throughly so is if not Evill a neighbourhood to Evill True praise consists not in a bare abstinence from Evill but in the pursuance the performance of good It sufficeth not therefore that we doe nothing which may afflict us but we must withall doe something that may exhilarate us This we must remember that to do good is one thing and to become good is another Although we cannot become good unlesse wee doe good But we become good not because we have done good works but because we did them well Discretion which considers the manner of doing good orders the Action so excellently that oftentimes there is more goodnesse in the manner then in the Action What will it availe us to do good if it be not well done It is to write faire and then to poure the Inke upon it Actions cease to be good unlesse well acted they are like excellent colours ill-layed on The more glorious thy intention is the more carefully thou must manage it Indiscretion is most evident in matters of importance One drop of Oyle upon Purple is sooner seen then a whole quart that is spilt upon Sack-cloath The Ermyn keepes his whitenesse unstained with the hazard of his life Hee values himselfe at a most sordid rate that esteems lesse of Virtue then this beast doth of his skin that prefers a foule life to a fair death that loves his blood more then his honour and his body more then his Soule Ennius saith that the way to live is not to love life Life is given us for another cause then meerly to live he is unworthy of it that would live onely for the love of life the greatest cause of life is Virtue what more absolute madnesse can there be then to make life the cause of sin yea the cause of death And for lifes sake to lose the crowâ— of life What greater unhappinesse then to dye eternally by refusing death The Virtuous youth Pelagius rather then he woulâ—d lose his Innocence suffered the most exquisite and studyed torments of that impure Tyrant Habdarrhagmanus He suffered many deaths before he was permitted to dye Hee saw his limbs his hands and his sinewes cut in sunder and lying dead by him while he yet lived This preservation of their honour some chast beauties have paid dearly for It cost Nicetas his tongue Amianus his Eye Saint Briget her face Apollonia her teeth and Agatha her breasts The lovely Cyprian Virgin paid her life for it Nature even for herself doth lay a snare And handsome faces their own traitours are The beauty of Chastity is best preserved by deformity and the purity of life by a contemptible shape The Shoomaker is carefull of the neatnesse of a shooe which is made to be worn in durt and mire And shall man be negligent to adorn his Soul which is made for Heaven and the service of the deity Every artificer strives to do his worke so as none may find fault with it And shall we do the works of life perfunctorily and deceitfully All that makes man to be respected is his worke as the fruite doth make the Tree and a good work can never be too much respected Keepe thy selfe alwaies in respect by doing good Thy own dignity is in thy own power If thy works be good thou shalt be accounted good too If better then any thou shalt be acknowledged for the best Man is the effect of his own Act he is made by those things which he himself makes Hee is the work of his own hands A rare priviledge that permits men and impowers them to make themselves Thou hast leave to be whatsoever thou wouldst be God would not limit thy happinesse He left thee power to encrease it to polish and beautifie thy selfe according to thy own mind Thy friend or thy neighbour cannot do it Thy owne good must be thy owne industry Virtue because she would be crosse to Fortune is not adventitious It is our great happinesse that this great good must not be borrowed Blessed be that Divine mercy which hath given us means to be saved without the assistance of our neighbours who have endeavoured to damn us That almighty hand which first Created man in the Image of his Creatour finished him not but left some things for him to doe that he might in all things resemble his maker It is one thing to be an Idol or Counterfeit and another to be a lively Figure and likenesse There are many Coppies which are not assimilant to their Originals like Pictures that have not so much as an ayre of those faces they were drawn by To the Politure and sweetning of the Divine Image there are some lines expected from thine owne hand If some expert Statuary suppose Phidias himselfe should leave unfinished some excellent peece like that Statue of Minerva at Athens and out of an incurious wearinesse give himself to some obscure and Artlesse imployment or to meere Idlenesse wouldst not thou much blame and rebuke him for it And canst thou deserve any lesse if by a loose and vitious life thou wilt either totally deface the Image of God in thy selfe or else leave it unfinished Doest thou think that God is maimed seeing thou doest leave his Image without hands I mean without good works Dost thou think that he is blind seeing thou dost extinguish or put quite out that discerning light and informing wisdome which hee hath given thee Hee that doth not integrally compose himself and will not carefully strive for perfection would represent God to be imperfect and a Monster Virtuous manners saith holy Maximus are types of the Divine goodnesse by which God descends to be represented by man assuming for a body those holy habits and for a soule the Innocent dictates of wisdome in the spirit by which he makes those that are worthy to become Gods and seals them with the true character of Virtue bestowing upon them the solid riches of his infallible and immortal Knowledge Work then while it is day while it is life-time work and cease not Finish this expectation this great spectacle not of men onely but of God and Angels Remember that the rewards and applause of this World are but a Paint of eternity The solid and permanent glory is given in Heaven When every man shall have praise of God The Limbner is carefull to beautifie and shew his utmost skill in that peece which hee knowes to be intended for judicious eyes Thou art not to paint but really to make a living Image of the Divine mind which also must be examined and judged by that searching eye from which nothing can be hidden have a care that no ill mixture nothing disproportionable nothing uneven or adulterate may be found in it The presents we offer to the true God must be true and solid works not the fictitious oblations of Jupiter Milichus Why wilt thou delight in a maimed Soule or which is worse in a Soul whose best part is dead Thou hadst rather have a
him in this mixt multitude some weeping and sighing some without eyes to weep some without hands others without legs some sick and languishing others eaten up with horrid impure ulcers some beging others quarrelling some plotting treason and washing their hands in innocent blood some old and decrepiâ— quivering trembling and leaning upon staves some distracted and bound up in chains others plundered tortured murthered and martyred their murtherers in the mean time pretending Religion Piety and the Glory of God And after all this outward Scene should so enlighten his eyes that he might discover another inward one I meane their secret thoughts and close devices their tyranny covetousnesse sacriledge varnished outwardly with godly pretences dissembled purity and the stale shift of liberty of Conscience Is there any doubt to be made think you but after such impious and astonishing spectacles he would quickly repent of his existence or being and earnestly desire to be dissolved again that he might rest in peace and not be cast into this hospital and valley of villanies which we call the World It is for this cause that wise Nature is so slow and niggardly in her dispensations of reason and maturity unto man lest a sudden perfection should make us loath her and lest the necessary evils of life understood in grosse and upon our first entrance into life should discourage us from undergoing those miseries which by degrees and successive conflicts we more willingly struggle with Abner the Eastern King so soon as his son was born gave order for his confinement to a stately and spatious Castle where he should be delicately brought up carefully kept from having any knowledg of humane calamities he gave speciall command that no distressed person should be admitted into his presence nothing sad nothing lamentable nothing unfortunate no poor man no old man none weeping nor disconsolate was to come near his Palace Youthfulnesse pleasures and joy were alwaies in his presence nothing else was to be seen nothing else was discoursed of in his company A most ridiculous attempt to keep out sorrow with bars and walls and to shut the gates against sadnesse when life is an open door by which it enters His very delights conveigh'd displeasure to him and grief by a distast of long pleasure found way to invade him So constant is pleasure in inconstancy that continual mirth turns it into sadnesse Certainly though Abner by this device might keep all sorrows from the presence of his son hee could not keep them from his sense Hee could keep out and restrain external evils but could not restraine his inherent affections His son longed this made him sad in the very midst of his joyes And what thinkst thou did he long for Truly not to be so cumberd with delights The grief of pleasures made him request his father to loose the bonds of his miserable felicity This suit of the Son crost the intentions of the Father who was forced to give over his device to keep him from sadnesse lest by continuing it he should make him sad He gave him his liberty but charged his attendants to remove out of his way all objects of sorrow The blind the maimed the deformed and the old must not come near him But what diligence is sufficient to conceal the miseries of Mortality they are so numerous that they may as soon be taken out of the world as hidden from those that are in the world Royal power â—â—â—vailed lesse here then humane infirmity for this last took place in spight of the first The Prince in his Recreations meets with an old man blind and leprous the sight astonisheth him he startles trembles and faints like those that swound at the apparition of a Spirit enquires of his followers what that thing might be And being inwardly perswaded that it was some fruit of humane life he became presently wise disliked pleasures condenmed mirth and despised life And that his life might have the least share here where Fortune hath the greatest he rejected the hopes and blandishments of life yea that which is to many the price of two lives his Kingdom and royal Dignity He laboured with all diligence to live so in the world as if he had been dead that by avoyding sin the cause of sorrow he might be though not safe at least secure If this single accident made him so much offended with life what think you would he have done had his liberty been universal and unbounded What if he had seen the inside of those stately Tombes wee build for the worms to eat us in where they feed upon such fat oppressors as have been fed here with the tears and pillage of the oppressed What if he had narrowly searched every corner of the world and seen those necessary uncleannesses in which the birth of man is celebrated in which this miserie is inaugurated by the paines of the Mother and the cries of the Infant What if he had entred into their bed-chambers and bosomes where some sit weeping others wishing some surfeited and sick with fruition where some mourn for their wives others for their children some pine and starve with want others are full and vomit some are troubled with lack of necessaries and others are as much vexed with abundance and superfluity What if after all this search and wide disquisition he could not have found one house without some misfortune and none without tears What if he had been admitted into the breasts of all those whom either domestick hidden griefs lingring diseases worldly cares or an insatiable covetousness is ever tormenting Perhaps thei sight of so many evils had driven him to a refusall of life in which we doe so dye with miseries and by which miseries doe so live in us at least he had earnestly wished and groaned for some means of redemption from so miserable a bondage If any had brought him the joyful news of liberty and affirmed that some were already made free he had certainly envyed them very much and would have been impatient to know the means But when it had been told him that the device and release was death I do not onely think but I verily beleeve that he had both approved of it and would have sought for it more then for hidden treasure He had judged it not onely desirable and convenient but necessary and the greatest felicity and favour that the living could expect If some solitary travellour shut up in a wilderness and surrounded with wild beasts should on the one side see a Tiger making towards him on the other a Lyon and from some third place a scalie winding Serpent or a Basilisk which kils with â—is very looks Whose hissings fright all Natures monstrous Ills His eye darts death more swift then poison kils All Monsters by instinct to him give place They fly for life for death lives in his face And hee alone by Natures hid commands Reigns Paramont and Prince of all the sands If these with a thousand
turning life out of doors before her lease was out and had not Ptolomie by a special Edict silenced his Doctrine he had robbed him of more subjects then ever War or the Plague could have taken from him Before the blessed Jesus had made his entrance through the veile and opened the way to heaven the reward of righteousnesse and sanctity was long life the peculiar blessing of the Paâ—riarchs It was a favour then not to appear before perfect purity a Judge of infinite and all-seeing brightnesse without an Advocate or friend to speak for us in the strength and heat of irregular youthfulnesse when not so much as time had subdued or reformed the affections but now bâ—cause Christ is gone thither before and hath provided a place for us the greatest blessing and highest reward of holynesse is short life and an unseasonable or a violent death For those harsh Epithets which are but the inventions of fearfull and sinful livers are swallowed up of immortâ—lity an unspeakable heavenly happinesse which crowns and overflowes all those that dye in Christ Wee consider not those blessings which death leads us to and therefore it is that we so frequently approve of our most frivolous wordly wishes and sit weeping under the burthens of life because we have not more laid upon us A certain groundlesse suspition that death is evill will not suffer us to believe it to be good though the troubles of life make us complement and wish for it every day This foolish fear and inconstancy of man Locmannus one of the most antient Sages of Persia and admitted also into the Society of the Arabian Magi hath pleasantly demonstrated in the person of an Old man loaded â—ith a grâ—at burthen of Wood which having quite tyred him he threw down and called for death to come and ease him Hee had no sooner called but death which seldome comes so quickly to those that call for it in earnest presently appeared and demands the reason why he called I did call thee said he to help me to lift this burthen oft wood upon my back which just now fell off So much are we in love with miseries that we fear to exchange them with true happiness we do so doate upon them that we long to resume them again after wee have once shaked them off being either faithlesse and wavering or else forgetfull of those future joyes which cannot be had without the funerall and the death of our present sorrowes What man distrest with hunger if hee sate upon some Barren and Rockie bank bounded with a deep River where nothing could be expected but Famine or the Fury of wild beasts and saw beyond that stream a most secure and pleasant Paradise stored with all kinds of bearing Trees whose yielding boughes were adorned and plenteously furnished with most fair and delicate fruites If it were told him that a little below there was a boate or a bridge to passe over would refuse that secure conveyance or be affeard to commit himself to the calm and perspicuous streames choosing rather to starve upon the brink then to passe over and be relieved O foolish men For Gold which is digged out of the Suburbs of Hell we trust our selves to the raging and unstable Seas guarded with a few planks and a little pitch where onely a Tree as Aratus faith is the partition betwixt death and us And after many rough disputes with violent perills and the fight â—f so many more wee perish in the unhappy acquisition of false happinesse the Sea either resisting or else punishing our covetousnesse But to passe into our Heavenly Country into the bosome and embraces of Divinity into a Realm where Fortune reigns not wee dare not so much as think of it Who after long banishment and a tedious pilgrimage being now come near to his native Country and the house of his Father where his Parents his brethren and friends expect him with longing would then turn back and choose to wander again when he might have joy when he might have rest God the Father expects us the blessed Jesus expects us the mild and mourning Dove doth long and grone for us The holy Virgin-mother the Angells our friends and the Saints our kindred are all ready to receive us It is through death that wee must passe unto them Why grieve we then yea why rejoyce wee not to have this passage opened But let us grant that death were not inevitable yea that it were in the power of man and that every one had a particular prerogative given him over destinie So that this greatest Necessity were the greatest freedome yea that man could not dye though he desired death Yet in this very state would hee be troubled with Fortune and Hope He would be a fool that would not venture to dye to enjoy true felicity That would choose rather to live alwaies in the changeable state of most unchangeable and lasting miseries then to put an end to them all by dying once It is madnesse to feare death which if it reigned not upon the Earth wee would both desire and pray for It was wisely adjudged by Zaleucus that death ought to be publickly proclaimed though men had been immortall Had death been arbitrary and at every mans pleasure I believe we had esteemed it as desireable as any other joy now because it is Imperial and above us let it not seem too much if wee grant it to be tollerable It was absurdly said by onâ— that death was a necessary Evill and ought therefore to be patiently born His Inference was good though from a bad Principle Death is rather a necessary good And if necessity makes Evils to be tolerable there is more reason it should make good so Death because it is good should be made much of and wee should rejoyce that it is necessary because that makes it certain How great a good is that by which it is necessary that we be not miserable Which frees the captive without ransome dismisseth the oppressed without the consent of the oppressour brings home the banished in spite of the banisher and healâ—s the sicke without the pain of Physick Which mends all that Fortune marred which is most just which repaires and makes even all the disorders and inequalities made by time and chance which is the blessed necessity that takes away necessary Evills He had erred lessâ— if he had mentioned a necessity of bearing life patiently whose more proper definition that sorry proverbe is for it casts us into necessary Evills against our will and is the cause that wee willfully meddle with Evills that are unnecessary It is a discreet method of nature that infuseth the Soules into the body in such a state that is not sensible of their captivity lest they should murmur at the decrees of the great Archiplast What wise man that were neare the terme of his appointed time if he were offered to have life renew'd would consent to be born again to be shut up in flesh
he that violates his own body and makes way for the Soul to flye out with his own hands is damned by the very Act but if another doth it to him it is both his Salvation and his Crown The heathens esteemed it no honour for Captives to have their bonds loosed It was their freedome but not their glory When the jugde himself did break off their Chaines that they accounted honorable By this Ceremony did Vespasian and Titus acknowledge the worth of Joseph the Jew This vindicated his integrity By cutting his bonds with their Imperial hand they freed him both from captivity and disgrace Titus said that if they would break off his fetters and not stay to take them off his honour would be so perfectly repaired by it as if he had been never bound nor overcome The same difference in point of honour is betwixt the naturall death and the violent betwixt dying when wee are full of daies and the death which Tyrants impose upon us when we are mangled and grinded by their fury This honour is then greatest when the body is not dissolved but distorted and broken into peeces Certainly the best men have ever perished by the violence of Tyrants nature to preserve her innocence being very backward and unwilling as it were to take away such great and needfull examples of goodnesse Treachery and violence were ordained for the just in the dâ—ath of Abel who dyed by the wicked This better sort of death was in him consecrated to the best men those persons whom Nature respects and is loath to medle with envy laies hands upon Whom the one labours to preferre the other plotteth to destroy Nor deals she thus with the good only but with the eminent and mighty too thus she served Hector Alexander and Caesar the goodliest object is alwaies her aim When Thrasybulus the Astrologer told Alexander the Roman that he should end his daies by a violent death he answered that he was very glad of it for then said he I shall dye like an Emperour like the best and the greatest of men and not sneak out of the World like a worthlesse obscure fellow But the death of these Glorioli was not truly glorious I have onely mentioned them because that a passive death though wanting religion hath made their honour permanent That death is the truly glorious which is seald with the joy of the sufferers spirit whose Conscience is ravished with the kisses of the Dove Who can look upon his tormentour with delight and grow up to Heaven without diminution though made shorter on Earth by the head This is the death which growes pretious by contempt and glorious by disgrace Whose sufferer runs the race set before him with patience and finisheth it with joy We are carefull that those things which are our own may be improved to the utmost and why care wee not for death what is more ours then mortality Death should not be feared because it is simply or of it self a great good and is evill to none but to those that by living ill make their death bad What ever evil is in death it is attracted from life If thou preservest a good Conscience while thou livest thou wilt have no feare when thou dyest thou wilt rejoyce and walke homeward singing It is life therefore that makes thee fear death If thou didst not fear life if life had not blasted the joyes of death thou wouldst never be afraid of the end of sorrowes Death therefore is of it self innocent sincere healthfull and desirable It frees us from the malignancie and malice of life from the sad necessities and dangerous errours we are subject to in the body That death whose leaders are Integrity and virtue whose cause is Religion is the Elixir which gives this life its true tincture and makes it immortal To dye is a common and trivial thing for the good and the bad dye and the bad most of all but to dye willingly to dye gloriously is the peculiar priviledge of good men It is better to leave life voluntarily then to be driven out of it forcibly let us willingly give place unto posterity Esteem not life for its own sake but for the use of it Love it not because thou wouldst live but because thou mayst do good works while thou livest Now the greatest work of life is a good death If life then ought to be lesse esteemed then good works who would not purchase a good death with the losse of life why should we be afeared of politick irreligious Tyrants and an arm of flesh though guarded with steele Nature it selfe threatens us with death and frailty attends us every hour Why will we refuse to dye in a good cause when 't is offered us who may dye ill the very next day after let us not promise our selves a short life when our death assures us of eternal glory But if it were granted that death were neither good nor honourable but evill and fearfull why will not we take care for that which we fear Why do we neglect that which we suspect Why if it be evill do not wee arme and defend our selves against it we provide against dangerous contingencies we labour against casuall losses and we neglect this great and enevitable perill To neglect death and to contemn death are two things none are more carefull of it then those that contemne it none feare it more then those that neglect it and which is strange they fear it not because they have neglected it but they neglect it when they fear it they dare not prepare for it for fear of thinking of it O the madnesse and Idlenesse of mankind to that which they adjudge to be most Evill they come not onely unprepared but unadvisedly and without so much as forethought What mean we what do we look for Death is still working and wee are still idle it is still travelling towards us and we are still slumbering and folding our hands Let us awake out of this darke and sleepy state of mind let us shake off these dreams and vain propositions of diverse lusts let us approve of truth and realities let us follow after those things which are good let us have true joy made sure unto us and a firm security in life in death Sickness and death you are but sluggish things And cannot reach a heart that hath got wings FINIS THE WORLD CONTEMNED IN A Parenetical Epistle written by the Reverend Father EVCHERIVS Bishop of Lyons to his Kinsman VALERIANVS Love not the VVorld neither the things that arâ— in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 Ioh. 2.15 They are of the world therefore speake they of the world and the world heareth them Chap. 4. vers 5. If the world hate you ye know that it hated me before it hated you Ioh. 15. verse 18. If ye were of the world the world would love his own but because ye are not of the world out I
us What shall we render unto him for this one benefit that he hath given salvation to man by faith and ordained that to be most easie in the fact by which he restored hope to the subjected world and eternal life unto lost man And that I may now descend unto those things which were sometimes out of his Covenant I mean the Nations and Kingdomes of the Gentiles doe you think that these were made subject to the Roman power and that the dispersed multitude of Mankind were incorporated as it were into one body under one head for any other end but that as Medicines taken in at the mouth are diffused into all parts of the body so the Faith by this means might with more ease be planted and penetrated into the most remote parts of the world Otherwise by reason of different powers customs and languages it had met with fresh and numerous oppositions and the passage of the Gospel had been much more difficult Blessed Paul himself describing his course in planting the Faith amongst this very people writes in his Epistle to the Romans That from Hierusalem and round about to Illyricuâ— he had fully preached the Gospel of Christ And how long without this preparation in the fulnesse of time might this have been in doing amongst Nations either innumerable for multitude or barbarous for immanitie Hence it is that the whole earth now from the rising of the Sun unto the going down thereof from the farthest North and the frozen sea breaks forth into singing and rings with the glorious name of Jesus Christ Hence it is that all parts of the world flock and run together to the Word of Life The Thracian is for the Faith the African for the Faith the Syrian for the Faith and the Spaniard hath received the Faith A great argument of the divine clemency may be gathered out of this that under Augustus Caesar when the Roman power was in the height and Acmie then the Almighty God came down upon the earth and assumed flesh Therefore that I may now make use of those things which you also are versed in it may be clearly proved if any skilled in your Histories would assert the truth that from the first foundation of the Roman Empire which is now one thousand one hundred and eighty five years ago what ever additions and growth it gathered either in the reign of their first Kings or afterwards under the administration of Consuls all was permitted by the onely wise and almighty God to prepare the world against the coming of Christ and to make way for the propagation of the Faith But I return thither from whence I have digrest Love not the world saith St. John neither the things that are in the world for all those things with delusive insnaring shews captivate our sight and will not suffer us to look upwards Let not that faculty of the eye which was ordained for light be applyed to darknesse being created for the use of life let it not admit the causes of death Fleshly lusts as it is divinely spoken by the Apostle war against the soul and all their accoutrements are for the ruin and destruction of it A vigilant guard doe they keep when they are once permitted to make head and after the manner of forraign and expert enemies with those forces they take from us they politickly strengthen and increase their own Thus hitherto have I discoursed of those splendid allurements which are the chiefest and most taking baits of this subtile world I mean Riches and Honours And with such earnestnesse have I argued against them as if those blandishments had still some force But what beauty soever they had when cast over heretofore with some pleasing adumbrations it is now quite worn away and all that paint and cousenage is fallen off The world now hath scarce the art to deceive Those powerfull and bewitching lookes of things beautiful sometimes even to deception are now withered and almost loathsome In former times it laboured to seduce us with its most solid and magnificent glories and it could not Now it turnes cheat and would entice us with toyes and slight wares but it cannot Reall riches it never had and now it is so poor that it wants counterfeits It neither hath delectable things for the present nor durable for the future unlesse wee agree to deceive our selves the world in a manner cannot deceive us But why delay I my stronger arguments I affirm then that the forces of this world are dispersed and overthrown seeing the world it self is now drawing towards its dissolution and pants with its last gasps and dying anhelations How much more grievous and bitter will you think this assertion that for certain it cannot last very long What should I trouble my self to tell you that all the utensils and moveables of it are decayed and wasted And no marvell that it is driven into these defects and a consumption of its ancient strength when now grown old and weary it stoopes with weaknesse and is ready to fall under the burthen of so many ages These latter years and decrepitness of time are fraught with evils and calamities as old age is with diseases Our forefathers saw and we still see in these last dayes the plagues of famine pestilence war destruction and terrours All these are so many acute fits and convulsions of the dying world Hence it is that such frequent signs are seen in the firmament excessive Ecclipses and faintings of the brightest Luminaries which is a shaking of the powers of heaven sudden and astonishing Earthquakes under our feet alterations of timeâ— and governments with the monstrous fruitfulnesse of living creatures all which are the prodigies or fatall symptomes of time going indeed still on but fainting and ready to expire Nor is this confirmed by my weak assertions onely but by sacred authority and the Apostolical Oracles For there it is written that upon us the ends of the world are come 1 Coâ— 10.11 Which divine truth seeing it hath been spoken so long agoe what is it that we linger for or what can we expect That day not onely ours but the last that ever the present world shall see calls earnestly for our preparation Every hour tels us of the coming on of that inevitable hour of our death seeing a double danger of two finall dissolutions threatens every one in particular and all the world in generall Wretched man that I am the mortality of this whole frame lyes heavily upon my thoughts as if my own were not burthensome enough Wherefore is it that we flatter our selves against these sure fears There is no place left for deviation A most certain decree is past against us on the one side is written every mans private dissolution and on the other the publick and universal How much more miserable then is the condition of those men I will not say in these out-goings or last walks of time but in these decayes of the worlds goodly things
who neither can enjoy ought that is pleasant at the present nor lay up for themselves any hope of true joyes hereafter They misse the fruition of this short life and can have no hope of the everlasting They abuse these temporal blessings and shall never be admitted to use the eternall Their substance here is very little but their hope there is none at all A most wretched and deplorable condition unless they make a virtue of this desperate necessity and lay hold on the onely soveraign remedy of bettering their estate by submitting in time to the wholsome rules of heavenly and saving reason Especially because the goodliest things of this present time are such rags and fragments that he that loseth the whole fraught and true treasure of that one precious life which is to come may be justly said to lose both It remaines then that we direct and fixe all the powers of our minds upon the hope of the life to come Which hope that you may morefully and clearly apprehend it I shall manifest unto you under a type or example taken from temporal things If some man should offer unto another five peeces of silver this day but promise him five hundred peeces of gold if he would stay till the next morning and put him to his choice whither he would have the silver at present or the gold upon the day following is there any doubt to be made but he would chuse the greater sum though with a little delay Goe you and doe the like Compare the Crummes and perishing pittance in this short life with the glorious and enduring rewards of the eternall And when you have done chuse not the least and the worst when you may have the greatest and the best The short fruition of a little is not so beneficial as the expectation of plenty But seeing that all the fraile goods of this world are not onely seen of us but also possessed by us It is most manifest that hope cannot belong unto this world in which we both see and enjoy those things we delight in For Hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for Rom. 8. ver 24. Therefore however hope may be abused and misapplyed to temporal things it is most certaine that it was given to man and ordained for the things that are eternal otherwise it cannot be called hope unlesse something bee hoped for which as yet or for the present life is not had Therefore the substance of our hope in the world to come is more evident and manifest then our hope of substance in the present Consider those objects which are the clearest and most visible when we would best discern them we put them not into our eyes because they are better seen and judged of at a distance It is just so in the case of present things and the future For the present as if put into our eyes are not rightly and undeceivably seen of us but the future because conveniently distant are most clearly discerned Nor is this trust and Confidence wee have of our future happinesse built upon weak or uncertain Authors but upon our Lord and Master JESUS CHRIST that allmighty and faithfull witnesse who hath promised unto the just a Kingdome without end and the ample rewards of a most blessed eternity Who also by the ineffable Sacrament of his humanity being both God and Man reconciled Man unto God and by the mighty and hidden mystery of his passion absolved the World from sinne For which cause he was manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed upon in the World and received into glory Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of JESUS every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth And that every tongue should confesse that the Lord JESUS is in glory both God and King before all ages Casting off then the vaine and absurd precepts of Philosophy wherein you busie your selfe to no purpose embrace at last the true and saving Knowledge of Christ You shall find even in that imployment enough for your eloquence and wit and will quickly discern how far these precepts of piety and truth surpasse the conceits and delirations of Philosophers For in those rules which they give what is there but adulterate virtue and false wisedom and what in ours but perfect righteousnesse and sincere truth Whereupon I shall Justly conclude that they indeed usurpe the name of Philosophy but the substance and life of it is with us For what manneâ— of rules to live by could they give who were ignorant of the first Cause and the Fountain of life For not knowing God and deviating in their first principles from the Author and the Wel-spring of Justice they necessarily erred in the rest Hence it happened that the end of all their studies was vanity and dissention And if any amongst them chanced to hit upon some more sober and honest Tenets these presently ministred matter of pride and Superstitiousnesse so that their very Virtue was not free from vice It is evident then that these are they whose Knowledge is Earthy the disputers of this world the blind guides who never saw true justice nor true wisedome Can any one of that School of Aristippus be a teacher of the truth who in their Doctrine and Conversation differ not from swine and unclean beasts seeing they place true happinesse in fleshly lusts whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame Can he be a Master of Sobriety and Virtue in whose School the riotous the obscene and the adulterer are Philosophers But leaving these blind leaders I shall come againe to speak of those things which were the first motives of my writing to you I advise you then and I beseech you to cast off all their Axioms orgeneral Maxims collected out of their wild and irregular disputations wherein I have knowne you much delighted to imploy those excellent abilities bestowed upon you in the study of holy Scripture the wholsom instructions of Christian Philosophers There shall you be fed with various and delightfull learning with true and infallible wisedome There to incite you to the Faith you shall hear the Church speaking to you though not in these very words yet to this purpose He that believes not the word of God understands it not There you shall hear this frequent admonition Feare God because he is your Master honour him because he is your Father There it shall be told you that the most acceptable Sacrifice to God are justice and mercy There you shall be taught that If you love your self you must necessarily love your neighbour for you can never do your selfe a greater Courtesie then by doing good to another There you shall be taught that there can be no worldly cause so great as to make
the Chooser much For when he dyes his good or ill just such As here it was goes with him hence and staies Still by him his strict Judge in the last dayes These serious thoughts take up my soul and I While yet 't is day-light fix my busie eye Upon his sacred Rules lifes precious sum Who in the twilight of the world shall come To judge the lofty looks and shew mankind The diff'rence 'twixt the ill and well inclin'd This second coming of the worlds great King Makes my heart tremble and doth timely bring A saving care into my watchfull soul Lest in that day all vitiated and foul I should be found That day times utmost line When all shall perish but what is divine When the great Trumpets mighty blast shall shake The earths foundations till the hard Rocks quake And melt like piles of snow when lightnings move Like hail and the white thrones are set above That day when sent in glory by the Father The Prince of life his blest Elect shall gather Millions of Angels round about him flying While all the kindreds of the earth are crying And he enthron'd upon the clouds shall give His last just sentence who must die who live This is the fear this is the saving care That makes me leave false honours and that share Which fell to mee of this fraile world lest by A frequent use of present pleasures I Should quite forget the future and let in Foul Atheism or some presumptuous sin Now by their loss I have secur'd my life And bought my peace ev'n with the cause of strife I live to him who gave me life breath And without feare expect the houre of death If you like this bid joy to my rich state If not leave me to Christ at any rate Being now ordained a Minister of holy things and a feeder of tâ—e flock of Christ that he might be enabled to render a joyfull account at the appearance of the great Shepheard he resolved with all convenient expedition to sell and give away all his large and Princely Possessions in Italy and France which hithertâ— he had not disposed of for he looked upon his great Patrimonies as matters of distraction and backsliding the thoughts and solicitousnesse about such vast revenues disturbing his pious affections and necessarily intruding into his most holy exercitations Upon this rare resolution he returnes with his faithfull Consort into France leaving Barcinoe and holy Lampius in much sorrow for his departure For though hee had entred there into the Ministery yet was he no member of that Diocesse And here saith Uranius who was his Presbyter and wrote a brief narration of his life did he open his Treasuries to the poor and the stranger He did not only refresh his neighbours but sent messengers into other remote parts to summon the naked and the hungry to this great Feast where they were both fed and cloathed with his own hands He eased the oppressed freed the captives payd the debts of whole families and redeemed divers persons that were become bondslaves to their creditors Briefly he sold all that he had and distributed the money amongst the poor not reserving one penny either for himself or his dear Therasia Saint Ambrose in his thirtieth Epistle to Sabinus confirmeth this relation Paulinum splendore generis in partibus Aquitaniae nulli secunâ—um venditis facultatibus tam â—uis quametiam conjugalibus c. Paulinus saith he the most eminent for his Nobility in all the parts of Aquitane having sold away all his patrimonies together with the goods of his wife did out of pure love to Jesus Christ divide all that vast Summe of Money amongst the poor and he himself from a rich Sâ—nator is become a most poor man having cast off that heavy secular burthen and forsaken his own house his country and his kindred that he might with more earnestnesse follow Christ His Wife also as nobly descended and as zealous for the Faith as himself consâ—nted to all his desires and having given away all her own large possessions lives with her husband in a little thatch'd cottage rich in nothing but the hidden treasures of Religion and holinesse Saint Augustine also in his first book de Civitate Dei and the tenth Chapter celebrates him with the like testimony Our Paulinus saith hee from a man most splendidly rich became most poor most willingly and most richly holy He laboured not to adde field unto field nor to inclose himself in Câ—dar and Ivory and the drossie darke gold of this world but to enter through the gates into the precious light of that City which is of pure gold like unto cleare glasse He left some few things in this world to enjoy all in the world to come A great performance certainly and a most fair approach towards the Kingdom of heaven He that fights with dust comes off well if it blinds him not To slight words and the names of temptations is easie but to deale so with the matter and substance of them is a task Conscience hath Musick and light as well as discord and darknesse And the triumphs of it are as familiar after good works as the Checks of it after bad It is no heresie in devotion to be sensible of our smallest Victories over the World But how far he was from thinking this a Victory may be easily gathered out of his ownâ— words in his second Epistle to Severus Facile nobis bona c. The goods saith he I carried about me by the slipping of my skirt out of my hand fell easily from me And those things which I brought not into this World and could not carry out of it being only lent me for a time I restored again I pulled them not as the skin off my back but laid them by as a garment I had sometimes worne But now comes the difficulty upon me when those things which are truly mine as my heart my Soul and my works must be presented and given a living Sacrifice unto God The abdication of this World and the giving of our temporall goods amongst the poore is not the running of the race but a preparing to run it is not the end but the beginning and first step of our Journey Hee that striveth for masteries shall not be crowned except he first strive lawfully And he that is to swimme over a River cannot do it by putting off his cloathes onely he must put his body also into the stream and with the motion of his armes his hands and feete passe through the violence of the Brook and then rest upon the further side of it And in his 12th Epistle he cries out O miserable and vaine men Wee believe that wee bestow something upon the poor wee trade and lend and would be counted liberall when we are most covetous The most unconscionable userers upon Earth are not so greedy as we are nor their interest and exactions so unreasonable as ours We purchase Heaven with Earth happinesse
the mean time offences triumph and rejoyce at it and the old and wicked sinne of ambition which of a long time desires to contend even with your holynesse and upright life presumes now and is confident that having forcibly taken the wall from us it will carry you also against the wholsomnesse of Apostolicall institution O! a cause truly worthy not to be determined but by your holy life which is your Crown we therfore dâ—clare unto you that we have suspended our judgement for the present that we may have the truth of these Divine precepts pronounced by your reverend mouth who have both followed them and fullfilled them For none can be a fit arbiter of those rules but he that hath approved himself worthy and conformable to Apostolicall discipline Wherefore holy Sir worthily reverend Father the faithfull Servant of God and his Divine work we intreat you particularly that slighting the troubles of this Journey you would favour us with this gift and tribute if I may so speak of your presence and laying aside all other concernments so far as your health and ease will permit be in your owne person at this Synod and vouchsafe to lend your assistance to our desires and that blessing which wee earnestly long for Wee see by this letter in what account hee was with the Emperour and that his integrity and holyness were not dissimulations and popular Fables but experimentall truths so known and so believed hee was a true Christian and no Impostour It was not the Custome but the nature if I may so say of those Primitive times to love holy and peacefull men But some great ones in this later age did nothing else but countenance Schismaticks and sedicious raylers the despisers of dignities that covered their abominable villanies with a pretence of transcendent holinesse and a certain Sanctimonious excellencie above the Sons of men This Vaile which then cousend weak eyes is now fallen off their faces and most of their patrons have by an unthought of Method received their rewards The rest without doubt though they shift themselves into a thousand shapes shall not escape him whose anger is not yet turned away but his hand is stretched out still But returâ—e we to Paulinus Whose Charity and tendernesse towards the poor was both inimitable and incredible This iron age wants faith as well as mercy When he had given them all he had to the last that begged he gave himself Gregorie the great in the third Book of his Dialogues and the first Chapter hath recorded this memorable passage I shall cut it short and in as few words as conveniently may be give you all that is material When the Vandals had miserably wastâ—d Campania and carried many of the inhabitants into Africk blessed Paulinus gave all that he had both towards his own sustenance and the reliefe of the poor amongst the prisoners and Captives The Enemy being departed and his prey with him a poor Widow whose onely Son was amongst the rest of the Natives by a Son in law of the King of the Vandals carried into Bondage comes to petition Paulinus for so much Money as might serve to redeem him Paulinus told her that he had nothing then left either in money or other goods but promised if shee would accept of him to go with her into Africk and to be exchanged for her Son The poore Widow taking this for a meere scoffe turnes her back to be gone Paulinus followes after and with much adoe made her believe that he meant it as he did indeed in earnest Upon this they travell'd both into Africk and having opportunity to speake with the Kings Son in Law the poor widow begged of him first to have her son restor'd unto her Gratis but the youthfull and haughty Vandal averse to all such requests would hear her no farther whereupon she presents him with Paulinus and petitioned to have her Son set at liberty and the other to serve in his stead The Prince taken with the comely and reverend countenance of Paulinus asked him what his occupation or trade was Paulinus answered that he never followed any trade but that he had good skill in dressing of Herbes and Flowers Upon this the Prince delivered her Son to the Widow who took him home with her and sent Paulinus to work into his Gardens The Prince delighting much in Flowers and Sallets would very frequently visit Paulinus and took such delight in him that he forsook all his Court-associates to enjoy the company of his new Gardiner In one of these visits Paulinus taking occasion to confer seriously with him advised him to be very carefull of himselfe and to consider speedily of some means to secure and settle the Kingdome of the Vandals in Mauritania for said he the King your Father in law will shortly dye The Prince something troubled with the suddain newes without further delay acquaints the King with it and tells him withall that his Gardiner whose prediction this was excelled all other men both in wisedome and learning Whereupon the King requested that he might see him you shall replyed the Prince for to morrow when you are at dinner I will give order that hee shall come in person with the dishes of Sallate to the Table This being agreed upon and accordingly performed the old Tyrant upon the first sight of Paulinus exceedingly trembled and speaking to his Daughter who sate next to him to call to her husband he told him that the prediction of his Gardiner was very true for yesternight said he I saw in a dream a great tribunal with judges sitting thereon and amongst them this Gardiner by whose judgement a scourge which had been formerly put into my hands was taken from me But learn of him what his profession is and what dignity he had conferred upon him in his own Country for I cannot believe him to be as he pretends an inferiour or ordinary person As soon as dinner was ended the Prince stole from the presence into the Garden and earnestly intreated Paulinus to tell him who he was I am said he your Gardiner which you received in exchange for the Widowes Son I know that replyed the Prince but I desire to know your profession in your own Country and not the servitude you have put your self in with me for the present To this Paulinus answered that he was by profession a Bishop and a servant of Jesus Christ the Son of the living God At these words the Prince was mightily troubled and requested him to depart againe into his own Country assuring him that before he departed he would give him any thing that he should please demand Paulinus replyed that he would desire noâ—hing but to have those Captives which were carried out of Campania set at liberty and transported to their Native Country To this the Prince consented and for Paulinus his sake furnished them with shipping and all other necessaries for their voyage and sent them home joyfull in the Company of