The Christians Zodiac or TWELVE Signs of Predestination unto Life everlasting. Written in Latin by jeremy Drexelius LONDON Printed for William wilson Anno Dom: 1647 engraved title page יהוה within a triangle within a sun column with banners Inward Light Frequēti● Sacram Patience tribulation ●●mes deeds Love of enemies propensed over will to column with banners Apreporatio to Death Renouncei● Worldly things Frequenting Sermons Self Contempt Detestation of Sins past Moderation of our passion● The Author to the READER. I Present thee here (pious Reader) with 12 signs of Divine Predestination, collected at spare hours out of the sacred Scriptures and holy Fathers; which for the help of memory bear each one their Device or Impres in the ●ront of them. This Glass, ●f thou shalt take daily into ●hy hands, to dress thyself ●herein, and diligently ●ark how many of these ●ignes thou discoverest in thyself; whether all, or none, one, or but a few, thou wilt be able (if thou alterest not thy course) to give a near conjecture in whether book thy name be written, either of Life, or Death: which books are for the present shut up, not to be opened, till the last General day; when those, who shall not be found recorded in the book of Life, shall be cast into the dreadful lake of Fire: whereas those, whose names are registered in Heaven, shall participate of a joy, which neither knows a Measure nor an End. Series Signorum. I. 1. THE first sign of Pred stination, is An internal light; which bears for its Device, a burning Taper. The Motto is: Thy Word is a Lantern to my feet, and a light unto my paths, Psal. 119. II. 2. A readiness to die. The Device, A dead man's Scull. The Motto: I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. Phil. 1. III. 3. Frequentation of Sacraments. Device, The sacred Eucharist: The Motto: He that eateth of this bread shall not die. Joh. 6. iv 4. Contempt of worldly things. The Device, A bare Altar despoiled of all its ornaments. The Motto is: But what things were gain ●o me, those I counted loss for Christ. Ph l 3.7. V 5. Patience in the midst of long affliction. The Device, A Rose tree. The Motto: You are blessed who weep now, for you shall laugh Luke 6. VI 6. Frequenting of Sermons. Device, A Fig tree. The Word is: The wise man shall increase his wisdom by hearing. Pro. 1. VII. 7. Alms deeds, bestowed with a tender affection. The Device, A Balsam tree. The Motto: God hath committed the care of his neighbour to every one. Eccl. 17. VIII. 8. Self contempt. The Impres, The Cypress tree. The Motto: Unless you become as little infants, you shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven. Mat. 18. IX. 9 Love of our enemies. The Device, Two thwarted Lances, combined with an Olive wreath, The Motto: be not vanquished by evil; but by good conquer evil. Rom. 12. X. 10. Detestation of our passed sins. The Device, A rod and Scourge. The Motto: I will come presently to thee, and remove thy candlestick out of its place, unless thou do repent. Apoc. 2. XI. 11. Propension of ou● will o Good. The Device An Anchor. The Motto: I have inclined my heart to fulfil thy statutes for ever. Psal. 119. XII. 12. Moderation of our passions, or the victory of temptations. The Device, A strung Lute. The Motto: Thy desire shall be subject unto thee, and thou shalt master it. Gen. 3. The Coronides of the Zodiac, Is a short discourse of the scarcity of the Predestinate. intaglio etching of burning candle Emblem j Inward Light Thy Word is a Candle unto my feet & a Light unto my paths. Psalm 119 V 105 The Christian Zodiac. The first Sign, of Predestination, Is a Burning Taper. The Motto: Thy word is a Lantern to my feet, and a light unto my paths. Psal. 119, BY the burning Taper is set forth that internal Light, Psal. 119. which so fare forth shows us Gods benefits, the world's vanity, life's shortness, sins filthiness, the fading shadows of all pleasures; that, whosoever gins to see them, breathes after heaven, and cries with the Kingly Prophet, Psal. 41. My soul thirsteth for the strong God, for the living God: When shall I come and appear before the presence of God? Psal. 4, & 88 There be many that say, who will show us any good? Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us: and in this light of thy countenance will we walk. 1. A Master to teach us, there is within us, the light of Reason; which God of his bounty, deriving from his own countenance, hath placed in the better part of man: and this light doth not only distinguish us from beasts, but makes us like unto God. This light imprinted in man's understanding, is an indelible Sermon, which teacheth us, not to do that to another, which we would not have done to ourselves; inasmuch as we can hope for from another, none otherwise than ourselves have done to others W th' what measure ye meet, it shall be meted to you again. Luke. 6. Hence it is, that we must neither violently nor deceitfully impair either the goods of others, or their chastity. This light shows us all the creatures, and (though darkly) G●d himself the ●reator, having all things perfect, most blessed, eternal, sufficient for himself and all others, the beginning, middle and end, which dwells in the light that none can approach unto; in his works and gifts, no less amiable than powerful, whose Will and Work are the same: he w●ich is all mercy and goodness; yet an holy, severe, incorrupt judge, and not to be flattered: He which is all justice, whose shape and greatness is beyond expression; whose like n ither may we see, nor conceive that at any ti●e we shall see. All pleasant and beautiful things compared with him, be no better than mere darkness, and a poor shadow; which lovely transcendent beauty delights in nothing more than to be beloved. This light manifests unto us the wor●s of our Creator, the interchangeable rule of day and night, the star-bright eye of the Heaven's Majesty, the long journeys of Sun and Moon, earth's fruitful womb, the spacious compassings of Rivers, the dreadful Lordship of the Sea, the several kinds of living creatures, and the increase of fruits. All which, God made without hands, or any labour: only he willed that they should be made, and they were made. Also this light of Reason and Faith shows man's chiefest happiness to consist in this, if as much as is possible he become like his Maker: for like unto like is ever acceptable: and surely no livelier image is there than that which is most like him whose image it is. But this shall be not here, but in another place, in another world, in the land of ●he living. Nondum apparuit quid erimus, etc. It is not as yet apparent (s i'th' St. John what we shall be, john 2. only this we know, that when he appears, we shall become l●ke unto him, in that we shall behold him truly as he is. From the thought of this, seconded by refulgent light, the will conceives an incredible content, hope raiseth up its self to a most eminent height, and the affection mounts up, all inflamed unto Almighty God; for what can be more ravishing sweet unto a soul, than to consider its self, the lively Image of so infinite a beauty, and have the assurance that it is most dear to its resemblance. But this light is not so bountiful of its rays to every one, for which reason, the royal Prophet, who well knew by experience, that all were not participant of this consolation, doth congratulate with himself, Psal. 88 for so high a prerogative, Signatum est super nos lumen vultus tui Domine. O Lord (saith he) the light of thy countenance is impressed on us, thou hast given me joy in my heart, not in the hearts of others, but in mine own, and of such only (O thou sovereign goodness) whom thou hast predestinated to eternal life. For this we will gladly walk in this light of thy countenance, and rejoice in thy Name all the day long, for being delivered out of darkness, and rendered capable of understanding every day more and more of thy holy will, and by a dearer and straighter bond of alliance united unto thee. Baruch. 4. Beati sumus o Israël, etc. O Israel how blessed are we (saith the Prophet) to have those things manifested unto us, which are pleasing to Almighty God? And Job when all both in heaven and earth did seem to conspire against him, yet remembering of this light, was not a little comforted. Splendebat lucerna eius super caput meum, job. 29. &c His lamp (saith he) did shine over my head, and I did walk in darkness by the light thereof: Wherefore you (saith the Son of Syrac) who fear the Lord, Eccl. 4. love him, and your hearts shall be enlightened. Lux vestra in tenebris orietur, Isay. 5. etc. Tour light shall shine forth in darkness, and our Lord shall bestow upon you a perpetual rest, and r plenish your Souls with splendours. Whereas if you once separate yourselves from God, you will be involved in Egyptian darkness on every side: Name error et tenebrae peccatoribus concreatae sunt: for error and darkness are jointly created with wicked men. The 2. Paragraph. TAlia dixerunt in inferno high, qui peccaverunt. Wis. 5. This was the Discourse of sinners in hell, and tell me what was their discourse, O holy Spirit? for it will appear no vain nor idle curiosity to be inquisitive what the damned say in hell, and for us who are so covetous of news, what is done in this King's Palace, in this Prince's Court, to hear what is done in hell, if it be not ungrateful, will much less be unprofitable, especially since these are no uncertain humours, such as commonly pass currant in reporting news; What therefore are the discourses of the damned? Wis. 5. Ergo er avimus, a●v● â veritatis, & justitiae lumen non luxit nobis. Therefore we have erred (say they) from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness hath not shined upon us. Therefore we have erred: This is the consequence, but where is the antecedent to it? Venite & fruamur bonis, quae sunt; vino precioso, & anguento nos impleamus, & ne praetereat nos flos temporis, coronemus nos Rosis, antequam marcescant; nullum pratum sit, quod non pertranseat luxuria nostra. Come (say they) and let us enjoy those commodities which are; let us take our fill of precious wine and sweet perfumes, and let us not lose the flower of our time, let us crown ourselves with Roses before they fade away, let no meadow he untraversed by our riotousness. What could Kine or Oxen do more, than invite one another in this manner unto the flowery Meadows? And this is the antecedence they put in the world, unto the consequence, which they make in hell. What miserable Logic is this? Where they made their antecedence, there they should have added the consequence, and when they said, come let us enjoy those commodities which are, they ought instantly to have concluded: Therefore we have erred, since either we must repent in this life, or burn for it in the next; this is a place to repent ourselves of our sins, and not to make no end of sinning, we are rather now to think of Crosses than delights, here we are put to fight, we must expect to triumph in another place. Therefore you have erred, it is a good, and true consequence; but all t●o late, and the light of righteousness hath not shined upon you, and what is this light of righteousness? if it be righteousness, as Lawyers affirm, to afford every one his right, then is it likewise a part of righteousness. to set a right value and esteem on things, whence that light of our Soul, whereby we d scerne what account we are to make of them, is deservedly styled the light of righteousness; our understanding, and this is that which the damned so lament they were deprived of. To judge of pleasant wines, to crown their heads with choice garlands, to please their palates with exquisite fare, and pursue their pleasure through every pleasant gro●●, none were more exactly skilled than they; but that all these pleasures were no ways to be preferred unto eternal ones, they wilfully choose for to be ignorant of. They were so addicted to their vain, and ignominious pastimes, as all the joys of the blessed seemed of small moment, b●t compared to them, they affected so passionately their delicious Wines, their Banquets, Roses, and Voluptuousness, that they ever dared to contemn the felicity of heaven, and made no account of all eternity in comprison of that liberty of sinning which they had; but this was a most unjust esteem of things, as the light of understanding evidently declares, which teaches us to prize e ernity at so high a rate as for its sake alone to despise all other things. Therefore you have erred, the event doth plainly show it, and the light of Righteousness hath not shone upon you, now it is too apparent. Many there are, who whilst they obstinately follow their depraved ways, refuse utterly to learn what it is to go aright, but are content to be so miss by their wilful and ingrateful ignorance: and such as these were you, O ye miserable wretches, wherefore now cry, and howl, for you are like everlastingly to sing no other note, but ergo erravimus, therefore we have erred, therefore the light of righteousness hath not shined upon us. This is the ditty of the damned souls, this is the mournful song they shall sigh for●h for all eternity. The 3. Paragraph. O Christians, therefore take heed that you deprive not yourselves of this same heavenly light, Baruc. 1. May our Lord bestow upon us his virtue, and enlighten our eyes, for by the least glimpse of this light of understanding, it will be no hard matter to apprehend, that we are not to make more account of men than God; of riches then of conscience, nor to set more by humane favour, than divine; that no pleasure whatsoever is to be preferred to heaven, nor these instable things unto eternal ones. And truly says St. chrysostom. He can find nothing on earth to bestow his affection on, who hath but once savoured of celestial things. This light of understanding our good God was pleased should shine most plentifully on St Augustine's soul, when being advised says he) to make reflection on myself, I entered into the inmost of all myself, and there saw with such an eye as my soul afforded me, the invariable light of God, which whosoever knows, doth know eternity, and I perceived myself to be so fare estranged from thee, in an uncouth land; and not much unlike to this light of understanding, was that light of devotion, of which St Bernard speaketh. Beseech for thyself, (says he) the light of devotion, a bright Sunny-day, together with a Sabbath and repose of mind, where like on old soldier privileged with rest, for his long service, thou mayst pass over all the labours of thy life, without any labour at all, in running with a dilated heart the way of the Commandments of God, whence it will arrive, that what at first thou underwentest with force and bitterness of mind, thou shalt afterwards perform with much sweetness and consol●t on; to which likewise the royal Psalmist invites us, where he says, Accedite ad eum, & illuminamini. Taste and behold the sweetness of our Lord. And this is he delightful light of heart, that flame burning with the very spirit of pleasure, which God makes us every day more and more partakers of, and with proportion to this light enkindled in our bosoms: God, who is incapable of all augmentation, and and every way immense, doth yet after a wondrous manner receive increase himself. intaglio etching of skull Emblem II. A preparation to death I am in a Strait betwixt two having a Desire to departed & to be with Christ. Phillip 1. v. 23. The second Sign Of Predestination, IS a readiness to die, which is signified by a dead man's Sc●ll, with these words,; Co●retor e ducbus desiderioum habens dissolvi, & esse cum Christo; Phil. 1. I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. Et vos similes estote hominibus expectántibus Dominum suum, etc. and be you (says our Saviour) like to men awaiting their Lord at his return from some Nuptial feast, that when he comes and knocks, they may strait ways open unto him. Then says St G●egorie, it is that our Lord doth knock, when by visiting us with any grievous sickness, he de●ounceth unto us that death is near at hand, and then we readily open unto him, when we entertain his summons with a friendly welcome: That guilty person makes small haste to o●en the Judge the door, who dares not issue out of his body's prison to meet with him, neither can be with any security behold his countenance whom he knows he hath affronted in such unworthy manner, whereas he, whom his hopes and actions have rendered secure, will presently open unto him when he knocks, he will be glad, and take it for an honour that he calls him, and be cheerful in the midst of tears, in consideration of his future recompense. Phil. 1. Why then do we not desire (with the Apostl) to be dissolved and be with Christ, seeing it is every ways better, than to ●ive here prolonging of our woeful banishment. It is impossible that he should die ill, who hath lived well, Psal. 119. neither on the contrary that he should die well, who hath lived ill, and what is our li●e, which we are so fearful to be deprived of, but a scene of mockeries, a sea of miseries, where, in what ship soever we embark ourselves, whether decked with gold, silver, and precious stones, or but simple wood, all's one, there is no avoiding of the swelling wa●es, of being often dashed against the opposite rocks, and of●ner grounded on perilous flats and shoals. Happy ●s he who hath passed this dangerous sea, happy he who is safely landed in the haven, and hat● no more reason to complain, who chances ●o die before he is well struck in year's, than one for coming too soon to his journeys' end. ●hy then should we fear death which is but the end of our labours, the beginning of our recompense? It is the judgement of God upon all flesh, which none in former ages could ever avoid, nor ever will in any ensuing times, all must follow as many as went before, and we are all borne on this condition, for to tend thither where every thing must go ●eath is the end of all, to many a remedy, and every good man's wish, as being to godly men, no other than a deliverance from all pain and grief, and the utmost bound beyond which no harm of theirs can advance a pace. What madness then were it in us, to oppose ourselves to such an universal decree of Almighty Gods, to refuse to pay a tribute, that is duly exacted of every one, and pretend to an exemption that is granted to none? How much more sublime is the Christian Theology, which teacheth us to make life the subject of our patience, and death of our desires. Solin de mirab. mundi. The Swan if we wil● believe Solinus, lives ever groaning and sorrowful, and only sings, and rejoices upon the point of death, and so it becometh the godly to do, who are to departed to the fruition of an endless joy. So did that white aged swan holy Simeon, welcome his approaching death with this melodious song, Nunc dimittis etc. Lord, now lettest thou thy servant departed in peace: and why then should we lament when this poor cottage of ours doth fall to ruin, as if we were ignorant that when this house of earth, our habitation here, decays, God will prepare us a better one in heaven, a house not made by hands, but an everlasting one. The first Paragraph. Whosoever lies in a hard, and painful bed, makes little difficulty to rise at any time, only they seek excuses and delays, who lie lazing in their softest down, and are unwilling to forgo their warmer nests. Is thy life irksome to thee? I trust than thou wilt not be sorry to pass to a better one; hast thou thy hearts content? in my opinion than it is high time for thee to close up thy days, before thy prosperity overwhelm thee (as it hath many more) with some disastrous ruin at the last: Wherefore (says Tertullian) we are no ways to fear that which secureth us from all other fears. God delivers that man from a long torment, to whom he allows but a short term of life. Which con●●deration made the holy Martyr Saint Cyprian, when the Emperor Valerian pronounced this sentence against him: We command that Thracius Cyprian be executed by the sword; to lift up his hands and eyes to heaven, and cheerfully answer, God be ever praised, Lib. de bono mortis. who vouchsafeth to deliver me from the fetters of this body of mine. St. Amb●ose could not but wonder at some, who when they were to die, would rather expect till they were thrust out by force, than leave their body's prison willingly; and what is there in this world & life, says he, but strife, with anger, lust, and gluttony, and the like? Of the same opinion was St. chrysostom, when he demands: In c. 1. ad Colos. O man, what canst thou say? Thou art invited to a Kingdom, to the Kingdom of the son of God, and art thou so stupid to stand shrugging at it like a lazy sluggard, and doubt whether thou shouldst accept of it or no? If thou wert daily to expose thyself for such a fortune to a thousand deaths, oughtest thou not to encounter with them all? And whilst there is nothi g, thou wouldst not attempt to gain some petty Princedom on the earth, wilt thou n●t outdare a thousand swords, wilt thou not leap into the fi●e, to become a joynt-inheritor with the only Son of God? nay out of a too inordinate love unto this body of thine, thou dost even lament and weep ●or to be t●ken hence, and clingst un●o the poor commodities of this present life; can it be that death should appear unto thee such a ●orrid thing? Without doubt th' negligence, and pleasure thou livest in is the cause thereof, for those who live in misery, desire nothing more than to be freed from the thrall of living, and fly away to rest. Me thinks we can be compared o nothing more fitly than to birds, sluggish young ones, who by their good wills would never leave their nests, and yet the longer they abide in them, the more faint and unwieldy they become, and with good reason I compare this present life to such a nest, whose best materials are straw, and dust, for show ●re your most magnificent Palaces, and even those Courts of Princes which shine the brightest with burnished gold, and precious stones, and I will account them nothing superior to the swallows nest, s●nce at the first approach of winter you shall behold them all come dropping down. Even so (S. Chrisom thou golden Orator) even so it is, at last they must all fall indeed, and we for company, and for the most part they are the safest who get the soon down. In w●ich regard the wise man congratulates with the Just, that he was ravished away before malice had infected his understanding, and the Angels so sharply reprehended him who shown such unwillingness to die: You are afeard to suffer (said he) and will not departed, what shall I do with you? He hath no faith of the future resurrection, who makes no speed to a better life. If our house threatened us with ruin, should we not all avoid it presently? if our Ship in the midst of a stormy Sea, should be in danger of making wrack, would not our longing wishes be all set on land? In this world we hear the fearful cracks of ruins every where, the dreadful roaring of Storms and tempests on every side, and why then do we not seek to make for land? Why do we not retire ourselves unto our heavenly Father for security, where all our dear friends expect our coming, secure of their own safety, solicitous of ours? O happy dead who die in our Lord, in that they rest in his bosom as if they died, and in that delightful slumber do die no otherwise, than if they went to rest. So St. Steven in the midst of such a violent shower of Stones, Acts 7. of such a noise and murmur of those that stoned him, did notwithstanding fall asleep in our Lord, as the Scripture testifieth. john 11. The like our Saviour himself affirming of Lazarus, whom he loved so well, Lazarus amicus noster dormit; Deut. 34, So Moses the holy servant of Almighty God at his appointment died, and even as a tender mother kisses her child that's sleeping in her arms, and with dear embraces lays him down to rest, so there wants not some who affirm that passage of Scripture to bear such a sense as if God should have taken Lazarus, like a sleeping infant in his arm●s and in midst of his tender kisses, and embracements, laid him down in Abraham's bosom, Psal. 126. as in a bed to rest: for so, cum d●derit dilectis suis somnum, ecce haereditas Domini; when he hath laid his beloved to sleep, beh●ld (he bestows on him) his inheritance; thrice happy are such dead as these, Apoc. 4. of whom the Spirit can say, from henceforth now they rest from their labours, for their works follow them, no otherwise than servants do their Lords, children their Parents, Noble men their Princes, & attend upon them even to the very throne of God. They usher and conduct them to God's supremest Court, where never any attendants under their rank and dignity are admitted in; whosoever then is predestinated to everlasting life, will praise death as the most excellent invention, which nature hath, as knowing that they can arrive unto it by no other way. And such a one who is always prepared to die, will keep himself in appetite by such like Discourses as these. The 2. Paragraph. WHy should I fear to die; 'tis but to go the way which my Fathers went before, nay more, the common beaten road of every thing: What privilege is th' s, which I alone of all others do pretend unto, when I do shun to die? Had I not better do that willingly, which I must do whether I will or no? since the performance is light of that which is willingly undertaken, and necessity gives place, where our will becomes a party. Rather why should I not embrace that willingly, by benefit of which I shall cease to be mortal, which I have unwillingly been so long, I received my body upon no other condition, than to restore it bacl again, and am to restore it for no other end than to resume it again to my more commodity. I have been detained hitherto from beholding of my God, only by the tardiness of my death, which is but the forerunner of that better life, and that day which so many stand in fear of, as the last of all their life, is but the birthday of an eternal one; and I take it no ways heavily, that the Sun sets upon me here, since I expect the dawning of a light again, which never shall be obscured by any gloomy night. O how gladly shall I embrace that d●y, which shall assign me my habitation, and replant me in Paradise, delivered from hence, and loosened from those bonds which detained me here so long? I am not ignorant that I stand guilty, and convicted of many crimes, but thy mercy, O my God, is an Ocean, and a boundless sea: into which death shall be no readier to precipitate me off of this turf of earth, whereon I stand, than I to commit myself unto the vast bosom of so dear a sea, as shall set a period to all the miseries of my mortal life. O God, that death would mend its pace; it can never come so suddenly, so at unawares, as not to find me ready, and desirous to go to rest; I am not such an enemy of repose to be sor●y when a holy day comes, which may bring with it a cessation from trouble's and afflictions, but will rather rejoice for so good an opportunity, of shutting up this wretched shop of life, fraught with so many and innumerable miseries, to shake off the heavy yoke of death, and fortune, and begin with a day which shall never end in night. O what happy tidings will it be to hear, that my King calls for me out of this prison where I am, and ranks me in a state of higher dignity. Open but the cage unto a bird, and there will be no need to chase it out, but it will fly out of its own accord: Even so I will willingly issue forth into those azure plains, as one who long since have been over cloyed with life. Touching the place, or hour of my death, I am nothing solicitous, let him who made me dispose of me as he ple●se, his will shall be both the rule of life and death to me, neither can I expect any thing of him, who is all goodness, but the best. And is it not in the potter's hands, aswell to frame the vessel on his act ye wheel, as to new mould it, if it seem good unto him? I am a vessel of that great potters making, and what reason have I to complain, if he who made me please to unmake me? or to speak more properly, to make me new again, and render me happy, who was miserable before? Is he pleased to have me live? then I will live as long as it pleases him: Is he pleased that I should die? I I will not desire to have my death respited a moment's sp●ce; both my beginning and ending are wholly depending on his holy will. Wherefore I will not only embrace willingly, but also gladly whatsoever he shall ordain. Mihi vivere Christus est. Phil. 1. & mori lucrum; for unto me to live is Christ; to die is gain. I love thee, O my most amiable God, & desire yet to love thee more ardently: O that my heart might wholly melt away in the flame of such a love, since nothing can make me happy beside thyself. And when and where, O my God, shall I take my flight hence unto thee? I will follow thee, O most loving father, and at nearer distance thou shalt call me, the more readily I will obey thy call. The third Paragraph. THis feeling he hath of death, who desires to be transported unto heaven, and live with Christ, neither is this such an uncouth thing, for as a Physician (says Theoph●lact) when he perceives his patient to have an aversion from the food and physic which he doth prescribe, doth first take an assay of them himself, to encourage his patiented to an appetite; so Christ vouchsafed to taste first of death himself, that Christians might have no horror of dying after him. And why then dear Christian, though thou be of nature never so timorous at the apprehension of death, wilt thou not put on such a resolution, as that which I have set before thine eyes, and with an assured and undaunted mind, burst forth into these exclamations; Psal. 116. Caelicem salutarem accipiam, & nomen Domini invocabo. I will receive the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. I cannot deny but it is a bitter one, yet it is no other than that which my Saviour drunk of unto my health, upon his bloody Cross, and le●● to me to pledge. It is no other than that fatal cup of death, which Christ drank out of his own free election, and all others must drink of inevitable necessity, and why then should I alone refuse it? All whose lives have a beginning must likewise have an end, but to begin a fresh a life again which neve● shall have end. What a vain fear than is this that startles me? what a silly pensiveness that tempts my constancy? Calicem, quem dedit mihi Pater, etc. and shall I not drink of the Chalice which my father hath presented me withal, which Christ himself hath drunk of to me, and filled me out again; am I a mortal man, and shall I not learn to die? Alexander lying once dangerously sick, some of his friends more solicitous than needed for his health, advised him to beware of Philip his Physician, as one who had a design to poison him. The King, the next time the Physician visited him, with a potion he had prepared to administer unto him, did no more but receive the potion in one hand, and reach him out in the other the letter to read, containing the advice which his friend had given him, and whilst he prepared himself, to drink it off, he steadfastly regarded the Physician's face, to note whether in the reading thereof he might discover any signs of guiltiness, but perceiving the innocence of the man, from the constancy of his countenance, without any more delay he drunk it up. In this manner receiving that cup which Christ my only Physician and Saviour hath ordained, and presented me withal, to cast me into a profound, and quiet sleep, I will fasten my eyes upon my Physician whilst I drink it off; I will steadfastly regard the countenance of my crucified Lord, wherein I shall read written in lively Characters the countenance of that infinite love he bears me, and with a constant and unappaled mind will I drink it up: which will confer so much the more of health, the more affectionately I shall welcome it. And thus (dear Christian) death when it arrives, will easily be overcome, if before it arrives, we arm ourselves against the fear of it, by often revolving it in our memories. intaglio etching of an altar set for eucharist Emblem. 3. Frequenting of the Sacrament. The third Sign, Of Predestination, IS the frequent use of the holy Sacrament, which is expressed by the sacred Eucharist. The words, Hic est Panis de coelo descendens, & si quisex ipso manducaverit non moriatur. This is the Bread that came down from heaven; he that eateth thereof shall not die. It is said of the ancient Christians, that they persevered in the doctrine of the Apostles, and communion of breaking bread, as it hath been piously observed, that with proportion, as this custom grew cold in the primitive Church, so their fervour of Spirit, the fire of Charity, and consequently all sanctity decayed. It is wonderful how the devil bestirs him here, and what plots the crafty enemy hath on foot, to divert as many as is possible from the frequent use of the holy Eucharist. What bars doth he not set in our way, what pretensions, what impediments doth he not devise to hinder us? Now he suggests unto us doubts in point of faith, which when he sees us with a kind of horror to reject, he than persuades us to abstain for reverence sake, or would make us believe, that we should find the more gust in it the more seldom we frequent it. If this does not take, he proposes to our imitation the example of some (otherwise good Christians) who in this are nothing so assidual as they ought, than he objects what men will say, and what offence they may conceive thereat; now he will pester you with a world of business, now store you with plenty of strange cogitations, and scruples of conscience, and now again set you at mutual jars with others, whilst he blows the coals of ha●e and dissension. He renders one's mind dry and aride, and soaks out of it all gusts of spiritual things, and others troubled and disquieted: so that nothing is more irksome unto it than to put himself in way of preparation to the holy Sacrament: In a third, if he can prevail no other way, he musters up whole troops of extravagant thoughts, that so at east he may exclude him from this sacred banquet. Some other there are again whom he deceives under I know not what religious pretext, and persuades them at least to defer it, though not to omit it quite: and thus the wicked impostor coins a thousand false pretences, and shift, to eferre from day to day the frequentation of the holy Sacrament, and heaps delay upon delay, adds purpose to purpose: appoints this day, than the next, whilst in the mean time both weeks, months, and year's are passed over by us without repairing unto our Maker, unless it be very rarely, and then too only of force and necessity. The first Paragraph. Luke 14. ET ceperunt omnes simul excusare: and they began all to excuse themselves, saith the Gospel. This had bought a farm, this a yoke of Oxen, that other was newly married, so that none is at leisure to repair to Christ: but examine these excuses, and for all their fair gloss, you will find them mere senseless ones, for what were it for one of us, for a short hour's space to leave his c●res at his farm, his oxen in the stable, and his wife at home, and apply ourselves to that which so nearly concerneth our salvation; If we were requested to prune a vineyard, or to till the ground, we might with good reason choose rather to sleep at home, than work abroad: But when we are invited to a banquet, to be guests of our Saviour Christ, where our food is to be no other than himself, to excuse ourselves, and refuse to go, shows a most rustical behaviour, and speaks us either extremely mad or impudent. We should appear right Adam's offspring, if we shunned God Almighty's sight, when he were angry, but to avoid him thus, when out of his great mercy he beholds us with so gracious an eye, when he calls, and lovingly invites us to his Table, so richly furnished with all celestial rarities, is the part of brute beasts, and not of men. But to set off our excuse with a fairer colour, we pretend nothing dishonest, or less becoming us, as theft, adultery, or the like, but excuse our offence and negligence with as fair pretences as can be imagined. For what ●arm ●s there say you, in matrimony, and the solicitude of our domestical affairs, in buying cattles, purchasing of land: and what good can there be in these, when once they avert us from the ●overaignst good of all, from our soul's salvations? We are so to cherish our bodies as our souls receive no detriment the while, so to purchase land, as not to deprive ourselves of Heaven; when we are invited to this great supper, we ought presently to go, laying aside the care of all other things, no thought of our farms, our oxen, our wives, no solicitude of any business ought to interrupt us then, when we entertain discourse, at this royal banquet with the King of Angels, but also many many times we become so impudent as not to be ashamed to answer flatly, non possum venire, I cannot come, and what is that but to say, I will not come; Oh dear Christians, is this the way think you, to obtain his favour? miserable as we are, and to none more injurious than to ourselves, what is this but to fly from the fire when we frieze for cold, to abuse our Physician when we lie desperately sick, the more needing his help, the less sensible we are of our own infirmity, and to have the sweet and delicious Manna in loathing, whilst we passionately long after Garlic and Onions. God formerly signified unto the people of Israel by Moses, that they should gather Manna every day, except the Sabbath, on which they were apppointed to take their rest. This holy Sacrament is our Manna by infinite degrees more excellent than theirs which we may take our fill of during our term of life, till the Sabbath of death invite us to our rest. But what do we the while but imitate our first parent, for as he (says Gerson) not eating of the tree of life whilst he might, was afterwards justly punished in being debarred to eat of it, when he desired it; So we behave ourselves so fastidiously, as we will not approach unto this holy refection, whilst we may, but whilst we gladly accept of the least invitation to another's bo●rd, we never come to this of our Saviour, but very rarely and much against our wills. We are negligent in nothing so much as in the point of our salvation, in this we are only careless, in other things we are vigilant enough. For this respect God in these words sends us to school unto the Ant, Vade ad formicam ô piger, Prov. 6. & disce supientiam. Go O thou sluggard unto the Ant, and learn wisdom of her. This little creature can tell only by instinct of nature, that winter is no fit season to make provision in, and therefore it provides its self of food in the summer, which it hoards up till then, how far more diligent aught we to be than they, since our Saviour commending unto us this food of immortality, doth affirm that, Si quis man ducaverit ex hoc pane, vivet in aeternum. If any shall eat of this bread, he shall live eternally. Wherefore those who are predestinated to this eternal life, never cease to make provision of this vital food, against the winter of ensuing death, and this was his intent who bequeathed this Sacrament unto us, not to be adored, but to nourish us, and as we maintain our body's health, by duly receiving of our corporal food, who otherwise by that natural heat which is predominant in us should be consumed away, so likewise the soul by repairing often to this food is conserved in life, which otherwise would be destroyed by the impu●e fire of his concupiscence▪ Hence it is that Saint In●ocentius so carefully admonishes us, to take heed least by deferring too long the receiving of this holy Sacrament, we might incur t e danger of a spiritual death And S. Hilarion to the same effect, it is to be feared (says he) lest those who fare absent themselves from the body of Christ, be likewise far estranged from their salvation; For whosoever abstaines from sinning, ceaseth not to communicate, but this is that which we desire, this is but our common impediment, we rather choose to abstain from holy communion, then from sin, and will sooner leave of to frequent this table, than our lewd behaviour. Even this way which of all others our Saviour invented as the most sweet & efficacious, we cannot be brought to correct our manners, and amend our lives. We believed the lying Serpent affirming to us, we should become like to God, and yet hardly credit our Sav our the truth itself, who assures us that by eating of this food, we shall be changed into him, Qui manducat meam carnem & bibit meum sanguinem, john. 6. in me manet, & ego in eo, Our Saviour Christ appoints us to receive this Sacrament in memory of his death, and who can doubt but he commends withal the often frequenting it, yet we who on the one side cannot but approve his ordination as most just, on the other transgress it by our tardy receiving it. All the holy fathers commend most earnestly unto us the frequent use of this holy mystery, and we attribute much unto their counsel and authority, but more unto our own vicious inclinations; we have many Saintlike and holy men for guides, we see the lights of their good examples, but will not follow them. The second Paragraph. IF as often as one received the blessed Sacrament he should improve by some great sum of money his temporal estate, there were no need to persuade any to frequent it oft, none but would be sensible enough of such golden reasons, nay it would be rather requisite to take some order to repress the multitude of communicants, than to invent motives to incite them for to come. Miserable blindness! we see gold, and are taken with it, and we despise the hidden treasures of the Eucharist only because we do not consider them. And what is all the gold in the world, but a little dust compared to this peerless jewel, which no living crea ure can value to its worth? This sacred Eucharist protecteth us f●om committing deadly sins, it enervates the vicious propensions of th● mind, enlightens our understanding, excitates our will, sereneth our conscience, arms us against the assaults of the enemy, enables us to withstand adversity, defends us from falling in prosperity, and carefully directs not to fail in going right. This holy Sacrament gives us a pledge of future glory, and withal begets in us a contempt of death, and a desire of Heaven, the moderation of our passions, a horror of sin, a love of virtue, an entire victory over ourselves, and perseverance in good. But you will say, perhaps my mind is so aride, vain, ' tepid, and defiled, as I even tremble to repair unto it. This excusation is either evil, or none at all, th● more of these imperfections thou discoverest in thyself, the more necessary ●t is thou shouldst frequent this holy Sacrament. Is thy mind polluted? make haste then unto this Sacrament, which is the very fountain of purity. Art thou ill disposed? it is a sovereign remedy, an approved antidote against all the diseases of the mind. Art thou hungry? behold the bread of Angels. Art thou benumbed with cold? make speed unto it, it is an ardent fire. Do thine enemies molest thee? take courage, this Arsenal will furnish thee with all sorts of weapons to defend thyself. Art thou sorrowful and afflicted? this is that wine which cheers the hearts of men. Dost thou seek often dainties? they are not where to be found but here in this banquet, the repast of Kings. Dost thou long to be in heaven? here thy charges are defrayed, here thou wilt be furnished with fare better provision fo● thy journey than Elias wa●, travelling towards Mount Horeb: If the very touch of our Saviour's garment could stop a bloody flux, what disease is there which the touch of his sacred body cannot cure? But I am unworthy you will reply again, who approach too often to this sacred Communion, which I can never receive with reverence enough. Dear Christians for his blessed sake, let us not entitle our want of reverence to our slothfulness: believe St. Thomas that Angelical Doctor, melias est ex amore accedere quam ex timore abstinere. It is better to repair to it out of love, than to abstain for fear: And Saint Ambrose interpreting th●se words of our Saviour, panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, of the blessed Sacrament; If it be our daily bread (says he) why is it a year before you receive it? rather why do you not receive that daily, which daily will prof●t you? live so as you may worthily receive it every day, for he who is unworthy to receive it every day, will not be worthy to receive it once a yea●e. And in another place, if our Saviour's blood (says he) as often as it is shed, is shed for the remission of sins, I ought alwa●●s to be receiving, that always my sins may be remitted me, and it behoves me whoever sin, to be ever providing ●e● of a remedy. Gennadius Marsiliensis says, Lib. de dogm. Eccl. cap. 13. I neither praise nor dispraise the custom of communicating every d●y; but this I would advise and counsel all to communicate every Sunday, always provided that we come with no determinate will of sinning any more, which kind of preparation is more easily prescribed, than the riddance of our mind of all affection to any viciousness, that is, never thereafter to offend God more; for certainly he should show himself very ungrateful towards his Maker, who would not at least have a will for his sake never to stain his conscience with any sin, for touching such as these, the Master of the feast with good reason professed, dico vobis quod nemo virorum illorum gustabit coenam meam. I say unto you, that none of those men shall taste of my Supper. But alas, O Lord, are they not the self same men who refused to taste of thy Supper, and dost thou now decree it in punishment of their offence? Even so it is, that which they desire is their own torment, and what wickedness they voluntarily embrace, is nothing else but their own punishment Samaria being oppressed with the misery of a grievous famine, the Prophet Elysium's foretold that shortly they should see the price of corn incredibly abated: whereupon one of the Nobles in deriding his Prophecy Si nubes pregnantissimae frumenti pluant, nunquid ideo sa●ina tam vilis erit p etii: If the clouds, (said he) should be great with co●e and rain it down upon us, yet it would never be sold at so vile a price; to whom Elize●s answered: Thou shalt see it with thy own eyes, but shalt not eat of it, and so it came to pass. This is right the punishment of many in these days, they see plenty of this heavenly bread but never taste of it. They see men communicating in every Church they look into, but Communicate not themselves: They are bid Depart; because they will go whether the P●iest will or no. They are excluded f●om this holy Table, for no other reason, but because they exclude themselves. The third Paragraph. AS for the Holy men to be deprived long of this bread of Life, they like true Sons of GOD interpret it as a sign of their Father's high displeasure, and indignation: fare they are from neglecting any occasion of receiving it, for they are not ignorant with how great and Fatherly a providence Almighty GOD hath provided for every several Creature their proper food; Eagles prey on lesser Fowl, the Whale devours the lesser Fish, the Lions other savage Beasts, Horses and more Domestic Cattles feed upon Oats and Hay. And for Man, bread growing on the Earth is ordained for Food of such as have no higher ambition but to be sons of men; but for those who aspire to become sons of God, this bread descending from heaven is their chiefest sustenance; this celestial bread, this bread of the Sons of God, this bread of Angels with an ardent desire, with a humble affection, with a tender reverence they receive most frequently, and rather choose out of piety to incur the note of presumption by declaring themselves Children, than of enemy's, out of a too faulty bashfulness. During which banquet, if our blessed Saviour should address his speech in this manner to any of the number of predestinate: Consider seriously what I have suffered for the love of thee, thou mayst well count the thorns my head pierced, but canst never number those torments I have sustained for t●ee in every part of me besides; ●y body was all gored with boudy whips and nails; but how much my heart hath suffered is beyond expression. It was little less than a death, I suffered for thee even in the garden, when the anguish of my mind drew as much blood from me, as the Soldiers afterwards in my flagellation: And now consider with t●y self, what mine enemies inflicted on me, when even my best friends spared me not; thou knowest upon how hard a bed I was content for thy sake to render up my Ghost, and my love (that thou mayst know what an ardent one it was) would resolve on no death to die for thee, but the most bitter and ignominious of all, when it finding none more bitter and ignominious than the Cross made choice of it. And thus behold how I have died for thee, and have been still ready to die for thee a thousand times; Wherefore tell me, what wilt thou suffer for me again? if thou desirest that my love to thee should be perpetual, thou must love me again, who have so loved thee. For my part, I have loved thee unto death, even unto the death of the Cross, it rests that thou wilt declare, how fare thou wilt extend thy love for me again. Who now all of that happy company will not presently answer him, all bathed in affectionate tears, even unto the death, O my most loving Lo●d, even unto the Cross itself, so it be thy divine pleasure my love shall extend itself: And who shall grant unto me that happiness to die for thee, O jesus, my sweetest jesus! or who am I, that I should be thought worthy for to die for thee! O what a love was this of thine my dearest life, that thou wouldst suffer thus, that thou wouldst die thus for me, without any the least merit or desert of mine; such sighs as these, such most chaste aspirations use commonly to be the table talk at this sacred banquet, and thus a soul becomes intimately united unto Almighty God. For which reason we place this frequency of Communion (provided that our affections be sincere at least, though otherwise not so inflamed as we could wish) among the principal signs of Predestination. But alas, there are but too too many Christians yet, who whatsoever is delivered to them by way of Sermon, or of written books are so dead asleep in the Lethargy of their deboysht lives, as neither the examples of the more pious sort, nor admonitions of holy Saints, can stir them up to a more frequent use of this holy Sacrament. O Christians, what Rocks of Ice, what deadly cold is that which freezes up your hearts, that thus you avoid the comfortable beams of this all-chee●ing Sun? Do you not perceive that this is nothing else than the mere stratagems of your enemy, who endeavours all he can to extinguish wholly in us the fire of this divinest love, to the end that being all stiffly frozen with this pernicious cold of mind, we may live no otherwise then if we were wholly dead, perish in the filth and sordidness of sin, and never arrive to the kingdom of the l●ving? but those who love our Saviour Christ with constant affections, are delighted with nothing more than in often repairing to him: for as Cassiodorus saith admirably well, Inaudita est ditectio quae amicum amat, & praesentiam ejus non amat. It is such an affection as was never heard of, that one should love his friend, and not be delighted in his company. intaglio etching of an empty altar Emblem. iv Renouncing All Worldly things. What things were gain some those I counted loss for Christ Philip: 3. V. The fourth Sign, Of Predestination, IS an entire renunciation of all we have, which hath for its Device, a bare Altar despoiled of its ornaments with this Motto, Quae mihi fuerunt Lucra, Phil. 3. haec arbitratus sum propter Christum detrimenta: But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Our Saviour proclaims aloud; Qui non renuntiat, etc. whosoever renounceth not a●l he stands possessed of, cannot be my Disciple, He commands to relinquish all, he counsels us to dispossess ourselves of every thing, and who then that hath any Christ an blood in him, but will put on this resolution. I had rather become poor than God's enemy; I had rather be deprived of all my substance then of his holy grace. Poverty hath made many merchants, not of spices, Draperies, or such commodities, but of heaven, Simile est regnum coelorum homini negotiatori, etc. The Kingdom of heaven, (saith our Saviour) is like a Merchant travailing in quest of richest pearls, who having found one more precious than all the rest, goes and sells all that he hath to purchase it. And such a Merchant as this is so fare from thinking he hath received any detriment by departing with all he had, as he accounts his stock exceedingly improved, by the purchase of a jewel of such inestimable price. He but receives a bill of exchange of our Saviour Christ upon the delivery of those slight comm●●ities, the payment of which will ●ender him happy above measure, he hath the whole Kingdom of heaven mortgaged unto him upon the venture of a small sum of Gold, and purchases himself a mighty Kingdom, not only with leaving a few acres of land, but also by his preparation of mind of leaving it. The owner (saith St. chrysostom) of such a pearl, though it lie concealed in some small cabinet, and all be ignorant of his treasure, is not ignorant himself how rich a man he is. We come into the world to traffic, and not to spend our time in idleness, neither is there any one so poor and needy who hath not sufficient to advance his fortune by this merchandise, (since as Saint Austen saith, God only requires ourselves, an● cares not but in regard of ourselves, for any thing we have) nor any one so rich and wealthy, who in prudence can think much to departed with all he hath to purchase such an inestimable gem. Yet this is a kind of traffic, which exacts not so much of us, to departed from our goods, as to be ready when occasion shall be offered to departed from them, it consist, not so much in depriving us of our substance, as in bringing us to this resolution: rather to spare our souls than money, when need requires, to become a beggar, rather than an enemy of God. It fare more becomes us to be prodigal of our moneys to save our soules, (either in freely bestowing it, or bearing patiently the loss thereof) than to be prodigal of our souls, and save our money. And this we avouch to be a sign of Predestination, which not only by the light of Christian faith, but even of reason itself doth manifestly appear. The first Paragraph. STi●pon having lost together with his Count eye, his wife and children, and escaping himself, the only, but happy remainder of the public ruane, was demanded of Demetrius whether he had lost all he had or no? To whom he answered, he ●ad lost nothing at all; for Omnia mea mecum sunt, I carry with me, saith he, all the goods I have: The like Bias (in the like mischance,) affirmed of himself, that he carried his substance not on his shoulders, but in his breast, not where men's eyes might see it, but where their minds may judge of it. This contempt of earthly things, which in Heathens was accounted the sign of a great spirit, in Christians is an assured sign of Predestination to eternal life; and he is a valiant soldier indeed of jesus Christ, who after some mighty loss can say, Omnia mea mecum porto, I bear all my riches along with me; my God is all. It is reported of St Francis of Ass●sum that with incredible delight he passed over whole nights together, in the only consideration, and with often repeating of these four short words, Deus meus & omnia, My God and all. The example of which admirable Saint we ought all to imitate, and to glory with him in all our necessities, in saying, Deus meus & omnia. Let others seek after what other things they please, let them be taken and delighted with what else they will, I seek for God alone: God is only my desire, all my delight, O Deus meus & omnia. I freely resign to others all share in honours & all my part in whatsoever pleasures and delights; give me my God, and I shall have every thing. I surrender whole worlds to others, and envy them not their mountains of gold, and precious stones; I care not for their exquisite delights; my God is unto me in place of all. There is nothing so good, nothing so delicious or so fair which the chiefest and supremest good doth not surpass both for good, fair, and delicious by infinite degrees; O Deus meus & omnia! Alas how many desires do often inflame my breast? with what several fires, for the most part do I burn, what a tide of various fancies do carry my ●eart away, insomuch as like the frantic youth in the Gospel, M●●●. 17. sometimes I am dragged into the water, sometimes into the fire, and what are all these things which I pursue with so much eagernes, but vain, fading, and for the most part infamous, such we never have any long assurance of, but either they soon die unto their own, or he must die to them. O my God, my love, and my all, what is it that I can possibly desire, whose want thou canst not abundantly supply? O God art thou not all u●to m? my drink, my food, my rest, my joy, my pleasure, the height of all my honour? O God, thou art all and more than all to me. For though I feed on those viands which most take my appetite; refresh me with that drink which best relishes my taste; enjoy that pleasure which most affects my mind; yet what is all this feeding, this refreshing, this joy to me? Deus meus & omnia. Ah one refreshing of thine, one enjoying of thee, is to be refreshed indeed, is to enjoy the quintessence of every good. But in the mean while, labour oppresseth, grief afflicteth, ca●es distract us, our riches diminish, our friends forsake us, our lives consume away, and we become th● subject of others injuries and scorn: Nothing of all this touches my fear (says the holy Apostle) neither do I mak● my life more precious than myself, Acts 20. so that I may consummate my course, neither can all these, though they altogether rush upon me, any ways endamage me, if God that sovereign good undertake but the defence of me, Deus meus & omnia. Thou art unto me, O my good God, O goodness itself, rest in my labours, pleasure in my grief, security in my cares, and the only true riches in my poverty. Thou art my strong Bulwark against all the furious assaults of men, thou art my refuge whatsoever evil oppresses me, and finally thou art all unto me whatsoever I can wish for, or desire. All abundance which is not God, I will account but as mere beggary. Wherefore then do we seek to ●uench our thirst with these ●uddy streams, when we have so Crystal a fountain head as this, where we may drink our fills? In having God we have all whatsoev●r we can desire. If poverty afflict any one, if fortune frown upon h●m, as his joy may be less, so certainly will be his grief; when fortune can challenge nothing of him as its own, nor death bereave him of any thing that is another man's. The second Paragraph. NEither doth this poor man yield to him in felicity, who being rich in his possessions, is yet contented with nothing, that he hath, since he keeps his riches in his Coffers not in his heart, and would never pine away for sorrow should he lose it all, for, Sine dolore amittitur quicquid sine amore possidetur, quae verò ardenter diligimus babita, gravitèr suspiramus ablata, we lose that without grief (saith St. Gregory) which without affection we enjoyed, and only s●gh grievously to departed with that which we loved tenderly whilst we were possessed of. But that good which can only render others so, none c●n be possessed or bereft of against his will: Neither is any thing to be accounted good of which we may ever be deprived of. Go then Satan and counterfeit thyself a messenger, the family of most patiented Job is not so wholly extinguished yet, as there remain none of that lineage who can renounce all they have. Run therefore and cry as loud as rhou wilt, tell such an one, you have lost all you had, you are wholly impoverished; hear what an answer he will give, Nisi ego illam, fortassis illa me perdidisset. If I had not lost it, perhaps it would have proved the loss of me; I am but so much the lighter to go on my way towards heaven. God in freeing me from a dear, but perilous burden, hath best provided for my security, wherefore I will not account that my loss which God intended for a benefit. An● why should I to no end and in vain afflict myself for it? I knew when I possessed it I must forgo it once, and now I am the more mine own, when I can say that is mine own no more. Dost thou hear this O Christian? and thou too, dost thou hear this, O thou hellish fiend? This discourse, this feeling have they of their riches who are predestinated to everlasting life; neither can they ever lose so much, as not to retain this liberty to say; It is no loss we sustain, but only a gainful kind of trade, where for a little expense we purchase ourselves unvaluable wealth, we buy heave● for a small portion of ground we tread on. intaglio etching of a rose tree Emblem V. Patience in Tribulation Blesed are ye y● weep now for ye shall laugh Luck 6: V. 21 The fifth Sign Of Predestination, IS patience in the midst of long affliction, signified by the pricky Rose-tree, with the w●r●, Beati qui nunc fletis quia ridibi●is: Luke 6. 2●. Blessed a●e ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh. Abraham objected to the ri h Glutton in his torments, Recordare filiquia recipisti bona in vita tue, Lazarus similiter m●la, nunc tu cruciaris, laetatur Lazarus: Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst g●od things, and Lazarus evil th●ngs; Now therefore is he comforted, and thou art tormented. In thy l fe time th●u didst rejoice and Lazarus suffered, now Lazarus rejoices whilst thou art tormented. Thus by the just judgement of God the courses of things do vary; we are either to suffer here in this world, or afterwards in that other, which we are not acquainted with; wherefore we are prudently to make our election of one of them, since they imply a necessity which no man can avoid. St. chrysostom saith, If thou seest any one addicted to virtue, and withal oppressed w●th any calamity, you may well account him happy, in that whilst he satisfies in this li●e for the sins which he hath committed, he hath a reward p epared for him in the next. It is impossible that he that enterpriseth to fight against the vices of the time, should not incur great persecution: It mis-beseems the Champion of God to attend u● to his pleasures; those who presented themselves in the lists, came not with their stomaches overcharged with me●t; and what are these present things but so many lists to fight in, so many combats, wars, oppressures, and hard exigents? There is another time assigned us to rest, in this we are to expect nothing but turmoils, and adversities. There is none so simple when he is armed and prepared to the combat to look for ease; why didst thou enter the list, if that be thy pretence? why didst thou undertake to wage a war against nature and voluptuousness; Neither let it afflict thee that others live in peace, whilst thou art fiercely assaulted with temptation's, for wh●t were that but to condemn the holy Apostle of imprudence, who thus exhorteth us: Omne gaudium existimate fratres mei cùm in tentationes varias incideritis. Dear brethren, 1 james. esteem it all your joy when you shall fall into sund y temptations. There is no man more unhappy than he who never experienced any adversity, for it is an evident sign that God rejects hi● as a faint-hearted soldier. The fight against adversity is only worthy to be presented on honour's Theatre. Therefore it is an assured token of our future beatitude, to rejoice in our sufferings, and even then when we are baited with evils on every side, to lift up a cheerful and erected mind to heaven, though our tears in the mean time run trickling down our cheeks. Our Saviour Christ well knew that we were only rich in our sufferings, that we had no solid joy except the hope of our future recompense, and yet he confidently bids us, gaud●t & exultate, to exult and rejoice as if already we were completely happy. Whereas on the contrary, how often do we vainly lament and afflict ourselves? how often like little infants do we childishly make our moan, and shrink aside out of pure fear at every blow? not having apprehension enough to discern that it is the fatherly and health-restoring hand of God, which lanceth us, whereas no child but hath discretion enough, to know that the gashes which Surgeons make are our cures, and first overtures of our recovery. And so in like manner God only lances us to cure us and recover us, and no ways to deprive us of our lives, as St. Peter witnesseth, Si quid patiamini propter justitiam beati, 1 pet. 3. If you suffer any thing for righteousness sake (saith he) you are happy in it; for it is a singular grace if any of you suffer, and that unjustly any tribulation for the conscience of God, otherwise what were it to suffer injuries when you do amiss? but if you tolerate them patiently for doing well, you will become gracious with Almighty God. To which effect St. Gregory likewise saith: It often happeneth that the elect, who are directed on the way of eternal felicity, are subject here to perpetual adversities, in being despised by every one, and accounted unworthy of all worldly favour; whilst in the mean time thei● virtues set them off most brightly in the eyes of their secret judge, and they shine most gloriously in the merits of their lives, they refused not to be despised, whilst they fear to be honoured, they extenuate their bodies with continency, whilst in their souls they singularly increase in their dilection, they always inure their minds to patience, and rejoice with an erected mind as often as they suffer injuries for righteousness sake. The first Paragraph. IT is not the wont of the eternal providence to nourish a virtuous person in delights, but it tries hardens and apts him to its peculiar ends: Yet so, as in the mean while it assures him, Cum transieris per aquas tecum ero: When thou shalt pass by waters I will be with thee, and the floods shall not overwhelm thee; when thou walkest in fire thou shalt not burn, neither shall the flames scorch thee; for so God uses to drench us both in water and fire, but suffers us neither to be burned nor swallowed up, he makes trial of us both in freezing cold, and glowing heat, but for those whom he hath predestinated to everlasting life, he neither permits the fire to consume them, nor waters drown them, for God is faithful (saith the Apostle) who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will make your profit of temptation that you may be able to sustain. Blosius doth treat excellent well of this sign of predestination, where he affirms that there is no more infallible sign of divine election, than when a man undergoes affliction or what else adversity, not only without repugnance, but with patience and due submission, since nothing, saith he, is more profitable for him than to suffer; And this is the inestimable jewel of that ring, with which God espouses to himself a pious soul; whose prerogative is so great as St. chrysostom doth solemnly affirm. Nihil esse melius quam male pati propter Deum. That nothing is better than to suffer evil for Almighty God. For then the elect may well be said to drink of the torrent in the way, Psal. 109. for which their heads shall be exalted, afterwards even to heaven. Now they are pressed down and trodden under foot, that afterwards like palms they they may rise the higher for it: It is 〈◊〉 verity which God would have us throughly penetrate, that the good which we aspire to, is infinite, and of difficile access, a d therefore not to be atta●●ed to bu● by much p●ine and labour, in conf●rmity to which t●at holy Anchorite said excellent well, Marcus. that God well knowing our imbecility ●oth use to bestow no remarkable favour upon any one whom he hath not first apted for the receiving of it by s●me or other prudent calamity. So Moses had no ●oon●r forsaken the Court of Pharaoh by the e●press command of God himself, but presently both poverty, ignominy, and contempt, with the extreme danger ●f his life, by the procurement of the King: And lastly, his flight and banishment did all conspire to work his destruction. We m●y perceive saith St. Gregory, th●se whom God elects by their pious actions, and bitter sufferings; whom likewise it may be gathered how rigorously our just judge will punish the reprobate at the latter day, when he is so severe now towards those, wh●m he affecteth most. Wherefore those christians do much deceive themselves; who imagine to go whole (as it were) to heaven, without being well bruised before, for let them but take a general view of of all, and they will find, that the richer men are in virtue, the more they are stored with tribulations, and that those commonly who most abound in wealth, and are the greatest favourites of fortune, are those who most excel in wickedness. Such beasts as are designed for the shambles, we see are suffered freely to graze in the best pastures, whilst others are tired out with toil and labour; even so those who are predestinated to heaven, and not suffered at liberty to disport themselves, but are always with afflictions. Insomuch as the same Blosius truly affirms from the authority of another holy person. Quemcunque Deus potioribus donis exornare sublimiterque transformare decrevi●, eum non blandè & molliter lavare se● totum in mare amaritudi●is i●mergere consuevit. That when God once decrees to advance a man to any eminent degree (of perfection) and endow him with his richest favours, he uses not only to dip him lightly in, but even to plunge him into a whole sea of bitterness. The seco●d Paragraph. THE Doctrine of Hypocrates and Galen is, to preserve and cherish our selve●: to hate and abnegate ourselves is the Doctrine of C●rist. Insomuch, as all those who have ever attained to celestial beatitude, may appropriate to themselves that saying of Them●stocles, 1 Cor. 12. Perieramus nisi periissemus, we had perished, if we had not perished. Many have been preserved by being lost, and without doubt as many had b even as unhappily lost, if God by their happy loss had not prevented it. And So Saint Paul, when others imagined him utterly to be lost, began then first of all to think that he had found himself, Placet mihi in infirmitatibus, etc. I am delighted (saith he) in my infirmities, in contumelies, and necessities, in my distresses and persecutions for Christ, seeing I am th●n (most) potent, when I am (most) infirm; and St Bernard as if he were tired with seeking out Almighty God, Circumire Domine possum coelum & terram, m●●re & aridam & nusquam te inve●iam nisi i● Cruc●; ibi dorm s, ibi pascis, ibi cubas in meridie: I may circuit heaven and earth (saith he) O Lord, the sea, and the dry land, and yet find thee not where but on the Cross; there thou sleepest, there thou feedest, there thou reposest thee at noonday. Wherefore let us follow our Lord like dutiful servants, and avoid eternal torments, by the compendious way of our short sufferance here. Athanasius being condemned to banishment by julian the Apostata, and perceiving the Christians of Alexandria to weep bitterly at his departure, bade them be of good comfort, for (said he) this is but a little cloud which will be blown over presently, and truly all that seems most terrible in this mortal life, is but as a hover cloud, that will soon be dissipated and c●anged into eternal serenity. The ancients had their Ap●lles so industrious, as he never omitted day, wherein he had not drawn some line; so in like manner, all Christians who would live exemplarly, ought to desir that no day might pass without such clouds ●s these, wherein they might suffer somewhat for God Almighty's sake. The heavens appeared to holy job, not only cloudy but even as ob●urate as ●ro, and yet as Tert●llian says) he resisted the enemy with a great variety of pati●nc as h of calamities assaulted him, insomuch, as neither all his substance mad● a prey unto the enemy, nor all his children oppressed in one universal ruin, nor lastly his bodies intolerable infirmities, could any ways remove him from his patience: Oh! what a trophy did God erect of that man, to his enemy's shame! what a glorious standard of him did he advance! when at the report of each one of his heavy losses, he answered nothing ●lse, but God be thanked, a saying in which God rejoiced, and the devil was confounded utterly; a saying for which he deserved to have all doubly restored to him again: therefore we may conclude that in suffering, we do but (as it were) by great journeys make towards our heavenly Countri●. The 3. Parag aph. AMong those many ways which lead to heaven, there is none more sure, nor direct, than the Kings high way, the Cross, pe● multas tribulationes oportet nos intrariin regnum Dei. And e●en as the furnace try the potter's vessels, so are just men men proved by adversity; but we must know that straw doth consume in that furnace, where gold is purified: and whilst the one is converted into ashes, the other is burnished from its dross. This furnace is the world, in which the just are gold, tribulation is the fi●e, and the Goldsmith Almighty God: now if gold had sense and speech without doubt it would say, let the workman dispose of me as he please, I will endure wheresoever he places me, and let the straw burn as much as it will, with intent wholly to consume me, I shall but become the more refined for it, whilst it shall vanish away in filthy smoke: wherefore mark well all you who are gold, Aug. in Ps. 60. all you who are but straw, in that very fire in which the straw blazes away to nothings, the gold becomes more bright: and so the wicked blasphemes and accuses God for sending him the same afflictions, for which the patiented man doth glorify him the more, and they increase in strength in the midst of adversities, as fires wax greater, t●e more the wind doth blow, and become more forcible by that, which threatens wholly to extinguish them. Crescit adversis agitata virtus. REckon me up all the just m●n from the beginning of the world, and you shall find none of them without this mark of predestination, God proved them, Wis. 3. and found them worthy of him. ●braham was variously afflicted and perplexed: joseph sol● by his own brethren: David most unnaturally persecuted by h●s son: Esaias sawed asunder in the midst: Ezec●ias dra●ged upon craggy rocks, till his brains were da●ed out: Hieremiah stoned to death: M●cheus executed by the sword: Amos had a nail driven into his temples: Daniel was cast unto the Lions: Naba th' buried in a heap of stones: Elizeus derided, Job so ulcerous, as out of mere detestation, he was spit upon: Tobias deprived of his sight: Innocent Susanna, condemned to die, and hundreds more, whom I could reckon up. Besides, of what adversities had not S●. Paul his part? As for the rest of the Apostles, were they not scourged, crucified, and diversely put to death? In fine, G●d spares none whom he affects, Quem enim diligit Dominus castigat; Heb. 1●. stagellat autem omnem filium quem recipit: For God chastises whom he loves; and scourges every child whom he receives, ev●ry one, excepting none: ●or all who ●esire to live piously in jesus Christ, 2 Tim. 3. shall suffer persecution. The fourth Paragraph. WHerefore let every ser●ant of thine (O God) assure himself, that if he shall have passed in this life, this probat on, he shall be crowned for it in the next; since it is thy manner of proceeding to send a calm and serenity after storms; and aft●r tears and sorrow to replenish a soul with consolation. Wherefore Beatus homo qui corripitur á Deo, etc. job. 3. Job. 7. 2 Tim. 2. Blesse● is t●at man whom God rebukes; for if we sustain any thing for him, we shall likewise reign with him. Let none therefore fear this scourge of God, but rather fear this dis-inheritance; by these stripes we are but prepared for our eternal inheritance, lest if otherwise we should be too conversant with those delights which occur e unto us here up n our way, we should insensibly forget those we aspire unto, at our celestial home: If thou be'st exempted from correction (saith Saint Augustine) thou art also excluded out of the number of the sons of God: be not then ●o inconsiderate or childish, e●er to utter such complaints as ●hese: My father cherisheth my ●ro the● more than me, since ●e permits him to do what he ●●st; whilst ●f I but stir without ●is command, I am chastised for it; but you ought rather to glory in your sufferings, since it is an evident sign that he reserves an his inheritance for you, whilst those whom he spares for the present, ●e intends afterwards to punish eternally: Those who run on the way of this life's prosperiti●s to their destruction, are but ●ike men lead to prison (saith St. Gr●gory) thorough some pleasant fields. job 5. It hath be●ne observed, that the Rose never savours more sweetly than when it is planted near to garlic, neither doth our heavenly Gardner want his fragrant Roses here of those whom he hath predestinated for Paradise, whom he so disposes for the most part, as they are still annoyed by the neighbourhood of others, with whom they have the greatest antipathy, in that the more virtuous a man is, the more subject he is to the scorn of the wicked, the more open he lie● unto adversities; and thus these Roses become the more odoriferous by the air, which other ungrateful odours breath. It is likewise an observation that such Roses, as by art grow without prickles, have no scent at all; and even so the sweet odour of virtue is lost, specially of patience, when we suffer nothing of adversity. Assuredly none can know how much he profits but by affliction, neither do any begin to understand themselves, till they become acquainted with misery; for as the stars lie hid by day, and only become transparent by night, so true virtue, which rarely appears in prosperity, shines forth most brightly in adversity. Neither is our Lord half so delighted with the glorious exploits of his servants, as when he sees them suffer cheerfully, and confidently Tribulations, as the Eagle doth prove its young ones by exposing them face unto the Sun, as the Goldsmith by the touchstone tries the goodness of the metal, so God Almighty experiences his servants in the furnace of affliction, whence with much more reason than the Romans we may say, & facere & patifortia, hoc ●hristianum est: to do and suffer difficile things, doth most become Cristians; and that way which our head doth lead us on, best befits us his members for to follow. intaglio etching of a fig tree Emblem. VI Frequenting Sermons. The wise man shall increase his wisdom by hearing Prou: ●. V 5. The Sixth Sign, Of Predestination, IS the hearing of the Word of God, expressed by the Figtree, by reason our Saviour Christ not only in his Sermons made frequent mention of it, but also because it was so diligent an Auditor (as I may say) of the Divine Word, that being commanded by it to shed its leaves, and whither away, it obeyed presently. The word is, prov. 1. Audience sapiens, sapientior er●t. And have we not a● clear testimony of this sign of Predestination from the mouth of Christ himself? jean. 8. Qui ex Deo est verba Dei audit, he who is of God doth hear the word of God: which Saint Ambrose in a certain passage doth excellent well declare. How (saith he) can the word of God relish well in thy palate, which is defiled with the gall f wickedness? Is. d. Soliloq. That which we hear willingly we● put easily in execution, and such as those are only sa thfull auditors of the Word of God, of whom our Saviour in the Gospel makes mention. Beati qui audiunt verbum Dei, & custodiunt illud. Blessed are they who hear the Word of God and keep it. They keep it in vain in their memories who keep it not in their lives, and there are some who whilst they are careful not to forg●t it after once they have heard it, have no ca●e in the mean time in conformity unto it, to amend their lives. The whilst the Predestinate conceive in their minds an ardent longing after divine and sacred things, Aug. in Psal. 118. insomuch as laying aside all business, and interrupting their sports, they even prefer their appetite of hearin the word of God, to that of the necessary sustenance of their lives: their affections carrying them away to Church without admitting any excuse at all: no tempestuous weather can hinder them, nor fair divert their minds, but even then choosing rather to pass their times in the close vaults of the Churches, than in the open field●, whilst they are still solicitous to hear, with-hearing yet they are never satiated. Eccl. 33. Au●is bona audiet cum omni concupis●entia sapient●am. A good ear hear●s wisdom with all avidity. And where is it more infallibly to be found, than in the Word of God? The soul, saith St. Bernard, seeks after that word, Ser. 85. in Can. by consenting unto the which it is bettered, by wh●se illumination it is instructed, by whose support it is rendered ve tuous, by whose reformation it becomes wise, unto which to conform itself, it is its chiefest ornament, and to enjoy it, its only happiness, O how often doth a soul high said with such food as this exclaime with the Prophet jeremiah, Hie. 14. I●veni sunt sermones tui, & comedi eos, etc. I have f●und thy words and eat them up, and thy woad is become the joy and delight of my heart. Chrysost. Hom. 14. in Gen. For so as witnesseth St. chrysostom, even as it is a sig●e of perfect health of body to be a hungry, so to be desirous of the Word of God, is a main argument that we are well in soul. The fi●st Paragraph. ANd who will account such an one not diseased in soul who will lend no ear to truth, whilst he wholly bestoweth them upon frivolous things; and whilst vices by words in Churches are inveighed against, by his deeds, commits them frequently at home! who in lieu of pious exhortations, gives himself wholly to drinking or gaming, or else in hunting or hawking trifles out his time; or lastly, whilst the Preacher is ho●ly in the Pulpit reprehending vice, lies wallowing in his soft bed, all drowsy and languishing, and is not ashamed, like a sleepy Dormouse to be taken a● noon day, yet buried in his feathery Sepulchre. It is a shameful thing I know, to write this of. Christians, but it is a greater shame for Christians to be guilty of so great abuse. These are but signs of men in desperate estate, and fare different from those by which the Predestinate are known: Luke 5. Factum est autem cùm turbae irruerent in eum, ut audirent verbum Dei, etc. It came to pass, that the multitude pressed upon him to hear the word of God. Their holy hunger was so vehement, that neither the circuit of the Synagogues, nor Temple could contain them, no not the spacious walls of the City itself, but they even thronged out into the open fields, as a place only capable of so great a multitude, and whilst they might satisfy their desire of following and hearing him, not one, either man or woman, made any difficulty to go to any place how solitary or desert soever it were, whereas we do oftentimes think much, even when we live nighest the Church, to stir a foot out of doors to hear that which is necessary for the reformation of our lives, so far we are from running even half famished after the Preacher unto the Sea side or Wilderness, we a e even come to that pass as there is nothing so tedious to us, as to hear the word of God: there is no want now a days of Preachers, but of auditors, whilst they feign a hundred excuses to absent themselves, and rather than fail of any, there want not those who of purpose abstain from frequenting Sermons, for fear their reckless Conscience should perchance be touched: so fearful guilty men are even tossed, and unto the judgement of themselves, as they dare not appear before the tribunal of their own consciences. The Prophet jeremiah says in his Lamentations, that the ways of Zion made their moan, for that none repaired to her solemnities: and truly the way●s of the Church have no less cause now a days to make the same complaint, since the ways of gaming and Taverns have all the frequency; there is no thronging to hear the preacher now, whereas if a prating Mountebank but promise to make us some ridiculous sport, if any public f●ire or assembly invite our curiosity, we can presently find our legs, we bestow our eyes and ears wholly upon it, and go flocking by heaps unto the specta●le: whereas in the mean time, if those who p●each the word of God, can bu● scape the being derided for their labours, they think it well, though for the rest we make never so light account of what they say; an abuse of which the holy Scripture doth grievously complain. Yet we cannot deny, but there are many who give willing ear to Sermons, although the number of those is but small, who endeavour to become the better for what they hear: they have ears, but they want hands, they hear what they ought to do, but do it not, and so receive no benefit by hearing it. Another sort there are, who frequent sermons only to satisfy their pious curiosities, others only to pass away the time: some out of custom, others to become at least the learneder, though not better for what they hear: some again frequent the Church only to be seen and others to have the commodity of seeing certain persons there, of whom they could not so commodiously come to a sight abroad. Some finally there are who go only to laugh, and carp at that which they shall hear, others who resort thither with intent to sleep, or entertain some idle discourse the while, or at most to afford the Preacher such an ear, as is so furred with taking in other impertinent things, as it is able to receive no more. There are but a few, and those only of the more virtuous sort, who carry thither a mind prepared to receive instruction, and have no other intention, than to departed from thence better than they came; who learn not to better their knowledge, but their lives, who harken as if their ears were chained to the Preachers words, and willingly give not over hearing, till they find themselves more virtuously inclined than they were before. Nemo odeo ferus est qui non mitescere possit, Si modo culturae, patientem accommodet aurem. There's none but's tamed, how wild so he were, If he to's cure but lends a patiented ear. The fold of Christ are discerned from other straying flocks, by this distinction in their ear, in that they hear and obey the word of God with great avidity. The second Paragraph. TH●t serious saying of St. Augustine makes a deep impression in the minds of the Predestinate; That they are guilty of no less a crime who negligently hear the Word of God, than those who thorough their carelessness suffer the body of Christ to fall unto the ground. Wherefore we are not so much to regard in the Preacher, who it is that speaks, as who it s that dictate a to him what he is to s●y; since he says nothing, but what he hath in charge to deli●er from Almighty God himself. Plom. 26. in ●ib. 5. For my own particular (says Saint Augustine) what am I but a sowers basket, into which he vouchsafed to pour the seeds, which I am but to scatter among you again, and so you are not so much to consider the unworthiness of the basket as the wor●h of the seeds, and the sowers dignity. A good Christian gathers somewhat for his instruction out of every thing, and is always making his profit out of it, and he may take this for a clear sign of Predestination, if sitting with Mary Magdalen at the feet of our blessed Lord, he remains so fast hanging on his words by the strong chains of his attention, as no care of any domestical business, no sister's murmuration, nor no allurements of any friend can possibly draw him thence. Yet neither to hear the Word of God only, nor what is more, to remember it, is any such Sign of predestination, unless withal we proceed to put that which we have heard in execution For w●at avails it us to have eaten any thing, if as soon as we have swallowed it we cast it up again. The Mother of God among other her rare virtues was particularly praised for conserving all these words, Luke 2. and laying them up in h●r heart. And the royal Psalmist says, In cord meo abscondi eloquia tua, ut non pe cem tibi. I have hid thy word in my heart, that I should not sinne against thee. Those who hearing of this word do conserve it in a pure and pious heart, and bring forth fruit thereof in patience, are fitly compared to a fruitful soil; and like as to read and not to understand, even so to hear, and not to remember what they have heard, is as good as wholly to to have neglected it That painter doth both lose his time and labour, which draws out upon a table some curious picture in light water colours, which presently with a sponge he doth deface again: And even as great a folly is it those Christians, who hearing do presently forget what they have heard. We are therefore to strive to remember i●, and that in such a manner, as it be no dead remembrance neither, but rather a quick and active one, which may urge that on to performance which we have heard. john 13. Si haec scitis, beati critis si feceritis ea: no man ever arrived to heaven by knowing what was to be done, but by doing it: and he is fare from action, who will not so much as give ear to what he is to do. The books of the holy Scriptures are of all others the purest fountain of knowledge, out of which though never so many draw, and that never so often, yet it is impossible for to draw it dry: for such is the nature of this rich vein, that the deeper you dive into it, the more it abounds with divine sense, and can never be exhausted. As the Ant makes provision of food in the summer, against the winter season; so Christians, during the calm of their affairs, should store themselves with the Word of God against the storms of future calamities. This is most certain, that never any yet contemned to make his benefit in this kind, but they were at last so punished for it by Almighty God, that both themselves to their cost did feel it, and others evidently perceived the same, God hath so ordained, that one man should learn of another, and submit himself to his direction; and so we see that King David although of himself he was most wise and prudent, and had besides in many things, ever the help of the holy Ghost for his instruction, did not yet open his eyes to repent for his grievous sins of murder and adultery (although he could not but know that they were severely forbidden by the Law) until the Prophet Nathan had sharply reprehended him. Our Saviour did (as we may say) preach himself out of the Clouds unto S Paul, and yet he sent him to Ananias for his further instructions: Cornelius was certified by an Angel, that his prayer and almsdeeds were acceptable to Almighty God, and yet he intimated unto him withal, that he was to repair to St. Peter for his better information Queen Candace's Treasurer, whilst he read the Prophet Isaiah in his Coach, had no● an Angel assigned him for his instructor, but Saint Philip the Apostle: And finally, Mose●, who in regard of his near familiarity with Almighty God, may well be styled of his privy Counsel, was notwithstanding instructed by his father in law, a foreigner, no otherwise than a little Child and taught, not without many b tter taunts how he should behave himself in point of governing the Children of Israel: ay, even Christ himself, the eternal wisdom would sit among the Doctors demanding their vice; so as t●ere are none of what sex, of what estate or condition soever they be, that are exempted from hearing the word of God. The third Paragraph. But you will say perhaps you have the reputation of a learned man, I know it well, and what sequells such great Doctors use to infer from thence. Behold the proud erudition of a mortal wit! and who I pray ever arrived to such a height of knowledge or years, as not to be ignorant of fare more than ever he had learned! but grant that you were the learnedst man alive, and had such a proheminency of understanding above all the rest, as you could hear nothing at a sermon you had not known before: But what becomes of your will and memory the while? are they never to be inflamed, never to be stirred up, is not the one sometimes to be incited, the other afresh renewed? how easy is ●t for the memory to mistake, and how prone to error is the will, unless there be daily helps invented to rectify the first, and rightly inform the second: for which reason it is not on lie very profitable, but even absolutely necessary, that all do repair to sermons t●e evil for their amendment, the good for their perseverance, the ignorant for their instruction, and the learned to revive the memory of what they know; that so at least if they learn nothing a new, they may not forget the old. Audience sapen s●p entior eri●, Prov. 1.18. & au●is sapientium quaerit & Doctrinam: the wise man by hearing becomes more wise, and the ears of the wise are still seeking after learning. Herod, though otherwise infamous for his manifold wickedness, yet in this was not so rude and barbarous, as not to hear willingly the ordinary preacher of his Court, and do many things at his instigation; & licenter audivit, Mach. 6. & audito eo multa faciebat. Whence we may perceive, that there was in Herod not only as great willingness to hear, but also an unwearied patience the whilst: for certainly St joh. Baptist could never h●ve moved him to have done so much unless he had both frequently heard him, and that too in touching ma●y particulars; for we are not indeed to imagine t●at he would only in gross admonish the King of his many flagitious crimes, but he at large by main force of reasons confuted them, and both set his vices before his eyes, and withal powerfully dissuaded him from the committing them It was impossible that St. john with one only sermon could sufficiently argue the King's incestuous adultery, and his other grievous crimes, but it was requisite that he should bestow a sermon upon each one of them, or rather indeed many in only taxing one; for his mind obdurate in wickedness, was by an often iterated battery to be expugned, and nevertheless libenter eum audiebat; he gave willing ear unto him. And although St. john often publicly exprobrated unto his face his impiety in retaining of his brother's wife, non licet tibi habere uxorem fratris tui, and without doubt with abundant reasons proved the unlawfulness of the fact; yet still libenter eum audiebat. So great a desire had Herod of he●ring him, whilst the Sain● persisted with so great a constancy in reprehending him, neither are we to think, that he smother d in the mean time, under a political silence ●he rest of his enormous crimes, no, St. Luke is his witness, where he says that Herod the Tetrarch was rep ehended by him, Luk. 3. both for Herodiana his brother's wife, as also for the rest of the evil which he did. So as he neither spared to tell him of his tyranny in so many civil slaughters, of his exaction on the people, in taxes & imposts, nor lastly of his rioto s spending it again for the maintenance of his lust, and yet for all this, libenter cum aud ebat; and so great was Herod's patience in hearing him, as neither at his first sermon, the most vehement of all, not his second or third, nor any of the rest, he ever shown himself offended, or aggrieved, Luke 3. but libenter eum audiebat: nor ever thought he preached too often, or too long, too sharp, or biting for him, or too plain, and simple for the popular ear: libenter eum audiebat & audito eo multa faciebat; so that well he might complain, that he persevered not in the performance of that which the Saint so earnestly inculcated, but never (with Seneca) that fortune had envied him the knowledge of the truth. l. 6. de benels. c. 3. Et monstrabo tibi cui rei laborent magna fastigia quid omnia possidentibus desit, scilicet, ille qui verum dicat Non vide● quemadmodum ill●s in praeceps agat extincta libertas, dum nemo ex animi sui sententia suadet, dissuadetque, & unum amicorum omnium officium est, una contentio, quis blandissime fallat? I will unfold unto you, says he, the discommodities which great men are subject to, and what i● wanting to those who possess every t●ing; that is, one to tell them the truth; do you not perceive how for want of that liberty they are all driven to ruin? whilst they have no faithful friend either to persuade or dissuade them any thing, but all take it for their duties, and make it their studies to deceive him with their servile flatteries. A crime which St. john for his part in regard of Herod was so far from being guilty of, as he seemed to be incapable of nothing more, than concealing of the truth, whilst he performed the duties of a faithful admonisher with all sincerity of heart, and liberty of speech, still plying the King's ear with non licet tibi Herodes, non licet tibi: it is not lawful for thee, O Herod, it is not lawful for thee: and that to keep him still sensible of his offence. And where now are those nice and dainty ears, who if they but imagine themselves glanced at by any words, though misunderstood, and wrested to a doubtful sense, protest presently against the Preacher, and all such assemblies. It ●s hard to say, whether in this they outstrip not Herod in wickedness, or no; since whilst they refuse as well ●s he to amend their lives, they abstain from sermons, the only remedies to amend them; which Herod would never do. He who refuseth to be persuaded by his teacher, doth but yield ●o the persuasion of the enemy, and commends but a scholar to a fool's direction, who will be taught by no other than himself: so whosoever conceives so highly of himself as to scorn all other Masters besides, ●hewes more arrogancy in it than erudition. Neither can there be any love of virtue in him who either hates or despises the knowledge of heavenly ●hings. The beginning of estranging ourselves from God, is our disdain of hearing his word; and he loves not God, who is not desirous of spiritual instruction; for as gold is tried by ●he touchstone, so are the thoughts of man revealed by the Gospel of jesus Christ. intaglio etching of a balsam tree Emblem. VII. Almsdeeds. And he gave every man Commandment concerning his neighbour. Eccle. 17. V 14. The seventh Sign, Of Predestination, IS Almsdeeds, bestowed with 〈◊〉 tender affection. The device is the Balsam tree, Eccl. 17. of most sovereign virtue, especially for the cure of wounds and ulcers. The Motto Vnicuique mandavit Deus de proximo suo. God hath committed the care of his neighbour unto every one, Poverty is a grievou ulcer of the body, but sin a more grievous one of the soul; to the cure of either, Almsdeeds do wonderfully confer, chiefly if t●ey go accompanied with a ready mind. This we learn of the Apostle; Induite vos viscere misericordiae sicut electi Dei, Invest yourselves, says he, Colos. 3. with the bowels of mercy, as becomes the Elected of Almighty God; where he requires not only the helping hand, but also the willing mind of him who gives, and he is truly happy who hath a right understanding of the poor and needy, for God will deliver him in the day of evil. A verity confirmed by a clear argument drawn out of ho●y Scripture; Psal. 40. qui accipit mutuum, servus est foenerantis: he who borrows becomes a servant of him who lends; but our most rich God borrows of us in the persons of the poor; whence the conclusion may easily be deduced. As for the minor of this Syllogism, Colos. 3. it is solomon's in effect: Foeneratur Domino, qui miseretur pauperis, He takes usury of the Lord (which is the same, a God borrows of him) who hath pity of the poor. Christ by the mouth of St. Augustine in this manner begs an Alms of us: Bestow somewhat upon me of that which I have given thee, I ask but part of that which is all mine own: in giving you make but restitution, and oblige me your debtor for what you give, whom you had a benefactor of all you have. Give me but temporal things, and I will repay you with eternal ones: Orat. de amore Paup. teipsum tibi reddam, quando te mihi reddidero, and Saint Gregory Nazianzen says; look that thou be'st a God to the calamitous, in imitating the mercy of God in their behalf, for man hath nothing in him more divine, than the power to oblige other men unto him by his benefits, The poor is committed to thy charge, as to another God, and such a God on earth was holy job: Pater eram pauperum, job 29. & causam quam nesciebam diligentissimè investigabam, oculus fuic aec●, & pes claudo. I was (says he) a Father of the poor, and I diligently informed myself when I did not thoroughly understand their case: I was an eye unto the blind, and feet unto the lame. And Toby that man so dear unto Almighty God, eleemosyna ab omni peccato & a morte liberat, etc. Almsdeeds, job. 4. says he he, delivers us both from sin and death, and suffers not a soul to descend into darkness; Ibid. fiducia magna erit coram summo Deo eleemosyna, omnibus facientibus eam. Almsdeeds will be a great cause of confidence to all those who have exercised it, when they shall stand before Almighty God. The first Paragraph. MElius est hanc artem dandi eleemosynamscire, quam esse regem, Hom. 55. & 36. add pop. says St chrysostom, it is better to be conversant in this art of bestowing Alms, than to be a King; as that which builds us everlasting mansions in heaven, and teaches us the way to become like to God. It is a great thing to be a man, ●ut to be a merciful man is a precious thing, qui pronus est ad miseri●ordiam, Prov 22. benedicetur, de panibus enim suis dedit pauperi, he who is prone to mercy, shall be blessed, for he hath bestowed his bread upon the poor. Wherefore ●hi● beneficence (to speak still with the same golden mouthed St. chrysostom) is that which resembleth us to God: this is the Mother o● Charity, Chry. hom. 6. in ca●. 3. ep. ad Tritem. and the proper badge of Christian perfection, which distinguishes Christ● Disciples from other men. This i● that which cures our infirmities, which washes away the stains of our soul: this, that ladder which was reared up to Heaven These rizate vobis thesauros in caelo, Matth. 6. hoard up treasures for yourselves in heaven, says our Saviour Christ: Harken O ye rich, and learn a new art, which heaven itself doth teach, a new way of gathering riches together, spargere: be liberal of it, you were mista●en hitherto, the way to become rich is to give your wealth away, and not to hoard it up: he who in this world distributes his treasure among the poor, doth but lay it up so his own use in the next. Nei- is it necessary that we discharge our money by whole handfuls on the poor; give but halfpences, give but farthings, or a crust of bread, (so you do it freely and willingly) and in interchange thereof you shall receive whole worlds of treasure and possessions. The Censours in ancient time were wont now and then to visit the Citizen's houses, and survey their garments, to see whether they were not moth-eaten, their bread mouldy, meat tainted, or the like, neither without reason; and I fear me that if any such visit should be made now a days, there would be some found who feed vermin with that they have, rather than they will bestow it on the poor. But now we know how to dispose so of our substance, as neither rust, moth, nor any other vermin can annoy it. Matth. 6. Thesurizate vobis thesauros in caelo, ubi neque erugo, neque tinea demolitur, etc. Lay up treasure for yourselves in heaven, where neither rust, nor moth can do it any harm, where neither any thief can break in and steal it thence. Manna did not corrupt, unless it was laid up for the next day, neither doth any stock so much diminish as theirs, who are too careful to preserve it still entire; you can secure it no better way, than by ●rusting it in the hands of the poor and their stomaches, as the best Granaries to stack up our corn, since there it is secure from fire, and ye are sure to receive it with increase again. Had Absalon but cut his bright tresses off, his hair had been an ornament to his head, and not the occasion of its confusion; and so if the wealthier sort would but contribute part of their substance towards the maintenance of the poor, they should have as many friends at command, as now they have crowns; whereas now they affect nothing by their covetousness, but that the more money they have, in the more dangerous estate they live in. The son of Sirach persuades us, Perdere pecuni●m propter fratrem, Eccl. 29. & amicum tuum, & non abscondas illam sub lapide in perditionem: To cast away our money for (the behalf of your friend and brother, and not to hid it under a stone to our own perdition; and our Saviour Christ bids us dare, Eccl. 29. & dabitur vobis, To give, that we may receive again. Wells become fowl, if they be not often used, and the more water you draw from them, the more pure you render them. The Predestinate, if it were possible, when they bestow an alms, would give their hearts withal, so willingly they impart their substance to the poor, and in this sense our blessed Saviour pronounces the merciful to be blessed, to wit, not only such as have ability to afford much, but also those who have a desire so be beneficial unto all. It was Pythagoras' opinion, similia non nisi a similibu● comprehendi. That like was not attained but by its like, and so it happens in this kind of Merchandise, where one commodity is not purchased, but by exchange of the same commodity again. Oleum emitur oleo: will't thou obtain mercy? by works of mercy it is to be purchased. But you will say, perhaps, by giving unto others you may happen to impoverish yourself? what a vain caution is this, rather to trust to our own forces than to the promises of Christ? How many have been beggared by their covetousness, whilst never any was undone by charity to the poor? God contends with us in liberality, and will not give over but on the better hand. King. 3.7. King, 4.4. The poor widow gained more by Elias, than his slender refreshment came to, and Eliseus' hostess was more obliged to him, than he to her. The second Paragraph. THere are many (but those not of the number of the predestinate) who give rarely any alms but malignantly: To give malignantly, is to bestow that only on the poor which we have ourselves in loathing, which we know no thou otherwise to be rid of, it is so wholly unfit for any use, such, if they have any meat tainted with long keeping, if the bread be mouldy: or the drink be sour, if they have any thing in fine so loathsome, so stinking, as they could not find in their hearts to bestow it on a dog, can then think of giving it to the poor, a great benevolence no doubt. Alas dear Christians! how often with soothing persuasions do we deceive ourselves? This is not (as the Prophet Baruch exprobrated to some) to offer oil, but only the Olive stones. And what was the reason that God rejected Cain and his offerings, but only because having ability to offer better fruits of the earth, he offered him the worst: Our good wills of giv●ng more, suffices when we have not much to give, but if we have large ability, we are inexcusable, if we give sparingly. When thou canst not help the poor with thy deeds, at least afford them comfort in thy words, and pity them in thy heart, whom thou canst not secure in thy actions: neither those Israelites, nor their offerings were despised, who presented only flower, goat's hai●e, and bristles, because it was all they were able to bestow; whereas (as St. Chrysostme notes) should they have presented nothing else, who had ability to offer more, they had incurred by it a heavy malediction. Others there are forwards enough in giving Alms, but whilst they are no less prone to their filthy pleasures, than to Alms, they defile the oil of mercy, with the sordidness of their licentious lives. The Anazarboei, a people of Cilicia, were wont to att●biute their fertility of Olives to their virgin's chastities, for which cause they suffered none to manure and plant them but only them. For Christians let them assure themselves, that there is such an antipathy betwixt this Olive of mercy, and Venus lascivious Myrtle, that in one common enclosure they can never be contained, and that Alms which goes accompanied with dishonest life, cannot be pleasing to Almighty God; neither will he regard the liberality of our hands, which is proceeding from a libidinous mind. Others again there are wholly not wallowing like those in the mire of carnal pleasures, but yet in that they affect praise, and a kind of ostentation in their Alms, they effect nothing with all their bootless pains, but only profuse this oil of liberality And why dear Christian, wilt thou let thy left hand be privy to what thy right hand doth? as i● such as those were not justly, by that mirror of patience, job 15. holy job, compared to the Olive casting of i●s flowers which tree, Greg. lib. 12. mor. 26. according to St. Gregory, though it never be so well t●ken with blossoms, yet if it be nipped with any bleak air, becomes wholly destitute of fruit: Even so, although thou be'st never so charitable to the poor, if thou dost it because others see thee, or to be seen by others, the breath of their commendations blasts all the fruit thereof. As for the Alms which the Predestinete bestow, no living eye is conscious of it, except that from which nothing can be hid, neither do they expect any praise for it, but only his, from whom they hope likewise for their reward. And St. chrysostom teacheth, though Alms have golden wings yet they are not of the nature of the Peacocks, to Court admiration here, whilst the reward which attends it is in heaven, but thither it soa●es up upon its glittering wings, and takes its stand before our Saviour Christ, whom it acknowledges in the person of the poor; yea, their Almsdeeds is so fare from the desire of divulging of itself, as if it were possible it would be latent to those who dispose of it; so little doth a good man care how few be of counsel to what he doth, so long as he is sure, that he is not ignorant of it, who only can and will reward him for it. For which reason St. Cyprian calls a mind thus propense unto the poor, a most sure caution of our security, whereby we have engaged God our debtor, and endeared ourselves into the favour of our sovereign judge. The third Paragraph. AT the day of judgement we shall be most rigorously examined on this particular, when those who shall be convicted to have been stern, hard hearted, and unmerciful to the poor; shall be condemned by a legal, and most terrible sentence; Ite maledicti in ignem aeternum, Go ye accursed into everlasting ●re. On the contrary, those whom the divine predestination had from all eternity designed for the Society of Angels, may approach unto the judge, and confidently say, deal liberally now with us, as we have dealt with others; bestow thyself upon us, since for thee we have bestowed our Alms upon the poor, we have had compassion of others, wherefore now have compassion on us again, we have performed that which thou didst require, it rests that thou perform that which thou hast promised. When the judge fare from offence to be so confidently challenged of his promises, will ingeniously confess the obligation, and they shall behold in his wide and open side, this inscription engraven in his very wounds in Characters of precious stones: Venite benedicti possidete regnum; Come ye blessed, possess your Kingdom, enjoy your hearts desires. I remember my promises, and commend your deserts, which worthily prefer you to so great a recompense, come and receive your reward, interminable in date, invaluable in worth; all the good offices you did to my poor, were done unto myself, your charity provided me of meat and drink, your garments clothed me when I was a stranger, your Roofs received and lodged me; neither could the strong bars of prisons debar your pities from visiting of me there; nay I even own my life unto your compassion, Venite benedicti; for those crusts of bread, you bestowed in Alms upon the poor, come and feast with me for all eternity; for harbouring strangers in your house●, I have provided a habitation with the Angels for you: for clothing the shivering members of the naked, I here invest you with the royal purple of immortality, venite Benedicti. O what commutation, what recompense is here! a stole of glory, the riches of heaven, interminable felicity and delights, for rags, odd farthings, a few crumbs of bread. Omnis m●sericordia facit locum unicuique secundum meritum operum tuorum, etc. Eccl. 16. All mercy shall make a place to every man according to the merit of his works, and according to the understanding of his peregrination. I would to God this were as persuasive to every one, as it is true; then there is none but would purchase heaven at so cheap a price. It is a most true and excellent saying of St. Augustine; Ces. Arclit. Rom. 13. Si vis mercator esse optimus, etc. If thou wilt play the wise Merchant indeed, forgo that which thou canst not keep possession of, in exchange ●f that which thou canst never lose; depart with a little, for the return of a hundred fold; give a piece of money to the poor, to obtain a whole Kingdom for it of Christ our Lord; bestow a bit of bread, to receive forgiveness of thy si●s, disfurnish thyself of a slight garment, to merit by it a stole of lasting glory; give these despicable things, to purchase eternal ones. What extreme folly is it, In Mat. 6. says Saint chrysostom, illic tua relinquere, unde exiturus es: & illuc non praemittere quo es, to leave thy substance there behind thee, from whence thou art to departed, rather than to send it before thee thither where thou art to go: wherefore let it it be our chiefest care to furnish that place with our treasures, w●ere afterwards we are to make our residence. intaglio etching of a cypress tree Emblem VIII. Selfe-Contempt. Except ye become as little Childerens, you shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven. Matth: 18 V 3. The Eighth Sign, Of Predestination, IS an abject opinion of ourselves, which bears for its Impressa the Cypress tree, this Motto Nisi efficiamini, Matth 18. sicut parvuli non intrabitis in regnum coelorum, Unless ye become like one of these little ones, ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. This tree remains always fragrant and flourishing, and not only admits not corruption in itself, but also preserves all other things from noisome savours, which are imbalmed with it, and therefore with good reason it serves for the expression of thy abject opinion of ourselves, which both destroys this worm of pride in us, and preserves us from being rotten and corrupted by selfecomplacence, a sort of infection of all others most contagious. O di superbos & arceo, etc. I abhor, Psal. 101. and reject the proud, (saith the royal Prophet) neither shall he whose actions savour of any pride, inhabit in the midst of my House. There is rarely any physic as they say, that is sovereignly medicinal indeed, that hath not its mixture of some poison, or sophisticated drug. This I am sure, there is no vice that is not compounded of some secret pride, as you shall perceive if you but consider them Initium omnis peccati, est superbia, Eccl. 10. etc. The beginning of every sin is pride, and he who persists in it shall have his fill of Malediction; and it will be his ruin in the end. Pride is the nuzler of a dangerous wit, and from thence it breaks forth into various and exorbitant vices at every turn; now of hate, now love, but chiefly of envy, whilst it is obnoxious to the distresses of all casualties, for there are not more anxious, or subject to more continual disquiet, than those who only covet praise, but think it absolutely due to their deserts: since they are ever apt to imagine themselves contemned, when that debt is not paid to their expectation, and in the mean while, wrea●● their spite of others contumelies (as they conceit) with fretting and inward repining on themselves. They live in as dar●e an ignorance of others virtues, as of their own defects, and out of this swollen arrogancy of theirs, break with all piety and fidelity, and in a word, with whatsoever should be most dear unto a man, for a little same and covetousness of esteem. And whereas the subject of other vices, are but commonly abject and ignoble things, that of pride ordinarily is the most excellent, it making a prey of all worthy actions, of eminency in any knowledge, and even of virtue and sanctity itself, much like those little worms which lie gnawing at the coares of every better fruit. A proud man represents the devil's manners most unto the life, for as one sought to equalise himself unto the highest, so the other will not only stand in competency, but even seek to be preferred to all Sed nusguam non resistit superbis Deu. But God never fails to resist the proud, he can throw him down with more ease from his highest aims, than some stout defendant standing upon the battlements of a Tower, doth those who scale the walls, and cut them off with as much facility, as a Gardner crops off with a light hand those little sprouts which shoot out above the rest. Saul in his humility was advanced unto a Throne, from whence in his pride he was tumbled down again. There are some who have a natural aversion from Cats, spiders, or some particular food It is natural to God to execrate and abhor the proud. Abominatio domini est omnis arrogans, immundus est apud Deum omnis qui exaltat cor suum. As the most contagious diseases do use to break out in several parts of man, so pride will not be stinted to any particular place; but now it expresses itself in our eyes, now it takes possession of our tongues, it appropriates this man's hands unto its use, in another's garments it useth to itself, and sits with so much settled gravity in another's carriage as an hundred Preachers could not remove it thence: some again there are, who affect such a kind of careless behaviour, as if you did not know the secret arts they have to profess their pride, and sumptuositi●s in banquets, edifices, their children's breeding, the splendour of their retinue, and their furniture, you would imagine them sworn enemies of so much vanity. Insomuch, as the very air we breathe, is pride in all we do, though it be so delicate as it is scarce perceptable. Now we descend even below abjection itself, our words are mere honey and roses, we utter nothing but the pure silken phrases of the Court, we crouch unto all, to make our way by indirect means to rise, and ●aving reached that height once, which we aspired unto, we neither endure equals, nor superiors. What makes thee so proudly arrogant t●ou silly dust, and a●es, when the least blast of death can scatter all thy greatness? In what canst thou receive such self complacence, who stinkest so odiously in the nostrils of men, of Angels, and of God? and whilst thou breathest nothing but earth, (o limb of Adam as thou art) thou even poisoners the air with the stench of Lucifer! But if thou canst be as well delighted with the goodly height of the Cypress, as with its grateful smell, thou mayst climb up on the condition, that from thence thou reflect a disdainful eye on none but on thyself; and t is is true greatness, true magnanimity, to entertain in high places humble thoughts, and as fast as thou art exalted, to debase thyself; and (which is more proper to the Predestinate) to touch heaven with their merits, whilst in their own conceit they yet lie grovelling on the ground. Divinae gratiae familiaris esse solet humilitas, Hom. 4. supra missus est. etc. Betwixt divine grace and humility (says St. Bernard) there is a straight league of friendship. What a sublime humility is that, which honour cannot remove, nor glory make arrogant? For a despicable person to abase himself, is not much, but humilitas honorata; humility in honour is a rare virtue indeed. Do you hear this O y●e Kings, ye Princes and Potentates of the earth? Do you hear this, ●ou who are no less learned than arrogant, you whose possessions make you despise all other men, Ra●a virtus est humilitas honorata, humility in honour is a virtue deserving all admiration. It is the proper effect of true humility, to make those condemn themselves by their own verdicts for most unworthiness, who in the judgement of heaven are esteemed for great est sanctity. So Abraham, a man most acceptable to Almighty God, accounted himself no other than dust and ashes: St. Peter, the Rock upon whom Christ built his Church, openly and ingenuously, professed himself a sinful man St. Paul, that ●●ss●ll of election and Prince of 〈◊〉, reputed himself but as an abortive issue, and unworthy the ti●le of an Apostle. This hold for certain, the base of all true height and dignity, is no other than humility, and a contemptible opinion of ourselves. The first Paragraph. PRide is the ruin of all virtues, and the steep precipice of Angels and of men. Good God, what a change, what a commutation was then between heaven and earth, when the most glorious amongst Angels was cast headlong down from heaven to earth, whilst the miserablest po●rest soul on earth was elevated by the hands of Angels unto heaven? Lucifer through his pride did fall from thence, whither poor ulcerous Lazarus was exalted for his humility, who it is credible did not so often number his virtues as his sores; no doubt out of genuine self contempt of his, seemed more patiented unto all, than unto himself, It is a very true and significant saying of a certain Saint, ●arum valet qui se aliquid valere censet, nil penitus valet qui se multum valere autumat. He is worth but littl● who in his own account seems to ●e w●rth any thing, and he nothing at all, who conceits himself much worth. With whom St. Bernard doth well accord, where he saith, Omnia ill● d●sunt, qui nihil sibi deessepu●at, That he wants all, who imagines himself to want nothing: And we may add, that they scarcely seem to be borne for heaven, who whilst they are self-conceited of their own actions, become as sharp censurers of others lives, as they are foolish admirers of their own; and whilst with an affected blindness they blear their own judgements of themselves, can never judge aright of other men. Out upon this vanity! Can we think that heaven will ever give admittance unto such pride as this? no, it is only for the predestinate, who censure nonce lives so rigorously as their own: who oftener ●●t in judgement on their own manners, than on other men's, and are so fare mo●e severe unto them elves than to all besides, as they easily pardon others, never themselves, when they have d●ne amiss. Miserable as we are●●ho being but dust and shadow s daily gliding away after those who are v●nished before, can yet glory in our own Progenitor, & sh●w ong ranged statutes of our Ancestors, as if he were a man who can number more men of his lineage past. Homo vanitati similis factus est, die ejus sicut umbra praetereunt. Man is become like unto vanity, and his days do vanish away like a shadow. Wheresoever we reflect our eyes, we find cause sufficient to dissolve them into tears. If we fix them on heaven, whilst we behold our Country aloof we cannot but consider ourselves in banishment,; if on earth, it is but the upbraiding remembrance of our grave, and however we betrample it for the present with our feet, it makes full account to have the disposure of our heads at last: finally, if on ourselves, O what a fair and ruddy fruit! but alas all worm-eaten within; where order, stench, corruption, death itself have taken their lodgings up. If we con i●er our own hearts, what a foul abyss, and depth it is, all beset with knotted beds of Snakes and Add rs? woe, woe's us, we even swarm with vices, and yet cannot contemn our ●elves: we be oppr ssed with a world of follies, misery, and sins, and ye● affect the reputation of wise, happy, learned, and holy men. The predestinate the while convert all this unto their greater profit, & out of the considerations of their daily actions and themselves, do draw forth motives of their own contempt These can easily with St. Paul be induced to slight and contemn all other things, who have first learned to slight and contemn themselves. This b●ing so, whosoever desires to be truly happy indeed, must procure to take diligently out this lesson of his own contempt; from whence he is to proceed (excepting God) to contemn all other things. The Predestinate can best relish that excellent saying of Saint chrysostom, Hom. 3. in Mat. Minimum de se sensisse tam m●gram est, quam es maximas fecisse, It is as great matter for a man to account but little of himself as to have exploited mighty things. As also that of our Saviour Christ, he who aspires to be greatest among you, shall be the least in the Kingdom of heaven (if ever they arrive to so much happiness) They are not ignorant how the way of humility is craggy and painful at the first, but afterwards it becomes more easy and delightsome. They know there rests ●f their journey but this one steep ascent, and so grateful unto all who direct them on their way, they climb it up with all alacrity. They love to be contemned, they affectionately embrace the occasions, they rejoice to see themselves despised, and more insult over themselves in the mean time, than any enemy. These when they are injured are so far from revenging their quarrel by the sword, as they utter not a word in their own defence. H●re none stretches forth an arm, or brandisheth a sword to vindicate a wrong, as knowing the more profit redounds unto them, the more they are contemned. The predestinate only know, as ●en deeply read in the school of Christ our Saviour, that they are never the worse for m●ns deriding, nor less for their contemning them Tantus est unusquisque, 1. Kin●s 16. quantus est in occulis Dei: A man is no more than just as he appears in God Almighty's eye: non pilo major, etc. not a hair greater, neither doth God judge by men's estimation. When we seem little to ourselves we seem great to God, and than least to him when we appear the greatest to ourselves. The deeper a Well is, the more purer is it water: and the mo●e vile esteem one conceiveth of himself, the more grateful he is unto Almighty God: All which seems eminent in us, is to be abased, our high spirits leveled with the ground, an● the universal fabric of our pride buried under the heaps of our miseries, ignorances', and imperfections. Musk, as they say, having lost its savour, by being buried in some stinking dunghill recovers it gain; and so if we ●ut truly enter into the consideration of our own vileness and surquedy, we shall exhale not any such odour as we did before, but that of the amendment of ourselves, the only conducing means to our salvation. The second Paragraph. A Holy religions man being demanded once, which in his opinion was the most expeditious way to heaven, answered. Si se homo sem per accusat. For a man ever to accuse himself. Lib de virg. c. 31. And this according to St. Augustine, is the very sum of all Christian learning: and St Ambrose avouches, Lib de virg. c. 31. A pol. de dau. c. 9 Signum electorum est, male de ●e sentire, & vulnus suum agnoscere. That it is an infallible sign of the ●lect when one ackns w edges his infirmities, and thinks contemptibly of himself: on the contrary, Reproborum est proprium semper prava agere, In. c. 5. job. & nunquam quae egerint retractare, etc. says St. Gregory, It is the custom of the reprobate to be always committing evil, and never willing to amend their wickedness, but they pass over all they do in the blindness of their minds, and nothing but punishment can make them sensible of the harm they do; whereas the elect do daily trace out their actions to the very fountains head of those thoughts, from whence they sprung. Neither for this are they ever the more secure, since they know there are many things may escape their observation, which only the all-searching eye of Almighty God perceives. The Son of Syrach counsels us, Eccl. 3. quanto magnus es humilia te in omnibus & coram deo invenies gratiam. The greater thou art, humble thyself the more in every thing, and thou shalt find grace before Almighty God; seeing the power of God is only great, and he is honoured in the humble. Assuredly among all others it is the greatest perfection to have a true knowledge of our own imperfections, and that soul merits more of true praise, in understanding itself, than in neglecting that, to know the course of the Stars, the limits of the Earth, the virtues of Plants, the abstruse sublimity of Heaven, and the Earth's unfathomed profundity: Aug. Wouldst thou contrive some edifice of eminent altitude? think first of laying the foundation in Humility; all naturally aspire unto the top, but Humility is the first st●p unto it. Our Co●ntrey is high, the way unto it low; and who can seriously wish to arrive unto it, who refuseth to go the way? But alas, it is a misery, which Saint Hierom doth worthily deplore, Hier. epist. 27. Multi humilitatis umbram, veritatem pauci sectantur, that many follow the shadow of humility, but few the substance; few indeed, but those few only happy, those few of the Predestinate, who the more they behold, the more they dislike themselves; and those the more precious in the eyes of God, the more they appear contemptible in their ow●e Qui minus se vident, Greg. lib. 33 ●oral. c. 5. minus sibi displicent, says Saint Gregory. Those who least consider themselves, are those who displease themselves the least. Many whilst they know many things are ignorant of themselves, and in God's eyes seem the less the greater they seem in their own. To conclude, the best and safest ascent to Almighty God, is by the way of the knowledge of our own unworthiness; and Cassiodorus said excellent well, Psal. 6. descendendo coelum ascenditur, That by descending we ascend to heaven. intaglio etching of two crossed poleaxes and an olive wreath Emblem. IX. Love of our enemies. Be not overcome of evil but over come evil with good Rom. 12. V. 2●. The Ninth Sign, Of Predestination, IS to love our enemies. Ad Rom. 12. The Device is, two thwarted Lances combined in the middle, with an Olive wreath; those signifying Hostility, this (used by the Ancients as an Emblem of Peace) their being united in the bond of amity. The Motto is, Noli vinci a malo, sed vince in bono malum. Be not overcome with evil; but overcome evil with good. Christ our Saviour doth commend unto us a most solemn manner, Ego autem dico vobis, diligite inimicos vestros, etc. I say unto you love your Enemies, be beneficial to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you, and caluminate you, that so you may be sons of your Father which is in heaven. You will say perhaps it is difficile and painable. I grant it, but the more difficile it is, the more grateful it is to God, the more available to yourself. There are divers ways to express our charity, all much conferring to the remission of our sins, but among all none more efficatious than from our heart to forgive those who have offended us. Our Saviour Christ hanging extended on the Cross, and having no part of his Sacred body entire from stripes and wounds, but only his blessed tongue, made it his first care to employ that member in interceding for those who crucified him in their words and actions; and so became a most potent and prevailing Advocate for his enemies. In which doctrine dictated from the Cross, our blessed Master hath had but a few disciples, it is true, but yet never wanted some; and to instance in only one, did not the heavens open whilst Saint Steven was praying for his enemies, as if all the heavenly Citizens had flocked to the sight of so noble a spectacle? and whilst the same holy Protomartyr prayed for himself standing, but for his enemies with bended knees, did he not instantly behold the heavenly curtains drawn, and jesus standing at the right hand of his father's virtue and omnipotency? In which, dear Lord, if I may expostulate thy meaning without presumption, what unusual manner of proceeding is this to award him a just triumph, and the reward of victory before the fight? he hath scarcely opened his mouth to speak and the heavens are open already; he is not yet departed this life, and notwithstanding he enjoys thy blessed vision. How comes it that that beatitude even issues forth of the gates of heaven to encounter this happy Martyr on his way; which other Saints must penetrate to the most interior retirements of thy mansions to behold? He is yet but in the lists, yet exposed unto the peril of the fight, yet praying; but his prayer is in behalf of his enemies. O happy, O potent prayer! Let us now consider I beseech you, the reason of this his antedated favours and recompense, which without doubt is no other, but that Almighty God is so taken with the rare virtue of such an one who freely remits offences, and hearty petitions for an enemy, as our most gracious Lord even lays his own Majesty aside, and privileges his Champion so highly, as not to suffer him to expect his Crown, till he be seated in his Kingly Throne; but he anticipates against all former precedent, his felicity, and commands his fairest beatitude, not only to attend him at his Palace gates, but even to issue forth, and present this happy warrior on his way, with the honour of so extraordinary a triumph; for having embraced with a most affectionate love his deadlyest enemies, and spent his last breath and tears in beseeching their pardon, who were the Authors of his untimely death. And this is that high prerogative with which the heavenly King indowes all those who forgive their Enemies; so as not he who suffers a wrong, but he who offers one, sustains the injury. David who had encountered and overcome the most fiercest Lions and savage beasts, who was so valorous, as he was never daunted with the apprehension of any fear, yet having Saul his capital enemy more than once at his mercy under his Javelins point, did rather choose to pardon him than take his life, and it seems that the burden of all his triumphant songs, was no other than this, Si reddidi retribuentibus mihi mala, decidam meritò ab inimicis meis inanis. Psal. 7. If even I have requited those, who have afforded me evil, may I fall helpless by mine enemies deservedly. And St. Paul that generous Champion, who dared unto the Combat, not only whole troops of armed men, but even death and hell itself, was nevertheless so mild, so indulgent to his enemies, as he affirms of himself: maledicimur & benedicimus, 1 Cor. 4. persecutionem patimur & sustinemus, blasphemamur & obsecramus: we are cursed, and we bless those who curse us; we are persecuted, and endure it patiently; we are blasphemed, and humbly entreat those who blaspheme us. The first Paragraph. IT is of all others the most generous and noble kind of victory, to pardon thine enemies when thou hast opportunity to revenge thyself, and is fare more glorious to overcome an adversary by silence, than by open contestation: honour est homini qui se separata contentionibus: Prov. 20. it is honourable for a man to decline contentions: and vindicare se non est actus fortitudinis, Lib. 1. office. c. 36. sed abjectionis & timiditatis, saith St. Ambrose; to revenge one's self is no act of valour, but of a base and cowardly mind; and he who vindicates himself is rather overcome by his enemy, then overcomes. Neither was that Prince of Philosophers of other opinion: Sicut debelis est stomachi cibum duriorem non posse concoquere, Arist. li. 4. Ethic. c. 4. ita homnis pusilanimis est verbum duriusculum non posse sustinere, as it is a s●gne of a queasy stomach (saith he) not to be able to digest solid meats, so is it of a pusillanimous man, not to be able to brook h●rsh and offensive words. We can give no clearer testimony that we are Christians, than by loving our enemy. To be well exercised in virtue, we have need either of a faithful friend, or a malicious enemy, and may rest assured that none can ever injury us, but they must do themselves a greater injury; Chrys. Hom. 41. in Act. Apost. Vindicta in cord posita nocentior est viperâ: for revenge (says St. Chrysost●me) unto that heart which harbours it, is more pernicious than a viper; neither is it a less crime to requite an injury, than to be before hand with one. Hast thou struck th●ne enemy? then t●ou haste mortally wounded thyself and as he who snatcheth up burning coals out of the hearth to throw at others, first burns his own hands; even so those who endeavour to harm others, are ever the first on whom it lights, and most commonly the last, when those shift the danger whom we intent to mischief, and so thee blows turn upon ourselves. Whosoever conceives hatred against another, doth first of all wound his own soul and he who lives out of Charity, hath but death for his residence. Yet it is hard (let them say what they will) it is hard for one to love his enemy. It is true, but it will be more hard to burn in hell with so many enemies; it is difficile to love him, whom we account scarce worthy of our hate: but it will be more difficile to hear those terrible words; Ite male dicti in ignem aeternum; Go ye cursed into everlasting fire: Can I suffer him to scape harmless, who hath so often been the occasion of harming me? Those who decline all steep ascents will never mount up a hill; and he doth but estrange himself from heaven, who refuses to forgive his enemies. There are, that will undertake long pilgrimages, from whence commonly they return more vicious than they went; we make our offerings at the Altar, but all this while our whole hearts are stone; we are careful to desire God's mercy, and pardon, whilst we still urge on revenge to execute on. O dear Christian, God hath afforded thee a plenary Indulgence in thyself, thou mayst gain it with one word speaking: do but say Ignosco, I pardon and thou hast obtained a full remission of all thy sins; Dimitte, & dimittetur tibi. Luke 6. Otherwise, if thou shalt deliver thy body to the fire, 1 Cor. 13. and in the mean time hast no charity, even for thine enemies, all will avail thee nothing. He according to the world's account is most rich, who hath most debtors. Thine enemies own thee satisfaction for many injuries; keep them still thy debtors, and so enrich thyself. Make up thy accounts, see what thou owest to others, and what residue is remaining for thyself; without doubt thou wouldst esteem thyself a wealthy man if all thy debts were cleared. How deeply art thou indebted to Almighty God? insomuch as through thy negligence thou art wholly unabled to give him satisfaction: take then a provident course; assign him over to the debtors, and so by their intervention quit thy bonds, which of thyself thou couldst never have canceled. Dimitti, & dimittetur tibi, forgive thy neighbour when he offends against thee, Eccl. 28. and then at thine humble petition thine own offences shall be forgiven thee; if thou forget those small reckon betwixt thee and thy neighbour, God will release thee thy mighty arrearages. You know well that saying of St Hierom: o ●ormidolosa sententia, etc. O horrible sentence (says he) God will not remit us our great debts, unless we remit our brothers their smaller ones; and we are to expect at God's hands again such pardon, as we afford our enemies. The second Paragraph. WHerefore, whosoever thou art, have compassion at least of thyself, and rather than to hate thine own se fe, love t●ine enemy: the plea ure of revenge is short, but that of mercy is perpetual: Wherefore Noli vinci a malo, Rom. 12. sed vince in bono malum: Be not overcome (I beseech you) of evil, but overcome evil with good. If thine Enemy be a hungry, bestow food upon him: if thirsty, assuage it but with a draught of water, a d thou shalt heap hot burning coals upon his head, Prov. 25. and God will reward thee for it: vince in bono malum. St chrysostom speaking of this victory says, that in the Olympic gam s, where the Devil was precedent, it was enacted, Male faciendo vincere, In c. 12. ad Rom. that they should overcome by violence, and all fou e means: but in those where Christ presides, there is a decree quite opposite to this, where not he who strikes, but he who is strucken meriteth a Crown. If we did strive to excel in meekness, how invincible should we be, how fare above all injury and wrong? O than never utter such odious words as these, reddam malum, I will repay evil, Prov. 20. but expecta Dominum & liberabit te, do but expect our Lord, and he will undertake thy cause. Neither say, I will deal with him as he hath dealt with me. Alas, why to your own loss should you seek another's harm and detriment? why do you by't those stones which are thrown at you, like some Mastiff Cur, and not rather turn upon the hand which threw them? Ridiculous blindness! why art thou so furious against thine enemy? 2 Kings 16 Dimitte eum, ut maledicat: dominus enim praecepit et ut malediceret tibi: let him revile thee still, for it is God who hath apppointed him. Those who are condemned to die, are not angry with the Executioner, but with the judge; and why, silly as thou art, dost thou bend thy forces against him who inflicts upon thee thy sufferings, and not rather consider by whose warrant it is done? Is it not God, who for thy greater good hath singled thee out such an adversary as this, to the end to punish thee for thy passed crimes? The Devil could not have bereft job job of one herd of cattles, but by express permission of Almighty God: wherefore he said well, (not the devil) but the Lord bestowed them on me, and deprived me of them again. Our Saviour Christ told Pilate when he gloried in his power: john 19 non haberes potestatem, etc. Thou shouldst have no power over me, unless it were given thee from above. And this were an excellent answer to give an enemy. Divers have more profited by their enemies, than by their dearest friends. The Church had had no Martyrs if all its Tyrants had been extirpated: and should we have no enemies, we should be deprived of many a glorious Crown. Dioclesian did no less advance and propagate the Church by his inhuman cruelty, than Constantine by his reverence towards it and liberality. That rich ●armer in the Gospel commanded that both the corn and weeds should be suffered to grow up together: Sinite utraque crescere; whereas we overhasty and violent to our own perditions, no sooner can espy a weed above the ground, but we cry out presently, to the fire with these Thistles, let this Darnell be burnt, let our enemies be destroyed. Stay, stay dear Christians, we ought not to take this violent course as yet: when t●e harvest comes, there will be order given to the husbandman, to gather, first of all, the Cockle and Darnell into bundles, and cast them into the fire: and why then should we discredit our own zeal with our own in considerate haste; why are we so forward to drag ou● enemy's too deserved punishment? Never fear it, such weeds as these shall not escape the sikle & the fire; but as yet the harvest is not come, Matth. 6. expect a while. Our Saviour Christ teaching his Disciples a form of Prayer, consisting of seven Petitions to his heavenly Father, doth not without profound mystery particularly repeat and expound that which concerns the forgiveness of offences, to signify thereby without doubt, that for the rest it might suffice to have only insinuated them unto the●, but that this could never be inculcated enough: Nunquam enim nimis dicitur, quod nunquam satis dicitur. And even in this respect the royal Psalmist enlarges himself in Psal. 118. commendations of the law: Latum mandatum tuum nimis, thy law (saith he) O Lord, is exceeding broad, indeed so broad, as to command us to extend the bosom of our loves, not only to our acquaintance, but to mere strangers, as well to our adversaries, as those who are beneficial to us, to the worthy and unworthy, unto friends and enemies alike. No exterior mark of any dignity doth so testify a man to be learned, wealthy, or noble, as the actual loving of our Enemies doth us, to be the Sons of Almighty God. But, who (you will object) is so absolute a master of himself, as not to be transported sometimes, through violence of passion & danger, to some extraordinary expression of our aversion from an enemy. But we must know that it becomes a Christian, to refrain his anger, and curb such violent motions as these. St. Augustine says rarely well Audîsti convitium? ventus est. Ser. 3. inter. 17. Hom. Iratus es? fluctus est Vento igitur flante, fluctu surgente periclitatur navis, periclitatur cor tuum: audito convitio vindicari vis, & ecce vindicando te fecistinaufragium, Dost thou hear thyself ill spoken of? (says he) it is but a wind: art thou offended at it? it is but a billow; but when this wind and billows meet, thy heart is in jeopardy, the poor ship is in danger to be cast away, Thou resolvest to revenge thyself for those offensive words, and behold it is the wrack of thee. And he proceeds to give the the reason for it, & quare hoc? Why is all this? says he: quia dormit in te Christus, oblitus es Christum nimirum excidit tibi Christum cum crucifigeretur inimicis suis non Crucem, sed veniam a patre lachrimis exorasse, Because Christ is a sleep in thee, thou hast forgotten Christ, thou dost not remember how Christ, whilst he was crucified, besought his Father even with tears, to pardon, and not to punish his enemies. And now behold how Christ is a sleep in thee, who taught thee not only to watch, but even to die to pleasure thine enemies. O therefore awake Christ within thee by expostulating in this manner with thyself: And who am I, that I should revenge me of mine enemies? Who knows whether I may not sooner meet with death, than my revenge can meet with them? and then O miserable as I am, what will become of me, when Christ shall disclaim my departing soul, when he shall reject me, who hath taught mildness, not anger, who hath professed himself a master of submission, not of revenge, of charity and pardon, not hate and rancorous spite? The third Paragraph. But revenge hath neither eyes nor ears, it is carried blind and deaf away by the swing of every sudden passion, so as with good reason that ancient Poet declares himself aggrieved. — Verum ita sunt isti nostri divites Si quid benefacias, Plaut in Pan. Act 3. See ult. levior plumâ est gratia, Si quid peccatum est, plumbeas iras gerunt. It is the fashion now of the richer sort, if you do them any pleasure, their thanks are lighter than a feather, for it; but if once you displease them the memory of it lies as heavy as lead upon their galled minds. Where he seems to have lively deciphered such as now a days suffer their friendships to be blown away, and vanish with the least wind of an offence, whilst they rivit the hate of an injury as deeply in their minds, as if it were sodered there with sheets of lead O Christians for shame be more prone to pardon, lest we be found more defective herein than very Heathens themselves, lest we be convinced with so many clear examples and testimonies of theirs, as to have no colourable excuse left to pretend for pardon at that last general day, Pompey the great is no less famous in History, for his constancy to his friends, his easiness in forgiving offences, and facility in admitting of any satisfaction, than for his three glorious triumphs over the third part of the universal world. Augustus Caesar in these express terms pardoned Cinna, who had conspired against his life: O Cinna, once more I grant thee thy life; the first time as to an Enemy, now as to a Traitor and a Parricide: and hereupon he bestowed upon him the Consular dignity: and the issue of this his clemency was, that he experienced him ever after most loyal to him, and Cinna dying, left him inheritor of all he had. Phocian, a man of most innocent life, and one who had borne Offices of highest dignity in the Common wealth, being condemned to die, some of his friends, as the hangman was presenting him with the poisoned Cup, asked him, What service he would command them to his Son? Nothing (said he) but that he would never call to mind what a draught the Athenians enforce me this day to drink. It is recorded of julius Caesar, that he was unmindful of nothing but injuries. But who is there of us, who would not think it a blemish to their reputations, to have such an opinion as this conceived of them? how freshly do we bear injuries in mind? how sensible are we of them, and whilst we writ down benefits in light dust, we record them in solid flint, manet altâ ment repôstum: neither can the authority of Almighty God himself prevail, to bring us to reconciliation. God long ago hath severely prohibited all revenge, in declaring, Deut. 32. mea est ultio & ego retribuam in te●pore; Revenge belongs to me, and in time I will reward them: and notwithstanding, how many are there who impiously answer him again, No, o Lord, revenge belongs to me, and I will requite them: Our Lord replies, It is my revenge, let me alone with it; And yet man desists not: nay, rather mine, leave the managing of it to me; you O Lord are too soon appeased, your revenge is too too slow. And thus with most intolerable presumption we usurp the authority of Almighty God, and dare even impiously to wrest the sword out of God's hands to strike our enemies, whose punishment he reserves to himself, and against a●l right put on the severity of a ●udge, whilst we are parties in the offence ourselves. The fourth Paragraph. IT is recounted by divers credible Authors, how a certain person who had received an injury had recourse once to one Sisovius an ancient holy man; Rufin. Aquil l. 3. n. 7●. Paschas●e. 10. Pelag. libel 1●. r. 10. Palla●l. in a●pen Puusi Hist. n 13. to whom after he had declared his aggrievances, as the manner is, with all exaggeration of circumstance, he besought him to let him declare himself a man, and revenge himself. The same with all instancy of prayer desired him not to show himself so fare a man, as to become a Devil: For his revenge, God would have care to dispose all for his greater good; wherefore he was to commit it wholly unto him, and even according to true fortitude this was the sufficientest revenge that he could take, who might assure himself that his enemy should never escape the divine hands unpunished. The other replied, Father I am fully resolved never to pardon him, nor to desist till I have requited him with the like injury. For heaven's love, answered the holy man, be a man, but so as you be a Christian withal, and consider more what reason may persuade you, than what your violent passion may suggest: Why, said the other, it is no other than reason which puts me upon this resolution, not to spare him, who cares not for sparing any. O but, said Sisovius, you cannot determine your own right yourself, nor execute what you have determined; it is only in God's power to punish his creatures, he is the Lord of vengeance, and therefore may freely take revenge; for us we ought not intermeddle in it. Besides I am sure you are not ignorant how Christ hath not only counselled but even commanded us to pardon, nay to pray for, to love, and do good unto our enemies. Father, said he, never persuade me, my heart is a tempestuous sea, & can never be calmed until I have taken vengeance of mine enemy. Then answered Sisovius, since you are so resolved, respite at least your anger until we have commended ou● selve● to God in prayer. And thereupon they both fell down upon their knees: when the holy man began, prescribing unto the other (as it were) this for ●e of Prayer. O God we have no need of thy assistance any more, neither do we request thee hereafter to be solicitous for us. We will sufficiently provide for ourselves; revenge belongs unto us, and we will reward our foes as they deserve. Behold even now we are upon the point of subjecting our enemies as footstools under our feet. These words so lively touched the heart of that other man, that casting himself all along at Sisovius feet, he vowed with many tears there in the place, so wholly to lay aside all thought of his revenge, as never thereafter, by the least word to call it to mind again. And this is that, which he, who only by excellence is just, commanded us; this is the peculiar distinction of the sons of God, not only to make no difficulty to remit offences, but even to recompense them with benefits. 2 Thes. 5. Videte nequis malum pro malo alicci reddat, etc. look (says the Apostle) that none of you requite evil for evil, but always that which is good, pursue towards each other, and towards al●; But our Saviour Christ in more express terms doth oblige us unto more perfection. Vobis dico qui auditis, ●uke 6. etc. to you I say that do hear me, love your enemies do good to them that hate you, and bless those who curse you; and according as you will that men do to you, do you also the like to them again. And, if you love them that love you, what thanks is it to you? for sinners love those who love them: and if you do good to those, who do you good, what thanks is it to you? For sinners also do the like; but do you love your enemies, and your reward shall be much, and you shall be Sons of the highest, because himself is beneficial to the evil and ungrateful. This with good reason thou dost enjoin us, this with great liberality thou dost promise us. But, O dear Lord, how many are there who will not hear thee? How many that care so little for thy Commandment, as their hates and lives have both but one period? They protest against that effeminate baseness, as they title it, to be easily persuaded to put up a wrong. For their parts they should account it their only felicity to repay the injurer in his own coin again: and if Solomon-like they might be masters of their wish, a hundred times rather than Wisdom, they should desire Revenge. These are they who never cease to importune Almighty God: Da mihi Domine inimicorum meorum animas; Grant me, O Lord the souls of mine enemies; as for the rest I refer it unto thee. This is the true spirit of revenge indeed, neither to regard the Law of God, nor to be terrified with his threats, to be so far from putting up an injury, as to return it as soon as it is offered them, at every light word to vent their choler, and when anger hath once stirred them up, to follow every impulse of their enraged minds, seeking with all earnestness their enemy's destruction. Haec ulciscendi libido, according to Tertullian, negotium curat aut gloriae aut malitiae: sed gloria ubique vana est, & malitia Domino odiosa; hoc quidem loco maxim, quia malum duplicat quod semel factum est. This lust of vengeance doth labour either to satisfy its malice, or desire of glory: for glory it is a mere vanity, and malice is an odious thing to Almighty God, especially in these circumstances where of a single offence we make a double one. All the differene betwixt him who provokes unto an injury and him who is provoked, is only this, that the one hath his hand first in mischief, the other last, and both are alike guilty of offending God. For he counsels us, when we are strucken on the one cheek, presently to offer the other, and not to desist till we have tired out our enemy's malice with our patience: assuring ourselves that so we shall annoy him more, than if we put ourselves upon our own defence, since he for whose sake we suffer all, will for our sakes chastise him with deserved punishment. Why then should we arrogate unto ourselves the right of our defence, which God unto our greater glory hath reserved unto himself? He is the undertaker for our patience; whosoever trusts him with his wrongs, he will revenge them; with his losses he will redress them; with his griefs he will remedy them; finally with his death, and he will restore him unto life again. The 5. Paragraph. But you will object with the Poet: juu. 1. Saty. Semper ego auditor tantum nunquam nè reponam Vexatus toties? Shall I be still a hearer vexed so oft, and ne'er requite them? Never (dear Christian) never, although a hundred, although a thousand times, if thou wilt declare thyself a true Son of God, commit thy cause to him, and the while suffer, Baruch. 4. and be silent. Nocentes peribunt qui te vexaverunt & qui gratulati sunt in tua ruina punientur: The wicked who have vexed thee shall perish, and those who rejoiced in thy ruin shall be punished. Colos. 3. He who hath done an injury, shall be rewarded according to his misdeeds. You will say perhaps, I am content to forgive mine enemy, but yet I will not forget the injury, I will remember him. If this be all thy charity, be assured th●t God will requite thee with the like: Homo homini reservat iram, & a Deo quoerit medelam? etc. M●n to man (saith the Son of Syrach, Eccl. 28. reserveth anger, and doth he seek for remedy of God? He hath not mercy of a man, like unto himself, and doth he entreat for his own sins? he, flesh as he is, reserveth anger, and doth he demand propitiation of God? Who shall obtain any thing for his sin by prayer? It is but a vain pretext of clemency to say, I will not revenge myself, but yet withal I will not fo●ge the injury; either give that which th●u resolvest to give, without any reservation at all, or never expect by it to purchase heaven. You know what threatening language our Saviour uses, Sic & Pater meus coelestis faciet vobis, Matth. 18. etc. So my heavenly Father will deal by you if each of you do not forgive your brother from your hearts, etc. But you will say for my part I should be ready enough to pardon him; neither am I so jealous for mine own ●onour; but that public office which I sustastaine is interest in it, that no injury offered to my private person do pass unpunished. For God's love, dear Christians, let us not stand too much on ceremonies, in things which so nearly concern our salvation; this is but a flourish of a few airy words. Stephen was a public officer as well as you, and yet we see he was no ways emboldened by it, to take up stones, and deal by his persecutors as they dealt by him: neither did he suppose that any convenient course to defend his dignity, but with a most sincere heart he cried out, Domine jesu ne statuas illis hoc peccatum: O jesus do not impute this sin unto them. And so our crucified Lord, not only as he was son of man, but of Almighty God, besought his Father, even with tears, to pardon his enemies. Pater dimitte illis. No, there is no mortal creatures of so high a dignity to whom it can be any loss of reputation to forgive an injury, especially if it concern no other than himself: Levit. 1● non quaeras ultionem nec memoreris injuriae Civium tuorum, do not seek for vengeance not bear in mind the injuries of your own Citizens. But you will say, he hath injured you without a cause. Had it not been causeless, it had been no injury; where both are alike faulty, neither are injured. But what do I talk of cause? What cause did joseph give unto his brethren in only making relation of his dream? And yet afterwards being chief Governor of Egypt, in a generous kind of silence, he buried all offence. But this of yours is of exorbitant strain. And wherefore all this exaggeration? If the offence were light, your reward for pardoning of it would be but small. We can never rise to any eminent degree of perfection, but by the way of suffering great injuries. Hearken what St. H●erome saith in this particular: Deus faber est, S. Hier. in c. 5 Matth. inimici lima sunt, & mallei, quibus nos ille expurgat Sanctosque soulpit. God is the statuary, and our enemies are his chissells and hammers, with which he polishes us, and m●kes us into Saints. H●th your enem●es ever stoned you, as they did Saint P●ul, or scourged and crucified you, as they did our Saviour Christ? But you will allege you are noble, and he who injured you is but some base borne peasant some Son of the earth. O Samian Potsherd art thou not of the same Clay (or little better) of which thine enemy is made? thou noble? if thou permits thyself once to be over come by this appetite of revenge, know thou art no longer the offspring of a noble family; but the slave of sin. Wherefore be advised by the wise man: Memento novissimorum & define inimicari, Remember the last things, Eccl. 28. and cease to be at enmity. You will tell me, though you would never so feign forgive your enemy, yet you cannot overcome yourself therein. The reason is, because you will take no pains to get the victory I know that as long as you nourish grudge in your m●ndes, all your thoughts which arise from thence, taste of nothing but bitterness, whilst your bosom is no other but a nursery of nettles, thorns, and briars, with which your ulcerated Conscience is stung, and smarts unto the very blood. Do you burn with desire of revenge? haste with all speed to extinguish the flame, least in debarring your own entrance into heaven, you but accelerate the fire of hell, where you shall burn for all eternity. The sustaining of injuries is the ga●es of heaven, and, qui vindicari vult, a Domino inveniet vindictam & peccata illius servans servabit; Eccl. 2●. he who will be revenged, shall find vengeance of our Lord, and with great observance he will keep his sin. You can take no sleep perhaps, nor have an appetite to any food, as long as you behold a Mardocheus sitting securely at the Palace gate, as long as you see your enemy uncontrolled, conspiring your ruin. How bravely we deceive ourselves to our own perdition? Ezekiel tells of cerraine Soldiers, qui posuerunt gladios suos sub capitibus suis, Ezek. 32. & descenderunt ad infernum cum armis suis, who laid their swords under their heads, and so descended together with their weapons into hell: behold a new manner of pillow, to sleep on swords. And truly they take their rest upon no other, who are so desirous of revenge, as they never rest but when they are fight, quarrelling, harming of other men. In this manner Cain, that primitve disciple of the Devil (as St. Basil terms him) for no other end sought his brother's destruction, but upon the ruin of his glory for to build his own, though the effect was far contrary to his expectation. Esau found no place for any mercy, although he sought it with instancy of many tears: so Saul, Ad. Heb. 12 so Antiochus were shamefully repulsed even from the Altar of mercy, to which they fled; and that deservedly, since they never spared any whom they held for enemies: Eccl. 28. judicium sine misericordia fiet illi qui vonfecerit misericordiam, He shall have judgement pass upon him without any mercy, who hath not afforded mercy unto others; whereas King David redoubled his wickedness with a foul relapse, and died his infamous Adultery in blood, and yet he no sooner began to show himself contrite, he had no sooner pronounced these two short words Peccavi Domino, 2 Kings 12. I have sinned against the Lord, but he heard presently from the mouth of the Prophet Nathan Dominus peccatum tuum transtulit. The Lord hath remitted your sin. How often did Antiochus confess that he had sinned, and with grievous cries implore the Divine pity, vowing offerings to the Temple, & promising for the time to come an entire conversion; and yet his petition never would be heard; and from whence proceeded this differeece of favour, but from their different carriages towards their enemies? For David wilt he was inferior to no King, in prowess and deeds of arms, was superior unto all in pardoning his foes, insomuch as he esteemed revenge the most unworthy his dignity of all other crimes; whereas that other Tyrant behaved himself in more than hostile manner towards his own Citizens, breathing forth nothing but swords, fire, blood, slaughter, and revenge. The 6 Paragraph. THough Physicians most commonly use not to give over t eir patients till they see them so faint as they require a tomb (as it were) to lean their bones against; yet the●e are some maladies so pestiferous as at first sight of the patiented, the can say, He is but a dead m●n, go and provide him a grave. In like manner though in this life we are not to despair of the salvation of any, how wicked soever they be; notwithstanding this is such an incurable disease, where the vitiated bowels even swim with gall, and the m●nde is tortured with the pangs of hatred, and desire of revenge, that St. john plainly declares his opinion of such an one: 1 john 5. Make ready a Sepulchre for this miserable wretch, for his sin is mortal, and to the death; neither would I advise any to pray for him. They rarely recover who are once obstinate in revenge, and there is no sense, where there is nothing but bitterness. Eccl. 22. But although all the wise and learned men in the world cry out against us: though all the Prophets threaten us, Angels exhort us to bury our injuries in forgetfulness, and enter into league of friendship with our enemies, yet we despise them all, and desperately persever in pursuit of our revenge. La●● of all, the Learnedest and wisest of all wise and learned men, the instruction of Prophets, and King of Angels with sovereign power, supreme authority, doth visit us himself not so much by way of persuasion as by authority to bring us to accord, not to give us counsel, but an absolute law, and yet with extreme audacity we remain still obstinate. But mark this Dialogue, how Christ our Sovereign King commands, and how his subjects contrary his command. Here stands our Saviour Christ, & in his father's name command's them: Matth. 5. Luke 6. Ego autem dico vobis, diligite inimicos vestros: I say unto you, love your enemies. ●here stands his rebellious subjects, and answer him presumptuously again: O Christ this is lost labour you do command in vain. To you I speak, to you who are Christians. We side ourselves presently with Heathens, and none gives ear to Christ. I say unto you, resist not evil; So we shall be counted cowards and weak spirited. Pray for those who persecute & calumniate you. How seldom, & how cold this prayer is; That you may be Sons of your Father who is in Heaven. We shall buy this title at too dear a price. Do good to those who hate you. It is against our natures, O Lord command us somewhat more tolerable. Forgive others, and you shall be forgiven yourselves. It is impossible, content yourself, we cannot do it. In brief, we will not restrain our anger, bridle ourselves, nor contain our hands; as for our thoughts, how is it possible to govern them? If you shall remit to men their offences, your heavenly father will remit you yours. For us, we are resolved to perish, so our enemies perish with us. The 7. Paragraph. O Christians, and is Heaven then such an odious thing as you must needs make such impetuous haste to hell? Do you not remember the daily petition which you make, Et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut & nos dimittimus, And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive? Do you not perceive your obligation from hence, to love your enemy, under pain of binding yourself unto the forfeiture, as often as you supplicate Almighty God to forgive you, as you forgive other men, when you do but say in a manner, For me, I am resolved to pardon no man, but to take revenge on all, and persecute them with implacable hatred to the death; wherefore do thou, O Lord if thou please, requite me with the like. No this is the language of the reprobate, the predestinate are of a far different strain: it is impossible to provoke them by any injury beyond their custom of interceding in this manner for their enemies; Father forgive them, and impute not this sin unto them; for my part, I freely pardon them, I freely forgive them, without all thought of ever revenging it. This is the stile of the Predestinate. And here, before I draw to a conclusion, I would desire to know of thee whosoever readest this, and yet bearest a grudge unto thine enemy in thy mind, whether thou believe all this to be true or no? without doubt you will not deny it, unless you can believe the truth would conspire with falsehood to deceive you, Christ with untruth. Supposing then that all is true, as most true it is, what impious contumacy is this in you? what obstinate contempt of the Law of God? what presumptuous contradicting of the will of Christ? Christ exhorts you with all earnestness to pardon, forgive, and love not only y ur friends, but even your enemies, be they whom they will; and yet do you remain obstinate, yet do you hate your foes? Will you yet afford them no forgiveness? yet cannot you love those who maliciously have detracted you? Do you care so little for Christ, so little for Almighty God? do you set so light by heaven, by your eternal salvation so light? cannot all this extort from you one such word as this, seriously uttered, and proceeding from your heart: Ignosco, dimitto, I pardon, I forgive, and beseech Almighty God to do the like, if perchance any have offended me? Yet dost thou stand like a senseless statue, without all voice and motion of forgiveness? Yet out of that iron bosom of thine, dost thou breathe nothing but such ominous sounds as these: away with mine enemies, an evil death be with them, and all that is evil else? Yet dost thou blow out nothing but revenge, death, and destruction against thine enemies? Is your hate of your enemies not yet extinguished, do you yet refuse to o●ey the commandments of our Saviour Christ? If so, go with other Christians your like, take what way you will, you can never be out of it; one way or other you will arrive infallibly unto your journey's end, the kingdom of everlasting woe and wretchedness. Go on confidently, blindfold as you are, and assure yourselves that every path you can take will lead you unto hell; the certain course you can take to arrive thither, is by mistaking of your way, in the mean while, hold this for certain, Non potest amare Deum qui non cessat odisse inimicum, That he cannot love God, who ceaseth not to hate his Enemy. intaglio etching of an old man carrying a cross Emblem X. Detestation of Sins passed I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent Reu: 2 V 5. The Tenth Sign, Of Predestination, IS the detestat on of our passed sins. The D vice is, An aged man bearing his rose. The Motto, Veniam tibi cito, Apoc 2. & movebo candelabrum tuum ●e loco suo, nisi poenitentiam egeris. I will come presently to thee, and remove thy Candlestick out of its place, unless thou repent. St. Austin esteems it a more t flagitiou, crime to rejoice and glory in the remembrance of our passed ●ins, whereas we ought rather to conceive great sorrow for them, and endeavour with all diligence to extirpate them ●or a the same Saint truly affirms in another place, qui pectus suum tundit, nec cor igat peccata, solidat, Lib. 5. de lib. Arbitr. non tollit He that bears his breast, and doth not amend his life, rather inroots his sins more in him, than extirpates them. Th● royal Prophet affirms of himself in the midst of his lamentations, pecca●ū meum contra me est semper, that hi● sins were always against him; and therefore he beseeches God with ●uch instancy of prayer, to create in him a new heart, and renew a right spirit in him: Cor mundum crea in me Deus & spiritum rectum innova in vis●eribus meis And such as those a●e only truly happy, Psal. 50. who imitate this holy sorrow, and prosecute their sinne● with such a generous hate as this; who grieve only, because th●y are grieved no more, and afflict themselves, because they do not afflict themselves enough. This is a true sorrow indeed, according to Almighty God, which (to speak with the Apostle) maketh repentance unto salvation, 2 Cor. 7. not to be repent of. Where we are maturely to consider the w●rd in stabilem salutem, to lasting and permanent salvation, to salvation not to be repent of: For many by Repentance acquire the state of Salvation, but alas their salvation is not permanent and lasting. For which cause our Saviour expressly admonisheth us, Nisi paenitentiam habue●itis, Luke 13. omnes similiter peribitis, ●nlesse ye have repentance, ye shall all likewise p rish; where he in● nuates unto us, that it is not enough to repent, but we must also have repentance, that is, be conversant in it; neither is it to be undertaken only at certain times, and then intermitted, fo● so long again; but we are still to actuate ourselves therein, with a firm purpose of persevering. And this is the Doctrine delivered to us from that angelical mouth: St. Tho. vera & ser●a penitentia non tantum a peccatis praeteritis expiate, sed etiam preservat à futuris: that true and sincere repentance, doth not only expiate us from our passed sins, but also preserves us from future ones; he doth not repent for his sins, who hath not the like purpose withal, of never falling into the like sins again. The first Paragraph. CHrist having healed the Paraletick in the Gospel, john 5. commanded him to take up his bed and walk, which he performed instantly: & sustulit grabatum suum & ambulabat. The occasions of sinning are first to be avoided, and removed out of the way, and then we are to proceed to a most virtuous course of life The Prodigall-child being almost starved with hunger said, Surgam & ibo ad patrem meum. I will rise, and go to my Father. Neither did he only say he would go, but he went indeed; whereas we, for the most part, when it comes to this, through our own negligence do lose both us● of hands and feet, we are only active in words, nothing in deeds; mighty of our tongues and feeble of our hands; we bend the bow, but never sho●t the arrow; we purpose much, but never perform any thing; we are sorry when we are fallen into any sin, but use no diligence in providing not to fall again. And as those who wish to have their wounds cured, but apply not the remedy, so we would avoid the falling into sins, but divert not the stream of affections which carries us towards them Age finds us still procrastinating, and seeking of delays; our li●e hastes away, whilst we do nothing, but purpose, and make fair promises, and is past before we put them in execution; when death arrests us in midst of our long purposes, and derides us for having consumed so many years in resolving what to do, without doing any thing Such an one was St Augustine once, but not long such an one: he ●id not diferre that till he was old, which no man can undertake too young: Dicebam apud me intus, Ecce m● do fiat, 8 Cons. c. 11. modo fiat: Et cum verbo jam ibam in placitum, jam pene faciebam, & non faciebam nec relabebar tamen in pristina, sed de p●oximo stabam, & r●sp●rabam. Retinebant me nugae nugarum, & vanitates vanitatum antiquae ●micae meae, & succu●iebant vestem me●m carneam & submurm rabant: dimittis ne ●os? I said in myself (says he) behold I will do it shortly, and ●●or●ly it shall be done. And having said this, I was satisfied, I was even upon the point of performance, but performed nothing; yet I returned not wholly to my old customs again, but stood panting not far of. I was stayed and detained by those old friends of mine, the toys of toys, and vanities of vanities; and shaking me by this same vestment of flesh, they muttered these words, Will you forsake us then? Yes truly he forsook you, and wholly discarded you, he shook off your intolerable yoke, and detested in such manner the ways of his former life, as he never thereafter set foot in them again. The second Paragraph. WE often undertake a better course of life, but we persever not in it, and so whilst we go not forwards with our web, it unravels again, and becomes as mi●hapen as it was before. We want not (as we may well suppose) many pious endeavours, holy thoughts, pure intentions, and wise deliberations; and in all which, we are but like the Athenians, who enacted excellent laws, but were stark nought to urge them on to execution, or provide they might not be antiquated by the times abuse. We prescribe to ou● selves a most laudable course of life, and most conducing to our salvation, but at every little tediousness, and molestation we desist from it; we fortify ourselves with many holy, and fiery purposes, but at th● first parley of our rebellious flesh, at the first solicitation of our alluring enemy, seconded with others of that flattering crew, we render up ourselves, and without any resistance suffer ourselves to be trailed into the filthy pu●dle of our former sins, so unconstant is o●r Repentance, and so little durable. O dear Christian, thou hast resolved to lead a life most pure, to decline all occa●ons which may blemish it, to refrain thine eyes, the solicitors of lust, and mortify the unruliness of thy flesh, and thou dost well therein. Thou beginnest to deb●t thy tongue from mis-beseeming words; to harbour an aversion from reading lascivious books. And all this very well Thou purposest to suppress thy anger, to moderate thy passions, to reject all enmity, and banish envy wholly from thy mind, and thou dost excellent well. Thou resolvest to be more reserved in speech, to be silent whilst others are detracted of, and patiented when th● self art injured; and all this excellent well. But how far more excellent were it to remain still constant to our purposes? whereas, alas how many are there, who yesterday could bridle their tongues, contain their lubricities, suppress their angers, and overcome themselves, who to day are wholly effused on their former licentiousness, and in receiving again the servile yoke of unruly lust, and a licentious tongue, and giving the reins of their furious passions, become as very slaves to vices as they were before It is no true repentanc, wihich is not stable, and permanent, but rather inconstancy and light volubility of mind. We are like those cowardly fencers, who at blunt can handle their weapons skilf lly, and make great flourishes, but being challenged to the field at sharp, the glance of the naked weapons so dazzles their eyes, as they run dastardly away, and expose their backs to those wounds which make them fearfully turn away their face. We are like unexpert foot men, who at their first setting out do keep a mighty ado, ut they are presently all in a sweat, and forced to take up, b●fore they have half run the race. How often do we undertake matters of great consequence, which we begin laudably, and for a time hopefully prosecute, until● by degrees we languish, afterwards come to fall, and at th● length lie grovelling all along? That ●ice makes vain ostentation of blossoms, which only promises fruit, b t never produces any; That Architect lays but a bootless foundation on which he never raiseth a building up; and what doth it avail a Mariner to hoist up sail, weigh Anchor, and betake him to the stern, if he never put to sea, or else make for land again, as soon as he is out of the haven's mouth? And what do we but lay the foundation with this Architect, and never go forward with the building we have in hand? Begin our Exordium with t●e Orator, but rarely come to our peroration? Set Sail with the Mariner but for every little blast, stand for the harbour again: What have we more frequently in our mouths, than I will amend my manners, I will reclaim my life, and yet, what is less seriously performed? Strait from the receiving of the Sacraments we start out courageously towards the Goal, but before we have run half way, we faint and lay us down for weariness. When none can discern in us any memorial of good purpose we ever had, or of that sacred refection; so mindful we are still of injuries, so forgetful of what we piously resolved; so as with good reason Polybius saith, Man is accounted the wisest of all animated things, bu● for my part I hold him the foolishest of all: for other Animals are ever wary after they have once received harm: The Fox is never taken in the same Gin again: the Wolf shuns the pitfall, the dog a cudgel the second time; but only man is so unwary, so oblivious a thing, as from time to to time be falls most commonly into the same sins again. The third Paragraph. GOd complains by the Prophet isaiah, Non posuisti haec, etc. Thou hast not taken this to heart, Isaiah 4●. neither remembered the latest things; and I have s●id, even when thou hast committed all this, return unto me, and she hath not returned: Repentance, (saith St. Bernard) without amendment avails us nothing; For if one build an edifice, and another demolish it, what obtain they but their labour for their pain: Eccl. 34. Qui enim baptizatur à mortuo, etc. For he who is w●sh●d from the dead, and toucheth him again, what doth his washing benefit him? True repentance goes ever accopanyed with amendment; when gluttony is stinted, luxury amortized, ●ride depressed, and our bodies subjected unto holiness, whi●h were before slaves of iniquity. And all this we promise faithfully to execute; and yet a day scarcely pasteth, sometimes not an hour, before all our promises are forgot, and we returned to our f●rmer bent again: And what Isaiah doth so much deplore, of a wholesome sadness, we make our merriment, Venite sumamus vinum, Isaiah 56. & impleamur ebrietate, & erit sicut hodie, sic & cras, & multò amplius, Come give us some wine, and let us take our fill of drunkenness, as we do to day, so let us tomorrow, and that with advantage. We are just of Pharaohs condition, for he, as soon as he perceived the rain, hail, and thunder to be passed over, began to sin more licentiously than before; so we, after we have obtained remission for our former sins, do commonly fall into more grievous ones. How often do we seem Lambs in the morning, and become Lions before night, wearing Tigers natures, masked under humane shapes? How often do we appear Angels when we rise, and yet before th● evening become scarcely men? So often we change visards, and most commonly the most ugly is that which best pleaseth us. And thus of vessels of glory, alas, with too frequent change, and vicissitude, we become the vessels of ignominy and shame: Sicut autem aegrotantes, Hom. 3. ap po●. (saith chrysostom) nisi semper ordinate vixerint nulla ipsis discidisciplinae per tres aut quatuor dies servatae utilitas, sic & peccantes nisi semper sobrii sint, nihil prod●rit ipsis duorum, aut trium dierum correctio. As infirm persons, unless they have lived orderly before, receive no benefit by temperating themselves only for a day or two: so unless sinners do get a habit of maturity, the amendment of three or four days will nothing profit them. Have you not marked young Chickens, how whilst they are straggling up and down to pick up worms, and flies, the Kite so●ring aloft, singles out one of them, and stooping suddenly snatches it away with her, when all the rest run c●ying to hid themselves under their mother's wings; but not being able long to contain themselves there, they must out again, and utterly unmindful of their former danger, they are all dispersed, as busy as before; when the Kite watching its opportunity again, ketches up another, and flies away with it: then in as great a fright as they were before, they flock again unto their feathery refuge; where after they have lurked a while, all their fear and danger is forgot again, and so they sally out, and meet with the like encounters, so long, until the poor d●m have never a Chicken left: even just in this manner death doth play with us; h●re he seizeth upon a neighbour, there on a kinsman, o● near friend of ours, whose loss, in that so ne●re a blow hath reference to ourselves, not without reas●n, make s us tremble and lament, and seriously bethink ourselves of amending our lives; but how long doth this terror, these lamentations last? Some day or two, and then we pursue our wont trains again, and forgetting wholly our sorrow and heaviness, we burst forth into immoderate laughter, and our old riotousness, we seek out unjust ways to thrive, we return to our own forsworn intemperance, and all our other circular vices, effusing ourselves with unrestrayned licentiousness, on the accustomed excesses, of our passed life, and so long we continue in this dead security, until death with its cold hand doth gripe our hearts, and make our eyes run with the last tears we shall ever shed. Then that will only profi● us which we have done, and to wish to have done this or that, will avail us nought: Then our most of comfort will be to remember that which cost us most pain to effect it. But we neither sufficiently credit ourselves, nor others, in point of this verity: to day we conceive a detestation of our sins, and to morrow commit the like, or more grievous ones again, dallying in this manner with Almighty God, when we have scarcely washed away one sin, with repentant tears, but we commit another worthy of as many more, connecting (as it were that chain of iniquity, which Isaiah the Prophet so condoles, Isaiah 5. and yet so menaceth withal. Vae qui trahitis iniquitatem in funibus, & quasi vinculum plaustri peccatum. Even so we add sin to sin, and for the most part, the latter more enormous than the first: so we are always inclining unto the worse, like Antiochus Epiphanes, of whom it was said, That he was a good child, an ill youth, and a wicked man. By the address of Repentance and Confession being delivered from our sins, we are fervent for the first week after, the second we grow tepid, and the third wax wholly cold; insomuch, as losing all spirit, we become dead again. O men, more changeable than the Moon, who not only every month, but every week, nay often every day have their increase, wain, excesses, and defects! How many tides do daily ebb and flow within the Euripus of a narrow breast? How often from fruitful Olives do we degenerate into wild and savage plants? O volubility, O inconstancy of ours, more variable than fortune itself, which when it ceaseth to be good, only by degrees, at least becometh bad. Prov. 11. Impius facit opus instabile, The work of the impious is unconstant and wavering. But on the contrary, the paths of the just are like a resplendent light, Procedit, Prov. 4. & crescit usque ad perfectum diem, which gains of the sky increases to a perfect day. The Predestinate have such a horror from any sin, as they wholly break of all commerce with it, thy know how dangerous a thing it is, to dally in this manner with Almighty God, to repent us of one sin to day, and to morrow to commit others, to repent afresh. They never remember without hearty sorrow, on what guilty terms they once stood with Almighty God; not forget how hamously then they offended him; which is our only efficatious way to obtain grace and favour of Almighty God, who then forgets himself offended by us, when we with sorrow remember our offence. intaglio etching of an anchor Emblem XI. Propension of our Will to good I have inclined my heart to perform thy statutes always, even unto the end Psal: 119 V 112. The eleventh sign, Of Predestination. IS the propension of our will to good, whose Device is an Ancho, with these words: Inclinavi cor meum ad faciend as justificationes tuas in aeternum propter retributionem, Psal. 119. I have inclined my heart to fulfil thy Laws for ever, etc. This inclination of our mind doth then declare itself, when one shall have firrmly resolved with himself, never, although it imported the loss of his life, and all he had, to defile his conscience with any deadly sin. Psal. 118. ●uravi & statui custodire judicia iustltiae tuae. I have resolved and sworn (says the royal Prophet) to observe the judgements of thy righteousness; & St john, Quod si cor nostrum, etc. john 5. If our own hearts reprehend us not, than we may confidently have our recourse to God. Father Lewis of Granado affirms that it is a sign of all others the most evident of reprobation, when one doth easily, and without any sense of sorrow fall into mortal sin. He is but too far gone in wickedness, who will not so much as seriously desire to return to good; whereas, to be willing to become good, is a great part of goodness. For the predestinate, as they would nothing which is evil, so would they nothing but what is pleasing to God. Wherefore with St. Paul every hour and moment they are crying out, Acts 9 Domine, quid me vi● facere, O Lord what would you have me to do? th●re is nothing which for your sake I will refuse, nothing which I shall esteem too hard, or difficile, nothing so painful or grievous, but in having you for help and guide, I will with my sufferance overcome it all; Psal. 39 and there where my ability comes short, I will supply with the ardency of my desires; where my feet cannot carry me, I will mount upon the wings of my cogitations, and as the Heli●trop to its beloved Son, so I, O Lord, w●l wholly conv●rt my will to thine. In capite libriscriptu● est de me, ut facerem voluntatem tuam, In the beginning of the book it is written of me, that I should do thy will; It hath been mire only desire O my Lord, etc. I have obtained to place thy Law in the midst of my heart, in the midst of my memory, my understanding, and my will. St. Bernard one ever ready pressed for to obey the Divine will) pauperimus ego (says he) non habeo nisi unum minimum, voluntatem meam, & non dabo illam ad voluntatem illius, qui toto se totum me comparavit? Miserable and needy wretch as I am, I have but one mite, this Will of mine, and shall I not bestow that upon his Will, who to redeem me wholly, did wholly give himself? Without doubt it is most just, and reasonable that the Divine Will should be the Author, and a rule to ours: Constitui & conformavi voluntatem meam divinae, etc. I have resolved (sayas Epictetus) to conform my Will to the Divine Will. Will he visit me with sickness? then be it so; that I enterprise any thing? I will undertake it then; that I possess any thing? his pleasure be it? that I forgo it? behold I am prepared; finally, that I should die? I am content. And who now, when I am thus resolved can enforce me to an thing against my will, more than they can God himself? Thus much had a Heathen conceived of these verities, who only lived in the blind night of ignorance; and what a shame than were it for Christians in the clear Sunshine of Christianity not to behold as much as he? Fiat volunt as tua, thy Will, O Lord, be done in earth, Matth. 1.3. as it is in heaven. Wherefore accing●mini & estote filii pote tes, ut pugnetis adversusnationes, etc. arm yourselves, and be mighty s●ns, that you may fight against these nations, (against the frequent assaults of vices) but as it shall be the will of heaven, so be it done. The first Paragraph. IN City's according to the principal clock the common ones use ordinarily to be set, and why likewise should not the wills of every man conform themselves like little clocks, unto the great celestial one only, the Will of Almighty God? Sicut fuerit voluntas in coelo, sic fiat. As the Will shall be in heav●n, so let it be. It is incredible how grateful unto God is such an act as this. God congratulated with himself, as for some extraordinary happiness: Inveni David filium lesse virum secundum cor meu●, qui faciet omnes voluntares meas, I have found David the son of l●sse, a man according to mine own heart, who performs my will in every thing. God had long sought for such a man, he laid wait for one of that mind and disposition, who in all occurrences should propose unto himself, no other aim than the performing of his will; and having found such an one, even like one overjoyed, our most bountiful father cries out, I●veni qui faciet omnes voluntate● meas I have found him who will do my will in every thing. And t●is was the reason why the Son of God was so exact himself in fulfilling his father's will: Descendide coelo non ut faciam voluntatem meam sed voluntatem ejus, john 6. q i misit me. I have descended from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him who sent me From the rule of this direct and sovereign Will, they are but too fare swarved, who not only not obey at a beck, but ever stir not for its absolute command; Prov. 14. Sapiens timet & declinat a malo, stultus transilit & confidit, the wise man fears and so escapes evil, whilst the fool is confident and boldly leaps into it. And this is as the Scripture says, Prov. 30. comedere ac tergere os & dicere non sum operatus malum, to eat and wipe their mouth clean again, and say I have done no harm. Those who are of this mind do but laugh whilst they engage their souls unto the devil; they lose their part of heaven, and do not feel the loss, as accounting it but a light and trivial one. The second Paragraph. But on the contrary, the predestinate do lay so sure a foundation of virtue in their minds, that they conceive a horror from all kind of offence, and from the least shadow of any sin, & never consent to take pleasure in that which may be displeasing to Almighty God, but they put on this firm resolution to perform that which may be most acceptable unto God, although thereby they should incur the displeasure of all the world Thither they bend all their thoughts, and hence all discourse is derived, neither may we doubt, but from their inflamed wills with greater ardour than Ep●ctetus did, they will burst forth into these louder exclamations, O my God, and my love, fare be it from me, that I should not ever have the same will with thee: no, no, my will is thine, or rather indeed I have no will lo●ger of mine own, since all I have is thine. And now of necessity I must f●llow thy will, since it is all I have. I neither do, nor aught to desire any thing, O my God, but that which pleaseth thee. Is it thy pleasure then that I be sick? then be it so; or poor? and that too; to endure much pain? and that; wouldst thou have me suffer contumelies and injuries? I am resolved to be despised and contemned, although it would touch me to the quick, I am prepared; wilt thou deprive me of all solace and delight? I am resolved to be perplexed in mind, although it should last to the world's e●d, I am content; wilt thou bereave me of all that a hich I most affect? although it is most hard to departed with that we love, yet I likewise will, since thou wilt have it so; wilt thou have me die? of all difficile things, this is most difficile, and yet I should not refuse to die a thousand times, so I might ●ut breathe my last in the dea●e arms of thy most sacred will: and that a violent death? In spite of nature I would embrace it too: w●lt thou have me a Saint in Heaven? O my God, it is my hearts desire; or a damned soul in Hell? ●las sweet ●esus if ever thou hadst been so minded, it had been done, since I have deserved it, but it is apparent it is a ●●ing thou never desirest, since thou sheddest thine own precious blood to hinder it. But yet if it were possible (as it cannot be) and I might have my choice whether thy will should be transgressed, and I a Saint in heaven, or else I damned, and thy blessed will fulfilled, O my God, I should make no difficulty to conclude, that it were fare better for me to be damned, than thy will left undone. But, O thou sovereign goodness, I am sure thou desirest not my death, since thou wast pleased that thine own Son should die, to the end that I might live I beseech thee therefore, O heavenly father, for the most hitter death of that only Son of thine, that thou wouldst preserve me from eternal death Look upon those wounds, look upon that blood which for my sake was sacrificed, when to spare thy servant, thou wouldst not spare thy son. Behold me thy humblest servant, O thou immortal ●ing at the least sign of thy good pleasure, ready at thy command; all that, shall be most grateful unto me which proceeds from virtue of thy holy will; Paratum cor meu●, Deus, paratum, Psal. 127. cor meum, my heart, my God, is prepared, my heart is ready. Such servants as these their heavenly master hath in high esteem, who with such a vigilant eye observe every least sign of his sacred pleasure, as they make it no other than a law to theirs. And with a cheerful countenance are ever ready to say, Dominus est, quod bonum est in oculis faciat, etc. He is our Lord, let him do that which is best pleasing in his eyes, for there is nothing better than to have regard to God's Commandments. The third Paragraph. THE Grecians do commend that celebrated saying of theirs, ne quid nimis, not too much of any thing; but thou, O Lord, hast expressly commanded, mandata tua custodiri nimis, that thy commandments should be very much observed. God would have all his servants so ready and prompt at every command of his, at every beck, as they should never pass a day, no not so much as that whereon they should suffer the greatest affliction, without repeating over this short sentence a thousand times both in heart and mouth, quod vult Deus fiat, be it as it pleases God; and by this means the will of men so virtuously disposed becomes to be the will of God himself, since they hold themselves constant to this resolution, never to will any thing which may be displeasing to his Divine Majesty; whence it comes that whatsoever they desire, they obtain, since they desire nothing else than only to conform themselves to the will of God, as knowing that to be most true which St. Hierome writeth unto Paula upon the occasion of Blella's death. God is good, (says he) and therefore of necessity being so good as he is, all must be likewise good, which he ordains; neither can men of God receive any thing in ill part, which is proceeding from so good a God. Are they in health? they render than ●s then to their Maker for it; are they diseased? even in this they acknowledge and praise their Maker's will; are they deprived of their dearest friends? they cannot but bewail so sad an accident, but yet in remembering that God hath disposed it so, they bear their losses with an equal mind; hath death ravished away an only child? a loss how ever grievous, yet to be sustained, since he who lent it, demands it back again; are they overtaken with extreme poverty, or more grievous infirmity, afflicted to be contemned, and opprobriously dealt withal, subject to a thousand inluries and scorns? For all this you shall never haare them utter other words, but sicut Domino placuit, ita factum est, ita bene factum, etiam in hoc laudetur Deus. God hath done as it pleased him, and thrrefore he hath done well, for which cause even in this be he likewise blessed and praised; Benedictus Deus in aeternum, God be blessed for ever. Whosoever are fastened to God, as by an Anchor with such a Will as this, do await their latest hour with all security, and account all misfortunes in the mean time for short, which with so fortunate an end are to be closed up. intaglio etching of a lute Emblem XII. Moderation of our passions. And unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him Gen. 4. V 7. The twelfth sign, Of Predestination. IS the moderation of our passions, or the victory of temptations, The Device is a Strung Lute: the Motto, sub te erit appetitus tuus, & tu dominaberis illius, Gen 3. Thy desire shall be subject unto thee, and thou shalt master it. Those who are of Christ (as the Apostle confidently avers) have mortified their flesh with its vices and concupiscences; and St Bernard elegantly represents our Saviour inviting u●, Serm. de S. And. qui vult venire post me abneget semet ipsum; ac si dicat qui me desiderat, se despiciat, & qui vult facere voluntatem meam, discat frangere suam, those that will follow me let them deny themselves (as much as to say) let those who would love me, despise themselves, & those who would fulfil my will, learn to break their own. That which most fatigates us in the fight, is that which most crownes us being Conquerors; and we have no way to become absolute Masters of our lives, but by daily killing our affections in us. For whilst they live, our reason is either dead, or obscured quite. For which cause the Royal Prophet besought Almighty God to unveil his eyes that he might behold the wonders of the Law: revela occulos meos, & considerabo mirabilia de lege tua. I know, O Lord, that there are great and sublime secrets ontained in this holy law, but alas, for as much as I am a man burdened with the load of my flesh, and subject to variety of passions and affections, and am not ignorant withal what a powerful faction there is of them who disquiet and blind my heart; it is thy piety alone which must open mine eyes, and disperse those thick mists of passions which encompass them. Seneca treating of these passions of ours, Facilius est initia eorum prohibere, Ep. 85. & ●16 quàm impetum regere; nam sicut in precepts dato corpori nullum sui arbitrium est, nec resistere dejectum potest, sed omne consilium irrevocabilis praecipitatio abscidit, ita animus si in iram, amorem, aliosue affectus se projecerit, non facilè reprimet impetum, etc. It is easier to prevent them in the beginning, than afterwards to moderate their violence; for as a body rolling down some steep descent, is utterly unable to contline itself, by reason his irrevocable fall hath deprived him of all use of force or deliberation; even so a mind once precipitating itself into anger, love, or any other passion, can with great difficulty resist their violent motions, since it is the nature of vice never to rest, till it hath tumbled us into the very depth of all calamity. Wherefore it is best to begin even with the first seed of these passions to root them out. We are to make head against our enemies, on the frontiers of our dominion, lest if they mak● impression unto the heart thereof, they accept of no conditions from those they have vanquished. How much better is it to be a patiented, than a mighty man, an overcommer of himself than a vanquisher of Cities? Malior est patiens viro forti, & qui dominatur animo suo expugnatore urbium The first Paragraph. BLessed are those (says St. Augustine) who make peace within themselves who so govern all the motions of their mind as to render them obsequious unto reason; and blessed are those who in subduing the concupiscences of their flesh, become the Kingdom of Almighty God, where the mind enjoys an absolute dominion, the corporal senses bring all in due subordination, and as inferior servants no ways resisting to that superior power This is that peace which the Angels proclaimed at Christ's Nativity, to which nevertheless none can attain, but by war and violence. Hence it is, that God delivered the Commandments to Moses, at the sound of warlike Trumpets, when we should imagine that soft and harmonious music should have better sympathized with those religious Rites to which the laws had peculiar reference; that trumpets had more proportion with wars, than with the Church. But so it is (dear Christians) we are drawn forth into the field, we are pressed unto the wars by this our heavenly Lawgiver, neither can any truly observe his Laws, who refuses to fight against those who impugn them. None can overcome their flesh by cherishing it, none without a battle conquer he tempting enemy, or the frowns or smiles of the inconstant world: We are to hold every affection for an enemy, which the adversaries of the divine Law shall oppose against us, and as such resist it with our uttermost power. He that is offended at his crimes, and yet favours his passions, doth but lop the branches from an evil tree, whilst he permits the root to furnish the stock with moss. St. chrysostom in pondering these words of our blessed Saviour; qui viderit mulierem ad concupiscendam illam, etc. He who shall behold a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart, says, non modo morbum, sed & morbi radicem evellit Christus, etc. Christ doth not only take away the disease, but even the root thereof. The root of adultery is this evil of concupiscence, and so together with adultery he condemns the mother of it, concupiscence. In like manner, he doth not only prohibit murder, but likewise anger which provokes us to it, and the firebrands of anger, opprobrious speech. Of all passions two of the most vehement are love & anger, & without extreme rigour never to be restrained. Gentleness & mild persuasion can do no good with them; and as for anger it doth not importune the mind like other vices, but carries it away headlong with it. Who would desire to wound his enemy on that condition to leave his hand incorporate in the wound, and not be able to withdraw it bacl? and yet such is the nature of anger to engage us so fare as we can never come clearly off again. It will not stick at any wickedness, and whosoever it hath designed to strike at with its thunder, it is never appeased, till it have discharged upon him a deadly wound. He whom it rules is like the stone called Pyrites, which is set on fire wheresoever you strike it with the flint. Prov. 29. An angry man provokes quarrels, and he who is apt to take exceptions, will be the readier to sin. Wrath and anger are execrable things, and there is scarcely any plague hath cost mankind so dear, for Vtrum stultum interficit iracundia, & parvulum occidit in vidia. Anger killeth the fool, and envy murdereth the little one. Wherefore, dear brethren (says St. Augustine) ne obsecro tantum malum nobis inducamus, Lib. 4. de Civit. Dei. c. 6. etc. I beseech you let us not call such a plague upon ourselves, the soul's sickness, the night of reason, an alienation from God, oblivion of friendship, the overture of war, the plenitude of calamity, & the worst of devils; which is the more warily to be avoided, more it infects with its daily incursions. In omnes personas hic ardescit affectus, tam ex amore● scitu● quam ex odio, non minus inter seria, quam inter lusus & jocos; nec interest ex quam magna causa nascitur, sed in qualem proveni at animum: sic ignis, non refert quam magnus, sed quo incidat, nam arida scintillam quoque fovent usque ad incendium. Sen. Ep. ●8. This passion (says Seneca) conceives a heat burning against all sorts of persons, and is begotten as well out of love as hate, no less from serious businesses than sports and merriment: neither are we so much to regard from what cause it arises, as into what bosom it lights: for so it makes no matter how great the fire be, but where it takes, since any dry thing will nourish, even a spark till it wax a mighty fire. But (says he in another place) there is nothing yet so hard and difficile, which the mind of man cannot overcome, and there are no passions so headstrong and violent which cannot be restrained by sk lfull managing, L ● der●. c. 1● quodcunque sibi imperauti animus obtinuit, let but the mind absolutely command, and it will obtain any thing. What a happiness were it then to be delivered from such mighty evils, as anger with frenzy, rage and cruelty, furiousness and other the like passions with which it ever goes accompanied. The second Paragraph. THat which this wise Roman said of anger, we may also apply to pride and envy, those two ordinary furies which haunt humane breasts, as likewise to those equal sisters in wickedness; and to conclude, to all the other crew of vicious affections. And say, what a happiness were it, to be delivered from such main evils, and have our mind composed to a blessed tranquillity to a certain harmony, and concordance of all our copidities? He therefore is blessed, who is the less indulgent of liberty to his affections, the more free he desires to be himself from vices servitude, who to secure reasons dominion in him, crucifies his unruly passions. For Galley-slaves they have some cessation from labour, some time, though never so short allotted them to rest; but those who are slaves to their affections do never enjoy any rest, but their mind is in continual agitation, by the turbulent motions of their restless thoughts. Servietis diis alienis die ac nocte, Hier. 16. qui non dabunt vobis requiem, you shall serve strange God's day and night, which will not give you rest. And therefore the son of Syrach advises us, post concupiscentias tuas non eas, Eccl. 18. do not follow thy concupiscence; but as a headstrong horse is to be reined hard, and one that is ready, pricked on with the spur; so we are to manage our affections, by urging some, whilst, for the most part, we do curb the rest. None can more truly hate himself, than he who loves himself with such a pernicious love, as becoming by it wholly dissolved in voluptuousness, he is neither able to obtain any thing of himself, or deny himself any thing. Let such as these consider what the Apostle presages of them: Rom. 8. Si s●cundum carnem, etc. If you live acco ding to the flesh, (says he) you shall die, but if you shall mortify the works of the flesh, you shall live. The command of ones self is the greatest Empire as man can aspire unto, & consequently to be subject to our passions the most grievous slavery; neither is there any triumph more glorious, then that of the victory obtained of ourselves, where whilst the conflict is but short, the reward shall ever last. He overcomes his affections, who refuses to serve them, and he serves them, saith S. Ambrose, Quicunque metu frangitur, vel delectatione, Li. 2. de jac. & vita beata irretitur, vel cupitatibus ducitur, vel indignatione exasperatur, vel maerore d●●icitur: whosoever is dismayed by fear, enthralled by pleasure, inveigled with desires, exasperated by offfences, or dejected with sadness. Neither is there any viler servitude, according to Seneca than that which is voluntarily undergone, Ep. 47. where one serves his lust, another his avarice, a third ambition. A good man (as witnesses Saint Augustine) albeit he serve, is free, whereas a wicked, although he be a Monarch, is a slave, and that not to one man alone, but (what is more intolerable) to as many Masters as he hath vices. The desires of men are as various as their visages, and outward lineaments; and even as in those among men of the same kind, there is strange diversity, so is there no less in the affections and propensions of our mind: here one burns in the fire of concupiscence, another is led captive in golden chains, a third consumed with envy, this by drinking destroys his health, this too much given to gamning, and this to idleness, the whilst, none will ever be persuaded, (as if one could not be drowned aswell in wine as water) that their ruin can arise from thence, where they have placed their chief felicity. Saint Gregory says excellently well, Lib. 4. in Reg. c. 4. Reprobae menti valde placet quod concupiscit, sed in aeterna poena quod ei modo est dulce amarescet. A reprobate mind is pleased above measure with its own desires, but that which now is so sweet unto it, will afterwards to its eternal pain be changed into bitterness. Dan. 13. O wretch, thou art deceived with specious show, and desire hath subverted thy heart, and made thee long after fleeting waters, with a frustrated appetite. What felicity can a man receive from his libidinousness, which according to St. Ambrose doth burn us worse than a fever, fare more inflame us, & sooner cast us down; Febre libido flagrantior est, graviusque inflammot, & praecipitat; but when that violent heat is asswag●d, when the fit is past, than the eyes of our conscience do open, and a man becomes all confounded and ashamed at the ugliness of his reproachful fact; then he stands in dread of Almighty God, and feign, if he knew how would hid his guilty head; but in vain, for the deformity is so manifest, and all secrets lie unfolded before Almighty God, and therefore the thought of judgement doth strike him into horror, out of the conscience of his self-guiltiness. And what is the thirst of wealth, but a notorious spur to every wickedness, which is rather more provoked than quenched by possessing that which it desires; which torments the mind no less with solicitude of that it enjoys, than that it wants? And whereas all other vices grow old with man, this then becomes most youthful and vigorous. Hate and envy are two importunate evils, which unless you kill (as it were) in the cradle, there is little hope of overcoming them thereafter with that facility as you do other affections. As for gluttony, those who serve it have a pernicious mistress of it, which the more obsequiously you serve, the more insolent it grows, and by reason of its near affinity with lasciviousness, in humouring and feeding it, you do but nourish an enemy of Chastity. Who then is there, and we will give him deserved praise, who can justly glory with holy Tobias, Tob. 3. mundam servavi animam meam ab omni concupiscentia, I have preserved my soul pure from all concupiscence? Such a soul were like a Lute indeed, with all its strings in tune. The third Paragrah. Soul being commanded by Almighty God to kill Agag the King of the Amalikites, did notwithstanding only imprison him; and this is our way of proceeding with our passions, which so they break not forth to any exorbitancy in the exterior, we take no thought for rooting of them out, how ever seditiously in our interior they behave themselves. And what is this but thorough a vicious pity, to confine those to prison, whom we should condemn to die; & whilst we spare a concealed enemy to arm him to proceed against us in public hostility? For so those vices which at first were only committed by chance, and unawares, are converted by degrees into nature & custom, till at last they impose upon us a necessity of sinning, and make us cry out, when we perceive ourselves brought every way into straits by our domestical enemies; I cannot overcome myself in this, it is impossible for me to abstain from that to wh●ch I have been accustomed so long; you had as good bereave me of my life, as debar me the fruition of such and such a pleasure And by this manner our vices become incorporate to our manners, and by neglecting to root up our passions whilst they were but little shrubs we perceive ourselves at la through our connivance overgrown with whole woods of them, and encompassed with so vast a wilderness, as it exceeds our forces to extricate ourselves. Yet even then we are no ways to despair, since one custom may be expelled by a better one, and the richer our Crown will be, the more the fight is dangerous and difficile. Volenti cum bono Deo vincera certa est victoria. Let but a Moses with his rod check the waves of the sea, and for the rest GOD will provide that the children of Israel may find a safe passage thorough them, whilst they swallow up the whole hosts of the Egyptians. Let us but take arms, and inure ourselves to fight, and we shall repulse the Ammorites and the Cannanites from infesting us? ●ob 7. Militia est vita hominis supra terram, man's life is (but) a warfare on the earth. And above all let each one hold himself suspected, since no man hath a more traitorous enemy. There is no coming to any agreement with this foe, no trusting to any treaty or composition, but only that day will set an end to his hostility, which closes up our lives. It is a divine sentence of St. Cyprian, Voluptatem vicisse voluptas est maxima, nec ulla major est victoria, quam ea quae à cupiditatibus refertur. Qui enim hostem vicit, fortior fuit altero; qui vero libidinem represserit fortior fuit seipso, There is no greater pleasure than to subdue our pleasure, nor truer victory, than that we obtain over our desires. For he who overcomes his enemy is only stronger than another man, but he who resists his libidinousnesse is stronger than himself. A curious Musician never leaves tampering with his instrument, till it be in tune, and so the predestinate ceases not to compose his affections, till they agree among themselves in a harmonious peace. If we will believe Plato the body is but a Lute, and the soul the Lutenist, which now tunes one string, now another, as it finds occasion: now it moderates the eyes, and now the tongue; now it contains the ears, and now the hands; and whensoever the passion of anger, or luxury chance to rise too high, it reduces them to the right pitch of reason again. He was a skilful Musician indeed who said: Castigo corpus meum & in servitutem redigo, 1 Cor. 9 I chast●se my body, and bring it into subjection. And so the principal care of the predestinate, is, daily to examine the instrument of his affections, and now to strive against his choler, now repress his envy, now excitate his drowsiness, now moderate his sadness, and now refrain his joy; he is still practising on it, and so long tunes up some strings, and lets down others, till it agree in perfect harmony. The predestinate permits nothing to his affections, he favours none less than himself, nor suffers any the least offence of his, to pass unpunished. Therefore to conclude, it is a true sign of predestination, and that they are of Christ who crucify their flesh, with its vices and concupiscences. A Treatise added as a Crown to the twelve signs of Predestination, Of the great scarcity of the predestinate. TO crown that which hath been said, Serm. 2. d● oct. Pasch. Mellifluous St. Bernard furnishes us with an excellent discourse of his: Our Lord knows (saith he) who are belonging unto him, and he only knows whom he hath elected from the beginning; neither is there any who can tell whether he be worthy of love or hate. Seeing then (as it is most certain) we have no certainty, ought it not to be most grateful to u●, to gather some probable sign of this our election? or can our spirit take any rest, as long as it hath no testimony of its predestination? Therefore it is a faithful speech, and worthy of all acceptation, which infolds the testimony of our salvation. The word of which both affords great comfort to the elect, and disfurnishes the Reprobate of all excuse: for the signs of life being once manifest, whosoever neglects them, is clearly convinced to have received his soul in vain, and slightly to esteem of that desirable land. None can justly accuse any but himself, if he perceive in him no sign of Predestination: for God hath not predestinated any by chance or hazard unto heaven or hell, Acts 15. since notum à saeculo est Domino opus tuum, thy work is known unto our Lord from eternity; but in foreseeing the merits of every one, he hath allotted them accordingly, either reward or punishment, Resp. 3. ad c. ●biect. Gallicar. as St. Prosper most truly ●ays. It implys no necessity that men should perish, because they are not predestinated, but they are not predestinated because God fore saw that by their own wilful perversity they needs would perish. Lib. ad Simplic. q. 2. Ep. 105. And St. August. avouches the Doctrine, where he saith, that God hated not Esau, as a man, but Esau as a sinner, since God detests nothing in man but sin. And again only sin (says he) doth render the way to heaven inaccessible. Whilst all of us tend unto one only gaol, alas what diversity is there in those ways we go, we run, and we perish in? The way of life is narrow, that of perdition, broad rosy, & pleasant; there we must climb up a craggy cleft, here we slide easily down into a dale, facilis descensus Averni, the descent to hell is easy. Truth cries out unto us exhorts, and admonishes us: Intrate per augustam portam, etc. Enter by the narrow gate, since the gate is broad, and the way spacious which leads to perdition, and many there are who enter by it; whereas the gate is strait, and the way narrow which conducts to life, and there are few who find it. And it inculcates the same again, Enforce yourselves to enter by the narrow gate, For I say unto you, Matth. 7. Luke 13. there are many who are desirous to enter in, and yet cannot. A narrow way indeed it is, which we cannot go but alone, and unaccompanyed? Rom. 22. Gal. 6. Cor. ●. each one of us is to render account unto God Almighty only of himself; each one to undergo his own burden; each one according to his works that he hath done shall receive rewards. And this is that which made our Saviour break forth into those doleful words, Multi sunt vocati, pauci verò electi, Many are called, but few are chosen. How many by the force of this one word pauci, few, have, as it were by some sudden thunder clap been awaked out of the dead trance of their licentious lives? How many at the bare report thereof have retired themselves into solitary caves and deserts from all society, and commerce with men? How many thousand Martyrs hath it made expose themselves to wracks, prisons, fires, torturings, gibbets, wild beasts, and the executioners utmost rage and cruelty, whilst you might hear from them no other voice than this, it is no hard matter to die for us, who are to live again among those few of the elect; sheath your swords in our bodies, and spare not, so long as our souls may be numbered among those few, but happy who are saved. Who of them would not find courage enough to say: Can I be extended on a hundred Crosses, I would not shrink to escape one of them; had I a hundred necks, I would stretch them all out under the Axe; it should be my pastime to die a hundred times, and I s●ould esteem my torments only as restoratives so as I may be admitted after all into Paradise in company of those few who are predestinate? from hence proceeded that generous saying of that glorious Martyr Saint Ignatius, Let all crosses come, fire, wild beasts, and as many torments as the devil can invent so as I may enjoy my Christ, I care not, How many hath this same thunder of our Saviour's words, this only one word, pauci, a few, recalled from the rank meadows of luxury, to the house of sorrow and repentance, they choosing rather to be saved with a few, than perish with many, since they perish no l●sse who perish in company, non minus perit qui perit in tu●ba? And of th●s great scarcity of those who are saved, we have for our warning had frequent examples in every age ●his was the only subject of Noah's preaching, that Herald of justice, (as S. Paul terms him) for an hundred years & more; and yet men were so obdurate in their wickedness, as out of that infinite multitude then alive, only eight souls were saved in that wooden ark or prison, & of those few, impious Cain was one; for so you shall as rarely find any society of good without the admixture of some bad, as the fragrant rose without the briar cleaving to it. And so God being upon the point of destroying the Land of Sodom and Gomorrah, was yet content with abrahams' request to hold his hands and spare the●, if he could but have picked him out ten just men of such innumerable multitudes as they were, and yet so great was the scarcity of the good, as they were not to be found; whereupon the Angels adviseth Lot, Festina & salva te, to make speed and save himself; and so only three persons were preserved from so general a calamity as was the burning of two such mighty Cities, whose ruins are even extant to this day, the monuments of the wrath of Almighty God. Neither in more ambiguous manner is the paucity of the predestinate expressed in that passage of sacred Scripture, when Moses leading under his conduct out of Egypt 600000. fight men, besides women and children, and others promiscously without number of lesser note, but only two of such a world of people arrived unto that plentiful land of promise; all the rest being buried in that mighty Sepulchre of that vast desert, the receptacle of so many thousand dead. As for Pharaoh who followed them with such warlike preparation, to restrain them of their liberty again, he together with all his army was buried in the red sea, the gaping sepulchre of such a mighty host: Exod. 3●. quis non timebit te ô Rex gentium, who will not stand in awe of the O Lord of the Gentiles? Besides for their falling into actual idolatry, Moses proclaimed among the children of Israel: Si quis est Domini iungatur mihi, etc. whosoever is our Lords, let him join with me, and they slew that day of them ●3000. a lamentable issue of one act of Idolatry; to signify how much God Almighty doth detest one mortal sin. So josuah having taken by that mysterious stratagem the City of jerico put all the men and living creature in it unto the sword and fire, and so that mighty City, like some carcase in its funeral fire, was all unto a heap of ashes consumed away, only one house surviving so great a ruin, so great a calamity. And Gedeon in his expedition against the Midianites, out of 32000. chose only 300. out for that present enterprise, and dismissed all the rest. judges 7. For God hath no respect of any number, but of the good; neither is the way to hell so long, but in one breath it may be gone by committing of one mortal sin, whereby we become traitors to the Divine Majesty, and meriting eternal punishment. So in former times for one libidinous act 40000. Hebrews, and 50600. Benjamites were slain; and how dear did the Benjamites with the loss of so many thousand souls, pay for the curiosity of their eyes, when they looked with too great irreverence on the Ark of God? Neither is this great scarcity of the predestinate less clearly s●t before our eyes in the sacred history of the Kings, where Absalon leading an Army of rebels against the King his father, a messenger in all haste ran to let David understand, that all Israel with their whole heart did follow Absalon, toto corde universus Israel sequitur Absalon: 2 Kings. 15. and Seba seditiously stirring up a sort of tumultuous people against the King, there comes another advice to David, that all Israel was revolted from him, and followed Seba: Separatus est omnis Israel à David secutusque est Seba. 2 Kings 20. Do but behold the world, & you will even say as much of it; for Christ, another David doth trace us out the way with his own blood, with his own gored footsteps, having his head crowned with thorns, his shoulders charged with the infamous burden of the cross, his dying eyes floating with blood and tears, in which doleful equipage he ascends mount Calvary, and invites us to follow him; but alas how few are they who do accompany him, who are content to be crucified with him, according to their several conditions? So as we may lawfully say, that all the world is set upon malice: totus mundus in maligno positus est, and with their whole hearts follow, not Seba, but rather Satan, and leave our Saviour in Mount Golgotha alon●. To this purpose likewise may be applied that other passage of holy Scriptures, where 70000. Israelites are recorded to have been consumed by pestilence, only because David out of a presumption of his own forces did cause the people to be mustered All which examples were but the first draught, and shadow of the wonderful scarcity of the predestinate, which our Saviour afterwards in his Sermons so lively painted forth. Reckon all the Jews according to the computation of the Apocalypse, from Abraham to the day of Judgement predestinate to be saved, and you shall find only 144000. of them, scarcely the thousand part to pa●e on that account. And that which is said, of them may be applied with a certain proportion unto all other Nations; for the predictions of our Saviour have reference unto all, forasmuch as he affirmed not only of the jews, that few of them should walk in the narrow path of life, but he directs his speech generally to all: pauci invenient eam, few shall find it. In confirmation of this verity, the Prophets are every where frequent. Hell hath dilated its soul (says Isaiah) and opened its mouth boundless wide; and that because impiety like a fire embraces (all.) It shall consume the thorn and briar, the very thicket of the grove shall be burnt, and the pride of the smoke shall roll along; for thorns and briers shall overgrow the universal earth. And where shall you not find whole wildernesses of briers of libidinousnesse and luxury? what place is free from the pricking thorns of cares, and solicitude, not so much of purchasing heaven, as wealth? So as truly we may say, the earth is infected with its inhabitants, in that they have transgressed the laws, altered right, and antiquated an eternal league; all are addicted to their own w●yes, and each one unto the most new fangled. And Hieremy in no less a mournful Hier. 3. strain bewails this great penury of the good; Circuit the ways of Jerusalem and behold, and observe, and search in the streets, do you find a man that doth justice and regards his faith? Brass and Iron there is corruption in all. Not only the rich, but (what you will more wonder at) even the poor are infected with pride and riotousness; and poverty now is in league with vices too, a general corruption hath tainted all, aswel brass, as silver, and more rich minerals. And the Prophet exploring the origin and source of all this evil says, I attended, and listened, and no man speaks of any good, (which is so much verified in these times of ours) no man doth repent for his sins, Hier. 8. saying what have I done? all are attended to their own courses, like horses rushing furiously into the battle. Woe to the earth, woe to the men thereof, The whole world is filled with adulteries Neither doth Michaeas less lament this excessive dearth of virtue: Woe unto me (says he) there is not one cluster of grapes fit to be eaten, Mich. 7. the Saint is perished on earth, and the upright is not (to be found) among men. Which consideration made the royal Prophet shed so abundant tears: God (saith he) Ps. 13. & 1● hath looked down from heaven o● the sons of men to behold if there were any that would understand, and seek after God; (but) all were depraved, all were become wholly u profitable; there is no man, no not so much as one, that doth any good. And truly whosoever doth but consider these lamentable days of ours, and the variety of corruption, which is crept into our manners, he would be of the same opinion with this holy King, and conclude our Age most resembling to that immediately before the deluge, When there was nothing but eating, and drinking, Matth. ●4. marrying, and giving in marriage, till that d●y, when Noah entered into the ●rke: neither had they any understanding, till the deluge came upon them, and destroyed them all. Even so you will imagine, that virtue were wholly banished from the earth, or if perchance any vouchsafe to harbour her, it is but only in passing, and by way of courtesy, not that she can challenge right to any habitation of her own; which is the reason she is no where permanent; whilst vice doth so sway all, and hath such absolute dominion, as it is no longer a●le to reckon how many kingdoms it stands possessed of; masked injustice, and prying envy, exploiting boldly whatsoever they please, & that filthy vice of Luxury, odious to heaven, and pernicious to earth; with an incredible kind of audacity. So that comparing the number of the good, reduced unto so few, unto so many Myriad of evil, we may well say with Bias, Rari boni, pravi p●urimi; and St. Ambrose to this effect; in comparison of the reprobate (says he) the number of the Elect is but very small, seeing you shall find every where multitudes of sinners, every where whole troops of them in the way of perdition, so as it may be truly said indeed, That the ways of Zion Lament, Lamen. c. 1 whilst the paths of Babylon do laugh. And really whosoever but reflects the eyes of his mind upon the way which he butts upon, the precipice of hell, he shall perceive it so frequented, so thronged with passengers,, as one shoves another forwards out of a kind of sport or jollity; and provoked by one another's examples, they make as much haste to the torments of hell, as they would do unto some solemn feast. The whilst the way to vices is not only proclive, but even precipitious; on the other side, the way which tends to virtue is but narrow, frequented but by few, and those for the most part of private quality, as Isaiah did insinuate in that Prophetical complaint of his, These shall be in the midst of the earth, Isay 24. in the midst of the people, just as if a few Olives which are remaining should be shaken out of the Olive tree, and grapes when the Vintage is ended. Where the scarcity of the good may be understood by those few scattering bunches of grapes, by those few Olives which were left to be gleaned, whilst the rest were gathered, and the excessive multitude of evil by the precedent plentiful harvest of grapes and Olives: For there is no truth (says the Prophet Oseas) there is no mercy, Ose 4. there is no knowledge of God on earth, but slandering, lying, murder, theft, and adultery do swarms; & sanguis sanguinem tetigit. This scarcity of the good, is but too apparent, which the Prophets thus deplore; unto whose tears succeed the Apostles complaints in the new Testament, where St. john affirms all the world to be set on malice: Eph. 15. totus mundus in maligno positus est: and St. Peter in this manner sorrowfully argues, Si justus vix salvabitur, peccator & im●ius ubi apparebunt? If the just shall scarcely be saved, where shall the wicked and impious appear? St. Paul laments wi●h often iterating the same, Phil. 2. that all seek things that are their own, not things that are jesus Christ's. And our Saviour Christ himself affirms, Matth. 11. Luke 6. Luke 8 17. & 14. that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and only the violent take it by force. Neither in the mean while abstaines from threaten, Vae vobis, etc. woe unto you (says he) who are rich, for you have your consolation; woe to you which are full, for you shall hunger; woe to you who now laugh, for you shall lament, and weep. And this likewise is lively set before our eyes in the parable recounted by S Luke, where one part of the good seed, is said to lie withering away among the stones, another choked among thorns and briars; a third lights in the high way, where it is trodden under foot: and scarcely a fourth part meets with a fruitful soil. So likewise of ten Lepers whom our saviour cleansed, only one returned to thank him for curing him; of those who were invited to the feast, not one but found an excuse to absent himself, and as often as the fish-poole was stirred by the Angel, of so many diseased persons, who lay awaiting the occasion, only one was cured; Only a Nicodemus of all the Magistrates of the jews would venture to private conference with our Saviour Christ; and of so many covetous and wealthy Citizens of jerico, of so many Camels (to use St. Bedes phrase) laden with their wealth, only one Zacheus would discharge his bunchy back of his rich load, and restoring all which he had unjustly got, assay to enter by the narrow gate; Only one Matthew from his intricate accounts; only one Magdalen from her dissolute life, is recorded to be converted to a more innocent one. St. Paul preaching before a frequent assembly of people at Philippi a City of Macedonia, only one Lydia approved high Doctrine; another time discoursing of Christian Religion at Athens, in the public palace before a great and learned auditory, only Denys, and Damaris assented to what he said; the rest for the most p●●t mo●k●ng, and de●iding him: and i● that renowned assembly of 72. of the jewish Magistrates, Luke 23. the●e was sca●ce one or two found, who th●●sted n●t ●fter ou● S v●●urs precious blood: Likewise at his Crucifying, there were many spectators, but lovers, ●nd imitators of his Cross a very few. So in these our days, there are many Sermons, but rarely any who amend their lives for them; uncus are s fficiently inveighed against, but seldom sufficiently amended; 〈◊〉 men are so far from desiring to amend t●em, as they cannot endure to have them mentioned. Multi vocati, pauci electi, there are many called, but few chosen: alas but few indeed! There are many (says St. Gregory) adjoin themselves unto the faith, but few make use of it to attain to heaven. And as upon the floor you shall find more straw than corn, more leaves th●n fruit upon the tre●s, more prickles than roses on the briars, every where flints, but a few precious stones; even so the number of those whom the Divine providence promotes to beatitude is but small, compared to the multitudes of wicked men. How truly hath jeremy prophesied, Desolatione desolata est omnis terra, etc. All the world is wasted with a desolation, because there is none who considers in his heart: there is none who considers in h●s heart indeed, since the thoughts of o●r hear●s are so fleeting and inconstant, as they are still wandering, and never can apply themselves long to any thing that is good and virtuous. And this is the reason why we have no more apprehension of hell, no more desire and longing after heaven. This accusation may be urged as well against Christians, as any other men, that they make no account of the Land: pro nihile habuerunt terram de fiderabilem; Psal. 105. for what is more to be defiled than heaven? and yet by reason we have so little commerce with it in thought, we either conceit this kingdom of the blessed as some tedious thing, or else desire it nothing so fervently as we ought. From thence the devil conceives such hopes, and acquires such force against us as job affirmeth of him, job 40. Ecce absorbebit fluvium, etc. That he shall not wonder if he swallow up a flood, and he confides to have jordan flow into his mouth. And for this reason (saith that mirror of patience) verebar omnia opera mea sciens quod non parceres delinquenti; cap. 9 I was suspicious of all my actions, as knowing that thou sparest not the delinquent; I have all my words, works, and even my thoughts suspected, when I consider the rigid justice of Almighty God. This was the motive of St. Hilarions, who (as St. Hierome recounteth) was most grievously perplexed at the Article of death, and in a deadly fear to present himself before the tribunal of Christ. There remained but a little vital heat unperished in his feeble body, and excepting his senses, there were no signs in him of a living man, ●hen sadly lifting up his eyes and voice together, Egredere (said he) quid times? egredere anima mea, quid dubites? Septuaginta prope annis serviisti Christo, & mortem times? Depart (said he) what dost thou fear? departed my soul, what dost thou doubt? Thou hast served Christ almost these seventy years, and now at last art thou afraid to die? No, his soul was not so much appalled at death, as that the approach of that judgement it was to undergo. And now let every Christian consider with himself, with what security he can revel and take his pleasure; whilst such Saints as they do tremble, when they come to die; let them if they think good, hoard up treasures of gold and silver, mischief and ruin one another with mutual enmity and hate, hunt after honours, and hauk for soaring glory; deny nothing to their humours and delights, alleging forsooth, that God allotted the earth, of which you are inhabitants to the use of the sons of men, and reserved the heavens to be disposed by the sovereign Lord thereof. Take then your liberties in seeing, thinking, and doing every thing you have a fancy to, make as many fegaries as you list, think every thing lawful which you have a mind unto, let your body take its fill of contentment, be sure to live at your ease, walk in the ways of your heart, and take your own eyes for guides: Et scitote quod pro omnibus his adducet vos Deus in judicium, Eccl. 11. etc. But yet be assured, that for all these you must render an account to God; and though a man live never so many years, and have past them all over to his hearts content, yet he is to be mindful of the dismal time, of those many days, Ibid. which when they arrive, will argue all that is passed of vanity. Wherefore let your endeavour rather be to procure by your good works a certainty of your vocation and election. Satagite ut per bona opera certam vestram vocationem & electionem saciatis. Pet. 1. What the signs of predestination are you have already understood. 1. Not only to love our friends, but our enemies. 2. To relieve ●he poor, not only by the bounty of our hands, but also with the affection of our minds. 3. To endure all afflictions patiently, and praise God Almighty for sending them. 4. To set light by the goods of fortune, in regard of heaven. 5. and 6. To consider how smally it avails us to hearken to the interior admonitions of God, or exterior of men, if we neglect to put them in execution. 7. So to detest our former sins, as never to commit the like again. 8. To imagine we are not pleasing to God, until we become displeasing to ourselves. 9 Not to persuade ourselves that we love jesus Christ, so long as we love and cherish not his presence within ourselves. 10. To resist stoutly our vicious inclinations, especially at first, since then every one can overcome them if he list 11. To lay a sure foundation of virtue in our minds, lest otherwise we be always wavering: 12 To become so familiar with death by often thinking of it, as we may the less fear it when we come to die: for he never dies unwillingly who daily and seriously imagines that he must die at last: And this is the way to that life, wholly devoid of death. And now let each one take a survey of his own conscience, whether these signs of Predestinations, whereby he may conceive a certtaine hope that he is not strayed from the way of the good, which leadeth into heaven, be extant in him or no: As for the way of the wicked, although for the present it seemeth smooth and leveled, yet it ends in hell and utter darkness at the last: and notwithstanding, by reason the entrance to it seems so commodious and delightsome, there are so many flock unto it to their perditions, as our own eyes may testify that true saying of our Saviour Christ, Lata porta & speciosa via est quae ducit a●perditionem, etc. that the gate is wide, and the way spacious which leads to perdition; and many (too many alas) are those who enter by it. It is reported by divers credible Authors, that a certain holy Anchoret beheld in a vision souls falling as thick into hell as flocks of snow, or drops of rain, insomuch as the damned all amazed at their multitude, not without good reason imagined the world to be at an end, as thinking it impossible, considering their number who descended into hell, that any more persons should be left alive. St. Vincent Ferrerius of St. Dominicks order, that mirror of preachers, and religious men, did once in a public sermon discourse with great efficacy of the scarcity of the predestinate, and confirmed it with a Wonderful example; whose words in reverence of so great a person I will be as exact in reporting, as the difference of language will give me leave. Before our Saviour's coming into the world (says he) in humane flesh, S. Vinc. D●min. Septuag. serm. 6. post initium. more than five thousand years were already past, and except some of few of the children of Israel, all the rest of the world was damned. Imagine with yourself besides, in the time of the Law of Moses how many Children have died without Circumcision; as also in the time of the Law of Christ how many without Baptism; of all which number likewise not one is saved. Moreover how many Jews, Saracens, Pagans, and Jnfidels, how many wicked Christians (for faith and Baptism cannot save a man unless they be accompanied with good life) and how many other Christians are there besides, who although they have faith, are yet proud, avaricious, of lewd life, and given to many other vices, etc. And here note the example of the of Lions, who having resigned his Benefice undertook a course of austere penance for forty years together in the wilderness. This holy man after his death appeared to the Bishop of Lions, who desiring of him to discover somewhat unto him of the other world: the Saint answered, that thirty thousand in the world had died the same day with him, whereof only 5. were saved, himself, and St. Bernard being two of them. This is the reason why our Saviour advises us with so much solicitude to e●ter by the narrow gate: Jntrate per a gustam portam. This narrow gate of paradise is the will of God to which every one must conform himself who desires to enter into paradise. The broad gate is our own will, and the spacious way is worldly conversation; as to eat and drink our fill, to follow our lustful appetites, take our pleasure, revenge ourselves of those who have injured us, and the like: So as pauci sunt electi, but a few are saved: To which exhortation of St. Vincent, we will add another example recounted by an approved Author. A famous Preacher in Germany, named Bertold of Saint Francis Order, inveighing once in a great audience with much vehemency of speech against a certain vice, a woman there present, conscious of her own guiltiness therein, conceived so great a terror at his words, that on the sudden in the midst of so great a throng she fell down for dead: But afterwards being restored to life again, by the joint mediation of the people's preys, she declared unto them, how she had been presented before the judgement seat of Almighty God; a●d among many other particulars, how of 60000. of all nation, aswell Christians as infidels, who by divers sorts of death had departed this life at the same instant with her only 3. souls of so huge a multitude entered heaven, and all the rest damned to eternal fire. O how true is it, that many enter indeed by the large and spacious way of perdition! St. chrysostom grounding himself on the sense of these words of our Saviour Christ, doth confidently affirm; that the number is far greater of those who go to hell, but yet the kingdom of God, though it hath fewer inhabitants is more capacious: Multi sunt plures ghennam ingredientes, Tom. 9 hom. 14. sed maius est Dei regnum licet habeat paucos. And tell me, saith he, how many think you of those, who live in this city shall be saved? I know that which I shall say will ●ffend your ears, but notwithstanding I will utter it: Of so many thousand, scarcely one hundred; & I doubt me whether I have not been too large in my account: For alas how much malice is there now a days in the younger sort, in the elder how much negligence, &c This was the discourse of that most prudent and saintly man, that Doctor of the Church, and light of the world St. chrysostom, in that mighty and populous City of Antioch, and that too in such a time, when the fervour was not yet extinguished of the Primitive Church and who then shall wonder if S Paul with so much solicitude doth admonish us to work our salvation with fear and trembling, Ad Phil. 2. cum metu & tremore v stram salutem operamini; and our Saviout Christ in such express terms exhorts us to endeavour to enter by the narrow gate. Luke 13. Truth cries out unto us, strive to labour and endeavour with all your forces to enter into this gate by works worthy of repentance, into which we cannot be admitted without much industry, and a resolution to overcome all difficulties whatsoever; and those who falter and go lingering on, may never hope to arrive unto it For unless the minds intention be fervent indeed, saith St. Bede, and a man forcibly overcome himself, he will easily recoil, and be wholly unable to persever in so narrow a passage: so great is the effusion of the unruly appetites of his flesh, to say nothing of the tentations, and persecutions which the world, and the devil procure those who endeavour to enter by this narrow way. And even as a waterman who rows against the stream must add so much the more force unto his Oar, so those who steer on their souls towards heaven, in spite of the practices of the enemy, must enforce themselves with all the virtue they have to overcome the violence they find with greater violence, for fear their souls should be carried away by force of the stream like boats into irrecoverable error: Evigilate itaque justi, 1 Cor. 15. ● & nolite peccare, Wherefore all you that are just be watchful, and do not sin: neither is any to be accounted watchful, but such as in all places, at all times so lead their lives, as if each day were the l●st they should ever see, and have so wary an eye over their conscience in all thoughts and works, as if they were instantly to die. Let us therefore do that whilst we may, which (otherwise) when we may no longer, we shall wish to have done; Quae seminaverit homo haec & metet, a man shall reap, only that which he hath sown, and so he who sows in his flesh doth reap corruption from his flesh again; Gal. 6. whereas he who sows in spirit, doth reap from his spirit an eternal life, FINIS.