the world or some other inferiour thing provided for the use of man I wil remember the young-man that weeping at the sight of a Toad and being asked by certaine Bishops as they passed in the way where he was the cause of his griefe answered and softned every word with a teare that he wept because he had risen to such a bulk of body and heigth of yeares and never yet given thanks to God for not creating him so foule an object of contempt as the Toad when hee was to God his Maker as willing and easie clay in the hands of the Potter O Lord I thank thee for him and for my selfe and for us all MEDITATION III. ANd the Lord God formed man of the Gen. 2. 7. dust of the ground and breathed into his nostr hils the breath of life and man became a living soule For when the Angels enriched with such absolute gifts and dowries of nature by occasion of their shining and beautifull nature had lost and lost beyond recovery the fairest beauty under Heaven which is Grace God turning his Omnipotencie to the Creation of man made as if he feared the like inconvenience all that is visible in Him of Earth of base and foule earth Which lest it should continually provoke a loathing he hath changed into a more fine substance covered all over with a fair and fashionable skinne but with a condition of returning at a word and halfe a call from Heaven unto Earth and into Earth That although he might afterwards be lifted up in the scale of his soule hee might be depressed againe presently on the other side by the waight and heavinesse of his body and so might lay the deep and low foundation of humility requisite to the high and stately building of vertue If now God should turn a man busie in the commission of some haynous crime into his first earth that presently in steed of the man should appeare to us an Image of clay like the man and with the mans cloathes on standing in the posture in which the man stood when he was wholly tooke up in committing that high sinne against God Should we not all abominate so vile a man of clay lifting himselfe against the great God of Heaven and Earth And God breathed upon his face rather then upon any other part of his body because all the senses of man doe flourish in his face and because agreeably to his own ordinance in the face the operations of the soule should be most apparent as the signes of feare griefe joy and the like wherefore one calls the eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most exact and accurate images of the Damascenus in vita I sidori minde But stay I grant that God in the beginning first rais'd all things by a strange lift out of nothing And I confesse it is true not that which Pythagoras his Schollers had so often in their mouthes Ipse dixit and no farther but ipse dixit facta sunt as the Prophet David singeth God spake the word and all this gallant world rose presently out of nothing as if sencelesse nothing had heard his voyce and obeyed him And I am sufficiently convinced that God brought our first Father from cōmon earth that we cannot touch without defiling our fingers to earth of a finer making call'd flesh But how are we made by him wee come a naturall way into the world And it is not seene that God hath any extraordinary hand in the work Truly neither are the influences of the Sunne and Starres apparent to us in our composition yet are they necessary to it Sol homo generant Arist hominem sayes Aristotle The Sunne and a man betwixt them beget a child The reasonable soule is created by God in the body at the time when the little body now shapen is in a fit temper to entertaine it For the soule is so noble and excellent both in her substance and operations that shee cannot proceed originally from any inferiour cause nor be but by creation And if God should stay his hand when the body is fitly dressed and disposed for the soule the child would be borne but the meanest part of a man And doubtlesse God useth Parents like inferiour officers even in the framing of the Body For if the Parents were the true Authors and master builders of the body they should be endued naturally with a full and perfect knowledge of that which they make They should fully and perfectly know how all things are ordered and fitted in the building They should know in particular how many strings veins sinewes bones are dispensed through all the body in what secret Cabinet the braine is locked up in what posture the heart lyeth and what due motion it keepes what kinde of Cookery the stomack uses which way the rivers of the bloud turne and at what turning they meet what it is that gives to the eyes the principality of seeing to the eares of hearing to the nose of smelling to the mouth of censuring all that passes by the taste and to the skin and flesh the office of touching Nor is this all But also when the body is taken up and borded by a sicknesse or when a member withers or is cut off truly if the Parents were the only Authors of the body they might even by the same Art by which they first framed it restore it againe to it selfe As the maker of a clock or builder of a house if any parts be out of order can bring them home to their sit place and gather all againe to uniformity So that every man naturally should be so farre skill'd in Physick and Surgerie and have such an advantage of power that his Art should never faile him even in the extraordinary practice of either To this may be added that the joyning together of the soule and body which in a manner is the conjunction of Heaven and Earth of an Angell and a beast could not be compassed by any but a workman of an infinite power For by what limited art can aspirit be linked to flesh with so close a tye as to fill up one substance one person They are too much different things the one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Gregory Nazianzen speaks a ray of the S. Greg. Naz Divinity the other a vile thing extracted from a dunghill Nor is there any shew of semblance or proportion betwixt them And therfore to make these two ends meet is a work which requires the hand and the onely hand of the Master Workman The Divines give three speciall reasons why God joyned a body to a soule First moved by his infinite goodnesse because he desired to admit a body as well as a spirit to the participation of himselfe and all creatures being spirituall or corporall a body could never have beene partaker of blessednesse had it not beene joyned to a spirit Secondly for the more generall exercise of vertue in the service of
God for a soule could not have acted many vertues without the aide of a body as the vertues of temperance and chastity For the Devils are not delighted with the sinnes contrary to these vertues but for our guilt Thirdly the perfection of the universe For as there are creatures only spirits as Angels and creatures onely bodily as beasts and trees so it was a great perfection that there should also be creatures both spirits and bodies By which it is evident that God placed man in a middle condition betwixt Angels and beasts to the end he might rise even in this life with Elias to the sublime and superiour state of Angels not descend with Nabuchodonosor to that inferiour and low rank of beasts And by the more frequent operations of the spirit in high things we become more spirituall and indeed Angelicall By the more frequent exercise of the body and the bodily powers in the acts of sensuality we become more bodily and bestiall MEDITATION 4. ANd God gave us a being so perfect in all points and lineaments that lest we should fondly spend our whole lifes in admiration of our selves and at the looking-glasse hee wrought his owne image in us that guided by it as by a finger pointing upwards wee might not rest in the work but look up presently to the workman The image consisteth in this God is one the soule is one God is one in Essence and three in persons the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost The soule is one in Essence and three in faculties the understanding the will the memory The Father is the first person and begets the Son the understanding is the first faculty and begets the will I meane the acts of willing by the representation of something which it sheweth amiable The Holy Ghost is the third person and proceeds from the Father and the Son the memory is the third faculty and is put into action and being in a manner joyntly by the understanding and will But here is a strange businesse The Sonne the second person came downe into the world and yet stay'd in Heaven The will the second faculty and she onely goes as it were out of the soule into outward action that we may see the soule of a man in the execution of his will and yet remaines in the soule God is a spirit the soule is a spirit God is all in all the world and all in every part of the world The soule is all in all the body and all in every part of the body Phidias a famous Graver desiring to leave in Athens a perpetuall memorie of himselfe and an everlasting monument of his Art made a curious image of Minerva the matter being pretious Jvorie and in her buckler upon which in a faire diversitie hee cut the battails of the Amazons and Giants hee couched his owne picture with such a rare singularity of Art that it could not any way be defaced without an utter dissolutioÌ„ of the Bucklar This did God before Phidias was ever heard of or his fore-fathers through many generations in the soule of man the image of God though not his likenesse remaining in the soule as long as the soule remaineth even in the damned To this image God hath annexed a desire of him which in the world lifts up our hearts to God in Hell begets and maintaines the most grievous paine of losse And to shew that this desire of God is the greatest and best of all desires nothing which any other desire longs after will satisfie the gaping heart but onely the object of this great desire Ad imaginem Dei facta anima rationalis saith S Ber. Ser. de divinis S. Bernard caeteris omnibus occupari potest repleri non potest capax enim Dei quicquid minus Deo est non replebit The reasonable soule being made after the image of God may be held back and stay'd a little dallying with other things but it can never be fully pleas'd and fill'd with them for the thing that is capable of God cannot be filled with any thing that is lesse then God The heart is carved into the forme of a Triangle and a Triangle having three angles or corners cannot be filled with a round thing as the world is For put the world being sphaericall or circular into the triangle of the heart and still the three angles will be empty and wait for a thing which is most perfectly one and three And that wee might know with what fervour of charity and heat of zeale God endeavoureth that we should be like to him he became like to us For although God cannot properly be said like to us as God as a man is not said like to his picture but the picture to him yet as man he may And therefore as hee formed us with conformity to his image in the Creation so hee formed himselfe according to our image and likenesse in his Incarnation So much he seeketh to perfect likenesse betwixt us in all parts that there may be the more firme ground for love to build upon when commonly similitude allureth to love and likenesse is a speciall cause of liking It is the phrase of S. Paul who saith of Christ that he was made in the likenesse of man 2 Phil. 7. MEDITATION V. ANd woman being made not as man of earth but of man and made in Paradise was not taken out of the head that she might stand over her husband nor out of the feet that she might be kickt and trod upon nor out of any fore-part that shee might be encouraged to go before her husband nor yet out of a hinder part lest her place should be thought amongst the servants farre behind her husband but out of the side that shee might remaine in some kinde 〈◊〉 â—quality with him And from his heart side and a place very neere the heart that his love towards her might be hearty And from under his left arme that he might hold her with his left arme close to his heart and fight for her with his best arme as he would fight to defend his heart It is one of the great blessings which the Prophet pronounceth to him that feareth the Lord Thy wife shall be as a fruitfull vine by Psal 128. 3 the sides of thine house The vine branch may be gently bended any way and being cut it often bleeds to death And the wife is a vine by the sides of the house her place is not on the floore of the house nor on the roofe shee must never be on the top of the house But there is a difference the woman must be a Vine by the insides of the House But now begins a Tragedy It is not without a secret that the Devill in his first exploit borrowed the shape of a serpent of which Moyses Now the serpent was more Gen. 3. 1. subtill then any beast of the field The knowledge of the Angels is more cleare compared with the knowledge
of the Devils and moreover is joyned with Charity but the knowledge of the Devils is not joyned with Charity Justice or other vertues and therefore degenerateth into craft according to that of Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. in Menexeno Knowledge not linked with justice and other vertues is not wisedome but craft And the serpent is crafty For if he can passe his head his long traine being lesse and lesse will easily follow Hee will winde and turne any way He flatters outwardly with gawdy scales but inwardly he is poyson Hee watches for you in the greene grasse even amongst the flowers Wee see that God suffers not the Devill to take a shape but such a one as will decipher his practices And the serpent which deceived Eve was crafty in a high degree of craft for many write that his making was upright and that hee was beautified with a head and face somewhat like hers And he that had beene throwne from heaven because hee desired to be like God comes now with a trick to the weaker of the two and his first temptation is a motion to the desire of being like God Yee shall be as Gods Hee knew by experience Gen 3. 5. that the desire of being like God was like enough to lay them low enough under him And because they would be like God Christ would be a man And he comes with a faire apple a pretty thing for the curiosity of a woman to look upon and desire to touch and play with The holy Scripture gives three reasons which moved her to eat of it three reasons besides the Devil's temptation every one being gathered from some conceived excellencie in the fruit And when Gen. 3. 6. the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise alas foolish woman shee tooke of the fruit thereof and did eat Shee lov'd her belly too well Shee delighted in glittering shewes and she would be wise above her condition And these are three great faults amongst Eves daughters But as the profession of wisedome so the desire of wisedome which involveth knowledge of things above our degree and out of our end is an adjunct of folly S. Paul saith of the old Philosophers Professing themselves to be wise they became Rom. 1. 12 fooles And she desiring to be wise became a very foole And now Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord Gen. 3 8. God among the trees of the Garden They add folly to folly they hide themselves from the presence of him that is omnipresent And they are fooles indeed to think the trees of the garden will be more true to them then to God or that the Trees will hide an injury done to one of the best trees in the garden And they doe not hide themselves onely but also their fault and tosse it from one to another The man cries out The woman whom thou gavest to be with mee shee gave me of the tree and I did eat The Gen 3. 12. woman cries out lowder then he The serpent beguiled mee and I did eat They hid Ver â—3 their sinnes and incurred a curse Wee to avoid a curse must confesse our sinnes and lay them open But the woman makes her excuse with lesse fault because shee was the weaker party and taught by the example of her husband And he throwes the fault upon his wife shee not back upon him but upon the Devill And the serpent the Devils instrument in his appearance was laid upon his belly for it and bound to hard fare to eat dust all the dayes of his life And God goes in his curses as they proceeded in their sinnes he first curses the serpent then the woman and afterwards the man who sinned after them all But had he stood say the Interpreters we never had fallen And the Schoole-men give a sufficient reason for he was the root both of Eve and us And he cannot be freed from the greatest fault For it was more in him to be deluded by his wife then in her to be deceived by the Devill MEDITATION VI. GOd being now constrained to banish Adam and his wife out of Paradise stay'd them notwithstanding within the sight of it They were not banished into a farre Country that they might know they should be shortly restor'd and that having Paradise alwayes before their eyes they might loath sin the deadly cause of their expulsion God created all this faire globe of the world for man and therefore did not fashion him before the sixth day till the house was furnished and made in all points fit for his entertainment All the strange variety of creatures abiding either in Aire Earth or Sea were made such and such to help him forward in such and such manner to his supernaturall end and therefore God gave to no creature an upright stature and a tongue to speake and praise him but to man because all the benefits hee cast upon other things were not given to them for themselves but in order to man being rather his then their benefits And both Angels and man having fallen from God hee turnes away from the Angels and turnes with a sweet face and with loving embraces unto man For the Angels being endowed with most eminent abilities of nature and that highly perfected by Grace and having no clog of body to waigh down the spirit sinn'd of meere malice without a Tempter and without an example and therefore fell beneath the benefit of a Redeemer One reason of this love of God to man is prettily expressed by way of History A man and a woman were found guilty of theft whereof the woman was bigg with childe The man having nothing to say for himselfe is condemned and sent away to the place of execution The woman cries and pleads shee is with childe and though condemn'd is onely sent to prison where shee gives such efficacious signes of her sorrow and Repentance that after a while she the fruit of her womb are set at liberty Now the history turnes to a similitude and the fable becomes true historie The Angels had nothing to say and their generations were compleat one Angell doth not beget another and were immediatly sent to the place of execution But Adam and Eve were both with child their number was not up they radically coÌ„tained in them thousands of thousands that should come after them and they were spar'd for their childrens sakes till they were spar'd for their own sakes yet all were spar'd for Christ his sake and wholly for his sake And God hath so play'd the good Alchymist with the sinne of our first Parents extracting many goods out of one evill that some curiously question whether wee may or may not be sorry that Adam sinn'd For if wee are sorry that hee sinn'd wee are sorry that God's deare children as they still encrease their yeares still
report that the wall of her cloister would commonly open of it selfe and the Sacrament the King of glory passe through it borne by no visible thing into her mouth One thing I most highly detest amongst them that in their processions on Corpus Christi day they act Playes full of most prophane and base matter and stuffed with most ridiculous passages in the wayes where the Sacrament is brought both before and after it passeth and yet their Players being of both sexes are most wicked and excommunicate persons And at other times when the Sacrament is exposed in the Churches the Country Clownes come trim'd up and with their best clothes on and dance by the high Altar before it in imitation of David that danced before the Ark and the people stand about them as they doe in our Country Townes at their Summer sports only the Altar-side is cleare And whereas the people were infected with an evill custome of giving reprochfull names one to another as they met occasionally in the high-wayes the Pope hath taught them a Salutation and bound a sufficient Indulgence to it Alabado sea el santissimo sacramento Praised be the most holy Sacrament which words they usually pronounce one to another as they meet But I would he had taught them to say something which he had learn'd of the Primitive Church CHAP. 10. 2. THe Bread and Wine in the Sacrament are signes and figures onely of the body and bloud of Christ broken and powred out for us The tearme figure is used in this matter by Tertullian S. Austen and others of the Latine Church Wisedome hath builded her house saith the Wise-man Pro. 9. 1. By what secret passage can it enter into the heart of man that the Son of God the wisedome of the Father building a house a faire house a Church and building it in the defiance of Paganisme and to the ruine and overthrow of Idolatry under the heavy burden of which all habitable parts of the world all Kingdomes Countries people groaned would now forget his main plot and so institute the master-peece of Religion that his Followers comming to him with a zealous contempt and loathing of Idolatry should be taught presently in the Schoole of Truth to adore the glorious Majesty of Heaven and Earth in the likenesse of a little peece of bread to the great scandall and aversion of all that should beleeve the contrary For what is more frequent at this day in the mouth I cannot say of an uncircumcised but of an unbeleeving Turk when hee mingleth discourse with a Christian concerning God and Religion then to say in a reproachfull manner Alas good man I pitty you you make your God that which I eat at my Table And this Reason though it be drawne but ab improbabili yet urges because besides that nothing is improbable which is God hath ordained probability to be one of the first steps to knowledge If wee goe to the University and ask the Philosophers they will tell us it is requisite to the nature and Essence of a body that every part should have his proper place neither can a body be conceived to be a compleat body without extensive distinction of parts or to be but in a place And it is the exigence of materiall Accidents saith Aristotle as of quantity figure colour to be rooted in a body But here they are supposed to stand by themselves without a prop. And when a reason of these things never thought of in any kind of learning either in themselves or in their grounds is required the greatest schollers in the world on their part can say nothing but wee must goe up with holy Abraham the good old man to the top of the mountaine who having a strong promise that his seed should be multiplyed as the starres of Heaven was yet commanded to kill and sacrifice his onely sonne Isaak and we must leave the servants and the ignorant Asse at the foot of the hill that is the senses and Reason But if the senses be servants they are faithfull ones and are not deceived in the knowledge of their proper objects due order and conditions being kept on both sides and if Reason be an ignorant Asse what distinction is there betwixt a man and a beast They speake on As the Captaines of the Army put off their garments laid them in a heap and setting Jehu upon them cryed Jehu is King So we building a Throne for Faith over Sense and Reason must hold up our hands and pray that Faith may have a long and prosperous raigne over us Vive la Foy long live Faith There was a farre more searching kind of Philosophy taught in the sound and sincere dayes of S. Austen who in his Epistle to Dardanus thus draweth his argument from the deep grounds of true Philosophy Spatia locorum tolle corporibus S. Aug. ad Dardan nusquam erunt quia nusquam erunt nec erunt tolle ipsa corpora qualitatibus corporum non erit ubi sint ideò necesse est ut non sint Take away from a body place and the body will be no where and being no where will not be take away from a body the qualities of a body and there wil be no place for the body to reside in and therefore the body must be no body I yeeld that in the part of Divinity which treateth of the blessed Trinity Reason must strike saile and stoope and Reason teacheth us that in the scanning of such high things Reason must be guided by a more certaine though not a clearer light and therefore still we follow the safe conduct of Reason but in materiall things proportion'd to our capacity and confined to their natures by the God of nature I cannot see with the eye of Reason or any other eye why Reason should not be one of the Councell and passe her judgement as shee does and ever did in these inferiour things Answer mee now Doth it not follow and flow out of these principles that the body of Christ in the Sacrament hath the being of a body and the being of a spirit at the same time and that if an Angell should take a particle of the Hoast and divide it continually for all eternity because such a division can never strike something to nothing as likewise no creature can ever lift something from nothing still in that little thing very like to nothing and many thousands of yeares before not perceptible by any sense of man Christ shall be as truly and as plentifully present as hee was in the world and upon the Crosse Answer mee againe Doe not they worship as Christ said to the woman of Samaria they know not what For when the Priest is supposed to be a Ioh. 4. 22. Priest and is not which often happeneth according to their Divinity either for the defect of Baptisme or for want of intention either in the Priest or Bishop or for want of orders in the Bishop then
Rome like Smithfield in London I humbly desire all religious people when they talke of this pamper'd man not to think of me He was not a native of this Countrey and in many things he behaved himselfe like an Atheist and an Epicure he was cut out into a Dissembler when he was young for he had beene a Jesuit I never was but abhorre the name In Ligorne a Towne lying by the Mediterranean Sea and subject to the Duke of Florence I saw the man upon whom part of a wall fell and held him to the ground while he was tooke in the act of villany with a Calfe and money had redeemed him And yet notwithstanding it was one of the cherishing stories with which the notable Monke of Doway did ease me of my burden That an Italian Gentleman having sent a wicked Varlot to cut off the nose of his enemy and there are persons both in Italy and Spaine to be hired for such damnable purposes And the deed bein done the wronged person recollected his spirits and desired to know the summe by which he was induced to that foule enterprise Which being told he gave the like summe for the performance of the same exploite upon the other And the same vile instrument in the very same manner upon the same conditions cut off the nose of him that first imploy'd him In Italy they bury altogether in Vaults and in the time of my residence there the Friers had conveyed a Maid under ground and having abused her killed her in her grave Salvianus is a great enemy to these Hypocrites His words in one place are Quid agis stulta persuasio Peccata interdixit Salv. l. 5. de Guber Dei Deus non matrimonia Foolish perswasion what doest thou the Law of God forbiddeth sinne not marriage But why doe I taxe them for killing It is scarce so hainous in Italy to kill a man as to kill a dog When a man is killed in the streets of Rome another perhaps will step to him and looke if he know the face to quiet his thoughts concerning his own friends but he goes his way againe presently and makes no strange matter of murder it is so common The way of the Italians is as the Colledge hath taught me after a quarrell betwixt two one deviseth presently how he may kill his adversary upon this foundation because he must either kill or be kill'd Yet in the execution of a condemned person in Spaine I cannot no I cannot but observe one commendable passage which I could wish that their practice would commend to our imitation Sure it would bee a matter of high and publike concernement The offender being dead immediately standeth up by him hanging or lying as a triumph of justice a Priest or Minister who presently maketh a speech to the people not unlike a Sermon wherein he treats of his offence of the Diabolical delusions in which he was ensnared by little and little of his former life and of the manifestation of the divine justice in his end and death At which time he doth so point to the dead body and so often shew it to the eyes of the people whose hearts are already strucke with the horror of his present ruine and moreover he doth so charge and warne the people by his example and cries so many times looke here you who are alive that indeed he moves exceedingly to good life If I goe on I shall never have done CHAP. III. OUr ghostly Father in the Colledge was an old Jesuit who had said freely amongst his companions that hee had laboured in digging under the Parliment house till every thred of his shirt was wet This man was not a fit Ghostly Father for young Schollers looking towards England The words were proved against him by the titular Bishop of Chalcedon from whose mouth I received them Who shewed me likewise a silver meddall in which Father Garnet was decked with the ornaments of a Saint and joyned with S. Ignatius Loyola I am bound also to his Lordship for the sight of two pictures of Garnets strawe each representing it in a severall forme and one being the second edition when the former had beene formerly reprehended even by me said the Bishop I hope the Jesuits will not deny that I lived warily and piously amongst them and glewed my selfe fast to my meditations when others neglected them and slept their time away who when the seven Sleepers were read in the Martyrologe at supper would merrily put off their caps in honour of them But I will onely take my leave of his Holinesse and then goe from Rome For I was sent hence by the Pope to England to convert soules and I brought out of his Treasure three thousand Indulgences with me which I meane to keepe till they are dearer The Pope is a Bishop and yet a Prince And the reason which Father Fitzharbert gave me why the old Ages payed to the Pope so little honour was because they saw him a Bishop and no Prince If this may stand the chiefe honour is due to him as a Prince and not as a Bishop He is carried in a chaire of state upon the shoulders of men from which chaire his blessing hath often come and sate upon my shoulders Kings and Cardinals may kisse his hands others of what degree soever onely the crosse upon his pantofle He has the keyes of Heaven and Hell and also of Purgatory he can turne the key open and shut when he pleaseth And he doth assure the Priest that saying Masse at a priviledge Altar that is an Altar to which this high priviledge is given by his Holinesse he shall free a soule out of Purgatory He will give you very liberally a plenary Indulgence of all your sinnes and remit all the temporall punishment due to the slaine in Purgatory when the guilt is removed by confession He will untie the Lawes of God and give you leave and freedome to labour in servile works as to plough sow and reap on the Lords day to take for your wife your neare kinswoman to kill the subject of any Prince whom he doth excommunicate You may goe to the Stewes in the full and open view of authority I am able to name the man whom they would have suffered to commit fornication under the pleasing title of a veniall sinne Teaching out of his chaire he cannot erre they meane when he doth instruct the world in matters of faith And though he bee an Arrian a Monothelite or other Hereticke the Spirit of God doth not forsake him for he hath a double portion of his Spirit and one being lost by heresie keeps the other He claimeth to himselfe a supreme Dominion over Princes be they Christians or Infidels and presumeth to disengage their true and lawfull subjects from their obedience to which they are tied by God He cannot be deposed for any crime but heresie he will give you if you please him a peece of sanctified and blessed waxe which shall quiet
exercise of obedience they may not question the sufficiencie of the command And both they and their Priests may with more leave and a lesse breach of Law commit Fornication or Adultery or Sodomy or beastiality a thousand times over then marry although Gods Law was antecedent to their vow of chastity and is of more validity yea though we should grant their vow as the vow to be ratified with some limitation by another Law of God because the matter of the vow is of greater perfection It came from the Monke of Doway that not long agoe it was a custome in Biscay a Province of Spaine and observed with all exactnesse of diligence that every man having married a wife sent her the first night to the Priest of the Parish And that these different Orders of Religion did not take their beginning from the speciall inspiration of God I will manifestly prove out of their owne Canons The Councell of Lateran celebrated in Concil Later the dayes of of Pope Innocentius the third hath this Canon Ne nimia Religionum diversitas gravem in Ecclesia Dei confusionem inducat firmiter prohibemus ne quis de caetero novam Religionem inveniat Sed quicunque voluerit ad Religionem converti unam de approbatis assumat Lest the diversity of Religions should trouble all and raise a confusion in the Church of of God we firmely forbid any man hereafter to invent a new Religion but whosoever will be turned to Religion let him apply himselfe to one of those which are already approved Marke the phrase of these Lateran Bishops invent a new Religion and I suppose they would not put limits to the Spirit of God and for the confusion here mentioned it is as plaine to be seene as the Church of Rome for in dissention is the destruction of love and order and consequently confusion And what true learning can the world expect from these people who cannot speake or write the sincere meaning of their minds because their tongues and pens are confined to the severall opinions of their orders Armed with these grounds I tooke up a good and masculine resolution and letting fall Popery made a confession of Faith against which the gates of Hell can never prevaile in the words and manner following CHAP. XVI I Beleeve that the Church of England comparing the weake and decayed estate of the Roman Church in the beginning of this latter age with the strong and flourishing condition of the Primitive times some hundreds of yeares after Christ and finding the Church of Rome with relation to those times so unlike the Church of Rome and so contrary to it selfe had good reason to trust the soules and eternity of her faithfull people rather with the old purity of the younger times neere Christ the ancient of dayes then with the new belefe of these old and dangerous times It being confessed and all Histories as if they had beene written with the same pen testifying that in those golden times the name of Pope was not heard of The Bishop of Rome was indeed esteemed a Bishop a Patriarch and there was a full point All the supremacie hee could possibly then claime rested in his being a supreme Patriarch Which supremacie gave him the first place allowed him to give the first sentence and there hee stuck And how little the Councell of Nice of Constantinople and all the Grecian Councels favoured the Latin Church and their Patriarch the Bishop of Rome he that can read and understand may be a witnesse And to consider the just ordering of Church-imployments Constantine the first Christian Emperour if I may stile him so without prejudice to Philip ex sacerdotum sententia saith Ruffinus advised by certaine Ruff. Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 1. Bishops called the Councell of Nice And he cannot be said as Bellarmine answereth to have executed the Popes commandement For the Author seemeth not in his relation to have thought of the Bishop of Rome unlesse you will urge he thought of him in a confused manner as being in the number of Bishops Behold here the great height of Princely and temporall authority Edesius and Frumentius labouring Ruff. Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 9 to reconcile a great Kingdome of India to Christ dealt their affaires with Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria they had not learned the duty of repairing to Rome Observe the indifferencie of Episcopall and Spirituall power And againe it being most certaine that in those cleane and holy times the Sacrament of the Eucharist was not adored and consequently not beleeved to be God and was freely delivered in both kindes to the people And I wonder that the strange inconveniencies which the nicenesse and curiosity of Rome pretendeth were not perceived by the cleare eyes of the holy Prelates in those dayes who little dreaming of a reall presence little thought waking that the administration of the Sacrament in one kinde gave the things signified by both kindes the body and bloud and was therefore sufficient to spirituall nourishment And moreover it appearing plainely in all the old Monuments of Records that the Scripture was then read not to the eares but through the eares to the hearts of people in a knowne language So that when the supremacie of the Pope beganne to take place then onely his language began to be supreme as well as he More a great deale may be said but I have not time to say it at this time Indeed and indeed the Church of Rome in my thoughts is rather the carcasse of a Church then the Church animated with the holy Ghost and is like the ruines of a City burnt or decayed by which we may perceive there hath beene a City Her people may say Fuimus Troes we have been the beautifull Church of Christ It can doe no harme if it be knowne that three dayes before I preached my first Sermon by which I declared my recantation certaine Papists very neere to me in familiarity came to my lodging and desiring to dine with me furnished the table with provision of their owne buying But some houres after there rose such a tumult and combustion in my body that I was forced to take my bed and keep it and yet leave it every halfe houre that for three dayes I slept if at all but very little And when I came to the Pulpit I was more like the wrack of poyson then a living body And yet God carried me through that good work with great power THE FIFTH BOOKE CHAP. I. HAving thus boldly behaved my selfe in the open Field the Popish Priests and Papists beganne to let their tongues goe at me with all their power Potiphars wife threw slanders after Joseph flying from her The Dragon cast rivers of water out of his mouth thinking to drowne the Woman with her childe that had escaped to the Wildernesse The Plutarch Crocodiles are said to beate themselves when they have lost their prey Let the Crocodile correct himâ—â—â—â—â— but let him spare me
which with your leave I borrow of you and turne upon you againe But whereas you conclude all with which he prayes day and night that loves you night and day it had beene a truth of truths if it had run thus which he prayes day and night that loves night more then day And thus a sleight worke I have answered with a worke of as loose a composure CHAP. XX. IN the first Chapter of Genesis where the Vers 2. Latins turne it Spiritus Domini ferebatur super aquas the Spirit of God was carried upon the waters the word in the Originall doth signifie as Saint Hierome observeth S. Hierom. quaest Hebr. incubabat sat brooding And I most heartily pray that the Spirit of God may still sit brooding upon my heart and bring forth the plentifull fruits of a true reformation And because I am a sinner let the Angels sing hymnes and praises in my behalfe to him as Saint Gregory Nazianzen S. Greg. Nazian in hymnis deliciously singeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by whom are Hymnes by whom are praises by whom are the Quires of the Angels And let every one that is a true lover of God that is sound at heart give out from the inwards of his heart and soule with an Eccho Amen And keepe safe in his minde that golden saying of a sober Councell Multa enim bona facit Concil 2. Arausic c. 20 in bomine sine homine Deus sed nihil boni facit homo quod non faciat Deus ut faciat homo Many good things God workes in man without man But man doth no good thing which God is not the cause that man is the cause of Let us ponder alwayes that in all the Psalmes used in divine service still the burden of the song is Glory be the Father and to the Sonne and to the holy Ghost As it was in the beginning And why As it was in the beginning Because the Church acknowledging her extreme want of sufficiencie to glorifie God according to the just exigence of his greatnesse or to adde the smallest point to his perfection desireth to give him the glory which he had in the beginning before the world declaring that she is so farre contented and pleased with him and it that if he were now deprived of it and it were in her gift she would restore it againe to him as to the most worthy which is in a manner to give it him And let us all imitate the Prophet David Ps 115. 1. who cryeth Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy name give glory Pray marke his carriage He thrusteth glory from himselfe and creatures Not unto us O Lord. And as if it did not yet stand farre enough thrusting it with the other hand he saith Not unto us And then with both hands thrusting it home to the right owner he speakes home but unto thy name give glory That glory may be well and fully given to God God must give it to himselfe And the same holy Prophet who spake as he liv'd after Gods owne heart stirring us up with all his art and his heart to praise God in all sorts of instruments that the Quire might be full and as if the straine were not yet high enough in the end as it were falling down for want of breath with the Nightingale after the long varying of her delicate notes sends forth in a faint but a forced manner his last words Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. As if he should have added For I have none I am out of breath And so being spent himselfe he laid the charge upon others And therefore Praise ye the Lord. Psal 107. vers 8 9 10. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodnesse and for his wonderfull workes to the children of men For he satisfieth the longing soule and filleth the hungry soule with goodnesse Such as sit in darknesse and in the shadow of death To God be the glory of this worke not to the Virgin Mary or any other Saint FINIS I humbly desire all clean-hearted and right-spirited people who shall reade this Book which because the Presse was oppressed seemed to have beene suppressed when it was by little and little Impressed but now at last hath pressed through the Presse into publike first to restore it by correcting these Errata Which if I had beene alwayes at hand to prevent I should have more erred in businesses of more present importance Errata quae legenti dicam an currenti occurebant PAge 10. line 2. dele in p. 23. l. 24. d. it p. 30. l. 27. read contemnes and condemnes p. 57. l. 7. r. two p. 62. in marg r. Psal 128. 3. p. 63 l. 15. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 63. l. 16. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 65. in marg r. Rom. 1. 22. p. 68. l. 24. r. in a combate p. 78. in marg dele 32. p. 81. l. 1. r. selfe p. 89. in marg r. agentem p. 120. l. 24. 25. r. quasi existimemus nihil accidere p. 126. l. 7. r. Lord Jesus p. 145. l. 9. r. cast it p. 148. l. 24. r. all so p. 1. l. ult r. more set out p. 2. l. 9. r. are more p. 4. l. 19. r. a treason p. 8. l. 1. 5. d. the p. 17. l. ult r. it 's hold p. 22. l. 4. r. ingreditur p. 28. in marg r. S. Aug. in Medit. p. 31. l. 8. r. a meere lie p. 36. l. 7. r. voide of p. 37. l. 27. and 28. r. beholds p. 39. l. 27. r. with one p. 44. l. ult r. seeing being p. 47. l. penult r. we learn p. 49. l. 28. r. to him p. 50. l. 15. r. to him p. 51. l. 21. r. in a diversity p 53. in marg r. c. 16. p. 57. l. 5. r. coccineas p. 62. l. 6. r. S. Justine p. 64 l. 2. r. receive receive p. 68. in marg r. de part Animal c. 5. p. 69. in marg r. c. 2. p. 69. l. penult r Disciplinantes p. 70. l. 18. r. And also the Priers p. 71. l. 27. r. gifts p. 76. l. 17. r. take them p. 82. l. 26. r. even the rich p. 88. l. 9. r. talking to p. 96. l. 6. r. Crow p. 112. l. 19. r. before now p. 117. l. 16. r. of God p. 118. l. 2. c. pertinent ad finem regulae sequentis p. 119. l 21 r. locks p. 124. l 6. d. it p. 124. l. ult r. Church p. 128. l 22. r. reserve p. 129 l. 21. r. me p. 131. l. 16. Haec historia quae inâ—â—pir And yet pars est sequentis paginae l. 26. locum petit p. 131 l. 24. r. being p. 135. l 13. r priviledged p. 135. l. 19. r. stain p. 136. l. penult r. you lived p. 138. l. 22. Bcause c. ad finem l 23. insert debent in sequentem paginam post l. 9. p. 140. l. 18. r. every p. 143. l. 8. r. the fingers p. 144. l. 7. r. cried p. 145. l. ult r. counsel p. 158. in fine marg r ad Graecos p. 160. l. 28. d. and p. 165. l. 9. r. himselfe came p 169. l. 19. r. is given p. 169. l. 26. r. into p 173. l 8. r. safe at my p. sequente l. 5. r. These are p. 174. l. 9. r. Cicatrice p. 177. l. ult r. feet p 188. in marg r. Plin lib. 2. p. 189. l. 18. r. had read them p. 190. l. 4. r. Bruxellis p. 191. l. 20. r. and cast p. 205. l. 27. r. your owne throate p. 208. l. 4. r. his owne p. 210. l. 21. d. Church p. 210. l. 27. r. Arethusius p. 215. l. 13. r. percutit p. 215. l. 27. r. bodies p. 218. in marg r. S. Aug. in Psal p 226 l. 3. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 230. l. 12. r. similiter p. 233. l. 3. r. dixerit flexis genibus p. 235. l. 13. d. much p. 236 l. ult r. lingua p. 251 l 3 r. ground Repentance p. 257 l. 16 d. to p. 258 l 14 r wormes p 259 in marg d 5 p 268 l 25 r strike us p 271 in marg post Luke 7 d 5 p. 272 l 1 r here l p 274 l. 24 r selfe I doe p. 275 l 2 d. will p 279 l 21 r They p 288 l 1 r Christiane p 289 l 14 r is not p 291 l 1 r workes p. 296 l 13 r onely p. 299. l. 17. d. because p. 301. l. 4. r. her p 317 l 13 r weepe