to do perversly learn to do well Come disprove me if you can or if you cannot Confesse that the things which we preach unto you are True The XV. Conclusion THat Christians in the Contemplation of Christ crucified also do find inestimable delectations We come to the knowledge of Invisible things in this life by the means of things visible because as philosophy teacheth our understanding naturally follows the phantasie that is apprehends nothing but what is prepared as it were and offered to her from thence Now there is no visible object in the world which can more effectually lead us unto the knowledge and contemplation of divine things then the Consideration of Christ crucified proceeding from a lively Faith Because indeed nothing can more effectually declare the goodnesse and inestimable charity of God towards man For seeing that to be loved is a thing of it self very agreeable to nature to be beloved in this manner of God that is unto so high a pitch that he should vouchsafe to be crucified himself for us who can think but that it is a pleasure of all pleasures to conceive Now such a love of God towards us doth the consideration of Christ crucified present unto our minds and therefore of necessity must cause in them ineffable delectations Besides hope of Good is a thing which naturally causeth delight as making in some sort the good we hope for present to us and the greater and more certain the good is which we hope so much the greater and more perfect delight is caused But there can be no greater good imagined then that which Christians hope for by the Passion nor more certain for as much as they are assured thereof by God himself who for that intent namely that he might make it sure to them was Crucified Therefore from such hope so great so sure Christians cannot but receive singular Consolation Thirdly Admiration is naturally accompanied with delight for as much as he which wonders at any thing is commonly possessed also with some great desire and hope to know what the matter is at which he finds himself to wonder Now what more admirable yea astonishing then that God Almighty should be made man and dye upon a Gibbet to save men Seeing therefore that Christians in the Contemplation of Christs Passion do consider this and also conceive most firm hope to attain one day unto an absolute assurance and sight of so rare a mystery how can they be otherwise affected then with excesse of delight Fourthly seeing God Almighty is so infinitely perfect and great it was not possible that by any one creature he could be competently expressed but it seemed necessary to his Divine wisdome to create an Universe of Creatures that is this whole world in the latitude and variety whereof the Spirit of man might have scope enough and find infinite examples wherein to contemplate even unto ravishment the singularities of his perfection And seeing in like manner that the goodnesse of the same God our blessed Saviour doth as infinitely surpasse all humane understanding not one onely or some few but a million a numberlesse multitude of divine gracious and stupendious works were requisite by him also to be done but to expresse it in some part in the meditation of which our souls are fed yea glutted as it were with admiration and content Amongst which none bearing more lively or legible Characters of his Love then that of his Passion it follows that in his Passion and the Contemplation thereof greatest content must be found as experience also proveth in an infinite number of Christians who by their actions have more then sufficiently shewen the sense they have had of the Crosse of our Saviour It were an endlesse labour to go about to expresse them the infinite variety the multitude and excesse of those joyes which the servants of God have tasted from time to time and do daily taste in this kind The lives yea the deaths of those antient Christians do abundantly testifie how great they were who in infinite multitudes of both sexes and of all Conditions men and women for the name and for the love of this crucified Jesus not onely patiently endured all sorts of persecutions and affliction but even exulted and leapt for joy in the midst of their tortures dying rather through the extremity of their delights then pain The number of Monks and other solitary persons is infinite who in all times for the love of Jesus have withdrawn themselves from the world and made choice to live in wildernesses and caves of the earth poor naked destitute of all things save the comforts of divine Love onely to attend unto this Contemplation Lastly the learnedest Doctours and wisest men of the world how often have they abandoned not onely the pleasures and vanities of the world which were scarce worthy of them but even their most pleasing and most commendable Studies yea their own selves also for the love and Contemplation of this Jesus The XVI Conclusion THat the holy Scriptures do exceedingly elevate the mind of good Christians unto these Contemplations First because All Scripture generally doth relate unto Christ crucified according to that of the Apostle The end or scope of the law is Christ And for as much as writing in its own nature is but the sign of words spoken as speech is of conceptions or thoughts because our thoughts do alwayes proceed from some interiour light or Illustration of the mind by how much that light is greater and more excellent so much the greater also and more perfect must the Conceptions be and the speech consequently more powerfull and the writing wherein that speech is represented more admirable and profound Now light supernaturall is alwayes greater and more perfect then naturall And seeing also that there be severall degrees in that light it cannot be doubted but the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists had the greatest measures thereof as being the men whom Almighty God was pleased so singularly to Illuminate as that neither in writing nor preaching they could so mistake as to deliver falsehood for truth Therfore also were their meditations their speech and all expressions of themselves alwayes profound powerfull and serious He therefore that presumeth to understand their writings without supernaturall Illustration is as wise as he that would have a bird to fly without wings of which sort yet there are some in the world viz. certain Philosophers Rhetoricians Grammarians Poets of this age who not knowing or not considering the profundity of sacred Scriptures do venture upon them with the same temerity as they do upon Tully Hortensius or some other of their windy Authours and perhaps not finding in them those flashes of elegance or subtilty to which themselves are accustomed presently they fall to slight and think meanly of them imagining weak men nothing to be so sublime as Plato's Philosophy no eloquence comparable to some piece of Cicero But he which dwelleth in heaven shall one day laugh these
champion is it brought to light because our understanding having Verity for its object is naturally inclined unto it as to its proper perfection and where the more it shines with greater delight it is embraced but then Verity appears most when it is most sharply impugned because in the very discussion and conflict of disputation it manifests it self Seeing therefore that Christian Doctrine having been so vehemently impugned by so many Philosophers and Tyrants hath alwayes remained invincible and victorious which the infinite volumns of Christians testifie it is consequent that its truth proceeded from Almighty God otherwise in so many conflicts it had not so long remain'd unconquer'd CHAP. IX Christian Faith proved true out of their use of Prayer and Contemplation AS Faith and the reading holy Scriptures Auscultation and Meditation is the principall cause of a Christian life so Prayer is its principall nourishment where it hath its growth and perfection for by long experience we have found in our Religion that all those who profit in our Religion and have arrived to the highest degrees of sanctity have attained it by frequent and continuall Prayer and we have observed that they have taken such gust and complacence in it that they have despised all other humane delights as vile abject and unworthy of them Nor doth this happen onely to the most eminent and learned sort of those which flourish in sanctity but it is commonly found in the simple and ignorant as well men as women and even in all those who have learned to leade a Christian life By this effect therefore we may prove the Verity of out Faith Almighty God being a pure Act the first Verity and an infinite Light the nearer a man makes his approach unto him the more abundartly doth he partake this Purity Verity and Light But man doth not make his approach unto Almighty God by corporall paces but by the purity of life elevation of mind and contemplation of Verity Seeing therefore that there can be no life more candid and more sincere then that of Christians and that then the mind of man is most pure when it is wrapt up in a soaring and extaticall contemplation of the Divine perfections it follows that man is most possessed of this Verity and Light as he is in the very act of prayer and contemplation and seeing that we find by experience that Christians as they encrease in the fervour of Devotion and frequency of Prayer are more and more confirmed in their Faith and inflamed with the love of Christ and profit in virtue we must confesse that the Faith Verity and Light of Christian Religion is Divine Our understanding affecting Verity as its proper perfection and abhorring Falsity as its greatest enemy man is in nothing so disposed for the entertaining of Verity and rejecting of contraries as in the very act of Prayer and Contemplation by which he doth most stedfastly and ardently embrace the documents of Faith which therefore cannot be erroneous Moreover all Christians in their Prayers to Almighty God do beseech him to grant that for the which they pray by the merits of Christ for in the end of every prayer they most commonly adde some such form Through Jesus Christ our Lord or Through Christ our Lord and yet they obtain admirable and incredible graces from him which if any should not believe yet certainly they must grant that which by daily experience is manifest that they obtain that which they principally seek after the righteousnesse of a virtuous life the quiet and joyfulnesse of mind so as they preferre the pious tears of Devotion farre before any delights and pleasures of the world Now certainly if Christ were not he whom our Faith proclaims him to be they could not in so great a serenity of mind and at so near a distance of so great a light be environed and buried in so great a darknesse nor would Almighty God permit them to be so grosly deceived or at least if they were obstinate in an errour he would not grant their petitions Again every cause disposing its matter for the producing its effect after it hath introduced its last disposition immediately produces it nor would it dispose the matter unlesse it meant to Introduce the form nor any cause of motion would produce it if it intended not some end of the motion produced but a just man unlesse he were invited and drawn on by Almighty God who is the first cause of all things could not elevate his mind unto him by prayer Blisse therefore being the end of prayer and a virtuous life Almighty God would not induce man unto those means of prayer and virtue unlesse he intended to make him finally blessed If therefore Christians makig progresse in virtue and prayers become more grounded and settled in their Faith and Contemplation of Christ their Faith cannot be but from Almighty God by which he leades men unto blisse Every cause grants as I may say unto its effect what it asks the effect asks of its cause it s due and proper perfections which then it is said to exact when it is rightly disposed for then the cause if not otherwise hindred delaies not the execution of the effect infusing that quantity of perfection into it which the degree of disposition doth exact which immediate execution proceeds out of its facility and goodnesse which of its nature is desirous to communicate it self Almighty God therefore being the most sovereign good questionlesse will more then other causes which have not so great goodnesse grant the petitions to this effect especially unto those which are best disposed for the receiving his favours as are Christians chiefly when they are in the act of Prayer and Contemplation but Christians ask nothing more then the light of truth according to that of the Psalmist Ill umina oculos meos nè unquam obdormiam in morte Enlighten my eyes that I never sleep in death And therefore Almighty God never denies them their request but Christians the more they pray the more they are confirmed in their Faith therefore this our discourse is of greater force Further if Christ were not God to professe himself so would be the most supreme degree of blasphemy and detestation that could be Now if Christians do pray to God the Father through Christ whom they believe to be of the same nature with the Father and the holy Ghost how doth Almighty God permit them in so great an errour arising out of ignorance and simplicity and doth not draw them out of it knowing that they serve him with their whole affection and humbly beg of him the knowledge of truth or if their obstinacy be in fault why doth he leave so great a wickednesse and treason against his Divine Majesty unrevenged or why doth he as we see him favour this errour and impiety whilst bestowing so many and great gifts on them he questionlesse grants them that which they ask at his hands Our soul as I have said doth
is directed to its proper end for the end of every thing is its supreme and chief good whence those that in the studies of arts do so regard the end that they direct all other subordinate things unto it are called masters of that art As in Architecture those work-men which carry the stones wood lime and other requisits are not said to be architects but those which give the chief disposition proportion and form to the building In artificiall things they having onely their particular ends in which the end of man doth not consist he that shall be skilfull in those is not to be term'd absolutely wise but with a restriction to his art He therefore is rightly to be styled absolutely wise who observing the supreme and consummate end of humane life doth dispose all fit means and all his actions and operations unto it But Jesus the Nazarean efficaciously teaching his Disciples and Followers shew'd them the true end of mans life and the true means by which they were to arrive unto it and this not onely by his Word but by his lively example so that no end of humane life can be found out or imagined better or more perfect then the life of Christians Wherefore it is clear that neither amongst the Gods of the Gentiles suppose the impossibility of their Deity nor amongst men there ever was or could be found a wiser then Christ The sign of a knowing man is to be able to teach for when a man is arrived unto the perfection of a Science he can easily teach it others as in naturall things for example When a man hath attained unto a perfect age he is capable of propagating mankind by generation of children but there was not any other God or man from the beginning who taught a more profitable wisdome then that of Christians or who taught it with greater facility as for the learning of Philosophers it is obscure and scarce to be learned in long time and perplexed with many difficulties and errours by reason of which the very masters themselves are very uncertain and anxious as I have said before that they were concerning the divine Providence and in the end of humane life but after the supreme wisdome of our Saviour and Master Christ appeared the world was so illustrated in a short time with the Doctrine of the divine Providence and Goodnesse of the immortality of the soul of the end and beatitude of man of the means to arrive unto it and many other documents that Christians of both sexes even in their tender age and infancy did more clearly penetrate those things then famous Philosophers had done by their great industry and study And they became so constantly grounded in this Doctrine that they had rather suffer a thousand torments even to death it self then impiously deny the least tittle of the Doctrine of Christ The virtue of the cause appears the greater the further it operates and the quicker wherefore the more quicker that Wisdome hath its effect in men the more questionlesse is its power 'T is not the work of a principall virtue or industry to make those wise which are docile and have their minds greatly disposed for wisdome but suddenly to teach fools children dullards girls reprobates and most wicked men and strumpets wisdome and convert them unto a good life exceeds all humane forces But our Christ Jesus did not onely convert innumerable of those but also of prudent and learned men presently with onely a beck and made a change in their lives by the true compunction of their hearts and daily doth not cease from those effects which none ever of the Gods or men have done and therefore his Wisdome and Doctrine is to be preferred before all When Nature is determined to do something in particular it is not to be esteem'd the part of any rare virtue to effect it in naturall things by means which are naturall as if a spirituall creature by the application of fire to a house should straight burn it which was not hard for any man to do but if it were performed by contrary causes as by striking fire out of ice to raise a great combustion this would be esteemed a work of great virtue It is a sign therefore of a supreme and infinite virtue to produce all naturall effects without any naturall instrument or to do any thing with any instrument or to do it with the instruments ordained for contrary effects Wherefore to teach wisdome by due and naturall means according to the wonted capacity of men as the Philophers do is no matter of admiration but to teach us the supreme and ineffable wisdome by the folly of the world that is by those things which men commonly esteem foolish and absurd and to convert those follies into the instruments of divine Wisdome and to place the chief Wisdome in them is a most difficult work and to be esteemed onely Divine For if the horrour and contumely of the Cross together with the scorns buffets stripes and torments which Christ in his death did suffer be rightly considered there could be found nothing more foolish and horrible then the Crosse before Christ was nailed unto it but Christ by means of it did infuse into the wood the most sovereign of all Wisdomes as all Christians do professe and testifie by daily experience therefore the supreme and divine Wisdome hath been onely found in Christ Jesus Also Wisdome being the honour and badge of Divine things certainly that Wisdome is to be preferred before all others which teaches men Divine things better then all others but this hath been done by none so well as by that of Christ therefore this must be the most excellent of all But that it is so appears out of the Writings before Christ which are not contained in his Doctrine which if they be compared with the Books and Monuments of Christians thou wilt easily confesse that there were very few things taught by the Philophers and other Authours Nay what is more Christian Doctrine doth extremely conduce to the increase and perfection of Philosophy it self seeing it doth so wonderfully every way lay open the knowledge of Divine things that almost all Christians do professe know and teach those things which before them were scarce understood by the Prophets themselves And after the preaching of the Apostles men did so blush at their own errours and strive to purge themselves of them in such sort as if having wandred in a dark night and weltred in the dirt of their errours being environed on a sudden with a great light beholding their impurities and stricken with shame and confusion they had endeavoured to cleanse themselves for both the Philosophers and Poets being confounded at the worship of their Idols at their old wives stories and impure dotage the light of Christ once shining at whose abundant lustre they were dazled they endeavoured to make good one lie with another to feign their Allegoricall Interpretations when they saw they could by
and in her prayers more and more instantly recommends her Sonne it is not the place of the dead body but the Mothers lively affection perhaps excited and quickened by the memory of the place which succours the soul of the deceased For doubtless it doth not unprofitably concern the religious mind of one that prayeth to consider at once both who is recommended and to whom he is recommended Even as we see men that pray do commonly so dispose the members of their body as usually is most proper and effectuall for suppliants to do as when they bend their knees when they spread their hands when they prostrate their bodies on the ground or do any other visible action of that nature although I say their invisible will and hearts intention be known well enough unto God who needs none of these signs to make him see what is in the heart of man yet certainly the man who prayeth doth move himself to pray to lament to grieve by such motions and postures as those much more humbly much more fervently and devoutly then otherwise he would Yea and how it comes to pass I know not seeing these motions of the body are not made but by some precedent motion of the mind yet certain it is that by these externall actions visibly done that other invisible motion which caused them is reciprocally increased and by this means that affection of mind which preceded those Actions as the cause of them is it self also increased because they are done and yet notwithstanding when it happens that a man is held in such sort or perhaps tyed by constraint that he cannot so dispose his corporall members as willingly he would his interiour man ceaseth not therefore to pray nor yet to prostrate himself before Almighty God in the more secret Cabinet of a contrite heart In like manner truly it much imports where a man can place the dead body of him for whose soul he intends to supplicate almighty God Observe this that it much imports even wherthe body is interred because both his precedent affection did chuse an holy place and also having put the body there the remembrance of the same place revives and increases that affection which preceded it But neverthelesse a religious friend being determined to give buriall to him whom he loveth although he cannot perhaps obtain to bury him where he would yet let him not by any means forbear necessary prayers in his recommendation for whatsoever becometh of the dead body Rest of the souls to bee procured even after death the Rest of his soul must be procured which soul of his when it left the body carried its sense along with it by which is distinguished in what condition every one is after death whither good or euil Nor doth the spirit of man after departure expect that its life should be any way relieved now by that flesh to which it self when time was afforded life which life at the hour of death it carried away with it self and shall restore again when it returnes For this is certain the flesh procures not the merit of Resurrection to the spirit but the spirit to the flesh whither it revives unto pain or glory CHAP. VI. VVE read in the Chronicles of the Church which Eusebius wrote in Greek and after him Ruffinus translated into Latine that the bodies of some Martyrs in France were thrown unto dogs and that what the dogs left of them together with their very bones was afterwards consumed with fire and the ashes cast into the river Rhosne so that not the least part of them could remain for memory Which we cannot imagine was permitted by the Divine Providence for any other reason then to teach Christians that by them who for the honour and Confession of Christ do despise their own lives the want of buriall after death is least of all to be regarded For out of all doubt this thing which was executed with so great cruelty upon the Martyrs bodies would never have been suffered by God if the victorious Souls themselves could thereby have been hindered of their Crowns and rest Hence therefore it is clearly manifest that our Lord saying Fear not those who kill the body and have no more to do meant not that men should act nothing upon the bodies of his servants deceased as well as living but that whatsoever they should be suffered to do nothing should be done that might disturb their happinesse nothing that should affect them with any sense of grief nothing that should hinder the perfect resurrection and restauration of their bodies in due time CHAP. VII ALL which notwithstanding by reason of that naturall and inbred affection which is in men in respect whereof it is said that no man ever hated his own flesh if they perceive that any thing be likely after their death to be wanting unto their bodies which the solemnity of funerall would require at least according to the custome of the countrey and place where they live we see they cannot forbear to be sad like men and sollicitous for that provision touching their bodies before death of which when they are once dead they shall not be sensible at all Yea so far doth this extend that in the book of Kings we read how God Almighty himself by one Prophet threatneth another who had transgressed his command that his body should not be buried in the Sepulchre of his Fathers The words of Scripture are these Thus saith our Lord 3 Reg. 13.21 Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of our Lord and hast not kept the Commandment which our Lord thy God commanded thee but camest back and hast eaten bread and drank water in the place in which our Lord commanded thee not to eat bread nor drink water thy carcase shall not be brought into the sepulchre of thy Fathers Which punishment if we consider it according to the Gospel where as hath been often said we are taught not to fear after our departure any thing that may be done to our dead members it will scarce seem to be any punishment at all but if we reflect upon that humane affection which all men naturally bear to their own flesh a man can hardly choose but be contristated even while he liveth for that which when he is dead he shall not feel In this respect therefore it was a punishment unto the Prophet that he could not forbear to grieve at present for that which should afterward befall his body though when it should indeed befall he were sure enough to have no sense of it For the will of our Lord doubtlesse was to chastise his servant thus far onely who had transgressed his command not so much by any particular pravity of his own will as through the fallacy of another who deceived him and made him think he had obeyed the command of God when he did not And it were very hard to think otherwise as that his body being killed by the tearings of
comprehendeth all things that be truely universall and that shall we do if we follow vniuersalitie antiquitie consent Uniuersalitie shall we follow thus if we professe that one faith to be true which the Church throughout the world acknowledgeth and confesseth Antiquity shall we follow if we disagree not any whit in opinion from them whom all know that our holy Elders and Fathers reverenced and had in great estimation Consent shall we likewise follow if amongst our forefathers we hold the definitions and opinions of all or almost of all the Priests and Doctours together CHAP. II. WHat then shall a Christian Catholick do if some small part of the Church cut it self off from the communion of the Universall Faith What else but prefetre the health of the whole body before the pestiferous and corrupt member What if some new infection goeth about to corrupt not onely a little part but the whole Church Then likewise shall he regard and be sure to cleave unto antiquity which cannot possibly be seduced by any crafty noveltie What if in Antiquity it self and amongst the Antient Fathers be found some errour of two or three men or haply of some one City or Province Then shall he diligently take heed that he preferre the decrees and determinations of the Universall Antient Church before the temerity or folly of a few What if some such case happen where no such thing can be found Then shall he labour by conferring and laying together amongst them selves the antient Fathers opinions not of all but of those onely which living at diverse times and sundry places yet remaining in the communion and faith of one Catholick Church were approved masters and guides to be followed and whatsoever he perceiveth not one or two but all joyntly with one consent plainly usually constantly to have holden written and taught let him know that without all scruple or doubt he ought to beleeve hold and professe that faith that doctrine that religion But for more perspicuity and light of that which hath been said each part is to be made clear with severall examples and somewhat more at large to be amplified least too much brevity breed obscurity and overmuch hast in speech take away the substance and weight of the matter When in the time of Donatus of whom came the Donatists a great part of Africk fell headlong into his furious errour and unmindfull of her name religion and profession preferred the sacrilegious terrietity of one man before the Church of Christ then all those of Afriek which detested that profane Schisme and united themselves to the universall Churches of the world they onely amongst them all remaining with in the bosome of the Catholick Church could be saved leaving certainly a notable example to their posteritie how ever after by good custome the sound doctrine of all men ought to be preferred before the madnesse of one or a few Likewise when the heresie of the Arians had neer corrupted not a little part but well nigh the whole world in such sort that almost all the Bishops of the latine Church deceived partly by force partly by fraud mens minds were covered as it were with a mist what especially in so great a confusion was to be followed then whosoever was a lover and a follower of Christ and preferred ancient faith before new errour was not touched with any spot of that infection The danger of which time doth abundantly shew what calamity entreth in when a new doctrine is admitted For at that time not onely small matters but things of great importance were overthrown for not onely alliance kindred friends families but also cities commonwealths countries Provinces yea at length the whol Romane Empire was snaken and overturned For when the profane novelty of the Arians like some Bellona or sury had first taken captive the Emperour afterward subduing all pallaces to her new laws never ceased after that to trouble and confound all things private and publicke holy and not holy putting no difference betwixt good and truth but as it were from an high place did strike all at her pleasure Then married women were defiled widows spoiled virgins violated Abbeys suppressed Clergie-men vexed Deacons beaten Priests banished Dungeons Prisons Mines filled with holy men of which the greater part banished the Citie like exiles pined and consumed away amongst deserts dens and wilde beasts with nakednesse thirst and hunger And all this misery had it any other beginning but because humane superstition was admitted for heavenly doctrine well grounded antiquity subverted by wicked novelty whilest our Superiours decrees were violated our Fathers ordinances broken the Canons of our auncestours abrogated and whilest the licentious libertie of prophane and new curiofitie kept not it self within the chaste limites of sacred and sound antiquitie But perhaps we devise all this of hatred to Noveltie and affection to Antiquitie Who so thinketh at least let him give credit to blessed Ambrose who in his second book to Gratian the Emperour bewailing the sharp persecution of that time saith thus But now O God quoth he we have sufficiently washed and purged with our ruine and blood the death of the Confessours the banishment of Priestes and the wickednes of so great impiety it hath manifestly appeared that they cannot be safe which have violated and forsaken their faith Likewise in his third book of the same work Let us therfore quoth he keep the precepts of our elders not with temerity of rude presumption violate those seales descending to us by inheritance None durst open that propheticall book close sealed not the elders not the powers not the Angells not the Archangells to explicate and interpret that book was a prerogative only reserved to Christ The Preistlike book sealed by the Confessours and consecrated with the death of many Martirs which of us dare presume to open which book such as were compelled to unseale notwithstanding afterward when the fraud was condemned they sealed again they which durst not violate or touch it became Martirs how can we deny their faith whose victorie we so praise commend We commend them I say O venerable Ambrose we surely commend them and with praises admire them For who is so senselesse that although he cannot arrive to their perfection desireth not yet to imitate whom no force could them remove from defending their aunceâ—ours faith not threatnings not flatterings not life not death not the King not the Emperor not men not Devills those I say whom for maintenance of religious antiquitie our Lord vouchsased of so high and so great a grace that by them he would repaire the overthrowen Churches give life to the dead spiritualtie restore the overthrown glory of Priests blot out wash away with a fountaine of heavenly teares which God put into the harts of the Bishops those wicked not books but blottes and blurres of new impiety finally to restore almost the whole world shaken with the cruell tempest of upstart heresie to the antient faith
comprehend yea afford all those goods which Secular men do so much desire though not in such manner as they commonly affect and hunt after them but in a better that is in a due and congruous subordination of them unto superiour goods For the Christian life being as it is a life of wisdome a life of most perfect prudence and discretion when we see that the things which the world so much admireth riches honours pleasures c. are by them viz. good Christians in a manner neglected we cannot but conclude that they find themselves satisfied otherwise that is possessed of riches honours pleasures c. of a more noble and more excellent nature then those be which they seem to despise For having the grace of God and our Saviour Christ himself dwelling in them by Faith they conceive themselves thereby in possession of so great a good that in comparison thereof there is little else worthy of their desires They have also hereby an assured hope to recover in the Resurrection whatsoever Beauty or other ornaments of the body here they might seem to want yea in that degree of excellency and glory which the heart of man cannot now conceive and to injoy with Christ for ever that life and endlesse felicity of which the Apostle speaketh Eye hath not seen nor the ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what Things God hath prepared for them that love him And hence we observe that good Christians be generally of a chearfull and pleasing Conversation not seeming either to desire or to fear any thing overmuch in this world and to be as it were out of the Gun-shot of inordinate sorrow according as it is written Nothing shall grieve the Just man of whatsoever happeneth unto him and as it was said of the Apostles of our Saviour They went from the Councell rejoycing that they were held worthy to suffer reproch for the name of Christ The XIX Conclusion THat it is no hard matter to attain Christian life and therein by Gods holp to persevere unto the end The principall thing required thereto is the grace of God that grace I mean which is not onely a meer gift of God or freely given but that which maketh a man formally gracious with God or just This indeed is onely to be had from God but he through his Infinite and Immense Goodnesse being so ready and inclined to give it unto them that ask in that respect there is no difficulty to attain Christian life For if he spared not his own sonne as the Apostle argueth but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us and that easily all Things There is also required some disposition on our part to receive the grace of God which yet renders not the attaining of Christian life nor perseverance therein through Grace difficult or hard For can it be hard for a man to do that which is in his own power Can it be hard for a man to do that which naturall reason tells him is best is for his own good and in his own election Let a man therefore but obserue three precepts and he shall find the attaining and perseverance in Christian life by Gods grace easie The first is That he have continuall Thoughts and reflexions upon the misertes of Humane life and especially upon the hour and issues of his death For seeing that man dyeth as all other creatures do he ought often thus to think and reason with himself To what purpose do I thus labour What good do all these Riches and Honours do me I am sure to dye and leave them all I am sure to dye yet the hour and time of my death is most uncertain What if I dye to day as 't is possible enough what good would it then do me to have had the whole world at command Or thus If the condition of man and beast be alike as in death we seem truly we men are a great deal more unhappy then they for unto bruit beasts Nature it self provideth a convenient food convenient cloathing houses and other necessaries for their life which we men have not but with a great deal of labour and pains Beasts are satisfied with that onely which is present never taking care for the future as man doth who is never contented with what he hath but still desiring insatiably more and vexed with a Million of cares for that which is to come Beasts are not subject to half those in firmities of body which man is sicknesse weaknesse wearinesse c. and for those of the mind tribulations anxieties distresses which we suffer in infinite variety every day they know them not Beasts are content with a little their desire is presently fatisfied with but a small provision but the desires of man are without end his heart is restlesse inscrutably perverse and miserable with all Lastly beasts have no Thoughts of any future life nor of the Immortality of Soul about which men are extreamly perplexed almost in continuall dread and apprehensions of going after all the troubles and toylings of this life unto pains eternall If therefore our soul be not indeed Immortall there is no creature so miserable as man But if it be Immortall then certainly our finall rest is not here but must be sought in some other life And seeing that it were an absurd thing to imaegine that man whom both God and nature have made the most noble and most excellent of all other Creatures should yet be found to be of them all the most miserable we must confesse some other happiness reserved for him or else deny the providence of God over his works For seeing that in the world many Things daily appear new which were not before and that nothing can possibly make it self or give Being to it self it cannot be doubted but that every Thing in the world is made to be by something else which was before it unlesse we will be such fools as to say All things come to passe by chance that is by nothing for chance is nothing but our ignorance or non-praeâ—â—sion of the true cause a paradox sufficiently cenfuted by the very order of the universe and that wonderfull regularity which is observed yea sensible in all the proceedings of nature And seeing again that in causes subordinate we may not run from one to an other in infinitum we must pitch at last upon some one which shall be the first and generall cause of all and This is confessed to be God whence also we see that without any discourse of Argument but by meer instinct or nature men generally acknowledge God and also worship him in some way or other nor was there ever man found that could settle in the opinion that There was no God And that God hath providence over the world the course of nature as we said even now sufficiently sheweth and the Philosophers themselves confesse saying that the work of nature is the
is false and was thought to be so by the Authour that wrote it The second kind not being of so large an extent yet no lesse damageable and hurtfull then the former is when that which is false is thought to be true and was thought to be so by the Authour that wrote it The third kind is when some truth is learned out of another mans writing which the Authour himself that wrote it understood not in which kind there is no small profit yea if thou dost consider it attentively thou shalt find that the Reader gains unto himself the whole profit of the reading An example of the first kind is this If any one should say and believe that Rhadamanthus heareth and judgeth in hell the causes of the dead because he read it in Virgils verses for this man erres two manner of wayes first for that he believeth that which he ought not to believe and secondly for that the Authour which he read is not thought to have believed it An example of the second kind may be this because Lucretius writes that the soul is made of atomes and that after death it is dissolved into the same atomes and perisheth if any one should think that this is true and that he ought to believe it for this man is not lesse unhappy for perswading himself certainly in so great a matter that to be true which indeed is false for that Lucretius by whose books he was deceived was of that opinion for what doth it avail him to be certain of the Authours opinion when as he hath made choise of such an authour not by whom but with whom he might erre and be deceived An example of the third kind is this if any one having read some place in Epicurus his works wherein he praiseth continency should affirm That he placed the chiefest good and felicity in Virtue and that therefore he ought not to be blamed nor reprehended now though Epicurus believes that the chiefest happinesse of man consists in corporall pleasures yet what prejudice doth this man receive and sustain by his errour when as he holds not so filthy and hurtfull an opinion nor for any other cause is he pleased with Epicurus but for that he conceives him not to have held so bad an opinion as ought not indeed to have been held and maintained this errour is not onely humane and pardonable but also oftentimes most worthy of a man for what if a man should make me this relation touching one of my loving friends that my friend when he was come to mans estate told him in the hearing of many that his infancy and childhood had been so pleasing and delightfull unto him that even he swore he would lead such a life afterwards and that I had received such certain proofs of the truth of this matter that I could not without shame and impudency deny it should I seem worthy of blame and reproof if I should think that when he said this he meant and intended to signifie thereby that he took much delight in an innocent life and a mind alienated from those appetites and desires wherewith mankind is wont to be involved and thereupon my love and affection towards him should be much increafed although perhaps the young man having been foolish in his tender age had greatly affected a certain liberty in playing and eating and sluggish rest for suppose he had died after I had received this relation touching him and no body could be found that could tell me what his judgement and opinion was herein would any one be so mischievous and wicked as to fall out and be angry with me for praising his resolution and intention according to the intelligence which had been delivered and imparted unto me Yea what if a just valuer and esteemer of things should perhaps make no difficulty to praise and commend my good will and opinion for that I was taken and delighted with innocency and being a man would rather frame a good conceit of another man in a doubtfull matter even when he spake otherwise then he ought to have done CHAP. V Of the truth of the Holy Scripture NOw thou hast heard the three kinds of errour into which men may fall that reade any thing hear also so many conditions and differences of the same Scriptures for it is necessary that so many do occurre for either some one hath written a profitable work and another doth not rightly and profitably understand it or the writer and the reader have both bestowed their labours unprofitably or the reader doth well and rightly understand but the Authours work is uselesse and unprofitable Of these three kinds the first I disallow not the last I esteem not for whether can I blame an Authour whose work is not well and rightly understood if he be no way guilty of that fault nor can I be troubled to see an Authour read that hath not known the truth when I see that his readers do receive no hurt nor prejudice thereby wherefore there is one kind that is most approved and is most purged and cleansed from errour which is when not onely good works are set forth but are also well and rightly understood by their readers yet notwithstanding that also is divided into two kinds and it is not wholly free from errour for it happeneth oftentimes that the writer hath a good meaning and the reader hath fo too but another then he and oftentimes a better conceit oftentimes a lower and yet one that is commodious and profitable but when as we attain to the true sense and meaning of the Authour which we reade and the work much conduceth to the leading of a good life the truth appears abundantly therein and there is no gap nor passage that lies open to falshood and deceit This kind is very seldome to be found when the discourse is about things that are extremely hard and obscure neither in my opinion can it be clearly and manifestly known but onely be believed for by what proofs or arguments can I so perfectly gather what the will of a man is that is absent or dead that I can swear and take my oath what it is when as if he were asked even being present there might be many things which he might most officiously conceal and hide although he were not a wicked man but to know the quality of the Authour I think it nothing avails to the knowledge of the matter yet neverthelesse he highly deserves to be reputed and esteemed to be a good man who by his books and writings affords great assistance unto mankind and to posterity Now I would have the Manichees to tell me in which kind they place the errour which they conceive of the Catholick Church If in the first it is a grievous fault indeed but we need not seek farre to know how to defend it for it is sufficient to deny that we understand it as they conceive when they inveigh against it If in the second it is
frequently to see them those things are therefore most fitly done that a multitude of beleevers being gathered together and propagated by them profitable authority might be converted into customes themselves An observation S. Augustine in his first book of his Retractations and 14. Chapter alledgeth these words why sayst thou are not these things done now because they would not move unlesse they were wonderfull and if they were common and usuall they were not wonderfull and expounds them thus This I said because not so great nor all miracles are done now but not that none are also now done CHAP. XVII The Cousent of Nations beleeving in Christ ALl customes have such vertue power to winn the love and affection of men that we sooner can condemne and detest even the things that are naught and wicked in them then forsake or change them and this for the most part comes to passe when as our unlawfull appetites and deseres have gotten a dominion and predominancy over us doest not thou think that great care hath been taken about the affaires of mankinde and that they are put into a good state and condition that not only divers most learned men doe argue and contend that nothing that is earthly nothing that is fierie finally nothing that is perceptible by the corporall senses ought to be worshipped and adored for God but that he is to be prayed unto entreated and supplicated only by the understanding or intellectuall power but also that the unskilfull multitude of both sexes doth in so many and so divers nations both beleeve it and publish it that there is continency and forbearance of meates even to the most slender diet of bread and water and fastings not for one day only but also continued for divers dayes together that there is chastity even to the contempt of marriage and issue that there is patience even to the contemning of crosses and flames that there is liberality even to the distribution of patrimonies to the poore and finally so great a disesteeme and contempt of all things that are in this world that even death it self is wished and desired Few there are that do these things fewer that doe them well and prudently yet the people doe approve them hearken unto them and like them yea they love and affect them and not without some progresse of their mindes towards God and certain sparks of piety and vertue they blame and reprehend their owne weakenesse and imbecillity that they cannot doe these things This the divine Providence hath brought to passe by the predictions of the Prophets by the humanity and doctrin of Christ by the voyages of the Apostles by the contumelies crosses bloud and death of Martyrs by the laudable and excellent lives of Saints and by miracles done at convenient times in all these things worthy of so great matters and vertues When as therefore we see so great help and affistance from God and so great fruit and entrease thereby shall we make any doubt or question at all of retyring into the besome of that Church which even to the confession and acknowledgement of mankinde from the Sea Apostolike by succession of Bishops hath obtained the sovereignty and principall authority heretiks in vain barking round about it and being condemned partly by the judgement of the people themselves partly by the gravity of Councels partly also by the majesty and splendour of miracles Unto which not to graunt the chiefe place and preheminence is either indeede an extreme impiety or a very rash and a dangerous arrogancy for if there be no certain way for the minds of men to wisdome and salvation but when faith prepareth and disposeth them to reason what is it else to be ungraetfull unto the divine Majesty for his aide and assistance but to have a will to resist an authority which was gained and purchased with such labour and paines And if every art and trade though but base and easy requires a teacher or master that it may be learned and understood what greater expression can there be of rash arrogancy and pride then both to have no minde to learne the books of the divine mysteries from their interpreters and yet to have a minde to condemne the unknown CHAP. XVIII The Conclusion by way of exhortation VVHerefore if either reason or our discourse hath any wayes moved thee and if thou hast a true care of thy self as I beleeve thou hast I would have thee to hearken and give eare unto me and with a pious faith a cheerefull hope and sincere charity to addresse thy self to good Masters of Catholick Christianity and to pray unto God without ceasing and intermission by whose only goodnesse we were made and created by whose justice we are punished and chastized and by whose clemency we are freed and redeemd by which means thou shalt neither want the instructions and disputations of most learned men and those that are truly Christian nor books nor cleare and quiet thoughts whereby thou mayst easily find that which thou seekest And as for those verball and wretched men for how can I speake more mildly of them forsake them altogether who found out nothing but mischiefe and evill whilst they seek to much for the ground thereof In which question they stirre up oftentimes their hearers to enquire and search but they teach them those things when they are stirred up that it were better for them alwayes to sleep then to watch and take great pains after that manner for they drive them out of a lethargy or drowsy evill and make them frantike between which discases whereas both are most commonly mortall yet neverthelesse there is this difference that those that are sicke of a lethargy doe die without troubling or molesting others but the frautike man is dreadfull and terrible unto many and unto those especially that seek to assist him For neither is God the author of evill nor hath it ever repented him to have made any thing nor is he troubled with a storme of any commotion or stirring of the minde nor is a particle or piece of earth his kingdome he neither approves nor commands any heinous crimes or offences he never lies For these and such like things did move and trouble us when they did strongly oppose them and inveigh against them and fained this to be the doctrine of the old Testament which is a most absolute falshood and untruth Wherefore I graunt that they doe rightly blame and reprehend those things What then have I learned what thinkest thou but that when they reprove those things the Catholike doctrine is not reprehended so that the truth which I learned amongst them I hold and reteyne and that which I conceived to be false and untrue I refuse and reject but the Catholick Church hath also taught me many other things whereunto those men being pale and without bloud in their bodies both grosse and heavy in their understandings cannot aspire namely that God hath no body that no part of him
care their Exequies solemnly celebrated and the places of their buriall with much diligence provided yea themselves in their life time Gen. 23.47.49.50 would frequently give command concerning the burying and removing of their bodies after their death as there was cause Tob. 2.12 And Tobias is commended by no lesse Testimony then of an Angel to have merited with God for that he was diligent to bury the dead Yea our Lord himself although he were to rise again within three dayes after his Passion yet coÌ„mended the care the good woman had of his buriall and commanded that the good work she had done in providing such precious ointments to imbalm his body should be preached to her praise all the world over there is honourable mention made in the Gospel of those who took down the body of our Lord from the Crosse and gave it Buriall All which Authorities yet are not to teach us that there is any sense in dead bodies but onely seeing that such offices of piety are pleasing to God they signifie unto us that even the dead bodies do pertain unto the divine Providence and this the rather to confirm our Faith in the Resurrection And hence also we may learn not unprofitably how great reward there may be for such Alms as we give unto living people when even that which is bestowed upon the dead and livelesse members is not lost with God There are indeed some other particulars which the Holy Patriarchs who speak them would have to be understood concerning the buriall and translating of their bodies after death as spoken by a propheticall spirit but this is no place to treat of them seeing that which we have deliver'd already may suffice For if those things which are necessary to the sustenance of the living and cannot be wanted but with great difficulty as victualls apparell c. yet do never when they are wanted violate or overthrow the virtue of patience in good people nor extirpate piety quite out of the mind but rather exercise and revive it much lesse doubtless can those things which are usually expended in Funeralls Exequies upon deceased persons when they happen to be wanting make those persons miserable who are already setled and at rest in those secret Tabernacles of the just And therefore when it so fell out in the devastation of that great City and of the adjacent Towns that the bodies of good christians had not Buriall we may not presently charge either the living with any crime thereabout who could not help it nor yet the dead with any great misfortune who were as little sensible of it This is my opinion concerning the matter of Sepulture in generall which I have therefore translated into this book out of that other of the City of God in regard it was something more easie for me to repeat it in this then to deliver it in a new manner CHAP. IIII. NOw if this be so surely also the provision of place for the burial of bodies at the monuments of Saints must have something in it it must be at least an argument of some good humane affection toward our friends whose funeralls we celebrate and if it be some kind of Religion to bury them at all certainly to have care in what place we bury them cannot but be of like merit But yet when such comforts as these are procured by the living by which indeed their pious affection toward their deceased friend is sufficiently declared to survive yet I say I perceive not for my part any advantage coming thereby unto the dead unlesse it be in this onely respect namely that when men remember where the bodies of their deceased friends are placed they may in their prayers recommend them unto God more effectually by the intercession of those Saints unto whose patronage they may seem by the place of their Buriall Patronage of Saints profitable when desired to be received which yet also they might if they pleased very wel do supposing they were not interred in such places Neither are those more eminent Sepulchres of the dead called Memories or Monuments for any other reason then because they do as it were renew or preserve the remembrance of such persons as are by death withdrawn from the common conversation of men and so hinder that they perish not altogether as much in the minds of their friends as they seem lost to their eye For the very name of memory imports this clearly and a Monument is so called because it admonisheth or as it were prompteth the mind to something which is fit to be thought on For which reason also the same thing which we call a Memory or Monument the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in their language is as much as remembrance with us Whensoever therefore the mind of a man remembers where the body of some dear friend is buryed if the place which comes to mind be also venerable and renown'd for the name of some Martyr instantly without more adoe the good affection of him that remembers this Souls recommeÌ„ed unto the Mar. tyrs in his prayers recommendeth the soul it loved unto the same Martyr which affection yet when it is exhibited by faithfull and dear friends unto people departed they themselves before their departure merited that it should be availeable to them And therefore where necessity suffers not either that bodyes be buryed at all or not in such places as these Prayer for the souls departed yet prayer for the souls departed is never pretermitted which the Church of God as it were ingageth her self to performe at least under a generall Commemoration without particular mention of names in behalf of all those who are departed in the Christian Catholick Communion to the intent that by the care of one pious Common Mother unto all supply may bee made of such good offices wherein possibly our friends kindred Children or parents may be defective towards us So that indeed in case these supplications wee speak of which are usually done in right faith and piety for the dead should bee wanting or not made at all I for my part suppose it would not much profit a mans soul to have his body buryed in a holy place CHAP. V. VVHerefore to return to our purpose when as this faithfull Mother desired to have the body of her faithfull Child put in the Church of a Martyr this desire of hers was a kind of prayer for as much as shee beleeved his soul might receive help by the merits of the Martyr Souls receiving help by the merits of the Martyrs S. Aug. assures us that prayer for the dead is very profitable though he was not certain whither the buriall in any particular place be so available yet he much enclineâ—h to that also and proveth it very strongly And this was that which profited if any thing did profit at all So when the Mother afterwards remembers the same sepulchre
whom all things are subject For unless there were some Angells which conversed both with the dead and the living our Lord Jesus would not have sayd it came to pass that the beggar dyed and was carryed of the Angels into Abrahams bosome Therefore they could be now here now there seeing as God would have it they were used to carry him from hence unto the place of his rest The souls of the dead also may know some things by divine Revelation either of such things as be necessary for them to know or at least not necessary to be unknown and this not only of things past or present but of those also which are to come even as in times past not all men in generall were made acquainted with the Secrets of God but only Prophets and such other holy men while they lived and they not every one of them knowing all things but every one some according as the Divine Providence was pleased to reveale And that some of the dead also may be sent unto the living the Scripture it self doth testifie as contrarily S. Paul from among the Living was rapt up into Paradise for so we read the Prophet Samuel after he was dead appeared unto King Saul yet living and foretold him things to come 'T is true there are some that say it was not Samuel himself that appeared who could not they think have been so feecht up with magicall charmes but rather some evill Spirit ready and apt for such business borrowed his shape But the book we call Ecclesiasticus written as 't is commonly said by Jesus the Son of Sirach but for resemblance of stile and eloquence not unlike to be Solomons own work in the praises of holy men sayes of Samuel that being dead he Prophecyed But if again you extenuate the authority of this book with the Jewes because they say it is not in their Canon yet at least concerning Moyses no doubt can be made Deut. 34.5 but that in Deuteronomy he is related to be both dead and buryed and yet in the Gospell to have appeared unto the living togither with Elias who as yet is not dead CHAP. XVI HEnce also we answer an other question viz what may be said of the Martyrs who by the favours which are granted unto such as pray unto them do declare themselves both to understand and to have care of our affairs 7 favours obteined by prayer to Saints if the dead know not at all what the living do for 't is certain and we know it by report of witnesses beyond exception that when the City of Nola was besiedged by the Barbarians the Blessed Confessour Felix Saints appear miraculously sometimes when invocated not onely by the effects of his particular favours but even personally and in plain view did appear unto many good people inhabiting that City whom he had formerly dearly loved But it must be said that such things as those happen miraculously and are farre different from the usuall course which God hath appointed unto the nature of all sorts of things For because our Lord turned once water into wine we must not therfore forget what the nature of water is and what its proper virtue in the order of elements is not because Lazarus rose again from death that therefore every man that dyeth may rise again when he will or that a dead man is raised by no greater power then another is awakened out of sleep For to speak according to the limits and condition of mans nature in it self is one thing and to speak according as God is pleased to demonstrate his divine power in it is another and the things which come to passe naturally and as it were by constant course are of one sort and those which are done miraculously by God are of an other yet is God alwayes assistant unto nature without whom it could not be and in miracles themselves nature is not absolutely excluded because at least in her though not by her they are wrought We must not therefore imagine that the dead do ordinarily and of course mix themselves in the affairs of the living because the Martyrs do somtimes shew themselves present How miracles are wrought by praying to Saints for the curing or help of some particular persons But rather we are to know it is by divine power of priviledge dispensation that the Martyrs themselves are present with us at any time because the dead generally by any vertue of their own nature cannot be so Although I confesse to determine in what particular manner the Martyrs do help them Here he inquires the maner how miracles are obteined by praying to Saints who for certain are helped by the Martyrs is a mater farre above my capacity that is to say whither the Martyrs be present in their own persons at the same time in so divers and farre distant places as their Memories are or that they otherwise happen to shew themselves or whither that God Almighty the Martyrs abiding alwayes in that place which is appointed for their merits farre remote from the conversation of men yet praying generally for the necessities of those who pray unto them in the same manner as we pray for the dead to whom we are never present nor know where they be or what they do or I say whither that God Almighty himself who is every where present though not as joyned to us nor as divided from us hearing the prayers which the Martyrs make doth by the ministery of Angels which he sends abroad into all places exhibite such comforts unto people against the miseries of this life as he seeth to be most expedient who by his wonderfull power and goodnesse giveth testimony unto the merits of his Martyrs both where Merits of the Martyrs acknowledged by S. Austin and when and how he pleaseth but chiefly at their memories as knowing this in his divine wisdome The Memory and mediation of Saints expedient for confirmation of faith to be most expedient for the Confirmation and Exaltation of the Faith of Christ for which the Martyrs suffered This I say is a thing much higher then I can reach unto more abstruse and difficult then I can search out and therfore which of the two it be or whither perhaps both of thē may not be true viz. that sometimes by the very presence of the Martyrs themselves and sometimes again by Angels personating the Martyrs these things may be done I dare not determine I desire rather to learn such things of those who know them For some there are surely who do know them as there be some others also perhaps who think they do but do not For doubtlesse such things as these are the Free Guifts of God who liberally bestoweth them as he pleaseth some to one some to another according to that of the Apostle saying The manifestation of the spirit is given to every one for their profit 1 Cor. 12.7 c. To one saith he is