[269] Look upon the face of the calamitous world, and inquire into the causes of all the oppressions, rapines, cruelties, and inhumanity which have made men so like to devils: look into the corrupted, lacerated churches, and inquire into the cause of their contentions, divisions, usurpations, malignity, and cruelty against each other: and you will find that pride and worldliness are the causes of all. When men of a proud and worldly mind have by fraud, and friendship, and simony usurped the pastorship of the churches, according to their minds and ends, they turn it into a malignant domination, and the carnal, worldly part of the church, is the great enemy and persecutor of the spiritual part; and the fleshly hypocrite, as Cain against Abel, is filled with envy against the serious believer, even out of the bitter displeasure of his mind, that his deceitful sacrifice is less respected. What covetousness hath done to the advancement of the pretended holy catholic church of Rome, I will give you now, but in the words of an abbot and chronicler of their own, Abbas Urspergens. Chron. p. 321. Vix remansit aliquis episcopatus, sive dignitas ecclesiastica, vel etiam parochialis ecclesia, quæ non fierit litigiosa, et Romam deduceretur ipsa causa, sed non manu vacua. Gaude mater nostra Roma, quoniam aperiuntur cataractæ thesaurorum in terra, ut ad te confluant rivi et aggeres nummorum in magna copia. Lætare super iniquitate filiorum hominum; quoniam in recompensationem tantorum malorum, datur tibi pretium. Jocundare super adjutrice tua discordia; quid erupit de puteo infernalis abyssi, ut accumulentur tibi multa pecuniarum præmia. Habes quod semper sitisti; decanta Canticum, quia per malitiam hominum non per tuam religionem, orbem vicisti. Ad te trahit homines, non ipsorum devotio, aut pura conscientia, sed scelerum multiplicium perpetratio, et litium decisio, pretio comparata.
Fortun. Galindas speaking of pope Paul the fifth, his love to the Jesuits for helping him to money, saith, Adeo præstat acquirendarum pecuniarum quam animarum studiosum et peritum esse, apud illos, qui cum animarum Christi sanguine redemptarum, in se curam receperint, vel quid anima sit nesciunt, vel non pluris animam hominis quam piscis faciunt: quod credo suum officium Piscatum quendam esse aliquando per strepitum inaudierint: quibus propterea gratior fuerit, qui animam auri cum Paracelso, quam animam Saxoniæ Electoris invenisse nuntiet. Arcan. Soci. Jesu, p. 46.
Lege ibid. instruct. secret. de Jesuitarum praxi.
Et Joh. Sarisbur. lib. vii. c. 21. de Monach. Potentiores et ditiores favore vel mercede recepta facilius (absolutione) exonerant, et peccatis alienis humeros supponentes, jubent abire in tunicas et vestes pullas, quicquid illi se commisisse deplorant—Si eis obloqueris, religionis inimicus, et veritatis diceris impugnator.
[270] Matt. vi. 24; xiii. 22; Luke xvi. 13, 14; xiv. 33; xviii. 22, 23; Matt. vi. 19-21; 1 Tim. vi. 6-8; 1 John ii. 15; Prov. xxviii. 9; xviii. 8; James iv. 3; Prov. xxviii. 20, "He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent."
[271] Jam. v. 1-5; 1 John iii. 17.
[272] 2 Tim. iv. 10.
[273] 1 Tim. vi. 17-19.
[274] Christ's sheep-mark is plainest on the sheep that are shorn. When the fleece groweth long the mark wears out.
[275] Pecunia apud eum nunquam mansisse probatur, nisi forte tali hora offeratur, quando sol diei explicans cursum, nocturnis tenebris daret locum. Victor. Ut. de Eugen. Episc. Cath. Plato compareth our life to a game at tables. We may wish for a good throw, but whatever it be, we must play it as well as we can. Plutarch. de Tranquil. Anim.