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
tomb with her eyes in every billow of this faithless element is delivered from peril by the very bloud of Pharaoh to turn the Diadem of Pharaoh into dust and bury him all enflamed in a gulf of the Red-sea Behold Jeroboam who revolting against Domus Jeroboam eversa esi deleta de superficie terrae 3 Reg. 15. his Prince raised a State by ambition and a Religion out of fantasie having seen the Altars crack with the horrour of his crime yet his heart still remaining more obdurate than stone in the end he is so chastised by the hand of God that there was not left so much as one handfull of dust of his house upon the face of the earth Behold Absalom who thought the means to mount up to a Throne was to make a foot-stool by force of Arms of the crowned head of his father yet see him entangled in a tree transfixed with three spears and thrown into a deep pit which left nothing of him alive but the memory of his misery Behold Saul who makes shew punctually to obey the law of God under the direction of Samuel he afterwards learns to become cunning plotting designs and seeking in all points his own petty interests but in the end David whose life he judged incompatible with his own estate dismounted him using no other Policie but by making himself an honest man Behold the Monarchies of the world so much disputed on behold Scepters hanging on a silken thread the Empires and lives of Otho Vitellins Galba Piso Balbinus Florianus Basilius Silvianus Tacitus Quintilius Maximus Michael Colophates Behold the fall of Parmâ—â—io under Alexander Sejanus under Tyberius Cleander under Commodus Ablavius under Constantine Eutropius under Arcadius Vignius under Frederick Brocas under Philip Cabreca under Peter and so many of the like kind Either you shall make your self wholly insensible or must affirm that to raise a State and build a fortune you are to proceed securely therein with a very great tie upon the maxims of faith religion and honesty unless you will expect in the course of an uncertain life a most certain ruin And yet you still doubt to enter into the Citie of good Policie Oh had you once tasted those delights you would become wholly enamoured of them but I see it is fit I make a piece of painting for you to oppose that wicked Policie The fourth SECTION The Table of the Citie of God otherwise called The Citie of honest men drawn out of many excellent conceits of ancient Authours and things practised in some former Common-wealths I Will tell you than thet I have seen in the idaeaes of Plato this Divine Agathopolis and that my mind is still much pleased with the rememberance of this spectacle Expect not I should describe unto you the Countrey nor Citie with curiositie of language for I leave that to Poets and Oratours who have more leisure than I. Onely I intreat you to believe that all which delicate pens of antiquitie have written of Elisian fields and the fortunate Islands are in it to be found with many advantages which we may much better conceive than express The Heavens are there smiling the air wholesom the waters good the seasons temperate the winds calm the ground fertile the abode delightfull the hills and valleys watered with goodly fountains shadowed with many trees covered with vines enamelled with flowers tapistred with meadows bristled with ears of corn on what side soever you turn it seemeth the Providence of God hath taken much pleasure to embellish this territory with his own hands I will not speak to you at all of the walls Towwers Bulwarks Bastions Theaters Amphitheaters Colossesses Edifices and other the like for herein this fortunate Citie hath not grounded its greatness although there were to be seen buildings as admirable as if the Angels of Heaven were come down on earth to undertake the direction thereof I took it for a good presage when I saw at the enterance of the Citie a great number of minds modest stout and resolved who went to the fountains to draw water and bare the pitcher on their shoulders as that ancient Rebecca of whom it is spoken in Scripture labouring like bees in a bright summers day I saw over the gate of the Citie a great statue of the Sun in the sign of Libra which made me suppose that all was mannaged within it as are the days and the nights in the Equinoctial I was not deceived in the judgement I made upon it for there were not so much as clocks out of order in such sort that they struck all together and mutually met at every hour of the day It was a contentment to me to walk on a pavement even and smooth and to behold streets very fair where there was neither stench dirt channels coach-man caroch nor lash of whips smoak of roasts criers much tattle running up and down sinks perfumes of Carpet-knights waggish tricks of lackeys nor sleights of cut-purses proud gates of Rodomonts nor leaders of Bears nor Mountebanks nor pettyfoggers quarrelers drunkards ale-houses nor any of those which draw tribute from humane flesh The whole world there was busied and there was not an idle boy onely you might see children very yong who played at a most innocent game and bare in their childish faces the goodness of fathers and mothers imprinted with an excellent character I learned the principal scope of their great felicity was a most genuine simplicity which reigned amongst all the inhabitants not that they were stupid or witless for accosting them I soon perceived they had spirits clear-sighted and well purified but all their study was to make a harmony between their heart and tongue and to proceed in all things they undertook with marvellous freedom they were infinitely amazed when it was told them there were in other Countreys counterfeit men who spake contrary to their knowledge and thinking one thing in their hearts affirmed the contrary with their tongues They thought it impossible and used comparisons of their clocks where the wheel and the hand went ever a like pace And when I insisted and grounded my self upon experience of what I had seen and heard they concluded it may well then be said those men there are spiritual Centaurs composed of two natures And it being told them there were Ladies and Gentlewomen in other Provinces which wore sumptuous apparel plaited bumbasted slashed loaden with precious stones and chains which had the spoils of the dead upon their heads draw-bridges tyed to their feet and that they bestowed a quarter of their lives in combing and plaistering their faces the women of this Countrey had much compassion hereof and spake with tears in their eyes Alas poor creatures we may well say they have committed enormous sins to carry themselves thus And when it was answered the greatest ambition which these Ladies had in the world was to use this custom they made many signs of the Cross asking whether they were innocents they
Ennodius in his Panegyrick saith that he honoured the Royal purple with the rays of his countenance and that there was not in the world a habit so beautiful which he made not more lustrous by wearing it on his body that his eyes had the serenity of the spring and that his hands were worthy to give death to rebels and matter of vows to his subjects That all which Diadems perform in the person of other Emperours nature had done in him and that nothing in him was wanting but an heir for the truth is he dyed not leaving any son to succeed him Reader I have been willing to present unto you succinctly the great revolution of the Empire into which our Boetius fell and the qualities of his Persecutour who degenerated afterward into so much barbarism But let us now behold what he did by the counsel of our great Boetius in the manage of his Kingdom to the end you may have so much the more horrour of wicked ingratitude who slew this holy man that was as the Intelligence and Angel Guardian of his State The fourth SECTION The enterance of Theodorick into Rome and his happy government by the counsel of Boetius THeodorick having pacified the City of Ravenna and made himself Master of the most important places of his Kingdom went to Rome with the most flourishing troups of Italy where he was received in the manner of ancient triumphs which exceedingly pleased the people who at that time resembled the earth which ariseth from the snows of winter as from a tomb to becom young again with the sweet breath of the spring So many years were slipt away wherein they had not seen any thing but divisions troubles famine and bloud when this Prince came to appear upon the triumphant Chariot with his golden arms which gave him a mervellous majesty besides the graces he had from nature they thought they beheld a star newly descended from heaven and followed him with infinite acclamations in witness of affection He being alighted at the Palace Boetius who was the principal man of the world in nobility wit and learning was chosen out from all the State to make him an Oration In which being then in full vigour of eloquence he most divinely acquitted himself It is a great loss that posterity hath not preserved so brave a monument of this rare spirit to enchase it now presently in this work From thence the King passed to the Circus which was a large place appointed for Jousts and Tournaments and staying himself at a place called the Palm of gold he caused his throne to be magnificently seated in a place very high raised and round about him benches for the Senatours who appeared all of them cloathed with robes of their order There he made an Oration full of sweetness in presence of all the people whereby he declared he had a purpose to revive the ancient magnificence of Rome and vehemently to desire to conform himself to the fashions of those Emperours who had been the most zealous for the Weal-publick which made the whole world conceive most excellent hopes of his government All the City was then in pomp like to a noble Lady who having laid aside sorrow suddenly appeareth in the bravery of a bright habit Never day seemed to shine more resplendently to an afflicted people It was in the same time that S. Fulgentius coming from Africk to Rome after he had visited the Churches of the Martyrs passed along by the Circus at the instant when all these gallant ceremonies were performed where he was so ravished beholding the majesty of the Emperour the glory of his Senate the lustre of his nobility the magnificence of the place and the throng of innumerable people that he cried out Oh how beautiful is Jerusalem the celestial Quam speciosa debet esse Hierusalem illa caelestis si sic fulget Roma terrestris Et si in hoc seculo datur tanti honoris dignitas diligentibus vanitatem qualis honor gloris tribuâ—tur Sanctis contemplantibus veritatem since Rome the terrestrial at this day appeareth with such splendour Good God! if you allow so much honour on earth to those who follow vanity what glory will you give in heaven to your Saints who shal behold verity The ceremony being ended the King entertained all the Senate in a feast worthy of his greatness and distributed liberalities to the people which seemed to renew the face of ancient Rome He disposed himself presently to visit all the places of the City to know the condition of his Senatours to inform himself of the humour of the people to observe the state of affairs and to constitute the government It is most certain he was indowed with a natural wit good enough but he had withall so little experience in civil affairs that he had much ado to sign ordinary dispatches Behold the cause why a nameless Authour who Anonymus Author in ejus vitâ wrot his life in a very low stile witnesseth that he usually signing with four letters caused them to be cut in copper and clapping them on the paper fetched the draught of his pen round about to serve as a model to the end that by this means he might give somewhat the better form to his writing This want of experience caused him to tye himself constantly to two great States-men whereof the first was our Boetius whom he made Master of Offices Idem author testatur and Superintendent of his house in such sort that all passed by his counsel the other was Cassiodorus of whom he made use as of a most able and faithful Secretary to dictate all the letters and proceeding of the Kingdom Boetius whom he in the beginning loved as the apple of his eye and honoured as his father gave him the forms and maxims of all that excellent policy which we behold so resplendent in his government I will here couch some of them that Politicians may see the happiness which commonly waiteth on States guided by the ways of conscience The first maxim was that King Theodorick being an Arian should not onely abstaine from persecuting and afflicting the Catholick Church in any kind whatsoever either of himself or by any of his but on the contrary should cherish honour protect and maintain it with all the extent of his authority because the experience of Ages had made it appear that those who were interessed in the perplexities of Religions contrary to the Catholick had prospered very ill and that not going any further the deportments of the Emperour Anastasius who then reigned in Constantinople made it manifest enough since he had involved himself in the hatred of the Clergy and people to support with passion certaine novelties and how on the contrary ordinary practise had discovered that all Monarchs who had entertained good correspondence and respect with Ecclesiasticks were evermore honoured in their government and much happier in the success of their affairs Theodorick so
the first book of the sermon made on the mountain interpreteth all that of punishments in the other life When in the fourth Chapter of Tobie it is written of bread to be put upon the graves of the dead S. Chrysostom Homily thirty two upon S. Matthew referreth this passage to the custom of the ancient Church which called both the Priests and the poor purposely to pray for the dead When mention is made in the fourth of Kings of a solemn fast made for Saul Bede makes no question but it was for the quiet of his soul For S. Paul sheweth in the first to the Corinthians fifteenth Chapter that it was the custom to mortifie and macerate ones self for the dead and the second of Machabees saith it is a holy and a wholesome thing to pray for them Who knew more and who saw more in all this than the great S. Augustine who on the thirty seventh Psalm hath these words My God make me such in my life that I may not Aug. in Psal 37. Talem me reddas cui emendatorio igne non sit opus need the fire of Purgatorie after my death Hath the Roman Church hired all these so ancient Fathers to write such texts in its behalf Is it not a shame that a brainless Libertine with the eyes of a bat should mock at all these lights 4. Doubtless will some say these reasons are forcible The manner of Purgatory but I understand not where this purgatorie is and how souls are there tormented To that I answer the Church which walketh reservedly in its ordinances ever grounded on the word of God onely obligeth us to hold as an article of faith a third place for the purgation of souls which is neither Paradise nor hel As for circumstances of the place and manner Nyss de anima resurrectione Chrysost homil de Beatorum premiis Beda l. 3. hist Angl. â—9 of sensible torments it hath decryed nothing thereof as an article of our belief School Divines ordinarily set purgatorie in a subterranean place which is very probable It may also be that souls may be purged in the air in the sphear of fire and in divers parts of the elementary world according to the opinion of S. Gregory Nyssen S. Chrysostom and S. Gregory the great It dependeth on the prerogative of Gods power and the ministery of Angels As for punishments it is most certain the first consisteth Miris sed veris modis August in suspension from the sight of God a matter very dolorous to a soul which being out of the body far absented from its source is as would the globe of the earth be were it out of its place or like unto fire shut up in the bowels of mount Aetna It naturally desireth to rejoyn it self to God and the least retardation it feels from such felicitie is most sensible unto it It mourneth to be deprived from an infinite comfort when the thirst is most ardent and to see it self bereaved by its own fault yea such an one as might easily have been avoided The second is the pain of sense which is exercised by fire the great executioner of Gods justice and sometimes also by other wayes known to his providence as S. Bonaventure and holy Bede teach us If you say you cannot comprehend how a material thing worketh on a spiritual I ask of you again this soul which is in your bodie is it of any other kind than those in purgatorie And yet see you not how it daily suffereth in the bodie See you not how all the dolours of mortal flesh rebound back again by an amorous simpathy and a counter-buff wholly necessarie to the bottom of our soul And yet you ask how it can suffer Is it not true our soul containeth in it the root of understanding all sensible knowledge framed and accomplished by the help of the bodies organs Is it not true that being in the bodie it understandeth and feeleth with dependance on the bodie But separated doth it loose this root of understanding and knowledge Verily no For it then understandeth with independence on the body To speak also according to the opinion of some it may feel out of the body not onely by a knowledge naked and intellectual but experimental in some sort not unlike the understanding exercised in the bodie But there is no more corporal organ which is as the chariot of feeling What importeth it God by his power cannot he supply the organ of bodie and necessitate the soul immediately to feel the sharpness of fire as if it were still in the bodie And which is more some Divines think there would be no inconvenience to say the soul were revested by God with a bodie of air as in a sheath wherewith it should have Corink de purgatorio p. 529. the same sympathy it had before with the bodie it informed and this bodie being incorruptibly burnt as that of the damned should cause a painful quality to arise to torment it which I notwithstanding think not so probable But I rather believe the fire not being contrarie of its nature to the spirit might for all that be chosen and appointed by the singular disposition of providence to be unto the soul an afflicting sign in that it representeth to it in its flames the anger of an offended God as it shall be said in the subsequent Maxim Alas O Christians God grant we may be ignorant of this eternal and temporal fire and may rather be purged in this life than expect it in the other 5. When I come to the second point of this discourse Against the dulness of those who understand it not I cannot wonder enough at our stupidity lethargy we believe purgatorie and bely our belief by our works What may we hope in the other life living so negligently and remislely God is mercifull Behold our ordinarie saying But see we not in Scriptures the hand of God armed with fiery tempests over the infamous Cities of Sodom and Gomorrha and the bodies which sacrificed themselves in the flames of prodigious luxurie roasted and broyled under the breath of the anger of the Omnipotent See we not a whole world buried in the waters of a deluge waves of the Ocean rushing as in a citie sacked on the heads of offenders the sea becoming altogether the executioner and tomb of sinners See we not those beautifull Angels so beloved of God and so worthy of favour which also came most resplendent out of his hands lost by one thought of pride scorched and precipitated into dungeons of eternal flames Think we to be more to God than those cities replenished with an infinite number of souls than a whole world than legions of Angels Let us not flatter our selves by a presumptuous confidence of a mercy not due to a negligence so faint and dissolute The truth is no uncleanness enetreth into Paradise The truth is the eyes of the supream Judge cannot endure pollution
notwithstanding it is not enough to will good unlesse one therein observe circumstances and measures requisite for its accomplishment One of the best rules for the passion of which we treat is to adapt To adapt our selves to our hope ones self to his hopes to see what comports with his birth his breeding his capacity his genius his knowledge his power his credit and his pains and not rashly to be stirred up with the desire of things above his strength unlesse he will disturb his life and hasten his death The world is a great Sepulchre of so many little Phaetons who will guide the sun and hours although Spes impii tanquam lanugo est quae à ven to tollitur tanquam spuma gracâ—lis quae à procella dispergitur tanquam fumus qui à vento diffusus est tanquam memoria hospitis uniâ—s dici praetereuâ—tis Sap. 5. 15. their life be but a continuall deviation they have no other honour but to be fallen from on high and to have used more temerity in affairs then ability such hopes also are very well compared by the Wiseman To those little downs of flowers scattered in the air to the froth which floateth on the water and is instantly dissipated by a tempest to smoke which vanisheth under the blast of winds and to the memory of a traveller who passeth by an Inne By the sight of a bird we judge of her flight by the genius of men we make conjectures of their fortunes needs must there be much extravagancy when a man in all kinds little proposeth to himself nothing but great things I well know the divine Providence the worker of wonders delighteth sometimes to strike a stroke with its own hand drawing out men of most base extraction to bear them to the highest tops of worldly greatnesse It is that which forged a Diademe for â—ulgotius l. 3. c. 4. Pupienus upon the same anvil whereof his father hammered Iron That which changed Martianus his spade into a Sceptre That which taught Valentinian Idem l. 6. c. 10. to make crowns by twisting ropes That which shewed Justine in a Carpenters-shop how to build a Throne for himself That which drew Petrus Damianus from the midst of sheep to be made a Cardinall and Gregory the seventh out of a Joyners house to give him a Popes Mytre But one Swallow makes not a summer nor one accident from an extraordinary hand which happeneth scarcely in an age makes not all fortunes S. John saith that the measure of an Angel is the measure of a man but this is not but in the celestiall city of Hierusalem where we shall be as the Angel Apoc. 21. 1â— of God Here our thoughts are high our aims great but the limit of our power little He who doth well understand what he can wills but what is reasonable and shall find that the modesty of wishes makes life more commodious and happinesse more undoubted To this first rule of the moderation of hopes we To ground them well must add a second which is to give them good foundations to the end we be not constrained to see the indiscretion of our desires punished by the small successe of our pretentions There are some who infinitely confide in the words of Astrologers and to speak plainly it is a prodigious thing to hear the predictions they make upon the life and fortunes of men which cause amazement among the wise and love in the curious as at the time when they answered to the Edict of the Emperour Vitellius who commanded them to leave the city that they would obey on such condition that Theodorus Merechista hist Rom. fol. 86. he instantly should leave life which so fell out Yet we must say that although God should write down in the book of stars the successes of our life which cannot be easily agreed unto yet ever would they be extremely encumbred nor ever happen out of a fatall necessity That is the cause why for some presages which hit right there are many other notably false which makes it sufficiently appear that God hath reserved to himself the full knowledge of what shall befall us Among other qualities which the holy Canticle gives him it forgeteth Coma ejus nigra quafi Corvus Cant. 5. 11. not to say He had hair as black as the feather of a Crow Where you shall observe rhe hairs mystically signifie the Thoughts and when the Scripture termeth them black it will declare the obscurity and depth of Gods councels over the wisdome of men Tertullian Tertul. Homo divini cura ingenii Deus in omnia sufficit nec potest esse suae perspicaciae praevaricator said man was the care of the understanding of God who provideth for all and who cannot be a prevaricatour of his own providence Can we think men are permitted to enter into those great abysses of knowledg and to take the rains of nature into their hands think we that a man who doth not alwayes very plainly see what lies before his feet can assuredly behold that which is infinitely exalted above his head Where have not Astrologers sowed lyes where is it that great ones who hearkened unto them as to their Gospel were not filled with disastrous successes By their saying all which is born Gen. 38. 27. at Rome comes into the world like unto little Zara already marked with red There are some who consume themselves with anxieties and cares of their life-time to verifie the words of an Astrologer and who instead of scarlet find perhaps in the other world a Powerfull friends may serve for a support for Hope Fatis accede Diisque cole foelices Lucan Maledictus homo qui ponit carnem brachium suum Jer. 17. 3. Robe of flames It is a wretched support to tye ones hopes to so great an uncertainty I find the favour of great and powerfull friends is much more certain for God establisheth them on earth as his images to be the treasurers of felicity and distributers of good hap When they be just upright and gratefull men of merit have some cause to hope of their good affections and an Antient said that we must approach near to the Destinies and the Gods and honour the happy But how many are there who adhering too much unto men make to themselves an arm of flesh without bones and a fortune as frail as Reeds Others make themselves brave fellow with their sword and expect all from their valour Others from their wit and eloquence Others from their gold Others from dexterity in businesses All this may do well when a great integrity of long services puts these good qualities into action but if it happen you have some ray of hope grounded upon some good title do as Job and keep it hidden as long as is To hope without vanity fit in your bosome for fear that discovering it you lose the pretended effects thereof There are who tell all
with a prodigious army against which there was no humane resistance He sent a certain man named Rabshakeh in an Embassage to King Hezekiah who vomited out blasphemies and proposed to him conditions shamefull to his reputation and impossible to all his powers All the people were in an affright expecting nothing but fire and sword The King covered with sackcloth implores the heavenly assistance and sends the chief Counsellours of his State to the Prophet Isaiah to turn away this scourge by his prayers The holy man in that confusion of affairs wherein one could not see one onely spark of light encourages him animates him and promises him unexpected effects of the mercy of God The Prophecy was not vain for in one onely night the Angel of God killed an hundred fourscore and five thousand men in the Army of the Assyrians by a stroke from heaven and a devouring fire which reduced them to dust in their guilded arms This proud King was constrained to make an ignominious retreat and being returned to Niniveh the capitall city of his Empire he was slain by his own children This is a manifest example of the amiable protection of God over the Holy Court who defended his dear Hezekiah by the intercession of the Prophet as the apple of his eyes He expressed yet another singular favour to him in a great sicknesse caused by a malignant ulcer of which according to the course of nature he should have died and therefore Isaiah went to see him and without flattering him brought him word of his last day exhorting him to put the affairs of his State in order This good King had a tender affection to life and being astonished at that news prayed God fervently with a great profusion of tears that he would have regard to the sincerity of his heart and to the good services that he had done him in his Temple and not to tear away his life by a violent death in the middle of its course The heart of the everlasting Father melted at the tears of that Prince and he advertised Isaiah who was not yet gone out of the Palace to retread his steps and carry him the news of his recovery He told him from God that he should rise again from that sicknesse and within three dayes should go up to the Temple ro render his Thanks-giving Further he promised him that his dayes should be augmented fifteen years and that he should see himself totally delivered from the fury of the Assyrians to serve the living God in a perfect tranquility The King was ravished at this happy news and desired some sign of the Divine will to make him believe an happinesse so unhoped for Isaiah for this purpose did a miracle which since Joshua had not been seen nor heard which was to make the Sun turn back so that the shadow of the Diall which was in the palace appeared ten degrees retired to the admiration and ravishment of all the world And to shew that the Prophet was not ignorant of Physick he caused a Cataplasme composed of a lump of figs to be applyed to the wound of the sick man whereby he was healed and in three dayes rendred to the Temple This miracle was not unknown to the Babylonians who perceived the immense length of the day in which it was done and their Prince having heard the news of it sent Embassadours to King Hezekiah to congratulate his health and to offer him great presents whereat this Monarch that was of an easie nature suffered himself to be a little too much transported with joy and out of a little kind of vanity made a shew of his treasures and of his great riches to those strangers which served much to kindle their covetousnesse And therefore the Prophet who was never sparing of his remonstrances to the King rebuked him for that action and fore-told him that he made Infidels see the great wealth that God had given him through a vain glory which would cost him dear and that having been spectatours of his treasures they had a mind to be the masters of them and that at length they should compasse their design but that it should not be in his time This Prince received the correction with patience and took courage hearing that the hail should not fall upon his head passing over his to his childrens Manasses his son succeeded him a Prince truly abominable who wiped out all the marks of the piety of his father and placed Idols even in the very Temple of the living God All that Idolatry had shown in sacriledges cruelty in murders impudence in all sort of wickednesses was renewed by the perfidiousnesse of this man abandoned of God Poor Isaiah that had governed the father with so much authority had no credit with the son this tygre was incensed at the harmonious consorts of the divine Wisdomes that spake by his mouth and could no more endure the truth then serpents the odour of the vine Yet he desisted not to reprehend him and to advertise him of the punishments that God prepared for his crimes whereat this barbarous man was so much moved and kindled with fury that he commanded that this holy old man that had passed the hundreth year should be sawn alive by an horrible and extraordinary punishment O Manasses cruell Manasses the most infamous of tyrants and the most bloudy of hang-men this was the onely crime that the furies themselves even the most enraged should never have permitted to thy salvagenesse This venerable Master of so many Kings this King of Prophets this prime Intelligence of the State this Seraphim this instrument of the God of Hosts to be used so barbarously at the Court by his own bloud after so many good counsels so many glorious labours so many Oracles pronounced so many Divine actions so worthily accomplished All the Militia of heaven wept over this companion of the Angels and the earth caused fountains to leap up to bedew her lips in the midst of her ardent pains His Wisdome hath rendred him admirable to the Learned his Life inimitable to the most Perfect his Zeal adorable to the most Courageous his Age venerable to Nature and his Death deplorable to all Ages JEREMIAH BEhold the most afflicted of Holy Courtiers a Prophet weeping a Man of sorrows an heart alwayes bleeding and eyes that are never dry He haunted not great men but to see great evils and was not found at Court but to sing its Funerals and to set it up a tomb Yet was he a very great and most holy person that had been sanctified in his mothers womb that began to prophecy at the age of fifteen years a spirit separated from the vanities and the pretensions of the world that was intire to God that lived by the purest flames of his holy love and quenched his thirst with his tears He drank the mud of bad times and found himself in a piteous Government in which there was little to gain and much to suffer After that the
lawfull greatest Princes to interrupt your Highnesses I will appear for the Cause of God the Angel of Peace the Minister of Concord and Union the Interpreter of Truth the Mean and Solicitour of Salvation I am not that terrible and dreadfull messenger who injected terrours and scourges into David astonished with Divine Prodigies I am not listed in that number which utterly overwhelmed the City of Pentapolis almost drowned before in the inundation of their impieties I rain nor sulphur I do not brandish flames I dart no thunderbolts but with a mild temperate and gentle amenity I exhibit those olive-branches which the direfull contagion of Warres hath not yet blasted I come from the conversation of those who at the Nativity of our Jesus sang Anthems of Peace to Good-willing men Despise not the Augur of Glad-tydings contemne not the Hyperaspist of Truth who speaketh unto you before God in Christ It is the concernment of the whole Christian world most pious Princes which I addresse unto you it is your interest which I urge and inculcate both by wishes and writings it is the Profession of God which I require and indeed of great importance as having diverse times summoned yea enforced the Priests from the Altars the Virgins from the Monasteries and the Anachoretes from the Woods that of the mute it might make Oratours and Agitatours of the retired God the Arbitratour and Accomplisher of all things who calleth those things which are not as if they were he formeth and prepareth the mouths of infants giveth wisdome to the impudent to yield to him is victory to contest with him is succeslesse opposition Appetite infuseth Eloquence and necessity not seldome makes a souldier To be silent amidst the articulated movings of the oppressed is unlawfull and to sit still amidst the wounds of Military men as unconcerned is highly and justly reproveable That hand that is not officious to the suffering world deserves an amputation I shall not disoblige the supplicated engagement of your patience excelient Princes with unimporting reasons I shall not abuse your senses with unappertaining figments but by a pleasant prospect I shall shew you that Glory which you aim at thorow fields flowing with bloud thorow the flames of collucent Cities and thorow many doubtfull circulations and diverticles Condescend therefore to give me an allowance of discourse concerning the nature of Warre and Peace and of the Right of Christian Princes in each of them For upon this foundation I conceive I can build firm and satisfactory Arguments whereby to secure your Dignity and to settle the Peoples safety It was a speech well becoming the wisdome of the Ancients that this world in whose circumference all things are contained is as it were a great volumn of the Deity wherein life and death are as the beginning and the end but the middle Pages are perpetually turned over backwards and forwards That which Life and Death bring to passe in the nature of things the same doth Peace and Warre in the Nation of all Kingdomes and Empires And indeed Life is a certain portion of the Divine Eternity which being first diffused in the Divine Nature and afterwards streaming into the sea and penetrating into the earth and our world doth contemperate by an espousall and connexion of bodies and souls wonderfull and almost Divine Agreements But when there is a solution of this undervalued continuity when this harmony is disturbed and broken it suddenly vanisheth by the irresistible necessity of death greedily depopulating all things under his dominion In like manner Peace the greatest and most excellent gift of the Divine indulgence reconciles and apportions apportions a kind of temperature in the wills of men from whence floweth the most active vigour of all functions in the Body Politick as the alacrity of minds the rewarded sedulity of Provinces the faithfull plenty of the Countrey the security of travelling the opulency of Kingdomes and the accumulation of all temporall blessings But when Concord is dissipated and the alarms of Warre besiege mens ears presently there insueth a convulsion and direfull decay of all the members and Audacity finding it self disingaged from the mulcts and penalties of the Laws runneth headlong into all variety of mischief the most Sacred things are violenced and the most Profane are licenced the nocent and the innocent are involved in the expectation of a sad and promiscuous catastrophe and bonefires are made of cities not to be quenched but with the bloud of miserable Christians He that will tax his own leisure but with the cheap expence of considering our mortality will so much scruple these effects to be the actions of men that he may be easily seduced to believe that Hell hath lost some prisoners or that some troops of Furies have broken the chains of darknesse and in a humane shape deluded men with such enormous villanies My highest obedience most excellent Princes is due to truth and that obligation prompts me to proclaim this judgement That Contentions and Warre have not had any ingresse into the Church of God but by clandestine and undermining Policies Discipline resisting and Conscience standing agast at the monstrous object And indeed Paul exclaimeth against contentions Brother saith he goeth to law with brother and that under Infidels Now therefore there is altogether an infirmity in you in that you go to law one with another Why rather suffer you not wrong Why rather sustain you not fraud But ye your selves do wrong and exercise fraud and that to your brethren What do we hear an Edict published by an Apostle invested with thunder and lightning I beseech the revisitation of your thoughts what would he imagine were he lent again unto the world by providence that then wanted patience to see a controversie about a field perhaps or a house and should now behold among those that claim the title of the Faithful Ensigne against Ensigne Nation against Nation and not a House not a city not a Province but the whole Christian world precipitated into slaughters rapes and priviledged plunders would he countenance such an inhumane spectacle with a Declaration of allowance or would he perswade men to the violations of the Law of Nature and dictate encourgement to ruine and rapine But Tertullian also is very strict in this point and peradventure too rigid whilst he saith that our Lord by that injunction to Peter to sheath his sword disarmed all Christian Souldiers This in my judgement deserves a censure of extream severity if he conclude all warfare to be criminall this were to destroy the innocent in a detestation of the guilty should we perpetrate corrupt actions upon the order of the cruel and the petulancy of luxuriant villains What would Christianity then be but a prey to the insatiable and a laughing-stock to the insolent if it were not lawfull to revenge unfaithfull injuries with a just retaliation If it were not lawfull to defend Churches from Sacriledge Widows and Orphans from oppressions and disinteressed persons
Great troubles at Rome appeased by him 175 Pope Leo caused him to be crowned Emperour of Rome 176 The great cunning of men who go about to surprise Chastity 18 Advise to Ladies and Gentlewomen concerning Chastity 19 The honour the French bore to the virtue of Chastity 110 The conjugall Chastity of S. Lewis 111 Weak spirits are ordinarily Cholerick 87 Malicious and covert souls are ranked in the second region of anger which is bitter Choler ib. Choler and vengeance are prejudiciall 294 Chrysostom mentioneth an excellent presage of a wise man 65 The greatnesse and beauty of Clemency 143 The generous anger of Clotharius 117 The Essence of Compassion 99 Complacence stronger then fire and sword 18 Miseries of humane Condition 56 Such as have a clear Conscience are most bold 79 Contentments are rather in the will then in the pleasing objects 48 True contentment is in God 49 God possessing himself injoyeth his Contentment ib. Our Lord passed all his life in Contentments which were necessarily due to him to give us an example to wean our selves from them 50 Conversation and its contentments 13 Conversation must be moderated ib. Courage is not lessened by study 78 Men of obscure birth raised to great preferments by their courage 8â— Compassion of great Courages 99 The rare endowments that are required in a Courtier 219 The Court of Pharaoh is compared to the Helmet-flower 228 The horrour of cruelty 100 A man must take heed of being too Curious 46 The wisdome of Cushi the servant of David in the counsel of Absolon 149 D A Witty Fable of John Damascen 2 Daniel is chosen for one of Nebuchadonozars pages 247 His noble extraction and rare parts ib. He is in great hazard of his life 242 He consulteth with God ib. He is made Vice-Roy of all the Provinces of the Kingdome 243 He is sought unto to give the interpretation of the hand-writing upon the wall 246 He refuseth to worship Bell. 247 He killeth the Dragon ib. He is cast into the Lions Den. ib. He is taken from thence and his accusers put into his roome who are immediately devoured ib. The question upon the act of David is resolved 35 The qualities of David 139 His entrance into the Court. ib. He is pursued and escapes ib. The losse of David in banishment ib. His arrivall at Nob causeth great disasters to the Priests ib David saves himself in the caves of the desart whither his father and mother go to seek him 142 His piety towards them ib. Banished men repair unto David ib. The visite of Jonathan secret and very profitable for David ib. Nabals rudenesse towards David ib. The admirable generousnesse of David in pardoning his enemies ib. David goeth out of the Kingdome and retireth himself among strangers 143 David receives the news of Sauls overthrow 144 David cannot be excused for the treaty made with Abner 145 He is absolute King by the death of Ishbosheth the son of Saul ibid. The royall qualities of David ib. His zeal to religion ib. His valour and his warres ib. His justice and good husbandry ib. His vices ib. The blindnesse of David 146 Davids repentance ib. Punishment upon the house of David ib. The patience of David towards Shimel 148 His great humility and his humble words ib. Davids mildnesse very great 149 The last acts of Davids life 150 God hath made all creatures to have delectation 48 Four things compose the solid Delectation of man ib. The Essence of Delectation 49 Demetrius his oration 203 He is engaged in a war against the Macchabees 204 Whether it be good to have a Desire 39 An excellent picture of Desire ib. The world is replenished with Desiring souls ib. The exposition of the picture of Desire ib. The passion of curiosity a kind of Desire ib. Inconstancy followeth the multitude of Desires 41 Four sources of Desires 42 A reason against vain Desires drawn from divine tranquility ib. Another reason against vain Desires is the onely desire which Jesus had in secking the glory of his heavenly Father 43 Marvellous effects of Desire 112 The image of Despair 65 Three sorts of acts in Despair ib. Remedies against Despair 68 The admirable conversion of some who seemed desperate ib. The sight of our Saviour teacheth us to persevere in our good hopes and not to Despair 69 A great secret of life is to undergo Destiny 139 Why Devils love not God whom they know to be so amiable 48 Disorder is fatall to the Court of great ones 174 Doeg accuseth the high Priest being innocent 141 Means to use an efficacious remedy in Duels 36 E THe reign of Edward 316 His qualities and his death 317 Divers causes of the ruine of Egypt 229 The children of Israel depart out of Egypt 231 Eleazer a Jewish Captain died valiantly having first pierced the Elephant whereon he did suppose that Eupator did combat 202 Queen Eleanor an enemy to France 118 Elijah includeth the name God and the Sun in his name 248 He hideth himself at the brook Carith over against Jordan ib. He restoreth to life the dead child of the woman of Sarepta 249. He is known to be the Prophet of God by fire coming down from heaven which consumed his sacrifice 250 He flies into the Wildernesse and is sustained by an Angel which furnished him with a cruise of oyl and a cake baked ib. He travelleth fourty dayes in the strength of that sustenance 251 His vision ibid. He foretelleth to Ahab that the dogs should lick his blood in the same place where Naboth was slain 252 He is translated and took a new life without loosing that he had in the world 254 The labyrinth of the hypocrisie of Queen Elizabeth 299 The fury of Elizabeth 200 Elisha leaveth his Plough and Oxen and followeth Elijah 251 He is heir of Elijahs spirit 255 His speech to Joram ib. Elisha besieged in Dothan is guarded by an host of heavenly Angels 256 Elisha conducteth his enemies stricken with blindnesse to Samaria the chief city of the adverse partie ib. Joram threateneth to take off his head ib. He dieth 259 The estate of England 315 The picture of Envie 91 The definition of Envie ibid. Humane remedies against Envie 94 The hlessed though unequall in glory are not envious 96 The lamentable Envie of Ebroin against S. Leger 121 Envie never sleepeth 140 The horrible Envie of Saul ib. Envie is easily learned at the Court. ib. The Temple of Ephesus 154 The courteous meeting of Erasmus and Oporinus 72 Evilmeredech son of Nebuchadonezar took upon him the regincie of the Empire his father leaving his kingdome to graze with the beasts 245 The ignorance of our Evils is a stratagem of divine Providence 71 F THe nature of Fear and the bad effects of it 70 Two sorts of Fear naturall and morall 71 The causes of Fear ibid. Fear is a troublesome passion ibid. Fear of accidents in the world 72 Remedies against accidentall Fear ib. Fear of poverty causeth most