SEeing the Author to call the Sacramēt of Penance, by the name of Confessiō, and the Sacrament of our Saviour IESVS CHRISTS Bodie and Bloud, the Lords Supper: and fearing the weake might take occasion of offence where none was iustly giuen: I vndertooke to note those places, and all others, if any of like sort were found different from the vsuall maner of speaking in these times; yet not so as I would make any great treatise, or discusse matters in controversie, so much handled and rehandled now a dayes: but only with reason to shew, by the practice of good men, that in such vse of speech there is no other thing than may well be­come a Christian man.

This I thought to haue done by way of marginall notes, but perceiving it encrease [Page 58] to more then could with conveniencie en­ter in the margents, I dilated my selfe and adioyned it to the end of the Testament, adding withall, some sentences of the saints, and renowned men, vpon severall passages therof applyed.

THE TESTAMENT.] The originall had no title prefixed, but thus I thought good to style it, rather then to call it a last will, or codicill, or donation for cause of death, &c. Because although, generally speaking, a last will doe comprehend a Te­stament, yet every last will is not a Testa­ment: in a codicill there cannot be given inheritance. c. de codicill. in l. si idem. And do­nation for cause of death, is but as it were a last will.

A Testament, speaking properly, doth not comprehend every last will, for a Te­stament is the iust sentence of our will, concerning that which one will haue to be done after his death, with institution of an heyre, l. iuncta glossa. ff. e. therfore without institution of an heyre there is no Testamēt. insti. de leg. in §. ante haeredis. And consequētly a Testament comprehendeth not a codicil.

This, whether we respect the spirituall doctrines, or temporall distributions, may haue the name of a Testament, of the first all, of the latter each one respectiuely are [Page 59] instituted heyres: the Author, with full [...]ower of testation: for everie man may [...]ake a Testament that is not specially pro­ [...]ibited. no. glo. & Bart. in l. si quaeramus. ff. e. & [...]e. in ti. de instru. edic. in §. compendiose.

Facultie of making Testaments is a [...]hing graciously graunted men: be ause [...]he testatour disposeth of that time, wherin [...]e is not to be Lord of any thing, for a Testament is confirmed in death. Vt in c. [...]um Marthae. de cele. miss. That is, after his death when he ceaseth to be Lord or haue [...]ny dominion. Whence, although the dis­position be made when he is Lord and at [...]u [...]h time as he is able, yet the effect is be­stowed at such time as he is vnable: which of meere right, or law, should not be [...]a [...]full. l. quod sponsae. c. de dona. ante [...]nup.

Testamentum, according to the etymolo­gie of the word is testatio mentis, a testifica­tion or witnessing of a mans minde. the Hebrewes call it [...], a compact, or co­venant betweene the dead and the living, which as the dead cannot, so the living may not change. Paul ad Heb. 9.16. Where there is a Testament of necessitie the death of the testatour must come in; for a Te­stament is confirmed in the dead, other­wise it is of no force, while he liveth [Page 60] that made the Testament. God Almight [...] in the death of CHRIST IESVS disposed t [...] new Testament to his elected, the sonn [...] of adoption,

Aug. Epist. ad Gal. circa medium exposi [...] lib. 1. Tom. 4. A humane Testament is muc [...] more infirme then the divine, and yet th [...] confirmed Testament of a man, none da [...] make voide, nor ordaine any thing a ne [...] vpon it: for when the testatour changeth h [...] Testament, he changeth an vnconfirme [...] Testament, because it is confirmed by th [...] testatours death. And looke of what valu [...] is the death of the testatour to confirm [...] his Testament, because he can now n [...] more change his counsell: of the same valu [...] is the incommutabilitie of Gods promise t [...] confirme the inheritance of Abraham, whose faith is reputed for iustice.

The Author of this Testament confir­med the same in his death 11. yeares after the making of it, dying in the same profes­sion of the Christian faith, with all the rites of the holy Catholike Church: leaving the Testament whole and entire in all, except the disposition of his goods; which by rea­son of the death of some, and birth of other children, encrease of his goods and other occurrences, he left crossed in some places▪ and in others vnperfect; all which places [Page 61] [...]o [...] noted in the margent with semicircles, [...] with asteriscs, or interpunctions in the [...]ddle of the line.

IN THE NAME OF GOD] A Christian [...]me of beginning, not only Testaments, [...]t every good worke: and with great [...]son doth he call vpon God in all his [...]rks that cannot be, much lesse worke of [...]mselfe: man that is by the will of God [...]st doe all things in the name of God.

Enosch the sonne of Seth, Gen. 4.26. the sonne of A­ [...]n, being borne, then was the name of our [...]ord first begunne to be invocated, that is, [...]th more expresse forme of words, and [...]es then before.

Every one that invocateth the name of [...]r Lord shall be safe: Ioël. 3.5. vulgata▪ 2. 32. not that everie one [...]at sayeth Lord, Lord, shall goe to heaven: [...]t that there is no salvation for any, vpon [...]hom the name of the true God is not in­ [...]ocated.

Hieremias 14.9. And thou Lord art most [...]ward to vs: and thy name is invocated of [...], forsake vs not.

1. Reg. 18. vulgat. 3. Reg. All nations doe [...]vocate the names of their Gods.

Elias. Yee shall call vpon the names of our gods, and I will invocate in the name [...]f the Lord.

Coloss. 3.17. All things whatsoever yee doe [Page 62] in word or worke, doe al in the name of o [...] Lord IESVS CHRIST.

Psalm. 123, Our aide is in the name [...] the Lord that made the heaven and eart [...] When others haue confidence, some i [...] their chariots, and others in their horses, [...] will invocate the name of the Lord o [...] God. Psalm. 19.

Iudic. 11. Invocate the gods that yee hat [...] chosen. Ionas 1. Arise & invocate thy God▪

Many invocate not but in swearing, cu [...] sing; or blaspheming, contrarie to th [...] Exod. 20. Thou shalt not assume the nam [...] of thy God in vaine; and Levit. 19. Tho [...] shalt not periure the name of God. Tho [...] shalt not pollute the name of God.

Esaia 4. Let only thy name be invocate of vs, &c. To those that invocate him, o [...] Lord is of much mercie. Psalm. 85. To a [...] that invocate him in veritie. And therfo [...] is alwaies adioyned Amen [...]] Veritie, particle of one assenting, and yeeldin [...] trust, as if it were said, let it be firme, be ratified, be it truely so, be it done indee [...] truly, certainly, in verie deed, constantl [...] which if it be redoubled becommeth s [...] perlatiue after the vse of the Hebrew to [...] gue, Amen, Amen, most truly, most ce [...] tainely.

Esaias 65.16. He that blesseth himse [...] [Page 63] earth, shal blesse himselfe in God Amen. [...]. Who is this God Amen, de­ [...]andeth Rabbi Racanat vpon the 15. of [...]odus. Whereto the Cabalists answere by [...]e rule of Notariacon, where a letter stan­ [...]eth for a word. א For [...] Adonai. Our [...]ord. ם. For [...]. Melech. A King. [...]. For [...]. Neeman. Faithfull, true: Which is no [...]hit dissonant from the faith and confi­ [...]ēce which he that prayeth ought to haue, [...]ut rather much confirmeth it, when at the [...]nd of everie prayer he addeth Amen, that [...] Dominus, Rex, Fidelis: Our Lord is a faith­ [...]ull King: Our Lord is Potent and of good will to graunt vs our Petitions made in his [...]ame.

Greg. Nazianz. in Apologetica. The best order of every word or worke, is, that we [...]ake our beginning from God and referre the consummatiō thereof vnto him againe.

OVR SOVERAIGNE LADIE ELIZABETH] Shee was proclaimed Queene the 17. of November 1558. the same day that Queene Marie dyed.

TEMPLE BROVGHT ON] This Ma­nour belonged in former times to the order of the Templars.

HEALTH OF BODIE: AND OF SOVND AND PERFECT MEMO­RIE.] The first is necessarie, in as much [Page 64] as it conduceth to the latter, which is abso­lutely necessarie. For whatsoever is by a man done without it, although it be the action of a man (as the action of a brute beast is the action of a brute beast) yet is it not a humane action. Which proceedeth from a deliberate will, hauing free facultie to worke, or not to worke, and also sufficient light in the vnderstanding to consult and deliberate vpon the things that are to be done, and to discerne betweene morall good and evill. Which actions alone, and no others, doe merite or demerite, serue to the end of a man, and beare away reward. Want of health, and olde age, doe often­times diminish, & oftentimes quite abolish the necessarie vse of reason in a man at that time when most of all he should haue it: at his end, when he is to dispose of his house, his earthly in habitation, & leaue the same, [...]. Ecclesi­astes. [...]. Remember thy creator in the dayes of thy elections: before the evill dayes doe come, and the yeares lay hold on thee of which thou mayest say I haue no will in them. The dayes of elections, the vulgate calleth the dayes of youth, as wherin a man hath most vigor to extend his hand to fire or water and choose good or evill; and the dayes in which we haue no will, is the time of dotage when a mans actions are scarcely [Page 65] humane, or the dayes of infirmitie & sick­nesse which the vulgate calleth the dayes that please vs not.

Greater madnesse can not be, then to de­ferre the thing that most concerneth, and that of necessitie we must doe, vntill such time as we be most vnable to doe it: as if a man that were to carrie an hundred weight, should let it alone when he were strong, with purpose to beare it when he were fainting through feeblenesse: yet such is the want of reason in many men as they deferre and putt off, not onely the dispo­sing of worldly goods, but even the profes­sion of their faith, or conversion to God by pennance & good life, vntill they be hardly able to exercise any act of life.

Let vs not, saith S. Augustine, Aug. 1. de salu­tarib. docu­menti [...] cap. 39. Tom. 4. so secure our selves of Gods mercie, as to heape sinne vpon sinne, nor say, while we be in the vi­gour of our age, let vs exercise our concu­piscences, and at last in old age we will doe pennance for our evils, because our Lord is pious, and mercifull, and will no more remember our crimes. Let vs not, I beeseech you, thinke so; for, thus to thinke is follie in the highest degree, being it is im­pious for any man to will to haue such li­cence from God, whereof the very begin­ning, is, to separate vs from God: therfore, [Page 64] [...] [Page 65] [...] [Page 66] I say, let vs not thinke of such things, being we know not what day we are to die: for no man living knoweth the day of his departure. All die not in ould age, but in diverse ages they depart out of this world; and in what acts soever a man is found, in the same shall he be iudged, when the soule goeth out of the bodie: for the Psalmist saith, no man shall confesse thee in hell. Let vs therfore make haste to be converted to pennance, &c.

Come hither mad man; the disposing of soule and bodie which thou hast at thine owne will, is it a worke to be done in time of sicknesse, which time yet thou art not sure to haue, or in ould age, of which thou hast as little certaintie, or rather a worke that requireth health, and strength of bodie, with perfect vse of all the powers of thy soule? Age and sicknesse, thou saiest, will force a man, to looke about him. How Alas, shall then that habit come vpon thee of which there hath beene no precedent, act? thou art habituated in deferring, and that habit will still follow thee: thou wilt yet deferre, and if for ever thou couldest deferre, for ever thou wouldest not serue God: of whom it is yet doubt­full whether he will accept of this thy last will, which was, never to giue God but [Page 67] [...]he last, and that is now rather necessitie [...]hen will, and in it thou seekest not God, [...]ut thy selfe, because thou fearest to be [...]ost for ever. Seneca in Aga­menno­ne. Seneca epist. 32 Bernar­dus ser­mo. 10▪ in psal. qui ha­bitat. Aug. e­pist. 13 [...] How miserable a thing it is not to know to die! how goodly a [...]hing it is before death to consummate life, [...]nd then secure to expect the rest of our [...]ime! Being in agonie thou wilt doe, as commonly the afflicted vse, repute it the [...]ighest felicitie to be exempted from those molestations, and iudge it the greatest beatitude to want that miserie; wheras that temporall molestation ought rather [...]o admonish vs how we should thinke of that life, wherin we may liue with­out anie labour: escaping, not the tur­moiling anguish of a little time, but [...]he horrible paines of everlasting fire: for, if we now deale with so much care, [...]o great intention, and such labour, [...]hat we fall into no transitorie vexa­ [...]ion; how much more solicitous should we be to avoide everlasting miseries? And if death that finisheth temporall [...]abour be so feared, how is that to [...]e feared that casteth vs into never­ [...]nding sorrowes; and if the foule and [...]hort delights of this life be so lo­ [...]ed; how much more vehemently are [Page 68] the pure and infinite ioyes of the world to come, to be sought after? then in the time of youth and health, and not of crazie old age. Sicknesse comming on, a ma [...] seeketh only how to get ease, which had, he is then as farre to seeke as before, in tha [...] conversion which before he pretended. While we haue time, saith the Apostle, le [...] vs doe good, he that deferreth, sinneth ever, in as much as if he should never leaue to liue, he would never leaue to sinne, and per­chance that is the sinne to death, whero [...] S. Iohn. Epist. 1. c. 5. Tom. 3. cap. 71. I say not that any man pray for such an one. Among the sentences of S. Augustin [...] is this: The remedies of conversion to God are not with any delayes to be deferred, le [...] the time of correction perish by our sloth for he that to the penitent hath promise [...] indulgence, hath not to the dissembler pro­mised to morrowes day. Life is not muc [...] worth, Aug. de Temp. Serm. 120. if a man liue to no other end, bu [...] that in the few yeares of this life, whic [...] with a short end is to be cut off, he heap vp to himselfe eternall paines to last with­out end. But lest any one become too secur [...] or wax remisse by the felicitie of such new [...] credulitie, lest perchance any one doe say in his heart, let not my guilty conscience s [...] farre gripe and trouble me, nor my culpabl [...] life so farre contristate me, I see in a momēt, [Page 69] [...] see in a small space of time the good theefs [...]rimes forgiven him, &c. First in that [...]heefe is to be considered, not only the [...]ompendiousnesse of his credulitie, but his devotion, but the occasion of that time wherin those things were done, in which [...]ven the perfection of the iust is said to haue beene shaken. Then shew me first the [...]heefs faith, and after promise thy selfe the [...]heefs beatitude; the divell casteth in secu­ [...]itie that he may draw on perdition. It can­not be numbred how many this shadow of vaine hope hath deceived. Let, I beseech you, the innumerable companie of people, vnder colour of such securitie taken out of this life, voide of all good, full of all evill, deterre vs from this persuasion. By daily fearing the vncertaintie of our passage and departure hence, which even now are vnlooked for, and yet at hand, and are to want all remedie for ever, the day must be prevented which is wont to prevent vs. He seduceth himselfe and playeth with his death that thinketh thus, the indulgence of the last houre may helpe me; securitie pro­missed at the last day is most perilous. Then againe, it is a most foolish thing to commit vnto the vnprofitable extremitie of the now faliing life, that cause which treateth of eternall necessities. It is odious before [Page 70] God, when a man sinneth more freely through confidence of pennance that he will doe in oulde age. Beleeue me, my dearest, it is a difficult thing for craftie dissimulation of ordering a mans end, to be found worthie to obtaine perdon: with that interpreter of the heart, there wil [...] be admitted no arte to salvation. But that blessed theefe of whom we haue spoken, did neither wittingly deferre the time of his salvation, nor with vnluckie fraude put the remedies of his state in the last mo­ments, nor reserue the hope of his re­demption, to the last of desperation; Be­fore that time he neither knew Christ nor Religion; which if he had knowne he had beene perchance amongst the Apostles, not the last in the number who became the first in the kingdome. In this therfore he pleased God at the last, because to the obtayning of the faith, that was not the last houre, but the first. Necessarie ther­fore it is that by daily acts a man provide for himselfe, and procure his consumma­tion, it is necessarie that all our life be such in conversation, as we may deserue to be free in the end. Thincking incessantly vpon the day of our passage, and the time of iudgement.

Admit thou hast at last both health and memorie, thou art not sure the grace shall then be offered, which often offered thou hast refused. Thou that despisest, Isaia▪ 33. Eccles. 7.40. shalt thou not also be despised? Remember in all thy words, thy last things and thou wilt not sinne for ever. Hieron. Epist. ad Paulin. in fine. tom. 3. Aug. serm. 10 de San­ctis. tom. 1 [...]. He will contemne all things with ease that alwaies thinketh how he is to die.

If men would alwaies beare their day of death in minde, they would restraine the same from all covetousnesse or malice. But that which wholsomly now they will not thinke vpon, necessarily hereafter, & with­out all remedie they shall sustaine: For the last day will come vpon them, the day of iudgement will come, when neither it shall be lawfull for them to doe pennance, nor can they by good works redeeme them­selves from everlasting death: then with such deepe thought the sinner is strooken, as dying he forgets himselfe, who whilest he lived did forget his God.

They that were hired to the vineyard, Aug. de verb. Domini serm. 59. tom. 10. when the father of the familie went out and hired; for examples sake, those that he found the third houre; did they say vnto him, expect, we will not goe thi­ther till the sixth, or those that hee found the sixt houre, did they say, we [Page 72] will not goe till the ninth; or those that he found the ninth houre, did they say, we will not goe till the eleventh? for he will giue all alike and wherfore shall we wearie our selves more then the rest? What he is to giue, and what he wil doe, is in his owne power, the counsell is to himselfe, doe thou come when thou art called: for equall reward is promised to all, but about the houre of wor­king there is a great question: for if they, for examples sake, that were called at the sixth houre constitute in that age of bodie when the youthfull yeares are fervent, as at the sixt houre it is hot; if those young men called should say, expect for we haue heard in the Gospell that all shall receiue one re­ward, we will come at eleven, when wee be old, being to receiue alike wherfore shall we labour? it would be answered them and said; wilt thou not labour that knowest not whether thou shalt liue to be old? thou art called at the sixth houre; come, the father of the familie indeed hath promised thee thy pennie if thou come, even at eleven; but whether thou shalt liue till the seventh houre no bodie hath promissed thee. I do not say till the eleventh, but till the seventh. Wherfore then doest thou put off, and de­ferre him that calleth thee being certaine of thy wages and vncertaine of the day? Looke [Page 73] [...]o it, lest perhaps what by promise he is to giue thee, thou by deferring take frō thy self.

If a man doe pennance when he hath power to sinne, and while he liveth, correct his life from all crime; there is no doubt but that dying he passeth vnto everlasting rest. But he that living wickedly do [...]h pennance only in perill of death; as his damnation is vncertaine, so is his remission doubtfull. He therfore that in death desireth to be cer­taine of indulgence, let him doe pennance while he is sound, let him sound, and in health, bewaile his passed heinous facts. Isidorus lib. 2. de summo bono. cap. 13.

If any one being now in the last extre­mitie of sicknesse will and doth accept of pennance: and immediatly is reconciled, and depart [...]th hence; I confesse to you, we denie him not what he asketh, but we presume not that he departeth hence well. I do not presume, I deceiue you not, I do not presume. The faithfull living well, de­parteth hence secure, he that was baptized but an houre before, departeth hence secu­re: he that doth pennance and is reconciled while he is in health, and after liveth well, departeth hence secure: he that doth pen­nance at the last and is reconciled, whether he depart hence secure, I am not secure. Aug. lib. 50. hom. 41.

In vaine doth he powre out his prayers before the tribunall of Christ, who negle­cteth the time of pennance given him. Aug. serm. 71. ad fratres in eremo.

Integritie of the mind, and not health of bodie, is required in the testatour, at that time when he maketh his testament. Digest. lib. 28. tit. 1.

Gen. 47 [...].SHORT PILGRIMAGE] Iacob said to Pharao, The dayes of the yeares of my Pilgrimage, are 130. yeares: short and bad haue the dayes of the yeares of my life beene, and they haue not reached to the dayes of the the yeares of my ancestours liues, in the dayes of their Pilgrimages.

By way of malediction was mans life first cut from the ordinarie length of 500. or in some 900. and stinted to 120. Gen. 6.3.

Psal. 89The dayes of our yeares in themselves are 70. yeares: And if in able men they bee 80. yeares: what is aboue that is labour and griefe.

Psal. 38Behould thou hast set my dayes measu­rable: how short is our life that is to be measured, not the dayes of it only, but the houres, but the moments: not by the divi­ne, or Angelicall science alone, but by eve­rie man that hath but a little tasted of A­rithmetike?

Well may his dayes be measured, whose verie substance is as nothing in the sight of God.

LONG ACCOVNT] Long and strict, Mat. 12.36. when of every idle word which men haue spoken, they shall render an account therof in the day of iudgement.

Every one of vs shall render to God an account for himselfe. Rom. 14 12.

§. 1. Pag. 17. A TRVE CHRISTIAN CATHOLIKE MAN] By this title did S. Augu­stine stile himselfe: Sed de me quid dicam, Lib. de vtilitate credēdi. qui iam Catholicus Christianus eram? But of my selfe what shall I say who was now a Ca­tholike Christian?

The name of Christian was given to the Disciples first at Antioch in the very be­ginning of the Apostles preaching of Christs Gospell. Act. 11.26.

The Apostles themselves in their symbole called the Church Catholike, and the members therof Catholiks.

As many as being baptized haue put on Christ are called Christians; this the vse of the name hath obtained; although with some nations he is not holden, in common vnderstanding, for a true Christian that is not also a Catholike, and the one name comprehendeth as much as the other, and they be convertible.

Besides these so ancient names wherby ever since Christs time those of the true Religion haue beene knowne, whosoever bringeth in another, doth iniurie to the ca­tholike cause, which the Hereticks of our times haue laboured much in, to haue vs called Roman Catholikes, that cōsequent­ly themselves might also be called catholi­kes of other particular Churches, suppose, of Amstelrodam, Geneua, or the like. This they doe pricked on by the sting of envie seing vs alone to beare away from thē that most ancient and glorious name: while they therby shut out of the whole, must of ne­cessitie remaine sects, and by one name, whatsoever they be, be called Heretikes. This fraude, and the poyson of their mali­cious intention some Catholikes not percei­ving, take vpon them the addition of Ro­man: Which although it be good in it selfe because the Roman Church is the Catho­like Church, yet more glorious it were for vs, and more confusion to our adversaries to stand fast to that our first name of Ca­tholike which we haue prescribed from them and never suffered to goe out of our hands.

Aug. de vera Re­ligione, Tom. 1.Taking Catholike in the true sense, it sig­nifieth a man that professeth the only true Religion wherin one God is worshipped [Page 77] and with most purified pietie knowne, and acknowledged for the beginning of all na­ture, by whom all the vniverse is both be­gunne, and perfected, and conteined, in the one, onely, and vniversall Church which is called Catholike, and not tyed to one pla­ce, but diffused into all places and all times.

We, Saith S. Augustine, Aug. de vera Re­ligione, c. 7. must hold the Christian Religion, and the communicatiō of that Church, which is Catholike, & cal­led Catholike, not only of those that are her owne, but also of all her enemies. For whe­ther they will or noe, the verie Hereticks themselves, and nourtured in schismes, when they speake not with their owne cō ­pagnions, but with strangers, they call Ca­tholike, nothing else but Catholike, for otherwise they can not be vnderstood, vn­lesse they discerne her by this name, by which shee is called of all the vniversall world.

Of vniversall Saith S. Augustine, Aug. contra litteras Petilia­ni. c. 38 Tom. 7. Act. 1. Catho­like tooke the name: our Lord himselfe saying: It is not for you to know the times which my Father hath kept in his owne power: but you shall receiue the vertue of the holy Ghost comming vpon you, and ye shall be witnesses for me in Hierusalem, & all Iudea, & Samaria and through all the earth. Behold frō whēce Catholike is called.

A Christian I am, and a Catholike I am of the same Christian faith that the Disci­ples were at Antioch and the same Catho­like faith that was founded vpon saint Peter and continueth in his successours the vi­cars of Christ at Rome: which is to be a Christian Catholike man simplie, and abso­lutely. He that calleth himselfe a Roman Catholike doth like him that calleth a man a risible reasonable man, giving no more distinction in the last then at the first: for all that they will haue a Roman Catholike to signifie, is but the same that is signified by a Catholike.

A Roman Catholike, soundeth in some sense as if one should say a particular vni­versall. Augustine. Aug. contra Gaudēt. lib. 5. tom. 7. Marke a little what Church Cyptian called Catholike when he defended the vnitie therof, the Church, sayth he, spread through with the light of our Lord streacheth out her beames through the whole world. Yet it is one light which is everie where diffused, and the vnitie of the bodie is not separated. Shee extendeth her branches over the vni­versall earth with copious plentie: her large spread streames more broad shee layeth forth: yet the head is one and the origin one: and one mother copious in succes­sions [Page 79] of fecunditie ...... if yours be [...]he Catholike Church shew her stretching [...]er beames over the whole world: Shew [...]hat shee extends her branches with co­ [...]ious fertilitie over the vniversall earth: For hence is Catholike of the Greeke [...]ord [...] named. and [...] holon in Greeke maketh in English the whole, or [...]niversall, so that through the whole, or [...]ccording to the whole is [...] or [...] Catholon, from whence Catholike [...]s called.

To be a Christian is glorious, and may suffice vs in as much as he that is a good Christian must necessariely be a good Ca­tholike, for he is a Christian that being bap­tized professeth the whole doctrine of IESVS CHRIST in his Church, and the same is also a Catholike, which name was given to distinguish betweene some and others of the baptized that not professing the whole doctrine, of Christ did sticke to parts and making a doctrine of their owne, leaving the whole, are therfore Heretikes: which only name is condistin­guisht against Catholikes, that whoso­ever is not a Catholike is by the same an Heretike: and not a Luthers Catholike as, the Germans call it, nor a Calvins Catholike, nor no Catholike: for no [Page 80] other sort of Catholike is there, or can b [...] then a Christian Catholike, S. Peeter Ma [...] men dyed a Martyr at Damascus about th [...] yeare of our Lord 742. Slaine by the Ar [...] bians, for saying: Everie one that embrace [...] not the Christian Catholike faith, is da [...] ned, like as Mahomet your false proph [...] is. Mart. Rom. 9. Kal. Mart. Theophan. in hi [...] Miscell. lib. 22. Anno 2. Constant. 6. Imp.

Aug. l. 1 Quaest. ex Mat.Good Catholikes and evill Catholike S. Augustin admitteth. Calling those evi [...] Catholikes, who, although they beleeu [...] those things to bee true which appertain [...] to the true doctrine of faith; and if the [...] be any thing that they doe not know the [...] thinke it is to be sought out, and withou [...] breach of pietie doe discusse it, withou [...] any preiudice to the truth it selfe, and in a [...] much as they can, doe loue and honou [...] those that ar [...] good, and whom they think [...] to bee good; yet they liue wickedly and full of heinous crimes, otherwaies then the [...] beleeue that they ought to liue. And good Catholikes are those which follow both entire faith and good manners.

Aug de Civitate Dei. l. 10 c. 32.What is the vniversall way, but tha [...] which everie nation hath, not proper only to it selfe: but is given from God, that i [...] may be common to the vniversitie, of na­tions, to all people: this is our pietie, [Page 81] which therfore is called Catholike, because it is not delivered to any certaine people, as to the Iewes, but to all humane kinde, and excludeth not any one; by this all may be saved, and without it none; and in this every nation hath not his owne religion, like as with the Gentils; for with the Ro­mans other Gods were, and worshipped af­ter another manner then with the Greekes; others with them then with the French, Spanish, Scythians, Indians, Persians: all nations that haue professed Christ doe worship the same God, and with the same kind of sacrifice; and Augustine Aug. Breui­culi cōt. calleth the Church Catholike not alone for the pleni­tude of sacraments therin, but also for the vniversitie of nations, and people that therin communicate.

S. Athanasius, Luc. Act. 11.26. Mart. Rom. 8. Kal. mart. in his dispute against Ar­rius, giveth the reason of the Disciples being called Christians, thus: All that be­leeued in our Lord IESVS CHRIST, were not called Christians, but only Disciples: And because there arose many Authors of new opinions, contrarie to the Apostolicall doctrine, they called all their followers Dis­ciples; and there was no difference in name betweene true and false Disciples, whether they were Christs, or Dosithees, or the fol­lowers of one Iudas, or of Iohn, that confes­sed [Page 80] [...] [Page 81] [...] [Page 82] themselves, as it were, of Christs Church, but all were called by that one name of Dis­ciples. Then the Apostles cōming together (as by S. Lukes narratiō the Acts beare wit­nesse) called all the Disciples by one name Christians, differencing them from the common name of Disciples; and that the saying of the divine Oracle pronounced by Isaias 62.2. might be accomplished, which hath; And thou shalt be called by a new name which the mouth of our Lord shall declare, &c.

Epipha. haeret. 27.Not long after the Heretikes had emula­tion to this name, and the Carpocratians first vsurped it, whom others followed, re­proaching so great a name with false do­ctrine, & evill manners, as now they would doe with the name of Catholike.

Rom. 10.Pag. 17. §. 1. lin. 4. BY FAITH CONFES­SING] With the heart we beleeue, to ius­tice, & with mouth Confession is made to salvation. Faith in the heart, confession in the mouth. This is the word of faith which we preach (saith the Apostle) that if thou confesse our Lord IESVS in thy mouth, and beleeue in thy heart that God hath raised him from death, Aug. de fide ad Petrum, Tom. 3. thou shalt be safe. S. Augu­stin to Peter the Deacon. I am glad indeed that thou hast so much solicitude for the keeping of the true faith, without any vice [Page 83] of perfidiousnesse without which faith no conversion can profit, nor yet be at all: for the Apostolicall authoritie saith; that with­out faith it is impossible to please God: be­cause faith is the foundation of all good things: faith is the beginning of humane salvation; without this faith no man can come to the number of the Sōnes of God: because without it neither in this world doth any one obtaine the grace of iustifi­cation, nor in the world to come shall he possesse life everlasting. And if any one doe not walke here by faith, he shall not come to the vision. Without faith all mans labour is in vaine, for such it is, as without the true faith whosoever will please God by con­tempt of the world: as if one bending tow­ard the countrie in which he knoweth he shall liue blessedly, should leaue the right way and improvidently follow errour, by which he cannot come to the blessed Ci­tie, but fall into precipice, where will be no ioy giuen to him that cometh, but destru­ction brought in to him that falleth.

IN HOPE REPOSING MY SALVATION] A right order first to beleeue and confesse, then to hope. I haue beleeved and therfore haue I spoaken, and am over much hum­bled; saith the Psalmist, as it were betwixt hope and feare.

Augustin. Encheridion ad Laurentium. Tom. 3. What can be hoped for which is not beleeved: and yet something may be beleeved which is not hoped for. As, which of the faithfull beleeveth not the paines of the damned, and yet he doth not hope for them? and whosoever beleeveth that they be now at hand, hanging over his head, and with a flying motion of his minde doth abhorre them, is better said to feare then to hope. Which Lucan distinguishing, hath set downe thus: Lett him that feareth hope. Faith is both of evill things and good: for both good and evill things are beleeved and that with good, and not with evill faith. Faith is also of things past, and present, and to come, for we beleeue that Christ dyed, which now is passed: We beleeue that he sit­teth at the right hand of the Father, which now is: We beleeue that he shall come to iudge, which is to be. Faith is also of a mans owne things, and of other mens, for everie man beleeveth of himselfe that he had a beginning, and that he was not ever, and such other things: nor only of other men but also of the Angels we beleeue many things that appertaine to Religion. But hope is only of good things, and those to come, and belonging to him that is said to hope for them. All which being so, for these [Page 85] causes faith is to be distinguished from hope, as well in reasonable difference as in the name. For in that belongeth to the not seeing either those things that are beleeved or hoped for, it is common to faith and hope. In the Epistle to the Hebrewes, the testimonie wherof the illustrious defenders of the Catholike rule haue vsed; faith is said to be a convincing of those things which are not seene. Although when any one saith himselfe to haue beleeved, not words, nor witnesses, nor any arguments, but the evidence of the present things, that is, to haue given credit to them, it seemeth not so absurd, that he might rightly be re­prehended in word, and it should be said vnto him, thou hast seene and therfore thou hast not beleeved; whence it may be thought not to be consequent that what­soever thing is beleeved must not be seene, but better we call that faith which is taught by the divine word, of those things, to witt which are not seene.

And of hope the Apostle saith, hope which is seene is not hope; for that which one seeth, what doth he hope for? but if we hope for the things that we see not, we ex­pect with patience. When therfore future good things be beleeved of vs, they are no other thing then hoped for.

Now what shall I say of loue without the which faith profiteth nothing? and hope without loue cannot be: To conclude, as S. Iames saith, the divelles beleeue and trem­ble, and yet they doe not hope, or loue, but rather that which b [...]leeving wee hope for and loue, they feare shall come vpon them. Wherfore the Apostle Paul approoveth & commendeth the faith which worcketh by loue, which verily cannot be without hope, nor hope without loue, nor both without faith.

D. Thom. 2.2. quaest. 17. Eternall beatitude is the proper obiect of hope. For we may not hope for lesse of God then himselfe, in enioying of whom consisteth life everla­sting. And supposing our vnion to our neighbour by loue, a man may by the ver­tue of Theologicall hope, hope for beatitu­de for him as well as for himselfe: Psalm. 145. Hierem. 17.5. but to confide in Princes or the sonnes of men, concerning salvation, or to set our hope in man, the holy Ghost forbiddeth and giues a curse to him that doth it. That faith being old will I keep in which a childe I was borne. Hieronymus ad Pammachium & Ocea­num, paulo ante finem. Tom. 2. Now doth faith swimme in many mens lippes, when in their heart there is either none at all, or [Page 87] that that is doth vehemently languish. For who doth not professe that which we reade in the Deuteronomie. Heare Israel, Deut. 6. & 10. thy Lord thy God is one Lord? And, thou shalt adore thy God and serue him alone? Who doth not daily recite with mouth, I beleeue in God the father Al­mightie? notwithstanding he beleeveth not in God, that doth not place in him alone all the trust of his felicitie: neither hath he one God and Lord that by harlot­trie, by riotte, and avarice, doth the commands of Sathan: nor doth he serue him alone, that serveth his bellie, that is given to this world which is set all vpon wickednesse. The heathens thinke there be many Gods, and dost thou seeme to thy selfe a perfect Christian, because thou art persuaded that there is but one God? What great matter doest thou? the Iewes doe the same, who daily blas­pheme the Sonne of God in their Synago­gues; the same doe the divells beleeue and tremble at it. If truly thou beleevest in God beleeue him to be iust and true. Iust in rewarding the good, and punishing the evill: true in his promises: beleeue that there is no hope of salvation but only in his Sonne whome he delivered to the crosse for all of vs, and to death, [Page 88] beleeve that no evill can fall to them that deliver themselues wholly over vnto his will; and doe persever in the same, this is to beleeue in God the Father, this is to beleeue in his Sonne, this is to beleeue in the holy Ghost. Cyprian. de duplici martyrio longe an­te finem. Tomo 4. Vnexercised faith soone languisheth, and idle is tempted with fre­quent discommodities: the craftie enemie breakes in vpon remisse sentinels: but ex­terne fraude instructs the man thats exerci­sed in warre and beares him gloriously to the palme of victorie. Peace therfore to the faithfull is matter of corruption. Ambros. serm. 11. in Psal. 118. longius ante finē. Tom. 4.

Psalm. 141.I haue cryed to thee O Lord, I haue said thou art my hope, my portion in the land of the living.

Psal. 26Abide our Lord, deale manfully, and thy heart shall be comforted, and sustaine our Lord. Because the world, what it promiseth seemeth here to giue in the land of the dying; and our Lord, what he promiseth is to giue in the land of the living, many are wearie of expecting the true ioy and are not ashamed to loue the deceitfull; of such the Scripture saith. Eccle. 2 Woe to them that haue lost their patient sustayning, and diverted into wicked wayes. Aug. de verbis Apost. serm. 25. Tom. 10.

Spe salvi facti sumus. Spes non confundit. by hope we are saved, hope confoundeth not. How hope should be without faith I doe not finde, for no man hopeth that he can at­taine that which he doth not beleeue to be. It behooveth therfore that al three be in the minde, faith, hope, and charitie: that both a man beleeue the things be true to which he is called, and hope that he may attaine to them, and that he loue them. Aug. lib. 21. sententiarum, sent. 8.

One hope is of the eternall rewards, an­other of comfort in the humilitie of tribu­lation. Aug. enarr. in Psalm. 118. super, Memor esto verbi tui servo tuo in quo mihi spem dedisti. Tomo 8.

Because the man that is converted to God hath his delight changed; the things that he delights in are also changed, and not taken quite away; for all our delights in this life, are not yet in deede: but the hope it selfe is so certaine as it is to be pre­ferred before all the delights of this world. Aug. enarr. in Psalm. 74. Tomo 8.

Pag. 17. §. 1. lin. 5. IN THE ONELY MERITS] All our merits are founded in the merits of Christs incarnation, life, and passion: which ground worke taken away, no man hath, or ever had, or could haue since Adam any merits towards life everla­sting, [Page 90] which by his demerits he lost and me­rited damnation. Aug. Cōfess. cap, 13. tom. 1. Et de Trinit. l. 13. c. 10. tom. 8. Whosoever reckeneth vp his merits to thee, what doth he but recken vp thy free guifts.

What was so necessarie to erect our hope, and deliver mortall mindes, deiected with the very condition of mortalitie, from despairing of immortalitie, as that it should be demonstrated vnto vs how much God weighed vs and how much he loved vs? And what token of this more manifest and more excellent, then that the Sonne of God, immutably good, remaining in him­selfe what he was, and taking of vs, and for vs, what he was not, without detri­ment of his soules nature, vouchsafing to enter into our fellowship, first without any evill merit of his owne, he would beare our evils: and so now beleeving how much God loveth vs, and hoping for that which before we despaired of, with bountie no way due, he would bestow his gifts vpon vs without any good merits of ours, yea, with many precedent euill me­rits; for even those things that are called our merits, are his gifts: for that faith may worke by loue, the charitie of God is diffu­sed in our hearts by the holy Ghost given vs. Aug. enarr. in Psalm. 144. tom. 8. Gratia salvi facti estis. Where thou hearest grace, [Page 91] vnderstand gratis, if therfore gratis, then thou hast brought nothing, thou hast merited nothing: For if any thing be rendred for merits, it is wages and not grace: by grace, saith he, you are saved through faith. Expound that more cleere­ly for the arrogant, for those that please themselves, for those that are ignorant of Gods iustice and will constitute their owne. And this selfe same thing more o­penly. And this, quoth he, that you are made safe by grace is not of your selves, but the gift of God, But we perhaps haue done something to merit the gift of God. What then? doe not we worke well? yes, we worke, but how? he working in vs because by faith we giue place in our heart to him who in vs and by vs worketh good things .............. Hearken to the same thing; what diddest thou merit sinner? Contemner of God, what diddest thou merit? see if thou canst meete with any thing but punishment, see if thou canst meete with any thing but paine: thou seest then what was due to thee, & what he gaue thee that gaue thee gratis. Perdō is given to the sinner, the spirit of iustification is given, charitie and dilection is given, wherin thou mayest doe all good things: and aboue all this, he will giue both life everlasting [Page 92] and the societie of the Angels: all of mer­cie, boast no where of thy merits because thy merits themselves are his gifts. Domi­num Deum tuum adorabis & illi soli seruies▪ Thou shalt adore thy Lord thy God and serue him alone, and thy neighbours erring and labouring thou must help as much as is lawfull and commanded; so as this very thing when it is well done, we doe vnder­stand God to doe it by vs, and deceived with vaine glorie chalenge nothing to our selves, by which one vice we be from height drowned in the deep. Aug. De quantitate a­nimae, lib. 1. cap. 34. tom. 1. & de libero arbitrio lib. 1. cap. 14. Of our merit that it is volun­rarie. For this that eternall law hath with immutable stabilitie confirmed, that merite be in the will, reward and punishment in beatitude and miserie. When therfore we say that men are voluntarily wretched, we speake not as if they had a will to be wret­ched: but that they be in such will, as whe­ther they will or no, miserie must necessa­rily follow: and therfore it repugneth not in the superiour reason that all have a will to be blessed and yet cannot: for all will not liue vprightly, to which only will, blessed life is due. And againe. De morib. Ecclesiae Cath. lib. 1. cap. 25. tom. 1. Life everlasting is the whole reward, in whose promise we [Page 93] haue ioy: and the reward cannot goe before [...]e merits and be given a man before he be [...]orthie of it? for what is more vniust then [...]his, and what more iust then God? we [...]ust not therfore demand reward before [...]e haue merited to receiue it.

Aug. lib. de Beata vita. Meritis matris se vivere [...]edit. Augustine thought he lived through [...]is mothers merits; and lib. 1. Soliloquiorum. He disprooveth the error of those that [...]hinke the soules to haue no merit with God: of merit, see. Aug. most copiously in many places. Impressione Basileae 1543. Tom. 2. col. 161. a. 163. a. 161. c. 464. c. Tom. 3. col. 204. B. Tom. 7. col. 770. a. & Tom. 2. Epist. 105. What merits then of his owne, shall he that is delivered boast of, who if he had according to his merits, should be nothing but damned? Are then the merits of the iust none? they are verily, because they are iust, but that they might become iust there were no merits; for they were made iust, when they were iustified: but as the Apo­stle saith, iustified by his grace gratis. Multa ibi vide. Tom. 2. col. 466. a. 486. B. Tom. 7. col. 1306. B. Tom. 8. col. 1104. B. Tom. 9. col. 26. a. Tom. 4. col. 1014. a. 1234. a. Tom. 10. 406. a. Tom. 3. 191. a. 162. B. 189. d. 190, B. 437. a. 584. c.d. 186. d. Tom. 4384. B. 169. d. 171. d. 1305. c. 876. c.d. 919. d.

I IMPLORE THE ASSISTANCE [...] PRAYER OF THE B. AND IMM [...] CVLATE VIRGIN MARIE AND O [...] ALL THE HOLY COMPANIE O [...] HEAVEN] Concerning Prayer to Sain [...] it is in vaine to aske of what opinion h [...] was that thus actually prayeth to our ble [...] sed Ladie and all the Saints. So praye [...] S. Augustine to the Saints. You therfore tha [...] haue merited to become companions o [...] the heavenly citizens and enioy the clariti [...] of eternall glorie, pray for me to our Lord that he will take me out of this priso [...] wherin I am holden bound and captiue, &c. Tom. 3. l. de spiritu & anima, col. 898 And de ecclesiasticis dogmatibus, cap. 73. Th [...] same S. saith, the bodies, and chiefly th [...] reliques of the blessed Martyrs are mos [...] syncerely to be ho [...]ored, as if they were th [...] members of Christ, and Churches called by their names, as holy places dedicated to the Divine worship, with most pious affe­ction and devotion to be most faithfully frequented we beleue: and of the mane [...] how the Saints ought to be honoured; at large. Lib. 8. De Civitate Dei: cap. 27. & Tom. 6. contra Faustum Manichaeum, lib. 20. cap. 21. The Christian people celebrateth the Martyrs memorie with religious so­lemnitie, both to excite themselves to imi­tation, [Page 95] and that they may be cuppled in [...]llowship to their merits, and holpen by [...]eir prayers: yet so, as to none of the [...]artyrs, but to the God himselfe of the [...]artyrs we constitute Altars, although in [...]emorie of the Martyrs. For which of [...]he Bishops assisting at the Altars in places [...]f the holy bodies, hath at any time said: [...]e offer to thee Peter, or Paul, or Cyprian: [...]ut that which is offered, is offered to God who crowned the Martyrs, at the [...]emories of them whom he crowned: [...]hat by the admonition of the very places [...]reater affect arise to whet charitie, both [...]owards them, whom we can imitate, [...]nd towards him by whose helpe we be [...]ble to imitate. We therfore worship the Martyrs, with that worship of loue and [...]ocietie, wherewith also in this life holy men of God are worshipped whose hearts [...]e perceiue to be prepared to the like passion for the Euangelicall truth. But [...]hose by so much more devoutly, as more [...]ecurely after all vncertaine things over­ [...]ome, and with how much more confident praise we preach them now victours in a more happie life, then as yet fighting in this [...]ife. But with that worship which in Greeke [...]s called latria, and cannot be spoken in one [Page 96] word in latine, being a certaine servitud [...] properly due to the Divinitie, we neith [...] worship nor teach to be worshipped, b [...] one God, &c. Aug. in Psalm. 85. prope fine [...] Tom. 8. Our Lord IESVS CHRIS [...] doth yet intercede for vs: All the Marty [...] that are with him make intercession for [...] their interpellings doe not passe vntill o [...] sighs haue passed, &c. Lege de Ciuitate D [...] lib. 21. Tom. 5 & in Psalm. 105. Tom. 8. vers [...] Si nō Moyses electus eius stetisset in cons [...]actio [...] in [...]on [...]pectu eius. Aug, serm. 2. de anuntiatione fine. Tom. 10. serm de Sanctis. O Blessed MARIE who is able worthily to repay thee in th [...]nkes and preachings of thy prayses who by thy singular assent diddest succou [...] th [...] l [...]st world? what prayses can human fr [...]iltie pay thee, which in thy only commerce h [...]th found an entrie to recoverie▪ Receiue [...]herfore how small soever, how soever to thy merits vnequall thancks-g [...] vings, and when thou hast received ou [...] v [...]wes, by prayer, excuse our falts. Adm [...] our prayers within the sacrarie of thy hearing & bring vs ba [...]ke an antidote of reconciliation: be it by thee excusable which b [...] thee we intrude, let that become impetrable which with faithfull minde we aske, receiue what we offer, giue againe, what w [...] aske, excuse that we feare, because thou ar [...] [Page 97] the only hope of sinners, by thee we hope for perdon of our sinnes, and in thee most blessed is the expectation of our rewards: Holy Marie succour the wretches, helpe the pusillanimous, refresh the sorrowfull, pray for the people, stand for the clerecie, make intercession for the deuout woman kinde, lett all feele thy helpe that celebrate [...]hy memorie. Assist readily to the vowes of those that aske, and to all, repay the [...]ished effect. Let thy dayly studies be to pray for the people of God, who blessed [...]ast merited to beare the Redeemer of the world that liveth and reigneth world with­ [...]ut end.

Very worthy and iust is it to glorifie hee mother of our God ever most blessed [...]nd vndefiled, Chry­sost. in liturg. more honorable then Che­ [...]ubins, more glorious farre then Seraphins, [...]ho vvithout all corruption hast brought [...]orth God, vve magnifie thee the true mo­ [...]her of God, haile Marie full of grace our [...]ord is vvith thee, blessed thou among [...]omen, & blessed the fruit of thy vvombe, [...]ecause thou hast brought forth the Sa­ [...]iour of our soules.

To thee vve call most holy virgin, Athan▪ in Evag. de S. Maria Deipara be [...]indfull of vs thou vvho even after thy [...]eliverie diddest remaine a virgin. Haile [...]arie full of grace our Lord is with thee, [Page 96] [...] [Page 97] [...] [Page 98] the orders of Angels and all men doe call thee blessed. Blessed art thou aboue all woemen, & blessed the fruit of thy wombe. Make intercession for vs O Mistresse, O Ladie, O Queene, and Mother of God.

Greg. Nazian. Traged. Christi.Thrice blessed mother, light of virgins, that dost inhabit the bright temples of heaven, free from filth of mortalitie, ador­ned now with immortalities stole, yeeld a benigne eare to my words from on high, and receiue I beseech thee O virgin my prayers.

Bernar. serm. 2. de Ad­vent.O blessed inventor of grace, bringe forth of life, and mother of health, let vs b [...] thee haue accesse to thy sonne that by the [...] he may receive vs, who by thee was give [...] to vs.

IMMACVLATE] This is the prope [...] epithete of the Conception of our blesse [...] Ladie. Others there are appropriated to he [...] virginitie, as most entire, most pure, vndefiled, not corrupted, not stayned, vntouched, &c. Whence may be gathered th [...] authors opinion of the immaculate Conception to be the same that our Seraphica [...] Order hath even from the beginning raise [...] and maintained both in Quire & schoole that the B. Virgin was alwayes Immaculat [...] even in the first instant of her Conception as becōmed the Maiestie of God, that w [...] [Page 99] to be borne of her vnspotted flesh. Cāt. 4.7. Thou art all immaculate, &c.

Pag. 17. §. 1. lin. 15. MEMBERS OF THE TRIVMPHANT CHVRCH HAVE IN CHRIST COMPASSION ON THE MEMBERS OF THE MI­LITANT CHVRCH] By reason of their vnion. For we beleeue in the holy Catholike Church the cōmunion of Saints. The right order of confession required, Aug. in Enche­ridio. c. 56. that after the Trinitie the Church should be adioyned as a house to the dweller, and to God his Temple, and to the builder his Citie. The which is here to be taken whole, not only in that part in which it is a pilgrim here on earth, from the Sunne ri­ [...]ing to the setting of the same praysing the name of our Lord, and after the captivi­ [...]ie of oldnesse singing a new song; but [...]lso in that part which alwayes hath adhe­ [...]ed to God in heaven from the time that it was first created, and hath experienced no evill of his fall: this stands fast, blessed [...]n the holy Angels, and helpeth as it ought, [...]o doe his part that is in pilgrimage: be­ [...]ause both shall be one by companie of e­ [...]ernitie, and now is one by the band of [...]haritie, which whole is instituted to [...]orship one God.

Psalm. 118.63. David said, while he was yet living: I am partaker, with all that feare thee and keepe thy commandements.

1. Cor. 12.12.As the bodie is but one and yet hath many members and all the members are but one bodie, so also Christ, for in one spi­rit we were baptized into one. The eye cannot say to the hand I need not thy helpe, nor the head to the feet you are no [...] necessarie for me. God hath tempered the bodie, giving to it that wanted the more a­boundant honour, that there might be no schisme in the bodie, but that the member together might be carefull one for another and if one member feele any smart, all th [...] members doe condole with it, or if any on member receiue any comfort, all the members doe congratulate with it, and you ar [...] the bodie of Christ and members of h [...] members, &c.

S. Ma­ximus, serm. de SS. Oc­tavio, Advēti­tio & Salvato­re mar­tyribus Tauri­nēsibus.All martyrs are most devoutly to b [...] worshipped but especially those are to b [...] honoured of vs whose reliques we haue [...] possession, for those helpe vs with the prayers, but these with their passion; wit [...] these we haue familiaritie for they be a [...] waies with vs, they dwell with vs, that i [...] they keepe vs whilest we liue and receiue [...] when we dye; here, lest vvee offend, the [...] lest the horrour of hell invade vs. To th [...] [Page 101] end it vvas ordayned by our forefathers, that our bodies should be laid by the Saints boanes that vvhilest hell feareth them, paine may not come at vs, vvhilest Christ illuminateth them, our darcknesse may fly away: Resting vvith the holy Mar­tyrs vve escape hell by their merits, but not vnlesse vve be fellowes vvith them in their sanctitie.

Pag. 17. §. 1. lin. 18. In opi­nione Doct. subtilis. INTO HIS FIRST SVBSTANCE] This can not be physically vnderstood; but is morally taken for death; He dyed the 29. of Iune 1598. of a consumption, vvherof he lay sicke almost a yeare at his manour house of Temple broughton, and was, according to his will, buried in S. Maries, the parish Church of Handburie, in the place vvhere the high Altar stood in the time of Catho­like Religion.

Of vvhat age he died I know not but gather that he could not vvant much of 60. It is evident in the Testament that he lived 40. yeares and vpward vnmaried; after­vvard he had 12. children borne him by one vvife at 12. severall births. Howsoever, the life vvas short for a man of his vvorth, and yet long by reason of the vvorth of it: As it is said. Sap. 4. He that is consummate and perfected in short [Page 102] time, hath accomplished many times and ages.

De fato sane in­ [...]ellige. Seneca Epist. 4. de breviori vita non curan­dum. Our care must not be to liue long, bu [...] to liue sufficiently. To liue long wee haue need of fate: to liue sufficiently, a minde▪ Life is long if it be full: and it is full when the mind hath gotten the maisterie o [...] good, and into its owne hands power over it selfe. What availe a man 80. yeares passed in sluggishnesse? Such a man hath not li­ved, but made a stay in life, nor is he late dead but long.

He hath lived 80. yeares; all the matter i [...] from what day you count his death. He hath lived 80. yeares, rather he hath beene 80. yeares: vnlesse you meane he hath lived, so as trees are said to liue. Let vs not mea­sure our life by time but facts. As in little stature a perfect man may be, so in a little terme of time a perfect life may be. Age is an externall thi [...]g: how long I am, is an­others: but how long I am good, is mine. To liue vnto wisedome is the space of mos [...] ample life. Idem, lib. 1. de tranquilitate vita [...] cap. 10. There is no viler thing then an aged ould man that hath no other argument bu [...] yeares to proue that he hath lived long.

Lin. 21. IT SHALL PLEASE GOD TO APPOINT] Man [Page 103] purposeth and God disposeth. Therfore saith S. Iames the Apostle. Epist. cap. 4. Say if our Lord will, or if we liue, we will doe this or that, because we know not what shall be to morrow.

So the soule bee safe, it is no great matter where the bodie lye: many a holy bodie lyeth in the sea, many burned to askes, many devoured by wild beasts, &c. Yet e­very man ought so much to esteeme of Christian buriall, as he ought to seeke for it by all lawfull meanes, and is bound to or­daine as providently as he can; and a good reason why is giuen in the leafe here be­fore, out of S. Maximus.

Pag. 17. §. 2. RVFVLL DECAY OF THE CATHOLIKE RELIGION] Begunne in England by Henrie 8. brea­king obedience with the sea of Rome by act of Parlament, 1533. and made more full by Q. Elizabeth.

AS A TRVE FATHER] A true fa­ther is he that, according to the law of na­ture, provideth for those whom he hath gotten into the world, not only bodily, but spiritually: which law is so firmely engraffed in nature, as it needs no expresse law writtē, to command it: as the children haue to ho­nours their parents: the care of providing corporally for childrē is in some parēts over [Page 104] much, and the provision for their soules (the chief part) too little.

These are not true fathers, that care not to leaue to their children a true inheri­tance: but false fathers, leaving inheritāce of false riches; such as vvhen they haue slept their sleepe, they shall find nothing in their hands. The true father hath his principall care to instruct his children in the law of God: that as, not only the earthly goods, but celestiall doctrines vvere by his forefa­thers delivered to him; so he, keeping them in the customes and maners of his life, deli­ver the same to his posteritie at his death. The sonnes, most commonly follow the steps of their fathers, and thinke all lawful to doe that they see them vse. Great is the obligation of parents in the education of their children.

Ioan. 5.19.The sonne can doe nothing of himselfe, but vvhat he seeth his father doe; for vvhat­soever he doth, the sonne likevvise doth.

Isaias 38. Mat. 10.32. Marck 8.38. Luc. 9.26. & 12 8.Pag. 18. §. 3. BE IT KNOWNE TO THEM AND TO ALL THE WORLD] The father to his children shall notifie thy truth. Every one tha [...] shall confesse me before men, I vvil [...] also confesse him before my Father vvhich is in heaven. And he that shal [...] denie me before men: I vvill also denie [Page 105] him before my Father vvhich is in hea­ven.

S. Aug. serm. 181. de tempore, Vide su­pra §. [...]. by faith confes­sing. Tom. 10. Heb. 11. Sine fide. Without faith it is impos­sible to please God, this faith he acknow­ledgeth in our hearts, that searcheth reines and hearts, but for conserving of the Chur­ches vnitie; for the dispensation of this time, with faith of heart, is also necessarie confession of mouth; because vvith the heart vve beleeue to iustice, and vvith mouth vve make confession to salvation, not only of preachers, but also of those that are instructed: Otherwise one brother of another could not have notice, nor the Churches peace be conserved, nor one teach another, nor learne of another, neces­sarie things to salvation, vnlesse vvhat he hath in his heart, with signes of voice, as it were, with certaine chariots he sent to the hearts of others▪ Faith is therfore both to be kept in the heart, and brought forth with the mouth: for faith is the foundation of all good things, and beginning of hu­mane salvation: without this no man can come to the number of the sonnes of God, and without it, neither doth he obtaine the grace of iustification in this world, nor shall he possesse life everlasting in the world to come. And if one walke not by faith, he [Page 106] shall not come to vision. The holy Apostles, having regard to this, delivered a certaine rule of faith, which, according to the Apo­stolicall number, comprehended in 12. sentences, they called the symbole, by which the beleevers might hould the Ca­tholike vnitie and by which they might convince hereticall pravi [...]ie, &c.

A MEMBER OF CHRISTS TRVE, CATHOLIKE, AND APOSTOLIKE CHVRCH] Signes of the true Church are, that it is one, holy, Catholike, and Apo­stolike, therfore he adioyneth [OVT OF THE VNITIE AND FELLOWSHIP WHEROF THERE NEVER WAS, NOR IS, NOR CAN BE SALVATION] No more then was for those that were without the arke of Noe. The true Church can be but one, in as much as truth is one, and can be but one: errour manifold, and in a man­ner infinite. A man that going a iourney, bent to one place if he leaue the right way, which can be but one, it is no more matter which way he take, of so many wayes as lie round about him, for in all he erreth, and shall not come to the place intended, be­cause he hath left the way that only leades therunto. Aug. serm. 181. de tēpore, prope fi­nem, Tom. 10 Symbol. Apost. The holy Catholike Church. It is to be knowne that we must be­leeue the Church, and not beleeue in the [Page 107] Church, because the Church is not God, but the house of God. Catholike, he saith, diffu­sed over all the whole world, because the Churches of diverse Heretiks are therfore not called Catholike, because they be con­tained in places, & every one in their owne Provinces, but this, even frō the Sun rising, to the setting of the same, is diffused with the splendour of one faith. There are no greater riches, no treasures, no honours, no greater substance of this world, then is the Catholike faith: which saveth men sinners, illuminateth the blind, cureth the infirme, baptizeth Cathecumēs, iustifieth the faith­full, repayreth penitents, augmenteth the iust, crowneth, martyrs, ordeyneth clerks, consecrateth Priests, prepareth for the king­dome of heaven, and in the everlasting in­heritance communicateth with the holy Angels. Whosoever he be, and of what condition soever he be, he is no Christian that is not in the Church of Christ.

Our Lord IESVS CHRIST like a whole perfect man, both head & bodie: Aug. in Psal. 90. Cōcio. 2 Tom. 8. the head wo acknowledge in that man which was borne of the Virgin MARIE, suffered vnder Pontius Pilate, was buried, arose, ascended in to heaven, sitteth at the right hand of the Father, from thence we expect him, iudge of the living and the dead: this is the [Page 108] head of the Church; the bodie of this head is the Church, not which is in this place; but which is in this place, and over all the world: nor that which is in this time, but even from Abel vnto those which are to be borne, and to beleeue in Christ even till the end, all the people of Saints, pertayning to one citie, which citie is the bodie of Christ; whose head is Christ.

Whosoever separated from the Church is conioyned to an adulteresse; is separated from the things promissed to the Church; neither doth he appertaine to the rewards of Christ, that leaueth the Church of Christ, he is an Alien, he is prophane, he is an enemie; he cannot now haue God his fa­ther, which hath not the Church his mo­ther. If hee could escape that was without the arke of Noe, then he shall escape that is without the church. Cyprianus tract. de sim­plicitate Praelat. sive de vnitate Ecclesiae.

I following no first but Christ, am con­sociated to thy beatitude, that is, to the chayre of Peeter: I know the Church was built vpon the Rocke, whosoever out of this house eateth the lambe, is profane. If any one be out of the arke of Noe while the floud rageth, he shall perish. Hierony­mus, epist. 1. ad Damasum, tomo 2.

The Roman Church in all I seeke to [Page 109] follow. Ambros. lib. 3. de Sacramentis, cap. 1. post [...]edium, parte 1. No man blotteth out of heaven the constitution of God: no man blotteth out of earth the Church of God. Aug. epist. 162. in fine.

That is the holy Church, the one Church, the Catholike Church, the true Church, fighting against all heresies: fight it may, bee vanquished it cannot. All he­resies haue gone out therof, as vnprofitable sprigs cut from the vine, but shee remaineth vpon her roote, vpon her vine, vpon her charitie, the gates of hell shall not over­come her. Aug. lib. 1. de symb. ad cathecum. cap. 5. in fine.

The sunne is easier extinguished, then the Church obscured. Chrysost. hom. 4. in 6. Esaiae.

Theodosius the great, Aug. de Civitate lib. 5. cap. 26. gloried more that he was a member of the Catholike Church, then that he reigned vpon the earth.

What is more honorable then the Em­perour to be called a child of the Church, Ambro. de Eccl. nō trad. Haereti­cis. Heb. 11. this is that Moyses preferred before the Ae­gyptian treasures, denying himself to be Pharaos sonne, and choosing rather to be af­flicted with Gods people then to haue the pleasure of temporall sinne. Gregor. Naz. e­pist. ad 150. E­pisc▪ For before God there is nothing so magnificent and il­lustrious, as pure doctrine, and a soule in­structed [Page 110] and made perfect with divine o­pinions.

Pag. 28. §. 3. lin. 11. I acknovvledge God the Father my maker, God the Sonne my redee­mer, &c. Matth. 28.19. Going teach all na­tions baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost. Aug. l. 1 de fide ad Pe­trū, c. 1. Tom. 3. The faith of the Trinitie. In what place soever thou beest constitute, because, according to the Rule promulgated by the cōmand of our Saviour, thou knowest thy selfe to be baptized in one name of the Fa­ther, & Sonne, and holy Ghost; principally, and without doubt, retaine with thy whole heart, that the Father is God▪ the Sonne God, and the holy Ghost God; that is, the holy and ineffable Trinitie, to be naturally one God; Deut. 6. Mat. 4. of whom in Deuteronomie it is said: Heare Israel, thy Lord thy God is one God: And thou shalt adore thy Lord God, and serue him alone: Yet because this one God, who only is naturally the true God, we haue said to be neither Father alone, nor Sonne alone, nor holy Ghost alone, but together Father, Sonne, and holy Ghost, we must beware, lest as we truly say the Father and Sonne & holy Ghost, in that belongeth to their naturall vnitie, to be one God; so we dare say, or beleeue, (which is altoge­ther vnlawfull) that he which is Father is [Page 111] the same that the Sonne, or holy Ghost; Or [...]e that is Sonne, either Father or holy Ghost; Or he that is holy Ghost, called pro­perly, in the confession of this Trinitie, to say or beleeue, that he is personally the Fa­ther or the Sonne. For that faith which the holy Patriarchs and Prophets, received from God before the incarnation of the Sonne of God; which also the holy Apo­stles heard from our Lord him selfe in flesh; and, by the magisterie of the holy Ghost instructed, not only preached in word, but also to the healthfull instruction of posteritie left in their writings, prea­cheth the Trinitie to be one God: that is, Father, Sonne, and holy Ghost. But it were no true Trinitie, if one and the same per­son were called Father, and Sonne, and holy Ghost: For if, as the substance of the Father, and Sonne, and holy Ghost, is one, so the person were one; there were nothing wherin it might be truly cal­led a Trinitie. Againe, it were indeed a true Trinitie, but that Trinitie should not be one God, if as the Father and Sonne, and holy Ghost, are in proprietie of per­sons distinct from one another, so they were distinguished in diversitie of na­tures.

But because in that one true God Trini­tie, not only that it is one God, but also tha [...] it is a Trinitie, is naturally true; therfor [...] that true God is in persons a Trinitie, and in nature one. By this naturall vnitie, all th [...] Father is in the Sonne and holy Ghost; al [...] the Sonne in the Father and holy Ghost▪ all the holy Ghost in the Father and Sonne none of these is without any one of them▪ because none is before another in eternitie, or exceedeth in greatnesse, or surpasseth in power; because, in as much as perteineth to the vnitie of the divine nature, the Father is neither before nor greater then the Sōne, nor holy Ghost: nor the eternitie and im­mensitie of the Sonne, as it were before, or greater, can naturally precede or exceed, the eternitie and immensitie of the holy Ghost.

Aug. de Trin. cap. 4. Tom. 3. All that ever I could reade of, that before me wrote of the Trinitie, which is God, the Catholike handlers of the divine bookes both new and old, haue intended to teach this out of the Scriptures: that the Father, and Sonne, and holy Ghost, of one and the same sub­stance, with inseparable equalitie, doe insi­nuate the divine vnitie: therfore they be not three Gods, but one God: Although the Father haue begotten the Sonne, and [Page 113] therfore the Sonne is not, whom the Father is: and the Sonne is begotten of the Father, and for that he is not Father which is Sonne: and the holy Ghost is neither Fa­ther, nor Sonne, but only the spirit of the Father and Sonne: himselfe also coequal to the Father and Sonne, and pertayning to the vnitie of the Trinitie: And yet not the same Trinitie borne of the Virgin MARIE; vnder Pontius Pilate crucified, and buried; to haue risen the third day and ascended into heauen; but only the Sonne. Nor the same Trinitie to haue descēded in likenesse of a doue vpon IESVS baptized: or on the day of Pentecost after the Ascension of our Lord with sound made from heauen as if a vehement blaste were carried along, and in divided tongues like fire, to haue sitten vpon every one of them, but only the holy Ghost. Nor the same Trinitie to haue said from heaven: thou art my Sonne: when either he was baptized by Iohn, or vpon the mount, when the three disciples were with him, or when the voice sounded, saying: I haue both clarified & againe wil clarify: but only the Fathers voice to haue beene made to the Sonne; although the Father, & Son and holy Ghost, as they are inseparable, so do they inseparably worke. This is also my faith, because this is the Catholike faith.

Pag. 18. §. 4. lin. 1. I BELEEVE AND HOVLD] The Apostles Creed, the Ni­cene Creed, Athanasius Creed, the 10. Com­mandements, the 7. Sacraments: and in a word, all that the Catholike Church tea­cheth and holdeth; for, to beleeue profiteth nothing vnlesse we also hold and keepe in worke, what we beleeue; and that wholly, and entirely. Epist. Iacobi. c. 2. 10. Whosoever keepeth other­wise the whole law and offendeth in one point: becommeth guiltie of the whole, as if he had transgressed in all. That the Sacra­ments are the conducts wherby the grace of God is derived vnto mankinde: Their number, order, names, &c.

1. BAPTISME] He rekoneth the Sacraments in such order as they occurred at the present to memorie, Matth. vlt. Whose right or­der is, first baptisme: wherby we are, rege­nerate, and borne a new in Christ to spiri­tuall, and everlasting life; who before were borne of our parents in the world, to cor­porall, and, without this Sacrament, to e­verlasting death.

Ioā. 20. Act. 2.Confirmation; wherby we be spiritually strengthened and grow, as in our infancie we be lapped and bound corporally vntill our ioynts be knit and we made able to stand by our naturall forces.

Eucharistie, Ioan. 6. praedi­catur Euch. Mat. 26. Iacob. 5 Ioā. 20. Mat. 16. wherby we be nourished and fed in soule, as by corporall foode we be fed in bodie.

Penance; wherby the wounds of sinne that we receiue in our soules after baptisme are cured.

Extreame vnction: Iacob. 5 Marc. 6. which strengtheneth vs in our passage out of this life, when of our selves we be too weake to resist the as­saults of the divell, who then most of all ra­geth; tendens insidias calcaneo nostro. Of these fiue; see Scotus in 4. D. 2. Q. 1. Conclusione 1. Whose words are these: Like as in the natu­rall life first is generation, after followeth nutrition, and corroboration, and repara­tion of the health lost, and these 4. apper­taine to every singular person: and yet be­sides these, something is requisite pertay­ning to the communitie, by which a man is constitute in necessarie degree toward some act necessarie for the communitie. So spiritually, to complete perfection out­wardly, there must be some helpe pertay­ning to spirituall generation: and secondly, something pertayning to nutrition: thirdly, pertayning to roboration or strengthning: fourthly, to reparation after falling: and fiftly, besides these things is required some being, wherby he that departeth be finally [Page 116] prepared: For this spirituall life is a certaine way, ordaining that he who liveth well in the same, may without impediment passe out of it to the other, for which he is pre­pared. These things therfore are required as necessarie helps to every person for him­selfe.

Of the other 2. Order, and Matrimonie. Scotus ibi.

And for the good of the communitie ob­serving this law, is required also carnall mul­tiplication; because the same is presupposed to the spirituall good, as nature to grace: and spirituall multiplication of others in the same law. So therfore it was congruent to haue seven helpes bestowed vpon the observers of the Evangelicall law; wherin might be both intensiue and extensiue per­fection, and sufficient for all things necessa­rie to the observance of this law; and these are, as the Maister of Sentences hath in his text: Baptisme, appertaining to spirituall ge­neration: Eucharist, necessarie to nourish­ment: Confirmation, for strengthening: Penance, to the reparation of those that are falne: Mat. 19. ex 1. & 2. Gene­sis. Mat. 26. Ioā. 20. Extreme vnction, to the finall repara­tion: Matrimonie, to multiplication in the being of nature, or carnall being: and Or­der, to multiplication in the being of grace, or spirituall being.

CONFESSION] By this name the Au­thor calleth the sacrament of Penance, as by the part of that Sacrament which then was, and allwaies hath beene by the divell, and his ministers the Heretiques, most op­posed. The first part of the Sacrament of Penance is contrition, or inward sorrow of heart through consideration of Gods goodnesse and our owne wickednesse. No Heretikes are so barbarous, nor any people in the world, that acknowledgeth any God, but they hold this part necessarie, as indeed it is, and hath alwaies beene, to sal­vation. This they call [...]epentance, and not improperly, if rightly vnderstood. But wheras they hold this to be sufficient to blot out sinnes committed after baptisme, it is false: for since the cōming of our Saviour Christ and preaching the law of grace (which taketh not away, but accomplisheth the former law) sinne is not remitted by only contrition, but confession of it to a Priest is also required: and moreover Satis­factiō must follow: that the partie wronged, whether God, or our neighbour, may againe be appeased, and satisfied: yea, even before the time of our Saviour Christ these seeme to haue beene in vse: 2. Reg. 12.13. David confessed his sinne to Nathan the Prophet, and did satisfaction by penall worke, [Page 118] adiudging also him that had wronged the poore man, by taking his sheepe, and spa­ring his owne, to fourefould restitution, The people of all estates that came confes­sing their sinnes to S. Iohn the Baptist, Luc. 3.10. de­manded, and were by him enioyned what they should doe. Luc. 19 8. The rich Zachaeus offered our Saviour to giue the halfe of his goods to the poore, and restore foure times as much, to any man that he might hap to haue defrauded. In confession is the grea­test humilitie, a man will easier part with his goods, or paine his bodie, to satisfie, or be contrite in heart, than in Confession to accuse himselfe; which kind of Pride we inherited from our first parents: Adam would not confesse his sinne to God that knew it, Aug. de Civis. l. 13. c. 11. in fine. but cast the fault vpon the woman: nor shee confesse, but cast the fault vpon the serpent: deceived in this, that to God rebuking and chastizing, he esteemed he should bring a iust excuse, and such as easily he would admit, if he should say he did it, to gratifie his companion; and that compa­niō, not which he had assumed to himselfe, but which our Lord had given him.

How many hard labours, and painefull pilgrimages haue some men vndergone to expiate their sinne: which never the lesse they could never disburden their consciēce [Page 119] of vntill they confessed. So much availeth confession, as when it can be had, without it no contrition doth suffice; and when it can­not be had, to make contrition valuable to salvation, we must haue confession at least in desire and will.

Aug. lib. 50. hom. Tom. 10. hom. 12. Dearely beloved brothers, in all the divine Scrip­tures we be profitably, & healthfully admo­nished, that we ought to confesse our sinnes, continually, and humbly, not only to God, but also to holy men, and those that feare God: For God will not therfore haue vs to confesse our sinnes because he cannot otherwise know them, but because this the divell desireth, that he may finde what to obiect against vs before the tribunall of the everlasting Iudge; therfore he had rather we would defend than accuse our sinnes. On the contrarie side, our God, because he is pious and mercifull, will that we confesse them in the world, that we be not confoun­ded for them in the world to come. The divell therfore knowing the vertue of pure confession, with all his forces endeavoreth to hinder a man that he doe not confesse, and as at first he suggested to make man fall, so after the fall he hindreth vs from ri­sing, because he knoweth we cannot rise without confession.

It is worse that a man will not confesse, then to contemne the law. That a man will not by satisfaction appease the offense of God, is worse then by sinning to offend the goodnesse of God: for although sinne be forgiven by contrition, yet vocall confessiō is necessarie, either in deede, when oppor­tunitie is had, or in purpose, when the arti­cle of necessitie excludeth the same, and not contempt of Religion; and so, the ne­cessitie of confessing after contrition, is not in such case, for necessitie of the reme­die, but for the obligation of the precept.

Conveniently was confession instituted, that he who being in his owne power had departed from God, put vnder the power of an other, with humilitie, and deuotion, may returne. Chrysost. hom. 3. op. imperfect. de Confessionis vtil. Confession of our sinnes is a signe of a good minde, and the testimo­nie of a conscience that feareth God. Per­fect feare breaketh through all shame, and there only is the turpitude of confession seene, where the paine of the future iudge­ment is not beleeved. And because the very shame is a grievous paine, therfore God commandeth vs to confesse our sinnes, that we may suffer the blushing for paine: for this verie thing is part of the divine iudgement. He is worthy of perdon that [Page 121] seeketh not to excuse his sinne, for where confession is, there is remission, because shamefaced confession holdeth the next place to innocencie.

Aug. de poenitentiae vtilitate. Because it is a great shaming to confesse ones sinnes, he that vndergoeth this shame for Christ, is worthie of mercie.

Greg. lib. 12. moral. c. 14. Let those that will mervail at, in everie iust man, the continence of chastitie, let them mervail at the inte­gritie of iustice, let them admire the bowels of pietie, I doe no lesse admire at the most humble confession of sinnes, then so many sublime deedes of virtue.

Aug. vbi supra. O foole, why art thou ashamed to tell to a man, that which thou wert not ashamed to doe in the sight of God? Remoue from thee shame, runne to the Priest, reveale thy secret, confesse thy sinne, otherwise contrition of heart will no­thing profit thee, vnlesse confession of the mouth, if thou cannest, doe follow it. Con­fession is the health of soules, dissipatour of vices, restorer of vertues, oppugnatour of the divels: what will you more? it stoppeth the gates of Hell, and openeth the gates of Paradise.

Pag. 19. §. 5. SACRAMENT OF THE LORDS SVPPER] Although, not only [Page 122] in many other places, but even in the imme­diatly ensuing words the mind of the au­thor he sufficiently declared, yet because the wise (that few are) must speake with the multitude, and accommodate themselves to wise and vnwise, to whom we are deb­ters, with the Apostle: It is here to be no­ted, concerning this maner of speaking. Everie word absolutely set downe stan­deth first for his principal, and more general signification. So that Dominus, vnlesse it be limited, and drawne to more particularitie of signification, by some terme of restri­ction, must after his generall signification be called, A Lord: or, The Lord: and not our Lord, more then your Lord, or my Lord, or his Lord, or their Lord; which sig­nification it must take from some of these adioyned expressely, our, their, his, mine, &c. Which of it selfe it hath not, but a more noble, because lesse limited. Far more it is to be The Lord, by which we vnderstand The Lord of all, then Our Lord: which, accord­ing to the very letter, doth not sound Lord of all, but rather excluding others, would seeme to be ours, & not theirs. In some pla­ces, as where it is said, Ego Dominus: it cā haue none other sense but, I The Lord: for sence­lesse it were to say, I our Lord, and not much better to say I your Lord: the true is, I The Lord.

The Lord, and Our Lord neither kind of speech is to be reproved but according to the occurrent matter both vsed indiffe­rently.

Dominicam Coenam, saith S. Paul, 1. Cor. 11.20. The Lords Supper, and vers. 26. Mortem Domini, the Lords death: which is better expressed in the other sacred tongues as [...] eth Adonai [...]; the death of the Lord.

When this speech, Our Lord, is vsed out of a more feruent devotion towards God, it is to be applauded, because we will shew therin a particular relation that we haue to him more then all other creatures haue: and that he is Our Lord, with dominion over vs that are after his likenesse, more then over other creatures, that are lesse, or nothing after his likenesse: which is insinuated to vs in the booke of Genesis, where God is never called The Lord, before the crea­tion of man, but 35. times [...] God, and after Gen. 2.4. [...] The Lord. What dominion hath a man vnlesse over men, that are of his likenesse and vsing rea­son? Over the brute beasts he vseth no speciall act of lordship or dominion, but as he serueth himselfe with them, so also he serveth them. Over insensible [Page 124] more improperly is man said to haue do­minion: because they cannot obey his com­mand, but are disposed of by the labour of his hands. Those things we are most pro­perly said to be Lords of, which doe most immediately obey the power of our will. Mans will is immediately subiect to Gods will, and not as other creatures are, by the governement of Angels, or influence of the heavens: And man ought to call Our Lord, and not The Lord, when the matter spoaken of is directly belonging to his will subiect only to God and to no creature whatsoever. Which freedome he hath given vs, because he will shew himselfe a loving, and not a tyrannicall Lord. In these places as of the Lords supper, &c. There is no speciall mention of our subiection, but of his voluntarie gift, &c. Therfore it may well be called, The Lords supper, The Lords death, &c.

Pag. 19. §. 5. lin. 3. OF THE ALTAR] The Heretikes of these times haue none: only Catholikes haue an Altar. Heb. 13, 10. Mala. 1.10.

Lin. 3. WORDS OF CONSE­CRATION] How can that which is bread be the Bodie of Christ? Ambros. de Sacramentis. lib. 4. cap. 4. By conse­cration. Consecration then with what words, and by whose speeches is it? by the [Page 125] words and speeches of our Lord IESVS: for, by all other things that are said, praise is given to God, prayer is made for the peo­ple, for Kings, for others, when they come once to make the venerable Sacrament, the Priest vseth not his owne words, but the words of Christ. The speech of Christ therfore maketh this Sacrament. What speech of Christ? verily that by which all things are made. Our Lord commanded and the heavens were made: Our Lord commanded and the earth was made: Our Lord commanded and the seas were made: Our Lord commanded and every creature was engendred: you see of what operation the word of Christ is. If therfore there be so much force in the speech of our Lord IESVS, as that which was not, be­ginneth therby to be, of how much greater operation is it, to let the things be which were, and change them into other things? the heaven was not, the sea was not, the earth was not, but harken to him that saith: He said the word, and they are made, he commanded, and they are created. That therfore I may answere thee, there was not the bodie of Christ before the consecra­tion, but after the consecration, I say to thee, that now it is the bodie of Christ: He hath said, and it is made; he hath comman­ded [...]d it i [...] [...]ted

SACRI­FICE. MASSE. Malach. 1.11. In every place i [...] sacrifized and offered to my name a pure oblation which none haue but the Catholi­ke Church.

FIGVRATIVE SPEECHES] By connexion of one place with another, by comparing the antecedent with the conse­quent words of Scripture: Scotus in 4. D. 10. Q. 1. num. 3. Will haue vs to gather whether things be spoken figuratiuely or not: and argueth that here they be not figuratiue, out of the words following; for when Christ had said; Take and eat this is my bodie, to declare that he meant his verie bodie, and no mysticall bodie, he said im­mediately, which shall be delivered for you; and his bodie was the same night deli­vered to death for all mankind, betrayed by the false Apostle Iudas.

Pag. 20. §. 6. lin. 1. EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE] Wherof the Apo­stle. 1. Cor. 11.28. Let a man proue him­selfe: and 31. if we would iudge our selves we should not be iudged.

No paine is more grievous then a wicked conscience. An evill conscience is tossed with his owne prickings: if publike fame condemne thee not, thy owne conscience [Page 127] condemneth thee, because no man can fly from himselfe. Wilt thou be never sad? Liue well: good life hath alwaies ioy, the conscience of the guilty is alwayes in paine. Bernard. Tract. De interiori domo. cap. 45.

Among the manifold tribulations, and innumerable molestious afflictions of a mans soule, there is no greater affliction then conscience of sinne. Greg. in septimum Psalm. poenitent. vers. penult. And, on the con­trarie, there is no greater consolation, then a conscience adorned with vertues. Vide Aug. serm. 10. ad frat. in eremo, Tom. 10. & serm. 45.

How beautifull is the brightenesse of the soule! How happie the conscience full of good works! If he be potent, that commands the world, how happie is he that in his conscience beareth God? Aug. serm. 7. de Tempore.

By good life a good conscience is gained, that by the good conscience no paine may be feared: let him therfore learne to feare that will not feare, let him learne for a time to be solicitous that will alwaies be secure. Aug. serm. 214. De tempore.

No man reioyceth in God, that liveth i [...] vice. Aug. lib. 50. Hom. hom. 33. in medio. & serm. 215. No man hath vniust gaine with out iust dammage: where gaine is, there i [...] dammage, gaine in the coffers, dammage i [...] the conscience,

There is no better pleasure then th [...] grace of a corrected conscience, Amb. lib. 2 de Abraham, cap. 11. Tom. 4.

REPENTANCE, AND AMENDMENT] Confession maketh contrition or repen­tance more intense, and as it selfe is caused by them, so it doth againe cherish and en­crease them, and of them both proceedeth amendment: for he that with contrition confesseth, submitteth himselfe also to make amends, and doe satisfaction accor­ding to the iudgement of him to whom he confesseth: and not only to amend by leading a new life, but as well by satisfiyng for that is past. Of satisfaction▪ or penance for sinnes, Daniel. 4.24. Matth. 3.8. Luc. 3.8. Wherupon see. Greg. hom. 20. in Evangel. Bernard. serm. 66. in Cant. Chrysost. hom. 10. in Matth. Aug. aut poenitendum, aut ardendum. Looke to doe penance, or to burne.

Pag. 20. §. 7. lin. 2. INVOCATION OF SAINTS] Who being like the An­gels of God, can both attend to our need & the visiō of God. Mat. 22.30.18, 10. Luc. 15.10.

PRAYER FOR THE DEAD] Saint Peeter instructed vs, to haue a gard over the acts of our life every houre: he instru­cted vs also to burie the dead, and to per­forme their exequies diligently, and to pray for them, and to giue almes. Clemens, epist. 1. ad Iacobum fratrem Domini.

Dionys. de Eccl. Hierarch. cap. 7. Then com­ming the venerable Prelate readeth a most holy prayer over him, that the divine cle­mencie will forgiue the dead all his sinnes committed through humane infirmitie, and place him in the light and region of the living, in the bosome of Abraham, Isaac, and Iacob, in the place whence is banished all sighes, sorrow, and sadnesse.

Chrysost. hom. 69. ad populum. It was not rashly ordained by the Apostles, that in the dreadfull mysteries, there should be com­memoration made of the dead.

They that loue their friends, dead in bodie, and not in soule, with spirituall loue, and not carnall alone; let them carefully, and instantly, exercise those things that helpe the soules of the dead: as offerings, prayers, and almes. Aug.

Lin. 4. PVRGATION OF SOVLES] Matth. 5.25.26. & 12.32. Luc. 16.22. 1. Cor. 3.13.

CHRISTIAN WORKS] The iust [Page 130] man is iudged by his works. Iacob. 2.22 2. Petri 1.10. Apoc. 22.11. Which places mak [...] also against sole faith. 1. Cor. 15.58.

Pag. 21. §. 8. lin. 4, TEACHING HE [...] ALL TRVTH] Ioannes 14.16. & 16.13.

Lin. 6. GATES OF HELL] Mat. 16.18

Lin. 10. ANGELS OF LIGHT] A [...] Gal. 1.8. But although we, or an Angel from heaven, evangelize to you another thing besides that we haue evangelized to you [...] Anathema. Idem 2. Cor. 11.13.

Lin. 11, DELICACIE OF WORLDL [...] MENS DELIGHTS] Contrarie to th [...] delights of good men, who, renouncing th [...] world, haue fixed their delight in God. O [...] such the Apostle warned his Disciple 2. Tim. 3. Know that in the last dayes ther [...] sh [...]ll be dangerous times, and there shall b [...] men loving themselves, covetous, loftie proude, blasphemous, disobeying Parents vngratefull, wicked, without affection without peace, laying crimes vpon others incontinent, rude, without benignitie, trai­tours, sawcie, puffed vp, and lovers of plea­sures more then of God, having the appea­rance of pietie, but denying the vertue therof. Avoide these.

Lin. 17. FORTIE OR FIFTIE YEARES] Luther fell from the Catholike Church anno 1517. Yet there was no pub­like [Page 131] profession of Lutheranisme, or liber­tie, so soone.

Pag. 22. lin. 5. A CITIE SET VPON AN HILL] Mat. 5.14.15. Where also of the light of it: and, Marc. 4.21. Luc. 11.33.

Pag. 22. lin. 12. THIRTEENE HVNDRED YEARES] England first received the Christian religion from Ioseph [...]b Arimathia, that buried Christ and came after into England, preached there the Gospell, and baptized them that beleeued, as Gildas Sapiens, wrighteth, Venerable Bede, Polydore, Vergill, and others: And Baronius, at the yeare of our Lord 35. num. 3.

But more fully it was converted 180. yeares after Christ in the reigne of King Lucius, by S. Fugatius and S. Damian, sent thither from Rome by Eleutherius Pope.

And also 400. yeares after that, by S. Au­gustine and his fellowes, sent thither by S. Gregorie the great, about the yeare 600.

Pag. 22. §. 9. I HOLD AND BELEEVE ALL THAT THE CATHOLIKE AND APOSTOLIKE CHVRCH] If any one come to you and bring not this doctrine, receiue him not into the house, nor say to him, God saue you. 2. Ioan. 1.

Ambrose. He denyeth Chr [...]st that con­fesseth not all, things that are Christs.

Hilarius. It becommeth the ministers of truth to professe true things.

Aug. lib. de fide ad Petrum, cap. 39. Most firmely hold, and no way doubt, that every Heretike, or Schismatike, baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Sonne, and of the holy Ghost, if he be not aggregated to the Catholike Church, how many almesdeeds soever he doe, although he shed his bloud for the name of Christ, can by no meanes be saved: For to every man, that holdeth not the vnitie of the Catholike Church, neither Baptisme, nor Almes, how copious soever it be, nor death for the name of Christ vndergone, can be of any value to salvation, as long as he persevereth in that hereticall, or schismaticall pravitie which leadeth vnto death.

Cap. 40. Most firmely hold and no way doubt, that not all which are baptized within the Catholike Church shall receiu [...] life everlasting, but they which having received baptisme do liue a right, that is, wh [...] haue abstained them from the vices an [...] concupiscences of the flesh. For the kingdome of Heaven, as Infidels, Heretikes and Schismatikes shall not haue it, [...] wicked Catholikes can never possesse it.

Vincentius Lyrenensis. He is a true and naturall Catholike, that loveth the truth o [...] [Page 133] God, the Church, the bodie of Christ, who before the divine religion, before the Ca­tholike faith, preferreth nothing, not the authoritie of any man, not loue, nor wit, nor eloquence, nor Philosophie; but despi­sing all these, and there remaining fixed and steedfast, whatsoever vniversally, from all antiquitie, he knoweth the Catholike Church to haue holden, that only he de­creeth with himselfe to hold and beleeue; and whatsoever afterward he perceiveth new and vnheard of to haue beene intro­duced by any one, otherwise then all, or contrarie to all the Saints, that he vnder­standeth to appertaine, not to Religion, but rather to temptation.

Lin. 4. GODLY CEREMONIALL RIGHTS] He that will condemne the ce­remonies of Gods Church, let him first trie if he can himselfe leade a humane life amongst civill men [...]ithout all ceremonie; let him separate all substance from his acci­dents and see whether it be worth the loo­king vpon. As in accidents there is diffe­rence, and some make the substance to be better accepted then others, for examples sake, in colour, in savour, &c. So ceremo­nies doe, according as they are better or worse, set out the substance of the thing wherabout they be vsed. What is any artifi­cers [Page 134] worke, although according to the sub­stantiall part it be wholly finished, vnlesse i [...] be also polite. As God gaue to his people i [...] the old law precepts Morall, Iudiciall, and Ceremoniall, so in the new testament there are Doctrine, Sacraments, with their ceremo­nies, and Discipline. Deut. 6. Keepe the pre­cepts of thy Lord God, & the testimonies, and ceremonies, which he hath comman­ded thee.

Lin. 13. CONTINVALL PRAYER] Luc. 18. Wee must alwaies pray and never faile: Psalm. 118. Psal. 5. Vtinā dirigantur viae meae, ad custodiendas iustificationes tuas. Dirige Domine Deus meus in cōspectu tuo viam meam. Be instant in prayer, watching therin, with thanks-giving. Coloss. 4.2. Pray without intermissiō. 1. Thess. 5.17. Psalm. 24. Dirige me in veritate tua & doce me ...... dirige me in semitam rectam. 89. Opus manuum nostrarum dirige.

Pag. 23. §. 10. FROM A RESOLVTE HEART] No temptation doth so soone seaze, or overthrow, him that is well resol­ved, and constantly settled in his minde; as it doth him that is doubtfull and wavering. 2. Cor. 8.12. If the will be prompt: accor­ding to what it hath, it is accepted.

The works of our will that spring imme­diately from it, cannot suffer violence from any power, but in those workes or acts that [Page 135] are of other powers, commanded by the will, shee may suffer violence.

S. Thomas. 1. 2. Q. 6. A. 4. Violence, Feare, Concupiscence. Ignorance, &c. May assaile the will, but, cannot overcome it, to cause it doe a thing: for that no agent in his action can be compelled. Violence, and feare, may diminish, and make an act lesse voluntarie; Concupiscence ofter encreasseth, and ma­keth it more voluntarie, Ignorance maketh it, not to be voluntarie; but not involuntarie, or against ones will.

He that doth but foresee the dangers, is lesse strooken by the dint of them. Heb. 13, 9. The best thing, saith the Apostle, is to establish the heart with grace. And Ecclesiastic. 2.1. Comming to the service of God stand in iustice, and feare, and prepare thy soule for temptation. Our wavering mind addeth forces to the temptation.

Prosper. 3. de vita contemplativa. Every man, vntill by certaine definition he con­firme himselfe in that he hath chosen; being as it were in a forked way of vncer­taine deliberation, is torne in peeces by the very diversitie of wills. Vertue exhor­teth, and provoketh a man, that, all am­biguitie of definition deposed, he vnder­take his spiritu [...]ll purpose, tha h confide, not in his owne possibilitie, but in the [Page 136] miseration of our Lord, to persever in the labour of his conflict vndertaken, 1. Thess. 5.24. He is faithfull that hath called you, who also will doe it. Esai. 40.31. They that hope in our Lord shall change their strength, they shall assume wings like Eagles, they sh [...]ll runne and not labour, they shall walke and not faint.

Pag. 24. lin. 6. AFFECTION OF WIFE OR CHILDREN] Luc. 14.26. If any one come to me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, and moreover his owne soule, he can not be my disciple. Idem, Matth. 10.37.

Pag. 25. §. 11. By COVNTRIE FARRE DIVIDED] Shee being of Acton, by Long Melforde, in the countie of Southfolke.

TRVE GENEROSITIE] Seneca lib. de moribus. The nobilitie of the mind is the generositie of the sense: The nobilitie of bodie, a generous minde.

NOT IGNOBLE] Evill nobilitie it is, that by pride maketh a man ignoble be­fore God. Aug. serm. 127. de tempore. Summa ingenuitas ista est, in qua servitus Christi com­probatur. Off. Agath. 5. Feb.

Pag. 25. §. 12. lin. 6. EDWARD THE FIRST] This was the sonne of Henry the [Page 137] third, King of England, and beganne his raigne the 16. of November, 1272. the same day that his father dyed.

Pag. 26. §. 13. lin. 8. & lin. 11. HENRIE THE 8.] By the death of his father King Henrie the 7. began to raigne the 22. of Aprill 1509. Of one Arthur Plantagenet; there is mention in Stovv, at the fourth yeare of this King, anno 1513.

Pag. 27. §. 14. FORCED TO GIVE OVER] In suites of Law it is not enough to haue a iust cause, or good title; but a man must haue a good head, vnderstanding and insight in the lawes, abilitie and strength of body to follow the suite by ones selfe; and aboue all other things a good purse that will never be drawne drie.

Pag. 28. §. 15. GOD FORGIVE THEM] Pater dimitte illis. He prayeth for his ene­mies, according to that; Matth. 5.44. Loue your enemies, wish well to those that curse you, doe good to those that hate yee, and pray for those that persecute and reproach yee. Idem Luc. 6.28. & ad Rom. 12.14.

Blessed are they that suffer persecution for iustice, because theirs is the Kingdome of heaven. You are blessed when they shall curse you, and shall persecute yee, and [Page 138] speake all evill against yee, for me, lying against the truth. Matth. 5.10. Idem. Luc. 6.22.

If sinning, and beaten yee suffer: what glorie is that? but if doing well yee sustaine patiently, this is grace with God. 1. Pet. 2.20. & 3.14. & 4.14.

Pag. 29. lin. 20. I LEAVE IN MO­DESTIE TO SPEAKE OF] If I pre­sume to speake a little, I hope I shall not sin against modestie: [...]. Cor. 12.6. Veritatem enim dicam.

First, for his Eloquence he was esteemed, where he was knowne, for an other Cicero; and so much grace was in his speeche, as therewith he was able presently to appease whatsoever tumult or commotion risen among the people. In his yonger yeares when Queene Elizabeth came in progresse to Worcester, he made there an oration before her, at the request of the citie, for which they gaue him 20. pounds: The Queene commanded also to giue him a re­ward, but Sir Robert Dudley making an­swere, Madame, he is a Papist, he Lost that reward.

Alwaies going in circuit with the Iud­ges of Worcestershiere he employed the spare time he had, in visiting the prisons, speaking with every of the prisoners in particular, exhorting them, and giving them [Page 139] counsell how to answere in their owne causes, the best way for their good, and gi­ving them encouragement. Those that by their cause he saw would receiue sentence of death, he would both before, and after, dispose to die in the most Christian māner, and if he saw any good to be done, and that a Priest were to be had without immi­nent danger they should not want him: according to his abilitie he would also re­leeue them with his worldly goods.

For many yeares after his death, if any thing were done in the commonwealth a­gainst iustice in commutation, or distribu­tion: no other voice was heard among the people then this alone: things were not thus when M. ^r Bel was living, nor would not be if now he lived.

Briefly, I may iustly returne vpon him all those commendations which he giveth Sir Iohn Throkmarton in the §. 16. Pag. 29. For he had in himselfe whatsoever he re­quired in his children, or commended in his friends.

Pag. 31. §. 17. lin. 5. TOWARDS GOD SO RELIGIOVS] Rightly doth he call her Religious, that did not cōtent herselfe with exercise of ordinarie perfection, but aspired to the proper exercises of religious professiō; [Page 140] delighting in the abnegation of her selfe, and corporall austerities, and in the same instructing her children: being so much gi­ven to prayer, as besides the office of our B. Lady, of the Dead, the Graduall, and Penitentiall Psalmes, Hymnes, Litanies, Office of the holy Ghost, and H. Crosse, prayers of the Manuall, which were her daily exercise: in the time of lent she would never sleepe before shee had read over the whole Passion of our Saviour, according to one of the 4. Evangelists, in Latin; which she vnderstood well. Living many yeares a widow with all the care of a great familie. Shee meditated notwitstanding continually the Law of God, reading also, with licence of her ghostly father, the new Testament, with the Rhemes notes, Sir Thomas Mores workes, and other bookes of Controversies verie much, by which shee often defended the Catholike faith against the hereticall Ministers that would come to dissuade her from it; but found her ever immoveable, as a Rock. Ecclesiastic. 26. Everlasting founda­tions vpon a solid rocke the Commands of God in the heart of a holy woman: Whose prayse in holy Scripture is manifold. Pro­uerb. 11.16. A gracious woman shall get glorie. 12.4. A woman of vertue is a crowne to her housband. 14.1. A wise wo­man [Page 141] buildeth vp her house; and 31.30. The woman that feareth God shall be praysed. 18.22. He that hath found a good wife, hath found a great good, and shall get good will of our Lord. Ecclesiastic. 25.11. Blessed is he that dwelleth with a prudent woman. 26.1. Blessed is the man of a good woman, and double is the number of his dayes. The gift of God is a woman silent and prudent, and no change is to be given for a well in­structed soule. 16. Grace aboue Grace, is a modest & faithfull woman, and no weight is worth her continent soule. The Sunne rising in the highest of Our Lord, and the beautie of a good woman in the ornament of her house. 7.26. The woman that hono­reth her owne man shal appeare wise before all. Depart not from a wise & good womā, for her grace is aboue gold▪ 25.1. Beauti­full before God, and before men: The con­cord of brothers: Friendship of neigh­bours: Man and wife that agree well toge­ther, &c.

Line 7. VOWED CHASTITIE] That is, conjugall chastitie, or as they vow that are of the third order of S. Francis in the world, and amiddest the cares therof.

I REQVIRE AND CHARGE YOV] That is here charged, is like the charge of old Tobias, laid vpon his sonne. Tob. 4.3. [Page 142] Sonne if I dye, burie me, and despise not thy mother: Honour her all the dayes of thy life, and doe vvhat is pleasing to her, and doe not make her sad, &c.

Pag. 33. §. 18. CONTINVALL PRAYER] Againe, the author vrgeth this point, as a thing for this life most necessarie. Aske and it shall be given. Mat. 7.7. & 21.22.

PROVINCIALL DARKENESSE] This terme he vseth because in respect of the vvhole Catholike Church, from which it received the light of faith, this King­dome, as also any other, is but a Province; and, as it is a province in the respect of the light, so also in respect of the darkenesse, which it hath falne into by shutting it selfe from the vvhole.

So in regard of S. Francis whole Order, spread through all the vvorld, this King­dome is called the Province of England.

Pag. 35. §. 19. FERVENCIE OF ZEALE] The first condition he requireth in Prayer, is FAITH] wherof Iacob. 1.6. Let him pray in faith, not wavering: for he that straggereth is like a vvaue of the sea, moved and tossed vvith the vvind. Let not that man thinke he shall receiue any thing from God. Marc. 11.24. Luc. 11.9. Ioan. 14. 13. & 16.23.

Prayer is an ascent of the minde to God. Damascen. lib. 3. de Fide, cap. 24.

Augustin. Prayer is a pious affect of the minde directed to God. Vigilate & orate vt non intretis in tentationem. Cyrillus. Christ prayeth with 3. companions, so must we; vvith Peeter, that is, faith; vvith Iames, that is, sequestration from the vvorld, vvhich to vs is supplāted; Iohn, that is, fervour of grace and Charitie. Frequent prayer our Saviour taught praying the same thing 3. times. Iterate not a vvord in thy prayer. Ecclesiasti­cus 7. That is, make it so full as thou needest not to supplie that vvas by negligence o­mitted, & 53. The prayer of him that hum­bleth himselfe penetrateth the cloudes, &c. CHARITIE] He that turneth away his eares from hearing the law, his prayer shall become execrable. FERVENCIE] The end of prayer, well made, is more fervent then the beginning, for the motion encrea­seth the heate Eccles. 7. Better is the end of prayer then the beginning. Of Prayer Clem. Alex. l. 4. & 7. strom. In the last acclamations of our prayer we stretch forth head and hands, we stirre our feet to heaven, by promptitude and alacritie of spirit flying towards the essence, of which none layes hold but by intellectuall touch: we striue together with our speech to [Page 144] raise our bodies aboue the ground: we straine our erected and elevated soules by desire of better and better things to goe forward into the holy of holies, through greatnesse of courage, scorning to be kep [...] downe by the clogge of the bodie.

Pag. 35. §. 20. OF THE EFFECTS OF PRAYER] Let Moyses or Elias speake▪ To winne in fight; Exod. 17. 3. Reg. 17. 4. Reg. 6 17. & 20. to stop the plague; to binde the cloudes, and let them loose. Aske Helisaeas, or king Ezechias, what it is. S. Peeter, S. Gregorie, S. Anthonie of Padua, some one, or all the multitude of Thaumaturgs, since Christ, or preaching of the Gospell shall declare. And of the most sweet comforts therof, beleeue the Author here, or seeke by experience in thy selfe, which better is, to finde it out: enquier among the hardly nu­merable number of Extatike Saints within the seraphicall Order even from S. Francis and S. Giles, vntill these times, wherin the B. Mother Louysa liues and many moe, of little lesser note. [...] Rapt, extasie, which is an abstraction and alienation, and illu­stration, proceeding from God, by which God draweth backe the soule, from aboue, falne to inferiour things, againe from infe­riour to superiour, and so shee is left halfe dead bereaft of the senses. Pythagoras. If thou, leaving the bodie, doest passe freely [Page 145] in to the skie, thou shalt be an immortall God, dead to this world. Cicero. When the soule is come to that state which is the high­est degree of contemplatiue perfection, then is shee ravished from all created like­nesses, and vnderstandeth, not by acquisite species, but by looking into the Ideas, and by the light of them, knoweth all things: of which light Plato saith, very few men in this life are made partakers.

[...]. Attention or intention, is of so much force in worke, as the more secret Di­vines doe say, that by words and prayers, nothing can be done without intention. Hence is the commun Proverbe; Imagina­tion maketh chance, as Avicenna, and others write. Hence the Apostle, I will pray in spi­rit, I will pray in mind, I will sing in spirit, I will sing also in mind: insinuating that vn­lesse the mind attend, the prayer is none, and altogether voide. Although working in holy things, the defect of this attention doe withstand vs, because the reasonable number and harmonie most efficacious in worke, is wanting: yet a greater obstacle it is to vs, when our domestike works are contrarie to the sacred works. Isaias 1.15. When yee shall multiplie prayers I will not heare, because your hands be full of bloud. In things of Religion, no worke of any [Page 146] mervailous efficacie can be done, vnlesse some of the supernall powers be present, spectatour, and accomplisher of the worke. Humane nature can neither vndertake speech, nor prayer of God, without God, nor yet doe any divine worke without him: for it is so weake and dull, as it hath no re­medie of its nullitie, but only some portion of divine light cōming from aboue, with­out which no divine thing is done by vs. Iamblicus de Aegyptiorum mysterijs.

Those that can draw any thing more of the spectacle of God, or of good, doe of­tentimes, as it were, oversleeping them­selves at the most beautifull vision, dye. ............ Then shalt thou behold it, when thou mayest haue nothing to say of it: for the knowledge and contemplation therof, is silence, and rest of all the senses; for he that hath vnderstood it can vnderstand nothing else nor can he speculate any thing else, that hath seene it, nor heare of anything else, nor moue his bodie at all: for all the correption of the corporall senses and mo­tions resteth. But searching over all the minde and all the soule, it enlighteneth and withdraweth from the bodie, and changeth the whole into the essence of God. For possible it is, O my sonne! that the soule be deified in the bodie of a man, when it hath [Page 147] seene the beautie of good, which is, to be deified .............. oftentimes the mind flyeth out of the soule, and at that time the soule neither seeth nor heareth, but is like a brute beast. Hermes Trismegist. clavis, fol. 129. a, 6. & 132. a. 6.

Plato in Tymaeo. The soule that often, and with greatest intention contemplateth di­vine things, with such nourishment waxeth so strong, and able to get out, as it over­groweth the bodie, and overgoeth it more then the nature of the bodie is able to beare, and with the most vehement tos­sings therof, doth sometimes, as it were, fly out of it, or as it were, seeme to dissolve it. Marsilius Ficinus de studiosorum sanitate tuen­da, lib, 1. cap. 4.

S. Bernard. serm. 52. de modo bene viuendi. When in the sight of God thou singest Psalmes, and Hymnes, handle that in thy minde which thou singest with thy voice. Let thy mind agree with thy voice, let it ac­cord with thy tongue; doe not thinke one thing and sing another. If thou sing one thing in thy mind, and another in thy voice, thou loosest the fruit of thy labour. If thy bodie stand in the Church, and thy minde wander abroade, thou loosest thy reward. Whence it is said: This people honoureth me with their lippes, and their heart, is [Page 148] farre from me. But as the Apostle saith I wil sing in spirit, I will sing also in mind, I will sing with mouth and heart. Good therfore it is, alwaies to pray God with mind. It is also good with sound of voice, and Hym­nes, and Psalmes, and spirituall Cantikles to gloriefie God. Idem in meditationib. c. 8.

Ineffable is the dignation of the Diuine bountie, that daily seeth vs wretches, a­verting our eares, hardening our hearts, and nevertelesse calleth vnto vs, Isaias 46. Psal. 45. saying: Re­turne prevaricatours to the heart, take heed, looke to it, for I am God. In the Psalme God speaketh to me, and I to him▪ and yet when I say a Psalme, I attend no [...] whose Psalme it is. Therfore I doe grea [...] iniurie to God, when I pray him to heare my prayer, hich I that make it doe no [...] heare: I pray him to attend to me, and I do [...] neither attend to my selfe, nor him: bu [...] which worse is, tossing vnprofitable and vncleane things in my heart, I cast a horri­ble stinke before his face.

Franciscus Georgius Harmonia, Cant. 3. mo­dul. 20. Wh [...]n v [...]e come once to the first & highest, we must rest, & goe no farther, be­cause farther then the highest, nothing can be givē: hereof Ieremias: Shee shall sit solita­rie, & hold her peace, because shee hath e­levated her selfe aboue her selfe. Psal. 4. And Da­vid: [Page 149] In peace, in the thing it selfe, wil I sleepe and rest: and againe Psalm. 65. vulgat. 64.

[...]. Silence is thy prayse God in Syon. Which said shee must be silent, because shee is now come to the place where silence is, because there every one becommeth inward and most inward with the highest; so that forgetting all exteriour things, and separate from them all, shee hath none to vvhom shee may speake, cōversing only vvith him before vvhom there is no speech required, because he beholdeth all things; and withall, because shee beholdeth and is delighted with those things, which if she would, she cannot expresse: hence ther­fore she must be silent, vnlesse by the com­mand of her Prince shee manifest some­thing to inferiours, according to the capa­citie of them that are to receiue it, for their profit. As S. Dionys. saith of the Angels; That they be declarers of the divine silēce, as cleere lights, interpreting that which is in secret, &c.

Pag. 36. lin. 7. INPRISONMENT IN AN INNOCENT CAVSE] Non poena sed causa. As death in an innocent cause, maketh a Martyr, so imprisonment and other sufferings in like cause, maketh a Confessour: in whose number I am verie confident, in the goodnesse of God, I may [Page 150] place the Author of this Testament, who, not onely in death, but all his life, and in e­verie occasion, hath confessed Christ and his Church with constancie and perseve­rance. S. Max. hom. 59 2. de S. Eusebio And the caution of the Divine word; Praise not a man in his life, is, as it were, a command to Praise him after life: Praise him after his consummation.

Pag. 37. §. 21. lin. 9. YOVR SEVERALL CALLINGS] He speaketh of states, by which men are setled in the world to be­come apt members in the bodie of the common-wealth; as Governours, or Magi­strates, Doctors in Theologie, Law, Medi­cine, or Practitioners in any of the sciences, or liberall artes. Religious in any of the Regular Orders, that serue the common-wealth in Preaching, administring Sacra­ments, Sacrifices, Prayers, Comforting the afflicted, disposing to life everlasting the dying, and all works of mercie: in any of the severall states of the Plebeians, or the Mechanike arts, whatsoever, and not alone of those that the Prince-Apostles speake of, vocation to the faith, 2. Pet. 1.10. Doe your endeavour brothers more and more, by good works to make sure your calling and election. Et Ephes. 4. I beseech you walke worthily in the vocation wherin you are called, &c. Yet of the former cal­lings [Page 151] S. Paul seemeth to haue admonished. 1. Cor. 7.20. Every one in what vocation he is called, in the same let him remaine: Thou art called, to be a servant, let it not trouble thee; but if thou cannest become a free-man doe in Gods name. He that in our Lord is called a servant, is our Lords free­man: And he that is called to be a free man is the servant of Christ.

Pag. 37. §. 22. lin. 6. TIME, AN ENE­MIE TO THE THRIFT OF A DIS­TRESSED CONSCIENCE] Riches, that are seldome gotten together with a good conscience, are with more danger of detriment to the conscience, gotten toge­ther in short time. Matth. 19. A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdome of heaven. id. Marc. 10. And Luc. 6. Woe be to you rich men. Whence the Apost. 1. Tim 6.17.18. Command the rich men of this world to giue easily.

Every rich man is either vniust, or the heire of some vniust man. Hieronym. lib. 2. in Ierem. cap. 5. paulo ante finem, & epist. ad Hedibiam. q. 1. in medio. All riches descend from iniquitie, and vnlesse one man loose, another cannot finde, whence that com­mon saying seemeth to me most true; That every rich man is either vniust, or the heire of one vniust.

B. Laurent. Iustinian. said that riche men could not be saved but by Almesdeeds. We burne in Avarice, and disputing against money, lay open our lappes to gold, and nothing is enough for vs. What is said of the Megarens may well be applyed to the miserable churles: They build as if they were to liue ever, they liue as if they should die the next day. Hieron. ad Geront. de mono­gamia. Tom. 1.

Not he that little hath, but he that much coveteth is poore. Seneca lib. de paupertate.

No man liveth so poore as he was borne: Seneca, lib. de providentia divina.

Children of Adam! a covetous, and ambitious kind, hearken; What haue you to doe with earthly riches, and temporall glorie, which neither are indeed, nor are yours? gold and silver is it not earth, red and white, which only mans error maketh, or rather reputeth pretious? If they be yours take them away with you. But when a man perisheth he shall take nothing with him, neither shall his glorie descend with him. True riches therfore is not vvealth, but vertues, vvhich the conscience carrieth vvith it, to make it rich for ever. Bernard. serm. 4. de Aduentu Domini.

Whom God enricheth no man shall make poore. Cyprian. Tom. 1. epist. 2.

Those only are good riches which we haue in hope and expectation. Greg. Naz. orat. de Machab.

Neither is any thing a greater terrour to vs, then lest we should feare any thing more then God. id. ibid.

He is abundantly rich, that with Christ is poore. Hieron. ep. ad Heliodor. de vita soli­taria. Est quaestus magnus, pietas cum sufficiētia. 1. Tim. 6.6.

The beautie of riches, is not in the sacks of riche men, but in the poores sustenance. Amb. lib. 7. epist. 44.

The Bishops glorie is to provide for the poores wealth, the ignominie of all Priests is to looke only to their owne riches: Hiero. ad Nepotian. Tomo 1.

To the faithfull the whole world is ri­ches. Amb. lib. 1. de Iacob. & vita beata c. vlti. Tom. 4.

Povertie and riches, are two names of vvant and satietie, neither is he rich that vvanteth something, nor he poore that vvanteth not. Amb. Tom. 3. l. 7. epist. 44. Vi­ctuals and cloathing are Christians riches. Hieronym. ad Paulinum. Tom. 3.

To me all plentie vvhich is not my God is vvant. Aug. Conf. l. 13, c. 8.

Pag. 38. §. 23. lin. 6. INSTRVCTED IN LEARNING] And the reason is, be­cause knowledge is a great helpe to serue [Page 154] God with; for as nothing is in the vnder­standing which was not first in the senses, so nothing is in the will which was not first in the vnderstanding. Discipline and sciēce are two wings that with swift flight carrie a man to heaven.

Ambros. in offic. expos. Psal. 118. Life is to be sought before Doctrine ......... Good life, even without doctrine hath grace, Doctri­ne without life hath no integritie .......... Againe, speaking of morall, and mysticall things, he saith: In those is life, in these knowledge: so that, if thou require perfe­ction, let neither life be without know­ledge, nor knowledge without life, let one helpe another. The end of all knowledge is to giue a man the true knowledge of his creatour that accordingly and in truth he may serue and worship him.

There is no secure ioy in knowing many or hard things in the divine Writ, but in keeping of the things that we know. Greg. 22. Moral. c. 4. in fine.

As long as thou art ignorant so long must thou learne; and, if we beleeue the pro­verbe, as long as thou livest. Senec. lib. 10. epist. 77.

So great is the profunditie of Christian letters, as I should daily profit in them, if from my very infancie vntill decreped old [Page 155] age, at greatest leisure, with greatest dili­gence, and the best wit, I shoul endeavour to learne and apply my selfe to them alone. Aug. ep. 3. Tom. 2.

The studies of science without facts, I know not whether they doe not more in­volue vs. Amb. lib. 1. offic. c. 26. [...]n fine. Tom. 1. & lib. 2. c. 3. in medio. Innocence, and science▪ make a man blessed.

Pag. 33. §. 24. lin. 3. TRAYNED IN SCHOOLE TO LEARNING] Not only these two children, but of 12. 8. that lived; were, both sonnes and daughters, brought vp at schoole, all together till they vnderstood the latin tongue.

Pag. 39. §. 24. lin. 7. A GRATEFVLL ENTERTAINEMENT] Musike is not alonly so, but moreover, a thing cele­stiall and divine, aboue all the obiects of humane sense, and none doth so much raise the mind, or elevate the soule towards God, the chiefe and beginning of all order, of all mesure, and of all number, as this harmoniacall number, and therfore aboue all others, God is served with it in his Church; and how much it pleaseth God, so much it offendeth the divels and casteth them farre off. Consult David through all his facts and writings. [Page 156] Musike ioyeth the heart, forbid it not. Eccli. 40.20. & 32.4.

Pag. 39. §. 26. lin. 1. ITEM IF FRAN­CIS] This was his first sonne, and dyed in childhood. I gather hence that the Au­thor was devoted to S. Francis, considering that none of all his ancestors was called by that name. This §. and the 27. and 28. were noted, as it were left vnperfect, or other wise ordained.

Pag. 41. §. 29. lin. 4. IACTA SVPER DOMINVM, &c.] This was the Authors Motto, or Devize. The §. 30. and 31. were noted as before.

Pag. 44. §. 32. lin. 17. M ^r. FRANCIS DANIELL.] Here, in gratitude, and for conscience sake, I must acknowledge my selfe to haue perpetuall obligation to this my vncle, not only for 6. yeares of my education, but also for his assistance and furtherance to put me into the course and state of life in which I am, and by the grace of God shall and will die.

The §. 33. Goeth noted as before, and where a word is left out in it, lin 21. I suppo­se the Author would haue said, Vniustly, but durst not, considering the dangers of that time.

Pag. 46. §. 34. IN MOST AMPLE MERITE] This §. the Author had him­selfe [Page 157] noted with a hand monstrant, in the margent, which gaue me the first motion of dedicating this worke to whom it is, and ought to be dedicated, as is mentioned in the epistle dedicatorie. Here I cannot but commend and extoll the gratitude of the Author to every man of whom he had at any time receiued a benefit, according to the Apostolicall precept. Coloss. 3.15. Grati estote. Vpon which precept reade S. Bernards sermon, entituled by him: Against the most vile vice of ingratitude. Bern. serm. de diversis, pag. 403. 404. &c. This §. was also noted as the others, 4. lines before the end.

Pag. 47. §. 35. lin. 7. TO VSE TRVTH] 3. Esdras 3. Truth surpasseth, and over­cometh all things, & 4. And all said; great is the truth. David 116. The truth of our Lord remaineth for ever, and 117. Lord, all thy commands, all thy wayes, the beginning of thy words, are all truth. Prou. 26. The de­ceiptful tongue loveth not truth. Zach. 8.16. Everie one speake truth. Matth. 22.16. & Luc. 20.21. Thou teachest the way of God in Truth. & Ioan. 14.6. I am the way, truth, and life. Ephes. 4.25. Laying away lyes, speake truth every one with his neighbour. 2. Cor. 13.8. We cannot any thing against Truth. What more? all the new and old Testament is full of the commendations of [Page 158] truth: and as much in the reprooving of lying, dissimulation, and falshood. Coloss. 3.8. Lay away all Anger, Indignation, Malice, Blasphemie, Foule speech, ly not one to an­other. Idem, Ephes. 4.13. & 1. Pet. 2.1. Laying a [...]ay all malice, and all deceit, and dissimu­lation, and envie and detraction. Et Heb. 12. What desireth the soule more strongly then truth. Aug. tract. 26. in Ioā. No man can long beare a fained person: for feigned things fall soone to their owne nature. Things that are borne vp by truth arise from solid ground and by time proceed to better and better. Seneca, de clementia, lib. 1.

§. 35. lin. 15. PLEASE GOOD MEN] Paul. ad Gal. 10. If yet I should please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. Know this most certainly, that no man can please God and wicked men, your brotherhood therfore make account that so much more it hath pleased Almightie God, as it know­eth it selfe to haue displeased perverse men. Greg. l. 8. Regist Indict. 3. c. 36. Principibus pla­cuisse viris non infima laus est.

Pag. 47. §. 36. lin. 1. DELIGHT NOT IN RIBAWDRIE] Apost. ad Ephes. 5.3. Fornication and all māner of vncleannesse, or avarice, let it not be so much as named amongst you: or filthinesse, or foolish talke, or scurrilitie, which doe not appertaine to [Page 159] the purpose: but rather thanksgiving. Speak no baudie thing, for by little and little shame with words is shaken off. Senec l. de moribus. Matth. 12.34. From the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Idem, Luc. 6.45.

Pag. 48. §. 37. MAKE CHOICE OF HVMILITIE] Prou. 15.33. Before glo­rie goeth humilitie. And 29.23. The pride of a man shall humble him: and the hum­ble of spirit shall attaine glorie, & 13.10. Among the proude are alwaies contentiōs. And 15.25. The house of the Proude our Lord will overthrow. Deut. 17.12. The proude that will not obey the Priest or Iudge, let him die. Prou. 16.18. Before a fall goeth pride and before a ruine, loftinesse of spirit. Pride is not greatnesse, but a swelling, § that that swelleth seemeth great, but is not sound. Aug. serm. 26. de temp. So great is the vtilitie of human humilitie, as by his owne example the divine sublimitie would cōmend it (and that most of all appeared in the washing of Iudas the traitours feet.) For Proude man had for ever beene lost, vnlesse humble God had sought him out. Aug. tract. 55. in Ioann. Behould O man! what God is be­come for thee. Acknowledge at last the doctrine of humilitie, even before thy Doctour speake. Thou wert once in Pa­radice so eloquent, as to every living soule [Page 160] thou couldest giue a name. And for thee thy creator, loe, lyeth an infant in a manger and calleth not so much as his owne mo­ther by her name. Thou, in the most spa­cious orchard of fruitfull wood diddest loose thy selfe, neglecting obedience. He obeying came mortall into the wide world; that dying he might seeke the dead. Thou being man wouldest become God, that thou mightest perish: he being God would become mā to find out what had perished. Humane pride did so much depresse thee, as nothing but the divine grace could sub­levate thee. Aug. Tom. 10. serm. 25. de temp. in medio.

Those that of our Lord IESVS CHRIST haue learned to be milde and humble of heart, doe profit more in considering and praying, then in reading and hearing. Aug. Epist. 112. He that without humilitie doth good works, carrieth dust in the wind. Aug. serm. 70. ad fratres in eremo.

There is no other way that leadeth vnto life then humilitie, which is by him defen­ded, that, as God, seeth our footsteps, and the same is the first humilitie, the second humilitie, the third humilitie, and as often as thou shouldest aske me I would say the same thing; not because there be not other precepts to be said: but because vnlesse [Page 161] humilitie doe goe before, and waite vpon, and fellow all things that we doe, both the things proposed vs to looke into, and things apposed vs to sticke vnto, and things im­posed vs to represse vs: when we now re­ioyce of any good thing done: Pride wrests it all out of our hands. Aug. epist. 57.

A very mervailous thing it is, when hu­militie of manners raigneth in the hearts of the sublime. Whence yee may thinke that all the potent, when they sauour of humili­tie, they attaine the top of vertue, estrāged, and set, as it were, a farre off, and rightly by this vertue they eftsoones please our Lord: because they humbly offer him that sacri­fice which mightie and potent men can hardly get. It is a most subtile art of living to hould height, and depresse glorie; to be in power, and not know that we be power­full; by bestowing of good things, to know ones selfe to be potent, and in repaying of hurt, to be ignorant of all the value of power. Rightly therfore of such is said, Iob 36.5. God casteth not away the potent, being himselfe also potent: For he desireth to imitate God who administreth the height of power more busily in other mens profits then elevated in his owne prayses: who being put over others, desireth to pro­fit them, and not to be aboue them. The [Page 162] swelling of loftinesse is a crime, the order of power none. Power God giveth, but the elation of power, the malice of our mind hath invented. Let vs take away that which of our owne we brought, and the things are good which of Gods gift we possesse. Creg. lib. 26. Moral. c. 24.

Pag. 48. §. 38. ENTERTAINE ALL MEN] Leviticus 19.31. Before the hoarie headed arise, and honour the pre­sence of the old man. Prou. 22.2. The rich and poore God made them both.

Pag. 48. §. 39. lin. 3. AMONG WISE MEN] Prou. 1. The wise man hearing wil [...] become wiser. 3. Reg. 10.8. Blessed are thy servants that stand before thy face, alwaie [...] hearing thy wisedome. Prou. 10.13. In the wise mans lippes is wisedome found, & 11▪ 2. Wher humilitie is, there is wisedome.

Lin. 6. SVCH SHALL THEY BE IVDGED TO BE) Psalm. 17. With the holy thou shalt be holy: and with the man that is innocent thou shalt be innocent▪ With the Elect thou shalt be elected; and with the perverse perverted.

Pag. 49. §. 40. BE NOT RASH] Define no doubts, but hould thy sentence in suspence: Affirme nothing without ex­perience; for everie thing that hath appa­rence of truth is not forthwith true; as also [Page 163] what at first did seeme incredible is not still false. Truth sometimes retaineth the face of a lye, and a lye is hid vnder colour of truth. Seneca, de 4. virtutibus. And againe: Let nothing be suddaine to thee but looke into all things before hand; for he that is prudent, saith not, I never thought that this would haue beene, because he doubteth not, but expecteth; nor doth he suspect, but taketh heed. Enquire the cause of every deed, and when thou hast found the be­ginning, thou shalt thinke vpon the end.

Betweene an angry, and a mad man, there is but one dayes difference; the one is ever mad, the other every day angrie. Sene­ca, lib. de moribus.

Pag. 49. §. 41. VSE FEW WORDS] Proverb. 10.19. In much sgeech sinne will not be wanting: and he that keepeth his lippes, shall be vnderstanding. As chozen silver, is the iust mans tongue.

Let thy opinions be iudgements, vaga­bond cogitations and like to dreames re­ceiue not; in which if thy mind take de­light, when thou hast done and disposed of all, thou remainest sad: but let thy cogita­tion be stable and certaine, whether it de­liberate, search out, or contemplate, let it not depart from truth. Let not thy speech [Page 164] be vaine, but let it either persuade, or moue, or comfort, or command. Praise sparingly, dispraise more sparingly, for overmuch praise is as reprehensible as immoderate dispraise; that, is suspected of flatterie; this, of evill nature, or malignitie. Seneca, lib. de 4. virtutibus.

Loue silence, where much speech is, there is oftentimes lying; where lying, there is sinne. The speech sheweth what the man is. In the mouth of the Priest or Religious let never any word be, wherin the name of Christ soundeth not. Tom. 4. epist. Euseb. ad Damas. de morte Hieronymi, in medio.

WITH DISCRETION] Coloss. 4.6. Your speech alwaies gracious, with a graine of salt: that you may know how to answere every man.

Yong man, speake when there is need of thee; if thou be twice asked, let thine an­swer haue a head. Ecclesiastic. 32.9. Ac­cording to the septuagint: Bring thy answer to a briefe sūme or answere cōpendiously.

Vse thy eares ofter then thy tongue, and whatsoever thou art to say, say to thy selfe before thou say it to others. Seneca, lib. de moribus.

§. 42. BE NOT CVRIOVS] No­thing is sweeter to men, then to speake o [...] other mens things, and to haue care of [Page 165] other mens matters, chiefly if it chance that they be prevented with loue or hatred towards some: from whom alwaies the truth is hidden, or, at least obscured. Greg. Naz. in Apolog.

Only obserue thy selfe, Deut. 4.9. 1. Cor. 10.11. Matt. 7.3. and keepe thy soule very vvarily. He that thinketh him­selfe to stand, let him looke he doe not fall. What seest thou a mote in thy brothers eye, and doest not see the beame in thine owne eye?

O man that iudgest, thou art inexcusable, Rom. 2. for in iudging another thou condemnest thy selfe, doing the same things that thou spendest thy iudgement vpon.

§. 43. BE SECRET AND SILENT] Prou. 25.9. Reveale not the secret of an­other. Id. 31. [...]. Isaias 24.16. My secret to my selfe, my secret to my selfe. Ec­clesiasticus, 32.5. Where others hearken, powre not out speech, and vvith importu­nitie haue not a vvill to seeme vvise.

Pag. 50. §. 44. lin. 3. LOOKE TO YOVR CALLING] Ecclesiastic. 3.22. Seeke not things aboue thee. Rom. 11.20. Be not over­vvise, but feare.

Lin. 4. LIVE IN OBEDIENCE] Ephes. 6. Col. 3, Children obey your Parents; Servants obey your Lors, and maisters. Heb. 13. Obey those that are put over yee. [Page 166] Tit. 3.1. Admonish them to be subiect to their Princes and superiour powers, to obey their word, &c.

4. Reg. 9 1. Par. 11. & 28. Prou. 21 Tob. 12.6. 1. Pet. 2.13. & 17LEAVE KINGS AND THEIR CAVSES TO GOD] They be supreme governours vnder God. The Annoynted of God. The elected of God. Their hearts are in the hand of God, and he directeth th [...]ir counsell. To hide the mysterie of the King is good: and to be subiect to him and honour him is commanded.

Prou. 16 14.Lin. 8. HATH DESTROYED] The Kings anger is the messenger of death, and a wise man will appease it. In the light of the Kings face is life: and his good will is like a cloude of the evening raine.

Page 50. §. 45. VSE TEMPERANCE] S. Aug. Tom. 1, l. 1. de lib. Arbit. c. 13. Tempe­rance is an affection brideling and keeping in the appetite from those things that are coveted with foule desire. Et de morib. eccle­siae Cath. lib. 1. c. 15. Temperance is loue, yeel­ding it selfe entire to that is loved. Forti­tude is loue, easily tolerating all things for that is loved. Iustice is loue, serving the beloved onely, and therfore rightly bea­ring rule. Prudence is loue, wisely selecting the things by which it is holpen, from those by which it is hindered. But this is not the loue of whosoever, but of God, that is, of [Page 167] the chiefest good, of the chiefest wisedome, of the chiefest cōcord: therfore you may de­fine it so, & say: temperance is loue keeping it selfe entire and vncorrupt to God, &c. And Tom. 4. l. 1.83. Q. 31. Temperance is a firme and moderate rule of reason, over lust and other, not right motions of the minde. The parts therof are continence, clemēcie, and modestie. Continence, by which con­cupiscence, by the governemēt of counsel, is ruled. Clemencie, by which minds rashly provoked and stirred vp to hatred of any one, are by gentlenesse retained. Modestie, by which honest shame getteth cleere and stable authority. And Q. 61. Prudence is knowledge of things to be desired and to be shunned. Temperance, the refraining of concupiscence from those things that doe temporally delight, Fortitude is a firmitie of the mind against those things that tempo­rally molest vs. Iustice, which is diffused through them all, is the loue of God and our neighbour.

BEWARE OF DRVNKENNESSE] As a thing tumultuous, Prou. 20 & 31. and that can keepe no secret forbidden by the Apostle. Rom. 13. & Gal. 5. With drunkennesse is alwaies ioyned luxurie. Hieron. l. 3. in Ep. ad Gal. c. 5. I will never beleeue that the Drunkard is chast. Hieron. in c. 1. Ep. ad Titum, pag. 246.

[Page 168] Eccles. 9.25. Eccle. 5.§. 46. lin. 2. THE RASH MAN] Is odious in his vvord. Speake nothing rashly, nor be hasty to bring forth thy word before God, for God is in heaven and thou vpon earth, therfore let thy vvords be few: for as sleepe comes in multitude of businesse, so the voice of the foole in multitude of vvords.

Pag. 51, §. 47. BE CONSTANT] Act. 23.11. Sap. 5.1. The iust shall stand with great constancie. A good man, vvhat he thinketh he may honestly doe: although it be laborious, he vvill doe it: although it be losse to him, he vvill doe it: although it be perillous, he vvill doe it: And againe, that vvhich is dishonest, he vvill not doe it, al­though it bring in money, although it bring pleasure, although it bring power. From the honest he vvill by nothing be deterred: to the dishonest he vvill by no hopes be in­vited. Seneca, lib. 10. epist. 77. in medio. Ho­race. Iustum & tenacem propositi virum, &c. Impauidum ferient ruinae.

Iacob. 1.8. The man of two minds is vn­constant in all his waies.

Sap. 4.12. The inconstancie of concupis­cence, perverteth even the mind that is without malice.

Eccl. 6. & 9. & 12.FAST IN FRIENDSHIP] There is a friend only at table, a table fellow, but [Page 169] doe not thou forsake an old friend. A new friend is like new wine. A friend cannot be knowne in good, but in malice you shall know him, &c.

Pag. 51. §. 48. VSE PATIENCE, Psal. 9. Prou. 19 Luc. 21. Iacob. 1] The Poores patience will not be lost in the end. A mans doctrine is knowne by hi [...] pa­tience. In your patience you shall possesse your soules. It hath a perfect worke: The armes of the iust are by giving vvay to o­vercome. Amb. lib. 1. off. cap. 5. Tom. 1.

If any adversitie befall thee, and it seeme grievous and bitter to thee, beare it so as thou thinke nothing to haue befallen thee but according to nature when thou readest naked was I borne, naked shall I go hence, what our Lord gaue our Lord hath taken away: and he had lost both goods and chil­dren, and thou shalt in all keepe the person of a wise and iust man, as he kept that said: As it pleased our Lord so is it done, be the name of our Lord blessed, &c. Amb. lib. 1. off. cap. 38.

No man can be blessed, no man becometh a citizen of heaven, no man is constituted the friend of God, that among evils is not found patient. Aug. serm. 32. ad fratres.

Humane impatience will not haue the patience of God. We wretches that will haue God to be patient, and ar [...] our selves [Page 170] impatient with our enemies. If at any time we sinne, we desire God should be patient, if another sinne against vs, we will not that God haue patience with him. Hieron. in Psalm. 93. ad, vsquequo Domine peccatores gloriabuntur. Tom. 8.

FORBEARE REVENGE] That it is peculiar to God, see Deut. 32. & 2. Reg. 22. Psal. 17. & 139. & 149. & Rom. 12. Leaue the revenge to me and I will repay them. Et Ezech 9. Eccl. 35. Esaias 1. &c.

If thou be Magnanimous, thou wilt ne­ver thinke thou hast iniurie done thee: thou wilt say of thine enemie, he hath not hurt me, but had a mind to hurt me: and when thou seest him in thy power, thou shalt esteeme it sufficient revenge, to haue beene able to revenge. Know that it is ho­nest and a great kind of revenge to for­giue. Seneca, de 4. virtutib. l. 1. & de Clementia lib. 2. Clemencie is a temperance of ones mind in the power of Revenge, or, lenitie of the superiour to the inferiour in consti­tuting punishment, and crueltie is fierce­nesse of mind in exacting of Punishment. He is better that contemneth an iniurie then that grieveth at it: for he that contem­neth it, despiseth it, as if he felt it not: but he that grieveth at it, is vexed with it, as if [Page 171] he felt it. Amb. lib. 1. off. c. 6. Tom. 1. Magnarum virium est negligere laedentem.

§. 49. Seneca, lib. de moribus BE NOT TOO LIBERALL] Liberalitie is the meane betweene avarice & prodigalitie, and consequently a vertue: which alwaies holdeth the meane, flying the extreames of too much, ever a vice.

To haue, and giue to others, is an argu­ment of a Welthie man. Basil. hom. 29. de poenitentia.

Avarice in old age, is like a monster; for what greater follie is there, then as the way groweth shorter, to encrease the viaticum. Seneca, lib. de moribus.

These things withdraw from right: Ho­nours, Riches, Power, and the like, which in the opinion of men are deare; in price vile. Seneca, lib. de Paupertate. Vide Chrysost. Tom. 5. hom. 15. ad Antioch.

All vices wax old with a man, only ava­rice waxeth yong. Aug. serm. 48. ad frat. in eremo.

§. 50. lin. 3. BE THANKE­FVLL FOR EVERY COVRTE­SIE] Not to render thankes for benefits is foule, and so holden with all men; ther­fore of the vngratefull even the vngratefull doe complaine; when notwithstanding, this same that displeaseth all, sticketh to [Page 172] all, and so farre men goe on the contrarie side as some are to vs most odious not only after benefits, but even for benefits. He is vngratefull that denyeth the benefit he hath received: he is vngratefull that dissem­bleth it, he is vngratefull that repayeth it not, he is most vngratefull that forgetteth it. Seneca lib. 3. de beneficijs.

Some, when a gift is sent them, doe vn­timely restore another, and say they owe nothing. They are to be reiected: it is a pledge to send presently another gift to him that sent to thee, and extinguish gift with gift. Sometimes being able, I will not re­store a benefit, when I shall detract more from my selfe then helpe another: when he shall receiue no encrease by the receit of that, which restored me would stand me in good steed. He that maketh haste to repay, hath not the minde of a gratefull man, but of a debter. And, to speake briefely, he that desireth to repay too soone, oweth ag [...]inst his will, he that vnwillingly oweth, is vn­gratefull. Seneca lib. 4. de beneficijs.

Lin. 4. LET TIME BREED THE FRIENDS] Thou knowest not how great the price of friendship is, if thou doe not vnderstand that thou givest him much to whom thou givest a friend. A thing not in houses alone, but in ages rare, which is [Page 173] no where more wanting, then where it is most of all beleeved to abound. Seneca l. 6. de benef.

He can not be friend to man, that is vn­faithfull to God. Ambros. l. 3. off. c. 16. & l. 6. epist. 40. True loue is proved by constancie.

Slender friendship is that which follow­eth the friends felicities and riches: such men seeme to me not to loue their friends but themselves. Hieron. in c. 7. Micheae. Tom. 6. pag. 161. & ad Ruffin. Tom. 2. pag. 195.

True friendship must not dissemble what it feeleth. Prosperitie getteth friends: Ad­versitie is the surest proofe of them. Sene­ca, lib. de morib. ante medium.

Pag. 52. §. 51. lin. 3. Rom. 13 WITH DVE REVERENCE] Let every living soule be subiect to higher powers.

When thou sittest to eate with a Prince, Prou. 23. considering consider what is before thy face, and if thou be thyne owne man, set thy knife to thy throate. Eccl. 32 13. In the middest of great men presume not to speake. Where Ancients are speake not much. Rom. 12.10. Rom. 13 7. Preventing one another with honour, giue honour to whom honour is due. In the middest of the bretheren their Ruler shall be had in ho­nour. Eccl. 10 24. Fooles haue decreed to yeeld to no man, nor to regard distinction of persons, or degrees: on such as doe regard the same, [Page 174] they cast the crime of flatterie, or accep­tion of persons: And being great friends of confusion, to beware of pride in their bet­ters, they take no heede of it in themselves: in stead of order, they shew irreverence. S. Bon. spec. discip. c. 6.

Pag. 52. §. 52. RELEEVE ALL THAT ARE DISTRESSED] Iacob. 1.27. Pure and immaculate Religion before God and the Father is this: to visit pupils, orphans, & widdowes in their tribulation, & keepe ones selfe vnspotted from this world. Psal. 40. Blessed is he that hath considera­tion of the poore and needie, our Lord will deliver him in the evill day. Matth. 5.7. Blessed are the mercifull, for they shall ob­taine mercie. Iacob. 13. Iudgement without mercie to him that hath not done mercie.

A FRIEND] Forsake not thy friend, and the friend of thy father. Prou. 27.10.

Pag. 52. §. 53. HAVE CHARITIE WITH ALL MEN] He sheweth vs, with the Apostle. 1. Cor. 12.31. Yet a more ex­cell [...]nt way: For to speake with tongues of men or Angels; to haue the faith that re­moveth mountaines; to feed the poore; to yeeld the bodie to Martyrdome, is of no value without charitie.

The latitude of the commands is chari­tie; because where charitie is, straites are [Page 175] not. Wilt thou not be driuen into straites on earth? dwell in latitude. Whatsoever a man doth to thee he cannot vex thee, be­cause thou louest that which hurteth not. Charitie therfore is not brought into any straites. Augustin. tract. 10. in Epist. Ioan. & Epist. 62. I doe ever owe charitie, which alone being payed holdeth me still debtor. The bestowing of it payeth it, & although it be bestowed, yet is it still owed, because there is no time in which it ought not to be bestowed: and when it is bestowed, it is not lost, but rather in the bestowing is multi­plied, for it is bestowed by having and not by wanting it. As it cannot be bestowed vnlesse it be had, neither can it be had vn­lesse it be bestowed: And when a man be­stoweth it, in the same man it encreaseth, and is so much more gotten as it is ofter be­stowed ............. Charitie therfore is not so bestowed as money; for besides that in bestowing, this is diminished, that encreas­sed, there is betweene them this difference, that to whom wee giue money we are so much the more benevolent as we seeke to receiue nothing againe, but of charitie; he cannot be a true bestower that is not againe a benigne exactour: for money when [...] is re­ceived cometh to him to whom it is given [Page 176] and departeth from him that giveth it; but Charitie, encreaseth, not only in him that exacteth it from whom he loveth, al [...]hough he doe not receiue it of him; but also he from whom he doth receiue it, then be­ginneth to haue it when he yeeldeth it. Wherfore I doe gladly render mutuall Charitie, and willingly receiue it: that which I receiue I doe yet require againe, that which I render I still owe.

Charitie being one and the same thing, if it fully possesse the mind, doth mani­foldly enkindle it to innumerable works. Greg. l. 10. Mor. c. 7.

He that followeth charitie, is humble towards all. And the keeper of peace, pro­voketh none to brawling. Amb. in illud 2. Tim. 2. Iuvenilia desideria fuge, Tom. 5. pag. 415. What thou wilt haue secret, tell it no man, if thou hast not commanded thy selfe silence, how shalt thou hope for it in another. Seneca, lib. 2. de moribus.

Pag. 53. §. 54. EMBRACE CHAS­TITIE] Commended in Iudith 15. & 16. Exhorted, 2. Cor. 6. 1. Tim. 2.3.4. & 5. Chastitie without Charitie is a lampe with­out oyle, take away the oyle and the lampe giveth no light: take away Charitie, and Chastitie pleaseth not. Bernard. Epist. 4 [...]. Chastitie without her compagnions, Fast, [Page 177] and Temperance, soone decayeth, but strengthened with these helps, will easily be crowned. Chrysost. hom. 1. in Psalm. 50. Tom. 1. & de praeparat. advent. Domini. Cha­stitie of bodie alone sufficeth not to the in­tegritie of the heart.

The flesh cannot be corrupted, vnlesse the mind be first corrupted. Amb. ad virg. lap­sam, c. 4. Tom. 1.

Doest thou command continence? Lord, giue that thou commandest, and command what thou wilt. Aug. l. 10. Conf. c. 29.

To liue in flesh, not according to the flesh is not an earthly, but a heavenly life. Whence, in flesh to attaine the Angelicall life, is of more merite then to haue it: for to be an Angell is felicitie; to be a virgin, vir­tue: Whilest the virgin by her owne forces with grace, endeavoreth to obtaine that which the Angell hath by nature. Hieron. ad Paul. & Eustoch. de Assump. B. MARIAE, Tom. 4.

BEWARE OF THE ALLVREMENTS OF THE HARLOT] Her lips are a dropping honniecombe. Prou. 5. The for­nicator sinneth against his owne body. 2. Cor. 6.

Pag. 53. §. 55. lin. 4. CANKER OF VSVRIE] Prohibited. Exod. 22.25. Levit. 25.37. Deut. 23.19. Nehem. 5. Ezech. 18.8. [Page 178] Foenus pecuniae, funus est animae. Vse of money is the soules funerall, and he that by others losse coveteth to be enriched, is worthy to be punished with everlasting want. S. Leo, serm. 6. de ieiunio decimi mensis.

Pag. 53. §. 56. APPLY YOVR SELVES IN COMPANIE] Rom. 12.15. Reioyce with those that are glad, weepe with those that are sad. Seneca, l. de 4. virtuti­bus. Let not thy povertie be vndecent, nor parsimonie vitious, nor simplicitie neglect, nor lenitie languishing, and if thy goods be slender, yet let them not be pinching ..... feare no man more then thy selfe... Haue not scurrility, but gratefull vrbanity: let thy iests be without tooth, thy disports without harme, thy laughter without noyse, thy voice without clamour, thy gate with­out tumult, thy quiet not sluggish; and when others play, doe thou also some good and honest exercise ... Fly flatterie, and be as loth to be praysed of the dishonest, as to be praysed for dishonestie: be glad when thou displeasest the evill, and thinke their evill opinions of thee, thy truest prayse. Feare not bitter, but faire words ... fly vices thy selfe, and of others vices be nei­ther curious searcher, nor bitter reprehen­der, but without reproaching, a correctour; so as with cheerefulnesse thou prevent thy [Page 179] admonition, and giue lightly way to par­don errour: Extoll not, nor deiect thou any ... Be to all benigne, but fond of none: familiar with few, equall towards all ... Be a concealour of thy vertues, as others are of their vices: a contemner of vaine glorie, and no bitter exactor of the good wherwith thou art indued ... Be do­cible, and covetous of wisedome, men when they teach, doe learne; what thou knowest, vvithout arrogancie, impart vvith those that require it, vvhat thou knowest not, vvithout hiding of thy ignorance, pray others to impart it to thee.

Pag, 54. §. 57. lin. 14. BREACH OF THE DEAD MANS WILL] The lawes haue: Let them in all things obey the vvill of the Testatour. If any one vvill doe con­trarie to the will of the testatour; Let him goe without the inheritance. Aug. orat. de 5. haeresib. c. 6. Tom. 6. Careat aeterna haereditate hareticus contraveniens voluntati testamenti IESV.

Pag. 55. lin. 8. TO ARTHVR MY SONNE] This was my name in baptisme, not once mentioned in all the testament before: whence it is manifest that these fragments were not written at the same time with the Testament, but added by the [Page 180] author after 1590. the yeare that first bere­ved me of a yeares life.