things not impossible That which is very hard to flesh and bloud become easie by the help of grace and reason Our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ being the Father of all harmony can and doth reconcile all contrarieties at his will and pleasure 2. If revenge seem sweet the gaining of it is most bitter But there is nothing in the world more profitable than to pardon an enemy by imitation of our Saviour For it is then that our conscience can assure us to be the children of God and inheritours of his glory We must not fear to be despised for esteeming virtue for such contempt can onely proceed from those who know not the true value of that glory which belongs to the just There is no better way to revenge than leave it to God who always doth his own business When David wept for Saul who was his enemy his Clemency did insensibly make degrees by which he mounted up to the throne of Judah A good work which comes from the spirit of vanity is like an emptied Mine good for nothing God who is invisible would have our aspects turned always toward him and blind toward the world Alms given by the sound of a Trumpet makes a great noise on earth but reaps little fruit in Heaven The flie of vanity is a mischievous thing which destroys all the perfumes of Charity What need we any spectatours of our good works every place is full where God is and where he is not there onely is Solitude Aspirations O God of all holy affections when shall I love all which thou lovest and have in horrour all that displeaseth thy divine Majesty If I cannot love in some person his defects and sins I will love in him thine Image and in that will I acknowledge thy mercies If he be a piece of broken glass in that little piece there will shine some lines of a God-Creatour and of a God-Redeemer If thou hast chosen him to exercise my patience why should I make him the object of my revenge since he gives me trouble to gain me a Crown He is a hammer to pollish and make me bright I will not hurt him but reverence the arm that strikes me I resign all vengeance into thy hands since it is a Right reserved for thy Almighty power And certainly the best revenge I can take is to gratifie my enemy Give unto me O most mercifull Prince the grace to suffer and let the sacrifice of my sufferings mount up to thy propitiatory Throne The Gospel for the first Saturday in Lent S. Matth. 6. Of the Apostles danger at Sea and relief by our SAVIOUR ANd when he had dismissed them he went into the mountain to pray and when it was late the boat was in the midst of the Sea and himself alone on the land And seeing them labouring in rowing for the wind was against them and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh to them walking upon the sea and he would have passed by them But they seeing him walking upon the sea thought it was a ghost and cried out for all saw him and were troubled And immediately he talked with them and said to them Have confidence it is I fear ye not And he went up to them into the ship and the wind ceased and they were far more astonied within themselves for they understood not concerning the loaves for their heart was blinded And when they had passed over they came into the land of Genesareth and set to the shore And when they were gone out of the boat incontinent they knew him and running through that whole Countrey they began to carry about in couches those that were ill at ease where they heard he was And whither soever he entered into towns or into villages or cities they laid the sick in the streets and besought him that they might touch but the hem of his garment and as many as touched him were made whole Moralities 1. WHat a painfull thing it is to row when Jesus is not in the boat all our travel is just nothing without Gods favour A little blast of wind is worth more than an hundred strokes of oars What troublesom businesses there are how many intricate families do labour much and yet advance nothing because God withdraws himself from their iniquities if he do not build the workman destroyes what he is building But all falls out right to those that embark themselves with Jesus They may pass to the Indies in a basket when others shall miscarry in a good ship well furnished 2. But how comes it about that the ship of the poor Apostles is beaten so furiously by the winds and tempests There are many ships with silver beaks with fine linnen sails and silken tackles upon which the sea seems to smile Do the waters reserve their choller onely to vent it upon that ship which carries just persons This is the course of mans life The brave and happy men of this world enjoy their wishes but their ship doth perish in the harbour as it is sporting whereas God by his infinite providence gives tempests to his elect that he may work a miraculous calm by his Almighty power Dangers are witnesses of their floting and Combats are causes of their merit Never think any man happy in his wickedness for he is just like a fish that playes with the bait when the hook sticks fast in his throat We must wait and attend for help from Heaven patiently without being tired even till the fourth which is the last watch of the night All which proceeds from the hand of God comes ever in fit time and that man is a great gainer by his patient attendance who thereby gets nothing but perseverance 3. They know Jesus very ill that take him for a Phantome or an illusion and crie out for fear of his presence which should make them most rejoyce So do those souls which are little acquainted with God who live in blindness and make much of their own darkness Let us learn to discern God from the illusions of the world The tempest ceaseth when he doth approach and the quietness of our heart is a sure mark of his presence which fills the soul with splendour and makes it a delicious garden He makes all good wheresoever he comes and the steps which his feet leave are the bounties of his heart To touch the Hem of his Garment cures all that are sick to teach us that the forms which cover the blessed Sacrament are the fringes of his holy humanity which cures our sins Aspiration O Lord my soul is in night and darkness and I feel that thou art far from me What billows of disquiet rise within my heart what idle thoughts which have been too much considered Alas most redoubted Lord and Father of mercy canst thou behold from firm land this poor vessel which labours so extreamly being deprived of thy most amiable presence I row strongly but can advance nothing except thou come into my soul
your body by the most noble sense within you but by the help of a mirrour Nay you know so little of your self that scarcely have you observed the number of your teeth and being far from the particular distinction of the interiour parts of your body should you enter into the great labyrinths of the faculties of your soul you would quickly find out your own ignorance Compare now the science you have of your self with the great proofs which lead you to the knowledge of the Divinity First we are born to know God as the excellent Divine Alexander Alensis discourseth Alex. Alens quaest 2. de cognitione Dei A singular consideration of Aleâ because if the sovereign Goodness be necessarily desired by our reasonable appetite we must affirm the supream truth is no less capable to be known by our understanding and as we are naturally inclined to the search of this sovereign Good which may take up al the agitatioÌs of our thoughts so we feel our soul almost without any other reflection stir'd up with a generous desire to be united to the first cause We behold it through so many creatures as through lattices and it seems to speak to us in as many objects as we see works of his Goodness It maketh us restless it scorcheth us with an honest flame which teacheth us there is a God and that we are created for him nor is there any other creature in all visible nature which laboureth in such inquisition but man This ardent inclination to this knowledge is not a slight facility of science and we see constant study is ordinarily recompenced with the fruition of its object 2. I likewise hold God of his part is very well to God most easie to be ânown be known having all the conditions which may make a thing known as Essence immutability simplicity brightness and presence If you there look for Being which is a necessary object of the understanding as colour of sight God saith S. Gregorie of Nazianzen Naziââz Iâmbico 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Origenes homil in numer 23. Faustus de gratiâ l. 2. c. 7. Deus est quod habet Deâ ubique est quis nullibi est is a creating Essence an Essence comprehending all things If immutability Origen teacheth the Divinity sitteth on the top of beatitude ever constant never changeable If brightness God is all light as the Scripture manifesteth in so many places If simplicity Faustus Bishop of Rhegium sheweth God is all what he hath If continual presence Porphyriâ confesseth he is every where because he is not in any part as bodies are The Poet Orpheus in his mysterious poefie calleth him ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as one would say lightsom and visible to teach us all the world is enfolded within his radiance I will not hereupon inferre that one may have in this world an absolute and perfect knowledge of God as of a thing finite but I say that amongst so many lights it is not admitted that any man should be ignorant there is a God Creatour of all things 3. What Epicurean can dis-involve himself from Reason of Mercury Trismegistus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Trismegistus his reason who teacheth that were there not an Essence necessary and independent all we see all we touch all we feel in the world would have no being but this is meer illusion Wherefore Because the things which may be and not be indifferently like so many plants or transitory animals one while are and another while are not And we may truly say there hath been a certain time wherein they neither had being nor name in the world Now as nothing can actuate and produce it self must we not confess that had there not been from all eternity a first Agent which gave motion to so many causes enchained one to another whereof they are produced wherein we presently behold this great world all had been a nothing For of two we must grant one either that the world is created or not created If impiety transport a man so far as to say it is not created but hath been from all eternity he would ever be convinced by his own confession that there were such a Being as we seek for eternal necessary independent which is nothing else but God He would be reduced to this point that he no longer could deny the Divinity but was onely ignorant what this Divinity is and in stead of giving this title to a most pure Spirit as we do he ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã would attribute it to a body as to heaven water earth where he would instantly find himself ashamed of his folly to take for the Divinity a thing which hath no understanding and consequently is far less than himself In stead of a true God he would make a million of deities to become as many snares of his errour and witnesses of his bruitishness But if the world be created which it is not lawful to doubt of three things we must affirm one Either that it produced it self or that one piece made another or that there was one cause external supream not to be reckoned among the rest which made all the parts of the universe To say Author libri de triplici habitaculo apud Aug. tom 9. Nihil scipsum creat Quâ enim potentiâ qui omnino nââ esset scipsââ faceret Deââ innatus infectus sine initiâ sine fine in aternitate constitutus Tert. l. 3. advers Marcion c. 3. a thing made it self is to affirm it was before its being and to assever a proposition ridiculous to all humane understanding But if to evade this manifest contradiction one will maintain one piece made another still must he come to a last piece which was produced by it self and so fall again into the same difficulty Behold the reason why we must stick upon a general cause out of the main mass of all causes and which affording essence sense and intelligence to so many creatures according to the condition and qualities of every one remaineth eternal and immoveable Now he who says this affirmeth there is a God 4. But if some impious creature will notwithstanding Instance upon the infinite number of the wicked perplex the evidence of this proposition imitating Sorcerers who cast mists upon the brightest morning and say one thing produced another from father to son but that this still mounteth upward in infinitum and so think to make us loose our judgement and reason in the labyrinth of infinities First it is answered according to the doctrine of Philosophers There is Force of reason nothing in the world actually infinite and although an infinity of generations of men beasts and other creatures were admitted still must you confess this infinite mass of men was produced from a cause independent For that which agreeth to each part of a species and which is properly by it affected agreeth likewise to the main of the whole species as if it be proper
to the same port It is that which maketh Kings to reign 1. Reg. 25. 29. and giveth them officers as members of their state and by this means frameth the Court of Great-ones But if after it hath so made and composed them as of the flower and choise of men it should abandon them in the tempest without pole-star without rudder without Pilot were not this with notable deformitie to fail in one of the prime pieces of its work-manship Judge your self For the second reason it is most evident that to further this impossibilitie of devotion in the course of Courtiers lives is to cast them through despair of all virtues which cannot subsist without piety into the libertie of all vices which they will hold not as extravagant fallies of frailtie but as the form of a necessary portion of their profession And as the rank they hold maketh them transcend other men who willingly tie themselves to the manners and affections of those on whom they see their fortunes depend that would be as it were by a necessary law to precipitate mankind into the gulf of corruption To conclude for the third reason this proposition is manifestly contradicted by an infinit number of examples of so many Kings and Princes of so many worthy Lords and Ladies who living in the Ocean of the world as the mother pearls by the dew of heaven have preserved and do yet still preserve themselves for ever in admirable puritie and in such heroick virtues that they cannot gain so much wonder on earth but they shall find in heaven much more recompence This is it which I intend to produce in this Treatise of the Holy Court after I have informed the mind with good and lively reasons which as I hope by the grace of the holy Spirit of God shall make all persons of quality to behold they do infinit wrong to take the splendour of their condition for a veil of their impieties and imperfections Virtue is a marvellous work woman who can make Mercury of any wood yea should the difficultie be great the victorie would be more glorious but all the easieness thereof is in their own hands and the obligations they have to tend to perfection are no less important than those of Hermits as I intend shall appear in the process of this discourse The first MOTIVE Of the obligation which secular men and especially persons of qualitie have to perfection grounded upon the name of Christian. A Great abuse is crept into the minds of secular persons who hold vice in predominance and virtue under controle It is in that they esteem Christian perfection as a bird out of their reach and a qualitie dis-proportionable to their estate As for my self saith one of these I have made provision of virtue according to my quality I pretend not to be a S. Francis nor to be rapt as a S. Paul to the third heaven I find there is no life but with the living and to hold time by the fore-lock while I can Let our pleasures take that scope which nature presenteth to them were we as wicked as Judas if we have the faith of S. Peter the mercy of God pardoneth all An impertinent discourse as I will hereafter declare On the other side there are women who chatter and say I will not be a S. Teresa it is not my intention to be canonized I love better to see my diamonds in my life glitter on my fingers than to carrie themafter my death on my statues I better love a little perfume whilst I yet breath air than all the Arabian odours after my death I will have no extasies nor raptures It is enough for me to wallow in the world I may as well go to Paradise by land as by water Such words are very impure in the mouth of a Christian nay so prejudicial to eternal salvation that through the liberty of speaking too much they take away all hope of doing well For pursuing the tender effeminacy of that spirit they take the measure of virtue very short and disproportionable their intentions being infirm the works are likewise the more feeble not squarely answering the model of knowledge from whence proceedeth a general corruption I affirm not all Christians ought to embrace the perfection of S. Francis and of S. Teresa No. There are some whom the Divine providence will direct by other aims But I say that every Christian is obliged to level at perfection and if he hath any other intention he is in danger to loose himself eternally A bold saying but it is the sentence of S. Austine You should always be displeased with your Aug. Serm. 11 of the Apostle Semper tibi displiceat quod es si viâ pervenire ad id quod non es Si dixeris sufficit periisti A notable speech of S. Augustine self for that which you are if you desire to attain to that which you are not and if you chance to say it is enough you are undone And who are you that dare limit the gifts of God And who are you that say I will have but such or such degree of graces I satisfie my self with such a sanctity I have proceeded far enough in a spiritual life let us set up our staff here What wickedness is this Is not this to imitate that barbarous and senseless King who cast chains into the sea to tie the Ocean in fetters God hath given us a Xerxes heart of a larger latitude than the heavens which he will replenish with himself and you will straiten it like a snail to lodge him in narrow bounds whom the whole world cannot comprehend Judge if this proceeding be not very unreasonable and if you yet doubt weight two or three reasons which you shall find very forcible and by them you will conclude with me you have no less obligation to be perfect than the most retired Hermit that ever lived in the most horrid wilderness of Egypt The first reason I propose to underprop this assertion is drawn from the nature and essence of perfection At what mark think you should one aim to arrive to this scope If I should say will you be perfect bury your self alive in a sack put a halter about your neck go roast your self in the scorching beams of the Sun go roal your self in snow and thorns this would make you admire your hair stand an end and bloud congeal in your veins But if one tell you God Perfection engrafted upon love hath as it were engrafted perfection with his own hands upon the sweetest stock in the world what cause have you of refusal Now so it is as I say There is nothing so easie as to love the whole nature of the world is powred and dissolved into love there is nothing so worthy to be beloved as an object which incloseth in the extent thereof all beauties and bounties imaginable which are the strongest attractives of amity yea it forceth our affections with a sweet
wonder that in this passage he useth an Hebâew word for two purposes signifying two contraries to wit to shine and to be darkened It is to shew us that obscuritie which cometh A worthy letter in Job from adversitie is a true and perfect light It then being admitted which all mouthes do preach and pens do write that adversities are necessary to make up a great virtue we will thereon conclude that perfection will be more sutably accommodated to the lives of Great men than any other though never so good since they are those who daily are exposed to the greatest hazards The crosses of religious and private men are but meer paper in comparison of those which happen to the Great men of the world The learned Sinesius saith they Sinesius de regno ad Arcadium ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã are illustrious on every side one while they mount as high as Heaven another while they descend even to the abyss their change is never in the mean and their fortune is pointed out in extremities this manifestly declareth that as their fortune hath no bounds so they should not limit their virtues O men of honour it is a brave thing to see you couragious in disasters as Eagles who flie confronting that part of heaven where raging tempests most reign not unlike Dolphins who leap and bound with full carreer in the tumultuous waves or as vast rocks who erect their crests against the clouds and mock at the foamie waves billow-beating their feet This is truly the element of virtue resembling the pretious stone called Ceraunia by the Grecians as one would Ceraunia say the Thunderer for it is bred among thunders and is found in places where Heaven all swoln with anger hath cleft the master-pieces of the worlds great magazin So after the black vapours of obloquie after the mistie clouds which have dis-coloured our reputation after envie rage after brutish furies after oppressions of innocencie after the death of kindred after faithlesness of friends after disgrace after thunders shot from the Capitol when you behold a heart firmly fixed in a fair situation which enfoldeth it self within it self and sucketh in the tasteful sweetnesses of a good conscience then behold a thunder-stone which gladdeth Angels and dazeleth eyes fearful of his lightening flashes Conclude then upon this whole discourse that greatness is the very element of great virtue and if you yet hereof doubt learn the same from the authoritie of God who hath judged greatness so necessary an object for virtue that he hath conducted all his greatest servants to perfection if not by the enjoying of greatness at the least by contempt thereof and never had they been so great if struggling with greatness they had not scorned to be great Our Saviour to shew he was the example of perfection would appear great in refusing a world which Satan had as it were unfolded before his feet He would the virtue of the greatest of all men should appear in the refusal of the greatest of all titles when S. John Baptist denied the name of Messias He sheweth the greatness of his faithful servant Moses in the contempt of Pharaoh's kingdom He gave Nero's Court to S. Peter and S. Paul as the Amphitheater of their glorie He likewise many times hath drawn Hermits from the unfrequented desarts to make them mannage great matters in the Catastrophe of their lives in the palaces of Princes so necessary it is to have to do with greatness to act something important If God hath transferred to Court as it were on the wings of impetuous winds those that were by birth and profession alienated to work wonders there what Theatre O ye Noblemen expect you more suitable then this to place virtue in her fairest seat Or what obligation can you have more strictly binding to perfection than your selves The fourth REASON Proceeding from riches IT was a thing very strange amongst the plagues wherewith Aegypt ever bent to resist the spur the more deeply to wound it self was chastised by the angrie hand of God to behold Nilus that great and goodly river wholly become bloudie but yet more marveilous to see that from one and the same river the Aegyptians drew bloud and the Israelites a lively Joseph Antiquit Jud. l. 2. c. 5. and christalline stream The like ordinarily is seen in the lives of good and bad rich men The bad draw into their store-houses gold and silver heaped one upon another by rapines and violence as in a river consisting of the veins and bloud of the poor The good in the honest abilities which Heaven hath graciously given them find pure water which they suffer to distil for the publick good as through the conduit of their liberalities All that which the holy Writ and eloquent tongues of the Fathers thunder out replenished with threats horrour and malediction against riches is not understood but of those whereof the vices of men and not the condition of the things have made the use damnable Such riches are deceitful shadows which cover an apparent good under an undoubted evil they are hands that take their Master by the throat they are poinyards with a golden haft which delight the eyes with vain seemings and pierce the heart with mortal wounds they are precipices furnished with precious jewels such as Heliogabalus desired to illustrate his death with they are hights which are not measured but by their falls they are deadly poisons steeped in a golden cup. For this Eusebius Emys Hom. de Sancta Epiphania nisi sit Episcopus Rhegiensis An tu hunc hominem potentem faelicem vocas qui in suam mortem fortis est Cui proventuum fallax umbra praesentium aeternorum congregat causas malorum Quis beatam dixerit validam in suum jugulum dexteram Quis laudet velocem ad ardua praecipitia festinantem Quis ejus miretur ascensum quem de summo prospicit esse casurum An illum faelicem vocas qui gemmato atque aurato sibi poculo venena miscet cause Eusebius Emyssenus said Poor man who admirest those that are on the top of the wheel of the favours and riches of the world whereunto they have ascended by iniquitie are maintained by violence and cannot descend but by headlong ruin How blind are you to have thoughts so unmanly and unworthy of a Christian Esteem you a frantick man to be stout and couragious who stabs himself with a poinyard Say you he hath a brave steddie hand who hits his own heart right with a daggers point Say you that man is happie who holdeth the shadow of good in his hands to produce to himself an eternitie of evils Who hath ever said He who nimbly mounteth on a rock to precipitate himself was an ableman Who hath said seeing him on the steepic cliffs top ready to fall This man is happie all the world hath an eye upon him Who hath said of him that hath a golden cup in his hand filled
granted you for the exercise of virtue otherwise you shall pay the losses thereof in the length of a corrupt and miserable life and your bones in old age shall be filled with the follies of youth which shall sleep with you even in your tomb and drag your souls into the bottomless precipice from whence there is no recovery The ninth REASON Which maketh it appear the Court is a life of penance AMongst the motives which the exact Masters of spiritual life propose to Religious men to invite them to perfection they set before their eyes that they are all stirred up to virtue when they already are in the arms of penance The like with just reason we may say to Courtiers the more to inflame them to fortifie themselves in great and glorious virtues to wit that arriving at Court they enter into a house of penance where they every day have a thousand occasions of suffering which is the shortest way to perfection That the Court is a place of publick penance appeareth for the reasons which I intend now to produce First Antiquity hath called penance by the word Envie as Tertullian Tertul. Apol. c. 40. Invidia Coelum tundimus hath done who saith We strike at the gates of Heaven as with the hammer of envie that is to say with penance This name hath been given either for that it doth make God as it were envied if he pardon not seeing the estate of penitents so deplorable Penance called by the name of envy Invidiam facit Deo nisi ignoscat as the most learned Bishop of Orleans hath noted in his observations upon Tertullian or for that the Latine word invidere signifieth originally not to see any thing but to turn the eye aside as from a sad object and the habit estate and condition of the penitents was heretofore so lamentable that the nice and curious averted their eyes from them and could not endure so much as onely to behold them Howsoever it be the title of envie doth excellently well agree with the Court. That is the nest where envie hatcheth her Envy of Court egs the throne where she exerciseth her Empire the Altar where she hath many sacrifices and were she banished from all the corners of the earth we then should search for her among Courtiers their life always being between the two scales of the ballance whereof the one is called envie the other miserie This is it which obligeth them to an extraordinary perfection that they may perpetually stand upon their guard and avoid the least defect This is it which if they know well how to use it doth absolutely shut up from them the gate to all excess for if envie according to the proverb will offer to shave an egge what will she not do in a meadow Secondly the ancient Canons and Doctours of Five degrees of penance among the Ancients ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Church as S. Basil observe five degrees of penance The first was called sorrow which was a state of tears and grones The second is called audience which was a degree to which penitents after an infinit number of sighs were admitted to hear the instructions and preachings of the word of God whereof they were before deprived The third humiliation which was when the penitents were admitted ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to a certain part of the Mass but not at the Sacrifices for they went out before the consecration a little after the newly instructed Christians the Priest repeating over them a certain prayer during which time they made a low obeysance their face bowed to the ground The fourth degree is called consistence where the penitents had leave to ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã hear Mass at the full length as others but not to make any oblation nor to communicate for that was reserved to the last degree called communion ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã where they obtained a full reconciliation in the participation of the holy mysteries as the fore-alledged Bishop hath most excellently explicated Of these five parts of penance Courtiers for the Practise of these degrees at Court most part exercise those which are most irksom and very seldom sparticipate in the consolations of the other more sweet and benign If penitents have a degree of tears and lamentations where are sighs and groans more frequent than in Court for the many disasters which ordinarily occur in their affairs One may well apply to them that passage of Job expressed in S. Gregorie the Great The Giants or men Job 20. Gigantes gemunt sub aquis Estate of tears of the earth do groan under the waters Out alas how many times the poor miserable creatures after a world of travels pursuits and hopes which are dreams without sleep seeing themselves transported into disgrace with a furious torrent of envie sigh and mourn in an Ocean of calamities One frown of an incensed Prince is more formidable to them than the eye of a Basilisk yea more terrible than the crack of a Canon The favours they enjoy are winged and slippery all the contentment they can possibly receive in ten years will not afford so much joy to their hearts as the repulse of one sole day coming as a stroak of thunder afflicteth them and makes them give ground if they have not recourse to heavenly consolations See you not how Absalom re-established Obsacro ut videaâ facieââ Regis quod si memor est iniquitatis meae interficiat me 2 Reg. 14. in Court yet deprived of the King his fathers sight bare this disgrace with so much anziety of mind that he asked a bloudy death for his remedy What will the look of a Lion be if the onely deprivation of a favourable eye be so ill to be digested What will become of so many other contrarieties which at every turn transfix so many brave designs so well projected Where will not occasion of many most bitter sorrows be found among so divers accidents which cause us to stand at all times prepared for blows If penitents be in a state State of humilitie of humiliation wherein as other Interpreters observe they not onely humbled themselves prostrated on the earth at the Priests benediction but they lowly laid themselves under the feet of all the world where I pray are souls found born more to servitude more pliant more abased than the Courtiers They bend like the fishers angling-line they stoup they turn and wheel about to all purposes that they may arrive where they pretend They buy all their honour at the price of great submissions their scarlet at the price of sordid ambition and glory with the coyn of slavery That is it which S. Cyprian excellently well observed Behold âe this Cyprian ad Donatum Qui amictu clariore conspicuus fulgere sibi videtur in purpura quibus hoc sordibus emit ut fulgeat Quos arragantium fastus prius pertuliâ Quos superbââfores matutinus saluator obsedit Courtier who
vice which would have no force nor vigour at all if you did not give arms and weapons into its hand to sack and subjugate all the world First you commit a great sacriledge abusing authority Great sin through bad example which is a ray of the omnipotencie of God impressed on your foreheads to enlighten and sweetly incline your inferiours to duty and you make boast as if it came from your selves Thieves that you are of the treasure of God you have rifled the chief of his coffers which is that absolute power by which he is God you have taken from thence a pearl which himself afterwards ensigned into your hands which himself fixed upon your head to give you as it were a participation of his own essence and you unworthily retain it without making it tributary to its Creatour My God it is true that he who seeketh his own glory from thine ornaments is a Aug. Sol. 5. Qui de bono tuo gloriam sibi quaerit non tibi quaerit hic sur est latro very thief and a robber who endeavouring to filch Gods honour from him stealeth Paradise from himself What sacriledge I pray can you think comparable to this Secondly what an indignity it is to do that which the ill example of Great-ones operateth so to put vice into grace and virtue into neglect Think you Ill example the work of Antichrist not if proof be made unto you it is the work of Antichrist but that will suffice to make you detest it And what will Antichrist do To what will he bend and dispose all the sinews and arteries of his power but to set vice on the Altar and you will before-hand prepare a way for him All that which Jesus Christ hath said and done all that which he hath sweat for all that he endeavoured all that he hath wept all that he hath bled he hath done to blot out and extinguish with works with words with sweat with tears with bloud the work of sin And you forsooth will again erect the statues If sin coming from you were esteemed as sin it would always be unreasonable but less dangerous But now it happeneth not to be so reputed The sins Desinunt esse probri loco purpura flagitia which in a mean fortune would be thought sins when they are dressed up with a diadem or covered with a scarlet cloak become the virtues of the times which is a thing most abominable And by your ill example you are the cause of this illusion of mankind which holdeth vice for virtue and crime for trophie Observe what punishment a false coyner deserveth Advise with your self if idolatrie be the first and chief of all sins what would he merit who were not onely an Idolater but the authour and inventour of a new idolatrie And bad example doth it When you O Noblemen degenerate you impress sin with the stamp of virtue you place it upon the Altar you are the cause that a thousand and a thousand present oblations to it you make a stable for horses of the Temple of honour and you being by the world esteemed as little gods employ all this reputation to destroy the honour of the true God through the example of your wicked life You make a dung-hill of Heaven you Caenum de Caelo facitis errantes animos per abrupta praecipitia crudeli calamitate ducitis cum hominibus peccare volentibus facinorum viam de Deorum monstratis exemplis Julius Firm. Photius in bibliotheca cruelly and miserably dragging wandring souls through headlong precipices when to cause them to sin the more freely you shew them the examples of the pettie gods of the earth These are the words of Julius Firmicus What ingratitude will make Heaven blush and the earth to shake if not this If you well weigh this consideration it will never escape you to do an act of ill example or if passion should happen to be exorbitant at least you should imitate that bird which by antiquity was called Just because she hid her excrements which she knew to be very pernicious for fear it should infect men so you rather should bury your ill deportments in night and obscurity than expose them to publick view For the third reason consider what wickedness it is to thrust the knife into the throat not onely of a multitude that adores your fortune and glorieth in the imitation of your vices but also to pollute all posteritie with the authoritie of your crimes Every Age teacheth us we may do what hath been done and Admonetur omnis atos fieri posse quod aliquando factum est exempla fiunt que jam esse facinora destiterunt Cyprian ad Donat. Eccl. 1. Sicut aeramentum aerugina nèquitia Figure of ill example Exod. 21. crimes become examples saith the eloquent S. Cyprian Your sin is like much rust which cleaveth close to all your successours and how much the greater you are so much the more precipitation and malice it hath Say not you are personally culpable and no more that you are not to answer to God either for the sins of those who live with you or those that come after you Which is so much otherwise that the Scripture ordaineth who shall open a common cistern without shutting it again if it happen that cattel fall therein he was bound to repair this loss Your brother doth he not more nearly approach to God than a bullock or a horse You have opened to him the gulf of scandal and corruption he is fallen into your snares you shall give an account to God for a soul redeemed with the price of his bloud Although you have caused but one small spark of Exod. 22. fire to flie out if it happen to blast and burn the fruitful fields and destroy the corn of your neighbour you are bound by the law to make the possessour satisfaction A flashing sparkle of concupiscence which proceedeth from your eyes and afterwards enkindleth a great fire of vices and calamities shall be imputed unto you in the day of judgement And what satisfaction for such damage But on the contrary O Noblemen when you seriously embrace virtue you ravish and appease the most savage spirits by your authoritie Nothing resisteth this sweet violence Goodness born in the chariot of greatness hath darts so sharp and flaming that they make the flint-stones to melt The present times invite you the most distant admire you all posteritie blesseth you and God most gloriously crowneth you It is said when the Rainbowe in Heaven boweth Plin. lib. 12. cap. 24. Rainbowe upon flowers his crooked horns directly upon the flowers he imparteth to them a most celestial odour which infinitely reviveth their kind God hath fixed you in the sphear of greatness as heavenly arches you know from whence he hath extracted you and that no otherwise than the Rainbowe in Heaven you are but a petty vapour but this Sun hath guided you
there left the sting If he slept upon roses the shadows of dead men approached to his downie bed to require an account of their bloud He scoffed at religion and feared it one while he despised sacred things and at another time they made him tremble with horrour He sought out waters of expiation to wash his sins and never opened his eyes to those which S. Peter and S. Paul presented to him His soul was torn with pincers within it self as on a perpetual scaffold of exquisite torments when it would issue out of it self it was like a wild colt coursed and chased by men and beasts or as a bull stung with a gad-flie who fain would run for himself yet still findeth himself with himself Judge O Atheists what a life this is The second cause of Atheism is the sensual love Bruitish conscience Clemens Alex. pedag Plotin apud Philo. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Irrâverens infrunitus animus of favours pleasures ease and delights of the world which oftentimes degenerate into the meer bruitishness of a soul which sleepeth in fat and grease so intricated and confounded in earth that it looseth all knowledge of Heaven Clemens Alexandrinus saith that it happeneth to souls which are great lovers of sensual pleasures to engross and thicken themselves in such sort that as Plotinus very learnedly writeth they live not but as a plant These spirits are much enclined to Atheism for as the Wise-man observeth after the concupiscences of the belly cometh unbrideled irreverence which serveth Eccl. 23. 6. Lev. 1. 16. Vesiculam gutturis projicies in loco quo cineres effundi solent ââ 13. âaturati sunt âlevaverunt ââ suum oblââi sunt mei as a harbinger to impiety God desired not that in offering a bird as a sacrifice unto him the gorge should be presented which is the little magazin of the meat but commanded to cast it into the ashes which is to declare to us that carnal men are most uncapable of celestial things and very fit to be dragged to the dung-hil and ash-heap The more they are affected to things present so much the more yea even in deep draughts they drink down the forgetfulness of Heavenly things All those say with Esau To what use will this goodly prerogative Genes 25. Quid mihi prâderunt primogenita of primogeniture serve me this title of the children of God this happiness of future life If there be no sensual pleasures nor carnal contentments in Heaven I will have none They become the true disciples of Alcor Aazoara 2. Mahomet who in his Alcoran describing the Turks Paradise placeth there good water good fruits rings carcanets silken tapestrie hangings and such like All these things they would enjoy but the water which they willingly would change into wine What swine are these The third cause if not of formal Atheism at the âârious conscâence least of weakness and faintness in matter of faith is when a soul will proceed in matters of Religion by politick and humane ways and suffer it self greatly to be pleaâed with curiositie which incessantly moveth it to draw the curtain of holy mysteries to enlighten them with the torch of reason and to behold all that passeth there Such spirits are not so malign nor stupid as the first and second notwithstanding they are weak and very ignorant since they fail in the first rule of wisdom which discovereth to us that it is an absolute folly of a discomposed judgement to be desirous to measure things divine by the rule of sense and humane experience They turmoyl themselves and bate like a hawk upon the perch and often say in their heart that which the Apostle S. Peter observeth in the person of infidels Where are these promises Where is the Pet. 2. 3. Vbi est promissio ubi est aâventus ejus ex quo enim âermierunt patres omnia âerseverant ab initio creaturae coming of the Son of God See you not that times revolve men come and go all things have their ordinary course and we must expect no other miracle They imagine that all the counsels of Heaven should turn and roul according to the projects of their understanding and that if God had his eye open as it is said upon the oeconomie of the world both this and that would succeed as they have contrived in their feeble brain which is a great illusion Such kind of men would willingly speak with spirits to hear them tell tales of the other life they would know as S. John Chrysostom saith what habit what clothing the Son of man weareth covered under the species of the Sacrament how the Angels are formed of what colour the devils are nothing would please them better than to talk with one really possessed to know things future to divulge predictions to behold prodigies and miracles Briefly it seemeth they have no other purpose but to believe in God by the devil Such kind of proceedings are very exorbitant and unfortunate for the reasons which I will presently produce First O you wretched souls who betake your âeasons to settle a soul Impious curiositie pulls out both its eyes selves to this way see you not that by this means you pull out the two eyes which God hath placed within your souls which are as the Sun and Moon in the firmament to wit the eye of faith and that of natural prudence You seem to your selves sharp and clear-sighted and are more blind than moles For tell me for as much as concerneth the light of nature can there be found a folly more gross and absurd than to behold men who are born and bred in Christianity as in their proper element after a thousand and a thousand witnesses of the truth of their religion which even the very marbles do speak and stones proclaim to make themselves so wise and able as to seek out other proofs than those which have won worlds to the Gospel An unworthy way to treat with God You would have a God that should give you new signs tokens to confirm you in faith a God which servilely will be captivated to please the ticklings of your curiositie Senseless men as you are this were not to have a God but a lame Idol Are you not Insuspicabilis secreti reverendaeque majestatis cognitio est deum nosse nisi deum Tert. Apol. 28 very blockish to treat with God much more wickedly than one would do with a mean man If you had passed your word to two friends you would praise him with all freeness that should rest satisfied therewith and would condemn the other whom you should find fearful inconstant and ever upon mistrust yet would you that God should favour your infidelity by extraordinary ways What apparency is there for this All curiosity is damnable Curiositie dangerous Curiositas reum efficit non peritum S. Zeno. Serm. 2. de silii gener Chrys de fato ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã
hypocrisie its body a spunge of ordures its hands the tallons of harpies and finally it seemeth to have no other faith but infidelity no law but its passion no other God but its own belly What contentment can it be to live with such a monster VII If there be pleasures in life they do nothing 7 Quality of worldly pleasures but a little slightly overflow the heart with a superficial delectation Sadnesse diveth into the bottom of our soul and when it is there you will say it hath feet of lead never to forsake the place but pleasure doth sooth us onely in the outward parts of the skin all her sweet waters run down with full speed into the salt sea Behold wherefore S. Augustin August Conf. l. 6. cap. 5. said when any prosperity presented it self to his eyes he durst not touch it He looked upon pleasure as on a fleeting bird which seemeth as it were ready to be seyzed and flieth away as soon as ever she sees her self almost surprized VIII Pleasures are born in the senses and like 8 Their shortness abortives are consumed in their birth Their desires are full of disturbances their access is of violent forced and turbulent agitations Their satiety is farced with shame and repentance They pass away after they have wearied the body and leave it like a bunch of grapes the juice whereof is extracted by the press as saith S. Bernard They hold it a goodly Bern. Serm. 10. in Cantic Nulla maior voluptas quam voluptatis fastidium Turtul de syect 9. The end matter to extend their fulness They must end with life and it is a great hazard if during life it self they serve not their host for an executioner I see no greater pleasure in the world than the contempt of pleasure IX Man which wasteth his time in pleasures when they are slipped away much like waters engendred by a storm findeth himself abandoned as a pilgrim dispoiled by a thief So many golden harvests which time presented to him are passed and the rust of a heavy age furnisheth him with nothing but thorns sorrows to have done ill and inabilities of doing well what then remains to be said but that which the miserable King said who gave his scepter for a glass of water Alas must I for so short Lysimachus a pleasure loose so great a Kingdom X. Evil always beareth sorrow behind it but not 10. Difficulty of penance true penance It is a most particular favour of God to have time to bemoan the sins of our passed life and to take occasion by the fore-lock Many are packed away into the other world without ever having thought of their passage and such suppose they shall have many tears at their death who shall not have one good act of repentance They bewail the sins which forsake them and not God whom they have lost True contrition is a hard piece of work Facilius inveni qui innocentiam servarent quam qui congruè poenitentiam agerent Ambr. l. de unica poenitent c. 10. 11. Death How can he merit it who willingly hath ever demerited XI In the mean time death cometh apace it expecteth us at all hours in all places and you cannot attend it one sole minute so much this thought displeaseth you The decrees thereof are more clear and perspicuous than if they were written with the beams of the Sun and yet we cannot read them His trumpet soundeth perpetually more intelligibly than thunder and we understand it not It is no wonder that David in the 48. Psalm calleth it an Psal 48. 5. According to the Hebrew ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã aenigma every one beholdeth the table and few knoweth the sense of it Notwithstanding it is a case concluded we must take a long fare-well from all things which appertain to life that can be extended no further than life it self and it is a case resolved that serpents and worms must be inherited in a house of darkness It is a goodly lesson whosoever can well learn it To know it well once it must every day be studied Nothing is seen every where but watches clocks and dyals some of gold some of silver and others enchased with precious stones They advertise us of all the hours but that which should be our last and since they cannot strike that hour we must make it sound in our conscience At the very instant when you read this a thousand and a thousand perhaps of souls unloosened from the body are presented before the Tribunal of God what would you do if you were presently to bear them company There is but one word Timely despise Diordorus apud S. Maximum serm Omnia ista contemnito quibus solutus corpore non indigebis 12. What followeth death Apoc. 14 Tertul. de anima c. 53. Hug. l. 4. de anima in your bodie the things of which you shall have no need out of your bodie XII Your soul shall go out and of all the attendants of life shall have none but good and bad by her sides If she be surprized in mortal sin hell shall be her share hell the great lake of the anger of God hell the common sewer of all the ordures of the world hell the store-house of eternal fire hell a depth without bottom where there is no evil but we may expect nor good which may be hoped Behold the twelve considerations which this most worthy man used to direct himself in the course of a virtuous life and they so far had prevailed upon his soul that he resolved after he had finished certain works which he then had in hand to distribute all his goods among the poor and go bare-foot through the cities towns and villages carrying a Crucifix in his hand to preach the cross the blessings of the other life employing his whole talent which God had given him to his service But death prevented him The seventh SECTION Twelve Maxims of Wisdom which arise from the twelve precedent Considerations FRom these Considerations twelve goodly Maxims Often examine your life by these maxims of wisdom arise greatly necessary for any who would enjoy true happiness I. The first is to give to every thing its estimation 1. Cood value since the beginning of our unhappiness proceedeth from a false value which we set upon creatures It marvellously importeth to estimate every thing according to its worth That good man Epictetus said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã more than one would think when he gave this advise My friend if thou lovest a pot remember thy self to be a pot For want of the knowledge of the price of what we love we put God under the Altar and vice above to allow it the best part of the incense II. For this cause it is necessary daily to endeavour 2. Light of mind in the choice Osee 12. Ballance of Chanaan to enfranchize our selves from the opinions of the world and to use
thy self in silk and cuttest thy beard in fashion thou dost crisp and comb thee thou dost court thy hair and knowest not thou seekest for a Master Thou thinkest thou hast found a precious stone but thou meetest with a counterfeit Thou thinkest she is a lamb but she proves a wolf yea a serpent which beareth fire and flames thou must take her at adventure and such as she is must keep her Oxen and asses are tryed before they be Nulla uxoris electio sed qualiscumque venerit habenda Hierom. contra Jovin bought sayes Saint Hierom but wives are taken without notice of their humour and deportment Nay which is worse this poor maid with huge sums purchaseth her slavery Fathers and Mothers have sweat hard for the space of twenty or thirty years to amass a portion Behold they have attired decked and adorned her like a temple and she is led out with the sound of violins as to the galley and many times thrown into the arms of a husband who wasteth all And the young man to become a slave makes a thousand journeys offereth a thousand supplications a thousand thanksgivings and as many salutations Ah poor creatures if you be weary of your liberty are there no prisons caverns nor chains more pleasing Galley-slaves who toil at the oar hope after five years after ten years or some term prescribed them to be discharged from bondage The ill married are enforced to expect death for freedom from their fetters and there is not any Deitie to which they offer more vows and candles than to death which is notwithstanding the terrible of terribles I give you leave to think when two contrarie humours meet as fire and water a holy man with a spitefull and an immodest wife or a noble spouse with a wicked husband what an affliction it is Saint Augustine relates that certain thieves cruel and bloudy to torture captives resolved on an execrable barbarism which was to joyn and straightly tie a live body with a dead and so let the poor patient expire amongst ordures and insupportable stenches It is the very like when a holy and pious wife meets with a husband impious wicked and unnatural she alive by grace and virtue is joyned to a rotten carrion which intollerably tormenteth her and if she in such occasions exercise patience she gains so many crowns as there be hours in every day Let us pass further and not here conceal some Raram facit mixturam cum sapientiâ forma nihil est tutuÌ in quo totius populivota suspirant Molestuni est possidere quod nullus habere vel amare dignatur Pauperem alere difficile est divitem ferre tormentum Mulier cum parit tristitiam habet roses of marriage mingled among thorns If beauty be therein jealousie doth easily slide into it and doubtless it is more aimed at and is more subject to be surprized by temptations If there be deformity it much altereth the band of affections If there be riches and ample fortunes they are exposed to much embroylment great travel and infinite peril for the strokes of thunder ruine not any thing so often as the tops of high steeples If there be povertie it is a misery intollerable Are there children wives you know how dear they cost you They who are tortured on the rack suffer nothing in comparison of a poor creature who is constrained to be delivered of her fruit by a travel extraordinary hydeous painfull and oftentimes in seeking to give life to another she there leaves her own This sometime happeneth because those children come into the world laden with benefices mitres and croziers Abuse precedes birth they are fathers before they are children It is not yet known whether they be males or females and all the world sees they already are charged with ecclesiastical livings Mothers you still bear them in your entrails their fortunes their accidents their maladies their deaths through a reflection of nature imprint on your hearts all their passions all their disasters you are transfixed with as many martyrdoms as evils happen to your children nay should all succeed prosperously and according to the course of nature yet must you a second time produce them to honours estates and fortunes This pain perpetually ties you to the rack To have them upon your hand and not wherewith to provide for them is a very sensible sorrow yet richly to endow them is to give them where withal to enkindle their lust entertain disobedience and cherish vice You think after your travels they will afford you the like who oftentimes prove lewd ungratefull and malicious wretches that waste the wealth you amassed for them as it were on your tombs Behold the slender scantling of the toyls and perplexities of marriage drawn from the Doctrine of holy Fathers I wonder not at all those ancients in the ceremonies of marriage carried before the bride a torch made of black thorn and never of any other wood to testifie wedlock was replenished with difficulties very thorny Nor shall I any more admire their custom who in like manner caused the new wife to touch fire and water For to say truly she passeth through the boyling ardours of many dolours through the waters of infinite many afflictions and may repeat that versicle when she hath met with some ease I have passed through Psal 65. 12. Ecce transivimus per ignem aquam eduxisti not in refrigerium fire and water and thou hast set me in repose and comfort Now it is not sufficient to have expressed the inconveniences of marriage if we also declare not the causes and remedies thereof and this Reader is the reason why I desire you to proceed in your attention Men who will always conclude to their own advantage speaking of this matter cast all upon women and ordinarily affirm we must not ask from whence the evils of marriage come it is enough to say one cannot be married without a wife and that woman is the source and seminary of all the miseries and disasters which happen in this affair Behold a very slippery place what shall we answer It seems that generally to condemn women were to produce more testimonies of passion than marks of judgement They are the mothers of men by nature nurses by charity and as it were hand-maids by patience It is the devout sex the sex of compassion and pitie They daily do many good things they succour the necessities of the poor they visit hospitals prisons the sick they replenish Churches and edifie families with examples of pietie and can you then speak ill of them Notwithstanding as we are not to flatter them so it is undoubted that those who have once resigned theÌselves to evil and become libertines in sin are the cause of many ills and practice much frailty in their sex and cunning in their behaviour to disturb families and the affairs of the world if not guided by virtue If we now will consult with the
the miserie of the time and malice of Herod permitted Mariamne still reposing in the calmness of her Prudence of Mariamne noble spirit declared to the King in her natural sweetness That he was the support of her house greatly decayed and at that time upon such terms that she had no care to pretend to scepters she onely desired to breath her last in the world with honour If he should give a Miter to her brother Aristobulus it were to make a creature from whom he had no cause at all to fear his throne being throughly established and he being one from whom resonably he might expect any thing having the tender youth of this Prince as a soft piece of wax in his hands This act would make him rule in hearts as well as in Provinces when he should be known to be a father and a Protectour of a young son of Hircanus whose virtue he always had honoured Briefly that the honour which she had by matching with him seemed not compleat to her whilst she saw her allies kept from degrees wherein he might establish them without prejudice of his authority Herod suffered himself this time to be gained by The youn Aristobulus created High-Priest the charming sweetness of Mariamne and having deliberated the affair with his Councel he resolved to give the High-Priests place to young Aristobulus his brother in law which was performed with much ceremonie He assembleth his friends in the hall of his Palace then sending for Alexandra he made in the presence of them all a premeditated speech complaining of her saying she had a mutinous turbulent spirit which sought nothing but to embroyl the affairs and take a Scepter from him which heaven had caused him to purchase with so much travel and pain to put it into the hands of an infant to the prejudice of the Queen her daughter Notwithstanding that forgetting all injuries he could not neglect his own disposition which was to do good even to those that wished him ill in confirmation whereof he gave the High-Priesthood to her son his purpose having never been other and the subrogation of Ananel having not been made but during the time of expectation of maturitie in the tender age of an infant This ambitious mother according to her sex The ambitious woman and indeed beyond her sex upon the offer of this High-Priests place was so sensibly transported with joy that tears gushed from her eyes and she at that instant freely protested to Herod That she had endeavoured all she could possibly to keep the Miter in the Royal familie supposing it an unworthy thing to transfer it els-where but as for the Kingdom she never had pretended thereunto and that such resolutions should never enter into her thoughts Whensoever it should please Almightie God to call her out of the world she would die well satisfied leaving her son High-Priest and her daughter Queen As for the rest if she had exceeded in some words she was excusable as a passionate mother towards a son who well deserved to be beloved a mother in law of the King to whom kindred and alliance permitted somewhat the more libertie and a daughter of a King to whom slaverie was a hard morsel and her stomach unable to digest it But hereafter since he used her so courteously he should have no cause to complain of her obedience Hereupon they shook hands and behold they are friends But out alas The amities of the world are like the felicities thereof If the amities be deceitful the felicities are tyed to a rotten cable or grounded upon the moving sand The poor mother rejoyced for a little sense-pleasing flattery of her feaverish ambition and saw not that her son was not to speak really the High-priest but a sacrifice of the savageness of Herod The discreet Mariamne who by long observation had learned to hold prosperity as suspected suffered her heart not to be so dissolved into joy but that she stood still armed against the counterbuffes of Fortune The feast of the Tabernacles greatly celebrated Entrance of Aristobulus into the High-Priesthood amongst the Jews being come Ananel after he had served as an o in ciphering is shamefully rejected Aristobulus beginneth to excercise his charge He was at that time but seventeen years of age yet of a gallant stature tall and straight as a palm tree radiant as a star and very like his sister When the people beheld him cloathed with the pontifical habiliments which were replenished with majesty and to go towards the Altar and perform those ceremonial rites with so much gravity and comliness he appeared as a new Sun which brake out of the clouds and came to gild the world before covered over with darkeness All the hearts of those poor Hebrews which so much had sighed in the civil wars freshly bloomed and newly opened themselves as roses at the benigne and gentle aspect of this young Prelate His excellent natural graces enchased in the majesty of his robes rendred an incredible lusture which dazeled the eyes of all beholders Some stedfasty beheld him and became as statues yet shewing by their tears their eyes were not made of marble Others spake to him with infinit dumb testimonies of a never-silent hearty affection The rest made resentments of their hearts burst forth from their lips not being able to with-hold acclamations too free and profuse for the season but for their love excusable They remembred the virtue of the ancient Machabees who had delivered them from Idolatry they knew the wretched Hircanus was no other than a shadow following his own funerals they retained the fresh memory of the grand-father of this young High-priest Aristobulus the Great who had been carried bound fettered to Rome like a gally-slave they were not ignorant how Alexander his father and Antigonus his uncle had lost their lives by opposing the government of a stranger This young Prince onely remained free from so many shipwracks and in the green tenderness of his youth they saw all the hopes of their Country to bud and blossom And as one is credulous to hear what he affecteth they perswaded themselves Herod who at the beginning had demanded the Kingdom in the name of this young Aristobulus would come to let go his hold giving way to justice and for this cause they with the more liberty enlarged themselves in these applauses but poor creatures they reckoned without their host Herod having beheld this countenance in the people instantly observed that according to his own Maxims he had played the Clark and that this was not his ordinary manner of proceeding entring at that time into a furious jealousy he maketh the High-Priest and his mother and wife to be so narrowly watched that neither within nor without the Palace they could stir a finger but Herod Malice of Herod was advertised of it The prudent Mariamne amongst these suspitions lived still in grace sweetning upon one side and other all acerbities as
of water God made his birth and education singularly to Extraction of Theodosius contribute to the sanctity of his life He was descended from Trajan called the good Emperour by supereminence of worth his Grand-father was the great Theodosius a man who in wariness had no superiour that preceded him and in piety no better second than his Grand-child The Emperour Arcadius was his father a most generous Prince who in the very beginning of the fifth Age to wit the year after the Nativity of our Saviour four hundred and one saw this infant rise as a bright star at that time when he ended the course of his life as the Poets feigned the Sun reareth himself from the bed of aged Tython to illustrate the world His nativity was foretold His birth foretold by the mouth of Saints his most tender infancy consecrated by the destruction of idols God at one and the same time putting him in the number of the living and in the rank of Protectours of the Church by a most remarkeable act of which behold the narration Saint Procopius an Hermit endowed with admirable Prophesie of S. Procopius sanctity illumined with the spirit of prophefie living in the Isle of Rhodes praying daily for the destruction of some remnants of idolatry which reigned in the Roman Empire when by good chance two holy Prelates Porphyrius and John the one Bishop of Gaza the other of Caesarea in Palestine sayling for that purpose to Constantinople went to lodge in the Hermitage of this holy man He having received them with all respect answerable to their qualities and entertained them according to the poverty of the Cell understanding they travelled to the capital Citie of the Eastern Empire of purpose to obtain an Edict from the Emperour absolutely to destroy the Temples of idols and bridle the insolencies of Pagans who stirred with so much the more boldness as the drouping faintness of the government of those times promised them impunity he was infinitly comforted to see so great personages undertake so worthy a work and God then prompting him these words he saith Courage Fathers the glory of this conquest is due to your pietie Go stoutly to Constantinople and acquaint the holy Bishop John Chrysostom with this design resolving to execute what he shall think fit For the rest know the Empress is nine moneths gone with child and that which is more she beareth an Emperour in her womb upon the mother and the son who is to be born depends the expedition of this affair They very glad of this prediction left the good Hermit Procopius and in ten days arrived at Constantinople where presently they visited S. John Chrysostom who received them with much respect and very great contentment The affair being put into deliberation the Bishop of Constantinople saw well that the Empress might therein much assist and that God ordinarily useth the pietie of women to advance the affairs of Religion Notwithstanding he durst not present these two Prelates to her fearing his recommendation might be prejudicial for he very lately had a sharp difference with the Empress It was Eudoxia a woman Eudoxia mother of Theodosius of a great spirit and who naturally loved virtue as milk in her infancy but she had a heart extreamly haughty and quickly would be offended if any thing of great consequence were undertaken against her authority Behold wherefore S. Chrysostom who was of no pleasing disposition as one who had a spirit alienated from ordinary complements sometimes towards those of his own coat reprehending her openly at many meetings in the point of glory wherein she most desired to be soothed raised her indignation to the clouds She was as yet in the height Her humour of her passion against him and therefore he judging it to no purpose for him to sollicite her caused the two Bishops to be presented by the means of one called Amantius an attendant of Eudoxia's chamber a very wise man and of great credit with his Lady She who knew her child-bed time at hand gave very free access to religious men as hoping all good success by help of their devotions and seeing these two Bishops Bishops treat with the Empress were very particularly recommended to her by Amantius in quality of persons endowed with a very eminent sanctity she was unsatisfied till she had seen them and having most courteously saluted them excusing her bigness with child to have hindered her passage to the door of their reception according to the usual practice towards persons of their worth she forbear not most affectionately to conjure them to employ their most fervent prayers to obtain of God a happy delivery for her The holy Bishops after they had wished her the child-birth of Sarah of Rebecca and Saint Elizabeth began to declare the cause of their voyage unfolding in very express terms the indignity of this Idolatrie the insolency of Pagans the contempt of things sacred the oppression of people the lamentable mischief it would be to behold the worshipping of idols still to flourish which to abolish the Saviour of the world had so much sweat so much wept and shed so much bloud and to see it predominate as it were in the eyes of a most magnificent Emperour and a most religious Empress who had all the means to extirpate it That in such a field the palms of eternal glory should be gathered and that better they could secure their estate than by destroying the work of Satan to erect the tropheys of Jesus Eudoxia taketh fire being thereto otherwise well Zeal of Eudoxia enough disposed and promiseth to recommend the business to the Emperour to obtain the dispatches they required for their better contentment The Bishops retired expecting the effect of this promise The Ladie faileth not to offer her requests and strike the stroke with her best dexteritie But Court affairs proceed not always on the same feet which the desires of the zealous move upon she findeth the Councel engaged in these retardations who think it to no purpose to roul such a stone That idolatrie should Judgement of Arcadius his Councel be left to bury it self and at leisure dress its own funerals That the means to ruin it is to remove the heads of the sect from all kind of honours and publick dignities to forbid the exercise of superstition and Conventicles which they make in private houses to subdue Idolaters and burn them as it is said with a soft fire That the demolishment which should be made of those great Temples of Idols which yet remained would make much noise and yield little fruit that this might thrust rebellious spirits into manifest despair and in a word it was feared it might be a means to turn the coyn of the Emperours coffers another way who drew a good round revenue from the Citie of Gaza which even at that time was in hand The consideration of interest which ever holdeth as Porphyrius unfoldeth the
removed from Councel and manage of affairs deprived of the Imperial bed abandoned by all those who before adored her she was dead to the evil life and onely survived to see her own funerals It was thought Pulcheria who was desirous to make a sequestration fearing lest her Departure of Eudoxia presence might again enkindle the fire covered under ashes in the Emperours heart to possess it to the prejudice of affairs caused the counsel of undertaking the voyage of the holy land to be suggested to her under-hand But it is more credible far the good Empress took this resolution upon her own motion for the reason I will deliver A devout Roman Ladie of a noble house named Melania who filled the deserts Cities Provinces and Empires with her fame passing into Palestine there to wear out the rest of her days in peace went by Constantinople and was received at the Emperours Court where seeing Eudoxia endowed with an admirable spirit but yet untrained to the sweetness of things spiritual she endeavoured to give her a tast The Empress who at that time was in the prosperities and delights of a flourishing Court thought she should handle devotion as a Captain Philosophie and it was enough to tast it outwardly But when this sad accident like the steel began to strike on the flint it made the sparkles flie out in good earnest She was on fire to forsake the Court where she no longer was what she had been she sighed after those places of the holy land as the thirsty Hart for the streams of a fountain I well believe she took counsel at that time of Chrysaphius a powerfull Eunuch who had governed Theodosius from his infancy and was much reputed in Court closely countermyning the over-much authority which Pulcheria had according to his opinion in affairs but he took good heed openly to affront her satisfying himself to act his part by Eudoxia according to directions she gave him This man very understanding in businesses found it was to good purpose to retire back to come on the better that it was necessary the Empress should give way for a time and that her absence would make her the more desired and that he in the mean space would do all good offices for her with the Emperour and act his part in time and place Conclusions of the voyage are made leave was not hard to be obtained of the Emperour seeing his instrument Pulcheria was thereunto wholly disposed When it came to a separation which was a thing very sensible in minds so long time and with such ardour mutually loving the good Eudoxia could not refrain to say to her husband with tears in her eyes SACRED MAjESTY I am upon terms to see you no more in this world for which cause it is fit I discharge my Conscience Behold me ready to depart not onely from the Court but this life if you so ordain I sorrow not for greatness nor delights I have ever thought the prosperitie of the world was a current of fresh water which looketh not back on any thing and hasteneth to pour it self into the salt sea I onely grieve that having brought to your Court two inestimable Jewels virginity and the reputation of a child of honour the one which I ought rather to have given to God I dedicated to your bed and the other is taken from me by your suspition grounded upon a sudden surprizal of a word spoken from a heart perplexed to see you troubled You have caused the Prince Paulinus to be put to death and in doing this you have not bereft me of a lover but your self of a good and faithfull servant and God grant the voice of bloud accuse you not before the tribunal of the Sovereign Judge I hope God who is the Protectour of innocents wil one day take my cause in hand and when truth shall give light through your suspitions you at least will render me the honour which I ever onely have sought to be conveyed into the ashes of my tomb Theodosius knew not how to answer her but with the moist dew of his eyes which began to do the office of his lips a few such words were enough to turn his soul topsie-turvie Pulcheria readily made the stop saying that which was past could not be recalled over which God giveth us no other power but of forgetfulness That the Empress might in good time go to satisfie her devotion and that were she herself free from the bondage of affairs it would be one of her greatest contentments to bear her company Thus Eudoxia departed travelling directly to Jerusalem Voyage of Eudoxia into Palestine and with her the grace and alacrity of Court All Constantinople was filled with sadness at which time the plains of Palestine were already comforted with the first rays of this bright day-break Wheresoever she passed the people ran thither by heaps to behold her she was received with much applause with eloquent orations and all demonstrations of hearts affections and particularly her approach was much celebrated in the Citie of Antioch For it is said the Senate going out to receive her she replied at an instant as she was sitting in her golden Caroch to the Oration pronounced before her and undertook to praise this famous Citie with so much grace and judgement that the principal and most eminent of the Citie ravished with such courtesie dedicated two statues to her the one of gold in the Senate-house as to the Empress the other of brass in their Library as to the tenth Muse Entring into Jerusalem she was received as an Angel from Heaven but above all the Clergie rejoyced at the abode she meant to make there well knowing the Church should thence derive great succours in its necessities Some perswaded her David had prophesied she should re-edifie the walls of Jerusalem because in the fifteenth Psalm where these words are read In bonâ voluntate tuâ aedificentur muri Jerusalem the Septuagint have translated in ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The interpretation was not amiss although it were not literal it had the effect For the pious Empress in process of time made many most worthy reparations There she began to live as in another world she seemed to herself to have cast from her shoulders the burden of a huge mountain she now breathed a far other air than that of Court she had another tast of things divine All her study was to pray meditate and hear exhortations and spiritual conferences to read and learn holy Scripture to sow charities that she might reap merits to visit the Cells of Anchorets to see how their garments and girdles were made to observe their manner of living to multiply Monasteries to cloath Virgins to heap up reliques together and such like things Theodosius understanding her carriage and the Chrysaphius laboureth the return of the Empress in the mean time seeking his own ends good entertainment she had every where thought it was the work of God who favoured
it slept as the Providence of God shewed it self affectionate in the conservation of these elevated souls Observe the persons precisely and consider each in particular What happiness in the Empress Eudoxia whilest she laboureth for the glory of Altars God gave the heart of her husband into her hands the world in honour at her feet and a little Theodosius by her fide who in his infancy maketh all the hopes of his mother to bud But as soon as this poor Princess forgetting her duty and self contended with S John Chrysostom behold her cut down with the sythe of death carried away in her flower deprived of the contentment and glory which she possessed Behold she received a breach in her reputation which cannot in the memory of all Ages be repaired Her bones are in horrour and dread till such time as S. Chrysostom banished by her commandment and returning dead to Constantinople came to serve as an anker for the floating ashes of this unfortunate Empress Consider this little Theodosius who even at his birth maketh the Idols to fall the Pagan temples to sink and hell to howl under his feet What glory was it to bury the remainders of Idolatry what a trophey to extirpate under his reign so many monsters of heresies What celestial comfort to see in his time so many learned writings to be laid at his feet to see so many worthy men flourish so many Saints as Leo's Cyrils Chrysostoms Simeons Stilites to see the Church all garnished with stars and lights to sway a Scepter more than fourty years in a peaceful Kingdom among so many tempests and which is more to fall into some defects by sudden surprizal and expiate them by a happy repentance to see himself drawn by a powerfull hand from the brink of a precipice and in the end to yield up his soul in the midst of Palms and good odours of a glorious life See you not a Fortunate Piety Behold Pulcheria as an Eagle on the top of apyramide which ever hath her eye on the Sun and seeth all storms broken and confounded under her feet Was there ever a more fortunate Piety To say that a maid at fifteen years of age swaying Emperours and Empires enchaining all hearts of the world to make herself on earth a Crown might boast to have had the Universal Church for trumpet of her praises and from the government on earth to mount to Heaven by so happy death born as on a Chariot of liberality and magnificence Where may one more manifestly see the happiness of true and solid piety Behold Athenais a silly maid who had not so much as a poor cottage for shelter as soon as she embraceth piety and offereth the faculties of her soul to the honour of Altars behold her raised upon the throne of the prime Empire of the world afterward as she came a little to forget God he sent her a very sharp affliction but as soon as she hath again recourse to the arms of devotion the cloud of calumny cast on her forehead dissevereth the storm passeth away and her face all glittereth in glory and which is most admirable God layeth hold of her even in the gulph of errour whereinto a wicked hypocrite had cast her reconducteth her to Altars receiveth her soul in peace and causeth her to reign both in herself and bloud in all the three parts of the world for she held in person the Scepter of Asia her daughter Eudoxia was married to the Emperour of Rome the Capital Citie of Europe and her Grand-child was Queen of Africk miraculously finding a Kingdom in her own captivity Is not this a fortunate piety Adde also hereunto Martianus a poor peasant who now had his neck under the sword of the executioner falsely accused of a crime whereof he was innocent and God taketh him by one hair of the head delivereth him from shame and peril marvellously guiding him to the government of a great Empire giveth him innumerable prosperities and indeed maketh him another Constantine Ought not impiety to burst with rage and confess that happiness greatness benedictions and favours of Heaven are for piety Here it may be you will also have some rememberance of the Court of Herod where you have seen the poor Mariamne in virtue so ill intreated and will think that piety in this creature was unfortunate But if this thought occur would it not condemn all the Martyrs and all the Saints whose lives notwithstanding we ought to judge most happy since that vanquishing the petty misfortunes of the world she hath fallen into the bosom of felicity Tell me one hour of life in patience and tranquility of soul which this good Queen had among so many strange accidents is it not more worth than the thirty seven years of her husband all clouded with crimes disturbancies and fury Tell me is it not a happiness and an incomparable glory that God would pertake in persecutions with this good Princess suffering himself by this self-same man to be pursued who had been the hammer of all her afflictions Is it nothing to die in the Amphitheater of patience in the Theater of honour by the same sword which was afterward unsheathed against Jesus Christ Is it nothing to give up the life of a Pismeer in exchange of an immortal glory on earth and a happy repose in Heaven And if you besides desire to see her fortunate piety according to the world is it not a blow from Heaven to say that all the race of Herod issued from his other wives was unlucky miserable execrable deprived of their fathers Scepter chased away exiled scourged with whips from Heaven and the Grand-children of Mariamne remained last in royal thrones Tigranes her Grand-child descended from Alexander was King of Armenia crowned by the hands of the Roman Emperours Agrippa the Great issued from Aristobulus who having been fettered with an iron cain through the cruelty of Tyberius was sent back to his Kingdom by Caius Caesar and honoured with a golden chain of like weight with the same of iron wherewith he had been fettered Agrippa the youngest under whom S. Paul pleaded his cause was preserved from the horrible sack of Jerusalem as Lot from the flames of Sodome and reigned in Tyberiade and Juliade even to decrepit age Berenice grand-child of Mariamne was extreamly courted by the Emperour Titus entituled the worlds darling Another called Drucilla was married to Faelix Governour of Judea of whom is spoken in the Acts God likewise recompencing the virtue of the mother in the children by some temporal favours and all those who disposed themselves to virtue were fortunate to make it appear by evident testimonies that unhappiness ariseth from nothing but impiety These two Courts the histories of which we have here represented in my opinion sufficiently shew the unhappiness of impiety and fortunate success in the lives of Great-ones when they are guided according to the laws of Heaven If I hereafter shall continue this work I will
protest if it were to do again I had rather die in The life of Hugo a Monastery covered with leaprousie than with the scarlet robe of a Cardinal Yet notwithstanding this man had been so little idle that besides the Concordances of the Bible which he composed and the Commentaries he made upon the whole Corps of holy Scripture he so couragiously employed himself in the exercise of good works that being drawn out of the excellent Order of S. Dominick he retained all his former virtues which found no change in him but that they added to their native beauty the lustre of authority I speak this not to inform Prelates from whom I should receive instruction but to represent to so many of the young Nobility as we now daily behold advanced to Ecclesiastical charges the peril there is in Prelacies which are not guided by the paths of a good conscience It is a monstrous thing said holy S. Bernard to hold the highest place and have the lowest courage Bern. de consid lib. 1. cap. 7 the first Chair and the last life a tongue magnificent and a hand slothfull much noise about you and little fruit the countenance grave and actions light great authority and no more constancy than a weather-cock It were a better sight to behold an Ape on the house top and smoke in a candlestick than a man dignified without merit On the contrary part when science and virtue agree with Nobility to make up a good Church-man it is so glorious a spectacle that it may be said God to produce it on earth hath taken a pattern from himself in Heaven I wish no more faithfull witnesses than this Prelate which I shall present unto you in this first Treatise after I have made a brief Summary of precepts which I have purposely comprised in very few pages to render them the readier for the understanding well knowing there are store of books largely enough dilating on this subject the length of which I have avoided to attend the matter I wish it may have an effect in your hearts worthy of your courage that honouring your dignity for virtue virtue may enoble you with titles of true glorie THE HOLY COURT SECOND TOME THE PRELATE The first SECTION That it is convenient the Nobilitie should govern the Church I Begin by the Altar to measure the Aeternitas mundi ex obedientiâ ad intelligentiam motricem Apudi Matthiam de Viennâ qui liber impressus anno 1482. Temple of the Holy Court and set a Prelate before your eyes who bare Nobility into the house of God and there furnished himself with all the virtues which made him speak like an Oracle and live as a true image of the Divinity The Platonists say the whole order of the world dependeth on Intelligences which bear sway in the motion of the first Heaven and we in imitation of them may say all the good of Christendom proceeds from the examples of Ecclesiastical men to whom the Son of God hath consigned his authority on their brows his word in their mouths his bloud and Church into their hands For if bees engendred of the body of a bull carry in their entrails the very form of that bull from whence they are derived by a much more just title the people Vlysses Aldobran de apibus will bear the marks of those whom God hath given them for Doctours and Fathers whether it be by correspendence of nature through custom or by imitation which ever hold a very great predominance over spirits disposed to receive their impressions Behold the cause why a Prelate who liveth conform to his profession imprinteth the seal of the Son of God on all those souls he governeth and produceth himself in as many objects as he hath imitatours of his virtues As on the contrary part he who liveth ill in great Nobility and dignity is a Seraphin in appearance but a Seraphin without eyes without heart without hands which hath wings of a profane fire able to burn the Propitiatory if God afford not his helping hand And forasmuch as we at this day see the Nobility aspire to Ecclesiastical charges and many fathers to dispose their children thereunto sometimes with more fervour than consideration it hath caused me to undertake this Treatise for the Nobility which dedicate themselves to the Church as well to shew the purity of intention they ought to exercise therein as to give them a fair discovery of the goodly and glorious actions they ought to pursue in the practice thereof I here will first offer you a simple draught which I afterward intend to adorn with the greatness of S. Ambrose as with more lively colours Plato rejoyced to behold Princes and Governours of Common-wealths to become Philosophers and we have cause to praise God when we see the children of Noble houses to dispose themselves to Priesthood not by oblique and sinister ways but with all the conditions which their bloud requireth and sacred dignity exacteth in so noble a subject Why should we deny them Myters Crosiers and eminency in the Church So far is their birth from ministering any occasions of the contrary that it rather affordeth them favour both to undertake such charges with courage and discharge their conscience with all fidelity The reasons hereof are evident For first we must aver that by how much the more honourable the charges are so much the rather they are proper for such as make profession of honour provided always on the other side they have qualities suitable to those ministeries they pretend to exercise And are there any in the world more ambitious of honour than Noblemen Ostentation is the last shirt they put off and where can you find a more solid and eminent honour than that which is derived from the lawfull administration of Ecclesiastical functions Aristotle saith Truths which transmit themselves Arist lib. 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Xenophon l. 4. de factis dictis Socratis tribuit etiam Socrati Strabo Geograph l. 14. Aelian l. 14. c. 34. Var. Eus in ChroÌ Agathias histor l. 2 c. through the common sense of every man get into credit as it were by the decree of nature Now such hath been the esteem of all Nations that Kingdoms and Common-wealths being established upon Religion and temporal jurisdiction as on two columns Religion so much the more excelleth politick government as things divine transcendently surmount humane And for this cause favours priviledges and preheminences have ever been given to Priests in the greatest and most flourishing Monarchies and Common-wealths of the world as we may see in Histories and in the policie of the Aegyptians Assyrians Chaldeans Medes Persians Grecians Romans Gauls and other Nations The honour of Priesthood gained so much on the hearts of all people that the Monarchs of the earth seemed not to rule but with one arm if they made not in one and the same person the alliance of Priesthood and Royalty so that oftentimes
tractable with ease to dispose it self to inclinations of honesty Behold these two principal heads whereon this excellent nature of an inestimable price is established And first forasmuch as concerneth the tranquility of passions it is undoubted that every man being composed of four elements by consequence draweth along four roots of all the motions thereof which are Love Fear Pleasure Sorrow There is not a man which feeleth not some touch But as every sea hath his winds though Mariners observe that some are more tossed than others so though every soul have its passions we must confess there be some of them are mildly disposed and others more roughly distempered You see men who from their most tender age tast of strange extravagancies choller harshness rage despight which maketh them to be of a spirit fantastical uncivil and obstinate against which you must ever fight with an armed hand Others from their cradles are endued with a peaceable soul as a sea in the time that Halcyons build their nests on the trembling agitation of waters they have inclinations to virtue wholly Angelical in such sort that they seem to be as it were conveyed therein as fishes in their element From this repose from passions ariseth the second condition of good nature that is docibleness of spirit the beginning of education and happiness of life For as Divines require in those who receive faith a certain Religious affection to divine things discharged and purified from all spirit of contradiction so in matter of moral virtue and piety we stand in need of a tractable soul which fixeth it self on good instructions as the ivie cleaveth to trees and pillars Go not then about when you make choice of an Ecclesiastical man to tender some Esau some spirit of the field who is onely pleased with arms and slaughter of beasts Take rather a Jacob under the pavilions a sweet and temperate spirit that is wholly disposed to the sound of virtues But you Noble Spirits who have met with this excellent Ezech. 28. Omnis lapis pretiosus operimentum tuum foramina in die quâ conditus es preparata sunt nature I may speak the words of the Prophet unto you God hath given you a soul wholly covered with precious stones enriched with gifts and admirable talents he hath enchased it in a body endowed with a singular temperature as a diamond set in the head of a ring Much hath he given you and therefore much requireth at your hands The seventh SECTION Of Virtues requisite in the carriage of a Prelate The first is Wisdom DO you demand what God requireth from you I answer five principal virtues which were very wel represented in the ephod of the High-Priest of the old law as S. Gregorie the great (a) (a) (a) Greg. de Pastor p. 2. cap. 3. hath well observed This ephod was a certain mantle that covered the shoulders composed of four colours of hyacinth purple white and scarlet the whole wrought all over with threeds of gold enterlaced with curious work-manship Why this dressing why these colours To teach you seasonably to bear on your shoulders the conditions requisite to your profession The hyacinth or skie-colour signifieth the first thing you ought to do is to flie as the plague of virtues from these travantly and unworthy spirits who have no other object in the possession of the goods of the Church but flesh-pots and play you are to frame for your selves a soul totally noble wholly elate meerly celestial which conceiveth strong resolutions one day to dedicate it self to God not in a mercinary manner but with the utmost endeavour of its power Think not (b) (b) (b) Mediocre nè putes quod tibi commissum est Primùm ut alta Dei videas quod est sapientiae Deinde ut excubias pro populo Dei deferas quod est justitiae castra defendas tabernacula tucaris quod est fortitudinis Teipsum continentem ac sobrium praestes quod est temperantiae Amb. de Oââic lib. 1. saith S. Ambrose that being called to an Ecclesiastical state you have a slight commission from God Wisdom requireth you consider the mysteries of Heaven and that you be highly raised above the ordinary strain Justice willeth you to stand centinel for the people who expect aid from your prayers Strength desireth you to defend the Tabernacle and Camp of the God of Hosts Temperance ordaineth you live with singular sobriety and continency You are said Saint Isidore of Damieta (c) (c) (c) Isido Polusiota lib. 3. ep 2 placed between divine and humane nature to honour the one with your sacrifices and edifie the other by your examples A Priest (d) (d) (d) Sacerdos debet esse Christi alumnus à peccatis segregatusrector non raptor speculator non spiculator dispensator non dissipator pius in judicio justus in consilio devotus in Choro stabilis in Ecclesiâ sobrius in mensâ prudens in letitiâ purus in conscientiâ assiduus in oratione patiens in adversitate lenis in prosperitate dives in virtutibus expeditus in actibus sapiens in sermone verax in predicatione Alphons Torrez ought to be as a young child issued out of the school and bosom of the son of God even as an Angel to govern the Church not to despoil it to treat with God in prayer not to handle a sword He should be entire in his judgements just in his resolutions devout in the Quire firm in the Church sober at table prudent in recreations pure in conscience serious in prayer patient in adversity affable in prosperitie rich in virtues sage in words upright in preaching and free in all good actions Great S. Denis the dreopagite (e) (e) (e) S. Dionys ep 3. ad Demophilum addeth a notable sentence saying That he who most especially seeketh to transcend others in holy Orders ought most nearly approach to God in all sorts of virtue For which cause your education should not be in the ordinary way If you have brothers that are to be bred for the world let them live in the practice and fashions of the world O how unworthy are you of the hopes to which God calleth you if you envie them the favour of the house and of those I know not what kind of petty trifles of their own profession Your condition is much other if you follow that spirit which guideth you (f) (f) (f) Bern. l. 4. de consid c. 6. Vbi de comitatu Episcopi inter mitratos discurrere calamistratos non decet Heretofore Monasteries were the chief schools of Kings and the Great-ones of the earth to cause them to suck in virtue with the milk your abode should be in places where you have engaged your heart and your faith which best can prepare and manure you for the life you have chosen It is truly a scandal to your profession if you be ashamed to wear a habit proper for an Ecclesiastical man and blush at the
profession he spake these words unto them My holy daughters It is not yet three years since I undertook Excellent speeches to virgins this charge and you know from whence I was drawn and the small time given to dispose me to so weighty a burden notwihstanding I afford you the fruits of my tongue since I have learned more in your manners than in books The flowers which grow in my discourses come from your garden It is not precepts for Virgins but examples drawn from the life of Virgins Your manners have breathed a certain grace into my soul I may say that all that which my endeavour hath of good odour in it is derived from your prayers For who am I but a barren thorn But God who heretofore spake to Moses among thorns will now to day speak by my mouth His Sermons and books had so much effect that Virgins came from the utmost limits of Christendom to be veiled at Milan which S. Ambrose seeing he could not wonder enough that he perswaded virginity where he was not it not being in his power sufficiently to multiply it according to his desire in places where he resided (f) (f) (f) Hic tracie alibi persuadeo si ita est alibi tractemus ut vobis persuadeamus L. 1 de virginibus He caused the Bishop of Bologna to come unto him led on by the same spirit as himself to assist in this design of whom he one day said in full assembly (g) (g) (g) Adest piscator Bononiensis aptus ad hoc piscandi genus Da Domine pisces qui dedisti adjutores Behold the fisher of the Church of Bologna fit for this sort of fish Lord afford fish since you have given us coadiutours And considering that some murmuted at these his proceedings as if the world should instantly fail by this means he shewed in a most eloquent Sermon that no one had cause of complaint either married or unmarried the married because they had wives not virgins the unmarried because they should find sufficient and that the carnal who opposed virginity under pretext of multiplication resisted by this means the chastity of marriages where continency is oftentimes exercised even by necessity as for the rest we are not to believe the world will be ruined through virginity For admit it should fail it would ever be a matter more honourable for it to decay by virtue than concupiscence But it is so much otherwise said he that we should lay hold of that which we see by experience in the Churches of Africa and Alexandria where there are most virgins they have the greatest number of men This employment nothing lessened the assistances which he afforded for the instruction of those who lived in an ordinary course (h) (h) (h) Su perstitions and excesses taken away Above all he endeavoured to root heresies out of their hearts and certain customs of Gentilism which easily stole in by contagion into the houses of the faithfull Among other things there was a Pagan-guise much practised at Milan and other places of Christendom which was to celebrate the first day of the year with riots and disorders a matter much resenting the Bacchanals He so cut off this abuse by his great authority that of a day prophaned with so much sensuality he in few years made it among Christians a day of penance and fasting which for some space afterward was observed in the Church until such time as the memory of the superstitions of Gentilism was wholly extinct Others entertained this foolish belief that when the moon was eclipsed she suffered much through the persecution of ill Angels who then endeavoured to exile her and therefore they went out of their houses with many pans and cauldrons making a loud noise to dissolve as they said the design which evil spirits had against the Moon The sage Pastour made an express homily against this superstition wherein he much confounded those who were infected herewithal Moreover it being a custom very ancient and introduced by the Apostles to make in Churches which then were the houses of the faithfull Agapes that is to say bankets of charity in favour of the poor this by little and little was changed into liberties unworthy of Christianity For sensuality had got such ground that stifling charity in this action it rather seemed a sacrifice to the belly than an act of piety S. Ambrose abolished all these rites and cut off such abuses even in the least root that it was never seen again to sprout in the Church S. Augustine in cited by his example practised the like in Africa and afterward caused the decree to be inserted in the third Councel of Carthage In the proportion that he extirpated vice he planted solid virtues in the hearts of the faithfull whom he ordinarily entertained with these ensuing instructions counselling other Bishops to do the like (i) (i) (i) Puritie of intention First he sought in all places to form in minds a strong imagination of the presence of God unwilling that Christian virtues should be petty hypocrisies guided by the natural extent of humane respect but rather intentions wholly celestial and for that cause he said (k) (k) (k) Si quis solus est seipsion prae caeteris erubescat If any man be alone let him regard himself more than any other in the world (l) (l) (l) Covetousnes opposed Secondly seeing the inordinate desire of riches was a petty apostacy of faith and root of all disorders he very often did beat on this anvile labouring by all sort of good endeavours to withdraw hearts from the love of earth that he might raise them to Heaven Among other things you have these excellent words in the epistle to Constantius (m) (m) (m) Multaoneri moderata usui Viatores sumus vitae hujus multi anbulant sedopus est ut quis benè transeat Saj ienti nihil alienum nisi quod virtuti incongruwn Quocunque accesserint sua omnia Totus mundus possessio ejus est quoniam eo toto quasi suo utitur Ep. ad Constantium To enjoy much is to have a great burden Great riches are a vain ostentation the indifferent for use We are all Pilgrims in this life all the business is not in going perfection consisteth in a ready passage To what purpose do you so torment your self with the desire of boarding Be wise and you shall have sufficient A virtuous man thinks nothing is without him but sin Wheresoever he sets his foot he finds a kingdom All the world belongeth to him because he useth all the world as his own In the third instance he made sharp war against the ambitions and vanities of the time disposing minds as much as he could to Christian humility by this Maxim (n) (n) (n) Ambition Nihil interesse in quo statu quis se probabilem praestaret sed illum esse sinem bonorum ut quocumque quis statu probaretur
doctrine made as many slips as steps he roundly said his curiosity had never born him so far that way and that he better had loved to contemn such things than study them As for the rest the doctrine of Manes depended not upon the knowledge of eclypses since never had it been eclypsed Augustine perceived his Doctour was not Non usquequequâ imperitus erat imperitiae suae Confes 4. c. 7. wholly ignorant since he understood at the least how to acknowledge his own ignorance but was otherwise absolutely distasted with the divinity of the Manichees seeing so little support in Faustus who was the primepillar of the faction and the snare which he would make use off to stay him was the beginning of his liberty It was to make a banquet of flowers and songs for one almost famished to seek with words to give him satisfaction In the end after a long abode in Africk he resolved to go to Rome not so much to find verity in its source which as yet he proposed not to himself to be in the Church of Rome as to dissolve the irksomness of teaching Rhetorick at Charthage the youth whereof was extreamly insolent His friends propounded unto him for his aim a far other air much different successes from his former labours and another recompence for his merit adding besides it was a sweeter climate where young men held within the lists of good discipline yielded their Masters full satisfaction It was the strongest bait could therein be found for the sweetness of his spirit was incompatible with the boldness of the schollars of Carthage which was the cause that secretly stealing away from his good mother who could not with her tears hinder the voyage he set sail for Italy and came to Rome Behold him in the chief Theater of the world where he began to shew himself and entertain an Auditory in his Chamber to be known and forthwith appear in publick Courts where he learned the students of Rome gave their Reader good words but the time of payment being come they inconsiderately many times forsook the Teacher to exercise elsewhere the like deceit which infinitely displeased him and seeing that by good fortune a Rhetorician was sought after for Milan he handled the matter so by the assistance of some Manichees whom he yet courted for his own ends and by the favour of Symmachus Pretour of the City that this charge was stayed for him Behold him then at Milan where the providence Hidden passages of divine providence in reclayming souls of God had marked out his lodging Behold him in the field of battel where he was to be assaulted Behold him in the Amphitheater where he should be disarmed Behold him in the sphere where he must be illuminated As we have beheld the strong oppositions which stopped up the way in the salvation of this great soul let us now see the means God used for his conversion Here is an admirable spectacle and worthy the consideration of noble spirits since of all the works which God doth out of himself nothing hath so much manifested his wisdom bounty mercy and power as the conversion of men We observe in the effects and experiences of nature that one thing draweth another in foure special manners to wit sympathy motion heat and secret atraction Sympathy say I or natural conformity so the stone tendeth downwards into the bosom of the earth because it there finds reposes Motions so the hammer drives the nail and one man leads another by the hand Heat so the sun raiseth up the vapours of the earth after it hath subtilized and heated them Secret atractions so amber draws the straw and the adamant wyns the iron The spirit of God ingenious and powerful in our conversions makes use of these same four attractions to draw us to him Attractions which are able to gain the harshest disarm the most savage heat the remissest and startle the stupid Attraction of sympathy consisteth in good nature and sweet inclination which the Master-workman giveth us for virtue Attraction of Motions is seen in the conuersion of good company where examples of piety sweetly stir a soul to that which is its good Attraction of heat is insinuated by the word of God which is a sword of fire to make strange divisions between the soul and flesh Secret attraction is a most particular touch from God who taketh men by ways hidden interiour and extraordinary So many times we see conversions infinitely strange Such was that of S. Paul Notable conversions who felt a blow in the bloud of S. Stephen when he shed it by so many hands as he gave consents to the furie of his executioners Such was that of the Jugler Genesius under Dioclesian who in a full Theater scoffing at the ceremonies of Christians at the same time became a Confessour of the faith and Martyr of Jesus Christ Such was that of Mary neece of Abraham the Hermit who was gained to God in a supper which she had made in a bourdel Such likewise was that of Irais a poor maid-servant of Alexandria who Martyrol Rom. 16. Martii 22. Septemb. as the Samaritan going to draw water left her pitcher to run to Martyrdom and joyning her self to Christians which were led to execution bare away the first crown Such was that of a thief who forsook his wicked life beholding a yound Monk that ate wild roots and another converted having seen Paphnutius the Hermit drink a glass of wine who never Joannes Aegid de doctrina Patrum titul Charit num 6 had drunk any before and then onely did it by a resignation of his own judgement and proper will into the hands of another who commanded it The thief at that instant thus concluded That if this holy man were so enforced by virtue for an action so contrary to ordinary life he himself might well by the help of resolution undertake the same predominance over his passions and of an ill man become a Saint as he did Briefly such was the conversion of Parentius a man of quality who exercised a place of judicature in a City of Italy For having seen a young swyn-herd who taught his companion a trick to make his hogs readily run into into the Sty which was to say to them Enter hogs into the sty as wicked Judges into Hell and then perceiving that these beasts readily obeyed this word he laughed heartily but presently changing all his mirth into serious actions he set himself to ponder on the difficulties he found of salvation in the great corruptions of justice and was so touched that he tooke the habit of Franciscans where he so far proceeded in Chronic. Minorum virtue that he became General of the Order and visited bare-foot all the houses of S. Francis It must be confessed there are great priviledges of Gods providence in such affairs I am willing briefly to recite examples of these secret attractions because they are very famous and I set
must return to these kind of spoils to content us But we have to do with few things and for a little space I swear unto you that from the time I betook me to this retirement it hath seemed that all the elements were for me and that I never was more powerfull more rich or contented I have found all that which I sought for health repose truth wisdom arts and the Gods Go not now about to colour your specious oration with pretexts of the publick good I well know where your ambition itcheth believe me he is nearest to heaven who least careth in whose hands the earth is What importeth it that young Constantine Maxentius and Licinius divide the world I shall see them strive together like arâs about a grain of earth If the world must be lost as it is very likely I had rather it were in their hands than mine I very well see the Empire is sick to the death I have for saken it like an old Physitian wil hear no more speech of it than of a body in the coffin Believe me neither you nor I can do any thing for its health but to witness our inability All those who have admired our resolution in forsaking the Diadem wil be the first that will cast the stone against our inconstancy if we weakly go about to require again that which we so generously have abandoned God forbid I should enter into a fantasie to despoil my self of a glory that never any one Monarch had before me which is the contempt of a world when I had it in mine hands If you be resolued to loose your self do it without company your frindship ought to pretend nothing upon me to the prejudice of mine honour and conscience And whereas you propose unto me the danger of my person I do not think that envy will extend it self over the coleworts and lettice of this little garden planted by mine own hands and should they come thither I have already lived long enough according to the course of nature enough to satisfie the desire which I had if glory and too much to see the miseries of the world I will not think much to render up this life which I have upon my lips to him who gave it me We must needs say this man had a great understanding and goodly Maxims For had not mischief given him the spirit of a hangman against Charistianitie he might be accounted in the number of the greatest Emperours Maximian was much amazed at the constancy of his resolution Notwithstanding the desire he had to return to his former honour being insatiable he spared not to take the purple again and bear himself as Emperour protesting it was the desire of publick good which put the Scepter into his hands It is an admirable thing how his ambition was Maximian the baloon of fortune discountenanced He who promised himself much respect was hissed at by the souldiers as a man vain unconstant and shallow was chased out of Italie and Sclavonia and other places which he sought to possess and reduced as it were to such terms as to see himself at the mercy of his son which he apprehended as the last of his afflictions Although some have thought there was collusion between the father and the son for the accommodation of their affairs He wished now to be in the bottom of a cave with his Diocletian but since he had begun the play he must finish his act The subtil man who well foresaw that Maxentius a brain-sick Prince was upon ruin resolved to league himself firmly to the fortune of Constantine Behold why being retired in haste towards him having engaged his house in the Empire it was not difficult for him to find access there as also for that the new Emperour in this great concourse of arms and affairs was very willing to make use of the counsel of a man refined in policie Maximian entereth so far into the heart and judgement of Constantine that to tie him the more to himself and wholly cement up his own affairs he gave his daughter Fausta in marriage to him whom the young Prince espoused in his second wedlock having first of all been married to Minervina by whom he had two children Crispus and Helena This marriage of Fausta was solemnized with much magnificence and the son rendred so much honour to his father-in-law that he seemed to retain nothing of the Empire but the name and habit dividing with him the rest of his power We may well say the spirit of Maximian was turbulent 3. Disposition and insupportable for not satisfying himself with all this excellent entertainment he thought he was nothing if he wore not upon his forehead the Diadem which he had forsaken He began to set things in order at the Court and to prepare factions in such sort that he seemed to have no other purpose but to set his son and his son-in-law together by the ears to enjoy both their spoils In the end he put his design very far upon the fortune and life of Constantine being as he was vain to talke of his enterprizes namely to his daughter Fausta whom he esteemed to be of a good disposition he opened himself so much to her that he made as saith the Wiseman of his lips the snare of his soul For the young married wife having more affection in store for her husband than her father and who having already the tast of Empire would not yield it up to him to whom she had owed her birth hastened to tell all to Constantime advising he should take heed of his father-in-law and that he was a wicked man who would if it were possible deceive all the Gods of Olympus for the desire he had to reign Maximian well perceiving that his daughter had discovered the plot and that there was no further safetie for him at the Court of his son-in-law secretly stole away and endeavoured to regain the East but was taken tardy at Marsellis and there strangled to give an end to his life all his designs Some have written that he hanged himself through despair of his affairs others that it was by the commandment of Constantine Others have said that his son-in-law Eusebius was willing to save him but the publick hatred born against Maximian prevented clemency which I think the more probable Verily I would not disguise the exorbitances practised by Constantine before his entrance into Christianity for he cannot be justified upon some disorders But since Zosimus the historian who pardoneth him in nothing chargeth him not with this death I see no cause why we should accuse him Behold the desperate end of Maximian after he Victor Nazarius Non omnia potes Dij te vindicant invicem had persecuted the Church embroiled Empires all armed the whole world by the extravagances of his ambition an infamous halter taketh a little air from him which he thought he could not freely enough breath whilst
appointed him and that he necessarily must change the countrey whereat being much amazed yet still persisting in his design as not throughly satisfied upon the will of God it is held the tools and instruments of work-men were insensibly transported over the sea to the other shore and that an Eagle setling upon the Level of the Master-Architect took it up and hastened to bear it directly to Byzantium for that is the City whither Zonar Glycââ Constantine forsaking the ruins of Troy transferred his great designs It had heretofore been a very fair City but as arms strike at all which is eminent so had it been infinitely ransacked by many wars happening in the revolution of affairs and Ages Yet it still supported it self with some manner of reputation when this great Prince determined to amplify enrich and perfect it throughly there to fix the seat of his Empire It is added that himself marched round about the wals holding in his hand a half-pike designing the circuit of his future Constantinople and as he still went measuring up and down by the aym of his eye one of his favourites said to him Emperour how long will it be ere you make an end I will finish saith he when he stayes that goeth before me Which made men think there was some heavenly intelligence that conducted his enterprize At the same time he thought he saw in sleep a very ancient Lady which in an instant was turned into a most beautiful virgin whom he adorned and attyred setting his Diadem on her head Observe what is said of the beginnings of Constantinople whether such things happened with all these circumstances or whether we naturally love to tell some strange tales in favour of antiquity as if these fictions were able to give it the more credit One thing is most undoubted which Zosimus although an enemy to Constantine is enforced to admire that the manage of this great design was so prosperous that in five or six years a goodly City was seen on foot which extended about one league in circuit beyond the walls of Byzantium Constantine who had a holy desire to equal it to ancient Rome spared nothing of all that which the invention of men might find out courage undertake and power execute He there built Palaces Theaters Amphitheaters Cirques Galleries and other edifices infinitely admirable so that S. Hierom had reason to say that Constantine to attyre his Constantinople despoiled all the other Provinces It is a Maxim among Great-ones that to make a huge Dragon it is fit he first devour many little serpents and to raise a great City many much less must be ruined to serve for food unto it The greatnesses of God are good deeds those of the world are naturally destructions for they eat and devour their neighbours as the tree which we call the Ivie which insensibly draweth the juice of plants growing near unto it It is not expedient there should be many greatnesses in the world they would drie rivers up as did the army of Xerxes and would impoverish each other by their mutual contestations Yet notwithstanding needs must there be Majesty in the civil world to the proportion of elementary And for this cause God made Kings taking a pattern from himself commandeth we honour them as his living images Kings make the greatnesses of the world which are the effects of their powers Needs must there be a Constantinople that posterity may see Constantine on the back side of the medal for I think his virtues have represented him on the other side very honourable At the least it is a thing exceeding laudable and well considered by S. Augustine that in this infinite store of Pagans which he must yet of necessity tolerate the Emperour permitted not either Temples of Idols Sacrifices or Pagan ceremonies Well might he be curious to cause from all parts to be brought ancient statues of marble brass and other matter which represented Jupiter Cybile Mercury Apollo Castor and Pollux and so many false Divinities which he set up in Theaters Amphitheaters or Races where the courses of horses were used and in other publick places Eusebius followed by Baronius holdeth it was to expose them to the scorn of the people which is very hard to believe for I should rather think that these pieces being the most exquisit workmanships of the world and that Constantine vehemently desiring the beauty of this City could not then resolve upon such a Jewish zeal as to break and deface them but contented himself with the distribution of them into profane places to give lustre to his enterprizes Yet must we say that though we at this present are out of the danger of Idolatry rich men of this Age have no reason to set up so readily in their Halls and cabiners Junâ's Venuses and Diana's and so many histories of the Tertul. l. de Idol cap. 6. Metamorphosis with scandalous nakedness Tertullian an eager spirit pursueth all this as a crime and proveth in the book he composed of Idolatry that all those who cooperate in such works do worse than if they sacrificed to Idols the bloud of beasts For they offer saith he their spirit their industry their travel and their estate to Sathan and though they have no intention of sin they minister matter to other of offending God Behold the cause why Constantine although he were in an Age wherein Paganism being still in much request it was very difficult to take away all these figures notwithstanding he disguised them as much as he could witness that a great statue of Apollo being brought to Constantinople one of the best pieces that ever had been seen in those elder times he caused a Constantine to be made of this Apollo changing it into his own image and commanding some parcels of the venerable nails of our Saviour to be enchased over his head It is in my opinion to this same image that he added a golden globe in the hand thereof and over it a Cross with this inscription Tibi Christe Urbem commendo Besides he made three Crosses to be erected the most magnificent that might then be imagined set in the midst of a publick place the statue of the Prophet Daniel among the Lions all covered over with plates of gold to represent a figure of the Resurrection And as for his Palace he caused to be pourtraid at the very entrance thereof the history of the Passion in a most exquisit work wrought and tissued with pretious stones very much resembling Mosayk work All of it being finished he made the dedication of the City on the tenth of May and as it is very probably supposed the five and twentieth of his Empire consecrating it to God in memory of the glorious Virgin Mary and doing great acts of liberty to the people which he commanded by his Edicts to be continued for perpetuity Codin addeth that he caused also sumptuous edifices there to be built for the Christians Senatours which he
more unhappy in his practise For having disposed of the affairs of the Kingdom and those of his own house there remaining none to be provided for but his own person he took a halter and strangled himself because they approved not one of his counsels When we behold in Histories a large list of these most curious Politicians who have had so ill success either in their own persons or in their posterity as I presently will produce very many we must undoubtedly say this kind of way is ever dangerous in its enterprises but not infallible in the successes thereof If you become as wicked as a little Poliphemus it would be very hard to deny a first cause of all the creatures which are in the world of it self absolute independent and eternal For were the world full of wheels and revolutions even from earth to heaven still must we necessarily come to the last wheel to the last revolution which is to give motion to all the other and to take it of no other and that is God Were you as bruitish as a Lestrigon you could Ratio D. Ansâlâi dialog de veritate c. 1. not deny an eternal Verity For in what time will you say there hath not been a verity Should you assign the space of ten millions of years and all that may be imagined beyond it you would ever find this Verity and should you say it was not then and that in saying so you were sincere which cannot be yet would you speak a truth even in denying a truth so much is her essence necessary and this eternal Verity which serves as a basis for all other verities is that which we call God Were you as unnatural as a monster you knew not how to deny there were a sovereign Being in the world which holdeth the first degree of all excellencies in such sort that we cannot imagine any thing more excellent and that is God Besides it is necessary to infer what S. Thomas hath D. Thom. opuscul 2. cap. 21. Quae sunt per participationem reluâuntur in id quod est per essentiam most divinely sayd that all things which are by borrowing and participation have relation of necessity to that which is by essence and nature So the stars the pretious stones have relation to the sun and things hot to the fire as the scope of their excellency Now it is certain that men Cities and Kingdoms have but a borrowed being because they are not made by themselves and therefore it is necessary to affirm there is an intellectual power in a supreme degree whereunto all these intelligences even of men which constituted these States and Republickes do relate and this relation is nothing else but providence Verily if you should behold on a Theather about ten thousand white beards that were come thither to decide a matter by a common consent would you take your self to be wise to enter into Councel not called and to reject the opinions of all those who have delivered their sentences publishing an opinion absolutely new and directly contrary to so many good judgements And I ask of you that were now so many excellent Magistrates raised again as have governed all sorts of Kingdoms and Common-wealths in the Ages past should we not see more than a million of men most accomplished in knowledge virtue and experience who had mannaged the world in the fear and under the laws of this Divine Providence It would then be a notable spectacle to see you enter into the Hall of such a Councel with a downy chin to give all this assembly the lie and say There is nothing but humane policie dissimulation and the tricks of flattery to be valued in affairs without the expectation of any thing from God would you not be ridiculous Yet this is it which you do so much hath sin stupified you If you have the least spark of the understanding of a man when you foster such thoughts in your minds do you think it were fit to prefer some mouldy reasons of a carnal spirit and the capriches of your sensual imaginations before the voice of nature and the states of the whole world assembled together to condemn your bruitishness If there be no Providence to chastise the perverse and recompence the just conclude we must live in the world like a sparrow-hawk or Pike called the Tyrant of the water and to have no other measure of virtue but your talon and throat Is it not to pen the gate to all injustices perjuries treacheries and all possible abominations For what monster will not that soul be capable of which conceiveth nothing of God I have some reason say you and for this cause you are of opinion this belief should be entertained to amuze the people In saying this you discover a great weakness of judgement for it must be concluded according to your proposition that all what ever was in the world either of justice temperance modesty courtesie patience honesty peace and tranquility were derived from an imaginary belief touching Providence from an errour a folly an illusion which is as absurd as to say grapes grow upon thistles roses spring from the ice of winter And tell me not I pray that a false belief seeks to procure good effects as it appeareth in the virtues of Pagans For I hold that what good the Pagans have done they have not acted it with relation to the adulteries of Jupiter nor the murders of bloudy Mars but in honour of a Divinity which they thought avenged iniquity and rewarded virtue In this general belief which was the true root of their moral virtues there happened no abuse although they in particular were deceived in their judgement Your goodly objections of aw proceed from an infamous Diagoras or Plinie who thought to have Irridendum agere curam rerum humanârum quicquid est summum sed credi usu vitâ est Plin. l. 2. c. 7. found a great secret in saying The belief of a Divine Providence was a jolly invention because it kept the world in aw Deserved he not well to be cursed as a Traytour to all mankind Deserved not he well to be broiled alive in the throat of hell as indeed he was loosing his life in the flames of Vesuvius since he vaunteth himself to have discovered a secret O proditorem generis humani Vives 1. de verit fidei lib. 9. which would be able were it true to let loose the bridle to all profanations and bruitishness of a life the most savage that might be imagined Ever would it be more to the purpose to tolerate an evil well conferred than to introduce a good ill digested say the wise and what crime is it then to invent false secrets the ignorance whereof is so wholesom and the verity whereof would be so prodigiously hurtfull Why do you not rather take into your consideration the sage discourse of the Philosopher Simplicius who said When I imagine a god unto my self I
become powerfull in the minds of subjects by strong hand whereas such as are of race noble and illustrious cannot have so few other parts but that they may easily enter into hearts as into a house which the virtue of Ancestours hath beforehand wholly purchased for them And though this seem expedient in all places yet is it much more necessary in a State where is a great number of noble men and generous spirits and where every one thinks himself sufficient enough to perform that which another doth Presumption equalleth them all in ability at the least according to their imaginations were it not that the uncontrolable supereminencie of houses makes them yield to reason And although base nobility be very shamefull yet is it much more tolerable than a servile spirit which hath power in its hands without any moderation There are four things saith the Wise-man which cause earth-quakes here below A servant imperious Proverâ 30. a rich fool a woman scornfull when she is married and a maid-servant become the heir of her Mistress that is saith he the fourth thing which the world cannot endure Education maketh manners and every one is readily that which he hath learned in youth were it not that through a great strength of courage ill inclinations are resisted Boetius who in his excellent Nobility was endowed with so sweet a temper of spirit seemed to be created of God to govern men On the other part his family which was rich and powerfull gave also much increase to his command as that which alienated him from the corruptions that easily fasten on a necessitous fortune A man who feareth poverty is ever to be feared and a rich innocent cannot meet with any thing more dangerous than a hungry judge Saint Thomas hath said very well that a poverty Lib. 4. cap. 15. de rogim Princip virtuous and free from covetousness is an admirable quality for a States-man but where shall we now adays find such a poverty in a time when riot is so exorbitant that the greatest houses are therewith impeached The innocent riches of our great Consul fell out to be much to the purpose so that they might be employed for aid of the poor in a time which happened in one of the sickliest Ages of the world ruined by so many incursions of Barbarians not naming the other scourges which then fought against the sins of men The second SECTION The eminent wisdom and learning of Boetius EXperience the wisest Mistress of the world hath sometimes caused the saying of Plato to be questioned who thought Common-wealths happy when they fell into the hands of Philosophers or of men who sought to become Philosophers For in effect it is observed that those so knowing men meet not always with the bent of common understanding having their spirits more estranged from civil life They please themselves with great Ideaes as if they conversed in the Common-wealth of Plato with demy-gods not at all yielding to infirmities of nature And although they use some endeavour to render themselves conversable yet doth the sweetness of repose inebriate and withdraw them from affairs but if they force themselves to attend them noise amazeth them diversitie of humours not always suitable to their understanding distasteth them labour somewhat painfull overwhelmeth them and the heap of so many incident occasions confoundeth them Adde hereunto that there is much malice in the manners of men not found in books and that their actions being very innocent when they come to measure others by their own level they find themselves deceived Besides the sedentary and retired life spent in the entertainment of their books rendereth them very timorous and softeneth their brow which should always be as it were of brass to endure the shock of strong impudencies which may insinuate themselves into the corruptions of the times This may be confirmed by the example of Theodates King of the Goths who with all the Philosophy of Plato wherein he was exceedingly studious very ill mannaged his affairs As also by Michael the Emperour surnamed of the Grecians Parapanicius as who would say The Schollar for he perpetually had table-books and pens in his hand to compose Orations Verses and Histories resigning the whole government of his affairs to an Eunuch named Nicephorus who through his insatiable avarice drew much hatred upon the head of this Emperour I verily affirm if you take learning in these excesses one may very well say that it would not onely become unprofitable but also dangerous to principality It is not my intention to prove learned men are capable of the mannage of great affairs for the onely consideration of the advantage they have in letters for then Governours of Provinces were to be taken out of the Regencies of schools but I say that sciences well mannaged adde a marvellous lustre to one in government For first they vindicate him from stupidity and a savage life which maketh a man without sight or knowledge of virtue to be in a State as was Poliphemus made blind by Ulysses in his den Besides they cleanse refine and store the soul made to know great and divine lights Afterwards they open the understanding by the reading of so many excellent books and even unloose the tongue which is an instrument very necessary to mannage hearts Finally they make a man more mild civil and courteous and I could say also more awfull and worthy of credit For if some unhappy Princes were produced who being unfurnished of other talents have made ill use of letters by abusing them through want of judgement as one may all the best things in the world this nothing at all in substance lesseneth the truth of our proposition since we may oppose against them a large list of Law-makers Princes and Governours who have exceedingly well made use of the knowledge of learning For if we make account of the policie of God which is ever the most assured know we not that he having chosen Moses to constitute him the Governour of so great a State was willing he might have a good tast of all the sciences then in request among the Aegyptians And Philo saith that he there learned Arithmetick Geometrie Musick and all the greatest secrets of their Philosophie contained in their Hieroglyphicks Know we not that Solomon had a heart as large as the sea wherein God lodged so many knowledges of things both divine and humane that he penetrated whatsoever the understanding of man enlightened with rays from God might comprehend Are we so little versed in History that we cannot reckon up the names of all the greatest Princes who have been very learned as Alexander Julius Caesar Augustus Adrian Antoninus Constantine Theodosius Gratian Charlemaigne Alphonsus yea even Solyman the great Turk What a could of witnesses should we have did we now collect all the names and histories of learned States-men For if letters give ornament to such as are wholly eminent in military profession by a much stronger
sole body the enraged hunger of wolves the subtility of foxes the strength of Lions the cruelty of Tygers and Panthers the poison of Basilisks whether it may be more dangerous to man than himself when he is possessed with a mischievous ambition Oh how happy would the lives of men be were they not infected with these venemous passions which transform reasonable nature into more hideous monsters than those which Poets have set over the gates of hell We shall see in the sequel of this history how wickedness never escapeth the eye of God and that if he come with feet of lead to chastise it he notwithstanding hath an arm of iron to cut up treacheries by the root This murder divulged the Heruli took arms to revenge their Prince but the Centinels disposed in many places of the City hewed those in pieces who shewed themselves most forward Theodorick made a declaration very ample wherein he expressed that that which caused him to resolve on such an action was nothing but the security of his person against which Odoacer had a most evident design which would instantly have appeared in the deprivation of his life and estate had he not with all diligence prevented his enemy That he did what the law of nature ordained in so manifest a danger but that he will hence forward witness all manner of clemency to such as would throw themseves into his arms indifferently stretched out to accept the obedience of all the world The great distast of war every one had at that time the little hope the most mutinous conceived to revenge their quarrel and the authority of Zeno the Eastern Emperour who ceased not to support Theodorick caused a great silence in arms and afforded full liberty to this ambitious King of the Goths to become Master of Italy As for the rest he seeing Rome was then as it were like a great oake overthrown where every one hasteneth on all sides to get the spoil and that the French Visigoths and Burgundians might aspire as he to the conquest of Italy he made alliances with all those Princes and especially with Clodovaeus who at that time reigned whose sister he took in marriage Besides the Emperour Zeno that had ever upheld him happening to die as Anastatius his successour made shew to cause an alteration in affairs and would render himself absolute in the West this man knew so well how to play his part that he diverted his ambitions another way There is also a letter to be found in Cassiodorus which he wrote to this Anastasius deputing a solemn Embassage to him for the obtaining of peace where among other things he saith That it is good reason they should seek for peace who have no cause to make war and that the man wadeth far into wrong who giveth no testimony of any disposition to receive conditions suteable to justice As for himself he acknowledged the Emperour as the prime dignity raised above all other Kingdoms and to be the support of the whole world and that one of the greatest favours from God which he hath at any time received was to have learned in the Court of Constantinople how he ought to govern the Romans That he knows the authority of the Emperour is the onely model of all the policy in the world and that so much as God hath exalted him above other Princes so much would be humble himself under this Monarch from whom be requireth most glorious amitie that be may hereafter apply himself to all that which may appertaine to his honour and service The Emperour Anastasius who according to the humours of his turbulent spirit cut himself work enough out in the East not going to seek for it in the West seeing that he set himself into the conditions of a suppliant when his fortune might already put into his mouth words armed for command suffered him to gnaw his bone in secure peace The Romans considering that besides force of arms he had the consent of two Emperours of the East willingly received him under hope they had to see some tranquility succeed after so many storms which had afflicted their State Behold how from a Knight of fortune he arrived to the dignity of an Emperour he being notwithstanding resolved never to take upon him the Title of Emperour but contenting himself with the name of King thereby to decline the jealousie of those who were very capable of it He that would consider the qualities of his person which contributed to enthrone him in a place so eminent shall find that besides military virtue he had other parts very worthy to govern were it not that his spirit was drenched both in humane policy and long prosperities which served as disloyal nurses to sin It seemeth that Sidonius Appollinaris had studied him and summed him up even to the haires of his head when in the second Epistle of his first book he so curiously describeth him and saith among other things He had a body exceedingly well proportioned the top of his head well circled his eye-brows thick his hair long his nose hooked his lips soft his teeth of ivory his complexion white mingled with vermilion which quickly blushed more through shamefastness than choller his body very comely his arms strong his hands slender his breast full his leg plump his feet small to support a great body He addeth that concerning his manners he ordinarily prayed before break of day in the presence of his Bishops who were Arians without noise or attendance and that afterward he applied himself to affairs and gave audience to Embassages and petitions where he heard much and spake little ever shewing himself very intentive in resolutions and most prompt in the expedition of that which he had resolved on From thence he went to survey his Arsenal his Magazins his stables and his Treasures or he went on hunting being naturally so dexterous in shooting that infallibly he would not miss the mark After exercises he took his repast where he loved to be entertained with serious things and as for that which concerned his table there might be seen saith he The nativeness of Grecians the plenty of French the promptness of Italians and a discipline truly Royal. If after dinner he played at dice his custom was to be silent when he won to laugh when he lost and never to be angry but rather to take occasion to speak some good words and ever handled dice as manly as arms For the rest he was so good a gamester that not disquieting himself at all he rejoyced to see his subjects in humour against him and so despoiled himself in game of affected gravity that he seemed to have no other fear but to be feared It did him good then to be asked some favour and such a one oftentimes lost in game with him who won his suit About three of the clock the burden of affairs of the Kingdom had their turn wherein he rendered himself very serious till the time of supper
well observed this maxim that to Theodorus Anagnostes ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã witness the zeal he bare to our Religion he caused the head of one of his officers to be cut off who having been bred in the Catholick Church became an Arian thinking by this means to be advanced into the good favour of his Master But this brave King My friend saith he since thou hast been disloyal to God I can never think thou wilt be faithful to thy Prince Thou shalt wash away the stain of thy treachery with thy bloud to teach posterity thou must not mingle the interests of God with the profane pretenses of thy fortunes He shewed himself very zealous to preserve peace in the Church in a most dangerous schism raised in his time For Pope Anastasius being deceased and they proceeding lawfully to the election of Symmachus there was a Senatour of an unquiet spirit who desirous to make a Pope at the devotion of the Emperour of Constantinople so to countenance his Extravagencies banded Altar against Altar and caused an Antipope to be chosen named Laurentius which rent both Senate and Clergy into great partialities But Theodorick very speedily quenched the fire and being well informed of the business seeing Symmachus was first elected and supported by the soundest part he mantained him with a strong hand against all the enterprises of adversaries who durst not in the end resist his authority Besides having published an Edict against the favourers of the Heruli who perplexed the Province of Genoa and Milan whither they were retired that fell out to be the cause of very many miseries and tears among the poor people who having no support so helpful unto them as the Bishops threw themselves into the arms of Epiphanes and Laurentius both great Saints and great Prelates the one of Pauta the other of Milan Epiphanes undertook to speak and said to the King Sir Should I here reckon up all the favours which you have received from God I might make you appear more sparing in your desires than he hath been in his liberalities since you have asked nothing of heaven which hath not ever surmounted your vows and hopes But not to speak at this time of so many prodigies is it not a very great wonder to see you do justice in the throne of your enemy and to behold us pleading the cause of your servants with such a confidence in a place which the terrour of arms had heretofore rendered so dreadful Sir it is the Saviour of the world who hath given into your hand this people which hath charged us with their requests Take good heed how you offend him by ill using the gift he hath afforded you Know how an invisible power hath led you by the hand into so many encounters and battels that the air rain and seasons have favoured your standards as if they had been to you engaged Now is the time you must acknowledge so many benefits by your piety not despising the tears of the afflicted which are the sacrifices of suppliants The examples of your Predecessours who have been cast out of the throne for their iniquity shew you cannot establish it but in your virtues Upon this consideration your Countrey prostrate at your feet most humbly beggeth you would be pleased to sweeten the rigour of your laws not onely by doing good to the innocent but by pardoning the culpable For very little would our clemency be if we did onely abstain to strike those who have given offence to none not considering mercy is not made for any but the miserable In revengeing your injuries you shall do like men of the earth and by pardoning share in glory with that great Monarch of heaven who daily maketh his sun to shine on criminal heads as well as the most innocent The King made a most courteous answer saying There was no reason that earthly powers should resist the prayers of Bishops who made heaven propitious and that he remitted to all in general the punishments of death ordained by laws but in so Vitia transmittit ad posteròs qui praesentibus culpis ignoscit much that the ulcer must be purged least by shewing himself too indulgent to vices he might make them pass into example for posterity the consideration of his state required the Authours of sedition should be removed to the end their presence might not foment the evil The reply was found very reasonable and letters of grace instantly dispatched by Urbicus who was one of the chiefest officers in the Court for expeditions He satisfied not himself with this favour but calling the good Bishop into his cabinet having highly commended him sent him among the Gauls to redeem the Italian prisoners there by reason the Burgundians in certain incursions had taken away very many and others over-whelmed with the miseries which proceed from civil wars were voluntarily stept aside The King gave commission to the Bishops to rally them to their troups liberally defraying the charges that were necessary There is also found one amongst his letters addressed Cassiodor l. 2. c. 2. 29. to Count Adela wherein he witnesseth that though he had a great desire to preserve his people in full peace and repose because the glory of a Prince consisteth in the tranquility of his subjects yet that he principally intended the Churches should enjoy this favour since in obliging them the mercies and blessings of God were drawn on his kingdom and pursuing this course he commanded Duke Ida to cause all the Ecclesiastical possessions to be restored which some had usurped in Languedoc after the death of Alarick Observe the good foundations of piety which he laid by the counsel of Boetius The second Maxim was to bend all his endeavours and imploy his best thoughts for the comfort of the people because there is not any way more powerful to gain the hearts of all the world than by sweetening the sharpness of the times present or the burdens of the passed We have seen said he by experience that those who are desirous to possess gold without the love of the people have been very unsafe that Kings differ not from other men but in being powerful to do good and that the common sort measure their greatness onely by their bounty that is it which heretofore made the Gods of Gentiles and which maintaineth Monarchies on the firm rock of constancy Theodorick imbraced this care most particularly Cassioder l. 4. ep 36. for he punctually enquired after the losses of his poor subjects and if he found any molested by the passage of some troups or other like he released them of taxes and ordinary subsidies as it may yet be seen in his letters and namely in one which he wrot to President Faustus wherein he commanded him to hold his hand in this business Because saith Lib. â Epis â he a body over-burdened sinketh to the ground and that it were better to despise a slight gain than to deprive himself
his captivity that his spirit was in declination his body being worn with the torments he endured by the rigour of a King of the Goths Death in the end came to unloose his fetters by an act very barbarous exercised by Theodorick on this admirable man He seeing Pope John had done nothing in his favour at Constantinople but in stead of causing the Temples of the Arians to be restored had purified and changed them into Catholick Churches he entered into a fury more exorbitant than ever and kept this good Pope in prison at Ravenna until he was wasted with diseases yielding up his most blessed soul in fetters to hasten to enjoy the liberty of the elect Cyprian and Basilius accusers of Boetius failed not to kindle the fire with all their power to ruin him whom they already had wounded There was sent unto him a Commissary who was Governour of Pavia to interrogate him upon matters wherewith he had been charged The King promising him by this instrument a reasonable usage if he would confess all the process of this imaginary conspiracy Boetius having heard what his commission imported replieth Tell the King your Master that my conscience and age have reduced me to those terms wherein neither menaces nor allurements can work any thing upon me to the prejudice of reason To require the proceeding of my conspiracie is to demand a chymera which hath never been nor ever shall Is the distrust of his witnesses so great that needs he must exact from my mouth the articles of my condemnation Verily he hath as much cause to doubt my accusers as I matter of glorie to be accused by mouthes so impure that they would as it were justifie the greatest delinquents by their depositions One Basilius chased from the Court and charged with debt hath been bought to sell my bloud and having lost credit in all things finds more than enough for my ruin Opilion and Gaudentius condemned to banishment for an infinite number of wicked promises they being fled to Altars the King redoubleth an Edict by which be ordained if they instantly went not out of Ravenna they should be branded in the forehead with an hot iron What may be added to such an infamie Yet notwithstanding the same day they were received and heard against me Arrows are made of all wood to transfix me and the most criminal are freed in my accusation Some being not ashamed to employ against the life of a Senatour those who would scarcely have been set to confront very slaves This makes me say my condemnation is premeditated and my death already vowed and that this search is made for petty formalities to disguise an injustice King Theodorick playeth too much the Politician for a man who hath full liberty to do ill What need is there to use so many tricks Tell him boldly from me that I submit to his condemnation I was willing to save the Senate though little gratefull for the sinceritie of my affections I wished the repose of the Catholick Church I have sought the liberty of the Roman people Here is all that I can say As I am not in condition to tell a lie so am I not on terms to conceal a truth Had I known the means to reduce the Empire into better order he should never have understood it Finally if he be resolved to put me to death thereupon let him hasten his blow It is long since I have had death in desire and life in patience The Commissary much amazed at this constancy made his relation to the King in very sharp words which put oyl afresh into the flame to thrust affairs into extremities The poor Rusticiana wife of Boetius knowing the point whereunto the safety of her husband was reduced made use of all the attractives she could to mitigate the fury of the Prince and observing Amalazunta the daughter of Theodorick to be an honourable Ladie and endowed with a singular bounty she recommended her petitions and tears to her This Ladie gave her access to the King to whom she with her children presented her self in a most deplorable State able to soften obdurate rocks Alas Sir said she if you once more deign to behold from the throne of your glorie the dust of the earth cast your eyes upon a poor afflicted creature which is but the shadow of what she hath been I no longer am Rusticiana who saw palms and honours grow in her house as flowers in medows Disaster having taken him from me by whom I subsisted hath left me nothing but the image of my former fortune the sorrows of the passed the grief of the present and horrour of the time to come I would swear upon Altars that my husband hath never failed in the dutie which he oweth to your Majestie but calumnie hath depainted his innocency unto you with a coal to inflame you with choler against a man who ever held your interests as dear unto him as his own I know what he hath so many times said to me thereof and how he hath bred his children whom your Majestie now beholdeth at your feet If we no longer shall take benefit of justice Sir I implore your mercie Look on a woman worthie of compassion tossed in the storm and who beholdeth in the haven the Olives of peace which you always have desired to equal with your laurels Suffer me I may embrace them The world already hath cause enough to dread your power give us cause to love it proportionably to your bountie Alas Sir on whom will you bestow it Fire which consumeth all burneth not ashes and behold us here covered with ashes before your eyes what more desire you of us A miserable creature is a sacred thing the God of the afflicted taketh it into his protection and will no more have it touched than his Altars If my unhappiness have set me in that rank and my sex made me a just object of your pitie Sir render that to me which I in this world do hold most precious and think not we ever will retain any resentment of what is past when we shall see our selves re-established in our former fortune It is in you to command and for us to obey your ordinances and even to kiss the thunder-bolt that striketh us It is to much purpose to present musick to the ears of Tygers it hath no other effect but to enrage them the more The cruel Tyrant presently commanded the Ladie to withdraw adding he would do her justice And they ceasing not still to multiply suspitions with him upon this pretended conspiracy as if Boetius had now been presently with sword in hand with the Emperour Justine at the gates of Rome or Ravenna he fell into such fear gall and choller that without any other formal proceeding of justice he dispatched the afore-mentioned Commissary with a Tribune to put him to death whose life was so precious to the Roman Empire Boetius who had a long time been prepared both by prayers and
your Baptism which blotteth out all sins according to your maxims I were no sooner washed but I should fear to plunge my self again into an infinity of occasions which might dayly present themselves to my understanding Then would you threaten me with the judgement-day and Hell with terrours able to over whelm my mind Consider whether it would not be more to the purpose to let me persevere in my Sect therein performing all the good I may Can you think that for all this I should be excluded from the mercy of God who will save all men The wise Clotilda replyed thereunto Sir I beseeth your Majesty not to flatter your self with this specious title of mercy for there will be none in the other world for those who have performed it in this without profit Now is the time that God spareth not to stretch out his arms for your obedience if you despise him you will loose him without recovery One can never do too much for eternall life and whatsoever we suffer Paradise may still be purchased at a good penny-worth Alas Sir why do you find so many difficulties in our Religion Think you God doth wrong in desiring to make you believe things which you cannot conceive by humane reason It is he who hath made the soul of man and who accommodateth all the wheels thereof nor is there any one of them which moveth not at his pleasure What marvel is it if man offer the homage of his understanding to God If weakness submit to strength littleness to greatness the finite to the infinite that which is nothing to him who is an abyss of essence goodness wisedom and light If you make a promise to any of your servants although it be unreasonable and almost incredible yet would you have him to believe it without reply and that he take no other ground for this belief but the greatness and infallible word of your Majesty One man exacteth faith of another though both of them are but earth and dust and you think the Sovereign Creatour of Heaven and earth is unjust to make us believe that which our bruitish senses cannot comprehend Is this the submission and obedience we ow Eternal Truth Why should not I believe that three are but one that is to say three persons one onely God since I dayly find my memory understanding and will make but one soul Wherefore should we scorn to adore a Crucified man The Cross is so far from weakening my belief that there is not any thing which more confirmeth it For if the Saviour of the world had come as your Majesty to the conquest of the universe with legions horses treasures and arms he should in my opinion retain that esteem which great Captains hold but when I consider that by the punishment of the Cross he hath reduced the whole world under his laws and planted the instrument of his excessive dolours even on the top of Capitols and the heads of Monarchs I affirm that all is of God in such an affair since there is nothing in it of man Alas Sir if you have a faithful servant who would suffer himself to be tormented and crucified to make you Master of a rebellious Fort would not you find more glory in his loyalty than ignominy in his torments And think you if the Eternal Wisdom having taken a humane body and voluntarily exposed it to extream rigour to wash our offences in his bloud and subdue the pride and curiosities of the earth to the power of Heaven it hath done ought therein reprehensible Have we not much more cause to adore the infinite plenty of his charities than to dispute upon honours which onely consist in the opinion of the world I beseech your Majesty figure not to your self our Religion as an irksome and austere Law when you have submitted to the yoak God will afford you so much grace that all these difficulties which you apprehend will no more burden you than feathers do birds And although it should happen you after Baptism fall into some sin which God by his grace will divert the bloud of Jesus Christ is a fountain which perpetually distilleth in the Sacraments of the Church to wash away all our iniquities Sir I fear least you too long defer to resign your self to the many advertisements which you have received from Heaven If you weigh the favours that God hath done to your Majesty having set a Crown on your head at the age of fifteen years having preserved you against so many factions defended you from so many perils adorned you with so much glory honoured you with so many prosperours successes you shall find he hath reason to require at this time from you what he demandeth of your by my mouth What know you whether he have chosen out yââr person to make you a pattern to all other Kings and constitute you such in France as Constantine hath been in the Roman Empire which will render you glorious in the memory of men and happy in Heaven to all eternity Verily Sir if you yield not your self up to my words you ought to submit to the bloud of so many worthy Martyrs who have already professed this faith in your Kingdom you ought to submit to so many great Confessours as knowing as Oracles of as good life as Angels who denounce truth unto you You ought to submit to miracles that are every day visibly done at the Sepulcher of great S. Martin which is an incomparable treasure in your Kingdom Sweet-heart answereth the King say no more you are too learned for me and I fear least you should perswade me to that which I have no desire to believe and although you had convinced my soul to dispose it to this belief think you it would be lawful for me so soon to make profession of your faith You see I am King of an infinite people and have ever at my commanda great Nobility who acknowledge no other Gods but those of the Country Do you believe that all spirits are so easy to be curbed and that when I shall go about to take a strange God will it not make them murmur and perhaps forge pretexts to embroil something in my Kingdom For Religion and the State are two pieces which mutually touch one another very near one cannot almost stir the one without the other the surest way is not to fall upon it and to let the world pass along as our predecessours found it Clotilda well saw this apprehension was one of the mainest obstacles of his salvation and she already had given good remedy thereunto practising the dispositions of all the greatest of the Court. Behold the cause why she most stoutly replyed thereunto Sir it is to apprehend fantasies to form to your self such imaginations You are a Prince too absolute and too well beloved to fear these commotions but rather much otherwise I assure you upon mine honour your people are already much disposed to receive our Religion and your Nobility
so great a grief thereat that men women and children entered into his chamber covered with hair-cloth bewayling him and praying for his health He beholding them in the extremity of his pain wept bitterly bidding adieu to his family and people then remaining for the space of five days in extream dolour he yielded up his soul to serve as an eternall example to posterity of mans weakness and the inconstancy of humane things IV. MAXIM OF THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD. THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT That our support should be from our selves without expectation of any thing from the providence of God That the foundation of humane life subsisteth in the providence of God IT is an unspeakeable comfort to have The belief of a providence is the sweetness of life the eyes of God for witness of our sufferings and when we in justice suffer with courage to know our patience is enlightened with those aspects which make them thrice happy The valourous Champions who contended in the Olympiack games the spectacle heretofore of the whole world in that proportion they felt their skin to smart their bloud to drop their bones crack were comforted to see upon one side the Judges of their combats sitting to consider their merit and on the other Crowns placed aloft before them the lustre whereof reflected into their eyes to charm their pains by the hope of glory From thence we derive an undoubted maxim that it is an unspeakable comfort to the faithfull who endure some incommodities rough and thorny to know there is an eye of Divine Providence which not onely seeth them but becoming a pledge for their travels promiseth to their perseverance assured recompence 2 I observe the admirable Providence of God in His goodness that being perpetually questioned by the diffident spirits of Libertines it ever subsisteth bearing in its bosom who would destroy it and which is more is established by the proofs wherewith they endeavour to ruin it I at this present lay aside the reasons which have so often been refuted I speak nothing at all of the consent of the wise of the heavens motions of the necessary dependence of creatures of the architecture of the universe of the order and end of every thing of miracles of predictions of spirits of examples and so many other arguments ordinarily used to prove Divine Providence I onely maintain one thing which perhaps will seem strange but is most undoubted that the same reasons whereof the wicked make trophey to evict this belief from the faithfull are arrows which recoil back upon themselves All that which makes them murmur and cry out Manifest proof of providence against the Government of a supream cause is that evils are seen in the world which would not be if a God all good all wise as we affirm took care of things temporal To which I answer we ought to believe a Providence since there is evil in the inferiour order of the world which we inhabit and the profit we derive from our evils endeth in the knowledge of the sovereign good For I ask from whence know we evil to be evil but by the existence of its contrary Had there never been health in the body we had never known what sickness were but when at any time we saw a man sound fresh and lusty who suddenly lost his appetite and sleep by reason of shakings and heats felt over all his body he is said to be sick because the order of the good constitution he before enjoyed is changed and overthrown Likewise when we see some evil to happen in the world we presently say it is ill because it is against the order of good and therefore the very wicked who complain cannot so do but by affirming and acknowledging an order from which this evil is wandered Now wheresoever there is order there is necessarily Providentia est ratio orainis terum ad finem direction and Providence since we see one cannot so much as tell unto four and reckon some number one after another without the help of reason You commit a sin and feel it instantly brings some remorse with it what teacheth you it is sin if not the Law I entered not into the knowledge of sin but by means Rom. 7. 7. Peccatum non cognoââ nisi per lâgem Nam concupiscentiam nesciebam nisi lex decerit Non concupisces Psal 63. 8. of the Law For I knew not what concupisence was if the Law had not told me Thou shalt not covet said the Apostle Now what is law but an order and a sovereign reason engrafted in intellectual nature which commandeth and ordaineth things that ought to be done with express prohibition of their contraries What is it else but an eternal rule which guideth the world by the knowledge of do and not do an ordinance most holy which prescribeth all honest things and banisheth all vice From thence ensueth we cannot complain of the least disorder without confessing this eternal Providence Sagittae parvulorum factae sunt plaâae âorum iââârmatae sunt contra eos linguae eorum An answer made to complaints against Providence which establisheth all orders O the wonders of God! who causeth the arrows of those who invade his wisdom to return against such as shot them 3 Some complain there are things poore and abject in nature which are to no purpose because bruitish man will not know their use for fear he therein find his own ingratitude They would have God make the world all of gold as that Painter who unable to pencil the beautifull Hellen with so great diversity of parts and conformity of members filled his table with drapery which seemed rich but was little to the purpose Who seeth not the truth of that singular S. Tho. contr Gentes l. 3. c. 71. Perfecta benitas in rebus creatis non inveniretur nisi esset ordo bonitatis axiom of S. Thomas that never would there be perfect goodness in things created were there not some order and degrees in the same goodness All the grace and beauty of the world would be lost if the multitude and disproportion of so many things were taken away which by an admirable discrepance discord infinitely agreeing consent in the good of this great All In this it is wherein the musick of the great God consisteth you will disturb it This is his Table diversified with many colours and you will deface it This is his common-wealth divided into sundry offices and you will ruin it After this so laudable diversity is blamed the evils Evils of nature of nature are decried serpents poisons are exclaimed at and all other creatures thought mischievous Blind that you are who see not an evil well placed in the world is not an evil Fire which burneth straw makes gold and silver shine water which drowneth men daily gives life to fishes If you take his poyson from the serpent you bereave him wherewith to live
occasion to do ill Know we not it is a maxim of well ordered policy never to neglect the publick for inconveniences and defects of some particulars We are not ignorant free-will is one of the most excellent treasures of reasonable nature why should God deprive his workmanship of it under colour that some particulars would abuse it Ought we not to content our selves to behold in the histories of all the nations of the world how God pursueth chastiseth destroyeth both evil evil men sometimes openly sometimes covertly to reward good men in the end and restore virtue to her throne of which the insolency of the wicked seeks to dispossess them Let us then for this reason adore the Providence and acknowledge the proposition I here have proved that the disorders condemned in nature averre there is a first order a primitive rule without which nothing can be well disposed Foundation of the verities of Divine PROVIDENCE THere remaineth having succinctly refuted Maxims of Providence the objections of prophane souls to instruct and settle the faithfull in this belief which is one of the greatest consolations of life and for which cause I affirm the doctrine of Providence is grounded upon Scripture upon holy Fathers and upon reason Upon the scripture which give us assurance in so many places Wisdom plainly telleth us That God made little Pusillâ wagnum ipse fecit aequaliter illi cura est de omnibus Sap. 6. Nonne duo passarers asse vaeneunt c. Math. 10. In ipso viâimus mouââââ sumus Act. 17 and great and as there is nothing so vast may escape his Immensitie so there is not any thing so small which is deprived the blessings of his bountie His Providence governeth all things from the beginning of the world ceaseth not to disintangle this great web of Ages The tree looseth not one of his leaves the head one of its hairs the air one little bird without his ordinance as the Eternal Word teacheth us We derive life motion and being from his bosom in which he beareth us without weariness and preserveth us without loathing All the world is a large (a) (a) (a) ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Clem. Alex. diocese whereof he is the Bishop and Eternal Prelate who indefatigably watcheth over his flock as saith Clemens Alexandrinus (b) (b) (b) S. Dion de Cael. Hier. cap. 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã So soon as a creature is in being it is moistened with sources of the divine Providence said S. Dionysius And according to the opinion of S. Augustine (c) (c) (c) August de Trin. l 3. c. 4. Nihil sit sensibiliter visibiliter quod non de interiore invisibili atque intelligibili aulâ sââmi Imperatâriâ aut jubeatur aut permittatur Nothing is sensibly visibly done in the world which cometh not from the interiour invisible and intelligible cabinet of this great Monarch whether it be commanded or permitted Now observe this divine Providence is composed of three heads Knowledge Disposition Government Knowledge seeth and considereth all things Disposition ordaineth the connexion of parts and correspondency both of the one and other Government embraceth all things which concern the end as well to divert the obstacles as advance the progressions God hath all these three points supereminently For as for knowledge it is most perfect as we will presently demonstrate Disposition is such that all the whole universe in all its parts is ruled like a paper with musick lines Which made Synesius say (d) (d) (d) Synesius Hym. 4. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Junilius in Genesim nisi sit Beda the world was the harp of God and the divers orders of nature were the strings of it And Junilius an African Bishop who flourished in the sixth Age discoursing very subtilly upon this subject shews the relation there is between the civil world and nature comparing the seven daies of the week with the seven Ages of the world The government of it is so perpetual and visible that Aristotle himself (e) (e) (e) Arist Ep. de principio The foundations and four pillars of it Knowledge of God Psalm 146. Sapientiâ ejuâ non est nââârus Deus in omnia sufficies Dissimulator pravaricator perspicaciae suâ non est Tertul. l de poenit c 3. confesseth the communication of the first being maintained all creatures in state and that without its benigne influences this great All would return to nothing 6 But if you ask upon what foundation of reason this doctrine is built I answer it is supported by four powerfull columes Science Goodness Justice and the Power of God His Science is infinite and and incomprehensible For he most distinctly beholdeth all things which have been are shall be and may be in their proper essence which is the efficient final exemplar and fundamental cause of them You must not require how this divine Spirit may suffice so many things since all things in comparison of him are no more than a drop of dew compared to the Ocean He knows all because he created all because the world is no world by any other reason but that God hath known it was a world The vapours of the earth never weary the sun it could not breath forth so much if he digested not more so the knowledge of all objects of the world cause no weariness in God because all therein is finite and his science is as is his essence infinite 7 To this science is joined a great goodness which His goodness is the cause God loveth all he created and conserveth it with a certain tenderness of affection and inestimable sweetness The empire of man ordinarily is harsh and violent He diverteth the course of waters he dries up fountains he submitteth Lions to the yoak he placeth turrets on the backs of Elephants he changeth metals he counterfeits precious stones he sophisticateth total nature to accommodate it to his pretensions but God not forcing the inclinations of things created applieth himself to each according to the qualities of its essence He shineth with the sun and burneth with the fire He makes showers with the clouds pearls with the shells the dew of heaven gold and fruits with the earth We understand there are three streamings of this bounty the one by generation the other by spiration and the last by creation The two first are eternal the last is temporal by which he drew the world out of nothing and having produced it maintains it both in general and particular affording even to the least fly all accommodation according to its nature and condition He is not like those Ostriches which lay their eggs on the sand without hatching them but compareth himself to the Hen in the Gospel which toileth and laboureth incessantly either to hatch feed or train up her young-ones she waxeth lean she famisheth her self becomes angry bristles up her self for her precious brood and taketh that upon
likewise constrain any man to virtue (b) (b) (b) Plato l. 2. de republicâ ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they shall stead them as forrests do thieves to cover their crimes and if they have dignities they shall be unto them as the golden and silver precipices of the Emperour Heliogabalus which were not devised but to make his ruin the more memorable Doth not the Apostle proclaim aloud with a voice of thunder to the posterity of all Ages I will pull down the wisdom of the wisest according to the Perdam sapientiam sapientum 1. Cor. 1. Adducit Consiliarios in stultum finem judices in stuporem Job 12. 17. world I will rebuke the prudence of the most subtile And did not holy Job repeat the like Oracles upon the dunghill saying God oftentimes giveth success of affairs most shamefull to the most able Counsellours and he reduceth Judges to a certain stupidity of understanding Hath not the experience of Ages shewed so often in the histories of Pharaobs Herods and all such like that there is no greater wisdom in the world than to be an honest man To be Senec. ep 118. Sapere sapientiae usus est sicut oculorum videre 1. Conclusion against those who curse fortune wise is to use wisdom and to make it serve for direction as the eye for sight 5. Let us draw three concusions from these three propositions we have deduced The first whereof shall be never to do like those vulgar abject souls which is to curse and detest our condition and fortune as it were an effect of some false Divinity and not a Divine Providence Remember daily within your self those words Nothing is done one the earth without cause God hath disposed all with weight and measure Nihil in terrá sine causâ
1. dist 41. Manifest reason the will of God could not be unjust and that praedestination proceeded besides the grace of God by most secret merits which were discovered to this divine eye that discerneth all the actions of men 4. Is there a soul so replenished with contradiction which averreth not That what God doth in a certain time he determined to do it in his eternity Now Faith teacheth us he in that time by him determined rendereth life eternal to the just for reward of their merit as himself pronounceth in S. Matthew (c) (c) (c) Matth. 25. Answer to objections And therefore it is necessary to confess God before all Ages was resolved to give the Crown of glory not indifferently but in consideration of good life and laudable virtues And for this it is to no purpose to say the end of our intentions goeth before the means whereby some infer God first decreed beatitude which is the end then considered good works which are the address to this end For I answer when the end possesseth the place of salary as this here doth the merit is always presupposed before the recompence And although the Master of a Tourneament wisheth the prize to one of his favourites yet his first intention is he shall deserve it by his valour God taketh the like inclinations in this great list of salvation he wisheth all the world palms but willeth it to them who well know how to make use of the helps of his grace Thus the most ancient and gravest Fathers of the The doctrine of the most ancient Fathers concerning praedestination Church thought this sentence they agreed on before the impostures of Pelagians in the golden Age of the Church through a most purified ray And to this purpose Tertullian said (d) (d) (d) Tertul. de resur carnis Deus de suo optimus de nostro justus God who is very good of his own was ever just of ours And S. Hilarie said most perspicuously (e) (e) (e) Hilar. in Psal 64. Non res indiscreti judicii electio est sed ex delectu meriti discretio est That Election was not an effect of judgement indiscreet but that from the choice of merit proceeded the distinction made for glorie S. Epiphanius expressed the like opinion That there was no exception of persons in the proceeding of God but that it passed according to the merit or demerit of every one Behold what we may gather from the soundest tradition of the Church (f) (f) (f) The second point of reasons That God is glorified in that he hath our works for praedestination to glory But if we now weigh the second Article whereon we insist which is the glory of God it is an easie matter to see this opinion which appropriateth a certain fatality of divine decrees without other knowledge of cause agreeth not with this immense bounty of God nor the sincere will he hath to save all the world It is not suitable to his justice nor to his promises or menaces he makes to virtues or vices besides it tormenteth minds weakens the zeal of souls and throweth liberty and despair into manners Why should not a miserable reprobate have cause The complaint a Reprobate may make hereupon to say Ah my Lord where are the bowels of goodness and mercy which all pens testifie all voices proclaim and laws establish Is it then of honey for others and of worm-wood for me How cometh it to pass without any knowledge of merit you drew this man from the great mass of corruption to make him a son of your adoption a coheir of your glory and have left me as a black victim marked with a character of Death What importeth it me that in this first choice you made you did not condemn me without knowledge of cause to think no good for me was to think ill enough for me Was I then able to row against the torrent of your power Could I intrude into your Paradise which you have fitly disposed like the Halcyons nest whereunto nothing can enter but its own bird You have built your Palace of a certain number of chosen pieces in such sort that the account thereof being made and proportions valued one small grain might not be added to encrease the number What could I do in this dreadfull exclusion but accuse your bounty and deplore my unhappiness Behold what a reprobate soul may object and Aug. de verbo Apost ser 11. Si posset loquipecus dicere Deo quare istum fecisti hominem me peculem Answer to objections Glossa in Danielem it were bootless to answer that a bruit beast might complain in this fashion that God had not made it a man or the like might be alledged for infants who die without Baptism For as concerning beasts nothing is taken from them rather much given when from nothing being and life is afforded them with contentments of nature and as for little infants they endure no evil and are no more disturbed to be deprived of the sight of God than was Nebuchadnezzar for the Scepter of Babylon when he in his infancy was bred among shepheards thinking himself the son of a Peasant and wholly ignorant of his Royal extraction But to say A man who dies at the age of discretion and is delivered over to eternal flames was condemned by God without any other fore-sight of his works is it not a cruelty not worthy of ought but Calvinism as if a father might be excusable in marrying one daughter richly and cutting the others throat to set her on a pyle He who would judge wisely must flie the very shadow of an opinion so damnable and all which may seem to favour it 6. Now as concerning the Doctrine which establisheth The fruits of Gods glory derived from our Maxim Praedestination upon grace and prevision of good works it seems to stretch far towards the point of Gods greatest glory It discovereth us his science in attributing unto him an infinite survey over all the actions of Adams children before all Ages by which it seasonably fore-saw all that was to be done by all particulars in so great a revolution of times It in an instant affordeth us this most innocent knowledge seeing we learn by the same way that the prescience which God hath of our works is no more the cause of our happiness than my memory of the fireing of Rome which happened under Nero or than mine eye of the whiteness of snow and fresh verdure of meadows by its simple aspects Nothing happeneth because God fore-saw Qui non est praescius omnium futurorum non est Deus Aug. de civit Dei l. 5. c. 9. it but God fore-saw it because it should so happen by motion of our free-will and not by the laws of necessity Moreover the Justice of the great Master is very eminent in this action for we do not say he works at random and seeks to make boast
was that putting him on the discourse of his education he said his father did all he could to win him to Christianity but that he ever stuck to his mothers side not enduring the impertinencies of a Religion which professeth a son as old as his father a mother without a husband a child-birth joyned to virginity a God crucified a Cross divinized and such other extravagancies whereat he set himself a jeering with so much tattle that he gained the Emperours heart Scoffs have this proper in them that they penetrate Scoffing dangerous very far into jocund minds and though they proceed from a soft spirit they often make more impression than iron The Emperour so well liked his humour that he gave him a charge in the Citie of Alexandria with two Companies to forrage round about and cleanse the Countrey from the sect of Christians The mother conceived much joy thereat and the son who seemed already to touch Heaven with a finger put himself into action for accomplishment of his Commission But O the bottomless depth of Gods judgements Admirable Conversion Behold he going about to surprize is surprized and of a Lion is become a Lamb and of one victorious a victim He being near the Citie of Apamea in Syria the earth shook under his feet the air was enflamed with lightening and thunders roared in the clouds a voice came from Heaven which said unto him Neanias whither goest thou and to what purpose is this equipage He although much astonished answered it was for the Christians The voice replied Is it then to me you go But he having the hardness to ask it who are you saw a Cross in the air and heard these words I am Jesus the Crucified Son of the living God and you shall hereafter be a vessel of election for me This vision beat him down to raise him like S. Paul and of a persecutour in a moment made him a Confessour He secretly sent for a Gold-smith and causing him to make a rich Cross he embraced it he kissed it and carried it hanging about his neck to engrave it in his heart In stead of persecuting the Christians he turned his arms against a race of Sarazâns who over-ran the Countrey and ravished maids to satisfie their bruitishness which filled houses with terrour and tears The Cross gave great success to his arms and in short time having chased away this pernicious faction he went to the Citie of Antioch being already fully instructed in the points of his religion The mother who knew not what had passed in Inter-view between Procopius and his mother this maatter entertains him with much joy not satisfying her self either with his sight or in congratulating his triumphs But he who no longer cared for any thing under God said I have obtained other victories which you know not And what replied the mother Madam I have vanquished my self by the grace of God and departing hence a Pagan am returned a Christian desiring nothing more in the world of you but since you gave me birth you will take example from me How my son sayes the mother you are disposed to be merry No replies he and drawing out his Cross behold said he the marks of the Religion I profess She much amazed drew him aside into her closet and asked him who had recommended this abomination to him and whether he were become a fool There are none but fools said he who with reverence look after deaf and dumb gods the time is come these feeble Deities must be abjured and all the works of darkness and speaking this he ransacked his mothers closet which was very sumptuous breaking and throwing down the golden and silver idols and withal saying these silly entertainments were onely good to make money of to distribute among the poor Theodosia was so offended at this act that without Revenge of Theodosia any regard of bloud and nature she went to the Emperour and related all had passed resolving rather to deliver her sole son to executioners than to loose the satisfaction of her revenge Diocletian as much surprized with astonishment as enflamed with anger having praised the mother for her zeal wrote to Justus Governour of Palestine and commanded him to seize on the person of Neanias and to seek by all means to reduce him to obedience and in case of refusal to take away his sword and proceed against him with all the rigour of punishments ordained for Christians The Governour having received the Emperours Mandate went with his Guards to the house of Neanias and signified the tenour of his Commission withal delivering into his hand the Emperours Letters wherein perceiving some blasphemies against our Saviour he tare them in pieces and said to Justus Constancy of Procopius Execute your Commission I have a bodie to suffer but not a soul to betray my Religion The other conjured him by all the ways of friendship to take pitie of his age and not become an enemy to his own life and fortune adding timorarious counsels are sources of irrecoverable evils But the valorous Champion drawing out his sword threw it at the Judge's feet professing he was wholly gained to Jesus Christ whereupon he fettered him and led him to Caesarea In few days he was brought to the Palace to answer His sufferings for Religion upon accusations objected which he most freely averred persisting in the confession of his faith with admirable constancy which was the cause the Judge proceeding according to ordinary forms exercised against the faithfull made him cruelly to be beaten with rods in sight of all the world Diocletian thought by these shamefull and barbarous ways to stifle Christianity but these outrages practised upon men of quality enkindled the courage of Christians and sowed seeds of Martyrs Many Pagans were seen who deplored this punishment beholding a young Lord whom they had lately seen triumphant in courtesie in arms and valour delivered into the hands of hangmen to be used like a thief The Martyr perceiving the peoples tears said Fathers and Brethren bewail not my sufferings lament your own errours my pains will pass away but the torment of infidelitie shall be everlasting Then lifting his eyes to Heaven he servently besought God to fortifie him in his combats to whom he resigned the total glory Justus seeing him more couragious than he wished sent him back unto the prison where he was comforted with the sight of Angels and it is said our Saviour himself appearing baptized him with his own hands and gave him the name of Procopius and heartened him bravely to finish his combats The next day he came forth of prison like the Sun out of clouds his body reflecting lustre and majesty when they thought him spent with excess of torments The whole Citie was filled with rumour and many souldiers secretly coming to the Bishop Leontius were converted to faith whereof the Governour advertised made them presently to be beheaded fearing to exasperate the Bands if he
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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 honâre 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
for an Epistle of Libanius and it seemed to him he who was King of words might become a King over hearts and Empires His spirit of fire took nourishment on all sides and devoured as well cedars as thorns He as yet retained some affection towards the knowledge of sacred things but curiosities predominated in his mind He penetrated all he could into the secrets of sciences to loose the mystery of faith It is the beginning of infidelity to deifiea man by the tongue and to think the Kingdom of God consisteth in words Who hath not faith and virtue satisfying himself with learning and sciences resembleth those Indian trees which bear muskie Pears whose smell is very oderiferous and tast pleasing but yield a pestilent juice wherewith they use to envenom arrows Julian still manuring his studies and neglecting How he became depraved piety became very vain greedy of slightest applauses a great talker a profuse scoffer extreamly curious to know things future doubtfull in faith temerarious in search of things divine wedded to his own opinion obstinate in his errours and lastly an enemy of Christianity S. Gregorie saith he then observed in him an inconstant Judgement of S. Gregorie Nazianzen wit a fickle head a wandering eye unsteddy shoulders roaming feet vehement laughter garbs and countenances immodest questions ridiculous answers much worse and many other things which promised nothing good in him Maximus a Pagan Philosopher and a Magician concluded his corruption pouring into the bottom of his soul the blackest impiety that might be He was twenty years a Christian and ten projecting the change of his Religion still much tottering yet never daring to let it break forth for fear of the Emperour Constantius his cousin who was very suspitious and one who never would have suffered this alteration of Religion in him He kept him much under without train officers money saw him very seldom and used him with severity so that Julian feared the Court like fire and never durst lift up his eyes before Constantius whom he called the hangman of his family Fear which is an ill Mistress of duty held him in under the mask of Religion whilest the Emperour lived who nothing at all mis-doubting his wicked purposes associated him to the Empire very solemnly For having in a great assembly of his States pronounced a brave Oration upon the choice he made of him he with his own hands gave him the Purple Robe calling him Brother and conjuring him to set his shoulders equal with his to support the burden of Empire and to knit this amity with a stronger knot he gave him his sister Helena in marriage who was not long liv'd All ceremonies of dignity and wedlock done he sent him to govern the Gauls where he performed many brave feats of arms against the Almaignes Then was the time when in so great liberty he was He is a Christian for policy and was an Infidel in his soul uttterly depraved yet still so reserved that although already a Pagan in soul he durst not pass great festivals without going to Church and performing all the ceremonies of Christian Religion as he did on the day of Epiphanie whilest he was in France according to the observation of Ammianus Marcellinus He Marcel l. 21. Prowess of Julian among the Gauls vaunted in an Epistle he wrote to the Athenians that he had three times passed the Rhene pacified the Gauls subjugated all the rebellious towns delivered twenty thousand prisoners out of the hands of Barbarians and sent much matter of triumph to Constantius But whether it were that vanity by which he extolled his slightest prowesses made him odious or whether such as envied his glory did him ill service with the Emperour all he did had not that great splendour which he passionately desired in all his actions Constantius who ever dreaded this his nature much like a standing water caused him to be narrowly looked into at first by trusty men but he by little and little shook off this yoke and made himself to be beloved as much as he might among the Gauls as well the natives of the countrey who were pleased with the freeness of his humour as the souldiers whom he secretly won with fair promises and large hopes In the end whilest the Emperour who was an heretick Subtility of Julian to invade the Empire began the persecution of the Eastern Church this man prepared a faction against him in the West For imagining he was already strong enough he caused himself to be proclaimed Emperour by secret practises feigning otherwise to refuse all he desired He began to play this goodly game with impatient ardour being then at Paris for there it was where the legions of souldiers encompassing him at the shutting in of evening called him Augustus with loud cries whereupon he at first made a shew he would flie and hide himself but at break of day he appeared gently reprehending the souldiers for what they had done and apparently seeming to refuse the title of Emperour They who were hired to undertake this attempt cried out so much the louder as he the more denied the honour offered him He in the mean time to omit nothing in this dissimulation held forth his hand like a suppliant and intreated this might not be wherewith they seemed offended unless he speedily embraced what they presented He was requested that to content the Legions he would instantly grace himself with a diadem He answered It was an ornament he never thought upon nor regarded it at all Some thereupon cried out aloud he might do well to put his wifes dressings upon his head But he replied It were no good presage to adorn a Caesar's head with womens attires Whereupon some said he must then make use of rich hors trappings to counterfeit a diadem But Jalian opposing it said He weither would be a woman nor a horse The Count Maurus who had the word pulled off his chain and put it over his head the souldiers redoubling their acclamations with much alactity When altogether unable sufficiently to dissemble this jugling he not onely accepted this diadem but promised to each souldier five crowns of gold and a pound of silver and then presently dispatched an Embassadour to the Emperour with express letters to this purport That the souldiers had saluted him Emperour which Embassage of Julian in the beginning he much disliked endeavouring to repress them as well by authoritie as fair speeches but they persisted so obstinate in their enterprize that he should have incurred the peril of his life had be not given them satisfaction Behold the cause wherefore he was enforced to take the diadem with all possible repugnance But that he more esteemed the judgement and approbation of Constantius than all the Empires in the world and besought him not to hearken to envious spirits who laboured to embroil them to advance their own ends but that regarding his birth and loyaltie he would confirm him in the
in him and by him all things were made and it pleased the heavenly father that in his Person alone a plenitude of all perfections should inhabit The Valentinians said God the Father of the universe is in his Paradise as in the midst of a garden ennamelled with flowers and that these flowers were the Intelligencies whom he enlightened with his lights sanctified with his virtues animated with his aspects and quickened with his own life That he beheld himself in all and saw therein some draughts of his beauty very well expressed yet notwithstanding they being most insufficient in comparison of the first Essence it pleased the Eternal Father to make a Man-God to be the King of all these Intelligencies which they termed Aeons and for this purpose they added That having taken the most exquisite beauties from all the flowers of this divine garden he fitted and enchased them in the great work of the Word Incarnate It were too prophane Theologie to take it outwardly by the letter and it is no wonder if Tertullian mocked at it objecting to them they made Aesop's Jay or Hesiodus his Pandora of the Redeemer But if we speak according to true Divinity Vt sit in omnibus primatum tenens Colos 1. 19. we say this God-man containeth in eminency all the virtues and beauties of Angels to the end he may in and through all hold the primacie But to give at this time some limits to a discourse which of its nature Three excellencies of Jesus wherein all other are concluded runneth as it were into an infinity we say that as the first Adam falling was infected with sin darkened with ignorance ruined in power so the second Adam bearing himself as the restorer of humane nature took three eminent qualities upon him wherein all his excellencies conclude which are sanctity wisdom and power And to begin with sanctity we find the word Holy His sanctity was heretofore properly given to three sorts of people First to those who were purified by the bloud of the Hoast wherewith they were sprinkled for so were the expiations of the old Law performed to figure the effusion of the bloud of Jesus Christ Saints Exod. 24. 8. Ille verò sumptum sanguinem respersit in populum Hic est sanguis foederis quod pepigit Dominus nobiscum Sancti quasi sanguinetincti were anciently those who were chafed and sprinkled with bloud of the victim immolated in the Sacrifice say school Divines 2. This name was appropriated to those who alienated themselves from secular life and affairs to serve God 3. Such as in this separated life lived much purified from the dregs and contagion of sensuality This being so who seeth not the excellent title of sanctity wholly appertaineth to Jesus Christ because he purgeth all the Mass of mankind not onely by the sacred effusion of his bloud but likewise being sequestered and separated from his mothers womb to the honour of his Heavenly Father he led a life in the most eminent height might ever be imagined His sanctity hath three incomparable Prerogatives First it is a sanctity not of participation but of essence to wit of necessity and independencie sanctity being asintimate to God as his Divinity That is it S. Dyonisius Alexandrinus would say in the disputation against Paulus Samosetanus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that the sanctity of S. John Baptist and all other Saints was the work of God but this in Jesus was the nature of God himself Secondly that it is the original and exemplar cause of all all sanctities in the world which borrow all lustre of lights from the first sanctity Thirdly that it hath been through all times in freedom from sin as well because the created sanctity of Jesus Christ was governed by the increated sanctity as for that it was moistened with sources of capital Graces and inseparably tied to the beatified vision O Eternal Word how worthy art thou to be called by thy Prophet Daniel The Holy Vngetur Sanctus Sanctorum Dan. 6. 24. of Holies worthy the Seraphins should sing for thee eternally the Trisagion Holy Holy Holy worthy to bear the seal of Sanctity and to imprint thy characters upon all the Saints I will establish thee saith Ponam te quasi signaculum quia te elegi Agg. 2. 2. the Scripture as the true seal of the world because I have chosen thee 4. The great and eminent wisdom is united to sanctity for as very well saith S. Bonaventure As His wisdom Sicut in Christo fuit omnis plenitudo gratiae ita omnis plenitudo sapientiae S. Bonavent Theol. verit c. 15. l. 4. all plenitude of Grace was in Jesus Christ so there was a plenitude of wisdom by a necessary association It was a wisdom increated on the part of the Divinity a wisdom beatifying capital infused experimental in the holy Humanity acquired unto it from treasures of infinite sciences in such sort that it had knowledge of all things created past present future possible impossible discovering the most small Atomes from the highest Heaven to the lowest depths The Word of the celestial Father God of God light of Verbum Dei Patris Deus de Deo lumend ââine sapientis de sapientiâ novit omnia quae novit Pater sed einoss de Patre est sicut esse Aug. l. 15. de civit c. 14. light wisdom of wisdom knoweth all the Father knows but knowledge cometh to him from the Father as well as Essence It is the river Tygris whereof the Scripture (a) (a) (a) Eccl. 24. Tygris in diebus nowrum fluâius Dioryx Amari abundaviâ cogitatio ejus c. speaketh which overfloweth in the beginning of seasons the river which spreadeth it self into divers channels to moisten all the wise which are the plants of his garden His thoughts are of larger extent than the sea and his counsels far deeper than abysses The two Testaments as well Old as New behold Jesus Christ as the Cherubins did the Propitiatory but there is as much difference between the Old and New as between the grain of corn and the ear according to the saying of Job the Monk in Photius The doctrine of Jesus Christ surpasseth all other doctrines because it hath its force and root in the Cross as S. Hierom speaketh (b) (b) (b) Omnem doctrinam suam petibulo roborabat Hier. ad Aglasiam Jesus fortified all his doctrine by the merit of his Passion Adde that as wisdom is observed in the order and oeconomie of great affairs when they are well proportioned to their ends so there cannot be a matter either more important than that of the eternal salvation of men or which hath been mannaged with more choice order and success or which hath succeeded by means more distant from the tracks of humane wisdom The science of Jesus Christ hath enlightened the most ignorant with the knowledge of secrets unknown to Philosophers and his word hath been as the
raise an Altar against his preferring your ends to his prejudice what do you call it if not tyranny since it is to enterprize upon the goods of your Sovereign who hath not any thing indispensable from his laws no not so much as nothing it self Nay if you afforded God some honourable association Reason 2 though that were tyrannical it would be It is a great sacriledge to make a Divinity of proper interest more tolerable but you allow him a wicked petty interest of honour of gain for companion which you plant in your heart as on an Altar and daily present it the best part of the sacrifice It is to injury a superiour to compare an inferiour with him It is said the very feathers of the Eagle are so imperious Feathers of the Eagle imperious Plin. l. 1. c. 3. they will not mix with the plumage of other birds if they do they consume them with a dull file And think you to mingle God who is an incomparable Wisdom a riches inexhaustible a purity infinite with feeble pretensions which have frenzie for beginning misery for inheritance and impurity for ornament The most barbarous Tyrants as the Mezentiusses found out no greater cruelty than to tie a dead with a living body and you fasten thoughts of the world dead and languishing with God who is nothing but life This is not a simple tyranny but a sacriledge The Civil Law saith you must not appropriate to ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Authent Justinia Jus canonicum August ad Licentium your self sacred gold or silver nor transfer to prophane uses what hath been dedicated to God the like whereof is expressed in Laws Ecclesiastical According to which axioms S. Augustine said to Licentius if you had found a golden challice you would give it to the Church God hath granted you a spirit of gold and I may likewise say a heart of gold when he washed and regenerated you by the waters of Baptism and now so far are you from rendering to your Sovereign Master what is due to him that you make use of that heart as of a vessel of abomination to sacrifice your self to devils One Osea 5. Victimas declinâstis in profundum sacrificeth to love another to revenge a third to worldly vanity As for you behold you are altogether upon particular ends which take all the victims from God to throw them into the gulf of avarice A man who hath conceived this Maxim in his Lignuâ offensionis est aurum sacrificantium Eccl. 31. 17. brain that his affairs must be dispatched at what rate soever hath nothing of God but for cremony he hath created a Temple to a little devil of silver who sits in the middle of his heart It is the object of all his thoughts the bayt of all his hopes and scope of his contentments there is his Tabernacle his Oracle his Propitiatory and all the marks of his Religion I wonder why in Ecclesiastes where the common Translation saith All obeyeth money another very ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Pecuniae obediunt omnia Pecuniae respondeÌt omnia Eccles 10. 19. ancient letter and derived from the Hebrew phrase hath Money rendereth all oracles for that is it which properly the word respondere signifieth But I cease to admire when I consider the course of the world for in truth I see money is like a familiar spirit such as heretofore Pagans and Sorcerers kept in secret places shut up in a casket or in some broken head or the body of a serpent when they became any thing irresolute they consulted with their Idol and the devil counterfeiting voices through wood and metal gave them answers Now adays the Devil money is in the coffer of the covetous as in a Chappel dedicated to his name and the Infidel if he have any business to perform in his family thinks not at all to take counsel of God upon it nor to appeal to conscience but refers all these enterprizes to the devil of silver who gives him forth crooked Oracles Shall I buy a Benefice for one of my sons who hath no propension to the Church but it must be provided in what sort soever The little devil answers Buy seeing you have money Shall I corrupt a faithless Judge whose soul I know to be saleable to gain an evil spirit Do so since you have money Shall I be revenged upon such a man whom I hate as death by suborning false witnesses and engaging them by strength of corruption in a bad cause Yea since money gives thee this power Shall I buy this Office whereof I am most incapable for never was I fit for any thing but to practise malice Yea since it is money which doth all Shall I take Naboth's vineyard by force and violence to build and enlarge my self further and further upon the lands of my neighbours without any limits of my purchases but the rules of my concupiscence Yea since thou mayest do it by force of money Shall I carry a port in my house-keeping which is onely fit for Lords sparing nothing from expence of the palate nor from bravery in such sort that my lackeys may daily jet up and down as well adorned as Altars on sundays Yea since thou hast the golden branch in thy hand Finally Parva loquor quidviâ nummis praesentibut opta âveniet clausum possidet arca Jovem Satyricon Pet. this is to say very little but if thou hast readie money desire all thou wilt it shall come to pass For thou hast Jupiter shut up in thy coffer said the Satyrist See you not much infidelity a great contempt of God plain Atheism Moreover that which likewise makes this manner of proceeding more detestable is Reason 3 that besides its Empire incompatible with God it insinuateth False pretext of interests with such subtilities and pretexts of religion as if it were most devout Black souls of sorcerers given over to all manner of execration make open war against God they say they are altogether for Beelzebub and keep the sabbath to yield him homage and have renounced all the functions of Christian piety in recompence whereof they raise mists in bright mornings by the power which the evil spirits gives them that hearbs and trees may die or such like for their witch-craft extends but to bodies But this furious passion of interests which now adays so powerfully swayeth besides that it sucketh the bloud and marrow of the people and bewitcheth souls which come near it with manifest contagion appears with semblances of religion and true Christianity although it be impossible to serve two Masters according to the words of the Saviour of the world and to accord the devil of proper interests with the Maxims of Jesus Enemies the most dangerous are ever the most covert it were better almost to fall absolutely into disorder than to be flesh and fish hot and cold to halt sometimes on Baal's side another while on the Temple of Solomon's part
and never to serve God but with a shoulder yea with all manner of hypocrisie I wish thou wert hot or cold but insomuch as thou art Vtinam frigidus esses aut calidus sed quia teyidus es nec frigidus nec calidus incipiam te âvomere ex âre meo Apoc. 3. luke-warm being neither âot nor cold I will vomit thee out of my mouth To all objections of Scripture and Saints framed against this Maxim we have but one onely answer It is the world we cannot live otherwise the goat must brouze where he is tied He who would live as an honest man and not be according to the fashion shall ever be poor Reason 4 To which I answer It is so far otherwise that Benedictio Domini divites facit nec sociabitur eis afflictio Proverb 10. one cannot be rich persisting in integrity that who will well examine families and houses shall find riches the most stable most honourable and delightfull were ever on virtues side as we may see in the examples of Abraham Jacob and David if we will not learn it by our own experience The blessing of God make the rich and drives affliction from them But quite contrary the fortunes which proceed by crooked and sinister ways bring most dangerous effects along with them for before their coming they cause toyls and unspeakable anxieties but being arrived they expose a man to publick scorn in stead of making him worthy of regard since they insensibly are consummate and in the end always reserve to him who possesseth them treasures of anger and vengeance Would you see the proof of all I have said Look on the travel bestowed in purchase of ill gotten goods and you shall find it was for that the Saviour of the world called riches thorns because thorns bear a fragrant flower but the fruit is very bad and which is more they serve for a retreat to vipers A silly gain which in the beginning smiles to the eye is the flower of the thorn but when it is swallowed with great convussion of mind and body it proves an ill fruit as likewise being involved in an impure conscience it is as the viper among thorns Will you therein observe publick scoâh and indignation When you behold a man of base condition Simon Majolus who by unlawfull ways is come to great for ââmes he is looked on as the flea which an artificer fettered with a chain of gold to make matter for gazers O the flea said one it is well for her she wears a golden chain the basest of vermine bears the best of mettals Is she not very miserable to have her liberty so enthralled Why was she not content to be a flea and not to become a Ladie Yet was this silly creature innocent but whosoever excessively raiseth his estate by injustice deserves he not well to be the object of all the aims of slander and the anger of God Our Lord saith the Scripture shall wither Radices superbarum gentium arefaciet Dominuâ Eccles 10. Residuum locustae comedit bruchus residium bruchi comedit erugo Joel 1. Plin. lib. 2. cap. 103. up the roots of proud Nations Will you see the progression and conclusion thereof The Grashopper according to the saying of the Prophet Joel hath a share herein to wit in bravery and riot of apparrel the other part falls to the gluttonous flie which is the superfluity of diet and the last is eaten by rust as are unprofitable treasures of the covetous who almost all resemble the fountain of Jupiter Hammon so cold in the day time one cannot drink of it and so hot by night they dare not touch it In the day of prosperity they have bowels of ice for the miseries of the poor and in adversity their goods are all on fire pillaged burnt and carried away by those who least deserve to enjoy them Finally the day of Judgement must be undergone to expiate many times by long torments the goods we can no longer enjoy Do we not understand how the God of vengeance speaks to the rich of the earth who are rich in iniquity To thee I come thee great Ezech. 29. Ecce ego ad te Draco magne qui cubas in medio fluminum dicis meus est sluvius ponam frââum in maxillis tuis agglutinabo pisces fluminum tuorum squammis tuis extraham te projiciam te in desertum Dragon who lodgest in the midst of rivers of gold and silver and sayest These rivers are mine I will put a bridle into thy mouth and will fasten to thy scales so many little fishes as thou on every side hast entrapped by so many injustices so many concussions so many falshoods and I will take thee out of thy element out of thy honours and riches which thou hast abused and I will thrust thee into the desert on the sand reproachfull as thou art faint and despoiled nor shall any man compassionate thy misery Oh how poor are they always who are rich with iniquitie (a) (a) (a) Against too much horrour of poverty which nourisheth the fervour of interests But what if serving God faithfully in his vocation Reason 5 he must be poor O poverty which didst receive the Son of God born as between thine arms in a wretched stable and who sawest him conclude his innocent life in so great nakedness that it had no other veil to cover it but the bloud which gushed from his wounds must it needs be that having been so much honoured by the King of Monarchs and all Saints who waited on him thou here below shouldst be reputed as the dregs of nature the scum of the world the fury of humane life must Christians come to that pass rather to desire to be esteemed crafty robbers and excommunicates than poor No man Nemâ tam pauper potest esse quà m natus est omnia si non concupiscimus possidemus Minut. Faelix saith Minutius Faelix how poor soever comes to the poverty wherein he is born we should possess all had we learned to desire nothing but the rage now a days frequent to appear in the world what one is not the madness which maketh frogs desire to swell like bulls is the cause many stile a reasonable fortune with the title of poverty whilest a thousand and a thousand who live in the world in the midst of extream miseries had they hit upon thy fortune would think them elves equal in point of felicity to Caesars One esteems himself poor if he have not thirty fourty fifty thousand crowns to buy an Office which is a fearfull exorbitance of our Age. One accounts himself poor if he have not five and twenty thousand crowns to give with a daughter in marriage when the daughters of France had not heretofore above six thousand One imagineth he is poor if vails of an Office make not thirty or fourty thousand livres of rent when the Chancellours of
the most prudent and politick Absolon close in his revenge of his time at the first dissembleth his resentment to make it seasonable appear he endevoureth to sweeten the acerbity of his soul by fair words adviseth her to be silent sheweth when all is done he is her brother and that she should not take such an injury to the heart Needs must the smoke of pleasure turn the course of things into flames and a momentarie contentment transmit sorrow and sadness over to posterity Behold Thamar lives in her brothers house quite disconsolate King David is enraged nor can be appeased and Absolon hides under the ashes of his dissimulation a fire not to be quenched but with the bloud of this caitive Two years passed and he spake neither well nor ill of this act that he might not by his speech betray the desire he had to avenge it In the end at the time of his sheep shearing in Balhazor he took occasion to invite all the Kings children to his house He invited the King likewise but he making excuse to charge him with so great a train he entreats that at the least his brother Ammon might be his guest He shrinks not back not upon the first denial he enforceth by the eagerness of importunitie where behold the miserable man goes with his brothers not knowing he must be the victim of a Sacrifice prepared by the Justice of heaven which hath ever undertaken the revenge of violated chastity See in the midst of a banquet when Ammon had taken in a little wine and was full of jollitie Absolon cries out kill and his servants Ammon slain following the direction he had given them fell upon him struck him and left him dead in the place The other brothers affrighted rose from the table got on horse-back and came to Sion where they satisfied the King who thought his whole family had been massacred They at their enterance cried out aloud they wept with their father who gave to the desolation of his house what remained of tears after those torrents which had heretofore dropped from his eyes and where his sins had happily made ship-wrack The murderer escapeth forsakes the Kingdom and David lanquisheth with sorrow for his absence being unable to endure that one death alone should bereave him of two of his children Lastly he comforted himself in it and admired the judgements of God upon his house who permitted that two of his sons were partakers in his crimes and had surmounted his adultery and homicide with an incest and a fratricide XIV MAXIM Of TRIBULATION THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT That one must be evil to be happy since the Just are most afflicted That all is happie for the Just yea even tribulation IT is a wonderfull thing how the Prophane Court dares propose this maxim refuted by the experience of all Ages observations of all histories understandings of all people and common voice of nature Camerarius in his Problems wherein he pursueth the tracks of ordinarie life without search into other considerations more Divine makes a question why those who are addicted to Religion are alwayes most happy And on the contrarie from whence it is that the wicked are most unfortunate Affirming it to be observed throughout all histories Now this Authour who plainly sheweth in this Treatise he is none of the most Religious gently toucheth some reasons saying among other things there is some power which pleaseth to depress the wicked because ordinarily they are of a spirit fierce and insolent as if impiety alone were not sufficient for their infelicity The punishments of the wicked are so frequent in histories both Divine and humane that in so great an Ocean of examples which may take up more than fifty Ages scarcely can we produce one sole notable felicitie which felt not some great mishap That we many times may have cause to make use of S. Augustines and S. Eucherius argument who say that although God punish not a crime in this life he doth it to assure us there is a great tribunal and a puissant justice in the other world It were a thing superfluous at this time to oppose this maxim by effects which are so evident and whereof I think I have produced sufficient observations in preceeding Tomes I had rather here employ reason and shew all to be happy to the just yea tribulation That the Providence of GOD excellently appeareth in the afflictions of the Just MEn curious in their censures and distrustfull in their actions have never ceased in all times to argue with Divine providence about the afflictions of the Just but I with the assistance of heaven intend at this present to prove the eternal Wisdom maketh it self visibly appear by the same things wherewith many think to overthrow it Now I make it good by four reasons the first whereof shall shew worldly blessings cannot be great but by the experience of evils Secondly that tribulation is the noursing-mother of all virtues Thirdly that there is no spectacle more glorious among the works of God than an innocent afflicted for Justice and patient in affliction Fourthly that it is a proof of beatitude We then deliver in the beginning of this discourse ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a notable maxim drawn out of Aeneas Gaza an ancient Authour inserted in the Bibliotheck of the Fathers Never do we sufficiently know the sweetness of good without the trial of evil Joseph mounted upon the triumphant Chariot of Pharao by prisons and fetters David to the throne of Saul by many persecutions And their great prosperities were much more sweet unto them because they were fore-gone by sharp afflictions We see the same in nature where the Sun is more resplendent after it's eclipse the sea more calm after a tempest and the air much brighter after a shower which made a great States-man say Storms Maris Coelique temperiem turbines tempestatesque commendant habet has vices conditio mortalium uâ adversa secundis adversis secunda nascantur Occultat utrorunque semina deus plerumque bonorum malorum causae sub diversâ specie latent Plin. in Panegyr Trajan and tempests contribute to the clearness of the heavens and the smoothness of the sea The condition of mortals hath this proper that adversities grow out of prosperities and prosperities from adversities God hideth from us the seeds both of the one and the other and many times the causes of blessings and evils are covered under one and the same appearance One may here object that if we must alwayes have evil to tast good we might infer the Angels were not sufficiently happy because they arrived at beatitude without passing through tribulations these being the flower-de-luces of God's garden which neither wrought nor took pains to be clothed with the robe of glorie we might conclude God himself had some defect in his felicitie since he alwayes hath a most accomplished beatitude with exclusion of all manner of evil I
For if there be any it must infallibly be taken off with the file of justice The torment of purgatorie is executed with sharp transfixing pains since that imperious element which raiseth so many terrours in our world hath there the place of an officer The continuance thereof is long by certain revelations that some souls have been there many years its perseverance activity dreadful since the soul is immortal and incorruptible to its torments This made the hair stand an end on the heads of all Saints And Job 11. Semper enim quasi tumentes super me fluctus timui Deum pondus ejus ferre non potui when the great man Job all composed of innocency sanctity thought on this justice of God he conceived himself to be as a little fish crouch'd in the water that heareth all the storms rouling over its head S. Augustine grown hoary in a thousand valourous battails for defence of the Church apprehendeth purgatory the elect souls who build all in gold and silver and pretious stones fear the trial of fire and we with our edifices of stubble straw and hay walk with exalted crests as if we had all the assurances of our salvation Where are we if this torch of justice awaken us not Quis poterit habitare de vobis cum igne devorante Perhaps we have made a bargain with this fire and these punishments or that we are torment-proof not to feel them Is there any man who hath learned to abide among burning coals We are so tender so nice so impatient so the lovers of our selves that one ounce weigheth a pound with us O worldlings who shall weep over you since you know not how to bewail your selves Your bodies are dainty both by nature and education yea your souls much more you cannot endure the stinging of a bee the very sight of a Surgeons lancet affrights you and yet you daily entangle your selves in a thousand vanities a thousand courtships and a thousand worldly loves which defile your soul and must at a dear rate be discharged in the other world We know the Christians of the Indies newly converted when they felt some temptations contrary to the law of God ran to their chimney hearths and thrust their hands into the flames saying Sin soul if thou canst abide fire if not go no further Do the like touch if not in effect at least by consideration the devouring flames of Gods Justice And if they seem strange unto you engage not your self in them by your sensualities 6. From the slight apprehension we have of Purgatory Rigour of the living against the souls in Purgatory proceedeth another stupidity very unreasonable which is that we are very little careful of the souls of the dead a matter very worthy of blame for two principal reasons The first is that the providence of God which disposeth all with so great sweetness hath as it were tied the salvation of these good souls to the fervour of our prayers and would have us to be as mediatours and intercessours of their felicity which is verily one of the greatest titles of honour we can receive It is a note of Divinity to have power to oblige men faith an Ancient and Plin. l. 2. c. 7. Deus est mortali benefacere mortalem haec ad aeternam gloriam via there is no shorter way to eternal glory Now God gives us the means to oblige not mortals but immortal souls and to oblige them in a cause so great and eminent that if all the treasures and lives of the world were dissolved into one mass they could not reach to the least degree of the felicity you may procure to these faithfull souls By obliging them in this kind you gain eternal friends who will entertain no thoughts but such as may tend to render you the like and to bear you into the bosom of beatitude and yet this being most easie for you as a matter which consisteth in some prayers alms deeds and good works you neglect it Is not this a prodigious carelesness The second reason is that by such negligence we betray our soul which enclineth out of a natural propension to the sweetness and mercy we exercise even towards beasts It is the argument which the Math. 12. 11. Quis erit ex vobis homo qui habeat evem unam si ceciderit haec sabbatho in foveam manum tentabit levabit eam Her Thren De excelso misit ignem in âssibus meis erudivit me c. Vigilavit jugum iniquitatum mearum c. Son of God made use of If a horse an Ox a sheep fall into a ditch there is neither festival nor sabbath withholds every one who is able stretcheth out a hand and draws it forth And behold here not a beast but a soul created to the image of God irradiated with the most excellent lineaments of his beauty which is to live with Angels eternally fallen into a ditch fallen into a boyling furnace who is afflicted tormented imploreth the help of all the world and whilest we slacken to succour it hath these mournful words of Jeremie Alas God the just avenger of crimes committed against his divine Majesty hath poured fire into my bones to chastise me Behold me in the nets of justice behold me now desolate pensive and disconsolate both night and day All afflicteth me in this said abode but nothing is so irksom as the burden of mine iniquities and ingratitudes It is a yoke which surchargeth my neck like lead and pulls me down into the torments from whence I cannot go without O vos omnes qui transitis per viam attendite videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus Quoniam vindemiavit me ut locutus est Dominus in die furoris sui your charities O you my dear kindred friends and allies who pass through the Church-yard made the depositary of my bones consider and see with the eyes of faith whether there be any dolour comparable to mine since God hath cut me off on the day of his indignation with a strong and inevitable arm O ingrateful and disloyal son it is the soul of thy father which speaketh unto thee in this manner and says unto thee Son I have passed my life as the spider stil spinning ever seeking after worldly wealth perpetually exhausting my proper substance to enrich thee I lived on gall and cares that thou mightest swim in rose-water I travelled over lands and seas to build a silver bridge for thy fortune to set thee on flower-de-luces and employments of a Kingdom where is thy retribution My son I complain not my eye being shut my body was troublesom to thee in thy house and thou couldst not endure it it was a dung-hil must be yielded up to the earth but I complain that thou being well informed thy father had an immortal soul which thou mightest comfort by thy good works thou trayterously employedst the money
whereof the poor have too much been frustrated to establish thy vanities and fatten thee in pleasures Where is thy liberality Where are thy alms toward miserable creatures who die in affliction in the streets Observe justice and take example by my disasters Husband it is thy wife so beloved that speaks to thee saying Ah my dearest friends where is the faith plighted in the face of the Church Where are the faithful loves which should have no limit but eternity Death no sooner absented me from thy eyes but forgetfulness drew me out of thy heart I complain not thou livest happy and fortunate in thy new affections for I am in a condition wherein I can neither envy nor malice any but I complain that not onely after my death the children which are pledges of our love were distastful to thee but thou hast wholly lost the memory of one who was so precious to thee and whom thou as a Christian oughrest to love beyond a tomb Open yet once unto her the bowels of thy charity and comfort by thy alms and good works a soul which must expect that help from thee or some other The seventeenth EXAMPLE upon the seventeenth MAXIM Apparition of Souls in Purgatorie HIstories tell us the apparation of souls in Purgatory are so frequent that he who would keep an account may as soon number the stars in the sky or leaves on the trees But as it is not fit to be too credulous in all may be said thereupon so a man must be very impudent to deny all is spoken of it and to oppose as well the authority of so many great personages as the memory of all Ages He who believes nothing above nature will not believe a God of nature How many extraordinary things are there the experience whereof teacheth us the effects and of which God hideth the reasons from us The Philosopher Democritus disputing with Solinus Polyhistor the Sages of his time concerning the secret power of nature held commonly in his hand the stone called cathocita which insensibly sticketh to such as touch it and they being unable to give a reason of it he inferred there were many secrets which are rather to humble our spirits than to satisfie our curiosity Who Jul. Scal. A Porta Caâeraâ can tell why the theamede which is a kind of adamant draweth iron on one side and repelleth it on the other Why do the forked branches of the nut-tree turn towards mines of gold and silver Why do bees often die in the hives after the death of the Master of the family unless they be else-where transported Why doth a dead body cast forth bloud in the presence of the murderer Why do certain fountains in the current of their waters and in their colour carry presages of seasons as that of Blomuza which waxeth red when the countrey is menaced with war Why have so many noble families Diââarus Petrus Albinus certain signs which never fail to happen when some one of the family is to die The commerce of the living with spirits of the dead is a matter very extraordinarie but not impossible to the Father of spirits who holdeth total nature between his hands Peter of Clugny surnamed the Venerable and esteemed in his time as the oracle of France was a man who proceeded in these affairs with much consideration not countenancing any thing either frivolous or light Behold the cause wherefore I willingly make use of his authority He telleth that in a village of Spain named the Star there was a man of quality called Peter of Engelbert much esteemed in the world for his excellent parts and abundant riches Notwithstanding the spirit of God having made him understand the vanity of all humane things being now far stepped into years he went into a Monastery of the Order of Clugny there the more piously to pass the remnant of his dayes as it is said the best incense cometh from old trees He often spake amongst the holy Fryers of a vision which he saw when he as yet was in the world and which he acknowledged to be no small motive to work his conversion This bruit came to the ears of Venerable Peter who was his General and who for the affairs of his Order was then gone into Spain Behold the cause why he never admitting any discourses to be entertained if they were not well verified took the pains to go into a little Monastery of Nazare where Engelbert was to question him upon it in the presence of the Bishops of Oleron and Osma conjuring him in the virtue of holy obedience to tell him punctually the truth touching the vision he had seen whilest he led a secular life This man being very grave and very circumspect in all he said spake the words which the Authour of the historie hath couched in his proper terms In the time that Alphonsus the younger heir of the great Alphonsus warred in Castile against certain factious dis-united from his obedience he made an Edict that every family in his Kingdom should be bound to furnish him with a souldier which was the cause that for obedience to the Kings commands I sent into his army one of my houshold-servants named Sancius The wars being ended and the troups discharged he returned to my house where having some time so journed he was seized by a sickness which in few dayes took him away into the other world We performed the obsequies usually observed towards the dead and four moneths were already past we hearing nought at all of the state of his soul when behold upon a winters night being in my bed throughly awake I perceived a man who stirring up the ashes of my hearth opened the burning coals which made him the more easily to be seen Although I found my self much terrified with the sight of this ghost God gave me courage to ask him who he was and for what purpose he came thither to lay my hearth abroad But he in a very low voice answered Master fear nothing I am your poor servant Sancius I go into Castile in the company of many souldiers to expiate my sins in the same place where I committed them I stoutly replied If the commandment of God call you thither to what purpose come you hither Sir saith he take it not amiss for it is not without the Divine permission I am in a state not desperate and wherein I may be helped by you if you bear any good will towards me Hereupon I required what his necessity was and what succour he expected from me You know Master said he that a little before my death you sent me into a place where ordinarily men are not sanctified Liberty ill example youth and temerity all conspire against the soul of a poor souldier who hath no government I committed many out-rages during the late war robbing and pillaging even to the goods of the Church for which I am at this present grievously tormented But good Master if you loved me
gate against all hopes and opens it to all despairs Ask of S. John (b) (b) (b) Lacus ira Dei magnus sâagnus ignis Apoc. 14. 20. what hell is he will tell you aloud and plainly hell is the great lake of Gods anger It is a great pool of fire and brimstone perpetually inflamed with strong and vigorous breaths of the Omnipotent And what do the damned there (c) (c) (c) Life of the damned Horreo verutem mordacem mortem vivacem horreo incidere in manum mortis viventis vitae morientis Gulielm Paris de univ p. 1. c. 55. Locus purâ felicitatis nihil habet quod non addat felicitati locus purae miseriae nihil habet quod non addat calamitati They burn and smoak On what live they On the gall of dragons What air breath they That of burning coals What stars and lights have they The fire of their torments What nights Of palpable darkness What beds The couches of aspicks and basilisks What language speak they Blasphemies What order have they amongst them Confusion What hope Despair What patience Rage O hell O hell Avant O gnawing worm avant O living death avant death which never dies avant life which daily not dying dies I speak not here of the pain of sense excercised by this pittiless element which worketh upon souls as I have shewed you in the beginning of this discourse I let pass this world of punishments figured by vultures gibbets tortures snakes burning pincers and all the instruments of terrours I onely speak of the pain which tormenteth the damned by privation from the sight of God Imagine within your self a sublime conceit of the great Prelate of France William of Paris who in a Treatise he made of the universe pertinently sheweth that as Paradise is the house of all felicity so hell must be the receptacle of all miserie and calamity Now the blessed besides beauty of the glory of their bodies the contentment to enjoy so excellent and triumphant company have a happiness totally infinite in the sight of God which is the period of their essential felicitie So likewise in the same measure the damned shall have some object sad and mournfull incomparably dolorous and according to its nature infinite which collecteth as into one sum all their calamities And what is this object Some will imagine it is the aspect of the great lake of fire and horrid legions of divels That truly is horrible but that is not yet the top of their supream miserie What is it then I do assure my self you will at first be astonished with what I shall say and will hold it as a paradox but it is undoubted The darkness of hell is apprehended as a most intollerable evil and that with just cause Notwithstanding I affirm the greatest torment of the damned and heigth of their notable calamities is light I say light of science and knowledge To understand this you The souls of the damned tormented by their lights Aspectus Christalli terribilis must observe a passage of the Prophet Ezechiel in the first Chapter where he describeth the majesty of the God of hosts who prepareth to chastise the wicked he representeth him unto us like a hydeous christal mirrour that is to say God planteth an idea of himself in the soul of a damned creature as of a mirrour of Christal and a terrible light in which and through which it beholdeth most clearly and evidently the good it hath lost by forsaking God and the evil incurred by drenching it self into the sad habitation of the reprobate It seeth how in loosing God it hath lost a good delicious fruitfull infinite everlasting incomprehensible a good for which it was created and formed by the hands of God A good which is meerly and absolutely lost by its infidelity ingratitude wickedness perverse obstinacy in sin A good which it might have repaired in a moment of the time it heretofore had and behold it now irrecoverably for ever lost Moreover it sees and feeleth by a disastrous experience the evil whereunto it is fixed by pertinacitie And that which is also more terrible is that as God is replenished with a full and most plentifull felicitie because he hath all his contentments assembled together so the damned soul by a most lively and piercing apprehension of the eternity of its pains beholdeth the evils it must endure beyond a hundred millions of years and hath them all as present in thought From these two lights and two knowledges in the damned soul spring as it were two snakes fastened both to the one and other side of its heart which incessantly and unconsumably suck all the juyce and marrow of its substance The holy man Boetius the eye of the Roman Senate Quid demum stolidis me actibus imprecer c. and ornament of the Church lets us understand what the punishment of the damned is when he saith there needeth neither wheels tortures nor gibbets to punish the wicked He who might onely shew them the beauty of virtue in the form of a lightening-flash and say unto them behold wretched creatures behold what you have lost by your folly the sorrow they would conceive for their loss would be so sensible that no keen raisour devouring flames gnawing vultures might put them to a more exquisite torment Now I leave you to think if the wicked in this life for one sole idea of virtue which passeth in a moment should conceive such a remorse what may a damned soul that sees in this hydeous chrystal not for a moment but through all moments of eternity the infinite good it hath lost the infinite unhappiness wherein it for ever sees it self involved Then is it yea perpetually gnawn torn and tumbled into a huge torrent of inexplicable dolours which cause it to break into furies and unprofitable frenzies O Palace of God saith it which I have lost O ugly dens of dragons whereinto I am head-long thrown O brightness of Paradise which shalt be nothing to me O hydeous darkness which shalt eternally be my inheritance O goodly and triumphant company of elect souls with whom I should eternally have lived had not my wretchedness sealed up mine eyes O infernal countenances of enraged divels which shall hereafter be my objects and perpetual companions O torrent of delights which pourest thy self upon those blessed spirits how have I turned thee into a lake filled with pitch sulphur and scortching flames enkindled with the breath of the Omnipotents anger O couch of King Solomon how have I given thee away for a bed of coals O God O God whom I have lost and whom I cannot loose I have lost him in the quality of a Sovereign Good yet have him perpetually present as the object and cause of my pains O eternity It is then true that ten millions of years hence my evils shall but begin Cursed athiesm and infidelity of the world thou wouldest rather feel these torments than
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 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 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
worshipped but the belly luxury gaming and uncleanness Many make walks and races wherein none can run far without stumbling for they resemble the list of Atalanta and Hippomenes rather than the race where S. Paul exhorted Christians to run there the sences flattered with a thousand delightfull objects many times put themselves in array there the bloud is enflamed the tongue untied concupiscence enkindled there licentiousness often rendeth the vail which until then was over the face of modesty and impudently becomes portress to love These are the sacriledges which drie up years breed disorder amongst seasons barrenness in the bowels of the earth and despair in our miseries The seventh SECTION The four conditions of recreation YOur recreation must have four especial things choise of persons good intention innocency moderation Choise of persons in avoiding evil company as the most dangerous shelf of life for the friendship of wicked men is like a bundle of thorns tied together to burn and crackle in the fire Your friendship must be virtuous faithful disinterested if you mean to have any fruits of it Good intention as to cherish health and strength that they may serve the soul for a good man should seek good even in play and at meals like the saint who rose in the night and fed with a poor hungry brother that he might not be ashamed of eating at a disorderly hour Innocency for much consideration must be used therein lest nature should dissolve into bruitish life un worthy a generous heart Behind comes gluttony intemperate gaming foolish jesting and detraction in this age hard to be avoided The book most ordinary in companies of men is man himself Now very few take delight to disourse of the Old and New Testament nay not so much as of the old Roman Councels Aegyptian Pyramids or ancient wars of Caesars Men study books of the time talk of garbs clothes looks conditions business customs alliances and though we have no intent to wrong any yet is it very easie in such variety of discourse to let fall many words of far less value than silence it is an excellent quality to still good matter into company either upon accasion by question consequence narration or proposition as the reverend Jaquinot observes in his Address Moderation For as the wise man saith Prov. 25. 16. We glut our selves with hony so ought we to have a care that recreations made to refresh the mind tend not by excess to dissoluteness You must observe what the time place and persons require and to pass the time must not exceed your self by profuseness The eighth SECTION Of vicious conversation and first of impertinent THe Hebrews say play anger the cup and conversation are the windows of the soul through which she is many times seen more than she would be he is wise who makes use of meetings and company as of a file to polish his mind and to make it continually more apt for its functions Vicious conversation may be reduced almost to three heads that is impertinent vain evil Impertinent as the clownish foolish troublesom which many have through want of discretion fashion and civility Theophrastus one of the quaintest wits of antiquity relateth some passages which he saith he observed in his time arguing a great weakness of judgement some saith he lay hold on one that is going about business of concernment to tell him something as they pretend of great importance which when told is nothing but foolery Others invite a travellour newly come out of the countrey very weary to walk up and down others pull a man out of a ship ready to weigh anchor to entertain him with follies on the shore others come to bear witness after the cause is judged and bring with much sweat a Pphysitian to the dead others pretend to know the way and undertake to lead the rest but go wrong at the very first and protest they have forgot it Others make rude enquiry into business and ask a General of an Army whither he goes and what is his design Some also there are saith he so rustick that not admitting any thing worth admiration in civil life they stand still to look upon an ox as men in rapture and in company have no better behaviour than to take their dog by the muzzle and say what a fine dog this is well he keeps the house Such conversation is able greatly to vilifie a man and to take from him all estimation he can gain in his profession The ninth SECTION Of vain conversation VAin conversation is that of talkers flatterers vain-glorious and the like poor Theophrastus in my opinion was much tormented with a talker since he so well describeth one who with much passion praised his wife told what he dreamed the last night what he had to dinner that he had a weakness of stomack From thence taking flight he discoursed of times and assured him the men of ours came not near the ancients in any thing Then he told him that corn was cheap that there were many strangers in the city that if it would rain the year would be fruitfull that he had a field to be ploughed that Damippus gave the greatest wax light at an offering that there were so many stairs in such a building that he had counted them with a thousand of the like Such people adds the Author are more to be feared than a feaver He that would live in quiet must seldom keep them company Horace mentions one very like who put him into a great sweat and when he saw he was so tired that he knew not which way to turn himself I see Sir saith he that I am troublesom but there is no remedy since I have met with you I must needs wait on you for God be thanked I have nothing else to do Flatterers are much more acceptable though many times more dangerous for they will tell you that all the world cast their eyes upon you that you are much esteemed that the whole town talks of such a fortunate action of yours that you have an excellent wit a handsom body a good grace winning behaviour that every thing becomes you and that it seems Nature when she had made you broke her mold because she never since framed the like If you speak they bid silence to all the world then extol your words as oracles and if you jest at any they burst with laughter to please you and deifie your imperfections This is that which poysons freindship and blinds humane life The Vain-glorious will for the most part entertain you with commendations of themselves and have a thousand petty singularities in their carriage their attire their speech their houses their attendants to shew that they have something more than others The aforesaid Authour saith he hath observed some that held it a great honour to have a Blackamore lackey that they might be the more noted and if they sacrificed an ox they nailed the horns at their gates to
corruptible matter of Earth but after he became a Christian he lived upon the most pure influences of heaven S. Gregory Nazianzen saith he more breathed S. Basile then the aire it self and that all his absences were to him so many deaths S. Chrysostome in banishment was perpetually in spirit with those he most esteemed S. Jerome better loved to entertain his spirituall amities in little Bethelem then to be a Courtier in Rome where he might be chosen Pope And if we reflect on those who have lived in the light of nature Plato was nothing but love Aristotle had never spoken so excellently of friendship had he not been a good friend Seneca spent himself in this virtue being suspected by Nero for the affection he bare to Piso Alexander was so good that he carried between his arms a poor souldier frozen with cold up to his throne to warm him and to give him somewhat to eat from his royall hands Trajan brake his proper Diadem to bind up the wound of one of his servants Titus wept over the ruines of rebellious Jerusalem A man may as soon tell the starres in the heavens as make an enumeration of the brave spirits which have been sacrificed to amity Wherefore great hearts are the most loving If we seek out the causes we shall find it ordinarily proceedeth from a good temperature which hath fire and vigour and that comes from good humours and a perfect harmony of spirit little Courages are cold straightned and wholly tied to proper interests and the preservation of their own person They lock themselves up in their proprieties as certain fishes in their shell and still fear least elements should fail them But magnanimous hearts who more conform themselves to the perfections of God have sources of Bounty which seem not to be made but to stream and overflow such as come near them This likewise many times proceedeth from education for those who fall upon a breeding base wretched and extremely penurious having hands very hard to be ungrasped have likewise a heart shut up against amities still fearing lest acquaintance may oblige them to be more liberall then they would contrariwise such as have the good hap to be nobly bred hold it an honour to oblige and to purchase friends every where Add also that there is ever some gentilenesse of spirit among these loving souls who desiring to produce themselves in a sociable life and who understanding it is not given them to enlighten sands and serpents will have spectatours and subjects of its magnificence Which happens otherwise to low and sordid spirits for they voluntarily banish themselves from the conversation of men that they may not have so many eyes for witnesses of their faults So that we must conclude against the Philosophers of Indifferency that Grace Beauty strength and power of nature are on their side who naturally have love and affection §. 2. Of Love in generall LOve when it is well ordered is the soul of the universe Love the soul of the universe which penetrateth which animateth which tieth and maintaineth all things and so many millions of creatures as aspire and respire this love would be but a burden to Nature were they not quickned by the innocent flame which gives them lustre as to the burning Bush not doing them any hurt Fornacem custodiens in operibus ardoris Eccl. 43. at all I may say that of honest love which the wise man did of the Sunne That it is the superintendent of the great fornaces of the world which make all the most Love the superintendent of the great Fornace of the world Faber ferrarius sedens juxta in eodem considerans opus ferri vapor iguis uret carnes ejus in calore fornacis concertatur c. Eccl. 29 38. Pieces of work in Nature Have you ever beheld the Forge-master described by the same wise-man You see a man in his shirt all covered over with sweat greace and smoke who sporteth among the sparks of fire and seemeth to be grown familiar with the flames He burns gold and silver in the fornace then he battereth it on the Anvil with huge blows of the hammer he fashioneth it he polisheth it he beautifies it and of a rude and indigested substance makes a fair piece of plate to shine on the Cup-boards of the most noble houses So doth love in the world it taketh hearts which are as yet but of earth and morter it enkindleth them with a divine flame It beats them under the hammer of tribulations and sufferings to try them It filleth them by the assiduity of prayer It polisheth them by the exercise of virtues lastly it makes vessels of them worthy to be placed above the Empyreall heaven Thus did it with S. Paul and made him so perfect Act. 9. that the First verity saith of him that he is his vessel of election to carry his name among nations and the Kings of the Earth and that he will shew him how much he must suffer for his sake The whole nature of Pigri mortui oetestandi eritis si nihil ametis Amare sed quid ameris videte August in Psal 31. Hoc amet nec ametur ab ullo Juvenal Seven excellent things the world tendeth to true love every thing loves some of necessity other by inclination and other out of reason He who will love nothing saith S. Augustine is the most miserable and wretched man on earth nor is it without cause that in imprecations pronounced over the wicked it is said Let him not love nor be beloved by any The ancient Sages have observed in the light of Nature that there are seven excellent things to be esteemed as gifts from heaven which are clearnesse of senses vivacity of understanding grace to expresse ones thoughts ability to govern well Courage in great and difficult undertakings fruitfulnesse in the productions of the mind and the strength of love and forasmuch as concerneth the last Orpheus and Hesiodus have thought it so necessary that they make it the first thing that came out of the Chaos before the Creation of the world The Platonists revolving upon this conceit have built us three worlds which are the Angelicall nature Vide Marsilium Ficinum in convivium Platonis An exâellent conceit of the Platonists the soul and the Frame of the universe All three as they say have their Chaos The Angel before the ray of God had his in the privation of lights Man in the darknesse of Ignorance and Sinne The materiall world in the confusion of all its parts But these three Chaoses were dissipated by love which was the cause that God gave to Angelicall spirits the knowledge of the most sublime verities to Man Reason and to the world Order All we see is a perpetuall circle of God to the world and of the world to God This circle beginning in God by inestimable perfections full of charms and attractives is properly called Beauty and
of the Hypocondry the disturbances of the waking the stupidities of the Lethargie the fits of the falling sickness the faintness of the Phthisick the heavings of the passion of the heart the pangs of the collick the infections of the leprosie the venome of ulcers the malignity of the plague the putrefaction of the gangrene and all which is horrible in nature After all this it is made a God to whom Elogies Hymns Songs and victimes are offered Empire over the heart is given to it a soul not created but for him who hath saved it is subjected fetters are honoured and its Tyranny adored There are many millions of men in the world Disasters of evil love who would be most fortunate and flourishing if they knew how to avoid the mischievous power of this passion but having not used any consideration or endeavour they have abandoned their bodies to dishonour their reputation to infamy their estates to pillage and their lives to an infinity of disturbances and torments Hence it is that virgins of noble bloud are stolen away that families are desolated that parents are precipitated into their Tombs by ungratefull children that so many young widows are dishonoured in the world that so many miserable creatures after they have served for talk to a City die in an Hospitall that so many little innocents are made away by a death which preventeth their birth that so many Infants are thrown into life as froth of the sea exposed to poverty and vice by that condition which brought them forth Hence is it that chaste wedlocks are disturbed that poysons are mingled that Halters are noozed that swords are sharpned that Tragedies are begun under the Coverture of night and are ended in a full day-light upon a scaffold O God how happy might a soul be which would well consider all this and take what I am about to speak as a letter sent from heaven for the remedy of infinite many evils which in this passion environ our miserable life I invite hither every age each sex all conditions I entreat my Readers to peruse these lines with the same spirit wherewith I addresse them and although it befell me to treat of this subject in my other works notwithstanding never have I yet undertaken it with so much method vigour or force as at this present I will shew you the Essence the Causes the Symptomes and the effects of love as religiously as VereenndiaÌ periclitari malo quà m probationeÌ l. 1. de anima c. 17. I can possibly supposing my self not bound to follow Tertullians opinion who though very chaste spared not to speak of this subject a little grosly saying for excuse that he had rather put himself upon the hazard of losing shame then a good argument I made you see in the beginning of this treatise that love considered in generall was properly an inclination to the good of Conformity which putteth on divers faces according to the sundry objects and wayes it pursues to arrive thither If it go directly towards God and reflect on a neighbour as his Image loving the one for himself and the other for his Authour this is charity If it diffuse it self upon divers creatures sensible and insensible which it pursueth for its pleasure and commodity it is an appetite and a simple affection as that which is towards hunting birds books pictures pearls and Tulips If it be applyed to humane creatures loving them withall integrity by a reciprocall well-wishing it is Amity If it regard the body for pleasures sake it is a love of venereall concupiscence which being immoderate even Tertull. in exhortatione ad castitatem Nec per aliud fit marita nisi per quod adultera in the intention of marriage fails not to be vitious which made Tertullian say that the same thing an Adulterer would do the married likewise did If it be chaste and guided within the Limits which the Law of God prescribeth it is conjugall love If it overflow to sensuall pleasures It is Luxury S. Denis saith It is not love but an idoll and a fall from true love And Plato Plato in convivio in his Banquet addeth that sober love is contentment of heart eyes and ears but when it will content it self by the other senses namely that of touching it is not love but a spirit of insolency a passion of a servile soul a rage of a triviall lust which maketh shew to love beauty but through its exorbitancy descended to the worst of deformities I know there are learned pens which here distinguish Division of Lone all love into two parts and say there is one of consideration and another of inclination They call it love of consideration when one is therein embarked with a full knowledge and a setled judgement love of inclination when one loveth not able to give any reason But I find this division is not exact enough insomuch as it confoundeth the Genus and Speeies and doth not clearly distinguish the members of this body since all love is nothing else but an inclination and since that which is made by consideration inclineth the loving to the thing loved Whence it appeareth that to mention a love of inclination is to say love is love without any further explication I had rather say there are two loves the one of Election which resulteth from Consideration and is formed when after one hath acknowledged a thing to be fair profitable and pleasing he out of reason affects it The other of humour when without consulting with reason one is suddenly surprized by some secret attractive in the thing loved without giving himself leasure to judge what it is and this properly is to love by humour and fantasie which is now adays the most ordinary love but not the best It is a kind Love of humour of love which quickly beginneth and which never ends slowly so full it is of inconstancy It seems to it self all its bands are silken although they be rough chains it will not take pains to consider them It thinks not it cherisheth the wound nor looks it back on the hand which gave it It is heedlessely engaged and signeth transactions without reading them that it may not be ashamed to abrogate what it made or to entertain that which kills it There are many miserable ones who daily marry upon the first sight and whose amities arise but from a glance which passeth away more swiftly then a shadow and then there must be a thousand repentances to redeem the pleasure of one moment It is ever better to preferre Election for though in the beginning it had not so much sweetnesse in the search it hath lesse sorrow in the possession But to enter farther into the knowledge of Carnall love it is good to penetrate the causes and effects thereof which will the more perspicuously enlighten us in the choice of remedies We see many people in the world who being tormented by this evil euen unto folly seek
eyes confesse God is visible and that he sheweth himself in as many mirrours as there are creatures in this great Universe A man needs to be a Philosopher but a little to learn to love let him see know and study nature in all its works let him hear the harmonies of Gods consort to understand in some measure the perfections of the workman Those little golden and azure shels which make a lodging for certain fishes more magnificent then Solomons Palace Those cob-web-lawns and those tiffanies which compose the body of flowers with an exquisite delicacy Those waves which curle on the current of rivers those gentle western blasts which bear comfort and health on their wings those huge theatres of seas that vast extent of plains those meteors so artificially varied those little eyes of heaven which shew themselves so soon as night spreads its mantle on the inferiour regions of the world all that is seen all that is heard all that is touched all that is handled cease not to recount unto us the love of our Father One must never have seen the sun not to have love for God he must have lived like a hog with his head in the mire and his eyes in a trough to say he knoweth not what the Divinity is To speak truly this great starre is the visible sonne of the first Bright the Image of the sovereign King the eye of the world the heart of nature it daily speaketh to us out of the gates of the East with as many tongues as it hath raies This great supervisor of the fornaces of the universe travelleth throughout totall nature He lighteth up the stars in heaven he createth crowns and rain-bowes in the air on earth flowers and fruits in the sea pearls and in the bosome of rocks saphires and diamonds he throws fire and vigour into all living creatures his presence causeth alacrity and his absence insensibly horrour and melancholy in all nature His motion so rapid his circumvolution so even that so regular harmony of nights and dayes those reflections which are as fathers of so many Essences set the whole Divinity before our eyes O what a goodly thing it is to talk face to face with those great forrests which are born with the world to discourse with the murmur of waters the warbling of birds in the sweetnesse of solitude and of so many creatures which according to S. Denis are the veils and Tapistries of the great Temple There it is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã S. Dyonisius c. 1. Hierar coelestis where God accoasteth on all sides where our soul is stirred up with its own thoughts dischargeth it self of matter and entreth into a great commerce with Intelligencies When I behold all the perquisites of Organs where Musick is in perfection I stay not on the Iron Lead Wood the Piper nor on the bellows my spirit flyeth to that hidden spirit which distributeth it self with so melodious proportionable divisions throughout the whole Instrument So when I contemplate the world I stick not on the body of the Sun the stars the elements the stones the metals the plants nor the living creatures I penetrate into that secret spirit which insinuateth it self thereunto with such admirable power such ravishing sweetnesse and incomparable ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Synesiâo Quod colimus nos Deus unus est qui totam molem istaÌ cum instrumento elementorum corporum spirituum expressit in ornamentum majestatis suae Tertul. Apol c. 17. Harmony I infinitely love him because he is fair since he made all the beauties which are presented before mine eyes Because he is good because he is wise since he communicateth himself with so much profusion since he so well tempered the consonancies of the whole world I love him because I know he is mine and I am wholly his Were I not touched with his beauty his wisdome his goodnesse perpetually his benefits would soften my heart Me thinks I meet him every where with a hundred arms and as many hands to do me good I neither see place room time or moment which is not figured with his liberalities I am clothed with his wooll fed with his Granary warm'd with his wood served by his Officers I live in him I breathe by him I have nothing which is not his Inheritance It is neither Father nor Mother great one Lord or King which gave me wealth honour and estate Well they may be instruments of my happinesse but they are not the cause They were nothing for so many years They came into the world as poor as I they daily return from it into dust I feel my necessities and dependences and I know they cannot be supplyed but by a necessary and independent Essence We must not say we have not commerce enough with him great things are for the little and the rich The commerce of man with God S. Maximus Cent. 5 ex vatiis Deum extra se effici creaturis omnibus providendo Melinra sunt ubera tua vino Can 1. Quia vinum exprimitur cum la bore in torculari ubèra sponte fluunt for the necessitous See we not that heaven is all for the earth doth it cause one sprig of an herb to grow in it self produceth it one sole flower among its stars It giveth all it hath and is perpetually content with what it is So God is all for us as if man were his God saith S. Thomas If we be miserable he is not therefore disdainfull if he be high he is not therefore far distant from our inferiour condition He is all in all things ever present continually doing somewhat He hath dugs of bounty which put him to pain if he stream not upon us We see him to come from all parts and his approch is not mute for the best part of us is spirituall which maketh commerce easie unto us with a God who is all spirit How often find we our soul to be raised above it self and to be transported with thoughts knowledges lights joyes pleasures consolations hopes confidences courages and antipasts of glory which we acknowledge to be above our strength It is God then who worketh by them in us who enters into our soul as a Master into his house who becomes our guest our friend our Doctour and our Protectour We need not seek for him in heaven he is in our heart saith the Emperour Antonine and there he uttereth his oracles There it is where he enterteineth us and teacheth us we are his children and reserveth for us an admirable inheritance When it was said to little Nabuchodonozor who was exposed in his infancy and bred up in the house of Glossa in Danielem a Peasant whose son he took himself to be Courage child you are not made to drive Oxen and till the ground there is another profession expecteth you you are the son of a great Prince who keeps the prime kingdome of the world for you These raggs must be changed into
and Sanctity which is an eternal rule that looketh round about on every side condemneth and censureth the works of darknesse For as in things artificiall all the perfection of works consist in the conformity they have with the rule of the art which made them and all their imperfection proceedeth from their recesse from the same rule which without speech or motion declareth the defects of manufactures that depart from its direction so all the good and all the beauty of moral actions is in the correspondence they hold with Reason and the eternall Law As all their deformity and mishap comes from their departure from this same law which is the Justice the Holinesse and Essence of God himself who perpetually stands in opposition against iniquity It is it which he drenched in the waters of the deluge whicâ he burnt in the ashes of Sodom which he swallowed in the gulf of Core Dathan and Abiram which he tormented by the plagues of Pharaoh which he gnawed by worms in the person of Herod which he consumed by ordure and stenches in Antiochus which he punished with gibbets and tormenting wheels in so many offenders which he still tortureth to all eternity sunk down into the abysse of the damned and it is out of which he produceth his glory whence he raiseth his trophies and makes his triumphs to be by Essence and Nature a perpetuall enemy and a destroyer of sinne O magnificent hatred O glorious enemy O triumphant persecution Let us enter with God into this community of glory let us hate sinne as he doth by him and for him let us destroy it in our selves by penance let us destroy it out of our selves by our good examples let us destroy it by a good resolution since Jesus hath destroyed it with so much pain and bloud How can we love such a monster but by hating God And how can we hate God but by making our selves worse then devils For if they hate him they hate an avenging God a punishing God And we will hate a God that seeks us a loving God and hate him after so many execrable punishments of sinne which we nave before our eyes and hate him after he hath offered himself up for us in the great sacrifice of love and patience Is not this intollerable We will employ some part of our life to revenge an injury and to hate a man as if we had too much of it to hate sinne we make a shew to honour the Master and wee kill his servants we make profession to adore the Creatour and we tear his images asunder Where are we and what do we when we make a divorce between our likes to disunite our selves from the first Unity which draweth all to it self by union §. 3 That Jesus grounded all the greatest Mysteries of our Religion upon Vnion to cure Hatred LEt us also contemplate our second model let us behold our Jesus and we shall learn that all the greatest mysteries of his life and death are mysteries of Union to unite us to him to unite us to his Father to unite us to our selves with sacred and indissoluble bands First all creatures of this great Universe were made Heb. 1. â Locut us est nobis in Filio quem constituit haeredem universorum per quem fecit secula by the Word in the Unity of Beginning He spake to us by his Sonne whom he hath established the heir of the whole universe by whom likewise he created the worlds Secondly all the parts of this great All were so streightly tyed one to the other that they never have suffered the least disunion and although many seem to have antipathy and reciprocally to pursue each other yet they will not be separated but joyn together in a manner so adherent that he who should go about to disunite one Element from another all these great pieces of the world would infinitely strive beyond their quality to replenish its place worthily and to leave nothing void And it is a wonder that from the beginning of the Aeterno complectitur omnia nexu Tot retum mistique salus concordia mundi Lucan l. 4. Plin. l. 36. cap. 17. world all things are held together by this Divine Tie Concord which in its union causeth the happinesse of the world and those sacred influences of love hath woven eternall chains to tie indissolubly all the parts of the universe All this great body resembleth the stone Scyrus which floateth on the water while it is whole and sinks into the bottome so soon as it is broken This is the cause why all creatures have from all times conspired and do still daily conspire with inviolable inclinations in the maintenance of this concord that the celestiall and elementary world may subsist in a state unchangeable There is none but Angel and Man in the intellectuall world who have made false accords and have begun to sow division the one in Heaven the other in the terrestriall Paradise He who placed it in heaven is banished into the abysse without recovery Joh. 17. 21. Ut omnes unum sint sicut tu Pater in me ego in te the other is succoured by a Redeemer who came to restore the lost world and he in Saint John professeth he aimed at nothing but Unity to make this reparation For this cause saith S. Maximus he united himself S. Max. secunda cent 146. 147. to humane Nature not by a simple union of will of love and of correspondence but by the ineffable knot of Hypostaticall union conjoyning two Natures in one sole Person and by making a communication of all he is to his humane Nature transplanted into the Divine For this he likewise doth daily unite himself to us in the Sacrament of the Altar a true Sacrament of Love where if we will speak with S. Cyril we ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Cyril in Johan say that God is dissolved into us as one piece of wax melted and poured together with another and if we will reason with S. John Chrysostome we say He Chrys hom 46. in Johan ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã giveth us his virginall flesh as a most sacred Leaven to season the whole masse of Humane nature It is that which in us should work that virtue which the great Areopagite calleth a Conformity of affections and manners drawing near to Divinity It is that which giveth the name of peace to the holy Eucharist with S. Cyprian and that which so united the Christians in Cyp. ep 10. 29. 30. Dare pacem lapsis the Primitive Church that they went from this mysterious Table as from a banquet of Love after which they breathed nothing but most pure flames of perfect Vide ut invicem se diligant vide ut pro alterutro moti sint parati Tertul. in Apol. amity whereat the Pagans who saw them cryed out See how they love one another Behold how ready they are to die one for another as we have
bloud But never would a remedy absolutely efficacious be had therein were it not that the King who is the true Arbiter of honour and distributer of glories did not pour a strong influence of his spirit upon the Marshals of France those great Captains and all the brave men who wield a sword by which he lively and powerfully perswadeth the whole nobility that this opinion conceived of the valour of those who fight Duels is a mere illusion since it may be common to lackies and to the most abject conditions Besides there is need of a strong and speedy military justice to accord differences of men of war and to chastise so many petty insolencies which seem to arise from nought but to put affronts on men of honour Otherwise it is hard to perswade a sword-man to forbear revenge seeing himself provoked byoutrages which would make him to live dishonoured according to tho world in his profession and as for these slight souldiers of Cad mus whose fingers itch and who ground Duels upon the wind of a word to let the world know they are tyed to a sword It were very good to send them into armies and to recommend them to some prudenr Captain who may put them into some good occasion to make triall of their courage and to give information of them that either their cowardise may be punished or their valour approved It seems to me that these proceedings being well observed might be of power to stifle this fatall plague which hath caused so many mischiefs For we must not wholly take away point of honour from the nobility no more then from women Now as virtuous women account it not a point of honour to be faithfull to an Amorist but to a husband so it is nor fit that reall gentlemen should think themselves valiant by the practise of a crime but by the exercise of a virtue As the first invention of Duels grew out of an opinion of point of honour so must it dye by a true judgement of honour which proceedeth not so much from Doctours as Captaines When the Gladiatours were in vogue and that it was accounted a glorious thing to descend into the Amphitheatre to fight against men and beasts all the world was inflamed therewith as with fury and not so much as women but would be partakers This manner of massacres also bare sway sometimes in the times of Christianity untill the Emperour Honorius who buried them after so many eloquent tongues had to Princes and Magistrates represented the horrour of those so barbarous actions so we ought to hope that the King to whom God hath given the plenitude of so many and so admirable blessings will cultivate the Palm which he already hath planted by his victory over Duels and will cover under earth and forgetfulnesse this infamy of mankind I satisfie my self with giving this advice having treated on this subject in the second Tome of the Holy Court § 5. Naturall and Morall Remedies against this Passion IF you require remedies and instructions both Naturall and Morall against Hatred Know that the Philosophers who consider all according to the course of Nature teach us that some have rebated and blunted the points of this cold and maligne Passion one while by living with hot and moist viands another while by consideration of the joyes and prosperities which God hath given them in divers negotiations and accidents of affairs thinking it not teasonable to employ the time in hatred which was too short to enjoy the benignities of heaven Others have cured themselves by conversation with good company which is one of the sweetest charms of life Others by hope and the desire they had to derive favour from the self-same party who had offended them another while also by a courteous interpretation of words and actions which had raised the same hatred Lastly by the change of those whom they hated before seeing them rather to be raised in great innocency or fallen into deep miseries which made them derive from mercy that satisfaction they could not expect from revenge But if they from nature have begged some comfort for their passion and have not been frustrated of their attempt in the practise of the means How much better helps have we then they ever had since that besides those naturall remedies which are not alwayes certain we have the grace and example of Jesus Christ Will you efficaciously remedy Hatred Learn not Who loves himself overmuch hath no friend to love your self so passionately as you do For that is the cause that you make of your self a little Idoll and that the least word which seems to be let slip against you many times not of purpose nor with intention grieveth you as if by displeasing your Chymeras a Divinity were offended That is the cause that you have burning and enraged desires towards money and the frivolous honour of the world so that one cannot touch you on this side but he strikes the apple of your eye Learn as a wholesome instruction those words of the Prophet Aggeus You have hastned to go into Agg. 1. Festinatis unusquisque in domum suam propterea prohibiti sunt coeli ne darent rorem your own house with contempt of mine for which cause I have stayed the clouds in the heavens from distilling down their dew upon the earth So long as you love your self so much you shall never have love nor friends So long as you think upon nothing but to raise your house and fortune on the ruines of the houses and fortunes of others you shall be deprived of the dew of heaven which is that Consolation of the just which they find in charity Secondly make account to compose your self to a Exercise of patience noble exercise of patience which is to tolerate the defects and imperfections of your like beholding them not on the side where they do you wrong but on that where they have connexion with God and upon every offence you receive say This man is troublesome but he is the image of God He is violent but it is he must crown my patience He is vicious but he is my flesh and bloud Let us hate his vice but love the man although he deserve it not Let us love him in the heart of God since we cannot love him out of his own merit S. John kissed the hand of an Apostate and a Thief covered all over with bloud to oblige him by whom he was traiteroufly disobliged and I cannot shew the least token of amity towards one who hath spoken one cold word to me S. Katharine sucked away the matter and filth of the ulcer of an infamous slanderer who had detracted her with all manner of virulence after infinite many benefits and I cannot endure so much as to see one who hath displeased me as if Haec est porta per quam quis ingreditur in Sanctum sanctorum inaccessae pulchritudinis spectator dignus constituitur S. Max.
de concent l. 38. I were created to live free from all worldly contrarieties I who commit so many fins on the other part will to day do an act of virtue in honour of my Master and in despite of passion Let us go to heaven by love since we cannot go thither by sufferings This is the true gate by which we enter into the sanctuary eternally to enjoy the sight of the inaccessible beauties of the holy and regall Trinity Hear you not the God of peace who saith to us If thou O unhappy soul wilt still persist in Hatred I pronounce unto thee the six punishments of Cain Banishment from the sight of God fear stupidity of mind the life of a beast the malediction of the earth and as Procopius addeth persecuting Angels armed with swords of fire who shall pursue thee like spectres and spirits in all places and shall make themselves visible and dreadfull to thee at the last day of thy life Behold here deservedly thy inheritance since being mortall thou makest thy enemies immortall and dost still persecute the afflicted widow and her children who are become orphans after the death of a husband and a father whom thou hatest The strongest enmities oft-times are appeased at the sight of a dead body and a tomb which we find exemplified in Josephus for Alexander was extremely hated by the Jews as having reigned over them with a rod of Iron But when death had closed up his eyes and that the Queen his wife most sorrowfully presented Joseph l. 3. c. 23. A notable example to appease hatred her self accompanied by two young children and exposed the body of her husband saying aloud Sirs I am not ignorant that my husband hath most unworthily used you but see to what death hath brought him if you be not satisfied tear his body in pieces and satisfie your own revenge but pardon a deplorable widow and her little innocent orphans who implore your mercy The most salvage spirits were so softned by this act that all their hatred turned into pity yet you Barbarian still persist to hate a man after his death to persecute him in a part of himself to tear him in pieces in his living members O good God if you renounce not this revenge you will be used like Cain as an enemy of mankind and a hang-man of Nature O flame O love O God! As thou art dispersed throughout us by love so banish all these cursed Hatreds of Hell and make us love all in thy goodnesse to possesse all in thy fruition § 6 Of the profit may be drawn from Hatred and the course we must hold to be freed from the Danger of being Hated THere now remains to consider here what profit may be derived from hatred and with what Oeconomy Utility of hatred it may be husbanded to render it in some sort profitable and in case it be hurtfull to prevent its assaults and sweeten its acerbities If the industry of men found out the way to make preservitives out of the most dangerous poysons why should it be impossible for us to make some notable utilities to arise out of a passion which seems not to be created but for the dammage and ruine of all things yet it is certain that Nature which never is idle in its productions hath given it us for a great good For it may serve love well rectified in its pretentions it furnisheth it with centinels and light-horse to hinder that which opposeth its inclination and to ruine all contrarieties banded against its contentments How often would Nature throw it self out of stupidity into uncertain dangers and most certain mischiefs were it not that naturall a version did awaken it did avert it from its misery and insensibly shew it the place of repose Is it not a wholesome Hatred to hate Pride Ryot Ambition and all ill Habits Is it not a reasonable Hatred discreetly to fly from maladies crosses incommodities which hurt the body and nothing advantage the mind This passion which in the beginning seemed so hideous teacheth us all this When it is well managed it conspireth against others by an according Discord to the lovely Harmony of totall Nature One may say there is happinesse and advantage to hate many things but what profit can one find in passive Hatred which makes a man many times to be hated and ill wished without cause or any demerit To that I answer with Saint Ambrose that it is That it is good to be honestly loved good to avoid such a kind of Hatred that it is fit to make ones self to be beloved with all honour by good men and to gain as much as possible the good opinion of all the world thereby to render glory to God as Rivers carry their tribute to the Ocean A publick Bonum est testimonium habere de multorum dilectione hinc nascitur fides ut committere se tuo affectul non vereatut alienus quem charum advertit pluribus Ambr. l. 2. offic c. 7. Means to gain the good will of the publick person who is in the employments and commerce of the great world may have all the treasures of the Indies and all the dignities of old Rome but if he have not the love and good-will of men I account him most indigent and poor Thence it is that confidence taketh beginning without which there is no fortune maketh any notable progression nor affair which can have such successe as might be expected It is infinitely profitable for great men that they may divert the Hatred of the people to have innocency of life greatnesse without contempt of inferiours revenues without injustice riches without avarice pleasures without ryot liberty without tyranny and splendour without rapine All the rich who live in the society of men as Pikes called the tyrants of rivers in the company of other fishes to ruine devour and fatten themselves with the bloud of the commons are ordinarily most odious but as there is a certain fish which Elians History calleth the Adonis of the Sea because Adonis an admirable fish Aelian l. 9. c. 16. de animal it liveth so innocently that it toucheth no living thing strictly preserving peace with all the off-spring of the sea which is the cause it is beloved and courted as the true darling of waters so we find in the world men of honour and estate who came to eminent fortunes by pure and innocent wayes wherein they demeaned themselves with much maturity sweetnesse and affability which put them into the possession of the good opinion of all the world But those who are hated ought diligently and carefully to consider from whence this hatred proceedeth and by what wayes it is fomented that fit remedies may thereunto be applyed There is a hatred which cometh from equals another How hatred is to be diverted from inferiours a third from great ones and sometimes from powerfull and subtile women which is little to be feared That which proceedeth
to feast his guests in his own house Forget not in the time of fair weather to prevent the stonn of humane accidents and dayly think how you may put your self under covert within your self but which is more into the bosome of God When Gyges his ring was turned towards the world it made him visible to all there present but when he drew it back towards himself he became invisible and impregnable against such as wished him ill If your quality cause you to look towards the world and pompously to propose you to the eyes of beholders remember you must have a Retreat and innocent invisibilities to vindicate your self from the throng of importunacies When you shall have well-grounded the matter of your contentments then neglect not the form and fashion of them Imitate not those who on a sudden drench and drown themselves in pleasure with a voluntary drunkennesse which presently deprives them of all pleasure Distill your joyes like unto a heavenly dew moisten your heart but overflow it not otherwise it is to be feared in such as are of a very soft temper lest the approch of excessive joy may cause a great evaporation of spirit and leave the heart destitute of heat and vigour which caused Zouxes the painter to die laughing as he beheld the rough draught of an old woman which he was a finishing and the Poet Philemon by seeing an Asse that came to eat figs on his Table Howsoever it be distaste sticks to the extremes of the greatest pleasures as Cantharides on the fairest Roses Resemble not those who overflow in their favours who publish their own prosperities and tell them to all the world which raiseth them many envious and maligue spirits who stirre up tempests in their imaginary tranquillity Rejoyce said an antient in your bosome do all the good you practise from morning till night with pleasure and when any misadventure befalleth you ever think it is a great favour from God it went no further and that the divine providence is satisfied with a little hurt Call sometimes to your memory the ill daies and dangers you have escaped by the goodnesse of God that you with the more gust may taste your repose If you be fortunate hold you there and be not like the dog in the Fable who let go his piece of flesh to catch a shadow The foolish Idolaters of Egypt after they had Courted their god Apis in so many studied fashions after they had found him with so much satisfaction after they had received him with so much applause killed him to put another in his place That is it which all senselesse worldly spirits do they disturb their own pleasures and themselves to live to become the conquest of a Chymera of honour or of some pleasing thing which keeps them in a perpetuall famine You are permitted to love the gifts of God to derive a little tribute of contentment out of all creatures to restore it to the Authour to avoid discontented humour spirits troublesome and complaining to please your self with good Company But if you desire to know the mystery of mystenes in pleasure understand you shall never find it but when you shall learn to rejoyce in tribulations out of a desire you have to conform your self to Jesus Christ That is the joy which all the Saints have studied with pain have found with delight and have tasted with glory That is it which Saint Peter calleth The ineffable and the glorified That which S. Jrmes said contained the Exultabitis laetitiâ inenarrabili glorificatâ 1 Pet 1. 8 Omâe gaudium Jac. 1. 2. consummation of all comforts That which Saint Paul found in Caverns S. Laurence on the Gridiron S. Katharine on the wheel S. Apolonia in flames Lastly That which cometh from the throne of the Lamb and which with its eternall streams watereth all the plants of Paradise The sixth Treatise Of SADNESSE § 1. It s Description Qualities and the Diversity of those who are turmoiled with this Passion A Wise man said that man entreth into life as The Essence and Image of Sadnesse Cujus initium caecitas obtinet progressum labor dolor exitum error omnia Petrarch de remediis into a Career where in the beginning blindnesse putteth a scarf over his eyes then delivers him over to labour which giveth him a heavie stone to roll all the length of the life labour placeth him in the hands of sorrow and Sadnesse sorrow which properly is a dislike had against objects contrary to its inclination exerciseth him principally in the body Sadnesse which is a passion of the reasonable Appetite that filleth the heart with acerbity by the privation of amiable objects and by the representation of things grievous and opposite to Nature works upon the soul which it incessantly afflicteth Some are slowly wasted by perpetuall languours others are many times seised on with so much violence that they suddenly dye of it as it happened to a son of Gilbert Duke of Montpensier who yielded up the ghost on the Tomb of his father This passion hath for nurse softnesse of spirit seeing a soft soul is ordinarily eaten by anxiety and gnawn by perplexity as iron is consumed by Rust It is seated in Melancholy for the Melancholick are they who most feel the burdens of life the spirit being deprived of alacrity which useth to season things the most bitter Faintnesse and discouragement are ever by its sides to torment it because they are the two passions which dry up the Humidum radicale quench the heate drain the source of spirits and constitute the whole state of its mischief Round about it fly cares discontentments and annoyes since these are its companions and most ordinary enterteinments The heart of it is filled with an infinite number of desires being our discontentments do multiply according to the measure of our desires and that he who desireth nothing quarrels at no body nor is impatient at the burdens which the providence of God layeth on his shoulders It liveth on gall as being nourished by continuall acerbities It looketh back farre off after contentment which flieth from it insomuch as its onely torments consisteth in desiring and not enjoying It beholdeth it self in a pond of standing water because such are the objects of sadnesse which the impatient set before their eyes to stirre up in them many troubled and uncollected fantasies Lastly it is one while little crouching and loutish with a countenance of lead and weeping eyes another while also it is furious enflamed and fietfull to signifie unto us two sorts of impatient men whereof the one silently bites the bridle having no means to come to the end of their pretentions and the other breaks out into extraordinary fury with intention to tear asunder the obstacles which oppose their designs Behold the picture of sadneste drawn out of Philosophy and reason Now I may well adde following the conceits of the wise that I see infinite many in this picture who have
Essence and appertenances thereof HOpe is the gate of a great Pallace replenished with riches It is in my opinion the place The Image and nature of Hope which Tertullian termeth when he calls it the portresse of Nature It looketh on and considers upon one side pearls which are as yet in the shell and Naturae jaâtricem on the other upon Roses in the midst of thorns which it thinks it may enjoy with some labour Such is the nature of Hope according to S. Thomas It is a motion of the S. Thom. 1. 2 q. 40. art 2. appetite which followeth the knowledge one hath of a good future possible and somewhat difficult It hath two arms with which it endeavoureth to pursue and embrace objects whereof the one is called Desire and the other Belief to be able to obtain what one desireth Thus doth learned Occham define it It is not sufficient Occham quodlibeto 3. q 9. to say that a thing is beautifull pleasing and profitable to create Hope unlesse it be shewed it is possible and that one may arrive thereunto by certain wayes which are not out of his power who hopeth So Hope if it be reasonable hath ordinarily wisdome strength eloquence amity and money for it for these are the things which raise its courage At the gates of passion we see huge heaps of people of all manner of dispositons who flatter it and behold it of one side lovers who seek for a mate For Philo said it was the virtue of lovers on âhilo lib. Quod deterius c. the other side Courtiers who run after favour on the other aspirers who canvas for offices and dignities on the other Laborours and Merchants but above all there are many young-men bold and resolute who therein have a great share because as saith Aristotle they Arist l. 2. Rhet. c. 12. have little of the past and much of the future Or as S. Gregory Nazianzen affirmeth for that nothing is Nazian de vita sua ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã hard to a fervent spirit Moreover it sitteth upon a Peacock and its face is encompassed with a Rainbowe by reason it infinitely charmeth and recreateth the minds of such as follow it by very pleasing semblances and as King Mithridates saith it hath I know not what kind Mithrid in epist Graecis of sweetnesse which pleaseth even then when it deceiveth but if you observe it you shall find it holdeth an Anchor in the right hand to fix the desire of the wise as on the contrary it carryeth in the left hand an enchanted mirrour wherein it letteth fools see a thousand slight trifles all which turn into smoke Pleasure waiteth on it whilst we hope for it is that which sweetneth all the labours of life and which serves for a spur to all great and generous actions But if it falls out that things happen not as they were figured in the imagination then are all these Courtiers delivered over to a furious Monster called Despair which drags them down to the foot of a mountain and oft-times drencheth them in gulphs and precipices Behold in few words the nature definition difference composition object subject the causes and the effects of hope Let us now see how we may govern this Motion § 2. That one cannot live in the world without Hope and what course is to be held for the well ordering of it THey are of too haughty a strain who never friendly entertein Hope and think there is no life for them if Felicity be not alwayes at their gate The condition of creatures is such that all their blessings never come to them all at one It were to go about to expresse a word without letters to compose a happinesse without joyes and contentments succeeding one another How can hope be banished from earth sith Heaven which is so well content hath not renounced it The blessed souls after the vision of God do yet hope something which is the Resurrection of their bodies to which they most ardently wish to be reunited those which are represented under the Altar in the Apocalypse who ask vengeance Apoc. 6. of their blood at the tribunall of the Divine Justice are instantly clothed with white garments in token of this most bright flesh which is to be joyned to their immortall spirits Heaven which expecteth nothing for the perfection of its beauties ceaseth not to revolve each moment of the day and night to diversifie them But we must confesse that earth is the place of Hopes which are as seeds of our Felicities from whence it cometh that what the Grecians call to some we name it to hope Our soul here resembleth the Sperare ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã First Matter which is perpetually enamoured of new forms and as the understanding of Angels according to the saying of a great Philosopher is all that which it ought to be from the beginning and becometh not Carolus Bovilus de intellectu humano Angelico new at all Contrariwise Humane understanding is nothing in the beginning and becomes all in processe of time So our will is like unto white Writing-tables wherein we easily write or blot out all we will The estate of perfection must be expected to imprint it with a lasting Character So many young plants so many little living creatures so many children so many imperfections so many wishes warn us that we may live here with hope we have so little of time present that we are enforced to dilate our selves upon the future This insensibly delighteth us and stirs us as Trees which seem to take pleasure to be rocked by the winds It being resolved that we necessarily must expect and hope The good husbanding of hopes whilst we are in the world It remaineth to consider how we may well employ this passion in hoping good things and hoping them by wayes very direct and in an orderly manner First It is a shamefull thing to say there are such who hope all that which is to be feared One promiseth himself the death of a Kinsman the other the confusion of a family another to seduce some silly maid another to debauch a married wife another to satisfie his revenge another to scrape together as much as his avarice can wish and so many other things which are most unhappy Hopes the successe whereof God sometimes permitteth when he will chastise wicked men What a horrour is it to hope for crimes and to feed ones self with anothers evils as if one sought nourishment from coals and serpents If our thoughts be not alwayes so high as the glory of heaven at least let us not abase them so low as Hell If they cannot be divine let them not be inhumane let them ty themselves to blessings permitted and not to objects so unworthy One may expect wealth children health knowledge honour an office a marriage and so many other things which are commodious for humane life without desiring disasters
had some particular favours from heaven to authorize their actions and to make men believe they had somewhat above man So Moses Joshuah Deborah Gedeon Samson David Solomon and so many others sent by God for the government of his people came with certain characters of his Divinity which gave them an admirable confidence and framed in their souls notable perswasions of their own abilities And it is a thing very remarkable that such as were not in the way of true Religion and who consequently could not have those assistances and singular protections from heaven sought at the least to fortifie themselves with some semblances All which filled Alexander with Boldnesse was that they had perswaded him he was of Divine extraction and that this belief had seized on the souls of the credulous people which was the cause that he was looked on as a man wholly celestiall destinated to the Empire of the world It is thought that Pyrrhus A notable observation of Pyrrhus who imitated him shewed his teeth in great secret to his friends on the upper row whereof the word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã was engraven and on the lower ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as much as to say He was a King as generous as a lion but that which most made this Elogy good was that these letters were thought to be formed by a Divine hand to give a testimony from heaven of the greatnesse of this Monarch And this being spread among the people it made them to expect prodigious things from him Augustus Cesar who changed the face of the Common-wealth into Empire mounted on the Throne of the Universe by the same means For it is said Adolphus Occo that his father Octavius whilst he sacrificed in a wood having shed a little wine on the Altar there came a flame from it which flew up to heaven whereon the Augur foretold him he should have a son who should Suetonius 9 be Emperour of the world It is added that this Prince being yet very young in his child-hood played Presages of the generosity of Cesar with Eagles and made frogs to cease their croaking by a silly command and that as he entred into Rome after the death of Julius Cesar the Sunne was Dio Ziphilinus in Augusto encompassed with a Rainbowe as a presage of the great Peace he should produce in the Roman Empire Vespatian had never dared to aspire to the Empire Cornel. Tac. histor l. 2. without the favour of presages and namely of that which happened to him on Mount Carmel when sacrificing in the same place and being in a great perplexity of mind what resolution he should make in this affair the Priest bad him to be of good courage and the secret hopes of his heart should have very good successe The world hath not been content to afford Elogies of the City of Rome these favours to men alone but it hath also given it to famous places Rome for good lucks sake was termed among other titles Valence by the name of Valour Solinus l. 1. Gergyrhius and Cephale as much as to say Head to shew it Ammianus l. 15. c. 6. should be the Head of the world Presently also it was flattered with the opinion of its Eternity so that many termed it the Eternall City which was the cause that the Romans in their greatest desolations would never forsake the place It appears out of all this that men having not the power to be ignorant of their own weaknesses never think themselves strong enough if they have not some I know not what of Divinity wherefore we must conclude that the true means to have a generous and solid boldnesse is to be well with God and to tie ones The most bold are such as have a clear conscience self to this most pure spirit by purity of heart for if a little opinion of Divine favour so much encouraged Kings and People what will not the testimony of a good Conscience do The Egyptians amidst so many plagues from heaven Sap. 17. Ipsi ergò sibi tenebris graviores eraut and that dreadfull night which took away their first-born children were dejected and couched low on the earth without any spark of courage because their evill Conscience was more weighty upon them then all their miseries as the Book of Wisdome observeth What assurance can one have in perils when after Carnifiâc occulto in authorem sceleris tormenta deserviunt Peleg ad Demetr S. Basil in Isa ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he hath committed some crime he feeleth a little Executioner in his heart with pincers and hooks of iron Contrariwise a good Conscience is well compared by S. Basil to that little Kell which environeth the heart and which continually refresheth it with its wholesome waters to signifie unto us that the heart of a good man abides in perpetuall solace which among dangers preserveth it from disturbances I ask you with what assurance stood the good Malchus Hieron in Malcho with his holy wife at the entrance of the lions den when of one side the glittering sword was presented them and on the other they heard those savage beasts to roar and they notwithstanding remained immoveable With what arms but with those which S. Hierome gives them when he saith They were encompassed as Pudicitiae conscientiâ quasi muro septi with a strong wall which they found in the testimony of their innocency whereof they were most certain With what confidence went S. Macarius to lie in the sepulchres of Pagans and wholly fearlesse himself to strike terrour into the spirits of the damned was it not the assurance of his holy life which furnished his heart with all this resolution And shall we then doubt but that the true means to be replenished with a holy Courage is to set the Conscience in good order and to make entire Confession of sinnes to preserve ones self afterward in all possible purity from our infirmities § 5. That Jesus hath given us many Pledges of a sublime Confidence to strengthen our Courage LEt us next contemplate our second Model and consider a thing very remarkable which is that Jesus Christ acquired us Boldnesse by his ãâã Jesus Christ who putteth us into a holy dread by the consideration of his greatnesse hath acquired us boldnesse by his proper fear These are the words of great S. Leo I have borrowed fear from thee and I S. Leo hom de Pass have furnished thee with my confidence He expresly would admit the agony of Mount Olivet in his sacred Humanity to encourage our pusillanimity that we in mildnesse being Lambs might become Lions by courage and this is the course he hath observed in all his actions in this great contexture of pains and dolours of Christus venit suscipere infirmitates nostras suas nobis conferre virtutes humana quaerere praestare divina accipere injââias reddere dignitates quia medicus qui
Titanians O senslesse man canst thou not be bold but from the presumption of thy strength And hast thou not yet learned that the things which according to the opinion of the world are most strong are confounded by the weakest Lions have been fed upon by flies and wretched rust wasteth the hardest metals If we must be bold let it be in things honest let it be for virtue for verity for Gods cause Should the heavens Si tactus illabatur orbis impavidum serient ruinae Quadratum lapidem qua verteris stat Aug. in Psal 86. fall in thunder-claps upon our heads their ruines have not power to astonish a mind courageous Turn a square stone which way you will it never stands immoveable upon the solidity of its Basis said S. Augustine One would have me do an ill act and if I consent not thereto I am threatned with the losse of a suit of a ruine of my affairs and with poverty the worst scourge of all Let my enemies vomit forth all their rage on me they cannot make me poorer then I was when I was born I came not into the world glittering with precious stones and it was not gold which instead of bloud ran up and down my veins let poverty come against me with all the train of its terrours When I behold on the Crosse a God all naked who in his nakednesse We must fearnothing in the world to the prejudice of our soul giveth all things I say we should account it a glory to die poor for a God so despoiled They threaten me with banishment the Spirit of God teacheth me not to care what land be under my feet when my eyes are fixed on heaven and on the most blessed repose of the living which concludeth all evils in a beatitude infinite They threaten me with imprisonment fetters gibbets and death the terrible of terribles I expect not till it fall on me I look on it afar off with an eye strucken with the first rayes of felicity What can death take from me but a miserable carcasse subject to a thousand deaths but a life of pismires and flies And what can it bring unto me but a cessation from so many relapsing actions and from a wretched embroilment which every day endeth not but to begin again O how little are all things mortall with him who looks on a God immortall I will walk in the shades of death with a firm footing and a confident countenance since it cannot separate me from the source of Lives The eleventh Treatise Of SHAMEFACTNESSE § 1. The Decency of Shamefac'tnesse its Nature and Definition SHamefac'tnesse is a humane Passion more reasonable then the rest because being properly Shamefac'tnesse a very reasonable Passion A fear of Dishonour it makes distinction between that which is decent or undecent laudable or blame-worthy glorious or infamous which appertaineth to the Court-hall of Judgement and Reason It hath this priviledge that Its sources honour and conscience it takes its Origin from two very eminent sources which are Conscience and Honour seeing the things which cause shame in us are ordinarily vitious or naught in the common understanding of men Conscience which according to S. Thomas is a naturall habitude that exciteth us to good and maketh 1 Part. q. 80 us to disapprove evil insensibly stirreth in us shame so soon as any of our thoughts actions or words transgresse its laws Honour on the other side casts forth a ray from the circuit of its glory which visibly figureth The love of reputation is a strong spurre unto us the blemishes that darken its beauty The love of Reputation is powerfull It seems to be some Atome of Divinity which enters into hearts the most generous makes men very desirous to be well esteemed thinking by this means to lead a pleasing life in the minds of many which is much more prized then the life of bodies seeing there are some who daily sacrifice themselves for Punctillio's of Honour to bloudy deaths in the most exalted heighth of their prosperity This reputation pompously marchethe before Conquerours and causeth a million of Trumpets to be sounded to make them famous It cultivateth the verdant Laurels of great Captains It encourageth the most heartlesse souldiers to Combat It cherisheth the learned and sweetneth the toils of their pens It awakeneth arts It raiseth the most excellent Ladies as it were on the wing of Glory by singularpraises of their Chastity It entreth into places the most infamous as the ray of the Sun into a puddle and makes even those who have renounced Honour still to seek some rag of Renown to cover their reproach S. Augustine saith S August in Psal 19. Herostratus and others Non sum tantus ut sim contentus conscientia mea Ambr. l. 1. Offic. c. 48. men are so ready to make themselves to be known that those who cannot be known for their goodnesse make themselves many times to be talked of for their wickednesse as if they thought it were as good to be nothing as to see themselves deprived of the knowledge of the living S. Ambrose saith admirably well I am not so great a man as to be satisfied with my own Conscience I have this infirmity that I cannot endure the least stain of shame without washing it off This is the cause that the whole world endeavoureth to preserve for it self as much as it can an inviolable estimation among so many different opinions of judgements passions favours disgraces interests and revolutions of the world Manners saith S. Bernard have their colours and their odours which are good examples So soon as Reputation is wounded by the object of some dishonour the soul is moved all the bloud is stirred spreading it self over the face with a ruddinesse as if it proceeded from this wound It is a favour from heaven when we have our senses tender in this kind and I find the antient Oratour Demades spake ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Demades right when he said Shamefac'tnesse was the Cittadel of Beauty and Virtue Likewise the Oracle of Doctours S. Augustine writeth that a more acceptable sacrifice we cannot give to devils then to offer them up Aug. Epist 202. our Shamefac'tnesse forsomuch as if that be once extinct there remains nothing but to expect a generall inundation of all wickednesse § 2. Divers kinds of Shamefac'tnesse NOw we must here observe that there are many kinds of Shamefac'tnesse one whereof is Holy Three kinds of shamefac'tnesse the other Humane and the other Evil. I say a holy Shamefac'tnesse as that which being a most faithfull companion of Chastity cannot endure the least thing Holy shamefac'tnesse contrary to this holy virtue but that it becomes much interessed therein This most evidently appeareth in so many good men in so many virtuous women and chaste virgins who cannot hear an unchaste word but that it fixeth a wound in their hearts Tertullian said Virginibus etiam ipsum
Forrests with bloud and massacres perpetually under their paws by naturall instinct quake at the thundering voyce of God Fishes in the bottome of seas and abysses with horrour hear it enraged tempests which seem ready to tear the world in pieces become silent at the command of the Highest and draw in their O maxime O summe invisibilium procreator opifex invise nullis unquam comprehense naturis dâgnus eâ verè si modò te dignum mortali dicendum est cre cui spirans omnis intelligénsque natura habere agere nunquam gratias desinat cui totâ conveniat vitâ genu nixo procumbere continuatis precibus suppiicà te Arnob. contra gentes wings under his throne waves and floods which make a shew not to regard this great All no more then a single Element dissolve their fury upon the sight of one silly grain of sand which imposeth a law on them by virtue of Gods ordinance The very divels all on Fire in the flames of their punishment which infinite misery seems to have exempted from fear can not free themselves from this sting O most mighty O most sovereign Lord of things visible and invisible O great Eye who seest all and art not seen by any here below Thou art truly worthy If we with mortall lips may call thee worthy yea worthy to whom all intelligent and reasonable Nature should give continuall thanks for thy inexplicable benefits worthy before whom we on our bended knees should all our life-time remain prostrate worthy that for thee we should have praises and prayers everlastingly on our lips And where is that brazen brow which dares to offend thee in the midst of thy Temple of this universe from whence thou on all sides beholdest us O what a monster is impudency if it persist insensible to such considerations § 5. Of the reverence which the holy Humanity of our Lord bare to his Eternall Father LEt us look on the other Modell and consider how The reverence Jesus bare to that divine Majesty Jesus Christ uncapable properly either of fear or Shamefac'dnesse caused by any defect observed all the dayes of his mortall conversation so lowly a reverence towards the divine Majesty that it serves for matter of admiration to all Angels and of example for all ages To understand this well I beseech you to take into your consideration two reasons that I will set before you which me thinks are well worthy of your ponderation First that the greatnesse of actions ought ever to be measured by the end for which God hath instituted them as if one prove that the actions of understanding are given us to raise us to the knowledge of God we by the same means infer that those actions are very noble since they are directed to an end so eminent Now wherefore think you was the eternall Word Incarnate in the womb of a holy Virgin I say that besides consideration of humane Redemption and the instruction of all mortals God covered himself with the flesh of man that there might by that means be a person in the world able to praise and honour God asmuch as he is praise-worthy and honourable by a nature create hypostatically joyned to the divine nature Philo in Philo de plantatione Noemi the Book of Noahs plantation saith that search was made through the world for a voyce suteable to the divine Majesty to speak and recount his praises and there was none found For although the sovereign Creatour hath been praised from the beginning of Ages by the morning starrs which are the Angels as saith Job Cum me laudarent astra matutina jubiâ larent omnes filii Dei Job 38. 5. yet we must say that all the praises which the highest Seraphims may give to the Divinity if we compare them to the merits of its incomparable greatnesse are like a Candle in comparison of the Sun a small drop of water parallell'd with the sea and an infant-like stutterer who should undertake to declare the prowesses of the most illustrious Cesars There needeth a lauding God a reverencing God and an adoring God to praise reverence and adore God worthily otherwise there were nothing sutable to his Divine Majesty there being no proportion between the finite and the Infinite And that which seemed to be impossible is accomplished in the person of Jesus Christ All reverences of Angels and men are dissolved into him as if one should melt many small Bells to make a great one And verily all creatures being dumb in his presence he made himself as a huge Bell of the great clock of the word which striketh the hours and resoundeth thanks to his heavenly Father All our reverences our homages our adorations have neither force dignity nor value if they be not united and incorporated with the homage submission and adoration which this glorious Humanity rendereth to his Celestiall Father even above the vaults of the Empereall Heaven This is the great Angel of Counsel of whom we may pronounce these words of the Apocalypse That he came to present himself Apoc. 8. 3. before the Altar having in his hand a golden Incensorie and much incense was given him that he might offer the prayers of holy Saints on this golden Altar The second reason is that the reverence and honour we do to one is justly augmented according as we more clearly know his great and worthy parts whereupon we may inferr that as our Saviour had knowledges and incomparable lights of the Majestie of his heavenly Father not onely in respect of science increate but of science beatifick and infused so had he proportionably resentments of honour so profoundly reverent that he perpetually lived absorpt in this reverence as a drop of water in the sea or a hot Iron in the fornace There was neither vein nor artery which was not every moment penetrated and overflowed with the veneration he yeilded to God his Father Men who naturally are dull and sensuall stand in need of exteriour signs to raise them to the reverence of God For which cause the sages of the world in the falshood of pretended religions have always affected some tokens of terrour to affright perjured and Philostr l. 1. c. 16 de vit Apollonii A notable custome of the Babylonians in doing Justice wicked men So the Babylonians when they sat on matters of Justice went into a Hall of the Palace made in the form of the heavens where were hanged the figures of their Gods all resplentent in gold and where were to be seen on the roof certain forms of birds which they thought to be sent from on high as messengers of The custom of Bochyris a Judge of Egypt the Sun So Bochyris a most famous Judge of Egypt ordinarily named as the Father and protectour of Equitie that he might powerfully imprint an apprehension of God avenger of Injustices when he fate on his throne of Judicature always had the image of a serpent in embossed
causeth heaven and beatitude Thus doth S. Augustine assure us that the science of God is the cause of all things which draweth Being from the Abysse of nothing and brings the shades of death into light The world is known by us because it is but it is insomuch as it is known by God so efficacious this knowledge is O what a goodly thing it had been to see this great world how it displayed it self in all its pieces and smiled in all its mansions under the eye of God! The Heavens were stretched forth like a Courtain the stars were inchased in the Heavens as Diamonds the clouds suspended in the air as floating bodies that air was diversified in meteors the eternal veins of fountains began to stream the earth to cover its bosome and liberally to afford us out of its entrails infinite many blessings from the benignity of his aspects Tell me not that which the naturall History mentioneth that the Ostrich hatcheth her little ones by the rayes of her eyes yet never shall she bring forth eggs by looking on the earth but the Eye that is to say the knowledge of God hath such virtue that it is the maker of all creatures O beauty O greatnesse O goodnesse Beauty to inhabit in the Idea of God as in a Paradise of Glory Greatnesse to have a capacitie infinite Goodnesse to rest in the bowels of the mercy of the Creatour See a little the difference that is between our knowledges The differencies of our knowledges from those of God and that of God you think it a goodly matter to know a man and to wish him well yet he thereby becomes neither white nor black hot nor cold good rich nor learned for our knowledges are small in their capacities limited in their effects and inefficacious in their operations How many brave Captains and learned Authours are there who are still well thought of in the opinion of men but whether they beliving or whether they be dead if their souls be in an ill state this knowledge and this love nothing contributeth to their felicities But so is it not with the knowledge of God I speak of an amourous knowledge It gives Being and Grace Being because all things known by God are in God in a more noble manner then in themselves Here we behold dying creatures who fade wither and shrink insensibly into nothing were they not supported by the divine hand but in the house of God in the palace of Essences the Summers are of Cypresse saith the holy Canticle insomuch as all therein Cant. 1. 17. is immortall vigorous perfect and incorruptible and there it is where the blessed who have not here seen the world but by two eyes of flesh and have seen it tottering Bearis pervium est omniforme illud divinitatis speculum in quo quicquid eorum interest illucescat Concil Sen nonse and altogether imperfect behold it in God fully stable equall and absolute in all its dimensions The Saints perpetually have before their eyes the incomprehensible mirrour of the Divinity in which they at case behold all that which concerneth them and may conduce to their greater contentment I add that this knowledge causeth Grace For what makes predestination but that preparation of Grace and Glory which God hath conceived from all Eternity in his understanding to communicate it to his elect See what God doth seeing and God seen what doth he else but actually make heaven and Beatitude which consisteth in the clear vision of God So soon as a soul predestinated to enjoy without delay the glory of heaven is gone from out the bands of its body it hath for guide this divine splendour which Divines call the light of Glory which is a quality infused into the understanding that so elevates and fortifies it beyond its condition that it is able to endure the lightning flash eternall Beatitude Is it not of this light holy Job spake when he said he hideth light in his hands Job 36. and faith to his friend it is his inheritance possession Then God all-good communicateth himself to this soul ennobled with such a qualitie not by some image or representation but by its very essence intimately united to the glorified understanding and from thence what followeth but an admirable transformation The soul is wholly absorpt in felicity and as a small drop of water poured into the sea instantly takes the colour and taste of the sea so the souls taste is fully inebriated and coloured with the Divinity It is almost no longer in its self but becometh wholly like to God not by nature but by participation We know saith S. John when we shall see him we shall be like him And S. Gregory Nazianzen dareth to call it God Joan. ep 1. and as we have two principall parts of the soul to content Greg. Naz. Hymn the understanding and the will so God all benigne abundantly satisfieth them making thither to stream as by two dugs of glory all the delights and contentments proportioned to their condition For the understanding which naturally desireth to know is illuminated by a most excellent knowledge of things the most hidden which it seeth in God as in an incomprehensible Mirrour and seeth them not in the manner of the wise men of the world who flutter round about sciences as little flies about lamps that findge their wings and make their tomb in the flames but it seeth them with a vision sublime calm and delicious which giveth to the will that is made to love amorous eagrenesse Avidi semper pleni quod habent desiderant Pet. Damis in Hymn de gloria Paradis ever desiring and ever having what it desireth O what miracles doth the eye of God enkindling with one sole aspect of many Divinities when maketh so many blessed ones like unto it self as if the sun rising should in the heavens createa million of little suns and on earth an infinitie of Diamonds all which should bear the image of this bright star All those blessed ones illustrated by this aspect albeit The blessed although unequall iâ glory are not enviouâ they shine diversly according to each ones merit are so far from envie receiving the flames of eternall Goodnesse that every one accounteth the felicity of his companion for the accomplishment of his own Non erit tibi aliqua invidia disparis claritatis ubi regnat unitas charitatis Aug. There you shall hear no speech of envie occasioned by inequalitie of felicity where the union of charity shall eternally reign Go to then O thou Envious O thou malign Man God hath made thee to his likenesse to carry as he in proportion raies of love and compassion in thy eyes towards men and thou there bearest gall bloud and poyson Nay so far art thou otherwise that if it were in thy power to make benefits to grow from thy aspects thou wouldest rather desire the eye of a Basilisk to poyson burn and
consume the estate and person of thy neighbour O miserable Owle where wilt thou find waters strong enough to wash a stain so criminally opposite to the Sovereign bounty of the Creatour § 6. The mercifull eye of Jesus serves for an Antidote against all sorts of Envy LEt us next consider the second modell and if we The eie oâ Jesus watching sparkling weeping be stung by the birings of Envie Let us cast our eyes upon Jesus Christ as heretofore did the Israelites on the brazen serpent to free themselves from serpents of fire The eie of Jesus was a gentle eie an eie of love of compassion and of mercy which opened as the gates of the East to let in day light and the spirit of life It alwayes had in our cause the symptomes which Physicians gave a sick eie which is to watch to sparkle and to weep yea the eie of the Saviour of the world was to watch incessantly for our salvation even to the passing of nights in oratories dedicated to God as S. Luke observeth Is it not this eie the Prophet Jeremy meant when he said I see awaking rod The interpreters think He erat pernoctans in oratione Dei Hier. 1. 11 he alluded to the sceptre of the Kings of Egypt which had an eye pourtraied upon the top of it and that such was the sceptre and power of Jesus for our sakes a power not harsh and imperious but sweet and charitable which spent it self without waste in the watches wherein it persevered for our salvation Others following the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Hebrew letter instead of a waking Rod reade a twig of an Almond-tree which first of all other trees flourisheth and expecteth not the summer to tell us news of the spring So the eie of Jesus so soon as it began to exercise the functions of life was seen all in blossome and in an amorous aspect for us In blossome when at his arrival he caused the Angels to sing the Hymne of Glory and Peace of Glory to God and of Peace to men In blossome when at the age of twelve years he so sweetly darted forth beams in the Temple of his father In blossome when from the top of a mountain he looked on his poor famished people who wandred through the deserts as sheep deprived of their shepheard In blossome when he stayed upon so many miserable bodies deteined by incurable maladies to give them health O eie of Jesus Eie of the Nazarean always flourishing and blown for the comfort of mortals I say in the second place this eie sparkled when he was to give the example of zeal which it behoved him to have the honour of his heavenly father then it was when he was armed with terrours and lightnings to cast astonishment into wicked souls and to deliver Igneum quoddam atque sydereum radiabat ex oculis ejus divinitatis majestas lucebat in facie 8. Hier. in Mat. those from their Tyranny who thereby were oppressed There was seen I know not what of glittering and flaming to sparkle from his eyes and the Majesty of a Divinity did shine on his face saith S. Jerome Have you heretofore considered the Angel of the living God who was as a sentinell in the great flaming pillar of fire which led the Israelites in the passage of the red-sea Have you observed how placed just in the midst Exod. 14. 20 of two armies the one whereof was of the people of God and the other of the Egyptians he darted raies of favour on the heads of the elect which were all lighted with a celestiall light notwithstanding the thick darknesse of the Egyptian night and at the same time he threw on Pharaohs Diadem and on his warlike horses the avenging dart of Gods anger to involve them in remedilesse misery So the eye of our Lord hath alwayes beheld and at this day likewise doth lovingly behold such as fear his holy name and do tremble out of the reverence they bear to his divine Majesty but as for perverse souls who have hands armed against heaven he hath sparklings sharp and quick which are the messengers of his justice As for thee Libertine this sparkling eie for thee Harpy for thee bloudy Devil for thee wicked creature it throws forth sparks of fire which in this life will begin to burn thy sinfull soul but as for souls chaste and loyall he hath sweet influences and mercies In the last place I likewise say to shew the benignity of this eye that it was almost alwayes weeping and dropping for us in tears a thousand times more precious then those of Myrrhe O what tears were those of Jesus Jesus was the firmament which divided waters from waters heavenly tears from earthly tears And seeing Interpreters say that the masse of waters was divided into two substances whereof the one congealing into a bright Chrystall made Heaven and the other remaining on the earth made the Sea I may say the tears of Jesus were all Chrystalline and wholly celestiall as that Palace of God which we see over our heads but ours are salt bitter and storm like the sea Jesus yet walking on the earth was towards the wicked and proud a mount Sinai which roared thundred light ned and seemed to be as the Charriot of the God of Hosts but in respect the miseries of the earth and the pains likewise which waited on sinners he was a Mount Lebanon that ceased not to make the waters stream forth in the spring which issued from the snows wherewith the winter had wholly covered it Jesus the true Lebanon Numquid deficiet de petra agri nix Libani Hier. 18. in whitenesse of innocency Jesus the true Lebanon in the continuall waters of his eyes which can no more be dryed up then the fountains of Lebanon Jesus also the true Lebanon in the sweetnesse of the odours of his eternall sacrifice He burnt as the incence of Lebanon and dissolved as the snow of Lebanon at the same time giving us fire and water Fire to enkindle our love water to wash our sinnes O how these waters have quenched the flames of the sword of the Cherubin able to burn all the earth with the fire of Justice O how sweetly distilled these tears for us on the day of his birth when he moistned the clots of his poverty O how often have these tears hathed his eyes in the sacrifice In diebus carnis suae preces supplicationésque cum clamore valido et lachrymis offerens exauditus est pro sua reverentia Hob 5. 7. of prayer O how pitifully these tears bedewed the pomp of his triumph when he wept over miserable Jerusalem O how efficacious were these tears when he oftered them for us in the bloudy Sacrifice of the Crosse and rendered up his sweet soul into the hands of his heavenly Father bleeding and weeping and looking this last time on the earth in his mortall conversation to lift it up to Heaven § 7.
in the memory of all Ages is an Act of Justice which he performed even then when marching forth of Rome in great state to go to the warres as I have related in the first Volumn he hearkned to a poor widow-woman which desired Justice of him he alighted from his horse to understand her businesse at large and restored her to her right before he departed thence Which thing did so wonderfully astonish S. Gregory that he prayed as they say for the Soul of Trajan and saved it the which the Doctour Alphonsus Ciaconius justifies in a learned Treatise although the Cardinall Baronius be of another opinion By all this it is apparent and manifest that a Prince ought to have especiall care above all things not onely to be just but to make it appear both by his words and deeds that which he bears in his heart He is the greatest King according to the Philosopher Diogenes which is the justest and if he be without Justice he is nothing but an empty Name and a shadow of Royalty The most excellent thing that a King can do in that his Dignity said the same Wise-man is to worship the Deitie to ordain Laws to conduct Armies and all this is to be done Legally according to the rule of Justice The people feel it not if he be devout if he be sober if he be discreet if he be chaste but if he be unjust this is a publick mischief this all presently feel as if the Sunne should go out of his bounds or if some malign Constellation should cause burning or flouds to happen upon the earth King Nebuchadonozor is represented in the Prophet Daniel by a Tree under the which the fowls made their nests and under the which the other living creatures remained under covert to give us to understand that Princes ought to stretch forth their Power even like branches to protect their Subjects by rendring them Justice A true Prince to speak as Casiodore doth ought to serve for a Temple to Innocency for a Sanctuary to Temperance for an Altar to Justice You therefore O Monarchs that take delight in the glittering of your Crown know ye that it is given you from above to be Gods Vicegerent rendring to every one that which belongs to him You ought to watch like an Angel over your whole Estate and not to suffer at any time that the smallest things should be destitute of your tenderest cares Hearken to that which God speaks to you by his Apostlâ Masters render that which is just and right to your servants seeing that you cannot be ignorant that you have a great Master in heaven to whom you must give an account of your actions Hearken to that which he commands you by his Prophet Do Judgement and Justice deliver those that are oppressed Jer. 21. from the hand of the persecutours TakeÌ good heed you afflict not the stranger the orphan nor the widow The Justice of private persons is manifest in their particular commerce but that of a King hath other kind of beams to make it appear and be beheld in its glory If you be a true King as Nature hath not given Acts of Justice in punishment and reward you an hundred mouthes to speak nor a hundred hands to do all that is necessary with your Government it is fitting that you make a good choice of those to whom you commit the managing of your Arms of your Revenues and of your Laws Never suffer you that your Name which is sacred and your Authority which is inviolable should serve for a pretence to wicked ones to oppresse your Subjects The huntings of men are for the wild Boar the Wolves and the Foxes those of Princes ought to be after the Outrageous the Robbers and Tyrants All offences are but the overflowings of Injustice there can be nothing chaste saith S. Augustine where adulterers are nothing safe where robbers nothing out of danger where murderers If the sword of the Prince the revenger of iniquities do not stop the audacious cities become forrests and forrests everlasting terrours if there be not Laws for men and punishment for offences Corrupt nature would never make an end of offending if Gooernment restrained not its enterprizes The chiefest care of him that is set over people is to take away the evil and the evil-doers that honest people may live in safety for this cause are Kingdomes Magistrates Arms Laws the world would be nothing but robbery and the life of man confusion if Justice did not suppresse the violence of disordered affections But to speak the truth the Prince that should be severe in punishments and should have an heart lockt up at rewards would be as it were lame of one arm he ought equally to be ready to chastise offences and to recompence well-doing When the Government of Kings is so loose that vices come in request and those that commit them it is almost a kind of sin then to do well and when virtues are so unhappy as to be deprived of the honour which is due to them it is a scandal of that age and the shame of Crowns It is not sufficient to appoint Judges to hear and determine of suits he must be well informed of their proceedings and their actions he must sometimes imitate S. Lewis which gave judgement under an Elm about the differences of his Subjects and consecrated the Woods and the Fields by the sincerity of the Oracles that went forth of his mouth The Emperours of Constantinople heard likewise the controversies of their people and as Codin saith when one party pleaded they held one ear uncovered and covered the other to signifie that they kept it for the adverse party It is a weaknesse of judgement to go about to decide a businesse having heard but one party one ought to have an ear somewhat hard at such diversity of reports which are made by parties diversly interessed in a businesse otherwise it is to be feared that a long repentance will quickly follow a short determination Civil Justice is exercised within Bars and on Judgement-seats but the Military hath been oft very much neglected by some former Princes in its time when having lost the opportunity of making a good Peace they have afterwaids made an unhappy Warre Those Judges that buy Justice it is a very great chance if they do not sell it and those Souldiers which are not paid by the Taxes levied for that end are as it were authorised to pay themselves by the permission of spoils and plunderings Our Laws and our Age may blush when the Roman histories tell us that one Scaurus conducting an Army oftentimes lodged in the fields where there were trees loaden with fruit and yet the souldiers durst not lift up the hand to gather one onely the passing by of a great army left every thing in the same order in which it had found them And amongst Christians one Regiment onely of Souldiers hath often made a desolation in the Countrey and
World and that Heaven makes me be born again in your Person If you will reign happily fear God which is the source of Empires and the Sovereign Father of all Dominions keep his Commandments and cause them to be observed with an inviolable fidelity Take the care and the Protection of his Church Love your young brothers and your sisters rendring your self good and officious to your Kindred Honour the Church-men as your Fathers cherish tenderly your subjects as your children and be all your life time the comforter and the Protectour of the Poor Chastise the vicious and recompense the men of merit Establish not Governments Judges and Officers which are not capable and without reproch and when you have established them deprive them not of their charges without a most just cause Serve first of all for an example to all the world and lead before God and Man a life irreprochable After this action he stayed about a year longer in the world purifying continually his spirit by repentance by good works and by the contemplation of heavenly things And when he saw himself infected with an extraordinary sicknesse he caused immediately the Sacraments to be administred to him and dyed with a most pious and most exemplary death at the age of seventy two years the fourty seventh of his reign and the four teenth of his Empire His Corps were exposed in publick clothed after the manner of a King with a sword and the Gospel which he had so gloriously defended Then he was interred with a stately Magnificence in the Church of Aix the Chappell which he had built He was universally lamented by all the world as the Father of the Universe and the singular ornament of Christianity The Pagans themselves wept for him abundance of tears so true it is that the goodnesse and sweetnesse of a King towards his subjects is a ray of God that renders him lovely in his life and gives splendour even to his ashes after his death He was afterward Canonized by Paschal that was not a lawfull Pope but forasmuch as the true successours of Saint Peter never retracted that action He is held for a Saint and honoured publickly in the Church with the approbation of all ages Saint LEVVIS S. LEWIS K. OF FRANCE I Do not forget that I have already spoken of Saint Lewis in the first Tome but because that was by accident and by the way I will here extend my thoughts somewhat more largely and give you a more compleat Elogium of him It is very true that an Antient faith That great Goodnesse is seldome joyned with great Power and that well-accomplished Kings are so few in number that their names might be comprehended all together within the circumference of a Ring But I may add that if God did take delight to carry this Ring in very deed as the Scripture doth attribute it to him in an Allegory and if he would engrave there the names of all the good Kings that of great S. Lewis would possesse the first place This Monarch was so like unto virtue that if it should have shewed it self on the one side incarnate to mortall eyes and Saint Lewis on the other one should hardly have been able to judge which had been the Copy and which the Originall It is not my intention to write of his life here upon which so many excellent pens have laboured very fortunately but to make a reflexion upon some principall points of his Government Great things do not alwayes cause themselves to be known by a multitude or great variety of discourse but oftentimes by draughts abbreviated And no man in my opinion ought to conceive amisse of this seeing that we measure every day the greatnesse of the Sun by the shadow of the earth and his goings in the Dyals by a little thread I know that heretofore three lines onely represented upon a Table did set forth an Idea of the perfection of the excellentest Painter in the world in the understanding of the skilfull and I will draw here three little draughts for to set before your eyes the beauty and bignesse of the virtues of S. Lewis In one word he hath done three mervellous things whereof the first is that he found out the means to joyn the wisedome of State with that of the Crosse The second that he hath planted humility upon Sceptres where it hath ordinarily very slippery footing and hath likewise placed it amongst the Rubies and Diamonds of the Crown where its lustre is often darkened by the too stately glittering of the World A third is that he hath joyned the devotion of one consecrated to Religion to the courage of the Alexanders and Cesars As for that which concerns the first conjunction it The first marvel the joyning of the wisdom of State with the Gospel Tert. Apol. is so rare that Tertullian who flourished two hundred years after the Nativity of our Lord when as yet there had no speech been of any Emperour that had embraced Christianity said That if the Cesars should become Christians they would cease to be Cesars and if the Christians should become Cesars they would cease to be Christians He conceived that poornesse of spirit could not agree with so high and stately riches nor humility with a sovereign Empire or the tears of Repentance with the delights of the Court that the hungring and thirsting after righteousnesse could not stand with the desire of Conquerours nor pitifulnesse with Arms nor purenesse of heart with the conversing with most pleasing beauties nor peace would consist with the licentiousnesse of warre and suffering persecutions with an absolute power to revenge ones self And neverthelesse Saint Lewis alone hath found means to joyn things together which seem so contrary in the highest degree that ever they were found to be in so-Kingly an estate Amidst the riches of a Kingdome so abundant he was not rich but onely towards the poor and if God had permitted him he would have as willingly covered himself with the habit of Saint Francis as with his Royall Purple He did never consider himself otherwise amongst all the goods that he possessed but as the Steward of Jesus Christ he left unto God willingly the glory of having given them him to needy persons the benefit of receiving them and kept nothing to himself but the pains of distributing them He assaid a thousand times to enter into Religious Orders and yet still answer was made him that God would have him to be King he wore the Crown by way of obedience he used riches onely for necessity and had no other thing in his desire then spiritual nakednesse and a perfect unloosing himself from all worldly things In the midst of an Absolute power he was so meek that his heart seemed a Sea where a calme perpetually reigned The Scarlet of his attire did never colour his face with the heat of anger Arrogance did never puff up his words he made it his glory to communicate himself
Husband that he summoned her again to ask what ever seemed good unto her for there was no request but should be granted that proceeded from her mouth The Queen that would give her self leisure to consult with her Uncle first that she might effectually disclose that great affair put off the offer till the morrow after and said to the King That since his Majesty had expressed so great a satisfaction for her little Dinner and that the cheerfulnesse of his heart redounded to the benefit of his Health she would present to him again with all humility the very same Petition and convince him by his friendship which she prised above all things in the World to eat again the following day of the Viands that she should make ready for him and with the same Company This was fully granted her and after she had prepared the spirit of the King by these dispositions she resolved to open her whole mind with the Counsell and art of Mordecai Haman went out of the Palace gloriously triumphing and accompanied with a great Train But when he perceived Mordecai at the Gate who made as though he did not see him when all others killed themselves to make him Reverences he felt himself moved with fury and went suddenly to his house to conclude upon the Death of that innocent man Good say the Philosophers is never Good if it be not intire and Perfect which is the cause that there are few felicities in the World where all Light hath its Shadow all fruit its Worm and every Beauty fails not to have its embasement and Allay And this is it that Proud Haman experiments in the highest glory of his Fortune He makes a consultation with his Wife and Friends and tells them That he is this day according to the Worlds esteem one of the happiest men upon the Earth If he looks upon his Riches they are well-nigh infinite If he casts his eyes upon his House he sees it underproped with a good company of Children If he considers the favour of the Prince Never man was in a like degree His Counsels are the Felicities of the State his Words are Oracles and his Altitudes are Ravishments that dazle the whole Earth from Euphrates even as farre as Nilus Yet he confesses to them ingeniously that in this high heape of Honours and of Blessings that inviron him he hath no content at all as long as he sees himself outbraved by that beggarly Rascall Mordecai who vouchsafes not so much as to do him any Reverence All the Joyes that he hath in his House and all the Applauses that he receives every day in publick gives him not so much Pleasure as that sole Affront powres bitternesse into his heart which he cannot digest And therefore he prayes them to advise him on some means that he should use to rid himself of that Villain and sacrifice him to his vengeance He added that he had Dined with the King and Queen and that he was to go thither again the morrow after which was a favour that none could hope for after him yet he lost all the sense of it when it entred into his imagination that he must see a Mordecai at the Palace gate to reproch to him his impotence and that there was no more life for him as long as that cursed fellow that was to him as an ill-boding Bird remained at Court The Wife that was of the same humour with her Husband pronounced a short sentence and said that if there were not Gallowses enough at Shushan to hang a Rascall he shall cause one to be set up of fifty Cubits high and should desire the King that Mordecai should be suddenly fastened to it and that this being done he might go with a purified spirit to the Banquet of the Queen This Counsell pleased him very much and he resolved to forward it but Providence Prepared for him farre other businesse to dispatch to make him know that no body thinks upon the Ruine of another without hastening of his own The Angel of God that Governs Kings gives them thoughts not foreseene and raises to them occasions of Virtues and great Actions sometimes even when they least dream of it The King was laid upon his Bed to repose himself and could not shut his Eyes the whole night without having the least appearance of Care or Trouble in his spirit He calls for his Reader and bids him reade to him some Book or other to entertein him He reads in his presence the Annals of the Kingdome and particularly That which happened in his Time He comes without thinking on it to the Year that made mention of Thares and Bagathans Conspiracy discovered by Mordecai The Kings heart that was in the hand of God changed in an instant the remembrance of that good servant beginns to enter into his mind with some Tendernesse and Compassion That ardent and inconsiderate Love that he had had to his friend Haman grows cold again insensibly without having any Reason for it It seemed as if there had been a charm raised suddenly by an Heavenly hand He resumes thoughts of Consideration of Justice and affection towards honest men He asked what Recompense Mordecai hath had for so great and notable a Service that he did his Person and all his State It was found that he had gained nothing by it but Promises and Hopes The King demands of the Gentlemen of his Chamber who was in the Anti-chamber they answered Haman that was come according to his custome to discourse with him while he was rising and to presse hotly Mordecai's Ruine He commands them to bid him enter He enters with a Boldnesse that promised it self all things and sets himself to his Complements and his ordinary merriments Yet all that had pleased the King heretofore in the conversation of that man even to a Rapture begins to displease him now and he seeks nothing more then the means to humble him He frames to himself in Idea's a man of Fortune rising from nothing that hath prevailed over the simplicity of his Spirit that hath made great Magazines of Gold and Silver our of his Levies That disposes of all the Offices of his Kingdome That makes himself adored of great and small That is followed as Himself and morethen Himself That hath his Privy-Seal and all his Authority in his hands That hath so much money to lay out as to offer ten thousand Talents to satiate his Revenge and that Authorizes all wickednesse by the Name and avouching of his Master if at least he hath one on this top of glory whither he is mounted He hath now a mind to undo him and feels a powerfull motion pushing him forward to it and which permits him not to deliberate of it any more nor to Consider with what security he might execute so great a businesse He knew that he was hated of all the World by Reason of his Pride and that his Adorers themselves would have eaten him up with a very good
was called Jesus and that it was difficult for me to strike my heels against the sharps of the spurre And immediately as I lay in amazement prostrate on the ground with those that were with me he commanded me to rise and said unto me That he would make choice of me for his people and for the Nations of the earth to give a testimony of him and to draw them from the power of wicked Spirits to come unto the Light that they may obtain remission of sins and the inheritance of Saints by the means of Faith which subsisteth in Jesus Christ Sirs For this I was not rebellious to the heavenly Vision but incontinently I set my self to preach the Word of God and to exhort all the world to convert themselves unto him by the works of Penitence Behold all my fault having done not any thing against the Law the Temple or against Cesar having alwayes counselled all the Subjects that ever heard me in the Empire to render unto him perfect obedience Neverthelesse certain of the Jews caused me to be apprehended in the Temple and excited the people against me who had torn me in pieces if I had not been succoured by the Armies and the Legions of the Empire God hath preserved my life until this present to discharge the Ministery and the Commission that he hath given me which is to deliver to the Nations the news of eternall Salvation Sirs I do observe you to be great observers of the Religion of the Gentiles you have Idols and Temples most magnificent but we ought not to imagine that God who is a most pure Spirit the Creatour of heaven and earth is inclosed in Temples built by the hand of men or that he stands on need of their works for the accomplishment of his Glory It is he that giveth life breath wealth honour profit and all that we can hope for in this world It is he who from one man hath derived the vast multitude of the people who by a continuall succession do inhabite the roundnesse of the earth It is he who giveth measures unto Times and bounds unto Empires and who inhabiteth a Light unapproachable It is he who inspires us all with a generous curiosity to seek him and to do our endeavours to find him and to touch him with fingers if his condition render him palpable But he is not farre from every one of us For in him we live we move and have our being and to speak according to your own Poet We are of the generation of God It is not then permitted to vilifie the Divine nature beneath us and to make it like unto things insensible as to gold silver precious stones and other materials elabourate by art and by the invention of men And certainly God from on high hath with compassion beheld this ignorance of men and hath given them his Sonne the substantiall Image of his Beauties and the Character of his Glory true God and true Man who is dead for our sins to wash us and regenerate us in his Bloud whose Words are Truth and whose Life a miracle even to the triumphing over Death by his Resurrection It is by him that the eternall Father will judge at the last both the quick and the dead and we all shall be represented before the Throne of his Majesty to receive the salary of the Good or Evill which in our bodies we have done This sovereign Monarch of Angels and of Men suffers not himself to be taken by the flesh or the bloud of bullocks or by the perfumes of incense but by the exercise of Justice and by the purity of our bodies in all sanctification Therefore Sirs as he hath advanced you in Dignity above other men so he hath more particularly obliged you to acknowledge and serve him and to adore him in Spirit and Truth and to render Justice according to the Commission which you have received from Cesar which is to deliver the innocent from the persecution of the insolent that so being true imitatours of his Justice and Mercy you may be one day partakers of his Glory This Discourse was well received by divers of them The effect of his Oration and a day was appointed for another Appearance where he so much explained and enlarged himself that he was sent back and pronounced guiltlesse and permitted to preach the Gospel in Rome with all liberty which gave much encouragemt to all the faithfull and even those who had before forsaken him did now reassemble themselves preaching in the Name of Jesus Phil. 1. 13. and exhorting all the world to Repentance Cornelius reports the opinion of some men who affirm that Saint Paul was expresly delivered by the advice and the authority of Seneca who at that time began miraculously to delight in his conversation And although they could not see one another as often as they would by reason of the considerations of State yet they mutually did write to one another which hath given occasion to some weak men who have not their spirits to counterfeit their letters ill imitated and which all knowing men are assured to be not of the strain either of S. Paul or Seneca Howsoever the fiction of the style doth no way hinder the truth of the antient Deed seeing that S. Hierome doth cite the true Letters which were in his time and doth alledge the Texts which are not now to be found in the Libraries of the Fathers Saint Paul continued at Rome two years after his first voyage where he gained many Christians to the Faith and some of the Court of Nero as is declared in his Epistles Seneca was amazed at the Authority which he had and desired that he might enjoy amongst his the like opinion of Belief as S. Paul had amongst the Christians but there was a difference in their spirits and their proceedings were from divers Methods Seneca was a man and S. Paul The parallel betwixt S. Paul and Seneca a demy-God The one studied with Attalus and Socion the other had the Word for his Doctour and the Angels for his Disciples The one sought after Nature the other found out the God of Nature The one lahoured after Eloquence the other studied Silence which is the father of Conceptions The one pleaded the Causes of parties the other pleaded the Cause of God The one governed the Republick of men the other laid open before us the Hierarchy of Angels The one was in the porch of Zenon the other in the school of Jesus The one laid the world low at his feet with his golden words and when he pleased did carry it on his head the other subdued it with mortification and the arms of the Crosse The one was full of good Desires the other of great Effects The one sought for himself in himself the other found himself altogether in God The one was a Minister of State the other of Heaven The one promised much and performed little the other promised nothing of
Nature The Christians followed them melting into tears calling them their Fathers and their Pastours and besought them not to abandon their Flock But they with countenances as clear as are the smiles of the fairest morning did comfort them and did promise not to forget them in the other life They did exhort them to shew themselves courageous in Persecutions assuring them that they were the places of Pleasure where even the Thorns should grow into Crowns They both looked back upon Rome and beheld it as the field of their dearest Conquest And God did discover to them the effects of their Bloud how that Infidelity was subdued the Church was established in the capitall City of the Universe the Crosse was planted on the root of the Capitoll where they died as amongst palms and the odour of their Sacrifice did ascend to heaven As long as there shall be Intelligences and Stars above as long as there shall be Ages and Men below these two Apostles shall be beheld as the two Eyes of the Christian world The Fathers and the Doctours of Mankind the Gates of Heaven and Triumphers over unbelieving Rome which they have now converted into Rome the Holy At their Palmes all the Laurels of the Conquerours shall fade and the instruments of their Punishments shall obscure their Trophies The tongues of men can pronounce nothing more pleasing then their Name The Church hath nothing more precious then their Virtues nor more powerfull then their Examples nor more honourable then the Veneration of them The detestable Nero the year after these Martyrs suffered finding himself tormented with Furies invested with infernall Shades torn in his conscience by Vultures and wounded with sharp Razors being abandoned both by God and men understanding that Vindex from France and Galba was marching against him from Spain to revenge his Sacriledges he did fly away and killed himself it being impossible for him to die by a more polluted or a more execrable hand Queens and Ladies MARY STUART The most excellent Princesse Mary Queene of Scotland and Dowager of France IN the last place I will produce the History of the incomparable Queen Mary Stuart where in the height of its lustre I will represent unto you Innocence persecuted as much by the jealousies of love as State and that by a general combat of all passions on which she hath raised a Trophey by the invincible constancy at her death I have taken delight to peruse many Authours on this Subject and to draw out the truth from a confused Chaos where the malice of many passionate Historians had extreamly perplexed the Story and I have done it the more willingly because it is a service which I render to the first Truth which I adore To France which nourished and advanced that great Spirit To the King of Great Brittain who is honoured for his Bloud and Royal Virtues To Scotland who brought her forth and to England it self the sounder part whereof have alwayes detested the attempt which was committed on her person I must intreat the Reader to believe that there was never History more disguised by a knot of Hereticks never wickedness did carry more artifice nor calumny more fables or fables more colours or impiety more strength to crie down a poor Princess And this hath made so bold a noise that some Catholicks either too ignorant or too negligent not taking the pains to read and examine the reasons alledged were betrayed themselves to an indifferent belief of the defaming Libels of the Enemies of our Religion as if they would believe the History of Jesus Christ compiled on the reports of the Scribes and Pharisees A Calvinist of late the Authour of a Spanish History hath thrust into his Book many outragious reports against the Memory of Mary Queen of Scotland by a Digression stale enough which doth eclipse the light of the History and the Day of her passion If that man had any modesty he would have acknowledged his small abilities to be seen in print If he had any reverence he would have spared the person of a Queen If his heart had been touched with any piety he would have pardoned the Dead If he had in his soul any sence of honour being in the service of the King of England he would never have printed such insolent things to the disadvantage of his Majesty he would never have barked at the ashes of so great a Ladie Reader to make you the better to understand with what equity I will proceed in this Narration I will not alledge unto you either Sanders or Bosy or Florimond of Raymen or Father Hilarius of the Order of the right reverend Fathers of the Minims who have all wrote very worthily concerning this Subject I will derive the principal truths I shall produce from Cambden a Hugenot Historiographer of the Queen of England who hath wrote this Story not in Pamphlets running without authority but in authentick Memorials It hath pleased God that this person having a generous ambition to speak the truth should search into the Records and produce papers that had been buried which sufficiently do make appear the artifices of Elizabeth the innocence of the Queen of Scotland Reader Behold whither the abundance and the force of Right and Truth doth carry us that we take even our enemies for our Judges and Witnesses in this cause MARY STUART the onely Daughter of The Birth Education of this Queen Mary Stuart James the Fifth King of Scotland and Mary de Lorain Grand-child to the thrice virtuous Antonietta of Bourbon was a Queen who in my judgement hath equalled the excess of her disasters with the height of her glory and it seems her whole life was no other than a Theater hung round with blacks and covered with bloud where the revolution of humane affairs did act unheard-of Tragedies Never did Nature produce more beauties nor Grace more wonders in a personage of that high condition Never did Fortune deal more rigorously with a head which Heaven had made to support three great Crowns She was born in Scotland she lost her Father eight In the year 1542. on the ãâã Deâember on S. Lucies Day dayes after her birth she was brought into France at the age of five yeares and was nourished in the Court of Henrie the Second and Katharine de Medicis who did love her most entirely She was yet but as the Bud of a Rose which within her first infancy did preserve her Graces undisclosed But as she began to lay them more open by the increase of age we might then behold a Princess descended from the bloud of a hundred Kings who had a body formed and fashioned by the hand of Beauty a fine and a clear spirit a deep and a sound judgement a high Virtue and an incomparable Grace in her expressions All which made Henrie the Second resolve to give Her marriage and widowhood her in marriage to his son Francis to whom she was espoused about the
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
wherewith God hath entrusted them and abuse it to outward pomp rather then exercise it to the advantage of good men Let the fear of misdemeanours and obliquities banish all fiercenesse from them and let them esteem it the greatest impotence to boast a Priviledge of Injustice or a Power to hurt The cause of the Warre must first be balanced by an accurate examination lest the affections obtain precedence over Equity and Reason lest iniquity be predominant in the better part and force and fury comply to cheat the world under the specious title of Injustice I am both sad and ashamed to consider with my self what frivolous occasions have prevailed with many whereon to ground a Warre The Trojan Warre that common Sepulchre of Asia and Europe flamed out from the impetuous flagrancies of a noble Whore By a thousand ships she was re-demanded and for her that had lost all modesty vast numbers of gallant Hero's lost their neglected lives So many chaste lay open to the lust of the enemies that an unchaste might be restored Alexander being yet a child was reprehended by his Tutour for his profusion of Frankincense in his Sacrifices to the Gods but being arrived to mans estate that he might wash away this admonition of his master he invadeth Arabia and there the second time offereth up Sacrifice for the conquest of the Countrey The Egyptians for a slain Cat rose up in arms against the Romans and fourty destroyed many thousand men Caligula with a mighty noise of armed men and a great preparation of all Military ornaments hasteneth to the Ocean there to gather cockles The Romans being contumeliously upbraided with this ridiculous Expedition conspired and almost effected the utter ruine of the scoffing Tarentians The people of Alexandria rebelled against Galienus because of a sottish contention between the Master and the Servant concerning the elegancy and neatnesse of a pair of shoes And to omit many examples which I could commemorate William of England sirnamed the Conquerour who was victorious over all men but himself revenged a pleasant conceit of Maximus the Prince with innumerable destructions The Conquerour was of a corpulent habit and his belly was somewhat prominent thorow a plenty of Hydropick humours wherefore when Philip the King of France heard of the nature of his disease We will allow him time saith he to provide for his lying in which by the bulk of his belly appeareth to be near at hand The Conquerour being mad with fury replyed That he would rise up after his delivery and kindle five hundred fires in France to adorn his up-sitting Nor was he unmindfull of his resolution for presently upon his recovery he entred France with a stupendious army wholly addicting himself by fire famine and horrible slaughters to the satisfaction of his revenge Shall we suppose that he playes and trifles with the bloud of men who upon such slight provocations can enterprize such mournfull Tragedies May we suppose those people miserable with whom the scoffs of furious men must be expiated with such a direfull destruction No man ought to believe himself or another concerning the cause of a Warre but let him weigh it with the exquisite prudence of the principall men whose advices are the more fruitfull of truth the lesse they are espoused to affection A right intention must necessarily be coveted to a just Cause and all these things are estimated by a sober and moderate conclusion or a justifiable end Be such a thought eternally banished from the head and heart of a Christian Prince that he should array himself in a Military posture to oblige some light affections of a luxuriant mind that he should run on slaughters command the burning of towns prosecute and seem to rejoyce in devastations that he should destroy he should extinguish and bury his own glory in the overthrow of others This is the indelible ignominy of Centaures and the Lapathae who in warring seek nothing but Warre The wisest Kings thorow tumults and intestine jarres have made a progresse unto Justice Equity and Concord and being themselves in Arms have sacrificed undefeigning vows to Peace They think of an Enemy as a Physician sometimes of his Patient that he must be recovered by corrosives and sharp remedies Oh that he would have been cured with a diet or asswaged with fomentations But when against the Law and Right of Nations he hath persisted in his obstinacy and contemned the reiterated offers of composing the present differences then you must bind then you must cut then you must burn him yet all this to restore not to exterminate him And all things composed behold like the scourge of a deadly and destructive Warre a Northern tempest rageth in the miseries of Germany there they wallow in bloud and in their night-marches they are conducted by the hideous light of burning Cities some few making a resistance and all men being astonished at the ferall prodigy The Altars are polluted with sacrifice Virgins with rapes the chains of Church-men are heard louder and further then the drums of their persecutours holy things are profaned and the abomination of desolation is consummated their very King who had appointed them thither being either ignorant of those outrages or unconsenting Now can any man conceive that this was devised by a Christian mind Can it be imagined that he who hath any reverence unto or sense of Religion can give such directions It is not credible such a monster could not have been brought forth had not hell conceived the bottomelesse-pit exhaling the fuliginous vapours and the devils themselves torturing mens minds into such uncouth diversities All things cannot properly have a reflected reference unto men The Privado's and Ministers of Princes are not at all times to be accused as though they had cast off all humaniry and covered themselves with brutish cruelty There are certain vagabond and deceitfull spirits destinated to revenge who being themselves lost in misery cease not to comfort their malice by driving others into a participation of those miseries which reason greatest Princes ought so much the more to invite yea to admonish you to leagues of Peace because our Omnipotent God in his secret counsel hath determined to subdue Satan by your hands and to cast him under your feet The highest circumspection and vigilancy are therefore requisite least matter be suppeditated to the Devil who altogether watcheth for destruction from the affections and vices of men Jealousie that tinder of Kingdomes and Nations easily taketh fire if it be fomented onely with an animal wisdome and be not mixed with the prudence of the Saints They who are addicted to one part say that the Spaniards do too much expose their power to Envy that it is hatefull unto equalls terrible to inferiours and if not prevented destructive unto all There is amongst them say they such an epidemicall itch after domination such intentive and indefatigable cares of their ambition such a luxurious wit to enlarge their Empire so vast a
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
Saviour Jesus Christ to animate our constancy 80 The power of the name of Jesus ibid. The admirable effects of the Crosse of Jesus ibid. To know whether our Lord Jesus was subject to Anger 88 The eye of Jesus watching sparkling and weeping 96 Impatient men oâ divers qualities 54 The picture of Impudence 83 Divers spirits subject to impudencie ibid. The miserable end of an unhappy Impudent man 86 It is a hard thing not to feel some Incommodities life being so full of them 46 The kingdome of Inconstancy 24 Three sorts of Envious Indignation 93 The plot of Ingobergua to cure her husbands passion of love succeeded ill out of too much affectation 107 John Baptist apprehended 267 His rare qualities ibid. He is beheaded 269 Joab and Abner do strive for the government of Judah 144 Joab and Abner combat ib. Joab in his fault upon necessity is tolerated by David ib. Joabs insolency 149 The death of Joab 153 The courage and resolution of Joachim who executed the office both of a Priest and Captain 181 The good offices of Jonathan 141 Josiah slain 263 Joseph the son of a shepheard 219 His divine qualities 220 His brethren sell him ibid. Mervellous constancy of Joseph amidst those great temptations of the Court and of his Mistresse 221 He is accused for attempting to ravish that honour which he preserved ib. He is imprisoned ib. He is taken out of the prison and doth interpret Pharaohs dream 222 He is promoted to high preferment by Pharaoh ibid. Josephs deportment in Court a pattern for all Courtiers ibid. His singular piety and modesty 223 His fidelity to his Prince ibid. His demeanour in his government 224 His brethren came down to Egypt for food and their intertainment 225 He meeteth with his aged Father and apointeth him a place to live in 226 Josua his education 196 His familiarity with Moses ibid. He is made Generall of the Army of the Israelites ibid. His death 177 Three sorts of Joy 48 The art of Joy 51 The Israelites murmure against Moses 231 232 They have war with the Amalekites and worst them 233 The Israelites disrelish Samuel 236 A great famine in Israel which was caused by a very great drought 249 Judas Macchabeus the sonne of Mattathias made Generall over the Army of the Hebrews against the tyrannie of Antiochus 198 His piety for restoring the Temple ib. Particular favours which he received from God ib. He maketh peace with the Romans 199 He defeated nine Generals of Antiochus in pitched battell 200 Isaiah his vision 260 His eloquence as his birth is elevated ib. He is sawed alive 262 The kingdome of Judah divided by the ambition of favourites 144 The rare endowments of Judith 181 Her prayer to God 183 Her speech to Holophernes being brought before him 184 Her courteous entertainment ibid. Judith being conducted by Vagoa to Holophernes Pavillion in his sleep cut off his head 185 She returneth to the Bethulians with the head of Holophernes ibid. Her entertainment by the Citizens of Bethulia ibid. Her counsell to the people ibid. An excellent observation of Julian 58 Acts of Justice in punishment and reward  Justine who was born a Cow-heard mounted to the throne of the Emperours of Constantinople 158 The fidelity and goodnesse of Justinian ibid. His greatnesse 159 His nature and manners ibid. His manner of life was austere ib. Some abuse the belief of men in reporting that he could neither reade nor write mistaking Justinian for his uncle Justin ibid. His great love to learning but chiefly Law and Divinity ibid. A great conspiracy against him 160 A speech concerning the mutiny against him ibid. Justinian kept prisoner in his palace and Hypatius is proclaimed Emperour ibid. The stoutest men assail Justinian in his Palace 161 The sedition against Justinian is appeased ibid. The reflux of the affairs of Justinian 164 The defects of Justinian 168 Justinian in the latter end of his age fell into two great errours 169 K THe words of the Wise man directed to the Kings of the times Wisd 6. 131 Kings ought to professe the outward worship and service of God for the performance of his duty and the example of his people 133 Knowledge of ones self 18 Knowledge ought to be moderate 153 L THe prodigious victory which in the end Lotharius gained over himself after a great storm of the passion of love in becomming Religious 113 The cruell handling of Pope Leo. 175 Strange desire of Lewis the eleventh 113 Generous act of Lewis the eleventh 120 An excellent observation of Libanius 81 All happinesse included in Love 1 God the Father of Unions doth draw all to unitie by Love ibid. The sect of Philosophers of the indifferency of Love ibid. The first reason against the indifferency of Love is that thereby he maketh himself as chief end and the God of himself ibid. The second reason is drawn from the communication of creatures 2 A third real on against the indifferency of Love is drawn from the tenderness of great hearts ibid. Wherefore great hearts are most loving 3 Love is the soul of the universe ibid. Love is the superintendent of the great fornace of the world ibi The nature of Love ibid. The definition of Love with its division 4 The steps and progression of Love ibid. The causes of Love ibid. The means to make ones self to be worthily loved ibid. Notable effects of Love in three worlds ibid. Love includeth all blessings 5 There are miserable Lovers in the world ibid. Who loveth too much loveth too little 6 A notable comparison of S. Basil touching Love 9 Love is a strange malady 14 Disasters of evill Love 15 Division of Love ibid Love of humour ibid. Interiour causes of Love 16 The secret attractives of Love ibid. Modification of their opinion who place Love in transportation ib. The senses being well guarded shut up all the gates against Love 17 The miserable estate of one passionately in Love ib. The diversities of Love ib. Evill Angels intermeddle in the great tempests of Love 18 Cruelty of Love on the persons of Lovers ibid. Love is sometime the punishment of pride ib. Advices and remedies against Love in its full 19 The medall of Love hath two faces ib. An excellent conceit of Solomon concerning Love ibid. Disasters of Love in each age and condition 20 Advice to all sorts of persons concerning Love ibid. Diversitie of the maladies of Love and their cures 21 Remedies for the affection of Love which come against our wills ibid. Admirable example of the combate of Saints against Love ib. Separation the first remedie against Love 22 The counsell and assiduity of a good directour is an excellent antidote against Love ibid. The conversation of God with man by the mystery of the incarnation in the consummation of Love 24 The Eucharist the last degree of Love ibid. The Love of Saints towards Jesus ibid. The growth of Love like to pearls 25 The Empire and eminencies of
catalogue of Kingdomes and Titles as provokes the emulous terrifieth their neighbours and pricketh even those that are removed from them by intervals of distance They apprehend the Dignity of one to presage the danger of all They conjecture that the extent of his jurisdiction bodeth an unattempted servitude to all Kingdomes they fear whatsoever the land provideth and whatsoever monsters the sea nourisheth Greedy Domination that could never yet overcome it self when it hath once been cherished by Fortune it unlearneth nature and forgetteth moderation Moreover the temperature of the Nations as they report is fiery hot and dry swelling with pride patient of hunger and well enduring labour thirsty after glory prone to admire it self and apt to continue the virtue and valour of other Nations I produce not these things as the emanations of my own judgement which for the present is addicted to no Nation but comprehendeth all in Christ but I commemorate the vulgar reports and such things as are openly bruted by many which if they were supprest by a removall of their Causes it could cut off the occasions of many controversies The French on the other side as they write who have had knowledge of them although they are forward to dart reproaches against others unable to endure them and most impatient of contempt yet they know they are of that Nation whereof it was said AnimóquÌe supersunt Jam propè post animam They boast that they filled the world with the fame of their Arms before the Spaniards could redeem themselves from the diuturnall servitude of the Goths and Vandals That they have managed the Empire of the East and West that they have vanquished Constantinople by assault restored Jerusalem to Christ and Rome to the Pope seven times deprived of it by his enemies They affirm that the Gospel was first preached unto them that the primigeniall adoption of the Sonnes of God was given to them that they have advanced Learning in all Christian Kingdomes the whole world almost becoming Students of our Academy at their Paris in a word they think they have nothing to be contemned they are more apt to desire admirers then able to dispence with contemners From hence it comes to passe that both the Nations being prodigall in the accumulations of their own and envious of the others glory such flames have of late been kindled as will it may be feared become unquenchable Would to God that that Charity which is diffused in us by the spirit would suffocate these super-seminated tares of contentions Oh that it would cut off the occasions of these inhumane strivings then should we have fewer anxieties and more supportable labours of heart knowing by what remedies we might resist so pestilent an evil This is frequently augmented by the servants and favourites of Princes whilst with a familiar but a direfull glory to the greatest Empires they desire to boast the power of their Lords they display all their offensive strength and ability to hurt they presse a secret beneficence and whilst they proceed in these ambitious circulations nay whilst they bewray a fear and discover in themselves a caution by that very sedulity and caution they provoke things not to be feared and act things not to be tolerated Here I appeal to you great Masters of Policy and Participatours of hidden Councels I speak more willingly to you then to your Fortunes Consider how much God hath given you and how much he requireth of you You sit as Gods among men the Arbiters of mankind what shall be each mans lot is the verdict of your Dispensations What good things Felicity intendeth to each individuall person she pronounceth by your mouths what Navies must be prepared what Warres must be prosecured what Cities destroyed what Nations depopulated are the ambiguous effects of your opinions You are judges of the fortunes and bloud of men and of your behaviours and existimation men are judges God the discerner of all things judgeth of your head at the terrible and inevitable audit Every one beholdeth many things by the deception of his own sense uttereth many things from the dictates of affection I cannot believe what is reported that so eminent persons blest with such admirable wits adorned with the glorious gift of prudence and conscious of this frailty of humane affairs can think themselves seated in that heighth to measure all things by the circle of their own advantage that publick plenty should quit the preheminence to their private profit that all things should be serviceable to their amplitude that they should dispose their trust according to the level coyl of love hatred and ambition and that they should sacrifice the bloud of the people to their Fortunes that they therefore love Warres and are affected with Divisions and Confusion hoping thereby to purchase to themselves more beneficiall or honourable commands to close with an opportunity of treasuring up large summes of money and by the necessity of their Ministration to wed themselves to a more faithfull office or to leap into an Authority of a more hopefull permanency but goodnesse forbid that such sordid earthly and narrow cares should be the dishonourable employment of such capacious souls I rather believe that you are incited by emulous anhelations after your Masters glory whereof you have ever been most zealous ever prepared to retaliate his injuries to assert his Majesty and to dilate his Empire but I beseech you by the immortall God and by so many beloved pledges of your Kingdomes to take heed and diligently to beware lest a supervehement appetite of Glory make them averse from the right pursuit of Glory You follow Glory by a muddy search but now all mortall men desire it by a clear acquist Consider where there is the greatest splendour of celestiall virtues either in the loud cracks of thunder possessing all men with sudden fear and when fires and thunderbolts are promiscuously hurl'd about or in a fair day the air being defecated and serene and the pleasure of the light dispelling sadnesse from mens hearts hitherto you have made the power of your Lords sufficiently fearfull now render it sweet and make it amiable for therein onely it is invincible This is not the greatnesse of Princes to be alwayes encompassed with the terrours of his armed men and busied in warlike preparations with a fiery mouth to be alwayes denouncing the cruelties of torments and tortures to condemne these men to fetters those to the sword perpetually to carry about him fire and darts to make his progresse thorow smoaking Cities over the trampled bodies of half dead men and to exhaust all things lest they should be exhausted How much more glorious is it like a fortunate Cornet to prevent and exceed the hopes of all men with causes of rejoycing To repair things ruinous and disordered to conveigh glad tydings of consolation to the pensive soul to recollect things scattered and to reunite things divided By this heavenly solicitude many Kings lending their succour
not sending their terrour unto the labouring world have attained unto solid and unshaken honour What forbiddeth you to follow what retardeth your emulation There is one rock which is often to be feared unto which the cares and cogitations of some Politick men who differ much from your Piety do cleave They think if the administrations of the Publick should be regulated by the law of God and the judgement of pious men they would become base low and unesteemed they would be exposed to prey and direption and is he penitent I insult not doth he crave audience I grant accesse doth he submit his neck my mercy shall meet his submission At the destruction of Cannae Hannibal was heard to say Miles parce ferro Marcellus wished he could quench the flames of burning Syracusa with his tears Titus with erected hands and eyes to heaven wept over the prostrate carcasses of the Jews What should be then the most decent and laudable behaviour of a Christian King towards a subdued and almost suppliant Enemy Should he strut with pride Should he inebriate himself with passion Or should he strengthen his fury to an utter desolation The more generous beasts abhorre this practice Vast and inexorable wraths should not cohabit with royall mind many things are to be pardoned to humane frailty many things to ignorance something truly to affection but all things to repentance It behoves him to preserve many even to the prejudice of their obstinate or erroneous wit neither are all those to be heard that are resolved to perish Errour illaqueates some men and Opinion sets the complection upon the procedures of most men others are ensnared by the counsels of a treacherous vigilancy and some there are who have no fault but their fortune His pardon he will extend and communicate to many whosoever can really desire to obtain from God his own pardon Further I adde that those reasons which are produced as subservient to the attainment of a just end ought themselves also to be legitimate otherwise the foundations may be firm yet the superstructures may totter That is not good which is not well done the means we use must be as innocent and unreproveable as our meaning That which knoweth no mediocrity I know not how to term a virtue A depraved intention by a kind of contageous force ever infected the most austere and sacred conduct of affairs subdolous inventions also and crafty artificers shade and eclipse the beauty of sincere intentions Grosse and scandalous is their errour who having proposed to themselves some laudable mark are little sollicitous of the arrows they shoot They who have trusted to this footing have many of them slipt and dasht themselves against such a rock of absurdities as hath endangered their brains I shall instance in those who have thought that health might be innocently purchased from the Devils themselves by the virtue of Magicall forms and that this is the safety which the Divine Oracles pronounce we may acquire from our enemies But Paul is peremptory in the confutation hereof saying That evil must not be done that good may come thereof No man is mercifull by thefts nor charitable by surreptitious gains no innocent person seeketh convalescence by wicked accommodations To go to War is lawfull to kill is lawfull when you are backt with the Authority of your Prince and seconded with a just Cause but on the contrary to do injustice is never not unlawfull We may incline and bow the ears of the Deity to a condescendence but we may not sollicit hell for Auxiliaries we may not contemerate things sacred nor violate the Divine Charters of the Church we may not subvert Religion nor contaminate Chastity we must not attempt facinorous art nor invade the lives of Princes with poniards or venomous potions we ought not to destroy Military Discipline by transgressing the Rights of Warfare nor adventure upon certain villains to promote a desperate ambition That Warre ceaseth to be just however pretended to have a just beginning when the future events are intermixed with palpable injustice and being well begun if they degenerate into evil progressions they ought speedily to have an end We are faln by degrees greatest Princes upon the matter intended of which it is your part to judge and from sound deliberations to provide for the felicity of Christians both Temporall and Eternall Your Authority is or ought to be unquestioned and your disposednesse of mind and intentions what can they be in good Princes but unsuspected but the Cause is perplexed and involved yet the Reasons that seem to conspire the end are violent A fierce and cruel Warre is carried on among you exercised in the besieging of Cities acquainted with destructions terrible for its monstrous spreadings under which the Church laboureth the wishes of the oppressed evaporate into sighs and the convulsed world mourneth it hath not proceeded in an ordinary way nor is it continued after a humane manner Sift out if you please the causes and weigh diligently with your selves the occasions of such an amazing tumult If at any time we behold things natural acting within the limits of their prescriptions this doth not elevate our considerations to a wonder but when we see them irritated by some vehement impetuosity or the determined confinements of Natures Law to be perverted we suspect some hidden force within which suddenly bursteth forth and is circumfused from whence such various motions do arise As often as we see the winds to be ordinarily stirred we either judge it to be some breath or exhalation or we conjecture that the air hath a naturall faculty to move it self lest it should become dull and torpid in an inagitable Globe but as often as we behold boisterous tempests to arise by the sharp and violent conflicts of the winds which compell vast trees from their roots and level strong built houses with the ground which devour whole navies and shake the foundations of the world we ascribe these to the aiery Principalities dissipated through the regions of the Earth In like mnaner when Warres are managed among men in their accustomed forms we attribute these to the ambitious designs of men to cholerick temperaments and to the easie impatience of an objected contumely but if they exceed proportion and example also we suspect that there is some undiscovered origin of evils transcending our understandings and astonishing our senses He that will duly and sadly weigh the matter will confesse this of such a cruel Warre for it is not actuated with a civil mind neither hath it those decencies and Military ornaments which are wont to accompany great minds but it is tainted with a virulent malignity which devoureth both parts and creeping as it were with a slow contabescence it eats up all things the Countreys are in a mourning estate the Cities are dejected the Bloud of gallant men is prodigally wasted the choicest flowers of the Nobility are destinated to butchery and the shambles of prevailing Rebels private