cannot long agree their peace will be quickly broken by sicknesse and then perhaps they part MEDITATION X ANd therefore the memory of death shall stand like a Seale of virgin Wax upon my heart to keepe the World from looking into the secret Methinks I see now here before mee a man lying very sick upon his Death-bead How pale he is He had a fresh and youthfull colour the other day heu quantum mutatus ab illo alas how much hee is changed from the gallant man he was How his breath labours how every joynt shakes for excesse of pain How every veine trembles His skin is drawne strait to the bone through all his body His eyes fix constantly upon one thing as if there hee saw the dreadfull sentence of his eternity Two black circles lay seige to his eyes on every side and it seemeth that for feare they are sunke inwards as if they would turn presently and looke upon the deformity of the soule Hearke with what a lamentable accent he grones I remember I have heard some that soon after came to this point sing and laugh heartily Poore man how little all his pleasures have profited him Such a rich purchase the favour of such a noble man such and such a merry meeting what doe they help in this agonie his freinds are present yet of themselves they are miserable comforters they may looke sorrowfully speake mornefully cast themselves upon their knees and pray for him but they cannot doe the deed they cannot helpe him humane power stands amaz'd and can do nothing You do you heare what thinke you now of going abroad and being merry your old companions are at the doore Looke to your goods and your selves your house is on fire not a word And the little life which as yet keeps weak possession is so dull'd and over clouded with the pangs of Death that hee cannot raise from the fog of his body one clean thought towards God or Heaven Hee is ready now to leave every thing but his sinnes lands house friends gay clothes the gold in the box and jewels in the Cabinet and all See see he is going hee stands upon the threshold Death lurkes in yonder corner and aimes at the heart and though it move so fast Death will not misse his marke Hee has beene an Archer ever since the world began There flew the arrow Here is a change indeed His Soul is gon but it would not be seene Not only because it could not but also because it was so black Now dismisse the Physitian and pray him to goe and invent a preservative against the poyson of Death Close up the dead mans eyes hee will see no more Shut his mouth hee has left gaping for aire all is past hee will never give an other crosse word Now cast the beggerly wretch an old sheete and throw him out to the wormes or after three days hee will poyson us and then we shall bee like him It is a true speech of saint Hierom with which hee puts the latter stamp upon the soft heart of Paulinus to whom hee writes Facile contemnit omnia qui se semper Hier. ep ad Paul cogitat esse moriturum Hee doth easily contemne and with a violent hand throw under him all things who thinkes he stands alwayes with one foote in his grave O my soule heare me let me talke to thee in a familiar way The corporall eye this eye of man seeth nothing but figure or fashion and colour no man ever saw a man onely the figure or fashion and colour of a man and these are outward and superficiall things which onely flatter the eye And S. Paul saith worthily The fashion of this 1 Cor. 7. 31 World passeth away The man dyeth the lid is drawn over the eye the fashion or figure disappeareth is not seene The Hous-keeper hath changed his lodging the windows are shut Call him at the doores of his eares tell him that his wife and children are in danger of their lives and that they call to him for help the windows remain shut stil Here is the mind which hath wisdom There is nothing in this great World for a mortall Reve. 17. 9 man to love or settle upon Hee that will love ought to love wisely he that will love wisely ought to love good Good is not good if it be not permanent this World passeth away Nihil tam utile est quod in trāsit it Sen. ep 2. prosit saith Seneca nothing is so compleately profitable as to profit when it only passeth And verily this world hath bin alwayes a Passenger for it hath passed from age to age through so many hundred generations by them and from them to us Adam liv'd awhile to eat an Apple and to teach his posterity to sinne and to dye and the world passed by him Caine liv'd a while to kill his honest brother Abel and to bury him in the sands as if God could not have found him or the winde have discovered what was done and afterwards to be haunted with frightfull apparitions and to be the first vagabond and the world passed by him Noah liv'd a while to see a great floud and the whole world sinke under water to see the weary birds drop amongst the waves and men stifled on the tops of Trees and Mountaines and the world passed by him David liv'd a while to be caught with a vaine representation and to commit adultery to command murther and afterwards to lament and call himselfe sinner and when he had done so the world shufl'd him off and passed by him Salomon liv'd a while to sit like a man upon his royall throne as it were guarded with Lyons and to love counterfeit pictures in the faces of strange women and while he was looking Babies in their eyes the world stole away and passed by King Salomon and all his glory Iudas liv'd awhile to handle a purse and as an old Author writes to kill his Father to marry his Mother to betray his Master and to hang himselfe and the world turn'd round as wel as he and passed by the Traytor The Jews liv'd a-while to crucifie him who had chosen them for his onely people out of all the world and quickly after the world weary of them passed by them and their Common-wealth The old Romanes liv'd awhile to worship wood and stones to talk a little of Iupiter Apollo Venus Mercury and to gaze upon a great statue of Hercules and cry hee was a mighty man and while they stood gazing and looking another way the world passed by them and their great Empire The Papists live awhile to keepe time with dropping Beads or rather to lose it to cloath images and keepe them warme and to tell most wonderfull stories of Miracles which God never thought of but as he fore-saw and found them in their fancies and in the midst of a story before it is made a compleat lye the world passes by them and
mee in my own Parish and within my owne small fold Are they not unsufferably bold when a Priest came to my Lodging and there in his fury attempted to draw a sword upon me If you graciously assist me not I have bin saved abroad to perish at home with all my friends about me or at least to lie buried in secrecie and contempt Pardon me if I am hot I have bin hitherto chill and lukewarmnesse is highly blameable I have bin wrought upon through all my life and bowed to serve other mens ends And have ignorantly suffered my selfe to be moved and fashioned in order to them But now the vizard is off I will throw them off one here and one there and only serve God who is my true end It is remarkable that the Papists turn our lenity and gentlenesse towards them into an argument against us inferring that wee have no zeale no religion O consider the flocks and multitudes of ignorant people that came to me when I lodged in London crying for satisfaction in matters of beliefe Every one of them being divided betwixt a Protestant and a Papist not knowing where to finde rest for their souls And some came under my hands whom the papists by their continual perswasions had wrought into a distraction some into madnes This others know with mee God will require an account of these souls O that it were granted to mee but first to the glory of God that while I have leave to behold this good light both of the Sun and of the Gospell I might speake in the light as our Saviour commands us what I have heard in darknesse and that I might be always at hand to binde up the gaping wounds of afflicted spirits even where they are most wounded because there are most Enemies Neither do men saith Mat. 5. 15. our Saviour light a candle and put it under a bushell but on a candlestick and it giveth light to all that are in the House The Candlestick is the place of the candle be it small or great Shall the zeale of the true Church be overcome in religious forwardnesse by a false one It is not all my purpose to labour in the prevention of Popery Part of it is to teach plainly and truly the Faith professed in England and the piety of a Christian life even to the perfection of it as will appeare to the Reader It is our Saviours Rule commended to Saint Peter When thou art converted Luk. 22. 32. strengthen thy Brethren God hath abundantly performed his part towards mee the performance of my part remaineth towards him and my Brethren And no zeale is like to zelus animarum the zeal of souls It somewhat suits which the Bridegroom said to the Spouse My Cant. 2. 10 11 12 13. beloved spake and said unto mee Rise up my love my faire one and come away For loe the winter is past the rain is over and gone The flowers appeare on the earth the time of the singing of birds is come and the voice of the Turtle is heard in our land The fig-tree putteth forth her green figs and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell Arise my love my faire one and come away When God calls who loves because he will love and therefore says first My Love and then my faire one and he first loves because we are not faire but by his love And he seems to love without reason and to do what hee does as women doe because he will doe it but it is the greatest of all reasons that his will should be done And this is confessed by the Schoolmen in the resolution of other great difficulties and when hee cals so movingly and so prettily it is high time to goe But before I go I beg of all the zealous and noble spirits included in my Dedication that they will so farre listen after me and remember Gods worke in me as to take notice and observe what becomes of me And so God that in his good time hath remembred you and us remember both you and us all in the end and world without end Which humbly prays Your humble servant Richard Carpenter EXPERIENCE HISTORY and DIVINITY The first Booke CHAP. 1. Let not my Reader reject many easie things being joined with a few that are not so easie because in the best book the Elephant swimmeth and the Lambe wadeth THe Divines authorized by Saint John in the beginning of his Gospell whom therfore Gregory the Great calls Evangelistarum Aquilam the Eagle of the Evangelists beginning their discourses of Christ with his eternall Generation stile him the word The Reason is reason Because as verbum mentis the word of the Mind even after it cometh of the minde doth still notwithstanding remaine in it the word of the Tongue perishing with the sound So the Son of God comming of his Father by a most ineffable yet most true Generation receiveth a personall distinction and yet remaineth with and in his Father by a most unseperable Unity of Essence This blessed word I call to witnesse before whom wee shall answere for every idle word that my words heere in the matters of Experience and History are so farre agreeable to the Divine word that they are true which is the first excellencie of words as they are words The matters of Divinity will stand by themselves I have read in the Schoolmen that Omne verum est à Spiritu Sancto Every Truth comes from the Holy Ghost I will bee sure to tell truth and upon this ground truth being told every man may be sure from whom it comes fix upon it in the deduction of the Conclusions it virtually containeth as upon the firm Principles of a Science I am not ignorant that sometimes it is a sin to speak truth because there may be a falshood committed though not spoken as a false breach of true Charity which many times obligeth to secrecie And these times the speaking of truth is indeed a lie because such a sin and against God who is Truth even as he is Truth But I know it for a Maxime Against a publique enemie of the Church of God we may lawfully and religiously speak all Truths It is a rule amongst Casuists Certa pro certis habenda dubia ut dubia sunt proponenda in a Relation certain things are to be proposed as things certain and doubtfull as doubtfull Let no man doubt but I will certainly dresse every thing in cloathes according to its degree Hence followes a lesson and it falles within my lesson God was in all eternity till the beginning of the World and but one word came from him and that a good one as good as himselfe and not spoken but as it were onely conceived Words are not to bee thought rashly and if not to bee thought not to he spoken because we think not in the sight of our neighbours but we speak in the hearing of our neighbours and if not to
Did Christ die It cannot be Yes and more He died willingly like a meeke Lambe sobbing out his life For hee gave up the ghost it was not taken from him And therefore a good man hath not feared to say that Christ held his life by mayn strength some little while beyond the date of nature that it might not seem to bee taken from him by force of armes Greater love hath no man then this that a man lay downe his life for his friends Joh. 15. 13. Life is the last of all our possessions in this World and laying downe life wee lay downe all and love that layes downe all for one loves one better then all It was an unspeakable act of love not sufficiently utterable by the great Angels of heaven that the most glorious Majesty of God not capable of pain nor yet able with all his power to inflict paine upon himselfe should come down though not in his Majesty and close with a body subject to pain in which hee would experimentally know al that which man could bodily suffer and more then all for no man ever suffered in such a delicate constitution of body and therefore no man ever endured such rage and vehemencie of pain O Lord whither do'st thou come we are creatures yes truly bodily creatures we must be fed cloathed and kept warme we are lyable to paine and shak't with a little pain we turn colour from red to pale Lord the Angels they have likewise fallen and their nature is more noble as being free from grosse and earthy matter What stirred thee to put thy selfe in the livery of our fraile nature thy love thy will thy most loving will Looke upon him ô my soule thou daughter of Jerusalem look upon thy dear Friend who died temporally that thou mayest live eternally and who out of his singular tendernesse would not suffer thee to burn in Hell for a hundred yeeres and then recover thee by which not withstanding he might have more imprinted in thee the blessed memory of a Redeemer but expresly required in his Articles that if thou wouldest cleave to the benefit of his Passion thou shouldest never come there now look upon him Hee hangs upon the Crosse all naked all torne all bloudie betwixt heaven earth as if he were cast out of heaven and also rejected by earth betwixt two thieves but above them tanquam caput latronum as the Prince of thieves hee has a Crown indeed but such a one as few men will touch no man will take from him and if any rash man will have it hee must teare haire skin and all or it will not come his haire is all clodded with bloud his face clouded with blacke and blue his eyes almost sunk in the swelling of his face his mouth opens hastily for breath to relieve decaying nature the veins of his brest rise beyond themselves and the whole brest rises and fals while the pangs of death doe revell in it Behold hee stretcheth out his armes to imbrace his Persecutors and they naile them to the Crosse that he cannot imbrace them Look you hee sets one leg before another with a desire of comming to them and they naile his legs together that he cannot come Now trust mee hee is all over so pittifully rent I wil think the rest My soule this Christ did for thee and this Christ would have done for thee if thou hadst been the onely Sinner and wanted his help What a grievous mischiefe is sin by which this great great I have not words most great most glorious passion of Christ is trod under foot and spoiled of the latitude of its effect and which maketh Jews of Christians For by sin Christ is every day crucifyed by mee every day forced to bow his head and give up the ghost I have farther to goe If from the price and qualitie of the medicine wee may in reason draw arguments to prove the state and condition of the soare Sin is indeed a grievous wound I never heard of such another Agnosce ô homo saith Saint S. Bern. Serm. 3. de Nativit Bernard quà m gravia sint vulnera pro quibus necesse est Dominum Christum vulnerari Acknowledge ô man how grievous those wounds are for which it was necessary our Lord Christ should be wounded He goes on Si non essent haec ad mortem mortem sempiternam nunquam pro eorum remedio Dei filius moreretur Had they not beene even to death and to eternall death the Son of God assuredly had never given his deare life for the remedie If I go to the depth of it the Jewes did not kill Christ sin killed him MEDIT. 4. AS sin killed him so he killeth sin Then let every sinner come my self with them and open his wound and receive his Cure The young of the Pelican are stung by a Serpent and shee bleedeth upon them even the blood wherein her vitall spirits harbour Is a man a Drunkard Let him soberly consider what haste hee makes to purchase a Fever or a surfet which might suddenly passe him away to hell let him ponder how often hee hath drowned reason and grace and quenched the fire of Gods Spirit in himself how often hee hath bowed Gods good creatures and put them besides the just end of their Creation and how often in his cups he hath defiled Gods white and holy Name and beat hard upon his patience and let him now come hither and give all again in teares and cry with the Centurion in the Gospel Lord I am Matth. 8 8. not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roofe For my house is a sink of dregs and lees and loathsomnesse but speake the word onely and my soul shall be healed And truly ô thou that didst complaine of thirst upon the Crosse I will hereafter thirst with thee Is a man a covetous person Let him search the Scriptures and learn what Saint Paul learned in the third Heaven that the love of money is the root of all evill For 1 Tim. 6. 10. what evill will not a man commit to get the money which hee loves and money being ill-got is not well spent and sooner or later The love of money is the root of all evill Let him think how he sweats and breaks himselfe in catching flyes in gathering dirt and trifles which give no setled rest to his desire and to use the words of a good one quibus solutus corpore non indigebit Diodor. apud Max. which when he hath laid down his body he shall not have or have need to have And let him now come hither and be fully satisfied with the unvaluable riches of Christ his precious death let him take off his heart from passing riches and betroth it to Christs passion let him looke upon him with the eyes of faith and conceive in what a poore and neglected manner hee hangs upon the Crosse and lament for his owne manifold oppressions of
as other vaine tyes hold them I doe shake off all these idle obligations in imitation of the Primitive Church and of all holy men in succeeding Ages I firmely beleeve that the Scripture is the word of God and that all things revealed in it are true And I beleeve that as God made the world for himselfe and his glory So and more eminently he directeth his Church to himselfe and his glory That is therefore the pure Church of Christ which casteth all the glory upon God which leaneth and relieth wholly upon the most pretious merits and passion of Christ which cryeth to God onely for helpe which is throughly obedient for Gods sake to lawfull authority bee it amongst Heathens which doth not permit and countenance sinne by which onely God is dishonoured And she cannot be the cleane spouse of Christ which God and his Truth being infallible performeth the most high and most reverend Acts of Religion upon uncertainties As prayeth absolutely for a soule turned out of the body without a certaine knowledge of her being a determinate friend or enemy of God And worshipeth that with the worship of God for God which if the Priest be deficient in his intention or defective in his orders is in her owne opinion a creature And she is not the faire spouse which hath lost her attractive beauty and which all Jewes and Infidels hate and abhorre justly moved at least with a notorious shew of Idolatry And therefore I beleeve that the Church of England is the Spouse of Christ as being free from these blemishes and conformable to Scripture And in the defence of this Faith I stand ready to give up my sweete life and dearest bloud And if I die suddenly to this Faith I commend the state of my eternity An Act of hope in God I doe hope in God because hee is infinitely full of goodnesse and is like a nurse which suffereth pain in her brests till she be eased of her milke because hee is most able and most willing to helpe me because he hath sealed his love with most unbreakable promises and because hee knoweth the manifold changes and chances of the world the particular houre of my death and the generall day of judgement in all which I hope greatly this good and great God will deliver me An Act of the love of God I such a one in perfect health and memory able yet to revell in the world to enjoy wealth and pleasure to sacrifice my body and soule to sensuality doe contemne and lay under my feete all goe behinde me Satan sworne enemy of Mankinde and love God purely for himselfe For put the case he had not framed this world or beene the prime cause of any creature in it put the case hee had never beene the Author of any blessing to mee yet excellencie and perfection of themselves are worthy of love and duty and as the object of the understanding is truth so the object of the will is goodnesse and therefore my will shall cheerefully runne with a full career to the love of it Saint Austin S. Aug. hom 38. hath taught me Qui amicum propter commodum quodlibet amat non amicum convincitur amare sed commodum He that loves his friend for the profit he reapes by him is easily convinced not to love his friend but the profit Wherefore although I should see in the Propheticall booke of the divine Prescience my selfe not well using the divine helpes not rightly imploying the talents commended to my charge and to be damned for ever yet still I would love him away ill thoughts touch me not I would insomuch that if it were possible I would even compound and make to meet hands the love of God and damnation For although I were to be damned yet God could not be in the fault and though I should be exceedingly miserable by damnation he would yet remaine infinitely good and great by glory and though I did not partake so plentifully of his goodnesse yet many others would O Lord I love thee so truely that if I could possibly adde to thy perfection I freely would but because I cannot I am heartily glad and love thee againe because thou art so good and perfect that thou canst not be any way more perfect or good either to thy selfe or in thy self And I most humbly desire to enjoy thee that thy glory may shine in mee and that I may love thee for ever and ever It grieves me to thinke that if I should faile of thee in my death I should be deprived in Hell not onely of thee but also of the love of thee Note pray that other vertues either dispose us in a pious way towards our neighbour as justice or doe order the things which are ours and in us as many morall vertues or they looke upon those things which appertaine to God as Religion or they direct us to God himselfe but according onely to one Attribute or peculiar perfection As the vertue of Faith giveth us to beleeve the divine authority revealing to us Gods holy truth Hope to cast Anchor upon his helpe and promises But with charity or the love of God we fasten upon all God with respect to all his perfections we love his mercie justice power wisedome infinity immensity eternity And faith hope patience temperance and other vertues leaving us at the gate of Heaven charity enters with us and stayes in us for ever An Act of Humility O Lord if others had beene stored with the divers helpes the inspirations the good examples the good counsell the many loud cals from without and yet from thee which I have had they would have beene exceedingly more quicke more stirring in thy service Many Acts which I have thought vertues in me were onely deedes of my nature and complexion My nature is bespotted with many foolish humours I am unworthy dust and ashes and infinitely more unworthy then dust and ashes A Sinner I am not worthy to call thee Father or to depend in any kinde of thee to live or to be The foule Toade thy faire creature is farre more beautifull then I a Sinner-Toade Verily if men did know of me what thou knowest or what I know of my selfe I should be the rebuke and abomination of all the world An Act of resignation to the will of God Whither shall I flie but to thee O Lord the rich store-house of all true comfort The crosse which seemeth to me so bitter came from thy sweet will Can I be angry with thy good providence Is it not very good reason that thy royall will should be done in earth as it is in heaven And though perhaps it was not thy direct and resolute will that all my crosses should in this manner have rushed upon me yet the stroke of the crosse being given it is thy direct intention that I should beare it patiently I doe therefore with a most willing hand and heart take Gaule and Vineger delivered by thy sweete
we all know the servant is not higher then his Master but much under him Here is a secret It is an evill chance to a house when it fals into the most hard hands of a cruell murderer or bloody traitor But sin had changed me into the most unhappy dwelling of the Devill And I that once feared to see the Devill and who if I had seene him would have runne much more feared to come neare him or to dwell with him in the same house or chamber had then tooke both him and Hell-fire that he carries about him into my owne selfe and given him the closet of my owne heart to lodge in Sinne changed the Angels of Heaven from a pure white to a most foule blacke And thus it had altered me I know that some of Gods people had they seene me would have said What ere the matter is you are wonderfully changed And then I might well have answered Truly I am not well I am vexed with a continuall fit of a deadly sicknesse And I am so weakened by it that I cannot distinguish betwixt good and bad I have exchanged God for vile things hypocrisie and superstition which I have preferred before God For he that of two things laid before him chuseth one esteemes that to be the greater good which he taketh and preferreth before the other I know not what I doe For I wound God altogether with his own weapons with the same gifts which I received of him with a condition to serve him having turned all his gifts into the sharp weapons of sinne I wound him with his owne concurse his power by which he doth assist me in all actions agreeable to my nature so that I force God to strike himselfe in very deed with his owne hand as if I dealt with a childe and set God against himselfe as it were causing division in the best and highest unity But now being recovered of the disease my understanding is more cleare and more discerning and knowing God here my Faith and Hope give me a kinde of security that I shall know him more distinctly hereafter and see him face to face Man desiring to know labours to know and because knowledge is honey-sweete the more he knowes the more he labours to know and the more he knowes to labour for knowledge And in his labouring to know one chiefe part of the knowledge he gaines is that although he still labours to know and still knowes and although hee should live a thousand yeeres and still know still amongst the things which may be knowne they would be more which he knowes not then which he knowes And so still it would be though he should live in the world for ever But God did not plant the naturall passion of desire in the reasonable soule with an intention that it should alwayes lie gaping but that it should at length be satisfied when it should close at last with its last end The like effect followes in pursuing other objects of desire If God should have made after his conquest of one another world for Alexander when he had done there he would have beene weeping againe while indeed hee would not have wept for another world but implicitely for God who onely could have filled his boundlesse desire The desire of man is in a manner infinite because it desires one thing after another into infinite And it can never be satisfied in this manner because the things desired come not altogether but ever one after another as the day commeth but successively houre after houre not altogether And therfore it must follow it will follow and it cannot but follow that it must be satisfied with a thing actually infinite which shal alwaies feed and yet alwayes fill the soule with knowledge riches pleasure every good thing ut semper quidem Deus doceat saith S. Irenaeus homo autem semper discat quae sunt a Deo That God may alwayes teach and man may always learn every degree of light opening to the soule a more ample and more cleare sight of God in himselfe or in his creatures Desire and Love tend to union we desire to have and we love to enjoy And therefore the powers desiring and loving strive to bring home the thing beloved where desire ceases and love remaines And thus also in the acts of knowledge For alhough after our manner of knowing in this world because our knowledge is imperfect it is not required that the thing knowne or understood should be joyned to the understanding by which we know but this is contented with a species or picture of it yet when we know and see clearely God and the understanding come face to face they meete in a close union together The Understanding being the first faculty must as it were first touch the divine Essence I must not here imagine that the union of the blessed soule with God is like the conjunction of Christs humanity with his divinity whence resulteth one person which we call Christ but she shall be joyned to him as a child to the mothers brest where indeed it sucks and takes hold with the mouth but the mother holds it fast in her armes supporting it that it cannot fall either to the ground or from the brest And whereas these two faces are very different the Understanding be it Angelicall or Humane and the Essence of God because God cannot stoop in his Essence though he doth in his power and other Attributes the created understanding as being very low is lifted up to the divine Essence that is strengthened with a light which we call the light of glory And this is a true Comment upon the Prophet David In thy light shall we see light It was excellently Psal 36. 9. done of the Father of lights in the creation of the world in the first place to produce light For as it was the first perfect creature so it shall be the last I meane the light of glory He begins with light he goes on with light look else and he ends with light And why so because God is light and because he ever was and is and ever wil be light The soule shall see in God a most exact Unity branched into a Trinity a most perfect Trinity gathered together in an Unity the most excellent independencie or rather priority of the Father because neither doth the Son or holy Ghost in any proper sense depend the most excellent generation of the Son the most excellent procession of the holy Ghost whereof one is not the other and yet they are not three most excellent but one most excellent O Mystery of Mysteries How the Angels in every degree depend upon God and differ one from another How because he could not make a creature as perfect as himselfe he goes in some kinde as farre as he can gives them as much of him as he is able imparting to them unchangeablenesse and eternity though not from everlasting yet for ever and ever How fitly the
chosen of God fill up the number of the fallen Angels every one enjoying a different degree of blessednesse their workes and meanes of their salvation having beene different and because of every one it might be said Non erat similis illi qui conservaret legem Excelsi Hee had not his like in keeping the law of the most High because nature differing in all the meanes and courses did answerably differ And whereas in the world she saw God in his creatures she shall now see the creatures in God which she saw which she saw not and which humane eye never saw which shall afford her satisfaction though not perfect her blessednesse according to S. Austin He that sees thee O God and thy workes in thee non propter illa beatior sed propter te solum is not more happy for seeing them in thee but for seeing thee onely She shall see as much as God hath set apart for her blessednesse and though she differ from others in her extension of sight she shall not desire to share equally with them because it is one of her perfections and indeed part of her blessednesse to rest perfectly upon the will of God from whence flowes a blessed peace From this beatificall vision or sight of Gods face shall flame out a most ardent love of God Wee behold in the world but certaine emblems of Gods mercie justice power and the like which are out of God and in creatures and yet the reflection sets us on fire with the love of God How then shall we burne in love towards him when we shall see all we see in God though not all in God in whom all is God Verily this love will have a Property above all loves For the lover of God in Heaven cannot but love him For having once seene him he cannot but look upon him and looking upon him he cannot but love him Many objects in this meane world meane in respect of Heaven at the first sight stirre us to love Looking we love and loving we looke and the more we look the more we love and the more we love the more we looke and we cannot tell for the time whether we looke more or love more Call away the soule that lookes upon God offer her a thousand worlds for the present and ten thousand hereafter Bring all the cunning enticements that the Devill can thinke of or that God can give him leave to forge make here an assurance of all that God can give besides himselfe bring Gods owne hand to it Go to her againe speak aloud tell her of another Heaven where although God is not to be enjoyed yet there are Angels to be seene and delights without number to minister pleasures that cannot be numbred Speake words as faire as the soule you speake to And cry with the Devill All these things will I give thee not over one Matt. 4. 9. world O poore O barren temptation but over as many worlds as God can make if thou wilt turne aside from God but a little a very little or winke out but one moment She will not she cannot not that she will not because she cannot or that she cannot because she will not but shee neither will nor can Nothing but Gods holy will can move her to turn aside or wink and that shee knowes is constant to her Happinesse O the basenesse of this world O the beastlinesse of our lusts and carnall desires O the vilenesse of our pride and filthy bravery How foule how sordid how beggerly they are set in comparison with the fight of God in Heaven What poore things are they to take in exchange for eternall blessednesse Go go presently and sell your part of Heaven your part in God for these base things O the vanities of earthly Courts and kingdomes Give us God him him only him and let all go For in God we shall have riches without care honour without feare beauty without fading joy without sorrow content without vexation all good things not one after one but altogether and without the defects annexed to them in this imperfect world The Husband that loves the Wife of his bosome the Mother that loves the child of her wombe the children that love their Parents whose living Images they are the friend that loves his friend for whom he would endanger his life though he hath but one they may frame a conceit of the tender love of God to the soule and of the soule to God but they cannot entirely and comprehensively conceive it For upon earth we may love one man or woman most yet we may love others though not as the persons we love most and our love of others may have no respect to the person we love most and so our love may bee divided We cannot love two most 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plato speakes there is but one best in all kindes one best one best-beloved But in Heaven our love shall settle with all the force it can make upon God where onely one is to bee loved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Justin for Gods most perfect unity requires the perfection of a Monarchy It is the most perfect government where is one supreme Governour and therefore one God And though in Heaven we love Saints and Angels yet that love is a naturall branch of the love of God We love them because we love God we love them in God wee love God in them we love God for himselfe and we love them altogether for God But where a Trinity of persons is the Giver in the highest gift of all and the end of all other gifts there must appeare a trinity of gifts the sight of God the love of God and a rejoycing in God According to the good we receive and the intimacie of its connexion with us so natur'd is our joy It must then be the greatest joy when we shall perfectly enjoy the greatest good But what if the greatest good be all good shall we have all joy yes I write it with great joy all joy the sight of all all love all joy not that can be given or that can bee received but that we can receive Quicquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur whatsoever is received is received according to the capacity of the receiver And though perhaps some one or some few shall receive all that can be given to such a creature for God now gives himselfe out most freely yet they shall not receive all because no finite can receive an infinite nor all that a more perfect creature could receive It will be no small part of the soules joy that Gods will is done in his Saints in his Angels in the saved in the damned The righteous Psal 58. 10 saith the Psalmist shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance There cannot bee a knowledge and possession of God without great joy And will it not afford matter of great comfort to the soule to see in God the dangers of
encrease their blessednesse For where good and evill meet in combat as now after the dayes of Innocence there is opposition and resistance in the performance of good where is resistance there also is difficulty and where wee discover a difference and diversity as well in the measure as in the manner of resistance there occurre also degrees of difficulties and the greater the difficulty the more pretious the reward If wee are not sorry that he sinn'd wee are not sorry that God was abus'd and his very first command broken If we are sorry that he sinn'd wee are sorry that many faire vertues have entred upon our knowledge and practice which otherwise should never either have beene practised or knowne no patience of the best proofe but occasioned by an injury no injury guiltlesse of sinne the cleannest exercise of our Charity towards our neighbour supposes in our neighbour the want of a thing requisite and all want of that generation is the poore childe of sinne the most high and most elevated praxis or exercise of our charity towards God then flames out when we seale our beliefe with our blood in martyrdome no martyrdom but usherd with persecution no persecution free from sinne If we are not sorry that he sinn'd we are not sorry that millions of millions of soules shall now be lost eternally lost never to be found again which if Adam had stood upright had certainely shone with God in Heaven as long as hee And if we are sorry that he sinn'd wee are sorry that Christ joyn'd our flesh and soule to his Divinity expressed his true love to us by dying for us was seene by us here in the world and will feast even the corporall eye in Heaven with the most delightfull sight of his blessed body for ever And howsoever some think otherwise if Adam had not sinned Christ had not tooke our nature for he was not so much delighted with humane nature as hee was desirous to die for mankinde And if wee are not sorry that he sinn'd wee are not sorry that one sinne was the cause of all sinnes and all sinnes the cause of all punishments and that one punishment is behind and waits for us in another world with which all other punishments put together and made one punishment are in no kinde comparable and that I and my neighbours and he that is abroad and perhaps now little thinks of such a businesse are all ignorant how we shall dye now we are borne how wee shall end our lifes now wee are alive now wee are put on how we shall get off and when the Ax is laid to the root which way the Tree shall fall and what shall become of us everlastingly Be wee sorry or not sorry Adam sinned It being done God's will be done And yet because it was but his permissive will his will of sufferance and hee suffers many things against his will not of necessity but because he will I will be sorry that Adam sinn'd that is offended God God made the soule of man as uprightâ—â— his body and clothed it with the white garment of originall Justice God being the fountaine of all power grace and sufficiencie could have hindred 〈◊〉 but because he was not his neighbour nor obliged by any law for who should give a law to the first Law-giver and to demonstrate the full extent of his dominion over his creatures he would not and having left man in the hand of his owne counsell and set within the reach of his hand fire and water and man having wilfully plaid foule God strived to make the best of an ill game and therefore hee drew from the fall of Adam besides the former benefits a more ample demonstration of his power wisedome justice providence and chiefly of his charity the triall of reason the triumphs of vertue in all kindes and the greater splendour of his Church It is as plaine as if it were wrot by the finger of God with the Sun-beames which St. Austen saith speaking of God Non sineret malum nisi ex malo sciret Aug. de corrept et grat cap. 10. elicere bonum He would not suffer ill if he did not well know how to strain good out of ill and sweetnesse out of sowernesse O sweet God I have committed a great deale of sower evill come in thy goodnesse and draw good and sweetnesse out of it the good of Glory to thee and the sweetnesse of peace to mee both here and hereafter Thou hast held my hand in all my actions as well evill as good as a Master the hand of his Scholler whom he teacheth to write and in evill actions I have pulled thy hand thy power after mine to evill which was onely evill to me because I onely intended it in good actions thou didst alwayes pull hold and ove◠〈…〉 hand and truly speaking it was thy good for I of my selfe cannot write one faire letter And I know thou hast not suffered me to run so farre into evill but thou canst turne all to good An infinite wisedome joyn'd with an infinite goodnesse can joyne good in company with evill be it as evill as it can be MEDITATION VII ANd if now I clip away an odd end of ensuing time a little remnant of black and white of nights and dayes a small and contemptible number of evenings and mornings wee strong people that now can move and set to work our armes and leggs and bodies at our pleasure wee that look so high and big withall shall not be what now we are For now we live and pleasing thoughts passe through our heads We runne we ride we stay we sit downe we eat and drink and laugh We rise up and laugh againe and so dance then rest a while and drink and talk and laugh aloud then mingle words of complement and actions of curtesie to shew part of our breeding then muse and think of gathering wealth and what merry dayes we shall enjoy But the time will suddenly be here and it stands now at the dore and is comming in when every one of us from the King God blesse his Majesty to the Beggar God sweeten his Misery shall fall and break in two peeces a soule and a body And the soule be given up into the hands of new Companions that we never saw and be carried either upward or downward in a mourning weed or in a robe of joy to an everlasting day or a perpetuall night which we know there are but wee never saw to be nor heard described by any that saw them And when the body shall bee left behind being now no more a living body no more the busie body it was but a dumb deafe blind blockish unsensible carcasse and now after all the great doings not able to stirre in the least part or to answer to very meane and easie questions as how doe you are you hungry is it day or night and be cast out for carrion it begins to stink away with it for
partly corporall and outwarly furnished with senses are most commonly taught by things which offer and present themselvs to sense And because the seeing faculty is the most quick and apprehensive the sense of seeing hath more instructions And seeing most like to understanding what is seene may best be understood In all Gods creatures as being the creatures of one God there is a strange kind of consent combination and harmony In earthly things heavenly things are strangely set out and proposed to us For if the way had not some springlings of resemblance with the Country we could not so easily know it to be the way Let a man or an Angel give me the name of a creature in the world which will not afford us many good lessons of instruction concerning the Creatour and his dwelling-place whither we are invited Creatures of the lowest ranke voide of life sense and knowledge worke for an end which evidently appeares because they tend and bend alwayes to that which is most convenient and sutable with their being and proceed in their actions as if they were skilled in the compositions of knowledge The Sunne knowes he must runne all day long or the gratefull variety of darknesse and ease will not succeed in due time The earth knowes it is her part to stand still or she cannot bring forth and beare as she does The Sea knowes hee must still bee stirring or he shall be corrupted Which could not bee that is they could not know without knowledge had they not beene directed in their creation by a most knowing power and this is God Marke that my soule here thou hast found him hold him fast let him not goe till hee blesse thee Nor yet then till he passe his royall word which shall never passe that he will blesse thee and blesse thee and blesse thee againe till at last he ranke thee among the Blessed Consideration 4. FOr what is the reason that Grace hath such marvellous affinity with Glory because Grace is the way to Glory The state of Grace is the waking of the day The state of Glory is the day up and ready The state of Grace is pax inchoata the beginning of peace the state of Glory is pax perfecta perfect peace And therefore many of the workes it is certaine which proceed from Grace are indeed workes which pertaine to glory As Extasies Dionysius discoursing of the love of God saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it causes an extasis a traunce and removes the lover from his owne state Dionys Areop c. 4. de diu nom to a more high and sublime condition O how shall I ascend hither to this high point of love towards God our God my God all the Gods I have There is no way but the untwinding of my heart from all idle affection to these low base things of earth for then I shall rise And as Grace is the true likenesse of Glory so nature is not altogether unlike to Grace For Grace being the perfection of Nature according to the worne axiome of Divinity Gratia perficit naturam Grace perfecteth nature an agreement is required and supposed betwixt nature and Grace and therefore all the chiefe acts of nature in the soule are of themselves inclinable and bendable to Grace and yet not altogether of themselves but by Grace as the naturall stirrings of the Will to Charity Here I have the musicke or harmony betwixt Nature Grace Glory As for the correspondence betwixt Grace and Glory because they are both in a great part hidden this needs a very carefull search to finde it But the corresponcence betwixt Nature and Glory or Earth and Heaven is such that because one extreame is apparent because Earth is apparent and alwayes before our eyes one may be found by the other Heaven by Earth Because the creatures of God in the Earth are plaine even to the dullest of us if they learn the art of using creatures as we doe staires and goe up step after step from the lower to the higher from the lesse perfect creature to the more perfect and if we goe still upwards we cannot misse our way we shall come at last to the most perfect which is the Creatour blessed for ever Stones Trees Beasts Men Angels God the cause of these Againe if we deale with any particular Creature as wee doe with a river keepe by the streame till wee come to the fountaine we shall be sure alwayes as sure as sure can be to finde God in the end of our journey If I aske the flower whence it hath its beauty for I know it is a borrowed beauty because it withers it will perhaps at first be ashamed to confesse how meanely it was borne but it must answer at last from the earth If I turne to the earth and question her whence cam'st thou She will answer quickly and gladly From God Nor could the earth so foule a thing yeeld such a beauty without the strange concurse and helpe of one most beautifull which is God Here I have discovered certaine sparkes of the beauty of God in a flower I will observe now and admire how frequently holy Scripture thrusts us upon this admirable kinde of learning I am the Flower of the field I am a Vine I am the way I am the light of the world If I walke abroad in the fields I have a very faire and moving occasion to lift up my heart to him who is the flower of the field And when I see a faire flower growing in my way I shall doe well to leave it growing still with a desire thar others comming after me may from the sight of it looke up to the beauty of God And another shall not doe ill that shall come and crop the flower and smell how sweete God is As I turne home to my house I am desired to turne my heart to him who is the Vine If I stirre any way I am stirred to thinke of him who is the way If I stirre no way and but onely open my eyes I am exhorted to climbe up to him who is the light of the world If I will shut my eyes and passe through Gods world like a blinde man it is impossible I should behold either the flower of the field or the Vine or the way or the light of the world The Devill his enemy who is the way and his enemy who is in the way hath wayes to keepe us alwayes busie to possesse our hearts now with joy now with sorrow now with hope now with feare now with love now with hatred now with one affection and now with another that if we consent to it we shall go sliding through the world and at last fall out of it as ignorant of good things as if wee had never beene alive Gods booke of creatures shall be shut and our eyes shut before we have learn'd to know our letters Consideration 5. IT was a principall point in the malicious doctrine of the Manichees a rout
reason that they both drew their first parentage from a Worme And thus hee sought creepingly amongst the Wormes for what hee could not finde though very neere him In like manner he played with the Immortality of the soule It pleased him and it displeased him He tooke it and he threw it off againe And he was more willing in the end to disclaime it then owne it And the flowings and ebbings of his owne braine had he studied inward might have urged him to a greater confusion of thoughts and more trouble of minde then Euripus in which Saint Gregorie Nazienzen teacheth he Greg. Naz. orat 3. in Julian drowned himselfe And this weake light or dawning of the day was truely most sutable and more then most agreeable with beginners CHAP. VIII SInne being now more strong more witty and more various and Nature being sufficiently informed of her owne weaknesse God sent the world letters from Heaven De illa eivitate unde peregrinamur S. Aug. con 2. in Psal 90. saith Saint Austin hae literae nobis venerunt these letters came from the great Imperiall City from which we travell And Moses the Messenger that brought these letters of so great importance frō God to the world delivered his message with caution and with respect to the Jewes hardnesse as it is cleerely gathered out of the words in which Christ arguing with the Pharisees concerning the permissive Law of Divorcement saith Moses because of the hardnesse of your hearts suffered you to put away your Mat. 19. 8. wives but from the beginning it was not so And so he corrected the Law in conformity to a more perfect condition And therefore the Greeke Church with us doth onely breake Matrimony in the case of Adultery in which point Eugenius the fourth laboured to reconcile her with the Church of Rome at Florence but he could not And even in the old dayes of the old Law God altered the phrase of his proceedings with correspondence to the person with whom he dealt and with whom he was to deale For the old Law being a Law of feare a Law of bondage and a maine difference betwixt the old Law and the new being as Saint Austin giveth it Aug. l. octoginta trium quaest tom 4. Timor Amor Feare and Love conversing now with the Synagogue a servant a bond-woman he stiles himselfe God the Lord Jehovah Mighty Terrible Yet meditating upon the new Law being a Law of Grace and liberty and turning to the sweete Spouse in the Canticles to which Law she did indeed most properly belong he doth as it were cover his greatnesse hide his beames and draw a great vaile over his Majesty For he cals himselfe a Bridegroome a friend a lover And in the whole book of Canticles we cannot finde with both our eyes one proper name of God not one of the tenne great names of God which are so easie to be found in the old Testament and which Saint Hierome doth briefely explicate in his learned Epistle to Marcella God will not be knowne to S. Hier. Ep. ad Marcel his bashfull and tender Spouse by the names which move terrour and affrightment For he would not as a man may say for all the world trouble or fright his pretty maiden Spouse And uses onely the titles which kindle and cherish love CHAP. IX ALl this while there occurred as well in the booke of Creatures as in the love-letters from the Creatour many faire and solid emblems of a Divine providence goodnesse wisedome mercie justice and so forth And before this man might already learne sufficiently that there was one God even in the Manuscript of Creatures by turning before his lesson from cause to cause till he came to the first cause from motion to motion till he came to the first Mover But the capacity of the childish young world was yet too meane too shallow to receive in plaine language the mysterious doctrine of a Trinity the heart of man being as it were not yet altogether unfolded not perfectly open'd into a Triangle Nor did ever any spirituall Traveller to this day meete with the perfect likenesse of the blessed Trinity in Creatures For there is no principle in naturall knowledge no foot-step of God in Creatures by the direction of which any created understanding either Humane or Angelicall may reasonably close with the assent or opinion or even suspition of the blessed Trinity or which can give us any true notice that it is possible For although the Understanding Will and Memory of man in which as in the most during part Gods image consisteth are three faculties and one soule yet they fall under being one and three after the manner as God is three and one nor is there such a difference in the faculties as distinction in the Persons And if you distinguish the faculties really with the Thomists the Persons will not be so really distinguished and yet they will be truely distinguished one from another besides that every one will be the same in Essence and the whole Essence If the learned urge that the soundest part of the heathen writers speake honourably of the blessed Trinity as Mercurius therefore called though some thinke otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orpheus and that Plato speaks high things of the word divine love and other Platonists out of whose books S. Austin reporteth that he gathered these jewels this golden chaine of holy Scripture In principio erat verbum verbum S. Aug. l. 7 confess c. 9. Io. 1. 1. erat apud Deum Deus erat verbum In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God As if the Eagle had not taken it in a high flight from the holy Ghost but stooped to them for it I answer these Philosophers sucked the sweets of knowledge they had in this kind out of the Scripture And Clemens Alexandrinus Clem. Alex l. 1 Siromatum maketh mention of a certaine old Greeke edition of the old Testament before that of the Septuagint which came to the hands of Plato and of other Philosophers And also these Philosophers as it is abundantly manifest in Saint Justine travelled all into Egypt to better their S. Just paranesi sive cohort ad Gracos knowledge where the Jewes in their servitude had left many visible footsteps of heavenly learning Yet where they speake of the word and so plainely of the blessed Trinity they received their knowledge in the same strange manner as the Sibyls and they spoke as Plato said of the Sibyls many brave matters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not Plat. apud Just in paranesi reaching to the deepe and genuine sense of any word they said and the spirit failing not being able to recover the least representation of what they had said And truely Theodor. lib. 2. apud Gracos Theodoret gives a most exquisite reason why God was not willing to deliver the knowledge of the blessed Trinity
exercise of obedience they may not question the sufficiencie of the command And both they and their Priests may with more leave and a lesse breach of Law commit Fornication or Adultery or Sodomy or beastiality a thousand times over then marry although Gods Law was antecedent to their vow of chastity and is of more validity yea though we should grant their vow as the vow to be ratified with some limitation by another Law of God because the matter of the vow is of greater perfection It came from the Monke of Doway that not long agoe it was a custome in Biscay a Province of Spaine and observed with all exactnesse of diligence that every man having married a wife sent her the first night to the Priest of the Parish And that these different Orders of Religion did not take their beginning from the speciall inspiration of God I will manifestly prove out of their owne Canons The Councell of Lateran celebrated in Concil Later the dayes of of Pope Innocentius the third hath this Canon Ne nimia Religionum diversitas gravem in Ecclesia Dei confusionem inducat firmiter prohibemus ne quis de caetero novam Religionem inveniat Sed quicunque voluerit ad Religionem converti unam de approbatis assumat Lest the diversity of Religions should trouble all and raise a confusion in the Church of of God we firmely forbid any man hereafter to invent a new Religion but whosoever will be turned to Religion let him apply himselfe to one of those which are already approved Marke the phrase of these Lateran Bishops invent a new Religion and I suppose they would not put limits to the Spirit of God and for the confusion here mentioned it is as plaine to be seene as the Church of Rome for in dissention is the destruction of love and order and consequently confusion And what true learning can the world expect from these people who cannot speake or write the sincere meaning of their minds because their tongues and pens are confined to the severall opinions of their orders Armed with these grounds I tooke up a good and masculine resolution and letting fall Popery made a confession of Faith against which the gates of Hell can never prevaile in the words and manner following CHAP. XVI I Beleeve that the Church of England comparing the weake and decayed estate of the Roman Church in the beginning of this latter age with the strong and flourishing condition of the Primitive times some hundreds of yeares after Christ and finding the Church of Rome with relation to those times so unlike the Church of Rome and so contrary to it selfe had good reason to trust the soules and eternity of her faithfull people rather with the old purity of the younger times neere Christ the ancient of dayes then with the new belefe of these old and dangerous times It being confessed and all Histories as if they had beene written with the same pen testifying that in those golden times the name of Pope was not heard of The Bishop of Rome was indeed esteemed a Bishop a Patriarch and there was a full point All the supremacie hee could possibly then claime rested in his being a supreme Patriarch Which supremacie gave him the first place allowed him to give the first sentence and there hee stuck And how little the Councell of Nice of Constantinople and all the Grecian Councels favoured the Latin Church and their Patriarch the Bishop of Rome he that can read and understand may be a witnesse And to consider the just ordering of Church-imployments Constantine the first Christian Emperour if I may stile him so without prejudice to Philip ex sacerdotum sententia saith Ruffinus advised by certaine Ruff. Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 1. Bishops called the Councell of Nice And he cannot be said as Bellarmine answereth to have executed the Popes commandement For the Author seemeth not in his relation to have thought of the Bishop of Rome unlesse you will urge he thought of him in a confused manner as being in the number of Bishops Behold here the great height of Princely and temporall authority Edesius and Frumentius labouring Ruff. Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 9 to reconcile a great Kingdome of India to Christ dealt their affaires with Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria they had not learned the duty of repairing to Rome Observe the indifferencie of Episcopall and Spirituall power And againe it being most certaine that in those cleane and holy times the Sacrament of the Eucharist was not adored and consequently not beleeved to be God and was freely delivered in both kindes to the people And I wonder that the strange inconveniencies which the nicenesse and curiosity of Rome pretendeth were not perceived by the cleare eyes of the holy Prelates in those dayes who little dreaming of a reall presence little thought waking that the administration of the Sacrament in one kinde gave the things signified by both kindes the body and bloud and was therefore sufficient to spirituall nourishment And moreover it appearing plainely in all the old Monuments of Records that the Scripture was then read not to the eares but through the eares to the hearts of people in a knowne language So that when the supremacie of the Pope beganne to take place then onely his language began to be supreme as well as he More a great deale may be said but I have not time to say it at this time Indeed and indeed the Church of Rome in my thoughts is rather the carcasse of a Church then the Church animated with the holy Ghost and is like the ruines of a City burnt or decayed by which we may perceive there hath beene a City Her people may say Fuimus Troes we have been the beautifull Church of Christ It can doe no harme if it be knowne that three dayes before I preached my first Sermon by which I declared my recantation certaine Papists very neere to me in familiarity came to my lodging and desiring to dine with me furnished the table with provision of their owne buying But some houres after there rose such a tumult and combustion in my body that I was forced to take my bed and keep it and yet leave it every halfe houre that for three dayes I slept if at all but very little And when I came to the Pulpit I was more like the wrack of poyson then a living body And yet God carried me through that good work with great power THE FIFTH BOOKE CHAP. I. HAving thus boldly behaved my selfe in the open Field the Popish Priests and Papists beganne to let their tongues goe at me with all their power Potiphars wife threw slanders after Joseph flying from her The Dragon cast rivers of water out of his mouth thinking to drowne the Woman with her childe that had escaped to the Wildernesse The Plutarch Crocodiles are said to beate themselves when they have lost their prey Let the Crocodile correct himâ—â—â—â—â— but let him spare me
to hurt him Or did he ever fight and at last went not away conquerour As God hath furnished you with gifts of nature which you by his helpe have bettered with labour so he requires the imployment of them in his owne service And if the imployment or use be not reasonably paid a severe account must be rendered Can you without a pressure of conscience call that a Church in which you are a thing so torne and distracted Can your soule which hath hungred after heavenly things feede now with the swine upon such huskes God for his Christs sake open your eyes that you may see and know him and his Church and also your selfe Which he prayes day and night that loves you night and day The Answer Sir VVHereas you stile your selfe my old Acquaintance without any farther illustration I have greater reason to feare and to flie then to hope and pursue because amongst my old Acquaintance more have beene evill then good And by the sequell it appeares that you stand in the ranke of the evill ones And that you are my old Acquaintance in the same construction as the World is old of which one sayes Mundus qui ob antiquitatem sapere deberet c. The World which because it is so old ought to be wise growes every day more unwise as it is more old A hand I have received and a good one but that as good a heart came with it will not sinke into my heart The hand is faire but how shall I know the heart is not foule Indeed Aristotle sayes that speech is the picture or image of the minde But hee meanes when the speech is the mindes true Interpreter You cannot be ignorant that it is a received though a close principle amongst the Jesuits We may be free of faire words because they goe not from us as drops of bloud or money with losse or expence O the riches of experience Both the Indies are poore compared with them That you dare not trust me with your name or person gives evidence for me that I am more true to my Superiours then to you And good reason Because I conceive there mediates no reall tie betwixt you and me but the worne and old tie of old Acquaintance And I never learned that God obliging a man to his old Acquaintance joyned them with the bonds of extraordinary love in the least degree or bound them to a performance of the acts depending upon it But I am glewed to my Superiours by the firme tyes of extraordinary love and subjection and therefore of duty and obedience I am in reference to them as an inferiour part in respect of the head and shoulders And therefore if my old Acquaintance shall strike at the head or annoy the body of which I am a foote I shall kick him down if I can even to the ground and say there lies my old Acquaintance The man whom you propose to me under the title of an innocent man and a lover of me and of my soule would have beene more truely described if you had said A wilde Priest a swaggarer a lover and haunter of the Taverne even when the sword of death hung by a small haire over his head It was my chance to meete him in the Kings high-way attired like a Knight or Lord travelling alone in a faire Coach drawne with foure great Horses towards the house of a Lady whose Priests have beene the pernicious cause of many grievous disorders in the Countrey where I live and this in a most dangerous and suspected time And having there endeavoured to pervert me and breake the bonds and ligaments of my duty to God and of my Allegiance to the King besides the concealement of such a treason in regard of the Law how should I have answered such a concealement in foro interno in the inward court of my heart and at the Bench of my conscience Occisio Animarum the murder of soules is the highest breach of the Commandement Thou shalt doe no murder Was not this a murderous attempt in the Kings high-way And pray does he that attempts to murder the soule of a man love the man If he lov'd me hee lov'd all me or he lov'd not me I confesse we argue differently because our arguments proceed upon different grounds and suppositions If my grounds stand fast my discourse will prove irrefragable You call me poore man And I am so or I am sure was so when you knew me And you pitie me and your pitie is baptized the childe of your love Saint Gregory Nazianzen hath a pretty phrase when he sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Many speake golden words but their speech though it points at the practique and the object be some practicable thing is both in the act and in effect all speculative that is both the intention and execution end and vanish away in speculation It seemes then that your love is not unlike the water of Aesculapius his Well which no commixtion or approximation can urge to putrifie Let those beleeve it to be sweete that have not tasted of it The bitternesse is scarce yet out of my mouth I am going in hast and you call after me whither so fast And shall I tell you whither Shall I in good earnest I will then I am going and my businesse requires hast to see if I can finde any Priests or Jesuits lurking in the secret corners adjoyning or neighbouring to the Parliament house I know that their life though it be mixt hath so much of action in it that they must alwayes bee doing You desire me to look back At your entreaty I do so And looking back I still finde that every where there are whole swarmes of waspish and turbulent Papists For that which followes God is a Father still and so forth I learned all that lesson in my conversion to the Church of England And I hope I shall never forget it You tell me that I seemed to your people a man of a good nature and religiously enclined Here is a plaine Jesuiticall flattery with a sharpe sting in the taile of it Why now you seeme too seeme to praise when you dishonour But how will you make it seeme that I did onely seeme It is very naturall and proper that bonum reale a reall good should be also bonum apparens should appeare to be good For otherwise it would not trahere in amorem sui draw men to love it But it is an Ethicall observation that men used to foule sinnes are so conscious of them and yet so desirous to disavow them that their guiltinesse still hammering upon their sinnes their obstinacie helped with their cunning presently takes their tongues off from acknowledging them to bee in themselves and because if they be being accidents they must be in convenient subjects fastens them upon others You remember one thing and you understand another I remember likewise that being a young stripling I was active in bestowing my service upon your Church