spared to use many love-dalliances but the affection she bare to this good Queen was so great that it razed out of his heart all other love as the ray of the sun scattereth the shadows and phantasms of the night The holy Lady perceiving the spirit of her husband already moved in hers and that there was no need of power but example so composed her manners in her marriage that she made her self a perfect model of perfections requisite for this estate Royal Crowns loose their lustre on heads without brains and brows without Majesty But this Lady made it presently appear that although her birth had not made her worthy of a Crown nor her good fortune had afforded it her merit alone had been of power to make her wear the best diadem in the world She practised in the Court of a Pagan King a strong vigorous devotion which was not puffed up with outward shews and vapours but wholy replenished with wisdom For she had a fear of God so chast that she apprehended the least shadows of sin as death a love so tender that her heart was as a flaming lamp which perpetually burned before the Sanctuary of the living God Her faith had a bosom as large as that of Eternity her hope was a bow in Heaven all furnished with emeralds which never lost its force and her piety an eternal source of blessings She had made a little Oratory as Judith in the royal Palace where she attended as much as time would permit to prayers and mortifications of flesh abiding therein as in a fortunate Island which made the sweetness of her immortal perfumes to mount up to heaven Yet did she mannage all her actions with singular discretion that she might not seem too austere in the eyes of her Court for fear weak souls might be diverted from Christianity by observing in her carriage perfections transcendent above ordinary capacities But all that which most passed in a common life was done by her and her maids with much purity fervour majesty and constancy It was an Angelical spectacle to see her present at Mass and dispose her self to receive the blessed Sacrament which she very often frequented to draw grace and strength from its source She honoured Priests as Messengers descended from Heaven as well to discharge her conscience as to hold her Religion in much estimation among Pagans The zeal of the houses of God which are Churches enflamed her with so much fervour that she had no delights more precious than either to cause new to be raised or to adorn those which had been erected so far as to make them receive radiance from the works of her royal hands Her charity towards the poor was a sea which never dryed up and her heart so large that all the hearts of the miserable breathed in hers She composed and decked herself dayly before the eyes of God putting on all virtues as it were by nature and rich attire of Ladyes for necessity But the King her husband she honoured as if she had seen the Saviour of the world walking upon the earth and not staying alone on the body she penetrated even to the center of this infidel soul which she beheld with eyes of unspeakable compassion She most particularly endeavoured to observe all his humours and follow the motions of his heart as certain flowers wait on the sun All that which Clodovaeus affected took presently an honourable place in the soul of Clotilda if he delighted in arms in dogs in horses she for his sake praysed arms dogs and horses regarding even the objects of the honest pleasures of her husband as her best entertainments Her conversation was full of charms and attractives which ever carryed profit along with them Sometimes she sweetened the warlick humours of her husband with harmony of reason sometimes she comforted him upon occasion of troubles which might happen in the world sometime she withheld very soberly and with prudent modesty his spirit which took too much liberty sometime she repeated unto him certain precepts of wisdom and practices of the lives of Saints and worthy personages that he might love our Religion sometime she pleased him with an eloquent tongue and an entertainment so delicate that nothing might be said more accomplished She was magnificent and liberal towards her household servants most exactly taking notice of the faithful services they yielded to her husband and kept her house so well united within the bands of concord and charity that it seemed as it were a little Temple of peace Slander uncleaness idleness impudence were from thence eternally banished virtues industry and arts found there a mansion and the miseries of the world a safe Sanctuary For she embraced all pious affairs of the Realm and governed them with so much equality of spirit that she resembled Angels who move the Heavens not using in themselves the least agitation May we not very well say this divine woman was selected out by God to a set golden face on an entire Monarchy by the rays of her piety The fifth SECTION The prudence which the Queen used in the conversion of her husband THe holy Queen brought forth a King and a great Monarch to Jesus Christ bearing perpetually his Court and the whole Kingdom in the entrails of her charity She had her Centinels day and night before the Altars who ceased not to implore the assistance for Heaven of the salvation of her husband and she her self often in deep silence of darkness caused her weeping eye to speak to God and adressed many vows to all the elect for the conversion of this unbelieving soul She very well considered that that which oftentimes slackeneth these wavering spirits in their endeavour to find the way of eternal life is certain interests of flesh and bloud certain impediments of temporal affairs some inordinate passion which tortureth and tyrannizeth over the mind Behold the cause why she took great care to sweeten the dispositions of her husband calm his passions and through a certain moral goodness facilitate unto him the way of the mysteries of our faith This being done she took her opportunity with the more effect and found the King dayly disposed better and better for these impressions He alreadie had the arrow very deep in his heart and began to ask questions proposing conditions which shewed he would one day render himself He said to Clotilda Madam I should not be so far alienated from your Religion were it not that I saw therein matters very strange which you would have me believe by power and authotity not giving any other reason thereof You would have me believe that three are but one in your Trinity that I adore a Crucified man and that I crucifie my self in an enforced and ceremonious life wherein I was never bred My dearest had I your good inclinations all would be easie to me but you know that all my life time I have been trayned up in arms If I should to morrow receive
death and you must render an account to the Sovereign Judge for that you have against his laws erected that Idol of worldly respects and always made Heaven bow under the will of the earth What are you to do Of necessity to cast away the opinions of the world contrary to the doctrine of Jesus Christ You say it is impossible to live in the world without pursuing the ways of the world and accommodating ones self to the doctrine thereof Forsake it then break your fetters enfranchize your self when you no longer hope in it you shall no more be in danger to fear it What would it avail you to have in your life the whole world for an inheritance and after death hell for a prison Why are you daily handling your sore making it itch by your tenderness You need but one blast of wind one stroke of the air to put your self into the assured haven of the liberty of the Children of God The fourth OBSTACLE Inconstancie of manners MErcury Trismegistus said that the seed of Mercur. Tris serm 4. Heaven was immortality and the seed of the earth was inconstancy All here below is filled with this grain in every place it produceth its effects but principally in man he hath more in his heart than all the rest of the world it is the true image of instabilitie as Aristotle affirmeth And Arist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fable of inconstancy very well it is said that inconstancie exiled for ever from the Palace of eternity came upon the earth as to the real place of her inheritance and would needs there cause herself to be painted It was plainly told her there was no pencil so bold which durst undertake this work because she was sometimes great sometimes little sometimes gross sometimes slender sometimes straight sometimes crooked sometimes white sometimes black finally ever unsettled and uncapable of stay in any place that notwithstanding she might address herself unto Time for he was a notable work-man who intermedled in all things Time after he had well eyed and observed this Inconstancy resolved to paint her and at that season finding no table better primed for his purpose he painted it on man It is a goodly invention which bringeth to us an undoubted veritie marked and designed out as with a pen of adamant by holy Job when he speaketh Job 14. 2. Quasi flos egreditur conteritur sugit velut umbra nunquam in eodum statu permanet of man in these express terms The flower which shutteth up his date in the course of one morning and evening if it be not hayl-stroken at midday the shadow which ever flieth from the hand that would grasp it and all which you may imagine to be transitory is nothing in comparison of the inconstancy of man Philip a good Authour who flourished about the time of S. Hierom and hath written a Commentary upon Job searching out the causes of the instability of mans heart hath these remarkeable words Inconstancy Animus hominis quia star◠noluit cum potuit jam non potest stare cum velit sed semper desideriis variatur ut quietus actionem desideret occupatus quietem Philip in Job is a chastisement of sin The spirit of man would not rest it self with firm footing upon the foundation of contentments which God presented to it in the state of grace and therefore the Sovereign Judge for punishment suffereth him to go continually floating as in a tempestuous sea of thoughts without either finding bottom or shore He is ever turmoyled with new desires and disturbances If he be employed he wisheth repose and if he hath never so little repose be is vexed and requireth business And although all men resent the effects of this inconstancy yet she notwithstanding oftentimes beareth sway in the Palaces of Great men There are to be found many Endymions who embrace the Moon hearts wheeled about in strange labyrinths surcharged with quick-silver and changeable atomes spirits which perpetually are upon turbulencies gnawn with a certain itch of novellism distasted with what is past and always perplexed with what is to come they hear all the minutes strike but the hour of repose they know not The causes of this exorbitancy are manifest and the consideration is profitable that remedy may thereunto be sought To some it happeneth by a certain natural levity of a spirit ever gliding and jumping upon all sorts of objects as a butter-flie amongst flowers To others by a certain facility which they have to take distast upon the sudden against all things yea even the most delightful To others by a certain greediness Senec. de tranquil Salvian l. 1. gubernat human Humanae mentis vitium magis semper vede quae dosunt which maketh them ever to have things present in scorn and things to come in esteem They resemble the dog in the fable they no sooner have the substance but forsaking it they reach at the shadow and afterward passionately seek what they did forego To others by a certain curiosity and impatience of too much repose They do as those who having no great desire to sleep cast themselves upon a bed of ease turning from one side to another until they found sleep by their own weariness To others by a distemper of passions commixed together which sharply bite them like vermine To others by certain timerous appetites in such sort that they dare not do all they desire and cannot obtain all they dare wish for this ever holdeth them with a throat open for prey which by its flight leaveth them nothing but a meer illusion To others by a certain mouldiness of a dul spirit which cannot dis-involve their thoughts nor fairly accommodate their purpose to establish them in any kind of a confident life They resemble that little bird of the sea called Aetian 12. de animal Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cinclus which during his whole life as it is said useth no endeavour to build his own nest but goeth ever wandring up and down if other for pure pitie do not contribute of theirs All this inconstancy of life is an essential obstacle which totally hindereth the progress of perfection the reasons whereof are most evident The first is that one can execute nothing in matter Reasons against inconstancy of virtue if he have not an aim and purpose well rectified otherwise it is not to live but to fright crows and pyes with fancie Now so it is that all those who dance this jigge of inconstancy have neither but nor scope of assurance they perpetually are transported where the storm carrieth them they are always strangers in their own Countries and guests in their proper houses you would say they had but one sole motion one sole action in this life which is to turn topsie-turvie all things and to do nothing and if they do good it is when they least think of it and oftentimes they find they must leave to live
before you the four sorts of conversions by reason they will not be unprofitable to make us discover the singular oeconomy of God in that whereof we are now about to treat The Saviour of the world used all these pieces in the conversion of S. Augustine as we may observe in his progression For first concerning attraction of sympathy or natural conformity it is true that this great man was of an excellent nature and though The oeconomy of God in the conversion of S. Aug. it were a long time smothered up in flesh and bloud yet was it as a sun in eclipse which should one day appear in full liberty and illuminate the bodie which then was its obstacle In his most tender infancy he made amorous inclinations to his Creatour appear For then he had recourse to prayer as to a Sanctuary of his small afflictions and like a child placing felicity in that which touched him nearest according to his esteem he ardently besought God that he might escape the chastisement of rods and disgraces of the school He was of an humour free and liberal gracious mild affable obliging and full of compassion toward men in want which is a good way to represent great actions of virtue and dispose one to receive the spirit of God in abundance Affections with tears of sweetness and devotion were to him very familiar which appeared on the day of his being made Priest some time after his conversion for he spared not to weep in that ceremony where by chance a simple man interpreting that this happened to him through disturbance that he was not yet a Bishop who so well deserved it he came near to comfort him saying He should be patient that Priesthood was the next degree to the dignity of a Bishop and that in time he should enjoy the accomplishment of his desire S. Augustine afterward related this speech to his friends as an example of the errour of judgements made upon mens actions As for his vices he had nothing therein black or hydeous for his loves though inordinate were bounded in limits most tolerable and his ambitions were not haughty and disdainful but consisting onely in a sleight vanity to make shew of that which he had either of wit or learning a passion very natural to those who feel themselves endowed with any perfections Otherwise he had no design pretence engagements as have they who often cover their petty interests with the pretext of piety and are ever ready to imbrace the Religion wherein they find most accommodation for their temporalaffairs Augustine was so free from worldly avarice that he knew not what it was to make a fortune or reach at wealth Scarce would he ever learn to carry a key possess money in a coffer and take accounts as observeth Possidonius in his life All his mind was upon books and all his intentions aimed to the finding out of truth that he might offer homage to her for all he had and faithfully serve her all his life after he once had well known her These dispositions gave a full passage to such as were to treat with him On the other part attraction of motion which commeth from good example was to him very advantagious in the person of his good mother S. Monica And if certain people as the Lycians took the name of their mothers as of those whom they thought most contributed to the production of man into the Herod l. 2. world Augustine had great cause to take the title of his nobility from S. Monica who brought him forth more profitably for the life of grace than that of nature This woman verily was the pearl of women whose life had not great lightnings of extasies not raptures for all her virtues passed with little noyse like The qualities of S. Monica to great rivers that glide along with peaceful majesty but all was there very inward as in her who ever was hidden within the better part of her self Much hath she done in affoarding a S. Augustine to the Church and whosoever cannot discover the secret virtues of the sun let him content himself to measure it by his rays She pretended to consecrate her Virginity to Altars God drew her to marriage to gain from her a Doctour for his Church This Saint knew not as yet what she did when in her tender years by a laudable custom she rose from her bed in the deep silence of night to offer her prayers to God and when she shortned her diet at each repast to divide the moity of her life with the poor but the spirit of God which guided her disposed her then by these actions to some matter of importance She was married to a Pagan and one of a humour very untractable which she so softened by her long and discreet patience that in the end he set aside all his moody extravagancies as it is said the furious Unicorn sleeps in a maidens bosom It was with her a great consolation to have married an infidel and after some years to see him dye a Christian saying to God She had received a lion and restored a lamb All her care aimed onely at this son whom she first saw ingulfed in a life most licentious afterward by mishap involved in the heresy of the Manichees The poor mother endured nine entire years the throws of this spiritual child-birth the most sensibly that may be imagined What grief and sighs in her retirement What fancies in her sleep What prayers in the Church What alms in necessities of the poor What prudence and discretion in all her proceedings She sought out all the passages into this spirit which she could imagine but seeing it was a torrent not to be restrained by her forces she peaceably expected the assistance of Heaven She despaired not of his malady through fear to cure him She undertook not in the fervent accesses of his feaver to upbraid his disorders She went not about manacing him with fire and cauteries But did as God who acteth no ill but ever so useth the matter that the evil is extenuated When she could not speak to her son she caused the apple of her eyes to speak to God deploring all night and watering the Altars not with bloud of victims but that of her soul which were her tears We may say that as the waters which have pearls in them run for the most part to the south so this holy woman being in Africk a Southern Region Aquae defluentes ad Austrum generant margaritas Tarentinus Philosophus became in the abundance of her tears the true fountain of the South fit to bear a great pearl which afterward brought forth for Christendom many millions of pearls Never had the Angel Rephael so much care of young Toby as this celestial intelligence of her son being perpetually in Centinel and observing the visitations of Gods providence Her Paralitick was ready at the fish-pool and expected nothing but the stirring of the water Behold she
of God to which you have submitted your self It is he who governeth our lives our conditions our fortunes If you be resolved to give law to the policie of the Omnipotent from whom you ever ought to receive it what else will you gain but to make your self mutinous and to render your condition more troublesom by your impatience I pray you think with your self if you were embarqued in a vessel you must go according to the impulsion of winds and not the motion of your affections If you till and sow you shall have fruitful and barren years according to the diversitie of seasons and you would have a fortune ever equal and perpetually stable you would hold back by force of arms its chariot incessantly circumvolving Are not you very simple not to know that if she were not inconstant she could no longer be fortune Go not about here to question with me upon the afflictions of good men and the prosperities of evil What injurie doth God to an innocent if be allot him the share of all those great souls whom he will not entertain in the pleasures of an idle life but in the exercise of virtue Know you not there are fishes that die in standing waters and are delighted in the bubling of sluces Great spirits go all that way they no more loose themselves in tribulation than the sun in his eclipse which onely serveth to make him more resplendent And what advantage think you do the wicked derive Si miserum est voluisse prava potuisse miserius est Lib. 4. Prosa 4. from the benefits of this life Is there any thing more miserable than to be transformed into a beast by the enormitie of vices and to adde impunitie to so many crimes You say they do whatsoever they list and I say they are thereby so much the more miserable for if it be an unhappiness to desire an evil it is a double miserie to have the power to execute it If all offenders were punished according to their demerit they should have some benefit which they have not to wit the punishment of their misdeeds which being a work of justice cannot but be good they should have some bridle to stay their exorbitancy some apprehension of the judgements of God which being stoln from them by long prosperities what else remaineth for them but to pass to the extremitie of punishments by the extremitie of crimes For my part if I should throughly punish Lib. 3. Met. S. Quid dignâ—m stolidis mentibus improcer c. a depraved man I would ordain for him neither wheels flames nor tortures but I would burst him with honours gold silver and riches and when be were full up to the throat I would draw aside the curtain to let him see virtue and Paradise of which he had betrayed the one and lost the other by the disaster of his carriage The second question which Philosophie asked him was if he knew well who himself was And Boetius answering He was a man of honour reviving the memory of the great riches and dignities he had enjoyed heretofore Verily saith she to him I well see Vide Bern. Lib. 2. de Consideratione cap. 89. there is much forgetfulness of your condition and niceness in your complaints If God had put gold as well as bloud into your veins and given you leave to be born full stuffed with precious stones or laden with honours and dignities from your mothers womb you had some cause to deplore that the inheritances of your birth were taken from you but who are you or from whence come you I could tell you how many years it is since you were born a little infant all naked creeping on the earth and having a mouth open to cries and hunger which had not so much as one little hair on the bodie to cover it and now you take upon you the spirit of a Monarch and think you have nothing if you possess not all Verily are you not one of the most miserable if you do not know how to take contentment in that which is left you and not still to tie your self to sorrows for that which you have lost You have a father-in-law Symmachus one of the most excellent men in the world you have a wife the pearl of her sex you have children of great hope How many things would you buy at the price of your life if you had lost them and yet you think you are miserable when you possess them and when they are employed with all their endeavour for your deliverance Your vessel doth yet lie at anchor and is not altogether broken I see comfort in something for the present and hope for the future and happen whatsoever will I will save you by swimming But needs must I freely confess Lib. 2. Pros 4. that I find a little niceness in this your act when you deplore with so much bitterness and affliction the petty wants of your condition Tell me I pray you is there any man in the world who possesseth a felicitie so full and free as not to dispute with his fortunes to make his estate more happie The condition of worldly goods findeth every where thorns prosperities never come all together and although they arrived in heaps they ever would have a slippery place One is accommodated with honest means but is of base extraction which maketh him to blush in good company Another is very Noble but is so poor in his estate that it were much sitter for him to be unknown Another is born of good rank and hath no want of riches but he bewaileth that part which he hath lost consecrating himself to retirement with wilfull tears Another hath met with a goodmarriage but his barrenness maketh him amass riches for a stranger Another hath children to have cause of great miseries and to speak in a word you shall find very few who well agree with their condition Through all there are evils which give happiness to those who are ignorant of them and borrour to such as have tried them Adde also a reason that these men very fortunate are extreamly sensible upon the touch and as there needs not any thing but a pegge to stay a piece of artillerie upon the way so the least accident hindereth the glory of their greatness How many think you are there who would teach Heaven with a finger if they had but onely the surplusage of your fortune This place which you call your banishment is the countrey of so many honest men as inhabit it and if you reason well you shall find that there is as it were nothing miserable if not made so by opinion Finally I ask you whether ever you have had any thing in the world more precious than your self If you answer truly you will protest unto me assuredly no and yet notwithstanding behold you thanks be to God if you will to have so much and more for your self than ever you had and that neither prison
strong sally and willed him freely to answer one word upon which he would ground the whole proceeding to wit Whether he were not a Roman Catholick That is it Sir saith the Prince which I avow which I publish which I protest For verily it is a crime which maketh the Judges become pale and the offenders laugh The accusation whereof is a vow all great souls should profess and the pain is a felicitie which Martyrs have bought with their bloud I wish to die a hundred times if it might be done for the glorie of that goodly title so far is it too little with one mouth to confess the praises of God Command if you please that my bodie be hewed and cut in pieces for the profession of the Catholick faith and then I shall have as many mouthes as wounds to praise my Saviour and all those wounds shall be as gates of bloud to give passage to my soul to the place where it is expected by so good companie The father said thereupon he was become a fool and that no man hated life but he who had ill employed it The son replied The misuse had been in heresie of which he repented him And at that instant the Guard received commandment to re-convey him to prison where he was so comforted with the visitations of God that finding with much difficulty means to send a Letter to his dear Indegondis he wrote to her in this manner The sixteenth SECTION The Letter of Hermingildus to his dear wife Indegondis and his generous resolution MY holy Mistress from whom I have received the faith and true knowledge of God I write these lines unto you clothed with sackcloth and loaden with fetters in the bottom of a dark dungeon for the defence of that Religion which you have taught me If I did not know by experience the invincible force of your heart and the resolution you practise in affairs which concern the service of God I had concealed my estate from you that I might not contristrate objects sensible to nature But most dear wife you have a forehead too noble to blush at the disgrace of the Crucifix and a courage too well fortified to refuse taking part in the liveris of the Saviour of the world I protest upon mine honour ' I could never perswade my self there might be contentment to suffer that which I tolerate when your innocent mouth preached unto me the reward of suffering wherewith your bodie bad heretofore been gloriously covered But since my imprisonment I have felt consolations of God so tastfull that I cannot think it possible to relish in the world any other antipasts of Paradise You are not ignorant that my life and conversation which hath been so long time plunged in errour and vanitie deserved not these benefits but your most pure hands which you so often have lifted up before Altars for my salvation have obtained that for me which much transcended my merit and all my hopes The King my father hath been pleased to hear me and I have pleaded my cause in fetters with so great assistance from the Heavenly goodness that I justified my self in all charges objected against me and have put the matter into such a condition that I am no further accused as a thief and homicide but as a Catholick I speedily expect my sentence and do not think I am put into the state wherein I am to save my life but I undoubtedly believe this will be the last Letter you shall receive from my hand I earnestly beseech your loyal heart that as in this action which shall close up my days I intend to do nothing unworthie of you so on your part act nothing unworthie of me betraying the happiness of my death with tears which would be little honourable to the condition whereunto God hath called me I put into the hands of the Divine Providence both you and your little Hermingildus the onely pledge of our holy loves Be couragious my dearest love and after my death take the way of Constantinople to render your self at the Palace of the Emperour Tiberius who is a good Prince and most Catholick I recommend unto you my poor soul as for the bodie let that become of it which shall please my father If the alteration of times and affairs bring you back into Spain there to bold the rank you deserve my ashes will likewise rejoyce at the odour of your virtues I hope my death shall not be unprofitable and that God will make use of it for the good of the Kingdom You know how many times I have heard you say that you would have bought the salvation thereof with your bloud you have already in it employed one part it is my turn to perform the rest upon a scaffold For in what place soever you are I promise my self to be most particularly assisted by your holy prayers The good Princess received this Letter with the news of his death as we will presently tell you but in this space of time Râ—caredus the younger brother of Hermingildus extreamly afflicted that having been a mediatour of this counterfeit peace he saw it end in so deplorable a Tragedie hasteneth to cast himself at the feet of his father beseeching him with infinite abundance of tears and lamentations either to give him the stroke of death with his own hand or save the life of his brother The father replied He was a furious fellow and a traitour to his fortune and that be ought to suffer justice to be done which would give him a Crown That his brother well discovered himself an enemie to his father and the State since he would not for his sake renounce onely so much as a fantasie Religion that he was onely questioned upon this point and that if be could perswade him to reason he was readie to save his life Recaredus prepared himself strongly to gain him and asketh leave to go to the Prison which was allowed him The young Prince seeing his brother covered with sackcloth and bowed under fetters was so amazed at this spectacle that he stood a long time mute as a statue but in the end breaking silence with a deep sigh Ab brother saith he it is I who have betrayed you it is I who have covered you with this fatal sackcloth I who have bound and fettered you with these cruel chains made for ignominious slaves not for your innocencie Brother behold my poynard which I present you revenge your self upon my guiltie head I have been culpable enough in that I have produced from a good intention so bad effects Hermingildus beholding him with a peacefull eye answered Brother why do you afflict your self Fall well do I know your innocencie What innocencie replied the other if unadvisedly I be the cause of your death by my disasterous Embassage But good brother since you are reduced to this extremitie I beseech you forgo the name of Catholick or if that seem unworthie of your constancie dissemble for some time and
your body by the most noble sense within you but by the help of a mirrour Nay you know so little of your self that scarcely have you observed the number of your teeth and being far from the particular distinction of the interiour parts of your body should you enter into the great labyrinths of the faculties of your soul you would quickly find out your own ignorance Compare now the science you have of your self with the great proofs which lead you to the knowledge of the Divinity First we are born to know God as the excellent Divine Alexander Alensis discourseth Alex. Alens quaest 2. de cognitione Dei A singular consideration of Aleâ— because if the sovereign Goodness be necessarily desired by our reasonable appetite we must affirm the supream truth is no less capable to be known by our understanding and as we are naturally inclined to the search of this sovereign Good which may take up al the agitatioÌ„s of our thoughts so we feel our soul almost without any other reflection stir'd up with a generous desire to be united to the first cause We behold it through so many creatures as through lattices and it seems to speak to us in as many objects as we see works of his Goodness It maketh us restless it scorcheth us with an honest flame which teacheth us there is a God and that we are created for him nor is there any other creature in all visible nature which laboureth in such inquisition but man This ardent inclination to this knowledge is not a slight facility of science and we see constant study is ordinarily recompenced with the fruition of its object 2. I likewise hold God of his part is very well to God most easie to be â—nown be known having all the conditions which may make a thing known as Essence immutability simplicity brightness and presence If you there look for Being which is a necessary object of the understanding as colour of sight God saith S. Gregorie of Nazianzen Naziâ—â—z Iâ—mbico 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Origenes homil in numer 23. Faustus de gratiâ l. 2. c. 7. Deus est quod habet Deâ— ubique est quis nullibi est is a creating Essence an Essence comprehending all things If immutability Origen teacheth the Divinity sitteth on the top of beatitude ever constant never changeable If brightness God is all light as the Scripture manifesteth in so many places If simplicity Faustus Bishop of Rhegium sheweth God is all what he hath If continual presence Porphyriâ— confesseth he is every where because he is not in any part as bodies are The Poet Orpheus in his mysterious poefie calleth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say lightsom and visible to teach us all the world is enfolded within his radiance I will not hereupon inferre that one may have in this world an absolute and perfect knowledge of God as of a thing finite but I say that amongst so many lights it is not admitted that any man should be ignorant there is a God Creatour of all things 3. What Epicurean can dis-involve himself from Reason of Mercury Trismegistus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trismegistus his reason who teacheth that were there not an Essence necessary and independent all we see all we touch all we feel in the world would have no being but this is meer illusion Wherefore Because the things which may be and not be indifferently like so many plants or transitory animals one while are and another while are not And we may truly say there hath been a certain time wherein they neither had being nor name in the world Now as nothing can actuate and produce it self must we not confess that had there not been from all eternity a first Agent which gave motion to so many causes enchained one to another whereof they are produced wherein we presently behold this great world all had been a nothing For of two we must grant one either that the world is created or not created If impiety transport a man so far as to say it is not created but hath been from all eternity he would ever be convinced by his own confession that there were such a Being as we seek for eternal necessary independent which is nothing else but God He would be reduced to this point that he no longer could deny the Divinity but was onely ignorant what this Divinity is and in stead of giving this title to a most pure Spirit as we do he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would attribute it to a body as to heaven water earth where he would instantly find himself ashamed of his folly to take for the Divinity a thing which hath no understanding and consequently is far less than himself In stead of a true God he would make a million of deities to become as many snares of his errour and witnesses of his bruitishness But if the world be created which it is not lawful to doubt of three things we must affirm one Either that it produced it self or that one piece made another or that there was one cause external supream not to be reckoned among the rest which made all the parts of the universe To say Author libri de triplici habitaculo apud Aug. tom 9. Nihil scipsum creat Quâ enim potentiâ qui omnino nâ—â— esset scipsâ—â— faceret Deâ—â— innatus infectus sine initiâ— sine fine in aternitate constitutus Tert. l. 3. advers Marcion c. 3. a thing made it self is to affirm it was before its being and to assever a proposition ridiculous to all humane understanding But if to evade this manifest contradiction one will maintain one piece made another still must he come to a last piece which was produced by it self and so fall again into the same difficulty Behold the reason why we must stick upon a general cause out of the main mass of all causes and which affording essence sense and intelligence to so many creatures according to the condition and qualities of every one remaineth eternal and immoveable Now he who says this affirmeth there is a God 4. But if some impious creature will notwithstanding Instance upon the infinite number of the wicked perplex the evidence of this proposition imitating Sorcerers who cast mists upon the brightest morning and say one thing produced another from father to son but that this still mounteth upward in infinitum and so think to make us loose our judgement and reason in the labyrinth of infinities First it is answered according to the doctrine of Philosophers There is Force of reason nothing in the world actually infinite and although an infinity of generations of men beasts and other creatures were admitted still must you confess this infinite mass of men was produced from a cause independent For that which agreeth to each part of a species and which is properly by it affected agreeth likewise to the main of the whole species as if it be proper
Charls of Anjou much fearing this young Lion forgat His sentence and death all generosity to serve his own turn and did a most base act detested by all understandings that have any humanity which is that having kept Conradinus a whole year in a straight prison he assembled certain wicked Lawyers to decide the cause of one of the noblest spirits at that time under heaven who to second the passion of their Master rendered the laws criminal and served themselves with written right to kill a Prince contrary to the law of nature judging him worthy of death in that said they he disturbed the peace of the Church and aspired to Empire A scaffold was prepared in a publick place all hanged with red where Conradinus is brought with other Lords A Protonotary clothed after the ancient fashion mounteth into a chair set there for the purpose and aloud pronounceth the wicked sentence After which Conradinus raising himself casting an eye ful of fervour and flames on the Judge said Base and cruel slave as thou art to open thy mouth to condemn thy Sovereign It was a lamentable thing to see this great Prince on a scaffold in so tender years wise as an Apollo beautiful as an Amazon and valiant as an Achilles to leave his head under the sword of an Executioner in the place where he hoped to crown it â—e called heaven earth to bear witness of Charls his cruelty who unseen beheld this goodly spectacle froÌ„ an high turret He complained that his goods being taken from him they robbed him of his life as a thief that the blossom of his age was cut off by the hand of a hang-man taking away his head to bereave him of the Crown lastly throwing down his glove demanded an account of this inhumanity Then seeing his Cousin Frederick's head to fall before him he took it kissed it and laid it to his bosom asking pardon of it as if he had been the cause of his disaster in having been the companion of his valour This great heart wanting tears to deplore it self wept over a friend and finishing his sorrows with his life stretched out his neck to the Minister of justice Behold how Charls who had been treated with all humanity in the prisons of Sarazens used a Christian Prince so true it proves that ambition seemeth to blot out the character of Christianity to put in the place of it some thing worse than the Turbant This death lamented through all the world yea which maketh Theaters still mourn sensibly struck the heart of Queen Constantia his Aunt wife of Peter of Arragon She bewailed the poor Prince with tears which could never be dried up as one whom she dearly loved and then again representing to her self so many virtues and delights drowned in such generous bloud and so unworthily shed her heart dissolved into sorrow But as she was drenched in tears so her husband thundred in arms to revenge his death He rigged out a fleet of ships the charge whereof he Collenutius histor Neapol l. 5. c. 4. 5. recommended to Roger de Loria to assail Charls the second Prince of Salerno the onely son of Charls of Anjou who commanded in the absence of his father The admiral of the Arragonian failed not to encounter The son of Charls of Anjou taken him and sought so furiously with him that having sunck many of his ships he took him prisoner and brought him into Sicily where Queen Constantia was expecting the event of this battle She failed not to cause the heads of many Gentlemen to be cut off in revenge of Conradinus so to moisten his ashes with the bloud of his enemies Charls the Kings onely son was set apart with nine principal Lords of the Army and left to the discretion of Constantia Her wound was still all bloudy and the greatest of the Kingdom counselled her speedily to put to death the son of her capital enemy yea the people mutined for this execution which was the cause the Queen having taken order for his arraignment and he thereupon condemned to death she on a Friday morning sent him word it was now time to dispose himself for his last hour The Prince nephew to S. Lewis and who had some sense of his uncles piety very couragiously received these tidings saying That besides other courtesies he had received from the Queen in prison she did him a singular favour to appoint the day of his death on a Friday and that it was good reason he should die culpable on the day whereon Christ died innocent This speech was related to Queen Constantia who was therewith much moved and having some space bethought her self she replyed Tell Prince Charls if he take contentment to suffer An excellent passage of clemency death on a Friday I will likewise find out mine own satisfaction to forgive him on the same day that Jesus signed the pardon of his Executioners with his proper bloud God forbid I shed the bloud of a man on the day my Master poured out his for me Although time surprize me in the dolour of my wounds I will not rest upon the bitterness of revenge I freely pardon him and it shall not be my fault that he is not at this instant in full liberty This magnanimous heart caused the execution to be staied yet fearing if she left him to himself the people might tear him in pieces she sent him to the King her husband entreating by all which was most pretious unto him to save his life and send him back to his Father Peter of Arragon who sought his own accommodation in so good a prize freed him from danger of death yet enlarged him not suddenly For his deliverance must come from a hand wholly celestial Sylvester Pruere writes that lying long imprisoned in the City of Barcellon the day of S. Mary Magdalen aproaching who was his great Patroness he disposed himself to a singular devotion fasting confessing his sins communicating begging of her with tears to deliver him from this captivity Heaven was not deaf to his prayers Behold on the day of the feast he perceived a Lady full of Majesty who commanded him to follow her at which words he felt as it were a diffusion of extraordinary joy spread over his heart He followed her step by step as a man rapt and seeing all the gates flie open before her without resistance and finding himself so cheerful that his body seemed to have put on the nature of a spirit he well perceived heaven wrought wonders for him The Lady looking on him after she had gone some part of the way asked him where he thought he was to which he replied that he imagined himself to be yet in the Territory of Barcellon Charls you are deceived said she you are in the County of Provence a league from Narbon and thereupon she vanished Charls not at all doubting the miracle nor the protection of S. Mary Magdalen prostrated himself on the earth adoring
c. Et hi carnem quidem maculant dominationem autem spernunt majestatem autom blasphemant Hi sunt in epulis suis macule c. as are utterly impudent in words and Libertines in actions of whom the great S. Jude made a lively description Certain men are crept in among us reprobate and impious spirits who apply all talents of grace and nature to lust and to deny him that made them to wit our Lord Jesus Christ Master and sole Monarch of the whole world Then he addeth they are such as defile their flesh and revolt against lawfull powers such as blaspheme the Divine Majesty They are gluttenous cruel and arrogant who onely think to satiate themselves by others hunger clouds without water tossed with turbulent winds autumntrees barren trees trees twice dead trees rooted out of the territory of the Church They are waves of an enraged sea which foam nothing but confusions wandering commets to which God reserveth a tempest of darkness The Causes of Libertinism well observed by the Apostle S. Jude 3. NOte that this great Apostle doth here touch Jud. Epist Job 20. four sources of infidelity which are in this very considerable The chief and original of this corruption is a bruitish lust which with much infamie overfloweth as well in pleasures of the throat as sensuality which he was willing to express by these words when he said The impious not onely act impurities Hi sunt in epulis suis macula but are the impurities themselves For the Libertines are true Borborites so were certain hereticks called as one would say bemired because they naturally delighted in uncleanness they are dissolute people who have no other God but their belly good cheer and unbridled lust from whence it cometh their understandings clouded with bodily pleasures thicken and become wholly unable for things divine The people heretofore beloved is puffed up with Incrassatus est dilectus reâ—alcitravit deâ—eliquit Deum factorem suum Deut. 31. fat hath kicked against and forsaken its Creatour said Moses Tertullian very well termeth gourmandize the palsey of the understanding for as a body is deprived of sense and motion by the corporal palsey which obstructeth the nerves so the spirit oppressed by sensuality is wholly darkened without any feeling of Religion or any motion to works which concern salvation To live in fat is to shut up the gate of wisdom Opimitâ—â— sapientiam impedit exilitas expedit paralisis mentem prodigit pâ—isis servat Tertul. de anima c. 20. There is a palsey of corporal pleasures which wasteth the spirit and a ptissick which preserves it Nay Oecumenius discovereth somewhat more mysterious unto us when interpreting the word maculae according to the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he saith They are certain rocks hidden under the waves which surprize Saylours and cause hydeous shipwracks This very well agreeth to Libertines and one may call them according to another translation rough rocks bollow Confragosa in mari saxa cavernosaâ— rupes tenias stones and shelves which are the causes of so many falls They are in feasts as gulphs in the Ocean and overtake ere aware spirits already possessed with the vapours of wine and meats at which time they are most Bos ductus ad victimam agnus lasciviâ—â—s ignoram quod ad vincula stultus trahatur donec transfigat sagitta guttur ejus Prov. 7. 2â— open to sottish mirth Ah how many young men deceived by these impostures after they have made shipwrack of reason in a tavern have thereunto added the shipwrack of their faith He was led as an ox to the slaughter or as a skipping lamb not foreseeing his captivitie before the mortal arrow had transfixed his entrails saith the Wiseman The second cause of infidelity is a certain barrenness of wit of judgement discretion of Christian virtues and namely of humility of good works and worthy employments and consequently a swelling of presumption of imaginary ability of vanitie of idleness which is much supported by wicked nature effeminate education too free conversation access of evil company which render a man absolutely barren A matter excellently well signified by these words They are clouds without water such kind of trees as we see in Judea unfurnished Nubes sine â—qua of fruits in Autumn and despoiled of leaves twice dead that is to say quite rotten Faith will be manured by the exercises of piety by presence at Divine Service by keeping of fasts by alms and frequentation of Sacraments Now these wicked ones employed in sensual pleasures and evil company forsake all the characters of their Christianity which maketh them by little and little fall into a great forgetfulness of God into disdainfull pride insupportable neglects and into the maledictions uttered by our Saviours lips against the unfruitfull tree Of these is understood the decree of Heaven Earth Jer. 22. 29. Terra terra terra audi sermonem Domtni Haec dicit Dominus Scribe virum istum sterilem virum qui in diebus suis non prosterabitur Fluctus feri maris despumontes confusiones suas earth earth hearken to the word of God Our Lord hath said Write down this man as a man barren who shall never prosper during his life The third source is a tumult of enraged passions which are waves of the sea that vomit up their confusions for these kind of spirits are in perpetual disturbances nor hath the sea so many waves as they anxieties pride puffeth them ambition precipitateth them hatred gnaweth them delights conquer them choller burneth them fury transporteth them hardness of heart makes them untractable and impudence insupportable And being unable to restrain their passions within themselves they throw them abroad as the froath of waves and scum of confusions That is it which Saint Ambrose said Tunc videbitur ignominia tua adulterium hinnitus alienatio fornicationis tuae supra colles Ambr. l. de Abra. interpreting a passage of Jeremie Then is it thy ignominie thy adulterie thy neighing and strangeness of thy fornication shall be seen to all the world on the mountains Lastly the fourth root which rendereth their evil very desperate is a perpetual inconstancy excellently compated in the passage of the Apostle to flying fires formed in the air from exhalations of the earth This sort of men perhaps may have qualities which may give them some Iustre according to the world and make them appear as stars in the firmament of worldly honour causing some to reflect on them with admiration of their wit their eloquence and behaviour But they are to speak properly stars of earth and smoke like unto that S. John calleth the Apoc. 8. star of worm-wood which being not of the stars enchased by the hand of God in celestial globes but flying flames enkindled by some gross exhalations proceeding perhaps from a dung-hill fall back again Crinemque volantia sydera ducunt on earth from whence they came
of devils to draw life drop after drop out of a miserable body But not speaking at this present of these extremities of Cruelty which arise out of Hell it is evident that the Hardnesse of heart and the harshnesse of a nature devoid of Compassion is a monster in humane nature All great souls have I know not what tincture of good nesse which rendreth them pliant to the afflictions of such as suffer It is a feeling which God hath poured into the masse of mankind and which he would have communicated by the prime men of the world to all posterity The tradition of the Hebrews holdeth that the Mildnesse of the first men Patriarch Noah recommendeth mildnesse even among beasts accounting it a capitall crime to tear off a member of a living beast And the most sage common-wealths Fab. Quintilian l 5. cap. 9. have walked in the same wayes since that of Athens condemned to death a young child who took delight to prick out the eyes of crows and having made them blind let them fly for his pastime It judged this heart was base and bloudy and practised its first apprentiship of crueltie upon birds to exercise it one day upon men The Carthaginians publickly condemned Plin. l. 8. c. 16. a very industrious Citizen for no other cause but for having made a lion tractable supposing that a man who had so great conversation among wild beasts would lose all he had humane in him and put on the manners of a tyrant What can those answer to this call of Nature who are ashamed to compassionate their neighbours seeing pity extends it self even to beasts They fear that by shewing compassion it may be thought their courage thereby is greatly effeminate and see not that to seem valiant they cease to be men Conquerours have wept over their Laurels as yet Compassion of great courages all verdant blaming the just rigour of their arms albeit they could not hate the glory Marcellus desired to quench the coals of the city Syracusa with his tears Titus seeing the city of Jerusalem all covered with dead bodies found his heart much softned therewith protesting it was an act of Heaven and not an effect of his own disposition There is some touch of Divinity in good natures and God hath alwayes been pleased that they who nearest approach to him should be the most humane The first Images of the Saviour of the world were ordinarily painted in the form of a Lamb and it was likewise a Lamb of God which represented him in Great Constantine's Font and which poured forth the water of Baptism to shew us that the fountains of his Bounty ran throughout the whole Church The holy Ghost hath never been seen Concil 6. in Teul can 82 Damasus in Pontifieibus qui est potius Anastafius Bibliothecarius in the form of an Eagle or of a Hawk but of a Dove to stamp on our manners the impressions of his bounty It is an insupportable thing when there is observed even among those who approach nearest to Altars and who consecrate the Lamb of God in their hands some to be of imperious spirits and wills inflexible who torment poor subjects and make them groan under Non dominantes in Cleris sed forma facti◠gregis ex animo 1 Pet. 5. 3. their Commands They resemble Semiramis who on her Banners bare a Dove which in its beak held a bloudy sword as meaning to say that under a vvomans face she had the courage and stem violence of tyrants So their name theircharacter and degree testifieth Revertamur ad populum nostrum à facie gladii columbae Hier. 46. 16 nought but mildnesse but their manners are full of rigour and acerbity which wound hearts even to bloud This happeneth to many out of a certain stupidity in such sort that it seems they entering into office at that instant drink of the water of forgetfulnesse which Rigour misbecometh persons Ecclesiasticall Its causes and differences in them blotteth out the memory of all they were to become that which they ought never to be They forget their inferiours are men who put their precious liberty to wit a good inestimable into their hands as a pledge and that they must very skilfully handle them there being not a creature in all nature more tender or more sensible then the King of creatures They consider not that the power of one man over another is a thing which is alwayes somewhat suspected by nature on what side soever it come and that it must be practised insensibly so that the flesh be rather cast into a slumber then irritated To others it comes from a most refined pride which being under the subjection of a superiour kept it self close in the interiour of the soul a serpent enchanted and fast asleep but so soon as he sees himself armed with a sword of authority he cuts with both edges not sparing any one as if the great mystery of making a dignity valuable were to encompasse it with all the ensignes of terrour Some are not Porta in Chao of a bad nature and do resemble the sea which is not by nature salt but the sunne stirreth up unto it vapours cold dry and terrestriall which being burnt by heat spread themselves on the superficies of the water and cause saltnesse so these lights of authority which environ a man raise smokes in him which being not wel tempered by prudence leave a bitter impression on manners communicating some haughtinesse to words and conversation It is gotten in others by a long assiduity of superiority which is the cause that beholding themselves perpetually with a head of gold and a breast of silver they consider not that being in some sort like to Nabuchodonozors statue they yet have feet of clay Others come thereunto by an indiscreet zeal and out of small experience of humane things who are no sooner raised unto some degree but they talk of reformation of correction of chastisements and to see them you would say they were so many Archimedes who seek for a place out of the world to set foot in of purpose to turn the world to psie-turvey Their power is not alwayes answerable to their purpose which makes them sad and dejected in their courage causing them to fall back to the other extremity from whence it cometh that they are one while harsh and another time gentle and by inequality in their manners thrust all into disorder That is it which Saint Gregory the great observed Gregor M. in epist ola ad Utbicum in Abbot Vrbicus saying that his Monastery was in distemper because he made himself unequall one while flattering some and another while reprehending the rest with immeasurable anger Lastly there are others who have a very good conscience and whose manners are rigid and they be not imprudent but they have such a desire to frame the whole world to their humour that out of the assiduity of their admonitions
God calling Theutbergue he at least should then have all facility in his marriage with Valdrada but the Pope considering the evil practises of this lustfull love which had scandalized all Christendome and the former usage of his wife he let him understand that this match was for ever forbidden Provoked desire burns to fury and he again beginneth a most notorious whoredome since he could not colour it with the title of marriage Thereupon menaces and thunders from Rome follow and the name of Valdrada is mentioned in all excommunications reiterated one after another The miserable Lotharius seeing himself crossed by God and men perpetually pricked with remorse of conscience resolved to take a journey to Rome and to present himself to Hadrian the second successour of Nicholas and to get his absolution and to mediate the affair of his marriage his heart still propending towards her whom he so unfortunately had loved The Pope harkened to him and received him to penance and disposed himself to say Masse wherein he was fully to finish the affair of his reconciliation When he came to the instant of Communion he takes the venerable Hoast in his hand and addresseth himself to king Lotharius and all his complices ready to communicate and sayes to them Sir if it be true that having renounced your unchaste loves you this day do present your submissions to God and to the Church in all sincerity come near you and yours to this blessed Sacrament with all confidence in the mercy of God But if you still retein the old Leaven of your inordinate affections get you from the Altar both you and all those who have served you in this businesse if you will not be involved in the vengeance of God This speech was a stroke of thunder that affrighted the king and his followers and which made many of them instantly to retirâ— Lotharius was ashamed to go back and albeit he yet felt the flames of his love to burn in his heart yet failed he not to passe further with his greatest intimates and friends From that time not any one of those who had unworthily communicated had any health all miserably died and the poor Lotharius returning from his voyage found the end of his life and direfull passion in the city of Placentia Valdrada submitting her self to a just penance obteined absolution from Pope Adrian Gontier and Theutgard seeing themselves deposed without hope of recovery armed their pens against the Pope to no purpose But afterward Gontier made great submission that he might be reestablished yet obteined not what he desired for it was answered him that it was from respect of honour and temporall gain that all these humiliations proceeded and therefore it were much better for him to persever in the exercise of his penance which was so much the more bitter unto him for that he had in the beginning of this businesse prostituted his Niece to King Lotharius under the hope of marriage which his ambition figured to him So true it is that God chasticeth vice with a rod of Iron in such as too near approch the Sanctuary Valdrada is not alone among the Ladies of the old Court who hath made her self to be talked of in so ill a sense Love appeared as weak and shamefull in Ogine Queen of France Mother of Lewis Outremer who transported with foolish affection married her self to a young gallaâ—t nâ—med Heribert sonne of him who had betrayed and imprisoned Charls the simple her husband 5. The like passion was scandalous in the time of Annals of France Philip le Bel in three noble Princesses married to three sons of France who were all accused of unchastity by their own husbands and fell into horrible disasters to teach women of quality in what account they ought to hold the honour of chastity 6. But verily never any thing in this kind did equal the exorbitancy of Queen Eleanor who renounced Fâ—ance which had eyes too chaste to tolerate her disorders She going along to the conquest of the holy land with King Lewis the young her husband lost piety and reputation resigning her self to the love of a Sultan Sarazin the turbant nor dusky colour of a hideous man being able to stay the fury of her passion She was the daughter of William the last Duke of Aquitane who in his time was a scourge of mankind he alone at one meal did eat as much as eight men and this vast body filled with wine and viands burnt like a Fornace throwing out flames of choler and lust on all sides S. Bernard knocked him down like a Boar foaming at his feet presenting the holy Hoast before him and by that miracle made a Hermit of him His daughter imitating his evil habits had no part in his conversion living in all liberty Which was the cause that the King under colour of affinity made his match with her to be broken and restored Guyenne to her which she brought This bold woman not amazed at this divorce espouseth Henry of England a man as passionate as she where she found a terrible businesse when her unquiet spirit powerfully bustling in affairs of state and the interests of her husbands children she saw her self shut up in a prison where she lay for the space of fourteen years in rage and languours which put a penance upon her more irksome to her humour then it proved profitable to her soul Good God! what heavie horrours what Tragedies and what scourges of God do alwayes fall on sin What a pleasing spectacle it is to see amidst such confusions victories gained over evil love 7. It is very true that he who would recount the remarkable The honour the French have born to the virtue of Chastity acts of chastity resplendent in the Court of France and especially among Ladies for one who ought to be forgotten a thousand might be found who had lived with very singular testimonies of Integrity but it is certain that Historians have an itch to set down mischiefs and crimes rather then virtues which is the cause that when so many honourable women walk in the beaten track of a well ordered life we no more admire it then the ordinary course of the Sun But if one step awry all curious eyes look on her as on a star in Eclipse Yet in so great a negligence of Historians to write the rare effects of modesty we do not want good arguments which testifie the love our nation hath in all ages born to purity 8. Nicetas a Greek Authour in the lamentations of the city of Constantinople taken by the French cannot hold from admiring Baldwin the conquerour thereof who entring into a vanquished City wherein there were many beauties never did he cast so much as one wanton glance beginning his triumph from the victory he got over himself and that which he practised in his own person he caused to be exactly observed among his attendants commanding his Heralds twice in a week to proclaim throughout the
cause that continuing a widow in a flourishing age there were Princes in her kingdome who durst promise themselves that she would reflect on them for a second marriage Among others the Count of Champaign proposed this good hap to himself more then was to be believed and ceased not to play the Courtier even to the fitting his gallery with verses and Emblems of the Queen This prudent widow who had to do with Great ones in the beginning of her authority of Regent engaged not her self to any nor did she likevvise reject their suits but so soon as some of them perceived she had no purpose for them they presently took arms to disturb the Kingdome and lessen the authority of the young King The Count of Champaign saw himself by necessity embarked in the faction but he had much ado to defend himself from the affection vvhich possessed him for this exquisite beauty For vvhich cause he pleaded like a lover and betrayed his faction discovering the things most important vvhich gave Queen Blanch a great light to guard her self from the vvicked enterprises of her enemies and dissipate all factions Observations upon the Passion of DESIRE Wherein we may behold the misery of ambitious and turbulent Spirits THe wind which is an invisible power and Marvellous effects of the passion of Desire which appears before our eyes no more then nothing maketh tall ships to move pulleth up trees by the roots overthroweth houses exercising on land and sea powers too-too visible Desires and hopes likewise which to say truely are but imaginations almost unperceivable vex empires embroil states desolate Cities and Provinces and make havock such as we cannot in thought conceive nor can our eyes ever sufficiently deplore It is a strange thing that from a little fountain-head which onely distilleth drops of vvater great rivers grovv and from a desire vvhich invisibly hatcheth in the heart of man lofty ambitions burning avarices and enraged covetousnesse proceed which destroy mankind Our first desires respect body and life which is the foundation of all the blessings we can hope in this world and here it is wherein those who flourish in Empires and eminent fortunes shew passions and cares able to make them immortall if humane nature might reach to such a state We all know that Lewis the eleventh was a Monarch Strange desire of life in Lewis the eleventh who by the greatnesse of his wit and power darkned all the Kings of his Time but we likewise cannot be ignorant that he had most ardent Passions which gave him infinite disturbances the consideration whereof may serve Great ones for the establishment of their repose Never any man more loved life nor more feared death then this mighty Prince who seeing himself laden with infirmities and assailed by old age a disease incurable employed the whole power of an ample Kingdome to hold together a poor thread of life There was not any remedy in the world which he tried not there was no secret in physick which he opened not his profusion caused him to give a Physician ten thousand crowns a moneth and although this Monarch were one of the most eminent of his time and that he sought nothing but to climb over the heads of Princes yet he made himself a slave to Hippocrates his disciples to idolatrize health It is to be thought if Medea had in his dayes returned into the world he would have put himself into her hands of purpose to wax young again like another Peleus So soon as he heard speech of a man who cured maladies by certain extraordinary wayes needs must he come from the utmost limits of the earth and for this cause he called S. Francis de Paula who drave away feavers and plagues from humane bodies with so much ease yet could he not prolong the Kings dayes whom God would punish by the privation of that he most loved He also took the holy viol of Rhemes to keep it in his chamber and therein to find treasures of life which was bootlesse to teach us there is no greater a Hang-man of our hearts then inordinate ill rectified desire The desire of life transported him to extraordinary actions For having been all his life time very plain in apparell towards his latter dayes when he went out of his chamber he sumptuously clothed himself he shuffled his officers and changed them out of a certain desire of novelty that it might be known he was yet alive he cared not to be cursed so that men believ'd him to be living Yet if he had done all this to lead the life of a man and of a King with some reasonable contentment his cares might have been the more excusable But all this great endeavour was but to drag along a miserable life among the distrusts of his nearest allies among jealousies of his own sonne among woodden and Iron cages wherein he kept a Bishop of Verdun for the space of fourteen years among chains and clogges of Iron which he called his threads among disconsolate sadnesses which they sought by all means to sweeten one while making clowns to sport before him another while furnishing out a musick of Hogs ranged under a pavillon of velvet which they pricked through the ears with bodkins to make them chant forth their goodly warblings What inventions doth a passionate man find out to prolong his punishments Next unto life the most ardent desires are for wealth and honour which make turbulent and busie spirits to disturb the whole world vvithout enjoying one hour of repose One might as soon number the starres and the sands of the sea as reckon up the souls of this kind vvith vvhich the Histories of all nations are stuffed For in matters that concern particular ends you on every occasion see children bandied against their parents and kinred in mutiny one against another vvho bely their bloud betray nature and devour lands bloudy and smoking for imaginary pretensions in the matter of their inheritance 2. But it vvould be very hard to find a spirit more covetous more factious and more tempestuous to encrease his estate then vvas that of Lotharius the sonne of Lewis the Courteous Hence it was that he shamefully degraded shaved and shut the King his Father in Prodigious victory which in the end Lotharius gained over himself after a great storm of passions in becoming Religious a Cloister Hence that he contrived so many matches and ploted so many conspiracies Hence that he levied so many armies and gave so many battells Hence that he ransack'd so many Churches put the Clergy to ransome threw down Justice and exhausted the nobility Hence it was that he had alwayes an eye towards the field and an armed hand to ruine the inheritance of his brothers Lastly hence proceeded that bloudy battel of Fontenay where a hundred thousand men of account died in the place so many rivers and seas of bloud must an outrageous ambition swim in which is wedded to particular ends and covetousnesse
the evil spirits have their reign and their time which good men are not able to hinder no more then the winter and the night and that the sovereign Creatour and Governour of all things hath limited their powers and their endurings by certain celestiall periods which being not yet come to an end do make all the endeavours which can be used to destroy them unprofitable This is the cause why there is not taken in hand with such eagrenesse as might be wars in the East and Africa nor that we should undertake great designs against the powers of darknesse if we cannot see by very evident conjectures that God directs us as by the hand Neverthelesse as he reveals not alwayes to his Saints the times and seasons of Empires it happens that those that with great zeal and very rationall prudence do embark themselves in generous designs to advance the glory of God should not justly alwayes be commended even in the default of good successe And I may very well say that the most glorious action of S. Lewis was his prison and his death For to kill the Sarazens to make mountains of dead bodies rivers of bloud to overthrow Cities all in a smoke this is that which Chamgy and Tamerlan have done But to do that which S. Lewis hath done it is it which hath no compare it is that which the Angels would do willingly if they could merit it by a mortall body God which had drawn him from his Kingdome with the faith of Abraham which had lead him through so many dangers with the guiding of Moses gave him in the end to seal up his great actions the patience of Job And to countreballance that which the world esteems mishap he would have him to govern a great Kingdome a long time with an high wisdome and profound peace an exact justice for the good and repose of his people and an uncredible sweetnesse of spirit which hath made him the most amiable of all Kings on the earth and a great Saint in Paradise by the consent of all mortals and the Universall approbation of the Church Queens and Ladies JUDITH HESTER IVDITH HESTER ROYNE EXpect nothing Feminine in this Woman all in her is Male all in her is Generous all in her is full of Prodigies Nature hath put nothing in her but the Sex she hath left to Virtue to make up the rest who after she had laboured a long time in this her Master-piece incorporated her self in her work Never was beauty better placed then upon this face which bears a mixture of Terrour and of Love Lovely in its Graces Terrible in its Valour What a Court-Lady is this that came thither for nothing but to draw the sword Her hand did much by destroying an 100000 men in one onely head but her eye did much more then her hand it was that that first triumphed over Holophernes and with a little ray of its flames burnt up a whole army O what a magnificent employment had Love in this act of hers and to say truth he consecrated his arrows never was he so innocent in his Combats never was he so glorious in his Triumphs Represent to your selves a Nabuchodonozor in the flower of his age in the vigour of his Conquests holding a secret Councel wherein he makes a resolution to subdue the World After a short conclusion of an affair so great he calls Holophernes and commands him to march towards the West with an Army of 100000 Foot and 12000 Horse All the Captains assemble themselves together and in all places souldiers swarm It seems that that brave Generall did nothing but give a stamp with his foot to procreate armed men Behold him already invironed with Legions all glittering with fire and flames his Army is on foot with an horrible Artillery of military Engines and a great preparation of Victuall and Ammunition It seemed that heaven looked upon this Host with affrightment and that the earth ecchoed at every step under the clattering of its Arms. The motions of it give terrour to the stoutest sort and confusion to the weaker before it marches Noyses Affrights and Threats after it Weepings Ruins and Desolations Holophernes is in the middle as a Gyant with an hundred arms which promises to himself to demolish smoaking Cities to-overthrow Mountains and to beat all Arms to powder with the lightning of his eyes Ambassadours of all Nations are seen waiting at his gate who present unto him Crowns who offer him Tapers and Incense desire peace and mercy of him and beseech him to grant them servitude But this supercilious Generall would march upon the heads of men and make himself a river of Bloud to water therewith his Palms Fame that publishing with an hundred mouthes the wasts that that Army made on all sides failed not to fly unto Jerusalem and to carry that sad newes unto the people of God Nothing was then heard but the sighs and groans of a scared people who beholding that furious Tempest coming afar off had neither heart nor arms to oppose themselves against it Their courages were dismaied their hands weak their tongues mute they had no other defence but their tears which they powred out in abundance to begin the funeralls of their dear Countrey Manasseh reigned at that time in Jerusalem seven hundred years before the Nativity of our Lord who seeing no expedient to divert this misery abandoned himself to silence and to darknesse But Joachim the High Priest executing a Captains office together with a Priests encouraged his poore people and wiped off their tears to make them see the first ray of hope which they conceived of their dear Liberty He dispatches Posts to all parts and commands the cities that were menaced with the marches of that army to contribute all that they were able of Money Iron Men and Victuals to beat back the common Enemy and above all to prepossesse themselves of the streights of the mountains to stop up the passages where a few men would be able to do much rather then to expect them in the champain where so great forces would swallow up all that could be opposed against them After this he commands publick prayers to be made where the Altar of God was covered with sackcloth and the Priests with hair-cloth all the people were at their supplications tears and fastings even the children prostrated themselves on the earth and cryed to implore the mercy of God This excellent High-Priest not being ignorant that with Piety we ought to move the hand contented not himself onely to weep before the Altar but visited in person the Cities and the Burghs comforting the afflicted stirring up the slack strengthening the weak and doing that which the infusion of the soul doth in the Body in giving life and vigour to all the members of the State The newes comes to Holophernes that the Jews prepared themselves to make resistance to his Army whereat he entred into great fits of choler and called the Princes of the
hour of the day to remain shut up in the enclosure of a palace walls as old owls and to have no other pleasure but to make fire and bloud rain upon the heads of men What contentment to wax pale at every flash of lightning to tremble at every assault of the least disease to prepare poisons and haltars for every change of fortune to live for nothing but to make men die and to die for nothing but to make the devils a spectacle of their pains Is this it that deserves the name of felicity and the admiration of the world After that Josiah had drawn tears from the eyes of all the Kingdome the people honouring his memory set his son Jehoahaz upon the Throne who reigned but three moneths because that Nechoh puft up with his victory that would not suffer them to think of making a King without his consent came and fell upon Jerusalem and carried him away prisoner into Egypt where he died of displeasure and bad usage He took his brother Eliakim or Jehoiakim to put him in his place and to make him reign under his authority But Nebuchadonozor who esteemed himself the God of Kings could not endure that the Egyptian should intermeddle with giving Crowns came to besiege Jerusalem with great forces and having won it carried away the miserable Jehoiakim captive into Babylon with the flower of the city and the sacred vessels of the Temple when he reckoned yet but the third year of his reign It was a pitifull thing to see this infortunate King in chains after a dignity so short and so unhappy but this so lamentable a change moved his adversary to compassion who released him upon condition of a great annuall tribute He discharged it for the space of three years by constraint his heart and inclinations leaning alwayes towards Egypt and never ceasing tacitely to contrive new plots Besides he so forsook the service of God and abandon'd himself to the impiety of the Idolaters that the admonitions and menaces of the Prophet Jeremy that had foretold him of a most tragicall issue had no power upon his spirit And therefore Nebuchadonozor returned the eleventh year of the reign of this unhappy King and having conquered him again caused him to be assassinated and his body to be cast on the dunghill for a punishment of his rebellion He permitted his son Jehoiachin otherwise Jechonias to succeed him but scarce had this disastrous Prince reigned three moneths before this terrible Conquerour transported him with his mother his wives and servants and made him feel in Babylon the rigours of Captivity after he had robbed him of all his treasures and drawn out of Jerusalem ten thousand prisoners of the principall men of all Judea so that this deplorable Realm was then between Egypt and Babylon as a straw between two impetuous winds incessantly tossed hither and thither without finding any place of consistence Nebuchadonozor made a King after his own fancy and chose Zedekiah the uncle of Jehoiachin who was at last the most miserable of all the rest Here it it that Jeremy received a good share of the sufferings of his dear countrey and found himself intangled in very thorny businesses in which he gave most excellent counsels that were little followed so resolute were the King and Nobles to their own calamity He had been very much troubled under the Reign of Jehoiakim for as he was prophecying one day aloud of the ruine of the city of Jerusalem and the entire desolation of the Temple the Priests seized upon his person and caused the people to mutiny against him out of a design to make him be torn in pieces But it chanced by good hap that some Lords of the Court ran to appease that tumult before whom Jeremy justified himself and protested that it was the Spirit of God that moved to fore-tell those sad disastres for the correction of the sins of Jerusalem and that the onely means to shelter themselves from the wrath of heaven was seriously to embrace repentance and told them that it was in their hands to do him Justice and that if they used him otherwise they would shed innocent bloud that would rebound against them and the whole city Those Courtiers judged that there was nothing in him worthy of death and delivered him from the hands of those wicked Priests that were ready to assassinate him there being no persecution in the world like to that which comes from sacred persons when they abuse their dignity to the execution of their revenge After this shaking command is given him again to hold his peace and to remain shut up in a certain place without preaching or speaking in publick which was the cause that he dictated from his mouth his thoughts and conceptions to Baruch his Secretary commanding him to read them in a full assembly of the people which he did without sparing the great and principall men to whom he communicated them so that this passed even to the ears of King Jehojakim who would needs see the book and when he had read three or four pages of it he cut it with a penknife and cast it into the fire commanding that Jeremy and his Secretary Baruch should be apprehended But God made them escape ordaining that that deplorable King that had despised his Word and the admonitions of his Prophet should fall into that gulf of miseries that had been fore-told him The same abominations ceased not under the Reign of Zedekiah and Jeremy resumed also new forces to fight against them and to publish the desolations that should suddenly bury that miserable Nation then Pashur one of the principall and of the most violent Priests caused the Prophet to be brought before him to reprehend him for that he ceased not to fore-tell evils and to torment all the world by his predictions Whereupon he entred into so great a wrath against the innocent that without having any regard to the decency of his dignity he stroke him and not content with that caused him to be clapt in prison and chains to be put upon him This Divine personage seeing himself reduced to that captivity for having brought the Word of God and being left as it were to himself to do and suffer according to nature and humane passions was seized with a great melancholy and made complaints to God which parted not but from the abundance of love that he bare to him Ha! what said he my God have you then deceived me And who doubts but that you are stronger then I Who am I to resist you You have made me carry your word and to speak boldly your adorable truths to Kings and Peoples and for this I am handled as an Imposture and as the dreg of nature and the reproach of the world Behold what I have gained by serving you with so much obedience and fidelity Often have I said by my self I will obey the Magistrates I will hold my peace and remember no more the thoughts that God
thousand Crowns to him who should bring him to him and having understood that the Pope had made him his delegate into France and Flanders he did importune the French King by all manner of Sollicitation to deliver him into his hands But the brave Prince although it was directly against his Interest would do nothing that was against his generous mind and received the Cardinal with all courtesie and fidelity because he would not offend the Pope howsoever he would not suffer him to continue long in France because he would not exasperate the King of England for he had great use of his assistance in the war which he made against the Emperour Pool was then constrained to repair to Flanders where he was charitably received by Cardinal Everard Bishop of Cambray and he continued there sometimes attending the disposition of the Pope But Henry understanding that he was retired into that Province did again kndle his choler and that in so violent a heat that he promised the Flemmings to entertain four thousand men in pay for ten Moneths in favour of the Emperour against the French if they would abandon the Cardinal to his discretion Howsoever he found none that would favour his violence which did so incense him that he caused the Countess of Salisburie to be arrested She was mother to the Cardinal and daughter to the Duke of Clarence brother to Edward the fourth She was accused for having received a letter from her Son and for having worn about her neck the figure of the five wounds of our Saviour on which he commanded that a Process should proceed against her which was performed accordingly and the perverse and abominable Judges who made all their proceedings to comply with the merciless sury of their Prince did condemn her to death and caused her head to be cut off upon a Scaffold where she gave incomparable demonstrations of her piety and constancy Her dear Son who did love and respect her with all the tenderness of affection was extreamly afflicted at it and could find no comfort but in the order of Gods providence and in the glory of her death which was pretious before God After this the Legate was called back to Rome and after he had informed Paul the third of the misery of the people of Christendom who incessantly groaned under the calamity of war kindled betwixt the two principal Crowns he did contribute the uttermost of his indeavour to provide a remedy for it This good Pope was courteous liberal magnificent well versed in letters and above all a great lover of Astrology It seemeth that the Harmony of celestial bodies with which his spirit was so delicately transported did touch his Soul with a desire to make a like harmony on earth He was passionate for the Peace of Christian Princes and as he well understood the great capacity of Cardinal Pool joyned with the Royal bloud which gave him a more full Authority he did not delay to send him with a most Authenticall Commission to mediate an accord betwixt the two Kings The holy Prelate undertook this busines with great courage being carried to it as well by his own inclination as by election He failed not to represent unto their puissances all reasons both Divine and humane which might move them to an accord for the glorie of God for the glory of their own Monarchies and for the safety of their people But as he found in the ear of Henry the Eighth a Devil of lust which obstructed all the force of reason which was presented to him to divert his passion so he found in the spirit of these two Monarchs a horrible jealousie of Estate which stopped all enterance to his saving Counsels The time was not yet come and it was to row against the wind and tide to press that business any further He was constrained to return to Rome where the Pope gave him Commission to go to Wittimbergh where he continued certain years delighting in the fruits of a sweet tranquillity In the end the Councel of Trent being already assembled to extirpate Heresies and remedy the disorders with which its venemous Contagion had infected the brest of Christendom he was chosen to be president thereof which place for some time he executed to the admiration of his knowledge and the universal approbation of his zeal But when Paul the third having exceeded the age He is considered on to be Pope of four-score years did pay the Tribute common to the condition of the living he was obliged to return to Rome where all the world did cast their eyes on him to make him the head of the Church All things seemed to conspire to his Election his age his bloud his virtue his knowledge his great experience in affairs the general affection of all which did pass almost to veneration It was onely himself that resisted his own Fortune because he would not assist himself and permitted nothing of a submiss softness to over-act his generosity neither in that nature would he be a suppliant although it were for the chiefest Miter in the world The Nephews of Paul the third who as yet possessed the most high Authority of affairs considering the faithfulness of the great services which he had rendered their uncle did perswade him with importunity to this chief Bishoprick of the world And as the Conclave was assembled and the Decision of the great business did approch unto maturity they came at night into his Chamber to speak with him concerning his promotion and to offer themselves to his service to prefer unto him that Sovereign dignity But he shewed so little complacence to their discourse that in stead of making indearments and submissions of which they who pretend to honour are always excessively prodigal he made answer to them That God was the God of light and that the affair which they came about ought not to be treated on in darkness That one word did rebate the edge of their spirits and on the morning following the good Fortune which for two moneths together did look directly on Cardinal Pool did slack its foot at the dismission of the Nephew Cardinals and Julius the Third was chosen Pope a person of much renown and a great Lawyer Pool his Competitor well understanding that it was He retireth again into solitude not expedient to reside under the eyes of a Potentate to whom the power over Christendom was secretly preferred retired to Mentz into a monastery of Saint Benets where he enjoyed the delights of rest to which his inclinations carried him exercising his devotion to the height and recreating himself with good letters which he always loved But God who by his means was pleased to bring about the greatest revolution of Estate as Europe ever saw did cause occasions to arise to draw him from that solitude to return again to his great imployments It is necessary in this place to make mention of the condition of the affairs in England to behold virtue in
imaginative brains their rents and revenues and measure all things with the ell of eternitie Notwithstanding one would be amazed to see that all this goodly building of fortune composed of injustice concussions and rapines cemented together with the sweat and bloud of the poor falleth by little and little into ruin and when this cometh into the judgement of God the foolish moth who hath so gnawn to feed and cover himself findeth himself naked hungrie ashamed and extreamly miserable Those build like swallows who also much labour House of swallows to erect houses but with little success of fruit for posterity Swallows after they have well built in Summer forsake us in Autumn and leave no other memory of them but of morter straw and dung so many Noblemen oft-times build palaces make huge purchases and that with unspeakeable industrie but because they proceed therein with sinister and impure intentions God suffereth not their posterity to enjoy it We see houses emptie as swallows nests in Autumn Some men will ask who built this house Answer will be made such a one a mushrome of the Court coming from nothing in one night in all other things faithless to God and men who hath not left any thing memorable behind him but his vices and thus all the fame of this man consisteth in picking of straws which are temporal riches scattered here and there and in the dung of an ill name which he leaveth to posterity Behold an aim ill taken for the raising of fortunate buildings But as for you O virtuous Noblemen God permitteth you to build as Halcyons How is that Two notable properties are observed in the nest of the Halcyon The first is that the architecture of it is so strong so durable it cannot be broken or cut even with the violent stroak of iron The second that it is so proportioned to the bird as if it were sowed to her bodie in such manner that no creature can therein be received but the architect himself Justly behold the conditions which God hath given to your houses when they are built upon the fear of his holy Name They are strong of force lasting against all the strokes of fortune nor is there any violence which can open them to destroy them It is the infallible promise of God The house of the Domus impiorum delebitur tabernaculaâ— vero justorum germinabunt Prov. 1. 11. wicked shall be demollished but the tabernacles of the just shall flourish Moreover they have a certain benediction which disposeth all things in good order the rule of expence proportioned to the quality of their persons the Oeconomie sage and prudent in such sort that all things are mannaged there with measure and compass as in the Halcyons nest And as an ancient Writer hath said older is the world of worlds which retaineth all things in their lustre and uniteth them with a seam and lasting band When once it is fixed in the families of Great ones which happeneth by the means of piety where it always produceth the same effects which it doth in this great Universe The second reward is the honour so much desired by noble spirits It falleth out that the wicked are sometimes raised to the greatness of the world but they are therein as Comets as stars of mud and earth who taking a false lustre make shew for a time in the air of vanity and afterwards they are scattered casting pestilence and poison into the four quarters of the world On the contrary real Noblemen are like true stars planted and enchased by the hand of God even in the firmament of honour to enlighten an eternity Their glory is fixed with nails of adamant Calumnie may perhaps shake it but never overthrow it yea time it self confesseth that there is neither pincers nor hammer can work this effect It is God that promiseth this Whosoever shall glorifie Quicumque glorificaverit me glorificabo eum qui autem contemnunt me erunt ignobiles 1 Reg. 2. 30. Fantasies to gain honours me I will glorifie him and those which despise me shall become ignoble Hereupon judge how solid the honour of Great men truly virtuous is since it is fastened to the honour of God himself who glorieth in honouring them A thousand and a thousand Princes and phantastick great Ladies have galloped honour upon the full speed and with a discomposed spirit have invented imaginary forms to find credit and admiration in the hearts of men Some have caused mountains and rocks to be cut to raise statues to themselves as Semiramis Others have taken crows parrats and other birds counterfeiting human speech and have taught them a lesson which was to salute them as gods afterward enfranchizing them for the open field have sent them into the air to carrie these salutations and impress in the minds of men a false idea of their divinity so did Psapho Others have taken the figures of Eagles Lions and Serpents as certain Kings of Aegypt to strike a terrour into the souls of mortal men others have left Medails triumphant Arches Colossuses goodly Palaces Theaters Amphitheaters as the Romane Emperours others have placed themselves openly upon Altars as Caligula who set the figure of his own head upon the statue of Jupiter Posterity hath exploded all this the times have derided it oblivion hath swallowed all of them or if it hath not set its biting tooth therein it hath been for no other cause but to leave them to a hateful and detestable memory a thousand times worse than forgetfulness Much otherwise Great men that build their fortunes upon the foundations of the fear of God from small and feeble beginnings have come to so high a pitch that they have replenished all tongues with their praises all hearts with their admiration all Ages with the monuments of their glory For it is God alone that causeth men to take aims of true and solid greatness and who with a puissant arm dasheth and overwhelmeth those spirits which suffer themselves to be transported with the torrent of vanity courting airy smokes emptie apparences and flying clouds whereby they produce monsters in stead of deserved honour seated fairly upon the firm rock of constancy God hath in such wise shewed himself to have greatness in his own hands that extracting men from the dregs and froth of the earth he hath made them mount so high that oftentimes Imperial heads radiantly glittering with Rubies and Diamonds have bowed under the ashes of a poor fisher-man And who seeth not that the true and onely mean to enter into the possession of honour is straitly to unite ones self with this Divine Majesty from whence on man reflect all the lustrous rays of greatness For a third reward this sovereign Mover and Architect of our lives and fortunes doth propagate also the glorie of Fathers to their children and giveth them a flourishing posteritie which makes them eternally live in the memory of men by the most lively images of their virtues It is
corn to the mil who go even into the ocean to fish for habits and attires for them and most times live within four fingers of death to give them means to flow in delicacies Onely death it is that taketh no suretie For whch cause man dieth in his own person and laboureth by deputie If death would a little give way no Great man would die but by Attorney Out alas O the justice of God how equally dost thou still hold the ballance They that would not here labour as men thou makest them take pain like infernal spirits thou dissolvest the sweat of poor paysants in the consolation of their souls and thou seasonest the delights of rich men with care melancholy dolour jealousie envy anxiety terrours and remorse which are able to make them sweat bloud Were there no other proof this manifestly enough declareth to us how odious this curiositie of Great men is to the Divine Majesty and how punishable since its own delights are changeâ— into chastisements Yet notwithstanding I will produce some reasons that the unworthiness of this wicked excess may punctually be touched with the finger which now adays overfloweth the whole face of the earth First I say it is extreamly unreasonable to be desirous Remedies and reasons against excess to live in the world with reason against all reason to endeavour to put a reasonable creature into a condition of life where it of necessity must bely the law of God and its proper nature O Noblemen God would that you enter into the world like othermen as into a vale of tears and you will arrive there as in a garden of delicacies He would that you come thither as to the mynes to dig and you go thither as to a dicing-house to play he would that you make passage into a servile flesh to obey and you will command Is not this a sin against nature Cross of nature Nemo impune nascitur omnis vita supplicium est To come into the world is to come upon a cross to be man is to stretch out the hands and feet to be crucified The first bed that an infant maketh coming from his mothers womb is on the cross He is as soon in a cross as in nature and suffereth this punishment for no other cause but for that he is born a man The Emperours of Constantinople had in their Palace The purple chamber of Emperours Anna Commena lib. 6. Luitprand de rebus Europ Cyprian de patient Procellas mundi quos ingreditur statim suo ploratu gemitu rudis anima testatur a secret chamber which they called the Purple in which the Empresses for a ceremonious formality were brought to bed and delivered thinking by this means to abolish the acerbities which are as it were affixed to our condition But these petty Porphyrogenites so these children of Emperours were called because they were born in scarlet were notwithstanding born with a cross and saluted life as others with tears and groans The children of Kings come al into the world through this gate of miseries they are born as with a diadem on their fore-heads and yet fail not to be natures little prisoners It is accounted a goodly thing to give them guilded cradles and silken swathing-bands This is to adorn their chains but not to break them they are as well captive in them as heretofore the prisoners in India who rotted in poverty and calamitie even in golden fetters It is a decree of Almighty God O Great-ones that you must be born with the cross on your back and you will cancel it if this yet might be practised with some reasonable evasion and mediocrity it would seem more tolerable but now adays this excess is so enraged that it will plant the tropheys of pride and voluptuousness upon the calamities of mankind What is not done upon tables What is not done in apparel Men cloath as if they were always to live and eat as if they should every day die We prepare an Altar to a false Deitie Tyranny of the belly which at this day with unspeakable violence swayeth in the world It is a bruitish god if you desire to know him for never had he an ounce of of brain A blind god who hath no eyes to behold the miseries of the earth A deaf god who hath no ears to hear the complaints of the afflicted A truantly god who hath no hands to take pains An immoveable god who hath no feet to travel on An effeminate god who hath no heart to undertake any good nor courage to suffer ills A gluttonous god Philip. 2. Quorum Deus venter est gloria in confusione ipsorum Tertul. advers Psych Deus tibi venter est pulmo templum aqualiculus altare sacerdos coquus spiritus sanctus nidor condimenta charismata ructus prophetia vâ—tus est who gourmandizeth all An unclean god who polluteth all This false god according to the Apostle is the belly His temple saith Tertullian is the lungs his Altar the panch his Priest the Cook his holy Ghost the smoke of meats his grace the sauces his prophesie that which may not civilly be spoken As he in his person is enormous so is he no less prodigious in his tyranny It is a wonder to see how he hath his officers in every place For him war is waged against the air and clouds birds are disnestled from the Kingdom which nature hath allowed them For him the face of the earth is turned into a shambles For him seas are sounded depths are plummeted ship-wracking storms and direful tempests are ferried over Man willingly would penetrate heaven and delve even to hell to find out new sacrifices for this fleshly and carnal god and himself being alive he is made the sepulchre of so many massacres that it is a miracle how one man can live who daily burieth so many dead creatures in his entrails All this hurly-burly which Gourmandize emptieth the air earth and seas is made for a stomach four fingers broad for which a little bread and water would suffice in necessity and in superfluity the whole world is too little to satisfie We know not what course to take to find out new curiosities for the palate We sup up oysters alive we seek out mushromes we will know what tast hath the flesh of tortoyses and snails These poor little creatures had good cause to believe that their meanness would enfranchize them but sottish and fordid gluttony draweth a tribute from all and I think their tast will shortly be taken with serpents and ravens But let us not onely accuse the belly the eyes devour more than it They are delighted to behold fishes to swim in a sea of sugar to see forrests nets huntings birds wild beasts houses castles fields arms of sugar had licourousness of tast so much power as it hath little brain it would make a world of sugar and then would dissolve it to be
nec magna lequimur sed vivimus paper This is it which hath given me occasion having treated of motives obstacles and remedies which men of quality may have in the way of spiritual life briefly to prepare a little practice of virtues which more concerneth their condition to behold them afterwards appear in the history of Courts which I purpose to begin in this present volume It much importeth at the very first entrance to make a good idea of Devotion which many plaister over in their own manner and attire with their passion making that sometimes serve for vice which beareth the scepter of virtue Some imagine devotion to be nothing but an ordinary practice of unseemly gestures and motions such as little puppets would make if they were animated with some small quantity of quick-silver Others make use of devotion as Dionysius the Tyrant did of Philosophers not that he loved them but that folding himself in their clokes he thought he should be honored by the people So shall you find sometimes in the world those who for a vain interest of reputation will cloth themselves with the robe of false devotion as if one should seek to shelter himself under a wet sack I speak not here of devotion which concerneth Religious men nor that which is in the sweetness of contemplation but I affirm the virtue of devotion according to S. Thomas is nought else but a prompt will to the service of God Noblemen have cause to aspire thereunto I. A good devotion in Great men is to have a True devotion of Great men Sentite de Domino in bonitate Sap. 1. great and faithful feeling of the Majesty of God not serving him with exteriour semblances but sincerely cordially constantly holding all the maxims of state and condition under the rules of conscience and disposing themselves rather to hazard all than to loose God by one sole sin II. A good devotion to clip the wings of the covetousness Note these points and examine them often Animae irreverenti infraenatae nè tradas me Eccl. 23. 6. of riches and greatness covetousness which never findeth measure but in extremities nor other period than a precipice Take heed of a soul without bridle without reverence III. A good devotion not to reach at the goods of the Church by any false pretence represented in the Court of Rome by any black or covert deceits sowed together with white threed nor afterward to charge a man with titles like an old sepulchre and hold to himself the patrimonie of Jesus Christ therewith to fatten dogs and feed hawks or such other infamous creatures which live on the sins of others Finally these goods are Eagles feathers In felle amaritudinis in obligatione◠iniquitatis Actor 8. which eat and consume others whilest a soul is lodged there it remaineth in a bitterness replenished with gall and in the perplexed intrications of sin IV. A good devotion not to incroach upon the possessions of your neighbour nor enforce the good 3 Reg. 21. Naboth to sell his land for the accommodation and content of your Lordship but if he will leave it to Isaiah 5. 8. Vae qui conjungitis domum ad domum agrum agro copulatis usque ad terminum loci Nunquid habitabitis vos soli in medio terrae Dissolve colligationes impietatis solve fasciculos deprimentes Isaiah 58. 6. Salvian l. 5. de guber Quot Curiales tot Tyranni give him a good price a reasonablerate a full satisfaction Woe to you said Isaiah who annex house to house inheritance to inheritance as far as the land stretcheth Would you dwell alone in the midst of the earth V. A good devotion in things which one may rightfully exact to be staid just temperate not covetous no Harpy no Tyrant but to extend the bowels of compassion towards the poor who are our flesh and bloud to open the eyes not to invent new impositions that may draw the marrow from the people but to take away or lessen the old that necessity requireth no more Salvianus complaineth that in his time there were as many Tyrants as Lords and Courtiers And that is the cause why God gave the Roman Empire as a prey to Barbarians being Masters more mild than the covetousness of great ones VI. A good devotion to discharge his debts and Non morabitur opus mercenarii tui apud te usque ad mane Levit. 19. 13. Diligite justitiam qui judicatis terram Sap. 1. promises and never suffer the wages of the poor hireling to lie hid in his coffers VII A good devotion to attend publick charges which you are to undergo especially those that concern distribution of justice with understanding conscience and diligence understanding to know the affairs conscience to handle them faithfully diligence not to draw out the expedition of causes in languishing delays so prejudicial to the publick VIII A good devotion in banishing superfluitie Tertul. de cultu foeminar Discutiendae sunt deliciae quarum mollitie fluxis fidei virtus effaeminari potest of apparel and tast excesses curiosities houshold-vices To cause modestie frugalitie employment and virtue to reign and to be the first himself to light the torch to his familie You must necessarily expel delights for their tenderness and excesses weaken and enervate all religion IX A good devotion to make choise of servants to instruct or make them honest and to esteem no man faithfull in your service who is disloyal to God Not to be desirous to keep a bad servant for ones Attende tibi à pestifero fabricat enim mala Eccles 11. 35. own interest though the whole house would be changed into gold by his hands X. A good devotion to hinder disorders and sins which are committed in publick when you have authoritie in your hands without shewing your self insatiable to revenge your own proper injuries and more cold than ice in the quarrel of God When a In cujus manu est ut prohibeat jubet agi si non prohibet admitti Salvian l. 7. man hath the power in his hands to stay a sin to permit it is to commit it These are points of devotion which we must hereafter moreamply digest The second SECTION In what all Devotion and spiritual life consisteth YOu who aspire to spiritual life know there are three sorts of man in you alone the Vegetal Animal and Intellectual and that all your Three sorts of man in us perfection consisteth in putting the Vegetal and Animal man under the feet of the Intellectual A great number of men are now adays vegetals that is to say who so live as if they had no other soul but the vegetative as plants and lead the very life of the mushrome Others are animal who make their souls wholy evaporate in sensual love in choler rage in brutishness Few shall you find who are intellectual who work with reason and understanding And behold wherein consisteth our excellencie
It is good oftentimes to consider how reasonable glorious and full of merit this act is Reasonable How acts of faith may be made easie to submit the creature to the Creatour glorious to see the Sovereign Lord so served and honoured that for the defence of one sole word but once pronounced by his mouth a thousand and a thousand good servants are ready to bestow their lives full of merit in as much as we give a free consent voluntary and pious and not being enforced by manifest evidence II. To be often confounded in the weakness and incapicity of our understanding which is found so short in the knowledge of many petty things There needeth no more but the foot of an Ant to stay it and a glass of water to drown it What stupidity then is like this to be desirous to make ones self over-wise and to judge that impossible which cannot be comprehended in matter of Religion III. To apply your mind to the consideration of motives which may form in your spirit a probability of that which is proposed unto you as are those I have noted before and which will give good enterances to the inspirations of God IV. To retire from the toyl of senses which do nothing but disturb when you consult with them in things spiritual and to raise your soul above flesh to be illuminated by the Sun of Intelligences V. To take away the obstacles of all sorts of impurity and namely of pride all disordinate affection VI. To strike at Heaven gate with prayer seeing faith cometh unto us from treasures of the Father of light Faith so planted fortified and manured by good works illuminateth a soul All the savage and cruel beasts all the bruitish passions chimaeraes dreams irresolutions which went roaming up and down in this great forrest of confusions amongst the shadows of night are scattered so soon as this radiant Sun beginneth to dissipate darkness with his divine rays Then is it that a soul wholly clad with Hope the clear lights of hope which causeth it to expect the blessings of the other life goeth on with a great and constant resolution as one who hath for support the infinite power of God who is as faithful in his promises as rich in rewards Behold how this monster ignorance is overthrown by the arms of light The fifth SECTION Of four other rays which serve to dissipate ignorance BEsides the torch of faith God also gives us the Beam of understanding light of understanding of counsel wisdom and prudence which are as unvaluable riches wholly replenishing the soul with splendour as saith the Prophet Isaiah The gift of understanding doth free us from a certain bruitishness which is the cause that men tying themselves onely to external and sensible things are perpetually out of themselves at which time understanding calls them back again and makes them to re-enter into their house to see the beginning progress and end of the life of man from whence he cometh whither he goeth what will become of him Counsel enlighteneth us in things doubtful to Of counsel take a good way Wisdom putteth us out of an apprentiship and Of wisdom draweth us from a certain childishness which maketh men as little ones and carnal mutually entertaining themselves with temporal things And the knowledge of God raiseth and causeth them to turn their faces directly towards Eternity Prudence considereth good and evil according to Of prudence the quality and quantity thereof It examineth the circumstances of actions and sheweth us what ought to be done in such a time such a place and such occasions The sixth SECTION Twelve fundamental Considerations of spiritual life partly drawn from that worthy man John Picus Mirandula FRom the five rays explicated before proceed Note that it is good often to meditate these maxims either one a day or all together great and goodly lights by direction of which a life wholly new is begun John Picus of Mirandula a great and remarkable man held for a prodigie of wit much tasting the content of spiritual life enlightened by the rays of a wisdom absolutely celestial establisheth twelve Considerations which we ought continually to meditate on for the practice of the knowledge of God I. The first the nature and dignity of man to wit 1. Consideration nature and dignity of man that the first and ceaseless endeavour of man should be of man himself to see what he hath been what he is and what he shall be What he hath been nothing what he is a reasonable creature what he shall be a guest of Paradise or of hell of an eternal felicity or of an everlasting unhappiness What he is according to nature a master-piece Greatness of the soul where many prerogatives meet together a body composed of a marvellous architecture a soul endowed with understanding reason spirit judgement will memory imaginations opinions A soul which flieth in an instant from one pole to the other descendeth even to the center of the world and mounteth to the top which is found in an instant in a thousand several places which embraceth the whole world without touching it which goeth which glittereth which shineth which diggeth into all the treasures and magazines of nature which findeth out all sorts of inventions which inventeth arts which governeth Common-wealths which disposeth worlds In the mean time she beholdeth about her self an infinite number of dogs that bark at her happiness and endeavour to bite her on every side Love fooleth her ambition turmoyleth her avarice Tyranny of passions rusteth her and lust enflameth her vain hopes sooth her pleasures melt her despair over-bears her choler burns her hatred filleth her with gall envie gnaweth her jealousie pricketh her revenge enrageth her cruelty maketh her savage fear frosteth her sorrow consumes her This poor soul shut up in the body as a bird of Paradise in a cage is altogether amazed to see her self assailed by all this mutinous multitude and though she have a scepter in her hand to rule she notwithstanding oft suffereth her self to be deceived ravished and dragged along into a miserable servitude From thence behold what man is through sin vanity weakness inconstancy misery malediction What he becometh by grace a child of light a terrestrial Angel the son of a celestial Father by adoption brother and coheir of Jesus Christ a vessel of election the temple of the Holy Ghost What he may arrive unto by glory to be an inhabitant of Heaven who shall see the stars under his feet which he hath over his head who shall be filled with the sight of God his beginning his end his true onely and original happiness II. The benefits received from God considered 2. Benefits of God in general as those of creation conservation redemption vocation and in particular the gifts of the body of the soul of nature of capacity ability industry dexterity wariness nobility offices authority means credit reputation
homo To stand always upon your guard I saiah 21. 8. Super speculam Domini ego stâ— good things are done in man which man doth not And min doth no good which God doth not Who thinks to resist temptations without his help is like him who hasteneth to the wars and stumbleth at the threshold of his own door And therefore an effectual means in this battel is to insist much on prayer especially at the first entrance of a temptation VI. When you have vanquished a temptation take very good heed you leave not your rank and wholly slacken your courage as if there were no more enemies to be opposed As distrust is the mother of safety so over-much security is the gate of peril If your enemy still roam up and down like a roaring lyon become you on the other side a watchful lyon in the centinels of the God of hosts VII Content not your self onely to be beaten To combate your enemy but assail your enemy When Satan lays a snare to entrap you make it an instrument of merit If he present a good work to you which glittereth in the world thereby to tempt you with pride make a good work of it and leave vanity referring all to the greater honour of God VIII When you are in combate fight with alacritie as if you already were certain of victory Turn away the eye of your consideration from what you suffer and hold it perpetually fixt upon the reward A great unhappiness which maketh many to fall What is the cause that many yield head-long into temptation is that they have their minds so stretched and bent upon the thought of pain they cannot abide to behold the reward which waiteth on them When the fourty Martyrs were in the frozen lake thirty nine of them looked back upon the future crown and one of them unhappily thought of nothing but his punishment All of them remained victorious except this wretched creature who soyling the glory of his patience came out of the pool to die presently after in his infidelity Do you not think that which comforted our Saviour on the Cross in that bottomless abyss of calumnies and dolours was a mirrour of glory where he saw all his sufferings in crowns Behold the course which is to beheld To stay a little on the present and rest in a strong apprehension of the future And ever to have these words of S. Paul in your heart A short moment of our tribulation worketh in us an 2 Cor. 4. Momentaneum leve tribulationis nostrae aeternum gloria pondus operatur in nobis eternal weight of glory Fight then with courage as if it were the last temptation which should assail you and be perswaded that herein is the extent of your predestination When you have overcome it govern your self like a man readily prest to enter again into the lists and make one victory the degree for another IX Though you be valiant brave not danger Not to tempt temptation tempt not temptation casting your self into the occasions thereof through presumption of heart He that much affecteth hazard in stead of finding glory therein shall trace out his own tomb X. A sovereign means to conquer temptations is seasonably to discover the countenances of them to open your heart freely to your Ghostly Father to declare your thoughts to know them well to consider their nature and to see their power they have over your soul It ordinarily happeneth what the good Epictetus saith It is not the thing that troubleth us it is our fantasie How many temptations A sovereign means would be vanquished by sleighting them if one took but a little leisure to laugh at them We make Elephants of flies and of little dwarfs who by stealth pinch us we frame Gyants We resemble young children who for fear of a vizard hide themselves with tears in their nurses bosomes but take away the mask and give them it to handle and they will make sport with it How many things seem terrible and impossible to us which we find ridiculous and easie to overcome if we never so little touch them with our finger In temptations of pusillanimity it is good to represent to your self these false Gyants as dwarfs But in that of lust you must not despise any thing rather lay hold of little threads as if they would become huge cables Both in the one and the other there is nothing to be done but to dash these little Babylonians against the stones Withstand beginnings and suffer not your enemies to fortifie themselves to your disadvantage XI The stone of offence and scandal to many Sweetness of victory of a temptation is that they lively present to their imagination the sweetness of sin and never consider the pleasure which is derived from the victory over sin As soon as man is plunged in the puddle thereof behold a blushing soul drenched in pensiveness melancholy and despair whom a loathsom pleasure which passeth away as a dream furnisheth from a dream with a heap of scorns sorrows and confusions But quite contrary that soul which hath resisted findeth herself content generous advanced satisfied with holy comforts which come from the Paradise of God Few men revolve this thought which Saint Cyprian much recommendeth Behold why the number of the damned is very great and yet notwithstanding doth it not seem to you very reasonable that man who a thousand times hath yielded to temptation should once in his life time tast the sweetness which is in the victory over a temptation to rejoyce for ever Many have been diverted from a great and manifest precipice by considering these words Well go to To yield to sin what will be the end thereof To purchase repentance at so dear a rate To render up a renown of so many years as a prey to a most unhappy moment of pleasure Where is the faith promised to God Let us at least seek out some place where he is not And where is he not So many stars so many Intelligences wherewith the world is replenished are so many eyes to behold thee Himself looketh into the bottom of thy conscience Ask leave of him if thou wilt sin But how ask and how obtain Exercise a little patience and this temptation will vanish away as a cloud Thou goest about to commit a sin the pardon whereof is very uncertain but it is doubtless through all eternity when thou hast committed it God himself cannot make it to be undone XII Think not you are the less acceptable to God when he suffereth you to be tempted yea with dishonest thoughts which to chaste souls are extreamly irksom Alas why If S. Paul that Cherubim scorched with celestial ardours who fixed his foot upon the front of the stars if we follow the opinion of S. Ambrose Theophylact and Oecumenius felt the stings of concupiscence in a flesh rapt to the third Heaven think you for having some good dispositions of well-doing you
ought to be freed from wars of nature which ever keep in humility your soul a little too indulgent to it self The eighteenth SECTION Remedies against passions and temptations which proceed from every vice I. TO consider that passion is a motion of the sensual appetite which proceedeth from the imagination of good or evil with some agitation of the body II. That there are eleven passions six in the appetite of concupiscence which are love hatred desire aversion joy sadness Five in the appetite of revenge which are hope despair boldness fear anger III. That there are two means to vanquish all passions whereof the first is a precaution of mind against the occasions and vain apparences of all things of the world and the second a serious entertainment of the mind in better things as prayer study labour affairs But above all you must beg of God the light and strength of his holy grace which infinitely surpasseth all humane remedies We here adde some preservatives against passions and the most ordinary vices Against carnal love I. To consider the barrenness of worldly loves which are the true gardens of Adonis wherein nothing is gathered but wretched flowers environed with many thorns II. To set a true estimate upon things and not to be deceived with apparences III. To keep watch over your senses to avoid the opportunities and occasions of sin and above all to have recourse unto God upon the first impression of your thoughts IV. To free your self by main force from the presence of objects to be delighted with serious purposes and good employments V. To present to your self very often the defect ingratitude levity inconstancy and treachery of creatures which we most servilely love Against aversions hatreds and envies I. To esteem nothing great in this life is the way to envie nothing II. To love onely the great inheritance of the land of the living which never becomes less by the many and several divisions made to those who possess it III. To consider attentively the motives which excite us to love our neighbour as the participation of the same nature same life same bloud and like profession and such other reasons which are as so many knots of amity IV. The wretched life of Cain to live in envie troubles disturbances and rage of a distempered spirit which causeth the immortality of its being to contribute to the eternity of its pains V. To behold how envy ere it is aware serveth many times to the advancement of those who are envied Against covetousness worldly hope and joy I. The disquiet of an hungry mind II. The unsatiableness of desires III. The wars and battels we must oft-times undergo to satisfie one sole desire IV. The dishonour of denial insupportable to a generous soul V. The dependence and slavery we must endure to please those from whom we expect the accomplishment of our desires VI. the frailty in offending God through too much greediness of temporal things VII The poor and short pleasure taken in things we most ardently desire VIII That God many times affordeth us the accomplishment of our desires as a punishment of our imperfections Against sadness and despair There is a holy sadness as that we entertain upon the passion of our Saviour or for our sins which is a gift of God and not a punishment There is another furious which hath no ears and which is rather cured by miracles than precepts There is one natural which proceedeth from humour and another vitious fostered by evil habits and neglects of salvation I. Against this last we must consider our desires and affections oft-times make up all our sadness and that the true means to lessen the cares which consume us is to sweeten the sharp and ardent love we bear towards worldly things II. The small account we make of God is the cause we many times are troubled at frivolous things either distantly threatning us or already happened He that would truly love this great God who deserveth all the love both of Heaven and earth should not suffer fear or sadness for any thing but the loss of the love of God which no man looseth if he be not willing to for go it III. Nought but tears of the damned is remediless He that may be in the way of Paradise should not make a kind of hell on earth and who may hope this great All should never be sad for any thing Against evil confidence I. That to be confident in evil things is to have a desperate instrument of ones own misery which entertaineth all exorbitancies of the heart to make them the more punishable II. That there is no assured confidence against the power of God which in an instant ruineth the posterity of the greatest Tyrants III. That the strongest things are wasted by the weakest Lyons have been eaten up by flies and rust though contemptible consumes the hardest mettals IV. That to be confident through presumption of strength is the high-way to become ridiculous in enterprises and unfortunate in all successes We must not go about to soar to the sun with the wings of a Reare-mouse nor sail on the Ocean in the shell of a Tortoise Against fear I. Neither to desire nor love any thing inordinately is the path-way to peace where fear never harbours II. To have a strong charity towards God and to love him fervently with perswasion of his reciprocal love This is the means to enter into a firm confidence For what evil may we fear against us when God is with us III. We many times fear evils which are the fources of great blessings some are not truly evils other much less than we make them and many will never happen Why will you abide where you are not and put your self on the rack in your imagination IV. He who resolves to suffer all that God will have him takes in hand a powerful remedy against all sorts of fears For he who is a Master over sorrow commandeth terrour since the evil present is much more troublesom than the future V. There are natural fears much tied to flesh unless they be vanquished and sweetned by frequent custom with the things which are feared and conversation with men confident and couragious Against anger I. To consider how it depriveth us of six things very precious to wit of wisdom justice civility concord truth and the splendour of the spirit of God II. How it suddenly transfigureth a man into a little monster III. How it is hurtful to the state of health which we so tenderly love IV. That it abaseth the person surprized with it and especially if he be in some eminency of life and dignity V. That the effects thereof are cruel the spoils pernicious events shameful and falls for the most part irrecoverable VI. The contentment to have kept back an evil word which had destroyed a good affair VII The abstinence from curiosities and niceness of life cutteth asunder the sinews of anger The less curious a man is the more
absence so troublesom that to avoid it you must torture your body vilifie your spirit and yield your reputation up as a prey to slander You shall no sooner put the wedge into the block but it shall be done you shall have a soul victoriously elevated over passion which shall rejoyce amidst the tropheys thereof The one and twentieth SECTION Against sadness HAve you never represented to your self the poor Elias lying under the Juniper tree oppressed with melancholly and saying to God with an effectionate heart My God it is enough take Reg. 3. 19. my soul I am no better than my fore-fathers This passion often happeneth in persons who are entered into the list of a life more perfect Anxiety crosseth them sadness gnaweth them melancholy afflicteth Sadness the snare of Satan them and Satan willing ever to fish in a troubled water serves himself with this disturbance of mind to make them return back again to the false pleasures of the world What remdy what practice shall we confront this mischief with Let us use Davids harp to charm this dangerous devil of Saul You are sad say you It much concerneth you to sound your heart that you may know from whence this pensiveness proceeedeth and apply fit remedy thereunto Sometime sadness cometh from an indiscreet zeal when one will of his own accord undertake austerities neither ordered nor digested by counsel He cannot find good success yet is ashamed to go back again which is the cause he is tormented between the hammer and the anvile Sometime it proceedeth from a great immortification Causes of sadness Immortification of passions which at the enterance into a spiritual life he beginning to pick quarrels with them put themselves into the field assailing and turmoyling the mind As it is said a little fish called the wasp of the sea in the dog-days stingeth and disquieteth the repose of other fishes It is perhaps as yet in your soul neither day nor night winter nor summer cold nor heat but good and evil struggle who shall get the upper hand and this war troubleth you Sometime it proceedeth from a great tenderness of heart and a passionate love of ones self It seemeth to a little girle who weepeth in the nook of a chamber that the whole world is interessed in her sorrow and that every body should bemoan her Nothing is like to her unhappiness her burdens are Tears of self-flatterers of lead and all others are as light as feathers or if you weep not with her she becometh the more melancholy and if you do sorrow with her she taketh a higher tone to deplore her grievances There is many times much niceness in our sorrows and oftentimes our tears are nothing else but meer fopperies From this self-love proceedeth vanity and complacence which serve us with worm-wood to season our morsels withal The man who is over-much pleased with himself Self-love necessarily displeaseth many and to gain too great a friend within himself he purchaseth sundry enemies without himself All things cannot happen to his wish and as good successes inebriate him with contentments so evil torture and immoderate contristate him Briefly bad melancholly often riseth Jealous eye from a jealous and envious eye The good hap of another is a straw in his eye which ever will trouble him if charity bring not her helping hand Behold here a lamentable mischief All the perfections of another are ours when we love them in another and when we hate them they are thorns in our eyes which extreamly torment us Have we not pain Parùm alicui est si ipse sis foelix nisi alter fuerit infoelix Salvian de gubern Dei lib. 5. enough within our selves but we must plant crosses in the prosperity of others Sound your heart and see whether your sadness proceeds from one of these five sources or from many of them together Take away the cause by the favour of Gods grace by the help of your endeavour courage and resolution you shall have the effect and enjoy a peaceable soul like Heaven smiling in a bright serenity My sadness say you cometh not from this occasion Would to God it were so You were already sufficiently happy if all I have said were not of force to make you sad From whence cometh it then From the accidents which befal me on every side and if nothing happen to me I am unquiet with mine own self If you think to live wholly without sadness Sadness a plant of our own growing you must frame a new world for your self Sadness is a bitter plant which groweth in your garden you must know at one time or other what tast it hath To think wholly to free your self is to make your self a King in the cards and onely to brave it in paper like the ancient Philosophers who had their hands shorter than their tongues Our Saviour was contristated in the dolorous garden watered with bloudy sweats to teach us the perfection of a Christian is not in being sensible of sorrow but to moderate the same with resolution The best remedy is that which Jesus Christ hath Remedies shewed to us to wit Prayer It is a wonderful contentment to speak to God and to tell him your afflictions Behold you not in a garden-bed how those poor tulips are shut up with melancholy under the shadie coldness of the night And you may well say the Sun within his rays beareth the key to open them For so soon as he riseth and courteth them a little with that eye which exhilarateth total nature behold they unloose themselves dilate themselves and witness their joy for the arrival of this planet The like happeneth to your heart it sometimes long remaineth benummed and frozen for want of having recourse to prayer Learn a little to talk with God by jaculatory prayers Learn to complain your self to God and to seek the remedies of your wounds in his mercies and you will find a great lightening and alacrity The second to have a spiritual Father or a discreet and faithful friend to whom one may unburden his conscience with all confidence and security The cloud how dark or surchaged soever it be in that proportion it emptieth it self cleareth and the heart unburdening its calamities in the ear of another becometh more bright and lustrous Thirdly some spiritual Fathers advise a discipline to suppress interiour sadness by exteriour sorrow But this remedy is not for all sorts of men Saint Hier. ad Rusticum Hypoâ—ratis magis fomentis quà m nostris monitiâ— indiget Remedies of Hypocrates Not to play the Timon Hierom is a better Physitian who ordained for certain melancholy men rather to use the fomentations of Hypocrates than to afflict their bodies and distil their brains in other practices You must take very good heed you make not your self a Timâ—n and hate men and life entertaining your self in hypocondriack humours which throw a mind into the gulf of disturbance God
do you call breed them well Behold another vice Some offend through negligence others with too much indulgence You term well-breeding the child to cramme him up to the throat and let him have all he asketh Senseless creature see you not first you do a great injury to God He hath trusted a child in your hand to be bred like a man and you have made a lump of flesh of it a bears whelp and think there is nothing to be done but to lick it that it may grow Secondly it is a base thing to say the Sovereign Creatour having made you a Father Master Directour and Governour over this infant you should forget the character God hath engraven on your face and make your self a slave of a gluttenous belly and an irregular concupiscence Besides you put spurs to his vices to make him run headlong into the precipice you nooze haulters to strangle him you light torches to consume him For what good can be hoped nay what evil not expected from a child bred up in pride and effeminacy Hear Disentienda sunt deliciae quarum mollitie fluxu fidei virtus effeminari solet Tertul. de cultu foemin Tertullian speak Take away the curiosities and superfluities It is not the life of a Christian He hath renounced faith who breedeth his children in riot Is it not a goodly thing to see Hercules spin silk with those hands which were made to vanquish monsters Know God hath put us into the world to hew monsters more pernicious than hydraes or Cerberus and not to make coronets of roses You cannot breed your children in voluptuousness and not thereby render their souls soft and effeminate which quite extinguisheth the flame of a generous spirit and yet you complain that coming to the degrees of maturity they are fit for nothing but to live lazily and pick quarrels But it is no whit to be wondered at It is the tincture you gave them from their most tender years You have made them al their life time to dance to the tune of their own proper wills light fond and childish and now you would put the bridle over their necks and make them lead a serious life Know you not what happened to the horses of the Sybarites an effeminate kind of people who were so intoxicated and addicted to dances and balls that not so much as their horses but learnt to dance In the mean time their enemies awakened them and so closely pursued them that they were enforced to take arms for the defence of their lives They drew into the field a brave squadron of Cavalry the flower and strength of the Citie but a fidler seeing them approch mounted on these dancing horses promised their Adversaries to deliver them into their hands whilest they were dancing And instantly he began to strike up his violin and the horses to bestir themselves in dancing to break all their ranks and put the Army into disorder which shame fully made them become a prey to their enemies Behold O indulgent parents what happeneth to your children You have always bred them in sottishness sports and liberty the fatal plagues of youth when they must come to combate to undertake some brave affair some thing important for the good of their Countrey for the honour of your house for the advancement of themselves they stand eclipsed Nay perhaps it might be tollerable to behold them benummed stupified in worldly affairs but they are deaf blind and dumb in matters concerning God so that whilest you seek to make great and powerfull Lords of them you ere aware have drawn the malediction Genes 3. 14. Supra pectus tuum ventrem tuum gradieris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 70. Interpr of the serpent upon them and made them creep on their bellies as much as to say according to the interpretation of some Fathers to spend their thoughts study and affection upon the care and education of the body to the prejudice of the soul Yet you would have those creatures to be instructed in the law of God How can it be Do you not well know that Moses seeing the Israelites dance with full Exod. 32. Sciebat Dei sermonem non posse audire temulentos bellies about the golden calf brake the tables of the Law If you demand the reason S. Hierom will tell you he knew the Law of God was not for sporters dancers and drunkards and that in the Kingdom of intemperance an eclipse ensues not onely of the Divine law but of nature also I come to the second point which is instruction so much recommended in Scripture If you have Filii tibi sunt erudi illos cura illos à pueritiâ illorum Prov. 7. children saith the Wiseman instruct them and take great care of them from their childhood You must think your children be as Temples of God recommended unto you from the hand of God himself It is an intollerable thing to have good cooks good lacheys good grooms good horse-boys to serve the belly and stable and a father who sends his son to school many times ignorant whether the Master be black or white good or bad mild or harsh religious or wicked If kine or hogs are to be driven into the fields one is sought out who knows the business but to trayn up a child of a good family an idle fellow many times is trusted who hath in him no talent at all but malice and ignorance Fathers and Mothers fear you not God will say unto you My house is forsaken I freed it from evil spirits I withdrew it from the power of devils I purged decked and adorned it I put it into your protection I consigned it into your hands what have you done with it Why have you polluted it and why suffer you it still to lie drenched in ordure You have put the lamb into the wolfs keeping you have given the victim to the slaughter-man you are the cause of his unhappiness you have twisted the coard of his ruine so soon almost as the web of his life Fathers and mothers do well if they become as great Saints as are the Hermits of the desert but if they neglect their child they render themselves guiltie before God of one of the greatest injustices in the world The Scripture in praising the great Patriarch Noe Noë vir justus perfectus in generationibus suis doth not onely say he was a good man in his own person but in his whole race so far as his power extended As much honour and glory as it is to leave a good Citizen to the Common-wealth so much dishonour and infamy it is to afford it ungracious wretches to trouble its repose dis-unite peace and embroyl affairs They are such of whom the Scripture speaketh They shall be nayls in your eyes and launces in Erunt vobis clavi in oculis lâ—nceae in lateribus adversabuntur vobis in terrâ— habitationis vestrae Num. 31. your sides
rich Tell me was it not an honour to King Agathocles who from being the son of a potter raised his fortune to a Throne was it not I say an honour to mingle on his cup-boards earthen vessels with his rich pieces of gold and silver plate that he might not bely his birth Nay so far was he from blushing or from being ashamed at it that he made boast and trophey of it What then would he have done by his poor father if he set such a value upon the mean implements of his cottage And thou wholly Christian as thou art canst not behold without confusion of thy countenance what a great Captain a great King a great States-man sought to proclaim to all the world Contempt of the person of fathers entreth sometimes so far into their souls as it hath transported them into horrible and tragick acts Never have I read any thing upon this subject with more amazement than that mentioned in Justine of a certain African named Cartallus who was by the peoples consent raised to an eminent degree of dignity and casually upon some solemn embassage sent into a place where his father with many other was banished He looking on himself at that time like a peacock gloriously furnished out with the rich ornaments of his employment thought it was not suitable to his honour to admit that his father should so much as see him The unfortunate father became so enraged with this refusal and pride of his son that instantly he raised a sedition and mustering together a tumultuary Army of exiles he fell upon his son although a Magistrate took him condemned him to death presently prepared a high gibbet and attired as he was in gold scarlet with a crown on his head caused him to be fastened to this fatal tree for a strange spectacle What fury of despised nature is this and what butchery Let us pass on to the third tribute obedience which as an Ancient said is the mother of felicities It is the first band of families and chief foundation of Monarchies S. Gregory Nyssen hath a notable observation saying that Moses of set purpose caused the Hebrews to wear ear-rings giving them thereby to understand their beauty and grace was in the ear to wit in obedience and verily in Exodus the people Exod. 32. Tollite inaures filiarum vestrarum auribus asserte ad me Filius noster iste protervus contamax est monitis mostris audire contemnit comessationibus vacat luxuriâ atque convitiis Lapidibus eum obruet populus morietur Deuter. 21. a Aelian var hist lib. 1. beginning to revolt their ear-rings were taken from them as from men unworthy of this priviledge That which is expressed in Deuteronomie is much more bloudy and terrible where the father and mother are permitted to bring forth a disobedient and refractary son in publick and upon their own deposition to cause him to be stoned to death by the people It seems this Law was well understood by a silly Pesant a Mardonian by Nation named Rachones a who being the father of seven sons perceived the youngest of them played the little libertine and unbridled colt What doth he to bring him back into the stable First he endeavoured to cure him with fair words and reasons but finding him to reject all manner of good counsel he bound his hands behind him carried him before a Magistrate accused him and requires he may be proceeded against as a delinquent against nature The Judges who would not discontent this incensed father nor hazard the life of this young man sent them both to the King who at that time was Artaxerxes The good man went thither resolved to seek his sons death where pleading before the King with much servour and forcible reasons Artaxerxes stood amazed at his courage But how can you my friend said he endure to see your son die before your face He being a gardiner as willingly said he as I would pull away leaves from a ranck lettice and not hurt the root The King perceiving this resolution and zeal of justice in the poor man of a gardiner made him a Judge and severely threatened his son with death if his carriage were not better See young man behold wicked son who disobeyest thy father and mother not in a slight matter or of little importance but in such as concerns thy life safety and reputation see what thou maist expect from the justice of God since that of men hath so much severity in this point You dare dispense with your selves in the Laws of piety and Religion not shewing even on festival days any more feeling of God than a beast doth this seem tolerable you haunt the company of buffons wicked and wretched creatures which wast the means that are not yours weaken your body violate your reputation and defile your soul and is not this a crime You make resolutions and frame chymaeraes without advise either of father or mother you bring them into debt you treat clandestine marriages you thrust those alive unto their graves who gave you life and can you think the vengeance of God will ever have leaden feet Faithless and bruitish as you are how many fathers for far less faults have inflicted severities on their children dreadful even to those who read them Marcus Scaurus in the Roman history sent this message to his son who fled with the rest of his Army defeated by the Cimbrians Son you are born of a father who knows either to vanquish or die rather send me your bones than return alive after the death of your honour A father could not endure the flight of a son which was very excusable in a general defeat because it seemed to cast some blemish upon his family and you who surcharge your house with reproach and confusion would you escape unpunished Another father Aulus Fulvius understanding his son had rancked himself in the faction of Catiline a wicked wretch who supported and debaushed all the youth of Rome caused him to be taken in the place and condemned to death and this young man begging pardon with all manner of suppliant intreaties had no other answer but Son I begat you to make war upon Catiline in your Countries quarrel not in Catilines cause to assayl your mother And who can but wonder at another Torquatus that had a son in great employments of the Empire flourishing in honour age and reputation who being accused by the Embassadours of Macedonia to have ill carried himself in their Province when he had it in charge this father with the Senats permission would himself be Judge in the sons cause heard the accusers two whole days together confronted witnesses gave his son full scope to defend himself and to produce all that he could for his justification in the end on the third day he pronounced sentence It having sufficiently been proved unto me that my son Syllanus hath ill acquitted his charge and taken money from the allies of
house he used her not in the quality of a Queen nor a wife but of a poor sacrifice which he caused to be shut up commanding to murder her as often he he fell into any danger of his own life for fear some other should enjoy her after his death shall find the Ladie had most just cause to make him this answer Herod notwithstanding who would not afford such liberty was so moved with these words as it was a great chance he had not laid violent hands upon her shewing by his eyes sparkling with anger his shrill voice and hands lifted up he would proceed to force And as he stamped up and down transported with rage acting his anger like a fencer without Mariamne's reply to any one word the perfidious Salome thought it was now high time to strike her stroke She sent a trusty servant Strange mischief whom she a long time had suborned to cause him to depose a calumny as wicked as ridiculous to wit that Mariamne having a purpose to give Herod a love-drink had addressed her self to him who was cup-bearer to the King to corrupt him with many promises to which he never had given ear For the rest he had such instruction given him that if perhaps Herod should ask what this potion was he should answer without further difficulty it was the Queens invention and that herein she onely required the service of his hand This wicked fellow entered into the chamber in cold bloud and very seriously makes oath hereof whereupon Herod who was already enkindled becoming more enflamed than ever thought within himself he must no longer wonder from whence these his impatiences in love proceeded At that instant he caused an Eunuch to be laid hold on one of the Queens most trusty servants supposing nothing was done without his knowledge He putteth him to the torture causing him to be most cruelly tormented of purpose that his body very feeble not being able to endure the violence of tortures and on the other side having nothing to say against his good Ladie in whose conversation he had never perceived any thing but honour and virtue should for a long time remain in very great perplexities In the end he let a word fall saying he had seen Sohemus talk a long while in secret with Queen Mariamne as framing some relation to her and that after this very time he well perceived she was troubled Herod had no sooner heard this word It is enough said he take him from the torture and let Sohemus be called Sohemus knew nothing what had passed and lived in great contentment having very lately obtained a good government by the Queens recommendations He was wholly amazed they laid hold upon him and would enforce him to confess the discourse which he had with Mariamne during this specious imprisonment But he persisting in denial is massacred in the place Herod retired into his cabbinet Death of Sohemus drinking in deep draughts the gall and poyson of his deadly choller and contriving in his heart the fury which he soon after was to shew in publick For without giving any truce to his spirit he assembled his Prive-Counsel and sendeth for the Queen who expected nothing less than such proceeding This monster who always endeavoured to give colour of justice to his most exorbitant actions beginneth a long speech which he had prepared at leisure and while every one was in horrour and silence not knowing what would be the catastrophe of the Tragedy except the couragious Mariamne who was armed with an invincible constancy against all exigents he speaketh unto them in such like words SIRS It seemeth God will counterpoize the prosperities Oration of Herod against his wife of my state by the misfortunes of my house I have found safety in winds and tempests in so many painfull voyages as I have undertaken so many thorny affairs which I have ended to find a storm in my own Palace You are not ignorant how I have cherished the whole family of Hircanus within my bosom in a lamentable time when it was in decay and confusion for recompence whereof as if I had hatched the egs of a serpent I have got nothing but hisses and poyson God knoweth how often I have dissembled and how often I haue cured my self by patience Notwithstanding I cannot so harden my heart but that it may be softened and ever become penetrable to a new wound Behold the Queen my wife who following the steps of her mother is always ready to disquiet my repose As soon as I was returned from the voyage so full of danger as you know I brought her news of the happy success of my affairs She shewing the little account she made both of my state and person at that time heard me with so great disdain that what endeavour of courtesie soever I used never could I extort from her pride one good word And afterward not contenting herself therewith she proceeded to very bloudy injuries which I love better to conceal for the honour of yours ears and come to deeds Behold one of my faithful servants who testifieth she would have suborned him to give me a love-potion to wit a poyson of purpose to turn my brain or take away the life which God reserveth for me to acknowledge the many good offices which you all in general and each one in particular have afforded me Thus you see how I am returned my head crowned with lawrel honoured and courted by the prime men of the world to serve as a sport for the malice and a mark for the treachery of a woman whom I cannot reclaim by the force of love nor benefits no more than if she were a Lyoness Consider what you ought to do I deliver her into the bands of your justice not willing to direct my self herein by my own advise to the end posterity may know that my proper interests are ever seated beneath the truth Herod speaking these words would seem less passionate putting all tortures upon his natural disposition plyable enough But he notwithstanding so vehemently fretted that all the Counsel knew well he was in heat of choller and that his purpose was no other but to ruin the poor Queen She is summoned to answer at that instant without an Advocate The glorious Amazon Grand-child of the Machabees Admirable modesty of the poor Queen and Inheritrix of their patience being presented before this wicked tribunal 28. years before the coming of the Son of God did then what he afterward taught us most remarkably by his example Never from her mouth was heard one syllable of impatience never did she use one sole word of recrimination and being able to declare to the Counsel a thousand and a thousand outrages received by herself and the persons of her nearest allies she swalloweth all these bitternesses with a patience more than humane Onely saith she that as concerning the essential Article of this accusation to wit The love-potion which was objected against
not the hope of her husbands libertie having at that time prepared a new battery to dispose her father in law to clemency heard the tidings of the death of Alexander and withal of her own widdow-hood She a good space remained in a trance then mute as a statue last of all a little recollecting her spirits and casting out a sigh from the bottom of her heart Wo is me saith she I thought not Herod would have proceeded thus far Tell him the sacrifice of his cruelty is not finished for behold one part of the Victim is yet alive Alexander my dear Alexander who for ever in my heart shall survive needs must you end your innocent life by this infamous punishment Must you have him for executioner whom nature allotted you for a father At the least I might have been called to receive the last groans of thy pensive soul to embosom thy final words and enchase them in my heart Then turning herself to two little children which she had by her sides Poor orphans what a father have they snatched from you Alas you are timely taught the trade of misery The poor Ladie night and day disconsolately afflicted herself and being no longer able to endure the Court of Judea no more than a Lyons den she was sent back into Cappadocia to the King her father Herod kept with him the two sons under colour of their education but in effect to establish himself fearing least their name should serve for a pretext of some revolt O the providence of God! It seemeth you much slacken to fall upon guilty heads These young Princes sons of so virtuous a mother so well bred so well educated accomplished with so many excellent parts declared lawfull successours to the Crown these Princes who had been seen not above five years before to return in triumph from Rome to Jerusalem like the two twin-stars who guilded all Palestine with their rays these Princes that promised so many Tropheys so many wonders behold them in the sweetness of their years in the flower of their hopes at the gate of the Temple of honour for a small liberty of speech unworthily massacred in stead of a Diadem on their heads a halter about their necks and caused to be strangled by two Sergeants that so they might breath out their Royal souls under the hand of a hangman Behold the brave apprentiship which Herod exercised three year together about the time of the birth of our Saviour to prepare himself for actions much more enormous It was said of Silla that if Mercy had come upon the earth in humane shape he had slain her But Herod did much worse There remained nothing for him after so many slaughters but to embrew himself in the bloud of fourteen thousand Innocents and attempt upon the Son of God himself which presently after happened and of which every one by relation of the Scripture taketh notice It is time to behold the recompence those wicked Antipater the son of Herod from the too of the wheel souls received for having dipped their fingers in so much bloud and so many tragedies to the end we therein may observe the proceedings of the Divine Providence which spareth not first sleightly to touch and assay by some visitation those which it afterwards reserveth for the eternal pains of hell The detestable Antipater who had directed all the passages of this wickedness seeing the two Heirs of the Kingdom removed quite away by his practises thought he had already a foot in the Throne He continueth his cunning and malice ever masking himself with the veyl of piety as if he had an unspeakable care of the life and state of his father while he in the mean time had no other aim but quickly to make himself absolute Master of all fearing lest the disposition of Herod which was very fleeting might alter and for this cause he went up and down daily practizing very great intelligences But he was hated by the people like a Tiger and the souldiers who saw him embrewed in the bloud of his brothers so beloved by all the Nobility could in no sort relish him Above all the people were extreamly touched with compassion when these little children of Alexander and Aristobulus were led through the streets who had been bred in Herods Court. All the world beheld these poor Orphans with a weeping eye and with sorrow remembred the disasters of their fathers Antipater well saw it was fit for him to withdraw himself and decline envy and not sindge his wings in the candle fearing his father in process of time who in such matters was subtile enough might discover his purposes Notwithstanding he was so secret that he avoided to ask leave of Herod to sequester himself for fear to minister matter of suspition to him But he caused letters closely to be written from Rome to his father by friends whom he had wrought for that purpose which imported all he desired to wit that it was necessary he should be sent to Rome to break the enterprizes which the Arabians plotted against the state of Judea Herod having received these letters instantly dispatched his son Antipater with a goodly train rich presents and above all the Will of Herod which declared him King after the death of his father Behold all he could desire in the world But as the eye of God never sleepeth and surprizeth the crafty in their own policies it happeneth the mischievous Pheroras who had acted his part as we have seen in this lamentable tragedy departed this life by a sudden death and poysoned as it is thought by the maid-servant whom he had married Herod being requested to come into the house of Conspiracy of Antipater discovered his brother to take examinations upon the fact unexpectedly learneth how his son Antipater had given poyson to the dead Pheroras at such time as he was out of favour to poyson the King his father whilest he was at Rome that he speedily might return into Palestine with a Crown on his head This was deposed even by the son of the Comptroller of Antipaters house and circumstanced with grounds and particulars so express that there was not any cause of doubt Herod demanded where this poyson was He answered it was in the hands of the widow of his brother Pheroras She being examined upon the fact goeth up into a higher chamber feigning to fetch it and being mounted to the top of the house she through despair fell down headlong with a purpose to kill herself But God suffered not the fall to be mortal they much heartned her and promised all impunity if she freely would deliver the truth She telleth that true it was her husband had received the poyson of Antipater and had some inclination to give the blow but that a little before his death he repented himself and detested such wickedness and with these words she drew out the poyson which afterwards was known in the death of delinquents to be very mortal At
circumstances of his crime Behold you not saith he a bruitish stupiditie to conspire against your father having as yet the bloud of your brothers before your eyes and all the assurances of the scepter in your hands Needs must you perpetrate a parricide to make your self possessour of a Crown which was acquired for you by so solemn and authentical a Testament Look you after nothing but the bloud of your father to set a seal upon it yea of a father whose life is so dear to all bonest men and of nature so indulgent to love his children that have never so little merit An ingratitude able to make Heaven blush and earth tremble under your feet An ingratitude worthy that all the elements should conspire to punish it This man ceased not to discharge against him words of fire with a masculine eloquence and the miserable Antipater prostrated himself on the ground and prayed God to do a miracle in favour of him to make manifest his innocency since he found himself so oppressed by the malice of men It is wonder saith the Historian that those who during their life have believed no God would yet acknowledge him at their death This man lived as if there were neither Heaven God nor Angels and now seeing himself in the horrours of death prayed the Divinity to excuse his crime Varus saith unto him My friend expect not extraordinarie signs from Heaven in your favour but if you have any good reasons boldly produce them The King your father desireth nothing more than your justification Thereupon he stood confounded like a lost man Varus taking the poison that had been before represented to the Councel caused it to be given to an offender already condemned who instantly died and all the assembly arose as it is said with manifest condemnation of Antipater His father esteeming him absolutely convicted required of him his complices he onely named Antiphilus who brought the poison saying this wicked man was cause of all his unhappiness It was a great chance Herod at that time had not caused the sentence of death to be executed upon him but according to his ordinary proceeding he resolveth to inform Caesar of all that had passed and to send him the whole process formally drawn to order all at his pleasure In the mean time Antipater is streightly imprisoned expecting hourly as a miserable victim the stroke of death Herod at that time was about seventy years of age Horrible state of Herod in his lattâ—r days and already felt through imbecillity of body the approach of the last hour It was a very hard morsel for him to digest Never man better loved this present life Very freely would he have forsaken his part of the next world eternally to enjoy this though he in effect was therein most unhappy Towards the end of his days he grew so harsh so wayward then so collerick and furious that his houshold servants knew not how to come about him they handled him in his Palace as an old Lion chained with the fetters of an incurable malady He perswaded himself he was hated of all the world and was therein no whit deceived as having given too great occasion thereof The people almost forgot their duty with impatience and could no longer endure him As soon as his sickness was bruited abroad Judas The golden Eagle thrown down and Matthias the principal Doctours of the Jewish Law who had the youth at command perswaded the most valiant of their sect to undergo a bold adventure which was that Herod having re-edified and adorned the Temple of Jerusalem and as he had always shewed himself for the accommodation of his own estate to be an Idolater of Caesars fortune to set upon the principal gate the Romane Eagle all glittering in gold This much offended the sight of the Jews who could not endure any should place portraictures of men or beasts or any other figures in their Temples so much they abhorred such monsters which their fathers had seen adored in Aegypt Behold why this Judas and Matthias who were the chief thinking the sickness of Herod would help them began earnestly to exhort the most valiant of the young men who every day frequented their houses to take in hand the quarrel of God according to the spirit of their Ancestours and to beat down this abomination which they had fixed upon their Temple That the peril was not now so great Herod having enough to do to wrastle with his own pain but if it should happen they lost their lives to die in so glorious an act was to be buried in the midst of palms and triumphs There needed no more to encourage the youth Behold a troup of the most adventurous came forth about the midst of the day armed with axes and hatchets who climbed to the top of the Temple and hewed in pieces the Eagles in the sight of the whole world Judas and Matthias being there present and serving for trumpets in this exploit The noise hereof instantly came to the Palace and the Captain of the Guard ran thither with the most resolute souldiers He much feared some further plot and that this defacing of the Eagle might prove a preamble to some greater sedition But at the first as he began to charge the people retired which the more encouraged him for pursuit Fourty young men of those who had done the feat were taken in the place Judas and Matthias who accompanied them deeming it a thing unworthy to flie away and that at the least they ought to follow them in peril whom they had brought into danger Being presented to Herod and demanded from whence this boldness proceeded they freely answered Their plot had been fully agreed upon among themselves and if it were to do again they would be in readiness to put it in execution in regard they were more bound to Moses than Herod Herod amazed at this resolution and fearing greater commotions caused them to be secretly conveyed to Jerico whither himself after though crazy was carried and assembling the principal spake to them out of his litter making a long narration of the good offices he had done in favour of the whole Nation of the Temple he had built for them of the ornaments with which he had enriched it adding he had done in few years what their Asmonean Kings could not perform in six-score And for recompence of his piety at noon day they had hewed down with notable boldness a holy gift which he had raised in the Temple wherein God was more interessed than himself for which he required a reason These now fearing any further to incense him declined the danger and put him upon their companions leaving them to the pleasure of the King At that time the High-priesthood is taken from Matthias and another Matthias who was held to have been the authour of the sedition burned alive that night with his companions at which time an eclipse of the moon was seen that made this spectacle
Intelligence who had left the Heavenly Orbs to come to be enchased in this beauteous body and converse with men It was said her father well read in the knowledge of stars foretold the good fortune which should happen to her and that making his will he left all his wealth to two sons he had to wit Genas and Valerius making no mention of his daughter so much beloved whereat she being sad Let Heaven alone saith he dear daughter your fortune will be good more shall you have than your brothers Thus man is often pleased to mix the verity of histories with some fables to give reputation to predictions of Mathematicians as if the stars had some power upon that which absolutely dependeth on the pleasure of God or as if one must study much in the book of the planets to say that a maid bright as a star and wise as Minerva was to come to great fortune Howsoever it be as soon as her fathers eyes was shut the wicked brothers greedy as Griphons used their sister most inhumanely Interest had neither eyes for the beauty nor ears for the eloquence of Athenais behold her despoiled and driven from her fathers dwelling enforced to retire to the house of a poor Aunt she had in the Citie of Athens She must make this ship-wrack to arrive to a good haven she were lost had she not had such a loss This Aunt gave her notice of another kins-woman in Constantinople They both resolve to visit her and mediate something by her means Behold they are now in the capital Citie of the Empire not well knowing who brought them thither but God who was their guid secretly contrived this work The good kins-woman of Constantinople competently entertaineth and lodgeth them very glad she might exercise her charity on a creature so well deserving The Citie was much pleased with the gracious acceptance Pulcheria gave to all afflicted persons and the justice she rendered to those who were oppressed by violence The good women cousins of Athenais thought they should not do amiss to complain to the Princess of the wrong she had received from her brothers and espying their opportunity they both took her along with them It was not now needfull to beg much the favour of admittance the maiden bare her letters of recommendation on her forehead Pulcheria at her entrace was dazled with the brightness of her aspect and when she began to unloose her tongue never was Syren so attractive with songs as she with words Pulcheria not onely heard with patience but greediness still fearing she would make an end of her discourse such pleasure she took therein Many questions she asked her and above all very particularly enquired of her kindred how she had been bred and whether she were a virgin which having judiciously found according to her desire she put the business into suspense to hear it again another time by the course of audience ordinarily given and from that time she had a strange design in her heart to make her wife of the Emperour her brother Politicians who will measure all things by their own ell and penetrate into the purposes of the whole world judge this manner of proceeding was a great wisdom in Pulcheria ever desirous to sway and possess the spirit of her brother She foresaw if he married some great Princess she might bring with the titles and Crowns of her Ancestours pride and disdain into the house and that so many alliances as she might have might divert Theodosius his mind on many objects That she being of noble extraction would rule without a companion and therefore it was better still to hold the highest place in the government That she should make choice of some virtuous and handsom maid though of mean parentage to frame her as her creature dispose of her where she best pleased and then last of all conform her to her own will Thus many judge of others intentions by their own dispositions But it is much more likely Pulcheria a creature wholly celestial guided herself by other motives the honour of God pietie peace and her brothers contentment He already had signified to her he would not captivate himself in an enforced and ceremonious marriage and that he desired no other portion with the woman he should marry but virtue and beauty which was the cause the Princess supposed this maiden was fitly sent from Heaven in the time he was in treaty of marriage She failed not to make relation to her brother concerning an Athenian maid who was presented to her upon a suit in law which she commenced against her brothers who unworthily had used her and was indeed the most beautifull innocent and best spoken creature which might be found throughout the whole Empire She thereunto added no other thing at this time It is enough to put matches to the fire without commanding them to burn Theodosius upon the report his sister made of this incomparable beauty asked if there were no means to see her Pulcheria answereth she had given day to hear her cause The Emperour whether it were he used not to be present in such audiences or whether he would hear her speak to her own sex with the more natural propriety fearing he should give her too much respect if he presented himself in judgement made his sister to sit in the tribunal himself resolving to see all that should pass through a secret window prepared for this purpose Athenais faileth not to come on the day and hour assigned to plead her cause Then was plainly to be seen the Empire which humane beauty and an eloquent tongue have over earthly powers The confident maid having before broken the ice when first she spake to the Princess speaks now to her with much liberty MADAME I shall have cause to love my shipwrack Athenais pleadeth her cause all my life time since it hath given me opportunitie to arrive at your feet as to the port where all miseries are poured out to be changed into felicities Your Majesty may see the violence of my brothers is great since it hath constrained me to undertake this voyage with much toyl and now presently to trouble your ears with my complaints which the softness of my nature should cause me to smother were it not they are extorted by a powerfull hand which is that of necessitie Had my brothers granted me so much of my fathers goods which was mean enough yet for my enablement sufficient but one sole silly cottage I patiently would have satisfied my self without pressing their fortunes But they have not left me one inch of land and which is more have driven me from my fathers house where I ever have inhabited with exceeding much incivility which I had rather dissemble it being not my intention to accuse my own bloud to which I always have wished as much good as to my self By their own saying I have no other fault for which Lought to be banished and despoiled but certain priviledges of
to declare him Successour in his Empire Pulcheria married him onely under the title of wedlock with mutual consent of both parties to keep virginity This woman was made to govern men and Empires She was already fifty years old and had mannaged the State about thirty seven Behold she beginneth a new reign with the best man of the world who onely had the name of a husband and in effect served and respected her with as much regard and humility as if he had been her own son She could not in the world have made a better choice This great man was naturally enclined to piety justice compassion towards the necessities of mankind He was very valiant for he Marvellous accident of Martianâ—s had all his life time been bred among arms and during his Empire no barbarous Nation durst stir so much was he feared It was a wonder by what byass God led him directly to the height of worldly honours He was of base extraction a Thracian born of a good wit and a body very robustious which made him find a sweetness in war He going to Philippolis to be enrolled in the list of souldiers by chance it happened he found a dead body upon the way newly massacred This good man who was very compassionate had pitie thereon and approched to give it burial but this charity was like to have cost him his life for being busily employed to enterre this body one laid hold on his throat as if he had been the murderer and that he made this grave for no other intention but to bury his own guilt The poor man defendeth himself in his innocency as well as he could but conjectures prevail beyond his defence He was now under the sword of the executioner when by good hap the homicide was produced who had done the deed convicted by his own confession This man thrust his head into the place of the innocent and Martianus brought his away to behold it one day glitter under the rubies and diamonds of the Imperial Crown This was not without long trials of his ability which transferred him from degree to degree through all the hazards of a long and painfull warfare He was then mature in years in account one of the greatest Captains of the Empire Behold why Pulcheria could not be deceived in her choice This good husband who held his wife as a Saint was wholly directed by her counsels and she daily purified his soul in religion and policie He became in short time so brave and perfect in this school that he was accounted one of the most accomplished Emperours who had born the scepter since Constantine God well shewed his Good success of Martianus love and faithfull protection towards Martianus when in the second year of his Empire he diverted the furious Attila from the East who even now roared over the Citie of Constantinople as a thunder-stroke before it brake in shivers This Attila was a Scythian a great Captain who promised to himself the Empire of the world and for that cause had taken the field with an Army of 700000. men composed of strange and hydeous Nations who had gone out of their countrey like a scum of the earth ranging themselves under the conduct of Attila for the great experience he had in the mannage of arms He notwithstanding was a little man harsh violent his breast large his head great the eye of a Pismeer his nose flat his beard close shaved beginning already to wax grisled He walked with so much state as if he thought the earth had been unworthy to bear him and â—â—ough meerly barbarous the desire of honour so possessed him that being one day at Milan and seeing pictures where the Roman Emperours were represented who had Scythians his Countrey-men cast at their feet was so enraged that instantly he sent for a painter and caused himself to be drawn in a very eminent golden throne and clothed in royal robes and the Emperours of Rome and Constantinople bearing bags on their shoulders filled with crowns then made them to be poured at his feet alluding hereby to the vast sums of money he in good earnest extorted from the Empire and which Theodosius gave him afterwards to divert the course of his arms thinking that speedily to dispatch such an enemy out of his territories it was onely fit to make for him a bridge of silver This man seemed created to shake the pillars of the earth and for that cause made himself to be called The scourge of God There was no infant so little in the arms of the nurse who hearing Attilas named did not think he saw a wolf He considering that Martianus a most valiant man at that time swayed the Eastern Empire durst not come near but hastened to fall upon the West where Valentinian the Younger reigned son of Honorius cousin of Theodosius and Pulcheria a wanton and dissolute Prince as you shall understand in the course of this history loosing his life and Empire by his sensuality So it was that Attila attempting first upon the Gaules found work enough for the Romanes French and Gothes not unlike dogs who after they have worried one another rally themselves together to resist the wolf by a common consent heartened each other under the conduct of Aetius Moroneus and Thyerry against this Barbarian and having given him battel defeated one part of his army in the Catalonian plains but he failed not to pack a way creeping along like a great serpent which loaden with redoubled blows given by peasants hath received a maim in his body and notwithstanding saved his head God who derideth the proud and in his Amphitheater is pleased to make not Lions to fight with bulls but the weakness of the earth against the most insolent greatness reserved the conquest of this monster to Religious persons and women It is a wonder he coming to Rome as to the period and butt of his ambitions all enflamed with great desires in this clattering of harness and loud noise of Armies all the world trembling under the scourge the brave Pope S. Leo went out to seek him and preached so well unto him that being come thither as a lion he returned as a lamb for Attila entertained him with marvellous respect So had he done before to S. Lupus Bishop of Troyes granting him whatsoever he could desire All his Captains were much amazed for among other titles this Hun had the name of being inexorable to suppliants and it then being curiously asked of him who made him at that time loose his furie he confessed he saw a venerable person by Leo's side it was the great Saint Peter who threatned him with death if he condescended not to what the good Pope desired of him Attila then leaveth Italie and passeth into Sclavonia without being wished for again but by one sole woman Alas who would believe it Honoria sister of the Emperour cousin germane to Pulcheria fell in love with this monster I know not what
she had seen in his picture which commonly was painted with the horns of a bull on his fore-head it was not in my opinion his fair eyes nor goodly nose which made him sought after for he was one of the most deformed creatures of the world Yet he notwithstanding was reputed a great Captain and a puissant King This blind Princess so breathed the air of ambition that though he were wholly Pagan and hydeous she no whit was affrighted for verily her passion was so much enkindled that she secretly dispatched one of her Eunuches with express letters beseeching Attila he would demand her in marriage of the Emperour her brother and she should account it a great honour to be his wife This Scythian entered into a much greater estimation of his own worth than ever beholding himself sued unto by a Romane Ladie of noble extraction and thereupon grew so eager that he immediately addresseth an Embassadour to the Emperour Valentinian to require his sister of him in marriage and the moity of his Kingdom otherwise he was not gone back so far but he would return with his Army to enforce his obedience All the world was now strucken with terrour when by good chance he saw himself for some pressing occasions engaged to return into his Countrey where all these lightenings were quickly turned into a shower of bloud After he had sweat under harness like another Hannibal who in the end of his conquests was bruitishly besotted in the bosom of a Capuan Ladie this haughty King of Hunnes as soon as he came into his Countrey wholly engulphed himself in wine and love Besides a great rabble of creatures which he had to satisfie his lust he became in his old days passionately enamoured of a gentlewoman named Hildecon whom he married with sports feasts and excessive alacrity That evening after he had freely drunk according to his custom he retired into his nuptial chamber with his new spouse and the next morning was found dead in his bed floating in a river of bloud who had drawn bloud from all the veins of the world Some said it was an eruption of bloud which Death of Attila choaked him but others thought Hildecon lead thereunto one knoweth not by what spirit nor by whom sollicited handled her pretended husband as Judith did Holofernes Behold how God punisheth the proud A despicable dwarf who commanded over 700000. men who forraged every where environed as with a brazen wall who boasted in the lightenings of his puissant arms who razed Cities all smoking in bloud and flames who wasted Provinces who destroyed Empires who would not tread but on Crowns and Scepters behold him the very night of his nuptials full of drink massacred by a woman having not so much as the honour to die by the hand of a man The same night that Attila yielded up the ghost in his own bloud our Saviour appeared in a dream to the good Emperour Martianus and shewing him a great bowe all shivered in pieces saith Martianus behold the bowe of Attila which I have broken thou hast no further cause to fear thy Empire Thus you see how God fighteth for the pious even while they sleep This scourge being so fortunately diverted Martianus and Pulcheria attended with all their power to the consolation and ornament of the universal Church under the direction of the great Pope Saint Leo whom their Majesties most punctually obeyed At that time were seen the reliques to march in triumph into Constantinople of the good Patriarch Flavianus massacred by the practices of hereticks at that time the exiled Bishops were with honour re-established in their seats At that time the Councel of Chalcedon was celebrated where the Emperour Martianus though wholly a souldier made an Oration first in Latin for the honour of the Romane Church then in Greek his natural language At that time heresie was fully condemned and impudence surcharged with confusion At that time an infinite number of goodly Canons were confirmed by the Councel and strongly maintained by the authority of the Emperour At that time justice was fixed in the height of perfection Briefly at that time the whole world was infinitely comforted by the good order and liberalities of this holy Court It was an admirable Empire and a happy marriage and nothing could be desired more in this match but immortality But the holy Virgin Pulcheria being about fifty years of age not so much loaden with years as merits wearied out with continual travel and care which she had endured almost fourty years in the mannage of affairs found her repose in exchange of the Court of Constantinople for that of Paradise She died in a most pure virginity which she carefully had preserved all her life time leaving the poor for her heirs who were her delight after she had built in her own life time five Churches and among the rest one to the honour of the most Blessed Virgin Marie which surpasseth all the other in magnificence besides many hospitals and sepulchres for pilgrimes Torches made of aromatick wood cast out their odoriferous exhalations when they are almost wasted and the virtuous Pulcheria made all the good odours of her life evaporate in the last instant of her death She who had lived as the Bee in the tastfull sweetness of purity died as the Phenix in the Palms not of Arabia but of conquests which she had obtained over the enemies of our nature We have here annexed her Picture and Elogie AVGVSTA AEL PVLCHERIA PULCHERIA FLA. THEODOSII JUNIORIS SOROR AUGUSTA VIRGO ET CONJUX AUGUSTORUM FILIA SOROR NEPTIS UXOR PROPUGNATRIX PONTIFICUM MAGISTRA IMPERATORVM CVSTOS FIDEI MVNIMEN ORTHODOXORVM ECCLESIAE ET IMPERII DECVS NOVA HELENA NOVVM ORBIS MIRACVLVM ANNO CHRISTI CLIII AETATIS LV. IMPERII XXXIX AD COELESTEM AVLAM PROFICISCITVR Upon the picture of PULCHERIA A Golden Virgin in an iron Age Who trampled under foot infernal rage A barren wife a fruitfull maid unstain'd That all the world within her heart contain'd Mother of people Mistress over Kings brings And who 'twixt Church and Law firm union She in herself bright Scepters did behold Joyn'd to the Cross Altars to Crowns of gold The married life unto virginitie And glorious greatness to humilitie If virtue were a substance to be seen Well might we here suppose this happy Queen Should lend her body that it outward may Resplendent lustre to the world display GReat-ones may here behold the shortest way to the Temple of Honour is to pass by that of Virtue Never woman was more honoured in her life never woman more glorious in her death That great Pope S. Leo S. Cyril and all the excellent men both of the East and West have employed their pens in her honour So magnificent and noble acclamations were made to her in Councels that nothing would be wished more glorious A little before her death in the Councel of Chalcedon they cried out Long live the Empress most Sacred Long live
protest if it were to do again I had rather die in The life of Hugo a Monastery covered with leaprousie than with the scarlet robe of a Cardinal Yet notwithstanding this man had been so little idle that besides the Concordances of the Bible which he composed and the Commentaries he made upon the whole Corps of holy Scripture he so couragiously employed himself in the exercise of good works that being drawn out of the excellent Order of S. Dominick he retained all his former virtues which found no change in him but that they added to their native beauty the lustre of authority I speak this not to inform Prelates from whom I should receive instruction but to represent to so many of the young Nobility as we now daily behold advanced to Ecclesiastical charges the peril there is in Prelacies which are not guided by the paths of a good conscience It is a monstrous thing said holy S. Bernard to hold the highest place and have the lowest courage Bern. de consid lib. 1. cap. 7 the first Chair and the last life a tongue magnificent and a hand slothfull much noise about you and little fruit the countenance grave and actions light great authority and no more constancy than a weather-cock It were a better sight to behold an Ape on the house top and smoke in a candlestick than a man dignified without merit On the contrary part when science and virtue agree with Nobility to make up a good Church-man it is so glorious a spectacle that it may be said God to produce it on earth hath taken a pattern from himself in Heaven I wish no more faithfull witnesses than this Prelate which I shall present unto you in this first Treatise after I have made a brief Summary of precepts which I have purposely comprised in very few pages to render them the readier for the understanding well knowing there are store of books largely enough dilating on this subject the length of which I have avoided to attend the matter I wish it may have an effect in your hearts worthy of your courage that honouring your dignity for virtue virtue may enoble you with titles of true glorie THE HOLY COURT SECOND TOME THE PRELATE The first SECTION That it is convenient the Nobilitie should govern the Church I Begin by the Altar to measure the Aeternitas mundi ex obedientiâ ad intelligentiam motricem Apudi Matthiam de Viennâ qui liber impressus anno 1482. Temple of the Holy Court and set a Prelate before your eyes who bare Nobility into the house of God and there furnished himself with all the virtues which made him speak like an Oracle and live as a true image of the Divinity The Platonists say the whole order of the world dependeth on Intelligences which bear sway in the motion of the first Heaven and we in imitation of them may say all the good of Christendom proceeds from the examples of Ecclesiastical men to whom the Son of God hath consigned his authority on their brows his word in their mouths his bloud and Church into their hands For if bees engendred of the body of a bull carry in their entrails the very form of that bull from whence they are derived by a much more just title the people Vlysses Aldobran de apibus will bear the marks of those whom God hath given them for Doctours and Fathers whether it be by correspendence of nature through custom or by imitation which ever hold a very great predominance over spirits disposed to receive their impressions Behold the cause why a Prelate who liveth conform to his profession imprinteth the seal of the Son of God on all those souls he governeth and produceth himself in as many objects as he hath imitatours of his virtues As on the contrary part he who liveth ill in great Nobility and dignity is a Seraphin in appearance but a Seraphin without eyes without heart without hands which hath wings of a profane fire able to burn the Propitiatory if God afford not his helping hand And forasmuch as we at this day see the Nobility aspire to Ecclesiastical charges and many fathers to dispose their children thereunto sometimes with more fervour than consideration it hath caused me to undertake this Treatise for the Nobility which dedicate themselves to the Church as well to shew the purity of intention they ought to exercise therein as to give them a fair discovery of the goodly and glorious actions they ought to pursue in the practice thereof I here will first offer you a simple draught which I afterward intend to adorn with the greatness of S. Ambrose as with more lively colours Plato rejoyced to behold Princes and Governours of Common-wealths to become Philosophers and we have cause to praise God when we see the children of Noble houses to dispose themselves to Priesthood not by oblique and sinister ways but with all the conditions which their bloud requireth and sacred dignity exacteth in so noble a subject Why should we deny them Myters Crosiers and eminency in the Church So far is their birth from ministering any occasions of the contrary that it rather affordeth them favour both to undertake such charges with courage and discharge their conscience with all fidelity The reasons hereof are evident For first we must aver that by how much the more honourable the charges are so much the rather they are proper for such as make profession of honour provided always on the other side they have qualities suitable to those ministeries they pretend to exercise And are there any in the world more ambitious of honour than Noblemen Ostentation is the last shirt they put off and where can you find a more solid and eminent honour than that which is derived from the lawfull administration of Ecclesiastical functions Aristotle saith Truths which transmit themselves Arist lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Xenophon l. 4. de factis dictis Socratis tribuit etiam Socrati Strabo Geograph l. 14. Aelian l. 14. c. 34. Var. Eus in Chrō Agathias histor l. 2 c. through the common sense of every man get into credit as it were by the decree of nature Now such hath been the esteem of all Nations that Kingdoms and Common-wealths being established upon Religion and temporal jurisdiction as on two columns Religion so much the more excelleth politick government as things divine transcendently surmount humane And for this cause favours priviledges and preheminences have ever been given to Priests in the greatest and most flourishing Monarchies and Common-wealths of the world as we may see in Histories and in the policie of the Aegyptians Assyrians Chaldeans Medes Persians Grecians Romans Gauls and other Nations The honour of Priesthood gained so much on the hearts of all people that the Monarchs of the earth seemed not to rule but with one arm if they made not in one and the same person the alliance of Priesthood and Royalty so that oftentimes
are not frustrated of what appertains to them by this article There be none but the Priests of the living God who are deprived of common right because they are vowed to service of the publick Their manners most innocent are not punished but their degree as if it held the rank of crime That which a superstitious widow bequeatheth to sacrificers of Idols shall remain inviolable what a Religious widow leaves by Will to a Priest of the eternal Religion shall be condemned as a nullitie I speak not this now by way of expostulation but to shew how I suppress lawfull complaints by strength of patience They answer they touch not legacies given to the Church in general And I require of them who ever hath robbed the riches of their Temples Christians have heretofore been bereaved their substance which is the marrow of men of ayr which is common to all living creatures of earth which none ever have denied to the dead since even the enraged sea hath oft-times sent back the bodies of our Martyrs to the haven as it were to give them burial I notwithstanding say not a word nor do I now accuse any man of crueltie the condemnation whereof the victorie of the Cross hath gained of the whole world But if a piece of land be seized from a Southsayer who contrary to all Religion holdeth wealth given in favour of Religion all the world must be summoned with an alarm If they will possess lands by our examples let them imitate the charitie we practice for the publick Where are the prisoners they have redeemed the poor they have fed the banished they have succoured Of all our wealth we nought retain but faith the rest is spent in the necessities of men and they think it reasonable to employ it in massacre of beasts to see if they have not the death of Princes in their entrails Is not this insupportable Yet notwithstanding their Gods saith he have revenged An answer concerning the death on our heads the injurie done to their Priests by a general famin That is it which hath caused us to eat roots barks of trees which hath made us shake oaks to eat acorns and envie hogs their food since we unjustly detain the sustenance of men Behold great prodigies and which never happened to the Gentiles To whom doth Symmachus think he tels these fables To us who know the Pagans were heretofore so accustomed to eat acorns that for this onely cause deified their oaks It is possible their Gods should appoint that for punishment which these have so oft bought with price of incense bloud of beasts And then what injustice were it that for a small handfull of sacrificers South sayers who pretend to be interessed herein these cruel Divinities should take revenge by a general desolation of all Provinces How should they so long stand with arms across in the ruins of so many Temples fallen on their Idols to come to contest with us upon a just retention of the superfluities of a silly Sacrificer Behold now alreadie how many years the Pagan Sect hath been declining hath any one seen for all this the river Nilus overflow to revenge what hath passed at Rome since the conquest of Egypt hath been tolerated under the arms of the Cross And if these Gods have this last year avenged their injuries enforcing us to feed on acorns why this present year when the contempt of their name is much greater than ever have they not made us eat thorns The living God be praised who busbandeth good evil for us with a most wise oeconomie we have seen the billocks smile under the beautie of vines we have beheld the earth curled with ears of corn and to yield us so plentifull harvests that they have given joy to some admiration to others and satisfaction to the whole world Yea we can say the last year hath not been so barren but that it hath left in many Provintes marks of the fruitfulness thereof The Gauls have been more enriched than ever the Sclavons have sold corn which they never sowed The Grisons have had such store that they have given to their neighbours more cause of envie than compassion and those who were friends in a great scarcitie are made enemies in large fertilitie Genova and Venice have tasted the commodities of the fruits of autumn and in a word the year hath not been every where so prodigious as the eloquence of the Governour Nay these objections are more tolerable but that which we cannot endure nor dissemble with your Christian Majesties is that the Gentiles out of braverie dare affirm they offer sacrifices to their Gods in your names and they protect you Who hath given them this commission Who makes them account your connivences so criminal as to take them for commandments Let them guard their defenders whom they have hitherto ill protected and let them not presume their Gods being so feeble for preservation of those who yield them such honour should be able to shield others who handle them with such contempt Yet must we saith the Governour defend the ancient A reply concerning the antiquity of Paganism Religion Nothing is elder than the truth which hath seen the world in its cradle but a false Religion the more ancient the more dangerous it is since it is an antiquitie of errours the presumption whereof time doth augment Virtues are not measured by the ell of times but the greatness of perfections If we in like manner will consider the works of nature we shall find the last to be the best The world as you say was nought els in the beginning but an assembly of little atomies which flying in the ayr wove one within another the web of this great work afterward it became a confused mass full of horrour darknes till such time as the great work-man came to separate the elements adorn the heavens with lamps distend light over the face of this universe Then the earth disarraying it self as from a robe of sorrow seemed to admire the sun it had never seen Consider you not how the day at its birth disperseth darkness with a little dawning of brightness which insensibly increaseth till the time it discovereth it self in the glittering light and fervours of the mid-day Behold you not how the moon which monthly waxeth and waneth now seemeth lost to us then shows her self as it were a little threed streight she becomes a well-formed crescent afterward in the proportion that she looketh on the sun she is augmented and lastly composeth for us a great globe of light Know you not how the earth was before rude not having felt the iron coulter but so soon as the husbandly labourer began to exercise a power upon it and cultivate the barren plains they took upon them a much other aspect for mollifying in this tillage all which was wild they spred out unto us grapes and harvests where we before had seen nought els but nettles
was seen to shine in his face which was the cause every one desired to speak to him for his conversation nor was any one weary of his company Augustine having met with this Simplicianus whom he called the Man of God throughly openeth his heart unto him relating all the disturbances of his life passed Simplicianus most tenderly embraceth him and shews the Port now much nearer than he imagined For as he mentioning that among other readings he had perused the books of Plato translated by Victorinus a Senatour and heretofore Professour of Rhetorick in the Citie of Rome I like very well saith this good old man that you have read the books of Plato rather than the impieties of other Philosophers I doubt not but you have observed many passages in this good Authour which make for our Religion but since you have read the Translation of Victorinus and much esteem of it why do you not imitate him in his conversion You must understand that I most familiarly knew him when we were at Rome he was a very learned old man having his hairs grown white in the long study of all sorts of sciences which he taught manured and illustrated the space of so many years partly in declaming partly by writing There was not almost a Senatour in Rome which acknowledged him not for his Master and he arrived to such a degree of reputation that they erected a Statue unto him in consideration of his great learning Who could ever have hoped in the decrepitness whereunto he was come to see him born again among the little children of the Church Notwithstanding to shew you the force of Gods spirit after the reading of almost all the books in the world he set himself in the end of his age to peruse the Bible and other Writings of Christians where he found himself surprized at unawares saying afterward to me Simplicianus know I am a Christian I thinking he meant to scoff me I will not said I believe any thing till I see you at Church And imagine you replied he the walls of a Church make a Christian He spake this much fearing to offend the Cedars of Libanus which were his parents eminent in qualitie though Infidels but he afterward was well resolved never to blush more for the Gospel Let us go saith he to the Church I am a Christian I was at this word so transported with joy I could no longer contain my self I led him to the Church and caused him to be instructed in the Articles of our Faith and commanded a name to be given him among those that required holy Baptism When he came to make his profession of faith some one thinking to please him would have him pronounce in secret No saith the good old man in publick It is no longer fit to be ashamed of so glorious an action As soon as he was mounted into an eminent place to pronounce the Articles of his belief all the world which knew him began to crie Victorinus Victorinus The admiration was so great the contentment so universal the joy so sensible that it seemed every one would snatch him from thence to set him in his heart Oh God! how you honour those that faithfully serve you Behold him now who in stead of tying himself to those dying Palms of Rhetorick is fastened to the tree of life which never perisheth and is eternized with a glorious memorie in the estimation of Christendom Who would not think himself most happie by following his example to participate in his crowns For mine own part I will truly confess unto you dear son that at such time as Julian the Apostata forbade all the Christians to use humane learning I was as much addicted to it as any man of mine age being then in the flower of youth very curious but seeing matter of faith was in question I most freely forsooke those Syrens to arrive at the haven of salvation where I speedily hope to enjoy your companie For so excellent a nature as yours is not made to be lost It were over-much to resist the inspirations of God your age and fashion require you to lay arms aside This discourse quickened with love reason wisdom and examples so sensible penetrated far into the heart of S. Augustine causing him to speak these words which he did afterwards couch in his Confessions I knew not what to answer convinced by varieties Confes l. 8. c. 5. Non erat omnino quod responderem veritate convictus nisi tantùm verba lenta somnolenta modò ecce modò sed modò modò non hahebant modum sine paululùm in longum ibat so palpable but in dull and drowsie words saying always this shall soon very soon be yet had this soon no measure in it nor did this delay I desired find any end God recharged again and laid a fresh battery upon Augustine by the mouth of a secular man A certain gentleman of Africa called Pontianus who following the Emperours Court came to visit him in his lodging found by chance on the table the Epistles of Saint Paul This being a man much given to devotion and who knew Augustine to have a wandering wit in the curiosities of prophane books smiled to see him now seeking out his entertainment with an Apostle Augustine replied there was no cause of wonder for it was now become his principal exercise The gentleman seeing him in this good humour sets before him divers discourses of piety and among others some narrations of the life of Saint Anthonie Wherewith Augustine and his companion Alipius were ravished having never before heard this great Saint spoken of So little curious were they to know that which could not be omitted but by such as were willing to be perpetually ignorant of themselves The other proceeding in his discourse represented to them the companies of Religious then in great account esteemed by all the world as the paps of the Bride replenished with celestial odours which streamed even as far as the deserts with immortal sources of their milk and added that they had a Monasterie in the suburbs of Milan erected by Saint Ambrose wherein were many great examples of virtue They heard this man with some small shame to be ignorant of so large a treasure even at their gate whilest they turned over the writings of many wits which lived in flames tormented where they are and applauded where they are not This good man seeing they relished this excellent discourse following the point said Being one day at Trier with three gentlemen my companions as the Emperour after dinner beheld the Turneys and race of horses with all his Court it came into our heads to go take the air in certain gardens near the Citie Two of the four of us walking along arrived by chance at a little Cel where they found Hermits and a book of the life of Saint Anthonie One takes it up reads and admireth it and in reading is so moved that he determined in
the deluge which after it had born the whole world in the bowels thereof amongst so many storms and fatal convulsions of universal nature reposed on the mountains of Armenia So S. Monica when she so long time had carried in her entrails and heart a spirit as great as this universe among so many tears and dolours so soon as she was delivered of this painful burden went to take her rest on the mountains of Sion A little before her death beholding Heaven from a high window which opened on a garden she seemed there already to mark out her lodging so much she witnessed resentment and extasie towards her son Augustine who at that time made this admirable colloquie with her couched by him afterward in his Confessions The conclusion was that she said unto him My son I have now no more obligations to the world you have discharged all the promises of Heaven to me and I have consummated all the hopes I might have on earth seeing you a Catholick and which is more resolved to perfection of the life you have embraced When it shall please God to call me I am like fruit ripe and falling that holdeth on nothing Soon after she betook her to her bed being surprized with a feaver which she presently felt to be the messenger of her last hour Behold the cause why she being fortified with arms and assistances necessary for this combat took leave of Augustine and his brother there present affectionately entreating them to remember her soul at the Altar onely meditating on Heaven and neglecting the thought of the land of Africa which she had seemed at other times to desire for the sepulcher of her body And as her other son said unto her Madame my mother we as yet are not there we hope to close your eyes in our own countrey and burie you in the tomb of your husband this holy woman seeing this man would still tie her to the present life and divert her from cogitation of death which to her was most sweet beheld him with a severe eye and then turning her self towards her son Augustine Hearken saith she what he saith as if we absent from Africa must needs be further from God She often cast her dying eyes towards this son who was her precious conquest and who in her sickness served her with most particular assistances affirming that Augustine had ever been a good son towards her and though he had cost her many sorrows he never had forgotten the respect due to a mother Verily there was a great sympathie between the soul of such a mother and such a son which was infinitely augmented after this happy conversion and therefore we must give to nature that which belongs to it The child Adeodatus seeing his Grand-mother in the last agony as possessing the affections of his father threw out pitifull out-cries in which he could not be pacified And S. Augustine who endeavoured to comfort them all upon so happy a death withheld his tears for a time by violence but needs must he in the end give passage to plaints so reasonable The Saint died as a Phenix among Palms and they having rendered the last duties to her pursued the way begun directly for Africk Behold how the conversion of S. Augustine passed and though many cooperated therein yet next unto God S. Ambrose hath ever been reputed the principal Agent and for that cause his great disciple said of him (b) (b) (b) Aug. contra Julianum Pelagianum l. 1. c. 6. Excellens Dei dispensator quâ—m veneror ut patrem in Christo enim Jesu per Evangelium ipse me genuit eo Christi ministerio lavacrum Regenerationis accepi Ambrose is the excellent steward of the great father of the family whom I reverence as my true father for he hath begotten me in Jesus Christ by the virtue of the Gospel and God hath been pleased to make use of his service to regenerate me by Baptism Whilest stars and elements shall continue it will be an immortal glory to the Bishop Ambrose to have given the Church a S. Augustine of whom Volusianus spake one word worth a thousand (c) (c) (c) Volusian Epist 2. Vir est totius gloriae capax Augustinus In aliis sacerdotibus absque detrimento cultus divini toleratur inscitia at cum ad Antistitem Augustinum venitur Legi deest quicquid ab eo contigerit ignorari Augustine is a man capable of all the glorie of the world There is much difference between him and other Bishops The ignorance of one Church-man alone prejudiceth not Religion but when we come to Bishop Augustine if he be ignorant of any thing it is not he but the law which is defective because this man is as knowing as the law it self The eleventh SECTION The affairs of S. Ambrose with the Empeperours Valentinian the father and Gratian the son LEt us leave the particulars of the life of S. Ambrose to pursue our principal design which is to represent it in the great and couragious actions he enterprized with the Monarchs of the world Let us not behold this Eagle beating his wings in the lower region of the ayr but consider him among lightenings tempests and whirl-winds how he plays with thunder-claps and ever hath his eye where the day breaketh The state of Christianitie stood then in need of a The state of Christendom brave Prelate to establish it in the Court of Great-ones The memory of Jâ—lian the Apostata who endeavoured with all his power to restore Idols was yet very fresh it being not above ten years past since he died and yet lived in the minds of many Pagans of eminent quality who had strong desires to pursue his purpose On the other side the Arians who saw themselves so mightily supported by the Emperour Constans made a great party and incessantly embroyled the affairs of Religion Jovinian a most Catholick Emperour who succeeded Julian passed away as a lightening in a reign of seven moneths After him Valentinian swayed the Empire who had in truth good relishes of Religion but withal a warlick spirit and who to entertain himself in so great a diversitie of humours and sects whereon he saw this Empire to be built much propended to petty accommodations which for some time appeased the evil but took not away the root He made associate of the Empire his brother Valens who being a very good Catholick in the beginning of his reign suffered himself to be deceived by an Arian woman and did afterward exercise black cruelties against the faithfull till such time as defeated by the Goths and wounded in an encounter he was burnt alive by his enemies in a shepherds cottage whereunto he was retired so rendering up his soul in the bloud and flames where with he had filled the Church of God The association of this wicked brother caused much disorder in the affairs of Christendom and often slackened the good resolutions of Valentinian by coldness and
when he had drunk gave the cup to his Deacon as esteeming him the most worthy person of the feast next himself Maximus who infinitely seemed to be pleased therewith although he inwardly felt himself gauled with this liberty did so outwardly dissemble it that he caused S. Martin to be applauded through all his Court protesting that none but â—e was worthy the title of a Bishop and that he had done at the table of an Emperour what the other Bishops would never have acted in the house of a mean Judge On the other side the wife of Maximus who already possessed the title of Empress made her self a Magdalen at the feet of Saint Martin and although never woman touched this chaste creature he suffered her to exercise all sort of ceremonies towards him undergoing a thousand troubles to rid himself of her importunities This seemed not strange in the age of threescore and ten and in the reputation of sanctity wherewith he had filled the world that a woman should kiss his feet but it was a thing very unusual to behold a Princess humbled in the dust of the earth to perform this office She regarded neither purple diadem quality nor Empire she had no eyes but for S. Martin being blind to the rest of the world After this first banquet Maximus and the Ladie went to the Saint and besought him again to take a bad dinner which the Empress would in private prepare for him with her own hands and although he in the beginning refused it was impossible for him to escape from these Saint-like invitations For these are snares which catch eagles as well as sparrows Needs would the Queen do all offices in this second feast She played the cook dressed the dining-room laid the cloth gave to the holy man water for his hands was his cup-bearer and waited on him all the time of his meal standing bolt upright as a servant with her mind intentive on her office Dinner being ended she did eat the scraps and remainder of the table which she preferred before all the Imperial delicacies Verily we may say women are violent in their affections and when once they go the right way their virtues have no mean I will not seek to penetrate the Ladies intentions which I suppose were very good but considering the proceedings of Maximus there is great cause to think he endeavoured by his infinite courtship to charm the nature of Saint Martin which to him seemed somewhat harsh Yet the great man endowed with the spirit of prophesie freely told all which should befal him Behold some part of the disposition of Maximus which I was willing to present on paper that it might appear of what condition they ordinarily are who bear arms against the obedience due to Kings who are the lively images of God The Tyrant began a revolt in England and from that time determined to establish the Citie of Trier in Germanie as the seat of his Empire and thence to raise a pair of wings to flie above the clouds which were Italie and Spain He chose for his Constable a man very consonant to his humour and of great resolution who caused himself to be called the Good man the better to colour the wickedness of his Master With this bad Councellour he endeavoured to stir up the souldiers and on every side drew the warlick troups to his party The good Emperour Gratian speedily armeth to stiffle tyranny in the birth thereof and in person goeth to encounter his adversary He had then very freshly drawn good souldiers from the Kingdom of Hungarie to his assistance of whom he made much account Others seeing that he much esteemed of them were stung with jealousie and grew cold in their Masters behalf The poor Prince being on the point to wage battel found himself carelesly and traiterously abandoned by his legions who daily stole away to increase the Army and strength of Maximus This black and hydeous treason much amazed the Emperour who complained as the Eagle in the Emblem that his own feathers gave him the storke of death seeing his souldiers who should have born him on their wings delivered him to his enemy through a neglect which shall make the Roman history to blush eternally So that seeing there was no safety for his person he sought to regain Italie as soon as possible accompanied onely with a full troup of horse consisting of about three hundred men Maximus well discovered that he would at any price whatsoever have the bloudy spoil of his Master For he charged this Good man to pursue him with all violence and not to desist till the prey were in his clutches which he did taking horses with him who ran like a tempest and could well endure any tedious travel In the end he met with the Emperour at Lyons and fearing he might escape bethought himself of a mischievous stratagem For he secretly caused the Emperour to be enformed the Empress his wife was in danger of her person if he stayed not some while to expect her because she was resolved to follow him thinking no place capable of safety or consolation where her husband was not This false report much softened the heart of Gratian who was as good a husband as an Emperour he therefore resolved to hasten to the Empress though not without evident danger of his life There is an unspeakable power in the love of neighbours which is the cause that birds and fishes are oft-times voluntarily caught with twigs and nets not fearing to put their life in danger where they see some part of themselves to be This Prince who in the extreamest disasters of his fortune was full of courage and flew every where like a flash of lightening to give order to his affairs at the news that the Empress was on her way to follow him was much terrified nor was Pitifull death of the Emperour Gratian. there an object of peril which he framed not in his thoughts Moments seemed days unto him and days as Ages A thousand santasies of affrightment summoned his heart in his solitude There was no living for him if he beheld not his dearest love in his arms She was a Princess of much merit daughter of the Emperour Constantius born after the death of her father whom Gratian faithfully loved though he as yet had no issue by her The Tyrant understanding his game succeeded to Socrat. lib. 5. cap. 11. Zozom lib. 7. cap. 13. his wish made a litter to pass along much like to that of the Empress and disposed his ambushes round about in the way The Emperour perceiving it afar off and supposing his wife Constantia was in it spurs his horse and flyeth with those wings which love and joy gave him being at that time followed by few of his people The murderers assailed and massacred him but he still shewing the courage of a Lion bare himself bravely amongst swords and halbards leaving the mark of his hand all bloudy on a wall as S. Hierom
side seeing his Army grown very thin and the courage of his souldiers wavering more stedfastly made his address to God He was seen upon the top of a rock prostrate on the earth and crying aloud My God you know that I in the name of your Remarkable pietie of Theodosius Son enterprized this war and have opposed the arms of the Cross against Infidelitie If in me their rest any blame I beseech you to revenge my sins on my culpable head and not abandon the cause of Religion lest we become a reproch to Infidels The same night God for his assurance shewed him a vision of two Apostles S. John and S. Philip who should be as indeed they were the Conductours of his Legions The next morning about break of day he ranged his forces in battel array and charged Eugenius not as yet througly freed from his drunken prosperitie And when he saw that those who had the vanguard proceeded therein somewhat fearfully remembering themselves of the usage of their companions he did an act of admirable confidence for he alighted from his horse and marching on foot in the head of his Army cried out Where is the God of Theodosius At this word the ayd of Heaven Victorie of Theodosius over Eugenius Ambros in oratione funebri Theodosii was so propitious that a furious whirl-wind was raised which persecuted the enemies of Theodosius casting a huge cloud of dust into their eyes and returning all their own darts back to their proper faces in such sort that as it is confessed by Claudian a very obstinate Pagan it seemed the good Emperour that day had the winds and tempests at command and that he had nothing to do but to give the word to make them obedient to his Standards Heaven fought for its beloved Theodosius and all the powers of the ayr were in arms to favour his victories The souldiers at this instant were all changed so much hope had they in their hearts fire in their courages Bacurius one of the Emperours greatest Captains with his enflamed Legions brake through the ranks penetrated the strongest resistances and gained the Alps. Eugenius his people dejected as men fallen from the clouds could not sufficiently admire this alteration The discreetest among them disposed themselves to treat of peace crying aloud that never would they bear arms against a man who had the ayr and winds in his pay Theodosius sortified them with his clemencie all dispositions by a most remarkable miracle of God who exerciseth his power as well over hearts as winds were changed in an instant and that which is admirable the most faithfull to Eugenius promised the Emperour to put him into his hands which they performed for they went to take this miserable man who sat on his Throne entertaining his goodly imaginations and crying Bring him alive speaking of Theodosius when they laying hold of his collar and most shamefully binding his hands It is you said they we must bring alive to Theodosius and that instantly They trussed him up like a beast astonished and presented him to the Emperour who having reproched him in presence of all the world for his impietie and treacherie caused him presently to be put to death to make an end of his imaginarie Empire The wicked Arbogastus who had at other times been so happy when he followed the counsels of S. Ambrose seeing the ill success of his designs became so enraged that himself thrust two swords through his own bodie being not able to endure life nor light which seemed to upbraid him with his crimes Some hold that Flavianus died in the throng that he might not survive his own shame others think he escaped and that Theodosius extended his ordinarie clemencie to him Briefly behold the course of the tyrannie of Eugenius still more and more to verifie the Oracles of S. Ambrose The Emperour came to Milan where he cast himself at the feet of the holy Bishop attributing these victories to his wisdom counsels and virtue of his prayers The eighteenth SECTION The differences of S. Ambrose with the Emperour Theodosius and his death PHilosophers say there are four things which divert thunder to wit wind rain noise and the light of the Sun And behold a thunder-clap arrested by Saint Ambrose with the wind of his mouth the holy rain of his eloquence the noise of his voice and resplendent light of his most unsported life Theodosius verily was a great Prince but as it is so difficult to be on earth and not participate of earth as that the Moon being distant by so many thousand leagues yet seemeth to bear the marks thereof on the forehead so is it very hard to be in Court and not resent the manners of the Court and souls esteemed the most temperate not to have some blemishes appear on the face This brave Emperour was naturally enclined to choller which was enkindled by the breath of those who conversed with him nourishing himself with the food of over-much credulity For this cause he had two great contestations with S. Ambrose which eminently manifested the authority of the holy Bishop The one was for a Synagogue of Jews the other Synagogue burned for the murder committed at Thessalonica The matter for the Jews was for that one of their Synagogues was burnt in the East at the solicitation of a Bishop with which Theodosius offended as if it had imported much prejudice to his Edicts caused a carefull Inquisition to be made and adjudged the good Bishop who was said to be the Authour of this fire to re-build the Synagogue now turned to cinders Saint Ambrose although he had a peaceable spirit and that he in his Diocess had never undertaken the like avoiding popular commotions as much as he might which ever transport affairs into some excess yet could he not tolerate the rigours used against Christians on this pretended injury but he very sharply wrote thereof to Theodosius as it appeareth by the letter which is yet found among his Works some words whereof behold My life passeth away in many cares wherein I am Ambros epist 17. lib. 2. engaged by obligation of my charge but I must avow that I never resented any thing more lively than to see my self as it were accused of sacriledge before your Majestie I beseech you patiently to hearken to me for if I Grave words of S. Ambrose be unworthie to be heard by you I cannot be heard of God for you You do wrong to commit your praiers and vows to me to be carried to Altars if you denie me the audience of your ears you declare me by the same sentence unworthie to bear your complaints to the ears of the living God It is not a thing to be done by a good Emperour to take away the libertie of speech nor for a good Bishop to conceal a veritie contrarie to his conscience All that which Monarchs have in them most amiable is to love libertie even in the tongues of the
souldiers but by a much stronger reason ought they to cherish it in the mouthes of Bishops There hath ever been a notable difference between good and evil Princes which causeth that the one desires the libertie of their subjects and the other love nothing so much in them as slaverie God commandeth us to bear his word to the face of Kings and not be ashamed of justice I do not intrude through importunitie but present my self of dutie That which I do I do for your good and in consideration of your safetie If I derive not the effect which I pretend yet ever will I better love to be by your Majestie esteemed troublesom than unprofitable or infamous You have commanded enquiries should be made of those who have burnt the Synagogue of the Jews to inflict punishment and that the Bishop by whose solicitation this fire hath been kindled should be condemned to re-edifie the wasted buildings What have you done O Emperour in imposing such a command which by necessitie will make of a Bishop either a Prevaricatour or a Martyr although neither the one nor other be proper for your time I desire a Bishop may be found so fervent as to burn a Synagogue of the Jews and for that cause you have deputed for him a Commissarie to the end that if he obey your commands he should betray his own law and if he resist make you to do that which the Neroes and Domitians have acted Behold to what this affair will come if you take not heed For my part I propose to my self that the Bishop will rather encline to matter of Martyrdom than of treason he will say that he hath stirred up the people sounded the alarm taken the flaming fire-brands in hand and that he will expose himself for his whole flock O happie lie which shall serve others for absolution and him for a Crown But what need is there to enquire into the absent Behold me present behold me avowing the act I publish and protest if needs you will have it so I my self burned this Synagogue now in question that there might no longer be a place where Jesus Christ should be denied And do not tell me that I have not burned any in mine own Diocess Heaven hath done it for me Heaven hath prevented the negligence which I then thought to be reasonable And if men have in it seconded the will of Heaven would you send one of your Counts to punish them and re-build the Synagogue of the Jews at our charge that so the hand of a Captain which carrieth the Standards of the Cross may not henceforth bear them until be hath been defiled with a sacriledge intended against the Cross of Christ We have heretofore seen on the front of the Temple of Idols how they have been built of the spoils of Cimbrians but we shall hereafter read over the portal of Synagogues that they were made with the bloud of Christians by the commandment of a Christian Emperour The Jews passionately desire to see Christians at the chain and they shall find a Christian Emperour minister of their furies You will make them triumph over the Church of God you will cause them to put our tears and afflictions among their days of Festivals and the victories they will gain upon us with those they have had from the Amorrheans and Cananeans He pursued this subject with great vigour of strong reasons and good words and seeing the Emperour made no reckoning of this advise given him in particular he failed not according to promise to speak of it in publick in a Sermon he made of the waking-rod of Jeremie where descending upon the history of Nathan who reproched David for his sin by consideration of the benefits he had received from God he made a long apostrophe to the Emperour Theodosius to him applying the word of God I have then made thee Emperour of a private man I have subjected barbarous Nations to thee I have afforded thee issue to succeed in thy Empires I have given thee peace I have put thine enemies fettered into thy hands I have opened land and seas to thy Legions I have sheltered thee under the buckler of my protection I have confounded the counsels of thy adversaries to make thy enterprizes prosperous I have rendered thee dreadfull to people marking thee on the forehead with the rays of my Majestie that thou mayest re-edifie the Synagogue of the Jews He spake many things in the like terms with so much lightening thunder and tempest that Theodosius was wholly amazed nor could say any thing else to him coming from the pulpit but Bishop you have preached to me to day Sacred Majestie answereth S. Ambrose it is for your good It is true replieth the Emperour I did ill to give this command And for that saith Saint Ambrose I will not go to the Altar to offer the pledge of our salvation for you till you have revoked this Edict I from this present revoke it saith Theodosius On this assurance which you give answereth the Bishop I will offer sacrifice As for the other contestation of Saint Ambrose with Theodosius which was concerning the murder of the Thessalonians of one part the matter is so notorious that it needeth no declaration but on the other it is so important that it were a crime to let it pass under silence The Thessalonians in a popular commotion slew one of the Emperour's Captains who had caused a Coach-man to be imprisoned The news reported at Court incensed all men of arms who think wearing swords they have right over the bloud of people Theodosius could do no otherwise but shew himself offended with this death For the Emperours then thought the souldiers were as necessary for their fortunes as feathers for birds As the thunder already roared in the cloud and the thunder-stroke of the Imperial Eagle menaced the miserable Citie tainted with this murder S. Ambrose came thither very fitly who much sweetened the affairs and wholly disposed the Emperour to clemency But as it is the wind which worketh all the mischief on the Sea this element being of its own nature very peacefull so they are ill officers who often cause those disturbances which happen in the lives of Great men their good natures very frequently affording them inclinations to sweetness These Captains which possessed the ears of the Emperour ceased not to breath and murmur so strongly that after the departure of S. Ambrose they raised fire and tempest Theodosius giveth freedom to the souldiers for the revenge they were to exercise upon the Citie of Thessalonica They who were willing to drown all their passion in bloud bethought themselves of a wicked and barbarous invention putting the poor people into a large publick place enclosed with rails comonly called the Circus where ordinarily games were presented divulging they had an admirable spectacle to shew for entertainment of the Burgesses of the Citie Curiositie of its nature is ever credulous and he that hath the image of
prayed to God most devoutly and would not permit any man should enter into his Chamber during the time of his devotions he was so obedient to those who commanded in the Army that he never refused any Commission imposed upon him Yea well fore-seeing that the last charge enjoyned him by the Admiral Bonnivet was most dangerous and as it were impossible yet he went thither sacrificing his life to the commandments of the Lieutenant of his Prince that he might not digress from his ordinary custom There was he slain by the most generous manner of death that might happen to any Captain of his quality He was a Lion in arms who with a choice company of men selected by him and trained to this profession wrought such admirable effects that there was not any battel won of which he was not ever the principal cause Never was any man more terrible to an enemy in the conflict but out of it it was said he was one of the most affable and courteous men of the earth He was so ill a flatterer of Great men that to gain a Kingdom he would not be drawn to speak any thing but reason His practice was to honour the virtuous speak little of the vicious less also of his own deeds of arms never to swear do favours to all who required as willingly as if himself were to receive the benefit to give secret alms according to his ability in such sort that it is written that he besides his other acts of piety married at the least a hundred young mayds Behold of what elements his soul was inwardly composed As for the manner of his carriage in the war he Marvellous contempt of money as little cared for money as the dirt of the earth and desired not to have any but to give Witness an act of great liberality which is related of him He by fair law of arms took a Spanish Treasurer who carried with him fifteen thousand Ducats one of his Captains named Tardieu swore enraged with choller that he would have part of the booty because he was in the expedition This good Captain smiling said to him It is true you were of the enterprize but are not to share in the booty and were it so you are under my charge I therefore will give what I think good This man entered into more violent fury and went to complain to the General who having well considered the business adjudged it wholly to Bayard He caused his Ducats to be carried to a place of safety and commanded them to be spred on a table in presence of all his people saying to them Companions what think you Do you not here behold fine junkets Poor Tardieu who had been put by his pretensions by express sentence of his Captains looked on this money with a jealous eye and said If be had the half of it he would all his life be an honest man Doth that depend on this saith this brave spirit Hold I willingly give that which you by force could never obtain and so caused at the same instant seven thousand five hundred Ducats to be told out to him The other who in the beginning thought it was but a meer mockery when he saw it to be in good earnest and himself in possession of that he desired he cast himself on both his knees at the feet of Bayard having abundant tears of joy in his eyes and cried out Alas my Master my friend you have surpassed the liberality of Alexander how shall I ever be able to acknowledge the benefit which I at this time do receive at your hands Hold your peace said this incomparable man if I had power I would do much more and thereupon causing all the souldiers of the Garrison to be called he distributed the rest of the Ducats not keeping one sole denier for his own use I ask of you whether this were not a heart of pearl wherein there could not one least blemish of avarice be found Yea also when he passed through the Countrey even in a land of conquest he paid his expence And one saying unto him Sir This money is lost for at your departure from hence they will set this place on fire He answered Sirs I do what I ought God hath not put me into the world to live by rapine Pursuing this course he did an act at the taking of An excellent act of Chevalier Bayard Bressia a Citie of Italie for ever memorable which I will here deduce as it were in the same terms as it is couched in his History Which is that being set in the head of the Perdues he first entered and passed the rampire where he was grievously hurt in the top of his thigh with the thrust of a pike so that the iron stuck in the wound he nothing terrified said to Captain Molard I am slain but it is no matter let your men march confidently the Town is won Hereupon two souldiers bare him out of the throng and seeing the wound streamed forth much bloud they pulled off their shirts and rent them to bind up his thigh then in the first house they hit upon they took a little door off the hindges and laid their poor Captain upon it to bear him the more easily From thence they went directly to a great house which they supposed to be very convenient for his accommodation It belonged to an honest Gentleman who was retired into a Monasterie to avoid the fury of souldiers For the saccadge of this Citie was so dreadfull that there were reckoned as well of Venetians who defended it as Burgesses to the number of twenty thousand slain The Ladie stayed in this house with two fair daughters who had hidden themselves in a barn under hay As they knocked at the gate the mother arming her self with resolution openeth it and beholdeth a Captain all bloudy born upon this plank who presently set Guards about his lodging and demanded a place to retire unto The Ladie leadeth him into the fairest chamber where she cast her self at his feet and said Sir I offer this house unto you and all within it for I well know it is yours by the law of arms I onely beg of you you will be pleased to save me and mine honour as also of two poor maids ready to marry which my husband and I have bad between us The Captain answered Madame I do not know whether I shall escape this wound or no but I faithfully promise you whilest I live there shall be no injury done to you nor your daughters no more than to mine own person Onely keep them in your chamber and let them not be seen Send for your husband and assure your self you have a guest who will do you all courtesie possible The Ladie much comforted to hear him speak in that manner obeyed and employed all her care to give him good entertainment She presently perceived she had lodged an honest man when she saw the Duke of Namures the brave Gaston de
marriages and that as his age dispensed him from voyages so retirement freed him from the vain pleasures of the world That his presence contributed nothing to this action that the uneasiness of ways would much prejudice his health In the end since the resolution he had made never to enter into the mannage of any affairs had left him no other share but vows and prayers he would imploy them for their prosperities These fair words satisfied not the Emperours who had a desire to draw the wolf out of the wood which gave them occasion to write back again to Diocletian letters very sharp as if they would willingly involve him in the business of Maxentius At this time the miserable man plainly saw the vengeance of God sought him out in the place which he so obstinately chose for his repose When that notable Edict was read unto him which was made in favour of Christians and that he understood Churches were already built for them every where that they assembled to celebrate their feast with all liberty that Constantine had caused the Cross to be set even in his banners and that on every side the praises of Jesus of Nazareth were preached On the contrary that the Temples of false Gods were shut up their statues broken their Altars overturned and that all Paganism went to confusion this direful Persecutour then felt an infinite number of vipers to tear his entrails And seeing besides Victor that he with so much sharpness was sent for he imagined the Christians victorious over persecution would rent him in a thousand pieces Thereupon having his soul extreamly perplexed and his body burdened with diseases languishing and incurable he perpetually invoked death the most amiable of all his Goddesses to deliver him from the ignominies and toils of life In the end she too slowly answering his desire as the most probable opinion speakes he hastened her pace taking poison as a man who could not die by a worse hand than his own Behold the desperate end of the greatest Persecutour which the Church hath ever had who endeavouring to extirpate our Religion hath filled our Martyrologes with the names of Martyrs our Altars with veneration Christianity with Crowns and the world with virtues and buried himself in the tomb of despair and infamy to teach all Greatons that a worse blindness cannot fall upon them than the persecution of Innocents whose bloud hath a voice in it which crieth out to the memory of all Ages Lycinius being alienated from the friendship of Condition of Lycinius Constantine failed not to put Diocletian into the number of the Gods although himself were shortly after to be razed from the number of men This creature who by report of Heathens of his own factions was covetous cholerick and lascivious could not long comply with the humours of Constantine for he ceased not to torment the Christians which were in his Empire with excessive cruelties though himself as we have said had signed Edicts in their favour Constantine who suffered as much as he thought First battel against him reasonable seeing his spirit became untractable armed against him The first encounter was at Cibales a City of Sclavonia where Constantine was encamped upon a hill and Lycinius in the valley The battel was very sharp on both sides it lasted a whole day from morning till night they scarcely breathing therein Constantine was in much danger had it not been that the spur of honour that pricked him on made him do admirable things which in the end discomfited Lycinius and put him to flight He went creeping away like an old serpent who had received many blows but yet retained strength and poison For having gained Thrace where he thought himself strongest he rallied his troops and disposed himself for another war Constantine stoutly follows him finding means 2. Battel to pass the rivers whereof these flying enemies had broken the bridges to cut off their way and he so speeded that he suddenly was in Thrace near to the Army of Lycinius From that very evening he ranged his forces for fight resolving to give them battel at the break of day Lycinius seeing they followed him so hard at heels amde him a virtue of necessity and animated himself to sustain the shock having no want of men able to do bravely This second battel was also very rough both parties bearing themselves man fully and the ballance of victorie seeming not yet to incline either to one side or other behold five thousand Legionaries of Constantine that had very long chased Lycinius not being able to overtake him arrived in the heat of this battel and fell upon his Army to enclose it but he who was to say truly valiant in the art military defended himself very well and in the end freeth himself from this fight with composition to leave Sclavonia to Constantine contenting himself to reign in Thrace and the Eastern parts This accord was signed with the bloud of Valens whom Lycinius had before created Caesar and whose punishment Constantine demanded in this treaty of peace as he who was authour of all those Civil dissentions This peace so plaistered up lasted not long Lycinius still upon alteration could not contain himself within the limits of reason He gathered together a great multitude of ships from the coast of Cyprus Aegypt Venetia Africa Bithynia and other places and set a great Armado to sea On the other part he had an hundred and fifty thousand Foot in the field with fifteen thousand horse Constantine well perceived that he aimed at Monarchy and had set up his rest This was the cause why he prepared forces to confront him making a naval Army of about two hundred great ships of war with two thousand of burden a foot-force of an hundred and twenty thousand men ten thousand as well Cavaliers as brave sea men Now was the time the affair of Empires must peremptorily Great victory of Constantine be decided Constantine armed with the confidence which he had in the Saviour of the world whose banner was then advanced in all his Armies knowing that Lycinius was at that time encamped at Adrianople overtook him passing the river Ister at this present called Mariza so suddenly that at the first encounter he routed all his Army killing thirty four thousand of his men and taking a very great many other prisoners who yielded to his obedience Lycinius was so amazed with this blow that he speedily retired to Byzantium which afterwards was Constantinople where Constantine pursued and hardly pressed him In the mean time Ablantus who had the charge of the Sea-forces of Lycinius resolving to give battel put to sea a great quantity of vessels in a streight which could not bear such a number The Admiral of Constantine determined to assault him with onely four-score light ships who at advantage assailed him finding him much plunged in his fleet Night having broken off this first encounter they began a-fresh in the open
first repast with poison well prepared so to send him into the other world This man amazed at such a dreadfull command asked of the Emperour If he had so well resolved on this affair as to use a son of so great merit in this manner Yea saith he I have thought upon it and it is necessary he die for I must tell you it not being needfull to inform you further that besides the practise conceived by him his life is incompatible with mine The other supposed he had plotted some conspiracy upon the life and scepter of his father behold the cause why he hastened the blow and being already very familiar with poor Crispus he accosted him with great complements of honour and courtesie feigning to make him merry because indeed he then saw him in a very sad humour upon that which had passed between him and Fausta covering his thoughts as much as he might to preserve the honour of his wicked step-mother Hereupon an unhappy banquet was prepared for the innocent Death of Crispus which was the last of his life poison being traiterously given him there where he least expected it Verily this death which way soever we look is most lamentable The Tragedies which bemoan it with so much ornament as that of our Stephanius have much spirit in them but taking onely the thing in the simple nakedness of the fact it ministereth matter of compassion to hearts most obdurate A young Prince at that time the most absolute in the world beautifull as an Absalom valiant as an Alexander innocent as a Joseph at that time taken away when he was at the gates of the Empire which expected him and taken away by a death so hydeous and treacherous and by the commandment of his father who caused him to die as one incestuous not admitting him to speak nor permitting him to justifie himself nor affording leisure to know himself nor one small moment of time to prepare himself for death which is allowed to the most criminal He was silently involved in the extremity of unhappiness to shut up the mouth of innocency and open that of calumny to rail against his very ashes The generous soul ever prepared for this passage by the laws of Christianity which it had so devoutly embraced issued out of his chaste body to hasten to the crown of the Elect leaving incomparable sorrows behind it Alas what doth not a wicked affection a calumny a suspition an unbridled anger an inconsiderate word O you Great-ones will you never learn wisdom by the evils of others As soon as this news came to the Court the wicked The rage of Fausta turned into pitie Fausta well saw it was an effect of her treachery and lively representing before her own eyes this poor Prince whom she before had so much affected at that time so unworthily massacred in a beauty in an age wherein such as die are most pittied and in a goodness which would have given matter of compassion to Tigers and Lions all her passion and hatred was turned into an enraged sorrow which made her crie out and lament at the feet of her husband confessing she had slain the chaste Crispus by her detestable calumny that it was she who had sollicited Calumny discovered him to evil but had found him a Joseph endowed with an invincible chastity and had detested her sin as it well deserved whereupon excited with choler and fearing to be prevented she had proceeded to this dreadfull accusation and therefore was unworthy to live since she had slain the most innocent Prince of the world and stained his own father with his proper bloud Constantine amazed beyond description at so prodigious an accident had neither reply nor sense of a man so much wonder had rapt him from himself but when he saw his holy mother Helena who had so tenderly bred up the poor Crispus bewailing him with unconsolable tears and begging of the father at the least the body of her grand-child to wash it with the waters of her eyes and bury it with her hands saying the wicked beast had slain her Joseph he was pierced to the quick with compassion mingled with fury Then the poor sister of the deceased who seemed nought else but the shaddow of her brother coming also to dissolve her self wholly into tears near to her Grand-mother this spectacle the more enkindled the passion of the Emperour And thinking that Fausta well deserved death being convinced of such a mischief by her own confession he caused her to enter into the bath and so in an instant to be smothered with the vapour which was a punishment wherewith many times they put persons of quality to death Behold the issue of the hydeous loves of Fausta to Death of Fausta teach all Ladies that those passions which begin by complacencies soothings and curiosities very often end in horrible tragedies In the mean time the house of Constantine remained long drenched in a dead silence and all was very secretly carried so that none knowing what publickly to think of the death of Crispus and Fausta it gave occasion to many to affirm they died for some conspiracy We cannot here excuse Constantine of a violent anger a precipitation a proceeding too bloudy Howsoever he caused Crispus to die under a false belief of impurity which he thought was to be revenged and Fausta punished by way of justice Behold why this sin though it hath much mischief in it yet it hath not the determinate wickedness of the sin of David in the death of Urias because the one wrought with a manifest knowledge of his crime and the other proceeded therein with much ignorance and sense of justice Yet Constantine after these exorbitances was touched with great remorse which in the end put him actually on the profession of Christianity The eighth SECTION The calling of Constantine to Christianitie The progress of his Conversion and Baptism I Have always esteemed the saying of S. Paulinus Constant 19. which we before alledged very probable that the faith of S. Helena did not onely make Constantine a Christian but the first of Christian Princes This good mother without doubt gave him the first tincture of Christianity but being of an ambitious and warlike spirit who went along with the main stream of the world he was not so soon confirmed in the faith and integrity of religion Notwithstanding he began to have most lively apprehēsions for his conversion about the seventh year of his Empire which was the year of the defeat of Maxentius whilest he had this great war upon his hands his temporal necessities opening his eyes that he might have recourse to spiritual forces He then endeavoured as he afterward relateth Beginning of the conversion of the Emperour to meditate seriously within himself that there was some Divine Providence from Heaven which gave concussions to victories and Empires without which the counsels of men were cloudy their Armies weak and labours vain Afterward
which might slide into the heat of contention and guided all the affairs to peace In the end Arius Condemnation of Arius is condemned and a form of faith conceived for the equality of the Word with the Father whereat many Arians much amazed failed not to strike sail and yield themselves to the plurality of voices fearing least their contestation might ruin their reputation with the Emperour It is thought Eusebius the Historiographer was of this number a man of the time who knew how to comply readily with the humour of those who had authority and force in their hands As for the other Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia who had maintained the faction of Arius with much passion he saw himself shamefully fallen from the opinion of his great credit and durst not refuse to sign the doctrine of the Councel Greatly was he streightned in another Session to pronounce excommunication upon Arius his creature saying he was consenting to the decision of the Councel under shadow of some perplexed words which he made use of to cover his opinion The fathers shutting up their eyes to all human reasons and fortifying their arms against favour surprized this Eusebius and Theognis Bishop of Nice in the condemnation of Arius which they would not sign declaring them upō this refusal deprived of their Bishopricks They interposed the authority of the Emperour who suspended the execution on such condition that they gave satisfaction to the Councel Never were men more humbled namely Eusebius who thought himself the all-predominant for he was constrained speedily to retire and address his request to the Bishops in terms most suppliant in which he protested wholly to submit himself to the decrees of the Councel yet notwithstanding he spared not to embroil matters with an infinity of wiles and malice which made the Emperour open his eyes to confirm their sentence who had condemned him and send him into banishment with subrogation of another in his place though he afterward by ordinary submission was repealed At that time happened a marvellous labyrinth of affairs in which began the combats of great S. Athanasius which are to take up another S. Athanasius History besides this it extending much further beyond the years of Constantine As for the success of Arius after the banishment of ten years he still intermedling with factions found means to be heard in another Councel of Jerusalem where feigning a penitence artificially counterfeited he handled the matter so by the practises of Eusebius who was then in favour that he was absolved with commandment given to the good Alexander Bishop of Constantinople to receive him into the communion of the Church The holy Prelate stoutly refused it knowing well it was an hypocrisie which tended to annul the decrees of the Councel of Nice and bring confusion into the Church But Eusebius of Nicomedia ceased not to make armed inhibitions threatening that in case of refusal he would deprive him of his Bishoprick He who cared not so much for the loss of his dignity as the safety of the Church forsook all these subtilities of Theologie and exhorting his people to a fast of seven days by the counsel of S. James of Nisibis who was then present spared not to macerate his body with austerities and present to God day and night his humble supplications to divert this scourge In the end the affair being very shortly to be determined he prostrated his face against the earth before the Altar and said My God if it be true that Arius ought to morrow to be received into the communion of the faithfull I beseech you let your poor servant Alexander go in peace and not loose the faithfull people with the wicked But if you be resolved to preserve your Church and I may be assured you will do it look on the threats of Eusebius and deliver not your inheritance to the scorn of the wicked but rather take Arius out of this world lest we receiving him may seem to introduce heresie and impiety into your house The next day Arius went early in the morning End of Arius from the Emperours Palace very well accompanied with Eusebius and walked in pomp through the streets of Constantinople He was a man more subtile than confident and it is thought the apprehensions he had of the issue of this combat put terrour in him and this terrour caused him to step out of the way Behold the cause why being by chance in the market-place of Constantinople he retired into a publick place of ease to satisfie the necessities of nature Socrates holdeth he cast forth a great quantity of bloud and thereupon falling into a swoon not being able to be holpen he yielded up his wicked soul by a just punishment from Heaven leaving to posterity a perpetual detestation of his life with a horrour of the very place of his death Eusebius caused the body to be intrerred Alexander breathed again and all the Church triumphed upon the admiration of the judgements of God seeing that he who had raised so many bloudy tragedies was dead in his own bloud and after he had infected the soundest parts of the world with his poison vomited up his contagious soul in the publick infections drawing on his criminal head the execration of all Ages The twelfth SECTION The government of Constantine HAving shewed unto you the greatness of Constantine Constant 19. Constantinople erected in matters of Religion let us now behold it in his politick government It is no slight note of the vigour of his spirit that he enterprized to make another Rome and so prosperously to have perfected this his design There is found among the Gentiles a certain Epigram in the ruines of ancient Rome which said It stood in need of Gods to make it but there was but one God necessary to destroy it What may we say of the courage prudence happy success of the Emperour in the establishment of Constantinople We will not make him a God as the Pagans but say he was a man singularly assisted by the providence of God in the greatness of his undertaking He perceived in this new change of Religion there were in Rome many harsh spirits and that even among the principal whom he could not reclaim to Christianity as his zeal fervently desired Behold whether desirous to consecrate to God a place better purified from Idols where he might be served with more consent and better judgement or whether he were transported with the desire of honour and the memory of posterity he resolved to build a City which should bear his name and be as it were the master-piece of a great Monarch For this purpose he had some desire to build on the ruins of Troy the Great thinking the fame of the place renowned for its unhappiness through all the parts of the habitable world might contribute somewhat to the glory of his name but he having laid the foundations God gave him notice in sleep that this was not the place
appointed him and that he necessarily must change the countrey whereat being much amazed yet still persisting in his design as not throughly satisfied upon the will of God it is held the tools and instruments of work-men were insensibly transported over the sea to the other shore and that an Eagle setling upon the Level of the Master-Architect took it up and hastened to bear it directly to Byzantium for that is the City whither Zonar Glycâ—â— Constantine forsaking the ruins of Troy transferred his great designs It had heretofore been a very fair City but as arms strike at all which is eminent so had it been infinitely ransacked by many wars happening in the revolution of affairs and Ages Yet it still supported it self with some manner of reputation when this great Prince determined to amplify enrich and perfect it throughly there to fix the seat of his Empire It is added that himself marched round about the wals holding in his hand a half-pike designing the circuit of his future Constantinople and as he still went measuring up and down by the aym of his eye one of his favourites said to him Emperour how long will it be ere you make an end I will finish saith he when he stayes that goeth before me Which made men think there was some heavenly intelligence that conducted his enterprize At the same time he thought he saw in sleep a very ancient Lady which in an instant was turned into a most beautiful virgin whom he adorned and attyred setting his Diadem on her head Observe what is said of the beginnings of Constantinople whether such things happened with all these circumstances or whether we naturally love to tell some strange tales in favour of antiquity as if these fictions were able to give it the more credit One thing is most undoubted which Zosimus although an enemy to Constantine is enforced to admire that the manage of this great design was so prosperous that in five or six years a goodly City was seen on foot which extended about one league in circuit beyond the walls of Byzantium Constantine who had a holy desire to equal it to ancient Rome spared nothing of all that which the invention of men might find out courage undertake and power execute He there built Palaces Theaters Amphitheaters Cirques Galleries and other edifices infinitely admirable so that S. Hierom had reason to say that Constantine to attyre his Constantinople despoiled all the other Provinces It is a Maxim among Great-ones that to make a huge Dragon it is fit he first devour many little serpents and to raise a great City many much less must be ruined to serve for food unto it The greatnesses of God are good deeds those of the world are naturally destructions for they eat and devour their neighbours as the tree which we call the Ivie which insensibly draweth the juice of plants growing near unto it It is not expedient there should be many greatnesses in the world they would drie rivers up as did the army of Xerxes and would impoverish each other by their mutual contestations Yet notwithstanding needs must there be Majesty in the civil world to the proportion of elementary And for this cause God made Kings taking a pattern from himself commandeth we honour them as his living images Kings make the greatnesses of the world which are the effects of their powers Needs must there be a Constantinople that posterity may see Constantine on the back side of the medal for I think his virtues have represented him on the other side very honourable At the least it is a thing exceeding laudable and well considered by S. Augustine that in this infinite store of Pagans which he must yet of necessity tolerate the Emperour permitted not either Temples of Idols Sacrifices or Pagan ceremonies Well might he be curious to cause from all parts to be brought ancient statues of marble brass and other matter which represented Jupiter Cybile Mercury Apollo Castor and Pollux and so many false Divinities which he set up in Theaters Amphitheaters or Races where the courses of horses were used and in other publick places Eusebius followed by Baronius holdeth it was to expose them to the scorn of the people which is very hard to believe for I should rather think that these pieces being the most exquisit workmanships of the world and that Constantine vehemently desiring the beauty of this City could not then resolve upon such a Jewish zeal as to break and deface them but contented himself with the distribution of them into profane places to give lustre to his enterprizes Yet must we say that though we at this present are out of the danger of Idolatry rich men of this Age have no reason to set up so readily in their Halls and cabiners Junâ—'s Venuses and Diana's and so many histories of the Tertul. l. de Idol cap. 6. Metamorphosis with scandalous nakedness Tertullian an eager spirit pursueth all this as a crime and proveth in the book he composed of Idolatry that all those who cooperate in such works do worse than if they sacrificed to Idols the bloud of beasts For they offer saith he their spirit their industry their travel and their estate to Sathan and though they have no intention of sin they minister matter to other of offending God Behold the cause why Constantine although he were in an Age wherein Paganism being still in much request it was very difficult to take away all these figures notwithstanding he disguised them as much as he could witness that a great statue of Apollo being brought to Constantinople one of the best pieces that ever had been seen in those elder times he caused a Constantine to be made of this Apollo changing it into his own image and commanding some parcels of the venerable nails of our Saviour to be enchased over his head It is in my opinion to this same image that he added a golden globe in the hand thereof and over it a Cross with this inscription Tibi Christe Urbem commendo Besides he made three Crosses to be erected the most magnificent that might then be imagined set in the midst of a publick place the statue of the Prophet Daniel among the Lions all covered over with plates of gold to represent a figure of the Resurrection And as for his Palace he caused to be pourtraid at the very entrance thereof the history of the Passion in a most exquisit work wrought and tissued with pretious stones very much resembling Mosayk work All of it being finished he made the dedication of the City on the tenth of May and as it is very probably supposed the five and twentieth of his Empire consecrating it to God in memory of the glorious Virgin Mary and doing great acts of liberty to the people which he commanded by his Edicts to be continued for perpetuity Codin addeth that he caused also sumptuous edifices there to be built for the Christians Senatours which he
drew from the City and made them so like their lodgings they had at Rome that they were so ravished therewith as it seemed their houses by miracle had been transferred from Rome to Constantinople The two chief Churches were those of the Apostles and of S. Sophia to whom Constantine gave beginning but the greatness of the work is due to the Emperour Justinian Our great Monarch who had his eye open over all forgot not to establish a good Colledge in his City whereunto he drew the choise of learned men in all professions dignifying and adorning it with immunities and great priviledges in such sort that Aurelius Victor called him the nursing-Father of learning and pursuing this design he took a particular care to erect a good Library and above all to furnish it with good store of holy books well written the superintendency whereof he gave to Eusebius of Caesarea Behold the estate of his Constantinople which he by Edict commanded to be called New Rome and Sozomen assureth that in multitude of people in abundance and riches it surpassed the ancient which is not very hard for any to believe who will consider Rome in the absence of Emperours being then but as a Palace disinhabited yet could not Baronius endure S. Gregory Nazianzens speech who said Constantinople as much in his time excelled the other Cities as Heaven surpasseth earth This would suffice to shew the politick prudence of great Constantine but it shineth also in other points of which I think this to be most considerable that he held for the space of thirty years an Empire so great in a time wherein the Emperours had ordinarily so short a reign that they resembled those creatures which enjoyed but one day of life in an age when the people were so apt to revolt that the sea had not more agitations than all Kingdoms had vicissitudes in an establishment of Religon very new wherein commotions are commonly most dangerous We may well say this Prince had something in him above all that which is humane to cement together an Empire of so long continuance in affairs so discordant It is true that he tolerated the sects of Pagans for meer necessity otherwise he must have killed the whole world to make a new of it The wise Prince well saw it was a thing impossible to annihilate superstition in an instant which had taken such deep root for a thousand years about which time Rome was built but in this civil peace which he gave to all the East he insensibly undermined the foundations of impiety and verily by little and little it perished in his hands His spirit sparkling like a fire could not rest but seeing the Magistrates of the Empire were moreover busie yet not discharging the duty of their places and that by the greatness of their power they made themselves too absolute he altered the whole government dividing their charges and multiplying the offices of the Empire For which Zosimus blameth him not considering it was the policy of Augustus Caesar reputed one of the most ablest Princes of the world and that he who will consider the state of the Empire established by Constantine shall find so much order in this great diversity so much wisdom in inventions so much courage in executions so much stability in continuance that he shall have more cause to admire the deep counsels of the Emperour than find what to blame in his government The same Zosimus as a Courtier and a Pagan extreamly displeased with great liberalities which Constantine exercised towards the Churches furiously taxeth him upon the matter of tributes Tributes saying He invented new and exacted them with much violence And yet notwithstanding there are no tributes under Constantine the use whereof is not observed to have been in the Age of the former Emperours For concerning the impost of a certain sum of gold and silver paid by merchants from four years to four which the Grecians called Chrysargyros although the name were then new the manner of it could not be so since the Historiographer Lampridius in the life of Alexander Severus makes mention of the gold of merchants And as for that which was also imposed upon prostitute women it was likewise under the reign of the same Alexander So that he who will compare that which is done before Constantine and that after him in this article shall there find much moderation in his proceedings For so far was it from him to surcharge the people that he gave a relaxation of the fourth part of tributes which is so much as if a King after the space of four years passed should free his people for a year from ordinary subsides which would be no small liberality Now concerning the violence whereof this man complaineth the Edicts of Constantine testifie that he would not have any man to be so much as imprisoned for monies due to his coffers True it is he had Cod. Theod. l. 2. de exactionibus a list of the names of men of quality in the Empire with a taxe of their revenews to enforce them to publick necessities and by this means discharge the poor Otherwise it is well known this Prince was Cod. Theod. l. 2. tit 2. Victor so zealous for justice that he would not suffer even the letters of favour obtained from him should have any power to the prejudice of ancient laws And that if any of his favourites had a process and would beg of him to interpose his authority for him he would leave him to justice willing rather to afford him coin out of his coffer than one sole word of favour which might dispose the Judges to bend the ballance more to one side than another He had his eye upon his Officers and retained them in their duties discovering and chastising corruptions and banishing with his whole endeavour all crimes that were against the law of God and publick tranquility He was much seconded in the administration of affairs by the diligence of Ablavius the greatest favourite of the Prince and Superintendent of Justice who was verily a man of Judgement had he not blemished the gifts of God with unfatiable avarice He was surnamed The Baloon of fortune for the many changes which happened in his person For it is held that he was of very base extraction born in Constantinople then called Byzantium and that a Mathematician arrived in this City upon the instant the mother of Ablavius was to be delivered This man weary of his way and very hungry went into an Inne where he cals for dinner his hostess was very busie to provide it for him at which time one came to entreat her to assist a neighbour of hers in her child-birth for she practiced the office of a Midwife This made her forsake her guest to help the poor creature who was said to be in great danger if she gave not remedy The business being dispatched she returned to her guest who was very angry and murmured with much
according to his merit He divided the Empire between his three sons at that time absent and having distributed their several shares with great providence he gave to Constantius the Empire of the East leaving a Will sealed with his own signet in the hands of a certain Priest whom he appointed to deliver it immediately to his son which he did and afterward Constantius so much honoured this man that being inflexible to all other he onely obeyed him as a God The dispose of his temporal affairs being setled he transferred all his thoughts to familiar discourses which he had with God and yielded up his most happy soul on the Feast of Pentecost the 22. of May about mid-day in the year of our Lord. 337. The souldiers and officers who waited next his person not thinking his end so near at hand upon this news were seized with a grief so outragious that tearing their cloaths and prostrating themselves upon the earth they bewailed their Emperour with complaints which rather resembled yellings than moderate sorrow called him Their Sovereign Lord their good Master common Father of the world His body was put into a coffin of gold covered with purple to carry it to Constantinople where it was many dayes exposed in his Palace attired in Imperial habit receiving the same duties and reverences as if he had yet been alive never was there observed toward any Emperour whatsoever either such great concourse of people or cordial affection not so much as little children but were touched with a sensible grief as if they had lost their father One might have seen among the people some confounded with sad and heavy sorrow others to break forth into complaints the rest to pour themselves out in devotions and prayer When ancient Rome heard the news of his death she caused the baths and publick Places to be shut up all mirth and solace to cease that they might lament the loss of a most honoured father The Princes his children speedily arrived at Constantinople caused his obsequies to be performed after the manner of Christians conducting the body to the Sepulcher with the Clergy wax lights burning and prayers of the Church ordained for the souls of the dead For Eusebius who was there present maketh express mention of the ceremonies which new Hereticks through great impertinency and malignity have endeavoured to deny for the comfort of the dead It is a mervellous thing to consider what power virtue hath over the hearts of men and to behold how many divers sects are different in that which is matter of belief in Divinity but all notwithstanding agree in the honour due to honesty The Pagans would needs canonize Constantine in their manner and made a God of him representing him in a Chariot harnessed out with four horses as flying above the clouds and a hand stretched from Heaven which made shew to hold him in this most blessed mansion of immortality The Greek Church hath honoured his memory as of a Saint although Constantine had so humble an opinion of himself that it is very likely he ordained by his Testament which was afterward seen to be executed in his funerals that his body should be interred not in the Church of S. Peter and S. Paul but before the porch esteeming himself most happy if after he had born the prime Diadem of the world he might serve as a porter to a simple fisherman I now aske of you my Reader who have considered the beginning progress and end of this Monarch where may you find one more clear in greatness of courage more generous in his enterprizes more prudent in his carriage more fortunate in successes more constant in his perseverance Poyze a little and put in a ballance the glory of his arms the happiness of his conquests the wisdom of his laws what virtue think you had he here occasion to make use of to set a new face upon a whole world to oppose Armies with iron stratagems with prudence rebellion of untamed spirits with mildness What arm to resist the torrents of iniquity What stroke to counterballance the inclinations of wils and swift motions of an universal world Greatness of Constantine Verily I must affirm Augustus Caesar was a great Prince for that he changed the face of the State of a mighty Common-wealth built up a vast Empire but not to flatter nor raise our Princes above their merit with the interest of our own cause we shall find this man had some thing in him much greater I admit the other seemeth to you more subtile if you consider him in the maturity of prudence he shewed in his elder days notwithstanding if you behold him in all the parts of his life you shall find great vices therein I say not onely of impurity or neglect but of wickedness and inhumanity which was the cause that he having one day in a banquet taken the shape of Apollo those about him named him Apollinem Tortorem Apollo the Hangman I go not about at this time to search into the vices either of the one or other I admit that Constantine though descended of the most noble bloud of Romans and as fortunate as ever Augustus was in his beginning somewhat cruel Yet no man can deny but that in military virtue he in all points surpassed Augustus Caesar who was never put into the rank of the most warlike Princes Let us not here overprize the supereminency the one had above the other in this point Let us onely compare them in quality of founders of new Estates The one made a new world civil and the other a new world Christian The one to do what he did found a Julius Caesar who before-hand cut out his work for him The other hewed forth a way through rocks flames thornes wholly involved with contrariety The one arranged men under a civil submission in recovery of a Monarchy which is an ordinary thing The other without arms disarmed them from the affection they bare to their ancient superstition which every well understanding Judge will esteem a mattter very difficult because ordinarily men are very obstinate to retain the beliefs which they have held from father to son through the revolution of many Ages Finally Augustus said he found a City of stone speaking of ancient Rome and had made of it a City of marble but Constantine might boast to have raised a Rome wholly new in the establishment of his Constatinople It is affirmed by the Pagans themselves who never attributed any thing to Constantine above his merit that he was at the least say they before bus baptism comparable to all the greatest Princes of the Empire Eutropius a souldier of Julian the Apostata who little loved Christian Princes is inforced through a truth to confess that he was (d) (d) (d) Vir ingens Innumerae in eâ— animi corporiâ— que virtutes clarâ—erunt fortunà in belâ—â— prosperâ fuit verum ita ut non superâ—ret industrian The Prince cap. 2. and upon
where God might sincerely be honoured and adored without any commixtion of Gods or Altars of Gentils which he as yet through necessity must tolerate at Rome yet nothing was changed in the West Was there want of men to undertake it The greatest of the Senate were in a manner all Pagans Were there not people enough to make revolts They were as much inclined thereunto as ever Were there not souldiers to support the enterprizes of those who had a desire to rebel There was as many and perhaps more at that time as at any time before From whence then proceeded this sweet tranquilitie but that the great Angel-Protectour of Constantine given unto him by the living God held one foot on the East and another on the West to protect preserve and honour a man who had defended maintaimed and reverenced true Religion Oh Nobilitie let no man go about to confine your Advise to the Nobility hearts to these slender and wretched policies which ruine all generositie Whilest your Ancestours sincerely honoured the God of Constantine of Charlemain and S. Lewis and whilest they with all sinceritie manured the pietie of their predecessours without any mixture of novelties factions and subtilities they flew like Eagles to the conquest of Provinces and made their arms resplendent almost in so many places as the sun enlightneth with his rays Now they endeavour to perswade you that following a pettie spirit of wrangling which submitteth religion to interests you shall make up to your selves golden fortunes when indeed experience daily teacheth you they are but of gilded ice and are melted under the lightening of Gods justice Open your eys to that which I present you in Successours of Constantine this historie behold yet if you please as you pass along the sequel and proceeding of the successours of Constantine He left three sons the one called by his own name the other Constantius from the name of his Grand-father and the third Constans Constantine and Constans lived not long the whole Empire which was divided between three was re-united under the power of Constantius who verily was an enemie to the superstitions of Gentiles for which God gave him in recompence great victories against the Tyrant Magnentius But this unfortunate Prince instead of following the same belief of his father hastened to throw himself violently into the novelties of the Arians whereof Ammianus the Historian who was a Pagan souldier very aptly reprehendeth him saying he had done himself great wrong for that instead of preserving Christian Religion in its simplicity he had imbroiled and falsified it with novelism using more perplexity to search out subtilities than gravitie to pacifie the Church For he by this means saith he stirred up an infinite number of dissentions which he nourished with disputes and quirks of words so that under his reign you should never see Bishops but riding post over the fields to hold Synods thereby to draw all Christendom to the Emperours party This was the cause that there were almost no horses nor Couriers to be found for the affairs of the Empire so much were they imployed in voyages which were made for these goodly Councels He hath excellently well expressed in few words the nature of Constantius for he was perpetually busied in these litigious wranglings of the heresie of Arians assembling Conventicles of his false-Bishops to condemn the Orthodox From whence it came to pass that hated of men and forsaken by God he led a life full of jealousies suspicions disturbances and which is worse defiled with bloud and massacres In the end having heard the news that Julian the Apostata his cousin whom he had before declared Caesar was among the Gauls and saluted Emperour and having passed through Italy came to present himself in Thrace he went speedily out to resist him and fell into such desperate furies that on his way he was surprised with a sharp feaver which so broiled his body that they durst no more touch him than a burning fornace This malady in a few days bereaved him of soul and Empire leaving the one to the judgment of God and the other to Julian Behold what became of this deplorable Prince in the one and fourtieth year of his age for having betrayed the Religion of his father the gravitie and modesty observed in him which was the cause he was never seen to spit nor wipe his nose nor turn his head in publick nothing availing him to lengthen out his life Julian Nephew and son-in-law of great Constantine for he espoused Helena sister of Crispus took instantly the government of the whole Empire upon him and would needs overthrow all that which his uncle had done in matter of Religion Let us consider a little without passion the notable extravagancies of this spirit who contemning the pietie Julian with the qualities which Machiavel giveth a Prince had ill succ ss of Constantine sought to establish himself by all the ways which the poor policie of earth suggesteth to those who have renounced heaven To speak to the purpose we must affirm this man had all the qualities which Monsieur Machiavel gave to his Prince If dissimulation may be used for a Kingdom never was a lamb more mild than this young man at the Court of Constantius to take all suspicions from him which he conceived of his near allies and although he already entertained most mischievous thoughts in the matter of Christian Religion he so covered them by the publick profession he made of it that the very Eunuchs who had all charge most narrowly to prie into his actions upon this point observed nothing therein which tended to alteration in Religion But far otherwise about the age of sixteen he caused his hair to be cut and vowed himself to the Church as a Prince most Religious who thought little on the Empire of the world And after when he was sent into France although he used strange superstitions and witch-crafts rising up in the night to pray to Mercury to whom he dedicated much devotion yet did he also notwithstanding celebrate the feasts with Christians and that which besides is more considerable when he was proclaimed Emperour though he had an enraged desire towards it and that all this solemnitie was throughly agreed upon by his cunning yet seigned he to have all the aversions in the world against it and caused himself to be carried to the throne as one would draw an unruly sacrifice to the slaughter What spirit was evermore dissembled than this mans If as saith the Secretary a Prince should endeavour to have virtues in apparence which may render him acceptable in publick though he be not to take much pains to have them in effect never did any man better put on the mask of much honesty than this For in the fortune of Emperour he would seem like the most mortified Stoik of all that Sect shewing himself so chast that never might you hear one sole misbecomming word fall from his lips so
sober that he gave an example to the most austere Monks so negligent in the neatness of his body that he much gloried to see vermine run up and down on his beard which he wore very long to play the Philosopher in all kinds so patient that he many times endured all sorts of affronts and sharp words from mean men no more moved thereby to anger than a stone If it must needs be according to the said Maxims that a Prince to procure estimation should perform great enterprizes this man was no sooner seated in his Throne but that he practised admirable policies and hastened to make war on the Persians to imitate Alexander the Great to whose virtues he aspired If needs some remarkable act must be done in the begining he at his entrance professing Paganism repealeth the Bishops which Constantius a Christian Prince had banished If liberallitie must be used this man gave all and said his treasures were better among his friends than with himself If excellent Masters in every art and science are to be cherished this man did it with much passion From whence then proceedeth it that with all those goodly parts of Machiavels Prince he hath so little prospered reigning but one year and seven months and dying strucken with a blow from heaven which the Pagans themselves confess to be ignorant from whence it came and dying in a frenzy which caused him to fill his hand with his own blood and cry Thou O Galilean hast overcome and leaving in his death a memory of his name so odious to all posterity The poor man forsaking the way already so happily beaten by Constantine unluckily hasteneth to joyn amity with those wise Politicians who had all Plato's Common-wealth who esteemed themselves the most accurate in the government of the World who promised him by these wiles he practised the absolute extirpation of Christianity and to make him the most awfull and most glorious of all the Emperours of the world And I beseech you what became in the end of all these promises but dreams illusions and vapours Constantius under the holy Philosophy of the cross reigned more than thirty years Constantine waged great wars had great victories great triumphs was attended by great Councels great Cities Constantine left a Religion so established that the malice of an Arian son nor the policy of a new Apostata could not extinguish it Constantine never entred into any battel where he came not off victorious And Julian in the first war he undertook upon the beginning of his empire confounded all his Army led his Captains to slaughter was himself slain as a victime And the sage Politicians which he ever had in his army instead of Priests and Bishops drew him to death to serve as a spectacle of confusion for the one and matter of mirth for the other May we not wel say O Nobilitie that these spirits who divert your hearts from the chast beliefs of your Ancestors from the puritie of faith the candor of a good conscience to invenom them with a doctrine of impietie policy and treachery under colour of humane wisedom are the plagues of States the ruins of houses and the fatal hands to annihilate greatness I will not infer for a necessary conclusion that all such as live in the fear of God and in integrity must ever have pleasing successes according to the world in the manage of temporal affairs this is not a thing absolutely promised to us by God We have not sold him our fidelity and Christianity upon such condition that he should still afford us the bread of dogs and favour us with felicities which he imparteth to Sarazens and Mores I know good Christian Princes may be afflicted sometime for the punishment of certain sins which they with too much indulgence have permitted sometime for a trial and spectacle of their virtue sometime to teach us there is another life for the children of God since they in this same are ill entreated sometime for causes which the providence of God involveth as in a cloud replenished with obscurity and darkness Yet shall you find in reading histories either divine or humane that all those who have progressed on with true feeling of God and with the lightenings of integrity and touches of a good conscience which nature provideth for every man have commonly been the most expected the best beloved the most happy and most permanent And to speak with S. Augustine would not they Aug. lib. 5. de civitate Dei cap. 24. ever be most happy if they had no other felicity but to be just in their commands moderate in their fortunes humble among services modest in praises and faithful servants of God in Empires Wherein consisteth the happiness of man if it be not to fear God so to fear nothing els If it be not to love a Kingdom where we no longer may dread to have companions If it be not to pardon injuries through clemency and not revenge crimes but by justice If it be not to be chast in the liberty of pleasures If it be not rather to command over our own passions than Cities and Provinces Behold the principal felicity of great Constantine which you ought O Noble Men to take for your model Do in your own houses what he acted in an Empire establish there constantly the fear and love of God Banish vices as he from his City of Constantinople the Temples and Victims of false Gods that the honour of the Cross may set a seal on all your thoughts all your counsels all your enterprizes that your examples may serve to God as amber and adamant to attract so many hearts of straw and iron as are now in the world to the love of virtue that these duels of gladiatours condemned by Constantine may be the horrour of your thoughts and detestation of your hearts that devotion chastity humility patience charity virtues so familiar to this great Monarch may make an honourable warfare which shall possess your heart and that all of them may there reign each one in particular with as ample Empire as all of them in general THE STATES-MAN TO STATES-MEN SIRS SInce God hath put the government of people justice and most important affairs into your hands he hath likewise raised you upon a high degree of honour to be looked on in offices no otherwise than as stars in the firmament Your dignities are obligations of conscience that bend like the chains of MEDAEA and scortch weak souls in purple and gold but which on the other part afford to generous spirits a perfect lustre of Divinitie The more light a bodie enjoyeth say the learned so much the more ought it to have of participation and favourable influences for objects which are in a much lower degree than it So likewise must we necessariely say that your qualities which grant you nearer approaches to the source of greatness and embellish you with the rays of the majestie of a Prince do most particularly oblige you
more unhappy in his practise For having disposed of the affairs of the Kingdom and those of his own house there remaining none to be provided for but his own person he took a halter and strangled himself because they approved not one of his counsels When we behold in Histories a large list of these most curious Politicians who have had so ill success either in their own persons or in their posterity as I presently will produce very many we must undoubtedly say this kind of way is ever dangerous in its enterprises but not infallible in the successes thereof If you become as wicked as a little Poliphemus it would be very hard to deny a first cause of all the creatures which are in the world of it self absolute independent and eternal For were the world full of wheels and revolutions even from earth to heaven still must we necessarily come to the last wheel to the last revolution which is to give motion to all the other and to take it of no other and that is God Were you as bruitish as a Lestrigon you could Ratio D. Ansâ—lâ—i dialog de veritate c. 1. not deny an eternal Verity For in what time will you say there hath not been a verity Should you assign the space of ten millions of years and all that may be imagined beyond it you would ever find this Verity and should you say it was not then and that in saying so you were sincere which cannot be yet would you speak a truth even in denying a truth so much is her essence necessary and this eternal Verity which serves as a basis for all other verities is that which we call God Were you as unnatural as a monster you knew not how to deny there were a sovereign Being in the world which holdeth the first degree of all excellencies in such sort that we cannot imagine any thing more excellent and that is God Besides it is necessary to infer what S. Thomas hath D. Thom. opuscul 2. cap. 21. Quae sunt per participationem reluâ—untur in id quod est per essentiam most divinely sayd that all things which are by borrowing and participation have relation of necessity to that which is by essence and nature So the stars the pretious stones have relation to the sun and things hot to the fire as the scope of their excellency Now it is certain that men Cities and Kingdoms have but a borrowed being because they are not made by themselves and therefore it is necessary to affirm there is an intellectual power in a supreme degree whereunto all these intelligences even of men which constituted these States and Republickes do relate and this relation is nothing else but providence Verily if you should behold on a Theather about ten thousand white beards that were come thither to decide a matter by a common consent would you take your self to be wise to enter into Councel not called and to reject the opinions of all those who have delivered their sentences publishing an opinion absolutely new and directly contrary to so many good judgements And I ask of you that were now so many excellent Magistrates raised again as have governed all sorts of Kingdoms and Common-wealths in the Ages past should we not see more than a million of men most accomplished in knowledge virtue and experience who had mannaged the world in the fear and under the laws of this Divine Providence It would then be a notable spectacle to see you enter into the Hall of such a Councel with a downy chin to give all this assembly the lie and say There is nothing but humane policie dissimulation and the tricks of flattery to be valued in affairs without the expectation of any thing from God would you not be ridiculous Yet this is it which you do so much hath sin stupified you If you have the least spark of the understanding of a man when you foster such thoughts in your minds do you think it were fit to prefer some mouldy reasons of a carnal spirit and the capriches of your sensual imaginations before the voice of nature and the states of the whole world assembled together to condemn your bruitishness If there be no Providence to chastise the perverse and recompence the just conclude we must live in the world like a sparrow-hawk or Pike called the Tyrant of the water and to have no other measure of virtue but your talon and throat Is it not to pen the gate to all injustices perjuries treacheries and all possible abominations For what monster will not that soul be capable of which conceiveth nothing of God I have some reason say you and for this cause you are of opinion this belief should be entertained to amuze the people In saying this you discover a great weakness of judgement for it must be concluded according to your proposition that all what ever was in the world either of justice temperance modesty courtesie patience honesty peace and tranquility were derived from an imaginary belief touching Providence from an errour a folly an illusion which is as absurd as to say grapes grow upon thistles roses spring from the ice of winter And tell me not I pray that a false belief seeks to procure good effects as it appeareth in the virtues of Pagans For I hold that what good the Pagans have done they have not acted it with relation to the adulteries of Jupiter nor the murders of bloudy Mars but in honour of a Divinity which they thought avenged iniquity and rewarded virtue In this general belief which was the true root of their moral virtues there happened no abuse although they in particular were deceived in their judgement Your goodly objections of aw proceed from an infamous Diagoras or Plinie who thought to have Irridendum agere curam rerum humanâ—rum quicquid est summum sed credi usu vitâ— est Plin. l. 2. c. 7. found a great secret in saying The belief of a Divine Providence was a jolly invention because it kept the world in aw Deserved he not well to be cursed as a Traytour to all mankind Deserved not he well to be broiled alive in the throat of hell as indeed he was loosing his life in the flames of Vesuvius since he vaunteth himself to have discovered a secret O proditorem generis humani Vives 1. de verit fidei lib. 9. which would be able were it true to let loose the bridle to all profanations and bruitishness of a life the most savage that might be imagined Ever would it be more to the purpose to tolerate an evil well conferred than to introduce a good ill digested say the wise and what crime is it then to invent false secrets the ignorance whereof is so wholesom and the verity whereof would be so prodigiously hurtfull Why do you not rather take into your consideration the sage discourse of the Philosopher Simplicius who said When I imagine a god unto my self I
Common-wealth of the Athenians and which made Machiavel with his great list of precepts to be disasterous in all his undertakings These kind of subtile men better understand the mysterie of disputation than how to live to discourse than to counsel and to speak than to do They all have as it were three things much opposite to good counsels The first is that they are variable fickle and uncapable of repose which is the cause that as the Sun sometimes draweth up a great quantitie of vapours which he cannot dissipate so they likewise by this vivacitie perpetually active do amass together a great heap of affairs which their judgement can never dissolve The second is that they swim in an infinite confusion of reasons and inventions resembling oftentimes bodies charged with too great abundance of bloud who through a notable excess find death in the treasure of life The third is that seeking to withdraw themselves from common understanding they figure to themselves subtilities and chymaeraes which are as the Towers of the Lamiae as Tertullian speaks on which no man hath thought or ever will which is the cause that their spirit floating in this great tyde of thoughts seldom meeteth with the dispatch of an affair Adde likewise to this that God is pleased to stupifie all these great professours of knowledge and make them drink in the cup of errour in such sort that we coming to discourse concerning their judgement find they have committed many faults in the government of Common-wealths which the simplest peasants would not have done in the direction of their own houses This hath been well observed by the Prophet Isaiah when he said of the Councellours of Pharaoh Isaiah 19. The Princes of Tanais are become fools the Princes of Memphis are withered away they have deceived Aegypt with all the strength and beautie of her people God hath sent amongst them a spirit of giddiness and made them reel up and down in all their actions like drunken men The holy Job hath said the Job 12. same in these terms God suffereth these wise Councellours to fall into the bazards of senseless men God maketh the Judges stupid taketh away the sword and belt from Kings to engirt their reins with a cord God maketh the Priests to appear infamous supplanteth the principal of the people changeth the lips of truth-speakers taketh away the doctrine of old men and poureth out contempt upon Princes Behold the menaces which the Sovereign Master pronounceth against those who wander from the true way and therefore my Politician without perplexing your spirit with an infinity of precepts which have been touched by a great diversitie of pens I affirm that all which you may here expect consisteth in four things which are as four elements of your perfection to wit Conscience Capacitie Discretion and Courage The first and most necessary instruments of all arts and namely of this profession is Conscience which verily is the most ancient Governess of the soul and the most holy Mistress of life It is that which will instantly dispose you to the end whereunto you are to pretend in the exercise of an office It is that which will tell you that having given your self to the publick you are taken away from your self that you must not enter into this Sanctuary of justice with a beggarly base or mercenary intention but to aim sincerely at God and the good of the Common-wealth It is that which will discover unto you those three wicked gulfs of ambition avarice and impuritie which have swollowed all spirits dis-united from God It is that which will teach you that what is done in Heaven is proportionably acted in a Mathematical circle and that which is done in the great Regiment of Angels ought to be done in the government of men It is that which will firmly support you on the basis of the Eternal Providence It is that which will render you next unto God by often thinking on God and will make you speak what you think and do what you speak It is that which will instruct you that the spirit of man is like a Sun-dyal which is of no use but when the Sun reflecteth on it and that you likewise expect not your understanding may have any true light and direction for the government of people if not enlightened with a ray of God Besides it will give you means to enter into a holy list of piety and justice which are the two fundamental pillars of all great estates Piety will assign you two sorts of devotion the one common the other singular The common will cause you piously to honour and serve God you first having most pure and chaste beliefs in that which concerneth true faith without any mixture of curiosities and strange opinions for Insuspicabilis secreti reverendaeque majestatis cognitio est Deum non nosse nisi Deum S. Zeno serm de Nativitat it is a very great secret in matter of religion not to believe of God but what he is and that man ever knows him sufficiently who is holily ignorant of him esteeming him infinitly to transcend his knowledges Secondly it will apply you to divine Worship and publick ceremonies in a manner free cordial and Religious for the satisfaction of your interiour and the example of the publlck Singular devotion will move you to consider how being a publick person and charged with affairs which expect the motion of the Divine Providence you have a great dependance on Heaven and that it therefore wil shew you according to the proportion of your time and leisure some hour of retirement to negotiate particularly with God in imitation of Moses that great States-man who had so familiar a recourse to the Tabernacle For if that be true which S. Gregorie Nazianzen saith that we ought to have God in mind as often as we breath it is so much the more suitable to States-men as they have most need to suck in this life-giving spirit as from the fountain of the Word by the means of prayer Saint John Damascene in a Dialogue he made against the Manichees holdeth this opinion That the greatest Angels are as clocks which come in the end to languish and faint if God do not continually draw them upward by the breath of his spirit so must we say that the goodliest Spirits and strongest Intelligences lessen and wax old every moment if they resume not vigour in the intellectual source by the virtue of devotion When you shall be instructed in these principles this wise Mistress whom I call your conscience will make you find in a right course the perfection of justice which consisteth in four principal things The first is neither to act nor shew to your subjects the least suspition of evil or sin For you must begin your government by your own example and since your spirit is the first wheel whereunto all the other are fastened it is necessary to give it a good motion It is held when the
Sun stood still in the time of Josuah the Moon and all the Stars made the like pause Governours and Masters have this proper to themselves that in all they do they pour forth their spirits into such of their subjects who are for the most part neither good nor bad but by the relation they have to the life of those on whom their fortunes depend The second is not to suffer an evil since as said Peceare non cohibere peccantes juxta aestima Dostheus l. Italicorum Agapetus to the Emperour Justinian to commit and permit crimes when one hath full power to hinder them is as it were one and the same thing There are no flatteries so charming nor importunities so forcible which should ever make a well composed spirit to bend to the permission of a sin which he knoweth to be against the honour of God and the tranquilitie of his conscience Fabricianus a Roman Captain in ruining a Fortress of the Samnites kept their Venus which he sent to Rome for the beauty of the workmanship and it is thought the aspect of this statue was the first occasion of making his wife an adulteress and caused him afterward to serve as a victim to the loves of this unchaste woman by horrible massacre It happeneth oftentimes that Masters of families who seem very innocent in their persons retain scandals in their houses through a certain pusillanimity and dissimulation which draw upon them the chastisements of God and disasters very extraordinary The Scripture saith the High Priest Eli was the lamp of God before 1 Reg. 33. juxta 70. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was extinguished by a wicked toleration of the excesses of his children which rent his house and buried him in publick ruins Take good heed there be not some houshold servant raised by your indulgence who rendereth your favours odious and liberalities criminal by abuse of the power which you have put into his hands Alkabicius the Astrologer observeth there are stars of their own nature benign and which would ever behold us favourably were it not the neighbour-hood of some others malign altered their sweet inclinations And there are many Masters and Mistresses to be found in the world endued with a humour exceedingly good if the near approaches which bad servants make to their persons did not destroy this temper That man Qualities of an Officer is truly stout and happy who findeth or maketh men of honour well disposed faithfully affected industrious vigilant laborious indefatigable sober in speech prompt in execution patient and able in their charges for good souldiers make glorious Captains and good Officers great States-men The third condition of the zeal of justice is that you never be pleased an ill act be done under the shadow that you were not of counsel thereunto or that it never came to your knowledge You may very well rejoyce not to have at all contributed to evil yea not to the birth of evil for this were otherwise to betray your conscience which ought to have the same capacity to abhor all vices and embrace all virtues as faith inclineth to believe all verities revealed unto it I leave you to think what conscience Sextus Pompeius of elder time had to whom as he entertained Augustus and Mark Anthonie in his ship and being in the heat of his feast a servant came to tell him if so he pleased he quickly would put these two Princes into his power thereby to make him Monarch of the world He a little while thinking on this matter said to him who brought the news Thou shouldst have done it and never told me of it This well shewed he bare some respect to fidelity but was very far from that perfection which hateth evil yea even that which is out of the compass of ones own knowledge The fourth is that you must correct disorders as much as you possibly may declaring you have a natural horrour against all sins which resist laws both divine and humane and that the love of honesty hath made you to pass it as it were into your nature I do not see where the virtue of a great States-man may shew it self with more lustre than in the exercise of justice S. Gregorie the Great saith A Greg. in Job 29. Justitiâ— firmatur â—â—lium Prov. 16. mixture of oyl and wine must be made to heal the wounds of men in such sort that minds may not be ulcered with too much severity nor grow remiss by an excess of indulgence The rod must be used to touch and the staff to support love should not soften nor rigour transport matters into despair Moses the first States-man burned inwardly with the fire of charity and was outwardly wholly enkindled with the flames of the zeal of justice As a loving father he offered his soul to God even to the wish to be blotted out of the book of life to save his people as a Judge he took the sword and bathed it in the bloud of Idolaters He was in all kinds both a couragious Embassadour and an admirable mediatour pleading before God the cause of his people with prayers and before his people the cause of God with the sword It is to do all to execute good justice God Evectâ—s in exâ—â—lsum iâ—â—e magis â—itis despice Cassiod hath set you on high for no other cause but to behold vices beneath if you exalt them they will trample you under-foot you shall perpetually drink the greatest part of the poison you mingled for others and when you shall break down the hedge the snake as the Scripture threateneth will sting you Eccles 10. 8. the first When a good conscience hath accommodated you with this condition so that you have no other intention but to advance goodness in your own person and in those who belong to you you are not a little advanced in the perfections of a great Statesman yet it is fit Conscience Science and Capacity be had for the discharge of great employments and especially by him who makes profession to govern men sometimes as untractable as Hydra's of many heads Campanus Bishop of Terni of whom we have some Campanus Interamneâ—us Episcop Works in the Bibliotheca Patrum in the book which he composed of magistracy requireth four conditions in him A wit vigorous a carriage neither dejected nor unpleasing a prudence full of maturity when there is occasion to consult upon an affair and a promptness to take time in the instant to execute that which hath once been well resolved on He saith a vigorous wit for it is very fit the soul should be full of lights and flames which is to serve others for a guide and as there is no wit so great which hath not many defects so it is very necessary it be polished by good letters which unite and incorporate in one sole man the faculties of many others and by the conference of the wise which taketh away all that which excellent natures
a scarcity of Writers who have handled this subject I will endeavour to render it as little irksom in stile as it is profitable in matter As for the first quality I have observed in him which is his great Nobility it is certain he summed up a thousand years since his Ancestours began to be resplendent with singular lustre in the Citie of Rome which is no small space to say that ten Ages which waste rocks and wear elements had not altered the honour of this great Family He was descended from the house of those great Manlii whose hearts extended as far as the Roman Empire The most celebrated amongst them named Marcus Manlius defended the Capitol against the Gauls in the extream necessity of the Romans and redeemed as it were from the abyss the Citie which God had chosen to command over so many nations He was a man truly valorous who wanted nothing but to have been born in an ample Kingdom and not in a Republick jealous of the greatness of its subjects For he having too much courted the People to the prejudice of Magistrates was accused to have sought a change of government and was precipitated from the Capitol which he had defended to the end the theater of his glory might be turned into the scaffold of his punishment Never could any thing be seen more deplorable than this brave Captain when pleading his cause where he was upon question of his last unhappiness having produced about four hundred Citizens delivered from great necessities by his means then thirtie spoils of noble enemies whom he had slain with his own hand then ten Crowns then fourty other prizes of valour as he beheld the incensed Judges much enclining to his ruin he shewed his naked breast as yet covered over with honourable scars received in so many great battels for his Countrey and then turning his eyes his up-reard hands to heaven towards the Capitol he prayed the Gods to give the People of Rome the same understanding for the preservation of his person that they had afforded him for the safety of the Weal-publick in the defence of the Citie of Rome This spectacle was so ravishing that it was impossible to condemn him in sight of this noble fortress which subsisted not but by his valour but his enemies causing him to be carried into another place exercised a heavy judgement and an act odious to posterity which was attended by great sterilities and pestilences attributed to the death of this noble personage The other Manlius very eminent was he who slew in single combat the Captain of the Gauls in sight of both the Armies For this man advancing himself on a bridge assailed and defended by both parts challenged aloud the most valorous among the Romans to combat man to man which being understood Manlius slowly came forth with the leave of his Dictatour and having well observed his adversary who immeasurably braved it he struck him so nimbly that he fell down stark dead in the list then taking his chain off all bloudy he hung it about his own neck from whence he was surnamed Torquatus which title did afterward likewise remain unto his whole posterity The third of this race much renowned in histories by an act one of the severest ever exercised was that Torquatus who caused his sons head to be cut off for having charged and vanquished his enemy without leave The young mantickled with the honour of his Ancestours seeing a fair occasion to fight took the opportunity And not expecting the permission of his father overthrew the enemies of the Roman people in killing with his own hands a man of note in single combat whereupon full of joy he returneth with the applause of the souldiers and hasteneth to seek out his father who commanded the Army bearing in his hands the spoils of his enemies and saying aloud Father behold the cause why I may be esteemed your son But the father turning his eyes away caused the trumpet to be sounded to gather all the souldiers together and in the middest of a great Assembly as General he pronounced sentence against his son and said unto him SON Since without any respect either of the dignitie of a Consul wherewith the Common-wealth hath honoured me or the majestie of the title of a father which nature hath afforded me over you you have fought contrary to my Edict dissolving the sacred knot of military discipline which hath hitherto maintained the greatness of the Roman State I well see you have reduced affairs to such necessitie that either I must forget the Common-wealth or myself and mine But God forbid the publick suffer for our faults and that we must expiate the temeritie of one young man by the disasters of so many innocent persons Here an act of State must be performed which is for the present somewhat odious but shall be profitable for youth through all posteritie My son I have sense of nature as a father and as a Captain I resent also the stashes of this youthfull virtue which is so charming in its illusion but since I must either by your impunitie annual or by your bloud seal the commandment of the Consuls you being of my bloud I cannot think you so degenerate as to deny to re-establish by your punishment the Laws of arms which you by your errour have destroyed Thereupon he commanded the executioner to bind him and lead him to the place of punishment to be beheaded wherewith the Assembly was so astonished as if all the Captains had their heads under the same sword For every one was drenched in a deep silence until the bloud of this young Prince was seen to gush forth for then the souldiers spared neither sorrow nor execrations taking the body by main force to cover it with its spoils and enterre it with all honour I had a desire to touch this particularly thereby to teach the Reader that the great constancy which Boetius witnessed in the whole course of his life and especially at his death was in him hereditary It were a long piece of work for him who would prosecute all the acts of the Ancestours of Boetius since by the report of Saint Hierom this family hath been so illustrious that scarcely can one man be found therein which hath not enjoyed or deserved the Consulship Wherefore I may well say it was a very particular Providence of God upon this admirable man which being pleased to raise him to the condition of a great States-man hath caused him to be nobly born For although it cannot be denied but that many descended from very mean extraction have sometimes exceedingly well improved in the mannage of States yet must we affirm they have stood in much need of time diligence and eminent virtues to give a counterpoize to this defect of bloud Ordinarily those who arise from these degrees being derived from base birth are many times envied and little respected whereby finding themselves offended they often take harsh ways to
Ennodius in his Panegyrick saith that he honoured the Royal purple with the rays of his countenance and that there was not in the world a habit so beautiful which he made not more lustrous by wearing it on his body that his eyes had the serenity of the spring and that his hands were worthy to give death to rebels and matter of vows to his subjects That all which Diadems perform in the person of other Emperours nature had done in him and that nothing in him was wanting but an heir for the truth is he dyed not leaving any son to succeed him Reader I have been willing to present unto you succinctly the great revolution of the Empire into which our Boetius fell and the qualities of his Persecutour who degenerated afterward into so much barbarism But let us now behold what he did by the counsel of our great Boetius in the manage of his Kingdom to the end you may have so much the more horrour of wicked ingratitude who slew this holy man that was as the Intelligence and Angel Guardian of his State The fourth SECTION The enterance of Theodorick into Rome and his happy government by the counsel of Boetius THeodorick having pacified the City of Ravenna and made himself Master of the most important places of his Kingdom went to Rome with the most flourishing troups of Italy where he was received in the manner of ancient triumphs which exceedingly pleased the people who at that time resembled the earth which ariseth from the snows of winter as from a tomb to becom young again with the sweet breath of the spring So many years were slipt away wherein they had not seen any thing but divisions troubles famine and bloud when this Prince came to appear upon the triumphant Chariot with his golden arms which gave him a mervellous majesty besides the graces he had from nature they thought they beheld a star newly descended from heaven and followed him with infinite acclamations in witness of affection He being alighted at the Palace Boetius who was the principal man of the world in nobility wit and learning was chosen out from all the State to make him an Oration In which being then in full vigour of eloquence he most divinely acquitted himself It is a great loss that posterity hath not preserved so brave a monument of this rare spirit to enchase it now presently in this work From thence the King passed to the Circus which was a large place appointed for Jousts and Tournaments and staying himself at a place called the Palm of gold he caused his throne to be magnificently seated in a place very high raised and round about him benches for the Senatours who appeared all of them cloathed with robes of their order There he made an Oration full of sweetness in presence of all the people whereby he declared he had a purpose to revive the ancient magnificence of Rome and vehemently to desire to conform himself to the fashions of those Emperours who had been the most zealous for the Weal-publick which made the whole world conceive most excellent hopes of his government All the City was then in pomp like to a noble Lady who having laid aside sorrow suddenly appeareth in the bravery of a bright habit Never day seemed to shine more resplendently to an afflicted people It was in the same time that S. Fulgentius coming from Africk to Rome after he had visited the Churches of the Martyrs passed along by the Circus at the instant when all these gallant ceremonies were performed where he was so ravished beholding the majesty of the Emperour the glory of his Senate the lustre of his nobility the magnificence of the place and the throng of innumerable people that he cried out Oh how beautiful is Jerusalem the celestial Quam speciosa debet esse Hierusalem illa caelestis si sic fulget Roma terrestris Et si in hoc seculo datur tanti honoris dignitas diligentibus vanitatem qualis honor gloris tribuâ—tur Sanctis contemplantibus veritatem since Rome the terrestrial at this day appeareth with such splendour Good God! if you allow so much honour on earth to those who follow vanity what glory will you give in heaven to your Saints who shal behold verity The ceremony being ended the King entertained all the Senate in a feast worthy of his greatness and distributed liberalities to the people which seemed to renew the face of ancient Rome He disposed himself presently to visit all the places of the City to know the condition of his Senatours to inform himself of the humour of the people to observe the state of affairs and to constitute the government It is most certain he was indowed with a natural wit good enough but he had withall so little experience in civil affairs that he had much ado to sign ordinary dispatches Behold the cause why a nameless Authour who Anonymus Author in ejus vitâ wrot his life in a very low stile witnesseth that he usually signing with four letters caused them to be cut in copper and clapping them on the paper fetched the draught of his pen round about to serve as a model to the end that by this means he might give somewhat the better form to his writing This want of experience caused him to tye himself constantly to two great States-men whereof the first was our Boetius whom he made Master of Offices Idem author testatur and Superintendent of his house in such sort that all passed by his counsel the other was Cassiodorus of whom he made use as of a most able and faithful Secretary to dictate all the letters and proceeding of the Kingdom Boetius whom he in the beginning loved as the apple of his eye and honoured as his father gave him the forms and maxims of all that excellent policy which we behold so resplendent in his government I will here couch some of them that Politicians may see the happiness which commonly waiteth on States guided by the ways of conscience The first maxim was that King Theodorick being an Arian should not onely abstaine from persecuting and afflicting the Catholick Church in any kind whatsoever either of himself or by any of his but on the contrary should cherish honour protect and maintain it with all the extent of his authority because the experience of Ages had made it appear that those who were interessed in the perplexities of Religions contrary to the Catholick had prospered very ill and that not going any further the deportments of the Emperour Anastasius who then reigned in Constantinople made it manifest enough since he had involved himself in the hatred of the Clergy and people to support with passion certaine novelties and how on the contrary ordinary practise had discovered that all Monarchs who had entertained good correspondence and respect with Ecclesiasticks were evermore honoured in their government and much happier in the success of their affairs Theodorick so
well observed this maxim that to Theodorus Anagnostes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 witness the zeal he bare to our Religion he caused the head of one of his officers to be cut off who having been bred in the Catholick Church became an Arian thinking by this means to be advanced into the good favour of his Master But this brave King My friend saith he since thou hast been disloyal to God I can never think thou wilt be faithful to thy Prince Thou shalt wash away the stain of thy treachery with thy bloud to teach posterity thou must not mingle the interests of God with the profane pretenses of thy fortunes He shewed himself very zealous to preserve peace in the Church in a most dangerous schism raised in his time For Pope Anastasius being deceased and they proceeding lawfully to the election of Symmachus there was a Senatour of an unquiet spirit who desirous to make a Pope at the devotion of the Emperour of Constantinople so to countenance his Extravagencies banded Altar against Altar and caused an Antipope to be chosen named Laurentius which rent both Senate and Clergy into great partialities But Theodorick very speedily quenched the fire and being well informed of the business seeing Symmachus was first elected and supported by the soundest part he mantained him with a strong hand against all the enterprises of adversaries who durst not in the end resist his authority Besides having published an Edict against the favourers of the Heruli who perplexed the Province of Genoa and Milan whither they were retired that fell out to be the cause of very many miseries and tears among the poor people who having no support so helpful unto them as the Bishops threw themselves into the arms of Epiphanes and Laurentius both great Saints and great Prelates the one of Pauta the other of Milan Epiphanes undertook to speak and said to the King Sir Should I here reckon up all the favours which you have received from God I might make you appear more sparing in your desires than he hath been in his liberalities since you have asked nothing of heaven which hath not ever surmounted your vows and hopes But not to speak at this time of so many prodigies is it not a very great wonder to see you do justice in the throne of your enemy and to behold us pleading the cause of your servants with such a confidence in a place which the terrour of arms had heretofore rendered so dreadful Sir it is the Saviour of the world who hath given into your hand this people which hath charged us with their requests Take good heed how you offend him by ill using the gift he hath afforded you Know how an invisible power hath led you by the hand into so many encounters and battels that the air rain and seasons have favoured your standards as if they had been to you engaged Now is the time you must acknowledge so many benefits by your piety not despising the tears of the afflicted which are the sacrifices of suppliants The examples of your Predecessours who have been cast out of the throne for their iniquity shew you cannot establish it but in your virtues Upon this consideration your Countrey prostrate at your feet most humbly beggeth you would be pleased to sweeten the rigour of your laws not onely by doing good to the innocent but by pardoning the culpable For very little would our clemency be if we did onely abstain to strike those who have given offence to none not considering mercy is not made for any but the miserable In revengeing your injuries you shall do like men of the earth and by pardoning share in glory with that great Monarch of heaven who daily maketh his sun to shine on criminal heads as well as the most innocent The King made a most courteous answer saying There was no reason that earthly powers should resist the prayers of Bishops who made heaven propitious and that he remitted to all in general the punishments of death ordained by laws but in so Vitia transmittit ad posteròs qui praesentibus culpis ignoscit much that the ulcer must be purged least by shewing himself too indulgent to vices he might make them pass into example for posterity the consideration of his state required the Authours of sedition should be removed to the end their presence might not foment the evil The reply was found very reasonable and letters of grace instantly dispatched by Urbicus who was one of the chiefest officers in the Court for expeditions He satisfied not himself with this favour but calling the good Bishop into his cabinet having highly commended him sent him among the Gauls to redeem the Italian prisoners there by reason the Burgundians in certain incursions had taken away very many and others over-whelmed with the miseries which proceed from civil wars were voluntarily stept aside The King gave commission to the Bishops to rally them to their troups liberally defraying the charges that were necessary There is also found one amongst his letters addressed Cassiodor l. 2. c. 2. 29. to Count Adela wherein he witnesseth that though he had a great desire to preserve his people in full peace and repose because the glory of a Prince consisteth in the tranquility of his subjects yet that he principally intended the Churches should enjoy this favour since in obliging them the mercies and blessings of God were drawn on his kingdom and pursuing this course he commanded Duke Ida to cause all the Ecclesiastical possessions to be restored which some had usurped in Languedoc after the death of Alarick Observe the good foundations of piety which he laid by the counsel of Boetius The second Maxim was to bend all his endeavours and imploy his best thoughts for the comfort of the people because there is not any way more powerful to gain the hearts of all the world than by sweetening the sharpness of the times present or the burdens of the passed We have seen said he by experience that those who are desirous to possess gold without the love of the people have been very unsafe that Kings differ not from other men but in being powerful to do good and that the common sort measure their greatness onely by their bounty that is it which heretofore made the Gods of Gentiles and which maintaineth Monarchies on the firm rock of constancy Theodorick imbraced this care most particularly Cassioder l. 4. ep 36. for he punctually enquired after the losses of his poor subjects and if he found any molested by the passage of some troups or other like he released them of taxes and ordinary subsidies as it may yet be seen in his letters and namely in one which he wrot to President Faustus wherein he commanded him to hold his hand in this business Because saith Lib. ◠Epis ◠he a body over-burdened sinketh to the ground and that it were better to despise a slight gain than to deprive himself
And to what may your state truly amount saith the King The Lady replied She was very well worth a thousand crowns which was a great riches in that time Well saith Theodorick I will give as much to this young man for his marriage on this condition that you shall marry him She much amazed began to wax pale blush tremble and to shew all the countenances of a perplexed woman who sought to excuse her self but faltered in her speech The King yet to affright her more swore deeply she should marry him presently or tell lawfull causes of impediment The poor woman condemned by the voice of nature which cried in her heart and having horrour of the crime proposed unto her cast her self at the feet of the King with much profusion of tears confessing her loves dissimulation and mishap Then this great Prince taking the word from her Are not you a miserable woman saith he to renounce your own bloud for a villain who hath deceived you get you to your house forsake these fond affections and live in the conditions of a good widow taking unto you such support from your son as he by nature ought to afford you I leave to relate a singular example upon the same subject which I drew from the Chronicles of Alexandria and cited in the third book and one and twentieth Section of my first Tome The fourth Maxim which Theodorick received from our Oracle was to place deserving men in offices and to ground his State upon rewards and punishments which the ancient Democritus said were the Divinities of Common-wealths The King laied this counsell up in his heart and presently made Boetius Superintendent of Offices and dignities to the end his judgement might be as the character of the excellent qualities of such as should have principal Commissions There was no speech at all either of favour flesh bloud or nation all rewards were for men of judgement and virtue when any one was designed for some office long and serious inquiry was made of his condition which being throughly known the King gave approbation of him by writing to the Senate or forgot not to put into account all his services and laudable actions to the end the sinceritie of his proceedings might be known that he might cast a double lustre upon him who received so great a benefit from his hands We may behold the practise hereof in many letters Epist 3. lib. 4. which are to be found upon this subject and namely upon the advancement of Cassiodorus to the dignitie of a Patrician where the King writing unto him letters full of respect makes a narration of his life and functions wherein he had very well served his Majesty and then said unto him Enjoy now the recompence of your travel and doubly take the interests which you have contemned for the publick for there are no riches more glorious than to see your virtues crowned both by the testimonie of the Prince and by the praises which proceed from the month of all the world It is a great happiness to oblige a King to confess that a subject hath that already by his merit which he grants him by his liberallitie This gave so great encouragement to the nobilitie to dispose themselves to honour by the degrees of honesty that in few years the Court was replenished with persons qualified with parts of science and conscience which are the two sources of good affairs The fifth Maxim was the good husbanding of treasures which are not onely the sinews but the soul bloud and life of the people It must be confessed that the States of the world are subject to great maladies one while there is a drowsiness in affairs that is the lethargy sometimes a humour peccant and maligne composed of passions and errors which besiege the understanding that is the epilepsie sometimes obstacles which hinder the light of good counsel and they are cataracts which grow upon the eys sometimes obdurations against good advise that is hardness in the ears sometimes a malicious silence of truth that is the squinancy sometimes oppressions that is shortness of breath sometimes want of courage and those are the evils of the heart sometimes there is raised an exorbitant avarice that is the bulimy or dog-hunger sometimes coldness and remisness to unlock coffers for necessary uses that is the gout in the hand sometimes negligences opportunely to take occasions and that is the gout in the feet sometimes fiery ambititions and enraged avarice and they are feavers sometimes you may observe malignities and intestine wars which may be called the stone and nephretick pains sometimes bloudy agonies termed dissenteries sometimes great corruptions of manners that is the cachochimy sometimes sudden disturbances they are Erysepelies sometimes stenches of hidden crimes and that is an infection of the nose which the Graecians call Lozena sometimes there are discovered spots of impietie that is the Leprosie sometimes an impotency in all the members that is the Palsie sometimes a faintness over all the vital parts that is the Ptisick Never should he have done who would keep an account of all the maladies which are ever dangerous in their sources and mortal in their issues but this Ptisick which drieth up the body and maketh of a living man a kind of spectre or Anatomy is one of the least accidents and this happeneth to a State through the ill manage of Treasures contrarie to the loyaltie due to the sacred persons of Kings That is it which maketh souldiers to mutinie which offendeth the great and giveth matter of indignation to the most reasonable and of murmur to all the world whiles the one account in substance the gold and silver which they have purloined and the other reckon in idaea that which is spent entertaining their thoughts with the desire of a thing afar off as if one would warm himself with the memory of fire This is it which bringeth contempt of a Common-wealth abroad weakness at home and miserie on all sides which maketh the people hungry and a Prince necessitous in his own house The effects of this disease are better known than the remedies thereof practised for there are ordinarily in all States many Reformers who have verily notable designs upon Treasures but there is the like use made of them as of tooth-picks before dinner Money is of the sect of invisibles no man knows what becomes of it in so many hands those who abuse it have so many kinds of jugling-tricks which dazel eyes whilest they fill their purses It is a Theophrasi de plantis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 goodly plant as that wich is called the Affodil or Scepter-royal which breeds bad little worms that gnaw all the substance thereof and hide themselves under the leaves till such time that getting wings they becom butterflies all speckled over with flowers and brave it over men in the air whom they durst not behold upon the earth The States of Great-ones is also an admirable tree
derived from frail honours of the world he had cause enough to rejoice on that day when he saw his two sons carried in Pomp through the Citie in a triumphant Chariot accompanied with the whole Senate and attended by an infinite concourse of people who ceased not to congratulate the father and the children as the of-spring of a race born for the good of the Common-wealth The same day he made in full Senate an oration of thanks-giving to Theodorick for the large liberalities extended towards his house which was delivered with such a grace that in conclusion they presented him a Crown as to the King of eloquence He likewise gave notable largesses to all the people and appeared in the great Court of the Circus siting in the middest of his two Consuls in presence of the whole Citie having his heart replenished with content and tears of joy in his eys for the affections which the people witnessed To crown all those blessings of fortune he had married a wife held one of the most accomplished Ladies under heaven For which is very rare she injoyed a great spirit a singular modesty and an excellent chastitie of whom Boetius sufficiently to praise her said in one word She was the image of her father Symmachus who had given her to him in a most chast and happie marriage Now this Symmachus called the pearl and precious ornament of the whole world was a Senatour who seemed to be composed of nothing but wisdom and virtue for which cause he then lived in much reputation and all this family of Boetius was in Ennodius in epist ad Boetitan l. 8. epist 1. Venae purpurarum Purpurae possessoris luce crescentes such sort esteemed that Ennodius writeth it was a vein of purple signifing thereby it contained therein all great dignities no otherwise than as veins inclose the bloud He notwithstanding addeth those purples increased by the lustre of Boetius who possessed them and after when Rome became the prize of those who subdued it it being no longer lawfull for Consuls to reap Palms in the fields of battels he equalled the ancient triumphs by the greatness of his judgement Gerebert an Authour who wrote of those times calleth this Boetius the father and light of his Countrie who managing the reins of the Empire in the qualitie of a Consul spared not to diffuse by the force of his abilitie in good letters all the lustre they had equalling them with the wits of Greece Tu Pater Patriae lumen Severine Boeti Gerebertur l. 2. Epigt Pithae Consulis officio rerum disponis babenas Infundis lumen studijs cedere nescis Graecorum ingenijs Boetius thou father and Countreys-light Disposest Consuls office common right Giv'st studies radiant lustre and no whit In any thing submit'st to Graecian wit Verily we may see by that which followeth in this historie the little assurance may be had either in men or favours If men be vessels who do nothing all their life time but play with the winds favours are waves of glass which fail not to shiver themselves against the rocks We would think the moon much greater than all the stars were it not that the shadow of the earth which we make use of to measure it causeth the contrarie to appear and we might have some opinion these great dignities of the world had much eminencie above all that which is here below were it not that they dayly fall into shadows and fantasms of nothing which well approve we have much illusion in our eys since these greatnesses have taken such estimation in our hearts Jealousie a bad daughter born of a good house which is that of love and honour divideth beds and Empires and hath ever eys so bleared that it cannot endure a ray of the virtue or prosperitie of another And for that cause the lustre which proceeded from the house of Boetius in such manner as day progresseth froÌ„ the gates of the East failed not at all to give suspicions to King Theodorick who seeing himself a stranger and ignorant among Romans and men of so great counsel being not able to derive any other recommendation to himself but what the sword gave him envied so many heavenly riches as were contributed to the happiness of his Empire The change which then succeeded at Constantinople greatly fortified his distrusts for it is written that Anastasius an Emperour who had done nothing in the throne but create schisms beholding the Laurels of Caesar wholly withered on his head had some distast both of life which he had passionately loved and of the scepter possessed with so much ambition It is certain that being one day in the Circus as he espied a furious sedition whispered against him he voluntarily laid down his Crown and let the people know by his Heraulds he was willing to be rid of the Empire which for some time appeased the most passionate notwithstanding being greatly hated and foreseeing he could not make much longer aboad in the world he began to reflect on his Successours desiring to transfer to the Throne one of his three Nephews whom he had bred up having no male issue to succeed him There was difficultie Zacharias Rhetor M. S. Sirmuâ—di in the choice and he having a soul very superstitious put that to lot which he could not resolve by reason for he caused three beds to be prepared in the royal chamber and made his Crown to be hanged within the Tester of one of these beds called the Realm being resolved to give it to him who by lot should place himself under it This done he sent for his Nephews and after he had magnificently entertained them commanded them to repose themselves each one chusing one of the beds prepared for them The eldest accommodated himself according to his fancie and hit upon nothing the second did the same He then expected the youngest should go directly to the crowned bed but he prayed the Emperour he might be permitted to lie with one of his brothers and by this means not any of the three took the way of the Empire which was so easie to be had that it was not above a pace distant Anastasius much amazed well saw God would transfer the Diadem from his race and it is also added that he likewise knew by revelation that it was Justine who should succeed for he having determined to kill him with Justinian heard a voice which spake in his heart and said He should take good heed to touch those two personages because they should do each one in their turn good services to God Afterward as this Justine being ever near the person of the Emperour one day by chance set his foot on the train of his robe the Emperour looking back Thou holdest me said he by the gown and shalt follow me but stay a while your time is not yet come which much amazed all there present who thought him to speak like a man distracted
his captivity that his spirit was in declination his body being worn with the torments he endured by the rigour of a King of the Goths Death in the end came to unloose his fetters by an act very barbarous exercised by Theodorick on this admirable man He seeing Pope John had done nothing in his favour at Constantinople but in stead of causing the Temples of the Arians to be restored had purified and changed them into Catholick Churches he entered into a fury more exorbitant than ever and kept this good Pope in prison at Ravenna until he was wasted with diseases yielding up his most blessed soul in fetters to hasten to enjoy the liberty of the elect Cyprian and Basilius accusers of Boetius failed not to kindle the fire with all their power to ruin him whom they already had wounded There was sent unto him a Commissary who was Governour of Pavia to interrogate him upon matters wherewith he had been charged The King promising him by this instrument a reasonable usage if he would confess all the process of this imaginary conspiracy Boetius having heard what his commission imported replieth Tell the King your Master that my conscience and age have reduced me to those terms wherein neither menaces nor allurements can work any thing upon me to the prejudice of reason To require the proceeding of my conspiracie is to demand a chymera which hath never been nor ever shall Is the distrust of his witnesses so great that needs he must exact from my mouth the articles of my condemnation Verily he hath as much cause to doubt my accusers as I matter of glorie to be accused by mouthes so impure that they would as it were justifie the greatest delinquents by their depositions One Basilius chased from the Court and charged with debt hath been bought to sell my bloud and having lost credit in all things finds more than enough for my ruin Opilion and Gaudentius condemned to banishment for an infinite number of wicked promises they being fled to Altars the King redoubleth an Edict by which be ordained if they instantly went not out of Ravenna they should be branded in the forehead with an hot iron What may be added to such an infamie Yet notwithstanding the same day they were received and heard against me Arrows are made of all wood to transfix me and the most criminal are freed in my accusation Some being not ashamed to employ against the life of a Senatour those who would scarcely have been set to confront very slaves This makes me say my condemnation is premeditated and my death already vowed and that this search is made for petty formalities to disguise an injustice King Theodorick playeth too much the Politician for a man who hath full liberty to do ill What need is there to use so many tricks Tell him boldly from me that I submit to his condemnation I was willing to save the Senate though little gratefull for the sinceritie of my affections I wished the repose of the Catholick Church I have sought the liberty of the Roman people Here is all that I can say As I am not in condition to tell a lie so am I not on terms to conceal a truth Had I known the means to reduce the Empire into better order he should never have understood it Finally if he be resolved to put me to death thereupon let him hasten his blow It is long since I have had death in desire and life in patience The Commissary much amazed at this constancy made his relation to the King in very sharp words which put oyl afresh into the flame to thrust affairs into extremities The poor Rusticiana wife of Boetius knowing the point whereunto the safety of her husband was reduced made use of all the attractives she could to mitigate the fury of the Prince and observing Amalazunta the daughter of Theodorick to be an honourable Ladie and endowed with a singular bounty she recommended her petitions and tears to her This Ladie gave her access to the King to whom she with her children presented her self in a most deplorable State able to soften obdurate rocks Alas Sir said she if you once more deign to behold from the throne of your glorie the dust of the earth cast your eyes upon a poor afflicted creature which is but the shadow of what she hath been I no longer am Rusticiana who saw palms and honours grow in her house as flowers in medows Disaster having taken him from me by whom I subsisted hath left me nothing but the image of my former fortune the sorrows of the passed the grief of the present and horrour of the time to come I would swear upon Altars that my husband hath never failed in the dutie which he oweth to your Majestie but calumnie hath depainted his innocency unto you with a coal to inflame you with choler against a man who ever held your interests as dear unto him as his own I know what he hath so many times said to me thereof and how he hath bred his children whom your Majestie now beholdeth at your feet If we no longer shall take benefit of justice Sir I implore your mercie Look on a woman worthie of compassion tossed in the storm and who beholdeth in the haven the Olives of peace which you always have desired to equal with your laurels Suffer me I may embrace them The world already hath cause enough to dread your power give us cause to love it proportionably to your bountie Alas Sir on whom will you bestow it Fire which consumeth all burneth not ashes and behold us here covered with ashes before your eyes what more desire you of us A miserable creature is a sacred thing the God of the afflicted taketh it into his protection and will no more have it touched than his Altars If my unhappiness have set me in that rank and my sex made me a just object of your pitie Sir render that to me which I in this world do hold most precious and think not we ever will retain any resentment of what is past when we shall see our selves re-established in our former fortune It is in you to command and for us to obey your ordinances and even to kiss the thunder-bolt that striketh us It is to much purpose to present musick to the ears of Tygers it hath no other effect but to enrage them the more The cruel Tyrant presently commanded the Ladie to withdraw adding he would do her justice And they ceasing not still to multiply suspitions with him upon this pretended conspiracy as if Boetius had now been presently with sword in hand with the Emperour Justine at the gates of Rome or Ravenna he fell into such fear gall and choller that without any other formal proceeding of justice he dispatched the afore-mentioned Commissary with a Tribune to put him to death whose life was so precious to the Roman Empire Boetius who had a long time been prepared both by prayers and
than the executioner they retained in their own proper entrails We oftentimes in this point more bewail our own interests than the offence done to God and it is no strange thing that she who loveth ill should be deprived of what she affecteth When there is sin in it let us deplore it let us endeavour to remedie it by prayers by discretion by patience by all the most holy industries we may use therein We shall find our selves strong in silence and hope and not in ceaseless complaints which have no other effect but to fret wounds and renew disasters The tenth SECTION The care of children TO hide nothing from you women who are called to the Sacrament of Marriage ought to be very perfect because they have as it were in their mannage the most precious interest of posteritie they being chosen out to bring forth and educate Children which are to be members of the body of State It hath often been questioned from whence proceeded the good and evil nature of men and I find that many have attributed it to the divers aspects of Planets as by a fatal necessity But to say truly this Astrologie of fools and webs of spiders are as it were but one thing both being fit to catch flies and not deceive understanding men I hold opinion good mothers make the good nature of children and it hath ever been observed that great personages who have flourished in some eminencie of virtues have taken from thence as it were generally the first impressions of sanctitie If chast daughters chance to be born of incontinent mothers it is almost as rare as to see nettles bear gilliflowers Let us preserve our bodies as temples to bring forth more virtues than flesh for the publik and when God affordeth us issue let it be one of our chiefest cares to train it up in his service My heart bleedeth when I consider how now adaies many children of quality are bred which are stifled with servile indulgences under the shadow of dandling them God sends them as creatures with which he intendeth to support the world govern Common-wealths people heaven and adorn even the conversation of Angels but to see how they are used it seemeth that pieces of flesh are ingendered which are onely to be licked as bears to give them true perfections They are loaden with fat and the kitchin they are entertained in the full fruition of all the desires of their hearts they are observed like little Kings who are not as yet many times above five years of age and already exercise a Monarchy in the houses of their parents Jesus Christ banished Idolatrie from the world with so much sweat and bloud and it is again daily renewed when children are set up as certain little Idols to whom all hearts respects hopes fears and homages are sacrificed I beseech you let us not cause them to learn that which we should make them forget let us not accustom them to mimick affectation of words to pomp of habits to liberty to pleasures Let us attire them for the service of God and exercises suitable to their sex and condition and above all let us take heed they be not poysoned by the ear in the frequent conversation of such bad company who seem to be born for nought else but to infect purity The eleventh SECTION The conclusion of the discourse THe Emperess held ears and hearts suspended with this her discourse when seeing the hour approch wherein choice should be made of a wife for the Emperour her son Behold the time saith she my Lord and son when your Majestie must consign the golden Apple into the hands of her whom you shall judge to have the best portion of those excellent qualities which I have recited And saying that she caused a goodly room to be opened whereupon one side were seen pictures of Ladies who flourished in the more elder Ages in sanctitie in spirit in courage and in all virtues mentioned by us which composed a triumphant Court There was Sarah Rachel Lea Deborah Abigail Susanna Esther Judith Mariamne S. Agnes S. Cecilie S. Helena S. Monica S. Faelicitas the ten Sybils Zenobia Amalazunta Placidia Pulcheria Eudoxia Theodora Marcella Paula Eustochium Victorina Clotilda Radegundis and very many other not comprizing those who have flourished within these eight hundred years which much amazed me and made me say that such as affirmed women of honour were so rare to be found would perhaps have some trouble to find leaves on trees and water in the river All these pourtraits appeared with lights of glory in a most pleasing manner having enchasements all enriched with pretious stones Behold saith Euphrosina O virgins how precious us the memorie of holy Ladies Then turning her self to the other side she shewed with her finger the figures of such as had forsaken honour and virtue which were pale pensive cloudie and encompassed with flames as if they came out of hell There was Semiramis Phedra Thisbe Phillis Hellen of Greece Clitemnestra Cleopatra Agrippina Julia Messalina Calirrhoe Thais Phryne Rhodope Flora and in perspective so great a quantitie that it seemed to equal the sands of the sea not accounting those therein who afterward had a share in their miserie The Emperour having observed them entered into the room called the Pearl where he saw so many pearls selected from all the provinces of his Empire There was nothing to be seen but stars lightening and rays so much these beauties on every side mingling their lights afforded lustre which gave him much difficultie how to resolve There was among others one named Icesia a maid of much knowledge to whom the Emperour Theophilus spake a Greek verse to which she replied with an admirable promptness notwithstanding he relished not this spirit finding it too curious for his humout but after information taken from his eyes his ears and the mouthes of those who bred these creatures he gave the golden apple to one named Theodora a Paphlagonian by Nation whom I notwithstanding cannot think to come near her whom I here represent for a model S. CLOTILDE I.R.C.D.E.F. CLOTILDA The first SECTION Her Birth and Education THE number of Ladies eminent in sanctitie Ex Greg. Turonensi Ammonio Hincmaro Philippo Bergonensi Baronio c. is so great that it rebateth the point of wit to think thereon and the virtues are so resplendent that in the commixtion of their lights they dazle all eyes in such manner that it is a hard matter to speak of it unless we put some limits upon the discourses of so many singular subjects who set none on their merits And that is the cause why out of a great number of Princesses some of those whose names I have produced I here undertake one raised upon the most perfect idaea's which is the first Christian Queen of France I mean the most glorious Clotilda wife of our great Clodovaeus who verily is much bound to Heaven to have been chosen out for the advancement of the
some beggers whose misery she assisted Her whole heart went towards God her feet to the Church her hands to alms her eys to reading books of devotion her arms to exercises and works of her sex all her body to sacrifices and victims of her soul Observe you young maids who read these pages of what wood God useth to frame Saints and that never any happeneth to produce the miracles which Clotilda did in the conversion of a Kingdom not acting wonders of virtue in the interiour of the soul The King her uncle was so ravished with these pretious parts that the excess of his admiration turned into a furious jealousy for beholding this spirit more masculine than he could have wished and fearing least she might be possessed by some other besides himself he had no purpose to marry her but kept her so straightly that one would have said to have seen him he was the dragon in fables that ever stood centinel near the golden apple But oh silly humane prudence which still rowing against the current of the providence of God findest as many precipices in passion as thou openest snares for innoceny This man notwithstanding all his endeavours which went the contrary way bred up in his house a maid whom God had already destined to chastise his cruelty and make he unwitting thereof his Scepter tributary to a valorous husband who was to marry Clotilda and joyn the Kingdom of virtues to the force of his arms The second SECTION Clodovaeus requireth Clotilda in marriage CLodovaeus King of France a man born to make it appear what valour may produce when it is supported by piety dayly advanced his conquests among the Gauls yet still in so many victories remained a slave to Idolatry God was willing to win him to himself by the ways of chast love and by the means of a wife which should sanctifie his person and house The fame of the beauty and virtues of Clotilda which spread through neighbour Kingdoms with so sweet an odour failed not to approach him at that time when he was upon terms to take a wife in lawful marriage Love which many times surprizeth as well by the ear as the eye so enkindled him at the report made by his Embassadours of the perfections of this divine maid that he no longer retained either heart or thought but for her He affected what he never saw with a love mixed with reverence felt a more noble flame than he was wont which scorched him with a generous passion and excited him to require this Princess as the type of his felicities The difficulties proposed upon the effecting of this marriage augmented desire in him For he was of a vigorous spirit who measured all by the greatness of his own courage and resolved to break through obstacles to crown his purposes He addressed himself to his great favourite Arelianus and having opened unto him the project of this marriage would needs instantly dispatch him upon a solemn Embassage to confer with the maid and treat with the King her uncle This man who understood the suspicions and apprehensions of Gombaut made it appear unto him that the conquest of the golden fleece and the marriage of Clotilda were almost one and the same thing and that no access could be had to this maid without first speaking to this bull who threw flames and fire through his throat Clodovaeus conjureth him to use all possible industries to satisfie his passion assuring him he could not oblige him in any matter whereof he would be more sensible Aurelianus obeyeth and taking a ring from the Kings finger with certain other Jewels to present the Lady hastened towards Burgundy I cannot here conceal that which Baronius the Father of Ecclesiastical History was unwilling to omit seeing it is witnessed by good Authours and hath nothing incredible therein but onely with such who think it is a note of wisdom to seem very incredulous We know by what hath been spoken before that Clotilda seldom appeared in publick if it were not at Church and cast her eyes on very few but the poor God made use of this disposition for her good for Aurelianus having learned this Lady dayly conversed willingly with needy persons and that it was necessary to seem of this quality to speak unto her without suspicion took the habit of a beggar and as the servant of Abraham sent by the first Father of believers treated the loves of Isaac in requiring water of Rebecca who was to be his future spouse so this man managing the commssion of marriage for the prime King of the faithful resolved to beg alms of Clotilda to find means of access to her and for this cause he stood at the gate of a Church among a great rabble of beggers expecting till Mass were done that he might see the Princess come forth She failed not to perform acts of charity to all the poor according to her custom and perceiving this man who seemed of a generous aspect in these miserable rags felt her heart seized with extraordinary piety beholding one of so good carriage reduced to such misery and without any further enquiry she gave him a piece of gold Aurelianus seeing this royal hand so charitably stretched out to succour a counterfeit want whether he were transported with joy or whether he were desirous to make himself observed by some act he lifted up the sleeves of the Princess which according to the fashion of robes than usually worn covered all even to her hands and having bared her right hand kissed it with much reverence Clotilda blushed heartily thereat yet passed on further not shewing any resentment nor blaming the begger as some Authours adde Well saith she in secret to an old Lady who was her confident friend Have you observed what this begger did The other replied It was a very easie matter to note it since this act had painted her forehead with a most lively scarlet But yet said Clotilda to her what think you of it The Lady answered smiling What can I els think but that your rare perfections joyned to your liberality have transported him For my part I suppose said the Princess he hath some other design and if you think good we will cause him to come to the Palace to beg alms and thereupon take occasion to be informed of his person Aurelianus failed not to entertain this commandement which was the scope of his desire and accordingly to pass to the place assigned him where Clotilda beholding him soundly chid him for his boldness in lifting up the sleeve of her garment and kissing her hand He who was a most queint Courtier found out his evasion and said The custom of his countrey permitted to kiss the lips of Ladies at salutation but the happiness of his condition having abased him so low he could not aspire to the face Behold the cause why he contented himself with the hand it being a thing very reasonable to kiss a hand which is the source of
in the list of combat Clodovaeus quickly alighted from his horse to rid him of life and being about to mend some defect in his cuirass he was treacherously assaulted by two Goths but he having dispatched his adversary defended himself from both these and mounted up again on his horse whom he made to curvet in a martial manner demeaning himself so bravely in all that he seemed to be as it were a flash of lightening sent from the hand of God rather than a man This defeat ruined the hopes of the Goths and cut off all the designs of heresie which subsisted not but by their favour From thence Clodovaeus marched all covered over with laurels into the Countreys of his conquests with so much good success that being before the Citie of Angoulesm which made shew of resistance the walls miraculously fell down as did heretofore those of Jericho he having by the advise of Apronius his Chaplain caused some holy reliques to be lifted up whereunto he dedicated a singular devotion What need we here make mention of the adventures which he had with the Kings Chararic and Ragvachairus whom he defeated as it were without blows This man went every where as confidently as one who seemed to have a Guard of celestial Virtues by his side his hands were fatal to purge the earth from many infidel Princes that infected it with heresie tyrannies and sacriledges Who can but wonder that in so short a time he extended his Empire from Rheine to Seine from the river of Loyre to Rosne and from the Pyrenei to the Ocean Who can but admire that he was so feared by all the Monarchs of his Age as the Grecians who have written Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after that time under the title of King intended for the more excellency to speak onely of the King of France Who will not highly esteem his great authority in that he first of all stampt golden coyn which the Emperours had always forborn through extream jealousie causing the marks of his faith to be impressed on this money And who can sufficiently marvel that having at his death left four sons to succeed him he hath besides been followed by seven and fifty Kings who constantly rendering themselves imitatours of his belief have likewise shared with him in his felicity I demand of you whether one must not become blind deaf and dumb not to see understand nor declare that all the happiness and prosperity of France is inseparably tied to the piety of our Ancestours since the hand of God thundering and lightening at the same time upon so great a number of Diadems of heretical Kings as of Gombaut Godemar Chilperic Godegisilus Alaricus and in the end on Theodorick himself led Clodovaeus by the hand through so many smoking ruins so many swords and such flames to establish him with all his posterity in a Throne whereunto the great Saint Remegius hath promised an eternity of years so long as it should remain cemented with the same faith and religion which first of all consecrated the Lilies to the service of the Divine Majesty The holy Clotilda amongst all these conquests of her husband lifted her innocent hands up to Heaven to apply the forces of the Saviour of the world to his Royal banners In the end having drawn him to Paris after so many bloudy wars and sweetened the extravagancies of his nature a little too violent propending to excesses of cruelty she caused him to tast in his repose devotion and justice in such sort that having closed up his eyes in the exercises of piety she enterred him with a most honourable reputation V. Kal. Dec. Depositio magni Regis Clodovaei Du Pleix There is yet to be found an old Calendar of the Church of S. Genovefue which maketh mention of the day of his death on the seven and twentieth of November The ninth SECTION The life of Clotilda in her widow-hood her afflictions and glorious death CLotilda vehemently desired to bring forth male children for the establishment of her State and though this affection seemed to be most just notwithstanding God who purgeth all the elect in the furnace of afflictions found a rough Purgatory for this good soul in the enjoying her desires She had sons as she wished whom she endeavoured with all her power to breed in the fear of God whilest she might bow them but these children who tasted too much of the warlike humours of the father and had not enough of the piety of the mother being arrived to an age wherein it was not possible any longer to restrain them they fell into many terrible extravagancies which transfixed the heart of the mother with a thousand swords of sorrow It happened that Sigismund the cousin-germain of Clotilda for whom she had procured the Kingdom of Burgundie after the death of his wife by whom he had a son named Sigeritus suffered himself to be surprized with the love of a Ladie waiting in Court whom he afterward married to the great heart-burning of the son who could not endure to see her clothed with the spoils of his mother This step-dame being drawn from servitude and wantonness to enter into the bed of a King beholding her self crossed in her loves by this Heir of the house conceived so much gall and rage against him that she prepared a most fatal calumnie for his ruin accusing him to have a plot upon the life of his father Sigismund who was of an easie nature stirred up with love and ambition quickly believed this shameless creature and after he had called this poor young man to dinner under colour of affection he commanded him in his sleep to be strangled by the hands of his servants But the miserable man delivered out of the gulf of his passion and seeing himself defiled with an act so black and wicked publickly confessed his sin and for it performed a most austere penance but God who ordinarily blotteth out the crime not forgiving the pains and satisfactions due to his justice deprived him of Scepter and life by the hands of his allies raising up a sharp revenge to give to such like an eternal horrour of his iniquitie The children of Clodovaeus who had already shared the Kingdom of their father were not yet satisfied but desired to advance the limits of their division as far as the point of their launce might extend Behold the cause why Clodomer who was the eldest of the legitimate seeing the Kingdom of Burgundie in this danger entereth thereinto with great forces and found little resistance Sigismond being formerly convinced by his crime Having possessed himself of the places most important he took the miserable King and led him away prisoner to Orleans to dispose of him according to his pleasure But Godimer the brother of Sigismund who had retired to the mountains while the French made all this notable havock returned with a great power and having slain the French Garrisons made himself Master of the Kingdom Clodomer
demonum prurientibus auribus nâ—tâ— are doctrines of devils grown up to please the itch of incredulous ears We must believe one Article and leave another believe the Trinity and doubt of the Sacrament Invocation of Saints Purgatory Images and Ceremonies of the Church as if it were not evident that whosoever divideth faith hath none at all It is not much to the purpose to dispute of Religion after the sweat of Confessours bloud of Martyrs and so many millions of miracles Never would belief be so sick were it not preceded by the death of virtue all will be unhappy for them who loose piety the root of happiness But what repose hath a Catholick who may dying say I trust to God for a gift which The notable assurance of a Catholick cannot proceed but from God I die in the faith of Constantine Theodosius Clodovaeus S. Lewis and so many millions of Saints I go where all the wisest and most entire part of mankind doth go I follow the authoritie of eighteen General Councels wherein all Ages assembled together the wisest men of the world I die in the belief of the Church which is professed throughout all the habitable world The living and the dead The stones and marbles of the Tombs of mine Ancestours speak for me The stars will fall from the Heavens before my faith can be shaken And therefore O Catholicks strike at Heaven That zeal ought to be had towards Religion gate by continual prayer ask of the Father of lights a lively Faith a most sincere zeal towards your Religion suffer not your judgement to change in the massie composition of body plunge it not in sensuality polish it for the great fruition of God entertain it with consideration of his beauty nourish it with antipasts of his glory It onely appertaineth to sensual souls black and distrustfull to suffer themselves to fall into pusillanimities and faintness which lessen the esteem we should have of our vocation towards Christianity It onely appertaineth to carnal spirits and who want faith in the house of faith to set the riches and affairs of the world above Religion But Hoc est sidem in domo fidei non habere Cyprian de mortalitate you O Great-men learn hereafter to value your selves not by these frail and perishable blessings which environ you by that skin which covers you by those false ornaments of life which disguise you by all those beauties which never are nearer ruin than when they most sparkle with lustre Learn to behold all humane things from the top of the Palace of Eternity and you shall see them like rotten pieces which possess a nothing of times infinitie Why do we here entertain our selves with earthly considerations as fire which absented from its sphere is fed with fat and coals Let us open our bosoms to these fair hopes wherewith the Religion we profess sweerly replenisheth our hearts We no longer are pilgrims Ephes 2. and vagabonds nor strangers of the Testaments but Citizens of Saints and the domesticks of God built on the foundation of Apostles and Prophets on the fundamental stone which is Jesus Christ Let us enter into this goodly train of Ages into this admirable fellowship of Patriarchs Martyrs and Virgins Let us hasten to the sources of light and never end but in infinitie The first EXAMPLE upon the first MAXIM Of the esteem one ought to make of his Faith and Religion The PERSIAN CONSTANCY IF the estimation of things eternal do not as yet Drawn out of Theodoret Cassiodorus Epiphanes Theod. l. 5. c. 38. Epiph. Scolasticus Cassiod histor tripart l. 10. c. 32. Baro. tom 5. anno 4201. alii sufficiently penetrate your heart reflect on that which so many valiant Champions have done to preserve a blessing which you presently possess by grace and which you often dis-esteem through ingratitude I will produce one example amongst a thousand able to invite the imitation of the most virtuous and admiration of all the world In the time when Theodosius the younger swayed the Eastern Empire the Persians who had been much gained by the industry of the Emperour Arcadius his father and afterward entertained by his infinite sweetness and courtesie lived in good correspondence of amity with the Christians so that many of our Religion adventured themselves in their Territory some to make a fortune in the Court others for pleasure many for commerce and the rest there to establish true piety Matters of Religion proceeded then very prosperously and the most eminent men of the Kingdom shut up their eyes against the Sun which this Nation adored to open them to the bright Aurora of Christianity But as there are some who never enjoy any thing so there are others who never have enough Some Indiscreet zeal Christians not contented with their progressions which were well worthy of praise thought they lost all out of the desire they had to leave nothing undone Which is the cause I much approve those Ancients Helinandus apud Vincent who placed the images of wisdom over the gates of great houses with this inscription Experience is my Vsns me genuit mother So the wisest and most experienced thought nothing was to be precipated that mean advancements accompanied with safety were more to be valued than great splendours which drew precipices and ruins after them On the contrary young and fiery spirits thrust all upon extremitie supposing their power extended to the measure of their passion Nothing is more dangerous in any affair than when indiscreet fervour takes the mask of zeal or that a feaver of Reason passeth for a virtue All his thoughts are deified his foot-steps sanctified and although nothing be done for God it is said all is for him Bishop Audas a man endowed with great and singular virtues but extreamly ardent and unable to adapt his zeal to the occasion of times needs would countenance the humour of the blind multitude and went Audes destroyeth a Pyraeum Commotions for matters of Religion Others Baranaves or Goronaves Judgement of Theodoret upon this action out in the midst of the day to destroy a Pyraeum which was a Temple wherein the Persians kept fire to adore it Men quickly enflamed in matters of Religion fail not to raise a great sedition which came to the notice of King Ildegerdes Audas is sent for to give an account of this act He defendeth himself with much courage and little success for the Christians benefit for the King turning his proper justification into crime condemns him upon pain of death to re-edifie the Temple he had demolished which he refusing to do was presently sacrificed to the fury of Pagans Theodoret blames him that he unseasonably ruined the Temple and convinceth him by the example of S. Paul who seeing in Athens many Altars dedicated to false God contented himself with refuting the error without making use of the hammer to destroy it as well fore-seeing the time was
have no other Gods but scepters no other Paradise than fruition of Empires His father Antiochus the Great had given him this lesson For he was an active Prince but more judicious than his son who never ceased to disturb his neighbour and covertly attempt the Kingdom of Aegypt by arms and subtilities until such time that the Romans clipped the wings of his ambition as well to stay the progression of his over-much power become formidable to the Empire as to punish him for the dangerous correspondences he held with Hannibal He was enforced by reason of some agreements and transactions of peace to send his son to Rome in hostage and that was this Antiochus we mention This young Prince who already had in his imagination He was delivered for an hostage to the Romaâ—â— designs of Empire mannaged this occasion and deriving his happiness out of the necessity of his fathers affairs learned therein all the extent of supream powers on earth and began to reflect on the Romans as gods of the whole world On the other side Scipio and all the other great Captains were forward to let the people behold this off-spring of the Asian Kings as a Lion enchained and finding him vain enough they spared not slight complements and court smokes but ever held in their own hands the highest point of authority and drew profit out of all affairs During his abode in Rome his father Antiochus the Prudence of the Romans Great overwhelmed under the burden of his ambition found the catastrophe of his pretensions in a tomb and his eldest son Seleveus succeeded him who had a short life and an unhappy reign At which time young Antiochus felt in himself a vehement itch of rule more powerfully than any of his Predecessours had done for soon understanding his brothers death who left him the kingdom of Asia and knowing Ambition of Antiochus his sister Cleopatra married to the King of Aegypt was a widow and the mother of onely one child of whom he hoped to be easily rid he ardently thirsted to joyn the two Empires and unite them under his power Now the Kingdom of Syria appertaining to this young Orphan the son of his sister he in the beginning entered thereinto with great modesty in the quality of a Tutour and Regent and not a King aforehand disposing the peoples minds by Attalus and Eumenes who did him good service in this pretension This wolf clothed in a lambs-skin thought to enter by the same ways into the Kingdom of Aegypt and wrote thus to his sister That it seemed the Gods had His craft thrown him among thorns at the time when Kings of his age walked not but on violets and roses That being absent out of the Kingdom he had received sad news of the death of his thrice-honoured father and immediately of the death of his well-beloved brother whose days he wished might have been lengthened with his own years But that nothing afflicted him so much as to see her a widow burdned with an infant whose hands were not so early fit to manage a scepter Behold therfore the cause why be now undertook the government of the Kingdom of Syria which was the possession of his Ancestours and whereunto she had right by the title of dower But otherwise though he were heavily surcharged with two Kingdoms he was no whit discouraged to share with her also in the cares of Aegypt since besides charitie towards his own the continual practice of affairs he had at Rome in the most knowing school of the world it had acquired him some dexteritie and experience in the sway of Kingdoms That he would make her reign in the affluence and pleasures of a flourishing Court and prostrate the whole world at her feet That she should onely be troubled to see their submission as the Gods behold earth from heaven and that he would be as faithfull a Regent as be hadever been a loving brother Cleopatra had been married to Ptolomeus Epiphanes and cast as a bait by the father to catch the Kingdom of Aegypt under hope conceived that having studied in his school she would beguil her husband and bring Nilus to Euphrates But she opening her eyes found Prudence of Cleopatra against the wiles of her brother her flesh was much nearer than the smock and ever upheld both her husband and son against her fathers plots She understood the heart of her brother to be desperately subtie and ambitious and seeing she could not possess Syria where he had strongly fortified himself she easily admitted this his imaginary title of Regency which she could no longer withhold But for so much as concerned Aegypt she made answer That she very humbly thanked him for the compassion he had of her widow-hood and that the Gods who afford the deepest roots to trees the most subject to winds would furnish her with sufficient courage to suffer so boisterous shocks As concerning the Kingdom of Syria his providence had prevented the good opinion she conceived of him being alreadie resolved to put the Regencie into his hands But as for Aegypt there was no necessitie be should rob himself in the freshnese of his youth of the pleasures so fairly acquired for him to undergo so many burden som charges in a forreign Countrey wherein he would not be honoured as were the Ptolemees That her people were somewhat jealous nor would confide in external power which might much discontent him in the sinceritie he pretended in the mannage of her affairs That she was assisted by a wise Councel with whose did she hoped to maintain her people in perfect peace and raise her son to the height of the happiness of his extraction and that it should ever be a singular comfort for her to be assured of the good affection be bare towards her estate and to correspond with him in an unfained intelligence Antiochus who found not his expectation in his sisters letters laid down the sheep-skin to put on the Lions and began to make open war by invading the Kingdom of Aegypt which was the cause Cleopatra instantly cast her self into the protection of the Romans although she nothing doubted but that her brother had thence sought support and credit But she on the other side knew they favoured justice and willingly undertook the causes of widows and orphans And verily the Senate of Rome either through the integritie Equity of the Senate of Rome to support widows of their manners or to ballance scepters which swayed under them and make none too great to the prejudice of their power inclined to the widows part and commanded Antiochus to retire out of Aegypt He who knew how to court men went about to gain Popilius Lenas deputed by the Senate to determine this affair requiring some delay to withdraw his forces leisurely of purpose to spend time for the renewing his plots A notable act of an Embassadour But the other a man resolute and not to be paid with words
likewise constrain any man to virtue (b) (b) (b) Plato l. 2. de republicâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in his Common-wealth detesteth all opinions which seek to introduce into the beliefs of people propositions unworthy of Gods goodness namely those which make him authour of sin adding we must not endure to hear it spoken or written by any man in a well rectified Common-wealth Who knoweth not that such are the causes such the effects If the causes be necessary the effects likewise are enchained within the limits of necessity If they be contingent they are all in indifferency Now the prescience of God to speak properly is not the cause of our actions unless it be by meer accident and occasion then it cannot make them necessary Is it not true that the great eye of God equally beholdeth things past present and future And as our eye maketh not things present by beholding them since a wall is neither white nor black by force of my sight and as our memory makes not things past by repassing them by their species so the prescience of God makes not things future by forseeing them they are not because God hath foreseen them but he foresaw them because they so should happen O man if thou beholdest him who made thee thou Faust Reg. de gratia c. 2. l. 2. Si ad factorem homo respicis bonus esse potuisti Si ad praecognitorem tu me progestorum tuorum ordine ut de te malum praenoscerem compulisti mayest have been good But if thou contemplatest him as him who knew thee before the beginning of Ages thou hast enforced him to make an evil judgement upon thee because thou hast made thy self evil Our action although it be not the first dated in execution at the least in the Idaea and order of nature it always foregoeth the divine prescience if we regard its first intentions we may all be honest men if we consider our proceedings we constrain him to foresee of us what is in us If prescience imported any necessity we might conclude God were necessited in all the actions he doth throughout the world because he eternally hath foreseen them all which were most impious Let us not then say But if God hath so foreseen it it will happen by an inevitable necessity for there are three sorts of necessities one most absolute as that of the Essence of God the other natural as light in the sun heat in fire the third is a necessity conditional as is that If God foreseeth such or such a thing it shall happen I say it is a necessity of supposition for you presuppose he foresaw it but instantly you learn he foresaw it not but because it should be and that his prescience is no more the cause of our actions than our memory of the taking of Rochel and wars with the Huguenots 4. After this brain-sick band another riseth 3. Squadron of nice ones according to humane prudence which comprehendeth the subtile and more refined wits according to the judgement of the world who suppose all good success proceeds from prudence and humane industry without the helping hand of God They are such as according to the saying Habac. 1. 16. of the Prophet sacrifice to their nets who kiss their hand as an independent worker of great actions who savourly tast all they do like Bears said to lick their paws when they have eaten honey Greek Authours tell us Mercury was bred by the An observation of the Grecians upon the dependence we have from on high Mentem tunc hominibus adimit supera illa mens quae cujuscumque fortunam mutare constituit consilia corrumpit Velleius l. 2. howers to teach us all wisdom and humane eloquence not guided nor supported by the measures of heaven can neither have nourishment nor subsistence There is no one more blind than he who thinks himself clear-sighted in affairs without the prudence of Heaven all succeeds ill with him and he findeth by experience that God begins the change of fortunes by the corruption of counsels The reason thereof is very manifest since we know all created spirits work not but by the dependence they have upon the increated Essence as also that all Intelligencies have so much excellency as they have relation to the first Intelligence which is the Word of God If we consult with our own thoughts and knowledge Weakness of humane wisdom as being near of kin to us we shall find they have three ill properties which is they are heavy timorous and uncertain as heavy they creep on the earth as timorous they glance at all objects and resolve on nothing as uncertain they are perpetually floating There is none but God who raiseth them by his exaltation setleth them by his stability and staieth them by his immutability All they who disunited from the eternal Wisdom Vanity of Politicians without Gods direction think to prosper in governments honours wordly affairs are Icaruses that seek to counterfeit birds with waxen wings the least ray proceeding from the throne of the Lamb will burn them and make their height serve for no other use but to render their falls the more remarkeable If they be lettered Nicephorus Gregoras l. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall stead them as forrests do thieves to cover their crimes and if they have dignities they shall be unto them as the golden and silver precipices of the Emperour Heliogabalus which were not devised but to make his ruin the more memorable Doth not the Apostle proclaim aloud with a voice of thunder to the posterity of all Ages I will pull down the wisdom of the wisest according to the Perdam sapientiam sapientum 1. Cor. 1. Adducit Consiliarios in stultum finem judices in stuporem Job 12. 17. world I will rebuke the prudence of the most subtile And did not holy Job repeat the like Oracles upon the dunghill saying God oftentimes giveth success of affairs most shamefull to the most able Counsellours and he reduceth Judges to a certain stupidity of understanding Hath not the experience of Ages shewed so often in the histories of Pharaobs Herods and all such like that there is no greater wisdom in the world than to be an honest man To be Senec. ep 118. Sapere sapientiae usus est sicut oculorum videre 1. Conclusion against those who curse fortune wise is to use wisdom and to make it serve for direction as the eye for sight 5. Let us draw three concusions from these three propositions we have deduced The first whereof shall be never to do like those vulgar abject souls which is to curse and detest our condition and fortune as it were an effect of some false Divinity and not a Divine Providence Remember daily within your self those words Nothing is done one the earth without cause God hath disposed all with weight and measure Nihil in terrá sine causâ
1. dist 41. Manifest reason the will of God could not be unjust and that praedestination proceeded besides the grace of God by most secret merits which were discovered to this divine eye that discerneth all the actions of men 4. Is there a soul so replenished with contradiction which averreth not That what God doth in a certain time he determined to do it in his eternity Now Faith teacheth us he in that time by him determined rendereth life eternal to the just for reward of their merit as himself pronounceth in S. Matthew (c) (c) (c) Matth. 25. Answer to objections And therefore it is necessary to confess God before all Ages was resolved to give the Crown of glory not indifferently but in consideration of good life and laudable virtues And for this it is to no purpose to say the end of our intentions goeth before the means whereby some infer God first decreed beatitude which is the end then considered good works which are the address to this end For I answer when the end possesseth the place of salary as this here doth the merit is always presupposed before the recompence And although the Master of a Tourneament wisheth the prize to one of his favourites yet his first intention is he shall deserve it by his valour God taketh the like inclinations in this great list of salvation he wisheth all the world palms but willeth it to them who well know how to make use of the helps of his grace Thus the most ancient and gravest Fathers of the The doctrine of the most ancient Fathers concerning praedestination Church thought this sentence they agreed on before the impostures of Pelagians in the golden Age of the Church through a most purified ray And to this purpose Tertullian said (d) (d) (d) Tertul. de resur carnis Deus de suo optimus de nostro justus God who is very good of his own was ever just of ours And S. Hilarie said most perspicuously (e) (e) (e) Hilar. in Psal 64. Non res indiscreti judicii electio est sed ex delectu meriti discretio est That Election was not an effect of judgement indiscreet but that from the choice of merit proceeded the distinction made for glorie S. Epiphanius expressed the like opinion That there was no exception of persons in the proceeding of God but that it passed according to the merit or demerit of every one Behold what we may gather from the soundest tradition of the Church (f) (f) (f) The second point of reasons That God is glorified in that he hath our works for praedestination to glory But if we now weigh the second Article whereon we insist which is the glory of God it is an easie matter to see this opinion which appropriateth a certain fatality of divine decrees without other knowledge of cause agreeth not with this immense bounty of God nor the sincere will he hath to save all the world It is not suitable to his justice nor to his promises or menaces he makes to virtues or vices besides it tormenteth minds weakens the zeal of souls and throweth liberty and despair into manners Why should not a miserable reprobate have cause The complaint a Reprobate may make hereupon to say Ah my Lord where are the bowels of goodness and mercy which all pens testifie all voices proclaim and laws establish Is it then of honey for others and of worm-wood for me How cometh it to pass without any knowledge of merit you drew this man from the great mass of corruption to make him a son of your adoption a coheir of your glory and have left me as a black victim marked with a character of Death What importeth it me that in this first choice you made you did not condemn me without knowledge of cause to think no good for me was to think ill enough for me Was I then able to row against the torrent of your power Could I intrude into your Paradise which you have fitly disposed like the Halcyons nest whereunto nothing can enter but its own bird You have built your Palace of a certain number of chosen pieces in such sort that the account thereof being made and proportions valued one small grain might not be added to encrease the number What could I do in this dreadfull exclusion but accuse your bounty and deplore my unhappiness Behold what a reprobate soul may object and Aug. de verbo Apost ser 11. Si posset loquipecus dicere Deo quare istum fecisti hominem me peculem Answer to objections Glossa in Danielem it were bootless to answer that a bruit beast might complain in this fashion that God had not made it a man or the like might be alledged for infants who die without Baptism For as concerning beasts nothing is taken from them rather much given when from nothing being and life is afforded them with contentments of nature and as for little infants they endure no evil and are no more disturbed to be deprived of the sight of God than was Nebuchadnezzar for the Scepter of Babylon when he in his infancy was bred among shepheards thinking himself the son of a Peasant and wholly ignorant of his Royal extraction But to say A man who dies at the age of discretion and is delivered over to eternal flames was condemned by God without any other fore-sight of his works is it not a cruelty not worthy of ought but Calvinism as if a father might be excusable in marrying one daughter richly and cutting the others throat to set her on a pyle He who would judge wisely must flie the very shadow of an opinion so damnable and all which may seem to favour it 6. Now as concerning the Doctrine which establisheth The fruits of Gods glory derived from our Maxim Praedestination upon grace and prevision of good works it seems to stretch far towards the point of Gods greatest glory It discovereth us his science in attributing unto him an infinite survey over all the actions of Adams children before all Ages by which it seasonably fore-saw all that was to be done by all particulars in so great a revolution of times It in an instant affordeth us this most innocent knowledge seeing we learn by the same way that the prescience which God hath of our works is no more the cause of our happiness than my memory of the fireing of Rome which happened under Nero or than mine eye of the whiteness of snow and fresh verdure of meadows by its simple aspects Nothing happeneth because God fore-saw Qui non est praescius omnium futurorum non est Deus Aug. de civit Dei l. 5. c. 9. it but God fore-saw it because it should so happen by motion of our free-will and not by the laws of necessity Moreover the Justice of the great Master is very eminent in this action for we do not say he works at random and seeks to make boast
but never a fair chamber they have some sweetness of spirit some readiness and prattle which is never wanting but no depth nor capacity yet will seem able among company which is the cause that not daring to examine or solidly debate a point of doctrine or a business they presently flie to the conclusion and find handsom evasions Others have admirable tricks to seem wise by making use of another mans labour and like droans eating the honey which the Bees gathered Other in handling affairs and seeking to get dispatches amuze and dazzle with variety of discourse such as they negotiate with to the end to entrap them Other to cross a business cause it to be proposed in the beginning by a man who understands nothing thereof of purpose to give some ill impression of it Other break off a discourse they began upon some matter to draw on the more appetite Others make a shew to have nothing less in their thoughts than what they most desire and let their main texts creep in the manner of a gloss Other have tales and histories in store wherein they can enfold in covert terms what they will not openly affirm Other in things important cause the foord to be sounded by men of less note and many as it is said pull the chest-nuts out of the fire with the cats foot These are sleight merchandizes taken from the shop of worldly policie which proceed not so far as to great injustice But there are black and hydeous subtilities which tend to the subversion of humane society and deserve to be abhorred by all living men Such were those of Tryphon of whom it is spoken in the Book of Macchabees which were most 1 Macch. 12. fatal to the people of God This wicked man being the Tutour of young Antiochus shewed himself in the beginning very zealous in al which concerned the good of his service and having a design to subdue Syria he would first have surprized the Macchabees who were then very eminent in arms But when he saw Jonathas come towards him with an Armie of fourty thousand men the fox played his ordinary pranks he received him with a pleasing countenance and overwhelmed him with heaps of courtesies He told him he desired to live with him as a faithfull brother and that he accounted it too heavie a charge to keep so great an Army on foot in full peace which could not but be prejudicial to the repose of the people That he might walk confidently every where how he pleased without any other armour than the amitie of King Antiochus which was an assured buckler for all those who would make trial of his protection This crafty companion not content with meer complements carried Jonathas into all the places of his charge with such honour and respect that he caused him to be attended as himself making shew that wheresoever he set foot there roses and lillies sprang Never doth any man take with a snare until he have some bayt suitable to the appetite of him who catcheth at it Jonathas a little loved honour and his senses were dazeled with the lustre of pomps and charmed with the sweetnesses of conversation in this subtile fellow He believed he trusted his whole Army was cashiered by the perswasion of a man who wished him not well He onely kept a thousand men with him to be as a Guard and entered with Tryphon into the Citie of Ptolemais where he presently saw himself arrested and his souldiers cut in pieces The Impostour desirous to extend his plot further wrote to Symon brother of Jonathas that he should not be troubled at what was past and that his brother was onely detained for some money due to the King which being satisfied he should have liberty onely let him send him a hundred talents of silver with the two sons of Jonathas in hostage to bring the business to the period he desired The poor Symon who doubted the plot had more wisdom to know him than force to avoid him For fearing lest the people might murmur if he accepted not the ways of accommodation proposed he sent the money and children whereof the one was despoiled the other massacred with their father by the command of the treacherous Tryphon This factious and cruel man pursued his plot to the usurpation of the Diadem and dispatch of his pupil But in the end after a reign of two years Heaven elements and men conspiring against him he was knocked down like a ravenous beast and buried in ruins and publick desolations I would willingly know to whom hath treachery ever been fortunate Was it to Saul who after he had so many times promised David the safety of his person yet not ceasing to persecute him was reduced to such necessity of affairs that he slew himself with his own hands leaving finally his spoils to him whom he meant to beguile Was it to the unhappie 2 Reg. 12. Ammon who using treachery to draw his sister Thamar into his chamber and dishonour her was afterward murdered at the table by his brother Absolom Was it to Joab who moistened with his bloud the Altar whereunto he fled after he had slain Amasa in saluting him Was it to Amasis King of Aegypt Herod l. 2. who lost both Kingdom and life for having foisted in another daughter than his own whom he feigned to give in marriage to Cambyses King of Persia So many Impostours there have been who in all Impostours surprized times sought to usurp Scepters and Crowns by admirable inventions were they not all shamefully ruined in the rashness of their enterprizes Smerdes the Magician who had possessed the Kingdom of Persia by tricks and incomparable sleights was he not torn in pieces as a victim by Darius and other Princes The false Alexander who rebelled under Demetrius Soter after some success was he not vanquished under Nicanor and slain in Arabia Archelaus who called himself the son of great Mithridates overcome by Gabinius Anduscus a man of no worth who falsely boasting himself to be descended from Perseus King of Macedonia and durft confront the Romans arms was he not subdued by Metellus Ariarathres who affected the Kingdom of Cappadocia Vol. l. 9. c. 16. by the same ways sent to punishment by Caesar The false Alexius who durst aspire to the Empire of Nicet l. 3. Constantinople slain by a Priest with his own sword under the reign of Isaacus Angelus Josephus relateth that pursuing the same ways False Alexander discovered there was a young Jew who had been bred at Sydon with the freed-man of a Roman Citizen who having some resemblance of Alexander the son of Herod whom the father had cruelly put to death feigned he was the same Alexander saying Those to whom Herod had recommended this so barbarous an execution conceived such horrour at it that they resolved to save him yet to secure their own lives upon the command imposed they promised to conceal him till after the death of his
the most prudent and politick Absolon close in his revenge of his time at the first dissembleth his resentment to make it seasonable appear he endevoureth to sweeten the acerbity of his soul by fair words adviseth her to be silent sheweth when all is done he is her brother and that she should not take such an injury to the heart Needs must the smoke of pleasure turn the course of things into flames and a momentarie contentment transmit sorrow and sadness over to posterity Behold Thamar lives in her brothers house quite disconsolate King David is enraged nor can be appeased and Absolon hides under the ashes of his dissimulation a fire not to be quenched but with the bloud of this caitive Two years passed and he spake neither well nor ill of this act that he might not by his speech betray the desire he had to avenge it In the end at the time of his sheep shearing in Balhazor he took occasion to invite all the Kings children to his house He invited the King likewise but he making excuse to charge him with so great a train he entreats that at the least his brother Ammon might be his guest He shrinks not back not upon the first denial he enforceth by the eagerness of importunitie where behold the miserable man goes with his brothers not knowing he must be the victim of a Sacrifice prepared by the Justice of heaven which hath ever undertaken the revenge of violated chastity See in the midst of a banquet when Ammon had taken in a little wine and was full of jollitie Absolon cries out kill and his servants Ammon slain following the direction he had given them fell upon him struck him and left him dead in the place The other brothers affrighted rose from the table got on horse-back and came to Sion where they satisfied the King who thought his whole family had been massacred They at their enterance cried out aloud they wept with their father who gave to the desolation of his house what remained of tears after those torrents which had heretofore dropped from his eyes and where his sins had happily made ship-wrack The murderer escapeth forsakes the Kingdom and David lanquisheth with sorrow for his absence being unable to endure that one death alone should bereave him of two of his children Lastly he comforted himself in it and admired the judgements of God upon his house who permitted that two of his sons were partakers in his crimes and had surmounted his adultery and homicide with an incest and a fratricide XIV MAXIM Of TRIBULATION THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT That one must be evil to be happy since the Just are most afflicted That all is happie for the Just yea even tribulation IT is a wonderfull thing how the Prophane Court dares propose this maxim refuted by the experience of all Ages observations of all histories understandings of all people and common voice of nature Camerarius in his Problems wherein he pursueth the tracks of ordinarie life without search into other considerations more Divine makes a question why those who are addicted to Religion are alwayes most happy And on the contrarie from whence it is that the wicked are most unfortunate Affirming it to be observed throughout all histories Now this Authour who plainly sheweth in this Treatise he is none of the most Religious gently toucheth some reasons saying among other things there is some power which pleaseth to depress the wicked because ordinarily they are of a spirit fierce and insolent as if impiety alone were not sufficient for their infelicity The punishments of the wicked are so frequent in histories both Divine and humane that in so great an Ocean of examples which may take up more than fifty Ages scarcely can we produce one sole notable felicitie which felt not some great mishap That we many times may have cause to make use of S. Augustines and S. Eucherius argument who say that although God punish not a crime in this life he doth it to assure us there is a great tribunal and a puissant justice in the other world It were a thing superfluous at this time to oppose this maxim by effects which are so evident and whereof I think I have produced sufficient observations in preceeding Tomes I had rather here employ reason and shew all to be happy to the just yea tribulation That the Providence of GOD excellently appeareth in the afflictions of the Just MEn curious in their censures and distrustfull in their actions have never ceased in all times to argue with Divine providence about the afflictions of the Just but I with the assistance of heaven intend at this present to prove the eternal Wisdom maketh it self visibly appear by the same things wherewith many think to overthrow it Now I make it good by four reasons the first whereof shall shew worldly blessings cannot be great but by the experience of evils Secondly that tribulation is the noursing-mother of all virtues Thirdly that there is no spectacle more glorious among the works of God than an innocent afflicted for Justice and patient in affliction Fourthly that it is a proof of beatitude We then deliver in the beginning of this discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a notable maxim drawn out of Aeneas Gaza an ancient Authour inserted in the Bibliotheck of the Fathers Never do we sufficiently know the sweetness of good without the trial of evil Joseph mounted upon the triumphant Chariot of Pharao by prisons and fetters David to the throne of Saul by many persecutions And their great prosperities were much more sweet unto them because they were fore-gone by sharp afflictions We see the same in nature where the Sun is more resplendent after it's eclipse the sea more calm after a tempest and the air much brighter after a shower which made a great States-man say Storms Maris Coelique temperiem turbines tempestatesque commendant habet has vices conditio mortalium u◠adversa secundis adversis secunda nascantur Occultat utrorunque semina deus plerumque bonorum malorum causae sub diversâ specie latent Plin. in Panegyr Trajan and tempests contribute to the clearness of the heavens and the smoothness of the sea The condition of mortals hath this proper that adversities grow out of prosperities and prosperities from adversities God hideth from us the seeds both of the one and the other and many times the causes of blessings and evils are covered under one and the same appearance One may here object that if we must alwayes have evil to tast good we might infer the Angels were not sufficiently happy because they arrived at beatitude without passing through tribulations these being the flower-de-luces of God's garden which neither wrought nor took pains to be clothed with the robe of glorie we might conclude God himself had some defect in his felicitie since he alwayes hath a most accomplished beatitude with exclusion of all manner of evil I
answer to that there is very much difference between the condition of things eternal and temporal Angels entered almost as soon into felicitie as into being because they were placed in the upper region of the world where miseries cannot approch and who having besides a singular knowledge of God's favour stood not in need to be aided by the counterpoize of adversities But as for us we are not onely born in a soil which is as fertile in calamities as forrests in brids and rivers in fish but besides we are extream ignorant of God's grace when we long enjoy prosperity which is the cause that adversity though necessarily tied to our condition maketh us notably open our eyes to know the felicities which follow it and to understand from what source they proceed As for that which concerneth the Divinity it cannot to speak properly endure any thing contrary by reason of the condition of it's essence which is fully replenished with all sorts of beatitude God said Philon is incommunicable to tribulations he is alwayes vigorous ever free from dolour or pain perpetually in action without weariness still plunged in a sea of most pure delights as being the height end and aim of felicitie Thereupon unable to suffer as he is God and and yet willing to undergo some special part in the great sacrifice of patience which began with the world he took a body and in that body drank the cup of the passion shewing evidently to all mortals that tribulations by their darkness avail to the brightest rayes of glorie which S. Augustine spake in very express terms The onely Son born of the substance of the Father and Vnicus ille de Patris substantiâ Natus aequalit Patri in formâ Dei Verbum quo facta sunt omnia non habebat ubi flagellaretur ad hoc autem earne indutus est ut sine flagello non esset August Quia eras acceptus Deo necesse fuit ut tentatio probaret te Tob. 12. 13. Reg. 4. 2. 9. S. Aug. l. 2. de mirab Scrip. Obsecro ut siat in me duplex spiritus tuus equal to the Father in Divine essence the Word by which all things were created had nothing to suffer as God and is clothed with our flesh to participate in our punishments 2. The second reason which visibly sheweth the secret of Divine providence in the tribulation of the Just is that God being the Sovereign Sanctitie was necessarily to procure and plant it in the souls of his elect by all the most effectual wayes which his wisdom had ordained Now there is not any shorter way to virtue than a well mannaged affliction and therefore it was necessarie to maintain adversity in the world as the nource of great and generous actions of Christianity It was necessarie saith the Scripture to trie thee by tribulation because thou wast acceptable to God It is a matter almost impossible to preserve a great virtue in perpetual prosperity one must be more than a man and to have a double spirit which is excellently well observed by S. Augustine upon the words of Elizeus I intreat your spirit may be doubled in me Elizeus saith he begged the spirit of Elias might be double in him because he was to live in the favour of Court and worldly prosperities where the way is more slippery and dangers most frequent His Master Elias had passed his life in many persecutions wherefore a single spirit was sufficient for his direction adversity being not so difficultly borne as prosperity But insomuch as eminent fortunes are subject to deep drunkenesses and supine forgetfulness of God the Prophet saith by an instinct of the Divinity Let your Fiat in me duplex spiritus Boet. de conso l. 2. pros 8. spirit be doubled in me Prosperity under the shew of felicitie deceiveth us tribulation is ever true the one flatters us the other instructeth us the one tied up our senses and reason the other unbinds them the one is windy empty giddy ignorant the other sober reserved and prudent the one withdraweth us from real good by the allurements of vanity the other reduceth us by a wholesome way into the duty from whence we wandered S. Bernard saith excellently Prosperity is in Quando hoc incautis non fuit ad disciplinam quod ignis ad ceram quod solis radius ad nivem velglaciem Sapiens David sapiens Solomon sed blandientibus nimis secundis rebus alter de parte alter ex toto desipuit Magnus qui incidens in adversa non excidit vel parum a sapientia ne minor cui praesens faelicitas si arrisit non irrisit weak and inconsiderate souls as fire to wax and the sun's rayes to snow David was very wise and Solomon much more yet both charmed by the great success of affairs lost understanding the one at least in in part the other wholly We must affirm there is need of a strong spirit to subsist in adversity without change of reason or constancie but it is much more hard to tast very pleasing prosperities and not be deceived This is the cause why wise providence ever to keep virtue in breath ceaseth not to excercise it in this honourable list of great souls and we behold that following these proceedings it thence deriveth great advantages and many beauties The Scripture noteth that Job (a) (a) (a) Job 42. Merserus in Job returning into the lustre of his former state gave titles to his three daughters much observed for he called one by the name of Day the other Cassia or as some Interpreters say Amber and the third Amaltaeas Horn so the Septuagint translate it We must not think so holy a man would herein do any slight thing or not to some purpose But if we believe Holy Fathers upon it he meant by these three names to signifie the three conditions of fortune The first which was before his great adversities is compared to the day rejoycing us with the natural sweetness of it's serenity The second which was that of his calamity to amber because it is properly in tribulation where virtue diffuseth her good odours It resembleth aromatick spices which more shew their virtue when they are pounded and brought into powder in a morter or incense which never lets it so much appear what it is as when it is cast on coals so that this motto of the Wiseman may be attributed to it (b) (b) (b) Quasi ignis refulgens thus ardens in igne Eccles 50. 10. A resplendent fire and incense burning in the fire In the end issuing forth of tedious tribulations and having been hardened and fortified under storms it openeth it's bosom and unfoldeth admirable fruits which fitly make it to be called the Horn of abundance Whereof we say with S. Ambrose (c) (c) (c) Est ergo beatitudo in doloribus quos plena suavitatis virtus comprimit coercet ipsa sibi domesticis opibus abundans vel ad
conscientiam vel ad gloriam Ambro. offici l. 2. c. 4. there is a certain beatitude in dolours which virtue full of sweetness and delight represseth from whence it acquireth palms and inestimable riches as well for satisfaction of it's conscience as the condition of glory 3. For we affirm for a third reason that God hath not a more glorious spectacle on earth than a Just man afflicted and patient Is it not that which God himself meant in the book of Job where the Prince of darkness telling he had gone round about the world he said not to him Hast thou seen the Monarchies and Empires which bow under my Scepter and circumvolve under my laws Hast thou seen Palaces of Kings and Princes whose turrets penetrate the clouds Hast thou seen armies all enclosed with swords making the earth tremble under the clashing of their arms Hast thou beheld the theaters beauties and triumph of greatness Hast thou considered all the wealth which nature reserveth for me in magazins He sayes nothing of all that What then (d) (d) (d) Numquid considerâsti servum meum Job quod non sit ci similis in terrâ Job 8. Hast thou looked on my servant Job who hath not his like on earth And what maketh him more admirable than that which Cassianus (e) (e) (e) Ex lâ—cuplete pauperrimus nudus ex divite ex valido tabidus ex in â—yto glorioso 〈◊〉 ilâ—â— stâ—râ—uilinii factus habitator velut quâ—â—â—m corporis sui saevissiâ—us carnisâ—â— teâ—tâ— radâ—â—â—â—â—â—â—iâ—m membrerum gleâ—â—s vermesque è profundis vulneribus â—anibus detrahebat Cassia Colla. 6. de nece Sanctorum mentioneth A man was seen abounding in all sorts of blessings become very poor having not so much as wherewith to cover his nakedness fallen from a most perfect health into a prodigious malady which disfigured his whole body and having lost so many goodly farms reduced to the extremity of being the inhabitant of a wretched dunghil But he out-braving his miseries and shewing himself to be nothing curious took a rough stone to wipe his wounds and putting his hand far into the bottom of his ulcers drew thence the corruption and worms which made him honourable by the lights of his patience Have we not cause to crie out with Tertullian (f) (f) (f) Quale in illo viro feretrum Deus de diabolo extruxit quale vexillum dé inimico sue gloria extulit Tertul. de pat c. 13. Oh what a trophey hath God erected in this holy man O what a standard hath be advanced in the sight of all his enemies I dare freely pronounce it there is not any approcheth more near to God than a man laden with afflitions and become invincible in the arms of patience And I ask of you what made Tobie to be called the Good God (g) (g) (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. Paedag 2. but this admirable virtue I say although many have been honoured with marks of the Divinity by reason of their favours and benignities towards men there being nothing which so charmeth people as the profusion of benefits yet interest was the cause great men were flattered with such titles above their deserts whereas quite otherwise praise rendered to patience is much more sincere as being expressed by a certain veneration afforded to a virtue obsolutely heroick which makes me conclude that men ravished with the sight of this notable patience which shined in Tobie when having done well evil was retributed surnamed him the Good God not for any other reason but his admirable constancy having this maxim well engraven in their hearts that God hath not on earth a more perfect Image of his greatness than a patient man S. Denis (b) (b) (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Dionis Ep. 8. likewise plainly calleth patience the imitation of the Divinity and addeth Moses was honoured with the rayes of Divine vision for his singular mansuetude 4. Lastly I say tribulation confirmeth us in the faith of future things as being a manifest proof of beatitude For reasoning though never so little by the light of nature we judge if there be any justice in men it is in God as in it's source with an imcomparable eminency and therefore we cannot imagine a Divinity without the inheritance of goodness and equity which perpetually accompany it Now when we see innocent men continually afflicted who go out of this life by bloudy and horrible wayes many times oppressed by the tyranny of men and having none to revenge their ashes we necessarily conclude there is in the other life another justice and another tribunal where causes must be decided in a last Court of judicature We say with S. Paul (i) (i) (i) Expectatio creaturae revelationem filiorum Dei expectat vanitati enim creatura subjecta est non volens sed propter eum qui subjecit cam in spe quia ipsa creatura liberabitur a servitute corruptionis in libertatem gloriae filiorum Dei Rom. 8. The expectation of the creature looketh for the revelation of Gods children For every creature is subject to Nothing not of his own liking but by the ordinance of him who hath subjected him with hope of rising again For creatures shall be delivered from the servitude of all corruption into the liberty of the children of God That was it which comforted all the Martyrs in hydeous torments when their souls were torn out of their bodies with incomparable violence For although mortal members yielded to the sword of persecution yet they beheld though with an eye drenched in bloud and tears the bright glorie which waited on them and saw as in a mirrour the thrones of those prodigious sufferings disposed all into Crowns There S. Stephen saw his stones changed into as many rubies to serve for matter of veneration to pietie and an exemple of courage for all posteritie There S. Lawrence looked on his flames turned into roses and delights There S. Felicitas the mother of glories and triumphs beheld seven sons who received her with palms in their hands into the beautifull pavillions of heaven where all torments made an end to give beginning to infinite comforts That is it which animated all the just in so great a heap of tribulations and which made them speak these words of Tertullian (k) (k) (k) Satis idoneus patientiae sequester Deus si injuriam deposueris penes eum ultâ—â— est si damnum restitutor est si dolorem medicus est si mortem resuscitator O quantum patientiae licet us Deum habeat debitore n Tertull. de pat 15. God is payable enough in that he is the Arbiter and Feoffe of your patience If you commit an injury to him he is the Avenger of it if a loss of goods he is the restorer if a pain or malady he is the Physician since it makes God himself the debtor who by the condition of his independent nature being not accountable to
any doth notwithstanding particularly bind himself to patience Let us conclude with four excellent instructions to be observed in adversity which are expressed in the book of Job (l) (l) (l) Job 1. Tunc surrexit seidis vestimenta sua tonse capite corruens in terram adoravit dixit Nudus egressus sum c. for it is said He rent his garments and having cut off his hair and prostrated himself on the earth adored and said Naked I came out of my mothers womb and naked I return into earth Note that rising up he rent his garments to shew he couragiously discharged himself of all exteriour blessings which are riches and possessions signified by garments He cut his hair which was a sign he put the whole bodie into the hands of God to dispose of it at his pleasure For as those Ancients sacrificing a victim first pulled off the hair and threw into the fire to testifie the whole bodie was already ordained to sacrifice so such as for ceremony gave their hair to temples protested they were dedicated to the service of the Divinity to whom the vow was made In the third instance he prostrated himself on the earth acknowledging his beginning by a most holy humility And for conclusion he prayed and adored with much reverence Behold all you should practise in tribulation well expressed in this mirrour of patience First are you afflicted with loss of goods either by some unexpected chance or by some tyranny and injustice Abate not your courage but considering the nullity of all earthly blessings and the greatness of eternal riches say My God although I have endeavoured hitherto to preserve the wealth thou gavest me as an instrument of many good deeds yet if thou hast ordained in the sacred counsel of thy providence that I must be deprived of them for my much greater spiritual avail I from this time renounce them with all my heart and am ready to be despoiled even to the last nakedness the more perfectly to enter into the imitation of thy poverty Say with S. Lewis Divitia mea Christus desixt caetera Omnis copia qua Deus meus non est mibi inopia est Archbishop of Tholouse Jesus is all my riches and with him I am content in the want of all other wealth All plenty which is not God is mere penurie to me If you be tormented with bodily pain by maladies by death of allies say My God to whom belongs this afflicted bodie Is it not to thee Is not this one of thy members It now endureth some pain since thou hast so appointed and it complains and groaneth under the scourge where are so many precepts of patience where is the love of suffering where conformity to the cross S. Olalla a Virgin Quam juvas bos apices le gere qui tus Christe trophea notant Prudent about thirteen or fourteen years of age as she was martyred and her bodie torn with iron hooks beheld her members all bloudy and said O my God what a brave thing is it to read these characters where I see thy trophies and monuments imprinted with iron on my bodie and written in my bloud A creature so tender so delicate shall she shew such courage in the midst of torments such transfixing pains and cannot I resolve to suffer a little evil with some manner of patience If be the death of an ally behold that bodie not in the state wherein it now appears but in the bright lustre of glorie wherewith you shall behold it in the day of the Resurrection wiping away your tears say what Ruricius did Let them bewail the dead who cannot have any hope of Resurrection Let the dead Fleant â—ntuos qui spom resurrectionis habere non possunt Flems mortui mortuos suos quos in perpetuim existimant interiisse lament their dead friends whom they account dead for ever In the third place arm your self with profound humility and looking on the earth from whence your body came say My God it is against my pride thy rod is lifted up in this tribulation Shall such a creature as I drawn out of the dust become proud against thy commandments and so often shake off the yoke of thy Law I now acknowledge from the bottom of my soul the abjectness of my nothing and protest with all resentments of heart my dependence on thee The little hearb called trefoyl foldeth up the three leaves it beareth when thunder roareth thereby willing to tell us it will not lift a creast nor raise a bristle against Heaven Lightening also which teareth huge trees asunder never falls upon it My God I hear thy hand murmuring over my head in this great affliction and I involve me within my self and behold the element whereinto I must be reduced to do the homage my mortality oweth thee Exercise not the power of thy thunders against a worm of the earth against a reed which serves for a sport to the wind Lastly take courage what you may in the accidents Factus in agonia prolixius erabat Domine quid multiplicati sunt qui tribulant me Multi insargunt adversum me multidicunt animae meâ— non est solus ipsi in Deo ejus Tu autem Domine susceptor meus c. that happen and by the imitation of our Saviour retire into the bosom of prayer which is a sovereign means to calm all storms Jesus prayed in his agony and the more his sadness encreased the more the multiplied his prayers Say in imitation of him My God why are my persecutours so encreased Many rise up against me Many say to my soul there is no salvation for it in God But Lord thou art my Protectour and my glorie thou art he who wilt make me exalt my head above all mine enemies The fourteenth EXAMPLE upon the fourteenth MAXIM Of Constancie in Tribulation ELEONORA WE are able to endure more than we think For there are none but slight evils which cause us readily to deplore and which raise a great noise like to those brooks that purl among pibbles whilest great-ones pass through a generous soul as huge rivers which drive their waves along with a peacefull majesty This manifestly appeareth in the death of Sosa and Maffaeus hist Indicar l. 16. Eleonora related by Maffaeus in the sixteenth book of his history of the Indies This Sosa was by Nation a Portingale a man of quality pious rich liberal and valiant married to one of the most virtuous women in the whole Kingdom They having been already some good time in the Indies and enflamed with the desire of seeing their dear Countrey again embarked at Cochin with their children very young some gentlemen and officers and with about six hundred men The beginning of their navigation was very prosperous but being arrived at Capo de bona speranza they there found the despair of their return A westerly wind beat them back with all violence clouds gathered thunders
For if there be any it must infallibly be taken off with the file of justice The torment of purgatorie is executed with sharp transfixing pains since that imperious element which raiseth so many terrours in our world hath there the place of an officer The continuance thereof is long by certain revelations that some souls have been there many years its perseverance activity dreadful since the soul is immortal and incorruptible to its torments This made the hair stand an end on the heads of all Saints And Job 11. Semper enim quasi tumentes super me fluctus timui Deum pondus ejus ferre non potui when the great man Job all composed of innocency sanctity thought on this justice of God he conceived himself to be as a little fish crouch'd in the water that heareth all the storms rouling over its head S. Augustine grown hoary in a thousand valourous battails for defence of the Church apprehendeth purgatory the elect souls who build all in gold and silver and pretious stones fear the trial of fire and we with our edifices of stubble straw and hay walk with exalted crests as if we had all the assurances of our salvation Where are we if this torch of justice awaken us not Quis poterit habitare de vobis cum igne devorante Perhaps we have made a bargain with this fire and these punishments or that we are torment-proof not to feel them Is there any man who hath learned to abide among burning coals We are so tender so nice so impatient so the lovers of our selves that one ounce weigheth a pound with us O worldlings who shall weep over you since you know not how to bewail your selves Your bodies are dainty both by nature and education yea your souls much more you cannot endure the stinging of a bee the very sight of a Surgeons lancet affrights you and yet you daily entangle your selves in a thousand vanities a thousand courtships and a thousand worldly loves which defile your soul and must at a dear rate be discharged in the other world We know the Christians of the Indies newly converted when they felt some temptations contrary to the law of God ran to their chimney hearths and thrust their hands into the flames saying Sin soul if thou canst abide fire if not go no further Do the like touch if not in effect at least by consideration the devouring flames of Gods Justice And if they seem strange unto you engage not your self in them by your sensualities 6. From the slight apprehension we have of Purgatory Rigour of the living against the souls in Purgatory proceedeth another stupidity very unreasonable which is that we are very little careful of the souls of the dead a matter very worthy of blame for two principal reasons The first is that the providence of God which disposeth all with so great sweetness hath as it were tied the salvation of these good souls to the fervour of our prayers and would have us to be as mediatours and intercessours of their felicity which is verily one of the greatest titles of honour we can receive It is a note of Divinity to have power to oblige men faith an Ancient and Plin. l. 2. c. 7. Deus est mortali benefacere mortalem haec ad aeternam gloriam via there is no shorter way to eternal glory Now God gives us the means to oblige not mortals but immortal souls and to oblige them in a cause so great and eminent that if all the treasures and lives of the world were dissolved into one mass they could not reach to the least degree of the felicity you may procure to these faithfull souls By obliging them in this kind you gain eternal friends who will entertain no thoughts but such as may tend to render you the like and to bear you into the bosom of beatitude and yet this being most easie for you as a matter which consisteth in some prayers alms deeds and good works you neglect it Is not this a prodigious carelesness The second reason is that by such negligence we betray our soul which enclineth out of a natural propension to the sweetness and mercy we exercise even towards beasts It is the argument which the Math. 12. 11. Quis erit ex vobis homo qui habeat evem unam si ceciderit haec sabbatho in foveam manum tentabit levabit eam Her Thren De excelso misit ignem in â—ssibus meis erudivit me c. Vigilavit jugum iniquitatum mearum c. Son of God made use of If a horse an Ox a sheep fall into a ditch there is neither festival nor sabbath withholds every one who is able stretcheth out a hand and draws it forth And behold here not a beast but a soul created to the image of God irradiated with the most excellent lineaments of his beauty which is to live with Angels eternally fallen into a ditch fallen into a boyling furnace who is afflicted tormented imploreth the help of all the world and whilest we slacken to succour it hath these mournful words of Jeremie Alas God the just avenger of crimes committed against his divine Majesty hath poured fire into my bones to chastise me Behold me in the nets of justice behold me now desolate pensive and disconsolate both night and day All afflicteth me in this said abode but nothing is so irksom as the burden of mine iniquities and ingratitudes It is a yoke which surchargeth my neck like lead and pulls me down into the torments from whence I cannot go without O vos omnes qui transitis per viam attendite videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus Quoniam vindemiavit me ut locutus est Dominus in die furoris sui your charities O you my dear kindred friends and allies who pass through the Church-yard made the depositary of my bones consider and see with the eyes of faith whether there be any dolour comparable to mine since God hath cut me off on the day of his indignation with a strong and inevitable arm O ingrateful and disloyal son it is the soul of thy father which speaketh unto thee in this manner and says unto thee Son I have passed my life as the spider stil spinning ever seeking after worldly wealth perpetually exhausting my proper substance to enrich thee I lived on gall and cares that thou mightest swim in rose-water I travelled over lands and seas to build a silver bridge for thy fortune to set thee on flower-de-luces and employments of a Kingdom where is thy retribution My son I complain not my eye being shut my body was troublesom to thee in thy house and thou couldst not endure it it was a dung-hil must be yielded up to the earth but I complain that thou being well informed thy father had an immortal soul which thou mightest comfort by thy good works thou trayterously employedst the money
whereof the poor have too much been frustrated to establish thy vanities and fatten thee in pleasures Where is thy liberality Where are thy alms toward miserable creatures who die in affliction in the streets Observe justice and take example by my disasters Husband it is thy wife so beloved that speaks to thee saying Ah my dearest friends where is the faith plighted in the face of the Church Where are the faithful loves which should have no limit but eternity Death no sooner absented me from thy eyes but forgetfulness drew me out of thy heart I complain not thou livest happy and fortunate in thy new affections for I am in a condition wherein I can neither envy nor malice any but I complain that not onely after my death the children which are pledges of our love were distastful to thee but thou hast wholly lost the memory of one who was so precious to thee and whom thou as a Christian oughrest to love beyond a tomb Open yet once unto her the bowels of thy charity and comfort by thy alms and good works a soul which must expect that help from thee or some other The seventeenth EXAMPLE upon the seventeenth MAXIM Apparition of Souls in Purgatorie HIstories tell us the apparation of souls in Purgatory are so frequent that he who would keep an account may as soon number the stars in the sky or leaves on the trees But as it is not fit to be too credulous in all may be said thereupon so a man must be very impudent to deny all is spoken of it and to oppose as well the authority of so many great personages as the memory of all Ages He who believes nothing above nature will not believe a God of nature How many extraordinary things are there the experience whereof teacheth us the effects and of which God hideth the reasons from us The Philosopher Democritus disputing with Solinus Polyhistor the Sages of his time concerning the secret power of nature held commonly in his hand the stone called cathocita which insensibly sticketh to such as touch it and they being unable to give a reason of it he inferred there were many secrets which are rather to humble our spirits than to satisfie our curiosity Who Jul. Scal. A Porta Caâ—eraâ— can tell why the theamede which is a kind of adamant draweth iron on one side and repelleth it on the other Why do the forked branches of the nut-tree turn towards mines of gold and silver Why do bees often die in the hives after the death of the Master of the family unless they be else-where transported Why doth a dead body cast forth bloud in the presence of the murderer Why do certain fountains in the current of their waters and in their colour carry presages of seasons as that of Blomuza which waxeth red when the countrey is menaced with war Why have so many noble families Diâ—â—arus Petrus Albinus certain signs which never fail to happen when some one of the family is to die The commerce of the living with spirits of the dead is a matter very extraordinarie but not impossible to the Father of spirits who holdeth total nature between his hands Peter of Clugny surnamed the Venerable and esteemed in his time as the oracle of France was a man who proceeded in these affairs with much consideration not countenancing any thing either frivolous or light Behold the cause wherefore I willingly make use of his authority He telleth that in a village of Spain named the Star there was a man of quality called Peter of Engelbert much esteemed in the world for his excellent parts and abundant riches Notwithstanding the spirit of God having made him understand the vanity of all humane things being now far stepped into years he went into a Monastery of the Order of Clugny there the more piously to pass the remnant of his dayes as it is said the best incense cometh from old trees He often spake amongst the holy Fryers of a vision which he saw when he as yet was in the world and which he acknowledged to be no small motive to work his conversion This bruit came to the ears of Venerable Peter who was his General and who for the affairs of his Order was then gone into Spain Behold the cause why he never admitting any discourses to be entertained if they were not well verified took the pains to go into a little Monastery of Nazare where Engelbert was to question him upon it in the presence of the Bishops of Oleron and Osma conjuring him in the virtue of holy obedience to tell him punctually the truth touching the vision he had seen whilest he led a secular life This man being very grave and very circumspect in all he said spake the words which the Authour of the historie hath couched in his proper terms In the time that Alphonsus the younger heir of the great Alphonsus warred in Castile against certain factious dis-united from his obedience he made an Edict that every family in his Kingdom should be bound to furnish him with a souldier which was the cause that for obedience to the Kings commands I sent into his army one of my houshold-servants named Sancius The wars being ended and the troups discharged he returned to my house where having some time so journed he was seized by a sickness which in few dayes took him away into the other world We performed the obsequies usually observed towards the dead and four moneths were already past we hearing nought at all of the state of his soul when behold upon a winters night being in my bed throughly awake I perceived a man who stirring up the ashes of my hearth opened the burning coals which made him the more easily to be seen Although I found my self much terrified with the sight of this ghost God gave me courage to ask him who he was and for what purpose he came thither to lay my hearth abroad But he in a very low voice answered Master fear nothing I am your poor servant Sancius I go into Castile in the company of many souldiers to expiate my sins in the same place where I committed them I stoutly replied If the commandment of God call you thither to what purpose come you hither Sir saith he take it not amiss for it is not without the Divine permission I am in a state not desperate and wherein I may be helped by you if you bear any good will towards me Hereupon I required what his necessity was and what succour he expected from me You know Master said he that a little before my death you sent me into a place where ordinarily men are not sanctified Liberty ill example youth and temerity all conspire against the soul of a poor souldier who hath no government I committed many out-rages during the late war robbing and pillaging even to the goods of the Church for which I am at this present grievously tormented But good Master if you loved me
gate against all hopes and opens it to all despairs Ask of S. John (b) (b) (b) Lacus ira Dei magnus sâ—agnus ignis Apoc. 14. 20. what hell is he will tell you aloud and plainly hell is the great lake of Gods anger It is a great pool of fire and brimstone perpetually inflamed with strong and vigorous breaths of the Omnipotent And what do the damned there (c) (c) (c) Life of the damned Horreo verutem mordacem mortem vivacem horreo incidere in manum mortis viventis vitae morientis Gulielm Paris de univ p. 1. c. 55. Locus purâ— felicitatis nihil habet quod non addat felicitati locus purae miseriae nihil habet quod non addat calamitati They burn and smoak On what live they On the gall of dragons What air breath they That of burning coals What stars and lights have they The fire of their torments What nights Of palpable darkness What beds The couches of aspicks and basilisks What language speak they Blasphemies What order have they amongst them Confusion What hope Despair What patience Rage O hell O hell Avant O gnawing worm avant O living death avant death which never dies avant life which daily not dying dies I speak not here of the pain of sense excercised by this pittiless element which worketh upon souls as I have shewed you in the beginning of this discourse I let pass this world of punishments figured by vultures gibbets tortures snakes burning pincers and all the instruments of terrours I onely speak of the pain which tormenteth the damned by privation from the sight of God Imagine within your self a sublime conceit of the great Prelate of France William of Paris who in a Treatise he made of the universe pertinently sheweth that as Paradise is the house of all felicity so hell must be the receptacle of all miserie and calamity Now the blessed besides beauty of the glory of their bodies the contentment to enjoy so excellent and triumphant company have a happiness totally infinite in the sight of God which is the period of their essential felicitie So likewise in the same measure the damned shall have some object sad and mournfull incomparably dolorous and according to its nature infinite which collecteth as into one sum all their calamities And what is this object Some will imagine it is the aspect of the great lake of fire and horrid legions of divels That truly is horrible but that is not yet the top of their supream miserie What is it then I do assure my self you will at first be astonished with what I shall say and will hold it as a paradox but it is undoubted The darkness of hell is apprehended as a most intollerable evil and that with just cause Notwithstanding I affirm the greatest torment of the damned and heigth of their notable calamities is light I say light of science and knowledge To understand this you The souls of the damned tormented by their lights Aspectus Christalli terribilis must observe a passage of the Prophet Ezechiel in the first Chapter where he describeth the majesty of the God of hosts who prepareth to chastise the wicked he representeth him unto us like a hydeous christal mirrour that is to say God planteth an idea of himself in the soul of a damned creature as of a mirrour of Christal and a terrible light in which and through which it beholdeth most clearly and evidently the good it hath lost by forsaking God and the evil incurred by drenching it self into the sad habitation of the reprobate It seeth how in loosing God it hath lost a good delicious fruitfull infinite everlasting incomprehensible a good for which it was created and formed by the hands of God A good which is meerly and absolutely lost by its infidelity ingratitude wickedness perverse obstinacy in sin A good which it might have repaired in a moment of the time it heretofore had and behold it now irrecoverably for ever lost Moreover it sees and feeleth by a disastrous experience the evil whereunto it is fixed by pertinacitie And that which is also more terrible is that as God is replenished with a full and most plentifull felicitie because he hath all his contentments assembled together so the damned soul by a most lively and piercing apprehension of the eternity of its pains beholdeth the evils it must endure beyond a hundred millions of years and hath them all as present in thought From these two lights and two knowledges in the damned soul spring as it were two snakes fastened both to the one and other side of its heart which incessantly and unconsumably suck all the juyce and marrow of its substance The holy man Boetius the eye of the Roman Senate Quid demum stolidis me actibus imprecer c. and ornament of the Church lets us understand what the punishment of the damned is when he saith there needeth neither wheels tortures nor gibbets to punish the wicked He who might onely shew them the beauty of virtue in the form of a lightening-flash and say unto them behold wretched creatures behold what you have lost by your folly the sorrow they would conceive for their loss would be so sensible that no keen raisour devouring flames gnawing vultures might put them to a more exquisite torment Now I leave you to think if the wicked in this life for one sole idea of virtue which passeth in a moment should conceive such a remorse what may a damned soul that sees in this hydeous chrystal not for a moment but through all moments of eternity the infinite good it hath lost the infinite unhappiness wherein it for ever sees it self involved Then is it yea perpetually gnawn torn and tumbled into a huge torrent of inexplicable dolours which cause it to break into furies and unprofitable frenzies O Palace of God saith it which I have lost O ugly dens of dragons whereinto I am head-long thrown O brightness of Paradise which shalt be nothing to me O hydeous darkness which shalt eternally be my inheritance O goodly and triumphant company of elect souls with whom I should eternally have lived had not my wretchedness sealed up mine eyes O infernal countenances of enraged divels which shall hereafter be my objects and perpetual companions O torrent of delights which pourest thy self upon those blessed spirits how have I turned thee into a lake filled with pitch sulphur and scortching flames enkindled with the breath of the Omnipotents anger O couch of King Solomon how have I given thee away for a bed of coals O God O God whom I have lost and whom I cannot loose I have lost him in the quality of a Sovereign Good yet have him perpetually present as the object and cause of my pains O eternity It is then true that ten millions of years hence my evils shall but begin Cursed athiesm and infidelity of the world thou wouldest rather feel these torments than
If they sometimes take certain semblances of virtue and pennance they have no solidity in their good purposes If they be touched and raised by some good inspiration they are not constant but having sowed certain rays of hope fall back again into their myre and falling throw plague and poison among company Adde also to this discourse of the Apostle two essential causes of our evils One whereof is that the disorder and impurity of manners being very ordinary among young men who are children of the rich best qualified parents in stead of repressing of exorbitancy by the cutting off of excess and superfluity which is the nurse of impiety take no other care but to put them into abundance over head and ears and thrust them into dignities in the weakness of ability and greatest strength of passions From thence proceedeth they behold one another like little Gods and having shaken off the yoke of obedience to men free themselves what they may from the commands of the supream Master having no other guid but temerity nor other law but the liberty of doing all Blasphemies which in the mouthes of mean ones would be esteemed monsters pass from their lips for braveries and such as come to adore their fortune are constrained for worldly respect to offer incense to their vices Herein it is parents make themselves guilty of high treason to the Divine Majesty having so ill employed their travels and watchings as day and night to have amassed riches which serve for sinews to impiety and scandal to the publick The other cause which much fomenteth blasphemies and irreverencies against Religion is that as ears are supple to hear them so laws are greatly unprovided to punish them Every man is pleased to revenge his particular injuries and to reserve unto God the revenge of his own Profane speeches which heretofore made the faithfull tear their garments such horrour they had to hear them being now at this time uttered with some witty jests flatter spirits and being unable to gain the approbation of truth they take it from the courtesies of men It is to be feared God permitteth this for vengeance of some sin and wholly withdraws faith from these forlorn spirits to place it among souls more purified Of the Ignorance and Nullitie of Libertinism 4. I Find not any thing more intolerable than to see impiety flatter it self with the pretext of ability learning and goodness of wit since it is ever accompanied by two evil conditions ignorance and Ignorance and bruitishness of Libertines Reg. 1. 2. bruitishness What light of understanding can there be in a Libertine who makes profession to spit against the source of light God saith the Scripture is the Lord of sciences and on him depends the good order of Vnumquodque tantum habet de luce quantum retinet Esse divini In memor rer difficil all our thoughts How much the more commerce one hath with the Essence Divine so much the more splendour he enjoyeth as the Ancient Philosophers do assure us We resemble those statues which spake in that proportion as the beams of the Sun reflected into their mouthes We cannot so much as open our lips to speak worthily of God unless God who made them unloose them for his greater glory I much esteem the sentence of S. Diadocus who saith Diado de perfect spirit c. 7 Nihil egentius ea mente quae de Deo extra Deum philosophatur There is nothing more miserable or more ignorant than a spirit which will speak of God out of God that is to say who being out of the limits of faith and innocency dares undertake to touch so high a point as that of divinity Now we know by experience the wicked are alienated both in thoughts and manners from this sovereign sanctity and therefore we may undoubtedly resolve they are most uncapable of sciences and especially those which are divine being sworn enemies of the God of sciences Moreover if that be true which Avicen the Philosopher A notable saying of Avicen Immaterialitâ—â— radix spiritualitatis Avicen apud Capreol said That immateriality is the root of spirituality and that by how much the more a thing is discharged of matter so much the more it is capable of intelligence what reasonable discourse of man can one derive from a spirit which is perpetually clouded with vapours of lust Heraclitus in the secrets of his doctrine required a drie soul to render it capable of the most purified meditations of Philosophie and can we think a spirit which hath made a prison of its body by pampering the flesh with all possible tenderness will declare us the mysteries of hidden sciences Is it not to go about to gather grapes from thorns figs from bushes and golden grains out of straw And say there were some apparance of sobriety and modesty know we not pride is a formal obstacle to the puritie of great and noble sciences because it instantly blind-foldeth men with the presumption of their ability Are we ignorant many would have become greatly knowing had they not thought they were absolutely perfect Now who is more haughty or more arrogant than a Libertine who if peradventure he have some smattering of letters is so puffed up with the opinion of his capacity that he seems to himself to have slept in Sybilla's cave to pronounce oracles and judge all other men consist of superstitions and ideots Great wits who have ravished the world with admiration Great wits modest resemble those rivers which glide along with a peacefull majesty not troubling any body with their waves But these pettie shufflers murmure like unto brooks and vex the whole world with their tattle If it happen they arrive to some perfection in humane sciences which is very seldom they cannot command their spirit which admits no other path than precipices So that in the same things wherein they take themselves to be wiser than other they commit errours and make most shamefull lapses It is truly the disgrace and tomb of humane judgement Arrogancy of Libertinism to see the barbarous censure which reigneth among those who pretend acuteness for they think so many worthy men who have penetrated into the abyss of the most sublime sciences are ignorant of the Latin tongue nay if S. Augustine and S. Thomas might return into the world they would be entertained in these quaint Academies as grooms But if there be some one can make an ode a sonnet a letter can play the gentile wittie-one in company and utter blasphemies with philosophie and affectation he is the God of learning and the Monarch of eloquence But let a capable man sound these curious fellows good God what empty chambers in these great brain-pans What darkness and what confusions It is soon found they understand not one sole principle of true science and that all their learning is like a house that hath guilded gates and chambers pestered with spiders Think then what a shame it
Fear and Anger 3. That there are two ways to overcome all passions the first is a precaution of mind against the occasions and vain appearances of all worldly things The second a serious diversion to better things as prayer study labour and business But above all you must pray to God for the light and strength of his holy grace which infinitely transcends all humane remedies Against Gluttony 1. REpresent unto your self the miserable state of a soul polluted and plunged in the flesh 2. The hardness of heart 3. The dulness of understanding 4. The infirmities of body 5. The loss of goods 6. The disparagement of Reputation 7. The horrour of the members of Jesus Christ to make members of an unclean creature 8. The indignity to worship and serve the belly as a bruitish and vile God 9. The great inundation of sins flowing from this spring 10. The punishments of God upon the voluptuous Against sloth 1. The ceaseless travell of all creatures in the world naturall and civil 2. The easiness of good works after grace given by Jesus Christ 3. The anxiety of a wavering and uncertain mind 4. The shame and contempt 5. The confusion at the day of judgement 6. The irreparable loss of time Against Covetousness 1. The disquiet of a greedy mind 2. The insatiability of desire 3. The many wars and battels which we must run through to satisfie one single desire 4. The dishonour of denial insupportable to a generous soul 5. The dependance and servitude we must undergo to comply with those from whom we expect the accomplishment of our wishes 6. The easiness of offending God through excessive greediness of temporall things 7. The transitory and fleeting pleasure of those things which we most ardently desire 8. That God many times allows us the fulfilling of our desires as a punishment for our faults Against carnall love 1. To consider the barrenness of worldly loves which are true gardens of Adonis where 〈◊〉 can gather nothing but triviall flowers surrounded with many bryars 2. To set a value on things and not to be deceived with shows 3. To guard your senses to shun accidents and occasions of sinning and above all to have a particular recourse to God upon the first impression of thoughts 4. To pull your self away by main force from presented objects and to direct your self by serious designs and good employments 5. To set often before you the imperfection the ingratitude the levity the inconstancy the perfidiousness of those creatures we most servilely affect Against Sadness THere is a holy sadness as when we are moved at our Saviours Passion or for our own sins which is the gift of God not a punishment There is one furious which hath no ears and is rather cured by miracle than precept There is another natural arising from our disposition and another vicious which is nourished by ill habits and neglect of our own salvation 1. Against this last we must consider That our desires and love cause for the most part our sadness and that the true way to diminish the cares that consume us is to sweeten the sharp and ardent Affection we bear to worldly things 2. The little esteem we have of God is the cause that we are often troubled at frivolous things whether they threaten or happen He that would truly love this great God which deserveth to possess all love of heaven and earth should not entertain fear or sadness for any thing but for the loss of God no man can loose him but he that purposely forsakes him 3. There is nothing beyond remedy but the tears of the damned A man who may persist in the way to paradise should not place himself in the condition of a little hell and he who can hope for that great All ought not to be sad for any thing Against Envy 1. THe way not to envy any thing is to account nothing in this life great 2. To covet onely the inheritance of the land of the living which is never lessened by the multitude or shares of the possessours 3. To consider seriously the motives which induce us to love our neighbour as participation of the same nature THE THIRD PART OF THE CHRISTIAN DIARY The first SECTION BUSINESSE Of what importance THe third employment of the day is business whether Publick or Private the government of your Family or discharge of some Office Good devotion is a good employment and nothing is more to be avoided than idleness which is the very source of sin He that labours said the old Hermite is tempted but by one devil he that is idle is assaulted by all No man is too Noble to have an occupation If iron had reason it would choose rather to be used in labour than to grow rusty in a corner The second SECTION Two Heads to which all Business is reduced IN Business we must consider the Substance and the Form The Substance for it is great wisdom to make good choice herein to take in hand good employments and to leave the bad the dangerous and burthensom which do nothing but stop up the mind and choke all feeling of devotion especially when there is no obligation to undertake them They are truly sick even in health who interpose out of curiosity to know to do and solicite the business of others It is sufficient said the Emperour Antonius that every one in this life do that well which belongs to his calling The Sun doth not the office of the rain nor the rain that of the Sun Is it not absolute madness of some in the world whose onely employment is to attempt all things but perform none As for the Form in the exercise of charge offices and business there is required knowledge conscience industry and diligence Knowledge 1. In learning that which is requisite to be known for the discharge of your duty 2. In informing your self of that which of your self you cannot apprehend 3. In hearkening very willingly to advise examining and weighing it with prudence and governing your self altogether by counsel Conscience in performing every thing with good intention and great integrity according to the Divine and Humane laws Industry in doing all discreetly and peaceably with more fruit than noise so that we express no anxiety in business like that Prince of whom it was said That he seemed always vacant in his most serious employments Diligence in spying out occasions and doing every thing in due time and place without disorder confusion passion haste irresolution precipitation For these are the faults which commonly destroy good government He that hath never so little wit good inclination shall ever find wherein to busie himself especially in works of mercy amongst so many objects of the miseries of his neighbour The third SECTION Of the government of a Family THat man hath no little business who hath a Family to govern a good Father who breedeth his Children well that they may one day serve the Common-wealth is employed
I eat drink sleep when I do business when I am both in conversation and solitude Whither shall this poor soul go which thou hast thrown into a body so frail in a world so corrupt and amongst the assaults of so many pernicious enemies Open O Lord thine eyes for my guidance and compassionate my infirmities without thee I can do nothing and in thee I can do all that I ought Give me O Lord a piercing eye to see my danger and the wings of an Eagle to flie from it or the heart of a Lion to fight valiantly that I may never be wanting in my duty and fidelity to thee I ow all that I am or have to thy gracious favour and I will hope for my salvation not by any proportion of my own virtues which are weak and slender but by thy boundless liberalities which onely do crown all our good works The Gospel upon Munday the first week of Lent out of Saint Matthew 25. Of the Judgement-Day ANd when the Son of man shall come in his Majesty and all the Angels with him then shall be sit upon the seat of his Majesty And all Nations shall be gathered together before him and he shall separate them one from another as the Pastour separateth the sheep from the goats And shall set the sheep at his right hand but the goats at his left Then shall the King say to them that shall be at his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father possess you the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world For I was hungred and you gave me to eat I was athirst and you gave me to drink I was a stranger and you took me in naked and you covered me sick and you visited me I was in prison and you came to me Then shall the just answer him saying Lord when did we see thee an hungred and fed thee athirst and gave thee drink and when did we see thee a stranger and took thee in or naked and covered thee or when did we see thee sick or in prison and came to thee And the King answering shall say to them Amen I say to you as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren you did it to me Then shall he say to them also that shall be at his left hand Get you away from me you cursed into fire everlasting which was prepared for the Devil and his Angels For I was an hungred and you gave me not to eat I was athirst and you gave me not to drink I was a stranger and ye took me not in naked and you covered me not sick and in prison and you did not visit me Then they also shall answer him saying Lord when did we see thee an hungred or athirst or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to thee Then shall he answer them saying Amen I say to you as long as you did it not to one of these lesser neither did you it to me And these shall go into punishment everlasting but the just into life everlasting Moralities 1. BEhold here a Gospel of great terrour where our spirit like the Dove of Noah is placed upon the great deluge of Gods wrath and knows not where to find footing Every thing is most dreadfull But what can be more terrible than the certainty of Gods judgement joyned with the great uncertainty of the hour of our death It is an unchangeable decree that we must all be presented before the high Tribunal of the living God to render a just account of all which our soul hath done while it was joyned with our body as we are taught by S. Paul We must make an account of our time spent of our thoughts words actions of that we have done and that we have omitted of life death and of the bloud of Jesus Christ and thereupon receive a judgement of everlasting life or death All men know that this must certainly be done but no man knows the hour or moment when it shall be So many clocks strike about us every day and yet none can let us know the hour of our death 2. O how great is the solitude of a Soul in her separation from so many great enticements of the world wherein many men live and in an instant to see nothing but the good or ill we have done on either side us what an astonishment will it be for a man suddenly to see all the actions of his life as upon a piece of Tapistree spred befor his eyes where his sins will appear like so many thorns so many serpents so many venemous beasts Where will then be that cozening vail of reputation and reason of state which as yet cover so many wicked actions The soul shall in that day of God be shewed naked to all the world and her own eyes will most vex her by witnessing so plainly what she hath done 3. O what a parting water is Gods judgement which in a moment shall separate the mettals so different O what a division will then be made of some men which now live upon earth Some shall be made clear and bright like the stars of heaven others like coals burning in hell O what a dreadfull change will it be to a damned soul at her separation from this life to live onely in the company of devils in that piercing sense of torments and eternal punishment It is a very troublesom thing to be tied with silken strings in a bed of Roses for the space of eight days together What may we think of a damned soul which must dwell in a bed of flames so long as there shall be a God 4. Make use of the time given you to work your salvation and live such a life as may end with a happy death and so obtain that favourable judgement which shall say Come O thou soul blessed of God my Father possess the kingdom which is prepared for thee from the beginning of the world There is no better means to avoid the rigour of Gods judgements than to fear them continually Imitate the tree mentioned in an Emblem which being designed to make a ship and finding it self wind-shaken as it grew upon the land said What will become of me in the sea If we be already moved in this world by the bare consideration of the punishment due to sin think what it will be in that vast sea and dreadfull Abyss of Gods judgements Aspirations O King of dreadfull Majesty who doest justly damn and undeservedly save souls save me O Fountain of Mercy Remember thy self sweet Jesus that I was the cause of that great journey which thou tookest from God to man and do not destroy me in that dreadfull day which must decide the Question of my life or death for all eternity Take care of my last end since thou art the cause of my beginning and the onely cause of all that I am O Father of bounties wouldest thou stop a mouth
He pacifieth Heaven by sweetening the sharpness of his Heavenly Father quenching by his wounds the fire which was kindled of his just anger Every thing smileth upon this great Peace-maker Nature leaveth her mourning and putteth on robes of chearfulness to congratulate with him his great and admirable conquests It is in him that the Heavenly Father by a singular delight hath poured out the fullness of all Graces to make us an eternal dwelling and to reconcile all in him and by him pacifying by his bloud from the Cross all that is upon earth and in Heaven This is our Joshua of whom the Scripture speaketh that he clears all differences and appeaseth all battels No stroke of any hammer or other iron was heard at the building of Solomon's Temple and behold the Church which is the Temple of the living God doth edifie souls with a marvellous tranquilitie 2. The Sun is not so well set forth by his beams as our Saviour is magnificently adorned with his wounds Those are the characters which he hath engraved upon his flesh alter a hundred ingenious fashions The Ladies count their pearls and diamonds but our Saviour keeps his wounds in the highest attire of his Magnificences It is from thence that the beauty of his body taketh a new state of glory and our faith in the resurrection is confirmed that the good fill themselves with hope miscreants with terrour and Martyrs find wherewith to enflame their courage These divine wounds open themselves as so many mouthes to plead our cause before the Celestial Father Our Saviour Jesus never spake better for us than by the voice of his precious Bloud Great inquiry hath been made for those mountains of myrrh and frankincense which Solomon promiseth in the Canticles but now we have found them in the wounds of Jesus It is from thence that there cometh forth a million of sanctified exhalations of sweetness of peace and propitiation as from an eternal Sanctuary A man may say they are like the Carbuncle which melteth the wax upon which it is imprinted for they melt our hearts by a most profitable impression At this sight the Eternal Father calms his countenance and the sword of his Justice returneth into the sheath Shall not we be worthy of all miseries if we do not arm these wounds against us which are so effectual in our behalf And if this bloud of our Abel after it hath reconciled his cruel executioners should find just matter to condemn us for our ingratitudes John the Second King of Portugal had made a sacred vow never to refuse any thing which should be asked of him in the virtue of our Saviour's wounds which made him give all his silver vessel to a poor gentleman that had found out the word And why should not we give our selves to God who both buyeth and requireth us by the wounds of Jesus 3. Jesus inspireth the sacred breath of his mouth upon the Apostles as upon the first fruits of Christianity to repair the first breath and respiration of lives which the Authour of our race did so miserably lose If we can obtain a part of this we shall be like the wheels of Ezechiels mysterious chariot which are filled with the spirit of life That great Divine called Matthias Vienna said That light was the substance of colours and the spirit of Jesus is the same of all our virtues If we live of his flesh there is great reason we should be animated by his Spirit Happy a thousand times are they who are possessed with the the Spirit of Jesus which is to their spirit as the apple of the eye S. Thomas was deprived of this amorous communication by reason of his incredulitie He would see with his eyes and feel with his hands that which should rather be comprehended by faith which is an eye blessedly blind which knoweth all within its own blindness and is also a hand which remaining on earth goeth to find God in Heaven Aspirations GReat Peace-maker of the world who by the effusion of thy precious bloud hast pacified the wars of fourty ages which went before thy death This word of peace hath cost thee many battels many sweats and labours to cement this agreement of Heaven and earth of sence and reason of God and man Behold thou art at this present like the Dove of Noah's Ark thou hast escaped a great deluge of passions and many torrents of dolours thrown head-long one upon another Thou bringest us the green Olive branch to be the mark of thy eternal alliances What Shall my soul be so audacious and disordered as to talk to thee of war when thou speakest to her of peace To offer thee a weapon when thou offerest her the Articles of her reconciliation signed with thy precious bloud Oh what earth could open wide enough her bosom to swallow me if I should live like a little Abiram with a hand armed against Heaven which pours out for me nothing but flowers and roses Reign O my sweet Saviour within all the conquered powers of my soul and within my heart as a conquest which thou hast gotten by so many titles I will swear upon thy wounds which after they have been the monuments of thy fidelity shall be the adored Altars of my vows and sacrifices I will promise thereupon an inviolable fidelity to thy service I will live no more but for thee since thou hast killed my death in thy life and makest my life flourish within thy triumphant Resurrection FINIS AN ALPHABETICAL TABLE Setting down the most observable Matters contained in the first three TOMES of the HOLY COURT A Aâ—dâ—rites Fol 38 Abdâ—lâ—â—in 7 Abraham the Hermit 86 Abstinence defined 468 The Aâ—â—rons of men must be directed to one assured Butt 67 Apprehension of Affronts 47 Retreat into the Conscience in Affronts is a good remedy against them 58 Aglae a noble Dame 379 She is a worldly Widow ibid. She is in love ibid. Her admirable Conversion 380 Her devotion in enquiry after Martyrs ibid. Her speech to Boniface her Steward ibid. Agrippa Grand-child of Herod 3â—2 His flatterie ibid. Alexander son of Mariamne imprisoned 130 Alms the works of God 9 Ambition an itch 56 It is a forreign vice ibid. It is the life of a slave 57 The Ambitious are miserable ibid. Extream disaster of an Ambitions man ib. Ambitious men travel for Rachel and find 〈◊〉 58 Ambition was the God of Antiochus 347 Sr. Ambrose 175 His Calling ib. His Election 176 His rare endowments 179 His government ib. He cherisheth the Religious 181 He took away superstitions and excesses ib. His puritie of invention ib. His Oration against Symmachus 184 He refuteth Symmachus his strongest arguments ib. His answer concerning the dearth 186 His greatness in the Conversion of Sr. Augustine 188 He speaketh unto the two souls of his Pupils 211 His brave speech to Theodorick 214 The majestie of Sr. Ambrose 205 His prudence and charitie 209 He is persecuted by Justice 206 Resolution of Sr.
Opinion the source of all corruption ibid. Strange giddiness of Opinion 38 We must wean our selves from the Opinion of the world 66 Every one ought to have a good Opinion of the Providence of God and to know the ways thereof ibid. Oration of Symmachus to Theodosius and Valentinian the Younger for the Altar of Victory Exercise of Pagan Religion and Revenues of Vestals 182 P PAgans and their acts 227 Terrestrial Paradise the Chamber of Justice 51 Tyranny of Passions over the Soul 64 Passions are Ecchoes 83 Passions of Love ibid. The danger of this Passion ibid. Preservatives against this Passion ibid. Ordinary and sovereign Remedies for this Passion ibid. The folly of this Passion ibid. How Raymund and Lullius were cured of this Passion ibid. Want of employment is the cause of our being ensnared by this Passion ibid. Partiality of parents 108 Patience the nature of God 48 Patience defined 468 Praise of Patience 93 Patience of S. Macarius ibid. Patience of Great men what ibid. The first Patience is to endure ones self the next to spare men and endure men ibid. Patience of David ibid. Acts of Patience ibid. Patience the Sanctuary of Mortals ibid. Mariamne wife of Herod the picture of Patience 114 Pearls are Ushers saith Seneca 9 Paulina did bear about her a million of Gold 93 The desire of S. Augustine to ruine the Opinion of Pelagius 366 Penance called by the name of Envy 17 Five degrees of Penance among the Ancients ibid. The Practice of these degrees at Court ibid. Philo's notable Speech concerning the estate of Moses 417 Invincible proofs of piety 28 Piso's mad cruelty 90 Plato his Opinion concerning Souls 406 Who always striveth to Please himself must necessarily displease others 84 The quality of worldly Pleasures and their shortness 65 Politicians are vain without the direction of God 362 Pompey in Palestine 115 His cruel vanity 340 Resolutions of great courages in Poverty 392 Poverty of three sorts either of Necessity Profession or Affection 89 Practice of the poverty of Affection ibid. Poverty a chief scourge 352 Difficulties of the Poor in virtue 8 Poverty defined 468 Poverty the Island of Ithaca 363 Pulcheria sister of Theodosius and her qualities 441 Against the necessity inferred of Praescience 361 The Doctrine of Praedestination with three reasons of this Doctrine 366 S. Paul and S. Augustine interpreted in the matter of Praedestination ibid. The Doctrine of the most ancient Fathers concerning Praedestination ibid. The fruits of God's glory derived from Praedestination 367 The matter of Praedestination ibid. Marvellous secret of Praedestination 368 Praise of Prayer with the necessity thereof 68 Practice of Vocal Prayer 77 Government of Vocal Prayer 78 Cup and Harp in Prayer what is understood thereby ibid. Remedies against Distractions in Prayer ibid. Sublime Prayer 381 Pretended Religion how far from true Christianity 34 Pride especially of the Nobility reprehended 92 The humility of Primislaus and Pope Benedict the eleventh ibid. Prosperity 7 Procopius presented to Diocletian 368 He is sent to destroy the Christians and is converted to Christianism ibid. Constancy of Procopius 369 His sufferings for Religion ibid. His imprisonment and Martyrdom ibid. Prodigality of a Venetian Lady and her punishment 418 Voice of Prophesie 37 Excellent Prophesies touching our Saviour ibid. Disloyalties that spring from the Maxim of Proper Interest 389 Reasons against this Maxim ibid. It 's a great sacriledge to make a Divinity of Proper Interest 390 Proper Interest is like the feathers of an Eagle ibid. False Pretexts of Interest 391 Horrour of Poverty doth nourish the fervour of Interests ibid. Hidden Passages of the Divine Providence in the reclaiming of Souls 192 The Theatre of Divine Providence 233 Admirable Providence of God above all humane things 258 Belief of a Providence is the sweetness of Life 354 Manifest proof of the Providence of God 355 Maxims of Providence 356 Four foundations and pillars of Providence ibid. Providence of God in the ordinary marks of nature 358 Particular providences over divers Countries ibid. The admirable Providence of God in protecting King Mithridates in his cradle ibid. Providence over Empires 359 Providence over the Church ibid. Three Squadrons against Providence ibid. Great Providence to stick to Altars and the Church 148 Against Providence three squadrons of nice ones according to humane prudence 361 Providence of God concerning the sentence of death in the generality of men 414 Providence in the death of the vicious ibid. Providence of God in limits of our appetites 346 The Prowess of Christians 221 Importance of Prudence 88 Prudence a hand sprinkled with eyes ibid. Hierogliph of Prudence ibid. Truest Prudence is to distrust their own judgement ibid. Prudence defined 467 Ptolomey his magnificence 392 His Librarie ibid. His daughter Berenice entereth into Babylon ibid. Purgatory compared to the Cherubins fiery sword 425 Proved by the light of Nature ibid. The opinions of the Ancient concerning Purgatory ibid. An excellent opinion on the belief of Purgatory among the Hebrews ibid. Notable Purgation of the Aegyptians ibid. Purgatory proved by the light of Faith 426 The manner of Purgatory 427 Against the dulness of those who do not understand it ibid. Rigour of the living against the souls in Purgatory 428 Pirrho's stupidity 92 R RAbsaces the false Souldier his damnable Precepts which contain a true Satyre of the manners of depraved Nobility 218 Rebellions and Seditions fatal to the people 364 Wholesom advise how to resolve on the choice of Religion 35 Maxims of the Catholick and pretended Religion 36 The powerfull operation of Religion 340 Commotions for matters of Religion 342 Three things necessary to dispose ones self in Religion 31 Without Religion all is unprofitable observed in the quality of Julian 373 Four notable points to discover the falshood of pretended Religion 32 An excellent Resolution upon worldly accidents 362 Resurrection proved more than any other mystery 440 No impossibility in the Resurrection to an Omnipotent hand 441 Three properties of splendour in the Resurrection of our Saviour 443 The triumphant glory of the Resurrection ibid. The sweetness of the repose of Jesus and all the Elect in the estate of Resurrectâ—on ibid. Relation of the Resurrection to the Creation ibid. The joys of the heart of Jesus in the first instant of the Resurrection ibid. The goodly world he beheld in his Idaea's at his Resurrection ibid. Revenge is not onely contrary to Divine right but to the right of Nature 399 The Maxim of Revenge opposeth common sense ibid. Goodly company of those who did not desire Revenge 400 401 Not to Revenge injuries is not so much an election of virtue as a necessity of salvation ibid. The horrour and confusion of Revenge ibid. Goodly Considerations to pacifie the mind against Revenge ibid. Absalom close in his Revenge 408 Riches the mother of vices and neglect of God 364 Riot cruel and injurious to God and his Church 53 Tyranny of Riot 406 Reasons against the Maxims
of Riot 461 Rispeliones 265 Rodomonts 93 A condemnation of Rodomonts and Duels 224 Roman Empire full of strange disorders 154 S SAcriledge of fair souls 13 To Sacrifice the Calf without flower 78 Sanctity the character of Nobility 5 Sanctity an irrefragable argument of Faith 29 Sadness the snare of Satan 83 Immortification one cause of Sadness 84 Sadness a plant of our own growing ibid. Prayer the best remedy against Sadness ibid. Unworthiness of Sadness 85 Two great Obstacles of Salvation 43 To handle the affairs of Salvation is a matter of no small importance 31 Sameas his grave and free Speech concerning Herod 116 Same 's a Martyr of poverty 89 Scoffing the harbinger of Atheism 46 Danger of Scoffing 47 368 Self-love hard to be repressed 400 Semblances the children of opinion and lying 37 Sesostris his Chariot applied to the rich 9 Simplicity defined 468 Simplicity the chief virtue of Saints 41 What it is to be Simple ibid. Simplicianus a holy man 96 Sins committed for want of witnesses 6 Sin of the flesh a mark of Reprobation and injurious to the incarnation of the Son of God 50 Sincerity preserved in the light of Nature 396 Slander the wound of Frogs 46 Greatness of the Soul 64 Souls of men different in qualities 4 Excellencies of the Soul remarkable 11 The Soul clothed with royal purple 12 What the Soul is and wherefore it is a Spirit ibid. The care that is to be had of the Soul 423 Piety the first virtue and the Soul of Military virtue 220 The belief of the immortality of the Soul invincible 420 The operations of the Soul are admirable 421 Sentence of God upon the immortality of the Soul ibid. Piety and Valour of a French Souldier 222 Notable Devotion of a Souldier 223 Military virtues of a French Souldier 226 A great indignity of the abuse of the Spirit 12 Apparition of the Soul of Samuel 423 Spurina 3 Stratonica her ridiculous pride 93 Supereminency of person ibid. Suemâ—s persecuted 342 His admirable constancy ibid. Three Suns shine at one time 370 Symmachus magnifieth the Vestals 182 Shamefull Law of the Sybarites 87 Synagogue of the Jews burned 213 T TEmperance the first tribute of Sanctity 86 Emptations remora's of the Soul 79 Temptation is a Christians trade ibid. What is the cause that many yield in Temptation ibid. It is not good to tempt Temptations 80 The sweetness of victory over Temptation ibid. Tertullian his parable of the Ass to the Hereticks of his time 33 An excellent conceit of Tertullian 19 Tertullian his saying is repugned 267 Thaumastus made the second man in the Kingdom for having given a glass of water 91 Theodosius his birth and extraction foretold 137 His Baptism 139 His Education 140 Sanctity of his Court. 143 The Discourse between him and a Hermite 144 Theodosius destroyeth Marna 139 He maketh the Court holy 212 His remarkable Piety 261 His death 148 Theodosia her revenge 368 Theodorick's practice which he gave to Cassiodorus 274 Theodorick slew Odoacer at a Banquet 281 Strange act of Theodorick 90 A crafty and witty conceit of Theodora 397 Theophilus a bloudy Emperour 402 The admirable Justice of Theodorick 285 Time not onely precious but onely necessary 43 Time compared to a River 44 Time irrevocable ibid. The Tongue compared to the Almond-Tree 45 The Tongue a feathered Bell. ibid. The Tongue the incensory of the Divinity 47 Trajan his notable Act. 90 Travel of worldlings 79 Triumph of Asmodeus with a description of his Chariot wheels horses coach-man and Court 49 The power of Truth 395 As bad contesting against Truth as against the master of the Bowe ibid. Tutours are Fathers over the Spirits 373 V VAlentinian father to Gratian his death 200 Erity a Sea 45 Virgins give an Altar of Gold to the Church of S. Sophia 140 Ungratefull men punished 23 Diversity of Unions 437 Union of glory what it is ibid. Unworthiness of being ashamed of well-doing 82 W WAnt a great misery 15 Excellent discipline in War 226 The name of Sun given to Warriours 172 Tragical events of the Wicked 257 Equity of the Senate of Rome to support Widows 340 William of Paris his notable Doctrine 360 Weakness of humane Wisdom 362 Good Wives of bad husbands 388 Wisdom requisite in Prelates 169 All Wisdom reduced to one Word 88 Over-much Wit troubleth 37 Modesty of Great Wits 450 Women stout to do good 39 Women without Devotion as a Bee without a sting 302 Therare qualities which are given to them in Scripture ibid. Houshold affairs recommended to Women 305 Words are the Chariot of the Soul 70 Word of God altered in Chairs by the extravagant opinions of hearers 385 The World a Clock and how 18 Worldlings condition 24 The World an Island of Dreams 16 The vanity of the World and misery thereof 119 The vanity and inconstancy of the World 146 Practise of Worldly men 389 Baseness of the World 414 Tertullian his Conceit concerning the World ibid. Three Ties of the World 417 Discordant acts of the World 442 The World is full of Craft 397 A Wonderfull Spectacle of the affairs of the World 238 Z ZEal of a Ladie towards God 90 Eal ought to be had towards Religion 341 The End of the Table of the first Three TOMES THE HOLY COURT THE COMMAND OF REASON OVER THE PASSIONS VVritten in French by F. N. CAUSSIN AND Translated into English by Sir T. H. WITH HISTORICALL OBSERVATIONS UPON IT Printed M.DC.L TO THE EXCELLENT PRINCESSE THE DUTCHESSE OF BUCKINGHAM Excellent Princesse THis Translation of the Holy Court as it had it's first life breathed into it by the animating spirit of her sacred Majesties Royall acceptance so in this last and concluding piece it infinitely desires such your favourable enterteinment Nor verily can I where so bright and resplendent a Star from a Sphear of Greatnesse hath already lighted up a flame to direct others in their approbation but with much confidence hope the like propitious rayes may benignly reflect from your so near a confining Influence Here shall your Grace behold the powerfull predominance of Reason over passions not taught in Epictetus or Senecas Prophane School but dictated from the Truth-teaching sacred Oracles of Christian Piety Here the soul is informed and judgement rectified to hate vice and flie it to love virtue and practise it not in exteriour garbs and petty slight formalities which onely serve to amuse vulgar spirits but by the interiour Habits and serious embracement of the most solid virtues The pretious memory Excellent Princesse of your thrice-noble Father whose living Image and second-self you representatively are together with your known love of pious Books and daily practise in your life of the wholesome precepts couched in This hath encouraged my present addresse to serve for the enterteinment of your vacant hours which thus silently spent and maturely digested will have the force and efficacy of the most serious employment and may Exemplarily invite other eminent Spirits to
imitate your Graces profitable and well-seasoned retirements I wish excellent Lady there were any thing wherein I might better expresse the devoted service I ow to your eminent self and illustrious Family but since weak endeauours can produce but slender effects and noble dispositions do readily pardon incident imperfections I will rest in the cheerefull hope of Excuse and in the ardent Vow of a studious willingnesse to become worthy the Title of Your Graces humblest and most obsequious servant THOMAS HAWKINS To my Lord MY LORD THE DUKE OF ANGVIEN ELDEST SONNE OF MY LORD THE PRINCE MY LORD I Finish the Holy-Court in my Books when your age inviteth you to begin it in your manners and for your first exercise of arms I offer you the Combats and Empire over Passions which is greater then that of the world There it is where you shall know the industry of a warre which nature wageth and reason teacheth us which is never too soon learned and which is ordinarily but too late understood Princes in other battels speak with mouths of fire and make use of a million of hands but in this which I represent they are alone and therein employ but the moitie of themselves one part of Man being revolted against the other Besides all the honour of the uictory rests in themselves arms fortresses and Regiments not at all participating therein and if they prove fortunate in these encountres they stand in the esteem of wise men for Demy-Gods Their quality obligeth them to this duty more then other men since Passions are winds which in popular life raise but little waves but in them stir up mountains of water For which I am perswaded that as you so dearly have loved the labours of my Pen and sought for your instruction out of my Books I could not do a better service or more suitable to your age then by arming you against these plagues which have so often tarnished Diadems on the brow of Cesars and turned Conquerours into Slaves Sir I promise my self much from your Greatnesse in this Conquest seeing it already hath given testimonies to the world worthy of your eminent Birth which oblige you to virtue out of a necessity as strong as your disposition is sweet VVit which is as the principall Genius of your house hath in you cast forth glimmers that have flown throughout Europe when you publickly answered throughout all Philosophy in an age wherein other Princes begin to learn the first elements You have placed wisedome on the highest Throne of Glory and it by your mouth hath rendred Oracles to instruct the learned and astonish Doctours In the first season of life which so many other spend in delights you have heightned the lights of your understanding by the labour and industry of study living as certain Plants which bear the figure of Starres all invironed with Thorns It is time that all your Brightnesse change into Fire and since Sciences are but Colours which appeare not in the night-time if Virtue do not illuminate them they must be gilded with the rayes of your good life and enkindled with the ardours of your courage as you very happily have already begun Sir I do assure my self that of all those things you know you will onely approve the good and that of all such as you can you will do none but the just This is it you owe to the King to whom you have the honour to be so near This is it which the education of the most prudent of Fathers and the tender care of the best of mothers exact This is it that France which looketh on you as a Sien of its Lillies wisheth This is it which bloud the mostnoble on Earth breeding the most happy in the world and that face where Grace and Majesty make so sweet a commixion cease not to promise us As there is nothing little in you so we must not endure any thing imperfect and if that which we take to be spots in the Sun be Stars it plainly sheweth us that all must be splendour in your condition and that we must not expect years since the wit of Princes in much swifter then time Your great Vncle who gained the battel of Cerisoles said to those who upbraided him with his youth that he did not cut with his beard but with his sword and I am perswaded that you will imitate his valour to take part in his glory yea even in this your minority wherein the Kings colours being already to fly under your name My Lord remember the throne of the Sun among the Egyptians was supported by Lyons and that you must be all heart to support that of our most Christian King in imitation of the great Prince to whom you ow your Birth For whose sake I wish you as many blessings as Heaven promiseth you esteeming my self most happy to be able to contribute my labours and services to the glory of your education since I have the honour to call my self by just title SIR Your most humble and most affectionate servant in our Lord N. CAUSSIN A TASTE OF THE SEVERALL DISPOSITIONS OF MEN VVhich serves for a Foundation to the Discourse of PASSIONS THE HOLY COURT was not as yet sufficiently beautified with the eminent lustre of Glory wherein I represented it but it was necessary that taking possession of the Empire over passions it should wear a crown which it hath gained by its travell and wrought by its proper virtues In this last Tome dear Reader I present thee the absolute reformation of the soul by eternall principles and the victory over powers which oppose Reason Thou art not ignorant that Angels and bruit beasts are but of one piece the one being wholly Spirit and the other Flesh But Man a middle creature between Angels and bruit beasts participateth both of flesh and Spirit by an admirable tye which in him occasioneth continuall war of Passions which are properly commotions of animall and sensitive nature caused by the imagination of good and evil with some alteration of body They take their origen from two Appetites of which the Concupiscible causeth Love Hatred Desire Aversion Joy and Sadnesse The Irascible causeth Hope Despair Boldnesse Fear and Anger To this ordinary number I add Shamefastnesse Envy Jealousie and Compassion to accomplish our work in all its parts All Passions are generally in all men but all appear not in all There is a certain mixture in nature which is the cause that the worst have something of good and the best something of bad Now note that as the Platonists distinguish five sorts of divels to wit Fiery Airy Aquatick Terrestriall and Subterranean so humane spirits are divided into as many forms which produce merveilous diversities in every nature The Fiery are Spirits of fire whereof some seem to be enkindled with the purest flames of stars which are magnanimous pure vigorous bold intelligent active amiable and munâ—ficent And of this sort are the most illustrious of Kings and of Queens
and danger of passions may profit us whether they edifie us by their repentance or divert us by their disasters I conclude the HOLY COURT in this Volume which I esteem above the rest by reason of its utillty and writing of passions to cure them I wish in my self an incurable one which is to desire the progression of my Readers and to beseech God they may submit Sense to Reason Time to Eternity and the Creature to the Creatour THE FIRST TREATISE OF LOVE Sect. 1. Of the Necessity of Love Against those Philosophers who teach Indifferency saying We must not Love any thing THe Divine Providence which hath concluded our salvation All Happinesse included in love in Love very plainly shews us That the means to be quickly happy is to love Felicity and that the way we walk in to become singularly happy is to esteem as we ought the chief of Felicities We lose all our good hap for want of loving and our Love through the defect of well placing it which is the cause that we daily learning so many Arts forget what we should eternally practise if it be true we desire to be everlastingly happy I find the great Apostle of France S. Denis said well when he called God The Father of Vnions who S. Dion l. de Hierarch coelest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God the Father of unions draweth all to unity by the means of love ceaseth not to gather and rally together all the creatures into his heart which issued out of his heart He is That in the life of Intelligencies which the Sun is in the celestiall world but one immoveable Sun about which so many changes and agitations of all creatures circumvolve who groan and aim at this First beauty the true Center of Repose It concerneth us since we are made for it and that God hath given us Love which is to the soul That which wings are to Birds to carry us to it's fruition It is a riches which is onely ours and which would be infinitely profitable if we could tell how to employ it well but for want of well loving we apply the most precious thing which is Love to gain wretched Creatures as if one used a golden hook to fish for Frogs and a Sceptre to shake Hey This is it which causeth me to undertake in this discourse to speak of the well ordering of Love as the most assured way we can choose to arrive at Tranquility and to shew that we first of all most necessarily love to be happy in the world and that the most loving and tendrest hearts are ordinarily the best This age scant enough in goodnesse and fruitfull The Sect of Philosophers of Indifferency in malice hath of late brought forth a Sect of wits who term themselves the Philosophers of Indifferency and who make boast to be very insensible as well in the fear of the Divinity as in tendernesse towards the miseries of men To what purpose is it say they to addict ones self to the worship of a God whom we cannot sufficiently know And wherefore should we be solicitous for the afflictions of another which nothing concern us This is to make our selves eternally miserable and to be tormented with all manner of objects He who would live contented in the world must love nothing but himself entertein himself within himself and concerning himself and derive pleasure as a tribute out of all the creatures of the world but to take heed not to enter into the participation of their troubles and should we see all to be turned topsie turvey so it inconvenienceth not us in any thing to let time slide to catch good by the wings whilest we may and to let evil fall on the miserable These kind of people are so unnaturall that they laugh at all and mock at the miseries which others suffer If you tell them of a house burnt they say it is nothing and that it is but a fire of great wood If of an inundation of water that Fishes have a good time of it If of a warre or contagion that it is a good harvest for death and that there are too many bread-eaters If one say such a friend hath lost an eye they answer he is very happy because he shall see but half the bad times I do not think there is a vice in the whole world more btutish or contrary to nature then this obduratenesse which is the cause I would cast it under the feet of love and shew you that tendernesse towards God as a Father towards men as the lively Images of his Goodnesse is the principall foundation of all virtues Consider first that all the good order of life comes 1. Reason against the Indifferents from the knowledge of the First cause whereon all Creatures have their dependence as on the contrary the Disorder of all actions springeth from the ignorance of the submission we ow to the Increated Essence Now he who loveth none but himself and cares not but for his own Interests maketh himself as the chief end and the God of himself which sufficiently proveth it to be the most palpable folly and the greatest evil may be imagined in Nature It is a remarkable thing that among all Essences There is none but God which is for it self there is none but God alone who as he can know nothing out of himself nor love any thing but in himself so he doth nothing but for himself For in doing all for himself he doth all for us since we have no good which tendeth not to him as to its scope Monas geâ—uit monadem in se suum reflexit amorem S. Thom. 1. part q 32. a. t. 1. which subsisteth not in him as on its Basis which resteth not in him as in its Centre Thus did S. Thomas understand that notable saying of Mercury Trismegistus Vnity hath produced unity and hath reflected its love on it self It is not but for an Infinite Essence to do so but had the highest Angel in heaven the thought onely to behold himself and hence-forward to work for himself he would instantly be pulled out of heaven and would of a bright Sun become a sooty Coal What may one think then of a man who sayes in his heart I am born for my self and I have no other aim in the world but to satisfie my mind with all contentments nor shall the evils of another ever enter into my heart till Fire commix with Water and Heaven with Earth If I obtein my ends all shall go well Hearken how God speaketh in the Prophet Ezechiel to these wicked ones Behold I come to fall upon thee Ecce ego ad te draco magne qui tuba iâ— medio fluminum tuorum c. Ezec. 29. 3. oh thou great Dragon who lyest stretched out at length in the midst of thy Rivers and darest saey this stream is mine and I made my self Assure thee I will put a bridle upon thee and when I
when it comes to extend it self in the world and to draw it to it The natâ—â—e of love Lib. 1 de civit â—8 Amor inhians labere quâ—â— amatuâ— cupiditâ— est idem â—mor habens cóque fruenâ— letitia est fugiens quod adversatur el timor est quod si acciderit eitristitia est proinde mala sunt ista si malus est amor bona si bonus self it is called love But if you consider it in the condition wherein it gathereth together all Creatures to the first cause and makes its works re-ascend to God they say it then takes the name of Pleasure which is a most happy satisfaction of to all Nature in its Authour So love is a circle which turns from good to good by an everlasting revolution Now if you desire I should in few words explicate the nature thereof its origen progresse causes qualities and effects you must observe a notable doctrine of S. Augustine who saith That Love whilest it is in the search of what it loveth is called Desire and when it enjoyeth the thing beloved it is changed into joy But if it avoid that thing which is contrary to it either in effect or opinion it is Fear and if the Fear hath its effect by the arrivall of the evil it apprehendeth it turns into Sadnesse This love takes sundry countenances according to divers Circumstances I agree all this is said with good reason yet notwithstanding we must affirm with divines that this Oracle of Doctours hath in this difinition rather comprised the cause the effects and progresses of love then its essence and nature For to speak properly love is neither Desire Fear Joy nor Sadnesse but A Complacence of the Appetite or will in an object conveniont 5. Definition of love either according to verity or apparence But if we will speak more generally we say it is nothing but an inclination Richard de Medvill dist 27. l. 3. Art 1. q. 1. propending and moving to a good which is conform to it For by the definition we include all the kinds of love which are divided principallly into three branches to wit Naturall Animall and Reasonable It s division love Naturall love consisteth in things inanimate which have their sympathies and Antipathies As Palmes male and female Amber and straw Iron and the Adamant Animall love is that Beginning which giveth motion to the sensitive appetite of beasts to seek for that which is fit for them and to be pleased in the enjoying what they fought for Reasonable love is an Act which pursueth and accepteth the good represented by the understanding wherein we may also comprehend Angelicall and Divine love which S. Denis addeth to these three kinds whereof we speak Reasonable love is also divided into love of Amity and love of Concupiscence Love of Amity which wisheth good to the thing beloved for it self without enquiry into its own proper interesse As when it desired to one Health knowledge grace virtues wealth honours without pretence of any benefit to it self This Gabriel d. 27. q. 1. l. 3. is to affect with a love of amity which is very rare now a daies so mercenary are affections and when this love is not onely Affective as Divines speak contenting it self with bare desires but Effective by plentifully opening hauds to liberality it mounteth to a huge degree of Complacence Love of Concupiscence is an interessed love which causeth one to love a thing not for it self but for the pleasure and commodity derived from it or to be hoped in time to be dersved from it So the Horseman desireth beauty strength and courage in his horse and dog not for their sakes but his own contentment Such love is worldly love commonly defiled with base and animall consideration nor is ever purified but when it for God loveth that which cannot in it self be lovely Behold the nature and Essence of Love in its whole latitude Now to speak of the proceedings of the soul in its loves The first step it makes when it beginneth to love is the degree of the conformity of the will with The steps and progressions of â—ove the good is proposed The senses imagination understanding give it notice of some Beauty Goodnesse or Commoditie which it conceiveth to be fit for it Thereupon it beginneth to take fire and to have sparks of desires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which make it to wish the good proposed unto it Thence it passeth to the second Degree which is that of Sharp-sweet Complacence which pleasingly each moment holds it fixed upon the thoughts of its object Sometimes between hope to possesse it another while between fear to lose it and many other passions which accompany this as yet suffering Complacence From this degree it goes to the third which is inqui +sitioâ— and motion where love putteth on wings to fly speedily into the bosome of its repose employing all possible means for its contentment and if it be favoured in its pursuit it advanceth to the fourth degree which is union esteemed the principall scope of Amities From this union ariseth another Complacence which is not painfull and dolorous but satisfied and pleased in the fruition of its object which is the heighth of love By the sides of love are lodged Beauty and Goodnesse for that as S. Denis saith they are the objects Its causes and motive of love which are so allied together that the Grecians call them by one self same name The Sages have ever sought for the true causes which dispose the wils of men to love and there are many different opinions upon this point Some hold it is a quality which God imprinteth on nature others imagine it comes from the aspect of starres and from divers constellations Others make it to proceed from Parents and education others from a certain Harmony and consonancy of hearts which meeting in accord upon the same Tone have a naturall correspondence Lastly the Maxime of Divines and Philosophers much swayeth which saith that Fair and Good make all loves I hold that to accord these opinions a notable distinction must be made of three loves which we have proposed in the beginning to wit Naturall Animall and Reasonable Forasmuch as concerneth Naturall or Animall love besides the order of nature it is God which giveth to each creature necessary inclinations to arrive at their end Well there may be influency of starres which bear sway over humours and bodies and with the starres bands of bloud temperature of Humours education and secret qualities which tie creatures with the knot of a certain love the cause whereof is not well known For how many are there who love things which are neither lovely nor good I not onely say in effect but in their own opinion and judgement yet are they thereunto fastned by some Tie nor can they free themselves from it but by the absolute power of Reason Do we not daily find by experience that a Man who is
eyes and saw not ears and heard not senses and felt not she was not where she was for she was wholly where her Master was although she knew not where he was She knew no other art but that of love she had unlearnt to fear to hope to rejoyce to be sad all in her turned to love by reason of him whom she loved above all The Angels who descended from heaven to comfort her were to her troublesome nor could she endure them she stood upright near the sepulchre where in the place of death she found her heaven Now as in efficacious plyantnesses are flowers of Liberality love which never bring forth any fruit so it takes a second quality which is to be liberall and much obliging For this cause the hands of the bridegroome according to the Canticles are all of gold and round to shew there is not any thing crooked or rough to stay Cant. 5. 14 Manus ejus tornatiles aureae plenae Hyacinthis alia versio Globi aurei pleni mari his gifts besides they are all filled with pretious stones to figure his benefits unto us Jacinths and Diamonds which he scattereth and bestoweth as liberally as the sand of the sea The Hebrew saith that the same hands are vessels of gold replenished with the sea because love is an Ocean of liberalities which is never exhausted There remains nothing but to be patient which it Patience Pennas habet non pondus Ailredus doth with so much grace that one may say its yoke hath wings not weight The heart of it oft-times is invironed with thorns and it sweareth they are roses It swims in a sea of worm-wood and faith it is sweet water It is covered all over with wounds and protesteth they are Pearls and Rubies It is overwhelmed with affairs and maintains they are recreations It is surcharged with maladies and they are sports with calumnies and they are blessings with death and that is life These three qualities cause twelve very notable effects Twelve effects of love in love which are To love God above all and in comparison of him to despise all To account ones self unhappy if but a very moment diverted from his sweet Ideas To do all that may be and to endure all things impossible to come near him To embellish and adorn our soul to please him To be alwayes corporally present with him as in the Sacrament or spiritually as in prayer To love all which is for him and to hate all which is not for him To desire that he may be declared confessed praised and adored by all the world To entertein all the most sublime thoughts that is possible of his dear person To passe over with sweetnesse all the acerbities suffered in his service To accommodate ones self to all his motions and to receive both sad and joyfull things with his countenance To languish perpetually with the desires to behold him face to face and lastly To serve him without anxiety or expectation of reward These things being so sublime we must not presume to arrive thither at the first dash It is very fit to file and continually to polish our soul by long services and goodly actions to arrive in the end at the happy accomplishment of love For this cause there are reckoned certain degrees by which the soul is led to the pallace of this triumphant Monarch There is a love as yet but young which doth onely begin and hath five degrees within the compasse whereof it dilates it self to passe to a much greater perfection It beginneth first by the taste of the word of God and the sweetnesse it feels by the reading of good books which is a sign that a soul already hath an arrow of true love in the heart This taste maketh a man take good resolutions for the amendment of his manners and order of his life this resolution is followed by a happy penance which bewaileth all the imperfections of the life past with a bitter distaste and a fit satisfaction By this way we proceed to the love of a neighbour and a beginning is made by a tender compassion of his afflictions and a rejoycing at his prosperities Lastly or addicts himself much to many very laudable good works and to the holy exercises of mercy Behold here a most sincere condition and to be wished in many men of honour who may therein persist with great constancy The second order comprehendeth those which are Three orders of true lovers of the World yet more strong and it conteineth five other degrees First they are very assiduous in prayer wherein they are much enlightned with the knowledge of verities and celestiall maximes Secondly they obtain an excellent purity of conscience which they cleanse and polish by an enquiry into their interiour holily curious and perfectly disposed Thirdly they feel the exteriour man much weakned by a generous mortification wherewith concupiscence is quailed Fourthly followeth the vigour of the inward man who finds him self happily enabled to all the functions of the spirit with a certain facility which becometh as it were naturall to him Fifthly appeareth a great observance of the law of God which maketh him apprehend the least atomes of sin through a notable fidelity with which he desires to serve his master In this rank are many good religious who lead a life most accomplished in devotion and in the continuall mortification of senses Lastly in the third order of perfect lovers are the great effects of perfect charity as is not to have any humane and naturall considerations in all ones actions but to tread under foot all respect of flesh and bloud to defend truth Not to stick to earth by any root but to account all things worse then a dunghill to gain Jesus Christ to run before the Crosse and to bear the greatest adversities with a generous patience to love ones enemies to do good to persecutours and in conclusion freely to expose ones life for the salvation of a neighbour To say truly they had need to be persons most heroick to go so far and there is no doubt but this is the full accomplishment of love Notwithstanding nine degrees also are added of Seraphick love which concern Contemplatives which are Nine degrees of Seraphicall love for the contemplative The solitude of a heart throughly purified from all the forms of Creatures Silence in a sublime tranquillity of passions Suspension which is a mean degree between Angell and man Inseparability which adhereth to its welbeloved for an eternity not admitting the least disunion Insatiability which never is satiated with love Indefatigability which endureth all labours without wearinesse Languour which causeth the soul to dissolve and melt on the heart of its beloved Extasie which causeth a destitution of the vegetative and sensitive soul totally to actuate the intellectuall Deiformity which is a degree approching near to beatifick love Then is there made in the soul a deluge of mysterious and adorable
that its depth was his exaltation He went back again into the kingdome of Sarazens in Africk where being known he was suddenly stoned to death in a popular commotion and buried under a great heap of stones in which place his body long remained unknown to all the world but it pleased God that certain merchants his countrey-men sailing into that countrey saw in the night a Pyramis of fire to rise up over his tomb which caused a curiosity in them to see what it was and coming to dig into it they found this venerable old man who was so gloriously buried in his own triumph they brought him back into his own countrey where he is all this time reverenced out of an antient Devotion of the people which the holy See permitteth rather by way of toleration then expresse Canonization The second Treatise Of HATRED § 1. It s Essence Degrees and Differences WHat a Comet is among stars Hatred is Hatred a hidenus Comet among virtues It is a passion maligne cold pernicious deadly which ever broodeth some egge of the serpent out of which it produceth infinite disastres It is not content to vent its poison in certain places and times but it hateth to the worlds end yea as farre as eternity To set before your eyes the havock it maketh in a soul it is necessary to understand it in all the degrees and dimensions thereof For which purpose you shall observe that Hatred being properly an hostility of the appetite against those things which it apprehendeth to be contrary It s nature to its contentment It hath some similitude with Choler but there is much difference as between pieces engraven and painted which may easily be defaced Choler is more sudden more particular more ardent and more easie to be cured Hatred more radicall more generall more extended more sad and more remedilesse It hath two notable properties whereof the one Its properties consisteth in aversion and flight the other in persecution and dammage There is a Hatred of aversion which is satisfied to flie from all that is contrary to it There is another Enmity which pursueth and avengeth and tends to the destruction of all whatsoever The first property hateth the evill the second wisheth it to the authour of the evill and when it hath once possessed a black soul it maketh terrible progressions and is especially augmented by four very considerable degrees First it beginneth in certain subjects by a simple Its degrees aversion and a hatred of humour which is the cause we have an horrour at all those things that oppose naturall harmony which appears as well in the good constitution of body as in the correspondencies of senses and the faculties of the soul with their objects And although this contrariety be not alwayes evident enough unto us yet there is some feeling which in the beginning maketh us many times to have an aversion from some person whom we never saw and from whom we have never received the least suspicion of affront or dammage Be it out of some disproportion of body of speech of behaviour or whether it be there is some secret disaccord we often hate not well knowing the cause thereof which very easily happeneth to the femall sex For women being full of imaginations the vivacity of fancy furnisheth them with infinite many species of conveniences and inconveniences that cause a diversity of humours which very seldome make a good harmony but if they do it is ever easie enough to be disturbed There are loves and hatreds which cannot be put on and put off as easily as a man would do a shirt which teacheth us it is very hard to make one to love by commands as if we went about to introduce love by cannon-shots The first degree of Hatred is properly called Antipathy and is so generall in nature that it The natural antipathies passeth into things inanimate and into bruit beasts which are no sooner born but they exercise their enmities and warre in the world A little chicken which yet drags her shell after her hath no horrour at a horse nor at an elephant which would seem so terrible creatures to those that know not their qualities but it already feareth the kite and doth no sooner espy him but it hasteneth to be hidden under the wings of the hen Drums made of sheep-skins crack as it is said if another Jo. ◠Por a in Chao ther be strucken near them made of a wolfs hide and such as are made of the skin of a camel scare horses The lion is troubled at the crowing of a cock Cabbages and herb-grace cannot endure each others neighbour-hood such enmity they have and a thousand other such like things are observed in nature wherein there are such expresse and irreconciliable hatreds If man who should moderate his passions by reason suffers himself to run into Antipathies and naturall aversions and doth not represse them by virtue it falleth out they increase and are enflamed out of interest contempt slander ill manners outrages offences or out of simple imaginations of offence which then causeth a second degree of hatred which is a humane hatred consented to with deliberation which putteth Humane hatred it self into the field to exercise its hostilities here by injuries there by wrangling here by forgery there by violence and by all the wayes which passion inventeth to do hurt by Abject courages hate with a cold and cloudy hatred which they long hatch in their hearts through impotency of vindicative strength The haughty and proud do it with noise accompanied Its differences with disdains affronts and insolency All they who love themselves tenderly perpetually swarm in hatreds and aversions seeing themselves countre-buffed and crossed in a thousand objects which they passionately affect All the most violent hatreds come out of love Hatred of love and namely when lovers the most passionate see themselves to be despised despair of amity transporteth them to a◠outrageous hatred finding they have afforded love the most precious thing that is in our dispose to receive scorn There are likewise who without receiving any injury begin to hate out of wearisomnesse in love and coming to know the defects of such as they had the most ardently loved they take revenge upon the abuse of their own judgement by the evill disposition of their own will and do as those people who Quintil. decl 17. Non habent proximorum odia regressum quaecunque nexus accepere naturae quae sanguine visceribúsque constructa sunt non laxantur diducta sed percunt burnt the Gods they had adored Whether hatred arises out of a weary love or whether it proceeds from an irritated love it is ever to be feared and there are not any worse aversions in the world then those which come from the sources of amity Quintillian also hath observed That the Hatreds of neighbours are enmities irrecoverable and wounds which never are cured because bands
Perfecto odio oderaâ—â— illos Psal 138. is dangerous lest seeking to pull them away we be more passionate against the party who hath them then against all the most abominable iniquities We must not believe our selves when there is question of some important punishment nor such as are born to flatter our likings with too much servitude but those Angels for our counsellours if it be possible who are disintangled from the matter of Interests There are some who use to fortifie themselves in their resolutions by the deportments of those who are held for Saints in the Church and do readily alledge the examples of David who being upon his death-bed recommended to his son Solomon the punishment of Joab and Shimei But we must here consider that David is not a man impeceable to serve Question upon the act of David as a pattern for all our actions and that it is ever better to consecrate our dying lips with the words our Saviour spake a thousand years after on the crosse then with those he left in this instant as a Testament to his son The Jews had naturally great inclinations to revenge and many sought to perswade themselves it was by their laws permitted which is the cause this great King was not so perfectly free from all the seeds of Hatred in the whole course of his life But forasmuch as concerneth this last will of his one may excuse him for divers reasons nor can it be denyed an act of justice to put Joah to death who had defiled his hands with the bloud of two innocent Princes but it is strange that David reserved this so rough a punishment for him after fourty years of great and singular services when he was about threescore and ten years old Yet Theodoret brings a reason of state for it wherein he sheweth that Joah Theodoretin c. 2. l. 3. Regum citatus in Glossa Joah being in himself a great Captain was withall daring in his manners and tyrannicall in his undertakings and had already made it but too much appear that he meant to embroil the state after the death of his Master and to set Adonijah upon the throne to the prejudice of Solomon which was the cause that David who sought fixedly to establish the Kingdome upon his lawfull successour councelled him to take him away by a just punishment of other crimes which he had committed And as for Shimei who had surcharged him with injuries and curses when afterward he returned victorious into Hierusalem he came before him and craving pardon of his fault with lowly submission which stayed David and made him swear he should not dye for it which seemeth to convince him of perjury when he commanded his son Solomon to kill him I cannot approve Tostatus his distinction who saith When persons very different in the qualities of their rights treat together that he who hath justice on his side may promise things with an intention not to perform them as the other meaneth them For verily the permission of this manner of captious proceedings would throw a distrust upon all treaties But it is easie to see that David in this occasion beholding himself to be accomplished with joy and glory when Shimei came to cast himself at his feet and that Abishai counselled him instantly to put him to death he swore he should not dy and that the alacrity of a day so pleasing should not be purpled with humane bloud so that he had no further purpose but to assure Shimei for the time present and to promise him impunity in this conjunction of Kingdome and affairs but when he saw this spirit was insolent and like also to occasion trouble in the young King he did not absolutely command as Cajetan observeth to put him to death for what was past which had been pardoned but not to spare him in new occasions of commotion as actually Solomon following the intentions of the King his father troubled him not upon his slanders but upon another occurrent Now although one may alwayes give colour to the Hatred which is undertaken upon consideration and that it be sometimes necessary for the extirpation of the wicked yet must we more incline to clemency then justice in all which concerneth our selves For Hatreds of Interest which concern estates and Hatred of interest honour they many times in these dayes are incurable if they be not accompanied with some reasonable satisfaction It is a thing very remarkable that our Saviour Luc. 12. 14. who accordeth elements and pacifieth totall Nature would not undertake the agreement of two brothers upon the partition of their patrimony Nay there are some now a dayes so greedy and fleshed in prey that for a fingers breadth of land they would oppose Jesus Christ if he should visibly come to mediate their reconciliation After a thousand reasons which may be alledged for peace and good correspondence they derive but one conclusion out of it which is to have their will For which cause God chastiseth them and very often permitteth dissipation of goods ruine of families and many other accidents which stain their consciences and tarnish their reputation As on the contraty he blesseth the children of peace who forgo somewhat of their interest to acquire this inestimable treasure It is almost as hard to preserve charity in a great suit as to maintain fire in the water or under earth to keep inextinguible lamps He who will persist with a conscience indifferently Christian must never descend into suits Suits their nature and description but with a leaden pace and come out of them with the wings of an Eagle Suits are as the sons of Chaos and night there is nothing in them but confusion and darknesse It is a mixture of all evils which hath the heat of fire the threats the roaring thunders and tempests of the air the rocks of the sea the talons of birds of rapine and ravenous throat of fishes the gall of serpents the fury of salvage beasts and the malignity of poysons Before it ever walketh the desire of anothers goods by its side deceit revenge injustice falshood and treachery after it repentance poverty shame and infamy As war is made for peace so we sometimes undertake suits for justice and those are honest men who desire it but they who at this present do it with all sincerity are the greatest Saints of this age who seem to be given by God to mortifie civil hatreds and to establish minds in concord After suits Hatred brings forth another mischief Duell which is Duel a true Sacrifice of Moloch which hath cost France so much bloud mothers and wives so many tears which filleth families with sorrow friends with grief ages with horrour and hearts the most reasonable with the detestation of such a Crime The edicts of our most Christian King which have Means to use an efficacious remedy in Duell had more force then all other have served instead of a Jasper-stone to stanch
bloud But never would a remedy absolutely efficacious be had therein were it not that the King who is the true Arbiter of honour and distributer of glories did not pour a strong influence of his spirit upon the Marshals of France those great Captains and all the brave men who wield a sword by which he lively and powerfully perswadeth the whole nobility that this opinion conceived of the valour of those who fight Duels is a mere illusion since it may be common to lackies and to the most abject conditions Besides there is need of a strong and speedy military justice to accord differences of men of war and to chastise so many petty insolencies which seem to arise from nought but to put affronts on men of honour Otherwise it is hard to perswade a sword-man to forbear revenge seeing himself provoked byoutrages which would make him to live dishonoured according to tho world in his profession and as for these slight souldiers of Cad mus whose fingers itch and who ground Duels upon the wind of a word to let the world know they are tyed to a sword It were very good to send them into armies and to recommend them to some prudenr Captain who may put them into some good occasion to make triall of their courage and to give information of them that either their cowardise may be punished or their valour approved It seems to me that these proceedings being well observed might be of power to stifle this fatall plague which hath caused so many mischiefs For we must not wholly take away point of honour from the nobility no more then from women Now as virtuous women account it not a point of honour to be faithfull to an Amorist but to a husband so it is nor fit that reall gentlemen should think themselves valiant by the practise of a crime but by the exercise of a virtue As the first invention of Duels grew out of an opinion of point of honour so must it dye by a true judgement of honour which proceedeth not so much from Doctours as Captaines When the Gladiatours were in vogue and that it was accounted a glorious thing to descend into the Amphitheatre to fight against men and beasts all the world was inflamed therewith as with fury and not so much as women but would be partakers This manner of massacres also bare sway sometimes in the times of Christianity untill the Emperour Honorius who buried them after so many eloquent tongues had to Princes and Magistrates represented the horrour of those so barbarous actions so we ought to hope that the King to whom God hath given the plenitude of so many and so admirable blessings will cultivate the Palm which he already hath planted by his victory over Duels and will cover under earth and forgetfulnesse this infamy of mankind I satisfie my self with giving this advice having treated on this subject in the second Tome of the Holy Court § 5. Naturall and Morall Remedies against this Passion IF you require remedies and instructions both Naturall and Morall against Hatred Know that the Philosophers who consider all according to the course of Nature teach us that some have rebated and blunted the points of this cold and maligne Passion one while by living with hot and moist viands another while by consideration of the joyes and prosperities which God hath given them in divers negotiations and accidents of affairs thinking it not teasonable to employ the time in hatred which was too short to enjoy the benignities of heaven Others have cured themselves by conversation with good company which is one of the sweetest charms of life Others by hope and the desire they had to derive favour from the self-same party who had offended them another while also by a courteous interpretation of words and actions which had raised the same hatred Lastly by the change of those whom they hated before seeing them rather to be raised in great innocency or fallen into deep miseries which made them derive from mercy that satisfaction they could not expect from revenge But if they from nature have begged some comfort for their passion and have not been frustrated of their attempt in the practise of the means How much better helps have we then they ever had since that besides those naturall remedies which are not alwayes certain we have the grace and example of Jesus Christ Will you efficaciously remedy Hatred Learn not Who loves himself overmuch hath no friend to love your self so passionately as you do For that is the cause that you make of your self a little Idoll and that the least word which seems to be let slip against you many times not of purpose nor with intention grieveth you as if by displeasing your Chymeras a Divinity were offended That is the cause that you have burning and enraged desires towards money and the frivolous honour of the world so that one cannot touch you on this side but he strikes the apple of your eye Learn as a wholesome instruction those words of the Prophet Aggeus You have hastned to go into Agg. 1. Festinatis unusquisque in domum suam propterea prohibiti sunt coeli ne darent rorem your own house with contempt of mine for which cause I have stayed the clouds in the heavens from distilling down their dew upon the earth So long as you love your self so much you shall never have love nor friends So long as you think upon nothing but to raise your house and fortune on the ruines of the houses and fortunes of others you shall be deprived of the dew of heaven which is that Consolation of the just which they find in charity Secondly make account to compose your self to a Exercise of patience noble exercise of patience which is to tolerate the defects and imperfections of your like beholding them not on the side where they do you wrong but on that where they have connexion with God and upon every offence you receive say This man is troublesome but he is the image of God He is violent but it is he must crown my patience He is vicious but he is my flesh and bloud Let us hate his vice but love the man although he deserve it not Let us love him in the heart of God since we cannot love him out of his own merit S. John kissed the hand of an Apostate and a Thief covered all over with bloud to oblige him by whom he was traiteroufly disobliged and I cannot shew the least token of amity towards one who hath spoken one cold word to me S. Katharine sucked away the matter and filth of the ulcer of an infamous slanderer who had detracted her with all manner of virulence after infinite many benefits and I cannot endure so much as to see one who hath displeased me as if Haec est porta per quam quis ingreditur in Sanctum sanctorum inaccessae pulchritudinis spectator dignus constituitur S. Max.
de concent l. 38. I were created to live free from all worldly contrarieties I who commit so many fins on the other part will to day do an act of virtue in honour of my Master and in despite of passion Let us go to heaven by love since we cannot go thither by sufferings This is the true gate by which we enter into the sanctuary eternally to enjoy the sight of the inaccessible beauties of the holy and regall Trinity Hear you not the God of peace who saith to us If thou O unhappy soul wilt still persist in Hatred I pronounce unto thee the six punishments of Cain Banishment from the sight of God fear stupidity of mind the life of a beast the malediction of the earth and as Procopius addeth persecuting Angels armed with swords of fire who shall pursue thee like spectres and spirits in all places and shall make themselves visible and dreadfull to thee at the last day of thy life Behold here deservedly thy inheritance since being mortall thou makest thy enemies immortall and dost still persecute the afflicted widow and her children who are become orphans after the death of a husband and a father whom thou hatest The strongest enmities oft-times are appeased at the sight of a dead body and a tomb which we find exemplified in Josephus for Alexander was extremely hated by the Jews as having reigned over them with a rod of Iron But when death had closed up his eyes and that the Queen his wife most sorrowfully presented Joseph l. 3. c. 23. A notable example to appease hatred her self accompanied by two young children and exposed the body of her husband saying aloud Sirs I am not ignorant that my husband hath most unworthily used you but see to what death hath brought him if you be not satisfied tear his body in pieces and satisfie your own revenge but pardon a deplorable widow and her little innocent orphans who implore your mercy The most salvage spirits were so softned by this act that all their hatred turned into pity yet you Barbarian still persist to hate a man after his death to persecute him in a part of himself to tear him in pieces in his living members O good God if you renounce not this revenge you will be used like Cain as an enemy of mankind and a hang-man of Nature O flame O love O God! As thou art dispersed throughout us by love so banish all these cursed Hatreds of Hell and make us love all in thy goodnesse to possesse all in thy fruition § 6 Of the profit may be drawn from Hatred and the course we must hold to be freed from the Danger of being Hated THere now remains to consider here what profit may be derived from hatred and with what Oeconomy Utility of hatred it may be husbanded to render it in some sort profitable and in case it be hurtfull to prevent its assaults and sweeten its acerbities If the industry of men found out the way to make preservitives out of the most dangerous poysons why should it be impossible for us to make some notable utilities to arise out of a passion which seems not to be created but for the dammage and ruine of all things yet it is certain that Nature which never is idle in its productions hath given it us for a great good For it may serve love well rectified in its pretentions it furnisheth it with centinels and light-horse to hinder that which opposeth its inclination and to ruine all contrarieties banded against its contentments How often would Nature throw it self out of stupidity into uncertain dangers and most certain mischiefs were it not that naturall a version did awaken it did avert it from its misery and insensibly shew it the place of repose Is it not a wholesome Hatred to hate Pride Ryot Ambition and all ill Habits Is it not a reasonable Hatred discreetly to fly from maladies crosses incommodities which hurt the body and nothing advantage the mind This passion which in the beginning seemed so hideous teacheth us all this When it is well managed it conspireth against others by an according Discord to the lovely Harmony of totall Nature One may say there is happinesse and advantage to hate many things but what profit can one find in passive Hatred which makes a man many times to be hated and ill wished without cause or any demerit To that I answer with Saint Ambrose that it is That it is good to be honestly loved good to avoid such a kind of Hatred that it is fit to make ones self to be beloved with all honour by good men and to gain as much as possible the good opinion of all the world thereby to render glory to God as Rivers carry their tribute to the Ocean A publick Bonum est testimonium habere de multorum dilectione hinc nascitur fides ut committere se tuo affectul non vereatut alienus quem charum advertit pluribus Ambr. l. 2. offic c. 7. Means to gain the good will of the publick person who is in the employments and commerce of the great world may have all the treasures of the Indies and all the dignities of old Rome but if he have not the love and good-will of men I account him most indigent and poor Thence it is that confidence taketh beginning without which there is no fortune maketh any notable progression nor affair which can have such successe as might be expected It is infinitely profitable for great men that they may divert the Hatred of the people to have innocency of life greatnesse without contempt of inferiours revenues without injustice riches without avarice pleasures without ryot liberty without tyranny and splendour without rapine All the rich who live in the society of men as Pikes called the tyrants of rivers in the company of other fishes to ruine devour and fatten themselves with the bloud of the commons are ordinarily most odious but as there is a certain fish which Elians History calleth the Adonis of the Sea because Adonis an admirable fish Aelian l. 9. c. 16. de animal it liveth so innocently that it toucheth no living thing strictly preserving peace with all the off-spring of the sea which is the cause it is beloved and courted as the true darling of waters so we find in the world men of honour and estate who came to eminent fortunes by pure and innocent wayes wherein they demeaned themselves with much maturity sweetnesse and affability which put them into the possession of the good opinion of all the world But those who are hated ought diligently and carefully to consider from whence this hatred proceedeth and by what wayes it is fomented that fit remedies may thereunto be applyed There is a hatred which cometh from equals another How hatred is to be diverted from inferiours a third from great ones and sometimes from powerfull and subtile women which is little to be feared That which proceedeth
notwithstanding it is not enough to will good unlesse one therein observe circumstances and measures requisite for its accomplishment One of the best rules for the passion of which we treat is to adapt To adapt our selves to our hope ones self to his hopes to see what comports with his birth his breeding his capacity his genius his knowledge his power his credit and his pains and not rashly to be stirred up with the desire of things above his strength unlesse he will disturb his life and hasten his death The world is a great Sepulchre of so many little Phaetons who will guide the sun and hours although Spes impii tanquam lanugo est quae à ven to tollitur tanquam spuma gracâ—lis quae à procella dispergitur tanquam fumus qui à vento diffusus est tanquam memoria hospitis uniâ—s dici praetereuâ—tis Sap. 5. 15. their life be but a continuall deviation they have no other honour but to be fallen from on high and to have used more temerity in affairs then ability such hopes also are very well compared by the Wiseman To those little downs of flowers scattered in the air to the froth which floateth on the water and is instantly dissipated by a tempest to smoke which vanisheth under the blast of winds and to the memory of a traveller who passeth by an Inne By the sight of a bird we judge of her flight by the genius of men we make conjectures of their fortunes needs must there be much extravagancy when a man in all kinds little proposeth to himself nothing but great things I well know the divine Providence the worker of wonders delighteth sometimes to strike a stroke with its own hand drawing out men of most base extraction to bear them to the highest tops of worldly greatnesse It is that which forged a Diademe for â—ulgotius l. 3. c. 4. Pupienus upon the same anvil whereof his father hammered Iron That which changed Martianus his spade into a Sceptre That which taught Valentinian Idem l. 6. c. 10. to make crowns by twisting ropes That which shewed Justine in a Carpenters-shop how to build a Throne for himself That which drew Petrus Damianus from the midst of sheep to be made a Cardinall and Gregory the seventh out of a Joyners house to give him a Popes Mytre But one Swallow makes not a summer nor one accident from an extraordinary hand which happeneth scarcely in an age makes not all fortunes S. John saith that the measure of an Angel is the measure of a man but this is not but in the celestiall city of Hierusalem where we shall be as the Angel Apoc. 21. 1â— of God Here our thoughts are high our aims great but the limit of our power little He who doth well understand what he can wills but what is reasonable and shall find that the modesty of wishes makes life more commodious and happinesse more undoubted To this first rule of the moderation of hopes we To ground them well must add a second which is to give them good foundations to the end we be not constrained to see the indiscretion of our desires punished by the small successe of our pretentions There are some who infinitely confide in the words of Astrologers and to speak plainly it is a prodigious thing to hear the predictions they make upon the life and fortunes of men which cause amazement among the wise and love in the curious as at the time when they answered to the Edict of the Emperour Vitellius who commanded them to leave the city that they would obey on such condition that Theodorus Merechista hist Rom. fol. 86. he instantly should leave life which so fell out Yet we must say that although God should write down in the book of stars the successes of our life which cannot be easily agreed unto yet ever would they be extremely encumbred nor ever happen out of a fatall necessity That is the cause why for some presages which hit right there are many other notably false which makes it sufficiently appear that God hath reserved to himself the full knowledge of what shall befall us Among other qualities which the holy Canticle gives him it forgeteth Coma ejus nigra quafi Corvus Cant. 5. 11. not to say He had hair as black as the feather of a Crow Where you shall observe rhe hairs mystically signifie the Thoughts and when the Scripture termeth them black it will declare the obscurity and depth of Gods councels over the wisdome of men Tertullian Tertul. Homo divini cura ingenii Deus in omnia sufficit nec potest esse suae perspicaciae praevaricator said man was the care of the understanding of God who provideth for all and who cannot be a prevaricatour of his own providence Can we think men are permitted to enter into those great abysses of knowledg and to take the rains of nature into their hands think we that a man who doth not alwayes very plainly see what lies before his feet can assuredly behold that which is infinitely exalted above his head Where have not Astrologers sowed lyes where is it that great ones who hearkened unto them as to their Gospel were not filled with disastrous successes By their saying all which is born Gen. 38. 27. at Rome comes into the world like unto little Zara already marked with red There are some who consume themselves with anxieties and cares of their life-time to verifie the words of an Astrologer and who instead of scarlet find perhaps in the other world a Powerfull friends may serve for a support for Hope Fatis accede Diisque cole foelices Lucan Maledictus homo qui ponit carnem brachium suum Jer. 17. 3. Robe of flames It is a wretched support to tye ones hopes to so great an uncertainty I find the favour of great and powerfull friends is much more certain for God establisheth them on earth as his images to be the treasurers of felicity and distributers of good hap When they be just upright and gratefull men of merit have some cause to hope of their good affections and an Antient said that we must approach near to the Destinies and the Gods and honour the happy But how many are there who adhering too much unto men make to themselves an arm of flesh without bones and a fortune as frail as Reeds Others make themselves brave fellow with their sword and expect all from their valour Others from their wit and eloquence Others from their gold Others from dexterity in businesses All this may do well when a great integrity of long services puts these good qualities into action but if it happen you have some ray of hope grounded upon some good title do as Job and keep it hidden as long as is To hope without vanity fit in your bosome for fear that discovering it you lose the pretended effects thereof There are who tell all
the river of Silias wherein all sinks to the bottome and nothing floateth all passeth with them into the bottom of the soul nought stayes in the superficies which is the cause that the heart replenished with cares and apprehensions dischargeth it self what it may by the tongue Besides the materiall cause of Despair which is observed in Melancholy we find others efficient which ordinarily fasten upon great strong passions of Love of Ambition and of Avarice All histories are full of miserable people who having settled their affections upon objects whence they could not with reason expect any satisfaction after an infinite number of languors toils and pursuits have buried their love in Despair and drowned their ardour in the blood of their wounds Some have hanged themselves at the gate of their Mistresses others have thrown themselves headlong down into ruines others have been exposed to salvage beasts rather chusing to suffer the fury of tygers and lions then the rage of Love without fruition The Poet Virgil did her wrong to put Dido Queen Dido profâ—â—â— in alieno â—â—lo â—bi nuâ—â—ias regis 〈◊〉 optasâ—â— lebueratne tamen secundas experiretur maluitè contrario uri quà m nubere Tertul. in exhort ad castitatem of Carthage into the number of the Unhappy saying she sacrificed her self to the sword and flames out of a Despair conceived to see her self deprived of her Trojan Tertullian justified the Ashes of his Countrey-woman assuring us she was one of the most chaste Ladies in the world and did more in the matter of Chastity then S. Paul prescribeth For the Apostle having said That it is better to marry then to burn she rather chose to burn then to marry making her own funerall alive and rather entring upon the flaming pyle then to comply with the passion of a King who sought her in marriage after the death of her husband whom she had singularly loved The passion of Ambition is no lesse violent in proud and arrogant spirits who having been long born as on the wings of glory and seeing themselves on a sudden so unfortunate as to be trampled under foot by those who adored them cannot digest the change of their fortune anticipating that by violence which they ought rather to expect from mercy Such was Achitophel accounted to be one of the greatest States-men of 1 Reg. 17. 23 his time whose counsels were esteemed as of a Deitie when seeing himself faln from the great authority he had acquired after he had set the affairs of his house in order he took a halter with which he hanged himself And it is thought Pilate followed the like course Tantis irrogante Caio angâ—â—ibus coarctatus est ut se suâ transverberans manu malorum compendium mortis celeritate quaesierit Paul Oros l. 7. c. 4. when he saw himself to be discountenanced after the death of his master Tiberius and banished by Caius Caligula the successour to the Empire This calamity seemed unto him so intolerable that he sought to shorten his miseries by hastening his death which he gave himself by his own hand Yet Eusebius who seems to be the chief authour of this narration and who is followed by Paulus Orosius and others doth not assure it as a thing undoubtedly true but as a popular rumour For my part I think it not amisse to believe Pilatus jam tunc pro sua conscientia Christian Tertul. in Apoleg Tertullian who conceiveth that after the death of our Saviour Pilate was a Christian in his conscience when he in writing expressed to the Emperour Tiberius the things which occurred in the person of our Saviour with so much honour for our Religion that from that time the Emperour resolved to put Jesus Christ into the number of the Gods But if the opinion of this Author Yes that it might very well as many examples testifie were true It could not be credible that a man who had a tincture of Christianity should have ended his life by so furious a Despair Avarice in this point will nothing at all give place to Ambition for there are many to be found who seeing themselves unexpectedly deprived of treasures which they kept as the Griphons of Scythia would no longer behold the Sun after the Sun had seen the Gold which they hid in the bowels of the earth Witnesse that covetous man of the Greek Anthology who strangled himself with the same halter wherewith another man had determined to hang himself who by chance having found this caitiffs treasure was diverted from it This may very well teach us that it is very dangerous passionately to affect the objects of the world because as saith S. Gregory one cannot without immeasurable grief lose all that which with unlimitted love is possessed The evil spirit who soundeth each ones inclinations and discovereth their dispositions powerfully intermedleth in them and layeth snares for men in all the things wherein he observeth them to be with the most fervour busied To these occasions of Despair fear of pain and shame is added which is very ordinary and is the cause that many hasten their end before they fall into the hands of their enemies or are laid hold on by Justice which is as much as if one should die not to dye This was very common among Pagans who esteemed that a glory which we hold the worst of crimes and the like opinion crept very farre into the minds of the Hebrews who thought themselves to be sacred persons and imagined they did an act generous and profitable to the glory of God to kill themselves before the hands of Infidels were bathed in their bloud This is the cause if we believe the ordinary Glosse of the first Book of Kings and Glossa in 1 Reg. 31. Dicunt Hebraei aliqui etiam Christiani quod interficere seipsum inâ—uitu Divini honoris nè vituperium exerceatur in proprio corpore redundans in Dei vituperium sicut timebar Saul non esse illicitum the antient Interpreters of this Nation that we cannot conclude the damnation of Saul by an infallible demonstration for having strucken himself seeing that according to their opinion he was not sufficiently illuminated by the lights of the antient Law that it was a Mortall sin to hasten his death to save the honour of his Religion and to deliver himself from the scorn of Infidels Nay they assure us that he in this occasion ordered himself as a treasure of God refusing to deliver up unto enemies a Head honoured with sacred Unction to be alive defiled by their profane hands They add that he had before him the example of Samson who was admired by all his own Nation for being over-whelmed with the Philistims under the ruines of a house And that after him Razias esteemed a Saint Macch. 1. 12 and a courageous man gave himself the stroke of death and threw his bowels all bloudy from the top of a turret on the heads of his enemies But
considerable is self-love which is ever bent upon the preservation of it self and the exclusion of all things offensive from whence it cometh that all the greatest lovers of themselves are the most fearfull and the most reserved in the least occasions of perill as are ordinarily persons rich full of ease and nice who resemble the fish that hath gold on his scales and is Aelian l. 12. de animal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most timorous creature of the sea The second wherein many particular causes meet is the evil to come namely when it is great near inevitable and that it tends to the privation of our being From thence arise a thousand spectres of terrour as are poverty outrages maladies thunder fire sword inundations violent deaths wild beasts and above all men powerfull cruell revengefull wicked especially when they are offended or that they have some interest in our ruine and that they can freely be revenged without any fear of laws or punishment Adde to these the envious corrivalls greedy heirs friends treacherous provoked or timorous mutinous quarrelsome violent and greedy The third motive of fear is the ignorance and little experience we have in the evils of the world for all that which is covert and hidden from us seems the more terrible as are solitudes abysses darknesses and persons disguised From thence cometh that women children and men bred in a soft and sedentary life are more timorous sith the knowledge of dangers whereof they are deprived is a great Mistresse of Fortitude The fourth source is coldnesse and consideration which is the cause that the wisest justly fear perils where hair-brain'd young-men fools and drunkards carelesly jeast and make sport and that was the cause why Sylla finding himself many times too considerate in the forefight of evils did endeavour to drown his apprehensions in wine The fifth is observed in a nature cold melancholick imaginative and distrustfull which sometimes happeneth to Hypocondriacks such as was that of the antient Artemon who caused a buckler continually to be carried over his head by two Lackeys fearing lest something falling from on high might hurt him or that of Pisander who feared to meet his own soul or that other frantick fellow who durst not walk for fear of breaking the world which he perswaded himself was wholly made of glasse The sixth lastly comes from an ill conscience For there Semper enim praesumit saeva perturbata conscientia Sap. 17. 11. Plutarch de sera numinis vindicta is not any thing so turmoiled so torn and so divided as a soul which hath alwayes before it the image of its own crimes This was it which made the Nero's and Domitians to tremble This which caused Apollodorus of whom Plutarch speaketh to have horrible visions so that it many times seemed to him in his nightly sleeps that the Scythians flaied him alive threw his chop'd members one after another into a boiling caldron and that he had nothing alive but his heart which said to him in the bottome of this caldron I am thy wicked heart It is I who am the source of all thy Disastres §. 2. Of the vexations of Fear its Differencies and Remedies WE may well say this passion is one of the most Fear a troublesome passion troublesome and vexing among all the motions of our mind because it is extremely ranging sith not content with the evils which are on the sea and land yea in Hell it forgeth new which have no subsistence but in the perplexity of an imagination quite confounded Besides this it more spiritually tormenteth us making our Judgement and Reason to contribute to our vexations and many times so long turmoileth us that it maketh us to fear half an age of time that which The ignorance of our evils is a stratagem of the divine Providence passeth in a moment For which cause I account it a loving clemency of God to hide from us the greatest part of the things which befall us the knowledge whereof would continually over-whelm our wretched life with sadnesse and affrightment and not give us leave nor leisure to breathe among the delicious objects of Nature If so many great and eminent personages who being mounted to the highest degrees of honour have been thrown down into abysses had continually beheld the change of their fortune and the bloudy ends of their life it is not credible but that the joyes of their triumphs would have been moistned with their tears and by a perpetuall fear of an inevitable necessity they would have lost all the moments of their felicity Now in some sort to remedy a plague so generall Three sorâ—â— of fear I find the troubles which come to us this way either are naturall timidities or fears of things very frequent in the condition of humane life or are affrightments upon some terrible and unusuall objects Forasmuch as concerneth timidities which we see in fearfull natures Timidity its causes and symptomes they proceed either from the disposition of body and melancholick humour or from the quantity of heart which is sometimes too great and hath little heat or from idlenesse and effeminacy of life or from a base birth and from a sedentary breeding or from small experience or from overmuch love of reputation and ease both of mind and body Some are timorous in conversation and fear to approach men of quality they dread the aspect of those whom they have not accustomed to see they quickly change colour they have no consequence in their speech no behaviour no discourse their words are broken the tone of their voyce is trembling and their countenance nothing confident which very often happeneth to young men timorously bred and little experienced Others fear all occasions of Ceremonies of pomp and splendour to see and to be seen and would willingly borrow the veil of night to cover themselves from them Others are very bad sollicitours of businesses daring not to say nor contradict any thing and if they must needs ask a question they do it so fearfully that in asking they shew how they should be denied There are who more fear to speak in publick then one would a battel which hath happened to many great wits as to Demosthenes Theophrastus and Cicero who protesteth Fearfull Oratours that being already of good years he still became pale and trembled in the beginning of his discourse which in my opinion proceeded from an excessive love of honour which these men seemed to hazard when they made Orations before Princes the Senate and people A block-head exposeth himself with much more confidence because he hath nothing to lose and is like a Pilot who steereth a ship fraught with hay But these were masters who guided vessels furnished with pearls such credit and authority they had purchased Aeschines Aelian l. 8. variae Hist a man well behaved a great talker and a huge flatterer triumphantly spake before King Philip and the Macedonians where poor
be for our advantage There are who escape out of prison by fire others who are faln into precipices very gently and have in the bottome found their liberty others to whom poysons are turned into nutriment others to whom blows of a sword have broken impostumes so true it is that the seeds of good hap are sometimes hidden under the apparances of ill Besides this give your self the leisure to find out the To take things at the worst whole latitude of the evill which strikes you Take if you think good all things at the worst and handle your self as an enemy yet you shall find that this evil is not so bad as it is said that many have gone that way before you and that if God permit it he will give you strength to bear it The fear it self which is the worst of our evils is not so great a torment since it affordeth us precaution industry and fit means and suggesteth us wayes to fear no more If you never have experienced evil you have much to complain that you so little have been a man and if you have some experience of the time past it will much serve you to sweeten the apprehension of the evils to come Vanquish your own conceits as much as you can and pray them not to present unto you under so hideous a mask those pains which women and children have many times laughed at If you in the beginning feel any horrour and the first rebellions of nature lose not courage for Fiducia pallens Statius Theb. Rodericus Toletanus rerum Hisp l. 5. c. 23. all that since the Poet painted Boldnesse with a pale visage We have often seen great Captains as Garcias to quake in the beginning of dangerous battels because their flesh as they said laid hold of their courage and carried the imagination into the most hideous perils Lastly be it how it will be you shall find the remedy of your fears in the presence of that which you fear since there are some who in the irresolution of some affair do endure a thousand evils and so soon as the determination thereof succeedeth though to their prejudice they fell themselves much more lightned Many prisoners who stand on thorns in prison expecting the issue of their triall go very resolute to execution seeing it is better to die once then to live still in the apprehension of death David shook with fear Reg 2. 12. wept and fasted lay on the ground for the sicknesse of his young son But after the death was denounced him he rose up from the earth changed his habit washed and perfumed himself then having worshipped in the house of God he asked for his dinner and first of all comforted Bathsheba upon this accident whereat his houshold-servants were amazed But he taught them we must not afflict our selves for those things whereof there is no remedy I conclude with the last kind of fear which comes from things very extraordinary as are Comets Armies of fire Prodigies in the Heavens and the Air Thunders Lightnings Monsters Inundations Fires Earthquakes Spirits Spectres Devils and Hell Good God! what terrour is there in this miserable life since besides these which are so ordinary with us we must expect other from places so high and so low But howsoever we notwithstanding do find courages which surmount them with the assistance of God although it do not ordinarily happen without some impressions of fear otherwise we must be far engaged in stupidity Comets Eclipses flying fires and so many other Meteors do not now-a-dayes so much affright since we have discovered the causes which is a powerfull proof that ignorance in many occasions makes up a great part of our torments Pericles strook Stratagem of Pericles Polyaenus l. 3. a fire-steel in an assembly of his Captains and Souldiers who were astonished at a thunder and lightning happened in the instant of a battel shewing that what the heavens did was that he was doing before their eyes which marvellously satisfied them Superstition makes a thousand fantasies to be feared whereat we might laugh with a little wisdome The Euseb l. 1. de praeparat Evang. c. 7. Egyptians were half dead when the figure of a huge dragon which sometimes of the year was shewed them did not seem to look well on them and the Romans fell in their Courage when the Cocks which governed their battels did not feed to their liking Hecataeus Hecataeus apud Cunaeum l. 2. de Rep. Hebraeorum an antient Historian telleth that Alexanders whole army stood still to look on a bird from whence the Augur went about to derive some presage which being seen by a Jew named Mosellan he drew an arrow out of his quiver and kill'd it mocking at the Grecians who expected their destiny from a creature which so little knew its own As we laugh at this present at these fopperies so we should entertain with scorn so many dreams and superstitious observations which trouble them enough who make account of them Wild beasts inundation of rivers productions of mountains big with flames sulphur and stonas are other causes of terrour nor hath there ever been seen any more hideous then that which happened these late years in Italy in the last fiering of Mount Vesuvius The burning of Vesuvius in the year 1631. Julius Recupitus which is excellently described by F. Julius Recupitus Then it there can be nothing seen more able to excite terrour unlesse in an instant the bottome of Hell were laid open and all the hideous aspects of the torments of the damned Yet it is a strange thing how among waves of fire which ran on all sides clouds of Ashes which appeared like vast mountains continuall Earthquakes countrebuffs of Hillocks and of houses of Abysses of Gulphs and of Chaoses there were people to be found who yet thought upon their purses and took the way towards their houses to lay hold of their slender substances which makes us see that there is nothing so horrid where the soul of man returned to it self findeth not some leisure to breathe The monsters of the Roman Amphitheatre which in the beginning made the most hardy to quake were in the end despised by women who were hired to combat with them Things not seen which it seems should most trouble the mind because they are most hidden are also in some sort surmounted since we read how that many great Anchorets lay in Church-yards infested with ghosts and spectres and about solitudes in forrests and wildernesses the most retired in the midst of so many illusions of evill spirits as it is written in the Acts of Saint Anthony S. Hilarion and S. Macarius There is nothing but the day of Judgement Hell and the punishments of the damned we should reasonably fear and not out of visionary scruples to free us from all fear § 4. That the Contemplation of the power and Bounty of God ought to take away all our fears BUt if these reason
had some particular favours from heaven to authorize their actions and to make men believe they had somewhat above man So Moses Joshuah Deborah Gedeon Samson David Solomon and so many others sent by God for the government of his people came with certain characters of his Divinity which gave them an admirable confidence and framed in their souls notable perswasions of their own abilities And it is a thing very remarkable that such as were not in the way of true Religion and who consequently could not have those assistances and singular protections from heaven sought at the least to fortifie themselves with some semblances All which filled Alexander with Boldnesse was that they had perswaded him he was of Divine extraction and that this belief had seized on the souls of the credulous people which was the cause that he was looked on as a man wholly celestiall destinated to the Empire of the world It is thought that Pyrrhus A notable observation of Pyrrhus who imitated him shewed his teeth in great secret to his friends on the upper row whereof the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was engraven and on the lower 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as to say He was a King as generous as a lion but that which most made this Elogy good was that these letters were thought to be formed by a Divine hand to give a testimony from heaven of the greatnesse of this Monarch And this being spread among the people it made them to expect prodigious things from him Augustus Cesar who changed the face of the Common-wealth into Empire mounted on the Throne of the Universe by the same means For it is said Adolphus Occo that his father Octavius whilst he sacrificed in a wood having shed a little wine on the Altar there came a flame from it which flew up to heaven whereon the Augur foretold him he should have a son who should Suetonius 9 be Emperour of the world It is added that this Prince being yet very young in his child-hood played Presages of the generosity of Cesar with Eagles and made frogs to cease their croaking by a silly command and that as he entred into Rome after the death of Julius Cesar the Sunne was Dio Ziphilinus in Augusto encompassed with a Rainbowe as a presage of the great Peace he should produce in the Roman Empire Vespatian had never dared to aspire to the Empire Cornel. Tac. histor l. 2. without the favour of presages and namely of that which happened to him on Mount Carmel when sacrificing in the same place and being in a great perplexity of mind what resolution he should make in this affair the Priest bad him to be of good courage and the secret hopes of his heart should have very good successe The world hath not been content to afford Elogies of the City of Rome these favours to men alone but it hath also given it to famous places Rome for good lucks sake was termed among other titles Valence by the name of Valour Solinus l. 1. Gergyrhius and Cephale as much as to say Head to shew it Ammianus l. 15. c. 6. should be the Head of the world Presently also it was flattered with the opinion of its Eternity so that many termed it the Eternall City which was the cause that the Romans in their greatest desolations would never forsake the place It appears out of all this that men having not the power to be ignorant of their own weaknesses never think themselves strong enough if they have not some I know not what of Divinity wherefore we must conclude that the true means to have a generous and solid boldnesse is to be well with God and to tie ones The most bold are such as have a clear conscience self to this most pure spirit by purity of heart for if a little opinion of Divine favour so much encouraged Kings and People what will not the testimony of a good Conscience do The Egyptians amidst so many plagues from heaven Sap. 17. Ipsi ergò sibi tenebris graviores eraut and that dreadfull night which took away their first-born children were dejected and couched low on the earth without any spark of courage because their evill Conscience was more weighty upon them then all their miseries as the Book of Wisdome observeth What assurance can one have in perils when after Carnifiâ—c occulto in authorem sceleris tormenta deserviunt Peleg ad Demetr S. Basil in Isa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath committed some crime he feeleth a little Executioner in his heart with pincers and hooks of iron Contrariwise a good Conscience is well compared by S. Basil to that little Kell which environeth the heart and which continually refresheth it with its wholesome waters to signifie unto us that the heart of a good man abides in perpetuall solace which among dangers preserveth it from disturbances I ask you with what assurance stood the good Malchus Hieron in Malcho with his holy wife at the entrance of the lions den when of one side the glittering sword was presented them and on the other they heard those savage beasts to roar and they notwithstanding remained immoveable With what arms but with those which S. Hierome gives them when he saith They were encompassed as Pudicitiae conscientiâ quasi muro septi with a strong wall which they found in the testimony of their innocency whereof they were most certain With what confidence went S. Macarius to lie in the sepulchres of Pagans and wholly fearlesse himself to strike terrour into the spirits of the damned was it not the assurance of his holy life which furnished his heart with all this resolution And shall we then doubt but that the true means to be replenished with a holy Courage is to set the Conscience in good order and to make entire Confession of sinnes to preserve ones self afterward in all possible purity from our infirmities § 5. That Jesus hath given us many Pledges of a sublime Confidence to strengthen our Courage LEt us next contemplate our second Model and consider a thing very remarkable which is that Jesus Christ acquired us Boldnesse by his 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ who putteth us into a holy dread by the consideration of his greatnesse hath acquired us boldnesse by his proper fear These are the words of great S. Leo I have borrowed fear from thee and I S. Leo hom de Pass have furnished thee with my confidence He expresly would admit the agony of Mount Olivet in his sacred Humanity to encourage our pusillanimity that we in mildnesse being Lambs might become Lions by courage and this is the course he hath observed in all his actions in this great contexture of pains and dolours of Christus venit suscipere infirmitates nostras suas nobis conferre virtutes humana quaerere praestare divina accipere injâ—â—ias reddere dignitates quia medicus qui
would be pleased to divert such a thought from thee lest thou become culpable of the anger of God which will fall on the whole Army if thou goest to this stranger It importeth not I will go Son if thou resolvest to sin then stay till night make a veil of darknesse further to cover thy wickednesse from the eyes of the world for fear lest thy example may serve for a rock of scandall to those who are yet novices in virtue Yet thou perversly sayest I will go in full day light I will enjoy my pleasures and who art thou that givest me a law Go Zimri Go impudent man thou in thy calamitie shalt know the salarie of thy sin You know the rest of the History he goes thither he accosteth the Madianite in sight of all the world At which time God raiseth a young Prince as courageous as a Lion grand-child of Aaron who followeth him armed with zeal and sword crying out aloud Ah Traytor Ah infamous man He finds him out in the throne of Lust in the bed of iniquitie in the heat of Crime and with his sword transfixeth him and the Madianite making the abominable Bed and their unchaste loves to float all in bloud O bloud horribly but justly shed which still cryeth out with a voyce of bloud and saith to all posteritie Men women children great little poor rich flie from Impudency flie from Impudency as the last of vices otherwise know there is a revenging sword and a Judgement of God inevitable to all the Shamelessnesse of Sinners The twelfth Treatise Of ANGER § 1. The origine of Anger its Nature Causes and Diversities FIre which is a Mean between Spirits and Bodies doth work very diversly according The marveilous effects of fire to the matter and disposition it meets withall In the heavens it enkindleth the stars with flames the most pure in totall Nature it diversifieth clouds with Gold and Rubies it maketh Bowes and Coronets in the air it enterteineth a heat of life in the bodie of living Creatures which being maintained in a good temperature cause all the harmonies of health but when it mounteth up into a tempestuous cloud when it boyleth in Fornaces and creeps into Canons which are as mouths of fire to pronounce war it maketh so strange devastations that it vanquisheth the most valiant beats down the most boysterous mollifieth the hardest and terrifieth the most daring In the same manner we may say heat which in our bodies is an admirable work-Mistresse multiplyeth its effects according to the diversitie of the stuffs and occasions it lights on it conspireth with our spirits to serve as an instrument for the soul in its great operations it exciteth the honourable flames of chaste loves it disposeth courage to generous resolutions it polisheth the mind to embrace worthy purposes It secondeth the Imagination in its apprehensions It makes it self the steward of the vegetatiue faculties for the generation and production of men But if it once meet with burnt blood and fuming Choler which is as it were in the hands of the imagination when it is touched with some displeasure it insinuateth it self thereinto as into a cloud swoln with storms and tempests which throws forth fires roareth with thunders shooteth with inflamed darts and practiseth nought but ruine This is it we call Anger which is properly an ardent What Anger is appetite of reuenge caused by an apprehension of contempt and injuries Now this opinion of Contempt springeth in some from disesteem or for that they are forgotten and neglected by those of whom they think they ought to be respected In others from being crossed in what they desire most as in their profession their ambition and especially their affections In others from being depressed in that wherin they imagine they excell and principally before such by whom they perswade themselves they are beloved and honoured In others from being derided for defects of nature aswel of body as of mind and extraction also In others from being injuriously disgraced and insolently outraged by base and abject people and such as they have obliged As the opinion of injury increaseth and as it meeteth with a nature disposed and matter prepared this ardour is inflamed and if it be accompanied with a great power it teareth down smoaking cities it desolateth Provinces it swims in massacres it raiseth scaffolds all sprinkled over with bloud and hung with black whereon it acteth horrible Tragedies The other passions are augmented by degrees but Dum incipit tota est Sen. de Ira. How Anger is formed this ariseth fully formed and appears perfect so soon as it beginneth The opinion of contempt no sooner entreth in by the eyes and eares but it striketh the imagination which promptly communicateth its influence to the irascible appetite and then as if fire were given to a Canon it becomes Thunder and Tempest which disfigureth the bravest bodies turmoileth the bloud and spirits and bendeth all the veins to vengeance You would say the heart is not at that time any other then Vulcans Forge where the thoughts like so many Cyclopes labour to make Hail-showrs Lightenings and Tempests It is not known in this countrey what kind of language Reason speaketh It is no better heard then words among the Catadupes of Nilus strength hath a hand lifted up to employ the sword and a thousand instruments of iniquity to commit outrages This passion resembleth the furious Martichora renowned among Indian wild beasts who teareth his members asunder to make of them the arrows of his vengeance It hath nothing so resolved on as to destroy all and to raise unto it self a Tombe in its own ruines Yet we cannot but say that there are Divers qualities of anger three very different sorts of Anger according to the offences and persons who either raise it or suffer it In some it is cold in apparence and more inward but these oftentimes have the aspect of Virgins who in conclusion throw forth the fire of dragons In others it is fervent and headlong In others haughty and scornfull In others dumb and malicious In others obstreperous and stormy In some it is frequent and sudden in others sticking and obstinate There are some who being offended for frivolous things cease not to persevere therein for fear some may think they began without reason in which the lesse the cause is the more passionate they become Others blame their greatest friends for having done them lesse good then they expected In some Anger is but yet in bloom in others it taketh great and deep root Some satisfie themselves with clamour and injuries others therein employ the hand others wood and Iron others would have lightening in their power for some time of purpose to prosecute their revenge with all advantage Lastly this passion thrusts forth Vir iracundus effodit peccata Caffiao de spirits irae c. 1. all that is hidden in the heart Which made Cassian according to the Septuagint to write that
exercised with outrages and violence upon the renown estate body and soul of a neighbour who crieth out for vengeance before God and above all it is much to be feared when great passion is linked to great power where fortune permits all which vengeance desireth For fire water and greatnesse never overflow without bearing down the common shore Secondly it so bewitcheth some infatuated spirits of these times that they make tropheys of the greatest reproches which are in nature 〈◊〉 Oosius lib. 2. adversus Pagan c. 16. Expers confilli suror dolorem virtutem putat quantum meditatur ira tantum promittit audacia and to make their torments everlasting they deifie their Crimes That is it which the excellent Authour Paulus Orosius said Fury as it ordinarily walketh without reason will make its dolour to passe for virtue and boldnesse promiseth to accomplish all whatsoever anger suggesteth it §. 3. The Contemplation of the serenity of the divine spirit is the Mistresse of meeknesse LEt us to this disorder oppose the serenity of God which we may contemplate when we are far removed The picture of the Tranquillity of God from the surprisalls of this passion If this place would permit me to delineate the picture of the Tranquillity of God as the sublime Tertullian hath done that of patience I would give it a visage wholly angelicall What is more divine and celesticall then this virtue I would set it in a fortunate Iland all tapistred with verdure and enamelled with flowers where the sun should smile out of all its mansions For what is more delicious I would place it on a Rock such as was that of Egypt which was never touched by profane feet What is more stable and more religious Thereon I would raise a Temple to it such as was that of Adonis in Greece wherein lions were tractable what is more lovely I would give it a sceptre of diamond what is more solid or powerfull over the passions of mans heart I would set upon the head thereof a Crown of starres What is more sublime what more majesticall At its feet I would hang harps and lutes for it is the Mistresse of holy Harmonies About it should be little nightingales Halcyons and holy Fishes which cause a calm every where what is more peacefull A good distance from it should be sea-dogs storms and waves which should roar without troubling its repose since it is immoveable It should have eyes lifted up to heaven and should live by influences flowing to it from the union it hath with God as it is said the bird of Paradise liveth on the thinnest vapours of the air But let us in a word tell you that Tranquillity is the Essence of God himself and that all which is peacefull draweth near towards God I am not ignorant of what the Scripture speaketh in many places of Gods anger and among others David in his Psalms with a certain admiration Who is it knoweth the force of thy anger Quis novit potestatem itae tuae aut prae timore tuo iram tuam dinumeraâ—e Psal 89. God to speak properly hath no anger and can weigh thy indignation in the terrour of thy countenance But this must be understood by an Anthropopathia as Theologians do explicate it which is done when God is represented by sensible figures like unto men For to speak truely God hath no anger nor can any wise have it being incapeable either of the form or matter of it The form is an appetite of revenge and the matter a boyling of bloud as appeareth by that we have said before Now we understand that in God there is neither bloud nor appetite If he in all times hath produced Examples of Justice as he did in the deluge in the burning of Sodome and Gomorrha in the plagues of Egypt in the defeat of Sennacherib It was with the same tranquillity which he had when he made Paradise and the blessed by his aspects God punisheth not the wicked out of anger but the wicked punish themselves by the remorse of their own consciences and if the divine Justice put a hand thereto the world marcheth in battel-array against them and is all on fire under the feet of its judge the Judge being thereby nothing at all enflamed The punishments which fall from heaven come not from a headlong precipitation since they are resolved on from all Eternity It was a judicious invention of the ancient sages to tell us there were three sorts of thunderbolts in Heaven and that the first was onely to advertise without Senec. natur l. 2. c. 41. Three sorts of thunderbolts which figure unto us how God proceedeth in the chastisements of men doing hurt the second did good but not without causing hurt the third ruined and defaced all it met And thereupon to shew us the mildnesse of God they said the Monarch of heaven and earth of his own motion sent the innocent Thunderbolts but if there were cause to throw that which doth but little hurt although it were to derive profit from it he called twelve Gods to counsell but when those great artilleries of heaven were to be shot off which aimed at the ruine of the most guilty it was never done without a generall councel of all the Gods we say more then all this for we affirm that God stayeth not a certain time to resolve on the punishment of men but hath decided it from all eternity and hath ordained Hell for crimes with the same Countenance he decreed Heaven for the blessed All is peacefull and alwayes peacefull in God from whence it cometh that men most like unto him as are good Kings have borrowed the Title of Serenity Can it then well become a Christian who makes profession to render himself like unto his heavenly Father to suffer himself to be transported with the furies of anger which in man extinguish all that is divine and leave nothing humane §. 4. That the example of our Saviour teacheth us the moderation of Anger ONe might perhaps object for excuse that our To know whether our Lord was subject to anger The answer Lord who ought to be the example of all our actions was angry when he with a whip drave buyers and sellers out of the Temple I to this answer with a doctrine of S. Augustine very remarkable which teacheth us that as our Lord took a true body when he was born of the most blessed virgin so he hath shewed himself to have reall passions descending for us into the shadow of our infirmities to make us ascend into the Aug. l. 14. de civitate Deiâ— cap. 9. Neque enim in quo erat verum hominis corpus verus hominis animus falsus erat humanus affectus An amoâ— affectus est hominis sed ipse audiens adolescentem seipsum de observatione mandatorum commendantem intuitus dilexit cum An timor sed ipse in janua passionis constitutus coepit pavere taedere An
they render themselves somewhat burthen some to their inferiours and authorize the saying of that ancient who affirmed an honest man was a great burthen There are Molesta sarcina vir bonus Apud Joan. Euscbium natures like to Caper-shrubs which grow worse by too much manuring and are much better being left to the goodnesse of their own nature § 3. Moderate Saverity is necessary in government but it ought to be free from Cruelty IT must of necessity be acknowledged that they who govern States and Commonwealths stand in need of severity in so great a corruption of mens manners there being almost nothing so pitifull as the goodnesse of a Prince disarmed who serves for a Butt to reproches and a sport for insolency The Senatour Fronton who had experience of many Kingdomes said it was a miserable kind of life to live under an Emperour who permitted nothing but much more wretched likewise was the estate of such as live under a Prince who permitted all as it happened in the time of Nerva who caused those men to fit near him that had conspired against Dion in Nerva him and presented them swords to give the blow and asked them whether they were sharp enough His over-faint goodnesse which could not engage it self to punish any made men almost to desire the rule of the most cruell good men being unable to endure to be equalized with the most dissolute Needs must Justice hold its place to cut off rotten members to represse the insolent and to make honest men live in the sweetnesse of repose But it being very hard to find this divine temperature which is between softnesse and too much severity it is alwayes farre better to lean towards Mildnesse then to incurre the least suspition of Cruelty Cardinall Petrus Damianus seeing himself one day Lib. 1. ep 16 very civilly entreated by the Pope and at the same time menaced by his Archdeacon Hildebrand who was a most severe Cardinall answered according to Plutarchs fable that Heat despoiled more then the North-wind These stormy spirits are not alwayes the most efficacious It is not sparkling flames but invisible heats which melt metals and sweetest influences are those which cause the greatest effects in totall Nature Our Saviour in the Prophet Esay is called a Rod and a Isai 11. flower to correct some and comfort others but never is he termed a sword to kill and destroy Power which is given by God ought to be managed according to his intentions and as we cannot but see on all sides the effects of his bounty so is it not lawfull for a man to defile the Character of the Divinity by rigours insupportable O what a brave thing it is to possesse a great Kingdome in the hearts of men by bounty and munificence to make ones self a Throne of peace to which love raiseth an eternall Basis on which God raineth from above with full hand an infinity of Benedictions A Prince which so liveth findeth Corps du gard in the The beauty and utility of Mildnesse most unfrequented wildernesses assurance in perils protection in battels good hap in affairs successe in his enterprises prosperity in his house veneration abroad admiration among forreign nations When he sleeps a million of eyes wake for him a million of mouths open at altars to carry thanksgivings to God for the favours he receiveth from heaven and were he not in his Throne all his subjects would make steps of their bodies for him to mount up unto it His joyes are pure his pleasures innocent his repasts without fear of poyson his repose dreadlesse his life a miracle and his Memory Horrour of Cruelty a Blessing But what a spectacle is it to see Tyrants close hidden like old Owls in perpetuall nights with a mind befet with horrid fantasies filled with suspicions seized by distrust for whom Thunders seem to roar and for whom Heaven seems to prepare all its Thunderbolts What a horrour is it to see them come in publick clothed with Iron and despoiled of the peoples affections To see them tear their members in the torments of their subjects to suck in bloud to break bones to make terrours to march before them and after them massacres What honour is it for them to be hated like plagues and poysons to make a Hell of their life a Tyranny of their manners and a publick vow of their death Lastly the divine Providence which sharpneth the sword of Justice with the tears of the miserable falls on their heads some have been consumed by strange maladies others have been abandoned to the fury of people massacred by a thousand hands punished with a thousand deaths dragged over lay stalls buried in dunghils even stones and metals have been punished which had no other crime but to be insculped with their features Their life had been a reproch their memory the But of all maledictions All this is not of power to teach us that there is not any thing so soveraign for the government of minds as Mildnesse and Compassion § 8. The goodnesse of God beateth down the rigour of men IF we be not fully convinced of this verity Let us behold our first Modell against the infamy of this unnaturall Remedies passion and let us first see the benignity of our heavenly Father in naturall and civil life thence we will consider the mercy of Jesus in the life of Grace God is soveraignly good as Theology noteth by three sorts of Goodnesses of Nature of Manners and of Bounty His Nature and his Manners make him to appear good in himself His bounty out of himself in so many communications as he imparteth to all Creatures The Platonists said he had the understanding of a father and the heart of a mother to provide for the great family of the world and one of them rapt with the Consideration of his Bounties cried out As for thee O God of stinctity Saviour and conservatour Tu quidem sancte humani generis sospitator perpeâ—â—e semper fovendis mortalibus mirificè dulcem matris affectionem miserorum casibus tribuis nec dies nec quies ulla ac nè quidem momentum tuis transcurrit benesiciis otiosum Apul. 11. Metamor Author Theolog. Aegypti l. 12 cap. 1. of all Man-kind thou hast the heart of a Mother admirably to comfort the calamities of so many miserable mortals and there is not a day a Rest nor a moment which is not replenished with thy benefits You would say he is perpetually bent upon the care of the very least creatures to give them the contentment and satisfaction they can derive from their condition He is in the feathers of the peacock to frame a mirrour unto himself of his train In the throat of Nightingales there to make Musick in the innocent theft of Bees to lade them with booty in the Husbandry of Ants to maintain them in their little Granaries The Authour of the Egyptian Theology saith that the Eternall
retreat Neverthelesse redoubling his importunities he prevailed and so soon as he was separated from his scholar he who before was a dove with wings of silver and who in acts of virtue took a strong and confident flight suffered himself to fall into the mire with a scandal as shamefull as the excesse was violent Lust assaulteth and on all sides besieges him Licencious youth takes possession of his soul and continually blows love and beauty into his ears It many times hapneth that the passions of young men which have been too severely restrained so soon as they have found passage do the more violently overflow as if nature went about to take revenge upon art and precepts They must sometime be shewed the world with contempt they must be enured against its assaults they must be prepared against its deceits that they be not like foolish pigeons which have never seen any thing but suffer themselves to be taken with the first baits S. Arnold who was a man that breathed nothing but wildernesses in my opinion held the spirit of Dagobert in a life too much restrained which in the first approach of liberty flew out into most violent extravagancies He presently took an aversion against Queen Gomatrade his wife and in a liberty of doing all which flatterers told him fell to him as an inheritance he durst to repudiate her and take a young Lady named Ragintrude whom he most affectionately loved Lust is the throat of Hell which never sayes It is enough and when shame hath no bridle to with-hold it it makes no difference between things sacred and profane and the greatest crimes passe with it as matters indifferent This love is not content with common passion he entreth into Cloysters and takes a virgin out of a Monastery who had begun to dedicate her self to God To her he addeth many others and makes a little Seraglio of his palace All France groaned to see so sudden and deplorable a change of life in their King S. Arnold is invited by some good men again to visit his young plant and to take in hand the raines of the Kings direction which he had forsaken but whether he were charmed by the sweetnesse of his solitude or whether he feared he should have no favourable admission after so solemn a leave which he with so much importunity had begged he would not hearken to it rather choosing to send his sighs to the ears of God then the Kings S. Amand determines to undertake the matter which he did with Ecclesiastick vigour and a most undoubted confidence but the sick man was too tender to endure a tongue armed with sword and fire so farre was he from disposing himself to remedies that he could not suffer so much as the presence of his Physician causing him to be sent into another countrey Pepin of Landen who was the prime man in the Court thought fit to instill some good counsel and sage words as occasion offered but the King transported with the exorbitancy of his youth told him he was a troublesome man of whom it were fit to rid the world since he was so hardy as to censure the innocent delights of his Master For which cause this great pillar of state shaken by the storm of a violent passion much tottered and was very near to have been thrown down The Reverence wherewith his virtue was honoured which proceeded almost to veneration saved him to reserve his reasons for a better disposition During this time the Queen dieth and the affections of Dagobert began to slacken either out of satiety or shame This good Councellour layes hold of his opportunity and takes him on the Biasse shewing him his honour and repose joyned with the good of the state required of him a happy posterity and that it was a very easie matter for him since he had honoured Ragintrude with his affections for her exquisite beauty and the excellent gifts wherein she surpassed that he might take her to wife and limit his love within lawfull wedlock which would draw upon him the blessings of heaven and the love of all his people This speech happily entred into the Kings heart and he resolved to follow the Counsel which was presented him by so good a hand He dismisseth all the women which had tyrannized over his affection he marrieth Ragintrude and as if in an instant some charm had been taken away he in himself by the hand of God made such a change that his life was a Rule of virtue and his conversion a miracle The Court which commonly followeth the inclinations of the Prince took with him a quite other face vice and vicious are thence banished and all virtues thither brought chastity as in triumph 16 I verily think it is many times an act as hard Rigordus and heroick to free ones self from a miery bog whereinto one by mischance is fallen as to live perpetually innocent For which cause I much esteem the resolution Great Triumph of Philip Gods-gift over himself of Philip Gods-gift who being in the beginning distasted with Engelbergue his wife after he had repudiated her and taken Mary the daughter of the Duke of Moravia out of a violent affection which long had embroiled him he was suddenly converted and laid hold of the occasion of his salvation The Complaints of the scandall he gave flew to Rome and returned with Censures and Thunders Census and Meilleur two Legates sent by the Holy Sea durst not touch this wound which they judged to be incurable Peter Cardinall of S. Mary absolutely incensed him putting the Kingdome into interdict and the King into despair who vomited nought but choller and flames Two other Legates deputed for a third triall proceeded therein with much sweetnesse which so gained the soul of Philip that he began to submit to reason Yet the charms were so violent that his reason thereby became infirm and his constancy wavering His businesse was lastly decided by a Synod and it was dangerous lest it might stirre up a storm when this Royall heart which was come to plead before the Councel and to dispose of his affections to the heighth of his contentment there wanting not to men of authority who flattered his passion was suddenly touched takes the Queen his wife reconcileth himself to her sets her behind him on his horse carries her to his Palace and caused to be said to the Legates and the other Prelates assembled that they had no more to do to trouble their heads any longer about his businesse for he had happily determined it If Henry the eighth King of England had taken the same course love would have been disarmed innovations hindered concord established and all the disasters banished out of England Lastly to conclude this discourse I verily think never woman better mannaged love then Queen Blanch mother of S. Lewis She was very lovely and among those great lights of perfection which encompassed her on all sides she wanted not beauty which was the
dissolve his busie practise and to reduce misled minds unto reason Notwithstanding this violent Mayor of the palace ceased not openly to declare his design in full Assembly in favour of Thierry using many pretexts and colours which put a quite other face upon a businesse so unreasonable Good men who more feared his bloudy countenance and his irreconcileable enmities then approved his reasons looked one upon another expecting that some generous soul should stand for truth and all of them imagined that having declared themselves with much weaknesse and small effect they might not serve so much for a support to Childeric's cause as for an object of Ebroins revenge Cruelties and Jealousies often ruine many good affairs and they took the way to overthrow this if Leger had not risen up who spake with so much reason grace authority and courage that he alone gave a countrepoise to Ebroins malice and drew all the soundest in the Assembly to his side where Ebroins adherents seeing Truth carried as in Triumph by hands so courageous did disband studying more their own preservation then to serve his ambition Childeric mounts up to the Throne which nature had prepared for him Ebroin who knew the main and manifest contradictions he had framed against his right hath a soul full of affrightments and already accounts himself for a dead mad he searcheth for some sanctuary to hide himself but findeth none more safe then Religion Necessity makes a Monk where piety could never make a Christian He comes and throweth himself at Childeric's feet offers him his head and life with most humble submission by which he begged of the young King that if his goodnesse permitted him not to moisten the entrance into his Throne with the bloud of the guilty his Majesty would please to confine him to a Monastery to bewail his sinnes and daily to die as many times as he should call to mind his own Ingratiude Childeric who was not born to bloud and who at that time had his heart busied enough with the joy of his victory which is a time when Mildnesse costs him least permitted him to retire into the Monastery of Luxeuil in Burgundy Mean time Leger who had given such testimonies of his capacity Courage and fidelity is put into Ebroins place and undertaketh the absolute government of all the affairs of the Kingdome His virtue should have dispensed with him at this time not to give others occasion to think that he had beaten down Ebroins tyranny of purpose to raise himself upon his ruines But there are certain chains of Adamantin charges and Court-dignities which oftentimes captive the most austere His Rivall bursts with anger to see him lifted up to this dignity when his calamity enforced him to be tyed to a Coul which is a piece he never had thought was for his purpose He was a strange Hermit like to Nicephorus Gregoras his fox who being blacked over with ink counterfeited the Monk and told the poultrey he much repented him to have used them so ill but that hereafter they might confidently converse with him since his habit and condition permitted him not to live otherwise then innocently This miserable man had no other repentance but that he had not prospered in his ambition no other poverty then the impotency of taking away others mens goods no other obedience then the hypocrisie of his submission no other singing then the sorrows of his fortune and no other Religion but his habite All his prayers tended to nothing else but to demand some change of State that he might change his fortune whereas Leger taking wayes quite contrary in his government made Religion Justice and Peace to flourish His zeal opposed impiety his equity injustice his sweetnesse violence and his authority carried all that was reasonable But there is a certain unhappinesse in the mannage of state-affairs which makes a man hate his own quiet and virtue too regular is often troublesome even to those it intends to oblige Leger is offensive to some because he makes them more honest then they would be to others because his lights manifest their darknesse whilst others think that in the newnesse and change of a Minister of State they shall better make up their own reckoning Childeric himself takes a distaste against the faithfullest of his servant and whether that Ebroins faction breathed this passion into him or whether it proceeded from his licentious youth or whether his humour felt too much constraint in the innocent severity of the manners of his Mayor of the Palace he shewed him not so pleasing a look as he had accustomed He desirous more efficatiously to sound the Kings opinion most humbly besought him to give him leave to passe the Feast of Easter in the city whereof he was Bishop which Childeric easily assented to But perverse souls who enkindled the fire of division under colour of friendship told the good Prelate that the easinesse his Prince had witnessed in this late occasion was but a bait to undo him and that he had resolved to cause his person be seized on of purpose to murder him One fears all from a power that taketh the liberty to do all which was the cause that Leger entred into great affrightments noon this news and resolved to leave the Court to free himself from Envy and the dangers which threatned him He communicateth his intention with his greatest confidents who are nothing of his opinion and they shewed him he must not yield to a little stormy gust but rather die in the midst of the waves holding the helm in his hand then to forsake the vessel that his flight would give matter of suspicion to the King of advantage to his enemies and of confusion to his own friends and that hitherto there was not any sign of disgrace which might make him to begin where the onely extremity of evils might constrain him to end Notwithstanding whether fear had taken too much hold upon this good Prelates mind or whether his conscience reduced into his imagination the repose of those innocent dayes he had spent in the Monastery he takes a sudden resolution not to forsake the world by halves but by laying down the government of the affairs of the Kingdome to rid himself also of his Bishoprick The conclusion of this businesse is followed by a speedy dispatch which made the King wonder who sent trusty persons to invite him to return and to give him assurance of his good affection towards him but his zeal had its ear in heaven not to hearken to the perswasions of the earth He goes to the Monastery of Luxeuil where he sees Ebroin who was there held as a fettered beast and not in a condition to bite The Abbot who knew the differences that were in Court fearing lest hatred might hatch its egg by the help of a religious habit caused them to be reconciled and to talk together although he had separated their abode fearing that too fiequent conversation might in them
affrightment in the towns and as many sackings as quarterings Those which sit at the Stern of Empires and Common-wealths are greatly accountable to God for that which hath past in this businesse Kings ought not onely to maintain Justice by their Arms but to teach it by their behaviour and to consecrate it by their examples The Doctour Navarrus hath set down divers sins against Justice by the which Princes Common-wealths and Lords may offend against God mortally as to take unlawfully the goods that belong not to them and to keep them without restitution To govern loosely and negligently their Kingdomes and Principalities To suffer their Countreys to be unprovided of victualls and defence necessary which may bring their Subjects in danger of being spoiled To wast and consume in charges either evil or unnecessary the goods which are for the defence of their estates To burden excessively their subjects with Imposts and Subsidies without propounding any good intent therefore and without having any necessity not pretended but true and reall To suffer the poor to die with famine and not to sustain them with their Revenues in that extremity Not to hearken to reasonable conditions for a just Peace and to give occasion to the enemies of the Christian name to invade their Lands and root out our Religion To dispense either with the Law of God or Nature To give judgement in the suits of their Subjects according to their own affection To deceive their creditours to suppresse the Liberty and Rights of the people to compell them by threatnings or importunate intreaties to give their goods or to make marriages against their wills or to their disadvantage To make unjust Wars to hinder the service of the Church to sell offices and places of Charge so dear that they give occasion to those that buy them to make ill use thereof To present to Benefices with Cure of Souls persons unworthy and scandalous To give Commissions and Offices to corrupt and unfit officers To tolerate and permit vices filthinesse and robberies by their servants and to condemne to death and cause to be slain unjustly without due order of Law and to violate the marriage-beds of their Subjects All these things and others which this Doctour hath noted cause great sins of Injustice in the persons of great ones unto which they ought especially to take heed and to prevent the same it is most necessary that they be instructed in the duties of their charge and in the estate of their affairs bending themselves thereto as the most important point of their safety and seeing that the passion of Hatred or Love which one may bear to some person will trouble the judgement and pervert Justice S. Lewis counselled the King his son strongly to keep his heart in quiet and in the uncertainty of any differences alwayes to restrain his own affection and to keep under all movings of the spirit as the most capitall enemy to Reason Many Princes have often lost both their life and Sceptre for giving themselves to some unjust action and there is no cause more ordinary for which God translates Kingdomes from one hand to another then Injustice as on the contrary those Princes which have been great Justiciaries do shine as the stars of the first magnitude within Gods Eternity and even their ashes do seem as yet to exhale from their Tombs a certain savour which rejoyceth people and keeps their memory for ever blessed But one cannot believe the rare mixture that Justice Goodnesse its Excellency and Goodnesse make joyned together Goodnesse is an essence profitable and helpfull which serves as a Nurse to Love it hath its originall in the Deity and from thence disperseth it self by little veins into all created Beings and mixeth it self with every object as the light with every Colour It drives away and stops up evil on every side and there is no place even to the lowest hell where it causeth not some beam of its brightnesse to shine Beauty which amazeth all mortall eyes is but the flower of its essence but Goodnesse is the fruit thereof and its savour is the savour of God which all creatures do taste and relish God which as Casiodore saith is the cause of all Beings the life of the senses the wisdome of understandings the love and glory of Angels having from all eternity his happinesse complete in his own bosome hath created man that he might have to whom to do good as Gregory Nyssen writes and S. Cyprian saith that this eternall Spirit did move upon the waters from the beginning of the world to unite and appropriate the Creature to its self and to dispose it for the loving inspirations of its Goodnesse The Prince which according to the obligement of his Charge would make himself an imitatour of God ought to be exceedingly good with four sorts of Goodnesse of Behaviour of Affability of Bounty and of Clemency I say first of Behaviour for that there is small hope of any great one which is not good towards God which keeps not his Law and rules not his life thereby if he have any virtues they are all sophisticate and if he do any good it is by ebbing and flowing by fits and for some ends No person can be truly good towards others which doth not begin with himself he must needs have Christian Love without which no man shall ever see God if he possesse this virtue he will first have a love of honour to those which have begot him a conjugall love for his wife a cordiall love to those of his bloud and all his kindred from thence it will spread it self over his whole house and through all his estate and will cause him to love his Subjects with a certain tendernesse as his own goods and as the good shepherd cherisheth his flocks He will imitate our Lord which looked from the top of the mountain upon the poor people of Judea that followed him and his heart melted for them with singular compassion Herein doth truly consist the virtue of Piety which gives so great a lustre to the life of Princes Now according to the Goodnesse that is in his heart he must needs pour it forth upon all his by these three conduit-pipes that I have said of Affability of Liberality and of Clemency Affability which is a well ordered sweetnesse both in words and converse ought to increase together with a Prince from his tender age This is a virtue which costeth nothing and yet brings forth great fruit it procures treasuries of hearts and wills which do assist great ones when need requires A good word that cometh forth of the mouth of a King is like the Manna that came from heaven and fell upon the desert It nourisheth and delighteth his Subjects it hath hands to frame and fashion their hearts as it pleaseth him it carrieth with it chains of gold sweetly to captivate their wills The command that cometh with sweetness is performed with strength invincible and every
all the miserable betook themselves unto him unto the number of 400. men which entrenched themselves in a fortresse going forth every day for to rob to maintain themselves thereby In the midst of all these misfortunes the good Prince kept alwayes in his heart a true love of his countrey and knowing that the Philistims had laid siege before Keilah he failed not to go to help it and to deliver it although this ungratefull city was intened to deliver him to Saul if he had enclosed himself therein the which he would not do having consulted with the Oracle of God but retired himself to the desert of Ziph whither Jonathan that The visit of Jonathan secret and and very profitable to David burned with a great desire to see him came to find him secretly and they were for some time together with unspeakable expansions of heart This good friend comforted him and assured him that he should be King after his father and for himself he would be content to be his second which sufficiently witnessed the wonderfull modesty of this Prince and the incomparable love that he bore to David But the Ziphims men for the time that would provide for their own safety sent their deputies to Saul to advertise him that David was retired into their quarters and if it pleased him to follow him they would deliver him into his hands At the which Saul was exceeding joyful and entred the chase to entrap him compassing him on every side and hunting him like a poor deer chased by men and dogs with great out cries The danger was very manifest and David in great hazard to be taken had it not been for a happy message it may be procured by Jonathan that advertised Saul that the Philistims had taken the field and made great waste upon his lands at which he returned to bring remedy thereto deferring his former design till another occasion In the mean while David ran from desert to desert The rudenesse of Nabal towards David with his troops and was hardly able to live which made him have recourse to Nabal a rich man and that had great means entreating him for some courtesie for to maintain his people which had used him with very great respect defending his house his flocks and all his family against the spoilings of robbers This Nabal that was clownish and covetous answered the deputies of David that he knew not the son of Jesse but that he was not ignorant that there were evil servants enough which were fled from their masters and that he was not in case to take the bread from his hired servants for to give it to high-way men This word being told to David incensed him so much that he was going to set upon his house for to rob and sack it But Abagail the The wisdome of Abigail his wife wife of Nabal better behaved and wiser without busying her self to discourse with her husband that was a fool and drunk caused presently mules to be loaden with provision necessary for the men of war and went to meet David to whom she spake with so great wisdome comelinesse and humility that she turned away the tempest and stayed the swords already drawn out of the scabbards for to make a great slaughter in her house David admiring the wisdom and goodnesse of this spirit of the woman married her after the death of her husband It is so true that a good deed bestowed on a high A good deed done to a great one afflicted is of much value person in time of his affliction and when he hath most leasure to consider it is a seed-sowing which in its time brings forth and bears fruits of blessednesse After that Saul had driven back the Philistims he returns to the pursuit of David accompanied with three thousand men with a purpose to take him although he should hide himself under ground or should fly through the air And indeed he crept up rocks unaccessible David furiously pursued by Saul which were not frequented by any but by wild goats and as he passed that way he entred into a cave for some naturall necessity where David was hid with a small number of his faithfullest servants which failed not to tell him that this was the hand of God which had this day delivered his deadly enemy into his hands and that he should not now lose time but to cut him off quickly whilst that he gave him so fair play and this would be the means to end all those bitternesses wherewith his life was filled by the rage of this barbarous Persecutour This was a strong temptation to a man so violently His generousnesse in pardoning his enemy very admirable persecuted and whose life was sought by so many outrages Neverthelesse David stopping all those motions of revenge resolved in his heart by a strong inspiration of God never to lay his hands upon him which was consecrated King and contenting himself with cutting off the skirts of his coat he went out of the cave after Saul and crying with a loud voice he worshipped him prostrate on the earth holding in his hand the piece of his casock and saying to him Behold my Lord my Father and my King the innocence of my hands and do not believe them any more which filled you with suspicions of poor David you cannot be ignorant at this time that God hath put you into my power and that I could have handled you ill by taking away your life have saved mine own But God hath kept me by his holy grace from this thought and hath preserved you from all evil I never yet had any intent to hurt your Majesty having alwayes reverenced and served it as your most humble servant and subject whiles that you cease not to pesecute me and to torment my poor life with a thousand afflictions Alas my Lord what is it that you desire Against whom are you come forth with so great furniture of Arms and Horses against a poor dead Dog a miserable little beast I beseech the living God to judge between us two and to make you to know the goodnesse of my cause One may avouch that great and glorious actions The greatnesse and benefit of clemency of Clemency do never hurt Princes but that often they do place or keep the Crown upon their heads God and Men concurring to favour that goodnesse that approches so near to the highest Saul was so amazed with this action that he ran to him and embraced him weeping and said to him This is a sure sign O David which I acknowledge at the present and whereby I know for certain that you must reign after me so great a goodnesse not being able to be rewarded but by an Empire I do pray and conjure you onely to have pity on my poor children after my death and not to revenge your injuries upon them hereupon he swore to him to deal with him afterwards peaceably But as this spirit was unequall
and did oftentimes David goes out of the kingdome and retires himself among strangers easily depart from reason for long seasons David resolved to go out of the Kingdome and to betake himself to Achish King of the Philistims Some may seek occasion to blame his behaviour in this matter and may think it strange that he should retire himself to the Philistims the sworn enemies of the people of Israel especially after this reconciliation and oath passed between him and Saul But it must be considered that his life was no wayes assured within the Kingdome and that Saul at another time having given so solemn a promise to Jonathan for the safety of his friend yet would have kill'd him with his own hand and further that he was every day in danger to be set upon by arms from the other party with effusion of bloud both of the one and other and that it seemed better to him to avoid the occasion then to see himself perpetually obliged by so miserable a necessity to defend himself Further he considered that he brought his chiefest friends into danger not being able to retire himself amongst them without making them guilty of treason and exposing them to slaughter lastly he found not so much security amongst other Kings which having no war with Saul would have made some difficulty in enterteining him or might have delivered him up after they had received him for their own commodity This made him resolve to take his refuge amongst a Nation that bore an irreconcileable hatred against Saul But forasmuch as some have thought that he 1 King 27. bore arms for Achish against the people of God this is manifestly convinced of falshood by the Text of the Scripture where it is expressly said that David did invade the Amalekites and other people Infidels although that Achish perswaded himself that he would do the like to the Israelites after he had been so evilly used by his own Nation But he used dissimulation herein for to maintein himself in good favour with the King as the Doctour Tostatus hath very well noted And this was the cause that the great ones of the Kingdome which perceived this dissembling of David would never suffer him to be in the Army-Royall in the day that the battell joyned against the people of Israel saying openly to the King that he would betray the party and would reconcile himself with his own men by the price of the lives of the Philistims unto the great disadvantage of the whole Realm which was the cause that Achish gave him leave to depart fairly excusing it upon the suspicions which the Noble-men had taken of him At the last the fatall day of Saul drew near and he saw the Philistims which came thick and threefold upon him with the chiefest forces of their Empire he felt Saul being in great perplexitie consults with the soul of Samuel the remorse of conscience and the blood of so many Innocents undeservedly shed ceased not to leap up against his faulty head In these confusions of a troubled spirit by the representation of his crimes he sought unto the Divine Oracles to learn what he should do in so pressing a necessity But this unhappy Prince that had used Samuel so unworthily in his life and driven away as farre as he could all honest men from his councels for to let loose the raines of his fury sought after the dead in vain having trod under feet the admonitions of the living I have declared in the Maxime concerning the Immortality of the soul the whole discourse about his consulting with the Witch at Endor and it is not my purpose here to trouble again my Reader with the rehearsall of those things We may onely note that the soul of Samuel having appeared before that the Sorceresse could employ the charms of her profession rebuked Saul for having disquieted it and foretold him the routing of his Army his Death with that of his Children at which he was so affrighted that he fell down in a swound having eaten nothing all that day Whereat the Sorceresse having pity and having prepared somewhat to eat was urgent with him to take some little refreshment which he did and condescended to her intreaties and those of his servants After he went from her table he marched all night He marches against the Philistims in battell and is overthrown that he might come to the Army whether it were that he did not firmly believe that his last mishap or whether he would willingly sacrifice himself without any contrarying Gods appointment The next morning he perceived the Army of the Philistims wonderfully increased and with full resolution to fight and on the contrary the Israelites exceedingly weakned and which seemed already to carry the picture of their disastre printed in their faces The enemies gave the onset with very great violence and overthrew the van-gard in which Jonathan was with his two brethren all which sealed the last proofs of their valour with their blood and death The miserable father saw carryed away before he dyed all that might have obliged him to live and presently perceived that the whole body of the Army of the Philistims was falln upon him and yet for all that he had no desire to retire not willing to over-live those his misfortunes He was ill handled by those of the forlorn hope which ceased not to let fly their arrows very thick upon the Troops where he was and which fell with such violence and multitude that they seemed to imitate the hail in a great tempest which furiously beats down the hopes of a poor husbandman He saw his bravest Captains dy before his eyes which sacrificed themselves with despair of better fortune and although he were wounded with many wounds and that he had lost almost all his blood yet he stoutly upheld The end of Saul himself desiring nothing so much as to dye in the bed of honour But as forces failed him and the violence of his adversaries redoubled fearing lest they had a purpose to take him alive he commanded his Target-bearer to make an end of him and to give him his deaths-blow before he should fall into the hands of the Philistims The other excused himself wisely saying That he would never undertake that against his Majesty and upon so sacred a person and that one ought to expect the destiny and not to prevent it Then Saul seeing that he could not dye so soon as he desired neither by the hands of his friends nor of his enemies suffered himself to fall upon his sword and made it enter into him vomiting forth both his soul and blood with ragings and griefs unspeakable The Philistims having found his body amongst the dead corps took off his armour and cut off his head which they carried through the towns of Palestina for a pittifull spectacle making many thanksgivings in the Temple of their Idol for this victory And not content herewith they took the
the whole city in flames The Temples were burned with the most sumptuous structures the pictures the statues and the most beautifull works of the Antient Masters crackled in the fiery coals which none extinguished but by humane blood The most religious of the Clergy being come forth to appease the tumult in shewing them the books of the Gospels the images of the Saints and the Shrines of their reliques although they marched at that time in a Procession were trod under foot and in part murdered by the Herules This redoubled the fury of the people who had yet some good sense of their Religion and could not endure the contempt of sacred things The Massacres began afresh on both sides and the images of death fly up and down on all parts The Emperour was for that time shut up within his Palace with his wife the Empresse accompanied with Bellisarius who was newly returned from Africa with Narses and with Mundus and the Regiments of his Guards His heart bled within him to see those horrours and he was so courageous as to be willing to go forth and present himself to make an Oration to his people and to pacific the sedition But the Empresse throwing her self at his feet laid hold on him and conjured him by all that he had most dear not to commit himself to an evident Butchery which caused him to be contented to sound the Ford and to send Messengers to the people to promise them all satisfaction if they would assemble themselves peaceably in the Theatre to hear their Prince The factious began to cry that it was a snare to intrap them and that they had no reason to hearken to a Tyrant that had sold their skins to the Barbarians that there was no more safety now remaining for them but in desperatenesse Thereupon they take Hypatius and having lifted him upon a great Buckler carry him a crosse the multitude place him upon a Throne in the midst of the great Market-place and proclaim him Emperour He was as it were altogether astonish'd between hope and fear when he spake these words with a feeble voyce Friends I am your work I come to live and dye with you I know well what ye have made me be but I know not what I shall be if ye bring not as much force to preserve me as ye have testified affection to elect me In a word the life of Justinian is incompatible with mine and your arms must decide this day which of the two you will keep either the Prince that ye have chosen or the Tyrant that ye have sworn to destroy The Assembly answered confusedly with great clamours Let Hypatius live Let Justinian dye and the stoutest men amongst them take a resolution to assail him in his Palace But this Prince after he had call'd upon the name of God the Protectour of Kings took this perillous businesse into deliberation Narses was of opinion that it was best to fortifie the Royall Palace to damme up the entrances to prepare themselves for assaults within and not to trust themselves without That all rebellions were strong and invincible in their first heat and that time ought to be given to some to think upon their fault and to others to declare their good affection Belizarius lik'd not this opinion and desired nothing but to march and to fall upon the Rebels The Empresse Theodora who held the upper end in all the counsells of Justinian intermeddled very far in this businesse as Historians observe and spake with a loud voyce What seek security in dishonour Endure a siege of our subjects and of the dreggs of the people without taking other arms then those of walls It is a counsell that will give boldnesse to Hypatius and fear to all those that are yet for us I assure my self that the Tyrant wholly trembling in this novelty and that there is not a more sovereign remedy then to prevent him Let us rather dye then leave a blot upon our reputation The name of Emperor and of Empresse sound well in an Epitaph and ought never to be quitted but with life She animated the whole company by her discourses The Emperour himself had a mind to go out amongst them but it was concluded that he should suffer Belizarius to advance with the most resolute Regiments which he did very courageously and removed himself into the place where was the hottest of the combate The Herules that had puissantly susteined the first furies of the enemies took new forces and joyned themselves to the Emperours Court of Guard They began altogether to charge the Rebels with such an Impetuousnesse that they seemed Lyons and not Men. The Faction was no longer equall the heart of the Revolted failed them and they let themselves be killed as Sheep whilst the fury of the Souldiers fleshed in blood slackened nothing of its vehemence Justinian touched with pity commanded that they should spare the rest and to perswade them more efficaciously to their good and safety endeavoured to gain the faction of the Blew-coats and to divide it from the Green by force of Courtesie and of Money This being done Hypatius found himself much astonished and wished then that he had rather put his hand on Thorns then on the Pearls of a Diademe He fights now no more for honour but for his life he seeks out holes to hide himself but those that knew that their security consisted in nothing but in producing him seize upon his person and deliver him into the hands of the Emperour who caused suddenly the law to proceed against him together with Pompey and other great Lords that were their Complices who were all put to death After which the Emperour endeavoured with all his might to Rally his people and to declare to them the pernicious effects of sedition which were but too visible The City being all wasted by the fire and fourty thousand men as Zanoras tells us dead upon the place Behold one of the most hidious Histories that I find in all Antiquity and which ought to teach people to adhere firmly to their Sovereign and never to lend an ear to wicked counsels that cause so lamentable Tragedies It admonishes also great men to enterprise no thing against their lawfull Princes and to place alwayes their Principall Honour in Obedience This Monarch seeing himself settled in his Kingdome by so sensible a protection gave all the thanks of it to God and bent the vigour of his cares to the advancement of his glory An hundred years had already passed since the Vandals a barbarous people and Heretick Arrians had possessed themselves of Africa after they had torn it from the Roman Empire Three Kings were already dead and the fourth that then reigned was a Tyrant named Gilimer revolted from the true King Hilderic his Lord and Kinsman whom he left in a close prison after he had put himself into possession of his Sceptre Justinian that was a friend and Protectour of him that had been Deposed
as to name her The Revengeresse of the Cause of God The Conqueresse of Impiety and the Protectresse of the Catholick Faith All businesses took a very happy couâ—se and the State prospered visibly in the hands of that great Princesse But it seems that disorder is fatall to the Courts of great Ones and that virtue can never reign there without contradiction The ambition that every one hath to promote his fortune the impatience of good the desire of novelty the envy that alwayes follows the happy cease not secretly to contrive wicked plots which are hatched at last into pernicious effects The passages to the spirit of the Emperour could not be so well stopped up but that he had about his person some young men the most venomous pestilences of the court who by giving him suspicions of the Empress his mother involved his Dignity and his Life in a misery that causes horrour to my thoughts They cease not to insinuate into his heart by cursed flatteries that gave him the taste of sinne and the love of a faulty liberty that would no longer measure his Powers but by the impunity of all vices They call'd him the perpetuall Pupil the shadow of Stauratius and told him that the age of twenty years might have made him proceed Master of his affairs and of himself that it was an insufferable shame to him to endure servitude in a birth that gave him the Empire of the World that his mother loved his Sceptre and not his Person and that she was so much used to Reign that she would never quit the Sovereign Authority if he did not expresse Vigour and Resolution to be that which God was pleased he should be born without dependence on any one that the Pedagogie of Stauratius was infamous to a Monarch that had thrice seven years over his head and that he ought no more to play the child in a time wherein so many other Princes had played the Conquerours They talk to him of it so much that he resolved to take away all Authory from the State-Officer and to put his Mother out of the Government and direction of his affairs which he began to manage after a strange fashion favouring the heresie of the Iconoclasts and all disorders following the advice of that pernicious counsell of the youth that had began his ruine Irene had an intention at first to marry him to the Princesse Rotrude daughter of our Charlemagne but some Greeks diverted that resolution telling her that that alliance would give too great a prop to his naturall disposition that seemed already bad enough and that if the French began to set a foot in the Empire they would one day carry the Crown upon their head This caused his mother to marry him to Mary the Armenian who wanted not good qualities but whether it was that the Emperour found her not to his liking or whether it was to spite the Empresse his mother that had given her to him he made a very scandalous divorce from that Princesse after he had lawfully wedded her and married with a Chamber-maid of his Mothers through the irregularnesse of his sensuality The Patriarch Tarasus had a good mind to oppose himself against it but seeing that this Prince enraged with love and choler threatned to open the Temples of the Idols if one crossed the phrensie of his passion he held his peace and let a businesse shamefull to Christianity passe by dissimulation But Plato and Theodore who were then the two greatest lights of Greece in holinesse and learning much blamed his proceedings and separated themselves from his communion which made a great rent in the Eastern Church Constantine sullying also his Loves with humane blood caused the eyes to be put out of his Unkle Nicephorus and of the Generall Alexius greatly renowned by his prowesse which drew much hatred upon the person and government of this Prince yet he left not off for all that to continue even so far as to take pleasure in cutting off the tongues of many that disapproved of the insolency of his manners Eight years were already passed in these disorders and his mother retired into her private condition was secretly sollicited by many to take again the Managing of the affairs to stop the Riots of her son She hearkened to it and with the assistance of Stauratius plotted an horrible conspiracy against the Emperour whom she caused to be apprehended imprisoned and made blind whereat he conceived so much despight and sadnesse that in few dayes he quitted the Sceptre with his life The wicked deportments of Constantine and the good reputation in which Irene had lived till then caused many even amongst the Church-men to find out reasons not onely to excuse but also to approve this bold attempt yet I find it so enormous so contrary to the law of nature so injurious to the inviolable Majesty of Kings that my pen passes over it with horrour and cannot choose but condemn it not onely with the Law of God that detests it but with the heavens themselves which hid the Sun seventeen dayes together veiled themselves with darknesse and wept for the inhumanity of that crime Yet I rather believe that which Cardinall Baronius hath written that his mother never consented to the making of him blind although she had given command to seize upon him but that those who feared the danger of that Commission wished rather the death of him then the imprisonment But howsoever it came to passe the Empresse took again the Government in hand and seeing that in that great confusion of affairs she had need of a strong prop she sought for by an expresse embassage allyance and a marriage with Charlemagne which was not any way disrellished seeing all that had passed failed not to be coloured with fair pretences and for that purpose sent back Embassadours to her to end the businesse but when they arrived at Constantinople they found that Nicephorus one of the Grandees of the East an hypocrite and a traytor to the miserable Irene had already seized upon the Empire and banished her into the Isle of Lesbos where she dyed soon after with the testimonies of a strong repentance and a perfect disengagement from all worldly things Yet this new Usurper knowing that our Charles had already been Proclaimed Emperour in the West treated him with great submissions not for the love of his person but for the fear of his credit and of his Arms. Behold how Providence disposed businesses in the East to make him mount upon the Throne of the Cesars she permitted also in the West strange revolutions and abominable accidents out of which by her extream wisdome and goodnesse she extracted good for the advancement of this Monarch After the death of Adrian the Pope Leo the Third was set in Saint Peters chair but his Predecessours Nephews that saw that the Pontificate had taken another visage since the city of Rome had been delivered from the chains of the Lombard and that
tender age in this voyage conceiving that he ought not to spare any thing which the service of God might require The ardent love caused him to expose his Royall person not onely to wearinesse but to the most dangerous blows of battels There is a certain jealous strictnesse of judgement in the understanding of men which would not that any one person should be excellent in the degree of Sovereignty in two illustrious qualities The reputation of Arms took away the high title of eloquence from Julius Cesar and we may see that S. Lewis contented himself with his rare devotion without taking that high part that he deserved in valour But this is the truth that he was courageous heroicall and valiant above all those brave ones whom the opinion of men do often deifie without very much desert Together with all his devotion he seemed to have obliged himself to take up Arms against his enemies even from his tenderest infancy He made wars both by sea and land in Europe Asia and Africa He was set upon in his minority by the neighbouring Princes and by the greatest Lords of his State from which he freed himself both by wisedome and valour marching forth into the field with the assistance of God and good counsell of his Mother He disarmed Philip his Uncle by courtesie the English by force he vanquished the inconstancy of Theohald by his stedfastnesse and the self-conceitednesse of Peter de Drues by his patience After he had pacified his kingdome he undertook the Holy War by a pious generousnesse of heart in the which he shewed marvellous valiantnesse of his person Joinville that was present saith that he stoutly ventured himself into the hottest conflicts of the battalions and fought fiercely with his own hand scattering and overthrowing the Sarazens that opposed his enterprises They speak much of the valour of Attila that visiting a certain place was set upon by two souldiers that had a purpose to kill him and escaped both the one and the other by his valour and mention But S. Lowis on a day having gone aside from the Army was set upon by six whom he put to flight by a victorious resistance When they were in some doubt about going a shore in his first voyage to Africa he was the first that threw himself upon the Coast of the Enemies with his sword in his hand without any amazement although he was up to the neck in water When he was seen at the beginning of the battel arrayed in his Royall arms he appeared like a Sun to the whole Army but as soon as he began to enter into the fight he was like a lightning that made a wonderfull flashing upon the Infidels together with all the misfortune of the time wherewith he was overborn he took the great and famous City of Damiata in his first voyage he discomfited the Sarazens in two battels he fortified four great places in Syria he compell'd the Emmiers of Egypt to restore him his prisoners he provided for the safety of all the Christians that were remaining in Palestine In his second voyage he vanquished at the first onset the Africans which had antiently made Italy Greece and Spain to tremble and had so long time disputed for the Empire of the world with the Romans and if he had not been hindred by sicknesse he had forthwith made himself master of Thunis and Carthage Behold what this ardent love did by his hands But the love indefatigable the true and faithfull character of a great stoutnesse of courage caused him not to be amazed at any thing and that he continued with an invincible magnanimity under the most burthensome accidents that contraried his enterprises This love caused him to make tryall of another voyage after the sad accidents of the first this love caused that the seas filled with terrours the Lands with Ant-heaps of Sarazens formed into Batalions the air that seemed from every part to let fly arrows of pestilence the wayes which were full of toyles the wars of terrours and maslacres the encounters of evil successe and the champions of a million of divers kinds of death never altered the constancy of his invincible heart The very day of his captivity after he had lost a great battel which overthrew all his affairs when as he saw the wayes covered with the dead bodies of his servants when he saw the river Nilus smoaking and bubling up the French blood when as the arrows of the Sarazens did fly round about his head like the hail on a winters day when as he was taken and carried to the Aunt of the Sultan and that he heard the clamours of those outrageous mouths that he saw so many infernall faces that might shake a soul of the stoutest temper he remained still in a great tranquility of mind and asked his page for his book of prayers which being ready he began to perform the duty of his Orazons which he presented every day to God with as quiet a spirit as if he had been returned from taking a walk in his gardens The very day that he was seased upon by the pestilence he beheld death coming upon him with a settled countenance he disposed of the affairs of his kingdome and of his house with a great judgment gave very excellent instructions to the princes children comforted all his good servants strengthened himself with the Sacraments entred into extasies of divine love which drove out of his heart all the cares of this present life The poor Prince sooner failed of his life then he could fail of his constancy and faithfulnesse to his high virtue It is here O Providence that you cover with a canopy of the night and darknesse the great events of the affairs of the world it is here that we acknowledge your government This Prince so wise so humble so holy which deserved that the world should bend under his laws and to have constrained good fortune to fly no where but about his colours in the mean while was handled by you as it seems to many not like to an indulgent mother but as by a step-mother severe and rigorous Alas the Lands have often undertaken the yoke and the seas have spread their back with coverlids by a pleasing calmnesse under the arms and vessels of Pirates Was there none but this Monarch to whom all creatures ought to have served as a defence that could deserve to be so evil handled at your hands In the first of his expeditions he lost his liberty and in the second his life What is the meaning of this O Providence draw the courtain a little uncover your secrets and unceil our eyes to behold them She answereth that the generall truth hath revealed to us in the Gospel his judgements on this point when he said to the Jewes which were come to take him behold your hour and the power of darknesse It is true that by a certain order of God and for causes very reasonable well known to his Providence
the assistance of God upon their Arms. He also shewed himself very sensible of the favours of Heaven and desired that God should first of all triumph in all the good successes that accompanied his Standards which he expressed visibly when having defeated the Generals of King Antiochus in manifold assaults and gotten a little rest to his dear countrey he took a pressing care to cause the Temple to be repaired and cleansed that had been horribly profaned by the Infidels It was an incomparable joy to all the people when after so many desolations that had preceded he celebrated a Triumphant Dedication by which he caused the hopes of his Nation to reflourish His cares extended even beyond the World wherein we live and one may well affirm that he was the first of the Antient Fathers of the Old Testament that expressed more openly the charitable offices that ought to be rendred to the souls of the Deceased This manifestly appears in an encounter which he had with Gorgias Generall of the Army of the Enemy in which he lost some Souldiers and when he came to visit the field of battell to view the Dead and to cause them to be carried to the Sepulchre of their Fathers he found that some amongst them had in their clothes certain pieces of the offerings presented to the Idols thinking perhaps that it was lawfull for them to accommodate themselves with it for their use though in effect the Law forbad it This gave a shock at first unto his conscience that was very delicate and he deplored the unhappinesse of those forsaken people that had loaded themselves with profane Booties yet when he thought that that befell them more for want of consideration and by the hope of some little gain then by any consent that they had given to Idolatry he sent twelve thousand Drachmes into Jerusalem to cause Sacrifices to be offered for the rest of their Souls This made him to be honoured with very particular favours of heaven for he hath been sometimes seen in a combat environed with celestiall virtues that watched for his protection and filled his enemies with terror His very dreams were not without a mystery witnesse that which shewed him the Prophet Jeremy and the high Priest Onias who prayed before the face of God for the safety of the People the former of which two put into his hand a guilded sword telling him that it was that wherewith he should bring down to the earth the enemies of his Religion The great love that he had for God reflected it self continually towards his neighbour on whom he contemplated the image of the first beauty He bore in his heart all that were afflicted and burned with a most ardent love for the good of his dear countrey The zeal of Justice possessed his soul and he had no greater delights in the world then to succour widows orphans and all necessitous persons They ran to him as to their true Father they ranged themselves under the shadow of his virtue and found there a refreshment in their most parching heats His conversation was sweet his speech affable his manners without avarice He never sold his Protection nor made any Traffick of his Valour He knew not what it was to buy his neighbours lands to build palaces to plant orchards to make gardens and to heap up treasures He was rich for the poor and poor for himself living as a man untyed from all things else and fastned to virtue alone by an indissoluble knot of duty His Temperance passed even to admiration so greatly did he contemne those pleasures and delights that others regard as their chief felicity He never dreamed of causing the beautifull women-prisoners to be preserved for himself because he was skilfull in the trade of defending Ladies honours rather then assaulting them He never had any Mistresse being perpetually Master of himself and one shall have work enough to find out his wives name it is not read that he had any other children but Virtues and Victories He lived as an Essean estranged from all the pleasures of the flesh and tasted no other contentment in the world then to do great actions He never enterprised the warre against King Antiochus to make himself great and to reign but for the pure love of his Religion and dear countrey Traytours and corrupted spirits blame him for having taken up arms saying That it behoved them rather to suffer the Destinies then to make them That it behoved them to obey the Powers that God had set over their heads That it was a great rashnesse to think to resist the forces of all Asia with a little handfull of souldiers that it could not chuse but provoke the conquerours and draw upon the vanquished a deluge of calamities The world hath been full in all times of certain condescending Philosophers who accommodate themselves to every thing that they may not disaccommodate themselves for virtue They care not what visage is given to Piety so that they find therein their own advantages By how much the more mens spirits are refined to search out reasons to colour the toleration of vices by so much the more their courages are weakned and neglect to maintain themselves in duty There are some that had rather lie still in the dirt then take the pains to arise out of it Judas considered that King Antiochus was not contented with having brought the Jews to a common servitude but would overthrow all their Laws and abolish entirely their Religion He did not believe that it was lawfull for him to abandon cowardly the interests of God He thought that there are times wherein one ought rather destroy ones self with courage then preserve ones self with sluggishnesse He looked not so much upon his strength as upon his duty He perswaded himself that a good Cause cannot be forsaken of God and that we ought to essay to serve him applying our wills to his orders and leaving all the successe of our works to his disposall This great zeal that he had of Justice was accompanied with a well tempered prudence As he never let loose himself in that which was absolutely of the Law so did he never use to rack himself by unprofitable scruples that are ordinary enough to those that are zealous through indiscretion Some of his Nation shewed themselves so superstitious that being assaulted by their enemies on the Satturday they let their throats be cut as sheep without the least resistance for fear of violating the Sabbath if they should put themselves upon a defence Judas following the example of his father Matathias took away that errour which tended to the generall desolation of his countrey and shewed by lively reasons that God who hath obliged us to the preservation of our selves by the Law of Nature had never such an intention as to give us for a prey to our enemies by an indiscreet superstition That it was a good work to defend the Altars and ones countrey against the Infidels and
is a strange thing that a man of nothing found instantly Cities Armies and a Kingdome at his devotion It was now that Jonathan the brother and successour of Judas was sought after and sued to by those two adversary Kings with extreme earnestnesse Pompalus that took the name of Alexander wrote him letters full of honour offering him the Principality and Pontificate of his Nation qualifying him with the name of friend and sending him a purple Robe with a Crown of gold Demetrius whom necessity had rendred very courteous made him also on the other side a thousand fair promises to draw him to his party He exempted him from all Tributes he took away the Garrisons he gave him places of importance by a free gift he received the Jews to offices and governments he restored all those of their Nation that he held in Hostage He granted them an intire Liberty in their Religion and Policy and Revenues also for the Temple so that there was nothing more to be desired Yet Jonathan would never range himself under his Standards but as injuries being yet fresh smart more then old ones the Jews chose rather to give themselves to the son of their most cruel persecutour then to Demetrius that had taken from them their dear Maccabee and held yet their liberty under oppression The party already made against that miserable Prince fortified it self every day and although he took all the good order that his affairs seemed to require yet he could not divert his unhappinesse that dragged him to a precipice It is true that he got the better in some small encountres but when the great battle that was to decide the controversie of the Kingdome was to be given he saw himself very much forsaken and his enemy assisted with the best forces of all Asia He failed not for all that to fight with all possible valour and although his Army was scattered he would never fly but cast himself in the hottest of the mingling killing many of his enemies with his own hand His horse having taken a false step slipped himself into a slough whence he could not get out but he suddenly quitted him got himself on foot and made a great spectacle a King covered with dirt and bloud with his sword in his hand that laid about with a stiffe arm and without remission sustained the hail of arrows that the enemy let flie upon him standing inflexible against all those disastres of his evil fortune In fine he would not quit his Crown but with his life and buried himself in honour Every one bows under the happinesse of that false Alexander he mounts suddenly upon the Throne of his adversary where he receives the services and adorations of all the world Philometer the King of Egypt that had much upheld his party in which he sought his own interests gives him his daughter Cleopatra in marriage whose wedding was magnificently celebrated in the city of Ptolomais in the presence of the two Kings the father-in-law and the son-in-law where Jonathan was also present that was caressed of both the two by extraordinary favours and managed the businesses of his State with all possible advantages Alexander seeing himself in unexpected riches and amidst so many ornaments of a borrowed fortune could not contain himself but let himself flag in a sluggish and voluptuous life abandoning all the affairs of his Kingdome to the discretion of one Ammonius a young brainlesse fellow who carried himself most insolently and incensed the Queen Laodice and all the Nobles of the Court in such a manner as that he was at last set upon and slain in the habit of a woman which he had put on to secure himself God thus taking vengeance of his filthy and effeminate life The Antiochians were first weary of the dissolute life of their Prince that was alwayes in the midst of wine and women which made them believe that he was a supposititious King that had nothing in him of generous They began to regret Demetrius whom they had seen dic with so much courage and knowing that he had left two sons yet very young one of which bore his fathers name and the other was called Antiochus Sidetes They invited the elder of them giving him assurance that he should have the Crown Philometor that was ashamed of the deportments of his son-in-law and that under pretence of moderation desired nothing lesse then to adde the Diadem of Syria to that of Egypt well knowing that so many changes of Masters make a State shake and give fair advantages to those that would invade them upholds this Rebellion forsakes Alexander and by a notable affront takes away his daughter from him to give her to the young Demetrius And to colour his inconstancy he made a Manifest that published That his son-in-law by an execrable disloyalty had made an attempt upon his Kingdome and upon his life which made him break the friendship that he had sworn with him Under this pretence he seizes on some places which it was easie for him to keep whiles he made himself authour of the fortune of the new King The miserable Alexander awaking out of his surfeits saw the Egyptian and all his Subjects bandyed against him and a great army that was coming to fall upon his head which he resisted feebly and quickly forsook his party going to hide himself in the bottomes of Arabia where he was hunted after and entrapped by Zabdiel the Arabian who cut off his head and carried it to the King of Egypt who contemplated it a long time with a spirit more then salvage for which he was punished of God and dyed three dayes after of the wounds he had received by a fall from his horse at the defeating of his son-in-law Behold marvellous sports of fortune and great revolutions that ended not at this point yet Demetrius young of age and government was not a man to settle a Kingdome shaken with so great concussions He thought more of taking the pleasures of Royalty then of bearing the burden of it businesses were to him as many punishments and pastime a continuall exercise This was the cause of new factions and great seditions that were raised in his Kingdome The Maccabees whom he gained to his party rendred him very good offices although he was more ready to receive them then liberall to reward them In the weaknesse of this new Government started up the disloyall Tryphon who had been Captain of the Guard to the false Alexander and having seized himself of a little child that his Master had left behind him he had the boldnesse to propound him for King and true Successour of the Crown When he saw that Jonathan already obliged to Demetrius was able to oppose his designs and to unravel the web of his ambitions he surprised him by a detestable treachery and caused him to be assassinated with his children after he had received the money that he had demanded for his ransome The young King altogether astonished
that he might not digresse from his ordinary custome There was he slain by the most generous manner of death that could happen to any Captain of his quality He was a Lyon in Arms who with a choice company of men selected by him and trained to his profession wrought such admirable effects that there was not any battel wonne of which he was not ever the principall cause Never was any man more terrible to an enemy in the conflict but out of it it was said he was one of the most affable and courteous men of the earth he was so ill a flatterer of great men that to gain a Kingdome he would not be drawn to speak anything but reason His practise was to honour the virtuous speak little of the vicious lesse of his own atchievements never to swear to do favours to all that required them as willingly as if himself were to receive the benefit to give secret alms according to his ability in such manner that it is written that besides his other acts of piety he married at the least an hundred poor young maids Behold of what elements his soul was inwardly composed As for the manner of his carriage in the warre he as little cared for money as the dust of the earth and desired not to have any but to give witnesse an act of great liberality which is related of him He took fairly by law of Arms a Spanish Treasurer who had about him fifteen thousand Ducats one of his Captains named Tardieu enraged with choller swore that he would have part of the booty because he was in the Expedition This good Captain smiling said unto him It is true you were of the enterprise but are not to share in the Booty and if it were so you are under my charge I therefore will give you what I think good This man entred into more violent fury and went to complain to the Generall who having well considered the businesse adjudged it wholly to Bayard He caused his Ducats to be carried to a place of safety and commanded them to be spread on a Table in presence of all his people saying to them Companions what think yee Do yee not here behold fine junkets Poor Tardieu who had been put by his pretensions by expresse sentence of his Captains looked on this money with a jealous eye and said If he had the half of it he would all his life be an honest man Doth that depend on this saith this brave Spirit Hold then I willingly give you that which you by force could never obtein And so caused he at the same instant seven thousand five hundred Ducats to be told out to him The other who in the beginning thought it was but a meer mockery when he saw it to be in good earnest and himself in possession of that he desired cast himself on both his knees at the feet of Bayard having abundant tears of joy in his eyes and cryed out Alas my Master my Friend you have surpassed the liberality of Alexander How shall I be ever able to acknowledge the benefit which I at this time do receive at your hands Hold your peace said this incomparable man If I had power I would do much more And thereupon causing all the souldiers of the Garrison to be called he distributed the rest of the Ducats not keeping one sole denier for his own use I ask of you whether this were not a heart of true pearl wherein there could not one least blemish of Avarice be found Yea also when he passed through the Countrey even in a land of Conquest he paied his expence And one saying to him Sir this money is lost for at your departure from hence they will set this place on fire He answered Sirs I do what I ought God hath not put me into the world to live by Rapine Moreover the excellency of this man appeared well in an affair wherein the life of the most eminent man of the world was interessed For heat that time being in Italy was sent by the King to assist the Duke of Ferrara against the Army of Pope Julius then much opposit to France although so many other worthy Popes heartily loved our Nation When one Monsieur Augustine Gerlo a Gentleman of Milan but yet a traitor and factious went to the said Duke to perswade him to forsake the French Engagement with intention to destroy them and promised him that in recompence he would give him his Neece in marriage and make him Captain Generall of the Church This Prince would not seem in any wise to understand him but he handled the matter so by his policy and advantageous promises that he gained this Augustine who gave him his hand that he in few dayes would destroy the Pope by a mischievous Morsell which he could easily give him The Duke of Ferrara having thus dived into his plots and intentions went immediately to find out this our noble Bayard in his lodgings and made a long discourse to him of the evil disposition of Pope Julius and the enterprises he had both on his life and on the Frenchmen of purpose to enkindle him for Revenge Then he also pursued his opportunity and made discovery to him of the treason of this wicked Gerlo Bayard looking amazedly at him said How Sir I could never have imagined that a Prince so generous as you would consent to such a wickednesse and had you done it I swear by my soul before night I would have given the Pope notice of it How answered the Duke he would have done as much either to you or me It is no matter replyeth Bayard this treachery displeaseth me Whereat the Duke shrugging up his shoulders and spitting on the ground saith Monsieur Bayard I would I had killed all mine enemies in this sort but since you dislike it the matter shall rest and you and I both may have cause to repent it We shall not if it please God replyeth the good souldier but I pray you put this gallant into my hands that would do this goodly piece of service and if I do not cause him to be hanged in an hour let me supply his place The Duke finding in him this courage and fidelity did all he could to wave and excuse the plot saying he had given him assurance of his person But behold you not here a brave spirit in Bayard See you not a man of a Royall conscience and of an honesty in all things like to it self Away then with those petty and base spirits of the abysse more black then spectres and infernall furies who have neither loyalty for their Prince nor Common-wealth but as it may concern their own interests who swallow treasons as big as camels to gain a fly Such would make truth it self to lie were not heavens Providence awake to make their events as tragicall as are their determinations abominable and hideous All the bravest Chieftains have ever held it to be highest of their glorious victories to be
This eternall high Priest prepared for his Altars a great sacrifice of Tribulation and of Patience which was to be honoured with so much Bloud and so many Tears of the Righteous and would invite thereto the Saints by the imitation of a Patriarch that consecrated himself by his own evils and mounted out of a deep pit to the triumphant chariot of the Pharaoh's I have proposed to my self to represent this to you my Reader not relating at large his History which is sufficiently known but by making some reflexions upon it able to make us admire the greatnesse of God and to fashion the manners of Courtiers affected to virtue by originalls that God hath placed as upon the frontispiece of his palace Let us observe then according to the pursuit which the Scripture makes us see in this narration his entrance into the Court his beginning his progresses his virtues his negotiations and his successes from which we shall draw great lights and infallible proofs of the work of God upon those whom he embraces by love and by a very particular conduct Ambitious spirits have studied in all times the means to make a fortune at the Court of Kings and have applied themselves strongly to this design as to the study of the Philosophers stone or to the conquest of the golden fleece But they have had work enough to find out the true principles and causes of the good will of great ones which is the reason that some seem to have the golden wings of fortune her self to flie to the palace of Honour without labour and without difficulty while others with indefatigable pains grow old in disgrace and in contempt Lilius Giraldus a learned man digged out of the ground in his searches an antient picture of the industrious Apelles wherein after he had painted Favour winged blind standing upon a rouling boul environned with riches honour disdain flattery and the impunity of all crimes he places at her feet some Philosophers that studied her Genealogy some making her the daughter of Beauty others of chance others of Industry others of Virtue but the ablest confessed that she was a bastard and not begotten of lawfull Parents but of an obscure and dark Confusion And indeed if we speak of the favour of Princes taken according to the world we must acknowledge that it is very uncertain having as many divers births as there are different humours in the mind of great ones who are ordinarily subject to many changes whether through an opinion of their greatnesse or whether through the delicatenesse of their breeding or whether through the diversity of those that approach them and so many fantasticall conceits that proceed from the perturbation of their own felicities Who is able to tell all the entrances into favour seeing there are some that have been promoted highly for having caused a little sucking pig to be roasted handsomely as it happened to a favourtie of Henry the Eighth's King of England It is true that there are some that insinuate themselves by beauty and by a good grace others by jeasting and delightfull pastimes others by understanding and the conduct of affairs others by valour others by science others by the invention of crimes and infamous wayes of magick by unseemly complacencies and unworthy services which they render to the revenges or to the pleasures of their masters But not to speak of other proceedings that are lesse clean those that give precepts of rising at the Court will tell us that he ought to be of a good birth of a pleasing behaviour very dextrous in all sorts of exercises fit for the Nobility of a gentle wit that hath some tincture of science of a polished conversation full of civility affability and prudence In a word he must be a man of conscience of understanding of courage of service and held up by some powerfull friend that will gain the good will of great ones and to open to himself a large way to the honours of the age This is said with much prudence but we must avouch that beside all these rare qualities there is a secret push of an invisible hand that thrusts forward the favourites which some have attributed to the stars others to destiny others to a good temper but which I think with reason to be an effect of the divine Providence and an operation of the Guardian Angels who in prosperous affairs procure often counsellours and officers to Kings by high and sublime wayes of exquisite gifts and profitable to second the good genius of the Prince and to advance by the same means the favourite This is that which may be observed clearly in the person of Joseph whose Elogy I have undertaken to give you There is required in a man of a secular State the birth of a gentleman to make a fortune at the Court and this man was the son of a shepherd a skilfulnesse at weapons he had never handled nor perhaps seen any a gentlenesse in the exercises of the body he knew no other but those of shepherds a grace of speech he was a stranger and a barbarian to the Egyptians Military valour he knew no other combates but those of the rammes and bulls politick prudence he came from a savage life where he had had no other conversation but that of trees and beasts What was it then that promoted him in the Court of Pharaoh and made him rise so high Must we not acknowledge with all submission of spirit that there is an heavenly hand that takes a charge of this businesse and that it is our Tutelar Angel to whom God having given Commission of our lives and fortunes it is no way credible that he neglects us in these great occurrences of exercises and of conversations that are to compose the happinesse or the miseries of our life Yet it is true that God destining a man to some great design fails not insensibly to furnish him with necessary qualities for that disposall though they are elevated above the opinion of the world and sometimes even contrary to the ordinary practises of Courtiers from thence it came that Providence had made Joseph of a good mind and of a grace fitting for conversation of a sweet and pleasing humour of a spirit capable of businesse She gave him a marvellous gift of Prophecy and of Interpretation of Dreams which wrought the principall effect of that high fortune in a King curious to know the things that were to come and a Nation much inclined to Divinations and to the knowledge of the secrets of Nature and above Nature Here is a point of Doctrine necessary to be observed as well for the Science as for the Conscience since the observation of Dreams which many make by Superstition was made by Mystery to the honour of the Interpretour and to the profit of all the Nation as the History will shew you clearly in its sequele We know that a Dream is a vision which is made in sleep caused by the remainders of
Sea for drowning those little Innocents in the Nile The life of one onely man oftentimes costs him dear that will have it by Revenge what then do we think that it is to root out a great family or a whole Nation to satisfie one of our appetites All the veins of those that are persecuted bend themselves to resistance and God in fine taking their cause in hand overwhelms all humane Policy in a crudity of undigested designs and a shame to have try'd every thing and to have done nothing to have exhausted the sweat and the bloud of the people the gold and the steel of great Kingdomes all malices and all hell and to obtain no other thing but a remarkable Confusion through the weaknesse of ones power Seneca said to Nero that inflicted so many deaths by a jealousie of State that he killed men to good purpose indeed and that whatsoever endeavour he used he should never put to death his successour When Tyrants torment themselves without and sack smoaking cities and mow off so many innocent heads they have within that which will destroy them Pharaoh ceased not to storm and to make every day new massacres to cause him to perish that would make an attempt upon his State and in the mean while his own daughter nourishes the most capitall of his enemies that was to make his Sceptre fly in shivers and bury him in his race under the ruines of his Empire Naturall History hath observed a strange thing of the nature of the Helmet-flower that it is a plant as venomous as possible and that kills all those that eat of it and yet for all this there are little flies about that plant which are nourished with it and what is admirable serve for an Antidote against its poyson The Court is a residence very prejudiciall to Innocence and that of Pharaoh's was without doubt a School of Murders and of Massacres rather then an Academy of Honour and yet God permitted that Moses should be bred up there and that without being touched with a venome so contageous to virtues he should give a remedy to those that were offended with it He learned all the Arts and all the Wisdome of the Egyptians he considered all their Policy all their Artifices their Arms their Levies their Victuall their Souldiers the Principles of their Government the Effects the Successes the Disposition of King Pharaoh the Esteem the Credit the Capacity and the Designs of the great Ones of the Court the Means that had upheld that Monarchy and the Things that might ruine it He was respected and esteemed of all as the true son of the Princesse which gave him the liberty to know every thing and to learn the secret mysteries of the Empire not as a stranger but as an originary He shewed from his infancy some glimpse of the greatnesse and of the power to which God destined him when according to the report of the Hebrews being at play one day with the Crown of Pharaoh he threw it on the ground and trod upon it with his feet which was esteemed a very bad presage and gave much trouble to the King but when they would discern whether that action proceeded from judgement and from malice or from chance they presented to him on one side an apple and on the other a coal of fire to see to which of the two he would reach his hand now the child quitting the fruit took the fire as if he would put it to his mouth to eat it Whereupon the sages of the Nation informed the King that there was no reason to put to death an infant adopted by his daughter for an action of simplicity He was then trained up in the exercise of arms and Josephus relates that being come to maturity of age he was a great warriour and that the Ethiopians having made an inundation upon the Realm of Egypt with great forces when the State was very much troubled with them the King was counselled by his Oracles to make use of an Hebrew Captain to stop the course of those hostilities The charge of the Army was given to Moses who led it with great prudence through places that others judged inaccessible and by means of certain Birds which he caused to be carried out of Egypt purged the Countrey of the serpents that were wont extremely to annoy the souldiers In fine he chased the Ethiopians and shut them up within the walls of their city Saba which he puissantly besieged The beauty of his countenance furnished him with darts and engines to take it that were stronger then fire and sword The Kings daughter having seen him from an high tower as he gave orders for the siege was so ravished with his valour that she became passionately in love with him and causes him to be sued unto for marriage on which condition she would deliver the city into his hands which was executed and the Nuptialls followed which changed the thunders of Warre into the songs of Love The glories that this Conquerour gathered from these combats were the seeds of an enraged envy which the Egyptians had against him ceasing not to persecute his virtue so that he was constrained to get him out of Egypt Yet it is held that he was at Court till the age of fourty years without advancing any thing in that great affair of the Deliverance of his People so leasurely do mighty negotiations proceed and are like the Planet of Saturn which being the highest is the slowest too He resented his bloud and his originall and had very much ado to digest the rigours that he saw continually exercised upon his brethren yet as long as he was at Court his spirit seemed to be in an eclipse without producing the vivacity of those fair Lights that God communicated to him in the wildernesse The Wise-men lost their Starre at the Court of Herod and Moses was deprived of his high revelations in that of Pharaoh He was in a condition not to be able any longer to dissemble the evil of his Nation and in an impotence to advance the good as he would have done he made a resolution to leave that place that was so familiar to Crimes and inaccessible to Virtues The clamours that he heard and the miseries that he saw rent his heart He could not hold from making an insolent Egyptian that tormented one of his brethren feel how much his hand weighed for having already a secret magistracy from God he killed him and buried him in the sand A few dayes after as he plaid the moderatour between those of his Nation an impudent fellow rose up against him and demanded of him the virtue of his commission reproaching him with the murder of the Egyptian which he thought had been very secret yet when he perceived that it was known at Court and that Pharaoh that was a suspicious Prince took jealousies of his courage and of his sufficiency he quitted all the greatnesses and all the delights of the palace of that
they preferred a flint before a pearl The first unhappinesse of his conduct was that he had not an heart for God but for his own interest and that he did not unite himself close enough to Samuel that had made him King and that was the Oracle from which he should have learned the divine Will The second was a furious State-jealousie his capitall devil that put his Reason into a disorder and infected all the pleasures and contentments of his life He was but weak to hold an Empire and govern with love and yet he loved passionately all that he could least compasse and would do every thing of his own head thinking that the assistance of a good Councel was the diminution of his Authority Sometimes he was sensible of his defects but instead of amending them he desired to take away the eyes of those men that perceived them His Spirit was little in a great body his Reason barren in a multitude of businesse his Passions violent with small reservednesse his Breakin gs out impetuous his Counsels sudden and his Life full of inequalities Samuel had prudently perceived that the Philistims were dangerous enemies to the State of Judea because they knew its weaknesse and kept it in subjection a long time depriving it of the means of thinking fully upon its liberty And therefore he maintained a peace with them and used them courteously gaining all that he could by good Treaties and would not precipitate a Warre which was to weaken the Israelites without recovery But Saul thought not himself an able man if he had not spoiled all and without making any other provision of necessary things he made a great levy of Souldiers and a mighty Army to go against the enemies in which there was but two swords It was a plot that permitted not the Hebrews to have Armorers nor other men that laboured in Iron totally to disarm them and at the least motion that they should make expose them for a pâ—ey These assaulted Philistims found him businesse enough through the whole course of his Government and Life and in the end buried him with his children in the ruines of his State But God that would give some credit to Samuel's choice sent at first prosperities to Gods people under the conduct of that new King wherein that which served for a glory to that holy man was a vain bait to Saul to make him enterprise things that could give him no other ability but to destroy himself About a moneth after his election Nahash the Ammonite raised an Army to fall upon the Jabites that were in league with the people of Israel and those seeing that they were not strong enough to resist so terrible an enemy dispatched an Embassage to him to treat about a Peace But that insolent Prince made answer to their Embassadours that he would not make any treaty of Peace with them on any other condition then by plucking out their right Eyes and covering them with a perpetuall ignominy These poor people that were reduc'd almost to a despair implored on all sides the assistance of their neighbours and failed not to supplicate to the Israelites their friends to do something in their favour Their Messengers being arriv'd at Gibeah related the sad news of the cruelty of Nahash that filled the people with fear and tears Saul returning from the fields was driving his oxen when hearing the groans of his Subjects demanded the cause of it and having been informed entred into so great a rage at the pitilesse extremities of that fierce Ammonite that he instantly tore in pieces his two oxen and sent the pieces of them through all the cities and villages of his Dominion commanding every one to follow him to revenge that injury otherwise their cattle should be dealt with as he had done with his two oxen The Israelites mov'd partly by compassion and partly also by fear of those menaces poured out themselves from all parts to this Warre in such a sort that he had got together three hundred thousand men He divided them into three Battalions and went to meet the Ammonite whom he set upon so vigorously and combated so valiantly that he totally defeated his Army and humbled that proud Giant that thought on nothing but putting out mens eyes making him know that pride goes before reproach as the lightning before the thunder All the great people that compos'd that Army returned unto their houses and Saul retained onely three thousand men whereof he gave one thousand to his son Jonathan that was a man full of spirit and generosity and farre better liked then his father Saul This Militia was too little considerable for so great enemies yet he had a courage to assault a place of the Philistims and routed their Garrison whereat they being pricked beyond measure betake themselves into the field with an Army in which there were thirty thousand chariots of warre and people without end whereat the Israelites were so affrighted that all scatter'd themselves and went to hide themselves in caves so that there remained but about six hundred men with Saul who marched with a small noise and durst not appear before his adversaries Samuel had promised to see him within seven dayes to sacrifice to God and encourage the people But Saul seeing that the seventh day was come without having any tidings of him takes himself the burnt offering offers the Sacrifice and playes the Priest without having any Mission either ordinary or extraordinary As soon as he had made an end of burning the Holocaust Samuel arrives to whom he related how that seeing all the people debauch themselves and quit the Army and how that being pressed by his enemies in a time wherein it behoved them to have recourse to prayer before they gave battle he was perswaded that God would like well enough that in the necessity and long absence of Samuel he should perform the office of a Priest by presenting the burnt offering which he had done with a good intention without pretending to usurp any thing upon his office Samuel rebuked him sharply for that action to shew that there is no pretense nor necessity that is able to justifie a sin and that it no way belongs to Lay-people to meddle with the Censer and to do the Functions that regard the Priests Then Samuel fore-told him that his Kingdome should not be stable and that God would provide himself another that should be a more religious observer of his Law thereupon he left him for a time and Saul having recollected all the people that he could endeavoured to oppose the enemy The brave Jonathan accompanied with his armour-bearer found a way to climb over rocks and to surprise a court-of-Guard of the Philistims which they thought had been inaccessible which put them in a terrible fright imagining that those that had got so farre had great forces though they did not yet appear This brought their Army into a confusion and God also putting his hand farre into the
cruell Manasses King of Judea had been spoiled of the Sceptre and led prisoner into Babylon chained as a salvage beast he was sensibly touched with his affliction and made a severe repentance being cast with his irons into a deep pit where he converted himself to God with bitter sorrows and roarings of heart that made him obtein a pardon of his sins even so far as to restore him his Liberty and his Crown He behaved himself exceeding well the rest of his dayes destroying that which he had made and repairing that which he had destroyed But he left behind him a wicked son who having imitated him in his vices followed him not in his repentance It was the impious Amon who was neverthelesse the father of the holy King Josiah who began to reign at eight years old and was governed by the good and salutary precepts of the Prophet Jeremy who took him into a singular affection This good Prince consecrated the first fruits of his government by the extirpation of Idolatry which he detested alwayes by words and combated by an indefatigable zeal He never took any repose till he had caused the Idols in Jerusalem and in the neighbouring places to be beat down plucking up all those abominations even by the root He had sworn so capitall an enmity with impiety that he persecuted the authours of it even to the grave which the condition of our mortality seems to have made as the last sanctuary of naturall liberty yet he caused the bones of those that had heretofore sacrificed to Idols to be burnt upon the same Altars as had been prophaned by them After that he commanded that the Temple should be purged and that the order of the sacrifices and of the praises of God should be there carefully observed The reading of a good book found in the Temple had so powerfully wrought upon him that he assembled his people and caused it to be read in presence of all the world with fear and trembling at the threatnings conteined therein against the impious Then he conjured all the company there present to renew in the sight of God the oath of fidelity and to promise him never to depart from his Laws and his commandments which was performed There was a re-birth of a quite other world under the reign of this wise Prince that rejoyced the heart of the Prophet Jeremy but he tasted a little honey to drink afterward a cup of wormwood Josiah was now come to the flower of his age and of his brave actions having reigned more then thirty years in a mervellous policie and great tranquility when Pharaoh Necho King of Egypt making war against the Assyrians would passe through Judea which gave some fear to this good Prince as well for the oppression of his subjects that were menaced by the passage of a great army as not to give cause of discontentment to the King of Assyria and therefore he bestirrs himself to resist him and to oppose his passage It is the misery of little Princes to be engaged in the differences of greater ones as between the Anvill and the Hammer they cannot favour the Party of the one but they must render themselves the sworn enemies of the other and Neutrality renders them suspected to both It is a difficult passage where whatsoever Industry one brings to it one often leaves behind the best feathers of his wings Josiah without advertising the King of Assyria that the Party would not be maintainable if he sent not a powerfull Ayd arms suddenly against a mightier then himself Necho sends to him his Embassadours to tell him that he meant no harm to his Person or to his State that his design was against another King whom he went to combate by the orders of Heaven that God was with him and that if he endeavoured to stop his passage evil would betide him for it Notwithstanding these pressing speeches Josiah goes out to meet him and as he was come to coping with his adversary at the very beginning of the mingling he was wounded mortally with an arrow and commanded his Coachman to draw him out of the combate which he did and as he was put in his second charriot which followed his charriot of war after the fashion of Kings he gave up the ghost without finding any remedy to divert the sharpnesse of that fatall stroke His body was brought back to Jerusalem all bloudy and the mournings for his death were so sensible and so piercing that it seemed as if there had been an universall sacking of the whole City Never Prince was so beloved never any more passionately lamented nor is there to be found any one among all the Kings of Judea that had lesse vices and more zeal for the honour of God his life was without spot his reputation without reproach and to say truth his goodnesse was as it were the breath that all the world did breathe Poor Jeremy was so cast down at a death so suddain that he lost all his joyes and begun then according to S. Jerome to make those sad lamentations that have engraved his grief on the memory of all men To question why so good a King after so many actions of Piety was killed by the hand of an Infidell as an old suit that humane curiosity hath commenced against providence from the begining of the world Some said Plinie thrive by their wickednesse and others are tormented even by their own Sacrifices But who are we to think to draw the curtain of the Sanctuary before the time and to know the reasons of all that God does and permits in the world For one virtuous Prince that is afflicted in the accidents of humane things we shall find alwayes ten wicked ones that have ended miserably and yet we cease not to quarrell with the ordination of heaven By what contract is God to make his servants alwayes winne at play and war Must he do perpetually miracles to make himself be thought what he is What wrong did he do Josiah if after a reign of one and thirty years conducted with great successes and an universall approbation he dy'd in the bed of valour defending his countrey and rendring proofs of the greatnesse of his courage What injury was it to have given him the honour to carry the hearts of all his subjects to his grave and to spread the glory of his name through all ages and all the living After that we have seen in histories 100 Tyrants dye almost all in a row of hideous and bloudy deaths we come again to King Manasses who after he had shed so much bloud passed out of this life by a death peaceable enough we return to Herod and Tiberias and to Mahomet who died in their beds as if they had been great Saints of fortune canonized by their happinesse Alas what is the life of these and of their like to be stabb'd every moment in the heart and in the publick opinion to be cursed of a million of mouths every
in it But in my opinion it is unworthy the gravity of so great a personage and I know not to what purpose it is to revile the Ashes of the Dead although it is not forbidden to write a true History to leave a horrour to posterity in recording the lives of the wicked This howsoever may serve for instruction not to play with wasps or incense those who have the pen in their hand and can eternally proscribe their Adversaries After this sport he was imployed upon the Earnest He is made Minister of State and Agrippina mother of the young Emperour desiring to confirm her self in the Monarchy and to govern by her son did supply him with two creatures men of gteat capacity and fidelity Burrus for Arms and Seneca for Laws The first was severe in his conversation the other was of a mild and pleasing disposition They both agreed even to their deaths in the government of the Affairs of State Then it was that Seneca did enter into those great imployments and exercised that high wisdome which he had acquired for the Government of the Empire He began with his Prince who was the first and the most amiable object of all his troubles and although at the first he did expresse himself very tractable and agreeable to all the world yet Seneca perceived in his infancy the His judgement on Nero. marks of a cruel and bloudy nature and told to his intimate friends that he nourished a young lion whom he endeavoured to make tractable but if he should taste once of the bloud of men he would return to his first nature And this was the occasion that at that time he did write for him the two Divine Books of Clemency where with variety of remarkable proofs he doth establish the Excellency the Beauty and the Profit of candor of Spirit and the advantage which redounds unto a Prince to govern his Subjects with Bounty and Love On the contrary he remonstrates the horrour and disastres of Tyrants who would prevail by Cruelty in the management of their Estates All his endeavour tended that way wisely foreseeing that Nero would fall into extreme Cruelties and for that cause he did willingly give way that he should delight himself in Comedies in Musick and such Exercises of softnesse hoping that in some manner it would make more civil his savage nature He also composed for him many eloquent Orations which the young Emperour would pronounce with great grace to the generall admiration both of the Senate and the people He made also many excellent Ordinances some He put his State in good order whereof by the report of Dion were engraved upon a pillar of silver and were read every year at the renewing of the Senate He hated all the inventions the deceits and tricks of State as a trade of iniquity and did ground himself on the eternall principles of Justice by which he kept the Empire in a profound peace in great abundance and a sure felicity So that in a manner Frontine makes a true narration he saith that Seneca had so redressed all abuses that it seems he had brought goodnesse into the Empire and called the Gods from heaven to be conversant again with men In which he made use of the Philosophy of the Stoicks not that which is so rigid and so sullen but that which he had tryed and seasoned for that designe to give to the world a taste thereof His opinions for the The Maximes of Seneca most part are Rationall Sacred and Divine If he speaks of God it is in the same sense as the Of God Saviour of the world did discover to the Samaritan He professeth openly that God is a Spirit and that the difference betwixt God and us is that the better part of us is Spirit but that God is all Spirit most Pure Eternall Infinite the Creatour of the great works of Nature which we behold with our eyes If he speaketh of true Worship and the most sincere Of Religion Religion which we ought to imploy to honour and adore the sovereign King of the Universe he doth sufficiently declare that the worship of God ought to be in Spirit and in Truth as our Saviour hath prescribed When you figure God saith he represent a great Spirit but peaceable and reverend by the sweetnesse of his Majesty a friend to men and who is alwayes present with them who is not pleased with bloudy Sacrifices for what delight can he take in the butchery of so many innocent creatures The true Sacrifice of the great God is a pure Spirit an upright understanding of him and a good Conscience We ought not to heap stones upon stones to raise a Temple to him for what need hath he of it the most agreeable Temple that we can build for God is to consecrate him in our hearts Lactantius hath so much Lactan. div Instit lib. â— cap. 25. esteemed of this passage that in the sixth Book of his Institutions he doth oppose it to the Gentiles as a buckler of our Christianity If there be a question about the Presence of God Of the divine presence Epist 83. which above all things the masters of spirituall life do commend in their Instructions he saith That it is to no purpose to conceal ones self from man and that there is nothing hid from God who is present in our hearts and in our most secret thoughts If we rest in the Contemplation of the Divine Providence Of Providence which is the foundation of our life he believeth a Providence which reacheth over all And in a Tract which he hath composed he pertinently doth answer those who are amazed why Evil arriveth to good people since so great and so good a God hath a care of their wayes He saith That it is the chastisement of a Father an exercise of Virtue and that what we take to be a great Evil is oftentimes the occasion of a great Good that such is the course and order of the world according to the Divine dispensation to which we ought to submit our selves If we consider the Immorrality of the Soul which Of the Immorrality of the Soul Juvâ—e de 〈◊〉 animaâ—â—â— qâ—â—rere â—mò credere Epist 102. is the foundatton of our Faith and of all virtuous actions it is certain that he had a good opinion of it and professerh in his 102. Epistle That he delightneth not onely according to Reason to search after the Eâ—ernity of the Soul but to believe it and he complaineth that a letter received from a friend did interrupt him in that Contemplation which seemed to him so palpable that it was rather to him an agreeable Vision that he had in a Dream then any Discourse in Philosophy And in the end of the Epistle he speaketh of wonders of the originall of the Soul and the return of it to God And in the Preface of the first Book of Naturall Questions which he did write some few
it is affirmed that she was taken with the love of this her brother Agrippa and that most passionately she did affect him neverthelesse to divert the fame and suspicion of the world finding her self courted by Polemon King of Cilicia she consented to espouse him on that condition that he should be circumcized to which the Prince was presently resolved being overcome by the temptation of her Beauties and the excesse of Love to which she had enflamed him She remained a certain time with him but her high and wanton spirit did distaste him and she returned into her own countrey to the Embraces of her brother who lived with her and entertained her in his place without regarding of the scandall I leave you to judge my Readers how the matter was disposed to receive the fire which proceeded from the mouth of S. Paul All that he could do was to imprint in the soul of the Prince and Princesse a good opinion of the Christian Religion and a good respect for his own person for at the rising of this Session they told the President that there was nothing in that man that deserved either imprisonment or death but because he had appealed to Cesar it was necessary that he should be sent to Rome After this S. Paul was imbarked under the conduct S. Paul imbarked for Rome of the Centurion Julius who did use him with great humanity and in the end after a laborious voyage and shipwrack they arrived at Rome He made his coming known to the chiefest of his Nation who then resided in the capitall City of the world and did inform them of his good Intentions protesting to them that he was not come to accuse his Nation but having done nothing against their Law or their Religion they had delivered him over to the Infidels who having found his cause good were ready to clear him had not the clamours and the oppositions of some of the Jews obliged him He arriveth there and treateth with the Jews to that voyage and as concerning the rest he was in chains he said for the hope of the salvation of Israel They made answer to him that they had understood nothing of him in particular but knew very well that the Sect of the Christians which he had imbraced was contrary to all the world and that they should be glad to understand by what Arguments he could pretend to justifie them To which S. Paul consented and there were great Disputations amongst them concerning the mysteries of our Faith S. Luke doth conclude his History on these conferences and speaketh nothing of the Triall of S. Paul before the Magistrates of Rome but we may learn it from the Epistle which the Apostle did write to his Disciple Timothy and from that which 2 Tim. 4. Phil. 1. he adressed to the Philipians where he declareth that on the first action of that Triall he was forsaken of all the world but singularly assisted by God and that the carrying on this affair did much improve it self to the advancement of the Gospel his chains being known in Jesus Christ to all the Praetoriums in Rome and to all the world as also that at last he was delivered from the mouth of the lion by whom he understood the Emperour Nero. From this and from that which the holy Fathers and S. Paul uâ—doubted â—â— known unâ—o Seneca Interpreters have delivered we may collect that Saint Paul came to Rome in the third year of the Emperour Nero when as yet he was not depraved and when Seneca was in the heighth of his reputation and the management of the publick Affairs We ought not to doubt that what is reported by the Pope S. Linus concerning the knowledge which Seneca had with S. Paul is true seeing that great Minister of State who had his eye over all and who was extremely curious to understand the diversity of Sects and Religions and to be informed of extraordinary Causes to make report thereof unto the Emperour could no wayes be ignorant of so famous a thing which was made known in Rome both to the great and small Besides it is very probable that Seneca assisted at the Triall and heard the Reasons of S. Paul We may also easily conjecture the Discourse which he made before the Priests and the Senatours of Rome by the Apologies and Defences which he used before Felix Festus King Agrippa Bernice and all the Assembly of the Jews and by what he spake to the Senate of the city of Athens He then declared himself to them much after this manner I think my self this day happy that God hath granted me the favour to justifie my self in your presence S. Pauls Oration to the Senate of Rome on all those Articles with which they of my Nation have accused me being throughly possessed of the great sufficiency and the integrity of this Senate to decide all differences in the Empire For this I do begin to breathe again after my long and heavy voyage and after a thousand troubles beholding my self now at the Tribunall of Cesar which I have implored and I beseech you to attend me with that Patience and Equity which you never refuse to those who are oppressed My accusers know very well what hath been my life from my youth and how by the pleasure of God being born at Tarsus a city in Cilicia which is honoured by the priviledge of Burgesses to this Capital City of the world I have followed the Religion of my Fathers conversing with a good and an upright conscience before God and before men without offending any I do avow that according to the most perfect Sect amongst us I have alwayes conceived assured hopes of our Immortality and of the universall Resurrection of men which is established by the the inviolable promise of the living God to whom nothing is impossible and that I have been most curious to observe all the Ceremonies of our Law The zeal which did inflame me for it did make me conceive that I had reason to persecute the Christians and having received a Commission from the chiefest of the Priests I made an exact search to surprize imprison and torment those who made profession of it The fury did so farre transport me that not content to prosecute a violent warre against them in Judea I passed into strange Cities into which they were fled to relieve themselves from punishment it came to passe that going to Damascus a city famous enough as I did breathe forth nothing but fire and threatnings I saw my self suddenly invironed with a light so glorious that it did surpasse the brightest rayes of the Sun and from that Splendour there did proceed the voice of a man who called me by my name and demanded of me wherefore I did persecute him I speak Sirs before God and before you with all sincerity that I felt my self strongly surprised and I demanded of him that spake unto me who he was to which he made answer That he
of all Interests to procure her death In stead of coming to the Court to be received there according to her birth and merit she found her self to be confined into a corner of a desart Island where in a new captivity she most unworthily was detained Her disloyal Brother the Vice-roy seeing her escaped from his bloudy hands did promise to himself to oppress with much ease by the circumventions of the Protestant Judges He laid anew for her the nets of his old Accusations and made use of all the falsities which had been invented to eclipse her honour Queen Elizabeth in stead of suppressing the unnatural insolence of her subjects gave them Commissions and an Order that a Process should be made against her The Puritans and the Lutherans the mortal Enemies of Queen Mary are now her Accusers her Judges and her Witnesses The number of honest men was here very few and the apprehension of the danger did stop the mouthes of those men which understood the truth but had not the courage to defend it Nevertheless amongst others there was a Scotch Gentleman the Viscount Herrin worthy of eternal Memory who presented himself to Elizabeth for the defence of his own Queen and said unto her MADAM THe Queen my Mistress who is nothing subject to A generous Compassion you but by misfortune doth desire you to consider that it is a work of an evil Example and most pernicious Consequence to give way that her rebellious Subjects should be heard against her who being not able to destroy her by arms do promise themselves to assassinate her even in your own breast under the colour of Justice Madam Consider the estate of worldly affairs and bear some compassion to the calamities of your poor Suppliant After the most horrid attempt on the King her husband the murder of her servants the cruel Designs on her sacred Person After so many prisons and chains the subjects are heard against their Queen the Rebels against their lawfull Mistress the guilty against the Innocent and the felons against their Judge Where are we or what do we do Though Nature hath planted us in the further parts and the extremities of all the earth yet she hath not taken the sense of humanity from us Consider she is your own bloud your nearest kins-woman she is one of the best Queens in the world for whom your Majestie is preparing bloudy Scaffolds in a place where she was promised and expected greatest favours I want words to express so barbarous a deed but I am ready to come to the Effects and to justifie the innocence of my Queen by witnesses unreproveable and by papers written and subscribed by the hands of the Accusers If this will not suffice I offer my self by your Majesties permission to fight hand to hand for the honour of my Queen against the most hardy and most resolute of those who are her Accusers In this I do assure my self of your Equitie that you will not deny that favour unto her who will acknowledge her self obliged to your bounty Elizabeth who found her advantages in the misfortunes of Mary made no account of these remonstrances and commanded the Commissioners who were the Dukes of Norfolk and of Sussex to proceed unto the Charge But there is a God who rules the Assemblies of men and oftentimes doth turn their Advice against their own consciences The greatest part of this Court were so transported that they had a Resolution to destroy Queen Mary Murray Morton the infamous Bishop of Orcades and the pernicious Buchanan with divers other Enemies of the Queen were now come and brought with them the most execrable inventions and blackest calumnies that ever were fetcht from hell to charge the Queen with the death of the King her husband nay Letters of love were produced which had been invented by some Puritans who with an insupportable impudence affirmed that they found them in a silver coffer of the Queens The Earl of Murray who in the beginning pretended The inhumane cruelty of ambition to wish better to no man than to Bothuel doth now declare himself the chief of this Accusation outragiously pursuing the death of his Sister alledgeing That she was the occasion of her husband's death in revenge of the murder of her Secretary that she never loved him afterwards that she never lamented his loss nor repented of her own sin That she altogether abandoned her self to the love of the Earl of Bothuel whom afterwards she married although he was the murderer of her husband Lesley the Bishop of Rosse Gordon Gauvin Baron and others who were there on the behalf of the Queen for she was present her self in person knowing the whole truth of the business and being incensed at the heart to see the foul treasons of this Judas did handle him according to his desert and did answer him by a very strong Apologie which was afterward presented to the Judges to consider of it at their leisure I will in this place insert the substance of it having some years since found it amongst the Acts of the Queen of Scotland MY LORDS IT is a great favour of Heaven to us that the Earl of Murray is an Accuser in this Cause since his name is able to justifie the greatest crimes much more to accuse the Innocent before persons so approved for their justice and their wisdom It is sufficiently known that by the ignominie of his mother he was the son of a Crime as soon as a son of Nature that he hath ever since lived by wickedness and is grown great by insolence The Queen his Sister hath but one fault which is that she hath advanced him against the intentions of the King her father who designed to him no Crown but what when he was to take Religious Orders the Barber should give him and now he hath usurped the Crown of the Realm His desire and endeavours are that the Diadem should be taken from the head of Mary in recompence to him for having cried her down by his calumnies dishonoured her by his outrages imprisoned her by his fury and dispossessed her by his tyranny Murray doth accuse the Innocent for having contrived her husbands death and he doth accuse her in a Court where there are Witnesses unreproveable that will presently be deposed upon Oath that having plotted this horrible murder he being in a Boat did say That the King should that night be cured of all his maladies And surely it was easie for him to presage it when he and his Accomplices had before decreed it and he had assigned them the place the time and the manner of the execution Murray hath made himself an Accuser to ravish the Kingdom and sway the Scepter imbrued with the bloud of the Queen his sister And we are not so much amazed at this for he hath sold his soul to work wickedness at a far cheaper rate Who had a deeper interest in the death of the King than a Monk for so
leave a spirit in perpetual dotage Let us rather set our feet on the steps of Catholick Religion where we planted them from our tender age It is not so cloudy as the Manichees suppose it Ambrose hath already much freed me from errours let us pursue the rest I but Ambrose hath not leasure for thee Let us read where shall Disturbances of mind in S. Augustine we find necessary books and where have fit time Thy schollars busy thee all the mornings take at least some hours after noon to enjoy thy self But when shall I admit the necessary visits of friends that must be entertained and when the preparations for my lectures and when my recreations Let all be lost so I may gain my self This life as thou seest Augustine is most miserable and death uncertain If it catch thee upon a surprise in what estate wilt thou leave this world And where dost thou think to learn that which here thou hast neglected But how if death also should conclude the faculties and life of the soul It is a madness to think onely on it since all the greatness and choise of Religion wisdom and sanctity fights for the immortality of the soul We should never so much employ the spirit of God in so great advantages as he hath given us if we had no other life but that of flies and ants Augustine thy evil is thy sensuality If thou wilt find God thou must forsake thy self and from this time forward bid a long adue to worldly pleasures Thou art deceived when thou hast left them thou wilt have the repentance to have done that too soon which thou oughtest not to do nor canst thou any more make an honourable retreat into the world Let us live we have good friends we may in the end have an office a wife means and all sort of contentments There are too man◠miserable enough through necessity that consent not to it by any act voluntary To conclude a wife and the truth of the Gospel are not things incompatible Behold how this poor spirit turmoiled it self in the retirement of his cogitations as himself hath declared in his Confessions He beheld the life of Saint Ambrose and his chastity with an eye yet benummed and surcharged with terrestrial humours and it reflected some rays upon him but he found it so high mounted in the throne of its glory that the sole aspect affrighted him he measured continency by his own forces not by the grace of God Behold why he Confes 6. 11. Amans beatam vitam timebam illam in sede suâ despaired of a single life and thought a wife was a chain sometime unhappy but ever necessary He lived at that time with Alipius and Nebridius two noble Africans his intimate friends who followed him charmed with his doctrine and sweetness of his conversation and from this time they proposed that life to themselves which they afterward led He often put them upon the intention to establish a good manner of life to pass the rest of their days in the study of wisdom Alipius who was very chast maintained this could not be done in the company of women according to an ancient saying of Cato who affirmed If all the world were without a woman it would not be exempt from the conversation of gods Augustine that was less chast than Alipius and much more eloquent prepared himself to dispute this question strongly and firmly against him so that it seemed saith he that the old serpent spake by his mouth so much he connected together reasons and allegations to maintain his opinion The good Alipius was much amazed to behold such a great spirit so tyed to flesh and as he attributed much to all his opinions respecting him as his Master it was a great chance he had not drawn him into voluptuousness through a simple curiosity of experience This miserable snare stayed all his good purposes and needs must he break them to put this great soul into full libertie The ninth SECTION Three accidents which furthered this Conversion IT happened either by the industry of holy Saint Monica who failed not to observe opportunities for the salvation of her son or by a secret inspiration of God that the woman whom he had brought with him from Africk and with whom he had always lived in fair correspondence preserving to him inviolable faith as if she had been his lawfull wife resolved to leave him saying That she had now fulfilled the measure of her sins That it was time to think upon a retreat that she should die with this onely grief not to have tears enow to wash the offences of her youth so unthriftily wasted For the rest never man should possess her after him and that all her loves should be from this time forward for him who made her onely she recommended unto him a son which she left praying he would shew himself as a father and mother unto him Augustine was much amazed at this speech It seemed his heart was pulled away from him to see himself separated from a woman he so faithfully had loved and on the other side he was full of confusion to behold that she shewed him the way which he sought he not yet feeling himself strong enough to follow her example It was not in his power to stay her any longer nor to approve what she did His spirit was pensive and divided not knowing upon what to resolve After the departure of this woman the mother who as yet knew not the will of God speaks to him of marriage and he cast his eyes upon a young virgin of a very good house which much pleased him who though she were two years younger than the lawfull age of marriage permitteth he resolved to stay for her but in the mean space he found out new loves taking another unlawfull woman in the place of her whom he had forsaken Yet for all that he desisted not from the enquiry of truth feeling none of all those engagements more than that of love which made the sharpest resistance against him and seeing he could not accost S. Ambrose in his great multiplicity of affairs with that facility he wished he made his address to Simplicianus Holy Simplicianus Priest of the Church of Milan He was one of the most venerable men that was then in Europe endowed with infinite piety and excellent literature For this consideration he was delegated by his holiness to serve as a spiritual Father to S. Ambrose Otherwise he was so humble and modest that to give his Bishop the upper-hand he very often counterfeited ignorance in questions which he right well knew consulting with S. Ambrose as an Oracle because of his dignity and giving a perfect example to all of the duty we ow to the Prelates of the Church Besides these ornaments of virtue and science this holy man had strong attractives in the facility of his conversation and sweetness of entertainment so that a certain particular grace
of pretious things received from the love of subjects The river which glideth along said he though it do no other spoil still worketh out its channel so companies of souldiers which pass through towns and villages though military discipline be there observed fail not to bring thither with them much damage and therefore it was his pleasure the places should be recompenced which had been overcharged For the same reason he appointed fifteen hundred crowns of alms to be delivered to the venerable Bishop S Severinus to distribute them among the peasants which he knew had been vexed with the harbouring of certain warlick companies Verily as it is no smal temerity in particular men who have neither any charge nor knowledge of affairs to argue great men upon tributes and the husbanding of their treasures so would it be a neglect to conceal from them upon occasions the moderation they ought to use herein since it is so exactly recommended by the law of God and published in all histories If a stranger raised from the bottom of barbarism shewed himself so Religious in matters of subsidies towards men whom his arms had newly made tributary Princes and Lords of Christendom have good cause to consider what they ow to a people which is given them as to Fathers and Protectours of the publick There is no doubt but the exorbitancies committed in such like affairs are most important charges of conscience which much clog a soul in the agonies of death and in the dreadful judgement of Almighty God There is also to be seen an Edict of the same Prince where having understood that in the payment of taxes the rich made the heaviest part of the burden to fall upon the shoulders of the meaner and that the undertakers of this business ill behaved themselves therein he detesteth all these abuses as injuries done to his own person and gave full liberty to those who had been wronged to complain to him that such order might be taken as he should judge reasonable This manner of proceeding made him so beloved that other Princes having passed away like dreams of one night he reigned thirty years in a most supereminent degree of respect which those even of the religion contrary to his own bare him The third Maxim given him by Boetius was to make himself most exact in the exercise of justice because it is the basis of thrones and the spirit which animateth all government and he so deeply impressed this in his heart that the desire he had to render every one what was his was changed in him to a most ardent thirst and a continual hunger He selected out the most untainted and uncorrupted Governours he could find and spake these words unto them related by Cassiodorus Use the matters so that Judges of Provinces may be very careful in the observation of laws that Tribunals spare not to thunder out sentences against ill manners that theeves may fear the gates of your Palaces that the a dulterer may tremble before a chast Officer that the forger may feel horrour at the voice of a Herauld and that all crimes may be banished from our territory That no man oppress the poor that persecutours be apprehended and pursued as disturbers of publick repose You shall make a general peace when you have beaten down the authours of mischiefs which are committed Let Cassioder ra◠l. 22 Mihipropria cura dilapsi est postquam generalem coepicogitare custodiam Opto mei◠benè sed quod possit esse commune Captains contain their souldiers in all manner of discipline in such sort that the labourer the merchant the sailer and the artificer may understand arms are not made but for their defence I will not likewise that my nearest allies be pardoned in any case of justice since I have taken the Common-wealth into my charge I have despoiled my self of my proper interests I wish well to mine but in the generality Pursuing the maxims I will recount an admirable passage which he used among others to make his justice remarkable A Roman Lady left widow by Manuscriptum P. Sirmundi Joannes Magnus Laurentius Venetus the death of her husband had lost a son born of this marriage who was secretly stoln from her and in servitude bred up in another Province This child grown up a young man received notice from a good hand that he was of free extraction and son of a Ladie whose name was given him her aboad and all circumstances which caused him to undertake a voyage to Rome with intention to make himself known unto her He came directly to his mother who was much perplexed with certain love-affairs having betrothed her self to a man who often promised her marriage yet never accomplished it This lover then absent and detained by urgent affairs very far from Rome the Ladie had the space of about thirtie days free wherein she kept this young man in her house acknowledging him and particularly avowing him for her son throughly convinced by evident tokens so that then her charitie was so great towards him that she ceased not to weep for joy in the recovery of her loss The thirtie days expired the Lover returned and seeing this guest newly come to her house demandeth of the Lady what man he was and from whence he came She freely answered he was her son He whether moved by jealousie thinking this might be but a colour or that pretēding the marriage of the widow he would not have a charge of children plainly told her if she sent not away this found child from her lodging never should she have any share in his affection The unhappy creature surprized with love to serve his passion renounceth her own entrals and readily banisheth from her house this son over whom she had so many tears The young man seeing himself as between the hammer and the anvil in so great a necessitie of his affairs hasteneth to require justice of the King who most willingly heard him and commanded the Lady should be brought before him to be confronted by him She stoutly denied all the pretensions of this young man saying He was an impostor and ungrateful who not contenting himself to have received the charities of a poor creature in her house needs would challenge the inheritance of children The son on the other side wept bitterly and gave assurance she had acknowledged him for her own very lively represēting all the proofs which passion and interest put into his mouth The King sounded all passages to enter into the heart of the Lady and asked her whether she were not resolved to marry again She answered if she met with a man suitable to her she would do what God should inspire her The King replied Behold him here since you have lodged this guest thirtie days in your house and have acknowledged him so freely what is the cause why you may not marry him The Lady answered He had not any means which ever is necessary for houshold expence
for us we shall soon see one another and re-enter into the possession of those whose absence we a while lament It is not absence say you which most afflicteth me but to see my self destitute of a support which I expected that is it vexeth me Enter into thy heart lay thy hand on thy thoughts and they will teach thee that all thy unhappinesse cometh from being still too much tied to honours ambitions and worldly commodities I would divert thee as much as I might possibly from despair but I at this present find that the remedy of thy evils will never be but in a holy Despair of all the frivolous fair semblances of the world O how wisely said Vegetius That Despair is in many a necessity of virtue But more wisely S. John Climachus Veg. l 4. c. 5. Necessitas quaedam virtutis est desperatio Clym gr 3. peregrinatio vera est omnium protsus rerum desperatio who defining the life of a perfect Christian which he calleth the Pilgrimage did let these words fall True and perfect Religion is a generall Despair of all things O what a happy science is it to know how to Despair of all to put all our hope in God alone Let us take away those deceitfull and treacherous props which besiege our credulous minds and cease not to enter into our heart by heaps Let us bid adieu to all the charming promises of a barren and lying world and turning our eyes towards this celestiall Jerusalem our true countrey let us sing with the Prophet All the greatest comfort I have in this miserable life is that I often lift Levavi oculos meos in montes unde veniet auxilium mihi Auxilium meum à Domino qui fecit coelum terram Psal 120. up mine eyes to the mountains and towards heaven to see if any necessary succour comes to me from any place From whence can I hope more help or consolation then from the great God omnipotent who of nothing created this Vniverse and hath for my sake made an infinity of so many goodly creatures Should I see armed squadrons of thunders and lightnings to fall on me I would have a spirit as confident as if there were no danger Were I Si consistant adversùm me castra non timebit cor meum Psal 263. c. to passe through the horrours of death being in thy company I would fear no danger Moreover I hold it for a singular favour and it shall be no small comfort to me when thou takest pain lovingly to chastise me for my misdeeds and to favour me with thy visits Happy he who hath raised his gain from his losses his assurance out of his uncertainties his strength out of his infirmities his hopes out of his proper Despairs and who hopes not any thing but what is promised by God nor is contented but with God who satisfieth all desires and crowneth all felicities The ninth Treatise Of FEAR § 1. The Definition the Description the Causes and Effects thereof FEar is the daughter of self-love and opinion a Passion truly horrid which causeth The nature of Fear and the bad effects of it all things to be feared yea those which are not as yet in being and by making all to be feared hath nothing so terrible as it self It falleth on a poor heart on a miserable man as would a tempest not fore-seen or like a ravenous beast practised in slaughter and confiscateth a body which it suddenly interdicteth the functions of nature and the use of forces It doth at first that with us which the Sparrow-hawk doth with the Quail It laies hold on the heart which is the fountain of heat and source of life it seizeth on it it gripes it it tortureth it in such sort that all the members of the body extremely afflicted with the accident befaln their poor Prince send him some small tributes of bloud and heat to comfort him in his sufferings whereby the body becomes much weakned The vermillion of cheeks instantly fadeth and palenesse spreads over all the face destitute of the bloud wherewith it was formerly coloured the hair hard strained at the root with cold stares and stands on end the flames which sweetly blaze in the eyes fall into eclipse the voyce is interrupted words are imperfectly spoken all the organs and bands are loosened and untyed quaking spreads it self over all especially the knees which are the Basis of this building of Nature and over the hands which are frontier-places most distant from the direction of the Prince who is then toiled with the confusion of his state This evill passion is not content to seize on our body but it flieth to the superior region of our soul to cause disorder robbing us almost in a moment of memory understanding judgement will courage and rendring us benumm'd dull and stupid in our actions This notwithstanding is not to be understood but of an inordinate fear And that we may see day-light through this dark passion to know it in all The sorts of Fear Clavus animae fluctuantis Amb. de Paradis Tertul. de cultufoemin O necessarius timor qui tim et arte non casu voluntate non necessitate religione non culpa S. Zeno. the parts thereof I say first in generall that there are two sorts of Fear Morall and Naturall Morall which comprehending filiall and servile is not properly a Passion but a Virtue which S. Barnaby according to the report of Clemens Alexandrinus called the Coadjutrix of Faith S. Ambrose the rudder of the soul And Tertullian the foundation of Salvation Of this very same it was S. Zeno spake so eloquently O necessary fear which art to be procured by care and study and not to be met by chance voluntarily not out of necessity and rather by overmuch piety and tendernesse then by the occasion of sin which brings a guilty soul vexation enough Naturall fear is properly an apprehension of a near approaching evil framed in the soul whether it be reall or seeming to which one cannot easily make resistance It is divided into six parts according to the Doctrine of S. John Damascen to wit Pusillanimity Bashfulnesse Six sorts of naturall Fear Shame Amazement Stupidity and Agony Pusillanimity feareth a labour burthensome and offensive to nature Bashfulnesse flyeth a foul act not yet committed Shame dreadeth disgrace which ordinarily followeth the sinne when it is committed Amazement which we otherwise call admiration is caused by an object we have of some evill which is great new and not expected the progressions and events whereof we cannot fore-see Stupidity proceedeth from a great superabundance of fear which oppresseth all the faculties of the soul And Agony is the last degree which totally swalloweth up the spirit in the extreme nearnesse of great evils and greatly remedilesse Forasmuch as concerneth the causes of this passion The causes of fear if we will reason upon it we shall find that the chief and most