but he was also blind and could not see the Beauty and the Amiableness of a young Convert He was not indeed speechless but they could hear him say nothing but sweet Sirenia charming Sirenia This had like to have cost the Lady her life for the Fellow behind who made the Cry and ran after with a naked Sword threatning to kill her but had miss'd of her now returning back saw her here Timotheus knew him to be Pamphilus his old Acquaintance and running to him stop'd his hand from Murther But after he was disarm'd and seemed to be very well reconcil'd to her just as Theosophus and Timotheus were leaving them he fell upon her again calling her false Whore tore off her Dress and shook her so violently that made her catch at her Hair as it was dropping from her and was not able to save her borrowed Teeth from falling to the ground So that the Spark Erotion who here overtook her and came in to her Rescue was startled to see his fair Lady Sirenia transform'd into a foul taudry Quean CHAP. XIII The Religions or a continuation of the Travels of Timotheus AFter they had a little refreshed themselves and offered up as was the laudable custom of Theosophus their Noontide Orisons the young Guest being sollicited thereunto thus proceeded in his Narration I have told you by whom we were carried into the other Quarters to divert our selves Behold said he now whether in Religion there be any thing more than mere Imposture and Blindness Judge I pray'e but from this View whether there can be any such place as an Aetherial Paradise to be desired and sought after or as an Infernal Tophet to be feared and avoided Though there are not lacking those who can give exact Maps of I know not what Subterraneous and Supracoelestial Worlds can describe their Confines Limbo's and exteriour Courts and therein allot you forth and sell you Apartments at good rates Shall we therefore be such fearful Fools as to be frighted at the silly created Phantasms of melancholy Heads of dull insensible Ascetics and the Tricks of the cheating Guides of Souls Let them but agree about the Way thither let them tell me where to find their unfound promised Land their invisible unknown Country I will then but not otherwise believe there may be such a place as the Holy Land above Thus spake the foolish blustring Atheist and commanded us to look I. First he shewed us the Kingdoms of Darkness In these dark Regions which the Dawn of the Sun of Righteousness and Light eternal the Day-spring from on high hath not as yet visited we saw the blinded Souls bow down to Baalim and all the Infernal Deities You may guess how pleasant a sight it was to see so many miserable men groveling in the Night unenlighten'd by any Ray from Heaven to give that Honour which is due alone to the Creator to Creatures and Apostate Angels Some worshipped the Heavens with all their numerous Hosts the Stars Some made the Sun their God Others their Paradise praying to dwell in his * Civitas Solis Campanello City inhabit his Light The pale Queen of Night the Moon and the North-Star had their Adorers By the last they thought to be guided into the place of their Desires and in the first a new World was created by some which by others was made the Habitation of blessed Spirits Some also deified the very Elements and accordingly chose to be buried in the Earth burned in the Fire drowned in the Water or hanged in the Air. We could see a wretched Prince mangling himself fall down before an Idol that sate on a fiery Throne a Monster crested with four Horns and crowned with three Crowns Hither also Pilgrims resorting stab'd themselves with Knives These threw pieces of its cut Flesh into its Face that was horribly bedaub'd with humane Bloud Others desired to be crushed to death by the Chariot-wheels and Women sticked not to prostitute their Bodies for the Idols maintenance It was a very sad Spectacle to behold all their barbarous Sacrifices their fordid base and cruel Gods greedy murtherous insatiable Bloud-sucking Devils The Religion alas of so many consisted not in any thing else but Howling and Dancing Singing Feasting and Slashing themselves Not altogether so ridiculous I think as these last were those in another large Field who prayed to the first thing they met with that morning to an Ass or a Goose a Whelp or a Kitling a Marmoset or Jack-an-ape and so with every new Morn had a new God The Birds and the Fishes Trees and Strawen Gods were sacrificed unto The very tops of the Hills were fed with Meat and Drink nor much unlike were those who feasted their dead Friends with Bread and boyled Flesh washed painted and new-clothed them prayed to them in white Garments and sent along with them Provision for several years Travel Next we observed great Troops to pay such Devotion unto one of those Rivers supposed to have sprung from the Terrestrial Paradise as if by its virtue alone they were little less than sure to regain the same So others also washing in a Well thought therein to cleanse their sins and carried away its Sand as sacred Reliques Besides these there were Idolaters that believed not one but many Paradises unto which every peculiar God was to lead his Worshippers But with their own they were so in love as to drown and stab themselves to fast and pray themselves to death and run with gladness to be cast down from high Precipices by their Gogins men truly I think not disguised like but rather very Devils At this O God said the pious Theosophus when will be the Fulness of the Gentiles II. After these whose blind Superstition had taught them to fear a burning Pit towards the West and pray that they might be carried beyond the Mountains into Pleasant Gardens there to dance and rejoyce with their Forefathers we marked the no less besotted Followers of Mahumed the victorious Antichrist going a Pilgrimage to Mecca We had time to view their several hypocritical and impious Orders and hear rehearsed the absurd ridiculous Tenets of their Law III. When we had long enough observed them we turned our eyes upon numberless Caravans of Pilgrims infinite petty divided Sects together by the ears bickering and fighting very hotly all closely over-rul'd by a Necromancer sitting in the Infallible Chair Amongst whom were Genevesians Munzerians and Dippers Catharists also such as would not pray Forgive us our Trespasses Some went naked naming this the State of Innocence and their Meetings Paradise There was the Family of Love the Brethren of the Mountains of the Vallies of the scatter'd Flock the Seekers the Ranters the Soul-sleepers and the mad senseless Shaking Fraternity hammer'd out as my Atheo Humoroso told us and proved from Authentick History by the busie working Ignatians all zealously contending for the Victory Some there were who professed no other Duty but Prayer and others
of Writing SECTION I. THE Jews tell us of two Paradises one of which they call * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pardés Hachócma or the Paradise of Wisdom the other †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pardés Hanéshamoth or the Paradise of Souls and the Animalia Sanctitatis the Angels and placed above the Ninth Heaven By the first meaning the Acquist of Spiritual and Eternal Truths and by the latter the possession of Eternal Bliss So making one the preparation and the introit into the other the Contemplation of the Divine and the Angelical Natures and of the stupendous Fabrick of the Creation which is the first the prepossession of and admission into that other Paradise which is above Now were we but so happy as to find out or set footing in either of these there we might feed on the Tree of Knowledge without sin * Nullus hic Cherubin qui arccat nemo qui aditum inhibeat on the Tree of Life and Immortality without being repelled by a Flaming Sword or the fiery Judgments of an angred and almighty God But say they he who enters here must not be idle and lazy dronish and unactive †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 R. Maim Halc Jes Hathorath c. 4. must not starve and macerate himself but must fill his belly with Bread and Flesh and that it is Bread and Flesh to know what is prohibited and sinful what lawful and righteous This being as much the Food of our Souls as they are of our Bodies Thus did our Saviour Christ using this common Jewish Metaphor call it ‖ Joh. 4. 34. His Meat to do the Will of Him that sent him and to finish his Work And so must every good Disciple of his think of the performance of his most Holy Will that would this day and ever be with him in Paradise here in one hereafter in the other § 2. Into the first * Ecclus. 24. the Paradise of Divine Science the holy Parnassus the Grove of chast Muses and devout Philosophy the Garden of God the Garden of the eternal Wisdom planted upon Earth not many enter not many strive to enter The Arithmetick of the Jews is indeed somewhat strange that will allow but Four to have entered viz. Hazai Soma Elisa and Akiba Talmudical Doctors But however certain it is they are very few and soon numbred a very inconsiderable parcel of men that are so happy And as into the first there are reckoned these Four whilst they were living into the other they reckon not so many by one Enoch Elias and R. Joshua to have entered whilst their Souls were embodied with Flesh to whom some Christians added St. John as a fourth to complete the number They also confining not onely Paradise but even the Resurrection unto the Seed of the Circumcision give almost as narrow an account of those who have put off their Flesh as they do of the others notwithstanding they make these to pass through a Purgatory as bad if not the same with Hell In like manner the Holiness of the Christian Religion and the Lives of its Professors have made some conclude and publickly declare as much that not one in a Myriad of us are to be saved and would make Paradise very small and uninhabited § 3. Now to prevent this and thereby refute a conclusion that must needs be distastful unto most men I who delight not to terrifie my Readers with the narrowness of the Way straitness of the Gate and littleness of Christs Flock but had rather shew them a great multitude which no man can number of all Nations and Kindreds and People and Tongues standing before the Throne and before the Lamb clothed with white Robes and Palms in their hands Rev. 7. v. 9. shall try to chalk them out not a rugged uneven crooked or by-path but one that is safe easie and pleasant § 4. The Pardés Hachócma which I have told you to be the entrance into this of beatified Spirits and which is therefore attainable and must of necessity be attained in some measure upon Earth by all good and all wise men is very much the same with that which is called the Life or State of Grace and is that Divine Wisdom which takes up so great part of the Proverbs the Book of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus § 5. Moreover the Rabbins signifie by it 1. Talmudical Contemplations 2. The Science of the Divine Attributes 3. Their Fourfold Interpretation of the Scriptures 4. The Philosophy of Natural Bodies and Angels It may also be taken these two ways viz. as it is to be drawn from the Book of Nature or of God which we may call the Natural and Scriptural Paradise I. The first is the consideration of Man himself his Author Matter Form and End both intrinsick and extrinsick and so from him passing to the Great World of the Multitude of created Beings their Diversity Powers and Beauty the Earth Water and Fountains the Air Fire Heaven Sun Moon and Stars from thence to the Rational Soul then Angels then the Essence of God his Power Wisdom Goodness and Justice which the Pen of Cardinal Bellarmin hath very piously and pathetically drawn for Virtue is so amiable that I like her even in an Enemy and am bound to do justice to him from whom I differ in Opinion in those excellent Meditations of his decrepit Age to which he gives the Title Of the Ascension of the Soul to God by the Steps of the Creatures in imitation he tells us of The Souls Itinerary done by Bonaventure And he says that * Qui enim singulari Dei dono per aliam viam in Paradisum admissi audierunt arcana Dei quae non licet homini loqui ii non ascendisse sed rapti fuisse dicendi sunt quod de se B. Paulus apertè confitetur cum ait Raptus suam in Paradisum audivi arcana verba quae non licet homini loqui Pref. those who by Gods special leave are any other ways admitted into Paradise are not to be said to Ascend but to be Caught up thither which St. Paul confesses of himself when he says he was caught up into Paradise and heard Vnspeakable Words not lawful for man to utter II. The Book of God as it deserves most justly so it has received from some the name of Paradise Aloysius Novarinus in his Paradisus Deliciarum has quite throughtout kept prettily to the Allusion and very handsomly turn'd the literal truth of the Story and spiritualized it Herein every Leaf is moved and shaken with the Breath of God and the Garden is watered with a River which is Gods streams of Living Waters and here also not one but every Tree is a Tree of Life bearing the * Joh. c. 6 v. 68. Words of Eternal Life and that which is for the †Rev. c. 22. v. 2. Healing the Nations ‖ Et nunc deambulat in Paradiso Deus quando divinas Scripturas lego Paradisus
to bud and bloom within his mind all his Members grew again like unto a little Infants a clean purified heart was formed in lieu of the other and that which divine Mythologists name the old man rotted quite away through Gods anticreative power So that the Quere of that Jewish Rabbi How can a man that is old be born again Joh. 3. would here have been evinced by plain unanswerable matter of fact * Chap. 7. Those tortures of Conscience which he had endured were unto him the Pangs and Throws of this Second Birth Whence his veins are now all filled with new Sap and vital Juice every part of him is regenerate his breast agitated by †Psal 51. v 10 12. The whole Man a free a right Spirit and that life which brought him hither converted into perfect strength the most healthful and sprightly vigor There appears such beauty in his face such lively Angelical force in his actions that even his Guide though conscious of the change discards his memory and mistakes him for a Citizen dropt down from the Coelestial Jerusalem It will not be an unpardonable Digression in this place I hope to acquaint you with what I have been told by the Pilgrims of those days concerning this blessed Alteration in the young returning sinner For though the Graces and the Ornaments of sincere Penitence and the splendors of a Soul illuminated from Heaven are not discerned by the carnal eye they could not be hid from them I am not able to tell you with how much pleasure these loving Pilgrims now looked upon him but I know that they were wont to relate how his Visage which was somewhile ago The Face disfigured with Jocundness and Sadness with apish Grimaces and phantastick Merriments with Revenge and Love and Anger Fears and Jealousies with Immodesty and Impudence with contemptuous Mows an unhandsome Laughter and a proud Meen or Cast at all times either pale and wan with Envy or black with Fury or wrinkled with Repinnings or scorched with Choler came to be adorned with the comely blushes of Modesty with a graceful Bashfulness devout untainted Mirth and holy Joy with a strict Severity and Sadness with the Image of God the Image of Humility and Love of Piety Meekness and Candour Do not his Eyes said they one to another those lewd treacherous Sentinels that have so often betrayed him to The Eyes Olympia's imperious beauty and with their lascivious Gazings and previous Adulteries been Accessories to all the foolish Defilements of his body look more prettily drenched in Tears or lifted up in Contemplation toward the Regions of Beauty and Holiness They rejoyced extreamly for at the conversion of a Sinner there is joy not onely in Heaven Luke 15. 7. but The Ears upon Earth by all good men and good women that know it Psal 119. 74. that his Ears which were so deaf should now be open to God's Word that they should be sealed up so so fast against all impure and wanton Talk against all the temptations of alluring Sirens against Ribaldry and Profaneness uncharitable and offensive Language biting Raillery the witty Reproaches of the Age and all the vain and all the sinful Excursions of a lawless Member As also that his Tongue that little foolish part formerly disordered with so many wild Extravagancies with The Tongue Blasphemies and Obscoenity Perjuries and Defamations with the whispers of Calumny of Peevishness and Discontent with a trifling and scoffing Wit with smooth Flattery and a vaunting Humour so as to lash out into all the excesses of Impiety or Folly should now be worm'd of that currish madness and compos'd anew to diviner strains Hymns of Love and Praise They could not but admire O blest Admiration to see his Hands The Hands that were not long before fill'd with Violence now lifted up in Prayer and reach'd forth in Charity And to see his Feet which were once so swift to shed Bloud The Feet now to tread in the ways of Peace and Meekness They could not but admire to see such polluted Hands and Feet washed at the Altar and the Leprosie that covered them wiped off But all this they ceased to admire as soon as they consider'd the Goodness and the Power of his Redeemer and remember'd most of them the like Change not long before experimented upon themselves He hath indeed other Desires and other Passions other Hopes and other Resolutions than afore The Change universal he had his Labours his Studies his very Divertisements all his Words and Endeavours and Performances have no Agreeableness with what they were are more satisfactory than ever more eligible and more delightful For his Curst and Wolfish nature is changed into the Simplicity and Meekness of the Lamb and the Malice of Serpents that was in him is expell'd by the Innocence of the Dove Vastly different are his Sentiments a great deal calmer and wiser his judgment and opinion of things for the most part quite contrary to what they had been Those toyish Pleasures which he so eagerly pursued and hunted after with as great abhorrency he nauseates and loaths His Palate relishes nothing but divine and holy Nutriment nothing of an Earthly much less of an Hellish Gusto of a Fire and Brimstone-hogo Even the coarsest Austerities of Religion afford him more satisfaction and pleasure than the very Softnesses and Delicacies of Caelia's bewitching Beauty All her Fucusses and Charms prove too weak to prevail against him for that his mind is fixed upon nobler Objects his Soul disengaged from the World and from the Flesh and all his Senses freed at length from the Vassallage of Vice If any man begins to wonder at so strange Events at so total and miraculous a Transmutation and has not so it be real any dislike against it he is in a fair way if he persist willing to effect the same upon himself Otherwise if he thinks it was not worthy of the Joy and Admiration that it caused in the charitable Devotes who were Contemporaries and blames them therefore he must be either very ill-natur'd or very insensible and I fear in a worse state than he apprehends It pleases me much that their Charity was as signall as his Conversion no wonder if this heavenly Penitent become strait the love and the delight of the little Tribe If one could suppose a deformed Cripple with prominent and distorted Limbs his Sinews contracted his Joynts dislocated his Skin spotted his Flesh running with Sores and every way mis-shapen to shift all these for an handsome and a sound Body to shake off his Infirmities and put on a personable and lovely Meen if further yet one could suppose a Brute to become rational and discourse or a natural Idiot to be made wise or a foul Toad to leave his poyson and his skin and grow up into a beautiful Man such was this Change that was effected by the gentle Hovering of Gods Spirit upon his Soul It was no
most they killed these with singing and roaring they destroyed others with fretting and pulling they lowred upon some but smiled upon others as they were sticking them into the heart they feared some Consciences hard but burned others sore and tender those were not afraid to act any thing unlawful while these on the other side were afraid to act what was lawful Thus they hamper'd both the Insensible and the Uneasie Some of their Captives foamed at mouth as if they were all in a ferment others sparkled as if they were on fire and others looked black and ghastly as any Carrion Indignation Disdain Despite Scorn Envy Revenge Outrage Repinings with a number of such-like Affections disfigured the faces of a great many this mans heart was canker'd with inward Rancor the others fester'd sorely with Carking and vain Solicitude they pricked some to death with Needles these were they whose uncontentedness would not suffer them to rest quiet and run others through with red-hot Irons these were they whose Flesh was corrupted and whose Marrow was burnt up within their bones Thus the Furies divided the Spoils among themselves laid waste the Lands and treacherously killed the poor Captives to whom they had promised Quarter Whilst Desire and that too always followed by Loathings made them greedily swallow down the poysoned Baits Nay both the Extremes hugged themselves together against Man In the Gentile Sinner the fine sparkish Opposites made Friends Gallant he observed a beseeming Foppery and Court-Flattery but in the Clown Rudenesses and Incivilities Roughness and a rugged ill-natur'd Untractableness One was Fool-hardy another Fool-wary He was too Rigorous but the other over-Easie and both thereby alike hurtful unto Virtue So much Knavery could not rid the Multitude of Folly nor Cowardise of Temerity The Deceiving and the Deceived the Blockish and the Crafty the Fantastical and the Morose lived near together and were beholding to each other for what they were The Knave led the Fool by the Nose till he himself was at last caught in the Gin and by tearing himself fluttered to get out but could not There were both the Despairing and the Desperate who presented themselves to his view the former desponded of every thing the latter of nothing and past Despair durst set upon Impossibilities whereas those through Fear durst not set upon the greatest Possibilities Affectation dressed up more than a few to be laughed at and Indecence as many to be trodden on Abjectness and Highmindedness Impudence of Brow and a Sheepish Unmanliness Arrogance and Baseness a crabbed Sourness and soft honeyed Soothing bound up as many Slaves as one another and triumphed over the weakness of those they had conquered Treachery combined with over-much Officiousness and mean Condescentions went along with them to support Tyranny Diffidence foolish Presumption hand in hand much Talk and peevish Silence looser Laughter and a Weeping-fit mutually succeeding each other Thus even Contrarieties conspired against a weak Race were reconciled to do Man an Injury But though some were so modest as but to scatter up and down among the least number of Vetaries he could see light and unsettled Spirits Selfishness littleness of Mind a love of the World Imposture and Blindness in every place with Machivellian Policy the Devices and Slights of cunning Cheats sent to impose upon the World Massacres Plots Factions Rebellions Dire Presages were seen to fill the Heavens and an hundred thousand Plagues and upwards to hover over head ready to fall REMORSE and TROUBLE of MIND brought up the Rear Thus all the Vices and the Passions were banded together against frail Man thus they divided and ruled their Conquests And in such sort did all the World except a few despised Pilgrims seem unto him enslaved by this Sorceress FOLLY and their hearts tyrannically possest by foolish hopeless Vices Whereinto these * Devils were no sooner entered but the Herd properly Luke 8. 33. enough so called ran violently down a steep place into the Lake and were choked And so which way soever the sorrowful Contemplator lookt he saw a thousand thousand Follies ridiculous Phrensies Miscarriages heavy and numberless Calamities infinite Evils A slight view whereof had heretofore when he was young such an effect upon his mind was so dreadfully amazing as struck in him a resolution presently to quit the World and seek new Countries out where Death and Sin had got no footing and where Innocence might rest secure from either Violence or Fraud Wearied with so dismal a Prospect he put up his Glass unwilling to view any longer and descended to the bottom of the Hill which was washed by the River Thamus Whos 's sadly discoloured streams had not yet lost the stain of a miserable Slaughter that was somewhere thereabout committed As if they even blushed at mans Cruelty were ashamed of that Barbarity which he gloried in and thinking it a very praise-worthy Enterprize sought perhaps to have eterniz'd in Pillars of Stone or everlasting Records The dejected Father feeling the burthen of his Grief unsupportable sate himself down under the fair spreading shade of a tall Pine Sorrow had sunk his eyes into his head and made his eye-lids come together and his heart-strings were almost ready to burst when casting in his black melancholy thoughts what he had seen he thus uttered himself CHAP. III. Theosophus meditates on the Folly and Misery of the World and thence takes occasion to run out into the Praises of Paradise GOod God! and is it possible that ever any one can be in love with such a mass of Evils such an heap of Misery and Sin What I pray can a delirious brain fancy herein so lovely Is it a great Name or a great Estate blustering Vanities or useless Superfluities Is it a Body plaister'd with Paint or a rotten Carcass gilded o'er with exterior Braveries Perhaps it may be any or all of these for nothing did I ever see but that a fool could admire and a wise man despise I see it is just so no Victory is now held so honourable as to overcome ones Reason and baffle Conscience nor Conquest so deserving as everlastingly to overthrow one self See how far the Triumphs of that bewitching Siren sinful Folly are extended See how they are all led in Chains by this their foolish Goddess and submit their necks to be trodden on by the sweet Destroyer For of a truth it is mankind is mad stark raving mad They court Misery run upon the jaws of Hell so sottishly vicious as to mistake all that is good for evil and find no Pleasure but in their own Wretchedness O prodigious and unheard-of Folly Are Anger Revenge Envy Love Discontent so delightful Passions such pleasing Perturbations of the Mind As well may we go and fancy the burnings of a Fever or St. Anthony ' s Fire as any of these nay as soon shall I be brought to think a Leper beautiful as a Woman deformed with Lust Prithee tell me therefore foolish Worldling what
dost thou adore and how thou cam'st to be thus enamour'd with the World O miserable and unsatisfying World whom the whole is not able to content even the least dust is enough to trouble and discompose a small Atome or Mote in thy eye every trivial Mischance and every uneasie Accident death of thy Friends the miscarriages of thy Child or of thy Servant are of more force to afflict thee than all the rest of it to ease thee And is it for this goodly Vanity that so many Wars are commenced Conspiracies hatched civil Broils fomented and carried on by ambitious Spirits Is this the Prize of so many noble Actions Let the vainglorious Victor now boast his strength and leave engraven in brass the Monuments of his fortunate Cruelty If to kill be so great honour why should not the Wolf the Lion and the Bear challenge it as well as Man Is it because they fight with less courage or with less force If so go proud Murtherer and if thou canst grapple with one of these and then acquaint me which is the weakest thou that art so strong dost thou not fear the Trunk of the Elephant and the Tusks of the wild Boar Believest thou not that Diseases Dearths and Plagues can dispatch quite as many as thou Yet who praiseth the Pestilence for depopulating whole Towns or worshippeth the Fire for being more terrible and burning down the Houses of some and Palaces of others or hath learnt yet to flatter the Surfeit for snatching away so many young men in the spring of their flourishing years With these therefore now go and share thy ill gotten Praises unto these that much better deserve it than thou communicate thy Fame let these I say partake of thy Triumphs and together with these erect the Trophies of thy redoubted Valour O monstrous Inhumanity of Men thus to destroy one another and what is more even glory in that destroying But wherefore call I them so Are these men it cannot be them I always took to be another sort of Animals more divine more rational Creatures Who can tell me where to find a Man one that has not put off himself nor lost the image of his Creator How can my eyes behold this the blasted Earth made the Habitation of Devils Cities the retreat of the Elk and the Lion the Beasts of the Forest and impure and raging Spirits What do I see every where but a Wilderness of wild Beasts but that alas now I think on it Tygers and Pards are less cruel do never prey upon their own kinds Is it then a Map of Hell or is it Hell it self but even there the very Devils divide not against themselves How are the Northern Isles laid waste the European Coasts stain'd o'er with humane bloud What is it that makes the wretched Natives strive thus to out-vy the years past and the years to come both in their Crimes and Punishment Must all the Wickednesses and Calamities of all Ages be amassed together in this one * Therefore mine Psal 119. v. 136 139. Lam. 3. v. 48 49 50. eyes O God gush out with water they gush out with water because men keep not thy Law continually cast forth Rivers of water for the approaching destruction of this People yea my Zeal has even consumed me because mine enemies have forgotten thy Words Without any intermission mine eye trickleth down and ceaseth not till the Lord look from Heaven Behold Lord look down upon and pity pity most gracious Jesu the madnesses of those silly wretches those who by their evil Guides are infatuated to so high a degree as to embrace under a shew of Sanctity the deadliest sins and embrew their hands in bloud that so they may appear the meek followers of thee the Prince of Peace Wilt thou let Schism and Heresie with all their vile monstrous brood thus rigorously persecute O horrid Barbarity thy most holy thy most lovely Spouse the Church Wilt thou not support her under the Cross thou hast laden her with Crosses and Martyrdoms are nothing to this Persecution She now feels within her own bowels more than a thousand Diocletians the most exquisite tortures and enraged cruelties of Superstition and Hypocrisie and Profaneness Behold Lord and pity behold the Giants of the Earth the mighty men how they labour to o'erturn all things to shake the very foundations of the Earth and shatter this same goodly frame of the Vniverse into Confusion Discord and Chaos into that which is many degrees worse than its primitive Nothingness Behold even how Heaven it self is again assaulted by their enormous Villanies their huge Gigantick Crimes Crimes that are always attended on by Famine Plague War and all the meagre train of Deaths which we poor silly Mortals both court and dread So that Virtue is now by many thought to be but an imaginary Being a pious Dream a vain phantastical Chimera of some dull Brain the dotage of a morose stupid Ascetick and made the Worlds Fucus to the foulest Vices Fury and Madness Sedition and Murther usurp the milde and sacred names of Zeal and Godliness In this lamentable decay of Piety where shall one find a good man or an honest Pilgrim He would have proceeded but that some Herdsmen driving their Beasts by that way to the Market here disturbed him The Beasts were very plump and skittishly played as they passed by not knowing whither they were driven Alas said he to himself how unconcernedly do these poor Cattle now go to be slaughtered They who drive them have onely fatted them for this that they may now sell them to the Butchers and their Deaths bear a greater rate Thus fares it with the Pilgrims of these unhappy times who after that they suffer themselves to be transform'd into Beasts and to be fatted and stall'd with irrational beastly pleasures are by themselves or their interested Guides soon sold over to destruction and the slaughter After these passed by others also of the Country thereabout that had labour'd very hard all that day in whose looks one might read an honest and rough Simplicity Whom the good man therefore thought he could easily enough perswade to seek their own Welfare and to go along with him leaving the toilsome and barren Earth unto the more fruitful Plains of Paradise And to this end he used the most sweet and most prevailing means discoursed very plainly with the poor Drudges dealt with all the openness and sincerity possible concerning their removal and the way thither and left nothing unattempted to make them happy But all in vain he met with so fierce so much the more fierce as the more unexpected opposition from these besotted Clowns Instead of Simplicity he meets with Bluntness and a resolute ill-grounded Refusal so far are they from being perswaded by the plainness and the truth of his Discourse or at all better'd by his sober Admonitions that some of them revile and others jeer and every one despiseth him Though the most noble-minded