and imbecility that they cannot do these things this the divine providence hath brought to passe by the predictions of the Prophets by the humanity and Doctrine of Christ by the voyages of the Apostles by the Contumelies crosses bloud and death of Martyrs by the laudable and excellent lives of Saints and by miracles done at convenient times in all those things worthy of so great matters and vertues When therefore we see so great help and assistance from God and so great fruit and increase thereby shall we make any doubt or question at all of retyring into the bosome of that Church which even to the confession and acknowledgement of mankind from the See Apostolique by succession of Bishops hath obtained the soveraignty and principall authority Heretikes in vain barking round about it and being condemned partly by the judgement of the people themselves partly by the gravity of Councells partly also by the majesty and splendor of miracles unto which not to grant the chief place and preheminence is either indeed an extream impiety or a very rash and dangerous arrogancy for if there be no certain way for the minds of men to wisdome and salvation but when faith prepareth and disposeth them to reason what is it els to be ungratefull unto the divine Majesty for his aid and assistance but to have a will to resist an authority which was gained and purchased with such labour and pains and if every art and trade though but base and easie reqires a teacher or Master that it be learned and understood what greater expression can there be of rash arrogancy and pride then both to have no mind to learn the booke of the Divine mysteries from their Interpreters and yet to have a mind to condemn the unknown Thus far this glorious Saint Here we see how highly necessary blessed S. Augustine judged it for all Christians to adhere to the Catholique Church in all points of belief which he declares here to be the Roman Church that is to say that universall multitude of Christians which acknowledgeth Rome for their head whose authority as he saith is confirmed by consent of Nations Councells and Majesty of Miracles Was ever your fictitious Church thus adjusted Here great S. Augustine puls down sails and of a Master glories to become a Scholler Whence we learn that if an Origen the crums of whose plenty rendred Clemens Alexandrinus rich in the esteem of all or an Apollinarius with his conquests against Porphyry and other enemies of Gods Church or any other prodigious Comets of wit and learning or whatsoever posteriour Masters who can be but pedants to the former should presume to teach the Church or to question her Magisteriall Dictates or Conciliary Decrees we must say with Vinc. Lyr. ca. 10. that with the Church we ought to receive Doctors and not with Doctors to forsake the faith of the Church Could we attaine to S. Paulins contempt of our selves we should not at so high a rate as to the prejudice of Gods Church and his divine truths sell our raw conceits S. Hierome and S. Augustine made high esteem of his learned and pious Epistles and S. Amand kept them as Diadems in his Storehouse whereof he sent to S. Paulin a fardle to which he replies Legimus in tergo epistolae annotationem epistolarum quas meas esse indicatis nam verè prope earum omniumimmomor eram ut meas esse non recognoscerem nisi vestris literis credidissem unde majus accepi documentum charitatis vestrae quia plus me vobis quà m mihi notum esse perspexi If he had been tickled with our vanity he would have kept a better bed-roale of his writings in his memory then to borrow and even unwillingly from S. Amand a knowledge of his own works Here is no danger of recalcitration in order to the holy Churches great treasury opportunely dispensed and humbly received by her learned children S. Paul our Grand Master puts all Doctrine and Doctors to the test thus If any preach unto you otherwise then you have received be he accursed It 's high time therefore to leave Pope Celestine his golden rule celebrated in Lirinensis let novelty cease to molest antiquity for whosoever he is or of whatsoever eminency for learning or sanctity he seems to be if he introduceth novelty alienus est prophanus est hostis est he is a wolfe in a sheeps cloathing What greater expression can there be of rash Arrogancy and pride c. as S. Augustine hath taught us FINIS A cursory Animadversion upon Henry Fernes Treatise of the Division between the English and Romish Church upon the Reformation IF I had not seen the two Capitall letters D. D. in the title page of his Treatise I should have esteem'd 〈◊〉 not worthy taking more notice â—f then of a scurrilous Pamphlet neither dare I play the Cabalist to â—ive the divers significations of those Hieroglyphicks but reading them without notes they import Doctor of Divinity the Preface a Country Sermon which ever must have a fling at the Papists neither that nor the ensuing discourse is ad Clerum els they would more savour of the Doctor according to the antientstle of the University In his said preface to take notice first of some of his calumnies there he falls into these expressions All the Christian world sees how long the poor distressed Eâ—stern Church has lain under that heavy condition unpitied by them of the Romish Communion and how they have stood affected to us since our Reformation has sufficiently appeared by their several practises against us what hand they had in our present troubles is not unknown to some what joy they now take in them let their own hearts tell them c. His chiefe ayme in the book is to shew that the arguments which they use to condemn the Independents are not retortable upon themselves by us and what greater use of reason they grant to their Proselites then we All which he labours for in the seventh and the ensuing Sections till the thirteenth wherein verily he is so unhappy that any child may return his arguments with great advantage His result being this that private judgement or judgement of discretion which he allows to private men must submit to the publique els the power of Jurisdiction must proceed to judge censure and cast out the disobedient and therefore he exacts even in case of errour all externall peaceable subjection Did ever the Roman Church go thus far was there ever challenged any higher captivation of understanding then that every one should submit to the publique Was ever externall subjection exacted in point of error which this D. D. wil have in his Church Further the Independents whom he involves with Sacrilegists he wil have inexcuseable in their breach from them because it was not warranted by a Nationall Synod as theirs which how untrue it is all know for all the Bishops of this Nation were excluded and imprisoned when the Doctors
to be lawfull against Scriptures Fathers and Councells and the very Catechismes wherewith we teach our children yet this he said on Sunday the 25. of Jan. 1651. at Lincolns-Inne I would not mention so high a crime to his dishonour if it had not been committed in that publique Theater and so first published by himselfe And by this we see what ground the other Bishop had for his ingenuous Confession To your third Still it runs right Here is poem talionis which God inflicts upon you Reflect upon this well and seâ— how justly God hath retorted upon you what your Pulpits belched constantly against us for so many years and through our sides against your and our parents and against the whole Catholique world in respect of which ye deserve not the imaginary title of a Shadow But you go on 4. And we desire it may be considered in case a Covenant of like form should be tendered to the Citizens of London wherein they should be required to swear they would sincerely really and constantly without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Treason the City Government by a Lord Mayor Aldermen Sheriffes Common Councell and other Officers depending thereon murther adultery theft cosenage and whatsoever shall be c. left they should partake in other mens sins whether such a tendry could be looked upon by any Citizen that had the least spirit of freedome in him as an act of justice meekness and reason How still it runs alike and justly to be retorted upon you from Catholiques and with some notorious advantage for this plea of yours is but a pretty fancy and ends in words but you have gone further with us we have been publiquely and ignominiously hanged with murtherers thieves and reputed Traytors and these have been looked upon by you as acts of justice meekness and reason as appears in my L. of Canterbury his Epistle to the late King But we will hear you further Secondly for Episcopall Government we are not satisfied how we can with a good conscience swear to endeavour the extirpation thereof first in respect of the thing it self concerning which Government we think we have reason to believe 1. That it is if not Jure Divino in the strictest sense that is to say expressely commanded by God in his Word yet of Apostolicall Institution that is to say was established in the Churches by the Apostles according to the mind and after the example of their Master Jesus Christ and that by vertue of their ordinary power and authority derived from him as deputed by him Governours of his Church 2. Or at least that Episcopall Aristocracy hath a fairer pretention and may lay a juster title and claim to a divine justification then any of the other forms of Church Government can do all which yet do pretend thereunto viz. that of the Papall Monarchy that of the Presbyterian Democracy and that of the Independents by particular Congregations or gathered Churches How feebly do these however learned men argue in this radicall point which cuts the very sinews and heart strings of their Idol their motions are unequall like a hen when her head is struck off they skip and leap inordinately with If 's and Ana's B. Vsher at the Isle of Wight gave a short come off saying that the Government by Bishops was not so necessary as to break the peace for it yet he scruples not to break the peace of the universall Church for things which they all confess less necessary In fine all of you are very short in this fundamentall point I love Lypsius his Laconisme rather then Cicero'es Dilatations but this must be considered promateria substrata this matter needed all possible to picks to strengthen it if you had them but I see your pantry is slenderly provided forasmuch as concerns your title to Episcopacy which is your aim to defend I will afterward shew the weaknesse of your title Had you consulted the Archives of the University and retrived the businesse now in hand to Wickliffs time and Tenets you would have found another kind of solution registred of the Convocation house and I believe much more savouring of well-grounded Divinity as applied to Episcopacy in it selfe not to yours For the comparison you make of Episcopall Aristocracy and Papall Monarchy are termes which your young Sophisters call Oucategorimaticall they signifie nothing as to this purpose For the question is not which is best but whether the first can be without the last you must first secure us de re then de modo For example there is a controversie betwixt Aristotle and Galen whether the seat of the soul is in the head or heart it were little to their purpose to assert one of these to be better then the other as separate from the other in its own nature but the way to determine it is from the operations of the soule to see first if it will give life to one without the other and therefore Averroes saith that he saw a ram walk a little when the head was struck off Truly this proof will hold in you you have made a great bluster for a time since the Popes head was taken off by Harry the VIII but ye see now you could continue no more then Averro's â—â—am because your life was from the Pope and upon this supposition the second question ceaseth Ye go on 2. But we are assured by the undoubted testimony of antient Records and later Histories that this forme of Government hath been continued with such an universall uninterrupted unquestioned succession in all the Churches of God and in all the Kingdomes that have beene called Christian throughout the whole world for fifteen hundred years together that there never was in all that time any considerable opposition made thereagainst That of Acrius was the greatest wherein yet there was little consideration beside these two things that it grew at the first but out of discontent and gained him at the last but the reputation of an Heretique From which antiquity and continuance we have just cause to fear that to endeavour the extirpation thereof c. Excuse me that I tell you here again you speak high words without sense as they are applied to your pretence of Episcopacy It is a great truth that Gods Church was universally govern'd by Bishops but this is not the question but whether your Schismaticall Bishops succeeded lawfully from that old Episcopacy that is whether the Church of God acknowledged Episcopacy lawfull which erected Altar against Altar which stood in division from all Bishops throughout the rest of the world and could not give letters Communicatories to Rome or to the other Patriarchs Your Proposition I deny not being in it self true as in the Councell of Constantinople where under Arcadius Origen's books were questioned the Fathers rejected not such books as werâ— found Orthodox notwithstanding his others were full of errâ—â—s and â—oth S. Hierome Ep. 75. and S. Aug. Ep. 9. followed the same method
for the Dead Nay that you may be assured ask a Heathen Historian Ammianus Marcellinus he will secure you that Christian Religion teacheth Cultum Sanctorum and to make addresses to them as he writes to Valentinian If you bad yet rather have a Schismatique of your owne stamp ask Lucilla a Patroness of the Donatists in lib. 1. of Optatus Millevitan As for prayers for the dead in order to remission of debts after this life before that great day of generall goal-delivery or last fiery purgation it was as I conceive practised always according to the sense of the Church universall by the East and West and judged very profitable by them all To omit particular Greek and Latine Fathers it seemeth in the Councell of Florence to be the sense of the Greek and Latine Church as appears in the narration of the whole dispute printed at Leiden in Holland and the definition of the Councell it self seems to come exceeding home where in defining what souls come to heaven before the day of Iudgment for that is the question there decided the Fathers spake thus Illorum etiam animas qui post baptismum susceptum nullam omnino peccati maculam incurrerunt illas etiam quae post contractam peccati maculam vel in suis corperibus vel eisdem exuti corporibus prout dictum est superius sunt purgatae in coelum mox recipi c. Here they suppose some souls to be purged before the last day els the discourse is not consequent nor to the purpose Which also is cleare in Pope Benedict XI his Extravagant which begins Benedictus Dens c. where defining the same truth agitated under John 22. his words are Si tum erit aliquod purgabile in eisdem lamen post mortem suam purgabunt c. etiam ante resumptionem suorum corporum judicium generale c. erunt in coelo c. He defines that some will be purged before the retaking of their bodies and the generall judgment and will go to heaven This definition opens fully the sense of the definition of Florence which is made in conformity to this and almost in the very same words so that I do not easily see what can be desired more The sense of the old Church S. Augustine declares in his Enchyridion to Laurence where speaking of such souls he saith quanto magis minúsve bona pereuntia dilexerunt tanto tardiùs citiusque salvari This clears all It s true he leaves the fire of Purgatory somewhat disputable which is not yet desined but he clears the meaning of Christians in their durance there and indeed tells us what the old Fathers and Liturgies and Councells signified in their degrees and practises of helping the dead by suffrages which was that answerably to their demerits they might tardiùs citiusve salvari There were many Foundations in this Nation made piously by your and our Predecessouis for the dead which you perverted to prophane uses as maintaining wives and children with manifest neglect and even professed contempt of praying for the dead as holding it unprofitable and uselesse contrary to all antiquity wherein you committed theft and sacriledge according to the Canons Concilii Vasensis Amico quippiam rapere furtum est ecclesiaâ— fraudare sacrilegium and the Canon spea â—s of this very matter largely And the fourth Councel of Carthage c. 95. saith Qui oblationes defunctorum aut negant ecclesiis aut cum difficultate reddunt tanquam egentium necatores excommunicentur They are excommunicated as murtherers Other Synods are as severe which I omit these signifying sufficiently the sense of the old Church See your friends of Magdeburg for these and for the rest of the Doctrines wherein you differ from us whether antiquity did not ackdowledge them Ask B. Vsher and the rest who have any ingenuity amongst you whether the Popes Supremacy was not acknowledg'd Read the history of the famous Dionisius Bishop of Corinth in Eusebius and S. Hierome who lived under Antoninus Verus you know how neere this was to the Apostles you will conclude of how great authority the Popes of Rome were in those first daies when their commands signified in their Epistles were even amongst the Greeks published in the Churches in time of Divine Service by the Bishops and S. Epiphanius in Panar heresi 30. against the Ebions witnesseth that S. Clement his Encycles were solemnly read in Churches which was an act of high reverence far from your scorn of that Supreme Seat See for this and all other points even all true Generall Councells to this day they will let you see clearly Ask Perkins and your most eminent Writers whether almost all the Tenents for which you separte from us were not held above 1300. years If Traditions prove Episcopacy they will as well prove the rest Truly this sole Paragraph destroyes all your Praelatique Protestancy and renders you to your first condition of invisibility where ye lay for 1500. years hidden not in Abrahams bosome But if you can faine any existence it must be in some occult receptacles or crany holes of your own fancies Plato's Ideas though fanatique enough never reacht you but Luther being in drink and his fancy weakned first began to dream of you though confusedly I know many of you are well acquainted with Gyges his Ring which renders you invisible at pleasure but you have not the perfect use of it els you could as well make your selves visible to all the world Your old friend B. White and B. Vsher laboured much to get this art but unsuccessefully I must needs touch this main point a little farther I more commend Monsieur D'ally Chillingworth and all his schools ingenuity who though they enervate the grounds of Christianity yet they far more consequently deny the Fathers to have that authority which Catholiques and the General Councells universally give them in clearing points of faith as in the first four where they were alledged examined and accordingly Faith declared by their authorities and so in every Councell hitherto in point of Christian Doctrine then you who play fast and loose Here you pretend necessity and high authority for Tradition which must needs be conveighed by them to us and in all your works as I have noted and as all know you have cryed out against it as not being necessary Thus you fight and contradict each other and your selves in these fundamentalls I remember Plato in his Timaeo tells of an Aegyptian Priest who thus spoke to Solon O Solon Solon vos quidem Graeci pueri semper estis senex autem Graecorum nemo nulla est enim apud vos disciplina quae senio incanuerit Will not this come home to you if your years are to be numbred with the continuance of your doctrines surely you will never be very aged Since you have toucht this point of the Fathers let me put in one observation whereby any ignorant person may judge whether the Fathers of how great or
little authority soever they are with you were Protestants or Catholiques without discussing their many volumes which only learned men can master that is look upon their persons see what they were in themselves peruse their lives without their books was not S. Augustine confessedly a Priest l. 9. Conf. c. 11 12 13 c. Vita ejus à Possidio De moribus eccles Cath. Ep. 90.92.45 aliis unmarried did he not say Masse that is offer up the body and bloud of Christ in sacrifice for the living and the dead was he not Bishop of Hippo did he not institute a religious order of Monks did he not in fact acknowledge the Pope to be Head of the Church and his Superiour c. Whether could he with these be a Protestant Nay whether were not many upon far lesse grouds often convicted at Newgate for Popish Priests and in your reign hang'd and quartered Take the same course with S. Hierome Vita ejus Ep. 25. ad Aug. alibi was he not a Monk a Priest unmarried said Masse a subject of S. Damasus Pope Vita Ambrofit ante ejus opera to 5. collecta ex operibus ejus See his Dialogue and Register See his life c. Take S. Ambrose was he not a Bishop and in the same sense a Priest that is in your language a Sacrificant of the body and bloud of Christ unmarried subject to Rome c. Take S. Gregory See S. Gregory Nazianzen in his Oration of S. Basile he was not only a Priest unmarried but a Pope and began a Religious Order If you go to the Greek Fathers S. Bafile was a Monk instituted a religious Order a Priest a Bishop unmarried made a form of Masse used this day by the Greek Church c. and all these and the rest lived and died in the communion of the Church of Rome Ask your selves whether these could be other then Papists Take twelve men from the Sessions in the Old Baily put them upon the same test that you did our Priests tell me what the Verdict will be This consideration alone is sufficient to compell any reasonable man to become Catholique and to see that your Praelatique Protestancy is a Bull in Christianity involving manifest implicancy I should advise you therefore to leave the Fathers renounce them nay you 'l do well to make an act of your Convocation for this and as you have new Doctrines get new Patrons your own fancies will be best coloured with the name of reason though abusively as your more elevated wits of late have done with your allowance as appeares in the publique approbations of Chillingworth S. Gregory Nissen writing the life of Gregory the Wonder-worker comes home to this saying that there were Nonnulli qui piam sinceram religionis doctrinam adulterarent ac per probabiles argumentationes se penumero etiam doctis prudentibus viris veritatem facerent ambiguam There were some who would adulterate the sincerity and piety of Christian Doctrine by apparent probability of reason insomuch that even learned and prudent men would be caught by them I would that too too many were not taken with this guilded engine to the prejudice of Christianity Examine whether this warrants not all Catholiques from consenting to your new Articles and all your Proselites to leave you for them was it ever clearly demonstrated to be unlawfull to continue in the Roman Faith nay hath not the contrary been demonstrated by arguments and confirmed by suffering death for it by learned men You would seem here to have a sense of the principles of justice ingenuity and humanity though they are not proportionable Pleas for perswasion of Christianity neither did the Apostles by civilities court men to become Christians yet some respect might in the beginning of your revolt and now also be used to Catholiques upon these titles since England received their first knowledge of Christ from the Pope and all Church endowments from them they should not in justice ingenuity and humanity be persecuted for these good deeds as they have beene by you though some of you I know were of milder spirits and disliked such cruelties After in the numbers ensuing you bring more motives but they are domestique within your own walls as some of the former were but as far as they have any force more strongly convince a necessity for the continuance or re-assuming of Catholique Religion though many of them are rather drawn from the kitchin then the Church there is little Christian Philosophy here but much of Praelatique policy as from Deanaries fat perfonages c. which are also glanced at in the former Article I omit also the joyned Paragraphs being very extrinsecall to our purpose and indeed to the businesse only ye seem to strike at the present Parliament wherein we leave you desiring you may be comprehended in the Act of perpetuall Oblivion You are indeed in the pursuit contented that Princes have Papall rights upon condition that you may have Episcopall honors and benefices you speak it very plainly and joyn them as closely you plead hard also for Bishops out of another topick namely because as you say King James had learned by experience that no Bishop no King Our former histories I believe could give some strength to such a pretence but this kind of argumentation ever since your time was antiquated in England for you were ever in true Logick in the judgment of all the Church-Praelates beside your selves no other then equivocally Bishops that is idem nomen and ratio diversa So that it was alwaies since you were concern'd in it and now much more acknowledged by all other divines to be subjectum non supponens that is a subject which signifies nothing I discusse not here at large whether it was for lack of true form or matter or Ministery which are all required in true Ordination yet you know it 's hard enough to prove that you had either your form especially of Priesthood as used in the sense of your Authors in the more generall opinion is not valid any more then the Arrians Baptism of Episcopacy also it 's dubious however if Priesthood fails Bishops fall matter ye reject as not necessary and therefore you keep imposition of hands as a ceremony only as many among you teach so that it cannot be cleared that you had any much lesse all necessaries Wherefore it must be presumed that here was some essentiall defect consequently no Ordination if no Ordination no Sacraments by your ordinary Ministery And from hence how many have we known who without your note of Apostasie have left your pretended Priesthood and became Lay-persons as Souldiers Physitians and the like according to that of Tertul. de Praescrip Alius hodie Episcopus cras alius hodie Diaconus qui cras Lector hodie Presbyter qui cras Laicus Some of you have indeed strugled hard for your succession from us as the Donatists did and therefore they
Errant appeared in battell and like high-drawn Meteors vanished in the midst of the ayery combate leaving some ill-savours behind them which require suffumigations of sacred incense or at least aspersions of holy Water These last words being pronounc'd you quitted the stage the Chorus replying sadly How truly may we apply to you our blessed Saviours inculcation to the Jewes Quoties volui c. you have murthered his Prophets and Apostles lawfully sent to you for above 80. years you have had their examples of Christian fortitude in undergoing cruell deaths for the antient Religion of Gods universall Church and of this Nation from the infancy of Christianity here and you would not be advised by them Wherefore you are now dissipated and none will receive you The Catholique Church declines you all Protestant Congregations disclaime you which the B. of Cant. at the Councell table confess'd when upon a false rumour of his flying beyong Seas he said If he were minded to leave England he knew not whither to go All that now remaines of your Religion within the whole Dominion of this Nation by authority is that among the Articles upon the surrender of Virginia to the Parliaments navall forces dated the 12. of March 1651. The 11. Article is this That the use of the Common-Prayer Book be permitted there for one yeare ensuing c. God in nature in all ordinate motions to corruption never ceaseth till the subject be reduced to materia prima that is to your first invisibility wherein you now are therefore you must content your selves to be numbred inter non entia for the Law saith De non existentibus not apparentibus eadem est ratio Truly I am of opinion that future ages which shall read your history will take it to be a Romance it seems so full of prettily contrived implicancies like the old Romans who endeavoured by a tumultuous noise of kettles to enchant the Moon you have entertain'd this little world with high noyses in Pulpits in hope to enchant the Inhabitants but the curtain being opened all vanisheth What God will work out of this for generation certainly followes corruption we yet know not only we learn according to Aristotle that the more imperfect form is first produced and then the more Noble as in man first the vegetative then the sensitive and at last the intellectuall The Synagogue had three States even after Christs coming first it was obligatory til Christs Passion it was lawfull not profitable till Pentecost but from thence after sufficient promulgation of the Gospell it was unlawfull every where By these descents it was degraded and honourably buried And truly somewhat after this manner though not so handsomly in the close your Episcopal Idol was to be adored under obligation from 1. Eliz. till the beginning of this Parliament when your Bishops came to their purgation Then the Idoll was reduced to the second state of being lawfull not profitable or obligatory this continued til the Covenant was established by Parliament in Sept. 1643. From thence it became unlawfull and so ingloriously expired yet was not publikely exposed in order to interment till the Common Prayer Book was on the 26. of Novemb. 1644. voted down by Parlâ—an â—nt and the Presbyterian Directory established in its room which is since also vanished Moving and inviting all Catholiques Presbyterians and Independents to sing the Dirige of O Hierusalem Hierusalem quae occidis Prophetas c. they shall not leave on thee one stone upon another Luk. 19. All passengers will easily see the reason of the ruine of this high-built Babel to be because they made the walls without Morter they neither had unity community nor antiquity which only can cement a Christian structure The Roman world was astonisht to see the Pompeian faction having the conscript Fathers of Senate joyned in and with them to be so often and at last totally routed their answer which Cicero celebrates was Nemo mirari debet humana concilia divina necessitate esse superata The same answer in a Christian sense may be given as cause of your ruine Gods decrees have evacuated your ayery policies Let me with all possible instance and charitable seriousnesse conclude to all our Country men with S. Augustine in his seventeenth chapter de utilitate credendi written to Honoratus wherein he first shews the power and prejudice which habits and customes work in us as if he would admonish all to suspect themselves and therefore since Religion is a business of so high concernment as upon which our salvation radically depends you will do well to examine whether it is not custome rather then Christian reason which keeps you where you are without duly weighing the grounds Be pleased seriously to read and ponder S. Augustine who had deeply studied in this Treatise against the Manichees your very case see a summary of the grounds of true Religion you need read no more truly this sole chapter well pondred and the great truths therein wel observed are able to satisfie all the world and powerfully to compell your relinquishing an ill-drawn picture of a Church which hitherto you have exhibited to the world his words are these All customes have such vertue and power to win the love and affection of men that we sooner can condemn and detest even the things that are naught and wicked in them then forsake and change them and this for the most part comes to passe when our unlawfull appetites and desires have gotten a Dominion and predominancy over us Doest not thou think that great care hath been taken about the affairs of mankind and that they are put into a good state and condition that not only Divines but most learned men do argue and contend that nothing that is earthly nothing that is fiery finally nothing that is perceptible by the corporall senses ought to be worshipped and adored for God but that he is to be prayed unto intreated and supplicated only by the understanding or intellectuall power but also that the unskilfull multitude of both sexes doth in so many and so divers Nations both believe it and publish it that there is continency and forbearance of meats even to the most slender diet of bread and water and fastings not for one day only but also continued for divers dayes together that there is chastity even to the contempt of marriage and Issue that there is patience even to the contemning of crosses and flames that â—here is liberality even to the distribution of Patrimonies to the poor and finally so great a disesteem and contempt of all things that are in this world that even death it self is wished and desired Few there are that do these things fewer that do them well and prudently yet the people do approve them hearken to them and like them yea they love and affect them and not without some progress of their minds towards God and certain sparks of piety and vertue they blame and reprehend their own weakness