too neare thee Did not others watch for us while we sleep and did not he watch over us who neither slumbereth nor sleepeth we might have beene surprised by them while we are sleeping on our beds See we not how audacious they are growne How their shalops brave us at our harbours mouthes What threates have they sent us of late that ere long they will make some of us see Algier And who were these but some of our owne nation turned Turkes threatning to bring us unto their owne condition because wee would not free them in season Can we forget that Tragicall transportation of our brethren from Baltamore into that Babilon Barbary All of them English most of them Cornish suddenly surprized in the silence of the night They dreaded no disaster they supposed themselves safe they went to bed and laied themselves downe as they hoped to sleepe in safty When suddenly their houses were broken up they haled out of their beds the husband wife and children every one fast bound carried away in three or fowre howres and afterward so seperated as not suffered to meet againe but every one left to lament others misery as well as his owne It was not with them in that night as the Iudge saith it shall be at his comming Two in one bed the one taken and the other left But two or three in one bed Father Mother Child seaven or more in an house all taken and not one left What heart at this houre bleedes not at the remembrance of that nights Tragedy The wife calls on her husband to helpe her How can he help his Other selfe who cannot help his owne selfe The poore child cries O Mother keepe me O Father keepe me when Father and Mother are kept fast enough themselves from keeping and helping theirs Oft had the poore litle ones when they were pettish being terrified with The bug-beare comes to carry thee away Now not bug-beares but Barbary beares are come to carry away Child Mother Father and all they can finde in the family Some lost their lives fighting but in vaine to save their wives and children herein happy that death prevented in them those miseries which theirs surviving to greater sorrowes doe endure For of the two better it is to fall by the hands then into the hands of those Tyranous Turkes whose saving is worse then slaying who if they grant life it is but to prolong griefe May not the same or the like betide us if God shall so appoint it And are our merits better then theirs that God should not so appoint it But what speake I of might have beene or may be Are we not already in a farre worse bondage then they if we have no feeling no remorse of theirs They are in corporall bonds we without this compassion are in spirituall They under Turkes we under the Devill They bought and sold by men we sold under sinne They under the tyranny of others we under our owne tyrannous lusts and affections Our barbarous inhumanity is a worse bondage then theirs in Barbary In such a captive condition are they who have not this compassion towards their captived brethren But had I words to expresse though but in part the excellency of the worke it would be most powerfull to incite us to the performance of it Every worke is the more excellent by how much the obiect thereof more excelleth The worke is Redeeming for therefore we are to remember them that we doe our best to redeeme them And who are those who are to be redeemed They are not only the Temples of the Lord as hath beene shewed but the Lord of the Temple himselfe is held captive in them It is not only our brethrens case it might have beene ours it is ours already by the Vnion of charity or if not then are wee our selves in a worse slavery but that which should more nearely touch us then if it were our owne case it is his who should be nearer to us then our selves it is our Lord and Masters our Saviour and Redeemers case For doth not he himselfe complaine that they who neglected his in this very case neglected him I was in prison and you visited me not The head and members cannot bee separated I was in prison because mine were I because they were in whom I am and they in me As there is no good which any of mine doe but I doe it in them so there is no evill which they suffer for my sake but I suffer it with them Otherwise I would not have cried out from heaven to Saul persecuting my Church upon earth Saul Saul why persecutest thou me If then we will not redeem our brethren let us redeem our Father if not our fellow-members yet our head if not men yet God if not Christians yet Christ. Let us redeeme him from bonds who redeemed us from Death Him from corporall servitude who redeemed us from the slavery of sinne Let us redeeme him with a small portion of our perishable substance which this way imployed shall not perish who redeemed us not with corruptible things as silver and gold but with his precious blood more worth then a million of worlds Should we leave our native country and sayle into Barbary and there offer our selves to bondage for our brethren saying unto their Pateroones Free these men and take us we will be your slaves in their steeds we could doe no more nay God knowes nothing neare so much for them as he who is captive in them hath done for us If therefore we will not remember them for their sakes let us remember them for his sake let us remember them for our own sakes that the great redeemer who is also the great rewarder to every good worke especially of this may one day in mercy remember us which shall be the last but should not be the least incitement unto us Certaine it is that the more excellent the worke is the more excellent shall be the reward This then being so excellent a worke as the redeeming of our redeemer himselfe in his captiv'd members shall not want a most excellent recompence And were there no other recompence then the acknowledgement of this kindenesse regarding the disparity betweene the persons yet this were neede enough to any noble minde If it be an honour to a subiect for the King to acknowledge with his own mouth in the presence of all his nobles that sometimes he was beholding to him what will it be when the King of Kings shall one day acknowledge and publish that he was in a manner beholding unto man O how comfortable will it bee in that great day of Iudgement and of Mercy of Iudgement to Turks and Tyrants of Mercy to charitable Christians when the Iudge himselfe shall say I was in prison 〈◊〉 you came to me Yea more you by freeing me procured tha◠I might come to you might come unto mine owne family to the Temple
which enhaunceth not a little the calamity of his thraldome Every bondage is the more grievous by how much the baser they are to whom a man is in bondage Such is the bondage of our brethren under these Turks They who make us slaves what are they but slaves themselves Their Grand-signeor holds them no better and so he calls his Basha's and chiefe commanders Now what a miserable thing is it for a free-borne man to become a slave to one who is but a slave himselfe In this regard the curse of Canaan lyeth upon the poore Christian A slave of slaves shall he be But Canaan was to his brethren our miserable brethren are so to their enemies Infidels Among all Iobs calamities scarce any touched him more nearely that they despised him whose fathers he would have disdained to have set with the basest of his flocks What a regret must it needes be to ours as often as they thinke upon it which they cannot chuse but doe daily that those doe tyrannize over them and make beasts of them who are the worst of humane beasts For no beast more savage then a slave insulting over the necks of those who are free-borne Other evills accompanying their bondage my purpose is not now to presse I may have an hint to touch upon some of them hereafter Were there no more said this might suffice to incite us to the first duty enjoyned in my text the least we can afford them which is to Remember them Three times at least in this Chapter doth the holy Authour performe the office of a remembrancer unto us speaking to that noble faculty of the soule the memory In the precedent verse Be not forgetfull to harbour strangers In the 16 verse To doe good and to distribute forget not In this remember them that are in bonds In all these he sueth unto our memory for some comfortable consideration of those who are in misery If we duly remember them we cannot chuse but commiserate them and doe what we may to relieve them The hardest of all is that which a man would thinke to be the easiest to remember them especially when we our selves doe feele no affliction Our selves being in safety how prone are we to forget those who are in misery Had not Pharaohs chiefe butler reason to have remembred good Ioseph who prophesied unto him his deliverance out of prison and readvancement in court Yet did not the chiefe butler remember Ioseph but forgate him Poore Ioseph it is alway thy lot to be forgotten in thine affliction by those who are soaked in their enjoyed safety They lye upon their beds of Ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches and eat the Lambs of the flock They chaunt to the sound of the Vyal They drinke wine in bowles and anoint themselves with the chiefe Ointments What followes They are not grieved for the affliction of Ioseph Soft pillowes sweet musicke dainty fare wine in bowles pleasing perfumes these these exclude the remembrance of our brethrens sufferings The rich gluttons full cups fat dishes rich purple made his memory so pursie that it could not walke the length of his hall to the hungry ulcerated beggar His officious dogges were more mindefull of him then their dogged Master How unlike are we herein to him whose name we professe our blessed Saviour All the joyes in Paradise made him not forget what he promised the penitent theefe on the crosse But wee being in our earthly Paradise how soone forget we our poore brethren that are on or under the Crosse Such a bewitching nature there is in pleasure and prosperity which meeting with our corruption so besotteth our soules that we intend nothing but our present solace and forgetting our selves how can we remember others Our memory herein is like unto glasses or vyals which having beene broken are cimented up againe Cold liquor they hold something handsomely but powre warme water into them or set them against rhefier they leake immediatly So we in the cold ayre of affliction doe retaine some remembrance of our afflicted brethren but being bathed and warmed with the heate of prosperity the ciment dissolveth and the crazed vessel soone leakes out the remembrance of others adversity Which should admonish us deare Christians to feare our selves and our waies alwaies but especially in the Halcion dayes of plenty and prosperity Some of the ancients vsed to have at their feasts one dish wherein was served a dead mans scull the servitour vttering this speech be merry but withall looke on this We while God feasteth vs with liberty and safty as praised be his goodnesse now he doth have need that some representation of our brethrens bonds should be served in vnto vs with the words of my Text Remember those that are in bonds Remember that any captivity is a grievous calamity but bondage vnder the enemies of Christ for their constancy in the Christian faith is in regard of worldly comforts most vncomfortable Remember all that are in any kind of bonds but these especially Remember those who are in Satans bonds the bondage of sinne fast tied with the cords of their owne corruption not yet freed and which is worst not caring to be freed by the sonne of God who makes men free indeed Remember them who remember not themselves remember to pitty them who pitty not themselves and therefore are the more to be pittied For who more miserable then a miserable man who doth not commiserate himselfe Remember to pray for them that they may be delivered out of the snare of the Devill Remember that you your selves were once darknesse strangers from the common wealth of Israell the children of Death the bondslaves of sinne as they are And as one who hath escaped a wrack so reioyce for your owne safty as that you sorrow for those who are in danger of drowning and cast out a cord or oare if it be possible to save them No gally-slave is in worse bondage then these Libertines Therefore remember them Remember those that are in corporall bondage though iustly and deservedly They are not shut up under a single destruction Many deaths he dyes who lives in the horrour of a prison Miserable creatures they want the inward comfort which others doe enioy whom a free conscience doth baile in the closest prison ease and release in the heaviest irons enlighten in the darkest dungeon Besides the bolts on their legs they haue heavier fetters on their soules which none can strike off but only Christ. They cannot make to themselves comfortable application of S. Peters admonition Let none of you suffer as a malefactor or a murtherer or as a thiefe or wrong doer But if yee suffer for righteousnesse sake happy are yee This happinesse they want who suffer rightly for wrong doing and may say if they have so much grace with the penitent thiefe on the Crosse We indeed justly for we suffer
you freed mee In breife we give you great thanks that you would make us partakers of your carefulnesse and interest us with you in so good and necessary an imploiment as to present unto us fruitfull fields in which wee may sow the seedes of our hope expecting the harvest of those ample fruits which doe grow and proceed from such an heavenly and helpfull harvest Now we have sent one hundred thousand Sesterces that is 781 l 5 s sterling which summe hath beene raised by the contribution of the Clergie and Laytie in the Church over which by the providence of God we are made overseers which you shall distribute there and dispose of according to your diligence And wee desire indeed that there may not be the like occasion hereafter but that our bretheren being protected by Gods providence may be preserved safe from such dangers But if it shall please God for the triall of our charitable minde and faithfull heart that the like shall come to passe hereafter delay yee not to acquaint us therewith by your letters assuring your selves that the Church and whole society here as they doe earnestly pray that such things may not be againe so if they should bee they will willingly and largely send supplies againe And that you may remember in your prayers our brethren and sisters who have so readily and willingly contributed to this so necessary a worke that they may worke so alwaies and in your devotions for them returne unto them a requitall of this good worke I have subscribed the names of every one of them as also of our Colleagues and fellow-priests who themselves likewise being present have contributed both in their own and in the behalfe of their people according to their abilities And besides mine owne portion I have signified and sent the summe of theirs Of all whom as faith and charity requires you ought to bee mindefull in your prayers Most deare brethren we wish you alwayes well to fare A PASSAGE CONCERNING THE GOOD AND BENEFIT OF COMPASSION Extracted out of S. AMBROSE his second Booke of Offices CAP. 28. THE greatest incitement unto Mercy is that wee have a fellow-suffering with others in their calamities that we succour others in their necessities as much as we are able and sometimes more then we are able For it is better to suffer envie for shewing mercie then to pretend excuse for inclemencie As we our selves once incurred envy because wee did breake up the holy vessels for the redeeming of captives which deed displeased the Arians not so much because it was done as that they might have something for which they might carp at us For who is so cruel so yron-hearted as to be displeased that a man is to be redeemed from Death a woman from the pollutions of Barbarians which are more grieveous then Death young maidens children Infants from the contagion of Idols wherewith for feare of death they are in danger to be defiled Which action though we performed not without sufficient reason yet we so defended it before the people that we maintained it to be much more convenient for us to preserve for God soules rather then gold For he who sent his Apostles without gold did also without gold gather the Churches unto himselfe The Church hath gold not that it should keepe it but to disburse it and imploy it for necessarie releifes What need is there to keepe that which doth not helpe when wee have need Know you not how much gold and silver the Assyrians carried away from the Temple of the Lord Is it not better that the Priest should melt up these vessels if other supplies be wanting for the releefe of the poore then that the Sacrilegious enemie should carrie them away and defile them Will not the Lord say why didst thou suffer so many poore men to perish through hunger Surely seeing thou hadst gold thou shouldest have offered them nourishment Why are there so many captives carried away to be bought and sould and are not redeemed Why are there so many slaine by the Enemy Better it were that thou preservedst these living vessells then dead metalls No answere can be returned to those obiections For what wouldst thou say I feared lest the Temple of God should want ornaments He will answere thee the Sacraments seeke not gold neither doe they please the more for gold which are not purchased with gold The adorning of the sacraments is the Redemption of captives And verily those vessells are pretious which doe redeeme soules from death The true treasure of God is that which worketh the same which his blood wrought I then acknowledg it to be the vessell of the Lords blood when I finde Redemption in both that the Chalice redeemeth from the enemies those whom the bloud redeemed from sinne What an excellent thing is it when multitudes of captives are redeemed by the Church that it may be said Those are they whom Christ hath redeemed Behold the gold that is tried the profitable gold the gold of Christ which freeth from death Behold the gold whereby Purity is redeemed Chastity is preserved I had rather present these freed unto you then preserve gold for you This number this order of captives is a faâ—re more acceptable sight then the shew of golden goblets Thus was the Redeemers gold to be imploied that it should redeeme those who were endangered I acknowledge the bloud of Christ powred into gold not only to have shined but to have imprinted the power of divine operation by the gift of redemption Such Gold did the holy Martyr Laurentius reserve for the Lord who when the treasures of the Church were required of him promised that he would produce them Next day he presented the poore saying These are the treasures of the Church And these truly are treasures in whom is Christ in whom is the faith of Christ. What better treasures hath Christ then those in whom he saith that he himselfe is For it iâ— written I was hungry and you fed me I was thirsty and you gave me drinke I was a stranger and you tooke me in And afterward That which you have done to one of those you have done it to me What better treasures hath Iesus then those in whom he loveth to bee seene These treasures Laurentius shewâ—d and prevailed because the Persecutor himselfe could not take them from him Therefore Iehoiachin who in the seige kept the gold and imploied it not to provide reliefe saw the gold to bee violently carried away and himselfe to be led into captivity But Laurentius who had rather bestowe the Churches gold on the poore then keepe it for the Persecutor according to the singular efficacie of the interpretation of his name received the sacred Crowne of Martyrdome Was it said to holy Laurentius thou oughtest not to have disbursed the treasures of the Church nor to have sold the sacred vessells Necessary it is that a man doe discharge that office with sincere faithfulnesse and discerning