shall finde the memory of it noted with a blacke coale wip't out in that infamous bill of Expurgations Had the ancient Church held this desperate sequele what strange and yet wilful cruelty had it bene in them to deferre baptisme a whole yearelong till Easter or that Sunday which hath his name I thinke from the white robes of the baptised Yea what an aduenture was it in some to adiourne it till their age with Constantine if being vnsure of their life they had beene sure the preuention of death wold haue inferred damnation Looke vnto that legall Sacrament of circumcision which contrary to the fancies of our Anabaptists directly answeres this Euangelicall Before the eight day they could not bee circumcised before the eight day they might die If dying the seuenth day they were necessarily condemned eyther the want of a day is a sinne or God sometimes condemneth not for sin Neither of them possible neither according with the iustice of the Law-giuer Or if from this parallell you please to looke either to reason or example the case is cleare Reason No man that hath faith can bee condemned for Christ dwels in our harts by faith and he in whom Christ dwels cannot bee a reprobate Now it is possible a man may haue a sauing saith before baptisme Abraham first beleeued to iustification then after receiued the signe of circumcision as a seale of the righteousnes of that faith which he had when he was vncircumcised Therefore some dying before their baptisme may yea must be saued Neither was Abrahams case singular he was the Father of all them also which beleeue not being circumcised these as they are his Sons in faith so in righteousnesse so in saluation vncircumcision cannot hinder where faith admitteth These following his steps of beleefe before the sacrament shal doubtlesse rest in his bosome without the sacrament without it as fataly absent not as willingly neglected It is not the water but the faith not the putting away the filth of the flesh saith Saint Peter but the stipulation of a good conscience for who takes Baptisme without a ful faith saith Hierome takes the water takes not the spirit VVhence is this so great vertue of the water that it should touch the body and cleanse the heart saith Austen vnlesse by the power of the word not spoken but beleeued Thou seest water saith Ambrose euery water heales not that water onely heals which hath the grace of God annexed And if there bee any grace in the water saith Basill it is not of the nature of the water but of the presence of the spirit Baptisme is indeed as S. Ambrose stiles it the paune and image of our resurrection yea as Basil the power of God to resurrectiō but as Ignatius expoundes this phrase aright beleeuing in his death wee are by baptisme made partakers of his resurrection Baptisme therefore without faith cannot saue a man and by faith doth saue him and faith without baptisme where it cannot be had not where it may be had and is contemned may saue him That Spirit which workes by meanes will not bee tyed to meanes Examples Cast your eyes vpon that good theefe good in his death though in his life abhominable hee was neuer washed in lordan yet is receiued into Paradise his soble was foule with rapines and iniustice yea bloody with murders and yet being scouted onely with the blood of his Sauiour not with water of baptisme it is presented glorious to God I say nothing of the soules of Traian and Falconella meere heathens liuing and dying without Christ without baptisme which yet their honest Legend reports deliuered from hell transported to heauen not so much as scorched in Purgatorie The one by the prayers of Gregory the other of Tecla VVhat partiality is this to deny that to the children of Christians which they grant to knowne infidels The promise is made to vs and our seed not to those that are without the pale of the Church Those Innocents which were massacred for Christ are by them canonized for Saints and make one day in their Calendar each yeare both holy and dismall whereof yet scarce any liued to know water none to know baptisme Yea all Martyrs are here priuiledged who are Christened in their owne blood instead of water but where hath God saide All that die without baptisme shall die for euer except Martyrs why not except beleeuers It is faith that giues life to Martyrs which if they should want their first death could not auoyde the second Ambrose doubted not to say his Valentinian was baptised because hee desired it not because he had it he knew the minde of God who accounts vs to haue what we vnfaynedly wish Children cannot liue to desire baptisme if their parents desire it for them why may not the desire of others be theirs as well as according to Austins opinion the faith of othērs beleeuing and the mouth of others confessing In these cases therefore of any soules but our owne it is safe to suspend and dangerous to passe iudgement Secret things to God Hee that made all soulesv knowes what to doe with them neither will make vs of counsaile But if we define either way the errors of charity are inoffensiue wee must honour good meanes and vse them and in their necessarie want depend vpon him who can worke beyond without against meanes Thus haue I endeauoured your Ladiships satisfaction in what you heard not without some scruple If any man shall blame my choice in troubling you with a thorny and scholasticall discourse let him know that I haue learned this fashion of St. Hierome the Oracle of Antiquitie who was wont to entertaine his Paula and Eustochium Marcella Principia Hedibia and other deuout Ladies with learned canuases of the deep pointes of Diuinity This is not so perplexed that it need to offend nor so vnnecessary that it may bee vnknowne To Sir Richard Lea since deceassed EP. V. Discoursing of the comfortable remedies of all afflictions WIse men seeke remedies before their disease sensible patients when they beginne to complaine fooles too late Afflictions are the common maladies of Christians These you feele and vpon the first grones seeke for ease VVherefore serues the tongue of the learned but to speake wordes in season I am a scholer of those that can comfort you If you shall with mee take out my lessons neither of vs shall repent it You smart and complaine take heed least too much There is no affliction not grieuous the bone that was disioynted cannot bee set right without paine No potion can cure vs if it worke not it workes not except it make vs sicke wee are contented with that sickenesse which is the way to health There is a vexation without hurt such is this We are afflicted not ouer-pressed needy not desperate persecuted not forsaken cast downe but perish not How should we when all the euil in a Citie comes from the prouidence of a good God which
Loyola shall haue this miserable honour without our enuie that if they had not beene Rome had not beene By what meanes it rests now to enquire It is not so much their zeale for falshood which yet wee acknowledge and admire not If Satan were not more busie then they we had lost nothing Their desperate attempts bold intrusions importunate solicitations haue not returned empty yet their policy hath done more then their force That Popish world was then foule and debauched as in doctrine so in life and now beganne to be ashamed of it selfe when these holy Fathers as some Saints drop't out of heauen suddenly professed an vnusuall strictnesse sad piety resolued mortification and so drew the eyes and hearts of men after them that poore foules beganne to thinke it could not be other then diuine which they taught other then holy which they touched The very times not seldome giue as great aduantage as our owne best strength and the vices of others giue glory to those which eyther are or appeare vertuous They saw how ready the world was to bite at the baite and now followed their successe with new helps Plenty of pretended miracles must blesse on all sides the in deauours of this new Sect and calls for both approbation and wonder Those things by the report of their owne pennes other witnesses I see none haue beene done by the ten Patriarcks of the Iesuitish Religion both aliue and dead which can hardly bee matched of him whose name they haue vsurped And now the vulgar can say If these men were not of God they could doe nothing How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles not distrusting either the fame or the worke but applauding the Authors for what was said to bee done But now lest the enuie of the fact should surpasse the wonder they haue learned to cast this glory vpon their woodden Ladies to communicate the gaine vnto the whole Religion Two blocks at Hale and Scherpen-heuuell haue saide and done more for Popery then all Fryers euer since Francis wore his breeches on his head But because that praise is sweete which arises from the disgrace of a riuall therefore this holy society hath besides euer wont to honor it selfe by the brokage of shameles vntruthes against the aduerse part not caring how probable any report is but how odious A iust volume would not containe those willing lies wherewith they haue purposely loded religion and vs that the multitude might first hate vs and then enquire and these courses are helde not tollerable but meritorious So the ende may be attayned all meanes are iust all wayes straight VVhom we may we satisfie but wounds once giuen are hardly healed with out some scarres and commonly accusations are vocall Apologies dumbe How easie is it to make any cause good if we may take liberty of tongue and conscience Yet lest some glimpse of our truth and innocence should perhaps lighten the eyes of some more inquisitiue Reader they haue by strict prohibitions whether of bookes or conference restrained all possibility of true informations Yea their owne writings wherein our opinions are reported with confutation are not alowed to the common view lest if it should appeare what we hold our meere opinion should preuaile more then their subtilest answere But aboue all the restraint of Gods booke hath gained them most If that might be in the hands of men their religion could not be in their hearts now the concealement of Scriptures breeds ignorance and ignorance superstition But because forbiddance doth but whet desire and worke a conceite of some secret excellence in things denyed therfore haue they deuised to affright this dangerous curiosity with that cruell butcherly hellish Inquisition Wherein yet there is not lesse craft then violence For since they haue perceiued the blood of Martyrs to bee but the seed of the Church and that these perfumes are more dispersed with beating they haue now learned to murder without noyse and to bring forth if at least they list sometimes to make the people priuie to some examples of terror not men but carcasses Behold the constant confessions of the dying Saints haue made them weary of publique executions None but bare walls shalll now testifie the courage and faith of our happy Martyrs A disguised corps is onely brought forth to the multitude either for laughter or feare Yet because the very dead speake for truth in a loude silence these spectacles are rare and the graues of heretickes are become as close as their death Yet lest since neither liuing mouthes nor faithfull pens may be suffered to insinuate any truth those speeches should perhaps be receiued from the Ancients which in vs were hereticall the monuments of vnpartial antiquity must be depraued all witnesses that might speake against them must be corrupted with a fraudulent violence and some of them purged to the death So whiles ours are debarred and the Ancients altered posteritie shal acknowledge no aduersarie What should I speake of those plausible deuices which they haue inuented to make superstitious and foolish Proselytes Their proud vaunts of antiquity vniuersality succession and the name of their fore-fathers doe not only perswade but amaze and besot an ignorant heart The glorious shews of their processions the gaudy ornaments of their Altars the pompe and magnificence of the places and maner of their Seruices the triumphes of their great Festiuals are enough to bewitch any childish simple or vaine beholders VVho knowes not that nature is most led by sense Sure children and fooles such are all meere naturall men cannot be of any other religion Besides all these their personall vndertakings what for cunning what for boldnes could promise nothing but successe They can transforme themselues into all shapes and in these false formes thrust themselues into al Courts and companies not oftner changing their habit then their name They can take the best opportunities to worke vpon those which are either most vnable to resist or most like to bestead them That I may not speake of the wrongs of vnseasonable trauell wherein many vnsettled heads haue met dangers and solicited errors who like fond and idle Dinahs going abroad to gaze haue beene rauished ere they returne Neuer any bird was so laide for by the neâ—s and cals of the fowler as the great heire of some noble family or some fiery wit is by these impostors They know that greatnesse is both lawlesse and commaunding if not by precept yet by example their very silence is persuasory and imperious But alas for that other sexe Still the diuel begins with Eue still his assault is strongest where is weakest resistance Simon Magus had his Helena Nicholas the Deacon had his choros foemineos as Hierome cals them Marcion had his Factoresse at Rome Appelles his Philumena Montanus his Prisca and Maximilla Arrius his Constantines-sister Donatus his Lucilla Elpidius his Agape Priscillianus his Galla and our Iesuites haue their painted Ladies not dead but liuing
lessons of grace there he learnes what belongs to a Sauiour what one hee is what he hath done and for whom how he became ours we his now finding himselfe in a true state of danger of humilitie of neede of desire of fitnes for Christ he brings home to himself al that he learns and what he knowes he applies His former Tutor he feared this hee loueth that shewed him his wounds yea made them this binds and heales them that killed him this shewes him life and leades him to it Now at once he hates himselfe defies Satan trusts to Christ makes account both of pardon and glory This is his most precious Faith whereby he appropriates yea in grosses Christ Iesus to himselfe whence hee is iustified from his sinnes purified from his corruptions established in his resolutiōs comforted in his doubts defended against temptations ouercomes all his enemies Which vertue as it is most imploied and most opposed so carries the most care from the Christian hart that it be sound liuely growing Sound not rotten not hollow not presumptuous sound in the Act not a superficiall conceit but a true deepe and sensible apprehension an apprehension not of the braine but of the heart and of the heart not approuing or assenting but trusting and reposing Sound in the obiect none but Christ he knows that no friendship in heauen can do him good without this The Angells cannot God will not Ye beleeue in the Father beleeue also in me Liuely for it cannot giue life vnlesse it haue life the faith that is not fruitfull is dead the fruits of faith are good workes whether inward within the roofe of the heart as loue awe sorrow piety zeale ioy and the rest or outward towards God or our bretheren obedience and seruice to the one to the other reliefe and beneficence These he beares in his time sometimes all but alwayes some Growing true faith cannot stand still but as it is fruitfull in workes so it increaseth in degrees from a little seede it proues a large plant reaching from earth to heauen and from one heauen to another euery showre and euery Sun addes something to it Neither is this grace euer solitary but alwaies attended royallie For hee that beleeues what a Sauiour hee hath cannot but loue him he that loues him cannot but hate whatsoeuer may displease him cannot but reioice in him hope to inioy him and desire to enioy his hope and contemne all those vanities which he once desired and enioyed His minde now scorneth to grouell vpon earth but soareth vp to the things aboue where Christ sits at the right hand of God and after it hath seene what is done in heauen looks strangely vpon al worldly things He dare trust his faith aboue his reason and sense and hath learned to weane his appetite from crauing much Hee stands in awe of his owne conscience and dare no more offend it then not displease himselfe Hee feares not his enemies yet neglects them not equally auoiding security and timorousnesse Hee sees him that is inuisible and walks with him awfully familiarly He knowes what he is borne to and therefore digests the miseries of his wardship with patience hee findes more comfort in his afflictions then any worldling in pleasures And as hee hath these graces to comfort him within so hath hee the Angels to attend him without spirits better then his owne more powerfull more glorious These beare him in their armes wake by his bed keepe his soule while hee hath it and receiue it when it leaues him These are some present differences the greatest are future which could not bee so great if themselues were not witnesses no lesse then betwixt heauen and hell torment and glory an incorruptible crowne and fire vnquēchable Whether Infidels be leeue these things or no we know them so shall they but too late What remaynes but that wee applaud our selues in this happines walke on clearly in this heauenly professiō acknowledging that God could not do more for vs that we cānot do enough for him Let others boast as your Ladiship might with others of ancient and noble houses large Patrimonies or dowries honourable commaunds others of famous names high and enuied honors or the fauors of the greatest others of valor or beauty or some perhaps of eminent learning and wit it shall bee our pride that we are Christians To my Lady Honoria Hay Ep. IIII. Discoursing of the necessity of Baptisme and the estate of those which necessarily want it MADAME MEthinks children are like teeth troublesome both in the breeding and loosing oftentimes painful while they stand yet such as we neither would nor can well be without I goe not about to comfort you thus late for your losse I rather congratulate your wise moderation Christian care of these first spirituall priuiledges desiring only to satisfie you in what you hard as a witnesse not in what you needed as a mother Children are the blessings of Parents and baptisme is the blessing of children and parents Wherein there is not only vse but necessity Necessity not in respect so much of the end as of the precept God hath enioyned it to the comfort of parents and behoofe of children which therefore as it may not be superstitiously hastened so not negligently differred That the contempt of baptisme damneth is past all doubt but that the constrained absence thereof should send infants to hel is a cruell rashnesse It is not their sinne to die early death is a punishment not an offence an effect of sinne not a cause of torment they want nothing but time which they could not cōmand Because they could not liue a while longer that therfore they should die euerlastingly is the hard sentence of a bloody religion I am onely sorry that so harsh an opinion should bee graced with the name of a father so reuerend so diuine whose sentence yet let no man pleade by halues He who helde it vnpossible for a child to be saued vnlesse the baptismall water were powred on his face held it also as vnpossible for the same infant vnlesse the sacramētal bread were receiued into his mouth There is the same ground for both the same error in both a weaknes fit for forgetfulnes seeyet how ignorāt or il meaning posterity could single out one half of the opinion for truth and condemne the other of falshood In spight of whom one part shall easily conuince the other yea without al force since both cannot stand both will fall together for company The same mouth which said vnlesse ye be borne againe of water and the holy Ghost said also Except yee eate the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke his blood An equall necessity of both And lest any one should plead different interpretations the same Saint Austin auerres this later opinion also concerning the necessary communicating of children to haue beene once the common iudgement of the Church of Rome A sentence so displeasing that you