or Tables place and displace them without regard to any thing but your temporal advantage learn not to violate the Will which God has created free and upon whom he who hath formed the Soul hath reserved to himself no constraint over it but is contented to conduct it by instructions and inspirations We will leave this Elder Brother without troubling our selves with his Name because falling Stars have none but only those that continue fixed to their Spheres and since it is not necessary to our History let us leave him to the enjoyment of that Name which God had given him in a better life and return to the now eldest and only remaining Son Alcimus who is the chief subject of our ensuing Narrative He expressed a thousand regrets to his Religious Fathers to whom he was indebted for his Education that he must now be forced to quit that habit which sate so easily upon his body after it had been unwillingly put on and would far rather have chosen had it been in his power to be an abject servant in the House of God than to possess at pleasure both Riches and Honour in the Tabernacles of the World But let him think or speak what he will he has neither liberty to deliberate nor consult and though a grave and Pious Father who had a good while been his Tutor remonstrated to his Parents the signal disasters which usually attend such changes he was as little listened to or believed As fam'd Cassandra who of old The ruine of proud Troy foretold That flames of Lust which first did burn At last would all to ashes turn They contemned his admonitions with the scurrilous appellation of Cloister-Maxims But Divine Truth is unchangeable which has threatned to forsake those that abandon it and that their Names shall be blotted out of Heaven whose only care is to have them written upon Earth who for their own broken Cisterns quit and forsake those of living water Those who have once quitted the burning City of the World for Zoar ought not to look back for fear lest they become Pillars of Salt a Spectacle to Passengers and a fearful testimony of Divine Vengeance Alcimus having quitted his former fetters which were now to him grown golden ones for the Yoke of God has this property that it every day grows more soft than other by the right application of the Oyl of Grace and now brought into the liberty of a Child of the World begun by degrees to efface his former impressions and the Genius he had sucked in with his Milk so true is that of the Poet Though Nature be supprest by force 'T will still return t'its former course So much easier is it to descend than ascend His Fathers house was for him formed into an Academy where in a short time he learnt so well did his active body suit his docil wit the exercises fitting for a Man that had changed the Cassock for a Corselet the Book for a Sword See here the Metamorphoses incident to a Human state He thought no more of the continuation of his daily devotion as if the management of a Horse were of greater importance than a communication with God To quit his Ecclesiastical revenues was the least of his thoughts for that fat morsel was too delicious to his taste like Ruth's Kinsman who was willing to redeem the estate but not to be troubled with the Woman there are many willing to receive the benefice few to discharge the office though the one was designed only for a recompence for the other and that they are or ought to be as inseparable as the shadow and the substance the accessory and principal He alledged that it would not be long e're by Marriage he should quite those revenues with his coelibate but the truth is he was wholly ruled by his Parents whose design was he should keep them till they could light on some old Kinsman or ancient Friend on whom they might have them bestowed by whose hands they might one day be transmitted to the Children yet unborn See here the ordinary designs of those who say Let th' heritage with us remain Which only doth to God pertain Not considering the Flames which are usually created by these Sacrilegious Morsels in the nests of such rapacious Eagles finally he continued in this secular course of life to enjoy these Spiritual revenues without the small Tribute of ever officiating in Divine Service The learned Fathers who had cultivated his Spirit carefully so long as his Parents intentions or his own inclinations design'd him for the Church begun to treat him so sharply and with such irresistible shocks to shake the Foundation of his conscience as were enough to tear up this impiety by the Roots which nevertheless like a young Tree shaken by the wind took faster footing till he began to prove to them as a stranger a Publican and reject the practice of the maxims of true Christian Piety and Religion for to speak truth what is this but to halt between two opinions to swear by God and by Milcom to joyn God with Baal Christ with Belial and light with darkness to mix the Eagles feathers with those of the Dove to make one Sacrifice to God and to Idols to be at once cold and hot to eat the fat of the Altar and never officiate at it Is not this I say to sow the Earth with two sorts of grain to weave a piece of two stuffs and to plough with an Oxe and an Ass They who admitted not into their congregations of Devotion any Souls of a mixt Metal and consciences which would not endure the touch did forthwith exclude him or rather Alcimus separated from them of his own accord prodigally rejecting the substance of his Heavenly Father not altogether so shamefully as the young Man in the Gospel who foolishly and sottishly wasted his Portion in a far Countrey but yet very unworthily for a Man of his Condition he turned out of the ways of Sion no more frequenting her solemnities But the Proverb saith there are no pots so ill but there is a cover to fit them there are no consciences so large for commission but there are others big enough to fit them with an absolution there are enow that will praise to the wicked the desires of his Soul and bless him in his iniquity there are but too many guides that are as little judicious as infinitly blind and are not content to be so themselves unless they bring others into the same predicament There are flatterers enough whose interest makes them speak the Language of slaves and with smooth words bring those to sleep in an assured repose who have the greatest subject in the World to fear to whom there is nothing more easie than to forge causes apparently sufficient for the unjust deteinure of the goods of the Altar And an Erroneous conscience having once taken footing in the Soul it is then ready to receive all Vice and wickedness which being
LONDON Printed for William Iacob A TRUE Tragical History OF TWO Illustrious Italian Families Couched under the Names of ALCIMUS and VANNOZA Written in French By the Learned J.P. Bishop of BELLâ—Y Done into English By a Person of Quality St nunquam Danaen habuisset abeneaturris Non esset Danaae de Jove facta pareus Ovid. Amand. Quis tali fando Temperet à lachrymis Virg. l. 2. Licensed Roger L'Estrange LONDON Printed for William Jacob at the Black Swan next Bernard's Inn in Holbourn 1677. TO THE Comte de SCHOMBERG My Lord I Address unto your Piety the ensuing Example of the hand of God upon the Impious as I received it from the mouth of a Sage Learned and Devout Father who had had acquaintance with the good Simplicius one of the principal Persons in the following History and therefore the best acquainted with all the particulars of it If mischiefs are cured by their opposite remedies if we save our selves by the contrary of that which destroys us and if things are best set off by Comparison with their contraries I question not but the Splendor of your Name and the Glory of your Virtue will here shine with the greatest lustre amongst the thick darknesses represented in the ensuing Narrative But God who draweth light from the midst of obscurity does give us good instructions by the horrour so naturally stamped on the front of Vice Some Criticks who shall run it over as it often happens without stopping at this Epistle will presently judge that these are matters as unsiting for my hand as for your eyes your Soul being as far remote from such Idea's as the East from the West But my sentiments are different as I suppose yours will be unless you be an Enemy to your own advantage for who are fitter to beat down the most enormous vices than those who are elevated to the highest pitch of Vertue The opposing a Giant to David was it not the means to aggrandize his Glory What other rodbut that of Moses could devour Serpents and what other strength then that of Sampson could tear a Lyon subdue the Philistines and unhinge and bear away the Gates of a City 't is for St. Peter to kill and eat unclean Beasts The generous Julus in the great Roman Poet disdained to hunt the fearful Game or to imploy himself in chasing or killing the timerous Deer wild Boars and Bears are onely subjects worthy his pursuit 'T is the valour of an Enemy that raiseth the Glory of the Victor Your deportments so full of Honour and of Virtue make you so terrible to Vice to suffer her to approach you otherwise then as subdued below your feet and acknowledging you Victorious against her strongest efforts It is in this equipage that this relation does approach you For as the Serpent Pithon was one of the most famous Trophies of Apollo who had pierced it with his Arrows a fabulous invention whereby the Poets would denote that the rayes of the Sun do purifie all ordures And as this Glorious planet does without infection cast his rays upon a dunghil so those of your condition can glance upon the crimes against which I declaim in the ensuing pages without offence and your Vertue shall serve me for a Lance and Buckler in my combat and I hope my conquest of these Monsters The Ark which saved from the deluge the seed of the Vniverse did receive the unclean beast without contracting any impurity so a firm and well temper'd Soul looks down upon the insolence of Vice with a disdainful Eye and is so elevated as it were in the Highest regions of the Air that their black vapours can never reach it Judith offered to the Lord the Equipage of Holofernes Joshuah accursed things of Acan and Moses sacrificed to him the abominations of the Egyptians These reasons My Lord have invited me to address this Tragical Narrative to Your Lordship as to a Hercules the chaser of mischief nor is this without Example the ancient Ethnicks dedicated Wolves to Mars Eagles to Jupiter Lyons to Sol Owls to Minerva and Foxes to Mercury And the Hebrews themselves sacrificed Oxen and Goats to the great God of Israel and Lord of Hosts And to say truly at the feet of what more signal Virtue can such horrid impiety be thrown and where can a more Heroick valour be found to purge Europe of those vices which render her more fertile of Monsters then Africa France which hath seen you manage with so much care fidelity and prudence her * He was Treasurer of the Army and Mr. of the Ordnance powders of gold and salt peter which compose the Thunders and Lightnings as well as Sinews of War that Lewis the Just might reduce the rebellious Spirits of his Subjects to some appearance of the Duty and Obedience will witness to the World this verity But since truth is as displeasing to you when she tells you of your merits as she is to others when she reproacheth them with their unworthiness I shall onely beg leave to hew from this fair Quarrey one stone to adore the Frontispiece of this Work and bear this inscription That you perhaps amongst all men living are onely he to whose sole courtesie I may declare my self truly obliged which renders me from the bottom of my Soul My Lord Your most Humble and most affectionate Servant J. P. B. of Belley The Priviledge granted by the King LEwis by the Grace of God King of France and Navarr To Our true and faithful Councellors the Members of our Courts of Parliament Bailiffs and Stewards Provost or Lieutenants and to all others Our Officers of Justice and to every of them whom it shall concern Health Our well beloved subject Martin Lasnier Bookseller in our City of Paris hath given us to understand that he hath in his hand a Book Intituled Alcimus or a Tragical relation where the hand of God upon the wicked is discovered composed by the Lord Bishop of Belley the which he is desirous to bring to light if he might obtain our Letters requisite and necessary thereunto To which purpose desiring well and favourably to treat the said exposant and that he may not be frustrated of the fruits of his labour We have granted and permitted and by these presents do grant and permit unto him of Our special Grace to print or cause to be printed the said Book Given at Paris c. By the King in Councel Renovard Printed for and Sold by William Jacob at the Black Swan next Bernards Inn in Holbourn THE Life of God in the Soul of Man With an Account of a Spiritual Life by G. Burnet England's Remarques or a View of all the Counties of England and Wales with their Growth and Manufacture the Number of all Bishops Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Barons Parliament Men Hundreds Market-Towns and Parishes in each County the length breadth and Circumference of the same and to what Diocess it belongs As also the Names of all the Chief Cities
it finds in him less resistance for this Passion is so voluntary an evil that it torments us no longer than we please and so no longer than we give it the Sovereignty of our Hearts In the beginning of these passages when I had the liberty to go into what parts of the House I pleased I became one of his beholders and thereby the innocent cause of his Passion without giving him any subject for it Capoleon himself who took great pleasure in seeing him in these postures and who in his time has been a good Horseman used to bring me to see him but since his Jealousie has confin'd me to a quarter of the House far remote from the street 't is in vain for Alcimus to make his passings to and fro for I am wholly eclipsed from his eyes But he is of the number of those foolish Lovers who content themselves with the sight of those Wells which inclose the Object of their flames like Elephants who not daring to swim in a water which has not depth enough to support them wash themselves by walking along the edge of a River where they are oft either taken or slain And I am so afraid lest this inconsiderate Bird if it take not heed be shot by an Arrow feathered from its own wing or catcht in lime-twigs of its own pitching for as every man is the Artificer of his own good so is he of his own bad fortune I hear the Winds rise the Waves roll and the Tempest approach my Husband to whom all things bring cause of suspition yet knows that I am not at all desirous of the sight of this Cavalier and is hugely offended that these passages are a common Table-talk amongst the Neighbourhood amongst whom the murmur runs that he makes all these turns for a Bird that Capoleon keeps encaged meaning me May it therefore please you most holy Father to do this charitable office to him my Husband and my self to prevent so great a mischief and scandal by advertising him for the future to leave off this unprofitable pursuit which can neither be advantageous nor honourable except he desire to be continually in danger till perhaps at last amongst these turns and passages he may light on one he neither sought nor thought of which is that which leads from life to death I being so close shut up as I am could not have opportunity to give him any advice of this by any of my Servants lest they should suspect betwixt us some secret intelligence and that my Husband who sets them as so many Spies about me should not have a pretext to treat me more rigorously and as I was just going to trust this important Secret to this ancient Lady you see here who though my Mother is still a woman and my own frailty tells me how bad a repository our Sex is for such privacies God inspired me just upon that instant to come to your holy Fatherhood having seen him part from you so that for the future I shall rely upon your prudence and charity to give a remedy to these threatning Misfortunes Daughter reply'd the good Father Simplicius since you not only permit but enjoyn me to open my mouth upon this Subject for the good and safety of so many Souls I shall willingly obey you in so just an occasion which concerns the Glory and Service of God whom I serve therefore rely upon me and I will apply my utmost diligence to cut the thread of his folly be you only constant devout and faithful and take this Maxime from me That the best and greatest Policy and Invention is to keep a good Conscience and to walk uprightly before God have a good courage and confidence in the Divine Bounty and fear not but truth and purity will be your Safe-guard Whereupon having given her his blessing he dismiss'd her in peace Imagine with your self whether this subtle woman might not well be compared to a Rower that turns his Bark to the Port he aims at whether to all outward appearance her discarding of Alcimus were not the ruine of her Design But infinite are the Inventions of the heart when it is infected with the Poyson of the old Serpent who was a Murtherer from the beginning and by whom Sin entred into the World with Death for its attendant None make up directly and openly to Iniquity there must be always some Colour or Leaves to hide it or else it would appear too openly it has always a specious out-side and though the in-side of the Coin be plain brass it will be sure to be handsomly plated over Vannoza being parted from Father Simplicius told her Mother that she had found so much edification in his Remonstrances and such profit in his Instructions that for the future he should be her only Confessor which pleased her Mother very much desiring nothing more than the contentment of her Daughter who in those words only sowed the Seed of a speedy return to know whether that Match which she had lighted had given fire to the Train of her wicked Intentions Mean while the good Religious Father hurried on by his zeal without attending Alcimus his coming whose loss he apprehended went to visit him in his house as he did at other times before as well in quality of a Neighbour as to cultivate the benevolence of so good a Benefactor to the Fraternity and to mix a little prudence with his plainness knowing by common Opinion as well as Experience that all the words of women are not Oracles he made private inquiries if it were true that this Gentleman went so in the evening prancing through the street where Capoleon's house was which he found to be very true and which was more as every thing gives cause of suspition in this jealous Nation that he was much spoken of for his gallantry and brave Behaviour Hence the good man conjectured that Vannoza's report was but too true Therefore being with Alcimus after many Discourses and ordinary Entertainments he fell as if by accident upon the Discourse of Serenades and Gallantries in the Streets which this young Gentleman ingenuously acknowledged and withal told him That to avoid the eyes of so many infamous Courtizans as throng'd the Windows to behold him he shunned as diligently as was possible the places affected with that accursed Race for that end passing through the more remote and less frequented ones confessing further the pleasure he took in this exercise in which he drew the Opinions of all Beholders to reckon him for excellent But Father said he do you disapprove of it as sinful or can this kind of vain-glory for that is the worst title it can merit amount to a heinous offence For to be seen taken notice of praised esteemed and admired is a thing very ordinary amongst Academies which pleasing applause does undeniably tickle the heart through the ear Then Simplicius thinking he had brought Alcimus to the point desired begun presently to tell him That this passing
once rooted there is as firm as the club in the hand of Hercules it lyes not there as a passenger but in Garrison ingarrisoned in an impenetrable impregnable fort It is a great sin to call good evill but a monstrous wickedness to call evil good and to cloath Vice in Virtues livery This is to mix Wormwood with Sugar and poison with Honey it is in one word to reverse reason and the Laws and under false appearances to maintain the Sinner in his irregular desires We ought not rashly to judge of any thing Who knows the secrets of God or who has ever been his Counsellour who has ever read in the great Book of destinies or sounded the abyss of the Heart of Man Who I say but God who knows our thoughts afar off and who judgeth the ways and paths of all to whom all things are naked and open and nothing close or secret But if we may give a conjecture to Humane actions and Earthly events it is very probable that the abuse of the Churches goods apply'd to an use quite contrary to what they were designed for were the causes of the misfortunes of that Family as the Prince of the Affyrians who saw the Sentence of Condemnation written on the wall for imploying the Sacred Vessels to prophane uses However it were our younger Brother was succeeding the Elder went very pompously both in habit and attendance which was maintained by an allowance out of his Fathers Patrimony added to his Church Revenues Behold him here withdrawn from his former innocency and turned from the paths of his ancient conducters and now put for the direction of his Soul into the hands of Persons who had no further care but of the Body The wit of Man hath subtilties and devices to colour over the worst of actions Alcimus had still remaining a sweetness of Temper and shew of Piety and not being able so soon to extinguish The Sacred warmth which in his Breast Had th' first and chiefest room posiest Felt in himself some remainder of his former devotion as a Cinder continues warm sometime after the extinction of the fire He frequented the Church and Sacraments and continued his former acts of Piety briefly he seemed to all that saw him the most sage and noble Cavalier in the whole City O! how dangerous are those remainders of Celestial Love since they not only deceive others but seduce them in whom they reside who thinking themselves the same that others believe and publish them to be do thereupon continue sleeping in a Mortal Lethargy for as the Poet sings To what end serve Temples and Vows Injustice being lodg'd within Who pious seems and vice allows Is guilty of the highest sin He much frequented a holy and famous fraternity in a Monastery near his House very eminent and much frequented where he pitcht upon a Ghostly Father that suted his desire whether according to God's own heart I refer it to him but according to his own he seemed to be very agreeable for he confirmed his conscience in his former Courses and undertook to bail him from the arrest of those Terrours which his former guides had seasonably imprinted in his Soul which now seemed at last but the effects of scrupulous conceited old Men by little and little the fear of God's Judgments vanisht from his Soul which caused his ways to be every day more defiled and his heart more hardned for as an ancient Father saith It is the property of Sin not speedily effaced by repentance by its heaviness to weigh a Man down to more till the multiplication of weights at last press him to the abyss of misery the addition of sin like an increasing burthen growing at length insupportable thus he passed some years even sleeping in the multitude of riches and splendour of abundance daily as much increasing in exteriour accomplishments befitting a Cavalier as he impaired in the inward ones of a Christian He became a most admirable Horse-Man or rather changed from a Man to a Horse so delighting himself with that exercise that if it be true that the Lover transforms himself into the thing beloved he loving nothing equal to this Animal it might in some sort be said that he was himself become a Brute as the Psalmist saith like the Horse or Mule that have no understanding for having no care but to aggrandise himself in riches and honour upon Earth he so fixed his regards upon that point that he had none left for Heaven whose rules he daily transgressed But I think I may justly say by the way that it seldome happens that those who quit God's service for Earthly considerations how just and honest soever and prosper long in their undertakings for God loves not those who so slightly abandon Levi's Portion Examples are so frequent upon this Subject that the very Stones would speak if Tongues and Pens should be silent so that I conclude this grand prosperity to be this young Lords great misfortune He was now grown brave active sprightly and in the greatest worldly esteem imaginable accounted valiant handsome generous of noble deportment learned rich compleatly gentile and agreeable his conversation full of attractions principally amongst Women and which crowned all his other perfections he was reputed very devout and of a religious behaviour so that there could not one point be found wherein he was not fully accomplisht insomuch that every ones doors stood open to him being welcome and desired in all companies Nothing was talk't of but Alcimus his admirable and commendable qualities as the Miracle of Courtesie Generosity and Civility his name passed through all mouths who seemed by their infinite praises of him all to conspire to elevate his Honour above the Clouds But ordinarily the Apple that ripens fastest rots the soonest and that which is most yellow is the most worm-eaten the fairest outside hiding a worm within which in short time consumes it The Vulgar who as the wise Man saith hath his eyes only in his head and seeing a magnificent expence pass no further nor prie into the bottom from whence should proceed the substance that supplies it and so they see but a generous usage of them mind not whether they were well or ill acquired but the more sober sort who content not themselves with the out-side of the bone unless they come to feed upon the marrow pierce with Lynx's eyes the secretest darkness and sound the most hidden resorts which move the stately Machins which so dazzle the Eyes of the beholders to those Alcimus his splendid accoutrements seemed composed of Copes and Chalices shameful ornaments for a Man of Honour But gain is sweet whencesoever it comes said that base minded Emperour who made the very excrements tributary and threatned to impose a tax upon the Elements themselves It is no novelty in the World to see several Men brave it at the expences of the Crucifix who one may justly say do again daily crucifie the Son of God selling him