the world or some other inferiour thing provided for the use of man I wil remember the young-man that weeping at the sight of a Toad and being asked by certaine Bishops as they passed in the way where he was the cause of his griefe answered and softned every word with a teare that he wept because he had risen to such a bulk of body and heigth of yeares and never yet given thanks to God for not creating him so foule an object of contempt as the Toad when hee was to God his Maker as willing and easie clay in the hands of the Potter O Lord I thank thee for him and for my selfe and for us all MEDITATION III. ANd the Lord God formed man of the Gen. 2. 7. dust of the ground and breathed into his nostr hils the breath of life and man became a living soule For when the Angels enriched with such absolute gifts and dowries of nature by occasion of their shining and beautifull nature had lost and lost beyond recovery the fairest beauty under Heaven which is Grace God turning his Omnipotencie to the Creation of man made as if he feared the like inconvenience all that is visible in Him of Earth of base and foule earth Which lest it should continually provoke a loathing he hath changed into a more fine substance covered all over with a fair and fashionable skinne but with a condition of returning at a word and halfe a call from Heaven unto Earth and into Earth That although he might afterwards be lifted up in the scale of his soule hee might be depressed againe presently on the other side by the waight and heavinesse of his body and so might lay the deep and low foundation of humility requisite to the high and stately building of vertue If now God should turn a man busie in the commission of some haynous crime into his first earth that presently in steed of the man should appeare to us an Image of clay like the man and with the mans cloathes on standing in the posture in which the man stood when he was wholly tooke up in committing that high sinne against God Should we not all abominate so vile a man of clay lifting himselfe against the great God of Heaven and Earth And God breathed upon his face rather then upon any other part of his body because all the senses of man doe flourish in his face and because agreeably to his own ordinance in the face the operations of the soule should be most apparent as the signes of feare griefe joy and the like wherefore one calls the eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most exact and accurate images of the Damascenus in vita I sidori minde But stay I grant that God in the beginning first rais'd all things by a strange lift out of nothing And I confesse it is true not that which Pythagoras his Schollers had so often in their mouthes Ipse dixit and no farther but ipse dixit facta sunt as the Prophet David singeth God spake the word and all this gallant world rose presently out of nothing as if sencelesse nothing had heard his voyce and obeyed him And I am sufficiently convinced that God brought our first Father from cōmon earth that we cannot touch without defiling our fingers to earth of a finer making call'd flesh But how are we made by him wee come a naturall way into the world And it is not seene that God hath any extraordinary hand in the work Truly neither are the influences of the Sunne and Starres apparent to us in our composition yet are they necessary to it Sol homo generant Arist hominem sayes Aristotle The Sunne and a man betwixt them beget a child The reasonable soule is created by God in the body at the time when the little body now shapen is in a fit temper to entertaine it For the soule is so noble and excellent both in her substance and operations that shee cannot proceed originally from any inferiour cause nor be but by creation And if God should stay his hand when the body is fitly dressed and disposed for the soule the child would be borne but the meanest part of a man And doubtlesse God useth Parents like inferiour officers even in the framing of the Body For if the Parents were the true Authors and master builders of the body they should be endued naturally with a full and perfect knowledge of that which they make They should fully and perfectly know how all things are ordered and fitted in the building They should know in particular how many strings veins sinewes bones are dispensed through all the body in what secret Cabinet the braine is locked up in what posture the heart lyeth and what due motion it keepes what kinde of Cookery the stomack uses which way the rivers of the bloud turne and at what turning they meet what it is that gives to the eyes the principality of seeing to the eares of hearing to the nose of smelling to the mouth of censuring all that passes by the taste and to the skin and flesh the office of touching Nor is this all But also when the body is taken up and borded by a sicknesse or when a member withers or is cut off truly if the Parents were the only Authors of the body they might even by the same Art by which they first framed it restore it againe to it selfe As the maker of a clock or builder of a house if any parts be out of order can bring them home to their sit place and gather all againe to uniformity So that every man naturally should be so farre skill'd in Physick and Surgerie and have such an advantage of power that his Art should never faile him even in the extraordinary practice of either To this may be added that the joyning together of the soule and body which in a manner is the conjunction of Heaven and Earth of an Angell and a beast could not be compassed by any but a workman of an infinite power For by what limited art can aspirit be linked to flesh with so close a tye as to fill up one substance one person They are too much different things the one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Gregory Nazianzen speaks a ray of the S. Greg. Naz Divinity the other a vile thing extracted from a dunghill Nor is there any shew of semblance or proportion betwixt them And therfore to make these two ends meet is a work which requires the hand and the onely hand of the Master Workman The Divines give three speciall reasons why God joyned a body to a soule First moved by his infinite goodnesse because he desired to admit a body as well as a spirit to the participation of himselfe and all creatures being spirituall or corporall a body could never have beene partaker of blessednesse had it not beene joyned to a spirit Secondly for the more generall exercise of vertue in the service of
beleeve beyond the Sphere of all our Activities how the notes and marks by which the Romanists professe to know the true Church when they see it may in reason be noted for such Antiquity is an accidentary thing a thing seperable if a thing may be said seperable which was never joyned from the true Church and a thing common to it with other Churches Accidentary because it founds not the Essence of the Church but happens to it by the fluencie of Time Seperable because the old Church in the dayes of Adam and the new Church in the time of the Apostles stood firme and was it selfe without it Common because the Antichristian falshood which triumpheth in the Synagogues of Sathan was borne almost as soone as truth and unchristian falshood before her Multitude is not so proper to the true Church because it agreeth neither alwayes nor alone nor altogether to her Not alwayes because neither to the primitive Church nor to the Church in the Arrian and other persecutions Not alone to her it is as well knowne as the Sunne Not altogether to her because although many are called yet few are chosen Of successions there is one of doctrine another of persons the first is a mark the second is a mark to the sense not to the soule There is also a two-fold Union one mysticall and spirituall in the bond of faith another externall in the bond of profession That is a plaine mark not this And Union is not proper to the Church alone For the wicked and the world of Infidels are often united The Kings of the earth set themselves Psal 2 2. and the Rulers take counsell together against the Lord and against his Annointed It is a close Union when they joyne both their persons and their Counsells And Union doth not alwayes agree to the Catholike and Universall Church because particular Churches are oftentimes divided and torne with dissentions As the Church of Greece differs in many points from the Church of Rome which the Roman Church dealing with us calls matters of faith and yet the Church of Rome will turne about againe and stile her onely a Schismaticall part of the true Church cut from the communion being externall but not from the body of the Church And her Priests with licence from his Holinesse may say a Grecian Masse upon a Popish Altar And high Masse after the Grecian custome is sung every yeare upon S. Athanasius his day in Rome even by Grecians And many particular Churches and private Doctors amongst the Papists cry up for matters of faith the points which others throw into the number of private opinions and these all deeme themselves to stand under one and the same Verticall point of Religion These marks may suit as agreeably with the Beast in the Apocalypse as with the Church The second Book CHAP. 1. NOw I am come to the English Colledge at Valladolid in Spaine where at my first entrance I saw terribiles visu formas terrible shapes and representations For people are no sooner entred into the Colledge but they are put in minde what the Jesuits have suffered in England for the Catholike faith in this manner There stand in an open place before them as they enter the pictures of Father Garnet that suffered in the matter of the Gunpowder treason and others wherein great Knifes are pictured opening their brests to their very hearts the blood running out in abundance And the Spaniards doe make faces when they see them S. Cyprian was not of their faith who writeth S. Cypr. ep 24. Vt appareret Innocentes esse qui propter Christum necantur infantia innocens ob nomen ejus occisa est That it might appeare those who dye for Christ should be harmelesse his very first Martyrs baptized in their bloud were innocent children And if I remember aright as men goe farther into the Colledge there offer themselves to their eyes pictures of late persecutions in England where they have pictured us in print throwing the Papists being covered with beasts skins to doggs but their invention hath some ground in the Primitive Church Some things I learned in this Colledge which brought me into an extreame loathing of the Jesuits As that a Jesuite preached in a publike Assembly the fall of the house in London upon the Papists assembled in Black Friars to have beene caused by the Puritanes who did undermine it And that in the time when the Gunpowder treason was in hatching a Secular Gentleman came from England to Valladolid where the Court was then resident and lodged in the Colledge And his businesse was to sollicite the Councell of Spaine for ayde towards the perfection of the Plot but the Councell would not yeeld answering that such a case might in time be their owne And yet the Jesuites would now faine put upon the world that the Plot was not intended or as much as fore-knowne by them Let God witnesse for me that in this Colledge I heard two whereof the one was a Jesuite the other a Jesuited Scholler talking after this manner It was very neere said the Jesuit that I should have beene one in that Plot of the Gunpowder treason and though it was discovered I would to God I had beene one of the sufferers in that cause I said the Scholler now it tooke no effect every one speaks against it but had it beene prosperous in successe it would have beene extolled to the Heavens by all our side Let every man take his own way It is my beliefe that the Jesuits were the first Plotters of it the chiefest Actors in it Another reason which here created in me a loathing of the Jesuits to passe by many others was because I heard it and saw it come reeking from an Arch-Jesuits mouth that the Conversion of England to them could never be effected but by blood And it hath not beene knowne said he that so ripe haeresie was ever suppressed but by the shedding and effusion of much blood The man look'd bloodily when he spoke it But my Masters and you that with me have protested against the corruptions of the Church of Rome one question What security can wee promise to our selves that are beset in all places with such bloody Butchers of men one of whose chiefe Principles it is that we must be layd wallowing in our owne blood or they cannot compasse their much desired ends I have stay'd too long from the relation of one passage In the first voyage of the English to Cales in Spaine be like one of our Souldiers seeing a faire Image of the Virgin Mary in one of their Churches and thinking to prevent their farther worship of it cut it more then once over the face with his sword The English Navy being gone order was presently given and taken that whereas such a gallant Image of the Virgin Mary had beene irreverently abused by the English the English againe should use it reverently And it was presently sent to the English Colledge in
the poore let him pitty the desolate nakednesse of Christ and in his absence cover the naked and let him say Sweet God I doe heere lay downe all my vain and boundlesse desires and wholly desire thee and nothing but thee and nothing with thee but thee Is a man a burning fire-brand of rage and anger let him understand that ira furor brevis anger is a short madnesse and a long vexation that it subverteth the whole work of Peace and all the fabrick of piety in the heart robbeth it moreover of the sweets of life and leaveth a man a silly man to be the daily subject of other mens laughter and scorne let him consider that the God of peace dwelleth not in a troubled discontented soul And let him now come hither the shedding of this bloud shal satisfie still his anger for the bloud of Christ will breake the Adamant of his heart and let out the passion hee hath crushed water out of a Rock For what Lion hearted man can be angry when hee calleth to mind how this innocent Lambe heaven and earth being moved above and beneath him remained calme in the midst and died in the fulnesse of content and patience and let him say come O come great example of sweetnesse open thy armes wide wider yet yet wider that I may run into the Circle of thy sweet imbraces O my beloved Lord I am a spotted Leopard and yet I am not for I am all black and one drop of thy cleane bloud will transform all into perfect beauty O God how beautifull are thy Tabernacles I will prayse thee in Jerusalem the holy Citie of peace Is a man a back-biter or a talkative person Let him seriously think that he hath out-done the Basiliske and killed where and when hee hath not seene let it sinke into him that hee scattereth coles and is able to set on fire a whole Kingdome for if all were known to all persons that is done and said the dearest friends would bate of their love and there would be little if any friendship amongst men let him observe that words which have flown out of one mouth flie from one mouth to another and never leave flying let him now come hither look upon him that opened his mouth in speech but seven times in three long houres upon the Crosse when happily another would have roared in the extremity and have declamed against the ravenous greedinesse of the Jewish cruelty let him here admire in silence for hee will see that which if hee would speak he could not speak worthily let him heere contemplate him that knew the darke hearts and secret sinnes of all the world and yet did not reveal them to his tongue And let him say Deare Lord and Master I perceive now that I am not master of my brother's good name and that I ought not to break silence and speak every true thing and though my neighbour hath stained his credit in one place yet if it be not wholly prostituted by him if it be not a general publike and over-spreading stain I may not recount his weaknesse in places where his good name is firme and entire or at least not bruised in that part O my blessednesse I will make a covenant with my lips and a branch of the covenant shall be My lips shall praise thee Is a man a lover of pleasure Let it enter into his heart that as money profiteth onely when it goeth from us so pleasure delighteth only when it passeth and that it passeth as it commeth and that never any earthly pleasure did please when it was past let him keepe in his minde that whosoever is overcome with the vain ticklings of pleasure is more busied in the exercise of those faculties which he hath common with beasts then of those in which he is like to Angels and in the inference is a man-beast and let him believe for it is certainly true that the greatest pain grief and torment which Christ suffered on the Crosse and all the time of his life rose from a fore-sight in which hee beheld how many would doat upon the short and lightning flashes of the World and how few would cleave to the great and ever-during benefit of his passion and let him now come hither and fix upon him whose whole life was a map of misery and a sad history of pain who as he hung upon the Crosse suffered most heavy pains in every small part of his body died in pain and left to his Church a large legacie of most painfull sufferings and let him say O thou true lover of souls I will henceforth pursue pain more then pleasure I will prove my selfe to be a naturall member and suffer with my head O goodnesse make me conformable to thee and though I weep and bleed and beare crosses and though I am born up my self from earth and all earthly pleasure on a Crosse I shall not repine at my condition because the servant is not more worthy then his Master Come all kinds of Sinners come on come neere the Crosse take a full view of this bloudy sacrifice offered once for all touch it lay your hands freely upon the wounds and bruises they belong to you Come let us fall down before him and tell him of what weake and glassie matter he hath made us how prone we are to slip what great enemies threaten our ruine that the quarrell is because wee beare his Image and that we are persecuted even to death only because wee are like to him and that in the matter it is his quarrell And then let us humbly dedicate our parts that have sinned to his service For doubtlesse hee that suffered Magdalene to wipe his feet with her hair so often kemb'd sweetned tied up in knots let downe in hooks and spread in Nets to catch the carelesse youth of Ierusalem and the Country will not reject you or mee or yours or mine Hee that hath feet which have beene swift to shed bloud and quicke in accomplishing the acts of sinne let him kisse these feet and beg part of the satisfaction which they have made for the sinnes of the feet hee that hath hands dipped in bloud and bathed in all the sinks of mischiefe let him kisse these hands and beg part of the satisfaction which they have made for the sins of the hands hee that hath set the casements of his curious eyes wide open to vanitie and never shut them against vaine and wanton sights let him kisse these eyes hee that hath eares blistred with slanders and blurred with foule discourses let him kisse these eares he that hath a mouth plenum amaritudine full of bitternesse delibutum mendaciis bedaub'd with lyes and besmear'd with oaths let him kisse this mouth and beg part of the satisfaction which this mouth hath made for the sins of the mouth he that hath a heart fraught with ill habits and alwayes at worke in â—â—mmering sinne let him kisse not with his
lips but with his heart this wounded side and a mingled drop of bloud and water from this royall heart shall meet the lips of his heart while hee beggeth part of the satisfaction which this heart hath made for the sinnes of the heart Come all the dying man refuseth no living man you beggar with the crutch come forward no man woman or childe is excepted from the fruit of his passion Every one that is endued with a reasonable soule hath title to it It is only required that we believe in him and keep his Commandements for we ought likewise to give evidence of our faith by our works It is Christian doctrine which Christ teacheth As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wildernesse even so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternall life Saint Leo strikes home Effusio pro injustis sanguinis S. Leo. justi tam potens fuit ad privilegium tam dives ad pretium ut si universitas captivorum in redemptorem suum crederet nullum tyrannica vincula retinerent The powring out of the just mans bloud for the unjust was so powerfull by way of priviledge so rich by way of price that if every captive soul had believed in Christ Jesus hel should not have held one damned soule in it Who then can despaire He permitted himselfe to be fastned to the Crosse to proclame that he could not run away from any man Press on boldly hee cannot stirre His feet are sure and therefore you may be sure he cannot run away Nor can he free his feet with his hands for the hands are as sure as the feet And if hee were loose hands and feet poore wounded man he could not go farre for he is now parting with all the bloud in his body And when hee does withdraw himselfe from those that call upon him it is onely that he may give them opportunity to call more earnestly and that hee may be more honoured These are the cunning tricks of Lovers Saint Gregory Nazianzen writing to his Friend Nicobulus objecteth to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Greg. Naz. ep ad Nicobul you flie when I follow you loves practitioner to make your selfe more precious MEDIT. 5. O Lord how should a poore man do to passe his life in the due and solid consideration of the great secret of Christs Passion to consider that he would appear to men in a vile and despicable manner that he would weare a Crowne of thornes an old purple Robe and beare a Reed in place of a Scepter to be firme occasions of dispensing his heavenly gifts and ornaments to us to consider how Pilate and Herod joyned hands and met in his destruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Greg. Naz. and contraries concurred to his punishment as Saint Gregorie Nazianzen wrote of a Martyr burned alive in an old Ship to whose death fire and water did agree to consider how the Sun as Dionysius declareth in his Epistle to his Master Apollophanes in ipsius verae lucis occubitu lucere Dionys ep ad Apolloph non potuit in the setting of the true Sun could not shine to consider that hee did not take a phantasticall body in the Incarnation that hee might seeme to suffer when he did not as some vainly thought and that he did not chase away the bitternesse of his Passion by the power of his Divinity as others imagined but that hee drew up and concealed his Divinitie and gave nature no succour in her pain when hee giveth to his Martyrs power above nature to consider that all the parts of the body in which sins are committed were in him accordingly punished even though the sins were not in him to consider that hee stretched out his armes to imbrace sinners bowed his head low to kisse sinners gave water with bloud to signifie that his bloud was able to make white the blackest and most deformed sinners to consider that hee died Hee died and yet the World stands the earth stirs not and the cruell Jewes are not swallowed alive into Hell O pietie O pittie whatsoever Histories have mentioned Verses have sung Fables have framed is to this a trifle And is he dead Good soule when hee was alive hee was the best man living And when hee died hee died sweetly he bowed his head to all that were about him and so died O the strange inventions of love O the bottomlesse abysse of love Unhappy Jews they sold Christ for 30 pence Titus son to Vespasian the Emperour after the destruction of Ierusalem sold them thirty for a peny they cried they forsooth had no King but Caesar and the Statue of Caligula the Emperour was soon brought set up in their great temple they crucified Christ were crucified thēselves under Florus the President till there was no roome in the fields adjoyning to Jerusalē wherin to raise a crosse The death of his forerunner was in like maner revenged for the body of the dancing-maid slipped under the yce while her head was seene to dance above it And thus God dealt with Leo the Emperour if the Popish Writers doe not juggle with us for having took by violence from the great Church of S. Sophia Zonar annal to 3. in Constantinople a pretious Carbuncle an ulcer rose in his head called a Carbuncle of which hee miserably dyed And shall not vengeance be severely taken of those that murder Christ every houre I will strike my brest with the Publican and cry to my selfe Remember alwayes when thou art brooding sinne in thy heart that then thou art breeding a most bloody and stubborne intention to kill Christ and that thou bloudy man doest to the full extent of thy power actually kill him and therefore thou art a murderer a murderer of Christ and it is a wonder that as thou passest in the streets the stones doe not cry out from under thee stop stop the murderer stop the man that kill'd his Master his Lord his Redeemer his Father his King his God and all at a blow Goe thy wayes ungratefull world thou hast lost a jewell of the sight of which thou wert not worthy Good God how naked the world is now Christ is out of it for when he was in it it was very full O my spirit since he is gone solace thy selfe with his memory and being dead let him live in thee in thy thoughts in thy discourse in thy actions he will be very sweet company And my spirit goe with mee a little Christ being dead it is pitty but he should have a Funerall Let the Usurer come first with his bags of money and distribute to the poore as he goes The drunkard shall follow with the spunge filled with gall and vinegar in his hand and check his wanton thirst Then the young Gallant barefoot-like his master and with the crowne of thornes upon his head Then the factious and angry person in the seamelesse coat
report that the wall of her cloister would commonly open of it selfe and the Sacrament the King of glory passe through it borne by no visible thing into her mouth One thing I most highly detest amongst them that in their processions on Corpus Christi day they act Playes full of most prophane and base matter and stuffed with most ridiculous passages in the wayes where the Sacrament is brought both before and after it passeth and yet their Players being of both sexes are most wicked and excommunicate persons And at other times when the Sacrament is exposed in the Churches the Country Clownes come trim'd up and with their best clothes on and dance by the high Altar before it in imitation of David that danced before the Ark and the people stand about them as they doe in our Country Townes at their Summer sports only the Altar-side is cleare And whereas the people were infected with an evill custome of giving reprochfull names one to another as they met occasionally in the high-wayes the Pope hath taught them a Salutation and bound a sufficient Indulgence to it Alabado sea el santissimo sacramento Praised be the most holy Sacrament which words they usually pronounce one to another as they meet But I would he had taught them to say something which he had learn'd of the Primitive Church CHAP. 10. 2. THe Bread and Wine in the Sacrament are signes and figures onely of the body and bloud of Christ broken and powred out for us The tearme figure is used in this matter by Tertullian S. Austen and others of the Latine Church Wisedome hath builded her house saith the Wise-man Pro. 9. 1. By what secret passage can it enter into the heart of man that the Son of God the wisedome of the Father building a house a faire house a Church and building it in the defiance of Paganisme and to the ruine and overthrow of Idolatry under the heavy burden of which all habitable parts of the world all Kingdomes Countries people groaned would now forget his main plot and so institute the master-peece of Religion that his Followers comming to him with a zealous contempt and loathing of Idolatry should be taught presently in the Schoole of Truth to adore the glorious Majesty of Heaven and Earth in the likenesse of a little peece of bread to the great scandall and aversion of all that should beleeve the contrary For what is more frequent at this day in the mouth I cannot say of an uncircumcised but of an unbeleeving Turk when hee mingleth discourse with a Christian concerning God and Religion then to say in a reproachfull manner Alas good man I pitty you you make your God that which I eat at my Table And this Reason though it be drawne but ab improbabili yet urges because besides that nothing is improbable which is God hath ordained probability to be one of the first steps to knowledge If wee goe to the University and ask the Philosophers they will tell us it is requisite to the nature and Essence of a body that every part should have his proper place neither can a body be conceived to be a compleat body without extensive distinction of parts or to be but in a place And it is the exigence of materiall Accidents saith Aristotle as of quantity figure colour to be rooted in a body But here they are supposed to stand by themselves without a prop. And when a reason of these things never thought of in any kind of learning either in themselves or in their grounds is required the greatest schollers in the world on their part can say nothing but wee must goe up with holy Abraham the good old man to the top of the mountaine who having a strong promise that his seed should be multiplyed as the starres of Heaven was yet commanded to kill and sacrifice his onely sonne Isaak and we must leave the servants and the ignorant Asse at the foot of the hill that is the senses and Reason But if the senses be servants they are faithfull ones and are not deceived in the knowledge of their proper objects due order and conditions being kept on both sides and if Reason be an ignorant Asse what distinction is there betwixt a man and a beast They speake on As the Captaines of the Army put off their garments laid them in a heap and setting Jehu upon them cryed Jehu is King So we building a Throne for Faith over Sense and Reason must hold up our hands and pray that Faith may have a long and prosperous raigne over us Vive la Foy long live Faith There was a farre more searching kind of Philosophy taught in the sound and sincere dayes of S. Austen who in his Epistle to Dardanus thus draweth his argument from the deep grounds of true Philosophy Spatia locorum tolle corporibus S. Aug. ad Dardan nusquam erunt quia nusquam erunt nec erunt tolle ipsa corpora qualitatibus corporum non erit ubi sint ideò necesse est ut non sint Take away from a body place and the body will be no where and being no where will not be take away from a body the qualities of a body and there wil be no place for the body to reside in and therefore the body must be no body I yeeld that in the part of Divinity which treateth of the blessed Trinity Reason must strike saile and stoope and Reason teacheth us that in the scanning of such high things Reason must be guided by a more certaine though not a clearer light and therefore still we follow the safe conduct of Reason but in materiall things proportion'd to our capacity and confined to their natures by the God of nature I cannot see with the eye of Reason or any other eye why Reason should not be one of the Councell and passe her judgement as shee does and ever did in these inferiour things Answer mee now Doth it not follow and flow out of these principles that the body of Christ in the Sacrament hath the being of a body and the being of a spirit at the same time and that if an Angell should take a particle of the Hoast and divide it continually for all eternity because such a division can never strike something to nothing as likewise no creature can ever lift something from nothing still in that little thing very like to nothing and many thousands of yeares before not perceptible by any sense of man Christ shall be as truly and as plentifully present as hee was in the world and upon the Crosse Answer mee againe Doe not they worship as Christ said to the woman of Samaria they know not what For when the Priest is supposed to be a Ioh. 4. 22. Priest and is not which often happeneth according to their Divinity either for the defect of Baptisme or for want of intention either in the Priest or Bishop or for want of orders in the Bishop then
By the falling out of two children playing at ball hee turned all Italy into a combustion wherein many thousands lost their pretious lifes passing by degrees as hee doth in all his Temptations from children to men from Parents to all of the same bloud from them to friends and from these friends to their friends and their friends friends from houses to Cities from Cities to Countries and all this began from the play of two little children I will give you a touch of his wonderfull deceits out of my Experience One seeing a dead man and hearing the people that were present say it was a beautifull corps was fired with a great Temptation to kill himselfe that it might be said of him likewise It is a beautifull corps This was a vain-glorious end now for a seemingly vertuous end Another would faine have killed himselfe that he might have revenged God's quarrell and made an end of sinning against so blessed and sweet a God The devill is a great Politician he hath his faire ends and his foule ends ends to shew and ends which hee will not shew ends that are but veyles drawne over his ends ends without end many ends for one action This is not the rich Jesuits Rule but the poore Carpenters Rule And more Rules of this kind because I must not dwell here betwixt Spaine and the Low-Countries you shall meet with hereafter THE THIRD BOOKE CHAP. I. I Am now a Monke in Doway and shaved to the Scull as I learned of them for three reasons especially first because all Slaves were ever shav'd and I was now a Slave to God and must come and goe at the least beck of his pleasure Secondly to give me notice that all superfluities must be cut from me in all kindes Thirdly to make better roome for a Crown of glory But there are Monkes in the same house yet living apart from the English belonging to the rich Abbat of Arras that are not of so bare a cut and no Courtier can set out and make more of the haire they have then they doe It is in use with the Church of Rome both in the giving of their orders and their degrees of orders and initiations to orders and also in the state of Episcopacie and the staires of it as the Bishop the Arch-Bishop the Patriarch and the Pope to shave the haire wider and wider into a greater and a greater circle as the persons more dignified and therefore the Pope is the most shaved of them all In this Monastery my dislike grew by little and little from these reasons That which I feare heated some of them chilled me For although I was not permitted to eate flesh amongst the Monkes for the space of three quarters of a yeare yet they sent me plenty of flesh when I dined in my chamber And I had great variety of excellent meates both in one place and the other And lest I should be scandalized it was suggested to me that now mens natures are not able to brooke fasting as they have done I have not lost it out of my memory that I turn'd my eye aside one time in the end of dinner and saw a Monke leaning backwards and stretching out his belly as like a Glutton as might be I had forgot to tell you that no King doth fare better or is fed with more variety then the Iesuits in their feasts if we consider how much a man can eate Here followes another deceit of the Monkes somewhat like the former In the end of Lent Father Prior the head-Monke washed the feete of all his inferiour Monkes in imitation of Christ who washed his Disciples feete but warning was given the day before and every one was commanded to wash and purifie his owne feete and yet when they came to the Prior he did scarce touch their feete either with his hands or with the water and here was all the imitation of Christ Such another businesse and as like it as an Egge is to an Egge is acted by his Holinesse at Rome who is said to wash the feete of certaine poore Pilgrims The man hath not reason who saith these are any thing but the bare shadowes of humility The Monks in the place of their meeting to their meales speake not but performe all by signes and they have a booke which teaches the Art of making signes either by way of speech or answer But this is onely an outward colour presented in publike For the Monke whose onely conversation I enjoyed of all that were settled in the house being esteemed one of the wisest men in Christendome was full of words and many of them were bad ones Hee laboured to beget in me an opinion to which I did incline for some reasons that the Jesuits at my departure from them had poysoned me And said this Monke poyson of their giving may lye gnawing insensibly in your body and kill you at seven yeeres end The Jesuits may remember they had provided a Gammon of Bacon which I should have carried with me If it was mans meate they have the lesse to answer for Another dish I did eate of the working of which I afterwards much feared But in that journey the Sea cleansed my body throughly Of this Monke I learned that the Pope had as deepe a hand in the Gunpowder treason as the Jesuits and both were very deepe in it And the Jesuits being so wryed and so closely knit to the Pope by obedience durst not have attempted so high and so publike an Treason without his knowledge That whosoever commeth from the Jesuits exposeth himselfe to the lash of so many foule mouthes as there are men amongst them that the Jesuits will nip a man as if a man should nip a young bud of a Flower or Tree or a Witch a young childe in the Cradle that he shall never thrive after The great Cathedrall Church in Cambray neere Doway useth a peculiar way of service much different from the Church-demeanour and service of Rome And the Church of Rome hath long endeavoured there to introduce her customes And I know said this Monk to me that upon admission of such a change in the next age the Church of Rome would perswade the world that the Church in Cambray did never dissent in any small point from her This is a great satisfaction to me that the Church of Rome both is and hath beene a long while altogether upon the catch and that she leadeth her people age after age still into more blindnesse I condemne in this Monke that he spoke most irreverently of a person in high authority amongst us and one of the fairest flowers in Christendome when he speakes the words againe I pray God his tongue may ake It is very common with our English Romanists beyond the Seas to speake very uncivilly of those in England to whom they owe duty This Monk related a homely story and I had many from him for it is their use to cheere up their subjects with merry
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 if they merit salvation they merited S. Aug. Serm. 8. de verbis Apost likewise the death of Christ But Saint Austin saith Neque enim illum ad nos merita nostra bona sed peccata duxerunt our merits did not draw him to us but our sinnes The Protestants have onely two Sacraments because Christ intended to give life and to maintaine it They have Baptisme to give spirituall life and the Sacrament of the Eucharist or the Lords Supper to keepe and cherish it The Papists have seven Sacraments as there are seven Planets and because there are seven deadly sinnes And yet if every visible signe of an invisible gift be a Sacrament the old Law was exceedingly stored with Sacraments The Protestants give Christ to be eaten by faith the Papists wholly and carnally and in the same manner as he is in Heaven And therefore the sacred institution is maimed and the poore Laity deprived of the Cup because they are beleeved to take all Christ his body ex vi verborum and his bloud soule Divinity and the blessed Trinity it selfe per concomitantiam in regard that Christ cannot be parted The Protestants teach according to S. Paul that a Bishop may be the husband of one wife which the Papists 1. Tim. 3. 2 would faine turn to one Bishoprick or Benefice but S. Paul cuts them off having his children in subjection with all gravity Both the Verse 4. Bishop and Priest with the Papists professe to live a most Angelicall life and to carry with them out of the world an unspotted robe of chastity And yet while they bring glory to their Church by a compulsive restraint of the Clergy from an honest and lawfull act they ruine the precious soules of many thousands of thousands as appeareth by the great and grievous complaints of many devout persons in the Councell of Trent and by the beaten and ordinary practise of their Priests who by force turned from the true channell runne over all bankes into all beastlinesse And I have from their owne mouths two matters of notable importance First that indeed marriage had beene granted to Priests in the Councell of Trent had they not upon the suggestion of the Jesuits feared poverty and contempt By which it is as cleere as Gods Sunne that they more aime in their adventures at the glory of the Church their visible Mother then of God their invisible Father Secondly that the Jesuits hewed the Councell into this conceit for this end lest because the Jesuits can throw off their habit at their pleasure all their able men should have left them and runne a wiving And it is a great reason of a great rule they have that no Jesuit may be a Bishop or Cardinall without an extraordinary command and dispensation from the Pope because their houses would then be deplumed of Schollers I feare the religious persons of the Church of Rome clad so meanely in the greater part thinke themselves as great as the greatest Tertullian saith of Diogenes Superbos Platonis thoros alia superbia deculcat he kicks the pride of Plato being altogether Tert. Apol. cap. 46. as proud as he The Protestants are alwaies humble suppliants to God for the remission of their sinnes and still laying open before him and recounting the sins of their youth And the uncertainty holds them alwayes in a feare and trembling and in a meeke submission to God The Priest in Confession will give to the Papists a full and absolute forgivenesse of all their sinnes whensoever they please to read or tell them over And yet nothing is more dangerous to an ignorant soule then a deceitfull security they beleeve their sinnes are forgiven and the care is past Confession cannot be necessary necessitate absoluta that is necessary to salvation or in the list of Sacraments For why did the Greeke Church the most devout and most learned Church in the world and the Nursery of our greatest Doctors moved onely with one abuse ushered by Confession abolish it Can the abuse of a Sacrament amongst reasonable creatures and sensible of their owne condition deface the use of it And therefore doubtlesse they held it by the title of a good and pious custome not in the name of a Sacrament Turne another way God who commandeth every servant of his to keepe the dores of his senses and by all honest violence to prevent the entrance of sinne upon the soule will he give a Sacrament wherein the soule shal under the pretty color of sanctity stand open to all kindes of uncleannesse And he that commandeth me to shut my eares against lewd discourses will he now out-goe himselfe and command me to heare them They reply the relations are now in mourning and delivered in a dolorous and humble manner But the disease being catching we cannot be too cautious and it is not likely that God would linke a holy Sacrament with a knowne temptation It is a knowne truth that these confessions and especially of women when they relate the Acts and circumstances of their fleshly sinnes doe make strange motions not onely in the minds but also in the bodies of their Priests which their Authors confesse even out of Confession Confession as they use it is an optick instrument through which they looke neerely upon the soule that according to that sight they may governe And therefore it is one of the private rules amongst the Jesuits that in all their consultations which are many the Bell having rung them together the Ghostly Father especially shall be present and his counsell most observed And although the Generals of their Orders checked by the Popes have given publike commands to the contrary yet they are all but a face and a flourish Confession thought a Sacrament is to many the bane of perfection For leaning heavie upon the pretended strength and efficacie of the absolution they bate much of the sorrow which is the principall part of true repentance The Protestants keepe one day in the weeke holy in obedience to the Commandement given with a Memento Remember the Sabbath day to keepe it holy and other speciall dayes according to an appointment Euod 20. 8. squared by the rule of the ancient Church The Papists have many Holy-dayes and yet doe not seriously observe the Sabbath insomuch that the Jesuits boast their Founder to have complained much of Sabbath-breaking A Councell held under Guntranus Concil sub Guntrano complaines too
exercise of obedience they may not question the sufficiencie of the command And both they and their Priests may with more leave and a lesse breach of Law commit Fornication or Adultery or Sodomy or beastiality a thousand times over then marry although Gods Law was antecedent to their vow of chastity and is of more validity yea though we should grant their vow as the vow to be ratified with some limitation by another Law of God because the matter of the vow is of greater perfection It came from the Monke of Doway that not long agoe it was a custome 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 firmiter 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 sacerdotum sententia saith Ruffinus advised by certaine Ruff. Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 1. Bishops called the Councell of Nice And he 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 bloud 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 that had escaped to the Wildernesse The Plutarch Crocodiles are said to beate themselves when they have lost their prey Let the Crocodile correct himâ—â—â—â—â— but let him spare me
me to Newgate And they were as busie in the Countrey For a Countrey-Papist came to my lodging enjoyned by his friends to see me Truely said he it is credibly reported and beleeved in the Countrey that you are dead having cut your throat O Rome canst thou maintaine thy greatnesse by no better meanes Then thou art a wretched Rome indeed and blessed be the houre in which I left thee And lately when by reason of some words in my Parish vomitted out of the black mouth of a Popish servant in the dishonour both of me and our Religion I wrote to his Master desiring that my Parishioners might not be stirred in their service of God or averted from their allegiance to the King inserting these words concerning my selfe Set aside the sweete name of Christ I would rather choose to be a Turke then a Papist I discerned no change in the working of my letter but only that I was defamed through the Countrey and proposed as one that had more inclination to Turcifme then to Christianity in them that part which qualified the proposition set aside the sweet name of Christ being wholly concealed and set aside in the report and my intention evacuated The occasion of my inserting that clause was because the Popish servant had said he was sure that I would quickly bee theirs againe which is alwayes a great part of their plea when the man that commeth from them is circumspect in his life I see that where one notorious abomination dwels all other sinnes are neighbours This my letter was shewed by the Papists to one of my owne cloth and profession But one whom the Papists have bought and seal'd their speciall friend by speciall benefits and entertainments He speaking as affection prompted him not as Religion so farre helped them on both in their opinions and in their depression of me that he perswaded them the proposition which they had chose for the instrument of their abuses Set aside the sweete name of Christ I had rather be a Turke then a Papist to be no other thing but elegant nonsense His reasons were as I received them from his owne mouth First because the sweete name of Christ could not be set aside Secondly because the proposition being resolved into the sense of it if it hath any is this Set aside the sweete name of Christ I had rather be a Turke then a Christian I reply This is the discourse of flesh and bloud or rather of hunger and thirst and wanton appetite Were there the greatest of all connexions betwixt the name of Christ and the Popish Religion I might borrow of the Philosophers an hypotheticall and imaginary separation per impossibile But my meaning in the inwards is I doe not conceive there is any mighty businesse of Christ amongst the Papists but his name and that wheresover it is is a sweete name and a name without a thing will easily be removed by an Intellectus agens And therefore it will stand as close as this mans tongue does to the Papists Set aside the sweete name of Christ I had rather bee a Turke then a Papist And his second reason is most injurious to his owe Religion I meane the Religion which he professeth For it comes with a long taile and implies that nothing is signified by the word Papist but Christian they being termini convertibiles and that every tenent of Popery is Christian and derived from Christ But the wonder is that I am forced to defend my propositions and assertions by which I disclaime Popery against a Brother The Father of Heaven in his Sonne Jesus Christ blesse and continue the Parliaments of England or many a faire birth-right will be sold for a messe of Pottage Two things I have learn'd and experience was my Schoole-mistresse speaking to me from the lives of others The first is that to divide and rend our selves betwixt two Religions is the nearest path to Atheisme And the second that men so rent divided are company-keepers lovers of pleasure hunters gamsters caet And by such I shall joyfully be resisted having so good an assurance that I fight Gods battels And that the Papists may rise as high as scandall can mount they have spread into the world that I have tooke one of their Priests by whose hands God hath beene very kinde to me To this I thus answer First that my obligation to my Prince the State and the Parliament being the representative body of the whole Kingdome doth binde me farre more strictly then the private kindnesses betwixt friend and friend Secondly as I desire to be washed with the bloud of Christ I had no hand in the taking of that person nor knowledge of it The man I tooke was one from whom I was utterly disinteressed a scandalous person a scandall-raiser and one by whose practises I am as sicke to the Popish Religion as I would bee dead to its sinnes The other my quondam friend I could have taxed in a fit place of this book for his wily dealings with a maid said to be possessed with a Devill and related that the Devill lurking in a lump of her flesh would runne from part to part and could not endure to be touched with his fingers used in the touch of the consecrated Host But I spared my friend I could be copious if I should not bee tedious in these relations Old wives tales are odious And Saint Gregory Nazianzen taxeth Julian the Apostata for blowing the coales at the Devils Altar with old women How their wisedome is confounded It is vainely done of the Pelican that seeing her nest fired by Shepheards commeth in all haste and thinking to redeeme her young from the danger by the waving of her wings bloweth the fire and encreaseth the flame and at last applying her whole body loseth her wings the safety of her body And these reports are in effect the same The flame of my devotion towards the Church of England is increased and they lose their wings and themselves in the fire when doubtles they thought to scape away like the Fish in the black inke they cast round about them upon their brother O these reports They goe as Demosthenes saies of the waves in the Sea one confusedly tumbling over the back of another without any stop or intermission And he that flyeth from Babylon is like one of the Martyrs in the Primitive Church Church tormented in a brazen Bull. The bellowing and roaring that you heare is in the thing it selfe the voice of the Martyr but much altered by passing through the wide throate of the brazen Bull. The torments of Marcus Arathusius were strange ones described by Saint Gregory Nazianzen The venerable S. Greg. Naz. orat 3 in Julian old man was drawn through the kennels through all sorts of unclean places He was hung up by the armes and tossed from side to side where the boyes stood with Pen-kifes to receive his naked body He was drawne up in a basket
wherein to wash and rub it selfe thinking by this meanes to put off the foule badge and corse livery of nature and the colour of its coat which it likes not But the Panthers waters shall one day be dryed up No figge-leaves good sonne of Adam no painted veyle of sincerity no long cloak of dissembled holinesse If you are found naked you must appeare so before a great Assembly made great by all the great Assemblies that ever were I am a plaine man and I must speak plainly because I do not judge rashly the judgement of experience is certain The good Bishop of Rome who lived when there were good men there Evaristus saith worthily writing to the Bishops of Egypt as he is alleadged by Gratianus Deus autem omnipotens ut nos à praecipitatae sententiae Evar. ep 2. ad Episc Aegypti prolatione compesceret cùm omnia nuda aperta sint oculis ejus mala Sodomae nòluit audita judicare priusquam manifestè agnosceret quae dicebantur The omnipotent God to draw us back from the precipice of rash judgement although all things are naked and open to his eyes yet would not judge the sinnes of Sodome upon a single relation hee would manifestly see the truth of the matter in practise and draw an experimentall conclusion Not that God acquireth knowledge by experience or other wayes for experience is a knowledge of things which we knew not but for our learning Vnde ipse ait saith my Author Descendam et videbo utrum clamorem qui venit ad me opere compleverint an non est ita ut sciam Wherfore God saith I will goe downe now and see whether they have done altogether according Gen. 18. 21 to the cry of it which is come unto me and if not I will know Wee had lost many good things had not Gratianus beene in the way and this was one First God will go down and take paines to see the truth of what hee hath heard and then he seems not to know what he knowes that we may learne and know what wee know not Knowing and seeing hee went downe to see and know I knew not and I went to see and having seene I know Scientia est ejus cujus est demonstratio saith the Philosopher we know striA that which is evident to us by a demonstration And that I may cement the discourses of men with truth and because the contrary hath beene preached and mightily defended and it is my part to maintain truth on all sides here I cannot hold from plain-speaking In all the Churches which ever I saw belonging to the Church of Rome in France Spaine Italy and the low Countries and also in Rome it selfe the high Altar where the Sacrament is kept and delivered and which onely can fitly be likened to our Communion Table in regard it is but one is encompassed with Rails which Rails are cōmonly placed above the steps by which they ascend to the high Altar within which Rails the Priest only and he that serveth at Masse do abide except in the singing of high Masses when hee is accompanied with the Deacon Sub-deacon Master of Ceremonies and two Acolythi Upon which Rails in all Communions is laid a long cloath of linnen which the Communicant holdeth with his hand toward his mouth while he doth cōmunicate and at which Railes the people doe alwayes receive the Communion I contribute this Testimonie towards the satisfaction of Truth-maintainers Oyee Ministers of England yee are or ought to be the light of the world the salt of the earth Shine therefore to the world and season the earth by your good examples Be humble as Christ was humble Be temperate be contented sorte vestra be laborious But above all seeke peace and pursue it And forget not to be direct and sincere Preachers of the Gospell of Christ If the Trumpet give an uncertaine sound who shall prepare himselfe to 1 Cor. 14. 8. battell I confesse I am bold It is my love that speaks mixed with a feare lest we should fall into the foulest scorne of proud Rome I will close up all with an Apostolicall Admonition Now I beseech you Brethren 1 Cor. 1. 10. by the name of our Jesus Christ that yee all speake the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that yee be perfectly joyned together in the same minde and in the same judgement And spare O spare the seamlesse garment of Christ And what I know I can demonstrate This shall end this Priests if they will be call'd so are like starres upon the powerfull influence of which dependeth all the course and disposition of this inferiour world If they be starres of a gentle and milde aspect they bring health peace plenty every good thing if otherwise plague warre famine all mischiefe Either what wee preach let us preach over and over and over againe by example or we shall after all our long talking from the Pulpit onely cast an offensive block before our weake brethren put innocent Christ to the blush whose royall person we present and vilifie our doctrine It is said Iesus began both to doe and Act. 1. 1. teach And this way ranne the streame of his doctrine Hee that shall doe and teach shall be called great in the Kingdome of Heaven First let us do and afterwards teach For then it is beleeved that we beleeve our own doctrine when we teach it preach it proclaime it the second time in the schoole of Manners Salvianus saith truly Atrociùs sub sancti nominis professione peccamus We sinne Salvia lib. 4. de guber Dei more grievously when our sinne breaketh out from under a glorious profession I will not denie while I live but that as Unity is the due perfection of a Thing so order of things For in a diversity of things there must be order or confusion If not confusion a unity in diversity which lest it should be lyable to frequent divisions must be dealt and disposed by order from whence rises that faire good Greek word made for the purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faire goodnesse For things are good as things and faire as ranked in order Dionysius giveth us an example in beauty where every part feature and colour is proportionably placed in order I grant willingly that the Church of Rome is outwardly one and orderly but this may be policy not religion If shee be one and orderly as shee ought to be shee must be one in faith and doctrine with the Apostles and the same in doctrine and practise The Cameleon they say sheweth all colours on her skin but white and red and yet those onely set out perfect beauty And the fairest in the Canticles is white and ruddy and his Spouse like him In operibus candida in sanguine purpurea white in works and purple with bloud snow-white not whited like a wall A word here pray It is past my graspe to comprehend and I