oyntment in her hand and with her haire hanging readie if need were to wipe his feet againe Then Lazarus with his winding sheet upon his neck And the lame men whom Christ cured carrying their idle crutches under their armes And the blind with the boyes that led them comming after them And then the great streame of devout people shall follow with songs of victory over sinne death and hell And all the mourners shall goe bowing their heads and looking as if they were at hand to give up the Ghost for the name of Christ Hee shall not bee buried without a Sermon and the Text shall bee The good shepheard giveth his life for the sheepe And Ioh. 10 11. in the end of the Sermon not if the time will permit but whether the time will permit or not the Preacher shall take occasion to speake a word or two in the praise of the dead party and say that being God above all Gods hee became man beneath all men the more conveniently to make peace betwixt God and Man that he was of a most sweet nature and that when he spoke hee began ordinarily with Verily verily I say unto you that hee was a vertuous man a good liver for he never sinned in all his life either in thought word or work that hee did many good deeds for being endued with the power of working miracles he lovingly employed it in curing the lame and the blinde in casting out devils in healing the sick in restoring the dead to life and that hee dyed a blessed death for being unjustly condemned mocked spat upon crucified and by those whom he came to redeeme from eternall torments hee took all patiently and dyed praying for his persecutors leaving to them when hee had no temporall thing to give a blessing for a legacie The Sermon being ended and the buriall finished every mourner shall goe home and begin a new life in the imitation of Christ who chose a poore and miserable life when hee had his full choyce of all the life 's in the world And Lord teach mee to goe after him in his steps at least with poverty of spirit CHAP. 8. BEing deepe in the consideration of Christs passion and of the worth and all-sufficiency of it I will declare my beliefe in one point I beleeve that man may merit and I beleeve that men wonder I beleeve it I shall not easily unclasp from this opinion Still I beleeve that man may merit Doe you aske mee what Hell and damnation give leave to the tearme not Heaven or the glory of it But if we merit hell why not Heaven The reason offereth it selfe we merit Hell by doing ill and wee in our owne persons are the onely Authors of ill Sinne is begotten betwixt the malice and corruption of our owne wills But he that is said to merit heaven is likewise supposed to merit it by well-doing that is by the solid acts of Christian vertues and the faire exercise of such vertues proceedeth not from us being sonnes of wrath but from grace in Christ Jesus And therefore by what Art can we merit when that by which we are thought to merit is not wrought and accomplished by us but by the strong and over-swaying force of a superiour power not forcing our will to a good action but sweetly drawing both to it and through it Ate habeo saith S. Austin quicquid boni habeo St. Aug. super Psal 70. What good soever I have I have from thee O Lord from my selfe the evill Yea verily Grace is so truly and so naturally the supernaturall gift of God and every degree of it that a grave Councell condemning the Massilienses or Semipelagians who affirmed that the beginning of salvation was derived from us and did consist in a naturall desire prayer endeavour or labour by which wee procure the help of Grace necessary to salvation saith Si quis per invocationem humanam gratiam Dei dicit conferri Conc. Araus 2. Can. 3. non autem ipsam gratiam facere ut invocetur à nobis cōtradicit Isaiae Prophetae c. Whosoever affirmeth that the Grace of God is given by our prayers and not Grace to cause that it be prayed for by us contradicts the Prophet Esay or the Apostle speaking the same thing to the Romans I was found of them that sought me not I was made Rom. 10. 20. manifest unto them that asked not after mee In verity if the Foure and twenty Elders in Heaven the place of highest perfection threw downe their Crownes before the Throne of God ascribing to him all glory Rev. 4. 10. 11. honour and power the name of Merit in heavenly things as the word in a true sense importeth howsoever they crutch it up handsomly cannot be spoke without a Soloecisme both in phrase and beliefe The man committed a Soloecisme that looked and pointed towards earth when he spoke of Heaven And true Christian humility ought even to speake humbly But even the doctrine of the Papists is bold and venturous Those habits of vertues say they which God the Lord of all spirituall Treasure infuseth into the soule are produced by God without us or our ayde and cooperation but the acts of those habits that is the exercises of vertue are so produced by Grace in us that wee also must freely and readily concurre if we meane to put a price upon them and make them meritorious to their production But the will concurreth not except enabled with actuall grace and the childe I meane the action that is borne altogether resembleth grace as it is a vertuous action and they will not call it a meritorious action but as vertuous and therefore the merit belongs to Grace not to our wills or us and partly to the grace by the motion of which wee concurre with grace And it is the opinion of the prime Divines amongst them that a work though very good and honest and true gold if performed without any paine and difficulty if mingled with no gall no wormwood may indeed merit certaine degrees of blessednesse but shall in no wise be satisfactory For as it is proper say these Doctors to a good work in respect of the goodnesse and honesty of it to be meritorious so it is made proper also by another law to a painfull and toilsome work to render satisfaction for sinne committed And thus they both satisfie for their sinnes which merited hell and by a surplussage of goodnesse merit Heaven And very often the roughnesse asperity with which God handles them is greater they tell us then the satisfaction due on their part which falling betwixt God and man drops into his Treasury of Indulgences whom they make halfe a God and halfe a man there to lye in the same roome with the copious redemption of Christ and be conferred when and to whom his Holinesse shall please who having two Treasuries seldome gives out of one but hee takes into the other They seeme to stand upon
had opened my heart to some Protestants of note concerning my good will to the Church of England which blew up all their hopes For some passages of the Countrey where I lived which had passed in my time had much bowed my heart to a cōsideratiō of what I had formerly known The passages in part were these To confirme the doctrine of worship due to Images it was spread amongst the Papists that the night before a certaine holy Priest was apprehended by a Pursevant all the pictures in his chamber were seen to sweat And to bolster up the doctrine of praying to the Virgin Mary and other Saints it was given out for a fixt truth that a devout person being frighted in his bed with the strange likenesse of a Ghost and calling upon Christ by the holy name of Jesus no helpe appeared but at length turning his speech to the Virgin Mary the Ghost with all possible haste vanished In these parts a great Priest great in body being most talkative in his owne praises perswaded the weaker sort of his faction that he had already cast foure hundred Devils out of a poore needy woman by the vaine exorcizing of whom set out with bold action and a loud voice he raiseth to himselfe a great part of his maintenance For he carrieth her from house to house as poore men doe Apes to shew tricks with her And he had tooke much paines to release her in the house where I lived It is easie to delude fooles but that wise persons should goe astray after a delusion would be a contradiction in wisdome and prove that wisedome were not so well united in it selfe I was present one time when the play was acted For the fat Priest had gathered together the refuse of Papists being the poore silly sheep of people I dare say not one of them knew the biggest letter in the Alphabet into a house standing alone He sate in a Chaire habited with his Priests ornaments The woman kneeled at his frete and turned her mouth and face into strange figures He spoke to the Devill with a commanding voice the Devill answered by the woman He asked the Devill how many Devils had possession of the body The Devill answered all were gone of so many hundreds but onely two Hee commanded the Devill to come up to the top of her longest finger He did so and the finger was held out Having got him there he asked him his name The Devill answered in a grave tone Dildo He commanded the other to the same place and likewise asked his name This Divell also answered Dildo But there the womans wit fell short for she should have given the other Devill another name And here was all that is notable which I saw in the best part of a night who notwithstanding was very curious in seeing And in the word of an honest man I saw nothing but what might easily be and what reason tels me was counterfeit And all the while the poore ignorant people were all on their knees praying upon their Beads knocking their brests groaning as loud as the Patient crying Our blessed Lady help thee The root of the deceit is They say the Devill first entred into her when she entred into one of our Churches to see the childe of a Papist buried to which shee had beene Nurse And still the wonders pluck at our doctrine as here people are frighted from entring into our Churches for feare of being possessed with Devils The plaine simple truth is which I made good by enquiry The woman was alwayes a very idle and lazie person and the childe failing grew poore and discontented and so either fell to her tricks or was easily wrought into them I am a saver here as in other places Onely this I present to the consideration of all wise people If one small part of a County in the small time of a yeere gave plenty of these most ridiculous passages what prankes doe they play every houre in England what in the world I kenw the Jesuite that came to the dore of a great house in England leading an Ape and professing to make sport with him The secret was he desired to win a kinswoman of his abiding in the house To whom afterwards comming as she walked in the fields in hay-time and not being able to bend her to him he drew his knife upon her and had shee not beene relieved by an out-cry she might have beene spoyled by him of her life though not of her religion These and the like strange carriages of heavenly matters scanned in my thoughts moved me at first to separate my selfe a little from the Papists In which time they wrote a very persuasive letter to me Which having perused I sent a letter to a person of quality amongst them wherein for I promised in the beginning of my book to speak the truth in all things I signified to him that my heart failed me and I feared to goe on in my new resolution And in so great a change as the change of Religion after the practice of thirteene yeeres amongst the Papists and all the yeeres of my knowledge it would have beene a miracle if the heart should not have imitated the Seamans Needle turning to the North-pole and have shaked before it had fixt Yet this hapned before I had actually tooke the the habit of a Minister Let them shew mee that I gave them any solid shew I was of their minde since I first made open shew of the profession I now sticke to and they will shew more then they can shew CHAP. XV. I Beganne soone after to compare the two Religions in these words The Protestants have one great Power upon whom onely they depend and to whom alone they flie by prayer in all their necessities observing that of Saint Peter Cast all 1 Pet. 5. 7. your care upon him for he careth for you The Papists have as many hearers and helpers as they have Saints and Angels And yet devotion being divided is lesse warme and the expectation of a benefit from a heavenly power under God doth engage us to performe the highest acts at least of outward reverence to a creature as to prostrate our selves before him and to call upon him in all places as if he were every where The Protestants leane wholly upon the merits of Christ Jesus desiring to suit with that of Saint Paul For by Grace yee are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it 2 Ephes 89 is the gift of God Not of workes lest any man should boast Amongst the Papists their good men all merit and to make the matter sure one meriteth for another And yet as no man can direct an intention to an end but hee must also intend the meanes requisite to the end So no man can truly merit salvation unlesse he likewise merit the meanes necessary to salvation the thing necessary to salvation was the death of Christ therefore S. Aug. Serm. 8 de
as ordinarily women vse a Ribon or fillet in the gathering up of Thom. Aquin in Cant. 4. their haire an extravagancie of Nature So ought we to bind up our lips keep under knot the looseness of vain and idle words that loose thoughts may not gad abroade into words and lose themselves and the Speaker and then our speech will be comly CHAP. 2. GOds great last end in all his actions is himself and his own Glory For the end of the best must be the best of Ends and the best of Ends must be the best of things Our ends if conformable to his end do borrow more or lesse light perfection frō it in bending more or lesse neer to it Our chief end that is our end which all our other ends must observe and wait upon ought to be the same with his end in the World because it is the same with his in Heaven the sight and fruition of him A good end will not sanctifie a bad Action Howsoever we are call'd wee are not Religious if we set on fire the Hearts of Princes and stir them to arms that by the burning of Cities the depopulation of Countries the murdering of men women and children and by unjust intrusion upon the right of others the holy Church may encrease and multiply We are not of the society of Gods people if we devise and labour to blow up the joy and flower of a Kingdome with a powder-mine moved by a pious intention to promote the good of the Catholike Cause These pious intentions and pious frauds have play'd the very devils in the world and they are the more dangerous because they goe drest like Angels of light and are beleeved to come from Heaven The Divines teach good Doctrine when they say Bonum ex integra causa malum ex quocunque defectu Good must be compleat in it's kind and furnished with all requisites one of which being wanting the action is not compleat in morality and therefore not so good as it should be The matter of the Action must be good the manner of the performance good and the End good Which though it be extrinsecall to the Action is intrinsecall to the goodnesse of it I suppose if the matter and manner be indifferent they are good in some degree but the End crowns the goodnesse of the work for it is the most eminent of all that stirre in it Non est faciendum malum vel minimu ut eveniat bonum vel maximum The least evill is not to be done that the greatest good may follow the doing of it And it stands with good reason For the smallest evill of sinne as being laesio infinitae Majestatis the traiterous wounding of an infinite Majestie would be greater than the good which could follow And moreover committed in that kinde would cast a most foule aspersion upon God to wit that hee were either not able or not willing to bring about in it's appointed time the good he would have done but by evill performances It appeareth here that the performance of good is hard of evill easie My end is good and more then good superlatively good For it is God's end God and his Glory in the first place and in the second the good and godlinesse of my neighbours that some may cease to doe evill learne to do well others stand fast En su ser y 1 Es 16 17 puesto as the Spaniard speaks in the being position of wel-being in which God hath placed them and that all may love God and praise him and when they see or heare of this little Book may looke up to the great one above sing to him a love-song the song of the Angels that best know how to sing Glory be to God in the highest And 2 Luk. 14. as my end is good my action is not evill either in the matter or manner or circumstances because the milde relation of one truth which may be lawfully related and the zealous defence of another which may be lawfully defended and all this in a good and acceptable time CHAP. 3. BUt all is not required on my part The Reader likewise hath his task It was an old custome in the Grecian Church in a time when the current of zeale and religion ranne more pure because more nigh to the fountaine Christ Jesus that in the beginning of divine Service the Deacon appeared in the full view of the Congregation and cried aloud Sacra sacris holy things to holy things holy soules to holy services S. Chrysost Basil in Liturgiis The Reader is now upon a high service and his soule must be all Angelicall There is a certaine kinde of shell that lyeth alwayes open towards Heaven as it were looking upward and begging one fruitfull drop of dewe which being fallen it apprehends the greatnes of the purchase shuts presently and keepes the dore against all outward things till it hath made a pearle of it Every man desireth naturally in the first motion of his desire the conservation of himselfe in the second the bettering of his owne estate It is in the reading of pious Books as in the hearing of Sermons If we open our shells our soules the Heavens will drop their dewe into them the fruitfull dewe of Grace to be imployed worthily in making pearles of good works and solid vertue Here is matter of Meditation and matter of Action and they are both entirely conformable to the mixt life which is the most perfect It is the life of the Angels Abram requiring a signe of God by which he might know that hee should inherit the land of Canaan received this answer Take me an Heifer of three yeares old and a shee Goat of three yeares old and a Ram Gen. 15. 9 of three yeares old and a Turtle Dove and a young Pigeon His Sacrifice must consist of creatures that flye and creatures that onely goe upon the ground The Goers must all be of three yeares old in their full strength and vigour of Nature The Flyers were only the Turtle Dove and the young Pigeon whereof the first is a mourner the second a most harmlesse and quiet Liver As our Bookes so our lifes must be divided betwixt action and contemplation and the action must be the Action of youth and strength and our thoughts that are all upon the wing and the Ministers of Contemplation must first be mourners and then white harmelesse and heavenly and this will be to us a sure signe that we shall inherit the land of Canaan And because the devill is an old Thiefe that cares not from whom he stealos wee must learne of Abram of whom it followes And when Verse 11. the fowles came downe upon the carcasses Abram drove them away The devils temptations cannot be hindered from making towards the sacrifice or from setling upon it but we may drive them off before they fall too they must not carry a bill-full away Quodemit saith
singing her owne obsequies but because her skinne the root of her feathers and her flesh and entrals the organs of her musick were black he rejected her as an uncleane creature not worthy to teach the world The Ostrich likewise was esteemed profane and never admitted into Gods holy Temple because notwithstanding all his great and glorious furniture of feathers he cannot lift his dull and drossie body above the ground The Moone shineth but because it doth not heat it is not suffered to shine by day It is the property of good to shrowd and cover it selfe God the chiefest good though he filleth heaven and earth with his glory yet he will not be seene Christ though he was perfect God and equall to his Father yet nothing was ordinarily seene in him but a poore homely man Who ever saw the soul of a man his onely jewell as he is a man Christ said to his Apostles Yee are the light of the world And againe Let your light so Math. 5. 4 Ver. 16. shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven It must be light and therefore a true light not a counterfeit and seeming light it must be your light every mans owne light it must be a light by which men may see not onely the good light it selfe but also our good works by the light and it must shine onely to the end that our heavenly Father may be glorified All light is commonly said to be derived from the Sun and the cause of all our shining must be alwayes referred and attributed to God And truly when a man for example giveth almes kindled onely with an intention that his neighbour seeing him may glorifie his Father which is in Heaven his intention is cleane and sufficiently good but he must be a man of proofe that giveth place to such intentions for he lieth wide open to the ticklings of vaine-glory and hypocrisie But I feele a scruple Good example is highly vertuous and in some sort worthy of reward especially in persons of eminent quality because good example is more seene more admired and goes with more credit and authority in them and therefore doth more edifie in respect of the high conceit wee have of their wisedome and knowledge Now the hypocrite teacheth as forcibly by example as the sound and throughly vertuous man For we learne in the great Theater of example by what wee outwardly see and the hypocrite is as outwardly faire as the sincere Christian It seemeth now that an hypocrite doth please God in playing the hypocrite Not so because his intention is crooked for he doth not intend to bring an encrease of good to others but of glory to himselfe If good by chance break in upon his action it falleth besides his intention and it belongeth to Gods providence as to it 's proper fountain which crusheth good out of evill As likewise the prodigall man when hee giveth prodigally to the poore doth not intend to fulfill the law of God but to satisfie his owne wilde lust of giving St. John Baptist was a lamp burning and shining Which moved St. Bernard to say Ardere parum lucere vanum lucere ardere perfectum It is S. Bern. in Serm. de nativ S. Io. Bapt. a small thing to burne only a vaine thing to shine onely a perfect thing to both shine and burne Nothing is more naturally proper to the fire then to burne and in the instant in which it first burns it gives light Which is the cause of those golden words in Synesius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the nature Synes Contra Androm of God to do good as of the fire to heat or burne and of the light to give light CHAP. 17. ANd certainly if we search with a curious and piercing eye into the manners of men we shall quickly finde that false Prophets and Deceivers are commonly more queint more various and more polished in their tongues and publike behaviour then God's true and faithfull Messengers who conforme themselves to the simplicity of the Gospel And if we looke neere the matter God prefigured these deceitfull creatures in the creation for hee hath an admirable way of teaching even by every creature it being the property of a cruell beast called the Hyaena to faine the voyce of a man But when the silly Shepheard commeth to his call he ceases to be a man teares him presently and preys upon him Each Testament hath a most fit example Ioab said to Amasa the head of Absolons Army Art thou in health my Brother Could danger lurk under the faire name of 2 Sam. 20. 9. Brother or could death hide it selfe under health a perfection of life They could and did For Ioab making forward to kisse him killed him and robbed him both of health and life whom hee had even now saluted with Art thou in health my Brother Surely he did not think of Cain when hee call'd him Brother Judas came to Christ and saying God save thee Master kissed him Hee talks of God and of Salvation Math. 26. 49. God save thee Hee confesses Christ to be his Master Hee kisses too And yet in the same act gives him up into the busie hands of his most deadly enemies Wherefore St. Ambrose one that had a practicall knowledge of the great difference of Spirits which hee had seene in their actions disswading us from the company and conversation of these faith-Impostors saith Nec vos moveat quod formam praetendere videntur S. Ambr. humanam nam et si foris homo cernitur intus bestia fremit let it not move you that they beare outwardly the likenesse and similitude of men for without a man appeareth but within a beast rageth And that which St. Hierome saith of a quiet Sea is of the same colour with the conceit of St. Ambrose Intùs inclusum est periculum intùs est hostis the danger is shut up within within is the S. Hier. ep ad Heliodor Enemy like a rock watching under a calme water St. Cyprian adviseth us to betake our selves presently to our feet and fly from them Simus ab eis tam seperati quà m sunt illi de Ecclesia profugi Let us fly as farre S. Cypr. in ep 3. lib. 1. from them as they have flowne from the purity of the Church and that 's a great way St. Cyprian in the same place exhorteth us very seriously not to deale with them not to eat with them not to speake with them O the foule corruption of our Times O for some zealous power that may reforme the abuses mine eyes have seene It is one of the first endeavours of the Papists in England which they exercise towards the society of men to gaine the good wills of Ministers For if they purchase the Ministers good will and good word they clip the wings of the Law hold him fast that hath a great stroke in matters concerning them
vincis invincibilem How easily doest thou conquer him that is invincible For man was made to fill up the now-disturbed number of the Angels which were created some while before the World not long for it is not likely that so noble a part of the World should be long created before the whole to which it belonged They fell downe though not from the possession yet from the title of happinesse by pride Not from the possession for had they beene united to God by the Beatifical Visiō they could not have sinned and therfore not have lost it by sin Wee rising up to the seats prepared for them ascend by Humility rising by falling and falling by rising if wee rise before he raiseth us who being dead and buried was not raised but rose from death to life by his own power Pride and Humility are of contrary dispositions and moreover they worke contrarily upon the subjects in which they are lodged and are in the effect and course of their proceedings contrary even to themselves Pride was the first sin in the Angels and therefore Humilitie is the first vertue in men and all your thoughts words and actions must be steeped in it Other Vertues keepe within a compasse or only now and then goe some of them together or always or direct all Vertues outwardly in respect of the Vertues as Prudence but Humility is an ingredient in every Vertue RULE 4. IN your entrance upon every worke having first examined the motives ingredients and circumstances for one evill circumstance will corrupt the whole lumpe and poyson a good action and it is not vertuous to pray ordinarily in the streets with outward observance though it be vertuous to pray and it being now cleere to you that your intended work falleth in wholly and meeteth in the same point with Gods holy will commend it seriously to GOD. And when you goe to dinner or to bed or turne to the acts and exercises of your Vocation begin all with a cleane and pure intention for the love and honour of GOD. And even the naturall work to which your nature is vehemently carried and by which you gaine temporally being turned towards the true Loadstone and put in the way to Gods glory doth rise above nature and above it selfe and is much more gainfull spiritually as being performed not because it is agreeable with your desire but because it is conformable to the divine will And often in the performance and execution of the worke if it require a long continuance of action renew and if need bee rectifie smooth and polish your intention for being neglected it quickly groweth crooked And when you are called to a difficult work or a work that lyes thwart and strives against the current of your naturall inclination dignifie and sweeten it often with the comfortable remembrance of your most noble end And whereas wee are openly commanded so closely to carrie the good deeds of the right hand that the left hand be not of the Counsell and again to turn so much of our selves outward that our light may shine before men it is in our duty to observe the Golden Mean and keep the middle way betwixt the two Rocks Carry an even hand betvvixt your concealing your good vvorks and your being a light to others You must not conceale all neither must you shine onely Hide the inward but shew the outward not alwayes nor with a sinister intention to the left hand but to GOD and those that will bee edified Every Vertue standeth betwixt two extreames and yet toucheth neither whereof the one offendeth in excesse the other in defect The one is too couragious the other is over-dull but under the Vertue Now the Devill delighteth much to shew himselfe not in his own likenesse but in that extream which is like and more nigh to the Vertue or at least to the appearance of it as Prodigalitie is more like to Liberalitie then Covetousnesse God hath true Saints and true Martyrs which are both inside and outside The Devill hath false Saints and false Martyrs which are all outside like his fairnesse As Prudence is the Governesse of all Vertues so principally of Devotion RULE 5. KEep your heart always calme and suffer it to be stirred onely with the gentle East and West-winds of holy inspirations to zeal and vertuous anger Examine your inward motions whether they be inspirations or no before you cry come in for when God offereth an inspiration hee will stand waiting with it while you measure it by some better known and revealed Law of his And be very watchfull over such Anger For it is a more knottie and difficult piece of work to be answerable to Ephes 4. 26. the rule of Saint Paul Be angry and sin not the Prophet David spoke the same words from the same spirit then not to be angry As the Curre taken out of the kennell and provoked to barke will need an able and cunning hand to hold him And maintaine alwayes a strong Guard before the weake doores of your senses that no vain thing invade the sense of seeing hearing or the rest and use in times of such danger Ejaculations and Aspirations which are short sayings of the soule to God or of things concerning God and are like darts cast into the bosome of our beloved These motions will do excellently at all times when they come in the resemblance of our pious affections As upon this occasion Lord shut the windows of my soule that looking thorow them she may not be defiled O sweet Comforter speak inwardly to my soul and when thou speakest to her speake words of comfort or binde her with some other chaine that busied in listning to thee shee may not heare thy holy name dishonoured And upon other occasions Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of teares that I Jer. 9. 1. might weepe day and night O Lord Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is Psal 73. 25. none upon earth that I desire besides thee Take counsell my soule Commit thy way unto the Psal 37. 5. Lord trust also in him and hee shall bring it to passe Hearke my soule when we taste the thing we taste is joyned to us We neither see nor heare in this manner and having tasted we know And when the Body tasteth wee commonly see first and afterwards taste In our conversation with God wee first taste and then see I speake not of Faith being of another order O taste and see that the Lord is good Holy Scripture will give us matter Psal 34. 8. without end This is a delicious communication of our selves with God our selves when we are present onely with our selves and with God Keepe the double doores of your teeth and lips the forts of silence close that your nimble and busie tongue speake nothing but what some way directly or indirectly pertaineth to Gods glory agreeably to his good pleasure And therefore always before you speak
think Is this which I shall now say immediatly or mediatly available to the honour of God and doth it helpe at first or last to my spirituall profit And when angry immodest injurious or other foule and sinfull words are spoken in your presence employ your best endeavour in diverting the course of the discourse if it be likely that your labour and counsell may passe without a repulse If otherwise shew a dislike and suddenly withdraw your selfe from the most infectious company of so beastly and so base an offender of such a hissing Serpent of a vile thing so venomous that hee voideth poyson at his mouth For he would not speake if others did not heare him And spare your selfe and the miserable offender For you having heard vaine words and especially words fighting with modest hee may afterwards when hee is at his prayers and when hee little thinketh of such a businesse sin again in you And in the heat of these encounters believe not every thing which you heare but reflect upon the severall dispositions with which the Report meeteth in her Travels and the strange desire of men to speak strange things And consider that Fame takes a new Disguise from every mans Tongue and speaks as diversly as the affections of men are divers being like the Tarrand which walking in a Garden represents the colour of every flower on his Philo de Temul skin It is a truth which Tertullian saith of lying Fame quae nec tunc quidem cum aliquid veri affert sine menâ—acii vitio est detrahens Tert. in Apol cap. 7. adjiciens demutans de veritate Which neither then truly when it proposeth a true thing is without the scarre of a lie drawing from putting to and changing the truth Of men some speak as they have heard from old women and children some as the tie of beliefe benefits kinred or neighbour-hood obligeth some as the Passion moveth some to gaine their owne gainfull ends and some speake by guesse few according to knowledge And because the greater part of men are evill you are not bound by the Law of God who leadeth no man into errour to trust or believe every man And yet you may not judge the person or decide the doubt unlesse guided with a cleere and certaine knowledge of evill Wherefore suspend your judgment and gather up your minde into it selfe One branch is yet wanting to this advertisement You must continually stand waking and watching over your thoughts for the fit ordering of our thoughts within us and of our senses without us will certainly keepe us from all distraction and from all occasions of turning aside in our way towards Christ And therefore upon every sally or incurse of Temptation turne quickly from the suggestion and representation of it Then humbly acknowledge your own weaknesse and call earnestly upon God for help And lay up safe in your minde that every shew and representation of evill in our heart is not evill to us except it be seconded on our part either with a full and absolute consent or with a weak hanging and half-consent or with complacence or except you did wilfully thrust your selfe upon the neer danger of such representations For the divine Law commandeth us to avoid even the occasions of sin And he that wilfully toucheth upon the neere and catching occasion or openeth a little private doore to sin or to the pleasures that wait upon it as it were dallying and sporting with them is commonly tooke with some odde picture in the representation by which engaged he goeth on and still on and a little farther on till he is swallowed up at last into the great and deep Gulf of sin For as it is written in Ecclus Eccl. 3. 26. He that loveth danger shal perish therein RULE 6. ATtend alwayes upon God that you may know when hee beckens or calls to you and which way he takes At two doores Almighty God doth commonly stand and call us to him at the inward doore of the soul and at the outward doore of the sense inwardly by his holy inspirations and outwardly by his holy Word and Preachers though indeed the inward calling is more frequent For to speak with a Councell Nec momentum quidem praeterit in quo Deus non stat ad ostium pulsat A moment of time doth not passe Conc. Senonense in which God standeth not at the doore of our hearts and earnestly knocks for entrance To this end take speciall notice of the calls illuminations and inspirations which daily you have from Heaven Which calls and inspirations you may either totally reject or obey either in part or considered in their full extent and amplitude If thou wilt bee perfect goe through all which the inspiration commandeth If the inspiration pronounce absolutely follow me doe not confine him that neither can be limited in himselfe nor will be limited in his commands to a certain compasse and desire to goe first and bury thy Father lost the call coole and the inspiration be lost in the crowde of other occasions You shall discern an Inspiration from a Temptation by the lawfulnesse of the action to which you are moved and of the end Take heed therefore of committing evill under the faire goodly and godly pretence of a good end The Devill hath one device above all this doctrine He will sometimes move 〈◊〉 even to a godly worke as when hee is in formed by our beaten customary and daily practice that wee shall draw a most heavie curse upon us in performing the worke of God negligently Observe that God oftentimes withdraweth himselfe and yet I erre not himselfe but his inward lights and those especially which are tempered with the sweets of comfort from his neerest and dearest friends And then there will seeme to be a continuall night in their hearts they will be very dry and desolate as receiving no drop of sensible dew from Heaven I meane of spirituall comfort which glads the heart And the Tempter will say and often say they are forsaken of God This the holy One of Israel doth First for our exercise triall You may reply why for our triall God knoweth alreadie what wee are able to doe and above this what wee will doe put upon a triall It is so But hee urgeth us upon the combate that wee may conquer and purchase the Crowne promised to the victory No man shall gaine a Crown but he that shall fairly and lawfully win it in the Combate Nemo potest nisi vicerit coronari nemo autem vincere nisi ante Amb. Comment in c. 4 Lucae certaverit Ipsi quoque coronae major est fructus ubi major est labor saith Saint Ambrose No man can be crowned except hee bee a conquerour no man can be a conquerour except he fight and where the labour is great the crowne is more precious It is the saying of old Epicharmus cited by Xenophon in his Memorables 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
sense is it is as familiar Iob 15. 16. with man to sinne as to drinke The best and most quiet halfe of our lives passes away in a dreame when we are asleepe and in a manner dead vitam nohiscum dividit somnus saith Seneca our life is parted betwixt sleepe and us In our youth we are greene and raw and the sport of ancient people and for want of judgement and experience lose our selves in a thousand thousand extravagancies which afterwards appeare not like Starres but like skars upon our lives And having at length climed above youth we are yet troubled with some odde humour and crack in our nature by which we are burdensome to our neighbours and hatefull even to our selves Hither poynteth the old Litany when it prayeth A me salva me Domine From my selfe good Lord deliver me Meditation 3. OUr life is full of changes wee passe from one yeare to another and the faster the yeares goe the faster age comes and we are chang'd We change the places of our abode and with them our selves We change from a single life to the state of marriage and new passages comming with new courses hold us as it were in discourse and make us forget that while they are new we are old We desire to see our children grow but while they grow we decay The variety of this life deceives us Corruptio unius est generatio alterius say the Philosophers the corruption of one thing is the generation of another The end of one misery is not onely the end of one but also the beginning of another and thus we live tossed continually betwixt fire and water We beleeve and goe on a little then we doubt and there we stop we hope and follow the good we hope for like a wandring fire by night and then we feare and grieve and despaire and there we sink In the reasonable soule of Christ good acts passed from one to another without any stop or interposition at least all the while he waked I reflect upon him that saith I sleepe but my heart waketh Cant. 5. 2. So that one vertuous thought followed another in so close and pressing a manner that they were not onely broken or hindered with the foule exercise of evill but they were never at leasure never sate idle in the Market-place never out of the faire and solid practise of good For example when the deepe exercise of Humility had kept the thoughts in worke and wages awhile perhaps she gave up the keyes and government to patience Then patience farthered in good by evill men put the Scepter into the hands of Charity Then charity changed into sorrow for the sinnes of the world And sorrow might beget strong resolutions of fortitude to die for them And thus the soule of Christ tooke her steps from vertue to vertue But in us now love raigneth and soone after hate kils it with a frowne And then perhaps indifferent thoughts may step forward in the by and the soule may wonder a little without the knowne fellowship of good or evill And then the fight of money may breake up all and sell the heart to covetousnes And then reflection may coole it with a drop of sorrow And then vexation may set all on fire with anger And then the love of drinke may come washing the way quench anger And then the heart may reject what it loved and presently desire the thing which even Salu. lib. I. de gubern Dei now it rejected Humanae mentis vitum magis ea semper velle quae desunt saith Salvianus It is the fault of the minde alwayes to desire the things which are wanting And at last according to the Poet Frigida pugnabant ealidis c. Hot cold moyst dry fighting together and striving to make a new quality of hot cold moyst dry may breed confusion and neither gaine the day We make good purposes and begin a new life we turne up the eye and all in haste we will be very good and godly men and women we will be humble patient sober but our vertuous courage quickly droops and in a short time we are the very men and women that we were before And yet not the same but a degree worse for grace neglected drawes a curse upon us We are pretty cleare and merry and then comes a cloud the losse of goods or good-name or friends or of a thing like these which cooles and darkens all and our sweetest joyes are sooner or later steeped in sorrow we are now somewhat pleasant then dull then outragious and for the time lose our wits and are mad Doe all that wee can and all that God can enable us to doe we please one displease another this man smiles upon us the other frownes and yet both have the same motive But the best is it is the voyce of Saint Peter and of the other Apostles We ought to obey God rather then men Certe saith Saint Chrysostome quot Act. 5. 29. S. Chrys homines in populo sunt tot Dominis subjicitur qui vulgi laude gaudet Truely as many men as there are so many masters he hath who rejoyceth in the praise of people Saint Paul reads us another lesson For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience God 2 Cor. 1. 12. grant that if it may be done without sinne I may heare more of my dispraises then praises for otherwise I am in great danger of swelling and breaking The light which I steer to is our poore Saviour with all his knowledge with all his truth did not please every man Meditation 4. WE are in health and looke fresh and full and then the head akes a paine lyes heavie upon the stomach and wee looke neither fresh nor full but pale and empty and then will one say O had I my health againe Happy are you that enjoy your health we are shaken with an Ague or scorched with a Feaver and sigh and groane and turne from side to side but cannot sleep It is the case of him that turnes from one falsehood to another yea the great ones are sicke and suffer paine lament and shed teares as plentifully as we And moreover the great ones are commonly sore clogg'd with a grievous disease that makes them a little greater the Gout which we poore plaine people are ignorant of his name be blessed that is worthily called the Father of the poore We are now rich now poore though indeed most rich when we are poore We are esteemed by the world and then contemned and condemned The care of catching after money more and more and still more takes up all the time of our life A man is born to a good estate with much care and many sinnes he doubles it and dyes But a prodigall heire comes after him in the first or second generation and turnes it all into vaine smoke and so the name failes the house fals and here is the goodly fruit of worldly care and of all
the paines the old man tooke And yet riches cannot satisfie the heart of man Saint Austin hath the reason of it in his Meditations Domine fecisti nos propter te irrequietum est cor nostrum donec pervenerit ad S. Aug. in confes te Lord thou hast made us for thee and the heart of man cannot bee quiet till it come to thee and rest in thee And the Prophet speakes not besides the matter When I awake up after thy likenesse I shall be satisfied with it There are holy meditations Ps 17. 15. and vertuous exercises to which wee owe much time and therefore the Devill a cunning dealer keepes the richer part of women busie all the prime of the day in dressing their bodies and undressing their soules and in creating halfe-moones and stars in their faces in correcting Gods workmanship and making new faces as if they were somewhat wiser then God Quem judicem mulier saith Saint Ambrose veriorem S. Ambr. requirimus deformitatis tuae quam te ipsam quae videri times O woman what more true judge can we require of thy deformity that is thy uglinesse then thy selfe who fearest to be seene The Devill is alwayes more forward in seducing women because he knoweth that women are of a soft pliant and loving nature and that if they should love God they would love him tenderly The Devill whither can any of us men or women flie from the Devill Be sober be vigilant saith Saint Peter because 1 Pet. 5. 8. your adversary the Devill as a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devoure It is not enough to be sober nor enough to be vigilant He is not our friend but our adversary And he is a busie Devill he goes about an angry Devill he goes about like a roaring Lion a hungry Devill for hee does not roare onely but he comes roaring with a greedy purpose to devoure and hee walketh lest going with speede he should run over you and he keepes not one way but walketh about and does not onely devoure those who stand or meete him in his way but he seeketh whom he may devoure and he is alwayes the same alwayes a Devill for when he hath found his prey fed upon it and eate up all he is not satisfied he goes on still seeking whom hee may devoure God blesse every good man and woman from a roaring Lion Sixtus Sixt. II. and second in one of his Epistles directed to a certaine Bishop gives the Devill no good report Si in Paradiso hominem stravit quis locus extra Parad. esse potest in quo mentes hominum penetrare non valeat If he gave man a fall in Paradise what place can there be out of Paradise in which he may not insinuate and wind himselfe into the hearts of men Here is a picture of the life we so much love and so much desire to continue And in the last place an old house fals or an arrow goes out of the way or our feete slip or the Devill comes to us in the outside of a Saint it is his course with drooping and melancholy spirits and tels us religiously that we shall give glory to God or at least ease and comfort to our selves if we cut our owne throats or hang our selves and we are dead gone Perhaps we may leave our pictures behinde us with our friends but what are they a meerely a meere deceit of the Painter our pictures are no part of us neither doe they represent us as we are we are dead we see but one anothers faces when we are alive we are parted in substances we cannot mingle into one another as wine and water and therefore death puls one out of the others bosome And commonly when our hopes are now ripe and the things we long desired at the doore Death comes and overtakes and takes us And any man being wicked himselfe may send with Gods leave a wicked man to Hell in the turning of a hand and then what would he not give to bee with his friends in the world againe Here the reason fals open why never yet from the beginning of the world any wise man died but if he could speake in his last words he cryed out against the vanities of life and of the world My prayer shall be the prayer of one that knew what hee prayd for O spare me that I may recover strength before I Ps 39. 13. goe hence and be no more Meditation 5. IF I consider man in his death and after it He dyes that never dyed before Hee dyes that knowes not what it is to dye Which of us knowes what the pangs of death are and how going naked agrees with the soule It is as true as old Death is of all terribles the most terrible For howsoever the holy Spirit in holy Scripture is pleased to call it a sleep it is not a sleep to the wicked It is recorded of Lazarus Our friend Lazarus sleepeth and of Saint Io. 11. 11. Act. 7. 60. Stephen And when he had said this he fell asleep And of the Patriarchs and Kings of Judah that they slept with their Fathers But this was the death of the Saints so pretious in the sight of the Lord. And the soule of man now leaving the body carrieth no mortall friends with her they stay behind the brother and the sister and the wife and the pretty little children with the sweete babe in the cradle No temporall goods or evils rather nothing but good or evill Revel 14. 13. workes and their workes doe follow them All the fairest goods which made all people in all ages proud are stil extant in the world and will be after us even to the end of the world And although the living talke pleasantly of their dead friends and hope well while one looketh soberly and saith I doubt not but such a man or such a woman is with God another neither truely doe I a third he she there is no question of it if he or she be not in heaven what shall become of me Yet notwithstanding all this plausible and smooth discourse not one of these three tenderhearted and charitable persons nor any one living here in the world knoweth certainly whither they were carried This we all know certainly Many of them are most heavily tormented in Hell and there curse the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation and the world and all their occasions of sin and all their friends and themselves and all Gods creatures in the very span of time wherein their friends speake well and judge charitably of them while they distribute their words without the least change of countenance and little thinke of their most wofull and most lamentable condition And the Devill though it is open to him after this life yet cunningly keepeth from us who are saved and who damned If one of us were now in Hell but it is a darke and horrid place God keepe
could not so easily know it to be the way Let a man or an Angel give me the name of a creature in the world which will not afford us many good lessons of instruction concerning the Creatour and his dwelling-place whither we are invited Creatures of the lowest ranke voide of life sense and knowledge worke for an end which evidently appeares because they tend and bend alwayes to that which is most convenient and sutable with their being and proceed in their actions as if they were skilled in the compositions of knowledge The Sunne knowes he must runne all day long or the gratefull variety of darknesse and ease will not succeed in due time The earth knowes it is her part to stand still or she cannot bring forth and beare as she does The Sea knowes hee must still bee stirring or he shall be corrupted Which could not bee that is they could not know without knowledge had they not beene directed in their creation by a most knowing power and this is God Marke that may soule here thou hast found him hold him fast let him not goe till hee blesse thee Nor yet then till he passe his royall word which shall never passe that he will blesse thee and blesse thee and blesse thee againe till at last he ranke thee among the Blessed Consideration 4. FOr what is the reason that Grace hath such marvellous affinity with Glory because Grace is the way to Glory The state of Grace is the waking of the day The state of Glory is the day up and ready The state of Grace is pax inchoata the beginning of peace the state of Glory is pax perfecta perfect peace And therefore many of the workes it is certaine which proceed from Grace are indeed workes which pertaine to glory As Extasies Dionysius discoursing of the love of God faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it causes an extasis a traunce Dionys Areop c. 4 de diu nom and removes the lover from his owne state to a more high and sublime condition O how shall I ascend hither to this high point of love towards God our God my God all the Gods I have There is no way but the untwinding of my heart from all idle affection to these low base things of earth for then I shall rise And as Grace is the true likenesse of Glory so nature is not altogether unlike to Grace For Grace being the perfection of Nature according to the worne axiome of Divinity Gratia perficit naturam Grace perfecteth nature an agreement is required and supposed betwixt nature and Grace and therefore all the chiefe acts of nature in the soule are of themselves inclinable and bendable to Grace and yet not altogether of themselves but by Grace as the naturall stirrings of the Will to Charity Here I have the musicke or harmony betwixt Nature Grace Glory As for the correspondence betwixt Grace and Glory because they are both in a great part hidden this needs a very carefull search to finde it But the corresponcence betwixt Nature and Glory or Earth and Heaven is such that because one extreame is apparent because Earth is apparent and alwayes before our eyes one may be found by the other Heaven by Earth Because the creatures of God in the Earth are plaine even to the dullest of us if they learn the art of using creatures as we doe staires and goe up step after step from the lower to the higher from the lesse perfect creature to the more perfect and if we goe still upwards we cannot misse our way we shall come at last to the most perfect which is the Creatour blessed for ever Stones Trees Beasts Men Angels God the cause of these Againe if we deale with any particular Creature as wee doe with a river keepe by the streame till wee come to the fountaine we shall be sure alwayes as sure as sure can be to finde God in the end of our journey If I aske the flower whence it hath its beauty for I know it is a borrowed beauty because it withers it will perhaps at first be ashamed to confesse how meanely it was borne but it must answer at last from the earth If I turne to the earth and question her whence cam'st thou She will answer quickly and gladly From God Nor could the earth so foule a thing yeeld such a beauty without the strange concurse and helpe of one most beautifull which is God Here I have discovered certaine sparkes of the beauty of God in a flower I will observe now and admire how frequently holy Scripture thrusts us upon this admirable kinde of learning I am the Flower of the field I am a Vine I am the way I am the light of the world If I walke abroad in the fields I have a very faire and moving occasion to lift up my heart to him who is the flower of the field And when I see a faire flower growing in my way I shall doe well to leave it growing still with a desire thar others comming after me may from the sight of it looke up to the beauty of God And another shall not doe ill that shall come and crop the flower and smell how sweete God is As I turne home to my house I am desired to turne my heart to him who is the Vine If I stirre any way I am stirred to thinke of him who is the way If I stirre no way and but onely open my eyes I am exhorted to climbe up to him who is the light of the world If I will shut my eyes and passe through Gods world like a blinde man it is impossible I should behold either the flower of the feld or the Vine or the way or the light of the world The Devill his enemy who is the way and his enemy who is in the way hath wayes to keepe us alwayes busie to possesse our hearts now with joy now with sorrow now with hope now with feare now with love now with hatred now with one affection and now with another that if we consent to it we shall go sliding through the world and at last fall out of it as ignorant of good things as if wee had never beene alive Gods booke of creatures shall be shut and our eyes shut before we have learn'd to know our letters Consideration 5. IT was a principall point in the malicious doctrine of the Manichees a rout of Hereticks very strong on foote in S. Austins time that there were two prime causes of things a faire cause of good things and a foule cause of evill things The unhappy occasion of this opinion was because they discovered many pernicious and hurtfull creatures in the great store-houses of nature which they imagined could not with honour and conveniencie be attributed in him that we call the good God of all goodnesse And Saint Austin hath left behinde him a remarkable story of a Manichee to whom when it was granted that the Flye for its troublesomenesse and
censured by an earthly Judge though ingulfed in the most horrible crimes that in all the extravagancies of the heart were ever committed Let him enter a Fox raigne as a Lion die like a Dog as Pope Boniface Let him commit whoredome upon Altars give Benefices to his Whores and golden Chalices consecrated to holy services which an honest Lay-man cannot touch breake open doores burne houses put out his God-fathers eyes cut off his fingers hands tongues and noses of his Cardinals not remembring what he said when he did first invest them in purple Ego te creo socium Regis I create thee to be the fellow of a King and moreover invocate the Devill and drinke to him as Pope John the twelfth Let him be a most notorious Conjurer and make himselfe over by compact body and soule to the Devill as Pope Silvester the second Let him be carried with the Whirle-winde of ambition and have poysoned sixe other Popes to hew out his owne way before him as Pope Hildebrand Yet he sits above the reach of censure he flies with the Eagle above the Thunderbolt That they may give sinewes to this doctrine they produce an Act of a Councell celebrated in Rome which saith Concil Rom. Neque praesul summus a quoquam judicabitur quoniam scriptum est non est discipulus supra Magistrum Neither shall the chiefe Bishop be judged of any because it is written the Disciple is not above his Master And that they may adde strength to this plausible falshood they bring in the reare an eminent example For when Bassus and Marinianus laid to the charge of Pope Sixtus the third that he had in the rage of his lust defiled a consecrated Virgin Maximus the Consul crie out Non licet adversus Pontificem dare sententiam It is not lawfull to give sentence against the chiefe Bishop Looke how they shuffie the matter and give it from one hand to another amongst themselves But is not this to encourage sinne to permit and flatter evill and to suffer it to grow out and openly spread it selfe when it may be easily beate downe in the blossome This doctrine hath so farre given heart to all kindes of wickednesse that if we search into every successession of Bishops scattered through the whole Christian world and examine every linke of every chaine we shall not meete in any Sea with sinnes that deserve to be called sinnes with relation to the foule enormities of Rome Are not these evill fruits of evill doctrine and yet no man almost doth name the Pope but under the sacred title of his Holinesse But though his Holinesse is not liable to reproofe a man would think his wickednesse should And how silly is the Church of Rome in teaching that although the most holy and most learned Bishops that ever lived should joyne their heads and hearts in a Councell and there using the pious helpe of holy Scriptures of other Councels and Fathers before them and of humble prayers for the powerfull assistance of the holy Ghost should with an unanimous consent decree what is to be preached the Pope notwithstanding might come in the upshot and though a most wicked and illiterate creature lawfully pronounce all the Decrees to be of no weight no effect no validity The generall Councell of Chalcedon upon sound premeditation made an absolute Decree that the Bishop of Constantinople should have equall power through all the great extent and latitude of his government with the Bishop of Rome which Canon Pope Leo and Pope Gelasius quickly rejected and the single authority of one man tooke place because our Saviour had said to Saint Peter I have prayed for thee that Luk 22. 32. thy faith faile not But every prayer of Christ was granted therefore the Pope cannot erre It must here follow that either the Decrees of Councels are fallible or the Popes sentence Is it not strange that God should communicate his holy Spirit to the contempt of Councell more fully to a private person for so he is in this matter being one though a publike sinner then to the whole Church the Spouse of Christ Let the Pope claime to himselfe all power in all affaires who now can chide his ambition or give the lie to his infallibility CHAP. VI. ONe of my great admirations concerning the Church of Rome is that whereas there are many Churches yet extant of great antiquity and some wherein Christ was almost if not altogether as soone heard of as in Rome she will not consort and comply with them in things which were wholly in use amongst the Primitive Christians If she desires with a Christian desire and not with a desire onely of her owne advancement to win them why doth she not come as neere to them as it is most evident they come to the Primitive Church This way of the Bishop of Rome was never Gods way Which I will demonstrate in a plaine discourse though not plaine to the plaine that I may a little ease my reader in his journey with various objects God as he was ever God so he was ever good For the most eminent Attribute of God saith Dyonysius is goodnesse The nature of goodnesse is to spread and diffuse it selfe And every good doth spread and diffuse it selfe according to the variety and greatnesse of goodnesse which it hath And therefore God the Father being infinitely good doth infinitely spread and diffuse himselfe upon the Son And the Father and Sonne being infinitely good doe infinitely spread and diffuse themselves upon the holy Ghost And if the Father Sonne and holy Ghost doe not in any kinde spread and diffuse themselves infinitely upon the Angels and us it is because we being creatures and by course of necessary consequence finite are not capable of an infinite diffusion The Charity by which a good man loves good might be infinite if the subject could be infinite Now as in the works of nature and first diffusion of his goodnesse upon his creatures God the first cause would first worke by himselfe and himselfe bring about the most weighty matter of making all these fine things of nothing and moreover of waking nature out of her dead sleepe in the Chaos that it might appeare to us who should afterwards heare the grave and strange story of the Creation that hee was all-sufficient and could not be at a fault for want of help Yet managing the continuance of the worke it pleased him to use the meane assistance of second causes as of Angels and intelligences that he might adde worth and honour to them by so great imployment So likewise in the workes of Grace and second diffusion of his goodnesse upon his creatures the great worke of enfranchizing the world by his Bloud himselfe alone would performe but in applying the merits and vertue of his Passion to the chosen vessels of honour and mercie he doth graciously call in a manner to his aide Apostles and Apostolicall men And as God being the Author of
in Biscay a Province of Spaine and observed with all exactnesse of diligence that every man having married a wife sent her the first night to the Priest of the Parish And that these different Orders of Religion did not take their beginning from the speciall inspiration of God I will manifestly prove out of their owne Canons The Councell of Lateran celebrated in Concil Later the dayes of of Pope Innocentius the third hath this Canon Ne nimia Religionum diversitas gravem in Ecclesia Dei confusionem inducat firmitâ—r prohibemus ne quis de caetero novam Religionem inveniat Sed quicunque voluerit ad Religionem converti unam de approbatis assumat Lest the diversity of Religions should trouble all and raise a confusion in the Church of of God we firmely forbid any man hereafter to invent a new Religion but whosoever will be turned to Religion let him apply himselfe to one of those which are already approved Marke the phrase of these Lateran Bishops invent a new Religion and I suppose they would not put limits to the Spirit of God and for the confusion here mentioned it is as plaine to be seene as the Church of Rome for in dissention is the destruction of love and order and consequently confusion And what true learning can the world expect from these people who cannot speake or write the sincere meaning of their minds because their tongues and pens are confined to the severall opinions of their orders Armed with these grounds I tooke up a good and masculine resolution and letting fall Popery made a confession of Faith against which the gates of Hell can never prevaile in the words and manner following CHAP. XVI I Beleeve that the Church of England comparing the weake and decayed estate of the Roman Church in the beginning of this latter age with the strong and flourishing condition of the Primitive times some hundreds of yeares after Christ and finding the Church of Rome with relation to those times so unlike the Church of Rome and so contrary to it selfe had good reason to trust the soules and eternity of her faithfull people rather with the old purity of the younger times neere Christ the ancient of dayes then with the new belefe of these old and dangerous times It being confessed and all Histories as if they had beene written with the same pen testifying that in those golden times the name of Pope was not heard of The Bishop of Rome was indeed esteemed a Bishop a Patriarch and there was a full point All the supremacie hee could possibly then claime rested in his being a supreme Patriarch Which supremacie gave him the first place allowed him to give the first sentence and there hee stuck And how little the Councell of Nice of Constantinople and all the Grecian Councels favoured the Latin Church and their Patriarch the Bishop of Rome he that can read and understand may be a witnesse And to consider the just ordering of Church-imployments Constantine the first Christian Emperour if I may stile him so without prejudice to Philip ex sacerdctum sententia saith Ruffinus advised by certaine Ruff. Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 1. Bishops called the Councell of Nice And â—e cannot be said as Bellarmine answereth to have executed the Popes commandement For the Author seemeth not in his relation to have thought of the Bishop of Rome unlesse you will urge he thought of him in a confused manner as being in the number of Bishops Behold here the great height of Princely and temporall authority Edesius and Frumentius labouring Ruff. Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 9 to reconcile a great Kingdome of India to Christ dealt their affaires with Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria they had not learned the duty of repairing to Rome Observe the indifferencie of Episcopall and Spirituall power And againe it being most certaine that in those cleane and holy times the Sacrament of the Eucharist was not adored and consequently not beleeved to be God and was freely delivered in both kindes to the people And I wonder that the strange inconveniencies which the nicenesse and curiosity of Rome pretendeth were not perceived by the cleare eyes of the holy Prelates in those dayes who little dreaming of a reall presence little thought waking that the administration of the Sacrament in one kinde gave the things signified by both kindes the body and blond and was therefore sufficient to spirituall nourishment And moreover it appearing plainely in all the old Monuments of Records that the Scripture was then read not to the eares but through the eares to the hearts of people in a knowne language So that when the supremacie of the Pope beganne to take place then onely his language began to be supreme as well as he More a great deale may be said but I have not time to say it at this time Indeed and indeed the Church of Rome in my thoughts is rather the carcasse of a Church then the Church animated with the holy Ghost and is like the ruines of a City burnt or decayed by which we may perceive there hath beene a City Her people may say Fuimus Troes we have been the beautifull Church of Christ It can doe no harme if it be knowne that three dayes before I preached my first Sermon by which I declared my recantation certaine Papists very neere to me in familiarity came to my lodging and desiring to dine with me furnished the table with provision of their owne buying But some houres after there rose such a tumult and combustion in my body that I was forced to take my bed and keep it and yet leave it every halfe houre that for three dayes I slept if at all but very little And when I came to the Pulpit I was more like the wrack of poyson then a living body And yet God carried me through that good work with great power THE FIFTH BOOKE CHAP. I. HAving thus boldly behaved my selfe in the open Field the Popish Priests and Papists beganne to let their tongues goe at me with all their power Potiphars wife threw slanders after Joseph flying from her The Dragon cast rivers of water out of his mouth thinking to drowne the Woman with her childe Plutarch that had escaped to the Wildernesse The Crocodiles are said to beate themselves when they have lost their prey Let the Crocodile correct himselfe but let him spare me Here I must advertise my Reader and before the advertisement I will consider that my Creatour my Redeemer and my Judge is present with me and observes how I manage my Pen. The Popish Religion in the continuance of it stands upon these two maine props as upon two mighty Pillars First the spreading and dilating of their praises who fight under their Banner Secondly the vilifying and debasing of those who take armes against them And it is to me a certainty that the world lies drown'd in the bottome of these two great flouds and is utterly ignorant what persons have
Priest came to me having in his company one habited like an English Minister and the maine point of his businesse broke out in these words See how God provides for his Church you have left us and here is one comming to us from that for the love of which you forsooke us And thus speaking he pointed to the Minister The Gentleman is now beneficed with us and therefore you shall not know his name though you are acquainted with his fault because God hath hid many of my faults from those that know my name Yet I like not that he so much savoureth of the Popish practise as to stigmatize me with the brand of insufficiencie in matter of learning wheresoever he commeth For if he were come quite home to us hee would be one heart and soule with me and draw the practise of his life more neare to his parts both of nature and learning in both which whatsoever I am he is not unable though both he and the Priest were of a most horrid life Let Men and Angels heare me If any member of the Church of Rome or England can make it plaine to the reason of competent and fit Judges that from the day wherein I first gave my necke into the yoke of the Papists to this houre I have committed any scandalous action scandalous in the judgement of the Church of England and moreover have not lived a wary sober and recluse life I will restore againe the little I have received from the Church of England and begge my bread all the dayes of my life Let them goe to my lodging-places in the City and to my Parish in the Countrey they are well knowne and when they come home againe convince me either of immodesty intemperancie idlenesse or other such crime and I will turne begger in the very day of my conviction And yet I know that the Church of Rome will set mee out and Reader remember my Prophecie in the forme of a foolish madde ignorant shallow and odiously wicked creature And I am all this but they know it not And even now I play the foole for in the defence of my selfe I commend my selfe But I trust my intention is rather to defend the honour of the Church from which I did once cut my selfe and to which God hath joyned mee againe I have heard it spoke in the corners of their Colledges that they presently write the lives of persons who revolt from them and put them and their actions in a strange habit I shall be joyfull to reade my life that I may weepe for my sinnes and blesse God for my deliverances but if it be not written truely he will write it that best knowes it If they come with falshoods I shall more and more detest them and their Religion and beleeve that all their good purposes in the service of God are but Velleities Wils and no Wils Wils which would but will not I desire peace if it may be granted with good conditions I was bound to satisfie good people and stop the mouths of the evill To many hath beene denied the use of a sword but no man ever was prohibited to use a buckler because a bucklar is ordained only for defence and in our defence we kill and yet are not thought to commit murder CHAP. III. GGD hath brought me home with a mighty hand Had I sailed from Rome one day sooner as my purpose was I had certainely beene carried away by the Turkish Gallyes which swept away all they met the day before I passed I was dangerously sicke in my journey towards England at Ligorne but God restored me The Ship in where I was ranne a whole night laid all a long upon one of her sides And another time began to sinke downright I fell into the hands of theeves by the Sea-shore that would have killed mee and all in my journey towards England And after all this and much more I am a convert to the Church of England in a time which needs a man of a bold heart and a good courage like my selfe to resist the craft encroaching and intrusion of Popery Let a great Papist remember his ordinary saying that he beleeved God would worke some great worke by me And I have great hope that the Church wil be pleased to look upon me and fixe me where I may best be seene and most be heard I am not of their minde that move and sue and labour in the atchievement of that which ought to bee cast upon them The Lord knowes that although the Church of Rome accuseth mee of ambitious thoughts a small being in a fit place is the top of all Con. Aqusgr can 134 The Councel of Aix my wishes A Councell said Meminisse oportet quia columba est in divinis Scripturis Ecclesia appellata quae non unguibus lacerat sed alis pie perculit We ought all to remember that the Church is stiled in holy Scripture an innocent Dove for her gentlenesse which chides rather then teares and having chid is friends again presently and receives with all gentlenesse Yet I am bold to say that it would be a noble worke to provide for the present reliefe and entertainment of Shollers who shall afterwards desert the Church of Rome and cleave to us The Church of Rome doth exceedingly bragge of her charity in that part when it is certaine their common aime if not their chiefe aime is the strength and benefit of their private body wherein they are all as one that they may stand the faster I owe my prayers and in a manner my selfe to many great personages The Lord pay them againe what I received of them in that money which goes in Heaven And persons of ordinary condition refreshed me above their condition Let him for whose sake they were so pious reward them I would the Levite had beene as earnest as the Samaritane CHAP. IIII. ANd being come to the Arke I desire not to settle onely upon the top of the Arke but to come into it and be pliable in all points If I have committed an errour in this booke I shall presently correct it after the least whisper of admonishment which may have beene easily committed because I have not used other books borne with a desire of haste but was contented with part of my owne papers and certaine extractions out of the Popish Libraries I beleeve as the Church of England beleeves knowing what shee beleeves The Greek and Latin editions have in the 8. chapter of Genesis The Crow went out and returned not But the English agreeing with the Hebrew hath And he sent forth a Raven which went forth to and fro untill the waters were dried up from off the earth For he went out and now and then returned to the top of the Arke flew to and fro as Birds are wont And though the Dove also went out of the Arke yet because she could not finde cleane footing shee returned and He put forth his hand and took her and
discomforted they would not be angry that I desired to subsist and to preach the good Gospell of Christ But I will not preach this doctrine till I am call'd CHAP. V. ANd now I thanke the Papists for my unconquerable resolution growing from the grossenesse of their scandals Josephs Brethren were very malicious against him they sold him to slavery the Scene beganne to bee tragicall God came to act his part turned the wheele and made all this malice and misery end in the great benefit not onely of the malicious and undeserving Brethren but of Joseph himselfe his old Father and the whole Kingdome of Egypt Judas sold his Master his Master and the Master of all things for thirty pence the money would goe but a little way he had an ill bargaine When his part was done God entred upon the Stage and by the execrable perfidiousnesse of the Traitour Judas brought about the redemption of mankinde the salvation of the whole world and in effect all the shining that is and ever shall be made by glorious soules and bodies in Heaven I doe not except the soule and body of our Mediatour and Advocate Christ Jesus who though he did not redeeme himselfe because he was not in captivity yet came to be betraied and to redeeme his Betrayer if he would have bin redeemed By this law a prudent Mr. of a family turnes the rough nature of an angry Dog to the benefit and peace of himselfe and his family and a wise Physitian the eager thirst of a bloud-thirsty horseleach to the health of a sick person although indeed these unreasonable creatures of themselves aime at nothing but to satiate their owne wilde natures Saint Austin speaking of evill men saith Ne igitur putes gratis malos esse in hoc mundo nihil boni ex illis metere Deum quia omnis malus aut ideo vivit ut corrigatur aut ideo vivit ut per illum bonus exerceatur Doe not therefore thinke that evill men are suffered to be evill in this world for no good purpose and that God reapes no benefit by them For every evill man either therefore lives that in time he may decline from evill and incline to good or therefore lives that the good man may be exercised and farthered in the practise of goodnesse by him otherwise he should no live There is a course of things within the generall course of this world pertaining to the order to which God brings all straggling chances in the last act of the play which if we did examine as they come and beget experience we should enlighten and enrich the understanding with heavenly matters exceedingly We behold how admirably at this day moved by the sinfull occasion of Heresie and Superstition the Church doth watch and pray and we know that a multitude of soules now crowned in Heaven hath learned to avoid sinne by observing others punished for sinne which could not in justice have beene punished if it had not beene committed and how murderes doe open the gate of Heaven for Martyrs and that the bloud of Martyrs hath beene the seed of the Church for if they had not died bodily many had not lived spiritually And to goe as high as may be Good comes to God by the worst of evils the good of glory by sinne For to speake with Cassiodore Materia est gloriae principalis delinquentis reatus quia nisi culparum Cassio Var. 3. 46. occasiones emergerent locum pietas non haberet The guilt of a Delinquent person is a principall matter that nourisheth glory For if there were no sinne there would be no place for the exercise of mercie which supposeth misery which misery supposeth sinne And though I gather good from the evill of the Church of Rome yet the evill of the Church is to me a sound argument against the Church That rule of Mat 7. 16. Christ Yee shall know them by their fruits is as true a marke as a signe from Heaven For as the Church of Rome was first known by her workes so now likewise shee is knowne by her workes and the workes of her age not being of the same birth and education with the workes of her youth shew her to bee different from her selfe when workes doe alwayes answer in some proportion to Faith and the Tree cannot be good if the fruit be generally evill And as Saint Justine writeth to the Grecians S. Justin Cohort ad Graec. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the solid fruit of pious workes gives testimony to the true Religion I came from the last Popish Colledge of which I was a member as I did from all others fairely and respectfully on both sides Their testimony of me is yet in my hands made strong and authenticall with their owne Seale I will give it here word for word Thomas Fitzherbertus societatis Jesu Collegii Anglorum de urbe Rector OMnibus in quorum manus praesentes venerint salutem in Domino sempiternam Fidem facimus atque his literis attestamur latorem praesentium Reverendum Patrem Franciscum Dakerum for this was the last name by which I was knowne amongst them Anglum Sacerdotem esse nec ullo impedimento Canonico prohiberi quo minus sacrosanctum Missae Sacrificium ubique celebrare possit Cum vero etiam in hoc nostro Collegio sedis Apostolicae Alumnus fuerit modo absolutis studiis in Angliam ad lucrandas Deo animas proficiscatur nos quo illum affectu nobiscum morantem complexi sumus eodem discedentem paterne prosequimur omnibus ad quos in itinere devenerit quantum valemus in Domino commendamus In quorum fidem caet Romae ex Collegio Anglorum die 9. Septemb. 1635. Thomas Fitzherbertus manu propria Those with whose understandings this will suite are able to understand it without a translation The Faculties annexed by the Pope to the exercise of my Priestly function were these I have them under their owne hands Ordinariae Facultates Alumnorum Collegii Anglicani 1. FAcultas absolvendi ab omnibus casibus Censuris in Bulla Caenae Domini reservatis in Regnis Angliae Scotiae Hiberniae 2. Vt possint illis quos reconciliaverint dare Apostolicam benedictionem cum plenaria Indulgentia prima vice Catholicis vero congregatis ad Concionem vel ad sacrum in Festis solennioribus Apostolicam benedictionem sine plenaria Indulgentia 3. Vt possint dispensare cum illis qui contraxerint cum tertio vel quarto gradu in foro conscientiae tantum 4. Vt possint commutare vota simplicia exceptis votis Castitatis Religionis in aliud opus pium cum causa 5. Vt possint benedicere vestes alia omnia quae pertinent ad Sacrificium praeter ea quae requirunt Chrisma 6 Vt possint restituere jus petendi debitum conjugale quando ex aliqua causa omissum est 7 Vt possint dare facultatem Catholicis legendi libros controversiarum a Catholicis
scriptos in vulgari lingua 8. Quando non possunt ferre Breviarium vel recitare officium sine probabili periculo suppleant aliquot Psalmos dicendo vel alias orationes quas sciunt memoriter 9. Si aliis Facultatibus indiguerint vel dubia circa horum usum occurrerint remittant ad Reverendum Dominum Archipresbyterum Angliae ut illis satisfaciat prout ipsi in Domino visum fuerit eique in omnibus obedire teneantur quod etiam se facturos promittant priusquamhae vel aliae Facultates â—s concedantur The Grants of giving Indulgences are either ordinary or extraordinary The ordinary are ordinarily knowne the extraordinary are these their Coppie is yet with me Formulae Extraordinariae Indulgentiarum pro utriusque sexus fidelibus qui penes se habuerint aliquam Coronam Rosarium parvam crucem aut imaginem benedictam caet 1. VT quicunque semel saltem in hebdomada officium divinum ordinarium aut Beatae Virginis aut Defunctorum aut septem Psalmos Paenitentiales aut Graduales aut coronam Domini aut Beatae Virginis aut tertiam partem Rosarii recitare aut Doctrinam Christianam docere aut infirmos alicujus Hospitalis vel detentos in carcere visitare aut pauperibus Christi subvenire consueverit vere paenitens ac confessus sacerdoti ab ordinario approbato sanctissimum Eucharistiae sacramentum sumpserit in aliquo ex diebus infra scriptis nempe Nativitatis Domini Epiphaniae Ascensionis Domini Pentecostes cum duobus sequentibus Corporis Christi Nativitatis Sancti Joan. Bapt. Sanctorum Apostolorum Petri Pauli Assumptionis beatae Mariae semper Virginis omnium sanctorum dedicationis propriae Ecclesiae Patroni vel tituli Ecclesiae atque ea die pie ad Deum preces effuderit pro Haeresium ac schismatum exterminatione pro fidei Catholicae propagatione ChristianoruÌ„ principum concordia atque aliis sanctae Matris Ecclesiae necessitatibus in singulis diebus ejusmodi plenariam omnium peccatorum Indulgentiam consequatur 2. Vt quicunque in prima Dominica Quadragesimae Quadragesimale jejunium salubriter celebrans vere paenitens confessus sacraque communione refectus ut supra oraverit itidem Plenariam 3. Vt quisquis vere paenitens ac si potuerit ut supra confessus sacra communione refectus alioqui saltem contritus in mortis articulo nomen Jesu ore si potuerit sin minus corde devote invocaverit similier plenariam Let the Ministers of England those I meane who dwell at home and not in Tavernes who burne with zeale not smoak with Tobacco and who steere not towards preferment but towards Heaven judge whether the man ought not to be cherished countenanced and exposed in the light and frequencie of people that hath shaken off with great loathing these wretched abuses and the Patrons of them But I poore man for so is the fortune of these times like him in the Comick Poet Vivus vidensque pereo live and while I live perish and perish in darknesse and yet see my selfe perish but am not seene to perish for then sure I should not perish But it cannot be thus long And therefore O all yee Schollers beyond the Seas under whose profession there lie secret thoughts of returning to the Church of England be cheerefull For howsoever the clouds have shadowed me the Sunne will shine out upon you The Church of God hath ever beene subject to outward alterations And you shall be received and clasped round about with the armes of true zeale and charity Gods children in England will acknowledge his children flying from Babylon And every good soule will have a sense of what you feele and a sight of what you want before you can name it They that are great shall be the greatest in godlinesse and in all their greatnesse shall thinke themselves as little as you And the golden age will come againe And therefore once more I say it be of good comfort And for me I hope I shall now sing with the Prophet I will not dye but live and declare the workes of the Lord. CHAP. VI. O What a sweetnesse of heart it was to me when I first entred into the Protestant Churches after my conversion to heare the people answer and see them lissen in divine Service O the poore Countrey people amongst the Papists who not understanding their Service and seldome hearing Sermons live more like beasts then men I have seene of the Galiegos and heard of some Countrey people in Italy who they confessed did not much differ from beasts but in the outward shape And the case of all people in Rome is to be lamented whose ordinary phrase is Come let us goe and heare Musick and the Cardinals boyes sing at such a Church This is to please the sense not God I saw such a representation of Hell and Heaven in a Cardinals Palace and the parts of Saints and Devils so performed with singing and Musicke and the soules in so great a number comming out of the world into Purgatory that it was wonderfull Shewes of this nature are often seene in their Churches Aristotle sayes well Omnis cognitio nostra a sensu initium habet All the knowledge we gather from below begins at the sense And these Scribes and Pharisees doe foole the senses of their people exceedingly I have an old manuscript wrought excellently with gold and painting In which booke there is a prayer with this inscription Oratio venerabilis Bedae Presbyteri de septem verbis Christi in eruce pendentis quam orationem quicunque quotidie devote dixerit nec Diabolus nec malus homo ei nocere poterit nec sine confessione morietur per tringinta dies ante obitum suum videbit gloriosam Virginem Mariam in auxilium sibi praeparatam The prayer of venerable Bede Priest of the seven words or speeches of Christ hanging upon the Crosse which prayer whosoever shall say devoutly every day upon his knees neither the Devill nor any evill man shall ever hurt him neither shall he die without confession and three hundred dayes before his death hee shall see the glorious Virgin Mary in a readinesse to succour him At the Busse in Holland in the Church of S. Peter they have pictured a Bishop in a glasse-window On one side of him hangs Christ upon the Crosse with his wounds bleeding On the otherside stands the Virgin Mary with her breasts running The Bishop in the middle is made with a divided countenance and these words are drawne in a long roll from his mouth quo me vertam nescio I know not to which of these two to turne my selfe either to the bloud of Christ or to the milke of the Virgin Mary And was not this an ignorant Bishop and was his flock like to thrive They lead their people strangely by the eares also They send letters very commonly to their Colledges which are read in the Refectories and recreations as their letters of newes are and