IN children of former ages , it hath bene thought so behofull a point of dewty to theire parents , in presence by seruiceable offices , in absence by other affectuall significa●ions , to yeld proofe of their thankfull mindes , that neither any child could omitte it , without touch of vngratfulnes , nor the parents forbeare it without iust displeasure . But now we are falne into such calamitye of times , and the violence of heresy hath so crossed the course , both of vertew & nature , that their ingraffed lawes , neuer infringed by the most sauage & brute creatures , cannot of Gods people without perill be obserued . I am not of so vnnaturall a kind , of so wilde education , or so vnchristian a spirite , as not to remember the roote out of which I braunched , or to forget my secondary maker and auctor of my being : It is not the carelesnes of a colde affection , nor the want of a dew and reuerent respect , that hath made me such a stranger to my natiue home , and so slacke in defraying the debt of a thankfull minde , but onely the iniquity of our daies , that maketh my presence perillous and the discharge of my dewty an occasion of daunger . I was loth to enforce an vnwelcome courtesy vp on any , or by seming officious , to become offensiue , deeming it better to let time digest the feare , that my return into the realme had bred in my kindred , then apruptly to intrude my selfe , to purchase theire anger , whose good will I so highly esteemed . I neuer doubted , but that the beliefe , which to all my frendes by descent and petegree is in maner hereditary , framed in them a righte perswasion of my present calling , not suffering them to measure their censures of me , by the vgly termes , and odious Epitheetes , wherwith heresy hath sought to discredite my function , but rather by the reuerence of so worthy a Sacrament , and the sacred doome of all former ages . Yet because I might verye easely perceiue by apparent coniectures , that many were more willing to heare of me , then from me , and readier to praise , then to vse my endeuours , I haue hitherto bridled my desire to see them , with the care and ielosy of their saftye , & banishing my selfe from the sent of my cradle , in my owne country I haue liued like a forreiner , finding emong strangers that , which in my neerest bloode I presumed not to seeke . But now considering , that delay may haue qualified feare , & knowing my person onely to import daunger to others , and my per swasion to none but to my selfe , I thought it highe time to vtter my sincere and duetifull minde , and to open a vent to my zealous affection , which I haue so long smothered and suppressed in silence . For not onely the originall lawe of nature , written in all childrens harts , and deriued from the bowells and brestes of their mothers , is a continuall soliciter vrging me in your be halfe , but the souereigne decree enacted by the father of heauen , ratified by his sonne , and daily repeated by instincte of the holy ghost , bindeth euery child in the dew of Christianitye , to tender the estate and welfare of his parentes , and is a motiue , that alloweth no excuse , but of necessity presseth to performance of dewty . Nature by grace is not abolished , but perfited , not murdered , but manured , neither are her impressions quite rased , or annulled , but suted to the colours of faith and vertew . And if her affections be so forcible , that euen in hell where rancour and despite chiefly reigneth , & all feeling of goodnes is ouerwhelmed in malice , they moued the rich glutton by experience of his owne misery to carry the lesse enuy to his kinred : how much more in the Church of God , where grace quickneth , charity enflameth , and natures good inclinations are abettered by supernaturall giftes , ought the duety of piety to preuaile . And who but more merciles then damned creatures , could see their deerest frendes plunged in the like perill , and not to be wounded with deepe remorse of their lamentable and imminent hazardes ? If in beholding a mortall enemy wroung and tortured with deadly pangues , the toughest harte softeneth with some sorow : If the most frozen and fierce minde cannot but thawe and melte with pity , euen when it seeth the worst miscreant suffer his deserued torments : how much lesse can the hart of a childe , consider those that bredd him into this world , to be in the fall to farr more bitter extremities , and not bleed with griefe of their vncomfortable case . Surely for my owne parte , though I chalenge not the prerogatiue of the best disposition , yet am I not of so harshe and currish an humour , but that it is a continuall corrasiue , and crosse vnto me , that wheras my endeuours haue reclaimed many from the brincke of perdition , I haue bene least able to employ them , where they were most dew , & barred from affordinge to my deerest frendes , that which hath ben eagerly sought and beneficially obtained of mere strangers . Who hath more interest in the grape then he that planted the vine ? who more right to the cropp than he that sowed the corne ? or how can the child owe so greate seruice to any , as to him whome he is indebted vnto for his very life and being ? With yong Tobye I haue trauailed farre , and brought home a freight of spirituall substance , to enrich you , & medicinable receites against your ghostlye maladyes . I haue with Esau after long toile in pursuing a painfull chase , returned with such pray as you were wonte to loue , desiring therby to procure your blessing . I haue in this generall famine of all true and Christian food , with Ioseph prepared abundance of the bread of Angells , for the repast of your soule . And now my desire is that my drugges may cure you , my pray delight you , and my prouision feed you , by whom I haue bene cured , delighted , and fedd my selfe , that your courtesies may in parte be counteruailed , and my ducty in some sorte performed . Despise not good Sir the youth of your sonne , neither deeme that god measureth his endouments by number of yeeres . Hoary senses are often couched vnder greene lockes , and some are riper in the springe , then others in the Autumne of their age . God chose not Isaï him selfe , nor his eldest sonne , but yong Dauid to conquere Golias and to rule his people . Not the most aged person , but Daniel the most innocent infant deliuered Suzanna from the iniquity of the iudges : and Christ at twelue yeares of age , was found in the temple questioning with the grauest Doctors . A true Elias can conceiue , that a little cloude may cast a large & abundant shower , and the scripture teacheth vs , that God reuealeth to little ones that which he concealeth from the wisest Sages . His truth is not abased by the minority of the speaker , who out of the mouthes of infantes & sucklinges can perfit his praises . Timothy was yong , and yet a principall pastour . S. Ihon not olde and yet an Apostle , yea and the Angels by appearing in youthfull semblances , giue vs a pregnant proofe , that many glorious giftes may be shrouded vnder tender shapes . All which I alledge , not to claime any priuiledge surmounting the rate of vsuall habilities , but to auoid all touch of presumption in aduising my elders , seing that it hath the warrant of scripture , the testimony of examples , & sufficient groundes both in grace and nature . There is diuersity in the degrees of our carnall consanquinity , and the preminence appertaineth to you , as superiour ouer your childes body . Yet if you consider our alliance in the chiefe portion , I meane our foule , which discerneth man from inferiour creatures , we are of equall proximity to our heauenly father , both descended of the same parent , and no other distance in our degrees , but that you are the elder brother . In this sense doth the scripture saye , Call not any father vpon earth , for one is your father which is in heauen . Seing therfore that your superiority is founded vpon flesh and blood , which are in maner but the barke and rine of a man , and our equality vppon the soule , which is mans maigne substance , thinke it I praye you no dishonour to your age , or disparagement to your person , If with all humility I offer my aduise vnto you . One man cannot be perfect in all faculties , neither is it a disgrace to the goldsmith , if he be ignorant of the milleners trade . Many are deepe lawiers and yett shallowe Diuines , manye verye deliuer in feates of the body , and curious in externall complementes , yet litle experimented in matters of their soule and farre to seeke in religious actions . I haue studied & practised these many yeeres spirituall phisicke , acquainting my selfe with the beating and temper of euery pulse , & trauailing in the scrutiny of the maladies & medicines in cident vnto soules . If therfore I profer you the fruits of my long studies and make you a present of my profession , I hope you will construe it rather as a duetifull parte , then any point of presumption . He may be a father to the soule , that is a sonne to the body , and requite the benefit of his temporall life , by reuiuing his parent from a spirituall death . And to this effect did christ say thes words : my mother , and brethren are they , that do the will of my father which is in heauen : Vpon which place S. Climacus shewing to what kinred a Christian ought chiefly to relye , draweth this discourse . Let him be thy father , that both can and will lay his labour to disburden thee of thy packe of sinnes . Let holy compunction be thy mother , to depure thee from thy ordure and filth . Let him be thy brother , that wil be both thy partner and cōpeditour to passe and perfite thy race towardes heauen . Take the memory of death for thy perpetuall pheere , and vnseparable spouse . Lett thy children be bitter sighes of a sorowfull harte , and possesse thy body as thy bondman . Fasten thy frendshippe with the Angelicall powers , with which if thou closest in familiar affiance , they will be patrones vnto thee in thy finall passage . This ( saieth he ) is the generation & kinred of those that seeke God . Such a father as this Sainte speaketh of , maye you haue of your owne sonne , to enter you farther in the fore recited affinity . Of which happely it was a significant presage , aboding the future euent , that euen from my infancy you were wont in meriment to call me father , R. which is the custumary stile now allotted to my present estate .

Now therfore to ioine issue , and to come to the principall drifte of my discourse , most humbly & earnestly I am to besech you , that both in respect of the honour of God , your duty to his Church , the comforte of your children , and the redres of your owne soule , you wold seriously consider the termes you stand in , & way your selfe in a christian ballance , taking for your counterpoise the iudgementes of God . Take heede in time , that the word Thecel written of olde against Baltazar , & interpreted by Daniel , Dan. 5. be not verified in you , whose exposition was : you haue bene poised in the scoale , and found of to lighte weight . Remember that you are in the waining , and the date of your pilgrimage is well nere expired , & now it behooueth you to looke towardes your country . Your force languisheth , your senses impaire , & your body droupeth , and on euery side the ruinous cottage of your faint & feeble flesh , thretneth fall . And hauing so many herbingers of death to premonishe you of your end , how can you but prepare for so dredfull a stranger . The yonge may dye quickly , but the olde cannot liue long . The yong mens life by casualty may be abridged , but the olde mens by no phisicke can be long adiourned : and therfore if greene yeres sometimes must think of the graue , the thoughtes of sere age should continually dwel in the same . The prerogatiue of infancie is innocency , of childhoode reuerence , of manhood maturity , and of age wisdome . And seeing that the chiefe properties of wisdome are , to be mindfull of things passed carefull of thinges present , & prouident of thinges to come , vse now the priuiledge of natures talent to the benefitte of your soule , & procure hereafter to be wise in weldoing , and watchfull in foresight of future harmes . To serue the world you are now vnhable , and though you were hable you haue litle cause to be willing , seeing that it neuer gaue you but an vnhappy welcome a hurtfull entertainment , and now doth abandon you with an vnfortunate farewell . You haue long sowed in a field of flint , which could bring you nothing forth , but a crop of cares , and affliction of spirit , rewarding your labours with remorse and affording for your gaine eternall domages . It is now more then a seasonable time time , to alter the course of so vnthriuing a husbandry , and to enter into the field of Gods Church , in which sowing the seeds of repentant sorow , and watering them with the teares of humble contrition , you may reape a more beneficiall haruest , & gather the fruits of euerlasting comforte . Remember I pray you , that your spring is spent , and your somer ouerpast : you are now arriued to the fall of leafe , yea and winter colours haue already stained your hoary head . Be not careles ( saieth S. Augustin ) though our louing Lorde beare long with offenders . for the longer he staieth not finding amendment , the sorer will he scourge when he cometh to ludgement . and his patience in so long expecting , is onely to lend vs respite to repent , not any way to enlarge vs leisure to sinne . He that is tossed with varietye of stormes , & cannot come to his desired port , maketh not much way , but is much tormoiled : So he that hath passed many yeeres , and purchased little profitte , hath had a long being , but a shorte life . for life is more to be measured by merittes , than by number of daies , seeing that most men by many daies do but procure many deathes , and others in a shorte space attein the life of infinite ages . What is the body without the soule but a corrupte carcase : and what the soule without God , but a sepulcher of sinne . If God be the way , the life , and the truth , he that goeth without him , strayeth : he that liueth without him , dieth : and he that is not taught by him , erreth . Well saieth S. Augustine that God is our trew and chiefest life , from whome the reuolting is falling , to whome the returninge is rising , in whom the staying is sure standing . God is he , from whom to depart is to dye , to whom to repaire is to reuiue , in whome to dwell is to liue . Be not you therfore of those , that beginne not to liue , vntill they be ready to dye , & then after a foes desert , come to craue of God a frends entertainment . Some thincke to snatch heauen in a moment , which the best scarce atteined in the mountenance of many yeeres . and when they haue glutted them selues with worldly delites , they would iumpe from Diues his diet to Lazarus croun , and from the seruice of Satan to the solacy of a Saint . But be you well assured , that god is not so penurious of frendes , as to hold him selfe and his kingdome salable for the refuse and reuersion of theire liues , who haue sacrificed the principall therof to his enemies , and their owne brutishe appetites , then onely ceasing to offend , when hability of offending is taken from them . True it is , that a theefe may be saued vpon the crosse , and mercy found at the last gaspe . But well saieth saint Augustine that though it be possible , yett is it scarce credible , that his death should find fauour , whose whole life hath earned wrath , and that his repentance should be accepted , that more for feare of hell , and loue of him selfe , then for loue of God or lothsomnes of sinne , crieth for mercy . Wherfore good Sir make no longer delayes , but being so neere the breaking vpp of your mortall house , take time before extremitye to satisfie Gods Iustice . Though you suffered the bud to be blasted , & the flower to fade , thogh you permitted the fruite to be perished , and the leaues to drye vp , yea though you let the bougheswither , and the body of your tree growe to decaye : yett alas keepe life in the roote , for feare least the wholle become fuell for hell fire . for surely whersoeuer the tree falleth , there shall it be , whether it be to south or north , heauen or hell , & such sap as it bringeth such fruit shal it euer bear . Death hath already filed from you the better part of your naturall forces , and hath lefte you now to the lees and remissailes of your wearish and dyinge dayes : the remainder wherof , as it cannot be long , so doth it warne you speedilye to ransome your former losses . For what is age but the calendes of death , and what importeth your present weaknes , but an earnest of your approching dissolution ? You are now impathed in your finall voiage , and not far of from the stint and period of your course : and therfore be not dispurueied of such appurtenances as are behoofull in so perplexed and perillous a iorney . Death in it selfe is very fearefull , but much more terble in regard of the iudgement that it summoneth vs vnto . If you were layed on your departing bed , burdened with the heauy load of your former trespasses , and goared with the sting and pricke of a festered conscience : If you felt the crampe of death wresting your hart stringes & ready to make the rufull diuorce betweene body and soule : If you lay panting for breath , and swimming in a colde and fatall sweat , weried with strugling against your deadly panges : O how much wold you giue for an hower of repentance at what rate woulde you valew a dayes contrition . Then worldes would be worthles in respecte of a litle respitte . A shorte truce would seeme more pretious , then the treasures of Empires . nothing would be so much esteemed as a trice of time , which now by monethes and yeeres is lauishly mispent . O how deeply would it wound your hart , when looking backe into your life you considered many faultes committed and not confessed , manye good workes omitted and not recouered , your seruice to God promised and not performed . How inconsolable were your case , your frends being fled , your senses frighted , your thoughtes amazed , your memory decaied , your whole mind agast , and no partable to performe that it should , but onely your guilty conscience pestered with sinne , that would continually vpbreid you with most bitter accusations . what woulde you thinke when stripped out of your mortall weed , and turned both out of the seruice & housrome of this world , you were forced to enter into vncouth & strange pathes , & with vnknowen and vgly company to be conuented before a most seuere iudge , carying in your owne conscience your enditement written , and a perfitte register of all your misdeedes : when you should see him prepared to passe the sentence vpon you , against whom you had transgressed , and the same to be your vmpier , whom by so many offences you had made your enemy : When not onely the Deuells , but euen the Angells should pleade against you , and your selfe maugre your will be your sharpest appeacher . What would you do in these dredfull exigentes ? When you saw that gastly dungeon & huge golfe of hell , breaking out with most fear full flames : When you saw the weeping & gnashing of teeth , the rage of those hellish monsters , the horrour of the place , the rigour of the paine , the terrour of the company , and the eternity of all these punishmentes , would you then thinke them wise , that would daly in so weighty matters , and idly play away the time allotted to preuent these intollerable calamities ? would you then account it secure , to nurse in your bosome so many serpents as sinnes , or to foster in your soule so manye malicious accusers as mortal faltes ? Would yo not then thinke one life to little to do penance for so many iniquities , euery one wherof were enough to cast you into those euerlasting and vnspeakable torments ? Why then do you not at the least deuote that small remnant and surplusage of these your latter dayes , procuring to make an attonement with God and to free your conscience from such corruption , as by your schisme and fall hath crept into it . Those very eies that read this discourse , and that very vnderstanding that conceiueth it , shal be sighted & certaine witnesses of the rehearsed thinges . In your owne body shall you experience those dedly agonies , and in your soule shall you feelinglye finde those terrible feares , yea and your present estate is in danger of the deepest harmes , if you doe not the sooner recouer your selfe into the folde and family of Gods Church . What haue you gotten by being so long customer to the world , but false ware sutable to the shoppe of such a marchant , whose traficke is toile , whose welth trashe , and whose gaine miserye ? what interest haue you reaped , that maye equall your decrementes in grace and vertew , or what coulde you find in a vale of teares parageable to the fauour of God , with the losse wherof you were contented to buy it : You cannot be now inueigled with the passions of youth , which making a partiall estimate of thinges sette no distance betweene counterfeite and currant . For they are now worn out of force by tract of time , or fallen in reproofe by triall of their folly . It cannot be feare that leadeth you amisse , seeing it were to vnfitting a thing , that the crauant cowardice of flesh & blood , should daunte the prowesse of an intelligent person , who by his wisdome can-not but discerne , how much more cause there is to feare God then man , & to stand in more awe of perpetuall , then of temporall penalties . If it be an vngrounded presumption of the mercy of God , and the hope of his assistance at the last plunge , ( the ordinarye lure of the Deuell to reclaime sinners from the pursuite of vertew ) it is to palpable a collusion to misleade a sound and sensed man , howsoeuer it preuaile with sicke and affected iudgmentes . Who would rely eternall affaires vppon the gliding slippernes & running streame of our vncertaine life ? or who but one of distempered wittes , would offer fraud to the decipherer of all thoughtes , with whome dissemble we may to our cost , but to deceiue him it is impossible . Shall we esteeme it cunning to robbe the time from him and bestow it on his enemies , who keepeth tale of the least minutes of our life , & will examine in the end how eche moment hath bene imploied . It is a preposterous pollicy in any wise conceit , to fight against God till our weapons be blunted , our forces consumed , our limmes impotent , and our best spent , and then when we fall for faintnes , and haue fought our selues almost dead to presume of his mercy , the wounds both of his sacred body , so often rubbed and renued by our sinnes , and euery parcell of our owne so sundry and diuerse waies abused , being so many whetstones and incentiues to edge and exasperat his reuenge against vs . It were a strange peece of art , and a very exorbitant course , while the shippe is sound , the Pilote well , the sailers strong , the gale fauourable , and the Sea calme , to lye idle at rode , burning so seasonable wether : and when the ship leaked , the Pilot were sick , the Mariners faint , the stormes boisterous , and the Sea a tormoile of outragious surges , then to lanch forth , to hoise vp sailes , and to set out for a voiage into farre countries . Yett such is the skill of these euening repenters , who though in the soundnes of helth , and in the perfitte vse of reason , they cannot resolue to cut the gables and weigh the anckers , that with-hold them from God , neuerthelesse they feed them selues with a strong perswasion , that when their senses are astonied , their witts distracted , their vnderstanding dusked , and both the body and minde racked & tormented with the throbs and gripes of a mortall sicknes , them forsooth will they thincke of the weightiest matters , & become sodaine Saintes , when they are scarce able to behaue them selues , like resonable creatures . If neither the canon , ciuill , nor common law alloweth , that a man perished in iudgement , should make any testament or bequeste of his temporall substance , being then presumed to be lesse then a man : how can he that is amated with the inward garboils of an vnsetled conscience , distrained with the wringing fittes of his dying fleshe , maimed in all his habilities , & circled in with so strange encombrances , be thought of dew discretion to dispose of his chiefest iewell , which is his soule , and to dispatch the wholle menage of all eternity , & of the treasures of heauen , in so stormy and shorte a spurt . No no they that will loyter in seed time , and beginne onely to sowe , when others reape : They that will riotte out their health , & cast theire accountes when they can scarcely speake : They that will slumber out the day & enter their iorney when the light doth faile them . Let them blame their owne folly , if they dye in debt , and eternall beggers , and fall hedlong into the lapse of endlesse perdition . Let such harken to S. Ciprians lesson . Let ( saieth he ) the greeuousnes of our sore , be the sure of our sorrowe . Lett a deepe wounde haue deepe and dilligent cure . Lett no mans contrition be lesse then his crime . Thinkest thou that our Lord can be so soone appeased , whom with perfidious words thou hast denied , whom lesse then thy patrimony thou hast esteemed , whose temple with sacriligious corruption thou hast defiled . Thinckest thou easely to recouer his fauour , whome thou hast auouched not to be thy Master ? We must rather most instantly intreat , we must passe the day in mourning , the night in watching , & weeping , our wholl time in plainfull lamentinge . We must fall prostrate vpon the ground humbling our selues in sackclothe and ashes . And hauing lost the garment of Christ , we should be vnwillinge to be clothed with any other hauing farsed our stomackes with the viande of the Deuell , we should now desire to fast from all earthly food . We should ply good workes to purge our offences , we should be liberall in almes to auoid the death of our soules , that Christ may receiue , that the persecutour would haue spoiled , neither ought that patrimony to be kept or phansied , with which a man hath bene ensnared & vanquished . Not euery short sighe will be a sufficient satisfaction , nor euery knocke a warrant to get in . Many cry Lord Lord and are not accepted . The foolish Virgins knocked , and were not admitted . Iudas had some sorow and yet dyed desperate . Forslowe not saieth the holy ghost to be conuerted vnto God , and linger not of from day to day . for sodeinly will his wrath come , and in the time of reuenge he will destroy thee . Lett no man soiourne long in his sinfull securitye , nor post ouer his repentance till feare enforce him vnto it . Lett vs frame our premises as we would find our conclusion , and endeuour to liue as we are desirous to dye . Shall we offer the mayne crop to the Deuell , and set God to glean the reproofe of his haruest ? Shall we gorge the Deuell with our fairest fruites , and turne God to feed on the filthy scraps of his leauings ? How great a folly were it when a man pineth away in a perillous languour , to prouide gorgeous apparell , to bespeake sumptuous furniture , and take order for the rearing of stately buildings , & neuer thinking of his owne recouery , to let the disease take roote within him ? were it not the like vanity , for a Prince to dote so farre vpon his subiecte , as neglecting his owne regalty , to busy him selfe wholly in aduancing his seruant ? Thus saieth S. Chrisostome do they , that when their soule hath surfeited with all kind of sinne and is drenched in the depth of infinite diseases , without any regard therof , labour their wittes in setting forth her garment , and in pampering the body with all possible delightes . And wheras the soule shold haue the soueraignty , and the body followe the sway of her direction , seruile senses , and lawlesse appetites do rule her as superiours , and she is made a vassall in her owne dominions . What is there sayeth S. Augustine in thy meanest necessaries , that thou wouldest not haue good ? Thou wouldest haue a good house , good furniture , good apparell , good fare , good cattell , and not so much but thy hose and thy shoes thou wilt seek to haue good . Onely thy life and poore soule , thy principall charge , and of all other things the most worthy to be best , thou arte content should be nought , and ly cancring and rusting in all kinde of euelles . O vnspeakable blindnes . can we preferr our shoes before our soule , refusing to we are an euell shoe , and not caring to cary an vgly & deformed soule ? Alas let vs not set so litle by that , which God prised so much . Lett vs not rate our selues at soe base a peniworth , being in truth of so pereles dignity . If the soule be such , that not all the gold and treasure of the world , nor any thing of lesse worth then the blood and life of almighty God , was able to buy it . If not all the deinties that witt can deuise , or heauen and earth afford , but onely Gods owne pretious body was by him deemed a repast fitt to feed it . If not all the creatures of this , nor millions of new worldes , if so many more were created , but onely the illimitable goodnes and maiestye of God can satisfie the desire , and fill the compasse and capacity of it , who but of lame iudgement , or peruers will , yea who but of an incredulous mind , and pitiles spirite could set more by his shoes , then he did by his soule , or be contented to suffer so noble a paragon , so many monethes and yeeres to ly chanelled in ordure , & mired in all sinne . Can we not see our seruant sicke , but we allow him a Phisician , our horse diseased but we send for a leach , nor our garment torne , but we will haue one to mend it ? and can we so much maligne out soule , as to let it dye for want of cure , and seing it mangled with so many vices , neuer seeke any to restore it to the wonted inte grity ? Is our seruant neerer , our beast more pretious , & our coate dearer , then our owne soule ? If any shold call vs Epicures Aethestes , rebells vnto God , or murderers of soules , we would take it for an vntollerable reproche , and thinke it a most disgracefull & opprobrious calumniation . But to liue like Epicures , to sinne like Aethists to struggle against Gods callinges , and like violent rebells to scorne his commandements : yea & with dailye and damnable wounds , barbarously to stab our infortunat soules , this we account no contumely , we reckon for no discreditt , yea rather we register it in the vaunte of our chiefe praises . O ye sonnes of men , how long will you carry this heauy hart , aliking vanity , and seeking lyes ? how long will children loue the follies of infancye , and sinners runne carelesse and wilfull to their ruine ? Will you keepe your chicken from the kite , your lambe from the wolfe , your faune from the hound . Dare you not suffer a spider in your bosome , or a toade to come nere you , & can you nestle in your soule so many vipers as vices , and permit it to be so long chewed , & weried with the poisoned iawes , & tuskes of the Deuell ? And is our soule so vaine a substance as to be had in so litle esteeme ? Had Christ made shipwracke of his wisdome , or was he in a rage of passion when he became a wandering pilgrimme exiling him selfe from the comfortes of his Godhead , and passing three and thirty yeares in paine and penury for the be hoofe of our soules ? Was he surprised with a rauing fitt , when in the tragedy of his passion so bloodily inflicted , and so patitiently accepted , he made his body as a cloud , to resolue into shouers of innocent blood , and suffered the deerest veines of his hart to be lanced , to giue full issue to the price of our soules redemption ? Or if Christ did not erre , nor deeme amisse , when it pleased him to redeeme vs with so excessiue a ransome , then what should we iudge of our monstruous abuse , that sell our soule to the Deuell for euerye vaine delighte , & rather aduenture the hazard therof , then of a selye pittance of worldly pelfe . O that a creature of so incomparable a price , should be in the demaine of so vnnaturall keepers , and that which is in it selfe so gracious and amiable , that the Angells and Saintes delite to behold it , ( as S. Chrisostome saieth ) should by sinne be fashioned into so lothsome & disguised shapes as to become a horrour to heauen , and a sutely pheere for the foulest fiendes . Alas if the care of our own harmes moue vs no more , but that we can still be so barbarous to the better portion of our selues , lett vs at the lest feare to iniury an other party , very carefull and ielious ouer it : who will neuer endure so deepe an impeachment of his interest to passe vnreuenged . We must remember , that our soule is not onely a part of vs , but also the temple , the paradise , and spouse of Almightye god , by him in baptisme garnished , stored , and endowed with moste graciouse ornamentes . And how think you , he can brooke , to see his temple prophaned , and turned into a denne of Deuels , his paradise displanted , and altered into a wildernesse of serpentes , his spouse defloured , and become an adulteresse to his vtter enemies ? Durst we offer such vsage to our Princes , yea or to our farmers daughter ? woulde not feare of the lawe , and popular shame , disturne vs from it ? And shall not the reuerend Maiestye of almighty God , and the vnrebated iustice of his angry sword , terrifie vs from offering the like to his own spouse ? Do we thinke God either so impotent that he cannot , so base and sottish that he will not , or so weake witted that he knoweth not how to wreake him selfe vpon so contemptuous and daring offenders ? Will he so neglect and lose his honour , which of all thinges he claimeth as his chiefe peculier ? Will he that for the soules sake keepeth a reckoninge of our verye heares , which are but the excrementes of her earthly weed , see him selfe so much wronged in the principall , & passe it without remonstrance of his iust indignation ? O deere Sir remember thant the scripture termeth it a thing full of horrour to fall into the hands of God , who is able to crush the proud spirittes of the obstinate , and to make his enemies the footestoole of his feete . Wrastle no longer against the cries of your owne conscience , and the forcible inspirations that God doth sende you . Embrace his mercy before the time of rigour , & returne to his Church lest he debarre you his kingdome . He cannot haue God for his father , that refuseth to professe the Catholicke Church for his mother , neither can he atchiue to the Church triumphant in heauen , that is not a member of the Church militant here in earth .

You haue bene alas to long an aliant in the tabernacles of sinners , and straied to farr from the folde of Gods flocke . Turne now the blaze of your harte towardes the sanctuary of saluation , and the city of refuge , seeking to recompence your wandering steppes trodden in error , with a swifte gate and zelous progresse to Christian perfection , & redeming the time because the daies be euell . The full of your spring-tide