have gone in the way of Cain departing out of the Church Gen. 4.19 And Errore Balaam effusi have poured out themselves in the error of Balaam cursing the Church and people of God Num. c. 22. And in contradictione Core theuntes Perished in the contradiction of Corah opposing Moses the Law-giver and Aaron the High-Priest Num. c. 16. And much-what the same by St. Peter 2 Ep. 2.10 c. to be Dominationem contemnentes audaces sibi placentes Sectas non metuentes introducere blasphemantes or Majestates non metuentes blasphemare Contemners of Dominion bold self-pleasers not fearing to introduce Sects blasphemers or not fearing to blaspheme Majesties I recite so many places to shew the unanimous consent of the Holy Scriptures and writers in describing the qualities of this evil Spirit reduced principally to these two 1. Fleshly Lusts 2. Contention and disobedience These are the properties of the evil Spirit by which the Spirit of new Teachers is to be tryed Now so often as the Teachers of new and strange Doctrines come into the world professing opposition to those received from our present Superiours and to the common tenents of the Church Christians are directed by St. John c. 4. v. 1. to try such Spirits whether they be of God And are instructed by our Lord Mat. 7.16 that they shall know and discern them by their fruits and then by the Apostles as you have seen what in particular these fruits are Dr. Luther then being one of these and the last that hath appeared when the Church of God was at peace and unanimous in her doctrine and discipline to have broached new ones and departed out of this fold and become the Founder of another Model of Religion it seems reasonable and of much concernment that all Christians so soon as any is acquainted herewith do put themselves in the same posture now as they should have bin in had they lived at the first appearance of Luther when all remain'd in the bosom communion and faith of that Church which he opposed and first try his new Spirit by the marks or fruits here premised before they any longer follow it or stray from the fold of this Church to hearken to the voice of that Stranger Which trial the more to facilitate to them it seemeth to me no uncharitable act having heretofore for my own satisfaction made some search into this man's writings opinions and actions to present them with a brief relation of such passages of his Life and branches of his Doctrine drawn chiefly from his own Testimony or those of his Friends and fellow-Reformists i.e. the persons most favourable to his good reputation as I esteem to serve best to this purpose I pray God it may any way serve for advancing his glory and his truth for which it is intended Amen § 2 This man then after having taken his degree of Master of Arts at Erford an University in Germany 〈◊〉 holy 〈◊〉 wâ—â—â—st 〈◊〉 being much terrified by the sudden death of an intimate friend and companion slain some say by a thunderbolt put himself into a Monastery of the Augustine Fryers there against his Parents consent and after his Probationer-ship ended took the three Vows of Religion Poverty Celibacy and Obedience about the 22th year of his age See Melancthon in praefat 2. tom op Luther Luther de votis Monastic praefat ad Patrem where he saith Se terrore agone mortis subitae circumvallatum vovisse c. That being surrounded with the terror and agony of a sudden death he had vowed c. Here for some time he lived in his profession a very strict chast and sober life and most obedient to his Superiours Himself several times professeth so much of it Vixi Monachus saith he De votis Monasticis non sine peccato quidem sed sine crimine I liv'd whilst a Monk tho not sinless yet without grievous crime And on Gal. 1.14 in imitation of the great Apostle Si quisquam alius certe ego ante lucem Evangelii pie sensi zelavi pro Papisticis legibus Patrum traditionibus saith he Qua potui diligentia conatus sum eas praestare plus inedia vigiliis orationibus aliis exercitiis corpus macerans quam omnes illi qui hodie tam acerbe oderunt persequantur me c. Before the light of the new Gospel if ever any certainly I had pious sentiments and was zealous of the Papistical laws and traditions of my Fathers I endeavoured to keep them as diligently as I could macerating my body with fastings watchings prayers and other spiritual exercises more than they all who at this day so bitterly hate and persecute me because I now detract from those good works the glory of justifying For in the observation of them I was so over-diligent and superstitious that I laid a greater burden on the body than without endangering its health it could well bear I reverenc'd the Pope out of pure conscience not for the sake of preferments Again ibid. on vers 15. Ego in Monachatu externe non eram sicut caeteri homines raptores injusti adulteri â—â—sed servabam castitatem obedientiam paupertatem denique liber a curis praesentis vitae totus eram deditus jejuniis vigiliis orationibus legendis Missis c. Whilst a Monk I was not outwardly as other men extortioners unjust adulterers but I observed chastity obedience and poverty and lastly dis-engag'd from the cares of this present life I wholly gave my self up to fastings watchings prayers saying Mass c. And Tanta erat autoritas Papae apud me ut vel in minimo dissentire ab Ipso putarem crimen aeterna damnatione dignum So great with me was the authority of the Pope that in the least to dissent from him I judg'd a crime worthy of eternal damnation And thus Melancthon of him Praefat. in 2. tom Luther Receptus in Monasterium jam non solum acerrimo studio doctrinam Ecclesiae discit sed etiam summa disciplinae severitate se ipse regit omnibus exereitiis lectionum disputationum jejuniorum precum omnes longe superat Vidi continuis quatuor diebus cum quidem recte valeret prorsus nihil edentem aut bibentem Being admitted into the Monastery he not only learns by very hard study the doctrines of the Church but practises her discipline also with the utmost rigor and severity in all exercises of lectures disputations fasts prayers c. surpassing all others I have known him when in perfect health neither eat nor drink for four days together For there was also a Monastery of Augustine Fryers at Wirtenberg wherein Luther lived for many years after he was removed from Erford to that new-founded Vniversity for his pregnant parts and learning Neither did Luther leave off his Monks hood till 1524. sixteen years after his coming thither after which the means of this Monastery was given to the Elector and he became a private House-keeper and the
se nullius fanatici sive is sit Stenkfeldius sive Zuinglius sive Carolostadius sive Oecolampadius sive quisquam alius haereticus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc est Christi hostis blasphemi consortium recipere nec literas libros salutationes benedictiones scriptiones aut nominationem intra animi sui penetralia admittere nec visu vel auditu dignari decrevisse That he will neither keep company with any Fanatick whether it be Stenfeldius or Zuinglius or Carolostadius or Oecolampadius or whatsoever other Heretick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. bread-eater winedrinker that is with any enemy of Christ and blasphemous person nor receive either letters books salutations benedictions or writings from them nor even name them or vouchsafe so much as to hear or see them Ib. Neminem pro illis orareposse peccare enim eos ad mortem that none can pray for them because they sin unto death Ib. Malle centies discerpi vel comburi quam illorum doctrinae consentire that he had rather a thousand times be torn in pieces and burnt than assent to their doctrine And Hoc testimonium hancque gloriam ad Tribunal Jesu Christi secum allaturum quod Suermeros Sacramentorum hostes Carolostadium Zuinglium Oecolampadium Stenkfeldium eorumque discipulos Tiguri ubicunque sint toto pectore damnarit atque vitarit that he would carry this testimony and glory along with him to the Tribunal of Christ that with all his might and main he had condemned and avoided the Suermers enemies of the Sacraments as also Carolostadius Zuinglius Oecolampadius Stenkfeldius and their disciples whether at Zurich or wheresoever else they be And concludes his major Confession with a Protestation That if at any time hereafter I shall say or write otherwise than now I hold in this my Confession especially about the Sacrament it is false and comes from the Devil He is said also in his later time perceiving some variety of opinion especially by Melancthon's indifferency to begin to spread it self at Wirtenberg to have mediated a prescribed form of doctrine tho contrary to his former principles in which siquis aliter quam ipse sentiret Wirtenbergae non duraturum if any should be of a contrary opinion to him he should not stay at Wirtenberg Upon which foreseen by Melancthon he writes thus to Calvin Totos jam annos viginti expecto exilia propterea quod ostendi me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non probasse Every day for this twenty years have I expected to be banished for shewing a dislike to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Bread-worship He means of the Lutheran party See Hospinian fol. 193. c. and 249. And all this he saith chiefly in opposition of or to Calvin's way of Real presence how orthodoxly how certainly let Calvin's followers judge and by this judge of the certainty of his other doctrines also so authoritatively maintained by him against the former Catholick Church of God § 26 Where also of their reciprocal censures of him for it Therefore for this great fault of self-pleasing and confidence in his own opinions expositions of Scripture when as they say he most grosly erred and for the frequent contradictions observed in his former and later writings inconsistent with such certainty yet which he always pretended as much in his first till these recanted as in his last Tenents as likewise for the varying of his doctrine according to his adversary expounding Scripture a contrary way as he had occasion to make use thereof against the Church of Rome or against his anti-sects Reformed of which see many instances Hospinian f. 8. c I say for all these he hath not escaped a heavy censure even of his brethren when they found themselves to suffer from such his exorbitances Thus speak of him the Tigurine Divines in their Confession Proprii cerebri figmenta usque adeo illi placent ut quotquot illa haud secus ac Dei Oracula Revelationes non recipiunt pro asinis habet nihil intelligere putet ' He dotes so far upon the fictions of his own brain that he takes for meer fools and asses all those who receive them not as Oracles and divine Revelations And again In omnibus Correptionibus suis plurimum maligni spiritus quam minimum vero amici paterni animi deprehenditur In his reprehensions you may frequently find marks of a malign spirit but little or nothing of a friendly and fatherly affection And thus Conradus Gesnerus in his Bibliotheca Illud non est dissimulandum virum esse Lutherum vehementis ingenii impatientem qui nisâ—per omnia sibi consentientes ferre nesciat It cannot be conceal'd that Luther is a man of a vehement spirit impatient and of such a humour as can indure none but those who side with him in all things And thus Zuinglius in resp ad lib. Luther de Sacrament as to Protestant Controversies accuseth Luther's new Expositions of Scriptures for as erroneous as consident Tu leges fingis juxta quarum Praescriptum Scripturae sanctâ—e intelligi debeant quas alioquin in tuo sensu minus tueri ac asserere potes Eas Traditiones praescribis quae Dei verbum nusquam tradidit nec traditas quoque ullo modo admittere aut ferre potest You frame laws to your self for the understanding of the Scriptures which other ways you would not be able to assert and abett in the sense you would have them You prescribe such Traditions as never were delivered by the word of God nor can be suffer'd or admitted by it And again in his answer to Luther's Confessio magna p. 478. En saith he ut totum istum hominem Sathan occupare conetur cum in verborum sensu misere fallitur errat Dei est ut ipsum excuset pro ipso satisfaciat Behold saith he how wholly Sathan has possess'd that man when he grosly mistakes the sense of the words no less than God must be brought upon the Stage to make the excuse and satisfy for him Again Clandestinum quoddam effugium sibi hoc modo praeparare conatur hoc videlicet Si seductus aut falsus sum Deus me seduxit fefellit nam hujus verbo me totum commiseram c. A fecret refuge upon occasions he thus prepares for himself If I am seduced says he if I am deceived God has seduced me God has deceived me for to his word alone I gave my self over And in the mean time he does not consider that the very Pope of Rome and all other Hereticks may say the same c. And again Non ex verbis modo quae non alia arma quibus se defendat quam convitia probra immites increpationes continent verum etiam ex ipsis sententiis violenta Scripturarum tractatione ipsum non aliquo Fundamento vere solido inniti videre liceat Tot enim sententias absurdas c. You may gather not only out of his words which
hearts his reproving his rebellious subjects the incorrigible and blaspheming Pharisees and by the great Apostle full of the Holy Ghost as it is in the same verse he quotes denouncing God's judgment against a Conjurer blaspheming the Gospel of Christ as if when only he can shew that such words are used it mattered not by or to whom Sometimes again he lays the blame of his choler on those who he saith provoked him to it Non negare possum saith he me esse vehementiorem quam oportuit quod cum illi non ignorant sane irritare non debuerunt That I am too passionate I cannot deny and they know very well and so ought not to have provoked me Sometimes also he pretends a profitable design of such his passion for saith he quae quiete dicuntur cito cadunt in oblivionem nemine illa curante See Adam vit Luth. endeavouring it seems to add weight to his words by personal Invectives as others by Oaths Add to this that the fault is not observed in his latter time to have decreased in him but to have grown with his age and his last writings to have bin most violent and passionate as his Confessio parva written but a little before his death tho against those whom his friends thought of all dissenters from him the most innocent that is Zuinglius Buce's and Calvin's party So when by the importunity of his friends he had written three or four submissive letters one to Henry the 8th after that his bitter book written against him and another to George Duke of Saxony another to Cardinal Cajetan and a fourth to Erasmus these only instead of his other contumelious writings he is said to have repented of as doing some prejudice to a just cause Adam vit Luth. p. 132. § 30 Sâ—me Instanceâ—â—â—th râ—oâ— If you would taste a little the maledicency and bitterness of this man's spirit which those who do not examin can hardly believe do but look into those two books of his which of all other one would think he should have written with most respect that Contra Henricum Regem Angliae because a King and that against Zuinglius Oecolampadius and Bucer's party his Confessio parva because these his brethren reformed the latter also written when now his blood was chill and cold In one single leaf of his former book taken at adventure fol. 338. edit Wirtenb 1562. I find all this railing stuff against that Learned Prince Elinguis defensor linguax in nugis Rex pro suo more satis fortiter mentitur Rudis indoctus Laicus Cum obstinata impudenti nequitia Henrici agendum Non hic mentitur modo sicut scurra leviss mus sed nunc audet nunc fingit c. ut nequissimum nebulonem si non superat certe egregie aequat Quod virulentum nequam hunc Thomistam sensisse hoc argumento quod c. Nihil potest pro ingenio suo nisi perpetuo mentiri fallere simulare illudere Revelemus sceleratam hanc Regiam nequitiam Larvatus Thomista Anglorum Non in animo ejus scintilla boni viri Sophistica malitia impudentia quae de industria adversus cognitam veritatem insanit Plane vas Electionis iste est Satanae Totus suus blasphemus sacrilegus libellus Cavendus ut sentina mortis c. Jejune Defender of the Faith copious upon a trifle The King as his manner is lies stoutly enough A rude and ignorant Laiâ— We have to do with Henry's obstinate and impudent knavery Here he not only lies like a whiffling buffoon but sometimes he is bold and daring sometimes he feigns c. insomuch as he fairly matches if not outdoes the greatest villains That this virulent rascal of a Thomist was of this opinion I have this argument for it c. His only talent is in perpetual lying deceit counterfeiting buffoonery Let us unmask this wicked and truely Princely knavery England's Thomist in disguise Not one dram of an honest man in him Malicious Sophistry and impudence thus to set himself to rave against the known truth Certainly this man is a chosen vessel of the Devil His little book top-full of sacrilege and malice To be shun'd as the sink of death Not mistake but meer knavery and inveterate malice bent upon lying and blasphemy This is the extract of his raging choler in one leaf taken casually How much is there in the book Now you may be pleas'd to call to mind his Rule Quae quiete tractantur c. and joyn another with it Calumniare fortiter aliquid haerebit § 31. n. 1. Concerning the other book I mentioned his Confessio parva thus heavily complain the Tigurine Divines in the Preface of their Apology written upon it Libellus hic tanta Diabolorum atque selectissimorum a Christiana fide imprimis abhorrentium convitiorum copia scatet tant a verborum immodestia faeditate impuritate turget tanto denique iracundiae maledicentiae furoris insaniae impetu furit ut quotquot illum legere dignantur modo non ipsi quoque cum illo insanire coeperint non sine gravi animorum stupore infelix hoc inauditum hactenus exemplum admirari coguntur c. So fraught is this little book with nick-names as Devil c. and other unchristian terms of reproach pickt out of the choicest Authors so cramm'd with lewd nasty ribaldry-stuff nay so ranting and thundering with anger maledicency fury and madness that none that is not as craz'd as Luther himself can read it without great admiration and astonishment at so unfortunate and unheard of an example To see so great a man in his old age after having been inur'd and taught by long experience and with many still in great esteem yet so hurried away and transported with unruly passions and that in so unseemly manner as to render himself vile and contemptible to all sober men Elsewhere thus they respons ad Luth. cont Zuingl censure his great Pride Prophetae Apostoli Dei gloriae non privato honori non suae pertinaciae superbiae studebant Lutherus autem sua quaerit pertinax est insolentia nimia effertur in omnibus correptionibus suis plurimum maligni spiritus c. deprehenditur The Prophets and Apostles studied the glory of God not their own honour pride and obstinacy but Luther seeks his own is pertinacious and too too insolent and in all his correptions there is much of the evil spirit c. And another Zuinglian Conradus Rheg contra Hessum de coena Domini saith that Deus propter peccatum superbiae qua sese Lutherus extulit quemadmodum pleraque ejus scripta testificantur verum illi spiritum abstulit ut Prophetis illis 3 Reg. 22. atque ejus loco iracundum fastuosum atque mendacem spiritum dedit God for Luther's pride and vaunting himself in most of his writings hath taken from him as from the Prophets 3 Kings 22. the good spirit and given him a
Virtues of Vices of Rewards and Punishments And lay the preaching of sola sides aside And in his Comment on Gen. published not long before his death See § 12. Quantum Sectarum saith he excitavit Satan nobis viventibus Quid futurum est nobis mortuis And again Muncerus c. nihil aliud nisi spiritum sonant idque nobis viventibus docentibus repugnantibus quid futurum est cum conticuerit nostra doctrina And not unlike Suspicions of Posterity hath Calvin upon the like experience of the multiplying of Subsects where no restraint by Authority Praefat. Catechism Geneven De posteritate saith he ego sic sum anxius ut tamen vix cogitare audeam nisi enim mirabiliter Deus de coelo succurrerit videre mihi videor extremam barbariem impendere orbi Atque utinam non paulo post sentiant filii nostri fuisse hoc verum potius vaticinium quam conjecturam Concerning Posterity I have such anxious thoughts as indeed to dread the very thoughts thereof For unless Almighty God from Heaven wonderfully prevent I seem to forsee extream barbarity as to a Christian and Orthodox faith hanging over the world And I wish our children when we are gone may not find this to have bin rather a Prophecy than Conjecture Thus he And who is there that hath not observed the Reformation still dividing into more and more subdivisions and fractions to this day and the stating of the points in controversy in their descent to posterity varying much from the former I say not whether to the better and by often handling spun much finer than the first gross thread thereof that was drawn out by Luther As if the reforming were running still more and more backwards towards the Church § 63 The manner of his death Thus much concerning the doctrines of Luther and the fruits thereof and in general concerning his Life Spirit and Manner of Reformation If in the last place you should long to know what his Death was after such a Life and in what manner he went off the Stage who had filled the world with so many new Opinions and Tumults as I find the story of it related by a Protestant and a Friend extant in Cocleus his Acta Scripta Lutheri where also is exhibited another story written by a Catholick much different It hath indeed some circumstances in it which one would not wish for himself tho yet which may also happen to a good man For it surprized him at a time of much mirth and feasting when aged now 63. years he was in great state sent for and attended with above 100 horsemen to Islebium the place of his Birth and habitation of his Kindred for compounding some differences not in Ecclesiastical unless it were about sharing some former Church-revenues but rather some Secular matters between the Counts of Mansfield then at variance Here after some three weeks stay and having preached several Sermons very invective as some of them against the Pope Roman Clergy and Monks and the Church he had fallen away from as also one of the last books he writ a little before this journey bears this title Contra Papatum a Diabolo institutum ' Against the Papacy instituted by the Devil See Melch. Adam vit Luther p. 153. so others against the newer Sects fain away from him and his Reformation calling them Tares sowen altogether without his knowledg one day in the beginning of February 1546 after he had dined with much cheer company and mirth non in suo hypocausto sed inferne in amplo triclinio not in his private Stove but below in a large Dining-room saith his friend in his relation before supper he complained of a great pain in his brest but this afterward being a bated again he supp'd in the same place saying Solitarium esse non adfert gaudium i.e. hujus seculi and as his disciple saith omnem excutiens tristitiam jocis facetiis But after Supper his pains returned and after some rest about one in the morning he fell mortally sick and was dead before three and before the Physician and Apothecary came to afford him their help He is said formerly to have bin subject to some Fits or swoundings wherein he lay without sense or motion and these sometimes to have bin caused by some molestations from the Devil See before § 32. The Catholick story of his death but I know not with what truth being an enemy reports that visa est tortura oris dextrum latus totum infuscatum ' his mouth distorted and his right side turn'd all of a duskish colour Some of his dying speeches related by the Lutheran seem to have a greater rellish of the Pharisee than of the Publican Mi Pater coelestis saith he tu mihi Filium tuum dilectum Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum revelasti hunc docui hunc professus sum hunc amo c. Quem impii persequuntur calumniantur criminanturque or as Justus Jonas quem abominabilis Papa omnes impii vituperant persequuntur blasphemant suscipe jam ad te animam meam My Heavenly Father thou hast reveal'd to me thy beloved Son our Lord Jesus Christ him have I preach'd him have I profess'd him I love c. whom the wicked persecute calumniate and falsly accuse or whom the abominable Pope and all the wicked revile persecute and blaspheme receive my soul Whereas we meet with never a Miserere mei nor humble Confession of or act of Contrition for his sins That Epitaph also if composed by himself as it is said Pomeranus orat Funeb Pestis eram vivens moriens ero mors tua Papa savours much of his but not of a sober spirit nor his Prophecy therein of much truth Thus much of the circumstances of Luther's death in Feb. 1546. Now as I said we all wish a long preparation for our last end nor especially to be suprized therewith in a time of jollity and feasting we wish some sequestration also then from Secular affairs in which he was at that time much involved and that not his own but others But on the other side t is dangerous to censure any man for such accidents which happen also many times to very good Christians and these also at their death have frequently discovered an holy confidence in God Not unfrequently also the chief Authors of Sects and Heresies have nothing in their life or death exorbitant or monstrous or much differing from other sorts of men Of which perhaps one reason of the Divine Providence so disposing things may be because seeing that it is meet that Heresies be so also that these receive no check or blasting in their first growth by any extraordinary disasters or judgments shewed upon the Founders when-as God hath otherwise left evidences and arguments such as I supose are some of those fore-mentioned in this Discourse sufficient to deter the considerative and sober from embracing such new Doctrines or following such Leaders
Neither is this only Old-Testament-ceremonial holiness but see 1 Cor. 7.5 a place parallel to these Defraud ye not one the other except it be with consent for a time that ye may give your selves to fasting and prayer Where it may be noted that as fasting hath no good correspondence with the acts of the conjugal bed sine Cerere c. so these also are as prejudicial to fasting and its companions And sutable to these Scriptures were the Decrees of the ancient Church Diebus orationis jejuniorum praeparationis ad Eucharistiam a conjuge abstinendum And this because carnal pleasures are some way or other always enemies to spiritual exercises either proceeding to excess and so rendring us faulty or too much either heightening or also debilitating our temper and so making us undisposed or dividing and diverting some portion of that love and of those intentions to things inferior which are always all incomparably best spent upon and consecrated to God the supreme good § 4 Again we find after one marriage the abstaining from a second both commended see Lu. 2.36 and to some persons to wit Forbearance of second marriages commended in some cases enjoyned those entertained in the pious or holy Services of God or the Church enjoyned as appears in the widdows of the Church 1 Tim. 5.9 of whom it is there required that such widdow have bin the wife of one man which words being capable of several sences either that she have not had two husbands at once or not two successively again not two successively either by a divorce from the former or upon the death of the former seeing that no woman might have two husbands at one time nor any women at all were allowed remarrying upon divorce see 1 Cor. 7.11 it follows that the Apostle's widdow must be understood to be such as had not had a second husband after the first dead For this injunction seems to have something singular in it the same caution being given no where to any but only to Church-officers and servants Nor is it probable as some against the current of Antiquity interpret it that the Apostle here restrained only the admission of such a widdow as had causlesly turned away her husband and unlawfully married another man which is granted was done sometimes but seldom and without any permission of Moses law see Mar. 10.12 or as had many husbands at the same time of which there are some rare examples amongst the heathen because such things cannot well be imagined tho possible to have hapned in the Church or when they hapned not to have bin severely punished with excommunication as we see the incestuous Corinthian was And the Apostle seems here rather to require something of extraordinary example and goodness above others in such as were thus to be devoted to the Churches Service and maintained by her Charity than only to caution that they should not be of the worst wicked amongst Christians Which is further confirmed by St. Paul's displeasure against those Church-widdows that remarryed ver 11. And if this interpretation be admitted for the widdows much more may it upon the like expression a husband of one wife for the Bishops of the Church 1 Tim. 3.2 and for the Deacons 1 Tim. 3.12 § 5 III. Tho Celibacy as it occasions larger fruits of righteousness to many yet if a married condition also produceth the same Having a greater reward in the world to come it hath no preheminence in this beyond wedlock yet as in it self it is a stronger resistance of the lusting of the flesh and a greater subduer of the natural concupiscence which all have less or more whose importunities it heroically repelleth whilst the married only lawfully satisfies them thus it seems worthy of and so to have promised to it a higher reward and crown in the world to come and is one of the eminentest of all the virtues as not moderating but subduing the most violent of passions See Esai 56.4 5. where Eunuchs who as dry trees under the law were much disparaged Deut. 23.1 yet under the Gospel have ample promises beyond those who beget children See Matt. 19.12 where the Kingdom of heaven being inheritable without it the using of this means seems to be for something singular in that Kingdom as well as for the more easie or certain attaining it But however this be those who grant there several degrees of glory proportioned to those here of sanctity must give the highest to Virgins because if supposed only equal with the rest in all other graces they are granted in one to be superior See Act. 21.9 where Virgin seems to be a term of honor § 4 IV. Single life being so advantageous for having our liberty freed from any other conjugal fetters to bestow our selves wholly on Christ Contiâ—â—ncy of eâ—â—â—lly nec ssâ—â—y or the Clergy and to wait upon him without distraction freed from cares and holy in body and spirit seems tho worthy to be sought for by all yet so necessary to none as to those of the Clergy so far as they find themselves capable of it that perfection which others as it were unnecessitated thereto attain by it being their constant duty and profession as it were especially that to give themselves unto prayer 1 Cor. 7.5 Act. 6.4 and to wait upon the Lord without distraction v. 35. and to take a special care of the poor Act. 6.3 § 5 V. T is plain that this Continency and the power of living a single life That it is the gift of God is the gift of God both 1. such a cool and moderate temper and calm passions as do not so eagerly provoke and kindle the fire of lust in us and 2ly the grace to be able to abstain and quench these fires when we are provoked if we will use the means and 3ly the actions or means which we use by them to procure the grace to abstain as prayer mortifications of the body avoiding all temptations constant and diligent employment are the gift of God For so also are all other good things said to be both natural and moral and spiritual even all those things which we have most in our power and which our industry most procures and the powers themselves and every action of them So to be rich to be honourable the condition of a free-man or of a servant c. are the gift of God See 1 Cor. 7.17 Deut. 8.17 18. Jo. 3.27 And if we cannot of our selves think a good thought much less refrain the most violent of our lusts except from the gift of the Almighty § 8. n. 1. VI. Taking this ability to contain Given to very many not for a power of being freed from all concupiscence and from the first motions of lust for so none at all have this power but for a power to suppress these first motions and quench these lesser sparks before they break out into a flame 1. either into fornication therefore v.