should yeeld a reconing of so much time spent in singing so much in daunsing so much in courting and the like who would not laugh at his accounts But being further asked by his maister what time he bestowed on his marchandise which he sent him for if he should answer none at all nor that he ever thought or studied upon that matter who would not think him woorthie of all shame and punishment And surely with much more shame and confusion shall they stand at the day of judgment who being placed here to so great a busines as is the service of almightie God have notwithstanding neglected the same bestowing their studies labors and cogitations in the vain trifles of this world which is as much from the purpose as if men being placed in a course to run at a golden game of infinit price they should leave their mark and some step aside after flies or fethers in the aire and some other stand still gathering up the dung of the ground And how were these men woorthie trow you to receave so great a reward as was proposed to them 9 Wherfore deer Christian if thou be wise consider thy case while thou hast time follow the Apostles counsel examin thy own works wais deceave not thy self Yet maist thou have grace to reform thy self bicause the day time of life yet remaineth The dreadful night of death wil overtake thee shortly when there wil be no more time of reformation What wil al thy labour and toil in procuring of worldly wealth profit or comfort thee at that hour when it shal be said to thee as Christ said to thy like in the gospel when he was now come to the top of his worldly felicitie Thou foole this night shal they take away thy soul and then who shal have the things which thou hast gotten togither Beleeve me deer brother for I tel thee no untruth one hour bestowed in the service of God wil more comfort thee at that time than an hundred yeeres bestowed in advauncing thy selfe and thy house in the world And if thou mightest feele now the case wherin thy poore hart shal be then for omitting of this thing which it should most have thought upon thou wouldest take from thy sleepe and from thy meat also to recompence thy negligence for the time past The difference betwixt a wise man a foole is this that the one provideth for a mischeef while time serveth but the other when it is too late 10 Resolve thy self therfore good Christian while thou hast time Resolve thy self without delay to take in hand presently and to apply for the time to come the great and weightie busines for which thou wast sent hither which only in deed is weightie and of importance and al others are meere trifles and vanities but only so far forth as they concern this Beleeve not the world which for running awrie in this point is detested by thy saviour and every frend therof pronounced an enimy to him by his Apostle Say at length unto thy saviour I do cōfesse unto thee O Lord I do confesse can not deny that I have not hitherto attended to the thing for which I was created redeemed and placed here by thee I do see my errour I can not dissemble my greevous fault I do thank thee ten thowsand times that thou hast given me the grace to se it while I may yet by thy grace amend it which by thy holy grace I mean to do and without delay to alter my course beseeching thy divine majestie that as thou hast given me this light of understanding to see my danger and this good motion to reform the same so thou wilt continew towards me thy blessed assistance for performance of the same to thy honor and my souls health Amen CHAP. IIII. Of the end of man in particular and of two special things required at his hands in this life HAving spoken of the end of man in general in the former chapter shewed that it is to serve God it seemeth convenient for that the matter is of great and singular importance to treat somwhat more in particular wherin this service of God doth consist that therby a Christian may iudge of himself whether he perform the same or no and consequently whether he do the thing for which he was sent into this world 2 First therfore it is to be understood that the whole service which God requireth at a Christian mans hands in this life consisteth in two things the one to fly evil the other to do good And albeit these two things were required of us also before the coming of Christ as appeareth by Dauid whose cōmandement is general Decline from evil and do good and by Esay the prophet whose words are Leave to do perversly and learn to do wel Yet much more particularly and with far greater reason are they demaunded at the hands of Christian people who by the death and passion of their Redeemer do receave grace and force to be able in some measure to perform these two things which the law did not give albeit it commanded the same 3 But now we being redeemed by Christ receaving from him not only the renewing of the same cōmandement for the performance of these two things but also force and abilitie by his grace wherby we are made somwhat able to do the same we remain more bound therto in reason and dutie than before for that this was the fruit and effect of Christ his holy passion as Saint Peter saith That we being dead to sin should live vnto righteousnes Or as Saint Paul more plainly declareth the same when he saith The grace of God our Saviour hath appeared to al men instructing vs to this end that we renouncing al wickednes and worldly desires should live soberly iustly and godly in this world 4 These two things then are the service of God for which we were sent into this world the one to resist sin the other to folow good works In respect of the first we are called soldiers our life a warfare upon the earth for that as soldiers do alwais lie in wait to resist their enimies so ought we to resist sin and the temptations therof And in respect of the second we are called labourers stewards fermers and the like for that as these men attend diligently to their gain and increase of substance in this life so should we to good works to the glorie of God and benefit of others here in this life 5 These therfore are two special points which a Christian man should meditate upon two special exercises wherin he shuld be occupied two special legs wherupon he must walk in the service of God and finally two wings wherby he must flie and mount up unto a Christian life And whosoever wanteth either of these though he had the other yet can he not ascend to any tru
A Booke of Christian exercise appertaining to RESOLVTION that is shewing how that we should resolve our selves to become Christians in deed by R. P. Perused and accompanied now with a Treatise tending to Pacification by Edm. BVNNY Heb. 13 8. Iesus Christ yesterday and to day and the same for ever Imprinted at London by N. Newton and A. Hatfield for Iohn Wight 1584. Hoc insigne priùs proavis musÃsque decorum Postremò Petri concelebravit honos TO THE MOST REverend Father in God his very good Lord and Patron EDWIN by the providence of God Archbishop of York Primate of England and Metropolitan c. MAY it please your Grace to understand that wheras at the first by a frind of mine and after by mine own experience I perceived that the booke insuing was willingly read by divers for the persuasion that it hath to godlines of life which notwithstanding in manie points was corruptly set down I thought good in the end to get the same published againe in some better manner than now it is come foorth among them that so the good that the reading therof might otherwise do might carrie no hurt or danger withal so far as by me might be praevented For this cause I have taken the pains both to purge it of certain points that carried either some manifest error or else some other inconvenience with them and to join another short Treatise withal to â—â—â—ort those that are not yet persuaded to join with us likewise in the truth of Religion For so to accept of our adversaries labors so much as is good may I trust bring to passe with some few of them that themselves wil better perceive that wherin they shal do wel they may looke to be as readily incouraged by us as when they do il to be admonished or reprehended either as the case doth require and others likewise of their welwillers yet notwithstanding in this varie from them that they stand more indifferent in the cause of religion and mean not otherwise to persist in their opinions but so far as they think they have reason for them may so be the rather induced to assure them selves as the truth indeed is that wherin they have sufficient warrant for the points that they stand on they are not in any wise misliked by us but onlie for those wherin they have no sufficient groundwork to bear them out I was also very glad both that some of them had taken pains in that kind of labor and that others of their profession were somtimes occupied in reading of such For wheras by their bookes that are of the Controversies the readers of them that are before smitted with that kind of infestion are oft times therby the more intangled in their errors and more kindled likewise with inordinate heat against al those that more sincerely hold the Christian faith by this kind of labor it may fal out that comming therby to the fear of God though but after a corrupter maner yet therin may they possibly finde a readie way first to draw them somwhat on to a better advisement of their wais and then after that to espie their wonted errors likewise and to join with us in the truth of religion In which course the better to help them I have added this other Treatise withal so to bring before their eies how the case for that matter doth stand betwixt us and how little cause there is for them so much to be afraid of our profession as some have born them in hand that they ought trusting withal that as they do already agree with us in many points of great importance so they can be content to condescend unto us in the rest likewise if it may appeer unto them that in so doing they shal do none otherwise than as of conscience and dutie they ought Both which bookes when I thought to have praesented unto your Grace I was for a time staied by this for that I thought them not a praesent woorthie inough in respect of my labors therin But when I did more deeply consider that I might very wel hope of better acceptance than the strict woorthines of the thing should deserve I was then fully resolved to be so bold as to praesent your G. with them such as they be and for whatsoever wanteth either in them or me to rest in the good assurance that I have that your G. wil notwithstanding of your own inclination in good part take them As also I take it that I am by good reason induced so to do both for that the dignitie of your place in the church of God among us and mine own special dutie besides doth of right require it and much more than it if mine abilitie might accordingly serve and the nature of the matter in one principal point is such as that by a certain kind of necessitie it leadeth me therunto For wheras it may be the persuasion of some that no such work as is at the first so corrupt in it selfe should be brought foorth to light by any of us though never so warily we purged it before wherin notwithstanding there be many good reasons to ground upon for those that are otherwise minded hence is it that your Graces censure especially heer in these parts is of me and others of the same jurisdiction especially to be regarded for the place that God hath given you among us In which kind of labor as Castalion first then also Maister Rogers have done very wel in that little booke of Kempicius that is called The Imitation of Christ leaving out the corruption of it and taking onlie that which was sound so hath Iohn Baptist Fikler been very bold in wresting that which another had written so wel of the power of the magistrate over his subjects and the dutie of subjects to him again altogither to the establishing of the Popes supremacie and to animate their own confoederates against their godlie and lawful princes changing nothing else to speak of but those very titles and otherwise using the others matter method and stile Nevertheles as the former of these examples shew us how such things may rightly be used so the other likewise may admonish those that would mislike to have their oversights so holpen that they had need as much to go about to excuse their own fellows as to impugn any others therfore that use their freedom more moderately As for my selfe having used my libertie so easily as I have done altering no more than need required and doing the same in quiet maner without any greefe against the Author whosoever it were or disgrace to his doings so much as might be not betraieng the truth I am the lesse careful under the protection of your Graces censure either of the censure or assalts of others that are more led by affection than reason To be short wheras the former of these two bookes calleth men from the love of the world and the latter likewise doth cal men from their
God in some measure of his majestie did passe by in glorie And when he was past God tooke away his hand and suffered Moises to see his hinder parts only which was notwithstanding most terrible to behold 5 The prophet Daniel also describeth the majestie of this God shewed unto him in vision in these words I did see saith he when the thrones were set and the old of many dais sate down his apparel was as white as snow his haire like unto pure wool his thron was of a flame of fire his chariots were burning fire a swift flud of fire came from his face a thousand thousands did serve him and ten thousand hundred thousands did assist him he sate in iudgement and the books were opened before him Al this and much more is recorded in scripture to admonish us therby what a prince of majestie he is whom a sinner offendeth 6 Imagin now brother mine that thou seest this great king sitting in his chaire of majestie with chariots of fire unspeakable light and infinite millions of Angels about him as the scripture reporteth Imagin further which is most tru that thou seest al the creatures in the world stand in his presence and trembling at his majestie and most carefully attending to do that for which he created them as the heavens to move abovt the earth to bring foorth sustenance and the like Imagin further that thou seest al these creatures how big or little soever they be to hang and depend only of the power and vertu of God wherby they stand move and consist and that there passeth from God to ech creature in the world yea to everie part that hath motion or being in the same some beam of his vertu as from the sun we see infinite beams to passe into the aire Consider I say that no one part of any creature in the world as the fish in the sea the grasse on the ground the leaves of the trees or the parts of man upon the face of the earth can grow moove or consist without some litle stream of vertu and power come to it continually from God So that thou must imagin God to stand as a most glorious sun in the midst and from him to passe foorth infinite beams or streams of vertu to al creatures that are either in heaven earth the aire or the water and to every part therof and upon these beams of his vertu al creatures to hang and if he should stop but any one of them it would destroy and annihilate presentlie some creature or other This I say if thou shalt consider touching the majestie of God and the infinite dread that al creatures have of him except only a sinner for the devils also do fear him as Saint Iames saith thou wilt not marvel of the severe judgement of God appointed for his offence For sure I am that very shame of the world maketh us to have more regard in offending the poorest frind we have in this life than a wicked man hath in offending God which is an intollerable contempt of so great a majestie 7 But now if we adjoin to this contemplation of majestie another consideration of his benefits bestowed upon us our default wil grow to be far greater for that to injurie him who hath done us good is a thing most detestable even in nature it selfe And there was never yet so fearce an hart no not amongst brute beasts but that it might be woon with curtesie benefits but much more amongst reasonable creatures doth benificence prevail especially if he come from great personages whose love and frindship declared unto us but in smal gifts doth greatly bind the harts of the receavers to love them again 8 Consider then deer Christian the infinite good turns and benefits which thou hast receaved at the hands of this great God therby to win thee to his love that thou shouldest leave of to offend and injurie him and albeit no toong created either of man or Angel can expresse the one halfe of these gifts which thou hast receaved from him or the valew of them or the great love and hartie good wil wherwith he bestowed them upon thee yet for som memorie sake I wil repeat certain general and principal points therof wherunto the rest may be referred 9 First then he hath bestowed upon thee the benefit of thy creation wherby he made thee of nothing to the likenes of himselfe and appointed thee to so noble an end as is to serve him in this life and to reign with him in the life to come furnishing thee for the present with the service and subjection of al creatures The greatnes of this benefit may partly be conceaved if thou do imagin thy selfe to lak but any one part of thy bodie as a leg an arm an eie or the like and that one should freely geeve the same unto thee or if thou wantest but any one sense as that thou were deafe or blind and one should restore sight or hearing unto thee how wouldest thou esteeme of this benefit How much wouldest thou professe thy selfe beholding unto him for the same And if the gift of one of these parts only would seeme such a benefit unto thee how great oughtest thou to esteeme the free gift of so manie parts together 10 Ad to this now as I have said that he hath created thee to the likenes of no other thing but of himselfe to no other end but to be his honorable servant in this world and his compartener in kingly glorie for al eternitie to come and this he hath done to thee being only a peece of dirt or clay before Now imagin thou of what maner of love proceeded this But yet ad further how he hath created al this magnificent world for thee and al the creatures therof to serve thee in this busines the heaven to distinguish times and seasons and to geeve thee light the earth and aier and water to minister most infinit varietie of creatures for thy use and sustinance hath made thee lord of al to use them for thy comfort and his service And what magnificent gifts are these And what shameful ingratitude is it to turn the same to the dishonor and injurie of so loving a geever as thou dost by using them to serve thee in sin 11 But yet consider a little further the benefit of thy redemption much greater than al the former which is that thou having lost al those former benefits again and made thy self guiltie by sin of eternal punishment wherto the Angels were now delivered for their sin committed before God chose to redeeme thee and not the Angels and for satisfieng of thy fault to deliver his own only Son to death for thee O Lord what hart can conceave the greatnes of this benefit Imagin thy selfe being a poore man hadst committed a greevous crime against a kings majestie together with some great man of his cheefest nobilitie and that
in another place Audite coeli auribus percipe terra Harken ye heavens and thou earth bend hither thine eares Filios enutrivi exaltavi ipsi autem spreuerunt me I have norished up children and have exalted them and now they contemn me What a pitiful complaint is this of God against most vile and base worms of the earth But yet God amplifieth this iniquitie more by certain examples and comparisons The oxe saith he knoweth his owner and the asse knoweth the manger of his Lord and maister but yet my people know not me wo be to the sinful nation to the people loden with iniquitie to this naughtie seed to wicked children What complaint can be more vehement than this What threatning can be more dreadful than this wo comming from the mouth of him which may punish us at his pleasure 19 Wherfore deer brother if thou have grace cease to be ungrateful to God any longer cease to offend him which hath by so manie wais prevented thee with benefits cease to render evil for good hatred for love contempt for his fatherly affection towards thee He hath done for thee al that he can he hath given thee al that thou art yea and in a certain maner al that he is woorth himselfe and meaneth besides to make thee partaker of al his glorie in the world to come and requireth no more for al this at thy hands but love and gratitude O deer brother why wilt thou not yeeld him this Why wilt thou not do as much to him as thou wouldest haue another man to do to thee for lesse than the ten thousand part of these benefits which thou hast receaved For I dare wel say that if thou hadst given a man but an almes at thy dore thou wouldest think him bound to love thee for it albeit thou hadst nothing in thee woorth love besides But now thy Lord besides these his gifts hath infinite causes to make thee love him that is al the causes which any thing in the world hath to purchase love and infinite more besides for if al the perfections of al things created in heaven and in earth which do procure love were put togither in one as al their beautie al their vertu al their nobilitie al their goodnes and the like yet thy Lord and Savior whom thou contemnest doth passe al this and that by many and infinite degrees for that he is not only al these things togither but also he is very beautie it selfe vertu it selfe wisdom it selfe sweetnes it selfe nobilitie it selfe goodnes it selfe and the very fountain and welspring where hence al these things are derived by litle peeces and parcels unto his creatures 20 Be ashamed then good Christian of this thy ingratitude to so great so good bountiful a Lord and resolve thy selfe for the time to come to amend thy course of life and behavior towards him Say with the prophet which had lesse cause to say so than thou Domine propitiare peccatomeo multum est enim O Lord pardon me mine offences for it is great in thy sight I know there is nothing O Lord which doth so much displease thee or dry up the fountain of thy mercy and so bindeth thy hands from dooing good as ingratitude in the receavers of thy benefits wherin hitherto I have exceeded al other but I have done it O Lord in mine ignorance not considering thy gifts unto me nor what account thou wouldest demaund again of the same But now seeing thou hast vouchsafed to make me woorthy of this grace also wherby to see and know mine own state and default I hope hereafter by direction of the same grace of thine to shew my selfe a better child towards thee O Lord I am overcome at the lenth with consideration of thy love and how can I have the hart to offend thee hereafter seeing thou hast prevented me so many wais with benefits even when I demanded not the same Can I have hands ever more to sin against thee which hast given up thine own most tender hands to be nailed on the crosse for my sins heretofore No no it is too great an injurie against thee O Lord and wo woorth me that have done it so often heretofore But by thy holy assistance I trust not to return to such iniquitie for the time to come to which O Lord I beseech thee for thy mercy sake from thy holie throne of heaven to say Amen CHAP. VIII Of what opinion and feeling we shal be touching these matters at the time of our death THe holie scriptures do teach us and experience maketh it plain that during the time of this life the commodities preferments and pleasures of the world do possesse so strongly the harts of manie men and do hold them chained with so forcible inchauntments being forsaken also upon their just deserts of the grace of God say and threaten what a man can bring against them al the whole scripture even from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Apocalips as indeed it is al against sin and sinners yet wil it prevail nothing with them being in that lamentable case as either they beleeve not or esteem not whatsoever is said to that purpose against their setled life and resolution to the contrary Of this we have infinite examples in scripture as of Sodom and Gomorra with the cities about which could not heare the warnings that good Lot gave unto them Also of Pharao whom al that ever Moises could do either by signes or saiengs mooved nothing Also of Iudas who by no faire means or threatnings used to him by his maister would change his wicked resolution But especially the prophets sent from God from time to time to dissuade the people from their naughtie life and consequently from the plaegs hanging over them do give abundant testimonie of this complaining everie where of the hardnes of sinners harts that would not be mooved with al the exhortations preachings promises and thunderings that they could use The prophet Zacharie shal testifie for al in this matter who saith of the people of Israel a litle before their destruction Hoc ait Dominus exercituum c. This saith the Lord of hosts iudge iustly And so foorth And presentlie he addeth And they would not attend but turning their baks went away stopped their ears to the end they might not heare and they did put their harts as an adamant stone to the end they might not heare the law and the words which God did send in his spirit by the hands of the former prophets wherby Gods great indignation was stirred up 2 This then is and alwais hath been the fashion of worldlings reprobate persons to harden their harts as an adamant stone against any thing that shal be told them for the amendement of their lives and for the saving of their souls Whiles they are in helth prosperitie they wil not know God As in
you is now the state of this afflicted soul It is no marvel if a wise man become a foole or a stout worldling most abject in this instant of extremitie as we often see they do in such sort as they can dispose of nothing wel either towards God or the world at this hour the cause is the extremitie of pains oppressing their minds as Saint Austen also proveth or some other under his name and giveth us therwithal a most excellent forewarning if men were so gracious as to folow it When you shal be in your last siknes deer brother saith he O how hard and painful a thing wil it be for you to repent of your faults committed And why is this but only for that al the intention of your mind wil run thither where al the force of your pain is Manie impediments shal let men at that day as the pain of the bodie the fear of death the sight of children for the which their fathers shal oftentimes think themselves often damned the weeping of the wise the flatterie of the world the temptation of the devil the dissimulation of physitions for lucre sake and the like And beleeve thou O man which readest this that thou shalt quickly proove al this tru upon thy selfe and therfore I beseech thee that thou wilt repent before thou come unto this last day dispose of thy house and make thy testament while thou art thine own man for if thou tary until the last day thou shalt be led whether thou wouldest not Hitherto are the Authors words 6 The second thing which shal make death terrible and greevous to a worldly man is the sudden parting and that for ever and ever from al the things which he loved most deerly in this life as from his riches possessions honours offices faire buildings with their commodities goodlie apparel with rich jewels from wife and children kindred and frinds and the like wherwith he thought himselfe a blessed man in this life and now to be plucked from them upon the sudden without ever hope to see or use them again oh what a greef what a torment wil this be For which cause the holie scripture saith O mors quam amara est memoria tua homini pacem habenti in substantijs suis O death how bitter is thy memorie unto a man that hath peace rest in his substance riches As who would say there is no more bitternes or greefe in the world to such a man than to remēber or think on death only but much more to go to it himselfe that out of hand when it shal be said unto him as Christ reporteth it was to the great wealthy man in the Gospel which had his barns ful and was come now to the highest top of felicitie Stulte hac nocte animam tuam repetent à te quae autem parasti cuius erunt Thou foole even this night they wil take thy soule from thee and then who shal have al that thou hast scraped together 7 It is unpossible I say for any toong to expresse the doleful state of a worldly man in this instant of death when nothing that ever he hath gathered togither with so much labor and toil and wherin he was woont to have so much confidence wil now do him good any longer but rather afflict him with the memorie therof considering that he must leave al to others and go himselfe to give account for the getting and using of the same perhaps to his eternal damnation whiles in the mean time other men in the world do live merilie and pleasantly upon that he hath gotten litle remembring and lesse caring for him which lieth perhaps burning in unquenchable fire for the riches left unto them This is a woful and lamentable point which is to bring manie a man to great sorrow and anguish of hart at the last day when al earthly joies must be left al pleasures and commodities for ever abandoned Oh what a doleful day of parting wil this be What wilt thou say my freend at this day when al thy glorie al thy wealth al thy pomp is come to an end What art thou the better now to have lived in credit with the world In favor of princes Exalted of men Feared reverenced and advanced seeing now al is ended and that thou canst use these things no more 8 But yet there is a third thing which more than al the rest wil make this day of death to be troublesom and miserable unto a worldlie man and that is the consideration what shal become of him both in bodie and soul. And for his bodie it wil be no smal horror to think that it must inherit serpents beasts worms as the scripture saith that is it must be cast out to serve for the food of vermins that bodie I mean which was so delicately handled before with varietie of meats pillows and beds of down so trimly set forth in apparel and other ornaments wherupon the wind might not blow nor the sun shine that bodie I saie of whose beutie there was so much pride taken and wherby so great vanitie and sin was committed that bodie which in this world was accustomed to al pampering and could abide no austeritie or discipline must now come to be abandoned of al men and left onlie to be devoured of worms Which thing albeit it can not but breed much horror in the hart of him that lieth a dieng yet is it nothing in respect of the dreadful cogitations which he shal have touching his soul as what shal become of it Whither it shal go after hir departure out of the bodie And then considering that it must go to the judgment seat of God there to receive sentence either of unspeakable glorie or insupportable pains he falleth to cōsider more in particular the danger therof by comparing Gods justice and threats set down in scripture against sinners with his own life he beginneth to examin the witnes which is his conscience and he findeth it readie to lay infinite accusations against him when he commeth to the place of justice 9 And now deer brother beginneth the miserie of this man For scantly there is not a severe saieng of God in al the scripture which commeth not now to his mind to terrifie him withal at this instant as If thou wilt enter into life keepe the commandements He that saith he knoweth God and keepeth not his commandements is a liar Manie shal saie unto me at that day Lord Lord c. Not the hearers of the law but the doers of the law shal be iustified Go from me al workers of iniquitie into everlasting fire De not you know that wicked men shal not possesse the kingdome of God Be not deceived for neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor unclean handlers of their own bodies nor Sodomites nor theeves nor covetous men nor dronkards nor bakbiters nor extortioners
to do it I swear to thee saith he by my selfe that I wil multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and the sands of the sea and among them also one shal be Christ the Saviour of the world Was not this a good pay for so little pains King David one night began to think with himselfe that he had now an house of Cedar and the Ark of God lay but under a tent and therfore resolved to build an house for the said Ark. Which onlie cogitation God took in so good part as he sent Nathan the prophet unto him presentlie to refuse the thing but yet to tel him that for so much as he had determined such a matter God would build an house or rather a kingdome to him and his posteritie which should last for ever and from which he would never take away his mercie what sins or offences soever they committed Which promise we see now fulfilled in Christ his church raised out of that familie What should I recite manie like examples Christ giveth a general note hereof when he calleth the workmen and paieth to ech man his wages so dulie as also when he saith of himselfe Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me By which places is evident that God suffereth no labor in his service to be lost or unpaid And albeit as after in place conveneent shal be shewed he paieth also and that abundantly in this life yet as by those two examples appeereth he deferreth his cheefe pay unto his comming in the end of the day that is after this life in The resurrection of the iust as himselfe saith in another place 3 Of this paiment then reserved for Gods servants in the life to come we are now to consider what and what maner a thing it is and whether it be woorth so much labor and travel as the service of God requireth or no. And first of al if we wil beleeve the holie scripture calling it a kingdome an heavenly kingdome an eternal kingdome a most blessed kingdome we must needs confesse it to be a marvelous great reward For that worldly princes do not use to give kingdoms to their servants for recompence of their labors And if they did or were able to do it yet could it be neither heavenly nor eternal nor a blessed kingdome Secondly if we credite that which S. Paul saith of it That neither eie hath seen nor eare heard nor hart of man conceived How great a matter it is then must we yet admit a greater opinion therof for that we have seen manie woonderful things in our dais we have heard more woonderful we may conceive most woonderful and almost infinite How then shal we come to understand the greatnes and valu of this reward Surely no tong created either of man or Angel can expresse the same no imagination conceive no understanding comprehend it Christ himselfe hath said Nemo scit nisi qui accipit No man knoweth it but he that enioieth it And therfore he calleth it Hidden manna in the same place Notwithstanding as it is reported of a learned Geometrician that finding the length of Hercules foot upon the hil Olympus drew out his whole bodie by the proportion of that one part so we by some thing set down in scripture and by som other circumstances agreeing therunto may frame a conjecture of the matter though it come far behind the thing it selfe 4 I have shewed before how the scripture calleth it an heavenly an everlasting a most blessed kingdom wherby is signified that al must be kings that are admitted thither To like effect it is called in other places A crown of glorie a throne of maiestie a paradise or place of pleasure a life everlasting Saint Iohn the Evangelist being in his banishment by special privilege made privy to som knowledge feling therof as wel for his own comfort as for ours taketh in hand to describe it by comparison of a citie affirming that the whole citie was of pure gold with a great and high wal of the pretious stone called Iaspis This wal had also twelve foundations made of twelve distinct pretious stones which he there nameth also twelve gates made of twelve rich stones called Margarits and every gate was an entire margarit The streets of the citie were paved with gold interlaid also with pearls and pretious stones The light of the citie was the cleernes and shining of Christ himselfe sitting in the middest thereof from whose seat proceeded a river of water as cleer as cristal to refresh the citie and on both sides of the banks there grew the tree of life giving out continual and perpetual fruit there was no night in that citie nor any defiled thing entered there but they which are within shal reign saith he for ever ever 5 By this description of the most rich and pretious things that this world hath S. Iohn would give us to understand the infinite valu glorie and majestie of this felicitie prepared for us in heaven though as I have noted before it being the princely inheritance of our Saviour Christ the kingdom of his father the eternal habitation of the holie Trinitie prepared before al worlds to set out the glorie and expresse the power of him that hath no end or measure either in power or glorie we may very wel think with Saint Paul that neither tong can declare it nor hart imagin it 6 When God shal take upon him to do a thing for the uttermost declaration in a certain sort of his power wisdome and majestie imagin you what a thing it wil be It pleased him at a certain time to make certain creatures to serve him in his presence and to be witnesses of his glorie and therupon with a word created the Angels both for number and perfection so strange and woonderful as maketh mans understanding astonished to think of it For as for their number they were almost infinite passing the number of al the creatures of this inferior world as divers learned men and som ancient fathers do think though Daniel according to the fashion of the scripture do put a certain number for an uncertain when he saith of Angels A thousand thousands did minister unto him that is unto God ten thousand times an hundred thousand did stand about him to assist And for their perfection of nature it is such being as the scripture saith spirits and like burning fire as they far surpas al inferior creatures in natural knowledge power and the like What an infinite majestie doth this argu in the creator 7 After this when many of these Angels were fallen it pleased God to create another creature far inferior to this for to fil up the places of such as had fallen and therupon created man of a peece of clay as you know appointing him to live a certain time in a place distant from heaven created
smal cause to envie their felicitie If they talk basely of the glorie and riches of saints in heaven not esteeming them indeed in respect of their own or contemning them for that carnal plesures are not rekoned therin make little account of their words for that The sensual man understandeth not the things which are of God If horses were promised by their maisters a good banket they could imagin nothing else but provender and water to be their best cheer for that they have no knowledge of daintier dishes so these men accustomed to the puddle of their fleshly pleasures can mount with their mind no higher than the same But I have shewed thee before gentle reader some wais and considerations to conceive greater matters albeit as I have advertised thee often we must confesse stil with Saint Paul that no humane hart can conceive the least part therof for which cause also it is not unlike that Saint Paul himselfe was forbidden to utter the things which he had seen and heard in his miraculous assumption unto the third heaven 22 To conclude then this game gole is set up for them that wil run as Saint Paul noteth and no man is crowned in this glorie but such onlie as wil fight as the same Apostle teacheth It is not every one that saith to Christ Lord Lord that shal enter into the kingdome of heaven but they onlie which do the wil of Christ his father in heaven Though this kingdome of Christ be set out to al yet every man shal not come to raign with Christ but such onlie as shal be content to suffer with Christ. Thou art therfore to sit down and consider according to thy Saviors counsel what thou wilt do whether thou have so much spiritual money as is sufficient to build this tower and make this war or no that is whether thou have so much good wil and holie manhood in thee as to bestow the pains of suffering with Christ if it be rather to be called pains than pleasure that so thou maist raign with him in his kingdome This is the question this is the verie whole issue of the matter hitherto hath appertained whatsoever hath been spoken in this book before either of thy particular end or of the majestie bountie and justice of God and of the account he wil demand of thee also of the punishment or reward laid up for thee Al this I say was meant by me to this only end that thou measuring the one part and the other shouldest finaly resolve what thou wouldest do and not to passe over thy time in careles negligence as many do never spieng their own error until it be too late to amend it 23 For the love of God then deer brother and for the love thou bearest to thine own soul shake off this dangerous securitie which flesh and blood is woont to lul men in and make som earnest resolution for looking to thy soul for the life to come Remember often that woorthy sentence Hoc momentum unde pendet aeternitas This life is a moment of time wherof al eternitie of life or death to come dependeth If it be a moment and a moment of so great importance how is it passed over by wordly men with so little care as it is 24 I might have alledged heer infinite other reasons and considerations to move men unto this resolution wherof I have talked and surely no measure of volume were sufficient to contein so much as might be said in this matter For that al the creatures under heaven yea and in heaven it selfe as also in hel al I say from the first to the last are arguments and persuasions unto this point al are books and sermons al do preach and crie som by their punishment som by their glorie som by their beutie and al by their creation that we ought without delay to make this resolution and that al is vanitie al is folly al is iniquitie al is miserie beside the only service of our maker and redeemer But yet notwithstanding as I have said I thought good only to choose out these few considerations before laid down as cheefe and principal among the rest to work in any tru Christian hart And if these cannot enter with thee good reader little hope is there that any other would doo thee good Wherfore heer I end this first part reserving a few things to be said in the second for remooving of som impediments which our spiritual adversarie is woont to cast against this good work as against the first step to our salvation Our Lord God and Savior Iesus Christ which was content to pay his own bloud for the purchasing of this notable inheritance unto us give us his holy grace to esteeme of it as the great weight of the matter requireth and not by negligence to leese our portions therin The end of the first part THE SECOND PART OF THIS BOOKE CHAP. I. Of impediments that let men from this resolution and first of the difficultie or hardnes which seemeth to manie to be in vertuous life NOtwithstanding al the reasons and considerations before set down for inducing men to this necessarie resolution of serving God there want not manie Christians abroad in the world whose harts either intangled with the pleasures of this life or given over by God to a reprobate sense do yeeld no whit at al to this batterie that hath been made but shewing themselves more hard than adamant do not only resist contemn but also do seeke excuses for their sloth and wickednes and do alledge reasons to their own perdition Reasons I cal them according to the common phrase though indeed there be no one thing more against reason than that a man should becom enimie to his own soul as the scripture affirmeth obstinate sinners to be But yet as I say they have their excuses and the first and principal of al is that vertuous life is painful and hard and therfore they cannot indure to follow the same especially such as have been brought up delicately never were acquainted with such asperitie as they say we require at their hands And this is a great large and universal impediment which staieth infinite men from imbrasing the means of their conversion for which cause it is fully to be answered in this place 2 First then supposing that the way of vertu were so hard indeed as the enimie maketh it seem yet might I wel say with Saint Iohn Chrysostom that seeing the reward is so great and infinite as now we have declared no labor should seem great for obteining of the same Again I might say with holie S. Austen That seeing we take daily so great pain in this world for avoiding of smal inconveniences as of siknes imprisonments losse of goods and the like what pains should we refuse for avoiding the eternitie of hel fire set down before The first of these
repeat a great many more privileges and prerogatives of a vertuous life which make the same easie pleasant and comfortable but that this chapter groweth to be long and therfore I wil only touch as it were in passing by two or three of the other points of the most principal which notwithstanding would require large discourses to declare the same according to their dignities And the first is the inestimable privilege of libertie and freedom which the vertuous do enjoy above the wicked according as Christ promiseth in these words If you abide in my cōmandements you shal be my schollers indeed and you shal know the truth and the truth shal set your free Which words Saint Paul as it were expounding saith Where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedome And this freedome is ment from the tyrannie and thraldome of our corrupt sensualitie concupiscence wherunto the wicked are so in thraldome as there was never bondman so in thraldome to a most cruel and mercilesse tyrant This in part may be conceaved by this one example If a man had maried a rich beautiful noble gentlewoman adorned with al gifts and graces which may be devised to be in a woman and yet notwithstanding should be so sotted and intangled with the love of some soul and dishonest begger or servile maid of his house as for hir sake to abandon the company and frindship of the said wife to spend his time in daliance and service of his base woman to run to go to stand at hir appointment to put al his living and revenues into hir hands for hir to consume and spoil at hir pleasure to denie hir nothing but to wait and serve hir at hir bek yea and to compel his said wife to do the same would you not think this mans life miserable and most servile And yet surely the servitude wherof we talk is far greater and more intollerable than this For no woman or other creature in the world is or can be of that beautie or nobilitie as the grace of Gods spirit is to whom man by his creation was espoused which notwithstanding we see abandoned contemned and rejected by him for the love of sensualitie hir enimie and a most deformed creature in respect of reason in whose love notwithstanding or rather servitude we see wicked men so drowned as they serve hir day and night with al pains perils and expenses and do constrain also the good motions of Gods spirit to give place at every bek commandement of this new mistres For wherfore do they labor Wherfore do they watch Wherfore do they heape riches togither but only to serve their sensualitie and hir desires Wherfore do they beat their brains but only to satisfie this cruel tyrant and hir passions 23 And if you wil see indeed how cruel and pittiful this servitude is consider but some particular examples therof Take a man whom she overruleth in any passion as for example in the lust of the flesh and what pains taketh he for hir How doth he labor how doth he sweat in this servitude How mightie strong doth he feele hir tyrannie Remember the strength of Samson the wisdome of Salomon the sanctitie of David overthrown by this tyrannie Iupiter Mars and Hercules who for their valiant acts otherwise were accounted gods of the painims were they not overcome and made slaves by the inchantment of this tyrant And if you wil yet further see of what strength she is and how cruelly she executeth the same upon those that Christ hath not delivered from hir bondage consider for examples sake in this kind the pittiful case of some disloial wife who though she know that by committing adulterie she runneth into a thousand dangers and inconveniences as the losse of Gods favor the hatred of hir husband the danger of punishment the offence of hir frinds the utter dishonor of hir person if it be known and finally the ruin and peril of bodie and soul yet to satisfie this tyrant she wil venture to commit the sin notwithstanding any dangers or perils whatsoever 24 Neither is it only in this one point of carnal lust but in al other wherin a man is in servitude to this tyrant and hir passions Look upon an ambitious or vain glorious man see how he serveth this mistresse with what care and diligence he attendeth hir commandements that is to follow after a little wind of mens mouthes to pursu a little feather flieng before him in the air you shal see that he omitteth no one thing no one time no one circumstance for gaining therof He riseth betime goeth late to bed trotteth by day studieth by night heer he flattereth there he dissembleth heer he stowpeth there he looketh big heer he maketh frinds there he preventeth enimies And to this only end he referreth al his actions and applieth al his other matters as his order of life his cōpany keping his sutes of apparel his house his table his horses his servants his talk his behavior his jests his looks and his very going in the street 25 In like wise he that serveth his ladie in passion of covetousnes what a miserable slaverie doth he abide His hart being so walled in prison with money as he must only think therof talk therof dream therof and imagin only new wais to get the same nothing else If you should see a Christian man in slavery under the gret Turk tied in a galley by the leg with chains there to serve by rowing for ever you could not but take compassion of his case And what then shal we do of the miserie of this man who standeth in captivitie to a more base creature than a Turk or any other reasonable creature that is to a peece of mettal in whose prison he lieth bound not only by the feete in such sort as he may not go any where against the commoditie and commandement of the same but also by the hands by the mouth by the eies by the eares and by the hart so as he may neither do speak see hear or think any thing but the service of the same Was there ever servitude so great as this Doth not Christ say truly now Qui facit peccatum servus est peccati He that doth sin is a slave unto sin Doth not S. Peter say wel A quo quis superatus est huius servus est A man is slaue to that wherof he is cōquered 26 From this slaverie then are the vertuous delivered by the power of Christ and his assistance insomuch as they rule over their passions in sensualitie and are not ruled therby This God promised by the prophet Ezechiel saieng And they shal know that I am their Lord when I shal break the chains of their yoke and shal deliver them from the power of those that over-ruled them before And this benefit holie David acknowledged in himselfe when he used these most effectuous words
promise of Christ which assureth thee the contrary beleeve the reasons before alledged which do proove it evidently beleeve the testimony of them which have experienced it in themselves as of king David Saint Paul and Saint Iohn the Evangelist whose testimonies I have alledged before of their own proofe beleeve many hundreds which by the grace of God are converted daily in Christendome from vicious life to the tru service of God al which do protest themselves to have found more than I have said or can say in this matter 31 And for that thou maist replie heer say that such men are not where thou art to give this testimony of their experience I can do assure thee upon my conscience before God that I have talked with no smal number of such my selfe to my singular comfort in beholding the strong hand and exceeding bountifulnes of Gods sweetnes towards them in this case Oh deer brother no toong can expresse what I have seen heerin and yet saw I not the least part of that which they felt But yet this may I say that those which are known to be skilful and to deal so sincerely withal that others disburden their consciences unto them for their comfort or counsel are some part of those wherof the prophet saith That they work in multitudes of waters and do see the marvels of God in the depth In the depth I say of mens consciences uttered with infinite multitudes of teares when God toucheth the same with his holie grace Beleeve me good reader for I speak in truth before our Lord Iesus I have seen so great and exceeding consolations in divers great sinners after their conversion as no hart can almost conceave and the harts which received them were hardly able to contein the same so abundantly stilled down the heavenly dew from the most liberal and bountiful hand of God And that this may not seeme strange unto thee thou must know that it is recorded of one holie man called Effrem that he had so mervelous great consolations after his conversion as he was often constrained to cry out to God O Lord retire thy hand from me a little for that my hart is not able to receive so extreme joy And the like is written of Saint Barnard who for a certein time after his conversion from the world remained as it were deprived of his senses by the excessive consolations he had from God 32 But yet if al this cannot moove thee but thou wilt stil remain in thy distrust hear the testimonie of one whom I am sure thou wilt not discredit especially speaking of his own experience in himselfe And this is the holie martyr doctor Saint Cyprian who writing of the very same matter to a secret frind of his called Donatus confesseth that he was before his conversion of the same opinion that thou art of to wit that it was impossible for him to change his manners and to find such comfort in a vertuous life as after he did being accustomed before to al kind of loose behavior Therefore he beginneth his narration to his frind in this sort Accipe quod sentitur antequam discitur Take that which is felt before it be learned and so followeth on with a large discourse shewing that he prooved now by experience which he could never beleeve before his conversion though God had promised the same The like writeth Saint Austen of himselfe in his books of confession shewing that his passions would needs persuade him before his conversion that he should never be able to abide the austeritie of a vertuous life especially touching the sins of the flesh wherin he had lived wantonly until that time it seemed impossible that he could ever abandon the same and live chastly which notwithstanding he felt easie pleasant and without difficultie afterward For which he breaketh into these words My God let me remember and confesse thy mercies towards me let my verie bones rejoice and say unto thee O Lord who is like unto thee Thou hast broken my chains and I wil sacrifice to thee a sacrifice of thankesgiving These chains were the chains of concupiscence wherby he stood bounden in captivitie before his conversion as he there confesseth but presently therupon he was delivered from the same by the help of Gods most holie grace 33 My counsel should be therfore gentle reader that seeing thou hast so many testimonies examples reasons and promises of this matter thou shouldest at least proove once by thine own experience whether this thing be tru or no especially seeing it is a matter of so great importance and so worthy thy trial that is concerning so neer thy eternal salvation as it doth If a mean fellow should come unto thee and offer for hazarding of one crown of gold to make thee a thousand by Alchimie though thou shouldest suspect him for a cousoner yet the hope of gain being so great and the adventure of so smal losse thou wouldest go nigh for once to proove the matter And how much more shouldest thou do it in this case where by proofe thou canst leese nothing and if thou speed wel thou maist gain as much as the everlasting joy of heaven is woorth 34 But yet heer by the way I may not let passe to admonish thee of one thing which the ancient fathers and saints of God that have passed over this river before thee I mean the river dividing between Gods service and the world do affirm of their own experience and that is that assoone as thou takest this work or resolution in hand thou must expect assaults combats and open war within thy selfe as Saint Cyprian Saint Austen Saint Gregory and Saint Barnard do affirm and upon their own proofe This do Cyril and Origin shew in divers places at large This doth saint Hilary proove by reasons examples This doth the wise man forewarn thee of willing thee When thou art to come to the service of God to prepare thy mind unto temptation And the reason of this is for that the devil possessing quietly thy soul before lay stil and sought only means to content the same by putting in new and new delites and pleasures of the flesh But when he seeth thou offerest to go from him he beginneth straight to rage and to moove sedition within thee and to tosse up and down both heaven and earth before he wil leese his kingdome in thy soul. This is evident by the example of him whom Christ comming down from the hil after his transfiguration delivered from a deafe and dum spirit For albeit the devil would seem neither to hear nor speak while he possessed that bodie quietly yet when Christ commanded him to go out he both heard and cried out and did so tear and rent that poore bodie before he departed as al the standers by thought him indeed to be dead This also in figure was shewed by the storie of Laban
of God which said in his psalm Doth the seat of iniquitie cleave to thee O Lord which feignest a labor in thy commandements Is not this a feigned labor deer brethren in a commandement I mean a light burden an easie yoke an annointed crosse So in old time he said to Abraham Take thy son Isaac whom thou lovest and offer him unto me a sacrifice This was a feigned labor in a commandement for Isaac being offered he was not killed but sanctified therby Thou therfore if thou hear the voice of God within thy hart willing thee to offer up Isaac which signifieth joy or laughter fear not to obey it faithfullie and constantly whatsoever thy corrupt affection judgeth of the matter be thou secure Not Isaac but the ram shal die for it thy joy shal not perish but thy stubburnes only whose horns are intangled with thorns and cannot be in thee without the prickings of anxietie Thy Lord doth but tempt thee as he did Abraham to see what thou wilt do Isaac that is thy joy in this life shal not die as thou imaginest but shal live only he must be lifted up upon the wood to the end thy joy may be on high and that thou maist glorie not in thine own flesh but only in the crosse of thy Lord by whom thy selfe also art crucified crucified I say but crucified to the world for unto God thou livest stil and that much more than thou didst before CHAP. II. Of the second impediment which is persecution affliction and tribulation wherby many men are kept from the service of God MAnie there are in the world abroad who either upon these consideratiōs before laid down or for that they see some good men to live as merilie as themselves are content to yeeld thus much that in verie deed they esteem vertuous life to be pleasant inough to such as are once entered in therunto and that in good sooth for their own parts they could be content to follow the same if they might do it with quiet and peace of al hands But to request them unto it in such time or place or with such order and circumstances as tribulation affliction or persecution may fal upon them for the same they think it a matter unreasonable to be demanded and themselves verie excusable both before God and man for refusing it But this excuse is no better than the other going before of the pretended difficultie for that it standeth upon a false ground as also upon an unjust illation made upon that ground The ground is this that a man may live vertuously and serve God truly with al worldly ease and without any affliction tribulation or persecution which is false For that albeit external contradictions and persecutions be more in one time than in another more in this place than in that yet can there not be any time or place without some both external and internal Which although as I have shewed before in respect of the manifold helps and consolations sent from God in counterpoize of the same they seem not heavie nor unpleasant unto the godlie yet are they in themselves both great and waightie as would appeer if they fel upon the wicked and impatient Secondly the illation made upon this ground is unjust for that it alledgeth tribulation as a sufficient reason to abandon Gods service which God himselfe hath ordained for a mean to the contrarie effect that is to draw men therby unto his service For better declaration wherof the matter being of very great importance I wil handle in this chapter these four points First whither it be ordinarie for al that must be saved to suffer some kind of persecution tribulation or affliction Secondlie what are the causes why God so loving us as he doth would chose and appoint so to deale with us heer in this life Thirdlie what principal reasons of comfort a man may have in tribulation Fourthlie what is required at his hands in that state Which four points being declared I dowt not but great light shal appeer in this whole matter which seemeth to flesh and blood to be so ful of darknes and improbabilities 2 And touching the first there needeth little poofe for that Christ himselfe saith to his disciples and by them to al other his servants In mundo pressuram sustinebitis In the world you shal sustain affliction And in another place In your patience shal you possesse your souls That is by suffering patientlie in adversities which Saint Paul yet uttereth more plainly when he saith Al those that wil live godlie in Iesus Christ shal suffer persecution If al then none can be excepted And to signifie yet further the necessitie of this matter both Paul and Barnabas also did teach as Saint Luke reporteth That we of necessitie must enter into the kingdome of God by many tribulations Vsing the word Oportet which signifieth a certein necessitie And Christ himselfe yet more revealeth this secret when he saith to Saint Iohn the Evangelist That he chastiseth al those whom he loveth Which words the apostle as it were expounding to the Hebrews saith Flagellat omnem filium quem recipit He whippeth every child whom he receaveth And the apostle urgeth this matter so far in that place as he affirmeth plainly al those to be bastards no children of God which are not afflicted by him in this life The same position Saint Paul holdeth to Timothy Si sustinemus conregnabimus If we suffer with Christ we shal reign with Christ and no otherwise Wherin also concurreth holie David when he saith Multae tribulationes iustorum The iust are appointed to many tribulations 3 The same might be prooved by many other means as by that Christ saith He came not to bring peace but the sword into the world Also by that Saint Paul saith That no man can be crowned except he fight lawfullie But how can we fight if we have no enimie to oppugn us The same signifieth Christ in the Apocalips when he repeateth so often that heaven is only for him that conquereth The verie same is signified by the ship wherinto Christ entered with his disciples which was tossed tumbled as if it would have been drowned this I say by the ancient fathers exposition was a figure of the trobles and afflictions that al those should suffer which do rowe in the same with Christ our savior The same also is prooved by that the life of man is called a warfare upon earth and by that he is appointed to labor and travel while he is here also by that his life is replenished with many miseries even by the appointment of God after mans fal The same also is shewed by that that God hath appointed every man to passe through the pains of death before he come to joy also by the infinit contradictions and tribulations both within and without left unto man in this life
wherby to shew his abilitie and good wil unto his deer frind so God which hath al occasions in his own hands and passeth al his creatures togither in greatnes of love and nobilitie of mind worketh purposely divers occasions and opportunities wherby to shew and exercise the same So he brought the three children into the burning fornace therby to shew his power and love in delivering them So he brought Daniel into the lions den Susanna unto the point of death Iob into extreme miserie Ioseph into prison Toby unto blindnes therby to shew his power and love in their deliverance For this cause also did Christ suffer the ship to be almost drowned before he would awake and Saint Peter to be almost under water before he would take him by the hand 16 And of this one reason many other reasons and most comfortable causes do appeer of Gods dealing heerin As first that we being delivered from our afflictions might take more joy and delite therof than if we had never suffered the same For as water is more grateful to the waifaring man after a long drith and a calm more pleasant unto passengers after a troublesom tempest so is our deliverie more sweet after persecution or tribulation according as the scripture saith Speciosa misericordia Dei in tempore tribulationis The mercie of God is beautiful and pleasant in time of tribulation This signified also Christ when he said Your sorrow shal be turned into ioy that is you shal rejoice that ever you were sorrowful This had David prooved when he said Thy rod O Lord and thy staff have comforted me that is I take great comfort that ever I was chastised with them And again According to the multitude of my sorrows thy consolations have made ioiful my mind that is for every sorrow that I received in time of affliction I receive now a consolation after my deliverance And again in another place I wil exult and reioice in thy mercie O Lord. And wherfore good king wilt thou so rejoice It followeth immediately For that thou hast respected mine abasement and hast delivered my soul from the necessitie wherin she was and hast not left me in the hands of mine enimie This then is one most gracious meaning of our loving and merciful father in afflicting us for a time to the end our joy may be the greater after our deliverance as no dowt but it was in al those whom I have named before delivered by Gods mercy I mean Abraham Ioseph Daniel Sidrach Misach and Abdenago Susanna Iob Tobias Peter and the rest who took more joy after their deliverance than if they had never been in affliction at al. When Iudith had delivered Bethulia and returned thither with Holofernes head there was more hartie joy in that citie than ever there would have been if it had not been in distresse When S. Peter was delivered out of prison by the angel there was more joy for his deliverance in the church than could have been if he had never been in prison at al. 17 Out of this great joy resulteth another effect of our tribulation much pleasant to God and comfortable to our selves and that is a most hartie and earnest thanksgiving to God for our deliverance such as the prophet used when he said after his deliverance I for my part wil sing of thy strength and wil exalt thy mercy betimes in the morning for that thou hast been my aider and refuge in the day of my tribulation Such hartie thanks and praise did the children of Israel yeeld to God for their deliverance when they were passed over the red sea in that notable song of theirs which beginneth Cantemus Domino And is registred by Moises in Exodus From like hartie affect came also those songs of Anna Debora and Iudith mooved therunto by the remembrance of their affliction past And finally this is one of the cheefest things that God esteemeth and desireth at our hands as he testifieth by the prophet saieng Cal upon me in the day of tribulation I wil deliver thee and thou shalt honor me 18 Besides al these God hath yet further reasons of laieng persecution upon us as for example for that by suffering and perceiving indeed Gods assistance consolation therin we come to be so hardie bold and constant in his service as nothing afterward can dismay us even as Moises though he were first afeard of the serpent made of his rod and fled away from it yet after by Gods commandement he had once taken it by the tail he feared it no more This the prophet David expresseth notablie when he saith God hath been our refuge and strength and helper in our great tribulations and therfore we wil not fear if the whol earth should be trouble the mountains cast into the midst of the sea What greater confidence can be imagined than this 19 Again by persecution and affliction God bringeth his children to the exercise of many of those vertues that do belong to a Christian man and to enter into some reasonable possession of them As for example Faith is exercised in time of tribulation in considering the causes of Gods exercising of us and beleeving most assuredly the promises he hath made for our deliverance Hope is exercised in conceiving and assuring hirselfe of the reward promised to them that suffer patience Charitie is exercised in considering the love of Christ suffering for us and therby provoketh the afflicted to suffer again with him Obedience is exercised in conforming our wils to the wil of Christ. Patience in bearing quietly Humilitie in abasing our selves in the sight of God And so likewise al other vertues belonging to a good Christian are stirred up and established in man by tribulation according to the saieng of S. Peter God shal make perfect confirm and establish those which have suffered a little for his name 20 Finally Gods meaning is by laieng persecution and affliction upon us to make us perfect Christians that is like unto Christ our captain whom the prophet calleth Virum dolorum scientem infirmitatem A man of sorrows and one that had tasted of al maner of infirmities Therby to receive the more glorie at his return to heaven and to make more glorious al those that wil take his part therin To speak in one word God would make us by tribulation crucified Christians which is the most honorable title that can be given unto a creature crucified I say and mortified to the vanities of this world to the flesh to our own concupiscence and carnal desires but quik and ful of al lively spirit to vertu godlines devotion This is the heavenly meaning of our soveraign Lord God in sending us persecution tribulation affliction in respect wherof holy Iob dowteth not to say Blessed is the man that is
afflicted by God And Christ himselfe yet more expresly Happie are they which suffer persecution If they are happie and blessed therby then are the worldly greatly awry which so much abhor the sufferance therof then is GOD but unthankfully dealt withal by many of his children who repine at this happines bestowed upon them wheras indeed they should accept it with joy and thanksgiving For proofe and better declaration wherof I wil enter now into the third point of this chapter to examin what reasons causes there be to induce us to this joifulnes and contentation of tribulation 21 And first the reasons laid down alreadie of Gods merciful and fatherly meaning in sending us affliction might be sufficient for this matter that is to comfort and content any Christian man or woman who taketh delite in Gods holie providence towards them For if God do send affliction unto us for the increase of our glorie in the life to come for drawing us from infection of the world for opening our eies and curing our diseases and for preserving our souls from sin heerafter as hath been shewed who can be justly displeased therwith but such as are enimies unto their own good We see that for the obtaining of bodilie health we are content not only to admit many bitter and unpleasant medicins but also if need require to yeeld willingly some part of our blood ro be taken from us And how much more should we do this to the end that we hazard not the eternal health and salvation of our soul But now further if this medicin have so many mo commodities besides as have been declared if it serve heer for the punishment of our sin du otherwise at another place in far greater quantitie and rigor of justice if it make a trial of our estate and do draw us to God if it procure Gods love towards us yeeld matter of joy by our deliverance provoke us to thankfulnes embolden and strengthen us and finally if it furnish us with al vertues and do make us like to Christ himselfe then is there singular great cause why we should take comfort and consolation therin for that to come neer and to be like unto Christ is the greatest dignitie and preeminence in the world Lastlie if Gods eternal wisdome hath so ordained and appointed that this shal be the badge and liverie of his Son the high way to heaven under the standard of his crosse then ought we not to refuse this liverie nor to flie this way but rather with good Peter and Iohn to esteem it a great dignitie to be made woorthy of the most blessed participation therof We see that to wear the colors of the prince is thought a prerogative among courtiers in this world but to wear the robe or crown it selfe were to great a dignitie for any inferior subject to receive Yet Christ our Lord and king is content to impart both of his with us And how then ought we I pray you to accept therof 22 And now as I have said these reasons might be sufficient to comfort and make joiful al those that are called to suffer affliction and tribulation But yet there want not some more particular considerations besides Wherof the first and most principal is that this matter of persecution commeth not by chance or casualitie or by any general direction from higher powers but by the special providence and peculiar disposition of God as Christ sheweth at large in Saint Mathews Gospel that is this heavenly medicin or potion is made unto us by Gods own hand in particular Which Christ signifieth when he saith Shal I not drink the cup which my father hath given me That is seeing my father hath tempered a potion for me shal I not drink it As who would say it were too much ingratitude Secondly is to be noted that the very same hand of God which tempered the cup for Christ his own Son hath done the same also for us according to Christ his saieng You shal drink of my cup. That is of the same cup which my father hath tempered for me Heerof it followeth that with what hart and love God tempered this cup unto his own Son with the same he hath tempered it also to us that is altogither for our good and his glorie Thirdlie is to be noted that this cup is tempered with such special care as Christ saith that what trouble or danger soever it seem to work yet shal not one hair of our head perish by the same Nay further is to be noted that which the prophet saith O Lord thou shalt give us to drink in tears in measure That is the cup of tears and tribulation shal be so tempered in measure by our heavenly physition as no man shal have above his strength The dose of aloes and other bitter ingredients shal be qualified with manna and sufficient sweetnes of heavenlie consolation God is faithful saith Saint Paul and wil not suffer you to be tempted above your abilitie This is a singular point of comfort and ought alwais to be in our remembrance 23 Beside this we must consider that the appointing and tempering of this cup being now in the hands of Christ our Savior by the ful commission granted him from his father and he having learned by his own sufferings as the apostle notifieth what it is to suffer in flesh and blood we may be sure that he wil not lay upon us more than we can bear For as if a man had a father or brother a most skilful physition and should receive a purgation from them tempered with their own hands he might be sure it would never hurt him what rumbling soever it made in his bellie for the time so and much more may we be assured of the potion of tribulation ministred us by the hand of Christ though as the apostle saith it seem unto us unpleasant for a time but above al other comfortable cogitations this is the greatest and most comfortable to consider that he divideth this cup only of love as himselfe protesteth and the apostle prooveth that is he giveth out portions of his crosse the richest jewel that he maketh account of as worldly princes do their treasure unto none but unto chosen and picked frinds and among them also not equally to ech man but to everie one a measure according to the measure of good wil wherwith he loveth him This is evident by the examples before set down of his deerest frinds most of al afflicted in this life that is they received greater portions of this treasure for that his good wil was greater towards them This also may be seen manifestly in the example of Saint Paul of whom after Christ had said to Ananias Vas electionis est mihi He is a chosen vessel unto me He giveth immediatly the reason therof For I wil shew unto him what great things he must suffer for my
the discipline of the Lord and be not wearie when thou art chastened of him For whom God loveth he chasteneth he whippeth every son whom he receiveth Persevere therfore in the correction laid upon you God offereth himselfe to you as to his children For what child is there whom the father correcteth not If you be out of correction wherof al his children are made partakers then are you bastards and not children Al correction for the present time when it is suffered seemeth unpleasant and sorrowful but yet after it bringeth foorth most quiet fruit of justice unto them that are exercised by it Wherfore strengthen up your wearie hands and loosed knees make way to your feet c. That is take courage unto you and go forward valiantly under the crosse laid upon you This was the exhortation of this holie captain unto his countrie men soldiers of Iesus Christ the Iewes 47 Saint Iames the brother of our Lord useth another exhortation to al tru Catholiks not much different from this in that his epistle which he writeth generally to al. Be you therfore patient my brethren saith he until the comming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman expecteth for a time the fruit of the earth so pretious unto him bearing patiently until he may receive the same in his season be you therfore patient and comfort your harts for that the comming of the Lord wil shortly draw neere Be not sad and complain not one of another Behold the judge is even at the gate Take the prophets for an example of labor and patience which spake unto us in the name of God Behold we account them blessed which have suffered You have heard of the sufferance of Iob and you have seen the end of the Lord with him you have seen I say that the Lord is merciful and ful of compassion 48 I might heer alledge many things more out of the scripture to this purpose for that the scripture is most copious heerin and in verie deed if it should al be melted and powred out it would yeeld us nothing else almost but touching the crosse and patient bearing of tribulation in this life But I must end for that this chapter riseth to be long as the other before did and therfore I wil only for my conclusion set down the confession and most excellent exhortation of old Mathathias unto his children in the time of the cruel persecution of Antiochus against the Iews Now saith he is the time that pride is in hir strength now is the time of chastisement towards us of eversion and indignation come Now therfore O children be you zealous in the law of God yeeld up your lives for the testament of your fathers remember the works of your ancestors what they have done in their generations and so shal you receive great glorie and eternal name Was not Abraham found faithful in time of temptation and it was reputed unto him for justice Ioseph in time of his distresse kept Gods commandements and was made Lord over al Egypt Phinees our father for his zeal towards the law of God received the testament of an everlasting preesthood Iosue for that he fulfilled Gods word was made a captain over al Israel Caleb for that he testified in the church received an inheritance David for his mercie obtained the seat of an eternal kingdom Elias for that he was zealous in zeal of the law was taken up to heaven Ananias Azarias and Misael through their beleef were delivered from the flame of the fire Daniel for his simplicitie was delivered from the mouth of lions And so do you run over by cogitation al generations and you shal see that al those that hope in God shal not be vanquished And do you not fear the words of a sinful man for his glorie is nothing els but dung and worms to day he is great and exalted and to morrow he shal not be found for he shal return unto his earth again and al his fond cogitations shal perish Wherfore take courage unto you my children and play the men in the law of God For therin shal be your honor and glorie Hitherto are the words of Mathathias which shal suffice for the end of this chapter CHAP. III. Of the third impediment that letteth men from resolution which is the love of the world AS the two impediments remooved before be indeed great staies to many men from the resolution we talk of so this that now I take in hand is not only of it selfe a strong impediment but also a great cause and common ground as it were to al the other impediments that be For if a man could touch the very pulse of al those who refuse or neglect or defer this resolution he should find the foundation therof to be the love of this world whatsoever other excuse they pretend besides The noble men of Iewrie pretended fear to be the cause why they could not resolve to confesse Christ openly but Saint Iohn that felt their pulse uttereth the tru cause to have been For that they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God Demas that forsook Saint Paul in his bands even a little before his death pretended another cause of his departure to Thessalonica but Saint Paul saith it was Quia diligebat hoc seculum For that he loved this world So that this is a general and universal impediment and more indeed dispersed than outwardly appeereth for that it bringeth foorth divers other excuses therby to cover hir selfe in many men 2 This may be confirmed by that most excellent parable of Christ recorded by three Evangelists of the three sorts of men which are to be damned the three causes of their damnation wherof the third and last and most general including as it were both the rest is the love of this world For the first sort of men are compared to a high way where al seed of life that is sown either withereth presently or else is eaten up by the birds of the aire that is as Christ expoundeth it by the devil in carelesse men that contemn whatsoever is said unto them as infidels and al other obstinate and contemptuous people The second sort are compared to rocky grounds in which for lak of deep roote the seed continueth not wherby are signified light and unconstant men that now chop in and now run out now are fervent and by and by key-cold again and so in time of temptation they are gon The third sort are compared to a field where the seed groweth up but yet there are so many thorns on the same which Christ expoundeth to be the cares troubles miseries deceveable vanities of this life as the good corn is choked up and bringeth foorth no fruit By which last words our savior signifieth that whersoever the doctrine of Christ groweth up yet bringeth not foorth du fruit that is whersoever it is
received and imbraced as it is among al Christians and yet bringeth not foorth good life there the cause is for that it is choked with the vanities of this world 3 This is a parable of marvelous great importance as may appeer both for that Christ after the recital therof cried out with a lowd voice He that hath ears to hear let him hear as also for that he expounded it himselfe in secret only to his disciples and principally for that before the exposition therof he useth such a solemn preface saieng To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdome of heaven but to others not for that they seeing do not see and hearing do not hear nor understand Wherby Christ signifieth that the understanding of this parable among others is of singular importance for conceiving the tru mysteries of the kingdome of heaven that many are blind which seem to see and many deaf and ignorant that seem to hear and know for that they understand not wel the mysteries of this parable For which cause also Christ maketh this conclusion before he beginneth to expound the parable Happy are your eies that see and blessed are your ears that hear After which words he beginneth his exposition with this admonition Vos ergo audite parabolam Do you therfore hear and understand this parable 4 And for that this parable doth contain and touch so much indeed as may or needeth be said for remooving of this great and dangerous impediment of worldly love I mean to stay my selfe only upon the explication therof in this place and wil declare the force truth of certain words heer uttered by Christ of the world and worldly pleasures and for some order and methods sake I wil draw al to these six points following First how and in what sense al the world and commodities therof are vanities of no valu as Christ heer signifieth and consequently ought not to be an impediment to let us from so great a matter as the kingdome of heaven and the serving of God is Secondly how they are not only vanities and trifles in themselves but also deceptions as Christ saith that is deceits not performing to us indeed those little trifles which they do promise Thirdly how they are Spinae that is pricking thorns as Christ saith though they seem to worldly men to be most sweet and pleasant Fourthly how they are aerumnae that is miseries and afflictions as also Christs words are Fiftly Quomodo suffocant how they strangle or choke us as Christ affirmeth Sixtly how we may use them notwithstanding without these dangers and evils and to our great comfort gain and preferment 5 And touching the first I do not see how it may be better prooved that al the pleasures and goodly shewes of this world are vanities as Christ heer saith than to alledge the testimonie of one which hath prooved them al that is of one which speaketh not of speculation but of his own proofe and practise and this is king Salomon of whom the scripture reporteth woonderful matters touching his peace prosperitie riches and glorie in this world as that al the kings of the earth desired to see his face for his wisdome and renowmed felicitie that al the princes living besides were not like him in wealth that he had six hundred sixtie and six talents of gold which is an infinite sum brought him in yeerly besides al other that he had from the kings of Arabia and other princes that silver was as plentiful with him as heaps of stones and not esteemed for the great store and abundance he had therof that his plate and jewels had no end that his seat of majestie with stooles lions to bear it up and other furniture was of gold passing al other kingly seats in the world that his pretious apparel and armor was infinite that he had al the kings from the river of the Philistians unto Egypt to serve him that he had fortie thousand horses in his stables to ride and twelve thousand chariots with horses and other furniture readie to them for his use that he had two hundred spears of gold born before him and six hundred crowns of gold bestowed in everie spear as also three hundred buklers three hundred crowns of gold bestowed in the gilding of everie bukler that he spent everie day in his house a thousand nine hundred thirtie and seven quarters of meal flower thirtie oxen with an hundred wethers beside al other flesh that he had seaven hundred wives as queenes and three hundred others as concubines Al this and much more doth scripture report of Salomons worldly wealth wisdome riches and prosperitie which he having tasted and used to his fil pronounced yet at the last this sentence of it al Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas Vanitie of vanities and al is vanitie By vanitie of vanities meaning as Saint Ierom interpreteth the greatnes of this vanitie above al other vanities that may be devised 6 Neither only doth Salomon affirm this thing but doth prove it also by examples of himself I have been king of Israel in Ierusalem saith he and I purposed with my selfe to seek out by wisdome al things I have seen that al under the sun are meer vanities affliction of spirit I said in my hart I wil go and abound in delites and in every pleasure that may be had And I saw that this was also vanitie I tooke great works in hand builded houses to my selfe planted vineyards made orchards and gardens and beset them with al kind of trees I made me fish ponds to water my trees I possessed servants and hand-maids and had a great familie great herds of cattel above any that ever were before me in Ierusalem I gathered togither gold and silver the riches of kings and provinces I appointed to my selfe singers both men and women which are the delites of the children of men fine cups also to drink wine withal and whatsoever my eies did desire I denied it not unto them neither did I let my hart from using any pleasure to delite it selfe in these things which I prepared And when I turned my selfe to al that my hands had made and to al the labors wherin I had taken such pains and sweat I saw in them al vanitie and affliction of the mind 7 This is the testimonie of Salomon upon his own proof in these matters and if he had spoken it upon his wisdome only being such as it was we ought to beleeve him but much more seeing he affirmeth it of his own experience But yet if any man be not mooved with this let us bring yet another witnes out of the new testament and such a one as was privie to the opinion of Christ heerin that is Saint Iohn the evangelist whose words are these Do not love the world nor those things that are in the world if any man love the
The rich glutton might have escaped his torments and have made himselfe an happie man by help of worldlie wealth if he would and so might manie a thousand which now live and wil go to hel for the same Oh that men would take warning and be wise whiles they have time Saint Paul saith Deceive not your selves looke what a man soweth and that shal he reap What a plentiful harvest then might rich men provide themselves if they would which have such store of seed and so much ground offered them daily to sow it in Why do they not remember that sweet harvest song Come ye blessed of my father enter into the kingdome prepared for you for I was hungrie and you fed me I was thirstie and you gave me to drink I was naked and you appareled me Or if they do not care for this why do they not fear at least the blak Sanctus that must be chaunted to them for the contrarie Agite nunc divites plorate ululantes in miserijs vestris quae advenient vobis Go to now you rich men weep and howl in your miseries that shal come upon you 60 The holie father Iohn Damascen reporteth a parable of Barlaam the hermite to our purpose There was saith he a certain citie or common welth which used to choose themselves a king from among the poorest sort of the people and to advance him to great honor wealth and pleasures for a time but after a while when they were wearie of him their fashion was to rise against him and to despoile him of al his felicitie yea the very cloths of his bak and so to banish him naked into an iland of a far country where bringing nothing with him he should live in great miserie and be put to great slaverie for ever Which practise one king at a certain time considering by good advise for al the other though they knew that fashion yet through negligence and pleasures of their present felicitie cared not for it took resolute order with himselfe how to prevent this miserie which was by this means He saved every day great sums of money from his superfluities and idle expenses and so secretly made over before hand a great treasure unto that iland wherunto he was in danger daily to be sent And when the time came that indeed they deposed him from his kingdom and turned him away naked as they had done the other before he went to the iland with joy and confidence where his treasure lay and was received there with exceeding great triumph and placed presently in greater glory than ever he was before 61 This parable drawing somwhat neer to that which Christ put of the evil steward teacheth as much as at this present needs to be said in this point For the citie or common wealth is this present world which advanceth to authoritie poore men that is such as come naked into this life and upon the sudden when they look least for it doth it pul them down again turneth them naked into their graves and so sendeth them into another world where bringing no treasure with them they are like to find little favor and rather eternal miserie The wise king that prevented this calamitie is he which in this life according to the counsel of Christ doth seek to lay up treasure in heaven against the day of his deth when he must be banished hence naked as al the princes of that citie were At which time if their good deeds do follow them as God promiseth then shal they be happie men and placed in much more glorie than ever this world was able to give them But if they come without oil in their lamps then is there nothing for them to expect but Nescio vos I know not you And when they are known Ite maledicti in ignem eternum Go you accursed into fire everlasting CHAP. IIII. Of the fourth impediment which is too much presuming of the mercie of GOD. THere are a certain kind of people in the world who wil not take the pains to think of or to allege any of the said impediments before but have a shorter way for al and more plausible as it semeth to them and that is to lay the whole matter upon the bak of Christ himselfe and to answer what soever you can say against them with this only sentence God is merciful Of these men may Christ complain with the prophet saieng Supra dorsum meum fabricaverunt peccatores prolongaverunt iniquitatem Sinners have built upon my bak they have prolonged their iniquitie By which words we may account our selves charged that prolonging of iniquities in hope of Gods mercie is to build our sins on his bak But what followeth Wil God bear it No verily for the next words insuing are Dominus iustus concidet cervices peccatorum God is iust he wil cut in sunder the neks of sinners Heer are two cooling cards for the two warm imaginations before Mean you Sir to prolong your iniquitie for that God is merciful Remember also that he is just saith the prophet Are ye gotten up upon the bak of God to make your nest of sin there Take heed for he wil fetch you down again and break your nek downward except ye repent for that indeed there is no one thing which may be so injurious to God as to make him the foundation of our sinful life which lost his own life for the extinguishing of sin 2 But you wil say And is not God then merciful Yes truly deer brother he is most merciful and there is neither end nor measure of his mercie He is even mercie it selfe it is his nature and essence and he can no more leave to be merciful than he can leave to be God But yet as the prophet heer saith he is just also We must not so remember his mercie as we forget his justice Dulcis rectus Dominus Our Lord is sweet but yet upright and iust too saith David and in the same place Al the wais of the Lord are mercie truth Which words holie Barnard expounding in a certain sermon of his saith thus There be two feete of the Lord wherby he walketh his wais that is mercie and truth and God fasteneth both these feete upon the harts of them which turn unto him And every sinner that wil truly convert himselfe must lay hand fast on both these feet For if he should lay hands on mercie only letting passe truth and justice he would perish by presumption And on the other side if he shuld apprehend justice only without mercie he would perish by desperation To the end therfore that he may be saved he must humbly fal down and kisse both these feet that in respect of Gods justice he may retain fear and in respect of his mercie he may conceive hope And in another place Happie is that soul upon which our Lord Iesus
Christ hath placed both his feet I wil not sing unto thee judgement alone nor yet mercie alone my God but I wil sing unto thee with the prophet David mercie and judgement joined togither And I wil never forget these justifications of thine 3 Saint Austen handleth this point most excellently in divers places of his works Let them mark saith he which love so much mercie and gentlenes in our Lord let them mark I say and fear also his truth For as the prophet saith God is both sweet and just Dost thou love that he is sweet Fear also that he is just As a sweet Lord he said I have held my peace at your sins but as a just Lord he addeth And think you that I wil hold my peace stil God is merciful and ful of mercies say you it is most certain yea ad unto it that He beareth long But yet fear that which commeth in the verses end Et verax that is He is also tru and iust There be two things wherby sinners do stand in danger the one in hoping too much which is presumption the other in hoping too little which is desperation Who is deceived by hoping too much He which saith unto himselfe God is a good God a merciful God and therfore I wil do what pleaseth me And why so Bicause God is a merciful God a good God a gentle God These men run into danger by hoping too much Who are in danger by despair Those which seeing their sins greevous and thinking it now unpossible to be pardoned say within themselves Wel we are once to be damned why do not we then whatsoever pleaseth us best in this life These men are murdered by desperation the other by hope What therfore doth God for gaining of both these men To him which is in danger by hope he saith Do not say with thy selfe The mercie of God is great he wil be merciful to the multitude of my sins for the face of his wrath is upon sinners To him that is in danger by desperation he saith At what time soever a sinner shal turn himselfe to me I wil forget his iniquities Thus far S. Austen beside much more which he addeth in the same place touching the great peril and follie of those which upon vain hope of Gods mercie do persevere in their evil life 4 It is a very evil consequent and most unjust kind of reasoning to say That forsomuch as God is merciful and long suffering therfore wil I abuse his mercie and continu in my wickednes The scripture teacheth us not to reason so but rather quite contrarie God is merciful and expecteth my conversion and the longer he expecteth the more greevous wil be his punishment when it commeth if I neglect this patience And therfore I ought presently to accept of his mercie So reasoneth S. Paul which saith Dost thou contemn the riches of his long suffering and gentlenes Dost thou not know that the patience of God towards thee is used to bring thee to repentance But thou through the hardnes of thy hart and irrepentant mind dost hoord up to thy selfe wrath in the day of vengeance at the revelation of Gods iust iudgement In which words Saint Paul signifieth that the longer that God suffereth us with patience in our wickednes the greater heap of vengeance doth he gather against us if we persist obstinate in the same Wherto Saint Austen addeth another consideration of great dread and fear and that is If he offer thee grace saith he to day thou knowest not whether he wil do it to morrow or no. If he give thee life and memorie this week thou knowest not whether thou shalt enjoy it the next week or no. 5 The holie prophet beginning his seventith and second psalme of the dangerous prosperitie of worldlie men useth these words of admiration How good a God is the God of Israel unto them that be of a right hart And yet in al that psalme he doth nothing els but shew the heavie justice of God towards the wicked even when he giveth them most prosperities and worldlie wealth and his conclusion is Behold O Lord they shal perish which depart from thee thou hast destroied al those that have broken their faith of wedlok with thee By which is signified that how good soever God be unto the just yet that pertaineth nothing to the releefe of the wicked who are to receive just vengeance at his hands amidst the greatest mercies bestowed upon the godlie The eies of the Lord are upon the iust saith the same prophet and his ears are bent to hear their praiers but the face of the Lord is upon them that do evil to destroy their memorie from out the earth 6 It was an old practise of deceiving prophets resisted strongly by the prophets of God to crie Peace peace unto wicked men when indeed there was nothing towards them but danger sword and destruction as the tru prophets foretold and as the event prooved Wherfore the prophet David giveth us a notable and sure rule to govern our hope and confidence withal Sacrificate sacrificium iustitiae sperate in Domino Do you sacrifice unto God the sacrifice of righteousnes and then trust in him Wherwith Saint Iohn agreeth when he saith If our hart or conscience do not reprehend us for wicked life then have we confidence with God as who would say If our conscience be giltie of lewd and wicked life and we resolved to dwel and continu therin then in vain have we confidence in the mercies of God unto whose just judgement we stand subject for our wickednes 7 It is most woonderful and dreadful to consider how God hath used himselfe towards his best beloved in this world upon offence given by occasion of sin how easily he hath changed countenance how soon he hath broken off frindship how streightly he hath taken account and how severely he hath punished The Angels that he created with so great care and love and to whom he imparted so singular privileges of al kind of perfections as he made them almost very gods in a certain maner committed but only one sin of pride against his majestie and that only in thought as Divines do hold and yet presently al that good wil and favor was changed into justice and that also so severe as they were thrown down to eternal torments without redemption chained for ever to abide the rigor of hel fire and intollerable darknes 8 After this God made himselfe another new frind of flesh and blood which was our father Adam in paradise where God conversed with him so frindly and familiarly as is most woonderful to consider he called him he talked with him he made al creatures in the world subject unto him he brought them al before him to the end that he and not God should give them their names he made a mate and companion
for him he blessed them both and finally shewed al possible tokens of love that might be But what insued Adam committed but one sin and that at the intisement of another and that also a sin not of so verie great importance as it may seem to mans reason being but the eating of the tree forbidden and yet the matter was no sooner done but al frindship was broken between God and him he was thrust out of paradise condemned to perpetual miserie and al his posteritie to eternal damnation togither with himselfe if he had not repented And how severely this greevous sentence is executed may sufficiently appeer by this that infinite millions of people even the whole race of mankind is for it cast down unto the unspeakable torments of hel excepting those few that since are ransomed by the comming down of Gods own son the second person in Trinitie into this flesh and by his intollerable sufferings and death in the same 9 The two miracles of the world Moises and Aaron were of singular authoritie and favor with God insomuch as they could obtain great things at his hands for other men yet when they offended God once themselves at the waters of contradictiō in the desart of Sin for that they dowted somwhat of the miracle promised to them from God therby did dishonor his majestie before the people as he saith they were presently rebuked most sharply for the same though they repented hartily that offence and so obtained remission of the fault or guilt yet was there laid upon them a greevous chastisement for the same and that was that they shuld not enter themselves into the land of promise but should die when they came within the sight therof And albeit they intreated God most earnestly for the release of this penance yet could they never obtain the same at his hands but alwais he answered them Seeing you have dishonored me before the people you shal die for it and shal not enter into the land of promise 10 In what special great favor was Saul with God when he chose him to be the first king of the peple caused Samuel the prophet so much to honor him and to anoint him prince upon Gods own inheritance as he calleth it When he commended him so much and took such tender care over him And yet afterward for that he brake Gods commandement in reserving certain spoils of war which he should have destroied yea though he reserved them to honor God withal as he pretended yet was he presently cast off by God degraded of his dignitie given over to the hands of an evil spirit brought to infinite miseries though he shifted out for a time and finally so forsaken and abandoned by God as he slew himselfe his sons were crucified or hanged on a crosse by his enimies and al his family and linage extinguished for ever 11 David was the chosen and deer frind of God and honored with the title of One that was according to Gods own hart But yet assoon as he had sinned the prophet Nathan was sent to denounce Gods heavie displeasure and punishment upon him And so it insued notwithstanding that he sorrowed and humbled himselfe so much as he did for the sin that he had done as may appeer by his fasting praier weeping wearing of sak eating of ashes and the like By which is evident that how great Gods mercie is to them that fear him so great is his justice to them that offend him 12 The scripture hath infinite examples of this matter as the rejection of Cain and his posteritie streight upon his murder the pittiful drowning of the whole world in the time of Noe the dreadful consuming of Sodom and Gomorra with the cities about by fire and brimstone the sending down quik to hel of Chore Dathan and Abyron with the slaughter of two hundred and fiftie their adherents and many thousands of the people besides for rebellion against Moises Aaron the sudden killing of Nadab and Abju sons of Aaron and chosen preests for once offering of other fire on the altar than was appointed them the most terrible striking dead of Ananias and Saphira for retaining some part of their own goods by deceit from the apostles with manie mo such examples which the scripture doth recount 13 And for the greevousnes of Gods justice and heavines of his hand when it lighteth upon us though it may appeer sufficiently by al these examples before alleged wherin the particular punishments as you see are most rigorous yet wil I repeat one act of God more out of the scripture which expresseth the same in woonderful maner It is wel known that Benjamin among al the twelve sons of Iacob was the deerest unto his father as appeereth in the book of Genesis and therfore also greatly respected by God and his tribe placed in the best part of al the land of promise upon the division therof having Ierusalem Iericho and other the best cities within it Yet notwithstanding for one only sin committed by certain private men in the citie of Gabaa upon the wife of a levite God punished the whole tribe in this order as the scripture recounteth He caused al the other eleven tribes to rise against them and first to come to the house of God in Silo to aske his advise and follow his directiō in this war against their brethren And thence having by Gods appointment entered battel twice with the tribe of Benjamin the third day God gave them so great a victorie as they slew al the living creatures within the compasse of that tribe except only six hundred men that escaped away into the desart the rest were slain both man woman children and infants togither with al the beasts and cattel and al the cities villages and houses burnt with fire And al this for one sin committed only at one time with one woman 14 And who wil not then confesse with Moises that God is a iust God a great God and a terririble God Who wil not confesse with Saint Paul It is horrible to fal into the hands of the living God Who wil not say with holie David A iudicijs tuis timui I have feared at the remembrance of thy iudgements If God would not spare the destroieng of a whole tribe for on sin only if he would not pardon Chore Dathan and Abiron for once the sons of Aaron for once Ananias and Saphyra for once if he would not forgive Esau though afterward he sought the blessing with tears as the apostle saith if he would not remit the punishment of one fault to Moises and Aaron though they asked it with great instance if he would not forgive one prowd cogitation unto the angels nor once eating of the tree forbidden unto Adam without infinite punishment nor would passe over the cup of affliction from his own Son though he
feareth God neglecteth nothing he that feareth God wil turn and looke into his own hart he that feareth God wil do good works They which fear God wil not be incredulous to that which he saith but wil keep his wais and seek out the things that are pleasant unto him they wil prepare their harts and sanctifie their souls in his sight 21 This is the description of tru fear of God set down by the scripture This is the description of that fear which is so much commended and commanded in every part and parcel of Gods word of that fear I say which is called Fons vitae radix prudentiae corona plenitudo sapientiae gloria gloriatio beatum donum that is The fountain of life the roote of prudence the crown and fulnes of wisdome the glorie and gloriation of a Christian man a happie gift Of him that hath this fear the scripture saith Happy is the man which feareth the Lord for he wil place his mind upon his commandements And again The man that feareth God shal be happy at the last end and shal be blessed at the day of his death Finally of such as have this fear the scripture saith that God is their foundation God hath prepared great multitude of sweetnes for them God hath purchased them an inheritance God is as merciful to them as the father is merciful unto his children And to conclude Voluntatem timentium se faciet God wil do the wil of those that fear him with this fear 22 This holy fear had good Iob when he said to God I feared al my works And he yeeldeth the reason therof For I know that thou sparest not him that offendeth thee This fear lacked the other of whom the prophet saith The sinner hath exaspered God by saieng that God wil not take account of his dooings in the multitude of wrath Thy judgements O Lord are remooved from his sight And again Wherfore hath the man stirred up God against himself by saieng God wil not take account of my dooings It is a great wickednes no dowt a great exasperation of God against us to take the one halfe of Gods nature from him which is to make him merciful without justice to live so as though God would not take account of our life wheras he hath protested most earnestly the contrarie saieng that he is an hard and a sore man which wil not be content to receive his own again but also wil have usurie that he wil have a rekoning of al his goods lent us that he wil have fruit for al his labors bestowed upon us and finally that he wil have account for every word that we have spoken 23 Christ in the three score and eight psalm which in sundry places of the Gospel he interpreteth to be written of himselfe among other dreadful curses which he setteth down against the reprobate he hath these Let their eies be dazeled in such sort as they may not see powre out thy wrath my father upon them let the furie of thy vengeance take hand fast on them ad iniquitie upon their iniquitie and let him not enter into thy righteousnes let them be blotted out of the book of life and let them not be inrolled togither with the iust Heer lo we see that the greatest curse which God can lay upon us next before our blotting out of the booke of life it is to suffer us to be so blinded as to ad iniquitie upon iniquitie and not to enter into consideration of his justice For which cause also this cōfident kind of sinning upon hope of Gods mercie is accounted by divines for the first of the six greevous sins against the holie Ghost which our Savior in the gospel signifieth to be so hardly pardoned unto men by his father and the reason why they cal this a sin against the holie Ghost is for that it rejecteth wilfully one of the principal means left by the holie Ghost to retire us from sin which is the fear and respect of Gods justice upon sinners 24 Wherfore to conclude this matter of presumption me think we may use the same kind of argument touching the fear of Gods justice as Saint Paul useth to the Romans of the fear of Gods ministers which are temporal princes wouldest thou nor fear the power of a temporal prince saith he Do wel then and thou shalt not only not fear but also receive laud and praise therfore But if thou do evil then fear For he beareth not the sword without a cause In like sort may we say to those good felows which make God so merciful as no man ought to fear his justice Would ye not fear my brethren the justice of God in punishment Live vertuously then and you shal be as void of fear as lions are saith the wise man For that perfect charitie expelleth fear But if you live wickedly then have you cause to fear For God called not himselfe a just judge for nothing 25 If the matter had been so secure as many men by flatterie do persuade themselves it is Saint Peter would never have said unto Christians now baptised Walk you in fear during the time of this your earthly habitation Nor S. Paul to the same men Woork your own salvation in fear and trembling But heer some men wil ask how then doth the same apostle in another place say That God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of vertu love and sobrietie To which I answer That our spirit is not a spirit of servile fear that is to live in fear only for dread of punishment without love but a spirit of love joined with fear of children wherby they fear to offend their father not only in respect of his punishment but principally for his goodnes towards them benefits bestowed upon them This Saint Paul declareth plainly to the Romans putting the difference between servile fear and the fear of children You have not received again the spirit of servitude saith he in fear but the spirit of adoption of children wherby we cry to God Abba father He saith heer to the Romans you have not received again the spirit of servitude in fear for that their former spirit being gentils was only in servile fear for that they honored and adored their idols not for any love they bare unto them being so infinite as they were and such notable lewdnes reported of them I mean of Iupiter Mars Venus and the like but only for fear of hurt from them if they did not serve and adore the same 26 Saint Peter also in one sentence expoundeth al this matter For having said Timorem eorum ne timueritis Fear not their fear Meaning of the servile fear of wicked men he addeth presently Dominum autem Christum sanctificate in cordibus vestris cum modestia timore conscientiam
habentes bonam That is Do you sanctifie the Lord Iesus Christ in your harts having a good conscience with modestie and fear So that the spirit of servile fear which is grounded only upon respect of punishment is forbidden us but the loving fear of children is commanded And yet also about this are there two things to be noted 27 The first that albeit the spirit of servile fear be forbidden us especially when we are now entred into the service of God yet is it most profitable for sinners and such as yet but begin to serve God for that it mooveth them to repentance and to looke about them for which cause it is called by the wise man The beginning of wisdome And therfore both Ionas to the Ninivites and S. Iohn Baptist to the Iews and al the prophets to sinners have used to stir up this fear by threatening the dangers punishments which were imminent to them if they repented not But yet afterward when men are converted to God and do go forward in his service they change every day this servile fear into love until they arrive at last unto that state wherof Saint Iohn saith That perfect love or charitie expelleth fear Wherupon S. Austen saith that Fear is the servant sent before to prepare place in our harts for his mistresse which is charitie who being once entered in and perfectly placed fear goeth out again and giveth place unto the same But where this fear never entereth at al there is it impossible for charitie ever to come and dwel saith this holie father 28 The second thing to be noted is that albeit this fear of punishment be not in very perfect men or at lestwise is lesse in them than in others as Saint Iohn teacheth yet being joined with love and reverence as it ought to be it is most profitable and necessarie for al common Christians whose life is not so perfect nor charitie so great as that perfection wherof Saint Iohn speaketh This appeereth by that that Christ persuaded also this fear even unto his apostles saieng Fear you him which after he hath slain the bodie hath power also to send both bodie and soul unto hel fire this I say unto you fear him The same doth Saint Paul to the Corinthians who were good Christians laieng down first the justice of God and therupon persuading them to fear Al we saith he must be presented before the tribunal seat of Christ to receive ech man his proper deserts according as he hath done good or evil in this life And for that we know this we do persuade the fear of the Lord unto men Nay that which is more Saint Paul testifieth that notwithstanding al his favors received from God he retained yet himselfe this fear of Gods justice as appeereth by those words of his I do chastise my body and do bring it into servitude least it should come to passe that when I have preached to other I become a reprobate my selfe 29 Now my frind if Saint Paul stood in aw of the justice of God notwithstanding his apostleship and that he was guiltie to himselfe of no one sin or offence as in one case he protesteth what oughtest thou to be whose conscience remaineth guiltie of so many misdeeds and wickednes This know you saith Saint Paul that no fornicator unclean person covetous man or the like can have inheritance in the kingdome of Christ. And immediately after as though this had not been sufficient he addeth for preventing the folly of sinners which flatter themselves Let no man deceive you with vain words for the wrath of God commeth for these things upon the children of unbeleefe Be not you therfore partakers of them As if he should say those that flatter you and say Tush God is merciful and wil pardon easily al these and like sins these men deceive you saith Saint Paul for that the wrath and vengeance of God lighteth upon the children of unbeleefe for these matters that is upon those which wil not beleeve Gods justice nor his threats against sin but presuming of his mercie do persevere in the same until upon the sudden Gods wrath do rush upon them and then it is too late to amend Wherfore saith he if you be wise be not partakers of their folly but amend your lives presently while you have time And this admonition of Saint Paul shal be sufficient to end this chapter against al those that refuse or defer their resolution of amendement vpon vain hope of Gods pardon or tolleration CHAP. V. Of the fift impediment which is delay of resolution from time to time upon hope to do it better or with more ease afterward THE reasons hitherto alledged might seeme I think sufficient to a reasonable man for prooving the necessitie of this resolution we talk of for remooving the impediments that let the same But yet for that as the wise man saith he which is minded to break with his frind seeketh occasions how to do it with some colour and shew There be many in the world who having no other excuse of their breaking and holding off from God do seek to cover it with this pretence that they mean by his grace to amend al in time and this time is driven off from day to day until God in whose hands only the moments of time are do shut them out of al time do send them to pains eternal without time for that they abused the singular benefit of time in this world 2 This is one of the greatest and most dangerous deceits and yet the most ordinarie and universal that the enimie of mankind doth use towards the children of Adam and I dare say boldly that mo do perish by this deceit than by al his other guiles and subtilties besides He wel knoweth the force of this snare above al others therfore urgeth it so much unto every man He considereth better than we do the importance of delay in a matter so weightie as is our conversion salvation he is not ignorant how one sin draweth on another how he that is not fit to day wil be lesse fit to morrow how custom groweth into nature how old diseases are hardly cured how God withdraweth his grace how his justice is readie to punish everie sin how by delay we exasperate the same and heap vengeance on our own heads as Saint Paul saith He is privie to the uncertaintie and perils of our life to the dangerous chances we passe through to the impediments that wil come daily more and more to let our conversion Al this he knoweth and wel considereth and for that cause persuadeth so manie to delay as he doth For being not able any longer to blind the understanding of manie Christians but that they must needs see cleerly the necessitie and utilitie of this resolution and that al the impediments in the world are but trifles and meer
dore if I open presently he wil enter and dwel within me But if I defer it until to morrow I know not whether he wil knok again or no. Every man ought to remember stil that saieng of the prophet touching Gods spirit Hodie si vocem eius audieritis nolite obdurare corda vestra If you hear his voice calling on you to day do not harden your harts but presently yeeld unto him 32 Alas deer brother what hope of gain hast thou by this perilous dilation which thou makest Thine account is increased therby as I have shewed thy debt of amendement is made more greevous thine enimie more strong thy selfe more feeble thy difficulties of conversion multiplied what hast thou then to withhold thee one day frō resolution the gaining of a litle time in vanitie But I have prooved to thee before how this time is not gained but lost being spent without fruit of godlines which is indeed the only tru gain of time If it seem pleasant to thee for the present yet remember what the prophet saith Iuxta est dies perditionis adesse festinant tempora The day of perdition is at hand and the times of destruction make hast to come on Which day being once come I marvel what hope thou wilt conceive Dost thou think to crie Peccavi It shal be wel truly if thou canst do it but yet thou knowest that Pharao did so and gat nothing by it Dost thou intend to make a good testament and to be liberal in alms deeds at that time This as the case may be is very commendable but yet thou must remember also that the virgins which filled their lamps at the very instant were shut out and utterly rejected by Christ. Dost thou think to weep and moorn and to moove thy judge with tears at that instant First this is not in thy hands to do at thy pleasures and yet thou must consider also that Esau failed though he sought it with tears as the apostle wel noteth Dost thou mean to have many good purposes to make great promises and vowes in that distresse Cal to mind the case of Antiochus in his extremities what promises of good deeds what vowes of vertuous life made he to God upon condition he might escape and yet prevailed he nothing therby Al this is spoken not to put them in despair which are now in those last calamities but to dissuade others from falling into the same assuring thee gentle reader that the prophet said not without a cause Seek unto God while he may be found cal upon him while he is neer at hand Now is the time acceptable now is the day of salvation saith Saint Paul Now is God to be found and neeer at hand to imbrace al them that truly turn unto him and make firm resolution of vertuous life heerafter If we defer this time we have no warrant that he wil either cal us or receive us heerafter but rather many threats to the contrarie as hath been shewed Wherfore I wil end with this one sentence of S. Austen that He is both a careles and a most graceles man which knowing al this wil venture notwithstanding the eternitie of his salvation and damnation upon the dowtful event of his final repentance CHAP. VI. Of three other impediments that hinder men from resolution which are sloth negligence and hardnes of hart BEsides al impediments which hitherto have bin named there are yet divers others to be found if any man could examin the particular consciences of al such as do not resolve But these three heer mentioned and to be handeled in this chapter are so publik and known as I may not passe them over without discovering the same for that manie times men are evil affected and know not their own diseases the only declaration wherof to such as are desirous of their own health is sufficient to avoid the danger of the siknes 2 First then the impediment of sloth is a great and ordinarie let of resolution to manie men but especially in idle and delicate people whose life hath been in al ease and rest and therfore do persuade themselves that they can take no pains nor abide any hardnes though never so fain they would Of which Saint Paul saith that Nise people shal not inherit the kingdome of heaven These men wil confesse to be tru as much more than is said to before and that they would also gladly put the same in execution but that they cannot Their bodies may not bear it they can take no pains in their several callings and in the general they cannot fast they cannot watch they cannot praie They cannot leave their disports recreations and merry companions they should die presently as they say with melancholy if they did it yet in their harts they desire forsooth that they could do the same which seeing they cannot no dowt say they God wil accept our good desires But let them harken a little what the scripture saith heerof Desires do kil the slothful man saith Salomon his hands wil not fal to any work al the day long he coveteth and desireth but he that is iust wil do and wil not cease Take the slothful and unprofitable servant saith Christ and fling him into utter darknes where shal be weeping and gnashing of teeth And when he passed by the way and found a fig tree with leaves without fruit he gave it presently an everlasting curse 3 Of this fountain of sloth do proceed many effects that hinder the slothful from resolution And the first is a certain heavines and sleepie drowsines towards al goodnes according as the scripture saith Pigredo mittit soporem Sloth doth bring drowsines For which cause S. Paul saith Surge qui dormis Arise thou that art asleep And Christ crieth out so often Videte vigilate Looke about you and watch You shal see many men in the world with whom if you talk of a cow or a calfe or a fat ox of a peece of ground or the like they can both hear and talk willingly and freshly but if you reason with them of their salvation and their inheritance in the kingdome of heaven they answer not at al but wil hear as if they were in a dream Of these men then saith the wise man How long wilt thou sleep O slothful fellow When wilt thou rise out of thy dream A little yet wilt thou sleep a little longer wilt thou slumber a little wilt thou close thy hands togither and take rest and so povertie shal hasten upon thee as a running post and beggerie as an armed man shal take and possesse thee 4 The second effect of sloth is fond fear of pains and labor and casting of dowts where none be according as the scripture saith Pigrum deijcit timor Fear discourageth the slothful man And the prophet saith of the like They shake for fear
where there is no fear These men do frame unto themselves strange imaginations of the service of God dangerous events if they should follow the same One saith If I should give much it would without dowt make me a begger Another saith If I should stil imploy my selfe to painful labor it would kil me ere long A third saith If I should humble my selfe as is required every bodie would tread me under their feete And yet al this is nothing else but sloth as the scripture testifieth in these words Dicit piger leo est foris in medio platearum occidendus sum The slothful man saith sitting stil in his house There is a lion without if I should go out of doores to labor I should certainly be slain in the midst of the streets 5 A third effect of sloth is pusillanimitie and faintnes of hart wherby the slothful man is overthrown and discouraged by every little contrarietie or difficultie which he findeth in vertu or which he imagineth to find therin Which the wise man signifieth when he saith In lapide luteo lapidatus est piger The slothful man is stoned to death with a stone of dirt that is he is overthrown with a difficultie of no importance Again De stercore boum lapidatus est piger The slothful man is stoned dead with the doong of oxen which commonly is of matter so soft as it can hurt no man 6 A fourth effect of sloth is idle lazines which we see in many men that wil talk and consult of this and that about their amendement but wil execute nothing Which is most fitly expressed by the holie Ghost in these words Sicut ostium vertitur in cardine suo it a piger in lectulo suo As a doore is tossed in and out upon his hindges so is a slothful man lieng lazily upon his bed And again Vult non vult piger A slothful man wil and wil not That is he turneth himselfe to fro in his bed and between willing and nilling he doth nothing And yet further in another place the scripture describeth this lazines saieng The slothful man putteth his hands under his girdle and wil not vouchsafe to lift them up to his mouth for that it is painful 7 Al these and many mo are the effects of sloth but these four especially have I thought good to touch in this place for that they let hinder greatly this resolutiō which we talk of for he that liveth in a slumber wil not hear or attend to any thing that is said of the life to come and beside this imagineth fearful matters in the same and thirdly is thrown down by every little blok that he findeth in the way and lastly is so lazy as he can bear no labor at al this man I say is past hope to be gained to any such purpose as we speak for 8 To remoove therfore this impediment this sort of men ought to lay before their eies the labors of Christ and of his saints the exhortations they used to other men to take like pains the threats made in scripture against them which labor not the condition of our present warfare that requireth travel the crown prepared for it and the miserie ensuing upon idle and lazie people And finally if they cannot bear the labor of vertuous life which indeed is accompanied with so manie consolations as it may not rightfully be called a labor how wil they abide the labor and torments of the life to come which must be both intollerable and everlasting 9 Saint Paul saith of himselfe and others to the Thessalonians We did not eat our bread of free cost when we were with you but did work in labor and wearines both day and night therby to give you an example of imitation denouncing further unto you that If any man would not work he should not eat Christ in his parable stil reprehended greevously those that stood idle saieng Quid hîc statis tota die otiosi Why do you stand heer al the day idle and doing nothing I am a vine saith Christ and my father is an husbandman every branch that beareth not fruit in me my father wil cut off and cast into the fire And in another place Cut down the unprofitable tree why doth it stand heer and occupie up the ground for nothing And again The kingdome of heaven is subiect to force and men do gain it by violence and labor For which cause the wise man also saith Whatsoever thy hand can do in this life do it instantly for after it there is neither time nor reason nor wisdom or knowledge that we can imploy And again the same wise man saith The lazie hand worketh beggerie to it selfe but the laborsom and valiant hand heapeth up great riches And yet further to the same effect The slothful man wil not sow in the winter for that it is cold and therfore he shal beg in the summer and no man shal take pittie of him 10 Al this pertaineth to shew how that this life is a time of labor and not of idlenes and appointed unto us for the attaining of heaven it is the market wherin we must bie the battel wherin we must fight and obtain our crown the winter wherin we must sowe the day of labor wherin we must sweat and get our pennie And he that passeth over lazily this day as the most part of men do must suffer eternal povertie and need in the life to come as in the first part of this booke more at large hath been declared Wherfore the wise man or rather the holie Ghost by his mouth giveth ech one of us a most vehement admonition and exhortation in these words Run about make haste stir up thy frind give no sleepe unto thine eies let not thine eie lids slumber they skip out as a doe from the hands of him that held hir as a bird out of the hands of the fowler Go unto the emmet thou slothful man and consider hir doings and learn to be wise she having no guide teacher or captain provideth meat for hir selfe in the summer and gathereth togither in the harvest that which may serve hir to feed upon in the winter By which words we are admonished in what order we ought to behave our selves in this life and how diligent careful we should be in doing of al good works as S. Paul also teacheth considering that as the emmet laboreth most earnestly in the harvest time to lay up for the winter to come so we should for the next world and that slothfulnes to this effect is the greatest and most dangerous let that may be For as the emmet should die in the winter most certainly for hunger if she should live idlely in the summer so without al dowt they are to suffer extreme need and miserie in the world to come who now for sloth do
that comfortable doctrine of Gods most gratious providence towards us In the performance of our dutie likewise we do not perceive but that we should be very far wide from that which in truth we ought to do For wheras God only hath made us redeemed us and given us whatsoever we have and therfore we owe al unto him and that by Iesus Christ our Lord their profession notwithstanding is to yeeld their thanks and service again in divers cases to some angel or saint as though that from them or by their good means they had received the things which they have Wheras notwithstanding to make any other mediators in such respect though it be not with Christ betwixt God and us but only under Christ betwixt him and us is either directly against or without the warrant of the word of God Then also although they do not direct our dutie nor any part therof to any other than God yet they teach us to do unto him divers things that we find not in the written word Wherin although they can assure us that the church hath so ordeined yet we see no sufficient warrant therin when as themselves wil not denie but that the greatest multitude of the people of God in al ages have been somtime deceived and the written word both precisely chargeth us to do nothing to God but what he appointeth and besides accurseth al those that set us a work in any thing else Those others that might be corrupted by us are al those that by our example should take occasion to do likewise either such as presently live besides us or the generation that after followeth For we know by experience of times that of those that live togither one doth cast his eie to another everie nation unto the people that doth dwel about them and make the doings of others a rule for them to walk by and the same in the service of God as much almost as in any thing else Children likewise and the race that succeedeth others do readily follow as their forefathers have gone before them for the most part little regarding whether it be right or wrong but sufficiently contenting themselves if they walk but so as their ancestors have done before If we therfore should give an il example to any of these either in leading them to do such things in the service of God as were offensive to him or else no more but teaching them in like sort to venture in so weightie a matter how should we be able to excuse our selves but that we have given them just cause of offence in laieng such a stumbling stone in the way that we see they are disposed to walk And though by the grace and goodnes of God they would be more warie and not stumble therat yet were our fault nothing the lesse for to be aesteemed no lesse than murder before him as Christ himself we know pronounceth an heavie sentence against al those byw hom there commeth offence to any that It were much better for him that a milstone were hanged about his nek he cast into the bottom of the sea than to offend the lest of thē al that beleve in him Those heavie burdens that I spake of which they lay on the consciences of many are of two sorts some that appertain generally to al and others that appertain properly to some Those that appertain generally to al are first those heaps of traditions and ceremonies which they have abundantly laid upon al men calling them the traditions of the church and teach that al are bound of conscience inviolably to keepe and observe them every one Of which sort though some be sorted unto certain principal feasts and times of the yeer yet others there are that so commonly hant every weeke and almost every day and are so plentifully powred out throughout our whole life almost in al things that we are to take in hand that it is not possible for any to walk uprightly therin nor ever sufficiently to attend the greater things of the law of God Then also it is an heavie burden that al men are bound so to confesse as they require both for that they must disclose unto them the very secrets of their harts and are bound to rekon up al their sins so far as possibly they can remember else that they are excluded from al hope of forgivenes Wherof the one is very greevous and abhorring the nature of the best men that are the other more then any man can at any time find that he hath done fully indeed both which are unknown to the word of God and therfore needles and yeeld no way of forgivenes at al but only a way to torment the parties and for themselves to practise upon These that are more proper to some are cast upon them diversly somtimes upon some special occasion somtimes by reason of that kind of life that the parties are entered into Of the first I note but one that is the burden that they lay upon those which have confessed their sins unto them Which commonly they cal poenance and ever lightly hath one of these faults either that the poenance it selfe is wrong being for the most part either rigorous or frivolous or else that the parties are taught to seeke out forgivenes therin Of that which is cast upon others by reason of the trade of life that they are entered into I note these two principal branches First those observances that they binde their regulars to then the vow of single life wherunto they binde their whole clergie and certain others neer to that order The former of which omitting to speak of the woorst of it yeeldeth nought else but a fruitlesse labor such as God never accepteth for any part of his service at al and yet oft times very tedious and painful in it selfe if they follow their rule indeed and coast not over some neerer way the other is ful of fowl pollutions without and intollerable burnings within such as al forced virginitie hath ever yeelded 3 But in matters of religion it may be the controversies seem so dowtful that we cannot charge them with any such inconvenience on their side but that in their judgement they think themselves able to turn it over to us again as easilie as we did lay it to their charge before And we also wil be content to set by religion for a season and al matters of faith whatsoever as if in that respect there were no inconvenience at al to be feared and now consider those things alone that do concern our civile estate heerin this life not persuading our selves to the contrarie but that divers there are that would be content to join with them in matters of religion if therby they should bring to themselves no inconvenience in this For divers indeed do not so much respect religion or looke not so narrowly to the diversitie of these professions but that they can be reasonably
so much as he Those with whom they have held hands so long togither are either the bishop of Rome or his frinds abroad for their advantage or else of their own countrimen at home that are grown to so great misliking of the praesent state If it be the bishop and his adhaerents it is but for their own advantage that they conceive that opinion of them so to make up their losses again by the help of them when opportunitie should serve them unto it And the more that their aestimation savoreth of it the more quietly may they be able to beare the losse therof If they be of our discontented countrimen at home the losse also is so much the lesse for that none such wil not mislike of them but so far as themselves are infected with the inchanted cup of forrain power and then the more they are infected therwith the lesse woorth is the best aestimation they are able to give Again whatsoever aestimation is lost either with forrain power abroad or with hollow harts at home the same wil be much more requited with the gratious favor of their natural princes and with the tru hart of faithful subjects and that so much the more in abundance of recompense as it is of greater price or valu to be wel thought on by natural princes and faithful subjects than of forren usurpers and close aides whersoever 10 The hardnes that they account themselves to be put unto to the utter aliening of their minds from us and our profession resteth especially in these two points first that divers of them are streightly handled then that certain points of their religion as they term it are now made treason They accoūt themselves to be streightly handled both in the fining of recusants and that certain of that profession are put to death Concerning both which they would not denie but that the punishment were moderate inough both in the one in the other if either they could finde that they were so heinous offenders as we do conceive and charge them to be or else but remember what dealings themselves have used to us and yet do upon lesse occasion As touching the former they wil not denie but that princes have authoritie by the word of God both to fine and to put to death as need requireth They know that such as worship any strange God or but intise others therto or stubbornly despise the word of God are by the sentence of Gods own mouth accounted woorthie to die the death and though it may be themselves do not see that by aequitie therof they are in the danger of his justice for those yet we are out of dowt that they are and but that we do alreadie know that the blindnes of man is very great we could not but woonder that they do not see it Nevertheles such is the mildnes of hir majestie and such is the peaceablenes of these dais of the Gospel so cold are we the most of us al on behalfe of the glorie God that none are executed for any of those though the selfe-same laws that they used against us be forcible against them and if need were might soone be inlarged So notwithstanding that which is done of that kinde we think there might be done much more than there is and yet that no bodie had any just cause to finde fault therwith That certain points of their religion are now made treason that so they cannot suffer as in cause of religion but of high treason it ought not to be so greevous unto them if they consider wel either the very nature of those points that are made treason or but the maner of our proceeding therin For some points of their profession are of the nature as that they are rank treason indeed to al the states that are in the world that have they proper unto themselves of al the religions that are professed on the face of the earth And this treason of theirs that we speak of resteth especially in these two points that the bishop of Rome hath power to depose the princes and potentates of the earth and to place in their roomes whomsoever he wil and that subjects ought not to remain in alleageance to any whom he deposeth but to put on armor against them Which we take to be as rank a treason as wicked an haeresie and as open a way to al confusion as any that ever was heard of before Neither doth it help them any thing if he were indeed as they would have it the vicar general of Christ on the earth for that therby he might do no more keeping within the bounds of his master but only lay their sin to their charge utterly exclude them from hope of salvation princes if they governed il and subjects likewise if they went with their princes against their obedience and dutie to God But as for deposing the one or loosing the other from their alleageance in those points we are sure that they are not only misliked of us but of many others besides that other wais are wel willers of theirs In the maner of proceeding that in this point is used against them there are two points likewise to be noted For first as touching the law it selfe it is in effect but certain ancient statutes that were made long since revived again and not sought unto til that by many naughtie practises and some rebellions open forces and slaughters contrived we were of necessitie rather constrained than easilie induced to take that order and that for the praeservation of the whole both in religion and civile tranquillitie Then also it is very wel known that although they have been never so faultie therin and so have justly deserved to die yet if they can be sorrie for their practising and utterly renounce and abandon the same they stand not in such danger of death by their former demerits as in the hope and way of life by their new repentance if it appeer to be unfeined as wel as their guiltines sufficiently prooved The dealings that they use towards us is first the rigor that they put us unto when time did serve them and yet do where they are able in that they raised up persecution against us in the cause of religion then also their disloial and unnatural practises now to recover their former usurpation again In that persecution of theirs against us we think they then delt and yet do over-hardly with us for that the cause being no greater than it was yet notwithstanding their punishment was exceeding greevous The cause we think was not so great for that cōmonly they persecuted us for nothing else but either for some tradition of their own or else for some thing that went against the earthly estate of the church of Rome either in the commoditie that they supposed to be du unto it or in the superioritie that they had obtained Howbeit neither of these being better cōsidered wil be as we
labor and travel unto feeble old age 10 But to let passe the folly of this deceit tel me good Christian what ingratitude and unrighteousnes is this towards God having received so many benefits from him alreadie and expecting so great a pay as the kingdome of heaven is after to appoint out notwithstanding the least and last and woorst part of thy life unto his service and that wherof thou art most uncertain whether it shal ever be or never or whether God wil accept it when it commeth He is accursed by the prophet which having whole and sound cattel doth offer unto God the lame or halting part therof How much more shalt thou be accursed that having so many dais of youth strength and vigor dost appoint unto Gods service only thy limping old age In the law it was forbidden under a most severe threat for any man to have two measures in his house for his neighbor one greater to his frind and another lesser for other men And yet thou art not ashamed to use two measures of thy life most unequal in prejudice of thy Lord and God wherby thou alottest to him a little short maimed and uncertain time and unto his enimie the greatest the fairest the surest part therof 11 O deer brother what reason is there why God should thus be used at thy hands What law justice or equitie is there that after thou hast served the world flesh and devil al thy youth and best dais in the end to come and clap thy old bones defiled and worn out with sin in the dish of God His enimies to have the best and he the leavings His enimies the wine and he the lees and dregs Dost thou not remember that he wil have the fat and best part offered to him Dost thou not think of the punishment of those which offered the woorst part of their substance to God Follow the counsel then of the holie Ghost if thou be wise which warneth thee in these words Be mindful of thy creator in the dais of thy youth before the time of affliction come on and before those yeers draw neer of which thou shalt say they please me not 12 How many hast thou seen cut off in the midst of their dais whiles they purposed in time to come to change their life How many have come to old age it selfe and yet then have felt lesse wil of amendement than before How many have driven off even unto the very hour of death and then lest of al have remembred their own state But have died as dum and senseles beasts according to the saieng of Saint Gregorie The sinner hath also this affliction laid upon him that when he cōmeth to die he forgetteth himselfe which in his life time did forget God O how many examples are there seen heerof daily How many worldly men that have lived in sensualitie how many great sinners that have passed their life in wickednes do end and die as if they went into some place insensible where no account no rekoning should be demanded they take such care in their testaments for flesh and blood and commodities of this world as if they should live stil or should have their part of these vanities when they are gone In truth to speak as the matter is they die as if there were no immortalitie of the soul and that in very deed is their inward persuasion 13 But suppose now that al this were not so and that a man might as easily commodiouslie yea and as surely also convert himselfe in old age as in youth and that the matter were also acceptable inough to God yet tel me what great time is their lost in this delay What great treasure of godlines is there omitted which might have been gotten by labor in Gods service If whiles the captain and other soldiers did enter a rich citie to take the spoil one soldier should say I wil stay and come in the next day after when al the spoil is gone would not you think him both a coward and also most unwise So it is that Christ our savior and al his good soldiers tooke the spoil of this life inriched themselves with their labors in time caried the same with them as bils of exchange to the bank of heaven and there received pay of eternal glorie And is it not great folly and perversenes in us to passe over this life in so fruitles affairs Now is the time of fight for the obteining of our crown now is the day of spoil to seise on our bootie now is the market to bie the kingdome of heaven now is the time of running to get the game and price now is the day of sowing to provide us corn for the harvest that commeth on If you omit this time there is no more crown no more booty no more kingdome no more price no more harvest to be looked for For as the scripture assureth us He that for sloth wil not sow in the winter shal beg in the summer and no man shal give unto him 14 But if this consideration of gain cannot moove thee gentle reader as in deed it ought to do being of such importance as it is and irrevocable when it is once past yet weigh with thy selfe what obligation and charge thou drawest on thee by everie day which thou deferrest thy conversion and livest in sin Thou makestech day knots which thou must once undo again thou heapest that togither which thou must once disperse again thou eatest and drinkest that hourly which thou must once vomit up again I mean if the best fal out unto thee that is if thou do repent in time and God do accept therof for otherwise wo be unto thee for that thou hoordest as S. Paul saith wrath and vengeance on thine own head but supposing that thou receive grace heerafter to repent which refusest it now yet I say thou hast to weepe for that thou laughest at now thou hast to be hartily sorie for that wherin thou delitest now thou hast to curse the day wherin thou ever gavest consent to sin or els thy repentance wil do thee no good This thou knowest now and this thou beleevest now or els thou art no Christian. How then art thou so mad as to offend God now both willingly deliberately of whom thou knowest that thou must once ask pardon with tears If thou think he wil pardon thee what ingratitude is it to offend so good a Lord If thou think he wil not pardon thee what folly can be more than to offend a prince without hope of pardon 15 Make thine account now as thou wilt if thou never do repent and change thy life then everie sin thou committest and every day that thou livest therin is increase of wrath and vengeance upon thee in hel as Saint Paul proveth If thou do by Gods mercie heerafter repent and turn for this is not in thy hands then must
thou one day lament and bewail and be hartily sorrie for this delay which now thou makest So that by how much the more thou prolongest and increasest thy sin so much greater wil be thy pain and sorrow in thine amendement Alto vulneri diligens longa adhibenda est medicina saith Saint Cyprian A diligent and long medicin is to be used to a deepe sore Our bodie that hath lived in many delites must be afflicted saith Saint Ierom our laughing must be recompensed with long weeping Finally Saint Ambrose agreeing therunto saith Grandi plagae alta prolixa opus est medicina Vnto a great wound a deepe and long medicin is needful 15 Mark heer deer brother that the labor of thine amendement must be very great and that it cannot be avoided What madnes is it then for thee now to inlarge the wound knowing that the medicin must afterwards be so painful What crueltie can be more against thy selfe than to drive in thorns into thine own flesh which thou must after pul out again with so many tears Wouldest thou drink that cup of poisoned liquor for a little pleasure in the tast which would cast thee soone after into a burning fever torment thy bowels within thee and either dispatch thy life or put thee in great jeoperdie 16 But heer I know thy refuge wil be as it is to al them wherof the prophet saith Mentita est iniquitas sibi Iniquitie hath flattered and lied unto hir selfe thy refuge I say wil be to alledge the example of the good theefe saved even at the last hour upon the crosse and carried to paradise that same day with Christ without any further toil of amendement This example is greatly noted and urged by al those which defer their conversion as surely it is and ought to be of great comfort to every man which findeth himselfe now at the last cast therfore commonly tempted by the enimie to despair of Gods mercie which in no case he ought to do For the same God which saved that great sinner at that last hour can also and wil save al them that hartily turn unto him even at the last hour But alas many men do flatter and deceive themselves with misunderstanding or rather misusing of this example 17 For we must understand as Saint Austen wel noteth that this was but one particular act of Christ which maketh no general rule even as we see that a temporal prince pardoneth somtime a malefactor when he is come to the very place of execution yet were it not for every malefactor to trust therupon For that this is but an extraordinarie act of the prince his favor and neither shewed nor promised to al men Besides this this act was a special miracle reserved for the manifestation of Christ his power and glorie at that hour upon the crosse Again this act was upon a most rare confession made by the theefe in that instant when al the world forsooke Christ and the apostles themselves either dowted or lost their faith of his Godhead Beside al this the confession of this theefe was at such a time as he could neither be baptised nor have further time of amendement And we hold that at a mans first conversion there is required nothing else but to beleeve and to be baptised But it shal not be amisse to put to Saint Austens very words upon this matter For thus he writeth 18 It is a remediles peril when a man giveth himself over so much to vices as he forgetteth that he must give account therof to God and the reason why I am of this opinion is for that it is a great punishment of sin to have lost the fear memorie of the judgment to come c. But deerly beloved left the new felicitie of the beleeving theefe on the crosse do make any of you too secure and remisse least peradventure some of you say in his hart my guiltie conscience shal not trouble nor torment me my naughtie life shal not make me very sad for that I see even in a moment al sin forgivē unto the theefe we must consider first in that theefe not only the shortnes of his beleefe and confession but his devotion and the occasion of that time even when the perfection of the just did stagger Secondlie shew me the faith of that theefe in thy selfe and then promise to thy self his felicitie The devil doth put into thy head this securitie to the end he may bring thee to perdition And it is unpossible to number al them which have perished by the shadow of this deceitful hope He deceiveth himselfe maketh but a jest of his own damnation which thinketh that Gods mercie at the last day shal help or releeve him It is hateful before God when a man upon confidence of repentance in his old age doth sin the more freely The happie theefe wherof we have spoken happie I say not for that he laid snares in the way but for that he tooke hold of the way it selfe in Christ laieng hands on the pray of life and after a strange maner making a bootie of his own death he I say neither did defer the time of his salvation wittingly neither did he deceitfully put the remedie of his state in the last moment of his life neither did he desperately reserve the hope of his redemption unto the hour of his death neither had he any knolege either of religion or of Christ before that time For if he had it may be he would not have been the last among the apostles in number which was made the former in kingdom 19 By these words of Saint Austen we are admonished as you see that this particular fact of Christ maketh no general rule of remission to al men not for that Christ is not alwais ready to receive the penitent as he promiseth but for that every man hath not the time or grace to repent as he should at that hour according as hath been declared before The general way that God proposeth to al is that which Saint Paul saith Finis secundum opera ipsorum The end of evil men is according to their works Look how they live so they dy To that effect saith the prophet Once God spake and I heard these two things from his mouth power belongeth to God and mercie unto thee O Lord for that thou wilt render to every man according to his works The wise man maketh this plain saieng The way of sinners is paved with stones and their end is hel darknes and punishments Finally Saint Paul maketh this general and peremptory conclusion Be not deceived God is not mocked looke what a man soweth and that shal he reape He that soweth in flesh shal reap corruption he that soweth in spirit shal reap life everlasting In which words he doth not only lay down unto us the general rule wherto we must trust but also saith further
worldly prosperitie of king Salomon 3. Reg. 4. 30. Cori similae 60. Cori farinae every corus is 21. quarters and od * * For 21. I think he ment but 11. for a Coras according to Iosephus is rekoned to be 738. of our gallons which make of our measure 11. quarters four bushels one pek So 900. being taken out of the total sum the residu that remaineth doth agree wel to this account for it maketh 1037. quarters six bushels two peks But of this kind of measure the judgment of the learned doth vary much and it would aske a long discourse to beat out the more likely opinion by conference of places and measures togither By the account of Saint Ierom it commeth far short that is but to 232. quarters six bushels and a halfe 3. Reg. 11. Eccles. 1. Salomons saieng of himselfe Eccl. 1. 1. Ioh. 2. Three general points of worldly vanities Vain glorie Mat. 27. Iohn 8. Iohn 9. Mat. 21. Mar. 11. Mat. 27. Luc. 23. 1. Cor. 4. Luc. 18. Dan. 3. Pro. 27. Psal. 9. Psa. 140. Psal. 39. Apoc. 4. Psa. 143. Eccl. 23. Worldly honor and promotion Iohn 11. Iohn 19. Acts. 26. 1. Cor. 14. The vanitie of worldly honor Psa. 138. Sap. 6. Worldly nobilitie Iob. 17. Ose. 9. Mat. 8.20.24.26 Iohn 10. 1. Reg. 9. 1. Re. 16. Mat. 4. Psal. 44. 1. Cor. 1. The vanitie of worldly wisdome 1. Cor. 3. 1. Reg. 9. â— Reg. 16. Luc. 9. 1. Cor. 1. Acts. 36. Sap. 5. 1. Cor. 1. 1. Cor. 3. The vanitie of beautie Pro. 31. Psa. 118. Psal. 4. A lesson to be read in the beautie of al creatures The vanitie of beautie The vanitie of apparel Eccl. 11. 1. Tim. 6. Mat. 3.11 Luc. 7. Luc. 16. Gen. 3. Heb. 12. The extreme vanitie and povertie of man Psal. 77. 2 Concupiscence of the eies 1. Tim. 6. Pro. 11. Sap. 5. The vanitie and peril of worldly wealth Psal. 75. Cap. 3. Iac. 5. Phil. 3. Iob. 28. Levi. 11. Cap. 1. Iob. 27. Psal. 61. Eccl. 31. Cap. 1. Mat. 19. Luc. 6. 1. Tim. 6. The pretence of wife and children refused 3 Of the vanitie of worldly pleasure Iohn 16. Iohn 16. Iob. 21. Iob. 3. Iob. 9. Eccl. 9. Tob. 5. Why good men are sad in this life 1. Cor. 2. 2. Cor. 7. Phil. 2. Iob. 3. Iohn 16. * * Calling and justifieng are verie plain and infallible tokens therof Rom. 8.30 And so far is it not uncertain unto the faithful Rom. 8. Eph. 4. Mat. 24. 2. Cor. 5. and 7. Eccl. 7. Pro. 28. Mich. 6. Iohn 10. Luc. 19. A similitude Prou. 14. Amos. 2. Tob. 2. Apoc. 18. Psal. 38. Esai 59. The ropes of vain glorie Psal. 3. Psal. 39. 2 How worldly vanities are also deceits Mat. 13. Gen. 29. False promises of the world The false promise of renowm Psal. 9. Iob. 13. Psal. 1. A comparison What the deceits of the world are A similitude Mat. 4. 3. Reg. 22. Apo. 17. Iudic. 4. 2. Reg. 20. Luc. 22. 1. Reg. 25. Psal. 4. 3 How pleasures of the world are thorns Hom. 15. in evang * * But the words of Christ declare that it is another thing that he did specially respect therin that is the choking or destroieng of such corn as was sown among them and the utter extinguishing or great hindering of al good motions of the spirit of God in al those that are worldly minded Ecc. 1.2.3.4 Phil. 4. A comparison Exod. 8. Iere. 16. Esai 59. The explication of the words of Esay Luc. 12. Deu. 32. 4 The fourth part how the world is miserie Brevitie Eccl. 41. 1. Mac. 1. Luc. 12. A comparison Discontentment * * It selfe is not so called but it is said that those that marrie should have tribulation in the flesh which is in respect of the cares molestations that coÌ„moÌ„ly hang or specially at that time as the case stood with them on the married estate 1. Cor. 7.28 Miseries of bodie * * Wheras chance and fortune are used of us in much like sense though the sense meaning of those that are instructed in the faith be good referring al to the providence of God yet seeing that Saint Augustine long since was sorie that he had so much used such words as appeereth Retr 1. c. 1. it were good that we also should more warily decline such words as others have so prophanely abused And better were it a great deal to say that such things are of the hand of God Of mind Of goods Of neighbors Hester 5. The miserie of blindnes Exo. 10. Mat. 13. Luc. 16. 1. Cor. 2. Acts. 9. Temptations and dangers Athan. in vita Anthonij Psal. 10. Facilitie of sinning Prou. 14. Iob. 15. The sinful state of the world 5 The fift part of this chapter Rom. 8. Gal. 5. The effects of the spirit of Christ. Gal. 5. The effects of the spirit of this world Two rules of S. Paul to know our spirit Gal. 5. Christ and the world enimies Iohn 14. Ioh. 15.17 Iohn 17. Iohn 2. Iaco. 4. 1. Cor. 11. Iohn 12. Iohn 17. Iohn 1. Luc. 23. Rom. 12. Titus 2. 1. Ioh. 2. Why Christ hateth the world 1. Ioh. 5. Apoc. 3. A description of the world Au. ep 39. Hom. 22. ad pop Antioc The last part of this chapter how we may avoid the evil of the world Prou. 1. Hom. 1. in Iosue * * Though the matter be good yet hardly doth it stand by these places Psa. 120. Psa. 123. Phil. 3. Mat. 4. Psal. 72. Gal. 6. Phil. 3. 2. Cor. 10. How to use worldly wealth to our advantage Luc. 16. Luc. 16. Gal. 4. 2. Cor. 9. Mat. 25. Iaco. 5. Dam. in hist. Barlaam Josaphaâ—â— 1 A parable The application of this parable Luc. 12. Apo. 14. Mat. 25. Mat. 25. Psa. 128. Building on Gods bak * * Though it stand not on the natural sense of this place yet is it that in effect which is rebuked Rom. 6.1 How God is both merciful and iust Psal. 24. Ser. 52. parvorum The two feet of God Serm. 6. in Cant. Psa. 101. Psa. 148. Tract 33. in Iohn Psal. 24. Psa. 102. Two dangers of sinners Eccl. 5. Eze. 18. Rom. 2. Tract 33. in Ioan. Gods goodnes nothing helpeth those that persevere in sin Psal. 72. Psal. 33. Ier. 6.8 Eze. 13. 1. Ioh. 3. The severitie of Gods punishment upon sin The Angels Esai 14. 2. Pet. 2. Ep. Iud. Adam and Eve Moises and Aaron Num. 20.27.33 Deut. 10.32.34 Saul 1. Reg. 10. and 11. Acts. 13. 1. Reg. 13.15.16 1. Reg. 16. 1. Reg. 31. 1. Par. 10. 2. Sam. 21.6 David 2. Reg. 12. Psal. 34.68.108.101 Psal. 29. * * In this the sense is rather to be regarded than the words to be streitly urged Gen. 4. Gen. 8. Gen. 19. Num. 16. Leui. 10. * * Wherin also we may see what those may look for that worship God with mens traditions or otherwise than he hath appointed Acts. 5. The heavines of Gods hand Gen. 42.43 Iosu. 18. Iudi.
19.20 Deu. 10. Heb. 10. Psa. 118. Heb. 12. Mat. 26. Great and strange effects of Gods iustice Mat. 7.20 Whether Gods mercie be greater than his iustice * * Spread foorth over al his works as both Augustine and Ierom do read In omnia or In Vniversa opera eius Tom. 8.11 on behalfe of his children For even they also have their works so unperfect and their faith so weak that but in the depth of the mercie of God they cannot in any wise be saved no not the best that ever was But concerning that he doth so resolutely set down so many thousands to be damned for one that is saved it is somwhat more than the word it selfe doth warrant or the proportion of the mercie of God compared with his justice may seem to bear And seeing that this whole treatise in these four next sections viz. 16.19 is grounded upon a wrong text therfore it is to be read so much more warily and no further to be accounted of than it may be found to have the word of God to warrant the same Psa. 144. Iac. 2. Mat. 7.20 Ose. 13. 2 1. Tim. 2. Eze. 18. Iere. 3. Mat. 25. Iosephus de bello Iud. lib. 1. cap. 1.2 3. * * As afore not as though the meaning shuld be that God were more merciful than just holie wise or such like Psal. 83. Psal. 84. Psa. 100. Psal. 33. Eccl. 1. Prou. 1. Eccl. 7. Eccl. 15. Eccl. 7. Eccl. 2. The praise of tru fear Pro. 14. Ecc. 1.2.15 Psa. 112. Eccl. 1. Psal. 24. Psal. 30. Psal. 60. Psal. 62. Psa. 144. Iob. 9. Psal. 9. Mat. 25. Luc. 16. Mat. 7. Luc. 13. Mat. 12. Mat. 27. Mar. 15. Iohn 2. D. Thomas secunda secundae q. 14. art 1.2.3 * * Those six that Thomas there nameth are desperation presumption impoenitencie wilfulnes impugning of the known truth and envieng of the grace that is given to another Al which may indeed be easily found to go against the spirit of God But that they may be accounted to be that same that in the scripture is called sin against the holie Ghost and excluded al hope of pardon that is not so easily to be granted for that the properties therunto assigned do not seem to be so fully found in any of these A wilful resisting of the known truth not of infirmitie for fear or favor but of meere malice for hatred of it even only for that it is the truth may seem to come much neerer unto it than al things considered those others do Neither doth he set them down absolutely to be six several sorts of that sin but in that sense that himselfe doth there limit Why presumption is a sin against the holie Ghost Rom. 13. Pro. 28. 2. Ioh. 4. 2. Tim. 4. 1. Pet. 1. Phil. 2. An obiection answered 2. Tim. 1. Servile fear and the fear of children Rom. 8. How the fear of gentils was servile 1. Pet. 3. * * Divers so take it but it seemeth rather in my judgement that such as expound it as if the apostle forbad them to fear those adversaries of theirs do come somwhat neerer to the sense of the place Two things to be noted * * Truth it is that such fear serveth wel to such a purpose But the fear that in this place is spoken of seemeth by the circumstances of the place not to be the servile but the childlike fear As also another sense of this place may stand likewise viz. that to fear the Lord is the first or principal part or greatest point of al wisdome For that whosoever feareth the Lord shal so govern his wais and have al things fal out so wel that al the wisdome in al the world besides can never be able so to forecast for al events For the Lord himselfe taketh upon him the protection government of those that fear him on whose behalfe he maketh al things to fal out to the best Prou. 1. Ion. 13. Mat. 3. 1. Ioh. 4. Tract 9. in epist. 1. Ioh. * * Then is it not that servile fear Luc. 12. Mat. 10. 2. Cor. 5. 1. Cor. 9. The conclusion 1. Cor. 4. Eph. 5. Pro. 18. The cause why the divel persuadeth us to delay Rom. 2. Lib. 8. conf cap. 7.18 The causes which make our conversion harder by delay The same shewed by comparisons An example Tract 49. in Ich. Iohn 11. Mat. 9. Luc. 7. Eccl. 10. Iob. 20. Exo. 32. A comparison Ingratitude Mala. 1. Deu. 25. Levi. 3. Num. 18. Malac. 1. Eccl. 5. Serm. 1.10 de sanctis The losse of time A comparison Pro. 20. The obligation and charge by delay Rom. 8. Rom. 2. Lib. de la. li. 5. ep 5. ad cor Ep. 27. ad Eustoch Ad virg lap sam c. 8. Psal. 26. The example of the theefe saved on the crosse discussed * * The blessed virgin likewise other godly women were by but said nothing that we read of in his defence a plaine breach of the first fift sixt and ninth commandements Serm. 120. de tem * * The blessed virgin S. Iohn others as afore and this staggering must needs be sin The general way 2. Cor. 11. Psal. 61. Eccl. 21. Gal. 6. That the conversion made at the first day is very dowtful The first reason The second reason 2. Reg. 16. 2. Reg. 19. 3. Reg. 2. The third reason Iere. 13. The fourth reason 2. Cor. 11. Prou. 1. Iere. 35. Pro. 11. Psa. 149. Prou. 1. Psal. 58. Prou. 1. Apoc. 2. Herod Marc. 6. Herod the second Luc. 11. Luc. 23. Mat. 14. Pilate Mat. 27. Agrippa Acts. 26. Pharao Exod. 9. Acts. 24. Felix The dangers of passing the day of our vocation Exo. 33. Rom. 9. Luc. 21. Eccl. 5. Heb. 3. Acts. 7. Apoc. 3. Psal. 94. Godlines the only gain of time Deu. 32. Exod. 9. Mat. 25. Heb. 12. 2. Mac. 9. Esai 55. 2. Cor. 6. Tract 33. in Ioh. Of sloth 1. Cor. 6. Pro. 21. Mat. 25. Mat. 21. Four effects of sloth 1 Drowsines Pro. 19. Ephes. 5. Mar. 13. Mat. 24. and 25. Pro. 6. 24 2 Fear Pro. 19. Psal. 52. Pro. 22. Pusillanimitie Eccl. 22. * * The vulgar translation so readeth but now it is found that therin it misseth the sense of the text in both these places heer alledged And yet the matter it selfe is tru though it have no warrant hence Lazines Pro. 26. Pro. 13. Pro. 19. Means to remoove sloth 1. The. 3. Mat. 20. Iohn 15. Luc. 13. Mat. 11. Eccl. 9. Pro. 10. Pro. 20. Cap. 3. Pro. 6. Colos. 1. Rom. 12. Gal. 6. Of negligence Epicurism or life of Epicures Phil. 3. Rom. 16. Titus 1. Eccl. 2. Of careles Atheists Deu. 22. Apoc. 3. Luc. 6. Mat. 12. Mat. 6. The cheefe cause of Atheism at this day 1. Ioh. 2. A comparison The way to cure careles men Deut. 6. Mat. 22. Luc. 10. Deut. 6. and 11. Iohn 1. Luc. 10. 1. Ioh. 2. Luc. 18. Ephes. 5. Luc. 21. Mat. 24. Mich. 6. Rom. 11. Rom. 12.