have attended their misfortuues and are to be rewarded by the better issues of their affairs And though in absolute Conquests the Victor'd persons forfeit life and land as in that of the Conquerour who ejected the Britains and English and put Normans in their Houses Lands Honours and Offices yet in fewds of one part of the Nation against the other though the Heads and Ring-leaders of the peccant party do suffer capitally yet the majority of the seduced and unperverse Commonalty and Persons of worth pass off by mediation of Favourites by whom they are well offered to the Prince and from him obtain testimony of good will Thus was favour after Rebellion obtained temps Rusi thus did the Citizens of London obtain many privileges temps R. 1. 'T was time for them to give money when that King declared That if London would be bought he would surely sell it Gulâ—el Paruus Raud Hayden p. 25. Holinshed p. 119. p. 143. 145. if he might meet with a convenient Merchant that were able to give him money enough for it Thus Offices and custody of Castles came to be sold 5. R. 1. Thus great Men paid Fines for leave to Turney p. 497. 6 R. 1. and 22. and 23. R. 2. And thus since has it and will it in all such alterations be for Money being the great ground of altercation and separating not onely man and wife Prince and People but even Popes and Prelates upon dispute of it as appeared in that notable resolution of the Bishop of London 40 H. 3. who when the Popes Legate exacted money from his Clergie beyond measure said he would rather be a Martyr as was Thomas Becket then be subject to such exactions and when the King was angry with the Bishop and told him the Pope should punish him as he well deserved to be he answered Let the Pope and King which are stronger then I take away my Bishoprick which by Law yet they cannot do let them take away my Mitre yet an Helmet shall remain I say Mony being such a bait to discontent and such an engagement to the casual effects thereof as it is a great help to the comfort and conspicuity of life while it procures remission of past faults acceptance of present favours sets men out in their Parts Families Relations Enterprises to all desirable advantages and by the relief and employment of the poor as well as rewards to Artists and good offices to the Publique it so strongâ—y draws popularity to it so is it in the want of it a potent alloy to if not a total suppression of whatsoever is eminent in Men and Families Eccles. 9. 15. For while the rich mans wealth is his strong castle the destruction of the poor is their poverty Prov. 10. 15. And while the poor useth intreaties Prov. 18. 23. is separated from his neighbour Prov. 19. 4. hated of his brethren and avoyded by his friends V. 7. is ruled over by the rich Ch. 22. v. 87. and devoured from off the earth Chap. 30. v. 14. The rich come boldly and are welcomed frankly dispute stoutly and are answered civily fear great men but live without them prefer their children and make and take good settlements upon them which shews the comfort and furtherance to men that Estates give 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Menand in Mâ—nagirta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which made Menander cry out Blessed is he that hath wealth and a soul aright to use it For a man to be tempted by wealth and by it not be overcome is to be a man of men and a very great debtor to grace of restraint for there are but few that sincerely can say with him in the Poet Vice nere by money did me overcome For it within my soul there is no room Which exemption from the treacherous possession of money is not the gift of all men for St. Paul tells us The love of money is the root of all evil 1 Tim. 6. 10. Which place is observable because he saies not The having but the inordinate love of money nor that it is the sprout but the root Note this nor that it is the root of some but of all evil and he confirms it from the Apostatique Effect of it which while some have coveted they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves thorow with many sorrows Which is Emphatique also While some not while all God has his Jewels amongst rich men who use the world but abuse it not who have money but love it not that is commit no sinne to accomplish their end as Apostates and Seducers do who have been so besotted transported with it that they have for the conveniency and glory of it erred from the Faith made a revolt and defection from the Church and not only wandered as Gods people too often do but persisted desperately in that errour which Gods people do not This the inordinate love of money leads into and therefore is by all that love and feare God to be avoyded for he that buyes will sell and so judgment may be turned into gall and righteousness into wormwood Plato makes riches and possession of moneyâ—a great help to rectitude and injuriousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato de Repub lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Phaedro ad Finâ—m Dialog while it not only raises a mans spirit above wrongful basenesses but enables him to attain to whatever wisely and in a way of vertue he can well wish and well use And hereupon I cannot but account that a wise design of him in Plato to beg of the Gods to be good and vertuous within and to have no outward advantage that inconsisted with his intern vertue And if rich he must beg to have so much Money and Moneys-worth as a temperate mind knows well to use and yet enjoy its own vertue And thus to have money is to be master of every almost desirable adjument to Gods glory and mens good Money then being thus prevalent it cannot be denied to be a probable Rise to Men and in them to Families For in that it answereth all things in the exchange of it there is no Match Honour Place Character Priviledge which it Subjects being capable of and consistent with it will not procure nor is there any merit of conspicuity and obligement which it gives opportunity to express represent it self in but is furtherable by it which Richard Duke of Cornwall found true as he well defigned when by his Riches with which he glutted the Electors of the Empire though great Princes procured them contrary to their Honours and Oaths to chuse him a Forraigner and no Germrn King of the Romans SECT XXII Proveth that Favour with the Prince is the chiefest cause of Rise to Honour and Riches SEcondly Favour with the Prince is the most undoubted step to Honour wealth and Greatness This I had placed first but that Money is the more general cause of Rise many coming thereby to
Princes favours for if to them not onely Honours Riches Reputation but even in a sort much of the administrative divinity of Kings is indulged as Theodoric the Gothish King wrote to a Vice-king under him What fidelity ought they express to their benefactor in not neglecting their service disobliging their people misusing their trusts as did Wolsey who fraudulently got a warrant from H. 8. to execute the E. of Kildare though the Lieutenant of the Towers honesty in not executing it made it void by the Kings Countermand a Speed p. 775. p. 849. And Gardiner from Qu. Mary to execute the Lady Elizabeth the after happy Queen of this Land What conscience and reverence to themselves not to do any thing rashly and improvidently by which they may lose their ground and be outed the occasion of so general good For Princes favours being of delicate and casual composure are not to be put to the stress of gross and dull mettalled ones but to be humbly and modestly improved which the wise King Solomon adviseth to He that loveth pureness of heart Prov. 22. 11. Fuit enim illi nobile ingenium furebundi regis Impatiens Senec. Nat. Quest. lib. 6. c. 22. for the grace of his lips the King shall be his friend The failer of which in Calisthenes the Favourite of Alexander lost him both his interest in the King and in his own life That being true of Favourites over-confidence and peremptoriness which a friend of the Earl of Essex Sir Henry Wotton work p. Favourite to Queen Elizabeth told him O Sir These courses are are like hot waters which help at a pang but if they be too often used will spoil the stomach as it was wofully made good in him whose impatience to have any companion in favour with him or any grists of greatness go by the Mill of his only influence declined both his lustre and his life Yea above all what caution are they that have these intrusts to express in avoyding envy Sect. 2. Eicon Bâ—silic upon the E. Sraâ—â—ord Who moving in so high a Sphere and with so vigorous lustre raise many envious exhalations which condensed by popular odium are capable to cast a cloud upon the brightest merit and integrity as the divine Kings words are and to chuse such choice servants and friends whose intâ—grity conscience prudence and industry they being responsible for Holinshed p. 324 p. 511. may not be defeated in and then they will be secure if not from the calumâ—y yet from the desert of envy which had the Spensers in E. 2. time p. 555. the Earl of March temps H. 4. Earl of Arundel and Lord Percy temps R. 2. guarded themselves against they could not have fallen as they did For much suspected by me does no hurt when nothing proved can be is true All which in such measures and proportions as God shall permit their prudences to method to themselves being protected and blessed by him makes Favourites not crazy but hayle and happy in their Princes favour then which there is no speedier way to Rise Riches Nobility Prelacy Splendour and Endowments of all kinds possible to be imagined for though Riches Industry and Frugality give many rounds to the ascents of men yet the Master Caper and the Noblest Capreol to advance is the Kings Favour which as it is too full a blessing for any but a Magnanimous and Royall minded person to disgest and well manage so to such as already have or hereafter may have it I beseech God it may be continued and enlarged for it is an opportunity to serve God the King the people and the havers to all beneficially Noble purposes it being under the King the spring that moves all without which nothing runnes currant but has cheques too many to pass by as is evident in the vivid representation of it in Haman who is said to have his seat set by Abashuerus above all the Princes that were with him Ver. 2. Esther 3. and to command that all the Kings servants should bow before him and his word so prevail'd with the King that he gave him his Royal Signet and said The Silver is given to thee the people also to do with them as it seemeth good to thee Ver. 10 11. and what Haman issues forth is dispatched to the Kings Lieutenants to be accordingly executed Ver. 12 13. In that I say these are the bounties of Princes to their Favourits from whom they seem to withhold nothing but the Throne it self there is great cause to conclude That no way to advance Men and Families is more expedite and energical then Service to and Favour from Princes For if the displeasure of a King be as the messenger of death Prov. 16. 14. and the fear of a King is as the roaring of a Lyon who so provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul Pro. 20. 2. If not only in case of Felony or Treason but upon displeasures penalties are not only inflicted upon persons but upon Lands Cambden in Doaset Britan. p. 214. and that indelibly as Mr. Cambden tells us the Lands of Hinde and others in New Forrest were charged and yet pay white hart Silver for killing a white Hart of H. 3. in that Forrest If these terrours and mulcts are in the disfavour of a King whose frown and word has killed the heart of subjects of courage who durst have out-lived any other hardship what joy and freedom is in the Kings favour No less sure then dew upon the grass Prov. 19 12. Ch. 20. v. 8. v. 26. Eccles. 8. 4. no less then scattèring all evil and bringing the wheel over the wicked no less then power and that visible in the testimonies of his favour and the effects of it the prosperity of which is such as the Princes in soul and government are whose the favour is and the design of the soul is who is a suitor for and obtainer of it For as to be in favour with Terrible Princes whose reigns are butcheries and whose instruments must be rigorous and cruel as was Peirce Exton to H. 4. who to be as that Kings words were The faithfull friend which will deliver me of him whose life will be my death and whose death will be the preservation of my life Holinshed in H. 4. p. 517. undertook and effected the execrable and damnable Parricide of good King Rich. 2. is to be a divel in Flesh and a miscreant more unhappy then almost Hell can make one So to be in favour with a vertuous and serene Prince whose soul is so serious and sincere that he dare appeal to God as his Compurgator and beseech God to try and search him if there be any malicious and premeditated iniquity in him and in his government by his privity To be a Favourite to a Prince whose faith in and relyance upon God comforts him Eicon Basil. Sect. 15. That no black veils of calumny shall
denied access Yea her God it was that when her Chamber was on fire preserved her from burning in it and kept up her spirit in a condition which she thought less comfortable then that of a poor Milk-maid in whose place she wished to be when she heard her cry Milk O quoth she that I were a Milkmaid 'T was he that was her hope and Saviour that maugre all these made her Mistris of these Nations and of the glory of Government in her Time And 't was he and he alone that was in the religious heart and pious pen of that Angelique King who in his sorest agonies if trouble could have discomposed so sublime and steady a soul leaves us his doleful Suhjects the Legacy of admiring his Vertues and Words I am confident the Iustice of My Cause and clearness of my Conscience Eicon Basil. Sect. 28. before God and Towards My People will carry me as much above them in Gods decision as their successes have lifted them above Me in the vulgar opinion who consider not that many times those undertakings of men are lifted up to Heaven whose rise is from Hell as to the injuriousnesse and oppression of the design Which considered who would not look upon God as the sweetest comfort and safest refuge and make his hiding place under the pavillioâ— of his protection Psal. 32. 7. who is a Rock of ages for his peoples establishment and has provided Salvation for their Walls and Bucklers Isa. 26. 1. who leads them by his Pillar of Cloud by day and by his Pillar of Fire by night under whom are his Everlasting arms Deut. 33. 27. and in whom his unerring Spirit is whom his Angels minister to his affection encompasseth and to whom his Truth performeth all that is good for them and in wrong to whom he hath said no weopon shall prosper no prayer but become sin no counsel but turn into foolishness for all is Babel and Nehushtan without and against God who will do whatsoever comes into the wisdom of his mind to be brought to pass by the power of his hand For as without God all perswasion is but as a sounding Brass and a tinkling Cimbal so without him all actions is but writing in the dust sowing on the rock emptying the Sea with a Sive as the barking of a whippet against the Moon invalid sottish nothing and if God be in our adventures and his glory rest upon smal things Aarons dry rod shall flourish with fruit and Sarahs dead womb spring forth a sâ—nne Davids indiscernableness shall increase into a Kingdom and Sauls Kingdome decline into contempt the great Monarchies be changed and small Forces prevaile against great Princes and Countries have not our eares heard and our eys read of the amazing providences of God bringing down Nebuchadnezzars and Bajazets and Iulians and unfortunating the Holy wars of Christians against Infidels Sequitur parâ— quae solet non immerito contristare in solitudinem deducere uti bonorum exitus mali sunt ut Socrates cogitur in mori Ruâ—ilius in exilio vivere Pompejus Cicero clientibus suis prebere cervicem Cato ille virtutum viva imago incumbens gladio simul de se de Republ. palam facere Senec. lib de tranq amici when he has suffered his enemies Banners to be exalted and their Empire to be expatiated into Christendome to correct Christians for their dissension and jealousies When I consider Charles the fifth and his puissant Army vanish and do nothing worthy Story and Charles the eighth of France a young man destitute of Money and Councell assault potent and Heroique Princes and over-run as much of Italy as he passed thorow without so much as the least resistance which caused Pope Alexander to say that the French came into Italy with Chalk in their hands to take up their lodging where they listed For they had not so much as occasion to put on their Armour one day in their expeditions I cannot but conclude that the way to render actions and Men and Families considerable is to promote God by all those several means of his appointment in the upshot of which his glory marches and by his blessing to his instruments he prospers in their subserviency to him and returns them that which indeed exceeds their desires or deserts For there is no contesting with God who has power and wisdom too effectual and commanding for us worms by policy or strength to cope with nor are any preparations how valid soever 〈◊〉 themselves proper to a successful issue but as the benediction of God rests oâ— them which Sir Iohn Arundel Holingshed p. 423. temps R. 2. found most true to his ruin and cost in his French Expedition upon which he entred with great pride and pomp for he had 52. new Suits of Cloth of Gold Tissue with him and all things suitable but a storm came drowned his person and bravery and defeated that voyage and long afore that the terrours that God haâ— brought upon men and armies Thuâ—ydides lib. 4. p. 335. on no real apparent ground when they sear where no fear is and fly when none pursues them confirms this Which if men would more ruminate they would noâ— despise the day of Gods small things nor trust in Counsels Setlements Armies Navies Treasuries nor in any humane reserve or subterfuge which are failable carrying the worm of their corrosion in them and leaving often the ill aspect of paramount power impending them but they would apply themselves by prayer to God for conduct and counsel and refer the glory of their ayds and gainful expedients to him whose all men arts advantages defeats conclusions are and have no other dependance on emergencies or second â—â—uses then his Almightiness by them â—â—ves us view of the haults they make â—â—d the stops by them put to our â—onfidentest Carrears for as there is 〈◊〉 arrest of the worlds greatness but by â—â—e officer of providence who seises the â—ltanish pride and humbles the Lionlike â—ightiness of Might so is there no bayl 〈◊〉 be taken to relax his prey from its seiâ—re but by mercy conceding to the milâ—er methods of power and turning to it â—he softer edge of its Regal absoluteness â—hich is more Gods delight to manifest to â—â—e sons of men then his severity which â—e calls his strange act And I think that 〈◊〉 the survey of the providences of God Isai. 28. 21. the meditation and learning of which is â—ery prudent and Christian to be freâ—uent in It will appear that to one of â—enal nature there is ten of mercy and â—ndulgence Nequaquam ergo nobis dolenda est â—aet asslictio infirmitâ—â—â—m quum intelligimus matrem esse virtutum Salvianus lib. 1. de Gubernat Dei p. 9. for the good and Philanâ—hropique manifests of God are such as â—ow from his being and benignity and â—o come upon us with all the adjuncts of â—indness compassion indoctrination when
Honour and esteem who never see the Prince or transiently only being added to by him as they are attested to him by those that have reason and interest to give them a good character Those then that are favoured by the Prince as they are the better sort of subjects so are they better dealt with in the shares and participations of their Favours And if Princes be to Subjects as bodies to shadows and souls to words and Princes are as absolute by their Generous and Just Government as their own consciences and Noble desires wish themselves to be Regnum vestrum imitatio vestra Forma est boni propositi unici exemplar Imperii qui quantum vos sequimur tantum gentes alias anteimus Theodoric Rex Anastasio Imper Var lib. 1. c. 1. Regulations or directions being as it were needless and supernumerary where true Christian piety and paternal Royalty are guides to Princes then cannot their Favourites that are dear to them but be great by them For theirs are the Offices of Revenue the Titles of Honour the Embassies of Credit the Matches of Fortune the dispose of Trusts to bestow or have undenyable influence upon Excepit â—e noster affectus implevit beneficiis manus fecitque esse votum quod nostrum expetisses imperium Theodoric rex Eâ— 2. Felici Var lib. 2. And if these be the waies to Greatness and they are commanded by Princes then to be favoured by them whose so much is to bestow is to have all accesses to Honour and Wealth unfolded to them The knowledge and practicability of this inclines men of good person ready wit quaint speech generous garb confident spirit to apply themselves to Princes services and by it become either Rich Respected Honourable or some or all of them Yea by this has the Worlds greatness in Persons and Families first been obtained and after augmented with that which is remarkable in them Thus Hadad in holy Writ is history'd to have favour with K. Pharaoh whereby he became his brother in law by which means his sonne begot upon the Queens sister was born and brought up in the Kings house 1 Kings 11. 19 20. And thus David by the favour of Saul 1 Sam. 18. obtained first his daughter then his Generalship and at last his Kingdom This not needfull to be further instanced in because a truth of every daies ratifying is the reason that the Wise man informs us that he that seeketh good procureth favour Prov. 10. 27. Which I take not so much to be meant of Favour as the consequent of goodness as the opportunity to seek good for a mans self and others also for whom he that is favoured interposeth Hence those passages of Solomon Prov. 14. 35. The Kings favour is towards a wise servant And ch 16. v. 15. In the light of the Kings countenance is life and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain Which Text is affirmative of whatever is issuant from the prealledged notation For in that the favour of the King is said to be life which is optimum bonorum the most delectable and desirable of all created goods And in that it is said to be as a cloud of the latter rains which is increasive and has fertility included in it what can the expectations of men in their service amount to which this grandeur of theirs doth not answer and exceed And as I think Princes happy in the opportunities they have to oblige and reward servants wise in heart active in dispatch diligent in attendance sober in counsel sincere in love and duty and who are as faithful to them as the Sunne is to his course as Pyrrhus said of Fabritius So do I not believe them otherwise happy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suidas in Fabricio nor do I read or see that any Favourites who are not such long continue happy in such favour For rival envy and popular jealousie hovering about and laying ginns for them by cooperating accidents of diminution ruine them unless their personal and publique vertues are dissipative of those gatherings and supersedall to the efficacy of them Therefore Solomons advice to Take away the wicked from before the King and the Throne shall be established in righteousness Prov. 25. 5. is good counsel for Princes to avoyd trouble to themselves and for Favourites to secure their favour and stability by being good and vertuous and by that to establish the Throne of their Masters and themselves under the protection and favour of it Nor is Princely favour at all dangerous to but desirable by wise men and next to the favour of God to be sought after if it be constant and vertuous in the Prince and transport not the Favourite beyond the true end and use of it Gods glory the Princes service and the peoples ease and thrift together with such advantages as the forementioned great ends thorowly answered allow to his private emolument which Brewier Baron of Odgcomb the Favourite of H. 2. and R. 1. observing was highly advanced and continued in Wealth Honour and Love with all men Cambden in Somersetshire p. 267. and Beauchamp the great Earl of Warwick so favoured by H. 6. that he was Crowned King of Wight yet lived and died beloved So did Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk p. 469. Itâ— enim virtutes magnis viris decori gloriaeque sunt si illis salutaris potentia est Nam pestiferavis est valere ad nocendum illius demum magnitudo stabilis fundataque est quam omnes tam supra se esse quam pro se seiunt cujus curam excubare pro salute sin gulorum atque universorum quotidie experiuntur lib. 1. de Câ—emenâ—â—a c. 3. the Favourite of H. 8. and others Which the Despencers in H. 2. time Delapool and others in R. 2. time E. Rivers temps E. 4. Wolsey temps H. 8. and others not considering made themselves hated infamous and ruined For Vertues saith Seneca are often useful to men of place and power when they qualifie sweeten and wisely manifest themselves in power delegated to them for pestilent Might it is that is nocive and then only beloved and prayed for is authority and power when men finde the power over them is for their good and not directed so much to cow them into stupidity as to cherish them in a loyal freedom And then does it deserve the duty and subjection of all and every particular subject when it intends the prosperity and protection of every particular subject The consideration whereof lessons Favourites to petition God whose the judgment of every ones course and conclusion is Damus quidem tibi equos enses clypeos reliqua instrumenta bellorum sed quae sunt omnimodis fortiora Largimur tibi nostra judicia summus enim inter gentes esse crederis qui Theodorici sententia comprobaris Ep. 2. Regi Herulorum Var. lib. 4. Cassiod to direct and fortunate them in the religious just judicious improvement of their
v. 11. Cardinal I saw cause to fear God and I were not at a truce but when I was made Pope then I almost despaired ever to see God with comfort So Pope Clement the Eighth was wont to bemoan himself Let not God have cause to say to your upbraid The poor receive the Gospel when Ye Rulers believe not on my Son but reject the Counsel of God against your selves Fishermen have left their nets and forsaken all to follow me when those that have great Possessions think it a hard saying so to command and resolve not to be guilty of the folly to obey it Silly women ministred to my Son in his disertion when the great Counsellors and Doctors were afraid to own him boldly or to come to him openly Poverty does Sinite ergo sinite Sapienti hujus seculi de spiritu sapientiae hujus mundi tumentes alâ—a sapere terraÌ„ lingentes sapienter descendere in infernum vâ—s autem dum foditur peccatori fovea sicut cepistis stulti facti propter Deum per stultum Dei quod sapientius est omnibus hominibus duce Christo humilem apprehendite disciplinam ascondendi in coelum Sauctus Bernatdus Epist. ad Fralres do monte Dei. often cast a charitable mite into my Treasury when Plenty and Abundance are close-fisted Do not O do not stand upon your terms with God and dispute your Priviledge till his patience wave you and you with all your Greatness and Wisdom descend into Hell amongst all that forget God and themselves But do ye as wise and holy Souls stoop to Gods terms and accept his conditions not thinking it below you to be vile in your own that you may be lovely in his eyes who gave you yours to see him and will make them happy in seeing him after you have served him Let nâ—â— God complain his gifts of gold are in your â—â—hinets become dross and his â—â—naments on your outward Splendour become Instruments to your inward and outward Rebellion against him Remember Queen Eliz. 2 Speech to the Parliament â—9 regni that renowned Monarch who said When first I tool the Scepter my Title made â—e not forget the Giver and think him best worthy your temporal Greatness in all the emanations of it who hath prepared for you â—â—ansions with himself and be MuliuÌ„ quidem meruiâ— de nobis qui immeritis dedit seipsum nobis Sanct Bern. Tract de diligendo Deo willing to invest his Glory with your Robes of State It ho hath provided for you the Robes of his Sons righteousness and in the glory of that will set you on his Right hand Be not offended I beseech Non numero Hispanos nec robore Gallos nec calliditate Paenos nec artâ—bus Graecos sed pietate ac religione atque hac una sapicntia quod deorum immortaliuÌ„ numine omnia regi gubernarique perspeximus omnes gentes nationesque superavimus Cic. Orat. de Aruspicium responsis you at this my Address as if I wished you to your loss or presented with what is beneath you to accept 'T is no Pedantry I provoke you to but the noblest Act of Divine Generosity and Magnanimity you can express Think O think nothing beneath you that is a service to Him who is farr above Principalities and Powers compared to whom your Honour is but Baseness your Riches but Poverty your Wisdom but Folly your Power but Weakness your Duration but Momentaryness Recall to mind that Great Monarch and Grave Christian Who esteemed it the greatest Title and chiefest Glory to be the Defender of the Church both in its true Faith and its Eicon Bafilic e 14. just Fruitions equally abhorring Sacrilege and Apostacy Is Gods Harvest great Be ye in what you can the Lords Harvesters present honest learned and pious Clerks to your Livings and countenance them in Hearken to this that God may hearken to you their Ministerial Labour deserve by sharing with them in the work of mens conversion to share with them in the reward of Gods Promise Be the Lords Helpers who has helped you to be Lords and Gentlemen the Angels your Equalls are serviceable hereto O draw not back the shoulder Is Gods cause in danger Take courage and let the Stars be your President who fought in their order to help the Lord against the Mighty O be ye not unactive in this Heroicism Is the life of Christ in Humility Meekness Purity Patience Obedience and Constancy traduâ—ed and blasphemed by the Sins and Conâ—idictions of enormous men Be ye as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was Noah Gold glittering in the midst of his Ages mud bright virtue in a grave of night â—â—d death partake not with them in their Sanct. Basil. Selencia Orat. 5. Basphemy and enmity but live to their consutation rule to their suppression exâ—end your selves to their conviction appear openly to their confront and let them Liquet â—ergo absque scientia dignitatem esse inutilem scientiam absque virtute damnabilem Sanct. Bern. Tract de diligendo Deo â—ot alone till you have brought them off the evil of their wayes and brought them 〈◊〉 to submit to the yoke to lye down at the feet to come at the call and run at the command of God in his word and upon the motions of his Spirit in the Dictates of â—well-informed and regular conscience When you are to resist sins bear your arms in your eyes that the pride of not underâ—aluing your selves may make you abstenious but when God commands you to duty carry with Noble Bradeas your Armes in your shoos trample upon any diâ—ersion any high thought that exalts it self against the courage and gratitude you owe to him Shall one brave Roman venâ—ute to ride armed into the deep Pit where he and his horse and armes inevitably are swallowed up And shall another I mean Horatius Cocles and his two Companions encounter the whole Army of the Hetrurians and keep the pass over the Bridge that led to Rome till the Bridg behind them was cut off and that done leapt into Tyber venturing his life in the water which he had so strenuously hazzarded on the Land Shall these and such other Chieftains of Fame dare to bid more for the Breaths and Pens of Men to be well-spoken and well-written of as Heroiques and Virtuoso's of Nobility And dare you express the cowardize not to offer your selves to God to be the footstools of his Throne the door-keepers of his House the dancers before his Ark the Champions of his Battells O think not Egregiâ—s viros dico quâ—s è grâ—ge hominum vulgarium aliqua abstraxit excellentia Dei justitia sanctitas insigais quod heu nostra aetate perrarum est vel rei militaris experientia ac liberorum copia rerumque notitia singulares sâ—cit Petrarchâ— lib. de Reip. administratione your Right-eyes your Right-hands your Parts your Fortunes your Relations or your Honours too