thy saluation and what he requireth to be done by thee He standeth at the doore of thy hart and desiring to enter he knocketh enlightening thy vnderstanding and inspiring thy will to open to him that is to consent to the good worke to the which he moueth thee and if thou wilt open it he entreth with his sanctifying grace and blesseth thee But he doth not enter whether thou wilt or noe he craueth entrance and giueth thee power to open vnto him and if thou wilt not open thy hart and haue blessing blame none but thy selfe Say Peccaui I haue sinned Soe did Dauid Manasses Iob and all true repenters euer say and neuer said Peccasti thou hast sinned to God but if thou makest God the authour of thy sinne and not thy owne freewill thou blamest him and sayest Peccasti thou hast sinned to him Which were noe humility in thy selfe nor repentance at all noe man repenting but for his owne sinnes There remaineth now to speake OF THE SEVERALL KINDES OF SINNE Quest How many kindes of sinne are there Ans There are two kindes of sinne Originall sinne and Actuall sinne Quest What is the difference betwixt Original and Actuall sinne Ans Original sinne is that Which we are borne in Actuall sinne is that which we committe THE first diuision of sinne may be into Original and Actuall And although Originall sinne were Actuall as it was acted and committed by Adam and were Mortall in that it brought death both to him and vs yet for more cleerenes we will destinguish first Original and Actuall and then Mortall and Veniall sinne Original sinne is that which we contract from Adam our Origen and which we committe not ourselues but bring into the world with vs. Adam was placed in paradise his soule endowed with Originall iustice and in his body he was immortall He had the commande of all earthly creatures enioying freely the pleasures of them and without dying should haue bene transferred after a time to the pleasures of heauen These gifts were giuen to him and his posterity and they successiuely had obtained them if they had not sinned but he sinning we are depriued of that originall iustice and other gifts and the wart and priuation of them is called Originall sinne in vs. We haue noe wrong done vs in this that we are borne depriued of our fathers gifts because they were giuen to him and his posterity onely vpon condition that they sinned not As though a King of his owne freewill should bestow some place of honour and benefit vpon a subiect for himselfe and his posterity to enioy after him vpon condition that they allwais kept themselues obedient and loyall to him but if he or any of them should be found guilty of treason then they should loose that place and benefit Now he or some of them breaking the condition by disobeying the King they are iustly depriued of that place Soe the gifts and graces which God gaue to Adam for himselfe and for vs were noe way due but of the goodnes and liberality of God and granted conditionally if we remained loyall to him we committing treason are iustly depriued of those gifts which he had and are borne without them The reason of this is because the father and children in this case are as it were all one man and haue as it were all one will and as that which is done by one onely part of man to wit by his will is attributed to the whole man and punished in all the rest of his parts soe the sinne which was committed by Adam is iustly punished in all men because all men were his children and as it were one man in him A spend thrift father wasteth his estate not onely from himselfe but also from his children because they are supposed and are indeede in riches one body and one minde with him and can blame none but him who consumed those riches which they should haue had Soe all men in Adam were one man his will was the will of all he consumed the riches which we should haue had and we are iustly depriued of them Actuall sinne is that which we committe Actuall sinne and is therefor called Actuall because we act it ourselues and bring it not originally into the world with vs. And soe the sinne which Adam committed and which is original in vs was Actuall in him because he acted it and had it not by infection from another as we haue from him Quest How many kindes of Actuall sinne are there Ans There are two kindes of Actuall sinne Mortall sinne and Veniall sinne Quest What is the difference betwixt Mortall and veniall sinne Ans Mortall sinne quite depriueth vs of Gods grace Veniall sinne onely lesseneth and diminisheth the feruour of the loue of God in vs. MORTALL sinne is as much as to say Deadly sinne It is a mortall and deadly wound bringing death to our soules in that it taketh quite away the diuine grace from them which is their spirituall life Rom. 6. The stipends of sinne saith the Apostle are death That is the reward of mortall sinne This is the sinne which is allwais vnderstoode when we read or name sinne in generall and speake of the malice of it A monster soe deformed that if we could see the deformity of it we should thinke truly that all the torments of this world were rather to be suffered then one mortall sinne to be committed It diuideth vs from God it putteth vs into the deuils power it bringeth eternall punishments and temporall to the ruine of Kingdomes cittys and many noble familys it causeth feares and terrors of conscience and leaueth our soules hatefull and most horrible in the sight of God We can not expresse nor conceiue with sufficient horrour the state of our soules when they are in mortall sinne Our bodys when they are dead become pale cold and ghastly but much more our soules in deadly sinne We behold with horrour the body of one that had killed drowned or hanged himselfe and it is not a horrour to kill our owne soules If any of this company should now suddainely fall downe and dy before vs we should all be terrifyed and affrighted at it then how should we feare to fall into mortall sinne by which we are instantly killed and dead Ber. ad Eug. l 4. c. 6. Esa 57. An asse falleth and there is allwais some to helpe her vp againe A soule perisheth and none regardeth it Saith S. Bernard soe the Prophet the iust perisheth and there is none that considereth in his hart If our head our breast or any other part paine vs we complane and cry O my head my breast c. And we wounde our soules vnto death and neuer thinke nor say O my soule How greatly haue the Saints of God detested mortall sinne how greatly haue they bewailed it in themselues and in others what pennance haue they vndergone to satisfy for it what paines haue they taken to draw others out of
signe of the Cros vpon her brest and that soe she should be cured She did soe and was restored to perfect health This happened in S. Augustines time in the city in which he liued and himselfe hauing had the examining of it caused it to be published We haue then S. Paul and those that liued in the Apostles times honoring the Cros as we now doe and we may see by the writings of their successors the Saints of the primitiue Church the power and vertue of the signe of the Cros and what deuotion was then borne to it He whom all this is not sufficient to moue but shall still oppose this blessed signe sheweth an intollerable obstinacy in himselfe and that he needeth rather some meanes to mollify his hart and to moue his will then any arguments to conuince his vnderstanding and therefor let him haue recourse vnto God by prayer as I shewed in the last title of the former discourse that he will enlighten and inspire him to the truth for he may deceiue himselfe but God can not deceiue him I haue now noe more to say of the signe of the Cros. You haue seene first how it is to be made Secondly what mysterys are conteined in it to wit the mysterys of the B. Trinity and of the Incarnation Thirdly what reuerence we ought to beare vnto it Let vs confesse the greatnes of God in the mystery of the blessed Trinity and feare him let vs acknowledge his loue in the mystery of the Incarnation and loue him and let vs honour that holy signe by which those mysterys are signifyed The Cros is the sword of Christ the glory of christians the terrour of deuils our armes and armour against all dangers both of body and soule It is saith S. Augustine the chaire in which our master satte to teach vs. Aug. tract 119. in lo. to 3 1. ad Tim. 3. He taught vs from thence a lesson of all vertues of perfect charity towards God and our neighbour of humility patience meekenesse fortitude pouerty and of perfect resignation with the will of God in all things If thou feelest thy selfe cold in the loue of God negligent in frequenting the Sacraments in comming to masse c. and hast but litle feeling of goodnes nor care of Gods seruice in thee behold Christ vpon the Cros heare him how he calleth vpon thee to see him paining vnto death for the loue of thy soule If thou art offended at thy enemy and dost not forgiue him behold thy master on thee Cros and heare him not onely forgiuing but excusing and praying for his enemys If thou feelest in thy selfe a desire of praise worldly glory and preferment behold the sonne of God in his passion become the abiect of men that a notorius condemned theefe was preferred before him If by sicknesse soares and other like afflitions thou art moued to impatience see him in his Passion how he gius his blessed head his face his hands his feete and his whole body as a lambe to his enemys to be bounde to be beaten to be nailed stabbed cut and wounded as they would themselues See the blood running out of his crowned head by drop after drop where the thornes pierced it and out of his hands and feete and wounded side not by drops but by a continuall course vntill they were left dry What did he say to those that tormented him and in his torments vpbraided him with false crimes all that time he answered not a word in his owne behalfe but with silence went on stoode still or layed downe as they would haue him that carried him from place to place and from one paine to another he neuer opening his mouth to desire any ease or to intreate for any thing to teach thee meekenesse He defended innocency against the power of kings priests and presidents to teach thee fortitude in Gods cause He became naked to teach thee pouerty He tooke the cuppe of his Passion willingly from the Angell and drunke it vp to the bottome more then ne needed for the health of mankind because it was for the honour of God and his diuine will that he should doe soe Learne thou to resigne thy will to the will of God and to be contented in all occasions as he shall dispose of thee Finally there is neither writing nor preaching nor any words whatsoeuer that imprinteth soe much the loue of God in our harts nor moueth soe efficaciously to all vertues noe not the holy scriptures themselues nor any remedy soe good against all kind of sinnes as the meditation of Christs Passion which is read vnto vs in the signe of the Cros. L. 6. in Ep. ad Rom. Origen asking by what meanes we shall performe the Apostles words that sinne reigne not in vs Rom. 6. answereth where the death of Christ is carried there sinne can not reigne for saith he the Cros of Christ hath such power that if we beare it before our eyes and keepe it in our mindes noe concupiscence noe lust noe anger noe enuy can ouercome vs He â—5 in Mâ—t. to 2. the whole army of sinne is put to slight S. Chrysostome let them attende that are ashamed of the Cros of Christs Passion For if the Prince of the Apostles S. Peter were called Satan when he had not learned the mystery of the Cros Mat. 16. because he said Lord be it farre from thee this shall not be vnto thee how shall they be pardoned that dare to deny the Cros now when it is preached all ouer let none be ashamed of these signes of our saluation but let vs carry the Cros of Christ about vs as a ioyfull crowne for all things that are conducing to saluation are accomplished in it When we are regenerated the Cros is present when we are fedd with the most sacred soode when we are placed in the order of consecrating all ouer and at all times that signe of victory is vsed Wherefor let vs haue that signe in our houses in our windowes on our foreheades and in our mindes with much deuotion It is the signe of our saluation of our vniuersall liberty of the mildnesse and humility of our Lord. When therefor thou signest thy selfe with the signe of the Cros thinke of the mystery of the Cros and extinguish the fire of wrath and other Passions in thee When thou signest thy selfe with the signe of the Cros arme thy face with confidence and thy minde with the thoughts of freedome For Paul exhorting to true freedome calleth vs to the memory of the Cros saying you are bought with a great price Cor. 1.6 This was the price of the Cros. We must not onely make it with our singars on the body but with consideÌ„ce on our soules and if soe thou make it none of the wicked deuills will dare to encounter thee when he seceth the speere of his mortall wound For if we are affraid to behold the place where condemned persons are executed what dost thou
himselfe signifying his death on the Cros Io. 3. said as Moyses exalted the serpent in the desert soe must the sonne of man be exalted Christ suffered voluntarily of his owne free-will Christ suffered voluntarily and could if it had peased him haue escaped all or any part of his Passion and death This he often shewed in his life time Sometimes when they would haue killed him he became presently inuisible to their sight and walked through the midst of them without being seene Sometimes he preuented them absenting himselfe seeing their inward thoughts and harts to be bent against him Sometimes he shewed that he had power ouer their mindes mouing them as he would and asswaging the malice which was in them vntill the hower of his suffering came and when his hower was come he came forth amongst his enemys and euen then he moued multitudes of people to follow and to glorify him but a few dayes after when they came to apprehende him he would then be taken and would not defende himselfe or be defended by others He would with a word of his mouth strike them downe to the ground to shew that he had them in his power and could haue freed himselfe but he would let them rize againe and would goe away prisoner with them to fullfill the will of his father by suffering and dying for vs. Christ suffered for the redemption of all and redeemed all that is by his Passion he purchased meanes for the saluation of all These meanes are the Sacraments of the Catholike Church Those that are baptized and receiue worthily the rest of the Sacraments as they are necessary for them are saued by the merits of Christ in them Those that are not baptized or receiue not the Sacraments as they are necessary for them perish not through any defect in the Passion of Christ by which they had sufficient meanes to be saued but through their owne sinne because they will not apply those meanes to themselues which Christ by his Passion procured for their saluation The least paine of our Sauiours Passion or the least action which he did in his life time had bene sufficient to haue redeemed the whole world and a thousand worlds if it had bene offered to that end by him as the full price of our redemption because it proceeded from the diuine Person which was of infinite dignity but it was not intended soe by him He ouervalued the purchase of our soules and by a superabundant grace would giue more then he needed when he gaue his life for them and would haue nothing to stande for the price of our redemption without his death This he would doe to testify his loue towards vs and to giue vs an example of many vertues Quest What doe we gett by Christ redeeming vs Answ We gett the forgiunesse of our sinnes and the acceptance of our good works by the merits of Christs Passion applyed vnto vs in the Catholike Church The Sacraments of the Catholike Church haue their vertue and effect by the Passion of Christ Those that worthily receiue them are sanctifyed and haue the remission of their sinnes and being then in the state of grace the good works which in that state are done by them are acceptable to God and haue proportion to supernatural glory The Sacraments therefor hauing by the merits of Christs Passion power and vertue to sanctify vs we haue by his merits the forgiunesse of our sinnes and the acceptance of our good works Man had committed sinne in paradise and all mankind was infected with that sinne and our nature being once tainted it corrupted still more and more and we fall in our life times into many actuall sinnes All the good works which we could doe were of noe value nor could we by any meanes make satisfaction for any sinne either originall or actuall because there is noe condignity in person and works betwixt vs and God that was offended The Sonne of God was therefor incarnated in Christ that the diuine nature vniting to it selfe the nature of man might soe dignify it by that vnion in him that he could make satisfaction for our sinnes and obtaine for vs the remission of them and that our good works being then done in the state of grace might become acceptable to God and proportionable to glory which of themselues they could not be We could haue sinned still more and more heaping sinne vpon sinne and increasing our damnation but we could haue done nothing in that state by which we could rise from any sinne Soe that the remission of our sinnes and the acceptance of our good works to the obtaining of euerlasting glory is to be attributed to the merits and power of Christs Passion which is actually applyed vnto vs by the Sacraments of the Catholike Church The Apostles would particularly professe in the Creede the Passion of Christ and that he dyed to confounde those haeretiks that should deny his death as some haue done These are sufficiently refuted by this article and by all the Euangelists affirming that he gaue vp the ghost That is is to say that his ghost spirit or soule which is all one departed and was separated from his body death being nohting els but the departure or separation of the soule from the body For this reason also the Apostles would declare that Christ was buried to confirme his being dead But although he would haue his body to be buried as the bodys of other men yet he would preserue it from corruption in the earth because it was most decent that that sacred body which was soe miraculously framed by the Holy Ghost without corrupting the Virginity of his mother should after death be free from all corruption according to that which the holy king had prophecyed thou shalt not giue thy holy one to see corruption Ps 15. To conceiue somethinge of the greatnesse of this mystery we may consider who it was that suffered these thinges that it was one whose person infinitly surpassed in power wisdome beauty riches and all kind of dignity and goodnesse the most renowned Prince that euer was in the world And if it be a horrible thinge to thinke of the murthering of any man and much more of some great and gracious Prince and a cruell spectacle to behold it what feeling ought christiins to haue of the Passion of Christ when they consider it But it is but a weake comparison to compare Christ to any earthly Prince Io. 1. S. Iohn saith that he was the Word which was with God and that this Word was God O almighty God what then shall we say or thinke of this mystery thy power and maiesty seemeth here to be lessened thy wisdome is dispised thy goodnes questioned brought to tryall and condemned O blessed Sauiour whom S. Paul describeth to be he whom God hath made the heire of all Heb. 1. the brightnesse of his glory and the figure of his substance how comes thy brightnesse to be
soe obscured and thy sacred and life giuing face to become pale and void of life as a roote from a thirsty ground that there is noe beauty nor comlinesse in it It was by vs that thou camest into this plight thou didst beare our sinnes and they put thee to paine and disfigured thee Thinke now O Christians of that which you beleeve and confider who he was and what he suffered for you Iesus Christ the onely sonne of God suffereth for man the master for the seruant the Creatour for his creature he that made Angels and men heauen and earth he of whom and by whom and in whom are all thinges he bore our infirmitys our sorrowes he carryed Rom. 11. and became as a lepar strucken of God and humbled Esa 53. He was wounded for our iniquitys and with the waile of his stripe we are healed our sinnes drew blood of his sacred body and crucifyed and killed him Heauen stoode astonished the sunne was ecclypsed a terrible darknesse was spred ouer the earth the earth was shaken graues opened and the bodys of the dead roze vp to life againe at this mystery and shall it make noe impression in vs Behold ô Christians Christ expired on the Cros and say often with your selues who is this that is Crucifyed and dead who is this that is crucifyed and dead It is the onely sonne of God whom the Angles adore the latchet of whose shoe S. Iohn Baptist was not worthy to loose Thinke then againe what he was crucifyed for It was to take away our sinnes and to blesse vs with euerlasting glory O blessed Lord O God our Sauiour how great was thy loue to vs and thy hatred to sinne that could cause the miracle of thy incarnation and death for our redemption I reioyce in thy merits by which I am redeemed and being now at liberty I dedicate my selfe for euer to thy seruice Keepe thou my soule and let it neuer forsake thee The benefit which we haue by the death of Christ was praefigured vnto vs in the law of Moyses where guilty persons that had sled to the cittys of sanctuary were set at liberty and went home pardoned at the death of the high Priest Our high Priest was Iesus Christ heauen is our blessed home sinne banished vs from thence but thither we returne againe by the death of Christ Heb. 10. hauing considence saith the Apostle in the entring of the holys in the blood of Christ Let vs serue him as we ought and then indeede we may haue confidence in him THE FIFTH ARTICLE HE descended into hell the third day he arose againe from death The Apostles hauing in the former article professed the Passion and death of Christ declare now his victory and triumph ouer it That which by this article is proposed to be beleeued is that the soule of Christ departing in death from his body descended truely into hell For as long as his body remained in the sepulcher his soule was separated from it and all that while was descended into hell Some haeretiks haue wickedly denyed this article of Christ his descension into hell ignorantly vnderstanding by hell his sepulcher Not considering that his descending into the sepulcher was professed before in the former article and therefor there needed not another article to repeate it ouer againe and to say that he descended into the sepulcher Neither is it a propper manner of speech in that sense for the body of our Lord was then dead and descended not but was laid by others in the sepulcher This therefor can not be vnderstoode of his body descending into the sepulcher but of his soule descending into hell Aunciently by hell some place in general was vnderstoode where the soules of men resided after death and it was not onely taken for the place of the damned but also for the residence of the iust As when the holy Patriaâ—ke Iacob mourning for the death of his sonne Ioseph said Gen. 37. I will descende vnto my sonne into hell and when the Apostle saith Phil. 2. In the name of Iesus euery knee bow of the caelestials terrestrials and insernals For hell in Latine is as much as to say a place inferiour vnto vs or below vs which is therefor in the earth For the vnderstanding of which we may destinguish fower places in the earth the receptacles of soules departed Fower kinds of hell First there is the lowest hell of euerlasting damnation which is the furthest place from heauen as most suetable to those whose liues and actions were furthest of and most opposite to God and therefor in respect of punishment it is the deepest hell Secondly the next aboue that in paine is Purgatory Thirdly aboue purgatory is the place where the soules of those are detained who dy onely in original sinne Fourthly aboue that there was a place for the soules of the iust that dyed before Christ not hauing the guilt of any sinne or satisfaction to make for it For it was not conuenient that any should enter into heauen before Christ who purchased it for all and therefor those soules remained in an inferiour place vntill the death of Christ and then he descending to them freed them from that place This was some times called the bosome of Abraham because Abraham was the father of the elect and comprized as it were in him all the iust as Christ came of his seede who was the head of all the iust Thither therefor did our blessed Sauiour descende to blesse and to free those holy soules And perhaps he would also shew himselfe to the soules of purgatory for their comfort as also to the damned soules for their terrour and rebuke Christ was buryed on the fryday on which he suffered For the death of the Cros was held in that ignominy that the law commanded those that were Crucifyed to be taken from the Cros on the same day After his buriall he remained in the sepulcher all that day and all Saturday and part of Sunday vntill about breake of day all which time his soule was descended into hell Then he released the iust out of that place in which they were detained and brought them with him to the sepulcher where vniting his soule and body together againe the third day he arose from the dead not as those who haue bene reuiued by the power of others to a second life and to dy a second death but by his owne power he aroze againe to dy noe more For the diuine nature being allwais present with his body and soule as vnited with them in the vnity of person he had power to raise himselfe and by his owne power he tooke life againe and aroze glorious and therefor he said of himselfe Io. 10. I yeeld my life c. I yeeld it of my selfe and I haue power to yeeld it and I haue power to take it againe We reade of diuerse who haue bene raised from death to life both before and since the
against the deuils power Sixtly the corporal life of man as he is ordained to the society of other men requireth a superiour authority to be in some for the gouerning of others and soe an orderly gouernment is necessary for vs in the Church of God and for this we haue the Sacrament of orders in which power is giuen to some in spiritual things Seauenthly for the continuance and conseruation of humane nature a continuall succession and propagation of mankind is necessary in the world and for this the spiritual life of man requireth that it be done by a Sacrament for the orderly propagation of men and the increase of soules to the worship of God This is by the Sacrament of Matrimony which as it is a duety of nature is onely for corporal generation but as it is a Sacrament it giueth grace for the increase of soules in the diuine worship The number of the Sacraments shall appeare furthermore out of the scriptures in that which I haue to say of euery Sacrament in particular The same is declared by diuerse Councels And although the fathers haue had noe occasion in their writings to name them alltogether yet they haue made mention of them all as occasion serued Neither is it necessary that we should assigne the time when euery Sacrament in particular was instituted of Christ We know the times of the institution of some of them and we know that for forcy dayes betwixt his resurrection and his Ascension he frequently appeared vnto his Apostles and taught them many things which they were to obserue in the Church which are not mentioned in the scriptures and we know that the Sacraments of the Church must be of Christs teaching and ordaining We haue for the number of the Sacraments the same authority that we haue for any of the scriptures to wit the authority of the Church which although it declare not the time when the scriptures were written yet it assureth vs of all their verity and soe it doth of the number of the Sacraments ad Casulan S. Augustine giueth vs this rule that for those thinges which are generally receiued by the Church if their beginnings be not knowne they are to be taken for Apostolical traditions but such is the number of seauen Sacraments therefor they are of Apostolical tradition Thus much of the Sacraments in general let vs now come to their particular declarations OF BAPTISME OF THE NECESSITY OF baptisme BAptisme is commonly called the doore of the Sacraments because it is the entrance to the rest necessary to be had before them For vntill we be christened we are not christians and vntill we be made christians we can not receiue the Sacraments of the people of Christ Baptisme is our first spiritual generation and before generation we haue noe operation because we are not soe before baptisme we haue noe spiritual being in grace and therefor it is to be supposed before the rest of the Sacraments be receiued the words of S. Iohn being then verifyed he gaue them power to be made the sonnes of God Io. 1. For as we are borne the children of Adam and of wrath in our corporal births soe in baptisme we are borne the sonnes of God by grace through the merits of Iesus Christ As necessary then as generation is to the corporal being of all men soe necessary is baptisme to the being of all soules in the diuine grace and fauour and as necessary as birth is to the perfection of man in this world soe necessary is baptisme to come to the perfect state of glory Vnles a man be borne againe of water and the spirit he can not enter into the kingdome of God Iâ— 3. By which words it appeareth that Baptisme is a Sacrament that is to say an outward rite or signe that causeth grace in vs. Baptisme a Sacrament We haue a rite and outward signe in the water and we haue the effect of grace in that the kingdome of heauen is obtained by it Heretiks that would confounde all things in the Church of God haue gone about to take away our christendome from vs affirming quite contrary to the words of Christ that a man not borne of water may enter into the kindome of heauen pretending that children are sanctifyed by their parents faith and therefor will not baptize them But this as I haue said is directly contrary to the words alleadged and in it selfe most absurde in that it maketh the kingdome of heauen to come to children not by grace but by inheritance from faithfull parents and supernaturall glory to be obtained by natural and corporal meanes Children are not absolutly holy in that they come of holy parents good parents are indeede a meanes to thee sanctification of their children by procuring for them that which God hath ordained for their sanctification but the goodnes of the parent can not merit grace for the child nor sanctify him This must be done by applying the merits of Christs passion to children in some Sacrament And soe the children of the Iewes in the law of Moyses were saued by the faith of their parents in this sense that they hauing the true faith applyed vnto their children those meanes of sanctification which God then ordained for them but neither in the law of Moyses nor of nature were children euer sanctifyed by onely being borne of good parents but somethinge was allwais done to them as Circumcision or some other outward signe for their sanctification which although it were farre inferiour to our baptisme yet it was necessarily required there being noe proportion betwixt kinred in blood and the diuine grace and glory S. Augustin Doe not beleeue Aug. l. 3. de anima eâ—â—s origineâ— 9. doe not say that children before baptisme can haue their original sinne forgiuen them if thou wilt be a Catholike OF THE EFFECT OF BAPTISME THE propper and particular effect of Baptisme is to make him that receiueth it to become a member of the body of Christ as being admitted into his Church by it and to dispose and prepare him for the rest of the Sacraments after it The general effect of Baptisme which it hath commune with all the Sacraments is to giue grace to the sanctification of soules and this it doth after soe full and plentifull a manner that it remitteth all sinne whatsoeuer original and actual great and litle and forgiueth all punishment due to it in the next world Rom. 6. We are buried saith the Apostle together with him by Baptisme vnto death That is to the death and destruction of sinne and of all punishment after it We haue a figure of this in Naaman the leptose Prince of Syria who washing himselfe in the waters of Iordan Reg. 4 5. as the Prophet had praescribed to him he came forth soe cleane and perfectly cured that the Holy Ghost saith his flesh was restored as the flesh of a litle child Ezechiel prophecyed of this saying I will powre out
before it remaining still there according to them Neither are those similitudes alleadged to any purpose by the fathers vnles we vnderstande a change of the former into a new substance as there was in them The Iuy bush before it be hung vp is noe signe of wine and when it is hung vp it becommeth a signe but there is nothing aboue nature in that conuersion because there is a change onely in the signification which then it hath but not in a new substance or nature But the holy fathers acknowledge some thinge supernaturall in this conuersion and compare it with conuersions of substances which were miraculous therefor there is here a transubstantiation or conuersion in the substance Otherwise there were noe parity in their comparisons nor connexion in their speech WITH WHAT DEVOTION we ought to receiue the Eucharist BY that which hath bene said of this Sacrament we may vnderstande somethinge of the deuotion which is due to it and thinke that soe great a miracle which God worketh continually in his Church to shew his loue to vs and to enrich our soules obligeth vs to a high and eminent degree of gratitude to him and that all the deuotion that we can possibly stirre vp in our selues is too litle for it The Apostle admonisheth vs to try and to proue ourselues before we come to this mystery least insteede of life and happinesse which we should obtaine by worthily receiuing it we incurre iudgment and death by an vnworthy communion in mortal sinne O how damnable is the malice of that man that commeth with such a sinne to this communion to vnite goodnes to malice purity to impurity Christ to his filthy soule Thou stoppest thy nose at noysome carrions and lothsome stenches yet thou wilt force thy sauiour into thy stinking brest which is most horrible and lothsome to him vntill thou hast prooued and purged it What punishment maist thou expect The arke of our Lord was but a weake figure of Christ yet entring into the cittys of the Philistiims the enemys of God they were punised with greeuous plagues and being set in their tâ—mple it strucke downe their Dagon and broke it in peeces for onely standing beside it then how darest thou that art in mortal sinne come soe boldly vnto Christ as to take him in to thee Reg. 1.5 The Philistiims vsed outwardly great reuerence to the arke carrying it from city to city and setting it in their temple beside their God yet touching it as idolatours with impure hands Reg. 1.5 they were punished with such sores and diseases that as the holy Ghost saith the howling of euery city went vp into heauen And when it came from amongst them and stoode in the confines of Bethsames although the Bethsamits beheld it with ioy and receiued it with Holocausts and victimes yet seauenty men of the people and fifty thousand of the common people were strucken of our Lord for beholding it that lamenting they cryed out Reg. 1.17 Who can staÌ„de in the sight of this holy Lord God Oza was punished an Israelite also and seruant of God fortouching it suddenly and as he thought vpon necessity to hold it vp from falling yet because hedid it not with sufficient wariues it cost him his life being presently strucke dead in the place And darest thou come soe boldly not to touch the Arke but to receiue the B. Sacrament in mortal sinne how knowest thou that God wil spare thee more then he did them thy irreuerence being infinitly greater then theirs was Thou art baptised in the blood of this Sacrament and when thou prophanest it thou abusest as much as euer thou canst that sacred blood Thou apprehendest and imprisonest thy sauiour within thee with the Iewes thou persecutest his honour and life And this being a christian to Christ thy master and who must one day be thy iudge If thou wert guilty of some heinous crime and shouldst entertaine in thy house him who were shortly to call thee to his tribunall and to iudge thee wouldest thou not seeke to please him in his entertainment doe soe then to Christ giue him entertainment as he desireth that he may proue afterwards a fauourable iudge to thee This sacrament is the miracle of miracles the memorial of the maruelous things by which God would shew his loue to vs Zach. 2. and to abuse him in it is to touch him in the aple of his eye and to wound him at the hart For euery thinge as it is higher in perfection soe the contempt of it is of a higher malice and this being the most perfect of all the Sacraments infinite in perfection the irreuerence done to it is of the highest and of infinite malice And therfore it deserueth greater punishments S. Paul threatening iudgment to those that receiue vnworthily as not discerning the body of our Lord. Therfor saith he are there among you many weake Cor. 1.11 and feeble and many sleepe that is to say many are sicke and by But if the diseases and deaths of those dayes proceeded from thence that the B. Sacrament was not receiued with sufficient reuerence what shall we thinke of these deadly times in which now we liue but that they haue proceeded from the same cause the B. Sacrament hauing bene of later yeares soe extremely prophaned The beginners of these heresâ—s who soe often consecrate the sacred host and sacrilegiously receiued it brought into the christian world these floods of bloodshed which still continue to the massacre of many thousands of christians all ready past and now without doubt it is a greater cause of deaths and miserys to vs then it was in S. Pauls dayes to christians Consider therfor when thou goest to receiue what it is that then thou receiuest and prepare in thy selfe loue and reuerence towards it It is Christ thy redeemer thy Iudge and thy omninipotent God If thou receiuest him in mortal sinne thou damnest thy soule by a sinne aboue mortal sinnes which are of frailty it being of malice without either profit or pleasure to thy selfe but onely for the deuils pleasure that tempted thee to that sacrilege Humble thy selfe vnto God and prepare thy selfe with a cleane conscience to receiue into thee that soueraigne guest which the Angels of heauen desire to behold and with trembling reuerence adore his glory dispose thou thy selfe with Angelical reuerence and purity to receiue him The first thinge which thou must doe is to make a good and intire confession of rhy sinnes as I shall â—hew in the next Sacrament and not onely to cleanse they soule from mortal but as much as thou canst also from venial sinnes After confession giue not thy selfe to vnnecessary imployements or conuersation which may coole and hinder thy deuotion but keepe thy selfe more retired in thy minde praying vntill masse beginne and if it beginne not presently thou maist reade in some treatise of the B. Sacrament if thou hast it or walke quietly vntill masse At massetime attende deuoutly
thee downe instantly into hell and what it is to want the mediation of Christ of our B. Lady thy good Angell thy patrone and of all the Saints and the suffrages of the Church thou wouldst not remaine one moment in that state It is a humane thinge saith S. Gregory to erre but diabolical to perseuer in it If we fall into sinne we doe but like men if we rize againe we doe as the Saints haue done but if we perseuer in sinne we are like the deuil who must remaine in sinne for euer OF EXTREME-VNCTION THIS Sacrament hath for its propper effect to giue grace and strength against temptations at our death For the hopes of our enemy being then at the last he striueth all he can against vs. Apoc. 12. The deuill is descended to you hauing great wrath knowing that he hath but a litle time Said the heauenly voice which S. Iohn heard Some he tempteth to presumption others to dispaire some by too much loue to their freinds and family some thinke of nothing but the riches which they leaue some by too much desire of life that they will not apprehende nor prepare themselues for death and generally as we draw neerer to our ends we grow more subiect to extremitys of passions all which the deuill knoweth how to make vse of to our hurt But his commune temptation is to terrify sinners with greeuous feare and affrightments at their sinnes past Sap. 4. They shall come fearefull in cogitation of their sinnes and their iniquitys on the contrary shall conuince them Saith holy wisdome Neither shall their naturall courage and strength then auaile them any thinge though neuer soe bold and bragging in time of health Great Saints haue shewed much feare at their death S. Hilarion whose perfection S. vita Hilar. Hierome describing saith that great concourse of bishops priests Clergymen and monks sought to him the temptation of christian matrons followed him multitudes of the common people potentates and iudges came to receiue holy bread and oile of him and yet his minde continued fixed on solitude yet for all this when he came to dy he was oppressed with such a feare and horrour of death that to encourage his soule he said Goe forth what dost thou feare goe forth my soule what dost thou doubt of thou hast serued Christ now almost seuenty yeares and dost thou feare death If Saints at their death haue bene thus terrifyed what may they expect who haue committed many sinnes and perhaps but lately repented for them and perhaps but sleightly and haue but few good works then for their comfort Therefor our Sauiour hath prouided this Sacrament as an armour for vs against that time S. Iames Iam. 5. is any man sicke among you let him bring in the priests of the Church and let them pray ouer him anoiling him with oile in the name of our Lord. And the prayer of faith shall saue the sicke and our Lord shall lift him vp and if he be in sinnes they shall be remitted him By which words we haue the practise of the Catholike Church well prooued and Etreme Vnction declared to be a Sacrament that is an outward signe that sanctifyeth vs. There is an outward signe in the external rite of anoiling and in the forme of words signifyed by prayer And that this outward signe causeth grace vnto sanctification the words following doe declare in that sinnes are remitted which can not be but by grace being receiued And it followeth hence that Christ instituted it For the Apostles had not the power of instituting such signes neither could S. Iames haue promised remission of sinnes by it if Christ had not instituted it Luth. Praef. ad nou Test and giuen it that power It is true Luther reiects this Epistle of S. Iames denying it to be canonical and calling it an Epistle of straw but the authority of the whole Church hath declared it for canonical And if the whole Church be not sufficient for Luther we will put Caluin into the ballance against him an authour at least of equall grauity with him Caluin l. 3. Instit. c. 17. and Caluin holdeth it for canonical S. Bernard in vita Malach. relateth of S. Malachy that he assisting with a sicke woman and not thinking her to be in such danger as to require the Sacrament of Extreme-Vnction departed from her without ministring it but she dying in his absence he returned againe full of sorrow and pittying that she should want the benefit of it he fell to his prayers restored her to life againe And then saith S. Bern he anoiled her knowing that by this Sacrament sinnes are remitted and that the prayer of faith saueth the sicke The holy oile is then applyed as a spiritual salue to the senses because by occasion of our senses we committe sinne But beside the spiritual remedy which our soules gaine by it it hath also a corporal effect of giuing health to the body as the Apostle declareth the sicke being saued and alleuiated by it By reason of which effect this Sacrament is not giuen in danger of death by warre or otherwise but onely by sicknes OF THE SACRAMENT of Orders THE Sacrament of Orders is that which Priests Deacons Subdeacons and others receiue when they are ordained by which they receiue spiritual power for the gouernment of the Church Tim. 1.4 That it is a Sacrament it appeareth by the words of S. Paul to Timothy Neglect not the grace which is giuen thee by prophecy with imposition of the hands of the priesthood By this it hath all which is conteined in the nature of a Sacrament the imposition of hands and the words that are said which are there signifyed by Prophecy being an external signe Amb. in Tim. by which grace in giuen Vpon which words S. Ambrose saith that Timothy by the imposition of the hands of priesthood was designed to the worke ard receiued authority that he durst offer sacrifice to God in our Lords steede The same power is expressed by the words of the bishop when heordaineth priests saying Receiue thou authority to offer for the liuing and the dead in the name of our Lord. To offer there is to offer sacrifice as S. Ambrose also expresseth it and to offer sacrifice is the most propper office of priests priest and sacrifice going allwais together soe that there can be noe priest but he must haue power to offer sacrifice The propper and peculiar effect of this Sacrament is to giue grace to exercize worthily Ecclesiastical functions Which power and grace as it is in the Church of Christ is most high and eminent aboue all dignitys For what can be compared to the dignity of christian priests Both in respect of their power of Orders by which they consecrate the most blesed host and also in respect of their power of iurisdiction by which they remitte sinnes Neither of which is within the Angels power And therefor priesthood is not obtained in
Word it may be said to be infinite in grace The fullnes of his grace was also eminent aboue all in that grace was giuen to him as to the head source and fountaine which was to serue vs all with grace of his fullnes saith S. Iohn all we haue receiued noe grace being euer giuen to any but as flowing from the merits of his passion Next vnto Christ the B. Virgin had the greatest fullnes of grace For grace is giuen vnto creatures with proportion and in order to the offices and dignitys to which God designeth them and soe the B. Virgin had a greater proportion of grace then any Angell or Saint had for that she was designed to a higher office and dignity then any Angell or Saint was Her grace was to be such as might render her worthy to be the woman whom God would choose aboue all women to take flesh of to nourish him in her wombe to bring him forth to the world to haue the charge of his infancy and education and to haue him subiect vnto her as the Euangelist declareth him to haue bene For all which a great measure and proportion of grace was necessary that as her charge and dignity was eminent aboue all soe might her grace be suetable vnto it In the third place is the fullnes of grace which the Angels and Saints had to the fullfilling of those works to which God had ordained them And soe S. Steuan had fullnes of grace in order to the well performing of a Deacons office to confounde the Iewes and to be the first martyr and encourager of others to suffer martyrdome for Christ by his example and soe to enter into glory Soe that Christ according to his humanity was most eminent in grace goodly of beauty aboue the sonnes of men Ps 44. in that his humane nature was vnited to the diuine word and was the fountaine of grace to vs. Our Blessed Lady was next to him in that she had the highest office and greatest charge in relation to the mystery of the Incarnation The Angells and Saints were in a lower degree then she yet they also had fullnes of grace in their measures and in proportion to their offices They all haue fullnes of grace but in seuerall kindes and in a different nature The Angels and Saints in the lowest place our B. Lady aboue them and Christ in a higher nature transcending both them and her And our B. Lady had not onely a higher nature of grace then the Angels and Saints had but she had also a greater capacity in her soule which God created as a more ample and capable vessell conteining a greater measure of grace then they could conteine although full also in their measure and capacity and therefore she is compared to that huge vessell called the Sea Reg. 3.7 which Salomon caused to be made for the Temple which conteined ten thousand gallous according to Authors and vnto the maine Ocean Chrysol ser 146. Albert. sup missus Bonau in spec virg cap. 2. But it is to be obserued that our blessed Sauiour being not onely creature according to his humanity but also the Creatour of the world according to his diuine nature hee is not to be numbered in the number of creatures and therfore the Saints and holy Fathers commonly say that our B. Lady in grace and glory surpasseth all creatures not numbring Christ and so wee say properly that she is aboue all pure creatures that is to say onely creatures But that wee may not seeme to exaggerate towards her prayses more then due and to say any thing without good grounds you shall see as much and more then we haue said to be grounded vpon the solidity of many bundreds of yeares standing euer from the times of the primitiue Church of Christ for the first six hundred yeares when the very enemys of the Catholike Church that now are confesse the Christian Faith to haue bene most pure from errour and the Church most flourishing the holy and learned men of those times haue setforth her prayses after the same manner and in the very same termes which wee now vse and haue prayed vnto her calling her Mistres Lady Queen Mother of God and the like titles to honour her and to increase the denotion of people vnto her First in the first age Saint Iames the Apostle in in his Lyturgy which he made for the Church service would not omitt to make a commemoration of her But beginning the words of the Haile Mary as the Angell did he repeateth them and calleth her most holy vndefiled blessed aboue all our Queene Lady Mother of God Saint Ignatius liued in the same age was disciple to Saint Iohn Euangelist and died a glorious Martyr in the next age after hedeclareth how greatly she was honored euen then when she liued that multitudes of people came to visit her when they were cōuerted to Christianity Great is the concourse of people saith he that goeth to see the Queene of Heauen Ign. ep 1. and to heare her and againe hee calleth her the Mistres of the Christian Faith Saint Denis first Philosopher of Athens and then the disciple of S. Paul in his booke de diuinis nominibus cap 33. relateth how that himselfe after his conuersion went to see her for that she was left to be the comfort and ioy of Christians after the Ascension of Christ and in his Epistle to Timothe hee describeth the manner of her departure out of this life how that all the Apostles except S Thomas being brought together miraculously from the severall parts of the world to be present at her death with deuout Canticles they celebrated her funerals for three dayes the Angels ioyning their heauenly melody with them and that Saint Thomas comming the third day and desiring to see her sacred corps her tombe was opened that he might see her at least after her death but he saw her not for that she was not there to be seene A great sweetnes issued out of the Sepulcher and the linnens in which she was wrapped were left in it but her sacred body was not there Thus Saint Denis and he concludeth this narration saying That it could not bee thought but that as God would preserue her Virginal body free from corruption in the Conception of her Sonne soe he would preserue it from corruption after her death and Assume it to the glory of Heauen before the generall glorification of other bodys at the day of iudgment Saint Iohn Damascen relateth this history out of S. Denis De dorm deip whom he citeth as an eye witnesse of it and sayeth that her tombe and linnens that were left in it were transferred in the time of the Emperour Marcion with great solemnity from Hierusalem to Constantinople Saint Augustine doth not onely approoue of the corporall Assumption of our blessed Lady into Heaven but also prooueth it as most congruous to the dignity of the Mother of God Aug. de Assump
her and and to make them virgins and therefore those words of the Scriptures are well applyed vnto her by the Church I am exalted as a Cedar in Libanus Eccli 24. I as a vine haue fructifyed sweetnesse of odour Christ would bee botne of a Virgin for the honour of virginity and to condemne Iovinian and other licentious haeretiks that were to condemne it And therefore hee would obserue it himselfe and haue his mother to obserue it by vow Neither was her marriage opposite to this vow for as it was reuealed vnto her that without detriment of her virginity she should conceiue so without doubt her integrity in marriage which was lesse was also by diuine reuelation made knowne to her Christ would also be borne of a married woman for the honour of marriage and to refute the Encratites and such like phantasticall haeretiks that were to condemne it and also to cōserue her honour that she might not be suspected tohaue conceiued vnlawfully and as such to be subiect to the penalty of the law S. Ignat. Martyr and S. Iohn Damascen adde also a third reason to wit to conceale the manner of her conception from the deuill that he might not striue to hinder in any thing the more perfect working of that mystery which was fullfilled in her and therefore they seeme to thinke that God would binde and limit his vnderstanding so that seeing her to be married he should not attende to the manner of her conceiuing but that she conceiued as a married woman In briefe the summe of her prayses out of the Sentences of the Fathers alleadged is That she excelleth in dignity sanctity and glory all men and Angells euen the highest Seraphims that she is the miracle of the world that she is our Lady our Mistres our Queen the Mother of God the Treasure of Sanctity that she was vndefiled and vntouched with sinne that her life is the rule and discipline of ours that she was a perpetuall Virgin and the crowne of virginity that she is the Mistres and Scepter of the Catholike Faith and that she is our Aduocate These are the praises which you haue seene giuen aunciently by the holy Fathers to her and which all Catholickes will euer giue her Well might the Angell salute her full of grace whom God had filled with such graces With what reuerence may we thinke he comported himselfe to her he named her not at first hy her proper name as we doe when we say Haile Mary full of grace with more hopes and confidence to require her intercession which the Angell required not but afterwards seeing her troubled at his speech to comfort her he presently called her by her name saying Feare not Mary it being then nececessary to condescende to a more familiar manner of speaking then at first he would vse of due submission vnto her Out of all which we may gather what obligation we haue to be deuoted to our blessed Lady and how pleasing that deuotion is to God OVR LORD IS WITH THEE SVCH words are often read in the Scriptures to haue bene vsed by way of saluation So did the Angell salute Gedeon Iud. 6. saying Dominus tecum our Lord be with thee So said Booz to his reapers of corne Ruth 2. Our Lord be with you But in these places it is rather vnderstoode optatiuely wishing and praying that God might bee with them then as the Angell spoke to our blessed Lady indicatiuely declaring that God was then actually with her saying Our Lord is with thee and in the Greeke the article is here added to shew that God was after a singular manner with her to wit disposing and preparing her by a more eminent degree of grace presently to bee incarnated in her BLESSED ART THOV AMONG WOMEN THESE words were first spoken by the Angell and afterwards by S. Elizabeth who when the Mother of God came to visit her was inspired to repeate them ouer againe and to cry them out with a lowd voice as it were to proclaime her blessed in that house of Prophets where Christ our B. Lady S. Iohn Baptist saint Elizabeth and Zachary then were altogether reioicing in Christ and in her blessednesse all of them either Prophets or more then Prophets She is called blessed by contrarys to Eue who by her sinne prouoked our curse and our blessed Lady by her sanctity was the meanes of our blesse and therefore as it was threatned to the serpent Gen. 3. when he seduced Eue accursed art thou among all catle so an Angell was sent to the B. Virgin to say Blessed art thou among women and saint Elizabeth was inspired torepeate it ouer againe Shee was indeed that blessed Mother who by her Sonne bruised the serpents head and tooke away the curse of our first mother from vs. Apply here the words of the holy Ghost Eccl. 33. Against euill is good and against death is life so also against a iust man a sinner And so looke vpon all the workes of the highest two against two and one against one Against the euill of Eue is the good of Mary against death by Eue life by Mary against Eue a sinner wee haue Mary a iust woman without sinne Christ and Mary against the serpent and Eue Christ against the serpent and Mary against Eue and so two against two and one against one Eue brought sinne by yeelding to the serpent the blessed Virgin brought Christ to sight against him and to free vs. Euer blessedmay he be and blessed that woman by whom wee are all blessed Let now noe haeretike dare to blaspheme against her whom the Angell first saluted full of grace and then stiled blessed among women and whom S. Elizabeth also declared and proclaimed blessed Who dare calumniate her whom God hath soe honored We detest the rotten breasts and stinking mouths of those who shall dare to detract from any of the Saints of God and much more from the blessed among women The Angell hauing deliuered his embassage to her expected her answere the which she gaue in these humble words Behold the handmaid of our Lord be it done to mee according to thy word Where she consenteth to the will of God giuing her virginal body for his Sonne to be incarnated in Presently at these words a marriage was contracted betwixt the diuine and humane nature and they being instantly vnited together in the wombe of the B. Virgin THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH Let euery Christians knee bend at these words and doe homage in his hart to the Word Incarnated and let him honour the Virgin chosen of God to be the meanes of fullfilling that high mystery For the greater honour of which wee will declare sometihing of the circumstances of it Angell Gabriel First for the Angels name that brought the message he is called by the Euangelist Gabriel not that the Angels haue any proper names but that they are assumed or attributed to them in respect of some mystery to which those Angels
his life time another sinneth and is punished with the death of wife or children another receiueth some affront and pineth away with greefe and malice that he can not reuenge himselfe another hath his house burned or robbed another hath his croppe wasted and destroyed Another hath diseases and losses in his cattell and a thousand kindes of temporall punishments are iustly inflicted vpon men for their sinnes and come not by chance as some would perswade themselues For God seeeth the malice of all our actions and because he will not publish them vntill the day of iudgment he punisheth them with such afflictions as are commune to all to bring vs to repentance This doctrine is prooued by that which Christ said to the man whom he cured of eight and thirty yeares infirmity Io. 5. Behold thou art made whole sinne noe more least some worse thinge chance to thee In which we see two things First that sinne is punished with temporal afflictions as corporall infirmitys and secondly that if they mende not with those but sinne againe they may expect some worse thinge euen temporally And what is that a suddaine and miserable death For we are neuer soe much in danger of our liues as when we are in mortal sinne Because the deuill hauing then the possession of our soules bringeth vs as much as he can vpon perils of death to secure his possession And therefor Balaam that wicked Prophet counsailed King Balac to draw the Israelits into sinne that he might more easily oue come Ortg. ho. 20. in 25. nu and kill them as though he had said saith Origen This is a people which sighteth not by their owne strength but by the fauour of their God make them to offende him and the victory is thine owne and for this thou shalt endeauour to ouerthrow their chastity Fight not with them by force of armes bring not men to assalt and resist them Bring women to tempt them to sinne sinne will dull their weapons weaken their strength and â—ill them A company of Madianite women are brought for that purpose they draw the Israelits to fornicate with them and after that to adore their idols then God forsaketh them and they are ouerthrowne in their sinne Thus doth Origen describe that passage And in an other place he hath these words Orig. in c. 31. nu The Israelits when they came against Madian were numbred six hundred thousands of sighting men yet all these when thâ—y were in sinne were ouercome by the Madianites and the Madianites againe who had ouercome six hundred thousands of Israelites when they were in sinne were ouercome themselues by twelue thousand of them when they were free from sinne It was to this purpose all that which Achior said to Holofernes who leading an army with intention to subduâ— the whole world and passing without resistance through many peoples to the borders of Israel where as others at his approching had presently sent messengers to yeeld to him he seeeth the Israelits to make preparations of warre and to fortify places against him and calling his captaines together to informe himselfe of the nature and strength of that people Achior captaine of the Ammonites declared vnto him the beginning and progresse of the Israelits what strange victorys they had gotten by the helpe of God and how easily they had bene defeated when they were in sinne And although he counsailed not as Balaam did to draw them into sinne yet he aduised him at least to informe himselfe well whether they were in sinne or noe before he assalted them Iudith 5. Now therefor my Lord search if there be any iniquity of theires in the sight of their God and let vs goe vp to them because their God will deliuer them to thee but if there be noe offence of this people before their God we can not resist them because God will defende them And it cost Holofernes his life and the ouerthrow of his whole army because he would not follow his counsaile For the Israelits crying humbly to God and pleasing him he fought himselfe soe for them that Holofernes was killed and his huge army put to flight by one woman onely To what purpose now shall the Potentates of this world build vpon humane pollicys and strength to raise great Monarchys to themselues and their children when all their power is soe easily confounded They giue themselues to sinne and to neglect of their charge and then God who supported them letteth them fall and they being dashed to peeces he raiseth another to stande as long as it pleaseth him Esni 14. I will destroy the name of Babylon and the remaines and buâ—de and progeny Anâ— I will make it the possession of the hedge â—â—gg And I will sweepe it with a beesome wearing it saith the Lord of hosts Vpon which place S. Hierome hath these words Hiero. in c. 14. Esa Babylon was by the description of authors a citty builded on a plane fâ—wers quare in forme and had from corner to corner sixteene miles soe that in compasse it conteined threescore and fower miles The tower or Capitol theirof is said to haue bene fower miles in hight And for the marble temples golden statuas and streetes shining with gold and pretious stone it is almost incredible that which is recorded of it All this I say to shew the wrath of God against sinne For now we see the ruines onely left and those become the possession of the hedgehogg the words of the Prophet being truely fullfilled I will sweepe it with a beesome wearing it It is the goodnes of God to ight against his enemys and to defende his freinds and it is the malice of sinne to destroy those that committe it and of the deuill to seeks the death and destruction of those that serue him Prosperity Victory and glory are the rewards of vertue aduersity and death are the stipends of sinne And this is soe certaine and general in it selfe that the holy Church saith noe aduersity shall hurt where noe iniquity reigneth The fourth euill of sinne is that it bringeth miserys not onely vpon the sinners themselues but also vpon their kinred and freinds It happeneth sometimes that a man hauing committed some greeuous sinne resteth himselfe with out punishment liuing in prosperity perhaps all his life time and after his death when he is in hell then his children or allyance are strucken with temporal punishments and become miserable in their bodys or goods which prosper not with them through his sinne Thus many are punished here in their bodys with temporall afflictions directly for the sinnes of others and indirectly also in their soules for that they follow their euill footstepps and committe sinne by their example I am the Lord thy God mighty ielous Exod. 20. visiting the iniquity of fathers vpon the children vpon the third and fourth generation of those that hate mee C ham seeing the nakednesse of his father Noe when he was a sleepe derided
the Councell of Trent after the decision of controuersys in faith and declaratioÌ„ of the diuine truth in the next place would prouide for Catechizing that the true doctrine declared might be deliuered to the people And for this end they caused the Romane Catechisme to be made and that not to incite Pastors howsoeuer to instruct but to propose such a manner of instuction as was most propper for times of heresy as it declareth of purpose in the Preface where speaking of the suttelty of haeretiks in insinuating of their new and poysonsome doctrines it hath these words Wherefore to apply some remedy to these pernicious euills the Fathers of the Oecumenicall Councell of Trent haue thought it not sufficient onely to determine the cheife points of the Catholike doctrine against the haeresys of these times but haue also deemed it necessary to setiforth a certaine forme and manner of instructing of Christian people which in all Churches should be followed by those who haue the office of a lawfull Pastour and teacher Now for the forme and manner of instructing which it deliuereth it is by Discourses Speeches or Sermons made vpon seuerall parts of the Christian doctrine such as the auncient fathers of the Church haue left of the same subiect and haue called Homilys which in Greeke also is the same as to say Discourses or Sermons And for the methode which it hath obserued in those Discourses it is such that a more profitable can not be deuised for by it Catholiks are soe taught in doctrine that they are also confirmed in faith and piously excited to holinesse of life Three principall thinges then are intended in the Romane Catechismes Discourses The first is Instruction of the ignorant the second is Confirmation of the Catholike faith the third Aedification to good life As for instruction it performeth it very abundantly and more at large in those subiects which it treateth of then other Catechismes commonly doe As for the second it confirmeth the Catholike doctrine especially against moderne heresys soe as in that breuity is very sufficient for the satisfaction of any that would haue a care of his soule As for the third which is Aedification to good life it sometimes threateneth with such zeale the iudgments of God to make vs to feare him and againe when the subiect requireth it layeth open soe efficaciously the bowels of his loue and mercy to draw vs to loue him that we haue in it not onely a Catechisme for instruction but also soe many Sermons and exhortations to vertue and Pastors by following of that methode in these three things may well be said to pay the debt which they owe both to the wise and vnwise The same methode of discourse I desire to obserue and the same three things I will labour to imitate with that spirit that it shall please God to giue mee For the first which is instruction considering that in the opinion of authors some expresse and explicite knowledge of the mysterys of faith is absolutly necessary for euery one to haue soâ— necessary that to those that are come to the vse of reason there can be noe saluation without it I haue therefor collected a short and easy Summe or abbreuiation of the Christian doctrine conteined in the answeres to a few questions which moe doubt but compriseth as much as is absolutly necessary for Lay people to know and more then authors in rigour exact of them The learning then and indifferent vnderstanding of that Summe shall satisfy the obligation which all haue to learne the Christian doctrine and shall excuse them from the sinne of ignorance which they might incurre In which answeres I doe not intende the rigorous definitions of those things which are there asked but onely to declare soe much as is necessary for the vnderstanding and in breife for the remembring of that point This I often explicate to the people and procure that they haue it with them to get without booke for I finde by experience that neither explication onely withour getting somethinge without booke nor the getting without booke onely without explication is sufficient for the people to learne the christian doctrine I haue explicated the same things ouer and ouer againe many times and vntill I gaue them somethinge in breife for their memory I perceiued that my labour was in a manner lost especially with the yong and ruder sort who when I came to examine againe were as farre to seeke as at first And on the other side I haue knowne some children who through their parents care haue knowne all Cardinal Bellarmins litle Catechisme without booke yet for want of explication haue bene litle or nothing better for it Wherfor to bring the people both to vnderstande and to remember the christian doctrine I was forced to vse these meanes to giue them that Summe to gett without booke for their memory and to expounde it to them as they doe in their â—rones in France onely with this difference that where as there the people haue onely the cheife parts of the Christian doctrine read to them before the explication I require that they say it themselues answering all together alowde to the questions of the Summe for by this meanes the most rude and ignorant hearing others answere and answering with them come in time to learne the answeres whether they will or noe and that much more easily in their owne language then those who gett without booke whole psalmes in Latine by onely hearing and singing them with others in the Church As for explication I sometimes expounde all the Summe in breife for the ignorant and sometimes for the good of all I make a discourse after the manner of some of the following Discourses either of Faith or of the Signe of the Cros or of some article of the Creede or other part as occasion shall serue and as is most agreeable to that dayes solemnity The second thinge which I labour for is to confirme in the Catholike faith by such proofs of the Catholike doctrine as may suffize for that purpose And that you may better vnderstande how I proceede in this I desire you to take good notice in the Creede For in the other Discourses there is noe difficulty For the vnderstanding of which you are to minde well the methode which the Apostles haue obserued in composing of it which they carried with them in their liues and left behinde them at their deaths as a rule of diuine faith First against Atheists who would perswade themselues that there is noe God they laid this ground I beleeue in God Secondly against Pagans who on the contrary beleeue in many Gods they professe their beleefe in one onely God the maker of heauen and earth Thirdly against Iewes and Turks and all such as they foresaw might beleeue in one God yet deny Christ they professe their beleefe in Iesus Christ the onely Sonne of God Yet all this was not sufficient finally to resolue in point of faith For being
And in another place Slacke not to be conuerted to our Lord and differre not from day to day Eccl. 5. For his wrath shall come suddainly and in the time of vengeance he will destroy thee Let bold praesumptuous men remember these words and learne to feare God Deere Reader whosoeuer thou art as thou hast a soule which must last for euer apply this booke to the good of thy soule so as shall most concerne it for a happy eternity I excuse noe falts my goodwill shall mende all God can and I hope will honour himselfe euen in my falts Combine thou with mee that we may honour him for euer and euer Amen I submitte all that is conteined in this booke and all whatsoeuer I shall saâ—â—r thinke as long as I liue to the authority of the Holy Catholike Church A SVMME OF THE CHRISTIAN Doctrine expounded in the follovving Discourses QVAESTION What obligation haue Christians to learnâ— the Christian Doctrine Answer Euery Christian is bounde vnder a mortal sinne to know the cheife points of the Christian faith 7. Q. What is faith A. Faith is a supernaturall light and gift of God by which we beleeue and firmely adhare to the Doctrine of the Church 11. Q. Make the Signe of the Cros. A. In the Name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Gâ—ost Amen 49. Q. What is the Signe of the Cros A. The Signe of the Crâ—â— is a profession of the Christian faith 51. Q. How is the Signe of the Cros a profession of the Christian faith 51 A. Because in the Signe of the Cros we professe the mystery of the blessed Trinity and of the Incarnaâ—iâ—n which are the two cheife mysterys of the Châ—stian faith 51 Q. What is the B. Trinity A. The B. Trinity is God the Father God the Sonne and God the Holy Ghost One and the same God in three distinct Persons 51 Q. What meane you by the mystery of the Incarnation A. We meane that the Sonne of God was incarnated that is became man to redeeme vs. 52 Q. Say the Creede A. I beleeue in God the Father Allmighty Maker of heauen and earth And in Iesus Christ his onely Sonne our Lord Who was conceiued by the Holy Ghost borne of the Virgin Mary Suffered vnder Pontius Pilate was crucifyed dead and buried He desâ—enâ—ed into hell the third day he arose againe from death He ascended into heauen sitteth at the right hand of God the Father allmighty From thence he shall come to iudge vs all both the quicke and the dead I beleeue in the Holy Ghost The holy Catholike Curch the Communion of Saints The forgiuenesse of sinnes The Resurrection of the flesh Life euerlasting Amen 76. Q Who is Christ A. Christ is the Sonne of God incarnated true God and true Man Our Redeemer Iudge and Glorifyer 109. Q. What doe we gett by Christ redeeming vs A. We gett the forgiuenesse of our sinnes and the acceptance of our good works by the merits of Christs passion applyed vnto vs in the Catholike Church 156. Q. What is the Chatholike Church A. The Catholike Church is the Congregation of all faithfull people and Pastors vnited together as a body with its head 176. Q. Giue mee a difference betwixt the true and all false Churches A. The true Church keepeth allwais in vnion and obedience to its Head and Pastors all false Churches beginne in dissentions and disobedience to the Head and Pastors of the Church 214. Q. Say the seauen Sacraments A. Baptisme Confirmation Eucharist Pennance Extreme Vnction Holy Orders Matrimony 281. Q What is a Sacrament A. A Sacrament is an outward signe which causeth grace in vs. 266. Q. What is Grace A Grace is a supernaturall gift which maketh vs gratefull and acceptable to God 268. Q. What is the Blessed Sacrament of Eucharist A. The Blessed Sacrament of Eucharist is the true body and blood of our Lord vnder the signes of bread and wine 298. Q. It shere any bread or wine in the Eucharist A. Noe it seems but soe The bread and wine are conuerted at the words of consecration into the true body and blood of our Lord. 305. Q. What is the Sacrament of Pennance A. The Sacrament of Pennance is that by which we receiue the forgiuenesse of sinnes in Confession 322. Q. Say the tenn Commandements A. Thou shalt not haue strange Gods before mee Thou shalt not take the name of God in vaine Remember thou keepe holy the Sabaoth day Honour thy Father and Mother Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shalt not beare false witnesse against thy neighbour Thou shalt not desire thy neighbors wife Thou shalt not couet thy neighbors goods 378 Q. Say the Pater Noster A. Our Father which art in heauen Hallowed bâ— thy name Thy Kingdome come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heauen Giue vs this day our daily bread And forgiue vs our trespasses as we forgiue them their trespasses against vs. And lead vs not into temptation But deliuer vs from euill Amen 449. Q. Say the Haile Mary A. Haile Mary full of grace our Lord is with thee Blessed art thou among woemen Blessed is the fruit of thy wombe Iesus Holy Mary Mother of God pray for vs sinners now and in the hower of of our death Amen 509. Q. What is the Masse A. The Masse is the continuall Sacrifice of the Law of Christ in which his true body and blood is offered vnder the signes of bread and wine 576. Q. Say the fiue cheife Precepts of the church A. To fast fasting dayes To keepe holy dayes To confesse our sinnes to our ordinary Pastour or to another with his leaue at least once a yeare To receiue the Eucharist at Easter time To pay tithes 640. Q. How doe the Precepts of the church oblige A. The Praecepts of the church oblige vnder a Mortal sinne 641. Q. What is sinne A. Sinne is that by which we depart from the diuine Law and are separated from God 673. Q. Ho many kindes of sinne are there A. There are two kindes of sinne Original and Actual sinne 715. Q. What is the difference betwixt Original and Actuall sinne A. Original sinne is that which we are borne in Actuall sinne is that which â—e committe 615. Q. How many kinds of sinne doe we committe A. We committee two kindes of sinnes Mortal sinne and venial sinne 717 Q. What is the difference betwixt Mortal and venial sinne A. Mortal sinne quite depriueth vs of Gods grace venial sinne onely lesseneth and deminisheth the feruour of the loue of God in vs. 717. THE FIRST DISCOVRSE Of the education and instruction of children and of the obligation which all haue to learne the christian doctrine I INTENDE now to speake of two thinges First vnto all those who haue charge ouer children and especially to parents to commende vnto them the care which they ought to haue of their good education and instruction Secondly to declare vnto all the
he comes to yeares of vnderstanding which he professed in baptisme by the months of those that then carried him And in another place he saith that christians should vse it as à looking glasse morning and night to examine themselues in their faith by it L 1 dosymb 1. By all which it doth appeare first that the Creede is of diuine autority as made by the Apostles and deliuered by word of mouth from them to posterity as the written word of the new Testament was from hand to hand to be beleeued with diuine faith Secondly out of S Ambrose and S. Augustine that it being a kea and a looking glasse which the Apostles made for vs we ought with great reuerence to keepe it and to vse it as such often frequenting it to locke vp the infernal darknes from vs and to open the diuine light vnto our soules and to examine ourselues in faith by it as by a looking glasse that soe we may allwais keepe constant to the Catholike Church Quest Say the Creede Answ I beleeue in God the Father almighty maker of heauen and earth And in Iesus Christ his onely Sonne our Lord. Who was conceiued by the Holy Ghost borne of the Virgin Mary Suffered vnder Pontius Pilate was Crucifyed dead and buried He descended into hell the third day he arose againe from death He ascended into heauen sitteth at the right hand of God the Father almighty From thence he shall come to iudge vs all both the quicke and the dead I beleeue in the Holy Ghost The holy Catholike Church the Communion of Saints The forgiuenesse of sinnes The Resurrection of the flesh Life euerlasting Amen THE FIRST ARTICLE I Beleeue in God the Father almighty maker of heauen and earth In this article the Apostles professe their beleefe in the first person of the blessed Trinity in the following articles they professe the second person and the third But we are not here to vnderstande that God the Father without the Sonne and the Holy Ghost made the world for euery external worke which God doth is done by all the Persons of the blessed Trinity the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost hauing all the same vndiuided power all equally concurring to the making of the world and of euery thinge that is conteined in it The Father is named first and the creation of the world is here particularly attributed to him because he is the first Person from whom the Sonne and the Holy Ghost eternally proceede God is rightly termed a father to signify his power loue and care ouer vs. God a father For as fathers beginne the generation that commeth of them and gouerne their children and prouide for them soe is God the beginner of this world he gouerneth it with his power and by his prouidence conserueth it Deut. 32. Is not he thy father that hath possessed thee and made and created thee By heauen and earth are vnderstoode all creatures heauenly and earthly that is both spirituall and corporal creatures And in this the power of God is expressed by his external works soe as is sufficient to destinguish him as the supreme power and to putt vs in minde of our duety to him and dependance of him as giuing vs our being and still conseruing vs in the being which we haue and which all creatures should presently and in an instant loose if he should withdraw his diuine helpe from them and there would be noe creatures at all but as there was once nothing but God God is the most perfect of all thinges and therefor a spirit all ouer by his power and his power is himselfe He is not conteined in any place now noe more then he was before the creation of the world He was all wais the same power the same goodnes and those infinite He euer had a decree to create the world and that eternall decree he performed in time making the Angels onely spirits men both spiritual in their soules and corporall in their bodys and other creatures as we see onely corporall He made heauen a place of glory for the good and hell a place of punishment for the wicked He desireth the saluation of all and giueth sufficient meanes of saluation to all that being the end for which he made vs. In this article we doe not say I beleeue in Gods makers c. but I beleeue in God the maker c. In which we haue two thinges professed Atheâ—sts First the essence and existence of God against prophane and wicked atheists and secondly against Pagans the being of one onely God This is here but breisly professed for the Apostles made the Creede but onely as an abbreuiated profession and rule of faith to ground and guide vs in the articles which we were to beleeue they prooued them in their preaching as neede required yet that there is a God as in the Creede they suppose it soe also they might doe in their preaching and needed not to prooue it to Iewes or Gentils who were then onely in the world and were neuer likely to deny it But now in these times of soe many heresys I doe not see that any point of faith whatsoeuer is more necessary to be prooued For heresy as it is a corruption of the true faith soe it corrupteth and destroyeth by litle and litle the very hart and roote of all faith and as it annulleth the authority of the Church it taketh away the foundation of all certainty and openeth a gappe to euery mans errors to say what he listeth and for shamelesse atheisme to enter in by it For make it once lawfull to disobey the Church which is the onely authority of God externally vpon earth as all archhaeretiks doe who beginne their new doctrines with obedience to noe Church then extant in all the world and then it followeth that euery man without controle may beleeue and teach what he will himselfe for there is noe authority vpon earth to controle him and soe he may as well teach atheisme as heresy Secondly those that are of God are ordained saith the Apostle that is to say they are with order Rom. 13. and he requireth there that we be subiect to higher powers not onely of necessity but for conscience sake now order importeth subiection and subordination of inferiors to superiour powers if then you take away this subiection and subordination of inferiors to superiours as haeretiks doe by disobeying the Church you take away all order in religion and by consequence you take away God and bring in atheisme and a worse disorder then is in hell How hateful then is heresy to God which is opposite to all religion and how dangerous is atheisme In Collar Patrum and necessary to be preuented in haeretical times Cassianus relateth an example of this in which he sheweth by experience that heresy leadeth into atheisme He sayth that there was a certaine religious man who beginning first of indiscretion to make comparisons betwixt the Saints and
into this sinne as they haue done into murder and euen to murder themselues which notwithstanding by nature they abhorre and can expect noe pleasure but vtmost paine in it It is indeede a meruaile and most admirable that atheisme giuing soe great liberty to all sinne there haue bene in the world soe few that haue fallen into it and by this it is manifest that God fights particularly against it and hath giuen by nature to reasonable creatures to defende his power and goodnesse And perhaps neither those aboue mentioned were guilty of this sinne First for that it is not likely that those men were soe much peruerted in their mindes and wills as Epicure was in the desire of liberty who notwithstanding as you haue seene came short of atheisme Secondly I finde by chance in S. Iohn Chrysostome where he putteth them by name and Socrates together for defending of the same doctrine and mainteining of this proposition Ignoro ' Deos I know not Gods meaning I know not many Gods in the plurall number Chrysosâ—o 4. in primam ad Cor. l. 14. but one onely God and he sayeth that they vltimum subierunt periculum that is either lost their liues or were in danger of their liues for defending of that proposition Now it is well knowne that Socrates lost his life for defending of that proposition in the sense aboue mentioned of one onely God and for this they might well be then in danger of their liues Atheisme then is a sinne which cannot be incurred but by a generall contradiction to the whole world and by a violent forcing of nature and conscience to admitte of all sinnes and which hath in it selfe the malice of all sinnes as allowing of all wickednesse whatsoeuer How great then are the punishments of this greeuous sinne soe much abhorred by the world and conteining after a sort the guilt of all sinnes Socrates dranke poyson forced vnto it by Infidels for defending of one God yet this was neuer a singularity in the world and euen then was professed by the whole nation of the Iewes famous in the world what shall the atheist deserue for professing of that which all nations of the world haue euer abhorred and for contradicting of that which all nations haue euer professed and was before men professed by Angels and euen by Lucifer the worst of deuils the atheist in this goeth beyond Lucifer and as for the hight of his prophanenesse he deserueth in a higher nature the damnation of his soule then Lucifer deserued hell because he denyeth the first principle of nature and all nations hauing by instinct of nature some religion he will haue none De leg Cicero There is noe nation soe barbarous but although it know not what God it should haue yet it knoweth it should haue a God Now if the atheist shall set himselfe to exclaime against all nations and shall say that they haue all done this for some temporal respect it shall auaile him noe more then if some hainous malefactour or very vicious man should exclaime against his superiors and against all nations for punishing of him and for hindering the mischeifs which he would otherwise perpetrate And by this saying atheists condemne themselues the same natural reason that condemneth sinne and vice condemning them in the opinion of all nations as more destroying of nature and order then any vicious men whatsoeuer And therefor as it were a vaine thinge in publike malefactors and should auaile them nothing to condemne the lawes of nations that condemne them soe were it in atheists to exclaime against all nations and should auaile them nothing when all the world shall condemne them before God OF THE NATVRALL AND experimentall feeling which we haue of God MEn vse rather to disswade from vices then to disprooue them because nature of it selfe without discourse of arguments at the first apprehension abhorreth vice and therefor there needes noe disproofe of it The same may be said of atheisme that as naturally we loue vertue and hate vice for the beauty and goodnes which appeareth in the one and for the deformity and euill which we perceiue in the other soe the diuine beauty and goodnes draweth vs to it and by nature we are conuerted to God and auersed from atheisme euen at the first apprehension as the greatest of all euills and our consciences tell vs that after the very salfe same manner that we feele ourselues auersed from vice soe doe we also finde ourselues from atheisme but onely that we behold atheisme as more deformed and monstruous then any vice is And as we loue and cannot but loue vertue soe we cannot but loue God in himselfe and naturally we loue those whom we see to loue and serue him Because we cannot but see and feele the goodnes of God towards vs and his power ouer vs working in vs and disposing of vs and dispensing vnto vs such perfections as he would giue and not we would choose and laying vpon vs such imperfections of greifs sicknes soares Passions of minde as he would and that which to nature is most terrible to wit death By all which we see a supernaturall power-aboue our nature which ordained these thinges And that power as by nature we see and feele it soe also by nature wefeare it naturally abhorring sinne by which we displease him It is true great sinners haue many times sensibly but litle of this feare left and may perhaps come to that hardnes of hart as to haue noe feeling at all of the feare of God when they sinne according to the holy Prouerbe The impious when he shall come into the depth of sinnes contemneth Prou. 18. But this prooueth not but that by nature he feareth God it prooueth indeede the great mercy of God to suffer those vessels of wrath to continue soe long without their due punishment that they feare him not and the great inclination which our corrupted nature hath to corrupt still more and more and to fall deeper and deeper into sinne and sheweth how good a thinge it is after any sinne presently to repent for it and as soone as we can to vse those meanes which we haue in the Catholike Church for the cleering of our consciences againe least that by continuance in one sinne we fall into another and harden our harts by litle and litle to all sinnes Although I say such men when they sinne haue noe sensible feeling of God or feare of his iustice yet by nature they haue that feare when they feele it noâ— Hawks by long custome to their keepers loose the feeling of that natural feare which they haue of them and will sport with them and bite at them without any feare at all yet naturally they haue allwais the same feare of them and their keepers permitting this haue still the same power ouer them which they had before Soe many sinners by much sinning and long continuance in sinne may perhaps I say perhaps for perhaps they cannot quite
to vse their owne wills and to fullfill their desires vpon them by what torments they would rather then to forsake the faith of Iesus Christ and thousands of thousands of faithfull christians gathered together in the Catholike Church are now ready with them in the same manner to professe it But we will honour Christ and comfort good christians by declaring the testimonys which God hath giuen of him We haue of Christ two kindes of diuine testimonys First by diuine scriptures and secondly by his miraculous works We will heare first what the scriptures testify of him When the mystery of the Incarnation was fullfilled and Christ came into the world there were then in all the world but two onely religions or diuine worships professed to wit the religion of the Iewes who worshipped one eternall and omnipotent God and the religion of the Gentils or Pagans adoring many Gods And the worship of one God being in the first article setled for true and the worship of many Gods reiected by the Apostles for false it followeth that the people of the Iewes were then the people of God whom he had chosen to be truely honored amongst Secondly it followeth that the Iewes hauing then the true faith and diuine worship whatsoeuer they then beleeued was true and that they then beleeuing in Christ as to come he was then indeede to come and whatsoeuer they beleeued of him then as future the same we are to beleeue of him as past and whatsoeuer the scriptures receiued by them which are the old Testament haue declared of him that is allwais to be beleeued as of diuine authority and as spoken by the word of God who dictated those scriptures for the gouernment of the world in the true worship of him Now the holy scriptures of the old testament deliuer soe planely the comming of a Messias or which is all one a Christ to redeeme the world that all whosoeuer receiue those scriptures doe still confesse it For it is the maine butte and prime scope of the old Testament to shew that Christ was promised from the beginning to the Patriarks and reuealed from time to time to the Prophets that the world might expect him then to come as it is the butte and scope of the new Testament to declare him to the world to be allready come And as the new Testament describeth all ouer the ioy of the faithfull in enioying him soe did the old testament comfort the faithfull then with the expectation and hopes of him First his comming was signifyed euen at first in paradise in terrour to the serpent who had caused our sinne when our Lord threatening him with an enemy that should come against him said I will put enmitys betâ—ixt thee and the woman Gen. 3. and thy seede and the seede of her she shall bruize thy head in peeces and thou shalt ly in waite of her heele Christ was by this mysteriously denoted God then declaring that the enmity of mankind with the serpent was to be especially betwixt him and the seede of a woman by which it is signifyed that Christ the Redeemer of the world and the serpents greatest enemy should be particularly the seede of a woman and is not there said to be of the seede of a man because he was to be conceiued and borne of a Virgin mother without the helpe of man And this was the prerogatiue of the Sauiour of the world that the sinne of mankind being first occasioned by a woman he that was to be the death and destruction of sinne should be by the power of God of womans seede onely without man The same was deliuered by reuelation to the Patriarks and Prophets afterwards and they did not onely declare it to posterity but also described the manner of the accomplishment of it Esa 9. A litle child is borne to vs and a sonne is giuen to vs and principality is made vpon his shoulder and his name shall be called Meruelous Counseller God Strong Father of the world to come The Prince of peace And in another place the same Prophet describeth the circumstances of his comming among the Iewes Arize be illuminated Hierusalem Esa 60. because thy light is come c. vpon thee shall our Lord arize and his glory shall be seene vpon thee And the Gentils shall walke in thy light and kings in the brightnesse of thy rizing Lift vp thine eyes round about and see all these are gathered together to thee Thy sonnes shall come from a farre and thy daughters shall rize from the side Then shalt thou see and abounde and thy hart shall meruaile and shall be enlarged when the multitude of the sea shall be conuerted to thee the strength of Gentils shall come to thee Here it is foretold that the Messias should come amongst the Iewes vnder the dominion and commande of Hierusalem the comming of kings to acknowledge his power and the conuersion of the Gentiles who by multitudes farre and neere should receiue the light of his doctrine and obey him our Lord. But I neede not stande to alledge scriptures for the comming of the Messias for it is inferred by that which I haue said allready that the Iewes who had then the true worship of God beleued it and it shall appeare by many places of the scriptures which I shall afterwards alledge Neither is there any difference betwixt that which the people of God beleeued of him by those scriptures before his comming and that which the faithfull now beleeue of him since his comming but onely in the diuersity of times they being before and we after him they beleeuing in him as to come and expecting of him we hauing receiued the ioy of his comming They were not then called Christians although they beleeued in Christ because they were but one nation and people of the Israëlits consisting of diuerse tribes and tooke their denomination of Ieâ—â—es from the â—ribe of Iuda which was the cheife tribe and of which it was foretold that the Messias should come But after his comming when the true faith and diuine worship was not confined to one onely nation but was enlarged vnto other nations and made common to all then all truâ— beleeuers beganne to be called by the Apostles Christians Act. 11. as by a name which abstracted from all nations to those who beleeued in Iesus Christ the true Messias and Redeemer of the wâ—rld Soe thâ—â— all true beleeuers haue allwâ—is beleeued in Christ as the Israëlits or People of the Iewes did immediatly before his comming and as now we doe But when Iesus Christ our Sauiour came into the world and preached his heauenly doctrine amongst the sewes a People wholy drowned in sinne and giuen to pride and desires of this world he abstaining from their euill wayes rebuking their vices and exhorting them to vertue and contempt of the world without giuing any hopes of temporall riches and glory but onely of spirituall blessings and such felicitys as were to be
repeate in honour of it as by the signe of the Cros the masse the Creede the Haile Mary and the like in which it is still commemorated that we behold in them the fullfilling of that great vision which Moyses had Exo. 3. when our Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middes of a bush and the bush was on fire and was not burnt By which the Conception of Christ was fignifyed to be of the blessed Virgin without detriment of her Virginity and that he was to be borne without paine to her And this vision as it signifyed the Sonne of God vested with our nature was soe high and glorious that Moyses was commanded to bare his feete for the holinesse of the very ground on which it appeared Iob. 16. He at whose beck the pillars of heauen tremble and dread is inuolued in the myserys of our nature to draw vs to vertue and to saue vs by his merits THE FOVRTH ARTICLE SVffered vnder Pontius Pilate was Crucifyed dead and buried The Apostles hauing professed Christ in the glory of his diuinity as the onely Sonne of God and in the mystery of his conception and ioy of his birth set him now before our eyes in his passion and death That sacred body which was conceiued by the Holy Ghost and was vnited to the diuine word in the wombe of a Virgin we behold it now in the hands of cruell executioners who haue free power to torment and to kill it see now that body nailed vpon a Cros and soe exposed to the scorne of the world That face of life whose beauty the Angells desire to behold is left pale and dead without comlinesse and beauty The horrible paine which Christ suffered in his Passion is not to be apprehended by vs but was without doubt soe great in it selfe that the apprehension of it in him had bene sufficient to haue bereaued him of life if he had not supported nature by supernaturall meanes as he did in that agony which he suffered in the garden by the apprehension onely of his future Passion Mat. 26. when he said my soule is sorrowfull euen vnto death For his body as it was conceiued and framed onely of the Virgins blood was of a more tender complexion and more sensible of paine then others are and soe he had a more liuely apprehension greater horrour and more repugnance from the torments of his Passion which he foresaw and according to the inferiour part of his soule he desired and prayed to be freed from although they were woluntary to him For the vnderstanding of which we are to vnderstande two powers in the soule of man commonly called the Superiour and Inferiour part or portion of the soule The superiour power is in respect of its higher operations of reason and will which it hath equall with the Angels The inferiour part or portion of the soule is the inseriour powerwhich it hath as it is sensitiue causing vs to feele by our senses as inferiour creatures doe According to the superiour of the soule the Passion of Christ was nothing sorrowfull to him as not being contrary to his reason and will but it was most voluntary nay ioyfull to him he went as a gyant to runne that race and was straightened vntill he had perfected the baptisme of his Passion According to the inferiour power of the soule as it is sensible he could not but feele paine and his senses did abhorre the torments of his Passion for otherwise they had bene noe torments vnto him and as the complexion and constitution of his body was more perfect soe was he more sensible of paine and therefore the very apprehension of his Passion had a more violent effect in him then the paines of death is euer read to haue had in any other causing a sweat of blood to runne downe to the earth from him This would he suffer before his Passion to shew that his sorrows were aboue all sorrows and most horrible to him Yet he would preserue his life vntill he had suffered those thinges and fullfilled that which the scriptures had foretold of him For two reasons the Apostles would specify that Christ suffered vnder Pontius Pilate First for the more particular and exact relation of his Passion to shew that the Prophecys were fullfilled that had signifyed the time about which it should be And secondly for the performance of his owne words to shew the accomplishing of that which himselfe had foretold when speaking of his Passion he said Mat 20. they shall deliuer him to the Gentils to be mocked and scourged and crucifyed Which was fullfilled when the Iewes apprehending him deliuered him to Pilate and his souldiers who were Gentils and scourged and crucifyed him For the cheife of the Iewes seeing that they could not resist the doctrine which he preached nor the power of his miracles caused him to be apprehended and to be sent as a malefactour to Pontius Pilate who was then the Romane President of Iury Crucifyed and who by the instigation of the Iewes adiudged him as they desired to the death of the Cros which was held in that place the most disgracefull kind of death that malefactours could suffer and was soe much abhorred by the law that we reade in deuteronomy he is accursed of God that hangeth on a tree Deut. 21. Yet this the most reprochfull of all deaths was Christ contented to vndergoe for vs and that in a most ignominious manner betwixt two the eues We haue in the scriptures many mysterious types and honorable figures by which God would foreshew the death of his sonne Innocent Abel murthered by his brother was a figure of Iesus Christ killed by the Iewes Gen. 4. Gen. 22. The Sacrifice which Abraham was commanded to offer in his onely sonne was a type of Christ offered for vs on the Cros. Exo. 12. The vnspotted lambe which the Israëlits were commanded to offer when they came out of Aegypt represented also our Sauiour offered for our redemption of whom the Prophet saith Hier. 11. and I as a mild lambe that is carried to a victime The brazen serpent which God commanded to be erected that the people beholding it might be cured from the stings of the fiery serpents was as it were the shaddow of Christ nailed on the Cros. For as those that were wounded by serpents were cured by that and as of vipers and scorpions a medicine is made against their poyson and stings soe the malice of sinne committed by man was cured by man againe in Iesus Christ contrary to him By a man death sayth the Apostle and by a man the resurrection of the dead Cor. 1.15 And as the brazen serpent was in shew a serpent but had noe sting nor poyson to hurt but vertue to cure the stings of other serpents soe Christ in the similitude of the slesh of sinne had noe sinne Rom. 8. but tooke away the sinnes of the world and therefor
the faithfull dispersed ouer the world Which is in substance the same that is here answered for euery one that hath the true faith and is in vnion with the head and Pastors of the Church by obeying them is a member of the true Châ—â—ch and all these put together make the whole Church But because Schismatiks although they beleeue in all points yet are out of the Church as diuiding themselues from it by disobedience to the head and Pastors theirof therefor to be a member of the Church we require vnion with the rest of the members vnder one head to wit the Pope who is for the time the successor of S. Peter the Vicar of Christ and the Head of the Church Now for the explication of this article In the first place the Church is said to be holy Holy It is holy in diuerse respects First in respect of the eminent holines of Iesus Christ the cheife head of it Secondly for the holy gouernment which Christ instituted and allwais conserueth in it Thirdly it is holy in respect of the holy sacrifice which it hath of his most sacred body and in respect of the holy Sacraments and obseruances that are in it Fourthly in respect of the Vicarhead Pastors and people whose holinesse it includeth Christ ascending into heauen made S. Peter the head of all the Apostles and of the whole Church to remaine as Vicar to himselfe vpon earth commending particularly to him the charge of his sheepe that is of all faithfull christians that are in the Church as in his sheepfold This charge was performed by him whilst he liued and after his death by men of great holines who succeeded him ioyning their blood vnto his as it were in a continuall streame of martyrdome for almost three hundred yeares after the Ascension of Christ After them those who haue succeeded in that chaire and office haue bene for the most part men of great holinesse as they haue great meanes to be and as it is fitting they should be in that holy office The Church is also holy in many other inferiour Pastors and people of all sorts and callings of Martyrs Confessors and Virgins who haue illustrated it with their holy liues and haue rendred it a deere and amiable spouse to Christ Lastly the Church is holy as being by its authority the ground of all holines there being none at all but in it For there can be noe holinesse in this world if not grounded vpon true faith Heb. 11. without which it is impossible to please God And being there can be noe faith that can please God but in the Catholike Church all holinesse that is amongst men is in the holy Catholike Church The Church is called by the Apostles Catholike Catholike which is as much as to say vniuersal to destinguish the true Church of Christ from all false Churches of christians which they saw might rize vp in following times and did euen then beginne to rize in their times None of which can be said to be Catholike or vniuersal but priuate and particular Churches which beginne by opposing of the Catholike and vniuersal Church then extant when those new sects beginne First the Church is vniuersal in doctrine for that it teacheth all ouer the same doctrine and yeeldeth obedience to the same gouernment vnder one head and soe the Church of Rome is Catholike and the Church of Protestants is not Catholike for that protestants agree in name onely and nor in doctrine and also because some of them acknowledging a head vpon earth as the English Protestants did and some of them acknowledging noe head vpon earth they haue not all obedience to the same authority which obedience must necessarily be had to be the same Church and to be the true Catholike Church For the Apostles made this article to keepe vs allwais in the odedience of the true Church and that those might be knowne to haue the true faith of Christ who retaining the doctrine which is professed by the whole Church which then is and obeying the authority of it submitte in all controuersys to that which it teacheth and say with the Apostles I beleeue the Catholike Church and therefor two Churches that obey two different authoritys can not both of them be vniuersal and Catholike Secondly the true Church is vniuersall in times for that it must be at all times and neuer soe vanished out of the world that there should neede any to restore it againe for God doth not soe vnequally destribute his graces as to leaue the the world at any time without meanes of saluation which cannot be without a true and lawfull Church Besides the Apostles Creede is to be said at all times and soe we are allwais to say I beleeue the Catholike Church which we could not allwais say if at some time there were noe true Catholike Church in the world Thirdly the Church is vniuersal in place for if S. Paul could with truth apply those words of the psalme their sounde hath gone forth vnto all the earth Ps 18. and vnto the ends of the â—ound world the words of them to the Church of Christ in the Apostles times when it was nothing soe much dilated as now God be thanked it is we may now with good reason call it Catholike in respect of all places when the sounde of the Apostles doctrine is soe much enlarged that there is hardly any place of the world whither the Catholike Church doth not send her subiects to preach Out of this vniuersality of the Church it followeth One that there is but one true Church in which saluation may be had for vniuersality importeth vnity and if there be vnity in the Church and that this vnity be necessarily required and included in the word Catholike or vniuersal which signifye hâ— many agreeing in the same thinge then two Churches which are not vnited in the same Communion and obedience to the same authority can not both of them haue meanes of saluation for if they could both haue meanes of saluatioÌ„ and yet might lawfully disobey each others authority then we should not be bounde to obey it nor could it lawfully require obedience to it which is contrary to the words of Christ binding vs to the obedience of the Church and contrary to this article and to all reason and gouernment S. Augustine There is nothing which a christian ought soe much to feare as to be separated from the body of Christ Aug. tract 27. which is for certaine the one Catholike Church For if he be separated from the body of Christ he is not a member of him If he be not a member of him he is not nourished with his spirit By which it is plane in the doctrine of this saint that it can not be a true Church which is separated from the true Church and by consequence two Churches which separate from each other can not both be true Therefor let those take head that hearken
33. l. 3. c. 43.44 l 2. cont Gauden c. 3 l. de vntco bap â—â—s c 15. ep 48. L. 2. cont Petâ—lâ— c. 19. as may be seene in The Authour of the Protestant Religion l. 2. c. 11. They must therefor shew some iust cause why they went forth and separated themselues For as S. Augustine alluding to the holy Prouerbe c. 30. often obiecteth against the Donatists The euill child calleth himselfe iust but he can not excuse his going forth And in another place You must come and giue an account of your separation But none of them haue a iuster cause nor can giue a better account of their separation then those whom they confesse to be false Churches therefor they are all false Churches I haue now sufficiently performed one thinge which I promised in the title of this booke The verity of the Roma â—e Cathelike faith is demonstrated by industion from aâ—l other religions to wit to demonstrate by induction from all the religions that are in the world the verity of the Romane Catholike faith As for the atheist he ought indeede to be excluded from all speech of religion for that he hath none yet his prophanesse is disprooued in the first article of the Creede in which the Apostles laid the foundation of religion saying I beleeue in God The Pagans religion is disprooued in the same article in that he beleeueth not in one God the maker of heauen and eaâ—th The Iewish and Turkish sects are disprooued in the second article for that they beleeue not in Iesus Christ the onely Sonne of God All sects of Christians that are out of the Romane Church are disprooued in that they haue broken this ninth article of the Creede I beleeue the Cathâ—like Church disobeying its authority in the lawfull head and pastors of it Let them harken to the words of the Holy Ghost Deut 17. If thou perceiue that the iudgment with thee be hard and doubtfull c. Thou shalt come to the Priests of the Leuitical stocke and to the iudge that shall be at that time and thou shalt doe whatsoeuer they that are presidents of the place which our Lord shall choose shall say and teach thee according to his law and thou shalt follow their sentence neither shalt thou decline to the right hand nor to the left hand But he that shall be prowde refusing to obey the commandement of the priest which at that time ministreth to our Lord thy God and the decree of the iudge that man shall dy Here now I cry to all those christians that are out of the Romane Church Graecians Arians c. and to all the seueral Churches of Protestants and especially to you my very deere Countreymen for whose soules I haue long hazarded my corporall life You haue contemned this great authority or rather a greater then it was You haue refused to obey the commandement of the priest and priests not of the Leuitical stocke but of the institution of Christ to wit the Successour of S. Peter and his pastors that is to say the Bishop of Rome and his pastors who gouerned the primitiue Church of Christ and were then actually gouerning it when your Churches beganne These you know you haue disobeyed and stande still disobedient vnto General Councels haue declared against you all and especially against the seueral sects of Protestants the Councell of Trent consisting of two hundred and fifty fiue fathers besides the most eminent doctors of the Catholike Church All Romane Catholiks obey this Councell in all points of faith and you disobey it Disobedience to the Leuitical priest and priests by the law of Moyses was punished with death and your disobedience I am sorry with all my hart but I haue noe scruple to speake it shall without doubt if you repent not be punished with eternal death Therefor I coniure you by the sweet merites of Iesus Christ in whom you beleeue and whom you expect to be your iudge to reflect ypon your soules and vpon true religion Call to minde how your Churches beganne and how schismes and heresys beginne and if you finde as you shall easily finde that you haue begunne after the very same manner as they in disobedience to the head and pastors of the Church and to all but your owne wills your beginners were as Core Nu. 16. Dathan and Abiron that beganne diuisions in the Church of God their followers that liued with them were as the followers of the former whom God destroyed also with them and you rising vp to mainteine their disobedience when they are dead and gone are like to those who after their deaths rose vp to iustify their cause and were therefor by the iudgment of God consumed with fire Forsake their company desert that vnlawfull cause and returne againe into the sheepfold of Christ if you desire to be saued THE TENTH ARTICLE FOrgiuenesse of sinnes None can rightly consider these words as made by the Apostles to be an article of the Creede but he must needs conceiue some greater mystery to be conteined in them them onely to professe that God can or doth forgiue sinnes Neither can he in reason vnderstande any other thinge then that there is power of forgiuing sinnes in that Church which they had newly professed This was indeede a gift and priueledge worthy to be mentioned in the publike Creede Christ after his resurrection before he ascended into heauen appeared to his Apostles and breathing vpon them said Io. 20. Receiue ye the Holy Ghost whose sinnes you shall forgiue they are forgiuen and whose you shall retaine they are retained This was a mystery which the Church of God had great reason to remember and often to inculcate vnto her people and therefor the Apostles hauing professed their beleefe in the Catholike Church in the next place would commemorate this gift and power which the Catholike Church hath of the forgiuenesse of sinnes that with gratitude we might remember it and make good vse of it It is a greater worke saith S. Aug. tract 52. Augustine to make an euill man good then to make the world of nothing Yet it is giuen vnto man to doe this great worke It is giuen I say vnto man for it is not of his owne power but of the gift of God God onely of his owne natural power can forgiue sinnes Esa 43. I am he that taketh cleane away thine iniquitys but he can if he will giue that power vnto men The Apostles had that power by the gift of God as they had of him to worke many miracles which were as hard and vnpossible to nature as to forgiue sinnes Iudges of themselues haue not power to iudge but when the king maketh them iudges and giueth them power then they haue power and may exercize it and the exercize of it is good and valid because the king who gaue them that power setteth them in his owne place giueth them to represent his owne person and ratifyeth the
he first beganne to conceale although he had Confessed them he must Confesse them all ouer againe with those which he concealed for although they were Confessed they were not forgiuen The deuill noe doubt but laboureth all he can to hinder the fruit of this Sacrament by which he looseth soe many soules and because he preuaileth sometimes with such as I haue mentioned I will speake a word or two for their good that they may abhorre this sinne First I tell them that this Sacrament is the onely remedy which God hath ordained for actual sinne Our soules were first lost by original sinne and by Baptisme they were saued from that shipwrack but falling after Baptisme into actual sinne there is noe hopes to be saued but by duely receiuing the Sacrament of pennance Hiero. ep 8. ad Domerriad Amb. ad virg laps c. 8. and therfor Saints and spiritual men commonly call it the second planke of saluation in the shipwracke of our soules Tell mee then O faintharted Catholike that art affraide to Confesse thy sinnes if that thou wert floating on the waues of the sea vpon a good and sure planke wouldst thou be ouercome with feare to forsake it why then art thou ouercome with feare to conceale thy sinnes in that pittifull state of damnation seeing that by concealing them thou dost let goe the planke in which is all thy hope and without which thou sinkest downe and art sure to perish Thou hast suffered shipwracke by mortal sinne wilt thou let goe thy sauing planke and perish in the waues Thou art wounded mortally and art sicke vnto death if thou discouer not thy wounds thou dyest with out remedy wilt thou languish vnto death and willfully refuse all helpe Thou hast a physitian that can cure thee and that as priuatly as thou canst desire and with as litle shame to thee but thou must either tell thy disease and shew thy wounds or dy Thus doe the holy fathers declare the necessity of intire Confessions Further if thou dissemblest with the priest thou dissemblest with God and adding sinne vnto sinne thou woundest thy soule with a new and deeper wound and with a sinne which is most opposite to grace and to the forgiuenesse of any sinne and that very sinne which now thou wilt not Confesse priuatly thou shalt be forced to Confesse it one day in the sight and hearing of all the world when the deuill shall accuse thee publikely saying I gotte him to committe such a sinne and to conceale it in Confession I accuse him of the sinne and of a sacrilegious Confession And Christ will then be ashamed of thee before his Angels that wert ashamed of him before thy ghostly father and thou shalt be condemned as guilty of both sinnes and shalt goe amongst the damned This is all that thou shalt gett by thy shame for in this world thou didst gett nothing at all Other sinnes when they are committed bring either some profit or pleasure with them but this hath neither profit nor pleasure in it but euen then when thou committest it thou hast an inward horurour and paine to thinke of the losse which theÌ„ tho susteinest and of the comfort of a good ConfessioÌ„ and how greeuously thou woundest thy soule with a new and more greeuous wounde If thou didst see thy vtter enemy laid pittifully wounded in danger of death and the surgeon dressing him and binding vp his wounds couldest thou finde in thy hart to come to him and tearing of his plaster to wounde him againe with a new and worse wounde Such an enemy thou art vnto thy selfe when being at Confession vnder the hands of the priest thou hidest any mortal sinne Thou abusest the onely remedy of thy soule and being wouÌ„ded and then in cure thou tearest of the plaster and woundest thy selfe againe with a new and more greeuous mortal sinne and such an one as in it selfe is contrary to all remedy It was very remarkable to this purpose that which happened not long since in a citty of Spaine A notorious malefactour being sentenced to dy was put into the place of retirement which they haue in the prison for condemned persons to prepare themselues in for their death And comming to Confession he beganne to be troubled and could not goe on but made strange gestures and shewes of affrightment when he would haue Confessed some sinnes The Priest who was my very charitable good freind and who told mee himselfe all that I am now relating perceiuing it and asking the cause of it with much difficulty at last he answered and told him planely that the deuill was there and threatened him that he durst not Confesse At which the priest roze vp and with the signe the Cros vanquished him But the deuill who vseth not to yeeld at the first repulse returned againe and at the Confessing of some sinnes troubled him as before and the priest againe vanquished him And thus returning seueral times he putte the poore man into such an amaze and feare that he durst not Confesse but made an end concealing some of his sinnes The priest gaue sentence of absolution but it was in vaine and of noe value as a iudge misinformed the party remaining guilty of all his former sinnes and of one more and that perhaps greater then any which he had to Confesse That night the deuill appeared vnto him all in flames threatening him â—ot to Confesse such and such sinnes which he had concealed and with all he commanded him to throw away that which he had about his necke which was a litle Cros and image of our blessed lady which the priest sent to a brother of his owne liuing then aboue a thousand miles from him who wore them and after some yeares shewed them to mee In what a terrour may we imagine that man then to haue bene and fearfull perplexity to obey or to disobey the deuils commande he thought them then to be his onely armes and saw that if he threw them away he disarmed himselfe and on the otherside he feared his threatning if he obeyed not But he chose for better to disobey him and it was a happy disobedience for his prowde enemy confounded with it vanished away presently with out hurting him The man expected vntill morning longing to see the priests returne whom as soone as he saw he ranne presently to him and glasping him in his armes he besought him to heare his Confession againe and then he made a better Confession declaring intirely the sinnes which he had concealed and the sacrilege which he had committed in concealing them And relating all that had passed with him he desired at his death the priest to tell it vnto others that they might learne by him to make good Confessions Who related it accordingly in his sermon to all that were present at the malefactors execution This happened in a place of Spaine which I know very well and there can be noe question of the truth of it Those who in Confession conceale
pleasure which we tooke in it The first euill of the losse of God is repaired by our conuersion to him in confession by which we are restored to his fauour againe But the punishment of our senses is not allwais quite taken away but as our auersion from God and conuersion to the creature for sensible pleasure was more earnest and intense then our conuersion is to God againe soe it is fitting that some sensible paine should remaine to be susteined These are the grounds of the Catholike doctrine of Satisfaction and of Purgatory of both which we wil say somethinge here as in their propper place If I said noe more in proofe of this doctrine but onely that the Bishop of Rome and Pastors of his communion deliuered it I had in reason said enough For he being the head of the Church as the true and lawfull successour in S. Peters primacy as I haue shewed him to be he and the Pastors of his communion haue the lawfull authority of the whole Church and are the whole Catholike Church in authority and being that we must alwais say I beleeue the Catholike Church we must allwais beleeue and obey the succession of that authority But I will say somethinge in particular of them That which the Catholike Church teacheth of Satisfaction is that although the conuersion of a sinner to God may be soe intense and perfect sometimes that he may obtaine a full remission of all punishment and be as it were new borne to God in baptisme yet this doth not allwais happen Our conuersion to God is not allwais soe intense and perfect but that there may and commonly doth remaine some punishment to be suffered after it This we shew first by holy Scriptures When the children of Israel sinned by murmuring against God and their Pastors Moyset praying obtained the remission of their sinne But yet saith God all the men that haue seene my Maicsty Nu. 14. c. And haue tempted mee c. they shall not see the land for the which I sware to their fathers Here their sinne was forgiuen them yet it was punished afterwards those that had sinned neuer entring into the land of promise Nu. 20. Moyses and Aaron sinned at the waters of contradiction and when their sinne was forgiuen there remained a penalty to be endured by them and they endured it not bringing the people into the holy land Dauid had sinned by murder and adultery and Nathan being sent to reprooue him and bring him to repentance Reg. 2.12 he repented and deserued to heare from the Prophet our Lord hath taken away thy sinne thou shalt not dy But his sinne being taken away it was not withstanding punished with the death of his sonne the Prophet declaring the sonne which is borne to thee dying shall dy And for all king Dauids earnest praying fasting and lying on the ground he could not obtaine the life of the child By all which we see that punishment of sinne may remaine to be suffered when the sinne is forgiuen It Was therfor the custome of the Catholike Church aunciently as now it is to impose penaltys vpon sinners at their repentance as by auncient Canons doth appeare Ep 3. 14. can 38. S. Basil ep 3. 14. can 38. He that hath committed adultery shall not communicate in the Sacraments for fifteene yeares S. Augustine Let vs seeke confession with a pure hart and performe the pennance which is giuen by priests It is against reason that he that commeth to confession with many mortal sinnes should thinke to haue noe more puishment then he that hath but one onely if they be disposed with equal deuotion Yet they were both alike if they had noe more punihment but onely to confesse and that then all sinne and punishment were taken away Sinne therfor and punishment are onely soe farre correlatiues that punishment allwais supposeth sinne to haue bene but doth not require that there be then actually sinne Neither is it worth any thinge that which haeretiks obiect against this That Christ satysfyed for vs therefor we neede not to satisfy for our selues noe more then it is to say Christ did good works for vs therefor wee neede nor to doe good works for our selues Our good works derogate not from the good works of Christ nor our Satisfaction from his Satisfactions our good works haue their value from his and soe hath our satisfaction but neither of them is hindered by him Thus much for Satisfaction and for the enioyning of pennance after the remiffion of sinnes As for Purgatory it followeth hence that those who dy with their sinnes forgiuen them but haue not that intense sorrow and perfect repentance which is necessary for the remission of all punishment due to their sinnes must haue their punishment in some place in the next world where they must be purged from that guilt of punishment as also of their lesser sinnes before that they can enter into heauen Aërius was one of the first that denyed Purgatory and that which he gott for it was to be recorded as an haeretike euer from the times of the primitiue Church and to haue his doctrine in thelist of those whom S. Epiphanius haer 75. And S. Augustine haer 83. haue branded with the marke of haeresy Luther at first although he denyed indulgences yet was soe resolute in the mainteining of Purgatory that in his disputation with Eckius he would needs make publike profession of it saying I firmely beleeue and dare boldly say I know there is a Purgatory whatsoeuer haeretiks raile against it Disp lips But hauing once fallen from the Catholike Church he was constant to nothing but vnconstancy and came in the end to deny Purgatory also But the Catholike Church hath allwais acknowledged that there is a place for the soules of those to be purged in who dy in venial sinne or haue not made full satisfaction for their mortal which place therfor may aptly be called Purgatory That there is such a place it appeareth in all those sentences of Scriptures where prayer for the dead is commended Teh 4. For those who are in heauen or in hell are not to be prayed for Set thy bread and thy wine saith holy Toby vpon the burial of a iust man Not as the Gentils vainely did to delight the dead with corporal viands but to be giuen to the poore to pray for them Hence saith S. Chrysostome who liued aboue twelue hundred yeares since came the custome of calling together the poore to receiue almes to pray for the dead Thus did Iudas Machabaeus make a gathering and sent a great summe of syluar to be bestowed in sacrifice for the dead Where vpon the Scriptures make this inference Mach. 2.12 It is therfor a holy and healthfull cogitation to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from sinnes And if any deny these Scriptures to be canonical because the Iewes deny them S. L. 18. de ciu Det. Augustine will
committed THE NINTH COMMANDEMENT THOV shalt not desire thy neighbours wife Exod. 20. In the booke of Exodus where the substance onely of the ten Commandements is giuen in briefe Deut. 5. the two last commandements are put together thus Thou shalt not couet the house of thy neighbour neither shalt thou desire his wife nor seruant nor handmaid nor oxe nor asse nor any thinge that is his But in the booke of Deuteronomy where they are deliuered more destinctly and at large they are plane lyer destinguished in these words Mat 5. Thou shalt not couet thy neighbours wife nor house nor feild nor man seruant nor woman seruant nor oxe nor asse nor all things that are his Where we see the concupiscence of the flesh first forbidden and then the concupiscence of our neighbours goods and soe the Catholike Church commonly vnderstandeth the desire of our neighbours wife to bee forbidden in the ninth and the desire of his goods to be prohibited in the tenth Commandement soe that as the act of adultery and the act of theft are forbidden in two destinct commandements to wir in the sixt and the seauenth as being two destinct kindes of sinne in act soe the desire and consent vnto adultery and the desire and consent vnto theeuery are forbidden also by two distinct Commandements as being two seueral kindes of sinnes and hauing noe more connexion in desire then adultery and theeuery haue in act This Commandement therefore correspondeth to the sixt and forbiddeth that in desire which it did in act and giueth to understand that not onely euill deeds and words but also euill desires are vnlawfull It was an errour amongst the Iewes to thinke that the desire or consent vnto sinne was noe sinne soe that it were not performed in worke but this errour is confuted by these two last Commandements and by the words of our Sauiour it was said of old Mat. 5. thou shalt not committee adultery But I say vnto you who soeuer shall see a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart This is the difference betwixt diuine and humane Lawes that the diuine Law can binde our interiour thoughts and humane lawes can binde onely our exteriour actions Because men not seeing the intention can not iudge of it but God who seeth our thoughts can binde our intentions because he can iudge of them and can conuince vs and condemne vs for them euen by our owne conscience Man seeth those things whith appeare Reg. 1.16 but our Lord beholdeth the hart And soe he can forbidde as here he doth the desire and inward consent vnto adultery The sinnes of the minde are commonly called the sinnes of concupiscence and it is necessary to declare what concupiscence is Concupiscence is the naturall inclination and appetite which we haue of pleasant and delightsome things And this concupiscence in itselfe is noe sinne but is indifferent vnto good or euill and is actually good when it prosecuteth good and lawfull deligts and is actually euill when it desireth euil and vnlawfull delights Ps 118. It was a good concupiscence in King Dauid when he sang Concupiuit anima mea desiderare iustificationes tuas omni tempore My soule hath coueted to desire thy iustifications at all time It was an euill concupiscence in him and against this commandement when he coueted another mans wife It is a good concupiscence to desire good to our neighbour it is an euill concupiscence and against the next commandement to desire his goods from him Our concupiscence in it selfe and by nature is good but it is made euill by desiring euill delights Saint Gregory hath obserued certaine degrees or as it were steps in the sinnes of the minde First their is Suggestion Secondly Delectation and thirdly Consent Suggestion is when the sinne is suggested and proposed to the minde and this is no sinne as being caused by the natural species and phancys only before the operation of the will Delectation is the delight which followeth of those suggestions which if it be onely natural and vnwillingly it is noe sinne but if it be any way voluntary as caused of purpose or not sufficiently resisted then there is some sinne in it because there is some kind of consent Finally sinne is compleated in the will and consent Euery one saith S. Iames is tempted of his owne concupiscence abstracted and allured Afterwards concupiscence when it hath conceiued bringethforth sinne But sinne when it is consummated generateth death That is weare tempted by our owne appetite and when we giue way to our appetite tempting vs to that which is vnlawfull we bringforth sinne and by sinne we incurre eternall death By this Commandement forbidding the desire of adultery all vnlawfull desires of the flesh are vnderstood The remedys against them are as in the sixt Commandement against adultery to vse corporal austerity moderate paines reading of good bookes and to flye the occasion of such sinnes and in time of temptation to make presently an act of detestation of them and then to diuert ourselues by some other imployment and if for all this the temptation still continue to be content to haue it as long as it shall please God THE TENTH COMMANDEMENT THOV shalt not couet thy neighbours goods By this Commandement we are forbidden the desire of vnlawfull profit and although by house which is in the words of this Commandement at large all kinde of temporall riches be vnderstood sometimes in the Scriptures Exo. 1. and all kind of wordly prosperity as where it is said that God built the midwiues of Aegypt houses That is prospered them with worldly blessings yet he would here specify some particular goods of our neighbour the more to auert vs from coueting any of them And because all the sinnes of the minde proceede from the desire either of vnlawfull pleasure or of vnlawfull profit therefore they may all be vnderstood as forbidden by one of these two Commandements in the first of which the desire of vnlawfull pleasure in the second the desire of vnlawfull profit is prohibited and therefor there needed no commandement corresponding to the fift to forbid the desire of killing because it is included in one of those two Commandments Coueteousnes of goods is that which is forbidden here Tim. 1.6 which the Apostle calleth the roote of all euills And in this it may be esteemed the basest of all sinnes that riches are the basest of temporal felicitys yet it is a meruaile to see how wretchedly some are affected to this sinne who haue soe set their hearts on riches that they would liue as it seemeth of the very thought of them and neuer vse them they passe many a hungry day and want many things which they might haue because they will be couetous and haue riches they know not what for but still the more they haue the more they would haue their auarice increasing like the thirst of one in a dropsy
God because God sheweth himselfe there in glory as a King reigning in the mindes and hearts of his Saints who are in perfect loue and subiection to him And supposing here that which we prayed for before to wit that it be for the honour of God we may be vnderstoode to pray that our soules may be freed out of the prison of our bodys Phil. 1. and come soone to that happy state as the Apostle desired to be dissolued and to be with Christ The Kingdome of Heauen is the first thing Mat. 6. which we ought to aske for our selues Seeke first the Kingdome of God and the iustice of him and all these things shall be giuen you besides Christ said this to his disciples after that he had delinered the Pater noster to them in which he taught them first to aske the honour of God and then those things which were good for themselues and amongst all those things in the first place the kingdom of heaven Tract 102. This is saith saint Augustin that full and perfect ioy which we ought to pray for and which oll our prayers ought to aime at as the only true ioy Here the Romane Catechisme admonisheth Pastors to excite their people to the loue of that Kingdome by the sentences of holy Scriptures which are indeede frequent enough for it But in order to this it ought to be sufficient that Christ hath said in few words Aske and you shall receiue that your ioy may be full For what ioy should we desire but that which is full ioy and fullnesse of ioy is not to be had but in heauen Euery thing aspireth to that in which its cheife and full ioy consisteth Sensible things to that which pleaseth the senses liuing things to the conseruation of life and those things which haue onely being and noe life delight in that which is according to their nature and seeke to it because there is the fulnes of their ioy And shall the soule of man which is reasonable aboue all these things forsake that which is its cheife and full ioy All corporall things tende with violence thither where their cheife ioyes are and rest not contented vntill they enioy them The Sunne Moone and Planets reioyce in their courses the Starres in their stations and keepe themselues in them because there is the fullnes of their ioy The creatures of the earth are some aboue the earth some within it and some part within and part without it as trees and herbes and will not liue otherwise because there is the summe of their delight The fishes of the Seas and fresh waters seeke allways to be there and striue by violence to that place Light thinigs tende vpwards and heauy things to the centre of the earth because there they haue the fulnesses of their ioy The fulnesses of our ioy is noe where but in Heauen and why doe not we then seeke to it and abhorre all that hindereth vs of it We liue in this world as it is were out of our element in a place most lothsome to our soules a deadly prison condemned to dy continually and in danger of eternall death Rom. 7. What ioy can we take in this condition Vnhappy that I am saith the Apostle who shall deliuer mee from the body of this death The Kingdome of God is diuersely vnderstoode First it is general ouer all the world as he gouerneth and prouideth for his subiects which are the multitude of all creatures Secondly it is more particularly ouer the Catholike Church as the people of a Kingdome gathered together to worship him as their true King Thirdly more particularly yet his Kingdome is with the iust in whose harts he reigneth by grace of whom Christ the Kingdome of God is with you Luc. 17. Lastly his Kingdome is most especially ouer the blessed to whom at the day of iudgement he shall say Mat. 25. Come the blessed of my Father possesse you the Kingdome prepared for you Here we aske that we and all people may soe liue in the Communion of the Catholike Church by Faith and good works that in the end we may obtaine the glory of Heauen For this Kingdome is not otherwise obtained but by such faith as S. Gal. 5. Paul requireth which worketh by charity as by those who haue giuen meate drinke and cloths for Gods sake and they shall be excluded that come with the profession onely of Catholiks saying Mat. 7. Lord Lord open vnto vs but bring not with them the light of good workes Not euery one that sayeth Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heauen but he that doth the will of my Father of which point Saint Augustine wrote a booke de fide operibus in which he sheweth that the Epistles of S. Paul were misconstrued by some of those times as though he required not good works after baptisme cap. 14. but that faith alone did iustify And therefore saith he the other Epistles of Peter Iames and Iude were written to auouch vehemently that fait without good works profiteth nothing THE THIRD PETITION THY will be done in Earth as it is in Heauen Man hath not a greater enemy then his owne will when it is not gouerned by the will of God All good things which we haue come by the goodnesse of the diuine will and all euills that befall vs come through the malice of our owne wills The ignorance of our vnderstandings neuer hurteth our soules but when it is voluntary and all our sinnes proceede from thence that either we will not doe what we know is to be done or will not know what we are to doe Esa 5. Hence is that curse of the Prophet Woe vnty you that call euill good and good euill putting darknesses light and light darknesse putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter This curse commeth by the euill of our wills because we will follow our owne blindnes and not the will of God which ought to be our rule and guide in all things The malice of men beganne presently to be much vpon earth and the cogitations of their hart were soe bent vpon vpon euill that a deluge of waters was sent to destroy them This euill was in their harts that is to say in their wills because they followed not the will of God which is sweet and lightsome but their owne wills which are darke and bitter in effect and so haue all the euils of the world come Therefore we are topray and to labour with ourselues for conformity with the will of God Besides we not knowing what is best for vs aske that some times which is hurtfull as sicke folkes in a feauer desire that which hurteth them and as children who would take poison for treacle if they had there owne wills and therefore sicke folkes and children haue keepers whose wills they must follow and be directed by We are as children in our wills and vnderstandings both deficient by sinne God is our
bread of God or if you thinke that he onely can prosper you and reward you euen with temporal blessings why doe you serue any other but him for them Serue God and be constant to his seruice according to the rules of the Catholike Church â—nd you can want nothing that is good for you Holy Toby was constant to the seruice of God and euen in time of great persecution he had enough both for himselfe and for others and although he lost much and gaue much away for Gods sake yet God allwais increased his store It ought to be a comfort to vs to heare king Dauid in his old age sing I haue bene yong Ps 36. for I am old and I haue not seene the iust forsaken nor his seede seeking bread This day We are taught here to aske but for one day and soe from day to day that we may haue confidence in God and not set our mindes too much vpon riches and of prouiding without end as some doe who neuer know when they haue enough Esa 5. Woe to you that ioyne house to house and lay field to field euen to the end of the place shall you alone dwell in the midst of the earth Their couetousnes is with out limit as though all had bene made for them and theirs Better were it for them to thinke how to liue in an orderly and discreete way and to bring vp their children in the feare and seruice of God with an indifferent competency Some authors vnderstande here by bread the blessed Sacrament of Eucharist which appeareth as bread and is indeede the bread of Angels in that it conteineth him who feedeth the Angels with the ioy of his presence Hence S. Ambrose taketh occasion to commende the often receiuing of the blessed Sacrament saying if it be our daily bread why shall we be a yeare before we receiue it THE FIFT PETITION AND forgiue vs our trespasses as we forgiue them their trespasses against vs. Amongst the infinite testimonys of the loue of God towards vs There is none greater then the passion of Christ by which the maine fountaine of his mercy was opened to cleanse us from sinne that we might hope and aske confidently that our trespasses might be forgiuen And as the Councell of Trent hath declared there is none in this world soe free from sinne Ia. 3. but that he may say this petition Saint Iames speaketh in general in many things we offende all Eccl. 7. And the wise man was inspired to say There is not a iust man in the earth that doth good and sinneth not We all then haue reason to pray for this and as there is not any euill in the world so great as sinne so there is nothing which we haue more reason to pray for then the forgiuenesse of sinnes Esa 7. The iniquity of the house of Iacob shall be forgiuen and this is all the fruit that his sinne be taken away It is indeede all the fruit that a sinner can desire to haue his sins taken away and it is fruit enough for so he hath the cheife thing which he can wish for in this world to wit grace by which he hath right vnto heauen Yet as great as this fruit is of the forgiuenes of our sinnes we are not taught so much as to aske it but with this condition that we will forgiue to our neighbour his trespasses against vs. Christ was a most perfect master of all vertues and nothing was there necessary or good for vs to learne but he hath taught it most perfectly both by word and by worke yet of all the lessons which he hath giuen there is nothing so much inculcated by him as charity and meekenes to others First in his owne person he hath giuen vs such an example that we cannot comprehende the dignity of it The very Sonne of God to suffer words and blowes and in the end death it selfe by his wicked and cursed seruants that he might change their curse into blessings what shall we say or thinke of this He could with one twinkle of his eye haue destroyed his enemys and freed himselfe but he would let them goe on in persecuting of him vnto death and then pray for them He was scoffed at and held his peace he was accused and answered not for himselfe he was strucken and bore it patiently hee was crucifyed and prayed for those that crucifyed him his whole life and death was a continuall patterne of this vertue and for his words his paraboles and preachings they were allways commending it tending continually to the loue of God by the loue of our neighbour And S. Iohn his beloued disciple that slept in his bosome was so filled with the same spirit of his master that in his first Epistle declaring how great a connexion there is betwixt the loue of God and the loue of our neighbour he proceedeth to these earnest termes Io. 1.4 If any man shall say that I loue God and hateth his brother he is a lyer And it is recorded of this holy Apostle that at his death these were his last words litle children loue one another And when he had repeated this Sentence often ouer to his disciples they desiring him to speake something els to them he reprooued them for it telling them that it was a saying worthy of their master It is to be obserued here that where as other vertues are asked onely in generall hallowed be thy Name thy Kingdome come c. this is asked in particular that we be forgiuen as we forgiue Now what Christian is there that can professe himselfe a disciple of Christ and yet stande at defyance against his neighbour how can he say this soueraigne prayer euery day and let his hart fester so long against any man that the sunne set before he pacify himselfe If we read in the law of Moyses of some examples in which the Saints of God haue taken revenge of their enemys as when Elias commanded fire to come downe from Heauen to consume the two Captaines of King Ochosias and their souldiers it was by particular inspiration and in zeale of iustice that Kings might learne reuerence to the seruants of God Besides Christ was not then come who was to mollify the hardnesse of that law by more mildnesse in the law of grace and therefore he said you haue heard that it was said of old Mat. 5. Thou shalt loue thy neighbour and hate thy enemy But I say to you loue your enemys doe good to them that hate you For if you loue them that loue you what reward shall you haue doe not also the Publicans this and if you salute you brethren onely doe not also the heathens this be you perfect therefore as also your heauenly Father is perfect We haue the examples of Martyrs Confessors and of all sorts of Saints who in the law of Christ haue come to this perfection as to loue those that hated them S. Steuen being appreheÌ„ded
brought before the councell of the Iewes and accused by false witnesses ceased not still to do good for euill but made a discourse to them to shew that Christ was expected by the holy Patriarkes to come to redeeme them and therefore exhorted them to beleeue in him And when they were euen cut in their harts and gnashed with their teeth against him and were stoning him to death he fell downe vpon his knees and prayed for them crying with a lowd voyce Act. 7. Lord lay not this sinne vnto them It was a fine example that which S. Gregory relateth of Libertinus a Monke Gregor dial c. 1. who hauing receiued a great blow on the face by his Superiour suddenly striking with a boord at him he went away quietly into his cell without shewing the least signe of impatience and comming the next day to the Abbot that had strucken him to aske leaue to goe abroade the Abbot suspected that he would forsake the Monastery but perceiving his occasions to be reall and iust and obseruing his bruised face which with a meruelous tranquillity of minde hee endured he fell downe vpon his knees and asked pardon And the other againe fell prostrate to his Superiour confessing his autority ouer him We haue in good authors the examples euen of wild beasts who haue rendered themselues seruiceable to the Saints of God and followed them for their mildnes How generous and Christianlike is this spirit of patience in bearing and pardoning of iniurys when the minde setleth it selfe for the loue of God and inwardly contented with that satisfaction one pittyeth to see his enemy in passion euen as one that were in a calme and safe harbour would pitty to see another on the raging sea in shippwrack and either by some discreet word laboureth to pacify him or giueth him leaue to pacify himselfe Ps 86. The mild shall inherit the land and shall be delighted in the multitude of peace But to see some of an implaceable minde bearing grudges in their harts and neuer making and en of their malice what spirit shall we call this vnworthy of the name of a Christian and it is a dissembling spirit with which many are deceiued who thinke themselues free from it Presently vpon euery occasion they are thinking how to be reuenged of their neighbour and when they can neither spare him with a good word nor a good looke they will tell you that they are in charity with him and meane him noe hurt A peruersed and childish saying If others should behaue themselues in like manner to them they would easily see the shame of it but in themselues they see it not nor consider not the hurt which they occasion by their ill exāple and behauiour Which if all should imitate there would be noe freindship nor true charity in the world If neither the loue of God nor any godnes of nature will moue these to amēde Let them feare some exēplar punishment by the words of the holy Ghost Eccle. 28. who saith He that will be reuenged shall finde reuenge of our Lord and hauing spent all that chapter in speaking against that sinne he draweth to an end in these words Blessed is he that is couered from a wicked tongue that hath not passed into the anger therof For the yoke of it is a yoke of iron and the band of it is a band of brasse The death of it is a most wicked death and hell is more profitable then it To aske with more earnestnes the forgiuenesse of our sinnes and to receiue our petition it is necessary to stirre our selues vp to a great compunction of hart and vehement detestation of sinne as the greatest of all euills that can befall vs. First it is the cause and origen of all euills as it depisueth vs of God an infinite good Secondly by sinne we are made slaues to the deuill the hardest master and most cruell tyrant of the world and of the spouses and temples of God his horrid and vgly mates accursed of God and giuen to the sorrows of an eternall destruction know you not that you are the temple of God Cor. 1.3 saith the Apostle but if any violate the temple of God God will destroy him Thirdly by sinne we are at continuall warre and vnquietnes with in ourselues For as long as we haue any sense of reason although we be out of the state of grace we must be sensible of sinne which is contrary to reason And therefor Abigail wisely disswaded Dauid from taking reuenge of Nabal saying this shall not be an occasion of sobbing to thee Reg. 1.25 and a scruple of hart And Dauid complaining of the sinnes of his former life saith that as arrowes they stacke fast in him Ps 37. and that his bones had noe peace at the face of his sinnes There is noe paine nor torment in the world to compare with a guilty conscience the vengeance of God purseing vs as our shaddows and affrighting vs with feare of punishment when we haue sinned And therefor the Holy Ghost in the scriptures compareth sinners to sicke lame sore and diseased persons Tribulation and anguish vpon euery soule that worketh euill Rom. 2. but glory and honour and peace to euery one that worketh good Saith the Apostle This is sinne and these are breisly and in general the euills of it Which if we will consider as we ought we shall desire aboue all things in the world and with as much earnestnes cry vnto God to be freed from any mortal sinne as we would to be freed from some grecuous torment Know thou and see saith Hieremy that is an euill and a bitter thinge for thee to haue left the Lord thy God Hier. 2. And those that will not see this nor vnderstande the euill of sinne to seeke the forgiunes of it are said in the scriptures to haue a hart of stone and of Adamant And such is the goodnes and mercy of God vnto sinners that he neuer denyeth the forgiuenes of sinnes to those that truely seeke for it King Dauid washed his couch with teares S. Peter went out and wept bitterly after his sinne S. Mary Magdalene shed many teares vpon the feete of Christ Let vs imitate them THE SIXT PETITION AND lead vs not into temptation Hauing in the former petition prayed for the forgiuenes of our sinnes we pray now not to be led into temptation For when our sinnes are forgiuen vs then we are in more danger of temptation because we are then the freinds of God and the professed enemys of the deuill and therefor he striueth more against vs. Tobias a holy man was tempted euen to the feare of death by the vehemency of paine which in his eyes he suffered And the Angell when he cured him told him Tob. 12. because thou wast acceptable to God it was necessary that temptation should prooue thee Iob a iust and perfect man was strucken in his goods in his children and
it must of necessity be subiect to all those alterations and corruptions which all vulgar tongues are subiect vnto and which the Latine tongue was subiect vnto as long as it was vulgarly spoken vntill in the end it banished it selfe quite out of the world and was left as the common speech of noe place and then was kept in its integrity and auncient purity by being kept from the vulgar and cheifly as we may well thinke by hauing the Masse soe continually said in Laaine Where as our aduersarys obiect the authority of S. Paul Cor. 1.14 who seemeth as they pretende to require that the Church seruice be in euery commune tongue that all the people vnderstanding it may answere Amen the Apostle neuer soe much as mentioneth the Church seruice in that place nor medleth with the language of it but speaketh there of quite another thinge to wit the gift of strange tongues and of the interpreting of them which interpretation was a different gift and which the speaker himselfe sometimes had not These and other like graces being giuen to some in those times the people mette together to heare them exercised But by litle and litle they beganne to be abused and fell into disorders in soe much that some would speake that which could be interpreted by none soe that it had noe sense that could require Amen to be answered to but was as not spoken at all none being inspired to interprete it Now what connexion hath this with the publike seruice of the Church which is without any disorder at all and in noe such strange tongue but in a knowne and the most honored of all tongues which is intelligible in it selfe and most vniuersally vnderstood and interpreted by thousands and which hath not onely the authority of the Church allowing of it but also commanding it and therfor with all reason shall be answered with Amen Which the other being fallen into disorders could not in reason be answered with it being to the edification of none as being vnderstoode by none when the miracle should haue consisted in vnderstanding and interpreting of it I haue heard of some who haue bene soe bold as to say that the Priest praying in a tongue which the people vnderstande not may curse them for any thinge they know as well as blesse them But this is a bold and irreuerent speech For if it were an irreuerence to the Law and to lawyers to talke of their cursing of their ignorant clients when they pleade for them in termes which they vnderstande not much more is it an irreuerence to the Law of God and to Priests that haue the keeping of it to talke of their cursing of the people when they pray for them in the language of the Church Besides it is a very weake speech and vnworthy of a wise man for it is impossible to accommodate euery word to the vnderstanding of all men And what should they say when they vnderstoode not and what should deafe men say that heard nor it were to banish all order quite out of the world and the being of a Church to make it subiect to euery particular mans censure The Priest if he change nothing but sayeth what the Church commandeth can enrse none and we cannot in reason and charity suspect him of changing any thinge except he be such an one as Luther or Caluin that durst take vpon them to change what they listed in the Church and to beginne new Churches Besiâ—â—â—s it is not such a rare thinge in Catholike countreys as it is here for lay people to vnderstande Latine I remember that I haue mette with a plowman holding his plow who directed mee in my way describing it in very elegant Latine and with poore beggars who haue bene very ready in the Latine tongue Mechanike men in some places vnderstande it soe frequently that Masse can hardly be said amongst an indifferent number of people but some that are present will vnderstande Latine Finally experience will answere all obiections in that the Masse being as it is in a high and honorable language and with those deuout caeremonys is full of edification and much more mouing to deuotion then any thinge which our enemys haue This those that are conuerted to the Catholike faith doe presently finde in themselues and those that are peruerted from it commonly shew in the loosnesse of their liues that there is noe comparison betwixt the deuotion and edification of the Masse and the prayers of Protestants but onely such as is betwixt true and painted fire the one of which warmeth indeede the other warmeth not at all but rather cooleth as one should grow colder by holding his hands to a painted fire Now it is fitting that we speake a word or two OF THE FRVITS AND BENEFITS which are gained by the denout hearing of Masse THERE is not any meanes in the world soe efficacious for the obtaining of benefits at the hands of God as the Masse is both as it is a Sacrifice the highest act of worship that can be giuen to God and also as it is a Sacrifice soe eminent and excelling all other Sacrifices that the dignity efficacy and value of it can not be expressed all benefits being infinitly more worthy to be granted for it then for any thinge that we can doe But to speake more in particular first our faith is confirmed and our mindes are eleuated to a feruerous zeale of that which all Christians professe when we commemorate the Passion of Christ in that deuout and mysterious manner as by the principall and most expresse commemoration which the Church hath of it And we are excited to a firme and constant beleefe of that sacred verity which the Catholike Church hath allwais beleeued of the true reall and substantiall presence of the sacred body and blood of our Lord and of his whole humane nature vnited to the diuine word in the B. Sacrament of Eucharist Which as it is a mystery aboue the vnderstanding of man and not effected by any power of nature but by the omnipotency of God soe by it we yeeld our vnderstandings captius as we ought vnto the diuine power to the word of God and to the doctrine of the Church And by hearing of Masse we are not onely confirmed in this mystery but in all other points of the Christian faith For what is the whole Masse but a daily exercizing and training vp of christians in the mysterys of Christ and in all those things which he did and suffered for vs there is nothing there to be seene or heard but the cheife mysterys of our faith represented the diuine praises celebrated his benefits acknowledged and his goodnes and mercy deuoutly implored all with relation to some passage of his life or death Secondly at Masse we are comforted and encouraged to hope confiding in God that hauing left vnto the world soe deere a pledge as his onely Sonne he will grant vs the remission of our sinnes and will giue vs in
the Church hath not forbidden to drinke but it hath forbidden to eate all kind of meate and therefore apleâ— and fruit are not to be eaten out of mailes Fasting dayes beginne at twelue a clocke in the morning and end at twelue a clocke at night conteining fower and twenty houres Aunciently they fasted from supper time on the day before till supper time againe on the next day without eating of any thing but mens complexions growing weaker and weaker and perhaps their deuotions also they beganne to take their suppers sooner on fasting dayes vntill by litle and litle they brought supper to noone time and custome hath now preuailed to take a litle collation at night as is obserued in the Church So that the maile which we haue on fasting dayes is not properly a dinner but a supper and therfore it may lawfully be differred as late as we will but it may not be taken before the time allowed of by custome Which is at soonest about noone time Finally Scandall for the manner of fasting the customes of places are to be obscrued and we must be very carefull that we giue noe scandall to others especially to the enemys of the Catholike Church who make allways the worst of our actions and therefore many things which are lawfull are not allways expedient to be done It was in it selfe lawfull for saint Paul to eate flesh and of that flesh which was immolated to Idols for the flesh was no worse yet he would rather neuer eate flesh at all Cor. 1. â— then scandalize any by â—ating of it If meale saith he scandalize my brother It ill neuer eate flesh least I scandalize my brother THE SECOND PRAECEPT TO keepe Holy dayes In the Law of Moyses diuerse holy dayes were commanded to be kept Ioan. 10. and were then obserued by praecept of the Church Apoc. 1. and our blessed Sauiour hath allowed of them honoâ—ing their solemnitys by his owne presence at them as he did the feast of the Dedication of the Temple instituted by the Church in the time of Iudas Machabaeus The Scriptures make mention of the Domâ—nicall day that is to say our Lords day or our Sunday to haue bene kept in the Apostles times The Church then tooke away the Saturday Sabaoth which God first commanded in remembrance of the creation of the world and instituted Sundays Sabaoth or rather transferred Saturdays Sabâ—oth vnto Sundayes Sabaoth in honour of the Redemption of the world as à greater mystery and I doe not heare of any Heretiks now in the world that refuse to keepe Sunday for Sabaoth with what consequence then can they refuse to keepe the other holy dayes or any other praecept of the Church they all hauing the same authority that Sundayihath and the same obligation Yet Protestants allow the obligation of Sundayes solemnity and durst neuer attempt to alter it or to deny the obligation of it hauing no other warrant for it but the authority of the Church which then gouerned the Christian world and hauing the same for other holy dayes they reiect them The truth is that they haue forsaken the Church that was allayes in the world to beginne a Church which then was not at all in the world and therefore the holy Ghost hath forsaken them and left them to such inconsequences of their owne wits Clem. l. 8. Apost constit Saint Clement who liued in the Apostles times and was disciple vnto Saint Peter and Coadiutor to Saint Paul and who wrote as an eyewitnesse of those things which were then obserued in the Catholike Church deliuereth that the Apostles gaue order for the obseruing of the Feasts of their fellow Apostles and in particular of Saint Steuen as also of some other Martyrs Epiph. haer 75. Saint Epiphanius denounceth Aërius for an Haeretike in that he reiected the holy dayes of the Church By all which it appeareth how weake that obiection of Protestants is which Aërius also obiected out of the Apostles words Gal. 4. Yoü obserue dayes months times and yeares Where the Apostle speaketh against the superstitious obseruations of Heathens from which yong Christians at their first conuersions were hardly weaned in those times and therefore he rebuketh them but I haue said enough for this and all other Praecepts of the Church when I shewed that they are the Precepts of God and haue divine authority This Praecept includeth two things to wit to absteine from seruil works and to heate Masse for it is not sufficient not to worke corporall works on holy dayes but we must also sanctify them with some speciall good works as dayes particularly dedicated to the seruice and honour of God and Masse being the cheife highest and most eminent worship which can be giuen to him as his onely true Sacrifice therefore the Church hath commanded that euery one be present to offer vp at least one Masse euery holy day And this is as great an obligation as to obserue Lent or any other Praecept of the Church obliging vnder a mortall sinne S. 2. Par. Chron. tit 9. c. 10 §. 2. Anthony Archbishop of Florence relateth of two men who going out to fowle vpon a holy day they heard a voice that cryed strike him strike him and the one of them that had not heard Masse was presently strucke dead with a thunder bolt and his astonished companion hearing the voyce to continue still was comforted with another which answered I can not strike him for that he hath heard Verbum caro factum est intimating that he had heard an intire Masse to the end Amongst Holydayes those are obserued as most solemne in the Church that haue more immediate relation to God himselfe We keepe also the feasts of our blessed Lady and of the Angels and Saints to honour God by them that as they help vs and reioyce at our good soe we may praise their vertues and reioyce in their glory Besides by celebrating their feasts we are incited to the imitation of their liues and to aspire to that state of blesse which they enioy THE THIRD PRAECEPT TO Confesse our sinnes to our ordinary Pastour or to another with his leaue at least once a yeare By Praecept of the Church we are boundnoe oftener to confession then once in the yeare but many circumstances may occurre in which by diuine Praecept we are bounde to confesse oftener First in all dangers of life as when we are dangerously siâ—ke and as those that are condemned to dy Souldiers also tradesmen and trauelers when they are to goe vpon any dangerous attempt or iourneys finally in all perils of life we are bounde to prepare our selues for death and if â—e be conscious of any mortal sinne in such dangers we are bounde to goe to confession as the ordinary meanes which God hath instituted for the remissioÌ„ of sinnes We are bound also to goe to coÌ„fession allwais before we receiue any of theseauen SacrameÌ„ts if we be guilty of mortal sinne because
they are as due to them as wages are to workemen And we may speake by experience to them that know not the truth that our labour is without comparison greater then the labour of day tale workmen I haue no more to say of the Praecepts of the Church You haue seene first the authority of the Church to be diuine and her Praecepts to oblige vnder amortall sin Secondly you haue in particular the declaration of them Let vs keep them with deuotion and zeale of the honour of the Church that coÌ„mandeth them She is the immaculate spouse and glorious Bride of God She is our mother and neuer was there any mother so disirous of her childreÌ„s good nor so efficaciously procuring their true prefermeÌ„t as the Catholik Church doth ours The mother of the Zebedoes was sollicitous for her sonnes with Christ asking to haue them neere him in his Kingdome but she knew not what she asked The Catholike Church asketh nothing for her children but that which God will haue her to aske and which he inspireth her how to procure and which they if they will obey her are sure to obtaine and that is the highest honour and greatest felicity of all honours and felicitys to be made indeede the courtiers and fauorits of Christ in his euerlasting Kingdome Let vs then obey her Eccli 3. As he that gathereth treasure soe he that honoreth his mother And then a little after he is cursed of God that doth exasperate his mother How much then ought we to honour the whole Catholike Church and with what reuerence to receiue her Precepts THE TVVELFTH DISCOVRSE OF SINNE I Haue now a most hidous and fearefull monster to set before your eyes I meane to describe vnto you the euill of sinne which is indeede the most hideous monster of the world so deformed that neither men nor Angels can comprehende the deformity of it none but God can rightly vnderstande it and he vnderstanding it is moued with infinite detestation and auersion from it as from that which is most opposite of all things to his goodnesse and most hurtfull to his creatures I would stire vp in your hearts a vehement abhorring and vtter renouncing of sinne This is all the fruite saith the Prophet that sinne be taken away Esa 27. and this is all the fruit which I desire and labour for in you and which you ought to labour for in your selues to haue your sinnes taken away fot this we preach catechise and exhort that we may detest all sinne and fly it as the most dreadfull monster in the world We may conceiue somethinge of the power and malice of sinne by the vision which Saint Iohn had in the twelfth of the Apocalipse Apoc. 12. First he saw a very glorious woman soe glorious that she was clothed with the Sunne and had the Moone vnder her feete and vpon her head a crowne of twelue starres Then there appeared another signe in the Heauens a great dragon with seauen heads and tenne hornes and seauen diademes on his head And this dragon was soe strong and powerfull that he drew downe from Heauen the third part of the starres and cast them to the earth and assalting the glorious woman for all her glory he put her to flight and although she had giuen her the wings of an Eagle to fly into the desert yet the dragon sending forth of his mouth a flood of waters ouertooke her with them and had swallowed her vp if she had not gotten helpe By this dragon we may vnderstande something of the power and malice of sinne Sinne is the enemy of all glory it ascended into the Heauens and threw downe from thence the celestiall Angels and made them who were as the starres of Heauen in naturall beauty to wander now vpon the earth and vnder it full of shame and paine The Church farre more glorious in the sanctity of soules then the Sunne is in corporall brightnesse and which may well be signifyed by the glorious woman iâ— sometimes so persecuted by the sinnes of Infidels and euill Catholiks that although the true worship of God be neuer quite banished out of the world yet in some places it is so obscured that the Church in those places is driuen into corners as it were into the desert Sinne is that monster which brought the flood of all humane miserys and a reall flood of waters vpon the Church in the deluge and had quite swallowed her vp if God had not miraculously saued her Sinne hath brought plagues vpon houses citys and Kingdomes and taged in the end so violently destroying of soules that the Sonne of God was incarnated to destroy it It made the Sunne to be eclipsed with a horrible darkenesse the roofe of the Temple of Hierusalem and the rocks there abouts to be rent in peeces the ground to tremble graues to open and dead bodys to rise againe at the destruction of it It made our Saviour to weepe vpon Hierusalem and it made HierusaleÌ„ within a while to be as a stinking graue that swelled vp to an incredible hight with the multitude of dead carcases which were in it It made thousands of that people to languish away with famine and hundreds of thousands to come into their enemys hands and to become subiect to their slauery and torments Sinne hath brought haeresys into the Church of Christ and by them cruell blood â—hed amongst ChristiaÌ„s It is the cause of all dissentions and all the euills that euer were were caused by sinne It maketh the prowde to be contemned the enuious to be enuyed the contentious to be killed the couetous to be full of perplexity the luxurious to dispaire and all sinners to detest that in the end which once they loved and to be full of horrour when they come to dy Wise and holy men haue liued hard and austere liues to keepe themselues cleare from sinne and haue chosen to submitte themselues rather to the cruellest deaths that sinners could devise to inflict then to be sinners with them These are the effects of sinne what monster could euer doe the like if those tall and strong men that terrifyed the Israelites were called monsters for their extraordinary strength and tallnesse why may not we call sinne a monster which hath such power Num. 13. and if excesse or defects or disorders of members make monsters How monstruous is sinne that is the originall cause of all the excesses defects and disorders that euer were it peruerteth the order of all our actions it corrupteth our nature and euen as poyson put into wine intoxicateth it quite and changeth it all into poyson so sinne corrupteth all that is good in our soules and all our good workes being poysoned with one mortall sinne goe downe with it into hell What reason then haue we to abhorre and to fly from sinne If we looked behinde vs and saw a Lyon Beere or terrible Serpent pursueing vs at our heeles our harts would faint presently our whole bodys would
which we loose by them is without comparison more to be valued then his was and therefore are we much more to be blamed Besides that which he did was partly constrained perhaps to saue his life but we haue noe need of the sinnes which we committe the pleasure which wee take doth vs noe good but much hurt it saueth not our liues but depriueth vs of a farre sweeter life then this is Iob. 20. The praise of the impious is short and the ioy of the hypocrite as it were for a moment It is also a base and contemptible delight bringing shame and reproch euen in this world and therefore wee see sinners to deuise sleights and shifts to conceale their sinnes and to hide them from others Euery one that doth euill hateth the light Ioan. 3. saith Christ King Dauid hauing filthily adulterated with Vtias his wife as soone as he perceiued her to be with child in the absence of her husband he sends presently for him to come home that he might father it and he comming out of the campe to him he wished him to goe to his house and to rest himselfe but the goodman although he suspected nothing of his wifes disloyalty refused to goe home but as a souldier would ly before the Kings gates Then the King made him drunke that he might desire more the company of his wife and when he saw that by noe meanes he could gett him to goe to her he dispatched him away with letters to the generall in which he commanded him to be put into some place of danger that the husband being killed he might marry the adulteresse to legitimate the child All these shifts did King Dauid vse to hide his sinne◠which then shamed and troubled him and when he could not hide it to lessen it in the sight of the world Adam clothed with innocency although naked was ashamed of nothing for then he had no cause of shame but falling into sinne he fell into shame and had reason to be ashamed and to hide his nakednesse he couered himselfe with the leaves of a tree By which we may see how base and vngratfull we are to God that as deceitfull short and sordid as the pleasure of sinne is we preferre it notwithstanding before his diuine goodnesse and forsake him to choose it This the holy Ghost complained of in sinners when he said They violated mee to my people for a handfull of barley Ezec. 13 that is to say for a thing of noe worth The sixt euill of sinne is that it bringeth remorse and terrors of conscience and must cause at the best the sorrow of repentance before that it can be forgiuen and this remorse and terrour of conscience cannot be auoided by sinners for as long as men are reasonable creatures they must hate that which is contrary to reason and haue a naturall feeling and feare of God and when they haue offended him presently without disputing of it they condemne themselues as guilty of punishment and not knowing how nor when their punishment shall be they are allways in feare that the Scripture saith Leu. 26. The sound of a flying leafe shall terrify them So when Cain had slaine his brother he ranne away out of the company of men and went hanging downe his head like a desperate vagabond thinking that euery man whom he mette with would murder him and cryed out to God Gen. 4. Loe now thou dost cast mee out this day from the face of the earth and from thy face I shall be hid and I shall be a vagabond and fugitiue on the earth Euery one therefore that findeth mee shall kill mee A secure minde saith the holy Prouerbe is as it were a continuall feast Prou. 15. And we may say on the contrary that a guilty conscience is a continuall worme and thorne at the heart or as a poysoned arrow that sticketh in the flesh vexing with paine and feare of death Psal 37. Thy arrowes are fast sticked in mee there is no health in my flesh at the face of thy wrath My bones haue no peace at the face of my sinnes because mine iniquitys haue gone ouer my head and as a heauy burden are become heauy vpon mee saith King Dauid And so great was the sorrow which he conceiued for his sinnes that he saith his iawes were made hoarse with crying As a man that were fallen from some high precipice lyeth wounded and cryeth our with all his force for some to come to him so Dauid fallen into sinne doubled and redoubled his cryes to God for pardon and the words of the Prophet were true in him Prou. 5. The lipps of an harlot as a honny combe distilling but her later ends are bitter as worme wood and sharpe as a two edged sword and so are all the pleasures of sinne sweet for a moment but in the end bitter and sharpe that we finde it by experience to be true in all sinnes Laughter shall be mingled with sorrow Prou. 14. and mourning occupeth the latter ends of ioy And that man that shall purpose with himselfe to put away this remorse of conscience and thought of repentance The ◠euill of sinne is in the most desperate condition of all men as being least sensible of the danger which he is in And this is the last euill which I will mention of sinne that euery sinne conteining so many and great euills as it doth one sin is the cause of another and draweth on to another worse then it selfe in punishmēt of it and the last and greatest punishmēt of sin in this world is when a sinner by much sinning hath his hart so hardened against God and against his owne salvation that he contemneth all and resolueth to liue like a beast without regard of cōscience or future life Sinne saith Saint Gregory by its owne weight draweth into another sinne Super Ezech. if it be not presently blotted out with repentance This is the depth and contour of all euills and the extreme euill of sinne that as heauy weights draw downewards and the lower they goe the more force they haue and draw more so sinne draweth on from sinne to sinne and the deeper that we descende into sinne with more inclination and violence we are drawne into it vntill we come in the end to an absolute contempt of all goodnesse And therefore the Prophet Zachary calleth sinne talentum plumbi Zac. 5. a talent that is a huge weight of lead Thus the Heathen Philosophers according to Saint Paul were replenished with all iniquity because they willfully blinded themselues and would not seeke after true knowledge which is the case of many amongst vs as they liked not saith he to haue God in knowledge God delivered them to a reprobate sense Rom. 1. to doe those things that are not conuenient replenished with all iniquity And therefore saith S. Chrysostome some are said to haue had their harts hardened in this world because
that suppose he hath time of repentance granted whether he shall make good vse of it or nee and if he repent for that time whether he shall not fall againe into the same sinne for one sinne disposeth to another and if it be forgiuen the first time we are not sure of pardon the second or third time which we committe it One sinne damned all mankind to death and to loose the glory of God for euer The deuill told Eue that she should not dy if she sinned but it was a delusion of the deuill and soe it prooued God had said in what day soeuer thou shalt eate thou shalt dyâ— and eating she sinned Gen. 2. and died It is a delusion of the deuill to take from vs the feare of death after sinne and for any man to thinke that he shall not dy before he repent he being then subiect euery moment to death S. Hom. 22. in 2. ad Cor. c. 10. Iohn Chrysostome they say to themselues God hath granted the benefit of repentance to some euen in their last old age What thou saith he shalt thou also haue it perhaps I shall saith the sinner O why dost thou say perhaps I shall Say rather perhaps I shall not and then what will become of mee I shall be damned Thinke that it is thy soule which thou dost deliberate on If thou wert to goe to the warres wouldest thou say I will not dispose of my affaires first perhaps I shall returne againe many haue done soe Or if thou wert thinking to marty wouldst thou say I will marry a poore woman perhaps I shall grow rich many haue done soe Or if thou wert to build a house wouldst thou lay rotten foundations and say perhaps my house will stande why wilt thou then vpon rotten and vncertaine grounds build the saluation of thy soule all these are vncertaintys and soe is thy life and thy repentance Death commeth as a thelfe and we know not at what hower the theife will come The rich man was glorying in his riches and presently he heard a voice from God saying Luc. 12. this night they require thy soule of thee Absalom was domineering with a glorious army of rebells and presently his army is lost and himselfe riding away is hung by the haire in a tree and there commeth loab with three lances and sticketh them all in his hart Our liues are as the turne of a dy subiect to many vncertaintys and soe is our repentance If we are truly wise we will take the safest way and that is to fly sinne and to be allwais prepared for death He that were to passe through a dangerous wildernes in which many had bene killed would he not choose the safest way that he could The way of vertue is a safe way the way of sinne is full of danger thousands haue perished in it and none can perish but in it some indeede haue turned backe and forsaken that way againe but that is a hazard Fly grom drunkennesse Amb. exhort ad poenit saith S. Ambrose from concupiscence and from euill talke Man ought not onely after his sinne to refraine these thinges but also when he is sound and in good health because he knoweth not whether he shall repent and Confesse his sinne to God and to the Priest There are two thinges either he shall repent or he shall not Which of them shall come to passe I know not but that which I counsaile is to leaue the vncertaine and to choose the certaine All that can be said is that he may repent but this is vnâ—â—rtaine Certaine it is that if he hath sinned he hath deserued hell and that if he repent not he shall be damned Let not the sinner then flatter himselfe with presumption of the diuine mercy and of repentance It is a flattery of the deuill to delude and to draw him into hell Consider sinne as it is in it selfe and the euills that of themselues follow it Behold it as a monster that commeth to kill thee and to deliuer thee into the deuils power Thinke the most horrible spectacle that thou canst deuise to thinke and know that thy soule in sinne is more horrible and deformed then it Our soules saith S. Chrysostome in possession of the deuill is in worse state then our bodys possessed by him For although sinners saith he foame not at the mouth roare not with their voices nor writh their heades and eyes as possessed persons doe yet they are much more deformed inwardly and in the sight of God And in another place declaring how all things are confounded by sinne He affirmeth that it maketh men in some respects worse then deuills for the deuills saith he hurt not those of their owne kind but men by sinne care not what hurt they doe to one another and of malice will kill euen their neerest freinds and kindred Thus much of the malice of sinne Now OF THE AVTHOVR OF SINNE SVCH being the malice of sinne as is declared soe contrary to reason and to the goodnes of God it cannot stande with his diuine goodnes to impute the malice of it to him and to make not him the authour of it Some things there are soe manifest in themselues that euen at the first apprehension without disputing we assent vnto them and although strong and difficult arguments may seeme sometimes to arize against them as they may against all veritys whatsoeuer yet they are allwais to be granted and to be kept as firme and vndenyable principles Now if there be any thinge manifest in it selfe and to be kept as a firme and certaine principle it is that God is infinit in goodnes infinitly hating sinne and therefor can not be the authour of the euill which it conteines but it must proceede from some cause which is quite opposite to the goodnes of God And although some arguments might be obiected against this yet it is an extreme boldnes and prophanenesse in any man to question the truth of it but euen as all Philosophers agree to the Axiome that the whole is greater then any of its parts although arguments are often obiected against it soe ought we allwais to agree and much more firmely to ground ourselues vpon this verity that all goodnes is of God and that the euill which we doe is of ourselues according to that of the Prophet Perdition is thine O Israel Ose 13. onely in mee thy helpe But heretiks contemning all authority and denying the principles which the whole Catholike world receiueth to follow their owne fancys and conceits make the mysterys of faith to be more vncertaine then the principles of Philosophy They would be ashamed to be brought to deny that which all Philosophers had setled and are ashamed to deny that which Christ and the Holy Ghost and all the Doctors of the Catholike Church haue taught and established in faith but one arch haeretike will coÌ„tradict them all and gette followers to mainteine his singularity against them Thus
it It is the doctrine of Catholike Diuines that all the euills of this world noe not the eternall torments of all the damned spirits put together is aequall to the euill of one mortall sinne I will rather be sent into hell Mach. 2.6 saith Elcazarus when they perswaded him to dissemble against his conscience For although at this present time I be deliuered from the punishments of men yet neither aliue nor dead shall I escape the hand of the almighty Greg. hâ— 34. in Euang Victorinus whilst he liued in the wildernes being drawne into the sinne of fornication by a wicked delusion of the deuill was soe vexed in conscience afterwards that fastening his hands into a peece of clouen wood he liued three yeares with onely raw herbes and water After that he wrought miracles became a bishop and at last a glorious martyr The Magdalen moued to repentance came presently into the Pharisys house Luc. 7. and was not ashamed to weepe in publike soe many teares that she washed the feete of Christ with them S. Peter after his sinne went out presently and wept bitterly And soe great was his sorrow euer after that he is recorded by S. Clement who liued with him Clem. in recognit to haue carried allwais in his hand a litle linnen napkin to dry his face from teares But the example of our Sauiour weeping for the sinnes of others should moue vs more then these who wept for their owne sinnes Christ as he came downe Mount Oliuet hauing before his eyes a full view of the city of Hierusalem was strucken with such an apprehension of the sinnes of that people that beginning to speake he was interrupted with teares and could not goe on for weeping And he wept also for Lazarus long dead and putrifyed that was to signify the sinner dead and putrifyed in long continued sinnes that we might see how much he loued our soules and how he lamenteth at their spirituall death Mat. 16. What doth it profit a man if he gaine the whole world and susteine the dammage of his soule My soule is all the world to mee and when I come to dy I shall finde it soe Grant vs O Lord that we may saue our soules the whole world beside we will loose it willingly And this is the effect of mortall sinne that he that committeth but one and dyeth in it is as sure to suffer shippwracke of his soule and to be damned into hell as though he were guilty of all the mortall sinnes in the world Ia. 5. according to that of S Iames whosoeuer but offendeth in one is made guilty of all To wit soe farre as to the guilt and punishment of hell I haue bene desired by some to giue them some such destinction betwixt Mortall and Veniall sinne as that they might allwais know by it when the sinne which they committe is mortall But this is vnpossible for that the circumstances are infinite which may aggrauate or lessen the malice of sinne soe that litle sinnes may become great and great sinnes litle ones and sometimes noe sinnes at all Besides God will not haue vs to know for certaine whether we be in state of grace or noe according to that of Ecclesiastes Man knoweth not whether he be worthy of loue or hatred and Iob allthough I shall be simple Eccl. 9. Iob. 9. the same shall my soule be ignorant of Yet thus much may be said for their satisfaction that sinnes against any of the tenne Commandements or against any of the Praecepts of the Church when they come to a notable degree of malice or deformity or if they be intended thought or doubted to be soe they are Mortall Veniall is as much as to say easily pardonable and soe a Veniall sinne is a sinne which easily obtaineth pardon A litle sinne which diminisheth the feruour of diuine grace in vs but taketh not the grace of God from vs soe as to put vs in state of damnation It maketh vs to grow colder and colder in deuotion and disposeth by litle and litle to some mortall sinne and then by that we loose quite the diuine grace and are in state of damnation Soe that Mortall sinne is quite opposite and incompatible with the diuine grace Veniall sinne is compatible and may stande with it Authors commonly declare this by the similitude of a traueler going out of his way He may either goe a quite contrary way or he may goe wrong yet not quite contrary to the right way By Mortall sinne we goe the quite contrary way from heauen to wit to hell by Veniall sinne we goe not to hell yet we goe wrong and out of the way to heauen S. Augustine compareth Veniall sinnes to scabbs that deforme and disfigure the body but kill it not soe Veniall sinne deformeth and deminisheth the beauty of our soules but leaueth them still with spirituall life And declaring some Veniall sinnes in particular he saith that it is a Veniall sinne to laugh immoderately Aug. l. de Nat gra c 38. to iest too much to desire somethinge intemperately to plucke fruit ouer greedily and the like Finally whatsoeuer we thinke that we doe not well in we may accuse ourselues of it as at least of a Veniall sinne That all sinnes are not damnable to hell but that there are some such lesser sinnes which we call Veniall it is manifest by diuerse places of the holy Scriptures Prou. 24. Seauen times shall the iust fall and shall rise againe but the impious shall fall into euill Where we see that a man may fall into some sinnes and yet be iust He that contemneth small thinges shall fall by litle and litle Eccl. 19. By which we see that one may sinne by small things and by litle and litle before that he fall from the diuine grace Ia 3. S. Iames saith that in many things we offende all And he cannot be thought to speake of mortall sinnes S. Iohn hauing declared that by the blood of Christ we are clensed from sinne adde h presently Io. 1.1 If we shall say that we haue noe sinne we seduce ourselues and the truth is not in vs. By which it appeareth that we may be soe purged from sinne as to be in state of grace by the merits of Christs Passion and yet to haue some sinnes This is also most congruous to reason and agreeable with the diuine goodnes and mercy For if it be an vnreasonable seuerity for Kings and Common wealths to punish euery litle falt with the sentence of death farre must it be from the mercy of God to punish euery litle excesse or defect euery litle anger neglect distraction in our prayers and the like with the eternall death of hell Mortall sinnes are neuer taken away but by the Sacraments in deede or in desire Veniall sinnes are blotted out by euery good worke which we doe For as euery Venial sinne deminisheth the feruour of the loue of God in vs and