Ammonites and of the Moabites that were in his army with him to know what forces that people might have that were disposed to make an opposition Then Achior Prince of the Ammonites rose up and made him a long narration of the originall and qualities of the Jews telling him by piece-meal how that Nation came from the Chaldeans and separated themselves from them by reason of Religion despising all the Gods of the Gentiles and believing but one God the Maker of Heaven and Earth He added how they went into Egypt when there was a great famine and that they were there so exceedingly multiplyed that they began to give terrour to the Egyptians who ceased not to torment them But that God revenged their injuries by horrible plagues from Heaven that made havock of all Egypt so that their Land-lords were constrained to let them go whithersoever it seemed good unto them But Pharaoh the King having made a resolution to pursue them and to destroy them utterly was burried with all his Army in the red-Sea through which that people had passed on dry-foot From thence they journeyed through the barren deserts of Arabia where their God miraculoufly nourished them giving them food from heaven and commanding the Rocks to open to them springs and fountains Furthermore he advertised Holophernes that when things were well between their Master and them they were invincible which visibly appeared by the victories they obteined over the Amorites the Jebusites and the Peresites and other Nations which they had devoured as fire would do the chaff possessing themselves of their Lands and estates But if it happened that they were defiled with some iniquity there was nothing more weak then they by reason that they were then forsaken of heaven and left to their own selves and therefore he advised him not to hazard any thing against them before he knew the condition wherein they were at present because that if they were well united to the Deity which they worshiped he should carry away nothing but confusion Holophernes Captains hearing Achiors discourse loaded him with reproches for that he had so much as a thought that so small an handfull of people and ill trained should be able to resist a Royall Army of Nabuchadonosors The Generall holds him for a mad man and commands him to be delivered to the Jews since he was a Jew in heart and affection And indeed the souldiers having taken him and bound him to a tree left him to the discretion of those of the City of Bethulia who carryed him away and having presented him to the Priests that governed and to all the Assembly of the City enquired of him of all that had passed about him He straightway made them a long discourse and exalted the Testimonies that he had given to the Majesty of their God whereat all betook themselves to weep for joy and praised the Divine Goodnesse prostrating themselves on the ground and promising all favour to their Prisoner In the mean while Holophernes causes his Troops to advance to surprize the little Bethulia but he saw himself combated by men invisible hidden in the mountains that much gauled his Army being coop'd up in very narrow passages His Captains counselled him not to torment his souldiers unprofitably but to seize onely upon the Channels of the fountains that carryed the water to the City and that would be a means to take it without putting himself to much trouble This was performed and it proved very effectuall for the people seeing themselves deprived of the commodities of those fair sources that gave them drink begin to murmur aloud against the Priests who by their rashnesse had resisted so prodigious a power against the example of so many Nations and cry out that they were better render themselves to the Assyrians then see their wives and children buried in the same tomb Ozias in the absence of Joachim appeased them by his tears and caused them to resolve on a patience of five dayes This City of Bethulia had within the circuit of its walls a great Treasure whose merit it was not yet sufficiently acquainted with It was the valorous Judith in whom Heaven had put rare qualities and God had chosen her to give safety to her countrey She was of an high extraction of the Tribe of Reuben three years and an half a Widow beautifull even to perfection of a chastity and reputation inviolable extream rich but above all devout and virtuous Shee had built on the top of her house a little Solitude whither she with her maids retired themselves to be vacant to things Divine there was her Oratory there her intercourses with God and from thence mounted to Heaven her prayers that carryed up the groans of her people even to the throne of the most High The holy Lady had her innocent flesh loaden with a rough hair-cloth fasted every day except the Saturdayes and the solemn feasts that were amongst the Jews her heart was inflamed with an incredible zeal of the glory of God and touched to the quick with the miseries of her people When she understood what had been resolved on at the Assembly and that the City was to be yielded in five dayes if it had no other relief she spake to Ozias the Prince of the people and to the Priests that governed and made them a most excellent advertisement upon what had passed at their last convention She told them That it was to tempt God to prescribe to him the time of his mercies and not to expect it of his Providence that it did not belong to men to dispose of heaven who are reserved to the disposall of their Sovereign Master that they ought onely to think upon the performance of an exact repentance for the sinnes of their life past and imploring the divine clemency with the effusion of tears which well knew how to find a remedy to so great necessities She made them understand that good men are necessarily proved by divers Tribulations and that those that bear them with patience are at last glorious before God But those that disquiet themselves and murmure have no profit by their afflictions and provoke wrath from on high that redoubles scourge upon scourge to punish their rebellion In the end she perswaded them that seeing they were the Heads of the People and that so many souls breathe not but by their breath they would not fail to exhort them to a further patience The principall men of the City were ravished with a mouth that spake so divinely and the words that issued from so fair a source had a grace incomparable to subdue the most obdurate hearts They all avowed that she was a woman according to the heart of God that had spoken worthily and that there was nothing deficient in her discourse But she submitted her self by a great humility to their judgements and beseeched them to leave one of the city gates free for her to go out at that very night accompanied with her
of water God made his birth and education singularly to Extraction of Theodosius contribute to the sanctity of his life He was descended from Trajan called the good Emperour by supereminence of worth his Grand-father was the great Theodosius a man who in wariness had no superiour that preceded him and in piety no better second than his Grand-child The Emperour Arcadius was his father a most generous Prince who in the very beginning of the fifth Age to wit the year after the Nativity of our Saviour four hundred and one saw this infant rise as a bright star at that time when he ended the course of his life as the Poets feigned the Sun reareth himself from the bed of aged Tython to illustrate the world His nativity was foretold His birth foretold by the mouth of Saints his most tender infancy consecrated by the destruction of idols God at one and the same time putting him in the number of the living and in the rank of Protectours of the Church by a most remarkeable act of which behold the narration Saint Procopius an Hermit endowed with admirable Prophesie of S. Procopius sanctity illumined with the spirit of prophefie living in the Isle of Rhodes praying daily for the destruction of some remnants of idolatry which reigned in the Roman Empire when by good chance two holy Prelates Porphyrius and John the one Bishop of Gaza the other of Caesarea in Palestine sayling for that purpose to Constantinople went to lodge in the Hermitage of this holy man He having received them with all respect answerable to their qualities and entertained them according to the poverty of the Cell understanding they travelled to the capital Citie of the Eastern Empire of purpose to obtain an Edict from the Emperour absolutely to destroy the Temples of idols and bridle the insolencies of Pagans who stirred with so much the more boldness as the drouping faintness of the government of those times promised them impunity he was infinitly comforted to see so great personages undertake so worthy a work and God then prompting him these words he saith Courage Fathers the glory of this conquest is due to your pietie Go stoutly to Constantinople and acquaint the holy Bishop John Chrysostom with this design resolving to execute what he shall think fit For the rest know the Empress is nine moneths gone with child and that which is more she beareth an Emperour in her womb upon the mother and the son who is to be born depends the expedition of this affair They very glad of this prediction left the good Hermit Procopius and in ten days arrived at Constantinople where presently they visited S. John Chrysostom who received them with much respect and very great contentment The affair being put into deliberation the Bishop of Constantinople saw well that the Empress might therein much assist and that God ordinarily useth the pietie of women to advance the affairs of Religion Notwithstanding he durst not present these two Prelates to her fearing his recommendation might be prejudicial for he very lately had a sharp difference with the Empress It was Eudoxia a woman Eudoxia mother of Theodosius of a great spirit and who naturally loved virtue as milk in her infancy but she had a heart extreamly haughty and quickly would be offended if any thing of great consequence were undertaken against her authority Behold wherefore S. Chrysostom who was of no pleasing disposition as one who had a spirit alienated from ordinary complements sometimes towards those of his own coat reprehending her openly at many meetings in the point of glory wherein she most desired to be soothed raised her indignation to the clouds She was as yet in the height Her humour of her passion against him and therefore he judging it to no purpose for him to sollicite her caused the two Bishops to be presented by the means of one called Amantius an attendant of Eudoxia's chamber a very wise man and of great credit with his Lady She who knew her child-bed time at hand gave very free access to religious men as hoping all good success by help of their devotions and seeing these two Bishops Bishops treat with the Empress were very particularly recommended to her by Amantius in quality of persons endowed with a very eminent sanctity she was unsatisfied till she had seen them and having most courteously saluted them excusing her bigness with child to have hindered her passage to the door of their reception according to the usual practice towards persons of their worth she forbear not most affectionately to conjure them to employ their most fervent prayers to obtain of God a happy delivery for her The holy Bishops after they had wished her the child-birth of Sarah of Rebecca and Saint Elizabeth began to declare the cause of their voyage unfolding in very express terms the indignity of this Idolatrie the insolency of Pagans the contempt of things sacred the oppression of people the lamentable mischief it would be to behold the worshipping of idols still to flourish which to abolish the Saviour of the world had so much sweat so much wept and shed so much bloud and to see it predominate as it were in the eyes of a most magnificent Emperour and a most religious Empress who had all the means to extirpate it That in such a field the palms of eternal glory should be gathered and that better they could secure their estate than by destroying the work of Satan to erect the tropheys of Jesus Eudoxia taketh fire being thereto otherwise well Zeal of Eudoxia enough disposed and promiseth to recommend the business to the Emperour to obtain the dispatches they required for their better contentment The Bishops retired expecting the effect of this promise The Ladie faileth not to offer her requests and strike the stroke with her best dexteritie But Court affairs proceed not always on the same feet which the desires of the zealous move upon she findeth the Councel engaged in these retardations who think it to no purpose to roul such a stone That idolatrie should Judgement of Arcadius his Councel be left to bury it self and at leisure dress its own funerals That the means to ruin it is to remove the heads of the sect from all kind of honours and publick dignities to forbid the exercise of superstition and Conventicles which they make in private houses to subdue Idolaters and burn them as it is said with a soft fire That the demolishment which should be made of those great Temples of Idols which yet remained would make much noise and yield little fruit that this might thrust rebellious spirits into manifest despair and in a word it was feared it might be a means to turn the coyn of the Emperours coffers another way who drew a good round revenue from the Citie of Gaza which even at that time was in hand The consideration of interest which ever holdeth as Porphyrius unfoldeth the
to all the great virtues which concern the Weal-publick It oftentimes happeneth that those who flie from charges and affairs under pretext of tranquilitie of spirit if they be not well rectified therein find instead of repose a specious sluggishness and those who make profession of arms if they take not good heed suffering all the innocencie of the Golden Age to languish make themselves virtues of the iron Age but your conditions which have a certain temperance of a life more sweet accompanied with laudable employments open the way to you which maketh and crowneth merits Yet is there need of a soul very able to preserve it self sincerely in charges among so many corruptions and of a heart perfectly purified to link it wholly to the interests of God who with three fingers of his power supporteth Estates and Empires That is the cause why I offer this Treatise not so much to give Maxims of State of which there are always enough to be found as sometimes to awaken a good conscience which is a true ray reflected from the eternall Law to the end that among so many temptations of Honour and such burdens of affairs it may not lose any part of its vigour If you deign to spend some hours of your leasure hereon it perhaps wil not be unprofitable for at least that will let you see a States-man as rare as a Phenix and as pure as an Angel But if this consideration furnish you with any good thoughts for your perfection I shall esteem my self well recompensed for the service which I in this work have vowed to your eminent qualities THE STATES MAN The first SECTION The excellencie of Politick Virtue I Have ever made account of the division of virtues which the Platonists use when they call the one Purgative the other Illuminative the third Civil and the last Exemplar Purgative virtues are those which give to our souls the first tincture of sanctity For they take our heart wholly possessed as it is yet with earthly passions and discharge it from so many imperfections which ordinarily corrupt nature to give it a tast of heavenly things Illuminative afford us day-light when we have vanquished the agitations of sense establish us in the sweetness of some repose where we begin to behold the entrances progresses and issues of the world wherein we are placed and the course of this great Comedy called life The Civil draw us out of our selves to apply us to our neighbour and to render every one his due according to his degree in the good conversion betwixt man and man Exemplar proceed much further in perfection for they expose themselves in publick to serve as models for others and appear in charges and dignities in the government of Kingdoms Provinces Cities and Communalties This is it which I call here the virtue of a States-man taking the word generally not only for those who are engaged in the manage of Monarchies Sovereignties and Re-publicks but also for such as exercise justice and other principal charges of civil life We must Excellentibus ingeniit citius defueritars quâ civem regant quà m quâ hostem superent Tit. Liv. lib. 2. affirm this politick virtue which maketh true States-men is a rare piece and as it were the cream and most purified part of wisdom seeing that not contenting it self with a lazy knowledge of virtue it laboureth to build adorn and establish the civil world by the maintenance of justice without which in the amplest Kingdoms are the greatest thefts If the world be a harp as saith the eloquent Sinesius D. Tho. 22. q 58. Justicia legalis praeclarior omnibus moralibus quia bonum commune preâ—minet bono singulari Tertul. l. 2. adversus Marcion Bonitaâ— Dei operata est mundum justitia modulata est justice windeth up the strings stirreth the fingers toucheth the instrument giveth life to the airs and maketh all the excellent harmonies If the world be a Musick-book framed of days and nights as of white and black notes justice directeth and composeth If it be a ring justice is the diamond If it be an eye justice is the soul If it be a Temple justice is the Altar All yieldeth to this virtue and as it is enchaced in all laudable actions so all laudable actions are incorporated in justice It is an engine much more powerful in effect than was that of Archimedes in idaea for it doth that in Kingdoms which this man could never so much as imagine in his mind though ambitious enough in inventions It maketh I say Heaven to descend on earth and earth to mount up to Heaven Heaven to descend in introducing a life wholly celestial in the uncivil conversation of men earth to mount up in drawing it from dreggs and corruption of a covetous and bloudy life to enlighten it with rays of a prudent knowledge to embelish it with virtues diversifie it with beauties and settle it in the center of repose God maketh so much account of an honest man Genes 8. v. 27. according to the Hebrew text recommended to the government of others that having chosen Noah to command over onely seaven souls shut up in the Ark as in a moving prison he calleth him his Heart for to say truly we must have the heart of God to bring forth counsels sufficiently able to save men and to be in the same instant the mouth of God to pronounce the Oracles of truth God asketh Job who is the man on earth Job 8. 33. Ordinem Coeli that shall make the musick of Heaven To which I would willingly answer It is a good Justicier For in what consisteth this harmony of Heaven We are not in my opinion to imagine it according to the dotages of some Philosophers who of it have made unto themselves a celestial musick composed of voyces and sounds formed by the mutual encounter of those admirable Globes The harmony of Heaven is nought else but the good order of the sun the moon stars day and night and seasons which daily progress along with a regular pace and measured motion not erring in the least point This order which is so excellent and divine in Heaven is introduced upon earth by the means of justice which guideth and governeth all the actions of men within the circuits and limits of duty so sagely and divinely that he who would observe so many singular laws which books recommend unto us should quickly make earth become a little Heaven For the same reason Origen interpreting Isay 66. Coelum miki sedes est Efficiuntur sedes Dei facti prius conversatione peritia coelestes Orig. Philostr l. 1. c. 18. this passage of Isay where God saith Heaven is his Throne sheweth that the Paradise and Heaven of God upon earth is justice from whence it cometh to pass that such as use it as they ought are wholly celestial in science life and conversation Was it not this consideration which drew the Babylonians to build
the Palace where judgements were given in the forme of Heaven for the very stone-work was of Saphirs which are of celestial colour and in the feelings clouds were counterfeited and in those clouds certain birds reputed as messengers of justice as if they had been delegated to see the deportments of men in discharge of their offices and to advise them that giving judgement on earth they must ever have an eie and an ear in Heaven I also discover this by another observation of Jud. 45. Scripture for it teacheth me that the brave Princess Debora surnamed the Bee judged the people and held her Assizes under a Palm or as it is probable after the reason both of the one and other were heard she took a leaf of this tree and gave it to him who had the right And from this practise Exornétque tuas plurima palma fores Mortial is derived the custom to plant Palms at the gates of great Advocates and Justiciers which was likewise observed in ancient Rome Now why think you would God have the first sessions of justice to be held under Palms but to signifie that which Philo speaketh of that as the Palm beareth his heart and strength in the top so good judges direct their whole understanding and affections to heaven living perpetually as in the presence of the Divinitie or else that as the virtues of the Palm are innumerable so the excellencies of justice are infinite Adde also hereunto a passage in a Caldaick Commentary upon Ecclesiastes which telleth how Solomon that great King under whose principality peace and justice mutually embraced as sisters to shew what account he made of those who well managed matters of right caused a most sumptuous Palace to be erected for them of most exquisite workmanship called the House of Judgement and through excess of favour ordained they should partake of the wine of offerings which was presented on the Altars of the living God and which came from a vine planted and manured by the hand of Solomon himself Is it Exod. 32. not to place justice in heaven to admit it to the communication of the honours and offerings of God So the people of Israel supposing one day that Moses was lost instantly asked of Aaron Gods to govern them as thinking there must be some divinitie to supply the loss of this great States-man Why then do you wonder if S. Augustine in the book he cōposed of Order praiseth the practise of Pythagoras who never taught politick science to his disciples till they had passed through many long trials esteeming the other arts were apt to debaush the mind but that this applied lively colours and as it is said varnished and perfected up the table It is not very hard at this time to conclude what the excellency of a brave States-man is but the discovery of him is very rare And I will tell you that considering well the tables which Delbenius hath made upon Aristotle his Phylosophy and comparing them with other exquisite pieces I have seen two Cities very different both which bare the title of Policy but the one in effect was false Policy and the other the City of Verity I will present them unto you plainly and sincerely according to the like design of S. Augustine in his City of God and according to the Idaea's of ancient Sages not plancing at our times which I will neither praise nor condemn my nature and profession having disposed me to much ignorance of worldly affairs The second SECTION The table of Babylon drawn from sundry conceptions of the most singular wits of Antiquity WE then have beheld the City of wicked Policy in those ancient paintings to be built upon ruines in a land of quick-silver wholly cemented with bloud Earth-quakes are there very frequent and I know not what kind of outragious winds blow so dangerously as if they would tear all in pieces The waters were there infected the air killed those which breathed in it the viands produced death under a false apparence of life The inhabitants saw nothing but wolves and foxes by their sides ravens and owls on their houses comets over their heads serpents and scorpions at their feet which were there seen as abundantly strewed as flowers in the ennamell of the spring The gates Plutarch de curiosit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 resembled those fatall portalls whereof histories make mention that were never opened but to pass away carrion and ordure and withall this the Citizens were so powerfully charmed that they esteemed themselves most happie supposing to sleep on thorns was to live among violets and roses It is verily a wonder that without there were some shadowes of pietie but within not so much as a Temple For in truth the Burgesses of this Citie never looked up to heaven but to blaspheme it and all of them greedily sought for earth covered with a vail of sky-colour I saw no other Gods there but Honour Gain and Pleasure to which souls and bodies were sacrificed in much greater number than Solomon slaughtered oxen in the solemnitie of his most magnificent Sacrifices I saw huge caves where there were all sorts of beasts and likewise many monsters that much resembled the Harpyes Gorgons and chymaera's of antiquitie I perceived also some solitarie dens where I was certified great sacriledges were committed of power to make darkness which served them for a cover to blush for shame being unable to deceive the eys of God The men which walked in the streets appeared like Centaures and were clothed with an habit spotted over like the skin of a Panther The Chirurgians who diffected some of them newly dead gave assurance they had found two hearts in them Howsoever it is certain they shewed as it is said marvellous cunning in their words and had no other pastime all the day but to lay snares not sparing their greatest friends for indeed they were extreamly treacherous and cruell in all which concerned their own interests As I more attentively considered their orders and distinctions I saw there were three labyrinths very different In the first which was at the very entrance stood the least wicked who were not as yet practised in black mischiefs contenting themselves to exercise some slight tricks of wit for they in good earnest deceived one another and took much pleasure in mutuall cousenage and called this kind of sport legier-demain I saw there many creatures that served their masters not forgetting their own affairs and who mowed the meadow whilest it was plenty I saw Merchants some of which foisted in false wares others disguised them others overprized them others sware without end and some likewise swallowed up perjuries as sweetly as the most delicate viand I saw Artificers who used many deceits in their manufactures and better understood the trade of lying than any other I also saw some who sold wind silence and time and had excellent inventions to get money Some by certain influences drew it out as doth
a love more fervent than their flames and the ax which separated the head from thy bodie placed a Crown on thy head I behold thee with an eye wholly rapt with the beauties of thy glorie I a thousand times kiss thy wounds and take part in thy tropheys and sanctifie my self by loving thee as a Martyr of Jesus Christ What then remains O blessed soul but that I imitate thee and though executioners forbear my bodie never to spare my pains That all my life may be but a martyrdom and that there be not any part in me which serves not as a victim to the sacrifice of my patience Aglae having performed her duties and caused a Church to be built dedicated to God in memory of the Martyr S. Boniface entered into a Monastery and perfected her self in the glorious travels of penance finishing her course near her well-beloved and entombing her ashes at his feet THE SECOND PART OF MAXIMS Of the HOLY COURT THE DESIGN WE have directly looked towards God in the first Part deducing Maxims which most nearly concern the Divinitie I now descend in this Second to those which touch the direction of this present life and consider them in three respects whereof one tendeth to the service of God the other to our neighbour and the last stayeth upon our selves In the first I treat of Pietie against all counterfeit devotion In the second I shew we must carry our selves towards our neighbours with justice sinceritie and sweetness excluding our own ends dissimulation and crueltie In the third I entertain what concerns the ordering of our selves in prosperitie against Epicureans and in adversitie against impatience upon accidents of humane life wherein I endeavour throughout effectually to observe the disorders which Plato and Aristotle noted were the causes of the destruction of Families Cities and Empires THE SECOND PART Touching the Direction of this present Life IX MAXIM Of DEVOTION THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT That if Devotion must be used we should embrace that which is in fashion accommodating it to our ends That we must be devout for God and that if Devotion be not solid it is no longer Devotion IT is a matter very considerable that Devotion is subject to many more illusions than all other virtues of which we have proof enough from our own experience although we could find no other foundation in reason But if the judicious Reader The cause wherefore Devotion is subject to so many illusions desire to know the cause I will tell him that as nothing hath been so much turmoiled and counterfeited as Religion which hath in all Ages been disfigured by such variety of Sects so it is no marvel if Devotion which is according to S. Thomas as the branch of this tree find the like contrarieties Bodies most delicate are soonest corrupted by extream impressions so this virtue which is of a temperature very subtile since it is as it were the cream of charity may easily be perverted by the evil mannage of it Adde that the wicked spirit seeing this exercise is very necessary for us seeks to envenom it in its sources to the end we may draw poison from those things which might be our remedy Besides men either through superabundance of idleness presumption of ability through love of their own conceits or desire of novelty multiply their inventions upon this matter and many make golden Goldē calves taken for Cherubins The practice of the Lacedemonians calves to themselves in Bethel in stead of the Cherubins of Jerusalem The Lacedemonians ever attired their gods according to the fashions and humours which then swayed in their Citie Every one delights to dress up devotion by the pattern of his passions I affirm one cannot worthily enough praise the practise of so many devout souls which live in singular purity either in Religious or Civil life And I may say it is an Host of the living God as terrible in his mildness as he is sweet in his terrours I honour all the bodies yea the particulars with the honour their deserts have acquired But as the strongest truths fail not to be invaded by some obscurities so it is no wonder if in the ordering of virtues some defects creep into the life of particulars which should no way prejudice the integrity of the general Of Dark Devotion THere is a dark Devotion which is rude and Gross and afflicting Devotion stupid another nice a third transcendent and a fourth sincere and solid I call a stupid devotion that which establisheth all virtue in indiscreet and immoderate austerities which very often kill the body and extinguish the total vigour of the mind that which without any obligation of the Church or of some particular Order or sage direction ties it self to straight and rigorous observations rather for satisfaction of self-will than through any other sense of piety and which placeth in this act all Christian perfection not minding so many other duties which strictly bind us to matters more considerable We have heard the Idolaters of the Eastern parts kill themselves with recital of a fearfull number of prayers to their Idols roul in the scorching sands clog themselves with fetters and slash themselves with razors thinking by these ways they may arrive to the top of sanctity Nor can we likewise be ignorant what is sufficiently declared unto us by holy Scripture that many of the Ancients were much enclined to these superstitious devotions establishing therein all the order of spiritual life in such sort that they perpetually afflicted their bodies and in the mean time suffered their hearts to sway in empty vanities burning avarice rigours and cruelties towards their neighbours wholly insupportable Such was the devotion of Pharisees so often rebuked and condemned herein by the lips of the eternal Truth For when you saw them walk in publick you beheld men lean and disfigured who bare scrowls of parchment on their heads wherein they wrote some sentence of the Law of God and tied thorns to the border of their gowns to prick and torment their heels whilest the heart uncontroulably committed all disorder Such also was the devotion of certain superstitious reproved by the Prophet Isaiah in the 58. Chapter where God speaketh Isaiah 58. saying unto them Who ever hath gone about to exact such fasts from you and such devotion as you practise to afflict the bodie a whole day together how the head lie on sackcloth and ashes Is this then that which you call fasting and can you think days and times spent in such actions are very acceptable to God I will teach you another kind of fast Break off those Dissoloe colligationes impietatis solve fasciculos deprimentes bargains you have made with such iniquity tear in pieces the bundles of unjust and insupportable obligations let the poor go at libertie who are overwhelmed with wants Take the yoke from them which they can no longer bear give food to the hungrie lodge pilgrims and
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
servant for she had some good work in her heart for the safety of her Countrey and intreated that it might be recommended to the prayers of the whole Assembly without curiously inquiring what it was that God would do by her means Ozias answered her that she might go in peace and that he prayed that her action might succeed to the good of the universall people Here perhaps may some men be astonished that a woman should take the boldnesse to go and advise the Magistrates and the Priests and the severer sort of censurers will say that by right Judith should have been sent home to her distaffe They will alledge that the Jews give every day thanks to God in their Prayers for that he had not made them be born Women Antiently they were placed in the Churches on the North side from whence the Scripture makes all the evil of the world to come Chrysologus hath also said that woman was the Way of Death the Title of the Sepulchre and the Gate of Hell But this ought to be understood of those that follow the steps of the first of Women and not the wayes of the chief of Virgins Those who abandon themselves to luxury to vanity and to dissolute pleasures are no way fit for great affairs being too delicate for labour and too ambitious of honour But many others that have taken pains in the regulating of their passions have rendred great services to Kingdomes and Common-wealths Rome had never been Rome without the Sabine women The people of the North by the report of Tacitus have been governed in their Warres and in their Polities by women professing that they perceived in them a certain prophetick and divine spirit Plato in his Common-wealth hath judged them capable of Offices their souls being of the same species or kind as men's Wherefore then should we think it strange that God made use of a virtuous woman to counsel men and to deliver her countrey Before she undertook that great work she was a long time prostrated before God in her Oratory with sackcloth upon her back and ashes upon her head saying with an amorous heart My God the God of my Fathers to whom nothing is impossible look down now upon the camp of the Assyrians with that eye of lightnings and of thunders that thou heretofore didst cast upon the army of Egyptians when they were buried in the bottom of the Sea Let the same happen to those here that trust in their chariots of warre in their spears and in their swords and know not that thou art the God of heaven that breakest in pieces the mighty Powers of the earth with one sole look of thine eyes lift up that same arm that hath made it self renown'd from all antiquity by so many wonders and tread under-foot all their strength by thine for ever dreadfull forces Suffer them not to violate thy Temple and to sack the House where thy Name is from all time invoked Cause this barbarous Collonel who promises himself our spoils to be taken by me through the snares of his eyes that his own Coutel-ax may divide his soul and body Strike him with the grace that thy blessing shall make to flow upon my lips and with the cloquence that it shall give to my speeches animate my heart and stiffen my arm to make that great blow that shall be thine and carry away an eternall honour for having pulled down that Colossus by a woman's hand Thy strength is not in the multitude of souldiers nor in the valour of Cavaliers It is not those proud warriours that ought to expect the succour of thy arm but it is the Prayer of the humble that gains thy heart and draws thy forces to their protection God of the heavens creatour of the waters and the God of all nature hear thy poor servant that presumes nothing but from thy mercy Remember thy Covenant give counsel to my heart words to my mouth and strength to my hands for the defence of thy House and that all the Nations of the habitable world may know that there is not any other God but thee Such were the Arms and Engines of this excellent woman such was the confidence she had in the God of hosts After this Prayer she rises from her Oratory comes down from her chamber and calls her maid to dresse her She puts off the sackcloth she washes her self she perfumes her self and quitting the mourning habit which she wore in her widow-hood she puts on her gayest cloathing The tresses of her long hairs are combed out with a delicate hand and her head covered with a stately tyre her handsome body appeared a little taller by the favour of her patins she hangs on her pendants at her ears she puts on her bracelets her chain of pearls her rings certain jewels made in form of flower-de-Lis's and all her richest ornaments It seemed that God took a pleasure that day to render her fairer then ever she had been and that all the graces smiled in her countenance because she had adorned her self through virtue and not through wantonnesse She caused her meat and drink to be carried by her maid fearing to pollute her body with the viands of the Infidels and instantly she went out of her house and betook her self to the city gate where she found Ozias the Prince together with the Priests that were ravished with the lustre of her heavenly beauty Yet no body curiously enquired whither she was going but were contented to wish that God would make her designs succesfull that she might be one day the honour of Jerusalem and that her name might be put in the rank of those great and holy souls that had rendred to God most renowned services She departs out of the city calling again upon the name of God and reciting some prayers with her servant As she went down the mountain upon the break of day the souldiers having perceived her failed not to run to her and seeing her so excellently beautifull were at first dazled in their eyes more by the splendour of her visage then by the first rayes of the day that then was upon its birth They inform themselves of her countrey of her journey and of her intentions whereto she answered that she was of Bethulia and that she had that day forsaken that miserable city that was obstinate in its misery and that for having resisted the triumphant legions of the Assyrians deserved to be destroyed by the thunder-bolts of heaven and earth That she would have no share in their crime no more then in their disastres and that her desire was to present her self to Holophernes to reveal to him the secrets of the city and to teach him the means how to take it without losing any of his men These men were ravished at the hearing of these discourses and assured her that she had taken an excellent course to live in quiet and in honour and that she would be very welcome to their master of whom