Immortal Reliques The feather of the Archangel which the Pardoner had it not been purloined would have shewed to the admiring multudes And the red Velvet Buckler now still reserved in a Castle of Normandy which the Archangel Michael made use of when he combated the Dragon Howsoever I do not apprehend so much miracle in the preservation of those Monuments as in their supernatural multiplication that the Cross which once Simon of Cyrene bore on his back should now be able to load a Ship That whereas John Baptist lost but one head now there are two sensibly to be seene one at Amiens in France as our Rhemists affirm the other in St. Sylvesters Abby in Rome besides the scattered parcells of it in several places Now in all these respective circumstances of Veneration well may the Roman Catholick I trow say of all theirs according to that of the Psalmist Such Honour have all his Saints But in the meane time what becomes of the most eminent and best deserving professor of Protestancy What Ywis but this He dies and is tumbled into an hole mortuus est sine lux sine crux sine clango and his memory dyes and lies buried with him without any Epitaph but dead and forgotten yet his obstinacy talkes confidently of a blessed Triumph in Heaven far surpassing all the pompous commemorations upon earth and pleaseth himselfe with that of Solomon in spight of all malice Memoria justi in benedictionibus CHAP. VI The triumph of Ease THere are excellencies which are so hard in atchieving that they scarce requite the cost of purchasing like to some sweet kernel which lies inclosed in so thick a shell that it is hardly worth the cracking Give me those contentments which besides their value and pleasure in their enjoyment are justly commended by the ease of attaining them Such is the Roman profession The dignity whereof is equally matched with the facility Perhaps our holy Mother will give me little thankes for this praise as affecting rather a sterne austerity and deep mortification in the practice of her Religion boasting of the harsh discipline and exact rigour of her Clients showing with much gloriation their stinging Haire-clothes their bloody Whips their knotted Girdles their rough and patched Garments their barefoot Walks their uneasie Lodgings their broken Sleepes their purposely-disguised Habits rejoycing in the ambitious contestation betwixt her St. Francis and her St. Clare whethe rs Coate should be more course and beggerly upbraiding the Hereticks with their apparent Delicacie the nice curation of their Skin the softnesse and cost of their Attire the curiosity of their fastidious Mawes their sinking in their Down-beds the perpetual Frolicks of their Feastings and the pleasures of their continual Disports And surely as to the former of these the plea cannot be denied to be just and uncapable of contradiction What Heremites or Recluses can the Protestant Churches boast of What woolward penanes what weary pilgrimages what bleeding backs Onely they pretend for themselves thus If the body of Piety be yours the soul of Piety is ours If the Roman Catholick have the sowrer face the English Catholick hath the sadder heart if the one professe more mortification of the flesh the other more deep and lively stirrings of the spirit But let not our holy Mother stand too stiffly upon the termes of her outward rigidities Her Opposites will be ready to clap her in the teeth with St. Pauls check That bodily exercise profiteth little and to put her in minde of what her dearest Son St. Francis said once when it was too late That it repented him he had used his Brother Body so hardly and what another that had more wit and no lesse holinesse then he even St. Bernard himselfe said who lamentably complaining of the wrong that he had done to himselfe by his undue austerities whereby he had disabled himselfe to the publick services of his holy Devotions hath left this caveat behind him for all posterity Cavendum est c. Heed must be taken saith he lest whiles we whip too much Salutem perdamus we destroy our health and whiles we seek to subdue an enemy we kill not a Subject Rather notwithstanding the ostentation of these outward penalties let not our holy Mother suffer her selfe to lose the praise of the facility of her Religion For as for these bodily penances whether voluntary or imposed the Opposites make light to be out-done by them and are ready to say that if the sin of the soul could be done away with a little smart of the body they would think it a very easie condition avowing that the inward acts of true mortification which they practice are Scorpions in comparison of those Flea-bitings They can twit her with ill patternes of bodily sufferings not inferiour to hers The Mattarii amongst the Manichees lay as hard as her Votaries The Baalites spared their flesh lesse then her cruellest whip-stocks The Charinzarri can keep as strict a Fast as theirs if but for Arzibur their Sergius his Dog The Turkes can keep a more abstinent Fast till they can see a Star the Mahumetan Dervises the Bonzes of China the Menegreros of Pegu and Bramaa and other the Votaries of the Indian Pagodes put themselves to more paine then the most selfe-afflicting Capuchine yet never the better And can tell her withall that she with all these shall for a cold thanks for their labour heare from the mouth of God Quis requisivit Who required this at your hands Let her therefore if I might be worthy to advise her stand upon those easie taskes of Piety and Religion wherein she goes farre beyond all her Corrivals For whereas the fond Protestant professes with Luther that he findes it a very hard work to pray for as much as the heart being forestalled with worldly thoughts is not easily reduced to a praying condition and the minde of a man is still apt in the holiest action to be volatile and lies exposed to a world of distractions and much strugling there must needs be to work that froward peice in our bosome to a meet apprehension of that infinite Majesty whom we speak unto and to those holy affections and divine ravishments of spirit which are requisite in that man who desires to pour out his soul to God with sensible comfort the more favourable Oracles of Rome teach us that there needs none of all this Vt quid perditio haec It is not necessary saith her acute Suarez in prayer to think of the thing signified by the words neither is it essential to prayer for a man to think of the speech it selfe it is sufficient to think of God to whom he speakes He that wants Devotion saith Jacobus Graphius sins not As the words of a Charmer saith learned Salmeron have their force and efficacy though they be not understood of him that utters them So Divine words spoken with a good and simple intention have
unhappily slaine amongst other his good neighbours as it was the lot of that incomparable Chamier at Montalban and after burnt by the Tigurines to ashes And what if for a marvellous Testimony of his honest intentions his heart alone was three dayes after such his combustion found in that heape of ashes entire and untouched yet how can it be other then a foule slur to his reputation that a professed Preacher should be found thus dead and wrapt not in lead but in iron Whatever liberty latter times have taken neither the Antient Councils abroad nor our Octobone Canons at home would have indured it and we know who sending the coat-armour of a consecrated person taken captive to the Pope could say Vide an haec sit tunica filii tui See if this be your sonnes coat To let passe their guides if we cast down our eyes upon their followers in general Cardinal Bellarmine hath passed their doome roundly and soundly As for the people saith he there are indeed in the Catholique Church many bad men but of the Hereticks there is not one good Ipse dixit and if the Cardinals make up but one body with the Pope by vertue of that union he can no more erre in his sentence then his Holinesse himselfe and so actum est de haereticis the summe of all is The Church of Rome after all slanders is holy the opposite Churches after all Apologies are equally impure as she is holy CHAP. IV. The triumph of Power AS in Glory Pleasure and Purity so much more in Power doth our foresaid Mother of Rome exceed all her Rivals Lest you doubt it her power is clearely seene in her mighty Iurisdiction and in her miraculous operations For first what is it that her ministerial head wants of omnipotency Ask Mosconius and he can assure you that the Pope is above law against law without law and therefore can do all things he can open and shut Heaven Hell and Purgatory He can dispence with vowes and oathes insomuch as in every promissory oath that a man swears the Popes power is tacitely fore-excepted He can increase the number of the Books of the holy Scripture He can Canonize Saints Depose and dethrone Kings Dispose of all earthly Dominions So as it was acutely distinguisht by Jacobus de Terano that when our Saviour gave charge to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars he meant it for a continuance but onely for the present until the time of his crucifixion telling us that when he shall be lifted up he will draw all to him that is saith he he will take away all the Kingdomes of the Earth from Temporal Princes and bestow them upon his holy Vicar the Pope by vertue whereof he can mould and frame Kings to his own pleasure For example he can command a King to take such a wife as he shall recommend to him he can dethrone and depose the proudest Monarch Yea what do I speak so narrowly and mincingly of his power he is Rex Regum and Dominus Dominantium the King of Kings and Lord of Lords every rational creature is subject to his rule and command and in short he hath one and the same Tribunal with God himselfe So as it was but his meet Title that was in our time given to Pope Paul the fifth Paulo Quinto Vice-Deo which after some agitation in the consistory was resolved upon by his Holinesse to be a Stile not unfit for himselfe to own Genesius Sepulveda would seeme to tell us no lesse Pontiâ—â—ces pro Deo habemus we account of the Pope as instead of God himselfe Papae this height is for wonder not for emulation Now what if a Saint Chrysostome shall say He that affects a Primacy on Earth shall finde confusion in Heaven That winde shakes no corne certainly he were much too blame that having the keyes of Heaven hanging at his girdle would not let in himselfe If you think fit to look down to the subordinate Clergy their power will be found no lesse then stupendious As no Prelate but hath power to excommunicate so their excommunication is dreadfully powerfull The Abby of Fusniack was horribly infested with flyes Excommunico eas said the holy Abbot of Clarevall on the next morning those noysome guests are found all dead in the floore A white loafe upon the words of excommunication passed turnes as black as a coale absolved turnes to the former hew Robert Brook being excommunicate and by vertue thereof become jumentum Diaboli the very Dogs refused to take the bones from his hands which he offered unto them and as readily snatcht away being tendered by others They can give up whom they list to the power of the Devil and rid whom they please from that evil spirit by their mighty exorcismes And if but a peice of a Versicle of Despauterius his Grammer be but muttered over the Demoniack Carbasus hic c. the foule spirit dares not abide by it But if it be some stiffe Fiend such as the African conjurers of Fez were wont to stile Aerie spirits let but St. Francis threaten to send Fryar Juniper to him he dares not stand the incounter so as it was a word of unjust disparagment which Chrysostome could cast upon their Exorcists Nos miseri c. miserable and woful creatures that we are we cannot so much as expell fleas much lesse Devils But it is yet a far higher power which every Priest by vertue of his office can and dares challenge to exercise even no lesse then to create his maker Casseneus can tell you Licet Angelus although saith he one Angel can move one heaven yet he cannot bring down one of those heavens to the earth But a Priest can speedily and suddainly fetch the true body of Christ from Heaven to the Altar even in so short a space as the Sun can diffuse his beames of light Yea herein a Priest saith the Author exceeds the power of the Archangels And I hope we shall not need to strive to go higher and let this be the beginning of her miraculous operations though ordinarily and constantly wrought There is a world beside of extraordinary and occasional miracles whereby her Religion is not a little honoured and confirmed Ywis our Reformers must confesse themselves here to seek Can they boast of a St. Briget that having given a peice of Bacon to a fawning Curre yet after he had eaten it found it again restored in her kettle That but signing a new-born Infant with a crosse caused it to disclaime the wrongfully imputed father and to name the true and was not the childe trow we as miraculous as the Saint that he could know his own father That for a proofe of her Virginity did but touch the seare-wormeaten wood of the Altar and turne it fresh and green Can they brag of a Saint Swithine that by making the signe
force and vertue to dispel all the power of the Devil To what purpose then should any man rack his thoughts to bring and hold them in a due fixednesse upon the matter of his prayer when the very sound of the words will do the feat without the concurrence of the heart And this Antoninus illustrates by a witty example One propounded this Question to a learned Priest whether the prayer which he understood not were equally effectual with those which he spake with understanding and received this answer As a precious stone saith he is of no lesse worth when it is in the hand of an unskilful man then when in the hand of an expert Jeweller so are good prayers Cardinal Cajetan therefore was foulely overseene when he flatly determined that it would be more to the edification of mens souls that prayers should be made in their own Mother tongue wherein it is some marvel to see him seconded by Fisher the Jesuite in asserting of that which his fellow Ledesma termes no better then a profane recitation What Latinity there is in Opus operatum it matters not I am sure there is much ease Well fare St. Dominick therefore who they say by Revelation brought up that order of the set number of our Paters and Aves which costs us no paines but Lip-labour although it seemes he fell somewhat too short in his reckning allotting but 63. Aves to the Corone of our Lady in remembrance of her so many yeares that she is said to have lived upon earth whereas now more accurate search hath found them to be 73. I am sure there is no fervent prayer raised out of a recollected and well wrought heart which requires not more true labour then an hundred formal Rosaries And whereas the Protestant and all religious Christians in all other Churches think it concernes them highly to meditate in the word of God day and night and to labour earnestly to informe themselves in all points necessary to salvation Our holy Mother bids us save that labour also not onely forbearing to encourage Lay persons as St. Chrisostome did of old to read the Sacred Scriptures but absolutely forbidding the use of them in their native Languages upon no small penalty and if any passage thereof be allowed to be publikely read in the Church it is in Latin no lesse familiar to the poor ignorant Auditories then Greek and Hebrew lest they should understand and trouble their heads about it Indeed what should unlettred Laicks do with Scripture more then children with edge-tooles It is not necessary to salvation saith Cardinal Bellarmine to beleive that there are any divine Scriptures And perhaps it had been better for the Church saith Cardinal Hosius if no Scriptures had been written It is abundantly enough for Lay people to cast their soules upon the trust of the Church which cannot erre and to think themselves safe and rich enough if they be furnished with the Colliers faith without any curious and explicite inquisition into the Articles of beliefe And whereas the heaviest load that can be upon the heart of a Christian is his sin which cannot but breed a perpetual unquietness to the soul as that which according to Luthers determination is attended with great concussion of spirit the gentle Casuists of our holy Mother Rome speak better things and like kinde and cunning Physitians give present ease to the troubled Conscience Contritio una c. One act of contrition though never so little is enough to blot out the greatest sin faith Card. Tollet To the perfection of penitence there is onely required an outward grief of heart if never so small saith Maldonat Nay there needs not a full contrition an attrition is enough saith Franciscus Victoria It is not necessary to sorrow for one sin more then another since a general sorow for all our sins in common is sufficient to Contrition and such a sorrow as this is not more intense for one sin then for another saith the same Author Courage therefore say the comfortable Casuists the most sins are venial these break not the peace betwixt God and the soule As for the mortal at the worst they are blowne away by the breath of Confession Yea which is yet more some sins by custome which our simplicity would have thought had rather aggravated them lose their malignant nature and become no sins For example If a man saith the Casuist Rodriguez have a custome of swearing Let him have once done his penance for it although he afterward swears still not considering what he saith he doth not therein sin because to swear thus is not an humane voluntary act Thus he for which he cites Medina also But if Custome do not abate a sin it is no more but confess and be free And though it prove too true which that great Tell-troth Gerson observes that there is scarce any full and sincere confession now a dayes to be had yet that blame is not to be imputed to the Ordinance but to the man who having swallowed the poyson sticks at the Antidote whereby he might be cured Our Bromiard can tell us of a close sinner of whom the Divel could say confidently Tush let that man alone I have his Tongue fast in my purse who having afterwards unloaded his Conscience by a penitent confession and turned over a new leafe the same Divel being expostulated with concerning him could answer I said indeed that I had his Tongue in my purse and so had but his Confessarie hath pickt my purse and got it out The moral whereof is no other then that of wise Solomon He that covereth his sin shall not prosper but he that confesseth his sin shall finde mercy Though I perceive already the Heretiques are here ready to take me short and to pull me by the sleeve and tell me that I have forgot the principal verbe for Solomon saith He that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall finde mercy But it is no matter for that whiles our learned Casuists assure us that not a full and absolute act of the will but a mere velleity to leave a sin is ground enough for a perfect pardon and clear absolution which I hope is an easier way then is proposed by the crabbed opposites who stand peremptorily upon the necessity of an hearty sorrow and deep compunction of the soul with an earnest loathing and detestation of the sin to the obtaining of remission I like not these severe and cruel Task-masters which make the way to Heaven more strait and difficult then it is Give me those plausible and indiligent Doctors that professe by the very act of Sacramental penance to change the eternal punishments of hell into the Temporal of Purgatory and to buy off the temporal torments of Purgatory with the purchase of Indulgences so as now hell is quit Purgatory discharged and Heaven opened and Hey then up go we and is not this a more