the miserie of the time and malice of Herod permitted Mariamne still reposing in the calmness of her Prudence of Mariamne noble spirit declared to the King in her natural sweetness That he was the support of her house greatly decayed and at that time upon such terms that she had no care to pretend to scepters she onely desired to breath her last in the world with honour If he should give a Miter to her brother Aristobulus it were to make a creature from whom he had no cause at all to fear his throne being throughly established and he being one from whom resonably he might expect any thing having the tender youth of this Prince as a soft piece of wax in his hands This act would make him rule in hearts as well as in Provinces when he should be known to be a father and a Protectour of a young son of Hircanus whose virtue he always had honoured Briefly that the honour which she had by matching with him seemed not compleat to her whilst she saw her allies kept from degrees wherein he might establish them without prejudice of his authority Herod suffered himself this time to be gained by The youn Aristobulus created High-Priest the charming sweetness of Mariamne and having deliberated the affair with his Councel he resolved to give the High-Priests place to young Aristobulus his brother in law which was performed with much ceremonie He assembleth his friends in the hall of his Palace then sending for Alexandra he made in the presence of them all a premeditated speech complaining of her saying she had a mutinous turbulent spirit which sought nothing but to embroyl the affairs and take a Scepter from him which heaven had caused him to purchase with so much travel and pain to put it into the hands of an infant to the prejudice of the Queen her daughter Notwithstanding that forgetting all injuries he could not neglect his own disposition which was to do good even to those that wished him ill in confirmation whereof he gave the High-Priesthood to her son his purpose having never been other and the subrogation of Ananel having not been made but during the time of expectation of maturitie in the tender age of an infant This ambitious mother according to her sex The ambitious woman and indeed beyond her sex upon the offer of this High-Priests place was so sensibly transported with joy that tears gushed from her eyes and she at that instant freely protested to Herod That she had endeavoured all she could possibly to keep the Miter in the Royal familie supposing it an unworthy thing to transfer it els-where but as for the Kingdom she never had pretended thereunto and that such resolutions should never enter into her thoughts Whensoever it should please Almightie God to call her out of the world she would die well satisfied leaving her son High-Priest and her daughter Queen As for the rest if she had exceeded in some words she was excusable as a passionate mother towards a son who well deserved to be beloved a mother in law of the King to whom kindred and alliance permitted somewhat the more libertie and a daughter of a King to whom slaverie was a hard morsel and her stomach unable to digest it But hereafter since he used her so courteously he should have no cause to complain of her obedience Hereupon they shook hands and behold they are friends But out alas The amities of the world are like the felicities thereof If the amities be deceitful the felicities are tyed to a rotten cable or grounded upon the moving sand The poor mother rejoyced for a little sense-pleasing flattery of her feaverish ambition and saw not that her son was not to speak really the High-priest but a sacrifice of the savageness of Herod The discreet Mariamne who by long observation had learned to hold prosperity as suspected suffered her heart not to be so dissolved into joy but that she stood still armed against the counterbuffes of Fortune The feast of the Tabernacles greatly celebrated Entrance of Aristobulus into the High-Priesthood amongst the Jews being come Ananel after he had served as an o in ciphering is shamefully rejected Aristobulus beginneth to excercise his charge He was at that time but seventeen years of age yet of a gallant stature tall and straight as a palm tree radiant as a star and very like his sister When the people beheld him cloathed with the pontifical habiliments which were replenished with majesty and to go towards the Altar and perform those ceremonial rites with so much gravity and comliness he appeared as a new Sun which brake out of the clouds and came to gild the world before covered over with darkeness All the hearts of those poor Hebrews which so much had sighed in the civil wars freshly bloomed and newly opened themselves as roses at the benigne and gentle aspect of this young Prelate His excellent natural graces enchased in the majesty of his robes rendred an incredible lusture which dazeled the eyes of all beholders Some stedfasty beheld him and became as statues yet shewing by their tears their eyes were not made of marble Others spake to him with infinit dumb testimonies of a never-silent hearty affection The rest made resentments of their hearts burst forth from their lips not being able to with-hold acclamations too free and profuse for the season but for their love excusable They remembred the virtue of the ancient Machabees who had delivered them from Idolatry they knew the wretched Hircanus was no other than a shadow following his own funerals they retained the fresh memory of the grand-father of this young High-priest Aristobulus the Great who had been carried bound fettered to Rome like a gally-slave they were not ignorant how Alexander his father and Antigonus his uncle had lost their lives by opposing the government of a stranger This young Prince onely remained free from so many shipwracks and in the green tenderness of his youth they saw all the hopes of their Country to bud and blossom And as one is credulous to hear what he affecteth they perswaded themselves Herod who at the beginning had demanded the Kingdom in the name of this young Aristobulus would come to let go his hold giving way to justice and for this cause they with the more liberty enlarged themselves in these applauses but poor creatures they reckoned without their host Herod having beheld this countenance in the people instantly observed that according to his own Maxims he had played the Clark and that this was not his ordinary manner of proceeding entring at that time into a furious jealousy he maketh the High-Priest and his mother and wife to be so narrowly watched that neither within nor without the Palace they could stir a finger but Herod Malice of Herod was advertised of it The prudent Mariamne amongst these suspitions lived still in grace sweetning upon one side and other all acerbities as
to declare him Successour in his Empire Pulcheria married him onely under the title of wedlock with mutual consent of both parties to keep virginity This woman was made to govern men and Empires She was already fifty years old and had mannaged the State about thirty seven Behold she beginneth a new reign with the best man of the world who onely had the name of a husband and in effect served and respected her with as much regard and humility as if he had been her own son She could not in the world have made a better choice This great man was naturally enclined to piety justice compassion towards the necessities of mankind He was very valiant for he Marvellous accident of Martianâ—s had all his life time been bred among arms and during his Empire no barbarous Nation durst stir so much was he feared It was a wonder by what byass God led him directly to the height of worldly honours He was of base extraction a Thracian born of a good wit and a body very robustious which made him find a sweetness in war He going to Philippolis to be enrolled in the list of souldiers by chance it happened he found a dead body upon the way newly massacred This good man who was very compassionate had pitie thereon and approched to give it burial but this charity was like to have cost him his life for being busily employed to enterre this body one laid hold on his throat as if he had been the murderer and that he made this grave for no other intention but to bury his own guilt The poor man defendeth himself in his innocency as well as he could but conjectures prevail beyond his defence He was now under the sword of the executioner when by good hap the homicide was produced who had done the deed convicted by his own confession This man thrust his head into the place of the innocent and Martianus brought his away to behold it one day glitter under the rubies and diamonds of the Imperial Crown This was not without long trials of his ability which transferred him from degree to degree through all the hazards of a long and painfull warfare He was then mature in years in account one of the greatest Captains of the Empire Behold why Pulcheria could not be deceived in her choice This good husband who held his wife as a Saint was wholly directed by her counsels and she daily purified his soul in religion and policie He became in short time so brave and perfect in this school that he was accounted one of the most accomplished Emperours who had born the scepter since Constantine God well shewed his Good success of Martianus love and faithfull protection towards Martianus when in the second year of his Empire he diverted the furious Attila from the East who even now roared over the Citie of Constantinople as a thunder-stroke before it brake in shivers This Attila was a Scythian a great Captain who promised to himself the Empire of the world and for that cause had taken the field with an Army of 700000. men composed of strange and hydeous Nations who had gone out of their countrey like a scum of the earth ranging themselves under the conduct of Attila for the great experience he had in the mannage of arms He notwithstanding was a little man harsh violent his breast large his head great the eye of a Pismeer his nose flat his beard close shaved beginning already to wax grisled He walked with so much state as if he thought the earth had been unworthy to bear him and â—â—ough meerly barbarous the desire of honour so possessed him that being one day at Milan and seeing pictures where the Roman Emperours were represented who had Scythians his Countrey-men cast at their feet was so enraged that instantly he sent for a painter and caused himself to be drawn in a very eminent golden throne and clothed in royal robes and the Emperours of Rome and Constantinople bearing bags on their shoulders filled with crowns then made them to be poured at his feet alluding hereby to the vast sums of money he in good earnest extorted from the Empire and which Theodosius gave him afterwards to divert the course of his arms thinking that speedily to dispatch such an enemy out of his territories it was onely fit to make for him a bridge of silver This man seemed created to shake the pillars of the earth and for that cause made himself to be called The scourge of God There was no infant so little in the arms of the nurse who hearing Attilas named did not think he saw a wolf He considering that Martianus a most valiant man at that time swayed the Eastern Empire durst not come near but hastened to fall upon the West where Valentinian the Younger reigned son of Honorius cousin of Theodosius and Pulcheria a wanton and dissolute Prince as you shall understand in the course of this history loosing his life and Empire by his sensuality So it was that Attila attempting first upon the Gaules found work enough for the Romanes French and Gothes not unlike dogs who after they have worried one another rally themselves together to resist the wolf by a common consent heartened each other under the conduct of Aetius Moroneus and Thyerry against this Barbarian and having given him battel defeated one part of his army in the Catalonian plains but he failed not to pack a way creeping along like a great serpent which loaden with redoubled blows given by peasants hath received a maim in his body and notwithstanding saved his head God who derideth the proud and in his Amphitheater is pleased to make not Lions to fight with bulls but the weakness of the earth against the most insolent greatness reserved the conquest of this monster to Religious persons and women It is a wonder he coming to Rome as to the period and butt of his ambitions all enflamed with great desires in this clattering of harness and loud noise of Armies all the world trembling under the scourge the brave Pope S. Leo went out to seek him and preached so well unto him that being come thither as a lion he returned as a lamb for Attila entertained him with marvellous respect So had he done before to S. Lupus Bishop of Troyes granting him whatsoever he could desire All his Captains were much amazed for among other titles this Hun had the name of being inexorable to suppliants and it then being curiously asked of him who made him at that time loose his furie he confessed he saw a venerable person by Leo's side it was the great Saint Peter who threatned him with death if he condescended not to what the good Pope desired of him Attila then leaveth Italie and passeth into Sclavonia without being wished for again but by one sole woman Alas who would believe it Honoria sister of the Emperour cousin germane to Pulcheria fell in love with this monster I know not what
are not frustrated of what appertains to them by this article There be none but the Priests of the living God who are deprived of common right because they are vowed to service of the publick Their manners most innocent are not punished but their degree as if it held the rank of crime That which a superstitious widow bequeatheth to sacrificers of Idols shall remain inviolable what a Religious widow leaves by Will to a Priest of the eternal Religion shall be condemned as a nullitie I speak not this now by way of expostulation but to shew how I suppress lawfull complaints by strength of patience They answer they touch not legacies given to the Church in general And I require of them who ever hath robbed the riches of their Temples Christians have heretofore been bereaved their substance which is the marrow of men of ayr which is common to all living creatures of earth which none ever have denied to the dead since even the enraged sea hath oft-times sent back the bodies of our Martyrs to the haven as it were to give them burial I notwithstanding say not a word nor do I now accuse any man of crueltie the condemnation whereof the victorie of the Cross hath gained of the whole world But if a piece of land be seized from a Southsayer who contrary to all Religion holdeth wealth given in favour of Religion all the world must be summoned with an alarm If they will possess lands by our examples let them imitate the charitie we practice for the publick Where are the prisoners they have redeemed the poor they have fed the banished they have succoured Of all our wealth we nought retain but faith the rest is spent in the necessities of men and they think it reasonable to employ it in massacre of beasts to see if they have not the death of Princes in their entrails Is not this insupportable Yet notwithstanding their Gods saith he have revenged An answer concerning the death on our heads the injurie done to their Priests by a general famin That is it which hath caused us to eat roots barks of trees which hath made us shake oaks to eat acorns and envie hogs their food since we unjustly detain the sustenance of men Behold great prodigies and which never happened to the Gentiles To whom doth Symmachus think he tels these fables To us who know the Pagans were heretofore so accustomed to eat acorns that for this onely cause deified their oaks It is possible their Gods should appoint that for punishment which these have so oft bought with price of incense bloud of beasts And then what injustice were it that for a small handfull of sacrificers South sayers who pretend to be interessed herein these cruel Divinities should take revenge by a general desolation of all Provinces How should they so long stand with arms across in the ruins of so many Temples fallen on their Idols to come to contest with us upon a just retention of the superfluities of a silly Sacrificer Behold now alreadie how many years the Pagan Sect hath been declining hath any one seen for all this the river Nilus overflow to revenge what hath passed at Rome since the conquest of Egypt hath been tolerated under the arms of the Cross And if these Gods have this last year avenged their injuries enforcing us to feed on acorns why this present year when the contempt of their name is much greater than ever have they not made us eat thorns The living God be praised who busbandeth good evil for us with a most wise oeconomie we have seen the billocks smile under the beautie of vines we have beheld the earth curled with ears of corn and to yield us so plentifull harvests that they have given joy to some admiration to others and satisfaction to the whole world Yea we can say the last year hath not been so barren but that it hath left in many Provintes marks of the fruitfulness thereof The Gauls have been more enriched than ever the Sclavons have sold corn which they never sowed The Grisons have had such store that they have given to their neighbours more cause of envie than compassion and those who were friends in a great scarcitie are made enemies in large fertilitie Genova and Venice have tasted the commodities of the fruits of autumn and in a word the year hath not been every where so prodigious as the eloquence of the Governour Nay these objections are more tolerable but that which we cannot endure nor dissemble with your Christian Majesties is that the Gentiles out of braverie dare affirm they offer sacrifices to their Gods in your names and they protect you Who hath given them this commission Who makes them account your connivences so criminal as to take them for commandments Let them guard their defenders whom they have hitherto ill protected and let them not presume their Gods being so feeble for preservation of those who yield them such honour should be able to shield others who handle them with such contempt Yet must we saith the Governour defend the ancient A reply concerning the antiquity of Paganism Religion Nothing is elder than the truth which hath seen the world in its cradle but a false Religion the more ancient the more dangerous it is since it is an antiquitie of errours the presumption whereof time doth augment Virtues are not measured by the ell of times but the greatness of perfections If we in like manner will consider the works of nature we shall find the last to be the best The world as you say was nought els in the beginning but an assembly of little atomies which flying in the ayr wove one within another the web of this great work afterward it became a confused mass full of horrour darknes till such time as the great work-man came to separate the elements adorn the heavens with lamps distend light over the face of this universe Then the earth disarraying it self as from a robe of sorrow seemed to admire the sun it had never seen Consider you not how the day at its birth disperseth darkness with a little dawning of brightness which insensibly increaseth till the time it discovereth it self in the glittering light and fervours of the mid-day Behold you not how the moon which monthly waxeth and waneth now seemeth lost to us then shows her self as it were a little threed streight she becomes a well-formed crescent afterward in the proportion that she looketh on the sun she is augmented and lastly composeth for us a great globe of light Know you not how the earth was before rude not having felt the iron coulter but so soon as the husbandly labourer began to exercise a power upon it and cultivate the barren plains they took upon them a much other aspect for mollifying in this tillage all which was wild they spred out unto us grapes and harvests where we before had seen nought els but nettles
it is a distinct question which would well deserve a much longer discourse than this present design permitteth (b) (b) (b) Vanity of Astrology We have shewed in some other former tracts and will also manifest once again how vain and frivolous the science of Horoscopes is being taken in that height whereunto the vanitie of some impostours hath raised it not here intending to condemn those who handle Astrologie within limits permitted by the Church Let us now be contented to say it is a savage ignorance to seek to infer from the course of planets an absolute necessity upon mens actions since even judicial Astrologers the most fervent and obstinate durst never proceed so far All say the stars make impressions of certain qualities upon bodies and minds but that they may be diverted by precaution which gave authority to the famous axiom of Ptolomy cited by S. Thomas in the book of destiny affirming (a) (a) (a) S. Thom. opusc defat Sapiens dominabitur astris the wise man shall rule the stars (b) (b) (b) Tertull. de Ido c. 9. Expelluntur mathematici sicut angeli eorum urbe Italia interdicitur mathematicis sicut coelum Angelis Non potest regnum coelorum sperare cujus digitus aut radius abâ—titur coelo Tertullian in the treatise of Idolatry said pertinently that evil Angels are made prime masters of the curiosity of Horoscopes and that as they were banished from heaven so are their disciples from the earth as by an extension of the divine sentence He addeth that man should not at all pretend to the Kingdom of heaven who makes a practise to abuse both heaven and stars It seemes God pursueth those who addict themselves to such vanities as fugitives from Divine Providence And it is very often observed that great-ones who are ensnared in the servitude of this curiosity have felt violent shocks and many times most dreadful events (c) (c) (c) Alexander de Angelis l. 4. c. 40. Henery the second to whom Carden and Gauricus two lights of Astrology had foretold verdant and happy old Age was miserably slain in the flower of his youth in games and pleasures of a Turneament The Princes his children whose Horoscopes were so curiously looked into and of whom wonders had been spoken were not much more prosperous Zica King of the Arabians to whom Astrology had promised long life to persecute Christians died in the year of the same prediction Albumazar the Oracle of Astrology left in writing that he found Christian religion according to the influence of stars should last but a thousand four hundred years he already hath belyed more than two hundred and it will be a lie to the worlds end The year 1524. wherein happened the great conjunction of Saturn Jupiter and Mars in the sign Pisces Astrolgers had foretold the world should perish by water which was the cause many men of quality made arks in imitation of Noâ—hs to save themselves from the deluge all which turned into laughter The year 1630. was likewise threatened by some predictions with an inundation should drown half mankind which proved false by a season quite contrary It was foretold a Constable of France well known that he would dye beyond the Alps before a city besieged in the 83. year of his Age and that if he escaped this time he was to live above a hundred years which was notoriously untrue this man deceasing in the 84. year of a natural death A Mathematician of John Galeazzo Duke of Milan who promised himself long life according to his planets was slain at the same time when he prognosticated this by the commandment of the same Duke Another Astrologer of Henry the seaventh King of England advised this great Prince to take heed of Christmas night was asked whither his own star would send him that night to which he answered to his own house in security of peace Yet was he instantly sent to the tower to celebrate the vigil of this great festival One might reckon up by thousands the falshoods miseries and disasters which wait on these superstitions Who can then sufficiently deplore the folly of Existimant tot circa unum caput tumultuantes Deos. Aurelius one who forsaking the great government of God the fountain of wits and treasure of fortunes makes himself a slave of Mercury or Saturn contrary to the voice of Scripture decision of Councels Oracles of holy Fathers Laws of Emperours consultations of the wise experience of people and consent of all the most solid judgments We will not labour to ruin a doctrine forsaken Against the necessity inferred of prescience both by honour and reason We onely speak against those who will infer a necessity derived from divine prescience by force of which sins themselves according to their understandings are directly caused by the decrees of heaven It is the opinion of Velleius Paterculus who said destiny did all the good and Ita efficitur quod est miserrimum ut quod accidit etiam merito accidisse videatur casus in cuâ—pam transeat evil in the world and that it was a miserable thing to attribute that which proceedeth from above to the demerit of men and to make the ordinances of heaven to pass as crimes of mortals This Maxim was defended by Hereticks even to fury and it is a wonder men have been so wicked as to burden the prime sanctity with all the ordures of the world We well know if destiny be taken for the ordinance by which God establisheth the lives of particulars and states of Empires it is nothing else but the Divine Providence whereof we speak but good heed must be taken from concluding sins within the list of Gods will who onely being pleased to permit them can not in any sort establish or will them And it is here an impertinent thing to say All God hath foreseen shall necessarily happen otherwise he would be deceived in his foresight which cannot be affirmed without blasphemy but he foresaw all future things they then of necessity will happen Who sees not it is a childish toy and that this captious argument must be overthrown by saying All which God hath foreseen necessarily happeneth by necessity and all he foresaw indifferently happeneth by indifferency Now so it is that of all which dependeth on our liberty he hath not foreseen any thing necessarily but indifferently We must then conclude that all is done by indifferency not fatal necessity Hearken to the excellent decision of S. Iohn Damascene Damas l. 2. Orth. fidei c. 32. God foresaw all things but he determineth not all Omnia quidem Deus praenoscit non omnia tamen praefinit praenoscit enim ea quae in nostrâ sunt potestate non autem ea praefinit quia non vult peccatum nec cogiâ— ad virtutem things He well foresaw all which is and shall be in your power but he determines not because he willeth not sin nor will
eat them soon enough as if all this should say unto us What do we so long in the world since all things that must serve our use last so little Gold and silver continue long but last very little in our hands and though one keep them as well as he can they keep not ever one Master If there be creatures which live much longer they flie from us as Harts Crows and Swans you might say they are ashamed to participate in our frailty Great-ones of the earth have in all times done what they could with a purpose to prolong their days so naturally are we desirous of the state of Resurrection but they have many times abridged them seeking to lengthen them Garcias telleth us that a King of Zeilam having learned the adamant had the virtue to preserve life would neither eat nor drink but in a dish which he caused to be made of adamant through a strange giddiness of spirit but he failed not to find death in these imaginary vessels of immortality We make a great matter of it to see men very old they are beheld with admiration But if some desire to come to their age there is not any would have the miseries and troubles of it This Phlegon of whom we now speak who had been one of the most curious Authours of his Age made a book of long liv'd men wherein he confesseth he hath exactly looked into the Registers of the Roman Empire there to find old men and women of an hundred years and scarcely could he meet with a sufficient number of them to fill up a whole leaf of paper But if he would take the number of such as died before fifty which the Ancients called the exterminating death he had filled many huge volumes Pompey took pleasure at the dedication of Bâ—ro in historia vitae mortis his Theater to see a Comedianess act named Galeria Capiola who reckoned ninety nine years since her first enterance into a Theater It was a goodly play of life in a woman who danced on the brink of her grave But how many such like have there been people go into the tomb as drops of water into the sea not thinking on it Nay do but observe all which is Sovereign you will find among all the Emperours which were through so many ages there is not one to be found who attained to the age of a hundred years and four alone arrived to four-score or much thereabouts Gordian the elder came to this point but scarcely had he tasted of Empire but was over whelmed with a violent death Valerian at the age of seventy six years was taken by Sapor King of Persia and lived seven years in a shamefull captivity his enemy making use of his back as a foot-stool when he would mount on horse-back He was at first much greater in the estimation of men than he deserved and every one would have thought him worthy of Empire had he not been Emperour Anastasius a man of little worth and less courage who had more superstition than religion arrived to the age of four-score and eight years when he was blasted with lightening from heaven Justinim reckoned four-score and three which made him wax white in a vehement desire of glorie although being some-what contemptible in his person he was fortunate in Captains They speak of a King called Arganthon who heretofore reigned in Spain the space of four-score years and lived an hundred and fourty But this is rather in fables than authentical histories Of so many Popes as have been since S. Peter not any one hath possessed the See twenty five years scarcely find you four or five four-score years of age John the two and twentieth an unquiet and treasure-heaping spirit was about ninety years when death took off his triple Crown So many had Gregory the twelfth who was created before the schism but his papacy was as short as his life was long Paul the third attained to one above four-scor and was otherwise a man as peaceable of spirit as prudent in counsel Paul the fourth severe imperious and eloquent came to four-score and three Gregory the thirteenth lived as many a Prelate wise courteous prudent liberal who lived too little a while for the Churches good for which he could not end but too soon If we speak of the blessed S. John S. Luke S. Polycarp S. Denys S. Paul the Hermit S. Anthony S. Romuald so many other religious men they lived long And it seems there are many things in religion which further long life as contemplation of things Divine joys not sensual noble hopes wholesome fears sweet sadness repose sobriety and regularity in the order of all actions But all this is little in comparison of the Divine state wherein bodies shall not onely never end but live eternally impassible as Angels subtile as rayes of light quick as thought and bright as stars Conclusion of the MAXIMS by an advice against Libertinism where all men are exhorted to zeal of true Religion and the love of things eternal Of the obscurity and persecution of TRUTH INcredulity is an immortal disease which hath reigned from the beginning of the world and which will never end but with the worlds dissolution Dreams and lies are many times believed because they insinuate themselves into the heart by charms but truth which will never bely her self hath much ado to make her self understood and if she be once known she is beloved when she smiles and feared when she frowneth There are four things have ever been much unknown Four things much unknown in the world time wind terrestrial Paradise and truth Time is a marvellous creature which perpetually passeth over our heads which numbereth all our steps which measureth all our actions which inseparably runs along with our life and we have much business to know it as well in its nature as progression It is a very strange thing that there are such as promise themselves to reckon up the years of the world as of an old man of three-score and yet we know by the experience of so many ages it is a great labyrinth wherein we still begin never to end It was for this cause the Ancients placed the figures Hadrianus Junius of Trytons on high Towrs with tails crookedly winding to represent unto us the intrication of the foulds and compasses of time And for this also Isa 6. Hieron in Isa in the Prophet Esai the Seraphins covered the face and feet of God with their wings to teach us faith S. Hierome that we are very ignorant in things done before the world and in those which shall happen to Non est vestrum nosse tempora momenta quae Pater posuit in sua potestate Actor 1. the end of it If we on the other side consider the wind we cannot but sufficiently understand the commodities and discommodities of it which have made the wise to doubt whether it were expedient there should be
her to be valued with whole Books Another while he descendeth into particulars he recounts unto her his voyages his adventures his comforts his discomforts He omits nothing of the condition of his health of the disposition of his body of his chamber of his habit of his ordinary exercises in this ugly place whereunto he is banished He protesteth he is much troubled he sees her not he assures her all his pains are nothing in comparison of the want of such an one whom he so tenderly loved which he confirmed unto her by the example of S. Paul who challenged S. Paul tender in holy affections Angels and Devils who mocked at all persecutions who was ready to carry all hell on his shoulders had it been possible out of the desire he had to suffer And yet the separation of Titus his well-beloved Disciple afflicted him so much that he could not give his thoughts any repose He dilates much upon this affection of S. Paul to excuse his own which shewed it self at the height when the news was brought him of the sicknesse of the same Olympias For then it was when the winters of Scythia the countenances of Barbarians the hideous roughnesse of some place where it seemed Nature had never been the noise of warre and the incursions of souldiers fleshed in massacres and spoils are nothing in comparison of the affliction he feels for the indisposition of this dear Virgin He conjureth her by all things the most precious to tender her health he sendeth her to skilfull Physicians he teacheth her medicinall drugs which help himself he promiseth her long letters which she infinitely loved so that she take care of her health he assureth her as it were in the spirit of prophecy that he must visit her again to comfort his cares wipe away his tears and replenish his heart with satisfaction What can be more lovely what more affectionate then this whole discourse Saint Jerome is in the same passions for Saint Paula Great affection of S. Hierom toward Sancta Paula S. Hierome in Epitaph Paulae All the splendour of Romes greatnesse all the riches of the earth are nothing with him in comparison of his little Bethleem made resplendent by the virtues of this noble Lady He telleth us that Pilgrims who come from the remotest confines of the world cannot see any thing in all the affluent wealth thereof comparable to her When he goes about to praise her he wisheth all the members of his body were changed into tongue and that he were nought but voyce to be throughout the whole Universe the Trumpet of her praises He describeth her life and death with extasies he playes the Poet in his old age to make her an Epitaph and fetcheth out a pedigree for her from the ashes of old Troy and the conquests of Agamemnon He formerly had made himself a Secretary to her and her daughter enditing their letters for them to invite Marcella their companion into the solitudes of Bethleem When he thinks of her coming all the holy land is turned topsie-turvey the hillocks leap for joy the fields deck themselves in their best beauties the rivers carry the news thereof to the meadows squadrons of religious and virgins go before there is nothing but salutations and transportations and rejoycings incomparable Out of which we may conclude Saints have very lively affections towards all they love That blessed Prelate the Bishop of Geneva had The affectionare â—etter of my Lord Bishop of Geneva the same spirit for his Philothea For behold how he speaks of her in the first letter of his second Book When you unfolded your self to me more particularly it was an admirable joy to my soul that I might more and more comfort yours which made me believe that God had given me to you not imagining any thing might be added to the affection I felt in my mind and especially when I prayed for you But now my dear daughter there hath upon it succeeded a new business which to my seeming cannot benamed but the effect of it is onely a great interiour sweetnesse which I have to wish you all the perfections of the love of God and all other spirituall benedictions In the 16 Epistle he saith It is a dew which moistneth his heart without blow or noise I speak before the God of my heart and yours every affection hath its particular difference one from another That which I bear you hath a certain particularity which infinitely comforteth me and to say all it is infinitely available for me Account this as an irrefragable verity and do not you doubt it at all Then he adds when many particular persons recommended to him come into his mind she is alwayes the first or the last who there longest abideth See how the wayes of the just are hidden and leave no prints to follow them by the tracks An ill informed Censurer would here have wrinckled the brow he would have said with a supercilious countenance a severe aspect in the words of Cato That it must needs be a manifest snare of Satan to have a womans face in his mind in the midst of his prayers and yet we know this worthy man lived in most perfect purity in imitation of immateriall Angels This teacheth us Necessitudo Christi glutine copulata quam non utilitas â—ei familiatis non subdola palpans adulatio sed Dei timor divinarum scripturarum studia conciliant S. Hierom. there may be amity between Sex and Sex purre and ardent as the flames which enlighten stars But this onely belongeth to persons infinitely prudent and absolute in virtue who are therein more worthy of admiration then imitation yea indefatigable circumspection must be used to contein them within their limits And then is the time that they produce chast and strong delights when two spirits perpetually look one upon another as the Cherubins of the Ark having continually the Propitiatory of the living God in the midst of them or when they resemble the Sunne and Moon who for these six thousand years have courted each other and never touched § 5. Of the enterteinment of Amities AMity in the world wherein we are is a fire out of its sphear which properly is heaven where knowledges are without darknesse joyes without discomforts and love without blemish For which cause Mollis est animus diligentis ad omnem sensum doloris argutus si negligentiuâ— tractes cito marcet ut â—osa si durius teneas livet ut lilia Sâ—nthacus ep 34. it stands in need of precaution to defend it self and of strength to abide in a place where constancy is rare change ordinary errours naturall assaults violent and resistance weak The mind of a Lover is delicate nice and sensible in injuries if you handle it slightly it withereth like a Rose if roughly it fadeth like a Lilly I then will briefly glance at those things which alter Amity and shew you likewise the Antidotes that
their ends by unlawfull wayes 392 XI Maxim Of craft 394 XI Example Of craft 397 XII Maxim Of revenge 399 XII Example Of reconciliation 402 XIII Maxim Of the Epicurean life 404 XIII Example The dreadfull events of sensuality 470 XIV Maxim Of sufferings 408 That the Divine Providence excellently appeareth in the afflictions of the just ibid. XIV Example Of constancy in tribulation 411. The Third Part touching the State of the other World XV. Maxim OF death 413 XV. Example OF the manner how to die well drawn from the model of our Lady 416 XVI Maxim Of the immortality of the soul 419 XVI Example Of the return of souls 423 XVII Maxim Of Purgatorie 425 XVII Example Of the apparition of souls 428 XVIII Maxim Of eternal unhappiness 430 XVIII Example Of the Day of Judgement and pains of hell 434 XIX Maxim Of sovereign Beatitude 435 XIX Example Of contentments of Beatitude 438 XX. Maxim Of Resurrection 440 The condition of the glorified bodies 441 That the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation of ours and that we should behold the sweetness and glories of it as the sources of our eternity 442 XX. Example Divers observations on the length of Life and desire of Resurrection 445 Conclusion of the MAXIMS I. OBscuritie and persecution of truth 446 II. The definition of sensuality the description division and sundry sorts of Libertines 447 III. The causes of sensuality well described by the Apostle S. Jude 448 IV. The ignorance nullity of sensuality 449 V. The effects of sensuality and punishment of the wicked 450 VI. Hydeous usage of the wicked for the sin of impiety 451 VII Advice to youth and such as too easily give way to impiety 452 VIII That the remedy of our evil consisteth in zeal towards Faith  Division of the DIARY I. ACTS OF DEVOTION II. PRACTICE OF VIRTUE III. BUSINESSE IV. RECREATION A Table of the SECTIONS THE FIRST PART Concerning Devotion SECTION Page I. THe importance of well ordering every action of the day 456 II. At Waking ibid. III. Five good actions to begin the day 457 IV. Of Adoration the first Act of Devotion ibid. V. An example of Adoration 458 VI. Of Thanksgiving the second Act of Devotion ibid. VII A pattern of Thanksgiving ibid. VIII Of offering or oblation the third Act of Devotion ibid. IX The manner of offering our selves to God 459 X. Of Contrition the fourth Act of Devotion ibid. XI A Form of Contrition ibid. XII Of Petition or Request the fifth Act of Devotion 460 XIII A Form of Petition ibid. XIV Of the time proper for spiritual reading ibid. XV. An abstract of the Doctrine of Jesus Christ to be used at the Communion ibid. XVI What we are to do at the Celebration of the blessed Sacrament and other ensuing Acts 461 XVII Devotion for the dayes of the Week ibid. XVIII Devotion for the hours of the day 462 XIX Of Confession A very necessary Act of devotion and advice thereon 463 XX. An excellent prayer of S. Augustine for this exercise taken out of a Manuscript of Cardinal Sacripandus ibid. XXI Of Communion the chiefest of all acts of devotion with a brief Advice concerning the practice of it 464 THE SECOND PART Of the Practice of Virtues I. TWelve fundamental Considerations of Virtues 464 II. Seven paths of Eternity which lead the soul to great virtues 466 III. Perfection and wherein it consisteth 467 IV. Of Virtues and their degrees ibid. V. Four orders of those that aspire to perfection 470 VI. A short way to perfection practised by the Ancients ibid. VII The means to become perfect ibid. VIII How we ought to govern our selves against Temptations Afflictions and Hinderances which we meet with in the way of virtue ibid. IX Remedies against Passions and Temptations which proceed from every vice 472 THE THIRD PART Of Business I. BUsiness of what importance 473 II. Two heads to which all business is reduced ibid. III. Of the Government of a Family ibid. IV. Of Direction in Spiritual matters 474 V. Advice for such as are in office and government ibid. THE FOURTH PART Of Recreation I. REcreation how necessary 475 II. Of the pleasures of the Taste ibid. III. Of Gaming 476 IV. Of Dancing ibid. V. Of wanton songs and plays ibid. VI. Of walking and running ibid. VII The four conditions of Recreation 477 VIII Of vicious conversation and first of impertinent ibid. IX Of vain conversation ibid. X. Of evil conversation 478 XI The Conditions of a good conversation ibid. XII Conclusion of the DIARY ibid. EjACULATIONS for the Diary 479 PRAYERS for all Persons and occasions 480 A TABLE OF ALL THE Gospels and Particulars of our SAVIOUR'S Passion mentioned in the ENTERTAINMENTS of LENT with their Moralities and Aspirations UPon the words of Genesis cap. 3. Thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return page 481 Upon the Gospel of S. Matthew cap. 6. Of hypocritical fasting 482 Upon S. Matthew the 18. Of the Centurions words O Lord I am not worthy ibid. Upon S. Matthew the 5. Wherein we are directed to pray for our enemies 483 Upon S. Matthew the the 6. Of the Apostles danger at sea 484 Upon S. Matthew the 4. Of our Saviours being tempted in the desart 485 Upon S. Matthew the 25. Of the Judgement-day 486 Upon S. Matthew the 21. Jesus drove out the buyers and sellers out of the Temple ibid. Upon S. Matthew the 12. The Pharisees demand a sign of Jesus 487 Upon S. Matthew the 15. Of the woman of Canaan 488 Upon S. John the 15. Of the probatick pond 489. Upon S. Matthew the 17. Of the transfiguration of our Lord. ibid. Upon S. John the 8. Jesus said to the Jews Where I go ye cannot come 490 Upon S. Matthew the 23. Jesus said The Pharisees sit in Moses chair believe therefore what they say 491 Upon S. Matthew the 20. The request of the wife of Zebedee for her sons James and John 492 Upon S. Luke the 16. Of the rich Glutton and poor Lazarus ibid. Upon S. Matthew the 21. Of the Master of the Vineyard whose son was killed by his Farmers 493 Upon S. Luke the 15. Of the prodigal child 494 Upon S. Luke the 11. Jesus cast out the devil which was dumb 495 Upon S. Luke the 4. Jesus is required to do miracles in his own countrey 496 Upon S Matthew the 18. If thy brother offend thee tell him of it alone ibid. Upon S. Matthew the 15. The Pharisees asked Why do thy Disciples contradict ancient Traditions 497 Upon S. Luke the 4. Jesus cured the fever of Simons mother in law 498 Upon S. John the 4. Of the Samaritan woman at Jacobs Well near Sichar 499 Upon S. John the 8. Of the woman found in adultery 500 Upon S. John the 6. Of the five fishes and two barley loaves ibid. Upon S. John the 2. Of the whipping buyers and sellers out of the Temple 501 Upon S. John the 7. The Jews marvel at the
learning of Jesus who was never taught 502 Upon S. John the 9. Of the blind man cured by clay and spittle 503 Upon S. Luke the 7. Of the widows son raised from death to life at Naim by our Saviour 504 Upon S. John the 11. Of the raising up Lazarus from death 505 Upon S. John the 8. Of our Saviours words I am the Light of the world ibid. Upon S. John the 8. Of these words Who can accuse me of sin 506 Upon S. John the 7. Jesus said to the Pharisees You shall seek and not find me and he that is thirsty let him come to me 507 Upon S. John the 7. Jesus went not into Jury because the Jews had a purpose to take away his life  Upon S. John the 10. The Jews said If thou be the Messias tell us plainly ibid. Upon S. John the 7. Of S. Mary Magdalen's washing our Saviours feet in the Pharisees house 509 Upon S. Mary Magdalen's great repentance 510 Upon S. John the 11. The Jews said What shall we do for this man doth many miracles ibid. Upon S. John the 12. The Chief Priests thought to kill Lazarus because the miracle upon him made many follow Jesus 511 Upon S. Matthew the 21. Our Saviour came in triumph to Jerusalem a little before his passion 512 Upon S. John the 12. Mary Magdalen anointed our Saviours feet with precious ointment at which Judas repined 513 Upon S. John the 13. Of our Saviours washing the feet of his Apostles ibid. Moralities upon the garden of Mount Olivet 514 Moralities of the apprehension of Jesus 515 Aspiration upon S. Peter's passionate tears ibid. Moralities upon the Pretorian or Judgement-Hall 516 Moralities for Good Friday upon the death of Jesus Christ ibid. The Gospel for Easter day S. Mark the 16. 518 The Gospel for Easter Munday S. Luke 24. 519 The Gospel on Tuesday S. Luke 24. 520 The Gospel on Low-Sunday John 20. 521 A TABLE Of the Treatises and Sections contained in this fourth Tome OF THE HOLY COURT The First TREATISE Of the necessity of Love SECTION Page 1 AGainst the Philosophers who teach Indifferency saying We must not Love any thing 1 2 Of Love in generall 3 3 Of Amity 5 4 Of Amity between persons of different sexes 7 5 Of the entertainment of Amities 11 6 Of Sensuall Love its Essence and Source 14 7 The effects of Sensuall Love 17 8 Remedies of evil Love by precaution 18 9 Other Remedies which nearer hand oppose this Passion 19 10 Of Celestiall Amities 22 11 Of the Nature of Divine Love Its Essence Qualities Effects and Degrees 25 12 The practise of Divine Love 27 13 A notable Example of Worldly Love changed into Divine Charity 29 The Second TREATISE Of Hatred 1 ITs Essence Degrees and Differencies 32 2 That the consideration of the goodnesse of the heart of God should dry up the root of the Hatred of a neighbour 33 3 That Jesus grounded all the greatest Mysteries of our Religion upon union to cure Hatred 34 4 Of three notable sources of Hatred and of politick remedies proper for its cure 35 5 Naturall and Morall Remedies against this passion 37 6 Of the profit may be drawn from Hatred and the course we must hold to be freed from the danger of being Hated ibid. The Third TREATISE Of Desire 1 WHether we should desire any thing in the world the Nature the Diversitie and Description of Desire 39 2 The Disorders which spring from inordinate Desires and namely from Curiosity and Inconstancy 40 3 The foure sources out of which are ill rectified Desires 42 4 That the tranquility of Divine Essence for which we are created ought to rule the unquietnesse of our Desires ibid. 5 That we should desire by the imitation of Jesus Christ 43 6 The Condemnation of the evil Desires of the World and the means how to divert them 44 THE FOURTH TREATISE Of Aversion SECTION Page 1 THe Nature and Qualities thereof 44 2 The Sweetnesses and Harmonies of the heart of God shew us the way how to cure our Aversions ibid. 3 The consideration of the indulgent favours of Jesus Christ towards humane nature is a powerfull remedy against the humour of disdain 47 4 The Conclusion against disdain ibid. THE FIFTH TREATISE Of Delectation 1 THat Delectation is the scope of Nature It s Essence Objects and differences 48 2 The basenesse and giddinesse of Sensuall voluptuousnesse 49 3 The Sublimity Beauty and Sweetnesse of heavenly delights ibid. 4 The Paradise and Joyes of our Lord when he was on earth 50 5 Against the stupidity and cruelty of worldly pleasures 51 6 The Art of Joy and the means how to live contented in this world ibid. THE SIXTH TREATISE Of Sadnesse 1 ITs Description Qualities and the diversity of those who are turmoiled with this Passion 54 2 Humane Remedies of Sadnesse and how that is to be cured which proceedeth from Melancholy and Pusillanimitie 55 3 The remedie of Sadnesses which proceeds from divers accidents of humane life 56 4 That the Contemplation of the Divine patience and tranquility serve for remedie for our temptations 58 5 That the great temper of our Saviours soul in most horrible sufferings is a powerfull lenitive against our dolours 59 6 Advise to impatient soules 60 THE SEVENTH TREATISE Of Hope 1 THe Description Essence and appurtenances thereof 61 2 That one cannot live in the world without Hope and what course is to be held for the well ordering of it ibid 3 That God not being capable of Hope serveth as an Eternall Basis to all good Hopes 63 THE EIGHTH TREATISE Of Despair 1 ITs Nature Composition and effects 65 2 The causes of Despair and the condition of those who are most subject to this Passion 66 3 Humane Remedies of Despair 67 4 Divine Remedies 68 5 The Examples which Jesus Christ gave us in the abysse of his sufferings are most efficacious against pusillanimity 69 6 Encouragement to good Hopes ibid. THE NINTH TREATISE Of Fear 1 THe Definition the Description the Causes and effects thereof 70 2 Of the vexations of Fear Its differences and Remedies 71 3 Against the Fear of the accidents of humane life 72 4 That the Contemplation of the power and the Bounty of God ought to take away all our Fears 73 5 That the Example of a God-man ought to instruct and assure us against affrightments of this life 74 THE TENTH TREATISE Of Boldnesse SECTION Page 2 THe Picture and Essence of it 76 2 The diversitie of Boldnesse ibid 3 Of laudable Boldnesse 77 4 That true Boldnesse is inspired by God and that we must wholly depend on him to become Bold 78 5 That Jesus hath given us many pledges of a sublime confidence to strengthen our Courage 79 THE ELEVENTH TREATISE Of Shamefactnesse 1 THe decencie of Shamefac'tnesse It s nature and definition 81 2 Divers kinds of Shamefac'tnesse ibid. 3 The Excellency of Shamefac'tnesse and the uglinesse of Impudency 83 4 Of Reverence
to the same port It is that which maketh Kings to reign 1. Reg. 25. 29. and giveth them officers as members of their state and by this means frameth the Court of Great-ones But if after it hath so made and composed them as of the flower and choise of men it should abandon them in the tempest without pole-star without rudder without Pilot were not this with notable deformitie to fail in one of the prime pieces of its work-manship Judge your self For the second reason it is most evident that to further this impossibilitie of devotion in the course of Courtiers lives is to cast them through despair of all virtues which cannot subsist without piety into the libertie of all vices which they will hold not as extravagant fallies of frailtie but as the form of a necessary portion of their profession And as the rank they hold maketh them transcend other men who willingly tie themselves to the manners and affections of those on whom they see their fortunes depend that would be as it were by a necessary law to precipitate mankind into the gulf of corruption To conclude for the third reason this proposition is manifestly contradicted by an infinit number of examples of so many Kings and Princes of so many worthy Lords and Ladies who living in the Ocean of the world as the mother pearls by the dew of heaven have preserved and do yet still preserve themselves for ever in admirable puritie and in such heroick virtues that they cannot gain so much wonder on earth but they shall find in heaven much more recompence This is it which I intend to produce in this Treatise of the Holy Court after I have informed the mind with good and lively reasons which as I hope by the grace of the holy Spirit of God shall make all persons of quality to behold they do infinit wrong to take the splendour of their condition for a veil of their impieties and imperfections Virtue is a marvellous work woman who can make Mercury of any wood yea should the difficultie be great the victorie would be more glorious but all the easieness thereof is in their own hands and the obligations they have to tend to perfection are no less important than those of Hermits as I intend shall appear in the process of this discourse The first MOTIVE Of the obligation which secular men and especially persons of qualitie have to perfection grounded upon the name of Christian. A Great abuse is crept into the minds of secular persons who hold vice in predominance and virtue under controle It is in that they esteem Christian perfection as a bird out of their reach and a qualitie dis-proportionable to their estate As for my self saith one of these I have made provision of virtue according to my quality I pretend not to be a S. Francis nor to be rapt as a S. Paul to the third heaven I find there is no life but with the living and to hold time by the fore-lock while I can Let our pleasures take that scope which nature presenteth to them were we as wicked as Judas if we have the faith of S. Peter the mercy of God pardoneth all An impertinent discourse as I will hereafter declare On the other side there are women who chatter and say I will not be a S. Teresa it is not my intention to be canonized I love better to see my diamonds in my life glitter on my fingers than to carrie themafter my death on my statues I better love a little perfume whilst I yet breath air than all the Arabian odours after my death I will have no extasies nor raptures It is enough for me to wallow in the world I may as well go to Paradise by land as by water Such words are very impure in the mouth of a Christian nay so prejudicial to eternal salvation that through the liberty of speaking too much they take away all hope of doing well For pursuing the tender effeminacy of that spirit they take the measure of virtue very short and disproportionable their intentions being infirm the works are likewise the more feeble not squarely answering the model of knowledge from whence proceedeth a general corruption I affirm not all Christians ought to embrace the perfection of S. Francis and of S. Teresa No. There are some whom the Divine providence will direct by other aims But I say that every Christian is obliged to level at perfection and if he hath any other intention he is in danger to loose himself eternally A bold saying but it is the sentence of S. Austine You should always be displeased with your Aug. Serm. 11 of the Apostle Semper tibi displiceat quod es si viâ— pervenire ad id quod non es Si dixeris sufficit periisti A notable speech of S. Augustine self for that which you are if you desire to attain to that which you are not and if you chance to say it is enough you are undone And who are you that dare limit the gifts of God And who are you that say I will have but such or such degree of graces I satisfie my self with such a sanctity I have proceeded far enough in a spiritual life let us set up our staff here What wickedness is this Is not this to imitate that barbarous and senseless King who cast chains into the sea to tie the Ocean in fetters God hath given us a Xerxes heart of a larger latitude than the heavens which he will replenish with himself and you will straiten it like a snail to lodge him in narrow bounds whom the whole world cannot comprehend Judge if this proceeding be not very unreasonable and if you yet doubt weight two or three reasons which you shall find very forcible and by them you will conclude with me you have no less obligation to be perfect than the most retired Hermit that ever lived in the most horrid wilderness of Egypt The first reason I propose to underprop this assertion is drawn from the nature and essence of perfection At what mark think you should one aim to arrive to this scope If I should say will you be perfect bury your self alive in a sack put a halter about your neck go roast your self in the scorching beams of the Sun go roal your self in snow and thorns this would make you admire your hair stand an end and bloud congeal in your veins But if one tell you God Perfection engrafted upon love hath as it were engrafted perfection with his own hands upon the sweetest stock in the world what cause have you of refusal Now so it is as I say There is nothing so easie as to love the whole nature of the world is powred and dissolved into love there is nothing so worthy to be beloved as an object which incloseth in the extent thereof all beauties and bounties imaginable which are the strongest attractives of amity yea it forceth our affections with a sweet
in the hearts of men by a presumption of their salvation Christian discipline oppressed by liberty chastity trodden underfoot by unbridled luxury the standard of rebellion advanced against the sacred persons of Kings a million of French exposed to slaughter four thousand Church-vesteries Monsieur de Sainctes in his Book of saâ—cage pillaged five hundered Churches demolished France so many times given over as a prey to strangers corruptions so strange desolations so dreadful acts so barbarous that they make the hair stand an end on the heads of all good men which have never so little understanding A stile of fire were needful or a pen of a damant steeped in bloud to express them Ah poore France France the paradise of earth eye of the world pearl of all beauties How many times by the means of this heresie hast thou seen thy bosom heretofore crowned with ears of corn and guilded with harvests all bristled with battallions How many times hast thou seen the land covered with blades and the sea with ships How many times hast thou felt the arms of thy children to encounter in thy proper entrails How many times hast thou seen flames of brothers hostility flie through thy fat and fruitful fields When hast thou not sweat in all the parts of thy bodie When have not rivers of bloud been drawn from thy veins but such bloud as was able to cement together huge bulwarks for the defence of our Countrey or to serve for seed for flower-deluces to make them grow and be advanced in the plains of Palestine and they have been sacrificed to furies Innocency seemed to afford infants shelter from the tempest yet the sword of heresie found a passage into their tender bodies Age rendred old men venerable yet would no pardon be granted to their gray haits moistined with the massacre of their children Virgins were guarded in their mothers arms as a Temple of God yet have they been dishonoured So many personages of eminent quality have served as an aim for their impiety their pains have been sport for them and their deaths a spectacle What hair would not stand an end with horrour and what eye not weep forth bloud when we speak of these disasters which your selves detest Nor can you sufficiently wonder at the crueltie of those who have taken the liberty of such barbarous outrages and so bloudy tragadies I pass over this discourse as over coles covered with ashes and would willingly be silent were it not that as it was fit to expose massacred bodies to view thereby to cure the madness of the Milesian maids so must I discover some bloudy effects in the pretended Religion to raise a horrour against it in good souls Why also have you in this time renewed so many wounds which were not well closed and for want of a little obedience so lawfully due to the most just Prince of the world do you make a civil war to exhaust France of gold and bloud after such expence and so many bloud-lettings If these acts seem so base and inhumane to you why abhor you not the sect which produced them If God curse him who is the cause of scandals were it not fit if you have some beliefe stranged from common sense rather a thousand times to stiffle it in the bottom of your conscience than to divulge it with these disturbances divisions and spoil of a Countrey which you should love as men and honour as true Children Were there some stain in the house of our Mother which never was must you therefore call her whore drag her along by the hair and carry fire to burn her house in stead of providing water to quench the flames Is it not better to become patient to sweeten the acerbities of times spare wounds on ulcered bodies or at least to be satisfied with silence in a matter where you can pretend no right of correction What was that so exorbitant which the Church commanded for which you separated your selves and took arms to defend the wranglings of our Apostataes made afterward your Apostles What Maximes have we so rough and unreasonable that they must be taken away with the sword there to plant reformation Consider a little the notable corrections and admirable policies which Arch-hereticks have invented to introduce them into the Church I will here with all sincerity recite the Maximes of the Catholick and the Pretended Maximes of the chief Sectaries of which some have afterward affrighted you and you have disavowed them as you daily do by others God making you plainly see in the inconstancy and great diversitie of your Doctrine the little confidence you should put therein The Catholick Church teacheth that God would have all the world saved as the Apostle hath expressed in the Epistle to Timothie that he desireth good 1 Tim. 2. 4. of which he is the source and that he communicates himself to all his children The Pretended say that God absolutely desires evil yea doth it willingly predestinating men without any regard some to life others to eternal damnation as if a father who had daughters should cut the throat of one most innocent and marry the other wealthily having no reason for it but his will which is most execrable impiety pronounced by the authour of this sect in the book of his Institutions and chapter 21. where he saith Men are not all created to the like condition but that life eternal is pre-ordained for some and eternal damnation for others The Catholick Church speaks of our Saviour with most profound and religious reverence The Calvin in Evang Mat. 27. Institut 2. cap. 16. Authour of the Pretended makes him inferiour to his Father calling him the second King after God and attributing ignorance to him despair on the Cross and the pains of the damned which are things most horrible The Catholick Church holdeth Jesus Christ is the onely and sole Mediatour of redemption and that there is no other name either in heaven or earth in which and by which we can be saved and for that cause she honours it all she can extending and multiplying the fruits of honour and praise not onely in his own person but in his dear friends also which are the blessed Virgin and the Saints whom we pray unto as the fruits of his Cross and take them for Mediatours of intercession grounded therein on the word of God which commandeth the friends of Job to take him for intercessour Job 42. though he were in this transitory life and not at all doubting if the soul of the evil rich man prayed unto Abraham out of hell but we on earth Luc. 16. may be permitted to call to our aid souls so faithful so much honoured by God and whose praises he reckons his own greatness We likewise reverence holy images since it is an ancient custom in the Church the marks whereof we yet behold in Tertullian who might have conversed Tertul de pudicitia c. 7. with the Disciples of the
corn to the mil who go even into the ocean to fish for habits and attires for them and most times live within four fingers of death to give them means to flow in delicacies Onely death it is that taketh no suretie For whch cause man dieth in his own person and laboureth by deputie If death would a little give way no Great man would die but by Attorney Out alas O the justice of God how equally dost thou still hold the ballance They that would not here labour as men thou makest them take pain like infernal spirits thou dissolvest the sweat of poor paysants in the consolation of their souls and thou seasonest the delights of rich men with care melancholy dolour jealousie envy anxiety terrours and remorse which are able to make them sweat bloud Were there no other proof this manifestly enough declareth to us how odious this curiositie of Great men is to the Divine Majesty and how punishable since its own delights are changeâ— into chastisements Yet notwithstanding I will produce some reasons that the unworthiness of this wicked excess may punctually be touched with the finger which now adays overfloweth the whole face of the earth First I say it is extreamly unreasonable to be desirous Remedies and reasons against excess to live in the world with reason against all reason to endeavour to put a reasonable creature into a condition of life where it of necessity must bely the law of God and its proper nature O Noblemen God would that you enter into the world like othermen as into a vale of tears and you will arrive there as in a garden of delicacies He would that you come thither as to the mynes to dig and you go thither as to a dicing-house to play he would that you make passage into a servile flesh to obey and you will command Is not this a sin against nature Cross of nature Nemo impune nascitur omnis vita supplicium est To come into the world is to come upon a cross to be man is to stretch out the hands and feet to be crucified The first bed that an infant maketh coming from his mothers womb is on the cross He is as soon in a cross as in nature and suffereth this punishment for no other cause but for that he is born a man The Emperours of Constantinople had in their Palace The purple chamber of Emperours Anna Commena lib. 6. Luitprand de rebus Europ Cyprian de patient Procellas mundi quos ingreditur statim suo ploratu gemitu rudis anima testatur a secret chamber which they called the Purple in which the Empresses for a ceremonious formality were brought to bed and delivered thinking by this means to abolish the acerbities which are as it were affixed to our condition But these petty Porphyrogenites so these children of Emperours were called because they were born in scarlet were notwithstanding born with a cross and saluted life as others with tears and groans The children of Kings come al into the world through this gate of miseries they are born as with a diadem on their fore-heads and yet fail not to be natures little prisoners It is accounted a goodly thing to give them guilded cradles and silken swathing-bands This is to adorn their chains but not to break them they are as well captive in them as heretofore the prisoners in India who rotted in poverty and calamitie even in golden fetters It is a decree of Almighty God O Great-ones that you must be born with the cross on your back and you will cancel it if this yet might be practised with some reasonable evasion and mediocrity it would seem more tolerable but now adays this excess is so enraged that it will plant the tropheys of pride and voluptuousness upon the calamities of mankind What is not done upon tables What is not done in apparel Men cloath as if they were always to live and eat as if they should every day die We prepare an Altar to a false Deitie Tyranny of the belly which at this day with unspeakable violence swayeth in the world It is a bruitish god if you desire to know him for never had he an ounce of of brain A blind god who hath no eyes to behold the miseries of the earth A deaf god who hath no ears to hear the complaints of the afflicted A truantly god who hath no hands to take pains An immoveable god who hath no feet to travel on An effeminate god who hath no heart to undertake any good nor courage to suffer ills A gluttonous god Philip. 2. Quorum Deus venter est gloria in confusione ipsorum Tertul. advers Psych Deus tibi venter est pulmo templum aqualiculus altare sacerdos coquus spiritus sanctus nidor condimenta charismata ructus prophetia vâ—tus est who gourmandizeth all An unclean god who polluteth all This false god according to the Apostle is the belly His temple saith Tertullian is the lungs his Altar the panch his Priest the Cook his holy Ghost the smoke of meats his grace the sauces his prophesie that which may not civilly be spoken As he in his person is enormous so is he no less prodigious in his tyranny It is a wonder to see how he hath his officers in every place For him war is waged against the air and clouds birds are disnestled from the Kingdom which nature hath allowed them For him the face of the earth is turned into a shambles For him seas are sounded depths are plummeted ship-wracking storms and direful tempests are ferried over Man willingly would penetrate heaven and delve even to hell to find out new sacrifices for this fleshly and carnal god and himself being alive he is made the sepulchre of so many massacres that it is a miracle how one man can live who daily burieth so many dead creatures in his entrails All this hurly-burly which Gourmandize emptieth the air earth and seas is made for a stomach four fingers broad for which a little bread and water would suffice in necessity and in superfluity the whole world is too little to satisfie We know not what course to take to find out new curiosities for the palate We sup up oysters alive we seek out mushromes we will know what tast hath the flesh of tortoyses and snails These poor little creatures had good cause to believe that their meanness would enfranchize them but sottish and fordid gluttony draweth a tribute from all and I think their tast will shortly be taken with serpents and ravens But let us not onely accuse the belly the eyes devour more than it They are delighted to behold fishes to swim in a sea of sugar to see forrests nets huntings birds wild beasts houses castles fields arms of sugar had licourousness of tast so much power as it hath little brain it would make a world of sugar and then would dissolve it to be
humble he is and the more humble the less sensible is he of the crosses which happen to things without us VIII We must prevent occasions and not afford them too much power over our hearts in all those things the loss whereof may trouble us IX To eschew the occasions of places of persons recreations and affairs which use to disturb the peace of our minds X. If one feel himself inwardly moved to bridle the tongue that so the apprehensions of the heart may not break forth To reenter into your self To ask truce of your passion stedfastly believing that you shall pardon many offences if you begin to understand before you grow angry Against vanitie I. To represent to ones self very often the extream vanitie of all worldly things II. The misery of the present state wherein all things invite us to humility III. The vanity of opinions which afford us nothing but wind IV. The blindness incapacity inconstancy perverseness of mens judgements who often love and admire all that which is the most vitious V. The frailty of honour and reputation which is sought by unlawful ways VI. The tortures and torments of a vain spirit VII The ostentation in good successes the discouragement in bad VIII The surprizal of his practices and imperfections which cannot be hidden from the most judicious IX The worm which gnaweth all good works by the means of vanity and the shameful deprivation of eternal comforts to attend the search of earthly smokes Against gluttony I. Represent unto your self the miserable state of a soul bruitish and bemired in flesh II. Hardness of heart III. The dulness of understanding IV. The infirmities of body V. Loss of goods VI. Disreputation VII What a horrour it is to make of the members of Jesus Christ the members of an unclean creature VIII What indignity it is to adore and serve the belly as a bestial and base god IX The great excess of sins which proceed from this source X. The punishments of God upon the voluptuous Against intemperance of tongue I. To consider that it is the throne of vain-glory II. An evident sign of ignorance III. The gate of slander IV. The harbinger of scoffing V. The Architect of lying VI. The desolation of the spirit of piety VII The dissipation of the hearts safety VIII The inseparable companion of idleness as saith S. John Climacus Against Sloth The indefatigable labour of all creatures in the world both civil and natural II. The facility of good works after grace given by Jesus Christ III. The anxiety of an inconstant and fleeting spâ—rit IV. Shame and contempt V. The confusion at the day of Judgement VI. The irrecoverable loss of time Of three temptations which hinder many in the way of perfection to wit shame of well-doing over-much affection to some creature and pensiveness in well-doing The nineteenth SECTION Against the shame of well-doing MAny would quickly be in the way of a life truly Christian having souls of an excellent temper and pious relishes of God but that they have one temptation who would believe it it is the shame of well-doing Their souls are big with Eagles stone good desires resembling the Eagles stone which ever hath another in it and never brings it forth So have they in their hearts according to their own opinion a good resolution seriously to embrace devotion but the fear of what men will say scattereth as many good thoughts as the heart can conceive What practice of remedies will you have against this pusillanimity effeminate soul Onely consider what you do and if you be ashamed it can be of nothing but of your self Unworthines to be ashamed of wel-doing First I ask who maketh you blush in the service of your spouse Do you blush at his poverty At his deformity At his ignorance Or tell me what decay have you observed in him to imprint a blushing vermillion on your face Poor How can he be so since he maketh all rich Deformed How can he be so since he is original beauty spred over all the creatures of the world Ignorant How can he be so since he is the Eternal Wisdom Tell me then what have you to be ashamed of Some will say that you would seem to be virtuous and devout Do not so but be so indeed If you have not cause to blush for Heaven why should you blush for virtues which are the daughters of Heaven Behold what sacriledge you commit Shamefac'dness is made for vices It is the veil wherewith nature covereth them when they endeavour to hide themselves and you will shadow virtues Alas the Martyrs have become red with bloud to preserve devotion and you blush with shame to betray it A feaverish respect towards some creature which passeth away in the turning of a hand hindereth perhaps thirty or forty years of virtue O misery Secondly what have you so much to excite and Number of the devout should settle you drive you forward in well-doing Think you your self to be at this present the onely creature in the world which tasteth devotion A thousand and a thousand well qualified have advanced the standard of piety If the number of the bad authorize wickedness why should not so goodly a troup of honest men furnish us with confidence enough to vanquish one impious fantasie which verily is nothing nor hath any substance but what your remisness affordeth it Then tell me in the third place what is it you so Doubt and childishness of this shame much fear to addict your self wholly to devotion The twinkling of an eye a silly smile a breath of words which quickly passeth and hurteth none And behold why you forsake God What is more easie to be overcome than all that A little silence answereth all It is not required of you you should oppose your arms against the violent stream of a torrent Silence onely is demanded and to hope well which are the two easiest things of the world Will Isai 11. In silentio spe erit fortitudo vestra you put a great affront upon a babler who flouteth at your devotions Answer him not All he saith is to put you into passion your impatience pleaseth him your silence confoundshim In the end he cannot say so much but that you may hear much more He hath but one mouth and you have two ears Let Michol revile and persist you in dancing 2 Reg. 9. before the Ark your patience shall stop all mouths and in the end purchase all crowns But you fear What ' you should fear you cannot persevere in the way of virtue and that many changes may cast some aspersion of inconstancy upon you You do well to fear your self if you so much expect perseverance from your self But if you look for it from God ought you not to have more hope of his goodness than fear from your own infirmities You are not advised to make your devotions eminent by some notable alteration extraordinary in the exteriour
and they shall oppose you in the land of your abode Cruel father that thou art who quite dead and turned into ashes afflictest the Common-wealth by children ill instructed thou woundest and tearest Christianity Were it not justice thinkest thou to break up thy tomb and disturb thy ashes for having voluntarily bred a little viper for thy countrey to which thou art accountable for thy life And from hence it cometh to pass that fathers who have carried themselves so negligently and perfidiously in their childrens instruction are the first who drink down the poyson they mingled for others over-whelmed with toyls and miseries for the continual disorders of these extravagants O how often they make complaint like the Eagle in the Emblem of Julian when strucken by a mortal arrow partly framed out of her own wings she said Out alas wretched bird that I am must I breed feathers to serve as a swift chariot to the steel which transfixeth my body Must I bring forth children to give me the stroke of death What remedie then for this unhappiness which creeping into the bowels of the most flourishing Monarchies depopulates and deprives them of good subjects and furnisheth them with shadows of men What remedy but to observe three things in this matter First to give a good tincture of Religion to your children pious apprehensions of God and a filial fear of his judgements Secondly to manure them with arts suitable to their understanding and condition to settle them in the world upon some good employment lest having nought to do they become fit to act any evil Thirdly to accommodate them as much as possibly and reasonably may be with exteriour moveables called the blessings of fortune that necessity open not them the gate of iniquitie and then leave the rest to the providence of God whose eye is alwayes open over his work Behold the course most fit to be observed Pietie goeth foremost for as the eloquent Prelate of Cyrenes saith It Cynes ad Arcad is not onely the foundation of houses but of whole Monarchies Parents now adays seek to do quite contrary and set the cart before the horse they voluntarily imitate the stupidity of those Aegyptians who prepared Altars to a Reer-mouse for no other reason but that she is weak-sighted and is a friend of the night Now they preferred darkness before light by right of antiquity but these do much worse for putting Heaven and earth into one ballance they set an estimate upon terrene things to the villifying and confusion of celestial Nay there are mothers to be found so malicious as was one named Clotilda not the Saint but a mad woman who being put to her choice either to consent her sons should enter into a Monastery to become religious or resolve to see them loose their lives Kill kill said she I had rather behold them dead than Monks How many are there now adays who for a need would suffer their children to become Pages to Antichrist to make a fortune at the least would well endure to see them preferred to honour in the great Turks Court with ship-wrack of their Religion There are few Queen Blanches either in courage or worth who rather desired to behold her children in their grave than in sin They must now adays be either Caesars or nothing None fear to put them into infamous houses into scandalous places to give them most wicked Teachers to thrust them into snares and scandals under hope of some preferment Nay with how many travels and services crouchings and crimes do these miserable creatures purchase their chains All Non omnes curia admittet castra quos ad liborem pericula recipiant fastidiosè legunt bona mens omnibus patet Senec. Ep. 44. cannot find a fortune in Court Warfare picks out those with a kind of disdain whom it entertains for labours and hazards of life Onely virtue shuts not the gate against any yet it is daily despised Vnfortunate fathers and wretched mothers live on gall and tears rise and go to bed with gnawing care to set an ungratefull son on the top of fortunes wheel who quickly grows weary of them and after their deaths gluts himself with the delights they with so much industrie prepared for him mindless of those who obliged him Nay far otherwise he unfolds the riots of his unbridled youth even upon their tombs God grant this evil may pass no further and that the father and son do not one day reproach one another in the flames of hell that the one ministred matter of damnation and the other gave accomplishment William the learned Bishop of Guliel de Lugdun tract de avarit rubric 11. Lions relateth that a young Hermit retiring into a horrid wilderness to attend the exercise of penance saw his father and brother whom he had left in the world embroiled in ill causes at that time deceased and buried in everlasting fire who made hydeous complaints the son questioning his father as authour of his ruin by amassing unjust riches for him and the father answering the son was the source of all his calamities since to make him rich he had spent his miserable life in perpetual anxiety and now suffered eternal punishments in the other world for loving a disloyal son more than Almightie God Cursed blindness to buy tortures and gibbets with afflictions and crosses O fathers and mothers let your first care extend to those whom you begat to teach them virtue rather by your example than others instruction These young creatures are your shadows your ecchoes they turn and wind themselves easily to imitate those who gave them life and from whom they hope both wealth and honour Wo to the father and mother who make their children witnesses of their crimes and not content to be evil make their sin immortal in the immortality of their descent An infant though but two years old should be used with much regard as if it were an intelligence enchased in this little body It is a great sacriledge to impress the first tincture of vice on those who as yet rest in the innocency of baptism The good Eleazar being advised to dissemble his Religion to save his life or at least to make semblance of eating hogs-flesh beholding round about him many youths who expected the end of this combat pronounced these worthy words couched in S. Ambrose God forbid I should serve for an incentive Ambrose l. 2. de Jacob. Nequaquam contingat mihi ut sim senex incentivum ju venilis erroris qui esse debet forma salutaris instituti Adulterio delectatus aliqui◠Jovem respicit inde cupiditatis suae fomenta conquirit Julius Firm. de error profan to the vices of these young people who should rather be a pattern of wisdom God forbid I defile my gray hairs with this execration and that posterity may take notice I opened the gate to impiety by my example That is undoubted which Julius Firmicus spake Nothing hath
much as businesses of that nature would permit But her mother Alexandra touched to the quick to behold her self amongst so many spies she who was ever desirous to converse and live with all royall liberty resolved to play at double or quit to break the guyves of specious servitude or yield her neck to Herods sword if it should come to pass her calamity transported her into such extremity What doth she Cleopatra that Queen who had filled the world with her fame was then in Aegypt and naturally hated Herod as well for his barbarous disposition as for particular interests of her own person For she knew he much had entermedled in her affairs and given Mark Anthony counsel to forsake her yea to kill her This Tyrant was so accustomed to say Kill that he easily advised others to use the same medicine which was with him to his own maladies frequent It is a strange thing that Cleopatra one day passing through Judea he resolved to send her into the other world thinking therewith to gratifie Mark Anthony but was disswaded by his friends saying it was too audacious to attempt and able for ever to ruin his fortune The design was never published But Cleopatra had cause enough besides to hate Herod which much emboldened Alexandra to write to her in such like terms ALEXANDRA to the Queen CLEOPATRA Health Madame SInce God hath given you leave to be born the most Letter of Alexandra to Cleopatra accomplished Queen in all qualities it is fit your Greatness serve as a sanctuary for the innocent and an Altar for the miserable The wretched Alexandra who hath much innocency void of support and too many calamities without comfort casteth her self into the arms of your Majesty not to give her a scepter but to secure the life of her and her son the most precious pledge which remaineth of heavens benignity Your Majesty is not ignorant that fortune having made me the daughter and mother of a King Herod hath reduced me to the condition of a servant I am not ambitious to recount my sufferings which I had rather dissemble but whatsoever a slave can endure in a gally I bear in a Kingdom through the violence of a son in law who having stoln the diadem from my children would also deprive them of life We are perpetually among spies sharp knives and black apprehensions of death which would less hurt us if it were more sudden Stretch out a hand of assistance to the afflicted and afford us some petty nook in your Kingdom till the storm be over-blown and that we may see some sparkles of hope to glimmer in your affairs Glory thereby shall abide with you and with us everlasting gratitude Cleopatra having received these letters made a ready answer and invited her to hasten speedily into Aegypt with her son protesting she should esteem it an unspeakable glory to serve as a sanctuary and refuge for the affliction of such a Princess Resolution of departure is taken but the execution is a hard task The poor Io knows not how to withdraw Enterprise of Alexandra her self from this many-eyed Argus In the end as the wit of woman is inventive especially in matters that concern their proper interests she without discovering ought to any one no not to her daughter Mariamne fearing least her nature too mild should advise her rarher to rest in the lists of patience than to attempt ways so perilous she I say onely advising with her own passion in this business caused two beers to be made a matter of ill presage to put her self and son into thinking by this means to elude the diligence of the Guard and so to be carried to the sea where a ship attended her and by this way save her life in the power of death But by ill hap a servant of hers named Aesop who was one of those that were appointed to carry the beers going to visit one called Sabbion a friend to the house of Alexandra let some words fall of the intention of his Mistress as thinking to to have spoken to a faithful and secret friend of hers The perfidious Sabbion had no sooner wrung the worm out of this servants nose but he hasteth to open all to Herod supposing it was a very fit opportunity to work his reconciliation he having a long time been suspected and accounted to be of Alexandras faction Herod after he heard this news wanted not spies and centinels The poor Lady with her son is surprised upon the beers drawn out of the sepulcher of the dead to return to the living ashamed and disgraced that her Comedy was no better acted little considering that after her personated part had failed she could nothing at all pretend to life Herod notwithstanding whether he feared the great credit Cleopatra had or whether he would not wholy affright Alexandra thereby with the more facility to oppress her contained himself in the ordinary dissimulation of his own nature without speaking one sole word unto her Although very well in the face of this painted hypocrisie was seen that the clouds were gathered together to make a loud Thunder-crack raise an unresistable tempest The caytive after he had given so many deaths Pitiful death of young Aristobulus in the horrour and affrightment of arms would inflict one even as it were in sport upon a fair sommers day Being at dinner at the house of the miserable Alexandra feigning to have buried in deep oblivion all what was past saith that in favour of youth he this day would play the young man and invite the High-Priest Aristobulus his brother in law to play at tennis with him or some other like exercise The sides were made the elumination was enkindled The young Prince hot and eager played not long but he became all on a water as at that time happened to many other Lords and Gentlemen Behold they all run to the rivers which were near this place of pleasure where they dined Herod who knew the custom of Aristobulus and well foresaw he would not fail to cast himself into these cold baths suborneth base villains who under the shew of pastime should force him to drink more than he would All succeeded as this traiterous wretch had premeditated Aristobulus seeing the other in the water uncloathed himself quickly and bare them company There was no cause why he should swim sport and dally upon this element ever dangerous although less faithless than Herod The poor sacrifice skipped up and down not knowing the unhappiness which attended him But the accursed executioners remembred it well For spying their time in this fatal sport they smothered the poor High-priest under the waters in the eighteenth year of his age and the first of his High-priesthood This bright Sun which rose with such splendour and applause did set in the waves never to appear again but with horrid wanness of death on his discoloured visage Humane hopes where are you True dreams of Vanity and
removed from Councel and manage of affairs deprived of the Imperial bed abandoned by all those who before adored her she was dead to the evil life and onely survived to see her own funerals It was thought Pulcheria who was desirous to make a sequestration fearing lest her Departure of Eudoxia presence might again enkindle the fire covered under ashes in the Emperours heart to possess it to the prejudice of affairs caused the counsel of undertaking the voyage of the holy land to be suggested to her under-hand But it is more credible far the good Empress took this resolution upon her own motion for the reason I will deliver A devout Roman Ladie of a noble house named Melania who filled the deserts Cities Provinces and Empires with her fame passing into Palestine there to wear out the rest of her days in peace went by Constantinople and was received at the Emperours Court where seeing Eudoxia endowed with an admirable spirit but yet untrained to the sweetness of things spiritual she endeavoured to give her a tast The Empress who at that time was in the prosperities and delights of a flourishing Court thought she should handle devotion as a Captain Philosophie and it was enough to tast it outwardly But when this sad accident like the steel began to strike on the flint it made the sparkles flie out in good earnest She was on fire to forsake the Court where she no longer was what she had been she sighed after those places of the holy land as the thirsty Hart for the streams of a fountain I well believe she took counsel at that time of Chrysaphius a powerfull Eunuch who had governed Theodosius from his infancy and was much reputed in Court closely countermyning the over-much authority which Pulcheria had according to his opinion in affairs but he took good heed openly to affront her satisfying himself to act his part by Eudoxia according to directions she gave him This man very understanding in businesses found it was to good purpose to retire back to come on the better that it was necessary the Empress should give way for a time and that her absence would make her the more desired and that he in the mean space would do all good offices for her with the Emperour and act his part in time and place Conclusions of the voyage are made leave was not hard to be obtained of the Emperour seeing his instrument Pulcheria was thereunto wholly disposed When it came to a separation which was a thing very sensible in minds so long time and with such ardour mutually loving the good Eudoxia could not refrain to say to her husband with tears in her eyes SACRED MAjESTY I am upon terms to see you no more in this world for which cause it is fit I discharge my Conscience Behold me ready to depart not onely from the Court but this life if you so ordain I sorrow not for greatness nor delights I have ever thought the prosperitie of the world was a current of fresh water which looketh not back on any thing and hasteneth to pour it self into the salt sea I onely grieve that having brought to your Court two inestimable Jewels virginity and the reputation of a child of honour the one which I ought rather to have given to God I dedicated to your bed and the other is taken from me by your suspition grounded upon a sudden surprizal of a word spoken from a heart perplexed to see you troubled You have caused the Prince Paulinus to be put to death and in doing this you have not bereft me of a lover but your self of a good and faithfull servant and God grant the voice of bloud accuse you not before the tribunal of the Sovereign Judge I hope God who is the Protectour of innocents wil one day take my cause in hand and when truth shall give light through your suspitions you at least will render me the honour which I ever onely have sought to be conveyed into the ashes of my tomb Theodosius knew not how to answer her but with the moist dew of his eyes which began to do the office of his lips a few such words were enough to turn his soul topsie-turvie Pulcheria readily made the stop saying that which was past could not be recalled over which God giveth us no other power but of forgetfulness That the Empress might in good time go to satisfie her devotion and that were she herself free from the bondage of affairs it would be one of her greatest contentments to bear her company Thus Eudoxia departed travelling directly to Jerusalem Voyage of Eudoxia into Palestine and with her the grace and alacrity of Court All Constantinople was filled with sadness at which time the plains of Palestine were already comforted with the first rays of this bright day-break Wheresoever she passed the people ran thither by heaps to behold her she was received with much applause with eloquent orations and all demonstrations of hearts affections and particularly her approach was much celebrated in the Citie of Antioch For it is said the Senate going out to receive her she replied at an instant as she was sitting in her golden Caroch to the Oration pronounced before her and undertook to praise this famous Citie with so much grace and judgement that the principal and most eminent of the Citie ravished with such courtesie dedicated two statues to her the one of gold in the Senate-house as to the Empress the other of brass in their Library as to the tenth Muse Entring into Jerusalem she was received as an Angel from Heaven but above all the Clergie rejoyced at the abode she meant to make there well knowing the Church should thence derive great succours in its necessities Some perswaded her David had prophesied she should re-edifie the walls of Jerusalem because in the fifteenth Psalm where these words are read In bonâ voluntate tuâ aedificentur muri Jerusalem the Septuagint have translated in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The interpretation was not amiss although it were not literal it had the effect For the pious Empress in process of time made many most worthy reparations There she began to live as in another world she seemed to herself to have cast from her shoulders the burden of a huge mountain she now breathed a far other air than that of Court she had another tast of things divine All her study was to pray meditate and hear exhortations and spiritual conferences to read and learn holy Scripture to sow charities that she might reap merits to visit the Cells of Anchorets to see how their garments and girdles were made to observe their manner of living to multiply Monasteries to cloath Virgins to heap up reliques together and such like things Theodosius understanding her carriage and the Chrysaphius laboureth the return of the Empress in the mean time seeking his own ends good entertainment she had every where thought it was the work of God who favoured
profession he spake these words unto them My holy daughters It is not yet three years since I undertook Excellent speeches to virgins this charge and you know from whence I was drawn and the small time given to dispose me to so weighty a burden notwihstanding I afford you the fruits of my tongue since I have learned more in your manners than in books The flowers which grow in my discourses come from your garden It is not precepts for Virgins but examples drawn from the life of Virgins Your manners have breathed a certain grace into my soul I may say that all that which my endeavour hath of good odour in it is derived from your prayers For who am I but a barren thorn But God who heretofore spake to Moses among thorns will now to day speak by my mouth His Sermons and books had so much effect that Virgins came from the utmost limits of Christendom to be veiled at Milan which S. Ambrose seeing he could not wonder enough that he perswaded virginity where he was not it not being in his power sufficiently to multiply it according to his desire in places where he resided (f) (f) (f) Hic tracie alibi persuadeo si ita est alibi tractemus ut vobis persuadeamus L. 1 de virginibus He caused the Bishop of Bologna to come unto him led on by the same spirit as himself to assist in this design of whom he one day said in full assembly (g) (g) (g) Adest piscator Bononiensis aptus ad hoc piscandi genus Da Domine pisces qui dedisti adjutores Behold the fisher of the Church of Bologna fit for this sort of fish Lord afford fish since you have given us coadiutours And considering that some murmuted at these his proceedings as if the world should instantly fail by this means he shewed in a most eloquent Sermon that no one had cause of complaint either married or unmarried the married because they had wives not virgins the unmarried because they should find sufficient and that the carnal who opposed virginity under pretext of multiplication resisted by this means the chastity of marriages where continency is oftentimes exercised even by necessity as for the rest we are not to believe the world will be ruined through virginity For admit it should fail it would ever be a matter more honourable for it to decay by virtue than concupiscence But it is so much otherwise said he that we should lay hold of that which we see by experience in the Churches of Africa and Alexandria where there are most virgins they have the greatest number of men This employment nothing lessened the assistances which he afforded for the instruction of those who lived in an ordinary course (h) (h) (h) Su perstitions and excesses taken away Above all he endeavoured to root heresies out of their hearts and certain customs of Gentilism which easily stole in by contagion into the houses of the faithfull Among other things there was a Pagan-guise much practised at Milan and other places of Christendom which was to celebrate the first day of the year with riots and disorders a matter much resenting the Bacchanals He so cut off this abuse by his great authority that of a day prophaned with so much sensuality he in few years made it among Christians a day of penance and fasting which for some space afterward was observed in the Church until such time as the memory of the superstitions of Gentilism was wholly extinct Others entertained this foolish belief that when the moon was eclipsed she suffered much through the persecution of ill Angels who then endeavoured to exile her and therefore they went out of their houses with many pans and cauldrons making a loud noise to dissolve as they said the design which evil spirits had against the Moon The sage Pastour made an express homily against this superstition wherein he much confounded those who were infected herewithal Moreover it being a custom very ancient and introduced by the Apostles to make in Churches which then were the houses of the faithfull Agapes that is to say bankets of charity in favour of the poor this by little and little was changed into liberties unworthy of Christianity For sensuality had got such ground that stifling charity in this action it rather seemed a sacrifice to the belly than an act of piety S. Ambrose abolished all these rites and cut off such abuses even in the least root that it was never seen again to sprout in the Church S. Augustine in cited by his example practised the like in Africa and afterward caused the decree to be inserted in the third Councel of Carthage In the proportion that he extirpated vice he planted solid virtues in the hearts of the faithfull whom he ordinarily entertained with these ensuing instructions counselling other Bishops to do the like (i) (i) (i) Puritie of intention First he sought in all places to form in minds a strong imagination of the presence of God unwilling that Christian virtues should be petty hypocrisies guided by the natural extent of humane respect but rather intentions wholly celestial and for that cause he said (k) (k) (k) Si quis solus est seipsion prae caeteris erubescat If any man be alone let him regard himself more than any other in the world (l) (l) (l) Covetousnes opposed Secondly seeing the inordinate desire of riches was a petty apostacy of faith and root of all disorders he very often did beat on this anvile labouring by all sort of good endeavours to withdraw hearts from the love of earth that he might raise them to Heaven Among other things you have these excellent words in the epistle to Constantius (m) (m) (m) Multaoneri moderata usui Viatores sumus vitae hujus multi anbulant sedopus est ut quis benè transeat Saj ienti nihil alienum nisi quod virtuti incongruwn Quocunque accesserint sua omnia Totus mundus possessio ejus est quoniam eo toto quasi suo utitur Ep. ad Constantium To enjoy much is to have a great burden Great riches are a vain ostentation the indifferent for use We are all Pilgrims in this life all the business is not in going perfection consisteth in a ready passage To what purpose do you so torment your self with the desire of boarding Be wise and you shall have sufficient A virtuous man thinks nothing is without him but sin Wheresoever he sets his foot he finds a kingdom All the world belongeth to him because he useth all the world as his own In the third instance he made sharp war against the ambitions and vanities of the time disposing minds as much as he could to Christian humility by this Maxim (n) (n) (n) Ambition Nihil interesse in quo statu quis se probabilem praestaret sed illum esse sinem bonorum ut quocumque quis statu probaretur
Illud praecipuum â—t magis mores commendarent statum quà m statuâ— mores The greatest knowledge in the world is well to act your part It importeth not in what condition of life we are so that we discharge our conscience and the dutie of our places We must so use the matter that our manners may recommend our condition and not derive their worth from our dignities In the fourth place he used infinite care to maintain conjugal chastity in the lives of the married oftentimes shewing by pregnant reasons that lust (o) (o) (o) Luxu â—â— was a fire which burnt the garment of the soul and wasted mountains even to the bottom And because bravery is ordinarily the nest where dishonesty hatcheth he couragiously opposed profuseness in that kind using sharp reprehensions against women vain and dissolute in attyres One day amongst the rest he proved they were as in a perpetual prison loaden with punishments and condemned by their own sentence (p) (p) (p) Excess in apparel Hinc collum catend constring it inde pedes compes includit Nihil refert à uro cerpus oâ—eretur aut ferro si cervix premitur si gravatur incessus nihil pretium juvat nisi quod vos mulieres ne pereat vobis poena â—repidatis Quid interest aliena sententia an vestra vos damnet Hinc vos etiam miserabiliores quà m qui publico jure damnatur quòd illi optant exui vos ligari Lib. 1. de Virginib It is pity saith he to see a woman that hath upon the one part a great chain about her neck and on the other guives about her feet What matter is it whether the body be charged with gold or iron if the neck be alike bowed under a yoak and the gate bindred The price of your bands serves for no use but to give you cause to fear your torments Miserable that you are who condemn your selves by your own proper sentence yea more miserable than criminals for these desire nothing but their own liberty and you love your captivity In the end he much recommended charity justice government of the tongue flight from ill company and modesty in all deportments whence it came to pass that he wrote those admirable books of Offices which set out all Christian virtues with an eminent lustre The good Prelate was in his Bishopprick as the Pilot in the ship the soul in the body the sun in the world labouring in all kinds and having no other repose but the vicissitude of travailes The fourth SECTION His combates and first against Gentilism IT is time now that we behold our strong Gyant Evident danger of Christendom enter into the list against monsters for armed with weapons of light he enterprised sundry battails against Sects vices and the powers of darkness which sought to prevail I will begin his prowess by the encounter he had with Symmachus Governour of the City of Rome who endeavoured by his eloquence and credit to re-advance the prophane superstitions of Gentilism This combat was not small not less glorious for the memory of S. Ambrose with him that will well consider it the danger was very great for the name and design of Julian the Apostata as yet lived in the minds of many men of quality and of maligne spirits who had conspired with time to stifle Christianity making corrupt and imaginary Deities to re-enter into the possession of the world This Symmachus was the Ensign-bearer a subtile man well spoken and of great authority to whom the Emperours had caused a golden Statue to be erected with the title of The Prime man of the Empire both in reputation wisdom and eloquence and for that cause he promised himself he had power enough to set God and the devil upon one and the same Altar He practised to disguise Pagan Religion by his artifices drawing it from the ordures and bruitishnes thereof chanted by Poets to give it a quite other face and represent it with a mask which he had framed out of sundry Philosophers under the reign of Julian to render it the less odious And seeing the times favoured him by reason that after the death of Gratian a most Christian Prince Valentinian who was an infant under the guardianship of an Arian mother held the stern of the Empire he resolved therefore to fish in a troubled water and by surreption obtained certain Edicts in favour of Paganism against which S. Ambrose framed most powerful oppositions I will render you heer the two pleadings in those terms they were pronounced to confront the babble of a Politician with the eloquence of a Saint The understanding Reader shall heet observe two most rich peices of eloquence which I have rendred rather as an Oratour than a Translatour to give them the lustre they deserve I am desirous you may see in the Oration of Symmachus what a bad conscience can do which hath eloquence to disguise truth and how we must ever judge of men rather by their works than their words The Oration of Symmachus to Theodosius and Valentinian the Younger for the Altar of Victory exercise of Pagan Religion and revenue of Vestals SACRED MAjESTIES SO soon as this sovereign Court wholly possessed by Note that he feigneth Theodosius as present who knew nothing what had passed you hath seen vice subdued by laws and that you through your piety have tazed out the memory of passed troubles it hath taken upon it the authority which the favour of this happy Age hath afforded and discharging the acerbities long time retained upon the heart thereof hath once again commanded me to bring you its complaints in a solemn Embassage Those that wish us not well have hitherto bereaved us of the honour of your audience thereby to deprive us of the effect of your justice But I now come to acquit me of two obligations the one as Governour of the City the other as Embassadour As Governour I do a work which concerneth the Weal-publick and as Embassadour I present you the supplications of your most humble subjects Dissentions we have no more amongst us for the opinion All the Pâ—gan Senatours agreed not before upon this Embassage is ceased that one to become a great States-man must be particular in his opinions The greatest Empire which Monarchs may enjoy is to reign in the love and estimation of their subjects so is it also a matter intolerable in those that govern the State to nourish their divisions to the hurt of the publick and establish their credit upon the loss of the Princes reputation We are far distant from those imaginations for all our care perpetually watcheth for your interest and for that cause we defend the decrees of our Ancestours the rites of our Country and fatal happiness thereof as a thing which concerneth the glory of your age to which you gave a new lustre when you publickly protested never to enterprise any thing upon customs established by our Ancestours Behold wherefore we most
beg peace of them will any man teach me ought else I think after we have well disputed we shall find we have all but one and the same God but that we honour him under sundrie titles We all live subject to the same stars we all are covered with the same Heaven involved all Dangerous maxims used afterward by Hereticks Philâ—strius de haeresibus in the same world let us sâ—ffer every one to seek out truth according to his poor industrie God is a great secret it is no wonder if we endeavour to find him by so many divers ways But I leave the disputation hereof to those who have more leisure than I I come not to give a battel but to present you with our humble prayers I would willingly know whether your Majesties coffers have been throughly filled since the small revenews have been taken from those poor Vestals which before they enjoyed Vestal virgins They see themselves frustrated of the recompences which the most avaricious Emperours have decreed them and in so great a liberalitie of your Majesties which enricheth all the world they alone have cause to complain of necessitie It is not gain which leadeth them but the honour to Moving words receive the wages due to their chastitie It is to violate the holy veils which attyre their heads to deprive them the ordinary priviledges of their profession The poor maids ask nought else of you but a bare title of prerogative as their great povertie hath freed them from surprize of their enemies for nakedness is that alone which violence cannot disarray The more you have cut off from their priviledges so much the more have you robbed them of the honour of their charges since their virginitie which is vowed to publick safety hath so much the more merit as it findeth the less recompence God forbid your treasures which are most innocent should be defiled with prey drawn from the Vestals The revenews of good Princes still encrease rather from the spoil of enemies than loss of Priests There is no gain can recompence the wrong done them by this decree The further off your dispositions are estranged from all manner of avarice so much the more is their condition miserable since they behold themselves so tormented under such great clemency and frustrated of a happiness which they cannot lose but with honour For were they despoiled by Harpyes we should deplore their miserie in the compassion we take of their innocency but the world which seeth them deprived of their fortunes under Emperours so reserved and moderate will say needs must there be crime on their part since on yours they behold nought else but sanctity Possessions bequeathed to virgins by the last Will of those who deceased in the devotion they bare to their Temples are still withheld I humbly beseech you O sacred Pontifes who sit in the place of justice why would you make void the publick Religion of your Empire with the succession of a particular Let dying men make their Wills with all securitie suffer them to depart with this belief that they have princes not covetous who will maintain what they shall bequeath in leaving the world of their abilities It is your honour and contentment to see such a happiness in the state which you manage and likewise to deliver dying men from the disturbances they may have upon the nullitie of their Testaments Is there any thing in the world that more concerneth the Roman right than the Roman Religion How would you have the change of propertie to be called made upon moneys which their nature nor the laws have not put into the condition of unclaimed and perishable goods Legacies are permitted to freed men slaves are not denied the pettie profits given them by Wils Is there none but virgins and those virgins so noble yea virgins vowed to the exercise of Ceremonies fatal for preservation of this Empire must be deprived the possessions which come to them by lawfull ways of inheritance What availeth them to consecrate the chastitie of Symmachus magnifieth the Vestals their bodies to publick safety to lay the foundation of an eternitie for this Empire on the ayd of their prayers to tie to your standards your arms your eagles the favour of heavenly assistances to present vows powerfull for the whole world and be bereaved the rights that are denied to no man It will hereafter be better to serve men than Gods since we desirous to make our Empire religious make it ungratefull It is not the sole cause of the Vestals which I plead it is that of all humane kind for the dishonour of their profession is the source of all our evils The law of our fore-fathers hath honoured these holy maids and all those that are vowed to Altars with some small revenew and some very just priviledges This hath ever been for them maintained until new ordinances were made by some Bankers who degenerating from the care of their Ancestours have employed the revenews dedicated to virginitie on the entertainment of certain Porters From Famin. thence consequently came that great dearth the effect whereof the whole world hath felt where lean harvests have deceived the hopes of every Province Let us not accuse the earth of this disaster for it is innocent Let us not quarrel against heaven for it is just Let us not complain the worm hath gnawn the ear of corn or wild oats have choaked the fruits of the earth Our sacriledges have made the year drouthy and good reason it were the whole world should he frustrated of a benefit it hath taken from Religion Were there any example of our unhappiness in former times we might say this famin happened by a certain revolution of years fatal in such accidents But where shall we find any thing like to this in the passed ages Where shall we find a sterilitie so knotted together by the malignitie of the ayr Where shall we find that the people hath been enforced to have recourse to wild plants and accorns of the forrest Dodonia to satisfie their hunger When did our Fathers ever behold a spectacle so cruel whilest they cherished the ministers of Religion at the charge of the publick When did they ever shake oaks but for hogs When did they ever pull berbs up by the roots to feed men When did the fields which for the most part accustomed enterchangeably to rest as it were on purpose fail in one and the same year Hath this been when the people shared their provisions with the Vestal Virgins Liberalitie used towards Priests graced the years revenews and it rather seemed a remedie against barrenness than a larges of pietie Now God in the necessitie of each one avengeth the detention of a benefit which be would have common for all the world Some one will say it is no wonder if we refuse to entertain a strange Religion at the charge of the publick God forbid your Majesties should think the revenews which were
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
out but what hand hath ever drawn a false opinion out of the brain of one presumptuous but that of God All seemeth green saith A istotle to those who look on the water and all is just and specious to such as behold themselves in proper love Better it were according to the counsels of the ancient fathers of the desert to have one foot in hell with docibilitie of spirit than an arm in Paradise with your own judgement Augustine not to acknowledge his fault would August I. deduabus animabus contra Manachaeos ever maintain it and thought it was to make a truth of an errour opinionatively to defend it He had that which Tertullian saith is familiar among hereticks swellings and ostentation of knowledge and his design was then to dispute not to live Himself confesseth two things long time made him to tumble in the snare the first whereof was a certain complacence of humour which easily adhered to vicious companies and the other an opinion he should ever have the upper hand in disputation He was as a little Marlin without hood or leashes catching all sorts of men with his sophisms and when he had overcome some simple Catholick who knew not the subtilities of Philosophie he thought he had raised a great trophey over our Religion In all things this Genius sought for supereminence for even in game where hazards stood not fair for him he freely made use of shifts and were he surprized he would be augry making them still believe he had gained as a certain wrestler who being overthrown undertook by force of eloquence to prove he was not fallen This appeared more in dispute than game For having now flattered himself upon the advantages of his wit he was apprehensive in this point of the least interest of his reputation and had rather violate the law of God than commit a barbarism in speaking thereby to break the law of Grammer to the prejudice of the opinion was had of him It was a crime to speak of virtue with a solecism and a virtue to reckon up vices in fair language When he was publickly to enterprize some action of importance the apprehension of success put him into a fever so that walking one day through the Citie of Milan with a long Oration in his head and meeting a rogue in the street who confidently flouted him he fetched a great sigh and said Behold this varlet hath gone beyond me in matter of happiness See he is satisfied and content whilest I drag an uneasie burden through the bryers and all to please a silly estimation The ardent desire he had to excel in all encounters alienated him very far from truth which wils that we sacrifice to its Altars all the interests of honour we may pretend unto and besides it was the cause that the wisest Catholicks feared to be engaged in battel with so polished a tongue and such unguided youth Witness this good Bishop whom holy S. Monica so earnestly solicited to enter into the list with her son to convert him for he prudently excused himself saying the better to content her That a son of such tears could never perish Besides the curiositie and presumption of Augustine 3. Impediment The passion of love the passion of love surprized him also to make up his miserie and to frame great oppositions in matter of his salvation But because this noble spirit hath been set by God as the mast of a ship broken on the edge of a rock to shew others his ship-wrack I think it a matter very behovefull to consider here the tyranny of an unfortunate passion which long time enthraled so great a soul to derive profit from his experience The fault of Augustine proceeded not simply from love but from ill managing it affoarding that to creatures which was made for the Creatour Love in it self is not a vice but the soul of all virtues when it is tied to its object which is the sovereign good and never shall a soul act any thing great if it contain not some fire in the veins The Philosopher Hegesippus said that all the great and goodliest natures are known by three things light heat and love The more light precious stones have the more lusture they reflect Heat raiseth eagles above serpents yea among Palms those are the noblest which have the most love and inclination to their fellows These three qualities were eminent in our Augustine His understanding was lightning his will fire and heart affection If all this had happily taken the right way to God it had been a miracle infinitely accomplished but the clock which is out of frame in the first wheel doth easily miscarry in all its motions and he who was already much unjoynted in the prime piece which makes up a man viz. judgement and knowledge suffered all his actions to slide into exorbitancy As there are two sorts of love whereof the one is most felt in the spirit the other predominateth in the flesh Augustine tried them both in several encounters First he was excessively passionate even in chast amities witness a school-fellow of his whom he so passionately affected He was a second Pylades that had always been bred and trained up with him in a mervellous correspondence of age humour spirit will life and condition which had so enkindled friendship in either part that it was transcendent and though it were in the lists of perfect honesty yet being as it was too sensual God who chastiseth those that are estranged from his love as fugitive slaves weaned his Augustine first touching this friend with a sharp fever in which he received baptism after which he was somewhat lightened Whereupon Augustine grew very glad as if he were now out of danger He visited him and forbare not to scoff at his baptism still pursuing the motions of his profane spirit but the other beholding him with an angry eye cut off his speech with an admirable and present liberty wishing him he would abstain from such discourse unless he meant to renounce all correspondence He seemed already in this change to feel the approaches of the other world for verily his malady augmenting quickly separated the soul from the body Augustine was much troubled at this loss insomuch that all he beheld from heaven to earth seemed to him filled with images of death The country was to him a place of darkness and gyddy fancies the house of his father a sepulcher the memory of his passed pleasures a hell All was distast being deprived of him for whom heloved all things It seemed to him all men he beheld were unworthy of life and that death would quickly carry away all the world since it took him away whom he prized above all the world These words escaped him which he afterwards retracted to wit That the soul of his companion and his were expreslie but one and the same surviving in two bodies and therefore he abhorred life because he was no more than halfe a man yet
before you the four sorts of conversions by reason they will not be unprofitable to make us discover the singular oeconomy of God in that whereof we are now about to treat The Saviour of the world used all these pieces in the conversion of S. Augustine as we may observe in his progression For first concerning attraction of sympathy or natural conformity it is true that this great man was of an excellent nature and though The oeconomy of God in the conversion of S. Aug. it were a long time smothered up in flesh and bloud yet was it as a sun in eclipse which should one day appear in full liberty and illuminate the bodie which then was its obstacle In his most tender infancy he made amorous inclinations to his Creatour appear For then he had recourse to prayer as to a Sanctuary of his small afflictions and like a child placing felicity in that which touched him nearest according to his esteem he ardently besought God that he might escape the chastisement of rods and disgraces of the school He was of an humour free and liberal gracious mild affable obliging and full of compassion toward men in want which is a good way to represent great actions of virtue and dispose one to receive the spirit of God in abundance Affections with tears of sweetness and devotion were to him very familiar which appeared on the day of his being made Priest some time after his conversion for he spared not to weep in that ceremony where by chance a simple man interpreting that this happened to him through disturbance that he was not yet a Bishop who so well deserved it he came near to comfort him saying He should be patient that Priesthood was the next degree to the dignity of a Bishop and that in time he should enjoy the accomplishment of his desire S. Augustine afterward related this speech to his friends as an example of the errour of judgements made upon mens actions As for his vices he had nothing therein black or hydeous for his loves though inordinate were bounded in limits most tolerable and his ambitions were not haughty and disdainful but consisting onely in a sleight vanity to make shew of that which he had either of wit or learning a passion very natural to those who feel themselves endowed with any perfections Otherwise he had no design pretence engagements as have they who often cover their petty interests with the pretext of piety and are ever ready to imbrace the Religion wherein they find most accommodation for their temporalaffairs Augustine was so free from worldly avarice that he knew not what it was to make a fortune or reach at wealth Scarce would he ever learn to carry a key possess money in a coffer and take accounts as observeth Possidonius in his life All his mind was upon books and all his intentions aimed to the finding out of truth that he might offer homage to her for all he had and faithfully serve her all his life after he once had well known her These dispositions gave a full passage to such as were to treat with him On the other part attraction of motion which commeth from good example was to him very advantagious in the person of his good mother S. Monica And if certain people as the Lycians took the name of their mothers as of those whom they thought most contributed to the production of man into the Herod l. 2. world Augustine had great cause to take the title of his nobility from S. Monica who brought him forth more profitably for the life of grace than that of nature This woman verily was the pearl of women whose life had not great lightnings of extasies not raptures for all her virtues passed with little noyse like The qualities of S. Monica to great rivers that glide along with peaceful majesty but all was there very inward as in her who ever was hidden within the better part of her self Much hath she done in affoarding a S. Augustine to the Church and whosoever cannot discover the secret virtues of the sun let him content himself to measure it by his rays She pretended to consecrate her Virginity to Altars God drew her to marriage to gain from her a Doctour for his Church This Saint knew not as yet what she did when in her tender years by a laudable custom she rose from her bed in the deep silence of night to offer her prayers to God and when she shortned her diet at each repast to divide the moity of her life with the poor but the spirit of God which guided her disposed her then by these actions to some matter of importance She was married to a Pagan and one of a humour very untractable which she so softened by her long and discreet patience that in the end he set aside all his moody extravagancies as it is said the furious Unicorn sleeps in a maidens bosom It was with her a great consolation to have married an infidel and after some years to see him dye a Christian saying to God She had received a lion and restored a lamb All her care aimed onely at this son whom she first saw ingulfed in a life most licentious afterward by mishap involved in the heresy of the Manichees The poor mother endured nine entire years the throws of this spiritual child-birth the most sensibly that may be imagined What grief and sighs in her retirement What fancies in her sleep What prayers in the Church What alms in necessities of the poor What prudence and discretion in all her proceedings She sought out all the passages into this spirit which she could imagine but seeing it was a torrent not to be restrained by her forces she peaceably expected the assistance of Heaven She despaired not of his malady through fear to cure him She undertook not in the fervent accesses of his feaver to upbraid his disorders She went not about manacing him with fire and cauteries But did as God who acteth no ill but ever so useth the matter that the evil is extenuated When she could not speak to her son she caused the apple of her eyes to speak to God deploring all night and watering the Altars not with bloud of victims but that of her soul which were her tears We may say that as the waters which have pearls in them run for the most part to the south so this holy woman being in Africk a Southern Region Aquae defluentes ad Austrum generant margaritas Tarentinus Philosophus became in the abundance of her tears the true fountain of the South fit to bear a great pearl which afterward brought forth for Christendom many millions of pearls Never had the Angel Rephael so much care of young Toby as this celestial intelligence of her son being perpetually in Centinel and observing the visitations of Gods providence Her Paralitick was ready at the fish-pool and expected nothing but the stirring of the water Behold she
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
was your enemie you were his but he never yours For hostilitie comes from an usurper and defence from a lawfull Prince You do well to justifie your self upon this attempt but there is not a man will believe your justifications Who sees not you hated his life whose burial you hinder Paulinus addeth that for conclusion he dealt with him as one excommunicate and seriously adviseth him to expiate the bloud he had shed by a sharp penance This liberty of our admirable Prelate amazed all the Councel and Maximus who never thought that a Priest in the heart of his State in the midst of his Legions in the presence of his Court could have the courage to tell him that which he would never endure to hear in his Cabinet commanded him speedily to depart from the Court All those who were friends of the holy man advised him to be watchfull upon the ambushes and treason of Maximus who found himself much galled but he full of confidence in God put himself on the way and wished Valentinian to treat no otherwise with Maximus but as with a covert enemy which did afterward appear most true But Justina the Empress thinking S. Ambrose had been over-violent sent upon a third Embassage Domnin one of her Counsellours who desirous to smooth the affairs with servile sweetness thrust them upon despair of remedie The fourteenth SECTION The persecution of S. Ambrose raised by the Empress Justina WE may well say there is some Furie which bewitcheth the spirits of men in these lamentable innovations of pretended Religions since we behold effects to arise which pass into humane passions not by an ordinary way Scarcely could Justina the Empress freely breath air being as she thought delivered from the sword of Maximus which hung over her head tyed to a silken threed when forthwith she despoiled her self furiously to persecute the authour of her liberty O God what a dangerous beast is the spirit of a woman when it is unfurnished of reason and armed with power It is able to create as many monsters in essence as fantasie can form in painting Momus desired the savage bull should have eyes over his horns and not borns over his eyes but Justina at that time had brazen horns to goar a Prelate having eyes neither above nor beneath to consider whom she struck Authority served as a Sergeant to her passion and the sword of Monarchs was employed to satisfie the desperate humours of a woman surprized with errour and inebriated with vengeance Saint Ambrose like a sun darted rays on her and she as the Atlantes who draw their bowe against this bright star the heart of the world shot back again arrows of obloquie As women well instructed and zealous in matter Herod lib. 4. Solem orientem execrantur of Religion are powerfull to advance the Christian cause so when they once have sucked in any pestilent doctrine they are caprichious to preserve their own chymeraes The mistresses of Solomon after they had caused their beauties to be adored made their idols to be worshipped so Justina when she had gained credit as the mother of the Emperour and Regent in his minority endeavoured to countenance the Arian Sect wherein she was passionate that the sword Sect of Ariant of division might pass through the sides of her own son into the heart of the Empire The Arians had in the Eastern parts been ill intreated under the Empire of Theodosius and many of them were fled to Milan under the conduct of a false Bishop a Scythian by Nation and named Auxentius as their head but who for the hatred the people of Milan bore to this name of Auxentius caused himself to be called Mercurinus He was a crafty and confident man who having insinuated himself into the opinion of the Empress failed not to procure by all possible means the advancement of his Sect and did among other things very impudently demand a Church in the Citie of Milan for the exercise of Arianism Justina who in her own hands held the soul of Justina an Arian demandeth a Church in Milan her son Valentinian as a soft piece of wax gave it such figure as best pleased her and being very cunning there was not any thing so unreasonable which she did not ever colour with some fair pretext to dazle the eyes of a child She declared unto him that the place she possessed near his persō wel deserved to have a Church in Milan wherein she might serve God according to the Religion which she had professed from her younger days and that it was the good of his State peacefully to entertain every one in the Religion he should chose since it was the proceeding of his father Valentinian which she by experience knew had well succeeded with him To this she added the blandishments of a mother which ever have much power over a young spirit so that the Emperour perswaded by this Syren sent to seek S. Ambrose and declared unto him that for the good of his State and peace of his people it was in agitation to accommodate his thrice-honoured mother and those of her Sect with a Church in Milan At this word S. Ambrose roared like a Lion which made it appear he never would yield to the execution of such requests The people of Milan who honoured their Prelate as the lively image of the worlds Saviour when they once perceived that Valentinian had suddenly called him and that some ill affair was in hand they left their houses and came thundering from all parts to the Palace whereat Justina was somewhat astonished fearing there was some plot in it and so instantly commanded the Captain of the Guard to go out and disperse the rude multitude which he did and presenting himself with the most resolute souldiers he found no armed hands to resist him but huge troups of people which stretched out their necks and cried aloud They would die for the defence of their faith and Pastour These out-cries proceeding as from men affrighted terrified the young Emperour and seeing the Captain of his Guards could use no other remedie he besought S. Ambrose to shew himself to the people to mollifie them and promise that for the business now treated which was to allow a Church to the Hereticks never had those conclusions been decreed nor would he ever permit them S. Ambrose appeared and as soon as he began to open his mouth the people were appeased as if they had been charmed with his words whereupon the Empress grew very jealous seeing with the arms of sanctity doctrine and eloquence he predominated over this multitude as the winds over the waves of the sea A while after to lessen the great reputation of S. Ambrose Strange conference pretended by the Empress she determined to oppose her Auxentius against him in a publick reputation and though she in her own conscience wel understood that he in knowledge was much inferiour to S. Ambrose notwithstanding she reputed him impudent
the Globe of glass in which the Persians heretofore bare the image of the Sun or else by the imitation of that huge Pharos of Alexandria which enlightened the sea on all sides to guide vessels to a safe haven This was expresly set down to signifie the great and divine lights of wisdom which are in a true Christian valour This Palace seemed wholly built of rocks of the colour of iron streamed with little veins of bloud which well shewed it was purposely done to represent the invincible courage of the pupils of this virtue The Halls were all hanged with prowess and victories and in stead of columes it had great Statues of the most valorous men of the world who flourished in the revolution of so many Ages Valour bare sway within it sitting not on gilli-flowers or roses but encompassed with thorns and sufferings ever armed and still with sword in hand with which it cut off an infinite number of monsters and chased away all Salmoneans from its house In this Palace was the brave Eleazar who as soon as he from far perceived this young Souldier he caused him to draw near and spake to him in these terms Son I doubt not but you found at the enterance into my Iodging a wicked Sorcerer who hath by the ear empoisoned you It is necessary you cleanse it to make your self capable of the singular precepts of valour and wisdom which I am now presently to afford you seeing you for this cause are come hither into my Palace It hath been told you that to be a good souldier you must become a little Cyclop Refutation of the first disorder without any feeling of God or Religion for devotion were but to weaken your warlick humours Those who have said this unto you have told nothing new It is an old song which they have drawn out of Machiavel who thinking to make a Prince have made a wild beast and yet would perswade us it was a man but those that believe it are such onely as bear their eyes on their heels Let us not serve our Piety the first virtue of a souldier selves with this Phylosophie of flesh which maketh valour and devotion as two things incompatible Verily I go not about to require of you an affected enforced and ceremonious piety that is out of the limits of your profession I would have you a souldier and not a Monk but assure you the prime virtue of art military is to have good thoughts and pure beliefs touching the Divinity then to practice suitableness thereto by offices and exteriour actions of pietie When I speak this I am so strong in reasons that Reasons which shew that true piety is the soul of military virtue Chap. 13. and 11. I dare take our enemies themselves for Judges Behold the subtile Machiavel who upon the Decads of Titus Livius sheweth Religion is an admirable instrument of all great actions and that the Romans made use thereof to establish their Citie pursue their enterprizes and pacifie tumults and seditions which rose in the revolution of State Because it was said he more conscience to offend God than men believing his power surpassed all humane things So we see that all those who would form cherish or advance a State although they had no true Religion in their souls have taken pretexts as Lycurgus Numa Sertorius Ismael the Persian and Mahomet I demand of you thereupon my souldier if by the testimony of this man who hath made himself our adversary false beliefs have had so much power upon minds that they have rendered them more docible to virtue more obedient to Sovereignty more adventerous to undertake things difficult more patient to tollerate matters displeasing more couragious to surmount those which make opposition if I say the sole imagination of a false Divinity accounted to punish misdeeds and recompence valour with a temporal salary was powerfull enough to make Legions flie all covered with iron through so many perils must we not say by the confession of our very enemy that a true Religion as ours is which promiseth so many rewards to virtue and punishments for crime not for a time but for all eternity if it be once well engraven in hearts shall produce so many worthy effects beyond those of other Sects as truth is above lying reality above nothing and the sun above the shaddows From whence think you do so many neglects grow but from coldness in Religion For how can a souldier but be valiant when he is confidently perswaded it is the will of the living God that he obey his Prince as if he beheld a Divinity upon earth and that burying himself in the duty of this obedience being well purified from his sins he takes a most assured way to beatitude How can he be but the more couragious having received absolution of his sins by the virtue of the Sacrament since by the Confession of all Sages there is nothing so perplexed so timorous so inconstant as a conscience troubled with the image of its own crimes How should it spare a transitory life having a firm belief of immortality since the wisest have judged that the valour of ancient Gauls which was admired by the Romans proceeded from no other source but from a strong perswasion which the Druides had given them touching the immortality of our souls How could he be but most confident if he stedfastly beheld the eye of the Divine Providence of God perpetually vigilant for his protection How could he be but most fervent if he did but figure the Saviour of the world at the gates of Heaven with his hands full of rewards See you not that all reasons combat for us as well as experience I will not flatter Christians under pretext that I call my self the Christian Knight nor ought I betray my cause under the shaddow of modesty Let all the ancient and modern Histories be read let military acts be examined and courages poized in a just ballance I challenge the ablest Chronicler to present me any valour out of Greek or Roman Historie where the most admirable prowesses are to be seen that I do not shew them perpetually parallel'd yea surpassed by the courage of Christians When I read The Acts of Pagans those histories of elder times I behold Grecians that triumphed for having vanquished Xerxes who to say the truth was a Stag leading an army of sheep never was any thing seen so perplexed And although there had been no opposition yet was this great body composed of a lazie stupified army onely strong to ruin it self I see a young Alexander who to speak truth was of an excellent nature though the most judicious observe great errour in his carriage he oft-times being rash and many times insolent but it was well for him he had to do with such gross Novices whose eyes were dazled with the simple glimmer of a sword for had he come to encounter the arms of Europe his Laurels doubtless would have been
appointed him and that he necessarily must change the countrey whereat being much amazed yet still persisting in his design as not throughly satisfied upon the will of God it is held the tools and instruments of work-men were insensibly transported over the sea to the other shore and that an Eagle setling upon the Level of the Master-Architect took it up and hastened to bear it directly to Byzantium for that is the City whither Zonar Glycâ—â— Constantine forsaking the ruins of Troy transferred his great designs It had heretofore been a very fair City but as arms strike at all which is eminent so had it been infinitely ransacked by many wars happening in the revolution of affairs and Ages Yet it still supported it self with some manner of reputation when this great Prince determined to amplify enrich and perfect it throughly there to fix the seat of his Empire It is added that himself marched round about the wals holding in his hand a half-pike designing the circuit of his future Constantinople and as he still went measuring up and down by the aym of his eye one of his favourites said to him Emperour how long will it be ere you make an end I will finish saith he when he stayes that goeth before me Which made men think there was some heavenly intelligence that conducted his enterprize At the same time he thought he saw in sleep a very ancient Lady which in an instant was turned into a most beautiful virgin whom he adorned and attyred setting his Diadem on her head Observe what is said of the beginnings of Constantinople whether such things happened with all these circumstances or whether we naturally love to tell some strange tales in favour of antiquity as if these fictions were able to give it the more credit One thing is most undoubted which Zosimus although an enemy to Constantine is enforced to admire that the manage of this great design was so prosperous that in five or six years a goodly City was seen on foot which extended about one league in circuit beyond the walls of Byzantium Constantine who had a holy desire to equal it to ancient Rome spared nothing of all that which the invention of men might find out courage undertake and power execute He there built Palaces Theaters Amphitheaters Cirques Galleries and other edifices infinitely admirable so that S. Hierom had reason to say that Constantine to attyre his Constantinople despoiled all the other Provinces It is a Maxim among Great-ones that to make a huge Dragon it is fit he first devour many little serpents and to raise a great City many much less must be ruined to serve for food unto it The greatnesses of God are good deeds those of the world are naturally destructions for they eat and devour their neighbours as the tree which we call the Ivie which insensibly draweth the juice of plants growing near unto it It is not expedient there should be many greatnesses in the world they would drie rivers up as did the army of Xerxes and would impoverish each other by their mutual contestations Yet notwithstanding needs must there be Majesty in the civil world to the proportion of elementary And for this cause God made Kings taking a pattern from himself commandeth we honour them as his living images Kings make the greatnesses of the world which are the effects of their powers Needs must there be a Constantinople that posterity may see Constantine on the back side of the medal for I think his virtues have represented him on the other side very honourable At the least it is a thing exceeding laudable and well considered by S. Augustine that in this infinite store of Pagans which he must yet of necessity tolerate the Emperour permitted not either Temples of Idols Sacrifices or Pagan ceremonies Well might he be curious to cause from all parts to be brought ancient statues of marble brass and other matter which represented Jupiter Cybile Mercury Apollo Castor and Pollux and so many false Divinities which he set up in Theaters Amphitheaters or Races where the courses of horses were used and in other publick places Eusebius followed by Baronius holdeth it was to expose them to the scorn of the people which is very hard to believe for I should rather think that these pieces being the most exquisit workmanships of the world and that Constantine vehemently desiring the beauty of this City could not then resolve upon such a Jewish zeal as to break and deface them but contented himself with the distribution of them into profane places to give lustre to his enterprizes Yet must we say that though we at this present are out of the danger of Idolatry rich men of this Age have no reason to set up so readily in their Halls and cabiners Junâ—'s Venuses and Diana's and so many histories of the Tertul. l. de Idol cap. 6. Metamorphosis with scandalous nakedness Tertullian an eager spirit pursueth all this as a crime and proveth in the book he composed of Idolatry that all those who cooperate in such works do worse than if they sacrificed to Idols the bloud of beasts For they offer saith he their spirit their industry their travel and their estate to Sathan and though they have no intention of sin they minister matter to other of offending God Behold the cause why Constantine although he were in an Age wherein Paganism being still in much request it was very difficult to take away all these figures notwithstanding he disguised them as much as he could witness that a great statue of Apollo being brought to Constantinople one of the best pieces that ever had been seen in those elder times he caused a Constantine to be made of this Apollo changing it into his own image and commanding some parcels of the venerable nails of our Saviour to be enchased over his head It is in my opinion to this same image that he added a golden globe in the hand thereof and over it a Cross with this inscription Tibi Christe Urbem commendo Besides he made three Crosses to be erected the most magnificent that might then be imagined set in the midst of a publick place the statue of the Prophet Daniel among the Lions all covered over with plates of gold to represent a figure of the Resurrection And as for his Palace he caused to be pourtraid at the very entrance thereof the history of the Passion in a most exquisit work wrought and tissued with pretious stones very much resembling Mosayk work All of it being finished he made the dedication of the City on the tenth of May and as it is very probably supposed the five and twentieth of his Empire consecrating it to God in memory of the glorious Virgin Mary and doing great acts of liberty to the people which he commanded by his Edicts to be continued for perpetuity Codin addeth that he caused also sumptuous edifices there to be built for the Christians Senatours which he
drew from the City and made them so like their lodgings they had at Rome that they were so ravished therewith as it seemed their houses by miracle had been transferred from Rome to Constantinople The two chief Churches were those of the Apostles and of S. Sophia to whom Constantine gave beginning but the greatness of the work is due to the Emperour Justinian Our great Monarch who had his eye open over all forgot not to establish a good Colledge in his City whereunto he drew the choise of learned men in all professions dignifying and adorning it with immunities and great priviledges in such sort that Aurelius Victor called him the nursing-Father of learning and pursuing this design he took a particular care to erect a good Library and above all to furnish it with good store of holy books well written the superintendency whereof he gave to Eusebius of Caesarea Behold the estate of his Constantinople which he by Edict commanded to be called New Rome and Sozomen assureth that in multitude of people in abundance and riches it surpassed the ancient which is not very hard for any to believe who will consider Rome in the absence of Emperours being then but as a Palace disinhabited yet could not Baronius endure S. Gregory Nazianzens speech who said Constantinople as much in his time excelled the other Cities as Heaven surpasseth earth This would suffice to shew the politick prudence of great Constantine but it shineth also in other points of which I think this to be most considerable that he held for the space of thirty years an Empire so great in a time wherein the Emperours had ordinarily so short a reign that they resembled those creatures which enjoyed but one day of life in an age when the people were so apt to revolt that the sea had not more agitations than all Kingdoms had vicissitudes in an establishment of Religon very new wherein commotions are commonly most dangerous We may well say this Prince had something in him above all that which is humane to cement together an Empire of so long continuance in affairs so discordant It is true that he tolerated the sects of Pagans for meer necessity otherwise he must have killed the whole world to make a new of it The wise Prince well saw it was a thing impossible to annihilate superstition in an instant which had taken such deep root for a thousand years about which time Rome was built but in this civil peace which he gave to all the East he insensibly undermined the foundations of impiety and verily by little and little it perished in his hands His spirit sparkling like a fire could not rest but seeing the Magistrates of the Empire were moreover busie yet not discharging the duty of their places and that by the greatness of their power they made themselves too absolute he altered the whole government dividing their charges and multiplying the offices of the Empire For which Zosimus blameth him not considering it was the policy of Augustus Caesar reputed one of the most ablest Princes of the world and that he who will consider the state of the Empire established by Constantine shall find so much order in this great diversity so much wisdom in inventions so much courage in executions so much stability in continuance that he shall have more cause to admire the deep counsels of the Emperour than find what to blame in his government The same Zosimus as a Courtier and a Pagan extreamly displeased with great liberalities which Constantine exercised towards the Churches furiously taxeth him upon the matter of tributes Tributes saying He invented new and exacted them with much violence And yet notwithstanding there are no tributes under Constantine the use whereof is not observed to have been in the Age of the former Emperours For concerning the impost of a certain sum of gold and silver paid by merchants from four years to four which the Grecians called Chrysargyros although the name were then new the manner of it could not be so since the Historiographer Lampridius in the life of Alexander Severus makes mention of the gold of merchants And as for that which was also imposed upon prostitute women it was likewise under the reign of the same Alexander So that he who will compare that which is done before Constantine and that after him in this article shall there find much moderation in his proceedings For so far was it from him to surcharge the people that he gave a relaxation of the fourth part of tributes which is so much as if a King after the space of four years passed should free his people for a year from ordinary subsides which would be no small liberality Now concerning the violence whereof this man complaineth the Edicts of Constantine testifie that he would not have any man to be so much as imprisoned for monies due to his coffers True it is he had Cod. Theod. l. 2. de exactionibus a list of the names of men of quality in the Empire with a taxe of their revenews to enforce them to publick necessities and by this means discharge the poor Otherwise it is well known this Prince was Cod. Theod. l. 2. tit 2. Victor so zealous for justice that he would not suffer even the letters of favour obtained from him should have any power to the prejudice of ancient laws And that if any of his favourites had a process and would beg of him to interpose his authority for him he would leave him to justice willing rather to afford him coin out of his coffer than one sole word of favour which might dispose the Judges to bend the ballance more to one side than another He had his eye upon his Officers and retained them in their duties discovering and chastising corruptions and banishing with his whole endeavour all crimes that were against the law of God and publick tranquility He was much seconded in the administration of affairs by the diligence of Ablavius the greatest favourite of the Prince and Superintendent of Justice who was verily a man of Judgement had he not blemished the gifts of God with unfatiable avarice He was surnamed The Baloon of fortune for the many changes which happened in his person For it is held that he was of very base extraction born in Constantinople then called Byzantium and that a Mathematician arrived in this City upon the instant the mother of Ablavius was to be delivered This man weary of his way and very hungry went into an Inne where he cals for dinner his hostess was very busie to provide it for him at which time one came to entreat her to assist a neighbour of hers in her child-birth for she practiced the office of a Midwife This made her forsake her guest to help the poor creature who was said to be in great danger if she gave not remedy The business being dispatched she returned to her guest who was very angry and murmured with much
according to his merit He divided the Empire between his three sons at that time absent and having distributed their several shares with great providence he gave to Constantius the Empire of the East leaving a Will sealed with his own signet in the hands of a certain Priest whom he appointed to deliver it immediately to his son which he did and afterward Constantius so much honoured this man that being inflexible to all other he onely obeyed him as a God The dispose of his temporal affairs being setled he transferred all his thoughts to familiar discourses which he had with God and yielded up his most happy soul on the Feast of Pentecost the 22. of May about mid-day in the year of our Lord. 337. The souldiers and officers who waited next his person not thinking his end so near at hand upon this news were seized with a grief so outragious that tearing their cloaths and prostrating themselves upon the earth they bewailed their Emperour with complaints which rather resembled yellings than moderate sorrow called him Their Sovereign Lord their good Master common Father of the world His body was put into a coffin of gold covered with purple to carry it to Constantinople where it was many dayes exposed in his Palace attired in Imperial habit receiving the same duties and reverences as if he had yet been alive never was there observed toward any Emperour whatsoever either such great concourse of people or cordial affection not so much as little children but were touched with a sensible grief as if they had lost their father One might have seen among the people some confounded with sad and heavy sorrow others to break forth into complaints the rest to pour themselves out in devotions and prayer When ancient Rome heard the news of his death she caused the baths and publick Places to be shut up all mirth and solace to cease that they might lament the loss of a most honoured father The Princes his children speedily arrived at Constantinople caused his obsequies to be performed after the manner of Christians conducting the body to the Sepulcher with the Clergy wax lights burning and prayers of the Church ordained for the souls of the dead For Eusebius who was there present maketh express mention of the ceremonies which new Hereticks through great impertinency and malignity have endeavoured to deny for the comfort of the dead It is a mervellous thing to consider what power virtue hath over the hearts of men and to behold how many divers sects are different in that which is matter of belief in Divinity but all notwithstanding agree in the honour due to honesty The Pagans would needs canonize Constantine in their manner and made a God of him representing him in a Chariot harnessed out with four horses as flying above the clouds and a hand stretched from Heaven which made shew to hold him in this most blessed mansion of immortality The Greek Church hath honoured his memory as of a Saint although Constantine had so humble an opinion of himself that it is very likely he ordained by his Testament which was afterward seen to be executed in his funerals that his body should be interred not in the Church of S. Peter and S. Paul but before the porch esteeming himself most happy if after he had born the prime Diadem of the world he might serve as a porter to a simple fisherman I now aske of you my Reader who have considered the beginning progress and end of this Monarch where may you find one more clear in greatness of courage more generous in his enterprizes more prudent in his carriage more fortunate in successes more constant in his perseverance Poyze a little and put in a ballance the glory of his arms the happiness of his conquests the wisdom of his laws what virtue think you had he here occasion to make use of to set a new face upon a whole world to oppose Armies with iron stratagems with prudence rebellion of untamed spirits with mildness What arm to resist the torrents of iniquity What stroke to counterballance the inclinations of wils and swift motions of an universal world Greatness of Constantine Verily I must affirm Augustus Caesar was a great Prince for that he changed the face of the State of a mighty Common-wealth built up a vast Empire but not to flatter nor raise our Princes above their merit with the interest of our own cause we shall find this man had some thing in him much greater I admit the other seemeth to you more subtile if you consider him in the maturity of prudence he shewed in his elder days notwithstanding if you behold him in all the parts of his life you shall find great vices therein I say not onely of impurity or neglect but of wickedness and inhumanity which was the cause that he having one day in a banquet taken the shape of Apollo those about him named him Apollinem Tortorem Apollo the Hangman I go not about at this time to search into the vices either of the one or other I admit that Constantine though descended of the most noble bloud of Romans and as fortunate as ever Augustus was in his beginning somewhat cruel Yet no man can deny but that in military virtue he in all points surpassed Augustus Caesar who was never put into the rank of the most warlike Princes Let us not here overprize the supereminency the one had above the other in this point Let us onely compare them in quality of founders of new Estates The one made a new world civil and the other a new world Christian The one to do what he did found a Julius Caesar who before-hand cut out his work for him The other hewed forth a way through rocks flames thornes wholly involved with contrariety The one arranged men under a civil submission in recovery of a Monarchy which is an ordinary thing The other without arms disarmed them from the affection they bare to their ancient superstition which every well understanding Judge will esteem a mattter very difficult because ordinarily men are very obstinate to retain the beliefs which they have held from father to son through the revolution of many Ages Finally Augustus said he found a City of stone speaking of ancient Rome and had made of it a City of marble but Constantine might boast to have raised a Rome wholly new in the establishment of his Constatinople It is affirmed by the Pagans themselves who never attributed any thing to Constantine above his merit that he was at the least say they before bus baptism comparable to all the greatest Princes of the Empire Eutropius a souldier of Julian the Apostata who little loved Christian Princes is inforced through a truth to confess that he was (d) (d) (d) Vir ingens Innumerae in eâ— animi corporiâ— que virtutes clarâ—erunt fortunà in belâ—â— prosperâ fuit verum ita ut non superâ—ret industrian The Prince cap. 2. and upon
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
his captivity that his spirit was in declination his body being worn with the torments he endured by the rigour of a King of the Goths Death in the end came to unloose his fetters by an act very barbarous exercised by Theodorick on this admirable man He seeing Pope John had done nothing in his favour at Constantinople but in stead of causing the Temples of the Arians to be restored had purified and changed them into Catholick Churches he entered into a fury more exorbitant than ever and kept this good Pope in prison at Ravenna until he was wasted with diseases yielding up his most blessed soul in fetters to hasten to enjoy the liberty of the elect Cyprian and Basilius accusers of Boetius failed not to kindle the fire with all their power to ruin him whom they already had wounded There was sent unto him a Commissary who was Governour of Pavia to interrogate him upon matters wherewith he had been charged The King promising him by this instrument a reasonable usage if he would confess all the process of this imaginary conspiracy Boetius having heard what his commission imported replieth Tell the King your Master that my conscience and age have reduced me to those terms wherein neither menaces nor allurements can work any thing upon me to the prejudice of reason To require the proceeding of my conspiracie is to demand a chymera which hath never been nor ever shall Is the distrust of his witnesses so great that needs he must exact from my mouth the articles of my condemnation Verily he hath as much cause to doubt my accusers as I matter of glorie to be accused by mouthes so impure that they would as it were justifie the greatest delinquents by their depositions One Basilius chased from the Court and charged with debt hath been bought to sell my bloud and having lost credit in all things finds more than enough for my ruin Opilion and Gaudentius condemned to banishment for an infinite number of wicked promises they being fled to Altars the King redoubleth an Edict by which be ordained if they instantly went not out of Ravenna they should be branded in the forehead with an hot iron What may be added to such an infamie Yet notwithstanding the same day they were received and heard against me Arrows are made of all wood to transfix me and the most criminal are freed in my accusation Some being not ashamed to employ against the life of a Senatour those who would scarcely have been set to confront very slaves This makes me say my condemnation is premeditated and my death already vowed and that this search is made for petty formalities to disguise an injustice King Theodorick playeth too much the Politician for a man who hath full liberty to do ill What need is there to use so many tricks Tell him boldly from me that I submit to his condemnation I was willing to save the Senate though little gratefull for the sinceritie of my affections I wished the repose of the Catholick Church I have sought the liberty of the Roman people Here is all that I can say As I am not in condition to tell a lie so am I not on terms to conceal a truth Had I known the means to reduce the Empire into better order he should never have understood it Finally if he be resolved to put me to death thereupon let him hasten his blow It is long since I have had death in desire and life in patience The Commissary much amazed at this constancy made his relation to the King in very sharp words which put oyl afresh into the flame to thrust affairs into extremities The poor Rusticiana wife of Boetius knowing the point whereunto the safety of her husband was reduced made use of all the attractives she could to mitigate the fury of the Prince and observing Amalazunta the daughter of Theodorick to be an honourable Ladie and endowed with a singular bounty she recommended her petitions and tears to her This Ladie gave her access to the King to whom she with her children presented her self in a most deplorable State able to soften obdurate rocks Alas Sir said she if you once more deign to behold from the throne of your glorie the dust of the earth cast your eyes upon a poor afflicted creature which is but the shadow of what she hath been I no longer am Rusticiana who saw palms and honours grow in her house as flowers in medows Disaster having taken him from me by whom I subsisted hath left me nothing but the image of my former fortune the sorrows of the passed the grief of the present and horrour of the time to come I would swear upon Altars that my husband hath never failed in the dutie which he oweth to your Majestie but calumnie hath depainted his innocency unto you with a coal to inflame you with choler against a man who ever held your interests as dear unto him as his own I know what he hath so many times said to me thereof and how he hath bred his children whom your Majestie now beholdeth at your feet If we no longer shall take benefit of justice Sir I implore your mercie Look on a woman worthie of compassion tossed in the storm and who beholdeth in the haven the Olives of peace which you always have desired to equal with your laurels Suffer me I may embrace them The world already hath cause enough to dread your power give us cause to love it proportionably to your bountie Alas Sir on whom will you bestow it Fire which consumeth all burneth not ashes and behold us here covered with ashes before your eyes what more desire you of us A miserable creature is a sacred thing the God of the afflicted taketh it into his protection and will no more have it touched than his Altars If my unhappiness have set me in that rank and my sex made me a just object of your pitie Sir render that to me which I in this world do hold most precious and think not we ever will retain any resentment of what is past when we shall see our selves re-established in our former fortune It is in you to command and for us to obey your ordinances and even to kiss the thunder-bolt that striketh us It is to much purpose to present musick to the ears of Tygers it hath no other effect but to enrage them the more The cruel Tyrant presently commanded the Ladie to withdraw adding he would do her justice And they ceasing not still to multiply suspitions with him upon this pretended conspiracy as if Boetius had now been presently with sword in hand with the Emperour Justine at the gates of Rome or Ravenna he fell into such fear gall and choller that without any other formal proceeding of justice he dispatched the afore-mentioned Commissary with a Tribune to put him to death whose life was so precious to the Roman Empire Boetius who had a long time been prepared both by prayers and
applaudeth as not to hope to be paid for his praises They are subject to much credulity whether it be through some easiness of nature too weak or by overmuch presumption and self-love in such sort that they quickly esteem themselves fair and worthy to be beloved by those who feign affection not seeing that fishes are taken with nets and women with the credulity of their light belief They undertake designs to make servants who are not of the order of Arch-angels to serve them as Raphael did Tobie not pretending power over their hearts and honours They are infinitly delighted to see a man prostrate at their feet especially when he hath some qualities which put him into the estimation of the world It is a glory among the quaintest to have gained slaves who love their chains and who will no longer live nor die but for them This is the cause they counterfeit themselves to be little Idols and take many sacrifices of smoak and although they at that time have not any intention to offend God notwithstanding they suffer themselves to dissolve among so many offers of services complement and protestations and in the end feel it is a very hard matter to defend ones self from an enemy who onely assaulteth us with gold and incense Drops of rain are composed of nothing but water and do by their continual fall penetrate stones so much sweetness of words submissions and observances redoubled one upon another are able to make a rock rent in sunder how can they but transport a woman who issuing from a bone faileth not to retain all the softness of flesh Love sometimes hath wings to fall upon its prey with a full souce and sometimes it goeth along with a crooked pace That which it cannot obtain by a prompt heat it expecteth from a constant importunity From thence ensue private conversation and disorders which make tales in cities stage-plaies bloudy tragedies which being begun behind a curtain are many times ended at the gallows I do not find a better remedy to stop the beginnings of lust than to behold the end thereof A Lady who solicited in matter of dishonour in the first baits shall draw the curtain and behold a huge gulf of scandals injuries rages and despairs will as willingly descend into Hell alive as consent to this bruitish passion She will seasonably proceed to remedies and unfold her heart in the secret of Confession will discover the deceipt of it and by this means avoid an infinity of disasters Thrice yea four-fold happy is she who will take these words as an Oracle and enchace them in her heart to remember them eternally The eight SECTION Discretion in the mannage of affairs WHen we have begun to polish our selves by these virtues Discretion will regularly apply us to conversation and affairs every one A title which the Wiseman expresseth by the word Sensata Eccles 7. And S. Paul useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 2. much recōmending to women the care of houshold affairs according to her qualities A woman is a poor thing which hath no imployment nor discretion as there are many to be found who having lived to the age of ninety years have not learned any thing but to dress and undress themselves Why should we have a reasonable soul were it not to enrich it with knowledges which are necessary to us both for our selves the government of those which fall into our hands As we profess not to be wise so we have not made a vow of stupidity We should love as our eye-sight the reading of good books which teach us how to become better for they are wise companions and honest entertainments from whence we never behold jealousies nor scandals to arise It is not a very barren delight to behold women who as soon as they have made a silly complement have nothing else to say unless they talk of their ruffs or some such kind of trifles At the least I wish those who never have been willing to learn to speak would one day practise to hold their peace But they deafen the world with their prattle and daily deliver an Iliad of speeches wherein there is not so much as one good word Tell me not these maids so knowing are more subject to caution I would not have them I say unto you all learned as the Sybils and Muses but who will envy them an honest science of things which serve for the direction of manners There is none but spiders and such little creatures that turn flowers into poison We ought not to fear that a maid to whom good foundations of humility and devotion are given will abuse this celestial manna which is found in sage Writers I have learned from one full of wisdom and experience that for one young virgin instructed in learning which hath failed in her honour twenty other have been found of the ignorant who have so much the more grosly erred as they had the less knowledge of their fault I intend not by this counsel proposed which is to perfect them by reading that therefore we give liberty to the curiosity of reading of all sorts of books and namely those which treat of loves though in a very gentile manner for they have a little sting in them soft as silk which insensibly enters into the heart and when they describe this passion unto you with so many exquisite terms and honest inventions they create so beautifull loves that in seeking to imitate them we produce such as are deformed If we must become learned we ought to do it in that manner as the Saints Tecla Catharina Eudoxia Marcella Paula Fabiola Eustochium who with the spoils of Egypt furnished the Cross and Altars of our Saviour Nor would I advise a virgin to go and hide her self in a granary or cave to devour books It is fit she season her reading with works proper to her profession Let us never suffer her to be idle but so soon as age rendereth her capable let us give her some little direction and exercise in the house For why should we be ashamed to work with the needle since Augustius Caesar the founder of Empires reputed such kind of imploiments not unworthy of his daughters and that the Romans many years preserved as a relick the distaff of Queen Tanaquilla much more charily than the lance or sword of Romulus thinking it was more necessary to give women examples of industry than furnish men with idaeaes of war One would not believe how much the earnestness some have upon a good piece of work diverteth all other passions which may embroil the spirit but whosoever will make trial shall find that innocencie is never better lodged than at the sign of labour I leave you to think when a maid hath endeavoured to learn from her tender years matters fit for housewivery even to the kitchin what a goodly light is in that house whether it proceed from a father or from a husband for
your Baptism which blotteth out all sins according to your maxims I were no sooner washed but I should fear to plunge my self again into an infinity of occasions which might dayly present themselves to my understanding Then would you threaten me with the judgement-day and Hell with terrours able to over whelm my mind Consider whether it would not be more to the purpose to let me persevere in my Sect therein performing all the good I may Can you think that for all this I should be excluded from the mercy of God who will save all men The wise Clotilda replyed thereunto Sir I beseeth your Majesty not to flatter your self with this specious title of mercy for there will be none in the other world for those who have performed it in this without profit Now is the time that God spareth not to stretch out his arms for your obedience if you despise him you will loose him without recovery One can never do too much for eternall life and whatsoever we suffer Paradise may still be purchased at a good penny-worth Alas Sir why do you find so many difficulties in our Religion Think you God doth wrong in desiring to make you believe things which you cannot conceive by humane reason It is he who hath made the soul of man and who accommodateth all the wheels thereof nor is there any one of them which moveth not at his pleasure What marvel is it if man offer the homage of his understanding to God If weakness submit to strength littleness to greatness the finite to the infinite that which is nothing to him who is an abyss of essence goodness wisedom and light If you make a promise to any of your servants although it be unreasonable and almost incredible yet would you have him to believe it without reply and that he take no other ground for this belief but the greatness and infallible word of your Majesty One man exacteth faith of another though both of them are but earth and dust and you think the Sovereign Creatour of Heaven and earth is unjust to make us believe that which our bruitish senses cannot comprehend Is this the submission and obedience we ow Eternal Truth Why should not I believe that three are but one that is to say three persons one onely God since I dayly find my memory understanding and will make but one soul Wherefore should we scorn to adore a Crucified man The Cross is so far from weakening my belief that there is not any thing which more confirmeth it For if the Saviour of the world had come as your Majesty to the conquest of the universe with legions horses treasures and arms he should in my opinion retain that esteem which great Captains hold but when I consider that by the punishment of the Cross he hath reduced the whole world under his laws and planted the instrument of his excessive dolours even on the top of Capitols and the heads of Monarchs I affirm that all is of God in such an affair since there is nothing in it of man Alas Sir if you have a faithful servant who would suffer himself to be tormented and crucified to make you Master of a rebellious Fort would not you find more glory in his loyalty than ignominy in his torments And think you if the Eternal Wisdom having taken a humane body and voluntarily exposed it to extream rigour to wash our offences in his bloud and subdue the pride and curiosities of the earth to the power of Heaven it hath done ought therein reprehensible Have we not much more cause to adore the infinite plenty of his charities than to dispute upon honours which onely consist in the opinion of the world I beseech your Majesty figure not to your self our Religion as an irksome and austere Law when you have submitted to the yoak God will afford you so much grace that all these difficulties which you apprehend will no more burden you than feathers do birds And although it should happen you after Baptism fall into some sin which God by his grace will divert the bloud of Jesus Christ is a fountain which perpetually distilleth in the Sacraments of the Church to wash away all our iniquities Sir I fear least you too long defer to resign your self to the many advertisements which you have received from Heaven If you weigh the favours that God hath done to your Majesty having set a Crown on your head at the age of fifteen years having preserved you against so many factions defended you from so many perils adorned you with so much glory honoured you with so many prosperours successes you shall find he hath reason to require at this time from you what he demandeth of your by my mouth What know you whether he have chosen out yâ—â—r person to make you a pattern to all other Kings and constitute you such in France as Constantine hath been in the Roman Empire which will render you glorious in the memory of men and happy in Heaven to all eternity Verily Sir if you yield not your self up to my words you ought to submit to the bloud of so many worthy Martyrs who have already professed this faith in your Kingdom you ought to submit to so many great Confessours as knowing as Oracles of as good life as Angels who denounce truth unto you You ought to submit to miracles that are every day visibly done at the Sepulcher of great S. Martin which is an incomparable treasure in your Kingdom Sweet-heart answereth the King say no more you are too learned for me and I fear least you should perswade me to that which I have no desire to believe and although you had convinced my soul to dispose it to this belief think you it would be lawful for me so soon to make profession of your faith You see I am King of an infinite people and have ever at my commanda great Nobility who acknowledge no other Gods but those of the Country Do you believe that all spirits are so easy to be curbed and that when I shall go about to take a strange God will it not make them murmur and perhaps forge pretexts to embroil something in my Kingdom For Religion and the State are two pieces which mutually touch one another very near one cannot almost stir the one without the other the surest way is not to fall upon it and to let the world pass along as our predecessours found it Clotilda well saw this apprehension was one of the mainest obstacles of his salvation and she already had given good remedy thereunto practising the dispositions of all the greatest of the Court. Behold the cause why she most stoutly replyed thereunto Sir it is to apprehend fantasies to form to your self such imaginations You are a Prince too absolute and too well beloved to fear these commotions but rather much otherwise I assure you upon mine honour your people are already much disposed to receive our Religion and your Nobility
which hath sufficiently understood the vanity to Idols expecteth nought else but your example to embrace Christianity Nay if need were to penetrate rocks and cut through mountains to gain success for such an enterprize your travells would therein be very well employed nor is it fit you fear to loose earth to purchase Heaven But all the faciâ—ity is in your own hands the grape which you said was not yet ripe almost five years since is now mature and it is necessary you gather it These words oftentimes presented upon occasions had quickly a marvellous power over the mind of Clodovaeus and the iron began in good earnest to wax soft in the fire For he honoured Churches and used Ecclesiasticks with a quite other respect than he accustomed whereof he gave a most evident testimony in the business which passed with S. Remigius The History saith the souldiers of Clodovaeus for raging the Countrey in their liberty of arms had pillaged in the Church of Rhemes a goody and large vessel of silver to pour water into at which the good Bishop being somewhat troubled for the reverence he bare to all that which appertained to his Ministery he sent his Commissaries to the King to make Complaint thereof which was not lost For Clodovaeus commanded them to come to Soisson where division should be made of the booty had been taken from all parts which was done and they coming to unfardle all these pilferies the King being there present in person found the vessels which he presently commanded to be restored to the Commissaries of the Church but a souldier becoming obstinate thereupon and much displeased that so goodly a piece should escape his hand gave a blow with a halbard upon it to cleave it asunder which Clodovaeus for that time dissembled fearing to proceed to a reasonable chastisement with any passion but afterward seeing this fellow much out of order How saith he is there none but you that grow mutinous and yet are the worst armed of all the troups And saying so he took the halbard out of his hand and threw it to the ground the other stooping to take it up again felt a furious blow from the hand of the King which bereaved him of life in punishment of his temerity The Queen understanding this news held it a good presage of his conversion and that which much more confirmed her in this hope was that being delivered of a goodly son she obtained leave of the King it might be Christened which she specdily did but the infant stayed not long after his baptism to forsake an earthly Crown to take in Heaven a diadem of eternall glory Yet Clodovaeus found some slackness in his good purposes and child the Queen as being too vehement to dispose all the world to her own Religion saying this Baptism might very well have procured hurt to the health of the child but she replyed that life and death were in the hands of God that this child was not so much to be lamented for having so suddenly changed from the life of a fly to that of Angels but that the Saviour of the world who holdeth in his hand the keys of fruitfulness could bless their royal bed with a fair issue when he thought good and that we should not be amazed at the death of so frail a creature nor attribute the cause thereof to Baptism which operateth nothing but good She knew so well how to excuse her act that being the second time delivered of a male child Baptism was as well conferred on this as the former after which it deceased whereat the King offended more than ever blamed her very sharply saying that he from this time forward well saw these waters of Baptism were fatall to the death of his children and that she should take heed how at any time to open her mouth to obtain of him such like liberty She endowed with a constant heart and having taken very deep roots in faith made an answer worthy of her piety saying to her husband Ab how Sir What if God hath thought me unworthy ever again to have any issue by my child-beds were it not reason I adore his holy Providence and kiss the rods of his justice I humbly beseech your Majestie not to cast upon the baptism of Christians that which you should rather attribute to my sins The King all enraged with choller was so edified with this word that from this time forward he retained it in memory with much admiration not being able to wonder enough at the great courage and modesty of his wife The sixth SECTION The Conversion of Clodovaeus IT is to sail without stars and to labour without the Sun saith Origen to think of coming to God without a particular grace of God After so many humane speeches redoubled one upon another the Holy Ghost worker of all Conversions spake with a voice of thunder to the heart of Clodovaeus in the middest of battels and caused him to settle upon this resolution which he had pondered the space of many years The occasion was that the Suevi a people of Germanie passed the Rhein with great forces commanded by many Kings who were personally in the army and came to rush on the Gauls with intention to destroy the beginnings of the French Monarchy Clodovaeus having received news of this preparation speedily opposeth them with good troups for he likewise had drawn together to his aid the Ribarols people near bordering on the Rhein who were allied to the French and had first of all given notice of the enterprize of the Suevi who in a near degree threatened them The encounter of the two armies was at Tolbial near Cullen which verily was one of the most desperate that is found in Histories The King undertook the conduct of the Cavalry and had given to Prince Sigebert his kinsman the Infantery All of them were extreamly inflamed to shew themselves valiant in this conflict Clodovaeus who proceeded to lay the foundations of a great Monarchy wherein he would have no companion thought he must either triumph or be lost His allies who were interessed very far in this war failed him not in any kind The Almans on the other side had an extream desire to extend their conquests and thought their fortune depended on the success of this battel There was nothing but fire tempests deaths slaughters so great was the resistance on either side In the end Sigebert valiantly fighting was wounded with an arrow and born all bloudy out of the battel by his son The Infantery through the absence of their Colonel was defeated and put to rout All the burden of the battel fell upon the Cavalrie which did marvellous exploits fighting before the eyes of their King but in the end the shock of enemies was so impetuous that it brake through and scattered them Clodovaeus bare himself like a Lion covered with bloud and dust among the ranks of those affrighted men cried out with a loud and shrill voice to
to the Saviour of the world which is yet at this time to be seen hanging over the Altar of Saint Sophia So did Mauritius so Henrie the Emperour at Clunie who made offer to the Church of a World all over diversified with most exquisite precious stones This is the cause why the King sent this present Flodoardus Philippus Bergomensis Savaro p. 15. de pietate Regis Ludovici as the History expresly mentioneth to be hanged up before the chief Altar of Saint Peter at Rome in token of the offer he made to God of his person and estate as the eldest Son of the Church And he that would well consider the foundation of the History shall find this Diadem called the Kingdom or Realm was a kind of crown come from Constantinople For it is said that the Emperour Anastasius who sought support from the favour of the King of France against the Goths that swayed in Italie understanding the great feats of arms done by our Clodovaeus sent a solemn Embassage unto him to congratulate and offer him the title of an honourable Consul the purple robe and the Crown which the Grecians of this time called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clodovaeus very gladly entertained this Embassage and shewed himself attired with those ornaments in the Church of S. Martin where he made a largess of gold and silver then acknowledging all these prosperities came to him from God after he was baptized he consecrated this rich jewel which had been presented to him by the Emperour in the chief Church of Christendom to serve as an eternal monument of his Religion Behold how this illustrious Monarch began at that time to manifest the marks of his zeal and to cement together the good intelligence which France afterwards had with the Pastor and spiritual Father of the whole world I am bound to touch this as I pass along with all sincerity being naturally an enemy of these questions which are many times moved with too much servour and inconsideration in the point of contestations of the jurisdiction of Sovereign authorities We are learned enough when we know that Jesus Christ who had the source of power in himself distributed it to Popes and Kings constituting the one for spiritual government the other for temporal It is his pleasure we honour the character of his authority both in the one and other and not to argue upon fantasies God hath set them over out heads to admire their lustes and not to controul their power Amongst the follies of Nero it is reported that one day beholding a space of land which separated two seas and held them in excellent order he had a desire to cut it that these two seas might encounter and himself see what countenance they would carry when they commixed together Take you good heed saith the Oracle unto him otherwise they will overflow to drown you Leave matters as God hath appointed and confound not the limits of nature It is true Ecclesiastical and civil power are two great seas God hath limited and divided them by the interposition of spiritual and temporal administration Both exercise their functions and live in fair peace God preserve us from those miseries which may dis-mantle the wall and cause them to intermingle together so that we may behold the world in a deluge of calamities To what purpose is all this The Sun doth not the work of the rain nor the rain of the Sun Constantine Communis Episcopus corum que extra exclesiam said the Bishops were Bishops in their Churches in that which concerneth Religion and God had appointed him for the government of his Empire in matters temporal Let us rest in these limits Give we to Caesar that which belongeth to Caesar to God what appertaineth to God We have better learned to live than dispute and our Ancestours have preserved a Monarchy so flourishing the space of twelve hundred years not with disputations and unprofitable wranglings but with the arms of wisdom obedience and courage We have always rendered to the Pope the honour 1 Pet. 2. Sub diti estote omni humanâ— creaturae propter Deum sive Regi quasi praecellenti sive â—ucibus tamquam ab co missis he deserveth as to the Sovereign Pastour of the Universal Church which is under Heaven We have confessed and do acknowledge the King true and absolute Monarch in the government of temporal things singularly honouring him and with most cordial affections loving him as an animated pourtraictute of the greatness of the Divine Majesty God thereupon maketh us to prosper and tast by experience that there is no science more noble than obedience nor any felicity but the accomplishment of the will of the sovereign Master On the contrary it is observed in the History of so many Ages that the wounds from Heaven have on all sides fallen upon those who have sought to cast the apple of discord into the house of God The wind blown from their moutheâ— returned on their heads since it is fit iniquity should first kill it self with its own poison The eighth SECTION The good success which God gave to Clodovaeus after he became a Christian CLodovaeus was no sooner become a Christian but that it seemed God had tied to his arms some secret virtue which made him triumph over his enemies and crown all his enterprizes with most glorious successes The first war he undertook after his Baptism was against Gombaut King of Burgundie of whom we have very amply spoken heretofore I much wonder at certain Authours who measuring the affections of Saints with the weaknesses of their own spirits and esteeming it a sweet glory to be revenged upon enemies from whom some notable injuries are received have said that Clotilda excited her husband to the ruin of her uncle to derive an account from him of the death of her father and mother This is too inferiour a conceit of a Lady who was arrived to so high a degree of perfection nay it was so much otherwise that she should enkindle the fire of this war that Gombaut being in the full possession of Clodovaeus to bereave him of life she withheld the fatal blow afterwards seeing he by his ill deportment had lost his Kingdom she did all that possibly she might to preserve a part thereof for Sigismund son of Gombaut her cousin-germane That which first of all ruined this unhappy King Paul Emil. of Burgundie was his heresie which drew upon him the vengeance of God for it being often preached unto him and he convinced by reasons offering himself in private to become a Catholick yet still retained Arianism in publick Behold the cause why he having divided his heart God divided his Kingdom The second cause of his ruin was his nature cruel and covetous which rendered him uncivil and an enemy of all order He sent his Neece as it were in anger to Clodovaeus giving her not any thing in marriage but many complements Whereupon the King making
your body by the most noble sense within you but by the help of a mirrour Nay you know so little of your self that scarcely have you observed the number of your teeth and being far from the particular distinction of the interiour parts of your body should you enter into the great labyrinths of the faculties of your soul you would quickly find out your own ignorance Compare now the science you have of your self with the great proofs which lead you to the knowledge of the Divinity First we are born to know God as the excellent Divine Alexander Alensis discourseth Alex. Alens quaest 2. de cognitione Dei A singular consideration of Aleâ— because if the sovereign Goodness be necessarily desired by our reasonable appetite we must affirm the supream truth is no less capable to be known by our understanding and as we are naturally inclined to the search of this sovereign Good which may take up al the agitatioÌ„s of our thoughts so we feel our soul almost without any other reflection stir'd up with a generous desire to be united to the first cause We behold it through so many creatures as through lattices and it seems to speak to us in as many objects as we see works of his Goodness It maketh us restless it scorcheth us with an honest flame which teacheth us there is a God and that we are created for him nor is there any other creature in all visible nature which laboureth in such inquisition but man This ardent inclination to this knowledge is not a slight facility of science and we see constant study is ordinarily recompenced with the fruition of its object 2. I likewise hold God of his part is very well to God most easie to be â—nown be known having all the conditions which may make a thing known as Essence immutability simplicity brightness and presence If you there look for Being which is a necessary object of the understanding as colour of sight God saith S. Gregorie of Nazianzen Naziâ—â—z Iâ—mbico 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Origenes homil in numer 23. Faustus de gratiâ l. 2. c. 7. Deus est quod habet Deâ— ubique est quis nullibi est is a creating Essence an Essence comprehending all things If immutability Origen teacheth the Divinity sitteth on the top of beatitude ever constant never changeable If brightness God is all light as the Scripture manifesteth in so many places If simplicity Faustus Bishop of Rhegium sheweth God is all what he hath If continual presence Porphyriâ— confesseth he is every where because he is not in any part as bodies are The Poet Orpheus in his mysterious poefie calleth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one would say lightsom and visible to teach us all the world is enfolded within his radiance I will not hereupon inferre that one may have in this world an absolute and perfect knowledge of God as of a thing finite but I say that amongst so many lights it is not admitted that any man should be ignorant there is a God Creatour of all things 3. What Epicurean can dis-involve himself from Reason of Mercury Trismegistus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trismegistus his reason who teacheth that were there not an Essence necessary and independent all we see all we touch all we feel in the world would have no being but this is meer illusion Wherefore Because the things which may be and not be indifferently like so many plants or transitory animals one while are and another while are not And we may truly say there hath been a certain time wherein they neither had being nor name in the world Now as nothing can actuate and produce it self must we not confess that had there not been from all eternity a first Agent which gave motion to so many causes enchained one to another whereof they are produced wherein we presently behold this great world all had been a nothing For of two we must grant one either that the world is created or not created If impiety transport a man so far as to say it is not created but hath been from all eternity he would ever be convinced by his own confession that there were such a Being as we seek for eternal necessary independent which is nothing else but God He would be reduced to this point that he no longer could deny the Divinity but was onely ignorant what this Divinity is and in stead of giving this title to a most pure Spirit as we do he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would attribute it to a body as to heaven water earth where he would instantly find himself ashamed of his folly to take for the Divinity a thing which hath no understanding and consequently is far less than himself In stead of a true God he would make a million of deities to become as many snares of his errour and witnesses of his bruitishness But if the world be created which it is not lawful to doubt of three things we must affirm one Either that it produced it self or that one piece made another or that there was one cause external supream not to be reckoned among the rest which made all the parts of the universe To say Author libri de triplici habitaculo apud Aug. tom 9. Nihil scipsum creat Quâ enim potentiâ qui omnino nâ—â— esset scipsâ—â— faceret Deâ—â— innatus infectus sine initiâ— sine fine in aternitate constitutus Tert. l. 3. advers Marcion c. 3. a thing made it self is to affirm it was before its being and to assever a proposition ridiculous to all humane understanding But if to evade this manifest contradiction one will maintain one piece made another still must he come to a last piece which was produced by it self and so fall again into the same difficulty Behold the reason why we must stick upon a general cause out of the main mass of all causes and which affording essence sense and intelligence to so many creatures according to the condition and qualities of every one remaineth eternal and immoveable Now he who says this affirmeth there is a God 4. But if some impious creature will notwithstanding Instance upon the infinite number of the wicked perplex the evidence of this proposition imitating Sorcerers who cast mists upon the brightest morning and say one thing produced another from father to son but that this still mounteth upward in infinitum and so think to make us loose our judgement and reason in the labyrinth of infinities First it is answered according to the doctrine of Philosophers There is Force of reason nothing in the world actually infinite and although an infinity of generations of men beasts and other creatures were admitted still must you confess this infinite mass of men was produced from a cause independent For that which agreeth to each part of a species and which is properly by it affected agreeth likewise to the main of the whole species as if it be proper
their Minerva in marriage the Guardian-Goddess of their Citie who had refused all the gods This Prince was not amazed at their complement for he presently replied Their motion was gratefull But seeing Minerva was a great goddess he must suitably accommodate her to her dignity and therefore ordained they should find out six hundred thousand crowns to give her in marriage An Athenian thereupon replied Jupiter her father took the goddess Semele without demand of any portion But this was to little purpose their flattery cost them so great a sum that needs must they afterwards exact it with the peoples clamour many of them affixing pasquils upon Anthonies statue to deface false applauses by a just reproch If all flatterers were punished in such measure the number would be very small But since they find rewards where others received nothing but punishment it is no wonder the Ages are wholly drenched into servile complacence Never were Christian men seen to be more disposed to slavery The great eye of Divine Providence is taken away and all sense of Religion to adhere to men of gold and silver They cease not to deifie them and we may truly say the favour of the rich and great-ones of this Age is now adays become a false Divinity which receiveth Incense and Victims almost from all hands Notwithstanding he is cursed by the Prophet who putteth his trust in man to the exclusion of God and who thinking to fortifie himself throughly in the course of humane affairs makes to himself an arm of flesh and hay to raise fortunes which will vanish like phantasms For this cause I here purpose to present unto you some passages of Gods greatness to oppose them against the abjectness and infirmity of the mightiest on earth that so we may learn from this discourse to be replenished with a worthy estimation of the Divinitie and a knowledge of the nothing of the richest magnificences on earth The greatness of God compared to the low condition of men AL the praise of great things endeth in one ample word by how much the more an essence is simple by so much the fewer words shall we need to explicate it Of whom must we learn to speak of God but of God himself And what do we learn God is who he is from him but that he is what he is That is to say little and that is to say all For as S. Bernard hath excellently observed call God good call him great call S. Bernard l. 5. de consid Si bonum si magnum si beatum si sapientem vel quicquid aliud tale de Deo dixeris in hâ—c verbo instatiratur quod est Est N. mpe hoc est ei esse quod omnia esse Si centum talia addâ—â— non recessisti ab esse si ea dixeris nihil addidisti ad esse si nihil dixeriâ— nihil de eo minuisti him blessed call him wise call him all you can you find him included in this word When God said I am what I am he said He is all he is Adde hereunto a century of attributes you shall not go far from the essence If you speak them you adde nothing unto it if you mention them not you not at all lessen it S. Denys gives a particular reason thereof when he saith that (a) (a) (a) Greatnes of essence essence is the first and last pledge of Nature the most intimate most necessary most independent most simple and most perfect of all things in the world Behold the cause why the Celestial Father could say nothing better to the purpose of himself than (b) (b) (b) Ego sum qui sum Eternity of nothing first humiliation of man I am what I am Let us here then speak of the excellency of Gods Essence comprised under these words and oppose against it the frailty and nullity of our essence that penetrated with the greatness of the Omnipotent we may be drenched in the abyss of low humility 2. Our first abjectness and which is of power to humble those who think themselves the most able in the world is that we have been an eternity in nothing For if you mount still a cending upward to the source of time when you shall have reckoned millions of Ages you shall find nothing but labyrinths and abysses of this great eternity without end and when you shall present to your thoughts all that time which hath preceded be it real or imaginary you will be ashamed to see so many millions of years wherein you had not so much as the essence of a rush of a butter-flie or a silly gnat That Rodomont who threateneth to hew down mountains and thunder-strike mortals and thinks all the ample house of Nature was created onely for him who swalloweth the world by avarice and wastes it as fast by riot thirty or forty years ago was not able to contend for excellency with a catter-piller (c) (c) (c) Heâ—ierni quâ—â—pe sumus igâ—oramus quoniam sicut umbra dies nostri sunt super â—erram 〈◊〉 8. 9. Tâ—rtul adver Marâ— l. 1. c. 8. Vna germana divinitas nec de nè vitate nec de vetustate sed de sua vâ—ritate censetur Non babet tempus aeternitas omne enim tempus esi Deus si vetus est non erit si est novus non fuit What weakness what confusion of humane essence But thine O great God hath no beginning It hath seen all times unfolded from thy breast It hath assigned them measure and hath taken none from others for it self but its Eternity The beginning of the lives and reigns of all Caesars is reckoned but of Gods years no man hath a register He is neither young nor old ancient nor new Content your self with saying He is Eternal 3. The second point of our infirmity is that after Humiliation of death we have had being for a few years we shall be to speak according to the phrase of the world an eternity in a tomb as bodies confiscated by death abandoned to worms despoiled even to the bones become dust and consumed to be reduced into the mass of elements from whence we came I affirm the soul is immortal which many times serveth to immortalize its punishments I affirm the body riseth again although both being separated so long one from another no more make up a man The Axiom of S. Bernard Bernard c. 3. de animâ In non hominem vertitur omnis home Estne quicquam in terris tam magnum quod perire mundus sciat Senec. l. 4. natur qq c. 1. must be made good Every man is reduced to be no longer a man So many persons go daily in and out of the world as small drops of water into the seas The ocean is no whit altered either by their enterance in or passage out Seneca was astonished how one could say there were Comets which presaged the death of great men It is not credible
occasion to do ill Know we not it is a maxim of well ordered policy never to neglect the publick for inconveniences and defects of some particulars We are not ignorant free-will is one of the most excellent treasures of reasonable nature why should God deprive his workmanship of it under colour that some particulars would abuse it Ought we not to content our selves to behold in the histories of all the nations of the world how God pursueth chastiseth destroyeth both evil evil men sometimes openly sometimes covertly to reward good men in the end and restore virtue to her throne of which the insolency of the wicked seeks to dispossess them Let us then for this reason adore the Providence and acknowledge the proposition I here have proved that the disorders condemned in nature averre there is a first order a primitive rule without which nothing can be well disposed Foundation of the verities of Divine PROVIDENCE THere remaineth having succinctly refuted Maxims of Providence the objections of prophane souls to instruct and settle the faithfull in this belief which is one of the greatest consolations of life and for which cause I affirm the doctrine of Providence is grounded upon Scripture upon holy Fathers and upon reason Upon the scripture which give us assurance in so many places Wisdom plainly telleth us That God made little Pusillâ— wagnum ipse fecit aequaliter illi cura est de omnibus Sap. 6. Nonne duo passarers asse vaeneunt c. Math. 10. In ipso viâ—imus mouâ—â—â—â— sumus Act. 17 and great and as there is nothing so vast may escape his Immensitie so there is not any thing so small which is deprived the blessings of his bountie His Providence governeth all things from the beginning of the world ceaseth not to disintangle this great web of Ages The tree looseth not one of his leaves the head one of its hairs the air one little bird without his ordinance as the Eternal Word teacheth us We derive life motion and being from his bosom in which he beareth us without weariness and preserveth us without loathing All the world is a large (a) (a) (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. diocese whereof he is the Bishop and Eternal Prelate who indefatigably watcheth over his flock as saith Clemens Alexandrinus (b) (b) (b) S. Dion de Cael. Hier. cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So soon as a creature is in being it is moistened with sources of the divine Providence said S. Dionysius And according to the opinion of S. Augustine (c) (c) (c) August de Trin. l 3. c. 4. Nihil sit sensibiliter visibiliter quod non de interiore invisibili atque intelligibili aulâ— sâ—â—mi Imperatâ—riâ— aut jubeatur aut permittatur Nothing is sensibly visibly done in the world which cometh not from the interiour invisible and intelligible cabinet of this great Monarch whether it be commanded or permitted Now observe this divine Providence is composed of three heads Knowledge Disposition Government Knowledge seeth and considereth all things Disposition ordaineth the connexion of parts and correspondency both of the one and other Government embraceth all things which concern the end as well to divert the obstacles as advance the progressions God hath all these three points supereminently For as for knowledge it is most perfect as we will presently demonstrate Disposition is such that all the whole universe in all its parts is ruled like a paper with musick lines Which made Synesius say (d) (d) (d) Synesius Hym. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Junilius in Genesim nisi sit Beda the world was the harp of God and the divers orders of nature were the strings of it And Junilius an African Bishop who flourished in the sixth Age discoursing very subtilly upon this subject shews the relation there is between the civil world and nature comparing the seven daies of the week with the seven Ages of the world The government of it is so perpetual and visible that Aristotle himself (e) (e) (e) Arist Ep. de principio The foundations and four pillars of it Knowledge of God Psalm 146. Sapientiâ— ejuâ— non est nâ—â—â—rus Deus in omnia sufficies Dissimulator pravaricator perspicaciae suâ— non est Tertul. l de poenit c 3. confesseth the communication of the first being maintained all creatures in state and that without its benigne influences this great All would return to nothing 6 But if you ask upon what foundation of reason this doctrine is built I answer it is supported by four powerfull columes Science Goodness Justice and the Power of God His Science is infinite and and incomprehensible For he most distinctly beholdeth all things which have been are shall be and may be in their proper essence which is the efficient final exemplar and fundamental cause of them You must not require how this divine Spirit may suffice so many things since all things in comparison of him are no more than a drop of dew compared to the Ocean He knows all because he created all because the world is no world by any other reason but that God hath known it was a world The vapours of the earth never weary the sun it could not breath forth so much if he digested not more so the knowledge of all objects of the world cause no weariness in God because all therein is finite and his science is as is his essence infinite 7 To this science is joined a great goodness which His goodness is the cause God loveth all he created and conserveth it with a certain tenderness of affection and inestimable sweetness The empire of man ordinarily is harsh and violent He diverteth the course of waters he dries up fountains he submitteth Lions to the yoak he placeth turrets on the backs of Elephants he changeth metals he counterfeits precious stones he sophisticateth total nature to accommodate it to his pretensions but God not forcing the inclinations of things created applieth himself to each according to the qualities of its essence He shineth with the sun and burneth with the fire He makes showers with the clouds pearls with the shells the dew of heaven gold and fruits with the earth We understand there are three streamings of this bounty the one by generation the other by spiration and the last by creation The two first are eternal the last is temporal by which he drew the world out of nothing and having produced it maintains it both in general and particular affording even to the least fly all accommodation according to its nature and condition He is not like those Ostriches which lay their eggs on the sand without hatching them but compareth himself to the Hen in the Gospel which toileth and laboureth incessantly either to hatch feed or train up her young-ones she waxeth lean she famisheth her self becomes angry bristles up her self for her precious brood and taketh that upon
comfort It is that which cooleth our ardours drieth our tears breaketh our setters and dissipateth our annoys If we be in darkness it is the light if we be anxious it giveth counsel If we be in a labyrinth of errours it is the thread which guideth us if in danger of shipwrak it is the haven and if we be at the gates of death it is life Away with all curiosities southsayers sorceresses and superstitions unworthy the name of a Christian Fie upon despaire and minds affliction Let us learn in all things which appertain to us speedily and effectually to fix our selves on the will of the will of the omnipotent let us continually say God seeth this affair since nothing escapeth the quickness of his eye He loves me as his child because he is goodness it self He is just because he is the measure of all justice He is potent because there is not any thing can resist his will Let us expect awhile the trouble I endure is but a flying cloud and God will do all for the best Let us say with S. Augustine O Sovereign Father who governest the vast frame of heaven I submit to thy direction Lead me on the August de civit Dei c. 8. l. 8. Duc me summe pater vasti moderatorolympi quacumque placuit nulla parendi est mora Aasum impiger fac nolle comitabor gemens malusque patiar facere quod licuit bono right hand lead me on the left turn to what side thou pleasest I follow thee without reply or delay For what should I get by resistance but to be dragged weeping and to bear becoming evil what I might do sincerely becoming good Heaven earth and sea said Nicephorus Gregorius (a) (a) (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niceph. Greg. l. 7. fight against a wicked man as a fugitive from Providence and a disturber of Justice Let us learn to sleep securely in this conformity to the will of God as a little infant on the teat of his nurse It is at the sight of this providence that Jonas buried in the belly of a whale and covered under the Oceans waves made a chappel of the devouring gulph which was to have been his punishment speaking affectionately to God (b) (b) (b) Jon. 2. 4. Omnes fluctus gurgites tui super me transierunt veruntamen rursus videbo templum sanctum tuum Behold all thy waves and abysses pass over my head yet I despaire not to behold thee in thy Temple It was in sight of this that the Patriarch Noe shut up in the Arke whilst wrathful heaven thundered over the earth the winds were unfettered the pillars of the world tottered with fatal convulsions whilst men and houses were torn in pieces to serve as a pastime for the Sea and that yels of beasts mingled with the cries of so many mortals ecchoed round about lastly when all the world swam he rested in an incomparable tranquillity adoring the counsels of Gods justice Sacred Providence we prostrate on the earth adore thee vindicate us from the bondage of our passions make us die to so many dead things of mortals that we hereafter may live in thy delight The fourth EXAMPLE upon the fourth MAXIM Divers observations upon Providence LEt us a little withdraw our minds from discourses to the consideration of examples like those who labouring on some curious works refresh their eyes with beholding the verdure of meadows or lustre of Emeralds Volumes might be compiled without end by him who would follow the foot-steps of divine Providence in so great a labyrinth of times and Histories so innumerable But it is not my purpose in these abbreviations where I endeavour to suppress much and well express a few things If you behold this Providence in nature there are eternal miracles which astonished the wise animated all voices gave matter to all pens and filled all the books in the world On what side soever we turn our eyes we meet this great Mistress with a hundred Providence of God in the ordinary works of nature arms and as many hands which incessantly travel to do us good It enlighteneth us in the beautie of stars and lights it warmeth us in flames it refresheth us in the air it delighteth us in the enamel of meadows it moisteneth us in the streaming of chrystal fountains it profiteth and enricheth in the fertility of fields so many trees and shrubs such diversity of fruits such wholesome hearbs such a great Vid. Senec. l. 4. de benef quantity of viands so well divided into all the seasons of the year so many living creatures some whereof come from the water others from the earth the rest from the air every part of the world bringing its tribute so many medicinable waters so many rivers which afford such delicious shores to the land for commerce and all humane accommodation I now let all this pass and coming to matters more particular demand of you who was the cause Particular providence over divers â—ountries Joannes Metellus that in the Canary Island called Ferro when it is roasted with droughts and heaven affordeth no succour by showers nor rivers by waters there is found a huge tree which seemes to change all the leaves thereof into as many petty fountains for every on distilleth water and all render it in such abundance that it sufficeth both men and their flocks Who doth all this good husbandry but the divine Providence And who is it supplies scarcity of rain in Egypt commandeth Nilus to over-flow the fields in his limited time to bear in his inundations the wealth of Pharos but it Who maketh Antidotes grow in places where poysons spring but its wisdom If Africk have many serpents there are Psylles which destroy them If other countries breed store of makes there are Ashen flowers which drive them away If Egypt hath a Crocodile â—istoria Sinarum part 4. it affords an Indian rat which bursteth it There are likewise trees to be found which having venemous roots upon one side yield a remedy on the other By what hand are framed so many wonders of nature which make books incessantly speak but by that of this great Work-man But if you on the other side will consider it in the Admirable â—rotection of â—en in rare accidents protection of men what doth it not by the ministery of its good Angels I see upon one side in histories the little King Mithridates involved in lightening-flashes whilst he innocently sleepeth in his infant cradle the flames consuming his clothes and linnens and not touching his body at all To whom think you should I attribute this On the other side I ponder the prodigie so loudly Philippus Anthologia Graec. l. 1. proclaim'd in the Greek Antholigie of a ship-wrack equally surprizing a father and a son which took away the life of the father and gave the son leave to arrive in a safe harbour having no other vessel but the corps of his deceased father
1. dist 41. Manifest reason the will of God could not be unjust and that praedestination proceeded besides the grace of God by most secret merits which were discovered to this divine eye that discerneth all the actions of men 4. Is there a soul so replenished with contradiction which averreth not That what God doth in a certain time he determined to do it in his eternity Now Faith teacheth us he in that time by him determined rendereth life eternal to the just for reward of their merit as himself pronounceth in S. Matthew (c) (c) (c) Matth. 25. Answer to objections And therefore it is necessary to confess God before all Ages was resolved to give the Crown of glory not indifferently but in consideration of good life and laudable virtues And for this it is to no purpose to say the end of our intentions goeth before the means whereby some infer God first decreed beatitude which is the end then considered good works which are the address to this end For I answer when the end possesseth the place of salary as this here doth the merit is always presupposed before the recompence And although the Master of a Tourneament wisheth the prize to one of his favourites yet his first intention is he shall deserve it by his valour God taketh the like inclinations in this great list of salvation he wisheth all the world palms but willeth it to them who well know how to make use of the helps of his grace Thus the most ancient and gravest Fathers of the The doctrine of the most ancient Fathers concerning praedestination Church thought this sentence they agreed on before the impostures of Pelagians in the golden Age of the Church through a most purified ray And to this purpose Tertullian said (d) (d) (d) Tertul. de resur carnis Deus de suo optimus de nostro justus God who is very good of his own was ever just of ours And S. Hilarie said most perspicuously (e) (e) (e) Hilar. in Psal 64. Non res indiscreti judicii electio est sed ex delectu meriti discretio est That Election was not an effect of judgement indiscreet but that from the choice of merit proceeded the distinction made for glorie S. Epiphanius expressed the like opinion That there was no exception of persons in the proceeding of God but that it passed according to the merit or demerit of every one Behold what we may gather from the soundest tradition of the Church (f) (f) (f) The second point of reasons That God is glorified in that he hath our works for praedestination to glory But if we now weigh the second Article whereon we insist which is the glory of God it is an easie matter to see this opinion which appropriateth a certain fatality of divine decrees without other knowledge of cause agreeth not with this immense bounty of God nor the sincere will he hath to save all the world It is not suitable to his justice nor to his promises or menaces he makes to virtues or vices besides it tormenteth minds weakens the zeal of souls and throweth liberty and despair into manners Why should not a miserable reprobate have cause The complaint a Reprobate may make hereupon to say Ah my Lord where are the bowels of goodness and mercy which all pens testifie all voices proclaim and laws establish Is it then of honey for others and of worm-wood for me How cometh it to pass without any knowledge of merit you drew this man from the great mass of corruption to make him a son of your adoption a coheir of your glory and have left me as a black victim marked with a character of Death What importeth it me that in this first choice you made you did not condemn me without knowledge of cause to think no good for me was to think ill enough for me Was I then able to row against the torrent of your power Could I intrude into your Paradise which you have fitly disposed like the Halcyons nest whereunto nothing can enter but its own bird You have built your Palace of a certain number of chosen pieces in such sort that the account thereof being made and proportions valued one small grain might not be added to encrease the number What could I do in this dreadfull exclusion but accuse your bounty and deplore my unhappiness Behold what a reprobate soul may object and Aug. de verbo Apost ser 11. Si posset loquipecus dicere Deo quare istum fecisti hominem me peculem Answer to objections Glossa in Danielem it were bootless to answer that a bruit beast might complain in this fashion that God had not made it a man or the like might be alledged for infants who die without Baptism For as concerning beasts nothing is taken from them rather much given when from nothing being and life is afforded them with contentments of nature and as for little infants they endure no evil and are no more disturbed to be deprived of the sight of God than was Nebuchadnezzar for the Scepter of Babylon when he in his infancy was bred among shepheards thinking himself the son of a Peasant and wholly ignorant of his Royal extraction But to say A man who dies at the age of discretion and is delivered over to eternal flames was condemned by God without any other fore-sight of his works is it not a cruelty not worthy of ought but Calvinism as if a father might be excusable in marrying one daughter richly and cutting the others throat to set her on a pyle He who would judge wisely must flie the very shadow of an opinion so damnable and all which may seem to favour it 6. Now as concerning the Doctrine which establisheth The fruits of Gods glory derived from our Maxim Praedestination upon grace and prevision of good works it seems to stretch far towards the point of Gods greatest glory It discovereth us his science in attributing unto him an infinite survey over all the actions of Adams children before all Ages by which it seasonably fore-saw all that was to be done by all particulars in so great a revolution of times It in an instant affordeth us this most innocent knowledge seeing we learn by the same way that the prescience which God hath of our works is no more the cause of our happiness than my memory of the fireing of Rome which happened under Nero or than mine eye of the whiteness of snow and fresh verdure of meadows by its simple aspects Nothing happeneth because God fore-saw Qui non est praescius omnium futurorum non est Deus Aug. de civit Dei l. 5. c. 9. it but God fore-saw it because it should so happen by motion of our free-will and not by the laws of necessity Moreover the Justice of the great Master is very eminent in this action for we do not say he works at random and seeks to make boast
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
and never to serve God but with a shoulder yea with all manner of hypocrisie I wish thou wert hot or cold but insomuch as thou art Vtinam frigidus esses aut calidus sed quia teyidus es nec frigidus nec calidus incipiam te â—vomere ex â—re meo Apoc. 3. luke-warm being neither â—ot nor cold I will vomit thee out of my mouth To all objections of Scripture and Saints framed against this Maxim we have but one onely answer It is the world we cannot live otherwise the goat must brouze where he is tied He who would live as an honest man and not be according to the fashion shall ever be poor Reason 4 To which I answer It is so far otherwise that Benedictio Domini divites facit nec sociabitur eis afflictio Proverb 10. one cannot be rich persisting in integrity that who will well examine families and houses shall find riches the most stable most honourable and delightfull were ever on virtues side as we may see in the examples of Abraham Jacob and David if we will not learn it by our own experience The blessing of God make the rich and drives affliction from them But quite contrary the fortunes which proceed by crooked and sinister ways bring most dangerous effects along with them for before their coming they cause toyls and unspeakable anxieties but being arrived they expose a man to publick scorn in stead of making him worthy of regard since they insensibly are consummate and in the end always reserve to him who possesseth them treasures of anger and vengeance Would you see the proof of all I have said Look on the travel bestowed in purchase of ill gotten goods and you shall find it was for that the Saviour of the world called riches thorns because thorns bear a fragrant flower but the fruit is very bad and which is more they serve for a retreat to vipers A silly gain which in the beginning smiles to the eye is the flower of the thorn but when it is swallowed with great convussion of mind and body it proves an ill fruit as likewise being involved in an impure conscience it is as the viper among thorns Will you therein observe publick scoâ—h and indignation When you behold a man of base condition Simon Majolus who by unlawfull ways is come to great for â—â—mes he is looked on as the flea which an artificer fettered with a chain of gold to make matter for gazers O the flea said one it is well for her she wears a golden chain the basest of vermine bears the best of mettals Is she not very miserable to have her liberty so enthralled Why was she not content to be a flea and not to become a Ladie Yet was this silly creature innocent but whosoever excessively raiseth his estate by injustice deserves he not well to be the object of all the aims of slander and the anger of God Our Lord saith the Scripture shall wither Radices superbarum gentium arefaciet Dominuâ— Eccles 10. Residuum locustae comedit bruchus residium bruchi comedit erugo Joel 1. Plin. lib. 2. cap. 103. up the roots of proud Nations Will you see the progression and conclusion thereof The Grashopper according to the saying of the Prophet Joel hath a share herein to wit in bravery and riot of apparrel the other part falls to the gluttonous flie which is the superfluity of diet and the last is eaten by rust as are unprofitable treasures of the covetous who almost all resemble the fountain of Jupiter Hammon so cold in the day time one cannot drink of it and so hot by night they dare not touch it In the day of prosperity they have bowels of ice for the miseries of the poor and in adversity their goods are all on fire pillaged burnt and carried away by those who least deserve to enjoy them Finally the day of Judgement must be undergone to expiate many times by long torments the goods we can no longer enjoy Do we not understand how the God of vengeance speaks to the rich of the earth who are rich in iniquity To thee I come thee great Ezech. 29. Ecce ego ad te Draco magne qui cubas in medio fluminum dicis meus est sluvius ponam frâ—â—um in maxillis tuis agglutinabo pisces fluminum tuorum squammis tuis extraham te projiciam te in desertum Dragon who lodgest in the midst of rivers of gold and silver and sayest These rivers are mine I will put a bridle into thy mouth and will fasten to thy scales so many little fishes as thou on every side hast entrapped by so many injustices so many concussions so many falshoods and I will take thee out of thy element out of thy honours and riches which thou hast abused and I will thrust thee into the desert on the sand reproachfull as thou art faint and despoiled nor shall any man compassionate thy misery Oh how poor are they always who are rich with iniquitie (a) (a) (a) Against too much horrour of poverty which nourisheth the fervour of interests But what if serving God faithfully in his vocation Reason 5 he must be poor O poverty which didst receive the Son of God born as between thine arms in a wretched stable and who sawest him conclude his innocent life in so great nakedness that it had no other veil to cover it but the bloud which gushed from his wounds must it needs be that having been so much honoured by the King of Monarchs and all Saints who waited on him thou here below shouldst be reputed as the dregs of nature the scum of the world the fury of humane life must Christians come to that pass rather to desire to be esteemed crafty robbers and excommunicates than poor No man Nemâ— tam pauper potest esse quà m natus est omnia si non concupiscimus possidemus Minut. Faelix saith Minutius Faelix how poor soever comes to the poverty wherein he is born we should possess all had we learned to desire nothing but the rage now a days frequent to appear in the world what one is not the madness which maketh frogs desire to swell like bulls is the cause many stile a reasonable fortune with the title of poverty whilest a thousand and a thousand who live in the world in the midst of extream miseries had they hit upon thy fortune would think them elves equal in point of felicity to Caesars One esteems himself poor if he have not thirty fourty fifty thousand crowns to buy an Office which is a fearfull exorbitance of our Age. One accounts himself poor if he have not five and twenty thousand crowns to give with a daughter in marriage when the daughters of France had not heretofore above six thousand One imagineth he is poor if vails of an Office make not thirty or fourty thousand livres of rent when the Chancellours of
whereof the poor have too much been frustrated to establish thy vanities and fatten thee in pleasures Where is thy liberality Where are thy alms toward miserable creatures who die in affliction in the streets Observe justice and take example by my disasters Husband it is thy wife so beloved that speaks to thee saying Ah my dearest friends where is the faith plighted in the face of the Church Where are the faithful loves which should have no limit but eternity Death no sooner absented me from thy eyes but forgetfulness drew me out of thy heart I complain not thou livest happy and fortunate in thy new affections for I am in a condition wherein I can neither envy nor malice any but I complain that not onely after my death the children which are pledges of our love were distastful to thee but thou hast wholly lost the memory of one who was so precious to thee and whom thou as a Christian oughrest to love beyond a tomb Open yet once unto her the bowels of thy charity and comfort by thy alms and good works a soul which must expect that help from thee or some other The seventeenth EXAMPLE upon the seventeenth MAXIM Apparition of Souls in Purgatorie HIstories tell us the apparation of souls in Purgatory are so frequent that he who would keep an account may as soon number the stars in the sky or leaves on the trees But as it is not fit to be too credulous in all may be said thereupon so a man must be very impudent to deny all is spoken of it and to oppose as well the authority of so many great personages as the memory of all Ages He who believes nothing above nature will not believe a God of nature How many extraordinary things are there the experience whereof teacheth us the effects and of which God hideth the reasons from us The Philosopher Democritus disputing with Solinus Polyhistor the Sages of his time concerning the secret power of nature held commonly in his hand the stone called cathocita which insensibly sticketh to such as touch it and they being unable to give a reason of it he inferred there were many secrets which are rather to humble our spirits than to satisfie our curiosity Who Jul. Scal. A Porta Caâ—eraâ— can tell why the theamede which is a kind of adamant draweth iron on one side and repelleth it on the other Why do the forked branches of the nut-tree turn towards mines of gold and silver Why do bees often die in the hives after the death of the Master of the family unless they be else-where transported Why doth a dead body cast forth bloud in the presence of the murderer Why do certain fountains in the current of their waters and in their colour carry presages of seasons as that of Blomuza which waxeth red when the countrey is menaced with war Why have so many noble families Diâ—â—arus Petrus Albinus certain signs which never fail to happen when some one of the family is to die The commerce of the living with spirits of the dead is a matter very extraordinarie but not impossible to the Father of spirits who holdeth total nature between his hands Peter of Clugny surnamed the Venerable and esteemed in his time as the oracle of France was a man who proceeded in these affairs with much consideration not countenancing any thing either frivolous or light Behold the cause wherefore I willingly make use of his authority He telleth that in a village of Spain named the Star there was a man of quality called Peter of Engelbert much esteemed in the world for his excellent parts and abundant riches Notwithstanding the spirit of God having made him understand the vanity of all humane things being now far stepped into years he went into a Monastery of the Order of Clugny there the more piously to pass the remnant of his dayes as it is said the best incense cometh from old trees He often spake amongst the holy Fryers of a vision which he saw when he as yet was in the world and which he acknowledged to be no small motive to work his conversion This bruit came to the ears of Venerable Peter who was his General and who for the affairs of his Order was then gone into Spain Behold the cause why he never admitting any discourses to be entertained if they were not well verified took the pains to go into a little Monastery of Nazare where Engelbert was to question him upon it in the presence of the Bishops of Oleron and Osma conjuring him in the virtue of holy obedience to tell him punctually the truth touching the vision he had seen whilest he led a secular life This man being very grave and very circumspect in all he said spake the words which the Authour of the historie hath couched in his proper terms In the time that Alphonsus the younger heir of the great Alphonsus warred in Castile against certain factious dis-united from his obedience he made an Edict that every family in his Kingdom should be bound to furnish him with a souldier which was the cause that for obedience to the Kings commands I sent into his army one of my houshold-servants named Sancius The wars being ended and the troups discharged he returned to my house where having some time so journed he was seized by a sickness which in few dayes took him away into the other world We performed the obsequies usually observed towards the dead and four moneths were already past we hearing nought at all of the state of his soul when behold upon a winters night being in my bed throughly awake I perceived a man who stirring up the ashes of my hearth opened the burning coals which made him the more easily to be seen Although I found my self much terrified with the sight of this ghost God gave me courage to ask him who he was and for what purpose he came thither to lay my hearth abroad But he in a very low voice answered Master fear nothing I am your poor servant Sancius I go into Castile in the company of many souldiers to expiate my sins in the same place where I committed them I stoutly replied If the commandment of God call you thither to what purpose come you hither Sir saith he take it not amiss for it is not without the Divine permission I am in a state not desperate and wherein I may be helped by you if you bear any good will towards me Hereupon I required what his necessity was and what succour he expected from me You know Master said he that a little before my death you sent me into a place where ordinarily men are not sanctified Liberty ill example youth and temerity all conspire against the soul of a poor souldier who hath no government I committed many out-rages during the late war robbing and pillaging even to the goods of the Church for which I am at this present grievously tormented But good Master if you loved me
the body of it to wit to a ship because it is still in the waves of this tempestuous sea He beheld it with an eye of love and compassion seeing by his example it increased by its losses rose in its ruins and was glorified by persecutions and considered this little handful of Christians which multiplying Age after Age peopled Asia Europe and Affrica and spred through the world known and unknown taking for habitation the same limits the Sun hath in his course he perceived Nations drenched in the darkness of ignorance which having no more of man than shape were transformed at the first light of the Gospel into a life wholy celestial prophane Temples thrown down on their Gods Idols broken in a thousand peices dens of theeves full of horrour bloud and darkness purified by his doctrine and the very instruments of his dolours honoured and advanced on the top of Capitols He beheld Churches erected on all sides to his honour Monarchs and Queens who laid their Crowns and diadems at his feet with prayses sacrifices and eternal feasts On the other side he represented to himself so many Doctours knowing as Oracles and pure as Angles who were to be the trumpets of his glory so Cruciate damnate atterite patientiae nostrae probatio iniquitas vestra crudelitas illecebra est sectae plures efficimur quoties metimur a vobis sanguis Martyrum scmen est Christianorum Tertul Apoll. 50. Kingdom of Jesus many innocent Virgins who should with an immortal character inscribe on their bodies the resemblance of his own most sacred purity so many Confessours who hastened to engrave on the most hydeous rocks of the desert the omnipotency of his name the imitation of his fasts watchings abstinencies the image of his deifying conversation And lastly more than eleaven millions of Martyrs who defied all torments affronted executioners braved death and scored out with their bloud the holy paths of their glory 7. I leave you to ponder that which never can enough be thought on the repose and comfort of the soul of Jesus when he beheld in his idea's the great Kingdom which was to be brought forth in his bloud and established in his Resurrection And moreover that his Kingdom should be an eternal Empire never admitting end death nor darkness Humane wisdom being desirous to be established in Empires by vice policy and tyranny found every where scepters of glass crowns of vapours and thrones of ice which are broken scattered and dissolved into nothing under the progress of time and eye of the divine providence But the Empire of Jesus which taketh its beginning on earth and beareth its conquests into heaven hath recommended his Scepter to the bosom of eternity O what a torrent of pleasures flowed over the fair soul of our Saviour in these considerations Painters naturally love their own workmanships learned men their writings Law-makers their politick Institutions military men their victories and trophies All men in the world have a sensible joy to see their designs brought to perfection Solomon even melted with comfort in consideration of the accomplishment of the Temple of Hierusalem Justinian could not behold but with much transportation of joy the Church of S. Sophy he had built Constantine had most pleasing dreams concerning the City of Constantinople which was as his creature And what is all this but chymera's in comparison of the great work of the Church performed by the resurrection of the worlds Saviour Have not we cause to say It is Luc. 10. 21. In ipsa hora exultavit Iesus Spiritu sancto Psal 131. Ingredere in requiem tu arca sanctificationis tuae Amodò jam dicit spiritus uâ— requiescant a laboribus suis Apo. 14. 13. The comfort and fruit we should derive from the Resurrection to the imitation of our Saviour Pulvis es in pulverem reverteriâ— to thee O Jesus it is to thee the joys of the holy Spirit do appertain Joys pure celestial divine distilled from the heart of God who is the heart of eternal amities Enter into thy repose after so great a tumult of wars and battels It is time saith the Spirit of God thou rest thy Ark under the pavilion of the eternal Majesty after so many travels and effusion both of sweat and bloud 8. Let us more and more settle our selves in this noble belief which charmeth all anxieties of this life sweeteneth all rigours purifieth all intentions animateth all virtues and crowneth all merits Courage O Christians an immortality a resurrection an eternal life a life of God is gained for thee by the pains sweats and bloud of Jesus and he now inviteth thee into the society and communion of this glory What resolution wilt thon take O man of mud and morter why doest thou still bow down to the earth the back whereof thou hast bristled with so many thorns by thy sins It is not now said unto thee Thou art dust and shalt return into dust but thou art put in mind of immortality The tombs of Alexanders and Caesars all sprinckled over with lyes and gildings bear a HERE LYETH but the glorious sepulcher of our Saviour Si â—rexit non est hic HE IS NOT HERE 9. O Christian thou becomest the child of a good house if thou canst understand thy nobility How Si consurrenis is cum Christo quae sursum sunt sapite non quae super terram magnificent how happy art thou to enter into a glory which is common unto thee with God Thy country is no longer on earth forsake forsake the love of these sleight cottages these poor ant-hills which enthral so many spirits devested of those divine seeds which bud under generous breasts Behold the great globe all replenished with stars and lights which encloseth within its extent all lands and seas the great house of God where are so many brave IntelligeÌ„ces part of which are busie in the praises of the Omnipotent others circumvolve stars remaining infatigably disposed to their imployments This is the Palace which God hath conquered for thee A goodly and flourishing company laden with crowns stretch out arms to thee thou still hast thine eye upon the petty trifles of this terrestrial abode thereon to settle thy affections Enter enter O faithful soul into the folds and circuits of eternity all years are for thee all Ages are open to thee all the greatness of heaven if thou wilt be loyal to thy Master is in thine own hand O! when will that goodly day come which shall restore thee thy body to render it to God thy body no longer a mass of frail ponderous and perishable earth but an immortal agile and incorruptible body priviledged with favours and gilded with bright splendours of the body of Jesus Raise thy self faithful soul in the sufferings and travels of this life yield not to temptations and persecutions which will snatch out of thy hand so advantagious a crown All the pomp of this world all this life yea
winds in nature because if their influences be good in some things their furies are extreamly dreadfull in other We see how upon one part the winds drench huge vessels laden with men and riches on the other they tear up trees they ruin and overthrow houses We likewise find they favourably carrie the clouds Senec. nat q. l. 5. to impart showers to all the world they purge the air they cause a good temperature in the elements they are the occasion of commerce and navigations to make the riches of the world common We cannot be ignorant of their effects But as for their causes some commix atomes other attribute the production of it to the Sun which rarifieth the air other to vapours and exhalations Others say they are the sneesing of this vast creature called the world others think the element of the air is moved of it self And indeed we can say nothing more certainly of it than what the Prophet did That God produceth the winds Qui producit ventos de thesauris suis Psal 134. 7. Elias Thesbites in Verbo out of his treasures As for terrestrial Paradise it is a question among Divines never to be ended and which ministreth perpetual busines to all Interpreters upon Genesis Elias Thesbites durst boldly say that not onely the garden of pleasure was still in being but that doubtlesly many went thither and the passage into it lay open to them but that charmed with the beauties and contentments of this place they never returned Which may be refuted with as much ease as it was invented Origen and Philo following their allegories made a mystical Paradise and true idea's of Plato wherein they were imitated by Psellus who saith that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Caldaean Paradise so calleth he it was nothing else but a Quire of celestial virtues which environed the heavenly Father and beauties of fire issuing from fountains of the first workman Some place it in Indie others in Mesopotamia where there would be much ado well to accord these four rivers but that recourse is had to the violence of the deluge We must confess there are many things unknown wherein God will exercise our faith but not satisfie our curiositie But nothing through al ages hath been so hidden and unknown as truth The Philosopher Heraclitus said That its Altar was in a cloudy cavern all covered with shades and darkness whereinto seldom any came And verily we see that since sciences were invented for the space of so many Ages we have beheld nothing but wranglings and wars among Philosophers who seeking to make dissection of the great body of this Universe have all mutually contended for the defence of truth as they say but many defending it have so ill handled it that they almost have dis-membered it and for a solid body have in the end retained nought in their hands but a fantasm It onely appertaineth to God to produce it and to make it known to mortals which he out of his infinite goodness hath at sundry times done But men blinded like unto Gyants Non credent mihi neque audient vocem meam have ever persecuted poor truth out of a certain spirit of incredulity and contradiction the plague and poison of wisdom After the Eternal Wisdom took lips of flesh to reveal the secrets of Heaven unto us four squadrons have furiously assaulted it The one of Jews the others of Gentiles the third of Mahumetans the fourth of Hereticks And now adays after Hereticks we must adde a fifth thereto which is that of Libertines The Definition of Libertinism the Description Division and divers effects of Libertines 2. LIbertinism is nothing else but a false liberty of belief and manners which will have no other dependence but on peculiar fancie and passion It is verily a strange monster whereof it seems Job made description under the figure of Behemoth Job 40. as much to say as a creature composed of all sorts of beasts of which it beareth the name Libertinism likewise is a sin framed out of all manner of sins whose effects it hath to possess the miseries Behemoth saith he eateth hay as an Ox and the Libertine from the table of Angels is brought back to the stall of beasts having no other care but to stuff his guts with corruptible meats having despised the immortal Manna The one hath his strength in his reins the parts dedicated to lust and the other is onely vigorous for impurity The one hath bones of brass and the other a heart of copper The one makes shew of some gristles framed of iron the other of some false moral virtues really nothing but iniquity Mountains bear grass to feed the one and the tables of great men plenty to entertain the other The one sleepeth in moist places under the shadow of reeds and the other in victualing-houses and idleness The one threateneth to swallow Jordan the river of the holy Land and Libertinism will annihilate the most sincere part of Christianity We may say of all these impious what S. Cyprian Spiritus insinceri vagi non desinunt perditi perdere deprovati errorem pravitatis infundere Cyprian l. de Idol vanitat Division did of devils These are impure and wandering spirits which plunged in sensuality and having lost the happiness of Heaven through the contagion of earth forlorn and corrupt cease not to ruin and corrupt Now observe they are not equal in malice or quality But when I somewhat nearer consider their state I find they are divided into six orders The first comprehendeth many spirits who are not of the worst being somewhat reasonably grounded upon the principal points of Religion but as much as they fail in all concerneth submission of spirit so much are they enamoured of their own wit and become lavish of tongue This often proceedeth either from birth education too free conversation some passion or from opinion of proper abilitie which is the cause they cut and mangle many things very confidently concerning the honour of the Church and oeconomie of Religion One while they strike at the Pope's authority another while they desperately throw themselves upon the multiplication of Religious Orders sometimes they censure all Ecclesiastical persons sparing none mean while they see not the subversion of Religion always began by the contempt of Priests Sometimes they scoff at Confessions and frequent Communions another time argue against the doctrine of Purgatorie then they slight Indulgences contemn Saints Images and Reliques sometimes declaim against other Ceremonies and Customs of the Church They ordinarily say Jesus Christ sufficeth them and that besides the blessed Sacrament there is no need to take pains in other devotions Nay that which more provokes and strengtheneth them in their beliefs is what they observe in others who not insisting in the more perfect ways of the universal Church create devotions to themselves which much incline to superstition for neglecting the great and essential Maxims of our faith they
stept far into age bear the torch before youth Let women endeavour to establish piety which is the ornament of their sex Let children be well bred and trained within the laws of modesty Let the doctrine of Jesus Christ be sealed with the seal of good manners there is no Libertine but will be daunted at the sight of a life led according to the laws of Christianity For it is a mirrour which killeth basilisks by reverberation of their proper poison But if blasphemers continue still so impudent as to vomit forth unclean and injurious words against the Religion we profess have not laws which are in the power of the Sovereign Princes on earth and of their Ministers of State iron hands able to stay their most daring impudencies I call you hither O holy Prelates O Monarchs To the great-ones of all Christendom Princes and Potentates who are in the world as the great Intelligences who make the Heavens move and who by diversity of your aspects cause calms and storms in this inferiour region wherein we live I pray tell me where do you think hath glory which you naturally love placed its throne and state if not in the bosom of true piety By what degrees are those immortal spirits of your Ancestours mounted up to the joys and delights of God having replenished the earth with the veneration of their memory if it were not by making the honour of the Sovereign Master march in the front of all their designs and thinking nought their own but what was acquired for God Remember you are not altogether like the Angel Apo. 10. of the Apocalyps which beareth the Sun and Rainbows and all the garnishments of glory on feet of brass you enjoy dignities and supereminencies that draw the Great-ones into admiration astonish inferiours attract people evict honour and wonder from all the world But consider if so you please that all this is onely supported on feet of clay and morter Time changeth you cares consume you maladies assail you death takes and despoileth you They who adored you in thrones may one day trample on you in sepulchers Alas if it happen you carry all your own interests with violence of passion to the height of your pretensions and that you hold Religion and the glory of Jesus in a perpetual contempt what will your soul one day answer when it leaves the body unto the thundering voice of a living God saying to you as he did to Cyrus in Isaiah Assimilavi te non cognovisti Isaiah 45. me I called thee by thy name I created thee like unto my self I made thee a little God on earth and thou hast forgotten me I so many times marched before thy standards many times have I humbled the most glorious of the earth for thee I brake brazen gates pulled down iron bars to afford thee hiden treasures and the wealth of Ages which nature for thee preserved in her bosom The Sun seemed not to shine in the world but to enlighten thy greatness the seas surged for thee and for thee the earth was wholly bent to honour and obedience Admirer of thy self and ignorant of Gods works thou hast so ill husbanded my goods that thou hast changed them all into evils I gave thee rays and thou hast made arrows of them to shoot against me Did I seat thee on thrones that there thy passions might sway Did I imprint on thy forehead the character of my greatness that thou mightest authorize crimes Thou hadst a feeble pretext of Religion and hast neglected the effects Thy interests reigned and my honour suffered in thy house At what aimed thy ambition so strong of wing and so weak of brain which onely thought how to envy what was above the more to oppress any thing below it What did that burning avarice that profuse riot that spirit of bloud and flesh employed in the advancement of thine own house to the contempt of mine For an inch of land a wretched matter of profit the fantasie of an affront jealousie onely subsisting in a body of smoke all the elements must be troubled men and swords drawn forth for revenge and bloud of so many mortals shed but for my Name which is blasphemed it is sufficient to wag the finger to shew onely a cold countenance a slight touch of that great authority whilst I was neglected having done no other fault but to have paid ingratitudes with benefits O you Great-ones who sit at the stern of Churches and temporal Estates how far will you become accountable to Gods justice if you place not his honour in the first rank of all your intentions Alas Ought not you to entertain an ardent zeal towards the Religion which our Ancestours consigned unto us with so many examples of piety that Heaven hath not more stars than we lights before our eyes Can we well endure that the verities and maxims of God which the Prophets foretold us the Apostles pronounced the Confessours professed the Martyrs defended in the piece-meal mangling of their bodies amidst combs and iron hooks burning cauldrons wheels armed with keen razours should now adays be the sport of certain giddy spirits and the aim of profane lips who void of wit or shame dare invade holy things Is it not for this O France the beloved of God and orient pearl of the world thou hast seen in thy bosom so many hostilities such contagions famines monsters and devastations that had not the arm of God supported thee thou wouldst have been long since drenched in irrecoverable confusions O you who bear the sword of justice and have authority in your hands will you not one day say All Omnis qui zelum habet legis statuens testamentum suum exeat post me they who have the zeal of the law and the pietie of our Ancestours follow us couragiously for behold we are readie to revenge the quarrels of God and to account his glorie on earth in the same degree the Angels hold it in Heaven This was the conceit of the valiant Machabee the Prince of Gods people who having seen an Apostate of his Nation offer incense to an Idol slew him with his own hand on the very same Altar saying aloud He who hath the zeal of the law let him Vae mihi quis natus sum videre contritionem populi mei Sancts in manu extrantcrum facts sunt c. Nunc ergo silii aemulatores estote legis date animas vestras protestamento Patrum Moriamur in virtule propter fratres nostros non inferamus crimen gloriae nostre follow me Wo to me since I am born to behold the desolation of my people Holy things are in the hands of strangers The Temple hath been handled as the most wicked man on earth Our mysteries our beauties our glories are desolated To what purpose do I still lead a miserable life Fathers of families will you not say to your children what he did to his Children be ye emulatours
things not impossible That which is very hard to flesh and bloud become easie by the help of grace and reason Our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ being the Father of all harmony can and doth reconcile all contrarieties at his will and pleasure 2. If revenge seem sweet the gaining of it is most bitter But there is nothing in the world more profitable than to pardon an enemy by imitation of our Saviour For it is then that our conscience can assure us to be the children of God and inheritours of his glory We must not fear to be despised for esteeming virtue for such contempt can onely proceed from those who know not the true value of that glory which belongs to the just There is no better way to revenge than leave it to God who always doth his own business When David wept for Saul who was his enemy his Clemency did insensibly make degrees by which he mounted up to the throne of Judah A good work which comes from the spirit of vanity is like an emptied Mine good for nothing God who is invisible would have our aspects turned always toward him and blind toward the world Alms given by the sound of a Trumpet makes a great noise on earth but reaps little fruit in Heaven The flie of vanity is a mischievous thing which destroys all the perfumes of Charity What need we any spectatours of our good works every place is full where God is and where he is not there onely is Solitude Aspirations O God of all holy affections when shall I love all which thou lovest and have in horrour all that displeaseth thy divine Majesty If I cannot love in some person his defects and sins I will love in him thine Image and in that will I acknowledge thy mercies If he be a piece of broken glass in that little piece there will shine some lines of a God-Creatour and of a God-Redeemer If thou hast chosen him to exercise my patience why should I make him the object of my revenge since he gives me trouble to gain me a Crown He is a hammer to pollish and make me bright I will not hurt him but reverence the arm that strikes me I resign all vengeance into thy hands since it is a Right reserved for thy Almighty power And certainly the best revenge I can take is to gratifie my enemy Give unto me O most mercifull Prince the grace to suffer and let the sacrifice of my sufferings mount up to thy propitiatory Throne The Gospel for the first Saturday in Lent S. Matth. 6. Of the Apostles danger at Sea and relief by our SAVIOUR ANd when he had dismissed them he went into the mountain to pray and when it was late the boat was in the midst of the Sea and himself alone on the land And seeing them labouring in rowing for the wind was against them and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh to them walking upon the sea and he would have passed by them But they seeing him walking upon the sea thought it was a ghost and cried out for all saw him and were troubled And immediately he talked with them and said to them Have confidence it is I fear ye not And he went up to them into the ship and the wind ceased and they were far more astonied within themselves for they understood not concerning the loaves for their heart was blinded And when they had passed over they came into the land of Genesareth and set to the shore And when they were gone out of the boat incontinent they knew him and running through that whole Countrey they began to carry about in couches those that were ill at ease where they heard he was And whither soever he entered into towns or into villages or cities they laid the sick in the streets and besought him that they might touch but the hem of his garment and as many as touched him were made whole Moralities 1. WHat a painfull thing it is to row when Jesus is not in the boat all our travel is just nothing without Gods favour A little blast of wind is worth more than an hundred strokes of oars What troublesom businesses there are how many intricate families do labour much and yet advance nothing because God withdraws himself from their iniquities if he do not build the workman destroyes what he is building But all falls out right to those that embark themselves with Jesus They may pass to the Indies in a basket when others shall miscarry in a good ship well furnished 2. But how comes it about that the ship of the poor Apostles is beaten so furiously by the winds and tempests There are many ships with silver beaks with fine linnen sails and silken tackles upon which the sea seems to smile Do the waters reserve their choller onely to vent it upon that ship which carries just persons This is the course of mans life The brave and happy men of this world enjoy their wishes but their ship doth perish in the harbour as it is sporting whereas God by his infinite providence gives tempests to his elect that he may work a miraculous calm by his Almighty power Dangers are witnesses of their floting and Combats are causes of their merit Never think any man happy in his wickedness for he is just like a fish that playes with the bait when the hook sticks fast in his throat We must wait and attend for help from Heaven patiently without being tired even till the fourth which is the last watch of the night All which proceeds from the hand of God comes ever in fit time and that man is a great gainer by his patient attendance who thereby gets nothing but perseverance 3. They know Jesus very ill that take him for a Phantome or an illusion and crie out for fear of his presence which should make them most rejoyce So do those souls which are little acquainted with God who live in blindness and make much of their own darkness Let us learn to discern God from the illusions of the world The tempest ceaseth when he doth approach and the quietness of our heart is a sure mark of his presence which fills the soul with splendour and makes it a delicious garden He makes all good wheresoever he comes and the steps which his feet leave are the bounties of his heart To touch the Hem of his Garment cures all that are sick to teach us that the forms which cover the blessed Sacrament are the fringes of his holy humanity which cures our sins Aspiration O Lord my soul is in night and darkness and I feel that thou art far from me What billows of disquiet rise within my heart what idle thoughts which have been too much considered Alas most redoubted Lord and Father of mercy canst thou behold from firm land this poor vessel which labours so extreamly being deprived of thy most amiable presence I row strongly but can advance nothing except thou come into my soul
and danger of passions may profit us whether they edifie us by their repentance or divert us by their disasters I conclude the HOLY COURT in this Volume which I esteem above the rest by reason of its utillty and writing of passions to cure them I wish in my self an incurable one which is to desire the progression of my Readers and to beseech God they may submit Sense to Reason Time to Eternity and the Creature to the Creatour THE FIRST TREATISE OF LOVE Sect. 1. Of the Necessity of Love Against those Philosophers who teach Indifferency saying We must not Love any thing THe Divine Providence which hath concluded our salvation All Happinesse included in love in Love very plainly shews us That the means to be quickly happy is to love Felicity and that the way we walk in to become singularly happy is to esteem as we ought the chief of Felicities We lose all our good hap for want of loving and our Love through the defect of well placing it which is the cause that we daily learning so many Arts forget what we should eternally practise if it be true we desire to be everlastingly happy I find the great Apostle of France S. Denis said well when he called God The Father of Vnions who S. Dion l. de Hierarch coelest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God the Father of unions draweth all to unity by the means of love ceaseth not to gather and rally together all the creatures into his heart which issued out of his heart He is That in the life of Intelligencies which the Sun is in the celestiall world but one immoveable Sun about which so many changes and agitations of all creatures circumvolve who groan and aim at this First beauty the true Center of Repose It concerneth us since we are made for it and that God hath given us Love which is to the soul That which wings are to Birds to carry us to it's fruition It is a riches which is onely ours and which would be infinitely profitable if we could tell how to employ it well but for want of well loving we apply the most precious thing which is Love to gain wretched Creatures as if one used a golden hook to fish for Frogs and a Sceptre to shake Hey This is it which causeth me to undertake in this discourse to speak of the well ordering of Love as the most assured way we can choose to arrive at Tranquility and to shew that we first of all most necessarily love to be happy in the world and that the most loving and tendrest hearts are ordinarily the best This age scant enough in goodnesse and fruitfull The Sect of Philosophers of Indifferency in malice hath of late brought forth a Sect of wits who term themselves the Philosophers of Indifferency and who make boast to be very insensible as well in the fear of the Divinity as in tendernesse towards the miseries of men To what purpose is it say they to addict ones self to the worship of a God whom we cannot sufficiently know And wherefore should we be solicitous for the afflictions of another which nothing concern us This is to make our selves eternally miserable and to be tormented with all manner of objects He who would live contented in the world must love nothing but himself entertein himself within himself and concerning himself and derive pleasure as a tribute out of all the creatures of the world but to take heed not to enter into the participation of their troubles and should we see all to be turned topsie turvey so it inconvenienceth not us in any thing to let time slide to catch good by the wings whilest we may and to let evil fall on the miserable These kind of people are so unnaturall that they laugh at all and mock at the miseries which others suffer If you tell them of a house burnt they say it is nothing and that it is but a fire of great wood If of an inundation of water that Fishes have a good time of it If of a warre or contagion that it is a good harvest for death and that there are too many bread-eaters If one say such a friend hath lost an eye they answer he is very happy because he shall see but half the bad times I do not think there is a vice in the whole world more btutish or contrary to nature then this obduratenesse which is the cause I would cast it under the feet of love and shew you that tendernesse towards God as a Father towards men as the lively Images of his Goodnesse is the principall foundation of all virtues Consider first that all the good order of life comes 1. Reason against the Indifferents from the knowledge of the First cause whereon all Creatures have their dependence as on the contrary the Disorder of all actions springeth from the ignorance of the submission we ow to the Increated Essence Now he who loveth none but himself and cares not but for his own Interests maketh himself as the chief end and the God of himself which sufficiently proveth it to be the most palpable folly and the greatest evil may be imagined in Nature It is a remarkable thing that among all Essences There is none but God which is for it self there is none but God alone who as he can know nothing out of himself nor love any thing but in himself so he doth nothing but for himself For in doing all for himself he doth all for us since we have no good which tendeth not to him as to its scope Monas geâ—uit monadem in se suum reflexit amorem S. Thom. 1. part q 32. a. t. 1. which subsisteth not in him as on its Basis which resteth not in him as in its Centre Thus did S. Thomas understand that notable saying of Mercury Trismegistus Vnity hath produced unity and hath reflected its love on it self It is not but for an Infinite Essence to do so but had the highest Angel in heaven the thought onely to behold himself and hence-forward to work for himself he would instantly be pulled out of heaven and would of a bright Sun become a sooty Coal What may one think then of a man who sayes in his heart I am born for my self and I have no other aim in the world but to satisfie my mind with all contentments nor shall the evils of another ever enter into my heart till Fire commix with Water and Heaven with Earth If I obtein my ends all shall go well Hearken how God speaketh in the Prophet Ezechiel to these wicked ones Behold I come to fall upon thee Ecce ego ad te draco magne qui tuba iâ— medio fluminum tuorum c. Ezec. 29. 3. oh thou great Dragon who lyest stretched out at length in the midst of thy Rivers and darest saey this stream is mine and I made my self Assure thee I will put a bridle upon thee and when I
corruptible matter of Earth but after he became a Christian he lived upon the most pure influences of heaven S. Gregory Nazianzen saith he more breathed S. Basile then the aire it self and that all his absences were to him so many deaths S. Chrysostome in banishment was perpetually in spirit with those he most esteemed S. Jerome better loved to entertain his spirituall amities in little Bethelem then to be a Courtier in Rome where he might be chosen Pope And if we reflect on those who have lived in the light of nature Plato was nothing but love Aristotle had never spoken so excellently of friendship had he not been a good friend Seneca spent himself in this virtue being suspected by Nero for the affection he bare to Piso Alexander was so good that he carried between his arms a poor souldier frozen with cold up to his throne to warm him and to give him somewhat to eat from his royall hands Trajan brake his proper Diadem to bind up the wound of one of his servants Titus wept over the ruines of rebellious Jerusalem A man may as soon tell the starres in the heavens as make an enumeration of the brave spirits which have been sacrificed to amity Wherefore great hearts are the most loving If we seek out the causes we shall find it ordinarily proceedeth from a good temperature which hath fire and vigour and that comes from good humours and a perfect harmony of spirit little Courages are cold straightned and wholly tied to proper interests and the preservation of their own person They lock themselves up in their proprieties as certain fishes in their shell and still fear least elements should fail them But magnanimous hearts who more conform themselves to the perfections of God have sources of Bounty which seem not to be made but to stream and overflow such as come near them This likewise many times proceedeth from education for those who fall upon a breeding base wretched and extremely penurious having hands very hard to be ungrasped have likewise a heart shut up against amities still fearing lest acquaintance may oblige them to be more liberall then they would contrariwise such as have the good hap to be nobly bred hold it an honour to oblige and to purchase friends every where Add also that there is ever some gentilenesse of spirit among these loving souls who desiring to produce themselves in a sociable life and who understanding it is not given them to enlighten sands and serpents will have spectatours and subjects of its magnificence Which happens otherwise to low and sordid spirits for they voluntarily banish themselves from the conversation of men that they may not have so many eyes for witnesses of their faults So that we must conclude against the Philosophers of Indifferency that Grace Beauty strength and power of nature are on their side who naturally have love and affection §. 2. Of Love in generall LOve when it is well ordered is the soul of the universe Love the soul of the universe which penetrateth which animateth which tieth and maintaineth all things and so many millions of creatures as aspire and respire this love would be but a burden to Nature were they not quickned by the innocent flame which gives them lustre as to the burning Bush not doing them any hurt Fornacem custodiens in operibus ardoris Eccl. 43. at all I may say that of honest love which the wise man did of the Sunne That it is the superintendent of the great fornaces of the world which make all the most Love the superintendent of the great Fornace of the world Faber ferrarius sedens juxta in eodem considerans opus ferri vapor iguis uret carnes ejus in calore fornacis concertatur c. Eccl. 29 38. Pieces of work in Nature Have you ever beheld the Forge-master described by the same wise-man You see a man in his shirt all covered over with sweat greace and smoke who sporteth among the sparks of fire and seemeth to be grown familiar with the flames He burns gold and silver in the fornace then he battereth it on the Anvil with huge blows of the hammer he fashioneth it he polisheth it he beautifies it and of a rude and indigested substance makes a fair piece of plate to shine on the Cup-boards of the most noble houses So doth love in the world it taketh hearts which are as yet but of earth and morter it enkindleth them with a divine flame It beats them under the hammer of tribulations and sufferings to try them It filleth them by the assiduity of prayer It polisheth them by the exercise of virtues lastly it makes vessels of them worthy to be placed above the Empyreall heaven Thus did it with S. Paul and made him so perfect Act. 9. that the First verity saith of him that he is his vessel of election to carry his name among nations and the Kings of the Earth and that he will shew him how much he must suffer for his sake The whole nature of Pigri mortui oetestandi eritis si nihil ametis Amare sed quid ameris videte August in Psal 31. Hoc amet nec ametur ab ullo Juvenal Seven excellent things the world tendeth to true love every thing loves some of necessity other by inclination and other out of reason He who will love nothing saith S. Augustine is the most miserable and wretched man on earth nor is it without cause that in imprecations pronounced over the wicked it is said Let him not love nor be beloved by any The ancient Sages have observed in the light of Nature that there are seven excellent things to be esteemed as gifts from heaven which are clearnesse of senses vivacity of understanding grace to expresse ones thoughts ability to govern well Courage in great and difficult undertakings fruitfulnesse in the productions of the mind and the strength of love and forasmuch as concerneth the last Orpheus and Hesiodus have thought it so necessary that they make it the first thing that came out of the Chaos before the Creation of the world The Platonists revolving upon this conceit have built us three worlds which are the Angelicall nature Vide Marsilium Ficinum in convivium Platonis An exâ—ellent conceit of the Platonists the soul and the Frame of the universe All three as they say have their Chaos The Angel before the ray of God had his in the privation of lights Man in the darknesse of Ignorance and Sinne The materiall world in the confusion of all its parts But these three Chaoses were dissipated by love which was the cause that God gave to Angelicall spirits the knowledge of the most sublime verities to Man Reason and to the world Order All we see is a perpetuall circle of God to the world and of the world to God This circle beginning in God by inestimable perfections full of charms and attractives is properly called Beauty and
to be waited on like Demy-gods and magnifie what comes from their own hands in such sort that their benefits are scorned and we begin to hate that which was too late resolved on or too proudly afforded He must give his Presents according to the common practice of men observing circumstance of place time season persons guild his favour with the gold of graces and not do as they who give so sadly that one would take them for men who deny Friends also who receive ought not to be troublesome there being not any thing which more offendeth firm Amities then the too great importunities of the bold who ever have their hand open to receive and never have a brow soft enough to blush There are many Amities which are by this way dissolved when friends perswade themselves to ask boldly and will not be denyed but think one gives them nothing if they give them not all The fifth condition of a good friend consisteth in Patience most necessary in Amities Advice and correction of friends Non asperè quantum existimo non durites non modo imperioso vitia tolluntur sed magis docendo quam jubendo magis movendo quà m minando S. Aug. in ep ad Aurel. Non caret scrupulo socictatis occultae qui manifesto facinori desinit obviare S. Athanas in Conc. Alexand. a strong patience to bear with the defects of the person he loveth whether they be in the mind the body or in the exteriour Yet it is not that crimes and scandals hidden under the shadow of Amity should be tolerated for that were to be a traitour to the most innocent of virtues Above all it is expedient to observe and in the beginning to touch the passion of one dear unto us with hands of silk and words of sattin not to distemper him if he be somewhat sensible But if light remedies make not impression we must urge sollicit labour with all the liberty which confidence affordeth and not forsake the sick untill we see some little hope of amendment But if the evil daily increase by the contempt of remedies and that it be such that it involves a friend within the danger of infamy a man ought not to think it strange if he be abandoned since he first of all degraded himself of the character of Amity which is virtue Other defects of manners which proceed not to crime ought to be handled with singular sweetnesse and discretion and these of nature and humane accidents cannot be taken by a good friend but as a decree from heaven and an exercise of his goodnesse There are some who have their souls so generous that they love miseries they find deformity to be handsome when it is dressed up in the liveries of Loves plagues and cankered sores breed neither fear nor aversion in them They digest all by the heat of an immortall affection Then it is when we come to perfect fidelity which Fidelity and its excellency is the Basis that supporteth the whole house of Amities It is a virtue really divine and one of the most pretious treasures in the heart of man It is a Bud of Fidelity a proof of an invincible courage a note of Ante Jovem generata Qua sine non tellus pacem non aequora â—ô runt Silius an inviolable goodnesse It is an imitation of the order of the heavens and of the elementary world where all persevere in the observance of the laws which were written by the Divine Providence from the beginning of ages by the help of Fidelity which the principall parts of the universe do observe one towards another It is that which is the cause that stars eternally circumvolve within their divisions not usurping one upon another That which causeth dayes and nights yearly to restore the time they had borrowed one of another and so well to make up their accounts that they pay even to the utmost minute It is that which stayeth the waves of the sea and current of rivers That which maketh masters and servants families and Provinces States and Empites All is quickned all lives all under the divine hands of this great Mistrisse By it Kings have subjects Lords their officers Common-wealths Magistrates Communities Administratours Fields Labourers Civil-life Merchants and Artificers by it the whole world hath order and by it order prospers in all things One must rather break an hundred times then once fail in fidelity to a good friend Were the devil capable of commerce with men he must observe fidelity by how much a more just title ought we to preserve love and honour it even with veneration in holy Amities If a friend one of those who have been very acceptable to you chance to fail whether it be by evil life or through manifest contempt of you or out of other ill dispositions yet must you on the rotten trunk honour the last characters of Love you must rather unstitch then break you must keep the secrets he at other times hath committed to you and not publish his defects Amity is so venerable that we must honour even its shadows and imitate the Pythagorians who celebrated the obsequies of such as forsook their society to bury them with honor These precepts being observed Children will live with Parents in great duty and submission Husbands with Wives will hold together not onely by eyes flesh and bloud which are too feeble tyes but by excellent conjugall virtues Parents will live in all sweetnesse of nature People will be fastned with the knot of indissoluble Concord Great ones will be indulgent to inferiours Inferiours pay obedience to the great and intimate friends gather flowers and fruits of immortall delights in the sacred garden of Amity § 6. Of sensuall Love Its Essence and Source I Here could wish my pen were born on the wings of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hippocrates in ep ad Abderites winds from one pole to another and that it might fall with a strong and impetuous flight upon a passion which maketh attractives charms and illusions to march before it and after it draggeth along furies disasters and rapines The wise Hyppocrates in his time deplored the evil effects of Avarice and said the life of man was miserable because insupportable Avarice like unto a spirit of storms and tempests had poured it self upon mortals and that it were to be wished the best Physicians might meet together from all parts to cure this disease which is worse then folly and which occasioneth a mischief irreparable Because instead of seeking remedies to drive it away false prayses are invented to flatter it I may say the like of Love since it is the most fatall Love is a strange malady plague among all passions It is not a simple malady but one composed of all the evils in the world It hath the shiverings and heats of Feavers the Ach and prickings of the Meagrim the rage of Teeth the stupefaction of the Vertigo the furies of Frenzy the black vapours
he fell into an extasie of holy comfort to have found a man so conform to his humour and both of them wept so much out of love over this fountain that they seemed to go about to raise those streams by their tears If he wrote a letter he imagined love gave him the pen and that he dipped it in his tears and that the paper was all over filled with instruments of the passion and that he sent his thoughts and sighs as Courtiers to seek out the well-beloved of his heart When he saw an Epistle or a letter wherein the name of Jesus was not premised it sensibly tormented him saying Sarazins had more devotion for Mahomet a man of sin setting his name in the front of all their letters then Christians had for their Redeemer A holy occasion one day drew him to a Church to hear excellent musick but he perceiving the words were of God and the tune according to the world he could not forbear to cry out aloud Cease profane men Cease to cast pearls into mire Impure airs are not fit for the King of virgins Some took delight to ask him many questions and he answered them nothing but the word love which he had perpetually in his mouth To whom belongest thou To love whence comest thou from love whither goest thou To love who begat thee Love Of what dost thou live upon love where dwellest thou In love He accounted them unworthy to live who died of any other death then of love and beholding a sick-man in an agony who shewed no feeling of joy to go unto God but onely complained of his pain he lamented him as a man most miserable At his entrance into a great Citie he asked who were the friends of God and a poor man being shewed him who continually wept for the love of heaven and heavenly things he instantly ranne to him and embracing him they mingled their tears together with unspeakable joy God often visited him by many lights and most sweet consolations as it happened at that time when he thought he saw a huge cloud between his Beloved and him which hindred and much troubled him but presently it seemed to him that love put it self between them both and gilded the cloud with great and admirable splendours in such sort that through this radiant beauty he saw a ray of the face of his well-beloved and for a long space spake to him with profusions of heart and admirations not to be expressed From this obsequious love he passed to obliging love and made a strong resolution to become profitable to all the world For which purpose feeling every moment to be replenished with sublime and divine thoughts which God had communicated to him and that he had no insight in Grammer nor other slight school-notions he resolved to learn the Latine tongue being now full fourty years old He hit upon a teacher one Master Thomas who taught him words conjugations and concords but he rendred him back again elate conceptions unheard of discourses and harmonies wholly celestiall so much honouring his Master that he dedicated the most part of his books to him wherein for the dead letter he offered unto him the spirit of life Not satisfied with this he added the Arabick tongue of purpose to convert the Mahumetans and for this end he bought a slave for whom having no other employment but to teach him it and he having therein already well profited and endeavouring to convert this wretched servant who had been his teacher the other found him so knowing and eloquent that he had an apprehension that through this industry he was able to confound the Mahumetan-law which was the cause that the Traitour espying his opportunity took a knife and sought to kill his Master but he stopt the blow and onely received a wound which proved not mortall All the house ran at the noise and there was not any one who would not have knocked down the ungratefull creature but he hindered it with all his might and heartily pardoned him in the greatest sharpnesse of his dolours Instantly the officers seized on this compassion and put him into prison where he was strangled repenting himself of nothing but that he had not finished his mischief which caused extreme sorrow in Raymond who bewailed him with many tender tears of compassion After this he undertook divers journies into France Spain Italy Greece and Africk wandring continually over the world and not ceasing to preach write and teach to advance the salvation of his neighbours Paris many times received him with all courtesie in such sort that the Chancellour Bertand who was infinitely affected to knowledges permitted him to reade them publickly in his hall The reverend Charter-house Monks whose houses have so often been sanctuaries for Learning and Devotion were his hoasts and so much he confided in their integrtty and sincerity that he with them deposed all which he had most precious The love of God which is as lightning in a cloud still striving to break forth suffered him not to rest but disposed him to undertake somewhat for the glory of God It is true he had first of all that purpose which afterwards our father S. Ignatius so gloriously accomplished for he was desirous to make Seminaries of learned and courageous spirits who should spread themselves throughout the world to preach the Gospel and to sacrifice themselves for the propagation of Faith For this cause he multiplied his voyages to Rome to Lions to Paris to Avignon incessantly solliciting Popes and Kings to so excellent a work without successe He used fervour and zeal therein but our father thereunto contributed more order and prudence The one undertook it in a crosse time during the passage of the holy See from Rome to Avignon where the Popes more thought upon their own preservation then tha conquests of Christianity The other knew how to take occasion by the fore-lock and he interessed Rome and the Popes thereof in his design The one made his first triall under Pope Boniface the Eighth who having dispossessed a Hermite of S. Peters Chair held those for suspected who were of the same profession fearing they a second time might make a head of the Church The other happened upon Paul the Third who was a benign Pope and he gained his good opinion by his ready services and submissions which tended to nothing but the humility of Jesus Christ The one embroiled himself too much in Sciences even unto curiosity and made them walk like Ladies and Mistresses the other held them as faithfull servants of the Crosse subjected to holy Humility The one stood too much upon his own wit and needs would beat out wayes not hitherto printed with any foot-steps nor conferred enough with the Doctours of his times in matters of Opinion and Concord the other passed through the surges of Universities and followed an ordinary trackt in the progression of his studies The one was of a humour very haughty the other of a spirit
and Sanctity which is an eternal rule that looketh round about on every side condemneth and censureth the works of darknesse For as in things artificiall all the perfection of works consist in the conformity they have with the rule of the art which made them and all their imperfection proceedeth from their recesse from the same rule which without speech or motion declareth the defects of manufactures that depart from its direction so all the good and all the beauty of moral actions is in the correspondence they hold with Reason and the eternall Law As all their deformity and mishap comes from their departure from this same law which is the Justice the Holinesse and Essence of God himself who perpetually stands in opposition against iniquity It is it which he drenched in the waters of the deluge whic◠he burnt in the ashes of Sodom which he swallowed in the gulf of Core Dathan and Abiram which he tormented by the plagues of Pharaoh which he gnawed by worms in the person of Herod which he consumed by ordure and stenches in Antiochus which he punished with gibbets and tormenting wheels in so many offenders which he still tortureth to all eternity sunk down into the abysse of the damned and it is out of which he produceth his glory whence he raiseth his trophies and makes his triumphs to be by Essence and Nature a perpetuall enemy and a destroyer of sinne O magnificent hatred O glorious enemy O triumphant persecution Let us enter with God into this community of glory let us hate sinne as he doth by him and for him let us destroy it in our selves by penance let us destroy it out of our selves by our good examples let us destroy it by a good resolution since Jesus hath destroyed it with so much pain and bloud How can we love such a monster but by hating God And how can we hate God but by making our selves worse then devils For if they hate him they hate an avenging God a punishing God And we will hate a God that seeks us a loving God and hate him after so many execrable punishments of sinne which we nave before our eyes and hate him after he hath offered himself up for us in the great sacrifice of love and patience Is not this intollerable We will employ some part of our life to revenge an injury and to hate a man as if we had too much of it to hate sinne we make a shew to honour the Master and wee kill his servants we make profession to adore the Creatour and we tear his images asunder Where are we and what do we when we make a divorce between our likes to disunite our selves from the first Unity which draweth all to it self by union §. 3 That Jesus grounded all the greatest Mysteries of our Religion upon Vnion to cure Hatred LEt us also contemplate our second model let us behold our Jesus and we shall learn that all the greatest mysteries of his life and death are mysteries of Union to unite us to him to unite us to his Father to unite us to our selves with sacred and indissoluble bands First all creatures of this great Universe were made Heb. 1. ◠Locut us est nobis in Filio quem constituit haeredem universorum per quem fecit secula by the Word in the Unity of Beginning He spake to us by his Sonne whom he hath established the heir of the whole universe by whom likewise he created the worlds Secondly all the parts of this great All were so streightly tyed one to the other that they never have suffered the least disunion and although many seem to have antipathy and reciprocally to pursue each other yet they will not be separated but joyn together in a manner so adherent that he who should go about to disunite one Element from another all these great pieces of the world would infinitely strive beyond their quality to replenish its place worthily and to leave nothing void And it is a wonder that from the beginning of the Aeterno complectitur omnia nexu Tot retum mistique salus concordia mundi Lucan l. 4. Plin. l. 36. cap. 17. world all things are held together by this Divine Tie Concord which in its union causeth the happinesse of the world and those sacred influences of love hath woven eternall chains to tie indissolubly all the parts of the universe All this great body resembleth the stone Scyrus which floateth on the water while it is whole and sinks into the bottome so soon as it is broken This is the cause why all creatures have from all times conspired and do still daily conspire with inviolable inclinations in the maintenance of this concord that the celestiall and elementary world may subsist in a state unchangeable There is none but Angel and Man in the intellectuall world who have made false accords and have begun to sow division the one in Heaven the other in the terrestriall Paradise He who placed it in heaven is banished into the abysse without recovery Joh. 17. 21. Ut omnes unum sint sicut tu Pater in me ego in te the other is succoured by a Redeemer who came to restore the lost world and he in Saint John professeth he aimed at nothing but Unity to make this reparation For this cause saith S. Maximus he united himself S. Max. secunda cent 146. 147. to humane Nature not by a simple union of will of love and of correspondence but by the ineffable knot of Hypostaticall union conjoyning two Natures in one sole Person and by making a communication of all he is to his humane Nature transplanted into the Divine For this he likewise doth daily unite himself to us in the Sacrament of the Altar a true Sacrament of Love where if we will speak with S. Cyril we 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril in Johan say that God is dissolved into us as one piece of wax melted and poured together with another and if we will reason with S. John Chrysostome we say He Chrys hom 46. in Johan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 giveth us his virginall flesh as a most sacred Leaven to season the whole masse of Humane nature It is that which in us should work that virtue which the great Areopagite calleth a Conformity of affections and manners drawing near to Divinity It is that which giveth the name of peace to the holy Eucharist with S. Cyprian and that which so united the Christians in Cyp. ep 10. 29. 30. Dare pacem lapsis the Primitive Church that they went from this mysterious Table as from a banquet of Love after which they breathed nothing but most pure flames of perfect Vide ut invicem se diligant vide ut pro alterutro moti sint parati Tertul. in Apol. amity whereat the Pagans who saw them cryed out See how they love one another Behold how ready they are to die one for another as we have
which draw thence all thy vitall humour and make thee have a life which hath nothing lesse then life in it Temerarious soul who hast dared to think that forsaking thy Creatour thou elsewhere shouldst find a better match Go and see the obstacles which daily meet with those who hunt after honours favours and worldly wealth Go go behold and thou shalt see a thousand fishes swim in a pond after a rotten worm How many battails must thou wage how many sweats of death must thou sweat how many iron-gates must thou break through to content one onely of thy desires O how often will the Heavens and the Elements conspire against thy affections which thou so unworthily so disastrously hast placed O what bloudy sorrows at thy death when God shall draw aside the curtain of the city of peace and shall shew thee an infinite number of souls in the bosome of Beatitude for having well disposed their Desires and on the other side burning coals to expiate affections ill managed O what horrour what terrour and what despair if the Angels come and say with a voyce of thunder Foris Apoc. 22. 15 Canes and that we must wander up and down in affection with a hunger everlastingly enraged after a good we so many times have despised O Jesus the desire of Eternall mountains draw to thee all my desires since thou art the Adamant Jesus the love of all faithfull souls take all my affections since thou art the Centre of all hearts Jesus the Joy and Crown of all the Elect stay my floating hopes since thou art the haven of hearts stretch out an assisting hand to so many errours and set me in a place where I may desire nothing but let it be such a place wherein I may love that which is infinitely amiable The fourth Treatise Of AVERSION § 1. The Nature and Qualities thereof AVersion is a passion apprehensive disdainfull The essence and nature of Aversion of distastes which is shut up as a snail in its shell and hath no inclination to any thing in the world Covetousnesse presenteth it many objects to see if it can snare it with a bait but it doth nothing but fly away and turn the face to the other side and albeit it seems not to desire ought of all is offered unto it it neverthelesse coveteth good but goes towards it by by-paths and flight from all that which seems opposite to its felicity Well to understand the nature of this Passion we How Aversion is formed must know that as in motions of affections there is first made in the soul a love wholly simple which is an inclination and a complacence towards some object from thence Desire is created by which we consider the same object not onely as good and convenient but as a thing absent and out of us which we must endeavour to have and to bring within our power But if we have the good hap to possesse it from thence joy ariseth which is a perfect complacence raised upon the possession of the thing desired Likewise in passions which resist and oppose our heart first a simple hatred is created which onely importeth an Antipathy and a certain dissenting from the object which the understanding proposeth to the will as disagreeable or hurtfull Thence we come to consider this object either as farre distant and hard to be avoided and then Fear laies hold of our heart or we behold it more near at hand and very easie to be repelled being wholly unable to make any great or strong impressions upon us as Fear doth and then it is properly called Aversion but if the evil happen to be present it is a vexation and a trouble and when it is past there remains a horrour which we call Detestation We may say this passion which is disgusted withall The character and true image of a spirit subject to Aversion hath nothing so distastefull as it self There you behold a soul oppressed still apprehensive still retired and ever harsh and as nothing pleaseth it so easily it displeaseth all the world If there be cause to name one he will never call him by his name but will say of whom speak you of that wretch of that sluggard of that miser of that ignorant fellow Or if he hath some deformity of body of that crooked piece that crump-shoulder of that unfortunate caitiffe who is much duller then a winters-day or the snows of Scythia If a Book be to be censured there is nothing worth ought in it they are discourses and words ill placed If merchandize be to be bought the shop and store-houses of a merchant shall be turned over and over and nothing found that gives contentment If he be in his own house he makes himself insupportable to his domesticks this garment is ill made this chamber ill furnished this bed too hard these dishes unsavoury the wind at a door the creaking of a casement the crying of a child the barking of a dog all is troublesome to him If a man of this condition be to be married there is not a maid in the world worthy of him he must have one framed out of his own rib as God did for the first Man or suffer him to raise his love in imitation of Endymion and Caligula up to the sphere of the Moon But most especially women Humour of coy women of this humour are extremely troublesome They have no small businesse to do who are to find them out maid-servants and nurses this is too rusticall she hath nothing amiable in her eye she speaks too big her body is not slender enough the other is a piece of flesh not worth ought needs must she be perpetually upon change and out of too much curiosity to meet with a good service be the worst served of any woman in the world Behold one distasted with professions conditions and offices all displeaseth him Shall he become a Church-man that seems a slavery to him Shall he betake him to a sword It is hazardous To an office It costs too much To traffick Little is to be gotten To a Trade He cannot find a good one Lastly it troubleth him to be a man and would gladly entertain the invention of Ovids Metamorphosis to be transformed into some other kind of Creature There are young wenches who have much a-do with themselves Shall they marry There is not any match likes them this man is unhandsome that other is but simple this man too way-ward that too melancholly one too wild another hath not living enough nor that other good alliance an Angel must be fetched out of heaven to marry them In the mean time some amorist learneth to dance his cinque-pace and to powder and frizzle himself to please this coy piece whom nothing contenteth but her own distastes If one the other side this creature looks towards Religion she will multiply her paces and visits and will run over all the Monasteries and find none to content her one is
to feast his guests in his own house Forget not in the time of fair weather to prevent the stonn of humane accidents and dayly think how you may put your self under covert within your self but which is more into the bosome of God When Gyges his ring was turned towards the world it made him visible to all there present but when he drew it back towards himself he became invisible and impregnable against such as wished him ill If your quality cause you to look towards the world and pompously to propose you to the eyes of beholders remember you must have a Retreat and innocent invisibilities to vindicate your self from the throng of importunacies When you shall have well-grounded the matter of your contentments then neglect not the form and fashion of them Imitate not those who on a sudden drench and drown themselves in pleasure with a voluntary drunkennesse which presently deprives them of all pleasure Distill your joyes like unto a heavenly dew moisten your heart but overflow it not otherwise it is to be feared in such as are of a very soft temper lest the approch of excessive joy may cause a great evaporation of spirit and leave the heart destitute of heat and vigour which caused Zouxes the painter to die laughing as he beheld the rough draught of an old woman which he was a finishing and the Poet Philemon by seeing an Asse that came to eat figs on his Table Howsoever it be distaste sticks to the extremes of the greatest pleasures as Cantharides on the fairest Roses Resemble not those who overflow in their favours who publish their own prosperities and tell them to all the world which raiseth them many envious and maligue spirits who stirre up tempests in their imaginary tranquillity Rejoyce said an antient in your bosome do all the good you practise from morning till night with pleasure and when any misadventure befalleth you ever think it is a great favour from God it went no further and that the divine providence is satisfied with a little hurt Call sometimes to your memory the ill daies and dangers you have escaped by the goodnesse of God that you with the more gust may taste your repose If you be fortunate hold you there and be not like the dog in the Fable who let go his piece of flesh to catch a shadow The foolish Idolaters of Egypt after they had Courted their god Apis in so many studied fashions after they had found him with so much satisfaction after they had received him with so much applause killed him to put another in his place That is it which all senselesse worldly spirits do they disturb their own pleasures and themselves to live to become the conquest of a Chymera of honour or of some pleasing thing which keeps them in a perpetuall famine You are permitted to love the gifts of God to derive a little tribute of contentment out of all creatures to restore it to the Authour to avoid discontented humour spirits troublesome and complaining to please your self with good Company But if you desire to know the mystery of mystenes in pleasure understand you shall never find it but when you shall learn to rejoyce in tribulations out of a desire you have to conform your self to Jesus Christ That is the joy which all the Saints have studied with pain have found with delight and have tasted with glory That is it which Saint Peter calleth The ineffable and the glorified That which S. Jrmes said contained the Exultabitis laetitiâ inenarrabili glorificatâ 1 Pet 1. 8 Omâ—e gaudium Jac. 1. 2. consummation of all comforts That which Saint Paul found in Caverns S. Laurence on the Gridiron S. Katharine on the wheel S. Apolonia in flames Lastly That which cometh from the throne of the Lamb and which with its eternall streams watereth all the plants of Paradise The sixth Treatise Of SADNESSE § 1. It s Description Qualities and the Diversity of those who are turmoiled with this Passion A Wise man said that man entreth into life as The Essence and Image of Sadnesse Cujus initium caecitas obtinet progressum labor dolor exitum error omnia Petrarch de remediis into a Career where in the beginning blindnesse putteth a scarf over his eyes then delivers him over to labour which giveth him a heavie stone to roll all the length of the life labour placeth him in the hands of sorrow and Sadnesse sorrow which properly is a dislike had against objects contrary to its inclination exerciseth him principally in the body Sadnesse which is a passion of the reasonable Appetite that filleth the heart with acerbity by the privation of amiable objects and by the representation of things grievous and opposite to Nature works upon the soul which it incessantly afflicteth Some are slowly wasted by perpetuall languours others are many times seised on with so much violence that they suddenly dye of it as it happened to a son of Gilbert Duke of Montpensier who yielded up the ghost on the Tomb of his father This passion hath for nurse softnesse of spirit seeing a soft soul is ordinarily eaten by anxiety and gnawn by perplexity as iron is consumed by Rust It is seated in Melancholy for the Melancholick are they who most feel the burdens of life the spirit being deprived of alacrity which useth to season things the most bitter Faintnesse and discouragement are ever by its sides to torment it because they are the two passions which dry up the Humidum radicale quench the heate drain the source of spirits and constitute the whole state of its mischief Round about it fly cares discontentments and annoyes since these are its companions and most ordinary enterteinments The heart of it is filled with an infinite number of desires being our discontentments do multiply according to the measure of our desires and that he who desireth nothing quarrels at no body nor is impatient at the burdens which the providence of God layeth on his shoulders It liveth on gall as being nourished by continuall acerbities It looketh back farre off after contentment which flieth from it insomuch as its onely torments consisteth in desiring and not enjoying It beholdeth it self in a pond of standing water because such are the objects of sadnesse which the impatient set before their eyes to stirre up in them many troubled and uncollected fantasies Lastly it is one while little crouching and loutish with a countenance of lead and weeping eyes another while also it is furious enflamed and fietfull to signifie unto us two sorts of impatient men whereof the one silently bites the bridle having no means to come to the end of their pretentions and the other breaks out into extraordinary fury with intention to tear asunder the obstacles which oppose their designs Behold the picture of sadneste drawn out of Philosophy and reason Now I may well adde following the conceits of the wise that I see infinite many in this picture who have
discourses of Philosophers There is question how to help the soul by the body hundred shillings are of more worth then a hundred reasons to a poor wretch who hath need of sustenance and refreshment to solace his pains A little good usage meat apparel a Crosse upon gold or silver remedieth many Crosses of needy people If they to whom God hath given worldly wealth took the pain to imitate so many honourable personages and to accustome themselves to visit the shamefaced poor they would dayly do miracles they would drive away the devils of Melancholy bad humors spectres despairs and maladies they would pull millions of souls out of the hands of their evil fortunes and would be more to men then were the demy-Gods of Antiquity How many herbs simples compositions of physick how many lenitives what powerfull effects of Chyrurgery being well ordered do cure strange infirmities and do pluck one from out of the gates of death But as the cure and easing of the senses is neither present nor efficacious with all the world what should a man do who hath never so little heart but try to cure himself by reason It is it which God hath given unto The comfort derived from reason man instead of so many offensive and defensive armes born with other creatures why should we not use its help It is it which teacheth us that grief is nothing else but an apprehension of division and that Aug. l. 3. de liber at bitr cap 23. Quid est enim aliud dolor nisi quidam sensus divisionis vel corruptionis impatiens as we are out of excesse tyed to all pleasing things in the world so the want of them becomes very sensible in such sort that our Sadnesses ordinarily proceed from our love Experience sufficiently shewing that all such spirits as most are in love with themselves are the most tormented but if we come to lessen thoser geat affections which straightly tie us to conceits and account as lost all which may be lost there is no doubt but we shall begin to find a wholesome medicine for all the afflictions of life A mother greeved for the death of her Amabam misera periturum We most ardently love the things we most lose sonne said in Quintilian That all her evil came from loving too much what she might lose and that our passions are insensibly most ardent for things which must quickly be taken from us as if our grief were to take revenge upon the exorbitancy of our love It is reason that weakneth the opinion of evils which many times torment us more then their effect It which giveth light to things obscure order to confused vigour to languishing and resolution to despair there is nothing for which it finds not a lenitive if poverty make How it remedieth all humane accidents you sad why complain you Ignorant of thy self saith it unto us it is not poverty it is thy fancy which tormenteth thee No man is ever so poor as he is born Hast thou brought gold in thy veins and pearls Poverty in thy entrails that thou complainest of the change of thy condition why dost thou set thy self upon the rack for a thing whereof Jesus made boast and so many wise-men make vows Expect a little Death will make thee as rich as Croesus If thou thinkest thou art poor for that thou hast not what thy covetousnesse desireth it is an Illusion If thou wantest necessaries for life after thou hast lived commodiously and happily it is somewhat pitifull but make thy self a good poor man since God will have thee such suffer a while without murmuring and the divine Providence will not fail to raise for thee the mercy of some rich man to become thy steward Pray be patient endeavour take paines live meanly thou shalt become A suit rich by learning to live contented If a suit be lost what cares what apprehensions what pains what toils are in the same instant lost If it be according to Justice endure it if angainst Justice those who have lost their conscience in making thee lose thy cauie have more cause to be sorry then thou If thou hast lost much in game it is a lesson of wisdome to cure a folly If thou Losse of money hast lost all give thanks to God that thou shalt never lose any more so basely and that thou hast meanes to purchase a little in this occasion If fire and water winds and tempests harpies and theeves take away thy goods what wilt thou do against chance violence and iniquity but preserve submission and innocency The whole masse of worldly wealth is a torrent which swellerh now upon one side and then upon another let that go with patience which thou canst not hold by force If slander assail thy renown and condemne thee perhaps it doth that thou oughtest to do hadst Slander thou more virtues Many by despising themselves have prevented all contempts Tongues cannot hurt thy conscience we stand before God such as we are and all the teeth of calumny take not from us one sole atome of perfection Others have but one tongue to say and thou hast two hands to do Perfect thy life since it hath censures verity will force light through those vapours of maligne spirits derive glory out of thy proper confusion If thou beest discountenanced by great ones put thy self into the good favour of Disgrace God who is above all greatnesse and after thou hast made thy self a slave to men live a while a master over thy self Thou shalt find envy will have consecrated thee and that thy punishments will make a part of thy felicities If thou enterest into sadnesse for being frustrated of some expected good wherefore art thou so earnest in thy desires and so credulous in thy hopes and wherefore makest thou crosses to thy self out of thy own thoughts If it be for the absence Absence of friends of a beloved friend thinkest thou he must continually be tied to thee as if he were a second body It is in absence where our imaginations oftentimes render all that we affect most present we enter into the bottome of our soul and there find the images of our friends despoiled of matter and body we practise the best amities in mind where the envious watch us not the jealous observe us not and the troublesome interrupt not our discourses If this good friend be gone into the other world we every moment run after him and each hour draw near to him Let us be satisfied that his death is the cause that death hath nothing Death terrible for us and that for him we begin to desire what we most fear If we in body must suffer chains imprisonment Bodily pains maladies sharp pains hunger thirst the sword fire and all the hostility of nature we must needs say all which toucheth the skin toucheth us very near and that there are few charming words that can well cast
Book which comprehends all secrets we at least should consider the divine Providence in the matter of the burdens of all the world to diminish our nicenesse to gain opinion and understanding which may alter our judgement A sage Roman shewing to an impatient man the Sence l. 3. nat quaest Praeferri scies quid deceat si cogitaveris orbem terrarum notare whole world surrounded in a great deluge of miseries said unto him I assure my self you would not so much play the milk sop nor have a soul so effeminate if you would think that the whole world swimmeth in a dreadfull sea of calamities All things conform themselves to the nature of their originall and we have elsewhere said that Bees bred in the dead body of a Bull Bees bear the figure of a ball on their bodies carry the resemblance of their Progenitour pourtrayed by certain little lineaments in their proper body The world hath produced us and Jesus Christ hath regenerated us by his Death and most precious Bloud never should we rest untill we carry upon us some token Glorisi care portate Deum in corpore vestro 1 Cor. 6. of nature wailing and of a God suffering according to S. Pauls precept Glorifie and hear the Image of God in your body § 6. Advice to impatient Souls IMpatient Souls to you I speak I ask you Is it a small motive to you to suffer that have the Universe for a Companion God for an Example and God for the Guerdon of your Patience All creatures saith S. Paul sigh groan and are as it were in labour Rom. 8. 22. expecting that day wherein all things shall be glorified in the resurrection of bodies and will you be of so Ad communem hanc Rempublicam quisque promodulo exsolvimus quod debemuâ— quasi canonem passionum inferimus S. August in Psal abject a courage as to be like unprofitable burdens with arms acrosse in the midst of a suffering world and before the eyes of the God of suffering Is it not a scandall to the Religion we professe often to afflict our selves with great and heavy sadnesses for causes most light To see too you would make one think the Law the Sacraments and Jesus Christ himself were cast away Where is the Consolation of holy Scriptures the fruit of Preachings the sweetnesse of Prayers Where is that huge cloud of Examples of so many Patient ones whose courages you so often have admired where are good purposes good thoughts where are so many resolutions so well taken in the time of prosperity must the least adversity make you to shrink back Verily Ideots and silly women who have neither the wit nor knowledge which you have do many times bear no flight burdens with much courage and you after so many good instructions lay down arms and make it appear that stupidity hath more foree with them then all the precepts of wisdome have power over your weaknesse People who live according to nature find remedies for their sadnesse in nature it self Bathings Wine Playes Balls Hunting open Air and so many other recreations make them passe away their evil Is it possible but that the cosideration of the first verity and the divine Providence should mitigate yours What is it can have such power over you It is strange that things the most frivolous torment you Call back into your thoughts what I have said to you concerning the matter of your pleasures It greives you you have not thrived in this affair nor have had the successe of reputation which you exspected what a folly is this as if I should be troubled that the air and winds were not at my dispose Will you never cease from usurping that which appertaineth not to you will you never order your own house without taking care for things out of it You afflict you self for a word spoken of you wretched that you are to tie your felicity to the condition of tongues There would almost be Very true no slander if it were not made slander by thinking thereon you torment your self for the losse of health or of some other good which was very pretious with you Impute your crosse to your affection so excessively to have loved a blessing which you might lose and to have coveted all good things without you to have an ill guest within your own house You put your self upon the rack with the fear of the future why do you set your foot into the possession of another why do you not leave the future to the divine Providence why do you reap dolours in a field where you are not permitted to sowe you incessantly complain of poverty of sicknesse and other inconveniences of life if you think to live here free from pain you must build a world a-part and not be contented with the elements which served your ancestours turns God here distributeth burdens as the father of a family doth offices to all his domesticks every one must bear that which is allotted him otherwise if he do not he is a bastard and not a legitimate child and if having one he hear it Quod si extra disciplinam cujus participes facti sunt omnes ergo adulterini non fâ—â—ii Heb. 12. 8. with a perpetuall vexation he deprives himself of the crown of patience the value whereof is as inestimable as the force thereof hath in all times been judged invincible Have you forgot what S. Paul said If you be saith he out of the number of those who live in a regular discipline and who daily have their petty charge in Gods family wherein they are subjects I assure you you are not used like children of the house but as very bastards left to live at randome Believe me our burdens are like the stone of the Sybils which to some weighed Dio. Chrys orat 13. Marvelous stone of Sybils like lead and to others as a feather oft-times the weight or lightnesse of your evils proceeds from nought but your own disposition Imagination hath made you believe it nice breeding which hath been bestowed on you and evil habits wherein you have been perpetually nousled fail not to accomplish your misery Accustome your self a little to do that work well for which you came into the world Learn that you must bear the miseries of mans condition since you participate of humane nature and that thanks be to God you are not a monster When you have learnt to suffer something you will begin to enter into the possession of your soul in which alone you shall find all felicities if so you be united to your beginning Courage poor impatient one raise your self a little above your self by the grace which is given you from on high and so many good assistances which you can never want The God of patience and Consolation will confirm you will fortifie you and will give you the reward of your fidelity The seventh Treatise Of HOPE § 1. The Description
had some particular favours from heaven to authorize their actions and to make men believe they had somewhat above man So Moses Joshuah Deborah Gedeon Samson David Solomon and so many others sent by God for the government of his people came with certain characters of his Divinity which gave them an admirable confidence and framed in their souls notable perswasions of their own abilities And it is a thing very remarkable that such as were not in the way of true Religion and who consequently could not have those assistances and singular protections from heaven sought at the least to fortifie themselves with some semblances All which filled Alexander with Boldnesse was that they had perswaded him he was of Divine extraction and that this belief had seized on the souls of the credulous people which was the cause that he was looked on as a man wholly celestiall destinated to the Empire of the world It is thought that Pyrrhus A notable observation of Pyrrhus who imitated him shewed his teeth in great secret to his friends on the upper row whereof the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was engraven and on the lower 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as to say He was a King as generous as a lion but that which most made this Elogy good was that these letters were thought to be formed by a Divine hand to give a testimony from heaven of the greatnesse of this Monarch And this being spread among the people it made them to expect prodigious things from him Augustus Cesar who changed the face of the Common-wealth into Empire mounted on the Throne of the Universe by the same means For it is said Adolphus Occo that his father Octavius whilst he sacrificed in a wood having shed a little wine on the Altar there came a flame from it which flew up to heaven whereon the Augur foretold him he should have a son who should Suetonius 9 be Emperour of the world It is added that this Prince being yet very young in his child-hood played Presages of the generosity of Cesar with Eagles and made frogs to cease their croaking by a silly command and that as he entred into Rome after the death of Julius Cesar the Sunne was Dio Ziphilinus in Augusto encompassed with a Rainbowe as a presage of the great Peace he should produce in the Roman Empire Vespatian had never dared to aspire to the Empire Cornel. Tac. histor l. 2. without the favour of presages and namely of that which happened to him on Mount Carmel when sacrificing in the same place and being in a great perplexity of mind what resolution he should make in this affair the Priest bad him to be of good courage and the secret hopes of his heart should have very good successe The world hath not been content to afford Elogies of the City of Rome these favours to men alone but it hath also given it to famous places Rome for good lucks sake was termed among other titles Valence by the name of Valour Solinus l. 1. Gergyrhius and Cephale as much as to say Head to shew it Ammianus l. 15. c. 6. should be the Head of the world Presently also it was flattered with the opinion of its Eternity so that many termed it the Eternall City which was the cause that the Romans in their greatest desolations would never forsake the place It appears out of all this that men having not the power to be ignorant of their own weaknesses never think themselves strong enough if they have not some I know not what of Divinity wherefore we must conclude that the true means to have a generous and solid boldnesse is to be well with God and to tie ones The most bold are such as have a clear conscience self to this most pure spirit by purity of heart for if a little opinion of Divine favour so much encouraged Kings and People what will not the testimony of a good Conscience do The Egyptians amidst so many plagues from heaven Sap. 17. Ipsi ergò sibi tenebris graviores eraut and that dreadfull night which took away their first-born children were dejected and couched low on the earth without any spark of courage because their evill Conscience was more weighty upon them then all their miseries as the Book of Wisdome observeth What assurance can one have in perils when after Carnifiâ—c occulto in authorem sceleris tormenta deserviunt Peleg ad Demetr S. Basil in Isa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath committed some crime he feeleth a little Executioner in his heart with pincers and hooks of iron Contrariwise a good Conscience is well compared by S. Basil to that little Kell which environeth the heart and which continually refresheth it with its wholesome waters to signifie unto us that the heart of a good man abides in perpetuall solace which among dangers preserveth it from disturbances I ask you with what assurance stood the good Malchus Hieron in Malcho with his holy wife at the entrance of the lions den when of one side the glittering sword was presented them and on the other they heard those savage beasts to roar and they notwithstanding remained immoveable With what arms but with those which S. Hierome gives them when he saith They were encompassed as Pudicitiae conscientiâ quasi muro septi with a strong wall which they found in the testimony of their innocency whereof they were most certain With what confidence went S. Macarius to lie in the sepulchres of Pagans and wholly fearlesse himself to strike terrour into the spirits of the damned was it not the assurance of his holy life which furnished his heart with all this resolution And shall we then doubt but that the true means to be replenished with a holy Courage is to set the Conscience in good order and to make entire Confession of sinnes to preserve ones self afterward in all possible purity from our infirmities § 5. That Jesus hath given us many Pledges of a sublime Confidence to strengthen our Courage LEt us next contemplate our second Model and consider a thing very remarkable which is that Jesus Christ acquired us Boldnesse by his 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ who putteth us into a holy dread by the consideration of his greatnesse hath acquired us boldnesse by his proper fear These are the words of great S. Leo I have borrowed fear from thee and I S. Leo hom de Pass have furnished thee with my confidence He expresly would admit the agony of Mount Olivet in his sacred Humanity to encourage our pusillanimity that we in mildnesse being Lambs might become Lions by courage and this is the course he hath observed in all his actions in this great contexture of pains and dolours of Christus venit suscipere infirmitates nostras suas nobis conferre virtutes humana quaerere praestare divina accipere injâ—â—ias reddere dignitates quia medicus qui
Titanians O senslesse man canst thou not be bold but from the presumption of thy strength And hast thou not yet learned that the things which according to the opinion of the world are most strong are confounded by the weakest Lions have been fed upon by flies and wretched rust wasteth the hardest metals If we must be bold let it be in things honest let it be for virtue for verity for Gods cause Should the heavens Si tactus illabatur orbis impavidum serient ruinae Quadratum lapidem qua verteris stat Aug. in Psal 86. fall in thunder-claps upon our heads their ruines have not power to astonish a mind courageous Turn a square stone which way you will it never stands immoveable upon the solidity of its Basis said S. Augustine One would have me do an ill act and if I consent not thereto I am threatned with the losse of a suit of a ruine of my affairs and with poverty the worst scourge of all Let my enemies vomit forth all their rage on me they cannot make me poorer then I was when I was born I came not into the world glittering with precious stones and it was not gold which instead of bloud ran up and down my veins let poverty come against me with all the train of its terrours When I behold on the Crosse a God all naked who in his nakednesse We must fearnothing in the world to the prejudice of our soul giveth all things I say we should account it a glory to die poor for a God so despoiled They threaten me with banishment the Spirit of God teacheth me not to care what land be under my feet when my eyes are fixed on heaven and on the most blessed repose of the living which concludeth all evils in a beatitude infinite They threaten me with imprisonment fetters gibbets and death the terrible of terribles I expect not till it fall on me I look on it afar off with an eye strucken with the first rayes of felicity What can death take from me but a miserable carcasse subject to a thousand deaths but a life of pismires and flies And what can it bring unto me but a cessation from so many relapsing actions and from a wretched embroilment which every day endeth not but to begin again O how little are all things mortall with him who looks on a God immortall I will walk in the shades of death with a firm footing and a confident countenance since it cannot separate me from the source of Lives The eleventh Treatise Of SHAMEFACTNESSE § 1. The Decency of Shamefac'tnesse its Nature and Definition SHamefac'tnesse is a humane Passion more reasonable then the rest because being properly Shamefac'tnesse a very reasonable Passion A fear of Dishonour it makes distinction between that which is decent or undecent laudable or blame-worthy glorious or infamous which appertaineth to the Court-hall of Judgement and Reason It hath this priviledge that Its sources honour and conscience it takes its Origin from two very eminent sources which are Conscience and Honour seeing the things which cause shame in us are ordinarily vitious or naught in the common understanding of men Conscience which according to S. Thomas is a naturall habitude that exciteth us to good and maketh 1 Part. q. 80 us to disapprove evil insensibly stirreth in us shame so soon as any of our thoughts actions or words transgresse its laws Honour on the other side casts forth a ray from the circuit of its glory which visibly figureth The love of reputation is a strong spurre unto us the blemishes that darken its beauty The love of Reputation is powerfull It seems to be some Atome of Divinity which enters into hearts the most generous makes men very desirous to be well esteemed thinking by this means to lead a pleasing life in the minds of many which is much more prized then the life of bodies seeing there are some who daily sacrifice themselves for Punctillio's of Honour to bloudy deaths in the most exalted heighth of their prosperity This reputation pompously marchethe before Conquerours and causeth a million of Trumpets to be sounded to make them famous It cultivateth the verdant Laurels of great Captains It encourageth the most heartlesse souldiers to Combat It cherisheth the learned and sweetneth the toils of their pens It awakeneth arts It raiseth the most excellent Ladies as it were on the wing of Glory by singularpraises of their Chastity It entreth into places the most infamous as the ray of the Sun into a puddle and makes even those who have renounced Honour still to seek some rag of Renown to cover their reproach S. Augustine saith S August in Psal 19. Herostratus and others Non sum tantus ut sim contentus conscientia mea Ambr. l. 1. Offic. c. 48. men are so ready to make themselves to be known that those who cannot be known for their goodnesse make themselves many times to be talked of for their wickednesse as if they thought it were as good to be nothing as to see themselves deprived of the knowledge of the living S. Ambrose saith admirably well I am not so great a man as to be satisfied with my own Conscience I have this infirmity that I cannot endure the least stain of shame without washing it off This is the cause that the whole world endeavoureth to preserve for it self as much as it can an inviolable estimation among so many different opinions of judgements passions favours disgraces interests and revolutions of the world Manners saith S. Bernard have their colours and their odours which are good examples So soon as Reputation is wounded by the object of some dishonour the soul is moved all the bloud is stirred spreading it self over the face with a ruddinesse as if it proceeded from this wound It is a favour from heaven when we have our senses tender in this kind and I find the antient Oratour Demades spake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Demades right when he said Shamefac'tnesse was the Cittadel of Beauty and Virtue Likewise the Oracle of Doctours S. Augustine writeth that a more acceptable sacrifice we cannot give to devils then to offer them up Aug. Epist 202. our Shamefac'tnesse forsomuch as if that be once extinct there remains nothing but to expect a generall inundation of all wickednesse § 2. Divers kinds of Shamefac'tnesse NOw we must here observe that there are many kinds of Shamefac'tnesse one whereof is Holy Three kinds of shamefac'tnesse the other Humane and the other Evil. I say a holy Shamefac'tnesse as that which being a most faithfull companion of Chastity cannot endure the least thing Holy shamefac'tnesse contrary to this holy virtue but that it becomes much interessed therein This most evidently appeareth in so many good men in so many virtuous women and chaste virgins who cannot hear an unchaste word but that it fixeth a wound in their hearts Tertullian said Virginibus etiam ipsum
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
cause that continuing a widow in a flourishing age there were Princes in her kingdome who durst promise themselves that she would reflect on them for a second marriage Among others the Count of Champaign proposed this good hap to himself more then was to be believed and ceased not to play the Courtier even to the fitting his gallery with verses and Emblems of the Queen This prudent widow who had to do with Great ones in the beginning of her authority of Regent engaged not her self to any nor did she likevvise reject their suits but so soon as some of them perceived she had no purpose for them they presently took arms to disturb the Kingdome and lessen the authority of the young King The Count of Champaign saw himself by necessity embarked in the faction but he had much ado to defend himself from the affection vvhich possessed him for this exquisite beauty For vvhich cause he pleaded like a lover and betrayed his faction discovering the things most important vvhich gave Queen Blanch a great light to guard her self from the vvicked enterprises of her enemies and dissipate all factions Observations upon the Passion of DESIRE Wherein we may behold the misery of ambitious and turbulent Spirits THe wind which is an invisible power and Marvellous effects of the passion of Desire which appears before our eyes no more then nothing maketh tall ships to move pulleth up trees by the roots overthroweth houses exercising on land and sea powers too-too visible Desires and hopes likewise which to say truely are but imaginations almost unperceivable vex empires embroil states desolate Cities and Provinces and make havock such as we cannot in thought conceive nor can our eyes ever sufficiently deplore It is a strange thing that from a little fountain-head which onely distilleth drops of vvater great rivers grovv and from a desire vvhich invisibly hatcheth in the heart of man lofty ambitions burning avarices and enraged covetousnesse proceed which destroy mankind Our first desires respect body and life which is the foundation of all the blessings we can hope in this world and here it is wherein those who flourish in Empires and eminent fortunes shew passions and cares able to make them immortall if humane nature might reach to such a state We all know that Lewis the eleventh was a Monarch Strange desire of life in Lewis the eleventh who by the greatnesse of his wit and power darkned all the Kings of his Time but we likewise cannot be ignorant that he had most ardent Passions which gave him infinite disturbances the consideration whereof may serve Great ones for the establishment of their repose Never any man more loved life nor more feared death then this mighty Prince who seeing himself laden with infirmities and assailed by old age a disease incurable employed the whole power of an ample Kingdome to hold together a poor thread of life There was not any remedy in the world which he tried not there was no secret in physick which he opened not his profusion caused him to give a Physician ten thousand crowns a moneth and although this Monarch were one of the most eminent of his time and that he sought nothing but to climb over the heads of Princes yet he made himself a slave to Hippocrates his disciples to idolatrize health It is to be thought if Medea had in his dayes returned into the world he would have put himself into her hands of purpose to wax young again like another Peleus So soon as he heard speech of a man who cured maladies by certain extraordinary wayes needs must he come from the utmost limits of the earth and for this cause he called S. Francis de Paula who drave away feavers and plagues from humane bodies with so much ease yet could he not prolong the Kings dayes whom God would punish by the privation of that he most loved He also took the holy viol of Rhemes to keep it in his chamber and therein to find treasures of life which was bootlesse to teach us there is no greater a Hang-man of our hearts then inordinate ill rectified desire The desire of life transported him to extraordinary actions For having been all his life time very plain in apparell towards his latter dayes when he went out of his chamber he sumptuously clothed himself he shuffled his officers and changed them out of a certain desire of novelty that it might be known he was yet alive he cared not to be cursed so that men believ'd him to be living Yet if he had done all this to lead the life of a man and of a King with some reasonable contentment his cares might have been the more excusable But all this great endeavour was but to drag along a miserable life among the distrusts of his nearest allies among jealousies of his own sonne among woodden and Iron cages wherein he kept a Bishop of Verdun for the space of fourteen years among chains and clogges of Iron which he called his threads among disconsolate sadnesses which they sought by all means to sweeten one while making clowns to sport before him another while furnishing out a musick of Hogs ranged under a pavillon of velvet which they pricked through the ears with bodkins to make them chant forth their goodly warblings What inventions doth a passionate man find out to prolong his punishments Next unto life the most ardent desires are for wealth and honour which make turbulent and busie spirits to disturb the whole world vvithout enjoying one hour of repose One might as soon number the starres and the sands of the sea as reckon up the souls of this kind vvith vvhich the Histories of all nations are stuffed For in matters that concern particular ends you on every occasion see children bandied against their parents and kinred in mutiny one against another vvho bely their bloud betray nature and devour lands bloudy and smoking for imaginary pretensions in the matter of their inheritance 2. But it vvould be very hard to find a spirit more covetous more factious and more tempestuous to encrease his estate then vvas that of Lotharius the sonne of Lewis the Courteous Hence it was that he shamefully degraded shaved and shut the King his Father in Prodigious victory which in the end Lotharius gained over himself after a great storm of passions in becoming Religious a Cloister Hence that he contrived so many matches and ploted so many conspiracies Hence that he levied so many armies and gave so many battells Hence that he ransack'd so many Churches put the Clergy to ransome threw down Justice and exhausted the nobility Hence it was that he had alwayes an eye towards the field and an armed hand to ruine the inheritance of his brothers Lastly hence proceeded that bloudy battel of Fontenay where a hundred thousand men of account died in the place so many rivers and seas of bloud must an outrageous ambition swim in which is wedded to particular ends and covetousnesse
the Cannons of Loches to pray and to build a Tomb for her in the midst of the Church These men prudent according to the world accommodating themselves to the time and honouring this rising Sun mounted to the throne of the Kingdome after the death of his father presented themselves before him asking they might be permitted to demolish the tomb of this woman who had so ill used him but he with incredible generosity answered he made not war against the dead and that so far was he from ruining the monuments of Agnes that he would command his Treasurer to give them six thousand florins to preserve them 15. Sage and devout women albeit the sex is too apt Humility and wisedome of Queen Anne to overcome the passion of anger for revenge fail not to re-enter into themselves and blame their proceedings when passion hath transported them out of the lists of reason Anne of Brittain seeing King Lewis the Twelfth very sick and in danger of his life upon the consideration that he left her no male-child caused a Ship to be rigged out laden with great riches which she sent into her dear countrey of purpose to retire thither so soon as the King were dead But the Marshall de Gié who commanded in a City of passage judging that his charge obliged him to let nothing passe out of the Kingdome during the Kings sicknesse did without any other order upon this resolution arrest all the goods of the poor Queen She was a Bee which lived in the sweetnesse of devotion but yet had her sting so that being much provoked by this act she pursued the Marshall and made him come to a triall at the Parliament of Tholose where he was condemned to be banished out of France But the good Queen calling back reason after the stirring of her choler with-held the blow granted liberty to the delinquent protested he was a worthy Lord and had proceeded in all he had done according to the rules of state Whence it appeareth that those cruell souls are most unreasonable which persist in hating because they have once begun and never lay down a wicked hatred for which they have no other reason but their own wickednesse 16. Lewis the Twelfth her husband might have Great and magnanimous goodnesse of Lewis the Twelfth taught her this lesson who having received ill measure under Charls the Eighth his Predecessour when he was Duke of Orleans some flatterers counselling him to ennoble his entry to the Crown by the beating down his adversaries answered in this memorable manner That it was not fit for a King of France to revenge the quarrels of the Duke of Orleans and for this purpose he marked with a crosse all the names of his enemies written down on paper Whereat many wondred thinking this note promised them nothing but a pair of gallows which made them presently fly so much they were urged by their own conscience But he assembled them all together and let them understand he had signed their names with a Crosse that they therein might behold the lesson which the authour of life dictated unto us on the Crosse which was to forgive those who persecute us Francis the First his successour following these steps pardoned the rebellious Rochellers moved by the pitifull clamours of a great number of little children who cryed for mercy at his entrance into the City Our most Christian King hath renewed the examples of the like clemency I speak nothing of the Christian generosity of Henry the Third who seeing himself taken away from Throne and Life by a most detestable Parracide left the revenge thereof to God in the sharpnesse of his wound Henry the Fourth had a soul infinitely mild and if we find in his life some humane defects yet therein there are a thousand divine virtues which shadow them by their great lights 17. But if we compare goodnesse with offence Incomparable mildnesse of Lewis the son of Charlemaigne scarcely shall we find throughout all the histories of the Christian world a Prince who in this point hath equalled the virtue of Lewis the milde son of Charlemaigne This name cost him an invincible patience which made it well appear that a nature too easie is exposed to infinite difficulties His own children Lotharius Pepin and Lewis rebelled against him and out of a horrible daring took Queen Judith from his sides whom he in a second wedlock had married caused her by force to take the veil and holding a dagger at her throat made her promise to perswade her husband to forsake the world out of their Ambition to usurp his Sceptre and to pull the Diademe from his head with hands of Harpies The poor Prince saw himself in one night abandoned by his army which slipt away before his eyes and went to yield themselves to his unnaturall sons but some honest men staying about him he besought and conjured them to save themselves and to leave him alone in perill since he was the victime of Expiation and that his sins had reduced him to this Calamity and verily he went like a victime to the Altar accompanied with the Queen his wife and his grand-child Charles to render himself up a prisoner into their hands to whom he had given both livelyhood and life This heart truely-mild said by the way to those who lead him Let my sonnes do what they will with me and all that God shall permit I onely pray you since I have never offended them not to expose me to the fury of the multitude which commonly are very unjust to those who are depressed as you now behold me and above all I will ask this favour of them that they abstain from maiming any member of the Queen my wifes body whom I know to be most innocent or pulling out the eyes of Charles my grand-child for that would to me be more bitter then death In this manner he came to his sonnes Camp who hypocritically received him with all reverence promising an usage worthy his condition and in the mean time assembled a venemous Counsell of maligne spirits to degrade him The sentence was given contrary to all form of Justice by subjects against their Sovereign Prince by Dupleix children against their father by guilty against the innocent without hearing him without seeing him and on a suddain it was publickly executed at the assembly of Compiegne This King the best in the world on his knees in the Church in the presence of his vassals among an infinite number of people held a scroule in his hand which conteined the imaginary causes of his condemnation they enforced him to read it himself to open his mouth against his own innocency to ask forgivenesse of the Assembly which did him an irreparable wrong Then to conclude this cruell scene he is constrained to take off his belt and to lay it on the Altar to despoil himself of his Royall Robes and to take from the hands of certain infamous Prelates a
jealousie of Saul which torments him a thousand wayes for to adorn him with as many Crowns An Antient A great secret of life said very well That the greatest secret of ones life was to undergo destiny and endure patiently the ordinance of God concerning our lives and estates for by learning Patience we learn to forget our misery but by Antholog 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bearing the Divine appointment with Impatience we row all our life against a torrent which swallows us up David was at the heart of God but he was not at the heart of Saul God had made him for to command and Saul would not allow any wayes that he should be obeyed He sought his life when as God had appointed his Crown for him He desired his death and procured for him immortality God and man did strive who should exalt or depresse this man but the counsels of the one were immoveable and the endeavours of the other were violent in their on-sets and feeble in their effects Assoon as David was seen one might see some Divine The qualities of David thing a little body well made enlivened with a great spirit a comelinesse which could not be learned at school but which was a gift from above a mildnesse without weakenesse a behaviour without affectation a valiantnesse without ostentation a gallantnesse without vanity a virtue that was made to be admired by all and imitated but by few All flowers have their being from the earth by their Men of God roots but they have influences from heaven much different Men also are all of Adams clay but the gifts of God do manifest themselves in some so visibly that it is wisdome to give them place and but headinesse to fight against them This little boy neglected which fed the sheep and whom the father would not so much as reckon amongst the number of his sonnes this is He whom Samuel chose for King by Gods direction who commands not to measure Kings any more by their stature but by their endowments from heaven He comes first to the Court under the quality of a Divids entrance into the Court. player on instruments there he makes himself known for a good Souldier admired as Commander of an Army and crowned as a Conquerour Saul was tormented with an evil spirit which was maintained by his melancholick Humour and nourished by his passion They seek out for him a fair young man which withall was skilfull in playing on the Harp for to make him merry One of his servants said that David the sonne of Jesse would be very fit for that employment he is sent for in the Kings Name he comes he pleaseth while he played on the instruments but he displeases while he handled his weapons when as Envy Envy never sleepeth begins to cause his valour to be reputed for a fault Such kind of enraged asps never sleep at the sound of Musick his Devil is offended at this comelinesse is incensed by those gallant actions and even vomits its poison against those which cast flowers at it Saul knew not that God prepared him this little Musician for to be his heir if hee had known that which heaven intended to do with this child that would have sufficed to have troubled all the Musick He was at that time happy in his blindnesse and his first mischance was to have eyes which could not endure the lustre of anothers virtues This young shepherd which in his apprenticeship had learned to fight with Lions and Bears would go to the warres as well as his brethren who do blame that his curiosity and despise his person There must alwayes be some famous exploit for to put a man at first in great credit at the Court all that which is humane goes on very slowly and an ability is not gotten but by long experience But when God will put to his hand he gives to a man in one happy moment that which thirty years pains could not obtain The combate with Goliah Goliah was that that raised David Heaven had prepared this giant for to serve for a triall of his valour and for an ornament of his prowesse One man alone which had affrighted a whole army nine foot high and armed with five hundred pound weight of iron continues for the space of fourty dayes his stately bravado's challenging the stoutest of the Israelites to combate All their hearts are frozen at the sound of his terrible voyce there is not his like in the world which dares come forth against him The King propounds great riches and his daughter in mariage to him which would take away this blemish from the people of God printed on the face of the whole army by this Philistim David hereupon presents himself and goes forth to fight with him not with the guilded Arms of Saul but with a Sling The Giant scoffs at him and finding him sufficiently armed to defend himself from dogs but not for to set upon men he looks now upon this little body as a fit prey for some bird of rapine But this Champion of the Lord of Hosts reads a lesson first to him of Religion before he shews him his skill in fencing Thou comest to me saith he with a spear a sword and a buckler but I come to thee in the name of the God of armies of the God of the hosts of Israel at which thou this day hast scoffed with so great insolence It is written in heaven that this great God will deliver thee into mine hands and that I shall take away thy head from off thy shoulders and that I shall make a great feast for all beasts of prey with the flesh of this monstrous body and this shall be the means for thee to learn that there is a God in Israel He saith it he doth it he strikes his adversary with a blow of the sling in the midst of his fore-head and makes this mighty tower of flesh to fall in a moment this terrible giant cutting off his head with his own sword which put the whole army of the Philistims to confusion and lifted up the glory of the chosen people to an incomparable heighth Behold the fountain of all great evils that David suffered afterwards all the laurels that he gathered in the field of the battel carried an evil tincture of Sauls envy The great ones admire him the people applaud him he is the subject of the Songs of the daughters of Jerusalem which set him above Saul It is this musick that enraged his evil spirit and would The horrible Envy of Saul not give him any rest Goliah overcome in the opinion of all the world is still upon his legs to torment him here is the cause of his rage as it was before of his fear David must be destroyed because he hath saved the Nation he must be put to death because he hath restored the people to life he must be dishonoured for having upheld the honour of the
fair chamber to repose her self but before she entred into it she desired a courtesie which was that she might go out before day to addresse her Prayers to the God she worshipped according to her custome and passe up and down in his Camp with all freedome which was granted to her She went therefore in the silence of the night to wash her self in a secret fountain that she might purifie her self from the commerce of those Infidels and prayed God incessantly that it would please him to prosper her design for the deliverance of her Countrey She had now passed four dayes in the Army watching an opportunity to execute that which she had projected when Holophernes would needs entertain himself with mirth and make a magnificent feast to which he resolved to invite his ghest thinking good chear and jollity would dispose her to that which he had a mind to have of her But because the Assyrians hold it a great dishonour for a man to make love to a woman and not to win her he would not hazard himself so much as to make an overture to her of such a discourse himself but gave the Commission of it to Vagoa the chief Gentleman of his chamber who used to serve him in such a businesse He failed not to make her know that she was very farre in the favour of his Master and that that very day he made a banquet and desired to see her in particular and that she should take heed of making a scruple of obeying for it was one of the greatest honours that she could receive in her whole life He added that she ought a little to be merry and passe away her time without engendring melancholy she understood well what he meant to say and answered that she was wholly disposed to obey his Lords commands and would have no other will but his and straight way adorns and dresses her self the most pleasingly she could to wound him in the eyes and so passes into her chamber As soon as he saw her alone and near him his heart was totally overthrown and it seemed that the lightning that issued out of the eyes of that beauty had crushed it to powder His passion permitted him not to speak much he was so much moved he contented himself onely with inviting her to be merry and assuring her that she had gained his heart The holy woman prayed him that it might seem good in his eyes that she might entertain her self after her own fashion and that she might eat of that which her servant had prepared for her which he consented to being willing to leave her in a full liberty that he might not scare nor trouble her Now behold him the happiest man in the whole world He drinks with large draughts makes himself exceeding merry and wonderfully pleasant whereat Judith expressed that she had a great content to see him in so good an humour and said that she had cause to reckon in time to come that day for the happiest of all her life The other to please her drank so much the more so that he made himself drunk with a dead drunkennesse It appears plainly that this man was an honest hog and took not the way to bring about his design depriving himself of reason when he had most need of it Vagoa that had the word does his office brings his Master to bed and gets him gone shutting the door to leave him alone with Judith All the servants had so well liquored themselves that they desired nothing but repose Judith alone was well awake and made a sign to her servant to stay for her before the door and not to leave her She contemplates this brave Generall who was now in a dead sleep she stands still for a certain time by his beds side praying God ardently in her silence that it would please him to accomplish by her hand that great stroke that she had destined From thence she goes to the pillar where Holophernes's Cimetre was hanged and draws it boldly out of the scabbard then layes hold of her man by his long hair saying onely in her heart My God it is now strengthen my arm and instantly having turned him for her best advantage she strikes with a masculine hand and cuts off his head at two strokes carries away his pavilion and tumbled down his body as a log She gives suddenly his head to her waiting-woman who puts it up in the same bag that she had brought her victuals in and both of them passe through the midst of the Army without being staid by any one by reason of the permission that they had from the Generall Holophernes They come by night to the gate of the city and cry afarre off to the Centinels Open God is with us that hath done wonders in Israel They run to advertise Ozias and the Priests who come in haste to receive her All the city from the highest to the lowest assemble themselves about her thinking that she had been lost and looked upon her as a woman come from the other world She causes instantly torches to be lighted and gets her up into an high place from whence they were wont to make Orations to the people and after she had made a silence she thus spake Sirs Praise God our Lord who never forsakes his own and hath through his grace accomplished this day by me his most humble servant the promise which he hath made to his chosen people for this night he hath slain by my hands the common enemy of our Nation And as she was saying this she drew out of the bag that horrible head of Holophernes pale and bloudy and shewed it to the whole Assembly adding Behold the head of Holophernes the Generall of the army of the Assyrians and then she spread abroad the pavilion saying Behold the pavilion under which he reposed himself in his drunkennesse and where God struck him by the hand of a woman I call that living God to witnesse that by the protection of his holy Angel he hath preserved me pure going and coming and in the abode which I made in the Camp without permitting any one to attempt any thing upon my honour And now he hath brought me back glad of his victory of my own safety and of your deliverance It is to him that we ought to give all the praise because his goodnesses and mercies are inexhaustible The people felt transports of joyes and seeing that head by the help of torches in the silence of the night thought that it was a dream but the multitude of those that beheld all one and the same thing present and reall made them plainly see that it was a truth They prostrate themselves all on the earth adoring the living God that was the worker of those great wonders and then turning themselves to Judith gave her a thousand blessings with triumphant acclamations protesting that she was their Mother and their Deliverer Then Ozias the Prince of the people of Israel in
this change kindled again his antient vigour and rallied all his forces to oppose the Generalls of King Demetrius so that at first he defeated some of them with a very famous rout which more inflamed that Monarch not being able to endure that his Arms should be cryed down at the beginning of his Reign this made him send into the field Army upon Army with so great impetuousnesse that there was no more any means left to make resistance Yet the great heart of the Maccabee could not yield but sailed against wind and tide the thoughts of his valour making him forget those of his danger He had yet three thousand men very resolute fellows with which he promised himself to continue his victories but when Bacchides the Generall was seen appear with an army of two and twenty thousand men many withdrew themselves for fear of the danger into which the Maccabee following the ordinary tracts of his courage was about to precipitate them These run awayes beginning to wheel about to the other side stole away so handsomely from the Army that of three thousand there remained but eight hundred The Maccabee felt his heart much pierced seeing himself forsaken of his brethren and of his friends in his greatest need he burned with a desire to charge his enemies but when he considered the small forces he had about him his heart bled within him It was an evident peril to approach the enemy and death to retire from them divers thoughts about this combate contended in his heart but those that favoured his boldnesse had the upper hand Let us go sayes he to his men and try our fortune let us essay whether we shall have heart enough to encountre the army that comes against us The most considerate men replyed that they wanted not any courage but that their small appearance would not be able to affront an army of two and twenty thousand men with a Regiment not compleat and that it was expedient for them to retire that day to rallie some new troops and to return to the combate with hopes of greater advantages God forbid replyed the Maccabee that our enemies should have that contentment to see us turn our backs and flie before them this is a a thing I could never yet be taught since I took up arms Ha! Where is that gallantry that I have alwayes seen in you Ought we to be so much in love with life If our hour be come let us die valourously for our brethren and let us not leave a blemish upon the lustre of the honour that we have acquired He carries them away all by his authority and they are already resolved to conquer or to die The trumpets sounds on both sides the earth eccho's with the noise of the arms and shouts of the souldiers Bacchides causes his dragoons armed with arrows and with slings to advance who began the skirmish and lead up a great battle that endured from the morning to the evening the one combating by number and the other by valour And when the Maccabee saw that the best troops were on the right point about the person of Bacchides he resolved to make his way thither which he did with a prodigious violence making them lose their footing and beating them back with much confusion But those on the left point that were yet fresh seeing the disorder of their companions came to fall upon Judas and upon all his troop that were extremely wearied with having laid upon the place so many bodies of the enemies These defended themselves valiantly but the multitude of those that set upon them on all parts overwhelmed them and the incomparable Maccabee by having received many wounds opened as many bloudy gates to his generous soul to flie away into the other world There are neither Colossus's nor Pyramids that can equall the deeds of this gallant man Never did any man fight better or for a better Cause His heart was a source of generous flames his hand was the thunder it self his valour a miracle his life an example and his death was like to be that of his whole countrey that would have buried it self in his tomb if his brothers Jonathan and Simon had not enlarged his conquests by the imitation of his prowesse The good party was much weakned by the decease of him that was the soul of his whole countrey and it seemed that Judea would quickly be swallowed up by the great forces of King Demetrius but the succouring hand of the God of hosts was not wanting to his servants in the extremity of so many miseries The pernicious Alcimus that had raised that whole storm when he thought himself to be above his hopes was smitten with a stroke from heaven and died suddenly of a strange malady Demetrius after a Reign of some years saw a great faction raised against him from that coast whence he least expected it which deprived him of his Sceptre and his life His scornfull and haughty nature made him disdain the Kings his neighbours even so farre as to offend them by wayes of words and deeds He was also little affable and courteous to his Subjects that loved naturally to be caressed of their Prince and although at first he was of an humour good enough yet he was so much changed that having built a very sumptuous Castle near his capitall city he lived there constantly to take his pleasure and let himself be seen by very few His people of Antioch that was on the other side arrogant enough were incensed and wearied with his Reign They began to raise rebellions that were fomented under hand by the Kings of Egypt of Asia and of Cappadocia that distrusted him and thought to find him a successour He was quite astonished when he saw one Pompalus a young man before that time unknown that called himself the son of Antiochus the Illustrious and brother of Eupator come and demand the Kingdome of Syria as appertaining to him by right of birth Many Historians hold that it was a pure fiction and that that pretended was suborned by the artifice of those three Kings and namely of Ariarathes the Cappadocian yet since the Scripture names him the son of Antiochus the Illustrious I find that it is very probable to follow that which others have written and to say that that Antiochus had heretofore made love to a young Rhodian woman named Bala on whom he had begotten this naturall son with his sister Laodice He failed not to shew himself at Rome and to make himself be somewhat taken notice of by the practices of one Heraclides a wise and crafty man in managing businesses The enemies of Demetrius embraced this occasion to disturb him and carried as much as they were able this man to the Throne not by reason of Justice but because they believed they should have a better market for their pretensions by making a new creature then suffering any longer him they had rendred more absolute then they desired he should be It
continually and forget all the functions of the reasonable life So may you see abundance of such men who perceiving themselves raised upon the wings of fortune fall into such a madnesse of glory that they are as it were dizzy-headed by certain venimous fumigations of ambition and know themselves no more But this man sees himself at his going out of prison mounted to the highest point of honour that ever happened to a Favourite He hath the Kings Ring and Seal he triumphs upon his Chariot he sees the Nobles in admiration of his Fortune and the Commons in veneration he sees the applauses he hears the Clamours of those that highly publish him the saviour of the world And yet for all this great preparation there escapes not from him one onely word of vanity He expresses not any complacency in those honours and in that habit and it is not read that after the day of the Ceremony he ever used them He publickly a vouches that he is the son of a Shepheard he causes his Father and his Brothers to come into the Kingdome of Egypt not to give them the Offices of the Court and the Treasures of Pharaoh but he lets them alone in their vocation contenting himself to procure their quiet and some small commodities sutable to that Pastorall life He humbles himself before his Father he acknowledges and makes much of his Brethren he gains the heart of all the world and bears so actively that high top of glory that he seems to be no more laden with it then a Bird is with his Feathers The third perfection of Joseph is remarkable in the great and laborious services that he rendered to his Prince with an high Prudence an exquisite Diligence and an inviolable faithfulnesse He visited in person all the Provinces of Egypt and in the great fertility of those fortunate years when Corn was almost as cheap as sand he laid up a prodigious store in the Kings Magazines to relieve the necessities of the barrennesse that was to come and indeed it did not fail to happen but indured the space of seven years with such a violence and so great disasters that it seemed that the bowels of the Earth were iron and that God had resolved to destroy mankind by a Generall Famine It was then that all the People implored the mercy of the King who sent them back to Joseph who caused the Granaries of all Egypt to be set open and sold corn to all those that had need of it first for money afterward for Cattell and at last when both money and Cattell failed the Egyptians they sold their Lands in great number so that all Egypt was submitted to the discretion of the King to avoid that raging Famine They gave themselves and their little possessions with all their heart for Bread But Joseph takeing pity of their great miseries made them Conditions that were above all their hopes This people was of a spirit bright enough addicted to novelties and seditions which made them often shake off the yoak but Joseph tamed them insensibly by their own necessities and subjected all Egypt to his Master causing him to reign peaceably and with a great authority and yet for all this drew no envy upon himself but quite contrary he made his Government be admired and his memory blessed Amongst all this it is not said that he enriched his house with the great treasures that he heaped up for Pharaoh and although that his Master had put all things into his power yet he used them so moderately that when he had a mind to offer presents to his brother Benjamin whom he loved as his own heart he contented himself to give him five suits of Clothes and three hundred Livers making the same largesse to his Father with some Mules to transport their Baggage Yet is is very true that he caused the Land of Goshen to be given them but it was as it were by way of loan to dwell there and to husband it till the return that Jacob pretended to make to the Countrey of his Fathers In a word Joseph plainly shewed that he was little affected to all the Riches of the Egyptians when he received of his father and made reckoning of it a little piece of Land that he had gained from the Amorites A fourth quality of this wise Governour which is greatly to be priz'd is seen in the great prudence and singular sweetnesse which he used in his Government in such a manner that he gained the affection of all the great men of Egypt David speaking of this discretion and of this goodnesse saith according to the Hebrew Text That he tyed them all to his heart which is as much as to say That he united them to his person by a great affability by good offices and by honest yieldings They looked upon him as a Father and as a Master and had him in veneration and yet for all this he was not puffed with Pride nor inebriated with the opinion of his own sufficiency But in all the extraordinary favours that he received of the King his Master he was communicable and esteeming himself as one of them he saw them all under him To speak sincerely it is an admirable thing That a stranger should have held the Stern of a Kingdome the space of four score years in a Nation full of Spirit and sufficiently seditious without complaints without discontents and without intermissions in a calm so peaceable a Peace so amiable a Love so Universall How many do we see in Histories that being come to some dignity seem continually to hold a Wolf by the ears and as they love nothing but their own Interest so are they loved sincerely of no body which puts them in continuall frights and makes them fear even the very shadow of an hair They think not that there is any security for themselves unlesse they put the whole world in danger nor safety unlesse it be in the publick Ruines This makes them be hated of God and Men and causes cares to leap over Ramparts of Steel and Iron to beset their silver Ballisters and to call them to an account at every moment for the Calamity of the Living and for the Blood of the Dead This was a fifth Lineament of his good demeanour that he had bowels of Compassion for the poor People in that cruell Famine and generall despair of all Egypt And although one might imagine that he had promoted the Interests of the King in an excesse to the detriment of the Subject yet is it true that he that will well consider the estate and Lawes of that Monarchy will impute to Josephs favour that which he would have taken at first sight for Rigour in his Government It is certain that according to the Antient Histories which treat of the Policy of that Nation the Revenue of Egypt was divided into three parts the first of which was claimed by the Priests that were in great number and in great esteem in a
others through a compliance with the humours of Ahab and Jezabel The news of his death comes instantly to the Court and Jezabel carries it to the King without specifying to him any other thing telling him onely that Naboth was out of the world and that he might now enjoy his spoils all at leasure To speak Truth Great ones have great cause to make to God Davids Prayer and to beseech him to deliver them from others sinnes and from those that are hidden from them Unfortunate Ahab knew nothing of all that had passed and takes not the pains to inform himself of the manner of that death He trusted all to his wife and gave her his signet his authority his heart and Counsels It was enough to make him guilty to put the Government of his Kingdome into the hands of that Sidonian woman who he might well know had great inclinations to bloud and rapine Princes do wisely not to rely too much in every thing upon their Counsellours of State without watching over their actions and using all diligence to discover their deportments without believing any thing lightly either on one side or the other Ahab without taking any farther information was going to possesse himself of Naboths bloudy spoil when the Prophet Elijah by the command of God came and found him upon the way and began to roar against him as a Lyon What sayes he Murther the Innocent and take away his Inheritance bedewed with his bloud After this what is there more to do Know Sir that the Vengeance of God hangs over your head and that in the same place as the Doggs licked the bloud of Naboth they shall lick yours This unhappy Prince extreamly amazed at so thundering a speech was not incensed against the Prophet but endeavouring to pacifie him said to him Wherein have I offended you and in what have you found me your enemy that you use me with all these rigours You are enough mine enemy sayes the Prophet seeing you are Gods and since yee have sold your selfe through love to an Idolatrous woman to serve her passions and commit so many wicked acts in the face of God In punishment of your crimes He will ruine your House and blot out your Posterity the bloud of that murthered Innocent will cost Jezabel dear for she shall be caten up of Doggs in the field of Jezreel Poor Ahab returns hanging down his head without passing farther tormented on one side by the remorse of his own Conscience and on the other by the love he bare to his Sidonian whom he would not any way displease He said nothing to her of all that shee had done without his privity in Naboth's businesse whether through affection or through fear of her wicked Spirit He revenges himself upon himself he rents his Clothes he fasts he covers himself with sackcloth without putting it off even when he went to bed which softned the heart of God who ordained that the Kingdome should not be taken from him during his life but that his Posterity should be deprived of it Three years were slipt away and Elijah was absent when Ahab resolved to proclaim warre with the King of Syria to recover Ramoth one of his Cities that the other had usurped and engaged Jehosaphat King of Juda to his party making a new Alliance of Arms and Interests with him When they were assembled Jehosaphat which had a zeal to the true Religion said That it would be good to consult with some Prophet before they enterprised the warre and Ahab to content him called for four hundred but they were the false Prophets of his wife who were none of the best and who foretold him all falsoly that he should have an happy issue of his enterprise King Jehosaphat asked Ahab whether amongst that great number of Baals Prophets there were never a Prophet of the true God that one might hear speak meaning by this to induce him to his duty and to the knowledge of the true Religion Ahab replyed that there was none at present but a certain man named Michaiah but he could not endure him because he prophecied nothing but mischief to him Jehosaphat said that he ought not for that to hate him but that it would be good to hear him and instantly was sent away a Gentleman of the Court to call him This man ceased not to advise him upon the way to remit something of that rigour that was usuall to him and to render himself complacent to the King as all the other Prophets had done whereto he answered That he could do nothing against the Spirit of God nor against his conscience When he was come he perceived a great assembly of false Prophets who all approved that warre One among them named Zedechiah had made himself iron horns to signifie to King Ahab that he should ransack all Syria with a mighty power and that nothing should resist his Arms. But Michaiah being asked spake at first by fiction as the other Prophets foretelling prosperities without end Whereat the King being astonished that he did it against his custome conjured him not to flatter him and to tell him openly the truth To which he answered that he would not counsell him to hazard a battell against the King of Syria for if he did his whole army would be scattered and added also that God had given permission to the wicked spirit to deceive him and that he had found no better way to do it then to speak by the mouth of so many false Prophets that encompassed him Whereupon Zedechiah being incensed at that speech gave him a blow and the King commanded his Person to be seized on and to be put in prison to be kept there fasting with bread of tribulation and water of anguish till his return But the Prophet assured him that if he went he should never return again It is a strange thing that we cannot believe Truth that comes from the mouth of Gods servants because it complyes not with our passion It is also a manifest punishment to those that despise it not to consider that God begins the ruine of their fortune by the blinding of their Counsels Ahab obstinate to his miserie marches with all his Army against the King of Syria Jehosaphat engaged through inconsideration in that league pursues what he had ill begun and thinks that there is no better means to justifie an errour then Perseverance When the two Kings approached the enemy and the Armies were ranged in Battell the King of Syria gave expresse charge to his most resolute men to aim at the King of Israel and to endeavour to carry him it being the true means to dispatch the businesse and put an end to the warre Ahab began to fear his unhappinesse and prayed Jehosaphat to go into the mingling putting him forward with courage out of a design perhaps to cause him to be destroyed and to draw all the weight of the Army upon him by diverting it from his person And indeed when the
hour of the day to remain shut up in the enclosure of a palace walls as old owls and to have no other pleasure but to make fire and bloud rain upon the heads of men What contentment to wax pale at every flash of lightning to tremble at every assault of the least disease to prepare poisons and haltars for every change of fortune to live for nothing but to make men die and to die for nothing but to make the devils a spectacle of their pains Is this it that deserves the name of felicity and the admiration of the world After that Josiah had drawn tears from the eyes of all the Kingdome the people honouring his memory set his son Jehoahaz upon the Throne who reigned but three moneths because that Nechoh puft up with his victory that would not suffer them to think of making a King without his consent came and fell upon Jerusalem and carried him away prisoner into Egypt where he died of displeasure and bad usage He took his brother Eliakim or Jehoiakim to put him in his place and to make him reign under his authority But Nebuchadonozor who esteemed himself the God of Kings could not endure that the Egyptian should intermeddle with giving Crowns came to besiege Jerusalem with great forces and having won it carried away the miserable Jehoiakim captive into Babylon with the flower of the city and the sacred vessels of the Temple when he reckoned yet but the third year of his reign It was a pitifull thing to see this infortunate King in chains after a dignity so short and so unhappy but this so lamentable a change moved his adversary to compassion who released him upon condition of a great annuall tribute He discharged it for the space of three years by constraint his heart and inclinations leaning alwayes towards Egypt and never ceasing tacitely to contrive new plots Besides he so forsook the service of God and abandon'd himself to the impiety of the Idolaters that the admonitions and menaces of the Prophet Jeremy that had foretold him of a most tragicall issue had no power upon his spirit And therefore Nebuchadonozor returned the eleventh year of the reign of this unhappy King and having conquered him again caused him to be assassinated and his body to be cast on the dunghill for a punishment of his rebellion He permitted his son Jehoiachin otherwise Jechonias to succeed him but scarce had this disastrous Prince reigned three moneths before this terrible Conquerour transported him with his mother his wives and servants and made him feel in Babylon the rigours of Captivity after he had robbed him of all his treasures and drawn out of Jerusalem ten thousand prisoners of the principall men of all Judea so that this deplorable Realm was then between Egypt and Babylon as a straw between two impetuous winds incessantly tossed hither and thither without finding any place of consistence Nebuchadonozor made a King after his own fancy and chose Zedekiah the uncle of Jehoiachin who was at last the most miserable of all the rest Here it it that Jeremy received a good share of the sufferings of his dear countrey and found himself intangled in very thorny businesses in which he gave most excellent counsels that were little followed so resolute were the King and Nobles to their own calamity He had been very much troubled under the Reign of Jehoiakim for as he was prophecying one day aloud of the ruine of the city of Jerusalem and the entire desolation of the Temple the Priests seized upon his person and caused the people to mutiny against him out of a design to make him be torn in pieces But it chanced by good hap that some Lords of the Court ran to appease that tumult before whom Jeremy justified himself and protested that it was the Spirit of God that moved to fore-tell those sad disastres for the correction of the sins of Jerusalem and that the onely means to shelter themselves from the wrath of heaven was seriously to embrace repentance and told them that it was in their hands to do him Justice and that if they used him otherwise they would shed innocent bloud that would rebound against them and the whole city Those Courtiers judged that there was nothing in him worthy of death and delivered him from the hands of those wicked Priests that were ready to assassinate him there being no persecution in the world like to that which comes from sacred persons when they abuse their dignity to the execution of their revenge After this shaking command is given him again to hold his peace and to remain shut up in a certain place without preaching or speaking in publick which was the cause that he dictated from his mouth his thoughts and conceptions to Baruch his Secretary commanding him to read them in a full assembly of the people which he did without sparing the great and principall men to whom he communicated them so that this passed even to the ears of King Jehojakim who would needs see the book and when he had read three or four pages of it he cut it with a penknife and cast it into the fire commanding that Jeremy and his Secretary Baruch should be apprehended But God made them escape ordaining that that deplorable King that had despised his Word and the admonitions of his Prophet should fall into that gulf of miseries that had been fore-told him The same abominations ceased not under the Reign of Zedekiah and Jeremy resumed also new forces to fight against them and to publish the desolations that should suddenly bury that miserable Nation then Pashur one of the principall and of the most violent Priests caused the Prophet to be brought before him to reprehend him for that he ceased not to fore-tell evils and to torment all the world by his predictions Whereupon he entred into so great a wrath against the innocent that without having any regard to the decency of his dignity he stroke him and not content with that caused him to be clapt in prison and chains to be put upon him This Divine personage seeing himself reduced to that captivity for having brought the Word of God and being left as it were to himself to do and suffer according to nature and humane passions was seized with a great melancholy and made complaints to God which parted not but from the abundance of love that he bare to him Ha! what said he my God have you then deceived me And who doubts but that you are stronger then I Who am I to resist you You have made me carry your word and to speak boldly your adorable truths to Kings and Peoples and for this I am handled as an Imposture and as the dreg of nature and the reproach of the world Behold what I have gained by serving you with so much obedience and fidelity Often have I said by my self I will obey the Magistrates I will hold my peace and remember no more the thoughts that God
it is affirmed that she was taken with the love of this her brother Agrippa and that most passionately she did affect him neverthelesse to divert the fame and suspicion of the world finding her self courted by Polemon King of Cilicia she consented to espouse him on that condition that he should be circumcized to which the Prince was presently resolved being overcome by the temptation of her Beauties and the excesse of Love to which she had enflamed him She remained a certain time with him but her high and wanton spirit did distaste him and she returned into her own countrey to the Embraces of her brother who lived with her and entertained her in his place without regarding of the scandall I leave you to judge my Readers how the matter was disposed to receive the fire which proceeded from the mouth of S. Paul All that he could do was to imprint in the soul of the Prince and Princesse a good opinion of the Christian Religion and a good respect for his own person for at the rising of this Session they told the President that there was nothing in that man that deserved either imprisonment or death but because he had appealed to Cesar it was necessary that he should be sent to Rome After this S. Paul was imbarked under the conduct S. Paul imbarked for Rome of the Centurion Julius who did use him with great humanity and in the end after a laborious voyage and shipwrack they arrived at Rome He made his coming known to the chiefest of his Nation who then resided in the capitall City of the world and did inform them of his good Intentions protesting to them that he was not come to accuse his Nation but having done nothing against their Law or their Religion they had delivered him over to the Infidels who having found his cause good were ready to clear him had not the clamours and the oppositions of some of the Jews obliged him He arriveth there and treateth with the Jews to that voyage and as concerning the rest he was in chains he said for the hope of the salvation of Israel They made answer to him that they had understood nothing of him in particular but knew very well that the Sect of the Christians which he had imbraced was contrary to all the world and that they should be glad to understand by what Arguments he could pretend to justifie them To which S. Paul consented and there were great Disputations amongst them concerning the mysteries of our Faith S. Luke doth conclude his History on these conferences and speaketh nothing of the Triall of S. Paul before the Magistrates of Rome but we may learn it from the Epistle which the Apostle did write to his Disciple Timothy and from that which 2 Tim. 4. Phil. 1. he adressed to the Philipians where he declareth that on the first action of that Triall he was forsaken of all the world but singularly assisted by God and that the carrying on this affair did much improve it self to the advancement of the Gospel his chains being known in Jesus Christ to all the Praetoriums in Rome and to all the world as also that at last he was delivered from the mouth of the lion by whom he understood the Emperour Nero. From this and from that which the holy Fathers and S. Paul uâ—doubted â—â— known unâ—o Seneca Interpreters have delivered we may collect that Saint Paul came to Rome in the third year of the Emperour Nero when as yet he was not depraved and when Seneca was in the heighth of his reputation and the management of the publick Affairs We ought not to doubt that what is reported by the Pope S. Linus concerning the knowledge which Seneca had with S. Paul is true seeing that great Minister of State who had his eye over all and who was extremely curious to understand the diversity of Sects and Religions and to be informed of extraordinary Causes to make report thereof unto the Emperour could no wayes be ignorant of so famous a thing which was made known in Rome both to the great and small Besides it is very probable that Seneca assisted at the Triall and heard the Reasons of S. Paul We may also easily conjecture the Discourse which he made before the Priests and the Senatours of Rome by the Apologies and Defences which he used before Felix Festus King Agrippa Bernice and all the Assembly of the Jews and by what he spake to the Senate of the city of Athens He then declared himself to them much after this manner I think my self this day happy that God hath granted me the favour to justifie my self in your presence S. Pauls Oration to the Senate of Rome on all those Articles with which they of my Nation have accused me being throughly possessed of the great sufficiency and the integrity of this Senate to decide all differences in the Empire For this I do begin to breathe again after my long and heavy voyage and after a thousand troubles beholding my self now at the Tribunall of Cesar which I have implored and I beseech you to attend me with that Patience and Equity which you never refuse to those who are oppressed My accusers know very well what hath been my life from my youth and how by the pleasure of God being born at Tarsus a city in Cilicia which is honoured by the priviledge of Burgesses to this Capital City of the world I have followed the Religion of my Fathers conversing with a good and an upright conscience before God and before men without offending any I do avow that according to the most perfect Sect amongst us I have alwayes conceived assured hopes of our Immortality and of the universall Resurrection of men which is established by the the inviolable promise of the living God to whom nothing is impossible and that I have been most curious to observe all the Ceremonies of our Law The zeal which did inflame me for it did make me conceive that I had reason to persecute the Christians and having received a Commission from the chiefest of the Priests I made an exact search to surprize imprison and torment those who made profession of it The fury did so farre transport me that not content to prosecute a violent warre against them in Judea I passed into strange Cities into which they were fled to relieve themselves from punishment it came to passe that going to Damascus a city famous enough as I did breathe forth nothing but fire and threatnings I saw my self suddenly invironed with a light so glorious that it did surpasse the brightest rayes of the Sun and from that Splendour there did proceed the voice of a man who called me by my name and demanded of me wherefore I did persecute him I speak Sirs before God and before you with all sincerity that I felt my self strongly surprised and I demanded of him that spake unto me who he was to which he made answer That he
commandment Wealth and Honour were always on her side Delight and Joy seemed onely to be ordained for her Whatsoever she undertook did thrive all her thoughts were prosperous the earth and the sea did obey her the winds and the tempests did follow her Standards Some would affirm that this is no marvel at all but onely the effect of a cunning and politick Councel composed of the sons of darkness who are more proper to inherit the felicities of this world than the children of the light But we must consider that this is the common condition both of the good and the evil to find out the cause in which the Understanding of man doth lose it self David curiously endeavouring to discover the reason in the beginning did conceive himself to be a Philosopher but in the end acknowledged that the consideration thereof did make him to become a Beast The Astrologers do affirm that Elizabeth came into the world under the Sign of Virgo which doth promise Empires and Honours and that the Queen of Scotland was born under Sagitarius which doth threaten women with affliction and a bloudy Death The Machivilians do maintain that she should accommodate her self to the Religion of her Countrey and that in the opposing of that torrent she ruined her affairs The Politicians do impute it to the easiness of her gentle Nature Others do blame the counsel which she entertained to marry her own Subjects And some have looked upon her as Jobs false friends did look on him and reported him to lye on the dung-hill for his sions But having thoroughly considered on it I do observe that in these two Queens God would represent the two Cities of Sion and Babylon the two wayes of the just and the unjust and the estate of this present world and of the world to come He hath given to Elizabeth the bread of dogs to reserve for Mary the Manna of Angels In one he hath recompensed some moral virtues with temporal blessings to make the other to enter into the possession of eternal happiness Elizabeth did reign why so did Athalia Elizabeth did presecute the Prophets why so did Jezabel Elizabeth hath obtained Victories why so did Thomyris the Queen of the Scythians She hath lived in honour and delight and so did Semiramis She died a natural death being full of years so died the Herods and Tyberius but following the track that she did walk in what shall we collect of her end but as of that which Job speaketh concerning the Tomb of the wicked They pass away their life in delights and descend in a moment unto hell Now God being pleased to raise Marie above all the greatness of this earth and to renew in her the fruits of his Cross did permit that in the Age wherein she lived there should be the most outragious and bloudy persecution that was ever raised against the Church He was pleased by the secret counsel of his The great secret of the Divine Providence Providence that there should be persons of all sorts which should extol the Effects of his Passion And there being already entered so many Prelates Doctours Confessours Judges Merchants Labourers and Artisans he would now have Kings and Queens to enter also Her Husband Francis the Second although a most just and innocent Prince had already took part in this conflict of suffering Souls His life being shortened as it is thought by the fury of the Hugonots who did not cease to persecute him It was now requisite that his dear Spouse should undertake the mystery of the Cross also And as she had a most couragious soul so God did put her in the front of the most violent persecutions to suffer the greatest torments and to obtain the richest Crowns The Prophet saith That man is made as a piece of Elizabeth's hatred to the Queen of Scotland Imbroidery which doth not manifest it self in the lives of the just for God doth use them as the Imbroiderer doth his stuffs of Velvet and of Satin he takes them in pieces to make habilements for the beautifiing of his Temple 12. Elizabeth being now transported into Vengeance and carried away by violent Counsels is resolved to put Mary to death It is most certain that she passionately desired the death of this Queen well understanding that her life was most apposite to her most delicate interests She could not be ignorant that Mary Stuart had right to the Crown of England and that she usurped it she could not be ignorant that in a General Assembly of the States of England she was declared to be a Bastard as being derived from a marriage made consummated against all laws both Divine and humane She observed that her Throne did not subsit but by the Faction of Heresie and as her Crown was first established by disorder so according to her policie it must be cemented by bloud She could not deny but that the Queen of Scotland had a Title to the Crown which insensibly might fall on the head of the Prisoner and then that in a moment she might change the whole face of the State She observed her to be a Queen of a vast spirit of an unshaken faith and of an excellent virtue who had received the Unction of the Realm of Scotland and who was Queen Dowager of the Kingdom of France supported by the Pope reverenced throughout all Christendom and regarded by the Catholicks as a sacred stock from which new branches of Religion should spring which no Ax of persecution could cut down The Hereticks in England who feared her as one that would punish their offences and destroy their Fortunes which they had builded on the ruins of Religion had not a more earnest desire than to see her out of the world All things conspired to overthrow this poor Princess and nothing remained but to give a colour to so bold a murder It so fell out that in the last years of her afflicting imprisonment a conspiracy was plotted against the Estate and the life of Elizabeth as Cambden doth recite it Ballard an English Priest who had more zeal to his Religion than discretion to mannage his enterprize considered with himself how this woman had usurped a Scepter which did not appertain unto her How she had overthrown all the principles of the ancient Religion How she had kept in prison an innocent Queen for the space of twenty years using her with all manner of indignity how she continually practised new butcheries by the effusion of the bloud of the Catholicks he conceived it would be a work of Justice to procure her death who held our purses in her hand and our liberty in a chain But I will not approve of those bloudy Counsels which do provide a Remedy far worse than the disease and infinitely do trouble the Estate of Christendom Nevertheless he drew unto him many that were of his opinion who did offer and devote themselves to give this fatal blow The chiefest amongst them was
not sending their terrour unto the labouring world have attained unto solid and unshaken honour What forbiddeth you to follow what retardeth your emulation There is one rock which is often to be feared unto which the cares and cogitations of some Politick men who differ much from your Piety do cleave They think if the administrations of the Publick should be regulated by the law of God and the judgement of pious men they would become base low and unesteemed they would be exposed to prey and direption and is he penitent I insult not doth he crave audience I grant accesse doth he submit his neck my mercy shall meet his submission At the destruction of Cannae Hannibal was heard to say Miles parce ferro Marcellus wished he could quench the flames of burning Syracusa with his tears Titus with erected hands and eyes to heaven wept over the prostrate carcasses of the Jews What should be then the most decent and laudable behaviour of a Christian King towards a subdued and almost suppliant Enemy Should he strut with pride Should he inebriate himself with passion Or should he strengthen his fury to an utter desolation The more generous beasts abhorre this practice Vast and inexorable wraths should not cohabit with royall mind many things are to be pardoned to humane frailty many things to ignorance something truly to affection but all things to repentance It behoves him to preserve many even to the prejudice of their obstinate or erroneous wit neither are all those to be heard that are resolved to perish Errour illaqueates some men and Opinion sets the complection upon the procedures of most men others are ensnared by the counsels of a treacherous vigilancy and some there are who have no fault but their fortune His pardon he will extend and communicate to many whosoever can really desire to obtain from God his own pardon Further I adde that those reasons which are produced as subservient to the attainment of a just end ought themselves also to be legitimate otherwise the foundations may be firm yet the superstructures may totter That is not good which is not well done the means we use must be as innocent and unreproveable as our meaning That which knoweth no mediocrity I know not how to term a virtue A depraved intention by a kind of contageous force ever infected the most austere and sacred conduct of affairs subdolous inventions also and crafty artificers shade and eclipse the beauty of sincere intentions Grosse and scandalous is their errour who having proposed to themselves some laudable mark are little sollicitous of the arrows they shoot They who have trusted to this footing have many of them slipt and dasht themselves against such a rock of absurdities as hath endangered their brains I shall instance in those who have thought that health might be innocently purchased from the Devils themselves by the virtue of Magicall forms and that this is the safety which the Divine Oracles pronounce we may acquire from our enemies But Paul is peremptory in the confutation hereof saying That evil must not be done that good may come thereof No man is mercifull by thefts nor charitable by surreptitious gains no innocent person seeketh convalescence by wicked accommodations To go to War is lawfull to kill is lawfull when you are backt with the Authority of your Prince and seconded with a just Cause but on the contrary to do injustice is never not unlawfull We may incline and bow the ears of the Deity to a condescendence but we may not sollicit hell for Auxiliaries we may not contemerate things sacred nor violate the Divine Charters of the Church we may not subvert Religion nor contaminate Chastity we must not attempt facinorous art nor invade the lives of Princes with poniards or venomous potions we ought not to destroy Military Discipline by transgressing the Rights of Warfare nor adventure upon certain villains to promote a desperate ambition That Warre ceaseth to be just however pretended to have a just beginning when the future events are intermixed with palpable injustice and being well begun if they degenerate into evil progressions they ought speedily to have an end We are faln by degrees greatest Princes upon the matter intended of which it is your part to judge and from sound deliberations to provide for the felicity of Christians both Temporall and Eternall Your Authority is or ought to be unquestioned and your disposednesse of mind and intentions what can they be in good Princes but unsuspected but the Cause is perplexed and involved yet the Reasons that seem to conspire the end are violent A fierce and cruel Warre is carried on among you exercised in the besieging of Cities acquainted with destructions terrible for its monstrous spreadings under which the Church laboureth the wishes of the oppressed evaporate into sighs and the convulsed world mourneth it hath not proceeded in an ordinary way nor is it continued after a humane manner Sift out if you please the causes and weigh diligently with your selves the occasions of such an amazing tumult If at any time we behold things natural acting within the limits of their prescriptions this doth not elevate our considerations to a wonder but when we see them irritated by some vehement impetuosity or the determined confinements of Natures Law to be perverted we suspect some hidden force within which suddenly bursteth forth and is circumfused from whence such various motions do arise As often as we see the winds to be ordinarily stirred we either judge it to be some breath or exhalation or we conjecture that the air hath a naturall faculty to move it self lest it should become dull and torpid in an inagitable Globe but as often as we behold boisterous tempests to arise by the sharp and violent conflicts of the winds which compell vast trees from their roots and level strong built houses with the ground which devour whole navies and shake the foundations of the world we ascribe these to the aiery Principalities dissipated through the regions of the Earth In like mnaner when Warres are managed among men in their accustomed forms we attribute these to the ambitious designs of men to cholerick temperaments and to the easie impatience of an objected contumely but if they exceed proportion and example also we suspect that there is some undiscovered origin of evils transcending our understandings and astonishing our senses He that will duly and sadly weigh the matter will confesse this of such a cruel Warre for it is not actuated with a civil mind neither hath it those decencies and Military ornaments which are wont to accompany great minds but it is tainted with a virulent malignity which devoureth both parts and creeping as it were with a slow contabescence it eats up all things the Countreys are in a mourning estate the Cities are dejected the Bloud of gallant men is prodigally wasted the choicest flowers of the Nobility are destinated to butchery and the shambles of prevailing Rebels private
Saviour Jesus Christ to animate our constancy 80 The power of the name of Jesus ibid. The admirable effects of the Crosse of Jesus ibid. To know whether our Lord Jesus was subject to Anger 88 The eye of Jesus watching sparkling and weeping 96 Impatient men o◠divers qualities 54 The picture of Impudence 83 Divers spirits subject to impudencie ibid. The miserable end of an unhappy Impudent man 86 It is a hard thing not to feel some Incommodities life being so full of them 46 The kingdome of Inconstancy 24 Three sorts of Envious Indignation 93 The plot of Ingobergua to cure her husbands passion of love succeeded ill out of too much affectation 107 John Baptist apprehended 267 His rare qualities ibid. He is beheaded 269 Joab and Abner do strive for the government of Judah 144 Joab and Abner combat ib. Joab in his fault upon necessity is tolerated by David ib. Joabs insolency 149 The death of Joab 153 The courage and resolution of Joachim who executed the office both of a Priest and Captain 181 The good offices of Jonathan 141 Josiah slain 263 Joseph the son of a shepheard 219 His divine qualities 220 His brethren sell him ibid. Mervellous constancy of Joseph amidst those great temptations of the Court and of his Mistresse 221 He is accused for attempting to ravish that honour which he preserved ib. He is imprisoned ib. He is taken out of the prison and doth interpret Pharaohs dream 222 He is promoted to high preferment by Pharaoh ibid. Josephs deportment in Court a pattern for all Courtiers ibid. His singular piety and modesty 223 His fidelity to his Prince ibid. His demeanour in his government 224 His brethren came down to Egypt for food and their intertainment 225 He meeteth with his aged Father and apointeth him a place to live in 226 Josua his education 196 His familiarity with Moses ibid. He is made Generall of the Army of the Israelites ibid. His death 177 Three sorts of Joy 48 The art of Joy 51 The Israelites murmure against Moses 231 232 They have war with the Amalekites and worst them 233 The Israelites disrelish Samuel 236 A great famine in Israel which was caused by a very great drought 249 Judas Macchabeus the sonne of Mattathias made Generall over the Army of the Hebrews against the tyrannie of Antiochus 198 His piety for restoring the Temple ib. Particular favours which he received from God ib. He maketh peace with the Romans 199 He defeated nine Generals of Antiochus in pitched battell 200 Isaiah his vision 260 His eloquence as his birth is elevated ib. He is sawed alive 262 The kingdome of Judah divided by the ambition of favourites 144 The rare endowments of Judith 181 Her prayer to God 183 Her speech to Holophernes being brought before him 184 Her courteous entertainment ibid. Judith being conducted by Vagoa to Holophernes Pavillion in his sleep cut off his head 185 She returneth to the Bethulians with the head of Holophernes ibid. Her entertainment by the Citizens of Bethulia ibid. Her counsell to the people ibid. An excellent observation of Julian 58 Acts of Justice in punishment and reward  Justine who was born a Cow-heard mounted to the throne of the Emperours of Constantinople 158 The fidelity and goodnesse of Justinian ibid. His greatnesse 159 His nature and manners ibid. His manner of life was austere ib. Some abuse the belief of men in reporting that he could neither reade nor write mistaking Justinian for his uncle Justin ibid. His great love to learning but chiefly Law and Divinity ibid. A great conspiracy against him 160 A speech concerning the mutiny against him ibid. Justinian kept prisoner in his palace and Hypatius is proclaimed Emperour ibid. The stoutest men assail Justinian in his Palace 161 The sedition against Justinian is appeased ibid. The reflux of the affairs of Justinian 164 The defects of Justinian 168 Justinian in the latter end of his age fell into two great errours 169 K THe words of the Wise man directed to the Kings of the times Wisd 6. 131 Kings ought to professe the outward worship and service of God for the performance of his duty and the example of his people 133 Knowledge of ones self 18 Knowledge ought to be moderate 153 L THe prodigious victory which in the end Lotharius gained over himself after a great storm of the passion of love in becomming Religious 113 The cruell handling of Pope Leo. 175 Strange desire of Lewis the eleventh 113 Generous act of Lewis the eleventh 120 An excellent observation of Libanius 81 All happinesse included in Love 1 God the Father of Unions doth draw all to unitie by Love ibid. The sect of Philosophers of the indifferency of Love ibid. The first reason against the indifferency of Love is that thereby he maketh himself as chief end and the God of himself ibid. The second reason is drawn from the communication of creatures 2 A third real on against the indifferency of Love is drawn from the tenderness of great hearts ibid. Wherefore great hearts are most loving 3 Love is the soul of the universe ibid. Love is the superintendent of the great fornace of the world ibi The nature of Love ibid. The definition of Love with its division 4 The steps and progression of Love ibid. The causes of Love ibid. The means to make ones self to be worthily loved ibid. Notable effects of Love in three worlds ibid. Love includeth all blessings 5 There are miserable Lovers in the world ibid. Who loveth too much loveth too little 6 A notable comparison of S. Basil touching Love 9 Love is a strange malady 14 Disasters of evill Love 15 Division of Love ibid Love of humour ibid. Interiour causes of Love 16 The secret attractives of Love ibid. Modification of their opinion who place Love in transportation ib. The senses being well guarded shut up all the gates against Love 17 The miserable estate of one passionately in Love ib. The diversities of Love ib. Evill Angels intermeddle in the great tempests of Love 18 Cruelty of Love on the persons of Lovers ibid. Love is sometime the punishment of pride ib. Advices and remedies against Love in its full 19 The medall of Love hath two faces ib. An excellent conceit of Solomon concerning Love ibid. Disasters of Love in each age and condition 20 Advice to all sorts of persons concerning Love ibid. Diversitie of the maladies of Love and their cures 21 Remedies for the affection of Love which come against our wills ibid. Admirable example of the combate of Saints against Love ib. Separation the first remedie against Love 22 The counsell and assiduity of a good directour is an excellent antidote against Love ibid. The conversation of God with man by the mystery of the incarnation in the consummation of Love 24 The Eucharist the last degree of Love ibid. The Love of Saints towards Jesus ibid. The growth of Love like to pearls 25 The Empire and eminencies of
shamefull they always carry along with them the confusion misery and ruin of those who embrace them Who diggeth a pit saith the Wise-man Qui sodit foveam incidet in eam qui voloit lapidem revolvetur â—d eum Prov. 26. 27. shall fall into it and the stone shall return back on his head who threw it The reputation of honesty is so necessary in the mannage of affairs that such as lost integrity of manners sought to retain the bark to cherish a renown amongst men swoln up with smoke and imposture A deceiver fears nothing so much as to be discovered and to lay open the face of designs which he closely worketh for the ruin of others Judge now how hard a matter it is to practise at this present in the world with such proceedings in an Age most vigilant and where little children are almost grown wise What a trouble is it to hide Troubles miseries of dissimulation your jugling in a Court where are so many Argus eyes who perpetually watch upon all actions If one be surprized before the act he must expect to be flouted even by foot-boys and used like one who cannot hit upon it to be wicked although this trade be very easie and who having sold his conscience to devils knows not how to evict payment unless he plead it in hell But if a man some one time come to the point of what he projected which he can hardly keep from breaking through the ears of others they who are deceived seldom wanting eloquence either in themselves or their own ashes were they dead to decrie treachery yet must he hereafter for one trick of craft loose reputation and credit two pillars of discretion All the world will avoid you as a rock or a monster what ever you do you have but one heart and one tongue to invent and tell lies but you shall raise a thousand against you by it For all those who know you practise this trade and that you make it your endeavour to deceive will bend all their sinews and strength to entrap you in the same snares you laid for other in such sort that you shall become a prey aimed at if it were possible by all the world Where have we ever seen a deceiver to prosper in Dreadfull events of deceivers all his enterprizes to the very end You may as well number the waves of the sea and leaves of trees as recount the lamentable and tragical events of all these common cheaters who never had the power to avoid God's vengeance The pernicious Machiavel who taught the art to deceive produceth the example of an infamous Prince whose impostures succeeded so ill that by mistaking he drank the poison prepared by himself for another in a banquet and ended his detestable life Is not this man abandoned by religion wit and reason to seek to perswade treachery with so weak examples If he will work this way let us oppose both against him and the like experience of passed Ages to set as it is said the Sun in full splendour before their eyes The eleventh EXAMPLE upon the eleventh MAXIM Of Craft VIce many times hath a shop near unto Virtue as said Origen and deceives Merchants under colour of selling good commodities Craft readily counterfeiteth wisdom and some there are also who make the wise to pass for subtile But there is so much difference between them as between glass and diamond Craft is a false prudence which maketh use of subtilities against right and justice but true wisdom though it be subtile is never crafty For it pretends nothing at all against equity and good conscience If you desire to know wary wisdom and to distinguish The wittie conceit of Theodora Zonaras in Theophilo it from craft look upon what the Emperess Theodora did one of the worthiest women of her Age. She was married to the Emperour Theophilus an Heretick and a capital enemy to the honour of Images which he forbade to be kept or esteemed upon pain of death Notwithstanding this pious Princess who maintained Religion in the Empire what she might and sweetened with much wisdom the wild humours of her husband spared not to have in private pictures and holy Images affording them singular veneration It happened one day that Dender the Emperour's fool who played this part at Court rather through natural blockishness than dissimulation came as he was roaming up and down into the Emperesse's chamber and found her reverencing those Images He failed not in dinner-while to give the Emperour notice of it at which time he used to entertain him with a thousand merriments saying aloud He found Manna so he called the Emperess with her babies and that she was suddenly surprized with it Theophilus presently doubted it was Images his wife honoured and at the rising from the Table he sought her out all foaming with anger and asked where those puppets were she adored in the presence of Dender Truly we must consess devout women have sometimes a marvellous dexterity to excuse a business for she suddenly hit upon a handsom evasion which freed her from the importunity of her husband For in stead of seeming troubled and overtaken she smiled very sweetly having therein an excellent grace Behold Sir saith she verily one of the prettiest knacks happened in your Court of a long time This fool Dender who still doth somewhat worthy his name came into my chamber as I stood before my looking-glass with my women and confusedly saw our faces represented in the glass he thought they were images so subtile wittied he is Is not this an excellent jest Then causing the fool to be taken by the arm they set him before the looking-glass saying How now Dender are not these thy habits The Emperour was so surprized with the wittie conceit of a discreet Princess that he believed she had reason and all the matter was instantly turned into laughter I term not this example a piece of craft but a prudence Stratagem of Chares Polyenus l. 2. as the stratagem of a Captain called Chares who enjoyning his souldiers some labour upon his fortifications and seeing they undertook it coldly because they feared to marre their garments which were handsome enough he presently commanded every one should uncloth and take the apparrel of his fellow That done and all the souldiers being perswaded their cassocks would not be spared by those who put them on they wrought in good earnest and very quickly performed the task imposed upon them This ought to be stiled with the name of wisdom rather than any other title But if we observe what passeth in the world we shall find there are two sorts of crafts Some are politick addresses and subtilities which proceed not fully to injustice but which notwithstanding aim at interest at reputation and glory by ways not sincere So there are men who resemble those houses which Baro. de astutiâ Craft of the world have goodly gates and most magnificent stair-cases
but never a fair chamber they have some sweetness of spirit some readiness and prattle which is never wanting but no depth nor capacity yet will seem able among company which is the cause that not daring to examine or solidly debate a point of doctrine or a business they presently flie to the conclusion and find handsom evasions Others have admirable tricks to seem wise by making use of another mans labour and like droans eating the honey which the Bees gathered Other in handling affairs and seeking to get dispatches amuze and dazzle with variety of discourse such as they negotiate with to the end to entrap them Other to cross a business cause it to be proposed in the beginning by a man who understands nothing thereof of purpose to give some ill impression of it Other break off a discourse they began upon some matter to draw on the more appetite Others make a shew to have nothing less in their thoughts than what they most desire and let their main texts creep in the manner of a gloss Other have tales and histories in store wherein they can enfold in covert terms what they will not openly affirm Other in things important cause the foord to be sounded by men of less note and many as it is said pull the chest-nuts out of the fire with the cats foot These are sleight merchandizes taken from the shop of worldly policie which proceed not so far as to great injustice But there are black and hydeous subtilities which tend to the subversion of humane society and deserve to be abhorred by all living men Such were those of Tryphon of whom it is spoken in the Book of Macchabees which were most 1 Macch. 12. fatal to the people of God This wicked man being the Tutour of young Antiochus shewed himself in the beginning very zealous in al which concerned the good of his service and having a design to subdue Syria he would first have surprized the Macchabees who were then very eminent in arms But when he saw Jonathas come towards him with an Armie of fourty thousand men the fox played his ordinary pranks he received him with a pleasing countenance and overwhelmed him with heaps of courtesies He told him he desired to live with him as a faithfull brother and that he accounted it too heavie a charge to keep so great an Army on foot in full peace which could not but be prejudicial to the repose of the people That he might walk confidently every where how he pleased without any other armour than the amitie of King Antiochus which was an assured buckler for all those who would make trial of his protection This crafty companion not content with meer complements carried Jonathas into all the places of his charge with such honour and respect that he caused him to be attended as himself making shew that wheresoever he set foot there roses and lillies sprang Never doth any man take with a snare until he have some bayt suitable to the appetite of him who catcheth at it Jonathas a little loved honour and his senses were dazeled with the lustre of pomps and charmed with the sweetnesses of conversation in this subtile fellow He believed he trusted his whole Army was cashiered by the perswasion of a man who wished him not well He onely kept a thousand men with him to be as a Guard and entered with Tryphon into the Citie of Ptolemais where he presently saw himself arrested and his souldiers cut in pieces The Impostour desirous to extend his plot further wrote to Symon brother of Jonathas that he should not be troubled at what was past and that his brother was onely detained for some money due to the King which being satisfied he should have liberty onely let him send him a hundred talents of silver with the two sons of Jonathas in hostage to bring the business to the period he desired The poor Symon who doubted the plot had more wisdom to know him than force to avoid him For fearing lest the people might murmur if he accepted not the ways of accommodation proposed he sent the money and children whereof the one was despoiled the other massacred with their father by the command of the treacherous Tryphon This factious and cruel man pursued his plot to the usurpation of the Diadem and dispatch of his pupil But in the end after a reign of two years Heaven elements and men conspiring against him he was knocked down like a ravenous beast and buried in ruins and publick desolations I would willingly know to whom hath treachery ever been fortunate Was it to Saul who after he had so many times promised David the safety of his person yet not ceasing to persecute him was reduced to such necessity of affairs that he slew himself with his own hands leaving finally his spoils to him whom he meant to beguile Was it to the unhappie 2 Reg. 12. Ammon who using treachery to draw his sister Thamar into his chamber and dishonour her was afterward murdered at the table by his brother Absolom Was it to Joab who moistened with his bloud the Altar whereunto he fled after he had slain Amasa in saluting him Was it to Amasis King of Aegypt Herod l. 2. who lost both Kingdom and life for having foisted in another daughter than his own whom he feigned to give in marriage to Cambyses King of Persia So many Impostours there have been who in all Impostours surprized times sought to usurp Scepters and Crowns by admirable inventions were they not all shamefully ruined in the rashness of their enterprizes Smerdes the Magician who had possessed the Kingdom of Persia by tricks and incomparable sleights was he not torn in pieces as a victim by Darius and other Princes The false Alexander who rebelled under Demetrius Soter after some success was he not vanquished under Nicanor and slain in Arabia Archelaus who called himself the son of great Mithridates overcome by Gabinius Anduscus a man of no worth who falsely boasting himself to be descended from Perseus King of Macedonia and durft confront the Romans arms was he not subdued by Metellus Ariarathres who affected the Kingdom of Cappadocia Vol. l. 9. c. 16. by the same ways sent to punishment by Caesar The false Alexius who durst aspire to the Empire of Nicet l. 3. Constantinople slain by a Priest with his own sword under the reign of Isaacus Angelus Josephus relateth that pursuing the same ways False Alexander discovered there was a young Jew who had been bred at Sydon with the freed-man of a Roman Citizen who having some resemblance of Alexander the son of Herod whom the father had cruelly put to death feigned he was the same Alexander saying Those to whom Herod had recommended this so barbarous an execution conceived such horrour at it that they resolved to save him yet to secure their own lives upon the command imposed they promised to conceal him till after the death of his
all its spectatours fair and amiable There it is saith he we shall live for ever in the palace of verity which is the mother-nurce nourishment and essence of our soul There it is that all is all and where each part becometh a whole There it is where happiness is indefatigable and plenitude never gives a loathing to him who possesseth it And who knoweth not the raptures of Seneca when Senec. ep 102. in the hundred and the second Epistle he speaks of the soul which goeth out of the body as from a wretched vessell to enter into these vast Temples of Intelligences and lights deriving its nourishment and increase from the same place whence it took its beginning May we not say this truth so loudly professed by men who lived in a belief different from ours is a publick voice of humane nature touched by the ray of its felicitie Divines teach us our appetite is finite in its essence Infinity of out Appetites Nubes ad alta levatur densâ—ta vento impellitur ut currat calore dissolvitur ut evanescat c. Greg. in Job l. 8. c. 10. Eccl. 12. 7. A notable enigma of the Wiseman infinite in its productions It is a miracle to see a heart so little big with so many desires and perpetually to go like a wheel enflamed with its ardours or rather a fire which makes a prey of its own way and is nourished with proper hunger It is a cloud saith S. Gregory swoln with vapours tossed with winds scattered by heat It daily makes abortion of a thousand production and when it thinks to have all embraceth nothing The wiseman speaking of death saith it is that which shall break the pitcher at the fountain and the wheel upon the cistern Some explicate this litterally of the veins and brain But I had rather at this present say this pitcher is the heart of man which ceaseth not to go to the water of the Samaritan whereof our Saviour spake when he said He who shall drink Omnis qui biberit ex aqâ—s hac siâ—iâ—t iâ—rum Joan. 4. of this water shall ever be thirsty It is a water which never quencheth thirst and which sometimes serves for an incentive to insatiable desires And the pitcher so many times fruitlesly filled with this water the heart so often drenched in these frail and momentarie pleasures shall split against the rock of death remaining still at the fountain of concupiscence Nay I will tell you the heart is a wheel over the cistern of life which ceaseth not to draw up buckets filled with wind one while running after one object another time after another not finding contentment and at the last day the wheel shall be broken over the cistern when man if not warie shall be surprized in the labyrinth of his designs and confusion of his hopes 3. Now consider the wisdom of God who having Providence of God in the limits of out appetites given us an infinite appetite would not limit it but by himself he would be our good and being unable to be the end of himself because he hath no end he will be ours to make us in some sort infinite He will not we put our felicities in commands and honours because they often resemble the Idol Moloch which was outwardly of gold inwardly morter and because honour is rather in him who honoureth than in the honoured He will not we ground our selves upon riches for either they be gems which are the scum of elements or mettals which are the harbours of rust and enkindlers of avarice or garments the food of moaths or houses which are mountains composed of the bones of the earth or fruits beasts and so many other productions of nature which cannot make us happie seeing they besides their frailty are of a servile nature being made for the service of men and not for their glorie He will not we place God will replenish us with himself our happiness on pleasures because all blessings of sense go not beyond sense and for that their condition is either to starve men by their barenness or strangle them with their superfluities The best part Greatness of God Isa 28. 5. Corona gloriae sertum exultationis of our selves being the spirit he will replenish us with himself who is the chief of spirits It is he said the Prophet Esay who is the Crown of true glorie and the posie of all comforts the Crown because his felicitie is wholly circular and fully replenished as the circle without any defect the posie insomuch as in his sole essence he comprehendeth all the good of creatures which are as petty flowers of this goodly garden It is necessarie saith Tertullian that all greatness In unum necesse est summitas magnitudinis eliquetur Tertul. l. 1. adversus Marcion c. 3. Bernard l. 5. de consider c. 5. and beauties be extracted into one alone which is the first greatness and prime beauty He loves as charity he knows as verity he sits as equitie he ruleth as majesty he governeth as chief he defends as safety he operateth as virtue he revealeth as light he assisteth as piety he doth all in all things and such as he is he giveth himself unto us I demand of you whether he deserveth not to be eternally displeased who cannot content himself with God Nay that which here maketh his communication the more perfect and admirable is that Divines observe their be two felicities in heaven The one of object the other formal That of object is the S. Thom. 2. 2. q. 3. good by which we become happy and formal is the possession of the same good Felicitie of object is that which looketh towards God without any reflection upon us formal felicitie is that which respecteth our proper good We might see God as a Similes ei erimus quoniam videbimus cum sicuti est Joan. 1. 3. distant mirrour which were not ours and which had not the power to make us lovely We might love him with a love of good will by the sole consideration of his perfections We might rejoyce at his good without relation to our own benefit But the goodness of God would not onely make us happie with the felicitie of our object but by formal beatitude He will not well behold him with a lazie and barren eye but with a vision which rendereth us like to himself He will not we love him onely with a love of good will but with a love of ardent desire as our good and repose He will not we rejoyce onely because he is God but for that he is our God our scope and contentment 4. The point of this beatitude consisteth in a The essential point of beatitude is union with God perfect union of our soul with God who is the fountain of spirits the object of all regular loves and the circle of felicity So long as we are in the world saith the Apostle we are as pilgrims in
a forraign Nation separated from the sweetness of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synesius hymn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our dearest Country and lovely vision of the sovereign cause We are saith Synesius as little veins of water wandered from their fountains which desire nothing but to be re-united to their source should you afford them vessels of amber or chrystal to contain them they are never so well as in their origen We have a strong inclination that disposeth us to know love and admire this soveriegn Being which makes the world bring forth his great ide'as with more ease than the Sun could produce a ray Now here we must observe there are many sorts Diversity of unions of union The one of dependence which causeth the creature to depend on the Creatour as light on his star and heat on the fire which produced it The other of presence and most inward penetration by which God penetrateth all creatures by his admirable infusions by reason of his immensity and subtility The third of grace by which we are sanctified and in a sort made participant of Divine nature The fourth of glorie properly that which accomplisheth what grace had begun and setteth a seal upon the plentitude of all our felicities This being so divided it is evident that the union whereof we here speak is the glorified and ineffable union which disposeth the reasonable creature to the highest point of the commerce it may have with the divinity It is very hard to explicate how that is in our soul because of the weakness of our spirits which are now so tied to flesh Some Divines refuted by Chancellour Gerson and among others Doctour Almaricus and Henricus took this in a very high strain when they imagined that God coming to fall as a lightening-flash upon the soul of a blessed one filled it with his presence force and love and so possessed it that he wholly converted it into himself in such manner that from created Being it passed to increated Being returning to Anima perdit esse suum accipit esse divinum idea's of God and into the state it had before the worlds creation This opinion hath been rejected and condemned as a chymera for God will not beautifie us by ruining and destroying us but he will our felicitie be so wholly of him that it be notwithstanding wholly to us and there is no apparence our soul which is immortal and incorruptible should be annihilated by the approach of God from whom it must derive its being and conservation 5. We must then conceive this much otherwise Union of glorie what it is and believe the union of glorie that makes our beatitude consisteth in the vision love and joy of God which is the fruition termed by S. Thomas the ineffable kisses Imagine you see a needle which in presence of a diamond runs not to the adamant as being tied and fettered by the force of this obstacle but if you take away the diamond which captived it it goes stoutly and impetuously to its adamant which setteth it in the place of its repose by ordinarie charms I find something like in the state wherein we are Our poor spirit naturally tendeth to God as to the first cause and can take no contentment but in union with him yet is it here arrested by the poize of body by the bait of concupiscence and tie of sense but so soon as these obstacles are taken away and that it feeleth the vigorous infusions of this light of glorie which giveth it wings to raise it self to the Sovereign good above all the ways of nature it soareth as a feathered arrow unto the butt of its desires it sincks and plungeth it self into the bosom of God and there abideth contented with three acts which essentially compose its beatitude The first is vision the root of this so Sovereign happiness which causeth us to see with the eyes of a most purified understanding through the rayes of The three acts of beatitude the light of glorie the great God face to face with all the immensity of his essence the length of his eternity the height of his majesty the extent of all his excellencies and with the fecundity of his eternal emanations the productions of total nature and secrets of highest mysteries We shall see him saith Joan. 1. 3. August l. 9. de Trin. c. 10. Omnis secundum spiritum notitia similis est rei quam novit S. John as he is and thereupon S. Augustine addeth we shall necessarily derive a resemblance of God because knowledge here principally rendereth him who knoweth like to the thing known Of this vision necessarily is formed a great fire of love divinized when God like to a burning mirrour opposed to a glorified soul replenisheth it with his ardours ever by us to be adored And from this love proceedeth that excessive joy which is called the joy of God Vision causeth in us an expression of God love an inclination delicately violent to the presence of this Sovereign good joy a profound repose which seems to spread over our hearts a great river of peace benedictions and felicities Then this beatified soul not being able to be what God is by nature in some sort becometh such by favour So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Hymn S. Gregory durst boldly say our soul makes it self a little God which eternally triumphs in the bosom of the great God It is properly then when man by an amorous consumption wholly dissolves into his beginning and not loosing what he is becometh one same spirit with him not by nature but by apprehension and affection He not onely will what God willeth but he cannot will any thing but what God will He takes part in all his interest all his greatness and all his joys being so divinely incorporated into the family bosom of this Father of essences He rejoyceth at the beatitude of all the elect as of his own he is rapt with admiration sometimes at the beauty of the place sometimes at the delicious correspondence of that great company sometimes at the unchangeable continuance of his most blessed eternity sometimes at the garments of glorie his body must put on and he every where beholdeth sources of comfort to spring which can never drie 6. From this favour besides so many other wonders Three great effects of beatitude I see three excellent effects succeed The first is impeccability The second verity of our knowledges which shall admit no errour The third tranquillity of our love which shall not know what wound or interruption is And first consider what a good it is The great happiness to be impeccable to be impeccable since we not onely shall be without sin but out of all danger of sinning All that which here afflicteth the most purified souls is not to be exposed to so many miseries and persecutions for they know good men are here on earth like flower-de-luces begotten by their
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
causeth heaven and beatitude Thus doth S. Augustine assure us that the science of God is the cause of all things which draweth Being from the Abysse of nothing and brings the shades of death into light The world is known by us because it is but it is insomuch as it is known by God so efficacious this knowledge is O what a goodly thing it had been to see this great world how it displayed it self in all its pieces and smiled in all its mansions under the eye of God! The Heavens were stretched forth like a Courtain the stars were inchased in the Heavens as Diamonds the clouds suspended in the air as floating bodies that air was diversified in meteors the eternal veins of fountains began to stream the earth to cover its bosome and liberally to afford us out of its entrails infinite many blessings from the benignity of his aspects Tell me not that which the naturall History mentioneth that the Ostrich hatcheth her little ones by the rayes of her eyes yet never shall she bring forth eggs by looking on the earth but the Eye that is to say the knowledge of God hath such virtue that it is the maker of all creatures O beauty O greatnesse O goodnesse Beauty to inhabit in the Idea of God as in a Paradise of Glory Greatnesse to have a capacitie infinite Goodnesse to rest in the bowels of the mercy of the Creatour See a little the difference that is between our knowledges The differencies of our knowledges from those of God and that of God you think it a goodly matter to know a man and to wish him well yet he thereby becomes neither white nor black hot nor cold good rich nor learned for our knowledges are small in their capacities limited in their effects and inefficacious in their operations How many brave Captains and learned Authours are there who are still well thought of in the opinion of men but whether they beliving or whether they be dead if their souls be in an ill state this knowledge and this love nothing contributeth to their felicities But so is it not with the knowledge of God I speak of an amourous knowledge It gives Being and Grace Being because all things known by God are in God in a more noble manner then in themselves Here we behold dying creatures who fade wither and shrink insensibly into nothing were they not supported by the divine hand but in the house of God in the palace of Essences the Summers are of Cypresse saith the holy Canticle insomuch as all therein Cant. 1. 17. is immortall vigorous perfect and incorruptible and there it is where the blessed who have not here seen the world but by two eyes of flesh and have seen it tottering Bearis pervium est omniforme illud divinitatis speculum in quo quicquid eorum interest illucescat Concil Sen nonse and altogether imperfect behold it in God fully stable equall and absolute in all its dimensions The Saints perpetually have before their eyes the incomprehensible mirrour of the Divinity in which they at case behold all that which concerneth them and may conduce to their greater contentment I add that this knowledge causeth Grace For what makes predestination but that preparation of Grace and Glory which God hath conceived from all Eternity in his understanding to communicate it to his elect See what God doth seeing and God seen what doth he else but actually make heaven and Beatitude which consisteth in the clear vision of God So soon as a soul predestinated to enjoy without delay the glory of heaven is gone from out the bands of its body it hath for guide this divine splendour which Divines call the light of Glory which is a quality infused into the understanding that so elevates and fortifies it beyond its condition that it is able to endure the lightning flash eternall Beatitude Is it not of this light holy Job spake when he said he hideth light in his hands Job 36. and faith to his friend it is his inheritance possession Then God all-good communicateth himself to this soul ennobled with such a qualitie not by some image or representation but by its very essence intimately united to the glorified understanding and from thence what followeth but an admirable transformation The soul is wholly absorpt in felicity and as a small drop of water poured into the sea instantly takes the colour and taste of the sea so the souls taste is fully inebriated and coloured with the Divinity It is almost no longer in its self but becometh wholly like to God not by nature but by participation We know saith S. John when we shall see him we shall be like him And S. Gregory Nazianzen dareth to call it God Joan. ep 1. and as we have two principall parts of the soul to content Greg. Naz. Hymn the understanding and the will so God all benigne abundantly satisfieth them making thither to stream as by two dugs of glory all the delights and contentments proportioned to their condition For the understanding which naturally desireth to know is illuminated by a most excellent knowledge of things the most hidden which it seeth in God as in an incomprehensible Mirrour and seeth them not in the manner of the wise men of the world who flutter round about sciences as little flies about lamps that findge their wings and make their tomb in the flames but it seeth them with a vision sublime calm and delicious which giveth to the will that is made to love amorous eagrenesse Avidi semper pleni quod habent desiderant Pet. Damis in Hymn de gloria Paradis ever desiring and ever having what it desireth O what miracles doth the eye of God enkindling with one sole aspect of many Divinities when maketh so many blessed ones like unto it self as if the sun rising should in the heavens createa million of little suns and on earth an infinitie of Diamonds all which should bear the image of this bright star All those blessed ones illustrated by this aspect albeit The blessed although unequall iâ— glory are not enviouâ— they shine diversly according to each ones merit are so far from envie receiving the flames of eternall Goodnesse that every one accounteth the felicity of his companion for the accomplishment of his own Non erit tibi aliqua invidia disparis claritatis ubi regnat unitas charitatis Aug. There you shall hear no speech of envie occasioned by inequalitie of felicity where the union of charity shall eternally reign Go to then O thou Envious O thou malign Man God hath made thee to his likenesse to carry as he in proportion raies of love and compassion in thy eyes towards men and thou there bearest gall bloud and poyson Nay so far art thou otherwise that if it were in thy power to make benefits to grow from thy aspects thou wouldest rather desire the eye of a Basilisk to poyson burn and
pulled off their shirts and rent them binding up his thigh therewith and in the next house they hit upon they took a little door off the hinges whereon they laid their tenderly beloved Captain to bear him the more easily From thence they went directly to a great house which they supposed in all likelihood to be a very convenient repose and for his accommodation and so indeed it proved For it belonged to an honest Gentleman who thence retired into a Monastery to avoid the fury which is ordinarily found from conquering souldiers for the saccage of this City was so dreadfull that there were reckoned as well of Venetians who defended it as Burgesses to the number of twenty thousand slain yet his wife the Lady of this house with her two daughters fortunately had ventured to abide at home who yet through fear had hid themselves together under hay in a barn from whence the noble Matron made first her appearance to the two souldiers knocking at the gate which arming her self with resolution she opened to them when espying a Captain all bloudy for whom they demanded a room in her house to retire in she conducts them with their carriage on that homely bier as is before related into the fairest and best furnisht chamber where she cast her self at his feet saying Sir I freely make a tender of this house unto you with all the furniture thereof which you may call yours even by the law of Arms However this favour I onely beg of you you will be pleased to protect me and save mine honour inviolated as also of my daughters two poor maids grown up to marriage estate whom I and my dear husband value as the pledges of our conjugall affection The Captain answered Madam fear not We souldiers that must stand the shock of warre oft-times do meet with such like casualties as hath now betided me which was the cause not any design to wrong your persons or diminish your possessions that drave me hither and whether I shall escape this wound be a contigency remote as yet from my assurance yet this I faithfully promise you that whilst I live there shall not be done the least injury to you nor your daughters no more then I would have befall to mine own person Onely keep them in your lodging and let them not be seen send for your husband home again whom you may assure and your self too ye have a ghest who will do you all courtesie possible The Lady comfortably acquiescing in the belief of his noblenesse uttered by his word she goes about the orderly contrivance of her houswife-affairs accordingly and having employed all her prudentiallest care to give him good entertainment she soon perceived she had lodged an honest man amongst other his own personall civill manifestations by the harmlesse and just deportment of the Duke of Nemours the brave Generall of the Army Gaston de Foix who came daily with his choicest Chevaliers to visit him yet he and all they although it was then in a city of their conquest made offer of paying for what ever provisions they demanded for their repasts The good hostesse therefore took her self so much the more concerned to wait on her noble inmate as indeed she did as on an Angel sent her from heaven so much divine honour and virtue saw she resplendent in him When he was well cured of his hurt and spake of dislodging thence to be present at the battle of Ravenna where that his Generall passionately desired him no lesse for his society then his service the Lady who accounted her self as his prisoner with her husband and their two daughters considering that if their ghest would rigorously use them he might according to the use and liberty of a souldier draw ten or twelve thousand crowns from her resolved to give him a present and therefore went into his chamber with one of her domestick attendants who carried a little steel cabinet and presently she threw her self at his feet but he quickly raised her up again not suffering she should speak a word till she was seated by him at which time she made this speech well observed by the Secretary of Bayard Sir sith it seemed good to the high Providence that this city should be destined to a captivity by your valour the favour which God hath afforded me by sending you into this house which is wholly at your service I thankfully contemplate as one which hath been no lesse then the preservation of the life of my husband mine own and that of my two daughters with their unattempted chastity which they dearlier estimate then their precious life Besides your people have demeaned themselves to your own rare example as well as to your lawfull commands I attribute it here in my house that I have cause for ever to commend their sober carriage and modesty and not deserving the least blame or complaint for any kind of injury committed by them And yet Sir I am not so ignorant of the condition whereunto the misery of warre hath reduced us as not very well to apprehend that my husband my self and our children are your prisoners and that all the goods in this house are in your power to be disposed of at your liking and discretion But withall knowing the noblenesse of your heart which is incomparable I am come most humbly to beseech you to take pity on us your poor captives and to deal with us according to your manifested goodnesse and clemency whereto we render as a thankfull sacrifice this poor present earnestly desiring it may be acceptable Having thus spoken she took the cabinet out of her servants hands and opened it before the good Captain who saw it to be full of ducats whereat he smiled saying Madam how many ducats have you there The poor woman dismayed because she thought his smiling had proceeded from conceived discontent answered Here are but two thousand five hundred ducats but if you be not satisfied herewith we will procure you more Nay Madam replyed the Captain I do well assure you that should you give me an hundred thousand crowns you could not for all that do me so much good as you have benefitted me already by your courteous entertainment and virtuous offices of recovering me In what place therefore soever I shall remain while God prolongs my life you shall find you have thereby engaged a Gentleman ready to embrace occasions of serving your commands And now as for your ducats I will take none of them but give you thanks and so I pray you put them up again For my part I have ever esteemed people of honour more then crowns and think not Madam but I go away as well contented from you as if this city were at your disposition and you had made me a present thereof She again humbly prostrating her self on her knees and the Captain lifting her up she answered No Sir I should think my self for ever the most unhappy woman of the world if you accept
not of this present which is nothing in comparison of the infinite obligations I owe to your worth Well saith he sith you give it with so good a will I accept it for your sake but cause your daughters to come hither that I may bid them farewell These virtuous souls following their mothers presidency had also with her charitably assisted him during the time of his infirmities cure many times touching their Lute whereon they played very sweetly for his minds recreation Upon this summon of his into his presence they fell at his feet the elder of the daughters in the name of both made a short speech unto him in her mother language importing a thankfull form unto him for his just performed preservation of their honour The Captain heard it yet not without a weeping-joy and admiration at the sweetnesse and humility he therein observed and then said Ladies ye do that which I ought to do which is to give you thanks for the many good helps ye have afforded me for which I find my self infinitely obliged unto you Ye know men of my profession are not readily furnished with handsome tokens to present fair maidens withall But behold your good Lady-mother hath given me two thousand five hundred ducats take each of you a thousand of them as my gift for so I am resolved it shall be Then turning to his Hostesse Madam saith he I will take the five hundred to my self to distribute them among poor Religious women who have not had like happinesse with you to be preserved from the souldiers plundering pillage And as you better then any other may judge of the necessities which each one may by such accidents have befaln them so I am confident I can depute none a more faithfull steward for the disposing thereof then is your wise ingenious and charitable self unto whose sole disposall I freely recommend it The Lady touched to the quick with so rare and pious a disposition spake these words unto him O flower of Chevalry to whom none other can be compared Our blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ who for us sinners suffered death and passion both here in this world and in the other reward you The Gentleman of the house who at that time heard the courtesie of his ghest came to thank him with a bended knee making him withall a surrender of his person and a sequestration of his whole estate but he most nobly left him master of himself and of his estate The young gentlewomen who amongst other their many accomplishing endowments were skilfull at the needle made him a present of a crimson-sattin purse very richly wrought and of two bracelets woven with thread of gold and silver He very graciously receiving them Behold saith he I esteem these more then ten thousand crowns and instantly he put the bracelets on his wrists and the purse into his pocket assuring them that while these their respective remembrances would last he would wear them for their sakes Which civil ceremonies ended he mounted on his horse accompanied thence with his true friend the Lord D' Aubigny and with about two or three thousand other gentlemen and souldiers the Lady of the house the daughters and the whole family as passionately lamenting his departure as if they should have been put to the sword although they had assurance from him by his undeniable Protection under which he left them and their possessions to be unmolested after his departure If the starres were to descend from heaven I would demand now whether they might find more love and respect then this heaven-born piece of generosity did both receive and return But be ye your own judges if your observations tell you not it farre otherwise befalls those silly fencers who in like times of advantages rush themselves into such well feathered nests no otherwise then as fatall Comets portending fire and the destroying sword who make the props of buildings tremble with their loud blasphemies who load whole families with injuries without the least regard of age sex or honour but make a sport at the bloud and wounds over whom they tyrannize pillaging them like ravenous harpies fatted with humane ruines However should they do nothing else all their life time but heap up mountains of gold and silver they could not arrive to the least part of the contentment which this good Captain enjoyed who sought no other recompence from his fair way'd actions but the satisfaction of his serene conscience and the glory to have done so well And thus it is O ye who would your selves to be indeed enobled that hearts are gained thus ye oblige if I may so say both earth and heaven to become due tributaries to your virtues with blessings round about you here and with a crown of immortality hereafter THE STATES-MEN JOSEPH MOSES IOSEPH MOSES I Begin the Elogies of holy States-men with the Patriarch Joseph who was the first of Gods chosen people that entred into the Court of an Infidel Prince to make of his life an example of virtue and of his demeanour a miracle Here is an high design of God who transports a young child out of the cabans and condition of shepherds to make him the second person of a great Kingdome to give him the heart and the treasures of his Master the friendship of the Nobles the veneration of the People and the admiration of all the world Those that look upon this history after a common manner observe ordinarily therein the changes of humane things the beginnings the progresses and the issues of worldly affairs But if we would penetrate farther we should find two great reasons and two admirable designs of Providence about the entrance and negotiation of Joseph in Egypt The first is that according to the saying of the great S. Leo it was reasonable that the eternall Word that was to come for the salvation of the whole world should be divided through all Ages and through all Nations shewing himself to some in figure to others in reality giving himself to some by Hope to others by Presence and to many by remembrance He insinuated himself into the antient Jews by Prophecies into the Gentiles by Oracles into the Learned by Riddles into the People by visible Figures into the Saints and the Religious by Mysteries into the Profane and Gentiles by Government and Politick Prudence This is the fashion that he held towards the Egyptians making them see the first rayes of the Birth-day of his coming in the person of Joseph that wore very advantageously the Lineaments of his Divine Perfections and merited to be called by advance The Saviour of the world The second reason is that God meaning to begin that Divine work of the persecutions and the wonders of his chosen People transports Joseph thither and makes of him a man of sufferings and of prodigies to be as a grain of seed out of which one should see spring that numerous posterity that should equall the starres of heaven
his people I will invoke him in this extremity of my afflictions to render both to you and my self what is due either to our Merits or Demerits Remember Madam that he is the onely Judge a Judge whom the painting and policie of this world can no way disguise although men for a time may obscure the truth by the subtility of their inventions In his name and being as it were both of us before him I must remember you of the secret practises you have used to trouble my Kingdom to corrupt my Subjects to forsake their allegiance and to attempt my person I shall represent unto you the unjust dismission which by your Counsel I was overcome to sign when my enemies held their ponyards at my throat in the prison of Locklevin you assured me that the Dismission should be of no force although since you have made it as effectual and powerfull as you could assisting those by your forces who were the first Authors of it You have transmitted my Authority to my Son when be was but in his Cradle and was not able to help himself and since I have by law confirmed the Crown on him you have intrusted him in the hands of my most capital enemies who having forced from him the effect will also take away the title of a King if God doth not preserve him I will profess unto you before the most impartial Judge that beholding my self pursued to death by my Rebels I sent unto you expresly by a Gentleman the Diamond Ring which I received from you with an assurance to be protected by your Authority succoured by your Arms and received into your Realm with all courtesie This promise so often repeated by your mouth did oblige me to come to throw my self into your Arms if I could be so happy to approch them But indeavouring where to find you behold I was stopped in the way environed with Guards detained in strong holds confined to a lamentable captivity in which I do at this day die without numbering a thousand deaths which alreadie I have suffered After that the Truth hath laid open all the impostures which were contrived against me that the chiefest of the Nobilitie of your Kingdom have acknowledged in publick and declared my innocence After that it hath been made apparent that what passed betwixt the late Duke of Norfolk and my self was treated approved and signed by those who held the first place in your Councels After so long a time that I have always submitted to the Orders which were prescribed for my captivitie I do behold my self to be daily persecuted in my own person and in the persons of my servants and totally hinders not onely from relieving the pressing necessities of my Son but from receiving the least knowledge of his condition This is that MADAM which makes me once more to beseech you by the dolorous Passion of our Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ that I may have permission to depart your Kingdom to assist my dear Son and to find some comfort for my poor bodie travelled with continual sorrows and with all libertie of conscience to prepare my soul for God who hourly doth call for it Your Prisons have destroyed my bodie there is no more left for my Enemies to satiate their vengeance My soul is still entire which you neither can nor ought to captivate Allow it some place to breathe more freely after its own safety which a thousand times I do more desire than all the greatness in the world What Honour can you receive to see me stifled in your presence and to fall at the feet of my Enemies Do you not consider that in this extreamity if by your means although late I shall be rescued from their hands that you shall oblige me and all mine and especially my Son whom most of all you may assure your own I must beseech you that I may understand your intentions concerning this and that you will not remit me to the discretion of any other but your own In the mean time I shall demand two things the one That being readie to depart this world I may be suffered to have with me some man of honour of the Church to instruct and perfect me in my Religion in which I am resolved to live and die The other That I may have two maids in my Chamber to attend me in my sickness protesting before God they are most necessary for me to keep me from the shame of the simple people Grant me then these Petitions for the honour of God and let it appear that my Enemies have not so much credit with you as to exercise their vengeance and crueltie in a thing of so small a consequence Reassume the marks of your ancient good nature Oblige your own to your self Grant me that contentment before I die as to see all things remitted betwixt you and my self to the end that my soul being inlarged from my bodie it be not constrained to lay open her groans before God for the injuries which you have suffered to be done unto me upon earth But on the contrary that departing from this captivity in peace and concord it may with all content repair to him whom I most humbly beseech to inspire You to condescend to my most just Requests Sheffeild November 28. 1581. Your most desolate most near and most affectionate Kinswoman QUEEN MARY 11. May we not affirm that these Remonstrances and that these words were of power to soften the heart of a Tyger and yet they made no impression on her barbarous soul who being born by a crime could not afterwards live but by iniquity Dear Reader it is true that we are possessed with A parallel on both Queens an amazement on the consideration of the particulars of this History And it may be you have the curiosity to draw open the curtain of the Sanctuary and enter into the secrets of the Divine Providence and in the travers of so much shade and darkness to discover why two Queens of so different qualities were so indifferently handled as it were by the blind conduct of Chance How came it about that nothing but calamity did follow the good Queen and all good fortune seemed not to be but onely for the bad one I will parallel the one with the other and although Queen Elizabeth be dead out of the communion of the true Church and in many considerations had extreamly undervalued and offended France yet I will not so rudely speak of her as she hath been charactered by the eloquent pens of Monsieur the Cardinal of Peron and Monsieur du Vair but content my self to speak of that onely which may be collected from the History written by Cambden her own Historiographer Queen Mary was high and glorious in her birth both by the Father and the Mother Queen Elizabeth did come into the world by a crime and a scandal who made all Christendom to groan It is true indeed she was the daughter of a King but
of a licentious King and of a wanton mother whose head the King did cause to be cut off for her unchastness The one from five years of age was brought up in France with so much piety gravity and honour that nothing more could be added or desired The other had a licentious Education under the bad Example of her licentious parents The one had an excellent an active and a clear spirit resembling the quality of the Sun The other was of a crafty malignant and a sullen Nature resembling the condition of a Cornet The one was experienced in the knowledge of tongues and sciences as much as was necessary for an honest Lady who ought not to appear too learned The other gave her self to such a vanity of study that oftentimes she committed some extravagances as when she undertook to translate the five books of the Consolation of Boetius to comfort her self on the Conversion of Henrie the Fourth The one did speak and write with an extraordinary clearness and an accurate smoothness The other in her expressions was harsh and did much perplex her thoughts as may appear in a subscription of a Letter written with her own hand and directed to Henrie the Fourth after his Conversion Vostre saeur sice soit a la virille avec novelle Je n'ay que faire Elizabeth R. which is in English Your Sister if it be after the old fashion with the new I have nothing but to do Elizabeth R I leave to the most liberal Interpreter to divine what she meaneth by it The one had a generous free and a credulous heart The other was malicious obstinate and deceitfull The one loved honour to which her condition had obliged her The other had a furious and bloudy Ambition and spared none to improve the interest of her Greatness The one retained an admirable constancy in her ancient Religion by reason whereof though she was outragiously persecuted yet she omitted nothing in her devotion The other did put on Religion as she did her mask making her self a Heretick amongst Hereticks and a Catholick amongst Catholicks for when in the reign of her sister Mary she made a high and solemn profession of the Roman Faith she afterwards counterfeited her belief and betrayed that character to authorize heresie and rebellion against the Church The one feared God and finding her self the Relict of Francis the Second at seventeen years of age she had rather stoop to the marriage yoke to give life unto a King than to live inordinately and under the veil of widow-hood to conceal her secret wantonness The other who had not so strict a conscience did find a way to reconcile Ambition and Love and lived not married and not a maid and though I am unwilling to believe that she lived so salt and melting a life as some have affirmed yet I cannot deny but that she had her Favourites and her Minyons which Cambden her own Historiographer doth not conceal The one studied for the advancement of Virtue The other for the advancement onely of vain Reputation The one held forth a generous liberty in all her actions The other painted her life and covered her vices with great pretences she extreamly feared the censure of Posterity which made her with so much artifice to indeer unto her the ablest men of forreign Countreys and entertained mercenary quills to increase her glory thinking by that means to conceal her Defects and blind the eyes of mankind Wherefore we ought not to give too much belief to some Historians though otherwise men of esteem who deliver many and great praises having received many and great Presents Men of that quality are always credulous enough and are not accustomed to bark at those who do feed them with bread The one was very religious in her promises the other was captious and inconstant and this most visibly she made apparent to the Duke of Alencon Brother to Henrie the Third of France who was come into England to espouse her and though the Contract of the Marriage was confirmed both on the one side and the other and though the Marriage-Ring was given yet she broke all for the Caprichiousness of one night and to obey the cries of some Maids of Honour who besought her that she would not marry The one was full of bounty to her poor Subjects to whom she could not do all the good she desired by reason of the Rebellions that were stirred up in her Kingdom The other was carefull enough not to tax her Subjects with Imposts or with Subsidies which caused her to be beloved of her people who in all the virtues of a Prince do cherish nothing more than a moderation in their Subsidies The one was indued with an extream sweetness of disposition which sometimes did seem to lie too open and defenceless as when with out seeing justice done she pardoned great Crimes which tended to the diminution of her Authority The other was naturally cruel a lover of bloud and one who horribly tormented the Catholicks and too easily would bring the Heads of her Great-ones upon the Scaffold to obtain the honour and title of being just among popular Spirits To conclude one reigned like a Dove and the other like a Bird of prey It is a horrible thing to read the History of her Reign written by her Admirers where in stead of the Contemplation of Virtues and of Beauties you shall observe in every page the Rages of Accusers bloudy Judgements Proscriptions Massacres which I alledge not in any disparagement to the Nation which I love with a true Christian charity but to the ignominie and the shame of Heresie It seems to me when I read the Life of Elizabeth that I enter into the Countrey of the Anthropophagi where I behold nothing but men drawn upon Sledges Hang-men tearing out of bowels and dividing carkases into quarters which are still dropping bloud and hanging in the most remarkable places of the Citie as the tapestry of the ancient cruelty of the Puritans I assure my self that those who are now in authority under so gracious a Prince do reflect upon it with as much horrour as my self and by their moderation will endeavour to wipe away the stains of so bloudy a Time Who is he then that is not amazed to see Virtue so forsaken and the best Queen in the world to lead so tempestuous a life persecuted in her estate in her body in her honour in her own person in the person of her friends despoiled outraged dishonoured torn by bloudy calumines drawn to unjust Tribunals locked up in so many prisons abandoned by those most near unto her and sacrificed by her kinred to the vengeance of her enemies and that in so tragical a manner and by so barbarous a hand And how comes it to pass that the other being laden with crimes did mount on the Throne by ways unexpected and did continue there by uncontrouled power and reigned as if she had all good Fortune at her own