sentence which they giue soe priests are made of God the iudges ouer soules they beare his person they forgiue sinnes and whose sinnes they forgiue vpon earth those are forgiuen by him in heauen By sinne we become debtours to God he is the creditour who onely of himselfe can forgiue but he substituting others to forgiue in his name his substitutes can validly forgiue and the substitutes of God are his priests To say that men can not haue power to forgiue sinnes is that which the Iewes obiected against Christ and which he answered and disprooued by a miracle shewing by it that himselfe not onely as he was God but also according to his humanity could forgiue sinnes A lame and impotent man being brought vnto him he said Mat. 9. Thy sinnes are forgiuen thee And when the Iewes heard those words presently they said that he blasphemed as though the power of forgiuing sinnes had bene soe propper to God that he could not haue imparted it to man But they shall see the contrary and that there was noe blasphemy in his words Wherfor thinke you euill in you harts saith Christ whether is easier to say thy sinnes are forgiuen thee or to say arize and walke but that you may know that the Sonne of man hath power on earth to forgiue sinnes Arize take vp thy bedd and goe into thy house And he aroze and went into his house And the multitudes seeing it glorifyed God that had giuen such power to men Now let none euer say that men cannot haue power to forgiue sinnes It is soe farre from being a blasphemy or iniury to God to say that he giueth power to men to forgiue sinnes that to say the contrary is a blasphemy and iniury to him to wit that he can not or doth not giue that power to men For as the honour and power of the king is not diminished but rather his loue and care ouer his subiects is demonstrated in making iudges to conserue iustice and order amongst them and especially in giuing power to his iudges to pardon offences done against him soe is it a special demonstration of the loue of God vnto men to giue power to priests to forgiue sinnes which are committed against him And this is that which the Apostles would haue vs here to professe to wit the forgiuenesse of sinnes by power giuen to the Catholike Church He that considereth the euill of mortall sinne how that it woundeth and quite killeth our soules leauing them depriued of the grace of God and guilty of the paines of hell will esteeme greatly of this power and will thinke that there is nothing in the world which soe much behoueth a sinner as the right application of that power to himselfe Esa 27. This is the end and fruit of all that sinne be taken away Saith the Prophet By this our soules when they are as a dead and filthy carrion in the sight of God are restored to the life of grace made cleane and beautifull and all the happines of future life also becommeth then due to them This we shall learne how it is to be applyed in the Sacrament of Pennance where the benefit of it is obtained THE ELEAVENTH ARTICLE THe Resurrection of the flesh How necessary this article was to the establishing of the christian doctrine it appeareth in this that the holy scriptures doe not onely professe it but also prooue it S. Paul prooueth the resurrection of our bodys by the resurrection of Christ If saith he there be noe resurrection of the dead neither is Christ rizen againe Cor. 1 15. And if Christ be not rizen againe then vaine is our preaching vaine also is your faith And he declareth and confirmeth it by the similitude of corne which corrupting in the seede rizeth vp fresh and faire corne againe With these and the like arguments he disputeth against certaine men that denyed the resurrection Tim. 2.2 as Hymenaeus and Philetus who interpreted the scriptures to be vnderstoode of the resurreation of the soule to the state of grace Christ also himselfe disputed with the Saducaeans about this point and confirmed in fact the truth of it when he raized Lazarus to life who although he had bene fower dayes dead and laid then stinking in the monument yet when Christ called he heard Io. 11. and obeyed comming forth fresh and liuely Holy Iob in the midst of all his assictions comforted himselfe with these words Iob 19. I know that my redeemer liueth and in the last day I shall rize out of the earth And I shall be compassed againe with my skinne and in my flesh I shall see God Thus did this holy man solace himselfe with the thought of the resurrection which he saith he had laid vp in his bosome vsing it as a cordiall and antidore against his great miserys Our soules and bodys desiring by nature to be vnited together for the complete and intire constituting of man it stands with reason that they should once come together againe that the soules of the blessed may enioy their desire and be satiated in the naturall appetite which they haue vnto their bodys And for this reason the immortality of the soule and the resurrection of the body is mentioned in the scriptures and was taken by the auncient Philosophers as it were for the same because such is the connexion betwixt them that by the immortality of the soule the resurrection of the body is inserred for if the soule be immortal and haue a natural appetite to the body as being ereated to constitute man consisting of both soule and body then that appetite must once be satiated by the resurrection of the body after death and revnion of the soule to it againe and soe take away the resurrection of the body and you take away the immortality of the soule and then all grounds of faith and the hopes of future life are taken away with it our soules being mortal with our bodys and therefor S. Paul If I fought with beasts at Ephesus what doth it profit mee Cor. 1.15 if the dead rize not againe let vs eate and drinke for to morrow we shall dy And therefor S. Chrysostome calleth the Saducaeans who denyed the resurrection the most pernicious haeretiks that euer were S. Ambrose hauing prooued it by scriptures and by the examples of those who haue rizen from the dead and by reasons which he calleth euident concludeth all in this plane and certaine truth that the corruptions of seedes and productions which we see of new thinges are vnto God the resurrection of the old That which we beleeue by this article is that the very same bodys which liued before although neuer soe much corrupted shall be vnited to their soules againe and remaine for euer with them for if it were not the same body which was before it were not a resurrection but a production of a new thinge and that this resurrection is general to all Cor. 1.15 according to the
goodnes hath prepared for vs. But we will speake a word or two OF THE VNITY OF GOD. IN the first article of the Crede we professe two thinges One God to wit that we beleeue in almighty God and secondly that we beleeue in one God the maker of heauen and earth for we doe not say makers but the maker to signify vnity By the first atheisme and by the second paganisme is reiected And the first being allready soe fully declared it will not be needfull to insist much vpon the second point it being a verity which the wisest of pagane Philosophers haue by reason discouered who haue confessed one supreme and first cause of all effects And therefor S. Augustine reporteth of Seneca the Philosopher Aug de ciu Decl 60.10 that speaking of idols he vsed to say that of custome they were adored but not of verity Heare the words of S. Paul disputing with the learnedest pagans of the world the Philosophers of Athens vpon this point Act. 17. The God that made the world and all thinges that are in it he being Lord of heauen and earth dwelleth not in temples made with hand needing any thinge where as himselfe giueth life vnto all and breathing and all things If God made the world and all things that are in it he must then haue all within his power all must depende and stande neede of him and he himselfe must stande neede of nothing He is not then a granen idoll that stoode neede of men to carue it nor any liuing creature as the dragon of Babilon that stoode neede of some to serue it with foode neither is he the Sunne or moone that stoode neede of some power to giue it the limited perfections which it hath as all other creatures God needes noe other God for then he were not the first beginning of all perfections including all perfections within himselfe This is sufficient by natural reason of this verity That which we beleeue in the Catholike faith is in one God the maker of heauen and earth that is of all creatures heauenly and earthly and the consetuer of them a spirituall substance infinite in power infinite in wisdome infinite in goodnes infinite in duration immense in infinite places possible and in all perfections infinite This we see by reason and beleeue by faith Deut. 6. Heare Israël the Lord our God is one Lord which words beside their diuine authority haue the highest degree of humane credit as the most auncient and authenticall writings by consent of the greatest part of the world Esa 44. Eph. 4. I am the first and I the last and beside mee there is noe God One Lord one faith one baptisme Men of more eminent dignity and authority as Priests Men called Gods Prophets Iudges c. are sometimes in holy scriptures called Gods in respect of their preeminency and authority ouer others by which they represent the diuine power THE SECOND ARTICLE And in Iesus Christ his onely sonne our Lord. Quest Who is Christ Answ Christ is the sonne of God incarnated true God and true man our Redeemer Iudge and Glorifyer ALL this we say in the Creede when we professe our beleefe in lesus Christ the onely sonne of God borne of the Virgin Mary Crucifyed for our Redemption that he shall come to iudge vs all and that there is life euerlasting to wit to those that are iust through the merits of Iesus Christ Thus this answere is contained in the Creede In the which we hauing first professed our faith in God as he created vs we professe him now in another mistery to wit as he was incarnated to redeeme vs a mystery which we can neuer acknowledge with sufficient gratitude For the vnderstanding of which we may reflect vpon our former condition and the misery out of which we are freed by it Man was in paradise in a happy state of spirituall and corporall delights his soule was in grace and fauour with God and his body had then the gift of immortality that without dying it should enioy those pleasures for a time and afterwards the glory of heauen for euer He was warned onely of one thinge and that was to forbeare one fruit of Paradise which God to keepe him in obedience and due subiection had forbidden him to eate of Gen. 2. Of euery tree of Paradise eate thou but of the tree of knowledge of good and euill eate thou not For in what day soeuer thou shalt eate of it thou shalt dy the death To wit the death of body and soule Man forbore not but eate of that forbidden tree and as soone as he eate of it his soule died instantly and his body from that time beganne to dy But the death of our soules being indeede our true and greatest misery God was moued with pitty towards them and of his infinit mercy he decreed to reuiue them againe to his diuine grace and fauour For this he sent his onely sonne to be incarnated that is to take the flesh and nature of man vpon him that in that nature he might make satisfaction for the first sinne which man had committed and for the sinnes of all men occasioned by it And satisfaction being made by him the wrath of God might then cease against vs and we becomming his beloued children and freinds might serue him worthily and obtaine the blisse of heauen which before we had lost All the Persons of the Blessed Trinity the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost concurred equally to the effecting of this mystery as hauing all one and the same vndiuided power but the worke was effected in the Sonne onely the second Person who was incarnated Authors commonly declare this by the similitude of two helping another to put on a garment They all three concurre to the vesting of one of them and one of them onely is vested with the garment The garment in this mystery is the nature of man with which the Sonne of God onely was vested but the Father and Holy Ghost both concurred with him to the putting on of that garment And the Sonne of God being soe vested that in Christ our nature was really vnited to him we say truely that Christ our Sauiour is true man as consisting of two destinct natures diuine and humane According to his diuine nature he proceeded eternally from God the Father according to his humane nature he proceeded in time from the blessed Virgin his mother and according to that nature he made satisfaction sufficient in it selfe for the sinnes of all men that euer were or shall be and therefor we call him out Sauiour and Redeemer because all whosoeuer haue bene or can be saued are saued by the merits of his Passion He is our Iudge and in the latter day shall iudge vs. He is our Glorifyer for that by his merits our good works become meritorious and purchasing of glory He is called Iesus that is to say Sauiour not onely because he is our Sauiour
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
encourage them If we will haue these gifts and will ascende with Christ we must forsake sinne that hindereth vs of him Ser. 2. de Ascen Our sinnes saith S. Augustine as netts intangle us and as chaines ty vs downe to the earth that we cannot ascende and therfor as the psalmist hath said let vs breake their fetters Let vs leaue of our pride our couetousnesse our carnal sinnes that being cured from them we may ascende with our physitian Thus S. Augustine and I will adde thus much to him that as euery one is inclined to some particular sinnes or sinne by which as by a greater chaine and maine roote he sticketh fast in the earth and is hindred from ascending to Christ soe ought we to labour more earnestly to roote out that sinne out of our harts which is more particular and propper to vs and which we are most guilty of that we may sing with ioy vnto God thou hast broken my bondes I will sacrifice to thee the hast of praise Ps 115. Let vs keepe in our mindes the Ascension of Christ and haue considence in him who sitteth at the right hand of God allwais ready to pray for vs. Io. 1.2 We haue saith S. Iohn anaduocate with the Father Iesus Christ If Christ after his resurrection had assumed to himselfe the glory of this world and liued as a Prince vpon earth hauing the whole world for his dominion as subiect to him he would haue had followers enough we should all haue flocked vnto his court but that would haue bene of curiosity in many and of an vnperfect loue such as the Apostles sometimes bore to him when he was visibly with them but how much more ought we to desire to be with him in heauen and to aspire vnto that blessed court he would ascende thither that we might follow him thither for this is all that he desireth Faâ—hâ—r whom thou hast giuen mee Io. 17. I will that where I am they also be with mee Christ is indeede our beloued spouse and the onely treasure of a christians soule we ought to loue him aboue all and to seeke in all thinges to please him and to remaine with him and therefor he would ascende into heauen to draw vs after him and that our harts might be where our treasure is and our conuersation in heauen Let then euery one now resolue to leaue of all sinne and beginne to set forward in his Ascension with Christ and let vs thinke that being now in our iourney to heauen wards euery day and euery hower we are drawing neerer and neerer to him THE SEAVENTH ARTICLE FRom thence he shall come to iudge vs all both the quicke and the dead Christ hath many honorable and worthy titles He is our Sauiour or Redeemer he is our Aduocates and he is our Iudge In the former articles the Apostles haue deliuered his two first titles now they propose him as our Iudge Cor. 2.5 We must all be manifested before the iudgement seate of Christ saith S. Paul that euery one may receiue the propper thinges of the body according as he hath done either good or euill There are two iudgements in which Christ sitteth as iudge ouer vs. First there is the priuate and particular iudgment of euery one at his death Secondly there is a general day of iudgment for all Our soules departing in death from our bodys are presently set before the iudgment seate of Christ who as iudge shall call them to an account of all whatsoeuer they haue thought said or done and weighing all with an exact and iust ballance he shall giue sentence iustly according to our works Besides this God would for many reasons ordaine one solemne day for the general iudgement of all First for the greater honour of Christ our iudge that as he was publikely in the sight of the world condemned by the wicked soe he might publikly and in the sight of the world shew his power and innocency and condemne them Secondly for the greater honour of the iust Thirdly for the greater confusion of the deuils and of the damned soules God then making a publike manifestation of his loue of goodnes and of the hatred which he beareth to sinne with infinite liberality rewarding the one and with extreme and vtmost seuerity punishing the other Fourthly being that we see posterity for the most part to imitate their praedecessors and to follow the wayes which they haue trodden out to them and this imitation of good or euill praedecessors to last sometimes for many yeares and ages and may last we know not how long it is conuenient that there should be in the end one general day of iudgment in which it might appeare how much euery one hath contributed to the good or euill of others after them euen to the end of the world Lastly that the body and soule which haue accompanied together in this life and both of them concurred iointly in their works may meete and be vnited againe and remaine together in pleasure or in paine for euer Christ shall performe this office of iudge euen as he is man For as kings delegate their authority to those whom they make iudges to iudge and to giue sentence in person of the king soe would God honour the humanity of Christ giuing him authority as iudge in his place according to S. Iohn Io. 5. He hath giuen him power to doe iudgment also because he is the sonne of man S. Peter preaching in Cornelius his house the mysterys of the life and death of Christ after that he had spoken of his Passion and resurrection he draweth to an end in these words Act. 10. He commanded vs to preach to the people and to testify that it is he that of God was appointed iudge of the liuing and of the dead It is then Iesus Christ that shall call vpon the blessed and from his glorious iudgment feate shall say to them Come ye blessed of my father possesse the kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the woâ—ld And it is he who from a terrible tribunal shall pronounce to the wicked Mat. 25. Get ye away from mee you cursed into fire euerlasting which was prepared for the denill and his Angels In this sentence of the damned there is a double punishment included The one is the great losse which they incurre and for euer must susteine of the sight of God and fruition of him in glory the other is of an vnspeakeable ragious paine which besides their losse they must for euer endure The first is intimated by gett ye away from mee The second by that which followeth of euerlasting fire Which two punishments of losse and paine ioyned with eternity cause in the damned an vtter desperation and rage and those also eternall Euen as slaues when they are condemned to the gallyes or to grind in mills or the like slauerys all their life time are setled and established in that state of misery as
Apostle As in Adam all dy soe in Christ all shall be made aliue Neither doe his words to the Thessalonians make against this Thes 1.4 where he saith The dead that are in Christ shall rize againe first Then we that liue that are left with all shall be taken vp with them in the clouds to meete Christ For those that be liuing on the earth when Christ shall come to iudgment shall dy and rize againe to receiue their sentence And of this there can be noe doubt if we consider the cause of the resurrection which is generall to all Cor. 2.5 that euery one may receiue the propper things of the body according as he hath done either good or euill All men being constituted of body and either seruing or not seruing God by it must rize againe that they may receiue in their bodys according to the works which they did in them S. De ciu Dâ—â— l. 22. c. 19. Augustin hath declared with what beauty and ornaments the bodys of the iust shall rize againe free from the deformitys and imperfections which before they had They shall haue noe defects of litlenes weaknes crookednes c. There shall be noe excesse in bignesse the fatt and corpulent shall deminish of their bulke and those that want of their natural pitch shall come to their perfect syze and stature There shall be then noe tendernesse of infants noe feeblenes of old age noe sicknes lamenesse or infirmity in any part They shall rize all full of ioy and content neither as yong nor as old but in a midle perfect age The haire and other ornaments of the body neither too much nor too litle all indecency being changed into comlines and decency that the body and soule may both together praise their creatour as well in corporall as in spirituall glory THE TWELFTH ARTICLE LIfe euerlasting Because life is the most pretious of all things to vs all the happinesse which we enioy in this world being enioyed by life and lost by death therfor the euerlasting felicity of heauen is called euerlasting life and the losse of it may very well be termed an euerlasting death the eternall separation of our soules from God being infinitly more miserable to them then their separation from their miserable bodys and therfor as dying creatures carne and anhele for life soe ought we to earne and anhele after that blessed life Some times that happy state is called the kingdome of God the house of God paradise the holy city thus in the scriptures and all to enamour vs with it The cheife felicity of the blessed which is called their Essentiall blesse consisteth in the cleere vision that is to say the perfect knowledge which they haue of God that they know him with full content as one doth his freind when he is present with him Cor 1.13 Io. 17. and beholdeth him face to face We see now by a glasse in a darke sort But then face to face saith the Apostle and Christ saith This is life euerlasting that they know thee the onely true God The glory of the Saints is giuen to them according to the measure of their grace for as they dy in a higher state of grace soe shall they receiue a higher reward of glory the scriptures frequently declaring that the reward is to be giuen according to our works Cor 1.3 Euery one saith the Apostle shall receiue his reward according to his labour Luth in Natiuit Maria Virgni By which we may see how false that inference of Luther was Christs iustice is imputed vnto euery one alike therefor euery one is as holy as our blessed lady For Christs iustice is imputed vnto euery one in that degree in which euery one applyeth it to himselfe and vnto all the saints alike soe farre as to obtaine glory S. Aug tract 67. in Io. but not in the same degree S. Augustine shall answere him The penny indeede is giuen vnto euery one alike but the many mansions signify the diuerse dignitys of merits in that one eternall life And presently after he citeth the Apostle Cor. 1.15 where speaking of the resurrection of the body he saith one glory of the sunne another glory of the moone and another of the starres for starre differeth from starre in glory Soe saith he is the resurrection of the dead the Saints as starres haue different mansions Greg. mor. l. 1. c. vltime and different claritys in the kingdome of heauen S. Gregory confirmeth S. Augustins words as it were repeating the very same ouer againe Because the elect of God haue different works in this life in the next without doubt there shall be a difference of dignitys and therefor in my fathers house there be many mansions Now to speake of the greatnes of this glory I know not how to beginne for it is neither in the tongue of man to speake nor in his hart to thinke the liberality of God in rewarding of his friends The Saints are then vnited in perfect friendshipp with him and are receiued into his innermost tabernacles where they shall neuer feare to loose his grace nor their place of glory And by that neere and intimate vnion with God the diuine power wisdome and goodnes appeareth soe resplendently in them that euen as iron when it is redd hott seemeth to be all fire by the fire which it conteineth soe the saints by that bright glory and sublime light by which God dwelleth in them and ioyneth himselfe to them seeme to haue put on the very nature of God It ought to be a great comfort in the way of vertue and an encouragement to vndergoe labors for Gods sake to thinke of the reward which we shall haue in the end Dauid a yong man comming into king Sauls campe to visit his brethren that were souldiers in it saw the huge army of their enemys ouer against them and a mighty gyant standing in the midst of both formidably armed challenging all Israël to a single duell with him and although he saw all the Israëlits to fly from his face forvery feare yet hearing by chance of a great reward which was promised to any that should kill him to wit that he should haue the Kings daughter to wife and other things He hearkened after it and when he had informed himselfe well and vnderstoode that such was indeede the kings promise his spirits were raised with the hopes of reward and his hart was on fire to be in hand with the gyant and allthough he knew neither how to weare armour nor manage armes but without either sword or speare or any defence for himselfe was to venture his life with an old tryed souldier he feared nothing but went downe vnto him as though it had bene to beate a dogge and seeing his enemy to approch he ranne towards him threw a stone onely in his face and closing presently with him with his owne sword he cut of his head Soe in our spirituall combats
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
deceiue soe much as one learned priest but onely some carnal and simple women As priests are aboue Angels in dignity soe it is fitting that they should imitate their purity and Angels neither marry nor are married Nay it is fitting that they should be as the Catholike Church hath ordained them to be aboue Angels in this that Angels are chast by nature onely but priests are chast by the grace of this Sacrament and by vow which is better It was the auncient custome of the Church as now it is for the Clergy to weare their crownes shauen S. Denis who liued in the Apostles times maketh mention of it Eccl. Hierar c. 6. S. Beda deriueth the first vse of it from S. Peter it representeth the crowne of thornes of our sauiour It denoteth the dignity of priests as kings Of whom the words of S. Peter 1.1 L. 5. hist Aug. c 2â— may cheesly be vnderstoode saying you are an elect generation a kingly priesthood It signifyeth also that priests are to reiect all vaine superfluitys of this world and to betake themselues to the spiritual lot and part which they haue chosen OF MATRIMONY MATRIMONY is declared by the Councel of Florence to be a true and propper Sacrament Sess vitim one of the number of the seauen Sacraments of the law of Christ instituted by him to giue grace And therefore amongst christians it is absolutly indissoluble which as a contract of nature onely it is not It hath for its propper effect to remedy the vnlawfull concupiscences of the flesh and to giue grace to man and woman to liue together in mutual loue and coniugal chastity and to bring vp their children in the seruice of God It is called by S. Eph. 15. Paul a great Sacrament to wit in the mystery which it representeth of the marriage of Christ with his Church to which for euer he hath espoused himselfe and as a good husband allwais loueth it teacheth it defendeth it prouideth for it and remaineth for euer the head of it By this similitude we haue the duety of marriage wel deciphered and man and wife by it are taught how to behaue themselues to each other Christ loueth his Church with an infinite loue the Church also loueth him with a continuall and neuer interrupted loue Christ suffered for his Church giuing euen his life to gaine her an immaculate Spouse The Church also suffereth for him in the blood of her children that in her victorys of martyrdome she may well say to him as Sephora did to Moyses Exod 4. a bloody spouse thou art to mee when she saw the blood of her children circumcised by him Christ as a good husband beareth with many imperfections and sinnes that are committed in the Church and vpbraideth her not but pittyeth her and furthereth the amendment of them by faire meanes and good words calling her his freind his beloued his faire one and the Church as a good wife confesseth her falts and asketh pardon for them submitting herselfe more humble then Sara calling him her Lord her master her sauiour Finally Christ sitteth at the right hand of his father allwais ready to mediate for his Church in heauen and hath prouided to remaine also with her in the B. Sacrament allwais vpon earth and the Church reciprocally laboreth for him giuing Sacraments offering sacrifice exhorting commanding reprehending and punishing of her people to make them honour him Thus ought man and wife to liue together in continuall loue and to beare patiently and contentedly together the tribulations of marriage not vpbraiding one another with their falts but with wise and milde termes to procure the amendment of them and to concurre together in all things both to their spiritual and temporal good Of this vnion loue and goodnes of married folkes dependeth very much the good of all mankind and therfor it is often and earnestly commended in the Scriptures In the first marriage of man and woman in Paradise God to to shew the loue which he would haue betwixt man and wife would frame the wife of a true and reall part of her husbands body and not of his hands fingars or toes not soe intimate to him but of a ribbe of his side neere to his â—art And when Adam awakened out of his sleepe and first saw her he was presently enamoured with a holy loue of her as his lawfull wife and euen then presently he beganne to giue documents to married folkes saying Gen. 2. For this man shall leaue his father and mother and shall cleaue to his Wife anâ— they shall be two in one fles This Adam spoke to his posterity whom in the spirit of prophecy he foresaw and would forwarne of mutual loue that as man and wife are but one in flesh Soe they might be in minde and will according together to take a part in all things And therefor Adam called her his fellow companion as participating with him in a happy and good company all dissension and diuision betwixt them being contrary to the Sacrament and in it selfe most greeuous eueÌ„ as the diuiding of liuing flesh which bleedeth and smarteth on both sides or as the cutting of the whole body into two which can not be but with excessiue torment and certaine death Soe the diuision and dissention betwixt man and wife is allwais painefull on both sides and if it be in a matter of moment or with scandall it is death and damnation to their soules The best therefor is to reflect well vpon the inconueniences of marriage before hand and to preuent them Yong folke many times deceiue themselues who setting their mindes too earnestly vpon marriage imagin great happines and nothing but content in it But this content lasteth but a while with them For as soone as they feele the tribulations of that state they beginne to loath it and by litle and litle to thinke them vntollerable and to wish themselues vnmarried againe And this is soe commune that as the saying is one priest hat could vnmarry would haue worke enough for many priests These resemble litle children that cry after their mothers they will not be quiet till they haue their desire and within a while they beginne to be weary and cry to be backe againe Marriages that are made without due consideration and especially with out being well commended to God haue many times the like issue and these are often obserued to be of those who marry very yong who indeede seldome apprehende rightly that which they vndertake But what remedy When they are once married there is then none but in true vertue and a good coÌ„science they must setle themselues and be contented with the sower and the sweet taking one with the other as it shall please God to sende them and when any Cros happeneth with a constant and heroical minde to beare it for Gods sake and to accustome themselues to some good words in those occasions as Gods will be done or the like expecting patiently
passion worke but litle to their amendment Parents must also prouide for their children with a moderate care and not as some doe who vnder pretence of proulding for them neuer thinke themselues rich enough These ought to consider that their children are the children of God and he will prouide for them if they serue him and the best foundation of riches and of a long and prosperous race is to bring vp their children in the knowledge and feare of him for if God build with them their houses will stande Many poore children who haue bene left without parents haue prospered better with the blessing of God then others haue done with large reuenewes left them Finally parents must be most of all carefull that they giue noe ill example to their children this being that vpon which the good or euill of the whole world very much dependeth euen as the goodnes of the branches dependeth of the roote and bole of the tree Otherwise occasion is giuen for children to learne their parents vices and to teach them to their children againe and soe vice goeth from generation to generation by the ill example of parents and as the links of a chaine are drawne by one another and fall one after another soe fathers draw their children downe into sinne after them that for many generations they come in the end to meete all in hell I et parents and children often reade the booke of Toby they haue there an example of a good father and of a good sonne and God blessing them both THE FIFT COMMANDEMENT THOV shalt not kill By which we see that this as all other places of scripture hath its propper sense For as S. Aug. de ciu c. 20. sayth we are not forbidden here to kill meate for our sustenance nor to kill men in our owne defence as in a iust warre or for execution of iustice vpon malefactors Because nature allowing and requiring these things God doth not disallow of them Some also by particular inspiration of God haue lawfully killed as Moyses who although he were the mildest man in the world yet when he saw an infidel heathen beating one of the people of God moued with a holy zeale he killed him and buried him in the sand This was lawfull as being by diuine inspiration in signe of future mysterys Exod. 32. Soe when he saw the people committing of idolatry he ioyned vnto him those that were of our Lord the Leuites and sent them to kill the idolatrous people and they returning with the slaughter of about three thousand men he commended them saying you haue consecrated your hands this day to our Lord that blessing may begiuen to you Phinees also moued with the like zeale Nu. 5. killed the two fornicators in their wicked act and auerted the wrath of God by it God the authour of the Commandements dispensed then in the keeping of them and soe they were not formally broken That which is forbidden here is to kill vpon priuate authority and not onely to kill Anger but also all actions of anger by which the peaceable conuersation of men is disturbed Mat. 5. You haue heard saith Christ how it was said of old thou shalt not kill and who soe killeth shall be in danger of iudgement but I say to you that whosoeuer is angry with his brother shall be in danger of iudgment and whosoeuer shall say to his brother Raca shall be in danger of Councell And whosoeuer shall say thou foole shall be guilty of the hell of fire By which we are taught the right vnderstanding of this Commandement to be not onely to prohibite killing but also to be inwardly angry or to make outward shewes or to giue words of anger Of all the sinnes which are committed by men none are soe horrible to nature as the sinnes of blood Is 8. and to shew how great a sinne it is to kill Christ would call the deuill a mankiller from the beginning because the malice and euill of murder could not be better expressed then by putting it and the deuill together and making him the authour of it Cain was the first mankiller amongst men who inticeing his brother into the fields roze vp against him and killed him And presently he was strucke with such a horrour at his crime that he despaired of mercy and like a desperate reprobate went hanging downe his head thinking that euery one that saw him would kill him and cried 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 vagabonde and fugitiue vpon earth euery one therefor that findeth mee shall kill mee And God to increase this horrour of murder in vs both in the law of nature and of Moyses prohibited the eating of blood Lou. 17. Nay they were not soe much as to let blood to ly open vpon the ground but to couer it And euen dumbe beasts that could not sinne were to loose their liues if they killed any man All this was that men should abhorre the sinne of murder and not be ouer bloody then when the true worship of God was mainteined rather by force and by shedding of their enemys blood then propagated by patience as now it is in the faith of Christ Here enter those ignominious single combats of which the Councell of Trent hath these words That the detestable vse of Duells contriued by the deuill to a bloody death of the body and destruction of the soule may be quite banished out of the Christian world In which yong men who vnderstande not what belongeth to wisdome and true glory meete in the field to wound teare and kill one another like madd doggs And after their miserable deaths they become infamous to posterity purt out of the Communion of Saints both of the militant and triumphant Church of God and depriued of christian buriall to ly like doggs in the fields That the words of the Apocal. 22. are fully verifyed in them Without are doggs sorcerers and murderers There is a booke here newly published called LA DESTRVCTION DE DVEL in which is shewed how contrary to reason and true christian honour Dâ—â—els are and in which is declared how that the Marshals of France and diuerse Gentlemen of quality haue protested against them and promised that they will neuer regard any challenge nor fight a duell vpon any occasion of iniury whatsoeuer An heroicall and christian like minde guided by vertue and discretion will make iniurys honorable through patience which is the most propper vertue and honour of christians Christ was borne patient liued a patient life and at his death his patience was most eminently great more then we can vnderstande He founded his Church first in his owne sufferings and then in those of his Apostles after him and after them he enlarged it by the patience of many martyrs and soe he still continueth and preserueth it And therefor christians
him in the Syndon and laid him in a moument that was hewed out of a rocke And rolled a stone to the doore of the monument The Palls or linnens signify the Syndon the Chalice the monument in which he was laid the Patene the stone that was rolled to the doore And therefor there must be at least two palls or linnen cloths vpon the altare to signify the wrapping of Christ and for the same signification the Corporall or vpper Pall vsed aunciently to be ioyned to the vndermore and comming from vnder the Chalice to turne ouer it againe Cruifix c wax Candles but now for more conuenience it is diuided into the corporall vnder the Chalice and the Pall aboue it A Crucifixe or Cros is set vpon the altare in remembrance of Christs Passion Wax candles are lighted to signify him who is the true light illuminating all men They are of wax in token of his purity who was a Virgin of a Virgin Mother All things being prepared then Masse beginneth The Masse may be diuided into three parts The first is from the beginning to the Offertory The diuision of the Masse which is as it were a preparation and introduction to the cheife parts of Masse The second and principall part is from the Offertory to the Postcommunion The third is from the Post communion to the end which is a thanksgiuing for the mysterys celebrated The whole Masse is in relation to the cheife passages of the life and death of Christ From the beginning to Gloria in excelsis the time before his comming is represented and the great desire which the holy Patriarks and Prophets had of him before he came From Gloria in excelsis to the Ghospell his comming is celebrated and his life vntill his preaching From the Ghospell to the Offertory his preaching is denoted From the Offertory to the Postcommunion the cheife passages which haue relation to his persecution Passion and death are signifyed From the Post-communion to the end his Resurrection is commemorated and the time vntill his Ascension all being concluded with thankes giuing to God First the Priest commeth downe before the altare and doing reuerence to it The beginning of the Masse as to a holy thinge and if the blessed Sacrament be there kneeling downe to it he beginneth with the signe of the Cros saying In the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost to professe his faith in the blessed Trinity and in the Incarnation and to implore grace to the worthy celebrating of those holy mysterys which he is then going about to wit to offer Sacrifice to all mighty God to offer the same Sacrifice which Christ himselfe offered to handle his very naturall body to represent himselfe offered then as at his death for and in the name of all the Church the whole blessed Trinity with quires of Angells being present as spectators of what he doth Hauing armed himselfe with the signe of the Cros and with these considerations he sayth the Antiphone and Psalme Introibo ad altare Dei c. Introibo Psal 42. which Antiphone as all others are as it were deuout vndersongs said before and after the Psalme in relation to it Consiteor Then he saith the Consiteor acknowledging humbly in the sight of God and of the whole caelestiall court and of the people there present his sinnes by thought word and worke desiring the blessed Virgin Mary the Angels and Saints and people that are present to pray for him Then the Clerke who representeth the people prayeth for him saying Misereatur tui c. And hauing by deuout versicles and answeres mutually commended each other to God in their prayers he goeth vp praying in priuate for the remission of his sinnes and that he may worthily ascende vnto the altare The altare as I haue said signifyeth the Cros on which Christ was offered The kisse of the Altare it signifyeth also the Church compacted of many liuing stones and in both respects the Priest often kisseth it to shew how willingly Christ accepted of his Cros for vs and how much he loueth the Catholike Church The right hand of the altare where the booke is first laid signifyeth the Iewes to whom he goeth first because they had the faith of Christ first preached to them The left side of the altare signifyeth the Gentils who at the comming of Christ were in the darknesse of infidelity and he kisseth the altare in the midst to signify the reconciling of both Iewes and Gentils in the Faith of Christ by whom the way of saluation is laid open vnto all Then he goeth to the booke and readeth the Introit The Introit which is taken out of King Dauids Psalmes or of some of the Prophets hauing relation to the solemnity of that Masse and signifyeth the great ioy which the Patriarkes and Prophets had in the foreseeing of Christ to excite vs to more reuerence attention and deuotion to his life and death then represented Then he goeth into the midst of the Altare The Kyrie eleison◠and saith the Kyrie eleysons which are first said thrice in honour of the Father then Christe eleyson thrice in honour of the Sonne then Kyrie eleyson thrice in honour of the holy Ghost The often repeating of them signifyeth the manifold sighes and earnest desire of the holy Fathers and of all the iust soules that where in Limbus whose seionrning was prolonged that they could not haue the perfect and complete ioyes of Heauen vntill the comming of Christ who was to open Heauen gates for them And therefor they prayed earnestly and continually for it Psal 39. as the holy King signifieth saying Expecting I expected our Lord and he hath attended to mee c. Thou art my helpe Psal 112. and my protection my God be not slack And in another place Esa 16. Vnto thee I haue lifted vp mine eyes from whence helpe shall come to mee And the Prophet Esay Send forth ô Lord the Lambe the Dominatour of the earth The Priest hauing prepared himselfe to celebrate the mysterys of Christs life and death Gloria in excelsis Deo and represented the state of the world before his comming and the desires and prayers of the iust for it now declareth the grant of their desires celebrating his comming with a lowde and ioyfull voyce pronouncing Gloria in excelsis Deo c. Glory in the Highest Luc. 2. which are the words with which the Angels praysed God at the comming of Christ singing in his birth Glory in the Highest to God and in earth peace to men of good will An Angell was then sent to say to the Sheepheards Behold I euangelize to you great ioy that shall be to all people because this day is borne to you a Sauiour which is Christ our Lord in the city of Dauid A Starre was sent to illuminate the three Kings vnto Bethleem Simon was sent to wellcome Christ into the
Phil. 2. how much more shall they bow vnto himselfe In like manner the Chalice is consecrated and eleuated that all may adore our Sauiour in it And after the consecration that the Priest hath touched the sacred host he openeth not his singars to touch any other thinge vntill after the consummation that he purifyeth them The sonnes of Caath who were also clergy men of the tribe of Leui and were to carry the arke altare and vessell theirof at the remouing of the campe were not to touch them least they dy Nu. 4. With what reuerence then ought we to touch our sacred host insinitly more perfect then any thinge which they had The reuerence which God commanded them was but in figure to commande more to vs. The consecration is the cheife part of Masse and conteineth indeede the essence of the whole Masse for the death of Christ being then represented the host is offered and consummated also representatiuely and soe it hath euen then the nature of a perfect representatiue or commemoratiue Sacrifice and is a true Sacrifice as I haue shewed After consecration he maketh a commemoration for the dead Memento frr the dead Lib. de cura pro mortuis Which is an institution of the Church highly commended by S. Augustine as most profitable for the soules of many poore people who not hauing meanes to gett themselues prayed for nor freinds to procure prayers to be said in particular for them are not onely partakers of all the suffrages of the Church but also of charity prayed for in euery Masse The Pater Noster is said to professe that all our petitions are asked hoped for Pater Noster and obtained through the merits of Christs Passion who commanded his Apostles Mat. 2. aske and it shall be giuen you It is not meete saith S. Gregory that at Masse when soe many deuout prayers are said which holy men haue made the Pater Noster should be omitted which Christ himselfe made as the best of all prayers The sacred host is diuided to signify the separation of the body and soule of our Sauiour at his death A particle of it is put into the chalice to signify their meeting and revnion againe at his Resurrection For although both the body and soule of our Lord be really conteined in the Chalice as well as in the host yet because the forme of wine representeth the blood of our Sauiour therefor it may more properly signify his soule the Philosopher affirming Agnus Dei. that the blood is the seate of the soule Then Agnus Dei is said that is lambe of God that takest away the sinnes of the world haue mercy on vs. To remember the patience and mildnes of Christ who went as a lambe to the slaughter without resisting or opening of his mouth but permitted himselfe to be bounde by his enemys and if they would to naile him to the Cros and in the end as a lambe bowing his head he gaue vp the ghost Io. 19. Esa 16. Io. 1. Apoc. 5. Pax. And therefor in the Scriptures he is often called a lambe and S. Iohn Baptist seeing him comming towards him said behold the lambe of God Behold him that taketh away the sinnes of the world The Priest kisseth the Pax and then the people kisse it to commende charity peace and concord to Christians as the Disciples of Christ I know not what other kisse the Apostle could meane when he admonished the Corinthians Cor. 2.13 salute one another in the holy kisse but to mutuall charity by some such holy kisse as this which was then vsed in the Catholike Church Then the Priest prepareth himselfe with deuour prayers to receiue the Communion Domine non sum dignus and humbling himselfe with profound reuerence before the sacred host he sayeth Domine non sum dignus c. Lord I am not worthy c. Professing himselfe vnworthy to eate of that Sacrifice in which our Lord and Sauiour is receiued as the humble Centurion who requiring of Christ that he would cure his seruant when he answered that he would come and cure him he thought it too great an honour for him to receiue Christ into his house and said Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter vnder my roofe Mat. 8. but onely say the word and my boy shall be healed Soe the Priest going to receiue Christ in the B. Sacrament sayeth Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter vnder my roose but onely say the word and my soule shall be healed Which words may be said by the people also when they are going to receiue that diuine guest And they are commended also by S. Iohn Chrysostome in his Masse as propper for that time After Communion the Chalice being purifyed and all things decently composed about the altare the booke is turned to the right side againe Post-communion to shew that in the end of the world after Antichrists persecution the ghospell of Christ shall be receiued by the Iewes Then followeth the Post-communion which is the third part of the Masse and conteineth a deuout thanksgiuing to God for the mysterys that are celebrated and representeth the time after the death of Christ of his resurrection vntill his Ascension Then the Priest commeth into the midst of the altare and kisseth it is as it were in congratulation of both Iewes and Gentils receiuing the faith of Christ and turning againe to the booke he concludeth the last prayers which being ended he turneth to the people and dismisseth them saying Ite missa est The word Missa which signifyeth the Masse is an hebrew word signifying a voluntary oblation Deut. 16. as Deut. 16. thou shalt celebrate the festiuall day c. A voluntary oblation of thy hand which thou thalt offer Wherefor voluntary oblation the hebrew word is Missah Hence may the Latine word Missa be probably deriued rather then from Mitto to send which hath but litle connexion with the Masse as it is a Sacrifice And therefor it is most likely that the word Misia the Masse was brought first by S. Peter and the other Apostles to the Latines and that thâ—y receiued the vse of it from them Ite missa est is 〈◊〉 towards the people because it is spoken to them â—â—nedicamus Domino is said towards the Altare because it is a praysing of God as also Requiescant in pace is said towards the Altare as a prayer to him The people answere Deo gratias as giuing thankes or Amen as ioyning prayer with the Priest Lastly with profound humility and reuerence he boweth downe before the Altare to God beseeching him that he will accept of his seruice and the Sacrifice which he hath offered Then turning to the people he blesseth them with the signe of the Cros by which we are put in minde of the blessing which Christ gaue to his Disciples at his departure from them who according to the Euangelist lifting vp his
any other religion nor doubt of their owne as long as they adhaere vnto it but must sticke fast to that pillar and sure ground of truth and beleeue that the spirit of God and assistance of Christ is allwais with the Church and that obeying it they obey the holy Ghost and Christ They by these grounds can not as you see pray to God to inspire them to the true faith but must pray to God that they may allwais continue in the spirit of obedience to the Church as hitherto they haue done And soe this point hath onely soe farre relation to Catholiks as that they may gather by it that as hitherto God hath giuen them his holy light and spirit to reiect all priuate inuentions both of their owne and of others to obey the autority of the whole Church and to adhaere to it soe they ought still to doe and to pray to God that they may allwais doe soe and neuer forsake it But all those who haue goneforth of the Church and followed the priuate inuentions of some particular men as all others but Romane Catholikes haue done beginning new Churches which then were not teaching That it behoueth Protestants and those that are out of the Catholike Church to if examin the state of their owne Church nor gouerning of people in any place but were prohibited by the auncient Church as soone as they beganne and would haue bene prohibited sooner if they had begunne sooner with their new doctrines to oppose it all these and those that follow them of necessity mainteining that the true Church had then failed and that there was then noe true Church in the world which they might submitte vnto but that God sent them to reforme the Church and to restore it to its truth againe as Protestants say that when Luther beganne to oppose the Romane Catholike Church the true faith was perished wholy extinct destroyed not one iot of the ghospel had bene knowne but by his labour and study and the like sayings which may be seene in the booke called THE AVTHOVR OF THE PROTESTANT RELIGION l. â— c. 1. and commonly in authors This they saying as they needes must by consequence to their new reformation they ought in all reason if they will haue any care of their soules to be continually feareful and in doubt concerning their faith and being that the true Church may and did as they say faile and was quite decayed out of the world they ought to pray to God to enlighten them to see whether it be not decayed againe as then they say it was and stande not neede of a new reformation as then they say it did and if it doe that he will bring them to the true faith Or els if they will be out of doubt and free from feares they must beleeue as we doe that the Church could not stande neede of any reformation at all in doctrines of faith and soe to betake themselues againe to the obedience of it and to rest secure and contented with the Apostles Creede I beleeue the Catholike Church without troubling themselues about reforming it But being that they can neuer be certaine in their faith as long as they hold it lawfull to change their religion by reforming of errors in the Church they ought to haue often recourse vnto God to know when they should change their religion and to what religion they should change And this by Gods grace I will now shew them how they shall haue recourse to God for This question therefor I adde here for Cods sake and for those that are out of the Catholike Church that being as I haue shewed in the former title saying their prayers they obtaine not the diuine grace because they pray amisse they may know how to pray And because I conceiue it the most necessary of all points and that on which the conuersion of those that are in a false religion cheifly dependeth that they haue true recourse vnto God and also because it was commended to mee by a very graue and experienced person to procure of such that they will commende the state of their soules to God whose grace worketh much more efficaciously in them then our words can doe and because it is a meanes which none by reason can except against therefor I would adde this whole title for their satisfaction and final good that seeking rightly to God they may obtaine the pretious iewel of true faith in obedience to the true Catholike Church necessary to saluation But that the Protestant or any such reader may receiue that benefit by â—his which I wish him and may haue some feeling of that which we are now treating of I desire him first to take into serious consideration the state of his soule and of religion and that he goe not coldly about this busines which of all thinges in the world concerneth him most and is as important vnto him as his entrance into that happy and blessed state were he shall enioy the glorious sight of God or his entrance into hell where he shall neuer see the diuine face but most irefull and full of rage against him to the extreme horrour of his soule and to thinke truely that in this I aske nothing but that which is both according to his owne grounds and also reasonable in it selfe For his predecessors hauing forsaken the common religion of christians which was then vniuersally professed by that which had the name of the Catholike Church for a religion which had then noe name nor being in any place of the world he may with great reason feare himselfe and with much more reason forsake his new religion for some other that was then extant and especially to that which both is now and was then the most famous of all christendome But that which I now aske of him is not to change but onely to haue recourse to God and to pray vnto him that if his Church doe erre as he sayth that it may and once did that by his diuine light and inspiration he will bring him into the true Church He that were trauailing in a vast wildernes vncertaine of his way and saw the darke night comming on and heard the wild beasts sallying out of their dennes roaring and seeking for their pray in what feare and anguish of minde would he be what would he giue for a guide that could sett him into à safe way free from dangers much more fearefull is the condition of euery man that is out of the Catholike Church this world is the wildernes in which he wandereth heauen is his home obedience to the Catholike Church is the onely way to it death is the night that draweth on and the infernal spirits as wild beasts surrounde him Poore soule thou confessest thy selfe to be in an vncertaine Church which may lead thee to hell and why dost thou not tremble for feare and cry vnto God betake thy selfe vnto him call vpon him beseech him earnestly to guide thee and
the mysterious vnion of our nature vnto God in Christ that the Apostle might wel say we are made the consorts of the diuine nature for as man and woman are made consorts by holy marriage Petr 2 1. their mindes bodys and temporal riches becomming common and as it were all one betwixt them soe the Sonne of God vniting mans nature vnto his they were then two natures in one person and man was made coÌ„sort to the diuine nature and endowed withall the titles and riches of God that according to S. Athâ—nasius his Creede as man consisteth of a spiritual and corporal nature soe that of soule and body is constituted an intire man soe doth Christ consist of two natures diuine and humane There is noe good thinge which we can desire but we haue it in this mystery For our soules being sanctifyed by the passion of Christ they are made also the consorts of the diuine nature by grace and God comming to them as to his spouses bringeth with him all good thinges to them and in the end will carry them into his glorious kingdome These two mysterys of the Blessed Trinity and and of the Incarnation are as I haue said the two cheife mysterys of the christian faith propper onely to christians and destinguishing them from all other people and therefor the signe of the Cros which conteineth them is vsed in the Catholike Church as a breife and ready profession of the faith of Christ that as nations commonwealths and noble familys haue their armes and cognisants by which they are knowne and destinguished and in which they honour themselues soe christians haue the signe of the Cros as their propper armes by which they are knowne and professe themselues to be the children and disciples of Christ and therefor we haue great reason to glory in it and to thinke it our cheife honour and security to haue the armes of such a king and father Hauing declared the sense and signification of the figne of the Cros now we wil speake OF THE WORSHIP WHICH good Christians ought to giue to the Cros of Christ BY that which hath bene said it doth easily appeare that all Christians haue reason to honour the Cros. Infidels Iewes and Turks haue allwais opposed the honour of it pulling downe breaking and defacing of crosses pretending that which is true indeede that the dishonour which they doe to the Cros is done to Christ whose enemys they professe themselues to be Heretiks agree with Infidels Iewes and Turks when they pull downe chrosses and yet wil pretende themselues to be the freinds of Christ and his faithfull seruants hauing wilfully blinded themselues not to see that which the others by nature see that the iniurys which are done vnto the Cros fall voon Christ for whose sake we honour it Heretiks as you see agree here in their actions with Infidels Iewes and Turks and differ onely in pretence from them and natural reason sheweth that Infidels Iewes and Turks say truely in that which they pretende and that such haeretiks haue both euill actions and af alse pretence also and soe they haue in this lesse verity then the former But the Catholike Church hath neuer consented to the iniurys of the Cros because we know that such iniurys fall vpon Christ crucyfied and therefor as fast as they pull downe crosses we labour to set them vp and as they striue to dishonour the Cros we striue against them to honour it We blesse ourselues with the signe of the Cros bow to Crosses kisse and reuerence them we institute holy dayes in honour of it and in all thinges we glory in the Cros of our Lord Iesus Christ as the cheife instrument of his passion and therefor we thinke it a sitte signe to putte vs in minde of it and that we may aptly vnderstande his passion by it Thus hath the Church of God in the Apostles times and euer since vsed the Cros to signify the passion of Christ and honored it in that signification Thus did S. Phil. 3. Paul vnderstande by the enemys of the Cros the enemys of Christs Passion and thus doe Infidels Iewes and Turkes thinke that shewing themselues to be enemys of Crosses they shew themselues to be enemys of the Passion of Christ and haeretiks who professe themselues the Disciples of Christ should by reason conceiue as without doubt they doe a feare and horrour when they abuse Crosses and cannot by reason but thinke themselues enemys of the Passion of Christ when reason telleth them the relation which Crosses haue to it and therefor we rightly honour and worship them What did S. Paul but that which we doe when he said God forbidde that I should glory sauing in the Cros of our Lord Iesus Christ Gal 6. did not he vse here the Cros to signify the Passion of Christ and honour it in that signification in the very same sense doth the Catholike Church vse it and doth nothing but that which S. Paul here did and we may very well make this argument S. Paul vsed the Cros to signify the Passion of Christ and then honoured it in that signification therefor we may lawfully doe soe he gloried inwardly in his hart in the Cros and his tongue and lipps moued corporally in honour of it meaning still to honour the Passion of Christ by it and this is that which good Catholikes doe honouring with their harts and their whole bodys mouing in honour of the Cros vnderstanding by it the Passion of Christ Aug. tract 43. in lo. S. Augustine sayeth that Christ choosing the death of the Cros hath fixed the signe of the Cros in our foreheades that we might say God forbidde that I should glory sauing in the Cros of our Lord Iesus Christ The Cros is the cheife instrument and weapon with which our Sauiour fought and obtained that glorious victory by which he saued vs and therefor we ought to glory in it and to keepe it in great reuerence Dauid fighting for the people of God ouercame the Philistaean gyant and with a sword cut of his head and it pleased God that his sword should afterwards be honored by the people being carefully lapt vp and kept in the temple as a memoriall of their champions victory This is very propper to our purpose Dauid may represent Christ who is our champion but infinitly more glorious and therefor more worthy to be honored by vs. But as the sword was to Dauid soe was the Cros in respect of Christ the instrument of his victory and if it were the will of God to haue Dauid honored afterwards in his sword because the honour of it redounded to him shall not we honour Christ in his Cros and thinke that the honour of the Cros redoundeth vnto Christ If some euill minded man had entred into the Temple and taking downe king Dauids sword from behind the Ephod had abused and broken it would not this man haue bene iust y thought to haue dishonored king Dauid himselfe and
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
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
resurrection of Christ but his resurrection excelleth theirs in many respects First for that he raised himselfe as I haue said by his owne power and all others were raised by his power Secondly he was the first that euer aroze glorious Thirdly others aroze to death as well as to life Fourthly his resurrection was the cause and meanes of all our glorious resurrections In these respects S. Paul calleth him the first fruits of those that rize to life Cor. 15. Christ saith he is rizen from the dead the first fruits of them that sleepe In Christ all shall be made aliue But euery one in his owne order the first fruits Christ then those that are of Christ The resurrection of Christ ought to be a great comfort and encouragement to the good For his rizing to glory hath giuen vs hopes of a glorious resurrection Blessed be God saith S. Pet. 1.1 Peter and the father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath regenerated vs vnto a liuely hope by the resurrection of Iesus Christ from the dead vnto an inheritance incorruptible We are encouraged to beare with patience all afflictions and all kind of persecutions in this world in hopes to rize glorious with him Christ is our head and we are the members of his body and he hauing made way through persecutions for vs we ought couragiously to follow him THE SIXT ARTICLE HE ascended into heauen sitteth at the right hand of God Christ hauing consummated the worke of our redemption by his death on the Cros and after his death performed his resurrection and hauing after his resurrection remained forty dayes on earth to teach his disciples speaking of the kingdome of God that is to say instructing them concerning the gouernment of the Catholike Church which is the kingdome of God vpon earth he had done now all for which his father sent him and was to ascende into heauen and to carry mankind vnto that blessed place of glory which he had purchased for them He tooke therefor his disciples vnto mount Oliuet to be the witnesses of his ascension and lifting vp his eyes and blessing them he was gloriously elâ—uated in their sight and they being â—auished with ioy and spirituall consolation at it behold two Angels whom the Euangelist calleth men stoode beside them in white garments and said to them Act. 1. Ye men of Galily why stande you looking into heauen This Iesus which is assumpted from you into heauen shall soo come as you haue seene him going into heauen Thus would our Sauiour ascende that he might giue vnto the world a tast and scantling of the future glory and a memorial of his second comming This was the most glorious day that euer was to mankind For this is the day of our first entring into heauen The holy Prophet king Danid inuiteth all the world to the ioy of this day saying All ye nations clappe hands Ps 46. make iubilation to God in the voyce of exultation God is ascended in iubilation To day mans nature triumphed in the heauens and that soe glorious that it was exalted aboue all the coelestiall powers of Angels to the very right hand of God Ser. 3. de Ascen See ô man sayth S. Iohn Chrysostome how high thy nature is exalted Consider the distance of heauen and earth and of the lower to the higher heauens and from those higher heauens to the Angels and from them to the higher powers and from those to the seate where our Lord sitteth Humane nature is exalted thus high aboue all that nature which was of it selfe soe low that it could be noe lower became now soe high that it could be raised noe higher And the Holy Ghost to shew how high that glory was which mankind then receiued would inspire the Apostles to make such a remarkeable expression of it as to say that it was set at the right hand of God That as great Princes and eminent personages when they will shew a more then ordinary respect to some other Prince their freind they set him on their right hand soe the nature of man in Iesus Christ who was the Prince of mankind ascending into heauen the king of heauen and of the whole world would be said to set him on his right hand A greater expression of his loue could not be made then this yet thus would he haue his Apostles to expresse it Christ ascended both in body and soule for they being once vnited together in his resurrection were neuer more to be separated againe He ascended by his owne power and not as Elias Abacuc S. Phillip or others who were eleuated into the ayre carried by Angels for their soules and bodys being then vnglorifyed could not by their owne power ascende But Christ besides that he ascended by the power of his diuinity being in the state of glory his body was perfectly subiected to his soule and was therefor eleuated by it and stoode noe neede of the externall helpe of Angels In that he is said to sitt at the right hand of God we are to vnderstande a siguratiue manner of speech which God would haue to be vsed to accommodate himselfe to our weake vnderstandings which can haue nothing represented to them but by the species of corporal thinges and soe Christ is said to sitt at the right hand of God to shew how highly our nature was exalted in him although God haue noe hands nor corporal parts as being a spiritual substance that needeth not them Neither ought we to thinke by this that there is any precedency of place or degrees of dignity in the Persons of the B. Trinity but that the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost are all of equall and infinite dignity Christ according to his humanity is said to sitte at the right hand of God in respect of creatures in that he is superiour to them in dignity and glory And according to his diuine nature he may be said to sitt at the right hand of God in this sense and to this end that we might not vnderstande as Arius did that the Sonne of God was inferiour to the Father For which reason the holy Psalmist also placeth the Sonne at the right hand of the Father Ps 109. and then presently in the same psalme the Father on the right hand of the Sonne to signify equallity betwixt them Let vs now apply this mystery to the profit of our soules that they may haue the benefit of it and receiue the giftes which were then giuen Ps 67. for it is written ascending on high he ledd captiuity captiue he gaue gifts to men Iph. 4. These gifts are too great to be spoken for vnto some he gaue then the gift of heauenly blesse Towit to the soules of those in limbus whom he freed out of captiuity and carried with him And to those whom he left behinde him on earth he gaue the promise of the Holy Ghost and performed that promise within a while sending him to comfort and
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
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
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
freinds This I should not doubt to prooue if neede were by whole armys of men and douils defeated by her But I will alleadge noe more but the two examples of her two notorious enemys Nestorius and Constantinus Copronymus Nestorius was her professed enemy for as he conceited a humane person in Christ as man soe by consequence he robbed his Mother of her supreme title of the Mother of God He would haue her to be called Christotoca or Christipara the Mother of Christ but not Thâ—otoca or Deipara the Mother of God S. Cyril Patriarke of Alexandria vndertooke cheifly against him and spared noe labour to reduce him from his errors often writing vnto him and giuing him seueral meetings to conuince him in presence but all proouing in vaine a General Councell was conuened at Ephesus in which Cyril praesided in place of S. Celestine then Pope Thither came Nestorius with his followers and there he was put to such a publike shame that with six onely complices he went out of the Concell refusing to submitte to it and soe his opinions became haeretical and accursed And although when he saw Iohn Patriarke of Constantinople who had some what fauoured his cause to forsake him afterwards for the disastrous ends of many of his followers he would then seeme to repent yet he had too much haeretical pride to goe thorough with his repentance and to submitte although to the whole world but continuing still in his obstinate minde he suffered condigne punishment euen in this world wandeâ—ing from place to place as a vagabond and desperate Cain and in the end was swallowed vp by the earth aliue It being also recorded of him that his blasphemous tongue was eaten out with wormes before his death Pratcol verb. Nestorius The second example is of Constantin the fift Emperour of that name soe contemptible to posterity that he hath purchased the fowle Surname of Copronymus for that he defiled the font in baptisme He was a very euill man a prophanour of holy things euen to the breaking of Crosses and Crucifixes and a publike scoffer especially at the B. Virgins merits in derision of whom he vsed to hold vp a purse full of money and to aske his souldiers what it was worth and when they had told him what they thought he put forth the money and held vp the empty purse asking them what it was worth then and when they answered that it was worth nothing noe more said he was Mary when Christ was out of her But God punished his blasphemys with many and greeuous punishments First as one sinne is punished with another soe he punished him by most horrible sinnes and by a most enormious course of life which he permitted him to fall into euen to the denying of his christendome and to set vp altars vnto Venus whose nightly solemnitys he kept and killed children to sacrifice vnto her But in the end his pleasures forsooke him and the punishments of God came as a deluge vpon him afflicting him by grecuous paines of feauers goutes and soe horrible a leprosy that in a rage of torment he died crying out I am burnt with euerlasting fire Prateol verb. Constantinus Pray for vs blessed Mother of God NOW AND IN THE HOWER OF OVR DEATH ALTHOVGH the enemy of God be allwais laboring against vs going about as a Lyon to deuoure our soules yet he striueth most against the hower of our deaths waiting then as a serpent at our heeles that is to say at the hinder end of our liues to supplant vs knowing that his time is then but short Apoc. 12. The deuill is descended to you saith the voice from heauen hauing great wrath knowing that he hath but a litle time And therefor amongst many other helpes which we haue then in the Catholike Church we implore the assistance of the Mother of God especially against that hower The death of S. Steuanking of Hungary is worthy of memory in which it was a more honorable spectacle both in the sight of God and man to see his Peeres rounde about him to weepe teares of deuotion when he commended them and his kingdome to our B. Ladys protection then the sweetest hower that euer they enioyed of his wordly maiesty He fell sicke against the feast of her Assumption and made his prayer that he might dy on that day on which the death and Assumption of the Mother of God is celebrated by the Church The day being come the Sacraments and holy rites were administred to him and in the presence of his Prelates and Peeres hauing made a speech in which he tendred his crowne into her hands he departed this life leaâ—ing them with their eyes and faces bathed in teares It hath often bene a comfort to mee to thinke of the happy passage of a yong Gentleman with whom I assisted at his death Who being at the last assalted with a strong and violent agony he constantly called vpon our B. Lady with a lowde and earnest voice often repeating Blessed Mother of God be my Aduocate Blessed Mother of God be my Aduocate And presently casting his eyes towards the bedfeete he seemed there to receiue comfort and putting on a sweet and pleasant aspect with a smiling contenance he departing this world as though some had called him out of prison I say noe more but that which S. Hierome expresly saith and that is that our B Lady helpeth and is present with those that dy That she helped him Hier. ad Eusto I make noe question of it for his earnest prayer but both at that time and euer since I haue thought that she was also visibly then present with him I haue now performed what I promised in honour of the B. Virgin You haue heard her saluted full of grace and you haue seene how this salutation was new and reserued onely for her You haue seene her become the Mother of God and the sonne of God declared to haue bene subiect to her you haue heard her extolled by Prophets in the house of Zachary whilst she liued and what hath bene written of her after her death you haue heard the fathers of the primitiue Church one by one singing her prayses and the whole Catholike Church in a full quire answering after them to desire her prayers you haue seene by some examples how beneficial her prayers are to her freinds and the iudgments of God vpon her enemys Let vs honour her whom God hath soe honored and let vs dedicate our selues from this very instant to her protection all our life time and at the hower of our death Amen THE NINTH DISCOVRSE OF THE ROSARY I Intende now to declare to you the mysterys of the Rosary or Beades which as it is a deuotion so much frequented by all sorts of Catholiks not onely vnlearned but also euen by the most learned and holiest of the Catholike Church soe it is fitting that all should vnderstande it and know how solid and pious it is But fist we will say
not onely see him but tooke him ioyfully into his armes Luc. 2. and then blessed God singing like the swanne before his death Now thou doest dismisse thy seruant ô Lord according to thy word in peace Because mine eyes haue seene thy saluation The fift ten is said in honour of Christ disputing in the Temple His parents hauing bene at Hierusalem to solemnise the feast of the Paschâ— returning home againe and thinking him to haue bene in the company that returned with them they came a dayes iourney and sought him amoÌ„gst their kinsfolkes but not finding him they returned to Hierusalem to seeke him there and after three dayes they found him sitting in the midst of the Doctours astonishing all with his wisedome and answeres These are the fiue ioyfull mysterys The fiue sorrowfull are these First the Praying of Christ in the Garden when the very apprehension of his future Passion was so vehement that he burst forth into a sweat of blood to thinke of it The second is his whipping at the pillar The third is his crowning with thornes The fourth is the carrying of his Crosse when after that they had weakened him with many torments they led him or rather trailed him about the streets of Hierusalem with his heauy Crosse on his shoulders vntil he was soe spout that they who of pitty would not ease him of it in the end of cruelty tooke it from him to prolong his life vntill they had crucifyed him The fift it his crucifying and death All which passages were in themselues most dolorous and next vnto Christ were most greeuous to our blessed Lady who if she were not corporally present at them so as to see euery one of them yet without doubt she was spiritually present at them all and saw by reuelation all which he suffered according to the prophecy of Simeon that a sword should pierce her soule Luc. 3. to wit the sword of sorrow which passed through her sonne In honour of these fiue sorrowfull mysterys we say other sine tenns The fiue glorious are first the Resurrection when Christ rose triumphing ouer death on Easter Sunday the Angell appearing to comfort the deuour women and to the terrour of the souldiers that watched at the monument The second is his Ascension at which the Apostles were rauished to behold his glory The third is the Comming of the holy Ghost on Whit Sunday with terrible and astonishing glory to strengthen the disciples of Christ in the faith of his Ghospell The fourth is the glorious Assumption of our Bâ— Lady whose soule departing from her body in death was presently glorifyed and the third day according to auncient Authors returning to her body to glorify it they were both together assumpted into Heauen for if it bee probably thought of those bodys which arose from the dead in the Resurrection of Christ that they ascended with him glorious into Heauen we can not thinke with reason that the sacred body of which our Lord tooke flesh should corrupt in the earth and remaine soe vntill the day of iudgement vnglorifyed The sift is her glorious Coronation in the Celestiall Court And although these two last mysterys of the Assumption and of the Coronation of our blessed Lady may seeme to some to be the same yet there is a great difference betwixt them her Assumption intending onely her state of glory in generall to wit that she was assumed body and soule into Heaven and her Coronation importing her particular state of glory as she is crowned the Queene of Heauen aboue all Angels and Saints These are in breife the fifteene mysterys of the Rosary The siue ioyfull are the Annunciation The Visitation The Natiuity The Purification of our Lady and the Presentation of Christ The Finding of him disputing in the Temple The siue sorrowfull are The Praying in the Garden The Whipping at the pillar The Crowning with thornes The carrying of the Crosse The Crucifying and death of Christ The fiue glorious are his Resurrection his Ascension The Comming of the holy Ghost The Assumption and Coronation of our blessed Lady When we haue not time or leasure to say all the fifteene tenns in honour of the fifteene mysterys wee may say siue in honour of any fiue of them either of the fiue ioyfull or of the fiue dolotous or of the fiue glorious as we will allwais concluding with the Apostles Creede in profession of our faith It is true all doe not vnderstande that these mysterys are thus conteined in the Rosary nor allways remember them when they say their Beades but the Church of God vnderstoode and remembred them in the approouing and allowing of that deuotion It is not necessary that euery one vnderstande all the mysterys that are conteined in his prayers but he shall please God if he conforme his intention to the intention of the Church in them Luc. 3. although he vnderstande them not Who can vnderstande saith Saint Augustine all the ceremonys of the Church yet we please God in obseruing them because we conforme our intentions to the intention of the Church which was directed by the holy Ghost to ordaine them It were indeed very good that all vnderstoode the mysterys of the Rosary and therefore we expounde them And it were very good that all remembred them when they say their Beades and therefore before euery ten I vse to mention in particular the mystery of that ten as for example before the first Patâ—r Noster Isay Blessed Mother of God by thy Annunciation pray for mee Before the second I say Blessed Mother of God by thy Visitation pray for mee and so forth of the rest whether I say the whole Rosary or onely fiue tenns of it by which meanes one shall attende better to the deuotion which he is performing and performe more expresly that which the Church intendeth by it which is to set holy obiects before our eyes and to propose to our consideration the mysterys of our faith The intention therefore of the Catholike Church by the Rosary is to keepe the ignorant especially those that can not reade imployed in this deuout exercise and to propose vnto all the remembrance and consideration of holy things From whence proceedeth that coldnesse loosnes and auersion from good works and holy exercises which is in many but from the want of consideration of pious things Hier. 12. with desolation is all the land made desolate saith Hieremy because there is none that considereth in the hart Good obiects proposed are the seede of good thoughts and bring forth good purposes and good works The feede must first be sowne in the senses that by the vnderstanding and will the fruit of good works may be produced and therefor as holy Iacob placed rodds of diuerse colours before his ewes that they might conceiue and bringforth lambes of diuerse colours like them soe the Pastors of the Catholike Church set before their people holy obiects that by beholding them they may conceiue good
our Lord is a Sacrifice The Masse is a Sacrifice that is the action of Sacrifizing the body and blood of our Lord is a Sacrifice that is the thinge which is Sacrifized or offered at Masse The worship of Sacrifice hath bene esteemed at all times and by all religions soe necessary to be giuen to God that there neuer was any religion in the world according to Turseline before the Turks soe Barbarous but as they allwais worshipped some God soe they offered some kind of Sacrifice to him in soe much that Plutarch could say that it was easier to finde cittys without temples Plut. aâ— uers Color and coynes of moneys without inscriptions Then temples without altares To wit to Sacrifice vpon For the same natural reason that teacheth all people to defende themselues and to honour their superiors teacheth them also to worship God with some high and soueraigne worship aboue all propper onely to him And therefor it was a good expression of this authour to declare by the foresaid similitudes the nature and necessity of Sacrifice for as cittys are defended by walles and principalitys destinguished and acknowledged by the impressions of their coynes soe the worship of God is mainteined and his supreme principality destinguished and acknowledged by the worship of Sacrifice as due and propper onely to him L. 10. de Ciu. Dei Quis enim Sacrificandum censuit sayeth S. Augustine nisi ei quem Deum aut sciuit aut putauit aut finixit for who euer deemed that Sacrifice was to be offered to any but to him whom he either knew or thought or feigned to be God And therefor saith he the deuill hath labored soe much to haue Sacrifice offered by Infidels vnto him because it is the highest and properly diuine worship And therefor shall Antichrist striue soe much to take away the daily Sacrifice of Masse as Daniel figuratiuely Prophecyed in wicked Antiochus because it is the highest externall act of religion We offer vp to God the acts of our minde as spiritual Sacrifices and we offer vp also some corporall thinge to him to acknowledge him the authour both of our body and soule and of all spiritual and corporal thinges In the Law of nature Sacrifices were offered to God and in the Law of Moyses which was more perfect then that Sacrifices also were offered to him and shall he want his supreme worship in the Law of Christ which they did but praesigure as to be perfected by it Noe The shall haue a much more perfect Sacrifice and that is the sacred body and blood of our Lord offered euery day to him This is our Sacrifice the very same that was offered on the Cros the most noble and pretious of all corporal thinges and therefor most worthy to be the Sacrifice of that Law and Religion which the sonne of God in his owne person was to institute amongst vs. ALL TRVE SACRIFICES BEfore Christ were but Types and Emblemes of honour to setforth the dignity of our Sacrifice THE Sacrifices of the Law of Nature and of the Law of Moyses were good and holy Sacrifices yet as those Lawes did but signify the more perfect Law of Christ which was to come soe their Sacrifices which were the cheife things of those Lawes were but figures of ours Their Sacrifices of Beeues Calues Rammes Lambes Turtles and the like were killed and their blood was shed vpon the Altare to signify the Lambe of God whose blood was to be shed vpon the Altare of the Crosse There were in the Law of Moyses three kindes of Sacrifices the Holocaust the Placable host and the Peaceable host The Holocaust is as much as to say all burnt For it was not offered for any particular end or intention but onely to giue supreme honour to God and therefore it was all totally consumed in honour of him The Placable host was to appease the diuine wrath when by some sinne they had offended him and it was diuided part of it being consumed to God and part giuen to the Priest to signify that the remission of sinnes proceedeth cheifly from God as the principal cause and secondarily from Priests as the instruments and meanes by which his poweris applyed to vs. The Pacifique or Peaceable host was offered for the obtaining of some benefit which they desired or in thanks-giuing for some which they had obtained and it was diuided into three parts the one of which was consumed to God another was giuen to the Priest and another remained to the party that offered it to signify that all benefits proceede from God by the help of Priests and by our owne endeauours concurring with them All these Sacrifices were fullfilled in ours to wit in the sacred Body of Christ our Sauiour He was our Holocaust quite consumed in his death vpon the Crosse he was our Placable host that appeased the wrath of God against vs he our Peaceable host by whom we haue all benefits Their bloody Sacrifices more expresly signifyed his body as it is was offered on the Crosse and their vnbloody Sacrifices of first fruits corne flower bread and the like represented more particularly the same body as it is offered after an vnbloody manner vpon the holy Altare at Masse But the Planest figure of the Sacrifice of Masse was a Lambe with Bread and Wine offered euery day in the Law of Moyses to signify the Lambe of God offered vnder the signes of bread and wine as the daily and continuall Sacrifice of the Law of Christ then to come Our Sacrifice then is the substance of those shaddowes and the glorious mystery which they were to signify This S. Andrew the Apostle of Christ professed as the Priests of Achaia in his Martyrdome rehearse when being vrged by Aegeas to offer Sacrifice to Idols he had this answere ready for him I offer euery day vpon the Altare an immaculate Lambe whose flesh when all the people haue eaten the Lambe that was sacrifyzed remaineth whole and aliue Thus did he glory in our immaculate Lambe which euery day as a Priest he offered and which the people then vsed euery day to receiue And in these words he planely intimateth that the sacrifices of the Law of Nature and of Moyses and especially that of the daily Lambe were but sigures to dicipher shaddows to denote and emblemes of honour to setforth the dignity of ours that was then to come a Sacrifice like them but infinitly more perfect And those Sacrifices being shaddowes of ours then to come they were to vanish away and to be offered noe more when it once came because then they lost their nature which was to signify ours as future But the holy Sacrifice of Masse representing noe other future Sacrifice and being the most perfect of all Sacrifices can neuer be made voide by any nor shall euer haue an end vntill the end of the world But we will shew THAT THE SACRED BODY OF our Lord as it is offered at Masse is a true Sacrifice THE
Body of our Lord was truely offered as a Sacrifice on the Crosse So in the Eucharist it is truely offered as a Sacrifice at Masse Protestants say that his true Body is neither truely offered as a Sacrifice at Masse nor is the Eucharist any Sacrifice at all nor yet is he soe much as present in it What commeration doe they make according to this doctrine of his death on the Cros where he was both truely present and a true Sacrifice The truth is that they laboring to pull downe the Masse as the cheife and highest worship of God which the Catholike Church had regarded not to take away all commemoration of Christs Passion and to leaue the world for euer after without any Sacrifice at all We haue in the acts of the Apostles Act. 13. where they are said to haue bene ministring to our Lord. Which planely denoteth that they were offering of Sacrifice for if they had bene preaching or administring the Sacraments onely then they had ministred to the people but to minister to God can haue noe other propper signification but to offer somethinge to God In the Greeke text it is expresly they being offering of Sacrifice and Erasmus himselfe Translateth it soe expounding the word lyturgy which the Greekes tooke from thence to signify the Church seruice Missa the Masse Soe that the Apostles had Sacrifice and Masse The Church hath declared this verity in seueral General Councells The first Councell of Nyce Can. 13. and more planely in another Canon which Doctour Kellison mentioneth out of Surius and out of the Reuerend Lord Cuthbert Tunstall the last Cathol ke Bishop of Durham of whose consanguinity I very much glory as a glorious Confessour of the Catholike Church The same after many General Councells is lastly declared by the Councell of Trent in which it is defined that a true and propper Sacrifice is offered to God at Masse Sess 22. c. 1. 2. Holy and auncient fathers haue spoken planely of a Sacrifice in the Church and haue called it by the word Missa the Masse Can. 3. Soe the Apostles in their canons requiring that those who are present at the Church seruice when they haue heard the Scriptures of the Apostles and the ghospell they remaine vntill Masse be done Clem. ep 3. S. Clement who liued in the Apostles times admonisheth the Clergy that they doe nothing without the licence of the Bishop and in particular that noe Priest say Masse with out it Eccl. hier c. 3. Amb. in Luc. 1. Aug. l. 10. de ciu Dei c. 19. 20. Ser. 13. de verb. Apost L. 3. de bap c. 19. Bed l. 4. c. 12. S. Denis the Disciple of S. Paul calleth the Sacrifice of the Church the quickening holy Sacrifice the vnbloody host and victime S. Ambrose sayth that there is noe doubt but that the Angels doe assist when Christ is immolated S. Augustine elegantly describeth the destinction of our inward and outward Sacrifice declaring how that Christ according to his humanity is the Sacrifice and according to his diuinity receiueth it and calleth it the Sacrifice of our mediatour the Sacrifice of our price the Sacrifice of the New Testament the Sacrifice of the Church And in another place he stileth it the onely inconsumptible victime without which there were noe religion S. Bede who liued after them although about a thousand yeares since relateth a notable histoty to setforth the power of the Masse The summe of which is that a Gentleman who serued the King of Northumberland in his warres being sore wounded in batle was taken by the enemy and recouering of his wounds was sold vnto a merchant of London His brother who was a Priest thinking him to haue bene killed said euery day Masse for him and to shew the power and essicacy of the Masse in loosing of the soule from punishments in the next world it pleased God that allwais at that time of day in which his brother said Masse for him the fetters with which he was bounde of their owne accord were loosed from him in soe much that is patrone obseruing it and acknowledging some mystery in it gaue leaue to his bondsman to goe amongst his freinds to procure his ransome It is a story worthy to be read at large in S. Bede who endeth the narration of it in these words this because I know it to be true I would insert it into my Ecclesiasticall History And if it be true as S. Bede saith he knew it to be it must manifestly conclude for the dignity power and efficacy of the Masse according as it is vsed in the Catholike Church and that it is a Sacrificè as we beleeue it to be Finally the Masse is soe auncient and soe planely testifyed by the primitiue fathers of the Church of Christ that a Protestant authour Confesseth that noe beginning there of after the Apostles times can be shewen Ascham apol pro Coena Do. Calu. in Heb. 9. Which when Caluin saw to be true he could not conteine himselfe but broke forth into these irreuerent words that the destinction of a bloody and vnbloody Sacrifice is a Scholastical and friuolous innention adding another farre worse terme which I will not repeate and concludeth nil moror quod veteres scriptores sic loquantur I care not for auncient writers saying soe Noe Caluin cared not for auncient writers sayings but good Catholikes care for them It shall allwais be a comfort to vs to haue our doctrine confirmed by the sanctity learning and antiquity of such writers as I haue produced in testimony of the Masse and by such miracles as S. Bede hath related which I needed not to haue mentioned ouer againe but for Caluins rash words We shew by such writers that it was the doctrine of the auncient Catholiks and we beleeue it to be true because the whole Catholike Church doth soe beleeue And this whole Church was contradicted by Caluin when he beganne his doctrine in opposition and disobedience to all the Churches of the world And for this I will adde further the words of the Apostle we haue an altare Heb. 13. where of they haue not power to cate that serue the tabernacle He speaketh there to some who being conuerted from Iudaisme to the faith of Christ were still inclining to the Iewish Sacrifices and to disswade them from this he compareth together their altare and ours and preferreth ours By which it is manifest that we had a Sacrifice in the Apostles times for what are altares for but to offer Sacrifice on and the Apostle comparing these two altares together must suppose and vnderstande their Sacrifices by them for the altares are not eaten but the Sacrifices which are offered on them and therefor as the Iewish altare had a Sacrifice which was eaten soe had the altare of the Apostles or els there is noe comparison betwixt the two altares nor connexion in the Apostles speech To the former authoritys I adde this reason The
which the cheife and essentiall parts of Masse are conteined Oslertory The Offertory is a praise giuing to God after the preaching of the Ghospell thatas faith commeth by hearing and is receiued in the hart so prayse also may be giuen by the mouth It is a deuout and auncient custome to offer gifts at the Offortory by which the people concurring then with the Priest and consenting to that which he doth say as it were I beleeut and professe that which is here professed and I consent vnto and combine with the Priest to offer that which he offereth to God These offerings are iustifyed by our Sauiour himselfe Mat. 5. saying If thou offer thy gift at the Altare c. goe first and be reconciled to thy brother and then comming thou shalt offer thy gift And God expresly commanded in the law of Moyses Deut. 16. that when they came to the solemnitys of the Temple There shall not appeare before our Lord any empty but euery one shall offer according to that he hath according to the blessing of our Lord his God which he shall giue him Then the Host and the Chalice are prepared and offered The bread is then called an immaculate host not for that it is then an host but in respect of the future for that it is to be a most immaculate Host and perfect Sacrifice as the tree of Paradise was called the tree of the knowledge of good and cuill in respect of the future for that we were to haue the knowledge of euill by it This offering before consecration signifyeth the voluntary oblation by which Christ offered himselfe in minde before the oblation of the Crosse A little water is mixt to the wine Chrysost in Missa according to the custome of the auncient Church to signify the issuing out of blood and water from the side of Christ when one of the soldiers blindly but mysteriously opened it with a lance The Host and the Chalice being deuoutly prepared the Priest turneth about to the people and sayeth Orate fratres to desire their prayers Orare fratres that the host may be pleasing to God and profitable to them and to the whole Church and they pray accordingly Then the Priest prayeth in secret Secr. tâ— praycrs to represent the time of Christs retirement For the Priests of the Iewes and Pharisys seeing the force of his doctrine and miracles and that by no meanes they could preuaile against them procured an edict to be setforth to apprehende him and laid in wait to haue killed him But what are the councells of man to contest with God sometimes he disappeared out of their sight and past vnseene through the midst of them Ioan. 7. some time she rerired himselfe and kept out of their hands because his time was not yet come But the Feast of the Pasch drawing neere he returned from beyond the seas of Galily into Iury againe Prasaâ—ion for he chose for his Passion the Paschall time when greatest refort of all nations might he at Hierusalem as spectators and witnesses of his sufferings Then he preached publikly amongst them and with that applause of the people that for all the power and malice of his enemys they slocked neuerthelesse by multitudes vnto him and with great honour and acclamations of ioy conducted him solemnely into Hierusalem as the Church celebrateth in the office of Palme Sunday and is now celebrated at the Praefation and therefore the Priest spreadeth his hands intoken of ioy and inuiteth all the Angelicall quires to prayse God with him repeating the words which the people then cryed saying Mat. 21. Blessed is he that commeth in the name of our Lord. Hosanna in the Highest and the words of the Seraphims who cryed Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus Holy Holy Holy in the presence of God Esa 6. and he maketh the signe of the Crosse before him to shew how litle Christ regarsted the glory of this world that in all that prompe he had nothing before his eyes but the good of soules weeping then for the sinnes and desolation of that people This part of the Masse is called the Praefation or Praeface as an introduction to the Passion of Christ which is represented at the consecration His birth was celebrated at the Gloria in excelsis his life vntill he beganne to preach is signifyed in that which followeth vnto the ghospell his preaching in the ghospell and Creede the beginning of his persecution in the secret prayers his glorious entrance into Hieâ—tsalem in the Praeface his last supper and death is commemorated in the consecration After the Praeface followeth the Canon Canon that is to say the rule and order Which Christ the Apostles and their successors haue instituted for the deuout and worthy offering of this Sacrifice The Priest prayeth for his superiors spiritual and temporall and for his benefactors and freinds that are liuing and for whom or whatsoeuer he intendeth to pray professing all our hopes and confidence to be in this blessed Sacrifice he prayeth in secret to signify the dolorous time of Christs Passion he maketh then a commemoration of our B. Lady and of the Saints mentioning none but martyrs as witnesses of Christs Passion in their blood For although our B. Lady did not actually suffer death for Christ yet she was a Martyr in that she actually suffered the paines of death that is to say paines sufficient to haue depriued her of life according to the Prophecy of Simeon that a sword should pierce her soule The time of consecration drawing neere the Church prostrateth herselfe with all humility in prayer to God Consecration beseeching him that as there neuer was nor euer can be any thinge soe deere and pleasing to him as Iesus Christ his onely sonne and as the works which he did and ordinances which he ordained and as of all the ordinances which he left to the Church this is the cheife and summe of all in which he would bequeath his owne body to remaine for our continuall Sacrifice amongst vs soe he will vouchsafe to accept of that Sacrifice and the loue of him to be soe grounded in vs that in all temptations and aduersitys of this world we may cleaue to him and in the end be admitted into his blessed company in heauen He taketh then the host into his hands and blesseth it with the signe of the Cros. S. Augustine Ser. 181. de temp with the signe of the Cros we consecratethe body of our Lord and whatsoeuer is consecrated in the name of Christ is consecrated with this signe The host is then consecrated that manner of consecration being exactly obserued which Christ commanded at the last supper After consecration he kneeleth downe to the blessed Sacrament Eleuation and neuer toucheth it or vncouereth the Chalice without kneeling downe of reuerence to it for if the Apostle requireth that euery knee bow of the calestials terrestrials and insernals at the name of Iesus
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
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
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
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