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A65611	The method and order of reading both civil and ecclesiastical histories in which the most excellent historians are reduced into the order in which they are successively to be read, and the judgments of learned men concerning each of them, subjoin'd / by Degoræus Wheare ... ; to which is added, an appendix concerning the historians of particular nations, as well ancient as modern, by Nicholas Horseman ; made English and enlarged by Edmund Bohun, Esq. ...; Reflectiones hyemales de ratione & methodo legendi utrasque historias, civiles et ecclesiasticas. English	Wheare, Degory, 1573-1647.; Horsman, Nicholas, fl. 1689. Mantissa.; Bohun, Edmund, 1645-1699.	1685 (1685)	Wing W1592; ESTC R6163	182,967	426

And yet O Vinici saith Vellejus I do not doubt but you will think it had been more for the interest of the Commonwealth that we had still remain'd thus ignorant of these Corinthian Works rather than to have overvalued them as now we do and that this folly of his was more consistent with the Publick Good than our skill Thus runs the 13 th Chapter of the first Book of Vellejus Paterculus in which there are many things worthy of a Philologer's observation As first the time when the great Censor Cato died for we should ever think the Births and Deaths of Great Men worthy of our observation But then how great a Man this Cato was may be known from the three-fold Elogie attributed to him by Pliny the Elder for thus he writes of him Cato the first of the Porcian Family is thought to have attain'd three of the greatest things a Man is capable of being an excellent Commander a great Oratour and a wise Senatour And there is a noble Commendation of him in Livy his History which you may see the year of his death also is set down which was the 604 th year of the City of Rome in which L. Marcius Censorinus and M. Manlius were Consuls three years before the Rasing of Carthage which Cato so eagerly desired and which happened in the IIId year of the CLVIII Olympiad if we follow truth and the Assertor of it Eusebius that is according to the computation of Scaliger Anno Mundi 3804. As concerning the Age of Cato there is a small disagreement betwixt Cicero and Titus Livy for the first of these saith he lived to the XC year of his Age and the latter seemeth to say that he did not survive the LXXXV th year of his Life Nor is it to be passed by without regard that he was a perpetual instigator of the Ruine of Carthage as is affirm'd by Vellejus with whom Florus doth agree in this particular Cato saith he ever pronounced with an implacable hatred that Carthage was to be Rased even then when he gave his opinion in any other case whatsoever and Scipio Nasica that it was to be preserved But then this consideration is rather Philosophical or Political and belongs to another place where the causes of these contrary Advices are to be enquired into and which of them was the more prudent In the second place the Philologer will observe the Age and duration of the City of Corinth and the time in which it was built for it continued saith the Historian 952 years And it was destroyed in the same year with Carthage that is in the year of Rome 607. Anno Mundi 3804. therefore it was built Anno Mundi 2852. about 300 years before the Olympiads in which time Samuel the Prophet and Judge of Israel flourished In the third place he will observe not onely when but who was the Builder of this City Vellejus tells us it was Aletes the Son of Hippotis Josephus Scaliger in his Eusebian Animadversions saith that Vellejus trifles here for Apollodorus saith it was first call'd Ephyra and that it was built by one Sisyphus who lived about 60 or 70 years before the times of the Trojane Wars And that consequently the Origine of this City was to be placed much higher But Pausanias saith the Name was changed in honour of Corinthus the Son of Jove And that some Generations after that Aletes the Great Grandchild of Hercules led an Army of the Doricks against the Corinthians and obtain'd that Kingdom which his Posterity as Pausanias saith enjoyed after this five Generations In the Fourth place he will observe that this Age was in a sort fatal to great Cities For to speak nothing of Saguntum Syracuse Numantia and others besides those two Eyes as Cicero calls them of the Sea-shore Carthage and Corinth which were both put out in one year Thebes in Boeotia and Chalcis in Euboea were both taken by the Romans oppress'd subverted and ruin'd Whence the Philosopher concludes that Cities and Commonwealths have their Periods and Determin'd times and much more Men. But then this consideration which this place affords is Moral too as well as the former that is that Periods of VII hundred years have for the most part brought great changes to Kingdoms and Common-wealths Of which you may see more in Bodinus his 4 th Book de Repub. and Peucerus de divinatione lib. VI. Of which Doctrine there was an ill use made in the time of the Holy League in France as Thuanus acquaints us In the V th place whereas he saith the two Generals Mummius and Scipio were honoured with the Names of the two Nations they had Conquered and the latter was call'd Africanus and the former Achaicus from hence I say we may observe the Ancient Custome of giving Sir names and the reason of it both amongst the Grecians and Romans for they took them from their Actions from the shapes of their Bodies from some peculiar Vertue or Vice and from some notable Accident or Fortune So Tarquinius the Second was Sirnamed Superbus the Proud from his Pride and Contempt of others C. Martius from the taking of Coriola was call'd Coriolanus Manlius was call'd Torquatus because he slew a Gall in a Duel who challeng'd him and took a Chain from him and put it about his own neck So the Sir-names of 1. Soteris 2. Callinicus and 3. Gryphus signifie the first to have been a Saviour the second to have obtain'd a glorious Victory and the third to have had a Hooked or Roman Nose as we call it of which you may see Appian Alexandrinus in his Preface Plutarch in his Life of Coriolanus and Alexander ab Alexandro lib. 1. c. 9. And from hence also some Political observations might be raised which I will for the present omit In the VI th place the Philologer will observe from this remark that Mummius was the first of the New Men who merited a Sir-name by his Valour that the Roman Citizens were discriminate into three orders the Nobles the New Men and the Ignobles or Plebeians for those who had the Images of their Ancestours were Nobles those who had onely their own Statues were New Men and they who had neither were call'd Ignobles And now in the remainder of this Chapter is contain'd the comparing of Scipio and Mummius in which is initated both their Manners Tempers and Orders or ways of Living all which together with the observations which spring from thence are to be referred to the other head of Philosophical Observations to which they are here to be left But then as to the Critick Observations if there be any they are not to be omitted for all these and whatever concerns Grammar and Rhetorick and all other observations of the like nature do belong to Philologie and therefore I cannot here forbear shewing that I do wholly dissent from Justus Lipsius the Prince of Criticks who will not allow Scipio to be call'd

here omnis doctrinae Auctor An Improver of all sorts of Learning For saith he this is too great a Commendation for Scipio and therefore I would write onely Fautor A favourer for that better befits a Great and a Military Man to which I reply O Lipsius there is no need of a change here For it was well deserved by him because he with a very few others is reported to have first brought all sorts of Learning into the City of Rome And why may we not conjecture that Polybius wrote his History and Panaetius his Books of Offices at the instigation of Scipio Will any Man say that this conjecture is absurd when Vellejus himself writes they were his perpetual Companions and when also the writings of Terence are ascribed to Scipio as Fabius testifieth and when Donatus saith there is a strong report that Terence was assisted by Laelius and Scipio to which may be added what Vellejus subjoins here Whenever he obtain'd any respit from the Affairs of the State and Camp he exercised his mind in Learning for from this very passage that Praise of Scipio's is made more probable and indeed is not to be thought too great as Lipsius thinketh Nor is this Elogy too great neither for a great or a Military Man For you see what Cornelius Nepos or Aemilius Pr●●us say of Hannibal This Great Man saith that Authour though he were distracted with such great Wars spent some part of his time in Learning for there are some Books extant which he wrote in Greek and in those to the Rhodians he writes the History of the Actions of Cn. Manlius Vulso in Asia And In the last place the Philologer will observe the Elegance and Propriety of his words his ingenious Allusions and his apt and clear Translations as in these words Neque enim quisquam hoc Scipione Elegantius intervalla negotiorum dispunxit For whether he alluded to that of Cato in the beginning of his Origins where he affirms That there ought to be an account given not onely of the Actions of Famous and very Great Men but also how they spent their times of leisure and repose or whether he reflects upon that expression of Scipio's when he said Se nunquam minus otiosum esse quam cum otiosus neque minus solum quam cum solus esset That he was never less idle than when he seemed to be so nor less alone than when he was so Now Vellejus seems to me to have here very elegantly taken in and expressed both these Elogies Which that it may more clearly appear the Philologer will observe that there is a two-fold leisure opposed to business and labour one of which is perfect sloth and idleness without any action the other is very active And this place saith Scipio was ever for the latter sort for in his leisure and times of rest he was never careless of the Publick Affairs nor gave himself up to idleness but either thought of his business or entertained himself with Books or the conversations of wise Men. For this is the meaning of that phrase Intervalla negotiorum otio dispungere The last word of which is borrowed from the usage of Men concerned in pecuniary affairs and accountants as the Philologer will presently observe And signifies the balancing or comparing what is received with what is paid for so saith Ulpian Or as the common expression is to examine the account Percontandas atque examinand as rationes dispungendas atque discutiendas saith Ulpian The Account is to be inquired into and examined and to be crossed out or reviewed and therefore it seems to me that Vellejus is here to be understood as if he had thus expressed himself No man did ever balance his Publick Employments more exactly with his private studies comparing them each with the other with the same care as an Accomptant would do the sum received with that which was paid For you must know that what was approved or allowed on both sides in giving their Votes or in calling over their Souldiers or Officers was usually marked with pricks that so they might proceed to examine the remainder And these things were said to be dispuncta pricked or crossed out And on the contrary what were passed by or rejected and to be refused were said to be expuncta marked or branded and so discarded Souldiers were styl'd expuncti In short the Authour seems to speak as if he would have said No Man ever took more care that both his employments and retirements should be alike usefull and salutary And let thus much suffice concerning what may be observed upon the XIII th Chapter of the first Book of Vellejus Paterculus I promised another Example on this Head of Philologie and I will be as good as my word but then I have resolved to be as short in this second as I have been long in the first Cornelius Tacitus in the IIId Book of his Annals and 65 th Chapter shall be the Subject of it Where describing the corruption of the times under Tiberius thus he delivers it Those times saith he were so infected and corrupted with Flattery that not onely the Principal Men of the City whose greatness was to be protected or covered by submissions but all these who had been Consuls or Pretors and also Pedarii Senatores the Foot Senatours arose in great numbers and made base and excessive low and flattering Votes Thus far Tacitus From which passage the Philologers and Grammarians will observe that those are here call'd Primores civitatis the Principal Men of the City which Capitolinus calls the Optimates the Great Men and Aurelius Victor Nobilium optimos the best of the Nobility And which Tacitus himself calleth very often Proceres the Nobless And in some others they are styl'd Principes Civitatis or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Princes or Prime Men of the City In the next place that the Consulares here are the same with those who are elsewhere call'd Ex Consules or those who had passed the Consulship and Ex Praetorii those who had been Praetors and all the other Magistratus Curules Chair Magistrates who had a right of coming to the Senate and Voting And from this place also the Philologer will observe in the last place the several distinctions or degrees of Senatours that some of them were Patricians or No lemen by Birth others Conscripti or Chosen Men And lastly that others were Pedarii Foot-Senatours The first of these Orders were the descendants of those Hundred Fathers which the Builder of the City elected to be Senatours the second sort were those who were Elected by the decrees of their Kings Consuls or Censors The third sort were call'd Foot-Senatours because whereas the rest were carried into the Senate in a Chair of State these went thither on foot as some think or because they were to follow the Opinion or Vote of others by passing from side to side as it was order'd to shew

deplored SECT XV. Where the Course of the Roman Story is to be begun Lucius A. Florus commended The Judgments of Learned Men concerning him That he is not the same with the Epitomizer of Livy His Mistakes excused his Method of Writing By what means in probability Errours crept in The Consulary Fasts of Sigonius and Onuphrius Pighius his Annals commended SECT XVI In what order the Roman History is to be continued Dionysius Halycarnassaeus commended How many years his History contains the Reason given why he is Recommended in the first place and confirm'd from J. Bodinus SECT XVII T. Livius is much and de servedly admir'd in what time he lived How many Books he writ by whom divided into Decads In what order to be Read How the History may be enlarged or supplied The Praise and Elogy of Plutarch SECT XVIII The second Decad of T. Livy that is from the X th to the XXI th Book is lost How and whence that loss may be supplied Appianus Alexandrinus What opinion Learned Men have of him SECT XIX When the remaining XXV Books of Livy are to be read What other Authours may confirm or illustrate the History of the same times The Nine last Decads and half the Tenth are lost From whence they may be supply'd The History of Salustius commended and also Caesar's Commentaries both by the Learned Men of the present and Ancient times SECT XX. Of Dion Cassius and his History How many Books he writ How many perished and how great the loss Vellejus Paterculus to be worthily ranked amongst the best Historians and yet his faults are not dissembled A Transition to the Writers of the Lives of the Caesars SECT XXI Suetonius and Tacitus are first to be read The famous testimonies of the most Learned Men concerning them The Judgments of the most eminent of the Criticks differ that I may not say contest each with other concerning Tacitus Light may be derived both to Suetonius and Tacitus from Dion Cassius SECT XXII How to pass on to the other Writers of the Augustan Story viz. Spartianus Capitolinus Volcatius and the other Authours which are not to be lightly esteemed The Judgment of Justus Lipsius and Casaubon concerning them Herodian is to be read in his place with the rest How far these go in the History And that amongst them Aurelius Victor and Pomponius Laetus deserve to be admitted SECT XXIII After Constantius Chlorus and a little before the History is a little perplex'd especially in the Latin Writers Eusebius Zozimus and Zonaras will render it more easie Of Zozimus and Zonaras and their Writings ' and also of Jornandes Ammianus Marcellinus has his place here The opinion of Lipsius and Balduinus the Civil Lawyer concerning the latter SECT XXIV Diaconus his Miscellane History and that of Jornandes concerning the Goths and of Procopius and Agathias who may be placed here or if you please the Third Tome of Zonaras who is followed by Nicetas Choniates and then Nicephorus Gregoras or if this seems too Prolix after Zozimus Blondius Forolivienfis may be read or else after Vopiscus Sigonius his History of the Western Empire may be admitted and from thence the Reader may pass to the Seventh or Eighth Book of the first Decad of Blondius SECT XXV Johannes Cuspinianus Paulus Jovius and Augustus Thuanus will furnish the Reader with a shorter view of the History of the Roman Emperours from the beginning of the Caesars to our own times SECT XXVI Some Writers of particular Histories that best deserve to be read are enumerated Guicciardine Paulus Aemilius Philippus Commines whose noble Elogies are remembred Meteranus Chromerus and Bembus SECT XXVII A Transition to the British Story How the Reader should prepare himself for the Reading of it In what order he should go on Camden's Britannia and Selden's Analecta are first to be Read and then George Lillies Chronicon The Compendium of the British History SECT XXVIII Gulielmus Malmesburiensis Sir Henry Savil's and Camden's Judgment of him Where he began and ended his History Galfredus Monumethensis why to be omitted The Censures of Neubrigensis John of Withamsted Bales and Jo. Twin upon his History from all which Virunnius dissents H. Huntingdonensis follows Malmesburiensis and Hoveden him SECT XXIX The History of Asser Menivensis is commended in what order to be read with the former as also Eadmerus Matheus Parisiensis Baronius his judgment of him Thomas Walsingham his History The Actions of King Stephen by an unknown Pen. The Life of Edw. II. by Sir Thomas de la Moor is to be taken in in due time SECT XXX Walsingham's Hypodigma Neustria or History of Normandy and the other Writers not to be neglected and amongst them Odoricus Vitalis of Principal note Polidore Virgil has writ the History from Henry the IV th to Richard the IIId concerning whom the Censure of the most noble Sir H. Savil is observable Richard thee IIId was written by Sir Tho. Moor Kt. and Lord Chancellour of England Henry the VII th by the Earl of St. Albans Henry the VIII th Edward the VI th Queen Mary by Francis Godwin Bishop of Landaff by way of Annals As also that of Queen Elizabeth by William Camden SECT XXXI Though we have no intire body of our history in Latin written according to the dignity of the subject yet in English John Speed has writ an excellent Theatre of the British Empire to be in the first place contemplated by the youth of this Nation and especially of those who design to travell The Addition concerning the Histories of Particular Nations ARTICLE I. The design and order of this Appendix In what order we should proceed in the Particular histories The principal historians of the several Nations are to be selected and the historians of the latter times compared with the more ancient ARTICLE II. The historians of the Germans and of all the People from the Alpes to the Baltick Sea and from the Rhine to the Vistula to which the history of the Goths Vandals Huns Heruls Switzers Longobards Polonians Muschovites Danes and Swedes are to be added ARTICLE III. The Austrian historians ARTICLE IV. The historians of the Huns and Hungarians ARTICLE V. The historians of the Goths Danes Sclavonians and Swedes ARTICLE VI. The historians of the Longobards ARTICLE VII The historians of the Borussians and Poles ARTICLE VIII The historians of the Bohemians Switzars and Saxons ARTICLE IX The historians of Celts or Galls and French under which name we include all which are enclosed by the Rhine Pyrenaean Hills the Alpes and the Ocean ARTICLE X. The historians of the Netherlands Dutch and Flandrians ARTICLE XI The Spanish historians ARTICLE XII The historians of the Turks and Arabians who heretofore had the Dominions of Syria Persia Africa and Spain and were commonly call'd Saracens ARTICLE XIII The historians of Aethiopia India almost all Africa and of the New World or America ARTICLE XV. The historians of some great Cities SECT XXXII A Transition

it from us who in his Book de Methodo cap. 70. Affirms that the famous division of the Kingdoms of the old World into IV Monarchies was built upon the Modern Authority and insipid Conceit of some late Writers But from what has been said it clearly appears to us on the contrary that these IV great Empires were anciently observed and designed of which two flourished successively in Asia and are therefore call'd the Asiatick and for the same reason the two others are call'd the European which succeeded in Europe Vellejus also in the place I have cited above seems to me to prove and confirm both these Names and several Successions of the great Empires in the following times saith he the Empire of Asia was translated from the Assyrians who had held it a thousand and seven hundrd years to the Medes but the truth is it is not worth our while to contend any longer about either the Names or the distinctions of the Monarchies In short then I say that it is most certainly true and incontestably known to all Antiquity that the Assyrians and Chaldeans first and after them the Medes and Persians did heretofore Rule over so great a part of Asia that they might well be call'd the Supreme Monarchs of the World as it was then peopled and the same may be said of the Grecians in their times and much more of the Romans by whom if not the greatest yet certainly the best part not onely of Asia but also of Europe and Africa was Conquered as Histories inform us which made Polybius thus express himself The Romans having forced not onely some considerable parts but almost the whole inhabited World to submit to their Authority and Empire have raised their greatness to such a prodigious height that the present Age may very rationally Extoll their happiness but no succeeding Ages will ever be able to excell them SECT IV. The Rise and duration of the Assyrio Chaldean Empire and also of the Medio-Persian then of the Grecian and lastly the beginning of the Roman Empire before Julius Caesar how many years betwixt that and the times of Charles the Great and from thence to Charles the fifth BUt to go on that first Assyrio-Chaldean Empire for so I am inclin'd to call it was begun by Nimrod who is by some others call'd Belus in the year of the world 1717 or there abouts it continued a very long time that is almost one thousand and seven hundred years for this Empire lasted almost the whole time of Censorinus his second interval and after that too it ran out into the third the Historick interval 238 years It is true as the Learned Scaliger has observed it was not always in the same State of power and greatness but at times was broken and diminished For in the beginning it was of a vast Extent but afterwards the Nations that were subject to it made defections till it was torn into several shreds or parcels the Kings of Assyria giving up themselves to Luxury and thinking of nothing less than Arms and the preservation of their Kingdom but notwithstanding from the first Foundation of it to the taking of Babylon by Cyrus when it was transferred to the Medes and Persians there passed almost 1700 years For though Justinus and Georgius Monachus affirm the Assyrians were Masters of the World but one thousand and three hundred years the latter 1060 years and Diodorus Siculus 1400 years Yet I suppose they are to be understood of the time iu which the Posterity of Nimrod or Ninus Reigned who laid the Foundations of that Empire A. M. 1717 and particularly of Sardanapalus who according to Vellejus was the last that Reigned of XXXIII descents in which till then the Son had succeeded his Father But Phul Belochus and his Posterity first and then Merodach Baladan and his Progeny followed the Family of Ninus and kept up that Monarchy in the Assyrian Nation to Baltazar who was the last of their Kings and perished when Babylon was taken by Cyrus for so Funccius Reinerus Reineccius Viginerius and others do seem to collect out of Scripture But Josephus Scaliger Dionys. Petavius Jaco Capellus and others contend against this and endeavour to prove out of Berosus Megasthenes and Ptolemy that the Death of Baltazar by the treachery of his own Servants whom he had enraged against him by his ill Nature happened about seventeen years before the taking of Babylon by Cyrus So he being slain in the 55th Olympiad one Nabonidus by Nation a Mede call'd by Daniel Darius the Mede by the common consent of the Conspiratours succeeded him and he by the chance of War being overcome by Cyrus King of Persia in the XVII year of his Reign and Babylon taken had his Life and the Government of Carmania given him and so the Empire was translated to the Persians in the second year of the 60 Olympiad and A. M. 3412. 2. It is not therefore difficult from what has been said to shew that the Assyrio-Chaldean Monarchy from its first Rise to that period we have given it lasted almost 1700 years which may also be confirm'd by what Calisthenes the Scholar of Aristotle is said to have related for he following Alexander the Great in his Asiatick Expedition upon the request of his Master after Babylon was taken diligently enquired of those who were skilfull in the Babylonish Antiquities concerning their Astronomical Observations the successions of the Kings of that most ancient Monarchy and of the Number of their years and what ever Chaldean Antiquities or Astronomical Observations he could get he sent them into Greece which Simplicius somewhere avers contained 1903 years 3. The Second Empire call'd the Medio-Persick is said to have lasted from the taking of Babylon by Cyrus to the taking the same City by Alexander the Macedonian Darius Codomanus the tenth and last King of the Persians being Conquered not above 210 years for Alexander entered Babylon in the III year of the 112 Olympiad A. M. 3620. 4. The third Monarchy call'd the Grecian and begun by Alexander the Great after the Conquest of Darius is thought to have lasted to Perseus the Son of Philip the Second King of Macedonia who was overcome by Paulus Aemilius and his Kingdom reduced into a Roman Province which space of time comprehends somewhat more than two hundred and sixty years for Perseus was overcome taken and led in Triumph to Rome by P. Aemilius in the year of the Building of Rome 586 A. M. 3782. and about that time it was that the Roman Empire attained that so much admired Greatness which Polybius hath so much extoll'd in the former Section which yet afterwards encreased but from this time was esteem'd the IV Monarchy for to this time that Aemilius Sura whom we have cited from Paterculus in plain words refers the beginning of its Empire Two Kings Perseus and Antiochus being overcome the Empire of the World saith he was translated to the Romans which Polybius also avers

the ways of living the Actions of our Ancestours will afford us but he almost always shews us how we are to reap the advantage of them SECT VI. That Christians may receive usefull instructions from the Examples of the Heathens and thereby improve themselves not onely in Moral Vertues but also in the Acts of Piety and a Holy life The same thing taught by St. Augustine St. Hierome and others The Precepts of such imitations fulfilled by the Heathens which St. Ambrose elegantly expressed BUT we are not to think that the Prophane Histories are onely of use as to the Civil Conversation but also as to the Christian Life which the Holy Fathers of the Church have at large taught and by many Examples proved Be but pleased to consult St. Augustine in his V th Book de Civitate Dei and you will find there what he saith of Brutus Scaevola Curtius Decius and others whom the Learned Casaubon from Dionys. Halic calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heroas God-like Heroes who Acted Prodigies and Wonders of Vertue as Florus saith onely that they might obtain Liberty for their Countrey Empire for their City and Glory for themselves by which they obtained their End and received their so much desired recompence At last St. Augustine concludes thus And therefore the Roman Empire was dilated and enlarged by God to their great glory not onely that a sutable reward might be given to such brave Men but also that the Citizens of that Eternal City as long as they are Pilgrims here below might diligently and soberly consider those Examples and might from thence learn what great Love is due to their Countrey above for Eternal life when this Countrey below was so greatly loved for Humane glory by these Heathen Heroes The same Father also in the 18th Chapter of the same Book and in other places endeavoureth to Confirm men in Christian Constancy from Prophane Examples As in his first Book of this Work Chapter the XXIV where speaking of M. Attilius Regulus he subjoins this Reflexion If these most valiant and famous men saith he the defenders of their Earthly Countrey who though they were Worshippers of false Gods yet were not false to them but were also most exact observers of their Oaths who according to the Laws of War might slay their Conquered Enemies yet if these men I say when they were overcome and taken by their Enemies would not destroy themselves and though they did not in the least fear death yet would rather bear their victorious Masters than by their own hands slay themselves How much more should Christians who worship the true God and breathe after an heavenly Countrey abstain from so great a Villany if the Divine Providence hath for their Tryal or Amendment put them for some time under the power of their Enemies After the same manner St. Hierome in his Consolation to Julian very elegantly thus expresseth himself Do you Sir despise Gold saith he why many Philosophers did it too One of them cast the price of many Possessions into the Sea saying Get you into the Deep ye wretched desires I will sink you that you may not drown me A Philosopher the mere Animal of Glory and the base slave of Popular Applause threw away thus at once his whole treasure and do you think you have attain'd to the top of vertue onely by offering up a part of that whole God requires that you should present your self a living and an acceptable sacrifice to him your self I say and not what you have And again I pass by Heliodorus the Maximo's Cato's Gallo's Pison's Bruto's and Scaevola's c. whose fortitude was not less conspicuous in bearing Grief than in War c. Lest I should seem rather to seek foreign Examples than domestick though these may be used to the reproach of us Christians if our Faith will not carry us as far as their Infidelity did them But that I may reduce this into a Compendium I will shew you how David Chytraeus a man who has deserved well of History in his Preface to Cornelius Nepos or Aemilius Probus excellently teacheth us in good Verse how we Christians should follow this Rule in the observing and applying to our uses the Examples of the Heathens His words are these Christiades simul Historias ac Perlegit Ardens Ruminat haec animo secum si Phocio nummos Respuit oblatos dono Si Scipio sponsam Noluit alterius contingere Maluit exul Attilius si sponte mori quam foed a probando Et laudi Patriae Latinae nocuisse juventae Consilio Exemplóque suo mihi quid faciendum A Christo nomen qui habeo Num sordidus auri Servus ero Faciámve jubet quaecunque libido Num vitam pluris faciam quam nomen Alethes Invictum Num postponam mandata Jehovae Insanis hominum placitis jussísque cruentis Sic sanè Historiae laudanda exempla vetustae Cum fructu quàm quis credat majore leguntur Christiades Reading th' Ancient Story And deeply thinking on th' Heathen Glory Thus school'd himself Shall Phocion despise The Royal Bribe Shall Scipio turn his Eyes From the fair Captive cause a Wife and shall One chuse in Torture and Exile to fall Rather than by a breach of Faith to live And ill Example to his Countrey give And shall I then who wear Christs sacred Name My Faith by Lust or Avarice defame Shall I by selling deathless Truth redeem A life that will not last Shall I esteem The brutish bloudy Wills of Men above The sacred Laws of the Almighty Jove Thus may the rare Examples wrote of old Become more usefull than can well be told These very Precepts for imitating good Examples are also to be found amongst Heathens who observed them both in their words and actions and did not disdain in contemplating and trying to follow the manners and affections of their Ancestours to reform their own or to direct and moderate other mens That great Man Cato the Censor of whom something has been spoken already would frequently go to the Cottage of M. Curius which was not far from his own Estate and having deeply considered the smallness and meanness of his habitation was wont to think thus with himself This Man was the greatest of the Romans who having Conquered many War-like Nations and driven Pyrrhus out of Italy after three Triumphs digged this Field with his own hands and dwelt in this poor Cottage Here too when the Ambassadours came and found him by the fires side eating a few Rape-roots out of a Wooden dish for his supper and offered him a great quantity of Gold he sent them away with this short Answer That he had no need of much Gold who was contented with that Supper and that he had rather Conquer them who had Gold than possess it When Cato had thus considered all these things he went away and comparing his own Fields or Estate Servants and way of living with the other he

encreased his Labours and cut off all Luxury Servius Sulpitius also will afford us a great Instance of this nature who that he might Consolate Cicero who bitterly lamented the death of his daughter entertain'd him with the repetition of a certain Meditation which would not have mis-become a Christian which he had once had upon the Ruine of some flourishing Cities which might seem to have been perpetual And thus from his own experience deduced one very powerfull and rational Argument of Consolation I will said he relate to you a thing which has much Consolated me which perhaps may abate your sorrows too Returning out of Asia when I sail'd from Aegina towards Megara I began to view the Countries about me Behind me was Aegina before me Megara on my right hand Periaeus on my left Corinth which were all in former times most flourishing Towns but now lye all before our eyes desolate and ruined thereupon I began to think thus with my self Alas shall we silly men fall into mighty passions if any of our friends dye or is slain whose lives are naturally short when we see here the carcasses of so many great Cities in a small room lye mouldering to nothing Wilt thou O Servius for the future remember that thou were born a mortal Believe me said he I was strangely supported by this Consideration now if this seems rational to you too go and consider of it To the same purpose does the Roman Philosopher Seneca elegantly consolate his friend Liberalis that he might soften his grief for the Lugdunensian Colony which was then consum'd by fire using almost the same arguments Sulpitius did Set before you said he the condition of all mankind and let us before-hand suppose not onely how often such things have happened but also how often they may if we will not be oppress'd or stick stupidly like a Ship in the Sands all the changes of Fortune are to be thought on How often have the Cities of Asia and Achaia been ruin'd by one Earthquake How many Towns in Syria how many in Macedonia have been swallowed up how often has this calamity desolated Cyprus how often hath Paphus buried it self And after this Not onely the works of mens hands and what was built by humane Art and Industry has time destroyed but the tops of the Mountains fall down whole Countries have sunk down those places have admitted the raging Seas which were heretofore removed far enough from the very sight of it Fire hath devoured those Hills it shone in and it has heretofore known down the once most exalted Heads which were a comfort to Sailors and it has brought down the highest light Houses to a Level with the Sands the very works of Nature are eternally vex'd and therefore we ought with patience to bear the Ruine of Cities whatever now stands shall fall From whence he concludes thus Let therefore the mind be form'd to a true knowledge and a patient submission to its Lot and let it know there is nothing which fortune durst not do She has the same power upon Empires she has upon those that Govern them the same upon Cities she hath upon distinct men Nothing of this nature is to move our indignation we have entred a World in which these Laws prevail Perhaps I shall seem here too long and yet I cannot hold my hands from adding in this place the Example of St. Ambrose who in an Epistle in which he Consolates Faustinus who was then much afflicted for the loss of his Sister sweetly and elegantly imitating Servius Sulpitius and Seneca he made use of the same way of Consolation But you will say that you grieve saith he that one who so lately was in a most flourishing state is now so suddenly dead But this is common not onely to us Men but to Cities too and to considerable parts of the World for when you came from Bononia you left behind you Clarerna Bononia it self Mutina Rhegium and on your right hand was Brixillum before you was Placentia whose very Name preserves the Memory of its Ancient Noble State upon your left hand you commiserated the Apennine Hills now neglected and considered the Castles of flourishing people in former times and pass'd by them with much sorrow And are not the Ruines of so many halfrazed Cities and the Funeral fires which have passed upon so many Countries of force enough to make you bear with moderation the death of one woman though she were a Holy and an Admirable person whereas the former are cast down for ever but she is taken away for a time onely and lives more happily where she now is than we do here These very Examples which I have here cited and many more very like them will Authours afford us which if our Historian would diligently observe and by imitating and applying them as occasion served endeavour to represent them to men without all doubt he would reap large and lasting fruits from his labours SECT VII That the Ecclesiastical History affords more and better fruits That the good works of the Heathens were nothing but splendid Sins The Ethnick History illustrates onely the second Table of the Decalogue but the Church-History the whole Law In the Prophane History there is nothing but counterfeit shapes of Vertues but in this the true Vertues are shewn In the first there are many things that are pleasant and usefull to be known but in the second there are more things which are necessary Upon which the Discourse is concluded with an Exhortation to a diligent Reading of the Church-History THus far of the Manner of Collecting the Fruits of History in Reading which if the Civil and Ethnick History afford us in such plenty and those so pleasant too what shall we think of those we may gather from the Sacred and Ecclesiastick which excells the Civil and Prophane History very much in the subject certainty and perfection of it We cannot deny but that the Stories of the Heathens propound to us very frequent and clear Examples of Justice Fortitude and Temperance and of all other Vertues but if they be thoroughly examin'd and weighed in the balance of Truth they will be found lame imperfect and polluted and not rightly related either to the Mercy or Justice of God which was the reason why St. Augustine call'd those famous Actions of the Heathens splendid Sins and said that their Vertues not respecting God were rather Vices than Vertues To this may be added that they concern onely the second Table of the Decalogue and confirm onely the Rules of good manners in relation to Civil Conversation but the Church-History illustrates the whole Law with much more certain and more illustrious Examples and sets out to the best all the parts of Religion which are very necessary to be well known and it more clearly demonstrates whatever the Ethnick History knew or wrote truly of God For what is there in them of any certainty or distinctness of the Origine