THREE SMALL AND plaine Treatises 1. Of Prayers or Actiue Diuinitie 2. Of Principles or Positiue Diuinitie 3. Resolutions or Oppositiue Diuinitie Translated and collected out of the Auncient Writers for the priuate vse of a most Noble Ladie By an old PRAEBENDARY of the Church of Lincolne CERTAINE PRAYERS AND short MEDITATIONS translated out of the Writings of S. Augustine S. Gregorie S. Bernard Ioannes Picus Mirandula Ludouicus Viues Georgius Cassander Charolus Paschalius and others for the priuate Vse of the L. M. B. Morning Prayer MY Soule fleeth vnto the Lord before the morning Watch Psal 130.6 I say before the morning Watch. O let me heare thy louing kindnesse betimes in the morning Psal 143.8 for in thee is my trust shew thou mee the way that I should walke in for I lift vp my soule vnto thee O Lord assist mee with thy holy Spirit in my prayers And let my cry come vnto thee Our Father which art c. A Prayer for Confession of sins S. Greg. Homil 33. in Iob. REceiue O Lord in the armes of thy mercie thy distressed handmaiden who in remorse and contrition returnes vnto thee from her sinnes Because the life of that sinner is not abhorred of thee which is accompanied with sighes and repentance Pardon then O Lord all my offences for thy deare Sons sake Amen A Prayer for the Morning ALmighty God Georg. Cassander Pres. Eccles our heauenly Father which hast brought me thy handmaiden to this present morning protect mee still with thy mighty power that this ensuing day I may fall into no sinne nor run into any kinde of danger but that my thoughts wordes and deedes may tend to the honor and glory of thy name and the eternall comfort and saluation of mine own soule through Iesus Christ my Lord and onely Sauiour Amen Another Viues O Most syncere and pure Light from whence this light of the day and of the Sunne fetcheth his beginning Thou which enlightenest euery man that commeth into the world Thou Light whome no night or euening can obscure but continuest euer in thy High-noone brightnesse Thou Word and Wisedome of so great a Father enlighten this morning my soule and vnderstanding that thy weake handmaiden may be this day as blinded to the Vanities of the world and quick-sighted only to those things which are pleasing vnto thee and leading to the wayes of thy Commandements Amen For the Mediation of Christ LOrd Iesus Greg. Hom. 7. in Ezech. that art not onely righteous but righteousnesse it selfe and art my Aduocate with God the Father iustifie thou me thy hand-maiden in the day of iudgement because I acknowledge and accuse my self as full of vniustice and pollution For it is not vpon any action or contrition of mine owne that my soule relies but only vpon a faith assurance and bolde confidence in thee mine Aduocate who liuest and raignest with the Father and the holy Ghost one God world without end Amen Against Temptations GIue me thy grace O Almighty God so to vanquish Aug. Serm. 86. de verbis Domini and ouercome the lusts and temptations of this world that I may triumph with thee ouer the Diuell and his wicked angels in the world to come Amen For Piety I Humbly beseech thee O Almighty God that this desire of reading Aug. Serm. 82. and hearing thy sacred Word which by thy holy Spirit thou hast planted in my heart may by thy grace and mercie be daily renued and augmented vnto a perfect fire of zeale and deuotion to the honor of thy Name and saluation of mine owne soule in Christ Iesu Amen A Prayer for a Noble-woman Carolus Paschalius O Lord Iesus Christ that art so far from contemning Nobilitie of birth that thy Euangelists haue diligently searched out and recorded thine owne genealogie giue me thy vnworthy handmayden the grace that I abuse not by ingratitude this thy fauour and mercie But rather as it was first acquired in my Auncestors let it still be preserued in my person by my continuall seruing of thee and doing as it shall lie in my power all workes of Charity to my neighbours Giue me grace that as thou hast plac't mee in Birth and rancke so I may be found in deuotion pietie lowlinesse of minde meeknesse and a religious care of thy worship conspicuous aboue others And if it bee â—hy gracious will to make me a mother of children and a mistresse of a family let me appeare a patterne and ensample of deuotion and pietie to all that are about mee And make mee and them so to liue in thy feare that we may die in thy fauour through Iesus Christ our Lord and onely Sauiour Amen A Prayer for a Wife Charolus Paschal ALmighty God which haste giuen me to be a comforter and an helper vnto my husband endue my soule with those heauenly Graces wherwith I may be most enabled to serue thee and please him Knit our mindes as well as our bodies in an indissoluble band of syncere affection Giue either of vs sanctified hearts zealous towards thee thankefull towards our Soueraigne syncere and louing one towards another Crowne withal if it be thy will these chaste intentions with thy fructifying Grace that wee may become the happy Parents of such Oliue branches as may one day aduance thy glory in this Church and Commonwealth In a word so incorporate vs both by faith in Christ vnto thy kingdom of Grace that we may at the last attaine vnto thy kingdome of glorie Amen A prayer for one attendant neere the person of a Prince Carolus Paschal ALmighty God by whose gracious prouidence it commeth that my Lord and Husband is thus employed in that neernesse of attendance vpon his Royall Maiestie giue him grace so to serue thee that hee may the better serue him and by making him thy Saint continue him his seruant Fill his mind with all wisedome knowledge and other vertues befitting his ranck and calling that he may seeme no more elected by the King then selected by thee for these employments Make him vigilant carefull and industrious in his Masters afaires Make him to accompt it his onely happinesse to serue thee his onely vertue to obserue him and all the rest as glittering vanity That after a troublesome but long life in a Kings Court his soule may bee carried by the Angels vnto thy Court where one day is better then a thousand Grant this for thy deare Sonnes sake Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen Meditation Count MIRANDVLA his twelue Thoughts or weapons against all the temptations of Sinne. Thinke Io. Pici Mirandulae Doctr. Salutif 1 THe pleasure thou art tempted vnto but short and momentarie 2 And euen this is attended with loathing and anxietie 3 And yet that for this thou must loose Heauen 4 That thy life is but as a dreame and shadow 5 Thy death is suddaine and at thy doore 6 Thy time of repentance casuall and vncertaine 7 Thy
reward or punishment endlesse and eternall 8 That thou art a creature of an excellent worth and made to serue God 9 That thou hast no happinesse to the peace of Conscience 10 Thinke how good thy God hath bin vnto thee 11 Thinke of the Crosse and of Christ who there died for thee 12 Of examples of holy men and Saints who liued before thee Walke about your chamber a turne or two after your prayers and meditate vpon these points seriously and you shall finde that temptations to sinne will vanish away and leaue to assault you The 4. last things to bee first thought vpon by all good Christians Bern. Bonauent Dionys Carthus 1 The day of thy death thou knowest not how suddenly 2 The day of iudgement that will come certainely 3 The ioyes of heauen if thou liue religiously 4 The paines of hell if thou continuest to doe wickedly The end of Morning prayer Euening Prayer to bed-ward O Lord heare my prayer And let my cry come vnto thee Our Father which art c. A Prayer for Euening O LORD Carolâ—â— Paschal I doe confesse to my shame and confusion that this day hath beene spent by me with lesse puritie and pietie then it should haue bin I haue augmented sithence this morning the score of my sinnes My thoughts haue beene polluted my wit prophane and vnsanctified my tongue more rash and vnbridled then became any one of that rancke and calling wherein thou hast set me I haue sinned through idlenesse ignorance slouthfulnesse and malice And this darknesse of the night puts mee in minde of that eternall darknesse my sinnes haue deserued Pardon and forgiue me all my transgressions Let this darkenesse bee a fit time vnto mee of rest and sleepe and no opportunitie of snares and temptations Send thy holy Ghost into my heart to free and purifie the same from all rolling motions and suggestions of Sathan and from the vsuall terrours and affrightments of the night Preserue this house in safety O Lord and all the people that are therein Let my prayer ascend vp vnto thy presence as the incense and let this lifting vp of mine hands be as an Euening sacrifice through Iesus Christ our Lord and onely Sauiour Amen Another HAuing spent the day Viues wee betake our selues to our repose in the night So after the troubles of this present life wee shall rest our selues in death Nothing doth more resemble our life then the day our death then sleepe our graue then the bed and our resurrection then our awaking in the morning Doe thou then O God my protectour and defender preserue me in my sleepe from the incursions and temptations of the diuell and in my death from the guilt and punishments of my sinnes I haue no strength to resist in the one nor merits of mine owne to display in the other Looke only vpon the merits of my Lord and Sauiour and giue mee a strong and stedfast faith to apply his righteousnesse to mine owne soule In confidence and full assurance of whose satisfactions for all my sins I doe for this night lie mee downe in peace and take my rest for it is that Lord onely that maketh mee to continue in safetie Amen Another ALmighty G. Cass and euerlasting God who makest the light to succeed the darknesse giue mee the grace to spend this night freed from the snares of sinne and Sathan and to bee here againe vpon my knees in the morning to giue thee thankes for the same through Iesus Christ my Lord and onely Sauiour Amen MEDITATIONS When your mayd is getting you to bed Viues HEe that willingly goes to bed should as willingly goe to his graue We willingly put off our cloathes being to put them on againe in the morning and should as willingly put off our bodies beeing to put them on againe in the Resurrection 2 After the troubles of the day comes the quietnes of the night Viues in the which the King and the swaine differ nothing so after this life comes death where poore and rich are alike and equall 3 Here is a fit time especially layd in your bed to fall to your Audite for the day past The practise of the Kings Maiesty as I haue heard What euill you haue committed by 1. Swearing 2. Lying 3. Taunting 4. Beeing too angry 5. Vaine talking especially of Religion 6. Exceeding in fare or apparell 7. Iniuring of another Repent of it Detest it Resolue to doe it no more What good you haue omitted as Saying grace when you eate Praying Releeuing of a poore bodie Respecting your husband parents Spending some time vpon Meditations Works of charitie Desire Gods grace to be more warie What good you haue performed If you haue learned any thing that day If you haue done any man good that day If you haue kept your priuate and publike prayers that day If you haue giuen any almes that day If you haue heard the Word or receiued the Sacrament that day If you haue spent any time vpon your MeditatioÌ„s that day Reioyce in it and giue God thankes for it When you haue runne ouer these accompts and finde sleepe comming say Into thy hands I commit my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of truth Amen The end of Euening prayer Some other Collects For Faith MAn is blinded by sin Viues but thou O Christ by the goodnes and mercie of God the Father art become our guide in the way of saluation And yet such is our wretchednesse and miserie that we stagger for all this sometimes not vnderstanding sometimes not beleeuing many times not applying to our soules with a sure confidence thy promises of saluation set downe in the Gospell O miserably blind that we are that can neither see our selues nor beleeue our guider and instructer O thou eternall and pure veritie vouchsafe so to slide into our hearts that we may be more certainely perswaded of thee and thy Truth then of those things wee see with our eyes heare with our eares and handle with our handes the weake apprehensions of our bodily senses vpon which this flesh and blood doeth so much depend Appease and asswage those rolling thoughts and wandring motions of the flesh that make vs to doubt and stagger in those high mysteries of the which wee ought most firmely to bee fixed and resolued Faith is thy gift and therefore worke it by the holy Ghost in my heart that all my senses and imaginations may become slaues and captiues to the same Lord I beleeue helpe thou mine vnbeleefe O Lord increase my faith Amen MEDITATION Viues 1 How easily wee beleeue a lewd and lying man and yet how scrupulous we are to beleeue God himselfe 2 We beleeue a man in things which nothing concerne vs we beleeue not God in matters of our saluation Man is impotent God omnipotent 3 We beleeue our senses which often delude vs as in all trickes of Legeyr-demaine we distrust Christ who can
pag. 342. Papist b Russic conun c. 23. p. 103. Russeist c Sle. Hist l. 5. Anabaptist d Allens confes Familist and e Protest p. 16. Puritan hold no Church a Church of God but his owne conuenticle and all to bee damn'd that are not of his societie and combination Now what beliefe you shall affoord these Bouteseux of the Catholike Church that dispose of Heauen and Hell as if it were their own Fee-simple I leaue to your wisdome and common vnderstanding Pap. Me thinks you now put me in minde of another obiection which vsually we make against the Protestants of England that they bring in too much good fellowship in religion and make Saluation a flowre which growes in euery mans garden Seeing that according to their Tenets Papist Protestant Anabaptist and Familist may euery one of them by meanes offered in his own Church as a portion or fragment of the Catholike Church attaine vnto Saluation Prot. If you were learned I could answere you in a word that none of these three Sectories considered in his owne Formality Qua talie as he is a Papist Anabaptist or Familist can euer attaine vnto Saluation but only as he is a Christian man admitted by Baptisme vnto the visible Church there made partaker of Gods word and Sacraments For then although these blessed means are very much weakened and obscured in their Synagogues by the malice of Sathan and inuentions of men yet may that holy Spirit that * Iohn 3.8 bloweth where he listeth worke in such a mans heart by these weake instruments and the rather the more the Word is faithfully preached and the Sacraments be in those places sincerely administred a true faith in Christ Iesus to bring him to saluation So then we doe not hold that Papists Anabaptists and Familists but onely that some Christians liuing in their congregations may though with great difficultie in comparison of this flourishing Church of ours and these admirable meanes of Saluation tendered in the same by the speciall mercy of God be saued and preserued If we be in an errour it is safer to erre in Charity then in Malice and praecipitancie considering the euent hereof is vnknowen to either of vs. Pap. I but where was your Church before this reformation began Prot. 1. When our Sauiour Christ with-drew the people from the a Matt. 16.12 leauen of the Scribes and Pharisees to the bread b Iohn 6.35 which came down from heauen and to saluation by faith in his Name was it fitting to demaund of him where his Church was before that Reformation 2. When these Churches of c 1. Corin. 5.1 Corinth d Galat. 3.1 Galatia e Reuel 2.12 Pergamus and f Reuel 2.18 Thiatyra were full of abuses if some part onely vpon the preaching of the Apostles had reformed themselues and so a diuision had growen would you straight wayes haue tax't them of Nouelty or ask't them where their Church had beene before this reformation 3 When the Apostles cast off â—he Lawe of Moses excepting only those g Acts 15.29 three or foure Ceremonies and when the Primitiue church some hundred yeeres after cast off those Ceremonies also for I finde them breathing of their last as it were about the times of h Anno 〈◊〉 140. Dialog quâ— insâ—â—â—â—tur Tryphon Iustin Martyr had it not beene a poore challenge of the Iewes or Traskists of those times to demaund where this vnceremoniall Church lay hid before the reformation I answer then that our Church before this reformation began liued together in one communion with yours with toleration of all those abuses which you haue still retained and wee most iustly reiected Pap. I but I hope you dare not compare in the gifts of the Spirit with Christ his Apostles or those worthies of the primitiue Church And therefore how presumed you to reforme your selues Reformation being a worke fitter for a generall Councell to haue gone about then for a small handfull of Northerne people Prot. Luther in epist ad Galat. in praefat distinctio admissa in Comitijs Augustanis ab ipsis Germanis Principibus Scultet annal decad 1. pa. 43. The Court of Rome had so gained vpon the Church of Rome that is the Pope and his conclaue of Cardinals had wriggled in themselues to that transcendencie of power ouer the rest of the Clergie and well minded laity that it appeared both at a In the yeere 1415. Constance b In the yeere 1546. Trent there was small hope of Reformation from such a Councell where the Pope the partie to bee reformed became the party reforming and supreame Iudge and president of the Reformation it selfe Although poore seduced ignorant women are much caried away with the name of the Councell of Trent yet you will quickly find out this ridiculous absurdity In a generall Councell as now it is held sithence the decay of the Empire the Pope is the party to be accused yet puts vp his owne endictment passeth a iury of his own vassals and finde they what they will being to giue finall iudgement he will be sure to do as his supposed predecessor taught our Sauiour to doe to wit fauour himselfe Matth. 16.22 So as there was no hope of doing good by a Generall Councell See the history of the Councell of Trent vnles it were a generous and free Councell and such a one the Pope you may bee sure would neuer abide Gerson de concil vnius obed And therefore one of your own writers concludes that in such a case seuerall kingdomes are to reforme themselues by National Councels which England and Denmark did put in practise Pap. Yea but it is too wel knowne It was no zeale of Reformation but carnall respects that mooued King Henry to touch vpon religion Prot. To you it seemes it is giuen to know these secrets but I see no reason we should thinke so The King could not bee induced to this reformation as a meanes to possesse himselfe of the Abbeies for they were already swallowed vp 31. Henr. 8. Nor as a preparatiue for his woing as Saunders thinks because Fisher the Bishop of Rochester who opposed his marriage made vp the one and twentieth prelate in banishing the Pope out of this Kingdome Instruction of a Christian in the Preface But without doubt the finger of God was the cause whatsoeuer was the hint or occasion Act. 23.1 Festus his popularitie and humour of pleasing gaue S. Paul occasion to appeale to Cesar and to visite Rome where and when hee layd the first stone of the Romane church Would you like it well a Protestant should say that your Church was founded vpon courtship and popularity If any carnall respect whetted on the king that was but the opportunity God onely was the first mouer and prime Agent in this reformation Pap. Nay surely God is the God of vnity but your Church being once seuered from the Romane