who had beene lately foiled by the Persian untill these fugitives raised him up and made him Lord of Aegypt Thus of the heresie of Sergius by birth an Italian by profession a Monke and of Mahomets sorcery and of these Sarazens mutiny hath the Divine Providence made up a triple cord which cannot to this day be broken having continued almost these thousand years as a fatall scourge to Christendome 7 A meere Politican that considers the causes of Iustinus his losse by the discontent of Narses or of Heraclius his prejudice by these Sarazens revolt would from both draw that Aphorisme which divers have done from a trusty Gascoignes answer unto Charles the 7. French King The Aphorisme is that Princes must beware what speeches they use unto great Souldiers or men of valour seeing that Gascoigne ingenuously told his Lord and Master that for a foule disgrace he could turne Traytor though all the riches of France though the French Kingdome it selfe would not suffice for a bribe to make him prove false or to corrupt his loyall minde The Rule or Aphorisme is in many cases good Yet if this and all other like caveats were strictly observed and other matters not amended he that at his appointed time turnes disgracefull speeches unto the speakers overthrow can make the mildest words which Generalls or other Confederates in Armes can utter for accomplishing their joynt purposes to effect their owne ruine and delivery of their enemies 8 It is a knowne story of a Family or faction in Perusium who having gathered a competent armie of their Allies to surprise the citie from which they had beene lately banished made their forcible entrance into it by night but sting all the chains that otherwise would have hindred the passage of the horsemen untill they came unto the Market stead or chiefe place to bee surprized But here their Hercules wanting roome by reason of the presse to fetch a full blow with his club for bursting that chaine much stronger in all likelihood than the rest cries Back back unto those that were next unto him and they the like unto such as were behinde them untill the same words had run like an eccho to the hindmost ranks or reere who imagining that those in the front had descried some danger resolved to be the first in retiring as they had beene the last in entring and hence they in the front perceiving themselves suddenly destituted of their company give their enterprize for lost which one blow more or one word lesse had presently effected But perpetuall exile was by Divine justice the enterprisers due and though iron chaines may be burst by the strength of man yet the Counsell of the Lord that shall stand more firme than walls of brasse or rocks of Adamant that his enemies at the appointed time may fall before it The onely use which the Politician hath made of this and like experiments is this First that Generalls should bee very wary what words should passe throughout their army and for this purpose to keepe servants women or other talkative or clamorous creatures farre from the army when any service is toward Secondly to accustome their Souldiers onely to respect their Commanders speeches and to account of others as winde that blowes afarre off These caveats were given above 70 yeares agoe and yet have greater forces than these Italians had beene upon as light occasions defeated in their intended surprisalls of Cities by night after they had blowne open their Gates with Petars However the admonition hath its use and seasons though oftentimes observed without successe because it is too much relyed upon Mordecai spake with confidence unto Ester If thou holdest thy peace at this time comfort and deliverance shall appeare unto the Iew out of another place because as he supposed the counsell of God was for their good But though Souldiers should hold their peace and Generalls speake nothing but what the Politician should prompt yet shall destruction come upon them upon other occasions if the counsell of the Lord bee once against them Yea though the parties disagreeing should lay all enmity aside and consult for the establishing of peace yet shall they conclude in blood if the Lord of Hosts be displeased with them 9 A fit instance to this purpose is registred as Camerarius tels us in foraigne Annalls though not intimated by our English Historians who had as much reason as any other to have recorded it if the story had beene true But seeing they have omitted it I will not expect the Readers historicall assent unto it but only commend it unto him as an example for illustrating the probability of the last observation The English and French Army being ready to joyn battell in Normandy the French Captaines perswade their King to intreat a parley with the King of England that so all matters might be compromised without further harme or danger to either partie The place agreed upon for the parley was a ruinated Chappell a little distant from both armies A friendly compromise was by both Kings resolved upon to be further ratified upon deliberation of their severall Counsells But before their parting a huge Snake whether stirred up by the noise of their attendants which waited without or upon other occasions seemed by her hissing and swelling necke to make towards them Both of them alike afraid draw their swords and yet neither willing to trust other within the walls run out with their naked Swords in their hands their attendants upon this sight misdeeming some outfall in the Chappell betweene them doe the like and the Armies upon this view joyne battaile and could not bee recalled untill much blood on both parties was and more had beene spilt unlesse the night had come vpon them 10 Be this as it may be a true story or a fiction the possibility of such unexpected occurrences all which are at the Almighties disposition are infinite and cannot be comprehended much lesse prevented by the wit of man which is but finite So that although the plots and devises of mans heart be many yet hath the Lord more counterplots perpetually in store and therefore of all counsells the counsell of the Lord it shall stand Whilest I reade some speculative Politicians that seeke by observing the errors of former times in managing civill affaires or projects to rectifie or correct their oversights and take upon them to make an Ephimerides of future events their Discourses in my slender observation argue a greater ignorance in them of divine Providence than their practises would in the Mathematicks that would labour out of a surd number to extract a perfect square He that knowes the rules of Arithmeticall division might in every working or attempt of resolving a full number into its proper square come nearer and nearer to the square number and yet be sure not to finde it though he spent Nestors yeares in dividing and subdividing the same number or resolving fractions into fractions The reason is this
their fury can procure unto their subjects In the case betweene Kings and Subjects properly so called or betweene superiour and inferiour subjects there is a kinde of allowance to bee made according to Geometricall proportion without swerving from the exact rule of Retaliation It is a memorable comparison which Cominaeus according to this allowance hath made betweene the evills which Lewis the eleventh French King had done to others and the like evils which God in the end of his raigne did bring upon him 2 To be disrespected by them whom hee had advanced far above their deserts and graced with dignities whereof their education and profession was uncapable could not but be a great griefe unto this great King as the like ungratefulnesse would be unto any other yet a just usuall award of Divine Iustice upon such Princes as thus neglect the rule of humane distributive justice in the dispensing of honorable favours But for a Prince which had alwayes required exact obedience alwayes accustomed to expect an observance from his Subjects more than ordinarily is given unto other Princes to be in his old age inforced to observe and flatter the churlish humour of his Physitian whose untoward service hee had recompenced with a standing fee of a thousand Crownes a month besides other gratuities extraordinary this was a perpetuall torment whereof Lewis in his perplexity could not but often complaine unto others yet could not remedy For this was a disease which he durst not make knowne unto his Physitian whose displeasure he feared more than any thing else besides death which was the only cause why he so much feared his displeasure And is it not as the wise King speakes a vanity of vanities or more than so a misery of miseries that the feare of this last point or close of life should make great men slaves for the most part of their lives and bring a necessity upon them of fearing every one with more than a slavish feare that may in probability be conceived as an instrument or messenger of its approach Now this King was so excessively afraid of death that he had given it in strict charge unto his friends and followers not to give him warning of this his last enemy by name whensoever it should to their seeming approach but to exhort him onely to a confession or expiation of his sinnes Yet was it his ill hap or fate after he had set his house in order and after his dejected spirits had beene somewhat raysed with new hopes of recovery to have death rung into his eares by his servants after such an indiscreet and unmannerly fashion as if they had sought to put him into purgatory whilest he was alive His Barber with others whom he had rewarded farre above their deserts without any preamble or circumlocution of respective language as if they had come unto him rather as Iudges to pronounce the sentence of death upon him than as gentle remembrancers of his mortality told him bluntly and peremptorily that his houre was come that hee was not to expect any further comfort from his Physitian or from the Hermit who as he thought had prolonged his life 3 If we could unpartially weigh the quality and condition of the parties who were thus uncivilly and unseasonably bold with him in the one scale of just estimation and the greatnesse of his person his natively timorous disposition and accustomance in the other the disparity would move us to bee of Cominaeus his minde in this point That this untoward remembrance or denunciation of death was more bitter and grievous unto Lewis than the sharp message of death which he had sent by Commissioners unto those two great Peeres of France the Duke of Nemours and the Earle of Saint Paul giving them but a short respite to marshall their thoughts and order their consciences before their finall encounter with this last enemie of mortality which they could not feare so much as Lewis did As this great King had done unto these great subjects so have his servants done to him 4 Lewis again had caused certain places of Little ease to be made or at least did well accept the invention of iron cages or grates little more in compass than the square of a tall mans length wherein he detained such as offended him some for divers months others for many yeares together And through consciousnesse of this his rigorous dealing with others he confined himselfe for a long time to a custody or durance as strait for his greatnesse as the iron cages were for their mediocrity They were not more desirous to see these close prisons opened or to heare of the day of their deliverance from them than he was carefull to cause the iron Fences wherewith he had incompassed the Castle wherein he had imprisoned himselfe to bee close shut save onely at such times as hee appointed them upon speciall occasions to be opened His miserable Captives were not afraid of passengers or of such as came to visit them they needed no guard to secure them Lewis caused certaine Archers to keep Centinell as well by day as by night to shoot at all that came neere his Castle gates otherwise than by his special command or appointment In fine he was more afraid to be delivered out of his Prison by the Nobility of France than his Captives were to be put in such cages That which he feared from his Nobility was not death or violence but his deposition or removall from the present government from which many wise Princes in their declining age have with honour and security sequestred themselves 5 Whether Lewis in entertaining the invention of iron cages and the use which he made of them or the Cardinall which to please his severe humor first invented them were more faultie I cannot tell nor will I dispute the rule of retaliation was more conspicuously remarkable in the Cardinall For as â—ominaeus tells us who himselfe had lodged eight months in one of them the Cardinall was by Lewis command detained prisoner fourteene yeeres together in the first that was made It was well observed whether by a Christian or Heathen I now remember not Neque lex hâc justior ulla est Quam necis artisices arte perire sua A law â—â—â—re just than this cannot beset Which cruell skill doth catch in ijs owne net One Perillus was the body or subject of the Embleme whereof this Motto was the soule He died a miserable death in that brazen Bull which he had made at the Tyrants request for the deadly torture of others And albeit this Cardinall did not dye for ought I reade in the cage of his owne invention yet had he a greater share of vexation in it than was intended for others What good effect this long and hard durance wrought in the Cardinalls soule is not specified by my Author But it is an observation of excellent use which an Heathen Philosopher hath
of the former rule of decorum in their comparisons than the holy Prophets are Thus hath the Lord spoken unto mee saith Esaias cap. 31. vers 4. Like as the Lion and the young Lion roring on his prey when a multitude of shepheards is called forth against him hee will not bee afraid of their voice nor abase himselfe for the noise of them so shall the Lord of hosts come downe to fight for mount Sion and for the hill thereof Saint Austin hath noted three sorts of errors in setting forth the divine nature of which two go upon false grounds the other is altogether groundlesse Some saith he there be that seeke to measure things spirituall by the best knowledge which they have gotten by sence or art of things bodily Others doe fit the Deity with the nature and properties of the humane soule and from this false ground frame many deceiptfull and crooked rules whilest they endeavour to draw the picture or image of the immutable Essence A third sort there be which by too much straining to transcend every mutable creature patch up such conceipts as cannot possibly hang together either upon created or increated natures and these rove further from the truth then doe the former As to use his instance He which thinkes God to be bright or yellow is much deceived yet his errour wants not a cloke in as much as these colours have some being from God in bodies His errour againe is as great that thinkes God sometimes forgets and sometimes cals things forgotten to minde yet this vicissitude of memorie and oblivion hath place in the humane soule which in many things is like the Creator But hee which makes the Divine nature so powerfull as to produce or beget it selfe quite misseth not the marke onely but the Butt and shoots as it were out of the field for nothing possible can possibly give it selfe being or existence 5 But though in no wise wee may avouch such grosse impossibilities of him to whom nothing is impossible yet must we often use fictions or suppositions of things scarce possible to last so long till we have moulded conceipts of the Essence and Attributes incomprehensible more lively and semblable then can be taken either from the humane soule alone or from bodies naturall To maintaine it as a Philosophical truth that God is the soule of this universe is an impious errour before condemned as a grand seminary of Idolatry Yet by imagining the humane soule to be as really existent in every place whereto the cogitations of it can reach as it is in our bodies or rather to exercise the same motive power over the greatest bodily substance in this world that it doth over our fingers able to weild the Heavens or Elements with as great facility and speed as we doe our thoughts or breath We may by this fiction gaine a more true modell or shadow of Gods infinite efficacy then any one created substance can furnish us withall But whilest we thus by imagination transfuse our conceipts of the best life and motion which we know into this great Sphere which we see or which sute better to the immutable and infinite essence into bodies abstract or mathematicall we must make such a compound as Tacitus would have made of two noble Romanes Demptis utriusque vitiis solae virtutes misceantur The imperfections of both being sifted from them their perfections onely must be ingredients in this compound Yet may we not thinke that the divine nature which we seeke to expresse by them consists of perfections infinite so united or compounded We must yet use a further extraction of our conceits ere wee apply them to his incomprehensible nature CHAP. 2. Containing two philosophicall Maximes which lead us to the acknowledgement of one infinite and incompreâ—ensible Essence VNto every Student that with observance ordinary will survey any Philosophicall tract of causes two maine springs or fountaines doe in a manner discover themselves which were they as well opened and drawne as some others of lesse consequence are wee might baptize most Atheists in the one and confirme good Christians in the other The naturall current of the one directly caries us to an independant cause from whose illimited essence and nature the later affords us an ocular or visible derivation of those generall attributes whereof faith infused giveth us the true taste and relish The former wee may draw to this head Whatsoever hath limits or bounds of being hath some distinct cause or author of being As impossible it is any thing should take limits of being as beginning of being from it selfe For beginning of being is one especiall limit of being 2 This Maxime is simply convertible Whatsoever hath cause of being hath also limits of being because it hath beginning of being for Omnis causa est principium omne causatum est principiatum Every cause is the active beginning or beginner of being and an active beginning essentially includes a beginning passive as fashionable to it as the marke or impression is to the stampe Or in plainer English thus Where there is a beginning or beginner there is somewhat begunne Where the cause is praeâ—xistent in time the distinction or limits of things caused or begun are as easily seene as the divers surfaces of bodies severed in place But where the cause hath onely precedence of nature and not of time as it falleth out in things caused by concomitance or resultance the limits or confines of their being seeme confounded or as hardly distinguishable as the divers surfaces of two bodies glued together Yet as wee rightly gather that if the bodies be of severall kindes each hath its proper surface though the point of distinction bee invisible to our eyes so whatsoever we conceive to have dependance upon another wee necessarily conceive it to have proper limits of being or at least a distinct beginning of being from the other though as it were ingrafted in it But whether we conceive effects and causes distinctly as they are in nature or in grosse so long as wee acknowledge them this or that way conceived to be finite and limited wee must acknowledge some cause of their limitation which as we suppose cannot be distinct from the cause of their being 3 Why men in these dayes are not Gyants why Gyants in former were but men are two Problems which the meere naturalist could easily assoyle by this reason for substance one and the same The vigour of causes productive or conservative of vegetables of man especially from which he receiveth nutrition and augmentation is lesse now then it hath beene at least before the Flood though but finite and limited when it was greatest Why vegetables of greatest vigour ingrosse not the properties of others lesse vigorous but rest contented with a greater numericall measure of their owne specificall vertues is by the former reason as plaine For in that they have not their being from themselves they can take no more then is
to come shall bee to all that are ordained for the day of wrath But bee the torments for their qualitie more exquisite than the Heathens could conceive any was it absolutely necessary for the Almightie from aeternitie to appoint them If so it were there was a fatall necessitie praecedent to the Almightie decree But if his decree hath brought this absolute necessitie upon men the execution of this decree by instrumentall or second causes differs nothing save onely in excesse of rigour and severitie from the most rigid stoicall Fate CHAP. 20. Of the affinitie or allyance which Fates had to necessitie to Fortune or chance in the opinion of Heathen writers BVT that we may finde out which wee most desire some mittigation or tolerable reconciliation of the most harsh opinions whether maintained by heathens or Christians in this argument it is a common notion received by all that every fatall event is necessarie but very few of the heathen were of opinion that all necessarie events were fatall Albeit by way of such a Poeticall licence in substituting the speciall for the generall as he used that said Hunc ego si potui tantum sperare dolorem Fate is sometimes taken for necessity without restriction It was not usuall with ancient Heathens nor is it with such as to this day use to ascribe many events to Fates to terme the rising or setting of the Sunne the ebbing and flowing of the Sea or other like effects of hourely observation necessary by the common course of nature fatall In the literall construction of many good Writers Fate and Fortune are if not Synonimall in their formall prime or direct significations yet coincident in their importances or connotations Their titles to the selfe same events or effects were ofttimes undistinguishable by such as ascribe too much to the one or to the other Ausonius but for verse sake might as well have said Dum vult fortuna as Dum fata volunt bina venena juvant When such successe the fates shall will One poyson shall another kill Or Iuvenal as well Si fata velint as Si fortuna volet fies de Rhetore consul Si volet haec eadem fies de consule Rhetor. Of Rhetorician whom she will Dame Fortune Consull makes And when she will to meaner state her Favorite downe she takes Others held Fortune to be a branch of Fate or an instrument for executing what was by Fates designed Quid referam Cannas admotaque moenibus arma Varronemque pigrum magnum quod vivere posset Postque tuos Thrasimnene lacus Fabiumque morantem Accepisse jugum victas Carthaginis arces Spectatum Hannibalem nostris cecidisse catenis Exiliumque Rogi furtiva morte duisse Adde etiam Italicas vires Romamque suismet Pugnantem membris adjice civilia bella Et Cimbrum in Mario Mariumque in carcere victum Quod consul totiens exulque ex exule consul Et jacuit Libicis compar jactura ruinis Atque crepidinibus cepit Carthaginis orbem Hoc nisi fata darent nunquam fortuna tulisset The resultance of this long Oration is no more than this Fortune was but the messenger to bring all those welcome or unwelcome presents to the Romane State which Fate did bestow upon it Of this argument see more in the 27. Chapter of this Booke parag 2 7 8 10 11 12 13 14. 2 In Tacitus his language Fate and Fortune have sometimes the same reference or importance Occulta lege fati ostentis ac responsis destinatum Vespasiano liberisque ejus imperium post fortunam credidimus After his good fortune we surely beleeved that the Empire was by the secret course of fate by signes and Oracles destinated to Vespasian and his sonne Tacit. 1. histor cap. 10. Yet is not this difference betwixt Fate and Fortune constantly observed by these two Writers themselves much less observed at all by others with Cominaeus Machiavel and other later Historians or Politicians Fortune and Fate are used promiscuously The properties or attributes of Fate are in ordinary construction the same or equivalent to those of Fortune The titles of Fate were anciently these or the like unavoydable insuperable inflexible ineluctable And it is a conceit or prenotion that to this day runnes in many Christians mindes that nothing can be against a chance Where Fortune failes nothing prevailes This difference notwithstanding betwixt them might bee observed in many Writers or in their language which have cause in their owne apprehensions to like well or complaine of them That the ordinary successe of others labours or consultations are for the most part ascribed by envy or aemulation unto Fortune whereas Fates are usually charged with the calamities or disasters which befall themselves or such as rely upon their counsells Most men are by nature prone to excuse themselves in their worst actions si non à toto yet à tanto by accusing Fortune and can be well content to exonerate their galled consciences of inward griefe by venting bitter complaints or receiving plausible informations from others against Fates Attonitis etiam victoribus qui vocem precesque adhibere non ausi lacrymis ac silentio veniam poscebant donec Cerealis mulceret animos fato acta dictitans quae militum ducumque discordia vel fraude hostium evenissent Tacitus lib. 4. Histor num 72. Even the Conquerors were astonished at the sight who not daring to speake begged their pardon with silence and teares till such time as Cerealis with comfortable words revived their spirits affirming that those things which indeed came to passe through the mutinousnesse of the souldiers or the dissention of the Leaders or the malice of the Enemies were but fatall mischances which could not bee escaped 3 Some againe derive Fate and Fortune from one and the same fountaine and distinguish them onely by excesse of strength as the same streame in Winter differs from it selfe in drouth of Summer Advertendum vero illud quandocunque illa coelestium causarum ratio ita digeritur ut artem exculcatam exsuperet dici à platonicis fatum ubi vero sic ut vincere inertem desidiosumque evaleat rursum à solerti strenuoque vinci Fortunam Vtrobique vero divinam statuunt providentiam quae ad finem agat sibi soli notum quae universa modis contemperet occultioribus Lection Antiquar lib. 10. cap. 20 The Platonicks which derive most humane events or successe from the order or disposition of celestiall causes call this disposition Fate when it is so strong that no endeavours or skill of man can prevaile against it but when the strength of it is of such a middle size as may prevaile against sloathfull and carelesse men but may bee vanquished by the vigilant and industrious they call the same disposition Fortune In both cases they admit a Divine Providence which worketh to ends knowne onely to it selfe 4 For this affinity betweene Fortune Chance and Fate in best Writers it will bee expedient to touch at
of charitie To prevent this mischiefe which is the root of all evill what perswasion could be more fit or pertinent than this prediction of the Prophet That the wealth which Hezekiah and his fathers had heaped together which his successors would be too carefull to increase would in succeeding ages steale their children for whom it was provided from them and make them miserable captives in a forraigne Land To heape up riches we know not for whom is a vanity to heape them up with care and toile to the destruction of our best private friends and advancement of the publike enemy is the extremity of folly mixt with misery Had Hezekiah his successors beene as ready to aske counsell of Gods Prophets as of Politicians these could have instructed them that the miseries foretold by Esay were fatall unto covetousnesse and unconscionable care for posterity yet not simply necessary after covetousnesse was much increased in Hezekiahs successors For long after the going out of this decree whensoever the Princes of Iudah repented for their owne oppression and the oppression of their fathers the Lord repented him of the plagues denounced and shewed himselfe ready to remove the oppressor from them And though in penitency in other sinnes did in part concur yet continuance in violence and oppression was the principall string and fatall cord by which the Princes of Iudah did draw captivity upon themselves and their children and desolation upon the City 9 To passe over the various alternation of Iudahs and Ierusalems different fates in the dayes of Manasses Ammon and Iosias and come to Iehoikim Iosias sonne in whose dayes the inveterate disease of Iudah came to a Crisis Did not thy Father saith the Prophet Ieremy to this untoward and Prince eate and drinke and doe judgement and justice and then it was well with him He judged the cause of the poore and needy then it was well with him was not this to know me saith the Lord But thine eyes and thy heart are not but for thy covetousnesse and for to shed innocent blood and for oppression and for violence to doe it Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Iehoiakim the son of Iosiah King of Iudah They shall not lament for him saying Ah my brother or ah sister they shall not lament for him saying Ah Lord or ah his glory He shall bee buried with the buriall of an Asse drawne and cast forth beyond the gates of Ierusalem Ier. 22. vers 15 16 17 18 19. Shortly after the execution of this sentence upon Iehoiakim in full measure Ieconiah his son with other of the royall seed according to Esaias former prophesie were caried captives unto Babell and all or some of them made Eunuches Howbeit the execution of the same decree upon Zedekiah and such as were yet left behinde was not as yet unavoydable or meerly fatall but such notwithstanding they made it at last by continuance of like covetousnesse and oppression When the City was more narrowly besieged by the Chaldean than it had beene by the Assyrian the Lord of hosts calls for the Aegyptian as he had done for the King of Cush to remove the siege The libertie and respiration which Zedekiah and his besieged people in the meane time got being much greater then Hezekiah had for two years space together was a true pledge of Gods antecedent will which in part they had fulfilled and which should undoubtedly have beene fulfilled in greater measure for their good so they had used this liberty to Gods glory or gone on so well in this time of breathing as in their distresse they had begun Ye were now turned and had done right in my sight in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name But ye returned and polluted my name and caused every man his servant and every man his hand-maid whom hee had set at liberty at their pleasure to returne and brought them into subjection to be unto you for servants and for hand-maids Therefore thus saith the Lord Yee have not hearkned unto me in proclaiming libertie every one to his brother and every man to his neighbour behold I proclaime a liberty for you saith the Lord to the Sword to the Pestilence and to the Famine and I will make you to be removed into all the Kingdomes of the Earth c. Ier. 34. v. 15 16 17. And Zedekiah King of Iudah and his Princes will I give into the hands of their enemies and into the hand of them that seeke their life and into the hand of the King of Babylons army which are gone up from you Behold I will command saith the Lord and cause them to returne to this City and they shall fight against it and take it and burne it with fire and I will make the Cities of Iudah a desolation without an inhabitant ver 21 22. 10 Too much skill in secular policy made them put too great confidence in the strength of Aegypt and this confidence in the helpe of man made them secure whilest they were conscious of breaking the Covenant which their Fathers had made and they lately renewed with their God The probabilities of the Aegyptians success against the Chaldean were in all politique esteeme very great and likely it is that the Chaldeans were brought back againe with speed unto Ierusalem by the speciall hand of the Almighty that they might execute his judgements upon this rebellious people How necessary how fatall and unevitable the execution of his consequent will alwayes becomes where his antecedent will hath beene thus openly and wilfully neglected may best be gathered from the same Prophets reiterated threats unto this people resuming as it seemes their former vaine confidence of the Chaldeans finall departure after his forementioned prophecy to the contrary Ier. 37. ver 9 10. Thus saith the Lord deceive not your selves saying The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us for they shall not depart For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you and there remained but wounded men among them yet should they rise every man in his tent and burne this Citie with fire To extinguish this flame or prevent the extinction of Zedekiahs royall race and Iudahs earthly glory there was no possibility left so long as they wrestled with Fates and made policie their strength yet was there after this time a possibility as true as Gods promise can make any for escaping à tanto though not à toto a possibility for Zedekiah to have kept himselfe and his family in a better estate then they afterwards enjoyed a possibility to have left the City and Temple standing after death had disposed of them so he would at the time appointed by God have submitted himselfe unto the King of Babell unto whom he had sworne allegiance Then said Ieremiah unto Zedekiah Thus saith the Lord the God of Hostes the God of Israel If thou wils
the present service and of his seeking to expresse himselfe in outward performances albeit young Samuel-like he could not distinguish the callers voice wanting an Ely to instruct him yet can no Atheist bee so impudent as to surmis◠that Esay leremy and Xenophon should conspire like partners to make a faire game by seeing one anothers hands For what common stake could they hope to gaine by this practice but to omit generalities for justifying Xenophon and Herodotus in relating such rare documents of Cyrus his infancy albeit these being compared with the former prophecie and sacred relations concerning Salomon or others whom God hath called by name are in themselves capable enough of credit we will descend to such particulars in Heathen Writers as are consonant to the sacred passages concerning the Babylonian warre and may serve to set forth the wisedome and providence of God in effecting his good purpose towards the captive seed of Abraham for according to the intent and purport of the former Prophecy the Reader is alwayes to beare in minde that the true and finall cause of Gods extraordinarie blessings upon Cyrus and of his conquest of the Babylonians was the appointed deliverance of his chosen people and the manifestation of his power and wisdome to the ends of the world 4 A man of moderne experience in treatise of Leagues and but of speculative acquaintance with the difficulties which interpose to hinder the association of lesser Segniories against mighty neighbour Monarcks would happely deeme that Xenophon had framed his relations of Cyrus his successe in linking bordering Nations to the Medes and Persians by the modell of some Academicall canvas or suit for some annuall office amongst fellow Citizens The Armenians the Hyrcanians the Cedrosians with many other naturall subjects to the Babylonian all unacquainted with the project at the beginning come over unto Cyrus with as great facility and speed as if there had beene no greater danger in undertaking this doubtfull and in common experience most desperate war than in giving a free voice to one competitor before another in a free and popular State But Xenophon was not so meane a contemplative Scholar as to commit so foule a solaecisme as this had beene albeit his pupose had beene to poetize in these narrations Poeticall fictions must beare a true resemblance of probability Truths themselves must bee set forth in their native colours although they appeare to ordinary experience most incredible Such was the successe of Cyrus in the former businesse if it were to bee deriued onely from his owne witt or contriuance But Xenophon might have good historicall reasons not to suspect the Persian annalls or Persians reports of Cyrus as we haue sacred authoritie to beleeue the matters reported by them He that called Cyrus by his name before hee was borne and had now set him vp as Competitor with the Babylonian for the Asiaticke Monarchie had layd the plot and made the canvas for him before hee set forth and which is principally to bee obserued had giuen publick warning to those Nations which Xenophon mentions more then threescore yeares before to bee ready with others in armes against Babell Set up a standard saith Ieremie in the land blow the Trumpet among the nations prepare the nations against her call together against her the kingdomes of Ararat Minni and Ashchenash appoint a Captaine against her cause her horses to come up as the rough Caterpillers Prepare against her the nations with the Kings of the Medes the Captaines thereof and all the Rulers thereof and all the land of his Dominion And the land shall tremble and sorrow for every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon to make the Land of Babylon a desolation without an Inhabitant It is intimated by another Prophet that the Lord would have these prophesies concerning Babylon so remarkeably fulfilled that all the world might take notice of them The Lord answered mee and said Write the vision and make it plaine upon tables that he may runne that readeth it For the vision is yet for an appointed time but at the end it shall speake and not lye though it tarry waite for it because it will surely come it will not tarry Behold his soule which is lifted up is not upright in him but the just shall live by his faith Yea also because he transgresseth by wine hee is a proud man neither keepeth at home who inlargeth his desire as Hell and is as death and cannot be satisfied but gathereth unto him all nations and unto him all people Shall not these take up a parable against him and a tanting proverbe against him and say woe to him that increaseth that which is not his how long and to him that ladeth himselfe with thick clay Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee and awake that shall vex thee and thou shalt be for booties unto thē Because thou hast spoyled many nations all the remnāt of the people shall spoyle thee because of mens blood and for the violence of the land of the Citie and of all that dwell therein Cyrus in the beginning of this expedition was but Cyaxarez his agent to regaine the revolted Armeneans The warre was managed in the King of Media his name albeit God according to Esaias Prophesie did prosper Cyrus under him as hee did David under Saul The same did goe of Cyrus amongst the Medes and Persians as it had of Dauid through the host of Israell Cyaxarez hath slaine his thousand and Cyrus his tenne thousand The Monarchy was to be setled on the Persian Cyaxarez was feoffee in trust for Cyrus as Saul was by Gods appointment for Dauid 5 Their taking of armes was just and in their owne defense Their first resolutions did reach no further then to the safeguard of their borders much trespassed upon by the Caldeans untill unexpected successe hopefull opportunities of better daily presenting themselves without seeking did invite them to come neerer After they had gotten secret intelligence of the enemies estate many new associates and qui◠possession of so much of his dominions as would suffice to maintaine their doubled armie they had no hope to conquer no purpose to besiege the Metropolies of the kingdome That which after a doubtfull consultation did chiefly sway them in the height of all their strength to continue their war was the complaint of their trusty confederates justly fearing lest they should become a prey to the insolent Tyrant much exasperated by their revolt as ready as able to take revenge upon them if once their armie should be dissolued The overthrow of Craesus following upon their resolution to continue the warre brought great accesse of new associates and fresh supplies unto their armie Had Cyrus or his confederates understood the tenour of the Commission which the Lord of hoasts had sealed them before they undertooke this warre they had no question giuen the onset upon Babylon before the overthrow
effects are all directed to the accomplishing of Gods revealed purpose or consequent will upon Babylon as it were so many arrowes to their marke The Lord of hoasts was the Archer and Cyrus his bow whose intentions against Babylon must therefore prosper because The Lord of hoasts hath sworne by himselfe saying Surely I will fill thee with men as with caterpillers and they shall lift up a shout against â—hee Ier. 51. vers 14. There is not one clause of Cyrus his advise or exhortation to his followers after they had found the river to bee passable or of his proclamation after their entrance through the water-gate which Xenophon relates but is parallell to some part or other of Ieremies Prophesies Wee may boldly say all that Cyrus commanded was faithfully executed that the scripture might bee fulfilled 8 That which in reason might most daunt or deterre his souldiers from raunging the streets of Babylon was opportunitie of annoyance from the tops of their flat-roofed houses But this inconvenience Cyrus by his good foresight turnes to his advantage If any sath hee clime up to the tops of their houses as it is likely many of them would we have God Vulcan our confederate for their porches are very apt to take fire their gates being made of palmetrees asphaltites inunctae which will serve as oyle to cause them to take fire and wee have store enough of torches pitch and straw to inlarge the flame after the fire be once kindled By this meanes either we may enforce them to forsake their houses or burne both together The execution of this stratagem would quickly amate men already affrighted with the sudden surprisall of the Citie To this purpose the Lord had spoken long before The mightie men of Babylon have forborne to fight they have remained in their holds their might hath failed they became as women they have burnt their dwelling places her barres are broken Ier. 51. vers 30. One post shall runne to meete another and one messenger to meet another and shew the King of Babylon that his citie is taken at one end And that the passages are stopped and the reedes they have burnt with fire and the men of warre are affrighted verse 31 32. Xenophon tels us that after Cyrus had given Gobrias and Gadatas in charge to conduct the Armie with all speede to the Kings Palace Si qui occurrebant of such as came in their way some were slaine others retired againe into the citie others cryed out That which made the noyse more confused and the danger lesse apprehended was that Gobrias and his souldiers being Babylonians by birth did counterfaite the roaring of that unruly night Whatsoever occasion of distast or implacable discontent the proud King had given to these two captaines whether those which Xenophon reports or others the finall cause of that successe which their bloody intentions against their native King did finde was the accomplishment of Gods will reuealed against him for his Grandfathers crueltie against Ierusalem whereof being gently warned by Gods Prophet he no way repented but added gall to wormwood and thirst to drunkennes O thou King the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdome and majestie and glorie and honor And for the Majestie that he gave him all people nations and languages trembled and feared before him whom he would he slew and whom hee would he kept alive and whom hee would hee set up and whom hee would hee put downe But when his heart was lifted and his minde hardened in pride he was deposed from his Kingly throne and they took his glorie from him And hee was driven from the sonnes of men and his heart was made like the Beasts and his dwelling was with the wild Asses they fed him with grasse like Oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till hee knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdome of men and that hee appointeth over it whomsoeuer he will And thou his sonne O Belshazzar hast not humbled thine heart though thou knewest all this but hast lifted up thy selfe against the Lord of heaven and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee and thou and thy Lords thy wives and thy Concubines have drunke wine in them and thou hast praysed the gods of silver and gold of brasse yron wood and stone which see not nor heare nor know and the GOD in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all thy wayes hast thou not glorified Then was the part of the hand sent from him and this writing was written And this is the writing that was written MENE MENE TEKEL VPHARSIN This is the interpretation of the thing MENE God hath numbred thy kingdome and finished it TEKEL thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting PERES thy kingdome is divided and given to the Medes and Persians Dan. 5. vers 18. to 29. 9 Thus wold Daniel have cured Babel but she was not cured by him howbeit Belshazzar was more kinde to Daniel then to himselfe then most great Princes are to Gods best Prophets that reprove them For he commanded and they cloathed Daniel with scarlet and put a chain of gold about his neck made a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third Ruler in the kingdome In that night was Belshazzar the King of the Caldeans sâ—aine And Darius the Median tooke the kingdome being about threescore and two yeere old Dan. 5. vers 29 30 31. For it is not the bestowing of a Scarlet robe of Court holy water or of reall honour in greatest measure upon Gods servants that can couer a scarlet sinne in Princes The staine of blood can never be washed off nor the crie of the oppressed blowne away though the whole element of water winde ayre were at their commands without the teares and sighs of the oppressors whose hearts cannot be cleansed without repentant prayers Ierusalems sighs and teares in her sorrow had sunke too deepe into the Almighties eares to be expiated without the sacrifice of many sorrowfull hearts and contrite spirits throughout Babel Israel is a scattered sheepe the Lyons have driuen him away first the king of Assyria hath devoured him and last this Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon hath broken his bones Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel behold I will punish the King of Babylon and his Land as I have punished the king of Assyria And I will bring Israel againe to his habitation c. Ier. 50. vers 17 18 19. Thus Israel is revolved from Gods consequent wil to his antecedent Babylon from his antecedent to his consequent will And for the speedy execution of both parts of this his will for Israels good and Babylons hurt the Persian Monarchy is with such speed erected 10 But some happily will here demand wherein the similitude mentioned by Ieremie betweene the King of Assyria and the King of Babylons punishments did consist Senacharib
that they would adventure both body and soule at any time for his sake yet thus farre infatuated he was as not to consider that some of them which were so willing to worke a publique mischiefe for his pleasure might also have a desire to secure their private friends from danger by giving them some generall or ambiguous admonition albeit against their oaths of secrecie That one of them should seeke to admonish his Honourable friend of the instant danger was a thing not extraordinary except in this that so much good nature could be left in his brest that could consent unto his Countries ruine That a man of the Iesuites instruction should finde an evasion in an oath which he held lawfull is a matter usuall And who knowes whether hee that permits evill because he knowes to turne it unto good did not at this time make use of the Iesuites doctrine of playing fast and loose with his sacred and dreadfull name to animate this Discoverer to dispense with that solemne oath of secrecy which he had taken and afterward to forsweare the fact so deeply I do not think he durst have adventured upon either without some secret mentall reservation But without all question it was his counsell which moderateth the maine devises of mans heart that moved him to expresse his minde in such termes as might represent or call the fathers disaster unto the remembrance of his royall sonne whom nature had taught to make jealous constructions of every speech word or circumstance that might revive the memory of the intendments against his father and to forecast all possible interpretations of all occurrences which might portend or intimate the like designes against himselfe As the sincerity of his royall heart and consciousnesse of clemency towards all especially towards that faction which deserved none had brought our Soveraigne asleepe in security so the collections which he made out of the disclosers aenigmatical admonitions were such as a man would make that had heard the Letter read in a dreame or slumber not such as so wise and learned a Prince would in other cases have made in his vigilant and waking thoughts But from what cause soever the dreame came the interpretation was from the Lord and Let it be unto the Kings enemies for ever The event hath proved the discloser to have beene a false Prophet and to have spoken presumptuously when he said that God and man had concurred to punish the iniquity of those times by such a blow as he meant We must with the true Prophet make confession Not unto us Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give the glorie It was not God and man but God alone that did sute and order the severall occurrences by which the intended blow was prevented It was not God but the devill that did intend it 5 That the Iewes in the dayes of Mordecai that the Genoezes within this age that this Land and people within our memory have not become a prey unto their malicious enemies was meerely from the counsell of the Lord which must stand for our good if we decline not unto evill It is not the breath or vapour of Hell that can undermine our State or shake our Princes Throne whilest God is with us But if he be against us what can be for us If he doe but speake the word even the least word of mortall man whose breath is in his nostrils shall be sufficient to blow up or overturne a Kingdome If subjects should rebell as often as Princes breake jests upon them they might worke their owne greater real disgrace and wrong both themselves and their posterities farre more in deed than the other had done in words But opportunitie makes a theefe and want of opportunitie oftimes keepes great mindes much discontent from rebellion But when it shall please him that hath reserved the perfect knowledge of times and seasons to himselfe not to dispose their opportunities to any Land or peoples good a womans unseasonable word may breed mightiest Empires greater reall mischiefe than Emperours Swords for many generations can redresse So it fell out when Iustin the Emperour had removed Narses the Eunuch from his regency of State upon importunate accusations which for the present he could not put off but only by putting him from his place Sophia his Empresse not so wise herein as after-experience might have taught her to have beene whether willing as the old proverb is to adde scathe to scorn or whether desirous to sooth Narses his calumniators in their humour said she would have Narses come unto Constantinople there to spin amongst her maids The jest being brought unto his eares provoked him to give her proofe of his masculine spleene and indignation For he thus resolved Seeing it hath pleased her Excellency to appoint mee this taske I shall shortly spinne her such a threed as shee and her Husband shall hardly bee able all the dayes of their life to untwist Not he but the Lord by his mouth had spoken the word and it was done For Alboinus King of the Lombards comes instantly out of Hungary at Narses his call who could not disswade him from entring into Italy after it repented him of his former spleene against Sophia and of his encouraging of this King to revenge his wrong The Easterne Empire had received many wounds before this time but lately cured of the most dangerous by Narses his good service This was the first perpetuall and irrecoverable maime the second more grievous did follow upon as light occasions but where in the concourse of many circumstances were more notable 6 When Mahomet first begun to counterfeit extaticall visions and practise Sorcery he aymed perhaps at no greater matters than Simon Magne did onely to be accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some great one among his fellow Badgers and Camel-drivers He did not so much as dreame of Nestorius or his heresie And Sergius the Monke when he began to maintaine that heresie at Constantinople did think as little of Arabian Sorcery After these two by Satans instigation and Gods permission had made a medley of Iewish infidelity and Grecian heresie as if it had beene a garment of English wool and out landishâ—â—int they least thought of any mutinie towards in Heraclius his camp for want of pay The Romane Quaestor was altogether ignorant of Mahomets visions or his new coined Lawes when he thus disgracefully intreated the Arabians or Sarazens There is scarce sufficient provision for the Romane and Grecian Souldiers and must this rascality of Dogs be so importunately impudent in demanding their pay Sed habet Musca splenem These poore Barbarians were such hungry Dogs as looked to be cherished where they fawned and could be content to change many masters rather then be continually raited thus Now albeit the Romane Quaestor did thus uncourteously dismisse them without a pasport or direction whither to goe yet the Lord by his harsh language did hisse for these Hornets unto Mahomets Campe
how little soever a surd number exceeds the next square yet the overplus is in division infinite And so are the events which the Politician seeks to rectifie or determine of and therefore not certainly rectifiable or determinable save onely by him whose wisdome is actually infinite It is an errour incident to little children to think they might easily shake hands with the man in the Moone or with Endymion kisse the Moone it selfe if they were upon the next hill where it seemes to them to set and if you bring them thither they think they came but a little too late if they could bee now at the next hill where they see it goe downe they imagine they might doe so yet Such for all the world is the practicall Politicians errour the cause of both in proportion the same Children are thus deceived because they imagine no distance betweene heaven and earth or betweene heaven and that part of earth which terminates their sight And so the secular Politicians minde reacheth no farther than the hemisphere of his owne facultie Either he knowes not or considers not how farre the height and depth of his wisedome and counsell that sits in the heavens and rules the earth exceeds the utmost bounds or horizon of his foresight and limited skill in this only different from the childe that his wit is more swift and nimble than the others body so that he is not so soone weary of his pursuit But if hee misse of his purpose at the first he hopes at his next flight to speed and thus in seeking after true felicity which was hard by him when hee beganne his course he runnes round all the dayes of his life even as he is led by him that daily compasseth the earth Better might Painters hope by looking on the multitude of men now living to draw accurate pictures of such as shal be in the Age to come than any Politician can expect either by observation of former times or experience of his owne to prescribe exact rules for managing of future projects For if we consider the whole frame or composition of circumstances or all the ingredients if I may so speake of every event there is as great a varietie in humane actions as there is in mens faces Never were there two events of moment upon earth altogether alike each differs from other either in the substance number or quality of occurrences or in the proportion of their consonancie or dissonancy unto the counsell of the Lord as there is no visage but differs from another if not in colour or complexion yet in shape or figure I have beene perhaps rather too long then too bold in decyphering the vanity of this proud Criticke which accuseth Christianity of cowardize in actions and devotion of stupiditie and dulnesse in consultation of State But so might Bats and Owles condemne the Eagle of blindnesse were tryall of sight to be made in that part of twilight wherein darknesse hath gotten the victory of light Some men not able to discern a friend from a foe at three paces distance in the open Sunne will reade their Pater noster written in the compasse of a shilling by moone shine much better than others clearer sighted can reade a Proclamation print The purblinde see best by night yet not therefore better sighted than others are because the absolute triall of â—ight is best made by day So is the meere Politician more quick fighted than Gods children in matters permitted by divine providence to the managing of the Prince of darknesse For albeit the righteous Lord do in no case permit or dispense with perjury fraud or violence yet he suffers many events to be compassed by all or some of these or worse meanes Now when matters usually managed by speciall providence come by divine permission once to catching hee that makes least conscience of his wayes will shew most wit and resolution For whatsoever falls to Satans disposalls shall assuredly bee collated on him that will adventure most It is his trade and profession to lend wit might and cunning for satisfying present desires upon the mortgage of soules and consciences And his Scholar or Client the politique Atheist perceiving fraud and violence to prosper well in some particulars imagines these or like meanes throughly multiplied to be able to conquer all things which he most desires But when Satans commission is recalled or his power by Gods providence contracted the cunningest intentions or violent practises of Politicians prove much like to a peremptory warrant out of date which being directed to one County is served in another Both indanger the party prosecuting and turne to the advantage of the prosecuted I conclude this Chapter and Section with the observation of a namelesse Author but set downe in verses related by Camerarius Si vitam spectes hominum si denique mores Artem vim fraudem cuncta putes agere Si propius spectes Fortuna est arbitra rerum Nescis quam dicas tamen esse vides At penitus si introspicias atque ultima primis Connectas tantum est Rector in orbe Deus Who looks on men and on their manners vile Weenes nought is wrought nought got sans force or guile Who nearer looks spyes who knows what her wheele Who coozneth fraud and oft makes force to reele But Eagle sights which pierce both far and neare Eye One who onely ruleth all this Spheare SECTION IV. Of Gods speciall Providence in suiting punishments unto the nature and qualitie of offences committed by men CHAP. 31. Of the rule of retaliation or counterpassion And how forcible punishments inflicted by this rule without any purpose of man are to quicken the ingraffed notion of the Deitie and to bring forth an acknowledgement of Divine Providence and Iustice 1 ARISTOTLE did rightly denie retaliation or counterpassion to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exact justice and yet it may be Pythagoras his thoughts did soare much higher than his when he pitched upon the affirmative In ordinary offences committed by unequall or extraordinary persons Pythagoras his tenent is not universally true As if a great person should beat his farre inferiour without just cause it stands neither with the Law of God or rule of equity to beat him in the same fashion or according to the same measure againe But when Kings and Monarks doe extraordinary wrongs unto their subjects or practise prodigious cruelties upon their inferiours they usually suffer the like harmes or plagues themselves But who saith Cominaeus shall call Potentates in question who shall accuse who shall condemne who shall punish them All as he resolves that can be required to a formall processe shall be supplyed by the complaints and teares of such as are agrieved by them by the sighes and grones of the fatherlesse and widowes These are more authentique than any witnesses of fact more powerfull then any Atturney or Advocate before the supreme tribunall of God So good and gratious a Iudge is He and so
from their greatnesse but from some other causes best knowne unto himselfe His judgements upon Princes and other Potentates are often executed according to the most strict arithmeticall proportion that can be required in the rule of Retaliation upon equalls as well for the manner as for the matter of punishment And although God in this life never plagueth any according to the full measure of their offences committed against himselfe yet he often visiteth Kings and Monarks with a fuller visible measure of calamity than they have brought upon others and with calamity of the same kinde Though Pharaoh had beene the greatest Monark and his Court the most glorious seat of Nobility till their time on earth yet because hee and his Nobles had plotted cruelty against the innocent without relentance or remorse the dignity of his or their persons procures no mitigation either for the matter or manner of punishment Their dues are fully paid them as we say in kinde the guiltlesse blood of poore Hebrew infants is rendred seven â—old into the bosome of the Aegyptian Nobility and men of Warre 2 Never did any State or Kingdome since the foundation of the world were laid receive so terrible a wound within its owne territories in one day as at this time Egypt did but females did in some measure feele the smart Yet in this last as in the former plagues no Egyptian woman had cause to lament for her selfe for her sister or daughter but many for their husbaÌ„ds their brothers or sons What was the reason The Egyptian Mid-wives and they were women if no other of their sex besides had beene more merciful to the infant males of the Hebrewes than the Egyptian men had been And as they had done so hath the Lord requited the one and rewarded the other To the mercilesse Courâ—iers Politicians and men of Warre he hath rendred vengeance and judgement without mercy and punished them with miserable and ignominious death shewing compassion on the weaker and more pitifull sex 3 It was a rare document of divine justice to ordaine of divine wisdome so to contrive that the dogges should lap King Ahabs blood in the same place where they had lapped the blood of Naboth stoned to death through his connivance or permission As sure a token it was of justice tempred with mercy and of the great Kings speciall grace or favour unto this gracelesse King of Israel that the dogs which lapped his blood should not so much as touch his body Being slaine in battell his death was honourable as the world accounteth honour yet was it not so much the dignity of his royall person as his humiliation upon the Prophets chalenge which made him capable of this favour but not a dram either of disgrace or misery from which Ahab was by Gods mercy in part released which did not fall into the scale of Iustice wherein the impiety of proud Iezabel was exactly waighed The measure of her husbands punishment is not so much less as hers was fuller than Naboths had been The sight of her coÌ„manding letters caused poore Naboth to be stoned to death by the men of his citie and at Iehues call her body is dashed against the stones by her owne servants The dogs lapped Naboths blood but they devoured Iezabels flesh she had beene shamelesly cruell in her life and she hath a most shamefull and a most fearfull death Nor would the all-seeing Iudge suffer that respect to be done to her corps which her cruell executioner intended upon remembrance that she had beene daughter to a King It was I must confesse a ruefull case and yet a judgement more righteous than rufull that she which had issued from royall womb she from whose wombe had issued royall progenie for she had beene respectively lawfull daughter lawfull wife and lawful mother unto three Kings should be entombed ere her corps were cold in the entrailes of dogs should have no better burial than the dead Ass or other carion albeit she died in her owne royall palace But thus the Almighties arme sometimes reacheth greatest Princes even in this life heavier blowes than they can give unto their poorest subjects But where the blow or matter of punishment which falls on them is much lighter the wound or torment may be more grievous as was observed before than their furie can procure unto their despised brethren 4 But neither doth the sacred relation concerning Pharaohs overthrow or Iezabels death containe a more perspicuous ocular demonstration of Divine Iustice executed according to the rigour of Retaliation than hath beene represented or rather really acted upon a publike Stage within the memory of some now living The subject of this rufull spectacle was Henry the second French King of that name The accident is not recorded by Gods Spirit yet the experiment as unpartiall Writers which I take it were eye witnesses of it have related is as exactly parallell to the rules of Gods Spirit and affords as good instruction for moderne Princes as examples in the Sacred Story did to posterity This youthfull King in the beginning of his reigne had licenced others to feed their eyes with the sight of a deadly Duell authorized by him in favour of Vivonus to the disgrace and prejudice as the Court of France expected of Chabotius whose hands notwithstanding the Lord did strengthen to kill the Favourite who after many bitter provocations had drawne him within the Lists more against his will than an old Beare is brought to the stake The death of Vivonus though most just doth no way excuse the barbarous injustice of this King who hath this justice done upon him hee had made a sport of shedding blood and he himselfe is slaine in Ludicro certamine running at Tilt and slaine by that hand which had beene his instrument to apprehend those Noble and religious Gentlemen which had been lately imprisoned and in whose misery the Court of France did then rejoyce and adding gall to wormwood solemnized these and the like triumphant shewes or sportings in their sight yet was it not Count Montgomeries hand but the right hand of the Lord which did at one and the same instant unty the Kings Bever and guide the splinter or glance of Montgomeries Speare into that eye which had beheld a Duell that could not be determined without the death of the one or other combatant both being Frenchmen his natural subjects with such delight as yong Gallants do ordinary prizes or other like spectacles of recreation Of Vivonus his death few or none but Frenchmen were eye-witnesses but of this Kings tragicall triumph Spain Germany with other countries were spectators by their proxies or Ambassadors As if the Lord would have these theÌ„ present to cary this message to their masters to be by theÌ„ directed to the rest of ChristiaÌ„ Princes Discite justitiaÌ„ moniti non temnere divos Take warning by this Princes Fate Not to approve what God doth
hate God is no accepter of persons in respect of the execution of his most righteous law as is the people so is the Prince his word must be alike fulfilled in both not only subjects that kill one another but Princes be they Kings or Monarks that authorize murder or suffer their subjects blood to be unjustly spilt by man shall their blood be spilt if other executioners faile even by the hand of their dearest friends such was Count Montgomery to this king 5 The caveat which from the untimely death of this Earle a judgement inflicted by divine justice not so much for this though this were pretended by the Queen Mother and Dowager to take away his life as for other offences hath beene elsewhere commended to yong gallants or Princes servants was to my remembrance this Not to be instruments thogh to Kings in the execution of manifest injustice seeing this noble Gentleman after much honor many victories â—otten by war in defence of those of the reformed Religion whom he had formerly wronged came at length to lose his head in that very place whither by Henry the seconds appointment he had brought divers noble Gentlemen to the fagot some of that honorable bench which afterward sentenced him to death CHAP. 34. The sinnes of parents visited upon their children according to the rule of retaliation 1 ALL the parties hitherto instanced in were visited by the rule of retaliation in their owne persons some of them not in their owne persons alone But it is usuall with the supreme Iudge to visit the ouâ—crying sinnes of irreligious parents upon their children according to the former rule And to this purpose the visitation of Ahabs and of Iezabels bloody sinnes against Naboth may by expresse warrant of Sacred Writ be improved But no Histories profane or sacred afford more fit instances for the proofe of this conclusion than our owne Chronicles doe It was a question amongst the Heathen Philosophers An res posterorum pertineant ad defunctos Whether the ill or welfare of posterity did any way increase or diminish the happinesse of their deceased ancestors The negative part is determined by the great Philosopher in his Moralls And I know no just cause or reason why any Christian Divine should either appeale from his determination or revive the doubt Yet if the affirmative part of the former question were supposed as true or were it lawfull to imagine or feign such interchange of speech or Dialogues betwixt deceased Grandfathers Vnkles and their Nephewes as our Saviour I take it not by way of reall history but of fiction doth betweene Abraham and Dives me thinks Edward the third and Lionel Duke of Clarence might have taken up Iothams parable against Bullinbrooke and the House of Lancaster If yee have dealt truly and sincerely with us and with the prime stemmes of this royall stock then rejoyce yee and your posterity in your devises but if not Let fire come out from among your selves or from our stock to devoure you and to make your posterity curse your dealings with us And in what region soever 〈◊〉 soule did in the third generation reside it might have framed its responsary unto this parable out of Adonibezeks song As I have done to you and yours so hath the Lord requited me and mine And had this or the like saying upon the deposition of Bullinbrookes heyre beene daily rung into the eares of Edward the fourth Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum Amongst men none more happy is than he That can his owne by others harmes foresee it might have wrought better effects for the bodily or temporall good of his harmlesse sonnes than any dirge could after his death procure unto his soule Few Chronicles else will exhibit such a continued pedigree of unhallowed policies ill successe as our owne Annalls of those times doe 2 Vnto Richard the second and his misleaders it seemed a branch of plausible policy to banish his cozen Henry of Bullinbrook this land the vicinity of whose heroicall spirit was an heart-sore to this degenerate Prince But what successe did the Counsell of the Lord award unto this jealous devise Bullinbrook by his presence amongst foraine Nations which scarce knew him before gained so much honour and so much love with the chiefe Peeres of this Realme which had knowne him before by his absence that Richard the second was taken in his owne feare and his Crowne set upon Bullingbrookes head with generall applause But the lesse right he had unto it the greater was his jealousie lest Richard the second or some other more principall stemme of the royall Stock might take it off againe The only meanes as he thought for securing himselfe from this feare and for setling the Crowne upon the House of Lancaster was to put the poore deposed King to death whose errours deserved pitie and compassion from every true English heart if not for his Grandfathers yet for his heroicall Fathers sake that Gideon which had brought so much honour to the English Nation And after Richards death the master-piece of his policy was to suffer Mortimer the lawfull heyre unto the Duke of Clarence and now unto the English Crowne to live a miserable Captive under the enemy who had more reason to revenge himselfe upon the English by Mortimers death than Bullinbrook had to murther Richard the second This soule sinne of Bullinbrooke was visited upon the third generation His grandchilde and heyre Henry the sixt a man more free from staine of guiltlesse blood than either Richard the second or Bullinbrooke had beene is cruelly murthered by Edward the fourth a stemme of Mortimers stock and of Lionel Duke of Clarence For though God hath sworne not to punish the children for their fathers offences yet he hath professed it as a rule of his eternall justice to visit the sinnes of fathers upon the children And from the equity of this rule many Princely Races have utterly determined and expired in the dayes of such Princes as were most free from the actuall sinnes of their Ancestors which were the causes of their expiration as is in other Meditations shewed at large 3 But though it were just with God to visit Bullinbrookes sinne on Henry the sixt did Edward the fourth commit no injustice by doing that which God would have done yes he did therefore most unjustly because he did doe that which God would not have done by him And therefore the Counsell of the Lord which overthrew the bloody devises of Bullinbrooke for setling the Crowne of this Kingdome on himselfe and his heyre males did more speedily overthrow the devise of Edward the fourth God visits his sinne in the next generation upon his lovely and harmlesse Sonnes in their nonage before the devises of their hearts were capable of any evill or mischiefe towards men and did visit them by the hands of their bloody uncle Richard the third who by their Fathers appointment had practised butchery upon the House of
defence against Senacherib who had surprised most of the strong Cities of Iudah and had made Lachish his seat of residence was significantly charactered by the Prophet Micah in the place forecited Evill came downe from the Lord unto the gate of Ierusalem but it entred into the gates of Lachish for so he addes O thou inhabitant of Lachish binde the charet to the swft beast she is the beginning of the sinne to the daughter of Sion for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountaines and burne incense upon the hills under Oakes and Poplars and Elmes because the shadow thereof is good therefore your daughters shall commit whoredome and your spouses shall commit adultery I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredome nor your spouses when they commit adultery for themselves are separated with whores and they sacrifice with harlots therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall Hosea 3. 13 14. 3 The Children of Ammon of Moab and Edom did triumph more then other Nations in the day of Iudahs heavy visitatiō by Nebuchadnezzar and for this cause they have an heavier doome read by Gods Prophets which lived at that time then other Nations had Ezekiel 25. 2 c. Sonne of man set thy face against the Ammonites heare the word of the Lord God Thus saith the Lord God because thou saidst Aha against my Sanctuary when it was prophaned and against the Land of Israel when it was desolate and against the house of Iudah when they went into captivitie Behold therefore I will deliver thee to the men of the East for a possession and they shall set their palaces in thee and make their dwellings in thee they shall eate thy fruite and they shall drinke thy milke And I will make Rabbah a stable for Camels and the Ammonites a couching place for flocks and yee shall know that I am the Lord. For thus saith the Lord God Because thou hast clapped thine hands and stamped with thy feet and rejoyced in heart with all thy despite against the Land of Israel Behold therefore I will stretch out mine hand upon thee and will deliver thee for a spoile to the Heathen and I will cut thee off from the people and I will cause thee to perish out of the countries I will destroy thee and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God because that Moab and Seir doe say behold the house of Iudah is like unto all the heathen therefore behold I will open the side of Moab from the Cities from his Cities which are on his frontiers the glorie of the Countrey Beth jeshimoth Baal-meon and Keriathaim unto the men of the East with the Ammonites and will give them in possession that the Ammonites may not bee remembred among the Nations And I will execute judgements upon Moab and they shall know that I am the Lord. Thus saith Lord GOD Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Iudah by taking vengeance and hath greatly offended and revenged himselfe upon them Therefore saith the Lord I will also stretch out my hand upon Edom and will cut off man and beast from it and I will make it desolate from Teman and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword And I will pay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel and they shall doe in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury and they shall know my vengeance saith the Lord God 4 The doome of Moab is more particularly set forth by Ieremy chap. 48. 2. There shall be no more praise of Moab in Heshbon they have devised evill against it come and let us cut it off from being a nation so Moab had said of Israel also thou shalt be cut downe O mad men the sword shall pursue thee And againe verse 25 26 27. The Horne of Moab is cut off and his arme is broken saith the Lord. Make yee him drunken for hee magnified himselfe against the Lord Moab also shall wallow in his vomit and he also shall bee in derision For was not Israel a derision unto thee was hee found among theeues for since thou spakest of him thou skippest for joy The like doome of Moab is foretold by Zephanie chap. 1. 8 9 10. I have heard the reproach of Moab and the revilings of the Children of Ammon whereby they have reproached my people and magnified themselves against their border Therefore as I live saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel surely Moab shall bee as Sodome and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah even the breeding of nettles and saltpies and a perpetuall desolation the residue of my people shall spoile them and the remnant of my people shall possesse them This shall they have for their pride because they have reproched and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hoasts The Lord will bee terrible unto them for hee will famish all the gods of the earth and men shall worship him every one from his place even all the Iles of the heathen So farre wide were Moab and Edom in their divinations when they said the house of Iudah is like unto all the Heathen Ezek. 25. 8. that all the yles of the Gentiles were to become such as the house of Iudah had beene that is professed worshippers of the true God who had now appointed to make himselfe known to all the world by his judgements upon these proud Heathens which for their blasphemies have now forfeited their nationall interest in this blessing here promised to the Iles of the Gentiles for they ceased to bee Nations 5 Whiles Gods plagues are thus fitly suited to the matter or manner of mens sins the longer the punishments themselves are delayed the surer document they may afford unto the observant that there is a watchfull eye of an alseeing Providence without whose presence no fact can bee committed an attentive eare which never shuts alwayes readie alwayes able to take notice of every word that can bee spoken and to register proud blasphemous boastings in the indelible characters of an everlasting booke It is an observation worth the noting which a learned Commentator hath made upon the place last cited out of Zephaniah Verbum audivi suam Emphasim habet These words I have heard are emphaticall They intimate as much unto us as if in the name of the Lord the Prophet had said Though Moab saw not me yet I heard him for I was present with him when hee pronounced the coast of Israel waste And what I heard I cannot forget nor will I forgive according to his intentions against Israel at the time appointed will I doe to him 6 The cryers of Edom against Ierusalem when Ierusalem was drowned with her childrens teares which yet could not quench the fire then kindled in her pallaces were more bitter then the cry of Edom and Ammon against Iudah had beene Rase it rase it even to the