very Wildernesse wild and desolate stript and naked rob'd and spoil'd of all thy riches and sumptuous Ornaments which were once so miraculously and divinely eminent in thy pious life that they were above humane faith these I say are ravish'd from thee and more to augment our sorrow wee see thee ruinated like a desert full of dangers which no body undertakes to keep Thou hast no Vertue left to bar the doors against assaulting temptations but lyest open to every corruption and wicked determination of thy fancy Whether it be pride or lust or drunkennesse or avarice what sin soever the Devill commands to storme thee there is nothing that defends the breach nothing that guards thy unman'd soule Yet once how much of heaven hadst thou in thee whilst like it the purity of thy thoughts was inaccessible to all manner of ill Mee thinks I speak wonders not to be believ'd by those who see thee in this thy forlorne and desperate condition which makes me pray lament and mourn continually that I may see thee return again to thy former integrity and piety which may perhaps seem to humane apprehension impossible but all things are easie in the hands of God For he it is that lifteth the beggar from the dust and exalteth the needy from the Dunghill that he may sit with Princes even with the Princes of his people Hee it is that maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful Mother of Children Ps. 113. On this infinite and unsearchable love of our God to us build thou thy hopes and thou wilt find an impossibility a strange incapacity within thy self to despair at any time grace still working in thee to change thy heart into better and better desires For if the Devill had the power to pluck thee from so eminent a top and glory of Vertue into this Abysse of wickednesse Much more easily can our Omnipotent God raise thee up again restore thee to thy former liberty and honor and and not onely set thee free from this base captivity but make thy happinesse greater then ever yet it was Onely I beseech thee resolutely to break all snares that shall be lay'd in the way of thy return Let not thy hopes which are so full of certainty be cut off by any destructive fear or timorous perswasion lest those punishments light on thee which are due onely to the desperately wicked For neither the number nor the greatnesse of our sins does absolutely condemn us to a condition irrecoverable But resolv'd settlednesse and an intollerable composednesse in impious waies are the sure manifest signes of a soul so fall'n that it shall never rise again Wherefore Solomon does not speak generally of every man who transgresseth Pro. 18. but names that wicked man who when he comes into the depth of evill contemns his mercy It is onely a wicked purpose never to leave sin that plunges men into this dangerous Gulfe of despair and iniquity from whence they can never so much as look back and much more difficultly return For the deceiving weights of wickednesse lie like a heavy Collar on the necke of the soul and forcing our eyes upon the Earth forbids them to look up to our Lord that made them Know then it is the part of a generous and truly daring Christian spirit not to endure the Tyrants yoake valiantly to combate and destroy those officious guards his watchfull malice sits over us And with the Prophet to acknowledge our obedience there onely where it is onely due saying with him As the eyes of a Mayden unto the hand of her Mistresse so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God untill he have mercy upon us have mercy on us Lord have mercy on us for we are exceedingly fill'd with contempt Ps. 123. These are divine exhortations these are the doctrines of the most heavenly Philosophy we are fill'd with contempt we are shaken with infinite violent stormes of sad events Yet shall not this debar us from looking up to our God and imploring his assistance Nay till our Lord has granted our Petitions we must put on the confidence of importunate beggars and not let our prayers cease til our requests are granted This is the true Character of a pious daring soul not to be baffled from his hopes by the violence of ill successe not to start out of the way or goe back because as yet he has not found the expected issue of his prayers but to endure to the last till the Lord have mercy on him according to the precept and example of the Prophet David CHAP. II. The Devills endeavours and practices to undermine our hopes and raze the Foundation of our eternall happinesse The comparison betwixt a dying body and a perishing soul with an exhortation to be couragious in our conflicts with the Devill THE wily subtilty of Satan aimes at nothing more then to inveigle us in a Labyrinth of despair still feeding our naturall tottering inclinations with change and variety of doubts and once unsetled we are his certain prey for irresolution excludes us from our expectations in Heaven and relyance upon the benignity of our most mercifull God and Father it violently and too insensibly drives us from our hopes our surest Anchors By it wee lose the very essence of our lives the guide which leads us to God the Pilot which steers our forlorne and shipwrack'd soules into the Haven of Salvation For resolution and a constant hope never fail of assurance in the end by hope saies the word wee shall be sav'd that will to the last preserve us Hope is a stronge and Golden Chain let down to us from Heaven taking fast hold on it wee learn to subdue our soules most desperate rebellions Which our benign Lord finding us sure link'd to it has promis'd to raise and lift us by it above all the dangerous billowes of this present miserable life Whilst he who through idlenesse neglects to make his hold sure to this golden Anchor sinks and is certain to drown and perish in the deeps of his own wickednesse Which Satan that subtle Fox so well know's that he then makes his Hel-Harvest when he sees us laden with sin and overprest with the weight of our guiltiness this is the time hee so diligently watches for then falls he on us and presses our declinings with arguments of the immensity of our offences and deceives us with his cunning aggravations Then suggests he to our soules horror and despair in their extreames as there were no salvation left to us and the doors of mercy were lock'd against our cryes for ever And once in this dejected and base low condition how prone and precipitate is our descent into Hel forc'd still violently downwards by unresisted desperation having weakly lost our hold on hope that Golden Chain wee sink perpetually in the deepes both of sin and misery Thus is it with thee Theodorus who hast cast off thy obedience and subjection to a meek and mercifull Lord quite
of the future but if the catching flames last till they are joyn'd they are never to be extinguish'd and unrepenting souls departing this life presently unite their sinfull fires with the revengefull flames appointed them in Hell for all eternity Now then consider how long thou canst possibly presume on the continuance of these felicities thou here enjoyst When thou canst not promise thy selfe any length for thy life fifty years were a great space to be assur'd of but indeed we so little know our ends that wee cannot tell but this evening may be our last how then can wee relie upon so many years Time is uncertain nor can we assure our selves any thing of the future And were it so that we were certain of a long life the pleasures still are uncertain wee might expect in it which sometimes are with us again in the twinkling of an eye But were a long life assur'd thee and thy pleasures to last with it that no chance or fortune had power to interrupt the continued course of thy contents which should be still equal to thy desires What a litle would this be to everlasting ages of bliss or eternity of punishment And hereafter we must expect the like everlasting durance of both joy and sorrow which soever be our lot though here delight and sadnesse have their vicissitude in the World to come neither shall ever end And as both for continuance are endlesse so in the extremities of value both incomprehensible CHAP. VI Hell fire expos'd to the terror of the impenitent with the torments and eternity thereof O Vainly deceived man most foolishly and sottishly deluded sinner who when thou heardst speak of Hell fire believest those dreadfull flames prepar'd for the vengeance on thy impenitency â—o be no other then some materiall pile that soon with it's own violence will of it selfe consume into ashes Thou must believe in time or thy experience will teach thee too late what those fires be which are prepared in Hell for the Devills and his Angells there and for thee unlesse thou sincerely repent they are immortall unconsuming flames flames that shall never extinguish or dy So that in fine the very damn'd may promise themselves eternity but it will prove the perpetuity of endlesse shame pains and confusion While the blessed shall be cloath'd with immortality but together with infinite joy and incomprehensible glory O vild impenitent wretch meditate on what thou art for ever forfeiting a Crown of immortall honor and what thou art assured to purchase with thy obstinate impieties Endlesse miseries and plagues torments in fires can never possibly consume which shall alwaies last and still supplyed ever encrease and never diminish or extenuate No mans tongue be he never so eloquent can teach us a way to comprehend the true knowledge of such unspeakable horror Yet in this as in other things impossible to be certainly known we may regulate our conjecture by the experience wee make on things of lesse moment As for example suppose thy selfe in an overheated Bath thy skin scalding thy veines and sinewes shrinking Or burning in a violent fevour at the insufferablenesse of these pains thou maist give some probable guesse and after think thou on Hell fire Thou wilt of necessity allow neither Bath or feaver possibly to be endur'd by the greatest and most invincible fortitude and argue thy self into an apprehension by degrees of the fearfull horror thou wilt have when for thy sins thou art flung into a torrent of mercilesse flames issuing from that dreadfull tribunall where the vengeance on impenitency is prepar'd There will be howling and gnashing of teeth punishments neither to be suffer'd nor redrest or comforted for no body shall help them So vain and fruitlesse will be those lamentations which cannot avail the lamenters any thing when their complaints can profit them nothing Their torments still encreasing with their desperation in a place where their eyes can fix on nothing to promise comfort for what shall they see there but the damned their companions and a vast desolation Next to add to the horror of eternall punishments know that these fires there as they can never dye neither can they afford light for they are most peculiarly and properly described to be utter darknesse Consider what it is thus to suffer in horrid and lothsome darknesse with terrors affrightings and tremblings in all thy members this must needs cause then the infinite multitude of thy tortures which will fall on thee faster then violent fleakes of snow upon the earth shall cruciate thy soule In so hideous and over-whelming a manner that humane capacity can not well comprehend how it is possible for the soule of man to bear them and not utterly consume and annihilate in so fierce and devouring destruction To make which more evident and plaine to our understandings we may call to remembrance what frequently happens in this world we are now in How many men have fallen into violent diseases and those as lasting as violent but neither their time nor force had the power to their soules dissolution till the decay and ruine of their materiall corruptible bodies the substance of the soule being proof against the keenest arrowes of death Even so shall it be at last with the miserable bodies of the damned which will be changed into a substance that the fiercest flames shall never be able to consume and though man be compos'd of such materialls as now cannot resist the violence but yeeld to the conquest of assaulting paines when the cursed immortality of the body shall be equall to that of the soul both together must suffer to all eternity Thou oughtest Theodorus rightly to consider this undeniable truth and not to give way to any fantastick dream that would perswade thee any end or period can be propos'd to the eternity of their sufferings who shall be thus prepar'd for everlasting fire And what are the pleasures the delights and vanities thou puts't into the contrary ballance to weigh against so heavy a doom How short the time of their continuance compar'd with eternity Couldst thou suppose that Hells torments were to end in a hundred or two hundred years the fury of them for such a space might prudentially affright thee from that dissolute and wild life thou art so besotted to Then certainly the thought of their eternity must needs deterre thee and to presse this nearer to thee I begg of thee to lay thy hand to thy heart and answer me whether thou canst or not exchange blessings and pleasures eternall for as everlasting punishments or forfeit an inestimable weight of glory for a dream and all the reputed happinesse of this life are no better What fool would bee content for one pleasing moment to lead all the rest of his life in miserie who is there so sottish as would willfully forfeit all his peace for a minutes pleasure yet thou doest far exceed such frantick beasts in thy madnesse But alas I dilate in vaine upon thy
and scourges to no afflictions abroad nor strife at hope no prisons or Irons no hazard of shipwrack no violence of theeves or thy own familiarsnares no hunger cold nor nakednesse neither to scorching fire And alas wilt thou dread my exhortations I impose no bitter task on thee but on the contrary earnestly desire thee to set thy self free from a most tyrannicall captivity And when thou art ransom'd from this bondage of thy sinns to the happy liberty thou didst once enjoy thy eyes opened to behold what true bliss is Thou wilt confesse the merited paines of a dissolute life the unquiet and tormenting afflictions of a mind given over to carnall lusts and what the happinesse and content of such a godly life is as thou didst formerly leade It were no greater wonder that an Athiest who believ'd no resurrection from the dead should lie lull'd in his lethargick bestialitie without any sence of his condition But that believers that Christians who look after expect and foresee what is decreed both to the good and bad for them to live thus miserably unconcern'd in their own calamities nothing at all awakened with the remembrance of their future hopes or fears is most heavy dul and sencelesse stupidity When with their lipps men shall professe themselves believers but look into their waies they are by many degrees worse then infidells and commit greater abhomination then they For amongst the very heathens themselves there cannot be greater monsters in sinns then are some Christians Nay what is more which should severely advise us to amend amongst them there are often eminent examples of lives led morally so well that they are fit to be look'd upon for our instruction with what shame then shall we cover our faces when the actions of heathens and aliens to God may be precepts Merchants who have suffer'd great damages and losses fall not from their hopes but try the Seas again though there be the same danger of stormes and shipwrack which they know their greatest skill and care cannot sometimes avoid And shall we base unworthy cowards that suffer by sin and wickedness not dare the recovery of our lost soules nor attempt our future preservation though wee fall into dangerous lapses being wee know we are forbid to despair in the greatest extremities When indeed no evill has power over us unlesse we willingly our selves consent unto it And why remain we then so insensibly stupid why use we not our hands in this combat but lie as if they were tyed behind us or what is worse if they are employ'd it is against us our selves what madnesse is this that men entring the lists to fight their adversaries turne all their blowes upon themselves The Divell lies in ambush for us diligently observing the advantages hee has over humane weaknesse to make us destroy our selves Wee must have courage then with undaunted spirits to meet the cunning assaltant on every attempt against us or with our own negligence and carelesse fears he ruins us for ever As thou art fallen Theodorus so likewise fell blessed David he to adultery added the heynous murther of innocent Uriah But what follow'd did he lie under the burthen of his iniquities did not he attempt to rise again but overcome by Satan lay prostrate to his fury No! he couragiously resumes his arms against his enemy and fought him with so prevailing courage that his children after him were the trophies of his victory and receiv'd the benefits of his conquest For when Solomon his Sonn's heart was turn'd after other Gods by means of his wives 1 Kings 11. When he went after Ashtoreth the Goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon c. When he had with all his abhominations provok'd the Lord it is recorded in holy writ that for Davids sake God rent not his Kingdome from him ver. 11. I will surely rend thy Kingdome from thee and will give it to thy servant Notwithstanding in thy daies I will not do it for David thy fathers sake but I will rend it out of the hands of thy Son Howbeit I will not rend away all thy Kingdome but will give one tribe to thy Son for David my servants sake So likewise in the daies of Hezekias though he himself were a just man does the Lord alledge the same cause of his mercy to Jerusalem 2 Kings 19. 34. I will defend this City to save it for mine own sake and for David my servants sake Thus did the Lord continue the remembrance of Davids hearty penitence to shew us how effectually true repentance finds accesse to the tribunall of Heaven This servant of the Loreds disputed not against his redemption had he had the desperate opinion thou seemest to be of now that hee could not be reconcil'd to God He would have said perhaps God has done me mighty honors he has chosen me into the number of his Prophets has given me Empire and Dominion over my brethren and deliver'd me out of mighty dangers and how can I hope for his mercy whom after so manifold blessings I have thus infinitely offended Had the Prophet permitted such desperate conceptions to overcome him he had not onely excluded himselfe from Gods favour in that his sad condition at the present but had blotted out the remembrance of all his former life As the wounds of the body neglected grow altogether incurable so those of the soul if we seek not for their remedie lapse us into eternall perdition yet such is our folly that in the least distempers of our bodies we refuse no paines no troubles but submit to any tortures art can prescribe for our recovery but obstinately werefuse the medicins of our sick souls nay though wee are so ill that we are beyond all cure with what a longing desire we are attentive to what the Physician speakes in the last extreames willing to hear of comfort But in the disease of our soules wee despair and languish before we see reason for it since the most dangerous wounds there are not incurable And where the nature of the sicknesse is really desperate wee continue our hopes but miserably despaire where there is no need And where we are absolutely forbid it we are willfully diffident putting on the vanity of a confidence when 't is ridiculous and beyond all hopes but such is our naturall fond inclination to our bodies that wee look on their decayes with horror and affrightment and in the hazards of our pretious soules are sottishly insensible Me thinks in such a state those words of Christ may awake our heavy dull spirits Mat. 10. 28. Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill soul but rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Hell If these be not prevalent with thee to perswade thee as yet to return to thy integrity I shall labour in anguish and affliction of soul for thy deferring so long so acceptable and necessary a task as thy reforming
the deepest abysse of Hell Nor does this discourse alone aver this For the records of holy writ most amply testifie the same The Evangelist Saint Matthew shewes it Matth. 16. 27. He shall render saith he every man according to his workes Nor in Hell onely but in Heaven also shall there be difference of reward John 14. 2. In my Fathers house are many mansions saies our blessed Saviour And again 1 Cor. 15. 41. There is one glory of the Sun another of the the Moon another of the Starrs for one Star differeth from another Star in glory so likewise in the Resurrection of the dead Let him who considers this value the expence of his labour and be continually employ'd in good deeds If we attain not the glory of the Sun or the Moon wee get to be little starrs if we discharge the duty of good Christians so far as to get there at all If we shine not in glory like Diamonds or like Gold wee may like Silver But we must be carefull we are not found of materialls fitter for the fire then a place in his Heavenly mansions And if wee are not able to discharge the highest actions of perfection let us not neglect the due observance of lesser things which we may perform For it is most desperate madnesse to do no good at all because we are not in the state of the most excelling perfection For as worldlings grow rich by saving every little trifle encreasing their store so are spirituall riches attain'd by a circumspect laying hold on every occasion wherein we may serve our Lord It is wonderfull and something strange to humane sence that God has appointed so great a reward as the Kingdome of Heaven to him that shall but give a cup of cold water in his name yet are men so foolish that unlesse they can atchieve the greatest they neglect lesser matters which are likewise very profitable He that neglects not his duty in things but small in their appearance will learn to be able to performe greater But he that is negligent in a little will be a weak discharger of greater duties And to prevent this humane inclination Christ has left us great proposalls of certain reward for things to be compast with very little trouble What is more easie then to pay the labourer his hire which is but a part of thy own gain and yet large are the promises of our Lord for that See then the way to lay hold on Everlasting salvation enter into it delight in our Lord pray incessantly unto him again submit thy self to his easie yoak take on thy shoulders the light burthen thou bearst in a more happy condition and let the end of it prove worthy the beginning of thy life Do not O do not despise such infinite riches which freely flow unto thee And they are all for ever lost to thee if thou perseverest to exasperate our Lord with those ill courses thou art in For if thou yet stopst the channells and hinder'st this deluge in time before it has made too great a breach thou maist repaire thy losses to thy great advantage When thou hast considered and meditated seriously on this as thou oughtest fling away the filth and mud which hangs upon thy soule rise from out of the mire wherein thou hast wallowed And see how formidable thou wilt be to thy adversarie who believ'd he had cast thee down never to rise again it will amaze him to see thee again provoke him to the battaile surpriz'd with thy recovery and astonisht at such an undaunted resolution how fearfull will the coward the Devill be to attempt again the ensnaring thee If other mens calamities be proper lessons for us shall not all our owne instruct us I believe that I shall see this shortly in thee and that thou wilt appear in the sight of Heaven a person restor'd to grace a more excellent and clearer soul then ever thou were one that shall give testimonies of such perfection and integrity that thou maist be ranckt amongst the best men if not preferr'd before them Onely despair not fall not againe This is my counsell do thou as my custome is When ever I hear any thing from others may profit me I make no delay to embrace and follow it and if thou receivest with a good purpose these my admonitions thy sick and languishing soule will need no other Physick FINIS Erata Page 1. l. 5. for this r. the l 7. of dissolute r. of a dissolute p. 3. l. 4. of sin r. of any sin l. 13. for for prepared r. so prepared l. 20. for committing every thing that was dedicated r. committing every thing to the flames that was dedicated p. 6. l. 7. for intollerable r. in alterable p. 9. l. 5. r. linkd to p. 12. l. 16. for rebellious r. religious p. 14. l. 15. for wretched r. wretches p. 23. l. 1. leave out and promised p. 24. l. 6. r. like a loving father p. 26. l. last for peruses r. persues p. 31. l 11. for confidences r. consciences p. 44. l. 28. r. delights for lights p. 46. l. 17. for again r. gone again p. 60. l. 7. r. there appeared not p. 62. l. 22. for receive r. conceive p. 67. l. 11. for screen scaene p. 70. l. 4. for undertake labour r. undertake the labour p. 72. l. 5. for choosed r. crost p. 79. l. 12. for Hermions r. Hermiones p. 79. l. 17. for starrs r. statues p. 80. l. 7. for Hermion's r. Hermione's p. 84. l. 6. for hope r. home ibid. l. 23. for greater r. great p. 87. l. 3. for were r. wore p. 103. l. 13. Chap. is intitled the 5. ibid l. 3. I knew a young Phoenix r. I knew a young man Phoenix p. 104. l. 3. for religions r. religious Reader this multitude of faults in so small a treatise I can attribute to nothing but my own ill hand which deceived the printer which I entreat thee to correct The Contents of every Chapter CHAP. I. SAint Chrysostome passionately describes the great esteem and value we ought to have of our own soules and on that basis he raises the fabrick of this treatise to perswade Theodorus plung'd into extream sinns and bewitch't with the vanity of a dissolute life to return to vertue and piety in which he had once been an eminant example CHAP. II. The Devil endeavours and practices to undermine our hopes and raze the foundation of our eternall happiness The comparison betwixt a dying body and a perishing soul with an exhortation to be couragious in our conflicts with the Devill CHAP. III. Gods mercie to the greatest sinners an argument against despair CHAP. IV. The example of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon a cohaerence to the preceding Chapter CHAP. V. That sincere repentance is alwaies acceptable to God declar'd out of Holy writ by example precept and parable CHAP. VI That we ought carefully to cleanse our soules from the filth of sin which must by no meanes be slighted or neglected since in this word we cannot presume on to morrow every thing is so subject to mutability And then the pleasures of the Earth being so short and so quickly vanishing we ought to fix our thoughts upon that eternity in which we shall be crown'd with glory or plagued in torments CHAP. VII Hell fire expos'd to the terror of the impenitent with the torments and the certainty thereof CHAP. VIII Of the beatitude of the Saints glorified in Heaven pressing Theodorus farther to amendment by arguing that Heaven is rather to be sought after then Hell to be fear'd the glory of the one being a more moving object then the terriblenesse of the other CHAP. IX Of the day of judgement CHAP. X. The joyes of Heaven prosecuted give occasion to discourse of the felicities and blessings God has promis'd our soules the excellencies wherewith they are enricht and vile contempt we have of them preferring our bodies their slaves before them CHAP. XI Saint Chrysostome continues here the glorious nature of the Soule and from that excellence prosecutes his perswasions to Theodorus still striving to overcome the rebellions of his lusts with exhortations and pressing arguments CHAP. XII The story of the Ninivites repenpentance the proeme to St. Chrysostomes farther urging Theodorus to his conversion collecting thence that the greatest sinners may return to God he prosecutes his perswasives alledging that many so converted have become the best and most zealous people CHAP. XIII Sant Chrysostome relates a story of Phoenix a young Gentleman of his time another of an Hermit another of a Disciple of Johns the Son Zebedeus and of Onesimus out of Saint Paul with which he continues his perswasives to fallen Theodorus CHAP. XIV The sum and conclusion of this treatise FINIS No comparison betwixt the death of the body and the soul St. Chrysostom's application to Theodorus The Hermet The schooler of John In Eusebius Eccles. Hist. lib. 5. c. 2.
Saint Chrysostome HIS PARAENESIS Or Admonition wherein hee recalls THEODORUS the fallen Or generally An Exhortation for Desperate sinners Vincenti datur Manna torpenti relinquitur multa miseria T. A. Kempis Translated by the Lord Viscount Grandison Prisoner in the Tower LONDON Printed for Thomas Dring at the Signe of the George near Cliffords Inne in Fleet-Street 1654. To the Reader I Should not have the vanity to believe any thing of my owne worthy the Presse but being concern'd much in this treatise I undertook he translation and with some paines renew'd my long discontinued acquaintance with the Greek to render Saint Chrysostomes meaning into this plaine English It was writ with passion to his fallen friend I am very confident it may be beneficiall to many whose case is not unlike this of Theodorus I wish it may and that it may not be look'd lightly on as mine but with more serious eyes as the counsell of that reverend father whose it is I am certain there can be nothing more appositely said to men in a desperate course of life then what may bee found here I propound nothing of my own to any man but such an excellent cordiall as this I could not take alone I desire it may be to others what I pray it may prove unto my self that in this time of misery though we are lyable to all other losses we may lay certain hold on the better part which cannot be taken from us Yours GRANDISON TO MY NOBLE LORD THE EARL of CLEAVLAND MY LORD SInce I first began this translation your Lordship has stil encourag'd me to go on with it and when I had ended it I could not but think it unfirnish't till I had prefixt your name to it I have alwaies told your Lordship that I had no vanity to own my imperfections and if I thought my confidence to print this Treatise a fault I would smother rather then publish it But having most seriously weighed the content and satisfaction the originall brought to my selfe after I had taken the paines to translate it I resolv'd to make it communicable to as many as please to read Saint Chrysostome in my English And though it particularly aimes at fallen Theodorus and as at him so at every dissolute person the most opinionated reserved men may read it and perhaps somtimes find themselves not a little concern'd in it For it most particularly treats against desperation which is a disease lyable to the greatest confidence Especially when the very same men who have had the severe curiosity almost to blind their brethren with plucking the motes out of their eyes shall be brought to consider the beames that are in their own so great and just often proves their doome who are not forewarn'd by our Saviour not to judge lest they be judged My Lord This treatise of the holy Father signally invites us to be our owne Physicians and sincerely to arraigne our soules before the face of Heaven it instructs us how to prize the beauties God has endowed our minds with unlesse wee soyle them with our owne negligence it teaches us to preferre the care of our souls above all earthly alurements though baited with the most tempting delights and may well then be a fit mission from a Prison to those in the greatest liberty for men in restraint while they are most forbid vanities begin to know then most truly what they are for all deceiving delights possesse us like the Devil they take our wits from us but the correcting hand of God whilst we are in the troubles and miseries of this world prepares us for a better and here wee shall find weapons and arms fit for the fiercest conflict of that nature here my Lord in this translation which I dedicate to you with that infinite desire I have ever to be esteemed Your Lordship's Most faithful servant GRANDISON AN EXHORTATION TO DESPERATE SINNERS Taken out of St. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM In his admonition to falling THEODORUS CHAP. I. SAint Chrysostome passionately describes the great esteeme and valew wee ought to have of our own soules and on that Basis hee raises this Fabrick of this Treatise to perswade Theodorus plung'd into extream sinns and bewitch'd with the vanity of dissolute life to return to Vertue and Piety in which hee had once been a most eminent example Who will give water to my head and to my eyes a Fountain of tears I take up this lamentation at a farre more seasonable and needfull time then when the Prophets sorrow for the Jews made him so passionate a Mourner For although I determine not to bewaile the desolation of many Cities or Kingdomes I esteem the necessity of my grief much more urging that am to deplore the losse of thy most inestimable Soul more to be priz'd and therefore more to be lamented then many Nations Whose dignity though never so swelling in the additions of vast riches and innumerous numbers of people could not make them equall to thee Eccle. 16. For such is the esteem of one man embracing the will of God above ten thousand transgressors What then were infinite millions of those Jews in the ballance with thee before thy sad fall Wherefore let no man blame me if I double the bitternesse of the Prophets lamentation desiring thus nearly concern'd to make my grief exceed his And though I bewaile no sackt City nor sinfull men subdued by a conquering power the subject of my tears exacts a deeper sorrow It is a most sacred soul whose ruine I regret a soul forsaken and in a most deplor'd condition God's own Temple demolisht and raz't A Temple so sacred as Christ himself tooke pleasure to inhabite there while he govern'd alone unrivall'd by the possession or dominion of sin or vanity whatsoever How did the glorious beauty of thy soul excell all the magnificence and pomp of this World whose onely Ornament was our Lord JESUS the World's Saviour and Redeemer Where is this beauty banisht Where consum'd it in the rage and flames certainly of that hellish Fire which every temptation thy too easie soule yeelds to bring with it for prepar'd art thou by the Devills malice for thy destruction What honest and ingenuous man could abstain from mourning perusing cordially the Prophets lamentation When he speaks of those barbarous sacrilegious hands which prophan'd the Holy of Holies committing every thing that was dedicated to the honor and service of God The Cherubins the Ark the Propitiatorie the Tables of stone the Golden Urne And is not thy fall of much more sorrowfull consequence when all these were in a manner Types of thee but representations of that greater excellence thy soul was once enricht with Thou wert the more sacred Temple though not resplendent with Gold or Silver Yet refulgent with the grace of the Holy spirit Who hadst within thee in stead of Cherubins and the Ark God the Father Christ his Son and the holy Comforter But alas Thy glories are perisht and thou become a
rejecting his commands and art become a slave under the outragious Empire of that Tyrannous enemy to mankind who never rests day nor night from ensnaring us our selves to fight against our own hopes and expectations of Heaven Thus hast thou flung off a light and easie burthen freed thy self from a mercifull yoke to fasten thy neck in linkes of Iron And what is both base and ridiculous hast laid a Mill-stone the Asses burthen on thy owne shoulders What wilt thou think to do in the future that at present suffers thy most miserable soul to be swallow'd in this impetuous Gulfe of lusts Nay that wilfully has brough a kind of necessity on thy self which continually compels thee to fall into deeper extreams The woman in the Gospels when she had found her lost groat call'd all her neighbours together to partake of her joy with her saying Rejoyce with me because I have found the lost groat Lu. 15. 8. Thus will I call your friends and mine together but to a different end and purpose I will not bid them rejoyce with me but grieve and weep lament be truly sorrowfull and mourn with me For our losse is grievous and insupportable greater then if we had lost never so great a treasure or Magazine of Gold or Diamonds For we have lost a friend not to be valewed who sailing with us through this vast Ocean I know not by what means is fallen overboard and sunk into the bottomlesse Gulfe of perdition If any man should offer to disswade mee from my lamentations I would answer him with this passionate expression of the Prophet Isaiah Let me alone I will weep bitterly you cannot comfort me Is 22. Such is the sorrow which draws this flood of tears from my eyes Such a sorrow as doubtlessely would not shame Saint Peter or Saint Paul to own it though in such excesse as they denyed themselves all consolation or perswasion to the contrary They who deplore the naturall decreed death of the body may perhaps find coÌ„forters who by the strength of reason and argument may without much labour restore their dâ—ooping spirits to settledness tranqulity by religious precepts gently quiet and palliate their griefes But who can plead gainst his just deploring who laments the death of a soul fallen into perdition dead in sin and pierc'd with ten thousand arrows venom'd with Hells malitious poyson the beauty form and grace of most eminent Vertues and devotions lost and extinct in him These administer matter justly to provoke lawfull and lasting tears What flinty heart What rockie soul could in an agony so moving forbear lamentings or entertain an apparition of any delusion should forbid him his just sorrow At the fall of the body it is humane though not altogether rebellious to weep At the falling of a soul the extreamest lamentation is the greatest evidence of the truest piety He who had on Earth possession of Heaven in so much as hee contemn'd abhor'd and laught at the vanity of the World hee who beheld the greatest beauty but as a statue of stone or a fair picture That he who despis'd Gold as dirt pleasures and vanity as mire He it is who most unexpectedly falling into a raging feaver of burning lusts has lost his comliness and his courage is now turn'd a slave to his own bestiall appetites Shall not we then grieve for him shall we cease our lamentations till he return to himselfe again it is no more then our duty and tye of Christian charity if we have any sense of pitty or humanity in us What alas is the destruction of the body but an accomplish'd course in the order of nature yet such a losse finds dayly mourners and lamenters What ought we then to doe for his perishing soul which manifestly appears resolv'd on eternall damnation if our prayers bring him not to repentance but that he finish his course in obstinate sinning and obduratenesse of heart For in death there is no remembrance of thee in the grave who shall give thee thanks Psal. 6. How great a sin then is it against the rules and Laws of charity not to resent with the greatest pitty a soul thus everlastingly perishing Violent cries and abundance of tears cannot possibly recall the dead But frequent experience teaches us that a soule dying here in sin is not wept for in vaine For the humble requests of brotherly charity plead so effectually before the Throne of mercy that many hardned in obstinate impenitency have melted into floods of tears and have ow'd thee thanks for their contrition to the importunity of other mens prayers And by such meanes many both in our daies and the daies of our forefathers who have deserted the paths of righteousnesse and run headlong astray out of the waies of piety which is a spirituall dying at length have risen again with such heavenly alacrity their fall so hid and obscur'd by the glory of their rise that they have purchas'd the palme of recompence and crowned with the wreath of victory have triumph'd Conquerors on earth till they were summon'd to be numbred with the blessed for all eternity Yet infinite such examples prevail not with a man who wilfully continues in the flames and fires of his lusts Such a wretched perversenesse withstands his recovery and pleads an impossibility of mercy against him But if he chance to get a little way out of the fire and by degrees leave it still farther behind him the dimnesse which the flames caused will be taken from his eyes then how plainly wil he discern the way of salvation to be accessible and very plain smooth and easie having obtain'd grace for his guide And conquer'd those Troops the Devill laid in ambush for him But hee who wants the courage to undertake the combat in vain desires the conquest He may that 's willfull stay and burn in the fire nay shut the doors against himself that are open for him And whatman who is thus sotishly his own enemy can design any thing nobly and virtuously Wherfore this our common enemy makes it his onely businesse leaves nothing unattempted which may render us diffident of grace and mercy Nor needs he much labour to compasse that his end if we lie prostrate at his feet and take no counsell or resolution or order the battail against him it is an easie conquest to overcome us But he who violently breaks his fetters and betakes himself to the use of his strength with courage He I say who in so desperate a condition allows himselfe no cessation but with a continuall violence maintains the battell against him though hee have before lost the day a thousand times shall then recover his losses and gloriously triumph in his enemies overthrow When he who is dejected with despair and permits his spirits to fail and languish can never hope for conquest how can he overcome who makes no resistance at all but fearing the encounter lays down his armes and submits to his enemy CHAP.
dotage till it forsake thee thou art deaf to perswasions while thy eares are stopt with thy delights or wilt if thou hearest think them lyars that call the sweets so please thee what they really are bitter and noysome But when by the mercifull deliverance of our Lord thou art freed out of the toyls thou wilt with patience hear mee treat of the malicious cunning that deceiv'd thee with those snares Wherefore I deferr to tell thee the malignity of thy disease till I see thee recovering Now let us fancy pleasures to be really the things they seem and that the delights of this world have nothing of gall or bitternesse But what then I pray shall we say of the punishments attend them how shall wee avoid them whither shall we flye to escape the wrath that followes them They that now rejoyce and triumph in the shades of seeming content shall not with their greatest fortitude be able to endure the least punishments of those many prepar'd for their vengeance And how little time well spent in prayer and unfaign'd hearty penitence might save them from those torments and bring them to those joyes prepar'd for the blessed Such is the clemency and mercy of our God who so earnestly loves mankind that hee has not appointed a long time of conflict with Satan the Warre last's no longer then the short space of this fleeting life which is but the twinkling of an eye compar'd with those infinite ages to come wherein wee shall be crown'd with glory for ever And this will adde infinitely to those things the damn'd shall suffer when they remember their great neglect of that little time they had to repent in and at how easie a rate and low a price they sold and betray'd themselves into everlasting thraldome Let us then awake and rouze our selves out of this lethargie of sin lest this sad doom be ours And let us hast and do it whilst the time is yet that wee may be receiv'd into mercy and favour while there is hope and that salvation may be had before repentance be too late for they who idly and sloathfully wallow in the mire of their iniquities shall not onely endure these but far more intolerable torments Since it is not to be exprest in the most artificiall termes of eloquence how great those tortures are which are prepared for the damned in Hell But if it were onely to lose the joy and blessings of Heaven the thought alone of so great a losse though we were after to perish like other beasts would be insupportable it would bring with it so just cause of sorrow such affliction and tribulation that were no other punishment ordain'd for sinners that it selfe should bee sufficient to reduce us from our wicked waies and might terrifie us more then the apprehension of all those torments that threaten and affright us and wee may most assuredly expect unlesse wee truly repent CHAP. VIII Of the beatitude of the Saints glorifi'd in Heaven pressing Theodorus farther to amendment by arguing that Heaven is rather to be sought after then Hell to be fear'd The glory of one being a more moving object then the terriblenesse of the other FRom this caution given thee Theodorus of the unspeakable paines of Hell I would raise thy contemplations to the most necessary most admirable and ravishing delight thy soule can possibly fix it self upon which is to imploy thy curiosity in search of the Knowledge of the joyes of Heaven for though the dignity of that blessed state be not within the compasse of the most accurate expression and farre exceeding the delineation of the acutest wit yet my advice presumes to invite thee to conceive as much of it as is allow'd our humane judgements to comprehend And as farre as wee are taught and instructed by holy writ our contemplations have liberty to soare into the felicities of Heaven Isaiah the Prophet expresses them thus The ransom'd of the Lord shall rejoyce and come to Sion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladnesse and sorrow and sighing shall flee away Isai. 35. 10. 51. 11. What can be more happy then such a life There you shall never fear povertie or sicknesse There shall be neither oppressor nor opprest No troubsome tormentor nor any one tormented No man angry or vext nor any repining at anothers displeasure No proud man swelling in abundance nor any person dejected and mourning for his necessities No man contentious for principality or power nor any one lamenting under the persecution of a superiour There all the tempestuous passions of our minds shall be hush't in a perpetuall calme All things shall be peace joy and gladness all things serenity and tranquillity There shall be eternall day brightnesse and light Light as farre excelling the splendor of the Sun as that does the blaze of a torch for it shall never be hid with the vail of night never be obscur'd in clouds and darknesse yet though so exceeding lustrous withall so temperate that it shall neither burn nor scorch No night nor evening shall the blessed know no scorching summer or chill winter no change of seasons shall molest them every thing is so ordered in a setled constancy and so appointed for their fruition whom grace and repentance shall fit for it They shall feel no old age nor the evills of it there shall nothing remain subject to corruption but every one be crown'd with incorruptible glory what exceeds all already said the blessed shall then enjoy eternally the company of Christ with his Angels Archgels and all the glorious hoasts of Heaven contemplate on the skies in that excellency they appeare now to our eyes behold the beauties there No starre in the firmament shall in thy beatitude outshine thee which will be when all things created shall be refined into greater abundance of glory and exceed themselves as they are now as much as the purest Gold which seems to give light to the air and captivate our humane sence does the complexion of lead So shall all things created as they shall then be refin'd excell themselves in their glory For as blessed Saint Paul saies The creature also it self shall be deliver'd from the servitude of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God Rom. 8. For now in our flesh we suffer many things lyable onely to the corruption of the body which nature in the body it selfe shal be chang'd into incorruptible and that together with the soul become immortall the soul it self possest of more beauty and greater excellencie And where then canst thou dream of any jarre or discord may happen what ruines or what destroying civill dissention when an eternall inviolable love shall knit the Saints of Heaven in one knot and make them one soul The dread of the Divell shall be no more no more threats no more snares no more death the body it selfe shall be immortall and the soule quit her fear of a far
happinesse alone above expression For no soarings of the most elevated soules in contemplation can reach the high perfections of those blisses We may by the waies of weak comparisons give obscure guesses and such demonstrations the excellency of that glory onely allowes our conjectures to practise on Let us then seriously contemplate their conditions we commonly allow happy in this world let us make enquiry of their felicities who exceed in riches power or honor in so great overflowes that they scarce believe themselves on Earth Then let us weigh the certainty and permanence of what they hold themselves thus happy in and wee shall find them possest with nothing but vanities which will leave and quit them swifter then a dream Nay imagine those pleasures lasting as their lives which is the most you can allow them and yielding the fulness of that content they fancy who enjoy them when you find how short that time is of their being you will confesse them none And yet how much are worldings puffed up with these transitory delights Will it not then bee infinite content and unspeakable satisfaction to soules arriv'd at the Haven of bliss when having choos'd the stormy Seas of this troubled world they shall bee landed on the bankes of peace and tranquillity and enter possession of a Kingdom abounding with all joyes and pleasures honors glories and felicities without end For in the narrow streights of this world hee that possesses the largest inheritance may be likened to an infant within his mothers womb so little is his liberty compar'd with the spatious fields of that heavenly paradise prepar'd for the blessed from all eternity And as those are embrions in the womb having not yet the naturall benefit of light till their legitimate and full birth when they are brought into the world and participate even with their Parents though in their first clouts the fulnesse and perfection of their Creation So have not wee the true effects and ends of our redemption till we see the day of our glory And as amongst them abortives such will be the condemned sinners at the latter day amongst men abortives though those never see the light of the Sun never know day yet deliver'd from the cell of the wombe into the spacious world have the doom of a larger yet to them a darker Prison if wee consider there is that light for them they are incapable to enjoy So abortives impenitents shall be delivered out of darknesse into greater darknesse out of afflictions into greater afflictions But the mature offspring bearing his marks and characters shall be presented to the King of Heaven then shall the mystery of salvation be reveal'd to them and they become fellowes in glory with the Angels and the Archangells Wherefore my beloved friend do not for ever blot out those characters thou art sign'd with by Gods Holy spirit Bury them not in a loathsome abysse of sinns Raise up thy soul by repentance which will refine and beautifie those thy excellent parts that are now besmear'd and spatter'd with the filth of a dissolute living then will the lustre of thy vertues dazle those eyes to whom now thou appear'st a cloud of vanity The most excellent beauty that is in man or woman is no beauty if not in relation to our discerning them and what to dotage our enamour'd senses have admir'd them we must at the last confesse them subject to decay and ruine But the beauty of the soules exempt from that servitude to natures necessities is of a more excellent condition then that of the body in it's greatest pompe yet are our soules enjoyments more ours then are our bodies So earnest and passionate a lover of mankind is our Lord whom hee has so nobly honor'd that things of lesser value which carry little of greatnesse in them he has decreed to the Laws and necessity of a naturall production but has made us our selves the workmen of better and more glorious effects Had the forming of our bodies beauty been left to us Our fantastick natures had taken too much care about it and we had utterly neglected the greater businesse of our soules But Divine providence having denyed us the power we may justly conclude our task appointed us to bee the care of our own soules Since all the curiosity to make our selves finer creatures then we are which finds so many so much employment for their precious hours is altogether fruitlesse The nicer arts of colours and curles to adorne us lookt into have made up nothing but a becomming handsome lie When so much time spent upon the soul had really enricht and adorn'd it with such beauties as will last for ever And for all this how little time should we allow the better part if so be we had a ful power to accomplish our desire on the more ignoble scarce any time would be spar'd upon our soules could we beautifie our bodies as we desire still should we be decking and adorning the base abject slave whilst we neglected the soule her Mistresse and Lady with the laziest sloath and meanest contempt Therefore has God taken the effect of this fruitlesse labour clean out of our power if we truly consider the end of it But has given us the use of better and more profitable labours and appointed their reward For hee that cannot truly better and beautifie his body may do it to his soul though never so deform'd with sin by true contrition and repentance making it not onely the object of good mens affections and bad mens envie But reduce it to the honour to bee belov'd even of God our Lord and King This is it the Psalmist means when hee saies Psal. 45. ver. 95. So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty for he is the Lord and worship thou him Nay such is the great benignity of our Lord that the vildest and most dissolute sinners may hope by repentance to regain his favour though they stand in the highest degrees forfeited to his anger and severe judgements Which is very apparant throughout the Prophets Ezekiel thus pathetically aggravates her abhominations faln into a new unheard of manner of whoredome contrary to the custome of Harlots They give gifts saith he to all whores but thou givest gifts to all thy lovers and and hirest them that come unto thee on every side for thy whoredome and the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredom whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredomes and in that thou givest a reward when as no reward is given unto thee therefore thou art contrary Yet the mercy and grace of God calls her home thus given over to the abominations of her lusts For he laid not this captivity on her having an eye to his revenge and punishment on her wickedness but to convert her and bring her into order by his corrections For would God have punish'd her as she deserv'd shee had been swallowed in destruction He had not brought her captives home nor prepar'd
for them a better City or a more glorious Temple then the old Haggai 2. 9. The glory of this latter house shall be greater then the former saith the Lord of hosts in this wil I give peace saith the Lord of Hosts See thus often defil'd with her abhominations the Lord will not exclude this City from repentance nor shut the doors of his â—lemency against her No he will not nor will he forsake thee for ever though thy desperate condition by the suggestions of the Divell would perswade thee to it but with infinite desire and affection receive thee into mercy if thou returnest to him and he will lovingly embrace thy soule again though thus sunk in the deeps of wickednesse For no man no man I say though passionate even to madness can so truly affect the greatest beauty of the world as our Lord does the soul of man And if we look narrowly into the daily expressions of his love to every particular soul this truth will shew it self as clear to us as the light of the day And the Scriptures abound in testimonialls of this his infinite love to us Observe in Jeremiah and throughout the Prophets how the Lord has been wearied nay contemn'd and despised by his yet has restor'd the desertors and plac'd them again in his high favours this witnesse he bears of himself in the Gospell when he saies Mat. 23. 37. O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and you would not And Saint Paul 2 Cor. 5. 19. God saith he was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation Now when we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us wee pray you in Christs stead be reconciled to God O let us lay these invitations to our hearts and the minute wee read them believe the holy Ghost calling us Nor let us think it enough that wee believe aright for alas infidelity is not the onely bane of the soul to believe well availes us nothing if we live ill if wee purifie not our soules from uncleannesse and bid a farwell to that lewdnesse of life which so incenses the mighty anger of the Lord against us Because that the fleshly mind is enmity against God for it is not obedient to the Law of God neither can be Rom. 8. 7. The concupiscence of the flesh stands like a separating wall betwixt our soules and mercy which wee must utterly raze and destroy or never hope to have a free passage to that happy reconciliation which will crown our soules with triumph and honor and make them lovely and acceptable to God himself Thou art now bewitcht with thy Hermion's face and thinkst nothing in the world comparable to such an excesse of beauty believ'st the Earth bears nothing like it thy selfe if thou pleasest maist be far more lovely then she nay excell her more then starres of Gold and inestimable workmanship doe images of clay and dirt If men are naturally amaz'd and ravisht with the sight of some extraordinary beauties how will they be extrasied with the splendour of a soule in glory For indeed the substance of the greatest beauties though in a greater excellence of composure is the same with the meanest and most contemptible things of nature And are nourisht by the same meanes and subject to the same decay if not preserv'd by most common contemptible and inferiour supplies What is the inside of her killing glittering eyes What lies under that sweet and lovely outside of thy Hermion's surpassing graces or her purpled cheeks If thou art once redeemed from thy dotage thou wilt confesse the greatest beauty but a Sepulcher fairly whited and painted over every thing within it being decreed to the certainty of ruine and dissolution for there is nothing soe lovely that turnes not into loathsome putrifaction But what was that former grace and beauty whilst thou wert in thy integrity in which thou didst so infinitely excell that was of another composition above al the glorious things of this world as much as the Heavens exceed the Earth in splendour nay far more glorious then the Heavens themselves for though the soul be undiscernable and wee are altogether strangers to her excellencies wee may behold her in the elevated expressions of those whose pious zeales have left their attempted descriptions to inflame us with the favour they had to possesse their thoughts with so amiable desires as the contemplation of future glory which they have severall waies aim'd to know especially by soaring high as they were able into the natures of Angelical and heavenly substances CHAP. XI Saint Chrysostome continues 〈◊〉 the glorious nature of the soul and from that excellence prosecutes his perswasives to Theodorus still striving to overcome the rebellions of his lusts with exhortation and pressing arguments HEar him whose desires would have showne the excellent substance of an happy soul but finding it unequall to all comparison he betakes himselfe first to illustrate it by an assimulation to the nature of metals whose gross being was too heavy in the purest of their extractions to give him a sufficient hint and light of it thence he rayses his contemplations and attempts his comparison with the brightness of lightning and next of Angelicall bodies whose glorified essence he finds of a nature so abstracted from our knowledge that he cannot expresse the curiosity and subtilety of their essences so transplendent are they And such shall the blessed be in their glory Mat. 22. They shall be as the Angells in Heaven saies our Saviour to the Sadduces In fine all examples deriv'd from materiall things can never expresse the beauty of a soule Heaven excells all the glories of the Earth fire surpasses water the starres in lustre excell the most pretious stones wee may admire the rainbow in Heaven the violets and lillies withall the pride and variety of the fields which are all nothing in a manner if compar'd with the glories of the soule and those ineffable honors she shall be clothed withall in the day of her blisse Let us not forfeit so much happinesse which a lively faith and constant hope can secure us Nay for this wee must wade through all the inconveniencies of this miserable world 2 Cor. 4. 17. For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternall weight of glory And as blessed Saint Paul teacheth us It is really easie to beare the greatest afflictions looking to the reward of our sufferings So is it equally easie to overcome the petulant passions of our lusts and the same reward is appointed for both the conquests For when I would draw thee from thy dissolute courses I invite thee not to dangers nor the horrors of eminent death nor to perpetuall plagues
it another of a Disciple of John's the Son of Zebedeus and of Onesimus out of Saint Paul with which he continues his perswasives to fallen Theodorus I Will now relate to thee Theodorus a story of mine own time and of which I my selfe am a witnesse I knew a young Phoenix the Son of Urbanus Who was left a very young Orphan by his Parents with a very great fortune in Monies Land and Servants His education was sutable to his Estate sumptuous and noble his studies most in the liberall arts much addicted he was to musick and all the most pleasing attractives of so green years He on an instant forsakes his more delightfull studies all his pomp of youth and gaiety of cloaths and clad himselfe with the coursest vestments hee could get putting on the austerity of the most reserv'd religions Hee betakes himself to the Mountaines and most solitary retirements spending his time in the highest and most profound contemplations Hee was alwaies exercised in matters unproportionable to the qualifications of so young a Philosopher hee soar'd to the highest and most sublime studies such things as were the labours of the greatest proficients in Divinity were his onely imployment till at length he decrees and dedicates himself to holy orders for which he had the repute to be very fit and gave large testimonies of his sufficiency for his undertakings Every man began exceedingly to rejoyce and wonder that a young man so nicely bred up in all plenty and delicacy one sprung from so noble a stock should in the prime of his youth forsake the magnificence and delights of his large fortune and all that bewitched happinesse which deludes the fancy of most men to undergoe so strict and severe a course of life most admirable it was that not any temptation of those many his condition and fortune afforded him could hinder his progresse to the very height and greatest perfection of a contemplative life At which eminence when hee was arriv'd and justly become all mens wonder some of his own family esteeming this his resolution beneath the dignity of his birth make themselves the corruptors of his inclinations Their siren songes allure him into the waves of his former vanities He forsakes all his pious resolution quits his solitary and contemplative life on the Mountains and his happy solitudes and now begins to fill the streets with his train and pompe his multitude of horses his superfluous retinue with thousands of other follies are every mans discourse in fine he grows so dissolute that he lives neither temperately nor circumspectly But enflam'd with all violent and shamelesse lusts fell into most abhominable courses Every good man who sees his tribe of sycophants and lewd villains stick soclose to him despairs of him who had no Parents living to correct and curbe the enormities of his lascivious youth which had the ill advantage of a vast fortune to feed his extravagant inclinations Some there were who calmly expostulate with him and urge him though he forsook the severities he lately had undergone he would yet apply himselfe to his former more pleasing and delightfull exercises and bethinks himself how convenient it were more carefully to look to his Estate and the honor of his noble Family these things were often rung in his ears and he denied not them the hearing who undertook the speaking The goodnesse of his nature and an innate modesty he had often show'd encourag'd some holy religious men to seeke all meanes to get into his good opinion that so they might discharge their duties to God in endeavouring to reclaim a person of whom they conceiv'd so much hopes to this purpose they diligently and constantly watch and observe him When they met him abroad their custome was to salute him with all respect all love and kindnesse which hee at first but slighted Yet these compassionate men infinitly ambitious to preserve his perishing youth would not be mov'd at his behaviour or put by the good of their intentions having still their eyes fixt upon the mark they so coveted to hit they would not be put off from the resolution they had to redeem this lambe from the wolfes jawes by some meanes or other which at length with much study and patience they performed For in the end hee became something mov'd with their civilities and a little to wonder at their behaviour to him being conscious that his waies were not at all agreeable to their liking In so much that if hee spyed them a far off hee would leap from his horse and reverently meet them with his eyes fixt on the Earth and with a grave serious attention and hearken to what they said till in processe of time his respect to them continually encreasing he ever treats them with such becomming gestures as were due to their good intentions and Divine callings By this artifice of theirs they restore this young man to the grace and favour of God and breaking all those nets entangled him reduc'd him to his own peace of soule and to the love of Heavenly wisdome and true piety In which he grew so eminent and farre excelled others That no man could dream he ever had led so vain a life when they saw him so exceedingly reform'd For having now learn't by experience what the dangerous baits of loose and ungovern'd appetites were hee distributes all his riches amongst the poor and needy And thus he frees himself from all worldly incumberances removing all lets and obstacles that lay in his way to that Haven whither hee directed his course and where at length hee arriv'd and became a rare and most exquisite pattern of devotion and true piety thus fell this noble youth and thus recover'd he the eternall happiness of his soul Another after an exemplary patience and many hardships in his Hermitage who with one single companion had liv'd in a Cell to a very great age and there led a most Angelicall life at last by the malice and subtlety of the Devill fell into idlenesse and ugly dreames into sluggish and yauning desires and gives Satan the opportunity to surprize him Who fires him with lust after a woman hee burnes to have one though hee had seen none of the sex for many years that is from the first day he entred into his solitude First hee askes his companion for delitious meats wine and Junkets threatning him unlesse he got them for him hee would himselfe break the ties of his vows and go to the next Town and fetch them Which hee did not out of a true longing for wine or those delicates but made this pretence for his farther lewd purposes his companion attempts him with all the perswasive cunning he could but finding him willfull in his resolutions promises him to get those things he desir'd to satisfie his appetite lest it might occasion him to run into greater sins Which he perceiving and seeing his intents like to be frustrated began to deal plainly with him and saies he must
thy life but I cannot utterly despair of thee though thou wilfully do so of thy selfe as yet for I should be then guilty of thy own folly and peevishnesse by my distrust Which is a sin I will not commit For though I see thee strangely fallen I will still trust in Gods mercy and grace to thee and doubt not but to see thee in a happy condition clear'd and purg'd of all that fatall malignancy thy carelesse soule has now contracted and behold thee perfectly reconcil'd to vertue godlinesse and the favour of God CHAP. XII The story of the Ninivites repentance the proeme to Saint Chrysostomes farther urging Theodorus to his conversion collecting thence that greatest sinners may return to God he prosecutes his perswasions alledging that many so converted have become the best and most zealous people THE Ninivites hearing that threatning and sharp crying out of the Prophet Jonah Jonah 3. 4. Yet forty daies and Nineveh shall be destroyed were not so discourag'd and dismai'd at so terrible warnings of their approaching destruction from the fierce anger of an incens'd omnipotent God but they would yet trust to his mercy Though the decreee of his vengeance was not conditionall but positive Niniveh shall be destroy'd without admittance of any clause to foment a hope in them for the words of the Prophet were not disjoynted but a plain and direct sentence of judgement yet they submit with humble penitence ver. 9. For say they who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that wee perish not ver. 10. And God saw their workes that they turned from their evill ways and God repented of the evill that he said that he would do unto them and he did it not See how those barbarous rude and mad people apprehended their imminent destruction togther understood the possibility of their deliverance having their hearts set upon his infinite mercy in his greatest wrath and rage against them Let us then that are Christians and nursed up in the knowledge of our Lords benignity who are instructed and disciplin'd in his word and know many the like examples stir up our soules to sincere repentance and not be less then them in our confidence of his goodness and mercy For he it is whose sacred spirit has told us Isa 55. 8 9. That his thoughts are not our thoughts neither are our waies his waies For as the Heavens are higher then then the Earth so are his waies higher then our waies and his thoughts then our thoughts Servants of men erre from the duty they owe their masters and commit foul faults against them yet if they grow sorrowfull and recant that disobedience they are againe received into their masters good opinion and sometimes with advantage of preferment God our gratious Lord and master whose thoughts and waies exceed those of men will deale as favourably Nay far more mercifully with us If the intent of his creating us had been to damn us then thy despaire were reasonable and just nor couldst thou do otherwise then doubt of salvation when none were prepar'd for thee But God having made thee out of his goodnesse and created thee to good ends no less then that thou mightst enjoy everlasting happinesse and to that intent his great workes continue in thee if thou willfully denie not to perceive it what should make thee thus diffident or in the least to mistrust his mercy When we have the most incens'd him then ought we most carefully to look to our selves most diligently and couragiously to resist all issuing temptations present and most bitterly lament our easie yielding to those past which so miserably overcame us so shall wee be able to give a manifest testimony of our perfect change For nothing more provokes our Lord then our obstinacie and denyall to returne into the right way For to do ill is but humane weaknesse to persevere Diabolicall malice Consider how horrid a thing it was which wee read in the Prophet that Iudah call'd back in the race of her vild whoredomes would not return to the Lord Jer. 3. 7. And I said after shee had done all these things turn thou unto me but she returned not The Lord strives with us to show how mercifully he is inclin'd to our salvation many are his promises to those who return into the right way forsaking the Meanders and by-paths of iniquity When hee saw Israels promises of repentance that they began to prepare their hearts to fear him and to keep his Commandements his promise was that it should bee well with them and their Children for ever Wherefore Moses joyns the reward with the command when hee bids them to keep the Commands of the Lord and his statutes which he commands saies he for their good Deut. 10. 13. And immediately before he commands us to fear him to walk in his waies and to love him Which is most remarkable that the God of Heaven should earnestly seek their loves who so wretchedly offend him Wherefore ought wee to love him who desires to belov'd of us who woes us and does us all things to win our affections Nay who spar'd not his onely begotten Son for us but gave him up and delivered him to the ignominious death of the Crosse that we might be reconcil'd to him And what think you so loving a Father will do for them he has purchas'd at so dear a rate Nay and what lies on our duty which is humiliation and repentance even that he presses on us if wee were not insensible of our own miseries the evill of our own miseries the evill of our own condition would invite us to As he speakes by the Prophet Isaiah 43. 26 Tell thy sinns first declare thou that thou maist be justified Which the Lord speakes desiring to make our affections vehement that so with freenesse and openness of heart we may deliver our selves up to his mercifull kindnesse Infinite is this love of our Lord while we anger and provoke him while we abuse his goodnesse and his patience all this ingratitude cannot extinguish his love and when hee laies open to us the injuries wee offer his divine Majesty he does it but to dilate on his love and so to tye our affections nearer to him and demands of us nothing but penitent acknowledgment If then to confesse our sinnes unto him bring with it so much comfort as the promise of justification how great will our joy be when our workes are rendred acceptable in the sight of God and all the filth and uncleannesse of them washt quite away And if this way to him were not accessible after we err'd and leudly strai'd from the paths of righteousnesse how few of many soules now glorified in Heaven had ever seen their salvation It is worthy all mens observation seriously to consider the returne of many desperate sinners who after the reconcilement of their enormous soules to grace have strangely excell'd in piety and outshin'd those who were in