16 Of the two wils in Christ. 17 How we are created in the Image of God 18 Of Images three speeches 19 St. Stephens life 20 A dispute of a Christian and Saracen 21 A fragment of Sentences 22 Of the eight naughty thoughts by Euagrius 23 Of the same by Nilus 24 Of the day of judgment 25 Damascens History 26 Of the holy Sabbath 27 An Oration by Damascen Cardinall Bellarmine amongst his Ecclesiasticall Writers calls him a man of great Holinesse and Learning And as Beda was admired in the West so was he in the East Hee suffered many things for the Faith under Constantinus Copronymus wrote many famous things before he died whom the Master of the Sentences and all the Schoole Doctours have imitated for his worth and wit An. Christi 828. Sanctus Nicephorus NYCEPHORVS HAving drawne the pictures of so many famous Fathers eminent in the Church for their piety sanctity and learning it is necessary leviter tantûm vitam S. Nicephori adumbrare lightly to shadow out the life of St. Nicephorus for indeed what praises can reach the height of his perfection who like a bright lampe of learning and of religious life shined forth in the Horizon of the Church in the yeare 840. for then he lived in his brightest lustre like the East starre leading both the vulgar by his Doctrine and the wise men by his writings to the knowledge of Christ for sapientes faciunt loquuntur sapienter omnia wise men doe and speake all things wisely and Nicephorus being really religious must needs bee wise in words wise in actions and which is the highest wisedome wise to salvation Neither was he inferiour to most of the Fathers for profound judgement and learning both in Humanity and Divinity having read much and spent many houres to adorne his soule with Art and Grace that so he might informe others in the Doctrine of Salvation and illuminate the world then being in great darknes and under the shadow of sin and death He was a Physitian to cure the miseries of humane life and especially those which are incident to the soule namely tenebras intellectus errores mentis vitia appetitus irrectitudinem voluntatis the errors of the understanding the viciousnesse of the appetite and the crookednesse of the will for all these maladies of the soule he cured by his powerfull Doctrine and religious exemplary life so that those that were blind through spiritual ignorance he made them see and abhorre their sinne the lame in Charity and good workes hee made chearefull and forward to doe good the stubborne hee convinced and confuted by Arguments the weake he comforted and instructed And as the Sunne doth with his chearefull beames soften waxe refresh the drooping flowers and cherish the new sowne seeds so with the beams of his life and learning hee did warme and soften the obdurate hearts of men refreshed wearied soules groaning under the burthen of their sinnes and by his Doctrine cherished the seeds of Grace to bring forth in others the fruits of good life and conversation The Philosophers were derided quia in librossnâ—s quos de gloria contemnenda scripserunt nomina sua inscripserunt because to those bookes which they writ of contemning glory they set their owne names shewing themselves thereby most vaine-glorious But Nicephorus Workes are a glory to his name living to eternity in his learned Volumes If therefore his great wisedome and learning which attracted generall admiration may deserve commendation If the gifts and graces of his soule were so wonderfull and divine If his life were so sanctimonious and exemplary hee being a spirituall Physitian and a Sunne to illuminate the ignorant world if all these may render his life perfect and glorious then Nicephorus may be acknowledged amongst the most famous Fathers of his time who after this Pilgrimage of life peregrè constitutus properabat in Patriam regredi being a stranger on earth made haste to returne to heaven leaving to the world his Sentences and Workes He lived in the time of the Emperour Andromicus senior to whom he dedicated his Ecclesiasticall History containing eighteen Bookes and survived after the yeare of our Lord 1300. not long after exchanging this life for eternall glory His Sayings Of Example The naturall man cannot attaine to the height and perfection of active vertue or contemplative unlesse he propose unto himselfe our Saviours example as perfect God and man equall in power and vertue to God the Father and beseech him to give him the power of operation and contemplation Of Security He that liveth in security is so farre from thinking of appeasing Gods just anger towards him that he heaps sinne on former sinnes as if God did not behold them and would not require an accompt of them Of Providence God doth behold and moderate our actions using the scourge of affliction for our castigation and conversion and after due correction sheweth his Fatherly affection to those that put their trust in him for salvation Of the Scriptures The Scriptures rightly conceived make us cheerefull and active in the performance thereof also good just quiet upright and conformable to our great example of righteousnesse Christ Jesus Of Christ. The Wisedome and Divinity of Christ was seene by his words and actions drawing his Disciples to divine contemplation and imitation and working Miracles for their Faiths confirmation so bringing them to perfection which consisteth in the love of God Of Martyrs The ancient Martyrs would not be so called though they suffered Martyrdome yet they would not bee called Martyrs ascribing that title onely to Christ and so by their humiliation deserved a glorious exaltation Of Faith None of the ancient Fathers and Patriarchs did please God but by Faith in Christ as appeareth by Abraham his faithfull obedience being his justification Of Peters denyall Christ asked Peter three times if he loved him not for his own knowledge or information but that by his three-fold profession he might help and heale his threefold negation of him These are those things which he writ Namely his Ecclesiasticall History which hee composed both for style and words in elegant Greeke Also a Synopsis of the whole divine Scripture digested into Trimeter Iambicks wherein he briefely contained the arguments of all the bookes This Worke beginneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Gulielmus Esingr in his Catalogue of Ecclesiasticall Writers doth adde that he did write of the Acts done after the Maccabees even to Christ and the destruction of Ierusalem The Genealogy of the Patriarchs unto David Of Mosaicall Rites A Catalogue of the Iudges of Israel A description of tbe Kings of Israel and of the Patriarchs of Constantinople The Genealogy of Christ. Of our Saviours Miracles according to the foure Evangelists An. Christi 1071. Sanctus Theophylactus THEOPHILACTVS THe birth place of this Father was the famous City of Constantinople which once was the glory of the Roman Empire and the bulwarke of Christendome against the Turkes but
Gather my Saints together vnto mee Psal 50. 5. THE GLORY OF THEIR TIMES OR The Liues of the Primitiue Fathers CoÌ„tayning their Chiefest Actions workes Sentences and Deaths Aske thy father and hee will shew thee Aske thy Elders and they will tell thee Deu. 32. 7. LONDON Printed by I Okes. and are to be sold in Pauls Church-yard at the white Lyon 1640. G Glouer fecit To the Reader on the Religious and Illustrious Lives of the Primitive Fathers THe publication of a Book doth draw on much expectation but this Worke doth not only satisfie the Readers curiosity but even draw him to wonder and admiration For was not the Creation of Heaven and Earth most wonderfull and glorious For when there was nothing but rudis indigestaque moles quam dixere Chaos a rude lumpe void of forme then God made the Sun Moon and Stars also and set them in the Firmament to give light upon the Earth and this natural Light the World enjoyed in the beginning but afterward out of the Chaos of blind Ignorance God to the Worlds greater amazement created and ordained the Firmament of Religion and placed therein the Sun of Righteousnesse our Saviour Jesus Christ then clouded under Types and Figures and also the Moon which was the Primitive Church round about which the Fathers shined like Stars of severall magnitudes but all glistering with light of Life and Learning Here is a poesie gathered out of old Gardens not decayed nor withered with Time or Age but as fresh and fragrant as from the newest stocke This savoury meat hath God brought to hand Here is sweeâ— out of the strong let your soule taste it and then blesse God for sending such able men into his Harvest in the innocencie of the Church and in the time of the hottest persecutions These were Gods Champions on earth who did fight his battails and defend his cause even reproving Kings and Princes for his sake These were called Fathers of honour and therefore let us honour them because they honoured God and though we cannot imitate them so neere in their lives as wee ought yet let us strive to imitate them as neere as we can in our minds and let us follow thousands of Martyrs through temporall death to eternall life and with Nazianzen give our selves wholly to the performances of all Christian duties For these Primitive Fathers they all gloried and tooke delight in their sufferings and bid large profers for Heaven come what torment could come even the losse of their lives for by their humility and patience they both triumphed over Tyranny and Death and now have obtained for their reward the eternall Crown of Glory which they enjoy and weare When any of these Holy Fathers met at Generall Councels concerning any weighty cause about setling Religion or suppressing of any Heresie sprung in the Church with what devotion reverence did they meet not trusting in their own knowledge sharpnesse of wit strength of brain deepnesse of judgement as it were in an arme of flesh they knew that there was a Divine power who ruled and governed all their actions and intentions they trusted in Him that hath the Key of David opening and no man shutting and prayed to the Lord the Father of our Lord Jesus to direct their cogitations this was the way they took and persevered in And should such good men as these bee forgotten such Pillars of Truth as these not seene and made manifest pity it were that their worth should be obscured or that the grave should bury their deserts All which time hath now brought to light and collected together in one Volume the use and fruit of which I wish to every Christian man This Work being then a Constellation of Divine Lights that were visibly seene in the East and Westerne Horizon of the Church and are here set in their severall places and Centuries of yeares wherein they lived shewing not onely their mortall aspect by curious and lively brasse Sculptures representing their Effigies and Countenances but also the divine influences of their souls in their lives actions and divine sentences for their Seraphick Contemplations were full of sublime and sweete expressions that as their faces were full of Reverend lines of gravity so did their Writings abound with sententious lines of Piety Insomuch that these words may justly be subscribed under their severall Pictures Exempla plus dictis valent facta mea non dicta vos Christianos milites sequi volo nec disciplinam modo sed exemplum etiam à me petere Examples prevaile more than Precepts I would have all Christian Souldiers follow my steps in works as well as words and in your lives make me your Rule and Example for Omnia prosperè Deum sequentibus eveniunt adversa spernentibus for Gods servants and followers are always fortunate and blessed but his foes miserable and wretched In a word the faces of the holy Primitive Fathers are here the object of your sight their Graces of your knowledge and understanding their Sentences may serve for your minds illustration and illumination and their Lives for your practice conversation and imitation and in all they have been and are accounted sacra Ecclesiae Lumina holy Lights of the Church shining once on Earth and now in Heaven and therefore all that would become Stars in glory after this life let them imitate these resplendent Stars of Grace that hereafter they may shine in glory with Christ Jesus the Sonne of Righteousnesse in his Fathers Kingdome for ever Amen Typographus The Names of all the Primitive Fathers contained in this Booke Philo Iudeus Ann. Mundi 4024. Iosephus 4057 Ann. Christi Ignatius 71 Polycarpus 71 Dionysius 71 Saeculum secundum ab anno 100 ad 200. Iustinus Mart. 150 Irenaeus 170 Ab 200 ad 300. Tertullianus 204 Clemens Alexandrinus 204 Origenes Adamantiâ—s 226 Gregorius Thaum 233 St. Cyprianus 250 Arnobius 285 Lactantius Firmianus 290 Ab anno 300 ad 400. Eusebius Caesari 329 St. Athanasius 340 Hilarius Pictav 355 Cyrillus Hieros 365 Ephrem Syrus 365 Basilius Mag. 370 Gregorius Nazâ—anzenus 370 Epiphanius 370 S. Ambrosius 374 Gregorius Nyssenus 380 Theodoretus 389 S. Hieronymus 390 S. Chrysostomus 398 Ab anno 400 ad 500. S. Augustinus 420 Cyrillus Alexan. 430 Petrus Chrysologus 440 Prosper Aquitan 445 Ab anno 500 ad 600. Fulgentius 529 Ab anno 600 ad 700. S. Gregorius Magnus 604. Isidorus Hispal 630 Ab anno 700 ad 800. Beda venerabilis 731 Iohannes Damascenus 731 Ab anno 800 ad 900. Nicephorus 828 Ab anno 900 ad 1000 ad 1100. Theophylactus 1071 Anselmus Cant. 1081 Ab anno 1100 ad 1200. Rupertus Tuitiensis 1119 S. Bernardus 1130 Petrus Lombardus 1145 Ab anno 1200 ad 1300. Alexander Hales 1245 Bonaventura 1265 Thomas Aquinas 1265 An. Mundi 4024. Philo Iudaeus PHILO IVDAEVS THis Philo was a Iew of Alexandria of the stocke of the priests and hee is deservedly placed among the Ecclesiasticall Writers because that in his workes hee
who strive to corrupt the Christians by their Idolatrous shews then Tertullian wrote his learned Treatise de spectaculis wherein hee handles the case to the full And at the same time how did hee stop an Heresie arising in Affrick called the Apelletians from one Apelles which worke is desired but not as yet enjoyed In the fifteenth yeere of the Emperour Severus did hee not famously write against that great Heretick Marcion and set forth his Book De Resurrectione Carnis And presently after wrote his Booke De Carona Militis worthy here to be spoken of a little upon a Triumph all the Emperours Souldiers for the greater pompe were to weare Crowns made of Bayes but one Christian there was who when he had his Crown given held it on his arme but would not weare it whereupon being demanded why hee alone had refused to set forth the pompe of that day he did boldly answer Non decet Christianum in hac vita coronari A Christian ought not to be crowned in this life a true and a worthy answer And so upon this Tertullian wrote his Book so entituled I read not after this that Tertullian did write any thing for the Church but against it The more is the pitie so great a Scholer should fall so fouly There are many Fathers who have discoursed what might be the cause of this Tertullians revolt Some as Saint Ambrose say it was Envie Vincentius Lirinensis makes a good application of it It was saith he a great tentation and triall The Lord saith Moses tries us whether wee love him or not when there ariseth up one of these false prophets or teachers or dreamers Saint Ierome gives him a great praise for his wit but laments his losse Saint Cyprians phrase was when hee would read Tertullian to say Da Magistrum Give me my Master Trithemius terms him Tam in divinis quà m in saecularibus Scripturis doctissimum The most learned in sacred and secular affaires And that hee taught Rhetorick at Carthage a long time Gloriosè saith he with great glory and credit and againe scripsit Latino sermone penè c. That hee wrote almost infinite Workes in Latine wherein he hath most judiciously confuted and overthrown all the Heresies hee wrote against licet in aliquibus c. and though saith he he erred in some things yet he wrote profitably in many other his Books Hee lived till hee was old and decrepite and so yielded up his spirit after that he had painfully and learnedly studied the Word of God and carefully and discreetly answered all those that proved Hereticks to the Truth I have here not followed Trithemius Catalogue nor yet Bellarmines concerning his Works but as Pamelius hath registred them in the Collen Impression Anno 1617. Hee hath a learned commendation set under his Effigies wherein as Tullius was the Pillar and praise of Rome so Africk glories in her Tertullian His Oratory was famous and Tertullians speech was sweeter then honey as may appeare by some of his Sentences Tertul. de poenitenia If thou be backward in thoughts of repentance be forward in thy thoughts of Hell the flame whereof only the streame of a penitent eye can extinguish and first so thinke on the greatnesse of the punishment that thou mayst not doubt of getting a remedy against it Idem de fuga in persecutione The Legion of Devils could not have conquered a Herd of Swine if God had not given them power farbe it then the Devill should have power over Gods owne Sheepe I may say That even then the bristles of those Swine were numbred before God and much more are the haires of his Saints De Fide Ex personis probamus fidem an ex fide personas Doe wee try mens faith by their persons we should try their persons by their faith Idem de Oratione The remembrance of Gods precepts chalkes out a way for our prayers to Heaven the chiefe of which precepts is That we come not first to make our atonement with God on his Altar before wee have made our atonement with our brother in our hearts For what profit is it to come to the peace of God without peace to come for remission of debts without remission of debts How can he appease his Father that is angry with his brother Idem de Oratione Let us not approach unto Gods holy Altar before wee have made peace with our offended brother for to what end should wee come to the God of peace without peace for the remission of our own sinnes without any intention to forgive one another How can hee that is not pleased with his brother thinke to please the God of his brother seeing that God commands him not to be angry at all but forgive him Hee that then prepareth himselfe on earth shall be sure of his reward in Heaven Tertullians houres of prayer They were the third the sixt and the ninth houres for they are saith he the more eminent part of the day to distribute and distinguish the publike affaires of men so have they beene accounâ—ed the most solemne times for Prayer and Divine Duties in the Church of God For at the third houre were the Apostles met together at their Devotions and were filled with the power of the Holy Ghost GOd Almighty who is the protector and defender of Kings grant to your Sacred Majesty along life a happy Reigne a secure State and habitation a strong Army a faithfull Senate or Councell and a Royall people These were the solemne Prayers of Tertullian for the Emperours and used by the ancient Church De Sanctorum Passione Tertullian saith that Paul thought himselfe unworthy to suffer for his Saviour because hee had no more lives to lose for his sake For hee that lost his life for us that wee might live deserves our lifes and all to bee laid downe for him Whence it is that the Saints have rejoyced in their sufferings not counting their life deare that they might winne Christ. Yea to mee saith Saint Paul in his Epistles to live is Christ and to die is gain And elswhere he saith I beare in my body the marks of the Lord Iesus And indeed the sufferings of the Saints though for the present grievous and hard to bee borne bring forth an hope of reward exceeding great and glorious while wee looke not at the things temporall but at the things eternall And this should encourage us for Christs Name sake to passe through bad report and good report setting before our eyes the example of the Saints and not onely so but with cheerfulnesse to sustain all injurious dealings of men though they deprive us of livelihood and life it selfe for Christ and his Truths sake knowing that it is a good thing to suffer in a good cause and that this shall make our Crown to be glorious and enstate us into blessednesse with eternity to have a period De Christo VERBO Tertullian upon occasion taking a
by way of Commentaries and Illustrations on them hee composed many Volumes therein following Origen of whom he was a diligent admirer and imitator Hee flourished under Constantine the Great and Constantius about the yeere of our Lord 320. And after a long and studious life hee surrendred his soule into his Makers hands His Life was written by Accacius his Successour and Eusebius Bishop of Emesen His Apologie is to be found in his Workes sacr a lib. 2. hist. there collected Now appertaining to the understanding of the divine Scriptures are these Works following 1 All the Canonicall Books of the old Testament translated into Greek 2 Of Hebrew places one Book 3 Of the description of the Holy Land one Book 4 Of the doctrine of the Ancients and another of collections of Divinitie 5 Learned Commentaries literally and mystically on the whole Psalmes 6 Fifteene Bookes of Commentaries on Isaiah the Prophet 7 Thirty Volumes in defence of either Testament opposed by Porphyrie in fifteen Books 8 Of Evangelicall preparation five Books 9 Of Evangelicall demonstration twenty books 10 Of the dissonance of the Evangelists one Book 11 Of Evangelical Canons one Book 12 Commentaries on the first Epistle to the Corinths An. Christi 330. L. Caelius Lactantius Firmianus LACT FIRMIANVS I Doe not finde any mention of the parents Countrey or education of this Father nor is his fame and reputation therefore diminished seeing that hee is registred and numbred amongst the ancient Pillars of the Church for his Pietie and Learning and hee is sufficiently praysed by those pens whose worth and veritie have been approved in all ages It is no small credit to be enrolled amongst a cloud of so divine and pious Fathers I finde by the testimony of Saint Ierome that hee was the Scholer of Arnobius who in the Reigne of Dioclesianus the Emperour was together with Flaviâ—s the Grammarian cald to preferment and that hee publikely taught Rhetorick in Nicomedia Hee addicted himselfe to writing Bookes amongst other his workes Saint Ierome speakes these words of his Treatise of Gods Anger Edidit Lactantius librum qui inscribitur Grammaticus pulcherrimum de Ira Dei that is Lactantius set forth a booke called the Grammarian and another beautifull and faire piece of Gods Anger and indeed his subjects which hee treates of and the stile in which he writes are both excellent divine and fluent savouring of a minde that was truly mortified and intended to bring his Auditors to a resolved course of sanctification and pietie For piety and holinesse is the true knowledge of God it was never yet saith hee rewarded with punishment or shame For true piety preserveth and defendeth every vertuous man from shame The party to whom he dedicates the most of his Workes addes no small testimony to his parts and learning for most of them were inscribed to no lesse person than to Constantine the Great an Emperour whose fame doth and will for ever flourish in the Church if for no other cause than even for his pietie and studie to preserve the professors of the Gospell and for his bounty and liberality to the Bishops of his time as also for his building of Churches for divine worship and his valour and heroicke constancie in opposing Hereticks and Schismaticks who began to grow potent And Saint Ierome leaves him not thus but proceeds further in his divulging his prayses in the translation of Eusebius under Constantinus the Emperour in these words Lactantius quasi quidam fluvius Eloquentiae Tullianae Crispum filium Constantini Latinis literis â—rudivit vir omnium suo tempore eruditissimus that is This Lactantius flowed with Eloquence and was as abounding as Tully himselfe and as famous for his stile of Latine Hee was Tutor to Crispus the sonne of Constantine and learned him the Latine tongue A man in his time of all others the most learned and dexterous for the education of Princes and well and deeply seene in the points of Divinity and againe Lactantium propter eruditionem hic legendum that is Lactantius therefore is approvedly read for his singular Learning Quis mihi interdicere potest ne legam institutionum ejus libros quibus contra Genies fortissimè scripsit quos silegeris stylum Ciceronis excerptum reperies that is who can forbid me to reade his Bookes of Institutions which with such a noble and valorous resolution Lactantius published against the Heathens which if you doe reade you shall finde a pure elegant and eloquent phrase no whit inferiour to that of Cieero Platina gives this Lactantius also a faire commendation in these words and to the same effect His verò temporibus floruisse Firmianum Lactantium constat Arnobii Discipulum c. that is about these times flourished Firmianus â— actantius Arnobius his Scholler who taught Rhetoricke in Nicomedia who upon some disturbance left that profession betaking himself to writing in which hee was so excellent that next to Cicero he bore away the name from any other Writer Hee writ many famous Treatises full of judgment and discretion so that in his old age hee was for his rare parts appointed to be Tutor to Crispus the sonne of Constantinus the Emperour a place of great weight and estimation and of no lesse carefulnesse and wisdome which arguâ—â—h this Lactantius to be able in his parts or else hee would scarce have beene admitted to a place of that dignity Saint Augustine and Ierome in severall places are not sparing to commend this Lactantius the latter of them speakes that although his parts were great and his preferments eminent and large yet he died very poore and so lived not gaping or greedily pursuing worldly preferments of honour and riches but as one who was willing to count all as dung and drosse so that hee might gaine the eternall inheritance For a quiet and peaceable life ought to be preferred before all other things and should be the chiefest study and care of every man so that hee might passe his life time in joy and tranquillitie that his soule might bee free from anguish and trouble at his death For it is impossible for that man to be excellent both in riches of this world and in the practise of godlinesse Honour and riches are the occasions of all kindes of mischiefs for they doe draw and seduce a man out of the right way In the time of the great persecution of the Church of Christ under Dioclesianus the Emperour begun against the Christians as Eusebius relates it in the nineteenth yeere of Dioclesian in which there was cruell demolition of Churches and sacred Temples burning of holy and godly Books inhumane tortures and torments inflicted against the Christians so that where any were found that were pious and Christian they were fetcht and most severely martyred for the truth as Cardinall Baronius averres and indeed all other Ecclesiasticall Historians that though the Tempest raged horribly yet this worthy constant Father retain'd his piety and
Commentaries on some Psalmes 21 Another apologie of David 22 Of Davids interpellation Bellarmine allows not of these apologies to bee Saint Ambroses Tome 5 1 On the Gospel of St. Luke ten books 2 Commentaries on all St. Pauls Epistles 3 Of the Resurrection 4 Holy Prayers 5 Hymnes holy 6 A Song of the Saints by Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine that begins Te Deum laudamus Some of the Commentaries on Saint Pauls Epistles are doubted not to be of Saint Ambrose his Writings and as Bellarmine sayes well not without cause First because Saint Augustine against the Pelagians useth the authority of S. Ambrose and yet doth not use any out of these Commentaries So having done such famous things for the truth his memory will ever be sanctified and at the day of the Resurrection will be gloriously rewarded by our Lord Jesus Christ. An. Christi 380. Sanctus Gregorius Nyssenus S. GREGORIVS NYSSENVS THis famous Father of the Church was Brother to St. Basill the great he is called Gregorius Emisseâ—â—s by Honorius and Trithemius his Life Studies Actions and Sufferings though mentioned all by severall Writers yet by way of History none have compleatly done them but those things which Gregory Nazianzen remembers of him in His Epistle to him are so many great and large that they may serve in place of 〈◊〉 History Theodoret so Cratos Suidas Nicephorâ—s and the Roman Martyrologie with some later Writers as Volateranus Trithemius Possevinus have written most Honourably of his Life Doctrine Eloquence accounting of him as a Father of Fathers Gregory Nazianzen doth speake of Him in severall places with great commendation and approbation and did write many Epistles to him as his 34 35 36 37. 42 43. 95. 142. But if there were nothing else to set forth his praise and to cause him to be worthily ranked amongst the great Fathers of the Primitive Church it is enough that hee was sent into banishment by the Arrian Hereticks under the Emperour Valens and this Emperour dying he was appoynted the onely man by the Antiochian Synod to goe and settle and order the Easterne Churches had he not been eminent and faithfull the Fathers of that Councell would not have employed him in so weighty a charge for it is a labour full of difficultie and must be undertaken with a great deale of wisdome and patience and this honourable charge was not onely imposed upon his shoulders but also the Oecumenicall Synod of Constantinople under Theodosius the Emperour destined this man as most fit to visit the Churches planted in Arabia so that for these his actions hee is worthy to be accounted amongst the chiefest Champions of the Church this Father was likewise admired for his Eloquence and Rhetoricke by those that have the knowledge in the Greeke Photius sayes of him that hee alone carried away the Bell from all men for his elegant stile and eloquent expressions One calls him a learned man pervigilom Antistitem the faithfull and vigilant Prelate He was the elder brother of Basil the Great hee embraced a Monasticke life highly respected in those Primitive times and so joyning Theology to his other indowments he proved in short time an eminent Pillar of the Truth he did read the Scripture with all diligence reverence and strictnesse having a speciall regard to the genuine sence of it at all times so being made Bishop of Nyssa of which City he tooke name he did for a while surcease the reading of the old and new Testaments and addicted himselfe to the study of Rhetorique insomuch that Gregory Nazianzen in his 43 Epistle to him seemes a little to reprehend him for his time of comming to his Bishoprick it was under Valens when Gregory Nazianzen had the Bishopricke of the Sasimes allotted him by St. Basil This Gregory did as Theodoret relates it succeede his brother Basil in the Bishopricke of Caesarea which some have questioned for an improbability Well he was a man meriting commendation and so you shal heare what report the Ancients doe afford him Saint Hierome speakes of him thus Gregorius Episcopus Nyssenus c. That is Gregory Bishop of Nissa brother to Basil of Caesarea not long since reade to mee Gregory Nazianzen his learned bookes against Eâ—nomius who is said also to have written many other famous Treatises Nicephorus in his Ecclesiasticall History describes him in these tearmes Basilius habuit fratres c. That is Basil had brethren of whom Gregory Bishop of Nissa was one the light and ornament of the Nyssen Church a man answerable to his brother for Life Manners Learning Piety Faithfulnes Courage who though he was married yet he did not any waies neglect the care of soules He writ his book called Hexameron after his brothers death and also against Eunomius and Apollinaris he is greatly praised for his indefatigable labour and study especially for that funerall Oration in praise of Gregory Thaumaturgus Socrates also describes him by praysing his parts and abilities saying Basilius autem duos fratres c. That is Basil had two famous brethren especially this Gregory who finished the booke not perfected by his Brother called the Hexameron not without demonstration of singular learning and piety Theodoret writing of him prayses him for his strictnesse of life and purity of learning Photius in his Bibliotheca makes mention of this Gregory in these words Lectus est similiter Gregorii Episcopi prâ— Basilio adversus Eunomium liber That is we reade and approve of a Booke of St. Gregory Bishop of Nyssa for St. Basil against Eunomius he uses a stile that is so full of Eloquence and Rhetoricke that it doth even ravish the mindes of the Readers and captivates the eares of the Auditors Hee doth methodically beate downe Eunomius He is more concise than Theodore more copious than Sophronius full and abounding with Enthymemes and examples of all sorts so that I may truely pronounce it that as farre as Gregory for comelinesse splendour and pleasantnesse excells Theodore so farre doth this man surpasse in copiousnesse and confluence of vailed arguments and illustrating examples and the same Photius in another place goes on in his praise in these words Lectum est Alterum Gregorii Nysseni opus That is there is another worke of Gregory of Nyssens read of the same matter in which grappling with Eunomius he armes himselfe with all sorts of arguments dextrously so that overthrowes him by maine force of wit and learning and pulls downe and defaces all the said Eunomius tottering ill-grounded Conceits and fancies but the gracefulnesse of his speech and the lustie joyned with sweete pleasure doth manifestly shew it selfe in every line and amongst many others that testimony which Suidas doth yield unto him is not to be slighted or neglected it begins thus Gregorius Nyssenus Episcopus c. that is Gregory Bishop of Nyssa brother to Saint Basil of Caesarea a man excellent for his qualification being compleatly furnished
with Learning of all sorts chiefely addicting himselfe to the study of Rhetoricke in which he gained such an eminency that none of the ancient Fathers doe in this kinde exceede him He writ an admirable book against Eunomius as also another no lesse famous of the Creation of Man and many excellent Sermons did he make but that Treatise of the Soule which hee writ to his sister Macrinia deserves the prayse of all Learned men in succeeding ages Cardinall Bellarmine sayes that he writ in the fourteenth of Theodosius his Reigne and that he was present at the first Councell of Constantinople as Nicephorus doth report it he writ the Symboll of Faith set forth in the same Councell Sayings out of Saint Gregory Nyssen Of Vsury A Usurer that lends his money out is like a man who stands by another â—icke of a burning Fever who desires to drink water to ease him the other doth reach him it but it does him no good but a great deale of further mischiefe to increase his pain so hee though for the present he seemes to relieve his want yet he afterwards doth mainly torment him Against the same sinne Hee loves no labour but a sedentary life the pen is his plough parchment is his field Inke is his seed Time is the rain to ripen his greedy desires his sicle is calling in of Forfeitures His house the Barn where he winnows the fortunes of his Clients Hee follows his Debtors as Eagles and Vultures do Armies to prey upon the dead Corps Of the same sinne Men come to Usurers as Birds to heapes of corne they desire the corne but are destroyed in the nets laid for them so borrowers for a time may flourish and come and goe but at last lose all For Usurers are as fishers assoone as they have caught fish in one place let downe their nets in another Of relieving the poore There is no excuse to be found for hard heartednesse against the poore for where can the rich cast their eyes but they may behold them He therefore that despiseth the poore despiseth his Maker His Works as they are set forth in the Edition of Basil 1562. I have here set downe 1 An Epistle of a Christians name 2 Of the Lords prayer one book 3 Of the 8 Beatitudes on Mat. 5. 4 Sermons of the Nativity 5 Of Saint Stephen 6 Vpon the sixth Psal. 7 Of Easter 8 Of the Assumption of Christ. 9 Of the Trinitie and that the Holy Ghost is God 10 That there are not three Gods 11 Of the difference of the Essence and Hypostasis 12 Of the faith in the Trinitie 13 Vpon that of the Apostle Then shall the Sonne himselfe be subject unto him 1 Cor. 15. 14 Of Sleepers 15 Of Infants taken away 16 Of the Resurrection foure Sermons 17 Authour of the Lords Assumption 18 Vpon Matth. 25. As much as yee have done it to one of these you have done it to me 19 Disputation of the Soule and of the Resurrection 20 Of the Trinity against the Iews 21 Of holy Baptisme 22 Commendatory speeches upon Saint Basil 23 Vpon the 40 Martyrs 24 On Pulcheria 25 On Placilla 26 Gregory of Naeo-Caesarea 27 On Theodore a Martyr 28 On Meletius 29 Vpon the Creation of Man A supplement to his brothers Hexameron 30 Of Philosophy eight Books 31 Of the life of Moses one booke Here as Bellarmine observes want his books against Eunomius These are therefore in the Edition of Paris added in the yeere 1573. 1 Eight Sermons on Ecclesiastes 2 An explanation upon the Canticles 3 Of the form of a perfect Christian. 4 A Catechisticall speech 5 Against those that deferre the Baptisme of Children 6 Of avoiding fornication 7 Against those that will not be reprehended 8 Vpon the woman sinner 9 Of loving the poor 10 Of true Virginitie 11 An Epistle to Flavianus Concerning which Bellarmine doth give good observations for distinction of them Briefely this famous man was studious and well learned being excited by his brother Saint Basil lived gloriously and died piously in the yeer of Grace 380 Valentinian and Valens then swaying the Roman Eagle An. Christi 388. Theodoretus S. THEODORETVS NIcephorus the Historian hath taken the greatest paines and travell amongst all others to describe the life of this Theodoret at large and therefore I shall principally follow his steps This Theodoret saith hee was born at Antioch a famous place and an ancient Citie and renowmed for many things but specially for that in that the Disciples were first called Christians in this place as also for the Apostles determining that great question about Circumcision sent their resolutions to this place by Paul and Barnâ—bas with Iudas and Silas The Apostles and the Elders with the Brethren unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and in Syria and Cilicia c. so that this Citie is ennobled in this respect and as the place of his birth did grace him yet more did his parents Nobilitie and Religion for they were both great personages and both addicted to Christian Religion but his Mother as my Authour testifies was grieved in minde deeply because she was barren and was without any hope of issue to inherit their large possessions so that they both resolv'd to bequeath all their Revenues to the mayntenance of Christians and to Monasteries whereof there were many in Syria but by her prayers shee was heard and God did not deny her the request of her lips but did grant her her hearts desire and fulfilled her requests and sent her a sonne which shee said should be dedicated to God and shee was as good as her word for his name imports as much as a gift of God or Theodoret well this her sonne by the provident care of the parents and by the acutenes and excellencie of his own wit in a short time profited so in pietie and letters that though as Procopius testifies juvenis consecratus Episcopus Cyri c. hee was very young yet hee was chosen and consecrated Bishop of Cyrus which is a Towne of Syria of the Iews which was builded by Cyrus King of Persians and was by him enfranchised and endowed with many priviledges what hee did being now seated in this Reverend place you will by the sequell perceive what a worthy worke did he presently set forth call'd the Historie of the Lovers of God was hee not as vigilant to find out and discover nay to expell Heretikes out of the Church or reducing them to it At the same time there were whole Parishes in his Diocesse infected with the pestilent Heresie of the Marcionites and did not he by his sole wisdome and labour even to the hazard of his owne life bring them backe into the bosome of the Catholike Church which thing alone shews him to be an able and learned Prelate for it is a taske of tasks to learn men to swim against the streams of their own perverted wils and to make
damnably ingratefull Prosper pro vita contemplativa The Churches treasure should be communicated to those which want but to those which have sufficient nothing should be disbursed for to give to the rich is to defraud the poore Prosper de vita contemplativa lib. 4. The proud man would bee accounted constant the prodigall liberall the covetous diligent the rash valiant the inhumane sparing the slothfull quiet and the fearefull wary Prosper de vita contemplativa The life to come is blessed eternitie and eternall blessednesse where there is certaine security secure quietnesse quiet joyfulnesse happy eternitie eternall felicitie where there is perfect love no feare eternall day and one spirit attended on by Angels where the blessed are not rejected nor no sinner admitted Prosper lib. 5. de Vitiis Virtutibus The envious man hath so many torturers as the envied hath praisers It is the justice of envie to kill and torment the envious His Works are here truly registred by Bellarmines computation 1 Of Predictions 3 books 2 Of the contemplative life 3 books 3 Of the calling of the Gentiles 2 books 4 Of Grace and Free-will 5 Answers to the Chapters of the objections of the French Vincentians Gemensians 6 Of Grace one book 7 Of St. Augustines Sentences one book 8 Of Gods providence â— one book 9 Of predestination an Epistle to S. Austine 10 Commentaries on the Psalmes from the 100 to the 150. 11 A book of Epigrams against ingratitude 12 A continuation of Eusebius and Hieroms Chronologie An. Christi 525. Saec. 6. Sanctus Fulgentius S. FVLGENTIVS THere is amongst Ecclesiasticall Writers mention made of two of this name the one was Bishop of Vtriculanum memorable for his holinesse and sincerity of life and flourished under the reigne of Totila King of the Gothes Iustinian being Emperour and Vigilius Pope Saint Gregory in his third booke of Dialogues in his twelfth Chapter describes him compleatly This is he who was one of those two hundred Bishops which King Trasamund King of the Vandals sent bound into the Island of Sardinia to whom Symmachus the Pope sent sufficient daily provision This was equall in Holinesse and Learning if not excelling the other This famous Fulgentius whose life I describe was an Affrican by birth sprung of noble Parents and â—o much the more honoured because they were Christians His Grand-fathers name was Gordianus a Senator of Carthage and it fell out so when Gensericus was King of the Vandals that this Gordianus with divers other Noble-men and Counsellours were expulsed Carthage and stript of all their meanes and revenues Upon this Gordianus sailed into Italy for feare that as hee was cashier'd from his Estate so likewise he should lose his liberty if not his life where dying two of his sonnes returned into their Country and obtained some part of their fathers inheritance where one of them called Claudius by his wife Mariana an honest Matron in the Towne of Leptis had born unto him this worthy Fulgentius but his Father dying committed the care of his little sonne to his Wife which with great care brought him up both to the knowledge of the Latin and Greeke tongues wherein he proved most excellent and expert Being young he is commendable for his obedience to his Mother so that she committed the charge of her House to his circumspection and in this charge Hee shewed such an example of modesty obedience and diligence that as one speakes of him hee was Matri praesidium domesticis solatium externis quibus conversabatur exemplum that is a safeguard to his Mother a comfort to the family to those without with whom he conversed a rare example But God had laid and appoynted him out for higher imployments and so stirred up and enlightned his understanding that Hee knew and shunned worldly delights and vaine pleasures and profits and so left the company of young men and gave himselfe to prayer to â—astings watchings and reading and meditation So having exercised himselfe in these duties he goes to a certaine Reverend Bishop called Faustus and humbly prayed him to admit him into his Cloyster and afford him a religious habit The Bishop at first doubting whether he was fit to be admitted or not because hee was but young tender rich and noble and therefore not yet able to undergoe that strict course of life telling him how that before he did resolve of it to take a tryall and surveigh of his owne strength and seriously bethinke himselfe of that charge which he went about to embrace seeing usually that many doe presume too much upon their owne power and many times attempt more than their ability are fit to undergoe But at last noting well his eagernesse and hoping well of his constancy and continuance he yielded to his request But as soone as it was knowne that Fulgentius had undertaken this state of life all good men rejoyced and bad men fretted nay his veâ—y mother in all haste comes to recall him and disswade him from it fearing that shee should lose much by this departure from her she cryed complained and grieved deeply but her sonne would not alter and indeed she gained well by this his departure for hee gave himselfe wholly to vertue and holinesse of life His diet was spare and hee tooke no Refectories to please his palate he subjugated his flesh so that with this abstinence he fell into a deep sicknesse and yet during his disease hee kept the same strictnesse of diet saying that this sicknesse proceeded from the hands of God and that it was for his good which so fell out for he speedily recovered He gave his Heritage to his mother not to his younger brother Claudius lest it should make him too proud and because he should give the more respect to his Mother during life About this time the Devill raised up a great storme of persecution against the Catholike Christians by Thrasimund King of the Vandals in which the good old Bishop Faustus was driven from his government and this Fulgentius also from this Cell but he got into another where one Felix ruled here he shewed admirable parts of modestie and temperance But the Barbarians entring this Countrey with violence of armes this Fulgentius and Felix consulting for their safeties fled from their places but fell into the hands of the Arrians who were more inhumane and cruell then those Barbarians For it happened while they stayed at Barbadilia one Felix an Arrian Priest being a cruell persecutor of Orthodoxe Christians tried all plots how to apprehend this Fulgentius and â—elix and having misused some by shaving them and sending them away naked from their lodgings he so displeased the Bishop of Carthage though an Arrian that hee prosessed he would punish that Priest if Fulgentius would accuse him for this fact but this good man would not accuse him lest hee might seeme to revenge his owne wrongs saying plura pro Christo toleranda That he ought to suffer more then so for Christ. Well
restrained the persecution Did not he being sent for to Rome oppose the Schismaticks that hee stopt their mouthes and so by his care and diligence peace was restored to the Church Did hee not so gaine the love of Prince The obaldus that he was joyfull and ready to part with all his titles and dignities and means for the maintenance of Gods Churchâ—â— Oh should I or could I indeed reckon up all his eminencies and gracious endowments How incredible nay how unimitable are they For God brought mighty things to passe by this Saint Bernards meanes Take his commendation as one gives it him Serenus vultu modestus habitu circumspectus in verbis in sacra meditatione assiduus c. that is Of a gracious countenance a modest habit circumspect in his words assiduous in meditation devout in prayer strong in the faith patient in hope made up of charity chiefe for humility principall of all in piety in counsels provident powerfull in deeds never idle rejoycing when reproached modest to petitioners flowing with abundance of wisdome vertue and grace with God and men apt in speech fitting himselfe to his auditory admired for his dyet and not affecting any earthly promotions nay he is termed Olivaspeciosa Vitis fructuosa Palma florida Cedrus multiplicatâ— vas Electionis vas Honoris in domo Dei vas auri solidum c. that is A beautifull Olive-tree a fruitfull Vine a flourishing Palm-tree a lofty Cedar a vessell of Election a vessell of Honour in the House of God a pure vessell of solid Gold set with precious stones He foretold his death and hee that desires to read copioâ—sly of each circumstance there is an Epistle extant to Arnaldus an Abbot thus much in briefe after so many great labours in the Churches cause having happily finished his â—ayes being the first Abbot of that place at the age of sixty three yeeres having setled above a hundred and sixty Monasteries for Religion He sickned and commended his soule devoutly into Gods hands a great concourse of people shedding teares for the losse of such an Angelike man This hapned in the same yeere that Eugenius the third of that name an holy man departed this life Anastastus succeeding him in the Roman See then reigning that illustrious Fredericke over the Romans and Ludovicus that godly Prince the sonne of Ludovicus governing France Hee was buried on the Calends of September with great state and pompe Anno 1130. Bernard his Sayings Of sloth Sloth is a certaine languishing sluggishnesse of the minde whereby one neglects to begin that which is good or to finish that which is begun Of brotherly love Then selfe love is just and temperate when that which is withdrawne from pleasurable vanitie is bestowed to relieve our brothers necessity for true love regards the common good Helpe is in vaine expected where punishment is deserved Expectation from others must be according to our dealing with others Of Ambition Ambition is a gilded misery a secret poyson a hidden plague the Engineere of deceit the mother of hypocrisie the parent of envy the originall of vices the moth of holinesse the blinder of hearts turning remedies into diseases and medicines into sicknesse Of Gods love God loved us sweetly wisely and valiantly sweetly because hee put on our flesh wisely because hee was blamelesse valiantly because hee suffered death Learne therefore O Christian from Christ how to come to Christ Learne to love him sweetly lest we be allured wisely lest we be deceived and valiantly lest we be subdâ—ed and vanquished The Soules three estates There are three estates of holy souls the first in the corruptible body the second without the body the third in the glorified body The first in warfare and unperfectnesse the second in rest and quietnesse the third in perfect felicity and happinesse Of the hearts Ascension There are foure degrees of ascension first to the heart secondly in the heart thirdly of the heatt and fourthly above the heart In the first God is feared in the second his counsel is heard the third is the desire of Christs comming the fourth is the fruition of Gods presence Saint Bernard when he entred the Temple or any other holy place when he came to the door of entrance said thus to himselfe Stay here all my worldly thoughts all vanity that I may entertain heavenly meditations His Works are these that follow registred by his owne Scholer who wrote his Life and by Cardinall Bellarmine Such as are reckoned by Godfrede his Scholer are these 1. Homilies in praise of the Virgin Mary 4 books 2 Of the degrees of Humilitie one book 3 Of loving God one book 4 Apologie to William one book 5 Of Precept and dispensation one book 6 Exhortations to the Souldiers of the Temple 7 Of grace and Free will 8 Of consideration five books 9 Sermons on the Canticles 86 books 10 Epistles to divers 351. 11 On Saint Malachies life the Bishop of Ireland These are of the second order and no doubt to bee made of them as Bellarmine Writes 1 Of the Lords comming seven sermons 2 On the Vigils of Christs Nativitie 6 sermons 3 On Christmasse day 6 sermons 4 On New yeeres day 3 sermons 5 On Twelfth day 4 6 On the first Sunday after the Epiphany two sermons 7 On St. Pauls conversion two sermons 8 On Candlemas day three sermons 9 On Septuagessima two sermons 10 On Quadragessima seven sermons 11 On St. Benedict one sermon 12 On our Lady day three sermons 13 On Palme-sunday three sermons 14 On Easter day foure sermons 15 Sunday after Easter two sermons 16 On Rogation weeke one sermon 17 On Ascension day one sermon 18 On Whitsontide one sermon 19 On St. John Baptists one sermon 20 On Saint Peter and Paul foure sermons 21 On David and Goliah one sermon 22 On the seven houres three sermons 23 On St. Victor two sermons 24 On St. Mary Magdalen one sermon 25 On our Lady day five sermons 26 On these words it is a great signe one sermon 27 On the Virgin Maries birth day one sermon 28 On Saint Michael two sermons 29 On All Saints day five sermons 30 On St. Malachies one sermon 31 On Esayes words five sermons 32 On St. Martine one sermon 33 On St. Clement one sermon 34 On Saint Andrews Eve one sermon 35 On Saint Andrews day two sermons 36 On Humbertus one sermon 37 At the Dedication of a Church six sermons 38 On the 90. Psalme seventeen sermons 39 On divers Arguments 35. 40 Of the depth of the heart foure sermons 41 Of conversion to the Clergie one sermon 42 Short sermons 66. 43 Of the gifts of the Holy Ghost one sermon 44 St. Bernards sentences 45 A Declamation on that saying We have left all Those of which there is some doubt made are these 1 To his Brethren 2 Meditations 3 Of the inward house the soule 4 Of the order of life 5 Of the Ladder of Monks 6 Form
death by a contrary comparison For as death is violent in destroying so love is violent in preserving Of Corporall Exercise Corporall exercise as Fasting watching and abstinence which bridle the flesh are little profitable unlesse piety be added thereunto for it makes us shunne vices and so to be excusable for some vices but not for all but piety and good workes are gratefull unto God Of Christs Love There came one without sinne that saved us from sinne for the Sonne of man came to seeke and to save sinners because he came in love as he was man and was from eternity as he was God The instruction of words is not so powerfull as the exhortation of workes for if those that teach the truth well doe neglect to do well they shall hardly profit their audience For workes perswade more than words The Writings and Bookes of Peter Lombard may bee knowne by the Epitaph on his Sepulcher which is in Saint Marcels Church in Paris where these words may be read Here lies Peter Lombard Bishop of Paris who composed the Booke of Sentences Commentaries on the Psalmes and Saint Pauls Epistles Moreover there are foure bookes of Sentences which are the chiefe works of Master Peter The first containeth sentences of the Fathers concerning the Trinity and Unity of God The second of the Creation of the World and especially of Angels and men and of the grace of God The third of the incarnation of the Word and of vertues and vices The fourth of the Sacraments and of the last things the Resurrection and Judgement An. Christi 1245. Alexander Hales ALEXANDER HALES THis Irrefragable Piece of Learning was borne in England in a place called Hales in Norfolke where having had liberall and free education bestowed on him by his friends he wholly addicted himselfe to literature it seemes hee had not onely an excellent wit but as forward a will to study for he proved famous in a short time which argues that he was wondrous painfull in his studies and so gained the height of learning by his indefatigable care and labour And although England bred him yet hee travailed into other Countries and was as famous abroad as hee was at home for as it is testified of him Magno tempore Parisiis legit id est He read a long time in Paris He it was that made the summe of Divinity and divided it into foure parts which he performed so accurately profoundly judiciously and learnedly that hee was called in Paris Fons vitae the Fountaine of life So likewise others termed him Doctor Doctorum the Doctor of Doctors But the most generall Title of worth that was given him was this that he was Doctor irrefragabilis Sixtus Senensis saith that for his knowledge in all the liberall Arts and for his wisedome in Schoole-Divinity he was not onely not inferiour to any but indeed did farre excell all others so that he may wel be termed the guide of Schoole-Divinity Another entitles him Virum in Divinis Scripturis eruditissimum in seculari Philosophia nulli suo tempore secundum ingenio subtilem clarum Eloquiâ— id est a man most absolutely experienced in the Scriptures and inferiour to none of his time for Philosophy most acute in Wit most renouned for his Eloquence Possevinus saith of him that he writ the summe of Divinity Ea Methodo quam anteà nemo unquam attigerat id est in that dainty Method which never any before had done But abâ—ve all the pens that have writ in his praise Petrus Rudolphus hath gone the highest whose Encomium of it selfe is sufficient to cause this Author to be esteemed And since he was so famous a Writer I cannot let his name and fame dye without adding something of mine own knowledge to perpetu ate him to posterity There be three or foure remarkable things in him which praise him sufficiently as first his general Learning secondly the Scholars of note that hee was Tutor unto thirdly the various Workes that he writ fourthly the honest and sanctified life that he alwayes led and lastly his death For the first who can suspect his ability for any kinde of Learning when as hee is rather admired of all than yet equallized by any Who that is of solid judgement but doe allow of his authority who but subscribes to his Conclusions Who desires not to register his undenyable Sentences Who but spend themselves at the Lampe to have resolution of difficult points from his Treasury What Case doth hee leave unresolved what Science doth he not handle Is hee not absolute for Grammar fluent for Rhetorique deepe in Philosophy expert in Metaphysicks made up compleat for Divinity Who almost can reckon up the number of his scholasticke Questions with their wise and learned Answers satisfies he not any man in any poynt or head of Divinity Is not hee the Garden that 's variously decked with most sorts of sweet Flowers and wholsome Herbes so that while some have endeavoured to bee eminent in this or that Science and with great difficulty have scarce attained their desired perfection is not he made up of all as though Natures endowments and graces blessings attended him and did both strive to the utmost to enrich him And then secondly doe not those worthy Instruments of learning who proved such solid Scholars afterwards speak this Alensis praise especially those two more eminent Lights to wit Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure the one being for his admirable parts stiled Doctor Angelicus and the other for his rare knowledge in Divinity is called Doctor Seraphicus of the first it is said Tolle Thomam dissipabo Ecclesiam take him away and the Church will bee weakned and take away both and how will the Schooles be darkned and their glory eclipsed and were not both these by their own confessions instructed and tutored by this Alexander of Hales the Master sure was an able man who gave learning in such a measure to two such Champions And thirdly doe not his numerous unparalleld Workes sufficiently renowne him Did not all the chiefe Divines and Masters of Paris to the number of sixty approve and seale to the allowance of his summe of Divinity Did not the same Alensis decore and illustrate the old and new Testament with Marginall Notes which Worke was called Postills on the whole Bible Are there not in Manuscripts in foure Tomes Expositions and Commentaries of his upon Saint Marke Saint Luke and upon all the Epistles of Saint Paul Did not his pen set forth the summe of vertues Hath not hee writ likewise on the Pentateuch Commentaries on the Booke of Iosuah on the booke of Iudges on the bookes of the Kings as also on the Psalms hath not his labour set forth Annotations on the lesser Prophets Are not those his Commentaries on Aristotles Metaphysicks knowne by the name of Alexander ab Alexandria Did not he write learnedly likewise on the foure bookes of the Master of the Sentences hath not he
made many sermons to the people and did not he compile that worthy piece that is termed Vitiorum Destructorium which is indeed the very undermiâ—er of the Kingdome of sinne and darknesse these workes are so able to defend themselves that I neede not spend time to lend praise to them Fourthly as his learning was great his pains wonderfull his Scholars famous his Workes unreproveable so his life and conversation was as upright and honest Certainly he who did take such labour to kill vice in others would not harbour it in his owne soule Are not those his remedies which hee hath prescribed against the Capitall sinnes demonstration sufficient that his aime was to kill them are not all his arguments against them as so many Engines unresistable who is so ignorant of his pious intention that knowes not the reason why he entred into that strict course of life but that he might be the more free from the snares of the world and that he might have the more time and space to give himself to prayer watching fasting meditation and godly writing and what ingenuous spirit but knowes that writing many books is wearinesse to the flesh as Solomon speakes and did not he write many and those solid ones which must needs take up most part of his time adde moreover the set houres of his publick exercises which could not be performed with that generall applause as they were had not hee in private spent much time in molding them so that these things considered seriously who can finde almost in all his life any time for to be idle or ill imployed in did hee not all his life rather chuse to live poorely as holding that to bee the lesse subject to any incombrances was hee not alwayes a friend to the poore as well knowing whose Members they were and to whom they did belong And as his Life was full of Charity and labour so it was as spotlesse and innocent free from suites and needlesse contentions so that in all his deportments he shewed himselfe a patterne of meeknesse temperance and sobriety And to conclude when it pleased God to call him from earth was not his heart and soule ready to be offered Saint Pauls Cupio dissolvi was his resolution and at his death was he not of all learned pious and devout men generally lamented aswell knowing what a great labourer was then called to rest so after a religious devout humble and laborious life he departed quietly in the Lord being in his time the glory of the Pulpit the Father of scholars and the light and grace of the Schoole-men He departed in the yeare of our Lord 1245. in the reigne of Fredericke the second then Emperour Some of Alexander Alensis his wise and religious Sayings collected out of his Workes Of Charity Charity in the soule of a man is like the Sunne in the Firmament which spreads his beames upwards downewards upwards towards God the Angels Saints downwards to the Creatures especially to the poore that are good and as the Sunne shines upon the good and bad so true charity dilates its beames to its enemies Destruct vitior pa. 7. cap. 12. Num. 3. Of Patience A soule patient for wrongs offered is like a man with a sword in one hand and salve in another could wound but will heale Part. 6. cap. 26. Of Faith What the eye is to the body that is faith to the soule t is good for direction if it be well kept as Flies doe hurt the eye so doe little sinnes and ill thoughts the soule par 6. cap. 32. Of the detestation of Covetousnesse It deserves hate of all men for sixe reasons First because it is a sinne against Nature making the desires of the soule terrene whereas they should be Celestiall Secondly from the many curses that are laid against it in Gods Word Woe to them that joyne house to house Esay 5. Thirdly from the many evills it subjects a man to it is the roote of all evills Fourthly it makes a man a foole Thou foole this night c. Fiftly it causes strifes and contentions From whence are strifes c. Sixtly it brings men into snares which drowne them in perdition Destruct vitior page 44. Of the Sinne of Lying Every lye is odious but that most which is against the poynts of Faith as to say that Jesus Christ was not borne of the Virgin Mary c. Faith must bee defended not opposed Dectruct page 52. Of good Counsellours Such should be holy in their lives true in their words righteously zealous and wise by experience par 4. cap. 44. in Destruct Of the danger of customary sinnes Custome in sinne enticeth and invadeth youth tyes fast and bindes age deceives and infects the affections subverts the judgement and is hardly cured par 5. cap. 2. num 11. Of Humility An humble man is like a good tree the more full of fruit the branches are the lower they bend themselves par 4. cap. 48. num 6. Of teares and weeping Shed teares of compunction of compassion of devotion weepiâ—g availes not if it bee feigned for vaine things immoderate for the dead or the crying of the wicked in Hell torments par 4. cap. 52. num 5. An. Christi 1264. Bonaventura BONAVENTVRVS IN many Authours this Seraphick writer was called Iohn Gerso the Cardinall of Paris thinkes that hee was called Eustachius some have term'd him Eustathius others Eutychius but the most call him Bonaventure the reason why hee was termed Eustathius or Eustachius was because in all his disputations had at Paris with the Grecians he stil was constant and resolved to defend the truth with all solidity and gravity Hee was borne in Etruria of the Greeks called Tyrrhenia one of the most flourishing parts of all Italy called at this day Tuscany his fathers name was Ioannes Fidantius his mother Ritelia both of great Descent wondrous devout and full of charity who had this sonne borne to their mutuall joy in one of the ancientest and renowmedst Cities of all Tuscany called Balneo-Regium in English The Kings Bath This Bonaventure in his youth shewed what he would prove afterwards for as he was mainly addicted to study so he set himselfe to follow that way and those men which were most holy and learned in those times principally Alexander of Hales the glory of that age as also Ioannes Rupellius with many others and for certaine it is that age was as active and full of Disputations as any could be so that Bonaventure could not want occasion or opportunitie for exercise For his feature and proportion of body though as Nazianzen said in the life of Saint Basil his minde was so adorned that hee would passe over all the praise of his outward parts yet he doth plainly say that Saint Basil when he was young was of an able strong constitution comely proportioned gratefull in his behaviour of an heavenly aspect So I may say of this great Doctor though his soule was richly decked
sets forth the prayses of the Christians He was sent Embassador by the Iews his Countrimen to Rome to plead for his whole Nation and to qualifie Caius the Emperours anger who was possessed against the Iews for divers crimes and enormities which they had committed hoping by his endevour and wisdome to set them right againe in the Emperours good opinion so testifies Photius and Saint Ierome and Suidas and Eusebius hee flourished in the fiftieth yeere after Christs Incarnation in the Reigne of Nero the Emperour the occasion that he was sent to Rome was thus whereas betweene the Iews and Graecians inhabiting Alexandria there fell a great sedition three choice men of either side was set apart to plead their matters and grievances before Caius Appian then being the chief for the Graecians objected many and enormous crimes against the Iews amongst others that they would not neither did give that due honour and obedience to the Roman Emperour which they ought for whereas through all the Roman Provinces there were Temples and Altars built to Caius that hee as well as other Gods might be worshipped these Iews onely of all others denied to performe any such respect neither would they sweare by the Name of Caesar Hereupon this Philo the brother of Alexander Alabarchus being an excellent and wise philosopher and an excellent man for all sorts of Learning and knew well how to guide his passion that nothing could move him to wroth in despight of Appion and all those that strove to exasperate Caius against him and the Iews fitted himselfe to cleere his Nation of those foule aspersions but Caesar would not heare him but commanded him in a great fury to depart his presence whereupon Philo turning himselfe to his Countrimen that came along with him from their Nation as Associates spake thus to them Now let us be of good courage and undaunted hearts for though the Emperour be against us yet God that rules him is for us This Iosephus testifies of him in his eighth Booke and tenth Chapter of his Antiquities of the Iews And thus saith a learned man of him That the noble and couragious heart hath still this property to be alwayes doing things honest and vertuous not onely for his own particular but for his Countries good though it be with losse of credit or exile and with the frowne of princes for true worth indeed dependeth of Vertue and all other things are of Fortune For that man that is truly magnanimous and of a great spirit as was this Philo doth continually carry himselfe upright under any burden be it never so weighty and nothing doth happen amisse or displeasing unto him be it never so difficult and hard to be borne for a Wise man knoweth his owne forces and with his vertue he vanquisheth all sudden accidents This Philo was eloquent of speech rich in sentences deep and profound in the explication of the sacred Scriptures hee was excellent aswell in the Pythagorean Platonicke as in the philosophy of Aristotle insomuch that he was counted one that excell'd others So also was he renowmed for his skill in the Greeke that he was held the chiefe of his time Hence the proverbe came Aut Plato Philonizat aut Philo Platonizat Either Plato imitates Philo or Philo Plato because of their congruity in writing The Romans in Claudius Reigne did so admire his Works that they esteemed them worthy to be kept safe in a publike Library as Monuments of his famous Learning hee was admirable for his threefold explanation of Scripture by the Literall Morall and Allegoricall sence so that most of the Ancient Doctours of the Church have imitated him and have cald him the Inventor as Sixtus Senensis doth relate Possevi As hee was also famous for his Learning so for his parentage being of great descent and executed Offices of the chiefest esteeme with credit and fidelity and it is reported of all that Caius the Emperour because in the Iewish Temples hee was not worshipped by these Titles JOVI ILLUSTRI NOVO CAIO and being incensed by Appion against the Iewes but specially against this Philo that hee intended to have slain him but failing in that hee did with extreme violence persecute and afflict the Iewes every where but chiefly those that lived in Alexandria This Philo notwithstanding being of an admirable courage and vivacitie did publikely deny that ever such prophanenesse and grosse Idolatry should be practised among the Servants of God especially themselves who had fled thither for the Truth And that you may fully see what a rare Instrument this Philo was for al sorts of Learning either Philosophicall or Theologicall Let his Mysticall Expositions of Moses Writings expresse it Hee did throughly saith one Search the Entrails and Bowels of them by which leaving the literall sence hee directed men to a higher end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even to gaine eternall life and the perfection of all Vertue Nay saith Iosephus Philo was so excellent in his studies for copiousnesse of Invention for gravity of Expressions for giving light to dark words that all the Ancients gave him credit for Wit and Learning so that many did follow his foot-steps as Clemens Gregory Nazianzen and among the Latine Fathers Saint Ambrose who confesseth that he exchanged nay borrowed many excellent things of Philo. There are some Fathers that have blamed him a little for his too too inquisitive braine and doe conclude that Hee and Origen were in some things fabulous and ridiculous but all wise men know that the greatest Lights of the Church have had some blemishes Bernardus non videt omnia Therefore as a Wiseman saith Let no man upbraid another man with his misery for weaknesse and infirmities is common to all mortall men and no man knows how soone hee may be over-taken and have his failings for it is an injury to laugh at anothers infirmities when the best of men are incident to the like imperfections But this Philo was also well skild in Histories wherein hee showes not onely a rare commendation of Vertues but declares himselfe a sharp hater of Vices so that even they which spake against him for some of his Allegories give him a joint praise for his Historicall parts and knowledege the time and place wherein hee lived was full of Learning hee did live in the Reignes of Tiberius Caius and Claudius And so having done so much hee departed this humane life about the 50 yeere after Christ. His usuall saying was That there is nothing better for a man then to be borne nor anything better for him than to die soone and quickly For Death is the medicine of all evils incident to man Haec legere potes in praef Ioseph His Works 1 Of the life of a Wise man 2 Of ordering our Life 3 Of the Confusion of Languages 4 Of the nature of foure footed Beasts three Books 5 Of things subject to sense 6 Of Learning 7 Of the Possessours of Divine Things 8 Of the Division of unequall things
9 Of the three Vertues or Graces 10 Of Nature and Invention 11 Of Covenants 12 Of the successe of Generation 13 Of the change of names 14 Of the Giants 15 Of the five Bookes of Moses 16 Of Dreams 17 Of the Tabernacle 18 Of a Contemplative Life 19 Of Husbandry 20 Of Drunkennesse 21 Of Sacrifices 22 Of Providence 23 Of Idaea's 24 Of Alexander 25 Of Creatures 26 That every unwise man is but a slave These Trithemius fol. 4 There are more of his Works extant 2 Books of Allegories 3 Of the Cherubims 4 Of the Sacrifice of Cain and Abel Of the confusion of Languages Of Gods Immutability Of Abrahams Iournying Of Fortitude Of the Decalogue Of speciall Laws Of Circumcision Of Monarchie Of the Honor of Priests That an honest man is a friend of Nobilitie Of Rewards and punishments Of Cursings Of his Embassage to Caius These are all sufficient Witnesses of this Mans pains and labour An. Mundi 4057. Flavius Iosephus FLAVIVS IOSEPHVS HE was of no mean parentage or Descent but of an ancient stock of the Priests and of that Line which was the chiefe of the foure and twenty and by his Mothers side was of the Bloud Royall shee being of the Family of the Asamonaeans who a long time not onely held the Priesthood of that Nation but the Kingdome his great Grand-father was called Symon Psellus at what time Hircanus the sonne of Symon the High-priest the first of that name held the Priesthood hee was borne the first yeare of Caius Caesar and had three sonnes Hircanus the eldest Iustus and Agrippa in Vespasians Time this Genealogie and Succession was truly kept in publike Tables as his parents were great and Noble so their Integrity and uprightnesse was well knowne to all Ierusalem hee was bred up from his Childhood in good Discipline and had an excellent memory and quick understanding so that the High-priest and Elders of the City much regarded him hee passed through all the three Sects of Pharisees Sadduces and Essenes and did most approve the life of the Pharisees and did in his strictnesse of life imitate one Banus who liv'd solitarily by fruites and herbes At two and twenty yeares he professed himselfe a Pharisie which is much like to the Stoicks amongst the Graecians and presently tooke a Voyage to Rome to plead the cause of some honest and good men who for little or no cause were bound and carried before the Emperour In his Voyage the Ship was cast away yet he with others by Gods blessing with swimming saved their lives and did appeare at Rome and got speciall familiarity with Aliturus a Iew who was in great esteeme with the Emperour by whose helpe hee got to be made knowne to Poppaea the Wife of the Emperour and so freed those Priests from their bonds and further dangers and was rewarded by her with great gifts and so returned home againe Hee was in his outward behaviour and manners courteous and 〈◊〉 of humanity And in his speeches affâ—ble and friendly to all making himselfe pleasing and agreeable to most men as much as in him lay and acquainted himselfe only with such as were good and vertuous for in so doing he shunned the hatred of one and was sure to get the favour of the other For Wisemen accustome themselves gladly and willingly to indure things with patience to the intent they may the better do it when they shall be forced to sufferance He was in his time a famous Warriour and performed great Exploits hee was taken prisoner alive at the siege of Iotopata and was kept with great care and command by a company of Souldiers In the time of his imprisonment which was but short being about five dayes hee did write many things concerning the government of man in affliction And as a Wise man saith which is not impertinent That afflictions on earth are as so many good guides and Companions unto the godly which though of themselves unworthy yet make their cause the better who aime at a higher end then the blinded eyes of the ignorant can behold and become the Masters of their own hopes before others perceive them in trouble For saith hee The Heavens are their only prospect where they behold the Creatour of Nature in his height of Wonder and themselves are the Mine into which they dive to finde reason triumphant by which they discerne their insurrective passions and afflictions And as another saith That it is good for a man to live in the greatest assurance that hee can possibly howbeit if hee be constrained to hazard and adventure himselfe it is more fit that he contend and strive with it honestly then to shun and flie from it shamefully considering that all men are destinated to die but Nature hath only ordained and framed them that are vertuous and wise to die valiantly and couragiously and to beare afflictions patiently Vespasianus did much honour and respect him for his Learning and Knowledge and at his command hee married a certaine Captive Virgin of Caesarea but lived not long with her for she went with the troops to Alexandria and he himselfe married another and so with Titus was sent to Hierusalem where he was in great danger of the Iews for they esteemed him no better then a Traitour and a Betrayer of their Nation but Titus slighted these clamours of the Vulgar but the City being taken Titus gave him leave to chuse something that might be beneficial for him but hee not desiring to be made rich with the spoils of his Countrey desired nothing but the freedome of his body and his Writings both which the Emperour did grant unto him Hee preferred study and knowledge before honour and riches for he knew that the one soone fadeth and the other abideth for ever For hee held amongst all goods and pleasure of this life only wisdome was immortall And we commonly see that those to whom Riches most befall doe find sooner the end of their living then of their longing Which consideration hath caused most wise men to vent these or the like speeches concerning the infelicity of coveting Riches before Knowledge How miserable saith one should I bee if I were the most richest of the the world with what a great burthen of evils should I be over-whelmed Why then should a man torment himselfe for a thing that he must necessarily leave And why is hee not rather content quietly with that which is needfull chiefly considering that the fairest kinde of wealth is for a man to be content in what estate soever that is not to be too poore nor yet too farre off from poverty Hee set free abundance of his Kindred and Friends which were fled into the Temple and did save them and theirs from the violence of the Souldiers to the number of a hundred and fifty persons so hee was sent by Titus with Cerealis with a thousand Horse to Tekoah and saved many of his Friends and Countrymen by the way from misery
and slavery and got some of them to bee released from their torments Titus did so love him that he gave him great Possessions and Revenues and tooke him as his Companion when hee went for Rome Where hee was received with a great deale of Honour not only of Titus but of Vespasianus himselfe and Domitianus and his Empresse and had an Annuall pension very large given him by the Emperour and it was not taken from him during life he lived in Titus his owne Court in great esteeme but not without the envy of his own Nation his second Wife was of Creta a Iewesse and nobly descended by whom hee had two sonnes Nay even Domitianus himselfe continued favourable unto him and punished with death some of his Accusers Hee was excellent for Philosophy and Rhetorick and a famous Historiographer for his time he was for the excellencie of his Wit and Learning and singular uprightnesse of life much admired of the Senate and People of Rome though being a Iew yet hee did highly prayse Christians and gave a famous Testimony of our Lord Iesus Christ as you may read in his Works His Workes were so prized that they with great care were put into the publike Library by the Romans and hee after his death had a Statue of Brasse set up for him by the Senate and people of Rome His life was long and full of paine and labour for hee lived under Vespasian and Titus even to the times of Trajan in the hundred yeere after Christ. Eusebius is large in his praise and so is Ruffinus and Hierome and Nicephorus also and others and amongst all the turmoils of warre and destruction of his Country hee set time to write worthy things which the Church of God even to this day doe greatly esteeme for their reality fidelity and truth and here are registred as Eusebius hath exprest them 1 Of the Jews Antiquities 20 Books 2 Of the Wars of the Jews in seven Books which hee not onely writ in Greeke but also in his owne Language 3 Against Appion the Grammarian two accurate Books Of the force of Rhetorick one Book So after all things enjoying the love both of the Emperour and Citizens of Rome he departed this fraile and transitory life and had solemne Funerall Rites performed for him and was generally lamented of all good men An. Christi 71. S. Ignatius S. IGNATIVS IN the writing of this Fathers life I cannot but reverence his Antiquitie and admire his Christian fortitude he is of such ancient extraction that he was one of those that enjoyed that for which Saint Augustine wished that is to have seene the Lord Iesus in the flesh and though he did not as old Simeon take him up in his armes yet he beheld him with his eyes and embraced him with his heart and at last for his Name sake endured constant Martyrdome and indeed it was a great happinesse to behold Christ who was the hope of all and therefore he himselfe spoke it that even Kings and Prophets have desired to see the same This great Star of the Church is by other Reverend Fathers reputed to have been twelve yeeres old when our Saviour suffered Hee was the third Bishop of Antioch after Saint Peter or as Eusebius saith the second A man singular for his Pietie renowmed for his Love and Zeale Dionysius the Areopagite Saint Bernard and others report a famous saying of Saint Ignatius which hee uttered with sighes and is extant in his Epistle to the Romans and it is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amor meus crucifixus est That is My Love is crucified Either understanding by the word Love his Saviour Christ whom hee so dearly loved or else meaning that all his Affections of this World were crucified that is dead in him according to that of Saint Paâ—l Galat. 6. 14. The world is crucified unto mee and I unto the world And no question but that our Saviour was planted deeply in his soul and for certainty that he did see Christ after his Resurrection take his own words Ego verò post resurrectionem in carne â—um vidi credo quia sit And truly I did see after his Resurrection in the flesh and I do believe that it is He and hee sets down the time and persons when and before whom it was Et quando venit ad Petrum adeos qui cum Petro erant It was when hee came to Peter and to those that then were with him hee said Touch and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see mee have and they touched him and believed so that his own words are sufficient proofs but yet it is the consent of all the Church Historians as Eusebius and Saint Ierome testifie and Ruffinus As hee was led through Asia with great circumspection by ten Souldiers hee strived to do good in all places whither hee came for it may be said of him as of the Apostles That they went about and confirmed the Churches even so this godly Ignatius with holy Discourses and pious exhortations did establish the Churches in his Travels and chiefly because at this time Heresies began to be broached hee gave them speciall warning that they should beware and shun them keeping the Gospell of Jâ—sus Christ which they had received with simplicitie and sincerity And that they should Mordicus adhaerescere Traditioni Apostolorum Cleave close to the doctrine and tradition of the Apostles which that it might be truly kept for ever hee thought it fit to be written out he is stiled Divinus Ignatius Inclytissimus ferventissimus Martyr that is Divine Ignatius a most famous and fervent Martyr Nay Nicephorus goes beyond that title and cals him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that saw God and one that was carried of God For when he was a Child Nicephorus reports that our Saviour would take him up and shew him to his Disciples And it may be that this was one of the little Children that were brought to Christ to touch them and why not that Childe that Jesus took and set in the midst of them to learne them Humility hee long time lived with the Apostle and succeeded Euodius whom Saint Paul mentions in the Bishoprick of Antioch on a time in a Trance he saw a Vision of Angels praising the blessed Trinitie in distinct courses alternis Carminibus by singing of Verses by turnes Whereupon he did bring into the Church of Antioch the forme of Antiphonies or Anthemes and from that the other Churches even to this day do observe them Hee sate Bishop of Antioch nine yeeres in which time he did maynly build up the Church of his Saviour being alwayes wondrous strict in reproving Superstition and Idolatry in so much that hee did not spare to reprehend the superstition of the Emperour Trajan himselfe who then was at Antioch and for that very cause commanded him to be carried to Rome to be torne and devoured
because that rain was procured by the prayers of the Christians so that they lived securely and held Councels and did preach freely in his reigne as also in the reigne of Commodus who succeeded Antoninus But divers weedes sprung up againe to disturb the Church of Lions and Rome and the Easterne parts Lions was troubled with the Valentinians and Gnosticks Rome it was molested with Blastus and Florinus and the Eastern Church was disquieted with a great deal of contention about the celebration of Easter but against all these did this Irenaeus proceed he setled Lions refuted Blastus and Florinus follies and was mightily studious to settle the Churches about Easters celebration He lived in Antonius Commodus and Severus Reignes being about 182 yeeres after Christ but this Severus being a cruel man against the Christians rais'd the fifth persecution against them wherein many Martyrs were crowned But most of all it raged at Lions in so much that the blood of slaughtered Christians ran down the streets so that their names could not be told nor numbred but God hath written them in the Book of Life at last this blessed Saint was by the slaughter-man laid out to death with the greatest part of that Citie on the fourth of the Calends of Iuly as Trithemius about the sixtieth yeere of his age other say the ninetieth There is great dispute among Historians about the yeere of our Lord in which he died but it is certaine that he with divers others were set betweene two Hils there being a Crosse on the one and an Idoll on the other being put to choice which way he would goe either to the Crosse and so suffer or to the Idoll and live Hee and all they chose to suffer Martyrdome and so were all put to death His bones as relicks were reserved with great care and laid in rest untill the yeare 1562. they were digd up in that furious and raging cruelty of the Hierognosticks who neither spared dead nor living nor Temples Altars nor any holy things but spoiled all and cast part of his bones into the River and his skull was kicked about the streets as a Ball but a Christian Chirurgion stole it up and kept it two yeers untill Charles the ninth got the City again and restored to Christians their former liberty who hearing where his skull was came and decently with great respect buried it and caused it to be registred in their common Register of the Citie His Sentences I have here placed with his Works Hee used to compare the Hereticks and Schismaticks of his time to Aesops dog that lost the substance of Religion by too earnest gaping after the shadow In a just consideration of the glories and honours of this transitory World What profit is there saith hee in that honour which is so short liv'd as that perchance it was not yesterday neither will be too morrow For such men that labour for it are but like froth which though it be uppermost yet is unprofitablest 1 Against the Gentiles 1 booke 2 Of Discipline 1 book 3 Of Schisme to Blastus 1 book 4 Against Heresies 5 books 5 Of the Monarchie of God 6 Of Ogdoades 7 Of Easter to Victor 8 Of the Apostolicall preaching An. Christi 204. Quinctus Septimius Florens Tertullianus TERTVLLIAN THis Tertullian flourished in the Reigne of Severus the Emperour and lived till the reign of Antoninus Caracalla as himselfe witnesseth in his first book against Marcion as also in other places Pamelius who wrote his life sayes That it was when Victor was Bishop of Rome who was an African borne and when as Septimius Severus was Emperour that then this Tertullian an African was famous also in the Church There have beene those who have striven about two Questions first concerning the knowledge of this Tertullian from one Tertullus a Consul and from one Tertyllianus a Counsellour as also from one Tertullinus a Martyr The second question is about the time wherein this our Tertullianus lived some will have him to be converted to â—e Faith in the yeere of Christ 160. but that is rejected but Eusebius and others do with better judgement place him in the yeere of our Lord 200. I cannot let passe in the first place the cause of the multiplicity of his names All Antiquaries do hold that he was called Quinctus à loco in quo natus from the place in which hee was borne which was his praenomenâ—sed â—sed by the Romans as Onuphrius testifies and cites some so called as Quinct a Septimia a famous Matrone Septimius was added to him à Gente from his stock which was amongst the Romans both Regall Plebeian and Consular So Septimius Mesius rex Aequicolâ—rum Lactantius in his Institutions and Saint Ierome in his Epistle to Fabiola doe suppose this Tertullians stock to be very noble The Cognomen or Sirname of Florens denotes a certain Family of that Race of Septimius As for his name Tertullianus it is a derivative of Tertullus as Octavianus of Octavus and as Septimius of Septimus It is concluded by Eusebius and Saint Ierome that this Tertullianus was an Affrican borne the sonne of a Proconsul which also is affirmed by Isidorus Nicephorus and Beda and more specially to be of the Citie of Carthage For his Institution he was happy for it was excellent and hee was as industrious to adde what could be had by study his Works against the Gentiles testifie his able parts which according to Saint Ieroms words Cunctam saeculi continent disciplinam that is they containe all sorts of Learning He was well read in Poets Grammarians Histories and Lawes Hee was well seene in Physicks and Philosophy Lactantius says hee was in omni genere doctrinae peritus well skild in all kinde of Learning Eusebius stiles him Peritia rerum legum Romanorum clarum He knew well and dexterously the affaires and Lawes of the Romans Saint Ierome sayes he was Acris vehementis ingenii vir eruditus quo nihil eruditius c. That hee had a sharpe and pregnant wit that there was none more learned than himselfe Saint Austine stiles him Disertissimum a most discreet man Nicephorus calls him Eloquentia acrem pollentem powerfull in his Eloquence and Oratory but hee that will see his large prayse let him read Vincentius Lyrinensis His words I have Englished Inter Latinos omnes hic facile princeps judicandus that is Amongst the Latine Writers hee is chiefly accounted of for what learning greater then his Who more exercised in all divine and humane knowledge For he was expert in all Philosophy He knew all Sects their Authors Defendors Abettors Arguments Fallacies hee was full of all History his wit was able to decide any Controversies and that with forcible Arguments hee convinced any Opposite hee undertook judiciously who can sufficiently blazon his prayses Each word is a Sentence all his constructions victorious He wrote many Workes that were necessary for Christians which are all
it was for profit in both these hee shewed exquisite eloquence and depth of judgment as well knowing what he did He doth not use any circumlocutions hee desired rather to give the best then much and naughty His stile is no where languid or dull he strives to refresh to stirre up to comfort the Reader for the learning and sincerity that you shall find you may admire him In briefe hee hath so done all that none but the malicious can speak against him or his Works This and a great deale more doth that learned Erasmus speake of our Arnobius so that who pleaseth to read his prayses at large may view them set forth in the Epistle Dedicatâ—ry before the Commentary on the Psalmes printed by Frobenius This Arnobius flourished in the time of Dioclesian from the yeere of our Lord 290 to 300. Arnobius sayings Of Prayer It is the bed of a sick and weake mans soule refresheth in tentations and keepes warme the actions of grace In Psal. 41. Of Despaire He that fals into Despaire is like a ship that looseth her Anchors and runs on the Rocks In Psal. 42. Of Persecution Persecution brings death in one hand and life in the other for while it kils the bodie it crowns the soule In Psal. 45. His Writings 1 Seven Books against the Gentiles 2 Commentary on the Psalmes 3 A learned tract of Rhetoricke hee died under Dioclesianus the Emperour An. Christi 326. The life of Eusebius Caesariensis EVSEB CAESARIENSIS EVsebius Bishop of Caesarea Palaestina formerly called the Tower of Strato for his great friendship towards Pamphilus sirnamed also Pamphilus being Scholer to Dorotheus the Eunuch a most learned man and a most diligent searcher of the Divine Library with Pamphilus was so famous among all the contemporary Bishops of his age for his knowledge in divine and humane Learning so that his deserts were celebrated with this most noble Eulogie of the Emperour Constantine who would often say That it was Eusebius happinesse to bee worthy to be Bishop not onely of one City but of the whole World A praise of an high straine beseeming an high place Indeed mens abilities should be answerable to their dignities greatest perfections are fittest for greatest places and promotions If Moses be placed over all the Israelites as supream Judge his endowments ate proportionable but with his employments his measure of spirit is abated and part resteth on the seventy Elders who were fitted for the like performances He that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an Over-seer and such had need bee furnished with more then ordinary gifts for correcting of vice instructing the ignorant making straight that which is crooked Such were the manifold endowments of this Reverend Bishop Eusebius And for his eloquence Saint Ierome stiled him Romani eloquii Tubam the Trumpet of Roman elocution Eloquence in a Minister is a singular ornament Moses was fearfull to take up Gods Embassage not being eloquent but slow of speech therefore God appointeth his brother Aaron for his helper The lineaments of a Picture make it no exquisite without colours and varnish they make it beautifull Oftentimes a faire out-side leads us to the finding of hidden worth within and the phrase or stile of writing sets a lustre upon the matter Luther caused to be painted over his study doore Verba sine rebus Erasmus Res sine verbis Lutherus nec res nec verba Carolastadius res verba Melancthon Words without matter Erasmus matter without words Luther neither matter nor words Carolostadius both matter and words Melancthon Thrice happy Melancthon judicious and eloquent Omne tulit punctum qui misâ—uit utile dulci. The same was the commendation of Eusebius That he was a defender of the Arrian Heresie and a corrupter of the Nicene Synod some Writers affirme either deceived by the affinity of name and dignitie which he had with Eusebius first Bishop of Berithus in Palaestina and afterward at Nicomedia in Bythinia Captain of the Arrians or else induced to that beliefe because Eusebius of Caesarea would not consent in the Nicene Councell to the propounders of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Consubstantiall but after a long inquisition and examination of the said word done by him not maliciously but rather out of sincere pietie for when many of the Bishops would have the word Homousii as excluding a multitude of gods inducted by Arrius and most of the Bishops did sharply oppose the acception of the same word as introducing the opinion of Sabellius who held that the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost were but one person through their diversitie of opinions Eusebius being doubtfull to whether part hee should assent Eustathius Bishop of Antioch accused afterward by Cyrus Bishop of Bexoen opprobriously termed him a Favourer of the Arrians and a corrupter of the Nicen Faith Eusebius on the conâ—rary affirmed that hee neither favoured Arius nor corrupted the Nicen Faith but that Eustathius did introduce the perfidious opinion of Sabellius Lastly when it was declared by the Fathers that this word Homousii did not take away the distinction of persons which were of the same Nature and Essence hee subscribed to the Decree of the Homousii or Consubstantialls and by the Fathers command hee composed that Nicene Creed which is now sung in the Church A singular stayed discretion in a man of authority and eminent dignity not rashly to suffer any noveltie to creep into the Church without examination how farre forth it may prove profitable to the good of the Church especially in matters of greatest importance such as this concerning the Deity 's essence and manner of existence which is well distinguished by the Schoolmen every person in the Deity say they is alius alius sed non aliud aliud the former notes the distinction of persons but the later their essence to be the same and undivided such as the Father is such is the Sonne and such is the Holy Ghost And that you may the better be drawne into the admiration of his eloquence take notice of some of his sentences which were like Gold Coine containing much worth in a little compasse they are here inserted Of the Law and Gospell Moses did write the old Law in dead Tables of stone but Christ did write the perfect Documents of the new Testament in living soules And the difference of the Law and Gospell may further appeare in this that the Law is a killing letter for it worketh death making us lyable to the curse For cursed is hee that continueth not in all things that are written in the Law to doe them but the Gospel is a quickning letter and supplies for our defects in not obeying the Law we being clothed with anothers righteousnesse the long white robes of Christs righteousnes the imputation whereof makes us as acceptable to God as if wee had fulfilled the Law in our own person Christ having actively and passively fulfilled the whole Law for us by
overthrown The Devill therefore may exercise us with combats not conquer us by his assaults but that we knowing we are beset every where should alwayes watch and be ready Lib. de opificio Dei cap. 20. Lactantius reading the first Verse of the fourteenth Psalme viz. The foole hath said in his heart that there was no God asked why the foole said so he first gives this answer because he was a foole then hee askes the question farther why hee did say so in heart and not with his tongue Because said hee if hee had said it openly and before men then they would conclude him a foole indeed Ibid. 16. cap. 14. I have here also registred his Works as recorded by Cardinall Bellarmine 1 Of divine Institutions 7 books 2 Of Gods Anger one book 3 Of the Creation one book 4 An Epitome upon his books 5 Verses on the Phaenix 6 On the Lords Passion 7 On our Saviours Resurrection Saint Ierome reckons up one that was written to the youth of Africke and another inscribed the Grammarian and two to Aesclepiades One of Persecution Foure books of Epistles to Probus two books of Epistles to Geverus two of Epistles to Demetrianus his Auditour An. Christi 340. Sanctus Athanasius S. ATHANATIVS AMongst these glorious Lights of the Church who have beene even by their Adversaries not onely known but confest to have bin eminent for piety and learning this reverend Athanasius deserves for his worth to be enchased if you will believe a cloud of witnesses then you cannot but have this Athanasius in a singular reverence for Saint Gregory Nazianzen speaking in his Oration that God hath alwayes had famous men in his Church either dignified for their good Government abilities of Learning or for Miracles done by them or else for their constancie in suffering Martyrdom by Tyrants Ex his Athanasius alios exaequavit c. So speaks that Father That this Athanasius did equall some came short of very few excelled many hee obtained the Learning of some the Eloquence of others the Action of others hee followed some in meeknesse others in zeale and many he exceeded in his sufferings hee lost by none gained some goodnesse from all so that the same Father speaks thus in his commendation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanasium laudans in praysing this Athanasius I commend vertue it selfe for it is all one to set forth the prayse of him and vertue for he doth truly possesse all vertues in himselfe For vertue in all workes is chiefly and above all things to be praysed as the head fountaine our most precious Jewell of all manner of riches Vertue is said to be a strong Castle that can never be won it is a river that needeth no rowing a Sea that moveth not a fire that quencheth not a treasure that ever hath an end an army never overcome a burden that never wearieth a spie that ever returneth a signe that never deceiveth a plain way that never faileth a sirrope that forthwith healeth a renowne that never perisheth it is onely vertue which attaineth everlasting blessednesse all these appeare at once in this our Athanasius as you shall plainly confesse by his constancy in suffering and by his Piety in the conclusion Lampadius doth declare him to be well descended of vertuous and Religious Parents who had no more Children but this one Athanasius who did not degenerate from their worth but added lustre and glory to his progenitors his spring shewed what a rich harvest he would produce For even in his young yeares hee was Ingenious liberally disposed of upright cariage obedient to his parents Hee is of all Writers famous for his actions even in his youth especially for one which I cannot omit when Alexander the Bishop of that City did yeerely celebrate a great Feast in memory of Peter the Martyr which had beene formerly Bishop in the same place he having his house by the waterside saw many youths playing together now the manner of their sport was that all the boyes should personate Priests and Deacons and so they all consented and choâ—e this Athanasius to be their Bishop and so they presented unto this Athanasius some other youths which were not yet baptiz'd that they might be baptized by him so Athanasius performing all things requisite baptized them with the water of the sea and gave them good counsels and admonitions directing them what to doe hereafter which the Bishop of Alexandria beholding and wondring at their actions caused them to be brought to him whom when he had asked many questions being certified of the act would not have the children to be rebaptized and gave order forthwith that Athanasius parents should be brought to him to whom he gave strict charge that they should see him brought up to Learning which they performed So this Athanasius profiting exceedingly in all sorts of learning he was as an other Samuel to the old Bishop Alexander who at first used him to read to him and write from him then he was ordained Deacon and so received the order of Priesthood about what time Arrius began to broach his too too infectious Heresie about which there was some privaâ—e meetings and conferences at Alexandria before the Nicene Councell in which this Athanasius shewed himselfe a maine opponent and that with an admirable expression of Learning and integritie Whereupon the old Bishop Alexander going to the Councell at Nice tooke this Athanasius with him not onely as his companion in his journey but as his fellow Champion in this great conflict and to speak truth his learning procured him all good mens love and hatred from the Arrians well His old Lord Bishop dying shortly after the Nicene Councell this Athanasius was not onely by his last Will but by the Generall Suffrages of all the Churches of Alexandria chosen Bishop of that See and that not without the singular providence of God so disposing it for hee proved so eminent that few in after times equall'd him take but a judicious mans testimony of him Iudicium in 〈◊〉 vis ingenii excellenâ— Eloquentia eximia inveris sententiis tuendis 〈◊〉 in adversariis refutandis firmitas inexpugnabilis ad res adversas perferendas Magnanimitas verò Heroica à Spiritu Sancto accensa in ipsius pectore flagrabat This Athanasius had a sharpe judgement a strong wit an admirable gift of Eloquence resolute in defence of the truth valorous in refuting his Adversaries and patient in all adversities in a word There was an Heroicall magnanimitie kindled in his heart by the Holy Ghost There is not any Doctour of the Church since the Apostles times that suffered for so long time more hatred treacheries persecutions even as though the whole World had conspired against him For as one saith well Non solum Episcopi sed ipse etiam Imperatores Regna Exercitus populi infesti sunt Not only Bishops but Emperours Kingdomes Armies Nations molested him but the Sonne of God whose cause this Athanasius maintained
not intelligible And hence appeares the folly of them that forsake the Church and excommunicate themselves for feare of being excommunicate by the Church It was sometimes Saint Pauls saying Brethren I would they were cut off that trouble you but such there are in these dayes as cut off themselves they are so farre forth obnoxious in troubling of others among whom they live that being conscious to themselves they become a punishment to themselves in forsaking the Church that bred them that educated them that instructed them that defended them that had they continued in it with sincere and pure Religion would have saved them But they went out from us because they were not of us Of the love of God Such is the power of the love of God that it maketh us to bee of one spirit and affection with God as distance of place or time cannot alter or change a setled affection Magnes amoris amor The Load-stone of love is love Gods love allureth ours Prior nos dilexit Deus saith Saint Bernard tantus tantum gratis tantillos tales God first loved us and that in a high degree when wee were vile and contemptible A strong inducement to render love for so great love Of Election The Elect clothed with the wedding garment do shine in the newnesse of regeneration neither is our election merit but our merit proceedeth from election God electeth none for their owne sakes or any thing in them but of his meere free mercy Wherefore did he love Iaakob and hate Esau Search not into Gods secret counsell Scrutator Majestatis opprimetur à gloria Cannot the potter make one vessell for honour another for dishonour as the clay in the potters hand so we were in Gods who chose us or rejected us either for the magnifying of his mercies or the manifesting of his justice Of Hypocrisie The inward part of the cup is most usefull if it be foule within the outward washing is to no purpose and so the inward integrity of the conscience doth purifie the body God requireth truth in the inward parts and of all the sacrifices of the Old Testament most esteemed of the fat of the inwards he will have no dissembling That Harlot in the Kings would have all the childe or none she was the childes mother but that other Harlot said Let it be neither thine nor mine but let it be diuided God hateth divisum dispersum cor wee must not have one heart for God and another for the Devill give him all or none at all Of Self-deniall Christ is to be followed by taking up his Crosse and though not in act yet in will we should be ever ready to suffer with Christ as companions of his passion though not in act yet in affection for when Christ comes to judgement how shall eternall life be obtained by wealth gentilitie or dignity these things and the like are to be contemned and Christ to be followed whereby eternitie with losse of earthly felicitie is gained It is an hard matter at once to looke up to Heaven with one eye fixing the other upon earth we must either adhere to our selves and deny Christ or adhere to Christ denying our selves No man can serve two masters that is commanding contrary things Let us then denie our selves saying with the blessed Apostle We have forsaken all and followed thee Hilary on that in Matthew My yoke is sweet What is sweeter than Christs yoke what is lighter than his burthen to abstaine from wickednesse to desire that which is good to love all to hate evill to obtaine eternity not to be taken with things present and not to impose on another that which thou wouldest not thy self suffer Hilar. lib. 4. de Trinitate Words and sayings are to be understood according to their causes because the matter is not subject to the speech but the speech is subject to the matter Hilar. de Trinitate The flesh became the word that is man God his humanity is in Heaven his Deity was of Heaven this is in Heaven as it was and that is in Heaven which was not Hilary in principio Lib. de Trinitate All humane speech and eloquence is obnoxious to contradiction because such as disagree in manners disagree also in mind and the errour of their foolish will doth strive against the truth either not understood or offending their folly Hilar. lib. 1. de Trinit The beginning of Discipline is humility whereof there are three documents which especially belong to a Reader or hearer the first is that hee despise not any Science or Author Secondly that hee bee not ashamed to learne Thirdly that when he hath gotten knowledge he doe not despise others Hilar. super Mat. Christ did so highly commend concord and peace that he affirmed that Prayers made in the Unity of the spirit should bee heard and hath promised that where two or three were gathered together in his name hee would be in the midst of them An Epitaph on Saint Hilary collected out of an ancient Authour Hilarius cubat hac Pictavus Episcopus uâ—na Defensor nostrae terrificus fidei Istius aspectum Serpentes ferre nequibant Nescio quae in vultu spicula Sanctus habet Hilary of Poicters this Grave doth contain Our Faiths Defendor which he did mayntain His blest aspect did Serpents away chase Affrighted to behold his holy Face His Works 1 Against the Emperor Constantius 1 book 2 Two Books unto the Emperour 3 Against Auxentius the Arrian one booke and one concerning Synods against the Arrians 4 An Epistle to his daughter Abra and a Hymne 5 Commentaries on Matthew 6 The explanation of some places 7 Of the unitie of the Father and the Son 8 Of the â—ssence of the Father and the Son 9 Epistles to Saint Augustine He was abundantly eloquent as appeareth by his twelve Bookes of the indivisible Trinity written in a swelling stile as are his Commentaries on the Psalmes An. Christi 365. Sanctus Cyrillus Hierosolymitanus S. CIRILLVS BEfore the passages of this Fathers Life shall bee treated of 't will not be amisse to discover two things the first the time in which this St. Cyrill lived for Bellarmine placeth him in the yeare 365 his words are Sanctus Cyrillus Hierosolymae Episcopus c. St. Cyrill Bishop of Ierusalem under Constantius often cast out of his place by the fury of the Arrian faction but restored and at last dyed under Theodosius But Surius puts him in the yeare of our Lord 340. Now the difference is not to be accounted so great the one accounting from his birth till hee began to be esteemed of in the Church and the other reckoning from the time of his being first Bishop to the time of his Death The other is the distinguishing this St. Cyrill from the Patriarch of Alexandria and also from another St. Cyrill Deacon and Martyr which is thus to be knowne first he is knowne from St. Cyrill of Alexandria because this was but a Confessor that
led a Monastick course of life and was over the Church of Edissa as Trithemius reports in his booke of Ecclesiasticall Writers He was made Priest by Saint Basil the Great borne he was of Christian parents in the time of Constantine the Great a Syrian hee was by Nation even from his childhood abstemious and shunned the appearance of evill His parents in a Vision saw a fruitfull Vine branch spring forth of Ephraems mouth and they saw it spread as it were into most parts of the world and though all the fowles of Heaven came and eat of the fruit yet still there remayned a great quantity this as they verily judged shewed how his doctrine of the true Vine Iesus Christ should be so copious and delicate that all Nations in all ages might out of his Works gather nourishment and yet there would be store enough for others that should come after and certain it is that this man had admirable endowments whom all the worthy Fathers of the Church have so highly commended it will not therefore seeme false what here is recorded of this Father if so many worthy Writers may be credited and it hath alwayes been the custome of the Church to celebrate the memory of pious and religious men especially of those who did as this Ephraem optabat enim non videri sed bonus esse he did not onely desire to seeme but to be really good whose minde was as a golden Ring all enchased and decored with rich jewels heare therefore what a man he was of whom Gregorius Nyssenus speaks thus Celebrandus est mihi igitur Ephraem ille qui cunctis Christianis versantur in ore that is That Ephraem the Syrian must be praysed of me who is well known to all Christians in the World neither is hee ashamed of his Kindred whose Vertues are as a generall light to all whose life and doctrine have made most men wonder at him there are none but such as be ignorant of great Saint Basil but know him And as the same Father speaks the prayses which he gives this man are not small or such onely as are worldly neither doth hee speake of his education or forme of bodie or comelinesse of his person but as hee witnesseth they were Actio Contemplatio Fides Spes Charitas Pietas erga Deum c. that is Action and Contemplation Faith Hope and Charitie Pietie towards God Meditation on the holy Scriptures puritie of minde and bodie strict Mortifications privacie of life diligence in prayer often changing his place by trials and hardnesse a flying from evill being instant in preaching no lodging but the cold earth an incredible austeritie of life poverty with singular Humility mercifull in a manner beyond humane condition opposing and indeed not enduring the Broachers of Heresies in a word furnished with all the gracious endowments that should bee in the man of God how zealously did He in His Writings by sundry places of Scripture and severall undeniable arguments detest those furious and mischiefe working Hereticks as Sabellius Arrius Apollinarius Anomius Novatus and others in so much that He was stiled the Pancratiastes or the unconquered Souldier of Iesus Christ For his great love to God and his Neighbours the words of his own will do sufficiently declare which deserve to be engraven in Golden Characters Nullo modo in tota mea vita contra Deum contumeliosus extiti nec sermo stultus è labiis meis egressus est Neminem in tota vita maledict is onerari nec cum ullo Christiano homine contentiosum me praebus that is By no means in all my life saith hee have I reproached God or suffered foolish words to flie out of my mouth never did I burthen any man with curses nor did I ever shew my selfe contentious with any so that it doth plainly appeare what circumspection hee had over his wayes Hee was wondrous studious in the Word of God and made divers very comfortable and learned Commentaries and he was wonderfull eloquent to perswade men to embrace the Word of God hee kept his bodie and minde chaste and pure as doth appeare by repelling the shamelesse behaviour of a lewd woman which being instigated by the Devill thought to have entic'd him to lust but this grave Father what with his exhortations admonitions and divine speeches caught and overcame the Tempter so that shee which had beene light of behaviour by his fatherlike advise prov'd a grave modest religious Matron He would very often weep for and bewaile the calamities of men the losse of time his inbred corruptions Hee that reads but that one Tract of his of Humilitie seriously will if endued with any sparke of grace remove all pride and self-conceit and will with that King and this Father confesse That hee is a worme and no man corrupted with sinne and iniquitie Indeed Humility for her excellency should be the sister of true Nobility for God hath more respect unto them that with humblenesse of heart can cast themselves lowly before the presence of his Majesty For as the lowlinesse of heart maketh man highly in favour with God even so meeknesse of words maketh him to sinke into the hearts of men such was this our Ephraems condition of humilitie Who shall read his booke of Divine Love whose heart will not be inflamed For the greatest argument of godly love is to love that which God willeth and commandeth and contrariwise not to love that which God loveth not And the true lover of God which is properly the charitable person is under no rule but he is Lord above all inventions all precepts and all commandements that God hath given to man for love is not confined or limited within any bounds Who shal read his Tract of Chastity Virginity wherin it is praysed but wil studie to keep his body and soule free from adultery and lust and say as Saint Paul did that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost For Chastitie is the beauty of mans life consisting either in sincere Virginity or in faithfull Matrimony For chastitie puritie of life continencie or refusing the corrupt pleasures of the flesh and of this witty wicked world are precious in the â—ight of our Creatour and doe possesse such as keepe their bodies cleane and undefiled and in life and conversation refraine from evill And who is hee that hath any sence in him or faith meditating his Divine Sermons of the last judgement and Christs second comming but will speedily prepare himselfe to appeare and strive ever so to live as if he was presently to give an account of his whole life for our whole life is nothing else but as it were a glue which in a man fasteneth the soule and body together which proceedeth of the temperament of the Elements whereof the bodie is made which if it bee not violently melted before through our owne distemperance or loosed with the moysture of our owne merits or suddenly consumed with the
stirre up their Spirits to Innocency of Life and Constancy in the Christian Faith For said He GOD would call him from this labour here and settle him in glory in Heaven and so after fervent prayers he embraced them sweetly much like as St. Paul did the Ephesians and uttered these words Salvi estote filii Epiphanius enim non vos amplius videbit in hâc vitâ that is God blesse you my Children for Epiphanius shall see your faces no more in this life and so it came to passe for hee did depart this Life shortly after being aged an hundred and fifteene yeeres and three moneths for a little before he went into the Ship Arcadius asking him of his age he answered Sexagesimo aetatis anno ad Episcopatum promoâ—um esse in eo autem per quinquaginta quinque annos tres menses vixisse that is that hee was promoted to the Bishopricke when he was sixty yeares old and he lived in it fifty five yeares and three Moneths The Ship that he dyed in arriving at Salamine and it being told abroad of the Bishops death all good men lamented his losse and so hee was buried with great lamentation and abundance of teares Manifold are the commendations that the Fathers have afforded to this Epiphanius St. Hierome saith Epiphanius Cypri Salaminae Episcopus scripsit adversus omnes haereses libros c. in extrema senectute varia cudit opera that is Epiphanius Bishop of Salamine in Cyprus Writ Bookes against all Heresies and in his extreme old age set forth many workes the same Father saith non tibi sufficit contra omnes detractio nisi specialiter contra beatum insignem Ecclesiae Sacerdotem styli tui Lanceam Dirigas that is Can it not suffice thee to have slandred all men but thou must needs direct thy Lance against that blessed and ever famous Father of the Church Epiphanius Saint Augustine speakes of him Epiphanius inter-Graecos magnos habitus et à multis in Catholicae fidei sanitate laudatus that is Epiphanius was accounted amongst those great Greek Fathers and is praised of many that are of the Orthodox Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is about this time Eâ—iphanius flourished not onely famous for his Life but also for his singular parts of Learning So Photius speakes of him likewise in confuting all Heresies he excel'd so that hee stiles him for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is the most Copious and Commodious So ex Menologio Graecorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That great and admirable Epiphanius See you may what a worthy Man this was by that Epistle which Acacius and Pauâ—us writ to him in the times of Valentinian Valens and Gratianus It begins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To our most Honoured Lord and in all things to our most religious Father Epiphaniâ—s Bishop Epiphanius his saying This Epiphanius used to say that he never let his adversary sleepe By which he meant not that he tooke any delight in disturbing of him when he was a sleepe but that without agreeing with his adversary as the Scripture speakes Agree with thy adversary and let not the Sunne goe downe upon thy wrath for without forgiving of him he would never let him goe to bed Wrath and revenge saith a Philosopher is a vice most ugly and furthest from all humanity for who beholding a man by fury changed into a horrible figure his face enforced with rancour his mouth foule and embossed his eyes wide staring and sparkling like fire not speaking but as a wilde Bull roring and braying out despightfull and venomous words forgetting his estate and condition if he be learned yea and forgetting all reason who I say will not have such a passion in extreame detestation For wrath and revenge taketh from man the mercy of God and destroyeth and quencheth the grace that God hath given him And he that is inclined to his owne passion and will more than to forgive and shew mercy is neare unto the wrath of God I have here annexed the Works of this great light of the Church 1 His Panacion against all Heresies being in number at that time fourescore 2 A Book intituled his Anchorite 3 The summe of his Books against Heresies 4 Of Measures and Weights 5 Of the life of the Prophets a short History 6 An Epistle to John Bishop of Hierusalem 7 An answer to Acacius and Paulus Epistle Of all these there is no doubt to bee made this Epiphanius is said to have written the life of Hilarion but it is not extant In the Epistle to the Bishop of Hierusalem there seemes something to be added who desires to know this let him read Bellarmines Controversies li. 2. de Sanctis cap. 9. These though they seeme to bee but few yet considering their worth and nature they are of all men of learning and judgement held to bee rare and admirable for use in all ages Hee flourished in the reignes of Valens Gratianus and Theodosius as St. Hierome witnesseth untill the fourteenth of the said Emperours reigne An. Christi 374. Sanctus Ambrosius S. AMBROSIVS PAulinus at the request of Saint Augustine did write the life and passages of Saint Ambrose in his prologue or entrance into it he useth these words Hortaris venerabilis pater Augustine c. that is you desire most Reverend Father Saint Augustine that as Athanasius and Saint Hierome did write the lives of Paulus and Antonius driven into the Wildernes so that likewise I would describe in my style and phrase the life of this most blessed Father Saint Ambrose Bishop of Millain but I am unable fully and compleatly to expresse the merits of these eminent men who were Ecclesiarum muri Eloquentiae fontes that is the Walles and Bulwarkes of the Churches and the fountaines and springs of Eloquence but I have collected this Life from Paulinus rather then from any other because hee was a present Witnesse of most and had instructions from Marcellina sister to Saint Ambrose His Father was made Prefect to administer the affaires of France when his sonne was born there appeared a swarme of Bees as hee lay in his Cradle who sate upon his mouth and covered his face all over and at last flew so high into the aire that they could not bee seene which wondrous thing his Father with his Mother and Daughter beheld commanded the Nurse not to drive them away and presently spoke these words Si vixerit infantuliâ—s iste aliquid magni erit that is if this infant live he will be some great man Which thing was truly fulfilled in his mellifluous Writings afterwards he came to Rome his Father being dead being accompanied with his Mother and his sister and another Virgin who had a sister called Candida where this yong man gained wonderfull knowledge in the liberall Arts and was not which is a thing too common with young beautifull personages infected with the sinnes of that populous
appeared as it were a bright fire entring into his mouth and his face presently was as white as snow which so amazed Paulinus that hee could not write what came from Him the Captaine Stilicho had a servant possessed and Saint Ambrose healed him but hee after writ many false things and Stilicho should have punished him Ambrose hearing of it â—ad the servant to bee brought to him to whom Saint Ambrose said he should be delivered to Satan which came to passe immediatly Hee healed likewise Nicetius of the pain of his feet After he had ordained one Priest of Ticinum he fell sick and Stilicho hearing said That all Italie would be ruined when so pious a man died Foure Deacons in his sicknesse discoursing softly who should succeed him one answered Symplicianus and Ambrose by inspiration answered presently Senex sed bonus that is He is an old man but a good man at which they were affrighted which came to passe for Symplicianus did succeed him and Venerius succeeded Symplicianus Foelix governed the Church at Bononia Castus and Polemius bred under Saint Ambrose continued Deacons in Millaine before hee died hee was instant in prayer those that stood by heard him pray with his hands lifted up and so he departed this life and was buried in a Church called by his name with the confluence of abundance of people of all sorts and ages hee was another Elias and feared not to speak the truth before Kings and Emperours so that hee got the title Irrefragabilis Ecclesiae Doctor and is reputed amongst the most famous Fathers of the Latin Church Baronius and divers others have writ his life Saint Augustine prayseth Him highly so doe all grave Historians His Works that follow will prayse him in the gates Hee flourished under Grâ—tianus and Theodosius Emperours and died the third yeere after Theodosius which as Baronius says was in the yeere of our Lord three hundred ninety seven Sentences out of Saint Ambrose Against covetous desires and pride Men that are carried away with insatiable covetousnesse are as it were hurried to Hell with unbridled and untamed Horses What wealth or faculties hadst thou oh man at thy first entrance into the World what shalt thou have at thy departure why doest thou therefore torment thy selfe Against neglect of grace Gold is offered to thee thou doest not say I will come tomorrow and take it but art glad of present possession thou shunnest delayes and puttest aside all excuses but salvation is promised offered to our souls and few men haste to obtain it Confession of sins To accuse our selves is to acquit our selves he that confesseth his sins acknowledgeth Gods righteousnesse Confession takes off Gods anger Against anger Anger is the fire-brand of all evill resist it if you can if not keepe thy place the best station is thy patience Liberalitie It is not to be so much enquired how much thou givest but with what heart that is not liberality when thou takest by oppression from one and givest it to another Of Virgins The victorie of Virgins exceeds that of Angels for they live out of the flesh these live in it Ambros de officiis Victorie is most glorious after a combat difficult and laborious The circle of goodnesse is to use Justice in seeking wisdome in inventing fortitude in prosecuting and temperance in possessing that there may be Justice in the affection wisdome in the understanding fortitude in effecting and temperance in using We have all things in Christ and Christ is all in us If thou desirest to be cured of the wounds of sinne hee is thy Physician if thou art in a hot Fever of worldly affections hee is thy cooling Fountaine if thou art loaden with iniquitie he is thy Justice in necessity he is thy helper if thou fearest death hee is thy life if thou would shun darknesse he is thy light if thou seekest Heaven hee is the way if thou desirest spirituall food he is thy heavenly Manna Selfe accusation for sinne is the beginning of Justification for hee that declareth his owne transgression glorifieth Gods Justice by his confession Ambros. super Beati immaculati A cleere conscience should not regard slanderous speeches nor thinke that they have more power to condemne him than his owne conscience hath to cleere him He that giveth counsell to another should be exemplary in good works in learning in integritie in gravity that his speech may be wholsome and irreprehensible his counsell profitable his life honest and his opinion gracious Comfort should be given with milde gentlenesse not with rugged harshnesse that so it may rather pacifie sorrow and mitigate the fury of passion than stirre up in the minde any commotion Christ took upon him the nature of man that he might confirme man Again Christ suffered himself to be overcome that hee might overcome by his sufferings Againe saith this Father wee owe God all that we have for our creation O then what do we owe him for our preservation Again he saith what have wee that we have not received yes saith hee sins of all sorts and degrees His Works in the Pariâ—ian Edition 1549 are by Cardinall Bellarmine registred In the reading whereof you shall finde no lesse judgement then eloquence well beseeming such a Father Tome 1. 1 Of Offices 3 books 2 Of Virgins three books 3 Of the Institution of Virgins one book 4 To a devout Virgin one book 5 To a falne Virgin one book 6 Of Widdowes one book 7 Of Penitence two books 8 Exhortation to penitence one book 9 Of forsaking the World one book 10 Of the good of Death one book Bellarmine takes that book to a falne Virgin not to be St. Ambroses Tome 2. 1 Of the calling of the Gentiles two books 2 Of Faith to Gratianus five books 3 Of the Holy Ghost three books 4 Of Faith against the Arrians one book 5 Of the Incarnation one book 6 Of the Mystery of the Pasche one book Bellarmine allows not that of the calling of the Gentiles to be this Fathers Tome 3. 1 A Funerall Oration at the death of Valentinian 2 Another on Satyrus 3 Of the Resurrection 4 On the death of Theodosius 5 Ten books of Epistles 6 Sermons to the people 92. Bellarmine doubts some Epistles to be his and some Sermons Tome 4. 1 His Exameron six books 2 Of Paradise one book 3 Of Cain and Abel two books 4 Of Noe one book 5 Of Abraham two books 6 Of Isaac and the soule one book 7 Of Jaacob and a blessed life two books 8 Of Joseph one book 9 Of the blessings of the Patriarchs 1 book 10 Of Naboth one book 11 Of Eliah and fasting 12 books 12 Of Tobiah one book 13 Of Job and David three books 14 Of Davids Apologie one book 15 Of Solomon one book 16 Of Mysteries one book 17 Of the Sacraments six books 18 Of the dignitie of the Priesthood one book 19 Prayers before Divine Service 1 book 20
richest So taking advice with his fellowes he resolved to depart into some remote place that he might the freer give himselfe to the study of the holy Scriptures and the more truely follow our Saviour Pammachius advised him to marriage but this Hierome desired liberty Boâ—osius hee perswades him to a Monasticke course of living in some remote Island Well the minde of St. Hierome was thus resolved hee got him a rich Library and tooke a competency of meanes for his support and maintenance hee goes into Syria with Heliodorus with him but Heliodorus repents him of his resolution and so returnes home it is thought that they both in their journey saw Hierusalem which was famous at that time And being now destitute of his friends his body was much altered by changeing his course of life so that hee was sicke but was wondrously courteously used by a Monke but more especially by Euagrius who afforded him lodging kindly at his house being recovered to his health with a great ardour of soule he set himselfe to follow Christ so he departed farre off into a solitary place where was no company but wilde Beasts and Serpents and a few Cells of Monkes here and there scattered among the Syrians and Agarens onely Euagrius would now and then even in this his solitarinesse give him a visit Ruffinus who of a former friend became an Enemy at this time came to Nytria of Egypt and now also his brother Paulinianus having betaken himselfe to a Religious course of life was after a while made a Priest which thing Iohn Bishop of Hierusalem did not approve of but Saint Hierome doth answer it sufficiently his dislike grew because Paulinianus was made so young being not yet thirâ—y yeeres old as mâ—y be seene in his Epistle to Paulinianus Saint Hierome lived foure yeeres in this state all this while subjugating his body and studying and meditating continually with watching fastings and prayers and serioâ—sly repenting the sins which he had in his youth committed and imploring Gods grace to preserve him from future temptations So that as Erasmus speaks hee did not onely study hard all day but spent most part of the night in pious performances so that Minima pars noctis dabatur somno minor cibo nulla otio that is Hee did allow the least time to sleepe little for refreshments by diet none for idlenesse When hee was weary with study he would go to prayer or to sing an Hymne he read over all his Library and what is rare sacras literas ad verbum ediscebat that is he learnt the Scriptures perfectly to a word hee was vigilant in reading the Prophets and finding out the intent of their prophesies he was studious in the Evangelists that he might know our Saviours life the better and with more ease and profit follow it His prayer was Lord let me know my selfe first that I may the better know thee the Saviour of the world Hee was so addicted to reading that hee would let none passe him no not Ethnicos non Haereticos not the Heathenish Authours nor yet the Heretikes what he read with judgement he made use of knowing how to fetch Gold from a dunghill or Medicines from poyson by this meanes so fitting each Authour for his owne memory that hee was able to speake suddenly upon any point of Learning hee was mainly taken with Origen so that hee cald him by way of praysing him Suum his owne that little Book which he writ to his Associate Heliodorus shewes sufficiently what an able man hee would prove in the schoole of Christ. Hee had excellent skill in Hebrew knowing how necessary it was for the understanding of the Scriptures which he got of one Bar-hamina hee obtained excellent knowledge in Chaldee knowing that some of the Prophets as Daniel and some other books as that of Iob was written not onely in the Hebrew but also in the Chaldaick Dialect so likewise did he gaine the Syrian because of some affinity with the Hebrew Now having past so long a time in this strict and rigid course of life by the perswasions of Epiphanius Bishop of Salamine and Paulinus Bishop of Antioch whom upon some necessary employments the Emperour had calld to Rome some say hee was made Priest at twentie yeeres of age by Liberius Bishop of Rome but hee testifies hee was ordained at Antioch by Paulinus aforesaid When hee came to Rome hee was acquainted with many Noble Matrons especially Marcella who being stirr'd up by Athanasius and other Priests of Egypt was the first of that sex that profest a Monasticke life at Rome and shee by her faire devout carriage gained others aswell Virgins as Matrons to the same profession especially Sophronia Principia Paula and Eustochium to whom divers others joyned themselves and Hierome instructed them and stirr'd up their spirits to the studie of the holy Scriptures but hee wanted not those that envied him for there came in closely at the same time certaine Arrians under the name of Origenists whom they knew this Sâ—int Hierome had in high esteeme and so they did strive to defame his splendour by raising scandals of him so that hee left the City of Rome as unworthy of him and as some write Melania and Paula went with him or else did presently follow him hee describes his journey in his Workes and gives sufficient Reasons why he went and why he visited so many places hee termes Gregory Nazianzen his Master for Divinitie hee heard likewise Apollinarius at Antioch hee went to Alexandria but for the practice of Divinitie he chose to live in Bethelem which hee made famous by his excellent preaching Here Paula builded foure Monasteries three for women one for men in which Saint Hierome lived many yeeres as hee testifies in his Epitaph of Paula Ruffinus prosecuted Saint Hierome with a great deale of malice in so much that Saint Augustine began to suspect him untill he better knew his life and learning yet though this Ruffinus was so bitter against him Hee had famous men that stood for him as Epiphanius in Syria Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria Marcella Pammachius and Chromatiâ—s at Rome so that being much threatned and hated by these Arrians his life may be term'd a tedious Martyrdome hee studied Gods Word thirty yeeres having buried Paula his Disciple the time came that his course was accomplished and so in the ninety one of his age of Christs Nativitie 422. Under Honorius and Constantius hee payed Natures debt his bones were afterward translated to Rome where to this day there is a Monument of his to bee seene Hee was in his life of such fame that Greece did rejoyce that shee had his Works translated His Epistles are approved of in Italy France Spain all Germany and Afrike He was honoured and sought to far and neere by Bishops by Noble Matrons by great Rulers many great personages came farre having seene his Workes to see the Authour Amongst the rest one Alipius sent by Saint Augustine Paulus Orosius
Cardinall Bellarmine doth doubt of some of these Workes whether they be Saint Hieromes or not as those upon the Kings and Chronicles Tome 4. 1 Commentaries upon the foure greater Prophets and on Jeremies Lamentations Tome 5. A Commeâ—tarie upon Ecclesiastes as also upon the twelve lesser Prophets Tome 6. 1 Commentaries upon Saint Matthew 2 Vpon the Epistles to the Galatians Ephesians Titus Philemon 3 A book of Didymus put into Latine by Saint Hierome Some doubts are made whether in the fourth Tome the Lamentations of Jeremy were done by Saint Hierom it is thought to be Rhabanus Maurus because it is found amongst his Works Tome 7. 1 Commentaries on all the Psalmes Bellarmine makes some doubt of some of the Psalmes viz. against 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19 20. and sayes they are not of Saint Hieroms turning Tome 8. 1 Commentaries on Job 2 On the Proverbs 3 Homilies on the Canticles These are rather attributed to Beda because they are said to be written in favour of Vecterius Now Vecterius was a Bishop in England in Beda's time as hee testifies those on the Proverbs are thought to be of Beda his Works because on the 21. and 31. Gregory is cited and in the 30 Saint Hierome himself is cited Commentaries on the Epistles are suspected to be Pelagius Tome 9. 1 There are many things of other mens as of Eusebius Caesariensis Ruffinus Augustine Gennadius and others which are all good pieces but not to be ascribed to this Father And so I will shut up the life of this Great Saint Hierome with the prayses that Saint Augustine gives him in his 18 booke de Civitate Dei Non defuit in Temporibus noster presbyter Hieronymus that is there wanted not in our time that Priest Saint Hierome a most learned man skilfull in three tongues especially which turn'd the Scriptures not out of Greeke but out of Hebrew into Latine So his actions and indefatigable pains with his many sufferings doe serve to shew that hee did well employ his time to Gods glory and the Churches good which doth even to this day reap great benefit out of his Works An. Christi 411. Sanctus Chrysostomus S. CHRYSOSTOM I Am now to Write and describe to the view the sweetest Father that the Church of God inioyd in many ages whom to prayse is but of Desert whom not to Commend would seeme barbarous and unchristian He was an Auditour and Disciple to Eusebius then when hee was Priest at Antioch hee got this name Chrysostome as one saith Ob venustatem Eloquii for his gracefull Eloquence it signifies a golden tongue for hee was prevalent and attractive a man most learned in Theology of an admirable Wit in his framing his Homilies hee was beloved and reverenced of all men His fathers name was Secundus and his mothers name was Anthusa both able and noble Hee was borne at Antioch in which place after some time spent in secular affaires he entred into the Priesthood and was made Governour of the Church at Antioch and Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople dying being by the perswasions of Arcadius the Emperour placed Bishop in the same See hee did worthily manage that great charge Sophronius doth highly commend this man for hee writes Nunquam eum mentitum fuisse nec unquam alicuj maledixisse neque scurrilialoquutum nec Iocos admisisse i. e. That he never told a lye never cursed any never spoke any scurrilous matter never admitted of vaine sports Admirable parts â— and indeede fit for a man of his Calling many learned men have admired his parts Anianus sayth thus Chrysostomus certè peculiare illud custodit c. i. e. Chrysostome keepes that peculiar gift and property that though wondrously studious alwayes watchfull though an enemy to dulnesse and stupidity yet never doth his words flye out into vaine flashes but still applyed to the profit of the hearer for his very stile is accommodated to the profit of the Church expressing antiquity and learning together neyther too lofty nor too meane at all times keeping equality and measure full ripe modest free from all fault of too much affected curiosity not too luxuriant not sordid nor yet too much garnished yet sufficiently and powerfully trimmed and decked not too subtile not too smart or sharpe unwantonly pleasant wondrously copious expressing an admirable faculty of the Master yet alwaies free from pride hence it is that the plain man may read him with profit and the greatest scholar cannot but praise him with just desert He doth not onely equallize Saint Basil nor yet parallell Saint Gregory but exceeds them in a word here the curious Palate shall find true Eloquence joyned with Wisdome sound Theology set forth with lustre Holinesse and Scholarship joyned in one in his Works throughout there is store of Bread and abundance of Milke with variety of sweet Delicates of all sorts for Divines In his Homilies to the people he studied for their profit not to tickle their eares but to ravish their hearts performing in all the office of a painfull Doctor he was industrious in his Expositions powerfull in his Morals in all full of Complacency hee would tell his Auditors they were not onely to learne but to exercise themselves in practising and searching the Scriptures lest they should bee addicted to Idlenesse Hee very seldome handled any questions that were curious to the Auditors as of Predestination Reprobation of Grace or of Free-will but when necessity and the Auditory in his judgement were fit to understand them then hee performed them plainly soundly and with a great expression of Piety and Learning He had excellent judgement in Morality and did contemne Riches and hated Vices so that it doth appeare by some golden sentences that hee was as one stiles him verè Aureum flumen truely a golden River Take an Instance in some of them here set downe to your view 1. Vertue is neither troublesome nor hard to be obtained 2. It is easier farre to live well than ill 3. Small and little vices ought to bee avoyded with greater study than great 4. No punishment so great as an evill Conscience 5. No man is hurt but by himselfe 6. It is better to suffer than to offer injury 7. Many doe hurt unjustly none are hurt unjustly 8. This worlds glory is reproach and reproach in this world is glory 9. This Life is rather a Death than a Life 10. Death is better than this worldly Life 11. We gaine most in Afflictions and Miseries 12. That all punishments are to bee accounted and may be made beneficiall 13. Charity is the most gainfullest trade 14. A private seclused life is preferred before all worldly contentments 15. To be deprived heaven is a greater punishment than to be punished in Hell 16. Not to be too wise is to be truely wise 17. That we may powerfully and evidently prove the Divinity of Christ without Scripture Saint Chrysostome as it appeares by all Ecclesiasticall Writers doth surpasse
In vaine doe you goe about to terrifie or fright this man for he feareth nought bnt sinne Saint Chrysostome reports that it must bee our hand that must bring us to Heaven and not our tongue only Hee calls the life of man a Faire or Market where some are seeking for gaine and profit others for pleasure and delight others for prayer and devotion and the last of these are those that walke as children of light Saint Chrysostome calls Saint Paul the tongue and Teacher of the whole World who lived like an Angell on earth and now enjoyes a crowne in Heaven Saint Chrysostome gives man the reason why the Angels did not bring the tydings of our Saviours birth first to Kings and Princes or other great men aswell as to the poore Shepherds And this is it because saith hee great mens eares were so stopped with cares and honours that they have no pleasure to heare it or would not take so much pains themselves but sent their servants His Works are here registred He departed in the thiriteenth of Arcadius and Honorius Hee was made Bishop in the fourth of Arcadius and received Priesthood in the eleventh of Valentinian the younger and in the eighth of Theodosius the elder His Works as Bellarmine doth reckon them whom I follow are contained in five Tomes printed at Venice 1575. Tome 1. 1 Homilies on Genesis in number 67. 2 On the Psalmes 26. 3 On sundry places of the Old Testament in number 52. 4 Whereof five out of Esay Tome 2. 1 Homilies on Matthew in number 89 2 More on the same 54. 3 On sundry places of Saint Matthew 26. 4 Homilies on Saint Mark 14. 5 Homilies on sundry places of Saint Luke Tome 3. 1 Homilies on Saint John 87 2 More or some places of Saint John 6. 3 Homilies on the Acts 51. 4 Sermons for Feast days 32. 5 On severall places of Saint Paul and many things in commendation of him Tome 4. Commentaries or Homilies on all Saint Pauls Epistles Tome 5. 1 Homilies to the Antiochians 80. 2 Dialogues of the Priesthood 6. 3 Of compunction of heart 2. 4 Of Gods providence 6 books 5 Of praying to God two books 6 Against the dispraysers of a Monastick life three books 7 Against the Gentiles one book 8 12 Sermons of Penitence 9 Against Jewes and Heretickes 15 Sermons 10 Against Concubinists two Sermons 11 Of divers arguments 48 Tracts 12 To Innocentius the Pope two books 13 To Cyriacus one booke 14 To Bishops and Priests in prison one book 15 To Theodorus being falne two books 16 To Eutropius one book 17 To Olympia a famous Matron 1 book 18 St. Chrysostomes Lyturgie I have not followed the Edition of Paris those who would fully bee satisfied they may have their choice either of the Venetian Parisian or Eaton Edition An. Christi 420. Sanctus Aurelius Augustinus S. AVGVSTINVS IN describing this Fathers life I follow not any uncertaine Relations but I follow the method of Possidonius who in writing the passages of his life saith such things quae in eodem vidi ab eodemque audivi which I saw in him and heard from him two sure witnesses the eyes and the eares and therefore may for succeding times be easily admitted for truth This Augustine therefore was an African by birth borne in the City of Thagasta of pious and Christian Parents bred and nourished by their care and diligence and singularly well learned and approved for skill in the Liberall Arts for he taught Grammar in his owne City and Rhetorique in the head City Carthage and after going over sea he came to Rome and so to Millaine where hee was appoynted to instruct the Emperour Valentinian being the fifth of that name and the Bishop at the same time of that City being that worthy Prelate Saint Ambrose whose sermons to the people and publicke disputations this Augustine did attentively heare and like of He was living in Carthage tainted with the Pestilent Heresie of the Manichees but by the providence of God and the wisedome of Saint Ambrose his heart was enlightned so he was brought safe from that Rocke was confirmed in the faith and a little before Easter did receive the Doctrine of the Catholick Church and also Baptisme by the ever honoured Father Saint Ambrose and being in this state so fairely recovered he set his heart wholly and intirely to seeke the Lord and to leave the world not now regarding honors wealth or riches but sought diligently heavenly treasures striving with might and maine to be one of that little flocke of whom it is said Feare not little flocke it is your Fathers good will to give you the Kingdome Hee was about thirty yeares old when hee thus beganne having onely his mother Monica alive who did mainly rejoyce to see him so intirely converted His Father called Patricius was dead before and now also he left his Scholars whom hee taught Rhetorique and told them they should provide themselves another Master for hee would onely serve the Lord. It pleased him being baptized to goe and live in Affricke with other faithfull Christians where when hee was come how speedily did he performe what he had resolved for leaving all secular affaires how constant was hee in Watching Fastings and Prayers and those graces which it did please God to give him how did he imploy them so that by his Sermons and Bookes he taught those that were absent as well as those that were present for hee converted one to the faith in a short time At the same time one Valerius was Bishop of Hippo and having a great care to provide able men to teach the people he with the peoples great desire ordained this Augustine a Priest and being entred into that holy function hee did strive to grace the Gospell by an holy Life This Valerius ordained him being banished This Augustine did powerfully preach the Word and had great conflicts with Fortunatus a defender of the Manichees who was appointed to meete Augustine in a publicke place and to dispute with him which with a great deale of feare he did undertake but was quite foiled and so by Gods blessing and the consent of all the learned men the Manichees fell and sincere Religion was maintained in the City of Hippo. He also preached and writ with singular care and dextrous learning against the Affrican Heretiques as the Donatists Manichees and Pelagians so that by his writings the Affrican Churches did recover the ancient Truth and he was so able and powerfull in the Scriptures that the very Heretiques were forced to confesse him a Divine Man He was appoynted by the Bishop to dispute of Faith which hee did with the approbation of all but this good old man Valerius finding him so rarely qualified sent to the Primate of Carthage and certified him that he was so old and weake and the charge was so great to manage and this Augustine was so learned and pious a man that hee intreated him to bee
ordained Bishop of that City so that Megalius Bishop of Calama and Primate of Numidia comming to visit the Church of Hippo with other Bishops this Valerius did obtaine of his hands what he desired with the generall rejoycing of all the Clergy though Saint Augustine did mainly at first refuse it and alledged it was not fitting neither was it the custome of the Church to ordaine any to be Bishop of a City before the other was dead but it was imposed upon him and so being ordained hee doubled his vigilance and not onely in that City but in every place hee taught and writ against the Donatists There was a sect of perverse and desperate people who under the colour of great continence were called Circumcellians who being not able to withstand the Writings nor Preachings nor Disputations of this Augustine they did by might and violence and force of Armes strive to stop Saint Augustines proceedings but all their Actions were in vaine for Gâ—d did still prosper and blesse the labours of this Augustine for he ordaind Orthodox Priests men approved and well knowne to him for Life and Learning and did give them promotion in the Church so that the sincere Doctrine of Faith Hope and Charity was not onely taught in the Affrican Churches but also in other Transmarin Regions Books being printed and sent abroad which made these Heretiques rage insomuch that they intended to have killed this Saint Augustine had hee not by the great providence of God escaped by missing that way in his Visitations which they had beset but such was their fury and power that they neither spared Clergy men nor Lay men but there was a meeting at Carthage appoynted and one Crispinus was the Donatists Champion against whom Saint Augustine opposed himselfe who did by force of arguments convince this Crispinus and so by the Proconsuls authority hee was adjudged as Hereticall and a fine imposed upon him and further it was ordered that all the Donatists should be accounted Heretiques and fined but by the Catholike Bishops perswasions with the clemency of the Proconsull their fine was remitted and peace restored happily to the Church under the Reigne of that glorious Emperour Honorius though there were some that gave out that the Donatists were unjustly condemned by the Bishops at the meeting at Carthage because they had not as these favourers pretended free liberty to speak their mindes Especially one Emeritus maintained this but not long after this Saint Augustine going to the City of Caesarea in Mauritania being sent for by other Bishops by Letters to determine some necessary affaires of the Church this Emeritus being then a Donatist and Bishop of the said place Saint Augustine told him that he had so given it out and wished him now before all those Bishops and all the people if he could to defend his assertions but he would not nor could not performe it onely said that what he should say would bee by the Notaries Registred at Carthage what a poore evasion was this for if it had beene truth it was the onely way to preserve it if it was a lye as indeede it was it would for ever bee his disgrace Possidonius reports an admirable passage of Saint Augustine it so fell out that preaching against the Manichees that there was one Firmus by name a Merchant by profession who was stiffe for that side and had given and spent amongst them much monies hearing Saint Augustine preach was touched in heart and presently came to this Father other men being then with him and did ingenuously confesse that he was infected a long time with that Heresie but by the blessing of God hee was fully resolved now to forsake it and with teares on his knees he desired Saint Augustine and the other Catholicke Priests to pray to God to pardon him and to give him grace to persist in the true Faith which was performed and he reduced from Heresie and leaving his former course of life and living with the faithfull obediently at last proved an eminent Preacher of the Orthodoxe Christians and not onely saved his owne soule but many others See saith Possidonius the wonderfull goodnesse of God that calls whom he will whom he will where he will and how he will to salvation God as he is Almighty so may he worke in all creatures and things after his owne Minde and Will for there is nothing that God cannot bring to passe and that without labour and travaile It was Saint Augustine by the preaching of the Word which caused the Merchant to forsake all and cleave to the Truth but it was chiefely the power of God which had that efficacy in that Word that by one knocke at the doore of the heart of this man that it should open and receive the seale and covenant of Grace which he did without any prorogation or delay or time to consider of it for in these cases delayes are dangerous for the devill the world or the Flesh may cast a baite in our way and so hinder us Therefore let all men in this be truely perswaded that God is the Moderator and Governour of all things both in heaven and in earth and that all things are done by his owne power and appoyntment and that he it is who most clearely beholdeth every man both what hee doth and what he admitteth in himselfe with what minde and godlinesse he doth love and favour Religion and that hee hath also a regard both of godly and wicked men So likewise one Foelix being one whom the Manichees called Electos came to Hippo and thought to have spread his Heresie there but Saint Augustine by publicke Disputation so solidly convinced him that he likewise acknowledged his error and was joyned to the Church This Augustine was termed Haereticorum malleus the Hammer against Heretiques How judiciously did hee overcome those two great Arrians Pascentius and Maximinus the one being full of wealth and authority at Court the other a great Bishop Pascentius who was great in Riches disturbed many poorer Christians and boasted in it that none could object any thing justly against the Arrians St. Augustine hearing this with other Priests went to him and desired to have some private conference with him before they should publickly dispute it this Pascentius admitted but hee was quite overthrowne and had no warrant for his poynts but afterwards bragged it how he had confuted this Augustine whereupon St. Augustine with speed sent in writing many great men being witnesses the grounds of Faith confirmed by the Scriptures to him which he never did replie against so also dealt he with Maximinus the Arian Bishop who had belyed him in the like manner The Pelagians likewise politique and subtle Sophisters who did seduce many and did great mischiefe to the Church how did hee the space of tenne yeares convince and overthrow that afterwards it was determined by Innocent of Rome and Zozimus that their poynts should be anathematized and sent Letters to the
Churches of Affrick to condemne them as Heretiques and that pious Emperour Honorius confirmed their Religious proceedings and adjudged them Heretiques so many of them returned to the bosome of the Church againe and dyed in the Faith Alwayes great was the care of St. Augustine for the good of Religion not onely in Hippo but in other parts of Affricke and not onely against Heretiques but also in winning Pagans to imbrace the Truth He was just in all his Counsels especially hee would determine according to the Truth Hee was not onely learned but also ready to instruct and to take off differences he would not spare likewise to reprove wisely and seasonably the sinners admonishing them to obedience and Christian Devotion so that as Possidonius reports it He may worthily be called a Watchman to the house of Israel to the Church of God preaching the Word in season out of season exhorting instructing rebuking with all long suffering Hee was excellent for deciding temporall causes and very circumspect to relieve the party wronged how divinely did he write to Macedonius a Priest of Affricke and granted his desire As hee had liberty hee would be present at the meetings of the holy Priests celebrated through diverse Provinces not seeking those things which were his but doing all for the glory of God doing as Saint Paul writes to the Corinthians not seeking yours but you taking care that the faith of the holy Catholicke Church should remaine unviolated and that unworthy men should be punished in ordaining Priests he would alwayes follow the custome of the Church and the generall consent of Orthodox Christians For his apparell it was neither too sumptuous nor sordid keeping a faire mediocrity saying that many were puft up with pride by the riches of their Garments and so did fall into sinne Hee kept a spare dyet and frugall being Broth and Roots sometimes for his guests he would have flesh or for the weake and sicke folkes He alwaies kept Wine alledging that of the Apostle Every creature of God is good and not to bee rejected being sanctified by the word and prayer And as hee speaks in his Confessions Hee did not so much feare the uncleannesse of his meate as the uncleannesse of his desires and useth many fine examples out of Gods Word to prove it his Utensils in which his meat was brought to table were either earthen or wood or Marble His Table was rather for disputation and discâ—urse than for any rich Banquetting or drinking and it had this Distich ingraven on it Quisquis amat dictis absentum rodere vitam Hanc mensam indignam noverit esse sibi That is Who shal their absent friends with words disgrace Are guests unworthy of this roome or place And therefore he would tell them that were faulty this way that either those Verses were to be blotted out or else he to depart Hee was ever mindfull of the poore and would either out of the revenues of the Church or out of the offerings of the faithfull distribute to their necessities His House was a Church Hee never bought land Possidonius speakes that there was an Honourable man of Hippo living at Carthage would give his possession to the Church an act used in those Primitive times now it is out of use and caused it to bee past under Seale and sent it to Saint Augustine but a few yeares after hee changed his minde and sent his Son to desire the deeds to be reversed and in liew of it his Father had sent to the poore an hundred shillings St. Augustine was sorry that the man should so suddenly bee weary of well-doing but withall restored to his Son the Acts and withall did rebuke him sharply and bad him take heed that God did not punish his proceedings He did not regard wealth but counted it combersome and therefore did as Mary did chuse the better part Upon a time he wanted monies to release some prisoners and Captives and caused the holy Vessells to be melted and given for their freedome Saint Ambrose saith that in such cases it may bee permitted He alwayes kept Divines in his house whom he fed and cloathed hee was wondrous severe against Oathes so that hee abated their portion and allowance that did commit it He never did admit women in his house no not those of his kindred Hee never entertained discourse alone with any but had some still with him In his Visitations hee kept the rule of the Apostle he relieved the Fatherlesse and Widowes in their distresse if they entreated him to pray to God for them and lay his hands on them hee would presently doe it He praised one who when hee was sicke said to those that stood about I have not lived so that I am ashamed to live with you nor doe I feare to dye having so good a Lord to goe to This Father before his death recounted strictly all his Books and those which he writ when he was not experienced in the affaires of the Church which would not agree with the Church hee himselfe corrected and reproved and hee writ two Volumes which carry this Title De recensione Librorum which are his Bookes of Retractations hee complained that some of his Books were taken away before they were well mended some he left imperfect being prevented by death Hee writ a Booke called the Speculum in which any one that reades it may find either his obedience or disobedience towards God Hee lived in the time of that barbarous invasion of the Goths and Vandals out of Spain into Africk and Mauritania in which were Cities Churches Monasteries laid wast Virgins defloured Matrons abused the Altars puld down the Priests slain the faithfull hiding themselves in Holes Dennes and Caves Hee saw almost innumerable Churches destroyed onely three escapt their out-rage Carthage Hippo and Cirtis yet after his death Hippo was burn'd it was besieged fourteen moneths Saint Augustine and all the faithfull did pray God either to free the Citie or give them patience to endure or to take him out of this life which last came to passe for in the third month of the siege he fell sicke of a Fever and died hee healed one possessed of a Devill and by prayer dispossest him Hee healed one readie to die by laying his hands upon him whereupon they said if any was sicke Vade ad AUGUSTINUM That is Goe to Saint AUGUSTINE and you will recover hee writ an Epistle to Honoratus his fellow Bishop who desired to know whether they might not fly in those dangerous times or not It is extant among those 180 Epistles wherein he declares largely his mind in this point Hee lived to the age of 76 yeeres hee continued Priest and Bishop almost forty yeeres hee dyed wondrous penitent and had Davids penitentiall psalmes before him which hee constantly read and would weepe hee suffered none to come to him but at such times as the Physitians came with refections for him ten days before
his death and all that while hee prayed fervently at the time of his death his sight and hearing were good and divers priests being present and praying with him he departed this life in fulnesse of days and gave order to them for his buriall and so offered himself as a sacrifice to God hee made no Will at all but gave order that his Library and all his Bookes should be safely reserved to posterity for the Church he left an able Clergy after him his Epitaph was this Distich Vivere post obitum vatem vis nosse Viator Quod legis ecce loquor vox tua nempe mea est This doth sufficiently shew what a jewell this Saint Augustine was in the Church of God Sentences out of Saint Augustine What availes it to keepe the flesh entire if the minde be corrupted holy marriage is more excellent then proud virginity a solid hope a firm faith a sincere Charity is the virginity of the mind Of servitude Doest thou desire to have thy flesh serve the spirit let thy spirit then serve God that must be ruled that the other may rule Of Prayer If it be pure and holy it pierceth the Heaven it returnes not empty thy prayer is thy speech to God when thou readest God speaks to thee when thou prayest thou speakest to God More of Prayer It is the shelter and safeguard to the soule a sacrifice to God the scourge of the Devill Of Death There is nothing doth more abate sin then a frequent meditation of death hee cannot dy ill who lived well nor seldome doth hee die well that liv'd ill Of Riches If men want wealth it is not to bee unjustly gotten if they have wealth they are by Good works to lay it up in heaven a Christian must not be proud in their aboundance nor despaire for their absence Non verborum flores sedsequere Mores If thou wilt be perfectly purged from all vices strive to kindle in thy self the fire of divine love For if thou hast perfectly tasted the sweetnesse of divine love thou wilt not care for any temporall sweetnesse The reasonable soule made to the likenesse of God may find in this world much careful distraction but no ful satisfaction for it being capable of God cannot bee satisfied with any thing but God The covetous man like Hel devoures all and desires that there were no man else in the world that he might possesse all the World The blessednesse of this life doth consist in the heavenly wisedome quietnesse of conscience and sublimity of vertue For not to be without affliction but to overcome affliction is blessednesse Love is as strong as death for as death kils the body so the love of eternal life doth kil al worldly desires and affections for heavenly love grown to perfection grows insensible of earthly affection and he that will mortify his body must first mortify his mind Hee is a Christian that at home and in his own house thinks himselfe to be a stranger our countrey is aboue and there wee shall not bee strangers None can separate Christ from thee unlesse thou separate thy selfe from Christ. Our Redeemer was born like a child died like a Lambe rose from death like a Lion and ascended into heaven like an Eagle If Adam for one sin was cast out of Paradise O Lord what shall a poore sinner be become that hath a world of sins St. Augustine saith he that gave his son for his enemies surely hee will give his Sonne to his friends Reject not ô Lord the worke of thine own hand but be favourable and shew mercy upon me who hath been a sonne of perdition and a child of rebellion And though ô Lord I cannot weare out my tongue with praying nor my hands with lifting up to Heaven for my sins I may weare out my eyes with weeping for them And be thou ô my God more gratious to heare then the Devill is ready to be malicious to hinder Of Ingratitude Saint Augustine calls Ingratitude the Devils sponge wherewith he wipes out all the favours of the Almighty Saint Augustine was so great a lover and admirer of the seven Penitentiall Psalmes as wee call them those Psalmes that expresse the Prophet Davids sorrow for this grievous sin that hee commanded them to be written in a great letter and hung about the curtains of his death-bed within next unto him that so hee might give up the Ghost in the contemplation and meditation of them Saint Augustine speaking of the conversation of the wicked amongst the godly used to say For my part I am a man and live among men how dare I promise to my selfe that my house shall be better than Noahs Arke for there were in it both clean beasts and unclean good and bad Saint Augustine saith ô let ô let the Scriptures be my pure delight let mee not be deceived in them neither let me deceive by them Of Prayer Saint Augustine saith Lord give first what thou requirest and then require of mee what thou wilt And again saith Saint Augustine hee that prayes well cannot chuse but live well and prayers is a private expression of the soule to God for by prayer Gods eare is tied to the tongue of man we speak to God by prayers and he speaks to us by preaching I have here also set the Catalogue of his Works which are many and rare so that they may be called a little Library Tome I. 1 Retractations two books 2 Confessions thirteen books 3 Of Grammar one book 4 Of Logicke one book 5 Of the predicaments one book 6 Principles of Rhetorick one book 7 Of Musique sixe books 8 Against Academick three books 9 Of order one book 10 Of a blessed life one book 11 Soliloquies two books 12 Of a Master one book 13 Of the immortalitie the soule one book 14 Of the quantitie of the soule one book 15 Of Free Will three books 16 Of true Religion one book 17 Of the manners of the Church 18 Of the manners of Monks 19 Against the Manichees two books Tome 2. 1 Epistles of St. Augustine with rescriptions being 222. 2 Epistles to Deo gratias 49. 3 Two to Januarius 4 To Honoratus 120 5 To Paulinus 112. 6 To Boniface 150. 7 To Dardanus 57. Tome 3. 1 Of Christian Doctrine foure books 2 Speeches of holy Scripture 7 books 3 Of Faith one book 4 An Enchyridion 1 book 5 Of the Trinitie 15 books 6 Of Genesis twelve books 7 Of the wonderfull things of the Scripture three books 8 Of a Christian fight one book 9 Of the worke of Monks one book 10 Of the spirit and letter one book 11 Of Divination one book 12 Of Ecclesiasticall tenets one book 13 Of the spirit and soule one book 14 Of faith to Peter one book 15 His looking-glasse one book 16 Questions of the Trinitie one book 17 Of the Patriarchs blessings one book 18 Sentences one book
Tome 4. 1 Of Lying two books 2 Of Faith and Works one book 3 Questions 10 books 4 Of the consent of the Evangelists foure books 5 83 Questions one book 6 21 Sentences one book 7 Questions to Simplicianus two books 8 To Dulcitius one book 9 Questions 65. 10 Questions of the old and new Testament 11 Of the care for the dead one book 12 Of Catechising the rude one book 13 Of the word incarnate two books 14 Of the Trinity and unitie one book 15 Of the Essence of the Divinitie one book 16 Of the Faith of Invisibles one book 17 Of the substance of Love one book 18 Of Continence one book 19 Of Patience 1 book 20 Of the good of Widdowhood one book 21 Of true and false repentance one book 22 Of wholsome documents one booke 23 Of Friendship one booke 24 Of the Lords Sermons in the Mount two bookes 25 Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans 26 Exposition of some propositions on the Romans one booke 27 Exposition on the Galatians 28 Annotations on Iob. Tome 5. 1 Of the City of God 22 bookes The occasion was by Romes devastation under Alaricus King of the Gothes 25. Tome 6. 1 Of Heresies I Book 2 Aspeech of 5 Heresies A Sermon to the unlearned 3 Against the Iewes 4 Of the Church and a Synagogue 6 Of the profit of Faith 1 book 7 Against an Epistle 1 b. 8 Of the 2 soules 1 b. 9 Against Fortunatus 1 b. 10 Against Adimantus 1 b. 11 Against Faustus 33 b. 12 Of the passages with Foelix the Manichee 2 b. 13 Against Secundinus 1 b. 14 Of the Nature of God 1 b. 15 Of Faith against the Manichees 1 b. 16 Against an adversary of the Law and Prophets 1 b. 17 Against Priscilianists and Origenists 1 b. 18 Against the Arians 1 b. 19 Against Maximinus 1 b. 20 Against Felicianus 1 b. 21 Against Jovinian 1 b. 22 Of holy Virginity 1 b. 23 To Polentius 2 b. 24 A Tract of Epicures and Stoikes 25 Of that saying I am that I am a Tract Tome 7. 1 Against Donatus 1 b. 2 Against Parmenianus 3 b. 3 Against Petilianus 3 b. 4 Against Cresconius 4 b. 5 Again Gaudentius 4 b. 6 Against the Donatists 7 b. 7 Against Petilianus of Baptisme 1 b. 8 Of the Churches unity 1 b. 9 Briefe Discourses of Donatists 1 b. 10 Of Emeritus passages 1 b. 11 Against Fulgentius 1 b. 12 Of pardon of sinnes 3 b. 13 Of Nature and Grace 1 b. 14 Of the grace of Christ and of originall sinne 2 b. 15 Of Marriages 2 b. 16 Against the Pelagians 4 b. 17 Against Julianus 6 b. 18 Of the soule 4 b. 19 Of Perseverance 1. b. 20 Of Predestination 1 b. 21 Of Grace 1 b. 22 Against the Pelagians 6 b. 23 Against Caelestinus 1 b. 24 Of the Acts of Pelagius 1 b. Tome 8. A Tract upon al Davids Psalmes Tome 9. 1 On Saint John 124 bookes 2 On the first Epistle of John ten bookes 3 On the Apocalyps 18 bookes 4 Meditations 1. love of God 1. Soliloquies 1. a Mauâ—el 1. 5 Of Christian Discipline one booke 6 The sinners looking-glasse 7 Of the praise of Charity 8 Of Pastors 9 A Psalter to his Mother 10 Of the Tree of good and evill 11 Of the profit of Fasting 12 Of the fight of the soule 13 Of the destruction of the City Tome 10. 1 Of our Lords Words Hom. 64. 2 Of the Apostles Words 35. 3 Fifty Homilies 1. 4 Of Time Homilies 256. 5 Of Saints 51. 6 To his Brethren in the Wildernesse 76. 7 Of Clergy mens lives two bookes 8 Sermons newly printed 128. These are the fruits of this Fathers labour he who desires to know which are truely Saint Augustines and which are suspected for adulterine let him read Cardinall Bellarmines observations de scriptoribus Ecclesiastiâ—is in the life of Saint Augustine but these doe shew what a painfull labourer he was in the Vineyard of the Lord. He dyed in the yeare of Grace 430. An. Christi 432. Sanctus Cyrillus Alexand. S CIRILLVS ALEXAND THis eminent Father of the Church was Bishop of Alexandria a Grecian by Nation famous for his actions done in the Church As for his parentage no doubt but that also was in some sort suitable to his breeding for Theophilus the late Archbishop of Alexandria was his owne Uncle whom also hee succeeded in that See but not without opposition Some stood for one Timothy then Archdeacon of Alexandria others came in for this Cyrill partly because of his neere alliance to this former Archbishop who they esteemed highly and reverenced for his sanctitie and holinesse of life but chiefly because this Cyrill was a generall Scholer and one well qualified with all temporall vertues much adoe there was on both sides yet at three days end this good man obtained it and was conducted to the Episcopall Chaire with greater state than ever any Bishop that was at Alexandria He was vir doctus sanctus a learned and a holy man of life by Pope Celestines injunction he â—ate President in the Councell at Ephesus amongst two hundred Bishops in which with a great deal of learning and judgement hee absolutely confuted and condemned those two arch disturbers of the Churches peace Nestorius and Pelagius hee was admirably experienced in the holy Scriptures he flourished chiefly under the raigne of Theodosius the yonger â—Ì„ one gives him this faire Encomium Nestorii omnia occulta venena refellit he discovered all the secret poison of Nestorius There are some who have related that hee was a Monk a Carmelite as Tritenhem but Baronius the Cardinall doth absolutely hold that to be a ridiculous opinion for these are Baronins his own words Facessat igitur ejusmodi fabella de Moâ—achismo Cyrilli in Carmelo that fained fable of Cyrillus being a Monke of Mount Carmel falls to the ground and indeed it is strange that St. Hierome Palladius Euagrius Cassianus Theodoret with others that often mention the Monks that liv'd in Palaestine at that time yet not so much as once remember this great Father of the Church and indeed I doe much wonder that the Great Cardinall Baronius would condemne that Tenet if there had been but probabilitie of truth in it it making for their cause But to proceed this famous Cyrill was so admired for his singular piety eloquence and wit that Gennadius reports that the Grecian Bishops got some of his Homilies by heart and so recited them to the people with wonderfull delight and approbation and truly besides many other things which are reported of him to his praise let this also be one that Iohn the third King of Sweden gives him when as hee was sent into England by his brother Ericus then King When the Commentaries of Saint Cyrill upon the holy Gospell of Saint Iohn were delivered to his hands and hee had read them hee plainly and ingenuously confest that many new Writers had much swayed him but
he resolves to returâ—e into his owne country hoping to finde more mercy amongst the Barbarians then amongst the Arrians so going for Sicily hee was driven into Syracuse where he was kindly entertained by an old Bishop cald Eulalius and by one Ruffinianus who were fled from the Arrians so past he to Rome and so into Sardinia where hee was received with great joy Here having setled himselfe there resorted to his Cell great store of Christians whom he daily taught and instructed but he intended to lead a more private life but hee was forbidden by Faustus a Bishop who made him priest and not long after made him Bishop of Ruspa a great and populous Citie though Fulgentius was unwilling to accept this great preferment being thus invested he kept his ancient Humilitie Pietie and Constanciâ— but was the same in the height of Honour as he was in the deepest ebbe of Adversitie and where so many graces as humilitie c. are connext with meditation they give an edge unto the soule and make it unpierceable as steel hardly to endure the sharpest point of envie Hee was much addicted to studie for hee would rise in the night to reade and pray hee obtained ground of one Posthumianus a Noble man to build a place for Religious Monks But now Thrasimund King of the Vandals proscribed all the Orthodoxe Bishops and so this Fulgentius was banished with the rest where what good he did is easily seene for he resolved all doubts relieved the poore reconcil'd the differences of many made friendship between those that were at difference reduc'd those that were fallen into sinne gave instructions to some encouragements to others none wanted that good that he could supply with all At the same time Symmachus was Pope who hearing the wasting of the African Churches sent provision to these Fathers that were fled and a worthy Epistle of Comfort which begins thus Ad vos specialiter dictum est Nolite timere pusillus Grex c. to you it is specially spoken Feare not little flocke it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdome But now Thrasimund the King dealing politikely intending to overthrow the Church Orthodoxe made as though hee was turned Orthodox himselfe and so he seemd to desire to have some eminent and Orthodox fathers by him to resolve all doubts and questions and so hearing of the â—ame and learning of Fulgentius hee sent for him to come to him to instruct him whither when Fulgentius was come he effected much and converted many Arians to the Faith And writ a booke of the Trinitie which was so soundly and judiciously written that it astonished the King and yet by wicked Councels hee did command him to returne by night to Sardinia lest the people should mutinere but yet it pleased God by contrary windes to bring him iâ— again into Harbour by which meanes all the people did lend him prayers and prayses and wept for his departure and great numbers went along with him but not long after Thrasimund dying Hildericus succeeded him who recalled the banished Bishops and restored them to their places but this Fulgentius of them all is said to be Decus Ornamentum Corona the Grace Ornament and Crowne Here he reformed many abuses in the Clergie gathered together the scattered flock was highly honored of all good men He had an admirable dexterity in preaching and was powerfull in convincing and reverend in his carriage In the time of his sicknesse this was his familiar speech Da Deus mi hic patientiam post indulgentiam Here ô God give me patience and then pardon and mercy falling sicke he lay so forty dayes and calling the Clergie about him declaring his faith and exhorting them to stand in the same hee quietly gave his soule into his Creatours hands in the yeere 529 and of his Bishopricke the five and twentieth aged sixty five and was honourably buried and greatly lamented of all Religious Christians and was buried in a Church called Secunda Fulgentius Sayings Of Christs Death He died for Men and Angels for men that they might rise from sinne for Angels that they might not fall into sin for them that they might not bee wounded for man that hee might bee healed of his wounds He tooke infirmity from man gave confirmation to them Certainly he was the wisdome of the Father to enlighten the vertue of the Father to uphold Another of his sufferings It was necessary he should be both God and Man to worke our Redemption as he was God he was able as he was man he had aptnesse no Man nor Angell could haue effected it not man for how could hee who was dead in sinne give life to others not the Angels for they had not sufficiencie to stand upright themselves Of Prayer Though thou boast in the darke yet pray for thy Father is Light thou canst not lie hid from his eye and therefore neither faint in thy devotion nor dissemble in Hypocrisie for thy God heares thee in secret as well as sees thee 4. Of suffering persecution Though thou be banished yet Christ is thy associate though amongst Thieves or wilde beasts though at Sea in tempests or on Land in troubles though in hunger cold and nakednesse Thy Captaine stands and sees thee combating hold out then for hee will Crowne thee 5. To incite to good Workes If they goe to hell not because they tooke away the garment from the naked but because they did not cloath them not because they took away the bread froÌ„ the hungry but because they did not give their bread to them what shall become of them who doe not give nor cloath but doe strip off and rob the indigent Remember the torment of the rich man and relieve Lazarus that thou maist escape damnation Of Divine Love The thoughts and affections do follow loves direction wherefore the truth saith Where your treasure is there will your heart be Therefore if our treasure be in Heaven our affections will be in heaven To lay up this Treasure mark thy thoughts so thou shalt know thy Treasure by thy love and thy love by thy thoughts Of Covetousnesse If Barrennesse be cast into the fire what shall Covetousnesse deserve or what shall covetous capacity receive when want of Charity shall be tormented in Hell-fire And if hee shall have judgement without mercy that hath not shewed mercy what judgement shall he receive that hath done others injury Of Charity Stephen that he might deserve the Crowne as his name doth import used no weapons but Charity whereby he obtained the victory by Charity he resisted the Iewes cruelty by Charity he reproved and corrected others impiety and by Charity prayed for those that stoned him cruelly He writ many famous works but some were lost by the injury of time and malice of adversaries Those that are really his and extant are here registred by Antwerp Edition 1574. 1 Three books to King Thrasimund 2 Of
that is who out-stripped others for piety and doing other things which made him admired that was his Charity and Writings â—irtutibus vitam instituit Eleemosynis claruit that is ordering his life in vertues pathes He shined in Alms-deeds and of his charity to the poor I must not let slip what is recorded of him by Photius and Simeon Metaphrastes On a time there came to him a poore man who made his mone to him that he had endured ship-wracke at sea and had lost all his goods insomuch that he had not any thing to relieve himselfe nor his family withall Gregory presently moved with compassion gives him forthwith six Ducats So he having received them departs and yet the same day returnes to this blessed Father and told him his necessity was so great that what he had received hee had payed away and so desires some more of him Saint Gregory gives him other sixe Ducats well hee the same day came the third time and desired reliefe which was given him without gain-saying by this Father proportionably but this poore man comming the fourth time and Gregory having no more gold to give yet unwilling to send him away empty hee remembred he had a piece of Plate in his House of a good value and presently commanded that to be given and it was performed according to his desire Here was compassion that was beyond the bounds of a common man foure times in one day and of the same party to crave and at every request to receive a reward without reluctancy or repining Here was Charity and Liberality bestowed the right way for whom perverse Fortune long sicknesse threats and oppressors have brought unto poverty to those let men extend forth their compassion and charity This Saint Gregory by the wisedome of God so disposing it for his admirable endowments being made as I have said before Bishop of Rome by the suffrages of all good men it was a custome that upon the first day of his enjoying that preferment there should twelve poore men be called in to dine with him so hee that was chiefe over-seer that way did as was injoyned him Well this father being sate with these twelve he presently counting them reckoned thirteene and asking his Officer why hee had transgressed the custome hee presently replyed that there were but twelve but Gregory affirmed there were thirteene so looking well upon them he saw one of their Countenances often change and to shine so after dinner hee tooke the thirteenth into his study and seriously demanded of him who hee was he replyed that he was the poore man which hee foure times in one day so bountifully relieved with gold and plate which almes-deeds saith he of yours are so well-pleasing to God that I am sent being an Angell to you to preserve your life and to direct you in your studies At which words Saint Gregory was strucke with feare but the Angel vanished immediately and Saint Gregory fell devoutly to prayers and gave God thanks for his great favour shewed to him Here I may say as it is of Cornelius Act. 10. Thy prayers and thy Almes-deeds are come up before me and I wonder where can we finde such a pattern of Charitie in these dayes Rich men doe debar themselves of many a great blessing for not exercising themselves in Almesdeeds as Photius saith here was that saying of Saint Paul verified Harbour and entertain strangers for so many have received Angels so did Abraham and Lot But I will not insist longer upon this Now I will proceed This Gregory was of that acutenesse of wit that he easily overthrew Eutyches the Heretike in a publicke disputation concerning the resurrection and did so confirme it that the Emperour caused Eutyches his books to bee burned as hereticall as you may see and reade in his Workes as also in Beda Read Iohannes Diaconus in the life of this Gregory in his first book and foure and twentieth Chapter where hee shall finde with what solid places of Scriptures and invincible arguments hee doth establish it When as the plague did rage so furiously in Rome that the living could scarce bury the dead and when Pelagius was dead of it how worthily did this Gregory behave himselfe during that heavy visitation and judgment how did he stirre up the hearts of the people with all speed to turn to God with fasting prayer and by serious and unfained repentance What an elegant speech did hee make unto them is easily to be seen it is so full of piety and wisdome that it deserves to be registred in Letters of Gold and is able to make the hardest heart to weepe and lament his sins and to set himselfe to seeke the Lord. How powerfully did he by dextrous Counsels establish the Churches How did he cause the Ligurians the Venetians and Spaniards to be drawn from Schismes and to embrace the authority of the Chalcedon Councell How did he reduce the African Churches from the Heresie of the Donatists Sicily from that of the Manichees Spaine from that of Arianisme Alexandria from that of the Agnoetans by his deep learning and judgment And did hee not likewise free France from Symoniacks which did grow up in every place Did hee not so powerfully prevail with Brunichilda the Queen with Theodoricke and Theodobert Kings of France that he procured from them a generall Councell against these persons and anathematized all that should dare to practise that sin Yet in these Heroick proceedings the Devill did all he could to oppose him by calumniation but he left not off to proceed maugre all their malicious conclusions to effect that good to the Church of God for which he thought he was set up how Christianlike did he speake to the Emperour Mauritius against his making that unjust Law that none of those souldiers which were marked in the hand should ever be converted to the faith of Christ Did not this Gregory answer the Emperour in these words Ego te de Notario Comitem Excubitorum de Comite Excubitorum Caesarem de Caesare Imperatorem nec solum hoc sed etiam Patrem Imperatorum feci Sacerdotes meos tuae manui commisi Tu à meo servitio milites tuos subtrahis that is I have meaning God made thee of a Notary to be Captain of the Watch from that I have made thee Caesar from Caesar have advanc'd thee to be Emperour and not only so but I have made thee a Father of Emperours Have not I given thee my spirituall Souldiers which are my Priests and dost thou take fâ—om my service thy Souldiers Answer I beseech thee ô Emperour to thy servants What wilt thou answer to thy Lord and Judge when he shall demand this at thy hands a worthy speech and savouring of a generous and religious spirit How severely did hee reprove the Bishop of Constantinople who would have beene called Vniversalis for his pridâ— and doth he not directly call it No men istud
blasphemiae that name of blasphemy How did he wisely stop the fury of the Longobards and reduced them to peace by writing his book to Theudalinda the Queene in a word having with great care and piety amongst a world of troubles governed the Church thirteen yeers six moneths and ten days in the spight of all oppositions he died quietly and comfortably rendred up his soule into the hands of his Maker in the second yeere of Phocas the Emperour and was buried in the Cathedrall Church of Saint Peter in which Leo Simplicius Gelasius and Symmachus were formerly interred with a large Epitaph in commendation of his labours and studies His Deacon is highly to be praysed for preserving some of his Workes from the fire even to the hazard of his owne life Heare but what a man he was by the testimony of Paulus Diaconus Iisdem diebus sapientissimus ac beatissimus Papa Gregorius Romanae urbis Episcopus c. that is In these dayes that most wise and blessed Father Saint Gregory Bishop of the City of Rome which when he had written many things to the profit of the Church composed foure famous bookes of the lives of the Saints which he called his Dialogues which books he sent to Theodelinda the Queen whom he knew to be a Protector of the faithfull and which did much good to the Church for shee perswaded her husband to give meanes and Revenues to the Church and caused those Bishops which were in misery and cast out to be restored and peace was by her meanes procured to Gods people Sabinianus was the man that did succeed him in his Bishopricke and as one testifies there was a great dearth the next yeer after his death and hee saith debuit enim mundus famem sitimque pati c. The world must needs suffer a famine and thirst when such a Doctor as was both spirituall food and drink to their souls was taken away He wants not divers to afford him commendations and indeed there was a cloud of Witnesses who doe extoll him Isidore cals him timore Dei plenus humilitate summus that is full of the feare of God and chiefe for Humility endued largely with the gifts of the Holy Ghost and saith thus in conclusion Foelix tamen nimium foelix qui omnium studiorum ejus possit cognoscere dicta that is Happy is hee nay thrice happy that can know all his Works and Sayings Honorius Augustodunensis termes him no lesse then Organum spiritus Sancti c. that is The Organ of the blessed Spirit Incomparable for his wisdome who writ many things more precious than the refined Gold Trithemius cals him Theologorum princeps splendor Philosophorum Rhetorum lumen vitâ conversatione integer sanctissimus c. the Prince amongst Divines the beauty of Philosophers and the light to Rhetoricians of life and conversation most upright and holy And to shut up all heare but what Ildephonsus of Toledo saith of him Vicit sanctitate Anthonium Eloquentia Cyprianum Sapientia Augustinum that is he exceeded Saint Anthony in Sanctitie Saint Cyprian in Eloquence and Saint Augustine in Wisdome and so heare onely what Cardinall Bellarmine relates of him who calls him Doctorem eximium meritò magnum that is a most egregious Doctor and well deserving the name of Great Hee died in the yeere of Christ Iesus 604. Sentences out of Gregory Magnus Of Poverty Hee is poore whose soule is void of grace not whose coffers are empty of mony the contented poverty is true riches Of the holy Scriptures The holy Scriptures are direct and right for admonition lofty for promises terrible for threatnings Of God God is never absent though the wicked have him not in their thoughts where he is not by favour he is by punishment and terrour Of conversion to God Every convert hath a beginning a middle a perfection in the first there is sweetnesse to allure him in the second bitternesse to exercise him in the third fulnesse of perfection to confirme him Of the Incarnation Will you observe our Saviours motions hee came from Heaven into the wombe from the wombe to the cratch from the cratch to the crosse from the crosse to the Grave from the Grave to Heaven On the Crosse of Christ. Christ shewed patience in his passion commended humility fulfilled obedience perfected Charity those were the four Jewels that adorn'd his Crosse. Charitatis Humilitatis jubar These are onely true riches which make us rich in vertue therefore if thou desire riches love true riches If thou aspire to honour seek the Kingdome of Heaven If thou affect glory strive to bee enrolled in the high Court of Angels Hee that loves this present pilgrimage in the midst of sorrow knows not how to shew sorrow for the words of a just man are full of sorrow for in regard of present sufferings his speech and sighs aspire to heaven He is most perfect in piety that doth most perfectly feele anothers misery The best eloquence and expression is to declare the mind by good action for conscience doth not check the speaker when his life is better then his speech Hee that lives obscurely and doth not profit others by his example is like a burning coal but hee that imitates holinesse shewing the light of uprightnesse to others is like a lampe burning to himselfe and shining to others True Faith doth not onely consist in verball profession but in actuall operation The fortitude of the Just is to overcome the flesh to contradict the will to forsake the delights of this life to love affliction for an eternall reward to contemne prosperity and to overcome adversity Joy doth discover the mind but adversity as it doth outwardly oppresse so it doth inwardly suppresse the thoughts and make us more close and cautious Gregory Magnus would say of himselfe that hee could never reade those words in the Scripture which Abraham spake to Dives Sonne remember that thou in thy life time receivedst good things without horrour and astonishment lest having received such good things of this World meaning such dignities and honours as he had he should be excluded from having any part and portion in the happinesse or good things in the world to come Of Gods Word Saint Gregory saith and wishes all men that heare the Word of God to taste the Word of God with the palate of their hearts Not to have a slavish feare Feare not man who must die nor feare the sonne of man who is but grasse Of godly Desires Our desires saith this Father do sound more powerfully in the secret eares of God than our words Againe the more earnestly God is desired of us the more sweetly is he delighted in us Saint Paul saith Hee that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the minde of the spirit Rom. 8. I have here set downe his Works as they are set
before his Books printed at Rome 1588 distributed into six Tomes Tome 1. 1 Saint Gregories Life contained in foure books by Joannes Diaconus 2 Testimonies of sundry men given to him as Gregorius Turonensis Paulus Diaconus Venerabilis Beda Ado Viennensis Symo Metaphrastes 3 Eulogies and testimonies of his Works 4 The argument of all his Works 5 The argument on the second book of the Kings by him expounded Tome 2. 1 Morall Expositions upon Job in thirtie five books 2 Exposition on the seaven penitentiall Psalmes 3 Exposition on the Canticles 4 Twenty two Homilies on Ezechiel in two books Tome 3. 1 A booke of fortie most learned Homilies to Secundus a Bishop upon divers readings on the Gospels 2 A booke of the Pastors charge to the holy Father John Bishop of Ravenna 3 Foure books of Dialogues 4 Those translated into Greeke by Pope Zachary Tome 4. 1 Twelve books called his Registery of Epistles of severall subjects Tome 5. 1 Containing Anthems and a booke of the Sacraments With certaine Hymnes for Mornings and Evenings to give thankes For Lent For Palme-sunday For Good Friday Tome 6. 1 On Genesis in seventy nine Chapters with expositions 2 On Exodus in sixty two Chapters with Expositions 3 On Leviticus in fifteen Chapters with Expositions 4 On Numbers with twenty foure Chapters 5 On Deuteronomy in twenty eight chapters 6 On Josuah in two chapters 7 On Judges in eight chapters 8 On the first booke of Kings in 15 chapters 9 On the second of Kings in fifteene chapters 10 On the Chronicles twenty foure chapters 11 On the Psalmes two hundred eightie seven chapters 12 On the Proverbs thirty seven chapters 13 On the Canticles 49 chapters by Paterius On the New Testament 14 On Matthew a hundred and foure chapters 15 On Saint Marke 54. 16 On Saint Luke 99 chapters 17 On Saint John 59 chapters 18 On the Acts forty chapters On the Romans thirty chapters 19 On the 1 Corinthians 52 chapters On the 2 Corinthians 29 chapters 20 On the Galathians nine chapters 21 On the Ephesians 14 chapters 22 On the Philippians 11 chapters 23 On the Colossians six chapters 24 On the 1 of Thessalonians 7 chap. 25 On the 2 of Thessalonians 4 chapters 26 On the 1 of Timothy 13 chapters 27 On the 2 to Timothy 4 chapters 28 On the Hebrews 12 chapters 29 On Saint James 9 chapters 30 On the 1 of S. Peter 8 chapters 31 On the second six chapters On the 1 Epistle of St. John 12 chapters 32 On the second two chapters 33 On the Apocalypse 69 chapters And so I will conclude this famous St. Gregory his life with St. Damasceâ—s commendation Gregory was Bishop of the ancienter Roman Church a man admirable for his singular uprightnesse of life and purity of learning who had as hee laboured in the sacred Mysteries of Gods Word an Angell to direct him and was inspired by the Spirit of the Holy Ghost Damascenus in Oratione de iis qui cum fide dormierunt An. Christi 630. Isidore Hispalensis S. ISIDORVS HISPALENSIS HE was by birth a Spaniard of good and honest parents such was their condition that they had alwayes an especiall care in the educating of this their young sonne in vertue in his youth that hee might bee the more endued with it when hee came to maturity For many teach their children the liberall Sciences not because those Sciences may give any vertue but because they make the minde apt to receive any impression of vertue for many mens children be divers and of sundry conditions some bee of nature not prompt and forward wherefore by education they must thereunto bee formed This Isidore was of a quick wit and of an able memory pointed out by heaven in so much that he was admired and respected of all for his Learning and Eloquence And being come to yeeres and taken notice of by the Bishop who then sate in that See and other learned men gained much love and respect from them for his constancie descent and pietie whereupon hee was called to bee a Priest which he performed with a great deal of pietie circumspection and care To be brieâ—e the old Bishop falling sicke and dying many stood for some and more friends for the obtaining of it but at last it came to a generall election and by that meanes it was bestowed upon this Isidore who was successour and also Cozen to Bishop Leander Hee flourished in the Reigne of the Emperour Mauritius and of King Rivaredus and was so generally eloquent that hee could accommodate the quality of his speech fitly to discourse with the Ignorant or Learned His works were most famous for humane and divine Learning he was of a subtle sharpe wit a cleere apprehension and a composed speech excellent in verse and prose shining with the refulgent beams of sanctity and learning so that all those naturall gifts which lie scattered in others were in him collected into one subject He was called the younger to distinguish him from the senior Bishop of Corduba or from another Bishop of Siuill his predecessor When he perceived that hee was neere his end and did foresee by the quick sight of his soule that his body was spent wearied and decayed by continuall sicknesse hee gave such liberall Almes daily to the poore for six moneths together so that they tarried all day to receive his charity afterward his sicknesse increasing and his stomack through weaknesse refusing all kind of sustenance he desired to make his reconciliation with God by prayer publikely and amongst the Congregation and so was carried to S. Vincents Church where hee confessed himselfe and said Thou ô God which knowest the hearts of men and didst forgive the poore Publican that stood afarre off and knocked his owne brest who on the fourth day didst raise dead Lazarus from the grave and wouldst have him received into Abrahams bosome receive at this houre my confession and remove from thy sight the innumerable sins I have done remember not ô Lord the sins of my youth and because thou sayest Quod in quacunque hora peccator à viis suis reverterit omnes iniquitates suas traderes oblivioni I am mindfull of thy gracious promise I call unto thee with hope and confidence being in regard of my sinnes unworthy to looke up unto Heaven but ô Lord I beseech thee receive my prayer and pardon mee a sinner For if the Heavens bee not pure in thy sight much more am I impure who have drunke iniquitie like water Then hee asked pardon of the Clergie and Citizens saying I beseech the whole Congregation of the Clergie and people here present to pray unto the Lord for me a wicked sinner that I who am through my own merit unworthy to obtaine mercy may by your intercession receive pardon of my sins Forgive me I beseech you all the offences I have committed against you if I have contemned any one beene uncharitable if I have corrupted any one with bad
till hee was very old and in this his old age he did with abundance of teares lament and bewail the vanities of his life still desiring God to pardon his sins to omit his errors to make him one of those of whom it is said Come yee blessed children of my Father c. all his desire was to be loosed from the Tabernacle of corruption so that it appeares he had hopes of a better possession in that Citie whose builder and maker is God So in fulnesse of dayes after many tedious labours and travels hee was struck with a Fever of which he died with great expressions of joy and comfort that at the day of accompts hee should rise to live with the just and upright men made perfect I have here set downe his Workes as they are registred before his books printed at Mentz in the yeer of our Lord 1631 in two Tomes Tome 1. Commentaries of the Works of the sacred Trinitie in fortie two books 1 On Genesis nine books 2 On Exodus foure books 3 On Leviticus two books 4 On Numbers two books 5 On Deuteronomy two books 6 On Josuah one book 7 On Judges 1 book 8 On the Kings five books With the Psalmes annexed 9 On Esay two books 10 On Jeremiah two books 11 On Ezekiel one booke 12 On Daniel one booke Haggay Zachary Malachy being added 13 On the foure Evangelists one booke 14 On the Works of the Holy Ghost nine books 15 Commentaries on the twelve lesser Prophets one and thirty books 1 On Osee five books 2 On Joel one book 3 On Amos foure books 4 On Abdiah one booke 5 On Jonah two books 6 On Micha three books 7 On Nahum three books 8 On Abacuck three books 9 On Zephaniah two books 10 On Aggee one book 11 On Zachary five books 12 On Malachie one book 13 Of the Canticles of the Incarnation seven books 14 On Ecclesiastes one book 15 On Job one book These are of late annexed Tome 2. 1 On Saint Matthew of the glory of the Sonne of God thirteen books 2 Of the Trinity nine books 3 On Saint John thirteen books 4 On the Apocalypse twelve books 5 Of the victory of Gods Word thirteen books 6 Of divine Offices twelve books 7 Of the misery of his Monastery one book 8 Of the meditation of death two books 9 The life of Heribet Archbishop of Collen To these now are added 1 Of the losse of Virginitie one book 2 Of the Divine will one book 3 Of the Omnipotencie of God one book These are the demonstrations of the Labours of this man which are large enough to prove him an eminent man and so I end and shut up my discourse of him desiring those that reade his Life or his Works both to imitate his Learning and Holinesse that they with him may receive comfort at the second comming of our blessed Saviour Happy are they then when our Lord shall come shall be found so doing An. Christi 1130. Sanctus Bernardus S. BERNARDVS IT is not fitting that this great Light which God did set up should be hid under a bushell but that his pietie and vertues should be celebrated to all posteritie Hee was borne in those parts of Burgundie in which his Father held much land and large possessions His parents were noble and religious His Fathers name was Tecelinus a great Souldier and such a one as Saint Iohn wish'd others to be laid violent hands on none but kept himselfe within the bounds of civility and sobriety and so followed his Commanders here that hee did not neglect his chiefe Commander in Heaven his mothers name was Aleth sprung from a Towne not farre from the mountaine called Barrus shee following the rule of the Apostle was subject to her own husband and ruled her family with wonderful care and religion shee bare to her husband six sonnes all devoted to God and religion and one daughter which was also addicted to pietie all these shee lovingly did give suck to from her own brests the third of these was this Bernard whose Life I will now set forth In his minority hee was very obedient and dutifull to his parents wonderfull apt to learn and quick to conceive of an admirable memory accute wit ready apprehension ingenious of nature flexible to discipline of an excellent feature comely personage sweete behaviour courteous meeke all these shewing what a rich Harvest this Spring would produce when he was young he was troubled with a great pain in his head which a woman having long time used that way was brought to him who said she would remove that pain by certain verses by way of enchantment but when shee came before him hee utterly rejected her and her devise rather being willing to endure the hand of God then the hand of the Devill and God in short time after in great mercy did acquitt and free him of this pain and did comfort him and confirme him as he did Samuel in Shiloe being put forth to learning he was not onely as forward as the rest but exceeded and even in his youth did learne to mortify his head-strong affections he was as well by education as nature addicted to a solitary life hee was also full of charity for if hee had any money hee would privately give it away to the poor his master dyed in his youth and was honourably interred this Bernard was to be admired for his chastity and for quelling of lustfull thoughts so that hee did often use that speech of Iob I have made a covenant with mine eyes not to looke upon a maid which will appeare if you consider those two eminent demonstrations of it the one was thus by the instinct and suggestion of the Devill there was a young beautifull maid laid in bed which thing when Bernard perceived though then in height of bloud and she an object to incite him to violate his chastity yet hee never so much as tooke any notice of her but lamenting her impudencie lay on the other side remote from her and so kept himselfe continent to the astonishment of that bold intruder And the other passage is this It so fell out that Bernard with some other of his associates should lodge at a Matrons house but the woman being overcome with tentation viewing the comely countenance of Bernard and the beauty of his eyes and graceful deportments of his person when night came did prepare a more sumptuous Chamber for him than for the rest and shee burning in lust towards him in the middle of the night came to his bed which thing Bernard suspecting suddenly cried out as if there had beene Thieves in his Chamber so the people awaking and the woman fearing to be taken fled well they all goe again to rest but the woman not being daunted with this approached the second time but he as before cryed Thieves so the houshold rose again but found non nay shee was so impudent that shee adventured the third time but being by
Table with his hand and said jaâ— contra Manichoeos conclusum esse that now the Manichees were foyled He was one that may be a perpetuall patterne for refusing and contemning worldly honours and wealth for though he was young and had great wayes to helpe himselfe yet he regarded them not nay insomuch that when Clement the fourth Bishop of Rome would have made him Arch-bishop of Naples he did refuse it and when great promotions were offered to him his usuall answer was Chrysostomi in Matthaeum Commentarios mallem that is I had rather have the Commentaries of Saint Chrysostome upon Sâ—int Matthew He desired three things principally First that he might not be weary in well-doing Secondly that he might not dislike that calling though with poverty which hee had chosen thirdly what became of his brother Rainaldus who endured such a bloody death for the good of the Church and in this last he said hee was sure that his brother for that temporall death enjoyed eternall life In his teaching hee alwayes strove to frame his speech to the peoples capacity and that hee might avoid all pride and ostentation nay in his disputations he would seeme to yeeld that he might rather shew his humility than height of learning Hee had abundance of Auditors as Doctors Bishops Arch-bishops Cardinalls who counted themselves happy in being his hearers He was of spirit wondrous mild in his corrections and reproofes hee would hate the vice and spare the person When as he was deputed to be at the Councell of Lions hee fell sicke and was carryed on a Mule to Severinum where when he was entred into a Cloyster he writ his Commentaries on the Canticles and perceiving his death to draw nigh received the blessed Eucharist prostrate on the earth After when his sister asked him if he would have any thing answered he should within a little space enjoy all things This was his fiftieth yeare of his age He had many witty sayings as one asking him why he was so long silent under Albertus he answered because he had nothing of worth to say to him Another asked him what was the most pleasant thing to him Hee replyed to understand all he had read One telling him he was not learned as he was supposed hee answered I will study the more to prove his words false A woman reproved him that seeing hee was borne of a woman hee should so shunne them Yes said he even therefore because I was borne of them One asked him how he might live without blame hee told him if he would remember his reckoning to the great Judge of Heaven and Earth So when after great paines and studies hee had approved himselfe to the Church of God he yeelded to Nature and was honourably interred with all the Rites and Ceremonies due to so great a person as he was His Workes are of that value that he who hath them in his study is furnished for all manner of learning His Sayings A day will come when faire dealing shall be found a jewell and false dealing shall come to nothing when a good conscience shall be better than a good purse for the Judge will not then be put off with faire words nor drawne aside with hope of reward He that 's armed for the warres let him consider who it is that gives him strength and teacheth his fingers to fight then let him employ that strength to his glory so that by this means come life come death all 's welcome that God sends In all thy undertaking make much of time especially in that weighty matter of Salvation O how much would that man which now lies frying in Hell rejoyce if there were but possibility to obtain the least moment of time wherein he might compasse the favour of God and so be freed from those torments which seize upon him for evermore Thou that art young hast death at thy back whereas the old man hath it before his eyes and that must needs bâ— a more dangerous enemy that pursues thee than that which marcheth up towards thee face to face Remember therefore thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth and remember withall that though God promise forgivenes to repentant sinners yet he doth not promise they shall have to morrow to repent I have set down his Works as Cardinall Bellarmine hath registred according to the Roman Edition Tome 1. Contains his life upon the Perihetmenias and the Analatickes Tome 2. Containes Commentaries upon the 8 bookes of Physicks Vpon the fourth book De Coelo Mundo and of the generation Tome 3. Contains his works upon the books de Meteoris Tome 4. Vpon the Metaphysicks 12 books Tome 5. Vpon the 10 books of Ethicks and upon the 8 books of Politicks Tome 6. Vpon the 1. and 2. books of the Sentences Tome 7. Vpon the third and fourth of the Sentences Tome 8. Vpon Disputaâ—ions and Quodlibets Tome 9. Containes his summes against the Gentiles with the Commentaries of Franciscus Ferrariâ—nsis Tome 10. The first part of his summes of Divinity with the Commentaries of Card. Caietan and the Exposition of divine names by St. Denis Tome 11. Containes primam secundae secundam secundae With Cajetans Commentaries Tome 12. Containes the tertiam partem summae Tome 13. Contains Commentaries on Iob on the 57. Psalme on the Canticles Esay Jeremy Lamentations Tom. 14. Commentaries on St. Matthew and St. Iohn Tom. 15. Contains his golden chain on the 4 Evangelists Tom. 16. On all the Epistles of S. Paul Sermons de tempore and of the Saints Tome 17. Contains 73 little Tracts and a little book upon the foure bookâ— of Sentencâ—s THus farre have we brought the lives of these holy Fathers and Doctors in every Century of yeares wherein they lived downe to our owne Moderne Writers whose vertues have shined on Earth like starres in the firmament by illuminating the darknesse of the blinde world with the light of the Coelestiall Doctrine These holy men I say did willingly and chearefully offer their lives and bodies as a living sacrifice to God not grudgingly or piningly but with alacrity of spirit for though by the hand of envy and tyranny they were judged to death yet they willingly dyed for his cause and yeelded their bodies as a debt due to Nature for they thought so long as the soule was in the body it was no better than in prison for the body at the best is is but a Coffin of the soule as the grave is a Coffin for the body Therefore let us strive by their examples to goe to heaven like them through persecutions tribulations and all worldly temptations for wee ought to desire with ardency as these holy Fathers did that joyfull day which all the Elect have and doe still long to enjoy For when Death and Time shall both cease and tender downe their Sâ—epters of authority as I doe now my self prostrate before God Almighty then shall I and never till then bee truely and really happy