to goe and likewise being call'd and also thrust forwards she puts on And going she holds by the heart and stands as it were with one legge in the house and one without and peeps abroad to discover whither she is going as never having been out of the house before And according to the sight of the place she must now take to she frames and alters the body in her departure And certainly in this point of time the man being shar'd betwixt life death betwixt this world and the next the soule sees either a breaking of day or a beginning of night And so turning againe to the body either to bid it farewell if she be happy or with a desire to catch hold againe and stay if unhappy works upon the body according to the apprehension she hath of the place shee goes to gained in the discoverie Here will I wish well to all persons O that they were wise that they understood this Deut. 32. 29. that they would consider the latter end The wise man will understand it and the understanding man will consider it Good Lord Lord God blesse us and give us grace at all times morning and evening day and night in all places abroad and at home in bed and at board to prepare for this dangerous passage When wee must be turn'd going one halfe of us and the halfe wee never saw and yet the better halfe and that alone and be posted out of dores from a fleshly Tabernacle from a house which of all houses of that kinde is onely knowne to us a house which was built for us and which falls when wee goe from it to a new kinde of being which as yet we cannot conceive nor know by any kinde of intelligence When wee shall goe from place to place wee know not how and see wee know not how and expresse our mindes to spirits like our selves wee know not how and receive their mindes meanings again we know not how and doe many other things we know not how nor can any man that never dyde tell certainly O what a joyfull time will it be when wee shall have put off our body and left it amongst our friends as Ioseph his garment in the hands of Potiphars wife and hee left his garment in her hand and fled and got Gen. 39 12 him out and shall have escaped out of this wicked world innocent when our sinnes shall not come crying after us as they do after the wicked soule I am thy drunkennesse I did often downe thee and wash thee away from God but thou didst never drowne me and wash mee away from thy selfe with teares of Repentance Though I am thy drunkennesse I have found the way after thee I am thy sinne of swearing I was stay'd in the Porch of thy body in thy mouth to thy last houre in the world and I sweare thou shalt not cast me off now I am thy wantonnesse I was thy chamber-sin and I will not now be turn'd abroad I am thy covetousnesse and I did so farre covet to be with thee and thou with mee that Death could never part us I am thy Anger and I am not so angry but I know what I doe I will not be so base after all our great aquaintance to leave thee in my anger when thou hast more use of me For now thou shalt be most outragiously angry with God and all goodnesse I am thy Pride and now I have done my part in the world I am onely proud of thy company it is all my ambition to follow thee But the just soule goes away quietly joyfully and securely guarded with Angels and is troubled with no such noise MEDITATION XIII VVHen a man hath long dwelt in a strange Country divided yea far distant from his deare Father friends and now at length begins to travell homewards how often in his way does he fashion to himselfe in his thoughts the face of his beloved Father his words and gesture Indeed as hee goes hee takes many a weary step hee sweats often hee blowes and is sometimes ready to faint But hee cheeres and cleares up himselfe hee calls up a good heart and thinks when I come home and at the very name of home the poore man looks cheerfully they will run and tell my Father I am come And my Father will presently start rise up and say Are yee sure 't is he I shall heare him before I see him And not staying for an answer he will make hast towards me and seeing me change his countenance and run to me and embrace me with both his arms and if he be able to speak for joy cry aloud welcome childe and then his joy having gone through all the expressions of joy will borrow teares from sorrow and then hee will laugh and then cry againe and then again laugh and the good old man will be so merry And though I be a little wet and weary now this will have a quick end and I shall have warmth and ease enough then We are here poore banish'd creatures in a strange land very farre from our Country wee are travelling homewards or woe to us Wee stick oftentimes in the dirt and stumble in the stony way we are wet and weary wee sweat every bone of us akes heart and all But the comfort is All this will have an end suddenly and when we come home we shall see our Father whom we never yet saw For wee were tooke from him being very young And without the help of a Messenger to carrie the newes hee will know wee are come and rise up without stirring and be with us without running to us and embrace us and hugg us in his armes and cry to that man and to this vvoman vvelcome childe deare childe vvelcome Wee shall looke upon him and hee upon us and at the first sight we shall know him to be our Father though wee never saw him It is very strange but more true Should God conceale and hide himselfe from us vvhen vvee come to Heaven and leave us in his roome the most glorious Angell of them all to looke upon vvee should naturally know the Angell vvere not God The soul out of the body knowes naturally God to be God Angels to be Angels Devils to be Devils as vve naturally know and distinguish men and beasts and as Adam in his Innocencie knew to call every creature by his proper name The Septuagint or seventy Interpreters in the fift Chapter of Esther Transl sept interp in 5. cap. Est have related the Story of Esthers comming into the presence of King Assuerus seated in state upon his royall throne to whom no man or vvoman might approach but entertain'd with the sentence of death not being calld'd more largely then the ordinary vulgar editions have They report that vvhen shee first appeared before him her countenance vvas divided betwixt fear and shamefastnesse First a modest blush ran over all her face and then a palenesse
carried upon the waters the word in the Originall doth signifie as Saint Hierome observeth S Hierom. quaest Hebr. incubabat sat brooding And I most heartily pray that the Spirit of God may still sit brooding upon my heart and bring forth the plentifull fruits of a true reformation And because I am a sinner let the Angels sing hymnes and praises in my behalfe to him as Saint Gregory Nazianzen S. Greg. Nazian in hymnis deliciously singeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by whom are Hymnes by whom are praises by whom are the Quires of the Angels And let every one that is a true lover of God that is sound at heart give out from the inwards of his heart and soule with an Eccho Amen And keepe safe in his minde that golden saying of a sober Councell Multa enim bona facit Concil 2. Arausic c. 20. in bomine sine homine Deus sed nihil boni facit homo quod non faciat Deus ut faciat homo Many good things God workes in man without man But man doth no good thing which God is not the cause that man is the cause of Let us ponder alwayes that in all the Psalmes used in divine service still the burden of the song is Glory be the Father and to the Sonne and to the holy Ghost As it was in the beginning And why As it was in the beginning Because the Church acknowledging her extreme want of sufficiencie to glorifie God according to the just exigence of his greatnesse or to adde the smallest point to his perfection desireth to give him the glory which he had in the beginning before the world declaring that she is so farre contented and pleased with him and it that if he were now deprived of it and it were in her gift she would restore it againe to him as to the most worthy which is in a manner to give it him And let us all imitate the Prophet David Ps 115. 1. who cryeth Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy name give glory Pray marke his carriage He thrusteth glory from himselfe and creatures Not unto us O Lord. And as if it did not yet stand farre enough thrusting it with the other hand he saith Not unto us And then with both hands thrusting it home to the right owner he speakes home but unto thy name give glory That glory may be well and fully given to God God must give it to himselfe And the same holy Prophet who spake as he liv'd after Gods owne heart stirring us up with all his art and his heart to praise God in all sorts of instruments that the Quire might be full and as if the straine were not yet high enough in the end as it were falling down for want of breath with the Nightingale after the long varying of her delicate notes sends forth in a faint but a forced manner his last words Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. As if he should have added For I have none I am out of breath And so being spent himselfe he laid the charge upon others And therefore Praise ye the Lord. Psal 107. vers 8 9 10. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse and for his wonderfull workes to the children of men For he satisfieth the longing soule and filleth the hungry soule with goodnesse Such as sit in darknesse and in the shadow of death To God be the glory of this worke not to the Virgin Mary or any other Saint FINIS I 〈◊〉 desire all clean-hearted and right-spirited people who shall reade this Book which because the Presse was oppressed seemed to have beene suppressed when it was by little and little Impressed but now at last hath pressed through the Presse into publike first to restore it by correcting these Errata Which if I had beene alwayes at hand to prevent I should have more erâ—ed in businesses of more present importance Errata quâ— legenti dicam an currenti occurebant PAge 10. line 2. dele in p. 23. l. 24. d. it p. 30. l. 27. read contemnes and condemnes p. 57. l. 7. r. two p. 62. in marg r. Psal 128. 3. p. 63 l. 15. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 63. l. 16. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 65. in marg r. Rom. 1. 22. p. 68. l. 24. r. in a combate p. 78. in marg dele 32. p. 81. l. 1. r. selfe p. 89. in marg r. agentem p. 120. l. 24. 25. r. quasi existimemus nihil accidere p. 126. l. 7. r. Lord Jesus p. 145. l. 9. r. cast it p. 148. l. 24. r. all so p. 1. l. ult r. more set out p. 2. l. â— r. are more p. 4. l. 19. r. a treason p. 8. l. 15. d. the p. 17. l. ult r. it 's hold p. 22. l. 4. r. ingreditur p. 28. in marg r. S. Aug. in Medit. p. 31. l. 8. r. a meere lie p. 36. l. 7. r. voide of p. 37. l. 27. and 28. r. beholds p. 39. l. 27. r. with one p. 44. l. ult r. seeing being p. 47. l. penult r. we learn p. 49. l. 28. r. to him p. 50. l. 15. r. to him p. 51. l. 21. r. in a diversity p. 53. in marg r. c. 16. p. 57. l. 5. r. coccineas p. 62. 1. 6. r. S. Justine p. 64 l. 2. r. receive receive p. 68. in marg r. de part Animal c. 5. p. 69. in marg r. c. 2. p. 69. l. penult r Disciplinantes p. 70. l. 18. r. And also the Friers p. 71. l. 27. r. gifts p. 76. l. 17. r. take them p. 82. l. 26. r. even the rich p. 88. l. 9. r. talking to p. 96. l. 6. r. Crow p. 112. l. 19. r. before now p. 117. l. 16. r. of God p. 118. l. 2. 3. perâ—inent ad finem regulae sequentis p. 119. l 21 r. locks p. 124. l. 6. d. it p. 124. l. ult r. Church p. 128. l 22. r. reserve p. 129 l. 21. r. me p. 131. â— 16. Haec historia quae incipir And yet pars est sequentis paginae l. 26. locum petit p. 131 l. 24. r. being p. 135. l. 13. r priviledged p. 135. l. 19. r. stain p. 136. l. penult r. you lived p. 138. l. 22. Bcause c. ad finem l 23. inferi debent in sequentem paginam post l. 9. p. 140. l. 18. r. every p. 143. l. 8. r. the fingers p. 144. l. 7. r. cried p. 145. l ult r. counsel p. 158. in sine marg r ad Graecos p. 160. l. 28. d and p. 165. l. 9. r. himselfe came p. 169. l. 19. r. is given p. 169. l. 26. r. into p 173. l. 8. r. safe at my p. sequente l. 5. r. These are p. 174. l. 9. r. Cicatrice p. 177. l. ult r. feet p 188. in marg r. Plin lib. 2. p. 189. l. 18. r. had read them p. 190. l. 4. r. Bruxellis p. 191. l. 20. r. and cast p. 205. l. 27. r. your owne throate p. 208. l. 4. r. his owne p. 210 l. 21. d. Church p. 210. l. 27 r. Aâ—â—thusius p. 215. l. 13. r. percutit p. 215. l. 27. r. bodies p. 218. in marg r. S. Aug. in Psal p 226 l. 3. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 230. l. 12. r. similiter p. 233. l. 3. r. dixerit flexis genibus p. 235. l. 13. d. much p. 236 l. ult r. lingua p. 251 l 3 r. ground Repentance p. 257 l. 16 d. to p. 258 l 14 r wormes p 259 in marg d 5 p 268 l 25 r strike us p 271 in marg post Luke 7 d 5 p. 272 l 1 r here 1 p 274 l. 24. r selfe I doe p. 275 l 2 d. will p 279 l 21 r They p 288 l 1 r Christiane p 289 l 14 r. is not p 291 l 1 r workes p. 296 l 13 r onely p. 299. l. 17. d. because p. 301. l. 4. r. her p 317 l 13 r weepe
posuit saith St. Gregory S. Greg. qui à soliditate coelestis patriae alienus fuit He first layd a foundation upon earth who had no foundation in Heaven MEDITATION VII THere are I am certaine there are many poore forlorne soules now in Hell and burning in the bottome of it groveling beneath all the crowd and some now at this instant dying and sending out the last groane brought mournfully from the lowest depth of their entralls that would give if they had it all the treasure of a thousand worlds for one houre of life and health to run through all the acts of vertue in But they cannot come back nor shall vvee when we are gon and going vve are every day whither God knowes but certainly to some new and strange Countrey by Death The den of a Dragon is a darke place and full of bones There is a vast and hideous den and the bloody monster that dwelleth in it is called Death In the way to which all the prints of the footstepps looke towards the Den not one backward vestigia nullae retrorsum no comming no sending back to enforme our friends vvhat kind of entertainment vve have had since we left them no sending a description of the place we are in or a relation of the severall passages betwixt us our companions There is no distinction of persons The great Emperor must come downe must he cannot hinder it with the power of all the World The great Emperor must come downe from his imperiall Throne into his Majesties grave and bee covered with earth like that vvee now tread upon And his powerfull Subjects the peers of his land must stand quietly by and see him buried We never yet heard of a souldier so valiant and fortunate in his adventures that he conquer'd Death If Alexander after all his victories could have enjoyed the privilege of not being at last led a way Captive by Death he would have given all his winnings the vvhole World for his ransome But it might not be it could not bee Great Alexander is dead and all his greatnesse buried vvith him And great Alexander for whom one World was too little because hee was so great hath now left to be great and is become little himselfe a little handfull of dust or clay or dirt and is contented with a little a little room under ground or in a worse place O the sweet equality which God as a Creator and a Provider observed in the disposition of humane affairs The Prince and common people doe eate and drink and sleepe and see and heare and smell and taste and touch and speake and laugh and cry and stand and go after the same manner One is made in all parts like the other And all creatures but man give as little respect and yeeld as little obedience to the Prince as to the peasant The Sun doth shine the fire burn the rivers do run equally for al. And both the king subject are sick die the same way their heads and their hearts ake alike And they both dy by giving up the Ghost And they both looke pale and black and groane before they give it And when they are both dead and buried howsoever when they lived their conditions vvere very much different and they scarce ever saw one another their bones and ashes are sociable they will mingle together And then the cleerest eie cannot discerne or distinguish the one from the other no man can truly say this dust is the softer the finer mold looke you this is royall dust MEDITATION IX THe Prophet Jeremy speakes out O Earth Earth Earth heare the word of Ier. 22. 29. the Lord. Stay great Prophet why thrice Earth Earth indeed we are but when you have once call'd us so it is the most yes truly and all you can say You seeme to multiply tearmes and the same tearmes without necessity No I doe not what I seeme to doe Earth thou that wast in the beginning framed of Earth Earth thou that art now compacted of Earth howsoever cast in a new mold Earth thou that must shortly resolve and drop again into Earth Heare the word of the Lord. The second and middle condition of these placed betwixt made of Earth and to be turned againe into Earth is but a meane state to heape up wealth and build faire houses in S. Iohn Baptist was cal'd a voice not that he was like the Nightingale to which one sayes Vox es praetereà nihil thou art a voice and nothing but a voice He was cald a voice as the fore-runner of Christ because in speaking the voice is always heard before the word And so it was when God spake to the world the best words by the best word The voice said Cry And he said what shall I cry All flesh is grasse and all the goodlinesse thereof is as the Esay 40. 6. flowre of the field This voice was not a voice onely for it spake and said Cry An unusuall way of proceeding Sure vvee shall heare of some great and weighty matter Let mee understand holy Scripture with the same spirit with which it was written Hee doth not say as the flowre of the garden For vve know the Garden is commonly hedg'd in and strongly defended from the incursion of beasts well furnished with shades and shelters But as the flowre of the field the wide and open field where the flowre is soon parched and dryed 32. to a powder by heat soone pinched and left for dead by the cold quickly eaten by beasts which know it not to bee a flower quickly cropped by a silly girl to wither in her bosome or if it scape all this at least bruised and trod upon by passengers or which is worse vvith the rough feete of cattell And if Heaven and earth should be still and not afford a danger one betwixt both the middle region of the Aire would knock it downe with hailestones And as the goodlinesse of flesh is like the flowre of the field so flesh it self is as grasse vvhich though it bee somewhat more durable then the flower hath but a very short time to bee greene or to grow Amicitia saith Aristotle quae super inhonesto Arist Ethic. fundatur durabilis non est The friendship which is grounded upon dishonesty cannot endure And the soule and body agreeing in sinne cannot long agree their peace will be quickly broken by sicknesse and then per-haps they part MEDITATION X ANd therefore the memory of death shall stand like a Seale of virgin Wax upon my heart to keepe the World from looking into the secret Methinks I see now here before mee a man lying very sick upon his Death-bead How pale he is He had a fresh and youthfull colour the other day heu quantum mutatus ab illo alas how much hee is changed from the gallant man he was How his breath labours how every joynt shakes for excesse of pain How every veine trembles His skin
is drawne strait to the bone through all his body His eyes fix constantly upon one thing as if there hee saw the dreadfull sentence of his eternity Two black circles lay seige to his eyes on every side and it seemeth that for feare they are sunke inwards as if they would turn presently and looke upon the deformity of the soule Hearke with what a lamentable accent he grones I remember I have heard some that soon after came to this point sing and laugh heartily Poore man how little all his pleasures have profited him Such a rich purchase the favour of such a noble man such and such a merry meeting what doe they help in this agonie his freinds are present yet of themselves they are miserable comforters they may looke sorrowfully speake mornefully cast themselves upon their knees and pray for him but they cannot doe the deed they cannot helpe him humane power stands amaz'd and can do nothing You do you heare what thinke you now of going abroad and being merry your old companions are at the doore Looke to your goods and your selves your house is on fire not a word And the little life which as yet keeps weak possession is so dull'd and over clouded with the pangs of Death that hee cannot raise from the fog of his body one clean thought towards God or Heaven Hee is ready now to leave every thing but his sinnes lands house friends gay clothes the gold in the box and jewels in the Cabinet and all See see he is going hee stands upon the threshold Death lurkes in yonder corner and aimes at the heart and though it move so fast Death will not misse his marke Hee has beene an Archer ever since the world began There flew the arrow Here is a change indeed His Soul is gon but it would not be seene Not only because it could not but also because it was so black Now dismisse the Physitian and pray him to goe and invent a preservative against the poyson of Death Close up the dead mans eyes hee will see no more Shut his mouth hee has left gaping for aire all is past hee will never give an other crosse word Now cast the beggerly wretch an old sheete and throw him out to the wormes or after three days hee will poyson us and then we shall bee like him It is a true speech of saint Hierom with which hee puts the latter stamp upon the soft heart of Paulinus to whom hee writes Facile contemnit omnia qui se semper cogitat esse moriturum Hee doth easily contemne Hier. ep ad Paul and with a violent hand throw under him all things who thinkes he stands alwayes with one foote in his grave O my soule heare me let me talke to thee in a familiar way The corporall eye this eye of man seeth nothing but figure or fashion and colour no man ever saw a man onely the figure or fashion and colour of a man and these are outward and superficiall things which onely flatter the eye And S. Paul saith worthily The fashion of this World passeth away The man dyeth the lid is 1 Cor. 7. 31 drawn over the eye the fashion or figure disappeareth is not seene The Hous-keeper hath changed his lodging the windows are shut Call him at the doores of his eares tell him that his wife and children are in danger of their lives and that they call to him for help the windows remain shut stil Here is the mind which hath wisdom There is nothing in this great World for a mortall man to love or settle upon Hee that will Reve. 7. 9 love ought to love wisely he that will love wisely ought to love good Good is not good if it be not permanent this World passeth away Nihil tam utile est quod in traÌ„situ prosit saith Seneca nothing is so compleately Sen. â—p 2. profitable as to profit when it only passeth And verily this world hath bin alwayes a Passenger for it hath passed from age to age through so many hundred generations by them and from them to us Adam liv'd a while to eat an Apple and to teach his posterity to sinne and to dye and the world passed by him Caine liv'd a while to kill his honest brother Abel and to bury him in the sands as if God could not have found him or the winde have discovered what was done and afterwards to be haunted with frightfull apparitions and to be the first vagabond and the world passed by him Noah liv'd a while to see a great floud and the whole world sinke under water to see the weary birds drop amongst the waves and men stifled on the tops of Trees and Mountaines and the world passed by him David liv'd a while to be caught with a vaine representation and to commit adultery to command murther and afterwards to lament and call himselfe sinner and when he had done so the world shuff'd him off and passed by him Salomon liv'd a while to sit like a man upon his royall throne as it were guarded with Lyons and to love counterfeit pictures in the faces of strange women and while he was looking Babies in their eyes the world stole away and passed by King Salomon and all his glory Iudas liv'd awhile to handle a purse and as an old Author writes to kill his Father to marry his Mother to betray his Master and to hang himselfe and the world turn'd round as wel as he and passed by the Traytor The Jews liv'd a-while to crucifie him who had chosen them for his onely people out of all the world and quickly after the world weary of them passed by them and their Common-wealth The old Romanes liv'd awhile to worship wood and stones to talk a little of Iupiter Apollo Venus Mercury and to gaze upon a great statue of Hercules and cry hee was a mighty man and while they stood gazing and looking another way the world passed by them and their great Empire The Papists live awhile to keepe time with dropping Beads or rather to lose it to cloath images and keepe them warme and to tell most wonderfull stories of Miracles which God never thought of but as he fore-saw and found them in their fancies and in the midst of a story before it is made a compleat lye the world passes by them and turnes them into a story The Jesuits live a-while to be call'd Religious men and holy Fathers to frame a face to be very good and godly in the out-side to vex and disquiet Princes to slander all those whom they cannot or gaine or recover to their faction and the world at length finding them to be dissemblers dissembles with them also and looking friendly upon them passes by them The painted wall tumbles and then Woe to you Hypocrites Wee live a-while a little little while to put our cloathes on and off to shew our selves abroad to be hurried up and downe in Coaches and to be
mastering of the powers and passions standeth absolute mortification and consequently true perfection And truly when wee desire or love a temporall thing above an ordinary manner GOD doth ordinarily and extraordinarily chastise us in it or by it or by the want of it because it breedeth a great expence of Time and the desire and love due to God are turned upon a creature When wee so love our children that wee look over or countenance vices in them we are commonly punished in them they bring our gray haires with sorrow to our graves And likewise when wee abhorre and are wholly averted from an indifferent thing God sendeth it in a full showre upon us with a purpose to kill and mortifie our wils and affections Some things although not evill in themselves may not be lawfully desired as our own praise and honour beyond the straine of our condition The love of God can never be immoderate because it can never be greater then the thing which is loved and the will in loving if it be carried directly to God can never be disordinate Fast often And if thy body be able to goe under the burthen let not thy Fast admit of any kind of nourishment And then aske the benefits thou most desirest And by the way remember that to fast as also to heare Sermons are not properly vertuous Acts but the ready wayes to vertue And therefore if the Body be not laid under the Soule by fasting and the Soule farthered in the practice of vertues by hearing Sermons no good is done but harme in abundance God is tempted Time abused Holy dayes are prophaned The soul with God's Image defiled and these outward acts puff us up and wee contemne others as prophane persons The Soule is Mistris I say not absolute Mistris of the Body And therefore her end being supernaturall and transcending all other ends to comply with it shee may curbe and fubdue the body as she in reason pleaseth The Soul of the Cōfessor giveth up his Body to punishment and the Soul of the Martyr his body to death and dissolution in the pursuit of their end Zeno saith Remorabantur in luce detenti quorum membris pleni erant tumuli They Zeno de S. Arcadis remained alive and conversed with the living with whose members as tongues hands fingers feet the Tombs of the dead were replenished Yet break not your body by fasting for so you may cut it off from the fit exercise of Vertue and Gods service and hee that commands thee not to kill thy Neighbour will not suffer thee to be thy owne murderer Be not dejected because you are weak and cannot perfectly master your Bodie for God delighteth to manifest and shew his strength in your weaknesse Strength and weaknesse are best met together When you fall catch hold upon God and rise falling again again rise Indeed hee that goeth smoothly on when all things smile upon him and returneth backe when the winde bloweth in his face will never come to his own Countrey And here note that God dealeth with his Servants and with all people now by faire means and now again by foule But it is a very suspitious and doubtfull businesse when we have more faire and flowry way then foule and stonie and it is very likely that God hath now cast off the care of us The badge of Prosperity is one of Death's marks The Oxe is fed full and fat for the Shambles God punisheth his best Servants to wean them from the World and to better their waight of Glory Hee chastiseth every childe which he receiveth And therefore when wee sin and our sin is not followed with punishment but one sinne is punished with another that other with another it is a most fearful case for then God sheweth he hath a farther ayme then temporall punishment As likewise when wee have no sense or feeling of our sins no spirituall tribulation the soule is dangerously affected RULE 12. WHen thou art set on fire with a Temptation of the flesh apply thy selfe instantly to some kinde of employment saying Go Devill now I read your basenesse in a big letter Truly now you begin to be a meere Foole this is plaine filthines How strangely the Divell hath besotted yea bewitched men Some love women far inferiour both in body and minde to their wives whom they neglect damping and discountenancing their loves But God will perhaps punish them as his manner is with punishments like to their sins Other wives may succeed that will doat upon their Husbands Inferiours From love worse then hate and from false women that fry with love towards other men their Husbands yet breathing Good Lord deliver us For they are like faire strong and heavie Chests that appeare to the eye and hang upon the hand as if they were rich in money plate and jewels but are stuffed only with stones hay and browne paper As their gifts so they The sin of the flesh is now more hainous then it was before the Incarnation of Christ because it tainteth the flesh which he took which he hath already glorified Parce in te Christo saith one Spare Christ in thy selfe And fright away the Temptation with a loathing and execration of such Beastlinesse with contempt of so base and so quicke a pleasure accompanied with shame and with such a thought as this I am a Villain and followed with shame hate and sorrow much unlike Repentance After your Triumph over Temptation or your escape from danger run to God the onely disposer of your affaires when they turne to vertuous Good and give him humble thanks And reflect upon your misery if you had fallen under that Temptation or Danger Then search into the secret and learn whether you did not by some former offence pull the Temptation or danger upon your selfe which God now used as a warning And look with a neere eye into the deep craft of the Devill And for the present mark how painfully hee kindleth and bloweth the coals of emulation betwixt Brethren Sisters Scholers men of the same Trade people living in the same House Neighbours Families Countries How hee createth mistakes suspitions jealousies with a purpose to call up Anger I wil tel you A great Author is of opiniō that the devil doth oftentimes set Dogs together by the eares that hee may provoke men to quarrell By the falling out of two children playing at ball hee turned all Italy into a combustion wherein many thousands lost their pretious lifes passing by degrees as hee doth in all his Temptations from children to men from Parents to all of the same bloud from them to friends and from these friends to their friends and their friends friends from houses to Cities from Cities to Countries and all this began from the play of two little children I will give you a touch of his wonderfull deceits out of my Experience One seeing a dead man and hearing the people that were present say it was a
the paines the old man tooke And yet riches cannot satisfie the heart of man Saint Austin hath the reason of it in his Meditations Domine fecisti nos propter te irrequietum est cor nostrum donec pervenerit ad S. Aug. in confes te Lord thou hast made us for thee and the heart of man cannot bee quiet till it come to thee and rest in thee And the Prophet speakes not besides the matter When I awake up after thy likenesse I shall be satisfied with it There are holy meditations Ps 17. 15. and vertuous exercises to which wee owe much time and therefore the Devill a cunning dealer keepes the richer part of women busie all the prime of the day in dressing their bodies and undressing their soules and in creating halfe-moones and stars in their faces in correcting Gods workmanship and making new faces as if they were somewhat wiser then God Quem judicem mulier saith Saint Ambrose veriorem S. Ambr. requirimus deformitatis tuae quam te ipsam quae videri times O woman what more true judge can we require of thy deformity that is thy uglinesse then thy selfe who fearest to be seene The Devill is alwayes more forward in seducing women because he knoweth that women are of a soft pliant and loving nature and that if they should love God they would love him tenderly The Devill whither can any of us men or women flie from the Devill Be sober be vigilant saith Saint Peter because 1 Pet. 5. 8. your adversary the Devill as a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devoure It is not enough to be sober nor enough to be vigilant He is not our friend but our adversary And he is a busie Devill he goes about an angry Devill he goes about like a roaring Lion a hungry Devill for hee does not roare onely but he comes roaring with a greedy purpose to devoure and hee walketh lest going with speede he should run over you and he keepes not one way but walketh about and does not onely devoure those who stand or meete him in his way but he seeketh whom he may devoure and he is alwayes the same alwayes a Devill for when he hath found his prey fed upon it and eate up all he is not satisfied he goes on still seeking whom hee may devoure God blesse every good man and woman from a roaring Lion Sixtus Sixt. II. and second in one of his Epistles directed to a certaine Bishop gives the Devill no good report Si in Paradiso hominem stravit quis locus extra Parad. esse potest in quo mentes hominum penetrare non valeat If he gave man a fall in Paradise what place can there be out of Paradise in which he may not insinuate and wind himselfe into the hearts of men Here is a picture of the life we so much love and so much desire to continue And in the last place an old house fals or an arrow goes out of the way or our feete slip or the Devill comes to us in the outside of a Saint it is his course with drooping and melancholy spirits and tels us religiously that we shall give glory to God or at least ease and comfort to our selves if we cut our owne throats or hang our selves and we are dead gone Perhaps we may leave our pictures behinde us with our friends but what are they a meerely a meere deceit of the Painter our pictures are no part of us neither doe they represent us as we are we are dead we see but one anothers faces when we are alive we are parted in substances we cannot mingle into one another as wine and water and therefore death puls one out of the others bosome And commonly when our hopes are now ripe and the things we long desired at the doore Death comes and overtakes and takes us And any man being wicked himselfe may send with Gods leave a wicked man to Hell in the turning of a hand and then what would he not give to bee with his friends in the world againe Here the reason fals open why never yet from the beginning of the world any wise man died but if he could speake in his last words he cryed out against the vanities of life and of the world My prayer shall be the prayer of one that knew what hee prayd for O spare me that I may recover strength before I Ps 39. 13. goe hence and be no more Meditation 5. IF I consider man in his death and after it He dyes that never dyed before Hee dyes that knowes not what it is to dye Which of us knowes what the pangs of death are and how going naked agrees with the soule It is as true as old Death is of all terribles the most terrible For howsoever the holy Spirit in holy Scripture is pleased to call it a sleep it is not a sleep to the wicked It is recorded of Lazarus Our friend Lazarus sleepeth and of Saint Io. 11. 11. Act. 7. 60. Stephen And when he had said this he fell asleep And of the Patriarchs and Kings of Judah that they slept with their Fathers But this was the death of the Saints so pretious in the sight of the Lord. And the soule of man now leaving the body carrieth no mortall friends with her they stay behind the brother and the sister and the wife and the pretty little children with the sweete babe in the cradle No temporall goods or evils rather nothing but good or evill Revel 14. 13. workes and their workes doe follow them All the fairest goods which made all people in all ages proud are stil extant in the world and will be after us even to the end of the world And although the living talke pleasantly of their dead friends and hope well while one looketh soberly and saith I doubt not but such a man or such a woman is with God another neither truely doe I a third he she there is no question of it if he or she be not in heaven what shall become of me Yet notwithstanding all this plausible and smooth discourse not one of these three tenderhearted and charitable persons nor any one living here in the world knoweth certainly whither they were carried This we all know certainly Many of them are most heavily tormented in Hell and there curse the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation and the world and all their occasions of sin and all their friends and themselves and all Gods creatures in the very span of time wherein their friends speake well and judge charitably of them while they distribute their words without the least change of countenance and little thinke of their most wofull and most lamentable condition And the Devill though it is open to him after this life yet cunningly keepeth from us who are saved and who damned If one of us were now in Hell but it is a darke and horrid place God keepe
which cryeth to God onely for helpe which is throughly obedient for Gods sake to lawfull authority bee it amongst Heathens which doth not permit and countenance sinne by which onely God is dishonoured And she cannot be the cleane spouse of Christ which God and his Truth being infallible performeth the most high and most reverend Acts of religion upon uncertainties As prayeth absolutely for a soule turned out of the body without a certaine knowledge of her being a determinate friend or enemy of God And worshipeth that with the worship of God for God which if the Priest be deficient in his intention or defective in his orders is in her owne opinion a creature And she is not the faire spouse which hath lost her attractive beauty and which all Jewes and Infidels hate and abhorre justly moved at least with a notorious shew of Idolatry And therefore I beleeve that the Church of England is the Spouse of Christ as being free from these blemishes and conformable to Scripture And in the defence of this Faith I stand ready to give up my sweete life and dearest bloud And if I die suddenly to this Faith I commend the state of my eternity An Act of hope in God I doe hope in God because hee is infinitely full of goodnesse and is like a nurse which suffereth pain in her brests till she be eased of her milke because hee is most able and most willing to helpe me because he hath sealed his love with most unbreakable promises and because hee knoweth the manifold changes and chances of the world the particular houre of my death and the generall day of judgement in all which I hope greatly this good and great God will deliver me An Act of the love of God I such a one in perfect health and memory able yet to revell in the world to enjoy wealth and pleasure to scrifice my body and soule to sensuality doe contemne and lay under my feete all goe behinde me Satan sworne enemy of Mankinde and love God purely for himselfe For put the case he had not framed this world or beene the prime cause of any creature in it put the case hee had never beene the Author of any blessing to mee yet excellencie and perfection of themselves are worthy of love and duty and as the object of the understanding is truth so the object of the will is goodnesse and therefore my will shall cheerefully runne with a full career to the love of it Saint Austin S. Aug. hom 38. hath taught me Qui amicum propter commodum quodlibet amat non amicum convincitur amare sed commodum He that loves his friend for the profit he reapes by him is easily convinced not to love his friend but the profit Wherefore although I should see in the Propheticall booke of the divine Prescience my selfe not well using the divine helpes not rightly imploying the talents commended to my charge and to be damned for ever yet still I would love him away ill thoughts touch me not I would insomuch that if it were possible I would even compound and make to meet hands the love of God and damnation For although I were to be damned yet God could not be in the fault and though I should be exceedingly miserable by damnation he would yet remaine infinitely good and great by glory and though I did not partake so plentifully of his goodnesse yet many others would O Lord I love thee so truely that if I could possibly adde to thy perfection I freely would but because I cannot I am heartily glad and love thee againe because thou art so good and perfect that thou canst not be any way more perfect or good either to thy selfe or in thy self And I most humbly desire to enjoy thee that thy glory may shine in mee and that I may love thee for ever and ever It grieves me to thinke that if I should faile of thee in my death I should be deprived in Hell not onely of thee but also of the love of thee Note pray that other vertues either dispose us in a pious way towards our neighbour as justice or doe order the things which are ours and in us as many morall vertues or they looke upon those things which appertaine to God as Religion or they direct us to God himselfe but according onely to one Attribute or peculiar perfection As the vertue of Faith giveth us to beleeve the divine authority revealing to us Gods holy truth Hope to cast Anchor upon his helpe and promises But with charity or the love of God we fasten upon all God with respect to all his perfections we love his mercie justice power wisedome infinity immensity eternity And faith hope patience temperance and other vertues leaving us at the gate of Heaven charity enters with us and stayes in us for ever An Act of Humility O Lord if others had beene stored with the divers helpes the inspirations the good examples the good counsell the many loud cals from without and yet from thee which I have had they would have beene exceedingly more quicke more stirring in thy service Many Acts which I have thought vertues in me were onely deedes of my nature and complexion My nature is be spotted with many foolish humours I am unworthy dust and ashes and infinitely more unworthy then dust and ashes A Sinner I am not worthy to call thee Father or to depend in any kinde of thee to live or to be The foule Toade thy faire creature is farre more beautifull then I a Sinner-Toade Verily if men did know of me what thou knowest or what I know of my selfe I should be the rebuke and abomination of all the world An Act of resignation to the will of God Whither shall I flie but to thee O Lord the rich store-house of all true comfort The crosse which seemeth to me so bitter came from thy sweet will Can I be angry with thy good providence Is it not very good reason that thy royall will should be done in earth as it is in heaven And though perhaps it was not thy direct and resolute will that all my crosses should in this manner have rushed upon me yet the stroke of the crosse being given it is thy direct intention that I should beare it patiently I doe therefore with a most willing hand and heart take Gaule and Vineger delivered by thy sweete hands I doe kisse and embrace both the Giver and the gift And moreover give up my selfe and all that I have to the disposition of thy most sacred will health wealth that which I best love here and liberty and life and all are ready when thou callest Crosses are good signes For the more I suffer now the greater I hope shall be my glory And therefore to thee be the glory An Act of content I am fully and absolutely contented O Lord with thy glory And it is the head of all my comforts that thou art God and doest raign over us And
villany with a Calfe and money had redeemed him And yet notwithstanding it was one of the cherishing stories with which the notable Monke of Doway did ease me of my burden That an Italian Gentleman having sent a wicked Varlot to cut off the nose of his enemy and there are persons both in Italy and Spaine to be hired for such damnable purposes And the deed bein done the wronged person recollected his spirits and desired to know the summe by which he was induced to that foule enterprise Which being told he gave the like summe for the performance of the same exploite upon the other And the same vile instrument in the very same manner upon the same conditions cut off the nose of him that first imploy'd him In Italy they bury altogether in Vaults and in the time of my residence there the Friers had conveyed a Maid under ground and having abused her killed her in her grave Salvianus is a great enemy to these Hypocrites His words in one place are Salv. l. 5. de Guber Dei Quid agis stulta persuasio Peccata interdixit Deus non matrimonia Foolish perswasion what doest thou the Law of God forbiddeth sinne not marriage But why doe I taxe them for killing It is scarce so hainous in Italy to kill a man as to kill a dog When a man is killed in the streets of Rome another perhaps will step to him and looke if he know the face to quiet his thoughts concerning his own friends but he goes his way againe presently and makes no strange matter of murder it is so common The way of the Italians is as the Colledge hath taught me after a quarrell betwixt two one deviseth presently how he may kill his adversary upon this foundation because he must either kill or be kill'd Yet in the execution of a condemned person in Spaine I cannot no I cannot but observe one commendable passage which I could wish that their practice would commend to our imitation Sure it would bee a matter of high and publike concernement The offender being dead immediately standeth up by him hanging or lying as a triumph of justice a Priest or Minister who presently maketh a speech to the people not unlike a Sermon wherein he treats of his offence of the Diabolical delusions in which he was ensnared by little and little of his former life and of the manifestation of the divine justice in his end and death At which time he doth so point to the dead body and so often shew it to the eyes of the people whose hearts are already strucke with the horror of his presewnt ruine and moreover he doth so charge and warne the people by his example and cries so many times looke here you who are alive that indeed he moves exceedingly to good life If I goe on I shall never have done CHAP. III. OUr ghostly Father in the Colledge was an old Jesuit who had said freely amongst his companions that hee had laboured in digging under the Parliment house till every thred of his shirt was wet This man was not a fit Ghostly Father for young Schollers looking towards England The words were proved against him by the titular Bishop of Chalcedon from whose mouth I received them Who shewed me likewise a silver meddall in which Father Garnet was decked with the ornaments of a Saint and joyned with S. Ignatius Loyola I am bound also to his Lordship for the sight of two pictures of Garnets strawe each representing it in a severall forme and one being the second edition when the former had beene formerly reprehended even by me said the Bishop I hope the Jesuits will not deny that I lived warily and piously amongst them and glewed my selfe fast to my meditations when others neglected them and slept their time away who when the seven Sleepers were read in the Martyrologe at supper would merrily put off their caps in honour of them But I will onely take my leave of his Holinesse and then goe from Rome For I was sent hence by the Pope to England to convert soules and I brought out of his Treasure three thousand Indulgences with me which I meane to keepe till they are dearer The Pope is a Bishop and yet a Prince And the reason which Father Fitzharbert gave me why the old Ages payed to the Pope so little honour was because they saw him a Bishop and no Prince If this may stand the chiefe honour is due to him as a Prince and not as a Bishop He is carried in a chaire of state upon the shoulders of men from which chaire his blessing hath often come and sate upon my shoulders Kings and Cardinals may kisse his hands others of what degree soever onely the crosse upon his pantofle He has the keyes of Heaven and Hell and also of Purgatory he can turne the key open and shut when he pleaseth And he doth assure the Priest that saying Masse at a priviledge Altar that is an Altar to which this high priviledge is given by his Holinesse he shall sree a soule out of Purgatory He will give you very liberally a plenary Indulgence of all your sinnes and remit all the temporall punishment due to the slaine in Purgatory when the guilt is removed by confession He will untie the Lawes of God and give you leave and freedome to labour in servile works as to plough sow and reap on the Lords day to take for your wife your neare kinswoman to kill the subject of any Prince whom he doth excommunicate You may goe to the Stewes in the full and open view of authority I am able to name the man whom they would have suffered to commit fornication under the pleasing title of a veniall sinne Teaching out of his chaire he cannot erre they meane when he doth instruct the world in matters of faith And though he bee an Arrian a Monothelite or other Hereticke the Spirit of God doth not forsake him for he hath a double portion of his Spirit and one being lost by heresie keeps the othe He claimeth to himselfe a supreme Dor minion over Princes be they Christians or Infidels and presumeth to disengage their true and lawfull subjects from their obedience to which they are tied by God He cannot be deposed for any crime but heresie he will give you if you please him a peece of sanctified and blessed waxe which shall quiet a troubled Sea divert the mischievous aime of witch-craft stay the rude course of a devoruing fire fright away evill thoughts and make the Devill runne and doe many such feates After your death he will declare you to be a Saint and in Heaven and give way that Altars and Churches may be consecrated to your honour and called by your name and that the world may pray to you as freely and as fervently as to God and that your withered bones may be worshipped but not till the age be past in which he lived and the people gone who were eye witnesses
is a broad way Shee sought the King of Heaven in the way to Hell And therefore shee found him not And yet she was very forward in the first onset I will rise now She had not made her own the two lessons which are ever coupled together Depart from evill and doe good But Psal 34. 14. Vers 3. what hapned The Watchmen that goe about the Citie found me to whom I said Saw yee him whom my soule loveth Is it so pretty one you that rose up now and thought to watch out the night are you took your selfe by the Kings Watchmen for a straggler for a haunter of the streets and the broad wayes It will be question'd now whether you be honest or no both of your body and your hands The watchmen will tell you having met you at such a time that you doe not look honestly that your sin is plainly written in your forehead This affliction I hope will sift and winnow you You cannot bring the Watchmen within the circle of your fault It is their office to go about the City and to surpize such as you are Resolve them now and with sound reason whence you came and whither you would The poore lost thing hath griefe enough and her afflictions have made her bold She will not be question'd For before the Watchmen can open their mouths and speake to her she is wondrous busie in the examination of them Saw yee him whom my soule loveth And now she makes it plaine that her soule loves him She goes the right way to finde him She sues for direction to her beloveds Watchmen Doe yee heare you Watchmen nay pray let me speake first my late wandring is warrantable I goe in quest of him whom my soule loveth and my love cannot sleepe Speake one of you Did yee see him whom my soule loveth Were my love towards him all tongue or all face I could forbeare his company But because it is he whom my soule loveth while I have a soule I cannot be without him But did yee see him I am in great haste pray tell me While the Watchmen were getting up out of the deepe amazement into which shee had struck them like an unwonted apparition by night She steps aside in a heate And so I come to the rest I would sing to my soule It was but a little that I passed from them but I found him whom my soule loveth I held him and would not let him goe As soone as ever I had passed beyond them presently after I had untwisted my selâ—e of company And what then Let all the world heare and rejoyce with me I found whom my soule loveth O deare Lord have I found thee Where hast thou beene this many a day I have beene seeking thee by night and upon my bed and about the City and in the streetes and in the broad wayes and I could not finde thee And I have beene found my selfe and tooke by thy officers they are not farre hence and had not my tongue beene very quick and ready and my wit good and my cause better I had beene sent to prison and laid fast enough But I presently tooke them off from all their authority and us'd thy name and said Saw yee him whom my soule loveth But thou hast not yet told me where thou hast beene Indeed I was halfe afraid I had quite lost thee I beleeve I doe I doe that had'st not thou sought me more then I sought thee wee had never met againe And thou didst help me to seeke thee but I could not helpe thee to seeke me as I could not helpe thee to make me For I was lost my selfe not only in my selfe but also in my understanding and I knew not what directions to give for the finding of my selfe because I knew not where I was But since I have extracted from particulars by the Chymistry of experience what a bottomlesse misery it is to be lost from thee and what a solitary labour it is to seeke thee now I have found thee I will hold thee with my heart and with both my hands and armes and I will not let thee goe The soule being now close in the armes of her Beloved must exercise her spirituall acts in a more perfect manner Let me kisse that middle wound that hath foure lesser wounds to waite upon it O those blessed Quires of Angels they sing marvellously well But when they have sung over all their songs no musicke is like to Davids Harp the old instrument of ten strings to wit the keeping of the ten Commandements by the which Gods holy will is performed This All-seeing providence that all over-flowing goodnesse that immensity this infinity Lord Lord whither goe I I am quite swallowed up No tongue can speake it Doe what pleaseth thee O most good and most great whose greatnesse doth most shine in goodnesse O God who can fadome thy eternity And now I cannot hold up my eyes I must needs fall fast asleepe CHAP. XVIII I Know what will happen to many of my Readers What I have wrote will put nature to the start and a little fright the soule And therefore it will worke in them awhile though at length weakly and remissely But other passages pressing upon them passages of mirth of businesse it will grow colder and colder in them weare away and after awhile be quite forgot the Devill hammering out by little and little a golden wedge with one of a base metall If the seed hath not fell upon good ground thus it will be with them And then let them thinke of me and remember that I foretold them what would happen Aethiops in balneum niger intrat saith Saint Gregory niger egreditur The Aethiopian goes blacke into the Bath and comes again blacke out of it The Prophet David hath a divine expression If he turne not he will Psal 7. 12. whet his sword meaning God hee hath bent his bowe and made it ready Whom doe we strike with a sword him that is nigh us Whom shoote with a bow one a farre off Who is nigh God the old man For by the course of nature hee is neare death Who seemes to be farre off the young man but God can reach him with his bow Lord helpe us We are farre gone We cannot learne that which God taught from the beginning of the world And when people began to multiply taught every day and houre And that which he most teaches of all that ever hee taught And what is it that here we have no continuing City but seeke one to come Heb. 13. 14 Could we sinfull creatures fore see our own ends and the lamentable chances that lie watching for us as we passe by such a day and such an houre the hardest of us would weepe let us weepe then for the cause of all our misery our execrable sinnes Christ wept over Jerusalem because he saw the hearts and fore-saw the ends of all the people in the City He saw perhaps
may seeme to proceed from the same Father But they now say this was an act of merriment I answer My Author a Scholler and a discreet person there present did not conceive it so nor yet perceive that it entred in that forme upon the apprehension of others And it is not safe jesting with exercises of Religion One thing must not passe though many doe The Jesuits are the most sweet and most honey-tongu'd people that ever I heard speak Some of them are ancient and grave men and now stooping towards their grave and yet after every word even when they speake to young greene Boyes they come with yes forsooth and no forsooth their Caps being off and a courteous forme of duty expressed and forsooth with yes pray if you please and no forsooth pray take up a great part of their discourse CHAP. 15. IT hath beene alwayes the custome of wanderers in Religion to guild their deformed errors with Hypocrisie and to put on all shapes for the manifold advantage of their Profession Simon Magus the first that ever display'd the banner in this kinde against Christ and Christian Religion by the power of the devill as Nicephorus recounteth taught Images to walk stooles Niceâ—â— lib. 2. â—ccl hist cap 27. and dishes to passe from place to place without a Guide Hee would appeare in the midst of a great flame untouch'd by the fire he would flye in the ayre turne stones into seeming bread take the fearefull shape of a Dragon and of other Beasts that hee might with the Kings of Egypt amaze and terrifie the world Now hee would shew himselfe with two faces and now againe seeme to be all gold Dores strengthen'd with able barres and locks he would open with a word break iron fetters and in bankets present a shew of sporting Images in many forms and divers colours Shadowes did goe before him which hee interpreted to be the soules of dead persons And thus he would seem to work miracles in triviall and unnecessary matters Intruth hee was any thing the spectatours desired to see And yet a statue was consecrated to him by the wise Romans with a glorious inscription Simoni Deo Sancto to Simon the holy God Behold here the Father of Hypocrites Tully S. Iust in Apolog. 2. doth not praise Catiline when hee sayes that hee was made up of the mixture of all other mens natures Nor doth Homer extoll Proteus of whom a pious Author most elegantly singeth Spumat aper fluit undae fremit Leo sibilat anguis Hee foames like a Boare he flowes like the water he roares like a Lion hee hisses like a Snake Now I shall dive low God is so faire and excellent that he can never appeare to any creature which he hath made or can make to men or Angels or any creature possible to be made more perfect then an Angel so excellent and so faire as in himselfe hee is The reason is ponderous and worthy to be pondered God can never appeare to any power in his compleat fairenesse except that power be of capacity to comprehend his fairenesse no power can comprehend his fairenesse except the power be of an infinite capacity because God is infinite no creature can be of an infinite capacity because no creature can be infinite The last proposition and the reason of it flow naturally from the premises But look farther Because God in his owne Essence being and nature being by nature most neere to him is infinitely excellent and therefore neither doth nor can appeare in his full shining to any creature hee doth hate especially hate inwardly hate from his heart an Hypocrite and can by no meanes be at peace with one of those who being endued with shallow perfections are but a small particle of what he is a meere atome of his excellency and yet make a noise with the shallow brooks and chiefly desire to appeare more then what they are and seeme to be what they are not If the thoughts of man were as audible as his words he could not beare one thing in his heart another in his tongue But in the creation of man the heart was shut up by it selfe and lyeth open to none but him that made it whose priviledge prerogative it is to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the searcher of the heart and therefore there may be Hypocrites in respect of us but not of God And no man aspireth to a seeming excellency above himselfe but one stretched with the swelling of pride beyond the condition in which hee stands and pride hath many Companions By which it appeares eminently true that Hypocrisie is not a melancholly and single sin that it goeth not without a traine that it comes in the midst of an Army as if it had proclaimed open warre against Heaven and therefore is hatefull to God for many respects CHAP. 16. OUr Saviour cries as if hee would never have done crying Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for their Math. 23. hypocrisie had many faults and therefore many woes were due to them as hypocrites When God deales with servile natures he begins to frowne he threatens wo and torments because the Slave is of a hard skin and is more stirred with a blow then with soft and gentle admonitions and therefore the hypocrite is of a rough ragged and servile disposition And when God threatneth paine and woe it is cleare that those with whom he dealeth cannot be raised by any other meanes For we have driven God to his last refuge when he flyeth to threats and therefore the hypocrite is as his Father was in the gall of bitternesse Act. 8. 23. and neither the gracious promises of the true Father nor the grievous performances of his Sonne and our Saviour nor yet the glorious perpetuity of Heaven can heat or kindle him You must tell the thiefe for he is a thiefe as robbing God of his rich and pretious honour of the whip and the lash of the Jayle and chaines that he will never leave till he be hang'd and that there is a dark dungeon below and devils and damned spirits and fire and brimstone and perpetuall horrour It is remarkable saith S. Cyprian that Christ under the name S Cypr. lib. 4 ep 9. of Scribes and Pharisees reprehendeth even the Priests and high-Priest For lest hee should seeme to thwart the Priesthood and chayre of Moses striking also at the Priests and high Priest he saith onely Woe unâ—o you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites The outward acts of divine service being performed in the old Law by way of shadow and figure and with resemblance and relation to the perfection of the new Law and being as it were the first lineaments of perfection we may not think that God would have excluded the Swan out of the sacred Levit. 11. number of his victimes without a firme and solid reason He was not tempted with the choyce cleannesse of her feathers nor with her fore-stalling of death and
singing her owne obsequies but because her skinne the root of her feathers and her flesh and entrals the organs of her musick were black he rejected her as an uncleane creature not worthy to teach the world The Ostrich likewise was esteemed profane and never admitted into Gods holy Temple because notwithstanding all his great and glorious furniture of feathers he cannot lift his dull and drossie body above the ground The Moone shineth but because it doth not heat it is not suffered to shine by day It is the property of good to shrowd and cover it selfe God the chiefest good though he filleth heaven and earth with his glory yet he will not be seene Christ though he was perfect God and equall to his Father yet nothing was ordinarily seene in him but a poore homely man Who ever saw the soul of a man his onely jewell as he is a man Christ said to his Apostles Yee are the light of the world And againe Let your light so Math. 5. 4 Ver. 16. shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven It must be light and therefore a true light not a counterfeit and seeming light it must be your light every mans owne light it must be a light by which men may see not onely the good light it selfe but also our good works by the light and it must shine onely to the end that our heavenly Father may be glorified All light is commonly said to be derived from the Sun and the cause of all our shining must be alwayes referred and attributed to God And truly when a man for example giveth almes kindled onely with an intention that his neighbour seeing him may glorifie his Father which is in Heaven his intention is cleane and sufficiently good but he must be a man of proofe that giveth place to such intentions for he lieth wide open to the ticklings of vaine-glory and hypocrisie But I feele a scruple Good example is highly vertuous and in some sort worthy of reward especially in persons of eminent quality because good example is more seene more admired and goes with more credit and authority in them and therefore doth more edifie in respect of the high conceit wee have of their wisedome and knowledge Now the hypocrite teacheth as forcibly by example as the sound and throughly vertuous man For we learne in the great Theater of example by what wee outwardly see and the hypocrite is as outwardly faire as the sincere Christian It seemeth now that an hypocrite doth please God in playing the hypocrite Not so because his intention is crooked for he doth not intend to bring an encrease of good to others but of glory to himselfe If good by chance break in upon his action it falleth besides his intention and it belongeth to Gods providence as to it 's proper fountain which crusheth good out of evill As likewise the prodigall man when hee giveth prodigally to the poore doth not intend to fulfill the law of God but to satisfie his owne wilde lust of giving St. John Baptist was a lamp burning and shining Which moved St. Bernard to say Ardere parum lucere vanum lucere ardere perfectum It is S. Bern. in Serm. de nativ S. Io. Bapt. a small thing to burne only a vaine thing to shine onely a perfect thing to both shine and burne Nothing is more naturally proper to the fire then to burne and in the instant in which it first burns it gives light Which is the cause of those golden words in Synesius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the nature Synes Contra Androm of God to do good as of the fire to heat or burne and of the light to give light CHAP. 17. ANd certainly if we search with a curious and piercing eye into the manners of men we shall quickly finde that false Prophets and Deceivers are commonly more queint more various and more polished in their tongues and publike behaviour then God's true and faithfull Messengers who conforme themselves to the simplicity of the Gospel And if we looke neere the matter God prefigured these deceitfull creatures in the creation for hee hath an admirable way of teaching even by every creature it being the property of a cruell beast called the Hyaena to faine the voyce of a man But when the silly Shepheard commeth to his call he ceases to be a man teares him presently and preys upon him Each Testament hath a most fit example Ioab said to Amasa the head of Absolons Army Art thou in health my Brother Could danger lurk under the faire name of 2 Sam. 20. 9. Brother or could death hide it selfe under health a perfection of life They could and did For Ioab making forward to kisse him killed him and robbed him both of health and life whom hee had even now saluted with Art thou in health my Brother Surely he did not think of Cain when hee call'd him Brother Judas came to Christ and saying God save thee Master kissed him Hee talks of God and of Salvation Math. 26. 49. God save thee Hee confesses Christ to be his Master Hee kisses too And yet in the same act gives him up into the busie hands of his most deadly enemies Wherefore St. Ambrose one that had a practicall knowledge of the great difference of Spirits which hee had seene in their actions disswading us from the company and conversation of these faith-Impostors saith Nec vos moveat quod formam praetendere videntur S. Ambr. humanam nam et si foris homo cernitur intus bestia fremit let it not move you that they beare outwardly the likenesse and similitude of men for without a man appeareth but within a beast rageth And that which St. Hierome saith of a quiet Sea is of the same colour with the conceit of St. Ambrose Intùs inclusum est periculum intùs est hostis the danger is shut up within within is the S. Hier. ep ad Heliodor Enemy like a rock watching under a calme water St. Cyprian adviseth us to betake our selves presently to our feet and fly from them Simus ab eis tam seperati quà m sunt illi de Ecclesia profugi Let us fly as farre S. Cypr. in ep 3. lib. 1. from them as they have flowne from the purity of the Church and that 's a great way St. Cyprian in the same place exhorteth us very seriously not to deale with them not to eat with them not to speake with them O the foule corruption of our Times O for some zealous power that may reforme the abuses mine eyes have seene It is one of the first endeavours of the Papists in England which they exercise towards the society of men to gaine the good wills of Ministers For if they purchase the Ministers good will and good word they clip the wings of the Law hold him fast that hath a great stroke in matters concerning them