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
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
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
through the streets whether on foot or horseback was in it self a thing indifferent but that indifferent actions took the tincture either of good or evil form the designs and determinations which were intermixt with them for there is nothing so good but may be corrupted by a malignant spirit and from which like a spider it may not suck poison Nor any thing so evil from which a well-disposed spirit may not draw some advantage That feasts banquets assemblies dancing honest plays and recreations habits and such like were of this nature and were neither to be praised or condemned but according to the usage or abuse the moderation or excess of those that use them But that humane nature and inclinations were so inclined and bent towards the vanities of youth that as if our very touch were infectious we are apt to corrupt the very best things by handling much more indifferent ones So wine and meats which are given to sustain the body serve for objects of daintiness to one drunkenness to another and gluttony to others and amongst â—ssemblies to bind the amity of the company and confirm their friendship which conserve the union of all Societies Many others are led by irregular affections from whence arise many scandalous actions And further that these passings and repassings through the streets with so great attendance such pomp splendor and sumptuousness could not well be void not only of excess but of many dangers of taking or being caught the world is every way so full of snares For as the Peacocks in setting up their plumes do thereby excite the females to pleasure so men when they make so splendid an appearance are the cause of many inconsiderable Womens sinning in wanton thoughts or unchaste desires and what do you think continued he men are apt to say when they see a young Gallant handsom brave well habited and advantageously mounted making turns and returns in a street but that he has either love or design upon some object there whence proceed murmures curious inquiries hard speeches and scandals And if the object be unlawful to be desired then the Woman is persecuted with infamy the Husband rackt with jealousie till he breathe out nothing but fury and revenge for how can he otherwise contain himself who sees his wife courted before his face and himself thereby subjected to the reproaches of the world and laughter of the people From this source spring great and dangerous accidents which it is more easie to avoid then remedy when arrived And afterwards taking his opportunity he proceeded thus It is not without some cause Seigneur Alcimus that I make you this discourse for I have from good hands received a bad report of you and I assure you I could never have thought or believed that a soul so seemingly fair as yours would by the easie way of deceiving men pass so unworthily to the dangerous one of offending God but deceive not your self for none can mock God with impunity if he withold his vengeance it is but to redouble his stroke I should be a traitor not only to the obligations I have to your amity and to the diligent care I ought to have of your safety and salvation and my own but also to the Master whom I serve if I did not advertise and admonish you of your danger of both temporal and eternal destruction the sword of divine vengeance hangs over your head and like that of Damocles but in a slender thread Both God and Man have bent their bows and made ready both arrows of fire and death against you except you avoid the blow by repentance and arm your self by a serious penitence all things conspire against you whilest you continue in your wickedness unless you turn from your evil way I cannot say within forty days which was the space that Jonas allotted Niniveh but within a far shorter term Think no longer to impose upon me by feigned confessions for God will one day lay open your dissimulations and my intentions when he shall discover what is hidden in the heart and shall open the secrets of darkness If ever man were surprized or astonish'd it was Alcimus who seeing his innocence burthened with a Crime which the other did not name nor he imagine did at once change colour an hundred times and these alterations caused by his sincerity and ingenuity were by Simplicius who stedfastly regarded him taken for the effects of guilt and remorse of Conscience and therefore said Take Courage Seigneur Alcimus all will be well that skarlet of your blushes does elevate my hopes and makes me attend your ingenuous and free Confession Alcimus who felt his Conscience clogged with nothing but the deteinure of his Church-Revenues of which we have amply treated in the beginning of this Narrative did like those that are struck presently lay his hand on the bruised spot where he felt the pain And after calling to mind how he had often conferred about this Affair with this good Father who had found him certain Expedients if not to remove the sting from his Conscience yet at least to lay the pain asleep till he had found an Expedient to assure these Benefices to his Family My good Father said he as amongst the Bees she that makes the Honey stings most severely so now this Assault is the more insupportable from that mouth which hath hitherto distilled unto me nothing but sweets and Consolations God is my witness that I have never concealed any thing from you at the Tribunal where accusing ones self is the best excuse and if you have not known any thing of me there it must be because I am ignorant of it my self It is true I dare not reckon my self for an extraordinary good man for if I should justifie my self my own mouth would condemn me and if I have offended God and sinned against him it is that he may be justified in his saying and what he judgeth I confess I was born in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me but yet I have ever loved the truth by and through which I have accused my self of the most hidden faults I could remarque and without fraud or mincing I have freely discover'd my secrets to you but if God have by some extraordinary means revealed any to you that have slipt out of my remembrance tell it me and reprove me in the spirit of meekness and gentleness and I am ready to amend it for I every day heartily beseech God with the Royal Prophet to cleanse me from my secret faults and from those sins which I may be guilty of by the participation of those of others At this present I can boldly say that nothing lies heavy on my heart but the enjoyment of these Church Benefices without intention of being a Church-man but they being of that nature that they may be possessed by a Secular person and I being unmarried and not able to quit them absolutely without breach of that respect which I owe
Judgments incomprehensible and his ways inscrutable How many malefactors have we seen dragged to punishment for crimes which they never acted and yet had other-ways merited death for more black and wicked Villanies which had been hid till revealed by their own discoveryâ— Sure God is just and his Judgment is right and he knows both how and why he punisheth Who can the Sun of darkness blame Or who ' gainst God complaints can frame Or say his Judgments are not right Who 's of Justice made up as t'other is of light The Sun had scarce restored his face all crowned with Rayes to our Horizon when Alcimus who had never closed his eye-lids but tormented with divers fancres leapt from his bed whose Feathers were more pungent than so many Thorns not able to find rest till he had reduced his Soul to its Centre that is to God who is it's true place and his Grace the Tabernacle of the God of Jacob he went streight-away to Father Simplicius to be cleared of all these Aenigma's which had overwhelmed him with so many inquietudes Simplicius suffered himself to be long press'd and intreated before he would grant him audience but the double force of obedience and condescention render'd exorable the charity which animated him Alcimus having declared to him the torment in which he had left him and the inquietudes which had robb'd him of that nights sleep I question it not reply'd Simplicus for a bad Conscience is an executioner to him that has not quite lost the sence of his Crime It is a good sign when one awakes from a lethargick slumber this gives some appearance of recovery but when one continues sleeping in the Regions of the shadow of death 't is a sign that the enemy of our Salvation prevails against Grace God be praised who by the healing Eye-salve of my Remonstrance hath restored you your sight and made you see the deplorable and dangerous state in which you before did sleep so supinely Be of good courage you shall not die but live to sing eternally the marvellous operations of divine Mercy My dear Father reply'd Alcimus I am now blinder than ever and more ignorant of what as I am your spiritual Son I suppose you ought to tell me more plainly ' cause that I may see as the blind man said to our Saviour for certainly however it be you ought more plainly to lay open to me the particulars of this report that if it be true I may say as David did to Nathan I have sinned or if it be otherwise with Joseph falsely accused and unjustly imprisoned I am innocent of what is laid to my charge Seigneur Alcimus said Simplicius pray speak no more of your innocence being so notoriously convinced otherwise you will make me believe you are one of those whom Solomon speaks of who think themselves clean and pure and yet are filled with filth and iniquity If the Infant but one day old is not exempt from sin as the Scripture tell us one of your age accomplishments and liberty that is free and dis-intangled from all sorts of love both lawful and unlawful may well be accounted A Bird as rare As black Swans are But think not to feed me now as yesterday you did with aery words for I have more serious affairs to look after and which do more justly merit the time which we imploy here in cajolleries and vain contestations I have have said enough to you therefore as Joshuah said to Achan Give glory to God in confessing your fault and reconciling your self by a true Repentance to him whom you have so grievously offended I know how unserviceable I am to you in any Function but this and you may find Companions enough in the World amongst whom to ease your itch of talking without troubling the repose and silence of a Cloister with the same Father replied Alcimus the giving glory to God by a true Confession is the sole scope of my intention for I see well the little credit which my words can obtain if not supported by this prop of Penitence and mixed with a Sacrament the profaning of which by a Lye merits no less the eternal Damnation for which cause I am more firmly resolved than ever to disburthen my Soul to you in a sincere and hearty Confession Simplicius knowing that there are twelve hours in the day and that the Sinner ought to be seiz'd on in the critical minute without further delay accepted this condition thinking this the only means to withdraw this Soul from the jaws of the infernal Wolf and from the open Gates of eternal perdition At this Sacred Tribunal from whence Lyes are banish'd under so severe Penalties the innocent Alcimus discovered the secrets of his heart to his Ghostly Father who yet took all this for nought but artifices wherefore after many menaces of the wrath of God if he remained obstinate in his will and after having pressed home to him this Sentence of Tertullian If thou hidest thy self in Confession here thou shalt be hid in the eternal Dungeons hereafter Alcimus answered Holy Father if the gaping jaws of Hell were now ready to receive me and all its dismal Inhabitants fitted to receive me I am able to say no more than I have done I only desire this favour which those that like you do mannage and direct our Consciences ought not to deny to the most miserable that you would please to endeavour to supply by your Interrogatories what you think wanting in my Confession David could not have forgot his Murther and Adultery yet he remain'd a whole year without consideration or discovery of it till the Prophet laying his hand upon the sore presently made him feel the smart and look out for a remedy Certainly reply'd Simplicius I may answer you as St. Ambrose did Theodosius who alledged this Example That you that have followed him in his sin if not in effect yet at least in intention which is the same Crime in the sight of God should likewise answer him in repentance And you Father answered Alcimus be pleas'd to follow Nathan 's steps in drawing this thorn gently out of my heart Simplicius thinking at this word that he had won the Town without losing time and designing to accommodate himself to this tender spirit which he thought to be sick of the most dangerous of all Feavers which is that of Love after having by many circumlocutions imitated the Chyrurgion who seeming only to anoint with Cotton dipt in Oyl the aposthumed breast of a delicate Lady does dextrously open it with a hidden Lancet so he by degrees at last brought Alcimus upon the point of his evening airings and motions on Horseback all which Alcimus confessed exaggerating like a true Penitent the excess and superfluity of his Habits and Attendance the pleasure he took in hearing the praises and applauses of those that beheld him and the extreme vanity with which his Soul was this way swelled Thence Simplicius proceeded to the street
where Capoleon lived a Gentleman for Estate and Quality well known throughout the whole City asking him why he went there so often and made a longer stay there than any where else particularly before that house At this word Alcimus perceived the subject of this long Discourse and answered briskly Certainly Father we are as much deceiv'd in what we see through jealous eyes as through a false Prospective Upon which Simplicius recounted to him that which else he thought all the Town talked and took notice of the jealousie of Capoleon the violence of which had made him become a common Proverb And is not this said he a just cause of Jealousie to a man of his age who is Husband to a young and fair Lady though certainly as virtuous as beautiful to see one so openly seek her to court and caress her by words and actions glances and countenances which are neither just nor honest This is the property of the jealous said Alcimus to believe that all things conspire the ruine of their Honour the Days the Nights the Stars the Elements the very Animals are suspected by them much more reasonable Creatures they fear where there is not the least subject of suspition the Shadows to them are Substances their vain Suspitions palpable Convictions and their false imaginations evident and undoubted Verities But be pleased to tell me Reverend Father of whom in particular Capoleon is jealous for there is no appearance it should be of me who know his Wife so little that I stould not distinguish her amongst a Troop of others I have seen her amongst other young Ladies before she was made his but beheld her only as an Object which never obliged me to a particular regard I think I have seen her too amongst other women since her Marriage whilst she appeared in Companies but since her Husband has given her Angelica's Ring and by a streit Imprisonment has rendred her invisible even to the Eyes of Heaven certainly I must have more than a Lynx his sight to penetrate those Walls which inclose her If the good Mans Feaver burn only on this side it is very easie to be healed Here Simplicius believing that Alcimus still persisted in his dissimulation lifting up his voice with a more strong and piercing Tone than formerly with a violent impetuosity vehemence of spirit he said Do you consider what it is you do or that you stand in the presence of an Almighty God Or have you ever read or heard of the terrible Judgment that light upon Ananias and Saphira it is not now a mortal man but an Eternal God that you impose upon Whereupon he began to use the Word as the Apostle saith In season and out of season with opportunity and even with importunity to reprove pray conjure to cry in all patience and soundness of Doctrine Have you forgot said he that the excuse of Adam and that of Cain were worse than their faults or that the Royal Prophet begged of God to set a watch before the door of his lips lest he offended with his tongue in seeking excuses or specious pretences to palliate or extenuate his iniquity for when once it is come to this point from which God preserve you to sin not only with impunity but therefore to think they do it with Reason then is one arrived to the highest pitch of wickedness and if this be your case it is no better than desperate and deplorable By this I understand reply'd Alcimus that Capoleon is jealous of me thinking that my passages and managements in his street and sometimes before his Gate are Incense and Perfumes which I offer to that Idol which ought to be adored by none but himself O God! was ever seen such a profound dissimulation I can affirm that there is no person I will not say in that Quarter but even in the whole Town that has so much applauded me upon this subject as himself nor any that has so much puffed up my fancy thereby To whom hereafter shall we trust since by flatteries and caresses one is so basely deceived Certainly the Wise man spoke with much reason when he said My Son those that feed thee with fair speeches and artificial prayses are those that do decline or would seduce thee But this man has given me as just cause for the future to distrust him as his was unjust for suspecting me who had never the least thought of attempting the Honour of his Wife whom I hold to be as virtuous as fair And if my judgment fail me not worthy of a better chance than falling into his cruel hands My dear Father continued he I give you my humblest thanks for your charitable admonition and promise you for the future to stand upon my guard and to cause without prejudice to my Honour that he shall lose his evil opinion of me Simplicius then seeing that the Masque was taken off and that it was now time to speak plainly protested to him as the truth was that Capoleon had never spoke word to him of this Affair but that he had learnt it from a pious Soul for such he esteemed Vannoza to be and one desirous both of his temporal and eternal welfare Father said Alcimus It is a thing so shameful to a jealous Husband to discover his own baseness that I believe Capoleon would not make you this report himself but has for that purpose made use of a third person who under the pretext of Piety a virtue which opens the ears and hearts of Religious Souls has informed you of this false relation to the prejudice of Truth and the sincerity of my own Conscience I stand here in the presence of God and in a place where I had rather die than be like Ananias but I do assure you and sacredly affirm upon the salvation of my Soul which I value as a good Christian ought that I never had any adulterous design upon the Wife of Capoleon and of this you may assure this charitable Soul and withal lest I should leave any of my Honour disadvantageously engaged that if I were as well assured of my Salvaon and as little afraid of the Divine Justice as I am of the weak efforts of the jealous-pated Capoleon I might well put my self into the number of the Elect and I fear not but by Gods assistance to shelter my self not only from his menaces but also from the wicked and pernicious effects of his unjust and vain suspicion I would gladly love him because God has commanded it but will also endeavour to safe my self from the surprize of so treacherous an Enemy Simplicius judging by these words of this Gentleman whose heart he had long known the very secrets of that he spoke the real truth and that with an unfeigned Charity he accused himself of that in which he found himself innocent would insist no longer upon that subject for fear of drawing blood from the nipple or the nose by too much sucking the one or
highly good can in one moment be Hurry'd into the worst impiety None from the top of Virtue in a trice Plungeth into the lowest depth of Vice And though this seem to be the last period of it when a celestial Cloak is fitted to infernal actions this I say may well be thought the Hercules Pillars beyond which wickedness can scarce pass any further Yet our Criminals found this way so environed with thorns their encounters so perillous their interviews so short and their conversations so incommodious that though the Roses of this Passion seem not delicious but amongst such picquant difficulties yet they soon left their tract of iniquity be-because having experimented one before more easie and more accommodated to their gust it seemed to them as hazardous as it was in it self horrible and impious For besides that the discovery of this Stratagem would expose them to publick infamy and make them hated and hiss'd at by all as the God of War and the Black-smiths Wise amongst the adulterous Poetical gods were in the invisible snares It further seemed that humane Justice would hardly invent a punishment suitably rigorous to so enormous a Crime Their next recourse was therefore to a Ladder which Alcimus having procured to be made of silk and as secretly delivered it to Vannoza in one of their private Monastick meetings which she in the night at the appointed hour fastened to the Window of the room of her pretended Devotion and cast down the other end to the ground where by his activity readily getting over the Walls of the Court-yard easily mounted to the highest Pinacle of his intended happiness without fearing a Precipice into the horrible depths of destruction any more than that of his body upon the Pavement not thinking of the former since he could escape the later by his strength and nimbleness No wonder if Vannoza pleased her self in her private Chappel which she had builded on the top of her house since there like Micah she kept her hidden Idol and instead of burying it at the foot of the Oak of Sichem as Jacob did those of his family by a sound repentance she sacrificed to it but this word is too honourable for so dishonest an action I may more properly term it a prostitution of her Affections Soul and Honour And if Covetousness be called Idolatry and Gluttons are said to make a God of their Belly how much more fitly may we term sensual Persons Idolaters who seem to acknowledge no other Divinity than the object of their filthy desires like unclean Beasts wallowing in the mire loosely abandoning the Service of the Creator who is the sole disposer of infinite Delectations for that of a vile and wretched Creature for as he that adheres to God becomes of the same Spirit with him so he that sticks unto a loose Woman becomes a Member of her Body and of the same substance so that they resemble two Captives who by one Chain are conducted to the eternal Gaoles unless their repentance prevent their Condemnation But this practice as perillous as unhappy was not long without interruption according to the saying of the Poet Those whom the highest joys do bless Abide not long in happiness The World like th' Ocean ne're's secure A peaceful Calm can't long endure Felicity ne're rests long in one place And Fortune's Wheel moves not a measur'd pace Besides their continual fears the inseparable scourge of the wicked and the apprehensions not only of being surprized in the act but of being espied by some Passengers in the street their Consciences were still plagued with a thousand remorses Alcimus always went in the night to the abode of this deceitful Siren alone and armed resolved to set upon the first that should interrupt his designs but it being impossible for him to mount the Ladder with so many Arms as he carried in quitting them which he left at the bottom he was seized always with a fear of being surprized thus unarmed so that that of the Sacred Pages might justly be applied to him Combats without and Terrours within But if affection sharpen the understanding how was it possible for him to continue blind amongst so many perils as on all parts invironed him How should it be but that like Balaam he should perceive the flaming Sword of Divine Justice waved over his head and ready to divide it asunder But it is in vain for us to desire he should avoid that mischief he so earnestly pursues The reason of this is well expressed in these words of the Royal Prophet The fire is fallen and they have not seen the Sun for when the flames of desire tyrannize in their Souls the light of their eye that is their Reason remains no longer with them and the faculties of it quite forsake them The jealous in the excess of their love have this property to be always suspicious and consequently fearful and even then when they have least subject for it 'T is this that banisheth repose from their eye-lids and causes that the juyce of Poppy which night sheds upon the earth cannot infuse sleep into their eyes they are always waking or rather awaking and the ear chiefly in the dark is always open to the least noise so that though these two used all means imaginable to be neither seen nor heard yet walking in darkness or in the Scripture Phrase groping by the wall and in elevated places whose Symmetry was less discernible than the rest of the Building it was impossible but that they must make some noise or sound which would easily reach a watchful ear Vannoza had oft been advertised of this by Capoleon who was troubled that his Wife usually spent a great part of the night in this Garret in the conversation of the wandring Ghosts and Goblins of the night thinking her Devotion had by this time brought her into the Visions of St. Anthony or of St. Macarius and that the Demons strove to interrupt her Prayers Vannoza sometimes told him it was nothing and that she was not so good as he supposed or she desired that she was neither in so profound Contemplations nor such deep Extasies to give occasion to the Angels of Darkness to envy her Piety or interrupt it by Apparitions or Illusions Otherwhiles she made him some crafty excuses alledging that during the silence of the night the least noise seemeth great that there are certain Animals which stir not abroad but in the dark principally on the tops of houses and alwayes make a rattling and a noise that if she had been of a timerous humour her solitude had administred causes enough of fear avowing to him that she had often seen Fantomes in different fashions but that she attributed it to the interruption of her spirits or the weakness of her sight amongst the shades of night rather than to her vertue or piety As if these visits of Satan were marks of the grand merits of such his impious servants O Vannoza remember that God is not