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
learning of Jesus who was never taught 502 Upon S. John the 9. Of the blind man cured by clay and spittle 503 Upon S. Luke the 7. Of the widows son raised from death to life at Naim by our Saviour 504 Upon S. John the 11. Of the raising up Lazarus from death 505 Upon S. John the 8. Of our Saviours words I am the Light of the world ibid. Upon S. John the 8. Of these words Who can accuse me of sin 506 Upon S. John the 7. Jesus said to the Pharisees You shall seek and not find me and he that is thirsty let him come to me 507 Upon S. John the 7. Jesus went not into Jury because the Jews had a purpose to take away his life  Upon S. John the 10. The Jews said If thou be the Messias tell us plainly ibid. Upon S. John the 7. Of S. Mary Magdalen's washing our Saviours feet in the Pharisees house 509 Upon S. Mary Magdalen's great repentance 510 Upon S. John the 11. The Jews said What shall we do for this man doth many miracles ibid. Upon S. John the 12. The Chief Priests thought to kill Lazarus because the miracle upon him made many follow Jesus 511 Upon S. Matthew the 21. Our Saviour came in triumph to Jerusalem a little before his passion 512 Upon S. John the 12. Mary Magdalen anointed our Saviours feet with precious ointment at which Judas repined 513 Upon S. John the 13. Of our Saviours washing the feet of his Apostles ibid. Moralities upon the garden of Mount Olivet 514 Moralities of the apprehension of Jesus 515 Aspiration upon S. Peter's passionate tears ibid. Moralities upon the Pretorian or Judgement-Hall 516 Moralities for Good Friday upon the death of Jesus Christ ibid. The Gospel for Easter day S. Mark the 16. 518 The Gospel for Easter Munday S. Luke 24. 519 The Gospel on Tuesday S. Luke 24. 520 The Gospel on Low-Sunday John 20. 521 A TABLE Of the Treatises and Sections contained in this fourth Tome OF THE HOLY COURT The First TREATISE Of the necessity of Love SECTION Page 1 AGainst the Philosophers who teach Indifferency saying We must not Love any thing 1 2 Of Love in generall 3 3 Of Amity 5 4 Of Amity between persons of different sexes 7 5 Of the entertainment of Amities 11 6 Of Sensuall Love its Essence and Source 14 7 The effects of Sensuall Love 17 8 Remedies of evil Love by precaution 18 9 Other Remedies which nearer hand oppose this Passion 19 10 Of Celestiall Amities 22 11 Of the Nature of Divine Love Its Essence Qualities Effects and Degrees 25 12 The practise of Divine Love 27 13 A notable Example of Worldly Love changed into Divine Charity 29 The Second TREATISE Of Hatred 1 ITs Essence Degrees and Differencies 32 2 That the consideration of the goodnesse of the heart of God should dry up the root of the Hatred of a neighbour 33 3 That Jesus grounded all the greatest Mysteries of our Religion upon union to cure Hatred 34 4 Of three notable sources of Hatred and of politick remedies proper for its cure 35 5 Naturall and Morall Remedies against this passion 37 6 Of the profit may be drawn from Hatred and the course we must hold to be freed from the danger of being Hated ibid. The Third TREATISE Of Desire 1 WHether we should desire any thing in the world the Nature the Diversitie and Description of Desire 39 2 The Disorders which spring from inordinate Desires and namely from Curiosity and Inconstancy 40 3 The foure sources out of which are ill rectified Desires 42 4 That the tranquility of Divine Essence for which we are created ought to rule the unquietnesse of our Desires ibid. 5 That we should desire by the imitation of Jesus Christ 43 6 The Condemnation of the evil Desires of the World and the means how to divert them 44 THE FOURTH TREATISE Of Aversion SECTION Page 1 THe Nature and Qualities thereof 44 2 The Sweetnesses and Harmonies of the heart of God shew us the way how to cure our Aversions ibid. 3 The consideration of the indulgent favours of Jesus Christ towards humane nature is a powerfull remedy against the humour of disdain 47 4 The Conclusion against disdain ibid. THE FIFTH TREATISE Of Delectation 1 THat Delectation is the scope of Nature It s Essence Objects and differences 48 2 The basenesse and giddinesse of Sensuall voluptuousnesse 49 3 The Sublimity Beauty and Sweetnesse of heavenly delights ibid. 4 The Paradise and Joyes of our Lord when he was on earth 50 5 Against the stupidity and cruelty of worldly pleasures 51 6 The Art of Joy and the means how to live contented in this world ibid. THE SIXTH TREATISE Of Sadnesse 1 ITs Description Qualities and the diversity of those who are turmoiled with this Passion 54 2 Humane Remedies of Sadnesse and how that is to be cured which proceedeth from Melancholy and Pusillanimitie 55 3 The remedie of Sadnesses which proceeds from divers accidents of humane life 56 4 That the Contemplation of the Divine patience and tranquility serve for remedie for our temptations 58 5 That the great temper of our Saviours soul in most horrible sufferings is a powerfull lenitive against our dolours 59 6 Advise to impatient soules 60 THE SEVENTH TREATISE Of Hope 1 THe Description Essence and appurtenances thereof 61 2 That one cannot live in the world without Hope and what course is to be held for the well ordering of it ibid 3 That God not being capable of Hope serveth as an Eternall Basis to all good Hopes 63 THE EIGHTH TREATISE Of Despair 1 ITs Nature Composition and effects 65 2 The causes of Despair and the condition of those who are most subject to this Passion 66 3 Humane Remedies of Despair 67 4 Divine Remedies 68 5 The Examples which Jesus Christ gave us in the abysse of his sufferings are most efficacious against pusillanimity 69 6 Encouragement to good Hopes ibid. THE NINTH TREATISE Of Fear 1 THe Definition the Description the Causes and effects thereof 70 2 Of the vexations of Fear Its differences and Remedies 71 3 Against the Fear of the accidents of humane life 72 4 That the Contemplation of the power and the Bounty of God ought to take away all our Fears 73 5 That the Example of a God-man ought to instruct and assure us against affrightments of this life 74 THE TENTH TREATISE Of Boldnesse SECTION Page 2 THe Picture and Essence of it 76 2 The diversitie of Boldnesse ibid 3 Of laudable Boldnesse 77 4 That true Boldnesse is inspired by God and that we must wholly depend on him to become Bold 78 5 That Jesus hath given us many pledges of a sublime confidence to strengthen our Courage 79 THE ELEVENTH TREATISE Of Shamefactnesse 1 THe decencie of Shamefac'tnesse It s nature and definition 81 2 Divers kinds of Shamefac'tnesse ibid. 3 The Excellency of Shamefac'tnesse and the uglinesse of Impudency 83 4 Of Reverence
to be compared with the beauties of Sion Whilest there are letters and men there shall ever be praise for the excellent Books which come from the pens of so many worthy Prelates and other persons of quality yea even from the Laity who have exercised their style upon arguments chaste honourable and well-worthy of all recommendation I speak this as it were by the way having at this time no purpose to enlarge upon recital of an infinite number of able men who stand ready with pen in hand nor likewise to commend those of my habit who have exposed their excellent labours to publick view and which I know might be well waited on by a large number of choice wits of the same Society But for as much as concerneth my self I have already discharged my promise and doubt not but that in these four models I have sufficiently comprized the whole scope of my design For the rest I think the Books of devotion that are published ought to be rare and extraordinarily well digested because such is the quantity of them that the number of Authours will quickly exceed the proportion of Readers Distast is a worm which sticketh on the most resplendent beauties and although a thing may be excellent we must not therefore glut any man with superfluity lest good offices turn into contempt and charity make it self tiresom Yet so it is that we must confess pieces well selected and curiously handled can never so superabound in number as to offend those who can distinguish of merit For if it be true as I have heard that there are many good and learned Religious men of divers Orders who prepare themselves to write upon this same subject I am very glad and protest it shall be acceptable to me because so they may perfect what I have begun with more profit than my self Note here the cause why I stay my pen and if there be ought good in this Volumn I look upon it as that mirrour which was fixed on the wall of the Arcadian Temple where those who beheld themselves saw in stead of their faces the representation of Pausan in Arcadicis the Divinity they adored So in all this which here may profit my Reader I see nothing of mine own but in it acknowledge the Father of Light who is the source and end of all which is in us esteemed laudable and whom I humbly beseech if there be any thing attractive in this Discourse he would be pleased to draw it upward as the adamant transporting such as shall read it to the love of their CREATOUR to whom is due the tribute of all honours as to Him who is the beginning of all perfections This is the onely comfort of our labour For not to dissemble a truth he that more regardeth to write than to live courting his pen and neglecting his own conscience shall always have trouble enough to defend himself from mothes rats and oblivion Centrum terrae validius accenditur ex limpiditate flamma caelestis Viennâ ex Ptolomaei Almagesto And though he should be laden with the applauses of the whole world in a passionate life it were but to gain a silly sacrifice of smoke without him to harbour fire and tempests within his own house It is said the Stars by contribution of their rays strengthen the activity of hell fire and I may say all the lights of understanding and reputation will serve but to encrease the torments of a reprobate soul who shuts his eyes against God not to open them to other object than vanitie TO THE NOBILITIE Dedicated to the CHURCH SIRS THe benefits you have received from God and examples the Weal-publick expecteth from you are so essential obligations of duty that when we speak of the piety of Great-ones you instantly are selected out to hold the first rank therein and to be the cause that virtues which ever are voluntary may turn as it were into title of necessity For to joyn the Clergie to Nobilitie is to connect two things together which are both in Nature and the Gospel very eminent It is to profess ones self an honest man by birth and dignity to stand on a pinacle and serve as a torch to change your word into law and life into example The Bishops of all Ages have been esteemed amongst men as the stars in the firmament whereof the Prophet Daniel speaketh as the Senatours of Heaven the Fathers of the Commonwealth the Interpreters Daniel 12. 3. Dionys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Ecclesiasticâ Hierarchiâ of God the Mediatours of the marriage contracted between the Lamb and the Heavenly Jerusalem This is the cause why we ever think it is to desire a good work to desire a Bishoprick taking the words of the Apostle in a sense which flattereth sensuality informeth not the conscience but now that the passage to Offices and secular dignities is closed up from many with bars of gold and silver whom birth seemeth to invite thereunto they hope to repair themselves on the spoils of the Church where such as proceed by sensual and worldly ways oftentimes find poison and death hidden under a seeming sweetness For Sirs we must tell you your dignities how eminent soever they be are like the roof of the Temple in Jerusalem which had flowers among guilded prickles in my opinion to teach Bishops that Myters bordered with Villalpandus upon Ezechiel out of Josephus de bello Judaico lib. 6. c. 6. gold and diversified with stones have notwithstanding their points and prickings Had we as many eyes open towards Heaven as Heaven openeth to behold here below the most secret actions of men we should be strucken with horrour to see an Ecclesistical dignity fall to the lot of a depraved soul which changeth all the abilities thereof to incentives for sin and to make of his proper honours the true snares of his soul But it is a common disaster that the smoke which in the book of Tobie driveth away the devils doth here daily surprize men We stick on apparences and if we retain some Maxims of verity we use them as letters written with the juyce of a lemon which can hardly be read but by the help of fire So that when the day of Judgement shall manifest it self by fire and that at the departure of the soul Hermanus Hugo de primâ scribendi origine flames shall be presented to enlighten it even to the bottom of the conscience then shall it be when all the knowledge of virtue which we here on earth retain so poor and languishing shall appear with enflamed characters for our condemnation It is an admirable thing which the good Cardinal Hugo who flourished about four hundred years ago as he lay on his death-bed where with much advantage the vanities of the world are discovered and when perhaps some too indiscreetly flattered him upon the splendour of his dignity spake in the voice of an Oracle Take away these vanities for I
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
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
of the world Some hold all is done by Chance and that nothing but Fortune predominateth in the actions and affairs of the world others will subject all to the laws of fatal necessity the third put their whole confidence in carnal prudence which not unlike reeds takes away their support and leaves them remorse Happy he who amongst so many straights shelves and ship-wracks can hold the right way ever casting his eye towards Providence as his Pole-star and never loosing sight of it that he may never loose himself Let us now endeavour to ruin these three Companies of Chaldaeans by the arms of Scripture holy Fathers and Reason It is a pitiful thing to see a giddy soul which The misery of impiety seeketh God and will not find him making so many errours as paces so many stumbles as steps and as many sacriledges as there are creatures in the whole world The Prophet Esay complained in his time Esay 65. Qui â—onitis Fortunae mensam libatis super eam of those who dressed up Altars to Fortune and made Sacrifices to her But this Sect took with time so great encrease that it filled the whole earth For blind Gentilism beholding so many sundry accidents in the life of man the cause whereof they could not penetrate imagined there was a certain Deity blind unequal and furious which distributed all conditions and held good and bad luck as day and night in its hands This Idolatrie of Fortune Adorers of Fortune Plin. l. 2. c. 6. Toto mundo locis omnibus omnibusque horis omnium vocibus fortuna sola invocatur una nominatur una accusatur una agitur rea una cogitatuâ— huic omnia expensa huic omnia feruntur accepta in totâ ratione mortalium sola utramque paginam facit Fantasies of Ancients upon the names of Fortune was so general that Plinie durst say Fortune alone is invoked throughout the world in all places at all times in all languages none talk but of her she onely is praised she onely accused she gives all presents makes all expences and if you well weigh the great book of the accounts of our life you shall find Fortune filleth all the leaves of it The Romans who in arms overcame all other Nations do go beyond them in superstition not contenting themselves with one sole Fortune made many which had no other foundations of their Deities but Chymaeraes of brains bereaved of reason as S. Augustine sheweth us in his fourth book of the City of God One was called Fortune the first born because they held it was the beginning of all things the other was all covered over with duggs and was termed Mammosa in testimony of its fruitfulness One was called Fortune the strong the other feminine the other a virgin the other inconstant the other stable One was for certain days another for all times One for Emperours all of gold which they kept in their chambers as a relick and another for the people of wood or earth Lastly not so much as young men but adored a Aug. l. 4. de civit Dei c. 2. barbed Fortune that their first beard might grow in good fashion Good God! what ignorance what a cloud See we not how gross these superstitions are since the bloud of Jesus washed away the stain Notwithstanding the world is filled with slaves of Fortune who cease not to impute all prosperities and adversities of life to the hazard of chance 2. Now to decide this point we must know Fortune That Fortune is in the power of Providence is nought else but man himself when without thinking upon it he makes himself the accidental cause of an effect not pretended A man through despaire sought for a halter to Arist de causis Fortuna est causa per accidens in his quae per electionem alicujus gratiae fiunt hang himself and stirring the earth in an unusual place met with a treasure it was said to be fortune yet is this fortune nothing else but man who in searching gave occasion to this effect which followed though never by him intended In respect of man this chance is obsolutely casual in respect of the prime cause which is God it is a Providence Behold a man crushed under the ruins of a tree he expected not this tree should fall and therefore it is his fortune But God without whose dispose one sole leaf of a tree droppeth not off had foreseen this fall from all eternity which enforceth us to affirm that all fortunes of men are enclosed within the power of Providence It is a notable doctrine of a great Bishop of Paris A notable doctrine of who saith God Father of all essences begetteth and eternally speaketh his Son or his Eternall Word and William of Paris Gulielm Paris 1. part de univer part 3. c. 24. that in this Word he once said all he would do and all which should happen in such sort that there is not any accident order or mean in this great connexion of Ages enchained one within another can escape the vivacity of his eye and the extent of his Providence There it is he hath ordained all the blessings of nature grace and glory There it is he hath seen all the evils of offence yet willeth he not nor can he will they should be of him or by him as being unworthy his sanctity his glory and goodness But as for the fortunes and misfortunes of men banishments bands prisons maladies afflictions prosperities riches honours treasures glories and crowns he hath appointed them according to his divine pleasures to be instruments of good desires and glorious actions Wherefore let us never say good and ill haps of the world come by chance without Gods dispose To me saith the Great God in the holy Scriptures Meae sunt omnes ferae silosrum pulchritudo agri mecum est Mecum sunt divitiae gloria opes superbae justicia Per me Reges regnant legâ—â— conditores justâ— decernunt Si clanget tubs in civitate populus non expavescet si eriâ— malum in civitate quod Dominus non ficerit Psal 49. 10. Prov. 8. 18. Amos. 3. 9. belong all the beasts in the forrest and I behold the beauty of the fields disclosed from my bosome With me are riches glory pomps wealth which rest in the protection of my Justice It is by me Kings hold the rains of Empire in their hands and Law-makers open their lipâ—â—o pronounce Oracles The trumpet sounds in the midâ—â—â—f the City and the people tremble not knowing the cause of their misery But there is no evil of punishment in the City which I have not caused for most just reasons (a) (a) (a) Second squadron The second squadron of our Chaldaeans takeing a quite contrary way to this will bruitishly maintain all things are done by a fatal necessity which some attribute to stars others to divine prescience For as much as concerneth stars
not be possible to God he being Omnipotent Immense Infinite How according to the confession of ancient Philosophers can he replenish all the world with his Divnity and is not able to accommodate himself with enough of it to divinize his holy Humanity Is it because we say it is united to the Word in this mystery in a quite other fashion than the Spirit of God is with the world I admit it For the union of it is truely personal But must it not be confessed the Word in this divine Essence as under title of efficient cause it hath an influence infinite over all the effects of the world and as under title of final cause it hath a capacity to limit and measure all the inclinations of creatures so under title of substantial bound it may confine and accomplish by its personality all possible Essence Why shall we tie the hands of Divine bounty in its communications since it binds not our understanding in its conceptions Is it not a shamefull thing that man will estimate and set a value upon the Divine Essence If God please not man he shall not be God Should we say man is incapable of this communication And how is it that the holy Humanity resisted the Omnipotency of God to the prejudice of his own exaltation since it is found as soon in the union of the Word as in the possession of Essence See we not in nature that the rays of the Sun draw up vapours from the earth and incorporated with them do create Meteors in the air not any one making resistance to his exaltation What contradiction can there be in our understanding against such a maxim seeing it appears the most famous Philosopher said This union of God with man might be very fit and Plutarch also Plutarch in Numa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking of the communication of the Creatour with the creature pronounced these words That God was not a lover of birds nor other living creatures but a lover of men and that it is a very reasonable matter that be communicate himself to his loves and delights But this would seem to abase the Divinity Hear what Volusianus said I wonder that he to whom this whole Volusianus Miror si intra corpus vagientis infantiae latetâ— cui parva putatur universilas c. universe is so small can be shut up within the bodie of a little child having a mouth open to crie as others What uncomeliness is there if God be united to a little body Have not Plinie (a) (a) (a) Plin. Natura nusquam magis quà m in minimis tota est and Seneca (b) (b) (b) Servitus magnitudinis non posse fieri minorem Senec. Homo quippe ad Deum accessit Deus à se non decessit August said That nature was ever so admirable as in little bodies and that it was a slavery in Great-ones to be unable to be little I wonder the Sovereign Lord of all things is so long absent from Heaven and that all the government of the world is transferred to so little a creature From whence proceedeth this amazement but from the baseness of our thoughts If we said God being made man ceased to be God and were despoiled of his Empire Greatness Essence there would be somewhat wherewith to question this Mystery but when we say God came to Man by inclination of a Sovereign bounty and mercy not leaving himself when we say humane nature is received into the Word as a small source into a huge river and not loosing its Essence is fixed upon the personality of the Word it self is it not to honour the power majesty and wisdom of God 5. In what were the Divinity abased Can it be in doing a work so noble so singular so divine that it deserveth to entertain the thoughts of men and Angels through times and eternity What is more specious and more sweet than to represent to ones self the Person of our Saviour who in himself makes an alliance of all was most eminent in spiritual and corporal nature to wit of God and man verily say I one composed of an unheard-of composition to render the majesty of his father palbable and visible to the hands and eyes of mortals What dignity to behold in the world a Man-God become a part of the world to possess the Spirit of God from all eternity who proposed this person as the end of his communications the bound of his power the first-born of all creatures who held all Ages in breath for him all hearts in desires all minds in expectation all creatures in prophesies The Book of God hath written me In copite libri scriptum est de me Psal 39. 8. in the beginning of its first page said the Word with the Psalmist All creatures of this great universe all predictions and conceptions of these two great books the world and the Bible tended to the accomplishment and revelation of this God-Man who should set a golden head upon all nature intelligent sensitive and vegetative All creatures were but leaves and flowers that promised the great fruit which the Prophet calleth The fruit of earth sublime Isaiah 4. 20. We must religiously speak what deserveth to be heard Religiose dicendum reverentér audiendum est quis propter hunc hominon gloris honâ—re coronandum Deus omnis creavit Rupert l. 13. de glor Trinit proces Spi. Sancti with reverence It is for this incomparable man that God created the world and all creatures are but as silly rays from the Diadem of glory which covereth his head What a spectacle to see them all wound up as the strings of a harp to praise and declare unto men the Name of God to behold the nine Quires of Angels enter into this consort and every one of them to honour this first Essence by so many distinct perfections notwithstanding all to confess their ability cannot reach that degree which the Divine greatness meriteth And thereupon behold here the Word Incarnate which passing through all the spheres of nature grace and glory enter into the new sphere of the hypostatical union where it appears as a rainbow imprinted with all the beauties of the father he manifesteth them to men and making himself an adoring God a loving God an honouring God he adoreth he loveth he honoureth God so much as he is adorable amiable and honourable through all Ages for evermore Let us unfold our hearts in the knowledge and love of the Word revealed Let us adore this great sign this eternal character of the living God for whom all signs are Let us make a firm purpose not to pass over a day of our life wherein we afford him not three things due to him by titles so lawfull Homage Love Imitation Homage by adoring him and offering him some small service directed according to times in acknowledgement of the dependence we have of him by an entire comformity of our wils to his Love
God but wayes likewise easie and yielding to natural inclinations Oblike love is that which holdeth of both the other and which imitating the Angels of Jacobs ladder climbs to God by creatures and descends to creatures by the love of God But behold a love of enemies commanded by God which seemeth not comprized in this division so much it seeketh out wayes alienated and inaccessible to nature yet I intend to shew it may be found in the third part of this list and that it is a love which by the love of God descendeth unto the love of man to love him according to God A love which I maintain to be possible Three proofs of this discourse glorious and necessarie in three proofs that shall make three heads of this discourse 2. To deny the possibility of the love of enemies is First reason possibility of the love of enemies Diligite inimicos vestros to bely the Gospel and reason the Gospel which commandeth it reason which fortifieth the justice of the commandment The words spoken by our Saviour Love your enemies is not a counsel but a commandment so explicateth the Councel of Carthage the fourth chap. 93. the Councel of Agde Can. 22. and all holy Fathers who lent the light of their stile to the first light in the Gospel Now to say God commandeth a thing impossible is to make a tyranny of the Divinity and to make a God like to the cruel duke of Muscovia named Basilides who commanded from his subjects a tribute of sweat and of nightingales in the midst of winter Reason dictateth to us this commandment is not Right of nature onely of Divine right but of nature so far is it from being contrarie to nature that to speak naturally we judge that should be done to our neighbour we would have done to our selves and we desire to be beloved by all the world yea by those whom we have offended we then necessarily conclude we are bound to love those who have done us some injury Besides we well see that to seek revenge by proper authority is to destroy the right of nature and to make of a civil life the life of a Cyclop which were to have no other reason than strength nor limit but the sword Some will say it were good could love as easily be Answer to an objection put on as a shirt but if we have much ado to love things indifferent how can we affect bad and offensive Love ever pursueth good as the shadow the body and God who made both love and nature will not that it settle it self unless there be some attractive or appearance of good which inviteth it to love Now what is lovely in an enemy in whose person all is odious yea the very name Behold how carnal Philosophy with strong passions and weak reasons strikes at the eternal Word as if in the worst man in the world there could not ever be found something which may be an object of reasonable love We are not commanded to affect him with a love of tenderness but of reason It is not said you must love him as vicious you must endear Omne animal diligit simile sibi sic omnis homo proximum sibi Eccl. 13. 19. him as injurious or wicked for that were to force nature but we are commanded to love him as a man to love him as a Christian to love him as the work of God and as a creature capable of life eternal All things in the world said an Ancient have two handles and two faces Take a good hold-fast look on the good countenance and you shall find that easie which you thought impossible Let us also pass with Divinity to a reason more eminent and say it is not a thing against nature to love above nature by the commandment of him who made nature It is asked whether a creature can naturally love God more than it self since all that nature loveth it loves as a thing united to it it self according to the Amicabilia ad alterum sumumtur ex amicabiltus ad se Arist Ehick l. 4. c. 8. D. Tho. 2. 2. q. 26. saying of Philosophers all well considered the most learned Divines answer that the soul of man remaining within the lists of natural reason should love the Creatour more than its own life because naturally the will well rectified hath a strong inclination to its end which is the Sovereign Good and the understanding necessarily judgeth the subsistence of essence increate and independent which ought rather to be preserved than that of essence create And if that be done by ways of nature how may one say it is against nature to love an enemy when there is the commandment and honour of God in it Nay it is so much otherwise that I will adde a reason which perhaps may seem strange but it is undoubted true I say it is much more hard to love ones self well than an enemy For I beseech you why was A remarkable consideration it that the Son of God so much spake laboured wept and bled if not to teach how we should aptly love our selves And wherefore were so many Saints fifty yea threescore years at school in desarts but to learn this hard lesson And who hath ever thought Self-love very hard to be repressed any thing more difficult to be repressed than self-love which powerful in fury and impotent within it self forgetful of God still mindful of its own interests ever gluttonous and still hungry swalloweth like a gulph sweepeth along like a torrēt beateth down like thunder and in the end is buried in the ruins it made If well to love ones self this monster be necessarily be to tamed who sees not there is much difficulty therein and that on the other side there is nothing to be done but to love the gift of God in man which cannot be ill but in your imagination Why create we so many impediments in the love of an enemy and find none in the love of our selves Were it not natural Effects of the love of enemies in the Law of nature Senec. l. 3. de irâ c. 38. why in the Law of nature did Cato smilingly wipe away tough phlegme which an enemy spit on his face when he pleaded a cause Why was Socrates content having received a blow on the cheek from an insolent man to set over his head the scroul used on ancient tables Lycus faciebat Why did Augustus in an absolute sovereign power of revenge tolerate with so much courtesy a certain writer named Timagenes who perpetually barked against him Traytours that we are to nature so to cover our neglect and weakness with the pretext of nature 3. Let us yet adde more force to truth and more Second point of proofs drawn from the glory of pardon scope to our pen. Let us enter into the second point of this discourse which teacheth us the greatness and glory of a man who
protection which God will give them to stay the effect of hurtfull causes In such wise that according to the opinion of those Doctours glorious bodies shall be impassible as were the three Children in the fornace of Babylon not that their bodies were impenetrable to fire but because God hindered the action of flames on their bodies But I had rather say with S. Thomas it is done by a quality internal 1. part q. 97. art 1. and 5. q. 82. art 1. and adherent to the bodies of the blessed Because this manner besides that it is sweet easie and suitable to the magnificence of God is more noble more natural and nearer approaching to the condition of celestial bodies Against the second incommodity of mortal body which is terrestrial weight we shall have subtility a gift much to be desired and which also opposeth the beastliness and stupidity that insensibly cause aversion in reasonable and intellectual nature We cannot Damascen l. 4. de side c. ultim and Ambros l. 10. in Luc. cap. ultimo be ignorant that many Divines place this subtility of glorious bodies in a virtue they shall have to penetrate the most massy objects not bruising or breaking them like a spirit and that it were an errour either to say it were impossible to the divine power or was not done by our Saviour when he came out of his mothers womb or when he entered into the chamber Notwithstanding I think this penetration of bodies should be judged as extraordinarie to a blessed bodie without having any necessarie dependance Durand in 4. d. 44. q. 5. D. Thom. in 4. l. 4. q. 2. art 2. and 5. q. 83. ◠2. of its condition But I had rather believe with S. Thomas Doctour Durandus the Roman Catechism that this gift of subtility whereof question is here made consisteth in a great vigour of sense proceeding from a perfect disposition of organs and a tenderness of spirits and besides in an entire subjection and admirable pliantness of the body to the soul and of appetites to reason a matter which I esteem more than the penetration of Semiramis wals The third blemish of our bodies which is weakness and infirmity shall be excluded by the grace force and agility which will bring to pass that the blessed may go from one place to another not by a simple ability and equality of the motion of steps going forward but an impetuousness as would be that of an eagle who should fall upon her prey or of an arrow shot by a strong hand according to S. Augustines opinion August l. 22. de Civit. c. ultim Vbi volet spiritus ibi protinus erit corpus Isaiah 40. Qui sperant in Domino mutabunt fortitudinem Doctour Scotus thinks this agility will proceed from the force of the soul with substraction of weight which shall at that time be taken away from the body in this state of immortality Others think this weight shall onely be suspended and interdicted in its effect not for ever but for the space the blessed shall desire who besides this admirable lightness shall have great and sprightly forces Lastly the fourth accident of this mortal and corruptible state is deformity which hath sometimes been so troublesom to many souls little couragious greatly faithless that there have been such found in Pagan antiquity who voluntarily deprived themselves of life to be delivered from the shame and grief they conceived to be born in a body notably deformed Beauty although it be often decried since it began Of beauty to serve for a bait and to be an instrument to sin yet it must be confessed when it contracteth good alliance with the spirit and virtue namely that of chastity it hath qualities so lovely and excellencies so noble that without arms or guards it exerciseth power even over the hearts of Monarchs Zeno said grace of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 body was a Voice of flower a flower of voice voice of flower because it draweth amity to it as the flower of a garden not crying out nor tormenting it self a flower of voice because it is one of the most flowery eloquences among the attractives of nature Earthly sovereignties often employ the whole extent of their power to make themselves beloved yet never attain it but this as the rayes of the sun not breaking either gate or window gets enterance for it self in humane heart and not alledging any other reason nor affording patience of resolution transporteth a soul which lives more in that it loveth than in that it animateth And yet what is temporal beauty but a transitory charm an illusion of senses a voluntarie imposture a slave of pleasure a flower which hath but a moment of life a dyal on which we never look but whilest the sun shines on it What is humane beauty but a dunghil covered with snow a glass painted with false colours a prey pursued by many dogs a dangerous Hostess in a frail house a sugered fruit in a feast which some dare not touch for respect and others gourmandize through sensuality Go trust so fading a good Go betake you to so unhappy a snare Go tie your contentments to so slippery a knot What else will happen unto you but to court a fantasie which loosening your hold will leave you nothing but the sorrow of your illusions If beauties must be loved let us love them in the state wherein they shall never cease to be beauties let us love them in the glory of their resurrection where they shall be placed as Queens in their thrones The beauty of glorified bodies saith Durandus the Durand in 4. de 44. q. 8. Divine consisteth in three things First in a pure and resplendent colour conjoyned to a most perfect and distinct proportion of all members without the least blemish or defect able to give the least aversion Secondly in a singular smoothness as would be that of a mirrour receiving the Sun beams directly Thirdly in an interiour light which as other Doctours with a general consent do adde will diffuse it self over the body with an incomparable lustre if it happen not that the blessed to manifest themselves to feeble and mortal eyes stay the course of the rays of glory as did our Saviour in the conference he had with the two pilgrims of Emaus O Beauties which never tarnish O lights which Daniel 12. Qui docti fuerint fulgebunt tanquam splendor firmamenti c. Math. 13. Fulgebunt justi sicut sol in regno Patris eorum know not what it is to be eclipsed O house of God! O Temple of peace When will the great day come which shall devest us from all we have mortal to put us into the bosom of immortality But we must confess that among all the considerations may be had upon this subject we have not any more pleasant or effectual than the triumphant Resurrection of our Saviour which is the root and hope
winds in nature because if their influences be good in some things their furies are extreamly dreadfull in other We see how upon one part the winds drench huge vessels laden with men and riches on the other they tear up trees they ruin and overthrow houses We likewise find they favourably carrie the clouds Senec. nat q. l. 5. to impart showers to all the world they purge the air they cause a good temperature in the elements they are the occasion of commerce and navigations to make the riches of the world common We cannot be ignorant of their effects But as for their causes some commix atomes other attribute the production of it to the Sun which rarifieth the air other to vapours and exhalations Others say they are the sneesing of this vast creature called the world others think the element of the air is moved of it self And indeed we can say nothing more certainly of it than what the Prophet did That God produceth the winds Qui producit ventos de thesauris suis Psal 134. 7. Elias Thesbites in Verbo out of his treasures As for terrestrial Paradise it is a question among Divines never to be ended and which ministreth perpetual busines to all Interpreters upon Genesis Elias Thesbites durst boldly say that not onely the garden of pleasure was still in being but that doubtlesly many went thither and the passage into it lay open to them but that charmed with the beauties and contentments of this place they never returned Which may be refuted with as much ease as it was invented Origen and Philo following their allegories made a mystical Paradise and true idea's of Plato wherein they were imitated by Psellus who saith that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caldaean Paradise so calleth he it was nothing else but a Quire of celestial virtues which environed the heavenly Father and beauties of fire issuing from fountains of the first workman Some place it in Indie others in Mesopotamia where there would be much ado well to accord these four rivers but that recourse is had to the violence of the deluge We must confess there are many things unknown wherein God will exercise our faith but not satisfie our curiositie But nothing through al ages hath been so hidden and unknown as truth The Philosopher Heraclitus said That its Altar was in a cloudy cavern all covered with shades and darkness whereinto seldom any came And verily we see that since sciences were invented for the space of so many Ages we have beheld nothing but wranglings and wars among Philosophers who seeking to make dissection of the great body of this Universe have all mutually contended for the defence of truth as they say but many defending it have so ill handled it that they almost have dis-membered it and for a solid body have in the end retained nought in their hands but a fantasm It onely appertaineth to God to produce it and to make it known to mortals which he out of his infinite goodness hath at sundry times done But men blinded like unto Gyants Non credent mihi neque audient vocem meam have ever persecuted poor truth out of a certain spirit of incredulity and contradiction the plague and poison of wisdom After the Eternal Wisdom took lips of flesh to reveal the secrets of Heaven unto us four squadrons have furiously assaulted it The one of Jews the others of Gentiles the third of Mahumetans the fourth of Hereticks And now adays after Hereticks we must adde a fifth thereto which is that of Libertines The Definition of Libertinism the Description Division and divers effects of Libertines 2. LIbertinism is nothing else but a false liberty of belief and manners which will have no other dependence but on peculiar fancie and passion It is verily a strange monster whereof it seems Job made description under the figure of Behemoth Job 40. as much to say as a creature composed of all sorts of beasts of which it beareth the name Libertinism likewise is a sin framed out of all manner of sins whose effects it hath to possess the miseries Behemoth saith he eateth hay as an Ox and the Libertine from the table of Angels is brought back to the stall of beasts having no other care but to stuff his guts with corruptible meats having despised the immortal Manna The one hath his strength in his reins the parts dedicated to lust and the other is onely vigorous for impurity The one hath bones of brass and the other a heart of copper The one makes shew of some gristles framed of iron the other of some false moral virtues really nothing but iniquity Mountains bear grass to feed the one and the tables of great men plenty to entertain the other The one sleepeth in moist places under the shadow of reeds and the other in victualing-houses and idleness The one threateneth to swallow Jordan the river of the holy Land and Libertinism will annihilate the most sincere part of Christianity We may say of all these impious what S. Cyprian Spiritus insinceri vagi non desinunt perditi perdere deprovati errorem pravitatis infundere Cyprian l. de Idol vanitat Division did of devils These are impure and wandering spirits which plunged in sensuality and having lost the happiness of Heaven through the contagion of earth forlorn and corrupt cease not to ruin and corrupt Now observe they are not equal in malice or quality But when I somewhat nearer consider their state I find they are divided into six orders The first comprehendeth many spirits who are not of the worst being somewhat reasonably grounded upon the principal points of Religion but as much as they fail in all concerneth submission of spirit so much are they enamoured of their own wit and become lavish of tongue This often proceedeth either from birth education too free conversation some passion or from opinion of proper abilitie which is the cause they cut and mangle many things very confidently concerning the honour of the Church and oeconomie of Religion One while they strike at the Pope's authority another while they desperately throw themselves upon the multiplication of Religious Orders sometimes they censure all Ecclesiastical persons sparing none mean while they see not the subversion of Religion always began by the contempt of Priests Sometimes they scoff at Confessions and frequent Communions another time argue against the doctrine of Purgatorie then they slight Indulgences contemn Saints Images and Reliques sometimes declaim against other Ceremonies and Customs of the Church They ordinarily say Jesus Christ sufficeth them and that besides the blessed Sacrament there is no need to take pains in other devotions Nay that which more provokes and strengtheneth them in their beliefs is what they observe in others who not insisting in the more perfect ways of the universal Church create devotions to themselves which much incline to superstition for neglecting the great and essential Maxims of our faith they
time Jesus sanctified it by his sacred touch He took the Bason which being in his hands became greater and more full of Majesty than all the Ocean Our spots which eternity could not wash clean are taken away at Baptism by one onely drop of water sanctified by his blessing He prevents the bath of his bloud by the bath of an element which he doth expresly before his institution of the blessed Sacrament to teach us what purity of life of heart of faith of intentions and affections we must bring to the holy Eucharist It is necessary to chase away all strange gods which are sins and passions before we receive the God of Israel we must wash our selves in the waters of repentance and change our attire by a new conversation Is it too much for us to give flesh for flesh the body of a miserable man for that of Jesus Christ The consideration of our sins should bring up the bloud of blushing into our cheeks since they were the onely cause why he shed his most precious bloud upon the Cross for us Alas the Heavens are not pure before his most pure Spirit which purifies all nature Then how can we go to him with so many voluntary stains and deformities Is it not to cast flowers upon a dung-hill and to drive Swine to a clear fountain when we will go to Jesus the Authour of innocency carrying with us the steps and spots of our hanious sins 3. Jesus would not onely take upon himself the form of man but also of a base servant as S. Paul saith It was the office of slaves to carry water to wash bodies which made David say That Moah should be the Bason of his hope expressing thereby that he would humble the Moabites so low that they should serve onely to bring water to wash unclean houses Alas who would have said that the Messias was come amongst us to execute the office of a Moabite What force hath conquered him what arms have brought him under but onely love How can we then become proud and burn incense to that Idol called Point of honour when we see how our God humbled himself in this action Observe with what preparation the Evangelist said that his Heavenly Father had put all into his hands that he came from God and went to God yet in stead of taking the worlds Scepter he takes a Bason and humbles himself to the most servile offices And if the waters of this Bason cannot burst in us the foul impostume of vanity we must expect no other remedy but the eternal flames of hell fire Aspirations OKing of Lovers and Master of all holy Loves Thou lovest for an end and till the accomplishment of that end It appertains onely to thee to teach the Art of loving well since thou hast practised it so admirably Thou art none of those delicate friends who onely make love to beauties to gold and silk thou lovest our very poverty and our miseries because they serve for objects of thy charity Let proud Michol laugh while she list to see my dear David made as a water-bearer I honour him as much in that posture as I would sitting upon the throne of all the world I look upon him holding this Bason as upon him that holds the vast seas in his hands O my merciful Jesus I beseech thee wash wash again and make clean my most sinfull soul Be it as black as hell being in thy hands it may become more white than that Dove with silver wings of which the Prophet speaks I go I run to the fountain I burn with love amongst thy purifying waters I desire affectionately to humble my self but I know not where to find so low a place as thine when thou thus wast humbled before Judas to wash his traiterours feet Upon the Garden of Mount Olivet Moralities 1. JEsus enters into a Garden to expiate the sin committed in a Garden by the first man The first Adam stole the fruit and the second is ordained to make satisfaction It is a strange thing that he chose the places of our delights for suffering his pains and never lookt upon our most dainty sweets but to draw out of them most bitter sorrows Gardens are made for recreations but our Saviour finds there onely desolation The Olives which are tokens of peace denounce war unto him The plants there do groan the flowers are but flowers of death and those fountains are but fountains of sweat and bloud He that shall study well this Garden must needs be ashamed of all his pleasant Gardens and will forsake those refined curiosities of Tulips to make his heart become another manner of Garden where Jesus should be planted as the onely Tree of Life which brings forth the most perfect fruits of justice 2. It was there that the greatest Champion of the world undertook so great Combats which began with sweat and bloud but ended with the loss of his life There were three marvellous Agonies of God and Death of Joy and Sorrow of the Soul and Flesh of Jesus God and Death were two incomparable things since God is the first and the most universal of all lives who banisheth from him all the operations of death and yet his love finds means to unite them together for our redemption The joy of beatitude was a fruition of all celestial delights whereunto nothing which displeased could have access and yet Jesus suffered sorrow to give him a mortal blow even in the Sanctuary of his Divinity He afflicted himself for us because we knew not what it was to afflict our selves for him and he descended by our steps to the very anguishes of death to make us rise by his death to the greatest joyes of life To be short there was a great duel between the affectionate love and the virginal flesh of Jesus His soul did naturally love a body which was so obedient and his body followed wholly the inclinations of his soul There was so perfect an agreement between these two parties that their separation must needs be most dolorous Yet Jesus would have it so and signed the decree by sweating bloud And as if it had been too little to weep for our sins with two eyes he suffered as many eyes as he had veins to be made in his body to shed for us tears of his own bloud 3. Observe here how this soul of Jesus amongst those great anguishes continued always constant like the Needle of a Sea-compass in a storm He prays he exhorts he orders he reproves and he encourages he is like the Heavens which amongst so many motions and agitations lose no part of their measure or proportion Nature and obedience make great convulsions in his heart but he remains constantly obedient to the will of his Heavenly Father he tears himself from himself to make himself a voluntary sacrifice for death amongst all his inclinations to life to teach us that principal lesson of Christianity which is to desire onely what God will
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
of sorrow By a much stronger reason we have cause to say the same thing of all worldly hopes which desist not to deceive us till we be a-sleep but surprise us open-eyed Yet we shall do wrong to question them for they are innocent but we are culpable to make so ill use of reason as to run all our life-time after fancies One of the wisest men of antient times uttered a matter very remarkable related by D. John Chrysostome to wit that all man-kind is tyed with a great chain composed of two folds of An excellent passage of a wise man mentioned by Chrysost links which in great number all our life-time are multiplyed and interchangeably follow one another One is called joy and the other sorrow But besides this there are some saith this Wise-man who have fetters on their heels being tormented with harsh hopes which under the shadow of sweetnesse insult over them and hold them as long as they live in a painfull slavery There is a file addeth he called Reason which is very excellent to file our fetters but there are none but the most considerate who find it fools are enforced to languish all their life-time in this Martyrdome and as they have lived in the fervours of a feaver they also dye in illusion Then let us learn to make an eternall divorce from all those frivolous worldly hopes and to look on Jesus as a pole-star alwayes immoveable under whom all mobilities move What a shame is it to spend the better part of our age after smokes and phantastick semblances which pay us with nothing but griefs and not to hope in a strong God who supporteth the earth with Esto bracâ—ium nostruÌ„ in mane salus uostra in tempore tribulationis Isa 33. 2 Salutare tuum expectabo Domine Gen. 49. 18. three fingers of his power in a mercifull God who loveth us tenderly as the apple of his eye Shall we never learn to say Be our arms in the morning and our salvation in the day of Tribulation Let us not flatter our selves with these goodly semblances of honour of greatnesse of riches of pleasures which by heap present themselves to our imagination but let us say Lord I will expect the Saviour thou hast promised me Let us leave the men of the world who unbowell themselves like Spiders by drawing out their entrails to catch files but let us imitate those little silk-worms who cast forth precious threads whereof they make a rich bottome in which they sleep and come not forth but to take wings Fortissimum solatium habeamus qui confugimus ad tenendam spem quam sicut anchoram habemus aenimae tutam ac firmam incedentes usque ad interlora velaminis ubi praecurâ—or pro nobis introvit Jesus Heb. 6 19. and soar in the air Let us go and produce hopes which are as so many threads of gold that involve us here below in pretious repose and a certain expectation of Beatitude untill charity hath perfected our wings to take our flight to the City of peace where so many chosen souls stretch out an arm unto us Let us take a very strong comfort since we put our selves between the arms of hope which we hold as a firm and an assured anchor to stay all the disturbances of our mind going forward in our way till we passe the veil and enter into the Tabernacle of the Sanctuary whereinto Jesus our Precursor hath made his entry for our Salvation The eight Treatise Of DESPAIR § 1. It s Nature Composition and Effects HE who would set forth the picture of Despair me thinks should do well to represent The image of Despair hope in the manner of some bird variously diversified with curious-coloured feathers and endowed with a most melodious voyce that were pursued by a man with much eagrenesse but when he should think to touch her with his finger she should instantly vanish away in the air and leave in stead of her self a black and ugy Hobgoblin which should possesse all the passages both S. Thom. 1. 2. q. 4. art 40. Recessus vitalis à bono ob ejus difficultaté vel praeciusam futuritionem There are two sorts of Acts in this passion of the Pallace and Throne of this goodly Hope In this property behold what the definition of Despair meaneth which according to S. Thomas is a recesse from a good impossible or which one proposeth within himself he can never attain unto From whence it cometh that there are two acts which compose this miserable Passion the first whereof is a determinate judgment made upon the impossibility of the good that is sought whether it be lost or whether the means to arrive unto it be taken away or whether it be so difficult that the wit of man cannot purchase it at any price Thence followeth a second Act of grief and sadnesse to see it self driven back from the desired object without any hope of coming near unto it for which cause we may well represent the dismall spectre of Despair tumbling so many Courtiers with frivolous hope down the mountain into the bottome of a valley where some gnash their teeth stamp with their feet and pull themselves by the hair Some run to the sword to precipices and halters others lie flat on the ground drowned in their tears and drenched in dull sadnesse like people wholly senslesse and walking in the way of a Tomb as having almost nothing at all to do with the living But the thing most admirable is that there are some to be seen who being come to the extremity of miseries find themselves in an instant faln into a happinesse unexpected so that Despair seems to have been for them the source of all their hopes § 2. The Causes of Despair and the Condition of those who are most subject to this Passion THey who are of a Melancholick humour are infinitely disposed to the effects of this direfull passion For to say truth Melancholy is the Pit of the Abysse from whence issueth forth an infinite quantity of evil vapours which cause night in the most cheerfull brightnesse and make the most pleasing beauties of Nature to be beheld with affrightment They who are turmoiled herewith easily resigning themselves over to Despair are perpetually upon complaints and lamentations they see publick calamities coming afar off and like birds of an ill presage do prognostick nothing but disastres They have a singular inclination to believe the worst news to augment it in their imagination to amplifie it in their discourses and to affright the whole world if they could with pannick terrours and imaginary fears The lest mishap which befals their family is in their opinion a generall ruine Menaces are blows blows murthers the least sparks are Coles Theatres strewed with flowers are scaffolds covered with black for them and all the actions of men are nought but Tragedies Wise Plutarch said All little Courages were naturally full of Complaints They are like
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
all rhe Nations that are from India to Ethiopia To the Princes and Governours of the seven and twenty Provinces of our Empire Greeting Many abusing through their Pride the Goodnesse of Princes and the Honours that have been given them do not onely endeavour to oppresse People but also by a detestable Felony to attempt upon the Life of their Benefactours not being able to bear the Weight of the Glory to which they are Exalted They are not contented to be Ingratefull for Benefits and to Violate the Laws of Humanity but perswade themselves that though they runne out into so great Crimes they shall escape the Judgments of that Great God from whom nothing is Concealed Their Fury is so irregulated that though they be defiled with all sorts of Vices they Accuse those that are Innocent and observe punctually all the Justnesse of their Duty endeavouring to ruine them by the Artifices and Juglings of their Lyes And for this they surprise the Ear of Kings who have an Heart full of Goodnesse and Sincerity measuring those that are near their Persons by their own Dispositions The Proof of this may befound in Antient Stories and even in those of our Dayes too which shew sufficiently how the Good Intentions of Kings are Corrupted by the wicked Counsels of their Ministers and Servants For this Reason we ought to give order for the Peace of our Provinces and if we are Constrained to make you a Countermand know that it proceeds rather from the necessity of the Times then from the inconstancy of our Resolutions It is necessary that you should understand that Haman the son of Amadatha a Macedonian by Nation and Affection after he had been promoted by our Goodnesse to the second Place of our Kingdome hath defiled by his Cruelty the effects of our Piety and hath puffed himself up with so great an Arrogance as to have dared to attempt to deprive us of our Sceptre and of our Life For he resolved to cause Mordecai to Dye to whose Fidelity I own my preservation and to destroy with him Hester the Companion of our Bed and of our Sceptre with her whole Nation by Inventions pernicious and till this time unheard of He hoped by this means that having taken away ouâ— Conservatours he might surprise us in a Dereliction and translate the Kingdome of the Persians to the Macedonians But we have discovered that the Jews destined to death by this wicked Villain are without fault That they use good Laws and that they are the true Children of the most High most Great and Everliving God by whom the Empire is given and preserved to us And for this Reason we make void and disannul the Letters that he hath directed to you in our Name to cause them to be Murthered making you to know that the Authour of the Lye hath been hanged upon the Gallowes at the Gate of Shushan God rendering to him that which he hath deserved Furthermore we Will and Ordain that the Jews live in all our Provinces according to their Law and Ceremonies and that you assist them in bringing their Enemies to Punishment the same day that they had determined to destroy them seeing that the God Almighty hath turned to them into Joy that day of Tears and Grief And since that that is Important even for our Life and Preservation We Command that that Day be put in the number of the Feasts that Posterity may know the Recompenses of our Faithfull Servants and the Punishment of those that oppose our Will and make attempt upon our State And if there be any Province or City that refuses to solemnize that very Day with Joyes and Chearfulnesse befitting it we Will that it be destroyed with Fire and Sword and that it be made inaccessible to Men and Beasts to perpetuity to give an Example to others by the punishment of their contempt and Disobedience The Commands of the King were diligently executed and the Jews Dreaded and Honoured in all places by reason of the great Credit that Mordecai had with the King his Master It seemed that the Sunne was risen a new for these people heretofore afflicted and that Heaven powred down upon them blessings in abundance There was nothing every where but Joyes but Dances but Feasts in Testimony of so publick an alacrity But it is clear that Hester held yet somewhat of the Old Testament in the searching out of the enemies of her Nation and in the Revenge that she caused to be ex-excised every where upon them that had sworne her Ruine Haman's House was given her and ten of his Sons hanged to accompany the punishment of their Father Five hundred men were slain in Shushan for having adhered to that miserable man and through all the rest of the Cities of the Kingdome much blood was shed on the same day that had been assigned for the Massacres of the Hebrews We must avow that this History is wonderfully Tragicall and one of the most wonderfull Revolutions of Fortune that ever arrived to Great ones to make Posterity feare the Judgements of a God whose Hand is as weighty in the Chastisement of Crimes as his Eye quick-sighted in the discerning of Hearts The SOULDIERS JOSHUA JUDAS MACCABEUS IOSVE IVDAS MACHABEE HE must be ignorant of the chief and most visible of beauties that knowes not Joshua One cannot see the Sun without remembring the great commerce that this Valourous Captain had with the King of Stars All the World lift their eyes up to it but none hath ever lifted his voyce as far as it to make himself be heard and to make himself to be obeyed The Stars knew Joshua because he bore the Name of him that formed them It is he that first gave us the fore-tasts of the name of Jesus at which the Heaven the Earth and Hell do bend the knee What lovely thing had not this generous Joshua seeing one cannot name him without mentioning Salvation which is the wish and content of all men Who would think that such a spirit had been born and bred in servitude And yet he was Pharaohs slave he was as the rest in the chain that was at that time common to all his people Those were very patient that could endure it but he was far more valiant that found a means to break it When in his little infancy he played upon the banks of the River of Nile with the other prisoners he then strook terrour into all its flotes and the Angels of Egypt knew that he should tread under his feet the pride Pharaoh and carry away the spoils of that proud kingdome so many times cemented with the blood of his brethren He did every thing by Moses's orders and Moses did nothing without him If one was the eye of his people the other was the arm if one was the Conductour of them the other was the Protectour If one had the Providence the other reserved to himself the execution which is ordinarily the most difficult piece of Prudence
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
Nero who by Anicetus the same man who before killed his mother did raise a horrible calumny against the honour of his wife and caused this instrument of the devil to affirm that he had played with the Empresse on which he caused her to be banished and poor Octavia as a guilty person did suffer under that wicked sentence and was banished into the Isle of Pandaluria and because Poppea could not sleep in quiet with Nero as long as Octavia was alive he filled up his cruelty and by a most unworthy death he sacrificed her to the appetite of that most bold woman whom afterwards he killed with a spum of his foot on the end of his life and of his Empire My pen is weary to describe so many horrours and doth go over them as on so many burning coals but my Reader it is to represent unto you that this pernicious caitiste causing the poyson of his evill actions to diffuse it self into the veins of all the city of Rome The world was in its heighth of iniquity when S. Paul and Seneca meeting together at one time did endeavour to cure the maladies of this wicked Court the one by Philosophy the other by the Gospel Behold here the manners learning abilities and the successe both of the one and of the other Who hath not Seneca in veneration a good Authour Johannes Sarisburiensis saith hath not the understanding of a reasonable man He is known by all knowing men in his Writings and mis-known by some in his Manners and his Life Suillius a Roman Advocate accused for corruption and banished by the counsell of Seneca at what time he was imployed in the government of Affairs did write a defaming Book against that great From whence proceeded the calumnies against Seneca personage which two Greek Historians but men of small judgement Dion and Xiphiline have followed and in many things have blamed him with as much passion as impertinence This Opinion hath infected divers spirits who either for want of capacity or application do discourse unto us of Seneca as of a man quite contrary to his Books which hath made me diligently to examine his Life to take away the abuse and to give you an Idaea of that puissant Genius with as much clearnesse as sincerity Know then that he was a Roman by his Extract His birth and Bloud He was born at Corduba a city in Spain which was then under the Empire of Rome and full of Italians who being born almost in all the parts of the world were yet born within the Circle of their Empire His father was of an ordinary family a Gentleman of no great account removed from the observation of the world and as farre from command as from ambition addicted above all things to the study of Eloquence reasonably learned but of an admirable memory for having but once heard them he would readily rehearse two thousand names and two hundred verses His mother was named Helvia one of the most beautifull women in the Empire full of understanding and judgement of a high virtue and a rare modesty she had some knowledge in letters and an extraordinary capacity to increase that knowledge if time and custome had given her leave to take an advantage of it His elder brother was called Novatus or Gallion and had a great command in the Empire His younger brother was named Mela a man farre from ambition who lived in the house and studied Eloquence with his Father who in that regard did preferre him in his own judgement above his brothers But Seneca was nourished and advanced in Rome His Education and Spirit in the time of Augustus Cesar he received his first elements of learning under the Discipline of his father and afterwards studied Philosophy under Attalus and Socion In his first years he made the vigour of his Spirit the force of Eloquence and the abundance of Learning to appear so fully in him that he was admired by the most knowing men But that great spirit did by degrees consume his body which was lean and thin and troubled with defluxions and the ptisick which would have brought him to his grave if the cruelty of Nero had not prevented it He was obliged to make an Oration in publick before The fury of Caligula against him Caligula the Emperour concerning which that monster in nature who could not endure any thing that was great and praisefull and by a malignity of manners envied all professours of Learning did pronounce aloud that he had too much spirit and that they must kill him which had presently been put in execution if one of the Mistresses of the Emperour who knew Seneca and favoured him for his Eloquence had not perswaded him that he was not worth killing a lean poor fellow and one whom death would suddenly of it self take away from the world Howbeit he lived many years afterwards and increased in knowledge as in age and as much in Eloquence as in them both attending a more favourable time to make a manifestation of it Claudius succeeded the Emperour Caligula who was not a man for Seneca and though he was indued with extraordinary qualities for a Courtier yet the favour of the times did not much smile upon them His clear spirit and his brave works made him to be known in the house of Germanicus a Prince of the Bloud who was poysoned in the flower of his age and left behind him children of great consideration namely two Princesses who made themselves diversly talked of in Rome the one was Julia the other Agrippina the mother of Nero. This Julia took an affection to Seneca being much pleased with the beauty Dion doth distinguish them in his 9. Book and Suetonius chap. 29. of his spirit and the grace of his discourse He daily frequented the house of Germanicus being no lesse in discretion then in favour and wisely judged that these two high-born Princesses might one day contribute to the making of his fortunes But the Court is an uncertain sea where sometime a tempest doth arise when a calm is expected The favour of Julia in the stead of advancing Seneca did suppresse him and did almost overwhelm him without any hope of rising again although in the end it was in effect the cause of all his reputation It came to passe that Messalina the wife to the Emperour Claudius the most insatiable woman in her lusts that Nature ever produced did conceive an enraged hatred against the house of Germanicus and especially against the Princesse Julia because she was highly esteemed for her rare beauty and the high spirit of Messalina could not endure that any Lady should be praised at Court for her beauty but her self Besides she perceived that her husband whom she absolutely governed did make very much of that young Princesse she therefore caused her to be falsly accused for prostituting her honour and procured her to be banished the Court. An inquiry was made after those who
commandment Wealth and Honour were always on her side Delight and Joy seemed onely to be ordained for her Whatsoever she undertook did thrive all her thoughts were prosperous the earth and the sea did obey her the winds and the tempests did follow her Standards Some would affirm that this is no marvel at all but onely the effect of a cunning and politick Councel composed of the sons of darkness who are more proper to inherit the felicities of this world than the children of the light But we must consider that this is the common condition both of the good and the evil to find out the cause in which the Understanding of man doth lose it self David curiously endeavouring to discover the reason in the beginning did conceive himself to be a Philosopher but in the end acknowledged that the consideration thereof did make him to become a Beast The Astrologers do affirm that Elizabeth came into the world under the Sign of Virgo which doth promise Empires and Honours and that the Queen of Scotland was born under Sagitarius which doth threaten women with affliction and a bloudy Death The Machivilians do maintain that she should accommodate her self to the Religion of her Countrey and that in the opposing of that torrent she ruined her affairs The Politicians do impute it to the easiness of her gentle Nature Others do blame the counsel which she entertained to marry her own Subjects And some have looked upon her as Jobs false friends did look on him and reported him to lye on the dung-hill for his sions But having thoroughly considered on it I do observe that in these two Queens God would represent the two Cities of Sion and Babylon the two wayes of the just and the unjust and the estate of this present world and of the world to come He hath given to Elizabeth the bread of dogs to reserve for Mary the Manna of Angels In one he hath recompensed some moral virtues with temporal blessings to make the other to enter into the possession of eternal happiness Elizabeth did reign why so did Athalia Elizabeth did presecute the Prophets why so did Jezabel Elizabeth hath obtained Victories why so did Thomyris the Queen of the Scythians She hath lived in honour and delight and so did Semiramis She died a natural death being full of years so died the Herods and Tyberius but following the track that she did walk in what shall we collect of her end but as of that which Job speaketh concerning the Tomb of the wicked They pass away their life in delights and descend in a moment unto hell Now God being pleased to raise Marie above all the greatness of this earth and to renew in her the fruits of his Cross did permit that in the Age wherein she lived there should be the most outragious and bloudy persecution that was ever raised against the Church He was pleased by the secret counsel of his The great secret of the Divine Providence Providence that there should be persons of all sorts which should extol the Effects of his Passion And there being already entered so many Prelates Doctours Confessours Judges Merchants Labourers and Artisans he would now have Kings and Queens to enter also Her Husband Francis the Second although a most just and innocent Prince had already took part in this conflict of suffering Souls His life being shortened as it is thought by the fury of the Hugonots who did not cease to persecute him It was now requisite that his dear Spouse should undertake the mystery of the Cross also And as she had a most couragious soul so God did put her in the front of the most violent persecutions to suffer the greatest torments and to obtain the richest Crowns The Prophet saith That man is made as a piece of Elizabeth's hatred to the Queen of Scotland Imbroidery which doth not manifest it self in the lives of the just for God doth use them as the Imbroiderer doth his stuffs of Velvet and of Satin he takes them in pieces to make habilements for the beautifiing of his Temple 12. Elizabeth being now transported into Vengeance and carried away by violent Counsels is resolved to put Mary to death It is most certain that she passionately desired the death of this Queen well understanding that her life was most apposite to her most delicate interests She could not be ignorant that Mary Stuart had right to the Crown of England and that she usurped it she could not be ignorant that in a General Assembly of the States of England she was declared to be a Bastard as being derived from a marriage made consummated against all laws both Divine and humane She observed that her Throne did not subsit but by the Faction of Heresie and as her Crown was first established by disorder so according to her policie it must be cemented by bloud She could not deny but that the Queen of Scotland had a Title to the Crown which insensibly might fall on the head of the Prisoner and then that in a moment she might change the whole face of the State She observed her to be a Queen of a vast spirit of an unshaken faith and of an excellent virtue who had received the Unction of the Realm of Scotland and who was Queen Dowager of the Kingdom of France supported by the Pope reverenced throughout all Christendom and regarded by the Catholicks as a sacred stock from which new branches of Religion should spring which no Ax of persecution could cut down The Hereticks in England who feared her as one that would punish their offences and destroy their Fortunes which they had builded on the ruins of Religion had not a more earnest desire than to see her out of the world All things conspired to overthrow this poor Princess and nothing remained but to give a colour to so bold a murder It so fell out that in the last years of her afflicting imprisonment a conspiracy was plotted against the Estate and the life of Elizabeth as Cambden doth recite it Ballard an English Priest who had more zeal to his Religion than discretion to mannage his enterprize considered with himself how this woman had usurped a Scepter which did not appertain unto her How she had overthrown all the principles of the ancient Religion How she had kept in prison an innocent Queen for the space of twenty years using her with all manner of indignity how she continually practised new butcheries by the effusion of the bloud of the Catholicks he conceived it would be a work of Justice to procure her death who held our purses in her hand and our liberty in a chain But I will not approve of those bloudy Counsels which do provide a Remedy far worse than the disease and infinitely do trouble the Estate of Christendom Nevertheless he drew unto him many that were of his opinion who did offer and devote themselves to give this fatal blow The chiefest amongst them was
Great troubles at Rome appeased by him 175 Pope Leo caused him to be crowned Emperour of Rome 176 The great cunning of men who go about to surprise Chastity 18 Advise to Ladies and Gentlewomen concerning Chastity 19 The honour the French bore to the virtue of Chastity 110 The conjugall Chastity of S. Lewis 111 Weak spirits are ordinarily Cholerick 87 Malicious and covert souls are ranked in the second region of anger which is bitter Choler ib. Choler and vengeance are prejudiciall 294 Chrysostom mentioneth an excellent presage of a wise man 65 The greatnesse and beauty of Clemency 143 The generous anger of Clotharius 117 The Essence of Compassion 99 Complacence stronger then fire and sword 18 Miseries of humane Condition 56 Such as have a clear Conscience are most bold 79 Contentments are rather in the will then in the pleasing objects 48 True contentment is in God 49 God possessing himself injoyeth his Contentment ib. Our Lord passed all his life in Contentments which were necessarily due to him to give us an example to wean our selves from them 50 Conversation and its contentments 13 Conversation must be moderated ib. Courage is not lessened by study 78 Men of obscure birth raised to great preferments by their courage 8â— Compassion of great Courages 99 The rare endowments that are required in a Courtier 219 The Court of Pharaoh is compared to the Helmet-flower 228 The horrour of cruelty 100 A man must take heed of being too Curious 46 The wisdome of Cushi the servant of David in the counsel of Absolon 149 D A Witty Fable of John Damascen 2 Daniel is chosen for one of Nebuchadonozars pages 247 His noble extraction and rare parts ib. He is in great hazard of his life 242 He consulteth with God ib. He is made Vice-Roy of all the Provinces of the Kingdome 243 He is sought unto to give the interpretation of the hand-writing upon the wall 246 He refuseth to worship Bell. 247 He killeth the Dragon ib. He is cast into the Lions Den. ib. He is taken from thence and his accusers put into his roome who are immediately devoured ib. The question upon the act of David is resolved 35 The qualities of David 139 His entrance into the Court. ib. He is pursued and escapes ib. The losse of David in banishment ib. His arrivall at Nob causeth great disasters to the Priests ib David saves himself in the caves of the desart whither his father and mother go to seek him 142 His piety towards them ib. Banished men repair unto David ib. The visite of Jonathan secret and very profitable for David ib. Nabals rudenesse towards David ib. The admirable generousnesse of David in pardoning his enemies ib. David goeth out of the Kingdome and retireth himself among strangers 143 David receives the news of Sauls overthrow 144 David cannot be excused for the treaty made with Abner 145 He is absolute King by the death of Ishbosheth the son of Saul ibid. The royall qualities of David ib. His zeal to religion ib. His valour and his warres ib. His justice and good husbandry ib. His vices ib. The blindnesse of David 146 Davids repentance ib. Punishment upon the house of David ib. The patience of David towards Shimel 148 His great humility and his humble words ib. Davids mildnesse very great 149 The last acts of Davids life 150 God hath made all creatures to have delectation 48 Four things compose the solid Delectation of man ib. The Essence of Delectation 49 Demetrius his oration 203 He is engaged in a war against the Macchabees 204 Whether it be good to have a Desire 39 An excellent picture of Desire ib. The world is replenished with Desiring souls ib. The exposition of the picture of Desire ib. The passion of curiosity a kind of Desire ib. Inconstancy followeth the multitude of Desires 41 Four sources of Desires 42 A reason against vain Desires drawn from divine tranquility ib. Another reason against vain Desires is the onely desire which Jesus had in secking the glory of his heavenly Father 43 Marvellous effects of Desire 112 The image of Despair 65 Three sorts of acts in Despair ib. Remedies against Despair 68 The admirable conversion of some who seemed desperate ib. The sight of our Saviour teacheth us to persevere in our good hopes and not to Despair 69 A great secret of life is to undergo Destiny 139 Why Devils love not God whom they know to be so amiable 48 Disorder is fatall to the Court of great ones 174 Doeg accuseth the high Priest being innocent 141 Means to use an efficacious remedy in Duels 36 E THe reign of Edward 316 His qualities and his death 317 Divers causes of the ruine of Egypt 229 The children of Israel depart out of Egypt 231 Eleazer a Jewish Captain died valiantly having first pierced the Elephant whereon he did suppose that Eupator did combat 202 Queen Eleanor an enemy to France 118 Elijah includeth the name God and the Sun in his name 248 He hideth himself at the brook Carith over against Jordan ib. He restoreth to life the dead child of the woman of Sarepta 249. He is known to be the Prophet of God by fire coming down from heaven which consumed his sacrifice 250 He flies into the Wildernesse and is sustained by an Angel which furnished him with a cruise of oyl and a cake baked ib. He travelleth fourty dayes in the strength of that sustenance 251 His vision ibid. He foretelleth to Ahab that the dogs should lick his blood in the same place where Naboth was slain 252 He is translated and took a new life without loosing that he had in the world 254 The labyrinth of the hypocrisie of Queen Elizabeth 299 The fury of Elizabeth 200 Elisha leaveth his Plough and Oxen and followeth Elijah 251 He is heir of Elijahs spirit 255 His speech to Joram ib. Elisha besieged in Dothan is guarded by an host of heavenly Angels 256 Elisha conducteth his enemies stricken with blindnesse to Samaria the chief city of the adverse partie ib. Joram threateneth to take off his head ib. He dieth 259 The estate of England 315 The picture of Envie 91 The definition of Envie ibid. Humane remedies against Envie 94 The hlessed though unequall in glory are not envious 96 The lamentable Envie of Ebroin against S. Leger 121 Envie never sleepeth 140 The horrible Envie of Saul ib. Envie is easily learned at the Court. ib. The Temple of Ephesus 154 The courteous meeting of Erasmus and Oporinus 72 Evilmeredech son of Nebuchadonezar took upon him the regincie of the Empire his father leaving his kingdome to graze with the beasts 245 The ignorance of our Evils is a stratagem of divine Providence 71 F THe nature of Fear and the bad effects of it 70 Two sorts of Fear naturall and morall 71 The causes of Fear ibid. Fear is a troublesome passion ibid. Fear of accidents in the world 72 Remedies against accidentall Fear ib. Fear of poverty causeth most