Apostles The Pretended quite contrary faigning they honour Saints as one would Socrates or Phocion perpetually mock thereat break down their images call them by the name of idols and false gods The Catholick Church holdeth man hath free wil Genes 4. Deut. 30. Eccl. 15. supported in this article upon so many passages of Scripture The Pretended dispoil man of all liberty which is to destroy the worth of his conditions and to deprive him of the best part of his essence The Catholick Church holdeth the bloud of our Saviour is a treasure infinite and very able to purge away all manner of evil and to merit all good but that it is applyed to us by works of satisfaction and merit and purgative pains in those who stand in need of it as a medicine which profiteth the sick man by the co-operation he bringeth The Pretended teacheth good works are not necessary to salvation but onely faith justifies which is to open a gate to the corruption of good manners and to all kind of liberty The Catholick Church believes a Purgatory for souls which going out of the bodie are not yet purified grounded therein on 19. or 20. passages of Scripture all understood by the ancient Fathers according to our belief The Pretended having disturbed the ashes of the dead deprive them of the assistance and prayers of the living contrary to divine and humane laws and the manifest practice of all antiquity The Catholick Church makes a Sacrament of marriage according to S. Paul and the interpretation of most eminent Fathers of the Church The Pretended make their marriages like those of Barbarians The Catholick Church holdeth the reality of the body of CHRIST in the Sacrament of the Altar and believe that under the Sacramental species which are sensible and corruptible our Saviour subsisteth with a glorious body which is called by S. Paul a spiritual body because it is dignified with qualities and conditions of spirit though it loose not the essence of a body She adoreth therein with all humility that which she cannot comprehend sufficiently after express passages of Scripture the decision of fourty Councels the testimony of five hundred Authours ancient grave and sincere Adding from the authority of the most illustrious Councel of Nice that it is the unbloudy Sacrifice presented for the expiation of the sins of the world The Pretended will place in stead of it chimaeraes imaginary figments cessation of Sacrifices and abominable desolation The Catholick Church publisheth confession and remission of sins by the ministery of Priests as the Son of God did institute it in S. John The Pretended shaking off so wholsom a yoak hath made himself a John 10. way to liberty and dissolution The Catholick Church acknowledgeth a visible Head on earth established by the express word of Jesus Christ in S. Matthew averred by all the holy Fathers Matth. 15. confessed by the continuation of a lawful succession in the revolution of so many Ages The Pretended seek to bring into the house of God an anarchy of the children of Belial The Catholick Church is the bright star of truths The Pretended is a furious Comet which throws disorder and poyson into all the parts of the world To say truly should an Angel have spoken to it yea could it create a golden Age never might this design be accomplished by ways so furious and turbulent But having cost France so much gold and bloud what hath it done but that which is mentioned by the excellent pen of Cardinal Berule in the Preface of the greatness of Jesus A Church without Apostles Apostles without mission Pastours without sheep sheep without Shepheards Faithful without Churches Christians without Baptism Prophets without miracles Temples without Altars Altars without Sacrifices a Religion without ceremonies a Law without obedience a Faith without works and a Charity without effects Behold excellent pieces and well worthy of a reformed Church In the name of God weigh at leisure these considerations Humamum fuit errare diabolicum per animositatem in errore manere August de verbis Apost serm which would deserve a whole volume and since you are convinced by reason kick no longer against the prick go no more about to forge difficulties nor say how shall I put this in execution What means have I to do it What will such and such say What will our whole side say in general Must I confess I have erred and a thousand other thoughts which are true illusions You shall no sooner set your foot in the Roman Catholick Church with so many men of note lately converted but all these fantasies will vanish you shall live in peace of conscience and shall receive before God glory immortal O that we might quickly see that great day wherein France may no longer speak but with one tongue wherein the names of Lutherans and Calvinists may be banished out of the memories of men wherein all French-men reunited under one faith one law one Head one Church may eternally bless the name of Jesus What joy what comfort what embracements of both sides what consolation for so much afflicted kindred which waste themselves with grief and sorrow for these poor straglers what satisfaction for the sacred person of the King what honour for France what peace for the Church what edification for all the world what triumphs for Heaven what blessings of God will fall upon their heads who shall give example of this reunion and shall consent to the peace safety and honour of this Monarchy The third OBSTACLE To live by Opinion THe tree of the knowledge of good and evil Over much wit troubleth us doth also yield fruits which cost us very dear we labour here with too much application of wit which goeth up and down searching and prying into all the objects of the world often forsaking the better for the worse S. Thomas most judiciously S. Them 1. 2. quaest 8. observeth that there is much difference between the natural appetite the sensual and the intellectual The natural aimeth always at things which are really Intellectual appetite faulty good for her and proportionable the sensual is scattered the intellectual much more to desire evil plaistered over with the semblance of good The plant desireth moysture with which it is nourished and will never take a stone for the dew Man having too much wit and sense not contenting himself with things that really are good and truly consonant to his nature forgetteth others in his idea which are good in apparance and evil in substance Notwithstanding apparence taketh upon her when Apparence she hath seduced the sense and conquered the imagination to dive even into the Cabinet of the Prince which is the understanding and putting false spectacles upon his eyes to make him believe that black is white glass is diamond and darkness light It is necessary that the will should dance to this tune and pursue the good which is represented unto her by the
sufferings of Jesus Christ the one hasteneth to a neighbour and the other abideth in God the one hath exercise the other joy the one conquereth the other possesseth the one knocketh at the door the other entereth in the one despiseth the world the other enjoyeth God Finally the spiritual man is a man covetous of eternity prodigal of life little careful of the present certain of the future A man who seems no longer to have any commerce with the world and who hath nothing so familiar as a life that is as it were buried in death and who flieth above sepulchers like an Angel who holdeth not of the earth but by the slender root of natural necessities and already toucheth heaven with a finger A man who is as yet in flesh though he hath made an eternal divorce with flesh who is under-foot to all the world by humility and above all the greatness thereof by contempt of it who binds himself to be at liberty who crucifieth himself to combat who mortifieth himself to be the more vigoroue who withereth to flourish again and daily dieth that he may never die The third SECTION Of the first monster which the spiritual man should resist to wit Ignorance and of the practice of virtues by which it is subdued THe greater part of men have dexterity in delving From whence our evils come the ground like moles (a) (a) (a) Oculis capti fodere cubilia talpae Virgil. Geor. and have no eyes to behold the Sun Yet all evils proceed from ignorance and the want of the knowledge of God (b) (b) (b) Primae scelerum causae mortalibus aegris Naturam nescire Dei Silius l. 4. This is the first Monster which we must assault the first obstacle we must take away And for this effect observe a wholesom doctrine to wit that God is the Sun of all the Intelligences and that from this Sun five (c) (c) (c) Five rays of the soul Dignity of faith Aug. apud Gulielm Lugdunens rays of a lively and quickening light are diffused over the darkness of our understandings These five rays are faith understanding counsel wisdom and prudence The first and most excellent light is faith because the other rays do well enlighten the soul in those operations of which it is as it were the fountain but faith alone raiseth him above himself to his beginning which is God (d) (d) (d) Fides res est audax atque improba perveniens quo non pertingit intelligentia ipsa ascendit super Cheruban volat super Seraphim senas alas habens Faith is a virtue bold and urgent which attains to that the understanding cannot reach unto mounteth above Cherubins and flies above Seraphins though they have six wings A man without faith is as the Pilot of whom it is spoken in the Proverbs (e) (e) (e) Prov. 21. that fell asleep and lost his rudder What virginity is to the body the same is faith to the soul It is the first-born of virtues the beginning of spiritual life the life of the understanding as charity is the life of the will the pillar of the cloud (f) (f) (f) Et erat nubes tenebrosa illuminans noctem Exod. 14. 30. which hath two faces the one dark because it believeth the things which are not apparent the other lightsom for that it believeth with an infallible assurance The fourth SECTION Practice of Faith THat you may well practice the acts of faith What faith is Hebr. 12. 1. Sperandarum substantia rerum argumentum non apparentium you must know the nature object and motive thereof Faith saith S. Paul is the foundation of hope and the proof of things not apparent The foundation of hope in regard all whatsoever we hope in matter of Religion is grounded upon faith as the statue upon its basis the proof of things not apparent because it is an infallible argument of truths whereof we have not as yet evident notice S. Bernard Voluntariae quaedam certa praelibatio nec dum propalatae veritatis Bern. de consider It s object S. Thom. 2. 2. q. 1. How we should believe addeth that it is a first-tast certain and voluntary of truth yet not manifested The Gold-smith laboureth upon gold silver and precious stones as upon his proper object and the object which employeth faith are the mysteries revealed unto us by God and proposed by his Church Such mysteries ought to be believed for no other motive but for that God the eternal Truth hath revealed them The arguments which are drawn from the prophesies miracles numbers of Martyrs purity of the evangelical law from the correspondency thereof with reason from the admirable success and consent of all the mysteries from the conversion of the world from the means which the Church hath used to establish it self from her firm constancy amidst persecutions from the wisdom sanctity of the professours of our law and such like things which I have produced in the first obstacle of the second book are most powerful considerations to introduce us to faith and to make easie and familiar to us the acts thereof but they are not properly motives of faith In the same manner How faith works A fine comparison as the soul draweth knowledge from sense and yet notwithstanding is above sense so faith though she serve her self with these considerations which are able to command the most contumacious spirits yet is she admirably raised upon a more supereminent sphere and will abide no other touch but of the eternal Verity which darteth a forcible lightening-flash into the soul able to dazle enlighten and surprize the most prosperous liberty that may be imagined Thence the soul cometh to believe not by Wherin faith consisteth humane discourse by miracles by doctrine by sanctity but because God speaketh inwardly unto it and giveth it so powerful a touch that she judgeth infallible whatsoever is revealed and proposed unto her by the Church Behold to what point the good S. Elzear Count of Arian was arrived when he said he tasted matters of faith with such certainty and resolution of understanding that when Monsieur Miron held for a prodigie of knowledge in his time and all the most famous Doctours would have perswaded him the contrary of what he had embraced in the simplicity of his heart all their subtilties could not be able to give the least shock to his spirit This admitted the acts of faith are I. To submit proper judgement to God with all Touch-stone to know whether one have faith simplicity and humility of spirit who speaketh unto us by his Church by Scriptures by Traditions by Councels by Canons of the sovereign Pastours of the Church II. To believe firmly all the Articles of faith which are proposed to us as well those concerning the Divinity as the humanity of our Saviour those which concern the Sacraments and ceremonies as those which appertain to the order and
is when men of quality who affect the reputation of being judicious prostitute their wits to these gods of straw and dung and for the tuneable cadence of a rime loose all harmonies of faith and conscience All hereticks who make boast to assail the Church Their ignorance for so many Ages have likewise made a shew to bring with them into this combat some recommendable qualities Some came with points of logick other with knowledge of things natural other with eloquence some vaunted profoundness in Scriptures the rest to be versed in the reading of Councels and holy Fathers They who have had no excellent thing in them have brought an austere countenance and semblance of moral virtues But such kind of men have nothing but ignorance with bruitishness but scoffing sycophancy but language and the wind of infamous words How can it then become them to talk of the Bible and to argue upon holy Scripture and the mysteries of our Religions Shut up your ears against these Questions if you be unable to stop their mouthes Is it handsom think you to see a wretched and infamous Tertul. l. 2. advers Marc. c. 2 Censores divinitatis dicentes sic non debuit Deus sic magis debuit c. Tert. de praescript contra haeres l. 1. fellow to make himself the censurer of Divinity and correctour of Scripture God should have done this and that in such and such a fashion say they as if any one knew what is in God but the spirit of God himself who is never so great as when he appeareth little to humane understanding There is but one word saith Tertullian to determine all disputations with such kind of men do but ask them whether they be Christians whether they renounce their Baptism and Christianitie If so let them wear the turbant or go into the Countrey of God-makers and Gentiles But if they make profession of one same Christ and one same Religion with us why do they bely their profession by the impudence of their unbridled speeches Faith saith S. Zeno is not faith when it is sought S. Zeno serm de fide Non est fides ubi quaritur fides Tertul. Nobis curiositate opus non est post Christum nec inquisitione post Evangelium We stand not in need of curiosity after Jesus Christ nor to search for the Gospel said S. Cyprians great Master Should an Angel from Heaven speak unto us we are to change nothing in our belief We have betaken us to the side of truth we have a law which the Word declared unto us which ten millions of Martyrs have signed with their bloud which the best part of mankind professeth the wisest heads of the world have illustrated by the light of their writings To whom would we abandon it To a caytive spirit which hath nothing great in it but sin nothing specious but illusion nothing undoubted but the loss of salvation Effects of Libertinism and punishment of the Impious 5. THe neglect of God is the root of all wickedness nor can there be any thing entire in a soul despoiled of the fear of God Impiety causeth most pernicious effects in States First for that it maketh havock of all good manners leaving not one spark of virtue Secondly in that it draweth on the inevitable vengeance of God upon Kingdoms and Common-wealths which suffer this monster to strengthen it self to their prejudice Philo in the Book he made that no salary of an unchast The table of Philo of the manners of Libertines woman should be received in the Sanctuary very wisely concluded when he shewed that he who is a Libertine and voluptuous having no other aim in the world but the contentments of nature is unavoidably engaged to all manner of vice He becomes saith he bold deceitfull irregular unsociable troublesom chollerick opiniative disobedient malicious unjust ungratefull ignorant treacherous giddie inconstant scornfull dishonest cruel infamous arrogant insatiable wise in his own judgement lives for himself and is unwilling to please any but himself one while profuse presently covetous a calumniatour an impostour insensible rebellious guilfull pernicious froward unmannerly uncivil a great talker loud vaunter insolent disdainfull proud quarrelsom bitter seditious refractory effeminate and above all a great lover of himself Nay he goes further upon the like epithets very judiciously and sheweth us the seeds of all evils spring from this cursed liberty Now I leave you to judge if according to the saying Tunishments of God upon Libertinism of Machiavel himself the means quickly to ruin an estate be to fill it with evil manners who sees not that Libertinism drawing along with it all this great train of vices of corruptions tendeth directly unto the utter desolation of Empires But beside there have been observed in all Ages hydeous punishments from God caused by impiety over Cities Provinces Kingdoms and Common-wealths which have bred these disorders And that you may be the better satisfied upon this point I have at this time onely two considerations to present unto you drawn from two models In the first you shall see God 's justice exercised before the Incarnation upon the sins of infidelity and irreverence towards sacred things In the second you shall behold the rough chastisements of those who after the Incarnation lifted themselves up against the worlds Saviour When God was pleased to correct the infamous Balaam who was a Patriarch of atheists and wicked ones he commanded not an Angel to speak unto him because he was a Doctour much unsuitable to a carnal spirit but he raised a she-ass to instruct him in so much as he was become worse than a beast It is likewise loss of time to deal with Libertines by proofs derived from Schools or from the invention of sciences Men as bruitish as themselves must be made to speak to them who will put them in mind of the way they have held and the salary they have received of their impieties First I establish this Maxim for such either who are not yet hardened or are too yielding and consenting to evil company that there are not any sins which God hath so suddenly and more exemplary punished than such as were committed against Religion The Prophet Ezechiel a captive in Babylon under King Nebuchadnezzar discovered among tempests and flames that marvellous chariot which hath served for matter of question to all curious digladiation for the learned and admiration for all Ages I say the great S. Justine Martyr touched the sense very near when he said S. Iustin in Epist ad Orthodox q. 44. An observation upon the chariot of Ezechiel that in four figures whereof the one was of an ox the other of a man the third of an Eagle the fourth of a Lion God signified the divers chastisements he would exercise upon King Nebuchadnezzar in that from a reasonable man he should become bruitish eating grass as an ox and that his hair should grow as the shag of a
〈◊〉 Sixtus in Biblioth PP De Deo etiam vera loqui periculum est Hesychius in levitic it is an ulcer that ever itcheth and which without ceasing is iterated by continual scratching it is as a hors-leech which draweth out all the bad bloud and filleth till it burst It is a magpy a byting worm which taketh men by the ears as well as dogs But above all it is most pernicious in matter of Religion Sixtus an ancient Authour cited in the Bibliotheke of the Fathers hath spoken a thing very remarkable When a man speaketh of God yea with all veritie we must always therein proceed reservedly as if we trod upon thorns It were better saith S. John Chrysostom not to know him than to know him ill Hesychius teacheth us one must approach to him as to fire too great a distance maketh us quake with cold and over near approches burn us Secondly judge whether any bodie would not Perverse proceeding of the wicked say it were a great weakness of understanding to be desirous to proceed in matter of Religion by such knowledges as are common with bruit beasts and forsake those of men And yet this is it which you do when leaving the eye of understanding and the light of a rectified judgement which God hath given man by priviledge of excellency you will hear see and touch begging a truth from bruitish sense which is absolutely to raise them above their reach See you not how the Moon by her interposition eclipseth the Sun and when you in matter of faith interpose sense you obscure the light of judgement the true sun of your soul which dictateth to you that it is a thing most reasonable the creature should submit himself to the Creatour that it carefully keep it self from daring to comprehend him in the universality of his nature and shut up this vast Ocean in a little cockle-shel It is a pitiful thing to hear that these curious spirits should suffer themselves to be surprized by a quack-salving impostour who casteth mists afore their eyes by force of delusions and to contend with God who giveth them as many obligations and assurances of his promises as there are letters in the Scripture This Deus tot tantis voluminibus cavet debitor non tenetur Chrys serm 25. is not onely to crack the eye-string of a reasonable judgement but also to pull out the eye of faith all pure and celestial as it is You demand proofs of your Religion frantick man look back upon the birth the progress and state of the Church This is the great sign the Ladie clothed with the Sun Apocal. 12. which one cannot be ignorant of without a prodigious blindness Admit it were nothing to have for proof so great Invincible proofs of pietie so universal so constant consent of all the Prophets to presage many Ages before the effect the birth life death of the Messias the establishment of the Church the conversion of the Gentiles so determinately and punctually that even the most diabolical spirits who had from all times these Scriptures in their hands seeing this consequently to happen which succeeded in the oeconomie of Christianity were enforced to yield to truth That it were nothing to have seen through all Ages a thousand and a thousand miracles in Heaven in earth on the sea done in confirmation of Christianity in the sight of the most wittie and malicious who bent all their endeavour to censure reject and contradict them Notwithstanding the evidence was so palpable so strong so invincible that Tyrants yea the most enraged bloudy executioners convinced with the proofs thereof let fall the sword which they had taken in their hand for the slaughter of Martyrs and stretched out their necks to the persecutours to be beheaded That it were nothing to tell what a good Authour upon account taken hath observed that there hath been eleven millions of Martyrs of all sexes ages and conditions who have sealed the Religion which we profess by effusion of their bloud and in this list an infinite number of persons of eminent quality who considerately proceeded in the least occasions that have abandoned the easeful accommodations of their fortunes their estates dignities yea their scepters and diadems to deliver as a prey to most enormous and exquisite torments a most precious life which they might have led in honour in reputation according to the world in pleasures in delights in wonders That it were nothing to say that after persecutions there sprung up an infinitie of brave spirits intelligent clear-sighted furnished with all sorts of human knowledges as the Justins Tertullians Cyprians Augustines and so many other of the same profession who after they had seriously and judiciously examined the state of Christianity have embraced it professed it defended it some with their pen some with sweat and some with their bloud The Heavers are not enameled with so many stars as the Church hath had great men the prodigies and lights of the world who by their learned writings have illustrated the verities of our Religion I leave you to think if among so many great Suns which have garnished Heaven and earth with brightness one should behold a ridiculous reeremouse to creep out of a hole and say it is not day and that all these suns are but darkness whether he deserve not to be burnt and stampt to power That all this which I have said being very strong and specious enter not into the list of account what may one answer to two things which are Great force in two points very eminent in Christianitie the consideration whereof is of power to settle the most wavering spirit to wit the marvellous proceeding which hath been held in the establishment of our Religion and the most pure sanctitie of the doctrine thereof What is there humane in this law which is established against all humane ways by a success so strange and admirable that it engulfeth all spirits in wonder Where were in these beginnings eloquence favour of Princes their revenues their estate their arms their souldiers Where were the promises of honour reputation Establishment of the Church dignitie Where were the moving allurements of sense and all that which useth to feed and foment sects From whence cometh it that the Church Sola Ecclesia persecutionibut stetit marlyriis coronata est Crudelitas illecebra est sectae plures efficimur quoties metimur à vebis semen est sanguis Christianorum Hier. in vita Mala Tert. in Apol. c. 50. alone hath encreased under tempestuous storms in persecutions in the slaughters of three hundred years during which time there was no engine which hell used not no torment which the devil invented not no inventions which the Great-ones of the earth with powerful hand conspiring executed not All the plaistered pretended sects which have seemed desirous to take this away are quite vanished From whence it cometh to pass that the Church alone hath maintained
since Luther and Calvin And think not this novelty is onely proved by reason It is your own confession in the 31. article where you openly profess the Church hath not onely been reformed but absolutely made new this sole innovation if you judge aright of it should give you occasion to suspect it The sage Common-wealth of the Lycians heretofore Novelties ever suspected by the wise ordained that all those who would propose any noveltic in matter of law should deliver it in publick with a halter about their necks to the end that if their propositions were not found to be good and profitable the authours thereof should be strangled in the place And what can one think of them which have brought in such huge novelism in matter of Religion so disastrous and so prejudicial to Christendom by the effusion of so much bloud Judge your selves Force of argument and weigh at leisure the force of this argument you shall perceive it is very hard to find evasions against Weak evasions of Ministers this veritie For of two things you must confess one either that the Church hath wholly been extinct the space of about a thousand years and then was newly repaired according to the ancient model of the Apostles or that it hath always been on foot but invisible and unknown These two evasions are very vain and frivolous as First evasion refuted you shall understand thereunto a little applying your judgement For to speak of the first expressed in the 31. Article of your Faith that the Church hath been newly reformed First this is against the word Reason 1 of God who to his Church promiseth an assistance without interruption even to the end of the world These are his words in S. Matthew Behold I am Matth. 28. 2. with you all the days even to the consummation of the world He admitteth not one sole day of interruption and you make one of a thousand or eleven hundred years Secondly you make a Jesus Christ disarrayed a Reason 2 Church reduced to nothing for the space of ten Ages which is very intolerable and shall never be nay not during the time of Antichrist's persecution Reason 3 Moreover were it so you must deny the providence of God so to have abandoned to a general desolation a work fast cemented with the bloud of his Son yea he who hath a care even of the nests of the little halcyons Finally you must say that Jesus Christ was an Impostour and unable an Impostour to have promised a Church without interruption unable in that he could not preserve it all which is blasphemous To affirm the second that this Church hath always Second evasion overthrown been but yet unknown and invisible if all men were changed into beasts it might happen they would be thus perswaded But if they yet retain one dram of human capacitie it were impossible so impertinent is this proposition For first of all because you will affirm nothing without proof out of holy Scripture it is demanded of you where is it spoken of this unknown Church of this invisible Church Much otherwise In sole posuit tabernaculum suum in manifestatione posuit Ecclesiam suam August in Psal 18. she is compared to a Citie planted upon a hill to the Light to the pavilion in the Sun as the Scripture teacheth us and S. Augustine proveth it by the same Scripture upon the 18. Psalm Secondly if this Church were unknown whither should the Gentiles have addressed themselves for their conversion or those that were doubtful for their resolution or all the faithful for their direction God referreth them all to his Church Is it not a meer mockerie to send them to a thing invisible Thirdly if there be no proof in Scripture which averreth this some human reason at least is required Can a proposition more reasonable be made than to ask of those who maintain a thing to have been in former Ages to produce some marks thereof That they shew how for a thousand years of desolation their Church hath been in being That they set before us one sole historie which witnesseth how in the thousand two three four and five hundred years there was found a company of brethren who professed an universal sum of all the articles which these men now maintain The Phenix is very rare but yet it is said in such Allaâ—us est Phoenix in urbem anno urbis 800. Pâ—â—â— l. 10. c. 11. and such a year a Phenix was seen in Rome Do we find that any man saith the like of the pretended reformed Religion There is not a word of it We find the Waldneses Circumcellians Gnosticks Borborites and Beguins who have held some piece of our Hereticks belief and we likewise behold that all have been condemned as Hereticks But there is not one to be found who hath framed this body of the pretended Religion as it is at this day composed What meaneth this Is it to have one small sparkle of the understanding of man to affirm such a thing to have been and not to know how to produce one proof Is not this to play Aesops ass that vaunted he had Aesops Ass great secrets of wisdom to communicate to other beasts and to authorize it he hid himself a long time in a drie pit from whence he came with a Philosophers cloak saying That whilest he had been invisible A notable passage of Tertullian he had much addicted himself to sciences and the knowledge of truth In the end it was known he was an ass and with many blows and bastonadoes Asinus de puteo modo venis jam exclamas Dic qui sis à quo venias quod sit tibi jus in nobis Tertul. in Marc. l. 4. c. 23 he was sent back again to the pit from whence he came This is the parable which Tertullian spake to the Hereticks of his time You now come forth as an Ass out of Aesops pit and you crie out Tell me who are you From whence come you who sent you What right have you upon us to extinguish the belief of our fore-fathers Do you not behold a beginning of the pretended shameless and ridiculous Religion which well proveth its nullitie The second consideration on which we must rest Second point progress and publication of the sect is well to ballance the progress advancement and publication of this sect If you find it conformable to the ancient manner of the Primitive Church follow it If it be directly opposite have you not great reason to abandon it Now Sir so it is and behold how The true Church from her infancie hath had four marks most evident The first is a profound humilitie The second a great love of virginitie chastitie and continencie witness Athenagoras a most ancient Reperire apud nos est permulâ—os viros mulieres qui in celibatu consenescunt Rom. 12. Authour who maketh mention of this great puritie of bodie
somewhat yield to the love of those who look after me for my good and the authoritie of such as command over me by justice I cannot perish in making a sacrifice of my proper will for peace and the common good to those whom God hath appointed me for guiders and superiours This is the great science which I will hereafter seek in the government of the inward man Behold what an humble creature might say but insolency the inseparable companion of heresie proceedeth much otherwise And as concerning purity let us not go about to 2. Mark speak of the vices of particular men which are excesses of nature not laws of profession For to say there are vices in one bodie and in one sect is to say nothing but to say these vices are confirmed and authorized by the maxims and examples of the same sect this is to say all Now this is it which we behold in the proceedings of the Pretenders For it cannot be denied but we ought to keep promise with men and by a much stronger reason what we promise to God Yet notwithstanding the principal of the Pretenders have taught by word and practised by example the doctrine of the whole bodie which is that one may break a vow of chastity to wit of a thing very good for it is praised by the mouth of our Savour and S. Paul of a thing very reasonable for millions of Matth. 17. 2 Cor. 7. Saints have practised it in the beginning of the Church of a thing most holy for the scripture hath given it the name of sanctity to break a vow sealed Thessal 4. as with the seal of the invocation of the holy Trinity and the bloud of Jesus to break it not by frailty but profession against the doctrine and practice of all antiquity Is this a mark of the true Church Take the third mark obedience most natural to 3. Mark the primitive Christians and all just men who are called a Nation of obedience and you shall find in Eccl. 3. the infancie of the pretended religion a revolt against all ecclesiastical and secular Powers continued in all times and in all the parts of the world where she might be introduced with such cruelties as we know by experience Take lastly the fourth mark which is the dove-like 4. Mark sweetness that shone in the first Christians even in the times of persecution and you shall find in the pretended Religion there is nothing but Conventicles Consistories of state factions armies ransackings and horrours which make all good consciences to tremble Should I enlarge upon this discourse I could mention matters able to make marbles weep but I will not labour to be eloquent in our evils which I seek to sweeten what I may not intending to exasperate any Onely I ask what will your prime Sectaries answer Publication of the pretended how far from true Christianitie to the Church at the day of judgement when she shall say My first Children bare neither rod nor stick to plant faith in the hearts of men and you have published a Religion all bristled with swords and sooted over with the smoak of Canons all sprinkled with the bloud of Catholicks My lawful children at the publication of the Gospel spake not one bitter word against executioners among the most exquisite torments which might be inflicted And you what vein I pray have you spared in my bodie from whence you drew not rivers of bloud to distain the lilies of France Your fore-fathers built Churches for me and you See Monsieur de Sainctes in the Book of saccage have demolished them They erected Altars and you have pulled them down They advanced Crosses to me and you have broken them They have consecrated Priests for my service and you have massacred them in my arms The Apostles taught me to place the bodies of Saints under Altars and you have taken them from that repose whereunto nature consigned them from that repose many times afforded to malefactours you have divided them between fire and water yea you have infected elements making them as executioners of those venerable bodies whose foot-steps they honoured And of what bodies of a S. Irenaeus burned at Lions of a S. Hilarie at Poictiers of a S. Aygnan at Orleans of a S. Martin and a S. Francis of Paula at Tours not to speak of others The Apostles teach us to honour Kings and you have loaden them with reproches even to the figuring of King Charls the ninth with marks most unworthy in a coyn you stampt with crosses and Church Chalices yea to the disenterring of the heart of Francis the second interred at S. Cross in Orleans and the wasting it in flames Judge now O you Pretenders whether a Religion which carried on the brow thereof acts so barbarous pollutions so hydeous cruelties so execrable can possibly have the least spark of piety For a third consideration examine well the 3. Point Foundation of Catholick Religion Augustin contra ep fun foundation of this new Religion and you shall discover the deceit thereof Catholick religion hath for foundation all that which may settle a fair and generous soul as S. Augustine observed If the word of God should hold the chief place and serve as a basis for this great building of the Church as is most reasonable we incessantly challenge Ministers to shew us one onely text express formal and irreproveable contrary to the articles of our faith For hitherto they have produced nothing but semblances to deceive inferiour judgements being unable to make them good before understanding and capable men If a lawful succession and mission of Pastours be required which is absolutely necessary for the establishment of an Ecclesiastical Hierarchie we shew that from the Apostles hitherward our Prelates and Bishops do all successively follow one another If the authority of Councels demanded which are the sinews the mouthes and living oracles of a true Religion let them be looked on in the revolution of so many Ages and they will be found altogether for us If the interpretations of Fathers and Doctours who were the lights of their times the instruments of the holy Ghost and Secretaries of the Divinity have any weight with a soul wel composed to establish a truth then especially when they all with one accord and consent do speak they loudly condemn the errour and novelism of our Adversaries If miracles which were wrought in the sight of all mankind with so much approbation that they have evicted confession from the most incredulous and reverence from the most stupid weigh down the ballance it is on our side If the studie of perfection and holiness of life be infallible marks of true faith you may as soon tell the stars in the skie as reckon up the number of holy personages who have flourished through all Ages amongst us and who therein are daily noted with such excellencies that living as Angels they speak like true Oracles of the Divinitie
devotion As concerning that which we ought to pray and beg for our great Master hath abridged it for us in our Lords Prayer a true Epitom of the celestial Lords prayer wisdom as if one would comprehend all this great Universe in the round circuit of a ring From thence it is that all prayers are derived as all waters flow from the Ocean From the union of this excellent prayer with the Rosary Angelical salutation the Rosary is composed a prayer as singular as familiar to the whole world whether it be simply recited or whether one proceed therein by the way of meditation upon the mysteries as many pious and devout books do teach We have besides this the Psalter of the Kingly Psalter Prophet which operateth that in the Church which the Sun doth in Heaven It illuminateth heateth and makes fruitful all the good desires and devotions of Christianity Consequently there follow many well digested offices many Collects Litanies Prayers collected from holy Scriptures and Fathers You have a plentiful treasurie of them compiled by Henry Kispenvigius able to satisfie the most curious devotions But all is not in multitude The Breviaries Hours and Manuels of devotion say enough Those who have obligation of saying some office ought seriously Government of vocal prayer to think of the discharge of their consciences upon this point But you which have it not it is reason with the advise of your spiritual Father you task your selves upon some daily exercise seasoned with some variety that every day you may repeat it with exact diligence and moreover you have many jaculatory prayers drawn from the psalms or other books for all manner of necessities as well spiritual as temporal and a list of the persons as well living as dead for whom you are to pray When you have the matter digested it remaineth The form your self adde form thereunto a serious attention a profound reverence a fervent love You must imagine with your self that with those holy old men of the Apocalyps you stand before the throne of God with a vial or cup in the one hand which Cup and harp in prayer is your heart replenished with holy thoughts as with odoriferous balm and a harp in the other which is the collection of so many notable prayers Serve your self well with this celestial harp Do not as one Neanthus who having inherited Orpheus his Neanthus To use itwel harp thought to do wonders and played so ill that dogs affrighted with his untuneably skreaking noise tate him in pieces It is not enough you have so many holy prayers which sound like the string of Gods harp consigned to you by Jesus Christ himself and so many holy personages you must use them well lest you find your punishment even in the sacrifice of propitiation Take heed you sacrifice To sacrifice the calf without flower not as S. Gregory saith the calf without flower which is to make prayer with lips without application of heart Four things will greatly serve you to resist distractions Remedies against distractions and driness which happen in prayer The first before prayer and in the time of prayer frame to your self a lively and strong idea of the presence of God and when any distraction occurreth recal your thoughts into their center by often renewing your intentions in the beginning of every part of prayer The second not being charged with any office by obligation make a few vocal prayers and stay upon every word the space of a breathing fit in the mean time pondring both the word which you pronounce and the person to whom you speak and your baseness and unworthiness This manner is very sovereign and available to pray The third to follow the counsel of Cassiodorus to take this vocal prayer which you rehearse as if it were particularly made for you or that it originally had born the very like sprouting buds in your heart So ought you to connaturalize it and punctually espouse all the effections which the Authour of this prayer had when the Holy Ghost did dictate it unto him You must rejoyce bewail hate and love upon David's harp as by a certain divine inspiration The fourth often to ask of God the gift of prayer to offer him all your devotions in union with those of our Saviour and to chastise your neglects by some voluntary satisfaction To water and moysten your prayers and retain them in full vigour it is needful that as you speak to God in the exercise of prayer he speak to you in books and by the mouth of Preachers Wherefore make a resolution to employ daily some part of your time in the reading of some devout book as well that which containeth precepts as examples Go not as it were boot-haling with an unsteaddy curiosity which swalloweth all and ever remaineth hungry but fixe your thoughts and affections upon that which you read in such sort that you may be imbrued and coloured with a firm tincture Good books are as the cave Good books the cave of Sibylla Spiritual reading and Sermons of Sibylla Cassius Longinus saith the inhabitants of that cave had a certain rapture of prophesie and in often revolving the writings of Saints the spirit of Saints is acquired And as for Sermons take heed of that canker of worldly spirits who hear Preachers as Athenian Oratours or as one would a curious lute-player or a Comedie in the Burgundian hostery If he who preacheth to you have no other intention but to please you nor you any other purpose but to sooth your own curiosity he hath wearied his lungs and you in the mean space have had the itch in your ears the time will come when he shall have the worm in his heart to gnaw him and you the tingling in your ears for your punishment The seller and the buyer shall be paid with the coyn of reprobation Who speaketh not and who heareth not to do and become better abuseth a word signed with the bloud of Jesus Christ the loss whereof is most dangerous and the account inestimable The sixteenth SECTION Of the second combat of the spiritual man against weakness ALl that on which I have before very largely discoursed serves to dissipate the darkness of ignorance and to replenish a soul with the knowledge of God with good maxims good desires and good purposes and doubtless nothing would be found more easie and familiar than to do well Temptations remoraes of the soul were it not temptations come athwart us which are the remoraes as it were and hinderances of the soul And therefore it is necessary to frame to your self an undoubted courage high and resolute to resist with an invincible hand and to strike at an infinite number of obstacles which present themselves in all sorts of occasions and which bring upon our souls accesses of fire and yce fire of concupiscence yce of pusillanimity to form in the end an absolute inability of virtue This
love not to please any thing so much as their own sensuality and in these loose companies take fire and wind on all sides to the great prejudice of their reputation I leave it my Daughters to the repose of your recollected cogitations to think what Epitaph may be bestowed upon gentlewomen that lead such a life but that they have employed themselves in the customary actions of a beast nay which a beast daily performs better than they with this disparitie that they have been more inventive to season their sin Behold what honest women commonly most condemn in the carriage of the vitious and imperfect which I have abbreviated in few words being unwilling to enlarge any further upon the other imperfections whereof I have no experience having ordinarily so much entertainment with my books and employments that I have no leisure to study on the manners of this sex The fourth SECTION The tenth Order of Women full of Wisdom and Virtue THe young Emperour took great pleasure to hear the Empress his mother speak so freely concerning the nature of women and he prayed her to perform her promise touching the characters which might serve him in the choice he meant to make whereupon she replied The last and most excellent Order of women is that which heretofore was called the order of Bees women truly divine who seem to have been made upon Celestial globes by the hands of Angels so sweet is their nature their virtue so rare and price so unvaluable They are in houses as the sun in his Orb (a) (a) (a) Sicut sol oriens in mundo in altissimis Dei Eccles 26. and he that would equal their worth should he draw out all mettals and precious stones which the earth hideth in its veins would rather find insufficiency in his purpose than want of merit in his object Bees as said an (b) (b) (b) Nihil habet mortale nisi quod moritur apis nullus nisi artifex nascitur Quintil. Ancient having nothing mortal in them but death they perform actions worthy of immortality Bees are labourers from the day of their birth and it seemeth these are framed for the practice of virtues from their cradle Bees have their little wings these meditation and action Those have a sting these a point of vigour which is the instrument of all perfections Those live under a King and these consecrate themselves to the obedience of Laws both divine and humane Those are great enemies of ordure and these live in the delights of chastity Those travel incessantly and lose not a day unless heaven enforce it (c) (c) (c) Nullus cum per coelum licuit â—lio periit dies Plin. l. 1. these are perpetually in the exercise of good works and loose no time but to give it unto God Those never stay upon withered flowers and these set not their hearts upon any fading things which are under the Moon Those have their hives rubbed with bitter herbs to defend them from venemous creatures and these use mortification of flesh against the poison of pleasures Those make themselves counterpoises with certain little stones to flie the better and these make a counter-ballance with humility to soar the higher Those make honey which serves for nourishment and medicine these have ever charity in their hands to cure the wounds and acerbities of the life of the poor succouring their want by their liberalities Those make the Altars to shine by the help of wax which they produce these adorn and enrich all the Church with the travel of their hands or wealth of their Cabinets What would you to be more noble or divine Why then are you amazed if the Scripture (d) (d) (d) Prov. 19. Domus divitiae dantur à parentibus à Domino autem propriè uxor prudens hath said That houses and riches came from parents but a wise and a virtuous wife from the hand of God The fifth SECTION A brief Table of the excellent qualities of a Ladie and first of true Devotion THe Gentle-women that stood round about the Empress expressed much earnestness to know in few words the excellent qualities of a woman truly virtuous and Euphrosina not to frustrate their desire proceeded in these terms A Ladie well accomplished is like a star with five rays which are the five virtues of Devotion Modestie Chastitie Discretion and Charitie (a) (a) (a) These are the qualities which the Scripture giveth her in divers places Devotion formeth the interiour Modestie makes it appear in the exteriour with a requisite comeliness Chastitie perfecteth both the one and the other Discretion applieth it to the direction of others and Charitie crowneth all her actions (b) (b) (b) The first title of a woman which S. Paul observeth in the Epistle to Titus c. 2. when he calleth her by a Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say suitable to holy things A woman without Devotion were she composed as a Pandora and had she all the beauties which the heart can desire and the imaginations feign is a Bee without a sting which will make neither honey nor wax is a savage beast that nature hath lodged in a painted house is a case covered with precious stones to preserve a dung-hill is a Michol who appeared outwardly with a Crown and lived inwardly a slave to her passions is a piece of flesh already half rotten having not so much as one grain of salt in it Corruption will creep into her life disorder into her manners infamie into her reputation and despair into her salvation Devotion is a virtue hereditary to our sex it is the first portion which God hath granted us it is the title which the Church hath given us it is the most eminent mark of our Nobility If we loose this ornament I cannot see why we should pretend to live having renounced the honour of Christianity But to tell you my opinion Devotion being no other thing but a prompt and vigorous affection which disposeth us to all that which concerneth the service of God it seemeth to me that many among us have great illusions in this point and oftentimes court a fantasie thinking to entertain a truth There are of those who by over-much embracing Altars have overthrown them (c) (c) (c) Altaris dum venerantur evertunt S. Zeno hom de patientia and broken the Idol of Dagon to set their own judgement up in the place thereof I have seen very many who have a slight devotion of apish tricks which onely consisteth in a certain light and childish imitation of countenances and gestures having not any solidity in the interiour For my part I imagine when I think upon such apparences of piety without effect that if apes had a little studied our countenances they would much exceed us in Strabo lib. 1. Aelian de animal l. 7. this point For they are great and mischievous imitatours of all they see witness those who washed their
Libertine thou dost ask how this material fire burneth spiritual souls It is one of the most unfortunate sciences not to understand hell but by proper experience to dispute the activity of a fire as true as the mouth of God and unfaithfully deny on earth what must everlastingly be learned under earth Algazel the Arabian Avicen said a damned soul suffers no other pain but the object of its eternal perdition Algazel and Avicen behold two goodly Authours to oppose the wisdom of the eternal word I am of opinion we learn from devils how to believe in God and derive our Theology from the lips of the wicked and our belief from infidelity as if one should prostitute a Vestal to a lost man Alas wretched spirit how worthy art thou of compassion when not satisfied to play the Epicure in thy manners thou wilt divide thy Libertinism with Philosophy If this discourse which ought to be dedicated to holy horrour of Gods judgements Gulielm Paris de universo did permit farther question one might shew with the great Bishop of Paris that a damned soul kept in a prison of fire retains all the same senses as if it were with the bodie in the middest of flames since we feel in this life such vivacity onely from the imagination that it in us produceth the same effects which the presence of objects doth And this Doctour witnesseth he hath seen and known men who needed no other purgation but the sight of a medecine But if the sole idea do thus what will the real impression of fire work upon a soul which raised by the Divine power above its ordinarie force leaves a form and a character as if a hot-iron were stamped on the flesh We might deduce with S. Thomas Turrecremata Cajetan Isolam and Ocham all the exquisite dolours of a soul that feeleth it self imprisoned as in a cage of fire and stormeth seeing it self not onely deprived of sweet liberty but tormented by an imperious element destined by God for its punishment by extraordinary ways by a suppliment of the antipathy of senses and which shamefully wrack it as if a person of eminent quality were insolently abused by some slave come from the Moors or Arabia We should likewise set before you with other Divines See S. August 21. Citie of God S. Gregory in the 4. of his dialogues S. Thomas contra Gentes l. 4. c. 90. Suar. part 3. and the R. P. Theophilus Raynaud in his natural Theology where this question is excellently handled the quality of a prodigious deformity caused by fire raised above its condition which extreamly afflicteth an immortal spirit then especially when it understands the excellent gifts wherewith God had endowed it the favours and glories it might pretend unto this most blessed eternity One might say with many other modern Doctours that the soul being the root of sensitive qualities is no less tormented by objects dissenting from sense than as if sense were present and hath a spiritual sense by the help of which it trieth and feeleth the fire with an experimental knowledge wholly like the action of sense All these opinions might be argued with many instancies and reasons but it being not according to the scope of this design I say in one word with S. Gregory the Great There is made in the soul from a visible fire a heat and an invisible pain It is true the soul separated from the body hath not a natural antipathy and disagreement from fire but what this imperious element cannot have remaining within the limits of nature it obtaineth by a particular ordinance and disposition of God who chooseth and expresly deputeth it to serve him as an instrument and a sign in this action and to be as an eternal messenger of his anger against a damned soul Now as the Sovereign Judge of the world gave life to Cain for a punishment so according to S. Ambrose he engraved by the same means a disastrous mark on his person which continually set before the eyes of this fratricide the image of his crime and the Divine justice In such manner that oftentimes turmoyled during life in the miseries and confusions of his bruitish spirit so soon as he represented to himself this sign he acknowledged the decree of God who prolonged his life to lengthen his calamities So this Divine hand Omnipotent in its effects imprinteth fire on a damned soul as the true token of his justice the character of his anger the centinel and executioner of his eternal will who beareth the face of an incensed God with all his decrees in his own flames who presseth and lieth heavy on this miserable thing separated from the sight of God and resigned through an eternal malediction to the life of divels 2. Thou must here understand O Reader this Foundation of the eternity of the pains of the damned truth touching the eternity of the pains of the damned confirmed by express texts of holy Scripture and the decision of the universal Church and by all Ages is grounded upon the justice of God ever to be adored by our wills although impenetrable to the weakness of our understanding and for confirmation hereof I think we should not omit the reasons of S. Gregory S. Bernard and S. Thomas before we produce that which to me seems the most formal for although they are not all necessarie in their conclusions yet they fail not to furnish us with much light and to give matter of true piety which is the butt whereat we aim in this discourse You O sinner demand why is a deadly sin strucken and punished with an eternal pain I answer you first with S. Gregory 1. Reason of S. Gregory the Great that if an eternal malice be proved in sin justice by all reasonable ways requireth the chastizement of it to be eternal for an eternity of crimes Non transeunt opera nostra ut videantur sed temporalia quaeque velut aeternitatis semina jaciuntur must be counterballanced with an eternity of miseries Now sin in some sort is eternal and in some manner extends beyond our life which alone is capable of merit or demerit For tell me those stones and kernels of pomegranades and apple-trees and all other trees created in the first week of the world were they temporary or eternal Temporary you will say for they fell before the tree And yet behold they propagate to our time and live in as many trees as there are of their kind on earth for these five thousand years or thereabouts The like is it with the actions you do at this present For they seem to pass in a moment yet are they so many seeds of eternity Reader understand well what I say behold here a secret wherewith daily to acquire a rich treasure of merits make me all your virtues as eternal by the sincerity of your intentions as they in effect are such in their consequence When you do a good work be it prayer alms
servant for she had some good work in her heart for the safety of her Countrey and intreated that it might be recommended to the prayers of the whole Assembly without curiously inquiring what it was that God would do by her means Ozias answered her that she might go in peace and that he prayed that her action might succeed to the good of the universall people Here perhaps may some men be astonished that a woman should take the boldnesse to go and advise the Magistrates and the Priests and the severer sort of censurers will say that by right Judith should have been sent home to her distaffe They will alledge that the Jews give every day thanks to God in their Prayers for that he had not made them be born Women Antiently they were placed in the Churches on the North side from whence the Scripture makes all the evil of the world to come Chrysologus hath also said that woman was the Way of Death the Title of the Sepulchre and the Gate of Hell But this ought to be understood of those that follow the steps of the first of Women and not the wayes of the chief of Virgins Those who abandon themselves to luxury to vanity and to dissolute pleasures are no way fit for great affairs being too delicate for labour and too ambitious of honour But many others that have taken pains in the regulating of their passions have rendred great services to Kingdomes and Common-wealths Rome had never been Rome without the Sabine women The people of the North by the report of Tacitus have been governed in their Warres and in their Polities by women professing that they perceived in them a certain prophetick and divine spirit Plato in his Common-wealth hath judged them capable of Offices their souls being of the same species or kind as men's Wherefore then should we think it strange that God made use of a virtuous woman to counsel men and to deliver her countrey Before she undertook that great work she was a long time prostrated before God in her Oratory with sackcloth upon her back and ashes upon her head saying with an amorous heart My God the God of my Fathers to whom nothing is impossible look down now upon the camp of the Assyrians with that eye of lightnings and of thunders that thou heretofore didst cast upon the army of Egyptians when they were buried in the bottom of the Sea Let the same happen to those here that trust in their chariots of warre in their spears and in their swords and know not that thou art the God of heaven that breakest in pieces the mighty Powers of the earth with one sole look of thine eyes lift up that same arm that hath made it self renown'd from all antiquity by so many wonders and tread under-foot all their strength by thine for ever dreadfull forces Suffer them not to violate thy Temple and to sack the House where thy Name is from all time invoked Cause this barbarous Collonel who promises himself our spoils to be taken by me through the snares of his eyes that his own Coutel-ax may divide his soul and body Strike him with the grace that thy blessing shall make to flow upon my lips and with the cloquence that it shall give to my speeches animate my heart and stiffen my arm to make that great blow that shall be thine and carry away an eternall honour for having pulled down that Colossus by a woman's hand Thy strength is not in the multitude of souldiers nor in the valour of Cavaliers It is not those proud warriours that ought to expect the succour of thy arm but it is the Prayer of the humble that gains thy heart and draws thy forces to their protection God of the heavens creatour of the waters and the God of all nature hear thy poor servant that presumes nothing but from thy mercy Remember thy Covenant give counsel to my heart words to my mouth and strength to my hands for the defence of thy House and that all the Nations of the habitable world may know that there is not any other God but thee Such were the Arms and Engines of this excellent woman such was the confidence she had in the God of hosts After this Prayer she rises from her Oratory comes down from her chamber and calls her maid to dresse her She puts off the sackcloth she washes her self she perfumes her self and quitting the mourning habit which she wore in her widow-hood she puts on her gayest cloathing The tresses of her long hairs are combed out with a delicate hand and her head covered with a stately tyre her handsome body appeared a little taller by the favour of her patins she hangs on her pendants at her ears she puts on her bracelets her chain of pearls her rings certain jewels made in form of flower-de-Lis's and all her richest ornaments It seemed that God took a pleasure that day to render her fairer then ever she had been and that all the graces smiled in her countenance because she had adorned her self through virtue and not through wantonnesse She caused her meat and drink to be carried by her maid fearing to pollute her body with the viands of the Infidels and instantly she went out of her house and betook her self to the city gate where she found Ozias the Prince together with the Priests that were ravished with the lustre of her heavenly beauty Yet no body curiously enquired whither she was going but were contented to wish that God would make her designs succesfull that she might be one day the honour of Jerusalem and that her name might be put in the rank of those great and holy souls that had rendred to God most renowned services She departs out of the city calling again upon the name of God and reciting some prayers with her servant As she went down the mountain upon the break of day the souldiers having perceived her failed not to run to her and seeing her so excellently beautifull were at first dazled in their eyes more by the splendour of her visage then by the first rayes of the day that then was upon its birth They inform themselves of her countrey of her journey and of her intentions whereto she answered that she was of Bethulia and that she had that day forsaken that miserable city that was obstinate in its misery and that for having resisted the triumphant legions of the Assyrians deserved to be destroyed by the thunder-bolts of heaven and earth That she would have no share in their crime no more then in their disastres and that her desire was to present her self to Holophernes to reveal to him the secrets of the city and to teach him the means how to take it without losing any of his men These men were ravished at the hearing of these discourses and assured her that she had taken an excellent course to live in quiet and in honour and that she would be very welcome to their master of whom
to death And now-adays is found a frantick Nobility who degrading themselves from the honour of generous spirits and bearing the sentence of an ignoble action against themselves make tropheys of that which is put upon Moorish slaves for punishment Yet the great Constantine saw this manner of punishing the base and abject creatures of the world was too brutish and butcherly and that it would do well to change these duels into Gallies or some such like thing for he wrote to Maximus the Superintendent of justice in these terms These bloudy spectacles in the civil repose and L. 1. de gladiat Cod. Theod. domestick peace wherein we live please me not at all Behold the cause why I will wholly take away these combats of Gladiatours For if there be such graceless wretches who for the punishment of their crimes deserve such a sentence and such condition I ordain that you rather cause them to labour in the mynes to the end that without effusion of bloud they may feel the pain due to their demerits Given at Berytus the first day of October under the Consulship of Paulinus and Julianus I leave you to think what this Monarch would Apostrophe to King Lewis the thirteenth have said of duels of this time where they hasten to pour out willingly upon publick passages that bloud which ought rather to be shed upon the walls of Infidels to cement up the glory of the French O Lewis our great Monarch it seemeth the God of peace hath permitted the heads of this Hydra to have hitherto budded forth that they might be made to fall under the innocency of your hands divinely destinated to so many good works You have again very lately renewed your Edicts against this pestilence assuring unto fathers and mothers the bloud of their children for the service of your Crown and taking away a stain which stuck so many years upon the brow of your Empire Heaven and earth have participated in the contentment which hath succeeded from these good ordinances as they do in the preservation of the lives of your subjects and tranquility of your whole Realm Let your Majesty so handle the matter that this Law may hold with nails of adamant and not loose a glory which Constantine would have bought at the price of two Empires This brave Prince who ever had been most chast His chastity made also sharp war against the infamous ordures of lust for he expelled from the Court as vermine certain effeminate men who had made sale of their souls to dishonour and at other times made a lamentable traffick of their bodies insinuating themselves by this means into the Palaces of Great-ones and sometime into honourable rank He degraded them all from Nobility and forbad them to bear even the marks of men of Arms tying them to services the most contemptible Besides he caused to be taken from publick infamies many poor Christian maids that had been abandoned to evil by the form of punishment making express inhibitions to those villains who live upon others sins never to undertake the like practises Briefly he so abolished the crimes which had been tolerated under the other Emperours that S. Hierom writing upon Isaiah hath given the title to Constantine that his Empire had vanquished two monsters the most dreadfull that were ever seen by destroying the infidelity and impurity of the earth His prudence descended even to the moderating His prudence Cod. Theod. L. de paenit Quo facies quae ad similitudinem pulchritudinis caelestis est sigurata minimè maculetur Zozom l. 1. c. 8. and changing the punishments of offenders which had some disproportion and among other things he decreed that characters should no more be imprinted upon the forehead of the miserable for the respect that is due to the face of man on the which God hath engraven his image And moreover for the honour he bare to the Gross he forbade it should ever again be defiled with the punishments and executions of malefactours thinking it unreasonable that that which was matter of glory to Emperours should likewise serve as an instrument for the pains of the unhappy He suffered not any image to be made unto him either in tables statues or coins whereon the Cross was not ever set such honour bare he to this Honour of the Cross venerable sign which Hereticks have ever rejected with as much malice as stupidity It were an infinite thing for him that would particularly decipher so many noble actions of our Constantine I content my self to have here set down that in brief which might have been distended into many chapters and to make many dishes of it endeavouring to furnish out more substance for my Reader than unprofitable amplifications The eleventh SECTION The zeal of Constantine in the proceedings of the Councel of Nice THe Emperour Constantine had great cause to say what he spake in Eusebius That he was as the common Bishop of the Church outwardly so much vigilance and zeal he exercised to procure all which concerned the maintenance thereof Behold an accident happening under his reign which more troubled Christendom than ever did the torturing racks the combs of iron or boyling cauldrons of Diocletian Theologie had been for a long time taught in the Original of the Arians Citie of Alexandria at which time a Priest named Arius held the regency who had the reputation to be subtile in seeking out questions which never had fallen into the thought of man but otherwise was malicious and of an evil life Out alas that these extravagant curiosities should bring and daily also introduce prejudice into the Church and repose of the people It were to be wished that those who through long idleness and itch of vanity amuze themselves to find out novelties in matter of belief might rather handle the coulter in tillage or the oar in gallies than turn over books and contaminate the honour of Divinity Satan never found a spirit more fit to perplexe holy letters and embroil Empires than this wretched man of whom we speak Saint Epiphanius who might often have seen him Arius and his qualities saith He was of a large body of a sad countenance covering under a mask of austerity hydeous monsters He had an extream ambition to hold the highest place and seeing that Alexander a holy man was preferred before him in the Episcopal Chair of Alexandria he entered into desperate jealousies searching out all possible means to crie down this Bishop and raise calumnies against him to dispossess him of his charge And the life of this Alexander being so unspotted that no least stain of reproach might be seen therein he resolved to involve him in some captious disputations thereby to accuse him to hold opinions not consonant to the doctrine of the Church It happened that the Bishop in preaching and speaking of the Son of God put him as he ought in equality of power and honour with his Celestial Father calling him by
the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereupon this man sought to reprehend him alledging some passages of scripture maliciously interpreted of which he made use to establish the unhappy heresie which denied that the Son was the same essence of God his Father and took away from Jesus Christ the diadem of the Eternal Divinity by making him a meer creature Alexander who was not a man of mean account but such an one as to his sanctity of life added solid doctrine defended himself couragiously against the impostures of this malign spirit very well justifying his belief touching the Divinity of our Saviour which having been throughly proved in the Assembly of an hundred Bishops who were first of all called together for this purpose under Hosius Legat of Pope Sylvester he pronounced the sentence of excommunication against Arius and his complices This wicked man who burst with anger to see this condemnation passed against him by those whom he reputed to be infinitely under him in ability put himself into the field with very much ostent the differences he lately had with these Prelates making him understand his Divinity was odious if he therein used not some colour to disguise the malice thereof He also practised so many wiles that he dazeled the eyes even of those who were men very eapable for after he had deduced his reasons with a great facility of words and large quantity of specious passages and that he thereunto added a cold countenance counterfeiting himself a modest man persecuted for the truth he trained spirits not vulgar to the love of his novelties All the very same proceedings have been seen with the Herericks of this time and if so many corrupt souls had not wholly enclined to their own ruin God gave them sufficient examples in elder evils to avoid the new We Proceeding of Arians may well say when we behold these schisms and heresies to arise that there is some comet of the kingdom of darkness which insensibly throweth plague and poison into hearts It is a strange thing that a little sparkle let fall in Alexandria caused instantly so many fires that having invaded Aegypt Lybia Thebais and Palestine they in the end involved almost the whole world No man at that time cared how to live but every one was ready to dispute Bishops bandying against Bishops drew the people distracted with opinions The Churches houses and Theaters ecchoed in the sharpness of contentious disputations and the Cities forgetting all other miseries rent one another for the interpretation of a word Arius to gain support instantly seeketh for favour from the Court. And knowing that Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia was of great credit he used all the flatteries of which this man was capable enough to gain him to his side This Eusebius was eminently furnished with all those dispositions and industries which the most subtile Hereticks have at any time exercised to trouble the Church of God He was verily one of the worst men then in the Empire since he had sold his soul to ambition so much the more pernicious as it was covered with a veil of Religion It is true which the Hebrews say that Vineger is an ill son of a good father for it is commonly made of the best wine so there is nothing more sincere than an Ecclesiastick who liveth in the duty of his profession but when corruption falleth thereinto and that he hath once degenerated there is not a worse sharpness nor a more dangerous malice Religion served this wicked man as a buskin for all feet for it had no other bounds but that of his own interests and he ever like weather-cocks on the top of steeples turned his face on what side soever the wind blew In the persecutions of Christendom he made himself an Idolater in the garboyls of Lycinius he leaned much to his side and when he saw Constantine absolute in the Empire never was man more plyable to flatter him Doubtless he had all the qualities we have seen in Luther Calvin and so many other new Sects who have still sought favour from Great-ones by wyles and most perillous charms So wanted he not excellent parts and great eminencies for he had a spirit very subtile speech cunning a face which spake before his tongue and as for his extraction he soared so high as to make himself the kins-man of Caesars The air he desired to breath was the Court and his Bishoprick when he was absent seemed to him a banishment Behold the cause why he drew near to the center of the Empire as much as he could in such sort that being first Bishop of Berytus he put himself forward to the chair of Nicomedia afterward took the heart of the Kingdom and in the end setled himself in the Royal Constantinople This alteration of chairs had in this time a very ill savour and this life of Court so passionately affected by an Ecclesiastick not called thereunto could not in any sort find approbation among good men Great personages are sometimes very lawfully in Court for the service of Kings and publick necessities but they are thereas the birds of Baruch upon Baruch 6. 70. Job 26. white thorns as the Gyants of holy Job which mourned under the waters as those sweet fountains found in the salt Sea An ambitious man who heweth down mountains to arrive thither and liveth not exemplary deserveth to be regarded therein as a fish out of his element or the pyde bird whereof Jeremie speaketh whom all the rest assailed with Jer. 12. 2. beak and talon Eusebius notwithstanding little regarded the reputation of a good Prelate so that he might arrive to the height of his enterprizes To insinuate himself the more into the good liking of the Emperour he gained Constantia sister of Constantine and widow of Lycinius as Calvin did afterward the sister of Francis the first The good Lady who being despoiled of Empire by the death of her husband and had no longer so much employment to number the pearls of her Diadem would needs then intermedle with curious devotion and dispute on the mysteries of the holy Trinity Constantine after the death of S. Helena his mother held her at his Court with much respect that she might the more easily digest the acerbities she had conceived in the loss of her husband and much easier was it to entertain her in the affairs of the Church than in those of Empires Besides he found it not amiss that she might busie her self in the doubtfull questions of Bishops So pursuing the Genius of her curious spirit she passed so far that she became an Arian by the practises of this Eusebius who having already gotten credit with her spake to her of Arius as of a worthy man persecuted by his own side for his great abilities and explicating to her his doctrine in popular terms which said there was no apparence how a son could be made as old as his father and that poor Arius had been banished