death and expect it Take heede least you so fasten your eyes vppon the first death of the body that you should not look beyond it to the second which alone is worthy of trēbling worthy of teares For this though terrible to Nature yet is common to vs with you You must dye What doe wee else And what differs our end from yours but in hast and violence And vvho knowes whether in that It may bee a sickenesse as sharpe as suddaine shal fetch vs hence It may bee the same death or a worse for a better cause Or if not so There is much more miserie in lingering Hee dies easily that dyes soone But the other is the vtmost vengeaunce that GOD hath reserued for his enemies This is a matter of long feare and short payne A few panges lets the soule out of prison but the Torment of that other is euerlasting after tenne thousand yeares scorching in that flame the payne is neuer the neerer to his ending No time giues it hope of abating yea time hath nothing to do with this eternity You that shall feele the paine of one minutes dying thinke what paine it is to be dying for euer and euer This although it bee attended with a sharpe paine yet is such as some strong spirits haue indured without shew of yeildance I haue herd of an Irish Traitor that when he lay pining vppon the wheele with his bones broke asked his friend if hee changed his countenance at all caring lesse for the paine then the shew of feare Few men haue dyed of greater paines then others haue sustained and liue But that other ouer-whelms both body and soule and leaues no roome for any comfort in the possibility of mitigation Heere men are executioners or diseases there fiends Those diuels that were ready to tempt the gracelesse vnto sinne are as ready to follow the damned with tortures Whatsoeuer becom of your carcasse saue your soule from these flames and so mannage this short time you haue to liue that you may die but once This is not your first sinne yea God hath now punnished your former sins with this A fearefull punishment in it selfe if it deserued no more your cōscience which now beginnes to tell trueth cannot but assure you that there is no sinne more worthy of hell then murder yea more proper to it Turne ouer those holy leaues which you haue too much neglected now smart for neglecting you shall finde Murderers among those that are shut out from the presence of God you shall finde the Prince of that darknes in the highest stile of his mischief termed a Man-slayer Alas how fearefull a case is this that you haue heerein-resembled him for whome Topheth was prepared of old and imitating him in his action haue endangered your self to partake of his tormēts Oh that you coulde but see what you haue done what you haue deserued That your heart could bleed enough within you for the bloud your handes haue shed That as you haue followed Satan our common enemy in sinning so you could defye him in repenting That your teares could disapoint his hopes of your damnation What an happy vnhappinesse shall this be to your sad friendes that your better part yet liueth That frō an ignominious place your soule is receyued to glory Nothing can effect this but your Repentance and that can do it Feare not to looke into that horrour which should attend your sinne and bee now as seuere to your selfe as you haue beene cruell to another Thinke not to extenuate your offence with the vain Titles of man-hood what praise is this that you were a valiaunt Murderer Strike your owne breast as Moses did his Rooke and bring down Riuers of tears to wash away your bloud-shed Do not so much feare your iudgment as abhorre your sinne yea your selfe for it And with strong cries lift vppe your guilty hands to that God whom you offended and say Deliuer mee from blood-guiltines O Lord. Let me tell you as without repentance there is no hope so with it ther is no condemnation True penitence is strong can grapple with the greatest sin yea with all the powers of hell What if your hands be red with blood Behold the blood of your Sauiour shall wash away yours If you can bath your selfe in that your Scarlet soule shall be as white as Snow This course alone shal make your Crosse the way to the Paradice of God This plaister can heale all the sores of the foul if neuer so desperate Onely take heede that your heart bee deepe enough pierced ere you lay it on else vnder a seeming skinne of dissimulation your soule shall fester to death Yet ioy vs vvith your true sorrowe whome you haue grieued with your offence at once comfort your friends and saue your soule EPIST. IX To Mr. Iohn Mole of a long time nowe prisoner vnder the Inquisition at Rome ¶ Exciting him to his wonted Constancie and incouraging him to Martyrdome WHat passage can these lines hope to finde into that your straight and curious thraldome Yet who would not aduenture the losse of this paines for him which is ready to loose himself for Christ what do we not ow to you which haue thus giuen your self for the cōmon faith blessed be the name of that God who hath singled you out for his Champion made you inuincible how famous are your bonds How glorious your constancy Oh that out of your close obscurity you could but see the honour of your suffring the affections of Gods Saints in som an holy enuy at your distressed hapines Those wals cannot hide you No man is attended with so many eyes from earth heauen The Church your Mother beholdes you not with more compassion then ioy Neither can it bee sayde how shee at once pitties your misery and reioyces in your patience The blessed Angels looke vpon you with gratulation and applause The aduersaries with an angry sorrowe to see themselues ouercome by their captiue their obstinate cruelty ouer-matched with humble resolution and faithfull perseuerance Your Sauiour sees you from aboue not as a meer spectator but as a patient with you in you for you yea as an agent in your indurance victory giuing new courage with the one hād and holding out a Crowne with the other Whom would not these sights incorage who now can pitty your solitarinesse The harts of all good men are with you Neither can that place be but full of angels which is the continuall obiect of so many Prayers yea the God of heauen was neuer so near you as now ye are remooued from men Let me speake a bold but true worde Jt is as possible for him to bee absent from his Heauen as from the prisons of his Saints The glorified spirits aboue sing to him the persecuted soules below suffer for him and crie to him he is magnified in both present with both the faith of the one is as pleasing to him as the triumph of
lessons of grace there he learnes what belongs to a Sauiour what one hee is what he hath done and for whom how he became ours we his now finding himselfe in a true state of danger of humilitie of neede of desire of fitnes for Christ he brings home to himself al that he learns and what he knowes he applies His former Tutor he feared this hee loueth that shewed him his wounds yea made them this binds and heales them that killed him this shewes him life and leades him to it Now at once he hates himselfe defies Satan trusts to Christ makes account both of pardon and glory This is his most precious Faith whereby he appropriates yea in grosses Christ Iesus to himselfe whence hee is iustified from his sinnes purified from his corruptions established in his resolutiōs comforted in his doubts defended against temptations ouercomes all his enemies Which vertue as it is most imploied and most opposed so carries the most care from the Christian hart that it be sound liuely growing Sound not rotten not hollow not presumptuous sound in the Act not a superficiall conceit but a true deepe and sensible apprehension an apprehension not of the braine but of the heart and of the heart not approuing or assenting but trusting and reposing Sound in the obiect none but Christ he knows that no friendship in heauen can do him good without this The Angells cannot God will not Ye beleeue in the Father beleeue also in me Liuely for it cannot giue life vnlesse it haue life the faith that is not fruitfull is dead the fruits of faith are good workes whether inward within the roofe of the heart as loue awe sorrow piety zeale ioy and the rest or outward towards God or our bretheren obedience and seruice to the one to the other reliefe and beneficence These he beares in his time sometimes all but alwayes some Growing true faith cannot stand still but as it is fruitfull in workes so it increaseth in degrees from a little seede it proues a large plant reaching from earth to heauen and from one heauen to another euery showre and euery Sun addes something to it Neither is this grace euer solitary but alwaies attended royallie For hee that beleeues what a Sauiour hee hath cannot but loue him he that loues him cannot but hate whatsoeuer may displease him cannot but reioice in him hope to inioy him and desire to enioy his hope and contemne all those vanities which he once desired and enioyed His minde now scorneth to grouell vpon earth but soareth vp to the things aboue where Christ sits at the right hand of God and after it hath seene what is done in heauen looks strangely vpon al worldly things He dare trust his faith aboue his reason and sense and hath learned to weane his appetite from crauing much Hee stands in awe of his owne conscience and dare no more offend it then not displease himselfe Hee feares not his enemies yet neglects them not equally auoiding security and timorousnesse Hee sees him that is inuisible and walks with him awfully familiarly He knowes what he is borne to and therefore digests the miseries of his wardship with patience hee findes more comfort in his afflictions then any worldling in pleasures And as hee hath these graces to comfort him within so hath hee the Angels to attend him without spirits better then his owne more powerfull more glorious These beare him in their armes wake by his bed keepe his soule while hee hath it and receiue it when it leaues him These are some present differences the greatest are future which could not bee so great if themselues were not witnesses no lesse then betwixt heauen and hell torment and glory an incorruptible crowne and fire vnquēchable Whether Infidels be leeue these things or no we know them so shall they but too late What remaynes but that wee applaud our selues in this happines walke on clearly in this heauenly professiō acknowledging that God could not do more for vs that we cānot do enough for him Let others boast as your Ladiship might with others of ancient and noble houses large Patrimonies or dowries honourable commaunds others of famous names high and enuied honors or the fauors of the greatest others of valor or beauty or some perhaps of eminent learning and wit it shall bee our pride that we are Christians To my Lady Honoria Hay Ep. IIII. Discoursing of the necessity of Baptisme and the estate of those which necessarily want it MADAME MEthinks children are like teeth troublesome both in the breeding and loosing oftentimes painful while they stand yet such as we neither would nor can well be without I goe not about to comfort you thus late for your losse I rather congratulate your wise moderation Christian care of these first spirituall priuiledges desiring only to satisfie you in what you hard as a witnesse not in what you needed as a mother Children are the blessings of Parents and baptisme is the blessing of children and parents Wherein there is not only vse but necessity Necessity not in respect so much of the end as of the precept God hath enioyned it to the comfort of parents and behoofe of children which therefore as it may not be superstitiously hastened so not negligently differred That the contempt of baptisme damneth is past all doubt but that the constrained absence thereof should send infants to hel is a cruell rashnesse It is not their sinne to die early death is a punishment not an offence an effect of sinne not a cause of torment they want nothing but time which they could not cōmand Because they could not liue a while longer that therfore they should die euerlastingly is the hard sentence of a bloody religion I am onely sorry that so harsh an opinion should bee graced with the name of a father so reuerend so diuine whose sentence yet let no man pleade by halues He who helde it vnpossible for a child to be saued vnlesse the baptismall water were powred on his face held it also as vnpossible for the same infant vnlesse the sacramētal bread were receiued into his mouth There is the same ground for both the same error in both a weaknes fit for forgetfulnes seeyet how ignorāt or il meaning posterity could single out one half of the opinion for truth and condemne the other of falshood In spight of whom one part shall easily conuince the other yea without al force since both cannot stand both will fall together for company The same mouth which said vnlesse ye be borne againe of water and the holy Ghost said also Except yee eate the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his blood An equall necessity of both And lest any one should plead different interpretations the same Saint Austin auerres this later opinion also concerning the necessary communicating of children to haue beene once the common iudgement of the Church of Rome A sentence so displeasing that you
shall finde the memory of it noted with a blacke coale wip't out in that infamous bill of Expurgations Had the ancient Church held this desperate sequele what strange and yet wilful cruelty had it bene in them to deferre baptisme a whole yearelong till Easter or that Sunday which hath his name I thinke from the white robes of the baptised Yea what an aduenture was it in some to adiourne it till their age with Constantine if being vnsure of their life they had beene sure the preuention of death wold haue inferred damnation Looke vnto that legall Sacrament of circumcision which contrary to the fancies of our Anabaptists directly answeres this Euangelicall Before the eight day they could not bee circumcised before the eight day they might die If dying the seuenth day they were necessarily condemned eyther the want of a day is a sinne or God sometimes condemneth not for sin Neither of them possible neither according with the iustice of the Law-giuer Or if from this parallell you please to looke either to reason or example the case is cleare Reason No man that hath faith can bee condemned for Christ dwels in our harts by faith and he in whom Christ dwels cannot bee a reprobate Now it is possible a man may haue a sauing saith before baptisme Abraham first beleeued to iustification then after receiued the signe of circumcision as a seale of the righteousnes of that faith which he had when he was vncircumcised Therefore some dying before their baptisme may yea must be saued Neither was Abrahams case singular he was the Father of all them also which beleeue not being circumcised these as they are his Sons in faith so in righteousnesse so in saluation vncircumcision cannot hinder where faith admitteth These following his steps of beleefe before the sacrament shal doubtlesse rest in his bosome without the sacrament without it as fataly absent not as willingly neglected It is not the water but the faith not the putting away the filth of the flesh saith Saint Peter but the stipulation of a good conscience for who takes Baptisme without a ful faith saith Hierome takes the water takes not the spirit VVhence is this so great vertue of the water that it should touch the body and cleanse the heart saith Austen vnlesse by the power of the word not spoken but beleeued Thou seest water saith Ambrose euery water heales not that water onely heals which hath the grace of God annexed And if there bee any grace in the water saith Basill it is not of the nature of the water but of the presence of the spirit Baptisme is indeed as S. Ambrose stiles it the paune and image of our resurrection yea as Basil the power of God to resurrectiō but as Ignatius expoundes this phrase aright beleeuing in his death wee are by baptisme made partakers of his resurrection Baptisme therefore without faith cannot saue a man and by faith doth saue him and faith without baptisme where it cannot be had not where it may be had and is contemned may saue him That Spirit which workes by meanes will not bee tyed to meanes Examples Cast your eyes vpon that good theefe good in his death though in his life abhominable hee was neuer washed in lordan yet is receiued into Paradise his soble was foule with rapines and iniustice yea bloody with murders and yet being scouted onely with the blood of his Sauiour not with water of baptisme it is presented glorious to God I say nothing of the soules of Traian and Falconella meere heathens liuing and dying without Christ without baptisme which yet their honest Legend reports deliuered from hell transported to heauen not so much as scorched in Purgatorie The one by the prayers of Gregory the other of Tecla VVhat partiality is this to deny that to the children of Christians which they grant to knowne infidels The promise is made to vs and our seed not to those that are without the pale of the Church Those Innocents which were massacred for Christ are by them canonized for Saints and make one day in their Calendar each yeare both holy and dismall whereof yet scarce any liued to know water none to know baptisme Yea all Martyrs are here priuiledged who are Christened in their owne blood instead of water but where hath God saide All that die without baptisme shall die for euer except Martyrs why not except beleeuers It is faith that giues life to Martyrs which if they should want their first death could not auoyde the second Ambrose doubted not to say his Valentinian was baptised because hee desired it not because he had it he knew the minde of God who accounts vs to haue what we vnfaynedly wish Children cannot liue to desire baptisme if their parents desire it for them why may not the desire of others be theirs as well as according to Austins opinion the faith of othērs beleeuing and the mouth of others confessing In these cases therefore of any soules but our owne it is safe to suspend and dangerous to passe iudgement Secret things to God Hee that made all soulesv knowes what to doe with them neither will make vs of counsaile But if we define either way the errors of charity are inoffensiue wee must honour good meanes and vse them and in their necessarie want depend vpon him who can worke beyond without against meanes Thus haue I endeauoured your Ladiships satisfaction in what you heard not without some scruple If any man shall blame my choice in troubling you with a thorny and scholasticall discourse let him know that I haue learned this fashion of St. Hierome the Oracle of Antiquitie who was wont to entertaine his Paula and Eustochium Marcella Principia Hedibia and other deuout Ladies with learned canuases of the deep pointes of Diuinity This is not so perplexed that it need to offend nor so vnnecessary that it may bee vnknowne To Sir Richard Lea since deceassed EP. V. Discoursing of the comfortable remedies of all afflictions WIse men seeke remedies before their disease sensible patients when they beginne to complaine fooles too late Afflictions are the common maladies of Christians These you feele and vpon the first grones seeke for ease VVherefore serues the tongue of the learned but to speake wordes in season I am a scholer of those that can comfort you If you shall with mee take out my lessons neither of vs shall repent it You smart and complaine take heed least too much There is no affliction not grieuous the bone that was disioynted cannot bee set right without paine No potion can cure vs if it worke not it workes not except it make vs sicke wee are contented with that sickenesse which is the way to health There is a vexation without hurt such is this We are afflicted not ouer-pressed needy not desperate persecuted not forsaken cast downe but perish not How should we when all the euil in a Citie comes from the prouidence of a good God which