but also in England which day we should celebrate and solemnize with eternall memorie So did Moses set downe the dayes which God commaunded to bee solemnized in memorie of the victories and tryumphes which he had against Pharoh called Parasâ—eua for the which both Ezechias and Iosias proclaimed this feast throughout all Israel from Dan to Berseba with others two feasts which were yeerely kept and solemnized at Hierusalem in memorie of victories So Ioshua remembred his victories ouer 31 Kings with thanksgiuing to the Lord. So Machabeus in memorie of his victories of that blasphemous Nicanor Antiochus Generall and made that day to be solemnized So Mardocheus kept the feast called Phurim in memorie of the victorie which the Iewes had against the Persians in all the Cities of Persia. These are the feasts of thankesgiuing vnto God and not like such drunken feasts as the Athenians did make in the Moneth of Nouember to honour Bacchus neither such feasts as the Thracians had worse than the Athenians to honor Dionisius neither such Feasts as the Egiptians worse than the Thracians made to the Image of Priapus In such a drunken Feast to Baall Balthazar King of Babilon lost his Kingdome In such a Feast to Dagon the house fell vpon the 5 Princes of the Philistins and in such was Benhadad a drunken King of Syria slaine with 32 Kings in his drunken Pauillion Of such drunken Feasts the Prophet saith That both Priests and Prophets were drunken with wine and that they fayled in Prophecie and stumbled in Iudgment Therfore we must season and temperate our feasts as Elizeus did the water of Iericho by casting salt into it In Rome and in Italy as Varro sayth they farre exceeded the Athenians the Thracians and Egiptians in such filthy Feasts vntill by the Senators these kinds of Feasts were banished from Rome and Italy Per Senatus consulium Sectio 5. THE Lampsenians vnderstanding that Alexander the great had fully determined to destroy the Citie of Lampsacus they sent Anaximenes the Philosopher Schoolemaster somtime to Alexander to intreat for peace No sayd Alexander I haue vowed that whatsoeuer thou sekest at my hand I wil denie it thee Destroy then Lampsachus said Anaximenes His request being denyed Lampsachus was saued This Embassage was better performed to Alexander by Anaximenes then the Embassage of Aeschines to King Philip. This Orator being sent from Athens to King Philip of Macedon at his returne to Athens hee much coÌ„mended Philip for his beautie for his eloquence and for much bearing of drinke Demosthenes tooke vp Aeschines and sayd That he made a woman of King Philip for his beautie a babling Sophister for his eloquence and a Spunge for his drinking you should haue done as Demades did being then as his prisoner with diuers other citizens of Athens seeing Philip crowned with garlands in his robes and too much reioysing in his drinke of his victories ouer his Captaines and prisoners of Greece Demades boldly sayd Art not thou King Philip ashamed whome Greece made their Generall like AgameÌ„non thou to make thy selfe like bibbing Thersites with such taunts as Demades made Philip to cast off his crowns his garlands and his roabes and for verie shame to dismisse the poore Greekes his prisoners with Demades to go free to Athens and other Cities of Greece The like is read of Polemon a gallant Gentleman of Athens but being drunke rushed in his drunkenes into Anaxagoras schoole at lector time he perceiuing that Polemon was beastly shameles drunken Anaxagoras altered his daies Lector to speake of drunkennesse in such sort that Anaxagoras made Polemon as shamefast of his druÌ„kenes as Demades did king Philip both made to cast off their Crownes their Garlands and their Robes and to be ashamed of themselues Yet M. Antonius made a Booke to defend drunkennesse being reprehended therof by Cicero which was the onely cause of Ciceroes banishment and afterward of his death another Glutton named Apicius wrote a whole volume De gulae irritamentis And for the like speech Cicero vsed was Hermodorus banished from the Sybarites with whome the law was that nemo apud nos frugi sit they banished all kind of Artificers because they should not trouble them with knocking haÌ„mering carting or any noise to disquiet their drinking and withal the Sybarites made a law that no Cock shuld be in their Citie to wake theÌ„ from their sleep These were the Epicures of whom the Prophet saith Eadmus bibamus cras moriamur Of this companie was Philoxenus and Melancthus the one wished a Cranes neck the other a swans neck and either of these two wished to haue tricubitale guttur a throat of 3 cubites long to haue more pleasure in their long swallowing of their meat and drinke and yet see and obserue the difference The great Alexander when Ada Queene of Caria had sent him a daintie dish of meat thought shee should be commended for her cookery and pleasant sawce one sayd to her Euerie souldier that Alexander hath is a better Cooke and maketh sweeter sawce than the Queene of Caria can make The like Darius sayd the great King of Persia that he neuer dranke better wine in Persia than that water which was brought to him by a souldier in his Helmet So Ptolomey the first King of that name in Egipt confessed that he did neuer eat better bread in Egipt than that which a shepheard gaue the King out of his scrip See the difference betweene three base Epicures and three of the most mightie Kinges vppon the earth I know not which to preferre Philip of Macedon for his ambition or Xerxes for his lust and pleasure King Xerxes appointed pensions and great rewards for them that were named nouae voluptatis repertores that could inuent and find out new kinde of delights and pleasures King Philip gaue much money to any man that would betray great Cities and Townes and would after giue those Townes and Cities to those that would betray Countreys and Kingdomes Caesar suspecting the faith and promise of the Egiptians to be flatterie gaue himselfe to feasting and banqueting in Alexandria Thus Caesar fed the Egiptians vntill he wan all Egipt So great King Cyrus stratagem was to make his foes become his friendes in lieue off punishment and slaughter banquets and playes so hee pleased the people of Sardenses and so hee rewarded the rude and barbarous people Arymaspy and commaunded they should be called Euargetes Leontinus Gorgius being asked what hee thought of a great mightie King I knowe not sayd Gorgius whether he be Philip or Alexander a Marchant or a Souldier for Philip wan all Greece tanquam Mercator as a Marchant and Alexander wanne all Asia tanquam Victor as a Conquerour Alexander enquired for good Souldiers Philip sought good siluer Like Dionisius the Tyrant that asked his familiar and dere friend Antiphones where how
recedet gladius de domo tua to Salomon his Sonne neying on Pharoes daughter to the losse of ten Tribes of Israel to the Beniamites such a fall for the Leuites wife to the losse of 25000 Beniamites and to the Sichemites such a fall for Dina Iacobs daughter to the ouerthrow of themselues and of their Citie Sichem But for prophane Histories Paris had such a fall for Helene Menelaus wife to the losse of the greatest number of all the Kings of Asia and of Greece Marcus Antonius for Cleopatra of Egipt had such a a fall that hee lost both the Empire of Rome and the Kingdome of Egipt I know that matching in mariage to be not one of the least causes of good and euil religion in any Common-wealth As the mariage of Esau with forraine and strange Nations The mariage of Ioram King of Iudah with King Achabs daughter an Idolater was the cause of much wickednesse in Israel The Law of Moses was that the Hebrews should match with their owne Tribe And therefore Esdras commaunded the Children of Israell to forsake their strange women Nehemias rebuked and punished the Israelites for not putting away such strange idolatrous Nations The blasphemer which was stoned in the wildernesse was the Sonne of an Egiptian gotten by an Hebrew woman Abraham was so carefull of a wife for his Sonne Isaac that hee sware his seruant to bring him one of his owne Tribe With the like care did Isaac send to Mesopotamia to his brother Laban to choose him a wife So did old Tobias send his young Sonne Tobias to Medea So God appointed such godly womeÌ„ to these godly men that willingly they forsooke their friends their kinred their brethren and sisters their Parents and country to come with their husbands to Iudah Ruth forsooke her idolatrous Nation the Moabites and would not though she was sought earnestly to returne vnto Moab A blessed woman in the Lord sayd Bâ—oâ— for she became the Mother of many blessed kings in Israell and of one most blessed King euen the King of Kings So Loah and Rachell the wiues of Iacob became the Mothers of the 12 Tribes of Israell These were godly marriages for they forsooke parents and friends to come out of such idolatrous countreys to come into Iudah to serue God with a strange Nation I could wish that there were not in great Britane those that would forsake their natiue soyle to be married in Rome or in Spaine to serue Images Caleb a zealous and earnest Hebrew promised his daughter Aâ—â—san in marriage to him that ouercame that wicked and peruerse Towne Zepheri Dissembling Saul promised his daughter Micholl to him that could bring him 200 Philistims skinnes And two godly and zealous men performed and effected the same namely Dauid and Othoniel So did Clysthenes for his daughter Agarista who made search throughout all the Cities of Greece for a vertuous youth learned and wise fit for his daughter And Themistocles was wont to say Mallem virum sine pecunia quà m pecuniaÌ„ viro iâ—digere that was his choise Yet some philosophers were of opinion like the Papists that men might haue as many women as they would for multiplication So Cato did by his wife Martia and Socrates by his wife Zantippa change them for others for that they were barrein It was not onely the opinion of Chrysippus whose writings were full of Oracles but also of Socrates and Plato and other which maintaine Poligamia but the papists will not allow their Priests Monogamia but as many Concubines and as many bastards as they list Phigius and Eccius two famous Papists left written in their bookes behinde them that Minus peccat Sacerdos sâ—ortando quam vxorem ducendo But when Pope Gregorie had found in one of his Fishing-ponds 6000 heads of Infants by his seruants he was forced with shame to say with Paul That it was better to marrie than to burne And when one of the Popes seruants sayd That it was not so rich a draught as the poore Milessian Fishers found at Miletum where they tooke Mensem aurâ—am which was not fit for any of the Sages of Greece but onely for Apollo Yea saith his fellow softly to him this draught is as fit for the Pope as the other draught was for Apollo How many such draughts were drawne in the time of Papissa a woman of Miguntia Gilberta and not Ioanna an English womaÌ„ as Heidfield saith which bare at one birth more than the Countesse of Flanders who had 365 at one birth and more than Herotimus King of Arabia who had 600 bastards by coÌ„cubines but Gilberta and her Successors so exceeded that all the world is much trobled with her bastards In Rome God Anubis fel in loue with Saturninus wife the onely faire woman of Rome her husband her parents her kinsmen and friends brought her to the temple of Anubis where the Feast Lectesternium was prepared where after the Feast they left Saturninus wife with God Anubis all night where De Mundus a young Romane Knight was Deputie by means of the priests for 2000 Drachmeis Marcus Antonius comming from Rome to Athens in all kinde of habites and ceremonies with Thyrsus in his hand like Dionisius hee was so reuerenced of the Athenians that they offered him their Goddesse Minerua in mariage with 1000 talents for her dowry which was well accepted of the Romane so that the God Anubis must haue a woman and the Goddesse Minerua must haue a man The brood of these great marriages were greatly multiplied in all Countreys by mariages of these two great houses Saturninus wife with God Anubis and Minerua with M. Antonius for before that in Rome meane Families were matched with the Patricians in marriage the Senators and Consuls had the whole gouernment ouer the Romanes but being strengthened by mariage with the patricians not only the election of the Tribunes themselues but of all the Magistrates of Rome and the whole gouernment of the Romanes was Per plebem Tribunum plebis It was euer seene in all common wealths that the vulgar people by being Magistrates or being in commission by great countenance by marriage by bearing and backing them in their Religion be that Immanis bellua the verie Monster among Nations A Thistle in Libanon sent to a Cedar tree in Libanon saying Giue thy daughter to my Sonne in marriage and there came a wild beast from Libanon and troad downe vnder foote the Thistle with a watch-word giuen by the Prophet to Amasias King of Iuda for the worshipping of the Gods of Edom Deos albatos filiorum Seir. Vnequall marriage specially in Religion is like an Oxe and an Asse to drawe vnder one Yoake This was the first cause of sedition at Rome in monte Ianiculo betweene the Patricians and the Commons Ob dignitatem natalium Hence grewe many seditions and so many that it was
practise this exercise And these be the souldiers of Pope Leo the 10 which had euer this wicked verse in his mouth Flectere sinequeo superos Acheronta mouebo There be other Souldiers called Retiarij milites exercising and practising feats of Armes with nets named fitter for priests and preachers than for Traitors and Rebels which will not lay their nets for small fishing but for Kings and Kingdomes Yet there is the third of Souldiers called Cunicularij milites these Soldiers are most dangerous which keepes their Dens and Caues vnder ground where they haue as many Labyrinths windings and turnings with so many subtill and crooked walkes as the Riuer Maeander hath which both for the crooked wayes and for their winding and turning about Britane they may be well called Maeandri These three kindes of Captaines haue their meeting places though they be dispersed and scattered others found taken and executed yet they haue their places prouided for them that escape to consult againe of further treason It was a policie of the Roman Sertorius in Spaine when hee saw his Armie compassed round about by the enemies hee counselled his souldiers to flye and their flight to scatter and disperse and from the other to auoide the sword of Q. Metellus and his Armie appointing to them a place where to meete againe where Sertorius the Romane Captaine appointed So these Rebels disperse themselues ouer all England hauing their meeting places and Synod of consultation to take breath and to deliberate of their treason and they that scape are sent for more Iesuits and Seminaries to supply the rowmes of those that were executed These Iesuites vse often times three kinds of stratagems an Egiptian stratageme to pitch their combate nigh some marish ground which they doe couer ouer with sea reedes and in the middest of their fighting they flye to drawe their enemies to these bogges and marish ground and there to fall vppon them They also vse a Spanish stratageme which viriatus the Spaniard vsed against the Romanes much like to the same of the Egiptians to faine to flye to quabbie places bogs and quicke-sands they knowing how to escape vppon hard ground betweeene those bogges These Iesuits these Seminaries vse too many Romish Spanish and Egiptian stratagems in their owne Countrey and natiue soyle against their owne countrey men I thinke neither the Macedonians nor the Greeks were so glad to see King Xerxes Palace on fire in Persepolis as these Traytors would haue reioyced to haue seene such a bone-fier in Westminster Palace These bee right Cuniculares milites that are instructed with all kinde of stratagemes by Spaniards by Romanes yea and by Egiptians these bee they that throw the keyes of Peter into Tiber with Pope Iulian the 2 these be soldiers of Hyldebrandus which made himselfe Pope and made Rodolph an Emperor Gaza a great stronge Citie which Alexander the Great long time besieged in the middest of his great toyle a Conie started out of a hole which assoone as the great Alexander sawe Haec vltima pestis Gazae these Conie holes shall ouerthrow the strong Citie of Gaza and so it came to passe The like ruine fell to the Vients and Fidenates whose Cities were ouerthrowne by such Caues and Dens wrought vnder-ground by Conies But we haue such Conies that workes not onely vnder-ground but also vpon the ground May not we stoppe their holes as Ioshua did the fiue Kings of the Amorites which fled from Israel and hid them in Spelunca vrbis Maceda We must either so doe with Ioshua or as Lucullus the Romane Consull did at the besieging of Temâ—shira get Beares and wild beasts and hiues of Bees and put them vnto their Dens to fright them and to skirmish with them vnder the ground in the darke As the Lacedemonians did teach their yong Soldiers to fight in the darke which was the practise of Iugurth with the Romanes and the policie of Pompei with King Mythridates to fight in the night time Securitie is daungerous and negligence amonge Captaines verie perilous Thrasybulus forgetting to looke to his watch was taken in his Tent and slaine he that recouered Athens and slew the 30 Tyrants a noble Captaine was slaine in carelesse securitie Lu Martius for the Romans in Spaine and the 2 valiant Scipioes after much god seruice for their Countrey for the same fault were betrayed taken and slaine as Thrasybulus was We are not so secure but they are as resolute we are not so slacke but they are as forward and yet they seeme to be cowching and dormiants sed non omnibus dormiunt and therefore King Osyris had the likenesse of a mans eye in his Scepter to looke and to watch regia pericula Camillus perceiuing his Armie slacke and not willing to goe forward snatcht an ensigne into his hand and sayd You soldiers that meane to follow Camillus follow me and withall hee spur'd his horse into the middest of the Volscans and the Latines his enemies his souldiers for verie shame followed and fought desperately and so got the Victorie Our treacherous souldiers want no Camillus to lead them to recouer their old religious flagges and banners lost here in Queene Maries time the Romans were not more greedy to recouer their chiefe Ensigne the Eagle lost in Parthia by M. Crassus the Consull than these are to winne their banners in great Britane Lu Silla finding his souldiers timorous and fearefull to sight with Archelaus King Mythridates Generall drew out his sword and sayd as Camillus sayd You souldiers that meane to flye to Rome tell them at Rome that you left Silla your Generall fighting in the middest of the battell with the enemies in Boetia I doubt some treacherous papist some Rebell will so say in Rome as Lu Silla sayd in Boetia that they left many such Sillaes and many like Camillus to reuenge the quarrell in Britane These be Sagittae volantes in die These be diuelish arrowes and in the Diuels hands these be Daemones meridiani the verie line ouer Rome and the verie Daemon Maeridianus which with their diuelish deuise thought to make Acheldama of England Scotland and Ireland and that with one shot It seemed that euerie Traytor euerie Rebell was led by a Legion of Diuels and truely they had more Deuils to practise their last stratageme than the Romanes had Souldiers to ouercome Asia Europe and Affrica and yet it was fiue hundred and fiftie yeeres before they could doe it But their Arrowes were broken though they were the Diuels Arrowes their fire was quenched though it was couered ouer with Iunipers ashes and their diuellish stratageme found out though it was inuented by Diuels that wee may say and pray with the Prophet In Chamo froeno maxillas eorum constringit Deus Pau Aemilius a Romane Consull found the snares of the Boians by flying of
multitude of birds in the Etruscan warre for those fowles fledde in such fright from a thicke wood that the Consull sent scowt-watch and found 10 Thousand Boyans in watch for Aemilius and his Romane Armie We should finde greater birds in great Britane if we should send scowt-watch abrode and yet I stand in doubt that as Ioshua sent some of euerie Tribe to search the Land of Chanan at their returne they would not open the fertilitie of the Land for feare of great men of higher stature than the Israelites were lest they should fight with those mightie men the brood of Enachims saying Nuncij cor nostrum terruerunt those Israelites feared men more thaÌ„ God they had rather returne to Egipt than otherwise They came from Rome to great Britane as Cleonimus the Athenian with his souldiers went to Tracaena with a dart in his hand which hee threw ouer the wals which had written vpon his dart that Cleonimus came to deliuer the Trocenians from Craterus their enemie by this policie Cleonimus wan Trocaena by sedition of the souldiers The like did Haniball after he had gotten the great Victorie at Thrasymenum wrote diuers Letters to sundry Cities and Townes in Italy saying that Haniball came from Carthage to Italy to deliuer Italy from the Romans Many vse Hanibals speach and letters that come in one hand with pardons indulgences not onely promising on earth absolution for their treacherie and murther but also to be canonized Saints in heauen and in the other hand Cleonimus dart yea Sauls dart to throw to King Dauids face such darts would these cursed Crew throwe to Kinges and Princes faces Not what lawes should bee sought for these Rebels but what punishment might bee inuented for these Traytors Antiochus inuented torments to torture the Iewes that would not eate Swines flesh Phalaâ—is had by perillous inuention a brazen Bull to torment Offendors Among the Greekes it was lawfull for any man to bring such Offenders to Delphos and there to offer them quicke in sacrifice to Apollo Among the Romanes to bring such to the Theators and there to bee hewd and cut in peeces Per Gladiatores the Sword-players Among the Persians such should be quick buried the Massilians had a naked Sword and a great Vessell full of poyson hanged vp in publicke sight to terrifie such Traytors Sectio 4. THemistocles before compared himselfe to a Plantane tree for that the Athenians vsed it for to shadow them and to defend them in times of warres with the Persians so in like sort said Themistocles That Athenians vse him at their pleasure sometime for their drinking Cup and sometime for their Chamber pot and so often vsed him off and on to cast him of at their pleasure and to call him againe at their will that Themistocles would sometime speake to the Athenians Illos non laudo homines qui eodem vase pro calice matula vtuntur I like not those kinde of people that vseth one vessell for to drinke out wine of it in the morning and to make water in it at night So vngratefull people were the Athenians that they wayed for nothing but for three Monsters of Athens Noctua populus draco so full of flattery and dissimulation was Athens that euerie one stood in doubt whome to trust Many vse such dissembling speaches and countenances in great Britane like counterfeit Tragedians at Smyrna with their false Solaescismes holding vp to heauen their bloodie hands and looking downe to the earth with wicked malicious eyes longing to see their tree at Rome bring forth such fruits as the wild Oliue tree did at Megara a Citie of Achaia in Greece There was a Citie in the Market-place a wilde Oliue tree on which the Captaines and the souldiers vsed to hange their armors a long season that in continuance of time this tree by hanging on of these armors bred of it selfe Armors which was prophecied that when this tree should breed of it selfe Armors for souldiers this Citie should be destroyed for this tree was Arbor fatalis There was a great Tree likewise in Babilon which shadowed all beasts of the field and on whose boughes all the fowles of the ayre made their neasts and all the Kings of the earth hanged their Swords their Targets their Helmets and all their Militarie Armors But there was a rotteÌ„ Tree a long time in Rome Religiosa arbor on which the Dominick Franciscans Benedicts Friars hanged their Caputium their weeds and religious garments so long that this Tree bred more Armors and armed men in Rome and out of Rome than the wilde Oliue did at Megara or the mightie high Tree at Babilon But as the fatall Tree of Megara had an end so the great Tree of Babilon was cut downe and so the rotten Tree of Rome is as readie to fall downe for vnder this Tree were more Traytors bredd more Scysmes and heresies brought vp than were Souldiers at Megara either beasts or fowles in Babilon For these hold it a principle or a maxim of their laws that it was as lawfull to burne a Protestant in England as to kill a Tyrant in Greece and the reward was a like Spolia opima Ioui a rich spoyle to their Iupiter It was counted great tyrannie in Tamberlane King of Scythia to vse Baizates the great Turke though as great a Tyrant as himselfe being taken captiue to carrie him in his tryumph from Countrey to Countrey in a Cage and to feede him like a dogge vnder his table in that Cage And it is greater tyrannie to feed Turkes and Tamberlanes to cut our throats in England Sapor King of Persia after his great Victorie ouer the Romanes and had taken the Roman Emperour Valerianus he kept him as his Prisoner vsed him as a blocke on his knee for the King of Persia to mount on horse-backe to the great disgrace of the Romans These were tryumphs of Tyrants and not of Kings The King of great Britane may vse his enemies as Tamberlane vsed the great Turke or as Sapor vsed the Romanes I remember the tyrannie of Sesostris whom the Ethiopians call the Hercules of Egipt which was caried in a Coach as Melancthon saith In curru ex auro lapidibusque praeciosis constructo by â—ower Kinges in a Charriot wrought with gold and precious stones But one of these 4 Kings euer looked back vpon the wheele of the chariot Sesostris asked him why he so ofteÌ„ looked back he said I look vpon the wheele how by course the staues of the whele are somtimes aboue sometimes belowe Histories report that he dismissed those Kinges and freed them from such bondage vpon these words Such was the fortune of Tygranes the great King of Armenia though he had 4 Kings wayted on him at his Table and ranne sometime as foot-men at his stirrope yet was hee forced to throw his Diademe at Pompeis feet Thus Fortuna ambiguo vagatur