Lord sayth that royall Singer and be ioyfull all yee that are vpright in hart As if he should say Let others reioyce in the riches and honours of the world others in noblenes of birth others in the friendship and fauours of Princes others in the excellencie of theyr dignities but reioyce and glory ye in deed truth in
so great a good whose Lord is God who possesse God whose inheritance God is for by so much your good is more excellent by how much God is more excellent then the creatures This expresly confesseth the Prophet in the Psalmes saying Rescue and deliuer me ô Lord frō the hand of strangers whose mouth talketh vanity and theyr right hande is a right hand of falsehood that our sonnes may be as the plants growing vp in their youth and our daughters as the corner stones grauen after the similitude of a pallace that our corners may be full and abounding with diuers sorts and that our sheepe may bring foorth thousands and ten thousand in our streets that our Oxen may be strong to labour that there be none inuasion nor going out nor no crying in our streets Blessed are the people that be so yea blessed are the people whose GOD is the Lord. Why doost thou speake thys ô Dauid The reason is in a readines For he that possesseth GOD hee hath that good in which all goods are found which may be desired Let them glorie that will in all other things I will glory onely in the Lord my GOD. So also that holy Prophet dyd glory who said I will reioyce in the Lord I will ioy in the God of my saluation The Lorde God is my strength hee will make my feete like Hindes feete and hee will make me to walke vpon mine high places This then is the treasure this is the glory prepared for them in this world who serue the Lord. This is one and that the greatest reason which inuiteth vs to serue God and a iust complaint is it that God hath against them who will not serue him seeing that he is so good a Lord to them so faithfull a defendour and so sincere an Aduocate With this complaint in times past he sent Ieremy that he might expostulate and chide with the people saying What iniquitie haue your Fathers found in mee that they are gone farre from mee and haue walked after vanitie and are become vaine And a little after Haue I beene as a wildernesse vnto Israell or a land of darkenesse As if he should say No Seeing that this Land hath receaued of mine hands so many victories so much happines Wherefore sayth my people then Wee are Lordes wee will come no more vnto thee Can a mayde forget her ornament or a Bride her attire Yet my people haue forgotten me daies without number who am their ornament glory and beauty If God after this manner lamented in the old Lawe when as his fauours and graces vvere not so perfect what great cause hath he novve to lament seeing that his graces are so much the more excellent by hovve much they are more diuine and more spirituall Of that manner of prouidence by which God espieth out the wicked to chastise theyr maliciousnesse CHAP. XIII IF thou be not mooued with the loue of so happy and blessed a Prouidence in which the good do ioy at least let the feare of that Prouidence moue thee if it be lawfull so to call it with which God doth espy and watch ouer the wicked which is to measure them with theyr owne measure and to handle them according to the obliuion and contempt offered to the diuine Maiestie forgetting them who haue forgotten him and contemning them of whō first he was contemned But that I may speake this after a more homely manner God commanded his Prophet Hosea to take vnto him a wife of fornications that he might demonstrate the spiritual fornication of that people who had refused and put away theyr lawfull Bridegrome and Lord to play the fornicators And hee willed also that the Prophet should haue of that wife sonnes of fornications and the thyrd begotten he should call by an Hebrue name signifying Not my people that he might shew thereby seeing that they for their sinnes would not acknowledge GOD nor serue him as theyr God that he in like manner would not acknowledge them neither would haue them for his people And that he might confirme this sentence he saith by the Prophet a little below Pleade with your Mother pleade with her for shee is not my wife neyther am I her husband as if hee should say as shee hath not kept the fayth and obedience of a good wife towards me so in like manner I will not keepe that loue and prouidence which a good husband is wont to show and vse vnto a good wife See howe plainely our Lord teacheth vs heere how he dooth mete vnto euery one according to his owne measure whilst he dealeth so towards men as men deale with him Therefore the wicked doe liue as neglected and forsaken of the Lord and they are in this world as a patrimony without an heire as a schoole without a maister as a shippe without a guide and as a flock without a Pastour layd open to the deuouring greedines and voracity of Wolues After this manner he threatneth them by the mouth of his Prophet saying I will not feede you that that dyeth let it dye and that that perisheth let it perish and let the remnant eate euery one the flesh of his neighbor The same thing Moses obiecteth to Israel in his song I wil hide sayth the Lord my face from them I will see what their end shall be for they are a froward generation and children in whom is no fayth He sayth I will consider what their end shall be that is I will stand idely and will see what end their misery shall haue at length neyther will I bring any release vnto them Besides these things that haue beene spoken much more plainely speaketh Esay to the people of this kinde of prouidence vnder the name of a Vineyard in the person of the Lord against which when it had beene tilled and much cost and many benefits bestowed vpon it neyther brought forth tollerable fruites he pronounceth this sentence And now I will tell you what I will doe to my Vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof and it shall be eaten vp I will breake the wall thereof and it shall be troden downe And I will lay it wast it shall not be cut nor digged but bryers and thornes shall grow vp I will also commaund the cloudes that they raine no raine vpon it That is I will take away all the ayde and helpe with which I haue hetherto defended it which being taken away destruction and ruine will follow Doth not this kinde of prouidence seeme fearefull vnto thee Tell me what greater danger or what greater misery then to liue without the defence of the Diuine prouidence To be left and layd open to all the persecutions of the world to the iniuries and calamities of this life For seeing that the world is a tempestuous sea and as it were a wildernes full of theeues and fearefull beasts and seeing that there be so many and so great discomodities and
a little before where wee reade The Lord is a foundation to them that feare him Ierome translateth The secrete of the Lord is reuealed to them that feare him and his couenant to giue them vnderstanding Which gift is nothing else then a great light of the vnderstanding a sweet foode of the will and a great recreation of the whole man Which knowledge the same Prophet oftentimes calleth the foode of the soule sometimes the water of refreshing a table prepared against his enemies For this cause the same Prophet in that diuine Psalme whose beginning is Blessed are those that are vpright in their way so often doth desire of God that light and that knowledge Giue me sayth hee vnderstanding and I will keepe thy law yea I will keepe it with my whole hart And a little after I am thy seruant ô Lord giue me vnderstanding that I may know thy testimonies And afterwards Let my complaint come before thee ô Lorde and giue me vnderstanding according vnto thy vvord To conclude thys is that petition which hee repeateth so often which he had not craued with so great importunitie vnlesse he had very well vnderstood the force efficacie of this doctrine and the manner and meanes which God vseth in bestowing of it Which seeing that it is so what greater glory can there be what ampler dignity then to haue such a maister to frequent such a schoole where the Lord God himselfe sitting in a chaire prosesseth thys learning and heauenly philosophy If men as Saint Ierome testifieth in times past came to Rome frō the furthest coasts of Spayne and Fraunce that they might see Tytus Liuius whose eloquence was famous throughout the vvhole world And if that most excellent and famous Phylosopher Apollonius Tyaneus trauailed almost throughout the vvhole world and passed euen to the Mountaine Caucasus and to the Brachmanes Philosophers of India that he might onely heare Iarchas an Indian Philosopher in his golden throne prosessing wisedome among the small number of his schollers and disputing of the motion of the celestiall Spheares what ought not men to doe that they may heare God himselfe who sitteth in the chayre of theyr harts not teaching how the heauens are moued but how men may come to heauen But that thou maist knowe that this doctrine is not vnfruitful or common heare what the Prophet speaketh of it I haue had more vnderstanding then all my Teachers for thy testimonies are my meditation I vnderstood more then the auncient because I kept thy precepts More aboundantly yet doth the Lord promise to his by the mouth of his Prophet And the Lord thy GOD sayth he shall guide thee continually and satisfie thy soule in drought and make fatte thy bones and thou shalt be like a watred garden like a spring of vvater whose waters faile not What be these blessings with which the Lord will satisfie the soules of the righteous but knowledge of things belonging to saluation For in these he showeth how great the beauty of vertues be and howe great the filthines of vices are how great the vanity of the world is how great the dignity of grace is the greatnes of glory the sweetnes of the consolation of the holy Ghost the goodnesse of GOD the malice of deuils and to be breefe howe short the life of man is and how great and intollerable is the common errour of thē liuing in it With thys knowledge as the same Prophet testifieth a man is often lifted aboue the highnesse of all mountaines there doth contemplate of the King in his beautie and his eyes beholdeth the earth a farre off Hence it is that celestiall blessings seeme such vnto him as they are in truth because he seeth them neerely but terrestriall things seeme small for besides that they are such also hee beholdeth them a farre off The contrary happeneth to peruerse and wicked men who behold heauenly things a farre off earthly things neerly iust before theyr eyes This is the reason why they that participate of this heauenly gift are not puffed vp with vaine-glory in prosperitie neither are troubled or cast downe in ad uersitie for by the benefit of this light they see of what small moment it is that the world can eyther gyue or take away if it be compared with those things which are in the Lords power The wiseman witnesseth thys when hee sayth A man grounded in wisedome is stedfast as the Sunne as for a foole hee changeth as the Moone Which sentence Saint Ambrose expounding in a certaine Epistle saith thus For a vvise man is not broken through feare is not changed through power is not exalted in prosperitie neyther is drowned in aduersity For where there is vvisedome there is courage of minde there is constancie and fortitude A wise man therefore is one and the selfe same in minde he is not lessoned nor encreased through the change of things neyther as vnstaied doth he flote here and there to be carryed about with euery winde of doctrine but he remaineth perfect in Christ grounded in charitie an d rooted in fayth Let it not seeme strange to any that this wisedome is a thing of so great vertue for it is not earthly wisedom as we haue said it is not that puft and vaine wisedome which causeth to swell but that wich edifieth it is not that which with speculation only enlightneth the vnderstanding but that which with her heate gyueth motion to the will as it in times past moued the hart of Saint Augustine of whom it is written that through ioy hee wept as often as hee heard the Psalmody and Psalmes of the Church which sounded so sweetly the sound entred into the in most part of his hart and there through the heate of deuotion truth was resolued in his bowels and showred teares from his eyes which were to him as he saith most sweet pleasant O blessed teares happy Schoole and happy wisedome which bringeth forth such fruite what may bee compared with her Man knoweth not the price of it for it is not founde in the Land of delicate liuers The depth saith It is not in mee the sea also saith it is not with me Gold shall not be giuen for it neyther shall siluer be weighed for the price thereof It shall not be valued with the wedge of gold of Ophir nor with the precious Onix nor the Saphir The Golde nor the Christall shal bee equall vnto it nor the exchange shal be for plate of fine gold Which cōmendation of wisedome thys most holy man concludeth in these words Beholde the feare of the Lord is wisedome and to depart from euill is vnderstanding Thys therefore my brother is one of those great rewards by which thou art inuited to Vertue seeing shee hath the key of thys treasure After thys manner the Wiseman inuiteth vs vnto her in his Prouerbs My sonne sayth hee if thou wilt receiue my words
nothing so much as pleasures these men say at least their works speake if not their words that they had rather haue pleasure vnperfect then that which wanteth pleasure with all her perfections and prerogatiues This is that Lactantins Firmianus sayd in times past Because sayth he bitternernes is mixed with vertues and vices are seasoned with pleasures and men eschew bitternes and are inticed with the sweetnes of pleasures many forsaking vertues with great earnestnes follow after vices This is one and the onely cause of so great a mischiefe and hee that shall bring men from this perillous errour he shall not bestow a small benefit vpon them and he that shall prooue by most euident arguments that the way of vertue is much more playner and sweeter then the way of vices he shall mightily helpe them This is that wee would now prooue and demonstrate with most firme arguments and clearer then any light especially with the authorities of the diuine Scripture seeing that they are more certaine and sound proofes then those which may be brought for this matter from any other place For the heauen and the earth shall sooner perish then any iote or title of them Tell me therefore ô blinde man wrapped in miserable errors if the way of the Lord be so bitter as thou imaginest to thy selfe what meaneth that of Dauid How great ô Lord is the sweetnes of thy goodnes which thou hast layd vp for them that feare thee In which words the Prophet doth not onely expresse the greatnes of the sweetnes which is giuen of the Lord to the righteous but also he doth render a reason why the wicked doe not know it because the Lord hath layd it vp from theyr eyes What other thing meaneth that of the same Prophet My soule shall be ioyfull in the Lord it shall reioyce in his saluation All my bones that is all my strength and might shall say Lord who is like vnto thee Tell me what other thing is this then to say that the ioy and mirth of the righteous is so great that although it be directly taken in the spirit it doth redound neuerthelesse for the aboundance and plenty thereof also vpon the flesh that which before knew not to be delighted but in carnall things now for the communion and participation of the spirit is delighted in spirituall things and reioyceth in the liuing God and that with so great ioy that all the bones of the body being full of this admirable sweetnes doe force a man to cry out Lord who is like vnto thee What pleasures are like thine What ioy what loue what peace can any creature giue comparable to this of thine What meaneth this also of the same Psalmist The voyce of ioy and deliuerance shall be in the tabernacles of the righteous What I say meaneth that vnlesse that he might signifie that true ioy and deliuerance are not found in the houses of sinners but in the soules of the righteous What also meaneth the Prophet when he sayth The righteous shall be glad and reioyce before God yea they shall leape for ioy but that hee might shew the ioyes and spirituall feastings with which God oftentimes vvonderfully doth refresh the soules of the righteous with the sweetnes of all celestiall thinges In which banquets there is drunke that most sweete wine which the same Prophet praysing sayth They shall be satisfied and drunke with the fatnes of thine house and thou shalt giue them drinke out of the riuer of thy pleasures With what other words could the Prophet haue more cunningly or liuely depainted and expressed the greatnes of these delicates calling them drunkennes and a riuer of pleasures that hee might shew the force and efficacie which they haue to draw the mindes of men from earthly things and to conuert them to God This is vnderstoode by this drunkennes For euen as a man who is ouercome with much wine looseth the vse of his sences neyther differeth much from a dead man by reason of the strength of the wine so when any one is full of that heauenly wine hee dyeth to the world and hath all his sences with all their desires shackled and fettered Furthermore what meaneth that of the same Prophet Blessed is the people that can reioyce in thee Some body perhaps might haue sayd Blessed is the people who haue plentifully all things necessary for them who is encompassed with strong wals and enuironed with mighty bulwarks who is garded with choyce Seruants and Souldiours But this most holy King who knew all these doth not speake so but he sayth that he is blessed who hath learned by experience what it is to ioy and reioyce in the Lord not with euery kinde of ioy but with that which is worthy of the name of ioy which as Gregory sayth is a ioy of the spirit so great that it cannot be expressed nor shewed by any externall signes Blessed therefore is the people who so hath profited and hath made such progresse in the sweetnes and loue of God that knoweth by experience what this ioy is which neyther that most wise Plato could vnderstand nor that most eloquent Demosthenes vtter with words but it is onely knowne to an humble and pure hart in which God dwelleth If God be the Author of this ioy I pray thee consider how great it ought to be which proceedeth from God for it is certaine that as the diuine punishment is like to God himselfe so also his comfort is wont to be like and conformable vnto him But if his punishment when hee correcteth man be so great how great thinkest thou shall his consolations be when he doth comfort man If hee hath a hand so heauy to smite how light shall it be when hee stretcheth it out that hee may stroke and cherish his friends Especially seeing that this good God is much more meruailous in his works of mercy then in his works of iustice Moreouer tell me I pray thee what is that Celler of vvine of most precious wine into which the Bride doth glory that shee was brought of her Bridegrome What is that banquet to which that same Bridegrome doth call his friends when he sayth Drinke my friends and be drunken my beloued What drunkennes is this but the greatnes of the diuine sweetnes and ioy which doth so alienate and infatuate the hart of man that a man seemeth as it were to be carried beyond himselfe For it is wont to be commonly sayde that a man is drunke when the wine that he drinketh is of greater measure and more aboundant then that his naturall heate may concoct or digest for then the wine ascendeth into the braine and so ruleth ouer man that now hee doth not rule himselfe but is ruled of the wine Which thing if it be so tell mee I pray thee what shall be the state of that soule drunken with that heauenly wine When it is as it were a vessell
thee For such are wont to feele great motiues and prickes in the beginning of theyr conuersion as Thomas Aquinas sheweth in a certaine worke of his Amongst other causes of this alacrity and ioyfulnes hee sayth that this is one the nouelty of theyr estate of their loue of their light and knowledge of diuine things which then they know but did not know before For the nouelty of that knowledge doth beget in them exceeding admiration and loue ioyned with incredible sweetnes and gratitude which they exhibite vnto him of whom they haue receaued so great good things and of whom they are deliuered and freed out of so great darknes We see by experience that a man when he entreth into any famous Citty or royall Pallace the first day he walketh wondering his minde hanging in suspence by reason of the nouelty of things that there he seeth but when hee hath stayed longer in that place and hath seene the same things oftner that admiration is diminished and that pleasure lesned with which hee did see them at first The same thing happeneth to them at the first when as they enter into this new Citty of grace by reason of the nouelty of things which by little and little are vncouered and layd open in it Therfore it is not to be meruailed at if the Nouices Punies of piety doe feele greater feruours in their soules then those that be antient for the nouelty of the light knowledge of diuine things doth worke in them a greater alteration Hence it is that Saint Bernard hath very well noted that the elder sonne did not lye when hee sayd Behold so many yeeres haue I serued thee neyther euer haue I omitted thy commaundement yet neuer didst thou giue mee a Kid that I might banquet with my friends But after that this thy sonne who hath spent and consumed his substance with harlots came thou killest the fatted Calfe New loue worketh like new wine and water in a Cauldron is so long quiet vntill it beginneth to feele the heate of the fire then forth-with it boyleth swelleth and is carried aloft But afterward although the heate be more intense and augmented yet the water is more quiet and not so swelling leaping and bubling vp as it was when it first began to waxe hot The Lord most curteously and most amiably doth embrace them who first enter into his house The first day they eate with all pleasant allurements and all things are delightsome and acceptable Also the Lord doth himselfe towards these younglings and incipients as Merchants are wont who first bring out a show of their merchandize that by that the buier may estimate the whole thing and thereby be the more willing and be sooner drawne on to buy The loue with which parents embrace theyr young children although it is not greater then that by which they loue those that be elder yet it is more tender and more faire and pleasant These must walke alone the other are carried in their armes these are sent to labour and take paines the other are nourished deliciously and left to doe what they will these vnlesse they get their lyuing they often are hungry the other being idle and doing nothing are desired and entreated to eate yea meate is put into their mouthes Out of this friendship and sweete fellowship of the Lord a spirituall ioy at the length ariseth in them of which the Prophet speaketh Thou waterest aboundantly their furrowes thou multipliest their generations and their growing and braunching shall prosper and reioyce through thy dewing and dropping vpon them What generations be these What branching and growing and what dewing showring vnlesse the dew of the diuine grace by which the spirituall plants are watered which newly haue beene transplanted into the Lords Orchard Of these therefore sayth the Prophet that they are reioyced and refreshed with the dew and showers of his water which is sent from aboue that he might signifie the great ioy which they pertake in the nonage of this new visitation and celestiall benefit But least thou shouldest thinke because hee calleth this friendship or grace a dew or small showre that therefore according to the signification of the name it is little and small which is giuen to young beginners Saint Augustine sayth they drinke of the riuer of Paradice one drop of which is greater then the Ocean which alone is able to quench the thirst of the whole world The argument of them doth not ouerthrow this who say that they doe not feele these ioyes and consolations For if the palate which is corrupted and distempered by ill humors doth not tast the sweetnes of meate for that which is sweet seemeth bitter and that which is bitter sweet what meruaile is it if he that hath his soule corrupted with the worst humors of vices and inordinate affections so accustomed to the flesh-pots of Egipt that he loatheth Manna the bread of Angels Purge thy palate with the teares of repentance and that being purged thou shalt tast and see how sweete the Lord is If these things be so tell me my brother I pray thee what be the goods of this world if they be compared with these they shall not scarcely seeme durt and dung The Doctours teach that there is two kinds of blessednes one vnperfect the other perfect one present the other to come one of the way the other of the Countrey this the blessed enioy in glory the other the righteous enioy in this world What other thing is to be wished of thee then that here thou mayst begin to be happy and that thou mayst receaue in this life the pledge and earnest of the diuine espousals which there are solemnized by words for the present but heere they begin by words for the time to come O man sayth a learned Diuine seeing thou mayst liue in this Paradice enioy a treasure so inestimable goe and sell all that thou hast and purchase for thy selfe this precious and fertile possession especially seeing that it is not deare for it is Christ that selleth it yea rather which giueth it freely Doe not defer this purchase to the time to come for one minute of this time which now vainely slideth from thee is more precious then the treasures of the whole world Although this purchase at the length be giuen vnto thee yet be thou sure that with great greefe thou shalt complaine that thou hast wanted it so long and sorrowing with Saint Augustine thou wilt say I haue loued thee to late and after the time that I should ô thou beauty so auntient and so new I haue loued thee in the euening This blessed man alwayes lamented his slownes although at the length hee was not frustrated of his crowne Therefore attend thou diligently least thou at one time or other complaynest with the like sorrowing that now by thy negligence thou doost loose those blessings which the righteous enioy in this
scarcelie it is knowne or noted in any man All these things doe sufficientlie declare how miserable thys seruitude is and with what a horrible punishment man is condemned for sinne seeing that for it the noblest creature is deliuered into the hands of so barbarous and cruell a Tyrant Ecclesiasticus hath expressed the nature of this beast when he beseeched the Lord that hee would put from him all wicked and vngodly desires that hee would take from him the greedines of the belly that the lust of the flesh should not take hold of him and that he might not be giuen ouer to an impudent minde As if he should say that he desired that he might not be deliuered into the hands of such a Tyrant or executioner For he supposed that such an appetite was worthy of such a name But if thou desirest to know how great the force and power of thys Tyrant is thou maist easily gather of that which he hath done and which hee daily dooth in thys world I will not send thee to the fables of Poets which tell vs how that most famous Hercules after he had conquerd all the Monsters of the world at the length beeing captiuated with the loue of a certaine lasciuious woman cast away his club and sat amongst other vvomen spynning and drawing out threds from his distaffe For so the woman that hee loued commaunded him yea if hee did it not she threatned him and checked him Thys those wise Poets fained more ingeniously then truly that they might shewe the cruell tyrannic and power of that appetite Neyther vvill I bring out of the holy Scriptures that known example of Salomon who beeing most holy and most wise yet hee was so besotted by his Concubines that his true God beeing forsaken he adored Idols and builded for them magnificent and stateliâ— Temples that hee might serue these impure harlots and his owne appetite although this example doth no lesse argue the tiranny of this most pestilent passion then that afore For I had rather bring those which daily are obuious to our eyes Consider I pray thee into what present danger an adulterous woman doth cast her selfe that she may satisfie her inordinate lust for it pleaseth vs to take an example from that perturbation seeing that the knowledge of the rest doe depend of the knowledge of one That woman knowes if she be found of her husband in an act so wicked and detestable that she shall be slaine without any hope of pardon shee knowes that shee shall loose together at one and the selfe same time her soule her life her honour her riches and all other blessings which she might hope for eyther in this world or in the world to come then which losse surely a greater nor a more vniuersall cannot be inuented or thought of She is not ignorant that she shall be a perpetuall reproch and scandale to her desamed children to her father and mother also to her brethren and sisters and to her whole family and that shee shall for euer be a griefe vnto them Neuerthelesse so great is the violence of this appetite or that I may speake better the power of this Tyrant that he forceth the woman to all these and easily bringeth her to so great danger and she doth willingly what so euer he commaundeth her What Barbarian or Tyrant was euer found in the world who could euer force his seruant to vndergoe so great dangers and so farre to obey him What captiuity can be found more hard or sharper In this estate all sinners liue as the Prophet witnesseth when he sayth That they dwell in darknes and in the shadow of death being bound in misery and yron That is in yron chaynes What darknes is this except that blindnes in which the wicked are conuersant as we haue shewed before seeing that they know neither themselues nor God as they ought to knowe neyther for what cause they liue neyther for what end they are created much lesse doe they know the vanity of the things they loue neyther this seruitude wherein they liue What be these bonds with which they are bound vnlesse the violence of their affections which holdeth their harts tyed with the most straight bonds of those things which they to inordinately doe desire And what is that hunger and misery which they suffer but an insatiable appetite and desire by which they are tormented about infinite things which they cannot haue Consider now therefore if any captiuity harder or sorer can be sustayned or borne But that thou mayst know this yet more plainely I will illustrate it by another example Behold Amnon King Dauids eldest sonne when as he laciuiously had beheld his sister Thamar he was so blinded with this darknes and so miserably bound with these chaines and so vehemently tormented with this hunger that he could neyther eate nor drinke nor sleepe yea he was so farre enamoured of her that he was sicke for her loue Tell me I pray thee what ones were the chaines of this perturbation or appetite with which his hart was bound when it so changed his flesh and so infected the humors of his body that a great infirmity followed vpon it But that thou mayst know that the remedy of this infirmity was not to haue obtayned that he desired marke how the same Amnon was further out of square and more greeuously afflicted and more vexed with a contrary affection after hee had satisfied his lust then he was before for the Scripture sayth And hee hated her exceedingly so that the hatred where-with he hated her was greater then the loue where-with he had loued her So that the rauishing of his sister did not free him from the passion but changed the one into another greater Is there any Tyrant to be found in the world who so often doth tosse and turmoyle his Captiues that doth commaund them to doe vndoe that forceth them to goe and returne the same way Certainely beleeue me my brother they are all such who are subiect to the like vices who are scarce Lords ouer themselues For they eate nothing they drinke nothing they thinke vpon nothing they speake nothing they dreame of nothing but of it So that neyther the feare of God nor their conscience nor heauen nor hell nor death nor iudgement nor oftentimes life it selfe and their proper honour which they so ambitiously loue and maintaine can bring them from this way or breake these bonds What shall I speake of their iealousie of their feare of their suspitions and of other externall accidents in which they are plunged night and day casting themselues headlong into most certaine danger of life and honour for this rauening and tormenting pleasure Is there any Tyrant in the world which after such a manner doth dominere and tyrannize ouer his seruant as vice rageth and raigneth ouer this mans hart For a seruant is neuer so bound to his Lord that night and day he doth wayte vpon him
men making theÌ„ vnfit to performe the worship of God cutting off theyr hands that they shoulde doe no good and theyr feete least they should come vnto him by their endeuours and desires Hee made men also to gather the fragments of meat vnder his table that is the pleasures of this world with which this Prince and Tyrant doth nourish his seruants And rightly they are called the fragments of meate and not parts or peeces for the niggardlines which the deuill vseth in deuiding his goods among his is so great that he neuer giueth them so much as will satisfie theyr gurmandizing paunches But after our Sauiour came into the world he turned the same punishment vpon the Tyrant by which he before afflicted and pnnâ—shed others cutting off his hands and his feete that is destroying all his workes and enfeebling all his strength Who properly died in Ierusalem for the Sauiour of the world there dying he slew the Prince of the world and where he was crucified there was crucified also the Prince of the world and being bound hand and foote all his power was taken from him And so presently after that most holy and sacred passion of our Sauiour men began to tryumph ouer this Tyrant and with great power to raigne ouer the deuill the world and all vices so that all the torments of the world shall not be able to driue force men to ruinate their soules ¶ Causes from which this liberty ariseth PErhaps thou wilt aske me whence this so admirable victory and liberty came I answere that this after God first proceeded from the Diuine grace as we haue before sayd Which by the mediation of vertue comming from it doth moderate and temper the fury of our appetites that they cannot preuaile against reason Wherefore euen as Sorcerers know by certaine verses how to inchaunt Serpents that they cannot hurt men so that they yet lyuing are not poysonous and hauing poyson they cannot spit nor cast it vpon others so also the Diuine grace doth after that maner enchaunt the venemous Serpents of our affections that they lyuing and being whole in our naturall essence cannot hurt vs neyther can they poyson or intoxicate our life as before they were wont This as being taught from heauen Esay sheweth very excellently in these words And the sucking child shall play vpon the hole of the Aspe and the weined child shall put his hand vppon the Cockatrice hole Then shall none hurt nor destroy in all the mountaine of mine holines for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters that couer the Sea It is certaine that the speech of the Prophet is not heere of materiall Serpents but of spirituall which are our appetites and euill inclinations for these when they are free and not hindered infect the world with their poyson neither doth he speake of corporall chyldren but of spirituall amongst whom hee is sayd to be a sucking childe who first beginneth to serue God who as yet hath neede of milke vntill hee bee further growne and he is called the weined child who hath somewhat profited and goeth on his feete and now is fedde with more solide meat as bread and other foode fit for men Therefore the Prophet speaking as well of the one as of the other saith at the first that they shall play be delighted because they see themselues liue in the midds of spirituall Serpents and yet by the vertue of the Diuine grace they doe not receiue of them any mortall hurt by consenting to sin Others after they are weined and haue profited in the way of the Lord he saith that they shall put theyr hands vpon the holes of Cockatrices as if hee shoulde say that God doth keepe them in the midst of the greatest dangers For in them is fulfilled that of the Psalmographer Thou shalt walke vpon the Lyon and Aspe the young Lyon and the Dragon shalt thou tread vnder feete These are they that put their handes vppon the holes of Cockatrices neither feele any hurt For the plentie of grace which God poureth vpon the earth dooth enchaunt these Serpents after that manner that they cannot hurt the sons of GOD. This thing the Apostle declareth more perspicuously and without a metaphore when after he had spoken copiously of the tyrannie of our appetites and of our flesh at the length crieth out O wretched man that I am who shall deliuer me froÌ„ the bodie of this death presently hee aunswering himselfe saith The grace of God which is giuen by Iesus Christ our Lord. In vvhich place by the body of death the Apostle vnderstandeth not a body subiect to naturall death which we all looke for but that which in another place is called the body of sinne which is an inordinate appetite ready and apt to all euill From which as from a body the members of all passions and inordinate desires doe arise and grow which draw vs to all kinde of sinne From this body as from a cruell Tyrant the grace of God hath deliuered and freed vs which is giuen through Iesus Christ as the Apostle saith After this there is another cause not of the least value that is the greatnes of the ioy spirituall consolations which the righteous enioy in this world as we haue said before For this doth so quench the thirst of all concupiscences that a man may easily ouer-come and cast from him all other affections The Fountaine of all good things beeing found foorth-with that troublesome and disquiet tast of all other delights perrisheth as our Sauiour testifieth in the Gospell hauing conference with the woman of Samaria Whosoeuer drinketh saith he of the water that I shall giue him which is the grace of God he shall ueuer be more a thirst The same thing also S. Gregorie testifieth in a certaine homilie But if any man saith he hath tasted with the mouth of his hart what is the sweetnes of heauenly rewards what be the musicall assembles of Angels and what is the incomprehensible vision and sight of the holy Trinitie to this man by hovve much that is more sweet which inwardly hee feeleth and seeth by so much that is more bitter which outwardly hee pertaketh Now he aymeth to goe beyond all those things that come into his consideration now his minde is suspended from exteriour delights and he doth search out what the inuisible blessings be he is fedde with the tast of that incircumscriptible light and being carried beyond and aboue himselfe he doth disdaine againe to be deiected and cast downe to himselfe When as nowe the vessell of our hart is full after this manner of that heauenly liquor nowe the thirst of our soule is quenched now remaineth no further any reason or cause to desire or seeke after the fraile goods and abiect things of this life Therefore our soule is free neither is it bounde any longer with the chaynes of euill appetites for
the desires and affections of our appetite are brought into such order that they are stilled quieted and content with that part and portion that happeneth vnto them according to the disposition of the vpper portion of the soule For there the part concupiscible thinketh her selfe satisfied when she seeth her sister contented and so the whole man resteth and is quieted by reason of the participation and tast of the chiefest good Fourthly this peace proceedeth from the testimony and inward ioy of a good conscience which bringeth great quietnes and tranquillity to the soules of the righteous although it doth not make them vtterly secure for they doe not remaine without the care and dread of holy feare Lastly this feare is engendered of hope which the righteous haue in the Lord for that maketh them quiet after a singuler manner and comforteth men in the midst of the tribulations and torments of this life because they are strengthened with the anchor of holy hope that is they hope that they haue God theyr father theyr tutor theyr defender and buckler vnder whose shadow and shield they not without good cause liue securely singing with the Prophet I will lay me downe and also sleepe in peace for thou Lord onely makest me dwell in safety For hence springeth and ariseth the peace of the righteous and a remedy in all theyr troubles neyther haue they any cause to feare or lament who haue such an helper Of the ninth priuiledge of Vertue that God heareth the prayers of the righteous and reiecteth the prayers of the wicked CHAP. XXI THey that embrace and seeke after Vertue haue yet another priuiledge besides those which hetherto we haue spoken of that is that their prayers are heard of God and this vnto them is a notable and an excellent comfort and a singuler helpe in all their necessities and miseries of this life For the vnderstanding of this priuiledge we must know that there haue beene two vniuersall deluges and drownings of this world the one materiall the other spirituall and they both had one cause that is sin The materiall deluge that was in the time of Noah left nothing aliue in the worlde but those that were in the Arke for the waters couered all things so that the Sea deuoured the earth with all the labours and riches of men But there was another flood before that much greater then this for it did not onely hurt and endamage the men of that age but it brought deadly destruction to all the men of the ages past present and to come neyther did it onely hurt their bodies but also theyr soules for it spoyled them of all the riches of grace which the world had receaued by the meanes of him that was first formed And in this miserable estate all things as yet continue as we may see in euery creature which newly commeth into this world being naked and disfurnished of all the goods as well of the soule as of the body From this first deluge all those miseries beggeries and calamities are deriued to which mans life is subiect which are so many and so great that learned Wryters and graue Doctors of the Church haue written large and copious volumes of this matter Philosophers also very learned on the one part considering the dignity of man aboue all other lyuing creatures and on the other vnto what great miseries and vices he was subiect they could not wonder sufficiently at it seeing so great disorder and misgouernment in the world for they vnderstoode not the cause which was sinne For they did note and marke that onely man amongst so many liuing creatures enioying so many thousand kindes of pleasures and desires of the flesh was vexed with couetousnes ambition and insatiable desire to liue neither with these bonds his misery to be limitted but that hee must thinke of his death and buriall and what shall become of him after death There is not any liuing creature that hath a nature more fraile or inflamed with greater gurmandize or couetousnes neyther that feareth more vainely or more rageth through anger They did also see that other lyuing creatures did passe the greater part of their life without sicknesses and infirmity without the helpe of Phisitions and that all necessaries were prouided for them without their labour or industry But on the contrary part they did see that miserable man was exposed and layd open to a thousand infirmities mischaunces necessities and greefes as well of soule as of body both for himselfe and for his friends That which is past greeueth him that which is present afflicteth him that which is to come terrifieth him and that oftentimes he laboureth and taketh paynes all his life long for a morsell of bread and a mouth full of water to sustaine himselfe with all Neyther can I so soone make an ende to speake of these miseries of mans life of which blessed Iob sayth The life of man is a warfare vpon earth and his dayes as the dayes of an hireling This same thing with so great tediousnes afflicted those auntient vvise-men that there be some found amongst them who feared not to say that they doubted whether Nature was a mother vnto vs or not much rather a stepdame which hath exposed vs to so great miseries Another sayd That it is the best for man neuer to haue beene borne and the next soone after to dye Neyther erred he that sayd That many would not haue desired life if they had made tryall of it before If therfore our life be thus deformed through sinne and our chiefest renowne and principall good lost through this deluge what remedy hath he left for man who so grieuously hath punished mankinde Tell me what remedy hath a lame and a weake sickly man who sayling vpon the Sea looseth at one mischance all his riches I know what thou wilt say vnto me If hee haue not whereon to liue sayst thou neyther hath ability to traffique by reason of his infirmity it followeth of necessity that he must begge Goe to then if man in that vniuersall deluge lost what so euer he had and scarcely escaped the danger poore and naked what other remedy is left vnto him then that like a most needy begger he call and cry at the gates of the Lord This King Iehosophat teacheth plainely when he sayth Lord when wee are ignorant what we ought to doe we haue onely this remedy that we may lift vp our eyes towards thee To this agreeth King Hezechias From day to night sayth he wilt thou make an ende of me Like a young Swallow so did I chatter I did mourne as a Doue As if he should haue sayd I am so poore and I doe so depend of thy mercy and prouidence that not one day I am assured of my lyfe Therefore all my exercise shall be alwaies to mourne grone poure out my sighes before thee as a Doue and I will call and cry out
beleeuest in him where is thy charity where is thy fortitude where is thy obedience where is thy patience where is thy faithfulnesse and where is thy strength of hope Is this the end of all thy labors is this thy good purpose is this that thou so often desiredst prayedst to God for Remember that Christianitie consisteth not onely in this to fast to pray to heare seruice and sermons but it is necessary that God find thee faithfull as another Iob or Abraham in the time of trouble A righteous man beeing helped after this manner by his good meditations and contemplations by his owne vertue and by the fauour of the Diuine grace which neuer forsaketh him at length commeth to that passe that he beareth the burden of his troubles not onely with patience but also with thanks-giuing and with great ioy A proofe of this is the example of the holy man Tobias the elder of whom it is written that after many calamities with which he was proued yea by Gods sufferance he lost his sight in his old age that an example of patience might be giuen vnto men he was neither consumed through griefe of minde neither lost he that sayth and obedience which before he had Wherefore the Scripture sayth But God therefore suffered this temptation to happen vnto him that an example of his patience might remaine vnto posteritie like as of holy Iob. For when as hee had alwayes feared God euen from his infancie and had kept his commaundements hee did not murmur against God that this plague of blindnesse fell vppon him but he remained vnmoueable in the feare of GOD giuing thanks to God all the dayes of his life Thou seest therefore that the holy Ghost dooth adde patience in troubles vnto vertue and vnto the feare of the Lorde which this holy man had according to that which before hath beene said There might also in this place be remembred certaine excellent and famous examples of our time in which certaine men and maids the seruants of GOD haue borne very great troubles and afflictions with great ioy who in bitternesse haue found sweetnes in tempest a calme and in the midst of the Babylonian fornace haue found a most wholsome and comfortable refreshing ¶ Of the impatience and fury of the wicked in tribulations THere is lesser cause to praise the Lord when we see the righteous constant in tribulation then there is to lament and grieue when we see the wicked compassed and enclosed vvith troubles For these haue neither charitie nor fortitude nor hope nor any vertues like vnto those and so tribulations finde them vnarmed and vnprepared neither haue they light by benefit of which they might see that which the righteous doe see through fayth neither doe they embrace that by a liuely hope neyther by experience haue they tryed that singuler goodnes fatherlie prouidence of God by which he watcheth ouer his It is a thing worthy of exceeding sorrow to see them swallowed vp in this sea neither to finde any footing nor any body to reach the hand vnto them to stay and support them For whilst they haue not this helpe and saile without this Pilot and Gouernor and fight without this Armour what is to be hoped for of thē but that they must be drowned and make shypwracke in that storme and tempest or that they must be slaine in this warre What is to be hoped for of them but that they must be tossed with the stormes of windes and with the floods of tribulations and that they must split theyr ship against the rocks of vvrath faint-hartednes impatience blasphemy and desperation There are many also found who furthermore haue lost their vnderstanding their health their life or els their sight through continuall mourning teares So that one part of men as most pure gold tried in the fire of affliction remaineth firme vnconquerable and another part as lead or tinne foorth-with is melted through the heate of the fire Therfore whilst one sorroweth another singeth and where one is drowned and choked another swimmeth and walketh dry foote therfore in the Tabernacles of the righteous alwaies the voyce of prayse and myrth dooth sound but in the houses of sinners lamentations are alwaies heard and voyces full of misery and confusion But if thou wilt more plainly vnderstand that which I say consider the sighes and sorrowes and the extreame lamentations of certaine great noble women after that by death they had lost a son or a husband and thou shalt find that some of thē haue closelie shutte vp themselues in obscure and darke places where they might neither see the Sunne nor the Moone others lyke beasts shutte themselues vp in Caues and Dennes of the earth others haue cast themselues into the fire others to whom lyfe was a payne and death a desire haue dashed out theyr ovvne braynes against a wall To be briefe others after easier maners through impatience and vehemencie of sorrowe haue ended theyr liues and ouerthrowne their families But this is more that not onely they haue been cruel and inhumane vnto themselues but they haue maliciously spurn'd against God blaspheming his Name and reuiling and reproching his prouidence cursing his iustice banning his mercy and opening theyr sacriligious mouthes against heauen and against the high and soueraigne maiestie of God Hence it is that calamities and miseries at the length doe raine and shoure vpon their houses and theyr miseries are doubled which the Lord sendeth vnto them for so great blasphemies For this reward deserueth he who spetteth in the face of God and willingly kicketh against the pricke Yea oftentimes this worke of the hand of GOD is wont to be most iust that hee suffereth man from one calamitie and tribulation to fall into greater Wherefore these vnhappy and miserable wretches the guidance of Vertue leauing them doe all thinges after a contrary and preposterous manner and doe peruert all order in the time of tribulation they blaspheme where they ought to blesse they are proude when humilitie is required augmenting their owne woe and misfortune with that punishment they bring vpon themselues and making their case more desperate with that medicine which they thought to apply vntothemselues which is as the beginning of one hell and going to another which is prepared For if hell be a place of punishments and sinnes what hindereth but that wee may say that there is a certaine resemblance of hell where so many punishments and so many sinnes are found But besides all these what griefe is it to see howsoeuer it be done yet that there is no remedy but that tribulation must bee suffered but to take them vpon vs and to beare them with patience doth make the burden lighter and is well pleasing vnto God but how miserable is that man which loseth the fruite of his patience for beare he must increaseth by impatience the bitternes of his condition which sorer afflicteth then the misfortune
commaundements which I commaund thee this day the Lord will set thee on high aboue all nations of the earth And all these blessings shall come on thee and ouertake thee if thou shalt harken vnto the voyce of the Lord thy God Blessed shalt thou be in the Citty and blessed in the field Blessed shall be the fruite of thy body and the fruite of thy ground and the fruite of thy cattell the encrease of thy kine and the flockes of thy sheepe Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store Blessed shalt thou be when thou commest in and blessed when thou goest out The Lord shall giue ouer thine enemies that rise against thee that they may fall before thy face they shall come out against thee one way and flee before thee seauen wayes The Lord shall commaund the blessing vpon thee in thy store-houses and in all that thou settest thine hand vnto and will blesse thee in the land which the Lord thy God giueth thee The Lord shall make thee on holy people vnto himselfe as he hath sworne vnto thee if thou shall keepe the commaundements of the Lord thy God and walke in his wayes And all nations of the earth shall see that the name of the Lord is called vpon ouer thee and they shall be afrayd of thee And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods in the fruite of thy body in the fruite of thy cattell and in the fruite of thy ground in the land which the Lord sware vnto thy fathers to giue thee The Lord shall open vnto thee his good treasure the heauen to giue raine vnto thy Land in due season and to blesse all the labours of thy hand Tell mee what riches what treasures may be compared to these blessings But if thou shalt say that these promises are rather made vnto the Iewes then vnto Christians for vnto these according to Ezechiel those more excellent blessings as are the blessings of grace and of glory are promised yet as in that carnall law God did not denie to the righteous Iewes spyrituall blessings so in the spirituall law he doth not withdraw temporall prosperity from good Christians yea hee doth giue vnto them temporall blessings and that with a double commodity neyther of which the wicked haue The first is because as a skilfull Phisitian he bestoweth these blessings vpon them after that measure which their neede requireth that by this way they may be releeued and not waxe proude neyther beeing fatted and crammed kick and spurne This commodity the wicked haue not for they scrape together as much as they are able neuer regarding theyr saluation When as notwithstanding the superfluity of temporall goods is not lesse hurtfull to the soule then that meate is to the body which cannot be by any meanes digested For although it is necessary and needefull to eate for the releefe and sustentation of the body yet superfluity of meate doth very much hurt So although the life of man consisteth in the blood yet too much aboundance of blood is the cause of death and oftentimes killeth men The second commodity is because lesser pelse and a measurable and an indifferent possession of riches doth bring greater quietnes and tranquillity vnto the soule which is the end why men with such greedines desire temporall goods For whatsoeuer God can doe by second causes he can doe it yea more perfectly by himselfe without those meanes So hath hee done in all his Saints in whose name the Apostle sayth Hauing nothing and possessing all things For so little doth suffice vs that we hauing very little and being therewith content we seeme vnto our selues to be the Lords of the whole world A trauailer for his prouision in his voyage carrieth his money in gold for so he is the richer and he is troubled with lesse weight after the same manner also our Lord doth lighten his laying vpon them but easie burthens but yet sufficient and that which may content them After this manner the righteous doe goe naked yet they are content they are poore and yet they are rich But the rich when they are full of wealth yet dye for hunger and when as they sit euen vp to the lips in water yet they are slayne with thirst as the Poets in times past fabled of Tantalus For this and such like causes that great Prophet long agoe did prayse the obseruance of the Diuine law willing that in it all our meditation should be For he knew very well that in this all things were fulfilled These be his words Seate all these words in your harts and in your soules and bind them for a signe vpon your hands and they shall be as frontlets betweene your eyes And yee shall teach and rehearse them continually vnto your children and shall talke of them when yee tarry in your houses and when yee walke by the way and when yee lye downe and when yee rise vp Also thou shalt write them vpon the posts of thine house and vpon thy gates that thy dayes and the dayes of thy children may be multiplied in the Land which the Lord sware vnto your fathers to giue yee for euēr O holy Prophet what I pray thee hast thou found worthy of so great commendation in the keeping of the law It is not to be doubted but thou who wast so great a Prophet and a Secretary of the Diuine counsaile didst vnderstand the inestimable greatnes of this good and knewest that in it were to be found all kinde of blessings present and to come temporall and eternall corporall and spirituall and he that hath satisfied the law hath fulfilled all things Thou knewest very well that a man did not loose his time when hee was occupied in doing Gods will yea then to labour in hys owne Vineyard then to water his gardens to till his fields and to dispatch all his busines better then if he had laboured with his owne hands for he satisfying Gods will casteth all his care vpon God who finisheth all the rest For this is the law of the league and federacie which God made with man that man should keepe his commaundements and God would prouide all necessary things for him and doe his busines Neyther shall this league and couenant be euer violated of God For if man be a faythfull seruant vnto God God will be a faythfull Lord and patrone vnto man This is that one thing which the Lord sayd was necessary that is to know to loue and to serue God for this one thing being kept and obserued all the rest are well and in safety Godlines sayth Paule is profitable vnto all things which hath the promise of the life present and of that that is to come See I pray thee how plainely heere the Apostle promiseth vnto godlines which is the worship and seruice of God not onelie the blessings of eternall life but also of this life as much as are conducent to obtayne the other But we
Saint Isidore doth consent vnto this He that would sayth he be certaine of the remission of his sins in the houre of death let him repent whilst he is in health and then let him lament deplore his iniquitie and wickednes But he that hath liued wickedly and repenteth at the houre of his death it is most certaine that he is in very great ieopardy For euen as his damnation is vncertaine so also his saluation is doubtfull Surely these words are very dreadfull but those more fearefull which Eusebius the Scholler of Saint Ierome writeth and which his glorious holy Maister spoke being at the poynt of death stretching him selfe vpon the earth arrayed in rugged and course Sack-cloth but because I dare not relate them with that rigour that they are written least I should minister occasion of distrust and despaire to those that be weake and faint-harted let him that pleaseth reade them he shall finde them in the fourth tome of saint Ieromes workes in a certaine Epistle of Eusebius to Byshoppe Damasus as touching the death of Saint Ierome whose beginning is To the most reuerent Father c. Where amongst other things hee sayth But some man will say That man that hath done wickedly all the time that he liued and repenting at the houre of his death he shall obtaine pardon of God Alas how vaine a supposall and how false a meditation Scarcely of an hundred thousand men whose lifes haue alwaies beene wickedly led scarcely I say one deserueth fauour at Gods hands A man altogether borne and brought vp in sin who hath neither seene nor acknowledged GOD neither is willing to heare of him neither knoweth when he sinneth nor what repentance is vnlesse perhaps he sometimes dreame of it and altogether intangled in worldly busines whom the loue of his children whoÌ„ he must forsake oppresseth whom infirmitie amateth vvhom the losse and griefe of riches and temporall blessings shaketh excruciateth because he seeth that he can no longer enioy them what repentance can he bring forth acceptable to God which he at all would not bring forth nor once medle with if he had any hope of recouery Certainly I will conclude as I thinke he that whilst he is young strong feareth not to offend God in death he deserueth not to finde any fauour of God What repentance is that my beloued children which a man onely maketh for this respect because he seeth that hee can liue no longer Who if he should recouer of his sicknes would becom worser then he was before I haue knowne many peny-fathers and helhound vsurers who may rightly be termed the deuils Alcumists or the deuils Mint-maisters that haue beene sorry and penitent when they haue thought that there was no way with them but death but after that they haue beene recouered their lifes haue beene a great deale more wicked and detestable then it was before This I hold this I thinke to be true this I haue lerned by long experience that his end is not good whose life was alwayes euill who feared not to sinne but alwaies liued in the vanities of the world Hetherto Eusebius by whose words it is manifest how suspected that repentance was to this holy Doctor Ierome which was made at the houre of death of him who had continued in sinne all the time of his life Neyther heere the iudgement of S. Gregory is to be kept close as concerning this matter who vpon these words of Iob For what hope hath the hypocrite though he be nâ—uer so couetous if God take away his soule Will God heare his cry when trouble commeth vpon him sayth God heareth not his cry in the time of trouble who in the time of peace and prosperity hath not heard the Lord crying vnto him in his commaundements For it is written Hee that turneth away his eare from hearing the law his prayer shall be abhominable Therefore the holy man beholding how those that contemne the law and all right paths doe at the last cast conforme themselues vnto prayer sayth Will God heare his cry Those words doe iumpe with those of our Sauiour who sayth Afterward came also the foolish Virgins saying Lord Lord open to vs. And it shall be answered vnto them Verily I say vnto you I know you not Because then so much the more seuerity shall be vsed by how much the more mercy hath now beene extended and then iudgement shall be seuerely and strictly executed vpon them whom now persisting in sinne mercy patiently wayted vpon These be S. Gregories words Another Doctour of the Church sayth It is a hard thing that then that is at the poynt of death true repentance should be when it commeth so late When as anguish and payne tormenteth the body and greefe oppresseth the sences scarcely can a man thinke of any other thing Greatly suspicious ought that repentance to be which seemeth constrayned The coniecture is easie that a man should thinke that himselfe is vnwilling to doe that which he hath no ability to doe Possibility doth very well proue the willingnes If thou doost not whilst thou mayst thou manifestly shewest that thou art vnwilling to doe Another Doctour of the Church doth also subscribe to all this Seeing therefore sayth he that a fruitfull repentance is not the worke of a man but of God by his mercy he can inspire it whensoeuer he will and reward those by his mercy whom he could condemne by his iustice But because there are many things that hinder and hold backe the sicke partie and him that languisheth and faynteth through sicknes it is dangerous and neere vnto destruction to protract and defer repentance till death But a meruailous great thing is it if God at that time inspire any man with true repentance Consider I pray thee how fearefull and dreadfull these words be Who then is so bold and audacious that dare expose this great treasure to so great hazard Is there any thing more precious in this world then saluation Who therfore is so inconsiderate and vnaduized that dareth presume to say that he doth not passing ill that committeth so great treasure to such danger These be the iudgements of the holy Doctours by whom we may euidently gather how great theyr folly and madnes is without an especiall care to sayle ouer this so dangerous a Sea of which the most expert and experienced Mariners haue spoken so doubtfully and with so great feare To dye well is an Art which ought to be learned all 〈◊〉 life long For in the houre of death so many and so great are the discruciatements that cause death that scarce remayneth any time to learne to dye well ¶ The authority of Schoole Doctours concerning this matter IT remayneth now for the greater confirmation of this matter that we see what the Schoole Doctours thinke of it Among others there is one that excellently handleth this matter agreeing in all things vnto vs putting and inferring this conclusion Repentance
which is made at the poynt of death and in extreamity is sildome true by reason of the great difficulty that happeneth at this time He prooueth this conclusion by foure reasons or arguments The first is by reason of the great perturbations which arise out of the greatnes of griefes sicknes and the presence of Death through which the hart is lesse able to lift vp it selfe to God and rightly to busie it selfe in the exercises of true repentance For the better vnderstanding of this argument we must know that all the perturbations of our hart haue great force to disturbe and hinder our will and sences and according to the rule of Philosophy in this effect and euent the affections or passions are much more powerfull which cause sorrow and sadnes then those that procure mirth and ioy Hence it is that the perturbations or affections of one dying are exceeding strong and of all other most powerfull For as Aristotle saith death is the most dreadfull of all terrible things there being so many dolours discruciatements in the body so many afflictions and anguishes in the soule so great sorrow and care for children wife the world all which are to be forsaken Amongst so many and so tempestuous winds of the passions where shall the sences be and where the cogitations but where these dolours and perturbations doe carry and whirle them Daily experience teacheth vs that if any one be tormented with the tooth-ach or by any other sharpe payne although he be a very godly and a religious man yet scarcely then can he stedfastly lift vp his hart to God nay all the sences thoughts haue recourse thither where the griefe is If this happeneth to the righteous what will he doe who neuer accustomed himselfe to thinke of God and who so much is readier to endanger his greater friend then his lesser by how much he is apter and proner to loue his body better then his soule Amongst the foure impediments of contemplation which S. Bernard doth reckon vp one is the euill disposition and temperature of the body For then the soule is so vrged and occupied with the dolours of the flesh that scarce it permitteth a man to thinke vpon any other thing besides that which then greeueth and excruciateth him Which if it be true what greater dotage or madnes can there be then to expect tarry and wayte for the worst disposition and temperature of the body in it to handle and deal with the greatest businesses of the soule I knew a certaine man who being at the poynt of death when he was willed and admonished to prepare himselfe for his end for the glasse of his life was now runned out he was so affrighted and ouerwhelmed with the presence of death that he thought vpon nothing els then how he might escape the danger of death as if the date of his life had beene put in his owne hands and he had the ordering and determining of it All his care was how he might remedy and auoyde this danger if possibly it might be But when the Minister saw him so little carefull and troubled with those things which were necessary for that time he admonished him that he should let passe such thoughts and begin earnestly to call vpon God The sicke man hardly taking this aâ—â—onition began to talke a farre off from the purpose and so yeeleded vp the ghost Notwithstanding this man had beene a louer of Vertue wherby thou mayst see how the presence of Death doth disturbe and disquiet them who are in loue with their lifes seeing that it so greatly troubled him who at other times had despised it I knew also another man who when hee had fallen into a most dangerous and greeuous sicknes and saw Death now at hand he earnestly desired to conferre a little with God and to preuent the Iudge by a deuoute prayer before hee should depart out of this life but sorrowes and the continuall accidents of his infirmity would let him haue no rest If therfore onely preparation to repentance bâ—so hard at that time who will be so fond and mad to defer and prorogue the remedy and repentance of his whole life to that moment The second reason of the Shoole-man is that true repentance ought to be voluntary that is it ought to be done willingly and not of constraint or compelled by necessitie Thys is that which Saint Augustine saith Let no man tarry so long as he can sin For God requireth the liberty of the vvill that thy faultes may be wiped away he requireth not necessity but charitie not onely feare because man liueth not onely in feare Therefore it behoueth him that lately repenteth not onely to feare the Iudge but to loue him because without charitie no man can be saued Wherefore that man that neuer truly repenteth himselfe in his life time but prorogeth it to the houre of death he seemeth not to bring forth repentance of will but of compulsion â—â—d if of constraint or necessity then it is not meerely voluntary Such was the repentance of Shimei for that offence which he had committed against Dauid when hee fled from the face of his sonne Absolon Which Shimei when he saw that the victory did incline to Dauid and considering of the mischiefe that hung ouer his head he descended with the men of Iuda to meete King Dauid and with the thousand men of Beniamin and prostrating himselfe before the King he craued pardon for his fault Which when Abishai heard he sayd Shall not Shimei die for this because he cursed the Lords annointed But holy king Dauid not ignorâ—â—â— of what small desert this repentance was for the time wisely dissembled the deede yet he would not that it should vtterly passe vnreuenged but when he was at deaths doore not for any desire of reuenge but in the zeale of iustice he commaunded his sonne that hee should not suffer it to goe vnreuenged who afterwards commanded him to be slaine Of this kinde and nature seemeth the repentance of many wicked Christians to be who when they haue perscuered all theyr lyfe thorow in sinne offending God when the houre of rendering an account shall draw neere when they see death approching and the graue open and the Iudge present when they shall vnderstand that no strength or power can be founde against that infinite power omnipotencie and that that shall be determined in that moment which is for euer irreuocable then they turne themselues vnto the Iudge with prayers and protestations which if they be true certainly they are profitable But the common euent teacheth what manner of prayers and protestations they were and are for we haue learned by experience that many of them hauing escaped this danger forthwith haue forgot all that they promised and as Swine haue returned to theyr wallowing in the myre yea they haue reuersed and recalled that good which then they purposed and haue againe embraced those
perceiue and know that I haue beene a true Prophet in these things which I haue admonished thee of Then thou shalt see thy selfe compassed about with dolours loaden with those things that are yrkesome vnto thee and miserablie afflicted with the presence of death wayting for the condition which straightwayes shall be awarded either that thou shalt be for euer happy or for euer vnhappy O perrilous estate ô hard and dangerous way ô sentence after which euerlasting death or euerlasting life is to be expected ô who can alter this Decree at that houre ô who shall be able to heare that sentence My brother now thou hast aduantage doe not neglect it now thou hast time make the Iudge thy friend that hee may be sauourable vnto thee Heare therefore and follow the counsell of the Prophet who saith Seeke yee the Lord whilst he may be found call vpon him whilst hee is at hande For now the Lorde is at hand to heare vs albeit wee see him not In the houre of iudgement we shall see him but hee will not heare vs vnlesse we be such as are to be heard now Against them that through the hope of the Diuine mercie doe continue and perseuere in theyr sinnes CHAP. XXVII SOme men there are that persisting and continuing in their wicked life doe cheere vp and comfort themselues in hope of Gods mercie and the merrits of Christes passion and to these as to the other their errour is to bee showen Thou sayest that the mercy of God is vnmeasurable infinite for he willingly would be crucified as a malefactour for sinners I confesse indeede that his mercy is exceeding great for it suffereth thee to vtter so lauishlie such cursed blasphemie as that thou wouldest his goodnes bounfulnes should be a fautour and a fauourer of thy wickednesse and that his Crosse which hee apprehended as a meane to destroy the kingdome of sinne should be made of thee a meane to strengthen and defence sinne and whereas thou shouldest offer a thousand lifes vnto him if thou haddest so many because he hath sacrificed his life for thee there thou takest an occasion to denie that one vnto him which thou hast yea vvhich thou hast receiued of him This grieueth thy Sauiour more then the death did which he suffered for thee for hee who neyther lamented nor deplored his own death most greeuously lamenteth and bewaileth thy sinnes in the Prophet saying The plowers plowed vpon my backe and made long furrowes Tell me I pray thee who hath taught thee thus to argue that because God is good and gracious thou shouldest conclude that it is lawful for thee to sinne and to follow wickednes The holy Ghost seemeth vnto me to conclude after another manner that because God is good and gracious he gathereth that he is worthy to be worshipped obeyed and to be loued aboue all things And because God is good it is meete that I be good also and that I should trust in him who although I be a most greeuous sinner yet is ready to receiue me into fauour if I with all my hart will be conuerted vnto him Because God is good and so good it is double wickednes to offend so great magnificent a goodnesse Therefore by how much the more thou doost exemplifie the goodnes of GOD by so much the more thou doost aggrauate thy sinne which thou committest against him And it is meet and equall that so great a sinne should be punished for it is the nature and dutie of the Diuine iustice which also thou esteemest not to be contrary but the sister and the auenger of the Diuine goodnesse that it should not leaue so enormous an iniury vnpunished Thys kinde of excuse is not newe or sprung vp of late but very old and vsuall in the world This in times past was the difference betweene the true and the false Prophets because the true did denounce the threatnings of God against the people and did exaggerate and aggrauate his iustice but the false on their owne heads did promise false peace and mercy But when the punishments of GOD did approue the veritie of the one part and the falsehood of the other the true Prophets sayde Where are now your Prophets which prophecied vnto you saying The King of Babell shall not come against you nor against this Land◠Thou sayst that the mercy of God is great Thou which sayst so credite me GOD hath not opened thine eyes that thou mightest see the greatnesse of his iustice For if thou haddest thine eyes open to behold it thou wouldest say with the Prophet Who knoweth the power of thy wrath for according to thy feare is thine anger But that thou mayst be freed from this dangerous perrilour errour I pray thee let vs dispute of the matter a little and be ruled by reason Neyther thou nor I doe see the Diuine iustice as it is in it selfe that we may come to the knowledge of the measure of it Neither doe we know God himselfe in this worlde but by hys workes Therefore let vs enter into the spirituall world of the holy Scripture then let vs goe out into this corporall world wherein we liue and let vs out of them both reason what the Diuine iustice is that by this meanes we may know it Certainly this consideration will be most profitable For besides thys end which now we propose vnto our selues we shall reape also out of it another fruite for it will a fresh stirre vp in our harts the feare of the Lord which as the Doctors say is the treasure the keeper and burthen of our soules For euen as a ship is not safe without balas or lastage for it is easily tossed with euerie winde nowe no this side and now on that to the great danger of the shyp so is the soule endangered which lacketh the ballas burthen of the diuine feare This feare poyzeth the soule that the windes of worldly fauour or of diuine graces doe not tosse and pusse it vp and so ouerthrowe it Although it be defenced yet if it hath not his balas it is in ieopardy Neither onelie the Punyes and Incipients but also those that are growen old must necessarily liue in feare in Gods house Not onely the sinners and guiltie must feare who haue great cause so to doe but the righteous also are not to be freed who haue no such great cause to feare Sinners must feare because they haue offended and also the righteous least they should offend theyr faultes and misdemeanors past ought to strike feare into them but the dangers to come ought to terrifie these But if thou desirest to know how this holy feare is engendered and wrought in thee I say that it is wrought when it is infused by grace and it is preserued and increaseth by the consideration of the works of the Diuine iustice of which we begin now to speake Consider of them often and reuolue
alike yet there were great cause of feare Why do I say alike Yea such so great are the euerlasting torments of hell that if onely one man of all man-kind were to be banished thether yet we all should tremble and feare When our Sauiour did eate his last Supper with his Disciples and sayd One of you shall betray me they were all exceeding sorrowful began to feare although theyr conscience witnessed their innocencie For when as an imminent mischiefe is grieuous heauie although there be but few to whom it is threatned yet all and euery one feareth least it should happen to him If there were a great Army of men in a fielde and it should bee reuealed from heauen to them all that a little after an Arrow should fall from heauen and should kill one of them neyther was it known whom it should be there is no doubt but that euery one would feare himselfe least it should fal vpon him But what would they do if the greater part of them should be in danger and ieopardy How much greater would thys feare be Tell me ô man thou that art so cunning in fleshly wisedome and so vnskilfull in the busines of thy saluation did God euer reueale vnto thee that there should be so many whom the thunder or sword of the Diuine iustice should smite If thou knowest not this certainly I much lesse beleeue that thou knowest how many and which â—e they that shall escape that plague on which side thou shalt stand and yet doost thou not feare Or doth hell seeme more tollerable vnto thee then the wound of an arrow Or hath God secured thee or hast thou letters of thy securitie or is an infallible charter of thy saluation graunted vnto thee or a priuiledge of immunity and freedom Hetherto there is nothing that promiseth any such like thing vnto thee moreouer thy works condemne thee and according to the present iustice vnlesse thou turne ouer a new lease thou art reprobated and doost thou not yet feare or wilt thou say that the Diuine mercie doth comfort thee Surely that doth not dissolue the works of iustice neither is contrary to them yea if it suffer so many to be damned will it not also suffer thee to be one of them if thou together sinnest with them Doost thou not see that thys vnhappy loue of thy selfe doth blinde thee and miserably deceaue thee whilst it maketh thee to presume other things then are seene in the whole world What priuiledge I pray thee is giuen vnto thee beyond the other sonnes of Adam that thou shouldest not be banished thether whither they are gone whose works tâ—oâ— doost follow But if God be to be known by his works I know what I wil say For although there be many comparisons by which the mercy of God his iustice may be compared between themselues in which the works of mercy doe preuaile yet at the length we finde that in the posterity of Adam of whose seede thou also art borne that there are found many moe vessels of wrath then of mercy seeing that there are so many that are damned and so few that are saued The cause of which is not because the grace and helpe of God forsaketh them or is wanting vnto them For God as the Apostle sayth would haue all to be saued and to come to the knowledge of his truth but because the wicked are wanting to themselues and the grace of God is of none effect in them All these things are remembred more largely and prolixely of me that thou mayest vnderstand that notwithstanding the mercy of God which thou pretendest God suffereth so many to be Infidels and in the Church so many euill Christians and so many Infidels and so many euill Christians to perish so also he will permit thee to perish with them if thou imitatest theyr life Or when thou wast borne did the heauens reioyce or shal the iudgements and decrees of God be changed that the world may be peculier to thee and another to others If therfore notwithstanding the mercy of God hell be so enlarged and so many thousand soules be daily swallowed vp of it shall not thy soule also come thether if thou continuest in thy sinnes But that thou mayest not say that God in times past was seuere and sharpe but now gentle and mild consider that also with this gentlenes and clemencie he suffereth all that thou hast heard neyther shalt thou be free and exempted from it but also thy punishment remayneth for thee yea although thou beest called a Christian if thou beest found a sinner Or therfore shal God lose his glory if he shall condemne thee Hast thou I pray thee any singuler thing in thee for which God aboue others ought to spare thee Or hast thou any priuiledge which others haue not for which he should not destroy thee with others if thou beest not lesse euill then others be Consider I pray thee the sonnes of Dauid for their fathers sake many priuiledges were promised vnto them but neyther for that cause would the Lord suffer their wickednes vnpunished wherefore many of them had but sorrowfull ends Where then is thy vaine trust Why doest thou vainely hope they perishing that thou shalt not perish seeing thou art pertaker of their wickednes Thou errest my brother thou errest if thou thinkest that this is to hope in God This is not hope but presumption For hope is to trust that God will forgiue thee thy sinnes if thou be repentant and sorrowfull for them and turnest from thy wickednes and that then he will receaue thee into fauour But it is exceeding great presumption to beleeue that thou shalt be saued and happy perseuering and continuing in thy sinnes Doe not think that this is a small sinne for it is numbred amongst those which are committed against the holy Ghost for he that presumeth after this maner he offereth no smal ignominy reproch to the Diuine goodnes which especially is attributed to the holy Ghost Such sinnes as our Sauiour testifieth are not forgiuen in this world nor in that to come insinuating that they are remitted with great difficulty for as much as they shut against them the gate of grace and offend a Phisitian who can giue life apply the medicine to the wound ¶ The conclusion of all those things which haue beene spoken in this Chapter LEt vs at the length conclude this matter with that excellent sentence of Ecclesiasticus Because thy sinne is forgiuen be not without feare to heape sinne vpon sinne And say not The mercy of God is great he will forgiue my manifold sinnes for mercy wrath come from him and his indignation commeth downe vpon sinners Tell me I pray thee if of a sinne forgiuen we ought to feare how can it possibly be that thou shouldest be secure by daily adding sinnes to sinnes Marke diligently what he sayth His indignation commeth downe vpon sinners For of this sentence the
I had in the wildernes a cottage of way-faring men that I might leaue my people and goe from them for they bee all adulterers and an assembly of rebels Whatsoeuer hath hetherto been spoken generally appertayneth to wicked men although it cannot be denied but that in all estates of the world there are many good men for vvhose sakes GOD spareth to destroy the world Therefore vvhen thou shalt see all these things consider with thy selfe how iust a cause thou hast to forsake and auoyde a thing so wicked corrupt and abhominable in which if GOD would fully open thine eyes thou shouldest see more deuils and moe sinnes then there be moates in the Sunne-beames Thys consideration will worke in thee at least in thy spirit a desire to leaue this world so that thou wilt take vp that of the Prophet and say O that I had winges like a Doue then would I flie away and be at rest ¶ How deceaueable the felicitie of the world is THese and infinite other are the attributes of worldly felicitie as it were the counterpoizes with which it is weighed and peised and the vnseparable companions which waite vpon it that thou mayst see that there is more gall then honny in it and more Wormwood then Sugar I omit very many other euils mischiefes which it hideth from her louers For besides that this miserable felicitie is short it is also impure vncleane for it maketh a man carnall and filthie it is also beastly for it maketh a man like vnto a beast And mad for it taketh avvay his iudgement To conclude it is deceitfull and faithlesse because it faileth and forsaketh a man in his chiefest hight and in the florish of his best time Neyther will I heere be vnwilling to take further paines in manifesting thys latter euill which perhaps is the worst of all that is that it is deceitfull and fraudulent For it seemeth to be that it not it promiseth that it performeth not and yet these not hindering it draweth vnto it the greater part of people For euen as there is found both true gold and counterfeit gold so there are found true good things counterfeite good things true felicity and false which appeareth to be such but is not of thys sort is this worldly felicity which deceiueth vs by a vaine disguised apparition and painted masking face For as Aristotle sayth many lyes meete with vs which although they be lyes yet they haue greater showe and apparance of truth then the truth it selfe So certainly and it is matter worthy of obseruation certaine euils and enormities are found which albeit they be euils indeed yet they haue greater semblance and apparance of good things then the good things themselues And of thys number is the felicity of this world and by reason of this apparance the ignorant are deceaued by the show of it no otherwise then byrds and fishes by a false baite For it is the nature condition of corporall and worldly things that on a suddaine they offer themselues with a flattering countenaunce and doe fawne and smâ—â—e vpon men promising vnto them ioy and felicitie but afterwards the very experience of the things themselues discouereth theyr errour and falshood For after the pleasures folow calamities diseases griefes by the abseuce of the thing loued by iealousie by strifes and contentions by the losse of things by diseases by the perturbations of the affections and by very many other sorrowes and last of all death also followeth What greater deceit can there be and what hipocrisie more intollerable So a virgine merily reioycing goeth to the house of her Bridegrome for the hath not eyes to see any other thing but that which outwardly appeareth and presently showeth it selfe but if she could see that seed-plot seminary of miseries which are sowen vpon this day for her to reape surely she should haue greater cause to weep then to reioyce Rebecca desired to bring foorth children but when she was great with child c. the children stroue together in her wombe she sayd If it must be thus with mee what neede had I to conceaue O how often dooth such like guile and fraude make heauie the hart of man after it hath got that it desired wheÌ„ as those things offer themselues in the progresse which were not promised in the beginning But what shall I say of offices dignities and honours vvith what a smiling countenaunce faire aspect do they first shew themselues but afterwards to howe many passions care enuies and labours doe they expose their possessors But of those that are entangled with vnhonest loues we may iustly say that at the beginning they finde a pleasant entrance into that darke and denious Laborinth but when they haue passed in alack how many labours and troubles doe they beare hovve many nights doe they passe ouer without sleepe how many how great dangers are they compelled to vndergoe For the fury of that venomous dragon which is the sword of that cruel parent and of that iealous husband dooth alwayes keepe the fruite of that forbidden tree and it often coÌ„meth to passe that such men in one moment doe lose together theyr lifes riches honors and soules After the same maner it were no hard matter to examine the lifes of couetous men seruing the world and catching at by all meanes by force and fauour the vaine-glory of it in whose tragedies we might behold a merry protasis but a lamentable and mournful epitasis for this is the nature of that Babylonian cup which without is gold but within full of poyfon These things being thus what I pray thee in thy iudgement is the glory of this world but the singing of Syrens sweet but a deadly potion a Viper artificially painted without but within full of venomous poyson If the worlde fawne vpon thee it doth it that it may deceitie thee if it exalt thee it doth it that thy fal may be the greater if it make thee merry it dooth it that it afterwardes with sorrow may breake thy hart It giueth all her goods vvith the mixture of incomparable heauines and griefe and that with the greatest vsury If a sonne be borne vnto thee and soone after die thy sorrow will be seauen-fold greater then thy ioy was The thing lost more afflicteth vs then found ioyeth vs sicknes more excruciateth vs then health gladdeth vs iniury more tormenteth vs then honour contenteth vs insomuch that I am altogether ignorant why it is so effected by nature that euils do more afflict vs then good things do reioyce vs. All these things being well considered of they do shew vnto vs clearer then the noone day how vaine deceitfull and fraudulent the felicity of this world is ¶ The conclusion of all this aforesaid THou hast here seene my brother the true figure of thys world although with another face then it outwardly carrieth Behold therefore now what the felicity of the World is how short miserable
hath been already experimented perswade not thy selfe that thou canst find that which he found not For thou hast none other world to search for it then that that he had And if all pleasures could not quench the thyrst of thys King in so plentifull a vintage doe not thinke that thou canst quench it after him in thys leane barren gleaning time of Grapes He bestowed his time to thys onely study and perhaps for thys he fell into Idolary as sayth Saint Ierome wryting to Eustochium Why then wilt thou make such hauock of precious time without expectation of any profit Yea because men rather credit experience then reason peraduenture God permitted that this King should make tryall of all pleasures delights and recreations and of whatsoeuer the world loueth that after he had tryed them all hee might giue that testimonie and verdit of them which euen now thou hast heard and that this one labour should be instead of all other labours and this one mans error should remedy the errour of many that they might bestow theyr tyme and cost more profitably Which things seeing they are so not without cause we may cry out with the Prophet O yee sonnes of men howe long will yee turne my glory into shame louing vanitie and seeking lyes With good reason he nameth vanity and lyes For if in the busines assayres of thys world there were no other thing but vanity it were a small euill but there is another greater euill in it that is lyes and the false counterfeit apparance of things by which they perswade men that they are some-thing vvhen they are nothing Wherefore the same Salomon sayth Fauour is deceitfull and beautie is vanitie It were some-what tollerable if it were but vaine but it is also deceitfull For vanity being known cannot much hurt but that which is vaine and appeareth not to be so that is especially euill and dangerous By this it appeareth how great an hypocrite this worlde is for euen as hypocrites are studious to couer and palliate theyr defects so rich men doe labour that they may dissemble and hide theyr myseries by which they are excruciated They would be accounted Saints when they are sinners and these happy when they are wretched Come neerer and if you please open and search the vayne put thine hand into theyr bosome thou shalt see how those things striue and fight which outwardly seeme so wyth those things which in verity lurke within Certaine hearbes plants grow in the fieldes which a farre of seeme very beautifull but when thou commest neerer them and gatherest of them they are eyther altogether leaues or send forth a stinking and pestilent sauour which a man forth-with casting away correcteth the errour of his eyes by the touch of his hands Such certainly are they that seeme to be the rich and great men of this world for if thou beholdest theyr magnificencie pompe the height of theyr dignity the statelines of theyr houses theyr seruant flatterers thou wilt thinke them the onely happy men but if thou shalt come a little neerer vnto them and shalt narrowlie pry into the secrets of theyr houses and into the corners of their soules and consciences thou shalt see that there is great difference between these things and the externall apparance outward show Whereupon many who haue thirstingly desired theyr estate and condition viewing it a farre of but a little after more neerely looking into it haue reiected and refused it as we reade in many histories of the Heathen In the life 's also of the Emperours it is reported that there haue beene some of them who when they were elected to that high estate of dignitie of theyr whole Armie for a time haue resisted that election neyther would accept of that soueraigntie offered vnto them because they very well knew what pricking thornes lay hyd vnder that Rose so faire and beautifull to the sight Therefore ô yee sonnes of men created according to the Image and similitude of GOD redeemed by the blood of Christ adopted that ye may be fellow cittizens with Angels how long will yee loue vanitie and seeke after lyes Doe yee looke for peace and rest in these false and counterfeite apparitions which they neuer gaue nor will giue To what end doe yee forsake the table of Angels and seeke to fill your bellies with the swash of Swine To what end doe we leaue the sweetnesse and odoriferous fragrancie of Paradice for the bitternes and stinch of this world Why are not the calamities and miseries which yoe suffer daily sufficient to warne you to flye the outragiousnesse of this cruell Tyrant Pardon me gentle Reader we seeme in this respect not to be much vnlike a harlot who hath prostituted herselfe vnto an Apple-squire or a Pandar he eateth drinketh and sporteth with her vntill all be consumed that she hath after that he doth floute and beate her neither vouchsafeth he her a faire word the neuertheles doting on this knaue the more he beateth her the more she loueth him Therefore recapitulating all that hath beene spoken if it hath beene prooued manifestly by so many reasons examples and experiences that that peace and felicitie which we seeke for cannot be found but onely in God and not in the world why doe we seeke for it without GOD and not rather in him Thys is that which Saint Augustine puts vs in minde of when he sayth Runne thorow the sea the land and all things search the world throughout euery where thou shalt be miserable vnlesse thou runnest to GOD and he by thy refuge ¶ The Conclusion of all this first Booke THerefore of all those things which haue been handled at large throughout this whole first booke this at length is gathered That all the kindes of goods and blessings which mans hart can obtaine in thys life are found in Vertue whereupon it is further collected that Vertue is a good so vniuersall and so great that neyther in Heauen nor in Earth any thing can be found which may be compared with her but onely God alone For euen as God is a goodnes so vniuersall that in him alone are found all the perfections of all good so after a certaine maner the same are found in Vertue For we see in things created that some are honâ—st some beautifull some profitable some acceptable or hauing some other certaine perfection amongst which that is wont to be so much the more perfecter and worthier of loue by how much it more participateth of these perfections Which thing if it be so how great loue is Vertue worthy of in which alone all these perfections are found For if we speake of honesty what is more honest then Vertue which is the fountaine and roote of all honesty if of honor to what is more honour and reuerence due then to Vertue If we seeke for beauty what is more beautiful theÌ„ the image of Vertue If her beauty might be seene
with corporall eyes sayd Plato she would alure the whole world vnto her If we respect profit what thing is more profitable and supported with greater hope then Vertue for by Vertue we obtayne the chiefest good Length of dayes and gifts of eternity are in her right hand and in her left hand riches and honour If thou art delighted with pleasantnes what greater delight canst thou wish for then a peaceable and a good conscience the sweetnes of charity of peace and of the liberty of the children of God that in the meane time I may say nothing of the consolation of the holy Ghost which is most sweet and pleasant If thou desirest a perdurant and lasting name The righteous shall liue and shall be had in euerlasting remembrance But the memoriall of the wicked shall perish with them If thou be desirous of vvisedome that thou mayst finde the way that leadeth to heauen and the meanes that direct to this end there is no meane more certaine then Vertue which leadeth vnto God If thou desirest to be gracious and acceptable among all men there is not any thing more gracious or more conducent to it then Vertue For as Cicero sayth nothing is more amiable then Vertue nothing that more allureth men vnto loue seeing that for vertue and honesty we loue them whom we neuer saw Such force it hath which is more that we loue it in an enemy Euen as of the conueniency and proportion of the members and lyneaments and of the humours of the naturall body a certaine beauty ariseth which is acceptable to the eyes of men so of the order and vertuous frame of the life laudably led and formed so great a beauty proceedeth that not onely it is most acceptable to the eyes of God and Angels but it is also amiable and beloued of peruerse men and enemies That is truly and simply good which is good in euery respect neyther hath any euill in it Therfore God not without cause sendeth this honorable embasie to a righteous man which we haue set in the forefront of this booke and now againe repeate in the end Say yee surely it shall be well with the iust Say yee so because he is borne vnder an happy starre and that he shall die in a good houre because his life and death is blessed and whatsoeuer after death shall beside him Say yee so vnto him because all things shall goe well with him as well prosperous as aduerfe as well things pleasant as heauy both in quietnes and in labour For all things worke together for the best vnto them that loue God Say yee vnto him although the vvorld be turned topsey turuey and the elements confounded if heauen be ruinated and disturbed let not him feare yea then let him lift vp his head because the day of his redemption is at hand Say yee surely it shall be well with the iust Because a blessing is prepared for him vvhich in excellencie exccedeth all blessings that is God himselfe and that he is free from all euill and from the tiranny of the deuill which is the worst of all euils Say yee surely it shall be well with the iust For his name is vvritten in the booke of life and God the father hath adopted him for his sonne the holy Ghost to be a liuely temple vnto him Say yee surely it shall be well with the iust For that estate which he hath gotten is happy blessed in euery respect And if at any time in any temporal matter it seemeth lesse happy if this be patiently borne it is turned vnto him for a greater good for that which seemed a loose vnto him that is patient is made a gayne vnto him his labour becomes a reward and his warre victory and a perpetuall crowne As often as Laban changed the wages of Iacob his sonne in law he thought that it was profitable vnto him hurtfull to his sonne in law but it fell out cleane contrary for it was vnprofitable vnto him and profitable to his sonne in law Wilt thou then my brother be so cruell to thy selfe and such an enemy that thou shouldest linger to embrace so great a blessing which promiseth on euery side so great good vnto thee What counsaile is more wholsome what more profitable condition or estate of life canst thou follow Blessed are those that are vpright in their way and walke in the law of the Lord saith the Prophet a thousand times blessed are they and blessed againe that keepe his testimonies and seeke him with their whole hart If a good thing as the Philosophers say be the obiect of our will and by how much the more any thing is good by so much the more it deserueth to be loued desired What I pray thee doth make thy will so sottish and insencible that it tasteth not nor embraceth this so vniuersall a good O how much better did that King who sayd I haue chosen the way of thy truth and thy iudgements haue I layd before me I haue cleaued to thy testimonies ô Lord. And in another place O Lord I haue layd vp thy commaundements in mine whole hart He saith not in a corner not in his hand but in the midst or in his whole hart which is the beginning of life the chiefest the best place of all others as if he had sayd This is my best part in which I contriue and determine of all my busines and all my cogitations are in it The men of this world do contrarily for vanity possesseth the chiefest roome of their harts and Gods law lyeth obscured and hid in some corner But this holy man albeit he was a King and troubled with many businesses of his kingdome yet he put them all vnder his feete but placed the law of his Lord in the midst of his hart What hindereth then why thou doost not imitate this good example and embrace so great a good For if thou respectest the bond of the obligation what greater obligation can there be then that which is betweene God and man or only for that cause that he is what he is All the obligations of this world are not worthy of this name if they be compared with this as we haue sayd in the beginning of this booke If thou lookest vnto the benefits what benefits can be greater or more excellent then those that we receaue from the hand of the Lord For besides that he hath created vs and redeemed vs with his blood we haue receaued frō him all that we possesse both within and without our body our soule life health riches grace if so we haue it the continuance of our life our purposes the desires of our harts and all that which hath the name of essence or of goodnes we receaue it I say originally frō him who is the fountaine of all essences and of all goodnes Words are wanting vnto me by which I might set out her
lusts which drowne men in perdition and destruction For the desire of money is the roote of all euill The naughtines and malignitie of this vice cannot be described more cunningly or curiously For it is manifest by these words that that vnhappy man who is subiect to this euill is the seruaunt and slaue of all other sinnes Wherfore wheÌ„ this vice doth assault thine hart thou shalt defend thy selfe with these weapons following First therefore ô thou couetous man consider that vvhen the Lord and thy GOD descended from the highest heauen to the earth he would not possesse riches which thou so greatly desirest yea he loued pouerty so wel that he would take flesh of a Virgin most poore and lowly and not of a Queene rich mighty When he was borne he would not lodge in a stately and wealthy pallace he would not lye vppon a soft bed he refused dainty swadling-clothes embraced for his cradle a hard Cratch So long as he lyued in the world he alwayes loued pouerty and contemned riches He chose his Apostles and his Embassadours not Princes and great men but base and abiect Fishers What preposterous order then is this that the most vild worme should seeke riches which the Lord of al the world and of all creatures contemned for his cause Consider furthermore the exceeding great basenes of thine hart that when as thy soule is created according to the image similitude of God and redeemed by his owne blood in comparison of which all the world is nothing yet thou art not ashamed to lose it for so small a gaine God would not haue gyuen his life for the whole world which notwithstanding he willingly layd downe for the soule of man Therefore thy soule is worthier and of more price then the whole world True riches are not gold nor siluer nor precious stones but they are found in Vertue which a good conscience bringeth with it Relinquish the false opinion of men and thou shalt see that gold and siluer are no other things but yellow and white earth which through the errour of men is crept into so great credit That which hath been despised by all the Phylosophers of the world doost thou beeing a disciple of Christ so much esteeme it that thou shouldest make thy selfe a seruant and slaue vnto it For as S. Ierome saith he is a seruant vnto riches who keepeth and tendeth them as a seruant but he who hath cast off that yoke deuideth them as a Lord. Consider also what the Lord sayth in the Gospell No man can serue two Maister God and Mammon that is riches The soule cannot freely serue God if it follow and hunt after riches so greedily and with so open a mouth Spirituall delights doe shunne a hart busied and occupied about earthly matters neyther doe things counterfeit and true agree together nor things hie and low temporall and eternall spirituall and carnall neyther can any man reioyce and recreate himselfe in them both together Consider in like manner that by howe much more prosperously earthly matters succeede with thee by so much perhaps thou art more miserable by reason of that pledge which here is giuen vnto thee that thou maist relye vpon vaine felicity which heere is offered vnto thee Ah that thou knewest what great euils and how many inconueniences thys small prosperity bringeth with it thou shouldest see the loue of riches more to afflict by desire then to delight by vse For it enwrappeth the soule in diuers temptations and bindeth it in infinite cares it allureth it with sundry delights prouoketh it to sinne and disturbeth the quiet no lesse of the body then of the soule And that vvhich is greater riches are neuer gotten without trouble nor possessed without care nor lost without griefe and that which is worser they are sildome gathered without sin and offence to God Hence is that prouerbe A rich man is eyther a wicked man or the heâ—re of a wicked man Consider moreouer how great an errour it is without intermission to desire those things which albeit they be most plentifull yet they can neuer satisfie the desire of man yea they prouoke it and inflame it more as drinke in a Dropsie is the cause of greater thirst so that although thou hast yet thou alwaies couetest that which thou wantest and alwaies couetest more and more So that the miserable and wretched hart wandering through all the things of this world is wearied but neuer satisfied it drinketh but the thirst is not quenched for it esteemeth not those things which it hath vnlesse also it possesse in like manner those things which further it may haue and there is no lesse trouble for things which it compasseth not theÌ„ there is pleasure in things which it possesseth neyther is the heart more satisfied with gold then the body with wind or ayre Wherefore not without cause Saint Augustine maruelleth saying What greedines sayth hee of desire is this seeing that the beastes haue a meane For then they rauine when they are hungry but they spare the pray when they feele fulnes Onely the couetousnes of riches is vnfatiable it alwayes raueneth and is neuer satisfied neyther feareth GOD nor reuerenceth man neyther spareth Father nor acknowledgeth Mother neyther yeeldeth vnto brother nor keepeth fayth with friend Consider that where much riches is there are many that eate and deuoure them many that couet them and many that lye in waite to steale them What hath the richest man of this world more of all his riches then whereof he may necessarily lyue of thys yrksome care thou maist disburthen thy selfe if thou wilt cast thy care vpon God and commit thy selfe to his prouidence for God neuer confoundeth them that trust in him For whom God made he will not suffer to die through hunger He that feedeth the foules of heauen and clotheth the Lillyes of the field how is it possible that he should forsake man especially seeing that so small a thing sufficeth the necessity of man The life is short death followeth at our heeles what need is there then of so great prouision for so short a iourney What wilt thou doe with so much riches especially seeing that the lesse thou hast the more lightly and freely thou mayest walke and when thou shalt come to the end of thy pilgrimage if thou beest poore thy estate shall not be worser then rich mens who are loaden with much gold Yea it shall be much better for thou shalt feele lesser griefe in forsaking this trash and pelfe of the world and a smaller account is to be rendered before God On the contrary part rich men in the end of their iourney leaue their mountaines of gold not without great griefe of hart which they adored as GOD neyther without exceeding great danger and hazard vnto them an account is to be rendered of those things they possessed Consider also ô thou couetous man for whom thou gatherest so
especially the Psalmes and the Prophets in which nothing is so vsuall and common as hope in God and assurednes of the Diuine ayde and assistance which remayneth for them that trust in him The fourth vertue is the zeale of Gods honour that is if all our cogitations be to this end that the honour of the Diuine maiesty may be encreased and be preferred sanctified and glorified before all other things and that his will may be done in earth as it is in heauen and that we haue this minde in vs that no greater griefe can happen vnto vs then to see the Diuine honour impugned or abused Such a will was in the harts of those Saints in whose name it is sayd The zeale of thine house hath 〈◊〉 eâ—teâ— me For their harts were so afflicted for this cause and so great griefe of mind did feede vpon their bodies that euident tokens of it were seene in them If we did burne with the like zeale forth-with we should be marked in our foreheads with that glorious signe of Ezechiell and wee should liue free from all punishment and scourge of the Diuine iustice The fift vertue is the purity of the intent to which pertayneth that in our actions we seeke not our selues or our owne commodity but the glory good pleasure of our Lord God certainly perswading our selues that as they that play at the game called He that winneth looseth by loosing they winne and by winning they loose so also we by how much more we traffique negotiate with God without purpose of our owne profit by so much we make the greater gaynes and contrarily Therefore in this poynt we must diligently aduice our selues and examine all our actions with an vpright and an impartiall iudgement as men iealous that our mind doth respect no other thing in working but God himselfe for the property of naturall selfe-loue is very subtill as we sayd before seeketh it selfe in all things Many are rich in good works which if they were tried by the touch of the Diuine iustice would be found without this purity of intendment which is that Euangelicall eye which when it is cleare and simple it maketh the whole body cleare but if it be wicked it maketh the body full of darknes Many men in great places and dignities placed as well in the common-wealth as in the Church seeing vertue laudable and beautifull in her functions haue endeuoured themselues so to walke in her trackt that they haue been reputed for good men and haue purged their hands from all filthy luker aud vncleannes which might by any meanes haue polluted their honours Yet they haue done it for this respect that they might not fall from that authority they were placed in and that they might be fauoured of theyr Princes and graced with great dignities and honours And therfore theyr good works proceeded not from the liuely sparke of loue or from the feare of God neyther had they his obedience and glory theyr purposed end but sought for their owne commodity and the glory of man But what soeuer is doone after thys manner although it seeme somwhat in mans eyes yet in Gods sight it is as smoake and a shadow of righteousnes not true righteousnes For before God workes are not acceptable commended onely by the strength and grace of morrall vertues neyther doe corporall actions and businesses please him no not if a man should sacrifice his owne sonne but onely that spirit of loue sent from heauen all that which groweth on this roote is acceptable in the Diuine sight In the Temple there was not any thing which eyther was not gold or that was not couered with pure gold so it is not lawfull that any thing should be in the liuely Temple of our soule which is not eyther charitie or ouer-guilded deaurated with charity Therefore the seruant of God should not so much respect that he doth as the end which he intendeth and destineth it for For workes very base and of low account beeing doone for an excellent intent become most â—â—ellent and contrarily For God doth not so regard the body of the worke as the soule of the intention which proceedeth of charity Thys is to imitate after a certaine manner the most noble and most gracious loue of the sonne of God who commaundeth in his Gospell that we should loue after the same manner as he before loued that is of pure good will and not for the cause of any profit And seeing that among the circuÌ„stances of charitie which is in God this is most admirable he shall be the happiest who in all the works that he doth endeuoureth to imitate this Hee that doth thus let him assuredly beleeue that he is entirely beloued of God as beeing very like vnto him in the perfection of beautie and puritie of intent for similitude and likenes is wont to get and winne loue Wherfore let man turne his eyes from all humane respects when he dooth good and let him haue them fixed vpon God neyther let him suffer that those workes which are in so great reckoning and price with God serue humane regards If a noble and a beautifull woman worthy of a Kings bed should be married to a foule Collyer it would mooue all to compassion that beheld her after the same manner and much more effectually shall he be mooued that seeth vertues woorthy of God and diuine reward to be made vassals to compasse the drosse dung of thys world But because this purenesse of intent is not so easily obtained let man desire it instantly of God in all hys prayers especially in that part of prayer which the Lord himselfe taught his Apostles where it is said Thy wil be done in earth as it is in heauen That as all the heauenly Armies doe the vvill of GOD with a most pure intent onely that they may please him so also let man as much as lyes in him heere in earth imitate that heauenly custome and stile not because besides that that we please God we may not come to his kingdome but because workes are so much the more perfect as they are voyder and nakeder of all priuate and selfe commoditie The sixt Vertue is Prayer by meanes of which we ought to haue recourse to our Father in the time of tribulation as chyldren haue who when they are feared or daunted foorth-vvith runne to the bosome and lappe of their Father We haue neede of this prayer that 〈◊〉 â—ay haue our Father in continuall remembrance and standing in his sight wee may often conuerse and haue conference with him For all these things are annexed to the bond and duty of a good sonne towards his Father But because the vse and necessity of this vertue is knowne to euery body seeing we labour to be briefe in this place we will speake no further of it The seauenth Vertue is giuing of thanks to which belongeth to haue alwaies
is to be feared that they haue no care of inward defects which are not seene although they are most diligent in outward which are publique and openly discerned Furthermore the exteriour vertues as they are more manifest vnto men so also they are better known and had in greater esteeme as are Abstinence Watching Discipline corporall austeritie But the interiour vertues Hope Charity Humility Discretion the Feare of God and the Contempt of the world are more occult and hid and therefore albeit they be in greater honour with God yet they are not so valued in mans iudgement And therefore our Sauiour sayth Yee are they that iustifie your selues before men but God knoweth your harts Not dissonant to this is that of Paule Hee is not a Iewe which is a Iew outward Neyther is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh But he is a Iew which is one inwardly and the circumcision of the hart which consisteth in the spirit and not in the letter is circumcision whose praise is not of men but of God Seeing therefore that those externall are in so great estimation among men and are so admired of all and the appetite of selfe honour and excellencie is so subtill and the most powerfull of all the appetites it is to be feared least that affection draw a man rather to loue and seeke after those vertues by which greater honour is expected then those by which lesser yea perhaps among men none For to the loue of these the spirit inuiteth but to the loue of the other the spirit and the flesh inuite together which is exceeding vehement and most vnpatient in her desires Which seeing that it is so not without cause it is to be feared least these two affections should ouer-come that one and should carry the victory from it To thys mischiefe the light of this doctrine opposeth it selfe which defendeth and patronizeth a iuster cause and notwithstanding these commaundeth place to be giuen to this which deserueth more admonishing vs that we loue that and embrace it with greater feruency which is more profitable and more necessary ¶ The third instruction BY that also wee gather that as often as it happeneth that these vertues doe so concurre at one and the selfe same time that we cannot entertaine and content them altogether then according to the rule of Gods precepts the lesser must giue place to the greater Otherwise order will be inuerted and disturbed This Saint Bernard teacheth in his booke of the precept and the dispensation Furthermore sayth he many things are inuented and ordayned not because we may not liue otherwise but because so to liue is more expedient neyther are they deuised for any other end then for the preseruing and good of charity So long therfore as they respect and ayme at charity they stand firme and vnmoueable and may not be changed without offence no not of the inuenters and ordayners But if contrarily at any time they seeme contrary vnto charity they are to be changed and altered but onely of those to whom it is giuen to see this and to whom this busines is committed to be ouer-seene and not of euery ouer-weening Disciplinarian and giddy-braind humorist seemeth it not most meete and requisite that those things that were inuented for Charity should also for charity when it seemeth conuenient be eyther omitted or intermitted or be changed into some other thing more commodious For otherwise without doubt it is most vniust if ordinances and constitutions onely deuised for charity should be held and maintayned against charity Therefore let them be held assuredly and firmely immutable yea amongst Prelates which are grounded vpon necessary considerations but so farre forth as they serue vnto charity Hetherto are the words of Saint Bernard ¶ The fourth instruction TWo kinds of iustice and righteousnes are gathered out of this same Doctrine one is true the other false True righteousnes and iustice comprehendeth together both things internall and externall which are required to the preseruing of them That which is false and counterfeit obserueth some externall without internall without the loue and feare of God without humility without deuotion and without other internall vertues Like to this was the righteousnes of the Phariseis of whom the Lord speaketh in Mathew Woe sayth hee vnto you Scribes and Phariseis hipocrits for ye tythe Mint and Annise and Cummin and haue left the waightier matters of the law iudgement mercy and fayth these ought ye to haue done and not to leaue the other vndone Ye blind guides which straine out a gnat and swallow a Camell Woe vnto you Scribes and Phariseis hypocrits for ye make cleane the vtter side of the cup and of the platter but within they are full of bribery and excesse And a little after Woe vnto you Scribes and Phariseis hypocrits for ye are like vnto paynted Sepulchers which indeede appeare beautifull outward but are within full of dead mens bones and of all filthines Of the same kind is that righteousnes which so often is reprehended of God in the Scriptures by the Prophets for whom the mouth of one speaketh This people honoureth me with their mouth and glorifieth me with their lips but their hart is farre from me and the feare which they haue vnto me proceedeth of a commaundement that is taught of men but they haue despised my law And in another place Why offer ye so many sacrifices vnto me sayth the Lord I am full of the burnt offerings of vveathers and of the fatnes of fed beasts I haue no pleasure in the blood of bullocks lambs and goates Offer me no moe oblations for it is but lost labour Incense is an abhominable thing vnto me I may not away with your new moones your Sabaoths and solemne meetings your solemne assemblies are wicked I hate your new moones and appointed feasts euen from my very hart they make me weary I cannot abide them What meaneth this vvhat doth God condemne that he appoynted and expresly commaunded especially seeing that they be the acts of the noblest vertue which we call Religion whose proper function and duty is to worship God with the seruice of adoration and Religion No certainly but he condemneth the men that contenting themselues with those externall ceremonies had no regard nor care of true righteousnes and the feare of the Lord as forth-with he declareth saying Wash you make you cleane put away your euill thoughts out of my sight cease from doing of euill learne to doe well apply your selues to equity deliuer the oppressed helpe the fatherles to his right let the widdowes complaine come before you And then goe to sayth the Lord let vs talke together though your sinnes be as red as scarlet they shall be as white as snow and though they were like purple they shall be as white as wooll In another place he repeateth the same thing and that with greater vehemency He that slayeth sayth he an Oxe for me
not as other men are Surely they do for he thought in his hart that he was wealthy in spirituall riches and therefore he gaue thanks to God but without doubt he was poore blind naked for he did not know his owne faults Now therfore we haue declared that there are two kinds of righteousnes one true and the other false and counterfeit and how noble the excellency of the true is and how the false is exposed to many and great dangers Let no man think that the labour and time which we haue bestowed vppon this demonstration to haue been ill spent For the holy Gospell the purest doctrine of all the diuine Scriptures and the most excellent which as a glasse representeth the forme and rule of our life very often reprehendeth thys false and counterfeit righteousnes and so doe the Prophets as before we haue shewed Therefore it was not meete that we should cursorily runne ouer it which so often is beate vpon in the Scriptures especially seeing that all men for the most part doe shun manifest dangers as Mariners doe Rocks that show themselues and here where there is such euidencie lesse admonition will serue but where the Rockes lie hid vnder the water there is greater heede to be taken and therfore they are marked in the Maps and Sea-cards of Sailers that they may not rush vpon them at vnawares Let no man deceiue himselfe in thys saying that then this doctrine was more copiously to be discoursed of when this vice did raigne more spaciously and largely in the world but now there is no need of it because thys sinne is vnusuall and vnfrequented For I thinke that the world hath continued alwaies in the same estate for there are and alwaies haue beene men of the same nature and of the same inclination conceaued in the same originall sinne which is the fountaine of all sinnes and therfore alwaies produceth like effects And because there is so great likenes and similitude in the causes of euils it followeth of necessary consequence that the like should be in the effects Therefore the same vices which were then in the men of this and that condition are now also although perhaps the names be some-what changed as the Comedies of Plautus Terence are at thys day the very same Comedies which they were a thousand yeres agoe albeit the persons that then acted them be changed Therefore as that rude and carnall people did thinke that then they did especially please GOD when they did offer such sacrifices and did fast after that manner and did celebrate such feasts according to the letter and not according to the spirit so also now in our time there are many Christians which euery Sabaoth and at all occasions frequent the Church who are called very good Church-men and doe run from sermon to sermon and performe such like things and that well But in the meane-time theyr desires are so full of vaine-glory they so gape after honors and riches and are so desirous of reuenge as any other that neuer obserueth any such thing They remember not what theyr profession requireth they haue no care of theyr neighbours good they perseuere in hatred and passions they maintaine theyr honour with tooth and nayle they will not humble themselues to giue reuerence place vnto others no not for the rule of the whole world Moreouer there are others that disdaine to confer and enter talke with theyr neighbour for euery small trifling cause and there are others that eyther doe not or very vnwillingly and grudgingly doe satisfie their Creditors much lesse pay the wages due vnto theyr painfull seruants and hirelings and if perhaps they be wronged in the least title of theyr honor or riches or such like things good Lord what hurly burleys doo they raise Many of thē that are most liberall in pouring forth long prayers and very prodigall in discoursing Scripture matters oftentimes are exceeding miserable and very niggards in giuing almes and helping theyr needy neighbours Many of them hold vp theyr hands to heauen and in the villany of theyr deceitfull hypocrisie turne vp the white of theyr eyes in theyr prayers as though they were rauished with the heauenlinesse of theyr meditations when theyr harts are sette vppon mischiefe being full of hatred bitternes and selfe-conceited singularitie There are others that will not eate flesh in Lent vpon dayes prohibited not for any thing no not for a thousand pound neuerthelesse they mutter murmurre and repine without any feare of GOD and most cruelly cut the throates of theyr neighbours by enhancing of rents by taking vnmerciful fines and by other extortions so that they grinde theyr faces make their lifes irkesome vnto them So that there be some that count it a religion and make very holy of it to eate the flesh of creatures permitted of God for the foode of man but they make no bones of it to eate vp and deuoure the flesh of men and to ridde them like cruell Caniballs out of theyr lifes then the which thing I know not whether any thing is more strictly forbidden of God And yet the welfare of our neighbour the tendering of his fame and honour are one of the especiall matters of which we shall render an exact account vnto God of which those men are not much carefull which greatly account of others things which in the truth of the matter are much lesse There is not any body that can denie but that these such like things doe daily raigne among Clergie Laiety among all sorts of people Therefore seeing that thys euill is so vniuersall it were needfull that wee should deliuer men from so great errors by propounding vnto them sound instructions and by prescribing wholsome admonitions especially seeing that they whose duty and function it is doe it not But that the Christian Reader may hence suck greater commodity and that he may not swallow poyson in stead of a medicine it is needfull before all things that he know the pulse and vaine of his owne disposition and inclination that he know of what spirit he is that hee may learne what his minde is most chiefely bent and inclined to For there are certaine generall doctrines which are profitable for all in generall for euery one in particuler as are the precepts of Charity Humility Patience and such like There are others more speciall which doe so profit some that they are not fit for all For example There is one very scrupulous his conscience is to be enlarged On the otherside there is another whose conscience retcheth like Cheuerill that hath a large conscience his is to be restrayned and brideled to those that are faynt-harted and doe despaire the diuine mercy is to be preached but to those that be head-strong stifenecked secure presumptuous the diuine iustice is to be denounced and so we may say of the rest according to the counsell of Ecclesiasticus saying With a man irreligious talke of
measure By this it manifestly appeareth how great wickednes it is to speak ill of or enuie our neighbor because he hath that I haue not or because he is not apt for that function I am Surely the body should be in ill case if the eyes should contemne the feete because they see not and the feete should murmure against the eyes because they walke not and should oppose themselues against the whole body because the burden of the body is imposed vpon them It is altogether necessary that the feete should be weary with going but that the eyes should rest that the feete should be polluted with durt and mire but that the eyes should be kept cleane and pure from all dust and moates neyther doe the eyes lesse in being at rest then the feete in walking neither doth the Pilot lesse sitting and holding the sterne in his hand neither is lesse necessary for the shyppe then all the other Marriners which eyther climbe the mast or hoyse vp the sailes or labour at the pumpe yea albeit hee seemeth to doe the least of all yet he dooth the most of all for the excellency of a thing is not to be esteemed by labours but by the profit and necessity vnlesse we will say that an husband-man who diggeth and tylleth the ground is of better esteeme in a Common-wealth then a vvise-man that gouerneth the Common-wealth by his aduice and wisedome He therfore that well considereth these things will leaue his vocation and calling to euery man that is that a foote may continue a foote and a hand a hand neyther vvill the foote desire that all the members might be feete neither the hand that all should be hands This is that which in that most large disputation the Apostle would teach in the Epistle cited a little before the same thing he also admonisheth whē he saith Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not and let not him that eateth not iudge him that eateth For he that eateth perhaps hath neede to eate yet he may be indued with more excellent vertues then he that fasteth For euen as in song the notes in the space are are valuable as those in the line so in the harmony of the spirituall musick of the Church he is no lesse valuable that eateth then he that eateth not and he that is at quiet and rest no lesse acceptable then he that is occupied or he that in his leysure laboureth to edifie his neighbour The same thing vvith great vehemencie S. Bernard teacheth commaunding that no man should curiously looke into or search their lifes who are placed in offices to censure and try others or doe execute functions of Iudges and Rulers neyther that any man should iudge of another mans life or compare his life with anothers The third admonition is of the care and watch which a religious man ought to haue ouer his actions CHAP. XXI LEt thys be the third admonition Seeing that in this rule sundry kindes of vertues and instructions are to be remembred which pertaine to the right ordering and framing of the life and our vnderstanding being not capable to entertayne all together and at once I thinke that I shall not doe amisse if I now ioyne to the former a certaine generall vertue which contayneth all the rest and which as much as may be supplieth the place of all the rest Thys is a continuall care and a watch and perpetuall examining of those things which are to be done or spoken that all things may be directed by the guydance of reason That as an Embassadour being to speak in the assembly of an honourable Senate at one and the selfe-same time standeth carefully thinking of the matters he is to speake of and of the words by which he is to vtter them and of the order vvhich he is to obserue in speaking and also of the gesture of his body of other things necessary for this action so the seruant of God ought diligently carefully circumspectly to watch ouer him selfe and ouer all his actions in speaking in silence in demaunding in aunswering in trafficking in sitting at table in the market in the Church in the house and without the house as holding a compasse in his hand measuring and moderating all his actions works and thoughts that he may proceed in all things according to the prescript of the diuine law according to the rule of reason and the decencie of his person For albeit there is very great difference betweene good and euill yet God hath infused and imprinted a certaine light and knowledge of either in our soules so that a man can scarcely be found albeit hee be rude and simple who if he diligently attend that he dooth but he may vnderstand what he ought to doe in euery thing And this care and consideration is profitable to all the documents instructions of this rule and of many other This care is that which is commended of the holy Ghost when he saith Keepe therefore your soules carefully and diligently And this is that third part of righteousnes and iustice which the Prophet Micheas insinuateth saying Walke humbly carefully and circumspectly with thy God This is nothing else then a perpetuall care and a continuall thought that thou doe not any thing which is contrary to the Diuine will This is that which that multitude of eyes in those misticall creatures of Ezechiell doe signifie which intimateth vnto vs the greatnes of attention and circumspection which a Christian Souldier ought to haue against so many and so terrible enemies with which he is to fight The same thing those threescore strong and valiant men of Israell doe signifie who compasse the bed of Salomon who al handle the sword and are expert in warre For in this the same care and vigilancy is signified in which an armed man ought to be who is compassed cirkled about with the troups of so many enemies endangered with hands of so great cruelty The cause of this care besides many other dangers is the greatnes and waight of this busines especiall in them that aspire to the perfection of a spirituall life For to liue and conuerse worthily with God is to keepe himselfe cleane and pure from all the spots of this world to liue in this flesh without any signe of carnall worke or affection and to walke without offence vntill the day of the Lord as the Apostle sayth These things are so hard and so supernaturall that all things are required heere yea God himselfe with his grace and helpe Behold the care and circumspection which a man hath when he doth any special peece of work but much greater is the worke of saluation Therefore what care is here required Consider with what great care a man beareth any vessell brim full of precious liquor or oyle least it should be spilld Consider with what great care a man goeth ouer any narrow peece of timber or
they that are newly inaugurated into Gods Church are to be admonished of a notable error which oftentimes happen vnto them Who perchaunce reading in some spirituall booke of the greatnes of the sweetnes and consolations of the holy Ghost and how great the pleasant allurements and enticements of charity be forth-with they suppose that this whole way is plaine full of deliciousnes and that no labour nor trouble is to be found in it wherefore they prepare themselues to walk in this way as to an easie and delectable matter neyther doe they arme themselues as those who goe to warre but they put on a soft and a delicate robe as if they were to goe to a mariage or a banquet They doe not consider that although the loue of God is sweet and pleasant in it selfe and of it owne nature yet that the way vnto it is straight and bitter For it is needfull aboue all things to conquer and ouercome selfe-loue and to striue alwayes against thy selfe which fight is greater then any other Both of them that Euangelicall Prophet insinuateth when he sayth O Ierusalem shake off the dust arise and sit downe It is certaine that in sitting there is neyther labour nor difficulty but it is labour to shake off the dust of earthly and carnall affections and to arise from the sinne in which we sleepe which is necessary to doe before we come to that sitting and rest It is true that God bestoweth many and wonderfull comforts vpon them that faithfully labour and in like manner vpon them who now desire to change the delights of the world for the pleasures of heauen yet if this change be not made and if a man will not leaue the pray he hath taken beleeue me this refreshing and comfort shall not be giuen him as neither Manna was giuen to the children of Israell in the wildernes before the dowe was spent which they brought vvith them out of Egypt Returning therefore to our purpose I say let those seeke for rest as long as they will who are not armed with this fortitude and let them know that vnlesse they first change theyr mindes and purpose they shall not finde it Let them knowe and assuredly beleeue that quietnes is not purchased but by labor that a crowne is obtayned by fighting that ioy is atchiued by sorrowing and that the most sweet loue of God is procured by hatred of our selues For thys cause this idlenes is so often reprehended in the Prouerbs but fortitude and diligence commended because the holy Spirit the Authour of this doctrine knew very well that vertues are very much hindered by laâ—nes but ayded and perfitted by fortitude and diligence ¶ Of the meanes by which this fortitude is obtained PErhaps some man will aske by what meanes this fortitude may be procured and atchiued seeing that it is no lesse difficult then the other vertues Wherfore not without cause the Wise-man thus beginneth his Alphabet full of spirituall instructions Who shall finde a strong and a valiant woman for her price is farre aboue the pearles As if he should say shee is more precious then all the treasure and Iems which may be brought out of all the Coasts of the world How then may we compasse a thing of so great price and value We shall compasse it first if diligently we consider the dignity excellency of it for that ought to be in great account with vs which openeth vnto vs the treasuries of all vertues If it be otherwise tell me why the louers of thys world doe after that manner flie froÌ„ vertue Not for any other cause but because it is hard and difficult vvhich difficulty sluggards doe shunne and flie The slothfull man sayth as the Wise-man speaketh A Lyon is in the way and a Lionesse in the streetes in the midst of the way she will deuoure me And in another place The foole foldeth his handes and eateth vp his owne flesh saying Better is a handfull with quietnes then two handfulls with labour and vexation of spirit Seeing therefore that there is no other thing that hindereth vs from comming vnto vertue but this onely difficultie if wee will embrace this fortitude to ouercome it we haue already obtained the kingdome of vertue together with the kingdome of heauen to which no man shall come but hee that is valiant strong and vndaunted In like manner by this fortitude the loue of our selues is cast vnder foote with the whole Army of her complices and confederats which enemy when it is ouerthrowne and cast foorth behold presently entereth in the loue of God or if you had rather God himselfe For as Saint Iohn sayth God is loue and he that dwelleth in loue dwelleth in God and God in him The manifold examples of the seruants of God doe much auaile and profit vs whom we see heere in the world poore naked bare-foote and bare-legged leaue hungry restlesse hauing not where to lay theyr heads and wanting all those things which are requisite for the maintenaunce of this life Some of them doe so hasten to labours and austerenes of life where they may liue religiously and strictly and not be entangled with the pleasures of this life as a Merchant to some rich mart or a student of the liberall Sciences to some famous Vniuersity What I pray thee can be more contrary to the custome of this world and to the desires of her louers then that a man should seek out those places where his body may be pinched his soule made heauie and his life exposed to many greeuances and troubles These are assuredly most contrary to flesh and blood but very agreeable vnto the Spirit of GOD. But yet more especiallie our pleasures are condemned by the example of the Martyrs who haue entred into the kingdome of heauen by so many so cruell torments Consider howe one of them was rosted another had his skinne pulld ouer his eares the third drowned in the water the fourth cast head-long from a steepe Rocke a fift layde on a peece of vvood with a sharpe ridge his flesh being scraped and rent of with a ragged tormenting Curry-combe and his bowels beeing slitte out yeelded vp the ghost a sixth hath so many Darts sticking in him that he is liker an Hedg-hog then a man the seauenth is fryed in a frying pan or boyled in scalding lead others tormented with other extreame tortures Consider how many of them haue beene tormented not with one kinde of punishment but with all kinde of torments which humane nature hath beene capable of and so haue passed to death For some haue been taken from the filthines vncleannesse of the pryson to be whipped and scourged from whipping scourging to be singed with burning coales from burning coales to the bastinado from the bastinado to yron combes then to the sworde which alone had beene sufficient to take away the life of the Martyrs but not to make them shipwracke theyr fayth or
constancie But what shall I speake of the arts and inuentions vvhich that ingenious and witty cruelty I say not of men but of deuils hath deuised to ouer-throw and confound with corporall tortures fayth courage fortitude Some of them after they were most cruelly martyred and theyr flesh all to be-torne and rent were cast vpon a floare all sette with goades and prickes that theyr bodies all at once might be goared and 〈◊〉 with a thousand woundes and that they might feele a generall greefe throughout all theyr members that theyr intollerable payne might striue for victory with their faith Others beeing condemned were commaunded to walke vpon hote burning coales with their naked feete Others beeing tyed to the tayles of horses were drawne ouer thornes and bryers and rough places Others were condemned to wheeles stucke all round about with sharpe kniues that theyr bodies being put vppon them whilst they turned about might be cutte small peeces Others were stretched vpon Racks and their bodyes beeing harrowed and furrowed from top to toe with yron crookes and peircers did openly show their naked bowels the flesh being puld of and their ribs lying bare What shall I say more seeing that the barbarous and more then beastly cruelty of Tyrants not being contented with these torments hath found out a certaine new kind of cruelty With certaine instruments they so brought together two high sturdie trees that their tops touched one the other to one of these tops they bound the right foote of the Martyr to the other the left Then losing the Trees to their old scope they carried the body with them and violently tare it in peeces and each tree carryed with it his part into the ayre In Nicomedia among other innumerable Martyrs one was beaten so long till his white ribbs appeared through his bloody wounds for the scourges and whippings had peece-meale puld away the flesh then they washed his whole body with most strong vinegar after vinegar stuffed all his wounds ful of salt The Tyrants not yet satisfied with these dire discruciatements and extreame tortures when they saw that the Martyr yet breathed they cast his halfe dead body vpon a gridyron vnder which they made a fierce scorching fire haling the gridyron this way and that with their yron hookes vntil the body being fully rosted the sanctified pure-purged soule passed to the Lord. And thus those most barbarous inhumane butcherly murtherers inuented tortures more cruel thē death which notwithstanding was wont to be termed the terriblest of all dreadful things For they sought not so much to kill as to slay with vnheard of torments without any deadly wound by a lingering death and with intollerable greatnesse of dolours and sorrowes Surely these Martyrs had not bodies vnlike to ours or which were of another substance their flesh was as our flesh and theyr complexion was the same with ours neyther had they another God for theyr helper besides our God neyther did looke for another glory then that wee looke for Proceede therefore if they haue obtayned eternall life by so violent death why should we feare for the same cause at the least to mortifie the euill concupiscences of our flesh If they died through hunger wilt not thou fast one day If they with their mangled bodies perseuered in prayer why wilt not thou being sound and in health with bended knees continue a little in prayer If they were so patient that without resisting or contradiction they suffered their members to be maymed and detruncate and theyr flesh to be torne in peeces why wilt not thou abide that thine appetites and thine vnruly affections should be circumcised and mortified If they many yeares and many moneths sat imprisoned in darke dungeons why wilt not thou a little be contayned and shut vp in thy chamber If they haue not refused to haue their shoulders furrowed and mangled with whips and scourges why wilt not thou chastice thine If these examples doe not suffice thee lift vp thine eyes to the Crosse of Christ and behold who is he that hanging vppon it suffered so great and so cruell things for the loue of thee The Apostle sayth Consider him that endured such speaking against of sinners least yee should be wearied and faint in your minds This is a fearefull and a dreadfull example what way so euer thou shalt consider of it For if thou lookest vppon the torments there can be no greater If thou respectest the person who suffereth a more excellent cannot be giuen If thou examinest the cause for which he suffereth not for his owne offence for he is innocency it selfe neyther suffereth he of compulsion for he is the Creatour and Lord of all creatures but of his mere goodnes and free loue Yet for all this he suffered so great torments not only in his body but also in his soule that the torments of all Martyrs of all men that euer haue been in the world are not to be compared with these This was such a spectacle that the heauens were astonished the earth trembled rocks claue in sunder and all the insencible creatures felt the indignity of the thing How therefore commeth it to passe that man should be so insencible blockish that he should not feele that which the brute elements haue felt with what face can he be so ingratefull that he should not study somewhat to imitate him who hath done and suffered so great things that he might leaue vs an example For euen so as the Lord himselfe affirmeth Christ ought to haue suffered and so to enter into his glory For seeing that he came into the world that he might teach that heauen is not to be cōpassed by any other way then by the Crosse it was necessary that the Lord himselfe should first be crucified that a courage might be put into his Souldiers seeing their Captaine to be so cruelly and inhumanely handled and intreated Who then will be so ingratefull wicked proud and impudent who seeing the Lord of Maiesty with all his friends and chosen ones to walke such difficult wayes and yet he himselfe will be caried in an Horse-litter and on a bed of Downe led his life in deliciousnes King Dauid commaunded Vrias whom he had called from warre to goe into his owne house to sup sleepe with his wife but the good seruant answered The Arke and Israell and Iuda dwell in tents and my Lord Ioab and the seruants of my Lord abide in the open fields shall I then goe into mine house to eate and drink and lye with my wife by thy life by the life of thy soule I will not doe this thing O good and faithfull seruant who by so much is worthier of prayse by how much he is vnworthier of death And thou ô Christian seeing thy Lord lying vpon an hard Crosse hast thou no respect of him neyther doost thou yeeld honour reuerence vnto him The Arke of God made of incorruptible Ceder wood
intollerable if a married woman should giue all her Ouches Tablets Ringes Chaynes Earings and Bracelets which her husband gaue her that shee might be beautified with them and to please him to an adulterer that shee may allure him to her loue I doe not thinke that a more execrable and damnable thing coulde bee thought of in the world and yet this iniurie is doone to man of man to an equall of an equall But how much greater and filthier is it if such great iniurie be offered to God And what other thing doe men daily when as they doe spend and consume their fortitude strength health and riches which God hath giuen them vpon ill works most filthy and dishonest actions They wax more proud do mightily swell through fortitude they hunt after greater glory through beautie in health they more easily forget God by riches they be come more couetous and more greedy to sucke out the blood of the poore by riches they study how to heape vp moe riches they doe deck and trim their bodies beyond measure they lye in waite for the virginity and chastity of women and they doe that they as an other Iudas may sell the blood of Christ and they as Iewes may buy it at an appoynted price And how may I remember sufficient worthily the abuse of the rest of the benefits The water serueth their gullet they abuse the beauty of the creatures to their lust the fruites and blessings of the earth doe wayte vpon their couetousnes The graces and habites of nature doe encrease their pride through too much prosperity they waxe mad and foolish and through aduersity they are so deiected and cast downe that they make shipwrack of theyr soules and runne into damnation The murtherer riseth early and killeth the poore and the needy and in the night hee is as a theefe as it is written in Iob. To be briefe whatsoeuer God created for his glory they conuert it to be instruments for their madnes and frenzie He should enter into a bottomlesse pit of miseries if any would exactly remember their distilled waters smels fumigations apparell Babilonian tapestry and their diuers kinds of delicates boyled rosted broyled fryed and a thousand other superfluities of the which that there might be more skill to sinne not onely whole books are written but also imprinted so little shamefastnes there is amongst vs and so great strength the enticements of the flesh haue got All these precious things for which wee ought to giue to the Lord God infinite and euerlasting thanks they vse as the prouokements of their riotousnes and luxuries peruerting the vse of all the creatures of God and making them the instruments of vanity which they ought to make the instruments of vertue To be briefe they haue vowed and bequeathed all things which are in the world to the lusts and delights of their flesh but nothing to their neighbour whom God hath commended so seriously vnto them For when they shold giue any thing to their neighbour then they are onely poore then they rip vp and record that they are much endebted in all other things neyther are they endebted to any man neyther is anie thing wanting or lacking to them Therfore ô my brother doe not suffer that this so dangerous a burthen layd vpon thee doe remaine to the houre of death which by how much it is greater by so much a straighter account shall be exacted of thee That God giueth much to him who is ingratefull is a certaine kinde of iudgement but when he giueth to him that abuseth his benefits it is a token of reprobation For in this we shew that wee haue put off all shamefastnes the beasts in this kinde of vertue doe goe before vs and are much more thankfull to their benefactour then wee are Wherefore if the Niniuites shall rise against the Iewes at the last iudgement and shall condemne them because they were not moued to repentance by the preaching of Christ let vs beware and take heede least God condemne vs for the example of beasts because they doe loue their benefactour whom we doe not loue THE FOURTH TITLE That we are bound vnto Vertue by reason of the inestimable benefit of our Redemption CHAP. IIII. AFter the benefits of our Creation and Preseruation followeth the inestimable benefit of our Redemption To handle and speake of this benefit I finde my selfe so vnworthy and so vnapt that I am vtterly ignorant where to begin or where to make an ende I know not what to speake neyther what to keepe close and silent If the idlenes and slothfulnes of men did not neede this prick to liue well it were better to adore with silence the altitude and depth of such a benefit then to obscure and darken it with the harshnes that I may so speake and penury of my tongue It is remembred in the writings of auncient men that a certaine famous Paynter when he would depaynt the funerall solemnity of a certaine Kings Daughter fayned many of her kinsfolks alliance standing about the course with sorrowfull and heauy countenances hee ioyned also the mother vnto them more mournfull and sorrowfull then the rest When he came to delineate and pourtray the father hee did couer his face with a certaine artificiall shadow signifying thereby that his Art did heere faile him By which new deuice and inuention he expressed the greatnes of his greefe If therefore all our knowledge is not sufficient to declare the benefit of our Creation what tongue what eloquence what oratory can sufficient worthily expresse the benefit of our Redemption God created all things with the onely becke and pleasure of his will but for mans redemption he sweat thirty three yeeres hee shed his blood neyther had he any one member or sence which was not tormented and vexed with some particuler and peculier greefe It seemeth that an iniury is done to this glorious misterie if any man shall suppose that he can expresse it with humane tongue Then what shall I doe shall I speake or shall I holde my peace I may not be silent and I cannot speake How can it be that I should keepe in silence thy mercy so vnmeasurable and how shall I declare this mistery so high and so to be adored To hold my peace ingratitude to speake may be called rashnes and presumption Wherefore ô my God I intreate thine vnmeasurable piety grant vnto me that as long as I shall speake of thy glory after my rude manner those blessed spirits which are aboue in heanen who know how to glorifie thee may prayse and glorifie thee for me and that thy holy spirit may administer and supply vnto me those things wherin I faile After that man was created and seated in a place of delights in great dignity and glory and also was bound to God with so great and straight bonds as the benefits were great that he had receaued of him he became disobedient and rebelled and of