judge how canst thou thus overweene thine own sufficiencie as thou neither regardest the examples of thy Progenitors nor the judgment of the whole Church doest thou not consider what misery this thy rashness will bring thee unto thou shalt lose all thy substance gotten with so much care and travaile thou shalt undergoe the most exquisite torments that malice it self can devise thou shalt be counted an heretique of all and to close up all thou shalt die shamefully What thinkest thou of the loathsome stinking dungeon the bloudy axe the burning fagot are they delightfull Be wise at length and keepe thy life and honour thou maiest live to do much good to good men as God commands thee thou maiest be an ornament to thy Countrey and put case thy Countries loss would be of small esteem with thee Wilt thou bring thy friends also into danger thou hast begotten children wilt thou now cut their throats and inhumanely butcher them which may in time bring honour to their Countrey glory to God help and furtherance to his Church goe to the Legate weak man freely confess thy fault and help all these miseries Thus did the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choak the good Seed that was formerly sown so as fearing he faints and yields unto the allurements of this present world and being thus blinded he goes to the Legate at Venice and salutes him with this news Having for these divers yeares entertained an opinion concerning some Articles of faith contrary to the Orthodox and received judgment of the Church and uttered many things against the authority of the Church of Rome and the universal Bishop I humbly acknowledg my fault and Errour and my folly in misleading others I therefore yield my self in all obedience to the Supreame Bishop into the Bosome of the Church of Rome never to depart again from the traditions and decrees of the holy See I am heartily sorry for what is past and I humbly begge pardon for so great an offence The Legate perceiving Spira to faint he pursues him to the utmost he causeth a recitation of all his Errors to be drawn in writing together with the Confession annexed to it and commands Spira to subscribe his name there which accordingly he did then the Legate commands him to return to his own Towne and there to declare this Confession of his and to acknowledg the whole Doctrine of the Church of Rome to be holy and true and to abjure the Opinions of Luther and other such Teachers as false and heretical Man knowes the beginning of sinne but who bounds the issues thereof Spira having once lost footing goes down a maine he cannot stay nor gain-say the Legate but promiseth to accomplish his whole will and pleasure he soon addresseth himself for his Iourney and being onward in the way be thinks himself of the large spoiles he had brought away from the Conflict with the Legate what glorious testimony he had given of his great faith and constancy in Christs cause and to be plain how impiously he had denied Christ and his Gospel at Venice and what he promised to do further in his own Countrey and thus partly with feare and partly with shame being confounded he thought he heard a voyce speaking unto him in this manner Spira What dost thou here whither goest thou hâ—st thou unhappy man given thy hand-writing to the Legate at Venice yet see thou doest not seale it in thy own countrey Diest thou indeed think eternal life so meane as that thou preferrest this present life before it dost thou well in preferring wife and children before Christ is the windy applause of the people better indeed then the glory of God and the possession of this worlds good more deare to thee then the salvation of thine own Soul is the small use of a moment of time more desireable then eternal wrath is dreadful Think with thy self what Christ endured for thy sake is it not equal thou shouldest suffer somewhat for him Remember man that the sufferings of this present life are not comparable to the glory that shall be revealed if thou sufferest with him thou shalt also reign with him thou canst not answer for what thou hast already done nevertheless the gate of mercy is not quite shut take heed that thou heapest not sin upon sin lest thou repent when it will be too late Now was Spira in a wilderness of doubt not knowing which way to turn him nor what to do yet being arrived in his own Country and amongst his friends with shame enough he relates what he had done and what he had further promised to do and how the terror of God on the one side and the terror of this world on the other side did continually rack him and therefore he desired of them advice in this so doubtfull a case his friends upon small deliberation answered that it was requisite he should take heed that he did not in any wise betray his wife and children and all his friends into danger seeing that by so small a matter as the reciting of a little Schedule which might be done in less space then halfe an hour he might both free himself from present danger and preserve many that depended upon him adding moreover that he could get no Credit in relenting from that which he had already in greatest part performed before the Legate at Venice and that in the perfect accomplishing thereof little or no discredite could arise more then what by the former action already he had sustained on the other side if he did not perform his promise made to the Legate he could neither discharge himself of the shame which he had already incurred nor avoyd far more heavy and insupportable injuries then probably hee should have endured if he had persisted obstinately in his former Opinions This was the last blow of the battaile and Spira utterly overcome goes to the Praetor and profers to perform his promise made to the Legate who in the meane time had taken order to have all things ready and had sent the instrument of abjuration signed by Spira to the Praetor by the hands of a certain Priest All that night the miserable man ware out with restless cares without any minute of rest the next morning being come he gets up and being ready he desperately enters into the publique Congregation where Mass being finished in the presence of friends and enemies and of the whole Assembly being by estimation neer two thousand people yea and of Heaven it self he recites that infamous abjuration word for word as it was written it being done he was fined at thirty pieces of gold which he presently paid five whereof were given to the Priest that brought the abjuration the other twenty five were imployed towards the making of a Shryne to put the Eucharist in then was he sent home restored to his Dignities goods wife and children No sooner was he departed but he thought he heard a direful voyce
A RELATION OF THE FEARFVL ESTATE OF Francis Spira In the year 1548. Compiled by Natth. Bacon Esq The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own waies Prov. 14. 14. LONDON Printed by I. L. for Christoph Meredith at the Crane in Pauls Church-yard 1649. A RELATION of the fearfull estate of Francis SPIRA IN the year 1548. when the glorious Sun of the Gospel was but newly risen in Europe in the days of the raign of Edward the Sixth of that name King of ENGLAND In the Territorie and under the Iurisdiction of the City of Venice being the very border of Italy in the town of Cittadella lived one Francis Spira a Civill Lawyer an Advocate of great rank and esteem being of known learning and eloquence of great experience of carriage circumspect and severe his speech grave and composed his countenance sharpe and austere every way befitting that authority wherunto he was advanced endowed with outward blessings of wife and eleven children and wealth in abundance what his worst parts were I have no other warrant then his own words which if not tainted overmuch with the bitterness of a desperate minde and bearing the countenance rather of passion then of sober confession may seem to adde a period to all further commendations I was saith he excessively covetous of mony and accordingly I applied my self to get by injustice corrupting justice by deceit inventing tricks to delude justice good causes I either defended deceitfully or sold them to the adversary perfidiously ill causes I maintained with all my might I wittingly opposed the known truth and the trust commuted unto mee I either betrayed or perverted Thus having worn out forty four yeares or there abouts and the news of the new or rather newly revived opinions of Luther comming into those parts represented an object of novelty unto him who being as desirous to know as he was famous for knowledg suffered not these wandring opinions to pass unexamined but searching into the Scriptures and into all books of Controversie that he could get both old and new and finding more then fame or opinion he began to taste their nature so well as he entertains loves and ownes them at length and with such zeal as he became a professor yea a teacher of them first to his wife children and family and after to his friends and familiar acquaintance and in comparison seemed to neglect all other affaires intending ever to press this main point that We must wholly and only depend one the free and unchangeable love of God in the death of Christ as the only sure way to salvation and this was the summe of all his discourse and this continued for the space of six years or thereabouts even so long as this fire could keep it self within private walles but at length it brake forth into publique meetings so as the whole Province of Padua dawned by the lustre thereof The Clergie finding the trade of their pardons to decay and their Purgatory to wax cold began to be stirre themselves glosing their actions first with calumnious aspersions upon the whole profession then more plainly striking at Spira with grievous accusation And to effect their purpose some promise labour others favour some advice others maintenance all joyn to divide either his soul from his body or both from God Now was Iohn Casa the Popes Legate resident at Venice being by birth a Florentine and one that wanted neither malice against those of this way nor craftiness to effect his malicious purposes To him these men repaire with out-cries against Spira that he was the man that condemned the received rites of the Church deluded the Ecclesiastical power and scandalized the policie thereof one of no meane rank being a man of Account and authority and therunto learned in the Scriptures elegant in speech and in one word a dangerous Lutheran having also many disciples and therefore not to be despised At this began the Legate to cast his eye on the terrible alteration that lately had hapned in Germany where by the means of one onely Luther the Romish Religion had suffered such a blow as that it could neither be cured by dissimulation nor defended by power but the Clergy must either mend their manners or lose their dignities on the other side when he saw how propense the common people inhabiting in the bordering countries of Italy were to entertain those new opinions he now thought it no time to dispute or perswade but with speed repairs to the Senate and procures authority from them to send for Spira Spira by this time had considered with himself of the nature of his carriage how evident and notorious it was and therefore subject to be envied by such as neither liked his person nor religion he perceived that his opinions were neither retired nor speculative but such as aimed at the overthrow of at the Romish Faction and a change of policie wherein at the best he could expect but a bloudy victory and that his enemies wanted neither power nor occasion to call him to account in publique when he must either Apostatize and shamefully give his former life yea his own conscience the lie or endure the utmost malice of his deadly enemies or forsake his wife children friends goods authority yea his deare Country and betake himself to a forraign people there to endure a thousand miseries that do continually wait upon a voluntary exile Being thus distracted and tossed in the restless waves of doubt without guide to trust to or haven to fly to for succour on the suddain Gods Spirit assisting he felt a calme and began to discourse with himself in this manner Why wandrest thou thus in uncertainties unhappy man cast away fear put on thy shield the shield of faith Where is thy wonted courage thy goodness thy constancy remēber that Christs glory lies at the stake suffer thou without fear he will defend thee he wil tel thee what thou shalt answer he can beat down all danger bring thee out of prison raise thee from the dead cōsider Peter in the dungeon the Martyres in the fire if thou makest a good confession thou maiest indeed go to prison or death but an eternal reward in heaven remaines for thee What hast thou in this world comparable to Eternal life to everlasting happiness if thou doest otherwise think of the scandal common people live by example thinking what ever is done is well done fear the loss of peace and joy fear hell death and eternal wrath or if thy flesh bee so strong as to cause thee to doubt of the issue fly thy Countrey get thee away though never so far rather then deny the Lord of life Now was Spira in reasonable quiet being resolved to yield to these weighty reasons yet holding it wisedom to examine all things he consults also with flesh and bloud thus the battaile doth renew and the flesh begins in this manner Be well advised fond man consider reasons on both sides and then
have done he might have repented and Christ would have received him to mercy and yet he sinned most grievously against his Master which did so esteem of him as to honour him with the dignitie of an Apostle and did maintain and feed him He answered Christ did also feed and honour mee neither yet is my fault one jot less then that of his because it is not more honour to be personally present with Christ in the flesh then to be in his presence now by illumination of his holy Spirit and besides I deny that ever Iudas could have repented how long soever he had lived for grace was quite taken from him as it is now from me O Spira said they you know you are in a Spiritual desertion you must therefore not believe what Satan suggests he was ever a Liar from the beginning and a meer Impostour and will cast a thousand lying fancies into your mind to beguile you withall you must rather believe those whom you judg to be in a good estate and more able to discern of you then your self believe us and we tell you that God will be merciful unto you O here is the knot said Spira I would I could believe but I cannot Then he began to reckon up what fearful dreames and visions he was continually troubled withall that he saw the divels come flocking into his Chamber and about his bed terrifying him with strange noyses that these were not fancies but that he saw them as really as the standers by and that besides these outward terrours he felt continually a racking torture of his minde and a continual butchery of his Conscience being the verie proper pangs of the damned wights in hell Cast way these fancies said Gribauldus these are but illusions humble your self in the presence of God and praise him The dead praise not the Lord answered he nor they that goe down into the pit we that are drowned in despaire are dead and already gone down into the pit what hell can there be worse then desperatâ—on or what greater punishment the gnawing woâ—m unquenchable fire horror confusion and which is woâ—se then all desperation it self continualâ—y â—oâ—tures me and now I count my preseâ—t estate worse then if my soul separated from my body were with Iudas and the rest of the damned and therefore I now desire rather to bee there then thus to lâ—ve in the bodie One being present repeated certain words out of the Psalmes If thy Children forsake my Law and walk not in my Iudgments I will visite their transgressions with rods and their iniquities with stripes nevertheless my loving kindness I will not utterly take from them nor suffer my faithfulness to fail mark this O Spira my Covenant I will not break These promises said Spira belong only to the Elect which if tempted may fall into sinne but are again lifted up and recovered out as the Prophet saith though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him therefore Peter could rise for he was Elected but the reprobate when they fall cannot rise again as appeares in Cain Saul and Iudas God deales one way with the Elect and another way with Reprobates The next day he prayed with them in the Latine tongue and that with excellent affection as outwardly appeared blessed be God said Vergerius these are no signes of eternal reprobation you must not O Spira seek out the secret counsels of Gods election and reprobation for no man can know so long as hee lives whether by his good or bad deeds he be worthy of Gods love or anger do you not know that the Prophet David complained that God had cast off his Soul I know al this quoth Spira I know the mercies of God are infinite and do surpass the sins of the whole world and that they are effectual to all that believe but this faith and this hope is the gift of God O that he would give it mee but it is as impossible as to drink up the sea at a draught As for that of Salomon if he had ever tryed that which I feel by wofull experience he would never have spoken as he did but the truth is never had mortall man such an evident experience of Gods anger and hatred against him as I have you that are in a good estate think repentance and faith to be works of great facilitie and therefore you think it an easie matter to perswade a man to believe the whole need not the Physician and he that is well can soon give counsell to such as are ill but this is the hell to mee my heart is hardned I cannot believe many are called but few are chosen Upon what ground said they do you conceive so ill an opinion of your self I once did know God to be my Father not only by creation but by regeneration I knew him by his beloved Sonne the author and finisher of our Salvation I could pray to him and hope for pardon of sinnes from him I had a taste of his sweetness peace and comfort now contrarily I know God not as a Father but as an enemies what more my heart hates God and seeks to get above him I have nothing else to fly to but terror and despair Belike you think then said they that those who have the earnest and first fruits of Gods Spirit may notwithstanding fall away The judgments of God are a deep abiss said he we are soon drowned if we enter into them he that thinks he standeth let him take heed lest he fall as for my self I know I am fallen back and that I once did know the truth though it may be not so throughly I know not what else to say but that I am one of that number which God hath threatned to tear in peices Say not so answered they for God may come though at the last hour keep hold therefore at the least by hope This quoth he is my case I tell you I cannot God hath deprived mee of hope this brings terror to my minde and pines this body which now is so week as it cannot perform the several offices thereof for as the Elect have the Spirit testifying that they are the sonnes of God so the Reprobates even while they live do often feel a worme in their conscience whereby they are condemned already and therefore as soon as I perceived this wound inflicted on my mind and will I knew that I wanted the gifts of saving grace and that I was utterly undone God chasteneth his children with temporarie afflictions that they may come as gold out of the fire but punisheth the wicked with blindness in their understandings and hardness of heart and woe be to such from whom God takes his holy Spirit Here one rebuked him and told him hee gave too much credite to sense that he was not to believe himself but rather him that was in a good state and I testifie to you