virtutibus alienum bonum videtur spectare qui ad alterum spectat Agit enim qua alteri conducunt aut Principi aut Reip. saith the Philosopher to those who are encharged with the publick good either of the Prince or State It is the essentiall and inseparable quality constituting the nature of their office and without which they leave to be what their titles import and are as men in picture being nothing lesse than men though they retayne the name and forme So the Scripture termeth the Pastor who hath no care save for himselfe only but an Idoll since he is not what men call him he is called Pastor by relation to others and he only feedeth himselfe so as hee is no better than a painted Idoll having in him nothing lesse than what his name imports nor is any thing so little as what he appeares to bee A title likewise belonging to all those who obliged to the publick regard nothing save their particular interest and are to say truly none other than Idols and phantomes whose appearance dazleth our eyes and whose name deludeth our eares And truly since they are not established over the publick but with obligation to have care on them they violating the duty of their dignity disgrace its glory and not performing what they promise they are not really what they stile themselves They are rightly Idols since the figure only remayneth not quick bodies since the soule is vanished One may say of them as David did of the Idols among the Gentiles They have eyes but see not eares but understand not mouthes but speak not feet but walk not for they have eyes but connive eares but counterfeit the deafe dumb mouthes and feet fixed to the center of their proper interest since they walk not toward their obligation They have hands but feele not for they being ordinarily employed in touching and taking they lose both sight hearing speech and motion Wherefore the The bans painted their Iudges and Magistrates without hands Pitrius in hierogly l. 38 since when their hands are over long it is much to bee feared their feet will become gouty their tongues tied their cares deafned and their eyes dimmed And the Scripture saith That those who take bribes do likewise retaine injustice I intend not hereby to prove that injustice destroyes authority being both by divine and humane right inviolable but only that in such persons the honour and merit of possessing places of judicature perisheth the title remayneth the merit is missing Iustice therefore tending to the good of others is as it were an essentiall quality to publick persons obliging them to love and daily to procure the generall good which not only lawes and reason teach us but even nature it selfe dictates unto us For is it not apparant in all sublunary things that whatsoever is destinated for common good operateth not for it selfe but imployeth it selfe for all Do not the heavens send forth their influences the Sun his beames the earth its fecundity the trees their fruits fountaynes their waters Bees their honey Silk wormes their subtile webs for all Doth not the liver distribute blood to all the veynes the head motion to all the nerves the heart vigour to all the members Is there any thing in nature which converteth to its owne use what it hath received for the common good See wee not in reasonable creatures a desire in unreasonable ones a motion in insensible things a kinde of inclination toward the generall good of the Vniverse whereby their particular good subsisteth Is it not true that by naturall instinct the hand casts it selfe before the body to receive upon it selfe the strokes comming upon it and how each part is inclinable to preserve the whole though to its owne ruine Shall not then knowledge reason and justice cause that in man which a mere naturall inclination effecteth in all other things But is there any thing either more glorious or which draweth the creature neerer to the imitation of God than to seeke and procure publick good to go lesse therein is it not a signe of indigence and to enlarge our selves a token of abundance Who is so abundant as God and who diffuseth himselfe like him poverty pincheth and restraineth plenty enlargeth and dilateth Moreover whatsoever is most excellent and principall in all things doth it not communicate most and become most abundant The highest and most elevated among the Angels do they not take greatest care both of the heavens motions of the worlds government and of mankinde in generall those of inferiour orders having the oversight only of some single Kingdome Province or City and the lowest orders those who have the single conduct of each particular person Among the starres the Sunne holding the highest rank doth hee not bestow his lights and influences both upon the celestiall and elementary world The Moone succeeding in the second place to the elementary globe only The starres as least in dignity to a certain species or individuity of sublunary things But I beseech you is there any thing so noble in the world as God in man as the soule in the body as the heart in the tree as the root All the tree is nourished by the root the heart causeth life in the whole body the soule guideth the whole man God governeth the whole world To practise vertue in our owne particular is a great matter but to exercise it toward others is much more glorious to make use of it toward many is excellent but to impart it to all is supereminent And even as saith the Philosopher hee who is malicious toward himselfe and others Arist lib. 5. Polit. cap. 1. is the worst and most wicked of all men So he who practiseth vertue both toward himselfe and others is the best and most just among men It is the highest pitch of vertue the consummation of justice the perfection of man and the degree neerest approaching to the Divinity CHAP. 18. The Epilogue of all this Discourse of Iustice by way of Epiphonema BVT Plato saith that if vertue could be viewed living and animated with her proper attractions she would cause admiration in mindes and amorous motions in all hearts Discourse can only represent her in picture and Eloquence is not stored sufficiently with lively colours to inspire thereinto the soule and beauty of a naturall body So as to behold Iustice which my weak pencill is forced to expresse in her lively and native grace it is necessary to cast our eyes upon some living modell if the world yet affords any such expressing in it selfe the beautifull idaea of this eldest daughter of God which the pen is unable to depaint O more worthy the name of Great than Alexander or Pompey a man given from heaven and more resembling God than man he who mouldeth himselfe upon this image and whose soule is the table his vertue the pencill his actions the colours and whose life is the soule of that living image drawn upon the
namely amongst Christians who acknowledge whence they come where they are and whither they tend as knowing their originall their estate and end The whole world is made for man and man for God now though he hath two distinct parts the body and soule two different motions one of reason the other of appetite and consequently two severall estates spirituall and temporall yet so it is that he hath but one onely finall end which is the enjoyment of God He is therefore obliged to cause all to ayme at God body and soule reason and appetite the spirituall and temporall As the Prophet David who sayd unto God Both my soule and my flesh thirst after thee All within mee aspireth to thee O Lord my soule and the powers therof my flesh with its dependencies these two parts composing my all though different in nature unite themselves by affection and having but one end have likewise but one desire causing their divers motions to tend to the same Center See here that not onely the soule but the body likewise ought to ayme at Almighty God who is the finall end and will be the crowne of both when after the resurrection the soule faelicitated by the vision of the God-head shall make the body happy by the redundance of her beatitude so as both of them shall enjoy God the soule by vision the body in its manner by the sensibility of these sweets the soule by union the flesh by participation and society the soule by the intermise of the light of glory the flesh by the communication of the soules glory So as if God be the end the Crowne and the soveraigne good not of the soule onely but likewise of the body And if these two parts composing man ought equally to ayme at God is it not altogether necessarie that Politicke power having charge to direct whatsoever belongeth to the body should propose God both for object and end as well as the spirituall power which governeth these things touching the soule If the flesh cause man to perish can the spirit save him If the temporall make him slip from God the spirituall desiring to conduct him to God shall it not see it selfe frustrated of the desired end To undoe ones selfe on the one side is no lesse than to be lost on both sides since the soule followes the body the one part the other and the whole the parts CHAP. 9. Of the care of a good renowne being the first duty of Politicke Iustice towards our selves AFter we have given to God our sincere Intentions we after owe to our selves the care of a good name which is necessary in a Magistrate for profiting the publike as the communication of the Suns light is for illuminating the world Moses in Deuteronomy required this quality for those he intended to place over the people Cap. 2. and this point dependeth on the other for as a straight body casteth an upright shadow and a counterfeit one a crooked so commonly a good conscience casteth the shadow of a singular reputation a wicked one the shadow of a bad fame And though the intention be a secret of the heart not comming to sight before the eyes of men yet doth shee shout forth as a hidden root the fruits of such actions as discover the treee Yee shall know them by their fruits saith truth it selfe It was no unfitting resemblance when the Ancients compared vertue to the body and a good name to the shadow following the same For as the body perspicuated by the light casts a shadow which may be called the daughter of light and of the body of light causing it by encountring the body and of the body producing it by being reflected upon by the light So vertue lightened by publike acknowledgement produceth reputation which may be termed Ioynt-daughter to vertue and acknowledgement of acknowledgement which seeing vertue takes notice thereof and of vertue which encountred by acknowledgement produceth it So that as the shadow is the production of the body lightened so honour is the childe of vertue acknowledged But it happeneth that in the morning the Sunne reflecting a farre off upon the body the shadow goes before towards noone beating plumme upon it the shadow walkes aside by it towards evening leaving it behind the shadow followes it The like it is in rare and eminent persons the first view of springing vertue beginneth betimes to cast before them the reputation which precedeth them levelling the way for them to great actions In the midst of their course being exposed perpendicularly to the eyes of all men glory marcheth along by them and afterward in the evening of their age the certaine proofes they have shewed of their vertue and goodnesse goe before them as a cleare Sunne to prepare for them a renown which shall follow them eternally in the memory of after-ages Observe all the Ancients who have appeared upon the Theater of the most famous States honour hath gone before them at their entry accompanied them in their course and followed them after their death honour hath beene the Herald which marching before them hath opened the way for them to great designes honour hath beene their inseparable convoy in the execution of their famous exploits honour hath moreover beene their immortall crowne after their decease And it is a touch of Gods divine Providence in the conduct of sublunary States so to governe those whom he pleaseth to make choice of as instruments of his favours and for the safety of Empires as he causeth the glory of their vertue betimes to appeare amidst the darknesse of most corrupted ages putting them into credit in the midst of disorder raysing them in the middle of ingratitude maintaining them in the throng of envies illustrating them among calumnies affording them this honour not for a subject of ambition and vanity but for occasion and obligation to imploy the vertue afforded them for publike utility and after they have shewed themselves worthy cooperators with his Providence in so great a worke hee for ever conserveth the memory of theirnames to the end their vertue having beene usefull for the age they lived in their example may serve for future times Good fame therefore is the inseparable shadow of vertue in publike persons and as Mathematicians measure the height of the body by the length of the shadow and as the Ancients have discovered by the extent of the shadow of Mount Athos the sublimity of its eminent top so shall we seldome be deceived in taking the modell of the vertues in eminent persons from the measure of their reputation For it is a maxime verified by experience that most men following the tide of naturall inclination are more subject to scandalise than praise and if they erre in their judgements concerning those who govern them they are sooner transported to rash censures than to waine praises The very shadow of one single vice sufficeth to procure publike blame a thousand vertues being no more than necessary to
without successe is a faire tree without fruit and it is the fruit not the tree the successe and not the counsell men chiefly desire since counsell is not sought for but in hope of the desired event the way but for the marke the Medium but for the Terminus and the meanes but for the end Now that good Luck whereof I speake proceeds not either from that blinde Fortune which spirits yet more blinde have forged nor from that imaginary destiny of inflexible decrees whereto Heathenish Antiquity hath subjected the Counsels even of Iupiter himselfe nor on the disposition of Celestiall bodies whereto the vanity of Nativity-casters submit the whole order of things happening here on earth whether Naturall voluntary or casuall Fortune is a Fable Destiny a Dreame and that necessitie the judiciall Astrologers pretend to bee imposed by the Starres upon humane and free actions or upon casuall and accidentall events is an evident errour and a manifest impietie For as concerning those effects depending on naturall and necessary causes the order of the World and Nature ranging inferiour bodyes under superiour ones giveth to those Authority to those dependancie and regulateth the actions of elementary Bodies by the Law of the influence of Celestiall Bodies All that God hath made is established with order sayth the Apostle Quae a Dâ—o sunt ordinata sunt But what power would men ascribe to Starres either over humane actions proceeding from the Will or over casuall occurrents which being accidentall effects cannot by consequence have any Naturall certaine or limited cause Nature being appointed to a certaine and infallible end Natura ad unum determinatur according to a Philosophicall Maxim what authority or command can she have eyther over mans will being unbounded free and indifferent to the one or other of two contrary objects or over that which being meerely casuall may eyther happen or not happen The Starres being corporeall what can they imprint upon the soule of man being spirituall unreasonable things upon reasonable ones what is necessitated upon what is free or a thing determined upon an indifferent matter In like manner concerning casuall accidents what subordination can casuall and accidentall things have to the influences of Starres being regulated necessary and infallible things Is not this as much as to strive against all reason and to abuse the weaknesse and credulity of spirits so much as only to dare I will not say maintaine but even to broach such absurd propositions The Starres then O man shall be culpable of thine offences authors of thy good workes causes of thy prosperities instruments of thine infortunities if you doe any good they shall have the merit and consequently the reward shall bee due to them and not to you If you offend they shall beare the blame and you may justly cast the punishment upon them And why are Lawes among you if the Starres impose lawes upon you If the starres be the causes of your good and bad actions and you only the instruments to whom is the penaltic of ill or crowne of good due to the workman or his tooles to the cause or to the instrument See you not plainly that if these propositions were true you offer injury to the Starres to appropriate to your selves the reward of the good which they doe and wrong to your selves to inflict on your selves the punishment of the evill you commit not Who sees not how these propositions overthrow all reason all justice all vertue all order and all policie In like manner if it be the Starres which send good fortunes or fatalties prosperities or adversities to men they then governe the world it is they who raise some and represse others who distribute honours give victories transferre Scepters and dispose of Kingdomes But if this be thus wherefore is merit raised in one time and why at another time doth ambition obtaine all Honours Is it because the Starres one while make use of justice an otherwhile of favours Why in one age doth Industry conferre dignities in another gold or advantage in bloud is it because the Starres alter and accommodate themselves to the abuse of times as well as men doe Why in one Nation doth Election conferre Crownes in another Succession Is it by reason the Starres follow the fashions of Countries and doe diversly distribute their benefits according to the lawes of Kingdomes But they doe well in accommodating themselves to lawes lest they should bee resisted and finde some more compulsive thing then their owne power Of two borne at the same instant and under the same Constellations why is the one prosperous the other miserable and the aspect of Starres beeing so equall in both why should the effect bee so different Who seeth not that the Startes consisting of naturall and necessary causes appearing in all times and places and in all and every where after the same fashion producing so inconstant and various effects according to places moments and circumstances cannot be any constant cause of humaine events but in their conceipts who have neyther rule nor reason Naturall reason clearely sheweth the vanitie of their discourse Insigna coelâ— nolite mâ—thâ—re qui timent gentes quia lâ—ges populorum vana sunt Ierem. c. 10. Scripture condemneth them as full of Superstition errour and impietie Feare not the signes of Heaven which Idolatrers dread because the Lawes of the Nations are vaine sayth the Prophet Ieremy and the Church rejects and detesteth them Astrologia planetarii damuatur à Christiana vera pietate De Aug. l. 4. Confess as contrary to true pietie Iudiciall Astrologers and the Planetaries sayth Saint Augustine are condemned by the Christian Law And Saint Epiphanius reporteth that Aquila Ponticus who in the Primitive Church De Epiph. l. de som mensuris in the Emperour Adrian his time translated the old Testament out of Hebrew into Greeke was expelled out of the Church for addicting himselfe to judiciall Astrologie All the Holy Fathers with joynt consent have impugned this errour D. Bas in c. 14. Esay and St. Basil sayth That it confoundeth mans spirit and takes away Gods Providence Yea even the Lawes of well insticuted Republiques among the ancient Pagans have banished these judiciaries and deviners of good events as pernicious to civill societie And we reade in Tacitus of a Decree in Senate made in the Emperour Tiberius his time Factum est Squatus consulium de Mathematicis Italia Pellendis gonus hominum quod in urbe nostra expellotur semper retinebitur Tac. lib. 1. Ann. to expell them out of all Italy Whereupon this grave Authour addeth a very remarkeable observation that this kind of men have at all times beene chased out of Rome and yet have they continually beene retayned and supported Expelled from thence by publick Lawes but fostred by the superstitious foolish credulitie of particulars So as neyther humane actions nor casuall accidents depend at all upon the disposition of
Stars neither as efficient causes nor as singes or tokens of what hapneth Against the errour of Origen who affirmed that though the Starres cannot be the causes of what is done eyther freely by man or casually by hazard yet so it is that one may know what will happen by the inspection of Starres as by the reading of a booke where God hath written and imprinted with his finger in great and legible Characters all the order of future things as in a Table or Patterne of his divine prescience which hee hath exposed to mans sight An errour which the Scripture condemneth as well as the former forbidding us to have recourse to Starres in any sort save only to know times and seasons and what hapneth by a natural and necessary order But first as for what concerneth humane actions they have not any neare and interiour cause but only mans free will resolving eyther upon good or evill And as for more remote and exteriour causes when man operateth rightly and sutably to reason God concurres as the mooving cause eyther by his generall concurrency or particular in an naturall order as some will have it naturall and morall actions or by a particular grace or by a supernaturall order in Christian and supernaturall actions After the law whether divine or humane the just customes of those Countryes where we inhabite and the good example eyther of Ancients or of such with whom wee converse are the exteriour meanes interiourly moving the will to incline it selfe toward good And when man is inclinable to evill his irregular actions cannot be imputed besides his proper inclination being the interiour and principall motive but to the Divels impulsion to the perswasion of wicked persons to pernicious example to the attractions of Creatures or to occasions depending upon and inclining toward vice but to the Starres they can no way be referred but indirectly in that Starres may incite passions in the inferiour appetite and these passions the will As for what concerneth casuall events being the subject of our question they have no other cause save onely the disposition and casuall encounter of certaine circumstances of times places and persons whereon such uncertaine affects depend as upon unsure and irregulated causes But I call this chance casuall as to us but not as to God to whom nothing is accidentall but all fore-seene by his prescience and ordered by his providence For if even a poore Sparrow falls not to ground without Gods Providence as the Gospell speaketh were it not a manifest impietie to suppose that any thing could happen to man which God foreseeth not by his fore-knowledge and if good ordained by his expresse will but if ill permitted by his secret and hidden Will but alwayes holy and just providence So the good fortune whereof we speake causing good designes and sage counsels happily to succeed proceed not but from the casual disposition and encounter of circumstances which are to concurre toward the production of happy successes This being often casuall as concerning our providence but at all times forescene and ordered by that of God who so well disposeth the places times persons and affayres in favour of such as he intendeth to make use of in the execution of eminent actions as all things make way and succeed favourably for them CHAP. 8. That this good Fortune followes some and how it is to be managed THis good Fortune being understood according to my explication is an heavenly guift which God hath in such sort annexed to certain persons as it followeth and accompanieth them in all places as the shadow doth the body To deny this were to be ignorant of what Histories affirme and whatsoever daily hapneth in humane affaires For who can rightly consider the Progresse and pursuit of Augustus his fortunes who among all the Emperours and Monarchs of the earth hath merited the name of Happie but he must observe the disposition and order of Gods Providence causing affaires humors times and other circumstances to meet in the same point and manner as was fitting did raise and leade him as by the hand to the soveraigne authority of the worlds Empire Iulius Caesar had already begun to cast the platforme of Monarkie but because things were as then not absolutely disposed for so great an alteration Love of liberty and the zeale of maintaining the same still boyling in their breasts the successe was not answerable to his couragious resolutions and his designes wanting no valour to under take it fayled only of fortune to bring it to effect But at the same instant when Augustus began to appeare in the lists all things shewed themselves favourable and inclinable to his wishes The people incensed for the death of Caesar against those who defended the Common wealths liberty Affections and humours inclined to alteration Anthony under pretext of revenging this death fighting with generall approbation against publike liberty Cicero deceived under Augustus his apparance as then named Octavius putting him into reputation and opening unawares the first passage to his future greatnesse After this the conspiracie betweene Anthony and Lepidus for the ridding their hands of the principall heads of the Republickes faction and so to share the Empire betweene them three The opposites suppressed resistances removed The Empire divided Lepidus soone giving place to his two Companions Anthony in the end to Augustus all Authority collected and reunited in him alone a triumphant armie on foot to maintaine it The peoples and great persons their affections ready to receive him his enemies eyther dead subdued or won with rewards Conspiracies either repressed by feare or vanquished for want of power Adversaries overcome or dispersed by clemency In a word all things disposed to Crowne and Proclaime him Emperour of the World who seeth not plainly Gods providence disposing all things in his favour in this tissure and linkes of prosperities Now were it that God by meanes of the temporall Monarkie in Rome intended to lay the foundation of the spirituall which IESVS CHRIST who was pleased to appeare in this world came to establish in his Church Or were it that by an universall peace proceeding from the conduct of one only head he intended to dispose men to the reception of the promised Messias who brought peace upon the Earth or were it that by reducing all Nations under the authority of one Emperor he would open by these means as St. Leo observeth the course of the Gospell which was to be announced and published to all Nations Or besides all these reasons were it for some other secret or hidden cause one may clearly know and perceive that this greatnesse of Augustus is not a worke of his vertue but of his good fortune and his good fortune not a worke of hazard Destiny or the Starres but of Gods Providence I alleadge this so vulgar and well knowne an exāple to shew that the good fortune which follows some persons depēdeth only on the concurrence of circumstances rightly disposed and
is not any thing so prejudiciall to action as to be continually bent upon action without intermission For as the corporall eye seeth not the objects touching it but those onely more remote so the understanding continually plunged in affayres is not so quicke-sighted in occurrents as his who sometimes retireth himselfe from publike action beholding it aloofe off by consideration As it is reported how the noyse which the waters of Nile make do cause all those who liveneere the fals or Cataracts to become deafe Or as the Roman Oratour in his booke of the dreames of Scipio was of opinion that the harmonious and musicall sound resulting from the divers motions of the celestiall Spheres is not by us understood by reason the sound is so strong so quicke and violent that our eares are thereby deafned Or as they who nourish silk-wormes hinder those little creatures from hearing the thunder by the sound of brazen or iron vessels when at any time it is excessive So those who are continually amidst the tumults and tempests of affaires become insensibly besotted and deafe to the voice of Reason and Gods law which ought to give the conduct and motion to active life Besides experience teacheth us that the eye having lost its quicknes with too much looking upon the light recovers it againe in the darke The spirit in like manner dazled weakened and distracted among the multitude and variety of affaires ought to recollect and recover its force in the privacie of some small retreit Moreover see you not how the vapours rising from the earth darken the Sun-light and would utterly over-cloud it did not the Sun recollecting its vigour at length dissipat them by the point of his beames In like manner worldly affaires send forth certain mists invironing the interiour eye where the light of wisedome resideth and by litle and litle coveting the soule with darkenesse transports it to inconsideration and from thence to a thousand stumbling blocks forcing it to retire with shame if the soule preventing this danger did not now and then recollect it selfe and by the attentive consideration of its estate duty and end cause it to disperse those clouds which darken reason This hath caused me to admire that excellent sentence of Ezekiel the Prophet That the earth is desolate for that no man vseth consideration and reflection in his heart and he seemeth to say that it is the onely sourle of all human errours not onely in what concerneth eternall salvation but even in what toucheth the conduct of temporall affaires whether domesticall or publike For whence arise so many mischiefes ruines and desolations be it is in families Cities or Estates but only out of the want of wisdome among men and whence this but from the defect of consideration It is a thing naturall that as a stone cast into a calme and setled water causeth there a circle this circle a second the second a third this third maketh a fourth Circle after circle till the water from one side to the other be all troubled so worldly objects beat upō the senses the senses touch the appetite the appetite exciteth motions in the will the will stirred and tickled by delectation darkeneth the Vnderstanding disordered motions engender desires desires adors ardors breed passions passions temeritie temerities hatch follies and from thence issue all the troubles calamities and disorders falling out in the life of man and all this happens by reason that men being incessantly busied out of themselves eyther with pleasures vanities or affaires never take time to recollect themselves and as the Lamiae in faigned Stories keepe the eye of their Reason fastened to the Gates of their Senses and wittingly either scorne or neglect to weare it within the interiour part of their house thereby to consider know and regulate themselves I say not this as seeking thereby to send the Civill or Politicall Person into a Desart or Cloyster but onely to give him the counsell which Plato gave to Dionysius King of Sicil Plato Epist ad Dionys to take some houre in the day at leysure to contemplate not upon the subjects of vaine Philosophy but upon the eternall verities of divine Wisdome But the advice of Gods Spirit ought to be more efficacious than the precepts of Philosophers Consider and see that I am God saith he by his Prophet Vacate videte quoniam ego sum Deus speaking in generall to all men Give saith God some ease to your occupations to consider who J am and how in comparison of me all therest is nothing at all and shall be soone even as that which never was That I am permanent and how all other things are sliding and transitorie That I am the first law whereby all should be directed the eternall veritie whereto all should conforme themselves the soveraigne power under which all ought to tremble the Wisdome all ought to acknowledge the Iustice none can escape the finall end whereto all things should tend This consideration is a light dissipating the Clouds of ignorance a bridle restraining the rage of passions a rod correcting excesses and discipline composing our manners an Oracle inspiring good counsels a rule directing actions a booke wherein a man doth insensibly with delight learne the science of human and divine things In this sort doth the Scripture propose the Patriark Isaac unto us retiring and recollecting himselfe towards Sun-set walking pensive and solitary in his Garden Moses the Law-maker divided betweene contemplation and action one while comming downe toward the people and otherwhiles re-ascending toward God The Iudge Samuel sometimes giving sentence then contemplating after disposing of the affayres of Israel and opening the eye of his Soule towards Heavenly illuminations King David sometime giving lawes to his people then meditating divine lawes The wise Salomon now deciding the sutes and controversies of his Subjects and presently applying himselfe to the study of divine wisdome Briefly whosoever have at any time managed state or temporall matters according to Gods rule have at all times shared time betweene affaires and recollection betweene God and the world betweene Earth and Heaven as those Creatures called Amphibions who are not alwayes in the water nor continually on shore but doe now and then converse with Beasts on land and presently take water joyfully and naturally to divide the Waves among other aquaticall Creatures Now that which herein is to be observed is that even Pagan Politicians have acknowledged the necessity of these small intermissions in active life to the end to take some time for contemplation For not againe to repeat what I have formerly spoken conserning the counsell given by Plato to Dionysius King of Sicily who knowes not what the Roman Orator writ concerning the great Scipio whom he represents unto us often solitary and being never better accompanied than when he was alone by himselfe beside who hath not read how those ancient Law makers Numa Zaleuxis Lycurgus Solon and others made use of frequent
retirements as well to reenforce their spirits dissipated by the throng of affaires as the better to discerne what was good and necessary during this solitary tranquility for the further authorisement of their lawes and decrees by the esteeme of Religion If therefore Heathens have attributed so much to meere opinion what ought Christians doe to manifest truth I will now conclude this subject by a notable speech of Saint Bernard to Eugenius then Pope To the end your charity may be full and entire exclude not your selfe from the bosome of that providence of yours which receiveth all others What availeth it thee to procure the good and salvation of all others if this happen by the losse of thy selfe Wilt thou alone be frustrated of thy private felicitie All drinke at thy breast as at a publicke fountaine and thy selfe remainest behinde panting and thirsly amidst thy owne waters Remember I beseech thee I will not say alwayes nor will I say often yet at least sometimes to allow thy selfe to thy selfe Enjoy thy selfe with many or at least after many And in another place Take example saith he of the soveraigne Father of all D. Bern. l. a. Eugenium who sending his WORD into the world did yet retaine him nere his person Your word is your thought and consideration which if it part from you to imploy it selfe for the publike good let it yet be in such sort as it may still remaine within thee That it communicate it selfe without leaving thee void and diffuse it selfe over others without forsaking thy selfe CHAP. 8. Of other Vertues which cause a Politicke sufficiencie and chiefly of Prudence I Have sufficiently spoken of Wisdome the smalnesse of this worke considered I will therefore proceed to speake of other parts instructing the Vnderstanding for the knowledge of such things as are necessary for publike good and which finish the perfection of a publike sufficience The Philosopher in his Ethicks Arist l. 6. Eth. assigneth five kinds of intellectuall vertues the Intellect Science Wisdome Art and Prudence Intellect is no other than the habitude and disposition to know the primary principles which are perceived by themselves and presently apprehended by the intellectuall power without the assistance of ratiocination Science is a demonstrative habitude of necessarie things which cannot otherwise be and this habitude is acquired by the discourse of Reason sounding and searching the causes thereby to know the effects Now this knowledge of effects by the causes is called Science Wisdome is a very perfect and exact Science knowing both the consequences deduced from the principles and the principles themselves with the most universall causes so according to the Philosopher the excellent knowledge of every Science Discipline and Art may be called Wisdome Art is an habitude and just reason of certaine workemanships which are to be made and produced to the shew as building and painting with the like Art reflecteth not upon the interiour residing in the soule but on the action passing and flowing from the interiour understanding to imprint it selfe upon exteriour substances Prudence is a just reason of the actions of human life and of what man ought to doe and practice according to his estate and condition Now of these five habitudes or vertues which instruct and perfectionate the intellective power Art suteth not with our subject The Intellect and Science have bin cursorily touched when I sayd that a good wit and the study of Letters were requisite as necessary parts for the forming of Wisdome There now remaineth onely Prudence which being the right rule of of human actions is as it were the soule and life of the active civill and Politicke life For Intellect Science and Wisdome are onely serviceable for the understanding the universall reasons of things and the true ends whereto they are to be referred Prudence ought after this to applyâ—â—◠〈◊〉 â—â—â—eral reasons to the occurrencies particularities of affaires presenting themselves and to finde out the convenient meanes to arrive to the proposed end The Intellect seeth the first principles Science is acquainted with the universall causes of particular effects VVisdome is the perfection of the Vnderstanding the flower and Creame of Science Prudence is that which putteth in practise the Intellect Science and Wisdome The Vnderstanding affords the light Science frames the reason Wisedome perfecteth the knowledge Prudence directeth the action briefly Intellect Science and VVisdome do show in grosse what is fitting to be effected why it is to be done and to what end it is to be undertaken Prudence sheweth in each particular action how it is to be effected the former doe onely propose the end This besides the way doth likewise afford the skill and delivers unto us the conduct This is that of which the Philosopher speaketh in his Ethicks that it is the proper office of Prudence to dispose the meanes to arrive to the end The Vnderstanding searcheth it Science findeth it VVisdome sheweth it but Prudence conducteth it CHAP. 9. Of the Necessitie Excellencie and Offices of politicke Prudence PRudence as the Philosopher sayth in his Ethicks regardeth as its object things either good or evill profitable or pernicious honest or reproveable in a man following his calling and charge and it is proper to the prudent to consult and solidly to advise with himselfe in each affaire and particular action what is fitting and convenient to the present subject to his duty ranke and office So as to say truly looke how requisite Art is for the workes of industry so fitting is Prudence for the affaires of vertue An ancient Authour termeth Prudence the Art of living Now to live as a man ought is to live according to reason A man without Prudence is as a workeman without Art who hath tooles in his hand but wanteth act to make right use of them for the impression of convenient formes in the matter whereon he is to worke Man likewise who hath Science and VVisdome without Prudence seeth well the Reasons and the end whereto he is to ayme but is destitute of the right application of reasons whereby to finde out the meanes and attaine to the end And as the unkilfull crafts-man spoyles the matter thinking to polish it So the imprudent man ruines affaires presuming to rectifie them nor is there other difference save onely that the former spoyles Iron stones wood or some other matters of slight consideration the other ruines himselfe his particular fortunes yea whole States and Empires if he have thereof the administration VVherefore Saint Ambrose tearmeth Prudence D. Amb. l. I. Do offic c. 27. Cas Collat I. cap. 27. the sourse and fountaine of vertuous actions and Cassian expoundeth this saying of the Gospell Thine Eye is the Lampe of thy Body understandeth by this eye Prudence being the eye of the soule Or if the understanding be the eye of the soule and wisdome the light of this eye Prudence is the Apple of this Eye and as the lampe of this light
the dignity of high charges the most assured meanes is that which King Agesilaus sheweth us To say that which is good and to do what is honest which in a word is to shew our selues irreprehensible in our counsels and actions If you will have good renowne learne to speake well and to do better saith Epictete in Strabo Whereupon Socrates giveth this briefe instruction to Magistrates for the acquiring a good name to wit to endevour to be the same they would appeare For both mines of gold and springs of water though hidden do notwithstanding continually send forth certaine marks upon the surface of the earth which discover them the former small graines of gold the latter coolenesse and humidity So likewise true vertue engraven in the soule daily sendeth forth certaine and evident signes of her presence as flashes of her light Dissimulation may counterfeit truth but never imitate her and lesse perfectly represent her The Ape beareth certain touches of mans face but every man still knowes it for an Ape The painted grapes of that ancient Limmer had the forme and colour of true ones but they deceived onely birds The counterfeit Cow of Myron deluded onely other cattell The apples of Sodome deceive the eye beholding them but not the hand touching them Counterfeit gold may impose true apparances upon the eye but it cannot cosen the test Apparances and pretexts may well disguise vice but facts will manifest it and if Midas have Asses cares hee is much the nearer to hide them or to stoppe mens mouthes when Reedes and Canes having neither eyes to see nor cares to heare will finde a tongue to discover and divulge it There is nothing so bidden but comes to light saith the Scripture A good name and chiefly in men elevated to honour is a tender businesse and of the nature of flowers which lose their smell and grace if they be but onely touched It is therefore not onely necessary to preserve it from blame by avoyding ill but even from suspition in eschewing whatsoever carryeth the shadow thereof blame foyleth honour suspition blasteth it and though after difference vertue rest entire yet doth the authority thereof remain wounded and as the Sunne eclipsed by the opposition of the gloomy body of the Moon remaineth still cleare in it selfe but darkesome to us So vertue eclipsed by the mischievous encounter of suspition and publicke distrust though she be at all times cleare and shining in her selfe yet so it is that she becommeth obscure and uselesse for others 2 In producing the workes of vertue To leave one terme is not to touch the other To avoyd evill is as much as not to be ill but it is not presently to be good Vertue faith the Phâ—losopher tendeth to operation to avoyd blame is not to be reproachable but it is not instantly to be commendable Praise is due onely to vertuous actions but to flye vice and practise vertue to avoyd reproach and merit glory is the perfection It is from thence the splendor of a faire and solid renowne resulteth Men cannot praise but what they prize nor prize but what they know nor know but what they discover Vertue appeareth not it is hidden in the soule but the reputation her workes produce in the opinion of men is a light causing her to be both admired and reverenced To this purpose the Astrologers say that we see not the Sunne but the light thereof onely and the Philosophers that we discover not the presence of spirituall substances but by their actions The good odour discovers the Muske good workes vertue Wee see not God the Angels the soule nor the winde but we perceive Gods presence in the world the Angels in their place the soule in the body the winde in the ayre by their effects of God by his Providence of the Angels by his wonders of the soule by its discourse of the winde by its blast Wouldst thou have thy vertue commended let us see it Desirest thou we should see it cause it to operate shew her workes and we shall perceive her presence afford us her fruits and we will returne her due commendations How wilt thou have us know that thou art in possession thereof if thou producest it not or that it is living in thee if it have no operation It cannot be without living nor live without working Habitude saith the Philosopher is in the power vertue in the action vertue cannot be idle if shee be so she dyes if she dyes she is no more Fire leaves to be when it gives over burning the spring dryeth up when it leaveth running the tree dyeth when it putteth forth no more leaves The Crocodile as they say leaves to live when he makes an end of growing the heart loseth life as sâ—one as motion The life of all things ends with theâ—r operation So vertue ceasing to operate is eyther not any longer any thing or will speedily be reduced to nothing She is either dead or drawing on towards her end her vigour is extinguished with her action and her idle languishing and dying habitude onely remaineth CHAP. 12. Of the ordering of life and manners which is the other head of Politicke Iustice towards himselfe VErtuous actions then are necessary both for the conservation of vertue and for the production of honour and praise which is her light lustre Here may enter nay here ought all vertues to meet not onely Politicke but even those vertues proper to a private man as temperance chastity sobriety humility modesty benignity and others which regulate their lives and manners who are therewith adorned these being not precisely necessary in a Magistrate as a Magistrate but very fitting as he is a man and more as he is a Christian Nay I say as a Magistrate he ought to possesse them in a higher degree than the vulgar since in a selected person nothing ought to be ordinary but all choice all high and all proportionable to the place he holdeth For as man as touching the body participateth of the elements with beasts and plants but yet in a more excellent manner proportionable to the dignity of his reasonable nature raysing him above the rest of corporall things so those vertues practised in a slacke manner among the people ought in Princes and Magistrates to be farre more eminently exercised For they being instituted not onely for the maintenance of peace but of good manners likewise among the people they owe for the one vigilancy and conduct for the other example and good life and if peace requisite in society be not ordained and appointed but to cause them to live vertuously and according to the lawes of just reason it seemeth that those who governe them are not so much redevable for their good guidance in causing them to live in peace as for their good example in procuring them to live well The one is but the meane the other the end Wherefore it is that not onely Politicke vertues but all the rest
without passion to whom reason simply and barely proposed may at all times satisfie But we have to doe with men who have reason which we are to know how to satisfie by reason and passions which we are when occasion is offered to understand how eyther to appease and sweeten or stirre up and inflame by discourse How often hath sustice lost her cause for want of being represented with requisite esticacie before men preoccupated with passion What caused Socrates to be condemned in Athens and P. Rutilius at Rome both the one and the other being innocent but only that the former contented himselfe to refute the calumnies of his accusers by simple and naked negations and the latter forbad his Advocates to use any strength or vehemency of speech in the maintainance of his innocency The Roman Orator indeed sayth that if one might plead his cause in Plato's imaginary Republicke before Philosophers exempt from all passions and humane perturbations It were well to be wished that onely reason should governe humane affaires and that passion should have no power over them Since it being so the naked and simple proposition of what were just would happily suffice without any Eloquence to draw them to good But since only to wish this order among men is not to establish the same it is fitting as much as we may to rectifie the disorder and rather to reflect upon the remedies of present mischiefes then upon the vaine wishes of a happinesse not to be had And since depraved inclinations passions vices voluptuousnesse and perverse habitudes have so farre preoccupated humane spirits as lyes seeme oftentimes Truth unto them and iniquity Iustice what better remedy to make way against all these impediments to right and reason than the force of reason it selfe explaned by Eloquence illustrated by lively words and animated by efficacious gestures and motions Reason I say which presented to so ill affected spirits simply and nakedly would be presently rejected but appearing with the grace and winning garb of this sitting ornament it winneth the hearts of the most refractariâ— it insinuates it selfe into the worst disposâ—d thoughts cures most ulcered humors and which is a most happy kinde of healing it cures them with content It is sayd that the Aspick suffers it selfe to bee charmed by the Enchanters voyce forgetting its naturall rage The Lyra appeaseth the Tyger Musick the Dolphin Davids Harpe the Divell tormenting Saul The sound of Flutes asswageth the paines of the Gowt And one of Alexanders Musitians had a tune wherewith he could sodainly calme the fire of his furie and cause it to lay downe Armes in the heighth of his greatest heate Eloquence hath yet farther power over humaine passions to moderate bend calme overcome and to cause them though it selfe unarmed to yeild up their weapons to reason Eloquence charmes the Sences mollifieth harts inciteth Affections frameth desires in other mens passions commandeth without law raigneth without Scepter forceth without Serjeants leaveth men to their freedome yet exerciseth in them a secret Empire It findes Wolves and makes them Sheepe encountreth Lions and leaves them Lambs not touching Bodies but transforming Soules and changing Wills without altering Nature What was the Eloquence think you of that Philosopher who commending Eloquence in presence of a debauched young man crowned with Flowers clapping his hands tripping about and dancing to the sound of Flutes in habit and gesture of one who celebrated the Feast of Bacchus entring into his Schoole in this equipage with purpose to scoffe at him did so lively pierce him with the Darts of his discourse as hee presently caused him to cast his Flowers from him to quit his caprings to breake his Flutes to settle his countenance and to testifie by the change of his comportment the alteration of his Spirit What force suppose you had Pericles his Eloquence being commonly termed Thunder and Lightning who by speaking imprinted in all hearts certaine strong incitements and stirred up all spirits with unusual transports enclining them to Wisdome What kinde of vehemency imagine you had that torrent of Demosthenes his Eloquence which so long stayed the course and successe of Philips good Fortune without any other armes then his tongue What vigor had the speech of Phocion who a thousand times raysed the courage of his Country men by his enflamed discourses no lesse than he did their Fortunes by his victorious armes But the authority these Orators acquired in Athens and the profit they brought to their Republick appeared clearely by this example At what time the Athenians reduced to extremity by Alexander the Great could not obtaine peace at his hands but under condition to send him as Prisoners their Captaines and Orators it came to this passe that in retayning their Orators they satisfied him in banishing their Captaines so as therein they shewed how much they preferred Eloquence before valour supposing it to be more availeable for them to maintaine the tongue than the sword in the Citie What shall I say of the Romans with whom Eloquence did at all times march hand in hand with valour these two having raysed their Republickes in Power Greatnesse and Glory above all the Empires of the World CHAP. 16. That Eloquence doth principally appeare in popular States but that it may be likewise very usefull in Monarchicall Governments TRuely as the popular Estates of Athens and Rome have caused Eloquence to be of high esteeme so doth it in truth seeme that Eloquence in such places is most usefull being of more splendour in popular estates where it is necessary to perswade the people to what is profitable for the publick than in Monarchicall States where those who are encharged with publike government are onely to propose their counsels and opinions to the Soveraigne thereupon receiving his commands to intimate the same to the people which without all comparison is more majesticall firme solid for the good and quiet of men then the opinion or advice of a Tribune or Orator confirmed by the suffrages of a rash multitude It therefore affords not so large a Field to the power of spirit nor so ample a subject to Eloquence Neverthelesse as certaine Birds who make no use of their wings for flying and soaring in the ayre yet employ them notwithstanding in their walking on earth therewith putting themselues forward with more speed and strength So Eloquence not meeting with those spacious places in Monarchies to soare in if I may so say with displayed wings doth yet at all times shew her dexterity and promptitude even in those straight limits enclosing her and her wings though uselesse unto her for flying do yet at least help her to walk with greater vivacity Besides the inconstancie of worldly affaires affordeth but over-many subjects even in best setled Kingdomes on the one side to cause the peoples fidelity to appeare towards their Soveraigne and on the other side to employ Eloquence in his Service and for publike profit Occasions I say which are no