affections Yea we may see many more things to pricke vs on to sollicite the Lord of all importunely The dearth which doth now raigne in many parts of this land which doth little good to the rich but maketh the poore to pinch for hunger and the children to cry in the streetes not knowing where to haue bread And if the Lord do not stay his hand the dearth may be yet much more In like sort the safety of Gods Church which in England and in Ireland yea in many parts else of Christendome as Scotland Fraunce and Flaunders much dependeth vnder God on the good estate of her Maiesty the hand maide of Christ Iesus whose life we see to be aimed at by the cursed brood of Sathan vnnaturall home-bred English And were it not that his eye who doth neuer slumber nor sleep did watch ouer her for our good it had oft bin beyond mans reason that their plots shold haue bene preuented The spoiles of the Turke in Hungary and his threats to the rest of Christendome should wring from vs this consideration that he is to be called on who can put a hooke in his nostrels and turne him another way as he once did by Sennacherib There should be in vs a sympathy and fellow-feeling with our brethren These things in generall to all and in particular to each should remember vs to breake forthinto inuocation with the Prophet It is that which God loueth in vs it is that which Christ with his precept and example hath taught vnto vs. He prayed oft to his father and continued whole nights in praier and as Saint Cyprian doth well gather if he did so who sinned not what should we do who sinne so deepely He prayed to the Lord his God 8 The next circumstance in this preface is to whom the Prophet prayed He prayed to the Lord his God where this note may specially be giuen that this offending soule doth yet dare by his faith to make so neare application as that the Lord is his God Which point because it is plainer in the sixth verse of this Chapter where he saith ô Lord my God I will deferre it thither My generall obseruation here is that he prayed to the Lord. And as his case required this because none else could helpe him and he was to be sought vnto by submission and humility who before was by sinne offended so doth the Lord appropriate this honor to himselfe and will not haue any other to be serued with this sacrifice He is a ielous God and will not impart his honor to any of his creatures But he accounteth that the greatest argument of duty which is in man to be sought to and solicited by the sighes of the heart and by the grones of the mind Call on me in the day of trouble saith himself by Dauid and I wil heare thee and thou shalt praise me And Christ citeth this as a matter appertaining vnto all Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serue But in this inuocation is the Maiesty of his seruice And if we did want other to be called on or prayed to it should argue that our God either could not or would not heare vs. The one denieth his Omnipotency the other doth clip his mercy But we acknowledge both The Lord is neare vnto all that call vpon him yea all such as call on him in truth Then we neede no intercessours but him who is the mediator of the New Testament Iesus Christ. We embrace the faith of the martyrs we loue the loue of the Apostles so farre foorth as we may we imitate the obedience of the good Angels in heauen and we thanke God for proposing such holy examples to vs but we dare not call on these least we should be accounted guilty of robbery to their maister Whose meaning if it had bene to bestow any of his honour or a portion of his glory on any of his creatures he surely would haue let vs knowne it But through all the Old and New Testament is no commandement no example no reason why we should do it 9 Nay we haue much to the contrary As first that it may be sayd that God alone is there called on which in the whole Bible is sounded out vnto vs. And secōdly we may know that howsoeuer in general the Saints which raigne triūphing in heauē do pray for the cōsūmatiō of Gods grace on their brethrē who are militant vpon earth which may not amisse be gathered frō the soules vnder the altar from the 8. of the Reuelation the reformed Churches in no sort do deny this yet we are not to beleeue that in particular maner they know the deeds of one man or heare the vowes of another but specially vnderstand the secret thoughts of the hart which in praiers do most preuaile We find otherwise in Iob that a dead man doth not know if his sons shall be honorable neither doth he vnderstand concerning them vvhether they shall be of low degree The speech is of all dead generally He knoweth not of his owne children much lesse of other men whether that they be in honour which is an outward occurrent and sensible to the eye much lesse what they thinke in heart which is proper to the Almighty That place in Iob made Aquinas to acknowledge that the soules of those which are departed hence do ex se of themselues know nothing done vpon earth but sayth he those which are in blessednesse do take knowledge of our deedes by reuelation from God But neither he nor any of the Papists do prooue out of the Scripture that God reuealeth such things to the blessed which are in heauen That remaineth to be confirmed We may ioyne to that of Iob the confession of the people Doubtlesse thou art our father though Abraham be ignorant of vs and Israel know vs not yet thou ô Lord art our father and our redeemer and thy name is for euer Then the Patriarkes did not know and wherefore should they now For that then they were in Limbus is an vntrue faithlesse fable without any ground of Gods word Yet it is maruell to see how stifly the Church of Rome doth maintaine in Saints and the Virgin Mary the hearing of those which pray and their intercession for vs. He that shall looke into their reformed Breuiary for in the old many things were worse shall see that they are much called on nay that God himselfe is requested that by the merits of them and by their mediation we may attaine saluation There the Virgin Mary is called porta coeli peruia the gate to passe through to heauen and she is prayed vnto that she herselfe will take pity vpon offending men And as they say if these things be not in the Scripture yet our duty and the complements which we owe vnto Christ himselfe do require it at our hands and all Antiquity
Sidius and wisheth him that by Art Magike he would procure down some raine or at least suffer it so to be professing that him selfe had oftentimes made triall thereof and had neuer failed in his attempt This was done and immediatly such store of rayne did folow thereupon as both releeued his men and frighted his enemies as if heauen it selfe had now conspired against them I might adde more examples of graue and learned writers who thinke that such meteors come oftentimes by such meanes 7 Iouianus Pontanus in the fifth booke of the Actes of his time hath a Narration to this purpose but a iudgement to the contrarie In that mightie quarrell betweene the kings of Arragon and the house of Aniou in Fraunce for the kingdome of Naples Ferdinandus king of Arragon did besiege Mont-dragon a towne and castle in old Campania where because the towne stood high on the top of a rocke and the season was exceeding dry he hoped that ere lōg for want of water he should winne it to his pleasure Now the inhabitants thereof being almost dead for thirst being aduised therunto by certaine Priests most wicked and vngodly persons did trie this conclusion then the which there haue bene few more irreligious or impious Stealing downe in the darke of the night through the watch which was set by the enemie they crept along the rockes euen to the sea side and all the way drew with them a Crucifixe the resemblance of Christ crucified and hanging on the crosse which first they cursed and banned with manie inchanted speeches but afterward with most execrable wordes they threw it into the sea vsing imprecations against the heauen and earth and water so to wring from them a tempest In the meane time the Priests being as wicked men as liued to satisfie the souldiers who set them on worke brought an Asse to the church doore and sung a Dirge to him as to a man now dying then they put into his mouth their Sacrament of the Altar so with funerall hymnes did burie the Asse aliue before the church doore This vngodly solemnitie was scant ended but the aire was full of clouds the sea was stirred with the wind the heauen did roare with thunder the earth did flash with lightening trees were plucked vp by the rootes the stones did rent in peeces there fell such abundance of raine that from the top of the rock whole streames did runne of water So the king missed of his purpose The Author which writeth this confessing the whole matter and describing it as I haue done doth thinke that their Magicke did not cause the raine but that it came naturally so much wet falling after so long a drowth His reason is that for such villany and blasphemie as was then vsed toward himselfe God would not send a benefite vnto men to helpe them at their need but would rather suffer them to fall into destruction 8 But that reason is not sufficient for God oftentimes doth suffer the reprobate to haue worldly things at their pleasure to harden them the more and that the delusions of Satan may be so much the stronger in them to their finall confusion It is therefore most probable that their wickednesse did so extraordinarily stirre vp that raine For when Satan hath libertie frō the Lord to do things either to blind the reprobate or to chastise the elect being fallen into sinne or to trie the faith of the best he imparteth his power with his ministers speciall instruments of his glorie these necromancers coniurers and other such like The sorcerers who shewed such sights to Pharao in Egypt do proue both these grounds to be true first that Satan oftentimes yeeldeth his power vnto his seruaunts and secondlie that God suffereth the wicked to haue their desire in many things to their greater ouerthrow To turne a rod into a serpent and riuers into bloud and to make the fish to dye for that may be collected because the text saith that the enchaunters did likewise so to bring vp frogs on the sodaine were these in truth or in shew do shew the great power of Satan which he to delude the wicked cōmunicateth with his folowers He who had leaue for the one may somtimes haue leaue for the other In the 2. to the Ephesiās Satan by the Apostle is called the prince that now ruleth in the ayre which name although it may note to vs some other thing besides yet it doth also intēd as all that write of this argumēt do vse to expound that place that in winds raine and thunder he beareth sway in the aire whē God will giue him licence But for the point of the question this is put out of controuersie by that which we reade in Iob where it is set downe that by the hand of Satan whether by witch or no I stand not to dispute for the text doth not reueale it Gods leaue going before a fire fell out of the ayre and burnt vp Iobs sheepe and seruaunts and such a wind came from the wildernesse as at one time striking all the corners of the house destroyed Iobs sonnes and daughters He hath not read the chapter or litle hath considered it who maketh doubt whether Satan there did such things or no. Gregorie vpon that place positiuelie layeth it down that the deuill hauing once receiued power of the Lord that is leaue being giuen him to the bringing about of his naughtinesse is able to stirre the elements by which word he meaneth the mouing of the fire or disturbing of the ayre And elsewhere interpreting that Behemoth spokē of in Iob to be Satan he hath these words This Behemoth who is the beginning of the waies of God whē he had leaue to tempt that holie man meaning Iob stirred vp people against him tooke away his heards of cattell fetched downe fire from heauen troubling the ayre stirred vp vvinds shaking the house ouerthrew it And that is the iudgemēt of Saint Austen writing on these wordes of the seuentie and eight Psalme He cast vpon them the fiercenesse of his anger indignation and vvrath and vexation by the sending out of euill Angels He there saith that Satan was he who sent downe the fire on Iobs cattell and more generallie telleth vs that both good and euill Angels by the permission of God may vse these visible elements to their purposes Yea Brentius himselfe in the Sermon which I named before yeeldeth such things to be done by the Diuell saying that God is the authour and gouernour of the haile and yet that for our sins it is permitted to the diuell that he may raise haile What he did in former times and especiallie to Iob he can do now also if he haue commission for it 9 When Columbus and the Christians with him arriued first in the Westerne Indies and began to plant themselues in Hispaniola and the Ilands as the authours do agree Peter Martyr Benzo and other there
be reuersed Then it is not our best safetie at euery time and in euerie case to be remooued hence but vpon some occasion we may ioye with Ionas that longer time is affoorded vs to bethinke our selues This is his exceeding comfort that though the pangs of death were vpon him yet that God once againe brought his life from corruption O Lord my God 20 The onely thing now remaining is the confident appellation which he vseth to the Lord Iehouah ô my God This sheweth a faith beyond faith and a hope beyond hope when he knew that the Lord was angrie and extremely wrathfull at him yet to cling in so to his mercie as to appropriate to himselfe a portion in his maker For what greater insinuation of confidence can there be then by particular application to apprehend Gods mercie to lay hold vpon him as on a father and that not as we say with a reference to the Communion of Saints Our father vvhich art in heauen but my father and my God This hath bene the perfect trust of the faithfull in all ages which hath encouraged them to approch with boldnesse vnto the throne of grace My God my God saith Dauid And thou that art the God of my saluation And Iob I am sure that my Redeemer liueth My spirit saith the Virgin Marie doth reioyce in God my Sauiour My Lord and my God saith Thomas Paule saith of himselfe I liue by faith in the Sonne of God who hath loued me and giuen himselfe for me This true faith doth close with God and incorporateth it selfe into the bodie of the Redeemer 21 And this is it which bringeth comfort vnto the wounded soule and afflicted conscience not that Christ is a Sauiour for what am I the better for that but a Sauiour vnto me That I am one of the adoption reconciled and brought into fauour sealed vp against that day when the quicke and dead shall be iudged my portion is with the Highest mine inheritance with the Saints How could flesh and bloud euer beare the heate of strong temptation without this firme perswasion What is it to my belly that bread is prepared for other vnlesse I be assured that my part is therein What is it to my soule that Christ hath dyed for other vnlesse I know that my sins are washed away in his bloud It may be good for Moses it may be good for Paule or Peter or Iames or Stephen but what is it vnto me It is Meus then and Tuus as Luther did well teach it is my God and thy Sauiour which doth satisfie thirstie consciences There is the ioy of the Spirit when men come to that measure Then it is a blessed doctrine which instilleth that faith into vs and in that if in any thing doth appeare the fruit of the Gospell which is preached in our dayes that people sicke and dying being taught before in their health can giue most diuine words and right admirable speeches in this behalfe whereof I speake sayings full of holy trust and assurance which as it is a thing most comfortable to themselues beyond all gold and treasure which are but as dung and drosse to a man yeelding vp the ghost so it bringeth good meditations vnto the standers by in causing them to acknowledge very euident an plaine arguments of election in the other whom they see to be so possessed with ioy in the holy Ghost and so rapt vp as if they had alreadie one foote within the heauen 22 But it is otherwise with the ignorant they lye groueling vpon the ground and cannot mount vp with the Eagle So is it in that doctrine which the Church of Rome doth maintaine when their people are taught that they must beleeue in generall that some shall go to heauen that some belong to God but to say or thinke that themselues shall be certainely of that number or constantly to hope it that is boldnesse ouermuch that is ouer-weening presumption They are to wish and pray that it may be so with them but yet it appertaineth to thē euermore to doubt because they know not the worthinesse of their merits a most vncomfortable opinion which cannot chuse but distract the heart of a dying man that he must not dare to beleeue with confidence that he shall go to God that Iesus is his Sauiour the pardoner of his faults No maruell if the life and death of such who hearken vnto them be full of sighs and sobs grones and feares and doubts since quietnesse and setled rest cannot be in their hearts They haue a way to walke but what is the end they know not They are sure of their departure but whither they cannot tell A lamentable taking and wherein of necessitie must be small ioy How contrarie hereunto doth Saint Paule speak being iustified by faith we haue peace toward God through our Lord Iesus Christ. How contrarie to this doth Saint Iohn speake in the name of the faithfull we know that we are of God How doth deiected Ionas yet keepe him fast to this tackling when he crieth ô Lord my God 23 And this is the surest anker whereunto a Christian man may possibly know how to trust This is it which in the blastes of aduersity will keepe him fast at the roote which in the waues of temptation will hold him fast by the chinne which in the greatest discomforts and very pangs of death will bring him to life againe To ground himselfe vpon this as on a rocke assured that his God is his father that Iesus is his redeemer that the holy Ghost doth sanctifie him that although he sinne oft-times yet euermore he is forgiuen and albeit he do transgresse dayly yet it is still forgotten that whether he liue or dye yet euer he is the Lords Good father leade vs so by thy most blessed Spirite that we neuer do fall from this But although sinne hange vpon vs as it did vpon the Prophet yet raise vs so by thy loue that laying hold on thy promises and the sweetenesse of thy fauour we may reape eternall life to the which ô blessed Lord bring vs for thine owne Sonne Christ his sake to whom with thee and thy Spirit be laude for euermore THE XIII LECTVRE The chiefe poynts 3. Gods election is sure 4. One argument thereof is to remember the Lord after affliction 6. That cogitation is very comfortable 7. The good and bad do differently remember God 8. The wicked do it with a murmuring 10. Especially in death God is to be thought on 11. Therefore it is good to thinke on him in health 12. Else we shall not be willing to dye 14. Churches are to be vsed reuerently 15. God heareth the prayers of his seruants 17. By vanity is signified euill 19 as Adams fall may therein be comprehended 20. or idolatry 21. or curious crafts and studies 22. or adultery and carnall sinne 23. and ill gotten goods 24. and ambition Ionah 2.7.8 When my soule fainted within
grosse and filthie that if it were not that custome from old time had so preuailed and diuerse of our countrimen did yet so hold it in their blindnesse and it is our dutie to seeke to win them I should thinke my self very idle and should partly be ashamed to speake of it in this place The fasts in Scripture are pure abstinence men eate nothing and drinke no water but here they may eate and drinke and be full and yet fast too This is one of the grossest Paradoxes which the blind beast of Rome that deceitfull whore of Babylon doth broach vnto her followers 13 And yet poore soules they see it not nor the fondnesse of that doctrine that such and such dayes should be fasted not for lawes sake and pollicie but for religion and deuotion I do maruell what sound warrant they can haue for that conclusion for no such thing can be deriued from any place of Scripture Heare S. Austens iudgement vpon that matter If you aske my opinion in this point I reuoluing it in my mind do find that in the writings of the Euangelists and the Apostles and in all that instrument which is called the new Testament fasting is commanded But what dayes we should not fast and what dayes we should I see it not defined by the precept of the Lord or the Apostles And in the auncient Church they had another custome then is kept at this day Origene vpon Leuiticus saith that they had the fourth sixth day of the weeke wherein they solemnely fasted Now to tye this or the alteration from it to be a case of religion is a seruitude of all seruitudes and a Babylonian bondage The time of Lent I confesse is a very auncient custome but so farre from being found a point of faith and saluation that the most approoued auncient histories tell how diuersely it was kept one day or two dayes or seuen dayes and by some for twenty dayes and by some other for fortie by some coniunctim by some diuisim some abstaining from this foode some from that but that the Apostles left it for so Socrates doth speake to the liberty of the Church nay to euery mans mind and will I would that our people vndestood this euery where that they might take things aâ—ight ciuill orders to ciuill orders and customes which were indifferent for nothing else but indifferent and not to put heauen and hell vpon superstitious obseruances True fasting is not of custome but vpon an especiall purpose by the good motion of the mind 14 Yet these are not the onely errours in the fasts of the Church of Rome but this may be added to them that commonly they respect the externall worke alone But the Apostle telleth vs that if there be nothing else bodily exercise profiteth little There must be a directing faith and an vnderstanding knowledge which must make all acceptable The end why it is done doth much make or marre the matter if it be to humble the body to worke in it more obedience so to practise spirituall things if it be to testifie true deuotion if to seeke to abate the Lords fury this sheweth that all is right but these other being for the most part ignorant do thinke the thing barely done to be a deseruing worke a meritorious action And this thought being once receiued multiplieth euill on it selfe so far that many in their superstition do not feare to spill their body that they may merite the more and so macerate the flesh that they make themselues vnfit to performe such Christian duties as otherwise they might do They procure diseases to themselues and impotency by reason of sicknesse whereby they make their body which is the house of their minde to sinke downe on their soule and to lade it ouer heauily Then that mind which with alacrity might many wayes haue serued God with impatiency peraduenture but assuredly with much griefe doth grone vnder the body And so in steed of increasing they diminish true deuotion Hierome as it is easie to be gathered alludeth to this when he sayth that a little meate and a belly vvhich is euer hungry is preferred before fasting three dayes And againe Do thou impose on thy selfe such a measure of fasting as thou art able to beare Let thy fasts be pure and chast and single and moderate and not superstitious And he addeth fully to that point which I mentioned a little before What doth it profit not to eate oyle and to seeke out such troubles and difficulties of meates carrets pepper nuts and dates fine cakes and honey and baked things So Fulgentius giueth an item for fasting moderatly A temperature is in such sort to be added to our fasts that neither saturity do stirre vp and prouoke our body nor immoderate abstinence vveaken it But some other of the auncient haue not only dehorted it but haue perstringed it with right seuere censures and written against it As namely Athanasius If thy enemy the Diuell do suggest into thy mind great exercises of deuotion that thou mayest make thy body vnprofitable and vveake do thou on the other side see that thy fasting haue a measure He reputeth it for no better then a temptation of the Diuell if it be excessiue Saint Basile speaketh to this matter most soundly and with much reason I do not so beate downe my body that I vveare it out vvith immoderate vvounds and make it vnprofitable for seruice but that is my onely cause of chastising my body that I may subdue it to seruice and make it rightly obedient to his maister But he vvho bringeth his seruant so vnder by hunger that not onely he is vnprofitable for the ministery of his maister but is not sufficient for himselfe vvhat else doth he then make himselfe a seruant to his seruant For it must needs be that the body being vnable to serue and by infirmitie vvaxing faint his maister must novv serue him vvhile he must stand amased about the curing of the infirmity of the other So farre Basile who esteemeth the mind as the maister and the body as the seruant Vnto these I will onely adde the iudgement of Saint Bernard who vttereth a most godly and sober doctrine Watchings fastings and such like do not hinder but helpe if they be done vvith reason and discretion Which things if by fault of indiscretion they be so done that either by the spirit fayling or the body faynting spirituall things be hindered he vvho so doth hath taken away from his body the effect of a good vvorke from the spirite a good affection from his neighbour a good example from God his honour he is a sacrilegious person and guilty of all these things toward God Not that according to the meaning of the Apostle this seemeth vnfit for a man and be not decent and iust that the head should sometimes ake in the seruice of God vvhich hath aked oft before in the