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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	world_n	write_v	writing_n	381	4	8.5306	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A82001	Historie & policie re-viewed, in the heroick transactions of His Most Serene Highnesse, Oliver, late Lord Protector; from his cradle, to his tomb: declaring his steps to princely perfection; as they are drawn in lively parallels to the ascents of the great patriarch Moses, in thirty degrees, to the height of honour. / By H.D. Esq.	H. D. (Henry Dawbeny)	1659 (1659)	Wing D448; Thomason E1799_2; ESTC R21310	152,505	340

pious late Protector and second Moses could never induce himself to court any thing that had not Heaven and the Stars to give him for a Reward So I hope we may at length happily conclude that under the heart of this our second as well as we have seen under that of our first Moses there remained alwayes prepared a Temple of true Piety and our Parallel in this particular likewise to be accomplisht The two and twentieth Ascent MOses was not onely accomplisht in all points of Piety that were expedient for so great a Prince and Patriarch but he was advanced by God to the highest dignity and perfection of a Prophet and he was endowed with so extraordinary a spirit of Prophesie that never any man before or since him had the like He was that really which the old Poets in their fabulous superstitions fancied of their god Janus with his double face to look both before and behind him The Great Moses was an inspired Prophet à parte Post as well as à parte Ante how could he otherwise have writ the History of the Creation of the World the Deluge and of all those things that happened before his time of which there could be no Record either in writing or secure Tradition at that time so his whole Book of Genesis must of necessity be extracted out of the Chronicles of Heaven onely That he prophesied of futurities of the highest concernment his other four Books give sufficient evidence and to all this the Lord Almighty himself hath set to the seal of his own approbation first that he was faithful in all his house and that with him he would speak mouth to mouth even apparently and not in dark speeches and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold c. Then the Lord is pleased expressely to declare concerning him That there arose not a Prophet since in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knew face to face Over and above all this when prophesying of the Mystery of Mysteries a futurity then of the highest concernment to mankind the incarnation of the Word the Spirit of God is pleased to resemble Moses to the Messiah that was to come saying The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy Brethren like unto me unto him ye shall hearken which words are verbatim quoted for the proof of that Word incarnate both by the Proto-Apostle Peter and the Proto-Martyr Stephen and sure in reason some great similitude of God he must needs contract who had so free frequent and full conversation with the Deity face to face The Parallel That Moses was a great yea the greatest Prophet of the old Law I believe is made abundantly manifest by our Divine Ascent and that our most pious gracious and glorious late Lord Protector and second Moses was a great Prophet too according to his proportion I hope will be made out by the processe of our precious Parallel But now because the name of Prophet here seems to sound something equivocal and is really capable of very various acceptions it may be worth our pains to dilate a little upon and to fix it before we proceed to make up our happy Parallel Indeed there has been an infinite number of persons which have past under the reputation of Prophets that in very truth were no better than Wizards all or Wiseakers in our Country Language that is in plain English mad-men fools or knaves but all such phanatical Prophets as those we shall at present passe by as impertinent to our purpose and not at all worthy of any share in this discourse and enter into a cursory debate onely concerning those who have more justifiable pretensions according to the most genuin signification of the word to that highest and most sacred humane dignity and three sorts of men there are that do and may lay just challenge and claim to that most excellent Title according to all the judgement of Antiquity as well as the present Age. And the first are those inspired witty Prophets or Prophets of phansie which go under the common name of Poets The second sort are those inspired prudent Prophets or Prophets of Affairs received now under the stile of Statesmen And the third sort are those inspired Divine Prophets or Prophets of Religion who though they have the onely true legal and proper right to that Divine honour yet the others are not quite to be cast out or rashly disinherited of that title The first we may call Aery or Poetical Prophets the second more Earthy and Political the third all Fiery and Celestial For this first sort of Prophets our Moses was amongst them too as is sufficiently to be seen in the many Hymnes that he composed for the glory of his God and the comfort of his people as also the many Poetical expressions phrases and prosopopiea's that he useth rendring God as it were coming towards us in his glory and Majesty This first sort of Pretenders then have indeed a pretty fair claim right and title to be taken into this supereminent Degree and that may first here appear from the very name that all good people in all Ages ever gave to the skilful in that heavenly mystery which was alwayes Vates or Propheta as much as Diviner Forseer or Prophet Then none will deny but that they had the onely right in times of Gentilisme being the onely Pagan Prophets and Conservators of Religion in those dayes Nay both Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius themselves confesse that the ancient Poets did receive the mysteries of their Religion from the Jews and preserved them still as sacred though folding of them up in some Fables As first it is plain that the History of Deucaleon was taken out of that of Noe and so kept up the remembrance still of that dismal Deluge The stupendious Story of the retrogradation and going back of the Sun in the time of Ezekiah was continued in that famous fiction of Phaeton They that would behold the building of that proud Tower of Babel which was undertaken by Nimrod and his Associates to climb up as it were by ladders into Heaven and scale its battlements to see what was done there shall find it though under certain alegories amply described in Homer under the fabulous phansie of the Gyants Oetus and Ephialtes sons to Iphimedia where he describes their height and wonderfull vast strength and bignesse and how they went about to lay the mountain Ossa upon that of Olympus and Pelion upon Ossa all which Story Ovid recites likewise with divers others in his Metamorphosis hiding under seeming Fables many of the most Divine and considerable truths but most particularly he recites the manner of the Beginning and Creation of the World just as our Moses did and must of necessity have received it from him Nay Homer Hesiod and Linus must undoubtedly have borrowed from his Books all that they

have as much certainty as any humane authority experimental knowledge or ocular evidence can possibly make out Now I would fain know how two such mortal enemies as truth and flattery are can possibly squat in the same Form Besides it is certain that no beatified thing as our second Moses is now without dispute can be a subject capable of flattery but let his late Highnesse be reduced again to his humane condition and consider his due deservings then tell me whether all our grateful acknowledgements and most extended Panegyricks can possibly reach his transcendent merits Much lesse then sure can any man over-reach so far as to have his commendations reputed flattery unlesse he should fall into prophanation or flat blasphemy which I hope the most malitious eyes in the World shall never be able to finde out upon us here He was indeed more truly that which Pliny said of his Emperour Vir hoc saeculo major dignus fabulantium miraculis vatum qui tantum super omnes posterioris aevi Principes emine bat quantum a privatis caeteri principes recesserunt He was so much above the present pitch of men that nothing but Romance can reach his Actions and he as far surpassed all other princes of this later Age as any of those Princes have out-stript private persons What panegyrick then can be too great for such a prince what humane praise can ever amount to flattery I must in the mean time acknowledge something of obligation to this sort of enemies who are pleased to think my poor pen so capable to reach that as to over-reach it so which is a Subject onely fit for the pens of Angels and whose praises ought truly to be written with a stile of fire or point of Adamant and so engraven upon the gates of the Temple of Eternity Now though I have pretty well as I hope got my self clear of a possibility of flattery yet I am now cast upon another exception of my nearest friends whose kind pity treats me more rigourously than all the enemies cruelty and I must cry out with the Poet Pol me occidistis amici indeed at once they both pity and persecute me for undertaking so difficult if not impossible a task as to carve such an Illiad in a Nut-shell or to go about to bind up in such little skins so voluminous an Argument as to give the World an account of this incomparable person from his Cradle to his Grave a thing more equal to large History than a Paneygerical one and of which as the Evangelist tells us of our Saviours Words and Works that the whole World would not be able to contain the Books that might be written Indeed Gentlemen it will not be denied by any shall be more confest by me though parcel guilty of the same crime that he who shall take presumptious pen in hand or dare any other way undertake to give the World an exact Survey of all the particular great dispensations and Divine indulgencies vouchsafed to this high Favorite of Heaven will quickly find himself overset in a Sea of Blisse It is not therefore my Design at present to sail in much lesse to fathom that Abyss or delineate the whole Series of the Almighty providence over his most precious Person in every particular circumstance from the first span that Nature measured out to him to that immensity which he afterwards so happily arrived at it being no lesse than impossible as the curious in that Art inform us to polish so much as the nailes of pieces of so great a Perfection Nor indeed is it more impossible than impertinent to go about to prove that there is and has been ever from the first minute to the last of his life a most gracious and indulgent providence over his late most Serene Highnesse his person and proceedings by all the singular foot-steps of it it being to light a Candle to the Sun to dilucidate that which is already more clear to all that do not wilfully shut their eyes than if it had been written with the Rayes of it I shall therefore satisfie my self and I hope all ingenuous Readers at present to pick up some of the most remarkable particulars that we may best moralize to our own instruction and all impudent gainsayers greater confusion and that we may learn to make this use of it above all uses that is to march out of all our old animosities and submit our selves to the gracious power that is now over us and acknowledge it to be the clear resplendent Ray reflected upon us from the infallible foundations of the eternall Law This is the uttermost of my design at present and so I will be bold to begin at the foot of the Mosaick Mount and shew you his late most Serene Highnesse tracing the steps of the great Patriarch Moses to the sacred summity of the Mount it self and highest pitch of all princely perfection and make good the parallel from their very Births to their Triumphant entries into their blessed Tabernacle of Repose and there to the happy expiration of their purified Souls upon the top of Pisgah from thence to their glorious Graves and from thence to the Magnificent Memorials and Eternal Monuments which they have erected in the hearts of all men The Ascents which these two great Personages stand parallel in amounting in all to thirty Degrees of Glory So friends farewel and enemies much good do it you if you please fall to and welcome if you like it not you may leave it and though you curse me for my cookery yet I shall continue with the Apostle to pray for you That the Lord would give you understanding in all things and me his grace in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content and that we may all meet in the unity of the Spirit and bond of perfectnesse which holy conspiracy that we may all happily agree in we must all resolve to lay by all spleens and distasts whatsoever and let them passe away with the old year and think upon nothing now but to take up new thoughts and better affections with this new one coming in we must forget all old grudges against and ungrateful misprisions of our old departed Prince and good Protector who though he was an incomparable Person yet no wonder if he could not please all men for that is more they say than God himself can do raining or shining and dispose our selves to the cordial and sincere service of this our gracious new one who is now set over us by God and his own Divine vertues and has nothing in him but celestial sweetnesse and is truly to be called if ever Mortal was the Delight of all Mankind which Great and Gracious New-Years-Gift that we may all receive from the bountiful hands of Heaven shall be the constant as it is the instant prayer of Your humble servant H. Dawbeny The First ASCENT MOses was Nobly Born extracted from an extraordinary Race the most sacred

of the Latine Church recites out of that Heathen to teach us faith from the Philosophy of the most perfidious and Religion from the writings of the most irreligious man that ever lived just as if an honest man should pull a thing stolne out of a Theeves coffer And it is indeed a most evident truth that the best life is the best prayer and therefore holy Nazianzen tells us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dumb work is better than the most eloquent Oration a golden tongue and a leaden heart seldom march together yet we know that some there are who have apparence enough of the spirit and will pray like Angels but practise like Devils resembling the Asse in the Fable that carries to the Hot-house daily wherewithal to shift and cleanse others and yet go themselves perpetually bemired and slovenly or yet more truly like the impertinent drone they can go buzzing up and down with their empty prayers and yet neither make honey nor wax To what purpose in the mean time is it to be Vox praeterea nihil to warble like a Nightingale or a well-touch'd Lute and to be deaf to all harmony Is it not to be as the Apostle tells us but as sounding brasse at best or as a tinkling symbal Undoubtedly all the devotion of a soul truly Christian tendeth to practise as the line to its center and therefore holy Cyprian likewise tells us Philosophi factis non verbis sumus nec magna loquimur sed vivimus Our Philosophy and Christian wisdom saith he is a prudence of workes not of words and we are to live not talke great things We should march in our Christian warfare like the brave souldiers of Gideon with the torch in our hands as well as the Trumpet on our lips and therefore it was said of the great and holy Athanasius that his voice was a Thunderclap and his life a Lightning flash and truly words let them be never so good can never thunder well if the living example enlighten not All which our most gracious late Protector and second Moses knew full well and practised accordingly in imitation of his great Master the first Moses our Princely Patriarch who was not onely ready to exercise his holy spirit of prayer in the behalf of and for his people but also to make practise of his piety before them to inflame their lives to holinesse and charity as well as to preserve their persons in peace and plenty to be active in his obedience to the Almighties will as well as outwardly zealous for his glory Now by this onely it is plain that our first and second Moses have clearly been of a quite contrary Religion to Machiavel before cited and all his Crew who would have a Prince or Statesman practise Religion onely according to the necessity of their affairs and to learn how they may sometimes be wicked that is to make shew of Religion and honesty so far forth as may serve their turns but in very deed to be compleat knaves Every man in power forsooth must be a Hypocrite his face alwayes maskt and the vizard too ought to be more lovely than the visage he must make his apparencies better than his substance and court opinion more than conscience O rare Machiavillian divinty and very pious policy But our Patriarch Moses a wiser man sure than a million of Machiavels we find was clean of another opinion as well as practise too he understood sufficiently how the Lord Almighty had ever reproved condemned and chastised with a most particular indignation of his heart that abominable plaistered kind of life in Princes as well as common people and therefore he ordered in his Law that the Swan and the Ostrich should never be made use of in Divine Sacrifices Upon which Mosaical ordinance all the Interpreters of Scripture are joyntly of opinion that the Swan was first rejected notwithstanding the whitenesse of her feathers and sweetnesse of note so much ascribed to her because under those pure white plumes she hides so black a flesh Then for the Ostrich which carries onely an ostentuous boast of fair large wings and very little or no flight at all she could never be admitted into the number of Divine victims so much the Lord abhors apparencies fruitlesse and effectlesse Now I would very fain know of all those pitiful Politicians who pursue like Machiavillian Maxims with such corrupt hypocritical spirits as the Florentine proposeth what they will answer me further upon this Ascent of our Moses and his Parallel For the first it is clear that if he had been to choose and cherish onely a Religion that suited best with State policy or temporal designs it had been much more prudence in him to have joyned himself with the Religion of Egypt and to have been associated with the Magicians themselves than to have kept so close to the Commandments of God And if he had been to value his private interest before his honesty and conscience sure the powerful favours of a great Kings Court and more inticing importunities of a Princesse would have been greater attractives to his ambition than a poor simple Shepherds life in a Desart Nay before we approach our precious Parallel Moses what can they I mean the Disciples of that wise Secretary say to another glorious Countryman of ours one of the most Christian and Victorious Princes that ever swayed a Scepter and that was Constantine the Great First we shall find upon a clear account twelve or thirteen great Persons at that very time all arguing upon the Diadem of the Empire with him Now if there had been any necessity for him to dispoile himself of honesty and innocency that he might be invested with the Crown and Pall imperial Why did he take the way of the Empire by that of sanctity If use must be made of Religion onely as of an Instrument of State and that alone to be taken up which hath the greatest vogue and credit in the opinion of the people be it right or wrong Why went he about then to fix himself upon Christian Religion and at that very time when the greatest part of the World was ingulpht in Gentilisme We see how Maxentius like a miserable Machiavillian courted that interest and according to the ordinary custom of the people of Rome caused all the pretended Books of the Sybylls to be turned over consulted with the Augures and Aruspices and accordingly offered sacrifices to his Pagan gods all this gave him a reputation of piety with a people then as Infidel as himself Why did not our Constantine pursue the same politick wayes Why did he fix the sign of the Crosse upon his Standards which was enough too to disoblige his own Army that very figure being then esteemed most fatal and of an ill presage by the most part of the World Moreover what help or succour could he possibly expect from the poor Christians at