darke in the sight of spirituall things I may stand betwixt both and clearely behold the different case of the soule before and after the fall of Adam in order to spirituall contemplation and practise if I looke upon the various condition of a man in health and sicknesse in order to the actions and operations of life The sicke man is weake and ill at ease his principall parts are in paine his head his heart He cannot use his minde seriously but his head akes he cannot looke stedfastly nor at all upon a shining object discourse is tedious to him if it be of high things he cannot endure it he cannot taste aright bitter is sweet and sweet bitter to his infected palate hee hath little stomach to his meate hee loathes it and when hee eates it will not stay with him or if it does he cannot digest it perfectly hee cannot stand without leaning hee cannot goe without a staffe he cannot runne without one And why all this Because he is sicke because he is a very weake man O Adam what hast thou done but in vaine Had the best of us beene Adam he would have eaten had there beene a Serpent and a woman perhaps had there beene a Serpent and no woman perhaps had there been a woman and no Serpent perhaps had there beene neitheir woman nor Serpent For God being absent with his efficacie he might have beene both woman and Serpent to himselfe But let him passe It is beleeved that God hath forgiven Adam and his wife who first brought sinne into the world and we may have great hope he will be a tender-hearted father also towards us that never saw the blessed houres of innocencie Nothing can harden his tendernesse but our sinnes And there are onely two deformities in our sinnes conceivable to be most odious and urging to revenge the greatnesse of them the multitude of them O! but the Prophet David a knowing man prescribes a speciall remedy Have mercie upon me O God according to thy loving kindnesse Psal 51. 1. The Latine translation gives it Secundum magnam misericordiam tuam according to thy great mercie great sinnes great mercie a present remedy What comes after according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions a multitude of grievous sinnes a multitude of tender mercies an approved remedy There wants only a lively faith and a vertuous life like two hands to make the application to bring them together and 't is done Consideration 2. THe light of the Understanding which properly belongs to the Understanding is onely naturall and that lesse cleare then it was And a naturall light leads onely to the knowledge of naturall things or of things as naturall for nothing can worke beyond the vertue received from its causes But man is ordained for God as for an end which goes beyond the graspe and comprehension of nature according to Saint Pauls Divinity borrowed from the Prophet Esay Eye hath not seene nor eare heard neither have entred into the heart 1 Cor. 2. 9 of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him And the end ought alwayes to be foreseene and foreknowne by them who are engaged to direct and turne the face of all their intentions and actions to the end Therefore another light is necessary a light above the knowledge and reach of nature of which the Understanding by nature is altogether destitute Here is a wondrous defect Who can shew mee such another We naturally see there is a God Farther we naturally see that all things were made for us and we for God howsoever the Stoicks thought one man was borne for another And yet by the proper strength of nature we cannot goe to him whom we see to be whom we see to be our end and for whom we see we were made nor yet towards him Saint Austin one of the most searching spirits that ever was both a spirit and a body solves this hard knot of difficulty in a discourse of another linage Consultissime homini praecipitur ut rectis passibus ambulet ut cum se non S. Aug. de perfect Iust cap. 7. posse perspexerit medicinam requirat c. The lame unable man is fitly commanded to go that perceiving his defect of being unable he may seeke a cure and be able But the cure what is it The grace of God and as a learned Councell speaketh gratia semper Conc. Senonense est in promptu the grace of God is alwayes in a readinesse I am not commanded to travell for it wheresoever I am it is there also I may lift up my hands and take it if I open my heart wide it will drop into it And as it was the nature of Originall sinne to weaken the naturall and to darken the supernaturall light of the soule so likewise it is the nature of actuall sinne to wound nature and to kill grace grace only being directly opposite to sinne And thence it comes that still as we sin still we are more darkened and that still the more we sinne still the more we are deceived in our judgements and still erre the more in the sight and knowledge of truth For why doe wicked men ingulft in wickednesse apprehend most horrible sinnes as triviall matters because their Candle is out the light by which they saw is darkened with sinne Why doe weake Christians change their opinions from good to evill from evill to more evill Why doe they grow more strong and obstinate in evill opinions Whither soever I goe I must come hither for an answer Because some private or publike sins have removed their Candle-sticke out of his place and they are in darknesse God blesse my heart from the darknesse of Egypt It is a pretty observation that although the Israelites and the Egyptians were mingled together yet the plague of darknesse which was a continuall night wheresoever it found an Egyptian was neither plague nor darknesse to an Israelite no verily though hand in hand with an Egyptian O Lord I learne here that I am blinde and darke and I know that I am weake and therefore without thee my contemplation will be darke and weake as I am Consideration 3. VVE see God in this world not in himselfe but per speculum creaturarum through the glasse of creatures It is worthily said by Saint Paul The invisible Rom. 1. 20. things of him from the creation of the world are clearely seene being understood by the things that are made Clearely seene to be but not clearely seene what they are in themselves For if so the things which are seene should be as exactly perfect as the things which are not seene as representing them perfectly It is a direct passage by corporall things up to spirituall For God applyes himselfe accordingly to the nature of every thing in which he workes The Angels are Spirits and therefore their directions even before their union with God were altogether spirituall But wee being
a troubled Sea divert the mischievous aime of witch-craft stay the rude course of a devouring fire fright away evill thoughts and make the Devill runne and doe many such feates After your death he will declare you to be a Saint and in Heaven and give way that Altars and Churches may be consecrated to your honour and called by your name and that the world may pray to you as freely and as fervently as to God and that your withered bones may be worshipped but not till the age be past in which he lived and the people gone who were eye witnesses of your life O the witchcraft of the Devill If we thinke that we came into the world to throw away our soules wee are too blame He that seeth a great streame of water presse forward in a calme Sea may be assured that a Whale passeth Here is the secret the streame of all things goeth with the Popes greatnesse And yet the Jesuits keepe him in awe and in a kinde of strict obedience to them Indeed they keep other great persons in subjection and make them Benefactours to them that their greatnesse may be long greatnesse The Pope dare not compose the quarrell betwixt the Jesuits and the Dominicans because he cannot except he side with one of them and abandon the other And Martin Luther cannot bee forgot And the Monke I so much speake of threatned his Holinesse home in his Epistle Dedicatory before the booke which old Leander transformed into good Latin for him The booke was made in the heat of those deadly quarrels betwixt the secular Priests and the Regulars wherein they accused one another of heresie and of strange things CHAP. IV. TO dry up this foule water in the fountaine The Pope is not head of the Church because this high and superlative power would then have most shone out and appeared in the Christian Hemisphere immediately after Christ had given the commandement upon which they build this power this Babel-Tower Nor could the rage of outward persecution hinder the perfect execution of spirituall power And what need could there be of the secular arme to joyne in the binding of the ready conscience with a law especially when Christians were so forward and prompt in the schoole of vertue as then they were Or at least persecution could not hinder the full acknowledgement of such a power And although we meete in the books of the Councels with so many faire and flattering Epistles of the Popes to the Grecian Emperours much degenerating from Popish gravity Because he hath in his keeping the Keyes of Heaven Hell Purgatory yet still the Grecians did bandy against them and desired to turne this over-swelling power into its owne and proper channell as they and other ancient Churches doe at this day Doth not here a man a meere vaine weake man exalt himselfe above God and every thing that is called God He is adorned with three Crownes for foure reasons Because there are three persons in one God he being the supposed Deputy hath three Crownes united in one Miter Because hee is Christs Vicar who was a King a Priest and a Prophet Because he is Prince of Rome Naples and Sicilie Let me give the fifth reason Because he was dirt he is dirt and he shall be dirt Constantine in the Councell of Nice expounded that place of the Psalme I have said yee are all Gods and sonnes of the Highest of Bishops He therefore exalting himselfe above all Bishops and to a heighth above all his Brethren by the head and shoulders lifts himselfe above all that is called God Let my soule goe with Saint Austin Neque S. Aug. l. 2. cont Donatistas c. 2. enim quisquam nostrum Episcopum se esse Episcoporum constituit aut tyrannico terrore ad obsequendi necessitatem collegas suas adigit Not one of us doth make himselfe the Bishop of Bishops or with tyrannicall affrightment force his fellow Bishops to the necessity of obedience And Saint Austin hath no reflection here upon Constantine who called himselfe in the Nicene Councell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop of Bishops in regard of his fatherly care over them because he speakes both of tyrannicall terrour and of fellow Bishops They say It is necessary to have an infallible Judge for the last resolution of controversies in matters of faith But if the Pope can stretch out his power to such definitions at home in his owne Chaire by his fire side to what strange end I pray is all this repairing from all parts to Councels All matters of faith in their doctrine are of equall moment and slipping in one we go downe in all And though every trouble be not so great ut omnes vexentur nationes that al Nations should be troubled in the settling of it yet exery growing trouble of faith which cannot be laid by argument and ordinary meanes requires that the whole body should helpe the part in danger of perishing Neither indeed can a Councell among them be a true judge of controversies For they professe that although the Pope as President of the Councell is tied to joyne with the greater part of voyces yet there is a reservation behinde that the Pope though not as President yet as the chiefe Prince of the Church may cancell the Acts of the Councell reverse the Decrees and retract the judgement So that in the marrow of the matter the judgement of a Councell is nothing but a vaine flash of the Popes private opinion And how stout he is in the defence of matters pertaining to the royalty of his owne greatnesse the whole world can testifie And for that great controversie long tossed and tumbled amongst them concerning the power of the Pope over the temporall affaires of Princes the Benedictine Monkes our Countreymen denyed lately the lawfulnesse of such a power But in the issue of the matter seeing the Jesuits more potent and themselves sliding downward into disgrace they drew back their necks softly out of the snare looked sorrowfull one upon another and repented of their errour And is it not every day feared in Rome that the Sorbon Doctors in Paris will at length give the lie to this great Authority and stately Seate and See of Rome O the vaine swelling of a bubble It is not commendable in a Church-person to be garded on both sides with great Fans from the impudencie of Waspes and Flyes and to keepe the winde away to be ushered with Trumpeters to be honoured like an Emperour to decke the head with more Crownes then God promiseth to his faithfull childe And it was not good which Paulus Aemilius writeth Paul Aemil. that his Holinesse suffered the great Embassadours of Sicilie to lie prostrate on the ground and at his gate crying that part of the Masse Qui tollis peccata mundi miserere nostri Qui tollis peccata mundi dona nobis pacem O thou that takest away the sinnes of the world have mercie upon us Thou that takest away
and our thoughts that are all upon the wing and the Ministers of Contemplation must first be mourners and then white harmelesse and heavenly and this will be to us a sure signe that we shall inherit the land of Canaan And because the devill is an old Thiefe that cares not from whom he steales wee must learne of Abram of whom it followes And when Verse 11. the fowles came downe upon the carcasses Abram drove them away The devils temptations cannot be hindered from making towards the sacrifice or from setling upon it but we may drive them off before they fall too they must not carry a bill-full away Quod emit saith S. Austin of Christ tanti S. Aug. emit ut solus possideat What he bought he therefore bought at so high a rate that alone he might possesse it all CHAP. 4. I Shall now expose my selfe to the censure of people that have divers natures and divers religions and some will frowne others laugh others speake merrily some furiously as their affections move them and as the present state in which they are in shall prompt them But how divers soever they be I shall be still one and the same Yet I could wish we were all of one minde not that they might speake well of mee for I am too too plyable to the temptations of Pride and shall be glad to be humbled by them but that they might please God It is a high and deepe observation which the Bishop of Pontus hath in his Epistle to Leo the Emperor Cùm nullus Episcopus Ponti in ep ad Leon. Imp. ignoret quia Sanctae laudabilis Trinitatis primum bonum sit pax indivisio Vnde Deus unus est esse creditur No understanding man is ignorant that the first good thing in the blessed Trinity considered as the Trinity in Unity is peace and indivision Wherefore God both is and is beleeved to be one by vertue of this peace and indivision And as our God is three and one I would to God wee were many and one But this will never be while the Pope commands so much and the Jesuits obey so much One of the lesse principall ends of my writing is the same with the end of warre to speake with a Councell ut in pace vivamus that I may live in peace Bonum Tho. Aq. part 1. quaest 1. art 5. exercitus saith Thomas Aquinas ad bonum civitatis ordinatur An Army is not raised but to maintaine the peace of a Citie or Common-wealth And before I have done it will be acknowledged they have endeavoured to disturbe my peace As for well-disposed people I desire them to learne that God speakes not in his owne person to us For besides that he stands infinitely above us in greatnesse and majestie he is a spirit He sends messengers to us some in the freshnesse of the morning some in the heat of the day some from one place some from another some from beyond France and Germany and even from Rome it selfe and those of the same forme and fashion as we are that wee should not start at the apparition with the priviledge of this faire promise to them He that heareth you heareth me and hee that despiseth you despiseth Luk. 10. 16 me and he that despiseth mee despiseth him that sent me Heere is a gradation without a fallacy and the strength of it relyes upon the mission by which Apostles are sent by Christ and Christ was sent by his Father and upon the authority of the Commission given to them Where note that the Father sends but is not sent for mission supposeth in the sender at least a kinde of priority the Sonne is both sent and sends the holy Ghost sends not but is sent The children of Israel desired that Moses one of their owne company and acquaintance might speak to them For God was so loud and terrible in the delivery that he seemed to crush and over whelme mortality Speak thou with us said they to Moses and wee 20 Ex. 19. will heare but let not God speak with us lest we dye For hee speaks thunder and lightning and the trumpet sounds when hee speaks and perhaps hee is preparing for a battell and when he speaks the mountain smokes and the fire cannot be farre off I will say something And yet I will not say it But if I should say it what can the Papists say The Church which gives a mission gives it as she tooke it from Christ As she tooke it from Christ or his Apostles she was a pure Church As shee was a pure Church she gave and now giveth because she hath beene a pure Church and received her warrant in her purity when shee giveth a mission authority to preach against all impurity both in faith and manners either in her selfe or else-where And behold being sent I am come Now let us answer in some kinde to Gods kindnesse It is one part of wisedome in a serpent commended and commended to us by one who loved us dearely that going to drink he cleanseth every secret corner and dark turning of his mouth from poyson Be yee wise as serpents Moses was cōmanded to put off his shooes because it was holy consecrated ground All terrene thoughts and earthly affections bemired with treading deepe in the world All sinister opinions and judgments steeped in prejudice are here to be layd downe or purified Almighty God hath indeed a little good ground in the world but it is duly and daily weeded manured well clear'd from stones and briars before the heavenly sower comes to work Here therefore even here before we take another step let us turn the face of all our thoughts towards God to stand like officious and dutifull servants attending upon the nod and pleasure of our great Lord and Master Behold as the eyes of servants looke unto the hand of their Masters Psa 123. 2. and as the eyes of a Mayden unto the hand of her Mistresse so our eyes waite upon the Lord our God untill that he have mercie upon us sayes the sweet singer of Israel We must place our eyes upon the hands of our Lord. For the hands are the instruments of work and it is in our duty to be ready when God gives as it were with his finger the first touch of actuall grace that we may joyne our soules by his help with him in vertuous action CHAP. 5. IT is an old Axiome as old as Philosophy Veritas una error autem multiplex Truth is one and error manifold Truth must needs be one because it hath but one first origine and such a one as is most constant to it selfe and can never be found in two contrary tales And error must needs be manifold because it hath many fountaines and such as seldome mingle their streames and seldome agree wholy in any thing but in this that they all erre and runne beside the channell There are many wayes
soul and how lovingly they talk one to another and how they sometimes as it were whisper sometimes speak aloud sometimes deliver themselves merrily sometimes in a mournfull tone and how prettily the soul will complaine and cry to him and relate her griefes over and over and how orderly Christ keepes his times of going and comming againe and what messengers passe betwixt them in his absence and afterwards what a merry day it is when they meet and what heavenly matter Christ preaches to the soule and how after the Sermon the soule condemnes the world and abominates all the vanities of it and would faine be running out of it if it could tell which way and not run from Christ all the sweetnesse of this world would be gall and extreame bitternesse to them they would relish nothing but Christ they would scarce endure to heare any man speak that did not speak of Christ his very name would give a sweet taste in their mouthes they would seeke him and they would be sick till they found him And having found him they would let goe all and hold him fast And then the remembrance of their labour in seeking him would be sweetnes it self to them Our Saviour before his passion ascended according to his custome to the mount of Olives and there drew himself even from his own Disciples For as St. Luke describeth it He was withdrawn frō them about a stones cast and kneeled Luk. 22 41 downe and prayed About a stones cast for the peace and privacie of his owne Recollection And but a stones cast for the safety and security of his Disciples And cursed be the Traytour that brought a vile rabble of seditious persons upon him to breake his mysticall sleepe and to cut the fine thred of his calme and quiet devotions Thus did my thoughts spread themselves imagining this could not any where be found but in a Monastery My last reason was because being carried away with a great streame the desire of knowledge it being the Philosophers Principle in the first grounds of his Metaphysicks Omnis homo Arist 1. Met. cap. 1. naturâ scire desiderat Every man by nature desireth to know I plunged my selfe into the depth of profound Authors Bellarmine and others and was lost in the bottome And hurried with these motives I left with a free minde Kings Colledge and the University of Cambridge upon Christmasse Eeve that I might avoid the receiving of the Sacrament the next day for which I was in particular warned to prepare my selfe But the divine Providence went with mee and plainly shewed mee by my owne eyes and by my eares and by other knowing powers perfected with knowledge in some measure with which God hath endued me that my reasons were as weak as I was young CHAP. 9. I Shall now and I cannot help it lay open and uncover the faults of others But who am I that I should doe this Have I not great faults of my owne O I have Lord have have mercy upon me a miserable sinner and upon them and upon all the world I am one of those to whom God gave a faire preheminence over all other earthly creatures I was shaped by him in my mothers wombe and tooke up by him when I fell from her I was guided through all dangers by him in my weake infancie and ignorant childhood I was reserved by him for the law of grace and the faith of Christ I am furnished by him with all kindes of necessaries for the fit maintenance of life and have beene delivered by him from a thousand thousand mischiefes bending the bow both at soule and body I had lost my life the other day and beene carried hence with all my sinnes upon my back had not he stept in to help me I have beene moved every day to goodnesse by his holy calls and inspirations He puts bread and meat into my mouth every day having strangely brought it from many places by many wayes through many hands to me Hee covers my nakednesse every day He hath preserved and restored me from sicknesse and disposeth all my affaires with all gentlenesse And yet I have play'd as foule with him as any man Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sinne did Psal 51. 5. my mother conceive mee I am thronged with unruly passions madd if let loose to wickednesse I goe and grow crookedly and stoope very low under a mighty burthen of sinne and am prone to all mischief and of my selfe ready for all attempts and wicked enterprises against God For if God should withdraw his preventing Grace I should quickly be guilty of any sinne that ever any man or woman committed It is granted that I am the void and empty Cave of ignorance the muddy fountaine of evill concupiscence dark in my understanding weake in my will and very forgetfull of good things and that left to my selfe I am not my selfe but a devill in my shape All this is true And yet I have beene the Captaine of an Army against him by whom only I can be set at liberty and freed from all these evills God is so perfectly knowing so compleatly wise that no sinne though lying hid in the dark thoughts and quiet privacie of the heart though covered with the mists of the morning or the darknesse of the night can escape his knowledge so throughly good that no sinne can please him so wonderfully powerfull that no sinner can flie from him though hee should have wings to help his feet He is the endlesse boundlesse bottomlesse heape of all perfections He is infinitely stored with all kindes of perfect worth and beauty and therefore most worthy of all true love and honour And this All of perfections is my all in all He is one and a great one that I make very angry with me every day and yet striking hee shakes his head pulls back his hand and is very loth to strike Hee would but will not Hee beares with mee from day to day and hopes well of mee breaths upon me blowes upon me with his holy spirit waters mee with his heavenly grace and benediction diggs about mee with lessons and instructions of all sorts and with good examples on every side expecting good fruit from mee And this good great God have I struck with many faults CHAP. 10. VErily I have deserved that because I have defiled all the Elements with my sins as I goe the earth at every step should sink under mee that it should open and swallow me with a wide throat into hell That water when I first come where it is should leape into my face and stifle mee that when I open my mouth to receive the sweet benefit of ayre nothing but mists and foggs and the plague should enter that fire should not onely cease and denie to warme me but also flie upon mee hang about me and burne me to ashes that heat and cold should meet together in the clouds and without much threatning break out upon
continuance of the worke it pleased him to use the meane assistance of second causes as of Angels and intelligences that he might adde worth and honour to them by so great imployment So likewise in the workes of Grace and second diffusion of his goodnesse upon his creatures the great worke of enfranchizing the world by his Bloud himselfe alone would performe but in applying the merits and vertue of his Passion to the chosen vessels of honour and mercie he doth graciously call in a manner to his aide Apostles and Apostolicall men And as God being the Author of nature fals under himselfe and workes with every creature or second cause in a manner and measure agrreable to their naturall and ordinary way of working So likewise being the Author of Grace and having never yet for some great reasons best knowne to himselfe made two men with a perfect agreement either of face or nature sendeth Apostles and Preachers who have in their commands a speciall injunction of being like to him who saith I am made all things 1 Cor. 9. 22 to all men that I might by all meanes save some And God himselfe not onely in executing the generall Acts and Decrees of his Providence over his creatures but also and more especially in the more notable praxis and speciall exercise of his providence over his Church from the beginning of the world was all things to all men CHAP. VII GOD hath full power and absolute dominion over all his Creatures because he call'd yea catched them out of nothing and because to speake in the Apostles dialect in him they live move and have their being And therefore hee may lawfully give Lawes to them to the due and strict observation of which they are strongly bound under paine of his high displeasure seconded with most heavie punishment Wherefore giving a Law to the Jewes by the mediation of Moses he beginneth with an argument of his authority and dominion over them I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of Exod 20. 2. the land of Aegypt out of the house of bondage This laid for the corner-stone I thus proceed in the building In the infancie and childhood of the world when sinne was not as yet so active so quicke so cunning but dull and clownish and to foreshow the backwardnesse of nature in matters pertaining to Heaven yes to naturall knowledge and even humane society and also that it might fully and plentifully appeare to after-ages how nature is wrought and polished as in materiall things by Art so in spirituall matters by Grace The Law by which God for the most part guided man was onely borne with him was young as he was young and grew as he grew non scripta sed nata lex as the Orator saith being a Law not written and sent in a letter to us from Lycurgus Solon or Moses but borne with us or if written written onely in the soule of man where it continually remaineth in the shape of a light discovering to the view of the Soule the beauty of good and the deformity of evill For Good is faire and amiable and the cleare eye of reason beholdeth in it at the first sight a singular convenience with the will of man and a sympathy with Heaven And therefore they who were bound onely with the looser ties of the Law of nature and who now in strange Countries and in wilde and uncouth places dispense their actions by the light of reason beare a Preacher in their hearts Ill is blacke and deformed and reason in the first glance seeth a loathsomenesse a Toad in it and heareth presently as it were a jarring and disagreement with God and Heaven And therefore the drunkard the lascivious person and others of the same torne and ragged coate loath in deed not by any pious act of Christian vertue but by a deed of nature their owne beastlinesse and can by no meanes endure to be call'd what they are For as the Beast runneth the Bird flieth from danger as the one prepareth his den the other his nest as they looke abroad for daily nourishment provide carefully for their young know what will satisfie their cold of hunger what coole their heate of thirst what complyeth with their different appetites follow the leading of their admirable properties and by a secret instinct cheerefully performe the severall acts of their nature So man since he dealt with the Tree of Knowledge naturally knoweth good as opposed to evill as he naturally distinguisheth light from darknesse Againe some things are good in themselves and not good onely because God commands them to be loved and imbraced and these in the first place the light of nature sheweth to be good And some things are evill in themselves and not evill onely because markt and branded with a prohibition and these chiefely the light of nature showeth to be evill For if the light or law of nature in its owne nature did not make it cleare to Caine that he ought not to have killed his good brother Abel how did he sinne or what branch of law did he breake in killing him sinne being the violation of a law But certainly he trespassed upon that first principle of nature in morality Quod tibi non vis fieri alteri ne feceris what you would that men should not doe unto you doe not you unto them And hither Saint Paul pointeth For when the Gentiles which have not the law doe by nature the things Rom. 2. 14. contained in the law these having not the law are a law unto themselves One step more and we are in the bottome Although the the Sage Aegyptians in Damascius cried out three times in every performance of their heathenish my steries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unknowne darknesse yet by the plaine and easie search of humane power the old Philosophers found that there was a God and that he was but one in Essence that he was every where that he was omnipotent and the like though verily their knowledge both of God and his workes was rather opinion then knowledge it did so hang waver For the Philosopher opening his minde occasionally concerning the birth of the world sometimes he was and sometimes againe he was not Aristotle In one Arist l. 1. de coelo 1. Top. c. 9. booke hee judgeth absolutely that the world stood in the same state in which now it is in all eternity In another he stops like a man come unawares to a place where the way is divided and doubts which path leads to the truth In a third booke discussing the generation of living things Lib. 3. de generatione animalium c. 11. he sayes a man shall not beleeve amisse who shall take it for certaine that the first man and beast upon supposition that they came of the earth were either produced out of a Worme or an Egge and at length breaking the Egge in long handling concludes it is the most consentaneous to
Weeping All this while the clouds have beene in gathering now it raines But where fell the raine And began to wash his feete How with what with teares now I understand you she stood but her teares fell and her heart with them With teares With raine-water that never had beene foule never mingled with any kinde of uncleannesse it was a washing raine water that came but even now from Heaven Here is not all And did wipe them with the haires of her head and kissed his feete and anointed them with the ointment and me thinkes I smell it Nay then she did not stand now doubtlesse she came upon her knees to wipe his feete with the haires of her head And kissed his feete O the sinner hath not as yet forgot to kisse and rather then she will not be kissing shee will kisse the very feete of him she loves And anointed them with the ointment Shee did not annoint them with ointment to make her kissing sweet or him sweeter for that she thought he could not be but to expresse her sweete love Here head and haires and eyes and lips and hands and heart and all were at worke And was not this a sweet shower were not the teares sweeter then the oyntment though the oyntment was passing sweete Now my head and eyes and lips and hands and heart and all can yee be lookers on and not actors and imitators of what yee see I am not worthy to take in or give out the sweete aire of Heaven What said I Was it Heaven I spoke of I am not worthy to name Heaven And yet still I name it as if I did belong to it No no not worthy to be the meanest of Gods creatures a Worme A Worme is a pretty thing of a little thing Not worthy to be a Toad O poore naked miserable what shall I call thee And yet still I live and looke upwards O perfect bounty with all her dimensions length breath and depth I am very heartily sorry that I am no more sorry I would I were as heartily sorrowfull for all my sinnes and for every one in particular as God can make a sinner O my heart be of good comfort be hearty the desire of sorrow is a kinde of sorrow I doe hate and even loath all my most execrable abominations O that I could revoke the filthinesse of my life But foole I wish to do more then a Power which can doe all that can bee done And that is factum infectum facere to make what hath beene done not to have beene done O then that no such filthinesse had ever beene acted by me If I were now againe to make my first entrance upon the yeares of Reason and Discretion I would in the word of a Christian aided by Christ I would stand alwayes like a Watch-man over my selfe I would bee ever awake I would suspect all occurrences that could in reason be suspected and have an eye upon every darke place and upon every corner where a Devill can hide himselfe or his black head O my Saviour crucified for me as truely as if there had not beene another sinner besides my selfe I doe kisse with reverence the wounds of thy feete hands heart And now all my offences as well inwardly as outwardly contracted shall be washed away Hide me O hide me But where shalt thou hide me not in Heaven for that is too cleane a place for me as I am I shall pollute it Nor upon Earth for there thy Fathers anger will will finde me in the places wherein I committed my sinnes which may give him faire occasions to remember my sinnes and to destroy me Nor in the Sea for all the water of the great Ocean cannot make me white But betwixt Heaven Earth and Sea in the clifts of the Rock and especially in the large wound of thy brest that I may lie close to thy heart and sometimes in thy heart as in a retiring chamber and sing aloud that the Angels of heaven may heare me and sing their parts with me in the song Blessed bee Jesus Christ the Saviour S. Bern. Serm. 3. in Cant. of the world for ever and ever and for feare that ever should ever end for evermore All this I begge lying most humbly at thy feet uhi sancta peccatrix peccata deposuit induit sanctitatem where the holy sinner Magdalene laid downe her sinnes and put on sanctity What now is to be done I will hereafter be another kinde of Creature a Creature of another world indeed I will But I am too quick With the powerfull and active helpe of the divine Grace I will Create Ps 51. 10. in me a cleane heart O God O pure God O God the Creatour It is thou I call upon Observe my prayer Create in me a clean heart Create it make it of nothing as thou didst the world For now I am nothing but a nothing of uncleannesse And it is a cleane heart I would have for then I shall be cleane all over and cleane in every part And I know it must be a cleane heart if it be newly created by thee For nothing ever that came immediately from thee was sent hither uncleane by thee And although the soule comes hither uncleane it comes not uncleane as comming immediately from thee and as thy Creature but as created in a body and as part of a man which comes from Adam that having been made cleane by thee became uncleane by his own folly both in himselfe and in all his posterity CHAP. XV. IT is not amisse here to take the soveraign counsell of Saint Cyprian to Donat delivered in these words Paulisper te crede subduci S. Cyprian ep 2. l. 2. ad Donatum in ardui montis verticem celsiorem caet Let every one imagine himselfe lifted to the the top of a high mountaine upon which he may take a full view of all the world Here he may see whole Cities suddenly consum'd and emptied by the Plague a disease which having arrested for example one of us and given him two or three tokens of death will scarce allow him time to looke up to Heaven and say Lord bee mercifull unto me a sinner There whole Countries miserably wasted and unpeopled by Famine while men doe walke from place to place like pale Ghosts or living Anatomies and feede heartily upon their owne flesh paying the debt due to the stomach out of their armes and while the hungry mother is enforced as in the siege of Jerusalem to returne her dearest child by pieces into the place from which nature gave it entire Yonder a great part of the world most cruelly devoured by the sword where bloud lies spilt sometimes in greater abundance then water and where is no respect had to feeble old age to weake women or to innocent children but all lie mangled in a heape as if no such thing had beene ever heard of there as mercie Sinne is the wicked actor of all this Here
the sinnes of the world give us peace Goe the wormes shall eate thee till they are poyson'd with corruption Wise men are madde Our feet slip we tumble and Lord have mercie upon us The gay flower withereth when the common grasse remaineth greene And man is the silly foole of his owne fancie God forgive him who said that he and three of his Cardinals were able to governe so many worlds if God should make them CHAP. V. HOw vaine is the Church of Rome in teaching that the Popes Throne doth so farre overlooke all other Thrones that he cannot be censured by an earthly Judge though ingulfed in the most horrible crimes that in all the extravagancies of the heart were ever committed Let him enter a Fox raigne as a Lion die like a Dog as Pope Boniface Let him commit whoredome upon Altars give Benefices to his Whores and golden Chalices consecrated to holy services which an honest Lay-man cannot touch breake open doores burne houses put out his God-fathers eyes cut off his fingers hands tongues and noses of his Cardinals not remembring what he said when he did first invest them in purple Ego te creo socium Regis I create thee to be the fellow of a King and moreover invocate the Devill and drinke to him as Pope John the twelfth Let him be a most notorious Conjurer and make himselfe over by compact body and soule to the Devill as Pope Silvester the second Let him be carried with the Whirle-winde of ambition and have poysoned sixe other Popes to hew out his owne way before him as Pope Hildebrand Yet he sits above the reach of censure he flies with the Eagle above the Thunderbolt That they may give sinewes to this doctrine they produce an Act of a Councell celebrated in Rome which saith Neque praesul summus a quoquam judicabitur Concil Rom. quoniam scriptum est non est discipulus supra Magistrum Neither shall the chiefe Bishop be judged of any because it is written the Disciple is not above his Master And that they may adde strength to this plausible falshood they bring in the reare an eminent example For when Bassus and Marinianus laid to the charge of Pope Sixtus the third that he had in the rage of his lust defiled a consecrated Virgin Maximus the Consul crie out Non licet adversus Pontificem dare sententiam It is not lawfull to give sentence against the chiefe Bishop Looke how they shuffle the matter and give it from one hand to another amongst themselves But is not this to encourage sinne to permit and flatter evill and to suffer it to grow out and openly spread it selfe when it may be easily beate downe in the blossome This doctrine hath so farre given heart to all kindes of wickednesse that if we search into every succession of Bishops scattered through the whole Christian world and examine every linke of every chaine we shall not meete in any Sea with sinnes that deserve to be called sinnes with relation to the foule enormities of Rome Are not these evill fruits of evill doctrine and yet no man almost doth name the Pope but under the sacred title of his Holinesse But though his Holinesse is not liable to reproofe a man would think his wickednesse should And how silly is the Church of Rome in teaching that although the most holy and most learned Bishops that ever lived should joyne their heads and hearts in a Councell and there using the pious helpe of holy Scriptures of other Councels and Fathers before them and of humble prayers for the powerfull assistance of the holy Ghost should with an unanimous consent decree what is to be preached the Pope notwithstanding might come in the upshot and though a most wicked and illiterate creature lawfully pronounce all the Decrees to be of no weight no effect no validity The generall Councell of Chalcedon upon sound premeditation made an absolute Decree that the Bishop of Constantinople should have equall power through all the great extent and latitude of his government with the Bishop of Rome which Canon Pope Leo and Pope Gelasius quickly rejected and the single authority of one man tooke place because our Saviour had said to Saint Peter I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not But every prayer of Luk 22. 32 Christ was granted therefore the Pope cannot erre It must here follow that either the Decrees of Councels are fallible or the Popes sentence Is it not strange that God should communicate his holy Spirit to the contempt of Councell more fully to a private person for so he is in this matter being one though a publike sinner then to the whole Church the Spouse of Christ Let the Pope claime to himselfe all power in all affaires who now can chide his ambition or give the lie to his infallibility CHAP. VI. ONe of my great admirations concerning the Church of Rome is that whereas there are many Churches yet extant of great antiquity and some wherein Christ was almost if not altogether as soone heard of as in Rome she will not consort and comply with them in things which were wholly in use amongst the Primitive Christians If she desires with a Christian desire and not with a desire onely of her owne advancement to win them why doth she not come as neere to them as it is most evident they come to the Primitive Church This way of the Bishop of Rome was never Gods way Which I will demonstrate in a plaine discourse though not plaine to the plaine that I may a little ease my reader in his journey with various objects God as he was ever God so he was ever good For the most eminent Attribute of God saith Dyonysius is goodnesse The nature of goodnesse is to spread and diffuse it selfe And every good doth spread and diffuse it selfe according to the variety and greatnesse of goodnesse which it hath And therefore God the Father being infinitely good doth infinitely spread and diffuse himselfe upon the Son And the Father and Sonne being infinitely good doe infinitely spread and diffuse themselves upon the holy Ghost And if the Father Sonne and holy Ghost doe not in any kinde spread and diffuse themselves infinitely upon the Angels and us it is because we being creatures and by course of necessary consequence finite are not capable of an infinite diffusion The Charity by which a good man loves good might be infinite if the subject could be infinite Now as in the works of nature and first diffusion of his goodnesse upon his creatures God the first cause would first worke by himselfe and himselfe bring about the most weighty matter of making all these fine things of nothing and moreover of waking nature out of her dead sleepe in the Chaos that it might appeare to us who should afterwards heare the grave and strange story of the Creation that hee was all-sufficient and could not be at a fault for want of help Yet managing the