teaches of all that ever hee taught And what is it that here we have no continuing City but seeke one to come Heb. 13. 14 Could we sinfull creatures fore see our own ends and the lamentable chances that lie watching for us as we passe by such a day and such an houre the hardest of us would weepe let us weepe then for the cause of all our misery our execrable sinnes Christ wept over Jerusalem because he saw the hearts and fore-saw the ends of all the people in the City He saw perhaps one stretched out with pride that should after two months die like a Dog in a ditch He saw another pawning his very soule for honour that should not live out the fourth part of a yeare to enjoy it What silly fooles the Devill makes us Here he saw one catching and scraping for mony that he was certain should be call'd to a strict account and cast into Hell within the short space of a month There another cheering up pampering his flesh with dainties and still the tother cup that the wormes were within lesse then seven dayes to enter upon Here he heard one swearing and tearing God the holy name of God and there presently he heard God also swearing in his wrath that he should not enter into his rest And here another venting as many lies as sentences while he heard God say cut him off let him speake no more it is my course for the longer he lives he will be the more wicked He might see two goe reeling in their drunkennesse one of whom the same night should break his necke from a window and the other be stab'd to death in a riot Two more following the vile motions of their owne filthy lusts and in league with base women that the same weeke should cut their purses and throats together He saw the greatest part of them pursuing earnestly their owne sinfull desires and either diseases gathering to a head inwardly in their bodies or Gods judgements outwardly mustering their forces to send them to Hell out of hand These mournefull passages Christ saw and being very sorry to see them wept He pronounces the sentence of destruction against the City and he weepes while he does it Hine illae lacrymae Hence came those teares He wept not put on with the thought of his owne passion though very nigh but of their destruction And therefore he sayes Daughters of Jerusalem weepe not for mee for whom then Lord but weepe for your selves and for your children Doe we love our children our pretty little Babes let us weep for our sins that we may not weepe for them And can we see Christ weep him that died for us weep and not offer our service to wipe the teares from his eyes Saint Gregorie Nazianzen rapt out of himselfe in consideration of the poore condition of the poore cried out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O my dainties and their misery And thus we may cry of the soules in Hell of some of our friends and neighbours that died lately O our joy our quiet and their miserable torments which we ought not to pity which God pities not When I have wrote all I can write I feare all will end here There is a blessed repose in God for good men and a cursed prison for wicked livers But we are so busie in the world betwixt both that we have no time to thinke of either to looke upwards or downewards Yet know that we cannot stay betwixt both for ever We are certainely appointed for one where we must reside for ever and ever Good Reader stand firme against the Devill and against his two Factours the Flesh and the World Beware you that thinke your selves to be morall men and women of little sinnes Of sinnes little in our weake estimation because they canker not our credits nor cast upon us the staine of wicked livers Doe wee give to our endeavours in their commission a command to please God or men Saint Austin speakes like himselfe Noli quotidiana peccata contemnere quia minima sunt sed time quia plura sunt Plerunque minimae bestiae si multae sint necant Doe not contemne thy daily sinnes because they are small but feare them because they are many Small beasts if they bee many many times kill And the smallest sinne that can be committed but once committed troubles exceedingly and offends the most cleane cleare eyes of God If you are still obstinate the Devill is more good then you the blacke Devill of Hell For Grace is not offered to him and therefore he cannot lay hold upon it It is offered to you with entreaties and you refuse it And moreover the Devill is confirmed in his obstinacie you are not God invites you I am sure of it I am sure I came from him The Angels and Saints from Heaven all the chosen of God from all parts of the world pray you as very desirous of your company The holy Church entreats you for I came likewise from her to you Lissen to your thoughts marke there your own poore soules beseech you trembling like the Hart shot neare the heart and strucke with the fear of eternall damnation crying to you we were made for God O put us into his hands Our hearts are very sicke of a very dangerous disease worse then the Plague chilnesse in Gods service Let us write upon the dore in red letters as they doe upon the dores of houses infected with the Plague the pen being dipt in the bloud of Christ Lord have mercie upon us Yes yes have mercie upon us and not for our sakes not for our Fathers sakes not for our Ancestors sakes not for the Saints and Angels sakes not for the Virgin Maries sake but for Jesus Christ his sake CHAP. XIX EXtraordinary occasions require extraordinary proceedings The Copie of a Letter sent to my Lodging in Thames-street Mr. Carpenter AN old acquaintance of yours sends his hand accompanied with his heart to you although he dares not trust you either with his person or name Especially considering that you traduced an innocent man before the Bench as a seducer because he lov'd you and therefore desired you to remember from whence you had fallen and repent of your errour Poore man I pitie you and therefore I pitie you because I love you Whither so fast Looke backe God is a Father still and his Church still a mother and each hath many bowels of compassion You seemed to us a man of a good nature and religiously enclined And I remember when your Pen also was imployed in the behalfe of the Catholike Church And yet I understand that you are not contented to speake but that you have wrote also and are now ready to speake from the Presse the dishonour of her that was your own Mother and is Christs own Spouse Thinke without passion Is not this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fight with God And with what weapons when you fight with him can you wound him
Man hath being with a stone is lives and encreases with a plant is lives encreases and is sensible with a beast is lives understands and is spirituall on the surer side with an Angell It is a strange saying but as true as truth An Angell is more perfect then a man but a man is enriched with more perfections then an Angell and comes more nigh to his Maker this way then an Angel David saith of him Thou hast made him a little lower then the Psal 8. 5. Angels The Angel indeed is more compleatly perfect as being of a finer substance and borne with large naturall knowledge and without the troublesome connexion of a body But man is stored with a fairer number of perfections albeit those perfections which the Angel hath spread farther in fairenesse then these of man Shall this faire creature the noble work of God worship the meane work of man an Image which is but ashes in the likenesse of an Image and which the Popish Doctors confesse if a Papist or other person be driven with extremity of colde hee may burne to relieve his body Goe now man and worship him who when thy body falleth to the poore condition of a stone or block or of the Image that men would perswade thee to worship and stirreth onely as it is moved by a living power and shall be left not a man but the Image of a man the Image of God being departed with and in the soule shall acknowledge his owne Image if not defaced with the worship of Images or other sinnes and call thy soule and his Image home to his rest CHAP. 3. I Cannot come so nigh but I must needs have one pluck at the invocation of Saints By what device can we invocate the Saints without great injury to Gods glory For the more help we crave and expect from others though with some reference to God the lesse wee seeme to depend upon God and want of dependance be it reall or rationall and onely in appearance breeds neglect And a simple wretch beleeving that in what place soever of the world he is hee is there heard by his Saint and his petition granted and as they teach more easily granted doe you think his heart is not vehemently prompted to deifie his Saint I have heard an Italian say in Rome and hee spoke to me when he said it being transported with a high thought of the Popes greatnes so like the greatnesse of God that hee did exceedingly pitty the poore blind Englishmen who beleeved aright in some things and embraced many verities as that there is one God and three persons and the like and yet did not beleeve so plaine and open a matter that the Pope is God upon earth But they meet me as I goe A vile sinner is unworthy to appeare before God in his owne person Is it so Why then doth Christ make publike proclamation Come unto me all yee that labour and are heavy laden Mat. 11 28 and I will give you rest Wee must come unto him that giveth rest And all must come even they that labour under the waight of a burdened conscience they that are in labour and desire to be delivered of a Hedghog that wounds and teares them in their tender inside The spirits labour when men are upon dying and wee that labour to keepe life and soule together must come to him And it is God who as the Prophet David saith Humilia respicit in coelo in terra looks back upon the humble things of heaven and earth For as the low things of earth are humble in respect of him so also the sublime high things of Heaven But he bowes downe his attention to all as the Sun visiteth with equall clearenesse the garden of flowers the greene medow the field of Lillies and the dirty ditch One example is eminent And behold a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts and Mat. 15. 22 cryed unto him saying Have mercy on mee O Lord thou Son of David my daughter is grievously vexed with a devill Shee was a woman of Canaan but for her unworthinesse her name is concealed And shee came out of the same coasts but what coast or where her house stood or whether or no she had a house wee must not learne And yet shee boldly cries unto him for mercy She gives him his titles by which she acknowledges his power and his gentlenesse For she calls him Lord and the Sonne of David a meek man And shee goes to him for a remedy against the devill that came to destroy the works of the devill Her daughter was possessed with a devill and quod possidetur saith Thomas of Aquine expounding the definition Tho. Aqu. 1. p. q. 10. art 1. of Eternity given by Boetius firmiter quietè habetur We hold fast and quietly the thing we possesse Yet shee hopes and feares and feares and hopes againe and in that hope goes to him couragiously Now certainly hee will come running towards her and meet her above halfe way It is quite otherwise But hee answered her not a word O poore woman why then Ver. 23. the Popish doctrine will appeare probable Christ will not answer a word to a vile sinner speaking in her owne person Had he but look'd upon her with a compassionate eye and said Alas poore woman she would have called him Son of David once again But he answered her not a word And his Disciples came and besought him saying Send her away for she crieth after us She follow'd still and her cries went before her if hee will not see her he shall heare her and he shall know that she is a woman His Disciples begin to think that shee is as much vext with a devill as her daughter shee cries so loud and beseech him to send her away But he answered and said I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Ver. 24. Poore wretch what shall become of her She is lost and lost againe lost in her selfe and lost in her daughter but shee is not of the sheep of the house of Israel And therefore if hee be sent to none but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel hee will never finde her though shee be lost and hee finde what is lost Then came she and worshipped him saying Lord help mee Make roome Ver. 25. give way there now she comes She breaks through the presse and down she falls upon her knees before him shee feares that shee was rejected because she had not worshipped him and now she humbles her heart and her body and lifts up her hands crying Lord help me Is it possible now that Christ should not melt into compassion and thaw into sweet drops of teares and mercy But Ver. 26. he answered and said It is not meet to take the childrens bread and to cast to dogs What a dog If shee be a dog shee is not a curst dog Was ever a
And thus they both satisfie for their sinnes which merited hell and by a surplussage of goodnesse merit Heaven And very often the roughnesse asperity with which God handles them is greater they tell us then the satisfaction due on their part which falling betwixt God and man drops into his Treasury of Indulgences whom they make halfe a God and halfe a man there to lye in the same roome with the copious redemption of Christ and be conferred when and to whom his Holinesse shall please who having two Treasuries seldome gives out of one but hee takes into the other They seeme to stand upon very even tearmes with God or rather to goe beyond him and yet he hath beene alwayes observed to reward above good and to punish beneath evill How does the Scripture hold that we are unprofitable servants if wee satisfie in a fit kinde for what wee have done and if wee satisfie both for our selves and others Here is a faire and rich harvest of profit If satisfaction can be wrought by a man why did not God spare his Sonne and send a creature to dye for us I doe not leane with my whole body upon this argument Here is the pillar it is one of Hercules his pillars beyond which we cannot goe That could not be effected by a creature because it was the great and generall payment of satisfaction and God required the satisfaction to be true and sufficient but this in their opinion can and therefore it cannot take the name of satisfaction without obligation to the satisfaction of Christ and to share the titles and immunities of Christs passion with him is a strange kind of pride from which Christ for ever hereafter defend my soule It is confessed that the merit of Christ is merit in the rigour of Justice because it â—â—keth it's worth and nobility from the dignity of the person and therefore stands not essentially and with both feet upon the favour of him that accepts it But the merit of man cannot oblige God to give a reward For God naturally hath no obligation to make retribution to a creature And whereas they say hee hath struck the stroke and made a bargaine by which hee hath bound himselfe to retribution and this bargaine standing in force our reward is due by Justice this truly is the pretious fruit of the divine liberality and the mercy of God in Christ Jesus whom Synesius calleth viscerum ingentium partam the birth of huge Synes in hymnis bowells who satisfying the infinite Justice of an infinite God for the commission of sinne an infinite evill the cause urged that the merit also should be infinite And if we compare his works being of infinite valour with our works betwixt finite and infinite there is a great some say an infinite distance all say no proportion Hath God took all the wayes that invention can possibly compasse to make up his full dominion over man and to hold and turne all his faculties by a little string at his pleasure to lay him low and make him supple to take the print of Humility and shall hee now merit in any sense not onely a particular blessing be it spirituall or temporall but all that which God professeth hee hath to give Heaven and happinesse and our found and sweet sleepe in his soft armes for evermore It would be a foolish passage of the worme and it would deserve to be trod upon if it should seeke to goe with it's long traine upwards and it is not sutable with earth to desire the high place of Heaven No pride is halfe so injurious to Gods highnesse as when wee are proud of spirituall Graces And the reason is good mettall The gifts of nature as health strength the readinesse of the senses although they are Gods gifts yet are they naturally due and proper to the body but the gifts of grace are by no law due to the soule for a man is compleat in the state of a man without Grace and Grace if not of free gift is not Grace and therefore to be proud of them is especially grievous because wee are proud of those things which are altogether heavenly and which wholly belong to the King himselfe and which hee bestoweth with his owne hands and which hee most freely giveth and which hee hath set his owne armes upon for the least degree of grace beares the likenesse of God and his holinesse to move in us an acknowledgement of him as the true and onely giver Let S. Austen speak for hee speaks to God Quisquis tibi numerat merita sua quid tibi numerat nisi munera tua Whosoever numbreth S. Aug. in Confes to thee his own merits what doth he number to thee but thy owne gifts In his time the bold use of the word merit taught vaine people to number their merits in the presence of God and to his very face And many hundreds of yeares after even the Councell of Trent forced to deny their owne word in the sense and power of it said of God Cujus tanta est erga omnes homines Concil Trid. sess 6. ca. 16 bonitas ut eorum velit esse merita quae sunt ipsius dona whose goodnesse runnes with such a great streame towards all mankinde that he permitteth his owne gifts to take the title of their merits Away then with the scandalous phrase of speaking It is a wise fish which presaging a storme fastneth it selfe upon a rock Christ crucified is the rock and upon him will I fix my soule and sing with S. Bernard Meritum meum miserationes Domini The mercies of S. Bern. the Lord are the whole substance of my merit Then let the Sunne be eclipsed the earth tremble let the veyle of the olde Temple teare it selfe and afterwards let the proud Jewes boast of their law and works I shall be secure There is no danger of Spiders under this Canopy he needs not feare a thunderbolt that sleepes in the shadow of a Lawrell CHAP. 9. 1. THe Nunneries in Spaine are not altogether so holy as they desire us to beleeve All the Nunns in one house seated in Madrill were as the Jesuits enformed us discovered to be Witches even when I studied there And yet they had gained such an estimation of sanctity that they were famous for it but all by impostures For they would hang betwixt heaven and earth in the sight of their Novices as if they were caught up from the ground in a rapture or extasie and so full fraught with heavenly thoughts that their soules putting themselves on with much vehemency towards heaven and assisted with Gods helping hand carried their bodies along with them And their holy Nun of Carion as I have bin enformed by a Traveller of worth is proved to have beene a Witch Their famous Nun of Lisbon in Portugall which gave her blessing to the old Spanish Fleet lying there at anchor dyed confessing she had lived a Witch and yet they
and our thoughts that are all upon the wing and the Ministers of Contemplation must first be mourners and then white harmelesse and heavenly and this will be to us a sure signe that we shall inherit the land of Canaan And because the devill is an old Thiefe that cares not from whom he steales wee must learne of Abram of whom it followes And when Verse 11. the fowles came downe upon the carcasses Abram drove them away The devils temptations cannot be hindered from making towards the sacrifice or from setling upon it but we may drive them off before they fall too they must not carry a bill-full away Quod emit saith S. Austin of Christ tanti S. Aug. emit ut solus possideat What he bought he therefore bought at so high a rate that alone he might possesse it all CHAP. 4. I Shall now expose my selfe to the censure of people that have divers natures and divers religions and some will frowne others laugh others speake merrily some furiously as their affections move them and as the present state in which they are in shall prompt them But how divers soever they be I shall be still one and the same Yet I could wish we were all of one minde not that they might speake well of mee for I am too too plyable to the temptations of Pride and shall be glad to be humbled by them but that they might please God It is a high and deepe observation which the Bishop of Pontus hath in his Epistle to Leo the Emperor Cùm nullus Episcopus Ponti in ep ad Leon. Imp. ignoret quia Sanctae laudabilis Trinitatis primum bonum sit pax indivisio Vnde Deus unus est esse creditur No understanding man is ignorant that the first good thing in the blessed Trinity considered as the Trinity in Unity is peace and indivision Wherefore God both is and is beleeved to be one by vertue of this peace and indivision And as our God is three and one I would to God wee were many and one But this will never be while the Pope commands so much and the Jesuits obey so much One of the lesse principall ends of my writing is the same with the end of warre to speake with a Councell ut in pace vivamus that I may live in peace Bonum Tho. Aq. part 1. quaest 1. art 5. exercitus saith Thomas Aquinas ad bonum civitatis ordinatur An Army is not raised but to maintaine the peace of a Citie or Common-wealth And before I have done it will be acknowledged they have endeavoured to disturbe my peace As for well-disposed people I desire them to learne that God speakes not in his owne person to us For besides that he stands infinitely above us in greatnesse and majestie he is a spirit He sends messengers to us some in the freshnesse of the morning some in the heat of the day some from one place some from another some from beyond France and Germany and even from Rome it selfe and those of the same forme and fashion as we are that wee should not start at the apparition with the priviledge of this faire promise to them He that heareth you heareth me and hee that despiseth you despiseth Luk. 10. 16 me and he that despiseth mee despiseth him that sent me Heere is a gradation without a fallacy and the strength of it relyes upon the mission by which Apostles are sent by Christ and Christ was sent by his Father and upon the authority of the Commission given to them Where note that the Father sends but is not sent for mission supposeth in the sender at least a kinde of priority the Sonne is both sent and sends the holy Ghost sends not but is sent The children of Israel desired that Moses one of their owne company and acquaintance might speak to them For God was so loud and terrible in the delivery that he seemed to crush and over whelme mortality Speak thou with us said they to Moses and wee 20 Ex. 19. will heare but let not God speak with us lest we dye For hee speaks thunder and lightning and the trumpet sounds when hee speaks and perhaps hee is preparing for a battell and when he speaks the mountain smokes and the fire cannot be farre off I will say something And yet I will not say it But if I should say it what can the Papists say The Church which gives a mission gives it as she tooke it from Christ As she tooke it from Christ or his Apostles she was a pure Church As shee was a pure Church she gave and now giveth because she hath beene a pure Church and received her warrant in her purity when shee giveth a mission authority to preach against all impurity both in faith and manners either in her selfe or else-where And behold being sent I am come Now let us answer in some kinde to Gods kindnesse It is one part of wisedome in a serpent commended and commended to us by one who loved us dearely that going to drink he cleanseth every secret corner and dark turning of his mouth from poyson Be yee wise as serpents Moses was cōmanded to put off his shooes because it was holy consecrated ground All terrene thoughts and earthly affections bemired with treading deepe in the world All sinister opinions and judgments steeped in prejudice are here to be layd downe or purified Almighty God hath indeed a little good ground in the world but it is duly and daily weeded manured well clear'd from stones and briars before the heavenly sower comes to work Here therefore even here before we take another step let us turn the face of all our thoughts towards God to stand like officious and dutifull servants attending upon the nod and pleasure of our great Lord and Master Behold as the eyes of servants looke unto the hand of their Masters Psa 123. 2. and as the eyes of a Mayden unto the hand of her Mistresse so our eyes waite upon the Lord our God untill that he have mercie upon us sayes the sweet singer of Israel We must place our eyes upon the hands of our Lord. For the hands are the instruments of work and it is in our duty to be ready when God gives as it were with his finger the first touch of actuall grace that we may joyne our soules by his help with him in vertuous action CHAP. 5. IT is an old Axiome as old as Philosophy Veritas una error autem multiplex Truth is one and error manifold Truth must needs be one because it hath but one first origine and such a one as is most constant to it selfe and can never be found in two contrary tales And error must needs be manifold because it hath many fountaines and such as seldome mingle their streames and seldome agree wholy in any thing but in this that they all erre and runne beside the channell There are many wayes
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
dog heard to cry Lord help me I wonder she breaks not out Am I a dog I would have you well know I am not a dog I am a woman You a man sent from Heaven and call a woman dog Had I beene call'd any thing but an unclean dog I had not car'd I doe not remember that I ever bark'd or bit any man And must I now be call'd a dog Her language is of another straine And she said Truth Lord Ver. 27. yet the doggs eat of the crums which fall from their Masters table The woman will be a dog or any thing that hee calls her and shee confesses that her place is the doggs place under her Masters Table and all that she desires is that she may lick up the little crums which fall from his trencher But Christ could hold no longer his very bowels yern'd and hee gave her her full desire good measure pressed downe and running over St. Chrysostome a great enemie to Popish impositions shewes plainly that he was not of the Popes Latin Religion in these golden words En prudentiam hujus S. Chrysost hom 12 de Cananea mulieris non precatur Jacobum non supplicat Johannem non adit ad Petrum nec Apostolorum caetum respicit aut ullum eorum requirit sed pro his omnibus poenitentiam sibi comitem adjungit ad ipsum fontem progreditur Behold the prudence of this woman she bends not her prayer to James He begins with James the Lords brother not with Peter and goes on with Iohn the Disciple whom Christ loved and of all that he names Peter is the last she doth not make her Supplication to Iohn shee runnes not to Peter she regards not that the Apostles are all together neither doth she request any of them But in place of all this shee and her repentance goe on to the very fountaine it selfe And againe in the same Homily hee strikes downe the Pope and all his Cardinals at a blow If thou O sinner wouldest have accesse unto God Nihil opus est atriensi servo vel intercessore sed dic miserere mei Deus Is enim te audit quocunque sis loco undecunque invocetur There is no need of any Court-creature or other to intercede for thee but onely say Have mercy upon me O God for wheresoever thou art hee heareth thee and from what place soever he is called upon But the old objection now it comes They goe to God by his Saints as Subjects to their King by his Nobles and Servants And because I have begun to mow up their dry Sophistry with Fathers I will proceed St. Ambrose speaks thus Solent misera S. Ambr. in Rom. 1. uti excusatione dicentes per istos se posse ire ad Deum sicut per Comites itur ad Reges Ideò ad Regem per Tribunos Comites itur quia homo utique est Rex ad Deum autem quèm utique nihil latet suffragatore non est opus sed mente devota Vbicunque enim talis locutus fuerit respondebit illi Some are wont to use a miserable excuse saying By Saints they may have recourse to God as by Nobles to Kings We therefore by the Kings Officers and Nobles goe to the King because the King himselfe is a man But to goe to God from whose eyes nothing is hid there is not any need of a spokes-man but of a devout soule For wheresoever such a one crieth to him he will answer her And now this with many others hath crept on and at last stepped out and stood up for a point of faith in the Church of Rome CHAP. 4. IT is my beliefe that the Invocation of Saints is a by-way which the devill hath sought and found to divert man from the due and true service of God All the temptations of the devill saith Nilus are thus and thus ordered to disturb or pervert us in our prayers And we see hee hath already so farre gained ground that where they offer up a hundred prayers they give but ten in the hundred to God And they proclaim it an infallible signe of predestination to flame in devotion to the virgin Mary And where the Church of Christ prayeth in divine Service O Lord open thou our lips they began their Office of the virgin Mary Domina labia mea aperies O Lady open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise till the Pope ashamed of them and their open lips shut up their lips with shame enough And they seldom say praise be to God without a profane addition and to the virgin Mary dividing their praises in the same breath and it is to be suspected they are also quick and many so ignorant most commonly in the same gift of the mind betwixt Christ and his Mother betwixt the Creator and the creature It hath bin openly confessed to me in Spain that the common people there for the most part beleeve that the virgin Mary is as really present in the Sacrament as Christ and some excuse it saying that the flesh of the virgin Mary is there because Christ took his flesh from her And so it is very neere to certainty that the ignorant sort especially part equally their praises thaksgivings of this cōdition give half to Christ half to his Mother to whō I beleeve Christ hath given so much in heaven that she need not part stakes with him here It is the definition of prayer in the Logick of John Damascen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Io. Damasc lib. 3. de fide orthodox cap. 24. Prayer is the ascent of the mind to God Three things are required to every action that is both perfect and noble First the action must be of a perfect kinde and such a one is the action of ascending Secondly the action must flow from an honourable beginning or principle and such a one is the minde the most pure and most refined part of the soule And thirdly it must tend to an excellent object and God excells all objects but himselfe I cannot perceive how God being so prone of himselfe to goodnesse that hee hath made himselfe in a manner visible in his creatures that he sent his owne deare Sonne from his warme bosome to bleed to death for us there is now the ransome being fully payd so great necessity of mediatours to put the sweetnesse and love of heaven and earth in minde of his promise to Man For they cannot enlarge their own glory by what they doe in Heaven There is yet a strong necessity of prayers and other duties on our part But is there yet need of Saints to blow the coals and to stirre up his halfe-extinguished love to man and all this when the Son of God is also the Son of man both God and man to interpret betwixt God and man and to deale the cause on both sides One Mediator betweene God and men the man Christ Jesus as St. Paul writes to
a troubled Sea divert the mischievous aime of witch-craft stay the rude course of a devouring fire fright away evill thoughts and make the Devill runne and doe many such feates After your death he will declare you to be a Saint and in Heaven and give way that Altars and Churches may be consecrated to your honour and called by your name and that the world may pray to you as freely and as fervently as to God and that your withered bones may be worshipped but not till the age be past in which he lived and the people gone who were eye witnesses of your life O the witchcraft of the Devill If we thinke that we came into the world to throw away our soules wee are too blame He that seeth a great streame of water presse forward in a calme Sea may be assured that a Whale passeth Here is the secret the streame of all things goeth with the Popes greatnesse And yet the Jesuits keepe him in awe and in a kinde of strict obedience to them Indeed they keep other great persons in subjection and make them Benefactours to them that their greatnesse may be long greatnesse The Pope dare not compose the quarrell betwixt the Jesuits and the Dominicans because he cannot except he side with one of them and abandon the other And Martin Luther cannot bee forgot And the Monke I so much speake of threatned his Holinesse home in his Epistle Dedicatory before the booke which old Leander transformed into good Latin for him The booke was made in the heat of those deadly quarrels betwixt the secular Priests and the Regulars wherein they accused one another of heresie and of strange things CHAP. IV. TO dry up this foule water in the fountaine The Pope is not head of the Church because this high and superlative power would then have most shone out and appeared in the Christian Hemisphere immediately after Christ had given the commandement upon which they build this power this Babel-Tower Nor could the rage of outward persecution hinder the perfect execution of spirituall power And what need could there be of the secular arme to joyne in the binding of the ready conscience with a law especially when Christians were so forward and prompt in the schoole of vertue as then they were Or at least persecution could not hinder the full acknowledgement of such a power And although we meete in the books of the Councels with so many faire and flattering Epistles of the Popes to the Grecian Emperours much degenerating from Popish gravity Because he hath in his keeping the Keyes of Heaven Hell Purgatory yet still the Grecians did bandy against them and desired to turne this over-swelling power into its owne and proper channell as they and other ancient Churches doe at this day Doth not here a man a meere vaine weake man exalt himselfe above God and every thing that is called God He is adorned with three Crownes for foure reasons Because there are three persons in one God he being the supposed Deputy hath three Crownes united in one Miter Because hee is Christs Vicar who was a King a Priest and a Prophet Because he is Prince of Rome Naples and Sicilie Let me give the fifth reason Because he was dirt he is dirt and he shall be dirt Constantine in the Councell of Nice expounded that place of the Psalme I have said yee are all Gods and sonnes of the Highest of Bishops He therefore exalting himselfe above all Bishops and to a heighth above all his Brethren by the head and shoulders lifts himselfe above all that is called God Let my soule goe with Saint Austin Neque S. Aug. l. 2. cont Donatistas c. 2. enim quisquam nostrum Episcopum se esse Episcoporum constituit aut tyrannico terrore ad obsequendi necessitatem collegas suas adigit Not one of us doth make himselfe the Bishop of Bishops or with tyrannicall affrightment force his fellow Bishops to the necessity of obedience And Saint Austin hath no reflection here upon Constantine who called himselfe in the Nicene Councell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bishop of Bishops in regard of his fatherly care over them because he speakes both of tyrannicall terrour and of fellow Bishops They say It is necessary to have an infallible Judge for the last resolution of controversies in matters of faith But if the Pope can stretch out his power to such definitions at home in his owne Chaire by his fire side to what strange end I pray is all this repairing from all parts to Councels All matters of faith in their doctrine are of equall moment and slipping in one we go downe in all And though every trouble be not so great ut omnes vexentur nationes that al Nations should be troubled in the settling of it yet exery growing trouble of faith which cannot be laid by argument and ordinary meanes requires that the whole body should helpe the part in danger of perishing Neither indeed can a Councell among them be a true judge of controversies For they professe that although the Pope as President of the Councell is tied to joyne with the greater part of voyces yet there is a reservation behinde that the Pope though not as President yet as the chiefe Prince of the Church may cancell the Acts of the Councell reverse the Decrees and retract the judgement So that in the marrow of the matter the judgement of a Councell is nothing but a vaine flash of the Popes private opinion And how stout he is in the defence of matters pertaining to the royalty of his owne greatnesse the whole world can testifie And for that great controversie long tossed and tumbled amongst them concerning the power of the Pope over the temporall affaires of Princes the Benedictine Monkes our Countreymen denyed lately the lawfulnesse of such a power But in the issue of the matter seeing the Jesuits more potent and themselves sliding downward into disgrace they drew back their necks softly out of the snare looked sorrowfull one upon another and repented of their errour And is it not every day feared in Rome that the Sorbon Doctors in Paris will at length give the lie to this great Authority and stately Seate and See of Rome O the vaine swelling of a bubble It is not commendable in a Church-person to be garded on both sides with great Fans from the impudencie of Waspes and Flyes and to keepe the winde away to be ushered with Trumpeters to be honoured like an Emperour to decke the head with more Crownes then God promiseth to his faithfull childe And it was not good which Paulus Aemilius writeth Paul Aemil. that his Holinesse suffered the great Embassadours of Sicilie to lie prostrate on the ground and at his gate crying that part of the Masse Qui tollis peccata mundi miserere nostri Qui tollis peccata mundi dona nobis pacem O thou that takest away the sinnes of the world have mercie upon us Thou that takest away
the sinnes of the world give us peace Goe the wormes shall eate thee till they are poyson'd with corruption Wise men are madde Our feet slip we tumble and Lord have mercie upon us The gay flower withereth when the common grasse remaineth greene And man is the silly foole of his owne fancie God forgive him who said that he and three of his Cardinals were able to governe so many worlds if God should make them CHAP. V. HOw vaine is the Church of Rome in teaching that the Popes Throne doth so farre overlooke all other Thrones that he cannot be censured by an earthly Judge though ingulfed in the most horrible crimes that in all the extravagancies of the heart were ever committed Let him enter a Fox raigne as a Lion die like a Dog as Pope Boniface Let him commit whoredome upon Altars give Benefices to his Whores and golden Chalices consecrated to holy services which an honest Lay-man cannot touch breake open doores burne houses put out his God-fathers eyes cut off his fingers hands tongues and noses of his Cardinals not remembring what he said when he did first invest them in purple Ego te creo socium Regis I create thee to be the fellow of a King and moreover invocate the Devill and drinke to him as Pope John the twelfth Let him be a most notorious Conjurer and make himselfe over by compact body and soule to the Devill as Pope Silvester the second Let him be carried with the Whirle-winde of ambition and have poysoned sixe other Popes to hew out his owne way before him as Pope Hildebrand Yet he sits above the reach of censure he flies with the Eagle above the Thunderbolt That they may give sinewes to this doctrine they produce an Act of a Councell celebrated in Rome which saith Neque praesul summus a quoquam judicabitur Concil Rom. quoniam scriptum est non est discipulus supra Magistrum Neither shall the chiefe Bishop be judged of any because it is written the Disciple is not above his Master And that they may adde strength to this plausible falshood they bring in the reare an eminent example For when Bassus and Marinianus laid to the charge of Pope Sixtus the third that he had in the rage of his lust defiled a consecrated Virgin Maximus the Consul crie out Non licet adversus Pontificem dare sententiam It is not lawfull to give sentence against the chiefe Bishop Looke how they shuffle the matter and give it from one hand to another amongst themselves But is not this to encourage sinne to permit and flatter evill and to suffer it to grow out and openly spread it selfe when it may be easily beate downe in the blossome This doctrine hath so farre given heart to all kindes of wickednesse that if we search into every succession of Bishops scattered through the whole Christian world and examine every linke of every chaine we shall not meete in any Sea with sinnes that deserve to be called sinnes with relation to the foule enormities of Rome Are not these evill fruits of evill doctrine and yet no man almost doth name the Pope but under the sacred title of his Holinesse But though his Holinesse is not liable to reproofe a man would think his wickednesse should And how silly is the Church of Rome in teaching that although the most holy and most learned Bishops that ever lived should joyne their heads and hearts in a Councell and there using the pious helpe of holy Scriptures of other Councels and Fathers before them and of humble prayers for the powerfull assistance of the holy Ghost should with an unanimous consent decree what is to be preached the Pope notwithstanding might come in the upshot and though a most wicked and illiterate creature lawfully pronounce all the Decrees to be of no weight no effect no validity The generall Councell of Chalcedon upon sound premeditation made an absolute Decree that the Bishop of Constantinople should have equall power through all the great extent and latitude of his government with the Bishop of Rome which Canon Pope Leo and Pope Gelasius quickly rejected and the single authority of one man tooke place because our Saviour had said to Saint Peter I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not But every prayer of Luk 22. 32 Christ was granted therefore the Pope cannot erre It must here follow that either the Decrees of Councels are fallible or the Popes sentence Is it not strange that God should communicate his holy Spirit to the contempt of Councell more fully to a private person for so he is in this matter being one though a publike sinner then to the whole Church the Spouse of Christ Let the Pope claime to himselfe all power in all affaires who now can chide his ambition or give the lie to his infallibility CHAP. VI. ONe of my great admirations concerning the Church of Rome is that whereas there are many Churches yet extant of great antiquity and some wherein Christ was almost if not altogether as soone heard of as in Rome she will not consort and comply with them in things which were wholly in use amongst the Primitive Christians If she desires with a Christian desire and not with a desire onely of her owne advancement to win them why doth she not come as neere to them as it is most evident they come to the Primitive Church This way of the Bishop of Rome was never Gods way Which I will demonstrate in a plaine discourse though not plaine to the plaine that I may a little ease my reader in his journey with various objects God as he was ever God so he was ever good For the most eminent Attribute of God saith Dyonysius is goodnesse The nature of goodnesse is to spread and diffuse it selfe And every good doth spread and diffuse it selfe according to the variety and greatnesse of goodnesse which it hath And therefore God the Father being infinitely good doth infinitely spread and diffuse himselfe upon the Son And the Father and Sonne being infinitely good doe infinitely spread and diffuse themselves upon the holy Ghost And if the Father Sonne and holy Ghost doe not in any kinde spread and diffuse themselves infinitely upon the Angels and us it is because we being creatures and by course of necessary consequence finite are not capable of an infinite diffusion The Charity by which a good man loves good might be infinite if the subject could be infinite Now as in the works of nature and first diffusion of his goodnesse upon his creatures God the first cause would first worke by himselfe and himselfe bring about the most weighty matter of making all these fine things of nothing and moreover of waking nature out of her dead sleepe in the Chaos that it might appeare to us who should afterwards heare the grave and strange story of the Creation that hee was all-sufficient and could not be at a fault for want of help Yet managing the