satisfaction of my mind but the establishment of my fortune Notwithstanding I have wholly left it through a most undoubted knowledge that we cannot resolve on any thing solid therein Judge you what you please but ever a well rectified spirit will be ashamed to profess a science not supported by reason and which knows almost no other trade but to deceive This at that time somewhat startled him but stayed not his purpose so much he loved to deceive himself and so much he resolved to find out this secret in the end But ever as he waded further not discovering firm land he found trouble in a barren labour and much vanitie where he to himself proposed some soliditie Nothing confirmed him so much in contempt of this folly as the discourse he had with Firminus a young man of eminent qualitie sick of the same disease that he was for the curiositie of Astrologie ceased not to incite him as being born of a father an Astrologer a man of honour but so curious that he calculated the very horoscope of cats and dogs that were whelped in his house yet so little had he profited therein that at the same time his son came into the world a servant of his neighbours being delivered of a male-child he foretold according to the rules of his art that both of them being born under one same constellation should run the like fortune which was so false that this Firminus his son being born of a rich family progressed far into the honour of the times whilest the son of the servant notwithstanding the favours of his goodly horoscope waxed old in servitude This young man who made this narration though convinced by his own experience still suffered himself to be beguiled with his proper errour so difficult it is to take away this charm by force of reasons Our Augustine by little and little dispersed those vapours both by the vivacitie of his own excellent judgement and the consideration of others folly He was likewise solicited to attempt a kind of magick much in request among the heathen Philosophers of that Age which was to seek predictions from the shop of the devil by means of the effusion of the bloud of beasts and sometiemes of children But God who as yet held a bridle on this uncollected soul and would not suffer it to be defiled with those black furies gave him in the beginning so much horrour upon all these proceedings that a Negromancer promising him one day to bear away the prize of Poesie in a publick meeting of Poets if he would assure him of a reasonable reward he answered that were the Crown to be given in those games of profit of gold wholly celestial he would not buy it by such kind of ways at the rate of the bloud of a flie Which he partly spake through some sence of pietie partly also by the knowledge he had of the illusion and barrenness of such sciences He was much more troubled about the Articles His Religion of Faith for though from his childhood he was educated in Christian Religion under the wings of his good mother S. Monica yet suffering his mind to mount up unto so many curiosities he had greatly weakened the sence of pietie And being desirous to penetrate all by the help of humane reasons when he began to think on the Christian maxims of Faith he therein beheld much terrour and abyss He came to this condition that not content with the God of his forefathers who taught him holy counsels and the universal voice of the Church he put himself upon masterie now wholly ready to shape a Divinitie on the weak idaeas of his own brain The Manichees at that time swayed in Africk who having found this spirit and seeing he might one day prove a support to their Sect they spared nothing to gain him and he being upon change it was not very hard to bring him into the snare This Sect sprang from one named Manes a Persian by birth and a servant by condition who having inherited the goods of a Mistress whom he served from a good slave which he had been had he remained in that siate became by studie an ill Philosopher and a worse Divine for mingling some old dotages of the magick of Persians with other maxims of Christianitie partly by the help of his purse partly also by an infinitie of impostures derived from his giddy spirit he made himself head of a faction protesting he was the holy Ghost His principal folly consisted in placing two Gods in the world the one good the other bad who had many strange battels The bodie as he said was the creature of the evil God and the soul a portion of the substance of the good enthraled in matter And following these principals he gave a phantastical bodie to the Saviour of the world esteeming it a thing unworthy of the Word to be personally united to the flesh which he held in the number of of things execrable Behold the cause why those who were ingulfed in this Sect made shew to abstain from meat and wine which they termed the dragons gall I do not think that ever Augustine fully consented to all the chymeraes of Manes which were innumerable but at the least he relished this Sect in the opinion it had of the original and nature of the bodie and soul and in many other articles even to the believing as himself witnesseth fables most ridiculous Great God! who thunderest upon the pride of humane spirits and draggest into the dust of the earth those that would go equal with Angels What Eclypse of understanding What abasing of courage in miserable Augustine To say that a man whose eye was so piercing doctrine so eminent and eloquence so divine after he had forsaken the helm of faith and reason became so abandoned as to make himself a partie of the Sect of a barbarous and phantastical slave who in the end for his misdeeds was flayed by the command of the King of Persia as if the skin of this man could no longer cover a soul so wicked Behold whither curiositie transporteth an exorbitant spirit Behold into what so many goodly gifts of grace and nature are dissolved Behold now the Eternal Wisdom besotteth those who forsake him to court the lying fantasies of their imagination A second obstacle went along with this extravagant A second impediment Presumption curiositie to settle him fixedly in errour which was the presumption of his own abilities an inseparable companion of heresie He that once in his brain hath deified crocodiles and dragons not onely adoreth them but will perswade others that he hath reason to set candles before them and burn incense for them It is a terrible blow when one is wounded in the head by his proper judgement whose ill never rests in the mean We come to the end of all by the strength of industrie Stones are pulled forth from the entrails of men the head is opened to make smoak issue
violence to love is natural not to love is monstrous Then here admire the charms of Divinity which hath placed all the perfection of man in the love of his Creatour and Saviour to love an infinite good which one cannot hate and not become a devil Chrys serm 94. Tenerae militiae delicati conflictus est amore solo de cunctis criminibus reportare victoriam The warfare of Christians delicate S. Peter Chrysologus crieth out A more delicate warfare never was seen than to conquer all by love Ask I pray of all Divines if charity be not the quintessence of perfection Ask of all Religious men where they pretend to place it in sack-cloth or hair-shirts They will answer you No. In the vows of poverty chastity obedience No. These are most undoubted wayes to perfection but they are not properly perfection In what then In the love of God which Cap. 63. Iren. lib. 4. Eminentissimum charismatum S. Irenaeus expresseth by a most elate epithete Eminentissimum charismatum the most eminent of all the gifts of God The Master of the Sentences and some other Divines The excellency of charity have placed charity so high in which we establish perfection that they have presumed to say it was the substance of the Holy Ghost united and as it were incorporated to mans soul adding that as light is called radical light in the Sun light infused in bodies transparent colour in bodies which we call coloured in like manner this charity as it is say they originally and radically in God is the holy Ghost as it is united to the substance of our soul it is grace as it maketh sallies out upon our neighbour it is charity This Doctrine is very subtile and really giveth a very high idea of the merit of Charity but if we Notable opinion of some Divines would wholly examine it according to the strict rigour of Schools and weigh it in S. Thomas his equal ballance we shall find Charity is not to speak properly the Holy Ghost but as it were the first ray of Divinity which bringeth with it self all perfections This beam if you will is as it were in your power God every day presenteth it unto you as freely as the Sun doth his light it onely behoveth to will it behoveth seriously once to resolve to love an object so amiable and then behold your selves perfect Notwithstanding if you lay your hand on the bottom of your conscience you shall ever find it in its proper interests in humane respects in intentions and affections nothing sincere in the love of creatures This is to coyn false money in matter of love this is to put God under the Altar and the love of himself above that it may have the better part of incense What think you of this indignitie See you not the obligation of being perfect still remaineth but the effect is ever pretermitted For the second reason I say the perfection of man Imitation of Jesus Christ abridgement of wisdom Matth. 5. Estote perfecti sicut Pater vester caelestis perfectus est Greg. Nyssen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the book of the life of Moses Humanity of Jesus An excellent conceit of Origen Origen 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Indeclinabiliter eosdeÌ„ motus suscipieâ—at consisteth in the imitation of God Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect and very well S. Gregory Nyssen assureth us that this imitation is an abridgement of all wisdom Now who is able to mount by force of wing and flie into the bosom of the eternal Father thence to draw a pourtraict of his holinesses Certainly no creature can aspire thereto And what I pray hath God all goodness all wisdom done He hath imprinted all his perfections upon our Saviour the true figure of his substance as if one should impress a golden seal upon virgin-wax which made Origen say his most sacred humanity was as the foot-step and shadow of the Divinity and agreed with it as equal well-made dyals with the Sun whereupon the spirit of God calleth all Christians and saith to them Imitate couragiously behold your Prototype behold the model of your actions He saith not I have two Images of my substance I have two Sons I send them both upon the earth one shall be for men of eminencie the other for the multitude Behold one delicately One same Jesus for the Nobles and plebeyans curious crowned with roses for the nobility behold another crowned with thorns for the vulgar It is meer dotage to imagine it And see you not it is like sottishness since all Christians bear the same name the same livery participate of the same God the same Sacraments and pretend to the same Paradise to think perfection is not appointed but for a silly handful of men separated from secular life and that others are excluded Miserable creatures who to sooth their own remisness plant their own condemnation upon their foreheads Briefly to conclude the title and dignity of a Christian draweth with it great and just obligations which you cannot countervail but with an exact endeavour of perfection Do you think one requireth too much of you who have been nourished and trained up in the Church of God if you be demanded at the least to shew resolution and courage to resist a sin as some Heathens have done in their infidelity And to produce in gross three examples upon the three most ordinary temptations behold with S. Austine Polemon who telleth you I was an insidel a S. Augustine Epist 130. saith of this Non humano operi tribuerim sed divino Polimon praised by S. Augustine young man deprived of the knowledge of the true God resigned over to all sort of intemperance wine love play rashness were the Chariot which drew my youth to downfal I was no sooner entered into the school of a Heathen Philosopher as my self but behold I was wholly changed And thou O Christian dost thou think it will be lawful for thee amongst so many important and forcible instructions so many enlightenings so many inspirations to play the smiths old dog and lie sleeping under the anvile This man here upon the onely word of a man layeth down his flowery crowns which he bare on his head his drunkenness his unthrifty riots and where is there a worldly woman at this day who at the end of a Sermon enkindled with zeal dissolveth one piece of her gaudy dressings Behold on the other side Spurina who saith in Spurina S. Ambrose I was a Gentile bred in the corruption of an age where virtue was in declination and vice on the top of the wheel I was endowed with an exquisit beauty which by right of natural force gave me the key of hearts and I seeing it was too much affected and courted by wanton eyes and served for a stumbling-block to chastity I purposely made scars S. Ambrose in the exhortation to virginitie Deformitatem sanctitatis
clarior inventus sit non id nobilitas efficit sed sanitas Petrarch l. 1. de remediis dialog 16. The souls of men different in qualities say with Petrarch If Nobilitie were not tied but to flesh and bloud it were a small matter since it is very difficult to distinguish between the bloud of Caesars and Porters Nor yet will I touch what might pertinently be disputed that the souls of men extracted from the treasures of Heaven though they be all cast in one mould and be of the same kind may notwithstanding be created by God with qualities very different as we behold in the flowers of a beautiful meadow which are of the same name and nature a very great dis-proportion in figure colour and other accidents semblably between the stars and precious stones which are of the same substance one will have a lustre more sparkling another more dull and blunted This maketh us probably believe that the souls of men when they are infused into bodies although they be essentially marked with the same stamp may have some accidental perfections one above another and that this great diversitie which we observe therein making one man appear of gold another of lead doth not onely depend on the varieties Mercur. Trismeg in Cratere sive Monade Cup of spirit of Organs Mercury Trismegistus was of this opinion when under the bark of a fable he represented souls unto us which before they entered into the bodie drank in the cup of spirit not all of them but those which happily encountred that fortunate success For he feigneth according to the inventions of his brain that God sendeth a messenger upon the earth to wit one of his Angels who placeth a large cup as big as it is to be supposed that of Semiramis was which as Aelian reporteth weighed a thousand and four-score pound and this cup is full of a celestial liquor of power to make men subtile and spiritual the messenger maketh his proclamation and saith to every soul Up soul drench thy self deeply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and drink with all thy force in this cup of spirit Thereupon they drink some more some less which maketh a great diversitie of understandings Some wholly abstain who when they have entered into the bodie have no other share but the gifts of reason which necessarily is a prerogative of their nature but as for spirit they are deprived as being absolutely stupid and extreamly shallow It is a wonder how these ancient Sages have pleased themselves in these fabulous discourses Needeth there so much outward cover to give us this maxime that all souls have not one and the same relation to accidental qualities though as Aristotle teacheth us they are in their own essence as unchangeable as numbers in Arithmetick This diversitie of spirits presupposed one may say that great and noble men are more priviledged from the time of their birth and that with some probabilitie Double understanding So Philo hath given to Kings and Potentates a double understanding the one for the rule of themselves and the other for the government of their estates But not to sooth the Nobilitie with feeble Mens ista aurea quam de communi Deo plusquam unus hausisti Auson in panegyri Gratian and superficial reasons it behoveth they know that although one should admit this accidental diversitie in the Oeconomie of humane spirits yet would the consequence not necessarily ensue that they always thereby should be the better provided God maketh no difference of persons in this distribution There are spirits that have come into the world from among the cobwebs of a nasty cottage who have filled Ages with admiration of their greatness Others have been clothed in golden glitter and purple who have been miserably stupid and dull and although fortune doth still hold to the oar who deserve to be at the stern yea and some be at the stern who merit to be at the oar yet the providence of God doth mannage it as best pleaseth himself for certain ends which our foresight cannot penetrate with the best light What infallible motive shall we then derive to establish the obligation which tieth the Nobilitie to virtue above others since we rather seek weight of reason than colour Behold one Shamefac'dness of women which cannot well be denied by a well-rectified judgement It is that as God hath given to women I know not what instinct of shamefac'dness which enforceth them as it were with a sweet violence to the defence of their honour and this in them is so powerful a touch from Heaven that they cannot discharge themselves thereof rather they feel it in every part unless they be wretchedly insensible Plinie affirmeth the same who saith their Plin. lib. 7. bodies after death float in such posture upon the waters Pronae fluitant pudori carum parcente natura Where is the motive of virtue in the Nobilitie that they hide the nakedness from humane eyes whereof nature during life hath been so careful Even as God hath ingrafted the love of modestie upon this sex so likewise he hath affixed a spur of honour upon the spirit of Noblemen This is the pourtraict of Phidias which cannot be taken away without breaking the Minerva This is the character wherewith God will imprint virtue in them They are all naturally sensible in the points of honesty or else degenerate from their Nobilitie Behold I pray you the force and power of this spur which God hath used for the good of Nobilitie They would flie if it were possible to Heaven and penetrate the depths to avoid the least stain of dishonour What flames actually would not they go through to what breaches assaults musket-shots to what images of death which make nature to tremble with cold fear do not they expose themselves to conserve or acquire reputation The spirit of lies seeing they cannot be altered in this spur of the inseparable honour of their condition what doth he Not being able to wrest it from them he rebateth the point nay rather he rebateth the brain and makes them place the point of honour in infamie knowing very well that this is an effectual means to ruin them without discoverie A wonder They rather will become Apostates from Christianitie than from the spur of honour They meet in the field cut one anothers throat and emptie their quarrels through the channels of their bloud for that they think the thing is honourable Judge now and conclude what I am to say if they would suffer this spur to pursue that course which God hath begun in their souls perswading themselves what is most undoubted that the most ignoble act which a Gentleman can do is to serve sin would not they quickly become perfect would not they be invincible against all vices and ever in possession of virtue This argument is very strong and will admit no evasion Noble spirit thou naturally lovest honour more than thy life and therein
thereunto are more manifest as I will make it appear in the sequel of this discourse First the Scripture speaking of ambition called it Reasons and remedies Psal 18. 14. Ab alienis parce servo tuo Ambition a Forreign vice A singular description of man a forreign vice Pride in man is not in its element it always seeketh height and man is even lowness it self What is man if we consider him in his own nature without the assistance of grace but an excrement of impurity in his conception a silly creature in his birth a bag and sponge of ordures in his life a bait for worms in his death The soul is in the body as in a Chariot of glass The days are the courriers which perpetually run upon a full gallop The four wheels are vanity weakness inconstancy misery The way is of ice the goal is death and the end oftentimes is a precipice The pleasures thereof as saith Plato are winged and wholly armed with pricks and stings to leave in flying a sharp point in the heart the dolour and discontents thereof drench it in a cup full of gall and its feet are of lead never to forsake it Can then such a creature be possessed with ambition such a dung-hill nourish pride All that we behold both above and beneath Al the world teacheth us the lesson of hâ—mility on the right on the left hand in this great house of nature serves as a lesson of humility for us Heaven which circumvolveth over our heads enameled with stars created in a higher place than we the earth which we tread under our feet which serveth us for a nurse afterwards for a sepulchre the little air we breath without which we cannot live the water which in its wonder hath swallowed up wisdom and afterwards the bodies of the most knowing men of the earth as we read of Aristotle beasts whose spoils we carry about us our body which according to account hath for its portion about three thousand diseases our soul which knoweth not what shall become of her and which cannot tell whether she shall serve as an immortal fewel to those devouring flames that have no limits but eternity or no All preach to us our baseness all thunder out the terrour and affrightments of Gods judgements and amongst so many subjects of humility you O Noblemen have leisure to puff up your selves and to fill your minds with the gentle breathing blasts of imaginary honour At the least if needs you must elevate your selves if you of necessity must take a great deal of state upon you choose the best way but insensible as you are what Ambition the life of a slave do you take upon you becoming ambitious the life of a slave the life of Cain This is the second consideration which I propose of power sufficient to instruct a soul that will give never so little predominance to reason We all naturally love liberty and suppose that to be of ones self is an inestimable good Inestimabile bonum est suum esse Senec. ep 67. Misery of the ambitious Now the most captive Galley-slaves are not greater bond-men than the ambitious The slave hath a chain and a captain who proudly insulteth over him an ambitious man hath as many fetters as he hath appetites as many servitudes as pretensions as many slaveries as manners of ambition His Captain is his unguided passion which tyrannizeth over him day and night with all possible cruelty The slave practizeth and tameth himself in his own condition the ambitious is always savage he always flieth before himself and never overtaketh himself to enter into himself He is in no place because he would be every where and yet notwithstanding he is tormented every where his feaver burneth him where he is not The slave freeth himself with money the ambitious man findeth gyves of gold and silver The slave findeth no chain so straight but that it sometimes giveth him leave to sing the ambitious is never free out of himself there are nothing but objects of frenzie fire-brands of concupiscence and within himself there is not any thing but worms flames and executioners The slave findeth at least liberty in death and death which carrieth the key of all close coverts cometh lastly to unlose all the bands of his servitude an ambitious soul as soon as it is parted from the body is consorted with devils in their tortures as it imitated them very nearly in their passion What a life what a death is this Find you any comparable if not that of unfortunate Cain The Scripture saith The life of Cain Genes 4. 16. Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Procep in Genes that he withdrawing himself from the sight of God did inhabit the land of instability and Procopius thereto addeth an ancient tradition that he perpetually saw certain spectres with swords of fire which brought horrible affrightments upon him Is the ambitious man better used Is not he perpetually separated from the face of God seeing as saith S. Hierom man is divided from the Divinity not by the degrees Hier. Epist ad Damas Peccantes recedunt à Deo affectuum non locorum spatiis of body but of soul which are the affections And how much more the soul is scattered in the waste emptiness of ambition which is indeed a meer vanity so much more it strayeth from this sovereign Majesty which is the onely verity Is it not in the Kingdom of inconstancy In every place where he setteth his feet there is nothing but slippery yce or downfal The saying of the Prophet is accomplished Psal 34. 6. Fiat via illorum tenebrae labricum Angelus Domini persequens eos Extream disaster in his person Let their way be made dark and slippery and the Angel of our Lord persecute them Behold all the most lamentable extremities which may be imagined in a voyage ever to go upon yce and thereon to walk in the obscure darkness of the night and to have behind you in the rere a Sergeant who hasteneth you forward and all this is found in the life of the ambitious What passage is not slippery in the favours of the world all which are feathered and full of mutable conditions What darkness is there in a wretched creature who hath no pitie at all of himself who maketh a liberty of his fetters honour of his ignominie and tropheys of his torments What Sergeant is more troublesom What spectres and what swords of fire more teribble than the pricks of this enraged passion which as much and as violently forceth man as a bull goared with a goad rusheth through some headlong precipice Where is it that the ambitious man can find place of stability and center of repose If he be in quest of honour and when is he not behold him in a whirl-pool in fire behold him in the feverish accesses of heat and cold which afford him no intermission Admit he obtain what he pretendeth unto no
It is good oftentimes to consider how reasonable glorious and full of merit this act is Reasonable How acts of faith may be made easie to submit the creature to the Creatour glorious to see the Sovereign Lord so served and honoured that for the defence of one sole word but once pronounced by his mouth a thousand and a thousand good servants are ready to bestow their lives full of merit in as much as we give a free consent voluntary and pious and not being enforced by manifest evidence II. To be often confounded in the weakness and incapicity of our understanding which is found so short in the knowledge of many petty things There needeth no more but the foot of an Ant to stay it and a glass of water to drown it What stupidity then is like this to be desirous to make ones self over-wise and to judge that impossible which cannot be comprehended in matter of Religion III. To apply your mind to the consideration of motives which may form in your spirit a probability of that which is proposed unto you as are those I have noted before and which will give good enterances to the inspirations of God IV. To retire from the toyl of senses which do nothing but disturb when you consult with them in things spiritual and to raise your soul above flesh to be illuminated by the Sun of Intelligences V. To take away the obstacles of all sorts of impurity and namely of pride all disordinate affection VI. To strike at Heaven gate with prayer seeing faith cometh unto us from treasures of the Father of light Faith so planted fortified and manured by good works illuminateth a soul All the savage and cruel beasts all the bruitish passions chimaeraes dreams irresolutions which went roaming up and down in this great forrest of confusions amongst the shadows of night are scattered so soon as this radiant Sun beginneth to dissipate darkness with his divine rays Then is it that a soul wholly clad with Hope the clear lights of hope which causeth it to expect the blessings of the other life goeth on with a great and constant resolution as one who hath for support the infinite power of God who is as faithful in his promises as rich in rewards Behold how this monster ignorance is overthrown by the arms of light The fifth SECTION Of four other rays which serve to dissipate ignorance BEsides the torch of faith God also gives us the Beam of understanding light of understanding of counsel wisdom and prudence which are as unvaluable riches wholly replenishing the soul with splendour as saith the Prophet Isaiah The gift of understanding doth free us from a certain bruitishness which is the cause that men tying themselves onely to external and sensible things are perpetually out of themselves at which time understanding calls them back again and makes them to re-enter into their house to see the beginning progress and end of the life of man from whence he cometh whither he goeth what will become of him Counsel enlighteneth us in things doubtful to Of counsel take a good way Wisdom putteth us out of an apprentiship and Of wisdom draweth us from a certain childishness which maketh men as little ones and carnal mutually entertaining themselves with temporal things And the knowledge of God raiseth and causeth them to turn their faces directly towards Eternity Prudence considereth good and evil according to Of prudence the quality and quantity thereof It examineth the circumstances of actions and sheweth us what ought to be done in such a time such a place and such occasions The sixth SECTION Twelve fundamental Considerations of spiritual life partly drawn from that worthy man John Picus Mirandula FRom the five rays explicated before proceed Note that it is good often to meditate these maxims either one a day or all together great and goodly lights by direction of which a life wholly new is begun John Picus of Mirandula a great and remarkable man held for a prodigie of wit much tasting the content of spiritual life enlightened by the rays of a wisdom absolutely celestial establisheth twelve Considerations which we ought continually to meditate on for the practice of the knowledge of God I. The first the nature and dignity of man to wit 1. Consideration nature and dignity of man that the first and ceaseless endeavour of man should be of man himself to see what he hath been what he is and what he shall be What he hath been nothing what he is a reasonable creature what he shall be a guest of Paradise or of hell of an eternal felicity or of an everlasting unhappiness What he is according to nature a master-piece Greatness of the soul where many prerogatives meet together a body composed of a marvellous architecture a soul endowed with understanding reason spirit judgement will memory imaginations opinions A soul which flieth in an instant from one pole to the other descendeth even to the center of the world and mounteth to the top which is found in an instant in a thousand several places which embraceth the whole world without touching it which goeth which glittereth which shineth which diggeth into all the treasures and magazines of nature which findeth out all sorts of inventions which inventeth arts which governeth Common-wealths which disposeth worlds In the mean time she beholdeth about her self an infinite number of dogs that bark at her happiness and endeavour to bite her on every side Love fooleth her ambition turmoyleth her avarice Tyranny of passions rusteth her and lust enflameth her vain hopes sooth her pleasures melt her despair over-bears her choler burns her hatred filleth her with gall envie gnaweth her jealousie pricketh her revenge enrageth her cruelty maketh her savage fear frosteth her sorrow consumes her This poor soul shut up in the body as a bird of Paradise in a cage is altogether amazed to see her self assailed by all this mutinous multitude and though she have a scepter in her hand to rule she notwithstanding oft suffereth her self to be deceived ravished and dragged along into a miserable servitude From thence behold what man is through sin vanity weakness inconstancy misery malediction What he becometh by grace a child of light a terrestrial Angel the son of a celestial Father by adoption brother and coheir of Jesus Christ a vessel of election the temple of the Holy Ghost What he may arrive unto by glory to be an inhabitant of Heaven who shall see the stars under his feet which he hath over his head who shall be filled with the sight of God his beginning his end his true onely and original happiness II. The benefits received from God considered 2. Benefits of God in general as those of creation conservation redemption vocation and in particular the gifts of the body of the soul of nature of capacity ability industry dexterity wariness nobility offices authority means credit reputation
light and Article 3 assistance of the holy Ghost that he would be pleased to direct this act to his glory and that you have framed to your self a lively thought of the presence of God and that actually you may meditate to select the points and articles proposed sweetly attentively affectionately and not to want matter for every point it is good to weigh the causes the effects the tenents and utmost limits of the mystery we meditate on As in the first point of the knowledge of your self Seven ways to dilate ones self in meditating in abundance upon sundry thoughts contained in this third article What man is according to nature A reasonable creature intelligent capable of the knowledge of God Who made it God himself He would that his Divine hands saith S. Basil should serve him as a womb What are the essential parts thereof A soul a body an understanding a memory a will What are the accidentals A general mass of so many little parcels as have their names and entertainments O the powerful hand which hath composed such a master-piece Where was it made In the earth and not in Heaven to teach him humility And to what end made To praise God and serve him and to save himself in praising and serving him Who hath concurred to its creation God Hath he made use of Angels No He would attribute the honour of such a work to himself And how did he make it He was not content with one single word as in the creation of the world but he put his hand thereto to shew it was a more supream effect of his power And when did he make him After other creatures to prepare the world for him as a cradle as a Temple as a Hall to banquet in and such like things You see these circumstances who what where what help wherefore when and how in every subject of what kind soever will lead you along The second manner to dilate your self when you meditate history is to represent the divers persons with their words actions and passions As in the mysterie of the Resurrection The souldiers shivering for fear the Person of our Saviour all enlightened with splendour saying Courage I have overcome all power is given to me in Heaven and earth I come to wipe away your tears to make your faces bright-shining to put you into possession of an eternal felicity and such like things On the other side Magdalene who seeketh her Master and not content to behold the Angels speaketh these words which Origen prompteth her All these goodly comforters Onerosi sunt mihi omnes consolatores quaero Creatorem ideò mihi gravis est ad videndum omnis creatura Ego non quaero Angelos sed etam qui secit me Angelos are burdensome to me I seek the Creatour and therefore I cannot see any creature without anxietie I seek not Angels but him who hath made both me and Angels The third to represent things to your self by certain images figures and similitudes as Hermas cited in the Bibliothec of the Fathers who meditating on the joy of worldlings imagined to himself a delicious meadow enameled all over with flowers where certain fat and plump sheep cropped the grasse and skipped to and fro with many jumps in the delights thereof And in an instant this meadow became vast plain drie lean parched and barren and the same sheep appeared starven scabbie and full of botches a rude surly shepherd driving them to feed among thorns and brambles Afterward he applied all that to the voluptuous and made to himself a perfect representation of their life to avoid their unhappiness The fourth to extend your self by comparing of one thing to another as did Saint Gregorie Nazianzen S. Gregory in his Hymns meditating upon the love of God Tell me confidently O my soul what thou desirest for I will please thee Thou wouldst perhaps have Gyges his enchanted ring to gain a kingdom Thou wouldst have all that which is in thy hand changed into gold the desire of the fabulous Mydas Thou wouldst covet palaces stuffed with gold and silver rich possessions curiosities boundless honours Poor distracted man dost thou not see thy God is all that and above all that and incomparably more than that Thy God is the true riches the true glory the true repose without him all thy blessings would be curses and with him all thy afflictions may be turned into felicities The fifth to make sometimes a dialogue God and the intellectual creatures sensible insensible enterchangeably speaking as did S. Aug. meditating upon Aug. Solil 31 Circuibam omnia quaerens te propter omnia derelinquens me Interrogavi terram si esset Deus dixit mihi quòd non Tu quis es unde hoc tale animal Domine Deus meus unde nisi â—â—u the perfections of God He went wheeling round about the world and asked in heaven in earth sea and depths addressing himself to every one in particular Are you God And these creatures answered No those have lyed who deified us And after he had run all over the world he entereth into himself and saith to himself Who art thou From whence cometh this creature my Lord and my God from whence but from thee By these ladder-steps he mounteth to the knowledge of his Creatour and plungeth himself in the abysses The sixth to make sometimes a gradation ascending from degree to degree as in meditating on these words of S. John God so loved the world that he Joann 3. Sic Deus dilexit mundum ut filium suum unigenitum daret gave his onely-begotten Son If God should onely appoint a bird to bring the news of thy salvation would it not seem to thee to deserve many thanks But what if a reasonable creature What if a man endowed with all manner of excellencies What if an Angel What if an Archangel a cherubin a Seraphin What if all the angels and all the blessed spirits But all these in comparison of his Son are but as a little drop of water to the vast Ocean And he hath given thee his Son O prodigie O superabundance of love The seventh easie and fruitfull is to ponder that which you meditate on with application to your self attentively considering the actions and words of our Saviour to form ours To examin carefully your deportments and see how oftentimes they wander from this rule of perfection to repeal them to square them to level them as much as you can according to the model which is set before your eyes After the discussion of every point the lights follow 4 Article of the manner of meditation in the fourth place which are maxims and conclusions drawn from the discourse we have made As if we have meditated upon the knowledge of our selves to derive this fruit from thence That we have nothing of our selves but ignorance weakness Lights vanity misery That we are wholly Gods That it is a
away but with a rod of silver so much this mischievous avarice this feaver of the heart this voluntarily frenzie hath prevailed upon the spirits of these times And were the maids in this case such as they should be seeing the covetousness of men they would rather resolve to take God for a husband in the state of virginity than yield their bodies and riches up to a husband who seeks after nothing less than themselves S. Hierom relateth an excellent passage of Martia daughter of the great Cato who said that among so many Gallants as made love to her there was not any fit for a husband Say the like maidens avaunt mercenary husbands who have the fever of money marry them to the mines of Peru and not to virtuous maids The second evil I observe is riot which now adays wasteth body and goods and becomes more insatiable than hell It is asked why avarice swayeth in marriages and wherefore husbands are so greedy of portion because indeed they stand in need of it to entertain the bravery and vanity of their wives apparel It is a prodigious thing to what height this folly is mounted Lawyers are much troubled to reckon up all the attires and trinkets of women what pain shall then the husband suffer to buy them O woman what makes thee so passionately to desire these gauderies Thy first mother whose garments were cut out by the hands of God was contented to be clothed with skins and now seas must be sailed over and the bounds of elements broken to seek out dressings for thee Miserable that thou art who inordinately deckest thy self and for an ill purpose Kowest thou not thy garment is to thy body as the plaister to the wound or any ivy leaf to stop a cautery S. Isodore said before sin Adam and Eve were clothed with light O precious attire The Sun will have no other mantle than his own rays nor the rose any other robe than her scarlet because nature hath sufficiently adorned them So man had he continued within the limits of original justice would not have wished any garment but innocency Sin is come which hath by reflection impressed an ugly scarre both on soul and body and needs must gold and silk be sought out to involve it A man in former Ages was seen who having feet of wood shod them with golden pantofles O miserable and ridiculous vanity Woman doth the like to cover her wretched body which one of these days must putrifie and which hath received the wound of sin and death All the most exquisite beauties of nature must be drawn together yea marry if it could afford any comfort and ease to the body but you shall many times behold a young gentle-woman groan as at a torture under the weight of her garments yet she for all this will have and adore her own punishment The great Chancellour of England and glorious Martyr Thomas Moore was he not pleasantly disposed when he said to one who complained of heat Ah silly creature what wonder is it thou carriest upon thee meadows vine-yards mills mansions and Islands in the value of Jewels how canst thou possibly be cool This was the cause why Tertullian complained Tertul. de habitu muliebri Brevissimis loculis patrimonium grande praefertur uno lino sâ—stertium inseritur saltus insulas tenera cervix fert graciles aurium cutes ealendarium expendunt before him A little Cabinet makes shew of a large patrimony Twenty three thousand Crowns are disbursed for one rope of pearls A womans neck puts on woods and Islands and her ears which are so curious waste ample revenues But the matter most to be lamented is that it often happens the servile and unfortunate husband buys all this bravery at the charge of the poor and if any perhaps wring these gorgeous garments there will be some danger the bloud of the poor may distil from it The third disorder is the discord which proceedeth from the ill government of men from the obstinacy of women and jealousie of both And verily we may affirm the sleight vanities of wives are much more tollerable than the disorders of men It is no ordinary folly but rather a rage and madness to see a poor woman full of children groan under the heavy burden of a houshold charge upon her hand daily fading and withering away like a plant without juice or moysture to live on gall and tears and in the mean time a disloyal husband to consume in excess of diet and game the instruments of Satan that substance God gave him for the entertainment of his family O ungratefull and unnatural wretch who to give way to thy passion tramplest under-foot the commandments of God and honour of marriage This money which thy cruel hand so profusely scatters in game if thou wouldst well understand is the bloud of this poor creature which was so charily to thee recommended It is the sweat of her parents labours they are her proper entrails which thou piece-meal tearest in this fatal dicing-house I do not say thou art a homicide there is some difference between thee and a murderer The murderer in an instant taketh away life and bodily pain both together but thou who livest in perpetual riots thou drawest the vital parts from this afflicted turtle one after another which thou oughtest to love as thy self Thou cuttest the throat of thy family of thy poor and unhappy children who are thine own bloud which thou shouldest fervently affect hadst thou not renounced nature and entertained the heart of a bruit beast for that of a man what say I a beasts heart the Lamiaes Lamiae nudaverunt mammas lactaverunt catulos fuos filia populi mei crudelis sicut struthio in desertâ— Hier. Thren Si quis suorum maximè domesticorum curam non habet fidem negavit est infideli deterior 1 Tim. 5. have bared their breasts they have given suck to their young and there is not any but the daughter of my people who is cruel as the Ostrich of the desert Knowest thou to whom S. Paul compares such a man to a Cannibal to a Barbarian No he tells thee he is worse than an Infidel If any one neglect his own and namely his domesticks he hath renounced faith and is become worse than a Pagan On the other side the obstinacy of woman is a horse hard in the mouth head-strong untractable and I can no longer wonder said one that she was made of a bone since many times her head is so hard which brings infinite trouble on a family The Ancients dressing up the statues of the Moon in humane shape set on her shoulders the head of the Sun to shew a virtuous wife should have no other will nor other intentions nor glory than the will intentions and glory of her husband if they be reasonable It is the doctrine of S. Paul to the Ephesians Mulieres â—iris suis subdite sint sicut Domino quoniam vir caput
tractable with ease to dispose it self to inclinations of honesty Behold these two principal heads whereon this excellent nature of an inestimable price is established And first forasmuch as concerneth the tranquility of passions it is undoubted that every man being composed of four elements by consequence draweth along four roots of all the motions thereof which are Love Fear Pleasure Sorrow There is not a man which feeleth not some touch But as every sea hath his winds though Mariners observe that some are more tossed than others so though every soul have its passions we must confess there be some of them are mildly disposed and others more roughly distempered You see men who from their most tender age tast of strange extravagancies choller harshness rage despight which maketh them to be of a spirit fantastical uncivil and obstinate against which you must ever fight with an armed hand Others from their cradles are endued with a peaceable soul as a sea in the time that Halcyons build their nests on the trembling agitation of waters they have inclinations to virtue wholly Angelical in such sort that they seem to be as it were conveyed therein as fishes in their element From this repose from passions ariseth the second condition of good nature that is docibleness of spirit the beginning of education and happiness of life For as Divines require in those who receive faith a certain Religious affection to divine things discharged and purified from all spirit of contradiction so in matter of moral virtue and piety we stand in need of a tractable soul which fixeth it self on good instructions as the ivie cleaveth to trees and pillars Go not then about when you make choice of an Ecclesiastical man to tender some Esau some spirit of the field who is onely pleased with arms and slaughter of beasts Take rather a Jacob under the pavilions a sweet and temperate spirit that is wholly disposed to the sound of virtues But you Noble Spirits who have met with this excellent Ezech. 28. Omnis lapis pretiosus operimentum tuum foramina in die quâ conditus es preparata sunt nature I may speak the words of the Prophet unto you God hath given you a soul wholly covered with precious stones enriched with gifts and admirable talents he hath enchased it in a body endowed with a singular temperature as a diamond set in the head of a ring Much hath he given you and therefore much requireth at your hands The seventh SECTION Of Virtues requisite in the carriage of a Prelate The first is Wisdom DO you demand what God requireth from you I answer five principal virtues which were very wel represented in the ephod of the High-Priest of the old law as S. Gregorie the great (a) (a) (a) Greg. de Pastor p. 2. cap. 3. hath well observed This ephod was a certain mantle that covered the shoulders composed of four colours of hyacinth purple white and scarlet the whole wrought all over with threeds of gold enterlaced with curious work-manship Why this dressing why these colours To teach you seasonably to bear on your shoulders the conditions requisite to your profession The hyacinth or skie-colour signifieth the first thing you ought to do is to flie as the plague of virtues from these travantly and unworthy spirits who have no other object in the possession of the goods of the Church but flesh-pots and play you are to frame for your selves a soul totally noble wholly elate meerly celestial which conceiveth strong resolutions one day to dedicate it self to God not in a mercinary manner but with the utmost endeavour of its power Think not (b) (b) (b) Mediocre nè putes quod tibi commissum est Primùm ut alta Dei videas quod est sapientiae Deinde ut excubias pro populo Dei deferas quod est justitiae castra defendas tabernacula tucaris quod est fortitudinis Teipsum continentem ac sobrium praestes quod est temperantiae Amb. de Oâ—â—ic lib. 1. saith S. Ambrose that being called to an Ecclesiastical state you have a slight commission from God Wisdom requireth you consider the mysteries of Heaven and that you be highly raised above the ordinary strain Justice willeth you to stand centinel for the people who expect aid from your prayers Strength desireth you to defend the Tabernacle and Camp of the God of Hosts Temperance ordaineth you live with singular sobriety and continency You are said Saint Isidore of Damieta (c) (c) (c) Isido Polusiota lib. 3. ep 2 placed between divine and humane nature to honour the one with your sacrifices and edifie the other by your examples A Priest (d) (d) (d) Sacerdos debet esse Christi alumnus à peccatis segregatusrector non raptor speculator non spiculator dispensator non dissipator pius in judicio justus in consilio devotus in Choro stabilis in Ecclesiâ sobrius in mensâ prudens in letitiâ purus in conscientiâ assiduus in oratione patiens in adversitate lenis in prosperitate dives in virtutibus expeditus in actibus sapiens in sermone verax in predicatione Alphons Torrez ought to be as a young child issued out of the school and bosom of the son of God even as an Angel to govern the Church not to despoil it to treat with God in prayer not to handle a sword He should be entire in his judgements just in his resolutions devout in the Quire firm in the Church sober at table prudent in recreations pure in conscience serious in prayer patient in adversity affable in prosperitie rich in virtues sage in words upright in preaching and free in all good actions Great S. Denis the dreopagite (e) (e) (e) S. Dionys ep 3. ad Demophilum addeth a notable sentence saying That he who most especially seeketh to transcend others in holy Orders ought most nearly approach to God in all sorts of virtue For which cause your education should not be in the ordinary way If you have brothers that are to be bred for the world let them live in the practice and fashions of the world O how unworthy are you of the hopes to which God calleth you if you envie them the favour of the house and of those I know not what kind of petty trifles of their own profession Your condition is much other if you follow that spirit which guideth you (f) (f) (f) Bern. l. 4. de consid c. 6. Vbi de comitatu Episcopi inter mitratos discurrere calamistratos non decet Heretofore Monasteries were the chief schools of Kings and the Great-ones of the earth to cause them to suck in virtue with the milk your abode should be in places where you have engaged your heart and your faith which best can prepare and manure you for the life you have chosen It is truly a scandal to your profession if you be ashamed to wear a habit proper for an Ecclesiastical man and blush at the
all other consideration This good husband who had so much affection for his dear spouse suffers himself to be won by the ambition and easiness of his nature which bowed much to the wills of those who seemed to wish him well and by the lustre of the purple presented to him Maximianus would needs play the Tyrant aswell over loves as men and plotting marriages placeth his daughter in the conjugal bed of Constantius to plant him in the Throne of Caesars S. Helena of more worth than an Empire understanding Virtue of S. Helena the news bare this alteration with great constancy not complayning either of the chance force or disloyalty of Constantius but accounted it an honour that to refuse her no other cause was found but the good fortune of her husband She more feared than envied Scepters and was hidden in her little solitude as the mother of pearl under the waves breeding up her young Constantine in such sort as God should direct her Constantius touched with this admirable virtue lived in body with Theodora and in heart with his Helena He gave contentment in the East to a man Imperious and served the times to have his will another day But he was in the West in the better part of himself Besides when he was absolute and that he must needs divide the Empire with Galerius his Colleague he voluntarily resigned the rest of the world unto him to have France Spain and his I le of England where the moity of his heart remained It is a very hard matter long to restrain an honest Love of Constantius and S. Helena and lawful love It is said when Sicily was torn from Italy by an arm of the Sea which interposed it-self a-thwart palm-trees were found by the violence of waters rent asunder which in sign of love still bowed the one to the other as protesting against the element which had separated their loves The like happened to Constantius and Helena the torrent of ambitions and affairs of the world having parted their bodies could not hinder the inclinations of their hearts Constantius returned into Great Britain there to live and make his tomb for he in the end died in the Citie of York And as he being on his death-bed was asked which of his children he would have succeed him since besides Constantine he had three sons by Theodora at that time forgetting his second wife and her off-spring he answered aloud CONSTANTINUM PIUM I will have no other successour but the PIOUS CONSTANTINE which was approved by all the Army Thus God the Master of Scepters and Empires willing to reward the modestie of the virtuous Helena laid hold of her bloud to give it the Empire of the world in the end leaving the sons of Theodora to whom Maximian promised all the greatness of the world The third SECTION His Education and Qualitie A Great Oratour hath heretofore said speaking Gregor epist 6. l. 5. ad Childebertum Quantò caeteros homines regia dignitas antecellit tantò caeterarum gentium regna regni profectò vestri culmen excellit of Constantine that he appeared as much above Kings as Kings above all other men It is the Elogie which afterward S. Gregorie gave to our Kings Verily he was accomplished with a spirit and bodie in so high a degree of perfection that there needed no more but to see him to judge him worthy of an Empire Nature sometimes encloseth great souls in little bodies ill composed as fortune hath likewise placed Kings in Shepherds Cottages It is an unhappiness deserving some compassion when a great Captain is of so ill a presence as to be taken for one of his servants and be made to cleave wood and set the pot over the fire to prepare his own dinner as it heretofore happened to Philopaemen Constantine took no care for falling into such accidents Beautie of Constantine It seemed as Eumenius saith that nature from above had been dispatched as a brave harbinger to score out a lodging for this great soul and to give him a bodie suteable to the vigour of his spirit so well was it composed He was of a stature streight as a palm of an aspect such that the Oratours of that time called it divine of a port full of Majestie his eyes sparkled like two little stars and his speech was naturally pithie sweet and eloquent his bodie so able for militarie exercises that he amazed the strongest and so sound that he had no disease In these members so well proportioned reigned a vigorous spirit very capable of learning if the glorie of Arms had not wholly transported him into actions of his profession His father well enformed of his fair qualities caused him to come into the East where he took a tincture of good letters at the least so much as was needfull for a warlick Emperour and applied himself seriously to the exercise of Arms wherein he appeared with so much admiration that he was alreadie beheld with the same eye one would an Achilles or an Alexander were they alive again Diocletian who had not as yet forsaken the Empire would have him at his Court to work him from apprehension of Christianitie to which he might be alreadie much disposed and draw him to the hatred of our Religion It was a most dangerous school He was bred in the Court of Diocletian for this young Prince for education ordinarily createth manners and we are all as it were that which we have learned to be in our younger dayes Constantine notwithstanding gathered flowers in this garden-bed not taking the breath of the serpent which was hidden there-under He soon learned from Diocletian militarie virtue prudence to govern souldiers good husbandrie in revenews authoritie to become awfull but he took nothing either of his impietie or malice This Barbarous man in the beginning passionately loved him and would perpetually have him by his sides but when he saw that passing through Palestine and other parts of his Kingdom the young Constantine was more respected than himself so much his carriage especially compared to the harsh countenance of the Emperour had eminence in it he began to grow into suspicion and as it is said desired secretly to be rid of him But Constantine prevented the blow retiring under an honourable pretext to the Court of Galerius the associate of his father Constantius who most willingly left this son with him in pledge thereby to hold some good correspondence with him This Galerius was a creature of Diocletians who Constantine at Court of Galerius had heretofore declared him Caesar yet still retained such power over him that when he had displeased him he made him run on foot after his coach not deigning so much as to look upon him He in the beginning very courteously entertained the son of his faithfull friend affording him all manner of favours but in process of time he conceived a strong jealousie beholding in this young Mars more excellent parts than
content the King my father and yours who requireth from you no other satisfaction The good Prince answered Ab Brother What have you said you lately perswaded me to an act of pietie at the peril of my life think not now to induce me to an impietie although it should concern all the lives and Kingdoms of the world Behold here the time for you to reign and for me to die I willingly die for the honour I ow to my Religion for which I gladly would suffer death a thousand times if it were possible I neither accuse you nor my father whom I more compassionate than my self and counsel you to render him all the duties of pietie in the decrepitness of age whereinto he is entered As for our step-mother I pray you rather to endure her nature than revenge my death It is the work of God to take knowledge of injuries and for us to bear them When my soul shall leave this miserable bodie it shall ceaselesly pray for you and I hope most dear brother you in the end will renounce this poor libertie which entertaineth you in the sect of the Arians and if dying men use to divine I foretel that being converted to the faith you shall lay foundations of Catholick Religion in all this Kingdom which I am about to moisten with my bloud Recaredus used all the intreaties he could devise never being able to shake the constancy of his brother which much offended King Levigildus and transported him into resolutions very bloudy Notwithstanding those who might yet speak unto him with some liberty counselled him to precipitate nothing in an affair of so great consequence saying there was no apparence that Hermingildus had undertaken any plot against the life and State of his father since he came so freely to present himself upon his bare word that those who find themselves guilty use not to come to burn themselves as butter-flies at the candle That his countenance at this interview was too sweet his speech too proper his deportments too candide to cover so black a mischief and as for change of Sect it was no wonder if the King having given him a Catholick wife he had taken that Religion with its love that it was a complement of a lover which age would bend experience sweeten and prudence in the end deface that he had at that time more need of a Doctour than an executioner since the apprehensions of God were distilled in the heart by the help of tongues not the dint of swords The seventeenth SECTION The death of Hermingildus THe faction of Goizintha transported beyond all considerations ceased not to sound in the ears of the King that Hermingildus was not an offender whose power was to be neglected That his crime was not such as might promise him impunity that the laws of the Countrey had never tolerated such practises that he had violated right both divine and humane becoming a fugitive from his Countrey an Apostata in his religion arebel to the power of his father in such sort that to render his wound incurable he had changed all lenitives into poison That he had levied arms against his Sovereign without regard of his age his name the majesty of the Kingdom and the voice of nature and that there was nothing but the despair of his affairs which had taken them out of his hands That he held correspondence with the enemies of the State to whom he was become an assistant and a companion and now to make himself as impudent to defend a crime as bold to execute it had cast all the fault of his conspiracies upon the Queen his mother-in-law and the marriage of his father shewing himself so insolent in his misery that there was nothing to be expected but tyranny from his prosperity that it was to be extreamly arrogant even to stupidity to seek to retain a chymaera of piety contrary to the will of his father and that never would he be so constant in his superstition if he had not leagued all the interests of his fortune with the Catholicks enemies of the Kingdom That if order were not taken therein they should be hereafter deprived of the power to deliberate on it when they had given him all the means to execute it The credulity of the unfortunate father was so strongly assaulted by these discourses that he resolved to go beyond himself so that on a night which was Easter Eye he dispatched a messenger to the prison with an executioner to let him know he was speedily to make his resolution to choose either life and scepter by returning to the Religion of the Arians or death by persisting in the Catholick That he had a sword and a Crown before his eyes the one for glory the other for punishment the choice of either was referred to himself Hermingildus made answer he had already sufficiently manifested his determination upon this Article that he would rather die a thousand deaths than ever separate himself from the Religion which he had embraced with all reason and full consideration The Commissary replied The King your Father hath given me in charge that in case of refusal I should proceed to execution of the sentence decreed against you What saith Hermingildus He hath condemned you by express sentence saith the other to have your head cut off in this same prison where you are Whereupon the holy man fell on his knees to the earth and said My God my Lord I yield you immortal thanks that having given me by the means of my father a frail brittle and miserable life common unto me with flies and ants you now afford me on this day by these sentences a life noble happie glorious to all eternitie Then rising up again he requested the Commissary he would by his good favour suffer a Catholick Priest to come to him to hear his Confession and dispose him to death He answered It was expresly forbidden by the King his father but if he would admit an Arian Bishop he should have one at his pleasure No saith he for I have detested yea and do still abhor Arianism even to the death and since my father denieth me a favour which ordinarily is granted to the guiltie I will die having no other witness but mine own conscience Which having said he kneeled down again and made his confession to God praying very long for his father his step-mother all his enemies and pronouncing also at his death the name of his dear Indegondis to whom he professed himself bound with incomparable obligations Then afterward having recommended his soul to God under the protection of the most holy Virgin his good Angel and all the Saints he stretched out his neck to the executioner which was cut off with one blow of an ax So many stars as at that instant shined in Heaven in the dead silence of the night were so many eyes open over the bloudy sacrifice of this most innocent Prince from whom a wretched father took
not be possible to God he being Omnipotent Immense Infinite How according to the confession of ancient Philosophers can he replenish all the world with his Divnity and is not able to accommodate himself with enough of it to divinize his holy Humanity Is it because we say it is united to the Word in this mystery in a quite other fashion than the Spirit of God is with the world I admit it For the union of it is truely personal But must it not be confessed the Word in this divine Essence as under title of efficient cause it hath an influence infinite over all the effects of the world and as under title of final cause it hath a capacity to limit and measure all the inclinations of creatures so under title of substantial bound it may confine and accomplish by its personality all possible Essence Why shall we tie the hands of Divine bounty in its communications since it binds not our understanding in its conceptions Is it not a shamefull thing that man will estimate and set a value upon the Divine Essence If God please not man he shall not be God Should we say man is incapable of this communication And how is it that the holy Humanity resisted the Omnipotency of God to the prejudice of his own exaltation since it is found as soon in the union of the Word as in the possession of Essence See we not in nature that the rays of the Sun draw up vapours from the earth and incorporated with them do create Meteors in the air not any one making resistance to his exaltation What contradiction can there be in our understanding against such a maxim seeing it appears the most famous Philosopher said This union of God with man might be very fit and Plutarch also Plutarch in Numa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking of the communication of the Creatour with the creature pronounced these words That God was not a lover of birds nor other living creatures but a lover of men and that it is a very reasonable matter that be communicate himself to his loves and delights But this would seem to abase the Divinity Hear what Volusianus said I wonder that he to whom this whole Volusianus Miror si intra corpus vagientis infantiae latetâ— cui parva putatur universilas c. universe is so small can be shut up within the bodie of a little child having a mouth open to crie as others What uncomeliness is there if God be united to a little body Have not Plinie (a) (a) (a) Plin. Natura nusquam magis quà m in minimis tota est and Seneca (b) (b) (b) Servitus magnitudinis non posse fieri minorem Senec. Homo quippe ad Deum accessit Deus à se non decessit August said That nature was ever so admirable as in little bodies and that it was a slavery in Great-ones to be unable to be little I wonder the Sovereign Lord of all things is so long absent from Heaven and that all the government of the world is transferred to so little a creature From whence proceedeth this amazement but from the baseness of our thoughts If we said God being made man ceased to be God and were despoiled of his Empire Greatness Essence there would be somewhat wherewith to question this Mystery but when we say God came to Man by inclination of a Sovereign bounty and mercy not leaving himself when we say humane nature is received into the Word as a small source into a huge river and not loosing its Essence is fixed upon the personality of the Word it self is it not to honour the power majesty and wisdom of God 5. In what were the Divinity abased Can it be in doing a work so noble so singular so divine that it deserveth to entertain the thoughts of men and Angels through times and eternity What is more specious and more sweet than to represent to ones self the Person of our Saviour who in himself makes an alliance of all was most eminent in spiritual and corporal nature to wit of God and man verily say I one composed of an unheard-of composition to render the majesty of his father palbable and visible to the hands and eyes of mortals What dignity to behold in the world a Man-God become a part of the world to possess the Spirit of God from all eternity who proposed this person as the end of his communications the bound of his power the first-born of all creatures who held all Ages in breath for him all hearts in desires all minds in expectation all creatures in prophesies The Book of God hath written me In copite libri scriptum est de me Psal 39. 8. in the beginning of its first page said the Word with the Psalmist All creatures of this great universe all predictions and conceptions of these two great books the world and the Bible tended to the accomplishment and revelation of this God-Man who should set a golden head upon all nature intelligent sensitive and vegetative All creatures were but leaves and flowers that promised the great fruit which the Prophet calleth The fruit of earth sublime Isaiah 4. 20. We must religiously speak what deserveth to be heard Religiose dicendum reverentér audiendum est quis propter hunc hominon gloris honâ—re coronandum Deus omnis creavit Rupert l. 13. de glor Trinit proces Spi. Sancti with reverence It is for this incomparable man that God created the world and all creatures are but as silly rays from the Diadem of glory which covereth his head What a spectacle to see them all wound up as the strings of a harp to praise and declare unto men the Name of God to behold the nine Quires of Angels enter into this consort and every one of them to honour this first Essence by so many distinct perfections notwithstanding all to confess their ability cannot reach that degree which the Divine greatness meriteth And thereupon behold here the Word Incarnate which passing through all the spheres of nature grace and glory enter into the new sphere of the hypostatical union where it appears as a rainbow imprinted with all the beauties of the father he manifesteth them to men and making himself an adoring God a loving God an honouring God he adoreth he loveth he honoureth God so much as he is adorable amiable and honourable through all Ages for evermore Let us unfold our hearts in the knowledge and love of the Word revealed Let us adore this great sign this eternal character of the living God for whom all signs are Let us make a firm purpose not to pass over a day of our life wherein we afford him not three things due to him by titles so lawfull Homage Love Imitation Homage by adoring him and offering him some small service directed according to times in acknowledgement of the dependence we have of him by an entire comformity of our wils to his Love
the power of God in his Saints caused a fair Church to be built to this most blessed woman and a Cross to be erected in the place where she left him which was called the Cross of the place Thus was God pleased to ratifie by so great miracles the pardon Constantia had given to Prince Charls I will shut up this discourse with a passage of so rare clemency of a Monarch offended in the honour of a daughter of his by a mean vassal as it seems could never have fallen but into the heart of a Charlemaigne It is to this purpose recounted that one Eginardus Curio l. 2. rerum Chronologicarum who was Secretary to the Prince having placed his affections much higher than his condition admitted made love to one of his daughters which was in mine opinion natural who seeing this man of a brave spirit and a grace suitable thought not him too low for her whom merit had so eminently raised above his birth She affected him and gave him too free access Goodness and in dulgence of Charlemaigne to her person so far as to suffer him to have recourse unto her to laugh and sport in her chamber on evenings which ought to have been kept as a sanctuary wherein relicks are preserved It happened upon a winters night these two amorous hearts having inwardly so much fire that they scarcely could think upon the cold Eginardus ever hastening his approches and being very negligent in his returns had somewhat too much slackened his departure The snow mean while raised a rampart which troubled them both when he thought to go out Time pressed him to leave her and heaven had stopped up the way of his passage It was not tolerable for him to go forward Eginardus feared to be known by his feet and the Lady thought it not any matter at all to see the prints of such steps about her door They being much perplexed love which taketh the diadem of majesty from Queens so soon as they submit to its tyranny made her do an act for a lover which had she done for a poor man it would have been the means to place her among the great Saints of her time She tooke this Gentleman upon her shoulders and carried him all the length of the Court to his chamber he never setting foot to the ground that so the next day no impression might be seen of his footing It is true which a holy Father saith that if hell lay on the shoulders of love love would find courage enough to bear it But it hath more facilitie to undertake than prudence to hide it self the eye of God not permitting these follies should either be concealed or unpunished Charlemaign who had not so much affection in store for women that he spent not some nights in studie watched this night and hearing a noise opened the window and perceived this prettie prank at which he could not tell whether he were best to be angrie or to laugh The next day in a great assembly of Lords and in the presence of his daughter and Eginardus he proposed the matter past in covert tearms asking what punishment might a servant seem worthie of who made use of a Kings daughter as of a Mule and caused himself to be carried on her shoulders in the midst of winter through night snow and all sharpness of the season Every one gave hereupon his opinion and there was not any who condemned not this insolent man to death The Princess and Secretarie changed colour thinking nothing remained for them but to be flayed alive But the Emperour looking on his Secretarie with a smooth brow said Eginardus hadst thou loved the Princess my daughter thou oughtest to have come freely to her father who should dispose of her libertie and not to play these pranks which have made thee worthy of death were not my clemency much greater than the respect thou hast born to my person I now at this present give thee two lives the one in preserving thine the other in delivering her to thee in whom thy soul more survives than in the body it animateth Take thy fair portress in marriage and both of you learn to fear God and to play the good husbands These lovers thought they were in an instant drawn out of the depth of Hell to ascend to heaven and all the Court stood infinitly in admiration of this judgement It appears by the narration what was the mild temper of Charlemaign in this point and that he followed the counsel of S. Ambrose who advised a Father named Epist l. 8. ep 64. Si bonam duxit acquisioit tibi gratiam Si erravit accipiendo meliores facies refutando deteriores Sisinnius to receive his son with a wife he had taken for love For receiving them both said he you will make them better rejecting them render them worse The goodness of these great hearts for all that justifieth not the errours of youth which grievously offendeth when it undertaketh resolutions in this kind not consulting with those to whom it oweth life XIII MAXIM Of the Epicurean life THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT That the flesh must be daintily used and all possible contentment given to the mind That life without crosses and flesh void of mortification is the sepulcher of a living man EXperience teacheth us there is in the World a sect of reformed Epicures who do not openly profess the bruitishness of those infamous spirits which are drenched in gourmandize and lust but take Maxims more refined that have as they say no other aim but to make a man truly contented For which purpose they promise themselves to drive all objects from their minds which may bring the least disgust and to afford the bodie all pleasures which may preserve it in a flourishing health accompanied with grace vigour and vivacity of senses Here may the judicious observe that such was the The Philosophie of Epicurus swayeth in the world doctrine of ancient Epicurus For although many make a monster of him all drowned in ordure and prodigious pleasure yet it is very easie to prove that he never went about to countenance those bruitish ones who through exorbitance of lusts ruin all the contentments of the mind and bodie But he wholly inclined to find out all the pleasures of nature and to banish any impediments which might make impression on the soul or bodie For which cause I think Thedor l. 2. Therap Nicet 2. Thesau c. 1. Tertul. apol c. 38. Hieron 2. in Jovin Laertius lib. 10. Senec. l. de vitâ beatâ Theodoret mistook him when he made him so gluttonous as to contend with Jupiter about a sop and that Nicetas who representeth him so licourish after honied tarts well understood him not For Tertullian S. Hierom Laertius and Seneca who better noted his doctrine assure us he was a very sober man and speaketh not in his writings but of pulse and fruits not for the honour he bare to
Empires and Kingdoms where they took beginning If I look upon all the Nations of the earth so far distant in climates so divided in commerce so different in dispositions so contrary in opinions they all agree in this ray of the light of nature that there is a life of separated souls that there are punishments and rewards at the going out of the body It is the belief of Hebrews Chaldeans Persians Medes Babylonians Aegyptians Arabians Ethiopians Scythians Grecians ancient Gauls Romans and that which is most admirable after one hath roamed over Europe Africk Asia let him enter into the new worlds which nature hath divided from us by so mighty a mass of seas shelves rocks and monsters he findeth the faith of the souls immortality began there so soon as men It is observed to have been so publick with the ancient that they carried the marks thereof on their garments and inscribed it on their tombs Men of the best quality of Rome had little croissants Plutar. probl 71. on their shoes saith Castor to signifie their souls came from Heaven and were to return to Heaven after the death of the body and therefore there was not any thing in them which ought not to be celestial The like also is found of tombs where open Camerar gates were engraven on them to shew that after death all was not shut up from the soul but that it had passages into eternity All the most eminent Philosophers following the bright splendour of natural light although distant by the course of Ages parted into sects divided into so many different Maxims agreed in this as Mercurie Trismegistus Pythagoras Plato Aristotle Xenocrates Seneca Plutarch Maximus Tyriensis Jamblicus Themistius Epictetus and Cicero as may be seen in so many excellent Treatises which I might mention at large were they well enough known But if sometimes doubtfull passages occurre in Aristotle and Seneca hereupon were it not much better to judge them by so many perspicuous and illustrious sentences which they have upon the life of the other world than to censure them by some words insensibly escaped in discourse In which if some thing repugnant to our doctrine may be discovered it is to be understood of the sensitive and vegetative soul not the reasonable and intelligent which these Authours ever set aside as being celestial and divine 3. Never saith Plotinus was there a man of good Enu l. 7. c. 10. Nec vult improbus animâ—m immortalem esse ne ad conspectum Judicis aequi torquenduâ— veniat understanding amongst so many Writers who strove not for the immortality of the soul But if any one among them hath impugned it even in the darkness of Gentilism it hath been observed there ever was some disorder and impurity in his life which made him controvert his opinion to divert the apprehension of punishments due to his crimes That was it which Minutius Felix said I well know many Malunt enim extingui penitus quà m ad supplicia reservari pressed with a conscience guiltie of crimes rather desire to be nothing after their death than to be perswaded of it for they wish rather wholly to perish than to be reserved for their punishment He should make an annotation not a discourse who would here alledge all the authorities of the ancients which are very ordinary I satisfie my self with a most excellent passage of wise Quintilian who in the case of an enchanted sepulcher comprized all the doctrine of Gentiles upon this Article when he said Our Soul came from the same place from whence proceeded Animam inde venire unde rerum omniâ—â— authorem parentem spiritum ducimus nec interire nec solvi nec ullo mortalitatis affici fato sed quoties humani corporis carcerem effregerit exonerata membris mortalibus leâ—i se igne lustrâ—verit petere sedem inter astra the Eternal Spirit Authour and Father of all things to wit the true God and that this soul could neither be corrupted die nay nor feel the least touch of mortalitie common to corruptible things But at the passage out of the prison of bodie it was purged by fire and after this purgation it ascended to Heaven there to live happie Which is to be understood of good souls for polluted and impious are delivered to eternal torments by the consent of the wisest Gentiles Behold a man who in few words heaped together the belief of more than fourty Ages which preceded him touching the immortality of the soul Paradise Purgatory hell and that within the limits of the light of nature (a) (a) (a) Plato 1. de Legib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato saith the same That our soul wears the liveries of the eternal Father which make it incorruptible Algazel in the book of nature That our soul being separated from the body shall subsist with the first Intelligence Maximus Tyriensis That that which we call death was the beginning of immortalitie Dionysius the Geographer forgat not in the worlds description the white Island whereinto it was held the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 souls of Heroes were carried Lawyers were not ignorant of it for when there is any speech of legacies to be distributed on the birth-day of the Testatour they avouch them to be legacies which must be given in perpetuity every year on the birth-day by reason that by death we enter into another nativitie which is that of glory To the very same the law of sepulchers hath relation which Marcel in l. cum quidam l. 23. de annuis legatis Theodosiis valent Novella de sepulehris tit 5. Scimus nec vana sides est solutâ—s membris animas habere sensum in originem suam spiritum redire coelestem Tertul. de testim animae saith We know and our faith is not in vain that souls discharged from bodies have understanding and that the spirit which is celestial returneth to its original From whence comes this consent so great so universal so authentical in a thing so sublime so alienated from sense so eminent but from the spirit of God Let us say with Tertullian in the book of the souls testimonie From whence proceeds it that those who will neither see nor hear Christians have the language of Christians I much suspect the consent of words in so great a disagreement of conversation 4. I am condemned in this first Court of justice Sentence of God upon the immortalitie of the soul said the Libertine But let us go along to the Tribunal of supernatural light and see what the divine Wisdom will affirm Let us follow the counsel of S. Ambrose He who made heaven teacheth us the mysteries Ambros in Symmachus Coeli mysterium doceâ—t nos Deâ—â— ipse qui condidit Cui magis de Deo quam Deo cre dam Vide August ep 4. ad Vincent Cui veritas comperta sine Deos cui Deus cognitus sine Christo 3 Reg. 17. Revertatur
anima pueri ejus in viscera ejus Eccles 26. 23. Exaltavit vocem ejus de terra in prophetia Tob. 4. 11. of heaven Whom shall I believe touching the verities of God but God himself And verily behold the advise God giveth us to resolve us in doubtful cases which is to follow some great and powerfull authority that may draw our spirits with a strong hand out of so many labyrinths Without it saith S. Augustine there would neither be world rest light wisdom nor religion And if a decisive authority must be chosen where shall we find one more certain than that of a Man-God whose words were prophesies life sanctity actions miracles who by ways secret and incomprehensible advanced the Cross on Capitols and gave a new face to the whole world Now without speaking at this time of the Pentateuc where the Word with his own mouth drew reasons for the immortalitie of the soul against the Sadduces I might alledge the book of Kings where the soul of a little infant returneth into its body at the words of Elias I could produce the true soul of Samuel which returneth from Limbo and speaks to King Saul as the Wiseman rendereth this apparition undoubted which I will shew I might mention the book of Tobias which distinguisheth two places for souls in the other world one of darknes and the other of lights But let us hear Ecclesiastes since Infidels will make an arrow of it against us where after the propositions of the wicked rehearsed in this book to be refuted which must be well observed the Wiseman Eccles 12. 7. decideth and concludes That the body returneth into the earth from whence it came and the spirit to God who gave it Let us hear Wisdom where it is written That the soul of the Just are in the hands of God and Sap. 3. 1. shall not be touched with the torment of death Let us hear the Prophet Daniel who saith Daniel 12. 3. The true Sages shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and that such as instruct many to justice shall be as stars for ever Lastly let us hear our Saviour who speaketh to us clearly and intelligibly in the bloud of all Martyrs Fear not those who kill the bodie and cannot kill the Mat. 10. 28. soul Here will we hold this doctrine of the immortality from his own mouth more than from any other reason he caused us to make it an Article of faith he establisheth upon it all our beatitude why should we then argue and trie new conclusions after the decision of Gods Word 5. I knew well said the wicked man this second Court would condemn me but I am not yet satisfied After nature and faith I appeal to reason I Proofs drawn out of reason will enter into the bottom of my self to know some news of my self What a madness is it to appeal from the decrees of God to reason And yet was this wretch condemned likewise by this tribunal For asking his soul whither wilt thou go What will become of thee after the death of thy body Wilt thou not accompany it in death as thou didst during life I die replieth the soul It is as impossible the light of the Sun become night and fire ice as the soul of man which is the source of life and understanding should be subject to death For from whence should this death and corruption S. Thom. l. 2. contra Gentes c. 79. proceed If thou hast never so little reason thou well seest what the great S. Thomas and all the Sages of the world said A thing cannot die and be corrupted but by one of three ways either by action of its contrary so heat cold moisture and drought corrupt our bodies by their mutual counter-buffs and continual combates or by the want of subject which serves as a basis or foundation to it so the eye dieth when its organ is corrupted or by defect of the assistance of the cause which hath influence into it so the light faileth in the air when the Sun retireth In which of these three kinds wouldest thou corrupt Substantia intellectualis patitur tantum intelligibiliter qui motus potius est perfectivus quà m corruptivus S. Thom. l. 2. contra Gentes c. 55. me Should it be by the action of the contrary I am not subject to bodily impressions but to those onely of the mind which are rather to perfect than corrupt me I am not composed of elements I am not hot cold moist nor drie I admit no contrariety But when I (a) (a) (a) Anima parvo continetur corpore continetque res maximâ—s Aenesius platonicus comprehend in my understanding white black water fire life and death I accord all contraries Death saith (b) (b) (b) Lucr. l. 1. Mors coetum dissipat ollis Lucretius is onely made for the things which have a collection of parts and I am most simple Wilt thou rin me by defect of the body I am of a nature different from body It was sometime without me and I shall be a long time without it for I depend not on it but by accident and chance I take somewhat of it as an hostess in this life but I govern it as a mistress for eternity I make use of the organs of senses but I correct senses and when they tell me the Sun is but a foot broad I prove to them by lively reasons it is much greater than the globe of the earth If I borrow fantasies from imagination I make truths of them and in matter of understanding willing and judging which is my proper profession I have properly nothing to do with bodies as the Philosopher Arist l. 2. de anima l. 2. text 21. Aristotle hath well observed saying I could not be before body but I might remain after the death of body and be separated from it as things eternal from corruptible because I have an action dis-entangled from body which is contemplation All that which is idle perisheth in nature but I have no death because not idle I make it my profession to understand to will and to love which I now exercise in a body but which doth not absolutely depend on body I make use of my senses as of my windows when they shall be no more and that the panes of my prison shall be broken I shall not for all that loose sight but shall see the more easily Behold you not how even at this present I never am more knowing than when I sink into the bottom of my self and separate my self from commerce of sense For I am a Mistress said S. Augustine who see better by my own eyes than by those of my servant Wouldest thou destroy me by the want of an influent cause Needs must God fail if I should be so defective on that part since God having created a thing never reduceth the same to nothing Material creatures are corrupted by changing themselves into
another nature and return into elements but I who have no matter subsist by necessity absolutely entire and wholly incorruptible without suffering these changes Ask likewise thy understanding and it will repeat Radix intellectualitatis est immaterialitas Avicenna apud Caprâ—ol Modus operandi sequitur modum essendi The operations of the soul are admirable the philosophical Axiom The workman is known by the work by the operation of every thing its nature is discovered from whence ensueth that if the manner which thy soul useth in its functions and operations be wholly spiritual we may truly say it is all spirit all indivisible and wholly incorruptible Now where is it that it worketh not with a tenderness and admirable spirituality First in the separations it maketh of universal natures in numbers relations proportions orders correspondencies harmonies in things eternal and divine Secondly in judgements discourses disputations comparisons applications which it maketh on every thing Thirdly in the considerations and reflections it hath on it self yea over all its actions almost in infinitum If it did not work spiritually how could it harbour in the memory so many seas rivers mountains valleys cities and castles How could it put so many places into one place not holding any place If it operated not spiritually and indivisibly how could it be whole in each of its actions The body because it is body and quantitative and divisible what it doth with one part it doth not necessarily with another what it toucheth with the hand it doth not necessarily touch with the foot but the soul is all in its action If the soul understand all the soul understandeth If the soul will all the soul willeth If the soul suffer all the soul suffereth For it is in an indivisible That August l. de spiritu anima c. 19. Anima in quibuscumque suis motibus tota est Manilius l. 4. Astron I am nusquam natura latet pervidimus omnem was it which S. Augustine judiciously spake The soul is all in each of its motions Mortal things can do nothing immortal But our soul to teach us its immortality doth wonderfull works which fear not the sithe of time the wheel of inconstancy nor power of death it our-lives stones mettals Aegyptian Pyramids and the worlds seven wonders It is a strange thing to see a humane spirit which taketh away the veil from nature and looketh into the bottom and penetrateth into the very marrow It entereth into these great labyrinths of essences it defineth divideth distinguisheth severeth it appropriateth maketh marvellous dissections mounteth above the tracts of the Sun and time scoreth out the course of the Heavens the periods of the Stars It deciphereth eclipses to an instant and foregoeth by understanding those great celestial bodies whose motions are more swift than wind or thunder From thence it expatiateth into the air there to hear the winds blow rain pour down tempests roar lightnings to flash rain-bowes and crowns arise It descendeth into the deep caverns of the earth there to meditate on the mettals It floateth on the sea it reckoneth the veins of the abyss it keeps a register of so many birds and fishes so many terrestrial creatures so many worms and serpents so many hearbs and plants All this great frame of nature passeth through its consideration from the cedars of Lybanus to the hyssop It createth sciences it inventeth arts it findeth out an infinite number of devices It governeth the great bodies of Kingdoms and Common-wealths with passages of incomparable prudence Arms and laws cures of maladies commerce navigations industries of mechanicks and finally a million of rarities are produced from the sources of the wit of man who cannot yet understand his own worth Besides what is more spiritual more independent on matter than the action of the will than free-will which beareth the beginning of its motion and elevation within it self not borrowing it from any What is more divine than to see a heart more capable than abysses which cannot be satiated with all the things in the world The plant is contented with a little dew the horse with a few oats and hay because animal and vegetative nature is limited to certain small quantities But the immaterial soul as it is in some sort infinite bendeth to infinitie (a) (a) (a) Omnibus fere ingenita est fame post mortem expido Et unde anima affectaret aliquid quod velit post mortem si ribil de postero sciret Tertul. de testim animae It speaketh of Heaven as of its mansion and of God as of the object of its felicity It desireth to live ever it taketh incomparable care for posteritie it interesseth it self in the future which it would never do were it not its hereditary possession Sleep which tameth Lions cannot overcome it It learns its immortality even in the image of death there it is where it incessantly worketh travelleth by sea and land negotiateth converseth sporteth rejoyceth suffereth hunteth after a thousand objects both good and bad and knoweth says Eusebius that having no end in its motion it hath none in its life And to conclude in a word what is there more admirable for the proof of our immortality than this synderesis this conscience which is in the body contrary to the body and a perpetual enemy of senfual nature which pleadeth which questioneth which strikes us with remorse upon the rememberance of sin What is there less corporal than a soul which can see its body burned flesh pulled off with pincers and members torn piece-meal one after another to maintain and preserve a belief which it judgeth to be true as did the Martyrs Never should we behold such a combat between the soul body were they not two pieces quite different the one whereof is sublime spiritual immortal the other low frail and mortal We likewise daily see how the soul wholly retired within it self as it happeneth in apprehensive speculations and raptures is more strong and knowing than ever being touched by some ray from commerce with Intelligencies to which it hath so much relation We find by experience that upon the declining Eaâ— decrescente corpore augeri maxime videmus Aenesius Illa sine hoc vinit melius hoc sine ista nee pejus Claudius Marcus l. 3. de statu animae c. 3. Manifest conviction age when the body shrinketh it hath much more vigour in counsels and judgements which giveth us assurance it cannot any way participate of the corruption of the flesh Who will consider the effects of the soul in three principal things which are Intelligence Sanctitie and Courage shall find all therein is divine And if the wicked smothering these gifts of God will put themselves willingly into the rank of bruit beasts do they not well deserve the place of devils 6. Finally we say we have a soul immortal because God both can and will make it such He can for he is Omnipotent and it is not
a harder matter for him to preserve souls he created than to derive them from nothing He will because he engageth his Eternal word to give us this assurance yea he will because it is manifested to us by the light of nature One cannot believe a God unless he believe him just and it is impossible to think him just without the belief of an immortal soul as S. Clement reasoneth after Clemens 3. Recogn his Master the great S. Peter For what a stupdity is it to imagine this father of spirits who accommodated the most silly creatures with all the conveniencies of nature hath neglected man so far as to afford him a most lively knowledge and a most ardent thirst of immortality which principally appeareth in the most holy and worthy souls to hold a heart in torment never affording it any means to be satisfied since in all nature he never grants any inclination to any creature whatsoever but that he provideth for its accomplishment But which is more into what mind of a Tartarian can this imagination fall that a sovereign Cause most intelligent very good and Omnipotent should be pleased to burn virtue here with a slow fire to tear it among thorns to tie it on wheels afterward to equal the soul of the most virtuous man of the earth with that of murderers Sardanapaluses and Cyclopes Never should these base thoughts take possession of the heart of man if he had not villified his reason with great sins and drowned his soul in the confusion of bodie Put these prophane spirits a little upon the proof of their opinion and let them consider the reasons of Plinie of Lucretius of Panecus and Soranus they are not men who speak but hogs that grunt They tell you the soul is not seen at its passage out of the body as if the corporal eye were made to see a soul spiritual Doth one see the air the winds odours and the sphere of fire which our soul incomparably surpasseth in subtilitie They ask what doth this soul separated Plin. l. 7. c. 55. Vbi cogitatiâ— illi Quomodo visus auditus aut qued sine his bonum Quae deinde sedes Quae malum ista dementia iterari vitam worte where is its sight its hearing pleasure tast touching and what good can it have without the help of sense Spirits dulled with matter which never gave themselves leisure to find out the curious operations of the soul in the understanding and love whereupon it lives of its own wealth They curiously enquire where so many souls may abide as if hell were not big enough to contain all the Atheists Lastly they adde it is to tyrannize over a soul to make it survive after death Who sees not it is the fear they have of God's judgement causeth them to speak in this manner And are not they well worthy of all unhappiness since they so readily become the enemies of an eternal happiness Let us cut off the stream of so many other reasons and say at this present This should teach us to treat with the dead by way of much respect and most tender charity as with the living It should teach us to use our soul as an eternal substance What would it avail us to gain all the world and The care to be had of the soul loose that which God deigned to redeem by his death Let us forsake all these inferiour and frivolous thoughts which nail us to the earth and so basely fasten us to the inordinate care for our bodies Let us manure our soul let us trim it up as a plot fit to receive impressions of the divinity Let us prepare it for the great day of God which must make the separation of a part so divine from these mortal members Let all that die which may yield to death Let the contexture of humours and elements dissolve as weak works of nature But let us regard this victorious spirit which hath escaped the chains of time and laws of death Let us contemn the remainders of an age already so much tainted by corruption Let us enter into this universality of times and into the possession of Diet iste quem tanquam extremum reformidas aeterni natalis est Sen. ep 102. of eternity This day which we apprehend as the last of our life is the first of our felicities It is the birth of another eternal day which must draw aside the curtain and discover to us the secrets of nature It is the day that must produce us to these great and divine lights which we behold with the eye of faith in this vale of tears and miseries It is the day which must put us between the arms of the father after the course of a profuse life turmoyled with such storms and so many disturbances Let us daily dispose us to this passage as to the entrance into our happiness Let us not betray its honour Let us not wither up its glory Let us not deface the character which God hath given it We are at this present in the world as in the belly of nature little infants destitute of air and light which look towards and contemplate the blessed souls What a pleasure is it to go out of a dungeon so dark a prison so streight from such ordures and miseries to enter into those spacious Temples of eternal splendours where our being never shall have end our knowledge admit ignorance nor love suffer change The sixteenth EXAMPLE upon the sixteenth MAXIM Of the return of Souls GOd who boundeth Heaven and limiteth earth ordaineth also its place to each creature suitable to the nature and qualities thereof The body after death is committed to the earth from whence it came and the soul goes to the place appointed it according to its merit or demerit And as it is not lawful for the dead body to forsake the tomb to converse with the living so the soul is not permitted to go out of the lists Gods justice ordained for it to entermeddle in worldly affairs Notwithstanding as the divine power often causeth the resurrection of the dead for the confirmation of our faith so it appointeth sometimes the return of souls for proof of their immortality I would not any wise in this point favour all the shallow imaginations which entitle sottish apprehensions of the mind with the name of visions but it is undoubted there is no Country in the world nor time throughout Ages which hath not afforded some great example of apparition of spirits by known witnesses and the judgements of most eminent Mitte quoque advivus aliquâ—â— ex mortuit Scriptura lestatur De cura pro mortuis c. 15. c. c. 10. Luc 14. personages S. Augustine holds it is a doctrine grounded on Scripture experience and reason which cannot be gain-said without some note of impudence although he much deny that all the dreams we have of the dead are ever their souls which return again Such was the belief of
must there perhaps long time remain to burn and wear off so many ordures as our soul contracted in worldly affections if we make account to decline the eternity of torments I am amazed when I reflect on the remisness of Catholicks as well in the provision for their own safety as the comfort of their bretherens souls And when I have well weighed the course and progress of this great neglect I find it hath two sources The first is called infidelity the second stupidity which I resolve to convince in two passages of this discourse It is true that after this direfull heresie blown by the breath of the infernal serpent hath for this last Age opposed the verities of our faith besides the lost souls it daily takes away in the torrent of corruption it hath destilled into the minds of Catholicks faintness and infidelities which now adays turmoyl irresolute wits upon many articles and namely that which is now our present object Purgatorie will some Libertine say amidst the fumes of wine and good cheer is not so hot as folk talk Who ever came back to tell us news of it God is mercifull think you he takes delight to burn his children and to cut off the price of his Sons passion who satisfied for our sins Young souls hear this and suck in poison by the ear which choaks their belief and killeth the exercise of good works What shall I say against these infidelities and floating opinions of feeble Catholicks It is not my purpose to cast my self upon a subtile controversie which doth nothing but hale truth hither and thither I will loose no time to touch at many passages I onely to the matter express two reasons drawn from two lights that of nature and the other of faith which are able to evict confession of truth from a man who hath never so little shame or brain 2. It is a strange thing to see the great consent of all Purgatorie proved by the light of nature Ages which agree in a pretention of purgations of the soul so strong powerfull that those lights of nature speak as understandingly as if they were written with the rays of the Sun All the Gentiles who lived out of the law knew not how to gainsay this doctrine For they were sensible of the noble extraction of their soul and knew it was defiled by the body and by sensual works Behold the cause why they tied themselves to The opinion of the Ancients concerning the purgation of souls feeble elements to purifie it one while washing themselves in the streams of fountains another while passing through flames and sometimes seeking other ways to cleanse themselves from pollutions of the flesh But it was a pitifull thing they found prophanation even in sacrifice They were not content to purge themselves in this life but extend it to the souls of the dead constantly believing they stood in need of remedies to free themselves from bodily stains Theophilus Patriark of Antioch in the book he directed to one named Antiochus saith the Gentiles took out of the Scripture all they wrote of punishments in the other life And S. Augustine observeth that having this August 21. de civitate Dei c. 13. idea that all stains of the soul proceeded from the earth they employed the other three elements to purge them as he proveth by texts of the Ancients Synesius Synesius epist ad Joan. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 likewise thought there remained certain visible spots in the soul which made it appear they were the crimes wherewith it was contaminated in the body which notwithstanding agrees not very well with the truth we hold of the spirituality of the same soul And I find he spake in this text more like a Platonist than a Christian The Hebrews the Aegyptians Grecians and Romanes all contended for prayers for the dead and the truth of purgatorie The Hebrews three times in the Morus de Missa An excellent observation upon the belief of Purgatorie among the Hebrews Apoc. 21. 16. Civitas in quadro posita est year celebrated the feast of the dead and their Priest mounting up into a chair made expresly and ceremoniously four-square to represent the Citie of the blessed according to S. John rehearsed aloud and audibly the names of the dead to recommend them to the prayers of such as were present prayers so familiar amongst them that they wrote them upon tombs instead of Epitaphs in these terms SIT ANIMA EIUS COLLIGATA IN FASCICULO VIVENTIUM let his soul be bound up in the posey of the living As one would say all the souls of Saints were as an odoriferous posey whereof every elect constituted a flower What is this but to make stones speak against impietie What shall I say of the Aegyptians that were so Notable purgation of Aegyptians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impressed with the opinion that souls must be purged in the other life in so much as they had been drenched in voluptuous pleasures of the flesh that in the funerals of the dead having opened the bodie they took the heart out of the breast and put it into a little casket then on the bank of Nilus where ordinarily Plutarch in convivio septem Sapientum tombs were erected a herald holding the casket and shewing it to the eyes of heaven protested before all there present the deceased now in question had lived piously and according to the laws of his Ancestours that if he had offended through bodily pleasures they wished his soul might be as well cleansed as they went about to purge the stomack the instrument of the lusts of the living thereupon they threw it into Nilus Behold these poor Pagans how they were moved with a touch from God which cannot lye who says unto them the dead must be purged but as for the rest they know not how Shall I speak of the Grecians And know we not that Plato the prime man of their Nation in his Phedon spake so perspicuously for purgatory that he seemed to have been bred in the Christian schools I will conclude with the Romans And can we be ignorant how in the beginning of the Church under the Emperour Domitian when as yet some Apostles lived Quintilian a most renowned Oratour making Qintil Declam 10. an oration in the City of Rome in a certain pleading concerning a sepulcher which had been enchanted by magick protested in terms most express the truth of purgatory saying The soul being purged of fire went to take place in heaven as we shewed also in the sixteenth maxim If you also require authorities of Pagans who have seen what Christians practised adde to all this that Julius a very ancient Authour speaking Julius Florileg l. 3. of the death of a Lady named Podon observed in plain terms that her husband who was one of the most ancient Christians made offerings for her which he called Tertul. in exhort ad castitat Jam repete apud
simplicity to forsake certain pleasures for an uncertain beatitude That the glorie of Paradise is most certain to good men WE live here among the groans of creatures Opinion concerning beatitude every one well understands he is not in his right situation and all the world turns from one side to another like a sick man in a bed and if any one lie still it is rather through the impotencie of motion than the happiness of repose Our soul well knows it is the daughter of a good house that there is another place which expecteth it another life which inviteth it It seeth some glimmers of felicity in the mass of this bodie but hath much ado to follow them so many illusions deceive it upon one side and so many obstacles oppose it on the other The great floud and ebbe of perpetual disturbances Disturbances of life August l. 2. de Trinit c. 12. Amor magis sentitur cum prodit indigentia shew us we are made for some great matter since among so many objects there is none which either fully or long contenteth us We understand our happiness by the continual change of our miseries and our strong appetite by distast of all things Love which according to Plato is the son of indigence never is so ill as with its own mother from whom it learns nothing but its poverty which addeth a sharp spur to direct it to riches When I read S. Gregory Nazianzen in the great Naz. de itineribus vitae The divers wayes of humane life according to S. Gregory That the choice of conditions of life is hazardous work he compiled of sundry courses of life it seems to me I behold a man in the enterance of a labyrinth much distracted who will and will not who desires waxeth drouthy is intranced and become pale yea in the height of his delights It seems to me nature leadeth him through all the corners of her Kingdom and sayes unto him O man what wouldest thou do to become happie Behold I conduct thee through all the parts of my jurisdiction of purpose to afford thee felicitie which thou seekest Wilt thou then marrie fy no saith he for there is too much hazard in the adventure single life it is painfull would you have children they cloy with too much care barreness it hath no support riches they are treacherous to their Master and many have been in danger to loose life for having too much wherewith to live charges and honours they cost overmuch and are indeed dead trees whereinto ostriches flie as well as eagles would you have favour it is a squib which cracks in the air and leaves nothing behind it but burnt paper and smoak but if the Courts of Great-ones afford good fruit there is store many times of evil birds which devour it Thou wouldest then live in subjection saith nature since thou canst not command He replieth he could not obey I will make thee poor saith she to teach thee humilitie you were as good quoth he to put me on the wheel Thou shalt have beautie it is the snare of lust youth it is the bubling of time strength it shall be inferiour to bulls nobility it is too full of libertie eloquence it is too vain skill in pleading it is nought but wrangling Wouldest thou wear a sword by thy side it is to live either an homicide or to become a victime of death retire into some wilderness it is to languish Will you have title it is to become captive traffick it hath too much hazard and pains travel it hath too much toil sail on the sea there are too many storms stay on the land it is repleat with miseries learn some trade all is full of craft and I find none good manure the earth I am not able live idlely that is to rot alive One knoweth not on what side to turn him in the Obtiruntur humilitate depressa nutant celsa fastigio S. Eucherius Miseries of this present life world poor states are overwhelmed under their miseries great totter born down with the weight of their own greatness We find by experience that we here lead a painfull bitter and corruptible life which is fruitfull in miseries knowing in all whereof it should be ignorant and many times impotent but to do ill A life over which elements predominate which heats burn cold congeals humours swell maladies torment the very air and viands wherewith it lives cease not to corrupt A life which loves tyrannize hopes flatter cares devour anxieties oppress joyes make profusely dissolute A life which ignorance blindfolds flesh tempteth the world deceives sin poisoneth the devil beguiles inconstancy turmoileth time takes away and death despoileth Now what spirit is so bruitish and unnatural Necessary consequence which considering upon one side how God accommodateth all creatures even the least flies to the full latitude of that felicitie their nature admitteth and on the other side seeing this great abyss of miseries Bonum omnes conjectant maxime vero principalissimum Aristot politic lib. 1. cap. 1. wherein we role in this life doth not judge that God who in his nature is most wise and benign hath not so given the King of creatures over as prey to injuries and calamities as not to have reserved a life of spirits for him since he is spirit to please him by an intellectual felicitie 2. The Sages of Gentilism have looked this verity Opinion of the wise Summum hominis bonum est perfectio per sua intellectiva in the face by the sole ray of natural light For if we consult with Alpharabius the Arabian he will tell us that the Sovereign felicitie of man consisteth in a perfect dispose of the functions of his soul as well those which concern the understanding as such as depend on the will If we ask of the Philosopher Heraclitus what wiped his eyes so many times drenched in his tears He will tell you that it was the contemplation of a good not imaginable which expected souls in the other life If we desire to understand the apprehensions of Metrodorus we shall learn the soul must ascend until it behold time in its source and the infinity of the first Being If we cover to hear Plato upon it doth not he discourse in his Phedon that the soul recollected within it self mounteth to the Divinity Ascende donec saeculum rerum videas infinitatem Plato in Phaedone Mercur Trismeg Pymander cap. 1. Plotinus Ennead 1. l. 6. Ennead 5. l. 8. whose image it carrieth and that in the fruition thereof it satisfieth all desires It it not likewise the doctrine of Trismegistus in his Pymander Doth not he teach us the soul after death of the bodie returns to its nature as a troubled water which purifieth when it is setled And doth not Plotinus triumph on this subject in publishing that blessed souls at their passage out of bodies go to the first beautie which hath power to make
sin but by resigning her self to death But on the contrarie you observe some of the Gentiles who professed the happiness of the soul in the other life and the resurrection even on their tombs We at this day read in Rome the Epitaph of Lucius and Flavius two friends who witnessed In caelo spiritus unus adest Vt in die censorio sine impedimento facilius resurgam Brisson They would have but one grave on earth since their souls make but one in Heaven And that of Aulus Egnatius who maketh mention That all his life-time he learned nothing but to live and die from whence he now deriveth the joys of beatitude And that of Felicianus who having led a solitarie life saith He did so to rise again with the more facility being freed from trouble at the day of Judgement Where the Interpreters under this word Trouble understand his wife What voice of nature is this What touch of God What impression of verity In the Evangelical law besides the passages of S. Matthew 22. of S. John 5. of S. Paul 1. to the Corinthians 15. the Saviour of the world remained fourty days upon earth after his resurrection that he might be seen reviewed touched handled and manifested to more than five hundred people assembled together as writeth S. Paul in the fore-alledged place of purpose most deeply to engraft the mysterie of resurrection in the hearts of the faithfull 2. And as for that which concerneth reason this belief was acknowledged to be so plausible and conform to humane understanding that never hath there been any who doubted it were it not some hereticks furious infamous and devillish as the Gnosticks Carpocratians Priscillianists Bardesanites Albigenses and such like enemies of God and nature or Epicures and Libertines who finding themselves guilty of many crimes have rather desired not to be perswaded of the end of souls and bodies to burie their punishments with their life For which cause they framed gross and sensual reasons touching this truth unworthily blaspheming that which their carnal spirit could not comprehend What impossibility should there be in resurrection Reason of possibility to an Omnipotent hand We must necessarily say it comes either from matter or form the final or efficient cause It cannot come from matter since our bodies being consumed by death the first matter still remaineth and after a thing is once created never is it meerly reduced into nothing Shall it be said that God who made thee of nothing cannot make thee again of the remainders of matter and that he hath less power over dust than over nothing The Philosopher Heraclitus saith birth is a river which never dries up because nature is in the world as a workman in his shop who with soft clay makes and unmakes what he list Think we the God of nature cannot have the like power over our flesh that nature hath over the worlds Proceeds the impediment from form It cannot since the soul which is the form of bodie remaineth incorruptible and hath a very strong inclinatiion to its re-union Proceeds it from the end No since Resurrection is so the end of man that without Leoin l. 2. de mirac c. 52. it he cannot obtain beatitude for which he is created perfect felicitie being not onely the good of the soul but of the whole man Will then impediment arise from the efficient Wonders of nature cause And is it not an indignity to deny to the Sovereign power of god the restauration of a body he made being we daily see so many wonders in nature whereof we can yield no reason Why doth a liquor extracted from herbs by a certain distillation never corrupt Why is water seven times purged not subject to corruption Why doth amber draw a straw along which other mettals repel Why do the lees of wine poured to the root of vines make them fruitfull How with so base ingredients are so goodly and admirable glasses made Why do men by the help of a fornace and a limbeck daily make of dead and putrified things so wonderous essences What prostitution of understanding to think that the great Architect having made our bodies to pass through this great fornace of the world and through all the searces his divine providence ordaineth cannot render them more beautifull and resplendent than ever What should hinder him Length of time There is no prescription for him Multitude of men That no more troubles him than millions of waves do the Ocean since all Nations before him are but one drop of dew The condition of glorions bodies COnsider I pray the state of glorified bodies and observe that there commonly are four things irksom to a mortal bodie sorrow weight weakness and deformity These four scourges of our mortality shall cease in the Resurrection being banished by gifts quite contrarie to their defects We may truly say among the miseries of bodie there is not almost any comparable to pains and maladies which are in number so divers in their continuance so tedious in their impressions so sharp that it is not without reason an Ancient said health was the chief of Divinities and an incomparable blessing For what is a soul inforced perpetually to inhabit a sickly bodie but a Queen in a tottering and ruinous house but a bird of Paradise in an evil cage and an Intelligence tied to attend on a sick man As the bodie very sound serves the soul for a house of pleasure so that which is continually crazy is a perpetual prison Now observe that against the encounters of all sorts of pains and maladies God communicateth to glorified bodies the chief gift which is impassibility wherewith they shall be exempt not onely Apoc. 21. Abstergeâ— Deus omnem lachrymain ab oculis eorum c. Isai 49. Non esurient neque sitient neque percutiet eos aestus from death but from hunger thirst infirmities and all the diseases of this frail and momentarie life O God what a favour is the banishment from so many stones gravels gouts nephreticks collicks sciaticks from so many pains of teeth head heart so many plagues and sundry symptoms of malladies which afflict a humane body This good if maturely weighed will be thought very great by such as have some experience of the incommodities of this life Adde also thereunto a singular Theological reason that this gift shall not be in us by a simple privation as the non-essence which the Epicureans imagined but by a flourishing quality communicated by God to our bodies and which shall have the force to exclude all whatsoever is contrarie and painful onely admitting the sweet impressions of light colours melodies odours and other things pleasing to sense Note I say quality Scot. in 4. distinct 49. q. 13. Durand d. 15. 44. q. 4. num 13. for I am not ignorant Divines dispute concerning the true cause of the impassibility of a glorified bodie and that some place it in a virtue and external
and who knoweth himself to be deformed and wicked yet faileth not by Nature to be in love with himself So through a love of Concupiscence he may love things which have neither Beauty nor Goodnesse although he daily have a blind feeling of some thing suitable to sensuallity and an unperceivable attractive As for love of reason which is properly Humane love one may be assured it alwayes looks directly upon good and fair not simply but good fair acknowledged agreeable to its contentment This is the root of all reasonable amities and hitherto those great sources Means to make ones self to be beloved worthily of love reduced which are Honesty utilitie Delectation Resemblance reciprocall love obliging and pleasing conversation Within these six heads in my opinion the fifteen means to make one to be beloved are comprised which are touched by Aristotle in the second book of his Rhetorick To wit to love that which a friend loveth to entertain his apprehensions his joyes and his discomforts his hatred and Amities to keep him in a laudable opinion of our sufficiency by good parts of wit courage virtue industrie and reciprocally to hold him in good esteem to love him to oblige him to praise him unto others to bear with him in his humours to trust him with your secrets readily to serve him without forgetfulnesse or negligence to be inviolably faithfull to him which we will more amply deduce in the subsequent section But if you regard its effects I find three great empires Notable effects of love in the 3. worlds it exerciseth in the world naturall civil and supernaturall In the naturall it causeth all simpathies antipathies accords ties generations productions In the civill world it builds two cities as saith S. Augustine very different If it be good it raiseth a Citie of peace wherein chaste Amities sway and with them Truth Faith Honour Virtues contentments delights If it be bad It makes a Babylon full of confusion where cares fears griefs warre enmities impurities adulteries incests sacriledges bloud murther and poison inhabit and all that which commonly ariseth from this fatall plague In the supernaturall world it causeth nine effects which are very well figured by the celestiall throne of love composed of nine diaphanous globes whose effects are Solitude Silence Suspension Indefatigability Languishment Extasie and Transanimation which we more at length will consider in the sequele of this Treatise §. 2. Of Amity AMITY is the medecine of health and Immortality Eccl. 6. Medicamentùm vitae Amity the tree of life of life and in a manner doth that in Civill life which the tree of life in terrestriall Paradise promises in naturall life with an infinite number of sweetnesses and pleasures it immortaliseth us after death in the remembrance of that which is most dear unto us in the world It is that which giveth light to dark affairs certainty It Includeth all blessings to doubtfull support to tottering goodnesse to evil grace to good order to irregular ornament to simple and activenesse to dead By it the banished find a countrey the poor a patrimony great ones find offices the rich services the Ignorant knowledge the feeble support the sick health and the afflicted comfort Should a man live on Nectar and Ambrosia among starres and Intelligencies he would not be happy if he had not friends to be witnesses of his good fortune and we may truly say that Amity continually makes up the greater part of our Felicities It is not here my purpose to extend my self with full sail upon the praise thereof since so many excellent wits have already handled this subject but to shew how good Amities are to be chosen and how to be cultivated There are some who make profession to be friends What amity is Affectus est spontanea suavis animi ad aliquem inflectio Cassiod de amicit and know not so much as what friendship is but Aristotle plainly proves there is difference between affection Good-will Love Amity and Concord Affection is a spark of love not yet throughly formed in which understanding hath some slight passion Good-will A simple Good-will and consent born towards some one although many times there be no great knowledge of the party as it happeneth to such who of two Combatants favour rather the one then the other not knowing either of them Love is an affection already formed and inclined with fervour to the good of Conformity Amity is a love of mutuall well-wishing grounded upon communication Whence may be inferred that all those who love are not friends but all such as are true friends necessarily love The meanest people may love the most eminent but there can be no Amity since they therein find not correspondence There are entranced lovers in the world who are enamoured Miserable lovers of all beauties none returning them love again which deserves either laughter or compassion seeing they may directly go to the first of Beauties where they shall find reciprocall contentment After love followeth concord which is the fruit of it in the union of judgement and will Now well to understand how to choose good Amities the Species or kind of them must be known wherein I find that one Hippodamus a great Platonick Philosopher hit right when he established three sorts of Three sorts of amity Amities whereof one belongs to beasts the other to men and the third to Demi-gods Animall-Amities are those which subsist onely in Animal-amity Nature and which are common to us with beasts Thus saith S. Augustine a mother which loveth Pro mugno laudarurus sum in homine quod videam in Tigride August 410. homil 38. her children for flesh and blouds sake not otherwise raising her thoughts towards God doth but as a Hen a Dove a Tigresse a Serpent and so many other living creatures which have so great affection towards their little ones It is not that these Amities are not very necessary since Nature inspires them and powreth them into the veins with the soul by admirable infusions which preserve the estate of the world entire It is good much to affect ones own but we must build upon the first elements of Nature and by Grace and Reason raise the edifice of true charity Parents ought to love their children as a part of their own bodies which Nature hath separated from themselves But Amity should never divide their hearts Children are bound to love their parents as fishes their water Brothers cannot too much esteem the love and Concord which they mutually maintain together A husband and a wife are bound to a most strict commerce of Amity since as God produced a word in heaven and with the word the holy Ghost So he hath been pleased to create Adam on earth as his own Image and out of this Image he hath drawn Eve to be unto a man a spirit of peace and a love of a perpetuall lasting There is no doubt but that to fail in
displeaseth All which hath contented them discontenteth one knows not into what posture to put himself to give satisfaction Good words vex them services distast them submissions torment them contradictions make them mad It seemeth Sauls devil possesseth them and that they 1 Reg. 18. 10. know not themselves they hate by humour as if they had loved without consideration of merit But we must say that of all the plagues of Amity there is none so fatall to it as the discovery of a secret by Treason and Infidelity That is it which Petrus 8. Infidelity Petrus Blesenfis l. de amie c. 6. Plutarch in Julio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blesensis called the blow without noise under the shadow of Amity It is that which Brutus gave to great Cesar and which was the cause that the valorous Emperour long tumbled to and fro among his murderers and defending himself from every blow they gave him covered his eyes with his garment not enduring the treachery of a man whom he had loved and obliged above all other But saying Ah son art thou then one of these He suffered himself as a victime to be butchered ashamed to behold the day light which made him see so black a mischief And what is there more to be deplored then to behold a generous heart which dilates it self in the presence of a pretended friend and powreth out unto him all he hath in his soul whilst the wretch shooting back envenomed shafts against all the raies of Amity maketh a prey of his goodnesse and a trophey of his sincerity abandoning him to the discretion of such as persecute him There are some who suffer themselves to fall into these Infidelities by the surprizall of some wicked spirits who wholly govern them and who draw out of them all they have in their hearts either by craft or power which rendreth them lesse culpable but not innocent Others run to it with the malignity of a Devill and joyfully triumph Sient novatulla acut◠fecisti dolum propterea Deus destructte when they have prospered in an Act so base and barbarous Do not these kind of people deserve to be accounted the horrour of nature the scorn of Ages the execration of mankind And shall we not believe that if Pythagoras Metempsychosis were in being their souls would put on no other bodies but of Hyena's Rats or Owls to fly in an eternall night and never to be illustrated with one sole ray of the bright day of Amity Now if you desire to know the things which are Psal 51. 4. Six perfections which preserve Amity of power perpetually to uphold Amity I must tell you it subsisteth in honesty good disposition communication Bounty Patience and Fidelity Assure your self you will not long be a good friend if you study not to be ever virtuous The heart of a wicked man saith the Prophet is a Cor impurum quasi mare servens Isa 57. turmoyled sea which never rests it hath as many changes as the waves in the Ocean as many agitations as Tempests which with Amity is incompatible of its own nature peacefull and which enterteins the mind in a constant situation What is the cause the blessed are never weary of loving but that they perpetually find in God new beauties and perfections The body is finite and quickly thrusts forth all its qualities which with time rather fade then flourish but our spirit is profound as an abysse and our soul tendeth in some sort Dum unusquisque se sub umbra alterius obscurare volebat tan quam res percussa claritas utrumque radiabat S. Hilar. In Honorat to Infinity Hence it comes that two friends seriously disposing themselves to perfection daily receive some new lustre which rendreth them lovely so that increasing in goodnesse by degrees they insensibly love some better thing Saint Hilary of Arles said of two good friends that they sought to hide themselves in the shadow of one another but that thence their humility was reflected as from a solid bottome which made its lights the more resplendent Yet would I not that your virtue should be austere Humour and unmanaged but seasoned with a good disposition and a certain cordiality which is the best temper of Amity There are some who love so coldly that their love is as a day in winter when the Sun is involved in grosse vapours and shews nothing but sadnesse which is extreamly troublesome for it is better to receive a manifest Correction then to endure a hidden Amity to speak with the Wiseman Melior est manifesta correptio quam amor absconditus Prov. 27. and you shall find many women who better love harsh men then such as are neither one nor other He is no good friend who rejoyceth not at the presence of his friend who is not sorry for his absence yet not opposing the conformity we should have with Vid. Chrys ep p. 715 716. 1 Thes 2. 3. the divine Providence S. Chrysostome in the letters he wrote to his dear Olympias observed these sensible affections in S. Paul for he was much troubled at the absence of his best friends and desired to see their faces as he saith where this great Prelate insisteth upon Tertul. de velandis c. 12. Quis audebit oculis suis premere faciem clausam faciem non sentientē faciem ut ita dixerim tristem on the word face and sayes it is good right that we desire the face of our friend because it is the place where the soul sheweth it self in all its senses There is not any man saith Tertullian unlesse he hath little to do delighteth to hold long discourse before a face shut up a visage sensible of nothing and which to say truly cannot but be melancholy in this posture This hindreth not but that the use of veils is very laudable in time and place among religious women who make profession of penance and the fore-alledged Authour who ardently urgeth virgins to this observance gives them an example of Arabian women who were so veiled that they had but one eye free to guide them and to Contente sunt dimidiatâ fruiluce quà m totam faciem prostituere Idem de velandis Virg. cap. 14. receive a half light which caused a Roman Queen to say that they were miserable women who went so because they might take in love but not give it out again But contrariwise they were most happy to be delivered from a thousand importunities of wanton eyes which do nothing but court beauties Howsoever true amity is necessarily accompanied with some tendernesse and sensibility which causeth one to be perpetually anxious for such as he loveth Love in the heart is an exhalation in a cloud it cannot continue idle there It daily formeth a thousand imaginations and brings forth a thousand cares It findeth out an infinity of inventions to advance the good of the beloved It openeth it self in his prosperities it shuts it self up in
nothing but God and It God who was in it with eternall contentments It which was in God with reciprocall and wholly ineffable affections This heart of Jesus resembled the Halcions nest which cannot hold one silly fly more then the bird it self So he knew not how to lodge one creature in himself to the prejudice of the Creatour but could tell how to lodge them altogether to uâ—ite them to their Head O it was properly his businesse to give us this lesson which he afterward dictated by one of his Oracles He loveth thee not August â—olil Minà s tâ— amat qui tâ—cum aliquid amat quod propter te non amat Apoc. 8. enough whosoever loveth any thing with thee which he loveth not for thee From solitude he entred into the silence which Synesius calleth Beatifick Silence and which S. John placeth in heaven in the peacefull condition of the Blessed It was properly the calm and repose which the holy soul of Jesus took with his heavenly Father in his divine Orisons which he many times continued the space of whole nights watching and weeping for us and dwelling as it were in the fire of love It is that silence which the Canticle calleth the Cantic 3. Bed of Solomon encompassed with threescore valiant ones but of that great Host of Angels From silence he passed to the suspension whereof Job speaketh Job 7. 15. Elegit suspendium anima 〈◊〉 where his soul felt it self totally pulled up by the root from earth but not as yet placed in heaven because he was corporally in this transitory life We verily find three admirable suspensions in Nature That of water in the clouds of Heaven above the clouds and of earth under the clouds and two ineffable suspensions in the Humanity of Jesus The first is that of his blessed soul which was alwaies hanging at the heart of God and the second of his body on the Crosse to purifie by his death all the regions of the world both above and beneath above by the exhalation of his spirit beneath by the effusion of his bloud After suspension he mounted to insatiability which Daâ—iâ—â— Cardi. â—â— Hymno dâ— Paradiso Avidi semper plâ—ni quod habent de â—â—â—â—rant caused him that drinking those eternall sources by long draughts in the delighrs of Contemplation which streams upon him from heaven he slaked his thirst in his own bosome not quite quenching it therein retaining the condition of those who see God of whom it is said That they are still replenished yet still greedy incessantly desiring what they possesse From insatiability he came to the degree of Indefatigability which caused him perpetually to spend himself in most glorious labours for the redemption of the world measuring and running over the earth as the sun doth Heaven and fowing virtues and benefits every where to reap nought but Ingratitude From thence he proceeded to that Inseparability which tied him for the love of his heavenly Father not onely to the punishment of the Crosse but to so many scorns and miseries as he embraced for us and he made so much account of this mortall flesh which he took of us that he associated it unto himself with an eternall band and hath transmitted it into the bosome of Immortality placing his wounds which were the characters of his love and of our inhumanity even in the sanctuary of the most blessed Trinity From this Inseparability he suffered himself to slide into languours extasies and transanimations which make up a Deified love such as was that of Jesus Languour dried him up with the zeal he had for our salvation exhausting all the strength of his body and to speak with Philo he seemed as if he would have transformed his flesh into the nature of Mark 3. 21. his spirit causing it to melt and dissolve under the ardours of ineffable affection as we see a Myrrhe-Tree which distilleth the first fruits of its liquour under the lustre of the sun-beams Extasie which bare this great soul with a vigorous violence to the heart of God made a truce in all the actions of sensitive nature and as it happeneth that the Ocean extraordinarily swelling up upon one shore forsaketh the other So the spirit of our Saviour already divinized amassing together the whole multitude of his forces to serve his love and satisfie the passion he had towards his celestiall Father overflowed in the heart of the Divinity with so immeasurable a profusion that all his inferiour Nature seemed to be forsaken and despoiled of the presence and government of his soul In the end he entred into that transanimation which Orig. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anima ilia quasi scrâ—um in igne semper in verbo semper in sapientia semper in Deo in convertibilitatem ex verbi Dei unitate indesinenter ignita possidebat so powerfully united him to God that onely retaining the property of two natures Divine and Humane he made an incomparable commixtion of heart of love of affections and conformities which made Origen say This soul like unto Iron which is on burning Coles was alwayes in the word alwayes in wisdome ever in God and took an immutable constancy from the ardour wherewith it is enkindled in the union of God If you find this love too sublime for you behold it as it were tempered and reflected in so many saints as were S. Paul S. Augustine S. Bernard and so many other §. 13. A notable Example of worldly love changed into divine Charity I Will give you a very familiar one in a man of the world a man of the Court and one who is at this present a treasure hidden from many who was hated by the envious persecuted by the proud condemned by the Ignorant and yet a great servant of God It is the learned and pious Raymundus Lullus as it Vitae Patrum Occid l. â— Ex Carolo Bovillo appeareth by his life faithfully written in the Tome of the lives of the Western Fathers This man flourished above three hundred years ago and was born in the Island of Majorica of a notable extraction which gave him passage into worldly honours and caused him to be bread in the Court of his King by whom he afterward was made one of his prime Officers Never was there a man more inclining to love for he loved transportedly and spent all his youth in this vanity having no employment more acceptable then to write amourous verses to expresse his passion In the end he fell into the snare of a violent affection that long turmoiled him which was the love of an honourable Lady endowed with an invincible chastity Here ordinarily love which delights to pursue what it cannot arrive unto finds most admiration for the eyes and food for its flame He was so on fire in this quest that he thought he should lose his wits suffering himself to fall into unbeseeming and extraordinary actions so farre as being one day on horse-back
Ecclesiam Ephes 5. 25. To seek by lawfull wayes ones petty accommodations is not a thing of it self to be alwayes condemned Servus vocarus â—es non fit tibi curae sed â— potes fieri liber magis utere 1 Cor. 7. 21. onely by the first Motives of Nature but also out of Election and Reason all that which is hurtful to the body and health No man saith the Apostle hateth his own flesh but cherisheth and entertaineth it as long as he can therein imitating the tendernesse of affection which Jesus Christ hath for his Church I adde that it is not also my intention to perswade that one should not seek in the care of his life things the most commodious so much as Justice and Reason will permit We must bear with servitude saith this fore-alledged Oracle if we be engaged in this condition but if one can become free I advise him rather to make choice of liberty Yet we are not ignorant but that there are many good men who by the power of virtue afflict their bodies and preferre contempt above all which the world esteemeth that they may conform themselves to the suffering of our Saviour But to rest within the limits of * * * One must take heed of being 〈◊〉 curious Civii life I say that although we may innocently use the blessings of God and put nature to its small pittances yet we must take heed of becoming too suspicious too nice and too apprehensive of those things which are not according to our appetites for otherwise there happen great disturbances and irksome confusions of mind which thrust the health of our soul into uncertainty First when a spirit is too much tied to its skin and It is a hard thing not to feel some incommodities life being so full of them too much bent to flie all the contrarieties of nature it is very beggarly and suppliant towards its body which is not done without much care For life being replenished with great and little incommodities from which Kings themselves cannot be wholly exempt If one apprehend them too much he must live like a man who would perpetually shut his eyes for fear of flies and imploy almost all his time which is so precious in the service of the flesh God himself permitteth it also Timor quem timebam evenit mihi quod verebar accidit Job 3. 25. Secondly God for punishment of this nicenesse will suffer that all we most fear shall happen to us a man many times falleth into mischiefs even by fearing them Death seems to be onely for cowards and when one seeks for liberty by unworthy wayes then he is involved in rhe greatest servitude Thirdly one is in danger to fall into much discouragement One puts himself upon the hazard to live alwayes in insupportable anxiety Debitores sumus non carâ—i ut socundum carnem viâ— vamus Rom. 8. Hier. in ep ad Aglas Non est de ficata in Deum secura confessio quotiâ— die eredent in Christum tollit Crucem suam negat scipsum Bern. ser 85. in Cant. Fuge ad illum qui adversatur per quem talis fias cui jam non adversetur and into sad despair when he sees himself slipped into matters troublesome and very vexing since he sought to avoid the lightest For which cause the Sages counsel us willingly to accustome our selves a little to evill and of our own accord to harden our selves to the end that when it shall come necessity may make that more supportable which we have already assayed by prudence We ow nothing to flesh to live according to flesh saith S. Paul and S. Hierome in the Epistle he wrote to Aglasius clearly giveth him to understand That the Profession of Christianity is not a Profession nice and lazy a true Christian every day beareth the Crosse and renounceth himself S. Bernard said as much in one of his Sermons upon the Canticles Fly saith he to your beloved persecutour that you may find the end of your persecutions in the accomplishment of his will It is a determination from heaven that we should see before our eyes so many great religious men and women most austere whom the divine Providence seems to propose unto us to extend and glorifie the Crosse of Jesus Christ and shew that all is possible to the love of God § 3. The Consideration of the indulgent favours of Jesus Christ towards Humane Nature is a powerfull remedy against the Humour of Disdain IF we be not yet throughly perswaded by these reasons The example of our Saviour serves for another strong remedy to sweeten our Aversions the example of our Saviour ought to make us ashamed For when we more nearly consider his life we find that he onely did not shew an Aversion from things despicable but chose the most abject and contrary to Nature I ask of you what attractive was there in humane nature to draw him from the highest parts of the heavens to its love What saw he in it but a brutish body a soul in the most inferiour order of Intelligencies all covered over with crimes wholly drenched in remedilesse miseries and yet laying aside those beautiful Angels who did shine as Aromatick lamps in his eternall Temple he came upon earth to seek for this lost creature prodigall of his substance a foe to his honour injurious to his glory and not content to reconcile it to Eras â—â—da confusione plena transivi perte vidi â—â— expandi amictum meum super te opeâ—uâ— Ignominram tuam Ezech. 16. Displicentes amati snmus ut fieret in nobis unde placeremus Concil Arausican Nee pereuntem perire patitur nec abaverso avertirur sed fugientem paternâ charitate insequitur revocat blanditur reâ—erso no◠〈…〉 ignoscit sed regnâ—â— promâ—â—it Fraâ—â—â— Abbâ—â— l. 5. de gratia The humours of the world are quite contrary to the designs of God Displicet avaris quòd non corpus aureum habuit displicet impudicis quia ex virgine natus est displicet superbis quòd contumelias â—apienter pertulit displicet delicatis quòd â—ruâ—iatus est displicet timidis quòd mortuus est ut non vitia sua videantur defendere unum in hoc dicunt sibi hoc displicere sed in filio Dei August de agone Christiano his father he espoused it and united it to himself with a band indissoluble putting it into the possession of all his greatnesse to surcharge himself with its miseries This is it which is so notably described by the Prophet Ezechiel when he sets before our eyes a miserable ungracious wretch cast forth upon the face of the earth wallowing in ordures abandoned to all sorts of injuries and scorns whom the Prince of glory looketh on with his eyes of mercy taketh him washeth clotheth adorneth and tyeth him to himself by the band of marriage We naturally have so much Aversion from persons misshapen nasty and infected
resemblance in Nature We have heretofore heard of a Prince who desirous to offer himself to death for rhe preservation of his subjects took the habit of a Peasant to steal himself from his greatnesse and facilitate his death All histories say he laid down his purple and crown and all the ensigns of Royalty retaining none but those of love which caused him to go into his enemies army where he left life to purchase an immortall trophey for his reputation But I must tell you he had a mortall life and in giving it he gave that tribute to nature which he owed to nature from the day of his birth and which of necessity he was to pay yea he gave it to buy the memory of posterity and to beg honour which is more esteemed by generous spirits then life But in what history have we read that a man glorious by birth immortall by condition necessarily happy hath espoused humility which all the world despiseth mortality which the most advised apprehend misery which the bravest detest for no other occasion but to have the opportunity to dy for a friend And this is it which Jesus Christ did He was by nature immortall impassible impregnable against all exteriour violencies he took not the habit of a peasant as Codrus nor a body of air as Abscondit purpuram sub miseri◠vestimentis ad lutum ubi jacebam inclinatur non mergitur the Angell-conductour of Tobias but a true body a flesh tender and virginall personally united to the word of God to quail it with toils to consume it with travails and lastly to resign it as a prey to a most dolourous death he casts tottered rags over his royall purple and takes pains to stoop down to pull me out of the mire where I lay and to take my miseries upon him not sullying himself in my sins My God! what a prodigie is this All ages have Abbas Guerricus observed a thousand and a thousand industries of men which they found out to avoid the pains and torments of life but never have we seen a man who sought to invent means and to offer violence to his own condition to become suffering and miserable according to the estimation of the world since there are day and night so many gates open to this path yet thou Oh God of Glory O mild Saviour hast done it Thou hast found a way how to accord infirmity with sovereign Mortem nec solus Deus sentire nec solus homo vincere poterat homo suscepit Deus vicit Faustus l. 1. de lib. arbitr The quality of the sufferings of our Saviour power honour with ignominy time with eternity and death with life It was not possible that sole God should endure death or that sole Man could vanquish it but man hath abided it and God hath overcome it As for the quality of pains it sufficeth to say that if men judged of the greatnesse of Gyants by one of their footsteps impressed on the sand and if we likewise measure the course of the sun by a small thread of shadow one may have some grosse knowledge of so great a mystery by the figures which forewent it Now all the sacrifices of the Mosaick law and so many travails and sufferings of the antient Patriarchs were but a rough draught of the passion of Jesus Christ from whence we may imagine what the originall was sith the Copies thereof were so numerous and different throughout the course of all Ages The perpetuall sacrifice which was evening and 3 Reg. 8. 63. 22000 bullocks and 120000 sheep sacrificed for the dedication of Solomon his Temple morning made in the Temple the twenty two thousand oxen and the hundred and twenty thousand sheep which were sacrificed by Solomon at one feast of the dedication of the Temple so much bloodshed that it seemed a red sea to those who beheld it was to no other end but to figure the blood of the immaculate Lamb and of all its members which have suffered after it But if so much preparation and profusion were needfull to expresse one sole shadow of his passion what may we conjecture of the body and the thing figured Besides if all the antient Patriarchs who were so persecuted in times past and all the Martyrs who since the death of our Saviour have endured torments almost infinite in number and prodigious in kinds made but an assay or tryall of the dolours of this King of the afflicted what an account shall we make of his pains which ever ought to be as much adored by our wills as they are incomprehensible to our understanding The Lamb was sacrificed from the beginning of the world saith Saint Apoc. 13. 8. Agnas accisus est ab origine mundi Our Saviour hath suffered in the person of all the just and the martyrs John He was massacred in Abel saith S. Paulinus tossed upon so many waves in the person of Noah wandring in that of Abraham offered up in Isaac persecuted in Jacob betraied in Joseph stoned in Moses bruised on a dunghill in the patience of Job blinded in Samson sawn in Esay flayed afterward in the person of S. Bartholmew roasted in that of Saint Laurence thrown out to Lions in that of Saint Ignatius burned in that of Saint Polycarp Confummatio abbreviata Isa 10 12. Unâ oblatione consummavit in sempiter num satisfactos Heb 10 14. Unigenitus Dei ad peragendum mort is suae sacramentum consummavit humanarum omne genus passionum Hilar. l. 10. de trinit pulled in picees by four horses and cast headlong into a ditch full of Serpents in that of Saint Tecla drowned in that of S. Clement exposed to wasps in that of many other Martyrs From whence it commeth that the passion of Jesus is called a short Consummation by the Prophet Esay and that Saint Paul hath said to the Hebrew That by one sole Sacrifice he hath consummated those which were to be sanctified for all eternity And S. Hilary clearly confesseth That Jesus Christ the onely Son of God desirous to fulfill this great and mysterious Sacrament of his pretious death did passe through all imaginable dolours which were as it were melted and distilled together to make of it a prodigious accomplishment Jesus is the stone with seven eyes whereof the Prephet Zachary speaketh which the heavenly Father says he hath cut and engraven with his own hand Zach. 39. thereon figuring all the most glorious characters of patience He is an Abysse of love of mercy of dolours of ignominies of blood of lowlinesse and greatnesse of excesse of admiration and amazement which swalloweth all thoughts dryeth up all mouths stayeth all pens and drencheth all conceptions Who now then will dare to complain that he suffereth too much that he doth too much that he is treated with lesse tendernesse then he deserveth O our coldnesse and remissnesse whence can it proceed but from not studying enough on this incomparable
Book which comprehends all secrets we at least should consider the divine Providence in the matter of the burdens of all the world to diminish our nicenesse to gain opinion and understanding which may alter our judgement A sage Roman shewing to an impatient man the Sence l. 3. nat quaest Praeferri scies quid deceat si cogitaveris orbem terrarum notare whole world surrounded in a great deluge of miseries said unto him I assure my self you would not so much play the milk sop nor have a soul so effeminate if you would think that the whole world swimmeth in a dreadfull sea of calamities All things conform themselves to the nature of their originall and we have elsewhere said that Bees bred in the dead body of a Bull Bees bear the figure of a ball on their bodies carry the resemblance of their Progenitour pourtrayed by certain little lineaments in their proper body The world hath produced us and Jesus Christ hath regenerated us by his Death and most precious Bloud never should we rest untill we carry upon us some token Glorisi care portate Deum in corpore vestro 1 Cor. 6. of nature wailing and of a God suffering according to S. Pauls precept Glorifie and hear the Image of God in your body § 6. Advice to impatient Souls IMpatient Souls to you I speak I ask you Is it a small motive to you to suffer that have the Universe for a Companion God for an Example and God for the Guerdon of your Patience All creatures saith S. Paul sigh groan and are as it were in labour Rom. 8. 22. expecting that day wherein all things shall be glorified in the resurrection of bodies and will you be of so Ad communem hanc Rempublicam quisque promodulo exsolvimus quod debemuâ— quasi canonem passionum inferimus S. August in Psal abject a courage as to be like unprofitable burdens with arms acrosse in the midst of a suffering world and before the eyes of the God of suffering Is it not a scandall to the Religion we professe often to afflict our selves with great and heavy sadnesses for causes most light To see too you would make one think the Law the Sacraments and Jesus Christ himself were cast away Where is the Consolation of holy Scriptures the fruit of Preachings the sweetnesse of Prayers Where is that huge cloud of Examples of so many Patient ones whose courages you so often have admired where are good purposes good thoughts where are so many resolutions so well taken in the time of prosperity must the least adversity make you to shrink back Verily Ideots and silly women who have neither the wit nor knowledge which you have do many times bear no flight burdens with much courage and you after so many good instructions lay down arms and make it appear that stupidity hath more foree with them then all the precepts of wisdome have power over your weaknesse People who live according to nature find remedies for their sadnesse in nature it self Bathings Wine Playes Balls Hunting open Air and so many other recreations make them passe away their evil Is it possible but that the cosideration of the first verity and the divine Providence should mitigate yours What is it can have such power over you It is strange that things the most frivolous torment you Call back into your thoughts what I have said to you concerning the matter of your pleasures It greives you you have not thrived in this affair nor have had the successe of reputation which you exspected what a folly is this as if I should be troubled that the air and winds were not at my dispose Will you never cease from usurping that which appertaineth not to you will you never order your own house without taking care for things out of it You afflict you self for a word spoken of you wretched that you are to tie your felicity to the condition of tongues There would almost be Very true no slander if it were not made slander by thinking thereon you torment your self for the losse of health or of some other good which was very pretious with you Impute your crosse to your affection so excessively to have loved a blessing which you might lose and to have coveted all good things without you to have an ill guest within your own house You put your self upon the rack with the fear of the future why do you set your foot into the possession of another why do you not leave the future to the divine Providence why do you reap dolours in a field where you are not permitted to sowe you incessantly complain of poverty of sicknesse and other inconveniences of life if you think to live here free from pain you must build a world a-part and not be contented with the elements which served your ancestours turns God here distributeth burdens as the father of a family doth offices to all his domesticks every one must bear that which is allotted him otherwise if he do not he is a bastard and not a legitimate child and if having one he hear it Quod si extra disciplinam cujus participes facti sunt omnes ergo adulterini non fâ—â—ii Heb. 12. 8. with a perpetuall vexation he deprives himself of the crown of patience the value whereof is as inestimable as the force thereof hath in all times been judged invincible Have you forgot what S. Paul said If you be saith he out of the number of those who live in a regular discipline and who daily have their petty charge in Gods family wherein they are subjects I assure you you are not used like children of the house but as very bastards left to live at randome Believe me our burdens are like the stone of the Sybils which to some weighed Dio. Chrys orat 13. Marvelous stone of Sybils like lead and to others as a feather oft-times the weight or lightnesse of your evils proceeds from nought but your own disposition Imagination hath made you believe it nice breeding which hath been bestowed on you and evil habits wherein you have been perpetually nousled fail not to accomplish your misery Accustome your self a little to do that work well for which you came into the world Learn that you must bear the miseries of mans condition since you participate of humane nature and that thanks be to God you are not a monster When you have learnt to suffer something you will begin to enter into the possession of your soul in which alone you shall find all felicities if so you be united to your beginning Courage poor impatient one raise your self a little above your self by the grace which is given you from on high and so many good assistances which you can never want The God of patience and Consolation will confirm you will fortifie you and will give you the reward of your fidelity The seventh Treatise Of HOPE § 1. The Description
thorns their repose but torment life but anxiety and death very often a tomb of water And yet holy Boldnesse reserveth to it self courages which it leadeth forth as it seems beyond the sun time and seasons to conquer souls to God Must we not say this passion is infinitely generous and that it mounted to a heighth of virtue almost prodigious All are not created to come to the most eminent degree of its excellencies Nature must therein have a part and verily in my opinion the divine Providence prepareth bodies greatly adapted to those daring souls which in them he resolveth to enclose Their temperature is hot their heart little in bulk but a true fornace of heat the members well composed the speech strong and the arm sturdy Education and Custome create another nature which hath alwayes been observed to be extremely necessary in the children which are to be trained up to valour Those people of India must in some sort be imitated who set them on the backs of certain great birds to carry them in the air whereat these little Cavalliers are at first astonished but in the end they so fashion themselves thereto that they despise all other perill The Romans daily made them to see lions and elephants in the Amphitheatre and the bloud of sword-players shed almost as ordinarily as wine others leade them out to the sea among monsters and tempests others practised them to combats where they quickly learn'd the art of giving and receiving wounds and to beat men down David Theseus and Brasidas began the profession of Warre very young The son of King Tarquin at the age of fourteen years slew an enemy with his own hand Scipio saved his father in the confusion of a battel being then but seventeen years old Probus was without a beard when he was made Tribune in the Army Alboinus very young in duel vanquished the son of Thorismond King of the Gepides which was the cause that his father Cranz l. 3. Daniae who before bred him amongst his servants did set him at his own table Some think that study and learning are very much Study lesseneth not courage opposite to Military Boldnesse and it is very little to be doubted if it be excessively pursued in the vigour of years which are proper for the exercise of arms but that it will endanger mens Courages to become timorous But it is of infinite use for Princes and young Gentlemen who are to be disposed to actions the most elate For by a laudable temperature it sweetneth all that which a warlike humour might have contracted of roughnesse and incivility it awakeneth wisdome it enlightneth counsel it renders Boldnesse intelligent and magnanimous it polisheth the tongue it gives authority in charges grace in conversation invention in the cabinet honour among the wise and glory with posterity After nature and education to become bold he Nec tristibus impar nec pro successu timid usspatiúmque morandi vincendique modum mutatis noscit habenis Claudianus must be sensible of Honour which enkindleth the most timorous he must vigorously exercise himself in the toils of Military discipline and the practice of brave pieces of service he must not be either vaunting scoffing captious or offensive but prudent reserved active and laborious he must very little fasten his affections upon things of the earth compose himself to the contempt of death make account one is not born but to die for his Prince and Countrey and to esteem no life in the world more precious then Glory § 4. That true Boldnesse is inspired by God and that we must wholly depend on him to become bold BUt besides this to raise ones self to something Why Boldnesse is not in God more excellent we must look upon the divine Virtues which ought to be the perpetuall sources of ours But if you now ask me wherein we may be aided by our first model to acquire Boldnesse I do not affirm we may properly say that Boldnesse is in God because this Passion is essentially conjoyned to a regard it hath towards a thing very difficult and encompassed with dangers Now we know that nothing can be difficult or dangerous before God by reason of his Sovereign Power and most accomplished Felicity God to speak Aristot â— Rhetor. Audaciore eos esse quo rectè se habent ad divina perspicuously can neither be timorous nor bold but it is he who makes all those who are truly bold within the limits and lists of virtue Certainly Aristotle saw much when he said That the most bold were such as were most in Gods favour I will make good this proposition in the first part of this discourse and shew a most manifest reason which teacheth us that every able man considering what he is cannot be hardy of himself by reason of the incapacity and weaknesse of humane nature and therefore we must say that if he have some Boldnesse it necessarily comes to him from above The Platonists said there are seven things able much Seven things able to humble a man to humble a man the First whereof is that his spirit is caitive thorny and light Secondly that his body is brutish and extremely exposed to all the injuries and impressions of exteriour violences Thirdly that being Apulei de Daemonio Socratis Homo levi anxiâ mente bruâ—o obnoxio corpore sui similis erroribus dissimilis moribus casso labore fortunâ caducâ tardâ sapientiâ citâ morte so inconstant in his manners he commonly is very constant in his errours Fourthly that his endeavours are infinitely vain and that many times being ready to enter into his tomb when he comes to behold and consider his whole life already past he finds it to be full of spiders webs which he with much labour and industry hath spun but to no purpose Fifthly that his fortune is of glasse and many times catcheth a crack when it is most resplendent Sixthly that if he find wisdome amidst so many errours it is but too late and when he scarcely hath time left to use it The seventh that wisdome coming so slowly death fails not to make haste and to surprise a man when his heart is embroiled with divers designs and with certain knowledges of having done ill with uncertainty of doing better Besides Reason doth not the Scripture in many places teach the weaknesse of man and the necessity he hath of Divine succour for his subsistence Behold you Isa 41. 24. Psal 143. 4. Isa 45. Jac. 1. Pro. 18. are but a nothing and all your works are as if they were not Man is the very image of vanity and a sherd of an earthen pot Hay that withers at the first rising of the hot sunne The name of God is a strong and most assured tower the just shall there have their refuge and there shall be exalted Hence we see how all those who have appeared in the world with some eminency have ever
are those that dispute here though beyond their sight concerning the Learning of Solomon and would His Knowledge prove that he composed Comedies and Satyrs but although we cannot deny that he was filled with abundance of Learning yet we must affirm that his Politicall Science had the chiefest place and that all his knowledge of Naturall things tended but to that intent seeing that he specified it in his Prayer that the desire of Wisdome that he professed was onely for the Government of his Kingdome And hence we may gather that Learning is an Instrument very necessary for the accomplishment of Whether learning be profitable for Princes great Princes although that the ignorant may conceive otherwise They say that this makes them too lofty curious and self-conceited and that hence they take the boldnesse to rest upon their own belief and deifie all their opinions a great Authority being sufficiently able to raise up a little sufficiency They bring the examples of Nero and Julian the Apostate both which having so well studied they governed ill and came to an unhappy end But I shall avouch to them that knowledge and judgement without piety is an unprofitable commodity and sometimes pernicious to Kings Hence it is that they take occasion to move extravagant questions to undertake dangerous businesses to authorize their faults by apparent reasons and to be pricked forward with a conceit which causes them to despise all counsels Neverthelesse it is an insupportable abuse to blame The learning of a Prince defended good things in those which either have but the counterfeit thereof or which make an evil use of them I esteem not Nero nor Julian to have been very learned men because they had skill in Poetry and Rhetorick without ever well attaining the knowledge of their principall profession and if they having learned good precepts among humane Writers have abused them shall one say for that that they are naught and dangerous for a Prince By the same reason we might condemne the Sunne because that Phaeton burnt himself in those heats And take away the Water from amongst the Elements because that Aristotle as they say was drowned therein Lastly we might bring an accusation against Nature in generall and so find nothing to be good of all that God made because it may be corrupted by the wickednesse of men But for two or three Princes somwhat learned which have used their skill evilly how many ignorant ones shall we find which have done farre more cruel and barbarous things then these as Dioclesian Licinius Maximian Bajazet and Sclim Nature hath placed all the Senses which are the principles of our Knowledge in the Head to give us to understand that all the lights ought to be in a Prince which is the Head of his Realm The Soul is not more necessary for the Body then Understanding for a King He is as Philo reports to his people that which God is to the creature And what doth God but onely shed forth his clearnesse throughout the whole world visible and invisible and what ought a Monarch to do but to make himself the fountain of good counsels that should maintain his estate What can a Prince do which sees not but with others eyes which speaks not but by the mouth of another which hears not but with borrowed ears but onely lose his estimation in the minds of his Subjects and yield up his Authority as a prey unto those that knowing his insufficiency take the boldnesse to enterprise any thing without punishment I confesse there are those which having not studied have a very good understanding which they have polished by the experience of things in the world and by conversing with great personages but how can we say that those are ignorant which know as much as the books and might serve for examples to Philosophers their modesty doth yet make them affirm and acknowledge that if they had received a deeper tincture of good learning they should have drawn therefrom the more grace and advantage I would in no wise that a Prince should be like to Knowledge ought to be moderate the Emperour Michael Paripanatius which had alwayes Table-books in his hand and a pen composing of Verses or making Periods to run smooth I do not so much esteem such petty shews of superfluous knowledge and ill ordered in a great one but to see a man at the government of people which hath laid a deep foundation of true piety knows the secrets of Philosophy the best purified is no wayes ignorant of Divine and Humane Laws is skilfull in the Histories of all Nations with very diligent Observations and particular applications to his own government A man that can judge speak and act that can expresse himself with clearnesse and majesty of words fitting to his estate this is it which makes him appear as a God amongst men which gives him authority amongst his people which makes him esteemed by his equalls feared by his inferiours terrible to his enemies and honoured by all the world It is by these means that Augustus Cesar Trajan Vespatian Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and so man others whereof Tiraquel reckons up eight and thirty very famous in his Book of Nobility have attained to that heighth of reverence which hath made them honoured throughout all ages For a proof of this we see the great reputation The judgement of Solomon on the contention of the two women that Solomon got in judging of the two women which disputed whose the little infant should be Both of them said equally that she was the true mother the one acted it cunningly the other proceeded therein with truth It was needfull to know which spoke from the heart and which from the tongue onely There are counterfeits so well stuft out and neatly coloured that many able men cannot know nor are able to distinguish the true from the false Parmeno counterfeited so perfectly the cry of a young chicken that one would have thought that nature could not have set out out any thing better in comparison of him So many skilfull men so many gray heads were at that time in the Court of Solomon which lost themselves in this counterfeit without being able to discover it and when he commanded a sword to be brought and to divide the little infant all the world was amazed some thought his judgement was grosse that it was cruel and bloudy but Solomon had studied in the bosome of nature the affections of a true mother When he understood that the one approved of this command and was urgent that the infant should be divided in two he drove her away as an impudent one but when he saw that the other was moved and wounded deeply at her heart and that she cryed with a pitifull voyce that they should rather give the infant all whole to that wicked one then to make two pieces of it When he considered the affrightment on her face and all the veins of her body
his people I will invoke him in this extremity of my afflictions to render both to you and my self what is due either to our Merits or Demerits Remember Madam that he is the onely Judge a Judge whom the painting and policie of this world can no way disguise although men for a time may obscure the truth by the subtility of their inventions In his name and being as it were both of us before him I must remember you of the secret practises you have used to trouble my Kingdom to corrupt my Subjects to forsake their allegiance and to attempt my person I shall represent unto you the unjust dismission which by your Counsel I was overcome to sign when my enemies held their ponyards at my throat in the prison of Locklevin you assured me that the Dismission should be of no force although since you have made it as effectual and powerfull as you could assisting those by your forces who were the first Authors of it You have transmitted my Authority to my Son when be was but in his Cradle and was not able to help himself and since I have by law confirmed the Crown on him you have intrusted him in the hands of my most capital enemies who having forced from him the effect will also take away the title of a King if God doth not preserve him I will profess unto you before the most impartial Judge that beholding my self pursued to death by my Rebels I sent unto you expresly by a Gentleman the Diamond Ring which I received from you with an assurance to be protected by your Authority succoured by your Arms and received into your Realm with all courtesie This promise so often repeated by your mouth did oblige me to come to throw my self into your Arms if I could be so happy to approch them But indeavouring where to find you behold I was stopped in the way environed with Guards detained in strong holds confined to a lamentable captivity in which I do at this day die without numbering a thousand deaths which alreadie I have suffered After that the Truth hath laid open all the impostures which were contrived against me that the chiefest of the Nobilitie of your Kingdom have acknowledged in publick and declared my innocence After that it hath been made apparent that what passed betwixt the late Duke of Norfolk and my self was treated approved and signed by those who held the first place in your Councels After so long a time that I have always submitted to the Orders which were prescribed for my captivitie I do behold my self to be daily persecuted in my own person and in the persons of my servants and totally hinders not onely from relieving the pressing necessities of my Son but from receiving the least knowledge of his condition This is that MADAM which makes me once more to beseech you by the dolorous Passion of our Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ that I may have permission to depart your Kingdom to assist my dear Son and to find some comfort for my poor bodie travelled with continual sorrows and with all libertie of conscience to prepare my soul for God who hourly doth call for it Your Prisons have destroyed my bodie there is no more left for my Enemies to satiate their vengeance My soul is still entire which you neither can nor ought to captivate Allow it some place to breathe more freely after its own safety which a thousand times I do more desire than all the greatness in the world What Honour can you receive to see me stifled in your presence and to fall at the feet of my Enemies Do you not consider that in this extreamity if by your means although late I shall be rescued from their hands that you shall oblige me and all mine and especially my Son whom most of all you may assure your own I must beseech you that I may understand your intentions concerning this and that you will not remit me to the discretion of any other but your own In the mean time I shall demand two things the one That being readie to depart this world I may be suffered to have with me some man of honour of the Church to instruct and perfect me in my Religion in which I am resolved to live and die The other That I may have two maids in my Chamber to attend me in my sickness protesting before God they are most necessary for me to keep me from the shame of the simple people Grant me then these Petitions for the honour of God and let it appear that my Enemies have not so much credit with you as to exercise their vengeance and crueltie in a thing of so small a consequence Reassume the marks of your ancient good nature Oblige your own to your self Grant me that contentment before I die as to see all things remitted betwixt you and my self to the end that my soul being inlarged from my bodie it be not constrained to lay open her groans before God for the injuries which you have suffered to be done unto me upon earth But on the contrary that departing from this captivity in peace and concord it may with all content repair to him whom I most humbly beseech to inspire You to condescend to my most just Requests Sheffeild November 28. 1581. Your most desolate most near and most affectionate Kinswoman QUEEN MARY 11. May we not affirm that these Remonstrances and that these words were of power to soften the heart of a Tyger and yet they made no impression on her barbarous soul who being born by a crime could not afterwards live but by iniquity Dear Reader it is true that we are possessed with A parallel on both Queens an amazement on the consideration of the particulars of this History And it may be you have the curiosity to draw open the curtain of the Sanctuary and enter into the secrets of the Divine Providence and in the travers of so much shade and darkness to discover why two Queens of so different qualities were so indifferently handled as it were by the blind conduct of Chance How came it about that nothing but calamity did follow the good Queen and all good fortune seemed not to be but onely for the bad one I will parallel the one with the other and although Queen Elizabeth be dead out of the communion of the true Church and in many considerations had extreamly undervalued and offended France yet I will not so rudely speak of her as she hath been charactered by the eloquent pens of Monsieur the Cardinal of Peron and Monsieur du Vair but content my self to speak of that onely which may be collected from the History written by Cambden her own Historiographer Queen Mary was high and glorious in her birth both by the Father and the Mother Queen Elizabeth did come into the world by a crime and a scandal who made all Christendom to groan It is true indeed she was the daughter of a King but
THE HOLY COURT IN FIVE TOMES The FIRST Treating of MOTIVES Which should excite men of Qualitie to CHRISTIAN PERFECTION The SECOND Of the PRELATE SOULDIER STATES-MAN and LADIE The THIRD Of MAXIMS of CHRISTIANITIE AGAINST PROPHANESSE Divided into Three Parts viz. DIVINITIE GOVERNMENT OF THIS LIFE STATE OF THE OTHER WORLD The FOURTH Containing the Command of REASON over the PASSIONS The FIFTH Now first published in English and much augmented according to the last Edition of the AUTHOUR Containing the LIVES of the most Famous and Illustrious COURTIERS taken both out of the OLD and NEW TESTAMENT and other Modern Authours Written in French by NICHOLAS CAUSSIN S. J. Translated into English by Sr. T. H. and others LONDON Printed by WILLIAM BENTLEY and are to be sold by JOHN WILLIAMS in Pauls Church-yard MDCL THE HOLY COURT DEUS EST NOBIS SOL ET SCUTUM Caeca Cupido ruit caecusque Cupido Via Regia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THE HOLY COVRT dixi Dij estis et filij excelsi omnes 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 Solomon ex ad perfectum Vsque perduxit Reg. 3. G. G. sculp To the MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY OF HENRIETTE-MARIA QUEEN OF GREAT BRITTAIN A COURT adorned with virtue and sanctified with pietie is here most EXCELLENT QUEEN to your view presented which having once already in pure and Native colours received light and life from the bright eye of your Royal BROTHER would gladly at this time in a harsher language and ruder garment adventure your gracious acceptance The subject is serious the discourse usefull and proper for those who in Court so serve Princes that they neglect not an humble acknowledgement to a more transcendent Greatness It hath pleased GOD as a singular favour to this Kingdom to affoard us in your MAjESTIE a pious Queen who exemplarly maketh good what diffusedly is here handled Let then lesser lights borrow beams of radiance from your greater Orbs and persist You Glorious Example of virtue to illuminate and heat our Northern Clime with celestiall ardours Adde to earthly Crowns heavenly Diadems of Piety Here shall a HOLY COURT be found fairly delineated nor can I see how it will be in the power of persons of best eminence to plead ignorance and pretend inability they having such a Book to direct them and such a Queen to follow Lead then with alacritie most Sacred MAJESTIE and may propitious Heaven so prosper your holy desires that the Greatest may have matter to imitate and the whole Nation to admire TO THE KING OF FRANCE SIR THis Treatise of the Holiness of Courts before it be published comes forth to behold the great and divine lights wherewith God hath environed your Majestie whom he hath chosen out to sanctifie the COURT by means of two reflections which are the Example of your virtues and the Authority of your Laws As for example You supply as much as in a Prince may be desired who hath brought innocency into the Throne of Majestie as an earnest-pennie of Royaltie and whitened the very Flower-de-luces by the puritie of your heart and hands This argument in my opinion should powerfully operate in the hearts of French-men For it would be a disorder in Nature to see bad subjects under a good Prince to plant vice in the Kingdom of Virtue and to have a bodie of morter and feet of clay affixed to a head of Gold It is fit impudence should be extreamly shameless not to blush when the sparkling lustre of a Crown casteth into the eyes the glimmering flashes of so great a Pietie Where example cannot reach Kings have Laws which are given them from Heaven as hands of gold and iron to recompence merits and chastise crimes And as your Majestie SIR from your most tender years hath shewed a singular propension to the detestation of Impietie and maintenance of Justice that causeth me to say Your Majestie hath great means to make the COURT essentially holy which the disabilitie of my pen cannot express but on paper It is a work worthy of a Christian King who standeth in the midst of Kings and Nations as heretofore the statue of the Sun in the midst of publick passages Royal hands cannot be better employed than to erect the Tropheys of Sanctity That is it which all the first have done CONSTANTINE in the Roman Empire CLODOVAEUS in France RICAREDUS in Spain ETHELBERT in England CANUTUS in Denmark WENCESLAUS in Poland All those who have taken that way have been glorious in the memory of men whilest others that have prepared Altars and Tables to Fortune as saith the Prophet Isaiah erecting Monarchie on humane Maxims have built on the quick-sands of imaginary greatness which hath served them to no other purpose but to measure their fall Vice and Voluptuousness cannot immortalize men since they have nothing lasting in them but the sorrow of their infancie and the infamie of their name All the greatness and happiness of a Prince is to make in his virtues a visible image of invisible Divinitie then to imprint the same on his subjects as the Sun doth his brightness on the Rain bowe SIR Your Majestie knoweth it by proper experience God hath made you to read the decrees of good success written as it were with the rayes of your pietie By how much the more you are affected to the service of the great Master so much the more the good success of affairs hath followed your desires You have seen your battels end in bays and the thorns of your travels to grow all up into Crowns And as we are ever in this world to merit so we ought to hope that so many worthy acts will also with time take their just increase and that you shall sow new virtues on earth to reap felicities in Heaven Lastly that he who hath given you the enterance of Solomon into the Kingdom will grant you the exit of David This is the vow which offereth to God SIR Of Your MAJESTY The most humble most faithfull and obedient Subject N. CAUSSIN TO THF NOBILITIE OF FRANCE SIRS THis Work as it is composed for your sakes offereth it self to your hands without bearing any other ornament on the brow but the reflection of Truth any other recommendation than the worth of the subject It is not the abundant store of sanctity in the Courts of our Age which maketh this stiled the HOLY COURT but this Frontis-piece onely carrieth the name because this Book beareth the model which verily with more ease is moulded on paper than printed on the manners of men Yet we may affirm that God who draweth the sons of Abraham from the midst of flints and rocks doth in all places reserve Saints for himself and he that will consider it well shall find that in all times the Courts of zealous Princes have had their Martyrs their Confessours their Virgins and Hermits I have a purpose when my leisure will permit to divulge the lives of Kings Princes Lords men of state and likewise also of
nature is to give and to do good as fire to heat and the sun to illuminate saith the eloquent Synesius And to speak unto you the richest word which ever came out of the mouth of a Paynim It is Plinie who after he had well wandred through all sects of Philosphers describing the essence of God pronounceth this goodly sentence That Deus est morteli juvare mortalem hoc ad aeternam gloriam via Plin. l. 2. c. 7. Cant. 5. Manus ejus globi aurei pleni mari Where our translation saith manus ejus tornatiles aureae plenae Hyacinthi HaÌ„ds of God a golden bowl full of the sea the greatest divinitie is to see a mortal man oblige his like and that it is the shortest way to arrive at eternal glorie We also see in the Canticles the hands of the Spouse compared to golden globes which in them hold the sea enclosed These hands are of gold to denote to us the munificence of God by this symbole of charity His hands are globes made round there is nothing rugged clammy or bowed nay they are smooth neat polite to pour his blessings incessantly upon men They always emptie themselves and are always replenished for they are filled with a sea of liberality which never will be exhausted God then having bounty so natural and intrinsecal in him will needs see it shine in his servants and therein establisheth salvation and perfection Which admitted who seeth not O you rich men you have a particular obligation above all others since God hath elected you to be the Stewards of his goods the messengers of his favours and the conduits of his liberality Religious men who have given the tree and the fruit all at once have nothing more to give The indifferently rich are ordinarily full of appetites and produce no effects You have power in your hands to discharge the duties of all the world you have met with the Philosophers stone you have the books of a heavenly alchimy in your coffers you have a golden rod which can turn the durty pelf of India into celestial substance Consider what greater ties of duty can you have what more pressing necessity to be perfect than to have the instrument of perfection in your full power Perswade your selves no longer that riches are impediments of glory and salvation for this unhappiness proceedeth not but from corruption and ill custom if you take them on a false byass they are of lead to drench and drown you if on a good they are feathers to bear and lift you up to Heaven Prophane Chariot of Sesostris applied to the rich Pharios currus regum cervicibus egiâ— Luc. l. 10. storie maketh mention of one Sesostris King of Aegypt who triumphantly rode in a chariot drawn by Kings he was so swoln with the success of his prosperities It was to take the way of hell in the chariot of pride so to triumph but you may in the chariot of charity all glittering with gold and silver harnessed out with poor men each person whereof representeth the Sovereign King who raiseth all Imperial scepters take the right way of Paradise August med Si ista terrena diligitis ut subjecta diligite ut famulantia diligite ut munera amici ut beneficia Domini ut arrham sponsi and that by the means of riches Then judge whether they lead to true felicity or no. If you love these terrene things you do well love them boldly but as the objects of your glorie as the instruments of your salvation as a gift of your friend as a benefit from your Master as the earnest-penny of your spouse as the pledge of your predestination The fifth REASON Drawn from perfections of the bodie IT is a lamentable misery to behold how sin hath so perverted the nature of things that it not onely giveth ill under the apparance of good but also sometimes evil effects to that which is good Behold for as much as concerneth the perfections of the bodie not speaking here of health or strength wherewith the Great-ones are not always the best provided beauty grace or garb which seem to be more connatural to them they are so cried down by the corruption of manners that one knoweth not what apt place to give them either among things good or evil S. Augustine speaketh with indifferency Lib. 15. cap. 21 de Civitat Dei Pulchritudo corporis bonum Dei domon sed proptereâ— etiam id largitur malis nè magnum bonum videatur bonis Beauty condemned by idolaters theÌ„selves Petrarch l. 6. de remed Dialog 2. Habes hostem tuum domi delectabilem blandum habos raptorem quietis tortoremque perpetuum Habes materiam laboris uberrimam discriminum causam fomentum libidinum nec minorem quaerendi odii quà m amoris aditum Habes laqueum pedibus velum oculis alis viscum super ficie tenus fulget decor multa faedà que tâ—gens horrenda levissimae cutis obtentu sensibus blanditur illudit in these tearms Beauty of bodie is a benign gift of God but he bestows it often on the bad that the good may not deem it a great good Not onely the writings of Saints and of most austere religious have made great invectives against beauty but even those who at other times have with passion praised it condemned it as soon as they became wise Petrarch that worthy spirit after he had adored a humane beauty doth suddenly cast down the Altars thereof under his feet and dis-avowed in ripe age that which foolish youth had made him vehemently commend For what saith he not in his book of the vanitie of the world which he entituleth the Remedies of Fortune You who establish your glorie in the beauty of the bodie know you have an enemie under your roof and which is worse a flaettering and with-delight-tempting enemie You harbour a thief who stealeth your repose and time two the most pretions things of the world You lodge an executioner who always will hold you to the rack and torture You entertain a subject of toil and affliction a motive of warfare and contention an incendiarie of sensual appetite which is no less capable of hatred than love This deceitful beauty putteth a snare on your feet a veil over your eyes and bird-lime on your wings It is a superficial grace which covereth with the smooth delicacie of the skin loathsom and horrible stenches so with her poison charming the drunken senses Another (a) (a) (a) Tab. d'inconst saith it is the nurse of love the spur of sin and that virtue lodged with beauty hath always a slippery foot as being in the house of a dangerous hostess S. Chrysostom (b) (b) (b) Chrysost homil de vanit pulchr musieb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Defence of beauty as the gift of God in an Homily which he made upon the vain beauty of women hath delicate observations not being able sufficiently to admire the sottishness
somewhat yield to the love of those who look after me for my good and the authoritie of such as command over me by justice I cannot perish in making a sacrifice of my proper will for peace and the common good to those whom God hath appointed me for guiders and superiours This is the great science which I will hereafter seek in the government of the inward man Behold what an humble creature might say but insolency the inseparable companion of heresie proceedeth much otherwise And as concerning purity let us not go about to 2. Mark speak of the vices of particular men which are excesses of nature not laws of profession For to say there are vices in one bodie and in one sect is to say nothing but to say these vices are confirmed and authorized by the maxims and examples of the same sect this is to say all Now this is it which we behold in the proceedings of the Pretenders For it cannot be denied but we ought to keep promise with men and by a much stronger reason what we promise to God Yet notwithstanding the principal of the Pretenders have taught by word and practised by example the doctrine of the whole bodie which is that one may break a vow of chastity to wit of a thing very good for it is praised by the mouth of our Savour and S. Paul of a thing very reasonable for millions of Matth. 17. 2 Cor. 7. Saints have practised it in the beginning of the Church of a thing most holy for the scripture hath given it the name of sanctity to break a vow sealed Thessal 4. as with the seal of the invocation of the holy Trinity and the bloud of Jesus to break it not by frailty but profession against the doctrine and practice of all antiquity Is this a mark of the true Church Take the third mark obedience most natural to 3. Mark the primitive Christians and all just men who are called a Nation of obedience and you shall find in Eccl. 3. the infancie of the pretended religion a revolt against all ecclesiastical and secular Powers continued in all times and in all the parts of the world where she might be introduced with such cruelties as we know by experience Take lastly the fourth mark which is the dove-like 4. Mark sweetness that shone in the first Christians even in the times of persecution and you shall find in the pretended Religion there is nothing but Conventicles Consistories of state factions armies ransackings and horrours which make all good consciences to tremble Should I enlarge upon this discourse I could mention matters able to make marbles weep but I will not labour to be eloquent in our evils which I seek to sweeten what I may not intending to exasperate any Onely I ask what will your prime Sectaries answer Publication of the pretended how far from true Christianitie to the Church at the day of judgement when she shall say My first Children bare neither rod nor stick to plant faith in the hearts of men and you have published a Religion all bristled with swords and sooted over with the smoak of Canons all sprinkled with the bloud of Catholicks My lawful children at the publication of the Gospel spake not one bitter word against executioners among the most exquisite torments which might be inflicted And you what vein I pray have you spared in my bodie from whence you drew not rivers of bloud to distain the lilies of France Your fore-fathers built Churches for me and you See Monsieur de Sainctes in the Book of saccage have demolished them They erected Altars and you have pulled them down They advanced Crosses to me and you have broken them They have consecrated Priests for my service and you have massacred them in my arms The Apostles taught me to place the bodies of Saints under Altars and you have taken them from that repose whereunto nature consigned them from that repose many times afforded to malefactours you have divided them between fire and water yea you have infected elements making them as executioners of those venerable bodies whose foot-steps they honoured And of what bodies of a S. Irenaeus burned at Lions of a S. Hilarie at Poictiers of a S. Aygnan at Orleans of a S. Martin and a S. Francis of Paula at Tours not to speak of others The Apostles teach us to honour Kings and you have loaden them with reproches even to the figuring of King Charls the ninth with marks most unworthy in a coyn you stampt with crosses and Church Chalices yea to the disenterring of the heart of Francis the second interred at S. Cross in Orleans and the wasting it in flames Judge now O you Pretenders whether a Religion which carried on the brow thereof acts so barbarous pollutions so hydeous cruelties so execrable can possibly have the least spark of piety For a third consideration examine well the 3. Point Foundation of Catholick Religion Augustin contra ep fun foundation of this new Religion and you shall discover the deceit thereof Catholick religion hath for foundation all that which may settle a fair and generous soul as S. Augustine observed If the word of God should hold the chief place and serve as a basis for this great building of the Church as is most reasonable we incessantly challenge Ministers to shew us one onely text express formal and irreproveable contrary to the articles of our faith For hitherto they have produced nothing but semblances to deceive inferiour judgements being unable to make them good before understanding and capable men If a lawful succession and mission of Pastours be required which is absolutely necessary for the establishment of an Ecclesiastical Hierarchie we shew that from the Apostles hitherward our Prelates and Bishops do all successively follow one another If the authority of Councels demanded which are the sinews the mouthes and living oracles of a true Religion let them be looked on in the revolution of so many Ages and they will be found altogether for us If the interpretations of Fathers and Doctours who were the lights of their times the instruments of the holy Ghost and Secretaries of the Divinity have any weight with a soul wel composed to establish a truth then especially when they all with one accord and consent do speak they loudly condemn the errour and novelism of our Adversaries If miracles which were wrought in the sight of all mankind with so much approbation that they have evicted confession from the most incredulous and reverence from the most stupid weigh down the ballance it is on our side If the studie of perfection and holiness of life be infallible marks of true faith you may as soon tell the stars in the skie as reckon up the number of holy personages who have flourished through all Ages amongst us and who therein are daily noted with such excellencies that living as Angels they speak like true Oracles of the Divinitie
with lightening flashes transpasseth through the abysses and maketh hell it self confess it hath not darkness enough to shadow it from his face Now so it is that God condemneth reproveth chastiseth with the particular indignation of his heart this plaistered life and therefore as the Lev. 11. 18. The swan and the Ostrich rejected by God Interpreters of the Scripture observe he rejected the swan notwithstanding the whiteness of her feathers and the sweetness of note which is ascribed to her nor would he ever admit her in the number of his victimes because under pure white feathers she hideth a black flesh For the same reason he never would have the Ostrich who hath onely the ostentuous boasts of wings and no flight so much he detesteth apparence fruitless and effectless First or last he will saith holy Job take away Job 18. 19. the mask so that the life of hypocrites shall be as the spiders web in the judgement of God they shall think they have sped well but even to have hidden themselves all shall be resolved into thing to make them appear what they are in a most ignominious nakedness They now are Panthers who have their skins spotted with mirrours that search out secret fountains to wash away the ordures and impressions of their crimes as it is related of this creature But the day of God will come when as the Prophet Waters of Panthers Isaiah 15. Aquae Nimrim siccabuntur Isaiah saith the Panthers waters shall wholly be dried and soaked up that is to say as Ailredus interpreteth it that all the counterfeitings and dissimulations of the world shall find no more water to whiten them We all naturally fear the publication of our vices so sensible we are in the touches of honour Those poor Milesian maids who moved with enraged despair ran to halters and steepie precipices could never be diverted from this fury either by the sweet admonishment of their parents or rigorous menaces of Judges but when by decree the naked bodies of those who had violated the law of nature by this most wicked attempt were cast upon the dung-hill the onely apprehension of nakedness and of the nakedness of a bodie bereaved of sense stayed the course of these execrable frenzies And without speaking of ancient Histories William Bishop of Lions relateth that a certain Damsel painted in an Age when simplicity was in great esteem as she went along in a procession behold by chance an Ape came Trick of an Ape out of a shop who leaped on her shoulders and took off her coif and made a little deformity appear covered under painting and dissimulation whereby she felt herself overwhelmed with dolour and confusion If the small affronts and disgraces which we receive in the world have so much force what will it be then when the Sovereign Judge shall take away the scarf and make a cauterized conscience appear What will it be when with as many torches and burning lights as there then shall be of Angels and of the elect by his side he shall penetrate even to the bottom of a lost soul Where then shall be his plaisterings where his dissimulations and hypocrisies in the abyss of this confusion It is a thing which we rather may meditate on in silence than express in words Upon these considerations resolve with your selves to build your salvation upon the firm rock of truth and not on a vain reputation upon the slippery moving sands of human apparences Imitate that good King father of S. Lewis who bare a scepter made like an obelisk in a ring with this devise Volo solidum Tipotius in Simbol perenne as who should say all his intentions aimed at heaven and eternity Make a determinate purpose as much as possibly you may to avoid in your apparel in your hair in your words in your actions all sorts of affectation of hypocrisie of folly as things base sottish ridiculous August l. 83. quaest Summa divina virtus est neminem decipere ultimum vitium est quemlibet decipere and wicked ever remembering this sentence of S. Augustine A great and divine virtue is to deceive no man The last and most mischievous of all vices is to deceive the whole world The sixth OBSTACLE Ill husbanding of time A Notable fable maketh the spider and the silk-worm A notable fable to speak together telling their fortune in a pretty pleasing manner and greatly replenished with moral instruction The poor spider complaineth she laboureth night and day to make her webs with so much fervour and diligence that she unbowelleth herself pouring forth her substance and strength to accomplish her work yet notwithstanding her endeavour so little prospereth as that after she hath brought this her web to perfection a silly servant comes with a broom and in an instant undoes what she could not produce perhaps scarcely in ten years But if it happen she escape from this persecution which seldom is seen in great mens houses yet all the fruit she may expect from so much toyl is but to take some wretched flie in her web Behold you not herein sufficient cause to bewail her misery The silk-worm quite contrary boasteth herself to be one of the most happy creatures which lives on the face of the earth For saith he I am sought after as if I were a precious diamond I am exported from forreign countries happy is he who best can lodge breed entertain and cherish me men bend all their industrie to serve my easeful repose and commodities If I travel my pain is well bestowed but be it how you will silly spider that you take flies I captivate Kings The greatest Monarchs of the earth are involved in my threeds Queens and great Ladies make of my works the entertainment of their beauties and the Potentates which will not depend upon any are dignified by a little worm The four corners of the earth divide my labours with admiration and not being able to go higher although I reach not to Heaven yet I behold the Altars glitter under the embellishments which issue from my entrails And verily there is great difference between the travel of the spider and pain of the silk-worm The industrie of these two little creatures do naturally figure unto us two sorts of persons whereof the one laboureth for vanity the other for verity All men coming into this life enter thereinto as into a shop of toyl which is as natural to them as flight for birds A great man after Adamus de Sancto Victore A worthy Epitaph Conceptio culpa nasci poena necesse mori he had well considered this sentence of Job caused these words to be inscribed on his tomb well worthy of ponderation that is to say Man entereth into being by the gate of not being as he who is as soon in sin as in nature his birth is a punishment his life a travel and his death a necessity And very well Tertullian observeth that
and all delights in the peace of my heart An Infidel to say and do all that yet we after so many precepts of the eternal Wisdom so many sermons so many exhortations so many supports so many helps so many examples so many promises so many recompences so many obligations and so many necessities which force us thereunto still to be curious and not to be able to tolerate one silly disgrace May we not well say we have great need of afflictions which might a little instruct us to imitate the lives of Saints For it is undoubted we putrifie with long prosperities as in a dead sea which produceth nothing It is necessary that God strike and then as Jonathan we shall open our eyes and suck in honey from the end of the rod which scourgeth us when in the chastisement of a father we shall find the consolation of true children The ninth OBSTACLE Carnal love IF at any time the powerful and health-giving hand of the Angel Raphael were necessary in the world not to cure the eyes with the gall of a fish but to tie and bind up in the deserts this loose and wanton spirit of carnality which the Scripture calleth Asmodeus it is principally in this Age that we have great need thereof wherein dishonest and intemperate vice reigneth so prodigiously that it seemeth not willing to make of the rest of this whole Universe but one element of fire Asmodeus at this time triumpheth and Triumph of Asmodeus boasteth his Chariots covered with laurel to the weeping eyes of chastity his horses curvett and bound without bridle and with unspeakable insolence he daily transporteth an infinite number of souls to hell If you desire to know the equipage of his detestable Chariot Saint Bernard will Bern. ser 29. Cantica de cuâ—ribus Pharaonis tell it you and you in his discourse may observe the causes which produce and cherish luxury that you may hereafter apply profitable and convenient remedies The Chariot of Asmodeus is a chariot of fire from His chariot whence on all sides the sparkles of concupiscence flie to enflame unchaste hearts This is not a common fire but a fire enkindled with the flames of hell the very image of that which devoureth damned souls ceaselesly burning without diminution and giving nourishment to its ardours with its proper damages The first wheel of the Chariot saith this great Saint His wheels is called gourmandize the second titillation of the flesh the third excess in apparel the fourth idleness which undoubtedly are the four vices that serve as principal instruments to this loathsom devil and very well are termed the wheels of his Chariot It is said the Chariot of War is moved with two arms one of iron and the other of silver but this of Asmodeus rouleth about the arms of Ceres and Bacchus Gourmandize is attended by the wanton pleasures of the body these pleasures then which should be stifled with hayr-shirts and sack-cloth are involved in linnen and scarlet in stead of ready shaking off these sparkles they are fomented and wasted in a lazie and idle life Behold how sin passeth along To His horses this chariot horses and Coach-man are necessary S. Bernard appointeth onely two whereof one is called prosperity the other abundance From this time forward Asmodeus becomes a much greater Lord he augmenteth his train harnessing also two other horses wherof the one is called liberty and the other impudence Prosperity always smiling doth nothing but daily breath out and evaporate new delights Abundance supplieth him with all which is needful for the entertainment of this ravenous beast although she cannot discharge all the expences thereof so insatiable she is The liberty of entertainments and conversations ceaseth not perpetually to blow the fire If there be any shread of the veil of shame-fac'dness His Coachman Sap. 4. Dei immemoratio animarum inquinatio as yet hanging about the brows impudence teareth it away All this equipage is lead along by a wicked Coach-man which is called the forgetfulness of God Then good leisure is had to run with full speed into the bottomless abyss Certain brave spirits of the world pursuing as it Of inconstancy l. 2. were this way of Saint Bernard to figure out a spiritual thing by corporal representations have built the Palace of false love the plague and frenzie of the soul with admirable art This Palace is all built on hopes the stairs are of ice made in such manner that he who most ascendeth most descendeth the halls chambers and wardrobes are all furnished and hanged with idleness dreams desires and inconstancies the seats and chayrs are made of false contentments It hath affliction torment and fraud for enginers uncertainty fear false opinion and distrust for Guard All this Court is composed of Court of Asmodeus heartless soft and effeminate men which are and are not His Chancellour surmize his Councellours lying and deceit the Steward of his houshold suspition his viands apparences his drink forgetfulness his Chamber-waiters laughter and babble his musick sighs despairs and revenges Do you not behold a brave Prince But without amuzing our selves with all these inventions of the brain I say the greatest obstacle which may be imagined to seclude us from the happy access to life eternal is to resign our heart as a prey into the power of this bruitish passion The reason is most evident because it is a true mark of Sin of the flesh a mark of reprobation reprobation and we see by experience the souls which addict themselves to the sin of the flesh not so much by frailtie as by profession become wholly carnal stupid beastly and ordinarily pass out of this life through the gate of some notable disaster I will here produce two or three causes of the undoubted condemnation of this sin which seem to me very powerful to imprint in the heart of man a perpetual aversion as it were with a branding-iron of fire The Iujurious to the incarnation of the Word first is that it is injurious to the incarnation of the Son of God Consider well what I say This mysterie of the incarnation wherewith God put on our weakness took servile flesh made himself our brother transplanted our nature from a barren and cursed soil into the delicious habitation of the Divinitie is so great so majestical so marvellous that it enforceth silence and admiration in the four quarters of the world adoration in Thrones trembling in the Seraphins bowing in the Heavens darkness terrour and amazement in all nature Now this mystery being as it is in all its height greatness latitude inexplicable profundity is personably betrayed and dishonoured by the sin of the flesh Wherefore Because as S. Paul saith other sins make their sallies out of the body but this reposeth and subsisteth Quo altiùs carnem attolleret non habuit August de praedestinat Sanct. c. 15. in the body in the same specifical nature
satietas poenitentia The disorder of it wicked love is full of anxiety and ever in its satiety it finds repentance Disorder You may as well tell the leaves of the trees the sands of the sea and the stars in the skie as number the disorders which have vomited and still overflow upon the face of the earth by means of the sin of luxury If there be poyson to be dissolved love mingleth it If swords be forged and fyled to transfix the sides of innocent creatures love hammereth and polisheth them in his shop If there be halters to be fastened wherewith to strangle love weaveth and tyeth them If there be precipices love prepareth them If there be massacres love contrives them If you go about to find little embryons even in the mothers womb to be bereaved of the life which they have not as yet tasted love is the authour and actour of these abominable counsels All the mischief and crimes which have in former Ages been perpetrated love hath done them and daily invented them It hath from all times pushed and shouldred good order out of the world It hath been the butt and aim of all the vengeances of God It hath been strucken with fire and brimstone from Heaven swallowed in the entrails of the earth drenched in the waters of a general deluge Yet it escapeth yet it perpetually armeth yet it walloweth it self in bloud and slaughter yet it holdeth the sword of justice ever perpendicular over the head and in conclusion it is esteemed but as a sport Is not all this of power sufficient to make it be believed that this filthy vice is an infallible mark of reprobation Flie O Noblemen this fleshly pestilence of mankind and never suffer it to exercise its tyranny over hearts consecrated by the precious bloud of the Lamb. All consisteth in flying far from the occasions thereof If you love danger you shall perish therein If you had the best intentions which did ever bud in the hearts of Saints yet if you seek out occasions of doing ill they become crooked and distracted Nature being Remedies as now it is corrupted the ignorance of vice better serves our turn than all the precepts of virtue Our affections attend on our knowledge the absence of objects maketh us to forget all our most enflamed desires To live in lust and idleness to have our eyes always in pursuit unchaste books in our hands to hear comedies and impure stage-plays to have gluttonous discourse in our mouth to frequent buffons and loose livers to converse familiarly with women these are not the instruments of chastity it is â—ather to put oyl into the flame and then to complain of much heat Petrarch in his books against vanity giveth remedy Petrarch l. 1 2. c. 23. de remediis Occupatio liber incultier habitus villus asperior secessus inque unum aliquid jugiâ— intentio aâ—â—aec testis charus verendus frequâ—nâ— admonitio dulces minae si quando res exigat asperae Cyprian de bono pudor Ante ocules obversetur defermis atque dejectus peccati pudor nihil corpori liceat ubi vitandum est corporis vitium Cogitetur quam honestum sit viâ—â—â—se dedecus quam inhonestum victum esse à dedecore to the wounds which seem to have been inflicted in the time of his loves Love creepeth into idleness handle the matter so that he may always find you busied Love is pleased with curiositie of attire give him hayrcloth He is entertained with feasts subdue him with austerity He will fall upon some object scatter and confound him He laboureth to find out a loose and unbridled spirit hold yours extended upon some good affair He requireth liberty private places night darkness let him have witnesses and enlighten him on every side He will be governed by fantasie keep him dutiful both by admonitions and menaces S. Cyprian found nothing more powerful to conquer a temptation of dishonest wantonness than to turn the other side of the medal and as this sin hath two faces so not to stay upon that which looketh amiable and attractive to deceive us but to behold that which under a black veil sheweth it self to be pensive sad shamefac'd desperate and full of confusion The great Picus Mirandula said the most part of men yielded to temptation because they never tasted the sweetness of glory which is drawn from the victory over a sin Above all it is behoveful to use the advise of a wise Arabian who represented to himself perpetually over his head an eye which enlightened him an ear which heard him a hand which measured out all his deportments and demeanours The exercise of the presence of God joyned with prayer frequentation of Sacraments often invocation of the Mother of purity and the Angels Guardians of chastity daily blunt a thousand and a thousand arrows shot against the hearts of brave and undaunted Christian Champions Adde hereunto that it is good to live in a ceaseless distrust of ones self which is the mother of safety that you may not fall into the fire it is good to avoid the smoke not to trust ones self too much to those petty dalliances which under pretext of innocency steal in with the more liberty Mother of pearls produce sometimes windy bunches for true and native pearls and the will through complacence of passion ill digested in stead of good love bringeth forth silly abortions of amities which are nothing but flashes and wild fantasies yet such as may notwithstanding dispose an emptie soul to some finister affections The tenth OBSTACLE Excess in diet and apparel THe world was as yet in her cradle man was Terrestrial Paradise the chamber of justice no more than born when God making a Palace of justice of terrestrial Paradise pronounced against him the sentence of labour and pain and afterward wrote it as with his finger in the sweat of his brow Thou shalt eat thy bread Gen. 3. 19. In sudore vultus tui vesceris pane Noblemen appeal from the sentence of labour with the sweat of thy brow Noblemen perpetually appeal from this sentence as if they were not men it seemeth labour is not for them Let nature hold to the chain and labour those grosser bodies which are moulded of the clay of Adam they have forsooeth bodies composed of I know not what kind of starrie matter which never must sweat nor take pains but in a dance What a folly it is Ought not he to be dissolved into sweat since he is to be reduced into ashes He cannot free himself from the sentence of death and why shall he decline pains-taking seeing it proceeded from one and the same mouth in the same time and upon one and the same subject But behold the reason which is that to satisfie the sentence of labour sureties are found the houses of rich men are filled with officers and servants who take pains in their fields prune their vines carry
not the ballance of wicked Chanaan of whom the Scripture saith Chanaan in manu ejus statera dolosa but the ballance of Jesus Christ which is the Cross There we ought to weigh the pleasing and the profitable good and evil sowr and sweet time and eternity and to proportion our judgements resolutions designs actions proceedings to this great ballance which cannot deceive us And as we are exteriourly to resist this torrent of popular opinions so we interiourly have our passions which we must necessarily extirpate that we may give a judgement upon every thing with full liberty otherwise they cast chaff into our eyes and so blind us III. To live here as a pilgrime of the world disarrayed 3. To live a pilgrime of all To esteem nothing our own but our selves All that which maketh us defie quarrel contest accuse God and man is that we have thought our selves to be proprietaries of those things of which we have but onely the use We must saith Epictetus take all the blessings and honours of the Epict. Encheri l. c. 12. world as a passenger who going out of a ship gathers cockle-shels upon the sand yet ever hath his eye upon the ship to which he is engaged Saint Chrysostom maketh such account of this maxim that he saith There is but one virtue in the world that causeth all other virtues which is to carry ones self as a pilgrim of this world and a Citizen of Paradise IV. To have a very good opinion of the providence 4. Opinion of providence Non fecit abiit of God who covereth as it were under the shadow of his royal mantle all creatures S. Augustine saith that God hath not made the world afterward to leave it like a Carabin who hath shot off his pistol He governeth and desendeth it as the good nurse who driveth away the wasp from her infants face whilest it securely sleepeth He yieldeth himself accountable for all the hairs on our head And dost thou Aug. hom 14. tom 10. pag. 103. Times ergo ne pereas cujus capillus non peribit Si sic tua custodiantur superflua in quaÌ„ta securitate est amima tua Non perit capillus quem cum tondetur non sentis perit anima per quam sentis then saith S. Augustine fear to perish considing in God One hair taken from thy head without thy knowledge or feeling shall not perish and shall thy soul be destroyed which is the root of all thy thoughts and of all thy understandings If God so preserve thy superfluities what will he do to thy treasures Trust with confidence in the providence of God if you desire always to live content If your life be a feast the Divine providence is the salt which seasoneth it If that be a pilgrimage this is the staff If that be a night this is the break of day If you will fight it is a steely buckler If you sleep it is a bed of repose Our life is composed of three shadows which are time past time present and the future Will you have a good share in them all said that admirable Emperour Marâ—us Aurelius Dispose time past to forgetfulness Marc. Aurel. Anton. l. 2. de vita sua the present to sanctity and justice the future to providence V. To know the ways of this sacred providence we must take heed not to be too wise like some arrogant 5. To flie evil innovation and scattered spirits who boast to wander and alienate themselves from the way which all Saints have held and searching out new paths find every where illusions and precipices All these lovers of innovation and proper judgement are Pharaoh's Counsellours who have drunk in the cup of giddiness There is likewise found a little book of Apothegmes Interrogare sapientem dimidia sapientia est Homo sapiens est quaÌ„diu quaerit sapientiam ubi putatse ad ejus culmen pervenisse desipit 6. An assured butt translated out of Arabick into Latine by Drusus which hath these remarkeable words To consult with the wise is to be already half wife A man is wise so long as he seeketh wisdom but when he supposeth he hath throughly attained it then he becometh a fool VI. To have an assured scope to aim at not onely in general which is to seek in all things the greatest glory of God and ones own salvation but also in particular to make and propose to your self a regular and well-pondered course of life Some have so many affairs that they have not leisure either to live or die others have nothing to do and are perpetually wandering and as it were looking for the key of their house and never entering into it We Vacation must take in hand some employment and moderate retirement therein following the inspiration of God an intention pure to live in the place which shall be most proper for us to unite our selves to him according to our capacity following withal the consultation which we ought to make with our own natural constitution the direction of those who know and govern us provided they be dis-interessed from their own passions It is a business of no small importance to have good success herein Some find without thinking thereof conditions which seem made to their nature as the nest of the Halcyon is fit to his body Others for that they have made a false step are enforced to bite the bridle all their life time if by patience they do not correct the defects of their carriage Above all things it is convenient here to purifie your intentions and if you must be embarqued in the Court life not to come thither as a Jannisary or a Mamaluck to make a fortune and do nothing else VII To embrace a true and solid piety such as 7. Solid piety our Fore-fathers have consigned over to us in all simplicity and such as the Church instructeth us Not to plaister nor disguise it for the accommodation of these petty ends Such a practice is a great abomination and cannot in conclusion avoid dreadful and dangerous accidents You must serve God interiourly with great sincerity of heart and most pure thoughts of his Majesty exteriourly applying Synesius de regul ad Arcad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your self to ordinary services and ceremonies with most sincere freedom without superstitions scruples vanities presumptions singularities Behold saith Synesius the basis of the estate and total greatness of man VIII To frame to your self a soul which is in a certain temper of integrity consisting in well 8. Honesty following the light of nature and the touch of Heaven which teacheth us we must do to another all that which we would have others to do unto us and not to offer to another what we dislike in our selves Behold the road-way of honesty which whosoever forsaketh to become craftie ever byassing to his pretended advantages shall in the end of his account find himself deceived That great
strangers have had an ill report raised by occasion of their houshold servants who ministred matter of suspition either through excess of their bravery or their gentle garb and handsomness of proportion too lovely either for their age proper to wantonness or the vanity of a haughty spirit or confidence in the favour of their Mistress All that by prudence should be prevented which the world through malice may imagine I desire not to see about you a houshold Steward so spruce nor any servant who may savour of an effeminate Comedian no wanton musician the true instrument of Satan to poison your ear with his warbling Have nothing remiss nothing which may smell of the stage in your family but rather Quires of widdows and virgins to be an honour to your sex and to serve as a recreation in your most innocent delights Let the reading of godly books never be laid aside and let your prayers be so frequent that they may serve as a buckler to repel the fiery arrowes of evil thoughts which ordinarily assail youth Let virtue consummate the good which intemperance had prepared for it self Redeem virgins to present them to the chamber of the spouse Take care of widdows to mingle them as violets amongst virgins and Martyrs It is a garland you shall give to God for his crown of thorns wherein he bare the sins of the world It is very hard and almost impossible to cut away all the seeds of passions which we may call avant-passions because concupiscence sootheth our senses and insinuateth it self very subtilely but it is in the power of the will to dismiss or entertain them The God of nature said in the Gospel evil thoughts homicides adulteries fornications thefts false witness-bearings blasphemies Matth. 15. proceeded from the heart The spirit of man is more propending to evil than good from the first cradle of infancy and in this battel of the spirit and the flesh whereof the Apostle speaketh our soul is almost Galat. 5. 1. wholly floating and knows not to what part to incline No man comes into the world without bringing vice and ill inclinations with him and he is the best who hath the least evil and can preserve a fair body amongst many little infirmities The Prophet said he was troubled and that thereupon Psal 76. he held his peace He tells you one may be angry without sin like Architas the Tarentine who said to his servant I would chastise thee were I not angry which sheweth it was no sin but a simple passion for otherwise anger puts not the Justice of God in execution That which is spoken of one passion may be understood of another It is proper to man to be moved with choller and for a Christian to overcome choller So the flesh desires carnal things and by the itch thereof draweth the soul to mortal pleasures But it is your part to quench the heat of lust by the love of Christ and to conquer the flesh when it seeks liberty by the help of abstinence in such sort that in eating it may search for nourishment not lust and bear about the spirit of God descending into it with a firm and even pace Every man may be subject to passions which are common to nature We are of one and the same clay of the same element Concupiscence may as well be found in silk as in wool It neither fears the purple of Kings nor contemns the poverty of beggers You were better have the disease of stomach than will Rather let the body obey than the spirit and if you must needs make a slippery step do it rather with the foot than modesty not flattering your self before sin with pretence of a future penance which is rather a remedy of misfortunes than an ornament to innocents For you must ever defend your self from wounds where sorrow serves for remedy To Maids The thirty eighth SECTION The praises of virginity and the modesty they ought to observe in their carriage THe great S. Basil calleth virginity the perfume S. Basil apud Melissam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the living God and I note from the thirtieth chapter of Exodus this perfume of God which is spoken of was composed of four ingredients to wit of Galbanum Myrrhe Onyx and Incense Galbanum is the juice of an aromatick herb as white as milk and which borrowing its name from milk figureth unto us the whiteness and purity of virginity Myrrhe it is mortification Onyx a kind of little oyster from whence issued a most odoriferous savour signifies its constancy and Incense in flames its patience in tribulations But as for purity I say reasonable nature hath engraven on the hearts of all mortals and namely maids so particular a love of integrity that souls the most prostituted to sin have ever had some remorse and feeling of the honour they had forsaken Should I prove this by a passage of Scripture or a Father it were the less effectual because it may be said chastity ought to be praised by such lips I will evict this verity from the confession of a Pagan to let you understand it is a voice of nature Behold a passage of Seneca whom I have ever much admired Senec. natural quaestion l. 1. c. 16. Est aliqua etiam prostitutae modestia illa corpora publico objecta ludibrio aliquid quo infelix patientia lateat obtendunt adeò lupanar quoque verecunâ—um est It is a wonder saith he that prostituted women still retain some modesty and that those bodies which seem not to be made but to serve as an object for publick uncleanness have ever some veil for their unhappy patience The infamous place it self is in some sort bashfull See the cause why there never hath been any people so loose and exorbitant which afforded not some honour to chastity convinced by their own conscience But we must likewise affirm it was never known to be true purity until the standard was advanced by Jesus Christ and his most Blessed Mother We find even among those who lived in the law of nature some shadows of chastity We have from the relation of Tertullian that one Democritus voluntarily made himself blind by earnest looking on the Sun that he might not behold the corporal beauty of women shutting up two gates from love to open a thousand to wisdom But what chastity is this I pray since himself confesseth he did it not for any other purpose but to be freed from the importunities of lust seeking out therein his own peculiar ends not the honour of the Creatour A Christian Champion proceedeth much otherwise He hath eyes for the works of God and none for concupiscence He pulleth not out his Tertul. Apolog Christianus uxori suae sâ—li masculus nascitur animo adveraùs libidinem caâ—us est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Meliss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a O continentiam gehennae sacerdotum diabolus praecipit auditur nihil apud eum refert
he passed in continual apprehensions thornie affairs perilous voyages sinister distrusts frosty fears of death barbarous cruelties remorses of conscience the forerunners of hell leaving besides a short and unfortunate posterity Behold his Picture and Elogie HERODES ASCALONITA HERODES ASCALONITA VULTU FERUS ANIMO BARBARUS LUTO ET SANGUINE MACERATUS A QUO NIHIL AD SUMMAM CRUDELITATEM PRAETER DEICIDIUM ABFUIT DEICIDIO VOLUNTAS NON DEFUIT VULPINA FRAUDE REGNUM JUDEAE INVASIT AN. MUNDI TER MILLESSIMO NONGENTESSIMO SEXAGESSIMO QUINTO REGNAVIT IRAE SERVUS JURIS DOMINUS FORTUNA FOELIX CYCLOPAEA VITA INFOELICISSIMUS DESIIT CAELESTI PLAGA FERALIS MORBI ANNO REGNI TRICESSIMO SEPTIMO VITAE FERME SEPTUAGESSIMO CHRISTI OCTAVO Vpon the Picture of HEROD A man no whit with civil grace indu'd Of visage hydeous of manners rude A monster made of massacres and bloud That boldly God Heav'n Natures laws withstood Ill words within no certain limits fall But who once mentions Herod speaketh all BY the carriage of this Court one may see whither vice transporteth great fortunes In the person of Aristobulus and Hircanus you behold that the canker is to a body less dangerous than the discord of brothers to a state In the person of Antipater a friend for advantage who seeketh to fish in a troubled water in the end fisheth his fill but is drowned in the act to teach you there is no policie so great as to be an honest man and that he who prepareth snares for another diggeth his own grave In the person of Pompey an Aribitratour who worketh his own ends under the colour of justice who buildeth his ambition on the ruins of state in the end the earth which faileth him for his conquests denieth him a sepulchre He found no more Countries to conquer and scarcely had he six foot of earth to make him a tomb In that of Hircanus too much credulity too much facility to please others humours too much pusillanimity in the government of Justice which head-long threw him into a life as miserable as his death was cruel and bloudy In that of Anthonie a passionate Judge who turneth with all winds and suffereth himself to be carried along by the stronger without consideration of Justice In that of Joseph and Sohemus that it is perilous to treat with women though free from ill purpose and much more dangerous to reveal a secret which who will safely keep must make his heart a sepulchre for it In that of young Aristobulus how the most beautifull hopes are storm-beaten in the bud and that you must walk upon the prosperitie of the world as on ice that it must be handled like glass fearing always they break not in the lustre of their brightness In that of Alexandra a boundless ambition designs without effect afflictions devoid of consolations torments without patience and a death without deserts and all this because she gave not a good temper of virtue to her soul In that of the sons of Mariamne innocency perfecuted and a little vanity of tongue desperately revenged In that of yong Antipater policy deceived the cloud of humane hopes cracked punishment and revenge ever attending an offender In the person of Herod an enraged ambition which giveth motion to all his crimes a double soul crafty cautelous politick mischievous bloudy barbarous savage and withal in the best of his tricks benummed doltish dall thinking to make a fortune to the prejudice of religion and conscience A goodly fortune to make himself great and live in the hatred of all the world in the remorses of a Cyclopean conscience a thousand times aday to call upon death not being able to die and in the end to die in a body leaprous stinking louzey and death to tear his soul from him with scabs stench and lice to make it survive its torments in an eternity of flames See you not here fair fruits of humane wisdom impiety and atheism In that of Mariamne a soul raised above the highest sphere of true greatness a soul truly royal holy religious courteous mercifull wise affable and endowed with an incomparable patience who as an Eagle strong of wing and courage soaring above the storms of the world maketh her self Mistress of tempests and thunders which for that they had served as an exercise of her constancy and perpetual battels for her life shall through all Ages attend the immortality of her glory THE FIFTH BOOK Fortunate Pietie WE have hitherto beheld a Court which rather resembleth Polyphemus cave than a Kings Palace to teach Great-ones there is no bruitishness so savage wherinto ingratitude towards God and vice doth not precipitate a forsaken soul Let us now see that as unbridled passions are of power to make a hell of a Princes Court so the practice of piety and other virtues make it a true Paradise Behold the Court of Theodosius the Younger a Prince who seemed to be born for nothing else but to allye the scepter to virtues and manifest what royal greatness can do guided by the rules of pietie It is no small miracle to behold a holy King If Ring of God God affected the curiositie of wearing a ring as well in effect as the Scripture attributeth it to him in allegorie the most agreeable characters he would engrave therein were the names of good Kings who are his most lively representations as those who wed together power and goodness two inseparable pieces of God but very incompatible in the life of man such are the corruptions of this Age. Some live in Four sorts of life the world transported with the torrents thereof and that is weakness Others flie the world and in flying oft-times carry it along with them and this is an illusion Others separate themselves as well in body as affection and this is prudence But few are found who bearing the world on their shoulders through necessity do tread it under-foot by contempt of vanities That is it which this great Prince hath done whose Court we here describe for being seated among people he built a desert in his heart and in a vast Ocean of affairs he lived as fishes which keep silence within the loud noise of waves and preserve their plump substance fresh in the brackish waters I go not about to place Theodosius the Younger in the rank of the bravest and most heroick spirits you hereafter shall see others more couragious and warlick but I purposely have selected this history drawn from the Chronicle of Alexandria Zonaras Zozomen Raderius and others to teach certain vain-glorious people who make no account but of those trifling spirits fierce mutinous and unquiet stampt with the coyn of impiety how much they miss of their reckoning seeing this Emperour with the sole arms of piety and modesty carried himself in a very long and most prosperous reign amidst horrible tempests which seemed ready to rend the world and other rash Princes who made shew to swallow earth and seas were drowned in a glass
torch do you set on fire to burn and consume the house of God when blind with affection and benummed in judgement you so embrace your young apes that you strangle them with excess of indulgence To enkindle ambition in the veins of these yong sots almost at their coming out of the cradle to set them on the top of the house over mens heads with an arm and sling of silver be they vitious be they impious and dissolute be they stupid and heavy as earth so that they have the breath of favour and oars of silver as had the rowers of Queen Cleopatra needs must they be placed on the top of the Turret to be seen the further off Many times charges of great importance and superintendence over the heads of so many mortals are given to men to whom a silly farmers wife would not have committed the keeping of a cow The Idumeans enterprize upon the Sanctuary and these owls endeavour to drink up the Lamp-oyl of Churches by an ambition of so strong a flight that it will admit no limits but infinitie Have you no commiseration of the publick The Commonwealth is at this day an old song say you whereof little care is to be had we desire to know more than an air which is that of our own proper interest since it is an act of prudence well to accommodate ones affairs Yet are you no whit ashamed of your selves though silver furnish you with a brow of mettal to regard no man yet is it a shamefull thing to be desirous to erect in the world the tree of Nebuchadnezzar turned topsie-turvie where four-footed beasts are above and little birds beneath Were it not a goodly thing to see horses asses and bulls to neigh bray and bellow upon the branches of trees while the small birds of Heaven so many celestial spirits thrust from the rank which wisdom and virtue giveth go mourning up and down among the thorns of a necessitous life But we must prefer our children answer you Who says the contrary Raise them on the steps of actions Christian solid and illustrious cause them to pass through the Temple of virtue before they go to that of honour examine their talents their capacity their ability otherwise you do not advance but precipitate them into publick scorn into loss of reputation and danger of soul This benefice is not a benefice but a malefice but a golden snare a carcanet of Medea a Trojan horse which will produce arms You in procuring such an honour resemble those idolatrous parents who sacrificed their children to the God Moloch that is to Seldenus de Diis Syris pag. 78. say to the Sun and caused them to be burnt alive in the hollow statue of the Sun not caring to forgo their lives so they might loose them in those flames and lights which were the Hieroglyphicks of honour Oh meer madness for the life of a flie which we daily share with death to be willing to damme your self and posterity to stand on the brink of the abyss and not deign so much as onely open your eyes to behold the precipice The third SECTION Of vocation or calling IF you desire to know how you should proceed in the preferment of your children to Ecclesiastical degrees first understand it is true Mercury is not made of all wood If question be concerning a husbandman merchant artificer or shepheard we trie the nature of the children and endeavour to accommodate each one of them according to their dispositions and natural inclinations Suppose you it is onely fit for the Church to expose them at adventure without election or discretion What exorbitancy is it to think it lawfull to take the simplest and weakest for Priests and Religious What tyranny to divert some with all sorts of cunning and violence and thrust others on as it were with a fork To have in all your proceeding no other aim but the benefit of your family to force the Laws of Heaven to bow under the interests of your house to give that to God which you cannot settle else-where and if any accident happen to take that from God which you have given him Hereby it cometh to pass that after many years we behold birds which change both their plumage and kind upon some very slight cause not speaking of those who do so by way of counsel and conscience the scarlet Cloak succeeding the Church Cassock and the sword the Breviary wherein they do much worse than the wooers in the house of Ulysses who being not able to gain access to the Mistress made their address to the servants But these forsake the Ladie whom they have espoused to court the chamber-mayds professing all their life time the infidelity of their promises by the exchange of their habits Vocation is most necessary for admittance into the Church which appeareth in two points The one ordinary the other extraordinary Extraordinary calling hath marks and signs that draw near to a miracle So we see those who have been great and eminent in the Church have had some Genius which hath even in their infancy made the first glimmers of their greatness to appear drawing the whole world after them with astonishment So Moses though he were a little child tossed Pharaoh's Ioseph Antiq. lib. 2. cap. 5. Diadem like a shuttle-cock which gave a very ill presage to the Aegyptians of their approching ruin So Elias seemed from his mother to suck fire with milk which was a prediction his mouth should one day be as indeed it was the Arsenal of the God of hosts So the cradle of S. Epiphanius as Ennodius Epiph. de Prophetis Ennodius Anonymus in ejus vitâ Raderus Crantzius l. 4. relateth was seen all on fire A vine in a vision issued out of the mouth of little S. Ephraem A flaming pillar environed the head of S. Modestas And it is written that Gregorie the seventh who from a base extraction was born to the throne of S. Peter heaping together the chips he found in his fathers shop who was a Joyner and arranging them in divers figures innocently wrote without thinking thereon as a child in sport Dominabor à mari usque ad mare All these callings and many other of the like kind are known by extraordinary signs the rest take the ordinary way and are observed to be in the good nature of children fit to be dedicated to the Church which is a matter very considerable If you ask wherein this good nature consisteth I answer It is not in the influence of stars nor in the Genius as Pagans have placed it nor simply in the beauty of mind in the goodness of constitution health strength vigour of body though these may much contribute thereunto but it appeareth in two principal rays of which the one is tranquility from passions by making a reposed calm in a soul fit to entertain the spirit of God the other which ariseth from the first is the docibleness of a mind
before you the four sorts of conversions by reason they will not be unprofitable to make us discover the singular oeconomy of God in that whereof we are now about to treat The Saviour of the world used all these pieces in the conversion of S. Augustine as we may observe in his progression For first concerning attraction of sympathy or natural conformity it is true that this great man was of an excellent nature and though The oeconomy of God in the conversion of S. Aug. it were a long time smothered up in flesh and bloud yet was it as a sun in eclipse which should one day appear in full liberty and illuminate the bodie which then was its obstacle In his most tender infancy he made amorous inclinations to his Creatour appear For then he had recourse to prayer as to a Sanctuary of his small afflictions and like a child placing felicity in that which touched him nearest according to his esteem he ardently besought God that he might escape the chastisement of rods and disgraces of the school He was of an humour free and liberal gracious mild affable obliging and full of compassion toward men in want which is a good way to represent great actions of virtue and dispose one to receive the spirit of God in abundance Affections with tears of sweetness and devotion were to him very familiar which appeared on the day of his being made Priest some time after his conversion for he spared not to weep in that ceremony where by chance a simple man interpreting that this happened to him through disturbance that he was not yet a Bishop who so well deserved it he came near to comfort him saying He should be patient that Priesthood was the next degree to the dignity of a Bishop and that in time he should enjoy the accomplishment of his desire S. Augustine afterward related this speech to his friends as an example of the errour of judgements made upon mens actions As for his vices he had nothing therein black or hydeous for his loves though inordinate were bounded in limits most tolerable and his ambitions were not haughty and disdainful but consisting onely in a sleight vanity to make shew of that which he had either of wit or learning a passion very natural to those who feel themselves endowed with any perfections Otherwise he had no design pretence engagements as have they who often cover their petty interests with the pretext of piety and are ever ready to imbrace the Religion wherein they find most accommodation for their temporalaffairs Augustine was so free from worldly avarice that he knew not what it was to make a fortune or reach at wealth Scarce would he ever learn to carry a key possess money in a coffer and take accounts as observeth Possidonius in his life All his mind was upon books and all his intentions aimed to the finding out of truth that he might offer homage to her for all he had and faithfully serve her all his life after he once had well known her These dispositions gave a full passage to such as were to treat with him On the other part attraction of motion which commeth from good example was to him very advantagious in the person of his good mother S. Monica And if certain people as the Lycians took the name of their mothers as of those whom they thought most contributed to the production of man into the Herod l. 2. world Augustine had great cause to take the title of his nobility from S. Monica who brought him forth more profitably for the life of grace than that of nature This woman verily was the pearl of women whose life had not great lightnings of extasies not raptures for all her virtues passed with little noyse like The qualities of S. Monica to great rivers that glide along with peaceful majesty but all was there very inward as in her who ever was hidden within the better part of her self Much hath she done in affoarding a S. Augustine to the Church and whosoever cannot discover the secret virtues of the sun let him content himself to measure it by his rays She pretended to consecrate her Virginity to Altars God drew her to marriage to gain from her a Doctour for his Church This Saint knew not as yet what she did when in her tender years by a laudable custom she rose from her bed in the deep silence of night to offer her prayers to God and when she shortned her diet at each repast to divide the moity of her life with the poor but the spirit of God which guided her disposed her then by these actions to some matter of importance She was married to a Pagan and one of a humour very untractable which she so softened by her long and discreet patience that in the end he set aside all his moody extravagancies as it is said the furious Unicorn sleeps in a maidens bosom It was with her a great consolation to have married an infidel and after some years to see him dye a Christian saying to God She had received a lion and restored a lamb All her care aimed onely at this son whom she first saw ingulfed in a life most licentious afterward by mishap involved in the heresy of the Manichees The poor mother endured nine entire years the throws of this spiritual child-birth the most sensibly that may be imagined What grief and sighs in her retirement What fancies in her sleep What prayers in the Church What alms in necessities of the poor What prudence and discretion in all her proceedings She sought out all the passages into this spirit which she could imagine but seeing it was a torrent not to be restrained by her forces she peaceably expected the assistance of Heaven She despaired not of his malady through fear to cure him She undertook not in the fervent accesses of his feaver to upbraid his disorders She went not about manacing him with fire and cauteries But did as God who acteth no ill but ever so useth the matter that the evil is extenuated When she could not speak to her son she caused the apple of her eyes to speak to God deploring all night and watering the Altars not with bloud of victims but that of her soul which were her tears We may say that as the waters which have pearls in them run for the most part to the south so this holy woman being in Africk a Southern Region Aquae defluentes ad Austrum generant margaritas Tarentinus Philosophus became in the abundance of her tears the true fountain of the South fit to bear a great pearl which afterward brought forth for Christendom many millions of pearls Never had the Angel Rephael so much care of young Toby as this celestial intelligence of her son being perpetually in Centinel and observing the visitations of Gods providence Her Paralitick was ready at the fish-pool and expected nothing but the stirring of the water Behold she
factious to be herein opinionative and in the mean time when they came to bear arms where they must witness true valour for the service of their Prince such encounters have happened that they so despairingly ran off that they have passed through forrests two leagues over and not seen a tree so much affrighted they were It is not necessary to name them happily they are already too much renowned in the Histories of the times And yet you will make much account of these goodly swaih-bucklers Assure your self the most part of those who shew Courage of duel like to that of the possessed such boyling fury in these barbarous acts are as Lunaticks possessed with an evil spirit You would be amazed to see a little girle so strong that there must be twenty men to hold her From whence I pray hath she this force but that she hath the devil in her body And tell me a young Gentleman who many times hath father mother wife children honours riches pleasures in his life would he go upon cold bloud to deprive himself of all this Would he contemn the sacred Edicts of his Prince now very lately renewed by the zeal of our great Monarch Would he descend with open eyes into hell if he had not some black spirit of the abyss which dreggeth him to the last mischief He doth that for a cold countenance an extravagant word and a caprich of spirit which he would not either for God the King or the whole world We may well say this is the malady of inferiour houses and you take it for valour A poor cocks-comb forsooth called a second who putteth into compremise at the discretion of a crack't brain all that which is most dear unto him in this world and what he hopeth in the other going to be the victim of death or the murderer of a man whom he never saw or knew or if he have seen or known him so far as to love or honour him would he play all this goodly prize if he were not possessed with an evil spirit Yet you admire this Why do you not rather wonder at the countenances the twindges and distorted mowings of the possessed I begin to perswade you to reason say you my Gallant You are an enemy of this race of Cadmus derived from the teeth of serpents and think not these petty wranglers of the times with all their letters and challenges have any valour But if a brave spirit be urged to fight by such kind of men should he refuse it Verily there are main differences in duels in the causes which make them and the proceedings of such as execute them If you must needs go to duel pass thereunto as David in sight of an Army with permission of your Prince or your Captain against some Goliah who hath defied you Go thither with intention to defend the honour of your Nation and to weaken the contrary faction Behold who is worthy If you must go to duel go thither when your King or Lord shall command you to accept the combat to end some notable war and stay a great effusion of bloud but by the hazard of two Champions Behold who is glorious But if you hasten thither upon some chimera of spirit which you call by the name of honour upon some ambiguous word to which you frame an interpretation against your self for a cold countenance a surly brow for a desire which you have to become pledge of the follies of some fellow witless and a slave to his own passions if you hasten thither for the love of some unchaste woman to whom you sacrifice humane bloud how can you be excusable For if you tell me your honour is more precious unto you than your wealth and life and therefore that as the law of nature permitteth you to defend both your riches and body at the point of your sword against a robber and a homicide from whom you cannot otherwise dis-engage your self you have the same right for the defence of your reputation which is in man as the apple in the eye I answer that being so surprized upon the sudden by some assailant who provoketh you threatneth you and thrusteth his sword into your sides if you use not a lawfull defence it is not then said that you are bound to flie with some kind of ignominy Nay I will say besides that if true honour were interessed in refusal of a challenge he that should accept it might likewise according to the laws of conscience seem somewhat tollerable But from whom ought we to derive this estimation and judgement of true honour Is it from certain sleight braggards and witless people who have sold themselves to passion eternally to renounce prudence Behold goodly Judges of honour Behold who well deserveth to prescribe unto us the rule and price of the most precious thing in the world If we desired sincerely to establish the judgement to be made of the point of honour we ought to search into the resolutions of the Church and Civilians but these kind of people are suspected by you as being alienated from the profession of arms Let us enquire it in the mouthes of warriours Was there ever a braver souldier than the late King of most famous memory And hath there likewise ever been a Prince more dexterous in arms and more fortunate than he that now reigneth Since their Edicts condemn duels both in those who challenge and such as are challenged although much different in their proceedings what do we need any other judgement to decide the point of honour But Kings and Princes sovereign say you notwithstanding their Edicts approve those by word of mouth who shew courage in such like actions Who dare reproach them with this Who dare tell them to their faces that they bely their Edicts by their particular judgements Who sees not such words are purposely invented by those men who seek for pretexts to their false liberties Why these Edicts dictated by reason agreed unto with judgement supported by justice provoked by piety to the writing of which Jesus Christ would contribute his own bloud to spare the bloud and with it the souls of so many as are lost and whom to save he gave up his own life Where should we learn the rule of honour the judgement and will of the Prince but in Oracles and virtues which he hath consigned to the memory of all Ages I intreat you trouble my head no more with these dastardly combats and detestable massacres let this be no longer but for the infamous and melancholy bloud-thirsters One Bachet understanding that a Turkish Captain had called his companion into duel What saith he are there no more Christians And have not we cause to say Are there no Saracens nor Moors and other Infidels to turn thâ—â—dge of the sword against our entrails The sixth SECTION Against the ill mannage of Arms. FRom hence it is likewise that you are taught in time of war to play the little Cannibal in arms
it were a prime virtue of your profession Believe me it is the worm which gnaweth all great actions the moth which eateth all the vigour of spirit the stain which defileth al the fairest ornaments of life the labyrinth which hindereth all generous designs the rock which wracketh all vessels the gulf which devoureth bodies and souls The wise Secretaries of nature have observed that Divers kinds of love all creatures which have the breath of fire have the tayl of a Dragon Nor likewise do we ever see carnal love vehemently enflamed but that it produceth some serpentine hydeous and disasterous issue I affirm fire penetrateth into the marrow of the total nature of the Universe but hath effects very different according to the subjects wherein it resideth It otherwise scorcheth in Heaven otherwise in hell otherwise in the bodies of beasts otherwise in sulphur and gun-powder and such like bodies able to receive its action It filleth the stars in Heaven with a flame full of lustre and honour It tormenteth the damned in hell it entertaineth the life of creatures it wasteth all bodies drie or oily to reduce them either into ashes or smoak Take my comparison and say with me there are lovers who burn as Heaven others as hell others as bodies well composed others as oyl and wood The first lovers have the ardours of Heaven who entertain chaste and spiritual love for things Divine These are pleasures which the jealous eye cannot espie the slanderous tongue cannot bite bad report is not accustomed to defame which equals have no cause to envie nor can Tyrants armed with horrour of so many torments find the means how to take it from Martyrs When we love God we find him every where we speak to him every where we serve him every where and every where we feel the services done to him have their recompence We talk to him as well in the whales belly as in the flaming furnace witness Jonas and the three children who found Chappels wholly built in the entrails of fishes and flames because the love of God the wisest architect of the world had framed such for them The second lovers burn as hell who live perpetually in stinking wicked and infamous concupiscences in dark extraordinary and desperate passions who are in sensuality as in an abyss fettered with a long chain of servitude never having any part of the air or light of the children of God The third are as bodies mixed who entertain conjugal honest and moderate amities such as are found in good marriages which are used according to God in all honour and sanctity Those of the fourth order enkindle one another as so many little bodies that daily minister fuel to the fire wasting spirit flesh and means in certain frivolous and giddly loves which after much use make men of vapour ashes and smoak You now adays shal find that affections purely conjugal are very rare and celestial loves much more but every where there are many men who burn like hell or pitch There are four sorts of love which have been great Four sorts of love enemies and still are to the reputation of a good souldier the one is the love of sensuality the other of fantasie the third of servitude and the fourth of fury On what side soever you turn your face assure your self Sir you shall find nothing beautifull in this ugly beast Love of sensuality which subsisteth onely in voluptousness Love of sensuality of body is a bruitish base and wandering love which is ever employed to spie out and trade for flesh having no other design but to satiate an unworthy concupiscence more unsatisfied than fire the abyss and hell If nature had created you some Mustapha to grow fat in a Seraglio that you had never heard speech of good or honour it were tollerable but to see a brave souldier well born and bred up to pass his life in laying snares for chastity to search out of both sexes such as make traffick of the sins of others to train up a wicked servant to be the messenger of your passions to promise swear forswear to seduce poor forsaken maids to cast them from necessity into disgrace and from disgrace into despair how can it be but abominable Think you the earth is made to be replenished with your sins and charities to be instituted to support your crimes It is idleness that serves as a store-house for your passions and it is your remisness which doth not so much as vouchsafe to seek out a remedy If you be resolved to lead such a life give up your sword for you dishonour it It is no reason that it alone should retain the virginity which all your other members have lost You cannot well serve two mistresses Venus and Bellona since they are so different And go not about to propose to your self that Sampson David and Caesar made them well accord together believe me when they came to be lascivious they ceased to be valiant It was neither with the looking-glass nor comb of Dalila that Sampson slew a thousand Philistines but with the jaw-bone of an Ass Whilest he preserved himself from women he was a sun and a thunder-blot a sun to enlighten his Nation a thunder-bolt to destroy the Philistines So soon as a woman had shaved him he of a sun became a coal of a thunder-bolt a vapour and of a man a lame jade who from the field of battel was sent to mill no longer having eyes but to deplore the disaster of his loves with tears of bloud When David in the list overthrew the Giant he had not then received the wound from Bath-sheba's eye But after he had seen her at the fountain his eyes ceased not to cast forth flouds and love dried up all his Laurels that they had very much ado to wax green again in the water of so many tears Hold it also for undoubted that Caesar being in the snows of the Gauls thought not of committing adulteries at Rome the business or war took from him all the taste of love and never did he submit to the imaginations of a beast till he retained no more designs worthy of a man Voluptuousness never acteth any thing great but hath destroyed all that is great And when God is pleased to overthrow Empires he chooseth souldiers who have chaste hands to chastise the effeminate So Arbaces vanquisheth Sardanapalus So Alexander who would not look upon Queens his prisoners but with an eye of chastity defeated the Persians bond-slaves to luxury So the Gothes gained the Empire of Rome as saith Salvianus God being willing to purge the earth which the Romans had defiled by the arms of a Nation more chaste than themselves it being reasonable that those should enjoy their goods who would have no share in their vices The love of fantasie is more sottish than malicious Love of fantasie or sordid There be Cavaliers who perswade themselves they are the bravest men of their Age
spared to use many love-dalliances but the affection she bare to this good Queen was so great that it razed out of his heart all other love as the ray of the sun scattereth the shadows and phantasms of the night The holy Lady perceiving the spirit of her husband already moved in hers and that there was no need of power but example so composed her manners in her marriage that she made her self a perfect model of perfections requisite for this estate Royal Crowns loose their lustre on heads without brains and brows without Majesty But this Lady made it presently appear that although her birth had not made her worthy of a Crown nor her good fortune had afforded it her merit alone had been of power to make her wear the best diadem in the world She practised in the Court of a Pagan King a strong vigorous devotion which was not puffed up with outward shews and vapours but wholy replenished with wisdom For she had a fear of God so chast that she apprehended the least shadows of sin as death a love so tender that her heart was as a flaming lamp which perpetually burned before the Sanctuary of the living God Her faith had a bosom as large as that of Eternity her hope was a bow in Heaven all furnished with emeralds which never lost its force and her piety an eternal source of blessings She had made a little Oratory as Judith in the royal Palace where she attended as much as time would permit to prayers and mortifications of flesh abiding therein as in a fortunate Island which made the sweetness of her immortal perfumes to mount up to heaven Yet did she mannage all her actions with singular discretion that she might not seem too austere in the eyes of her Court for fear weak souls might be diverted from Christianity by observing in her carriage perfections transcendent above ordinary capacities But all that which most passed in a common life was done by her and her maids with much purity fervour majesty and constancy It was an Angelical spectacle to see her present at Mass and dispose her self to receive the blessed Sacrament which she very often frequented to draw grace and strength from its source She honoured Priests as Messengers descended from Heaven as well to discharge her conscience as to hold her Religion in much estimation among Pagans The zeal of the houses of God which are Churches enflamed her with so much fervour that she had no delights more precious than either to cause new to be raised or to adorn those which had been erected so far as to make them receive radiance from the works of her royal hands Her charity towards the poor was a sea which never dryed up and her heart so large that all the hearts of the miserable breathed in hers She composed and decked herself dayly before the eyes of God putting on all virtues as it were by nature and rich attire of Ladyes for necessity But the King her husband she honoured as if she had seen the Saviour of the world walking upon the earth and not staying alone on the body she penetrated even to the center of this infidel soul which she beheld with eyes of unspeakable compassion She most particularly endeavoured to observe all his humours and follow the motions of his heart as certain flowers wait on the sun All that which Clodovaeus affected took presently an honourable place in the soul of Clotilda if he delighted in arms in dogs in horses she for his sake praysed arms dogs and horses regarding even the objects of the honest pleasures of her husband as her best entertainments Her conversation was full of charms and attractives which ever carryed profit along with them Sometimes she sweetened the warlick humours of her husband with harmony of reason sometimes she comforted him upon occasion of troubles which might happen in the world sometime she withheld very soberly and with prudent modesty his spirit which took too much liberty sometime she repeated unto him certain precepts of wisdom and practices of the lives of Saints and worthy personages that he might love our Religion sometime she pleased him with an eloquent tongue and an entertainment so delicate that nothing might be said more accomplished She was magnificent and liberal towards her household servants most exactly taking notice of the faithful services they yielded to her husband and kept her house so well united within the bands of concord and charity that it seemed as it were a little Temple of peace Slander uncleaness idleness impudence were from thence eternally banished virtues industry and arts found there a mansion and the miseries of the world a safe Sanctuary For she embraced all pious affairs of the Realm and governed them with so much equality of spirit that she resembled Angels who move the Heavens not using in themselves the least agitation May we not very well say this divine woman was selected out by God to a set golden face on an entire Monarchy by the rays of her piety The fifth SECTION The prudence which the Queen used in the conversion of her husband THe holy Queen brought forth a King and a great Monarch to Jesus Christ bearing perpetually his Court and the whole Kingdom in the entrails of her charity She had her Centinels day and night before the Altars who ceased not to implore the assistance for Heaven of the salvation of her husband and she her self often in deep silence of darkness caused her weeping eye to speak to God and adressed many vows to all the elect for the conversion of this unbelieving soul She very well considered that that which oftentimes slackeneth these wavering spirits in their endeavour to find the way of eternal life is certain interests of flesh and bloud certain impediments of temporal affairs some inordinate passion which tortureth and tyrannizeth over the mind Behold the cause why she took great care to sweeten the dispositions of her husband calm his passions and through a certain moral goodness facilitate unto him the way of the mysteries of our faith This being done she took her opportunity with the more effect and found the King dayly disposed better and better for these impressions He alreadie had the arrow very deep in his heart and began to ask questions proposing conditions which shewed he would one day render himself He said to Clotilda Madam I should not be so far alienated from your Religion were it not that I saw therein matters very strange which you would have me believe by power and authotity not giving any other reason thereof You would have me believe that three are but one in your Trinity that I adore a Crucified man and that I crucifie my self in an enforced and ceremonious life wherein I was never bred My dearest had I your good inclinations all would be easie to me but you know that all my life time I have been trayned up in arms If I should to morrow receive
of sundry mutations But God being from all eternity a most pure Act as he hath not any thing but himself can have no difference with himself He hath nothing Non sui aliquia optimum hibet unun optimum totâ—â— S. Bernard l 5. de consider in himself better than himself He hath no part eminent one above another For he is without parts and all that agreeth to him under this title I am what I am 5. If you are not yet satisfied enough concerning the greatness of this sovereign Being and demand something more particular the Word will tell you in S. John what he learned in the bosom of his Father God is spirit All substance in the world or Deus spiritus est Joan. 4. Beauty of spirit above the world is spirit or body but as the body is base and abject so beauty strength power abideth in the power and jurisdiction of spirit It is the spirit which doeth all which animateth which acteth which quickeneth which governeth all the instruments of nature which worketh great miracles in little bodies and hath nothing so admirable as it self The better part in us is spirit and God is nothing Totus spiritus ennoia totus ratio totus lumen Iren. l. 2. c. 16. but spirit all spirit all intelligence all reason all light said S. Irenaeus But what spirit but God the Father and Creatour of spirits who is as much exalted above the highest Intelligences as spirits are above bodies Our spirits resemble the fire of this inferiour region a gross and material fire which cannot here live unless you put it to wood cole grease or such like But the spirit of God is like the fire near to the celestial globes which Philosophers hold to be tenfold more subtile than air and not to stand in need of any nourishment in its sphere but from its self If we consider the four perfections which give us Perfections of God Magnitudinis ejus non est futis Psal 145. Excesâ—uâ— iâ—mensus Baruc. 4. Intra omnia sed non inclusus extra omnia sed non exclusus Isodor de summo bono c. 2. a full Idaea of the divine Essence to wit infinity immensity immutability eternity this great Spirit possesseth them by title of essence Strive not to comprehend him for he is infinite Infinite not in a certain manner not by comparison of one thing with another not in possibility but absolutely actually infinite as an ample and most glorious treasure of all essences and perfections Assign him no limits for he is immeasurable extended through all measures without measure not by a local extent but an indivisibility of presence He is high and immense He is in the whole universe without confinement He is out of all the universe without any exclusion from it Represent him not to your self under many forms if you desire to figure him in his Nature for he is immutable Enquire not of his age for it exceedeth Non peragitur in to bodiernus dies tamen peragitur quia in co sunt ists omnia August 1. Confess c. 6. eternity such as you may imagine it The present day passeth not with him and yet he is in it since all things are in him But if we regard the three excellencies which in your opinion more concern divine manners to wit Wisdom Goodness and Sanctity I not onely affirm he is wise but I say he is the abyss which swalloweth all wisdoms I do not onely say he is good but the Sanctimonia magnificentis in sanctifiratione ejus Psal 95. 6. source of goodness nature bounty a source never emptied but into it self which continually streameth out of it self I do not onely say he is holy but the root the object the example form of all sanctities Finally if we behold the eminencies which illustrate him in repsect of the eye he hath over exteriour things as are power jurisdiction providence justice and mercy this Spirit is so powerful that he can all but impotency so predominate that there is not any thing from heaven to hell which boweth not under his Laws so provident that he hath a care of the least butterfly in the ayr as well as of the highest Cherubin of the Empyreal Heaven so just that his ballance propendeth neither to one side nor other so merciful that he pardoneth all O great God! Great Spirit How terrible art thou to our understandings and how amiable to our wils Thou commandest by words thou ordainest by reason thou accomplishest by virtue all which is and giving birth to all things onely reservest to thy self Eternity Let it not then be strange if strucken with those rays which dazeled the eyes of Seraphins we yield to thy greatness and rather choose to enter by love into thy knowledge than by knowledge into thy love 6. Let us also in conclusion reflect on this munificent Spirit who replenisheth all the world with his bounty spreading it over all creatures with incomparable sweetness Do you not think you behold the An excellent similitude of God with the Ocean great OceaÌ„ which incessantly furnisheth the air with vapours and waters for all the earth dividing himself to so many objects yet perpetually entire in his greatness and ever regular in the measure of his eternal passages He is singular in essence but very divers in his titles and effects and making his circuit round about the world every one gives him names after his own manner Some call him Indian others Persian some Arabick some Aethiopian and some Britanick others surname him with epithets quite different every one deviseth what he list and in the mean time he ceaseth not perpetually to pass on his way and not content to encompass the whole earth as with a girdle he cleaveth the mountains of Calpe from Arbyla those famous pillers of Hercules to enter thereinto and bedew the world with his pleasing streams He runs a long way he makes a great circuit he advanceth delivious Islands in the midst of his bosom one while he swelleth upon one side presently retireth back from another He is angry he is pacified He bears and swalâ—oweth vessels He engulphs earth he killeth flames he sometimes by long wandering passages goeth under the world and purifying his waters distilled through those large sources maketh fountains and rivers to moisten mortals And that nothing may be wanting to his greatness he mounts up to heaven there to beget clouds and entertain store-houses of waters as in Cobweb lawn to give afterward the spirit of life to trees to plants and all the productions of nature Oh how admirable is he Yet is all this but a silly drop of dew in coÌ„parison of the divine Essence God who is all in all things being not able to be sufficiently known by us in the simplicity of his Essence is called by many names signified by an infinite number of figures represented in divers attributes and
of his power in the misery of mortals but with the Scripture that he separateth light from darkness with a diamond to wit a most strong and resplendent knowledge of the merit and demerit of men What sense is Notable passage Adamante diserevit lucem tenebras Eccles 16. 14. Secundum 70 there to make a power which takes its glory from ignorance and is potent in contempt of reason Is not this to make all terrible even to its own favours What sense is it to appoint a Judge to satisfie the whole world according to desert and to make him sign Decrees irrevocable in favour of some one before knowledge of all merit Cannot we make him potent unless we make him unjust Adde also that in the feeling we have of Praedestination Goodness of God the mercy of the most mild Father shineth with visible marks For we do not make him to damn him through a negligence of thoughts and coldness of affection which cannot be in a God so active or a heart so loving but we believe his goodness extendeth to Cain and Judas and would they have endeavoured they had the means to gain beatitude which never fails any man if he want not correspondence In the end we likewise acknowledge in this point Si voluisset Esau cacurrisset Dei adjutorio pervenisset Aug. ad Simp. l. 4. 2. the most prudent government of God who will have nothing idle in nature nor grace He could enlighten us without the Sun and afford us fruit without the earth but he will his creatures operate and that one unfold the rays of his substance another supply with the juice of its bosom In like manner he is pleased we make his grace to profit us to raise our riches out of his favours and derive our glory from his bounty He will give a title of merit to our happiness to advance the quality of his gifts He will crown in us what comes from himself as if it were wholly ours Why shall we shut up the eyes of his wisdom why tie up the hands of his liberality An Ancient said He more esteemed the judgement of certain men than their proper benefits God will we value both in him that we enjoy his bounty by favour and his judgement by merit The actions of the Sovereign Monarch are free from controul as his gifts from repentance I will leave you now to conclude what quiet we Third point Repose of Conscience may have in our consciences upon the matter of Praedestination I leave you to think whether a good soul have not cause to say O be the Divine Providence praised for evermore since it so worthily hath provided for me I cannot adore its counsels unless I love its goodness It sweeteneth my pains it comforteth my cares when it teacheth me my eternal happiness depends on him and me on him who loveth me tenderly and on me who cannot hate my self unless I derogate from my essence after I have failed in all virtues Courage then we roul not under this fatality which writeth laws on diamonds and ties us to inevitable necessities The fodder is not cast we have yet the mettal boyling apace in hand we may appear on the mould of virtue we may make our selves such by the grace of God as to put our salvation in assurance our life into repose and death into crowns I cannot fear God with a slavish fear since he is nought but goodness but I will ever dread my works since I am frailty it self Let us hereafter live in such sort as we would be judged Let us consecrate our life to innocency and banish all sin Let us undertake piety humility obedience alms and devotion towards the Blessed Virgin which are most assured marks of Praedestination Let us not presume of our own forces nor despair likewise of Gods mercy If we stand upright let us still fear the declining of nature which easily bendeth to evil and if we stoop let us quickly raise our selves again making all avail to our salvation yea our proper falls We have a great Advocate in Heaven who openeth as many mouthes for us as we have inflicted wounds on his body We have inflicted them through cruelty and they will receive us through mercy serving us towards Heaven for a chariot of triumph as they were to us on earth a mirrour in life and a sepulcher in death The sixth EXAMPLE upon the sixth Drawn out of Simeon of Constantinoplâ— MAXIM Of the secret Power of Praedestination PROCOPIUS PRaedestination is an admirable secret wherein Marvellous secret of Praedestination experience teacheth us there is nothing which the happy ought not to fear nor any thing the miserable may not hope Stars fall from the firmament to be changed into dung-hills and dung-hills of the earth mount to Heaven to be metamorphosed into stars The graces of God insinuate themselves by secret ways and the impressions of the will are extreamly nice all that past is a dream and the future a cloud where thunders murmur in the dark We tremble when we read in the History of holy Historia Patrum orientis Raderus Fathers that an Hermit grown white in the austerities of Religion understanding a notable thief had gained Heaven by a sigh he cast forth in the instant of his death was much displeased and presently became nought because God was good blaming his mercy to trie his justice For one sole censure made him loose forty years of penance and drew his foot out of Paradise to deliver his soul to hell I purpose here consequently to produce a singular conversion that you may admire and fear the secret ways of God Simeon of Constantinople is the Authour of it who enlarged it with many words but I will abbreviate it into good proportion which shall render it no whit the less effectual The Emperour Diocletian having pacified Aegypt sojourned sometime in Antioch of purpose to destroy Actor 12. the name of Jesus Christ in the same place where the faithfull began to be called Christians Theodosia a Procopius presented to Dioclesian great Ladie came to him bringing her son along with her named Neanias in very good equipage with purpose to prefer him in Court and satisfie her ambition To make her self the more acceptable she freely protested her deceased husband died a Christian that she had often attempted to work him to forsake this superstition adverse to Gods and men and that being unable to prevail upon his inveterate obstinacy she had manured this young plant speaking of her son carefully training him in the service of the gods and Prince with infinite detestation against Christianitie Diocletian who was much delighted with such accidents loudly praised the Ladie and casting his eye on Neanias he found him of handsom shape good presence understanding and valiant whereof he conceived great hope he might prove hereafter a principal instrument of his desires That which also pleased him the more
longer deferred their execution Procopius having once again been tormented before he was brought back to prison recommended these first victims to Heaven by his prayers whose example was quickly waited on by twelve Ladies full of honour who made open profession of faith Justus thinking it was a feminine heat which would be quenched when torments were applied to their bodies caused them cruelly to be tortured commanded their sides and arm-holes to be burnt yet they persevered singing and praising God in the ardour of the most exquisite torments Theodosia mother of our Martyr being present at this spectacle felt her self touched to the quick for the spirit of God entered powerfully into her It suddenly took off the film which in her had clouded the light of reason making her see into the bottom of her soul at which she conceived much horrour Alas then said she within her self who ever Change of Theodosia lodged a heart so barbarous as thine in the body of a woman All the bloud thou seest shed distilleth now to satisfie a revenge thou conceivedst against thine own bloud Thy son is in prison all rent and torn and if he yet have not rendered up his soul he keeps it on his lips expecting perhaps thy last words If thou art not yet satisfied go bathe thy self in his wounds and pull away that little life nature gave him by thy means and which cruelty taketh from him by thy practises Ah Theodosia the most rigorous of women and the most unfortunate of Mothers though thou hast abjured nature renounce not the God of nature Hear the voice which speaketh in thy heart and render thee to that Jesus who begins to resign thee up to thy self Why wilt thou not do what they act before thine eyes They have neither hearts of steel nor bodies of brass more than thou but more resolution because far greater faith And why shouldst not thou be faithfull by imitating their example If thou hast provoked Gods mercy thou hast not wasted it Let us go to Heaven by the purple way since the Providence of Heaven presenteth it unto thee The bloud of thy poor son yet speaks to thee in so many tongues as there are drops of it shed in the streets Let us follow him and never think that done too late which soon shall work thy eternal salvation She feeling the combat of these cogitations in her heart suddenly cried out as in an extasie I am a Christian The Judge who feared this act gave semblance to hear nothing of it but she redoubled her voice so loudly and made so solemn a profession that it was impossible for him to dissemble it So that seeing she would not desist from this resolution he was enforced to send her into the prison where her son remained Procopius beholding her to come fettered with other Ladies was infinitely joyed at this spectacle and cried out aloud Madam my dear mother who brings you To whom she answered Loving son the cause which put you here brought me hither to be the companion of your death since I am the murderess of your life I have betrayed bloud and nature and delivered His imprisonment and martyrdom my bowels to executioners to satisfie passion Virtue and honour being lost nought else remains for me but the happiness to die with you for Jesus Christ It is Son at this instant I must accomplish the words you spake to me at your return that I should take example from you as you birth from me O God most honoured Mother behold here a great touch from Heaven said Procopius I have nothing more to wish in the world since I this day behold you the precious conquest of Jesus Christ It is at this time when being a mother by nature you shall likewise be a mother to me by the example of your piety You are come to the point whither God would have you and all that is past was but to augment the glory of your conversion Let us go by the way of bloud to the place where the soul of your good husband and my dearest father expecteth us These two hearts wholly dissolved into the love of God spake in thought having not language enough to express their affection Theodosia being in a short time after baptized by Leontius was led to execution with the twelve Ladies where she appeared as the singular ornament of this holy Quire leaving her head in the place where she had first confessed Jesus Christ with a constancy so heroick that she drew tears from all the world Procopius having been tumbled up and down at divers Sessions before the Tribunals whipped roasted broyled salted torn in all his body the strength of his courage no whit shaken stretched out his neck to the executioner and yielded up his fair soul to God learning in the conversion of his mother and his own the divine power of this great Praedestination VII MAXIM Of the Divinitie of JESUS THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT That God will be served in any kind and that every sect hath reason in its Religion That none but Jesus is Authour of truth and salvation to whom all creatures bear witness of his Divinitie THis Maxim of the Prophane Court is an old dotage of obsequious spirits who having no zeal for faith and likewise less courage against impiety do in apparence approve all Religions and follow none That is it which made Symmachus say God was a great secret and that it was no wonder every one sought after it and spake according to his weak endeavour of it some in one fashion and some in another That is it also which made Maximus Madaurensis write He was too great to enter whole and entire into the understanding of man but must be taken piece-meal every one contenting himself to adore some Symbol of God which seemed most convenient unto him Behold the shortest way can be taken to arrive at gross impiety for it is to make a Roman Pantheon of Religion where you shall have a thousand imaginary Divinities without one least glimmer of the knowledge of the true God Lies for some space accord together although they spare not to oppose one another but true Religion hath this property to tend wholly to Monarchy and if you speak to it of tolerating other sects as if they were reasonable it is to thrust thorns into the feet and put straws into the eyes of it Jesus hath nothing to do with Belial the faithfull 2 Cor. 6. with the unfaithfull nor the Temple of God with the synagogue of devils All religions which wander from the ray of Christian and Catholick verity are but chymaeraes of piety spectres of wisdom and flames which lead these souls into an abyss of fire and darkness There is but one Redeemer to whom are due all services and adorations And it is my desire for your comfort to shew you that the Authours of all Sects having in the end appeared so monstrous it onely appertained to the Eternal
Son of the Father celestial to bear the testimony of all creatures for the homage of his Divinity Of the revelation of the WORD INCARNATE and how all creatures bear witness of his Divinitie THe great God whom the Prophet Isaiah called the hidden God and who according to the saying of the Psalmist had spread round about his throne a veyl of darkness impenetrable to mortal eyes was unscarsed in the crib in the first of his days in such sort that you need lift up but simple clothes to know him The Word Incarnate so visibly replenisheth all the world with its knowledge that a man must be blind not to see its lights and stupid to resist its love We will content our selves at this time to express three proofs The one drawn from the voice of insensible nature the other from reasonable nature and the third from divine reasons It is an admirable thing to see that Heaven and the Voice of nature elements have been willing to bear a part in the great harmony which hath manifested the Word Eternal to the world involved in times and the increated Wisdom included in the body of an infant If we Oros. l. 6. c. 20. Suet. in Aug. c. 95. Senec. l. uat qq Dio. l. 45. will look into signs from Heaven I may say that at the approach of this Nativity the Sun appeared encompassed with a marvellous rainbow willing thereby to give notice the time of reconciliation was near and that the great Mediatour who should reunite all things in his Person came to sanctifie the world by a universal peace I might alledge what was witnessed by Eutropius Three suns in his sixth book and by Eusebius in his Chronicle how three Suns were seen to shine at one time afterward united and incorporated in one sole globe in my opinion so to denote three substances to wit of the Word the soul and flesh conjoyned in the sole person of our Saviour I could say how at that instant Plin. l. 2. c. 31. the Sun was environed with three circles the one whereof bare a coronet of ears of corn to testifie the plenty which the Word Incarnate should bring into the world I could adde what Albumazer the Chaldaean wrote in his Introduction sixth Treatise and first Definition touching the apparition of a Virgin in the first aspect of the sign Virgo But let us rest satisfied that Heaven spake aloud making use of a new star as of a tongue to declare the living God and that this apparition became so famous that even Infidels had authentick testimonies thereof as we may see in the narration of Chalcidius a Platonick Philosopher And it is strange that Plinie (a) (a) (a) Plin. c. 25. l. 2. â—it candidus coâ—etes argenteâ— crinerefulgens ut vix contâ—eri liceat specie humanâ Dei effigiem in se ostendens himself speaketh of a certain star with silver rays infinitely resplendent which shewed God in a humane figure If we speak of the air know we not it was illustrated with a great and divine light which S. Luke called (b) (b) (b) Gloriâ— Domini circumfulsit eos the glorie of God If we speak of waters tradition teacheth us a fountain was seen to spring in a poor stable which was honoured first with the birth of the Son of God (c) (c) (c) Baronius If we speak of the earth hath it not contributed to the revelation of the Word when it made some of its trees bow to adore the Saviour (d) (d) (d) Sozomen l. 5. c. Rovillius de plantis Joan. 1. 32. Matth. 17. 27. Agnovit bos possessorem suum asinus praesepe Domini sui Isaiah 1. Did it not bear flowers visibly imprinted with the most noble characters of the living God as Rovillius depainteth the Granadil The birds of the air have rendered their homage by the means of a dove which appeared in the Baptism fishes in that which served as a Steward and Cashmaster to Jesus Christ Four-footed beasts were remarkeable in the crib because we have learned from the Prophet Isaiah the Ox hath known his Master and the Ass the crib of his Lord. 2. (e) (e) (e) Voice of prophesie If we pass from the voice of nature to voices divinely humane as are predictions what is there more admirable than the universal consent of prophesies He who should tell us that a most beautifull statue of white marble had been seen in a Temple all framed of pieces laid together made by sundry artizans in divers Ages in such sort that one began the head of this statue having no other determinate design the other not seeing the head which was made nor knowing it to be done made a body another an arm another a hand another a leg another a foot in the end every one made his part pursuing the same course none of these excellent Masters knowing ought of his companions works Notwithstanding that all these pieces wrought in sundry Ages by so many several hands and in Provinces so far distant one from another being set together it was found every piece was so curiously composed and fitted to the entire body of the statue that it might be said All these Sculptours had long agreed together for the accomplishment of such a work If then this discourse in the Idaea's of men have any place in the truth of Histories as many have thought must we not say some Intelligence governed the minds of all these Artizans to cause them insensibly to consent in all the dimensions of this Master-piece so excellent and exact Let us here say the like when we behold the great model of the Word Incarnate which God placed in the frontis-piece of his works to be admired and adored by all intellectual Nature We find Prophets divided one from another the distance of many hundred years different in age humour condition style invention order and connexion who could neither see one another nor agree together in any kind as were David Daniel and Isaiah yet all without mutual knowledge laboured in the History of the great Saviour of men one speaketh of his birth another of his life another of his doctrine another of his manners another of his miracles another of his death another of his victories and triumphs When we take pains to gather together and consider all these pieces we find them measured and fitted with such proporrion that we are enforced to affirm it is not a work of mortal hands but an enterprize of the Spirit of God Who inspired the Patriarch Jacob that prophesied Excellent prophesies touching our Saviour 49. Genes Non auferetur sceptrum de Juda c. Donec veniat qui mittendus est so many years before all Prophets that the Messias who was the hope of all Nations should come when the Scepter of Judea was taken out of the hands of Judah's race which was fulfilled punctually in the time of Herod who put the true
it ordinarily is cherished lessened and lost it self Aglae began at first to be weary of the frequency of this infamous familiarity then recalled again into her heart the sense of honour next of virtue and lastly God more fully touching her soul set her in open view to her self and made her entertain a great distast of this inordinate life Boniface on the other side felt his conscience much galled and thought on nothing but to break his chain which he often begged of God giving many alms in the height of his uncleanness Aglae called him to her in this disposition and said She was was resolved Admirable conversion to make an end of the exorbitancies of her life that it was in conclusion to wearie heaven and earth too much by her sins and that if love had wounded her repentance would cure her God having left her no other remedie upon evils past than sorrow to have committed them As for the rest as he had followed her with so much facilitie in wickedness it was no reason he should forsake her in the way of repentance That she was a woman he a man that his sex obliged him to take at the least so much courage as her self in a matter which concerned eternal salvation and that desiring to equal him in this resolution she should have the happiness above him to have prevented him Boniface replied She might confidently do what she thought good he would ever account it his glorie to wait on her in so good a purpose and that God could not do him a greater favour than to change the commandments of his Mistress into precepts of salvation The Ladie answered She found nothing more necessary Devotion of Aglae in enquiry after Martyrs than to implore the mercy of God by the bloud of his Martyrs and therefore he should take a voyage into the Province of Cilicia where daily many such were made and bring her thence some relicks The Steward who could not forget his sweet nature said unto her Madame you would much wonder if from the Countrey of Martyrs I return a Martyr and that my body be brought back to serve you for relicks Aglae replied Mock not but do speedily what I tell you and think your self most happy to be at the feet of so many glorious Confessours He failed not to put himself quickly on the way with men and money handkerchiefs and perfumes for performance of his purpose and handled the matter so that he was speedily in the Citie of Tharsus at that time the Theater of Martyrs Scarcely was he arrived but he heard twenty Christians were led forth into a publick place to be martyred and being already changed into another man who breathed nothing at all but the glory of God he stole from his company and went presently into the open place where perceiving the Martyrs he brake through the throng Boniface martyred hastened to kiss their chains and wounds moistening his eyes with their bloud and earnestly beseeching them to pray unto God for him The President Simplicianus seeing this young stranger meddle so far in a matter whereunto he was not called commanded him to withdraw but he speaking with a generous confidence and publickly professing what he was he caused him to be apprehended and to be put to the torture where he was roughly handled for the executioners not content to have pulled off his skin with iron pincers thrust silvers of pointed reeds between the flesh and nails which caused most exquisite torments Notwithstanding the valorous Champion had no other words in his mouth in the extremity of his torments but My Saviour Jesus I give thee thanks for the favour thou hast done me to day by letting me suffer for thy sake It is good reason the bodie which hath so much offended thee bear somewhat for thee If executioners encrease my torments augment the assistance of thy grace and crown my combat with a faithfull perseverance He spake with so much fervour grace and devotion that those present were much moved thereat which the Judge perceiving commanded molten lead to be poured into his mouth to enforce him to a cruel silence but that not succeeding as he imagined the people mutined and brake down an Altar set up there for sacrifice to Idols whereat the Provost was somewhat astonished and thinking it not fit at that time any further to incense them he sent all the Martyrs back into prison The next day he went to the place with more violence and terrour and thinking to terrifie Boniface he shewed him a cauldron of hot scalding pitch threatening withal to burn him if he obeyed not the Emperours Edicts To which the Martyr answered There was neither fire sword nor any horrid torture able to separate him from Jesus Christ he then shewing himself very resolute without leisure given to say any more was plunged into the cauldron from whence he by miracle came forth entire to the admiration of all the world which began to work great conversions among the people Simplicianus fearing a second sedition caused his head speedily to be cut off with an ax and to consummate a glorious Martyrdom In the mean space they who were of his company sought round about for him at which time they heard there was a young Christian stranger to be executed who had shewed very much constancy in his punishment They thinking nothing less than of him said it was not their Boniface who ever would more readily be found among Courtisans than the executioners of Tharsus Yet coming to the place for curiositie they found his head upon one side his body on the other extreamly amazed at what was passed They bought his body for five hundred liures and having it in their hands they asked him mercy with weeping tears for the rash judgement they had given to the prejudice of his virtue Upon this they had nothing so much in their desires as to carry back the body to their Mistress Aglae supposing they could not give her any relicks either more undoubted or acceptable The holy woman had already had a revelation from the mouth of an Angel of the glory of Boniface and being on the way to encounter him so soon as she met him she prostrated her self before his body and said My dear Boniface I shed not tears over thee they Speech of Aglae to Boniface would fall too low to bewail such a death as thine Thou wentest out a penitent from me and returnest a Martyr thou art become a Master from the first day of thy apprentiship thou hast vanquished ere scarce seen the enemie yea the Crown wherewith thou soughtest to glorifie other Martyrs is fallen on thy own head Ah how many bloudie gates were to be opened to thy generous soul to afford a large passage to its triumphs Iron hooks which have dissevered thy holy members have united thy heart to Jesus Reeds thrust under thy nails have confirmed thy constancie Boyling cauldrons found in thy heart
himself and that without it the world would not be and that it was a Divinity which had a Temple in the hearts of men the most purified and best worthy of God If with one single glance of an eye you might see the world as a huge Theater you therein should behold Empires arms laws Cities Provinces sciences arts riches infinite magnificencies you would be enforced to say the basis which supporteth all this great majesty of Common-wealths is fidelity without which Cities would rather resemble Cyclopean caverns than Temples of peace and justice But if you destroy it not by improvidence or frailty but by the form of a setled life and by example cause others to imitate you is it not to overthrow all that which is best established and to profane whatsoever is most holy 4. You perhaps will say publick virtues little concern Reason 3 you so you may advance your particular interests Craft shameful to the authour of it I will not tell you this answer better becomes the mouth of a Tartar than a Christian but I dare well assure you these ways of craft and deceit which so much please you are most prejudicial to your honour and most fatal for your ruin For first of all say you be a man of quality you are not so unnatural but you have some sense of honour Now rest assured nothing Debasement so much villifieth you as to be reputed a crafty man who carrieth labyrinths in his heart and snares in his tongue Dyon Chrysostomus judiciously observed that nature gave subtility as an inheritance to creatures the most feeble and abject as to Apes Foxes Cats and Spiders but the most generous as Eagles and Lions know not what slights and wiles mean We must likewise affirm all the most eminent and divine spirits are very naturally inclined to sincerity and that it onely belongs to inferiour souls and such as distrust their own ability to amuse themselves in search of inventions and tricks to involve those who treat with them by the way of sincere freedom See you not mirrours render forms when they are leaded think you natively to represent the draughts of verity unless your soul be solid and stable supported by its proper weight on constancy and magnanimity Seneca noted that women the most destitute Subtile women of strength are most inclined to fraud and doubleness Seneca in Octaviâ Pectus instruxit delis sed vim negavit of heart what I speak nothing concerneth the prudent and generous who know how to correct infirmities of sex by virtue but our daily experience teacheth us that there are of them very crafty and such as under a pure and delicate skin with a tongue distilling honey often hide the heart of a panther all spotted over with subtility as the skin of this beast with diversity of mirrours Their throat is Novissima illius amara quasi absinthium acuta quasi gladius biceps Prov. 5. 4. more slippery than oyl said the Wiseman but in the end you find effects more bitter than worm-wood and more penetrating than a two-edged sword What sense is there that a Noble man who would in all things seem more than a man should take upon him the vices of women and inclinations onely fit for silly creatures It is a strange thing to see what the light of nature Sincerity preserved in the light of nature dictated to the souls of infidels so alienating them from all manner of deceit that they made scruple to treat with their enemies by way of dissimulation We learn in Titus Livius that one called Philippus Tit. Liv. l. 2. Decad. 5. giving an account to the Senate what he had negotiated in the Court of the Macedonian King declaring particularly the course he took to entertain Perseus under pretext of peace and to feed him with fair words the old Senatours stood up and aloud protested much to disavow such proceedings as matters opposite to Roman generosity Violence said Thucid. that great Captain Brasidas though it seem unjust is always more excuseable in a man of authority than craft which secretly contriveth some black business under colour of amitie What could there be more odious in nature than a man who to deceive the world might have the art to change faces every hour and seem sometimes white sometimes black Hatred and horrour of doubleness sometimes gray another while grizly sometimes hairy another while beardless in such sort as to be meerly unknown to those who should treat with him Now what deceivers cannot do on their faces they act in their souls through a strange profanation of Gods Image they take upon them a thousand countenances and a thousand impostures to train a poor victim into the snare They flatter they promise they swear they protest they call Heaven and earth to witness you would take all their words for eternal truths but if you speak to them an hour after and that it be time to pull off the mask they with a brazen brow will deny all they said they will mock at all they promised and disavow all they have done with the same lips which before contrived it What Behemoth what Leviathan was ever beheld so Phot. Bibliot p. 67. prodigious in nature I know Ctesias among the great rarities of the Indies makes mention of a Martichore a beast which hath the face of a man and the body of a Lion who counterfeiteth the sound of flutes to charm passengers and then entrappeth and kills them with the tayl of a scorpion all bristled with pricks and which is more makes the same serve for bowe arrows and quiver Needs must this be terribl but to see it before our face is to have one beast for an enemy which may by prudence be avoided which may by force be vanquished and with weapons mastered but in a faithless man you discover under a smiling brow a thousand plagues a thousand Centaurs a thousand Geryons infinite many Charybdes and Syrens who lay snares for you who undo you who ruin you who strangle when they seem to embrace you Can you then admire if among the six abominations of the Linguam mendacem cor machinaâ—s cogitationes pessimas Prov. 6. heart of man deceit be one of the first Laws have not severity enough arms terrour nor scaffolds punishments to chastise affright torment a man with a double tongue and heart who persecuteth truth killeth faith poisoneth friendship and many times plotteth effects of death even in a banquet the solace of life 5. All this is to no purpose will some Polyphemus Reason 4 say so that one prosper in the world either by treason Craft pernicious or craft little heed must be given to the judgements of certain men who are onely able to bark at our fortune not to hinder our felicity Here now is the knot of the business wherein we must consider that besides that the ways of treachery are laborious and
the virtue of temperance but for that it seemed he found himself better disposed in this frugality than in superfluities the tormentours of health Yet notwithstanding he is ever greatly reprehensible in that he so deifieth the contentments of nature and this kind of life free from bodily pain and minds unquiet that he makes a Sovereign God of it honouring and adoring it as a Divinity From this principle he derived conclusions which led to a life wholly replenished with easeful idlenese much prejudicial to civil society For he would not have a wise man intermeddle in state-affairs nor untertake designs for the good of Common-wealths for fear of troubling the repose of his mind and gave a most infamous advise to tast the pleasures of marriage without taking care for the education of children because it was painfull whereupon Arianus in Arian l. 4. c. 20. Epictetus reprocheth him that his father and mother would have smothered him in the cradle had they known such pestilent words should come from his lips He now-adayes is waited on by many who take other wayes than he did to arrive at the practise of his Maxims For they use their bodies to such effeminacie that they seem single in their kind and seed their minds what they can with tender thoughts free from any care or affair which may divert contentment so that they suffer themselves with all endeavour to be dissolved in an easie truantly life wholly to enjoy themselves 2. Now you who incline to this Sect by ill habits 1. Reason against this Maxim of riot Occupatio magna creata est omnibus hominibus jugum grave super filiis Adam Eccl. 40. Isle of amber felicitie of Epicurus Garcias taken in the great service you daily do your bodies I beseech you consider how far it is allenated both from reason and Christianity First see you not that to imagine here on earth a life without pain is to frame chymraes in your mind since the world is a soil as natural for thorns as barren of violets All the sons of Adam saith the Scripture have trouble enough to carrie their yoke Where find you this perpetual quiet of mind this freedom from bodily disturbances which you figure in your thoughts It is in my opinion not unlike the little Island of amber-grece whereof Garcias speaketh which was perceived by certain merchants who sayled along on the Ocean But they much labouring to take it in such proportion as they advanced towards it it recoyled back and when they thought to touch it it was lost in the waves I dare affirm you pursue an Island more imaginarie than that running with full speed after the false pleasures of Epicurus It is a fantasie that mocketh you and which amuzeth you on the surges of this life to make you perish seeing according to Clemens Alexandrinus sensuality is the Clemens Alex Paedag. l. 3. c. 7. ship wrack of spiritual life A man must not be born of a mother to escape worldly molestations since the Scripture which cannot lie teacheth us travell is as naturall for the children of women as flight for birds How could there Homo nascitur ad laboreth avis ad volatum Job 57. Reason of Simplicius be pleasures of bodie without pain since pleasures would never be pleasures if they had not been preceded by some incommodities It is a witty reason of the Philosopher Simplicius which was well considered by S. Bernard (a) (a) (a) S. Bern. tract de gratiâ lib. arbitrio Tolle famem panem non curabis Telle sitim limpidissâ—mum fontem quasi paludem respicies umbram non quaerit nisi aestuans solem non curat nisi algens Take away hunger saith he and there is no pleasure in viands take away thirst and the most chrystal fountains would be unto you but as marishes Hot things must be had to seek for coolness and cold to be delighted with heat If you take away evil and necessitie you take away the most active spur which sensualitie hath over nature The world which is so old the earth so fertile experience so knowing and histories so curious could not this day produce one sole man absolutely happie and content The great Genius of nature Plinie who searched into all the corners of the world to meet with a man such as Epicurus framed in his idaea assureth us that after a very long enquiry he found but one a Musician named (b) (b) (b) Plin. l. 7. c. 50. One soleman happie Xenophilus who was said to have arrived to the age of an hundred and five years free from disquiet or sickness This is a Rodomontado of Greece which went about to make him brave it on paper But might we have penetrated into his heart and taken all the parts of his life asunder I am perswaded we might presently find somewhat for which he should be banished out of the imaginarie Palace of felicitie I can as soon believe Xenophilus came into the world free from original sin as imagine he went out of it exempt from any dolour It were as easie to sayl prosperously amidst the tempests of the Ocean having no other vessel but a tortoyse shell as to live in the world without suffering We are condemned to it before we are born and our tears teach us this decree before we issue from our mothers womb What remaineth sayes S. Bernard to finish the description Bern. l. 2. de consid c. 9. Quid enim calamitate vacat nascenti in peccato fragili corpore mente sterili cui infirmitas corporis fatuitâ—s cordis cumulatur traduce sortis mortis additione The whole world an enemy of curiositie of man and to make him a true picture of calamity since he entereth into the world by the gate of sin with a bodie frail a mind barren weakness of mortal Members and stupiditie of heart being given him as a portion of his birth and a necessitie of his condition The miserable Epicurus who was the first Authour of this lazie life and who sought by speculation and practise into all he could imagine bending all his thoughts and actions to this purpose found he satisfaction in this search Histories tell us this great father of the happie had a stone in his bladder which infinitly pained him and this being a time that knew not the operations now in use to deliver mortals from these vexations he carried his affliction to the grave dying with enraged dolour Upon this you shall observe that it seems God nature elements and men conspire to torment one who seeks with over-much curiosity and too seriously the contentments of his bodie and the ease of his mind 3. But that I may here produce a second reason Reason 2 although you were permitted to please your sensuality throughout the whole latitude of your desires and the capacitie thereof what should you elss do but serve a miserable bodie and tie your self all your life time to the
preservation of a fool and sick man If Rom. 6. Great spirits enemies of the flesh you live according to the flesh you shall die said the Apostle to the Romans All great spirits who have a feeling of their extraction the beauty and nobility of their souls take not the necessities of life but with some shame and sorrow They regard the flesh as the prison of a spirit immortal and think to flatter it is to strangle the beâ—ter part of themselves which resteth in the understanding The Philosopher Plotinus who Plotin Porphiry upon his life was renowned as the worlds Oracle could not endure to have his picture taken saying he had trouble enough to suffer a wretched bodie without multiplying the figures thereof by the help of painting and you imagine it is a virtue of the times to adore it and afford it submissions which pass to the utmost period of servitude How much the more we profit in the libertie of God's children so much the more we proceed in disengagement from sense and enter as into the sanctuarie of souls there to consult on truths and understand reasons which vindicate us from the dregs of the world to give us passage into the societie of Angels It is a strange matter that the subtile Divine Scotus Discourse of Scotus concerning sense Scotus locis disquisit 1. indicatis thinks that to understand and know objects by sensible representations passing through the gate of our sense and striking our imagination is a punishment from original sin He finds it is a harsh subjection to make application to the bodie to derive colours odours and sounds from it which notwithstanding seemeth as innocent as the purchase of bees who suck honie out of flowers and shall we think there can be any felicitie to plunge our judgement into all the voluptuous pleasures of flesh Know we not it many times doth to the soul as the An observation of Camerarius concerning the heron heron to the faulcon He endeavoureth to flie above him and to wet his wings with his excrements to make his flight heavie and render his purpose unprofitable Alas how many times feel we the vigour of our reason enervated by the assaults of concupiscence which contracteth the like advantage from it's ordures for the enthralment of the spirit And why would we second it's violence by our weakness Instance upon the weakness and miserie in service of the body I moreover demand of you what can you hope from so punctually observing your bodie You are not a Geryon with three heads and three throats There needs but a little to fill you For though your concupiscence be infinite yet are your senses finite many times pleasure overwhelms them before they afford themselves the leisure of tasting them If you resolve so curiously to attend the search of pleasures you should desire the spirit of a horse to enjoy them with the more vigour and liberty But what sense is there to have the soul of a man and seek to be glutted with the mite of the earth as if one would feed a Phoenix with carrion on which ravens live when you have done all you can to make your self happie by diversity of worldly pleasures beasts will ever have more than you For their sensitive souls much sooner meet the height of nature and as their pleasures are free from shame so they drag not sorrow after them They are not gnawn with cares by desiring things needless they take what the elements afford them and what the industry of man manures for them know not what it is to find poisonous maladies in the most ardent pleasures sensuality may imagine But admit you were resolved to become a beast with the disciples of Epicurus yet ought you not for all that according to your own limits surpass the bruitishness of beasts And I pray tell me where is the beast which hath never so little generosity would not think it self most miserable if it were condemned to eat and drink perpetually and grow lazy in an idle life They frame themselves very willingly to the exercises nature appointed them for the service of man and a man thinks it a great Philosophy to consecrate all the parts of his bodie to sensuality no whit considering he is made for the contemplation of things Divine for the love and fruition of the first cause Avicen an excellent wit by the unhappiness of his Avicenna lib. de primâ Philosoph 9. c. 1. apud Javellum Notable saying of Avicen birth ranked in the sect of Mahomet coming to consider this false Prophet had placed the beatitude of the other life in the injoying sensual pleasures was so ashamed of it that he shrunk from his Prophet that he might not betray his reason The law saith he which Mahomet gave us considered beatitude and miserie within the limits of the bodie but there are promises and hopes of other blessings much more excellent and which cannot be conceived but by the force of a most purified understanding Which is the cause wise divines ever set their Foelicitas est conjunctio cum primâ Veritate love on the blessings of spirit without any account taken of those of sense in comparison of the felicitie we one day pretend to have in the union of our immortal spirit with the first Verity What can our worldlings answer to this Arabian Should they not blush with shame to see a man bred in the school of Epicurus gone out of it to teach us the Maxim of Christianity 4. Finally to conclude this discourse with a third Reason 3 reason although the service of the bodie were possible Tyranny of ryot and not shameful to you do you not well see it is tyrannical and that Epicurus himself wholly bent to pleasure cut off all he could from nature for this onely cause which made him think over-much care of the body was extreamly opposite to felicitie The Platonists Opinion of Platonists said our souls were of an extraction wholly celestial and sent from heaven to serve God on earth in imitation of the service Angels do to him in heaven but that many of those poor souls forgetting their original instead of going directly to the Temple of virtue stood amuzed in the house of a Magician which was the flesh that enchanted them with his charms had cast them into fetters where they were enforced to suffer a painful bondage from whence there were but two passages wisdom or death To this Synesius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syness hym 3. made allusion in his Hymns complaining his soul from a servant of God was become a slave of matter which had bewitched it by wily practises And verily who can sufficiently express the servitude a soul suffers fast linked to flesh and which onely endeavours to dandle it hoping by this means to give true contentment to the mind First pleasures are not exposed now-adayes to all the world as the water of a
with so much profusion that she could not endure to lodge but in chambers full of delicious perfumes of the East she would not wash her self but in the dew of Heaven which must be preserved for her with much skill Her garments were so pompous that nothing remainned but to seek for new stuffs in Heaven for she had exhausted the treasures of earth Her viands so dainty that all the mouthes of Kings tasted none so exquisite nor would she touch her meat but with golden forks and precious stones God to punish this cursed superfluity cast her on a bed and assailed her with a maladie so hydeous so stinking and frightfull that all her nearest kin were enforced to abandon her none staying about her but a poor old woman already throughly accustomed to stench and death yet could not this proud creature part with her infamous body but with sorrow She was of those souls that Plato calleth Phylosemates which tie themselves to flesh as much as they can and after death would gladly still walk round about their flesh to find a passage into it again Know you what is to be done to die well Cut off in good time the three chains which straightly bind foolish and sensual souls For the first passage that The way how to be well provided for death concerneth earthly goods seasonably dispose of your temporal Entangle not your hands for so short a time as you are to live in great affairs perilous and uncertain which will perplex you all your life and throw you down to death Do not like evil travellers who stay to reckon and contend with their hostess when it is already fair day-light and that the guid wrangles and sweareth at them Digest your little business that you may leave no trouble in your family after death Make a Will clear and perspicuous which draweth not suits after it Preserve your self carefully from imitating that wicked man who caused all his gold and silver to be melted into one mass to set his heirs together by the ears who killed one another sprinkling the apple of discord and the object of their avarice with their bloud Say to your self I brought nothing into the world nor will carry any thing away no not the desire of it Behold one part of my goods which must be restored to such and such these are true debts that must necessarily be discharged Behold another for pious legacies Another for alms to persons needy and indigent another for my servants male and female and my poor friends who have faithfully served me They have wasted their bodies and lives to contribute all they might to my will there is no reason I should forget them Nay I desire mine enemies have some part in my will As for my children and heirs the main shall go to them they will be rich enough if they be virtuous enough Behold how the temporal should be disposed And for so much as concerneth kinred give the benediction of God to your children and all your family leave worthy examples of contempt of the world of humility of patience of charity procure a full reconciliation with your enemies entertain your friends with sage discourses which may shew you gladly accept Gods visitations that you die full of resolutions to prepare them a place and that you expect from their charity prayers and satisfactions for your negligence and remisness If needs some small tribute must be paid to nature in two or three drops of tears it is tolerable But take away these whyning countenances these petty furies these mercenary weepers who weep not knowing why nor for what they mourn As for that which toucheth the state of your body it would be a goodly thing for you to be wail it after you have had so many troubles in it Go out of it like a Tennant from a ruinous house go from it as from a prison of earth and morter Go out of it as on the sea from a rotten leaky ship to leap on the shore and care not much what will become of it after death so it be on holy land Souls well mortified speak not of flesh considering the state of sin but with horrour Yea we find in the bequests of one of the sons of S. Lewis Count of Alencon these words I will Modesty of a son of S. Lewis the Tomb that shall cover my stinking flesh exceed not the charge of fiftie livres and that which encloseth my evil heart pass not thirty livres Behold how the son of one of the greatest Kings in the world speaketh of his body and would you idolatrize yours Lastly for the third condition of a good death it The third quality of a good death must have union with God whereof our Lady giveth us a perfect example For it being well verified by Theologie that there are three unions supernatural and as it were wholly ineffable the first whereof is the sacred knot of the most holy Trinitie which tieth three persons in one same Essence the second is the tie of the Word with humane nature which subsisteth by the hypostasis of the same Word and the third the intimate conjunction of a Son-God with a Mother-Virgin I affirm the Virgin being a pure creature cannot equal either the union of the Trinity or the hypostatical union yet notwithstanding hath the highest place of all created unions as she who was united to God when she lived in the world in the most sublime and sacred manner the spirits of the most exalted Seraphins might imagine which was most divinely expressed by S. Bernard She entered into a deep abyss of divine Profundissimam divinae sapientiae penetravit abyssum quantum sine personali unione creatur◠conditio patitur luci illi inaccesibili videatur immersa D. Bernard serm in signum magnum Mater mea quà m appellatis foelicem inde foelix quia verbum Dei custodit non quia in illa Verbum caro factum est c. Aug. tract 10 in Joan. wisdom so that she was united to light inaccessible so much as a creature might be permitted not arriving to the personal union of God But saying this I not onely speak of the union she had in quality of the Mother of God being one same flesh and one same substance with her Son but of the union of contemplation devotion and submission to the will of God which alone was the center of her felicity as witnesseth S. Augustine My Mother whom you call happie hath all her happiness not so much because the Word was made man in her as for that she kept the word of God who made her and who afterward allied himself to humane nature in her womb as he would say Our Lady was more happy to have conceived God in her heart and continually kept spiritual union with him than to have once brought him forth according to flesh We cannot arrive at this sublime union of the Mother of God but howsoever at least in the last
protection which God will give them to stay the effect of hurtfull causes In such wise that according to the opinion of those Doctours glorious bodies shall be impassible as were the three Children in the fornace of Babylon not that their bodies were impenetrable to fire but because God hindered the action of flames on their bodies But I had rather say with S. Thomas it is done by a quality internal 1. part q. 97. art 1. and 5. q. 82. art 1. and adherent to the bodies of the blessed Because this manner besides that it is sweet easie and suitable to the magnificence of God is more noble more natural and nearer approaching to the condition of celestial bodies Against the second incommodity of mortal body which is terrestrial weight we shall have subtility a gift much to be desired and which also opposeth the beastliness and stupidity that insensibly cause aversion in reasonable and intellectual nature We cannot Damascen l. 4. de side c. ultim and Ambros l. 10. in Luc. cap. ultimo be ignorant that many Divines place this subtility of glorious bodies in a virtue they shall have to penetrate the most massy objects not bruising or breaking them like a spirit and that it were an errour either to say it were impossible to the divine power or was not done by our Saviour when he came out of his mothers womb or when he entered into the chamber Notwithstanding I think this penetration of bodies should be judged as extraordinarie to a blessed bodie without having any necessarie dependance Durand in 4. d. 44. q. 5. D. Thom. in 4. l. 4. q. 2. art 2. and 5. q. 83. ◠2. of its condition But I had rather believe with S. Thomas Doctour Durandus the Roman Catechism that this gift of subtility whereof question is here made consisteth in a great vigour of sense proceeding from a perfect disposition of organs and a tenderness of spirits and besides in an entire subjection and admirable pliantness of the body to the soul and of appetites to reason a matter which I esteem more than the penetration of Semiramis wals The third blemish of our bodies which is weakness and infirmity shall be excluded by the grace force and agility which will bring to pass that the blessed may go from one place to another not by a simple ability and equality of the motion of steps going forward but an impetuousness as would be that of an eagle who should fall upon her prey or of an arrow shot by a strong hand according to S. Augustines opinion August l. 22. de Civit. c. ultim Vbi volet spiritus ibi protinus erit corpus Isaiah 40. Qui sperant in Domino mutabunt fortitudinem Doctour Scotus thinks this agility will proceed from the force of the soul with substraction of weight which shall at that time be taken away from the body in this state of immortality Others think this weight shall onely be suspended and interdicted in its effect not for ever but for the space the blessed shall desire who besides this admirable lightness shall have great and sprightly forces Lastly the fourth accident of this mortal and corruptible state is deformity which hath sometimes been so troublesom to many souls little couragious greatly faithless that there have been such found in Pagan antiquity who voluntarily deprived themselves of life to be delivered from the shame and grief they conceived to be born in a body notably deformed Beauty although it be often decried since it began Of beauty to serve for a bait and to be an instrument to sin yet it must be confessed when it contracteth good alliance with the spirit and virtue namely that of chastity it hath qualities so lovely and excellencies so noble that without arms or guards it exerciseth power even over the hearts of Monarchs Zeno said grace of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 body was a Voice of flower a flower of voice voice of flower because it draweth amity to it as the flower of a garden not crying out nor tormenting it self a flower of voice because it is one of the most flowery eloquences among the attractives of nature Earthly sovereignties often employ the whole extent of their power to make themselves beloved yet never attain it but this as the rayes of the sun not breaking either gate or window gets enterance for it self in humane heart and not alledging any other reason nor affording patience of resolution transporteth a soul which lives more in that it loveth than in that it animateth And yet what is temporal beauty but a transitory charm an illusion of senses a voluntarie imposture a slave of pleasure a flower which hath but a moment of life a dyal on which we never look but whilest the sun shines on it What is humane beauty but a dunghil covered with snow a glass painted with false colours a prey pursued by many dogs a dangerous Hostess in a frail house a sugered fruit in a feast which some dare not touch for respect and others gourmandize through sensuality Go trust so fading a good Go betake you to so unhappy a snare Go tie your contentments to so slippery a knot What else will happen unto you but to court a fantasie which loosening your hold will leave you nothing but the sorrow of your illusions If beauties must be loved let us love them in the state wherein they shall never cease to be beauties let us love them in the glory of their resurrection where they shall be placed as Queens in their thrones The beauty of glorified bodies saith Durandus the Durand in 4. de 44. q. 8. Divine consisteth in three things First in a pure and resplendent colour conjoyned to a most perfect and distinct proportion of all members without the least blemish or defect able to give the least aversion Secondly in a singular smoothness as would be that of a mirrour receiving the Sun beams directly Thirdly in an interiour light which as other Doctours with a general consent do adde will diffuse it self over the body with an incomparable lustre if it happen not that the blessed to manifest themselves to feeble and mortal eyes stay the course of the rays of glory as did our Saviour in the conference he had with the two pilgrims of Emaus O Beauties which never tarnish O lights which Daniel 12. Qui docti fuerint fulgebunt tanquam splendor firmamenti c. Math. 13. Fulgebunt justi sicut sol in regno Patris eorum know not what it is to be eclipsed O house of God! O Temple of peace When will the great day come which shall devest us from all we have mortal to put us into the bosom of immortality But we must confess that among all the considerations may be had upon this subject we have not any more pleasant or effectual than the triumphant Resurrection of our Saviour which is the root and hope
of ours If we desire to sweeten the a cerbities of life and to replenish our hearts with the antipast of our immortality let us make a perpetual Pasch in our souls and reflect on our Jesus our Phenix who goeth out of his sepulcher on the day of his triumphs That the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation of ours and we must behold his sweetness and glories as the sources of our eternity NAture which is an expression of Divine understanding Nature delighteth in contrarieties Discordant accords of the world is never so great and admirable as in contrarieties and it seems she takes delight to derive the goodliest harmonies of the world from certain disagreeing accords We admire contrarie motions in the heavens which compose an eternal peace In the air a bird which takes life from death and the beauty of her plumage from a tomb of ashes On earth bees bred in the throat of a dead Lion that find life in a savour able to kill them In the sea a fish named the holy fish which as histories say taking its original in the Kingdom of tempests fails not to create a calm by Ael l. 8. de animal its presence And among fountains we cannot sufficiently wonder at the water of Dodone into which a torch falling is put out and coming forth is lighted S. Isodo de fonte Epiri and Solinus Jesus Authour of nature beareth all these miracles in his own Person to make a miracle in our hearts and to draw them out of the dust and darkness from which he freed our bodies He is the great heaven which by motions of his life holily contrary unanimously divers and harmoniously disagreeing Miracles of the person of Jesus Isa 46. 11. hath made the accords of the Church militant and triumphant He is the bird of the East whereof Isaiah speaketh which glorifieth his tomb and quickneth his death to slay ours He is the Bee of the Celestial Father which from all Eternity having his hive in the heart of his Father soareth into the region of death to sit upon dying flowers which took away his life and put him into the throat of a lionness of a death which devouring all is devoured it self as saith the Apostle and from this gulf which yielded nothing issueth a life to be the seed of all lives It is the Divine fish of the Sybilles sacred by so 1. Cor. 15. many titles to consecrate all intelligent nature which after the rage of so turbulent a passion makes a great calm in the world which he establisheth by his fall quickeneth by his death washeth by his bloud and glorifieth by his torments He is the torch which entered dead into the river of Cocytus whereof holy Job Job 21. 53. speaketh and came out lighted and all environed with flames of a triumphant glorie Let us then say that God who by his providence Jesus entereth into his glory by his merit and by a singular predestination governeth the state of intellectual creatures in all perfect height and accomplishment of beatitude hath so tied glory to merit and merit to glory that he would not glorifie the Angels without giving them some moment of a wayfaring life and some exercise of meritorious actions to obtain the crown and consummation of felicity And consequently to the same purpose it is very true the most holy humanity of the worlds Saviour from the first instant of his beginning was inseparably united to the Divinity but not to be the lights Suspension of actual glory in the body of our Saviour and actual splendours which were incessantly to spring from this ineffable union of the Word to the flesh The Father ordained and the Son for our love received and freely accepted a suspension of the light of glory for the space of three and thirty years And although he had the foundation and root in himself the exercise of it was staid and proposed to him in the end of his race as the recompence of his painful life and unspeakable dolours of his death He naturally desired the glory of his body as our soul sticking in flesh and bloud vehemently covets a full liberty of its intellectual functions and behold here in this mysterie his desire is accomplished and this humanity darkened by the space of a long night of life hidden and buried in the obscurity of an ignominious death cometh from it as the Sun out of a cloud and makes a transfusion of himself into the bosom of ineffable lights which issue from the Sanctuary of the most holy Trinity In such sort that it is as a second birth of the most sacred humanity which being born to the communication of divine subsistence is here born to glory 5. Now observe if you please that as the lightening-flash Three properties of splendour in the resurrection of our Saviour which appeared in the face of the Angel messenger of the resurrection hath three properties the first is that it is a subtile part of enflamed elements the second that it is endowed with a splendour and sparkling which dazeleth humane eyes the third that it goes from one pole to another with an extream vivacity a shril sound So three things are observable in the glory which our Saviour entertained in his Resurrection first that this body taken from the clay of Adam and matter of elements became in an instant wholly invested in sweet and honourable flames of divinity secondly that he appeared with an Fles delectationum amoenitâ—s deliciarum veri amoris initium August homil in exurg Mariae A Remarkeable Psalm Psalmus David quando ei terra restituta est Alij quando fundata est terra Dominus regnavit decorem indutus est c. The triumphant glory of the Resurrection Emiss hom 1. in diem Paschae admirable beauty which made that S. dugustine gave him this title The flower of pleasures and the most purified pleasure of all delights the root of holy loves the third consisteth in the lustre of this great name which went from the East to the West from the South to the North filling the world with his wonders It seems this was divinely prophesied in the 29. Psalm which beareth a title very remarkeabe It is a Psalm sung by David to the Messias on the day when his land was restored to him to wit his body was rejoyned to his soul in the possession of glory and therefore he saith according to the paraphrase It is verily on this day our Saviour beginneth an eternal Empire and a supream Monarchy in his militant and triumphant Church It is on this day be cloathed himself with a body endowed with a flourishing beauty with beauty be took an invincible force which hath penetrated even into hell as divinely saith (a) (a) (a) Aeterna nox inferorum Christo descendente resplenduit silüit stridor ille lugentium catenarum disrupta acciderunt vincula damnatorum c. Eusebius
even to the deep and exalt thee above the heavens having my mind employed onely in thy praise O God let me die in my self and live in thy heart and let me receive all that comes from thy providence as gifts from Heaven O God let me persecute my self as an enemie and follow thee as an onely friend O God let me have no assurance but the fear of thy holy Name nor confidence but the diffidence of my self O God when will the day come when thou shalt take away the evil of the Temple that I may behold thee face to face to enjoy thee eternally THE SECOND PART of the CHRISTIAN DIARY The first SECTION Twelve fundamental Considerations of Virtue YOu must firmly believe that the chiefest Devotion consisteth in practise of virtues without which there is neither solid piety nor hope of salvation Paradise holds none but blessed souls and hell the wretched but the world wherein we live hath many kinds of merchants some traffick with Babylon others with Sion some through their ill trading and disorderly carriage go on insensibly to the last misery which is a banishment from the life of God into an eternity of punishment Others go on in a streight line to the first and sovereign happiness which is the vision fruition and possession of God in an eternity of inexplicable joys If you desire to take this latter course I would advise you to set often before you these twelve Considerations which I have inserted in my Book of the Holy Court for in my opinion they are twelve great motives to all actions of virtue The first is the nature and dignity of man that is to say the first and continual study of man ought to be man himself to behold what he was what he is and what he shall be What he was nothing what he is a reasonable creature what he shall be a guest either of Paradise or of hell of eternal happiness or of everlasting misery What he is by Nature a Master-piece in which there are a thousand several motions a Body framed with admirable Architecture a Soul endowed with Understanding Reason Wit Judgement Will Memory Imagination and Opinion a Soul which in an instant flieth from one Pole to the other descends to the centre and mounts up to the top of the world which in one instant is in a thousand several places which fathoms the Universe without touching it which goes glisters sparkles which ransacks all the treasures and magazins of Nature which finds out all sorts of inventions which frameth Arts which governeth States which ordereth worlds This soul in the mean time seeth her passions about her like an infinite company of dogs barking at her happiness and offering on every side to seize upon her with their teeth Love fools her Ambition racks her Covetousness rusts her Lust enflames her Hope tickles her Pleasure melts her Despair depresses her Anger burns her Hatred sowers her Envy gnaws her Jealousies prick her Revenge exasperates her Cruelty hardens her Fears freeze her and Sorrow consumes her This poor soul shut up in the body like a bird of Paradise in a cage is quite amazed to see her self assailed by all this mutinous multitude and although she holds in her hand the scepter of government yet she often suffers her self to be deceived ravished and dragged into a miserable slavery Consider also what man is by sin vanity weakness inconstancy misery and curse What he is made by Grace a child of light an earthly Angel son by adoption to the heavenly Father brother and coheir with Jesus Christ a vessel of election the temple of the Holy Ghost What he may be by Glory an inhabitant of Heaven beholding then those stars under his feet which are now over his head feasted with the sight of God his beginning his end his true onely and original happiness The second the benefits received from God considered in general as those of Creation Conversation Redemption Vocation and in particular the gifts of the body of the soul of nature of capacity ability industry discretion nobility offices authority means credit reputation good success in business and the like which are given us from Heaven as instruments to work out our salvation And sometimes one of the greatest benefits is that which few account a benefit to have none of all those helps which lead a presumptuous weak and worldly soul to ruin but on the contrary their better wants in the esteem of the world beget in him an esteem of heavenly things Man seeing what he was what he is and what he must be whence he cometh whither he goeth and that union with God his beginning is his scope mark and aim if he follow the dictates of his reason presently resolveth that no sinew nor vein he hath but shall tend to this end to subdue his passions and to serve creatures no further than he knows them available to attain to the Creatour Serva commissum expecta promissum cave prohibitum Every creature saith these three things to man O man preserve that which is committed to thee expect that which is promised thee and eschew that which is forbidden thee The third consideration is the Passion of the Son of God an Abyss of grief reproches annihilations love mercy wisdom humility patience charity the book of books the science of sciences the secret of secrets the shop where all good resolutions are forged where all virtues are refined where all knots of holy obligations are tied the school of all Martyrs Confessours and Saints Our weakness and saintness proceeds onely from want of contemplating this infinite tablet Who would once open his mouth to complain of doing too much of suffering too much of being thrown too low too much despised too much disquieted if he considered the life of God delivered over and resigned for his sake to so painful labour so horrible confusions so insupportable torments Nolo vivere sine vulnere cùmte video vulneratum Oh my God! as long as I see thy wounds I will never live without wound saith Bonaventure The fourth the examples of all the Saints who have followed the King in the high way of the Cross When we look upon the progress of Christianity and the succession of so many Ages wheresoever our consideration setteth foot it finds nothing but bloud of Martyrs combats of Virgins Prayers Tears Fastings Sack-cloth Hair-cloth Afflictions Persecutions of so many Saints who have taken Heaven as it were by violence Some there have been who having filled graves with their limbs torn off with engines and swords of persecution yet remained alive to endure and suffer in their bodies which had more wounds than parts Demorabantur in luce detenti quorum membris pleni erant tumuli saith Zeno. Is it not a shame to have the same name the same Baptism the same Profession and to desire ever to tread on Roses to be embarqued in this great ship of Christianity with so many brave spirits and to
before we die let us take order for our soul by repentance and a moderate care of our bodies burial Let us order our goods by a good and charitable Testament with a discreet direction for the poor for our children and kinred to be executed by fit persons Let us put our selves into the protection of the Divine providence with a most perfect confidence and how can we then fear death being in the arms of life Aspirations O Jesus fountain of all lives in whose bosom all things are living Jesus the fruit of the dead who hast destroyed the kingdom of death why should we fear a path which thou hast so terrified with thy steps honoured with thy bloud and sanctified by thy conquests Shall we never die to so many dying things All is dead here for us and we have no life if we do not seek it from thy heart What should I care for death though he come with all those grim hideous and antick faces which men put upon him for when I see him through thy wounds thy bloud and thy venerable death I find he hath no sting at all If I shall walk in the shadow of death and a thousand terrours shall conspire against me on every side to disturb my quiet I will fear nothing being placed in the arms of thy providence O my sweet Master do but once touch the winding sheet of my body which holds down my soul so often within the sleep of death and sin Command me to arise and speak and then the light of thy morning shall never set my discourses shall be always of thy praises and my life shall be onely a contemplation of thy beautifull countenance The Gospel upon Friday the fourth week in Lent S. John 11. Of the raising of Lazarus from death ANd there was a certain sick man Lazarus of Bethania of the Town of Mâ—ry and Martha her sister And Marie vvas she that anointed our Lord vvith ointment and vviped his feet vvith her hair vvhose brother Lazarus vvas sick his sisters therefore sent to him saying Lord behold he vvhom thou lovest is sick And Jesus hearing said to them This sickness is not to death but for the glorie of God that the Son may be glorified by it And Jesus loved Martha and her sister Marie and Lazarus As he heard therefore that he vvas sick then he tarried in the same place two dayes Then after this he saith to his Disciples Let us go into Jewry again The Disciples say to him Rabbi now the Jews sought to stone thee and goest thou thither again Jesus answered Are there not twelve hours of the day If a man vvalk in the day he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this vvorld but if he vvalk in the night he stumbleth because the light is not in him These things he said and after this he saith to them Lazarus our friend sleepeth but I go that I may raise him from sleep His Disciples therefore said Lord if he sleep he shall be safe But Jesus spake of his death and they thought that he spake of the sleeping of sleep Then therefore Jesus said to them plainly Lazarus is dead and I am glad for your sake that you may believe because I vvas not there but let us go to him Thomas therefore vvho is called Didymus said to his condisciples Let us also go to die with him Jesus therefore came and found him now having been four dayes in the grave And Bethania vvas nigh to Jerusalem about fifteen furlongs And many of the Jews vvere come to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother Martha therefore vvhen she heard that Jesus vvas come vvent to meet him but Mary sate at home Martha therefore said to Jesus Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died But now also I know that vvhat things soever thou shalt ask of God God vvill give thee Jesus saith to her Thy brother shall rise again Martha saith to him I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection in the last day Jesus said to her I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me although he be dead shall live And every one that liveth and believeth in me shall not die for ever Believest thou this She said to him Yea Lord I have believed that thou art Christ the Son of God that art come into this vvorld Moralities 1. OUr Saviour Jesus makes here a strong assault upon death to cure our infirmities at the cost of his dearest friends He suffered Lazarus whom he loved tenderly to fall into a violent sickness to teach us that the bodies of Gods favourites are not free from infirmities and that to make men Saints they must not enjoy too much health A soul is never more worthy to be a house for God than when she raiseth up the greatness of her courage the body being cast down with sickness A soul which suffers is a sacred thing All the world did touch our Saviour before his Passion The throng of people pressed upon him but after his death he would not be touched by S. Mary Maudlin because he was consecrated by his dolours 2. The good sisters dispatch a messenger not to a strange God as they do who seek for health by remedies which are a thousand times worse than the disease But they addressed themselves to the living God the God of life and death to drive away death And to recover life they were content onely to shew the wound to the faithfull friendship of the Physician without prescribing any remedies for that is better left to his providence than committed to our passion 3. He defers his cure to raise from death The delay of Gods favours is not always a refusal but sometimes a double liberality The vows of good men are paid with usury It was expedient that Lazarus should die that he might triumph over death in the triumph of Jesus Christ It is here that we should always raise high our thoughts by considering our glory in the state of resurrection he would have us believe it not onely as it is a lesson of Nature imprinted above the skies upon the plants or elements of the world and as a doctrine which many ancient Philosophers had by the light of nature but also as a belief which is fast joyned to the faith we have in the Divine providence which keeps our bodies in trust under its seal within the bosom of the earth so that no prescription of time can make laws to restrain his power having passed his word and raised up Lazarus who was but as one grain of seed in respect of all posterity 4. Jesus wept over Lazarus thereby to weep over us all Our evils were lamentable and could never sufficiently be deplored without opening a fountain of tears within heaven and within the eyes of the Son of God This is justly the river which comes from that place of all pleasure to water Paradise How could those heavenly
And if we must needs forsake this miserable body we then desire to leave it by some gentle and easie death This maketh us plainly see the generosity of our Saviour who being Master of life and death and having it in his power to chuse that manner of death which would be least hydeous being of it self full enough of horrour yet nevertheless to conform himself to the will of his heavenly Father and to confound our delicacies he would needs leave his life by the most dolorous and ignominious which was to be found among all the deaths of the whole world The Cross among the Gentiles was a punishment for slaves and the most desperate persons of the whole world The Cross amongst the Hebrews was accursed It was the ordinary curse which the most uncapable and most malicious mouthes did pronounce against their greatest enemies The death of a crucified man was the most continual languishing and tearing of a soul from the body with most excessive violence and agony And yet the Eternal Wisdom chose this kind of punishment and drank all the sorrows of a cup so bitter He should have died upon some Trophey and breathed out his last amongst flowers and left his soul in a moment and if he must needs have felt death to have had the least sense of it that might be But he would trie the rigour of all greatest sufferings he would fall to the very bottom of dishonour and having ever spared from himself all the pleasures of this life to make his death compleat he would spare none of those infinite dolours The devout Simon of Cassia asketh our Saviour going toward Mount Calvarie saying O Lord whither go you with the extream weight of this dry and barren piece of wood Whither do you carry it and why Where do you mean to set it Upon mount Calvary That place is most wild stony how will you plant it Who shall water it Jesus answers I bear upon my shoulders a piece of wood which must conquer him who must make a far greater conquest by the same piece of wood I carry it to mount Calvarie to plant it by my death and water it with my bloud This wood which I bear must bear me to bear the salvation of all the world and to draw all after me And then O faithfull soul wilt not thou suffer some confusion at thine own delicacies to be so fearfull of death by an ordinary disease in a doun-bed amongst such necessary services such favourable helps consolations and kindnesses of friends so sensible of thy condition We bemoan and complain our selves of heat cold distaste of disquiet of grief Let us allow some of this to Nature yet must it be confest that we lament our selves very much because we have never known how we should lament a Jesus Christ crucified Let us die as it shall please the Divine Providence If death come when we are old it is a haven If in youth it is a direct benefit antedated If by sickness it is the nature of our bodies If by external violence it is yet always the decree of Heaven It is no matter how many deaths there are we are sure there can be but one for us 2. Consider further the second condition of a good death which consists in the forsaking of all creatures and you shall find it most punctually observed by our Saviour at the time of his death Ferrara a great Divine who hath written a book of the hidden Word toucheth twelve things abandoned by our Saviour 1. His apparrel leaving himself naked 2. The marks of his dignitie 3. The Colledge of his Apostles 4. The sweetness of all comfort 5. His own proper will 6. The authority of virtues 7. The power of Angels 8. The perfect joys of his soul 9. The proper clarity of his body 10. The honors due to him 11. His own skin 12. All his bloud Now do but consider his abandoning the principal of those things how bitter it was First the abandoning of nearest and most faithfull friends is able to afflict any heart Behold him forsaken by all his so well-beloved Disciples of whom he had made choice amongst all mortal men to be the depositaries of his doctrine of his life of his bloud If Judas be at the mystery of his Passion it is to betray him If S. Peter be there assisting it is to deny him If his sorrowfull mother stand at the foot of the Cross it is to increase the grief of her Son and after he had been so ill handled by his cruel executioners to crucifie him again by the hands of Love The couragious Mother to triumph over her self by a magnanimous constancy was present at the execution of her dear Son She fixed her eyes upon all his wounds to engrave them deep in her heart She opened her soul wide to receive that sharp piercing sword with which she was threatened by that venerable old Simeon at her Purification And Jesus who saw her so afflicted for his sake felt himself doubly crucified upon the wood of the Cross and the heart of his dear Mother We know it by experience that when we love one tenderly his afflictions and disgraces will trouble us more than our own because he living in us by an affectionate life we live in him by a life of reason and election Jesus lived and reposed in the heart of his blessed Mother as upon a Throne of love and as within a Paradise of his most holy delights This heart was before as a bed covered with flowers But this same heart on the day of his Passion became like a scaffold hanged with mourning whereupon our Saviour entered to be tormented and crucified upon the cross of love which was the Cross of his Mother This admirable Merchant who descended from Heaven to accomplish the business of all Ages who took upon him our miseries to give us felicities was plunged within a sea of bloud and in this so precious shipwrack there remained one onely inestimable pearl which was his divine Mother and yet he abandons her and gives her into the hand of his Disciple After he had forsaken those nearest to him see what he does with his body Jesus did so abandon it a little before his death that not being content onely to deliver it as a prey to sorrow but he suffered it to be exposed naked to the view of the world And amongst his sharpest dolours after he had been refused the drink which they gave to malefactours to strengthen them in their torments he took for himself vinegar and gall O what a spectacle was it to see a body torn in pieces which rested it self upon its own wounds which was dying every moment but could not die because that life distilled by drops What Martyr did ever endure in a body so sensible and delicate having an imagination so lively and in such piercing dolours mixt with so few comforts And what Martyr did suffer for all the sins of the
imitate your Graces profitable and well-seasoned retirements I wish excellent Lady there were any thing wherein I might better expresse the devoted service I ow to your eminent self and illustrious Family but since weak endeauours can produce but slender effects and noble dispositions do readily pardon incident imperfections I will rest in the cheerefull hope of Excuse and in the ardent Vow of a studious willingnesse to become worthy the Title of Your Graces humblest and most obsequious servant THOMAS HAWKINS To my Lord MY LORD THE DUKE OF ANGVIEN ELDEST SONNE OF MY LORD THE PRINCE MY LORD I Finish the Holy-Court in my Books when your age inviteth you to begin it in your manners and for your first exercise of arms I offer you the Combats and Empire over Passions which is greater then that of the world There it is where you shall know the industry of a warre which nature wageth and reason teacheth us which is never too soon learned and which is ordinarily but too late understood Princes in other battels speak with mouths of fire and make use of a million of hands but in this which I represent they are alone and therein employ but the moitie of themselves one part of Man being revolted against the other Besides all the honour of the uictory rests in themselves arms fortresses and Regiments not at all participating therein and if they prove fortunate in these encountres they stand in the esteem of wise men for Demy-Gods Their quality obligeth them to this duty more then other men since Passions are winds which in popular life raise but little waves but in them stir up mountains of water For which I am perswaded that as you so dearly have loved the labours of my Pen and sought for your instruction out of my Books I could not do a better service or more suitable to your age then by arming you against these plagues which have so often tarnished Diadems on the brow of Cesars and turned Conquerours into Slaves Sir I promise my self much from your Greatnesse in this Conquest seeing it already hath given testimonies to the world worthy of your eminent Birth which oblige you to virtue out of a necessity as strong as your disposition is sweet VVit which is as the principall Genius of your house hath in you cast forth glimmers that have flown throughout Europe when you publickly answered throughout all Philosophy in an age wherein other Princes begin to learn the first elements You have placed wisedome on the highest Throne of Glory and it by your mouth hath rendred Oracles to instruct the learned and astonish Doctours In the first season of life which so many other spend in delights you have heightned the lights of your understanding by the labour and industry of study living as certain Plants which bear the figure of Starres all invironed with Thorns It is time that all your Brightnesse change into Fire and since Sciences are but Colours which appeare not in the night-time if Virtue do not illuminate them they must be gilded with the rayes of your good life and enkindled with the ardours of your courage as you very happily have already begun Sir I do assure my self that of all those things you know you will onely approve the good and that of all such as you can you will do none but the just This is it you owe to the King to whom you have the honour to be so near This is it which the education of the most prudent of Fathers and the tender care of the best of mothers exact This is it that France which looketh on you as a Sien of its Lillies wisheth This is it which bloud the mostnoble on Earth breeding the most happy in the world and that face where Grace and Majesty make so sweet a commixion cease not to promise us As there is nothing little in you so we must not endure any thing imperfect and if that which we take to be spots in the Sun be Stars it plainly sheweth us that all must be splendour in your condition and that we must not expect years since the wit of Princes in much swifter then time Your great Vncle who gained the battel of Cerisoles said to those who upbraided him with his youth that he did not cut with his beard but with his sword and I am perswaded that you will imitate his valour to take part in his glory yea even in this your minority wherein the Kings colours being already to fly under your name My Lord remember the throne of the Sun among the Egyptians was supported by Lyons and that you must be all heart to support that of our most Christian King in imitation of the great Prince to whom you ow your Birth For whose sake I wish you as many blessings as Heaven promiseth you esteeming my self most happy to be able to contribute my labours and services to the glory of your education since I have the honour to call my self by just title SIR Your most humble and most affectionate servant in our Lord N. CAUSSIN A TASTE OF THE SEVERALL DISPOSITIONS OF MEN VVhich serves for a Foundation to the Discourse of PASSIONS THE HOLY COURT was not as yet sufficiently beautified with the eminent lustre of Glory wherein I represented it but it was necessary that taking possession of the Empire over passions it should wear a crown which it hath gained by its travell and wrought by its proper virtues In this last Tome dear Reader I present thee the absolute reformation of the soul by eternall principles and the victory over powers which oppose Reason Thou art not ignorant that Angels and bruit beasts are but of one piece the one being wholly Spirit and the other Flesh But Man a middle creature between Angels and bruit beasts participateth both of flesh and Spirit by an admirable tye which in him occasioneth continuall war of Passions which are properly commotions of animall and sensitive nature caused by the imagination of good and evil with some alteration of body They take their origen from two Appetites of which the Concupiscible causeth Love Hatred Desire Aversion Joy and Sadnesse The Irascible causeth Hope Despair Boldnesse Fear and Anger To this ordinary number I add Shamefastnesse Envy Jealousie and Compassion to accomplish our work in all its parts All Passions are generally in all men but all appear not in all There is a certain mixture in nature which is the cause that the worst have something of good and the best something of bad Now note that as the Platonists distinguish five sorts of divels to wit Fiery Airy Aquatick Terrestriall and Subterranean so humane spirits are divided into as many forms which produce merveilous diversities in every nature The Fiery are Spirits of fire whereof some seem to be enkindled with the purest flames of stars which are magnanimous pure vigorous bold intelligent active amiable and munâ—ficent And of this sort are the most illustrious of Kings and of Queens
War they are the Gods of Loves and battels who pronounce Edicts assemble Councels levy Arms raise fortifications correct Kingdomes move the earth and in their own imagination change the face of the Vniverse Others are so diligent that they tire all the world with their unreasonable activities others use afflicting delayes and stir so little in all their designs that they seem to be in a perpetuall Solstice You see some extreamly open breasted who tell all their thoughts and as if their heart were a sieve it keeps nothing which it sends not instantly out by the lips Some proceed to a simplicity next door to sottishnesse which makes them do many extravagancies and when it hath a mixture of vanity men of mean condition imitate the actions of the great and silly Citizens wives say my Lord and Husband as well as Sarah or the greatest Ladies There are among these some subtile Coxcombs and fortunate fools who duily deceive themselves to their own gain They who have a Magistrall aspect are much more odious when with a countenance supercilious and Tone of a voyce affected they make speeches and usurp a personage which neither age quality nor merit alloweth them Dreamers and pensive are heavie in conversation and the squeamish who make their good aspects and fair countenances to be bought are insupportable but the apprehensive who deplore all things multiply what they can the miseries of the times and ceasing not to blame the actions of those who govern raise more mischiefs then remedies Good God! what an alteration do passions make in us but it is a gift from heaven that they may be changed and that by Grace and the practice of good instructions we can despoil our selves as well of an evil habit as of an old garment It is not expedient to be without passion nor is it possible to humane nature but it is much to obtein by discretion the moderation of a thing of which we by necessity have the experience These motions are given us with our bodies they are little spirits which are born and die with us some find them more mild others more wayward but every one hath his part howbeit there are very few who well understand their own portion Young people who shew no desire no affection no feeling are commonly abject spirits unlesse this come to them by grace or some notable constraint which in the end is the cause that of a young Angel an old Devil is often made we must not lose humanity saith Saint Augustine to acquire tranquility of mind nor think that that which is hard and boistrous is alwayes right or that one hath much health when he is come to the highest degree of stupidity All good spirits have delicate apprehensions and resemble the burning bush which had thorns among lights but they are none of the best who to follow nature abandon reason I assirm the Starres contribute much to our inclinations and Birth much more Education maketh another nature Bloud choler melancholy and flegme do in our passions what the elements do in our bodies Yea stature it self conduceth spirit goodnesse grace full garb and courage is very often in little bodies which have their heat moderated and well digested But if great bodies be destitute of it they are very lazy and if they have too much of it they are flaming fornaces full of violence which made S. Cyril say that greatnesse was given to Gyants for a punishment of their wickednesse But this must be understood without any prejudice to well-composed tall statures which have much Majesty There are humours so sticking that what care soever be used there is somewhat still remains behind which according to Job sleeps with us in our graves I have heard that a good Religious man having been bred with the milk of a Goat was very modest in publick by a great reflection he made on his actions But he ever had some hour in secret wherein he had his frisks and his capers Neverthelesse one cannot believe how much one gaineth upon his own nature when he will take the pain to manure it but for want of using industry therein one makes to himself a turbulent life a continuall torment a hasty death and his salvation to be doubtfull There are some who drive away one devil by another curing one passion with another and tyring them all that they may have none which was the cause that Theodosian said that they are as that possessed man who had a legion of devils in his body Some by the counsell of certain Directours would break them all at once as that souldier who thought to pull off a horses tail by strength of arm and not by drawing one hair after another Others expect remedy from time from affairs from change of life and condition and are rather cured by wearinesse then prudence Others continually flatter themselves and think they have got great victories when they have lessened their fits and left the root of the Feaver But they who will therein proceed seriously endeavour first of all to find out the enemy and as we all have one passion which predominateth in our heart above the rest and which most entertaineth our thoughts they principally assail that waging to rough battels by prayer fasting alms consideration reading of good books continuall examen of conscience flight from occasions diversion upon some better thing good company imitation of holy personages counsel of sage directours and by a thousand stratagems which the spirit of God furnisheth them with in the fruitfulnesse of their inventions After they have pulled down their chief adversary they easily prevail against the rest and continuing their progression in the list of generous souls they come in the end to a great tranquility This is it I intend to shew in this last volume wherein I treat of Passions in a new tone my purpose being rather to shew their remedies then their pictures I know Monsiour Coeseteau the eloquent Bishop of Marseilles who hath afforded immortall lights to French eloquence hath set forth the Table of humane passions I lay not my pencil upon the line of this Apelles I begin where he ends and if he be content to paint them I endeavour to cure them For this purpose having briefly explicated the nature proprieties effects and symptomes of every passion I set against it two remedies the first whereof is drawn from some divine perfection contrary to the disorder of the same Passion and because that is yet too sharp and dazling by the quicknesse of its lights I shew it sweetned and tempered in the virtues of Jesus Christ In the end of the Book I bring the examples of those who have overcome their Passions and of such as have sunk under their violence deriving profit out of all for the scope which I aim at There are certain Flies which live on Monks-hood a venemous herb and who make use of an antidote against its poyson So they who have tried the malice
when it comes to extend it self in the world and to draw it to it The natâ—â—e of love Lib. 1 de civit â—8 Amor inhians labere quâ—â— amatuâ— cupiditâ— est idem â—mor habens cóque fruenâ— letitia est fugiens quod adversatur el timor est quod si acciderit eitristitia est proinde mala sunt ista si malus est amor bona si bonus self it is called love But if you consider it in the condition wherein it gathereth together all Creatures to the first cause and makes its works re-ascend to God they say it then takes the name of Pleasure which is a most happy satisfaction of to all Nature in its Authour So love is a circle which turns from good to good by an everlasting revolution Now if you desire I should in few words explicate the nature thereof its origen progresse causes qualities and effects you must observe a notable doctrine of S. Augustine who saith That Love whilest it is in the search of what it loveth is called Desire and when it enjoyeth the thing beloved it is changed into joy But if it avoid that thing which is contrary to it either in effect or opinion it is Fear and if the Fear hath its effect by the arrivall of the evil it apprehendeth it turns into Sadnesse This love takes sundry countenances according to divers Circumstances I agree all this is said with good reason yet notwithstanding we must affirm with divines that this Oracle of Doctours hath in this difinition rather comprised the cause the effects and progresses of love then its essence and nature For to speak properly love is neither Desire Fear Joy nor Sadnesse but A Complacence of the Appetite or will in an object conveniont 5. Definition of love either according to verity or apparence But if we will speak more generally we say it is nothing but an inclination Richard de Medvill dist 27. l. 3. Art 1. q. 1. propending and moving to a good which is conform to it For by the definition we include all the kinds of love which are divided principallly into three branches to wit Naturall Animall and Reasonable It s division love Naturall love consisteth in things inanimate which have their sympathies and Antipathies As Palmes male and female Amber and straw Iron and the Adamant Animall love is that Beginning which giveth motion to the sensitive appetite of beasts to seek for that which is fit for them and to be pleased in the enjoying what they fought for Reasonable love is an Act which pursueth and accepteth the good represented by the understanding wherein we may also comprehend Angelicall and Divine love which S. Denis addeth to these three kinds whereof we speak Reasonable love is also divided into love of Amity and love of Concupiscence Love of Amity which wisheth good to the thing beloved for it self without enquiry into its own proper interesse As when it desired to one Health knowledge grace virtues wealth honours without pretence of any benefit to it self This Gabriel d. 27. q. 1. l. 3. is to affect with a love of amity which is very rare now a daies so mercenary are affections and when this love is not onely Affective as Divines speak contenting it self with bare desires but Effective by plentifully opening hauds to liberality it mounteth to a huge degree of Complacence Love of Concupiscence is an interessed love which causeth one to love a thing not for it self but for the pleasure and commodity derived from it or to be hoped in time to be dersved from it So the Horseman desireth beauty strength and courage in his horse and dog not for their sakes but his own contentment Such love is worldly love commonly defiled with base and animall consideration nor is ever purified but when it for God loveth that which cannot in it self be lovely Behold the nature and Essence of Love in its whole latitude Now to speak of the proceedings of the soul in its loves The first step it makes when it beginneth to love is the degree of the conformity of the will with The steps and progressions of â—ove the good is proposed The senses imagination understanding give it notice of some Beauty Goodnesse or Commoditie which it conceiveth to be fit for it Thereupon it beginneth to take fire and to have sparks of desires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which make it to wish the good proposed unto it Thence it passeth to the second Degree which is that of Sharp-sweet Complacence which pleasingly each moment holds it fixed upon the thoughts of its object Sometimes between hope to possesse it another while between fear to lose it and many other passions which accompany this as yet suffering Complacence From this degree it goes to the third which is inqui +sitioâ— and motion where love putteth on wings to fly speedily into the bosome of its repose employing all possible means for its contentment and if it be favoured in its pursuit it advanceth to the fourth degree which is union esteemed the principall scope of Amities From this union ariseth another Complacence which is not painfull and dolorous but satisfied and pleased in the fruition of its object which is the heighth of love By the sides of love are lodged Beauty and Goodnesse for that as S. Denis saith they are the objects Its causes and motive of love which are so allied together that the Grecians call them by one self same name The Sages have ever sought for the true causes which dispose the wils of men to love and there are many different opinions upon this point Some hold it is a quality which God imprinteth on nature others imagine it comes from the aspect of starres and from divers constellations Others make it to proceed from Parents and education others from a certain Harmony and consonancy of hearts which meeting in accord upon the same Tone have a naturall correspondence Lastly the Maxime of Divines and Philosophers much swayeth which saith that Fair and Good make all loves I hold that to accord these opinions a notable distinction must be made of three loves which we have proposed in the beginning to wit Naturall Animall and Reasonable Forasmuch as concerneth Naturall or Animall love besides the order of nature it is God which giveth to each creature necessary inclinations to arrive at their end Well there may be influency of starres which bear sway over humours and bodies and with the starres bands of bloud temperature of Humours education and secret qualities which tie creatures with the knot of a certain love the cause whereof is not well known For how many are there who love things which are neither lovely nor good I not onely say in effect but in their own opinion and judgement yet are they thereunto fastned by some Tie nor can they free themselves from it but by the absolute power of Reason Do we not daily find by experience that a Man who is
ignorant what answer to give unto the Emperour Ah Sir said she I see you are much hindered in a brave way if it onely rest in your wife that you be not great and happy I freely deprive my self of all yea of your company which is more precious to me then all the Empires of the world rather then prejudice your fortune For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 know I love you better then my self And saying this she cut off her hair and voluntarily entred into a Monastery which the other was willing enough to suffer preferring ambition before love a matter very ordinary among great ones Out of all this it may be inferred that women are to be found very virtuous and most constant in their affections But the question I proposed in the second place if in case it so fall out whether amities may be fixed out of marriage between sex and sex is a passage very dangerous and worldlings must not think it strange if I look into it with much precantion It is Rodomanto of Pelagius Jerem in Pelagium a pleasant thing to hear how Pelagius the Arch-heretick talks in S. Jerome For he makes a Rhodomantade suteable to a spirit swoln up with pride and blinded within the opinion of his own worth There are saith he who shut themselves within cells and never see the face of any one woman yet suffer themselves to be enslamed with love and tormented with desires which may very well happen for they are miserable creatures who well deserve to be so handled As for me I freely professe I am daily environed with an host of women and feel not the least spark of concupiscence S. Basil S. Basil de Virginitaâ—e Inclination of sex to sex was of another opinion when he sheweth that a man who perpetually converseth with women and saith he feeleth not any touch thereof participateth not at all of humane nature but rather is some extraordinary prodigie For as he learnedly disputeth in the Book he composed of Virginity the body of a woman is as it were a section and a fragment of that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dangerous autractives in the conversation with women the first man which is the cause he naturally desireth her as a part taken from himself The palm hath not more inclination to the palm nor the iron to the adamant then one sex hath towards another When God created the mother of the living it is written he built as if the Scripture would say That woman is a house Aedificavit dominus costam quà m tulerat de Adam in mulierem Gen. 2. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Basil ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. paedag l. 3. wherein the heart of man lodgeth but too often Sole glances saith this great man are spirituall hands which cause wonderfull effects From thence the first battery of Concupiscence beginneth as saith Clemens Alexandrinus Adde that after the corruption of sinne we have in us an evil source of carnall desire which floweth from the bottome of our soul by our five senses as by so many conduit-pipes Nature is extremely subtil and busie and when one hath a hundred times together by strong hand chased it away a hundred times it returneth It insinuates it self it presseth forward with sweet violences with charming sweetnesses it insensibly spinneth the web and doth what it list Moreover it is seconded with a certain curiosity to know all that which is most pernicious to it It kicketh against the laws of honesty and modesty and thinks the forbiddance of an evil is the greatest of all torments It will know too much to be chaste and makes a snare to it self of proper science O God of purity how many do we now adayes see who to give entrance to a wicked curiosity through too free conversation receive as many wounds as they give glances and as many deaths as beauty shoots arrows against them Solomon who well knew the effect of this passion said Thy eyes shall see forreign women and thy heart shall Prov. 23. Oculi tui videbunt extraneas cor tuum loquetur perversa c. entertain a very evil discourse within thee Thou shalt be as one fast asleep in the midst of the waves of the sea or as a lazy plot who oppressed with drowsinesse hath forsaken the helm Thou wilt say It is true they struck me but I feel no pain of it They have drawn me this way and that way but I am not sensible of it when shall I be awakened to be again drunk with love and to return to my accustomed pleasures See how a senslesse soul talketh which having not well guarded its senses in the first assault delivereth the heart over as a prey and sinks into the bottome of Abysse But to rest within the limits of honest Modest amities with women should alwayes be handled with much precaution amities it is undoubted one cannot use too much precaution so subtil and penetrative are the stings thereof especially when it is sharpned by Beauty Bounty and Benefits Yea misery therein doth sometimes bear so sensible a part that a beautifull and virtuous woman being in her innocency afflicted shooteth Magnus amor est qui de misericordia venit 8. Cant. 6. arrows of victorious love into the heart of man And very well the Philosopher Seneca hath observed that love is great when it grows out of commiseration It is true which Cassidorus said in the book of Cassiod de amicitia Amity that one affection degenerateth insensibly into another Love in the beginning is wholly divine then it becometh humane being yet within the limits of reason From humane it passeth to naturall wherein Degeneration-amity it quickly feels the sting of nature and the first fervour of Concupiscence From naturall it becometh officious entertaining it self with discourses complements complacence offices and services From officious it most times becometh carnall and from carnall absolutely unchaste Iamblichus a Philosopher very curious saith that Observation of Iamblichus applied to the amities of women those who professed to consult with spirits by this divine operation as is pretended saw in the beginning obscurities spectres and night but persisting in their search they perceived the air by little and little waxed bright with a pleasing serenity and the apparitions became more lightsome It falleth out quite otherwise in the matter of Amities indiscreetly tied with women For at first those shevvs are fair and specious but the issues of them if one be not heedfull are black and hideous A soul vuhich feareth God might sometimes be very confident among such as make profession to be none of the honestest because it is prevented by some aversion which hindereth its perdition but virtue consorted by sweet disposition hath another manner of power for it insinuateth it self into the soul with admirations and satisfactions which attract the inclination before the consideration can be permitted to frame
scatter in the air to serve as instruments and hands to their attractions This being common to other natures of plants metals and living creatures we must not think but that the body of man participateth therein by reason of its vivacity and the multitude of pores which give a more easie passage to such emissions There then cometh forth a spirituous substance which is according to Marsilius Ficinus a vapour of bloud pure subtil hot and clear more strong or weak according to the interiour agitation of spirits which carrieth along with it some quality of a temperate friendly and convenient which Marsilius Ficinus l. 1. de vita c. 2. insinuating it self into the heart and soul doth if it there find a disposition of conformity abide as a seed cast into the earth or as a Leaven which swelleth up a piece of dough and forms this love of correspondence with an admirable promptnesse and vigour From thence it cometh that brothers many times feel motions and affections of tendernesse one for another Surius without knowing each other as it happened to S. Justus who knew his brother Justinian among sundry slaves who were at the chain by this notice without any other fore-judgement Thence it comes that at first we are passionate for persons we never saw and that we wish them well though they alwayes have not so much grace nor beauty but there is some relation of humour which weaveth the web and tieth such affections All nature is full of such communications which are effects of Sympathy observed in the Corall which sensibly changeth according to his disposition who hath it about him as also in the flesh of beasts which boileth in the powdring-tub at the time of the fury of dogs because they have been bitten by a mad dog And in wine which seems to be sprinkled all over with certain white flowers when the vines are in blossome So it happeneth that the spirits which do in our bodies Modification of the opinion who place love onely in transpiration Species forma semel per oâ—ulos illigaâ—a vix magni luctaminis manu solviter Hieron in Threnos cap. 3. what the winds do in Nature being transpired from one body to another and carrying in their wings qualities consonant do infallibly excite and awaken the inclinations But it is not credible or at least ordinary that this manner of working should be as in things inanimate and that it hath nothing to do with the senses for it is principally the eyes which are interressed therein breathing thence the most thin spirits and darting forth the visuall rayes as the arrows of love which penetrate the heart are united confounded and lost one within another then heating the bloud they strike the Imagination and attract wills which are so linked one to another that one cannot perceive the knot which so fast tied them together If transpiration alone of spirit indifferently proceeding from all the parts of the body were able to enflame concupiscence we must then say that a blind man set at a certain distance from a perfect beauty would become enamoured with beholding it hearing it smelling it couching it or by any sense understanding it which notwithstanding happeneth not in that manner and if nature thus proceeded and that this passion were to be taken as a Contagion we might extreamly fear the approch of bodies and persist in continuall apprehensions to be infected by them It is certain that the senses being well guarded shut up all the gates against love A Guard over the senses since the Imagination it self stirreth not but upon their report but after they yield themselves up by a too familiar conversation and resign their defences a terrible havock is made in the mind for love entereth thereunto as a Conquerour into a surprized City and imprinteth that pleasing face in every drop of the masse of bloud It engraveth it on the Imagination It figureth it on every thought and there is nothing any longer entire in the mind which is not divided between slavery and frenzy § 7. The effects of Sensuall Love IT is a strange thing that this fury hath a thousand hands and a thousand attractives a thousand wayes of working quite different and many times opposite It takes by the eyes by the ears by the imagination by chance of purpose by flying pressing forward honouring insulting by complacence and by disdain Sometimes also it layes hold by tears by laughing by modesty by audacity by confidence by carelessenesse by wiles by simplicity by speech and by silence Sometimes it assaileth in company sometimes in solitude at windows at grates in Theatres and in Cabinets at Bals at sports in a feast at a Comedy sometimes at Church at prayers in acts of Penance And who can assure us against it without the protection of God Eustatius the Interpreter of Homer saith there are some who feign Love to be the sonne of the wind and the Rainbow in Heaven in my opinion to signifie unto us its Inconstancy and diversified colours and this beautifull Iris in the beginning appears all in Rubies in Diamonds and Emeralds over our heads afterward to cause rain and tempests So love shewing it self at first with such bright semblances to our senses occasioneth storms and corruption in our minds Observe one transfixed with violent love and you The miserable state of one passionately in love Insomnia aetumnae terror fuga stultitià que adeò temerâ—tas in cogitantia excors immodestia c. Plautus in Moâ—cat shall find he hath all that in his love which Divines have placed in Hell darkenesse Flames the worm of Conscience an ill Savour Banishment from the sight of God You shall see a man whose mind is bewitched brain dislocated and Reason eclipsed All he beholdeth all he meditateth on all he speaketh all he dreameth is the creature he loveth He hath her in his head and heart painted graved carved in all the most pleasing forms For her he sometimes entereth into quakings sometimes into faintings another while into fits of fire and Ice He flieth in the air and instantly is â—â—enged in the Abysse He attendeth he espieth He fears He hopes he despairs He groneth he sigheth He blusheth he waxeth pale He doteth in the best company He talks to woods and fountains He writeth He blots out He teareth He lives like a spectre estranged from the conversation of men Repast is irksome to him and Repose which charmeth all the cares of the world is not made for him Still this fair one still this cruell one tormenteth him and God maketh him a whip of the thing he most loveth Yet is this more strange in the other sex which hath naturally more inclimation to honesty A Lady chaste or a Virgin well-bred who begins to wax cold in the love of God and in the exercise of devotion and takes too much liberty in her conversation with men finds her self insensibly surprized by the eyes and ears by
the Divinity Our soul which is the blast of his mouth the image of his bounty the representation of his power as it beareth so lively characters of his Majesty hath as it were also not heeding it a generous passion towards him unlesse it be infected by the breath of the serpent and obstructed by vapours of sensualty it seeks for him it speaks to him in all creatures It beholdeth him through so many veils which nature hath spread before it in so divers objects But it often falleth out that charmed with present pleasures it is so much delighted with beautifull workmanships that it forgetteth the work-man It embraceth momentary beauties for eternall verities It takes the shadow for the body It creates to it self an Empire in banishment and a haven in shipwrack This carnall piece which is ravished with the contemplation of this goodly face will not stay upon flesh It feeleth there is some invisible hand which shoots arrows at it amidst the vermilion of roses and the whitenesse of lillies it well knoweth not what transports it what entranceth it what worketh these transanimations in it It is not the body which must rot but it is the shadow of the first-fair upholds it self in the frailty of dying things and incessantly causeth returns to the first origen in souls which know how to profit by theri wounds O how attractive is the Beautie O should it on a sudden take away the veil from all mortall eyes who court it the world in an instant would dissolve under its much to be adored rayes souls would fly out of bodies and totall nature would impetuously affect its delights It is so naturally imprinted on the heart of man that Hell it self cannot forget it since the evil rich man laid on the coals of so unfortunate a lodging did for his first act lift up his eyes to heaven as desirous to look for the lovely face which he had eternally lost Secondly I will deliver an excellent reason which I Aug. l. 2. conf c 6. An excellent reason of S. Augustine to shew the inclination we have to love God draw out of S. Augustine to convince us that there is some very forcible inclination which insensibly moveth us to the love of God which is the cause that even our vices and exorbitancies not reflecting thereon love some perfection of the Divinity although not regulated nor limited in the bounds wherewith it ought to be beloved Pride contends for heighth and what is higher then God who sits upon Thrones predominateth over Dominations who governeth Principalities and makes Heaven bow even to the Abysse under the shadow of his Majesty Ambition passionately seeketh after honours and who hath more honour then God who seeth glory to be hatched in his own bosome for whome so many Altars smoke for whom so many sacrifices burn under whom so many Diadems bow to whow so many Sceptres obey before whom so many States Kingdomes and Empires are but a drop of dew Power will make it self great and who is more formidable then this great Judge for whom Thunders roar Lightnings fly Thunder-stones shiver lofty rocks for whom elements fight and nature dresseth up its scaffolds to prosecute offenders even in hell there being neither Place Time Heighth or Power which hath ability to deliver it self out of his hands Flattery and Complacence will make it self to be beloved and what is more lovely then the sweetnesse of the charity of this good Father which distilleth like unto a celestiall Manna upon all the creatures of the Universe Curiosity affecteth the study of wisdome And what is wiser then God who seeth all within himself who hath Abysses of knowledges in his heart riches of eternall sapience in his bosome for whom Time hath no prescription nature no veil Heighth no heighth and abysses no depth Who is the Father of Sciences Creatour of thoughts Treasure of Eloquence who dazeleth all humane Ability who taketh his Sages from among Ideots and out of the dumb raiseth his Oratours Lazynesse seeks out a life soft and peacefull continually fixed upon its repose and the contentments of the flesh and spirit and where shall we find the repose out of God since it is he who is perpetually ingulphed in the delights of a pure tranquillity Luxury ardently desireth pleasures and will satisfie all the desires of its heart And God is he not the plenitude of joy an abundance which never fails a sweetnesse incorruptible a feast which consumeth not a perpetuall Theatre of comsorts a Flood of most pure contentments which floweth overall Paradise Avarice will possesse much it stretcheth out the hands of a Harpy over the goods of another It garboileth the world it disquieteth the earth It would willingly delve into hell it pleadeth it wrangleth it assails it defendeth to satiate its covetousnesse yet still is hungry For what is he that possesseth all but the prime of the rich who is the beauty of fields the lustre of flowers the fecundity of fruits the wealth of minerals and the fertility of totall nature Envie is troubled about supereminency and will have the highest place accounting him an enemy who precedeth And is it not the eternall Father who is King of Glory who seeth all to be much lower then himself and seeth nothing beyond what he is Choler will revenge for it it striketh at heaven it troubleth the earth it causeth lightning and tempests which raise so many Tragedies in the world And who better knowes how to avenge sins then the soveraign Monarch of the Universe for whom exterminating Angels carry the sword of Justice for whom hell reserveth treasures of flames eternall Now I demand of you if it be true that even our Tantus est ille ut qui non amant eum injustâ— quidem non nisi quoddam ejus amare possint S. Eucherius Objection about the invisibâ—lity of God Mercur. Trism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That God renders himself infinitely amiable in totall nature Synesius Hymn 4. Naturam universam lyram aeâ—erni Patris vocat diversis fidibus intentam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ubi alludit ad chordas cytharae hypatem mesen neten The sun the image of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orpheo Boni conspicuus filius conspicuum in templo mundi Dei simula chrumâ— Platonicis Proclus thronum justitiae in medio sole collocat vices are in love with some perfections which are in God how can our virtues but bear a singular affection towards him why should they not be enamoured of his beauties why not sigh after his attractives since they are his reall daughters Some one will say it were but reasonable if God to make himself beloved would become visible to men but he is a secret so hidden that our poor spirit seeking for him finds more confusion then light Verily I like Mercury Trismegistus for he stopping his mouth who complained of the invisibility of God Hold thy peace thou profane fellow saith he and if thou hast
eyes confesse God is visible and that he sheweth himself in as many mirrours as there are creatures in this great Universe A man needs to be a Philosopher but a little to learn to love let him see know and study nature in all its works let him hear the harmonies of Gods consort to understand in some measure the perfections of the workman Those little golden and azure shels which make a lodging for certain fishes more magnificent then Solomons Palace Those cob-web-lawns and those tiffanies which compose the body of flowers with an exquisite delicacy Those waves which curle on the current of rivers those gentle western blasts which bear comfort and health on their wings those huge theatres of seas that vast extent of plains those meteors so artificially varied those little eyes of heaven which shew themselves so soon as night spreads its mantle on the inferiour regions of the world all that is seen all that is heard all that is touched all that is handled cease not to recount unto us the love of our Father One must never have seen the sun not to have love for God he must have lived like a hog with his head in the mire and his eyes in a trough to say he knoweth not what the Divinity is To speak truly this great starre is the visible sonne of the first Bright the Image of the sovereign King the eye of the world the heart of nature it daily speaketh to us out of the gates of the East with as many tongues as it hath raies This great supervisor of the fornaces of the universe travelleth throughout totall nature He lighteth up the stars in heaven he createth crowns and rain-bowes in the air on earth flowers and fruits in the sea pearls and in the bosome of rocks saphires and diamonds he throws fire and vigour into all living creatures his presence causeth alacrity and his absence insensibly horrour and melancholy in all nature His motion so rapid his circumvolution so even that so regular harmony of nights and dayes those reflections which are as fathers of so many Essences set the whole Divinity before our eyes O what a goodly thing it is to talk face to face with those great forrests which are born with the world to discourse with the murmur of waters the warbling of birds in the sweetnesse of solitude and of so many creatures which according to S. Denis are the veils and Tapistries of the great Temple There it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Dyonisius c. 1. Hierar coelestis where God accoasteth on all sides where our soul is stirred up with its own thoughts dischargeth it self of matter and entreth into a great commerce with Intelligencies When I behold all the perquisites of Organs where Musick is in perfection I stay not on the Iron Lead Wood the Piper nor on the bellows my spirit flyeth to that hidden spirit which distributeth it self with so melodious proportionable divisions throughout the whole Instrument So when I contemplate the world I stick not on the body of the Sun the stars the elements the stones the metals the plants nor the living creatures I penetrate into that secret spirit which insinuateth it self thereunto with such admirable power such ravishing sweetnesse and incomparable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synesiâ—o Quod colimus nos Deus unus est qui totam molem istaÌ„ cum instrumento elementorum corporum spirituum expressit in ornamentum majestatis suae Tertul. Apol c. 17. Harmony I infinitely love him because he is fair since he made all the beauties which are presented before mine eyes Because he is good because he is wise since he communicateth himself with so much profusion since he so well tempered the consonancies of the whole world I love him because I know he is mine and I am wholly his Were I not touched with his beauty his wisdome his goodnesse perpetually his benefits would soften my heart Me thinks I meet him every where with a hundred arms and as many hands to do me good I neither see place room time or moment which is not figured with his liberalities I am clothed with his wooll fed with his Granary warm'd with his wood served by his Officers I live in him I breathe by him I have nothing which is not his Inheritance It is neither Father nor Mother great one Lord or King which gave me wealth honour and estate Well they may be instruments of my happinesse but they are not the cause They were nothing for so many years They came into the world as poor as I they daily return from it into dust I feel my necessities and dependences and I know they cannot be supplyed but by a necessary and independent Essence We must not say we have not commerce enough with him great things are for the little and the rich The commerce of man with God S. Maximus Cent. 5 ex vatiis Deum extra se effici creaturis omnibus providendo Melinra sunt ubera tua vino Can 1. Quia vinum exprimitur cum la bore in torculari ubèra sponte fluunt for the necessitous See we not that heaven is all for the earth doth it cause one sprig of an herb to grow in it self produceth it one sole flower among its stars It giveth all it hath and is perpetually content with what it is So God is all for us as if man were his God saith S. Thomas If we be miserable he is not therefore disdainfull if he be high he is not therefore far distant from our inferiour condition He is all in all things ever present continually doing somewhat He hath dugs of bounty which put him to pain if he stream not upon us We see him to come from all parts and his approch is not mute for the best part of us is spirituall which maketh commerce easie unto us with a God who is all spirit How often find we our soul to be raised above it self and to be transported with thoughts knowledges lights joyes pleasures consolations hopes confidences courages and antipasts of glory which we acknowledge to be above our strength It is God then who worketh by them in us who enters into our soul as a Master into his house who becomes our guest our friend our Doctour and our Protectour We need not seek for him in heaven he is in our heart saith the Emperour Antonine and there he uttereth his oracles There it is where he enterteineth us and teacheth us we are his children and reserveth for us an admirable inheritance When it was said to little Nabuchodonozor who was exposed in his infancy and bred up in the house of Glossa in Danielem a Peasant whose son he took himself to be Courage child you are not made to drive Oxen and till the ground there is another profession expecteth you you are the son of a great Prince who keeps the prime kingdome of the world for you These raggs must be changed into
helps of grace by the contemptation contemptations of things Divinie the example of the Divinity take instruction how to demean our selves Let us look on our first model and consider a strange thing able to make our impatiencies was red not with anger but with shame to say that God all impassible as he is of his own nature not obnoxious to the sword fire sicknesse or any other exteriour violence would in all times suffer men more violent then the sword more ardent then fire more irksome then sicknesse and many times more cruel then salvage beasts It is said there were heretofore made very goodly mirrours of saphyr which were for Princes and Monarchs let us not covet those which cannot much avail us but let us contemplate the admirable saphyr enchased in the Throne of the living God in the Prophet Ezek. 1. 26. Quasi aspectus lapidis sapphiri similirudo Throni Ezekiel and let us therein see and compare our impatiencies with the mildnesse of the Creatour It seemes that by how much the more a dignity is sovereign by so much the lesse ought it to be exposed to injuries because the fear which is had of its power should stamp in hearts rhat respect which love weak cannot imprint yet God a sovereign Majesty a supream Greatnesse an absolute Justice hath endured and doth daily endure so many contradictions of men that it seems Plures idcirco Dominum non credunt quia seculo iratum ram diu nesciunt Tert de patient 〈◊〉 that to give credit to his mercy he occasioneth some prejudice to the terrour of his Divinity Many men saith Tertullian believe not in God because they cannot perswade themselves he is angry with the world since they see it in so peacefull a state What is there more important for God and men then the knowledge of his Divine nature then the fear of his Justice then the much to be adored reverence of his sovereignty Notwithstanding as if he preferred the glory of his patience before his own Being he rather chose patiently to suffer so many faithlesse so many wicked ones so many sinners and that the lips of Blasphemers might dare to say there is no God then that taking revenge in the heat of crimes by punishing every sin it should be said of him Verily there is a God but he is perpetually armed with lightning and terrours ever inaccessible to the prayers of men as those mountains which throw forth their enflamed bowels Nay much otherwise he would be simamed the God of mercy and the Father of goodnesse whereupon Saint Gregory hath judiciously said that his patience walks Pater misericordiarum Dominator Dominus Deus misericors clemens patiens mule◠miserationis c. Deut. 5. Quantum lata mens fuerit per amorem rantum erit patiens Ionganimitatem Totius geniturae tributa dignis indignis patitur simul occurtere Tertul. de patient c. 2 still hand in hand with his charity Wherefote as the love of God towards men is incomparable so his patience to indure the faults and infirmities of sinners admits no comparison How wany Pirates are there daily for whom God openeth seas How many Idolaters for whom he causeth stars to shine fountains to stream plants to sprout harvests to wax yealow and vines to ripen as well as for the faithfull How many ungratefull and rebellious children are there who every day receiving so many benefits from him take them as Hogs do Acorns still grunting towards the ground and never casting an eye towards heaven How many spirits enemies of truth and light disturbers of publick repose transgressours of laws both Divine and Humane do daily frame obstacles against the will of their sovereign Master and yet he fuffers them as if he had no other businesse in the world but patiently to bare and vanquish by benefits the malice and ingratitude of men Hierusalem is the stone of burthen said the Prophet which layeth a burthen upon God himself What will this Oracle of God say but the same conceits which Saint Hierom suggesteth unto us Hierusalem lapis on eris Zachar. 12. upon this passage when he writes that there were seen in places where the Antient wrastlers did exercise huge stones or certain bowls of Iron or Copper with which they made tryall of their strength and he witnesseth that he in a list saw one of those bowls which was so heavie that he could not lift it up from the ground although others robustuous of body and eminent in those exercises could easily carry it Now mark my conceit and say that as those champions of antiquity God is busied about the world as his stone of burden had for object of their strength those weighty bulks on which they daily exercised themselves So likewise God that strong Gyant and great Wrastler as if he stood in need of exercise takes the sphere of this great Universe which he beareth lifterh it up with all facility He takes the Masse of so many mortals whom heaven covers and the earth beareth and there he findeth much resistance he takes his people which he hath chosen and sanctified above all the nations of the world and hence oft-times very many sensible displeasures come A true stone of burden is that Christian that Ecclesiastick that Priest that Religious who belyes his profession who throws disorder and scandall among the people by his ill example yet God tolerateth him God protecteth him God continually obligeth him and if needs he must draw the sword of Justice out of the scabbard it is with delayes consideration and excessive Clemency O infinite Goodnesse And who is that man now that will not bear with a man and who is he that seeing God of nature impassible busie in the world as about his stone of burden from the beginning of Ages cannot bear a small burden whereto he finds himself tyed by duty by condition and by nature § 5. That the great temper of our Saviours soul in most horrible sufferings is a powerfull lenitive against our Dolours AS for the second Modell which is the Word Incarnate the true mirrour of Patience and onely reward of the Patient It is a very strange thing that all nature being so bent upon its conservation as to suffer nothing Jesus Christ did miracles incomprehensible to the spirit of Angels onely of purpose to suffer for man For how could dolour have laid hold on a God of his own nature impassible if it had not passed through all the heavens to take the divine word in the sanctuary of the Trinity which otherwise was meerly impossible but the son of God considering this Impossibility and being fixed in the desire to sustein for us took the body of man to suffer all that which the most cruell could invent and all whatsoever the most miserable might undergo Verily it is an effect of so prodigious a love that it found no belief in senses perswasion in minds example in manners nor
for us we shall soon see one another and re-enter into the possession of those whose absence we a while lament It is not absence say you which most afflicteth me but to see my self destitute of a support which I expected that is it vexeth me Enter into thy heart lay thy hand on thy thoughts and they will teach thee that all thy unhappinesse cometh from being still too much tied to honours ambitions and worldly commodities I would divert thee as much as I might possibly from despair but I at this present find that the remedy of thy evils will never be but in a holy Despair of all the frivolous fair semblances of the world O how wisely said Vegetius That Despair is in many a necessity of virtue But more wisely S. John Climachus Veg. l 4. c. 5. Necessitas quaedam virtutis est desperatio Clym gr 3. peregrinatio vera est omnium protsus rerum desperatio who defining the life of a perfect Christian which he calleth the Pilgrimage did let these words fall True and perfect Religion is a generall Despair of all things O what a happy science is it to know how to Despair of all to put all our hope in God alone Let us take away those deceitfull and treacherous props which besiege our credulous minds and cease not to enter into our heart by heaps Let us bid adieu to all the charming promises of a barren and lying world and turning our eyes towards this celestiall Jerusalem our true countrey let us sing with the Prophet All the greatest comfort I have in this miserable life is that I often lift Levavi oculos meos in montes unde veniet auxilium mihi Auxilium meum à Domino qui fecit coelum terram Psal 120. up mine eyes to the mountains and towards heaven to see if any necessary succour comes to me from any place From whence can I hope more help or consolation then from the great God omnipotent who of nothing created this Vniverse and hath for my sake made an infinity of so many goodly creatures Should I see armed squadrons of thunders and lightnings to fall on me I would have a spirit as confident as if there were no danger Were I Si consistant adversùm me castra non timebit cor meum Psal 263. c. to passe through the horrours of death being in thy company I would fear no danger Moreover I hold it for a singular favour and it shall be no small comfort to me when thou takest pain lovingly to chastise me for my misdeeds and to favour me with thy visits Happy he who hath raised his gain from his losses his assurance out of his uncertainties his strength out of his infirmities his hopes out of his proper Despairs and who hopes not any thing but what is promised by God nor is contented but with God who satisfieth all desires and crowneth all felicities The ninth Treatise Of FEAR § 1. The Definition the Description the Causes and Effects thereof FEar is the daughter of self-love and opinion a Passion truly horrid which causeth The nature of Fear and the bad effects of it all things to be feared yea those which are not as yet in being and by making all to be feared hath nothing so terrible as it self It falleth on a poor heart on a miserable man as would a tempest not fore-seen or like a ravenous beast practised in slaughter and confiscateth a body which it suddenly interdicteth the functions of nature and the use of forces It doth at first that with us which the Sparrow-hawk doth with the Quail It laies hold on the heart which is the fountain of heat and source of life it seizeth on it it gripes it it tortureth it in such sort that all the members of the body extremely afflicted with the accident befaln their poor Prince send him some small tributes of bloud and heat to comfort him in his sufferings whereby the body becomes much weakned The vermillion of cheeks instantly fadeth and palenesse spreads over all the face destitute of the bloud wherewith it was formerly coloured the hair hard strained at the root with cold stares and stands on end the flames which sweetly blaze in the eyes fall into eclipse the voyce is interrupted words are imperfectly spoken all the organs and bands are loosened and untyed quaking spreads it self over all especially the knees which are the Basis of this building of Nature and over the hands which are frontier-places most distant from the direction of the Prince who is then toiled with the confusion of his state This evill passion is not content to seize on our body but it flieth to the superior region of our soul to cause disorder robbing us almost in a moment of memory understanding judgement will courage and rendring us benumm'd dull and stupid in our actions This notwithstanding is not to be understood but of an inordinate fear And that we may see day-light through this dark passion to know it in all The sorts of Fear Clavus animae fluctuantis Amb. de Paradis Tertul. de cultufoemin O necessarius timor qui tim et arte non casu voluntate non necessitate religione non culpa S. Zeno. the parts thereof I say first in generall that there are two sorts of Fear Morall and Naturall Morall which comprehending filiall and servile is not properly a Passion but a Virtue which S. Barnaby according to the report of Clemens Alexandrinus called the Coadjutrix of Faith S. Ambrose the rudder of the soul And Tertullian the foundation of Salvation Of this very same it was S. Zeno spake so eloquently O necessary fear which art to be procured by care and study and not to be met by chance voluntarily not out of necessity and rather by overmuch piety and tendernesse then by the occasion of sin which brings a guilty soul vexation enough Naturall fear is properly an apprehension of a near approaching evil framed in the soul whether it be reall or seeming to which one cannot easily make resistance It is divided into six parts according to the Doctrine of S. John Damascen to wit Pusillanimity Bashfulnesse Six sorts of naturall Fear Shame Amazement Stupidity and Agony Pusillanimity feareth a labour burthensome and offensive to nature Bashfulnesse flyeth a foul act not yet committed Shame dreadeth disgrace which ordinarily followeth the sinne when it is committed Amazement which we otherwise call admiration is caused by an object we have of some evill which is great new and not expected the progressions and events whereof we cannot fore-see Stupidity proceedeth from a great superabundance of fear which oppresseth all the faculties of the soul And Agony is the last degree which totally swalloweth up the spirit in the extreme nearnesse of great evils and greatly remedilesse Forasmuch as concerneth the causes of this passion The causes of fear if we will reason upon it we shall find that the chief and most
considerable is self-love which is ever bent upon the preservation of it self and the exclusion of all things offensive from whence it cometh that all the greatest lovers of themselves are the most fearfull and the most reserved in the least occasions of perill as are ordinarily persons rich full of ease and nice who resemble the fish that hath gold on his scales and is Aelian l. 12. de animal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most timorous creature of the sea The second wherein many particular causes meet is the evil to come namely when it is great near inevitable and that it tends to the privation of our being From thence arise a thousand spectres of terrour as are poverty outrages maladies thunder fire sword inundations violent deaths wild beasts and above all men powerfull cruell revengefull wicked especially when they are offended or that they have some interest in our ruine and that they can freely be revenged without any fear of laws or punishment Adde to these the envious corrivalls greedy heirs friends treacherous provoked or timorous mutinous quarrelsome violent and greedy The third motive of fear is the ignorance and little experience we have in the evils of the world for all that which is covert and hidden from us seems the more terrible as are solitudes abysses darknesses and persons disguised From thence cometh that women children and men bred in a soft and sedentary life are more timorous sith the knowledge of dangers whereof they are deprived is a great Mistresse of Fortitude The fourth source is coldnesse and consideration which is the cause that the wisest justly fear perils where hair-brain'd young-men fools and drunkards carelesly jeast and make sport and that was the cause why Sylla finding himself many times too considerate in the forefight of evils did endeavour to drown his apprehensions in wine The fifth is observed in a nature cold melancholick imaginative and distrustfull which sometimes happeneth to Hypocondriacks such as was that of the antient Artemon who caused a buckler continually to be carried over his head by two Lackeys fearing lest something falling from on high might hurt him or that of Pisander who feared to meet his own soul or that other frantick fellow who durst not walk for fear of breaking the world which he perswaded himself was wholly made of glasse The sixth lastly comes from an ill conscience For there Semper enim praesumit saeva perturbata conscientia Sap. 17. 11. Plutarch de sera numinis vindicta is not any thing so turmoiled so torn and so divided as a soul which hath alwayes before it the image of its own crimes This was it which made the Nero's and Domitians to tremble This which caused Apollodorus of whom Plutarch speaketh to have horrible visions so that it many times seemed to him in his nightly sleeps that the Scythians flaied him alive threw his chop'd members one after another into a boiling caldron and that he had nothing alive but his heart which said to him in the bottome of this caldron I am thy wicked heart It is I who am the source of all thy Disastres §. 2. Of the vexations of Fear its Differencies and Remedies WE may well say this passion is one of the most Fear a troublesome passion troublesome and vexing among all the motions of our mind because it is extremely ranging sith not content with the evils which are on the sea and land yea in Hell it forgeth new which have no subsistence but in the perplexity of an imagination quite confounded Besides this it more spiritually tormenteth us making our Judgement and Reason to contribute to our vexations and many times so long turmoileth us that it maketh us to fear half an age of time that which The ignorance of our evils is a stratagem of the divine Providence passeth in a moment For which cause I account it a loving clemency of God to hide from us the greatest part of the things which befall us the knowledge whereof would continually over-whelm our wretched life with sadnesse and affrightment and not give us leave nor leisure to breathe among the delicious objects of Nature If so many great and eminent personages who being mounted to the highest degrees of honour have been thrown down into abysses had continually beheld the change of their fortune and the bloudy ends of their life it is not credible but that the joyes of their triumphs would have been moistned with their tears and by a perpetuall fear of an inevitable necessity they would have lost all the moments of their felicity Now in some sort to remedy a plague so generall Three sorâ—â— of fear I find the troubles which come to us this way either are naturall timidities or fears of things very frequent in the condition of humane life or are affrightments upon some terrible and unusuall objects Forasmuch as concerneth timidities which we see in fearfull natures Timidity its causes and symptomes they proceed either from the disposition of body and melancholick humour or from the quantity of heart which is sometimes too great and hath little heat or from idlenesse and effeminacy of life or from a base birth and from a sedentary breeding or from small experience or from overmuch love of reputation and ease both of mind and body Some are timorous in conversation and fear to approach men of quality they dread the aspect of those whom they have not accustomed to see they quickly change colour they have no consequence in their speech no behaviour no discourse their words are broken the tone of their voyce is trembling and their countenance nothing confident which very often happeneth to young men timorously bred and little experienced Others fear all occasions of Ceremonies of pomp and splendour to see and to be seen and would willingly borrow the veil of night to cover themselves from them Others are very bad sollicitours of businesses daring not to say nor contradict any thing and if they must needs ask a question they do it so fearfully that in asking they shew how they should be denied There are who more fear to speak in publick then one would a battel which hath happened to many great wits as to Demosthenes Theophrastus and Cicero who protesteth Fearfull Oratours that being already of good years he still became pale and trembled in the beginning of his discourse which in my opinion proceeded from an excessive love of honour which these men seemed to hazard when they made Orations before Princes the Senate and people A block-head exposeth himself with much more confidence because he hath nothing to lose and is like a Pilot who steereth a ship fraught with hay But these were masters who guided vessels furnished with pearls such credit and authority they had purchased Aeschines Aelian l. 8. variae Hist a man well behaved a great talker and a huge flatterer triumphantly spake before King Philip and the Macedonians where poor
would be pleased to divert such a thought from thee lest thou become culpable of the anger of God which will fall on the whole Army if thou goest to this stranger It importeth not I will go Son if thou resolvest to sin then stay till night make a veil of darknesse further to cover thy wickednesse from the eyes of the world for fear lest thy example may serve for a rock of scandall to those who are yet novices in virtue Yet thou perversly sayest I will go in full day light I will enjoy my pleasures and who art thou that givest me a law Go Zimri Go impudent man thou in thy calamitie shalt know the salarie of thy sin You know the rest of the History he goes thither he accosteth the Madianite in sight of all the world At which time God raiseth a young Prince as courageous as a Lion grand-child of Aaron who followeth him armed with zeal and sword crying out aloud Ah Traytor Ah infamous man He finds him out in the throne of Lust in the bed of iniquitie in the heat of Crime and with his sword transfixeth him and the Madianite making the abominable Bed and their unchaste loves to float all in bloud O bloud horribly but justly shed which still cryeth out with a voyce of bloud and saith to all posteritie Men women children great little poor rich flie from Impudency flie from Impudency as the last of vices otherwise know there is a revenging sword and a Judgement of God inevitable to all the Shamelessnesse of Sinners The twelfth Treatise Of ANGER § 1. The origine of Anger its Nature Causes and Diversities FIre which is a Mean between Spirits and Bodies doth work very diversly according The marveilous effects of fire to the matter and disposition it meets withall In the heavens it enkindleth the stars with flames the most pure in totall Nature it diversifieth clouds with Gold and Rubies it maketh Bowes and Coronets in the air it enterteineth a heat of life in the bodie of living Creatures which being maintained in a good temperature cause all the harmonies of health but when it mounteth up into a tempestuous cloud when it boyleth in Fornaces and creeps into Canons which are as mouths of fire to pronounce war it maketh so strange devastations that it vanquisheth the most valiant beats down the most boysterous mollifieth the hardest and terrifieth the most daring In the same manner we may say heat which in our bodies is an admirable work-Mistresse multiplyeth its effects according to the diversitie of the stuffs and occasions it lights on it conspireth with our spirits to serve as an instrument for the soul in its great operations it exciteth the honourable flames of chaste loves it disposeth courage to generous resolutions it polisheth the mind to embrace worthy purposes It secondeth the Imagination in its apprehensions It makes it self the steward of the vegetatiue faculties for the generation and production of men But if it once meet with burnt blood and fuming Choler which is as it were in the hands of the imagination when it is touched with some displeasure it insinuateth it self thereinto as into a cloud swoln with storms and tempests which throws forth fires roareth with thunders shooteth with inflamed darts and practiseth nought but ruine This is it we call Anger which is properly an ardent What Anger is appetite of reuenge caused by an apprehension of contempt and injuries Now this opinion of Contempt springeth in some from disesteem or for that they are forgotten and neglected by those of whom they think they ought to be respected In others from being crossed in what they desire most as in their profession their ambition and especially their affections In others from being depressed in that wherin they imagine they excell and principally before such by whom they perswade themselves they are beloved and honoured In others from being derided for defects of nature aswel of body as of mind and extraction also In others from being injuriously disgraced and insolently outraged by base and abject people and such as they have obliged As the opinion of injury increaseth and as it meeteth with a nature disposed and matter prepared this ardour is inflamed and if it be accompanied with a great power it teareth down smoaking cities it desolateth Provinces it swims in massacres it raiseth scaffolds all sprinkled over with bloud and hung with black whereon it acteth horrible Tragedies The other passions are augmented by degrees but Dum incipit tota est Sen. de Ira. How Anger is formed this ariseth fully formed and appears perfect so soon as it beginneth The opinion of contempt no sooner entreth in by the eyes and eares but it striketh the imagination which promptly communicateth its influence to the irascible appetite and then as if fire were given to a Canon it becomes Thunder and Tempest which disfigureth the bravest bodies turmoileth the bloud and spirits and bendeth all the veins to vengeance You would say the heart is not at that time any other then Vulcans Forge where the thoughts like so many Cyclopes labour to make Hail-showrs Lightenings and Tempests It is not known in this countrey what kind of language Reason speaketh It is no better heard then words among the Catadupes of Nilus strength hath a hand lifted up to employ the sword and a thousand instruments of iniquity to commit outrages This passion resembleth the furious Martichora renowned among Indian wild beasts who teareth his members asunder to make of them the arrows of his vengeance It hath nothing so resolved on as to destroy all and to raise unto it self a Tombe in its own ruines Yet we cannot but say that there are Divers qualities of anger three very different sorts of Anger according to the offences and persons who either raise it or suffer it In some it is cold in apparence and more inward but these oftentimes have the aspect of Virgins who in conclusion throw forth the fire of dragons In others it is fervent and headlong In others haughty and scornfull In others dumb and malicious In others obstreperous and stormy In some it is frequent and sudden in others sticking and obstinate There are some who being offended for frivolous things cease not to persevere therein for fear some may think they began without reason in which the lesse the cause is the more passionate they become Others blame their greatest friends for having done them lesse good then they expected In some Anger is but yet in bloom in others it taketh great and deep root Some satisfie themselves with clamour and injuries others therein employ the hand others wood and Iron others would have lightening in their power for some time of purpose to prosecute their revenge with all advantage Lastly this passion thrusts forth Vir iracundus effodit peccata Caffiao de spirits irae c. 1. all that is hidden in the heart Which made Cassian according to the Septuagint to write that
Saint Paul doth not consist in words To build upon the Promises which were made to David concerning 1 Par. 2. 9. Solomon if there be some favourable there are also others that say That if he leave God he shall be cast away by God for ever To alledge that he was buried in the Sepulchre of his father how many of the damned have had a quiet death and a stately buriall To bring forth all the kindnesses and favours of God towards him are but so many reproaches of his unthankfulnesse The argument which is drawn from the negative which they esteem ordinarily very weak is here too strong for his condemnation For whence comes it that Nathan his Master and Partizan who wrote the Books of the Kings or caused them to be continued by Aziah and Haddo his disciples whence comes it I say that Authours so affectionate to Solomon so zealous for the honour of their Nation having undertaken to give us his story and having forgotten nothing of the least things even to the numbering of Solomons horses after they have so expresly spoken of his sinne have not added his repentance This thing was too much important for the glory of God for the reputation of their Master for the edification of their people for the example of other Kings to passe it over in silence Surely we might well accuse them either of great malice or of grosse stupidity a thing which cannot happen to Prophets which write by the inspiration of God Further who knows not that repentance ought to be followed by outward actions and conformable to the movings of the heart Who will not avouch that it ought to be testified by a renouncing of sins and all things that have drawn us to offend Where is it then spoken that Solomon had dismissed one onely of his thousand women which were those nets of his destruction Where is it written that he destroyed the Temples and beat down the Images which he had erected at the solicitations of his Mistresses We know all the contrary that these Abominations remained standing untill King Josiah who caused them to be overthrown That which causes the more fear is that by how much the more a man comes near the great understanding which they attribute to the Devils by so much also he takes the greater part in their punishment when he falls into any grievous sinne The great lights of these rare Spirits turned themselves into the flames of their punishments and their knowledge serves for nothing but to nourish the more the worm of Conscience Now as Solomon was advantaged by understanding and wisdome aboue other men and that he fell into the sinne of Apostacie and turning from God there is great danger lest God turned from him his Mercy which is used more ordinarily towards those that sinne by ignorance although culpable Adde unto all this that those which in their old age continue in the sins of unthankfulnesse which they have contracted by long habits are very hard to cure because that old men become more hardned in evil more despising all admonitions which are made to them by presuming on the authority which they think is due to their age Further also their luxury is not onely a sinne of the flesh which then lesse feels the violence of great temptations but a spirituall sinne which proceeds from a spirituall and enraged concupiscence which makes them offered professedly rather then by frailty He that shall The conclusion touching Solomons salvation well weigh this shall find that it is better to leave to the secret mercy of God that which one cannot attain by reason and to fear every thing in this life even to the gifts of heaven and ones own surenesse thereby JUSTINIAN CHARLEMAGNE Or CHARLES THE GREAT IVSTINIAN EMPEROVR CHARLEMAINE EMPEROVR AND K. OF FRANCE PRovidence is an excellent work-woman which renews yet every day in the world that which God did in the terrestriall Paradise He took clay to make a Man the most excellent piece of all the Creatures and she takes some men of the earth to make them Sovereigns and Demi-gods in the Universe This Emperour that hath filled the world with his brave Deeds and the Ages with his memory was of a very base extraction which served to him as a cloud of glory and caused a marvellous day to spring out of the deep of his obscurity The beginning of his Nobility came from his uncle Justine who having been born a Cow-herd mounted by the stairs of Virtue and of Valour even to the Throne of the Emperours of Constantinople Nature had furnished him with a good understanding with a body well made and robustuous and God had inspired into him from his most tender years a particular grace of Devotion which rendered him good officious and charitable towards all the world As he was keeping the Cows he saw passing by some men of warre who were going in an expedition against the Infidels he perswaded himself that he was very fit for that employment and stout enough to give good strokes to the enemies of God and his Religion Upon this thought he sold a cow that was his own buyes a sword and the rest of the small equipage of a Souldier bids adieu to his kindred goes and lists himself and suddenly of a peasant becomes a man of war Yet Procopius makes him so poor that he gives him nothing but a little bread in a scrip when he entred into Constantinople He passed through all the proofs of a long and laborious warfare in which he behaved himself with an exact discipline a great dexterity a courage invincible and above all with a discretion that made him lovely and gained the hearts of all the world He came to the office of an Ensign of a Lieutenant of a Captain of the Guard of a Collonel of a Generall and in the end was put amongst the Counts of the Court that were the greatest Lords of the Imperiall house Anastasius at that time was Emperour happening to die Amantius his high Chamberlain who was a very rich and a great monied man had a very earnest desire to make himself Emperour But he was disfavoured by nature having not been born a perfect man he thought therefore that he should never be liked by the Militia in so high a dignity and would needs make it fall upon Theocritus who was his creature that he might reign in him and by him with a full satisfaction of his whole desires To this end he opened his treasures and resolved to make great distributions of money to the souldiers committing the managery of the hors-men to the Earl Justin who he knew was well affected by all the world and very capable to favour his canvasing But the men of warre looking upon the hand that gave the gold and not upon the coffer from whence it came nor the design of him that did it unexpectedly proclaimed Justin Emperour whereto the Senate and the People shewed a strong inclination
acknowledges not their God Further yet being a Philistim by Nation a Sophister by Profession an Impostour by Artifice he hath been able easily to make some of the pranks of his trade slip into his History Adde to this that being but a mean fellow he was advanced first by Justin and afterwards by Justinian to great offices yet being a man extremely jealous and ambitious he thought himself not high enough and bore a mortall hatred to John the superintendent of Justice to Tribonian the great favorite of Justinian and not content with tearing them in his History he falls upon the Emperour that had honoured them with his favours Every one that hath the common sense of a reasonable man sees plainly that it is a most unworthy thing that a servant a domestick taken from the dust of the earth raised even to the great Offices of the Empire should leave a Railing History to posterity written in an hole and by a singular treason against his Lord and Master of whom he held his life and honour And beyond all this that he should speak things in his Book that must needs have been very publick and visible to all the world that so many other Historians who were near that time and might speak with all freedom do not so much as mention To this it will be answered that it is not onely a Procopius that condemnes Justinian but that he himself hath black'd himself eternally by the ill usage which he shewed the Pope Vigilius and by the heresie which he fomented and authorised about the period of his life To speak truth there being nothing to be preferred before the fidelity which we owe to our Religion the honour which we ought to render to the common Father of all Christendome and to the Apostolick See if this Emperour were directly convinced of these two crimes and dyed without Repentance I should be the first man that would subscribe to his condemnation But there is a notable difference between that which escapes by errour and by surprize and that which is practised by design and obstinacy It is true that the Pope Vigilius was at first hardly used at Constantinople by the Empresse Theodora but his Election being not held at the beginning for Canonicall he being one whom the Romans had chased away with stones and whom he himself had deposed and banished from the usurpation which he had made upon Sylverius his Predecessour by a bold attempt causing himself afterward to be Canonically chosen it is no wonder if in this doubt of his dignity and certainty of his crime committed against the person of a lawfull Pope he was not honoured as high Priest but accused as guilty It suffices that as soon as Justinian knew that he had been afterward declared the sovereign Pastour of the Church by the ordinary Forms he rendred to him the respects due to his Character and permitted him to exercise his Functions with all liberty in Constantinople It is true that he had also some difference with him about the condemnation of three Articles or rather of three persons Theodore Ibas and Theodoret but in the end the Emperour yielded and permitted all to the discretion of the Pope As for the Heresie which is objected to him it hath rather been an errour of suprise then a resolute opinion with obstinacy against the decisions of the Church without which it cannot be a formall Heresie There arose in his time an Opinion that held That the body of our Saviour was incorruptible even before the Resurrection and that he was not subject to the naturall and irreprehensible passions of other men Many Bishops many great learned Friars and abundance of illustrious persons professe that Belief and Justinian deceived by a zeal not well regulated which he had to the person of our Lord fell into it not that he doubted but the two Natures were in Jesus Christ and that his body was consubstantiall with ours but he could not endure the word Corruptible when the flesh of our Lord was spoken of If he had onely meant an exemption from the corruption and rottennesse to which our bodies are reduced his opinion had been but commendable but to intend to take away from the Sonne of God the naturall passions of hunger thirst wearinesse and other like is to be farre wide from the Catholick Faith Yet since that that Opinion had not been yet by name and expresly decided by the preceding Councels and that many Bishops had the same thought and that the Pope very much busied by the warres of the Gothes had not yet interposed thereon it is not credible that it was an Heresie framed in the spirit of the Emperour but rather an errour And since that he abstained from promulgating it as he had projected and ordained by Will that the Patriarch Eutychus that had been banished for opposing this Opinion should be called back by Justin his Successour It is evident that he repented at the last period of his life and that Euagrius who had a strong tincture of the venom of Procopius did him wrong to condemne him to hell for I leave it to every judicious man to weigh which we ought rather to believe a mean Historian angered or the voyce of a generall Councel assembled after Justinians death No man certainly can call it into doubt but that the authority of a Councel infinitely passes the opinion of one onely man Now it is so that besides the testimonies of S. Gregory and Pope Agathon heretofore alledged The sixth Councel speaking of the Emperour Justinian calls him alwayes Most Christian Prince Emperour of pious Memory And in the end Holy Monarch and who is in the number of the Blessed The German that hath Commented upon the railing History of Procopius is constrained to confesse that he hath read even in the best Copies of that Councel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justinian that is among the Saints But he being an enemy of his memory eludes that Epithite and sayes that it hath been attributed to most wicked Emperours pretending by this means to diminish the lustre of Justinian I acknowledg that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy or Sacred sometimes signifies that which is Inviolable and that in this manner it was given to all the Emperours but I defie him to find one sole Text that saies of a dead Emperour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is in the company of the Saints who is not reckoned amongst the Blessed that live in heaven This onely is enough to stop the mouth of all those that are of a contrary opinion and to maintain this great Monarch in the possession of an high and happy renown which he hath so justly purchased It is he that above all the Emperours hath expressed a most ardent Zeal towards the person of our Lord to whom he dedicated the stateliest Church which was at that time in the whole Universe It is he that consecrated an Altar to him composed of all the most
glittering stones and of all the most magnificent rich materials that were then to be found in all the world It is he that had a most tender care of all the Churches of his Empire He that every where enriched the house of God The Purveyour for the Hospitals the refuge of all necessitous persons and the Sanctuary of the afflicted It is he that governed the whole world by most holy Laws who hath revenged persecuted and punished those crimes that tended to the infection of the Publick It is he that warred all his life time against Hereticks and that upheld the Glory of the Roman Empire which since Constantine was faln into an horrible decay It is he that displayed his Ensigns in Asia Europe and Africa under the Name of Jesus Christ with a force incomparable and successes that could not but come from heaven It is he that banished from Christian society Sorcerers Immodest and Infamous persons and that planted every where good manners It is he that made Learning flourish that rewarded men of Merit that eternized Laws that bore Arms to the heighth of Reputation It is he that alwayes shewed himself a most ardent administratour of the Justice of God giving audience very often in person to parties with an indesatigable toil It is he that pardon'd injuries and received even into Grace those that had attempted upon his life He that God preserved from a thousand dangers and a thousand ambushes He whom God crowned with great age and an infinite number of blessings CHARLEMAGNE OR CHARES the GREAT IT is not flattery that hath given to our Charles the name of Great since that truth it self may attribute to him the title of three-times-thrice Great for his Piety for his Arms and for his Laws All that Persia respected in Cyrus all that Greece vaunted in Alexander all that Rome honoured in Augustus and in Trajan all that Christians have commended in the persons of Constantine and Theodosius is found included in our Charlemagne Ptolomie said that great Personages are never born into the world without a conspiration of the Heavens which collect their best Constellations and most favourable Influences to salute them as soon as they salute the day We cannot know the quality of the stars that ruled over this happy birth but we know that Providence which infinitely out-passes the effects of all the celestiall Globes hath taken the care of forming this incomparable Prince and of making him a Master-piece of her hands to shew him to all Ages Nature was employed to build him a Body capable to sustain the Impressions of that divine Spirit that God would lodge therein She made him a stature so advantageous limbs so well composed so handsome and so strong she engraved so much Majesty upon his countenance she sowed so much lightning and attraction in his eyes that they triumphed over hearts before his valour had laid hand upon the Empire It is not alwayes that Felicity is so prodigall of her benefits she contents her self in some to adorn the house with troubling her self for the inhabitant and if there be a fair appearance on the out-side there is little Sense within But in our Charles every thing was Great and his Soul never belyed the beautifull spectacle of his Body His understanding was quick and piercing his memory most happy his judgement clean and solid that discerned exactly good from evill and truth from falshood He that saw him in Letters thought that they were made for none but him and he that contemplated him in Arms perceived that he would be one day the chief of Conquerours He studied Grammar Rhetorick Poetry Philosophy Law Astrology and the rest of the Mathematicks He learned the Latine the Greek the Hebrew the Syriack He had some taste even of Divinity it self and succeeded in all Sciences so advantageously that he might have held the Empire of Letters if God had not destined to him that of the World He respected his Tutours all his life time as the Fathers of his soul he made his Master of Peter the Deacon when the Law of Arms might have made him his Slave He drew Alcuin out of England to learn of him the secret of the Arts honoured him with great benefits and at last founded by his Counsel the University of Paris His meals were seasoned with the reading of some good book or with the conference of the ablest men of his whole kingdome loving to refresh himself from businesse in their discourses without taking any other directions in his pains then the change of one labour into another That which spoils many great ones is that they cannot endure any serious thing for a long time and yet this King made his Recreations even of that whereof others might have made an hard study and the grace of it was that he did all this without pain and that his spirit was no more disquietted with Sciences then the eye with the most delightfull colours This occupation that he took in Letters by the orders of the King his father served extremely to the fashioning of his manners because he saw in Books and especially in History as in a true mirrour all the stains that flattery dissembles unto Princes that heed not to be in a resolution to wash them off since they are not in a condition to know them It is a marveilous thing to see how nature seemed to sport her self in reproducing Martel and Pepin in the person of Charles she moderated the fierce valour of the Grandsire by the sweetnesse of the father and made in him an heavenly temper by the happiest of mixtures His Devotion was not soft nor feminine neither was it large or lukewarm but it gently spread its divine Lights in the soul of this Monarch without deading the fire of his courage He had most sublime knowledges of God and apprehensions very Religious he offered to him his duties both in publick and in private with a very sincere Piety He burnt with a great zeal to carry his name into all places whither he could extend his Arms. He was ardently affectionate to the holy See to which he gave respects and incomparable protections he honoured the Prelates and filled the Church with Benefits He held that Justice was the Rampart of Kingdomes the Peace of the people the policy of manners the joy of hearts and that neither the gentle temperature of the air nor the serenity of the sea nor the fruitfulnesse of the earth were any way equall to its sweetnesse He made a manifest profession of it in the inviolable verity of his words in the sincerity of his proceedings in the duties which he gendered to God to the authours of his birth to his kindred to his countrey and universally to all the world He gave audience often in person to the differences of his people and even at his rising out of his bed he caused the Provost of his house to enter into his chamber with the parties that pleaded to
whatsoever Honour had stuffed in so many Trophies I see in Castriot a certain object greater then Leonidas and Themistocles I see Pyrrhus I see Alexander and if his Enemies have been more stout then the Macedonians his Valour ought not for that to seem the lesse He was a Souldier as soon as he was born a Man Nature pleased to engrave a Sword upon his Body at the same time as she inspired Courage into his Heart That Stature so proper that Countenance so filled with Majesty those Limbs so strong and so Robustuous those Eyes that mingle the Rainbow with the Lightning those hands that seem to have been made for nothing but to bear the Thunder those Feet that move not one onely step that savours not of a King have told betimes that which fame hath afterward related to all ages Little Eaglet that begannest in thy most innocent years to play with Lightning thou oughtest not to have been so valiant or thou oughtest to have had a more happy Father Shall we say that fortune was unjust in that it prepared chains for this young virtue when she should have planted Laurels Let us rather say that Providence was very wise in that she found out matter for this great Heart that would have consumed it self in its own flames if it had not met with some obstacles to resist it It was meet that this Hercules should beginne to strangle Serpents from his Cradle It was meet that he should be bred in the middle of his enemies to Combate from his Infancy with that which he was to abate in his riper age His Father John Castriot who had little strength and much misery was constrained to give him for an Hostage to Amurath the Turk to be brought up at his Gate Moses now is in Pharohs house and Constantine in Dioclesians but the Path is here more dangerous because it leadeth to the ruine of Salvation and of Honour His proud Master that loves him with a Love worse then all the Hatred in the world would fit him for himself and for his infamous pleasures He aims at the one by the Circumcision that is imprinted on his flesh by an unhappy violence he pursues the other by shamefull courtings which are to the Gallant child farre bitterer then Death He had as 't is reported courage enough to take the sword in hand against him that Pursued him with nothing but with flowers He drew blood from him when nothing could be expected of him but Tears and put himself in danger of experimenting the horriblest Torments that the Cruelty of those inhumane people could invent rather then to deliver voluntarily his Soul to sinne and his Body to dishonour His cruell friend was astonished at so brave a Resolution and turned the furies that he had prepared for his Innocence into the admiration of his Valour The Seraglio Imposes on him the name of Scanderbeg that is the same as Alexander which he took by a good omen to fill up therewith the whole capacity of his brave exploits He was educated in all the exercises of Warre in the Academy of the Turks where he succeded with so much force Art Liking and Approbation that every one carried him in his eyes every one looked on him as a singular prop of Mahomets Empire But he bore alwayes Jesus in his heart he alwayes thought on the means that he might find to break his chain he felt in the bottome of his most generous soul flames that burned him incessantly with the zeal he had to raise again the levelled Altars of the Christians and to destroy the estate of the Ottomans Amurath saw some sparkles of it flying in his conversation although he endeavoured to cover his design with a great prudence The Master began to fear the Slave and was affraid to nourish in his Court a Lyon that might be able to shew him one day his Teeth He endeavoured to destroy him in various encountres making the Excesse of his courage contribute to the Hazard of his Person A resolute Scythian came to Amurath's Court challenging the boldest to fight all Naked with a Poniard in the inclosure of a perillous Circle where of necessity one must Dye or Conquer That man had carryed away already many bloody Palms and put so much confidence in his strength that they were according to his speech but the sacrifices of Death that dared to attend the Thunder of his Arm. Every one trembled for fear when as the valiant Castriot undertook him and putting his Thrust aside with one hand killed him with the other with the acclamations of joy of all those that envy hindred not from applauding Valour This Combat having not succeeded well for Amurath he raises at another time a Persian Cavalier that kept a stirre to fight on Horse-back with a Lance. He was a man accomplished in that Trade who with much chearfulnesse of heart transported himself into Cities and Provinces where he promised himself that he should find Adversaries to exercise his Arms and increase his Reputation He curvetted up and down in the List proudly Plum'd and his flaming Arms made him appear that day as the great Constellation of Orion amidst the lesser Starres A David was needfull for this Goliah our young Alexander assaults him falls upon him as an Eagle handles him very roughly and at length laid him on the sand where he vomited out his soul and bloud doing a sad homage to valour by a just punishment of his rashnesse But Amurath that played the part of Saul failed not to find out some new occasions to Exercise his David He gave him all the most hazardous Employments of the warre wherein he had still so good successe that he changed all the Subjects of his Ruine into Trophies and returned Crowned with Laurels even out of the Bottome of Abysses and out of the throat of Lyons The perfidious Sultan entertained him with good words but handled him with bad deeds He promised him to restore him his estates after his Father's Death but John Castriot's last hour made it appear that if his words were full of artifice his promises were but wind Scanderbeg impatient to stay for that which should never come payes himself by his own hands and seizes himself of his Kingdome of Albania playing the crafty fellow by a Countre-Craft The Alarm of it is in the Court and all Amuraths Passions tend to nothing but Revenge Haly Bassa is sent with an Army of Fourty thousand men to dispatch the Businesse But all his Troops are cut in pieces and he had nothing more honourable in his Expedition then that he was conquered by the brave Castriot Feria and Mustapha pursue the same design with new Forces that experiment the same fortune What shall we say more of Scanderbeg's Greatnesse Amurath besecches the Turban is humbled that visage of the Tyrant that was the same as that of Cruelty it self is mollified and takes the Lineaments of a supplyant after it had born during his whole
People and enterteined him very courteously and invited him to the Feast and to tarry that night in his house without going further and promised him that he would tell him all that his heart thought on and as for the Asses he needed not to trouble himself for they were found again But there were other affairs that concerned him and that would suddenly make all the Glory and all the Riches of Israel fall into his hands The other was extreamly surprised to see himself entreated with so much honour and confessed with all sincerity the meannesse of his family and the little cause that he had to pretend to such heighths as those But Samuel taking him by the hand brings him with his servant into the Hall of the Feast and sets them both at the upper end of the Table where there were thirty Guests and caused Saul to be served with all that was most exquisite in the Banquet that was kept upon a little Hill very near the Burgh to which they descended after their repast and Samuel led Saul into his House and made him lodge that night in his own Chamber The morrow he conducted him to the Suburbs of the City and having caused his servant to go before poured on a sudden upon his head a precious ointment and kissing him told him That God had Anointed him King of his People which he should deliver from the hand of the Philistims After which he foretold him many things that should befall him and gave him evident signs of the verity of his words When he was returned he had a curious Uncle that inquired after all that had happened to him to whom he spake of the Asses but was very wary not to discover the secret of the Royaltie Some time after Samuel called a Generall Assembly of all the people to proceed to the Election of a King and having disposed all the Tribes of Israel for that design the lot fell upon that of Benjamin and upon the Famely of Matri and in fine upon Saul who had hid himself that he might not expresse any ambition of that Royalty But he was suddenly taken forth out of the place where he had retired himself and was shewed to the whole Assembly in which there was not a man that he did not out-passe by all the head This rejoyced Samuel and made him say that they might plainly see that God took a care of their affairs in that Election by giving them so brave a Man that had not the like amongst all the People whereupon they all cryed God save the King After this Establishment Samuel called a second Assembly for his own Discharge wherein he made a powerfull Oration declaring to the People the Goodnesse and the Favours they had received from the Hand of God in all his Conduct ever since their coming out of Egypt and made a kind of Recapitulation of those that had Governed and delivered them from their Enemies even till this time Then he repeated to them that they had plucked a King out of the hand of God with all importunity and that it was not pleasing to his Divine Majesty Whereof he gave them a good Pledge making at the instant the Voyce of Heaven speak in a great tempest which affrighted them so much that all desired pardon of that sinne which they would never before acknowledge But before he came to those Reproaches he highly justified himself calling them to give a Testimony of his Conduct and Conversation amongst them He Conjured them to speak before God and the new King if he had ever injured them or been excessive either upon their Persons or upon their Goods and that if they had any thing concerning his Life or his Conversation or the Administration of his Charge he was ready to give them all satisfaction The Reverend Old-man melted their hearts and all rendered him the testimony of an Honesty and Justice irreproachable Thereupon he protested that he would never forget them and that being out of his Office he would offer to God his most fervent Prayers for their Wellfare and would have a care of their Quiet as farre as he should be able exhorting them furthermore to remain inviolable in the Religion of their Fathers and in the true Worship of the Living God and assuring them that he would never cast them off as long as they should adhere to him by the Submission and Duties of true Children The People began to perceive what they had iost in the discharge of so Venerable a Person and were ashamed of their precipitation but they were now embarked too far and must sail to the liking of the Tempest Here is a great Secret of Divine Policy which hath tormented Curious Spirits in their search into it that demand wherefore God making use of the Ministery of the wisest Man that was at that time on Earth to give a King to his own People that was to be as the Foundation-Stone and the Basis of the Royalty of Judea made so ill a choice that he was as it were forced by the deportments of Saul to break in pieces his own work But we ought to consider that in the choice of Princes and Sovereigns God approves not alwayes all that he gives nor gives not also all that he approves There are Kings that are given by favour and others by wrath Those are sent into the world as Starres and these as Comets He saith in his Prophet That he will give a King in his fury to expiate the sinnes of his people and S. Gregory hath worthily observed that Kings are measured out by Providence according to the disposition of the Subjects and which is more that God permits the sins of good Kings for the chastisement of the people and that there is such a connexion between the manners of the Master and the Servants that the fault of the Master causes the wicked life of the Servants and the good life of the Servants the amendment of the Master God was provoked against the Israelites by reason of their Idolatry of their Obstinacy and of their Ingratitude towards Samuel and this was the cause that he gave them Saul not so much to govern as to punish them and make them regret the virtue of their contemned Prophet by the comparison of the two Governments He suffers also Samuel to be deceived in that choice to teach us that it belongs onely to the eternall Wisdome to know and to make tums of State that surpasse the capacity of the ablest men If the stature of the body made the Excellency of Kings Saul without controversie was one of the chief he had a very fair appearance to the exteriour but within were found great defects of virtues and Royall qualities He was a guilded portall that nature had built for an house of straw The people at first were ravished with him and measuring him by the greatnesse of the body judged him the prime man of their Nation not seeing that making that judgement
threatned to cause them to be burnt alive if they obeyed not and that there was no God either in heaven or upon earth that should be able to deliver them out of his hands These gallant Princes not being able to endure this blasphemy answered constantly that the God which they served was the Sovereign Master of all Kings that nothing was impossible to his power that it was most easie for him to draw them out of a danger so evident but happen what would they would never be so base and cowardly as to betray their Faith and belie their Religion What cannot Resolution do What cannot Courage do What cannot true Piety do And what does not the Spirit of God That three children that were strangers amidst so many millions of Infidels that environed them as enraged wolves amidst the thundring angers of an inexorable King the horrible faces of hangmen whilst the flames of the fornace into which they were suddenly to be thrown flashed over to the horrour and trembling even of those that were without danger should stand as three rocks immoveable to all these violent shakings What menaces did this wicked King employ to make himself to be feared What sweetnesses and allurements to make himself be beloved And yet they remain inflexible to rigours and impregnable to caresses They are cast into those fiery coals that bore a true representation of hell to endure the sharpest of pains and they find there the most sensible of pleasures The fire forgets it self to be fire the fornace strows it self with flowers the gentle breathings of the South-winds temper the ardour of the flames and that which was the most rigorous of punishments becomes a Throne of honour upon which these three Champions speak as Oracles and all the Creatures change themselves into ears to hear them The King that was there present and that had seen them thrown in fast bound and manacled when he saw them walk all three assisted with a fourth that was the Angel of God in that great and horrible fornace as in a meadow enamell'd over with flowers demanded of his Princes whether they were not those same men that were newly thrown into the fire and whence it could come to passe that that Element should change its nature for them after it had devoured their executioners He draws near to the fornace he calls them by their names and commands them to come to him to see if they were not spirits loosed from the body They come forth he embraceth them he is in an extasie for joy and confesses with a loud voyce That the God of those Children is the true God and ordains that he that shall be so hardy as to blaspheme him should be punished with death and his house confiscated What triumph was ever so glorious as that of the true Religion that then made visible her grandeurs to the sight of all the Infidels in her Captivity and when one would have thought her dead wrote her praises in characters of fire The Nobles came about these three Princes considered their habits the hair of their heads their flesh their skin and found that every thing was intire Calumny changed her self into adoration rage into astonishment and those that were thought lost and reduced to nothing saw themselves consecrated by their punishments This should have converted the King and all his Nation to the worship of the true God and yet those chains that keep men bound in their Superstition for a long time and by deep rooted habits being almost indissoluble every thing remained in the same condition and this Prince blinded by the prosperity of his arms carried his ambitions to the highest point to which those of mortall men can mount whilst it pleased God to chastise him by a very extraordinary change A year before that the unhappinesse befell him he saw in a dream a tree of an immense heighth that seemed to him to cover all the earth with its branches the leaves thereof were pleasant the fruit most savoury the beasts of the earth fed under it and lived by the favours they received from it and upon it the little birds of the air made melodious consorts whilst on a sudden he saw an Angel descend from heaven and commanded that the Tree should be cut down her branches scatter'd her leaves shaken off her fruits destroyed that it should be tumbled down upon the grasse wet continually with the dew of heaven bound with a great iron chain and that there should be left onely some small root to spring up again in time to come but that it should lie seven years under ground before it should appear He was much affrighted at this Dream and made a second assembly of the Sages of his Kingdome that could not give any sutable Interpretation of it Daniel was call'd and the Dream related to him from point to point by the Kings own mouth from which he immediately discovered much misery for his Master There is need of a great force of spirit when one is to carry an afflicting Truth to a person that one loves and of whom one hath received great benefits One would have counsell'd Daniel to hold his peace to dissemble to elude the true sense by some appearing Interpretation yet he knowing that God had sent him to that Court not to vaunt himself in the honour of his offices and in the abundance of his riches but have a care of the salvation of his King and to heal the vanities of his spirit although that by interpreting this Dream according to the truth he should bring himself in danger of the ruine of his fortunes He disguised nothing but told him that it were to be wish'd that the effect of that Dream might fall upon his enemies but since that unhappinesse threatned him it would be better to endeavour to divert it then to invent artifices to suppresse it That he was that great Tree that lifted his branches as high as heaven and covered with his shadow the roundnesse of the earth that so many millions of men were in shelter under his protection and breathed by his favour but forasmuch as he had despised God and had entred into a great presumption of his sufficiency without considering that every thing came to him from on high that he should be separated from the conversation of men ranked with beasts that he should eat the grasse of the field as an ox and should be exposed to the rain and to all the injuries of the air living as a beast till such time as he should know that there is one most high God that rules over the kingdomes of Monarchs and gives them to whom he pleases but there being yet a root remaining to that overthrown Tree that there should be some recovery from that brutall life and that he should be put again into his Kingdome when he should know the power of the heavenly virtue This Daniel was a sprightly Courtier to tell a King that he should become
that if Baal were God they ought to follow him but if there were no other God but that of Israel called upon from all times by their Fathers it was he to whom they ought to adhere with an inviolable fidelity To this the assembly made no answer there being none that was willing to set himself forward upon an uncertainty Then Elijah taking the word again said Behold four hundred and fifty Prophets of Baal on one side and I a Prophet of the true God all alone on the other part in this place here To make a tryall of our Religion let there be two Oxen given us for each of the two parties let them be cut in pieces and the pieces put upon a pile of wood without puting any fire to them either on one side or on the other we will expect it from heaven and the Sacrifice upon which God shall make a flame appear from on high to kindle it shall carry away the testimony of the true Religion To this all the people answered with a confused voyce that it was a good Proposition The Victims were brought sacrificed and put upon the wood to be consumed The Priests of Baal began first to invoke the heavenly fire and to torment themselves with great cryes and a long time without any effect It was already mid-day and nothing had appeared to their advantage whereat being very much astonished they drew out their Razors and make voluntary incisions upon themselves according to their custome thinking that a prayer was never well heard if it were not accompanied with their blood which the evil Spirit made them shed in abundance to satiate his Rage This nothing advanced the effect of their Supplications which gave occasion to Elijah to mock at the vanity of their Gods saying that Baal that gave no answer was asleep or busie or on a journey or perhaps drinking at the Tavern He remained either with security amidst so many enraged Wolves covered with the protection of the God of Hosts and began to prepare his Sacrifice taking twelve stones in memory of the twelve Tribes of Israel to erect an Altar to the name of God after which he divided the Offering into divers parts put them all upon the pile and that none might have any suspition that there was fire hidden in some part of them he caused abundance of buckets of water to be thrown upon the Sacrifice and all about it and then began to say Great God God of Abraham of Isaac and of Israel shew now that thou art the God of this people and that I am thy servant I have obeyed thee in all this resting my self upon thy word Hear me my God my God hear me and let this assembly learn this day of thee that thou art the true God and the absolute Master of all the universe and that it is thou that art able to reduce their hearts to the true belief Scarce had he ended his prayer when the Sacred fire fell down from heaven upon his Sacrifice and devoured the Offering and the Altar to the admiration of all the People who prostrating themselves on the ground began to cry That the God of Israel was the true God Take then sayes he the false Prophets of Baal let not one sole man of them escape us The People convinced by the Miracle and the voyce of Elijah without expecting any other thing fall upon those false Prophets takes them and cuts them all in pieces Ahab amidst all this stood so astonished that he durst not speak one onely word nor any way resist the Divine Command The Prophet bad him take his refection and go into his Coach for the so much desired rain was near and having said so retired himself to the top of the Mount Carmel and sent his servant seven times to the sea to see whether he could discover any clouds but he saw nothing till the seaventh time and then he perceived a little cloud that exceeded not the measure of a hand and yet he sends him to tell Ahab that it was time to Harnesse if he would not be overtaken with the rain He mounted instantly into his Coach to get to the City of Jezrael and Elijah ran before as if he had wings In the mean time the Heavens grew black with darknesse the clouds collect themselves the wind blowes and the Rain falls in abundance Ahab failed not to relate to Jezabel all that had been done desiring to make the death of those Prophets passe for a decree of heaven for fear lest that imperious woman should upbraid him with the softnesse of his courage But she not moved with those great miracles of fire and water that were reported to her began to foam with wrath and to swear by all her Gods that she would cause Elijahs head to be laid at her feet by the morrow that time The Prophet is constrained to fly suddenly to save himself not knowing to whom to trust so that having brought with him but one young man to accompany him in the way he quitted him and went alone into the wildernesse wherein having travelled a day he entred into a great sadnesse and laid him down under a Juniper-tree to repose himself and there felt himself very weary of living any longer and said to God with an amorous heart My God it is enough take mee out of this life I am not better then my fathers It is a passion ordinary enough to good men to wish for death that they may be no more obliged to see so many sinnes and miseries as are in the World and to go to the place of rest to contemplate there the face of the living God But this desire ought to be moderated according to the will of God As he was in that thought sleep that easily surprises a melancholy spirit and wearied with raving on its pains slipt into his benummed members and gave some truce to his torments But that great God that had his eyes open to the protection of so dear a person dispatched to him his guardian Angell who awaked him and shewed him near his head a cruse of water and a loaf of bread baked under the ashes for such are the banquets that the nursing Father of all Nature makes his Prophets not loving them for the delights of the body but contenting himself to give them that which is necessary to life he saw well that it was a Providence that would yet prolong his life He drank and ate and at length being very heavy fell asleep again But the Angel that had undertaken the direction of his way waked him and told him that it behooved him to rise quickly by reason that he had yet a long way to go Elijah obeyed and being risen found that he had gained a merveilous strength so that he journied fourty dayes and fourty nights being fortified with that Angelicall bread till such time as he came to the Mountain Horeb. There he retired himself into the hollow of a Rock unknown
Princes ears with such like words and to breed a distrust in him of Saint John in such a manner as that he consented that he should be apprehended and put in prison under colour as Josephus saith that he went about to change the peoples minds and to embroil the State This detaining of a man so holy and so renowned made a great noyse through all Judea but the wicked woman had this maxime That one ought to take ones pleasure to content nature and little to trouble ones self at the opinions of the world below nor at the complaints of honest men judging that all mouthes ought to be stopped by the rigour of punishments and that she should be innocent when no body durst any more find fault with her actions She slept not one good sleep with her Herod as long as Saint John was yet alive but fearing alwayes either that her pretended husband whom she thought light enough might be softned with compassion to release him or that the people that held him for a Saint might break open the prisons to take him thence she resolved to see the end of him to give all liberty to her unbridled passions She watches the opportunity of Herods birth-day on which he was accustomed to make feasts and to intertein the principall Officers of his Kingdome This crafty woman tampered with all the wills of those that had any power over his spirit for this design and seeing that her daughter was a powerfull instrument to move that effeminate Prince and that he was extraordinarily pleased to see her dance conjured her to employ all her genius and all her industry all the baits allurements and gentilesses that she had in dancing to gain the Kings heart and that if she saw him very freely merry and on terms to gratifie her with some great advantage she should take heed of asking any thing but the head of John and that he was necessarily to fall if she would not see her mother perish and all her fortunes overthrown The daughter obeyed and fits her self even to perfection to please the Princes eyes she enters into the banqueting house richly deck'd and makes use of a dance not vulgar whereat he was ravished and all the Guests that were perhaps hired by Herodias to commend her made a wonderfull recitall of her perfections There was nothing now remaining but to give her the recompence of her pains This daughter of iniquity and not of nature sayes Chrysologus seeing that every one applauded her and that the King that was no longer his own man would honour her with some great present which he would remit to her own choyse even as far as to give her the moity of his Kingdome if she would have desired it made a bloudy request following the instructions of her wicked mother and required that instantly S. Johns head should be given her in a plate Herod felt his heart pricked with a repentance piercing enough but because he had sworn in presence of the Nobles of his Kingdomes to deny nothing that she should ask would not discontent her but gives command to the Master of his House to go to the prison and to cut off S. Johns head to put it in the hands of this wanton wench As soon as the word was pronounced her mother was not quiet till she saw the execution of it to Prison they run every one thought that it had been for some grace since that it was upon the nick of the feast of the Nativity of the King but they quickly saw an effect quite contrary to that thought when S. John was called for and told that he must resolve to dye What think we did this divine forerunner do at this last moment that remained to him of so innocent a life but render thanks to God that made him dye a Martyr for the truth after he had inlightned his eyes with the visible presence of the Incarnate Word which permitted him not to have any thing left in this world to be desired He exhorted his disciples to range themselves about our Saviour who was the Way the Life and the Truth He prayed for his persecutours and for the easing of the miseries of his poor people afterward having a relish of the first contentments of his felicity by the tranquility of his spirit he yielded his neck to the hangman His body was honourably buried by his disciples and his head brought in a plate to that cruell feast put into the hands of that danceresse who presented it to her mother and the mother according to S. Jerome made a play-game of it pricking the tongue with the needle of her hair All that one can speak is below the horrour of its spectacle sayes S. Ambrose The head of S. John of the Prime man of the world that had shut up the Law that had opened the Gospel the head of a Prophet of an Angell is outrageously taken off and delivered for the salary of a danceresse The soberest of men is massacreed in a feast of drunkards and the chastest by the artifice of a prostitute He is condemned on an occasion and on a time in which he would not even have been absolved as abhorring all that proceeded from intemperance O how dangerous is it then to offend a woman that hath renounced her honour Herod gave her an homicide for a kisse The hangmen wash their hands when they are ready to sit down at table but these unhappy women pollute theirs in the banquet with a Prophets bloud The righteous slain by adulterers the innocent by the guilty the true judge by criminall souls This banquet that should have been the source of life brings an edict of death Cruelty is mingled with delights and pleasure with funerals This horrible plate is carried through all the table for the satiating of those unhumane eyes and the bloud that drops yet from his veins falls upon the pavement to be licked up with the ordures of that infamous supper Look upon it Herod look upon a deed that was worthy of none but thy Cruelty stretch out thine hand put thy fingers in the wound that thou hast made that they may be again bedewed with a bloud so sacred Drink cruell man drink that river which thou seest glide to quench thy thirst Look upon those dead eyes that accuse thy wickednesse and which thou dost wound again with the aspect of thy filthy pleasures Alas they are shut not so much by the necessity of death as by the horrour of thy luxury The vengeance of God delayed not long to fall upon those perverse souls that had committed so enourmous a crime Arethas King of the Arabians resenting the affront that had been given to his daughter by those Adulterers enters in arms upon the lands of Herod who bestirrs himself but weakly to resist him Pleasures held him so fast chained that he had not the boldnesse to go to his frontiers in person to oppose his adversary but contented himself with sending a
lawfull greatest Princes to interrupt your Highnesses I will appear for the Cause of God the Angel of Peace the Minister of Concord and Union the Interpreter of Truth the Mean and Solicitour of Salvation I am not that terrible and dreadfull messenger who injected terrours and scourges into David astonished with Divine Prodigies I am not listed in that number which utterly overwhelmed the City of Pentapolis almost drowned before in the inundation of their impieties I rain nor sulphur I do not brandish flames I dart no thunderbolts but with a mild temperate and gentle amenity I exhibit those olive-branches which the direfull contagion of Warres hath not yet blasted I come from the conversation of those who at the Nativity of our Jesus sang Anthems of Peace to Good-willing men Despise not the Augur of Glad-tydings contemne not the Hyperaspist of Truth who speaketh unto you before God in Christ It is the concernment of the whole Christian world most pious Princes which I addresse unto you it is your interest which I urge and inculcate both by wishes and writings it is the Profession of God which I require and indeed of great importance as having diverse times summoned yea enforced the Priests from the Altars the Virgins from the Monasteries and the Anachoretes from the Woods that of the mute it might make Oratours and Agitatours of the retired God the Arbitratour and Accomplisher of all things who calleth those things which are not as if they were he formeth and prepareth the mouths of infants giveth wisdome to the impudent to yield to him is victory to contest with him is succeslesse opposition Appetite infuseth Eloquence and necessity not seldome makes a souldier To be silent amidst the articulated movings of the oppressed is unlawfull and to sit still amidst the wounds of Military men as unconcerned is highly and justly reproveable That hand that is not officious to the suffering world deserves an amputation I shall not disoblige the supplicated engagement of your patience excelient Princes with unimporting reasons I shall not abuse your senses with unappertaining figments but by a pleasant prospect I shall shew you that Glory which you aim at thorow fields flowing with bloud thorow the flames of collucent Cities and thorow many doubtfull circulations and diverticles Condescend therefore to give me an allowance of discourse concerning the nature of Warre and Peace and of the Right of Christian Princes in each of them For upon this foundation I conceive I can build firm and satisfactory Arguments whereby to secure your Dignity and to settle the Peoples safety It was a speech well becoming the wisdome of the Ancients that this world in whose circumference all things are contained is as it were a great volumn of the Deity wherein life and death are as the beginning and the end but the middle Pages are perpetually turned over backwards and forwards That which Life and Death bring to passe in the nature of things the same doth Peace and Warre in the Nation of all Kingdomes and Empires And indeed Life is a certain portion of the Divine Eternity which being first diffused in the Divine Nature and afterwards streaming into the sea and penetrating into the earth and our world doth contemperate by an espousall and connexion of bodies and souls wonderfull and almost Divine Agreements But when there is a solution of this undervalued continuity when this harmony is disturbed and broken it suddenly vanisheth by the irresistible necessity of death greedily depopulating all things under his dominion In like manner Peace the greatest and most excellent gift of the Divine indulgence reconciles and apportions apportions a kind of temperature in the wills of men from whence floweth the most active vigour of all functions in the Body Politick as the alacrity of minds the rewarded sedulity of Provinces the faithfull plenty of the Countrey the security of travelling the opulency of Kingdomes and the accumulation of all temporall blessings But when Concord is dissipated and the alarms of Warre besiege mens ears presently there insueth a convulsion and direfull decay of all the members and Audacity finding it self disingaged from the mulcts and penalties of the Laws runneth headlong into all variety of mischief the most Sacred things are violenced and the most Profane are licenced the nocent and the innocent are involved in the expectation of a sad and promiscuous catastrophe and bonefires are made of cities not to be quenched but with the bloud of miserable Christians He that will tax his own leisure but with the cheap expence of considering our mortality will so much scruple these effects to be the actions of men that he may be easily seduced to believe that Hell hath lost some prisoners or that some troops of Furies have broken the chains of darknesse and in a humane shape deluded men with such enormous villanies My highest obedience most excellent Princes is due to truth and that obligation prompts me to proclaim this judgement That Contentions and Warre have not had any ingresse into the Church of God but by clandestine and undermining Policies Discipline resisting and Conscience standing agast at the monstrous object And indeed Paul exclaimeth against contentions Brother saith he goeth to law with brother and that under Infidels Now therefore there is altogether an infirmity in you in that you go to law one with another Why rather suffer you not wrong Why rather sustain you not fraud But ye your selves do wrong and exercise fraud and that to your brethren What do we hear an Edict published by an Apostle invested with thunder and lightning I beseech the revisitation of your thoughts what would he imagine were he lent again unto the world by providence that then wanted patience to see a controversie about a field perhaps or a house and should now behold among those that claim the title of the Faithful Ensigne against Ensigne Nation against Nation and not a House not a city not a Province but the whole Christian world precipitated into slaughters rapes and priviledged plunders would he countenance such an inhumane spectacle with a Declaration of allowance or would he perswade men to the violations of the Law of Nature and dictate encourgement to ruine and rapine But Tertullian also is very strict in this point and peradventure too rigid whilst he saith that our Lord by that injunction to Peter to sheath his sword disarmed all Christian Souldiers This in my judgement deserves a censure of extream severity if he conclude all warfare to be criminall this were to destroy the innocent in a detestation of the guilty should we perpetrate corrupt actions upon the order of the cruel and the petulancy of luxuriant villains What would Christianity then be but a prey to the insatiable and a laughing-stock to the insolent if it were not lawfull to revenge unfaithfull injuries with a just retaliation If it were not lawfull to defend Churches from Sacriledge Widows and Orphans from oppressions and disinteressed persons
of those cold-starved Amorists who hasten to roast themselves in the ashes Notwithstanding all these sayings of wise men we must affirm that beauty and graceful comeliness of bodie is a great gift of God able to do infinit good when they once hold correspondence with sincere virtue and therefore they rather ought to be esteemed among the motives of well doing than the instruments of mischief it being unreasonable to condemn a benefit of God the Creatour for the abuse of men since no man blameth the candle that clearly burneth in the house though butter-flies sindge their wings in it For proof whereof I will produce three reasons onely which seem forcible enough to convince the understandings of wise men and evidently declare to all those that are endowed with corporal beauty the injurie they do to God when they abuse the beauty of the bodie to the hinderance of the soul and drag the gifts of God along in the dust First it is undoubted that to attribute the work of corporal beauty to any other original than that of the wisdom and goodness of God were to apostatize from Christianitie and to ranck ones self among the Manicheans God necessarily approveth beauty since he himself is the authour thereof He hatched it in his bosom as light in the East and distributively spred it upon all the creatures of the earth as the rays of a bright day Man hath been Natural beauty of man praised by Poet. from the beginning the best provided for since God hath made him as it were a Scutcheon whereon he hath pourtrayed all the titles of the most excellent beauties of the world Origen saith he is fair as the Origen in haec verba Vocavitque Deus coelum firmamentum Homo ipse coelum est Job 38. Chrys in Genesim Quae major dignitas quà m iisdem hominem vestibus in dui quibus ipsâ—â—et dominus juxta illud Dominus regnavit decâ—rem indutus â—st Ambr. l. de digni human condition Favorinus l. de excellentia hominis Excellent observations of Favorinus firmament which we see enameled with so many stars that resplendently shine as torches lightened before the Altar of the Omnipotent S. Chrysostom that the Angels are the morning stars whereof mention is made in Job who incessantly praise God and men are the evening stars fashioned by the hand of God with the same beauty in proportion to do the same office And S. Ambrose that God the Creatour for singular testimony of love hath granted to man the same graceful habiliments with which he himself is garnished all which are nothing but beauty Behold whether this be not highly to raise the merit of beauty I adde hereunto also two considerations very pertinent which Favorinus hath judiciously observed in the book he composed of the excellency of man It is that the Creatour who hath given beauty to man in proportion hath by the same mean impressed in his heart a love so tender that every well understanding man would rather desire to be reduced to nothing an estate which some have less accounted of than that of the damned than to be translated according to the imaginations of Pythagoras into the form and figure of some ugly and monstrous beast The other reason is that the wisest Nations as he observeth detesting the beastliness of those who have clothed the Divinitie in shapes of beasts have made express decrees forbidding all painters gravers and image-makers to represent God in any other figure than of man And the reason they give is very admirable for you would say if you heard them they had already some knowledge of this great alliance which should be made between the Divine and humane nature when they said That God was not a lover of horses or birds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but a true lover of men and that he was much pleased to be conversant with those who were most virtuous and capable of his presence Ponder with your self whether this beauty which God from the infancy of the world hath so carefully lodged in man ought not to be esteemed an important thing and a strong motive to virtue For the second reason I say that God making use of it in good occasions it is an infallible mark he Beauty an instrument of God approveth the nature thereof for never doth he purposely make use of things unlawful to make the greatness of his counsels and works succeed Now it appeareth that he oftentimes hath chosen beauty as an instrument of his wonders a lightening-flash of his power a bright torch of his victories As when he purposed to stay the violent stream of Olofernes arms he could with an omnipotent hand have touched the rocks and made men to rush out in armed equipage yet notwithstanding without stretching his hand to any other miracle he raised the beauty of a widow to triumph over the flourishing legions of the prime Monarch of the world and himself added a certain air or gracious garb of attractive parts in Judith to surprise this barbarous commander Judith 10. 4. Dominus hanc in illam pulchritudinem ampliavit ut incomparabili decore omnium oculis appareret drunk with love and wine in the snare of her eyes He fought with the self same engine with the same arms against the proud and insolent Aman for when he was ready to command the throats of infinit numbers to be cut as sheep marked for the slaughter God set a frail beauty before him which made him leap from the height of fortunes wheel to the strangest calamitie that may be imagined and changing in an instant King Ahasuerus from a Lion Esther 8. into a Lamb confirmed the safety and liberty of her people Would you have greater proofs of the estimation which God maketh of beauty wedded to virtue than his affording it so glorious triumphs Hath not the Son of God consecrated the same in his own most illustrious Person and in that of his most holy Mother whom ancient traditions joyned with the interpretation of the Fathers upon the texts of Scripture shew to have been endowed with an admirable grace and singular beauty to serve even as an adamant to captivate hearts and sweetly range them under the yoak of the Gospel I am not ignorant that Clemens Alexandrinus thought our Saviour Clemens Alex. pedagog l. 3. c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Errour of Clemens Alex. Isaiah 35. 2. Vidimus cum non erat aspectus was willing purposely to deprive himself of corporal beauty as from the possession of riches searching out in all things the greatest lowliness but in this proposition he hath grounded himself upon a passage of the Prophet Isaiah which describing the Savior of the world in the day of his passion saith We have seen him and he had neither favour nor beauty This foundation is ruinous and this Authour doth no otherwise than as a painter who to represent the Moon in her proper nature should delineate her
in her eclipse Other Authours grounded on this passage of the Psalm 44. speciosus forma prae filiis hominum assure us our Saviour expresly selected for himself an excellent beauty of body and a supream grace of speech Nicephorus relateth certain lineaments of Niceph. l. 1. c. 40. Beauty of our Saviour his stature colour and proportion of his bodie which he drew out of antiquitie in all parts lovely and specious And S. Epiphanius speaking of the beauty of the blessed Virgin saith She was Majesty it self Judge and behold since God voluntarily despoiling himself of honours riches and greatness of the world to give us an example of humility would notwithstanding sanctifie beauty in himself and his Mother what value you ought to set upon this Heavenly gift and whether it be lawful for you to profane it Moreover I affirm that the Creatour hath not onely cherished beauty but hath likewise held in account the instruments employed to the service thereof It is a wonder that in Exodus Fecit labrum aeneum cum basi sua de speculis mulierum quae excubabant ant ostium Taber nacli Exod. 38. 8. Mirrour for women Theodoret in Catena Zephyr Cyrillus de spiritu veritate l. 9. Procopius in Exod. he commanded Moses to make a brasen bason with a foot to bear it for the Priest to wash in and to furnish and adorn it with looking-glasses who kept as it were centinel before the gate of the Tabernacle To what purpose was it to fasten these mirrours in a holy place to this sacred vessel Tâ—eodoret Saint Cyril and Procopius observe that the Aegyptians went to the sacrifices of Isis clothed with a linen garment holding a scepter in one hand and a looking-glass in the other and that the Hebrew women afterward appeared in the desert in the same manner But God who would shew the spoils of Aegypt were reserved for his greatness caused them to lay aside these mirrours to consecrate the use of them in his own Tabernacle The Hebrew Interpreters yield another reason to wit that the Israelites seeing themselves to languish in Aegypt in the fetters of a painful bondage had resolved to abstain from the act of marriage that they might get no children to inherit their misery But God who intended another web different from that which the thoughts of men wove stirred the women who tricked and adorned themselves so well with these Aegyptian looking-glasses that they enkindled the chaste loves of their husbands buried under the ashes of their servitude to produce a posteritie by help whereof the Nations of the earth should be blessed And this action of the women so pleased Almighty God that he afterward caused these mirrours to be placed in his Tabernacle which they had used to grace that beauty which had been the cause of so much good It then being so see you not God hath made himself a favourer and a protectour of corporal beauty who then dare to condemn it In the third place I adde this command which Power of beauty beauty exerciseth over hearts is not a thing due to human forces to the end that nature become not ambitiously proud it is God who as it were imprinteth with his finger upon the foreheads of men and especially of great ones the beams of grace and majestie to make them more reverenced of the people which he doth to excellent purpose but the creature sinisterly abuseth the gifts of the Creatour Maximus Tyrius saith that a fair soul in a fair bodie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as a river that windingly creepeth with many wavie turnings within the enamel of a beautiful meadow and ravisheth the whole world with the admiration of its excellency A brave Oratour in a Panegyrike he made of Constantine who was one of Beauty of Constantine the goodliest Princes of the earth saith that nature was sent of God as a gallant Harbinger to compose Te cum milites â—ident admirantur diligunt Jequuntur oculis ani mo tenent Deo so obsequi putant cujus tam pulchra forma est quà m certa divinitas a bodie for him suitable to his great spirit as a stately house for a beautiful Ladie in it and that onely this exteriour form made him to be beloved and esteemed of all the world no less then a God descended from Heaven Which is also much more admirable in the other sex How many Monarchs after they had with horrour terrified the world have been seen to become tributaries to a mortal beauty captives to their slaves and how many to buy out their bondage have yielded at the feet of silly women to do services and commit follies unworthy to be remembred on paper Bathsheba was neither a Lion a Goliah nor a Saul yet notwithstanding with the glance of an eye she powerfully quelled him who tore Lions trampled Goliah under feet and resisted all the arms power and legions of Saul The Philistines found not cords strong enough to bind robustious Sampson in yet Dalila quickly captived and fast tied him with one hair of her head Solomon had a heart as deep as the sea yet women found the bottom of it It is a wonder what Pythagorical trans-animatious this beauty of bodie maketh which causeth it to be acknowledged and esteemed every where a true tyrannie without an executioner as Carneader calleth it Doubtless the impostures Carneader apud Lactantium the sinister intentions the unchaste loves the abuses which are affixed to beauty proceed from the sleights of Satan and depraved will of man but the lustre and commanding power thereof is the real gift of God which operateth that in human bodies which the Sun doth in the clouds to form a Rainbowe in the Heavens Ladies think hereon you to whom God hath Abuse of damnable beauty imparted this grace this delicate composition of bodie whether it be not a great motive to you to serve him well and to employ it wholly to his glorie You shall be accountable for your beauty at the Judgement-day even to the least hair of your head If you harbour an ill hostess in this goodly mansion which God hath builded for his service a wicked soul an unchaste soul if you make glorious vaunts of borrowed coyn of a fading flower the spoil whereof time age sickness and death will divide between them if you display a scandalous nakedness to kindle the fewel of lusteful affection if you seek the courtship and unlawful love of men with a gift which is not yours if you so often consult with your looking glasses and take so much pain gaudily to dress and attire your selves for a meer vanitie which you turn into an absolute profession you shall be the marks of the wrath and vengeance of God This great Justicier will suffer this malediction pronounced by the Prophets to fall upon you That your carkasses shall one day be drawn Ejicient ossa de sepulchris expandent ea ad
all its spectatours fair and amiable There it is saith he we shall live for ever in the palace of verity which is the mother-nurce nourishment and essence of our soul There it is that all is all and where each part becometh a whole There it is where happiness is indefatigable and plenitude never gives a loathing to him who possesseth it And who knoweth not the raptures of Seneca when Senec. ep 102. in the hundred and the second Epistle he speaks of the soul which goeth out of the body as from a wretched vessell to enter into these vast Temples of Intelligences and lights deriving its nourishment and increase from the same place whence it took its beginning May we not say this truth so loudly professed by men who lived in a belief different from ours is a publick voice of humane nature touched by the ray of its felicitie Divines teach us our appetite is finite in its essence Infinity of out Appetites Nubes ad alta levatur densâ—ta vento impellitur ut currat calore dissolvitur ut evanescat c. Greg. in Job l. 8. c. 10. Eccl. 12. 7. A notable enigma of the Wiseman infinite in its productions It is a miracle to see a heart so little big with so many desires and perpetually to go like a wheel enflamed with its ardours or rather a fire which makes a prey of its own way and is nourished with proper hunger It is a cloud saith S. Gregory swoln with vapours tossed with winds scattered by heat It daily makes abortion of a thousand production and when it thinks to have all embraceth nothing The wiseman speaking of death saith it is that which shall break the pitcher at the fountain and the wheel upon the cistern Some explicate this litterally of the veins and brain But I had rather at this present say this pitcher is the heart of man which ceaseth not to go to the water of the Samaritan whereof our Saviour spake when he said He who shall drink Omnis qui biberit ex aqâ—s hac siâ—iâ—t iâ—rum Joan. 4. of this water shall ever be thirsty It is a water which never quencheth thirst and which sometimes serves for an incentive to insatiable desires And the pitcher so many times fruitlesly filled with this water the heart so often drenched in these frail and momentarie pleasures shall split against the rock of death remaining still at the fountain of concupiscence Nay I will tell you the heart is a wheel over the cistern of life which ceaseth not to draw up buckets filled with wind one while running after one object another time after another not finding contentment and at the last day the wheel shall be broken over the cistern when man if not warie shall be surprized in the labyrinth of his designs and confusion of his hopes 3. Now consider the wisdom of God who having Providence of God in the limits of out appetites given us an infinite appetite would not limit it but by himself he would be our good and being unable to be the end of himself because he hath no end he will be ours to make us in some sort infinite He will not we put our felicities in commands and honours because they often resemble the Idol Moloch which was outwardly of gold inwardly morter and because honour is rather in him who honoureth than in the honoured He will not we ground our selves upon riches for either they be gems which are the scum of elements or mettals which are the harbours of rust and enkindlers of avarice or garments the food of moaths or houses which are mountains composed of the bones of the earth or fruits beasts and so many other productions of nature which cannot make us happie seeing they besides their frailty are of a servile nature being made for the service of men and not for their glorie He will not we place God will replenish us with himself our happiness on pleasures because all blessings of sense go not beyond sense and for that their condition is either to starve men by their barenness or strangle them with their superfluities The best part Greatness of God Isa 28. 5. Corona gloriae sertum exultationis of our selves being the spirit he will replenish us with himself who is the chief of spirits It is he said the Prophet Esay who is the Crown of true glorie and the posie of all comforts the Crown because his felicitie is wholly circular and fully replenished as the circle without any defect the posie insomuch as in his sole essence he comprehendeth all the good of creatures which are as petty flowers of this goodly garden It is necessarie saith Tertullian that all greatness In unum necesse est summitas magnitudinis eliquetur Tertul. l. 1. adversus Marcion c. 3. Bernard l. 5. de consider c. 5. and beauties be extracted into one alone which is the first greatness and prime beauty He loves as charity he knows as verity he sits as equitie he ruleth as majesty he governeth as chief he defends as safety he operateth as virtue he revealeth as light he assisteth as piety he doth all in all things and such as he is he giveth himself unto us I demand of you whether he deserveth not to be eternally displeased who cannot content himself with God Nay that which here maketh his communication the more perfect and admirable is that Divines observe their be two felicities in heaven The one of object the other formal That of object is the S. Thom. 2. 2. q. 3. good by which we become happy and formal is the possession of the same good Felicitie of object is that which looketh towards God without any reflection upon us formal felicitie is that which respecteth our proper good We might see God as a Similes ei erimus quoniam videbimus cum sicuti est Joan. 1. 3. distant mirrour which were not ours and which had not the power to make us lovely We might love him with a love of good will by the sole consideration of his perfections We might rejoyce at his good without relation to our own benefit But the goodness of God would not onely make us happie with the felicitie of our object but by formal beatitude He will not well behold him with a lazie and barren eye but with a vision which rendereth us like to himself He will not we love him onely with a love of good will but with a love of ardent desire as our good and repose He will not we rejoyce onely because he is God but for that he is our God our scope and contentment 4. The point of this beatitude consisteth in a The essential point of beatitude is union with God perfect union of our soul with God who is the fountain of spirits the object of all regular loves and the circle of felicity So long as we are in the world saith the Apostle we are as pilgrims in
they preferred a flint before a pearl The first unhappinesse of his conduct was that he had not an heart for God but for his own interest and that he did not unite himself close enough to Samuel that had made him King and that was the Oracle from which he should have learned the divine Will The second was a furious State-jealousie his capitall devil that put his Reason into a disorder and infected all the pleasures and contentments of his life He was but weak to hold an Empire and govern with love and yet he loved passionately all that he could least compasse and would do every thing of his own head thinking that the assistance of a good Councel was the diminution of his Authority Sometimes he was sensible of his defects but instead of amending them he desired to take away the eyes of those men that perceived them His Spirit was little in a great body his Reason barren in a multitude of businesse his Passions violent with small reservednesse his Breakin gs out impetuous his Counsels sudden and his Life full of inequalities Samuel had prudently perceived that the Philistims were dangerous enemies to the State of Judea because they knew its weaknesse and kept it in subjection a long time depriving it of the means of thinking fully upon its liberty And therefore he maintained a peace with them and used them courteously gaining all that he could by good Treaties and would not precipitate a Warre which was to weaken the Israelites without recovery But Saul thought not himself an able man if he had not spoiled all and without making any other provision of necessary things he made a great levy of Souldiers and a mighty Army to go against the enemies in which there was but two swords It was a plot that permitted not the Hebrews to have Armorers nor other men that laboured in Iron totally to disarm them and at the least motion that they should make expose them for a pâ—ey These assaulted Philistims found him businesse enough through the whole course of his Government and Life and in the end buried him with his children in the ruines of his State But God that would give some credit to Samuel's choice sent at first prosperities to Gods people under the conduct of that new King wherein that which served for a glory to that holy man was a vain bait to Saul to make him enterprise things that could give him no other ability but to destroy himself About a moneth after his election Nahash the Ammonite raised an Army to fall upon the Jabites that were in league with the people of Israel and those seeing that they were not strong enough to resist so terrible an enemy dispatched an Embassage to him to treat about a Peace But that insolent Prince made answer to their Embassadours that he would not make any treaty of Peace with them on any other condition then by plucking out their right Eyes and covering them with a perpetuall ignominy These poor people that were reduc'd almost to a despair implored on all sides the assistance of their neighbours and failed not to supplicate to the Israelites their friends to do something in their favour Their Messengers being arriv'd at Gibeah related the sad news of the cruelty of Nahash that filled the people with fear and tears Saul returning from the fields was driving his oxen when hearing the groans of his Subjects demanded the cause of it and having been informed entred into so great a rage at the pitilesse extremities of that fierce Ammonite that he instantly tore in pieces his two oxen and sent the pieces of them through all the cities and villages of his Dominion commanding every one to follow him to revenge that injury otherwise their cattle should be dealt with as he had done with his two oxen The Israelites mov'd partly by compassion and partly also by fear of those menaces poured out themselves from all parts to this Warre in such a sort that he had got together three hundred thousand men He divided them into three Battalions and went to meet the Ammonite whom he set upon so vigorously and combated so valiantly that he totally defeated his Army and humbled that proud Giant that thought on nothing but putting out mens eyes making him know that pride goes before reproach as the lightning before the thunder All the great people that compos'd that Army returned unto their houses and Saul retained onely three thousand men whereof he gave one thousand to his son Jonathan that was a man full of spirit and generosity and farre better liked then his father Saul This Militia was too little considerable for so great enemies yet he had a courage to assault a place of the Philistims and routed their Garrison whereat they being pricked beyond measure betake themselves into the field with an Army in which there were thirty thousand chariots of warre and people without end whereat the Israelites were so affrighted that all scatter'd themselves and went to hide themselves in caves so that there remained but about six hundred men with Saul who marched with a small noise and durst not appear before his adversaries Samuel had promised to see him within seven dayes to sacrifice to God and encourage the people But Saul seeing that the seventh day was come without having any tidings of him takes himself the burnt offering offers the Sacrifice and playes the Priest without having any Mission either ordinary or extraordinary As soon as he had made an end of burning the Holocaust Samuel arrives to whom he related how that seeing all the people debauch themselves and quit the Army and how that being pressed by his enemies in a time wherein it behoved them to have recourse to prayer before they gave battle he was perswaded that God would like well enough that in the necessity and long absence of Samuel he should perform the office of a Priest by presenting the burnt offering which he had done with a good intention without pretending to usurp any thing upon his office Samuel rebuked him sharply for that action to shew that there is no pretense nor necessity that is able to justifie a sin and that it no way belongs to Lay-people to meddle with the Censer and to do the Functions that regard the Priests Then Samuel fore-told him that his Kingdome should not be stable and that God would provide himself another that should be a more religious observer of his Law thereupon he left him for a time and Saul having recollected all the people that he could endeavoured to oppose the enemy The brave Jonathan accompanied with his armour-bearer found a way to climb over rocks and to surprise a court-of-Guard of the Philistims which they thought had been inaccessible which put them in a terrible fright imagining that those that had got so farre had great forces though they did not yet appear This brought their Army into a confusion and God also putting his hand farre into the