the noise of it but still men are to seek what this great thing should be They awake men out of their sleep and make them look and gaze about them but let them see nothing of that which they have to take in hand They bid them indeed Believe but it is very hard to know when they do They have intangled Faith in Disputes when it should have been imployed in good Works They have obscured a plain thing in many laborious definitions of it They have made it so subtill and to consist in so nice a point that it is a difficult thing for any to see it They handle matters of doubt weakly and as before a people that will accept of any thing In the Doctrine of Manners there is little to be had but Generality and Repetition The bread of life they toss up and down but break it not They say in the gross that men must live well but they tell them not how to live They bring not their Doctrines down to Cases of Conscience that a man may be warranted in his perpetual Actions whether they be lawfull or not Nor take they care to teach men their lawful liberty as well as their restraints To keep them from superstitious Observances as well as Prophane transgressions Nay I wish we could not say that it is the least of some mens care to promote a godly life Faith is made a thing that is quite distinct from it Good Works and Faith are commonly opposed in the Justification of a sinner The one is thought to exclude the other And to be justified it is said to be necessary that a man do Nothing for it The most that Christ can get is by way of Gratitude which you know is small or none in bad Natures At the best they will put him off with desires or purposes or an indeavour of a new life though still these things be ineffectual All which is said for no other end but that you may not have mens persons in admiration That you may be at liberty to prove all things and hold fast that which is good That you may not bear a greater reverence to Masters then you do to Truth which is ready to become the portion of those who are more in love with it then with their party And since you seem to me to be one of those I shall spare no pains to bring you and Truth together But if you think it needful I will give you further satisfaction in this which we have contested and make you confess that there is nothing plainer then that which I have said of Faith in Christ You will gratifie me very much replyed the other if you will be at the trouble to teach me this lesson better And I am prepared already by what I have now learnt to consider and weigh not who but what it is that I hear Very good said he again let me Catechise you then a little and be not offended at this common and easie Question Do you not think that Christ came into the World for some end Nay was he not sent of God upon some high design You cannot doubt of it and therefore I will not stay for your answer But tell me what do you think that great end was Wherefore for instance did he dye and shed his blood Was it only that our sins might be pardoned Did he bear the Cross that we might bear none Did he deny his own Will that we might have liberty to do ours Is his Death to excuse us from holy living Hypocrisie indeed thinks so but true Religion teaches us that the intent of his death was by keeping us from dying to make us alive to God By saving us from execution when we were condemned to render us honest men by denying of himself to teach us to take up our Cross and follow him Will you hear what they that knew the mind of Christ have taught us in this argument He that committeth sin saith St. John is of the Devil 2 Joh. 3.8 for the Devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil which is as much as to say that he appeared in the world that men might cease to sin And so St. Paul tells us 2 Cor. 5.15 That he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but to him which dyed for them and rose again i.e. will come to judge them as a little before he had declared This is the end for which he gave himself for his Church That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word Ephes 5.25 26 27. that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Nor is it a slight and superficial Holiness that he intends the clensing only of the outside or the washing away of some pollutions but He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity Titus 2.14 and purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works For he hath reconciled us as it is in another place in the body of his flesh through death Colloss 1.21 22. to present us holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight And to say no more St. Peter also teaches us that He his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1 Pet. 1.24 that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes we are healed I know not what sense Hypocrisie may pick out of these words which hopes the scourges on Christs back will save sinners from the lash and that his death shall preserve them from dying though their sins still live But it is evident to them that are sincere that the Apostles meaning is our Saviour dyed not meerly to save us from dying of our wounds or to take away the anguish and torment of them but that our Natures might be healed and made sound and whole again He is such a Physitian as removes the pain and the smart by curing of the wound that easeth the part affected by making it well that doth not lend his Creeple patient a Crutch to support him but infuses strength into his feet and anckle-bones and spirits into his sinnews that he may walk in the wayes of Gods commandments I wish there was nothing harder then this to understand in the Book of God It is not a truth which men cannot but which they will not understand It is against a corrupt interest or else they would not resist it There is a strong party in their heart against this end of Christs death or else there would be no dispute about it The biass that inclines their will is not on the side of this truth It contradicts their pleasures their unlawful gain or some such thing which they are loath to leave and therefore it
received a Kingdom and Glory from the Father that he hath power to raise up you to sit with him in his Throne that he will infallibly take you up to himself that you may be there where he is and behold the Glory which God hath given him and then tell me if ever you felt any thing touch your heart with such a pleasure as the bare contemplation of those divine enjoyments The very fancy of them is delightful Such a dream if a man was in it he would not lose for all that he sees here He would be troubled to be awaked and shut his eyes again wishing that it may know no end And therefore the assurance of these things to be a certain truth which the Holy Ghost coming down from Jesus hath given to us must needs give us a far greater satisfaction A satisfaction as much beyond that of fancy as a sensible enjoyment is beyond a dream And what the contentment will be if we suffer these truths to go down to our hearts to ravish our wills to breathe into us the Love of Jesus and to bring all those Blessed Vertues into our esteem and affection I have not power enough to express But as you love your soul do not deny it your best endeavour that before this day be at an end you may have a real feeling of it And now it may be fit for your fuller conviction in this particular to bid you turn your eyes to the condition of other men who are ingaged in a quite contrary course and you will soon see that to be a pleasant path wherein I conduct you by the misery and confusion which you will discern in their lives It will not be long before you be satisfied that they are not in a state of Nature They will presently discover to you that they are not as they should be Nay that they would be something else than what they are and that long use and custom hath rendred contradictions familiar to them There is not one of them but he loves that which he hates and pursues that which he flyes and praises that which he cannot but also discommend There are strange seditions and clashings in their desires and they are tossed about with I know not how many contrary winds They all desire to be rich and yet this very desire will not let them be so They fear nothing more than need and yet they are ever in great want and cannot be filled For they alwayes think that which they have to be less than that which they have not and they take that which is present to be so little that it is not worth their notice in compare of what they expect in time to come And is there is any greater consistency in their desires of pleasure Alas they pursue mirth but they ever pull upon their heads a great deal of sorrow They would have nothing at all but sweetness and the more greedy they are of it the greater is their bitterness When they think to heighten their delights they quite destroy them and take them away When they would leave no place empty they are so full that they cannot feel them Do you not see all this verified in drunken fools Where is their pleasure after their Understanding is once blasted with the fumes of Wine A Spunge is as good a Judge as they of pleasures which without any difference sucks in the best and the worst of liquors And as for Death Which of them is there that doth not fear it and yet they take no care at all to live They dread diseases and yet they will not abstain from noxious and unwholesome things When any trouble falls upon them then they wish they were out of the world and bless those that are dead and yet when death comes though they are never so ill they wish it would stay a little longer They hate many times to live and yet they are afraid to dye They think them happy who are in the other world but yet they are loath to come among them They cry out of the evils which they suffer and yet they would fain spin out the most miserable life to the greatest length But there is another thing that is stranger than this For you have often heard them complain I believe of the great scarcity of time and yet which of them is there that is not so prodigal of it as if he had half a Age to spare They say that it runs away very swiftly from us and yet they spur on their hours and would have them flye away faster than they do as if they had too many of them There are but a few seasons they say in time and yet they let those opportunities grow old in their hands and suffer them to be bald before they mind to apprehend them And did you ever mark how they deal one with another Each man suspects his fellow because he deserves to be suspected himself Every one is afraid to be deceived and labours all he can to deceive He hath a great mind to be revenged and yet he would not have Justice it self take any vengeance of him He hates Tyranny and yet he would fain be the Tyrant He would have all men subject to those Laws which he hath no mind to observe He accuses many things as base but will not stick to do them And on the contrary he holds good fortune in great estimation but cares not a rush for vertue which yet he acknowledges deserves only to be fortunate Max. Tyr. dissert 20. Philosophers themselves have been ashamed to see how they all behave themselves in every condition like unconstant fools They abhor War but cannot tell how to live in Peace They are miserably dejected if they be made slaves but are so insolent in liberty that they draw servitude upon them They desire children and when they have them take no care about them They would leave them estates but no vertue to use them well and to preserve them They desire to have their family alway flourish but breed them so as if they meant it should dye with the next Generation Nay God himself is not better used by them For they pray to him as if he was able to do them good and yet they affront him as if it was not in his power to do them hurt At other times they fear him as if he could severely punish and yet forswear themselves as if he had no Being but only when they pleased But that I may not run into infinite particulars let us once for all take a view of those who would attain to great honours and see by what low mean and servile practices they labour to ascend unto them There is nothing which their heart abhors more than subjection to others and yet they are forced to the basest prostrations They stoop to the very feet of those upon whose heads they would tread They kiss those hands which they wish a thousand times were
that he is our Lord and we his Subjects and that after all our search we find our Happiness to lye in him alone and in separation from him the best condition in the world will leave us miserable And he had not long pondered upon these things with much satisfaction before those words of the Psalmist came into his mind He that offereth praise glorifieth me Psal 50.21 and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the Salvation of God Which made him fall into the praises of God and to resolve that he would do so every day and early design all the imployments of it to his service concluding that whilst he held this course and ordered his wayes aright he exalted God in the world by lifting up his Will into a preheminence and command over his own subjecting himself unto it both as most supreme and also wise and good And after a great many thoughts of this nature at last he made a short reflection upon the person who had made him this visit in the night And when he remembred that he fancied it was his Friend who came to his Bed-side he had a new pleasure to think of the benefits of Sleep The praises of which he could not upon this occasion forbear though at certain times he wished his thoughts might never be intermitted by it What an heavenly power said he is this for so I am ready to call it how much am I beholden to it for its silent refreshments That which useth to part the dearest friends hath now brought them together That which separateth those who touch each other hath made those near who are far asunder O Divine Gift O beloved Rest which God bestows upon us How great are these charms which lock our doors to all the World and now have opened them to my friend How much better are these dreams then many of my waking thoughts How much rather had I be in the arms of the brother of death then in the feeble injoyments of many parts of my life I am content just now to be restored to his embraces if my Friend will but meet me there again in this manner At least I hope I may conclude that when we are Dead indeed he will not fail to meet me whose Image finds me out when I am in the Images of death CAP. XXVII How the Pilgrim fell into a great sadness and how strangely it was cured by an unexpected meeting with his Guide Who discourses of the nature of sensible joyes And at last upon his desire contracts a particular Friendship with the Pilgrim IN such thoughts or rather dreams as these he spent a little portion of his time with great delight And now having vanquished so many enemies and impediments in his way of divers sorts he was willing to believe that he should be molested no more but pass in perfect peace to the Vision of Peace A great many dayes he remained in these pleasant expectations and went a good way onwards to his resting place without the least weariness of any part about him He seldome departed from meditation but either with his mind illuminated with new light from heaven or his will inflamed with a new ardor or his whole heart steeped in new sweetness And though sundry new enemies also attempted him yet such a profound peace seemed to have taken possession of his heart that they could not move the least disturbance there The joyes that he felt made him despise all baits of pleasure which lay in his way The Conquests which he had got made him think himself above the scorn and laughter of the World And though he was sometimes bitterly reproached yet he comforted himself with this that they did but prepare him matter for new triumphs But he could never be drawn to any other contests wherein the Generality of men were then very zealously ingaged nor did he affect any Victories among the disputers of the World He lived in love and peaceableness with all his fellow-travellers He thought himself so rich also in these graces that it was no trouble to him to be poor And he had such a sense from whence he received them that they were no temptation neither to be proud But yet for all this it chanced that some exercises of Devotion to which he had bound himself being one day omitted either through indisposition or by reason of some lawful if not necessary occasions which diverted him he was cast into such a pensiveness of mind as proved at last a great affliction to him For he indulged to himself those thoughts because they pleased him at first but by too frequent reflections they grew to a melancholy mood and from thence proceeded to a dull and listless temper of Spirit In this condition you must needs think his joyes were again abated which added very much to the trouble of his mind and indeed they fell in time to so low an ebb that he feared they would never rise again but leave him at last quite dry and without one drop of comfort And so truly in the issue of things it proved for as they forsook him so he was tempted again to forsake his way which was now become but irksome to him without those refreshments The pleasure and rellish that he was wont to feel in holy duties was quite gone In stead of clearness there succeeded darkness dryness of spirit took the place of affection and in the room of joy and gladness he was loaded with nothing but groans and heaviness He often professed that he could feel nothing at all but remained as a man that had lost the use of his soul And therefore though he continued for a while to pray and perform his duty in other things as well as he could yet finding that he was but like a man that drinks very much when the liquor hath no tast and gives him no pleasure in the going down he was tempted to throw it all away and thought he had as good not do those things at all as do them with no delight And accordingly he gave up himself wholly to be tortured by his own thoughts which imployed themselves in nothing else but making sad representations of the misery of this state which you must needs think was so grievous that it is not possible to draw a picture of it For since the soul is of far greater force then the body the pains and anguish which arises in it must needs be far more pungent and afflictive then those which touch the outward man He suffered a kind of Martyrdom every day or rather he was continually crucified and had nothing but Gall and Vinegar given him to drink He thought he had reason when he complained of greater pains then the Martyrs endured For they being inwardly illuminated and touched from heaven found the highest comforts in their torments the greatest liberty in their imprisonments and in the midst of flames the divinest ardors of Love in their hearts
which like a greater fire put the other out But he poor Soul though alwayes denying his own desires breaking of his will in pieces lying upon a rack and fast nailed to the Cross where the body of sin was bleeding to death yet found his Spirit in horrid torments and deprived of those divine delights which cheared the bright souls of the blessed Martyrs and made them shine with a greater luster then did their fires But since I cannot express the soreness of this Agony in which he a long time lay I shall only add that it was so great that one day being quite tired and spent he fell into a kind of trance and remained as immoveable for some space as if he had been dead And a blessed occasion this was though all his acquaintance that were come to comfort him imagined he would then have expired For he thought he saw a man coming to him with a very smiling aspect as though he knew him who bad him get up and go as fast as he could to a certain Oratory that was not far off and in his way where he should meet with some relief When he was come to himself he thought this Vision or what else you please to call it was in stead of an Oracle and had discovered to him one of the greatest causes that he continued so long ill of these grievous distempers And that was That while he afflicted and tormented himself with the remembrance of what was passed he neglected to implore the help of God with such constant prayers as was nieet for the redress of his present evils and prevention of the like in time to come This began to make a vehement commotion in his mind for he saw there was nothing truer then that We are apt to pray least when we have greatest need of it and are wont to spend that time in looking upon our sores which should be imployed in looking up to Heaven for its Balm to drop into them And truly so lively were the colours wherein this was set before his eyes that he was ready to burst into tears and pour out his Soul there before he stir'd from the bed whereon he lay But remembring presently the voyce to which he thought himself so much beholden had bid him make what speed he could to a particular place where he might address his prayers to his Saviour he arose and dressed himself without any further delay And though he knew that our Lord hears the suits of his humble Clients every where yet he would not be disobedient to the directions he had received but made haste to go and see what good might wait for him in that Oratory or Chappel which had been built in the rode by some charitable person for the use of devout passengers to Jerusalem And no sooner had he entred within the doors but he fell upon his knees and there sent out his Soul in such strong and passionate desires as left all words behind which were not able to accompany them If the throng of his thoughts which upon this occasion were assembled had not been so great you might have received a better account of them But truly such was the violence wherewith they pressed forth and so great were their numbers that he found it very difficult either then to range them in any order or afterward to recall them distinctly to his mind Yet some of them carried this sense as I have been certainly informed by him from whom he hides none of the secrets of his Soul O thou Almighty Goodness the Father of the Fatherless the Patron of the Poor the Protector of Strangers cast thy gracious eyes upon a miserable Pilgrim who all torn and ragged implores thy mercy When I look on my self I dare scarce be so bold as to lift up mine eyes unto thee When I think in what condition I am and what I have done it so confounds me that I can hardly think of any thing else It is the greatness of my misery alone that constrains me to this presumption of prostrating my self at thy feet The weight of which oppresses me so much that it hath left me little more power then to expose my self before thee as an object of thy wondrous Charity O what a Wilderness am I faln into where I can find no water What Desarts are these in which all comfort forsakes my Soul Into what strange regions am I wandred where there is nothing but darkness and the vallies of the shaddow of death O the terrors that surround me how dreadful are they O the affliction and torment which I indure what tongue can express it my Soul is parcht and dryed up My spirits are consumed by the heat of thy displeasure May I not now beg one drop of comfort from thee O my God my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and barren land I remember thy loving kindness in former times I call to mind the dayes of old And I cannot but wish at least to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary There is none in Heaven that I desire but thee nor on earth besides thee My Soul followeth hard after thee O when wilt thou come unto me O hide not thy face from thy servant for I am in trouble hear me speedily I am poor and needy make haste unto me O God thou art my helper and deliverer O Lord make no tarrying I am come a great way from all my friends and kindred and there is none to pitty me O my God be not thou far from me draw nigh unto my soul and redeem it I am poor and sorrowful let thy Salvation set me up on high For thou who searchest the hearts knowest that I am travelling nowhither but to thee All the world have I left that I may find my happiness only in thee And at thy heavenly motion it was that I undertook this long journey I am become a Pilgrim meerly in obedience to thy Will Yea thus far I acknowledge thou hast most graciously conducted me Hitherto I have been highly favoured and wonderfully helped by thee And wilt thou now at last abandon me who have ahandon'd all things else for the sake of thee Hast thou called me from mine own Country and Fathers house that I may perish by famine here and only for want of thee O my Lord give me leave to plead for a Soul which once I thought was dear unto thee Pitty O pitty an Heart which thou hast made too great for all the World and cannot be satisfied with less than thee Canst thou see it dye for lack of one smile from thee yea canst thou let it dye of love to thee for that hath brought me thus far to seek thee And wilt thou suffer it to dye at thy feet Canst thou endure to behold it perish in thy arms into which it now throws it self with all the force it hath Shall it miscarry full of
to which Christ was tyed when they brought him to be examined by him For you must know by the way that Annas being fast asleep when he was taken and they being loath to awake him they got a cord and bound our Saviour to this tree lest he should slip away before the High Priest arose But especially I intend to visit the Holy Sepulchre and to behold the place where he lay which I have heard is an action very meritorious And I said a fourth am ingaged to go to our Lady of Loretto to see the very Chamber where she was born and where she was educated by Joachim her Father and Ann her Mother and where the Angels came to her and she conceived our Lord. This I hope is as meritorious if not more as to travel to his grave and besides it is a shorter journey for I have heard one say of this place as I believe you never heard any say of the other that the words of Jacob do well befit it This place is dreadful it is no other then the House of God and the gate of Heaven You speak so highly of these holy places said a fifth that I should have a great mind to accompany you to some of them were I not now returning turning home from a Pilgrimage which I have made to St. James of Compostella wherein I have spent more time then I could well spare from my necessary affairs O then said the Father who had listned attentively all this while to them without speaking a word you have brought home I presume to your family one Feather at least of the Holy Cock or Hen which are kept in a certain Church of an ancient City not far from that place I hope you will favour us with a sight of it for here is no air stirring to blow it away if it should chance to fall and this company I believe would be glad if you would bless their lips with a kiss of it I do not know well what you mean said the man for I never so much as heard of any such thing That is very strange replyed the Father that they should either suffer so sacred a breed to perish or that the fame of them should not come to your ears There is scarce any Pilgrim who passes that way who doth not go to see them and therefore I may well marvel that you should hear no news of them though I shall sooner believe that than that they should be so careless as to let those Holy Chickens dye whose great Grandfather and Grandmother were so miraculous an instance of the Vertue of St. James of Compostella I pray Sir said another of them be pleased to let us hear the story of these Sacred Creatures for we are all I believe very ignorant of it I will tell it you then said he just as I received it from a person of no mean account that lived in Sicily but was well acquainted with all these Countryes Luc. Marinaeus de Reliq There was on a time a certain man a great friend of God whose name he was pleased to conceal who undertook a Pilgrimage together with his wife and son to the Saint forenamed It was their fortune being in their journey thither to take up their Quarters one night in an old City not many miles from it they being not able that day to reach as far as Compostella Now in the house that entertained them you must know there was a maid not so good as she was pretty who beholding the beauty of their son fell in love with him and made such undecent expressions of it that he was forced to be more uncivil to her then otherwise he should have been This turned her love into a great hatred and made her study a revenge which she took in this manner There being a little silver cup which they used in their Chamber she neatly conveighed it into his Capouch and when they were gone out of the City caused them to be pursued by the Alcalde or Justice of the place and accused them of theft When the Father and Mother had been searched and nothing was found they were some thing troubled at the molestation which they had given them but as soon as ever they came to the son they happened to feel it there where they little expected to have found it and so carried them back again The young man being brought before the Justice could only deny the fact but was no way able to purge himself and therefore was condemned to be hang'd On the Gallows then his Father and Mother were fain to leave him and as the story goes there he hung by the neck till they had been at Compostella and performed all their vows to the Saint And his Mother going to visit the Gibbet at her return and to spend a few tears at the place of execution found him in the very same posture wherein they left him But she had not poured out many complaints nor lookt upon him long with her eyes full of tears before he called out to her and said Dear Mother weep no more I beseech you for me for I am not dead as you imagine but alive being preserved by the Mother of God and the intercession of St. James whom you went to honour from suffering the death which my enemies intended me Go to the Judge therefore and make no longer stay here Let him know how it is that I was accused out of meer malice unjustly condemned and thus miraculously saved by them that protect the innocent and are grateful to their Worshippers She did so without examining him any further about the matter and the Judge was just sate down to dinner when she came running in saying Sir I beseech you cause my son to be taken down and let him hang yonder no longer for though I must confess that he is still alive yet it is by the power of God and his Saints At which news he smiling said Good woman be content thy Son is as much alive as these two Birds pointing to a Cock and Hen which were ready roasted upon the Table before him He had no sooner said the word but they both leapt out of the dish and walkt about the Table being as ready for a dinner as himself And as for the Cock he moreover clapped his wings and fell a Crowing for joy to find them unpinion'd and to feel that he did not carry his giscern thereabouts any longer Which when the Judge beheld he was the most astonished man that ever was seen and could not of a good while recover himself to speak a word But as soon as ever the passion was over away he went without so much as thinking of his dinner and called the Priest with the Principal men of the City who all went together to the place where the Youth was hang'd and found it to their no small wonderment just as the good Woman had said Whereupon he was cut down and restored to his