vouchsafe then oh mercifull Lord the as thou hast pardoned thē who without any submissiō crucified thée so thou wilt also remit our sinnes the prostrate afore thée accōpany our petitions with teares humilitie beseching thée to communicate vnto vs during the vse of this life thy spirit of grace feare in the other world the fruition of thy maiesty in glory A discourse afore the Emperour wherein is touched the Conuersion of the good Théefe Domine memento mei cum veneris in regnum tuum TO euery Christian iudgement ought to be acceptable this notable saying of Boetius Nihil ex omni parte beatum as if he had sayd there is nothing in this worlde so perfect wherein cannot be found imperfection nor any thing so vniuersally blissed which is not subiect to his bale error reprehension yea few things conteine their iust measure being brought to the yard fewer are founde to holde equitie of weight when they are paysed in the balance Man of himselfe is so small a matter and by reason of his frayltie of so weake power apprehension that there was neuer prince so mighty Philosopher so wise Captaine so valiant nor any one so established in blisse in whose condicion could not be found occasion of correction in their lyfe amendment of behauiour what is he to whom god hath geuen creation the earth disposed her natural sustenance which hath not sorrowed which hath not sinned whose doings haue not ben entangled with error yea if we beholde our selues with eyes of our selues besides that we shall sée in our common actions nothing but imperfection error and sinne yet also we shall finde that the men of the worlde doe many mo thinges wherein are mo occasions to repent them then meanes to worke their commendation Justus es domine et rectum iudicium tuum sayth the Prophet Righteous is the Lord in all that he doth and iust in his iudgements yea there is more certeintie in the iustice and iudgements of the Lord then eyther in the course of the Sunne the reuolution of the heauens or stabilitie of the earth Little honour had Dauid attributed to God in naming him iust if he had not also sayd that his custome was to doe iustice as in lyke sort it had not ben enough to ascribe vnto the Lord the action of iustice if withall he had not geuen him the name title dignitie and reputation of Righteous For many there are who are iust in their persons but doe not administer iustice to others as of the other side there be such as are instruments in the distrubution of iustice to others and are not righteous in themselues By reason whereof we may saye that so high and noble is this priueledge to doe all thinges wel and in their perfection that God hath reserued it to himselfe and not vouchsafed to communicate that deuine prerogatiue to any Creature And therefore all thinges vppon the which the Lorde bestoweth his eyes and countenance are not onely good but also we ought to beléeue that in them is no imperfection or error Quia vidit Deus cuncta qua fecerat et erant valde bona which falleth not out so in the Actions of man because in whatsoeuer he enterpriseth or bringeth to passe is founde good occasion of correction and iust reason of amendement For the dayes of our lyfe are so short and the Art which we learne of so longe studie and time that when we thinke we haue learned anye thinge it is then we stande euen in the Iawes of death and are ready to pearce the Pitte prepared for our corrupt Boanes In all the workes of man there is imperfection according to the Sentence of Socrates who confessed he had learned no other thing in Athens but to know that he knewe nothing wherein sure he sayde truely For how Rude Vile or Base so euer the Art be we finde in it alwayes more thinges to learne then we haue learned the same being the occasion of the Ciuill controuersies now a dayes wherein the Philosopher reasoneth agaynst the Philosopher the Mayster agaynst the Mayster and the Scholer agaynst his mate disputing and mayntayning opinions onely to séeke out and know which is he that vnderstandes most all which procéedes of the litle we know and the much we presume and that noane will confesse to be Inferiour one to an other Omnia in pondere et mensura fecisti sayth the wise man speaking of God thou hast made all thinges Oh Lorde by weight and measure which being aboue the power and prerogatiue of man falls out contrarie in all his actions For all thinges in this wretched worlde being guided more by opinion then by reason it happeneth most often that we cutte of and abridge that we ought most to encrease and lengthen and of the contrary geue continuance and amplyfication to thinges which deserue to be discontinued and deminished But in the house of God is neyther faction in opinion nor parcialitie in reason no who can reasonablie haue occasion to complayne séeing that all thinges that he geues to vs are layde out by weyght and measure when God had Promised to Abraham the Lande of Promisse he séemed forthwyth desirous of the possession of it which the Lorde woulde not agrée vnto afore thrée Hundreth yeares were past and finished saying vnto him that Nondum completa erat malitia amorreorum meaning I am the great God of Jsraell the Iudge of the Quicke and of the Deade and of the good and of the Wicked and being he to whom belongs the Rodde of righteous iustice and in whome onely is the propertie to doe Equitie to euerie one it is méete to expect yet in thrée Hundreth yeares to the ende the Cananites may deserue to loase theyr Lande and thy race procéede to be more worthie of it from the time that Kyng Saule was forgotten of GOD vntill Dauid was Elected ouer Jsraell there passed Forty yeares afore the Scepter was taken from the one and the other ioyned to the Throane of the Kyngedome In which respite of tyme the Lorde taried till wicked Saule became worse and Dauid increased in vertue and goodnesse Since therefore the giftes and doings of God are administred by weight and measure this ought to be the thought iudgment of euery Christian that when he sendes aduersities it is to exercise vs if he visit vs with pouerty it is with this intentiō to make vs deserue better whē he blesseth our estates with plentie by so much more ought we to retribute vnto him thankes seruice glory and obedience And if he chastiseth vs oh let vs thinke that he hath meaning to amend and make vs better so that as al things in the world and elswhere within the circuite and circumference of heauen and earth were established by his preordinance and foresight and guided to their effects by his omnipotent deuine and infallible prouidence So there is nothing that he doth administer or disperse
yea the souereigne delight of mortal folks is the solace of their lyfe and the greatest terror they suffer is the opinion and conceit of death Beastes exercize generation fruites returne séedes to their planter corne yéeldes his graine of increase and birds leaue egges in their nestes And all for no other reason then that knowing they can not alwayes liue they leaue others to liuein their place yea for no other purpose doe men beasts eate drinke sléepe and execute their other naturall actions then therby the more to preserue and pamper lyfe and with more securitie to prolong and shyft of death And for that in generall experience nature loues her conuersation and abhorreth all thinges hurtfull to her increase we sée there is nothing more comforts the man that is sicke then when he is tolde that he may eate of what his appetite lykes best euen so there is no worde that doth more amaze or mortifye him then when he is put in remembrance of his mortalitie and to prepare his conscience for with one woorde he hath sewertie of lyfe and wyth an other he heareth his sentence of death Whereof was verifyed a right true experience in the good king Ezechiell to whom in one houre in one house and to one person euen to himselfe was pronounced by the Prophete Esay that he was condemned to death and that GOD had eftsoones giuen him Pardon So that hauing deserued by the grauitie of his sinnes that GOD should take his lyfe from him God afterwardes through the fulnes of his mercie and consideration of his teares and repentance found occasion to pardon his death how incensat and rude soeuer any creature is yet we sée he hath iudgment to eschew the fire that burnes him to auoyd the Laborinth made to his distruction not to clime with desperate perill those high rockes from whose tops is present effect of death whereunto by what other reason is he induced then to preserue life which he holdeth deare flée death which nature teacheth him to feare The brute beast fléeth death and yet he is of a condition not to iudge of the worthines solace of life but to man nothing is more deare then life of al other thinges he holdeth death in most terror for that liuing he knoweth what he is being dead he cannot tel what shal become of him since after death there is no restitution no more then a trée once hewen downe can be eftsoons replanted Frendship the office of societie require that we wish to our frends much habilitie might power but with a greater affection we wish them long life yea this stands in common regard with vs all rather to séeke to prolong our lyfe thē encrease our welth not to make a greater care to augment our treasor then to continue our dayes which being true what a wonderfull prouidence of God nature is this that the confidence of life death consistes only in the tong who hath the same office in the administration of the life of man which is incidēt to the portall or wyket of a great palaice thorow the which do enter al things that we eat vse by the other do issue all that we thinke and speake So that it holdes good conformatie with the saying of the Wiseman that lyfe and death are in the power of the tongue since lyfe is at the portall of our Palaice readie to depart when death striking on the hamor of our conscience séekes to enter yea there is no part of our bodie wherein we stande more subiect to daunger of lyfe and death then in our mouth and tongue for that they being the open gates of the tower and truncke of the bodie lyfe may go out without speaking and death hath libertie to enter without knocking Habemus thesaurum in vasis fictilibus sayth S. Paule as if he had sayde Oh what payne haue Christians to beare in féeble and frayle vessels such precious treasures as fayth in the vnderstanding charitie in the will pietie in the handes loue in the hart chastetie in the bodie and lyfe and death in the tongue Yea they are vertues infused into vessels corrupt and appoynted to consociate members putrifyed who being so daungerous to be managed and most easie to be broken what suretie or gard is there to the lyfe when in the mouth is found no gouernement and to the tongue is denied the gyfte of secrecie For hauing no boanes to controule it nor senewes to restrains it what science or meane hath it to doe that we commaunde it or how can it reteine and kéepe secret thinges which are referred to his trust and confidence Therefore to the man that feareth death and desireth long lyfe it is necessarie he minister gouernement to his tongue lest he know not how to prolong his lyfe and much lesse finde out where vpon his death may come Salomon then sayde wisely that death and lyfe were in the power of the Tongue Meaning that as to some men the tongue hath saued their lyfe so in others wicked speach hath wrought the occasion of their death For that to a Noble minde an iniurious worde doth more hurt then a great cutte or wounde of a swoorde on the bodie of a barbarous or rude man And to proue by many examples and figures in the Scripture the operation of the tongue in the action of lyfe and death we reade that Cayn béeing asked of God why he had slaine his Brother Abell In place to repent him of the fact and aske Pardon of God he sayde that his fault was greater then that Gods mercie could forgeue it against whom S. Augustine cryeth vehemently that much lesse that the mercie of the Lord could be inferior to the fault of Cayn séeing that to pardon and forgeue is a thing proper to God and to reuenge and punishe is farre estranged from his nature So that there is no doubt but greater was the offence of Cayn in the wordes he sayd then in the Murder he did since if with the stroake of the swoorde he tooke away the lyfe of his Brother by the Blasphemie of his tongue he gaue death to his soule To kil his Brother was euil done but to dispaire in Gods mercie was euen a transgression of the deuill for that more doe we offende God to estéeme him without mercie then in any other sinne we commit against his maiestie Some of the Jewes Crucified Iesus with torments and some with their tongues in whom I thinke was déeper effect of sinne then in the rest that pearced his bodie with nayles For that they layd their handes on him by ignorance but the other fylled their tongues with false testimonie Blasphemed Crucifyed him by malice It is written in the Prophete Esay discoursing vppon the fall of Lucipher Quia dicebat in corde suo in coelum conscendam et super astra dei c. Because thou hast sayd Oh Lucipher that thou
this sepulcher of the sonne of God is also conteined the mistery of the coniunction which we haue with him by death the graue the end of the death burying of Iesus christ tending to this that we die be buried with him For as the bands and forces of our death were broken by the vertue of the death of him that killed death euen so by our death must be vanquishe the stinges prickes of that death that the merite of our sinnes made due to vs This is the same which the holy Ghost speaketh by the mouth of the Apostle We are buried wyth Christ in his death to the end we participate wyth his life béeing impossible we should communicate wyth his lyfe if first we haue no action or societie wyth his death for that wée can not haue parte in the one vnlesse wée accompanie him in the other And so the last degrée conteynes as hath béene alredie declared that he discended into Hell committed the Deuill to spoyle and brake his Prysones for euer Wherein according to the text of the Apostle his victorie encreased and became great euen by the same measure that he embased and humbled himselfe Thus much for the first part of our Article and so let vs discend to the second part wherein we confesse that the sonne of God roase againe from death and the third day retorned really and truly into life Touching the resurrection of Christ LIke as the foure Euangelistes haue vsed great diligence to perticulate the outrages condemnation and death of the sonne of God euen so they haue bene no lesse carefull to set out poynt by poynt his restoring and resurrection According to the computation of the time vsed in the gospel he died the Friday at ix a clocke in the euening roase againe the Sunday following in the morning ioyntly whervnto we agrée that he remayned thrée dayes thrée nights in the graue taking part of the Friday which was the daye of the death for the whole day and the residue of the Sunday being his resurrection for an other whole daye All which do serue manifestly to the proofe truth of his death and restoring to life being al foreordained and established in the counsell of God. Joseph demaunded of Pilate his body to burie it but Pilate desirous to know whether he were dead in déede sent for the same purpose a Centenier to discouer a truth and then condiscended to Josephes request yea when they came to take downe the dead bodies from the crosse because they should not remaine there the next day being the great feast of their Sabboth they found the two théeues on liue and our Lord dead All which with many other approbations which may be alledged together with some perticulers which we meane to ioyne to the sequele of these are sufficient proues of his resurrection Our Lorde béeing thus put into the graue and embawmed Soldiours were set to garde the Sepulcher And in the meane whyle his Disciples remayned sorrowfull and heauie hauing very little hope of his Resurreciton and small knowledge of the scriptures to the vnderstanding of this misterie They beleued that their maister had preached the trueth and that he was most iust in his workes and that God had sent him But touching the matter of resurrection they were very blind and doubtfull After there was time enough perfourmed for the proofe fayth and testimonie of his paineful death and to establish the accomplishement of the misteries and prophesies The Sunday morning bringing wyth him the triumphes of hell and death he Roase againe and returned to lyfe and to such a lyfe that after that death had no more power ouer it béeing defaced deuested of all meanes eftsoones to exercise his iurisdiction Imediatly after he was risen agayne he appeared to his Disciples to assure them of the consolations giuen vnto them before he dyed and wythal to accomplishe the words spoken and promised by him That he would rise againe the third day The first person to whom he reuealed himselfe after his resurrection was the virgin Mary his Moother as who aboue all others liued in most expectation for him and he lykewise bare vnto her a most deare affection For if we consider her by her fayth she had it more great then al the rest And if wée haue regarde to Seruices she merited wyth the best hauing nourished him followed him wyth no small care pouertie and perplexitie thirtie thrée yeares In her is expressed a good Testimonie of his death for that standing at the foote of the Crosse where she felt the accomplishment of the prophesie of Simeon that the sword of sorrow should pearce thorow her intralles she was chosen of the Father to serue in an estate of great excelencie euen so was she accomplished wyth thoughtes and actions méeke for the seruice of such a function And albeit both by her perseuerance béeing greater then the rest that followed the Lord and that the trauelles of his Death were of more Passion to her then to others hauing more interest first of that holy companie to whome he disclosed his Resurrection Yet the Euangelistes ascrybing nothing to the singularitie of persones leaue all that aparte and recyte to whome he appeared wyth all such circumstances and proofes as serue for Testimonie agaynst the People of the Jewes He appeared to Mary Mardaline in forme of a Gardiner in the selfe same Gardeyne where he hadde béene Buried He appeared to his Disciples the selfe same daye in the place where they were drawne together for feare of the Iewes He appeared to two Disciples which went to Emaus At the ende of Eyght dayes he appeared once againe to his disciples S. Thomas being then present who was absent the first time Lastly he was séene of his Disciples neare the Sea of Gallile there being yet besides these so many other testimonies to confirme this trueth that it were but superfluous to ad more to the authorite of these Thus much for the narration of the History And lyke as the Resurrection of that Messias was of great importance so also was it prefigured and foreshewed by the prophets that went afore For Jonas was throwen into the Sea and swalowed of a Whale and yet by the mercie of God after he had remained thrée dayes and thrée nights in the bellie of the Fish he came out safe and sound to accomplishe the commaundement of god In this Jonas the Seruaunt of the almightie was a figure of our sauiour For as he was cast into the Sea to saue from wracke all the others that were in the shippe and that by the consent and determination of the Mariners Euen so our Lorde was past to condemnation by the councell and resolution of men and for their safetie throwne into the Sea of persecution of death in such sort that the earth receiued him as it doth other dead bodies reteining him thrée days thrée nights as a body deiected without life yet in the
deserue to be chastised and matters that ought to be dissembled So it can not but happen to the furious man that in place to appease and couer iniuries he will of himselfe thunder reproches agaynst the parties But now after the daungers and domages that come by Anger it apperteynes to reason and congruencie to exhibite a fewe remedies to Cure or qualifie those moodes In all our affayres and actions it is good to fore sée both what may happen to vs and what may be sayde of vs For so shall we be Armed that albeit men geue vs cause to be Angrye yet they shall haue no power to make our passion furious And therfore the same néede that the poore man hath of Riches and the Foole of Wisedome the same necessitie hath the harte of patience For béeing Subiect to many Afflictions and the troubles no lesse that assayle him together wyth the daungers that depende on them wthout comparison many mo be the thinges which he ought to suffer in patience then that are Lawfull for him to reuenge wyth his Tongue And if of euery wronge that is done to vs and of euery aduersitie that is naturall to our condition we should reteyne special accompt and reckoning our hands would neuer cease to reuenge our Tongue weary with complayning and our hart wasted and broken with sighing For what man béeing a member of this miserable lyfe to whom is not one equall desire that his dayes and troubles might dissolue together Men béeing so ouergrowne wyth vices and so deuoured wyth affayres and businesses it is maruell that since they are so slow to cutte of their cares and troubles that the waues of their proper aduersities doe not rise and swallowe them vp And if the Phisitions ordeined to cure infirmities of the body would binde themselues to heale the sorows of the hart they should in particuler haue more patients mustering afore their gates then in times past were inhabitantes in Rome when it was best replenished For so naturall is the sickenesse of trouble and vexation that though many eschew it yet few haue power to liue long exempt frō it What is he either past present or to come who in his body hath not felt some paine and in his hart some passion hath not suffered some losse or spoile of his goodes or infamye to his person or at least who can walke so vpryghtlye to whome is not done some Iniurye or some Scorne or Reproache spoken But he that is Vexed wyth all these Aduersities and wyll make Headde agaynste them and Remedye them Let hym bée assured that euen then shall he laye the plotte of the ende and dispatch of his life when he begins to put order to these incurable harmes For as there is no Sea without working no Warre without daunger nor Iourney without trauell Euen so that there is no worldly lyfe voyde of troubles nor any estate without stombling blockes it is most apparant in this that there liues no man so happie which hath not wherin to be greued and wherupon to complaine For how many doe we sée whom Pryde makes fal Enuie consumes Anger torments Pouertie wasteth and Ambicion endeth their dayes so that for the most part such is the miscontentment of our mindes that our aduersities traueling our spirites in Martirdome driue vs to wishe rather an honest death then to languishe in so troblesome a lyfe And so if we will accomplishe this commaundement To be angrie and sinne not let vs in accidentes which the world fortune and nature bring vpon vs dissemble some suffer some conceale some and remedie the rest and in all thinges let vs follow reason and flée opinion For such as enter into Religion SVch as be Religious or aspire to the office and ministerie of the Church ought to haue alwaies afore their eyes the wordes which God spake to Abraham saying Depart out of thy Countrey and from amongest thy frendes and goe into the lande which I shall shewe thée and abyde where I commaunde thée For vnder these wordes shall they finde comprehended all that God doth for them and lykewise that which they are bounde to doe for the seruice of god Abraham being in the house of Tara his father and Aran and Achor his Bretherne Chaldees and Idolators God appeared vnto him and bad him leaue his Countrey and Parentes and goe where he would guide him and rest where he would commaund him and in recompence of this obedience sayth God I will make thée Lord ouer great nombers of people and will so geue thée my blessing as thou shalt for euer remaine blessed Out of these wordes may be gathered foure things which God commaunded Abraham and other foure things which God promised him So that as a Lorde he teacheth him in what he ought to serue him and withall tels him what rewarde he will geue him for his seruice Afore God called Abraham it was not founde that there was any vertue in him and much lesse that he had done any seruice to God only the scriptures make mencion that he was of the generation of Saruth and sonne af Tara and had to his Brother Aran which all were Gentils and Idolators Cassianus sayth that of thrée sorts be called those that come to the perfection of Religion One sort God calles by holy inspirations an other sort is chozen of men by good councels The thirde sort is constreyned to enter into Religion by some necessitie or misaduenture happened to them So that albeit the perfection of Religion be alwayes one yet the meanes to come thereunto are many The first function or estate is called deuine and consistes as is sayd in this when the great goodnes of God so toucheth the hart of a man that he leaueth that which he doth and doth that which he ought estraunging his minde from worldly thinges and raysing it to deuine and heauenly contemplations The seconde is called humaine or worldly as when any wicked liuer is tourned to God by the councell of some good man as Hippolito was conuerted to the Fayth by the instructions of S. Laurence The thirde vocation may be called constrayned or by necessitie as when a man of dissolute conuersation and falling into aduersitie is conuerted to God And as these be the thrée manners of calling and meanes to enter into Religion so if they be wel considered I sée not how the first oftentimes eyther doth much profite nor the last much hinder for more or lesse to serue God in religion For there haue bene many of those which God hath called to Religion condemned and many others which came to serue him by force haue ben saued Christ called and chused to the Colleadge of his Disciples the cursed Judas and the Apostle S. Paule being reuersed and falne from his Horse necessitie compelled him to know Iesus Christ So that Judas being exalted fell and S. Paule being falne was exalted This I bring in this place to the ende that none estéeme much or
notwythstanding with so great Warre that on the one syde he leuyed those Prisoners that were kept restrayned and on the other his vertue so weakened their infernall forces that they remeyned euer since vanquished It was then that they sawe and knew that their Hell whither they thought to haue reduced all mankinde was forced and dissolued And that sinne which they had introduced into the worlde and death that ensued it were deade and vanquished by the conquest of this newe and inuincible Prince That was it which the Apostle spake of that the sonne of God hath defaced and sacked the powers of Hell the worlde am putting them to publyke confusion and Triumphing ouer them in his proper person So that the enterprises of our Sauiour in this comparison represent vnto vs the forme and actions of a valiant Capteyne marching before men before Aungelles and before the face of the Father wyth a great troupe of enemies vanquished bounde and spoyled of their forces In the beginning of this Article wée touched that our Lorde made his discending by certeyne degrées yea euen to a Wonderfull embasement of himselfe and knowne onely to the diuine wisedome This embasement hath ben Prophecied vnder the signe of discending from Heauen vnto the the Bottomes of the Earth But now we say that of all those degrées by the which he discended and of al other things which in the wisedome of the world made him séeme so embased vanquished he caried a wonderfull victory which encreased alwais more more In the first degrée he was made man that was the true and eternall sonne of god This step and wonderfull humilitie albeit it is great yet he neuer abandoned his diuinitie no he could not loase it and much lesse diminishe it by it his humanitie was greatly exalted being by the same meane so connexed with the diuinitie that one selfe person was GOD and man ▪ if it were possible that God might gaine in any thing it might be sayd that he gained in this but hauing want of nothing he gaines not as a néedie man For he hath no necessitie of any thing and much lesse can there be added to his greatnesse But because the gaine of men is great in this receiuing a benefite which was neuer Communicated with Angelles for God neuer tooke aliance nor séede of Aungelles but chused the Linage of Abraham we say also that there was a gaine and profite to God béeing a true declaration of his riches and of his workes which are comformable to him together wyth a playne manifestation of his mercie This victorie against sinne and the deuill is truly worthie of the person of the Sonne of God Séeing that mankinde which was put to perdition by the suttletie of the Serpent is redéemed and redeliuered from the seruitude of the Deuill and restored to an estate of habilitie to be the Children of God by the meane of this sauiour The seconde degrée of this discending of the Lord was in that he was condemned publykly as a malefactor In this descending there is a great want and yet by it he recouered a wonderfull victorie For béeing our brother he deliuereth vs from the eternall condemnation so that all our libertie and absolution depende vppon his Condemnation he hath payde the debtes which he made not euen so those shall be discharged which ought them He was Condemned by the Sentence of men and wée absolued in the iudgement of God hauing deliuered vs from the cursse of the law which had condemned vs The thirde degrée was when he was iudged to the Death of the Crosse For by his death he brake the forces of Death dispoyling him of his weapons wherewyth he had made so great and vniuersall slaughters For which cause the Apostle demaundes of death where was his victorie and where were become the meanes by the which he determined so many men By the fourth steppe or degrée he was put into the Sepulcher but the better to comprehend the true sense of this passage it is méete we make some iudgment and construction of thinges The storye of the Gospell declareth that our Lorde being dead Joseph demaunded of Pylate to take his bodie from the crosse and burie it which Pylate suffered by the ordinance of god And hauing taken it from the crosse they wrapped it in a newe Linnen cloath and layde it in a Sepulcher where no man had yet lyen Lastly hauing embawmed him wyth the oyntmentes which Nicodemus brought they left the body in the graue roulling to the mouth therof a great stoan Mary Nagdalin and the other Mary considering well in their vnderstanding the sayd sepulcher All this serueth to two effectes the first is to render testimony of the truth of the death of Iesus Christ shewing also a great misterie comprehended vnder the graue but the Church comprehendes both the one and the other in one worde his Sepulcher and that he remayned there thrée dayes expresseth the truth of his death making by that meane his resurrection more euident In this Article the imbasement and humilitie of the sonne of God encreaseth more and more as also his spirite and victorie which he hath obteined for vs For it is sayd first of al that he suffered the condemnation of Pilate and was executed and so being dead his body was buried It séemes that all these bring encrease to the victory of the deuill the world and death But of the contrarie it is our victory that is enlarged For by how much nere doth approch and is manifested the death of our Lorde by so much more is at hand the end and ruine of our death Death is dead and vanquished in such sort that he hath no power agaynst vs and for such one we put him into the graue Esay hath Prophesied that the Lord should destroy death eternally and drye vp the teares of his people and take away the dishonor of the earth in which words may be discerned the full victory against death which hath no power to cōfoūd nor make sorowful the true Christian It is not sayd by this that we shall not die and not féele death which is naturall but by this is expounded that the pricks and sorrows of death are vanquished haue no authority against a Christian séeing that for the exchange of this temporall lyfe he goeth to the eternall life accompanied with the fayth that he hath had that Christ is his redemption his life In this is performed the Prophecie of Ose speaking in the name of the Lord Oh death J will be thy death the same agréeing with the Apostle who assureth vs that our death is vanquished by the passion of Iesus christ our sepulcher buried in his yea our death hath lost his forces which made him reigne ouer vs and our graue hath lost his power and possibilitie to reteine vs stil seing it cannot now any more hold vs in propertie or perpetuitie but as it were by deputation and for a time In
end the power of God raysed him againe drue him out of the graue hauing vanquished death Of this besides many other prophesies Dauid hath written most manifestly speaking in the person of our Lorde as a man that by the inspiration of the holy Ghost J always sayth he set afore mine eyes the Lord whom I haue of my right hande to kepe me that J fall not For this cause doe J reioyce and my tongue shall beare Testimonie of my contentment but specially for that my fleshe shall rest in hope For Lorde thou wilt not leaue my lyfe in the graue nor suffer thy holy one to see corruption Thou hast shewed me the way of lyfe euen so shalt thou fill me wyth pleasure by thy presence For thou bearest in thy right hand a perpetual blisse In these wordes the Lord sheweth the singuler fauor which he receiued of his father in the death had not domination ouer him but was subdued and vanquished shewing withall the gladsome contentment he had to sée the eternall Father on his right hand In this hope he offered his body to the death dispersed it vpon the crosse receiued the graue being certeine of his resurrection victory that aswell touching himselfe as also for all mankind wherin declaring also his confidence ioy of his victory he sayth that his Father hath not suffered that his lyfe should remaine prisoner in the graue for euer and much lesse that his soule should be there deteyned not retourne eftsoones to be revnited to his body And lastly that his most holy body conceiued by the holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin and who had passed so many Passions of Tormentes for the Seruice and Obedience of his Father should not suffer corruption in the Graue but afore Nature coulde accomplishe that operation his Soule shoulde eftsoones receaue coniuntion wyth his Bodye The Prophet sayth moreouer that he hath shewed him the way to retorne to life concluding with action of thankes that he hath surmounted death and sinne The sonne of God did not only obteyne priuilege to rise againe but also to him was ioyned power to make his resurrection afore there was any such signe of corruption in his body as naturally appeares on others that be dead this respect was kept on the behalfe of his most holy person and the flesh which he had taken for that effect béeing pure and wihtout any marke of sinne Besides all these we may consider vppon the end of this Psalme a great misterie of the victorie which our Lord obtayned against death together with the assurance of our resurrection the same leauing vs satisfied and certayne that once againe we shall réenter into the possession of our bodies after wée haue abandoned them by the rigor of death With this Psalme S. Paule proues the resurrection of the Messias against the Jewes saying that Dauid was dead and buried whose Sepulcher was well enough knowne amongst the Jewes concluding that séeing the body of Dauid had passed by that corruption which is common and generall to all dead men it was not possible that those wordes should be vnderstanded by him and therefore what he said he meant it by Iesus Christ whom neyther hell nor the graue had power to deteyne and to whose flesh could be attributed no sense or suffrance of corruption So that Dauid being a Prophet and hauing receiued promise by othe that the Messias should discend of his séede prophesied of his comming vnder the forme of wordes afore recited This is of great importance for Christians to whom it is a true approbation and sommarie of all the workes which the Lord did and of all our religion together with an assured gage or pawne of all our hope Saint Paule sayth that it is concluded the resolution alreadie set downe against the aduersaries and vnbeleuing that Iesus Christ is the sonne of God the same being proued in this that the father hath raysed him from the dead with a great force and wonderfull testimonie thereby to shew that he was his onely sonne Wherein on the one side might be séene the sentence of men the condemnation of the worlde the reprobation of the people of the Jewes the iniuries outrages and tormentes of the Crosse and of death which may alleage agaynst the sauiour of the worlde that he was not the Sonne of God but an abuser Séeing he was condemned by so great personages endured so many afflictions yea fixed on the crosse in such sort and such extremitie that the miserable worlde might estéeme him for such one as of long time had bene Prophecied that is that he was not reputed a man as others were but as one most abandoned of God and of all men And on the other side might be séene the holy Prophesies workes and wordes of our Sauiour and his Doctrine expressing the reason of his comming and the misery of his death together wyth the sentence of his Father who to shew himselfe true in his workes and promises had raised him againe from death declaring that he was his true sonne All these thinges béeing of such importance were foretolde by Iesus Christ afore his death béeing willing to Prophesie and published his resurrection both to his frendes and to his enmies to comfort the one and conuince the other Yea he thought méete to manifest it to all to make the worlde vnderstande that he was sent of the eternall Father to saue the worlde and that it was he that had ben promised in the Law offering himselfe to death of his onely and proper will. The Jewes demaunded of him some signe to know who he was but he aunswered that they should haue no other signe but that of Jonas For as Jonas issued out of the bellie of the Whale the thirde day So the thirde day after his death he should eftsoones ryse out of the center of the earth hauing in that action vanquished death As he went once to Hierusalem he tolde his Disciples that he should be deliuered into the handes of the gentiles he comunicated the forme of his death assuring them that the third day he should rise againe And speaking with them a little before his death he comforted them saying that after his resurrection he would go before them to Gallely So that our confession by the which we acknowledge our Lorde to be risen againe the third day is confirmed by good and great testimonies requisite in a thing of so high misterie and importance being also matter of no small consolation to the children of GOD together with assured testimonyes that may bee gathered againste the wicked in the Holy Scriptures and predictions which our Lorde made before hys death Certaine Meditations and considerations vpon the resurrection of Iesus Christ THe firste consideration that the faithfull christian may take of this resurrection of Christe dependes vppon the meane wée haue already spoken of For in his resurrection we may comprehend that which appertaines to the
are we al reuiued and raised again in Jesus Christ This accomplishment appertaines to the liberalitie of the dyuine maiestie which hath reestablished and restored vs to the benefittes which he hath already communicated to vs Our death is vanquished on all partes and on all sides our life is eftsons reestablished Wée are absolued and made frée of all thinges séeing we haue on our side the death and lyfe of Iesus Christ the soueraigne bownty drawes vs from sinne the sacrifice is offered and we haue obtained pardon for our iniquities being but poore wretched slaues we are made rich and haue obteyned libertie to be the children of god And if we loose this benefitte it is eyther for some newe falt of ours or that wée will not cast or chaunge our olde skinne In effecte in this Article is disclosed the great humility and mercy of the Sonne of GOD who refused not to go into the darke prisons of the Earthe to deliuer the Soules of the iust there deteined and dispoile the Deuill of all his force and power to the ende that men may with more ease vanquish and surmount him We sée also that after all this he rose againe the thirde day and returned into true lyfe yea a life so excellent that death hath no more power ouer it nor any possibilitie eftsoones to preiudice it We haue shewed how this resurrection hath ben sufficiently iustefied euen by the places of Scripture accordinge to the testimonye of the créede That Christ rose againe the third day accordinge to the Scriptures which séemes to haue ben taken of the Apostle Wée haue also declared how necessary was this resurrection for the approbation of the dignitie of the person and doctrine of Christe séeing that in the same he is expressed the Sonne of god Wee haue also debated how it is to be vnderstanded and practised this great mistery partly for the regarde of our Lord and partely for the resurrection spirituall and corporall which he workes in vs by vertue of his restitution There remains nowe to declare who they be that practise the contentes of this article in faith and workes and who they bee that satisfie it not Such as professe and practise the substance ot this Article as appertaineth are those that perseuer in the mortification of their sinnes their fleshe and their disordered suggestions of the olde Adam that they reduce and bring him euen to the graue that is that they make a full and perfecte victory of him with a great remorse in themselues and a resolute hatred to all wicked and ill actions returning by the same meane into a newnesse of lyfe new desiers and new operations and actions Béeinge lastly altogether conformable to that newenesse which the Sonne of God is wont to coÌ„municat with suche as are risen againe with him Those be they that accompanie our Sauiour For as he is risen againe to be neuer after made subiect to death so the faithfull risen againe spiritually féele themselues so conuerted and out of taste of the woorkes of sinne that the spiritual death can not pearce so déepe as their hart And as our Lord rose againe triumphing so shall they also haue a glorious restitution beinge repurged of all wicked affections and enclyned to all good thinges to whom the yoke of the gospell shall séeme easie and swéete and shall trauell in great thirste and appetite to obserue the comaundementes of god Their charitie shall enflame their patience prepared to suffer all paines and tribulations they are glorified in the glorie of Iesus CHRIST they haue an honestie and purity of conscience they are chaste they loue their neighbour perfectly and pardon with all their harte suche as doe offend them They retire themselues from the thinges of this worlde and abandon the pompes and ambitions of the same as though they were vnapte therevnto and had no mindes affected to such transitory vanities For they are made newe men restored and raised againe by the Sonne of God who hath triumphed both ouer death and all dead thinges And so are they made his that hath raised them to serue him with new fruites which their new life bringes forth They feare not to suffer death to maintaine that which God hath ordeined they care neither for reproche nor hunger to defend iustice truth For their new life kepes them from smelling of those thinges which might hinder their faith perseuerance and constancie of hart in the traine of the gospell and ioynes vnto them a certainty of a better life which assureth them of all thinges Of the contrary such as be estraunged from this practise haue no other thinge but the simple name of those that are raised againe They are as painted sepulchers set out to the show without and within conteine nothing but rottennes and corruption such were the Pharasies with whom they haue only the title of lyfe and liuely and in effect are nothing els then dead rotten and corrupte Reteyninge that stinke and loathsomnes which is wonte to be aboute dead bodies Such be many of our christians who vnder thys name hyde a pride and arrogancie which the deuil teacheth them instructing them withall to be couetous and impatient the more to make them sauour of their stinke and filthynesse Lastly those be they that haue not chaunged nor cast their skinne and who being not mortefied can not be raised again For resurrection presupposeth death as there can be no death but there muste first be a life wherewith I ende the exposition of this article yéeldinge thankes for all thinges to GOD whom I beséech to continue his people in that proportion of faith which he thinkes necessary to their saluation Certaine testimonies of Pagan Authors seruing to approue christian Religion written in forme of a letter to a Noble man. ACcordinge to your requeste I haue sente you here with my opinion though not so liberally as you looked for yet with that faith industrie as may very well serue to satisfie your conscience and leaue me â—â—quited of my promis estéeming it to appertaine to me to instruct you séeing of your selfe you expresse such desier to know and learn. And albeit the matter it selfe drawing many circumstances requires a long time yet where thinges are debated faithfully and the resolution accepted diligently that that is long séemes not tedious and though it be little yet it may be enough for instruction beseechinge you to waye my reasons which I haue not drawn out of dreames but written them out of the best resolutions and agréementes of my bookes The vertue of christian religion is so great the miracles that haue confirmed it haue ben so publike and euident and the innocencie holynes of lyfe of such as haue professed it haue bin so cleare and manifest that the very enemies haue bin driuen to beare testimony with it notwithstandinge that they impugned it with all their industrie Yea it is a thinge wonderful seruing sufficiently to declare that our religion is
discretion of the doers for that according to Aristotle all the operations and mocions of man procéede of the vnderstanding and will. And therefore it is hard to iudge of the workes and dispositions of litle children till by encrease of yeares they enter into the vse of reason a time when they haue habilitie to do well or ill The same béeing the cause why the Cannon speakes not indistinctly of all children but onely of such as are somewhat raysed into yeares and age For it impugnes nothing the opinion of such as saye that litle children are without sinne but meanes expressely of such as are ten or twelue yeares of age who in déede are not exempted from sinne Mans estate which is the third age begins at fiftene yeares and continueth till eight and twentie according to Isidores opinion This age the Latines call Adolescentia for two reasons the one for their possibilitie and nearenesse to engender the other for that they encrease and rise into strength Touching the first it is referred to the beginning of this age wherein young men approch the power of procreation which was further from them in their childhode as hath bene sayed The second consideration beholdes chiefely the end of that age according to the opinion of many who holde that man encreaseth till twentie or two and twentie yeares which is the end of Mans estate But Jsidorus sayth that Adolescentia lasteth till eight and twentie yeres notwithstanding man doth not alwayes rise in increasing till then and yet it séemes that that age tooke his name directly of encrease for that then man comes to his perfect growth In the ages afore rehearsed Jnfancie and Puerilitie man groweth still yea and in one part of the third age which is Adoloscentia But in the ages following he groweth nothing for that he hath taken his perfection afore And therefore seeing all growing endes in Adoloscentia for after that age man encreaseth nothing the name of encrease or growing doth most properly appertaine to him Youth which is the fourth age entreth at nine and twentie and endeth at fiftie as Isidore affirmeth The Latines call it Inuentus by reason of the helpes and aides that the world hath of men of that age as in deede that title is most proper to him by reason of the force and vertue which men of that age haue In the former ages men are not knit nor haue their forces accomplished But in this age they haue their full strength and are well hable to endure all impositions of paine burdens or trauell In this is discerned the difference of the two opinions the one establishing seuen ages and Isidore reckoning but sixe Such as make a nomber of seuen deuide youth adioyning vnto him an other part which they call Virilitie But according to Isidore there is but one age and that is called Youth which me thinkes is not to begin at the end of Mans estate at eight and twentie yeres as Isidore holdeth But it were better to determine Mans estate at one and twentie yeres a time wherein he hath taken his groath and thereto establish the beginning of youth which is to last vntill thirtie yeres or there about and after it may succéede Virilitie which may endure vntill L where Jsidore establisheth the end of youth According to this order the names of the ages may go properly with them For Junentus takes his name of this Latine Verbe iunare signifying to aide or helpe and in that age men are most conuenient to be employed and of most habilitie to giue aide And Virilitie deriueth from this Latine Noune Vires signifying strength as an age wherein men being compleate are in there greatest force And so as the youngman is good to minister aide and helpe so in the man accomplished is good habilitie to do things of himselfe For to haue necessitie of aide is referred to the forces yet weake and not accomplished but to do any thing of our selues is a true signe of strength fully furnished Besides it is of common proofe that a man comes not to his full strength till he be thirtie yeres olde and therefore by good reason that estate of age may be called Virilitie But Jsidorus thinking not to seperate virilitie from youth sets downe other termes and limits to ages establishing the end of Mans state at eight and twentie yeres and not at one and twentie and appoynting the begining of youth at nine and twentie a season that best makes perfect the strength of men he puts no difference betwene virilitie and youth The fifth age is called Grauetie or Vnweldinesse Touching this age the two opinions aforesayd do differ in name only Jsidore calling it vnweldinesse and the other giuing it no title at all They both séene to take the commoditie of the Latine word the one calling it senectus and the other seniam notwithstanding it concerne diuerse ages This age of vnweldinesse begins at fiftie yeres and ends at thréescore and ten as Jsidore holdeth who calleth it vnweldinesse because the qualitie of heauines or waight makes fall all things lower And as in the other foure ages afore men grow either in stature or in force so in this age their strength séemes to determine and their bodies and partes begin to decaye decline to debilitie For vntil fiftie yeres man mayntaines alwayes his strength and stature but after he begins to feint as one that had runne his course and doth nothing but heape infirmities and weaknesse euen vntill death According to the opinion of such as establish seuen ages this estate of yeres is called old age wherunto Isidore consents not but calles that old age which begins at thréescore and ten and continueth til death though man liue neuer so long So that all the other ages are restrained to certaine limits of yeares but this last age is subiect to no terme for that the day and houre of mans death are not knowne Jsidore speaking of this age sayth that old age béeing the sixth age can not bée limitted nor made subiect to terme for that there is attributed vnto it the residue of the life of man which passeth the first fiue ages But touching all that hath bene sayd heretofore that euery age of the life of man hath his certaine termes and limits except the last It is to be vnderstand that al is spoken of the ages of men of our time and not of such as were afore the floud since in those seasons the age of men were a thousand yeres Neither do we meane the men of the second age which begonne from the floud vntill Abraham for that in that age there were men that liued sixe hundreth yeares and some foure hundreth as appeareth by the Doctrine of Genesis And yet those men sayth Jsidore had no more age then we and all their yeares limitted to a certaine time and terme except the last age whereunto could bée ascribed no certaintie of terme for that as it is found in Genesis
fruit more liked by how much it is incorporate in the vertues and name of an excellent patron In which respect knowing that there shines in your Ladiship a vertue of learning and iudgement as doth the pearle in the gold that your mind is diuinely enclined to the coÌ„templation of vertuous studies I beseech you let this be admitted amongest the publike monumeÌ„ts of your vertue though farre vnworthy of your noble desire yet beeing couered with the winges of your authoritie and name it may bee holden so much the more perfect and plawsible by how much it is an imp grafted in the soyle of your greatnes and enritched with the golde of your name and vertues Referring the faultes rather to the infirmitie of my skil and knowledge then to my desire and will which is wholly dedicated to the seruice of your right honorable Father and his house At my chamber in the Blacke Friers in London the fourth of February 1575. Your honours humbly to dispose and commaund Geffray Fenton The contents of euery perticuler Chapter TO the gouernour Angulo doclaring many good doctrines with other consolations to such as are widowers fol. 1 To Sir Peter Giron banished into Oran comforting such as liue in exile 4 To Don Frederique of Porting all Archbishop of Saragoce and Viceroy of Catholiogne wherein the author commends to him a letter of the Emperour M. Aurelius 11 To the Duke of Alua contayning an exposition of a text of the Apostle with other antiquities 14 To Don Fardinando do Toledo to whom are expounded two authorities of Scripture and the custome of the Egiptians in the death of their friends 17 A discourse before the Emperour Charles the fifth wherein is handled the pardon that Christ demaunded of his father for his enemies 19 To what purpose or ententions tended all the speeches of Iesus Christ 20 That when Christ gaue pardon he left nothing to forgeue 22 That God was wont to be called the God of vengeance and now is he named the father of mercy 24 A discourse afore the Emperour wherein is touched the conuersion of the good theefe 27 The good theefe hauing no other thing to offer to god offred him his hart and his tongue 32 How wickedly the euill theefe spake hanging on the crosse 35 The good theefe rebuked his fellow hanging on the crosse 37 A discourse expounding this text of the Psalme Irascimini nolite peccare 42 For such as enter into religion 47 An other discourse tending to religion 49 Instructions still tending to men entred religion 52 This discourse was vttered in the presence of a noble Lady at her churching 53 A discourse in the presence of a great assembly of noble Ladies of the good and euill that the tongue doth 55 A letter to a great learned maÌ„ answering to certaine demaunds 62 Demaundes and aunsweres 62 Touching the warre which a man makes against himselfe 65 Plutarch to the Emperour Traian a letter tending to instruct Princes newly raysed to principalities 68 The Emperour Traian writeth to his teacher Plutarch debating that albeit a good man may be banished yet he is not for that dishonored 70 The Emperour Traian writing to the Senate of Rome discloseth the trauels of Princes in their gouernements 71 The Senate of Rome writeth to Traian their Emperour partly to aunswere to some particulers of his former letters and with all expressing documeÌ„ts necessary to the instructioÌ„ of a Prince 75 Of the great reuerence giuen in times past to auncient men with certaine priuileges appertaining to old age 77 To a noble personage touching the difference betwene the friendship of men and loue of God. 79 In this letter is debated the difference betwene a seruaunt and a friend 81 A letter to a noble personage wherein is debated why God afflicts good men 83 The author vnder termes to reproue his friend that had charged him to haue taken out of his chamber a Pomander speaketh iustly against such persons as delite to be perfumed 85 A letter to a perticuler friend rebuking all such as offer outrage or iniurie to any that are new by conuerted to the faith of Christ calling them infidels or miscreants or by any other name of reproch 88 A letter to a nobleman touching familiarly how inconuenient it is for a man maried to haue a womaÌ„ friend besides his wife 90 A treatise of the resurrection of Iesus Christ together with an exposition of the fifth article of the Creede that he discended into hell and rose againe the third day 93 Touching the resurrection of Christ 101 Certaine meditations and considerations vppon the resurrection of Iesus Christ 103 Certaine testimonies of Pagan authors seruing to approue christian religion written in forme of a letter to a noble man. 107 The Originall of tiranny and Idolatrie together with the punishments of tirants and Idolators how Abraham was chosen chief of the Hebrewes 112 The author aunswereth a congratulation sent to him vppon the gift of a Bishopricke 117 There are no greater riches then honour nor pouertie more intollerable then infamie 120 The author modestly reprehendeth his friend for not yeelding to his request 124 A letter aduertising Parents not to be carelesse in the education of their children and that a man of honestie and vertue ought not to suffer ill resort or leude demeanor in his house 126 The author writeth to his sister seruing in the Court partly hee instructeth her how to liue in Court and partly satisfieth her request vnder a short discription of loue 127 To a noble man in consolation for the death of his daughter in law 130 A discourse written to a great Princesse of the vertues and life of the noble Queene of Zenobia 133 Touching diseases and the discommodities which old age bringeth 135 One friend writeth to another of the rage of enuie and the nature thereof 138 One friend rebuketh another for that of a gentlemaÌ„ he is become a marchant this letter tendeth to the rebuke of couetousnes 141 A letter in consolation declaring the discommodities of Anger the benefites of pacience 145 A discourse of the ages of mans life 150 A continuing of the discourse begon wherein is brought in an other opinion 153 VVhich of the opinions is most worthy 154 The conclusion of this discourse wherein the author is resolued that there be but three ages 156 Considerations for Iudges criminall expressed in a familiar letter from one friend to another wherein is vsed a necessarie authoritie of a Philosopher 167 A discourse of the antiquities of Corinth with an exposition of the prouerbe Non cuiuis contigit adire Corinthum 160 That we ought rather to present before God the loue which wee beare him then the seruices we do to him 162 A short letter partly in rebuke and partly in persuasion 165 A letter to a daintie Lady faâ—â—e sicke for the death of hir little Dogge 657 To an old gentleman enamored of a young Lady this letter toucheth the perplexities which
malice that thou takest no more shame of thy Sinnes then a common woman deuiding her body to straunge Fleshe yet if thou come afore me in Prayer and call me Father I will aunswere thée and acknowledge thée for my Sonne By this we haue to thinke that it was not to obteyne a small thing when he began his Prayer by this inuocation Father forgeue them yea he made offer of the same Phrase for the remission of his Enemies which he would haue done if he had prayed for the aduauncement of his best friendes But in recompence of this Wonderfull affection and Zeale that Nation replenished with malice Cryed out to Pylate to Crucifye him who refusing to committe his Innocencie to sentence and not fynding in him worthynesse of Death they cryed eftsoones Sanguis eius super nos et super Filios nostros Be not so scrupulus to Iudge an offendour saye they for if thou thinke thou doest an vniust thing let the Venggeance of his innocencie fal vpon vs and our Posteritie but from this petition Iesus Christe séemed to appeale for that as they Cryed that his bloud might be agaynst them so of the contrary he sought to make that Holy effusion profitable to them So that where they demaunded of Pylate their condemnation he Prayed to his Father for their Pardon For a man to doe no Euill to his Ennemie may very well happen to Pardon Ennemies belonges to the Office of CHRISTIANS to loue an Ennemie is the worke of a perfect man But to pardon him which would not obteyne pardon was neuer done by any but by Iesus Christ For when the Hebrewes cryed Sanguis eius super nos Christ lyft vp his voyce and zeale to his Father Pater ignosce illis There was no great distance betwéene the time of the petition of the Jewes and the Prayer of our Sauiour for as they cryed at the the third hower to haue him crucified and that the reueng of his bloud might light vpon them and theirs so at the ninth hower Christ prayed to his Father to forgeue them Oh Father sayth he let not the vengeance of my death redownd vpon them neyther stretch out thine Ire vpon this people that know not what they do for they are ignorant of the price of their demaunde and protestation that with such obstinate vehemencie they pursue to Pilate Much better then did the Apostle consider and féele this great miserie when he sayde Accessitis ad sanguinis aspersionem melius loquentem quam abell Oh wretched Hebrews and happie Oh we Christians who haue obteined pardon by the effusion of the bloud of the Sonne of God shed by your meane this spéech sure was farre otherwayes then the saying of Abell crying iustice iustice but our Sauiour sayd mercie mercie So that the iniquitie so generall and sinne so wicked as ours is had néede of such an aduocate as is Iesus Christ for who was so fitte to obtaine Pardon for our sinnes as he whose innocencie made him without sinne That God was wont to be called the God of vengeance and now is he named the Father of mercie IEsus Christ Langushing in torment and Martirdome vpon the Crosse expressed an other maner of Testament to the worlde then King Dauid who in the very passions of death charged Salomon his Sonne not to suffer the gray heares of Joab to come to the graue without bloud nor the liues of his subiects seruantes to end without reuēg yet they had not somuch as touched his garmēt to offend him where the Lord would not cease to purchase pardō euen for those by whose violēt hāds was wrought the effect of his death Deus vltionum dominus deus vltionum saith Dauid speaking of the iustice of god thou Lord art the god of reuenge since that from the instant that we commit the offence it is thou that thondrest punishment vpon vs yea thou art so called because of the feare that the world hath of thée that thou dealest with the generations of men in so great rigor with the auncients he was called the God of reuenge for the immediatly that Adam had transgressed he was chased out of the earthly paradise the regions of the earth by the vniuersalflud were drowned the two cities by his rigor subuerted the faction of Aron and Abiram consumed the idolators that offred worship to the calfe cōmitted to death the théefe of Hiericho stoaned and the host of Senacherib ouerthrowne yea without offring wrong to any he did iustice to all That god in those times was the god of vēgeāce appeareth in the actiō on the moūt Raphin whē the Hebrues demaūded of Moyses to geue them flesh to eate which tourned to their great domage for that they had scarcely begon to tast the flesh of the quailes falling in their host whē loe the indignation of the lord slew such multitudes of them that the scripture forbears to expresse the nomber The reuēge of the offence of the king Abimelech denying the Jsraelites to passe thorow his coūtries was it not executed thrée hūdreth years after the falt in the raign of Saule to whō god said I kepe remēbrāce of the smal regard which Abimelech gaue to my cōmaundements stopping the passage of my people thorow his realmes against whom looke that thou rise arreare thine armie cut in péeces all his people sparing neither man woman nor beast by which example with many others of equall continuance and equitie the men of the world may perceiue how déepe and vnsearchable are the iudgmentes of god who somtimes punish the ymediat offender oftentimes transferreth the correction vpon such onely as discende of their race So that he punisheth no man without desert and therfore not without mistery is he called by the Prophet the God of reuenge because that albeit he vseth to dissemble for sometime our transgessions committed against his maiestie yet they are not parpetually forgotten with him The same God that the Hebrues had and worshipped in those times doe the Christians hold at this day as true and soueraigne Lord of whom the Apostle yéeldes better testimonie to the Church then did Dauid to the sinagog For Dauid called him the God of vengeance and the Apostle honoureth him by the name of Father of mercie and consolation wherin as Dauid was not without some occasion to ascribe vnto him that surname title so the Apostle also had better reason to inuocate him in the phrase of mercifull father for that in that law of rigor feare God had a propertie to chastise people nations where in this law of grace he visiteth vs in affection mercy whereby hauing chaunged custome he hath also ioyned vnto him an other propertie of name title being now worthely called the father of mercy according to his many examples of mercie pitie expressed vpon many sinners as vpon S. Mthew in remitting his vseries vppō Mary Magdaline in pardoning her vanities vpō
in the Companie of Robbers dyd suffer a slaunderous Death yet it was not for the he had any communitie with the offences of the théeues and much lesse suffered for his proper crimes but for the Sinnes of the Worlde Quae non rapui tunc exsoluebam I make sayth Christ by the Prophete satisfaction for the faltes done by others others haue eaten the Apple and yet I paye the price of it Though I haue committed no Crime yet mine innocencie is put to punishement Yea where others haue troubled the commonweale I am committed to iustice and hauing no nature or effect of offence in me yet I passe vnto death for the sinnes of the whole Worlde Right iust was the occasion of our Sauiour to holde such argument For that if they crucifyed him vnder a most smarting and infamous death it was not for that he had deserued it but to the ende that by it mankinde should be redéemed This théefe sayd not with sewertie that he was Christ and therefore by making wicked doubt question whether he were the sonne of God or not he deserued not with his companion to be made a Christian But the good théefe making no doubt of his omnipotencie sayde absolutly Lorde haue remembrance of me and therefore was not onely adopted to Christianitie but also there was ioyned to his fayth recompence of eternall saluation In the same maner S. Peter said not if thou be Christ I wil beleue in thée but he protested in bolde fayth and cryed J beleue that thou art the Sonne of the euerliuing God For who will receaue the grace and blessing of God his fayth ought to be without scrupull or doubt he that wil obteine any thing of god saith the Apostle it apperteines to him to aske it with a faith that is not doubtful for if God giue vs not forthwith that which we demaunde of him it is more for that we know not how to aske him then that he is harde to grauÌ„t our requests Let it then be farre from vs to say with the wicked théefe If thou be Chrict saue thy selfe and vs also but let vs rather with the Blinde man of Hierico say Oh sonne of Dauid haue pitie vpon vs For so shall we be made to sée with the blinde man and not caried into damnation wyth the Théefe Who in saying to Christ Salua te met ipsum et nos thought to perswade him to leaue the Passions of the Crosse and put himselfe in libertie and deliuer him from death For this was the opinion of this wicked théefe that euen as Pilate put on him the senteÌ„ce of death for his thefts and roberies euen so also there was no lesse guiltinesse in Christ as béeing vntruely holden a Seducer of the People and a man contrarie to the common Weale And therefore he thought that as the Terrors of Death made him vnwilling to dye so also there remayned in Christ a desire to lyue longer Wherein his error was so much the greater by how much he considered not that ther was necessitie of Christs death for the redemtioÌ„ of the world for which cause though he wished to liue loÌ„ger yet our sauiour desired the present stroke of death according to his owne words to his disciples Desiderio desideraui hoc pasâ—ha manducare vobiscuÌ„ at other times sayth he I haue celebrated with you this feast the which at this preseÌ„t I esteme to be truly passeouer in holy scripture The doubling and reiteration of a worde is a signe of vehement and great desire the which was wel expressed in the zeale of our sauiour who by this phrase Desiderio desideraui published manifestly that he had no lesse desire to dye for vs then most desirous to redéeme vs For of that nature was his thirst and desire to ouercome our perpetuall death that he expected nothing more then the houre wherein he might employ for vs his most holy and vndefiled lyfe There was great similitude and likenes betwéene the blasphemie of this wicked théefe and the request of the Jewes who willed him to descend from the crosse and they would all beléeue in him wherevnto if our sauiour had condiscended and abandoned the agonies of the crosse al the world had stand crucified with death sinne and the perpetuall perplexities of Hell Oh wicked théefe Oh people hardened and obstinate if Christ had come down from the crosse according to your requestes or if he had deuided himselfe from the paines of death following the blasphemous motion of the condemned théefe much lesse that it had bene happie with any sort of people but of the contrary Hell had bene alwayes open for you and the gates of Paradise perpetually closed agaynst our posterities For the Lorde came not to descende but to mount and ascende not to eschew the crosse but to dye vpon it Cum exaltatus fuero a terra omnia traham ad me ipsum sayth our Lorde Iesus Christ Because now I goe Preaching from one countrey to an other and that I haue my ryches dispersed you cannot haue knowledge of my might nor of the vertue and benefites that are in my power But when you sée me elected and chosen to the crosse euen in the same place shall be my treasure This spéech truely is of great admiration for the good sort and leaues no little feare to the wicked Omnia traham ad me ipsum by the which we are instructed that who will obteine any thing of Iesus Christ ought to aske it vpon the crosse For neuer was the Lorde so liberall as when he was Crucifyed at no time so rych as when he was Naked nor at any time so mighty as when he was condemned to death All these treasures did Christ bring with him from heauen to earth and from the earth he recaryed them with him to the trée of his suffering and being there he dispersed them through out the worlde so that he that is found most neare the crosse of our sauiour on him is bestowed the most plentifull rewarde it was on the crosse that he recomded his soule to his Father his Church to S. Peter to Nicodemus his body and to the good théefe the ioyes of Paradise it was on the crosse where he commaunded the Sunne to hyde his lyght the stoanes to breake the vayle of the Temple to rent the graues to open and the dead to ryse agayne which carieth an assured Testimonie that in his death was wrought the effect of our lyfe it was on the crosse that he spake to his Father gaue comfort to his mother had remembrance of his Disciple pardoned the beléeuing théefe and illumined the centurion to the end he might know Iesus christ to be the redéemer and confesse himselfe a sinner it was on the crosse where his side was opened his bloud shed where he shewed most plentifully his charitie expressed most myldly his patience and vsed greatest clemencie Yea it was the place where his death tooke ende and our redemption receaued beginning Lastly
requirs him he graunteth him not that he demaundes But thrise happie was this théefe who afore all thinges desired the Lorde to haue remembrance of him when he came into his kingdome wherby demaunding pardon and remission of his sinnes he obteined the kingdome of heauen more easelie then he thought for Abraham demaunded of God linage and there was giuen to him a sonne of whose race Christ discended according to the fleshe Jacob prayed for the redeliuerie of Beniamin which he saw accomplished Tobias beséeching God for the returne of his sonne from Niniuie imbrased him safely restored and richely maried Iudith praied to God to chase away Holofernes and his Campe from her towne of Bethulia he put the Enemie into her power Anna in great compassion desired issue and she brought forth Samuell the Prophet And loe this good théefe besought God to haue remembrance of him in the other worlde and the Lorde did not onely pardon him in this worlde but also glorifyed him in his eternall kingdome Right true and absolute is the testimonie of the Scripture speaking of the liberalitie of God Quod ipse dat omnibus affluenter God geues to al men in great aboundance which is contrarie to the manner of the Princes of the world who if they geue it is not in plentie and if they distribute in fulnesse they geue it to few But such is the bountie and blessed liberalitie of our Lorde that he refuseth not to geue that which is demaunded and much lesse geues in penurie that which is required of him Aperis tu manum tuam et imples omne animall benedictione All those in this worlde sayth the Prophete that geue anye thinge geue it cloase fisted as the saying is But the Lorde alwayes encreaseth in liberalitie wyth his handes open who as he is Pitifull to pardon so also in his rewardes and recompence he expresseth hyghe Liberalitye Here also is to be noted that this Théefe in his inuocation to Christ dyd not desire the LORDE to haue remembraunce of him to the ende he were not Crucifyed nor required him to be mindefull of him that he myght escape the Perilles of Death since it was he onely that gaue lyfe But he sayde onely Lorde forget me not when thou commest into thy Kyngedome For séeing thée on thy Knées afore Pilate sayth he and béeing asked whether thou were a Kynge and had Realmes I hearde thée Aunswere that thy Kyngedome was not of this Worlde Which béeing true I beséeche thée Oh swéete comfort of my Soule that when thou art in Possession of thy Kyngedome of rest thou wilt then haue remembraunce of me being the greatest Sinner in the Worlde This Théefe séeing GOD in presence hearing him speake in person and touching him wyth his handes and woulde not demaund of him other thinges then of the Worlde to come can not but put men in a maze and drawe euen Aungels to admiration From the houre that our Blessed Sauiour suffered his bloude to be dispearced vppon the Crosse there hath bene great effect and vertue of it in the Church whereof appeared right good Testimonye in the discourse and action of this Théefe whose lyfe and whole course of his behauiour hauing béene infected wyth wicked conuersation he demaunded presently to be made a neyghbour of the Hierachies and companion to our redéemer And hauing done no seruice to GOD he asked of him wyth full mouth the Kingdome of Heauen which he obteyned not so much through the merite of his inuocation and Prayers as by the meane and vertue of the bloud of Iesus Christ wherin there is no reason to doubt but as our Lorde was readye to yéelde vp the spirite and that the effusion of his bloud prepared to an ende so this good théefe saw the Heauens open together wyth the great glory layde vp for our sauiour by which occasion he cryed in sewertie of fayth Memento mei cum veneris in regnum tuum For otherwayes it had béene vaine for a Théefe to haue demaunded wyth such boldenesse the Kyngedome of infallible felicitye But whether the Maiestie and presence of Heauen were open to him or not there is no necessitye of reasoning Onely let vs ioyne our selues to his Fayth and opinion and wyth his Prayer let vs call vppon the Lorde to remember vs when he comes into his Kyngedome for there may we be sewer he will remember vs since in this world he will not recompence the seruices that we haue done to him and in the other he will laye vpon vs the offences we haue committed agaynst his Maiestye Let vs beséech him that if in recompence that we are Baptized if for the renoume name and tittle we beare of Christians if for that we are his Seruauntes and specially if because he hath redéemed vs it will please him to blesse vs wyth any rewarde let it not be bestowed vppon vs here on earth but when he shall be established in the estate and maiestie of his kyngedome For all such as he markes with recompence and rewarde in the Booke of this worlde it is a signe that he hath razed them out of the register of Heauen Jsaac was aduaunced more then Jsmaell Jacob preferred aboue Esau Juda fauoured more then Ruben Joseph raysed aboue his Bretherne and Nahabor aduaunced to the Vines of Samaria But let vs praye for no other aduauncement then Dum veueris in regnum tuum For out of thy house all honors all preferments all riches and dignities are contemnible For the ende of this discourse we haue to note that Christ pardoning this théefe sayde not Amen dico vobis but speaking singulerly he sayde Amen dico tibi Whereby as in the manner and estate of his pardon he manifested his mercie so in forgeuing him alone he shewed his vpright iustice Many nations and men of sundrie qualities and Countreyes standing then round about the crosse would haue bene glad to haue obteyned remission but amongest them all to this théefe onely was graunted pardon the better to aduertise vs that since he forgaue him we should not dispaire by the same meane to obteyne remission And since he pardoned but him alone let vs not sinne the more in hope that he will pardon vs So for conclusion let vs not forget that he forgaue the people afore they had transgressed and pardoned the théefe after he had sinned by which we are instructed to feare his Iustice and to remember his mercye which it may please him to exhibitte towardes vs here by grace and in the worlde to come by glory A discourse expounding this text of the Psalme Irasoimini et nolite peccare CHrist gréeuing still with the encrease of abuses in the Temple saw great necessitie of Discipline and therefore in one daye he whipped out the Vserers reuersed their exchaunges and dispersed their treasors Wherin we haue to note which of these two thinges were of a most importance eyther the zeale that Christ had or the fault that was in them béeing sewer that
wouldest mount vp to the highest Empire of heauen and there erect thy Throane and be lyke to the most high and mightie God it was good iustice that thou shouldest fall from that thou wast since thou aspirest to be that thou oughtest not yea in thy ouerwéening expressed in Proude and Arrogant wordes was wrought the reason and effect of thy wretched fall wherein let all men be warned to take héede what they saye what they doe and what they thinke since Lucipher was not throwne from the seate where he sate euen into the bottomlesse Pitte where he fell but for the disdainefull wordes which he spake and arrogant thoughtes he conceiued So that as his weening defaced him in heauen so through his wickednes was he recommended to Hel. Senacherib King of the Assirians and a great Blasphemer against the omnipotencie of God preparing a mightie Armie against Jerusalem sent his Heralds to King Ezechias with this sommonce Non te seducat deus tuus in quo fiduciam habes non enim poterit vos quis de manu mea eripere Take héede King Ezechias sayth he and be not abused in confidence and opinion that the ayde of thy God or the power of thy huge Armie are hable to protect thée from the stroake of my hande for that I will compell thée eftsoones to communicate in the tribute and subiection of thy Auncesters But so God kindled in indignatioÌ„ against these arrogaÌ„t threats that euen afore he had done any pillage or murder in the countrye and in the beginning of the Siege afore Hierusalem beholde the Angall of the Lorde killed in one night a Hundreth and fourscore Thousande men of his Armie and himselfe fléeing to his Citie of Niniue was there slaine by his owne children loasing in this sort through the wickednesse of his tongue his Honor his hoast his Kingdome and his Sinfull lyfe where many other Princes of the Assirians Perses Meades and Egiptians afore him notwithstanding they executed great cruelties ouer the common weals of the Hebrues yet they made warres with their weapons and kept their tongues in rest and therefore were punished with more fauor then most wicked Senacherib Therefore amongst Princes in Kingdomes magistrates in publyke office and Prelates in their congregations as it is a thing of most equitie that they doe iustice so is it no lesse vnséemely to be Blasphemers or wicked speakers since oftentims men doo more accompt of iniurious words spoken against them then of the punishment that is layd vpon them And neyther for the Prince in his kingdome nor the generall in the Camp nor to the church man in time of peace can it be any way conuenient to be proude in their conuersations lesse byting in their woordes The kindred of Cayn sonnes of the Patriarke Noe sayd they would build a tower whose toppes should aspire to heauen to saue them from the surie of the fludde if God sent any vpon the earth Wherein as they imagined that in their handes laye the power too auoyd death and not in the might of God to take from them their lyfe So we haue assuredly to holde it a great Misterie that for so great an offence GOD would not Punishe them in their persons nor spoyle their goodes nor reuerse their Cyties and much lesse take from them their vices but onely he Chastised them in their Tongues agaynst whose Pryde and Arrogancie it is a good argument that GOD boare a greater displeasure then agaynst the Huge Tower they had erected For that if he hadde not more dispized theyr conspyring Tongues then theyr suttle Buyldinges he would rather haue defaced theyr Tower then confuzed and Chaunged theyr Languages Before these Cursed BABILONIENS drewe into Councell to Buylde this Tower the whole Worlde spake but one sort and Phrase of Language But GOD séeing the disposition of People and Nations declining too doe Wickedly tooke from them the manner of speaking where if it had so pleased him he might haue drowned them as he dyd the Armye of Pharao or stricken them Blynde as he dyd the Sodomites or haue Burnt then quicke as he dyd the Children of Aaron But according too the Custome of his Iustice since wyth theyr Tongues they had disobeyed him he prouided that in their Tongues more then in any other thing was published their Punishement Oh that men in these times would looke vppe too the iustice which God thundred vpon Babylon so should they forget to Murmure forbeare to blaspheame yea if the impression of those threats would take place in their minds I doubt not but the backbiters would turne their tongs from slaunder al men cease to sinne yea if the consideration of Gods iustice stood afore the secret conscience iudgments of princes they would not be so subiect to flatterie although the time is now growne to this corruption that who cannot flatter is estéemed eyther malicious or proude Such is the danger of the tong that if it be not restrained to order limit it hath a naturall libertie to speake euen to our owne hurt And the spéech being none other thing than the image figure of the minde there is no lesse necessitie of temperance councel in the controlement of our tong then to gouerne our conscience There is no other member apperteyning to man wherein we haue a more facilitie to offende then in the tongue by whose vnbridled swiftnes we are often times caried into voices souÌ„ding euen to our proper harms as happened to the Amalechite that brought Dauid the first newes of the death of Saule I come from the Camp of the Hebrues sayth he bring thée tydinges that thy auncient enemie king Saule is dead wherof these eyes are true witnesses for that these handes slewe him obeying his owne request But Dauid notwithstanding he was deliuered of an enemie could not but disdaine the boldnes of the messenger to lay violent handes vpon the Lords anoynted and therefore he gaue this sentence of him Let thy bloude be vpon thine owne heade since thy mouth hath condemned thy life and thy selfe hast spoken against thy selfe saying J haue killed the anointed of the Lord whose garmeÌ„t thou oughtest not so much as to touch and much lesse spoyle the libertie of his life Here Dauid did not iustice vpon this messengere so much for the murder he had done as for that he made vaunt and glorie of it So that as he slewe Saule wyth the sworde so also he Killed himselfe wyth his proper Tongue And albeit in respect of the Auncient Quarrell and Warres betwéene Saule and Dauid this poore Amalechite had thought to haue béene the bringer of gladde Tydinges and for recompence to haue receiued great aduauncement yet greater was the consideration of Dauid to reuenge the offenâ—â—â—â—…ne against God then eyther to reioyce in the newes or regard the commodities that grue to him by the death of King Saule Wherein by somuch was his perfection and charitie greater
by howmuch he did not onely wéepe for the death of his enemie and honored him with funerall pompe and Burying but also he gaue Reuenge to his Death In that fearefull discourse which CHRIST makes of the rich man and Lazarus in the other worlde we finde that the riche man Cryed vnto Abraham to haue Pitie on him at least wise that he would sende Lazarus to touch with his Finger the flame and heate of his Tongue which request albeit séemes to carie no face of importance or greatnesse yet the vpright iustice of God would neither heare nor helpe him For that in his prosperitie hauing denied to the pore the very Crummes falling from his Table by what reason could he deserue a droppe of Water to refreshe or comfort his necessities And where by the testimonie of the Scripture we finde that this wretched riche man was both a glutton and an epicure in delites of Banquets Garments and all other sensualities Yet it is apparant that in no part of his body he féeles such sorow as in his Tongue nor in any sort commits so great sinnes as in speaking By whose example and Punishment let all men in their conuersation bring forth vertue and in their spéeche vse councell and discression since the next way to liue in honor and dye wyth prayse is to be honest in desires and to haue a Tongue well corrected And so for ende if to Cayn Lucipher Senacherib the builders of the tower of Babilon the Murderer of Saule the wicked riche man had not bene ioyned vaine tongues to pronounce disdainefull and vndiscréete thinges it may be beléeued that they had not with such lightnesse haue loste their liues in this world nor in the other had put their souls vnder perpetuall damation But now hauing proued how the Tongue hath béene to many the cause of their Death Let vs also in another Example of the Pietie of Dauid prooue that in so hath béene the occasion of lyfe according to the argument of our Theame That Lyfe and Death are in the power of the Tongue In the bodye of Man the most necessarie member is the Harte The goodlyest Instruments are the Eyes The partes most delicate are the Eares And the thing wherein is most daunger wyth good reason wée may saye is the Tongue For that the Harte thinketh onely the wyll consentes the Eares heare the Handes stryke but to the Tongue is tyed a propertye too Kyll and Sleye And as our Tongue is none other thinge then as a whyte Wall whereon the Wyse man may paynte deuoute Images and the Foole drawe thinges vayne and fonde So to him that canne vse his Tongue well it is an Instrument that may woorke to his Saluation as of the contrarye who employeth it in ill seruices it is sufficient to his Damnation For the Harte béeing the Fordge whereon our Wicked plottes are wrought then that which our Tongue pronounceth is none other thing then the pryce and publication of the Sinnes which we haue within our Harte But now to the Historie of King Dauid a thing no lesse pitifull to heare then necessarie to know For that the discourse leaues to all Christians a true experience what weakenesse we haue to fall and with what readinesse we may eftsoons rise againe As king Saule by Gods wil was depriued of his kingdome so in his place the eternall prouidence raised the holy king Dauid who in the sight of the Lord found so much grace as the wicked Saule was disfauored So God loued Dauid that amongst al the patriarkes he made him most honored amongest the propheâ—s best inspired amongest the Capteines most feared amongst the kings best estéemed and loued yea he founde him so agréeable in his sight that he promised and swore to discend of his race bearing himselfe such witnesse of his holinesse that he confessed that amongst all the Children of Israell he had founde and chozen Dauid as best pleasiing his Harte and most agréeable to his will And so was Dauid loued of God wyth a diuine affection For that he serued him wyth all his Harte by which wée may iudge that wyth one equall Weyght or measure are peysed the loue which GOD beares too vs and the seruices which wée doe to him But as Idlenesse is the Enemie of vertue and the verie trayne to all Wickednesse it happened that Dauid being in his Palaice well dispozed of his person and mightie in Countreyes but his minde enuironed with Idlenesse he fell into an accident most preiudiciall to his renoume no lesse infamous to his common weale Wherby Princes may sée that more punishment doe they deserue for the euill example they shew then for the vices they commit For it had not happened so to the good king Dauid if he had bene either writing of Psalmes or busie in some expedition of war or at least managing some other his affaires of importance but such is the resolution of God so it is so it hath bene so it shal be that from the time that princes take truce with their enemies they set at libertie the fludde of vices to run with maine streame into their courts palaices according to the testimonie of S. Augustine in the citie of god More hurtful was the citie of Carthage to Rome after her destruction then during the whole course season of wars which the Romains had with her For the whylest they had enemies in Affrike they knew not what vices ment in Rome But now eftsoons to the history Dauid being idle in his gallery beheld the beutie of Bethsabe the wife of Vrias being then in the warres applying the absence of her husband to the commoditie of his desire what with his great importunitie and her small constancie hée committed Adulterye and gatte her wyth childe And fearing Detection of the Fact he Wroat spéedelye to Joab his Gennerall in those Warres that at the time of the assault Vrias might be preferred to the perill of his lyfe wherein according to the societie that is in sinne it séemed that from one offence he appealed to an other as from Epicuritie he fel to idlenesse idlenesse bred in him foule desires by desire he was driuen to solicit by soliciting he beguiled her weakenesse and after he had beguiled her he fell to adulterie and from Adulterie to Murder so that the Deuill had neuer deceiued him if himselfe had not pitched the toyles of his proper harmes Yea if Dauid had so serued God as God loued him he had neuer suffered him to fall so farre For with such care doth the Lorde holde vp such as striue to serue him that he neuer suffereth them to fall into great sinnes But if we doe slyde stumble and hurt our selues let vs not be amazed for euen the same infirmities are common to Angels Therefore when we pray to God we ought to demaunde with teares and contrition for that if he then suffer vs to fall he will also geue vs grace
to rise againe So prouident is the Lorde ouer the vertuous sayth the Prophete and so carelesse to the sinner that if the iust man swimme vpon the mayne Sea he will not suffer him to be drowned Where the wicked walking vpon the firme Lande shall fall headlong into wels and déepe pittes which the Scripture doth conster to that foule and huge enormitie of sinnes of the which he hath no power to repent All this I haue written vpon the occasion of the sins wherein King Dauid fell who notwithstanding vsed suche diligence to rise againe and from the time of his restitution so labored to liue in Gods feare that albeit he was brused with his fall yet he was not greatly hurt Immediatly then that the Lorde aduertised Dauid by the Prophet Nathan that he was so much kindled agaynst him both for the Adulterie and Murder that he would sende vppon him punishment according to the greatnesse of his falt The good King lift vp his hart and handes to the Lorde and cried Peccaui and confessing himselfe to be an abhominable sinner he rent the heauens with his sighes and watered the earth with his infinit teares wherin it is not to be doubted but that the exercize of so vnfayned repentaunce and confession of his falt was a great degrée to his forgiunesse He willed not the Prophete to dispute with God and saye on his behalfe that he was frayle or that the Deuil had deceiued him or that it was a sinne humaine But he aspiring to the mercie of God exhibited confession of his fault saying Tibi soli peccaut et malum coram te feci Wherein in not séeking to iustifie his fault he founde forgiuenesse of his trespasse Here may be gathered to the comfort of all good Christians that after Dauid had sinned he went not so soone to searche God as God was readie to receiue him whose prouidence perfection is such ouer his chozen that though they fall in any notorious Crime yet he suffereth them to haue no perseuerance in it according to the experiēce of his heauenly bountie expressed vpon S. Mathew and S. Paule whom Christ searched with the blind man neare the highe way with others of whom the Scripture giues testimonie that Christ searched them Then let all Christians confesse the wonderfull clemencie of God who euen in our negligence goeth out to séeke vs though we praye him not yet he prayeth vs and where we forget to call to him he fayles not to call vpon vs so that if we loase our selues and be the instruments of our owne destruction it is not so much for that we haue sinned as for that after our transgression we will not beléeue Let vs therefore take pleasure to heare when God calles vs Let vs be glad to be founde when the Lord searcheth vs Let vs be readie to folow whē he guides vs Let vs be willing to beléeue when he takes from vs all deceyt And let vs thinke vs happie to serue him when he is disposed to pay vs our hire Yea since he is so liberall and pitifull towardes vs let vs with the councell of S. Paule Go with confidence to the throane of his grace For séeing he went to séeke Dauid who had offended him let vs beléeue that he will be founde and entreated of any that is his true seruant the conditions of the house of God being such that as none are compelled to enter into it so it resistes none that knocke at the Gates Where Dauid stoode not to reason with himselfe that he had Sinned in this or in that we haue to gather by him that the matter of our Saluation consistes not so much in multiplycation of woordes as too correct our liues and encrease dayly in good déedes And truely GOD hath no necessitie of great Cryes to the ende he may heare vs and lesse néede of many reasons too perswade him too vnderstande vs since Dauid vsed no other solicitor for the remouing of Gods wrath then the imploration of a penitent harte Crying Tibi tibi soli peccaui et coram te malum feci Yea though men regarde for the most part the exposition of the Tongue yet wyth GOD the impression of the harte standes alwayes most acceptable as appeared in this conuersion of Dauid who acknowledging simplie that he had sinned without further dispute with God the Lord was neyther scrupulous nor suspicious for that he spake no more but one woorde but had regard to the sinceritie of the harte where with he repented Oh omnipontent Iesus and swéet comfort of our soules grant that with Dauid we may cease to sinne and beginne to amende our lyfe let vs with S. Paule confesse our sinnes with intention to offend no more And where by our proper corruption we ar subiect to dayly transgression without the ayde of thy holy spirit graunt that as thy law is replenished with mercie so with Dauid we may finde remission confessing with him that we haue sinned with intent to offende no more Let vs in the deuotion of Dauid recommende to Gods mercie the faultes and ignorances of our youth for that in that tender age wée know not what wée dyd and were ignorant in that wée ought to doe Wherein where Dauid asked pardon of GOD onely for the transgressions of his youth and not for the Sinnes he committed when he was olde and well experienced in the thinges of the world the faults of which age are not to be called ignorances but malices not simplicities but filthie enormities not light vanities but heauie vices and not faults done for want of knowlege but offences committed wyth well aduized will and resolution We haue reason to thinke that if his olde age had bene also defiled with crimes and sinne he had likewise offered them vp as a sacrifize with the confession of the abuses of his youth By which is wel proued that much doth it import when God pardoneth our sinnes past without sufferance eftsoones to retourne fal into them againe For Dauid had no sooner cryed Peccaui then GOD was readie to aunswere Loe heare J forgeue thee Whereby it is manifest that we are more slow to confesse our offences then God to exhibite his mercie And so for end of this discourse That life and death are in the power of the tongue we sée that as to many it hath bene the occasion of death so to the good king Dauid it was the meane to preserue his lyfe here through grace and in the other world to establishe it in eternall glory to the which the spirite of God bring vs all Amen A Letter to a great learned man aunswering to certeine demaundes THis hath bene alwayes one strange propertie in your frendship that the more I traueled to serue you the more you studied to troble me and that not so much for necessitie of matter as with intētion to exercize proue my skill wherein albeit to your wit is ioyned a naturall redines more
then in many others yet your curiousnes brings with it this suspition that you haue more want of iudgment then lacke of time specially desiring aunswere to those demaundes whose vse ought to be famyliar with all men that beare opinion of knowledge or science And where you Wrote too mée but in sport and for the exercize of your memorie I will not wythstanding aunswere you in good earnest Folowing therein the maner of the Ancient Orators who in causes most base and of least importance expressed a greatest shew of their eloquence Demaundes and Aunswers WHere you aske me how one man may know an other to the ende he may be eyther accepted or eschewed I aunswere that there be foure rules to instruct you First what affaires he takes in hande what works he doth what wordes he speaketh and what companie he foloweth For the man that of nature is proude in his busines negligent in his wordes a lyar and calleth to his companions euill men deserues not to be imbrased and much lesse to be trusted Since in men in whome is layde no grounde of vertue is no expectation of fayth or honestie You aske me which be the thinges that in this lyfe can not be bought for treasure and much lesse any liuing thing can holde value and comparison with them I Aunswer they be these foure The libertie we haue the science we learne the health we enioy and the vertue for the which we deserue prayse For libertie lighteth the hart knowledge enricheth the vnderstanding health preserues our lyfe and vertue is the glory of the soule All which are somuch the more precious by how much they are the true figures fore runners of Gods grace to such as it pleaseth him to estéeme chuse Where you aske me what be the things which soonest deceiue man by whose means he runs with more readinesse into destructiō I say they be these foure A thirst to haue much a desire to know much an experience to liue long an ouerwéening of our owne worthinesse value All which are most daungerous stumbling blockes to make man fall for that too great knowledge endes with folly too much wealth bréeds pryde in liuing long we grow negligent and in presuming of our owne value we fall into forgetfulnesse of our selues So that as euery one of these in perticuler is sufficient to make a man fall so in them all is ful hability to holde him downe that he neuer rise againe To your demaunde what thinges are necessarie to a iudge to the ende he vse truth and equitie and not to be noted of tyranie I aunswere that he ought to heare patiently aunswere wisely iudge iustly and execute mercifully For to that iudge that is impatient in hearing vaine or frayle in his aunswers particuler in iudgementes and cruell in execution can not worthely be ascribed the administration of iustice since the office of a good iudge is to consult with the law with religion with fayth with equitie and with mercie You aske me what be the things that make a man discréete in his be hauiour wyse in his wordes whereunto I aunswere to reade much to be priuie to the customes of many countreyes to haue endured many perplexities and managed great affayres For to rayse a man to the true estimation of wisedome is too trauell many countreyes to studie many Lawes and Doctrines to be hable to endure much paines and to haue experience of graue affaires To your demaunde what be the things that a man thinkes he hath when he hath them not I say they are these foure Many frendes great wisedome much knowledge and great power For that there is no man how mightie so euer he be who is not subiect to be vanquished by an other no man so wise in whose doinges is not error no mans knowledge so resolute who is not ignorant in some thinges nor any man so well beloued who hath not some secret enemie So that we haue fewer frendes then we suppose our power lesse then we desire our knowledge not so much as we presume and all our wisedome full of imperfection Touching your demaunde to know what be the thinges wherein a man doth the soonest vndoe himselfe and most slowlie recouer I say they be these foure To be dilatorie in his businesse to forsake the councell of a faythful frende to meddle with thinges that he ought not and to dispende aboue his proportion For the man that is negligent in that he takes in hande forbeareth the aduise of his wise frende ioyneth himselfe to affaires of perill and difficultie and dispendeth aboue the measure of his reuenue such one shall easely fall and finde no helpe to ryse againe You aske me what be the thinges which aboue all other a man would not endure I say they be these foure Pouertie in olde age sicknesse in person infamie after honor and banishement from his naturall countrey For to be sicke in prison too be Poore and Olde to be detected after wée haue borne Honor and to bée Exiled wythout hope eftsoones to recouer the solace of our countrey be passions so intollerable that to the valiant mind an honest death were more plausible then to languish lyke a martir in such a miserable life And wher you aske me what be the thinges which God abhorreth and are abhominable to men I aunswere they are comprehended in these four A poore man to be proude a rich man to be couetous an olde man to be lecherous and a young man shamelesse For where young men are impudent olde men without modestie pore men voyde of humilitie and the rich sort deuided from charitie there can be no vertue cherished nor good example ministred you aske me what ought to be the qualities of such as men chuse to their frende and in whom they may repose and take recreation to such frendes belong these foure conditions To be eloquent to be liberall to be tractable and to be trustie For where is a swéete affabilitie of spéeche a franke liberalitie of that they haue a nature easie to be induced and a minde that brooks no corruption there is no doubt of honestie and lesse suspition of treason To your demaunde to know in what thinges a man receiueth most sorrow and his minde most troubled I aunswere that it is in these foure To sée the death of his Children to heare of the losse of his goodes to behold the prosperitie of his enemies and cannot reforme the vanities of his frends Nature sure cannot minister a more torment to the harte of a man then to burie his children he hath nourished too loase the goodes he hath got together to be subiect to his enemie sée his frende continue in abuse and follie You aske me what be the things for the which a man doth most murmure and discloseth soonest his impacience They be these foure To serue without recompence to aske and be denied to
thinking from one day to another to giue reformation to our life so let vs be warned that the winges of old age being plumed with the fethers of death we shall find it too late to learne to liue when we are at poynt to die And therefore all men ought to examine in themselues how many deare seasons they haue past what perils they haue escaped how many friends they haue lost frō what perplexities they haue ben deliuered accōpting it not to their own merit that god hath taken thē out of so many daūgers but to the end they shuld haue further time to amend their life A man to liue soūd without diseases the regimēt of phisicke with our owne good gouernment are much helping but the stroke of death whether it come earely or late that depends more on the power and hand of God then on the will or disposition of men Therfore let all men be moderate in their exercise and vse temperance in their vniuersall actions making more estimation of their wisedome then of their olde age since otherwayes if they forget not to recken their yeres others will not forbeare to kéepe accompt of their vices Many learned men haue proued by many reasons that olde age is profitable and that the life of auncient men is good But God giue them better quiet and tranquilitie then that their opinions haue any societie with either experience or reason For now a dayes where is the retraite of infirmities but in an aged body or in what cōsistes the miserie of mans life but in the passions of age wherunto is appoynted no other cure but sufferance in paine and griefe without hope old age being none other thing then a disease without remedie and a sicknesse incurable But comming now to exhibit some priuileges and liberties which old men enioy I meane not to medle with the complexions and qualities of those whose wisedome agreeth with their age and their yeres conformable to their graue discretion and much lesse to giue libertie to my pen to contest against any of those graue honorable and vertuous auncients by whose direction common weales haue bene gouerned and in their wisedome young men haue found suretie of counsell But to set downe some customes of old men that be wanderers waspish bablers scoffers players dissemblers and such as are lead by amarous humors together with what familiar manners their sorowfull old age is accompanied I hold it neither against reason nor honestie It is a custome to old men to haue a short sight their eyes yéelding double iudgement comprehending two thinges for one and oftentimes to haue cloudes in their eyes when there is none in the skie by meanes whereof for the most part they misknow their friend and take him for an other It is a custome to old men to be thick of hearing by meanes whereof such thinges as they heare and do not well vnderstand they thinke is either spoken to the preiudice of their honour or detriment of their goods It is familiar with old men to haue their haires fall without combing wrinckles growing and no séede sowen and their head fuming without any fire made for remedie whereof when they would take the bathe it is forbidden them by reason of their weaknes Old men haue this priuilege to eat bread without crust for the ease of their téeth to haue their meat minsed for the helpe of disgestion to haue their drinke warmed for the cōfort of their stomacke and in case of infirmities in their legges they haue their oyles to supple them their rollers to wrap them their hoaze at libertie their buskins buckled and if any grudge at this brauerie they haue to aunswere that it is done more for the ease of the disease that troubleth them then for any glory they reappose in such attire It is a custome with old men to enquire after the disposition of the wether wherein they haue great sence and iudgement by the motion of their infirmities whose humors following the reuolution of the Moone and change distemper of the ayre bring the poore old man to be halfe a phisition and to haue a painefull science in Astronomie It is a custome with old men to cōplaine much of the trauels of the day and to kéepe reckoning of the houres of the night that their dinner is not resolued into disgestion and their supper would not suffer them to sléepe and yet it is no sooner day then they begin to murmure that their breakfast is not readie It is a priuilege to old men to search companie and either in temple tauerne or shoppes they enterteyne al that come enquiring of the newes of the world and whatsoeuer they heare be it true or false they will not onely beleue it for true but ad to it somewhat of their owne it is familiar to old men to be suspicious distrustfull obstinate intractable and subiect to selfe opinion by meanes wherof they lacke reason and liue in error and though they are not abused yet they wil be ielouse of their owne shadowe yea such men haue rather want of any other thing then of suspicion It is a custome with old men once a moneth to be lockt vp in their closet and compt their treasure deuiding their coynes and searching the lockes of their chestes such men will not deminish one denir of that that is heaped vp but loue to liue poorely to the end they may die rich To some old men it is a custome to haue familiaritie with phisitions and friendship with Potticaries but some delite more to haunt tauernes where is vent of good wine then in the conference of learned men by whom is ministred whole some regiments of health it belongs much to olde men to be fickle in all things but specially to be inconstant against the time commending much the ages past and complayning more of the season present which for the most part they do more of custome then by any reason and rather by authoritie then for necessitie It is due to old men to wrap and cherish themselues to haue their chamber hanged their fire ordinarie their bed warmed and yet for the most part they spend the nights in coughing and the dayes in complaints making their bed a place to debate the actiōs of their youth past and to féele the infirmities and weaknes of their present age the memorie of which thinges makes them oftentimes so ill contented that they are carelesse to prouide for death which they sée euen afore their eyes And it is one common propertie with old men to be angrie with such as enquire of their age and most familiar with those that will tell of the pleasures they haue past So that they would be honored by reason of their age and yet they are grieued when they heare a reckoning of their yeres and so old men delite in authorttie yet wish their age might be cōcealed To a noble personage touching the difference betwene the friendship
to haue him steale from her to enriche his frende to communicate wyth his minion and be a straunger to his Wife and to minister to the wantes of his Concubine and be wythout pitie to his proper Children In the Lawe of Christianitie the same fayth the woman is bounde to kepe to her Husband he is al so bounde to obserue to her But if Wyues had the lyke authoritie to chastise as Husbandes take libertie to accuse sure they would neyther take to such sorrow the disorders of their Husbandes nor in them would be founde such facilitie to offende Besides from the season that Man and Woman be vnited by the holy promise and couenaunt of mariage they haue so small iurisdiction in perticuler ouer themselues that it is a kinde of theft if eyther the one or the other alien or deuide their bodies Consider therefore Sir the great occasions you giue to your Wyfe who hauing youth riches and beutie and courted with no simple importunities If she were otherwayes then she is she would perhaps bestow her hart vpon some one of those many that bestow vpon her their eyes occasion may doe much and there is no worse thing to tempt a Woman then the ill example of her husband For your parte if you thinke your Wyfe not worthie to receiue recompence of affection at least haue consideration of her merit and let not her loyaltie discouer your penurie nor her constancie complaine of your want of honor If you will not obserue to her the Law of a husband for the respectes of your soule your honor your goodes and your health at least remember that what pleasures or felicyties you finde in the companie of your Concubine are nothing in regarde of the disquiets you shall finde when you come home For how wise how secret how temperate or how holy so euer a Wyfe be yet she had rather die then not to giue reuenge to the iniuries of her Husbande or not to make him féele her Ielousie And therefore to men that are drowned in fancie wyth forreyne Women it is in vayne to repose in the Baude who will be corrupted or in the Concubine whose indifferencie makes her a blab Séeing in cases of Ielousie Wyues are so suttle and wyth all so liberall that the better to espie and trace out the Confederacies of their Husbandes they will not sticke to corrupt hte Quicke by money and Coniure the deade by Charmes And so God graunt you that you want and defende you from that you deserue A Treatise of the Resurrection of IESVS CHRIST ▪ together wyth an Exposition of the Fifth Article of the Créede that he discended into Hell and roase againe the thirde day ACcording to your request I haue sent you herewith the declaration of the fifth Article of the Créede in substance as I published it but not in sort as I pronounced it For that it is impossible that in the Penne should be represented the facilitie grace and edifying vertue of the Tongue according to the opinions of the best Philosophers and Orators both Gréeke and Latine wyth whom the Penne was accompted insufficient to satisfie or compare wyth the honor which they had gotten wyth the Tongue and specially to recorde or write Sermons wherein they helde that the matter should loase his Grace and the auther his reputation Notwithstanding according to your power to commaunde me you shall finde no want of desire to doe you seruice albeit vnder this condition that if you be not satisfyed the fault is more in your importunitie then in my charitie and so to the matter The fifth article of our faith expressing that Christ discended into hell roase eftsones the third day contayneth two partes whereof the first comprehendes our confession that he went into hell and in the second is contayned his resurrection Some deuines deuide it into two articles but wée draw it into one contayning notwithstanding two partes tending to one end We confesse that our redéemer being buried his holy bodie remayned in the graue thrée dayes being in déede dead during that season But his soule in the meane while was not ydle for that it discended into hell to do there a wonderfull action which he accomplished And so we confesse that on the third day his soule was reioyned to his bodie to geue it reall and essentiall life So that there can be no dout that he roase not againe hauing obteyned the victorie against death Wherein if we consider thinges in iudgement and equitie we shall find great matter in the humilitie of the sonne of God and in whom may be séene the singuler mercie of the father not sparing his sonne and his readie obedience to accomplish the eternall will of his father all inuiting vs to beare no small loue and thankfulnes to him In this article and in the former are declared the degrées by the which the sonne of God discended and embased himself euen to thinges incredible for a personage of that dignitie The first degrée was to make him man and to vouchsafe to be borne at a time certaine he which was borne eternally The second was that he yet humbled himself more to suffer sentence and publike condemnation as a malefactor In the third he tooke vppon him the torments of the crosse a death most cruell and more infamous then any other sort of passion By the fourth he was content to suffer death not as God albeit being God but as man in such sort as the very person of God suffred death In the fifth he suffred himselfe to be buried as others that were dead making himselfe like them in all thinges as if he had bene comprehended vnder the curse of Adam to retorne into dust whereof he was formed yea he that was frée from sinne and the curse And by the last steppe or degrée he discended into hel whether were discended such as stood destitute of their proper iustice to the end to open to them the gate of the kingdome of heauen By these degrées if we consider spiritually the discending of Iesus Christ we shall find it as long as is the distance of heauen from whence he came vntill the Center of the earth whether he discended And as there restes no other place any further to embase the sonne of God so would he not bée committed to more humilitie only there remayned one degrée which proceded of sinne and the fellowship of Sathan ▪ out of the which the person of Christ was exempted hée which came to redéeme sinners and iustifie men and vanquish the deuill All that he could suffer to be made a sacrifice for our sinnes the sonne of God was enclined embased vnto it sinne only except whereunto he could not be subiect for that there is too great enimitie betwene the iustice of the sauiour the malignity of sinne The greatest part of the degrees aboue mencioned concerning the discending and humilitie of the sonne of God are declared by the Apostle who speaking by
dignitie of his person to declare him such one as he is By which he hath shewed that he came to vanquishe and surmount sinne and death and to pronounce that as who so euer would followe him should liue eternally so to such was reserued euerlastinge death as would not obey his woorde and doctrine For in him saith he is conteined resurrection and lyfe yea and the Saluation of those that beléeue in him To that to proue those thinges and to assure consolation to all such as should giue faith to his woordes it was requisite that he should not only manifest himselfe the author of lyfe in raising others but that also he should expresse it in his proper person giuing this testimony of himselfe that albeit he was dead yet he had more power then death for that he was able to returne to lyfe By this it appeares that the resurrection of Christe is a trew proofe of his greatnesse and a declaration that he is the Sonne of GOD hath surmounted all trauels and perplexities hath domination ouer death and ouercome hell sinne and the deuill séeinge hée hath disfurnished them of their principall weapons wherewith they did tirrannise ouer the Linage of man which is death that followeisd It also a proofe that as wée honour serue and beléeue in a man dead and crucified so also we must obey followe and serue in faith a man that hathe foretolde his Resurrection and which is risen againe from the dead séeing that one of the reasons why he dyed was the more to declare his power and manifest further his force and excellencie of life together with his power against the kingdome of sathan In the Seconde consideration is inclosed a wonderfull secret greatly auailing the estate of mankinde it is deuyded into two partes according to the testimony of the Scripture whereof the one consistes in his death and the other in his resurrection Touching his death wee haue alreadie debated that in it was comprehended the death of our trauelles the death of our death the mortification of our olde Adam and the spoile of the forces of the wicked roote of sinne which raigned ouer vs And in his resurrection we say now is comprehended the reestablishment of our lyfe the newnes of our iustice the vertue and spirituall generation of the new Adam in vs the woorkes of this newe lyfe the hope that this newe people of GOD hath to returne to Heauen and finally the thoughtes and operations agreable to the maiestie of god Christe was not sacrificed only for himselfe but for vs he is not risen againe onely to declare what hee was but wyth all to make himselfe suche a one to vs as his Father mighte receiue vs He is dead for our sinnes risen againe for our iustificaiton His death made to dye all wicked thinges but in his resurrection were reuiued al good thinges In effect we haue to consider touching the vertue of the misterie of the resurrection that he is also so risen againe in vs Spirituallie that if it be not long of our obstinacie and Rebellion we shall féele the force of his Resurrection in vs that is he will engender in vs a power and will to doe the workes worthie of a newe lyfe and will make vs to rise agayne to a newnesse of lyfe by the which we shal be founde agréeable before the face of God And béeing risen wyth him we shall vanquishe death and sinne and be made frée from the seruitude of Sathan being affected to the commaundementes of God louers of his iustice and zealous of his glory to perticipate in the ende wyth the heauenly lyfe by the communion which we haue wyth the lyfe of Iesus Christ in thoughts and workes So that let all Christians vnderstande that if in humilitie they search a remedie for their sinnes opening wyth all the gate of their harte they shall finde wyth in Iesus Christ raysed agayne And that being in the companie of so great a Lorde liuing who hath vanquished death they can not haue in them any deade thing For they shall also rise againe spiritually wyth the Lorde into that newnes of lyfe whereof we haue spoken Let vs therefore take héede to refuse the mortification of our wicked workes of our disordered appetites and our wicked affections For if we bowe or bende our selues we shall wythout doubt apperteyne to the other parte of this misterie and rise againe wyth Iesus Christ In this sort is to be vnderstanded the saying of the Apostle That we are buried wyth Christ by Baptisme and dead to our sinnes and to our olde Adam For that as Iesus Christ is risen agayne from the deade for the glory of the Father So we must enter into a newnes of lyfe béeing assured to keepe him companie in the Resurrection if we accompanie him in his death he dyed to make dye our sinnes and liued agaiâ—e to giue life to our iustice and therefore if behooues vs to dye as touching our sinnes and to be diligent to do good workes whervnto let euerye good Christian referre all his care and study and raise al his thoughts demaunding al those things in his prayers and searching them neither more nor lesse then he would do a precious treasure wherin lyeth hidde al his felicitie The victory is already gained and the faithfull are assured of their forces for that the sonne of God soliciteth for them and holdes al these benefites in his disposing In him we may be bolde to repose our sewertye séeing he hath so much suffred for vs and to make vs communicate with these graces his mercy will neuer faile vs séeing he hath not denied it vs to get them Sure in respect they haue cost him so deare and that the paiment is already made it will not be hard to giue them vnto vs. In the third consideratcon of this article the good christian hath to vnderstand that in the resurrection of the lord we get not only spiritual resurrection as hath ben saied but also we haue assurance of the resurrection of our bodies So that considering that Iesus Christ is risen from the dead for our welth and profit we may be assured that he is risen both in body and soul that our resurrection is no lesse certain then his rising againe being the assurance and gage of our resurrection and he being in all things our first borne captain he marched before vs and we must follow him All the wretchednes that the deuill had caused were repaired by the son of God for as the deuill threw spirituall death vppon mankind so in the vertue of our sauiour that death is destroyed vanquished and a life spiritual giuen vnto men The deuil procured corporal death to mans race for death was brought into the world by sinne but the sonne of God hath ioyned to vs a corporall resurection For as death was introduced by a man so by a man came restitution resurrection we were all dead in Adam euen so
succéedes an honest and iust renoume So to haue that beléeued which is spoken it imports much that he haue credite that speaketh it since in that tale is small suretie of truth in whose reporter is no testimonie of credit In cases of partialitie and faction if there bée an hundred infamous men against one man of honour his vertue onely will carie him to more authoritie in a common weale then all the strength or subteltie of the others without credite The whole countrey of Egypt had perished during the seuen yeares of famine had it not bene for the credite and opinion which Ioseph had with Pharao Destruction had falne vppon the Citie of Ierusalem by the warres of the Machabes with their neighboures had not the reputation of Mathias the sacrificator ministred succour and sauetie to the whole common weale If Helie the Prophet had not ben well thought of with the people of Jsrael they had al become idolators their inclination drawing them vniuersally thereunto And in the great captiuitie of Babylon had it not bene for the estimation credit holines of life of Daniel Ezechiel and the good old Tobyas many Hebrewes had become Gentiles where by the vertue of those men many Gentiles were conuerted to the Hebrewes So that in the texts of Iesus Christ and the wiseman is great congruencie of reason séeing that all these vertuous personages brought stay comfort to their commonweales not by their wealth or huge treasures but by their renoume credit of honor ▪ Spectaculū facti sumus Deo mundo hominibus the other Apostles I saith S. Paul are set as spectacles from whence euery one draws his impression as whites whereat al men do shoote and as guides after whom euery one ought to go By whom let the Magistrates gouernors of the earth learne to know what life they shuld lead what vertue they should vse and what credit they ought to haue For there is no man how simple so euer he be who is not moued more with the good example he séeth then with al the swéete words that can be spoken to him since amongst men more doth prouoke to well doing the action then the word And therfore whether he be King that commaūds or Prelat that administreth or Magistrate that gouerneth or Preacher that instructeth let him first labour to winne opinion to the end his doctrine may bring forth good fruit For other wayes for one that prayseth that he saith there wil be many hundred to blame that he doth since the affections of men are more led by example then by perswasion or conference Cepit Iesus facere docere the redéemer of the world saith S. Luke was so auised in his doings and so wonderfull in that he spake that he remained thirtie yeres in recouering good name afore he published to the world his Doctrine Who liues vertuously although he speake neuer a word yet he preacheth enough with the example of his life where the euill liuer how good so euer he be in tongue and spéech defaceth his vertues with the infamies of his life Yea his preaching is but hipocresie his doctrine but error since such as speake goodly things do them not are like to a Harpe which giues a sound to others and vnderstandeth nothing it selfe The Turkes the Jewes the Indians and Chaldies although they differ from vs in sectes and languages yet there is no difference in the desire of honour good renowme as being inuerted in the nature of man to desire to be frée and labour to be honoured For that of all voluble things there is nothing more deare and precious then credite and renoume And how holy and perfect so euer a man be yet may he be subiect to contemne or reiect the reuerence that men beare him and the presents that are giuen him but touching the credite of his person and reputation of his good renoume and doctrine there are none that take pleasure to leaue them and much lesse will suffer them to decline or diminish For otherwayes there would not be many followers of their life fewer to imitate their doctrine Since good examples only drawes to perfection and spéech language be but helpers to the same Yea if in one man were met the forces of Sampson the wisedome of Salomon the courage of Caesar the riches of Cressus the science of Plato and the constancie of Cato If with all these his person stoode not in good renoume and his life cōmended for good example he were no other thing then a paynted fire that gaue no heate or as a fayre visor that couered a foule deformed face Men of honour and vertuous reputation haue many great priuileges for good men desire to serue them and ill men are made better by their example Old men are assured by them and the younger sort draw counsell from them Yea on them are fixed the eyes thoughts and actions of all sortes of people in whom their vertues haue wonne such affection that if they be detected of any crime yet it is accompted more to misaduenture then to sinne and being accused of fault the malice of their aduersary is cifted and they cleared by the testimonie of their proper innocencie For this is holden a rule amongst the multitude that men of vertue and such as haue feare to erre beare more respect to honour then eyther to life or goods For that either earely or late the life dissolueth and riches must be left but in true honour good renoume are layd vp our monuments of perpetuitie and fame so long as we liue and after our death they lift vs to immortalitie Hector of Troy Achilles of Greece Hercules of Thebes and Caesar of Rome had their seasons and meanes to determine their life but to touch or take away their renoumes there was no power to time or death For that euery one of them buried with him his strength his riches and his life but their renoumes remayne subiect to no prescription but as doctrines of perpetuitie are closed vp and reserued to serue the ages and posterities to come Tell vnto my father all my glory saith the Patriarch Joseph to his bretherne the first time he sawe them in Egipt as if hée had sayd go vp my Bretherne into the countrey of Chanan and reioyce my Father telling vnto him the great fauour that Pharao beares mée together with the glory honour and renoume I haue gotten through out the land of Egipt He did not recommend vnto his Bretherne to tell his Father that hée was on liue that he was maried or that hée had children but only that hée was fauoured and much honoured estéeming more for our example a little good ronoume then his wife his children his goods or his proper life For that in the first being of vertue is perpetuall stabilitie where the others béeing transitory suffer reuersement and dissolution When God called Abraham out of his countrey to
and mind The writers describe her to be of goodly personage her eyes blacke and of quicke motion her forhead large of good aspect her mouth little and lippes red her téeth white more by nature then by Art her face of complexion perfect white and red her stomacke raysed and her witte most ready and excellent wherein shée was holpen by a déepe knowledge in the Greeke Latine Yea in her personage she bare such estate maiestie and in her countenance such affabilitie swéetenes that if she were feared by meane of her seueritie shée was eftsons loued by reason of her beauty In al this pomp of beautie bountie authoritie riches power she was neuer suspected to be dissolute nor foūd affected to vanities esteming it to belong to the dignitie of her place vertue to shew no lesse integritie in example then to be void of lightnes in life Oftentimes her husbād Odenatus hath ben heard confesse that after she was once conceiued she wold neuer suffer his actuall company for that it brought staine to her chastitie holding it to belong to women to marrie more for the respect of procreation and children then to accomplish their pleasures Shée did eate but once a daye and spake little which made her body disposed her minde liuely She could drinke no wyne but was so curious to séeke for pleasant waters that for the price she might haue prouided the most precious wynes Assone as the kinges of Egipt and other Princes conspiring vnderstood of the death of her husband they dispatched Embassadors not so much to visite and comfort her as to offer league and confederacie with her so redouted was she by reason of her rare vertue Aurelius at that time being chosen Emperour of Rome made great prouision to passe into Asia to make warre vppon Quéene Zenobia being an enterprise not of the least importance to the Romaines Wherein he found such smarting effect of her vertue and inuincible valiancie of her souldiers that he saw great difficultie to conquere her by Armes And therefore assayed the remedie of swéete wordes and promises in this short letter following Aurelius Emperour of Rome and Lord of all Asia to the honorable Quéene Zenobia ALbeit to women standing in disobediēce as thou doest it can not but be vnworthy to minister requestes yet considering clemencie is a vertue nothing inferior to iustice I thought good to offer to thée the choyse assuring thée that if thou wilt take the benefit of my mercie I will giue honour to thy person and pardon to thy people The gold the siluer thy other treasure remayning in thy pallace shall not be diminished nor thy selfe deuided from thy kingdome of Palmerine which I giue thée during thy life and after to be disposed at thy pleasure vnder this condicion that thou resigne thy other kingdomes and Prouinces in Asia and acknowledge supremacie in the Empire of Rome and of thy people of Palmerina I demaund no other obedience then as confederates and friends So that if vnder these condicions thou wilt dissolue thy Camp thou shalt receiue reconcilement to the obedience of Rome and retaine certaine men of warre sufficient for the suretie of thy person and seruice of thy Realme Of thy two sonnes left by Odenatus thy husband thou shalt keep 〈◊〉 with thée him whom thou louest best send the other to me not that I will leade him prisoner but kéepe him as a pawne of thy behauiour And for the prisoners retained on both sides they shal be redeliuered in enterchange without raunsome And so I acknowledge thée happie more by fortune then by vertue This Letter bringing no amaze to the mind of Zenobia she gaue present aunswere as followeth Zenobia Queene of the Palmerines and Lady of whole Asia and the kingdomes thereof to Aurelius Emperour of Rome gréeting c. THat thou giue to thy selfe the title of Emperour of the Romaines I holde it both iust and conuenient But to make thée Lord ouer the realmes of the East I say there is neither reason nor right Since thou art not ignorant that those kingdomes are due to me only the one part discending by right of progenie the other I haue wonne by my prowes and vertue Thou sayest that if I yéeld obedience to thée thou wilt giue me recompence of great honour and ioyne forgiuenes to the faultes of my people to the one I say there is no necessitie of remission where hath bene no fault committed nor in thée is any power to forgiue against whom could be no possibilitie of offence And for the other it could not be either honest or iust that being as I am absolute to commaund ouer Asia I should as priuate be brought to the seruice of Rome Thou offrest to leaue me possest of the golde the siluer and my other treasure within my pallace wherein I can not but wonder with what grace thou canst aspire to dispose the goods of an other as thine owne thinges which thine eyes shal not sée nor thy hands touch for that I hope that afore thou come to be the executor of my goods in Asia I shall make liberalitie of all thy riches in Rome Touching the warre thou hast areared against me it is iniust afore the immortall Gods and most vnreasonable in the reason of men séeing thou fightest not to resist an iniurie but to inuade an innocent And I take armes to repulse a wrong and defend my right So that thy comming into Asia is but to rauish the goods of an other where my sword is drawn to kéepe innocents from oppression Think not that the name of the Romanes is terrible to me nor that the face of thy huge hoste can amaze me for if it be in thy hand to giue the battell in the Goddes is the authoritie to dispose the victorie and the successe of warres for the most part followeth not the nomber and courage of the souldiers but hath regard to the iustice innocencie of the quarrell That I attend thée in the field is no small glory to me where thou inuading a wydow reapest nothing but shame The cause of Widowes are protected by the Gods to whō it belongs to abate the pride of the rauishor and retayne to themselues the reuenge of desolate persons But if the Goddes suffer thée to be victor and that the furie of thy ambicion take away my life and goods yet in Rome it shal be published as it is in Asia knowne that Zenobia is made a sacrifice for the defence of her patrimonie and to preserue the honour of her husband Therefore cease henceforth to threat feare or flatter me since I am resolute to offer vnder one deuocion my life and my kingdome Wherein in doing as much as I am able I do more then I ought esteming it better to leaue a monument of my vertue then to liue with shame And if my fortune giue me vp into thy hands she world shall beare me
to an old man to haue desire to that which the force and strength of nature denie him to execute What reckoning of temperance is there to be made in old men since their stomackes being weake they are the more subiect to surfet their mindes fierie and their bodies drie their substance is nothing but fume their yeres make them credulous suspicious ambicious malicious couetous and forgetfull carying them withall into euery passion of nature and that more by the furie of their age being a burden intollerable then that they waigh things according to iustice order and reason Men in many respects and at many times more light in sence and iudgement then setled in grauetie and counsell borowing credit by their yeres and wanting that experience which many young men haue of lesse continuance It is an ordinary speach with many of these old men that if they were to begin againe and that in their youth they had known that which the successe of yeres hath brought to them they would liue after an other gouernement and do otherwayes then they haue done So that for one young man that hath not done that which hee ought there be many old men that would do more if they could to whom it is proper to shew a will aboue the power and possibilitie of their bodies euen like to a Drayne Bée whose sting being shot yet he flies vp and downe homming as though he were hable to do more harme Cicero in vaine prayseth old age for his nearenesse to the other perpetuall and happie life as for the hope they haue to visite the spirites of good men alreadie layed vp in rest Seeing we sée all men eschew that iorney being more naturall to the creatures of nature to prolong life then to bee officers in that fatall visitation Yea Cicero himselfe sought to auoyde it when hée was surprised by his enemies who compelled him to goe that iorney which hee had so much commended and so litle desired It is in vaine to desire longer life when we sée nothing but present certeintie of death and yet the greatest care of olde men is to kéepe them from death and their greatest feare to fall into his handes Yea it is this care that depriues them of the residue of the felicities of this life For that the desires of the flesh are so swéeee and importunate that naturally wée desire to establish a perpetuitie of our béeing here though it bée contrary to the eternall ordinance and impossible to the power of kind and nature For by how much we séeke to make our life long by so much do wée shorten it and by how much wée thinke it encreaseth and aduaunceth by so much doth it decline and abate the lyfe of man béeing none other thing then as a bubble of water which swelling with a vaine wynd vanisheth euen when hée is at his greatest If an olde man will vse the authoritie of his age he is intollerable euery one escheweth him and of the contrary if hée play the young man he is an ill example and euery one mockes him The olde man is to do no seruice for that he hath no power neither is he to be serued for that hée is troublesome and passioned He is no companion for young men for that to his yeares belonges too great ceremonie and euen to old men he is troublesome by the very properties and impediments of his age subiect to hemming spitting coughing and many other loathsome dispositions If they bée poore their parents disdayne them and béeing rich they are thought to liue too long for their heires and successors They spend much and get litle they speake often and do seldome Yea their couetousnes encreaseth wyth their yeres which is the greatest corruption that can happen to man. So that I sée not by what reason Cicero could so much commend olde age béeing the very dregges and consumption of the life of man whom hée makes subiect to all diseases which makes mée of opinion that if there bée any age in man worthy of prayse it is more due to youth then to olde age For that the one is fayre and the other deformed the one is sound and the other diseased the one disposed the other froward the one strong the other weake And youth is apt to all exercises but the delites of age are resolued into plaintes passions and dollors So that the one being necessary the other intollerable the one full of griefe and the other frée from passion I sée no particular dignitie due to olde age other then in reuerence and much lesse how the consolations of Cicero can minister remedies since most olde men do féele their infirmities with more griefe and bitternesse then that wordes onely can giue them remedie One friend writeth to an other of the rage of Enuie and the nature thereof SVch is the infirmitie of the present season that men of vertue rising into fauour find enuie to hinder their merit and malice to minister recompence to their painefull desertes enuie being alwayes such an enemie to vertue that where it can not oppresse it yet will it lie in waite to suppresse the glory therof There is no felicitie so well assured nor estate so modest which is not subiect to the inuasion of enuie For that enuie being none other thing then a branch of iniustice it stirres vp the thoughts to wicked purposes and armes the handes to actions of iniquitie The enuious man hath no respect either to the vertue or fortune of any but to the good thinges that are in them not reioycing so much in the goods that are his owne as in the domage hurt hée doth to others his office stretching chiefely to desire that no good thing happen to an other Yea hée will not sticke to suffer hurt himselfe vppon condicion to make his neighbour féele more harme according to the Poeticall example following Jupiter disposed to suruey the estate of the worlde sent downe for that purpose one of his Aungels disguised in the fourme of a man whom he ordained to fall first into felowship with two men trauailers on the way as it séemed and in that respect not the lesse conuenient for his companie They perfourmed together many dayes iourneys wyth those delites and fortunes which happen to such as wander countreys In the end the Angell hauing drawne from them all those thinges hée required to satisfie his desire disclosed vnto them whose messenger he was and hauing power to dispose of the liberalitie of Jupiter hée sayd that for their good companie hée would giue them present recompence Whereuppon he willed them to aske what they would and who made the first demaund should not onely haue fully all that he required but the other should haue forthwith double as much The one of these two trauaylers was a couetous man and the other an enuious man betwene whom this offer of the Angell bred no small contention For the couetous
some liued longer then others and therefore their ages were not compted in that fourme of yeares that wée recken oures For we take the beginning of our fifth age which is called Vnweldinesse at fiftie yeares Which could not bée in the men of the first times séeing the fifth age presupposeth in vs a debilitie of strength and naturall operations a thing which could not happen to the first men for that if they had begonne to decline at fiftie yeres they could not by any possibilitie haue endured so long séeing there were of them that liued more then fiftie yeres So that wée may establish the fifth age of those people to begin at thrée hundreth yeares or there about aspiring very neare the third part of their life In which respect this fifth age hauing an other beginning in them then in vs I thought it not out of purpose to touch somewhat those ages which had not the same termes whereunto wée are subiect at this present Here must bée considered the accompt that wée applie to the third age and other ages since vntill Dauid in whose time men liued no more then they doe now according to his owne testimonie the dayes of man are threescore yeares and if any liue till fourescore the residue of their life is but griefe and trauell Touching the ages of the men of the first and second worlde wée can not speake resolutely nor of the termes or limittes whereunto they were referred One reason is for that those thinges were not continued vntill these later times where were authors writers to record them And withall for that those thinges which were once past no more in nature the writers had no great care to dispose them to monument To this may bée also added an other reason more peremptorie that notwithstanding the authors had will to describe particularly those thinges as they had done the ages Yet they had no meane therevnto seeing experience sheweth vs the ages which are proper for procreation in what season man forbeares to grow in what time hée is in his flower and when hée begins to decline By which the wisemen tooke meane not only to Baptise and distinguish the ages of man but also to limitte such as were subiect to terme From the first and second age of the worlde wée are assured that the age of men was deuided into sixe as it is nowe For the men of that season felt the same mutations that wée féele and did not engender in all ages and yet in certaine ages they were hable to procreation They grew into stature and strength vntill certaine times and afterwardes their growing ceased In a certain age they were in their flower and in an other they began to wither and decline But wée knowe not in what terme nor in what tyme they suffred these mutations as now experience in our selues makes them easely knowne to vs That was the cause why the wise men of those times could not limit to certaine termes of yeres the ages of men of the first and second world as oures are Moreouer if any will dispute that there is more reason to establish seuen ages in the life of man then sixe for that the Scripture makes mention of senectus and senium that is old age and state decrepit it may be aunswered that the Scripture appoynts no more ages to the life of man then doth Jsidore For these two wordes senectus and senium as the two later ages of man which Jsidore calles by other names naming vnweldinesse that which the Scripture calles olde age and old age that which in the Scripture is called state decrepit There is also an other reason agréeing with the opinion of Isidore that senectus and senium be not taken in the Scripture for two ages but for one that to be the pouder or oust of the life of man Old age saith Isidore which is the sixth age is not limitted for that al that remaines of the life of man after the fiue first ages be past is layd and referred to olde age Touching the state decrepit it is the end of old age called senium as holding vpon the traine of the sixth age This last opinion semes not the least likely and most conformable to the saying of Isidore by whom is not ment that the decrepit state is the vttermost end of old age For so should it be one selfe thing with death and hold no part of life but it is ment that the state decrepit makes one part of the life of man and of the sixt age according to the testimonie of Jsidore So that we may conclude that it is not an age distinct and absolute but part of an age being as it were the dregges and pouder of old age and generally of all the life of man And for death much lesse that it is part of the life of man séeing we hold it a iust meane of priuation of life But if any disposed to cift straitly our opinion will aske this question that séeing the state decrepit is one part of our life why we make not an age of it as we do of the other partes of the life of man It may be aunswered that by so much is the question vaine by how much the matter is impossible For al the other ages are subiect to beginning and end and are determinable to a certain content proportion and nomber of yeres And touching old age albeit his end can not assuredly be determined yet it is knowne in what time he begins which is about threescore and ten yeres But the state decrepit drawes an other course as hauing neither beginning nor end certaine and terminable and therefore can not be called an age distinct and of it selfe The same being easely séene in this that it containes that residue of the life of man wherein the body is made vnweldie with many infirmities the which appeares after a man be entred into olde age and not afore notwithstanding we séeme to féele and suffer vnweldinesse So that that part of the life which is so grieuous hath no certaine beginning séeing those infirmities come sooner to one then to an other and endure either more or lesse according to the complexions of persons and therefore that can not well bée called an age compleate but rather part of an age This estate decrepit hath bene referred with great reason to the yeares of olde age béeing the last and extremest of all the other ages For that there remaynes no other thing to such as are come to it but death And for that such as liue so long are naturally subiect to many grieues and sorowes some men haue called the end of this last age senium An opinion fully conformable with the Scriptures For as it is here alleadged that the state decrepit is the last part of the life of man and followeth olde age So the Scripture accomptes the continuance and proporcion of our life to thréescore and ten yeeres referring the residue but to trauayle
and dollor So that this part of the life so ouerladen with infirmities is that which we call state decrepit and the Latines senium béeing in déede the last age called olde age The best dayes of the life of men saith Virgill are those which passe first after the which succéede infirmities and diseases yea and olde age which leades with him fearefull death Thus doth Virgill cal old age a state troublesome and afflicted with infirmities wherein if he had knowne the state decrepit to be seperate from old age and that he had taken it for an age of it selfe he had geuen it communitie with those ils and infirmities whereof he speaketh and not to old age for that it is in the last and most extreme age that those miseries happen to man Yea he makes no reckoning of any age after old age for that next after it he makes accompt of death The same prouing sufficiently that the state decrepit is not an age seperate and distinct from old age but containes a part of the same which agréeth with the opinion of Isidore and holdeth consent with the scriptures and with the Poets In all which is no difference nor distinction betwene senectus and olde age A continuing of the discourse begon wherein is brought in an other opinion WE haue alreadie shewed two opinions touching the ages of the life of man whereof the one appoints seuen and the other establisheth but sixe But nowe will we adioyne an other which sets down in the life of man but fiue ages that is to say Jnfancie Paerilitie Mans estate Youth and old age Of this opinion is M. Terentius Varro in his Booke of the originall of the Latine tongue is also alledged by Seruius in his comment of Virgill vppon the fifth Booke of Aeneidos This opinion agréeth with the former and foure first ages which foure there is no meane to impugne séeing they haue taken their names of the foure diuerse estates which we féele in our life The first age is when by reason of our very few yeres and indisposition of our body we haue no vse of reason nor full knowledge of thinges this age we call Jnfancie or innocencie as an estate wherein man knoweth not yet what sinne is There is an other age wherein albeit man hath a certayne vse of reason yet by reason of the inhabilitie of his person hée is not yet hable to procreation this age is called Puerilitie or Childhode continuing from eight yeares to fourtene and it is the second age There is an other age which giues to man the vse of reason and power of procreation his body béeing not yet risen to his greatnes and perfect force but groweth still in strength bignesse This third age is called Mans ectate for that in it we take our greatnes and stature although we grow still in force There is an other age wherein man hath his strength accomplished and is apt to all actions possible to bée done in any age whatsoeuer this age is named Youth And for that these foure mutations are so manifest they are all resolued and concluded in these foure ages notwithstanding they haue not said so of the ages following and from thence is deriued the diuersitie of opinions M. Varro reckoneth but old age after these foure ages afore recited taking youth as I thinke for the age wherein man is perfect in his forces in his stature in his vertues naturall referring to olde age all the time of declination or decaying of the naturall forces of man So that according to Varro olde age should begin at fiftie yeares and endure vntil death This opinion diffreth from the former in that the first putteth virilitie amongest the nomber of ages seperating it from youth where this encloseth it vnder the name title of youth according to the iudgmēt of Jsidore And yet this opinion is contrary to the former which makes olde age and state decrepit two ages agréeing with the resolution of Jsidore who accomptes olde age for the last age and takes the state decrepit but for one part of it Notwithstanding Varro diffreth from Isidore who after youth establisheth the age of grauetie or vnweldinesse of the which Varro makes no mention following therin the first opinion which toucheth nothing that graue and heauie age VVhich of these opinions is most worthie ALbeit there is neuer one of these thrée opinions which bringes not with it his meane of defence and iustification as béeing al grounded vppon causes which haue their proper apparance and similitude with reason Yet there is differēce of authoritie betwene them one being more antentike then an other the same being the consideration why I hold the second best approued and most reasonable Touching the first opinion establishing two ages of old age and state decrepit it is contrary to all good authors who haue alwayes taken olde age for the last age of man not meaning that the state decrepit was an age distinct but a part of old age Wherein if it be alledged that the decrepit state is not taken for the last part of the sixth age for that it hath no beginning limitted nor any end determiminable but that it is taken for the last age which is limitted in his beginning notwithstanding it hath no end determinable as beginning at thréescore and ten yeares and lasting vntill death and that this age also is that which some call olde age It may bée aunswered that taking the termes and limittes in that sort thée agrée with the first and second opinion touching the two last ages and that there is no difference but in the names So that wée may conclude that the second opinion is more auayleable then the first for that it consents in names of the ages with the good authours and Poets Wherein truly for thinges that lie in act and haue bene inuented those opinions that holde most conformetie with the iudgements of good authors ought to bée reputed as most true The third opinion aduouched by M. Varo albeit it be in some sort supportable yet Jsidore satisfieth more at full for that he puts vnweldinesse for an age betwéene youth and old age For first in that age men feele a manifest mutation which deserueth well to deare the name of age Seeing that properly olde age may be called that time wherein the iudgement of man beginneth to fayle diminish both by the greatnes of age and indisposition of the body and person Touching youth it is the flower of the age of man since in that age hée is man compleat and perfect in his forces actions and naturall operations but that age being past al thinges that are in man begin to decline Then it is that the force of the body and vertues naturall begin to weare and wax weake Of which decay procéedes also a diminution of iudgement and vnderstanding All which are discerned dayly by ordinarie experience besides the reasons and arguments conducible to
the more Subiect to complaynt by how muche their mindes lyue alwayes trauelled in trouble and Ielousie You aske me how it happeneth that Louers in the presence of their Ladyes lose liberty of speache and doe oftentimes forget that which they had studyed and well considered to speake It may bée that infyrmitie procéedes of the trouble of the minde engendred by a looke or glaunce cast by stealth vppon the thing that they Loue and standing so amazed in minde the tongue hath no facilytie to the action of his dutie séeing the beginning of the speach deriueth of the mind or spyrit to whom the tongue serues as an interpretor to expresse his conceytes This happeneth also to many who called to question in the presence of a Prince or magestrate fall oftentimes into a passion of stutting or meare scilence specially if they bée trauelled either with feare or falshod of conscience To that you aske me why Louers are shamefaste to discouer their affections I say that men haue certaine appetites naturall and necessary as to drinke and eate which of necessity they must satisfy to preserue lyfe and auoyde death so they haue other affections which albeit are natural yet not necessary but superfluous vaine and withall dishonest from those are deryued many disordered appetites as is the rage of loue which is an affection blind engendred of Idlenes and for that it bringes vnto men an estimation of beast lines and dishonesty The most sort séeke as much as they can to hyd their loue vnder figures apparances to liue in expectatiō of that they desire You aske me also how it happeneth that louers discerne not the vices falts of their amorous frends That must néeds be an error deriuing of their proper affection which deuides them from their true iudgment sences For louers as saith Plato are like to such as hunt after estats offices or to those that are giuen to wyne to whom al estats are welcome al wines seeme to giue a pleasing tast besides according to the philosophers al great mocions hinder those that be lesse So that loue hauing occupied the chief most principal mocions of the spirit troubleth for the most part the vertue original of the sences the same being the cause with Plato why louers are made blinde with the sight of their Ladies and according to the same the poets haue fained Cupid without eyes And where you desire me to giue a reasō why men be hoarse of corrupt voyce after they haue slept I thinke that impedimēt comes no otherwaies then by a replexiō of humors caused by a rawnes or indigestiō of meat the same occupying the vpper parts of the body makes the head dull heauie therfore the pipe of the weysand being ful of the said humors they must necessarily be impedimentes to the voyce and make it hoarse and hollow Thus muche touching the Exposition of your Philosophicall demaundes And now where you require me by a speciall and lardge request to Communicate wyth you what I haue harde and read eyther in Phylosophye or Physscke by what apparant signes tokēs may be iudged whether one that is sicke shall dye or lyue for that as you say you haue a daughter in daunger and would gladly know her destiny The resolution of this demaund albeit appertaineth more properly to your doctor of Physicke then vnto me that am a Diuine studying more how to Preache then to iudge of complexions yet séeing you will haue my opinion I pray you let me debate with you as a Christian that as God hath nombered the yeares of our lyfe and set downe a limit which no man can passe so if it bée his good pleasure your Daughter shall yet lyue but if hée thinke it conuenient for her Saluation hée knoweth best when to call her to him For it is not onely hée that géeueth lyfe but hée is euen the selfe lyfe And therefore according to the office of a Diuine more then in the councell of a Phisition I wyshe you to put her in remembraunce of her mortalitye and prepare her to God in whom and none other all good Christians ought to béelieue is power to chaunge our lyfe and translate vs to himselfe Many and many haue I knowne abandoned of the worlde and extreamely past succour and helpe of man haue yet receiued restitution of God and liued many yers and many againe recouered of sicknes past all apparaunce of daunger and yet payd their tribute to nature when was no expectation of death A thing that is not to be construed to the well or ill handling of the Phisition but to be referred to the prouidence of God which hath so ordeyned it The king Ezechias was giuen ouer of the Phisitions and the sonne of the host of Samaria was dead but at the commaundement of God the Chylde reuiued and Ezechias was recouered But leauing those Testimonies of Scripture to a further leasure let vs gather some opinions of the Philosophers who wyth many auncient Phisitions haue set downe in wryting certayne notable Signes to discerne the perill of Death in such as are Sicke Plynie in his seauenth Booke and one fifty Chapter sayth that a man being sicke of any sharp infirmitye as of a Frenzie if hee fall sometimes into a suddayne myrth or burst out into great laughing that Patient expresseth great tokens of present death if any bée sicke of a corruption of humors malencholike and set himselfe to behold or stare much vppon another without sturring his eye of long such one is not farre from death If a man be sicke of a Feuer collerike or sharp and his pulse moue vncertainely sometimes quicke and somtimes slow such one no doubt enclines to death Who is sicke of a burning Feuer and vseth sometimes to draw vp the shéete or double the cloathes of the bed or plucke of the thrumbes of the same in that man is great coniecture of the end of his lyfe One that hath lyen long sicke and beginnes to shut and close his eyes often and set his téeth and mouth carieth great apparance of death He that is striken wyth the plague and being halfe awake and beginneth to raue and murmure to himselfe caryeth manifest coniecture of death If any aboue the age of fourescore yeares fall into a gréedy hungar to eate and drinke wythout measure it is a signe they haue not long to liue A young Chylde being sharppe in wit and ready in aunsweres or that he shew in that tender age a discression accomplished in that childe is no iudgement of long life These be the coniectures of the Philosophers which I haue gathered more to content you then that I assure them to be infallible aduising you for end to recommend your daughter to God who only hath power to dispose all thinges by the same prerogatiue whereby he hath made them of nothing A discourse of the Canonisiing of the Pagan Gods and why
and those that would can not Oh it is time you had some sence of the miseries wée féele seeing that if in reducing them thus to memory my tongue faynteth my eyes growe dimme my hart vanisheth and my flesh trembleth Much more grieuous is it to sée them in my countrey to heare them with mine eares to touch them with my finger and to tast them in my hart yea the iniquitie of your iudges is so great and the iustice of this Senate so partiall that it exceedes the facultie of flesh and bloud to endure the one and is hatefull to all good men to heare of the other And therefore in the accompt of all that I haue sayd I growe to this conclusion that one of these two thinges are to bée done eyther to chastice me if I haue lied or if I haue told truth you to bee depriued of your offices wherein for my part if you thinke my tongue hath taken an vnlawfull libertie to publish the roundnes and simplicitie of my hart I stretch out my selfe afore you in this place and do offer my head to the Axe assuring my selfe of more honour by my death then you can merit fame or renoume by ioyning so many miseries to my wretched life Here the sauage man gaue â— to his Oration leauing the Senate in such remorse for the oppressions of Germany that the next daye they established other Iudges ouer that part vppon Daunby and procéeded to punish the corruption of others for peruerting so noble a common weale Beholde here sir what holinesse flowed out of the mouth of an Ethnike from whom I wishe you wyth other iudges mercenary as you are to fetch your directions to reforme the Prouinces committed to your gouernement and with all to discouer the subtilties corruptions and iniquities of inferior officers subsisting in Cities and common weales For who would set him downe to describe faythfully the deceites the delayes the perplexities and daungerous ends of sutes he should find it a subiect not to be writteÌ„ with inke but with blood séeing if euery suter suffred as much for the holy faith of Christ as he endureth about the trauell of his processe there would be as many martirs in chaunceries and other courtes of iustice and record of Princes as was at Rome in the times of persecution by the old Emperours so that as to begin a processe at this day is no other thing then to prepare sorow to his hart complaintes to his tongue teares to his eyes trauaile to his féete expenses to his purse toyle to his men triall of his friendes and to all the rest of his body nothing but paine and trauell So the effects and condicions of a processe are no other then of a rich man to become poore of a spirite pleasant to settle into malencholly of a frée mind to become bouÌ„de from liberalitie to fall to couetousnes from truth to learne falsehode and shiftes and of a quiet man to become a vexer of others So that I sée no other difference betwene the ten plagues that scourged Egipt and the miseries that afflict suters then that the calamities of the one were inflicted by Gods prouidence and the torments of the other are inuented by the malice of of men who by their proper toyle make themselues very Martirs ⸫ ¶ FINIS Three desires amongest friends The propertie of Gods loue towards vs. That that is coÌ„mon to all ought not to be intollerable to one Death the very effect and stipend of sinne VVhat death is All men subiect to the lawe of nature and fortune Passions of the minde cured with the longnesse of time The remedie of a heart grieued The bonde of a friend Prosperit aduersitie haue societie together by nature Men are the instruments of our owne mishapes Tirantes vse triall by armes but the iust sort referre their causes to the arbitrement of the Lawes For banished men Happie is the punishment by the which we are passed into greater perfection No fortune can resist him to whom nature hath giuen magnanimitie of minde Men not accustomed to aduersitie haue least rule ouer their passions Priueledges of banished men A Lawe to punishe vnthankefulnes by death M. Aurelius to Popilion captaine of the partes God giues victories not to such as fight most but where he loueth best Fortune is most variable in the action of warre Fortune hath a free wil to com and go when she list He bears his miserie best that hydes it most It is better to suffer that wee feare then by feare to be alvvayes in martirdome That is frank gift which is giuen without respect That man is happy that hath good desires True nobilitie depends of vertue and al other things are to of fortune Much is in the Father to make his children refourmed The lavve of Christ giues no libertie to do euill Vertue prepares vs to imortalitie To restraine punishment is a great error in gouernement Punishments for theeues VVhat is required of a iudge in matters of councell A magistrate ought rather to be terrible in threates then in punishment Math. 10. Praise of vvisdome Psal. 118. Ierom. 4. 1. Kings 16. Eccle. 3. ScileÌ„ce is a gift vvithout perill Ezech. 3. Esay 6. Gene. 4 Math. 13. Math. 5 Luke 11 Fiue iniuries don to Christ at his suffering A circumstance of the passion of Christ Malice the mistrese of iniustice Psal. 128. Psal. 12â— Christ vsed most svveete vvordes when he asked pardoÌ„ for his enemies Math. 27. An indiscreet demaunde of the Iewes Genes 3. Genes 7. Genes 19. Exod. 32. Ad huc carnes erant in dentibus eoruÌ„ et ecce furor domini et percussit populum plaga magna Resensui quod fecit Abimelech Jsrael vade ergo et interfice a viro vsque ad muliere bouem â—ouem et Camelum c. 1. King. Psal. 50 A good praier Psal. 108. god hath made all thinges by vveight and measure VVisedome 11. A question not impertinent The solucion of the doubt â–ª God pearceth into the thoughts and intentions of men Faith is the ground of our saluation The mother of Christ Jbi fides non habet meriâ—u vbi humanum ratio habet experimentum God in his election maketh no difference of person age â—tates sex or calling Heare is verified the word of God that when the sinner hath contrition God will kepe no remembrance of his sinnes Math. 26 Actes 5. VVe ought to loue our neighbour for that he loueth God. He that loueth God cannot perish 2. Cor. 13. Charitas est cum diligirous Deum propter se proximuÌ„ propter Deuns The man of God loues not his neighbour for any wordlâ— respect but for God. Psal. 119. By the death of Christ tooke ende the sinagog Christ requires not but the offering of our hart How wickedly the euill theefe spake hanging on the Crosse Neque tu times deum qui in eadem daÌ„natione es non quidem digna factis recipimus hic auteÌ„ quid mals fecit God is
the Prophet was culpable for vsing scilence and Cayn condemned because he spake by which we may gather the great necessitie we haue of wisdome to vse time to speake and time to suffer scilence For as the trée is known by his fruite the vertue of a man discerned by his workes so in his wordes and spéeche are disclosed the qualitie of his wisedome or simplicitie And as Iesus Christ in all his actions was no lesse pacient to heare then moderate in speaking so we finde not in scripture that he euer deliuered worde in vaine nor neuer helde his peace but for feare of slaunder And although it be a miserable compulsion to vse scilēce in things which we haue desire to disclose yet considering scilence bringes sewerty and conteines in it selfe many other goodly thinges let vs stand restrained to the two seasons which Socrates aloweth without reprehension the one is when we speake of that which we manifestly know and the other when we haue in hande thinges necessary In which two times onely as speache is better then Scilence so in all other Seasons experience approueth that we ought to preferre scilence afor speaking To what purpose or intentions tended all the speaches of Iesus Christ THe wordes of our Sauiour tended eyther to the prayse of his Father as when he humbled himselfe in this speach Confiteor tibi pater or to teach men what they ought to do when he sayd Beati mites or else to reprehend wickednesse and sinne when he cried vae vobis legis peritis So that when he was not occupied to giue prayse and glorie to his Father nor to preach doctrine nor to rebuke vices it was then he was setled in a deuout and holy scilence The Hebrewes led him to their consistories a fore thrée iudges that is to say they brought him to the Palaice before Herod to the Bishops house before Annas to the trée of the crosse before his Father at which place only he spake and in the others he vsed scilence and therefore afore the two first tribunals he was accused of crime because he held his peace standing as aduocate afore the thirde he spake And albeit right great infinit were the works which our Redéemer did from the time he was taken till he was crucified yet his wordes were fewe and his spéeches in very small number the better to teach vs that in time of tribulation and aduersitie we ought more to séeke our consolation in a holy and deuout patience then to preferre or expresse great eloquence Christ then being vpon the hill of Caluary not onely condemned to death but very nere the passion of the same hauing his flesh pearced with nayles his hart burning in zeale and loue cryed to his father Pater ignosce illis quia nesciunt quid faciunt as if he had sayd Oh eternall father in recompence that I am come into the worlde and in consideration of the preaching that I haue made of thy name In satisfaction of the paynes and crucifying that I endure and in respect that I haue reconciled the world to thée I require no other reward but that it may be thy good pleasure to pardon these mine enemies who haue sinned to the end I should dye and I suffer death because they may liue Forgeue them since thou knowest and all the world séeth that in my bloud is payde and satisfied their crime with my charitie I haue raysed and put them in my glory so that let my death be sufficient to the end that no other death haue more place in the world Pardon them since thou knowest that the death which triumphed in the crosse and by the which I am nailed to the same is crucified heare in this trée by meanes wherof oh euerlasting Father I beséech thée estéeme more the charity wherein I dye for them then the malice by the which they prosecute my death Forgeue them Oh heauenly Father since if thou considerest these my enemies in the nature and merite of their sinnes there will not be founde in the furies of Hell tormentes worthye enough to punishe them Then better is it Oh gracious Father that thou Pardon them since that as there was neuer the lyke faulte committed so shalt thou neuer haue occasion to vse the like mercie And séeing my death is sufficient to saue all such as are borne or to bée borne those that are absent present deade and on liue It is no reason that these heare should be shutte out from that benefite being a thing of most equitie iustice and right that as my bloud is not spilt but with thy consent so also by thy hands it should be well employd In this we haue to note that Christ sayd not Lorde pardon them but he sayde Father forgeue them as discribing this difference betwéene those two estates that to a Lorde belonges properly to haue Bondemen Subiectes and Vassalls and the name of a Father presupposeth to haue children so that he required his Father not to iudge them as Lorde but besought him to pardon them as a Father Christ also sayde not condicionally Father if it be thy pleasure forgeue them but he prayed absolutely after himselfe had forgeuen them that his Father would Pardon them by which example we are put in remembraunce that the reconcilement which we make with our Enemies ought to be pure absolute and without affection Besides our Redéemer sayd not singulerlie Father Pardon him but he spake plurally by which we may be informed that as he prayed not particularly for any one in priuate but generally for all so his blood dispersed on the crosse was not only sufficiēt to redéem one onely Worlde but to satisfie the Raunsome of a Million of Worldes And out of this misterie may be drawne this construction that our Sauiour praying generally for all expresseth himselfe so liberall to geue and so mercifull to pardon that when he forgeues a sinner any offence he pardoneth with all his other crimes It is not also without misterie that Christ sayd not I forgeue them but besought his Father to Pardon them For that if the Sonne onely had pardoned them after his death the Father might haue demaunded the iniurie because that if the Sonne had forgeuen them he had done it as a man where the execution of the iustice remayned in God but as the deuine worde yea the liuing Lorde hath perfourmed this pardon with so true a hart so hath he not suffered that there remaine in it any scrupule And therefore he besought his Father to pardon them to the end that by the humanitie which he endured and diuinitie which suffered it his enemies might be at the instant absolued and we others haue hope to obteine remission ¶ That when CHRIST our Lord gaue pardon he left nothing to forgeue IN lyke sort we haue to note that Iesus Christ required not his Fathere to pardon them after his death but besought him to forgeue them at the instant
aduising vs by the example that to be good christians and true folowers of our redéemer it behoueth vs afore we passe out of this life to desolue breake all rankor and malice for the froward and sedicious shall haue much to endure in the other world if in this lyfe they were slow to pardon and forgeue But since the spéech which the Lord expressed vpon the crosse was so high and excellent it can not be out of purpose to dispute what good thing the Hebrews did to deserue so famous a pardon for somuch more noble and great is the remission by how much lesse there is occasion geuen to doe it In the death of our Sauiour the Hebrues offered many great and vnnaturall iniuries for the least whereof much lesse that there was merite of pardon where in the act was sufficient desert to haue them all throwne quicke into the depest bottoms of hell In the first they did not onely put him to death by malice being the man most tollerable in their common weale but they set at libertie Barrabas a common murderer of the quicke and crucified Iesus Christ which raysed from death such as suffered death if the execution had ben don in some distant village farre remoued from the Cities and resort of people the iniurie and dishonour had ben more tollerable But to their wicked Conspiracie to put him to death they ioyned a most abhominable meane and manner of execution and applying it proper to their reuenge to bring open shame to his innocencie they crucified him in the great Citie of Ierusalem where Christ stoode in state of good reputation for his sermones and had there his allies and kynred euen men of great honour and honestie In their determination to put him to death although they published the execution in Ierusalem yet if they had eyther taken the nighte or chosen some priuate house the time and place had not so apparantly detected their malice For that is more thē barbarous fiercenes where is no respect to time place nor person obseruations naturally remembred euen amongst tigers and lions in their extreamest passions of rage and furie But of the contrary at the the third hower they led him out of the Citie and the sixth they crucified him and at the ninth houre he yéelded vp the Ghost seasons wherein the day raigneth in his most clearenes and people make their comon assembles In whose sight they ought to haue forborne to haue crucified that innocent Lambe betwéene two théeues he whose race and linage was of Kinges and estéemed to be the soueraigne Prophet But to persecute him as well with ignominie as with paine they gaue him societie with Robbers and théeues to the ende the world might thinke that he was the greatest théefe of all They might lastly haue referred him to a kinde of death lesse slaunderous to heare and not so cruell to suffer but according to their insatiable malice they restrained Pilate to that election choise of death as wherein might be wrought to our Redéemer most apparance of obliquie and shame for malice being the Maystresse of iniustice sturres vp both the thoughtes and handes of men to wicked things Albeit these were the works which they did the merites for the which Iesus Christ should procure them Pardon and mercie yet in recompence of this vnworthie death and so many blasphemous wrongs Christ cryed with a pitifull voyce saying Father forgeue them for they know no what they doe Here may be brought in the saying of the Prophet speaking in the person of Iesus Christ Supra dorsum meum fabricauerunt pecatores prolongauerunt iniquitatem suam as if he had sayd I know not what I haue don against thée oh sinagog and yet thou hast ben against me from mine infancie thou hast persecuted me in my youth and in the fruite and ripenes of mine age thou hast crucified me and yet hast discharged all thy sinnes vpon my shoulders Supra dorsum meum fabricauerunt pecatores Adam was the first that layd vpon my shoulders disobedience his Wyfe Eue slouth and epicuritie Cayn his sonne Murder and slaughter the Patriarke Loth incest King Dauid adulterie Jeroboam his Sonne Idolatry and all the Sinagog so discharged vppon me her malice that where they in their wickednesse committed the crimes I vpon the Crosse payd for them the raunsome of their paines which are not onely for that they layde vppon my backe all their offences but because that assembling and heaping wickednesse vpon wickednesse they haue prolonged their iniquitie and haue not bene sorie for that they haue done but because they were hable to doe no more so that if their ioyes were great to sée my death great also was their displeasure by the meane of my resurrection Thus these miserable Hebrewes haue encreased and prolonged their iniquitie bearing enuie to the Doctrine of Iesus Christ of which enuie they conceiued hatred and of that hatred they conspired together to Crucifye him and being bolde to Crucifye him they tooke impudencie to mocke him and after they had Scorned him they denied his resurrection and so resolued into obstinacie that Iesus Christ sayde not of them without cause Expugnauerunt me a Iuuentute mea Continuinge to Persecute me euen vnto my Graue But hauing thus deduced the smale reasons of the Hebrues to put Christ to death together also with the slender occasions they gaue him to obteine there Pardon Let vs withal speake of the great bountie wherewith he recompensed their crueltie and of the vnuersall pardon which he obteyned of his Father for them wherein the circumstances deserue almost as much to be noted as the pardon it selfe Iesus Christ then well expressed his inestimable bountie in the prayer which he commended to his Father at the instant of his death requiring pardon for his enemies A thing so much the more vehemently desired of him by how much he knew it was most necessarie to them for whom he prayed Christ also felt bitterly the teares and sorrowes of his mother but that was a passion according to the nature condition of a sonne But the distruction of the Hebrues touched him in the zeale and compassion of a creator The dollors of his Mother could not stay him from dying for his enemies for that he knew that she had brought him forth in great ioye but he had redéemed the Hebrues with most bitter trauell In this also appeared his wonderfull bountie that in his Prayer he called not on the maiestie of God by the title of Lorde but by the name of Father A name truly wherin is vertue to make easie and tractable the hart of a man being appealed vnto by his Sonne Frons meretricis facta est tibi et noluisti erubescere reuertere ad me et dic Pater meus es 〈◊〉 Sayth God speaking to the Sinagogge of the Jewes by his Prophet Jeremye as if he had sayde Oh Jsraell albeit thou art so obstinate is thy
is an infallible propertie in his iustice to minister rewardes to good men aboue the rate of their merittes and prepare punishment to the wicked vnder their deseruinges And where Christ commaunds not without great misterie that we should hold in our handes our candles lighted and neither vse the seruice of the candlestick nor appoint others to hold them for vs it is to aduertise vs that if God ought to saue vs it ought to be through his great mercy onely and not by any meane of our proper merittes although in our actions we ought alwaies to expresse a holy industrie and diligence In like sort it is not enough in the profession of religion that we be girt that we haue cādles that we hold thē in our hands or that we haue many candles but it belongs to our christianitie to haue thē burning with light not as dead and stinking snuffes wher by we are warned the better were it not to enter into religiō at al if in the same we correct not the abuses of our liues gather profit by the fruit doctrine of the gospel by the example of the great prophet S. Iohn baptist being himself as the scripture saith the candle that burned gaue light are boūd al sincere vertuous religious men to take hede that they want no wax of good life to burne and be lesse replenished with vices to giue impedimēts to their lights so that no other thing is the religious man vndeuoute then a candle dead it can not by any similitude resemble a candle light but rather a snuffe troden out quenched where the man of the church hath no other good thing in him then his habit by the which he ought neuer the more to exalt or glorifie himself since afore the maiesty of God it is no no other thing to be reputed a holy man holding nothing of vertue but his habit then a candle whose light being quenched his qualitie lieth dead The virgins that had not their lamps lighted according to the iudgement of the gospel deserued not to enter with the bridgrome euenso the man by whom is not performed the dutie of a good Christian and muchlesse hath fulfilled the office of a Churchman may stande assured that when de dyeth he shall not be founde amongst those that are inuited but past ouer to the fellowship of such as are deceiued That great is the grace which God sheweth to that man whom he withdrawes from the world and reduceth into holy religion for that there is more suretie to stande and not so much subiection to fall and if he suffer him to stumble he hath appoynted him helpes to hold him vp and many readie meanes to repentance Since that in the Church he hath more oportunitie to serue God and lesse occasion to commit sinne And albeit being compounded vpon humors and complexions of corruption we cannot but erre in thinges corrupt and worldly Yet such is the care and protection of God ouer those that he loueth and hath called and chozen to the seruice office of the Church that if sometimes he suffer them to fall the better to make them know him it is not without the readie assistance of his hand to helpe them essoones to ryse agayne Yea he seldome suffereth them to slyde into such faultes as may geue him occasion to be angrie with them Therefore who vnder the habite of religion riseth into a minde of Pryde Ambition Epicuritie or Malice is amongest the children of God the same that Satan is to all Christians Dathan amongest the Jsraelites Saule amongest the Prophets and Judas amongest the Apostles Wherein let all men be warned that haue will to enter into Religion that afore they séeke it they may know wherefore they follow it since for no other cause ought they to come to the cōmunion of Religion but to amend and reforme their liues For albeit the sinceritie of Religion receiue great sinners yet it is with no tolleration to commit heynous Crimes after they be inuested What other thing is ment by that Discipline of the Scripture wherein the Lande of Promise for traueling in small labors on the Holydayes they were commaunded to be stoaned But that to the man of the Church sinning lightly in Religion was merit of great seueritie punishment for that a small sinne committed in the world beares an estimation of a grieuous crime in the Church Take héede sayth S. Paule that you receiue not the grace of our Lorde in vaine And what other thing doth he then receiue it in vaine who makes no reckoning of his election and cares not to be called to the Church and deuided from the worlde For as by baptisme we are sanctified euenso by the profession of the ministerie we are regenerat Let euerie one then take héede what it is that he takes in hande afore he beginne to manage so holy a function and whether they be professors by will or by necessitie For all religions being of the institutions of holy personages as it can not be tollerable that in their ministers be any imperfections or want of perfect deuotion and vertue So who in the habite of religion will liue prophanely or follow the libertie of the worlde in that man is no apparance of reformation and lesse argument of fayth or vertue And therfore in the church for some perticuler mento be more exempt and priuileadged then others or to aspire aboue the congregation and communitie of the Church in any priuat or familiar prerogatiue although it may be suffered for a time yet religion can not holde it tollerable long For no more then the Sea can beare bodies that be dead no more hath the Church a nature to brooke in her ministers mindes of Ambition and Pryde for which cause it is called order as wherein are conteined all thinges well ordered which without this order cannot but beare to cōfusion Who hath once taken the habite of religion and will still continue entangled with the customes of the worlde and exercise his minde in vanities can not but breake the statutes of Religion and stande in perill of infidelitie since the doctrine of the gospell and the libertie of the world could neuer holde societie or fellowshippe together A discourse in the presence of a great assemblie of Noble Ladyes of the good and euill that the tongue doth Mors et vita in manibus linguae IF to men of the worlde were power of election to demaunde the thinges they desire most afore all other temporall felicities they would require to liue long And if on the other syde they had libertie to contesse what thing in the World they abhorred most who doubtes not but all men loth nothing more then to dye Wherunto there is to be made this readie reason that as liuing they enioye that they haue and dying they leaue to be that they are So with life all things are remedied by death there is nothing which hath not end