satisfaction of my mind but the establishment of my fortune Notwithstanding I have wholly left it through a most undoubted knowledge that we cannot resolve on any thing solid therein Judge you what you please but ever a well rectified spirit will be ashamed to profess a science not supported by reason and which knows almost no other trade but to deceive This at that time somewhat startled him but stayed not his purpose so much he loved to deceive himself and so much he resolved to find out this secret in the end But ever as he waded further not discovering firm land he found trouble in a barren labour and much vanitie where he to himself proposed some soliditie Nothing confirmed him so much in contempt of this folly as the discourse he had with Firminus a young man of eminent qualitie sick of the same disease that he was for the curiositie of Astrologie ceased not to incite him as being born of a father an Astrologer a man of honour but so curious that he calculated the very horoscope of cats and dogs that were whelped in his house yet so little had he profited therein that at the same time his son came into the world a servant of his neighbours being delivered of a male-child he foretold according to the rules of his art that both of them being born under one same constellation should run the like fortune which was so false that this Firminus his son being born of a rich family progressed far into the honour of the times whilest the son of the servant notwithstanding the favours of his goodly horoscope waxed old in servitude This young man who made this narration though convinced by his own experience still suffered himself to be beguiled with his proper errour so difficult it is to take away this charm by force of reasons Our Augustine by little and little dispersed those vapours both by the vivacitie of his own excellent judgement and the consideration of others folly He was likewise solicited to attempt a kind of magick much in request among the heathen Philosophers of that Age which was to seek predictions from the shop of the devil by means of the effusion of the bloud of beasts and sometiemes of children But God who as yet held a bridle on this uncollected soul and would not suffer it to be defiled with those black furies gave him in the beginning so much horrour upon all these proceedings that a Negromancer promising him one day to bear away the prize of Poesie in a publick meeting of Poets if he would assure him of a reasonable reward he answered that were the Crown to be given in those games of profit of gold wholly celestial he would not buy it by such kind of ways at the rate of the bloud of a flie Which he partly spake through some sence of pietie partly also by the knowledge he had of the illusion and barrenness of such sciences He was much more troubled about the Articles His Religion of Faith for though from his childhood he was educated in Christian Religion under the wings of his good mother S. Monica yet suffering his mind to mount up unto so many curiosities he had greatly weakened the sence of pietie And being desirous to penetrate all by the help of humane reasons when he began to think on the Christian maxims of Faith he therein beheld much terrour and abyss He came to this condition that not content with the God of his forefathers who taught him holy counsels and the universal voice of the Church he put himself upon masterie now wholly ready to shape a Divinitie on the weak idaeas of his own brain The Manichees at that time swayed in Africk who having found this spirit and seeing he might one day prove a support to their Sect they spared nothing to gain him and he being upon change it was not very hard to bring him into the snare This Sect sprang from one named Manes a Persian by birth and a servant by condition who having inherited the goods of a Mistress whom he served from a good slave which he had been had he remained in that siate became by studie an ill Philosopher and a worse Divine for mingling some old dotages of the magick of Persians with other maxims of Christianitie partly by the help of his purse partly also by an infinitie of impostures derived from his giddy spirit he made himself head of a faction protesting he was the holy Ghost His principal folly consisted in placing two Gods in the world the one good the other bad who had many strange battels The bodie as he said was the creature of the evil God and the soul a portion of the substance of the good enthraled in matter And following these principals he gave a phantastical bodie to the Saviour of the world esteeming it a thing unworthy of the Word to be personally united to the flesh which he held in the number of of things execrable Behold the cause why those who were ingulfed in this Sect made shew to abstain from meat and wine which they termed the dragons gall I do not think that ever Augustine fully consented to all the chymeraes of Manes which were innumerable but at the least he relished this Sect in the opinion it had of the original and nature of the bodie and soul and in many other articles even to the believing as himself witnesseth fables most ridiculous Great God! who thunderest upon the pride of humane spirits and draggest into the dust of the earth those that would go equal with Angels What Eclypse of understanding What abasing of courage in miserable Augustine To say that a man whose eye was so piercing doctrine so eminent and eloquence so divine after he had forsaken the helm of faith and reason became so abandoned as to make himself a partie of the Sect of a barbarous and phantastical slave who in the end for his misdeeds was flayed by the command of the King of Persia as if the skin of this man could no longer cover a soul so wicked Behold whither curiositie transporteth an exorbitant spirit Behold into what so many goodly gifts of grace and nature are dissolved Behold now the Eternal Wisdom besotteth those who forsake him to court the lying fantasies of their imagination A second obstacle went along with this extravagant A second impediment Presumption curiositie to settle him fixedly in errour which was the presumption of his own abilities an inseparable companion of heresie He that once in his brain hath deified crocodiles and dragons not onely adoreth them but will perswade others that he hath reason to set candles before them and burn incense for them It is a terrible blow when one is wounded in the head by his proper judgement whose ill never rests in the mean We come to the end of all by the strength of industrie Stones are pulled forth from the entrails of men the head is opened to make smoak issue
possesseth you it will pass away and you will be much ashamed to have no longer made use of us You hasten to go awrie which shall cost you dear if you take not heed When you have done you will be ashamed to return this way back again and for fear to be thought a fool you will live miserably all the rest of your dâ—ies What can you live without us You are not so ignorant of that which God hath created for you You have affection for beautie and will have as long as you live To love and not enjoy is to be set on the torture and to be there voluntarily is to loose your wits What this moment of time here being ended are we yours no longer What shall neither this nor that be permitted us for ever Is it enough when one saith for ever What hell is there in the world if it be not to be deprived for ever of what we most affect These blameless Syrens altered not their discourse for still they batter'd me with such like words but found I had changed mine ears Behold the cause why as I then shewed my self verie resolute they much lessened their holdness Their speech was no longer a command but a request and when I turned my face from beholding them it seemed their voice was lost in the air like a languishing eccho to which proximitie affordeth no more reverberation The more I fortified my self with reasons the more they desisted All they could do was but to speak some slight words softly in mine ear or by stealth pull me by the cloak to cause me to turn my face once again towards them but I stood firm as a rock beholding the beautie and sweetness of the life to which I felt my self called by God It seemed unto me that I saw before mine eies fair chastitie the mother of holy loves encompassed with a large troup of virgins and chast ones all white with innocencie and resplendent with light of glorie She smiled upon me with a brow more brightsom than the clearest summers day and stretching out her arm full laden with palms Come confidently saith she why do you any further dispute with your thoughts Forsake those Syrens they too much have abused the flower of your age I will acquaint you with their deceits their vanities and infamies if the experience of a dozen years have not taught you more than I am able to discover What else have you done the space of so many years but till a barren field which promised fruits and gave you thorns and ill savours sprinkled with some slight blossoms As for their words were they not full of promises their promises of oaths and their oaths of perjuries What illusions and fantasies have you experienced And if you have in some sort enjoyed them hath it not been worse than your own desires so much was it mingled with gall and attended by remorse which made you bear gibbets and tortures with your pleasures Must you purchase a hell with so many mischiefs which seemeth wide open to receive the desperate Where think you to find pleasure out of God from whom all pleasures are I am not hydeous nor barren as your thoughts O Augustine do figure me I am the mother of holy delights ever fruitfull by the visitations of God My joys are gardens which never wither since they perpetually are watered with immortal graces Ask those children those maids those men and women Behold of all ages and all conditions Ask them if they ever found any bitterness in my conversation You turmoil your self upon the frailties of flesh how simple are you why cannot you do what such and such have done who have waxed old in virginitie Think you they have other flesh bloud and other qualities than you You equal them in all except in a strong resolution to be a slave no longer Imagine you that all this they do is by their own power God gives them the will God grants the power God affords them the accomplishment Child of diffidence why do you still handle your infirmities Cleave to God as doth the ivie to the wall and fear not that ever he will bereave you of his support if you to him remain faithfull He entertained his mind with such cogitations and it seemed unto him this consideration at that instant drew all his misery as from an abyss to represent it before his eyes Then was it when the secret attraction which consisteth in the particular touch of the Holy Ghost did manifestly appear Behold the prophesie of David accomplished Behold the God of Majestie Psal 28. Vox Domini super aquas Deus majestatis intonuit vox Domini super aquas multas who thundereth Behold the voice of God on the waters and on the great waters since it forceth tears to issue out in abundance Behold the voice of God which cometh with a strong hand since it over-beareth all resistance Behold the voice of God which cometh with magnificence since it operateth so glorious a conversion Behold the voice of God which breaketh the Cedars of Libanus since it overthroweth all the pride of the world Behold the voice of God which divides the flames since it scattereth the fires of concupiscence Behold the voice of God which shaketh the desert since it removeth from the bottom to the top the sterilities of this desolate soul Behold the voice of God which prepareth the Hind for her deliverance since it removes all the obstacles He was near his Alipius who expected the issue of these agitations of mind and suddenly behold he felt in his heart a tempest raised which in it contained fire and water and seeing the cloud began now to be divided with the ardent sighs and fountains of tears which he poured forth he left Alipius the Secretary of all his thoughts to engulf himself further into retirement and give free rains to his passion He threw himself under a fig-tree which Isidorus of Pellusium holds to have been the tree of the first unhappiness of the world so as if to wipe away this stain it had then been the beginning of his happiness There he made rivers run from his eyes which were wasted with his heart in a noble sacrifice of love and seemed willing to wash the victim with the waters of Libanus before they were burnt in the fire of Sion Thereupon he cried out with redoubled sighs My God how long My God how long No longer remember the sins of my foolish youth but treat with me according to the greatness of thy mercies Shall we yet say to morrow to morrow And why not to day And wherefore is it not time to give end to a life so exorbitant I am troublesom to my self nor can I any longer endure my self Must I ever be to Heaven an object of vengeance and to earth an unprofitable burden My God how long My God how long Speaking this with an abundance of brinish tears he heard a voice sweet and harmonious
derived from frail honours of the world he had cause enough to rejoice on that day when he saw his two sons carried in Pomp through the Citie in a triumphant Chariot accompanied with the whole Senate and attended by an infinite concourse of people who ceased not to congratulate the father and the children as the of-spring of a race born for the good of the Common-wealth The same day he made in full Senate an oration of thanks-giving to Theodorick for the large liberalities extended towards his house which was delivered with such a grace that in conclusion they presented him a Crown as to the King of eloquence He likewise gave notable largesses to all the people and appeared in the great Court of the Circus siting in the middest of his two Consuls in presence of the whole Citie having his heart replenished with content and tears of joy in his eys for the affections which the people witnessed To crown all those blessings of fortune he had married a wife held one of the most accomplished Ladies under heaven For which is very rare she injoyed a great spirit a singular modesty and an excellent chastitie of whom Boetius sufficiently to praise her said in one word She was the image of her father Symmachus who had given her to him in a most chast and happie marriage Now this Symmachus called the pearl and precious ornament of the whole world was a Senatour who seemed to be composed of nothing but wisdom and virtue for which cause he then lived in much reputation and all this family of Boetius was in Ennodius in epist ad Boetitan l. 8. epist 1. Venae purpurarum Purpurae possessoris luce crescentes such sort esteemed that Ennodius writeth it was a vein of purple signifing thereby it contained therein all great dignities no otherwise than as veins inclose the bloud He notwithstanding addeth those purples increased by the lustre of Boetius who possessed them and after when Rome became the prize of those who subdued it it being no longer lawfull for Consuls to reap Palms in the fields of battels he equalled the ancient triumphs by the greatness of his judgement Gerebert an Authour who wrote of those times calleth this Boetius the father and light of his Countrie who managing the reins of the Empire in the qualitie of a Consul spared not to diffuse by the force of his abilitie in good letters all the lustre they had equalling them with the wits of Greece Tu Pater Patriae lumen Severine Boeti Gerebertur l. 2. Epigt Pithae Consulis officio rerum disponis babenas Infundis lumen studijs cedere nescis Graecorum ingenijs Boetius thou father and Countreys-light Disposest Consuls office common right Giv'st studies radiant lustre and no whit In any thing submit'st to Graecian wit Verily we may see by that which followeth in this historie the little assurance may be had either in men or favours If men be vessels who do nothing all their life time but play with the winds favours are waves of glass which fail not to shiver themselves against the rocks We would think the moon much greater than all the stars were it not that the shadow of the earth which we make use of to measure it causeth the contrarie to appear and we might have some opinion these great dignities of the world had much eminencie above all that which is here below were it not that they dayly fall into shadows and fantasms of nothing which well approve we have much illusion in our eys since these greatnesses have taken such estimation in our hearts Jealousie a bad daughter born of a good house which is that of love and honour divideth beds and Empires and hath ever eys so bleared that it cannot endure a ray of the virtue or prosperitie of another And for that cause the lustre which proceeded from the house of Boetius in such manner as day progresseth froÌ„ the gates of the East failed not at all to give suspicions to King Theodorick who seeing himself a stranger and ignorant among Romans and men of so great counsel being not able to derive any other recommendation to himself but what the sword gave him envied so many heavenly riches as were contributed to the happiness of his Empire The change which then succeeded at Constantinople greatly fortified his distrusts for it is written that Anastasius an Emperour who had done nothing in the throne but create schisms beholding the Laurels of Caesar wholly withered on his head had some distast both of life which he had passionately loved and of the scepter possessed with so much ambition It is certain that being one day in the Circus as he espied a furious sedition whispered against him he voluntarily laid down his Crown and let the people know by his Heraulds he was willing to be rid of the Empire which for some time appeased the most passionate notwithstanding being greatly hated and foreseeing he could not make much longer aboad in the world he began to reflect on his Successours desiring to transfer to the Throne one of his three Nephews whom he had bred up having no male issue to succeed him There was difficultie Zacharias Rhetor M. S. Sirmuâ—di in the choice and he having a soul very superstitious put that to lot which he could not resolve by reason for he caused three beds to be prepared in the royal chamber and made his Crown to be hanged within the Tester of one of these beds called the Realm being resolved to give it to him who by lot should place himself under it This done he sent for his Nephews and after he had magnificently entertained them commanded them to repose themselves each one chusing one of the beds prepared for them The eldest accommodated himself according to his fancie and hit upon nothing the second did the same He then expected the youngest should go directly to the crowned bed but he prayed the Emperour he might be permitted to lie with one of his brothers and by this means not any of the three took the way of the Empire which was so easie to be had that it was not above a pace distant Anastasius much amazed well saw God would transfer the Diadem from his race and it is also added that he likewise knew by revelation that it was Justine who should succeed for he having determined to kill him with Justinian heard a voice which spake in his heart and said He should take good heed to touch those two personages because they should do each one in their turn good services to God Afterward as this Justine being ever near the person of the Emperour one day by chance set his foot on the train of his robe the Emperour looking back Thou holdest me said he by the gown and shalt follow me but stay a while your time is not yet come which much amazed all there present who thought him to speak like a man distracted
not be possible to God he being Omnipotent Immense Infinite How according to the confession of ancient Philosophers can he replenish all the world with his Divnity and is not able to accommodate himself with enough of it to divinize his holy Humanity Is it because we say it is united to the Word in this mystery in a quite other fashion than the Spirit of God is with the world I admit it For the union of it is truely personal But must it not be confessed the Word in this divine Essence as under title of efficient cause it hath an influence infinite over all the effects of the world and as under title of final cause it hath a capacity to limit and measure all the inclinations of creatures so under title of substantial bound it may confine and accomplish by its personality all possible Essence Why shall we tie the hands of Divine bounty in its communications since it binds not our understanding in its conceptions Is it not a shamefull thing that man will estimate and set a value upon the Divine Essence If God please not man he shall not be God Should we say man is incapable of this communication And how is it that the holy Humanity resisted the Omnipotency of God to the prejudice of his own exaltation since it is found as soon in the union of the Word as in the possession of Essence See we not in nature that the rays of the Sun draw up vapours from the earth and incorporated with them do create Meteors in the air not any one making resistance to his exaltation What contradiction can there be in our understanding against such a maxim seeing it appears the most famous Philosopher said This union of God with man might be very fit and Plutarch also Plutarch in Numa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking of the communication of the Creatour with the creature pronounced these words That God was not a lover of birds nor other living creatures but a lover of men and that it is a very reasonable matter that be communicate himself to his loves and delights But this would seem to abase the Divinity Hear what Volusianus said I wonder that he to whom this whole Volusianus Miror si intra corpus vagientis infantiae latetâ— cui parva putatur universilas c. universe is so small can be shut up within the bodie of a little child having a mouth open to crie as others What uncomeliness is there if God be united to a little body Have not Plinie (a) (a) (a) Plin. Natura nusquam magis quà m in minimis tota est and Seneca (b) (b) (b) Servitus magnitudinis non posse fieri minorem Senec. Homo quippe ad Deum accessit Deus à se non decessit August said That nature was ever so admirable as in little bodies and that it was a slavery in Great-ones to be unable to be little I wonder the Sovereign Lord of all things is so long absent from Heaven and that all the government of the world is transferred to so little a creature From whence proceedeth this amazement but from the baseness of our thoughts If we said God being made man ceased to be God and were despoiled of his Empire Greatness Essence there would be somewhat wherewith to question this Mystery but when we say God came to Man by inclination of a Sovereign bounty and mercy not leaving himself when we say humane nature is received into the Word as a small source into a huge river and not loosing its Essence is fixed upon the personality of the Word it self is it not to honour the power majesty and wisdom of God 5. In what were the Divinity abased Can it be in doing a work so noble so singular so divine that it deserveth to entertain the thoughts of men and Angels through times and eternity What is more specious and more sweet than to represent to ones self the Person of our Saviour who in himself makes an alliance of all was most eminent in spiritual and corporal nature to wit of God and man verily say I one composed of an unheard-of composition to render the majesty of his father palbable and visible to the hands and eyes of mortals What dignity to behold in the world a Man-God become a part of the world to possess the Spirit of God from all eternity who proposed this person as the end of his communications the bound of his power the first-born of all creatures who held all Ages in breath for him all hearts in desires all minds in expectation all creatures in prophesies The Book of God hath written me In copite libri scriptum est de me Psal 39. 8. in the beginning of its first page said the Word with the Psalmist All creatures of this great universe all predictions and conceptions of these two great books the world and the Bible tended to the accomplishment and revelation of this God-Man who should set a golden head upon all nature intelligent sensitive and vegetative All creatures were but leaves and flowers that promised the great fruit which the Prophet calleth The fruit of earth sublime Isaiah 4. 20. We must religiously speak what deserveth to be heard Religiose dicendum reverentér audiendum est quis propter hunc hominon gloris honâ—re coronandum Deus omnis creavit Rupert l. 13. de glor Trinit proces Spi. Sancti with reverence It is for this incomparable man that God created the world and all creatures are but as silly rays from the Diadem of glory which covereth his head What a spectacle to see them all wound up as the strings of a harp to praise and declare unto men the Name of God to behold the nine Quires of Angels enter into this consort and every one of them to honour this first Essence by so many distinct perfections notwithstanding all to confess their ability cannot reach that degree which the Divine greatness meriteth And thereupon behold here the Word Incarnate which passing through all the spheres of nature grace and glory enter into the new sphere of the hypostatical union where it appears as a rainbow imprinted with all the beauties of the father he manifesteth them to men and making himself an adoring God a loving God an honouring God he adoreth he loveth he honoureth God so much as he is adorable amiable and honourable through all Ages for evermore Let us unfold our hearts in the knowledge and love of the Word revealed Let us adore this great sign this eternal character of the living God for whom all signs are Let us make a firm purpose not to pass over a day of our life wherein we afford him not three things due to him by titles so lawfull Homage Love Imitation Homage by adoring him and offering him some small service directed according to times in acknowledgement of the dependence we have of him by an entire comformity of our wils to his Love
retreat Neverthelesse redoubling his importunities he prevailed and so soon as he was separated from his scholar he who before was a dove with wings of silver and who in acts of virtue took a strong and confident flight suffered himself to fall into the mire with a scandal as shamefull as the excesse was violent Lust assaulteth and on all sides besieges him Licencious youth takes possession of his soul and continually blows love and beauty into his ears It many times hapneth that the passions of young men which have been too severely restrained so soon as they have found passage do the more violently overflow as if nature went about to take revenge upon art and precepts They must sometime be shewed the world with contempt they must be enured against its assaults they must be prepared against its deceits that they be not like foolish pigeons which have never seen any thing but suffer themselves to be taken with the first baits S. Arnold who was a man that breathed nothing but wildernesses in my opinion held the spirit of Dagobert in a life too much restrained which in the first approach of liberty flew out into most violent extravagancies He presently took an aversion against Queen Gomatrade his wife and in a liberty of doing all which flatterers told him fell to him as an inheritance he durst to repudiate her and take a young Lady named Ragintrude whom he most affectionately loved Lust is the throat of Hell which never sayes It is enough and when shame hath no bridle to with-hold it it makes no difference between things sacred and profane and the greatest crimes passe with it as matters indifferent This love is not content with common passion he entreth into Cloysters and takes a virgin out of a Monastery who had begun to dedicate her self to God To her he addeth many others and makes a little Seraglio of his palace All France groaned to see so sudden and deplorable a change of life in their King S. Arnold is invited by some good men again to visit his young plant and to take in hand the raines of the Kings direction which he had forsaken but whether he were charmed by the sweetnesse of his solitude or whether he feared he should have no favourable admission after so solemn a leave which he with so much importunity had begged he would not hearken to it rather choosing to send his sighs to the ears of God then the Kings S. Amand determines to undertake the matter which he did with Ecclesiastick vigour and a most undoubted confidence but the sick man was too tender to endure a tongue armed with sword and fire so farre was he from disposing himself to remedies that he could not suffer so much as the presence of his Physician causing him to be sent into another countrey Pepin of Landen who was the prime man in the Court thought fit to instill some good counsel and sage words as occasion offered but the King transported with the exorbitancy of his youth told him he was a troublesome man of whom it were fit to rid the world since he was so hardy as to censure the innocent delights of his Master For which cause this great pillar of state shaken by the storm of a violent passion much tottered and was very near to have been thrown down The Reverence wherewith his virtue was honoured which proceeded almost to veneration saved him to reserve his reasons for a better disposition During this time the Queen dieth and the affections of Dagobert began to slacken either out of satiety or shame This good Councellour layes hold of his opportunity and takes him on the Biasse shewing him his honour and repose joyned with the good of the state required of him a happy posterity and that it was a very easie matter for him since he had honoured Ragintrude with his affections for her exquisite beauty and the excellent gifts wherein she surpassed that he might take her to wife and limit his love within lawfull wedlock which would draw upon him the blessings of heaven and the love of all his people This speech happily entred into the Kings heart and he resolved to follow the Counsel which was presented him by so good a hand He dismisseth all the women which had tyrannized over his affection he marrieth Ragintrude and as if in an instant some charm had been taken away he in himself by the hand of God made such a change that his life was a Rule of virtue and his conversion a miracle The Court which commonly followeth the inclinations of the Prince took with him a quite other face vice and vicious are thence banished and all virtues thither brought chastity as in triumph 16 I verily think it is many times an act as hard Rigordus and heroick to free ones self from a miery bog whereinto one by mischance is fallen as to live perpetually innocent For which cause I much esteem the resolution Great Triumph of Philip Gods-gift over himself of Philip Gods-gift who being in the beginning distasted with Engelbergue his wife after he had repudiated her and taken Mary the daughter of the Duke of Moravia out of a violent affection which long had embroiled him he was suddenly converted and laid hold of the occasion of his salvation The Complaints of the scandall he gave flew to Rome and returned with Censures and Thunders Census and Meilleur two Legates sent by the Holy Sea durst not touch this wound which they judged to be incurable Peter Cardinall of S. Mary absolutely incensed him putting the Kingdome into interdict and the King into despair who vomited nought but choller and flames Two other Legates deputed for a third triall proceeded therein with much sweetnesse which so gained the soul of Philip that he began to submit to reason Yet the charms were so violent that his reason thereby became infirm and his constancy wavering His businesse was lastly decided by a Synod and it was dangerous lest it might stirre up a storm when this Royall heart which was come to plead before the Councel and to dispose of his affections to the heighth of his contentment there wanting not to men of authority who flattered his passion was suddenly touched takes the Queen his wife reconcileth himself to her sets her behind him on his horse carries her to his Palace and caused to be said to the Legates and the other Prelates assembled that they had no more to do to trouble their heads any longer about his businesse for he had happily determined it If Henry the eighth King of England had taken the same course love would have been disarmed innovations hindered concord established and all the disasters banished out of England Lastly to conclude this discourse I verily think never woman better mannaged love then Queen Blanch mother of S. Lewis She was very lovely and among those great lights of perfection which encompassed her on all sides she wanted not beauty which was the
to advance Virtue and to beat down vice without reflecting on any of the Personages of these times no more than if I wrote under the reign of Charlemaigne or S. Lewis I must intreat these spirits of Application which know not how to behold a work without making it subject to their own fancies imagining every letter to be the Ecchoes of their own thoughts that if they have any Commentary to produce they would rather make a gloss upon their own Dreams than on my Books We live not yet God be thanked in an Age so miserable that we dare not sacrifice to Truth without a disguise seeing it is the glory of our Grandees that we may openly make war against Vice as against an enemy and not of our party For to speak sincerely having laid my first Tome at the feet of the sacred person of our great King I considered what great and glistering lights there were in all their Orders within his Court which might serve as Models for my Treatise but to avoid the affectation of all compliance with this world I did expresly forbear it my own nature and my long Robe having so far estranged me from all worldly pretences that it would be a disease unto me but to salute a man if he had not Heaven and the Stars to return me for it As concerning the manner of writing which I have observed I shall easily confess unto my Reader that it proceeded rather from my Genius than from Art and though I have been curious enough to observe whatsoever the Greek or Romane Eloquence hath happily brought forth yet I must acknowledge that there is a Ray of God himself which entering into our spirit and mingling with our nature is more knowing and effectual than all precepts whatsoever And this I can affirm for the instruction of youth to those who have demanded my advice concerning the qualities and conditions of stiles It is true I have perused variety of Books written in all Ages and I have acknowledged that the most sensible amongst them have been raised both in their conceptions and their words above the common reach and alwayes without affectation Others have been passionately taken with some fine niceties which are the capital Enemies to perswasion and above all to be eschewed in the Discourses which are made of Piety whose nerves they do infeeble and whose lustres they do foil we may see that those who from the chair do speak unto us either by account or by writing although it be with terms discreet enough yet they leave a less impression on our hearts and sometimes are so violently carried away to serve their own reputation that they forget their engagements to the Truth We may observe some who through too much spirit seek out by-ways of conceptions of common sense and extravagant words and so strongly adore their own thoughts that they can suffer none but themselves on their own paper which is the cause they seldom meet with the right use of humane understanding being the true Citizens of Plato's Common-wealth capable to controul all things but to perform nothing Others there are who glory in a sterility and are willfully angry against God because in some part of the Heavens he placed so many stars These can endure nothing that is generous without snarling or biting at it They conceive Beauty and Light to be blemishes because they are above their capacities Lastly there are some who in their continual Allegations do so lay forth themselves in the praise of others that they make their Discourses like those pictures of Helena which are all of gold There is nothing but Drapery to be seen you cannot distinguish the foot from the hand nor the eye from the ear But I will enter no further into the consideration of our times having learned rather to respect than censure the indifferent Works of our Writers But to speak soundly I never thought it expedient either to perswade unto or to follow the same fashions And as in this work I have not altogether renounced the learning and the ornaments which I thought to be convenient but have inchased them in it so I would not fill my papers with Quotations and strange Languages this Labour being undertaken rather to perswade the Great-ones unto Virtue than to fill the Extracts and Annotations of the Students I have so moderated the style without letting my self loose to the empty language of Complements which had been beneath my Subject that I conceive I have rendered it easie to be understood even to those apprehensions which make no profession at all of learning It is the onely Design that I have to speak so as to be understood perswading my self according to the saying of Philo That Word and Thought are two Sister germanes and that the youngest is born onely to make the eldest known I study more for weight of sentences than for ornament of words pretending nothing to the glory of mundane Quills which we see every day appear amongst so many Authours of this Age who would be more perfect if they would apply themselves to more grave subjects and in some fashion imitate the Sun who being admired thoughout the whole world doth not know how to admire it self Nevertheless it often comes to pass but not to the more lofty Writers who are ordinarily indued with more modesty but to certain men extreamly profane to idolize their own inventions to condemn all Treatises of worth and to esteem that one cannot be eloquent in our tongue if he writes not Vanity or Impureness Certainly if a question were made to judge of the French eloquence the riches of Babylon are not so exquisite that they may stand in comparison with the beauties of Sion As long as letters and men shall continue there shall continue the praises of so many excellent Books which have come from the hands of so many Illustrious Prelates and other qualified persons nay and of the secular State who have exercised their style on chaste and honourable Arguments and worthy all commendation I speak this by the way having at this time no design to enlarge my self on the recital of the number of those able men who have now the pen in their hands nor praise those of my own Robe who have given their holy labours to the publick and who I know may be followed by a great number of excellent Spirits of the same society For that which concerns me I am acquitted of my promise and I conceive that I have sufficiently expressed in these two Volumes the whole reach of my Design for the rest I conceive that the Books of Devotion which are to be made publick ought to be rare and to be very well digested because there is already extant so great a number of them that the number of the Authours will suddenly exceed the number of the Readers Satiety will cast a cloud on the brightest Beauties and though a thing may be very good yet we ought not to surfet
enriched you enameled you with so many perfections that justly we may call you the children of admiration Be you then to mankind that which the Rainbowe is to plants leave it to the odour of a good conversation which may become natural you shall reap here below true and solid glory contentments so tasteful that a man may more easily feel them than express them and in Heaven your recompence shall be equalled to the profit which your example shall have made on earth I know not what may be produced more pressing to a generous heart to oblige him to perfection The twelfth REASON Drawn from punishment CLemens Alexandrinus observeth that the belief Clemens Alex. Stromat 5. of one God and the faith of one judgement are in the soul of man by like consequence necessary and that the Heathens in the dead obscurity of infidelity were not able to shut their eyes against this veritie There is no soul in the world so barren which by force of the light of nature conceiveth not that if there be certain rays or reflections of virtue diffused through the actions of men the same ought to be in God as in their source with a radiant lustre of supereminence Wherefore Because as Dionysius Areopagita God a great Thesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Dionis de divin nomini c. 2. August de Trinit l. 8. c. 3. saith in the book of divine attributes God is a great Thesis which hath but one word for expression but this draweth along with it all essences verities and perfections And for the same cause S. Augustine calleth this Sovereign Majesty Bonum omnis boni Now so it is that we behold shining in men though otherwise very imperfect certain traces or draughts of Justice and we observe they are naturally addicted to the love of this virtue were it not that passion maketh them belie their hearts and betray their own nature We must then necessarily conclude that Justice is in God as water in the fountain lines in the center and beams in the Sun Justice and Mercy are the two arms of God Justice and mercy which embrace bear and govern the whole world they are the two engins of the great Archimedes which make Heaven descend upon earth and earth mount to Heaven It is the base and treble-string of this great lute of Heaven which make all the harmonies and tuneable symphonies of this Universe Now as Mercy is infinite so is Justice The divine Essence holdeth these two perfections as the two scales of the ballance always equally poized Judge hereupon O Noblemen if the favours and mercies of God are so eminent with you what part shall Justice have amongst you David who had felt the scourges cried out as in Psal 89. Quis novit potestatem irae tuae aut prae timore tuo iram tuam dinumerare Sap. 6. Horrendè citò apparebit vobis quoniam judicium durissonum his qui praesunt fiet Exiguo enim conceditur misericordia potentes autem potenter tormenta patientur Non enim subtrabet personam cujusquam Deus nec verebitur magnitudinem cujusquam a deep extasie Oh my God who can be able to know the force of thy anger Who can be able amongst so many perplexities and affrightments to recount the effects of thy indignation True it is thy Justice doth most extraordinarily appear on the rebellious heads of sinners but especially upon the Great-ones of the earth These words of the Wise-man are terrible to any that will maturely consider them You who hold the highest place amongst men and live without fear or aw of that Majestie which hath constituted you where you are know God will visit you and appear to you with speed and horrour A most rigorous judgement shall be executed on those who command over others Mercy is for the little ones and humble but if you persevere in your wicked life as being potent you shall powerfully be tormented God is not a man to sooth you to distinguish your persons and treat with you with observance of your qualities Beware The reasons why the chastisement of great men shall be most severe are clear and evident the principal whereof I will briefly here produce First by how much the more a sin is committed Knowledge of good and evil makes the sin the more foul with exact knowledge of good and ill so much the more punishable it is because it participateth the more of the venom of malice Ignorance unto many is part of their sanctitie others with open eyes run headlong to ruin Now can it be denied but that great men ordinarily being endowed with good spirits capable judgements and most happie memories and they instructed by so many Doctours both speaking and dumb should have much more light and knowledge than the ordinary sort of men Behold why degenerating it cannot be but they must needs break a thousand bonds that held them in their dutie blunt a thousand sharp points a thousand inspirations from Heaven that feelingly touch their conscience the which cannot be done without great and determinate malice which rendreth their sin the more enormous and their heads the more punishable This is the reason Divines give touching Why bad angels were punished without mercy the punishment of the Angel apostate A strange thing that God coming from Heaven upon earth to take human flesh to distend his imperial robe upon man who lay on a dung-hill drawing him out washing him guilding him over with grace the true seed of glory in the mean time left the bad Angel without mercy for a prey of punishment which shall not end no more than God himself Wherefore is this but that the Angel offended with an Ob perfectam cognitionem solutum animi impetum peccatum Angelorum incomparabiliter gravius Vide Gregor l. 4. Moral c. 9 Marvellous Justice absolute and deliberate malice as one much more illuminated and Adam suffered himself to slide into sin rather by surprizal by infirmitie by complacence to the humours of his wife as S. Augustine observeth than purposely or contemptuously Alas me thinks this horrid punishment of the contumacious Angel should make the bloud congeal in the veins of all the Great-ones of the earth who offend their Creatour with as much malice as they have knowledge Ask O Noblemen of the Divine Justice from whence it proceedeth that these evil spirits have been so roughly handled If beauty could mollifie the rigour of a Judge they were adorned with an incomparable beauty above all creatures If the excellency of nature be esteemed they were the most lively Images of the Divinity amongst all things created If the spirit contribute thereunto they penetrated by their active vivacity even from Heaven to the deepest abyss If the glory of God were in this act considerable they were creatures who could love bless and glorifie God eternally If evil had been to be prevented this great Judge saw there would arise
misery of the world the waking aiery fantasies fleeting fires which shine not but to extinguish your selves and in being put out to bereave us of light leaving us the evil savour and sorrow of loosing it This Prince so accomplished that nature seemed to have framed him to be the object of thoughts the love of hearts the admiration of souls this Prince in whom was stored all the glory of the Royal house of the Asmoneans this Prince who was to marry the Miter with the Diadem and raise all the hopes of a lost race behold him by a most treasonable practise smothered in the water in an age in a beauty in an innocency which made this accident as full of pitie as it was unfurnished of remedies Vpon this news the whole City of Jerusalem was Sorrow upon this death in as great a confusion as if Nebuchadnezzar returning from the other world had been at the gates thereof In every place there was nothing to be seen but tears groans horrour astonishment yellings representations of death You would have said that every house bare their first-born to buryal as was seen heretofore to happen among the Aegyptians But above all Alexandra the disconsolate mother afflicted herself with uncurable sorrow sometime she wept prostrated on the body of her son and sought in his eclipsed eyes and dead lips the remnant of her life Sometime she rouled her eyes like a distracted lunatike calling for fire sword halters and precipices to find in them the catastrophe of life The sad Mariamne although infinitly patient had much ado to resist the impetuous violences of an incomparable sorrow She loved this brother of hers most dearly as her true image as the pledg-bearer of her heart as the hope of her house all rent in pieces All confounded as she was the good daughter reflected on the wound of her mother and stayed near the corps of her brother as if she had been the shadow of the same body Then turning herself to God she said to him with an affectionate heart My God behold me presently in Singular resignation that estate wherein I have nothing more to stand in fear of but your justice nothing more to hope but your mercie He for whom I feared for whom I hoped all that which one may fear or hope in the revolution of worldly occurrents is taken from me by a secret judgement of your providence ever to be adored by my obedient will although not to be penetrated at all by the weakness of my thoughts If I yet among so many acerbities suck some sweetness out of the world in the presence of delicious objects of which you have bereaved me behold me wholly weaned hereafter I will find therein nothing but wormwood to the end that renouncing the comforts of the earth I may learn to tast those which are proper to your children Behold how fair and reposed souls draw honey from the rock and convert all into merit yea even their tears The impatient like Alexandra afflict themselves without comfort torment themselves without remedy and many times become desperate without remission What shall we say Herod himself in this sad consort Extream hypocrisie of Herod of sorrow would needs play his part He maketh externally appear in a dissembled hypocrisie all the symptoms of a true sorrow He detesteth play he accuseth fortune he complaineth Heaven had sinisterly envied him an object on which he desired much to make all the love and respect appear he bare to the Royal bloud from whence he greatly derived his advancement He most ceremoniously goeth to visit the Queen and her mother and when he findeth them weeping about this dead body scalding tears flowed from his eyes whether it were he had them at command to make his dissimulation the more great or whether he verily had at that time some resentment of grief beholding on one side this little blossom so cruelly cropped under the sythe of death and so many celestial beauties which had for limit and horizon the instant of their birth and on the other side considering these poor Queens drenched in a sea of sorrow which had force to draw tears from rocks This trayterous creature had yet some humanity in him and I could well believe that nature had at this time wrung these tears by violence from his barbarous cruelty notwithstanding he feigned willingness to stop his passion with māliness afterwards turning himself to the Ladies he said He was not come so suddenly to wipe away their tears which had but too much cause to be shed as for himself he had enough to do to command his own Nature must be suffered to have her sway time must have his and would apply a plaister to this sorrow That he would perform for the memorie of the dead whatsoever an onely son might expect from a passionate father and a puissant King that hereafter he would be true son of Alexandra true husband and true brother of Mariamne since God was pleased to redouble these obligations in him by the loss they had suffered O the powerfull tyranny of the appetite of revenge Tyranny of revenge Alexandra whom one might have thought would burst into contumelies and reproches as well knowing Herod what face soever he set upon the matter was Authour and plotter of this death held herself constantly in the degrees of dissimulation not shewing to the King any discontent on her part and all for the hope she had to be opportunely revenged in time and place Herod retiring thought he had acted his part well free from any suspition of offence seeing Alexandra spake not a word who heretofore too frequently accustomed to complain in far less occasions To apply the last lenitive he caused the funerals of the dead to be celebrated with such pomp and magnificence that nothing could be added thereunto as well in the order of the equipage as in the curiosity of the perfumes with which the body was embalmed and the magnificent furnitures of sepulchre The most simple and ignorant supposed all this proceeded from a real and sincere affection but the wisest said they were the tears of the crocodile that Herod could not cordially deplore his death which had taken a straw out of his eye and put him in full possession of the Kingdom of Judea Alexandra Herod accused joyning the passion of her sorrow to her resolution of revenge immediately after the obsequies faileth not to give notice to Queen Cleopatra of all that had passed with so pathetical a letter that every word seemed to be steeped in tears of bloud Cleopatra who was apt enough for these impressions suddenly takes fire and affecteth the affair with that ardour she would her own cause she rowseth up her whole Court she storms she perpetually filleth Mark Anthonie's ears crying out it was a thing insupportable to see a stranger hold a scepter to which he could pretend no right to massacre the heir with so much barbarous cruelty to
victorious and free from slander It is a very strange thing to pretend the most enormous of crimes against persons of our reputation and qualitie without saying wherefore or how Nothing is spoken of letters poysons complots conspiracies suborned servants it is onely affirmed we are parricides and proofs are pretermitted If this be sufficient you shall have in the world no more innocency but that which calumny shall disdain to fix her tooth in Our enemies who for many years have spun this web never could alledge any other thing but that we were old enough and of sufficient courage to do it and that we might perform it in revenge of the death of our mother Mariamne As for the first reason who seeth not how weak it is If nothing but age and valour be necessary to perpetrate a parricide it is to fill the whole world with bloud to put all fathers into jealousie and all sons into crime For the second which concerneth our dead mother she left us in an age wherein neither could we as yet bewail nor feel her misery After we came out of our child-hood we have not been willing to search into your counsels to sift out your resolutions the issue of them ought to make us not more audacious to undertake evil but more stayed and advised to do good We onely have afforded tears to her not to bemoan her death for such were unprofitable but to satisfie our passion seeing our enemies ceased not to disturb the ashes of her whose bloud they had shed Father if our tears which proceed from so just a resentment of nature be in your Court accounted criminal where shall we any more find safety but in your justice Never in the so sensible apprehensions hath any word of bitterness escaped us against you but rather against those who abuse your authority to the ruin of yours We have no cause at all to hate your life but to love it by so much the more as you have judged us capable above the rest of our brothers to succeed to your Crown You have set all the marks of regality upon us al the blessings we could hope for to ask more would be to require liberty to overthrow us To what end should we seek by parricide a Kingdom which is purchased for us by your favour that so heaven earth seas conspiring with Caesar might shut the gate against us for which we should have been desirous to make a key steeped in the bloud of our father Your majesty hath begot us perhaps more unfortunate than now would be expedient for your estate but never shall we be so sottish nor impious as to do a mischief irrecoverably to undo us Most honoured father suppress the suspition which you have conceived or if you be pleased stil to retain it we both will leave this life of which we are not so fondly affectionate that we would be willing to preserve it to the displeasure of him that gave it This Oration accompanied with the tears of this young Prince struck all the standers by with admiration and as they were both beheld with lowly looks expecting the Judges sentence every one was enkindled with desire to justifie them Caesar casteth his eye on Herod to see his countenance who shewed himself much moved with compassion and could have been content never to have thought of such an accusation for verily this action in the apprehension of those present much hurt him and caused his credulity to be condemned Augustus who would not confound them pronounced that undoubtedly his children had done ill to displease him but as for the pretended crime he should raze it out of his papers These young Princes were too well born and bred to proceed so far there remained for them hereafter to live in good correspondence and renew this holy knot of nature which could not be dissolved by so good a father nor children so futurely hopeful This said Herod embraced his sons one after another much weeping which drew tears even from those who were not interressed in this affair After all manner of complements were done behold them upon return with their father and brother Antipater who had caused all this goodly Tragedie to be played Notwithstanding this wicked creature overwhelmed them with courtesies and congratulations as if he would make bonfires of joy in his heart Thus dissimulation goeth along in Court till such time that God taketh away the mask Being returned to Jerusalem one year was scarcely spent but that calumnie set new snares to entrap the innocency of these poor Princes Pheroras resolved to excite Alexander with jealousie telling Horrible malice him in great secret Herod his father made too much of the beauteous Glaphyra his wife daughter of King Archelaus supposing it was a powerful means to turmoyl his spirit and enkindle it with fury against the King his father and this way to precipitate him into ruin These words upon the matter were most sensible to this generous heart and then he began with a jealous eye to prie into Herods actions who it is true familiarly conversed every day with this Princess endowed with incomparable beauty but in conclusion he observed no other thing in such conversation but loving entertainments of a father-in-law towards a sons wife worthy to bee cherished for many excellent parts Alexander notwithstanding after this advertisement of Pheroras turned this honey into poyson interpreting all in an ill sense and was so transported that one day entering into his fathers chamber he discovered the jealousie and suspition he had conceived with sighs and tears of rage Herod found himself much troubled with this accident and thinking it a thing unworthy his person to justifie himself to his son with many words to excuse that which was not he onely said My son who hath put this into thy head The other replieth he knew much of it himself and Pheroras had confirmed it Pheroras was instantly sent for and Herod who oft-times used him as a servant casting a furious glance of his eyes upon him Rake-hell saith he what hast thou said to this young Prince It is not a word thou hast put into his ear but a sword into his hand against his father for verily he would no more endure a companion of his bed than I in my Kingdom Ingratefull creature shouldst thou not rather tear out thy own heart than entertain such a thought of thy brother Such crimes as this never were in our house nor ever will be unless thou bring them hither Get hence and let me see thee no more I ordain tortures for other delinquents but for thee since thou art so wicked I leave thee to thy own conscience not being able to find a fitter executioner Pheroras who was not much astonished with this noise answereth he knew nothing but what Salome who was there present had told him as indeed this came from her But the subtile woman casting out at that instant a loud complaint and tearing
answered their desires For in this second Volumn I treat of the Courts of Constantine the Great the two Valentinians Gratian Theodosius the Elder Theodorick in Boetius his cause Clodoveus Clotilda Levigildus Hermingildus and Indegondis in such sort that I have selected the principal sanctities of Great-ones in the first six Ages of Christianity which will not be sleightly valued by those who better love to finish a Work than unboundedly distend it Moreover also to be better than my promise in my first Volumn having taken the Court in general I here descend into particulars and there being four sorts of persons which compose the life of Great-ones that is to say the Prelate the Souldier the States-man and the Court-Ladie I have made a brief Table of the conditions necessary in every state couched in four discourses pursued with as many Books of Histories which contain excellent models of virtues proper to all orders and states of life in persons most eminent I can assure my Reader these Summaries of Precepts which I have so contracted in so few words it being in my power to enlarge them in divers Volumns are not unprofitable and the Histories are so chosen that besides their majesty which unfoldeth the goodliest affairs and passages of Empires in the beginning of their Christianity they have also a certain sweetness which solid spirits shall find as much to transcend fables and modern eloquence as the satisfaction of truth surpasseth the illusions of Sorcerers You shall perpetually therein observe a large Theater of the Divine providence wherein God himself knoweth I have no other aim but to dignifie virtue and depress vice without any reflection upon the persons of these times no more than if I wrote in the Reign of Charlemain or St. Lewis I heartily entreat all those spirits of application who cannot hold their nose over a piece of work unless they find it to suit with their own fantasies imagining that all literature is the eccho of their own thoughts that if they have any Commentary to produce they would rather make glosses upon their own dreams than my Books We are not as yet God be thanked in so miserable an Age that we dare not offer sacrifice to truth without a disguise since it is the glory of Great-ones openly to wage war against vices as their greatest enemies For to speak truly after I had presented my First Tome at the feet of the sacred person of our great King I likewise considered in his Court rich and resplendent lights in all orders which might serve as models for my Treatises but to avoid affectation of all worldly complacence I have purposely declined it my nature and habit having already so alienated me from all worldly pretences that it would prove painfull to me to court any man if he had not Heaven and the Stars to give me for reward For so much as concerneth the form of writing observed by me in this Second Volumn I will truly confess to my Reader that I have therein proceeded rather guided by my proper Genius than art or cunning And although I heretofore have been curious enough to read and observe all what ever Greek or Roman eloquence hath produced of worth yet I confess there is a certain ray of God which encountering with our spirit and mixing with nature is more knowing than all precepts and I may affirm this for the instruction of youth which hath asked my opinion concerning the qualities and conditions of stile True it is I have handled many books written in all Ages and have found the wisest of them to be elevated in conceits and words above the ordinary strain but always free from affectation Others are so passionately enamoured of certain petty courtships of language which are capital enemies of perswasion and which we most especially ought to avoid in discourses of piety the nerves whereof they weaken and blemish the lustre since even those who speak to us out of Chairs by word or writing although in terms discreetly modest make the less impressions on our hearts and many times so seek after their own reputations as they forget how much they are engaged to truth We see some who through over-much wit search out strange ways conceptions different from common understanding words extravagant and in all other things so vehemently adore their own imaginations that they cannot endure any but themselves in paper which is the cause they very seldom meet with the habit of humane understanding as being true Citizens of Plato's Commonwealth of ability to controle all and to do nothing Some glory in barrenness and would willingly be displeased with God that he hath more plentifully sown stars in some parts of the Heaven than in others They can brook nothing that is generous without snarling at it and taxing it supposing beauties and splendours are defects because they surpass their capacities Finally there are some who so furnish themselves with the worth of others ceaseless allegations that they frame discourses like to those Helena's all of gold where we can behold nothing but drapery not being able to distinguish the hand from the foot nor the eye from the face I enter not into the consideration of our times having learned rather to regard the Works of the meanest Writers than censure them But to speak sincerely I never thought it fit to advise or pursue such courses And as in this Work I have not wholly declined learning nor ornament of language which I supposed apt for the purpose endeavouring many times to enchase them with seemly accommodation so have I been unwilling to replenish my leaves with Authours and forreign tongues this being undertaken rather to perswade virtue among men eminent than to fill the common places of young Students I likewise have so intermingled my style that not descending into a petty language of complement which had been below my subject I thought to make it intelligible yea even unto those who make no profession of arts or study My onely aim is to speak and to be understood perswaded thereunto by the saying of Philo That speech and thought are two sisters they youngest whereof is created that the eldest may be known I have more laboured upon the weight of sentences than ornaments of words not at all pretending to the honour of earthly pens which we daily behold to grow in so many Authours of this Age who would be much more absolute did they apply themselves to graver subjects and in some sort imitate the Sun who affording admiration to the world hath none himself Notwithstanding it often happeneth not with the most eminent Writers who ordinarily are endowed with much modesty but certain extreamly profane wits to idolatrize their own inventions to condemn all treatises of worth and value that it is impossible to be eloquent in our language but in the expression of vanities and impurities Truly if question were made to judge of French eloquence the riches of Babylon are not so exquisite as
heretofore ordained for the Vestals by the Common-wealth should at this present be summed up as the coyn of the Weal-publick As the Common-wealth is composed of particulars so hath it no more right over donatives than it hath on particular persons Your selves who govern all preserve for each one what appertains to him and would have justice extend it self further than your power Consult if you please with your magnificence and it will tell you that what you hitherto have given to so many particulars is no more a publick good for the gifts are no longer theirs who bestowed them and that which was in the beginning a benefit by custom and succession of time becomes an obligation It is to affright the consciences of your Majesties with panick fears to think to make you believe you give to our religion that which you cannot take from it without injustice I pray God the secret assistances of all Sects may favour your Clemencie and that this same which hath so long time ayded your Ancestours if it can no longer stand in credit with you may at least keep you in its protection We will on your Majesties behalf afford it all rights and it towards you shall continue ordinarie favours We demand nothing new in requiring the exercise He speaketh of Valentinian of a Religion which hath preserved the Empire for your father now with the Gods and which hath blessed his bed with lawfull heirs of his crown This good Prince being entered into the condition of the Gods immortal beholdeth from Heaven the tears of these poor Vestals and well sees customs cannot be violated which he with so much affection maintained but by the diminution of his authoritie Afford at least this contentment to your good brother received into this celestial companie as to see a decree corrected that was not his own Cover an act under oblivion which he had never suffered to pass had he foreseen the discontent of the Senate and for which the deputies were diverted which we sent unto him when he was alive for the fear his enemies had of his equitie It much importeth the publick to take away a foul blame from the ashes of a good Prince and justifie the passed by abolishment of the present The fifth SECTION The Oration of S. Ambrose against Symmachus MOST SACRED MAjESTIE ALthough your Minoritie gave us undoubted signs It is drawn from his reasons conceptions and as it were from all his own words of the strength of your spirit and constancie of your faith yet the rank I hold near to your person obligeth me to prevent the surprizes of a craftie discourse which creepeth amongst so many golden words as the serpent amongst the flowers It is ill the Governour Symmachus hath employed so fair a tongue on so foul a subject The deceit of his eloquence makes us suspect the weakness of his Gods for ever a bad cause seeketh that support in words which in truth it cannot find Such are the ordinarie proceedings of Pagans when they speak of their superstitions Their Orations resemble those ancient Temples of Aegypt which under golden Tents lodged Idols of Rats and Crocodiles But the Scripture teacheth us rather to live than talk and recommendeth the contempt of language to oblige us to soliditie of virtues That is the cause why most sacred Majestie after I have entreated you to take my discourse rather in the weight of reasons than number of words I will answer to three points which the Governour seemeth to comprize in his speech The first toucheth the Religion of Pagans The second the revenews of Vestals And the third the cause of the famin we have felt A singular refutation of Symmachus his strongest argument I understand in the first article it is Rome which speaketh with her eyes full of tears sighs at her heart demanding the exercise of Pagan superstitions because they are such saith the Governour which drave Hannibal from the walls and the Gauls from the Capitol It is to publish the infirmitie of false Gods to defend them in this manner and better we cannot refute Symmachus than by shewing him armed against himself For I ask if those Gods are the Protectours of this Empire why they so long time suffered Hannibal to triumph in the ruins of Italie Were their hands so short they could stretch them no further than their walls and Temples As for the Gauls what shall I say I much wonder how the governour doth mention it since it is in effect a thing most ridiculous to say that the enemies being in the heart of the Citie all these protecting Gods should stand idle in their Temples in such sort that all histories have published the people of Rome owed their preservation not to the Gods or sacrifices which nothing availed them but to the gagling of a goose which by good hap awakened the drowsie Centinels if it be not that Symmachus as he is inventive enough will say that Jupiter had then forsaken his burning Chariots and thunder-bolts to shut himself up in the throat of this gosling But as a lye is ever industrious to hurt it self did not Hannibal adore the Roman Gods If it be true that they always bear victorie in their hands why did not Hannibal surprize Rome with the assistance of those Gods Or why did not the Romans vanquish Hannibal in all their battels Why had both the one and the other oftentimes the worst On what side soever you turn you must see Gods conquered who cannot denie their impotencie if they avow not their nullitie It is not Rome then that speaketh in this manner as Symmachus makes it never gave she him this commission but she says by the mouthes of her brave Captains Romans what have I done to become a butcherie and Rome speaketh with Majestie to be imbrued with the bloud of so many creatures Victories abide not in the entrails of beasts but the arms of souldiers It is not the death of oxen hath made me subdue Monarchs but the valour of men Camillus by force of arms displayed my standards on the Capitol which your ceremonies suffered to be taken away Attilius exposed his life for the trial of his fidelitie safety of the Weal-publick Scipio Africanus found triumph not among the Altars of the Capitol but in the field of battel If you desire to see the goodly effects of your superstitions behold Nero who was the first that drew the sword of Caesars against the Christians behold Emperours monethly made and unmade like the moon behold those who were the most zealous in your ceremonies whereof some having shamefully enthraled the worlds Empire to forreigners the other promising themselves great victories under the favour of their Gods have found servitude Was not there then an Altar of Victorie in the Capitol From whence I pray proceeded so many sinister accidents if good hap be divinely destined to those who obey it I much repent me of these barbarous ceremonies
came from Afrik to Milan through so many perils both of sea and land such travels and sufferings to conclude her deliverance She found her son much already shaken by the shocks which the eloquence of S. Ambrose had given him Soon the holy woman knew it was this great Bishop whom God had chosen to set a seal upon this work of the conversion of a man so important and her son relateth that from that time she esteemed S. Ambrose as a very Angel of Heaven (a) (a) (a) Diligebat illum virum sicut Angelum Dei In Ambrosii ora suspendebatur ad fontem aquae salientis in vitam aeternam Conf. 6. in c. 1. She was still in the Church to behold him ever she hung on his lips as the sources which distil from the Paradise of God Here is the attraction of heat or rather the sun that must on high exhale this cold vapour after so much resistance it had made against the spirit of God Augustine himself very particularly deciphereth how being at Milan he saw the Bishop Ambrose known through the whole habitable world (b) (b) (b) In optimis notus orbiterrae as one of the best men upon the earth who ceased not to administer to his people the word of God which in it bare corn oyl and the wine of sobriety This man of God saith he at my arrival imbraced me as a father would his son and shewed he was much pleased with my coming to Milan obliging me with many charitable offices Behold the cause why I began to affect him very much not so much yet as a Doctour of truth for I expected it neither from him nor any other Catholick but as a man who wished me well I continually was present at his sermons in the beginning for curiositie to espie and sound whether his eloquence were equal to his great reputation I was very attentive to his words little caring for the matter and I found he really had a stile very learned and sweet but not the cheerfulness and quaint attractions of Faustus c c c Sermonis erat eruditioris minùs tamen hilarescentis atque mulcentis quà m Fausti though for substance of discourse there was no comparison For Faustus recounted fables and this man taught most wholesome doctrine Behold the first apprehensions that Augustine had touching the abilitie of S. Ambrose In the end he continuing to hear him for delight truth entered through his ears which were onely opened to eloquence and he found in the beginning that our Religion had not those absurdities which the Manichees obtruded and were it not true it might at least be professed without impudence which he could not hitherto be perswaded unto The old Testament which with the Manichees he so much had rejected seemed to him to have a quite other face after the learned interpretations of S. Ambrose The chymeraes and fantasies which environed his imagination were dissolved at the rising of some pettie rays from him Notwithstanding it was yet neither day nor night in his soul Errour was below and Religion had not yet the upper hand His spirit over-toiled with so many questions by the wiles of Satan propended to neutralitie being neither hot nor cold as it happened to those who forsake truth through the despair they have how to know it The eighth SECTION Agitations of spirit in S. Augustine upon his conversion BUt God still enflaming his chast desires he bent himself to consider S. Ambrose whom he perpetually had for object and seeing how this man was honoured by the chief Potentates of the earth how he flourished in such glorious actions all appeared compleat in such a life but that it went on without a wife he thinking at that time the want of a great burden to be a main miserie He as yet proceeded but to the bark of S. Ambrose observing onely what was exteriour and not penetrating into those great treasures of lights virtues contentments and heavenly consolations stored up in the bottom of the conscience of this holy Prelate He had vehement desires to speak to him somewhat more familiarly to understand his opinion to ask questions at large to discover his heart all naked and unfold the miseries of his passed life And because saith he I stood in need of a man full of great leasure to receive the ebbe and flow of thoughts which were in my soul now I found all in Ambrose except time to hear me not that he was difficult of access for he was ever in his Hall exposed to the service of the whole world but my unhappiness was to be like the Paralitick of the fish-pool still out-gone by others more strong than my self What diligence soever I used I found Ambrose environed with a large troup of solicitous men whose infirmities he comforted to my exclusion and if any little time remained for him it was imployed either in repast which was exceeding short or at his book The good Prelate studied in his Hall in sight of all the world where I oft beheld him and saw that in reading he onely ran over with his eye one page of a book then ruminated it in his heart not at all moving his lips whether it were that he would not engage himself to discourse upon his reading to all there present or whether it were he did it to preserve his voice easily weakened with much exercise of speach or for some other cause I thought time was very precious to him and seeing him so serious I supposed it a kind of impudency to interrupt him After so long a silence I went away with the rest not having opportunity to speak to him Verily this discourse sheweth a mervellous repose of spirit in S. Ambrose and as it were over much modesty in S. Augustine for it was a wonder that he who ordinarily lived at Milan in the reputation of a great wit and was already known by the Bishop to be such brake not the press at one time or other to gain some hours of audience in affairs of so great importance I should think either that he used a forbearance too shame-faced and irresolute or that S. Ambrose would not enter into disputation with a young man as yet so well perswaded of his own abilities before he had suffered him to ripen and to be throughly seasoned by the resentments of piety However it put the mind of S. Augustine into great disturbance Behold saith he almost eleven years that I have sought the truth and see I am arrived at the thirtieth year of my Age yet still perplexed To morrow infallibly it must dissolve stay yet a little perhaps Faustus will come to Milan and tell thee all But how will he tell that which he shall never know Let us hold with the Academicks and say all is uncertain for every man mantaineth what he list It is the property of man to imagine and the nature of God to know But the Academicks behold gallant men do
from Alexandria for that he would not sign this proposition this drew compassion from her The spirit of Constantia tainted with this doctrine began already to cast an evil odour upon the Emperour her brother and Eusebius coming thereupon to make recital of that which passed in Alexandria between Alexander and Arius set such a face upon the whole business that he made as it is said the Sun with a cole figuring out the good Prelate Alexander as a passionate man who could not endure an excel-cellent spirit in his Bishoprick 'T is a pitifull thing that great men see not the truth but through the passions of those that serve them This poor Alexander who was a holy old man and grown white in the exercises of Religion was then presented to the Emperour by the information of Eusebius as a fool who under a grizled head had extravagancies of youth in such sort that Constantine Constantine deceived vouchsafing to write unto him taxed him as the authour of this tumult in that he put a frivolous question into consultation and gave occasion of dispute which could never have proceeded but from abundance of idleness And as for Arius he said of him that he gave too much scope to his spirit upon a subject which might much better have been concealed And for the rest they should be both reconciled mutually pardoning each other and hereafter hindering all manner of disputations upon the like occasion Alexander who had done nothing but by the Councel of an hundred Bishops seeing himself treated in a worse condition than Arius was in the Emperours letters and considering the blasphemy which this Heretick had vomited against the Divinity of the Word was reputed as a trifle thought verily they had endeavoured to envenom the spirit of Constantine to the prejudice of the truth For this cause he informed the other Bishops and namely Pope Sylvester of the justice of his cause answering very pertinently to the calumnies objected against him On Eusebius a true patron of hereticks the other side Eusebius who beheld the integrity of this holy Bishop with an ill eye and who had very far engaged himself to maintain Arius embroiled the affairs at Court as much as his credit might permit In the end the disputation was so enkindled through the Christian world that needs must a general Councel be held to determine it Three hundred and eighteen Bishops are assembled Councel of Nice at Nice a Citie of Bithynia by the approbation of Pope Sylvester at the request of the Emperour Constantine who invited the most eminent by express letters and gave very singular direction as wel for their journey as their reception Never was there seen a goodlier company It was a Crown not of pearls nor diamonds but of the rarest men of the world who came from all parts like bees bearing as saith S. Augustine honey in their mouths and wax in their hands There you might behold Venetians Arahians Aegyptians Scythians Thracians Africans Persians not speaking of Western Bishops who were there already in no small number It was a most magnificent spectacle to behold on one side venerable old men white as swans who still bare upon their bodies the scars of iron and persecution which were invincible testimonies of their constancy on the other men who had the gift of miracles so much as to force the power of death and tear from him the dead out of their tombs on the other part men accomplished in Theologie and eloquence who in opening their mouthes seemed to unfold the gate of a Temple full of wonders and beauties There was to be found that great S. James of Nisibis Paphnutius and Potamion There was Hosius S. Nicholas the first Gregorie the father of our Nazianzen Spiridion and so many other worthymen The good Pope S. Sylvester could not be present therat by reason of the decrepitness of his age but sent thither three Legats Hosius Vitus and Vincentius The Emperour received them all most lovingly kissing the scars of some and admiring the sanctity of others never satisfying himself with the modesty and good discourse of all both in particular and general Among these children of God were likewise some Satans adherents to Arius who discovered in their eyes and countenances the passions of their hearts These turbulent spirits fearing the aspect of this awfull assembly softly suggested divers calumnies to surprize the spirit of the Emperour which very naturally retained much goodness And for this purpose they presented to him many requests and many papers charged with complaints and accusations upon pretended domages Verily these proceedings were sufficient to divert this Prince from the love he bare to our Religion were it not that through the grace of God he had already taken very deep root in the faith In the end to do an act worthy of his Majesty beholding himself to be daily burdened with writings wherein these passionate Bishops spake of nothing but their own interests he advised them to set down all their grievances and all the satisfactions which they pretended to draw from those who had offended them and present them on a day designed They failed not to confound him with libels and supplications but this grave Monarch putting them into his bosom said openly Behold a large Zozom l. 1. cap. 16. proportion of Accusations all which must be transferred to the judgement of God who will judge them in the latter day As for my self I am a man nor is it my profession to take notice of such causes where those that accuse and such as be accused are Bishops Let us I pray you for this time leave these affairs and treat we the points for which this Councel is here assembled onely let every one following therein the Divine clemencie pardon all that is past and make an absolute reconciliation for the time to come When he had spoken this he took all the civil requests presented unto him and caused them to be cast into the fire which was much applauded by all those who had their judgements discharged from partialities In the mean space the Bishops before they entered into the Councel took time to examine the propositions that were to be handled and leisurably to inform themselves of the pretensions of Arius who was there present and who already felt the vehemency of the vigour of S. Athanasius though he was yet but a Deacon in the Church of Alexandria The day of the Councel being come the Bishops assembled in the great Hall of the Palace where many benches were set both on the one side and other Every one taketh his place according to his rank Baronius thinketh the Legats of the Pope were seated on the left hand as in the most honourable seats which he very pertinently proveth In the first place on the right hand sat the venerable Bishop Eustatius who was to begin the prayer and carry relations to the Emperour The Bishops remained silent for a Constantius in the
where God might sincerely be honoured and adored without any commixtion of Gods or Altars of Gentils which he as yet through necessity must tolerate at Rome yet nothing was changed in the West Was there want of men to undertake it The greatest of the Senate were in a manner all Pagans Were there not people enough to make revolts They were as much inclined thereunto as ever Were there not souldiers to support the enterprizes of those who had a desire to rebel There was as many and perhaps more at that time as at any time before From whence then proceeded this sweet tranquilitie but that the great Angel-Protectour of Constantine given unto him by the living God held one foot on the East and another on the West to protect preserve and honour a man who had defended maintaimed and reverenced true Religion Oh Nobilitie let no man go about to confine your Advise to the Nobility hearts to these slender and wretched policies which ruine all generositie Whilest your Ancestours sincerely honoured the God of Constantine of Charlemain and S. Lewis and whilest they with all sinceritie manured the pietie of their predecessours without any mixture of novelties factions and subtilities they flew like Eagles to the conquest of Provinces and made their arms resplendent almost in so many places as the sun enlightneth with his rays Now they endeavour to perswade you that following a pettie spirit of wrangling which submitteth religion to interests you shall make up to your selves golden fortunes when indeed experience daily teacheth you they are but of gilded ice and are melted under the lightening of Gods justice Open your eys to that which I present you in Successours of Constantine this historie behold yet if you please as you pass along the sequel and proceeding of the successours of Constantine He left three sons the one called by his own name the other Constantius from the name of his Grand-father and the third Constans Constantine and Constans lived not long the whole Empire which was divided between three was re-united under the power of Constantius who verily was an enemie to the superstitions of Gentiles for which God gave him in recompence great victories against the Tyrant Magnentius But this unfortunate Prince instead of following the same belief of his father hastened to throw himself violently into the novelties of the Arians whereof Ammianus the Historian who was a Pagan souldier very aptly reprehendeth him saying he had done himself great wrong for that instead of preserving Christian Religion in its simplicity he had imbroiled and falsified it with novelism using more perplexity to search out subtilities than gravitie to pacifie the Church For he by this means saith he stirred up an infinite number of dissentions which he nourished with disputes and quirks of words so that under his reign you should never see Bishops but riding post over the fields to hold Synods thereby to draw all Christendom to the Emperours party This was the cause that there were almost no horses nor Couriers to be found for the affairs of the Empire so much were they imployed in voyages which were made for these goodly Councels He hath excellently well expressed in few words the nature of Constantius for he was perpetually busied in these litigious wranglings of the heresie of Arians assembling Conventicles of his false-Bishops to condemn the Orthodox From whence it came to pass that hated of men and forsaken by God he led a life full of jealousies suspicions disturbances and which is worse defiled with bloud and massacres In the end having heard the news that Julian the Apostata his cousin whom he had before declared Caesar was among the Gauls and saluted Emperour and having passed through Italy came to present himself in Thrace he went speedily out to resist him and fell into such desperate furies that on his way he was surprised with a sharp feaver which so broiled his body that they durst no more touch him than a burning fornace This malady in a few days bereaved him of soul and Empire leaving the one to the judgment of God and the other to Julian Behold what became of this deplorable Prince in the one and fourtieth year of his age for having betrayed the Religion of his father the gravitie and modesty observed in him which was the cause he was never seen to spit nor wipe his nose nor turn his head in publick nothing availing him to lengthen out his life Julian Nephew and son-in-law of great Constantine for he espoused Helena sister of Crispus took instantly the government of the whole Empire upon him and would needs overthrow all that which his uncle had done in matter of Religion Let us consider a little without passion the notable extravagancies of this spirit who contemning the pietie Julian with the qualities which Machiavel giveth a Prince had ill succ ss of Constantine sought to establish himself by all the ways which the poor policie of earth suggesteth to those who have renounced heaven To speak to the purpose we must affirm this man had all the qualities which Monsieur Machiavel gave to his Prince If dissimulation may be used for a Kingdom never was a lamb more mild than this young man at the Court of Constantius to take all suspicions from him which he conceived of his near allies and although he already entertained most mischievous thoughts in the matter of Christian Religion he so covered them by the publick profession he made of it that the very Eunuchs who had all charge most narrowly to prie into his actions upon this point observed nothing therein which tended to alteration in Religion But far otherwise about the age of sixteen he caused his hair to be cut and vowed himself to the Church as a Prince most Religious who thought little on the Empire of the world And after when he was sent into France although he used strange superstitions and witch-crafts rising up in the night to pray to Mercury to whom he dedicated much devotion yet did he also notwithstanding celebrate the feasts with Christians and that which besides is more considerable when he was proclaimed Emperour though he had an enraged desire towards it and that all this solemnitie was throughly agreed upon by his cunning yet seigned he to have all the aversions in the world against it and caused himself to be carried to the throne as one would draw an unruly sacrifice to the slaughter What spirit was evermore dissembled than this mans If as saith the Secretary a Prince should endeavour to have virtues in apparence which may render him acceptable in publick though he be not to take much pains to have them in effect never did any man better put on the mask of much honesty than this For in the fortune of Emperour he would seem like the most mortified Stoik of all that Sect shewing himself so chast that never might you hear one sole misbecomming word fall from his lips so
likewise constrain any man to virtue (b) (b) (b) Plato l. 2. de republicâ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in his Common-wealth detesteth all opinions which seek to introduce into the beliefs of people propositions unworthy of Gods goodness namely those which make him authour of sin adding we must not endure to hear it spoken or written by any man in a well rectified Common-wealth Who knoweth not that such are the causes such the effects If the causes be necessary the effects likewise are enchained within the limits of necessity If they be contingent they are all in indifferency Now the prescience of God to speak properly is not the cause of our actions unless it be by meer accident and occasion then it cannot make them necessary Is it not true that the great eye of God equally beholdeth things past present and future And as our eye maketh not things present by beholding them since a wall is neither white nor black by force of my sight and as our memory makes not things past by repassing them by their species so the prescience of God makes not things future by forseeing them they are not because God hath foreseen them but he foresaw them because they so should happen O man if thou beholdest him who made thee thou Faust Reg. de gratia c. 2. l. 2. Si ad factorem homo respicis bonus esse potuisti Si ad praecognitorem tu me progestorum tuorum ordine ut de te malum praenoscerem compulisti mayest have been good But if thou contemplatest him as him who knew thee before the beginning of Ages thou hast enforced him to make an evil judgement upon thee because thou hast made thy self evil Our action although it be not the first dated in execution at the least in the Idaea and order of nature it always foregoeth the divine prescience if we regard its first intentions we may all be honest men if we consider our proceedings we constrain him to foresee of us what is in us If prescience imported any necessity we might conclude God were necessited in all the actions he doth throughout the world because he eternally hath foreseen them all which were most impious Let us not then say But if God hath so foreseen it it will happen by an inevitable necessity for there are three sorts of necessities one most absolute as that of the Essence of God the other natural as light in the sun heat in fire the third is a necessity conditional as is that If God foreseeth such or such a thing it shall happen I say it is a necessity of supposition for you presuppose he foresaw it but instantly you learn he foresaw it not but because it should be and that his prescience is no more the cause of our actions than our memory of the taking of Rochel and wars with the Huguenots 4. After this brain-sick band another riseth 3. Squadron of nice ones according to humane prudence which comprehendeth the subtile and more refined wits according to the judgement of the world who suppose all good success proceeds from prudence and humane industry without the helping hand of God They are such as according to the saying Habac. 1. 16. of the Prophet sacrifice to their nets who kiss their hand as an independent worker of great actions who savourly tast all they do like Bears said to lick their paws when they have eaten honey Greek Authours tell us Mercury was bred by the An observation of the Grecians upon the dependence we have from on high Mentem tunc hominibus adimit supera illa mens quae cujuscumque fortunam mutare constituit consilia corrumpit Velleius l. 2. howers to teach us all wisdom and humane eloquence not guided nor supported by the measures of heaven can neither have nourishment nor subsistence There is no one more blind than he who thinks himself clear-sighted in affairs without the prudence of Heaven all succeeds ill with him and he findeth by experience that God begins the change of fortunes by the corruption of counsels The reason thereof is very manifest since we know all created spirits work not but by the dependence they have upon the increated Essence as also that all Intelligencies have so much excellency as they have relation to the first Intelligence which is the Word of God If we consult with our own thoughts and knowledge Weakness of humane wisdom as being near of kin to us we shall find they have three ill properties which is they are heavy timorous and uncertain as heavy they creep on the earth as timorous they glance at all objects and resolve on nothing as uncertain they are perpetually floating There is none but God who raiseth them by his exaltation setleth them by his stability and staieth them by his immutability All they who disunited from the eternal Wisdom Vanity of Politicians without Gods direction think to prosper in governments honours wordly affairs are Icaruses that seek to counterfeit birds with waxen wings the least ray proceeding from the throne of the Lamb will burn them and make their height serve for no other use but to render their falls the more remarkeable If they be lettered Nicephorus Gregoras l. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall stead them as forrests do thieves to cover their crimes and if they have dignities they shall be unto them as the golden and silver precipices of the Emperour Heliogabalus which were not devised but to make his ruin the more memorable Doth not the Apostle proclaim aloud with a voice of thunder to the posterity of all Ages I will pull down the wisdom of the wisest according to the Perdam sapientiam sapientum 1. Cor. 1. Adducit Consiliarios in stultum finem judices in stuporem Job 12. 17. world I will rebuke the prudence of the most subtile And did not holy Job repeat the like Oracles upon the dunghill saying God oftentimes giveth success of affairs most shamefull to the most able Counsellours and he reduceth Judges to a certain stupidity of understanding Hath not the experience of Ages shewed so often in the histories of Pharaobs Herods and all such like that there is no greater wisdom in the world than to be an honest man To be Senec. ep 118. Sapere sapientiae usus est sicut oculorum videre 1. Conclusion against those who curse fortune wise is to use wisdom and to make it serve for direction as the eye for sight 5. Let us draw three concusions from these three propositions we have deduced The first whereof shall be never to do like those vulgar abject souls which is to curse and detest our condition and fortune as it were an effect of some false Divinity and not a Divine Providence Remember daily within your self those words Nothing is done one the earth without cause God hath disposed all with weight and measure Nihil in terrá sine causâ
river which the other unwillingly did seeing the peril whereinto they hastened to fall They went there remaining not above six-score of five or six hundred men and having been five days on the river they landed at adventure rather constrained by night than invited by the commodiousness of place The next day they descried a squadron of about two hundred Aethiopians who came towards them which made them prepare for defence but troubled at their arms they shewing themselves peacefull enough the other by gesture and signs discovered their infinite miscries These people wholly practised in tricks of deceit and who would make benefit of this occasion let them with much ado understand they might pass along to the Kings Palace where they should be very well entertained which they attempted but approching to the Citie in arms the King of these Barbarians timorous and wicked forbade them enterance and confined them to a little wood where they remained certain days passing the time in a poor traffick of knives and trifles which they bartered for bread But this treacherous Prince who meant to catch them in the snare seeing they had some commodities sent word to Sosa he must excuse him that he denied enterance into the Citie and that two causes had put him from it The first whereof was the dearth of victual among his people and the other the fear his subjects had of the Portingales arms they never as yet being accustomed thereto But if they would deliver their weapons they should be received into his citie and his people consigned to the next towns to be well entertained This condition seemed somewhat harsh but necessity digested all They agreed with one consent to satisfie the King Eleonora onely excepted who never would consent to betray their defences in a place where they had so much need of them Behold them disarmed and separated some dispersed into several villages here and there Sosa with his wife his children and about twenty other brought to the regal Citie Scarcely was he arrived but all his company were robbed beaten with bastonadoes and used that very night like dogs whilest himself had little better entertainment For this Prince of savages took all his gold and jewels from him and drave him away as a Pyrate leaving him onely life and his poor garments As they went out of this calamity deploring their misery behold another troup of Cafres armed with javelins who set upon them and let them know they must leave their apparel if they meant not to forsake their skins They were so confoūded they neither had strength nor courage to defend themselves behold the cause why they yielded what was demanded as sheep their fleece There was none but Eleonora who preferring death before nakedness stood a long time disputing about a poor smock with these savages but in the end violence bereaved her of that which modesty sought by all means to keep The chast and honourable Lady seeing her self naked in the sight of her domesticks who cast down their eyes at the indignity of such a spectacle presently buried her self in sand up to the middle covering the rest of her body with her dissheveled hair and every moment having these words in her mouth Where is my husband then turning towards the Pilot and some of her Officers there present she said to them with a setled countenance My good friends you have hitherto afforded to my husband your Captain and to me your Mistress all the dutie may be expected from your fidelitie It is time you leave this bodie which hath alreadie paid to the earth the moitie of its tribute Go think upon saving your lives and pray for my poor soul But if any one of you return to our native Countrey be may recount to those who shall please to remember the unfortunate Eleonora to what my sins have reduced me Having spoken these words she stood immoveable in a deep silence some space of time then lifting her eyes to Heaven added My God behold the state wherein I came from my mothers womb and the condition whereunto I must quickly return on earth one part of me being already as among the dead My God I kiss and adore the rods of thy justice which so roughly though justly have chastised me Take between thy arms the soul of my most honoured husband if he be dead Take the souls of my poor children which are by my sides Take mine now on my lips and which I yield to thee as to my Lord and Father There is no place far distant from thee nor any succour impossible to thy power As she spake this Sosa her husband came having escaped out of the hands of these thieves who had robbed him and finding his wife in this state he stood by her not able to utter a word The Lady likewise spake onely with her eys which she sweetly fix'd upon him to give comfort in the violence of the insupportable afflictions But he feeling his heart wholly drenched in bitterness hastened into a wood of purpose to meet with some prey at least to feed his little childrē which were as yet by their mothers side Thence he ere long returned and found one of them already dead to which with his own hands he gave burial immediately after he went again into the forrest to hunt as he had accustomed finding no other comfort His heart was perpetually in Eleonora's where he survived more than in his own body coming to behold her once again or his last he perceived she was already deceased with his other child who died near her there being onely left two poor maids who bewailed their Lady and made the wilderness resound with their sad complaints He commanded them to retire a little aside then taking Eleonora by the hand he kissed it standing a long time with his lips fixed unto it nothing to be heard but some broken sighs That done with the help of the maids he buried her near his two children without any complaint or utterance of one word In a short space after he returned into the thickest of the forrest where it was thought he was devoured So joyning his soul at least to hers who had tied her heart to his in death with examples of her constancie THE THIRD PART OF MAXIMS Of the HOLY COURT THE DESIGN HAving in this Second Part deduced the principal Maxims which concern the direction of this present Life we enter into the other there to behold the power of death over mortal things and the immortalitie of our souls in the general dissolution of bodies We consider them in the several ways they take in their passage and then see them re-united to their bodies as in the Resurrection It is under thy eyes Eternal Wisdom and by thy favour we enter into these great labyrinths of thy Eternities therein hoping thy direction as we intend thy glorie THE THIRD PART Touching the State of the other World XV. MAXIM Of DEATH THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY
give the world notice of their offering and to conclude were so great self-lovers that they made Epitaphs even upon their dogs specifying their age qualities and conditions These are testimonies of a soul very frivolous and destitute of all Humility The tenth SECTION Of evil Conversation EVil Conversation is the worst of all as is that of the Harsh who make themselves unsociable in company that of the Opinionated who bear for their motto It is so and It is not so ever contradicting even the clearest truths that of the Crafty and Deceitfull who endeavour to discover all the secrets of others whilest they disguise themselves with a mask of dissimulation and intricate speech feigning ignorance of what they know knowledge of what they are ignorant forgetfulness of promise good will to those they would circumvent and many such like That of the Proud who scorn and despise all but themselves That of the Cholerick who are displeased upon every accident That of Scoffers Buffons and Slanderers who are obscene biting and offensive in all occasions It were a long business to examine all these particularly and I had freely unfolded them in a Treatise of Manners and Passion wherein I hoped to give the Reader satisfaction but that the design of this little book diverted me It were to small purpose to make so long a work of it and it is always better to conclude well than to enlarge ill The eleventh SECTION The Conditions of good Conversations I Tell you in brief S. Bernard Thomas Aquinas and other learned men are of opinion that in Conversation we ought to be affable and pleasing yet not too familiar nor inquisitive into other mens business not suspicious not light not riotous not discontented not affected not imperious not cross not exceptious not jeering not freâ—full not triviall not churlish not too ceremonious not too talkative not too soft and compliant not cholerick not too reserved not proud not vain all those through vanity which is onely rich in fooleries discourse perpetually of themselves as if they were deities But we must govern our selves with great discretion and modesty we must play but not debase our selves laugh but not to excess take recreation but not to effeminacy be constant but not obstinate prudent but not crafty simple but not stupid concealing ill furthering good correcting our own faults by those we dislike in others always bringing home some fruit from this garden of Graces and if acquainted with any secret fit to be concealed we must make our breast its tomb You will find there are ordinarily five qualities which make conversation pleasant The first is an obliging way which sweetly scattereth benefits from which in their due time and place spring up recompences This desire of doing good to all the world is a bait we must keep ever in the water for by it men are taken more easily than fishes And such there have been who by giving a glass of water opportunely have obtained a Kingdom as we see in the story of Thaumastus and King Agrippa The second Affability joyned with a grace and sweet behaviour which hath a most powerfull charm over souls naturally enclined to honesty To do good and not to do it handsomely is nothing A benefit given with grudging is a stony loaf onely taken for necessity The third a quick and wary prudence to discern the dispositions capacities manners humours affections and aims of those with whom we converse and to suit our carriage to every mans temper The fourth Humility without sottishness or servile baseness which teacheth to yield to reason and not to presume upon our own strength The fifth whereof we have already spoken is a discreet Patience to bear with men and business unmoved so that you may keep your heart always in a good posture even in unexpected and thorny accidents He that understands this mystery well deserves to command men being here placed by virtue in a degree next the Angels A good rule for conversing well is to propose unto your self for pattern one of a perfect conversation So S. Augustine referred those that desired to profit in virtue to the conversation of S. Paulinus Vade in Campaniam disce Paulinum But the most effectuall precept is to think how the Incarnate Word would converse if he were in our room by his example we shall do as Joseph in Aegypt of whom the Scripture Psal 105. according to the Hebrew phrase saith he tied the Princes of Pharaoh's Court about his heart The Reverend Gontery a man of great Judgement and no less virtue hath written a little Treatise of Conversation wherein he descendeth very far to particulars He that will read it shall find wise instructions in it The twelfth SECTION Conclusion of the Diary AT night before you go to bed you are to make the examen of Conscience which is the little Consistory of the soul as Philo terms it where having given thanks to God and invoked his holy grace you must recall your thoughts your words your actions your faults and neglects to account that you may see the gain the loss and reckonings of that day to further good to correct evil remitting the one to your own discretion and the other to Gods mercy Esteem this saying of S. Bernard in his book of the the Interiour house as an oratle that one of the chiefest mirrours to behold God in is a reasonable soul which finds it self out There we must seat the Conscience in a Throne with a Sceptre in her hand and all passions and imperfections at her feet There she must take the liberty to say to you Wicked servant thou hast lost a day what sluggishness at thy rising what negligence in labour how great words how little works Why this curious questioning this rash judgement these wandering eyes these straying thoughts Should you have been angry for so slight a cause upon such an occasion should you so freely have censured and murmured at the actions of another should you have taken your refection so sensually and sought your ease in and by all things so greedily and so of the rest If by the grace of God you shall find some kind of virtues yet must you well pick and sift them as the perfume which was to be set before the Tabernacle to present them before the face of God and say in conclusion with all humility as the devout Southwell Quod fui Domine ignosce quod sum corrige quod ero dirige O Lord forgive what I have been correct what I am direct what I shall be This done say some vocall prayer to shut the day up happily with some acts of contrition of faith of hope of supplication for your self and friends Say here O Light of the Children of light bright day which hast no evening The world is buried in the darkness of night and this day quite finished wherein I see as in a little Map how my life shall end O God what benefits do I see in it
when it comes to extend it self in the world and to draw it to it The natâ—â—e of love Lib. 1 de civit â—8 Amor inhians labere quâ—â— amatuâ— cupiditâ— est idem â—mor habens cóque fruenâ— letitia est fugiens quod adversatur el timor est quod si acciderit eitristitia est proinde mala sunt ista si malus est amor bona si bonus self it is called love But if you consider it in the condition wherein it gathereth together all Creatures to the first cause and makes its works re-ascend to God they say it then takes the name of Pleasure which is a most happy satisfaction of to all Nature in its Authour So love is a circle which turns from good to good by an everlasting revolution Now if you desire I should in few words explicate the nature thereof its origen progresse causes qualities and effects you must observe a notable doctrine of S. Augustine who saith That Love whilest it is in the search of what it loveth is called Desire and when it enjoyeth the thing beloved it is changed into joy But if it avoid that thing which is contrary to it either in effect or opinion it is Fear and if the Fear hath its effect by the arrivall of the evil it apprehendeth it turns into Sadnesse This love takes sundry countenances according to divers Circumstances I agree all this is said with good reason yet notwithstanding we must affirm with divines that this Oracle of Doctours hath in this difinition rather comprised the cause the effects and progresses of love then its essence and nature For to speak properly love is neither Desire Fear Joy nor Sadnesse but A Complacence of the Appetite or will in an object conveniont 5. Definition of love either according to verity or apparence But if we will speak more generally we say it is nothing but an inclination Richard de Medvill dist 27. l. 3. Art 1. q. 1. propending and moving to a good which is conform to it For by the definition we include all the kinds of love which are divided principallly into three branches to wit Naturall Animall and Reasonable It s division love Naturall love consisteth in things inanimate which have their sympathies and Antipathies As Palmes male and female Amber and straw Iron and the Adamant Animall love is that Beginning which giveth motion to the sensitive appetite of beasts to seek for that which is fit for them and to be pleased in the enjoying what they fought for Reasonable love is an Act which pursueth and accepteth the good represented by the understanding wherein we may also comprehend Angelicall and Divine love which S. Denis addeth to these three kinds whereof we speak Reasonable love is also divided into love of Amity and love of Concupiscence Love of Amity which wisheth good to the thing beloved for it self without enquiry into its own proper interesse As when it desired to one Health knowledge grace virtues wealth honours without pretence of any benefit to it self This Gabriel d. 27. q. 1. l. 3. is to affect with a love of amity which is very rare now a daies so mercenary are affections and when this love is not onely Affective as Divines speak contenting it self with bare desires but Effective by plentifully opening hauds to liberality it mounteth to a huge degree of Complacence Love of Concupiscence is an interessed love which causeth one to love a thing not for it self but for the pleasure and commodity derived from it or to be hoped in time to be dersved from it So the Horseman desireth beauty strength and courage in his horse and dog not for their sakes but his own contentment Such love is worldly love commonly defiled with base and animall consideration nor is ever purified but when it for God loveth that which cannot in it self be lovely Behold the nature and Essence of Love in its whole latitude Now to speak of the proceedings of the soul in its loves The first step it makes when it beginneth to love is the degree of the conformity of the will with The steps and progressions of â—ove the good is proposed The senses imagination understanding give it notice of some Beauty Goodnesse or Commoditie which it conceiveth to be fit for it Thereupon it beginneth to take fire and to have sparks of desires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which make it to wish the good proposed unto it Thence it passeth to the second Degree which is that of Sharp-sweet Complacence which pleasingly each moment holds it fixed upon the thoughts of its object Sometimes between hope to possesse it another while between fear to lose it and many other passions which accompany this as yet suffering Complacence From this degree it goes to the third which is inqui +sitioâ— and motion where love putteth on wings to fly speedily into the bosome of its repose employing all possible means for its contentment and if it be favoured in its pursuit it advanceth to the fourth degree which is union esteemed the principall scope of Amities From this union ariseth another Complacence which is not painfull and dolorous but satisfied and pleased in the fruition of its object which is the heighth of love By the sides of love are lodged Beauty and Goodnesse for that as S. Denis saith they are the objects Its causes and motive of love which are so allied together that the Grecians call them by one self same name The Sages have ever sought for the true causes which dispose the wils of men to love and there are many different opinions upon this point Some hold it is a quality which God imprinteth on nature others imagine it comes from the aspect of starres and from divers constellations Others make it to proceed from Parents and education others from a certain Harmony and consonancy of hearts which meeting in accord upon the same Tone have a naturall correspondence Lastly the Maxime of Divines and Philosophers much swayeth which saith that Fair and Good make all loves I hold that to accord these opinions a notable distinction must be made of three loves which we have proposed in the beginning to wit Naturall Animall and Reasonable Forasmuch as concerneth Naturall or Animall love besides the order of nature it is God which giveth to each creature necessary inclinations to arrive at their end Well there may be influency of starres which bear sway over humours and bodies and with the starres bands of bloud temperature of Humours education and secret qualities which tie creatures with the knot of a certain love the cause whereof is not well known For how many are there who love things which are neither lovely nor good I not onely say in effect but in their own opinion and judgement yet are they thereunto fastned by some Tie nor can they free themselves from it but by the absolute power of Reason Do we not daily find by experience that a Man who is
Perfecto odio oderaâ—â— illos Psal 138. is dangerous lest seeking to pull them away we be more passionate against the party who hath them then against all the most abominable iniquities We must not believe our selves when there is question of some important punishment nor such as are born to flatter our likings with too much servitude but those Angels for our counsellours if it be possible who are disintangled from the matter of Interests There are some who use to fortifie themselves in their resolutions by the deportments of those who are held for Saints in the Church and do readily alledge the examples of David who being upon his death-bed recommended to his son Solomon the punishment of Joab and Shimei But we must here consider that David is not a man impeceable to serve Question upon the act of David as a pattern for all our actions and that it is ever better to consecrate our dying lips with the words our Saviour spake a thousand years after on the crosse then with those he left in this instant as a Testament to his son The Jews had naturally great inclinations to revenge and many sought to perswade themselves it was by their laws permitted which is the cause this great King was not so perfectly free from all the seeds of Hatred in the whole course of his life But forasmuch as concerneth this last will of his one may excuse him for divers reasons nor can it be denyed an act of justice to put Joah to death who had defiled his hands with the bloud of two innocent Princes but it is strange that David reserved this so rough a punishment for him after fourty years of great and singular services when he was about threescore and ten years old Yet Theodoret brings a reason of state for it wherein he sheweth that Joah Theodoretin c. 2. l. 3. Regum citatus in Glossa Joah being in himself a great Captain was withall daring in his manners and tyrannicall in his undertakings and had already made it but too much appear that he meant to embroil the state after the death of his Master and to set Adonijah upon the throne to the prejudice of Solomon which was the cause that David who sought fixedly to establish the Kingdome upon his lawfull successour councelled him to take him away by a just punishment of other crimes which he had committed And as for Shimei who had surcharged him with injuries and curses when afterward he returned victorious into Hierusalem he came before him and craving pardon of his fault with lowly submission which stayed David and made him swear he should not dye for it which seemeth to convince him of perjury when he commanded his son Solomon to kill him I cannot approve Tostatus his distinction who saith When persons very different in the qualities of their rights treat together that he who hath justice on his side may promise things with an intention not to perform them as the other meaneth them For verily the permission of this manner of captious proceedings would throw a distrust upon all treaties But it is easie to see that David in this occasion beholding himself to be accomplished with joy and glory when Shimei came to cast himself at his feet and that Abishai counselled him instantly to put him to death he swore he should not dy and that the alacrity of a day so pleasing should not be purpled with humane bloud so that he had no further purpose but to assure Shimei for the time present and to promise him impunity in this conjunction of Kingdome and affairs but when he saw this spirit was insolent and like also to occasion trouble in the young King he did not absolutely command as Cajetan observeth to put him to death for what was past which had been pardoned but not to spare him in new occasions of commotion as actually Solomon following the intentions of the King his father troubled him not upon his slanders but upon another occurrent Now although one may alwayes give colour to the Hatred which is undertaken upon consideration and that it be sometimes necessary for the extirpation of the wicked yet must we more incline to clemency then justice in all which concerneth our selves For Hatreds of Interest which concern estates and Hatred of interest honour they many times in these dayes are incurable if they be not accompanied with some reasonable satisfaction It is a thing very remarkable that our Saviour Luc. 12. 14. who accordeth elements and pacifieth totall Nature would not undertake the agreement of two brothers upon the partition of their patrimony Nay there are some now a dayes so greedy and fleshed in prey that for a fingers breadth of land they would oppose Jesus Christ if he should visibly come to mediate their reconciliation After a thousand reasons which may be alledged for peace and good correspondence they derive but one conclusion out of it which is to have their will For which cause God chastiseth them and very often permitteth dissipation of goods ruine of families and many other accidents which stain their consciences and tarnish their reputation As on the contraty he blesseth the children of peace who forgo somewhat of their interest to acquire this inestimable treasure It is almost as hard to preserve charity in a great suit as to maintain fire in the water or under earth to keep inextinguible lamps He who will persist with a conscience indifferently Christian must never descend into suits Suits their nature and description but with a leaden pace and come out of them with the wings of an Eagle Suits are as the sons of Chaos and night there is nothing in them but confusion and darknesse It is a mixture of all evils which hath the heat of fire the threats the roaring thunders and tempests of the air the rocks of the sea the talons of birds of rapine and ravenous throat of fishes the gall of serpents the fury of salvage beasts and the malignity of poysons Before it ever walketh the desire of anothers goods by its side deceit revenge injustice falshood and treachery after it repentance poverty shame and infamy As war is made for peace so we sometimes undertake suits for justice and those are honest men who desire it but they who at this present do it with all sincerity are the greatest Saints of this age who seem to be given by God to mortifie civil hatreds and to establish minds in concord After suits Hatred brings forth another mischief Duell which is Duel a true Sacrifice of Moloch which hath cost France so much bloud mothers and wives so many tears which filleth families with sorrow friends with grief ages with horrour and hearts the most reasonable with the detestation of such a Crime The edicts of our most Christian King which have Means to use an efficacious remedy in Duell had more force then all other have served instead of a Jasper-stone to stanch
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.
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 jaâ—tricem 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 â—hilo 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
notwithstanding it is not enough to will good unlesse one therein observe circumstances and measures requisite for its accomplishment One of the best rules for the passion of which we treat is to adapt To adapt our selves to our hope ones self to his hopes to see what comports with his birth his breeding his capacity his genius his knowledge his power his credit and his pains and not rashly to be stirred up with the desire of things above his strength unlesse he will disturb his life and hasten his death The world is a great Sepulchre of so many little Phaetons who will guide the sun and hours although Spes impii tanquam lanugo est quae à ven to tollitur tanquam spuma gracâ—lis quae à procella dispergitur tanquam fumus qui à vento diffusus est tanquam memoria hospitis uniâ—s dici praetereuâ—tis Sap. 5. 15. their life be but a continuall deviation they have no other honour but to be fallen from on high and to have used more temerity in affairs then ability such hopes also are very well compared by the Wiseman To those little downs of flowers scattered in the air to the froth which floateth on the water and is instantly dissipated by a tempest to smoke which vanisheth under the blast of winds and to the memory of a traveller who passeth by an Inne By the sight of a bird we judge of her flight by the genius of men we make conjectures of their fortunes needs must there be much extravagancy when a man in all kinds little proposeth to himself nothing but great things I well know the divine Providence the worker of wonders delighteth sometimes to strike a stroke with its own hand drawing out men of most base extraction to bear them to the highest tops of worldly greatnesse It is that which forged a Diademe for â—ulgotius l. 3. c. 4. Pupienus upon the same anvil whereof his father hammered Iron That which changed Martianus his spade into a Sceptre That which taught Valentinian Idem l. 6. c. 10. to make crowns by twisting ropes That which shewed Justine in a Carpenters-shop how to build a Throne for himself That which drew Petrus Damianus from the midst of sheep to be made a Cardinall and Gregory the seventh out of a Joyners house to give him a Popes Mytre But one Swallow makes not a summer nor one accident from an extraordinary hand which happeneth scarcely in an age makes not all fortunes S. John saith that the measure of an Angel is the measure of a man but this is not but in the celestiall city of Hierusalem where we shall be as the Angel Apoc. 21. 1â— of God Here our thoughts are high our aims great but the limit of our power little He who doth well understand what he can wills but what is reasonable and shall find that the modesty of wishes makes life more commodious and happinesse more undoubted To this first rule of the moderation of hopes we To ground them well must add a second which is to give them good foundations to the end we be not constrained to see the indiscretion of our desires punished by the small successe of our pretentions There are some who infinitely confide in the words of Astrologers and to speak plainly it is a prodigious thing to hear the predictions they make upon the life and fortunes of men which cause amazement among the wise and love in the curious as at the time when they answered to the Edict of the Emperour Vitellius who commanded them to leave the city that they would obey on such condition that Theodorus Merechista hist Rom. fol. 86. he instantly should leave life which so fell out Yet we must say that although God should write down in the book of stars the successes of our life which cannot be easily agreed unto yet ever would they be extremely encumbred nor ever happen out of a fatall necessity That is the cause why for some presages which hit right there are many other notably false which makes it sufficiently appear that God hath reserved to himself the full knowledge of what shall befall us Among other qualities which the holy Canticle gives him it forgeteth Coma ejus nigra quafi Corvus Cant. 5. 11. not to say He had hair as black as the feather of a Crow Where you shall observe rhe hairs mystically signifie the Thoughts and when the Scripture termeth them black it will declare the obscurity and depth of Gods councels over the wisdome of men Tertullian Tertul. Homo divini cura ingenii Deus in omnia sufficit nec potest esse suae perspicaciae praevaricator said man was the care of the understanding of God who provideth for all and who cannot be a prevaricatour of his own providence Can we think men are permitted to enter into those great abysses of knowledg and to take the rains of nature into their hands think we that a man who doth not alwayes very plainly see what lies before his feet can assuredly behold that which is infinitely exalted above his head Where have not Astrologers sowed lyes where is it that great ones who hearkened unto them as to their Gospel were not filled with disastrous successes By their saying all which is born Gen. 38. 27. at Rome comes into the world like unto little Zara already marked with red There are some who consume themselves with anxieties and cares of their life-time to verifie the words of an Astrologer and who instead of scarlet find perhaps in the other world a Powerfull friends may serve for a support for Hope Fatis accede Diisque cole foelices Lucan Maledictus homo qui ponit carnem brachium suum Jer. 17. 3. Robe of flames It is a wretched support to tye ones hopes to so great an uncertainty I find the favour of great and powerfull friends is much more certain for God establisheth them on earth as his images to be the treasurers of felicity and distributers of good hap When they be just upright and gratefull men of merit have some cause to hope of their good affections and an Antient said that we must approach near to the Destinies and the Gods and honour the happy But how many are there who adhering too much unto men make to themselves an arm of flesh without bones and a fortune as frail as Reeds Others make themselves brave fellow with their sword and expect all from their valour Others from their wit and eloquence Others from their gold Others from dexterity in businesses All this may do well when a great integrity of long services puts these good qualities into action but if it happen you have some ray of hope grounded upon some good title do as Job and keep it hidden as long as is To hope without vanity fit in your bosome for fear that discovering it you lose the pretended effects thereof There are who tell all
places under the ground such as that which we now adayes call Sybilla's Grot and it is thought the Sun never reflected into their caves but it is not so in the visits of the holy Ghost The great S. Dionys de Hierarch coelesti sea of Divine Lights is ever at hand and abundantly overfloweth in favour of such evils as will participate therein I am not ignorant that certain Divines have said that some sinners arrive many times to such exorbitancy of crimes and ingratitudes that they in the end are totally abandoned by God and have not all the rest of their time one sole good thought But the Bellarm. l. 2 de Gratia most moderate say that this happeneth for certain time and certain moments albeit one cannot generally S. Thom. 3. 4. 86. Dicere quod peccatum sit in hac vita de quo quis poenltere non possit erroneum est Misericordiae Dei nec mensuram possumus ponere nec tempora definire S. Leo. ep 89 Admirabile conversions of such as seemed desperate say that a man may come to an estate so desperate as to be wholly impenetrable to the graces of God It is an errour to say that a crime so detestable may happen in the world of which one cannot have remission We cannot set limits nor bound time in the infinite mercies of God Moses the Ethiopian who was so black of body so stained in conscience so wicked of life that he was accounted a devil incarnate was so changed by the Grace of God that he became an Angel of heaven An infamous thief having obtained his pardon of the Emperour Mauricius was put into the Hospitall of S. Samson where he so plentifully bewailed his sins in the last agonies of death that the Physician who took care of him coming to see him found him unexpectedly dead and over his face a handkerchief bathed with his tears and soon after he had a certain revelation of his Beatitude To this purpose Pope Celestine said That a true Conversion made at the Coelest 1. ep 2. c. 2. Vera ad Deum conversio in ultimis positorum mente potius est existimanda quam tempere last end of life is to be measured by the mind not by the time God caused a thief to mount from the gallows to Glory to teach us that as there is nothing impossible to his Power so there is not any thing limitted in his Mercy It is onely fit for him to Despair who can be as wicked as God is good § 5 The Examples which Jesus Christ gave us in the abysse of his suffering are most efficacious against pusillanimity BEhold the consolations we may derive fâ—om our first model but if we will consider the second The sight of our Saviour teacheth us to persevere in our good hopes and not to despair we shall find that our Lord who did all for our instruction witnessed strong hopes in the great abysse of dolours wherewith he was all covered over on the Crosse to encourage us to hope well in the most sensible afflictions That you may well understand this point so important you must consider what then was the state of the body and soul of Jesus Christ the body was so full of wounds that they who could not be satisfied with his pains did more in him torment his wounds then his members He had almost no part about him entire whereof he on the Crosse could make use but his eyes and his tongue His eyes not being pulled out as Samson's and Zedekiah's there was nothing left for him but to set before his view the Martyrdome of his good Mother who was fastned on the Crosse by love and who imprinted in her soul by a most amorous reflexion all the torments which the King of the afflicted bare on his body His Tongue which he had reserved free to be the organ of heavenly harmonies in those fervent prayers he sent to his celestiall Father was wholly drenched in gall But all this was nothing in comparison of the dolours of his Soul For he was destitute for a time of all divine Consolations abandoned to himself delivered over as a prey to all the outrageous sadnesse which may grow in our minds It was a horrible blasphemy in Calvin to say that our Lord descended into Hell Calvin l. 2. Instit c. 16. there to endure the pains of the damned without the suffering of which he was not in a state to be able to redeem the world This spoken in the manner as this abominable Novelist hath dared to write woundeth and offendeth the most obdurate ears But if we Suaâ—ez in 3. q. 46. Fieri potuit ut intensivè esset major an ità de facto fuerit non potest constare will speak with the most eminent Divines we may say that it is very likely that the Agonies of our Saviours Soul might in some sort enter into Comparison with the sadnesse of the damned not by reason of their condition but of their excesse And certainly some have thought that our Saviour stirring up in his blessed Soul a Contrition for all the sin of the world in The excesse of the contrition and dolour of our Lord. generall and of every one in particular was wounded with so piercing a sorrow that it in some sort exceeded that of devils and the damned For all the sadnesse which may be imagined in hell consisteth in acts which are produced from Principles that surpasse not the force of Humane or Angelicall Nature but the pain which our Saviour endured for the expiation of our Ingratitude was derived from the heart of God according to the whole latitude of the Grace and Charity of the word Incarnrte For which cause it is conformable to reason to say The three sadnesses of our Saviour by Allegory that this blessed Soul entred into three kinds of sacred and honourable flames and of pains wholly Divine The first was in the garden of Olivet when he said His soul was sad to death The Maâ— 16. second when he pronounced on the Crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Complaining Mat. 17. not of the separation of the Word as some antient Writers have understood it little conform to true Vox recedentis verbi Dei contestata dissidium Hil. can 33. Athan. lib. de Incarn Aug. ract 47. in Joan. Theology but of recesse from protection as S. Athanasius doth explicate it in his Book of the Incarnation and S. Augustine in his 47. Tract upon S. John The third was at the going forth of the incomparable soul of Jesus when there was not so small a filament of a vein in his body which resented not the absence of this divine Sunne Notwithstanding among all these great convulsions which put heaven into mourning and earth into quakings under his feet he stood firm and with an eye bathed in bloud beheld the raies of Glory which were to crown him
resembleth the Vulture whom carrions nourish and Greg. Nyss in vita Mosis perfumes kill All the evill it meeteth prepareth a refection of Serpents for its mind and all the good afflicteth it to death Accustome not your self likewise easily to believe those tale-tellers who to gain your good liking by base servitude relate the vices and disasters of the party whom you envie for that much avails to foment your Passion Prosper hath sagely said that the envious are ready to believe all the evils in the world which the Prosper l. 3. de contemplat c. 9. tongue of a complaining spirit telleth them touching the mishaps of such as they hate and if any one by chance not knowing the disease happen to speak good Omne malum quod mendax fama citaverie statim credunt feraliter el qui illud verum non esse probare volucrit contradicunt of them they sufficiently witnesse by their contradiction that they believe not what they say Secondly it is very behooffull incessantly to labour in the mortification of pride and the exorbitant appetite of ones own proper excellency as being the principall root of the passion of Envie as affirmeth the fore-alledged Authour saying that Sathan became envious out of pride and not proud through Envy we must inferre Pride is not the fruit of Envy but Envy a sprout Non superbia fructus invidiae fuit sed invidia de superbiae radice processit Prosper ib. of Pride The ambition you have every where to have the highest place to be in great esteem to possesse a petty sovereignty in all savours necessarily makes you envious and jealous so that one cannot praise any body in your presence but that this commendation instantly seems to tend to the diminution of your reputation Your heart bleeds at it the bloud flieth up into your face nature arms her self to beat back a good office which a charitable tongue would render a person of merit as if it were a great injury and a suit commenced against you It is a sign you deserve little praise since you cannot endure it in another How would you be esteemed since you first of all betray your own reputation shewing your self to be of so weak a judgement Multis abundar virtutibus qui alienas amat Vincen. Bel. 8. 2. l. 4. c. 7. that one cannot speak a good word of another but it ministers matter of an evil thought in you Were you as rich in merits as your mind figureth to you you would no more be moved when a good word is spoken of another then a man infinitely wealthy to give a small piece of coin to a poor creature who were in want I add also a third remedy that many have found to be very efficacious which is to know and much to esteem the gifts that God hath given us to content our selves with what we are and with the state the divine Providence allotteth us without attempting on forreign hopes which would perhaps be great evils unto us S. Chrysologus saith that Envie once shut up Terrestriall Paradise with a sword of fire but I may say it Paradisi nobis amoena flammeo custode seclusit daily stoppeth from us the sources of many contentments which would plentifully moysten all the parts of our life that many would be happy if they could tell how to manure their fortune could content themselves with their own mediocrity and take the felicities which Nature presenteth them without being troubled at others Miserable that they are not knowing how to be happy unlesse another be unhappy unfortunate that they are to forsake Roses which grow in their gardens to hasten to reap thorns in their neighbours Tertullian writeth the Pagans in his time were so Tantinon est bonum quanti est odium Christianorum enraged against the Christians that all their comforts seemed nothing to them in comparison of the pleasure they took to hate and torment them This is the fury which many envious now-a-dayes practise All their prosperities fade all their joyes languish and all their good successes never are accomplished whilst they see those to flourish whom they persecute It grieves them they are what they are that God hath fixed them in a mean condition and that they are not born to be of those great Colosses which shrink and daily fall by the sole burthen of their weight If they knew the black phantasmes of cares which leap on the top of silver pillars and go athwart gilded marbles to find out those pompous lives who most commonly have but the bark of happinesse they would every day a thousand times blesse their condition but this maligne ignorance which sealeth up their eyes makes them complain of all that they should love and causeth them to love all they ought to complain of Lastly to remedy the bitings of Envie you must entertain a spirit of love and correspondence often representing unto your self that a man who loveth none but himself and wholly lives to himself not able to endure the prosperities of another is a piece unlosened from this great universe which altogether bendeth to the unity of our sovereign God who is one in Essence and who gathereth all creatures into the union of his heart What would this jealous man have who is so desperately passionate concerning this creature Doth he not well see that loving so inordinately he takes the course to be no longer loved by her and looseth all he desireth most by the violence of desiring it A woman out of a desire to be beloved would not be tyrannized over She wisheth love not fury fire of Seraphins not of devils These Courtships are offences to her these suspitions injuries these prohibitions rigours these solitudes imprisonments How can she love a man who loves not any but himself who will play a God in the world who will fetter the freedome of creatures which is the will for which God himself hath made neither bands nor chains How can she affect an Argus who observeth her who watcheth her who reckoneth up her words who questeth at her thoughts who prepareth racks of the mind for her in the most innocent pleasures The sole consideration of the ruines and miseries which envie and jealousie do cause to themselves were able to stay these exorbitancies were it once well considered but if these humane reasons seem yet too weak raise your self to divine § 5. Divine Remedies drawn from the Benignity of God O Man Behold for a first remedy among all the Remedy by the consideration of the first modell divine ones thy first modell and contemplate the benignity of God opposed to thy malice It is an excellent thing to consider against an envious eye that God who will reform us to his likenesse doth all the good to the world by simple seeing and by being seen God doth all by seeing and by being seen For by seeing he giveth Essence and grace and by being seen he
of devils to draw life drop after drop out of a miserable body But not speaking at this present of these extremities of Cruelty which arise out of Hell it is evident that the Hardnesse of heart and the harshnesse of a nature devoid of Compassion is a monster in humane nature All great souls have I know not what tincture of good nesse which rendreth them pliant to the afflictions of such as suffer It is a feeling which God hath poured into the masse of mankind and which he would have communicated by the prime men of the world to all posterity The tradition of the Hebrews holdeth that the Mildnesse of the first men Patriarch Noah recommendeth mildnesse even among beasts accounting it a capitall crime to tear off a member of a living beast And the most sage common-wealths Fab. Quintilian l 5. cap. 9. have walked in the same wayes since that of Athens condemned to death a young child who took delight to prick out the eyes of crows and having made them blind let them fly for his pastime It judged this heart was base and bloudy and practised its first apprentiship of crueltie upon birds to exercise it one day upon men The Carthaginians publickly condemned Plin. l. 8. c. 16. a very industrious Citizen for no other cause but for having made a lion tractable supposing that a man who had so great conversation among wild beasts would lose all he had humane in him and put on the manners of a tyrant What can those answer to this call of Nature who are ashamed to compassionate their neighbours seeing pity extends it self even to beasts They fear that by shewing compassion it may be thought their courage thereby is greatly effeminate and see not that to seem valiant they cease to be men Conquerours have wept over their Laurels as yet Compassion of great courages all verdant blaming the just rigour of their arms albeit they could not hate the glory Marcellus desired to quench the coals of the city Syracusa with his tears Titus seeing the city of Jerusalem all covered with dead bodies found his heart much softned therewith protesting it was an act of Heaven and not an effect of his own disposition There is some touch of Divinity in good natures and God hath alwayes been pleased that they who nearest approach to him should be the most humane The first Images of the Saviour of the world were ordinarily painted in the form of a Lamb and it was likewise a Lamb of God which represented him in Great Constantine's Font and which poured forth the water of Baptism to shew us that the fountains of his Bounty ran throughout the whole Church The holy Ghost hath never been seen Concil 6. in Teul can 82 Damasus in Pontifieibus qui est potius Anastafius Bibliothecarius in the form of an Eagle or of a Hawk but of a Dove to stamp on our manners the impressions of his bounty It is an insupportable thing when there is observed even among those who approach nearest to Altars and who consecrate the Lamb of God in their hands some to be of imperious spirits and wills inflexible who torment poor subjects and make them groan under Non dominantes in Cleris sed forma facti◠gregis ex animo 1 Pet. 5. 3. their Commands They resemble Semiramis who on her Banners bare a Dove which in its beak held a bloudy sword as meaning to say that under a vvomans face she had the courage and stem violence of tyrants So their name theircharacter and degree testifieth Revertamur ad populum nostrum à facie gladii columbae Hier. 46. 16 nought but mildnesse but their manners are full of rigour and acerbity which wound hearts even to bloud This happeneth to many out of a certain stupidity in such sort that it seems they entering into office at that instant drink of the water of forgetfulnesse which Rigour misbecometh persons Ecclesiasticall Its causes and differences in them blotteth out the memory of all they were to become that which they ought never to be They forget their inferiours are men who put their precious liberty to wit a good inestimable into their hands as a pledge and that they must very skilfully handle them there being not a creature in all nature more tender or more sensible then the King of creatures They consider not that the power of one man over another is a thing which is alwayes somewhat suspected by nature on what side soever it come and that it must be practised insensibly so that the flesh be rather cast into a slumber then irritated To others it comes from a most refined pride which being under the subjection of a superiour kept it self close in the interiour of the soul a serpent enchanted and fast asleep but so soon as he sees himself armed with a sword of authority he cuts with both edges not sparing any one as if the great mystery of making a dignity valuable were to encompasse it with all the ensignes of terrour Some are not Porta in Chao of a bad nature and do resemble the sea which is not by nature salt but the sunne stirreth up unto it vapours cold dry and terrestriall which being burnt by heat spread themselves on the superficies of the water and cause saltnesse so these lights of authority which environ a man raise smokes in him which being not wel tempered by prudence leave a bitter impression on manners communicating some haughtinesse to words and conversation It is gotten in others by a long assiduity of superiority which is the cause that beholding themselves perpetually with a head of gold and a breast of silver they consider not that being in some sort like to Nabuchodonozors statue they yet have feet of clay Others come thereunto by an indiscreet zeal and out of small experience of humane things who are no sooner raised unto some degree but they talk of reformation of correction of chastisements and to see them you would say they were so many Archimedes who seek for a place out of the world to set foot in of purpose to turn the world to psie-turvey Their power is not alwayes answerable to their purpose which makes them sad and dejected in their courage causing them to fall back to the other extremity from whence it cometh that they are one while harsh and another time gentle and by inequality in their manners thrust all into disorder That is it which Saint Gregory the great observed Gregor M. in epist ola ad Utbicum in Abbot Vrbicus saying that his Monastery was in distemper because he made himself unequall one while flattering some and another while reprehending the rest with immeasurable anger Lastly there are others who have a very good conscience and whose manners are rigid and they be not imprudent but they have such a desire to frame the whole world to their humour that out of the assiduity of their admonitions
end to the miseries of his life Eternal Wisdome said Tertullian you cut your children's throats and use them as sacrifices as if you could not crown them but by their torments as if you could not honour them but by their punishments But why do we complain said a learned Father of the Church Joseph is free in this captivity if his body groans under the irons his spirit walks with God philosophizes with God and thinks that the recompence of a good action is to have done it Behold the exact method that Providence keeps in the conduct of her chosen ones One deep must call upon another deep the deep of afflictions calls for that of glories and the heighths of honour are prepared according to the measure of tribulations It is the gold that according to Job's speech comes from the Ab quilone aurum venit flante Deo concrescit gâ—iâ— Job 37. North it is that divine crystall that is congealed under the breath of God it is those burning arrows of the Lord of hosts that cause those combatants to let fly their colours and that make wounds by communicating lights Joseph's prison was a school of wisdome where God spake and his servant hearkned to him having his ear in heaven and his heart in that of his Master A certain Grace that proceeding from the interiour of his soul spread it self upon his visage and made it self be heard in every one of his words gained him the heart of his goaler that used him kindly having already an high esteem of his innocence and of his virtue There are some men so happy that they find Empires every where which was the cause that this holy Patriarch obtained by merit the charge of all the prisoners that were companions of his misery and made himself by love the governour even of him that held him in captivity It happens in this accident that two of the King's officers his Butler and his Baker were brought into the same prison and given in ward to Joseph to administer to them things necessary for life He comforted them in their adversity and entertained them with good discourses and as he saw them one day very melancholy he inquired after the cause of their sadnesse and perceived that they disquieted themselves about their Dreams The Butler had dream'd that he saw a Vine with three branches which at one time was adorned with leaves with buds with blossomes and with ripe grapes and that after he had gathered of its fruit he squeezed it into Pharaoh's cup which he held in his hand and presented it unto him Whereupon Joseph foretold him that within three dayes he should be re-established in his office The other had seen himself in his Dream carrying three paniers of meal upon his head and it seemed to him that in that which was the highest of all there was abundance of the delicacies of his trade which the birds of prey came and snatched away which made his Prophet denounce to him an ignominious death The effect was answerable to the predictions in the limited time and the one died upon the gallows and the other was re-invested in his place But that being very true which S. Thomas hath observed that there be four sorts of people that easily forget a courtesie Proud men to whom one does some small displeasure though they have been at other times greatly obliged in divers accidents Base and mean persons that are unexpectedly raised to some degree of honour Children that are become men and Prisoners that are set at liberty The Butler was so ravished with his change of fortune that he was no longer mindfull of his friend the enjoyment of a present good making him lose the remembrance of the Prophecy concerning the time to come Yet Providence that would exalt Joseph to the highest top of honour at the time at which she had destined it sent Dreams to Pharaoh about the state of his Kingdome which caused great troubles in his mind there being no body that he could find able to resolve his doubts It was then that the Butler spake not being ignorant that this news would be most pleasing to the King and told him the Dreams that had happened both to him and to his companion when they were in prison adding the interpretation given upon them by a young slave an Hebrew by Nation kept in the same goal and the effect that had followed the Oracles of his mouth Whereat the King being much joyed commanded that he should be instantly fetched out of prison and be brought to be seen and heard by his Majesty which was readily performed for after they had trimmed his hair and cloathed him with a befitting habit he was presented to the Kings eyes who received him with much courtesie and having related to him his Dreams which were of seven kine fat and wonderfull fair that had been followed and devoured by other lean ones and as much as could be out of flesh as also of seven ears of corn extremely well filled that had been eaten up by other empty and barren ones he desired him to give him the Resolution of them Whereupon Joseph shewed a singular modesty telling the King that the true explications of Dreams and all certain and infallible Prophecies came from God which is the father of lights and at length opening his opinion said That Egypt should have seven years such as never were for abundance and fruitfulnesse that should be followed with seven others over which should reign such a barrennesse and famine through all the land that it should deface the memory of all that great fertility that had gone before And therefore he would counsel his Majesty to find out a prudent and active man to give him the superintendency of all the land of Egypt which should have Commissaries under him through all the Provinces that should cause diligently the fifth part of the fruits and the revenues of corn that should proceed every year out of that fecundity to be laid up and kept in the Kings granaries and magazines that should be distributed in divers Provinces for that purpose and that this would be a most secure means to remedy the great famine that should follow that long prosperity The interpretation of Pharaoh's Dream was admired and the advice judged exceeding good which caused the King thinking that there was no man in all his Realm more capable of that design then he that had given the invention of it to establish from that time Joseph in that Charge so important to the whole Nation It is a marvellous thing to consider the honours that this Prince did him and the high titles wherewith he qualified him God being pleased to shew in this that he multiplies the consolations of his faithfull servants above all the measure of the displeasures that they can have received for he did not content himself to give him the silk robe the collar of the order the ring of his finger to procure him a rich marriage
sufficiently in the favour of the King endeavoured to destroy him in that occasion He would not suddenly forsake the Court as one scar'd but assuring himself of Gods protection he presented himself to the Captain of the Guard praying him to make some surcease upon that rigorous Edict and not to dip his hands in bloud by the death of so many men but to permit him onely to present himself to the King and he hoped to give him all content In this he shewed himself very prudent there being nothing better in troublesome affairs and very sudden then to bring some retardment whilst the spirit may give it self leasure to come to it self again and to find expediments to get out of an ill way He spake to the King expressing much compassion even for them that bore him envy and desired some delay which was very reasonable to resolve so crabbed a Question Now when he saw well that it passed the capacity of any created spirit he had recourse to the Creatour by most humble and most fervent prayers which he recommended also to his dear companions that all conspiring to the same design they might the more easily obtain the mercy and the illumination of God in so great and so profound a secret It is thus that good men proceed in all businesses of importance distrusting all their own managery if it be not directed from on high Their prayers redoubled day and night one upon the other forced heaven with a pious violence and the Dream with its Interpretation was revealed to Daniel in the midst of his most ardent Devotions He felt his spirit touched with a glimpse of the first light and saw as in a mirrour all that had passed in Nebuchadonozor's mind with such a certainty as permitted him not to doubt of it Then he was not like Archimedes who having found some secret of the Mathematicks as he was in a Bath leapt out all naked by a strange transport crying through the streets I have found it I have found it This is ordinary to spirits that have nothing in their head but vanity but holy Daniel cryes out thereon Let the name of God be blessed for ever for to him belongeth wisdome and strength It is he that distributeth wisdome to the true Sages and that bestows knowledge on those that range themselves under his Discipline It is he that reveals things hidden in the most deep abysses and knows that which is buried in the most thick darknesse and light dwells perpetually with him I praise thee and I confesse thee from the bottome of my heart the God of my fathers that hast given this strength of spirit and this understanding to penetrate the Kings secret He spake many such like words and rising from his prayer he went to seek the Captain of the Guard whom he besought to save the Sages of Babylon and to cause no more to die because he had found out the secret that was searched after by the Prince which the other received with much joy and failed not immediately to carry news of it to the King who caused Daniel to be called of whom he demanded the performance of his promise Then the Prophet using a great prudence and a singular modesty excused all the Sages of Chaldea that could not find out the Kings secret thoughts and vanted not himself to know them by his own sufficiency but by the inspiration of the God whom he adored In which he expressed a great wisdome and a generous humility not giving any praise to himself but transferring all the glory to the living God that he might work in the King an high esteem of the true Religion S. Gregory saith That those that seek their own glory in the Commission they have from God are like those that espousing in quality of proxies a wife by order of their Master would play the Husbands not contenting themselves to be simple Commissioners Daniel abhorred such proceedings because he was a Starre that would shew his Sun and would not be seen himself but by his favour He made then a large discourse to the King his master and told him his Dream which was touching that famous Statue that had an head of Gold a breast and arms of Silver a belly and thighs of Copper legs of Iron and feet partly of Iron and partly of Earth and added that whilst the King beheld it in his Dream he saw a little stone come from a great mountain that strook the feet of the Statue and tumbled it down immediately scattering the Gold the Silver the Copper the Iron and the Earth as small chaffe dissipated by a whirlewind and that that little Stone changed it self in an justant into a huge Mountain and filled the whole earth After he had so subtilly touched the Vision of the Prince making him remember all that his imagination had framed he descended to the particularities of the Interpretation and said That he was the Golden Head of that Statue God having made him a King of kings and having given him Strength Rule and Glory with a Power over the Earth inhabited by men over the birds of the air and the beasts of the field Then he advertised that after him should come a Kingdome lesse then his that should be as Silver in comparison of Gold And after that second should arise a third resembling Brasse that should command over the whole earth And after that a fourth which as Iron should subdue and break in pieces all that it should meet with And as for that that he had seen the Feet of the Statue composed of Iron and Clay it meant that there should be a great inequality and disproportion in that last Empire by reason of the mixture of very differing parts that could not be fitted well together In fine that God would raise up a Kingdome of Heaven signified by that little Stone that should crush the other Kingdomes and should remain stable to all Eternity The King was so transported with Daniel's discourse that he rose suddenly from his Throne and bending with his face to the earth worshipped him commanding that Sacrifices and Incense should be offered to him and publishing highly that his God was the God of gods and the Lord of kings to whom alone it belonged to reveal Mysteries since he could penetrate into such a secret Wisdome was never upon so high a Throne as to see the proudest of Monarchs at her feet Yet Daniel well knew how to moderate the transports of his spirit and by shewing him the nothing of the creature to draw him to the worship and honour of the Creatour which was the master of Knowledge and source of all pure Light These are the wonders of the Sovereign Monarch to consider that a young man that came to that Court as a slave should find there suddenly in the esteem of his Prince the quality of a God he was shut up continually in his chamber and his spirit walked through the whole Universe he was a
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
revolt ibid. His designs ibid. His Ambition 148 He caused himself to be proclaimed King ibid. He giveth battell to his Father wherein he is overthrown and killed 149 We must not condemn him that by lawfull means seeks his own Accommodations 46 Achior his oration 182 It is pleasing to Holophernes and his souldiers ibid. The pernicious counsell of Achitophel 148 Adonijah competitour of the Crown and his faction 151 The fault of Adonijah in his Councell of State ibid. Adonijah desired the Shunamite which did complete his misfortune 152 Adonis an admirable fish 38 A good deed done to a great one in Afflictions is of much value 142 what are the subjects of Afflictions 57 The dispositions of Ages 19 The death of Agrippina 273 Ahab goeth to meet Elijah in person 249 He desireth Naboths Vineyard 251 His death 253 Ahashuerus his banquet which continued for the space of one hundred and fourscore dayes 188 Alcimus the false high Priest 199 Amantius plotteth against Justin ian 58 A notable observation of Clemens Alexandrinus 83 The courage we may derive from the Sacrament of the Altar 80 Shallow and fantastick Ambition 13 The Ambition of Ecclesiasticks and Religious men much more subtle then others ibid. Crodield daughter of king Caribert a religious woman raiseth great troubles by her Ambition ibid. Ambition which buddeth in hearts of base extraction is most insolent which is instanced in a Chirurgion of S. Lewis is wisely repressed and chastised by the prudence and justice of King Philip the third of France 115 The French revengers of Ambition ibid. The furious Ambition of Alexius the Tyrant of Greece punished by the valour and justice of the French 116 Ambition the beginning of all evils 292 The effects of Ambition and envie ibid. The fury and infidelity of Ambition 296 The inhumane cruelty of Ambition 297 What Amity is 5 Three sorts of Amity ibid. Naturall Amity and its foundation ib. Amity of demy-gods 6 Amity grounded upon honesty ib. Men too endearing uncapable of Amity ib. Men banished from the Temple of Amity ib. Reasons for which women do seem uncapable of Amity 7 Degeneration Amity 8 There may be spirituall Amities between persons of different sexes endowed with great virtue and rare prudence 9 Amity in S. John Chrysostome 10 The right stains of Amity are forgetfulnesse of friends negligence contempt dessention suspition distrust inequality impatience and infidelity 11 12 Six perfections which preserve Amity ib. Bounty a true note of Amity 13 The benefits of Amity ib. Patience most necessary in Amity 14 There may be a celestiall Amity by the commerce of man with God 22 What Anger is 86 Divers degrees of Anger ib. Three Regions of Anger the first of sharp choler the second of bitter choler the third of fury 87 Remedies against these three sorts of Anger ib. The propertie of the Yew-Tree like unto Anger ib. Anger is very prejudiciall in military art in a Generall 118 Philip of Valois a great and generous King looseth a battell out of a pievish humour of Anger ib. The barbarous Anger of Bajazet ib. Lewis the younger admonished by Bernard chastiseth himself for his Anger by sadnesse and penance ib. Anger of women ib. Anger out of simplicity many times causeth hurt for a word too free witnesse that of Enguerrand ib. The humility and wisdome of Queen Anne to overcome the passion of Anger 120 Addresse of Bavalon to appease the Anger of the Duke of Brittaign 121 Anastatius dying Amantius his high Chamberlain aimed at the Empire 158 Antonina wife of Belizarius prostiâ—uted herself to Theodosius whom she and her husband had made their adopted son 164 Antiochus his horrible cruelty 197 The death of Antiochus â—01 How we ought to govern our Antipathies 246 A notable sentence of the Areopagite 2 The notable practise of S. Athanasius 10 The Essence and nature of Aversion 45 How Aversion is formed ib. The character and true image of a spirit subject to Aversion ib. The consideration of the love which God bears to his creatures is a powerfull remedy to cure Aversion ib. The first motions of Aversion for the most part are inevitable ib. The example of our Saviour serveth for a strong remedy to sweeten our Aversions 47 It is a shame to have an Aversion against one for some defect of Body or some other deformity of nature when as we are bound to love him ib. A generous act of a Pagan who teacheth us powerfully to to command our Aversions ib. The death of Azael by his rashnesse 144 B THe Prophets of Baal are murthered 250 The Basilisk cannot be enchanted 10 The love of Batsheba 145 Bathsheba fitly insinuates her self and procures the crown for her sonne Solomon ib. The martiall virtues of Bayard 214 He is wounded at the taking of Bressin 216 Beautie imperious 16 An excellent saying of venerable Bede 68 Bees bear the sign of a Bull on their bodies 60 Belizasius is chosen generall against Gilimer who had usurped the crown from Hilderick 161 He marcheth to the gates of Carthage ib. A triumph after the manner of the Ancients was ordained in honour of Belizarius 162 The valour of Bellizarius 163 His rare qualities 164 The originall of the miseries of Belizarius ib. The cause why Belizarius was debased was because he had violated the persons of the Popes ib He is brought into disgrace and his offices taken from him 167. Belshassar makes a sumptuous banquet and the hand-hand-writing upon the wall in unknown characters is discovered 246 He is murthered ib. Bethulia is besieged 282 The Bethalians murmure against the Priests ib. The picture of Boldnesse 76 The Essence of Boldnesse ib. The notable Boldnesse of Saints who have often defended the truth with the hazard of their lives against the rage and malice of cruell and bloudy tyrants 78 Why Boldnesse is not in God ib. The rash love of the Earle of Bothuel 295 Boucicaut is taken prisoner 211 By his wisdome he endeavoreth the liberty of himself and other Lords and obtaineth it 212 His whole course of life contrary to that of Souldiers generally was very religious 213 C CAligula her fury against Seneca 274 Calumny against Julian and Seneca 275 Divers degrees of Calumniatours 94 From whence the degree of Cardinall cometh  George Castriot was a souldier as soon as he was born a man 209 He died of a Feaver in the city of Lyssa 210 Presages of the generosity of Cesar 79 An excellent conceit of Charity 25 The source of Charity 102 The rare qualities of Charlemaign the Great 172 His great learning ib. His seriousnesse in his study ib. Martel and Pepin reproduced in the person of Charlemaign ib. His rare virtues ib. His brave exploits against the Infidels 173 His war with the Italians and his succouring the Church which did groan under the chains of the Lombards ib. His entrance into Rome in great pomp ib. He warreth against the Saracens ib. He was the first King of France 174