these serpents asleep which devour us but we must likewise confesse that if our griefs be short they deserve not so great complaints and if they be long their lasting fashioneth us to patience All is formidable to a body full of long health but the accustoming to things unpleasing causeth the contempt of them Nature hath destinated the most nice and tender to great dolours as women to that of child-bearing to teach us that what we fear most is not alwayes to be most feared When our courage faileth all torments insult over us but if it makes some resistance we much the lesse feel our pain There are who fight even to bloud out of bravery others receive wounds for a very little money others run to the burning chaps of cannons for a small salary there are others to be found who have jested at the gash and others who have played on a lute whilst their members have been flashed with keen rasors to shew that if there be an evil in nature there is much more in our opinion The Philosopher Zeno sought out torments to caste pleasures and said they were nohing if they were not thus seasoned Pain and pleasure interchangeably sway in us as do day and night in our Hemisphere If we must die it is but a moment of adversity to enter into a perpetuall repose Evill taketh up all the parts of our life but death hath onely one instant of time It is so conformed to the most part of the world oppressed with so many afflictions that as Zaleucus the Notable speech of Zaleucus Law-maker said an Edict should fitly have been made to die if God had not imposed a necessity upon it To be born maketh us tributaries to all miseries but death alone freeth us from all imposts Socrates saw his death coming whilst he was philosophising Anaxagoras in pleading Calanus braved it out of temerity and Canius jeasted at it out of merriment If your evil be in the mind is it chiefly sin or folly The evils of the mind which tormenteth you Why forbear you to chastise the one by penance and the other by the credit you will give to the judgement of the wise By this meanes you shall find that Reason will remedy almost all evils without much violence Where Reason is surprised and darkned by the violence Comforts which proceed from time of torments Time quits the medicine There is no evil immortall for the mortall let us make our selves tractable by not thinking on our evils and they cease to be evils according as time stealeth them away from us Think not to dry up the eyes of a mother who hath lost her son or of a wife from whom death Insensible comforts hath taken her husband on the day of the buriall suffer them to weep let the wound bleed and think how to cure it rather by prayers then by discourses The most pertinacious dolours disband with time and we are all amazed that we find our selves above our afflictions as if we had climbed up thither from out of the bottome of abysses He who should see the mount Aetna big with flames and thunders would not think there were any meanes to approach It but its furies passe away with time and we pursue little tracks which insensibly lead us to the top where we find verdant grasse and blooming flowers The like happeneth to us when we in the beginning consider our evil fortune it seemes our mind can never associate with its disasters but in the end the divine Providence discovereth wayes unto us which ere we think on 't bring us to the top of patience where we gather the fruit of our travels Who would not admire the goodnesse of God to say That time doth our businesse without our trouble and if we must be sad we find I know not what in our sadnesse that pleaseth us so that we preferre solitude and silence before the most eloquent consolations The friends of Job seeing these his deep miseries were seven dayes without speaking to him they let him discourse with his own thoughts and gather some case from his own dolour as we draw remedies Julianus Imperator in consolaâ Ametil ep 37. out of scorpions I to this purpose observe an excellent invention in the Emperour Julian of the Philosopher Democritus where it is said That Darius King of Persia had lost An excellent observation of Julian the Queen his wife and that excessive melancholy made him disconsolate The wisest men of Greece were called to him to mitigate his torments but it was to play on a lute to the ears of Tygres and Panthers to go about to cure by words fitly applied a grief which had had more of futy then mediocrity in it The Philosopher let all these great comforters to passe on and put himself upon time to expect some disposition in the heart of this Monarch and seeing his mind tired out with his teares began to resent he promised to raise the Queen again if he he would furnish him with things necessary for his purpose the other extremely rapt with this proposition said he therein would employ all the riches of the world which were at his dispose but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Philosopher onely demanded of him three names of such as had never felt any grief or sadnesse to engrave them on the Queens Monument which could not in any sort be found after a long search throughout the whole kingdome of Persia Then Democritus taking his opportunity Alas Sir we may well say the rubies and diamonds of this diadem resplendent on your head dazle your eyes and hinder you from seeing the miseries of your poor subjects not to be able in so great and vast an Empire to meet with three happy men and yet you wonder though born under the condition of mortals that death is entred into your palace He added many grave sayings which the Emperour for his consolation liked very well Whereby we are taught that we must sometimes make use of time to remedy sadnesse If time doth nothing and that it be an evil necessary which we cannot remedy as it happeneth in death and in other accidents which those Ancients called the blows of Destiny why do we resist against heaven and censure the divine Decrees It is a goodly thing indeed to see a man to afflict himself with a fatall necessity Necessity forceth patience which indifferently involveth Monarches and peasants Must God revoke his laws and must he create a world apart to content a simple creature and serve it to its liking But is it not much better to go along with the stream of this water and follow the great current of the divine Providence which maketh all the harmony in the world § 4. That the Contemplation of the divine Patience and Tranquillity serves for Remedies for our temptations LAstly let us behold the assistances of Grace which is incomparably above Nature and let us from Remedies and
hypocrisie its body a spunge of ordures its hands the tallons of harpies and finally it seemeth to have no other faith but infidelity no law but its passion no other God but its own belly What contentment can it be to live with such a monster VII If there be pleasures in life they do nothing 7 Quality of worldly pleasures but a little slightly overflow the heart with a superficial delectation Sadnesse diveth into the bottom of our soul and when it is there you will say it hath feet of lead never to forsake the place but pleasure doth sooth us onely in the outward parts of the skin all her sweet waters run down with full speed into the salt sea Behold wherefore S. Augustin August Conf. l. 6. cap. 5. said when any prosperity presented it self to his eyes he durst not touch it He looked upon pleasure as on a fleeting bird which seemeth as it were ready to be seyzed and flieth away as soon as ever she sees her self almost surprized VIII Pleasures are born in the senses and like 8 Their shortness abortives are consumed in their birth Their desires are full of disturbances their access is of violent forced and turbulent agitations Their satiety is farced with shame and repentance They pass away after they have wearied the body and leave it like a bunch of grapes the juice whereof is extracted by the press as saith S. Bernard They hold it a goodly Bern. Serm. 10. in Cantic Nulla maior voluptas quam voluptatis fastidium Turtul de syect 9. The end matter to extend their fulness They must end with life and it is a great hazard if during life it self they serve not their host for an executioner I see no greater pleasure in the world than the contempt of pleasure IX Man which wasteth his time in pleasures when they are slipped away much like waters engendred by a storm findeth himself abandoned as a pilgrim dispoiled by a thief So many golden harvests which time presented to him are passed and the rust of a heavy age furnisheth him with nothing but thorns sorrows to have done ill and inabilities of doing well what then remains to be said but that which the miserable King said who gave his scepter for a glass of water Alas must I for so short Lysimachus a pleasure loose so great a Kingdom X. Evil always beareth sorrow behind it but not 10. Difficulty of penance true penance It is a most particular favour of God to have time to bemoan the sins of our passed life and to take occasion by the fore-lock Many are packed away into the other world without ever having thought of their passage and such suppose they shall have many tears at their death who shall not have one good act of repentance They bewail the sins which forsake them and not God whom they have lost True contrition is a hard piece of work Facilius inveni qui innocentiam servarent quam qui congruè poenitentiam agerent Ambr. l. de unica poenitent c. 10. 11. Death How can he merit it who willingly hath ever demerited XI In the mean time death cometh apace it expecteth us at all hours in all places and you cannot attend it one sole minute so much this thought displeaseth you The decrees thereof are more clear and perspicuous than if they were written with the beams of the Sun and yet we cannot read them His trumpet soundeth perpetually more intelligibly than thunder and we understand it not It is no wonder that David in the 48. Psalm calleth it an Psal 48. 5. According to the Hebrew ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã aenigma every one beholdeth the table and few knoweth the sense of it Notwithstanding it is a case concluded we must take a long fare-well from all things which appertain to life that can be extended no further than life it self and it is a case resolved that serpents and worms must be inherited in a house of darkness It is a goodly lesson whosoever can well learn it To know it well once it must every day be studied Nothing is seen every where but watches clocks and dyals some of gold some of silver and others enchased with precious stones They advertise us of all the hours but that which should be our last and since they cannot strike that hour we must make it sound in our conscience At the very instant when you read this a thousand and a thousand perhaps of souls unloosened from the body are presented before the Tribunal of God what would you do if you were presently to bear them company There is but one word Timely despise Diordorus apud S. Maximum serm Omnia ista contemnito quibus solutus corpore non indigebis 12. What followeth death Apoc. 14 Tertul. de anima c. 53. Hug. l. 4. de anima in your bodie the things of which you shall have no need out of your bodie XII Your soul shall go out and of all the attendants of life shall have none but good and bad by her sides If she be surprized in mortal sin hell shall be her share hell the great lake of the anger of God hell the common sewer of all the ordures of the world hell the store-house of eternal fire hell a depth without bottom where there is no evil but we may expect nor good which may be hoped Behold the twelve considerations which this most worthy man used to direct himself in the course of a virtuous life and they so far had prevailed upon his soul that he resolved after he had finished certain works which he then had in hand to distribute all his goods among the poor and go bare-foot through the cities towns and villages carrying a Crucifix in his hand to preach the cross the blessings of the other life employing his whole talent which God had given him to his service But death prevented him The seventh SECTION Twelve Maxims of Wisdom which arise from the twelve precedent Considerations FRom these Considerations twelve goodly Maxims Often examine your life by these maxims of wisdom arise greatly necessary for any who would enjoy true happiness I. The first is to give to every thing its estimation 1. Cood value since the beginning of our unhappiness proceedeth from a false value which we set upon creatures It marvellously importeth to estimate every thing according to its worth That good man Epictetus said ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã more than one would think when he gave this advise My friend if thou lovest a pot remember thy self to be a pot For want of the knowledge of the price of what we love we put God under the Altar and vice above to allow it the best part of the incense II. For this cause it is necessary daily to endeavour 2. Light of mind in the choice Osee 12. Ballance of Chanaan to enfranchize our selves from the opinions of the world and to use
rich Tell me was it not an honour to King Agathocles who from being the son of a potter raised his fortune to a Throne was it not I say an honour to mingle on his cup-boards earthen vessels with his rich pieces of gold and silver plate that he might not bely his birth Nay so far was he from blushing or from being ashamed at it that he made boast and trophey of it What then would he have done by his poor father if he set such a value upon the mean implements of his cottage And thou wholly Christian as thou art canst not behold without confusion of thy countenance what a great Captain a great King a great States-man sought to proclaim to all the world Contempt of the person of fathers entreth sometimes so far into their souls as it hath transported them into horrible and tragick acts Never have I read any thing upon this subject with more amazement than that mentioned in Justine of a certain African named Cartallus who was by the peoples consent raised to an eminent degree of dignity and casually upon some solemn embassage sent into a place where his father with many other was banished He looking on himself at that time like a peacock gloriously furnished out with the rich ornaments of his employment thought it was not suitable to his honour to admit that his father should so much as see him The unfortunate father became so enraged with this refusal and pride of his son that instantly he raised a sedition and mustering together a tumultuary Army of exiles he fell upon his son although a Magistrate took him condemned him to death presently prepared a high gibbet and attired as he was in gold scarlet with a crown on his head caused him to be fastened to this fatal tree for a strange spectacle What fury of despised nature is this and what butchery Let us pass on to the third tribute obedience which as an Ancient said is the mother of felicities It is the first band of families and chief foundation of Monarchies S. Gregory Nyssen hath a notable observation saying that Moses of set purpose caused the Hebrews to wear ear-rings giving them thereby to understand their beauty and grace was in the ear to wit in obedience and verily in Exodus the people Exod. 32. Tollite inaures filiarum vestrarum auribus asserte ad me Filius noster iste protervus contamax est monitis mostris audire contemnit comessationibus vacat luxuriâ atque convitiis Lapidibus eum obruet populus morietur Deuter. 21. a Aelian var hist lib. 1. beginning to revolt their ear-rings were taken from them as from men unworthy of this priviledge That which is expressed in Deuteronomie is much more bloudy and terrible where the father and mother are permitted to bring forth a disobedient and refractary son in publick and upon their own deposition to cause him to be stoned to death by the people It seems this Law was well understood by a silly Pesant a Mardonian by Nation named Rachones a who being the father of seven sons perceived the youngest of them played the little libertine and unbridled colt What doth he to bring him back into the stable First he endeavoured to cure him with fair words and reasons but finding him to reject all manner of good counsel he bound his hands behind him carried him before a Magistrate accused him and requires he may be proceeded against as a delinquent against nature The Judges who would not discontent this incensed father nor hazard the life of this young man sent them both to the King who at that time was Artaxerxes The good man went thither resolved to seek his sons death where pleading before the King with much servour and forcible reasons Artaxerxes stood amazed at his courage But how can you my friend said he endure to see your son die before your face He being a gardiner as willingly said he as I would pull away leaves from a ranck lettice and not hurt the root The King perceiving this resolution and zeal of justice in the poor man of a gardiner made him a Judge and severely threatened his son with death if his carriage were not better See young man behold wicked son who disobeyest thy father and mother not in a slight matter or of little importance but in such as concerns thy life safety and reputation see what thou maist expect from the justice of God since that of men hath so much severity in this point You dare dispense with your selves in the Laws of piety and Religion not shewing even on festival days any more feeling of God than a beast doth this seem tolerable you haunt the company of buffons wicked and wretched creatures which wast the means that are not yours weaken your body violate your reputation and defile your soul and is not this a crime You make resolutions and frame chymaeraes without advise either of father or mother you bring them into debt you treat clandestine marriages you thrust those alive unto their graves who gave you life and can you think the vengeance of God will ever have leaden feet Faithless and bruitish as you are how many fathers for far less faults have inflicted severities on their children dreadful even to those who read them Marcus Scaurus in the Roman history sent this message to his son who fled with the rest of his Army defeated by the Cimbrians Son you are born of a father who knows either to vanquish or die rather send me your bones than return alive after the death of your honour A father could not endure the flight of a son which was very excusable in a general defeat because it seemed to cast some blemish upon his family and you who surcharge your house with reproach and confusion would you escape unpunished Another father Aulus Fulvius understanding his son had rancked himself in the faction of Catiline a wicked wretch who supported and debaushed all the youth of Rome caused him to be taken in the place and condemned to death and this young man begging pardon with all manner of suppliant intreaties had no other answer but Son I begat you to make war upon Catiline in your Countries quarrel not in Catilines cause to assayl your mother And who can but wonder at another Torquatus that had a son in great employments of the Empire flourishing in honour age and reputation who being accused by the Embassadours of Macedonia to have ill carried himself in their Province when he had it in charge this father with the Senats permission would himself be Judge in the sons cause heard the accusers two whole days together confronted witnesses gave his son full scope to defend himself and to produce all that he could for his justification in the end on the third day he pronounced sentence It having sufficiently been proved unto me that my son Syllanus hath ill acquitted his charge and taken money from the allies of
Dragons under-foot and rendered himself the Oracle of the world and the Doctour of Monarchs And what a death to die as in a field with palms planted by his hand manured by his industrie and watched with sweats What a death to have built himself before his death a tomb stuffed with precious stones of so many goodly virtues What a death which hath made it known that S. Ambrose was born for all the world and could not die without the tears of all the world since as every one had his interests in the life of this Prelate so he found in his death the subject of his sorrow What a death to die with these words in his mouth I am neither ashamed to have lived nor fear to die because we have a good Master What a death to return to Heaven as the dove of the deluge to his Ark bearing words of peace as an olive-branch in his mouth What a death to see vice trodden under his feet Heaven all in crowns over his head men in admiration the Angels in joy the Arms of God laden with recompences for his merits Prelates who please your selves with Myters and Croziers would to God this incomparable man as he is the ornament of your Order might be ever the model of your actions And if your dignities make you be as Mountains of Sinai wholly in lights flames and thunder-strokes let the innocency of your life render you by his imitation Mountains of Libanus to bear the whiteness of snow in the puritie of your conversation the odour of incense in your sacrifices and devotions and fountains in the doctrines and charities you shall distribute to the whole world THE SOVLDIER TO SOULDIERS O Brave and couragious Nobility whose Ancestours have fixed the Standards of the Cross upon the land of Infidels and cemented Monarchies with their bloud to you it is I address these lines for you it is my pen laboureth excited with a generous design in hath to honour your profession Here it is where I present the true figures of valour Here I display the palms and crowns which environed the head of your Fathers Here I do restore the value of fair and glorious actions reserved for your imitation Enter with a firm footing and a confident courage into this Temple of glory perswading your selves that there is nothing so great in the world as to tread false greatness under foot and deifie virtues Worldly honour is the feast of Gods said an Ancient where the ambitious are not invited but in quality of IXIONS and TANTALUSSES to serve there as buffons but that which consisteth in valour joyned to integrity of manners ought to be the object of your affections the recompence of your labours and trophey of your memorie Reflect onely with a favourable eye on this poor endeavour which I consecrate to your benefit and afford by your virtues effect to my prayers and accomplishment to my writings THE SOULDIER The first SECTION The excellency of Warlick Virtue IF the profession of arms were as well managed as it is excellent and necessary in civil life we could not have eyes enough to behold it nor tongues sufficient to praise it and although our spirit should arrive to the highest top of admiration it would ever find wonders in this subject not to be attained We seem to hear the Scripture speak that God God of hosts himself affecteth the glory of arms when he causeth himself to be surnamed the God of hosts and when the Prophets represent him unto us in a fiery Chariot all environed with burning Legions at which time the pillars of Heaven tremble under his feet the rocks are rent abysses frown and all the creatures of the universe shake under the insupportable splendour of his Majesty In effect this great Monarch of Town belieged by God Heaven and earth ceaseth not to make war and if we will consider his proceedings we shall find it is more than fifty Ages since he hath laid siege to a rebellious Citie which hath for ditches abysses of iniquity for walls and rampires obstinacy for towers and bulwarks mountains of pride for arms resistance against divine inspirations for artillery tumult and insolency for houses dens of hypocrisie for Palaces labyrinths of dissimulation for tribunal and bar impiety for Temple proper-will for Idol self-love for Captain blindness for souldiers exorbitant passions for counsel folly and for constancy perverse opinion This Citie in a word is the heart of man against The hurt of man which God daily wageth war to give us libertie by our captivitie advancement by our fall greatness by our abasing and life by death which maketh us die to all dead things to live for immortality God would that we fight by his example not onely with spiritual arms but sometimes with material and it is a thing very considerable that Abraham the first Father of all the faithfull was a warriour since S. Ambrose Ambros Offic. lib. 1. cap. 24. Fide primus justitiâ precipuus in praelio strenuus in victoriâ non avarus domi hospitalis uxori sedulus reckoning up all his titles according to the Scripture sheweth he was a good Religious man a good Justice a good Captain a good hoast and a good husband Yea also it is a passage much more admirable to say what Clemens Alexandrinus hath observed that the first Army of the faithfull which ever was marched not thinking thereon under the figure of the Cross and the name of Saviour although it were about two thousand years before the birth of the Messias The fourteenth Chapter of Genesis teacheth us that nine Kings came into the field with their troups to fight four against five Those of Sodom and Gomorrha were there in person who like effeminate Princes turned their back at the first encounter and in flying fell into pits of sulphure Their defeat gave leisure to the enemy to pillage all the Countrey where poor Lot the nephew of Abraham was taken having by mishap chosen his habitation in a Territory fertile in wealth and iniquities The news coming to the ears of Abraham he speedily armed his houshold-servants who were to the number of three hundred and eighten and with shepheards assaulted Kings whom he valorously vanquished bringing back his kinsman and all the booty which his enemies had taken Behold the first battel renowned in Scripture where this brave Doctour of Alexandria before alledged very well subtilizeth and saith that the number of Abrahamâs souldiers is represented by three Greek letters T. J. H whereof the first signifieth the Cross and the other two the name of Saviour God being desirous so to consecrate the first arms of believers by the Mysteries of his Greatness to declare that the warfare which is well managed is his work and glory Likewise we do not find that the name of Sun hath been given Warriours suns in holy Writ to a living man with so much lustre and applause as to a souldier and
fall no lower but may contemplate all above him and meditate how to raise himself by the hand of God which pulls down the proud and exalts the humble Is a man tempted with pride The consideration of Ashes will humble him Is he burned with wanton love which is a direct fire But fire cannot consume Ashes Is he persecuted with covetousness Ashes do make the greatest Leeches and Bloud-Suckers cast their Gorges Every thing gives way to this unvalued thing because God is pleased to draw the instruments of his power out of the objects of our infirmities 3. If we knew how to use rightly the meditation of death we should there find the streams of life All the world together is of no estimation to him that rightly knows the true value of a just mans death It would be necessary that they who are taken with the curiosity of Tulips should set in their Gardens a Plant called Napel which carries a flower that most perfectly resembles a Deaths head And if the other Tulips do please their senses that will instruct their reason Before our last death we should die many other deaths by forsaking all those creatures and affections which lead us to sin We should resemble those creatures sacred to the Aegyptians called Cynocephales which died piece-meal and were buried long before their death So should we burie all our concupiscences before we go to the grave and strive to live so that when death comes he should find very little business with us Aspiration O Father of all Essences who givest beginning to all things and art without end This day I take Ashes upon my head thereby professing before thee my being nothing and to do thee homage for that which I am and for that I ought to be by thy great bounties Alas O Lord my poor soul is confounded to see so many sparkles of pride and covetousness arise from this caitiffe dust which I am so little do I yet learn how to live and so late do I know how to die O God of my life and death I most humbly beseech thee so to govern the first in me and so to sweeten the last for me that if I live I may live onely for thee and if I must die that I may enter into everlasting bliss by dying in thy blessed love and favour The Gospel for Ashwednesday S. Matthew 6. Of Hypocritical Fasting WHen you fast be not as the hypocrites sad for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast Amen I say to you that they have received their reward But thou when thou doest fast anoint thy head and wash thy face that thou appear not to men to fast but to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret will repay thee Heap not up to your selves treasures on the earth where the rust and moth do corrupt and where thieves dig through and steal But heap up to your selves treasures in heaven where neither the rust nor moth doth corrupt and where thieves do not dig through nor steal For where thy treasure is there is thy heart also Moralities 1. THat man goes to Hell by the way of Paradise who fasts and afflicts his body to draw the praise of Men. Sorrow and vanity together are not able to make one Christian Act. He deserves everlasting hunger who starves himself that he may swell and burst with vain glory He stands for a spectacle to others being the murderer of himself and by sowing vanity reaps nothing but wind Our intentions must be wholly directed to God and our examples for our neighbour The Father of all virtues is not to be served with counterfeit devotions such lies are abominations in his sight and Tertullian saith they are as many adulteries 2. It imports us much to begin Lent well entering into those lists in which so many holy souls have run their course with so great strictness have been glorious before God and honourable before men The difficulty of it is apprehended onely by those who have their understandings obstructed by a violent affection to kitchen-stuffe It is no more burdensom to a couragious spirit than feathers are to a bird The chearfulness which a man brings to a good action in the beginning does half the work Let us wash our faces by confession Let us perfume our Head who is Jesus Christ by alms-deeds Fasting is a most delicious feast to the conscience when it is accompanied with pureness and charity but it breeds great thirst when it is not nourished with devotion and watered with mercy 3. What great pain is taken to get treasure what care to preserve it what fear to loose it and what sorrow when it is lost Alas is there need of so great covetousness in life to encounter with such extream nakedness in death We have not the souls of Giants nor the body of a Whale If God will have me poor must I endeavour to reverse the decrees of heaven and earth that I may become rich To whom do we trust the safety of our treasures To rust to moths and thieves were it not better we should in our infirmities depend onely on God Almighty and comfort our poverty in him who is onely rich and so carrie our souls to heaven where Jesus on the day of his Ascension did place our Sovereign good Onely Serpents and covetous men desire to sleep among treasures as Saint Clement saith But the greatest riches of the world is poverty free from Covetousness Aspiration I Seek thee O invisible God within the Abyss of thy brightness and I see thee through the vail of thy creatures Wilt thou always be hidden from me Shall I never see thy face which with a glimpse of thy splendour canst make Paradise I work in secret but I know thou art able to reward me in the light A man can lose nothing by serving thee and yet nothing is valuable to thy service for the pain it self is a sufficient recompence Thou art the food of my fastings and the cure of my infirmities What have I to do with Moles to dig the earth like them and there to hide treasures Is it not time to close the earth when thou doest open heaven and to carrie my heart where thou art since all my riches is in thee Doth not he deserve to be everlastingly poor who cannot be content with a God so rich as thou art The Gospel for the first Thursday in Lent S. Matthew 18. of the Centurions words O Lord I am not worthy ANd when he was entered into Capharnaum there came to him a Centurion beseeching him and saying Lord my boy lieth at home sick of the palsie and is sore tormented And Jesus saith to him I will come and cure him And the Centurion making answer said Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof but onely say the word and my boy shall be healed For I also am a man subject to Authority having under me
extream love Jesus the most supream and redoubted Judge who will come in his great Majesty to judge the world fire and lightening streaming from his face and all things trembling under his feet was pleased at this time to be judged as a criminal person Every thing is most admirable in this judgement The Accusers speak nothing of those things which they had resolved in their counsels but all spake against their consciences As soon as they are heard they are condemned justice forsaketh them and they are wholly possest with rage Pilate before he gave judgement upon Jesus pronounced it against himself for after he had so many times declared him innoceÌt he could not give judgement without protesting himself to be unjust The silence of Jesus is more admired by this infidel than the eloquence of all the world and Truth without speaking one word triumpheth over falshood A Pagan Lady the wife of Pilate is more knowing than all the Laws more religious than the Priests more zealous than the Apostles more couragious than the men of Arms when she sleepeth Jesus is in her sleep when she talketh Jesus is upon her tongue if she write Jesus is under her pen her letter defended him at the Judgement-Hall when all the world condemned him she calleth him holy when they used him like a thief She maketh her husband wash his hands before he touched that bloud the high price of which she proclaimed She was a Roman Lady by Nation called Claudia Procula and it was very fit she should defend this Jesus who was to plant the Seat of his Church in Rome All this while Jesus doth good amongst so many evils He had caused a place to be bought newly for the burial of Pilgrims at the price of his bloud he reconciles Herod and Pilate by the loss of his life He sets Barrabas at liberty by the loss of his honour he speaks not one word to him that had killed S. John the Baptist who was the voice And the other to revenge himself without thinking what he did shewed him as a King He appears before Pilate as the king of dolours that he might become for us the King of glories But what a horrour is it to consider that in this judgement he was used like a slave like a sorcerer like an accursed sacrifice Slavery made him subject to be whipped the crown of thorns was given onely to Enchanters and that made him appear as a Sorcerer And so many curses pronounced against him made him as the dismissive Goat mentioned in Leviticus which was a miserable beast upon which they cast all their execrations before they sent it to die in the desart He that bindeth the showers in clouds to make them water the earth is bound and drawn like a criminal person He that holds the vast seas in his fist and ballanceth Heaven with his fingers is strucken by servile hands He that enamels the bosom of the earth with a rare and pleasing diversity of flowers is most ignominiously crowned with a crown of thorns O hydeous prodigies which took away from us the light of the Sun and covered the Moon with a sorrowfull darkness Behold what a garland of flowers he hath taken upon his head to expiate the sins of both Sexes It was made of briars and thorns which the earth of our flesh had sowed for us and which the virtue of his Cross took away All the pricks of death were thrust upon this prodigious patience which planted her throne upon the head of our Lord. Consider how the Son of God would be used for our sins while we live in delicacies and one little offensive word goeth to our hearts to which though he that spake it gave the swiftness of wings yet we keep it so shut up in our hearts that it getteth leaden heels which make it continue there fixed Aspirations ALas what do I see here A crown of thorns grafted upon a man of thorns A man of dolours who burns between two fires the one of love the other of tribulation both which do inflame and devour him equally and yet never can consume him O thou the most pure of all beauties where have my sins placed thee Thou art no more a man but a bloudy skin taken from the teeth of Tigers and Leopards Alas what a spectacle is this to despoil this silk * * * Ego sum vermis non home Psalm 21. worm which at this day attires our Churches and Altars How could they make those men who looked upon thy chaste body strike and disfigure it O white Alabaster how hast thou been so changed into scarlet Every stroke hath made a wound and every wound a fountain of bloud And yet so many fountains of thy so precious bloud cannot draw from me one tear But O sacred Nightingale of the Cross who hath put thee within these thorns to make so great harmonies onely by thy silence O holy thorns I do not ask you where are your Roses I know well they are the bloud of Jesus and I am not ignorant that all roses would be thorns if they had any feeling of that which you have Jesus carried them upon his head but I will bear them at my heart and thou O Jesus shalt be the object of my present dolours that thou mayest after be the Fountain of my everlasting joys Moralities for Good Friday upon the death of JESUS CHRIST MOunt Calvarie is a marvellous scaffold where the chiefest Monarch of all the world loseth his life to restore our salvation which was lost and where he makes the Sun to be eclipsed over his head and stones to be cloven under his feet to teach us by insensible creatures the feeling which we should have of his sufferings This is the school where Jesus teacheth that great Lesson which is the way to do well And we cannot better learn it than by his examples since he was pleased to make himself passible and mortal to overcome our passions and to be the Authour of our immortality The qualities of a good death may be reduced to three points of which the first is to have a right conformity to the will of God for the manner the hour and circumstances of our death The second is to forsake as well the affections as the presence of all creatures of this base world The third is to unite our selves to God by the practise of great virtues which will serve as steps to glory Now these three conditions are to be seen in the death of the Prince of Glory upon Mount Calvarie which we will take as the purest Idea's whereby to regulate our passage out of this world 1. COnsider in the first place that every man living hath a natural inclination to life because it hath some kind of divinity in it We love it when it smileth upon us as if it were our Paradise and if it be troublesom yet we strive to retain it though it be accompanied with very great miseries
was his condition of life assigned him from his nativity but by this most detestable murder he is now become the Regenet of a great Kingdom Who had a more labouring desire to see the King out of the world than he who daily expected from the hand of death the just reward of his disloyalty We are here ready to represent unto him a paper signed with his own hand and the hands of his Adherents where amongst them all they are obliged against all to defend that person who should attempt upon the person of the King That execrable writing was intrusted in the hands of Bolfou Captain of the Castle of Edinborough whom at the first they had drawn unto their side and being since incensed against some of the Conspiratours hath discovered all the business This is that which we now manifest with reasons more clear than the day and with assurances as strong as truth it self My Lords We demand what is that which the Rebels oppose against all these proofs nothing at all but frivolous conjectures which are not sufficient to condemn the vilest creature in the world although they are made use of to overthrow the person and Majesty of a Queen Ten thousand tongues such as Murrays are and his Accomplices ought not to serve to make half a proof against the honour of Mary and yet you have the patience to hear them rather than chastise them Her poor servants have bin examined again and again they have been torn to pieces and flead alive to accuse the Queen and could ever so much as one effectual word be racked from them to stain her innocence Have they not in the middle of their torments declared aloud and before all the people that she was ignorant of whatsoever was done and that they never heard the least word proceed from her which tended to the murder of the King All their Reasons are reduced into two Conjectures The first whereof is That the Queen committed the said Act in revenge of the death of her Secretary The second is Her Love and Marriage with the Earl of Bothuel the murderer of her husband these two are the inevitable charges against her But to answer to the first I demand If the Queen had any desires of revenge on whom should she exercise that vengeance Upon her husband whom she loved with incomparable affection whom in all companies she defended as a young man seduced by evil counsels to whom she had given a full forgetfulness and abolition of the murder of David Riccio for fear that one day he should be called to an account for it whom she very lately had received into favour and the strictest friendship to whom she had given the testimonies of a fervent love unto the last hour of his death Is it on him that she would discharge her choller or on those who were the Authours and Executioners of the act If she hath pardoned the Earls of Murray and Morton her sworn Enemies whom on a thousand occasions she could cut off here is it to be believed that a Lady who had ever a most tender conscience would destroy a husband so agreeable to her and whom she knew to have never offended but through the malice onely of these desperate spirits But why then hath she married him who made this attempt against the King her husband This is their second Objection and to speak the truth the onely one which they so much crie up For this it is that they have taken away her Rings and Jewels and put in the place of them infamous letters invented by Buchanan or some like unto him who treat of love not as in the person of a Princess but of a loose licentious woman And these Letters when they were produced did appear to be never made up or sealed but exposed to all the world as if so chaste and so wise a spirit as this Queen could be so stupid or so wicked as to publish her own infamy to the face of all the world But in the end they say the Marriage was accomplished And who did do it but these onely who now do make it a capital Crime These are they who did give advice to this match by reasons did sollicit it by pursuits did constrain it by force and did sign it by continuance Behold we are here ready in your presence to represent unto you the Contract which doth bear their names and seals of Arms which they cannot disprove The Queen hath protested before God and men that she had rather die ten thousand deaths than to have married Bothuel if she had thought he had been stained but with one drop of her husbands bloud and if he had not been proclaimed to be innocent And now judge My Lords with what impudence they dare appear before you and do believe that the Queen of England hath sent you hither to serve their passions and sacrifice so great a Princess to their vengeance We do hope all the contrary and do firmly perswade our selves that the great God the undoubted Judge of the living and the dead will inspire you with such counsels as shall give the Day to Truth for the glory of your own consciences and the comfort of the most afflicted of Queens who desireth not to breathe out the rest of her life that is left her but under the favour of your Goodness This in this manner being spoken the Agents and Deputies for the Queen having aloud protested that they here assembled not to acknowledge any power Superiour to the Crown of Scotland but onely to declare in the behalf of their Queen being unwilling to lose time in words they came to the proofs and did defend them with incredible vigour making in the first place the falsifications which were very ordinary with the Earl of Murray to appear in full Councel In the second place representing the Contract of the Marriage with Bothuel which he condemned to be signed by him and his Adherents Moreover producing the instrument of the Conspiracy against the King subscribed by their own hands and signed by their own Seals And lastly reporting the Depositions of John Hebron Paris and Daglis who being executed for this Act did fully discharge the Queen at the instant of their death before all the people After that the Commissioners had judged the Her justification Queen of Scots to be innocent of all the Cases and Crimes which falsely had been imposed on her by her traiterous and disloyal Accusers and that the proceedings which they made were for no other purpose but to exempt themselves from the crimes which they had committed and to cover the tyranny which they had exercised in the Kingdom of Scotland The Earl of Murray did flie away filled with The confusion of her Accusers fear and with confusion seeing that his life was in great danger if he had not been secretly protected by the Queen of England In the pursuit of this Sentence the most honest of the Councel did
the day of its own brightness to consider how Providence guarding her dear Pool as the apple of her eye did reserve him for a time which made him the true Peace-maker of that nation For this effect it came to pass that Henry the Eighth The Estate of England having reigned eighteen years in schism leading a life profuse in luxury ravenous in avarice impious in Sacriledge cruel in massacres covered over with ordures bloud and Infamy did fall sick of a languishing disease which gave him the leisure to have some thoughts on the other world It is true that the affrighting images of his Crimes The death of Henry the Eighth and the shades of the dead which seemed to besiege his bed and perpetually to trouble his repose did bring many pangs and remorses to him Insomuch that having called some Bishops to his assistance he testified a desire to reconcile himself unto the Church and sought after the means thereof But they who before were terrified with the fury of his actions which were more than barbarous fearing that he spoke not that but onely to sound them and that he would not seal to their Counsels which they should suggest unto him peradventure with the effusion of their bloud did gently advise him without shewing him the indeavours and the effects of true repentance and without declaring to him the satisfactions which he ought to God and to his Neighbours for the enormities of so many Crimes He was content to erect the Church of the Cardeleirs and commanded that Mass should there be publickly celebrated which was performed to the great joy of the Catholicks which yet remained in that horrible Havock To this Church he annexed an Hospital and some other appurtenances and left for all a thousand Crowns of yearly Revenue As he perceived that his life began to abandon him he demanded the Communion which he received making a show as if he would rise himself but the Bishop told him that his weakness did excuse him from that Ceremony he made answer That if he should prostrate himself on the Earth to receive so Divine a Majesty he should not humble himself according to his duty He by his Will ordained that his Son Edward who was born of Jane Seimer should succeed him and in the case of death that Marie the Daughter of Queen Katharine should be the inheritress of the Crown and if that she should fail that his Daughter Elizabeth although a Bastard should fill her place and possess the Kingdom On the approches of death he called for wine and those who were next unto his bed did conceive that he oftentimes did repeat the word Monks and that he said as in despair I have lost all This is that which most truly can be affirmed of him for it is a very bad sign to behold a man to die in the honour of his Royal dignity and by a peaceable death who had torn in pieces JESUS CHRIST who had divided the Church into schisms who of the six Queens that he espoused had killed four of them who had massacred two Cardinals three Archbishops eighteen Bishops twelve great Earls Priests and Religious Men without number and of his people without end who had robbed all the Churches of his Kingdom destroyed the Divine worship oppressed a million of innocents and in one word who had assasinated mercy it self Howsoever he wanted not flatterers who presumed to say and write that his wisdom had given a good order to his affairs and that he happily departed this world not considering what S. dustine doth affirm That all the penitencies of those who have lived in great disorders and who onely do convert themselves at the end of their life being pressed to it by the extreamity of their disease ought to be extreamly suspected because they do not forsake their sins but their sins do forsake them It was observed indeed that at his death this King did testifie a repentance of his savage and inordinate life but we cannot observe the great and exemplary satisfactions which were due to the expiation of so many abominable sins King Antiochus made submissions of another nature and ordered notable restitutions to recompense the dammages which he had caused to the people of the Jews nevertheless he was rejected of God by reason of his bloudy life and the Gates of the Temple of mercy were shut against him for all eternity The foundation of a small Hospital which Henry caused at his death was not sufficient to recompense the injuries of so many Churches which he had pillaged nor of so much goods of his Subjects as he had forced from them seeing we know by the words of the wise man That to make a benefit Eccles 34. of the substance of the poor is to sacrifice a Son before the eyes of his Father He had by his Testament ordained many tutors to The Reign of Edward His Uncle Seimer spoileth all his Son who were able to have made as many Tyrants but Seimer Uncle by the mothers side to the deceased King gaining the favour of the principal of the Lords of the realm whom he had corrupted with mony and great presents did cause himself to be proclaimed Protector and Regent He took a great possession on little Edward the Son of Henry heir to the Crown whom he brought up in schism and Heresie against the intentions of his Father This furious man immediately began his Regency with so much insolence that he almost made the reign of Henry the Eight to be forgotten he fomented the poison which he had conceived under him he did use the Catholicks most unworthily and did cut off the head of his own Brother by a jealousy of women But as he had made himself insupportable so it came to pass that the affairs of war which he had enterprized against the French did fall out unfortunately for him Dudley one of the chiefest of the Lords drawing a party to him did accuse him of Treason and caused his head to be cut off on the same Scaffold where before he had taken off the head of his own Brother This death was followed with great fears and horrible commotions for the Regency which presently after was extinguished by the death of the young King Edward This poor Prince was rather plucked with pincers The Qualities and death of King Edward from his mothers womb than born and he could not come into the world without giving death to her who conceived him He was said to have none of the comeliest bodies He spake seven languages at fifteen years of age and in his discourse did testifie a rare knowledge of all those sciences which were most worthy of a King It seemeth that death did advance it self to ravish his spirit from his body which did awake too early and was too foreward for his age for he died in his sixteen year having not had the time throughly to understand himself and to see by what course
learning of Jesus who was never taught 502 Upon S. John the 9. Of the blind man cured by clay and spittle 503 Upon S. Luke the 7. Of the widows son raised from death to life at Naim by our Saviour 504 Upon S. John the 11. Of the raising up Lazarus from death 505 Upon S. John the 8. Of our Saviours words I am the Light of the world ibid. Upon S. John the 8. Of these words Who can accuse me of sin 506 Upon S. John the 7. Jesus said to the Pharisees You shall seek and not find me and he that is thirsty let him come to me 507 Upon S. John the 7. Jesus went not into Jury because the Jews had a purpose to take away his life  Upon S. John the 10. The Jews said If thou be the Messias tell us plainly ibid. Upon S. John the 7. Of S. Mary Magdalen's washing our Saviours feet in the Pharisees house 509 Upon S. Mary Magdalen's great repentance 510 Upon S. John the 11. The Jews said What shall we do for this man doth many miracles ibid. Upon S. John the 12. The Chief Priests thought to kill Lazarus because the miracle upon him made many follow Jesus 511 Upon S. Matthew the 21. Our Saviour came in triumph to Jerusalem a little before his passion 512 Upon S. John the 12. Mary Magdalen anointed our Saviours feet with precious ointment at which Judas repined 513 Upon S. John the 13. Of our Saviours washing the feet of his Apostles ibid. Moralities upon the garden of Mount Olivet 514 Moralities of the apprehension of Jesus 515 Aspiration upon S. Peter's passionate tears ibid. Moralities upon the Pretorian or Judgement-Hall 516 Moralities for Good Friday upon the death of Jesus Christ ibid. The Gospel for Easter day S. Mark the 16. 518 The Gospel for Easter Munday S. Luke 24. 519 The Gospel on Tuesday S. Luke 24. 520 The Gospel on Low-Sunday John 20. 521 A TABLE Of the Treatises and Sections contained in this fourth Tome OF THE HOLY COURT The First TREATISE Of the necessity of Love SECTION Page 1 AGainst the Philosophers who teach Indifferency saying We must not Love any thing 1 2 Of Love in generall 3 3 Of Amity 5 4 Of Amity between persons of different sexes 7 5 Of the entertainment of Amities 11 6 Of Sensuall Love its Essence and Source 14 7 The effects of Sensuall Love 17 8 Remedies of evil Love by precaution 18 9 Other Remedies which nearer hand oppose this Passion 19 10 Of Celestiall Amities 22 11 Of the Nature of Divine Love Its Essence Qualities Effects and Degrees 25 12 The practise of Divine Love 27 13 A notable Example of Worldly Love changed into Divine Charity 29 The Second TREATISE Of Hatred 1 ITs Essence Degrees and Differencies 32 2 That the consideration of the goodnesse of the heart of God should dry up the root of the Hatred of a neighbour 33 3 That Jesus grounded all the greatest Mysteries of our Religion upon union to cure Hatred 34 4 Of three notable sources of Hatred and of politick remedies proper for its cure 35 5 Naturall and Morall Remedies against this passion 37 6 Of the profit may be drawn from Hatred and the course we must hold to be freed from the danger of being Hated ibid. The Third TREATISE Of Desire 1 WHether we should desire any thing in the world the Nature the Diversitie and Description of Desire 39 2 The Disorders which spring from inordinate Desires and namely from Curiosity and Inconstancy 40 3 The foure sources out of which are ill rectified Desires 42 4 That the tranquility of Divine Essence for which we are created ought to rule the unquietnesse of our Desires ibid. 5 That we should desire by the imitation of Jesus Christ 43 6 The Condemnation of the evil Desires of the World and the means how to divert them 44 THE FOURTH TREATISE Of Aversion SECTION Page 1 THe Nature and Qualities thereof 44 2 The Sweetnesses and Harmonies of the heart of God shew us the way how to cure our Aversions ibid. 3 The consideration of the indulgent favours of Jesus Christ towards humane nature is a powerfull remedy against the humour of disdain 47 4 The Conclusion against disdain ibid. THE FIFTH TREATISE Of Delectation 1 THat Delectation is the scope of Nature It s Essence Objects and differences 48 2 The basenesse and giddinesse of Sensuall voluptuousnesse 49 3 The Sublimity Beauty and Sweetnesse of heavenly delights ibid. 4 The Paradise and Joyes of our Lord when he was on earth 50 5 Against the stupidity and cruelty of worldly pleasures 51 6 The Art of Joy and the means how to live contented in this world ibid. THE SIXTH TREATISE Of Sadnesse 1 ITs Description Qualities and the diversity of those who are turmoiled with this Passion 54 2 Humane Remedies of Sadnesse and how that is to be cured which proceedeth from Melancholy and Pusillanimitie 55 3 The remedie of Sadnesses which proceeds from divers accidents of humane life 56 4 That the Contemplation of the Divine patience and tranquility serve for remedie for our temptations 58 5 That the great temper of our Saviours soul in most horrible sufferings is a powerfull lenitive against our dolours 59 6 Advise to impatient soules 60 THE SEVENTH TREATISE Of Hope 1 THe Description Essence and appurtenances thereof 61 2 That one cannot live in the world without Hope and what course is to be held for the well ordering of it ibid 3 That God not being capable of Hope serveth as an Eternall Basis to all good Hopes 63 THE EIGHTH TREATISE Of Despair 1 ITs Nature Composition and effects 65 2 The causes of Despair and the condition of those who are most subject to this Passion 66 3 Humane Remedies of Despair 67 4 Divine Remedies 68 5 The Examples which Jesus Christ gave us in the abysse of his sufferings are most efficacious against pusillanimity 69 6 Encouragement to good Hopes ibid. THE NINTH TREATISE Of Fear 1 THe Definition the Description the Causes and effects thereof 70 2 Of the vexations of Fear Its differences and Remedies 71 3 Against the Fear of the accidents of humane life 72 4 That the Contemplation of the power and the Bounty of God ought to take away all our Fears 73 5 That the Example of a God-man ought to instruct and assure us against affrightments of this life 74 THE TENTH TREATISE Of Boldnesse SECTION Page 2 THe Picture and Essence of it 76 2 The diversitie of Boldnesse ibid 3 Of laudable Boldnesse 77 4 That true Boldnesse is inspired by God and that we must wholly depend on him to become Bold 78 5 That Jesus hath given us many pledges of a sublime confidence to strengthen our Courage 79 THE ELEVENTH TREATISE Of Shamefactnesse 1 THe decencie of Shamefac'tnesse It s nature and definition 81 2 Divers kinds of Shamefac'tnesse ibid. 3 The Excellency of Shamefac'tnesse and the uglinesse of Impudency 83 4 Of Reverence
granted you for the exercise of virtue otherwise you shall pay the losses thereof in the length of a corrupt and miserable life and your bones in old age shall be filled with the follies of youth which shall sleep with you even in your tomb and drag your souls into the bottomless precipice from whence there is no recovery The ninth REASON Which maketh it appear the Court is a life of penance AMongst the motives which the exact Masters of spiritual life propose to Religious men to invite them to perfection they set before their eyes that they are all stirred up to virtue when they already are in the arms of penance The like with just reason we may say to Courtiers the more to inflame them to fortifie themselves in great and glorious virtues to wit that arriving at Court they enter into a house of penance where they every day have a thousand occasions of suffering which is the shortest way to perfection That the Court is a place of publick penance appeareth for the reasons which I intend now to produce First Antiquity hath called penance by the word Envie as Tertullian Tertul. Apol. c. 40. Invidia Coelum tundimus hath done who saith We strike at the gates of Heaven as with the hammer of envie that is to say with penance This name hath been given either for that it doth make God as it were envied if he pardon not seeing the estate of penitents so deplorable Penance called by the name of envy Invidiam facit Deo nisi ignoscat as the most learned Bishop of Orleans hath noted in his observations upon Tertullian or for that the Latine word invidere signifieth originally not to see any thing but to turn the eye aside as from a sad object and the habit estate and condition of the penitents was heretofore so lamentable that the nice and curious averted their eyes from them and could not endure so much as onely to behold them Howsoever it be the title of envie doth excellently well agree with the Court. That is the nest where envie hatcheth her Envy of Court egs the throne where she exerciseth her Empire the Altar where she hath many sacrifices and were she banished from all the corners of the earth we then should search for her among Courtiers their life always being between the two scales of the ballance whereof the one is called envie the other miserie This is it which obligeth them to an extraordinary perfection that they may perpetually stand upon their guard and avoid the least defect This is it which if they know well how to use it doth absolutely shut up from them the gate to all excess for if envie according to the proverb will offer to shave an egge what will she not do in a meadow Secondly the ancient Canons and Doctours of Five degrees of penance among the Ancients ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Church as S. Basil observe five degrees of penance The first was called sorrow which was a state of tears and grones The second is called audience which was a degree to which penitents after an infinit number of sighs were admitted to hear the instructions and preachings of the word of God whereof they were before deprived The third humiliation which was when the penitents were admitted ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to a certain part of the Mass but not at the Sacrifices for they went out before the consecration a little after the newly instructed Christians the Priest repeating over them a certain prayer during which time they made a low obeysance their face bowed to the ground The fourth degree is called consistence where the penitents had leave to ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã hear Mass at the full length as others but not to make any oblation nor to communicate for that was reserved to the last degree called communion ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã where they obtained a full reconciliation in the participation of the holy mysteries as the fore-alledged Bishop hath most excellently explicated Of these five parts of penance Courtiers for the Practise of these degrees at Court most part exercise those which are most irksom and very seldom sparticipate in the consolations of the other more sweet and benign If penitents have a degree of tears and lamentations where are sighs and groans more frequent than in Court for the many disasters which ordinarily occur in their affairs One may well apply to them that passage of Job expressed in S. Gregorie the Great The Giants or men Job 20. Gigantes gemunt sub aquis Estate of tears of the earth do groan under the waters Out alas how many times the poor miserable creatures after a world of travels pursuits and hopes which are dreams without sleep seeing themselves transported into disgrace with a furious torrent of envie sigh and mourn in an Ocean of calamities One frown of an incensed Prince is more formidable to them than the eye of a Basilisk yea more terrible than the crack of a Canon The favours they enjoy are winged and slippery all the contentment they can possibly receive in ten years will not afford so much joy to their hearts as the repulse of one sole day coming as a stroak of thunder afflicteth them and makes them give ground if they have not recourse to heavenly consolations See you not how Absalom re-established Obsacro ut videaâ facieââ Regis quod si memor est iniquitatis meae interficiat me 2 Reg. 14. in Court yet deprived of the King his fathers sight bare this disgrace with so much anziety of mind that he asked a bloudy death for his remedy What will the look of a Lion be if the onely deprivation of a favourable eye be so ill to be digested What will become of so many other contrarieties which at every turn transfix so many brave designs so well projected Where will not occasion of many most bitter sorrows be found among so divers accidents which cause us to stand at all times prepared for blows If penitents be in a state State of humilitie of humiliation wherein as other Interpreters observe they not onely humbled themselves prostrated on the earth at the Priests benediction but they lowly laid themselves under the feet of all the world where I pray are souls found born more to servitude more pliant more abased than the Courtiers They bend like the fishers angling-line they stoup they turn and wheel about to all purposes that they may arrive where they pretend They buy all their honour at the price of great submissions their scarlet at the price of sordid ambition and glory with the coyn of slavery That is it which S. Cyprian excellently well observed Behold âe this Cyprian ad Donatum Qui amictu clariore conspicuus fulgere sibi videtur in purpura quibus hoc sordibus emit ut fulgeat Quos arragantium fastus prius pertuliâ Quos superbââfores matutinus saluator obsedit Courtier who
glory Do you refuse me A truth doth not gall your ears when you have understood and diligently considered it if it please you not you may reject it But I beseech God the Father of light and mercy may open your heart and eyes to resolve you herein accordingly Importance of the choise of religion matters very considerable to his holy will It is a matter of no small importance to handle the affairs of salvation We well know we have an immortal soul which shall survive to all eternity either in the bosom of the glory of Heaven or in the flames of the damned we well know by what gate it entered into this life and where it at this present sojourneth but we understand not by what passage when or how it shall issue out We have nothing here more certain than death nothing more uncertain than the hour and manner nothing so assured in the other world as to find there a judgement of God a Heaven for virtues a hell for sin nothing so doubtful as the determinate sentence of your process nothing so absolutely confirmed as that one cannot be saved without true Religion and Truth worthy to be embraced De fide ad petrum Diacon c. 48. Qui extra Ecclesiam Catholicam praesentem finiunt vitam in ignem aeternum ituros Quantascumquae elemosynas fecerint si pro Christi nomine etiam sanguinem fuderint nullatenus posse salvari nothing so controverted by the malice of Satan as the verity of religion Notwithstanding if you erre in the choice you make ship-wrack before you weigh anchour and so long as you remain in errour nothing can save nor deliver you from eternal damnation For it is a belief of all Christianitie witnessed by Saint Fulgentius in the book which he composed of faith that all those who shut up the course of their life out of the true Church although they have filled the world with hospitals and shed their bloud for the name of Jesus Christ cannot free themselves from the eternal torments of hel See wretched soul if at this dreadful hour of death and Gods judgement you find your self miserably deceived by your Ministers under the pretext of Scripture whither will you have recourse Verily whatsoever is said to you you well know in your conscience that dying in the faith of S. Lewis S Bernard S. Francis who have directly opposed yours you have all the possible assurance of a good religion nor do I thinke you have so laid downe all shame that you condemn so great and illustrious personages You are not ignorant that all innovation is dangerous Assurance of the Catholick but principally in matter of faith They that follow the main current and generality of a religion ancient and well-grounded cannot perish but by falling from heaven cannot stumble in their belief but by intombing themselves in the ruins of Christianitie which God neither can nor will suffer to be lost according to his promises They which adhere to novelties sail in a sea of monsters and tempests without pole-star without rudder without Pilot without any other guid than their own judgement which cannot choose but very easily deceive them If there be flames in hell employed in the punishment Danger of noveltie in religion of sinfull souls there is no doubt but they shall chiefly be inflicted on them who have laboured to rend the garment of Jesus Christ to break the connexions and seames of the Church to strike at the lawfull powers ordained by God to throw disorder fire and bloud into the state of their Prince What horrour will it be in this great and general day when you shall see your innocencie by association of religion engaged to the enormitie of so many disastrous crimes which you must expiate with paines which shall have no other limits but eternity Enter again into your self a little and afford so much patience as to know your self For if you desire to proceed with all security I advise you three things First to have a spirit throughly discharged of Three things necessary to dispose ones self in religion First to avoid prejudice Mirrour of Smyrna Pausanias anticipations bold animofities and apprehensions which raise mistes even among the most resplendent lights of truth It is said that heretofore at Smyrna a citie of Greece there was a false mirrour kept in the Temple which did represent the most beautiful and amiable faces with notable deformitie and on the contrary gave to creatures ugly and misshapen a lustre of borrowed and wholly imaginarie beautie Your Ministers in the false glasse of their Doctrine represent the Romane Church to you this lovely and chaste spouse of Heaven as a monster composed of all sorts of abominations you have your ears perpetually beaten with the seven hills of Rome with Antichrist with the horned beast with Idolatries and superstitions which they maliciously obtrude to us If you remaine fixed in these perswasions how can you doe other but hate that which you know not On the contrary you are made to behold a sect which you well know to have been begun by a general revolt from superiour powers by scandalous sonsualities and an infinite number of cruelties as a celestiall Doctrine beautifull radiant under the pretext of Scripture which is a meer subject to fancie and considering it under this veyle you love it and as Nero who through an emerald beheld the flames and bloud of his countrie and found it a pleasant mirrour so whilest you view the pretended Religion under a veyle all seemeth beautiful and goodly to you Take away for one hour at least this partiall prejudicate spirit drunke with passion and take another calme reposed settled which hath an indifferent care for each part The second thing is you must not too much Second disposition to avoid the sprâit of quarrels and eager contentions Indeflexo motis adversandi studium persistit ubi non rationi voluntas subijcitur sed his quae studemus dectrinam coaptamus Hilarius 10. de Tri. Truth in the calm Non in commotione Dominuâ In sibilo aurae tenuis Reg. 3. 19. Omnes disputare malunt quam vivere Sence A singular axiom of Chrysol and Tertullian Qui sidem quaerit rationem non quaerit Quid A thenis Hierosolymis Quid Academiae Ecclesiae Nostra institutio de porticu Salomonis est quae monet Deum in simplicitate cordis querendum Chrys serm 58. Tertul. de prescrip stick upon petty curiosities of a thousand controversies and unprofitable disputations Truth ordinarily is therein ill handled under the shadow of cherishing it it is haled this way and that way with such boldnesse that it seemeth every one would dis-member it and each man take his share away with him After so many stabs and stocâadoes on this side and that side no other fruit is derived but yea and no and the soul oft-times findeth it selfe as much void of peace and reason as
sooner is he engaged in one way but his feet itch to transfer him to another If he be upon terms of repulse behold Envie him drenched in desperate and furious envie which maketh him daily die as many deaths as there are others more happy than himself Verily the wheel of Ixion is a silly fable in comparison of the tortures of the ambitious That was a sport which The wheel of Heliogabalus Lampridius iâ Heliogab Heliogabalus did when he took his Courtiers and commanded them to be tied and trussed fast to a great wheel and then rolled and turned them up and down in the water taking infinite pleasure to see them sometime aloft sometime below sometime to tast the sweetness of the air and sometime to be deeply plunged in the water whereof necessity they drank more than enough Ambitious men daily act the same play but they personate it tragically their life is wholly composed of leaps bounds and skips they are the very reeds the very shuttle-cocks of inconstancy they are meer wind-blown haloones which are tossed this way and that way sometime with the foot sometime with the hand They are enforced upon all occasions to bear the fools bable and they miserable have drunk with so long and deep draughts of the water of forgetfulness that they cannot awaken themselves from their drunkenness until death come to close up their eyes Were it not a thousand times better to plant coleworts and roast chessnuts than to live amongst so many servile complacences unworthy of a noble spirit so many frustrated pretensions so many illusions so many scornful repulses so many hopes which crack like a cloud and raise a tempestuous storm where shade and sweet refreshment is expected It is a wonder to behold men to betray their reason to Captivity of charges court the fortunes of Great men to bereave themselves of comfort repose and liberty to be surprized in a mill full of skreaking noises in a confused turmoyl of difficult and thorny affairs poorly to beg a little favour which perpetually escapeth them and oftentimes breaks as a glass in the beauty of its lustre Petrarch dialog 47. l. 1. de remediis Sua negotia gerere laboriosum quid censeas aliena precipue potentium quibus placuisse perpetua servitusest displicuisse discrimen Ex quo ambitioni servire caepisti tibi vivere desiisti Vilis tibi est anima virtus fama quies otium securitas Vix diligunt Reges nisi qui omnibas neglectis se eorum libidini servum fecit Petrarch well acquainted with these considerations spake these most remarkeable words Miserable ambitious men every one hath so much trouble to spin the web of his own affairs and to bring them to a good end and thou with much chearfulness of heart pryest into other mens business yea into the affairs of Greatmen whom it is impossible to please without perpetual servitude nor displease without most evident danger After you began to serve others you ceased to live to your self life virtue renown repose safeguard all is lost to thee Great men love none but such who forsake all to make themselves slaves to their passions What swears of death saith Monsieur D'Ancre never to have one hour of rest to be enforced to give audiences troublesom tumultuous and clamorous to hear and receive suits and unjust supplications to be embroyled in affairs replenished with knots and thorns to make manual signatures devoid of conscience that you may not displease a Great man to grant unlawful decrees wicked commissions attended by infamous executions Although the pretensions of ambition were a whole world can they deserve to be purchased with the prejudice of conscience What would it avail man to be absolute Lord of the whole Universe for a time and a sacrifice of hell for ever But that which maketh the madness of ambitious men much more ridiculous and deplorable is that they all their life time take pains for wind for smoke for nothing The world useth them as Laban did poor Jacob after The ambitious travel for Rachel and find Lea. he had been roasted congealed afflicted hammered on all sides he thought to have a fair Rachel and found a blear-eyed wench by his side Every day a thousand fair promises a thousand hopes a thousand fancies and no effect This fair Rachel this pretended honour after so many services cometh not disgrace much more ugly than was Lea is to be found in the same bed of repose It oftentimes happeneth the greatest men who have Quosdam cum in consummationem dignitatis per mille indignitates irrepsissent misera subit cogitatio ipsos laborasse in titulum sepulchri Senec. de brevit vitae c. 19. Tragical events Esther passed some thirty some fourty years to build a fortune with a thousand disturbances a thousand indignities find they must part with this world and that they have heaped up nothing but a poor title to make a fragment of an Epitaph on their tomb that is it which the Latine Philosopher bravely pronounced Yet are these the most fortunate Others without ever setting foot into pretended greatness fall piece-meal into ruin They are tragical stage-plays where the successes of the ambitious may be read both in sacred and profane histories An Haman hanged on a gibbet fifty cubits high to be beheld a far off and on a gibbet which he had prepared for a man whom he deigned not to rank amongst the number of his slaves An Absalom after he had disturbed the Court 2 Reg. 18. of his father found snairs in the hairs of his own head to entangle him as it is said to a fatal tree and die transfixed with the sharp points of three lances An Abimelech after he had made his enraged ambition Judic 9. float in the bloud of threescore and ten of his own brethren crushed under a tyle thrown from the hand of a woman Nebuchadnezzar became a beast Semiramis slain in a bruitish passion by the hand of her own son Caesar gored with many stabs of daggers in the Senate-house Pompey after he had caused goldeÌ mountains to be carried in triumph finding no more land to conquer he having gained so much wanted five or six foot of ground to make him a sepulchre Another who had taken for ensign a world with the helm of a ship and his Motto Hoc opus shewing that Riorius apud Typotium Euxenides Guevar Courtis 26. 4. his ambitions transported him not to any lower pitch than the worlds conquest found himself to be in a worse estate than if he had been a swabber in a ship Another favorite of Ptolomey King of Aegypt mounted to so high a degree of honour that he had but two discontentments in this life the one that he could grow no more so great he was become the other that the King with all his revenues seemed to him too poor to adde any encrease of riches Few days after this miserable creature was
with lawful and necessary circumstances touch the motive without extravagancies and the intention which hath excited us to do it and continuance of the sin to represent the state of the soul to the life Yet for all this you must not so much think upon this preparation nor the means to unfold your self that thereby the principal part of penance be neglected which is contrition This contrition is a sorrow to have offended God Contrition not principally for the deformity of sin and the fear of punishment for that is nothing but attrition but for that this sin is committed against God infinitely good and infinitely amiable and for that one maketh a firm resolution to be confessed and to preserve himself from sin in time to come Behold the point of contrition which to attain you must seriously and advisedly represent to your self the greatness goodness power wisdom justice love mercy benefits of God opposed to your malice weakness Hostility of sin baseness ignorance presumption misery ingratitude and well figure to your self the hostility of mortal sin to obtain an eternal detestation against it To consider how it ruineth riches honours credit reputation posterity and Empires That it soyleth the glory of an innocent life and leaveth a character of infamy That it overthroweth bodies health good grace that it openeth the gates of sudden and unexpected death That it maketh man blind dumb deaf wicked senseless stupid savage and many times furious and enraged by the remorse of conscience That it dispoileth a soul of all the graces beauties excellencies priviledges love favour of God hope of life and salvation That it killeth it and rendeth it more cruelly than a tiger or panther That a life of God was needful to take away such a blemish and that if a soul be spotted at the hour of death an eternity of flames cannot deliver it and such like In sins which seem least you shall always have great cause of contrition when the benefits of God shall be represented unto you which he particularly and personally hath conferred upon us opposed to our childishness of heart tepidity slackness infidelity negligence ingratitude As for the proceeding Proceeding in confession to confession the preparatives being well made it is needful to choose a Confessour who hath four qualities jurisdiction reputation knowledge discretion and after you have confessed to him entirely faithfully sincerely to accomplish the penance enjoyned you with obedience promptness and punctual diligence afterward to take a new spirit to resist temptations and to busie your self in good works with more courage than ever The eleventh SECTION The Practice of Examen THe practice of Confession is made more easie Necessity of examen by the examen of conscience as well general as particular Think not too much is required of your profession if there be speech used to you of the examen of conscience Not onely the Philosophers have made it as Pythagoras Seneca Plutarch but poor barbarous Indians by the relation of Apulejus took an account every evening of the good and evil they had done each day This is it which is required of you Prepare daily a little Consistory of justice in your conscience see what passeth within your self acknowledge your defects and amend them to prevent the justice of God It is said the eclipse of the Sun causeth the earthquake and the eclipse of reason by ignorance of the interiour man produceth great disorders in the Culielm Pariâiens c. 12. Sacro poenite In hoc Tribunali sedet misericordia assidet autem justitia ubi quicquid contra poenitentem inscribit justitia totum delet misericordia acumen styli velut âigens in corde poenitentis soul For the wicked spirit saith Procopius upon the first of Kings endeavoureth to use us as did the Ammonites the inhabitants of Jabes They seek to pull out our right eye and to bereave us of the sight of our selves to bury us in great and deep confusions But let us make use of all the lights which God hath given us to cast reflections into the bottom of our thoughts The conscience is an admirable Tribunal where Justice pleadeth and Mercie sentenceth All that which the me writes the other blotteth out putting as it were the point of the pen upon the heart of the penitent A good Interpreter of the Scripture relateth the Delrio ser de Conscientia vision of a wise man who on a day sought for the house of conscience and it seemed to him he beheld a Citie built with goodly architecture beautified with five gates which had as many narrow paths ending in one larger way Upon this way stood a Register who took the names of all passengers to record them Beyond that he saw two Tribunes attended by a great concourse of the common people who governed the inferiour parts of the Citie above was beheld a Cittadel wherein a great Princess commanded who had a scepter in hand and crown on her head By her side was a Ladie very ancient and venerable who in one hand held a torch with which she lighted this Queen and in the other a goad wherewith she pricked her if she governed not according to her direction The wise man amazed asked in his heart what all this train meant and he heard a voice within which said unto him Behold thy self ere thou art aware arrived at the house of conscience which thou âoughtest for These five gates thou seest are the five senses The way where they all meet is common sense All the people which enter in by heaps are the objects of the creatures of the world which first touch our senses before they pass into the soul This Register who writeth down the names is imagination that keeps record of all things These two Tribunes are the two appetites the one is called the appetite of concupiscence which is ever in search after its desires the other the appetite of anger extreamly striving to strike at all obstacles which oppose its good either real or pretended This mass of people thou seest are the passions which make ill work in the inferiour parts of the Citie This Princess in the Cittadel with crown and scepter is reason The ancient and venerable Ladie by her side is conscience She hath a torch to shew the good way and the goad to prick those that wander In a word if Dictamen rationis spiritus corrector paedagogus animae S. Thom. 1. p. q. 79. thou desirest to know what conscience is it is a sovereign notice of good and ill which God impresseth on our hearts as with a hot iron and is very hard to be taken off Happy he who often visiteth this interiour house God hath given him and pondereth all his thoughts his words and actions to adopt them to the measures of the eternal law You know a general examen hath five parts Parts Thanksgiving invocation discussion petition resolution In thanksgiving we thank God
4. Clemency and mercy 5. Poverty of spirit disengaged from earth 6. Humility 7. Charity towards your neighbour 8. Frequentation of the Sacraments of Confession and Communion 9. Love to the word of God 10. Resignation of spirit to the will of your Soveraign Maister 11. Some remarkeable Act of vertue excercized by you upon occasion offered 12. Devotion to our Blessed Lady In honour of whom you shall do well to observe daily three things First to present unto her an oblation every hour of the day of the Angelical salutation when at the striking of the clock you recal your heart to your self Secondly to excercise some mortification of mind or body by some motive of the imitation of her vertues Thirdly to give alms to her honour either spiritual or temporal This have I enlarged in a litle manual called THE CHRISTIAN DIVRNAL Instructions for the Married The thirty fourth SECTION Of the misery of ill governed marriages and to whom we may impute it THE great evils in ill managed marriages made S. Gregory Nyssen and S. Iohn Damascene say Nyss lib. de hom cap. 18. Damasc l. 2. de fide ortho c. 30. wedlock had not been invented but to serve as a remedy for the wound of concupiscence and that if the first Authours of mankind had remayned in original justice the world would have been multiplied in a manner wholy Angelical rather than by the ordinary ways of marriage Notwithstanding S. Augustine and S. Thomas who diligently looked into it assure us marriage was treated in the state of innocency by natural ways since Eve was created before sin and given to man to serue as a companion for him in the worlds propagation But if the divine providence would have pleased to have made choyse of other means for this increase he had created millions of men in the beginning of the world like unto Angels and not one man alone nor one sole woman who were set in the front of all Nations of purpose to produce them with that progress of time and succession we therein observe I pronounce marriage had been without the ardours and disturbances of concupiscence the paines of child-bearing disloyalty riots and discontent but rather entertained with a tender love of the man towards the woman and a perfect obedience of the wife towards the husband with a sweet education of children free from poverty loss and all sorts of troubles Christian Religion endeavoureth to recal wedlock to the purity of the first institution whilst good liking accordeth with the commandments of God and the immutable laws of eternal Justice There is a most remarkable thing written of the Peach-tree that in Persia which was the first and onely place heretofore of its growth it was venoumous and mortal but being carried and transported into other countreys as Aegypt Greece Italie France it wholy changed nature and loosing with the country its malignity bare and to this day beareth fruits rellished with muth tastfulness The like is marriage a strange plant if you leave it in its Province that is to say within the limits of nature extreamly passionat and irregular beware of poyson and death but if you transplant it into the Evangelical Law and manure it with order continency and that restriction which the law of God dictateth to you you shall derive delectation and profit from it for the solace and ornament of humane life Nay we must affirm the exorbitancies which now raign in the world and which draw so many miseries along with them make married people very often feel most harsh conditions and to render marriage a soyle as natural for cares as it is barren for roses and violets Marriage now adays throughout the greatest part of the world is a poesy of thorns we know not whereto lay hold of it on what side soever it be touched it pricks the fingers Marriage is the ivy of Jonah exteriourly verdant with some apparance of cheerfulness and delight but the worm of grief and anxiety gnaws the root within Marriage is the plant which the Indians call the thorny bodkin it is all over sprinkled with stars and the rayes of these stars are nothing els but prickles Maydens take heed one may think to gather a star who shall find a sharp thorn Marriage is the balm of Arabia whereunto little vipers hasten to make their nests such an one sees the leaf and sents the good odour who perceives not the little serpents of a thousand disturbances which lie hidden there-under Marriage is the island of dreams of which the Ancients speak where a thousand griefs are presented covered at first with the veil of pleasure you would swear they were little Cupids who say Come to me young man come to me come hither Nescis quia Ismael est qui tecum ludit fair maid come hither They are entertained they are courted in an instant they take off the mantle and appear as they are with ugly countenances and horrid shapes Marriage is a stormy sea where nothing is to be seen but ruins tempests and shipwracks one cries mercy and another help save if it be possible and there are very few who arrive at the haven without infinit hazard Marriage is a long pilgrimage which finds but three hosteries The first is called false pleasure the second repentance the third calamity and if you go any farther you shall meet with despair The first difficulty there encountered is that of a free-man you become a bond-slave and the sweet liberty which nature impressed on the heart of all living creatures is the first trophey you must hang up over the bridal bed The wife saith the Apostle Mulier sui corporis potestatem non habet sed vir similitèr vir sui corporis potestatem non habet sed mulier 1 Cor. 7. hath no power over her own body that jurisdiction is reserved to the husband nor can the husband reciprocally dispose of his own body for it is in the power of the wife Nay did she know into whose hands she consigned this precious treasure it would be some comfort to say thus much at the least If I be a slave I will choose a good Master But thou silly maid who hast been so tenderly bred and hatched up under the wings of thy parents as a chaste dove art put into the hands of a husband as into the tallons of a faulcon When he wooed thee as a suitor he made shew of much mildness he was a lamb nay rather a wolf in a sheep-skin No sooner was marriage consummate but the mask was taken off he shewed what he was a gamester a man chollerick base barbarous and tyrannical that held this wretched dove in his bloudy claws making her hourly vapour out her life through the sighs of her sorrows Young man who as yet art not fettered in the bands of marriage thou makest love to a maid with infinite services and for that purpose thou learnest to dance the cinque-apace thou clothest
thy self in silk and cuttest thy beard in fashion thou dost crisp and comb thee thou dost court thy hair and knowest not thou seekest for a Master Thou thinkest thou hast found a precious stone but thou meetest with a counterfeit Thou thinkest she is a lamb but she proves a wolf yea a serpent which beareth fire and flames thou must take her at adventure and such as she is must keep her Oxen and asses are tryed before they be Nulla uxoris electio sed qualiscumque venerit habenda Hierom. contra Jovin bought sayes Saint Hierom but wives are taken without notice of their humour and deportment Nay which is worse this poor maid with huge sums purchaseth her slavery Fathers and Mothers have sweat hard for the space of twenty or thirty years to amass a portion Behold they have attired decked and adorned her like a temple and she is led out with the sound of violins as to the galley and many times thrown into the arms of a husband who wasteth all And the young man to become a slave makes a thousand journeys offereth a thousand supplications a thousand thanksgivings and as many salutations Ah poor creatures if you be weary of your liberty are there no prisons caverns nor chains more pleasing Galley-slaves who toil at the oar hope after five years after ten years or some term prescribed them to be discharged from bondage The ill married are enforced to expect death for freedom from their fetters and there is not any Deitie to which they offer more vows and candles than to death which is notwithstanding the terrible of terribles I give you leave to think when two contrarie humours meet as fire and water a holy man with a spitefull and an immodest wife or a noble spouse with a wicked husband what an affliction it is Saint Augustine relates that certain thieves cruel and bloudy to torture captives resolved on an execrable barbarism which was to joyn and straightly tie a live body with a dead and so let the poor patient expire amongst ordures and insupportable stenches It is the very like when a holy and pious wife meets with a husband impious wicked and unnatural she alive by grace and virtue is joyned to a rotten carrion which intollerably tormenteth her and if she in such occasions exercise patience she gains so many crowns as there be hours in every day Let us pass further and not here conceal some Raram facit mixturam cum sapientiâ forma nihil est tutuÌ in quo totius populivota suspirant Molestuni est possidere quod nullus habere vel amare dignatur Pauperem alere difficile est divitem ferre tormentum Mulier cum parit tristitiam habet roses of marriage mingled among thorns If beauty be therein jealousie doth easily slide into it and doubtless it is more aimed at and is more subject to be surprized by temptations If there be deformity it much altereth the band of affections If there be riches and ample fortunes they are exposed to much embroylment great travel and infinite peril for the strokes of thunder ruine not any thing so often as the tops of high steeples If there be povertie it is a misery intollerable Are there children wives you know how dear they cost you They who are tortured on the rack suffer nothing in comparison of a poor creature who is constrained to be delivered of her fruit by a travel extraordinary hydeous painfull and oftentimes in seeking to give life to another she there leaves her own This sometime happeneth because those children come into the world laden with benefices mitres and croziers Abuse precedes birth they are fathers before they are children It is not yet known whether they be males or females and all the world sees they already are charged with ecclesiastical livings Mothers you still bear them in your entrails their fortunes their accidents their maladies their deaths through a reflection of nature imprint on your hearts all their passions all their disasters you are transfixed with as many martyrdoms as evils happen to your children nay should all succeed prosperously and according to the course of nature yet must you a second time produce them to honours estates and fortunes This pain perpetually ties you to the rack To have them upon your hand and not wherewith to provide for them is a very sensible sorrow yet richly to endow them is to give them where withal to enkindle their lust entertain disobedience and cherish vice You think after your travels they will afford you the like who oftentimes prove lewd ungratefull and malicious wretches that waste the wealth you amassed for them as it were on your tombs Behold the slender scantling of the toyls and perplexities of marriage drawn from the Doctrine of holy Fathers I wonder not at all those ancients in the ceremonies of marriage carried before the bride a torch made of black thorn and never of any other wood to testifie wedlock was replenished with difficulties very thorny Nor shall I any more admire their custom who in like manner caused the new wife to touch fire and water For to say truly she passeth through the boyling ardours of many dolours through the waters of infinite many afflictions and may repeat that versicle when she hath met with some ease I have passed through Psal 65. 12. Ecce transivimus per ignem aquam eduxisti not in refrigerium fire and water and thou hast set me in repose and comfort Now it is not sufficient to have expressed the inconveniences of marriage if we also declare not the causes and remedies thereof and this Reader is the reason why I desire you to proceed in your attention Men who will always conclude to their own advantage speaking of this matter cast all upon women and ordinarily affirm we must not ask from whence the evils of marriage come it is enough to say one cannot be married without a wife and that woman is the source and seminary of all the miseries and disasters which happen in this affair Behold a very slippery place what shall we answer It seems that generally to condemn women were to produce more testimonies of passion than marks of judgement They are the mothers of men by nature nurses by charity and as it were hand-maids by patience It is the devout sex the sex of compassion and pitie They daily do many good things they succour the necessities of the poor they visit hospitals prisons the sick they replenish Churches and edifie families with examples of pietie and can you then speak ill of them Notwithstanding as we are not to flatter them so it is undoubted that those who have once resigned theÌselves to evil and become libertines in sin are the cause of many ills and practice much frailty in their sex and cunning in their behaviour to disturb families and the affairs of the world if not guided by virtue If we now will consult with the
much as businesses of that nature would permit But her mother Alexandra touched to the quick to behold her self amongst so many spies she who was ever desirous to converse and live with all royall liberty resolved to play at double or quit to break the guyves of specious servitude or yield her neck to Herods sword if it should come to pass her calamity transported her into such extremity What doth she Cleopatra that Queen who had filled the world with her fame was then in Aegypt and naturally hated Herod as well for his barbarous disposition as for particular interests of her own person For she knew he much had entermedled in her affairs and given Mark Anthony counsel to forsake her yea to kill her This Tyrant was so accustomed to say Kill that he easily advised others to use the same medicine which was with him to his own maladies frequent It is a strange thing that Cleopatra one day passing through Judea he resolved to send her into the other world thinking therewith to gratifie Mark Anthony but was disswaded by his friends saying it was too audacious to attempt and able for ever to ruin his fortune The design was never published But Cleopatra had cause enough besides to hate Herod which much emboldened Alexandra to write to her in such like terms ALEXANDRA to the Queen CLEOPATRA Health Madame SInce God hath given you leave to be born the most Letter of Alexandra to Cleopatra accomplished Queen in all qualities it is fit your Greatness serve as a sanctuary for the innocent and an Altar for the miserable The wretched Alexandra who hath much innocency void of support and too many calamities without comfort casteth her self into the arms of your Majesty not to give her a scepter but to secure the life of her and her son the most precious pledge which remaineth of heavens benignity Your Majesty is not ignorant that fortune having made me the daughter and mother of a King Herod hath reduced me to the condition of a servant I am not ambitious to recount my sufferings which I had rather dissemble but whatsoever a slave can endure in a gally I bear in a Kingdom through the violence of a son in law who having stoln the diadem from my children would also deprive them of life We are perpetually among spies sharp knives and black apprehensions of death which would less hurt us if it were more sudden Stretch out a hand of assistance to the afflicted and afford us some petty nook in your Kingdom till the storm be over-blown and that we may see some sparkles of hope to glimmer in your affairs Glory thereby shall abide with you and with us everlasting gratitude Cleopatra having received these letters made a ready answer and invited her to hasten speedily into Aegypt with her son protesting she should esteem it an unspeakable glory to serve as a sanctuary and refuge for the affliction of such a Princess Resolution of departure is taken but the execution is a hard task The poor Io knows not how to withdraw Enterprise of Alexandra her self from this many-eyed Argus In the end as the wit of woman is inventive especially in matters that concern their proper interests she without discovering ought to any one no not to her daughter Mariamne fearing least her nature too mild should advise her rarher to rest in the lists of patience than to attempt ways so perilous she I say onely advising with her own passion in this business caused two beers to be made a matter of ill presage to put her self and son into thinking by this means to elude the diligence of the Guard and so to be carried to the sea where a ship attended her and by this way save her life in the power of death But by ill hap a servant of hers named Aesop who was one of those that were appointed to carry the beers going to visit one called Sabbion a friend to the house of Alexandra let some words fall of the intention of his Mistress as thinking to to have spoken to a faithful and secret friend of hers The perfidious Sabbion had no sooner wrung the worm out of this servants nose but he hasteth to open all to Herod supposing it was a very fit opportunity to work his reconciliation he having a long time been suspected and accounted to be of Alexandras faction Herod after he heard this news wanted not spies and centinels The poor Lady with her son is surprised upon the beers drawn out of the sepulcher of the dead to return to the living ashamed and disgraced that her Comedy was no better acted little considering that after her personated part had failed she could nothing at all pretend to life Herod notwithstanding whether he feared the great credit Cleopatra had or whether he would not wholy affright Alexandra thereby with the more facility to oppress her contained himself in the ordinary dissimulation of his own nature without speaking one sole word unto her Although very well in the face of this painted hypocrisie was seen that the clouds were gathered together to make a loud Thunder-crack raise an unresistable tempest The caytive after he had given so many deaths Pitiful death of young Aristobulus in the horrour and affrightment of arms would inflict one even as it were in sport upon a fair sommers day Being at dinner at the house of the miserable Alexandra feigning to have buried in deep oblivion all what was past saith that in favour of youth he this day would play the young man and invite the High-Priest Aristobulus his brother in law to play at tennis with him or some other like exercise The sides were made the elumination was enkindled The young Prince hot and eager played not long but he became all on a water as at that time happened to many other Lords and Gentlemen Behold they all run to the rivers which were near this place of pleasure where they dined Herod who knew the custom of Aristobulus and well foresaw he would not fail to cast himself into these cold baths suborneth base villains who under the shew of pastime should force him to drink more than he would All succeeded as this traiterous wretch had premeditated Aristobulus seeing the other in the water uncloathed himself quickly and bare them company There was no cause why he should swim sport and dally upon this element ever dangerous although less faithless than Herod The poor sacrifice skipped up and down not knowing the unhappiness which attended him But the accursed executioners remembred it well For spying their time in this fatal sport they smothered the poor High-priest under the waters in the eighteenth year of his age and the first of his High-priesthood This bright Sun which rose with such splendour and applause did set in the waves never to appear again but with horrid wanness of death on his discoloured visage Humane hopes where are you True dreams of Vanity and
torment with servitude poor afflicted Queens contrary to all equity reason and Royalty of their birth Anthonie who knew Herod to be his creature and the work of his own hands would not willingly understand these complaints Notwithstanding to please Cleopatra he swore a great oath he would examine the business in sending for Herod and if he were found culpable of such a villany he would inflict an exemplar punishment upon him Behold Herod cited to Laodicea where Mark Anthonie was to remain for a certain time whither he was summoned to appear and purge himself of the murder of Aristobulus of which he was supposed to be the Authour This was a clap of thunder to this disloyal wretch which most powerfully awakened him when he least thought of it and put such terrours upon him as are not to be imagined Upon one Herod's affrightment side he had before his eyes the image of his offence and the voice of bloud which rung in his ears on the other side he saw all his fortune depended on Mark Anthonie who at that time handled nothing but by the counsel of Cleopatra his mortal enemy and whom he well knew to have an enterprize in hand upon the Kingdom of Judea for her advancement But nothing so troubled his brain as a furious jealousie For he imagined that Anthonie a loose and wanton Prince one that courted all the Princely beauties of the world would do the like to his wife whose picture he formerly had and that with the more ease to enjoy her he would make him serve as a sacrifice for his fatal loves This spirit of his was torn and distracted on all sides and in all objects discovered precipitation and affrightment one while he seemed to resolve to undergo a voluntary banishment sometime he supposed death more suitable other-while he framed to himself some purpose of resistance but nothing appeared to him better than to delay and draw the business out at length as long as he could Anthony pressed with the voyage he undertook to war against the Parthians sent instantly for him delays and excuses thrust him further into suspition Necessarily he must go or resolve to loose all He taketh leave of his mother in law Alexandra and Mariamne his wife without seeming to be amazed without complaint without giving testimony of his discontent as if he had a short journey of pleasure to make Last of all he had his own mother and his sister Salome in Court to whom he much recommended vigilancy over the deportments of those whom he esteemed to have wrought him the mischief Then drawing his uncle Joseph aside he spake these words to him Uncle you know the occasion that transporteth me to Laodicea which truly is very difficult seeing my innocency assaulted by powerfull and secret malice which would be so much the more dreadfull if it had as much effect as passion But I hope to find day-light through the storm and that you shall see me return triumphant over caluâny through my integrity as I have already raised tropheys over hostility by arms If God shall otherwise dispose of me it is a meer plot prepared against me for the beauty of my wife on whom Mark Anthonie may perhaps have some design and this may be a cause to shorten my days and he thereby to get more liberty for his unbridled passion But I for the present conjure you by the love which I have born you by my fortune which you reverence by bloud and nature if happily you hear I am otherwise used than my quality and innocency permit never let the death of Herod be waited on with the injury of his bed Preserve the Kingdom for your self and your bloud and cause my wife instantly to take her leave of this world to accompany me in the other Kill her couragiously lest Horrible jealousie another enjoy her after my death If the souls of the dead have any feeling of the affairs of the world that shall serve me for a solace Joseph much amazed at this manner of proceeding doth notwithstanding promise him he would perform all according to his will if necessity so required but that his fortune ever powerfull and invincible made him conceive other hopes in all kinds Thereupon he set forward on his way carrying along with him the richest parcels of his treasure to make a present of them to those whom he should most stand in need of shewing in all things else as much confidence in his countenance as he hatched despair in his heart When he was arrived at Loadicea he found strange Great pleading against Herod informations prepared against him which strongly charged him with the murder of Aristobulus It was shewed to Mark Anthonie how Herod ever had a design upon the scepter of Judea with a desperate and enraged ambition That nothing so much perplexed him as to see Aristobulus alive to whom he in conscience knew the Kingdom in such sort belonged that himself durst not demand it of the Romans but under the title of Regency whilest the right heir grew to maturity That he had converted this Regency first into an Empire afterwards into a Tyranny removing as much as he could the Royal bloud from dignities to advance men of no worth witness Ananel placed in the High-priesthood of which Hircanus was despoyled and that which made him alter his resolution therein was not good affection but importunity and evident danger of popular commotions which he well foresaw rose upon this rejection of the bloud Royal. That Aristobulus being preferred to the High-priesthood received with all alacrity and applause of the people he shewed this action to be most hatefull to him being not sufficiently able to cover the fury of his envy under the ordinary mask of his hypocrisie That after this time he had not ceased to persecute the dead Prince and his mother in such sort that finding no longer repose among the living they were enforced to put themselves into the coffins of the dead to be carried to the sea and from thence to be transported to Aegypt That he had caused them to be surprized in the act and in sequel thereof had not afterward sought any thing more than to be rid of them That the young Prince was drowned in the water not alone and separated from the rest but manifestly smothered by the insolent youth of the houshold and bosom of Herod All this process as was then said was so evident that had it been written with the rays of the Sun one could not wish more perspicuity The voice of bloud cried to Heaven which the trayterous wretch could not stop The picture of this poor Prince which had a little before his death been carried into Aegypt was presented with a singular admiration of his beauty His ghost was made to speak which asked justice of Mark Anthonie for having been so unworthily so inhumanely murdered in the flower of his tender years by the most horrid treason that ever was
she had done in crime for she becometh very pale and was so confounded that she had not courage enough to speak one onely word Theodosius in an instant retireth like lightening and withdraweth into his Cabinet having his heart wholly drencht in gall and bitterness The poor Eudoxia on the other part poureth herself into tears without comfort as her misery seemed devoid of remedy Here was a rough trial which God sent to these innocent souls and yet we need not wonder since Saint Joseph as I have said one of the most perfect husbands which the earth ever bare gave too much scope to his suspition upon the chastity of her who was more pure than Angels Love jealousie anger and sorrow divided the heart of the Prince in the sad retirement of his Cabinet and drew strange sighâ from him A silly maid said he come of nothing who was tossed in a storm as the tennis-ball of fortune without support without means without favour to have been preferred before such and so many Princesses who sought my alliance raised even to my bed by lawfull marriage to plant dishonour there to have been ennobled with a diadem and negligently to pollute it by her ingratitude and Paulinus whom I trusted as my self that he might satisfie his desires with all the greatness and beauties of my Empire for all was in his hands to proceed so far as to attempt the bed of his Master Where shall we hereafter find fidelity We must search for it among Tartars and Scythians for it is banished from Christianitie It is not well known who in these confusions suggested to the Emperour this wicked counsel to destroy Prince Paulinus The soul of Theodosius was too sweet to resolve on an act so tragical without others motion so likewise it is not credible it should proceed from Pulcheria who was in affairs more reserved and ever guided by the rule of conscience However it was the history saith the poor Paulinus who knew nothing of that which passed was cured of the gout the same night by a very rough and most bloudy phlebotomy for he was put to death without any form of process Other have written he was first banished into Cappadocia and there oppressed by the faction of his enemies O God what may not depraved love do since sincere amity cannot avoid suspition attended by an accident so strange Some have said nothing else followed but the sequestration of Paulinus and that should more pleasingly run from my pen which abhorreth bloud But as the Scripture speaking of David and other holy Kings hath not dissembled their faults I will not so paint Theodosius exteriourly that I cover this aspersion of too much credulity precipitation and revenge in this matter which proceeded even to bloud as the Chronicle of Alexandria assureth us It is a fearfull example to see a soul so mild by the disturbance of a passion and some pernicious counsel transported so far to teach Great-ones they cannot maturely enough consult in the like occasions The father of this Paulinus had been High-Steward in the Court of the Emperour Paulinus himself from his infancy had been bred with Theodosius participating in all his counsels and pleasures of youth he was grown so high that nothing but the hand of his Master could ruin him He lived in the reputation of a great man and his words were heard in Court like Oracles Yet notwithstanding behold him to satisfie jealousie miserably massacred and the glorious services he had done to the Crown recompenced with a direfull catastrophe It is unknown why the Divine Providence permitted the same It oftentimes holdeth the affairs of the world under the veil and silence but we must presume all which it permitteth is done with justice When the afflicted Empress understood the death of Paulinus so sudden and unexpected she well saw the Emperour was tainted with the venom of most cruel jealousie and that all her apologies would be fruitless The poor Ladie saw nothing about her but darkness fantasies and affrightments The clock which struck ever seemed to her the last moment of life yea and that in her opinion over-slow to end her miseries When her soul was able to surmount the storm she said to God with an affectionate heart Alas God of justice Strange affliction of Eudoxia and her words for I dare not implore thy mercies thou hast well touched me on that part which was most sensible in me Although I had seen my diadem thunder-strucken by thy hand fall into dust at my feet though thou hadst taken this creature from my side which thou hast afforded us as a pledge of our marriage though all infirmities and manners of death had conspired against me I doubted not always to have had courage enough to bear my self above wind and tempest But what light of spirit would not be eclipsed what temper of heart would not be lost in these dolorous afflictions Thou hast lifted me up as they do little children to the branches of a tree to make me fall down head-long and crush me with a ruin as ignominious as my fortune was eminent Were I now under the poor roof of the house from whence Vanity and inconstancy of worldly affairs thou drewest me I should be too happy You have exposed me to the mid-day light that I might not be unfortunate without making all the world witness of my wretchedness and disgaace And yet my God thou knowest my eyes have ever been chaste and that never any other love entered into my heart but that of a lawfull husband It is better to suffer in innocency than crime but it always is a thing worthy of compassion to behold chastity unworthily persecuted That poor innocent hath gone before me into the other world and hath served as a sacrifice for his Masters jealousie his services ought not to have been crowned with such a recompence It is my friendship as chaste as unhappy that hath betrayed him my sins are so great that I cannot do good but by doing ill My God expiate them by death and onely deliver me from the bands of dishonour Thus went the afflicted turtle mourning in the solitary retirement of her heart the nights were irksom to her so much was her sleep clogged with dreams and fantasies which with the more horrour represented her calamity and when the Sun arose to bring comfort in his rays to all creatures he found the eye-lids of this poor Princess all watered with tears which he could not drie up In the mean time the Court of Theodosius was in a sad silence It was not well known what tragedy was played The Emperour shewed a melancholy distracted spirit the Empress bare the image of her sorrow in her dejected countenance Pulcheria abode in a prudent dissimulation and an admirable advisedness The sudden death of Paulinus made it to be suspected there was some strange accident Every one discoursed according to his opinion At that instant Eudoxia was seen to be
Wandals in sect an Arian reigning in dffrick to make a voyage into Italie which he did with a huge Army by means whereof he easily possessed himself of Rome where all was in disorder And as he thither came rather led by his unquencheable avarice than any motive of justice or piety he riffled all that which was rich and excellent even to the treasures of the Temple of Jerusalem whereof some had still been preserved at Rome ever since Vespasian Maximus after he had reigned two moneths is knocked down and rent like a sacrifice He who in all charges had well thrived with honesty when he began to practice treachery found that which a great Prelate had said Sidon Apol. lib. 3. Ep. 13. Vt scorpius ultimâ parte percutis in his history That great mens fortunes like sâorpions carry their venom in their tails The Empress Eudoxia who to satisfie her feminine passion had made all this goodly innovation in the sight of the great Pope S. Leo who was spectatour of all these calamities mended not her market for she with her two daughters were by this Barbarian carried into Africk one of which bare her name and was married to the son of Gensericus who afterward possessed the scepter and the other was Placidia sent in the end with her mother to Constantinople after the death of Martianus Behold terrible accidents Eudoxia our pilgrime after recital made to her of Conversion of Eudoxia all this tragedy be gan seriously to open her eyes and laying her hand just upon the wound acknowledged so many disasters had befallen her for that she had strayed from the true faith Thereupon to settle her wavering spirit she deputeth an Embassadour to holy Simeon Stilites near the Citie of Antioch This Simeon was a prodigie of man who lived in a Stilites body as if he had been but a spirit For figure to your self a pillar fourty foot high and on this pillar some little shroud fixed there as a birds nest open and exposed on all sides to the injuries of weather there this great man to raise his body to God as well as his heart placed his abode It was a strange lodging where he could neither lye nor sit in any fashion but ever stood bolt upright without roof without coverture his hairs being somewhat whitened with snow and his beard full of ysicles sometime roasted with the boiling heats of the Sun and in the midst of all this he passed his days and nights in contemplation eating but once a week and that very sparingly To this famous Hermit then who was the Oracle of Christendom Eudoxia sendeth Anastatius a trusty Bishop who in much secrecy laboured her conversion to consult with him upon doubts of faith Simeon answereth in these terms Poor Princess the malice of the evil spirit who saw the great treasures of thy rare virtues would needs winnow and sift thee Theodosius the false Monk a minister of Satan hath corrupted thy fair and glorious soul But courage my Daughter thou shalt die in the true faith consult no more with me thou seekest water far off having the fountain near at hand It he hoveth to address thee to Euthymius who will serve as thy directour in a happy way This answer being related to Eudoxia she caused this Euthymius to be sought out on all sides who should undertake this business He was a venerable Hermit having become hoary in the exercises of a long penance and one who was hard to be found out so much he avoided light and the conversation of men Notwithstanding God permitted him to be found and brought as it were by force to the place where the good Empress was She seeing this blessed old man prostrated herself at his feet saying Father I have lived long enough since I have the honour to behold you it is from your hand I expect the remedy of all my evils The holy man raising her with much sweetness Daughter saith he the evil spirit hath too much abused your credulity It is time you open your eyes to see the scourges of God All your ills have proceeded of nothing but infidelity And if now you desire to be cured there is but one word Stand no longer upon disputation but follow the Councels of Nice and Constantinople Behold the rule of your faith which you shall learn of John Bishop of Jerusalem Euthymius after he had thus spoken to her returneth to his Cell and she goeth directly to the Temple of Jerusalem attended by an infinite number of Religious lifting their hands to Heaven in thanksgiving for this conversion She abjureth the heresie of Eutyches between the hands of the Bishop and absolutely reconcileth herself to the Catholick Church with so much fervour and zeal that she ceased not all the rest of her days to extirpate impiety amplifie the church in all parts of the East where her power extended The good Empress then led a life wholly celestial Worthy life and glorious death of Eudoxia her soul being purged in the furnace of painful tribulation afterward purified more and more in the love of God held not of the body but by a slender thread Her heart was an incense daily dissolved into the flames of her charity sending to Heaven its fragrant exhalations Her two eies were the conduits by which penance with a powerfull expression distilled tears which are as the nectar of the love of God her hands like those of the Spouse true globes of gold replenished with an ocean of bounty poured through the cities and deserts of Palestine In every place nothing was to be seen but Churches and Hospitals but houses for the poor built at her cost so that an Authour named Cyrillus who lived in her time assureth it was a thing impossible to number them God being willing to dispose her passage out of this life by the exercise of so many good works And being upon the confines of her last year she went to visit a magnificent Church of S. Peter which she had founded and one day reposing near to a cestern where she laboured for the good of the said Church she began to cast her eyes upon a great number of Monasteries all near one to another which were in the charge of her good father Euthymius then fetching a deep affectionate sigh she spake these words of the 24. Numeri O Jacob Numb 24. Quam pulchra sunt tentoria tua O Jacob habitationes tuae O Israell how fair are thy pavillions O Israel how excellent thy tabernacles Then turning herself to a gentleman of her train Go saith she seek out Euthymius and intreat him to do me the honour that I once again may speak to him If he shall say he speaketh not with women tell him I no longer know what sex is and that I converse onely with Angels Euthymius in his cell had by revelation that this Saint should quickly pass to a better life and he came directly to bring
trust to be planted by the hand of God to serve as a prop for the house of God to be the seat of glory for the Lord of Hosts to carry the moveables riches and greatness of the Church on his shoulders Finally for a third reason to conduct the Nobility to Ecclesiastical dignities is to bring it into its house All things willingly return to their source The waters cease not to glide along to render themselves to the Ocean The rays of the Sun touch the earth not forsaking their star the branches of the tree offer the homage of their verdure leaves and fruit to the root he goeth well that hasteneth to his beginning Now so it is that the greatest part of Church endowments came from the Nobility who then despoiled themselves to cover the Altars and now many unveil the Altars to cloath themselves If you O Noblemen desire to enjoy the patrimony which your Ancestours have left to the Church you ought not to seek it by unlawfull mischievous and tyrannical ways but by means proportionable to the intentions of those who laid those rich foundations And what intentions had they but to cut the trees Ezech. 17. Quercus Basan dolata in remos navis Tyri divites saeculi Ecclesiae appliciti Hieron super Ezech. of Basan to make oars for the vessel of S. Peter but to lay their wealth at the feet of God who according to the Prophet made himself a foot-step of Saphirs to serve as a ladder for glory but to entertain on earth an image of the Heavenly Jerusalem to grant to the Church men of science and conscience men of courage and fidelity for the ornament support and maintenance thereof If you approach thither with such an intention I am of opinion the gates ought to be opened unto you and that you should enter into your self to govern the house of Jesus Christ and not destroy it We have thanks be given to God a great King all whose inclinations dispose him to goodness as lines to the center as much love as he hath for justice so much zeal hath he for the glory of Altars As God is pleased to sow the stars on the azure of the firmament so hath he a sensible delight to furnish the Church with good Prelates because they are the stars of the earth Merit under him is in possession of good hopes and hope is not far distant to be consummate in fruition He is pleased to gratifie the Nobility with the goods of the Church but he will his intention be seconded by the merit of those that shall enjoy them Take the ways of wisdom and virtue to enter into your inheritance which ever are most assured and the most honourable The time hath been when one must as it were have done evil to receive good if now good be offered to those who do it who would willingly be vitious and sow crimes to reap miseries The second SECTION That the Nobility should not aspire to Ecclesiastical offices but by lawfull ways PRophane Lucian spake truer than he thought Lucian in Jov. Trag. when he feigned Gentilism was filled with gods whereof some were made of wood and stone subsisting by the prerogative of antiquity which age and time gave them the other much more lately formed were of gold and silver resenting the profuse prodigality of the latter Ages This caused a divorce in the Temples the gods of earth were still willing to hold their ranks shewing besides the antiquity of their original that they were framed by the confident hands of admirable work-men and had lineaments excellently polished The gods of gold and silver dignified by the riches of the stuff of which they were composed spake proudly and needs would have priority since the mettal whereof they were made transcended much in the estimation of men The matter was put into deliberation in the great Parliament of Olympus and the golden gods carried it not by merit but by authority of their riches Should this scoffing spirit be raised again in these our days to make a Satyre on the manners of these times he could not be better fitted For to speak not universally of all Ecclesiastical Nobles since thanks be to God there are many who most happily have linked to Nobility all the other qualities requisite to their condition but considering in gross the disorder and corruption we may well say the gods of gold at this day have the upper hand We heretofore saw divers spiritual men extracted from low condition who arrived to dignities by the degrees of labour integrity knowledge and were finally crozier'd and mytered by the strength of much merit These men appeared in the Church of God as those ancient Statues made by the hand of Policletes Phidias and Sysippus there was not a lineament in them which spake not But when gold and silver began to sway more than ever the rich allured with the wealth of the Church brake a way through by the help of contentions authority and command which silver gave them over the courses of human things they maugre industrie and virtue have made golden gods which banish as it were all the gods of the earth notwithstanding the excellent forms and all the gifts of nature and grace they could possibly acquire It seemeth for these men the Church is at this day become a great Oak over-turned where men hastily on every side run for prey there is not a hand so little that will not become outragious to bear away some spoil thereof But you noble and generous spirits who in your minorities dedicate your selves to the ministeries of the Church behold the first step you must tread Be carefull herein as your lives and salvation are dear unto you aim well your carrier enter by the gate of honour to free your self from the disturbances of life and troubles of death Be ye assured it is the abomination of the desolation foretold by the Prophet Daniel Daniel 9. 27. Act. 8. 27. the gall of bitterness and perplexity of sin declared by the Apostle S. Peter to enter into an Ecclesiastical benefice by unlawfull and strained ways without vocation The reasons hereof are evident First the Saints have called this vice the iniquity of Libanus alluding to these words of the Prophet Habacuck The Iniquity of Libanus shall cover thee Habac. 1. Iniquitas Libani operiet te where the text spake to those who despoiled the holy Land because the mount Libanus is a holy hill of Palestine all covered over with fair Cedars much renowned in the Scripture from whence it cometh it mystically signifieth the Church and those are truly covered with the iniquity of Libanus who surcharge themselves with the weight of inexorable justice for attempting on the highest pieces of the patrimony of God which are the offerings of the faithfull left for the maintenance of Ecclesiastical state This iniquity of Libanus is the sin of Zeb Zebeus and Salmana who are branded with perpetual infamy for
when he had drunk gave the cup to his Deacon as esteeming him the most worthy person of the feast next himself Maximus who infinitely seemed to be pleased therewith although he inwardly felt himself gauled with this liberty did so outwardly dissemble it that he caused S. Martin to be applauded through all his Court protesting that none but âe was worthy the title of a Bishop and that he had done at the table of an Emperour what the other Bishops would never have acted in the house of a mean Judge On the other side the wife of Maximus who already possessed the title of Empress made her self a Magdalen at the feet of Saint Martin and although never woman touched this chaste creature he suffered her to exercise all sort of ceremonies towards him undergoing a thousand troubles to rid himself of her importunities This seemed not strange in the age of threescore and ten and in the reputation of sanctity wherewith he had filled the world that a woman should kiss his feet but it was a thing very unusual to behold a Princess humbled in the dust of the earth to perform this office She regarded neither purple diadem quality nor Empire she had no eyes but for S. Martin being blind to the rest of the world After this first banquet Maximus and the Ladie went to the Saint and besought him again to take a bad dinner which the Empress would in private prepare for him with her own hands and although he in the beginning refused it was impossible for him to escape from these Saint-like invitations For these are snares which catch eagles as well as sparrows Needs would the Queen do all offices in this second feast She played the cook dressed the dining-room laid the cloth gave to the holy man water for his hands was his cup-bearer and waited on him all the time of his meal standing bolt upright as a servant with her mind intentive on her office Dinner being ended she did eat the scraps and remainder of the table which she preferred before all the Imperial delicacies Verily we may say women are violent in their affections and when once they go the right way their virtues have no mean I will not seek to penetrate the Ladies intentions which I suppose were very good but considering the proceedings of Maximus there is great cause to think he endeavoured by his infinite courtship to charm the nature of Saint Martin which to him seemed somewhat harsh Yet the great man endowed with the spirit of prophesie freely told all which should befal him Behold some part of the disposition of Maximus which I was willing to present on paper that it might appear of what condition they ordinarily are who bear arms against the obedience due to Kings who are the lively images of God The Tyrant began a revolt in England and from that time determined to establish the Citie of Trier in Germanie as the seat of his Empire and thence to raise a pair of wings to flie above the clouds which were Italie and Spain He chose for his Constable a man very consonant to his humour and of great resolution who caused himself to be called the Good man the better to colour the wickedness of his Master With this bad Councellour he endeavoured to stir up the souldiers and on every side drew the warlick troups to his party The good Emperour Gratian speedily armeth to stiffle tyranny in the birth thereof and in person goeth to encounter his adversary He had then very freshly drawn good souldiers from the Kingdom of Hungarie to his assistance of whom he made much account Others seeing that he much esteemed of them were stung with jealousie and grew cold in their Masters behalf The poor Prince being on the point to wage battel found himself carelesly and traiterously abandoned by his legions who daily stole away to increase the Army and strength of Maximus This black and hydeous treason much amazed the Emperour who complained as the Eagle in the Emblem that his own feathers gave him the storke of death seeing his souldiers who should have born him on their wings delivered him to his enemy through a neglect which shall make the Roman history to blush eternally So that seeing there was no safety for his person he sought to regain Italie as soon as possible accompanied onely with a full troup of horse consisting of about three hundred men Maximus well discovered that he would at any price whatsoever have the bloudy spoil of his Master For he charged this Good man to pursue him with all violence and not to desist till the prey were in his clutches which he did taking horses with him who ran like a tempest and could well endure any tedious travel In the end he met with the Emperour at Lyons and fearing he might escape bethought himself of a mischievous stratagem For he secretly caused the Emperour to be enformed the Empress his wife was in danger of her person if he stayed not some while to expect her because she was resolved to follow him thinking no place capable of safety or consolation where her husband was not This false report much softened the heart of Gratian who was as good a husband as an Emperour he therefore resolved to hasten to the Empress though not without evident danger of his life There is an unspeakable power in the love of neighbours which is the cause that birds and fishes are oft-times voluntarily caught with twigs and nets not fearing to put their life in danger where they see some part of themselves to be This Prince who in the extreamest disasters of his fortune was full of courage and flew every where like a flash of lightening to give order to his affairs at the news that the Empress was on her way to follow him was much terrified nor was Pitifull death of the Emperour Gratian. there an object of peril which he framed not in his thoughts Moments seemed days unto him and days as Ages A thousand santasies of affrightment summoned his heart in his solitude There was no living for him if he beheld not his dearest love in his arms She was a Princess of much merit daughter of the Emperour Constantius born after the death of her father whom Gratian faithfully loved though he as yet had no issue by her The Tyrant understanding his game succeeded to Socrat. lib. 5. cap. 11. Zozom lib. 7. cap. 13. his wish made a litter to pass along much like to that of the Empress and disposed his ambushes round about in the way The Emperour perceiving it afar off and supposing his wife Constantia was in it spurs his horse and flyeth with those wings which love and joy gave him being at that time followed by few of his people The murderers assailed and massacred him but he still shewing the courage of a Lion bare himself bravely amongst swords and halbards leaving the mark of his hand all bloudy on a wall as S. Hierom
hath observed and ever having on his lips the Cruentae manus vestigia parietes tui Lugdune testantur Hieron ep 3. name of S. Ambrose His body after the soul departed was taken up to be presented to Maximus as the monument of a faithfull assassinate O God! who shall here be able to cleave a cloud to read through so much darkness and so many shadows the secrets of your Providence This poor Abel butchered by the hand of a Cain with a cruelty so barbarous a manner so perfidious and a success so deplorable A Prince who sheltered the whole world under the valour of his arms forsaken by the most trusty servants of his house An Emperour most Religious separated by death from the assistances of Altars A Monarch most just given as a prey to injustice One of the best Maââârs of the earth slain by servile hands and used like a beast among the halbards and courtelaxes of his own servitours So many rare qualities as were in him leave nothing else to mortals but the sorrow to have lost him A man who deserved to have lived Ages torn from his Throne and life in his 28 âh year after a reign so advantagious to the Church and wishfull to all the world O Providence Must he pass away as the foam glideth on the face of the water Must he be hayl-strucken as the Crown Imperial the honour of a garden in the height of his beauty Must he wither as lightening causeth pearls in their growth leaving them in stead of a substance nought else but a shell O God! What bloud of Abels must be shed in all Ages to teach us a lesson which telleth the reward of our children consisteth not in the favour and prosperities of the world but that seeing in such innocency they are so roughly handled your justice hath infallibly disposed them for another life where they live covered with the purple and glory of your Son whose sufferings they have imitated The poor Constantia wife of Gratian hearing this lamentable news was seized with overwhelming sorrow and as soon as she came to herself again Ab Gratian saith she my Lord and dear husband I have then found an evil worse than your death which is to have been the cause of the same Must my name be so much abused Must the love of a creature so caytive as I am engage into danger a life so important as yours I began my unhappiness from the day of my birth being Ambros in Psal 61. Meminit Gratiani morsistâ magis est peccati fuga quà m morientis detrimentum born after the death of my father Constantius nature not permitting me to see him who gave me life That little age I have hath not ceased to be turmoiled with many uncertainties which enforce me to reap thorns in the fortune of Caesars where the world imagineth roses Yea I avow my most honoured Lord that this accident hath outgone all my apprehensions For although I figured you mortal as a man I could not suppose that he in whom all my charities and hopes survived should be taken from me so suddenly in a fortune so eminent in an age so flourishing with a death so unworthie of his goodness not leaving me at the least a son in my entrails to be born of me as his mother and which is worse that I instantly must Ob my dearest Gratian the sweetest amongst all men living redeem your bloudie bodie with the price of gold from the hands of a wretched slave My God I confess I have no strength to bear these calamities so violent if you afford it not The news of this death which flew like a fatal bird through all the world transfixed the hearts of all good men The little Valentinian resented it beyond his age seeing himself deprived of a brother whom he so faithfully had loved S. Ambrose though most couragious selt himself as it were surprized with sorrow and sadness not being able to unlose his tongue to pronounce any funeral Oration All the Court was infinitely affrighted as if Maximus had already been at the gates of Milan to finish the catastrophe of the Tragedy Justina the Empress mother of young Valentinian taking the care of affairs for her son in minority instantly made her address to S. Ambrose and besought him to undertake an Embassage and present himself before Maximus so to divert the stream of his arms which came to pour themselves on Italie and to demand the body of his pupil humbly praying not to neglect him dead whom he alive had so faithfully served The thirteenth SECTION The Embassage of S. Ambrose OUr great Prelate couragiously undertook the business fortifying his heart with assistances of Heaven to treat with the murderer of his son for one may well say the love he bare to the dead equalled that of fathers towards their children The acts of his first Embassage are lost although the effect hath been sufficiently published Which was the diversion of the arms of Maximus so much feared by the Empress Justina But as for the Emperours body it was impossible to gain it from him for Maximus said he with-held it upon a point of State well knowing this spectacle would have no other effect but to exasperate the memory of what was past and that the souldiers through fury might revenge the dead body much ashamed they had betrayed their living Emperour This wicked man insatiable in his desires and perfidious in his promises soon repented to have signed the peace complaining that Ambrose had with his fair words cast him into a sleep he was full of impetuous passions and incessantly threatned to pass into Italie nor should any thing hereafter hinder his intentions which made S. Ambrose enterprize a second Embassage at the sollicitation of the Empress Justina of whom we have a most faithfull narration from the pen of the Saint himself in an Epistle which he wrote to the Emperour Valentinian to yield him an account of his Commission There he relateth how being arrived in the Citie of Trier where Maximus had placed his Throne that he the next morning went to the Palace to speak to him in private The treacherous man who with so many Legions could not endure the counterbuff of truth delivered by a Bishop thinking to silence him sent one of the gentlemen of his chamber to demand if he had any letters from Valentinian to deliver him if so he should receive answer but that he might not speak to the Emperour himself but in full Councel S. Ambrose replieth that was not the audience which is usually given to persons of his quality that he had most important affairs to handle which might better be privately expressed in his cabinet than at the Councel-table He prayed the gentleman of his chamber to let him know this his request which indeed was most civil He did so but brought back no other answer but that he should be heard in Councel The good Bishop said that was somewhat
can ought avail me Ruffinus notwithstanding insisted protesting he would instantly perswade the Bishop what ever he pleased He failed not to find out the Bishop but the Saint gave him a very sharp reprehension advising him rather to dress his own wounds than intercede for others for he partly understood that he had a hand in this fatal counsel Ruffinus notwithstanding plyed it all he could and endeavoured to charm this man with fair words saying finally for conclusion he would immediately accompany the Emperour to the Church S Ambrose who was ever very serious answered If he come thither as a Tyrant I will stretch out my neek but if in quality of a Christian Emperour I am resolved to forbid him entrance Ruffinus well saw the Bishop was inflexible and went in haste to advise the Emperour not yet on this day to hazard his approach to the Church He found him on his way as a man distracted that had the arrow in his heart and hastened for remedy and he saying he had dealt with the Bishop It is no matter saith Theodosius let him do with me what he please but I am resolved to reconcile my self to the Church S. Ambrose advertised that Theodosius came went Aedicula jaculatoria out and expected him at the door of a little Cell seperated from the body of the Church where ordinarily salutations were made Then perceiving him environed with his Captains Come you oh Emperour saith he to force us No saith Theodosius I come in the quality of a most humble servant and beseech you that imitating the mercy of the Master whom you serve you would unloose my fetters otherwise my life will fail What penance replieth the holy man have you done for the expiation of so great a sin It is answereth Theodosius for you to appoint it and me to perform it Then was the time when to correct the precipitation of the Edict made against the Thessalonians he commanded him to suspend the execution of the sentence of death for the space of thirty days after which having brought him into the Church the faithfull Emperour prayed not standing on his feet nor kneeling but prostrated all along on the pavement which he watered with his tears tearing his Psal 118. Adhaesit pavimento anima mea vivisica me secundùm verbum tuum hair and pitifully pronouncing this versicle of David My soul is fastened to the pavement quicken me according to thy word When the time of Oblation was come he modestly lifted up himself having his eyes still bathed with tears and so went to present his offering then stayed within those rayls which seperated the Priests from the Laity attending in the same place to hear the rest of Mass Saint Ambrose asked him who set him there and whether he wanted any thing The Emperour answered He attended the holy Communion of which the sage Prelate being advertised he sent one of his chief Deacons which served at the Altar to let him understand that the Quire was the place of Priests and not of the Laicks that he instantly should go out to rank himself in his order adding the Purple might well make Emperours not Priests Theodosius obeyed and answered that what he had done was not on purpose but that such was the custom of the Church of Constantinople Yea it is also remarkable that returning afterward into the East and hearing Mass at Constantinople on a very solemn festival day after he had presented his offering he went out of the Quire whereat the Patriarch Nectarius amazed asked him why his Majesty retired in that manner He sighing answered I in the end have learned to my cost the difference between an Emperour and a Bishop To conclude I have found a Master of truth and to tell you mine opinion I do acknowledge amongst Bishops but one Ambrose worthy of that title Behold an incomparable authority which was as the rays of his great virtue and sanctity from whence distilled all that force and vigour which he had in treating with all men I imagine I hitherto have exposed the principal actions of S. Ambrose to the bright splendour of the day and so to have ordered them that all sorts of conditions may therein find matter of instruction It hath not been my intention to distend them by way of Annals but historical discourses proper to perswade virtue So likewise have I not been willing to charge this paper with other particular narrations which may be read in Paulinus Sozomen Ruffinus and which have exactly been sought out by Cardinal Baronius suitable to his purpose I conclude after I have told you that Paulinus his Secretary witnesseth he writing by him a little before his death saw a globe of fire which encompassed his head and in the end entered into his mouth making an admirable brightness reflect on his face which held him so rapt that whilest this vision continued it was impossible for him to write one word of those which Saint Ambrose dictated As for the rest having attained the threescore and Death of S. Ambrose fourth year of his age he was accounted as the Oracle of the world for they came from the utmost bounds of the earth to hear his wisdom as unto Solomon and after the death of Theodosius Stilicon who governed all held the presence of Saint Ambrose so necessary that he esteemed all the glory of the Roman Empire was tied to the life of this holy Prelate In effect when on the day of holy Saturday after his receiving the Communion he had sweetly rendered up his soul as Moses by the mouth of God a huge deluge of evils overflowed Italie which seemed not to be stayed but by the prayers of this Saint Let us I beseech you pass over his death in the manner of the Scripture which speaketh but one word of the end of so many great personages and let us never talk of death in a subject wholly replenished with immortality Oh what a life what a death to have born bees in his first birth on his lips and at his death globes of light in his mouth What a life to be framed from his tender age as a Samuel for the Tabernacle not knowing he was designed for the Tabernacle What a life to preserve himself in the corruption of the world in a most undefiled chastity as a fountain of fresh water in midst of the sea What a life to arrive to honour and dignities in flying them and to have enobled all his charges by the intefrity of his manners What a life not to have taught any virtue before he practised it and to become first learned in examples before he shewed himself eloquent in words What a life so to have governed a Church that it seemed a copy of Heaven and an eternal pattern of virtues What a life to have born on his shoulders the glory of Christendom and all the moveables of the house of God! What a life to have so many times trampled the head of
he had done in all the Courts of the world besides Excess of virtues stand in the account of crimes with malign eyes so as to be culpable one must be an able man Galerius resolved to overthrow Constantine for those qualities which made him amiable to all the world and not thinking it safe to take him away by main force he made war against him like a fox persecuting him in that manner as sometimes Saul did the invincible David He found by chance that a King of the Sarmatians made an incursion on the territories of the Roman Empire and shewed himself âo furious that none durst any more encounter him than an enraged beast Galerius gave commission to Constantine to bid him battel thinking it was a most honourable pretext to be freed from him and that he had a reasonable excuse with Constantius the father when he should shew him his son dead in the bed of honour The young man who shut up his eyes to danger and onely opened them to glorie went thither readily and all succeeded so prosperously that he not onely brake the troops of the Sarmatians but also led this King along enchained to Galerius This man who received not so much joy to see an enemie at his feet as sorrow for the prosperitie of a friend very coldly commended this encounter and determined with himself to involve the virtue of Constantine in other battels still seeking in his valour the matter of his ruin It was at that time a thing very ordinarie to make condemned men to fight with savage beasts in an Amphitheater thereby to give contentment to those who are delighted to behold such spectacles Galerius called for a combat of Lions and beheld it with Constantine who was very impatient to see that such as undertook the assault of those beasts performed it in his opinion so coldly He therefore had a desire to adventure himself therein Galerius who observed him over-strong for men thought he might find his tomb in the bellie of Lions Note how under colour of withholding him he thrust this young virtue further on alreadie much enkindled with his proper flames The valiant Prince descendeth in person into the list and assaileth the Lion whom he slew with an incomparable strength whereupon so loud acclamations and such extraordinary applauses were raised through all the Amphitheater to the honour of brave Constantins that it alone was sufficient to make the treacherous Caesar burst with anger Envie is a mischievous vice it resembleth those mountains which throw their burning entrails against flowers that blossom on their tops as the envious Envie dart gall and flames against those men who bravely bloom over their heads Galerius made the son of his friend reign in hearts by the same ways wherewith he endeavoured to deprive him of life and Scepter In the end he still persisting in his wickedness and not ceasing to prepare new ambushes some men of good understanding advised Constantine to withdraw himself from the malignity of this wicked man which he did forsaking his Court without leave taken and speedily returning into England where at that time his father expected him with much impatience Zosinius saith that in this voyage he took the post-horses which best fitted him and maimed all the other to take from his enemies the means of pursuit The fourth SECTION His entery into the Empire IT was in this revolution of times that Diocletian and Maximian having dispossessed themselves of the Empire and Constantius having swayed certain years with a most prosperous and peaceable government died at York a Citie of England to the great grief of the West which he had so prudently governed Constantine by good chance was there and nominated by his father for the Empire a little before his death which judgement was approved with such consent of the souldiers and all the people that he had scarcely as yet wiped away his tears when the purple was cast on his shoulders and he saluted Emperour The good son who thought on nothing but to render the last duties of his piety to the memory of his father found this honour unseasonable and would have declined it by all means but a grave Oratour hath said in his Panegyrick there Quis te Cyllarus aut Arion posset cripere quem sequebatuâ Imperium Eumenius is no horse so swift which can steal from mortal eyes a man whom the Providence of God pursueth with Empire in hand He is constrained to yield though through modesty he would not be absolutely pronounced Emperour but contented himself with the title of Caesar well foreseeing he was to have many great affairs upon his hand before he could be peaceably established in his throne The first shock he had came from two Kings of Germanie to wit Assacar and Gaisus who passing the Rhene with huge troups endeavoured to overwhelm the Gauls thinking to surprize a young Emperour as yet uncollected in the uncertainty of his affairs But he nothing amazed speedily encounters defeats and takes them leading them enchained in a triumph whereupon succeeded an accident which I should rather attribute to the humour of Diocletion than of Constantine For after he had taken his pleasure Constant an 2. upon these two Kings he delivered them over to wilde beasts in a combat which he caused to be presented for the entertainment of the people And although the Oratours of his time much applauded this in him as an act of justice for the great havock they both had made notwithstanding having regard to the qualitie of the persons this proceeding cannot be excused from cruelty never made familiar to the manners of Christians This forreign war drew along with it civil wars A wonderful spectacle of the affairs of the world wherein the powers of the earth encountered together with incredible servours and terrible ãâã Behold a marvellous game and a great spectacle of the vanities of the world you shall see seven Princes who aspired to the Monarchy haling each one to himself a piece of the purple which they rânt in pulling and despoiled themselves of it in seeking to put it on The most fiery of them all who would swallow the whole earth could not have so much as five foot to cover his body Maxentius the son of Maximian companion of Diocletian a man lost in conscience and reputation condemned by the judgement of his own father who thought him unworthy to succeed in the Empire understanding that Constantins was dead and that they had chosen his son the young Constantins born of an English mother entereth into desperate furies and being then at Rome ready for the purpose caused himself to be declared Emperour by the souldiers whom he had gained alluring them by the means of large promises Galerius who after the death of Constantius and the retirement of Diocletian and Maximian thought himself the nearest to the Monarchie laboureth speedily to hinder the tyranny of Maxentius and having already made two Caesars to succeed
must return to these kind of spoils to content us But we have to do with few things and for a little space I swear unto you that from the time I betook me to this retirement it hath seemed that all the elements were for me and that I never was more powerfull more rich or contented I have found all that which I sought for health repose truth wisdom arts and the Gods Go not now about to colour your specious oration with pretexts of the publick good I well know where your ambition itcheth believe me he is nearest to heaven who least careth in whose hands the earth is What importeth it that young Constantine Maxentius and Licinius divide the world I shall see them strive together like arâs about a grain of earth If the world must be lost as it is very likely I had rather it were in their hands than mine I very well see the Empire is sick to the death I have for saken it like an old Physitian wil hear no more speech of it than of a body in the coffin Believe me neither you nor I can do any thing for its health but to witness our inability All those who have admired our resolution in forsaking the Diadem wil be the first that will cast the stone against our inconstancy if we weakly go about to require again that which we so generously have abandoned God forbid I should enter into a fantasie to despoil my self of a glory that never any one Monarch had before me which is the contempt of a world when I had it in mine hands If you be resolued to loose your self do it without company your frindship ought to pretend nothing upon me to the prejudice of mine honour and conscience And whereas you propose unto me the danger of my person I do not think that envy will extend it self over the coleworts and lettice of this little garden planted by mine own hands and should they come thither I have already lived long enough according to the course of nature enough to satisfie the desire which I had if glory and too much to see the miseries of the world I will not think much to render up this life which I have upon my lips to him who gave it me We must needs say this man had a great understanding and goodly Maxims For had not mischief given him the spirit of a hangman against Charistianitie he might be accounted in the number of the greatest Emperours Maximian was much amazed at the constancy of his resolution Notwithstanding the desire he had to return to his former honour being insatiable he spared not to take the purple again and bear himself as Emperour protesting it was the desire of publick good which put the Scepter into his hands It is an admirable thing how his ambition was Maximian the baloon of fortune discountenanced He who promised himself much respect was hissed at by the souldiers as a man vain unconstant and shallow was chased out of Italie and Sclavonia and other places which he sought to possess and reduced as it were to such terms as to see himself at the mercy of his son which he apprehended as the last of his afflictions Although some have thought there was collusion between the father and the son for the accommodation of their affairs He wished now to be in the bottom of a cave with his Diocletian but since he had begun the play he must finish his act The subtil man who well foresaw that Maxentius a brain-sick Prince was upon ruin resolved to league himself firmly to the fortune of Constantine Behold why being retired in haste towards him having engaged his house in the Empire it was not difficult for him to find access there as also for that the new Emperour in this great concourse of arms and affairs was very willing to make use of the counsel of a man refined in policie Maximian entereth so far into the heart and judgement of Constantine that to tie him the more to himself and wholly cement up his own affairs he gave his daughter Fausta in marriage to him whom the young Prince espoused in his second wedlock having first of all been married to Minervina by whom he had two children Crispus and Helena This marriage of Fausta was solemnized with much magnificence and the son rendred so much honour to his father-in-law that he seemed to retain nothing of the Empire but the name and habit dividing with him the rest of his power We may well say the spirit of Maximian was turbulent 3. Disposition and insupportable for not satisfying himself with all this excellent entertainment he thought he was nothing if he wore not upon his forehead the Diadem which he had forsaken He began to set things in order at the Court and to prepare factions in such sort that he seemed to have no other purpose but to set his son and his son-in-law together by the ears to enjoy both their spoils In the end he put his design very far upon the fortune and life of Constantine being as he was vain to talke of his enterprizes namely to his daughter Fausta whom he esteemed to be of a good disposition he opened himself so much to her that he made as saith the Wiseman of his lips the snare of his soul For the young married wife having more affection in store for her husband than her father and who having already the tast of Empire would not yield it up to him to whom she had owed her birth hastened to tell all to Constantime advising he should take heed of his father-in-law and that he was a wicked man who would if it were possible deceive all the Gods of Olympus for the desire he had to reign Maximian well perceiving that his daughter had discovered the plot and that there was no further safetie for him at the Court of his son-in-law secretly stole away and endeavoured to regain the East but was taken tardy at Marsellis and there strangled to give an end to his life all his designs Some have written that he hanged himself through despair of his affairs others that it was by the commandment of Constantine Others have said that his son-in-law Eusebius was willing to save him but the publick hatred born against Maximian prevented clemency which I think the more probable Verily I would not disguise the exorbitances practised by Constantine before his entrance into Christianity for he cannot be justified upon some disorders But since Zosimus the historian who pardoneth him in nothing chargeth him not with this death I see no cause why we should accuse him Behold the desperate end of Maximian after he Victor Nazarius Non omnia potes Dij te vindicant invicem had persecuted the Church embroiled Empires all armed the whole world by the extravagances of his ambition an infamous halter taketh a little air from him which he thought he could not freely enough breath whilst
of his valour and the trust he had in God he first of all appeared in the head of his Army and with many paces set forward before the rest making his horse curvet in a martial manner It was an easie matter to know him for his arms shined all with gold and his helmet was set with precious stones His enemies began to fall roundly upon him but the Captaines of Constantine seeing their Emperour so generously to out-brave danger followed him with such fervour as if every one of them expected an Empire for recompence They fell like lightning upon their enemies who were much amazed at this first charge yet they notwithstanding made good resistance but maugre all their endeavours those of Constantine brake through and defeated them Maxentius beholding his Cavalry in which he Maxentius defeated reposed all his hope to be so ill handled resolved upon a retreat to make use of his bridge and drown Constantine engaged in the pursuit of those that fled But oh the justice of God! The wicked man as saith the Royal Prophet falleth into the ditch which he himself had digged It is not known whether those besotted engineers failed in their design or whether the great numbers of those that fled caused this ruin but the bridge brake under Maxentius his feet and threw him into Tiber all bloudy like another Pharaoh in the red sea with all the principal of his Empire who environed his person He amazed at so violent a fall hoped yet to recover the other shore being excellently mounted where he was seen to wrestle a certain time with the waves which in the end swallowed him up There was in the begining a great slaughter of those who made resistance but in the end seeing their Emperour drowned they yielded all to the mercy of Constantine who stayed the victorious sword in the hands of souldiers to consecrate it to clemency He did well to search for the body of Maxentius in Tiber to take off his head which was fixed on the point of a lance and born to Rome and Africk to satisfie justice for the enormous forfeits he had committed when he was alive From thence this brave Conquerour is received in the City of Rome as an Angel descended from heaven for the deliverance of the world Never was triumph so highly valued as his because in the tropheys of other Emperours they triumphed for the gaining of some far-distant Province but in this lost Rome recovered it-self The Queen of Nations ceased to be the prey of Nations breathed now a sweeter ayr of ancient liberty If ever Prince saw a glorious day in all his life this was it which shined then over the head of Constantine They came from all parts of Italy to behold him and those who had seen him thought they had lived long enough supposing it unfit to behold any other humane thing Amongst so many notable spectacles at that time in the City none was looked upon but he his face was the object of all their admirations and his valour the matter of all discourses The Senate to witness the joy they conceived for this victory prepared him a triumphal Arch all of marble one of the stateliest monuments that ever had been raised to the honour of a Conquerour wherein this Inscription was engraven IMP. CAES. FL. CONSTANTINO MAXIMO P. F. AUGUSTO S. P. Q. R. QUOD INSTINCTU DIVINITATIS MENTIS MAGNITUDINE CUM EXERCITU SUO TAM DE TYRANNO QUAM DE EJUS OMNI FACTIONE UNO TEMPORE JUSTIS REMPUBLICAM ULTUS EST ARMIS ARCUM TRIUMPHIS INSIGNEM DICAVIT This said that the Senate and people of Rome dedicated this triumphal Arch to Constantine Emperour and Great Pontifice happy Prince and Augustus because by an instinct of Divinity and an admirable greatness of courage he had with his Army freed the Common-wealth from a Tyrant and all his faction by the justice of his arms Where in the Arch on the right hand were read these words Liberatori Urbis on the left hand Fundatori Quietis which clearly declared him the Freer of the Citie and Founder of Repose There was likewise inscribed on it the number of years in which they desired to render vows for this glorious victory Observe as you pass along that the Senate was as yet Pagan yet knowing the devotion which Constantine bare to the Saviour of the world though he were not then a declared Christian they abstained from the mention of Gods and spake onely of one Divinitie The sixth SECTION The death of Diocletian and feats of Arms performed by Constantine against Lycinius SInce I have undertaken to represent the famous warlick Acts of Constantine to shew his arrival to Monarchy I will here insert the end of Diocletian and Lycinius When Constantine caused his Standards to march against Maxentius there remained no more of so many Caesars but Lycinius who was created a little before the death of Galerius The brothers of Constantine would alter nothing Diocletian remained in his retirement There was none but this Lycinius who was an old souldier a man raised from nothing but advanced by arms and who had done so good services to Galerius the creature of Diocletian in the war which he had against the Persians that out of meer respect of his valour he was chosen Emperour In all other things he was of a rude and gross spirit as derived from Peasants and who all his life had done nothing else but handle iron either for tillage or war not having acquired any neatness of a civil life Behold the cause why being ignorant and proud he extreamly hated learning which he called the poison of the Empire and had it been in his power he would have banished all knowing men that there might be none able to reproach his ignorance Constantine as wise as he was warlick saw well he must mannage this spirit who might much trouble him in his design against Maxentius for which cause following this counsel he promised him a share in the Empire and his sister Constantia in marriage It is held this marriage was solemnized at Milan a little after the defeat of Maxentius where many treaties passed between Constantine and Lycinius touching their principalities and from that time a most favourable Edict was made for the re-establishment of Christians the honour of Christianity which Lycinius although a Pagan refused not to sign Victor addeth that Diocletian was sent for to the wedding of Lycinius For it was much desired to hear him speak and see what he had upon his heart his spirit being very able to give cause of distrust to two Princes who were desirous to establish themselves in all security The subtile Hermit on the other side who feared to be overtaken made an answer in which he besought their Majesties to give him leave to live in his Hermitage and affoord him that for delight which others commonly tooke for punishment That he had not for the time to come any mind upon
nor fetters may prejudice the libertie of your spirit The third reason which is very much at large deduced in this divine Work is drawn from the vanitie of all temporal goods where wisdom proveth by very good reasons That if the sorrows we have for the world might be measured at the rate of the things which contristate us as there is nothing great in this vale of tears so should there not be any thing capable of much disquiet Mourn we for mettals which are the nests of rust and the tinder of concupiscence for attires which are the nourishment of mothes for bodies which are the food of worms for houses which are the bones of the earth piled one upon another with cement and morter for precious stones which are the excrements of an enraged sea borrowing their worth from our illusion for honours which are golden masks and weather-cocks of inconstancie What a folly is it to hold retirement for a punishment which so many brave spirits have taken for a Paradise and to think our selves sharply punished when we no longer behold behind us great trains of servitours who burden us with their crimes and make us become answerable for their souls What an errour is it to desire to hold riches locked up which never are what they ought to be but when they are distributed For they resemble a dung-hill which stinketh when it is together heaped and fatteneth the fields when it is spread abroad We move Heaven and earth to flie from povertie and find it in our riches for great fortunes are now adays so hungrie and have so much ado to maintain themselves that although the needie are ever the most poor yet is there nothing more beggerly than the rich who have a thousand dependances and a thousand necessities whereunto their felicitie is fastened as with a chain What a charm is it to think then to be happie when you mannage the affairs of Great-ones where never is any thing done to please them if you make not your self a slave to all their passions where favours are granted of feathers and disgraces inflicted of lead Where your sleep your life and your faith is sold for a pleasing fantasm which lasteth no longer than the dream of one night Deserveth not a man to be strucken down as an enemie of reason when unloosened from this slaverie he withereth languisheth and sighs for his fetters ready prest a thousand times to kiss the hands of him who again would enchain him Prof. 6. l. 3. O gloria gloria millibus hominum mortalium nihil aliud nisi aurium in statio magna What a mockerie is it to affect greatness among men as if a rat would make himself a lord among mice and to feed himself with glorie which is nothing but a swelling of the ear Oh Boetius Seneca desired under Nero and Papinian under Antoninus the solitude which thou now enjoyest but whilst they endeavoured to break their bands leaned to a ruinous wall the mass of their greatness transported and buried them Behold thy self retired Dum ruitures moles ipsa trahit from affairs into a chamber of Pavia behold thy self in repose and among books the first entertainment of thy young days why dost thou not now presently make a virtue of the happiness which the providence of God offereth thee For a third point he considered the fruits that might be derived from tribulation when it is well mannaged Prosperitie saith this wisdom unto him is windie open slipperie and inconsiderate Adversitie quite otherwise is sober reserved prudent and circumspect the one under apparences of felicities bringeth unto us an infinitie of lies the other is ever grave and sincere the one deceiveth us the other instructeth us the one blindeth us the other enlighteneth us the one polluteth us the other purifieth us the one charmeth us and tieth up our understanding the other enfranchizeth us the one separateth us from our sovereign good and maketh us fall into a thousand sorts of vanities the other draweth us back as with a book to the consideration of eternitie the one createth for us many flatteries the other discovereth unto us many true friends Let us suffer a little Boetius and if this seem troublesom think that as thy prosperities have passed away so shall thy adversities The last day of thy life which cannot be far off will ever be the last of thy ill fortunes if thou leave not it it will forsake thee it is an ordinance of God that favours and disgraces cannot be of long continuance and that for mortals there is no evil immortal Finally for the last reason the holy man who had composed so learned books of the mysteries of our faith forsaking all the comforts of humane things drenched himself very far into the consideration of blessings in the other life of eternity and the excellency of God He considered it as an infinite sea of essence This is inserted in my Journââ bounty beatitude which encloseth in it self all being all good all veritie He saw the whole Universe in this immensity of God as a spunge would be in the midst of the ocean an atom in the air and a little globe of glass enchased in the first Heaven He saw in his bosom all glory all dignities all riches all treasures all pleasures all consolations all delights all joys and all beatitudes he walked at ease in those fourteen abysses of greatness which are in God to wit infinitie immensitie immutabilitie eternitie omnipotencie wisdom perfection sanctitie benignitie power providence mercie justice and the end whereunto all things tend From thence he beheld the Word Incarnate the true King of the afflicted and all the Saints laden with crosses and persecutions thinking himself very happy to mingle his tears with the bloud of so many brave courages who had gained Heaven with violence This consolation overflowing his heart drowned all his acerbities and infinitely sweetened the sharpness of his captivity Behold the fruits which the wise Boetius gathered in his prison well shewing that virtue is an hostess tractable in every lodging and who looseth no part of her liberty in chains It onely appertaineth to huge mountains to bear snow and verdure at one and the same time and to great souls to retain a holy vigour in the strength of afflictions The seventh SECTION The death of Boetius IT is a loss that the Authours which have written of this death have cut off so short the last act of a life so eminent There is not any thing saith one so curious in a statue nor so hard to polish as the nails and nothing which more clearly maketh the perfection of a man accomplished in virtues to be seen as a good death I will here speak that which I have drawn from the most probable authours touching the death of Boetius It is certain he was very long in this prison since he complaineth in the Preface of a book which he composed during the time of
the Sacraments of the Church for this last hour knowing the cause wherefore they came beheld them with a confident countenance and said Perform your Commission boldly It is long since I knew that death alone must open the gates of this prison for me And having spoken this he contained himself some while in a deep silence recommending to God this last act of his life and consigning to him his soul which during this imprisonment he had so often whitened with his tears and purified as in a precious limbeck of eternal charities wherein all great souls are deified This done he went forward with a settled pace to the place of execution which the King would have very secret not to excite the people where seeing himself Behold here saith he the Theater which I have long desired I protest before the face of the living God and his holy Saints that I have ever had most sincere intentions for the good of the State nor am I culpable of any of these crimes objected against me If my innocencie be now opprest there shall come a better posteritie which shall draw aside the curtain and entertain the rays of truth O Rome O Rome would to God thou mightest âe purified by my bloud and I to be the last victim sacrificed for publick safetie I will not now accuse him who condemned me desiring God rather may open his eyes to see the justice of my cause and the plots practised upon his own soul Behold the recompence I gain for becoming hoarie in his service but God is the faithful witness of all my actions and in his bosom is it now where I lay down my life my bodie my soul and all my interests There was but one poor gentle-man waiter that accompanied him in this passage who as he poured out tears near unto him Boetius earnestly beholding him said Where is your resolution leave these tears for the miserable and tell my father-in-law my wife and children that I have done nothing here unworthie of their honour and that they act nothing unworthie of me by bewailing me with plaints which would be little honourable for the condition of my death but that they rather take this accident as a gift from Heaven They well know I have ever told them it is not here where we should expect repose but in the place where I hope to prepare them a room These words spoken they proceeded to execution by the barbarous commandment given by Theodorick I have read in a very ancient manuscript from whence I have drawn some particulars couched therein that a cruel torture was inflicted on this holy man long time streyning a coard about his fore-head in such sort that his eyes started out of his head and that in the end they knocked him down with a leaver which I cannot think to be probable seeing all other constantly affirm his head was cut off by the hand of a hangman and Martianus who most eloquently wrote his life addeth that by miracle he some space of time held his head in his own hands like another S. Denys until he gave up the ghost before the Altar of a Chappel very near to the place of his execution His bodie was interred in the Church of Saint Augustine to whom he had a particular devotion and his name put among the Martyrs as Baronius observeth because he died partly for the defence of the Catholick Church against the Arians The place of his imprisonment hath been preserved as a great monument of piety his tomb honoured with verses such as that time could afford where among other things this title is given him BOETIUS IN COELO MAGNUS ET OMNI PERSPECTUS MUNDO The King stayed not a whit after this to put Symmachus his father-in-law to death and to confiscate all the goods both of the one and other which was a very lamentable thing yet notwithstanding the couragious Rusticiana bare the death of her father and husband with so great constancy that she deserved to draw all succeeding Ages into admiration for she spake most freely to the King reproching him with his disloyalty and honoured these two eminent souls as Saints much offended with her self if at any time nature won tears from her eyes as judging them too base to be sacrificed to so flourishing a memory The vengeance of God slackened not long to fall Procop. lib. 4. upon the guiltie head of Theodorick for few days after this act as he continually lived in the representations of his crime his imagination was so troubled that being at the table when they came to serve up the great head of a fish he figured to himself it was the head of Symmachus the last of all butchered and although much endeavour was used to remove this fantasie from him it was impossible to give remedy but he rose from the table like a man affrighted crying out murder and felt instantly such a quaking over all his body and besides such convulsions in all his members that he must needs presently be carried to his bed where he was visited by his Phisitian to whom he complained with much horrour that he had shed bloud which would perpetually bleed against him The feaver and frenzie carried him hence into the other world where he had a marvellous account to make of whom we know no more particulars yet Saint Gregorie witnesseth that he learned from the mouth of a man Greg. l. 4. 30 worthy of credit that the same day he died at Rome certain honourable persons being at Lipari a little Island of Sicilie in the Cell of an Hermit who lived in the reputation of great sanctitie he said unto them Know ye that King Theodorick is no more They replying Nay not so we left him alive and in health Notwithstanding saith he I can well assure you he died to day in Rome and which is more is judged condemned and thrown into the store-houses of subterranean fire which we here call the Cauldron of Vulcan And it was a Olla Vulcani strange thing that they being returned to Rome understood the death of this wretched King to have been at that very time told by the Hermit which was held for a most manifest judgement of God and made all those to tremble who heard the relation thereof Athalaricus his grand-child by his daughter although an infant succeeded to his estates under the regency of his mother Amalazunta who restored all the goods had been confiseated to the widow that lived afterward until Justinian got the Empire from the Goths by the means of Bellasartus at which time she made all the images and statues of Theodorick to be broken causing also another process to be framed against him after his death Alas great God who governest the state of this Universe and makest the pillars of Heaven to shake under thy foot-steps what is man who will practise wiles in a matter of policie contrary to thy eternal Maxims How hath this wretch ended
away by the hand of a hang-man the life which he gave him Had his condition been capable of tears even Tygers themselves would have deplored him seeing so much piety such faith so much goodness such worth eclipsed in a bloud so precious in an Age so flourishing in a fortune so replenished with hope The news of his death hastened to find out Indegondis who was yet in Africa where she also received the last Letter which her husband wrote to her out of prison The servants that were about her person began to make hydeous lamentations as if they themselves had been condemned to death But the couragious Indegondis kissing the letter of her dear husband then opening it with singular reverence and reading the last words which he as it were had steeped in his bloud she cried out Alas Generous and faithfull heart you have done all that which a good man might you have manfully fought you are happily arrived at the Crown Nothing can be desired in you but the imitation of your constancy Servants Why do you weep This is the very day wherein I am a Queen and when I esteem my self the most triumphant woman in the world having my husband a Martyr in Heaven Give me roses and flower-de-luces that I may crown his Image and honour at the least with these testimonies a soul which hath left unto us such sweet odours of virtue She had with her her little Hermingildus almost dead with the wearisomness of travel on the way which indeed had been somewhat easie for the tenderness of his age The mother beholding him Go my son saith she follow your good father God hath given you a favour in your cradle that he doth not to all children which is to be banished for the faith and to take part in the Martyrdom of him who begot you Go little innocent and rejoyce with others before the Altar of the Lamb your mother shall not long stay behind you The child died shortly after and the good Princess Others say he was sent prisoner to the Emperour Mauritius but without ground having for a long time combatted in a brave manner against the apprehensions of nature poured forth on a sudden thick sobs and a main tyde of tears which distilled from her eyes against her will whereupon she mildly said Alas my tears what fitness can you find to bemoan a Martyr My God it is done the father and the son are alreadie at rest there remaineth nothing but to take the mother Behold two parts of the world Europe and Africk which I have filled with my miseries If you will that I yet pass into Asia your will be done But if I no longer be ought but an unprofitable burden to the earth what do I here I have spun out all the web which you gave me I have ended all the hopes of the world why stay you O my God to receive my soul which I bear on my lips She was heard For in few days being all wasted with love travel and desires after an exemplar death she found her tomb in Africk What shall I say here and what shall I do to shut up this discourse We have all certain natural softnesses in the bottom of our souls and some humane apprehensions which alter the force of our judgement My pen cannot almost pass over this history and not commix the waters of mine eyes with mine ink and perhaps also you my Reader cannot peruse it without compassion It seemeth unto you these chaste loves of Hermingildus and Indegondis are too unhappy that such virtues are cruelly handled that such noble courages have met with a fortune sinister hydeous and persecutive even to the tomb You would gladly see these brave spirits after so many tempests such thunder-claps and whirle-winds arrive at a Port of some large temporal felicity You would behold them with Crowns on their heads with Scepters in their hands with Provinces flourishing in revenues with prosperities perpetually smiling in their house with loves free from disturbance desires void oâ denials affairs without trouble greatness without change pleasures without acerbities and a long posterity fully laden with honours It grieves you that this poor Prince hath passed away as a pearl parched up with lightening in its growth or as an eagle strangled in the shell You bewail this Princess that being born in France she died in Africk separated by the sword from a husband who loved her so tenderly deprived of a son who gave so many good hopes abandoned by all her allies but some poor waiting-women that buried her with sorrow so full of pitie that it was of power to move the monsters of Africk to commiseration Ah ignorant that we are of the works of God perpetually fixed to the earth and deprived of those sparkles of fire and light which burn under the most generous breasts Let us a little draw aside the curtain and see through so many clouds one sole ray of the Sanctuary What injury hath the Divine Providence done to Prince Hermingildus if for a Crown which is the weather-cock of winds if for a Scepter which is the reed of the times if for a life which is the harbinger of death it afford him virtues delights and glories which out-strip the flight of our thoughts which drie up our mouthes which out-run our desires which surmount all our imaginations What injury if it make a Saint of him whose name is couched in Martyrologes whose memory liveth in writing whose praise flourisheth in mouthes whose words are nought but honour and works but blessings whilest his step-mother Goizintha dies like a dog and is buried in the opprobrie of her name What injury if it have so handled the matter that his father touched with a lively repentance hath justified him as an innocent deplored him as a son invoked as a Martyr If it hath sanctified his setters consecrated the tower of his prison raised up his ashes above all the Crowns of the Kings of Spain If it hath given him Altars on earth and a Diadem of beatitudes in Heaven Is it to have despised his virtue neglected his sufferings disobliged his constancy and frustrated his travels What would you have God to have made the virtuous Indegondis A Queen delicate ambitious covetuous haughty which had not spit but in gold walked but on roses flown over the heads of men and putrified in delights How many such like are there who have defiled their names with reproach wearied the earth with their importunities astonished posterity with their deportments and peopled hell with their crimes But this Ladie having been purified with the burning coals of tribulation issued from the hands of God as a vessel of glory to make her lustre resplendent in the sight of all Ages Ah Ladies who read this piece and who many times flatter your selves with the title of virtue in some petty tracks of devotion which have nothing but outward semblance what example of piety see you here What
making use of a riding-rod which he had in his hand drew a circle about Antiochus and enclosed him within it saying There is but one word to be used Before you come out from thence you must necessarily resilve either on peace with your sister or wars against the Senate and people of Rome He seeing himself so strongly charged gave way to their demands and wrote to the Senate That he esteemed the Masked complement Peace which came from their motion more glorious than all his victories and heard their Embassadours as if the Gods had spoken out of heaven to him Therein imitating the most supple Courtiers who in stead of shewing their discontent against power give thanks for a beating Howsoever becoming enraged with rancour Horrible persecution of the Hebrews to see so rich a prey escaped out of his hands he discharged all his choller upon the Jews as those who make their servants suffer for the losses they had in game He had a spleen against this religious Nation both through the motive of his own impiety and reason of State suspecting them more to encline to King Ptolemee's faction Behold why he entered into Jerusalem Anno Antiochi 7. like an enraged Lion with huge troups in the beginning pillaging the Citie and Temple sparing neither the prophane nor sacred swallowed excessive riches and plunged the fiery flames of his anger in the bloud and tears of four-score thousand people some killed divers sold and many fettered unable to satisfie his cruelty For presently after came out those wicked and Anno ejus 9. bloudy Edicts which made God a party with a violent hatred and let loose the rains of impiety even to the desire of utter defacing the marks of Religion The streets of Sion mourned Priests were banished or massacred the Altars demollished Temples polluted with ordures and uncleanness by abominable monsters who renewed sacrifices to Bâelphegor and Bacchus in the Sanctuary heretofore impenetrable to mortal eyes The abomination of desolation foretold by the Prophet Daniel which was a statue of olympick Jupiter was seen to be raised in the holy place in sight of all the world The books of the law were sought out through all the houses and committed to flames the festivals changed into Bacchanals all exercise of piety interdicted with whips wheels fires so far that two poor mothers being found administering Circumcision to two little in fants were drawn through the Citie having their lamentable offipring hanged about their necks and in that posture thrown into a ditch The whole Citie was nought else but a spectacle of gibbets and slaughters the Pagans by some false brothers conspiring with much fervour to put the Kings Edicts in execution Then was the time Eleazars combat with the seven young Machabees appeared Combat of Eleazar which is excellently described in the Scripture in Josephus and the Fathers of the Church that it were a thing superfluous to endeavour enlargement upon it with a more ample discourse I onely say that if God permitted upon one side to be seen the unbridled soul of a man professed an enemy of all piety on the other an admirable spectacle was beheld of fear and reverence rendered to his Name by the faithfull What a prodigie to see an aged man four-score and ten years old of one of the prime families of his Nation learned in the Law of an Angelical aspect to go smiling to punishment And he cracking even their hearts with compassion who sate as Magistrates upon his execution some perswaded him onely but to make a shew to eat hogs flesh for the Kings satisfaction But he reflecting on the true point of honour The hoariness saith he of this venerable hair wherewith my head is covered having waxed old in the exercises of Religion sufficiently teacheth me my dutie It is not fit for Eleazar to counterfeit impietie but profess virtue God forbid I should forget the law of my God dishonour the school and doctrine in which I was bred or become a scandal to these young men to whom God is now pleased to make a Theater of my Constancie The honour of my passed life shall enter into the ashes of my Tomb and my soul shall flie out of this bodie truly innocent and not bear infidelitie into the bosom of my Ancestours Then they tormenting him under the lashes of whips and fervour of flames he added My All-knowing God thou art not ignorant that it being in my power to free my self from death not to fail in thy fear I faint in my life I make thee the depositorie of my soul which issueth out of these torn members choosing rather to die tortured on all sides than to live one silly moment unfaithfull After Eleazar went the glorious mother of the The mother of the Macchabees Machabees along having the spirit of a man in a feminine body She entered first of all into the combat although she were the last that arrived to the crown bringing seven sons with her to death as to the true source of immortality This blessed creature stood between two flames the one of natural love the other of charity towards God Both combatted but there was but one prevailed that she might transcend all things under God As she lived in seven souls so she was sacrificed in seven bodies She saw the tongue torn out from one the toes and fingers of feet and hands cut off from another the skin pulled away all bloudy from the head of this that thrown into a boyling cauldron finally she beheld them all equal in punishment as she parallel'd them in love Some while she delivered one to the executioners another while she received the bloud upon her garments presently the mangled members in her arms she fought in all and for all having no other fear but of their deliverance But she infinitely fearfull for the youngest of her sons shewed him Heaven then her breasts the one to have bred him the other to glorifie him When she saw him dead then was the time she thought him born and then with most courage she waited on his execution O incomparable mother saith S. Augustine who August serm 109. c. 6. knew what it was to possess children since she feared not to loose them Mother of Martyrs and eight times a Martyr who equailed her triumphs to her childrens and her glory to eternitie In the end Antiochus after all this butchery retiring Punishment of the wicked Antiochus the living God who pursued the tracks of this impious man and who in his eyes bare the lightenings of his justice raised Mattathias and his children who with a silly handfull of men restored sanctification to the Temple and liberty to the Citizens having in four encounters defeated four Royal Armies This wretched creature and who had no religion in him though in apparence he made shew of that of the Grecians went to Elymas to invade a Temple of Diana where great treasures were kept but was
fit Job 5. Omnia in mensura numero pondere disposuisti Sap. 11. Recal into your thoughts the singular consideration of Boetius (a) (a) (a) Boet de consol Aequo animo toleres oportet quicquid intra fortunae aream geritur cum semel jugo colla submiseris We must patiently suffer all which is done within the circle of Providence seeing we have bowed our necks under its laws by the condition of our birth (b) (b) (b) An excellent resolution upon wordly accidents So soon as you are born you enter within the jurisdiction of Gods ordinance you have undergone the yoke to receive good or evil fortune as he shall please to appoint I ask if you should resolve to give law to him froÌ whom you ought to take it were you not most unjust unhappy Most unjust because you would incroach upon Gods inheritance most unhappy because you could not kick against the prick but to hurt your self the more Were you embarked in a vessel you must go not according to your own will but the course of wind and tide If you learned the trade of husbandmen you must cast into the earth to reap again what will come of it and you should sometimes have barren sometimes fertile and fruitful years You have entered into humane life which of its nature is replenished with inconstancies and vicissitudes one while there is good another while evil hap Let fortune roul as God shall please nothing with him is hazardous Would you be so hardy as to tie your self to the wheel of a chariot perpetually running to stay the course which the Divine Providence affords it You desire say you a stable fortune in the world and understand not that were it so there would no longer be either world or fortune since the condition of these inferiour things is in continual mutation When you see the wicked flourish in honour riches Deorum crimeâ Sylla tam faelix Senec. ad Marcia and reputation say not the prosperity of a wicked man is heavens sin that God walketh upon the vaults of his palace and abandoneth the care of worldly affairs Expect a little Justice will come although many times with a leaden pace How know you whether God will convert this man by surcharging him with prosperities to confound his ingratitude How know you whether resolving to deprive him for his crimes of eternal blessings he gives him some use of temporal benefits in recompence of some moral virtues he hath heretofore exercised Rather say to God O God how profound are thy thoughts Psal 91. 6. Nimis profundae factae sunt cogitationes suae vir insipiens non cognoscet fluâtââ non intelliget haec Vis in esse longanimis patiens jungete aeternitati Dei cam illo expecta quâ infra te sunt August in Psal 91. 2. Conclusion against Fatality and how inscrutable to the ignorant and foolish Expect the day which will draw aside the curtain and make you see all the secrets of the world God expecteth it with so much patience in his eternity why will not you expect it in your mortality 6. The second conclusion shall be never to adhere to this bruitish and savage opinion which puts a fatality upon all the actions of men and all events Beware of the foolish discourse of him who says If my hour be come I shall die and if not I have nothing to fear For see you not according to these unbridled maxims all deliberation all prudence all order of humane life must be taken away Were here a fatality we need no more talke of ships to pass the seas nor medicines to cure maladies nor bread to feed the hungry A man besotted with this folly might free from danger walk on the waves for if his destiny bear him he shall never perish by water He need not at all make use of medicine for his death can neither be delayed nor hastened What avayls it so much as to eat For if he must die of hunger what ever he do he shall fail and if his destinie threaten him not that way he shall live in full assurance Behold here prodigious dotages But God hath he not fixed the number of my years as saith Job You keep a reckoning of his years and montehs you Job 14. 5. Numerm mensium ejus apud te est constituisti terâiââ ejus qui preteriri non pâââerunt have set him limits which cannot be broken I affirm God knows the number of your days and hath determined them Hath he not on the other part obliged you to your conservation by the law of nature Since you have no revelation from above that God will have you die in such or such a fashion you ought to preserve your life to the last breath and if through rashness you run among precipices shipwracks and musket-shots without obedience without reason without discretion you are the murderers of your selves God hath foreseen you must die at such an hour and of such a death but he hath likewise foreseen it would happen unto you through a most perverse will and an enraged temerity which sought to tempt the counsels of the Omnipotent against all the maxims of verity Know you not God hath set fire and water before you and that you may take which of them you please Liberty of Tertull. advers Marc c. 6. Tota libertâ arbitrij in utramque partem concessa est homini ut sui Dominus constanter occurreret bona sponte servââdo mala sponte vitandâ Third conclusion against humane prudence and lazyness ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Free-will is absolutely given to man to become a Master over all his actions with a constancy of mind either voluntarily to keep and conserve good or to resist evil with the like freedom said Tertullian 7. The third conclusion will teach us to settle our labour by heavens direction in a good temperature so that we stand not with arms a-cross when we should travel expecting from Gods hand what we ought not to expect without our cooperation and that on the other side we take heed not so to presume of our own abilities as to ascribe thereunto all good successes which happen For both the one and other is hateful before God We know what the Sage Greek said to a Carter plunged in a myre who called aloud on Minerva not seeking to stir himself My freind with Minerva you must stir a hand God is very ready to aid you but you must on your part use correspondence Set up sayl and God will give wind till the earth and you shall receive Heavens benediction But if you think to please your self with an ill rectified devotion and not to care for the affairs of your family will you not be like those barren trees which make a noise with their leaves under the breath of winds and never bear fruits On the other side beware of thinking to be happy by means meerly
of his power in the misery of mortals but with the Scripture that he separateth light from darkness with a diamond to wit a most strong and resplendent knowledge of the merit and demerit of men What sense is Notable passage Adamante diserevit lucem tenebras Eccles 16. 14. Secundum 70 there to make a power which takes its glory from ignorance and is potent in contempt of reason Is not this to make all terrible even to its own favours What sense is it to appoint a Judge to satisfie the whole world according to desert and to make him sign Decrees irrevocable in favour of some one before knowledge of all merit Cannot we make him potent unless we make him unjust Adde also that in the feeling we have of Praedestination Goodness of God the mercy of the most mild Father shineth with visible marks For we do not make him to damn him through a negligence of thoughts and coldness of affection which cannot be in a God so active or a heart so loving but we believe his goodness extendeth to Cain and Judas and would they have endeavoured they had the means to gain beatitude which never fails any man if he want not correspondence In the end we likewise acknowledge in this point Si voluisset Esau cacurrisset Dei adjutorio pervenisset Aug. ad Simp. l. 4. 2. the most prudent government of God who will have nothing idle in nature nor grace He could enlighten us without the Sun and afford us fruit without the earth but he will his creatures operate and that one unfold the rays of his substance another supply with the juice of its bosom In like manner he is pleased we make his grace to profit us to raise our riches out of his favours and derive our glory from his bounty He will give a title of merit to our happiness to advance the quality of his gifts He will crown in us what comes from himself as if it were wholly ours Why shall we shut up the eyes of his wisdom why tie up the hands of his liberality An Ancient said He more esteemed the judgement of certain men than their proper benefits God will we value both in him that we enjoy his bounty by favour and his judgement by merit The actions of the Sovereign Monarch are free from controul as his gifts from repentance I will leave you now to conclude what quiet we Third point Repose of Conscience may have in our consciences upon the matter of Praedestination I leave you to think whether a good soul have not cause to say O be the Divine Providence praised for evermore since it so worthily hath provided for me I cannot adore its counsels unless I love its goodness It sweeteneth my pains it comforteth my cares when it teacheth me my eternal happiness depends on him and me on him who loveth me tenderly and on me who cannot hate my self unless I derogate from my essence after I have failed in all virtues Courage then we roul not under this fatality which writeth laws on diamonds and ties us to inevitable necessities The fodder is not cast we have yet the mettal boyling apace in hand we may appear on the mould of virtue we may make our selves such by the grace of God as to put our salvation in assurance our life into repose and death into crowns I cannot fear God with a slavish fear since he is nought but goodness but I will ever dread my works since I am frailty it self Let us hereafter live in such sort as we would be judged Let us consecrate our life to innocency and banish all sin Let us undertake piety humility obedience alms and devotion towards the Blessed Virgin which are most assured marks of Praedestination Let us not presume of our own forces nor despair likewise of Gods mercy If we stand upright let us still fear the declining of nature which easily bendeth to evil and if we stoop let us quickly raise our selves again making all avail to our salvation yea our proper falls We have a great Advocate in Heaven who openeth as many mouthes for us as we have inflicted wounds on his body We have inflicted them through cruelty and they will receive us through mercy serving us towards Heaven for a chariot of triumph as they were to us on earth a mirrour in life and a sepulcher in death The sixth EXAMPLE upon the sixth Drawn out of Simeon of Constantinoplâ MAXIM Of the secret Power of Praedestination PROCOPIUS PRaedestination is an admirable secret wherein Marvellous secret of Praedestination experience teacheth us there is nothing which the happy ought not to fear nor any thing the miserable may not hope Stars fall from the firmament to be changed into dung-hills and dung-hills of the earth mount to Heaven to be metamorphosed into stars The graces of God insinuate themselves by secret ways and the impressions of the will are extreamly nice all that past is a dream and the future a cloud where thunders murmur in the dark We tremble when we read in the History of holy Historia Patrum orientis Raderus Fathers that an Hermit grown white in the austerities of Religion understanding a notable thief had gained Heaven by a sigh he cast forth in the instant of his death was much displeased and presently became nought because God was good blaming his mercy to trie his justice For one sole censure made him loose forty years of penance and drew his foot out of Paradise to deliver his soul to hell I purpose here consequently to produce a singular conversion that you may admire and fear the secret ways of God Simeon of Constantinople is the Authour of it who enlarged it with many words but I will abbreviate it into good proportion which shall render it no whit the less effectual The Emperour Diocletian having pacified Aegypt sojourned sometime in Antioch of purpose to destroy Actor 12. the name of Jesus Christ in the same place where the faithfull began to be called Christians Theodosia a Procopius presented to Dioclesian great Ladie came to him bringing her son along with her named Neanias in very good equipage with purpose to prefer him in Court and satisfie her ambition To make her self the more acceptable she freely protested her deceased husband died a Christian that she had often attempted to work him to forsake this superstition adverse to Gods and men and that being unable to prevail upon his inveterate obstinacy she had manured this young plant speaking of her son carefully training him in the service of the gods and Prince with infinite detestation against Christianitie Diocletian who was much delighted with such accidents loudly praised the Ladie and casting his eye on Neanias he found him of handsom shape good presence understanding and valiant whereof he conceived great hope he might prove hereafter a principal instrument of his desires That which also pleased him the more
father which was done he remaining unknown in the Citie of Sydon But that he was now returned as from the gates of death to demand his right as being the indubitate and lawfull heir of the Kingdom This Impostour had gained a subtile fellow a servant of Herod's houshold who taught him all the particulars of the Court the better to colour his counterfeiting He led the Bear through all the Citie with good success and great applause of the people who embraced this false Alexander as a man returned back from the other world For besides that the Jews were credulous enough in any thing which flattered them they were ever much inclined to the race of poor Mariamne whose son this man counterfeited to be under this pretext he was very welcome into all the Cities where there were any Jews and the poor Nation freely impoverished themselves to afford some reasonable support to this imaginary King When he saw himself strong in credit and coyn he was so confident as to go to Rome to question the Crown against Heroa's other sons there wanted not those whereof some countenancing him by credulity others through the desire they had of alteration bare him to the throne He failed not to present himself before Augustus Caesar the God of fortune and distributour of Crowns shewing he had been condemned to death by his own father through false rumours but was delivered by the goodness of the God he adored and the mercifull hands of the ministers of execution who durst not attempt on his person beseeching him to pitie a fortune so wretched and a poor King who threw himself at his feet as before the sanctuary of justice and mercy Every one seemed already to favour him But Augustus a Monarch very penetrating perceived this man tasted not of a Prince for taking him by the hand he found his skin rough as having heretofore exercised servile labours Hereupon the Emperour drew him aside saying Content thy self to have hitherto abused all the world but know thou art now before Augustus to whom thou must no more tell a lie than unto God I will pardon thee on condition thou discover the truth of this matter but if thou liest in any one point thou art utterly lost This man was so amazed with the lustre of such majesty that prostrating himself at his feet he began to confess all the imposture Augustus perceived by the narration he was none of the most daring in impostures and said Friend I give thee thy life on condition thou ransom it in my Galleys thou hast a strong body and canst well labour the Scepter would have been too full of trouble I will have thee take an Oar in hand and live hereafter an honest man without deceiving any As for the Doctour who had been Tutour to this counterfeit Alexander the Emperour observing him to be of a spirit more crafty and accustomed to evil practises caused him speedily to be put to death One might make a huge Volume of such Impostours as have been entrapped in their tricks but satisfie your self with experience of Ages and if you dare believe me take in all your affairs a manner of proceeding noble free sincere and true throughly perswading your self what the Wise-man said That he who goes forward with simplicity walketh most confidently XII MAXIM Of REVENGE THE PROPHANE COURT THE HOLY COURT That it is good to reign over men like a Lion and take revenge not permitting fresh favours to abolish the memorie of old grievances That mildness and pardon is the best revenge THis maxim of the prophane Court more properly proceeds from the throat of Tygres and Lions than the lips of men but being harsh in execution it is ever direfull in it's effects The experience How this maxim opposeth common sense of Tiberiuses Caligulaes Neroes Domitians Herodes and so many other who have pursued this with events so tragical and lives so monstrous are fit lessons to convince a heart which yet retaineth some humanity All power imployed onely to hurt is ever pernicious Notable verities and having made havock it resembleth the ruins of buildings which overwhelm not any but such as they oppress by falling on them Man is a creature more tender than any other and must be handled with much respect Nor is there any bloud so base which ought not to be spared as much as justice and reason may permit The most part of men in these miseries and weaknesses of nature seldom hit upon innocencie but by passing through many errours He who cannot tolerate some one banisheth all virtue He must necessarily excuse many things within himself who pardons nothing in another If he think himself a God his nature ought to be mercie and if a man the experience of his own faults should render him more favourable to the like in another It is a strange folly to think greatly to prosper by rigour For all done through fear being forced cannot be of long lasting unless the course of humanity fail The savage beast is then much to be dreaded when he sees the knife on one side and rails on the other There is no strength so feeble which becomes not fierce upon the defensive within the limits of necessity A man who menaceth every one with blows of a cudgel sword or fire should remember he is not a Briareus with an hundred hands and hath but one life Now becoming cruel and inexorable he makes himself an enemy of all mankind which hath so many hands and so many lives Such an one thinks he is well accompanied in revenge who shall find himself all alone in peril Then let us here say there is nothing so Sovereign The scope of the discourse for the government of men as the love of a neighbour clemency and pardon and that the character of an excellent nature is to forgive all other so much as reason may permit and to pardon nothing in himself Love is the first law of nature and last accomplishment Excellencie of love of our felicity Love from all eternity burneth in the bosom of the living God and if he breath with his Word as he doth with a respiration substantial he breaths nought but love He respiteth this love by necessity within himself he inspireth it by grace out of himself and lastly draws all to himself by love The worthy S. Dyonisius in the book of Divine attributes Division of love ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã S. Dyoni distinguisheth three sorts of love one is called circular the other love in a right line and the third oblike Circular love properly is that which carrieth the soul with full flight into the bosom of God and there holds it as in a sweet circle of ravishing contemplations which transport it from perfection to perfection never finding end or beginning in the Divinity Love in a right line is that which tends directly to creatures by wayes not onely lawful and lawdable loving them for God of God and in
Charls of Anjou much fearing this young Lion forgat His sentence and death all generosity to serve his own turn and did a most base act detested by all understandings that have any humanity which is that having kept Conradinus a whole year in a straight prison he assembled certain wicked Lawyers to decide the cause of one of the noblest spirits at that time under heaven who to second the passion of their Master rendered the laws criminal and served themselves with written right to kill a Prince contrary to the law of nature judging him worthy of death in that said they he disturbed the peace of the Church and aspired to Empire A scaffold was prepared in a publick place all hanged with red where Conradinus is brought with other Lords A Protonotary clothed after the ancient fashion mounteth into a chair set there for the purpose and aloud pronounceth the wicked sentence After which Conradinus raising himself casting an eye ful of fervour and flames on the Judge said Base and cruel slave as thou art to open thy mouth to condemn thy Sovereign It was a lamentable thing to see this great Prince on a scaffold in so tender years wise as an Apollo beautiful as an Amazon and valiant as an Achilles to leave his head under the sword of an Executioner in the place where he hoped to crown it âe called heaven earth to bear witness of Charls his cruelty who unseen beheld this goodly spectacle froÌ an high turret He complained that his goods being taken from him they robbed him of his life as a thief that the blossom of his age was cut off by the hand of a hang-man taking away his head to bereave him of the Crown lastly throwing down his glove demanded an account of this inhumanity Then seeing his Cousin Frederick's head to fall before him he took it kissed it and laid it to his bosom asking pardon of it as if he had been the cause of his disaster in having been the companion of his valour This great heart wanting tears to deplore it self wept over a friend and finishing his sorrows with his life stretched out his neck to the Minister of justice Behold how Charls who had been treated with all humanity in the prisons of Sarazens used a Christian Prince so true it proves that ambition seemeth to blot out the character of Christianity to put in the place of it some thing worse than the Turbant This death lamented through all the world yea which maketh Theaters still mourn sensibly struck the heart of Queen Constantia his Aunt wife of Peter of Arragon She bewailed the poor Prince with tears which could never be dried up as one whom she dearly loved and then again representing to her self so many virtues and delights drowned in such generous bloud and so unworthily shed her heart dissolved into sorrow But as she was drenched in tears so her husband thundred in arms to revenge his death He rigged out a fleet of ships the charge whereof he Collenutius histor Neapol l. 5. c. 4. 5. recommended to Roger de Loria to assail Charls the second Prince of Salerno the onely son of Charls of Anjou who commanded in the absence of his father The admiral of the Arragonian failed not to encounter The son of Charls of Anjou taken him and sought so furiously with him that having sunck many of his ships he took him prisoner and brought him into Sicily where Queen Constantia was expecting the event of this battle She failed not to cause the heads of many Gentlemen to be cut off in revenge of Conradinus so to moisten his ashes with the bloud of his enemies Charls the Kings onely son was set apart with nine principal Lords of the Army and left to the discretion of Constantia Her wound was still all bloudy and the greatest of the Kingdom counselled her speedily to put to death the son of her capital enemy yea the people mutined for this execution which was the cause the Queen having taken order for his arraignment and he thereupon condemned to death she on a Friday morning sent him word it was now time to dispose himself for his last hour The Prince nephew to S. Lewis and who had some sense of his uncles piety very couragiously received these tidings saying That besides other courtesies he had received from the Queen in prison she did him a singular favour to appoint the day of his death on a Friday and that it was good reason he should die culpable on the day whereon Christ died innocent This speech was related to Queen Constantia who was therewith much moved and having some space bethought her self she replyed Tell Prince Charls if he take contentment to suffer An excellent passage of clemency death on a Friday I will likewise find out mine own satisfaction to forgive him on the same day that Jesus signed the pardon of his Executioners with his proper bloud God forbid I shed the bloud of a man on the day my Master poured out his for me Although time surprize me in the dolour of my wounds I will not rest upon the bitterness of revenge I freely pardon him and it shall not be my fault that he is not at this instant in full liberty This magnanimous heart caused the execution to be staied yet fearing if she left him to himself the people might tear him in pieces she sent him to the King her husband entreating by all which was most pretious unto him to save his life and send him back to his Father Peter of Arragon who sought his own accommodation in so good a prize freed him from danger of death yet enlarged him not suddenly For his deliverance must come from a hand wholly celestial Sylvester Pruere writes that lying long imprisoned in the City of Barcellon the day of S. Mary Magdalen aproaching who was his great Patroness he disposed himself to a singular devotion fasting confessing his sins communicating begging of her with tears to deliver him from this captivity Heaven was not deaf to his prayers Behold on the day of the feast he perceived a Lady full of Majesty who commanded him to follow her at which words he felt as it were a diffusion of extraordinary joy spread over his heart He followed her step by step as a man rapt and seeing all the gates flie open before her without resistance and finding himself so cheerful that his body seemed to have put on the nature of a spirit he well perceived heaven wrought wonders for him The Lady looking on him after she had gone some part of the way asked him where he thought he was to which he replied that he imagined himself to be yet in the Territory of Barcellon Charls you are deceived said she you are in the County of Provence a league from Narbon and thereupon she vanished Charls not at all doubting the miracle nor the protection of S. Mary Magdalen prostrated himself on the earth adoring
all the fair riches of the earth The ambitious perish as spiders who present wretched threeds and some little flies in them such are also the snares pursuits and businesses of the world But the Just forsake us like the silk-worm For this little creature had it understanding would be well pleased issuing forth of her prison to become a butterflie to see the goodly halle of great men Churches and Altars to smile under her works What a contentment to the conscience of a just man in death to consider the Churches adorned Altars covered poor fed sins resisted virtues crowned like so many pieces of tapistry by the work of his hands Hath he not cause to say I entered into the list I valiantly 1 Tim. 4. Bonum certamen certavâ cursum consummavi in reliquo reposita est mihi corona justitiae Exhortation to such nice people as fear death fought I have well ended my race there remains nothing more for me but to wear the Crown of Justice which God keeps for me as a pledge 6. I yet come again to thee worldly man who so much fearest this last hour Learn from this discourse to fortifie thy self against these vain apprehensions of death which have more disturbance for thee than the Sea surges Is it not a goodly thing to see thee tremble at thy enterance into so beaten a path wherein so many millions have passed along before thee and the most timorous of the earth have finished their course as well as the rest without any contradiction All that which seemeth most uneasie in this passage is much sweetened by two considerations the first whereof is That God made it so common that there is no living creature exempt and the other That to dispose us to a great death we every night find in our sleep a little death Wilt thou then still doubt to set thy foot-steps firmly in the paths which the worlds Saviour with his holy Mother imprinted with their tracks After thou hast slept so many years and so long passed through the pettie miseries of death shalt thou never come to the great Why art thou so apprehensive of death Sickness and miseries of the world will one day perhaps make thee desire that which thou now most fearest Were it not better to do by election what must be suffered by necessity Hast thou so little profited in the world that thou hast not yet some friend some one dearly beloved who passed into the other life Needs must thou have very little affection in store for him if thou fearest the day which should draw thee near to his company What is it maketh all these apprehensions arise in thy mind Is it so ill with thee to forsake a world so treacherous so miserable so corrupt If thou hast been therin perpetually happy which is very rare couragiously set a seal upon thy felicity and be not weary of thy good hap which may easily be changed into a great misfortune Many have lived too long by one year others by one day which made them see what they feared more than death But if thou be afflicted and persecuted in this life why art thou not ashamed when God calleth thee to go out faintly from a place where thou canst not stay without calamitie Deplorest thou thy gold silver costly attire houses and riches Thou goest into a Countrey where thou no longer shalt need any of that They were remedies given thee for the necessities of life now that thy wounds shall be cured wouldest thou still wear the plaisters Bewailest thou loss of friends There are some who expect thee above which are better than the worldly more wise more assured and who will never afford thee ought but comfort Thou perhaps laments the habit of body and pangs of this passage It is not death then which makes thee wax pale but life thou so dearly lovedst It hath been told thee in the last agonies of death the body feeleth great disturbances that it turns here and there that one rubs the bed-cloths with his hands hath convulsions shuts fast the teeth choaketh words hath a trembling lower lip pale visage sharp nose troubled memory speech fumbling cold sweat the white of the eye sunk and the aspect totally changed What need we fear all that which perhaps will never happen to us How many are there who die very sweetly and almost not thinking of it You would say they are not there when it happens Caesar the Pretour died putting on his shoes Lucius Lepidius striking with his foot against a gate the Rhodian Embassadour having made an Oration before the Senate of Rome Anacreon drinking Torquatus eating a cake Cardinal Colonna tasting figs Xeuxes the Painter laughing at the Picture of an old woman he was to finish and lastly Augustus the Monarch performing a complement But if something must be endured think you the hand of God is stretched out to torment you above your force or shortened to comfort you He will give you a winter according to your wool as it is said sufferings according to the strength of your body and a crown for your patience You fear nothing say you of all that I mention but you dread Judgement Who can better order that than your self Had you been the most desperate sinner in the world if you take a strong resolution to make hereafter an exact and effectual conversion the arms of God are open to receive you He will provide for your passage doubt it not as he took care for your birth He will accompany you with his Angels he will hold you under the veil of his face under the shadow of his protection if he must purge you by justice he will crown you by his mercy The fifteenth EXAMPLE upon the fifteenth MAXIM The manner of dying well drawn from the Model of our LADIE ONe of the most important mysteries in the world is to die well It is never done but once and if one fail to perform it well he is lost without recovery It is the last lineament of the table of our life the last blaze of the torch extinguished the last lustre of the setting Sun the end of the race which gives a period to the course the great seal which signeth all our actions One may in death correct all the defects of an ill life and all the virtues of a good are defaced and polluted by an evil death The art of dying well being of so great consequence it seems God permitted the death of his Mother to teach us what ours ought to be The death of the Virgin Mary is the death of a Phenix which hath three conditions resolution disengagement and union I begin with resolution of conformity to the will 1. Quality of good death is the indifferency of time and manner of God which is the first quality should be had to die well That is to hold life in your hands as a loan borrowed from Heaven ever ready to restore it at the least
summons you shall have from the will of God It is not perfection not to care for life through impatience nor to have an ear not deaf to death through faintness of courage This resignation was most excellent and very admirable in our Ladie for two reasons First the great knowledge she had of beatitude Secondly the ineffable love she bare to her Son For I leave you to think if our desires follow the first rays of our knowledges and if we be so much the more earnest after a good as we are the better informed of its merit what impatience Patience of our Lady to endure life must our Ladie needs have of life since she received a science of beatitude strong powerful and resplendent above all other creatures God giving her leave to see in Calvarie the abyss of his glories in the depth of his dolours It is no wonder we so very easily affect life seeing we are as the little children of a King bred in the house of a shepheard as the gloss upon Daniel reporteth touching the education of Nebuchadnezzar We know not what a scepter Kingdom or crown is in this great meaness of a life base and terrestrial But had we talked onely one quarter of an hour with a blessed soul and discoursed of the state of the other life our hearts would wholly dissolve into desires Which makes me say It was an act of a most heroical resolution in the blessed Virgin in those great knowledges she had of Paradise to have continued so many years in this life and if you consider the most ardent love she bare her Son who was the adamant of all loves you shall find the holy Virgin who had born all the glory of Paradise in her womb more merited in this resignation she made to see her self separated the space of thirty years both from Paradise and her Son than all the Martyrs did in resigning themselves to deaths strange bloudy and hydeous There is nothing comparable to the martyrdom of Martyrdom of love love It is an exhalation in a cloud It is a fire in a myne a torrent shut up in ditches a night of separation lasteth Ages and all waxeth old for it but its desires Now this holy Mother to be thirty years upon the cross of love without repining without complaint or disturbance peaceably expecting the stroke of her hour what virtue and how far are we from it So now adays throughout the world you see nothing Worldly irresolutions of death Boet. Carm. 1. Eheu cur dura miseros averteris aure Et stentes oculos claudere saeva negos but mourners who are loth to live or faint-hearted that would never die Some crie out Come to me O sluggish death thou hast forgotten me what do I here I am but a living death and an unprofitable burden to the earth Ah death hast thou ears of brass and diamond for me alone Canst thou not shut up mine eyes which I daily drown in my tears Much otherwise when we see one die young fresh flourishing in honour wealth health prosperity we crie out upon death as if it were cruel and malicious To take saith one this young betrothed this poor maid this husband intended this excellent man who so well played the Rhodomont to lay hold of one so necessarie for the publick in the flower of his age Why took it not away this cripple this beggar who hath not wherewith to live Why took it not away this other who daily dies yet cannot die once O our manners O dainty conceits O fit language Were it not some little humane respect we would take Gods Providence by the throat Whom do we contend withal The indifferency we daily see in the death of men where as soon the young is taken as the old the happie as the miserable the Emperour as the porter is one of the greatest signs of Gods Providence to be admired Why then complain we that God maketh us to leave life when he pleaseth It is not a punishment but a wholesom doctrine by which we learn the power of the Divine Wisdom First when we entered into life our advise was not required whether we would be born in such or such an Age such a day such a year such an hour so when we must be gone from hence there is no reason to ask our counsel Let us onely yield up this last loan and not murmure against the father of the family Let us not say this man should go before and this after Who knows them better than God You complain this miserable creature lives so long how know you whether he accomplish the years of his purgatory How know you whether God suffers him to become a spectacle unto you of his patience Why gnash you your teeth for anger that this man rich that man fortunate and that other so qualified is taken hence in his flourishing youth How know you the misadventures and shipwracks which attended him had he still continued in the world You say he was necessary why God will shew there is not any thing necessary in the world but himself Vnâ aâulso non deficit alter aureus Poor eyes of a bat which see nothing but darkness you would give eyes to Argus and light to the Sun If you desire to take part in the prudence of the just handle the matter so that for the first sign of a good death you be ever indifferent to live or die accordding to our Ladies example Daily expect death stand perpetually on your guard Do as the brave bird the Grecians call Onocratalus which is so well practised Instinct of the Onocratalus Constancy of faith to expect the Hawk to grapple with her that even when sleep shuts up her eyes she sleepeth with her beak exalted as if she would contend with her adversary Know we are continually among rocks and dangers that there needs but one hour to get all or loose all that the day of Judgement comes with the pace of a thief and that we must be ready to receive it and resolute to combat with death to gain immortalitie Hold this concluding sentence of Tertul. Idol c. 2. Hos inter scopulos velisicata spiritu Dei fides navigat tuta si cauta secura si attonita Caeterúm ineluctabile excussis profundum inexplicabile impactis naufragium irrespirabile â devoratis hypocriphium Second quality of good death Philo l. 3. de vita Mosis in fine Notable speech of Philo of Moses his state ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Tertullian as an Oracle Amongst the rocks and shelves of this sea called life Christian faith passeth on breaking the waves filling the sails with Gods spirit ever assured yet ever distrustful and perpetually fearless yet still carefull of the future As for the rest it sees under its feet an abyss not to be passed by swimming and inexplicable ship wrack for those who are drenched a gulf which suffocates all such as it once swalloweth The second
with so much profusion that she could not endure to lodge but in chambers full of delicious perfumes of the East she would not wash her self but in the dew of Heaven which must be preserved for her with much skill Her garments were so pompous that nothing remainned but to seek for new stuffs in Heaven for she had exhausted the treasures of earth Her viands so dainty that all the mouthes of Kings tasted none so exquisite nor would she touch her meat but with golden forks and precious stones God to punish this cursed superfluity cast her on a bed and assailed her with a maladie so hydeous so stinking and frightfull that all her nearest kin were enforced to abandon her none staying about her but a poor old woman already throughly accustomed to stench and death yet could not this proud creature part with her infamous body but with sorrow She was of those souls that Plato calleth Phylosemates which tie themselves to flesh as much as they can and after death would gladly still walk round about their flesh to find a passage into it again Know you what is to be done to die well Cut off in good time the three chains which straightly bind foolish and sensual souls For the first passage that The way how to be well provided for death concerneth earthly goods seasonably dispose of your temporal Entangle not your hands for so short a time as you are to live in great affairs perilous and uncertain which will perplex you all your life and throw you down to death Do not like evil travellers who stay to reckon and contend with their hostess when it is already fair day-light and that the guid wrangles and sweareth at them Digest your little business that you may leave no trouble in your family after death Make a Will clear and perspicuous which draweth not suits after it Preserve your self carefully from imitating that wicked man who caused all his gold and silver to be melted into one mass to set his heirs together by the ears who killed one another sprinkling the apple of discord and the object of their avarice with their bloud Say to your self I brought nothing into the world nor will carry any thing away no not the desire of it Behold one part of my goods which must be restored to such and such these are true debts that must necessarily be discharged Behold another for pious legacies Another for alms to persons needy and indigent another for my servants male and female and my poor friends who have faithfully served me They have wasted their bodies and lives to contribute all they might to my will there is no reason I should forget them Nay I desire mine enemies have some part in my will As for my children and heirs the main shall go to them they will be rich enough if they be virtuous enough Behold how the temporal should be disposed And for so much as concerneth kinred give the benediction of God to your children and all your family leave worthy examples of contempt of the world of humility of patience of charity procure a full reconciliation with your enemies entertain your friends with sage discourses which may shew you gladly accept Gods visitations that you die full of resolutions to prepare them a place and that you expect from their charity prayers and satisfactions for your negligence and remisness If needs some small tribute must be paid to nature in two or three drops of tears it is tolerable But take away these whyning countenances these petty furies these mercenary weepers who weep not knowing why nor for what they mourn As for that which toucheth the state of your body it would be a goodly thing for you to be wail it after you have had so many troubles in it Go out of it like a Tennant from a ruinous house go from it as from a prison of earth and morter Go out of it as on the sea from a rotten leaky ship to leap on the shore and care not much what will become of it after death so it be on holy land Souls well mortified speak not of flesh considering the state of sin but with horrour Yea we find in the bequests of one of the sons of S. Lewis Count of Alencon these words I will Modesty of a son of S. Lewis the Tomb that shall cover my stinking flesh exceed not the charge of fiftie livres and that which encloseth my evil heart pass not thirty livres Behold how the son of one of the greatest Kings in the world speaketh of his body and would you idolatrize yours Lastly for the third condition of a good death it The third quality of a good death must have union with God whereof our Lady giveth us a perfect example For it being well verified by Theologie that there are three unions supernatural and as it were wholly ineffable the first whereof is the sacred knot of the most holy Trinitie which tieth three persons in one same Essence the second is the tie of the Word with humane nature which subsisteth by the hypostasis of the same Word and the third the intimate conjunction of a Son-God with a Mother-Virgin I affirm the Virgin being a pure creature cannot equal either the union of the Trinity or the hypostatical union yet notwithstanding hath the highest place of all created unions as she who was united to God when she lived in the world in the most sublime and sacred manner the spirits of the most exalted Seraphins might imagine which was most divinely expressed by S. Bernard She entered into a deep abyss of divine Profundissimam divinae sapientiae penetravit abyssum quantum sine personali unione creaturâ conditio patitur luci illi inaccesibili videatur immersa D. Bernard serm in signum magnum Mater mea quà m appellatis foelicem inde foelix quia verbum Dei custodit non quia in illa Verbum caro factum est c. Aug. tract 10 in Joan. wisdom so that she was united to light inaccessible so much as a creature might be permitted not arriving to the personal union of God But saying this I not onely speak of the union she had in quality of the Mother of God being one same flesh and one same substance with her Son but of the union of contemplation devotion and submission to the will of God which alone was the center of her felicity as witnesseth S. Augustine My Mother whom you call happie hath all her happiness not so much because the Word was made man in her as for that she kept the word of God who made her and who afterward allied himself to humane nature in her womb as he would say Our Lady was more happy to have conceived God in her heart and continually kept spiritual union with him than to have once brought him forth according to flesh We cannot arrive at this sublime union of the Mother of God but howsoever at least in the last
whereof the poor have too much been frustrated to establish thy vanities and fatten thee in pleasures Where is thy liberality Where are thy alms toward miserable creatures who die in affliction in the streets Observe justice and take example by my disasters Husband it is thy wife so beloved that speaks to thee saying Ah my dearest friends where is the faith plighted in the face of the Church Where are the faithful loves which should have no limit but eternity Death no sooner absented me from thy eyes but forgetfulness drew me out of thy heart I complain not thou livest happy and fortunate in thy new affections for I am in a condition wherein I can neither envy nor malice any but I complain that not onely after my death the children which are pledges of our love were distastful to thee but thou hast wholly lost the memory of one who was so precious to thee and whom thou as a Christian oughrest to love beyond a tomb Open yet once unto her the bowels of thy charity and comfort by thy alms and good works a soul which must expect that help from thee or some other The seventeenth EXAMPLE upon the seventeenth MAXIM Apparition of Souls in Purgatorie HIstories tell us the apparation of souls in Purgatory are so frequent that he who would keep an account may as soon number the stars in the sky or leaves on the trees But as it is not fit to be too credulous in all may be said thereupon so a man must be very impudent to deny all is spoken of it and to oppose as well the authority of so many great personages as the memory of all Ages He who believes nothing above nature will not believe a God of nature How many extraordinary things are there the experience whereof teacheth us the effects and of which God hideth the reasons from us The Philosopher Democritus disputing with Solinus Polyhistor the Sages of his time concerning the secret power of nature held commonly in his hand the stone called cathocita which insensibly sticketh to such as touch it and they being unable to give a reason of it he inferred there were many secrets which are rather to humble our spirits than to satisfie our curiosity Who Jul. Scal. A Porta Caâeraâ can tell why the theamede which is a kind of adamant draweth iron on one side and repelleth it on the other Why do the forked branches of the nut-tree turn towards mines of gold and silver Why do bees often die in the hives after the death of the Master of the family unless they be else-where transported Why doth a dead body cast forth bloud in the presence of the murderer Why do certain fountains in the current of their waters and in their colour carry presages of seasons as that of Blomuza which waxeth red when the countrey is menaced with war Why have so many noble families Diââarus Petrus Albinus certain signs which never fail to happen when some one of the family is to die The commerce of the living with spirits of the dead is a matter very extraordinarie but not impossible to the Father of spirits who holdeth total nature between his hands Peter of Clugny surnamed the Venerable and esteemed in his time as the oracle of France was a man who proceeded in these affairs with much consideration not countenancing any thing either frivolous or light Behold the cause wherefore I willingly make use of his authority He telleth that in a village of Spain named the Star there was a man of quality called Peter of Engelbert much esteemed in the world for his excellent parts and abundant riches Notwithstanding the spirit of God having made him understand the vanity of all humane things being now far stepped into years he went into a Monastery of the Order of Clugny there the more piously to pass the remnant of his dayes as it is said the best incense cometh from old trees He often spake amongst the holy Fryers of a vision which he saw when he as yet was in the world and which he acknowledged to be no small motive to work his conversion This bruit came to the ears of Venerable Peter who was his General and who for the affairs of his Order was then gone into Spain Behold the cause why he never admitting any discourses to be entertained if they were not well verified took the pains to go into a little Monastery of Nazare where Engelbert was to question him upon it in the presence of the Bishops of Oleron and Osma conjuring him in the virtue of holy obedience to tell him punctually the truth touching the vision he had seen whilest he led a secular life This man being very grave and very circumspect in all he said spake the words which the Authour of the historie hath couched in his proper terms In the time that Alphonsus the younger heir of the great Alphonsus warred in Castile against certain factious dis-united from his obedience he made an Edict that every family in his Kingdom should be bound to furnish him with a souldier which was the cause that for obedience to the Kings commands I sent into his army one of my houshold-servants named Sancius The wars being ended and the troups discharged he returned to my house where having some time so journed he was seized by a sickness which in few dayes took him away into the other world We performed the obsequies usually observed towards the dead and four moneths were already past we hearing nought at all of the state of his soul when behold upon a winters night being in my bed throughly awake I perceived a man who stirring up the ashes of my hearth opened the burning coals which made him the more easily to be seen Although I found my self much terrified with the sight of this ghost God gave me courage to ask him who he was and for what purpose he came thither to lay my hearth abroad But he in a very low voice answered Master fear nothing I am your poor servant Sancius I go into Castile in the company of many souldiers to expiate my sins in the same place where I committed them I stoutly replied If the commandment of God call you thither to what purpose come you hither Sir saith he take it not amiss for it is not without the Divine permission I am in a state not desperate and wherein I may be helped by you if you bear any good will towards me Hereupon I required what his necessity was and what succour he expected from me You know Master said he that a little before my death you sent me into a place where ordinarily men are not sanctified Liberty ill example youth and temerity all conspire against the soul of a poor souldier who hath no government I committed many out-rages during the late war robbing and pillaging even to the goods of the Church for which I am at this present grievously tormented But good Master if you loved me
be therein sufficiently informed The Jews were heretofore the chosen people and are become the reprobate God for them drave back the waves of the read sea and suffered them to walk drie-foot between two waters as between two chrystal vaults and afterward why did he drown them so many times in rivers of their bloud with so horrible slaughters that in the whole siege of Jerusalem under Titus and Vespasian were reckoned according to Josephus his calculation eleven hundred thousand Vide Iosephum Hegesippum Thraenos dead God opened to them the sides of rocks to quench their thirst and afterward why dried he up the dugs of women who saw their little ones die between their arms they unable to give them one drop of milk God for them made Manna and clouds of Quails to showt and why afterward did he so afflict them with such cruel and enraged a famine that the hands of mercifull mothers slew and roasted on coals their own proper children and eat them to satisfie their hunger God carried them through deserts as upon eagles wings and wherefore afterward did he abandon them to eagles and vultures which so many times made carrion of the bodies of his children God had given them a land so fat and fruitful that it streamed altogether milk and honey and wherefore afterward had it entrails of iron denying food to the living yea burial to the dead God gave them strength as a devouring fire before which all Nations were but as straw and why afterwards became it the shuttle-cock of the arms of Infidels God gave them liberty for an inheritance and why afterward obtained they not so much as an honourable servitude Why at the siege of Jerusalem among so many thousand prisoners did they so much disdain to make use of a Jew that there being never a a Cross to crucifie them they were reserved for beasts to devour them rather than derive any service from them God gave them knowledge and wherefore afterwards became they blockish idle and stupid in all learning God ordained for them the assistance and protection of Angels and why afterward forsook they their Temple crying out aloud Let us depart let us depart from hence God destined to them Royalty and Empire over neighbouring Nations and why afterward had they not one inch of land at their own dispose and especially of land where formerly Jerusalem was built unless they purchased it with money onely to enjoy it one hour or two in the year and weep over it and bedew it with the water of their eyes after they had so often moistened it with their bloud God established priest-hood to them and afterwards what became of Jerusalem the Holy What became of Solomon's Temple the miracle of the world Where is the Propitiatory the Table of Proposition-bread the Rational which was before the peoples oracle Where is the majesty of High-priests the comeliness of Prelates the perpetuity of Sacrifices From whence comes it that it is above fifteen hundred years ago since this miserable Nation goes wandering through the Regions of the earth as abandoned into an eternal exile without Priests without Temple without Sacrifice without Prince King or government O eternal God how hast thou thrown down thy foot-stool O God of justice how hast thou made desolate thy royal Priesthood O God of vengeance how hast thou suffered thy Sanctuary to be profaned Who hath ever heard speech of such a punishment There have been adulteries rapines concussions gluttonies yea and idolatries which God hath not revenged in this manner A captivity of three-score and ten years expiated all these sins but this after fifteen hundred years to what sin may we attribute it but to the neglect of the essence of the Word Incarnate After the time that the Son of God shut his eyes steeped in tears and bloud over the miserable Jerusalem he never hath opened them to afford them mercy A Lord so sweet so mild so clement as that he raised thieves almost from bloud and robbery in an instant to thrones of glory for having acknowledged and confessed his name so roughly to chastise the neglect of his authority for the space of so many Ages what meaneth this but to prove the opposing of the divine Essence of God is a crime of all the most hydeous and unspeakable Run over the Histories of antiquity as long as you Tragical events of the wicked please revolve in your memory all the experiences which your Age may afford and if you see the impious come to a good end say There is no cause of fear Cain their Patriarch banished from the sight of God lived long like a melancholy spirit among forrests with a perpetual affrightment until Lamech took away his life The Cainists were all drenched in the waters of the deluge Pharaoh drowned in the Red-sea Nebuchadnezzar turned into a beast Holofernes slain in his bed by the hand of a woman Senacherib lost one hundred four-score and five thousand men for a blasphemy Antiochus strucken with a horrible maladie Birds did eat the tongue of Nicanor and his hand was hanged up over against the Temple Heliodorus was visibly chastised by Angels Herodes Agrippa born from the Theater to the bed of death The President Saturninus strucken blind Hermianus eaten by worms in his Pretourship Leo the fourth all covered over with botches and carbuncles Bamba crowned with a diadem of pitch after his eyes were pulled out Julian the Apostate strucken with a dart from Heaven Michael the Emperour who had in his train a heap of young scoffers that in scorn counterfeited the ceremonies of the Church was torn in pieces as a victim by his own servants Olympius strucken with thunder in a bath And if we observe times more near Rogero dragged to a laystall Vanin burnt at Tholouse Alsan Calefat divided between fire and water and slain by his own hand Great eye of God which art ever open upon the sins of the earth who can steal himself from the lightning-flashes Great hand of God who thunderest and lightenest perpetually over rebellious heads who is able to resist thy justice Advice to Youth and such as too easily give way to impietie O Unfortunate youth who having received the first tincture of good instruction after thou wert bred with so much care and honour by those to whom thou owedst thy birth betrayest the tears of thy parents the travels of thy teachers and the whole hopes of the publick How canst thou embark thy self among these treacherous and ignominious associates How canst thou walk among so many shelves and precipices not so much as once opening thy eyes to behold the abyss thou hast under thy feet So many heads crushed in pieces under the Divine vengeance are as broken masts and shivers of a shipwrack advanced on the promontory of rocks to give notice of the deplorable events they have found whose examples thou still pursuest yet thou lookest on them with arms across and dallyest in
world the benefits that God hath conferred upon their families is it not most fitting that we endeavour to acknowledge in some manner the liberality of the Divine Majesty This act consisteth in three things First in the Memory which represents to the Understanding the benefit received and this Understanding considers the hand that gives them and to whom and how and wherefore and by what ways and in what measure Thereupon an affectionate acknowledgement is framed in the Will which not able to continue idle spreads it self into outward acts to witness the fervour of its affection To practise this well it is requisite to make a catalogue of the benefits of God which are contained in three kinds of goodness and mercy The first is that whereby he drew this great Universe out of the Chaos and darkness of nothing to the light of being and life for our sakes creating a world of such greatness beauty profit measure order vicissitude continuance and preserving it as it wereby the continual breathing of his spirit affording to every thing its rank form propriety appetite inclination scituation limits and accomplishment But above all making man as a little miracle of Nature with the adornments of so many pieces so well set to bear in his aspect the beams of his own Majestie The second bounty is that whereby he hath decreed to raise in man all that is natural to a supernatural estate The third that whereby he hath raised the nature of man being fallen into sin into miserie into the shadow of death to innocence bliss light and eternal life This is the incomprehensible mystery of the Incarnation of the Word which comprehends six other benefits that is the benefit of the doctrine and wisdom of Heaven conferred on us the benefit of our Saviors good examples the benefit of Redemption the benefit of Adoption into the number of Gods children the benefit of the treasure of the merits of Jesus Christ the benefit of the blessed Eucharist Besides those benefits which are in the generality of Christianity we are to represent in all humility often to our selves the particular favours received from God in our birth nourishment education instruction in gifts of soul and body in means and conveniences in friends allies kinred in vocation estate and profession of life in continued protection in deliverance out of so many dangers in vicissitude of adversities and prospeâity in guidance through the degrees of age wherein every one in his own particular may acknowledge infinite passages of the Divine Providence All this pouring it self upon the soul with consideration of the circumstances of each benefit at last draws from the Will this act of acknowledgement which maketh it to say with the Prophet David Who am I O Lord God and what is my house that thou hast brought me bitherto 2 Sam 7. 18. The seventh SECTION A Pattern of Thanksgiving HEreupon you shall give thanks for all benefits in general and particularly for those you have received at present which at that time you are to set before you that may season this action with some new relish The Church furnisheth us with an excellent form of Thanksgiving to God in the hymn Te Deum or else say with the blessed spirits O God power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and blessing be unto thee for ever and ever O God glory be to thee on high and on earth peace good will towards men I bless thee I worship thee I give thanks to thee for thy great glory and thy benefits O Lord God heavenly King God the Father Almighty and thou also O Lord Jesus Christ my Saviour onely Son of the Heavenly Father perfect God and perfect man Thou that takest away the sins of the world and sittest at the right hand of God the Father And thou O Holy Gbost consubstantial with the Father and the Son most blessed Trinitie receive my prayers in giving thanks The eighth SECTION Of Offering or Oblation The third Act of Devotion REligion and Sacrifice had their beginning in the worlds infancy and ever since have been linked together by an indissoluble tie God who giveth all will have us give to him meaning we should take out of his store that which our Nothing cannot afford Observe here a thing remarkeable That as in the Law of Moses there were three kinds of Sacrifice that is Immolations Libations and Victims Immolations which were made of the fruits of the earth Libations of liquours as oyl and wine Victims of living creatures so likewise God requires that we give him our actions for fruits our affections for liquours and our selves for victims This is done by the act of Oblation or Offering which is a way of sacrifice by which we offer our selves and all that belongeth to us at the Altar of the Divine Majesty To perform this act well we must have first a pure apprehension of the power and dominion which God hath over us secondly an intimate knowledge of our own dependence upon him considering that we not onely have received being and all things annexed to being from his goodness but that we are also sustained perpetually by his hand as a stone in the air and that if he should let go never so little we should be dissolved into that Nothing out of which we are extracted From thence will arise an act of Justice in the will ready to give to God that which is his and as the Holocaust where the hoast was quite consumed in honour to the Divine Majestie was heretofore the noblest of all Sacrifices so will we imitate this excellent act of Religion by consecrating not onely our actions and affections but all that we are unto God wishing to be dissolved and annihilated for his sake if it might be for the glory of his Divine Majestie But if this annihilation cannot be real we must at the least form it to our mind in an extraordinary manner acquiring to our selves as much as is possible twelve dis-engagements wherein the perfection of the Holocaust consisteth The first is a divesting our selves of all affection to temporal things so that we no longer love any thing but for God of God and to God The second a dis-entangling from our own interest in all our actions The third an absolute mortifying of sensuality The fourth a separation from friendships sensual tural and acquired that they have no longer hold on our heart to the prejudice of virtue The fifth a banishing of worldly imaginations in such a manner that the meer representation of them may beget aversion and horrour in us The sixth a discharge from worldly cares not necessary to salvation The seventh a deliverance from bitterness of heart and discontents which ordinarily arise from eâcessive love to creatures The eighth a valiant flight from all kind of vanity of spirit The ninth a contempt of sensible consolations when God would have us to be weaned from them The tenth a renouncing of scruples of mind
As soon as you have received the Sacrament say this prayer of S. Bernard in his Meditations upon the Passion O Heavenly Father look down from thy Sanctuary from the Throne of thy glory upon the blessed sacrifice which our High Priest Jesus thy most innocent and sacred Son doth offer unto thee for the sins of his Brethren Pardon the multitude of our offences and have compassion upon our miseries Hearken to the voice of the bloud of that immaculate Lamb which crieth out to thee and he himself standeth before thee at the right hand of thy Majestie crowned with honour and glory Behold O Lord the face of thy Messias who hath been obedient to thee even unto death and put not his blessed wounds out of thy sight nor the satisfaction he made for our sins out of thy rememberance O let every tongue praise and bless thee in commemoration of thy infinite goodness who didst deliver thy onely Son over to death upon Earth to make him our most prevalent Advocate in Heaven For Petition Immediately after you have recited the Lords Prayer say these words of the aforesaid Liturgie O God be mindfull of all Pastours and faithfull people dwelling in all parts of the habitable world in the union of the Catholick Faith and preserve them in thy holy peace O God bless our most gracious King and his whole Kingdom hear the prayers which we offer up at thy Altar O God remember all those that travel by sea or land and are exposed to so many dreadfull dangers Remember the many poor prisoners and exiles who groan under the miseries of the world O God remember the sick and all such as are in any discomfort of mind Remember the many poor souls opprest with bitterness who implore thy succour Remember also the conversion of so many Hereticks Infidels and sinners whom thou hast created after thine own image O God remember our Friends and Benefactours Accept this sacrifice for us sinners and let us all feel the effects of thy Mercy drive away scandal war and heresie and grant us thy peace and love And at the end of the Communion O God pour down thy graces upon us direct our steps in thy ways strengthen us in thy fear confirm us in thy love and give us at last the inheritance of thy children It is very expedient also to have our devotions ordered for every day of the week The seventeenth SECTION Devotion ordered for the days of the Week WE may derive an excellent practise of Devotion for every day of the Week from the Hymn of S. Ambrose used by the Church For therein we learn to give God thanks for every work of the Creation and to make the greater world correspond with the lesser Sunday which is the day wherein the light was created we should render thanks to God for having produced this temporal light which is the smile of Heaven and joy of the world spreading it like cloth of gold over the face of the air and earth and lighting it as a torch by which we might behold his works Then penetrating further we will give him thanks for having afforded us his Son called by the Fathers The Day-bringer to communicate unto us the great light of faith which is as saith S. Bernard a Copy of Eternity we will humbly beseech him that this light may never be eclipsed in our understandings but may replenish us every day more and more with the knowledge of his blessed will And for this purpose we must hear the word of God and be present at Divine Service with all fervour and purity Take great heed that you stain not this day which God hath set apart for himself with any disorder nor give the first fruits of the week to Dagon which you should offer up at the feet of the Ark of the Covenant Munday which is the day wherein the Firmanent was created to separate the celestial waters from the inferiour and terrestrial we will represent unto our selves that God hath given us Reason as a Firmament to separate divine cogitations from animal and we will pray unto him to mortifie anger and concupiscence in us and to grant us absolute sway over all passions which resist the eternal Law Thesday the day wherein the waters which before covered the whole element of Earth were ranked in their place and the earth appeared to become the dwelling nurse and grave of man we will figure unto our selves the great work of the justification of the world done by the Incarnate Word who took away a great heap of obstacâes as well of ignorance as of sin that covered the face of the whole world and made a Church which like a holy Land appears laden with fruit and beauties to raise us up in Faith and to bury us in the hope of the Resurrection We will beseech him to take away all hinderances to our soul so many ignorances sins imperfections fears sorrows cares which detain it as in an abyss and to replenish us with the fruits of justice Wednesday wherein the Sun Moon and Stars were created we will propose unto our selves for object the Beauty and Excellency of the Church of God adorned with the presence of the Saviour of the world as with a Sun and with so many Saints as with Stars of the Firmament and we will humbly beseech God to embellish our soul with light and virtue suitable to its condition Especially to give us the six qualities of the Sun Greatness Beauty Measure Feâvour Readiness and Fruitfulness Greatness in the elevation of our mind above all created things and in a capacity of heart which can never be filled with any thing but God Beauty in gifts of grace Measure to limit our passions Fervour in the exercise of charity Readiness in the obedience we ow to his Law Fruitfulness in bringing forth good works Toursday the day wherein God as S. Ambrose saith drew the birds and fishes out of the waters the birds to flie in the air and the fishes to dwell in this lower Element We will imagine the great separation which shall be made at the day of Gods judgement when so vast a number of men extracted from one and the same mass some shall be raised on high to people Heaven and enjoy the sight of God others shall be made a prey to hell and everlasting torments And in this great abyss and horrour of thought we will beseech God to hold us in the number of his elect and to be pleased to mark out our predestination in our good and commendable actions Friday wherein the other creatures were brought forth and man created who was then appointed to them for a King and Governour we will set before us the greatness excellency and beauty of this Man in the Talents which God hath given him as well of grace as of nature How much it cost to make him the hands of the Creatour being employed in his production Hands saith S. Basil which were to him as a
go under hatches to sleep like the out-casts and scorns of humane Nature The fifth the peace of a good conscience the inseparable companion of honest men which sugereth all their tears which sweeteneth all their sharpness which melteth all their bitterness a continual feast a portable theater a delicious torrent of unspeakable content which beginneth in this world and is often felt in this life even in chains prisons persecutions what then will it be when consummated in the other life when the curtain of the great Tabernacle shall be withdrawn when we shall see God face to face in a body impossible as an Angel subtile as a beam of light swift as the wings of thunder bright as the Sun and when we shall dwell among so goodly and flourishing a company in a palace of inestimable glory where we shall enjoy no life but the life of God the knowledge of God the love of God as long as God shall be God Nescio quid erit quod ista vita non erit ubi lucet quod non capiat locus ubi sonat quod non rapit tempus ubi olet quod non spargit flatus ubi sapit quod non minuit edacitas ubi haeret quod non divellit aeternitas said S. Augustine What will that life be or rather what will not that life be Since all good either is not at all or is in such a life Light which place cannot comprehend Voices and musick which time cannot ravish away Odours which are never dissipated a Feast which is never consumed a Blessing which Eternitie bestoweth but Eternity shall never see at an end The sixth is on the other side to consider the state of this present life A true dream which hath onely the disturbances but never the rest of sleep a childish sport a toil of burthensom and ever-relapsing actions where for one rose we meet with a thousand thorns for an ounce of hony a tun of gall for apparent good real evil The happiest here may number their years but not their cares The paths here to the highest honours are all of ice and often bordered onely by precipices Its felicities are floating Islands which always retire when we but offer to touch them they are the feast of Heliogabalus where are many invitations many ceremonies many complements many services and at the end of all this we find a table banquet of wax which melts at the fire whence we return more hungry than we came It is the enchanted egg of Oromazes in which that Impostour boasted that he had enclosed all the happines of the world but broken there was found nothing but wind Omnia haec conspectui nostro insidiosis coloribus lenocinantur vis illa occulorum attributa lumini non applicetur errori saith Eucherius All these prosperities flatter our senses with an imposture of false colours why do we suffer those eyes to be taken in the snares of errours which are given us by Heaven to behold the light and not to minister unto lying Besides another thing which should put us into an infinite dislike of this present life is that we live in a time as full of diseases as old age of indispositions we live in a world extreamly corrupt of which may be said it is a monster whose understanding is a pit of darkness his reason a shop of malice his will a hell where thousands of passions outragiously infest him his eyes are two Conduit-pipes of fire out of which flie sparkles of concupiscence his tongue an instrument of cursing his face a painted hypocrisie his body a spunge full of filth his hands harpies talons and to conclude he owns no faith but infidelity no Lord but his passion no God but his belly what content can there be in living with such a monster The seventh If there are any pleasures in this life they do nothing but overflow the heart slightly with a little superficial delectation Sadness dives into the bottom of my soul and when it is there you would think it hath leaden feet never to go thence but pleasure doth onely tickle us in the outside of the skin and then all those sweet waters run down with haste to discharge themselves into the sea of bitterness For this reason Saint Augustine said when any prosperity presented it self before his eyes he durst not touch it he beheld pleasure as a wandering bird that would deceive him and flie away as soon as he should offer to lay hold of it The eighth Pleasures are begot in the sense and like abortives die in their birth their desires are full of disquiet their access of violent forced and turbulent commotions their satiety is seasoned with shame and repentance they pass away as soon as they have wearied out the body and leave it like a bunch of grapes whose juice hath been pressed out as saith Saint Bernard They stretch themselves out at full length to much purpose when they must end with this life and it is a great chance if even during life they prove not executioner to him that entertains them I see no greater pleasure in this world than the contempt of pleasure Nulla major voluptas qâà m voluptatis fastidium saith Tertullian The ninth He that consumeth his time in pleasures when they slide away like waters occasioned by a storm findeth himself destitute and ashamed like a Pilgrim despoiled by a Thief so many golden harvests which time presented to him are passed away and the rust of a heavy age furnished him with nothing but sorrow for having done ill and impotence to do well what then remains but to say with that miserable King who gave away his scepter for a glass of water Alas Must I for so short a pleasure loose so great a Kingdom The tenth Sin always carrieth sorrow behind it but not always true repentance It is an extraordinary favour from God to have time to bewail the offences of our life past and to take that time by the foretop Many are sent into the other world without once thinking of their departure and some think of it at their death with many tears but not one good act of repentance they weep for the sins which forsake them and not for God whom they have lost True contrition is a hard work how can he obtain it who hath ever falsified it Faciliùs inveni qui innocentiam servarent quà m qui congruè poenitentiam agerent saith S. Ambrose The eleventh Death all this while is coming on a great pace he waits for you at all hours in all places and yet you cannot wait for him so much as one minute so displeasing is this thought unto you his sentence is more clear and perspicuous than if it were written with the Suns beams and yet cannot we read it his trumpet soundeth perpetually more audibly than thunder and yet we hear it not No wonder that David Psal 49. 4. calleth it according to the Hebrew a Riddle every one beholds the Tablet but
hath arrived at this degree ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a little Deitie conversing in mortal flesh and addeth That as all good Oratours endeavour to be like Demosthenes so our whole employment in this life must be to beget in our selves a resemblance to God it is that wherein lies all our perfection The third SECTION Perfection and wherein it consisteth NOw lest this Doctrine which is something too sublime should dazle your sight and not enflame your courage I will lay before you a more familiar Divinity which is that there are two kinds of Perfection the one of Glory the other of Pilgrimage That of Glory is reserved for the next life that of Pilgrimage is our chiefest affair in this It is divided ordinarily into perfection of state and perfection of operation Perfection of state is as that of Ecclesiastical degrees and Magistrates who are obliged by the duty of their profession not onely to the common virtues but also to others more eminent Perfection of operation is that which consisteth in good habits Never trouble your self with the perfection of state but live contented with that condition wherein Gods Providence hath placed you assuring your self that the best philosophie is to discharge your office well It imports not upon what stuff you work so you work well for it is the manner and not the matter which shall bear the prize Great dignities are oftentimes great vizards behind which lies no brain and small fortunes may with little noise do such things as are of no small value with God Apply your self earnestly to the perfection of operation which consisteth in guiding the Heart Tongue and Hands in perfect charity Addict your self to the practise of good and solid virtues which produce all wonders on earth and receive all Crowns in Heaven The fourth SECTION Virtues and their degrees IF you desire to know their names qualities and degrees I will tell you a wise saying of Plato There are four kinds of Virtues the first Purgative the second Illuminative the third Civil the fourth Exemplary The Purgative serve to cleanse our hearts of vices and imperfections to which our depraved nature is subject The Illuminative settle the soul in a calm resulting from the victory we have gained over passions The Civil encline a man to the duty he oweth his neighbour every one according to his degree and to a good conversation amongst men The Exemplary are those which make the furthest progress into perfection and may be looked upon as models whereof the beholders are to take copy So order it that your virtues may arrive at such a height as that they may not onely purge your heart enlighten your soul and dispose you to good conversation but may be as a light also to others to manifest you in them by imitation of your good example I adde here in few words the definitions and acts of virtue by which you may direct your practise Prudence Prudence according to Aristotle is a virtue which ordereth and prepareth all things that concern the ordering of our life Richardus de Sancto Victore assigneth to it five parts that is Judgement Deliberation Disposition Discretion and Moderation Judgement discerneth the good from the bad Deliberation teacheth how to do all things advisedly Disposition sheweth what order we must observe Discretion instructeth how to give way sometimes to occasions and yield to humane infirmities not adhering obstinately to our own opinions Moderation holdeth the scales and measure of every affair The effects hereof according to Albertus Magnus are these To proceed to the knowledge of God by the knowledge of your self to see in every thing what is best and to embrace that to weigh the beginnings proceedings and events of affairs to take care your thoughts go not out of God your affections be not too much employed upon creatures your inrentions be without mixture your judgement diverted from evil and applied to good your words polished your actions measured all the motions of your body well ordered To avoid the four rocks that molest all good affairs which are Passion Precipitation Vanity and Self-opinion To keep secrets carefully to know to choose to execute Devotion Devotion is a readiness of mind to those things which concern the service of God the parts of it are Adoration Thanksgiving Oblation Repentance Prayer Mortification Union with God by contemplation Frequentation of the Sacrament Conformity of will to the Divine Providence and the zeal of souls Humilitie Humilitie according to Saint Bernard is a virtue which maketh a man disesteem himself out of a deep knowledge of himself the chief points thereof are To know our selves well to prize our selves little to flie humane applause to preserve our senses free from itch of honour to despise bravely all worldly things to affect a retired life to acknowledge and confess freely our faults to hearken willingly to advice to yield to others to submit your will and judgement to obedience to shun splendour and pomp in such things as concern our selves to converse freely with the poor Povertie Povertie is the moderation of covetousness respecting temporal things the parts whereof are To cut off superfluities to have no inordinate care of worldly things to bear the want of necessities patiently to enter into an absolute nakedness of spirit Obedience Obedience according to Bonaventure is a reasonable sacrifice of our own will and according to Climachus a life without curiositie a voluntary death a secure danger The points thereof are To perform what you are commanded readily stoutly humbly indefatigably though it be contrary to your own inclination to make an entire resignation of your own judgement opinion and will to be sent imperiously upon hard and troublesom employments and to undergo them chearfully without delay excuse or reply to be indifferent in all things to covet nothing nor refuse any thing to do nothing of your self nor to presume to have a greater inclination to such things as are mean and laborious than to such as are more splendid and less burdensom Chastitie Chastitie is an abstinence from impure pleasures Its parts are purity of mind and body vigilant guard of the senses shunning of occasions honesty of speech mortification of Curiositie exact decencie care of our self Modestie Modestie is a composure of your self consisting in government of the whole body gesture attire play recreation but especially of the tongue which is to be restrained from detraction contention boasting disclosing of secrets idleness imprudence importunitie irreverence affected silence Abstinence Abstinence is a virtue which moderates the concupiscence that relateth to delectation of sense The parts thereof are To have no rule but necessity in all which concerneth the pleasures of the body to fear the very least stains of all those things which reason counteth dishonest and to preserve your self in a holy bashfulness to observe the Fasts commanded and to adde some out of private devotion to put far from you all curiosity of diet apparel and sensual
pleasures Fortitude Fortitude is a virtue which confirms us against the pusillanimity that may hinder good actions It hath two arms one to undertake the other to suffer Aristotle assigneth it four parts that is confidence patience love of labour and valour Patience Patience is an honest suffering of evils incident to nature The points thereof are To bear the loss of goods sickness sorrows injuries and other accidents with courage neither to complain nor to groan but discreetly to conceal your grief to be afflicted in innocency for justice sake and sometimes even by those that are good to covet and embrace persecutions out of a generous desire to be conformable to the patience of the Saviour of the world Justice Justice is a virtue which giveth to every one that which is his due and all the acts of it are included in this sentence You must measure others by the same measure wherewith you desire to be measured your self Magnanimitie Magnanimitie according to Thomas Aquinas is a virtue which aimeth at great things by the direct means of reason The acts thereof are To frame your self to an honest confidence by purity of heart and manners to expose your self reasonably to difficult and dreadfull exploits for Gods honour neither to be bewitched with prosperitie nor dejected at adversitie not to yield to opposition not to make a stay at mean virtues to despise complacence and threats for love of virtue to have regard onely to God and for his sake to disesteem all frail and perishable things to keep your self from presumption which often ruins high spirits under colour of Magnanimitie Gratitude Gratitude is the acknowledgement and recompence as far as lies in our power of benefits received The acts thereof are To preserve the benefit in our memory to profess and publish it to return the like without any hope of requital Amitie Amitie is a mutual good will grounded upon virtue and communitie of goods The acts thereof are To choose friends by reason for virtues sake communicating of secrets bearing with imperfections consent of wills a life serviceable and officious protection in adversities observance of honesty in every thing care of spiritual profit accompanied with necessary advice in all love and respect Simplicitie Simplicitie is nothing but union of the outward man with inward The acts thereof are To be free from all false colour never to lie never to dissemble or counterfeit never to presume to shun equivocation and double speech to interpret all things to the best to perform business sincerely to forgo multiplicity of employments and enterprizes Perseverance Perseverance is a constancy in good works to the end through an affection to pursue goodness and virtue The acts thereof are firmness in good quietness in services offices and ordinary employments constancy in good undertakings flight from innovations to walk with God to fix your thoughts and desires upon him neither to give way to bitterness nor to sweetness that may divert us from our good purposes Charitie toward God and our neighbour Charitie the true Queen of virtues consisteth in love of God and our Neighbour the love of God appeareth much in the zeal we have of his Glory the acts thereof are to embrace mean and painfull things so they conduce to our Neighbours benefit To offer the cares of your mind and the prayers of your heart unto God for him To make no exceptions against any in exercise of your charge to make your virtues a pattern for others To give you what you have and what you are for the good of souls and the glory of God to bear incommodities and disturbances which happen in the execution of your dutie with patience Not to be discouraged in successless labours To pray fervently for the salvation of souls to assist them to your power both in spiritual and temporal things to root out vice and to plant virtue and good manners in all who have dependence on you Charitie in Conversation Charitie in the ordinary course of life consisteth in taking the opinions words and actions of our equals in good part To speak ill of no man to despise none to honour every one according to his degree to be affable to all to be helpfull to compassionate the afflicted to share in the good success of the prosperous to bear the hearts of others in your own breast to glory in good deeds rather than specious complements to addict your self diligently to works of mercy Degrees of Virtues Bonaventure deciphers unto us certain degrees of Virtue very considerable for practise his words are these It is a high degree in the virtue of Religion continually to extirpate some imperfection a higher than that to encrease always in Faith and highest of all to be insatiable for matter of good works and to think you have never done any thing In the virtue of Truth it is a high degree to be true in all your words a higher to defend Truth stoutly and highest to defend it to the prejudice of those things which are dearest to you in the world In the virtue of Prudence it is a high degree to know God by his creatures a higher to know him by the Scriptures but highest of all to behold him with the eye of Faith It is a high degree to know your self well a higher to govern your self well and to be able to make good choice in all enterprizes and the highest to order readily the salvation of your soul In the virtue of Humilitie it is a high degree to acknowledge your faults freely a higher to bow with the weight like a tree laden with fruit the highest to seek out couragiously humiliations and abasements thereby to conform your self to our Saviours life It is a high degree according to the old Aâiom to despise the world a higher to despise no man yet a higher to despise our selves but highest of all to despise despisal In these four words you have the full extent of Humility In Povertie it is a high degree to forsake temporal goods a higher to forsake sensual amities and highest to be divorced from your self In Chastitie restraint of the tongue is a high degree guard of all the senses a higher undefiledness of body a higher than that puritie of heart yet a higher and banishment of pride and anger which have some affinity with uncleanness the highest In Obedience it is a high degree to obey the Law of God a higher to subject your self to the commands of a man for the honour you bear your Sovereign Lord yet a higher to submit your self with an entire resignation of your opinion judgement affection will but highest of all to obey in difficult matters gladly couragiously and constantly even to death In Patience it is a high degree to suffer willingly in your goods in your friends in your good name in your person a higher to bear being innocent the exasperations of an enemy or an ungratefull man a higher yet to suffer much and repine at nothing but
find the like to whom wouldst thou have me go but to thy self who doest not yet cease to call me The Gospel upon the third Sunday in Lent S. Luke 11. Jesus cast out the Devil which was dumb ANd he was casting out a devil and that was dumb And when he had cast out the devil the dumb spake and the multitudes marvelled And certain of them said in Belzebub the Prince of Devils he casteth out Devils And others tempting asked him a sign from Heaven But he seeing their cogitations said to them Every Kingdom divided against it self shall be made desolate and house upon house shall fall And if Satan also be divided against himself how shall his Kingdom stand because you say that in Belzebub I do cast out Devils And if I in Belzebub cast out Devils your children in whom do they cast out Therefore they shall be your judges But if I in the finger of God do cast out Devils surely the Kingdom of God is come upon you When the strong armed keepeth his court those things are in peace that he possesseth but if a stronger than he come upon him and overcome him he will take away his whole armour wherein he trusted and will distribute his spoils He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth When the unclean spirit shall depart out of a man he wandreth through places without water seeking rest and not finding he saith I will return into my house whence I departed And when he is come he findeth it swept with a besom and trimmed Then he goeth and taketh seven other spirits worse than himself and entering in they dwell there And the last of that man be made worse than the first And it came to pass when he said these things a certain woman lifting up her voice out of the multitude said to him Blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps that thou didst suck But he said Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it Moralities 1. THe Almond-tree is the first which begins to flourish and it is often first nipt with frost The tongue is the first thing which moves in a mans body and is soonest caught with the snares of Satan That man deserves to be speechless all his life who never speaks a word better than silence 2. Jesus the eternal word of God came upon earth to reform the words of man his life was a lightening and his word a thunder which was powerfull in effect but always measured within his bounds He did fight against ill tongues in his life and conquered them all in his death The gall and vinegar which he took to expiate the sins of this unhappy tongue do shew how great the evil was since it did need so sharp a remedy He hath cured by suffering his dolours what it deserved by our committing sins Other vices are determined by one act the tongue goes to all it is a servant to all malitious actions and is generally confederate with the heart in all crimes 3. We have just so much Religion as we have government of our tongues A little thing serves to tame wild beasts and a small stern will serve to govern a ship Why then cannot a man rule so small a part of his body It is not sufficient to avoid lying perjuries quarrels injuries slanders and blasphemies such as the Scribes and Pharisees did vomit out in this Gospel against the purity of the Son of God We must also repress idle talk and other frivolous and unprofitable discourses There are some persons who have their hearts so loose that they cannot keep them within their brests but they will quickly swim upon their lips without thinking what they say and so make a shift to wound their souls 4. Imitate a holy Father called Sisus who prayed God thirty years together every day to deliver him from his tongue as from a capital enemy You shall never be very chaste of your body except you do very well bridle your tongue For loosness of the flesh proceeds sometimes from liberty of the tongue Remember your self that your heart should go like a clock with all the just and equal motions of his springs and that your tongue is the finger which shews how all the hours of the day pass When the heart goes of one side and the tongue of another it is a sure desolation of your spirits Kingdom If Jesus set it once at peace and quiet you must be very carefull to keep it so and be very fearfull of relapses For the multiplying of long continued sins brings at last hell it self upon a mans shoulders Aspirations O Word incarnate to whom all just tongues speak and after whom all hearts do thirst and languish chase from us all prating devils and also those which are dumb the first provoke and loose the tongue to speak wickedly and the other bind it when it should confess the truth O peace-making Solomon appease the divisions of my heart and unite all my powers to the love of thy service Destroy in me all the marks of Satans Empire and plant there thy Trophees and Standards that my spirit be never like those devils which seek for rest but shall never find it Make me preserve inviolable the house of my conscience which thou hast cleansed by repentance and clothed with thy graces that I may have perseverance to the end without relapses and so obtain happiness without more need of repentance The Gospel upon Munday the third week in Lent S. Luke 4. Jesus is required to do Miracles in his own Countrey ANd he said to them Certes you will say to me this similitude Physitian cure thy self as great things as we have heard done in Capharnaum do also here in thy Countrey And he said Amen I say to you that no Prophet is accepted in his own Country In truth I say to you there were many widows in the dayes of Elias in Israel when the heaven was shut three years and six moneths when there was a great famine made in the whole earth and to none of them was Elias sent but into Sarepta of Sidon to a widow woman And there were many Lepars in Israel under Elizeus the Prophet and none of them made clean but Naaman the Syrian And all in the Synagogue were filled with anger hearing these things And they rose and cast him out of the Citie and they brought him to the edge of the hill whereupon their Citie was built that they might throw him down headlong But he passing through the midst of them went his way Moralities 1. THe malignity of mans nature undervalueth all that which it hath in hand little esteems many necessary things because they are common The Sun is not counted rare because it shines every day and the elements are held contemptible since they are common to the poor as well as the rich Jesus was despised in his own Countrey because he
apparencies O my God my Jesus make me keep the Law of thy love and nothing else It is a yoke which brings with it more honour than burden It is a yoke which hath wings but no heaviness Make me serve thee O my Master since thou beholdest the services of all the Angels under thy feet Make me imitate thee O my Redeemer since thou art the original of all perfections make me suffer for thee O King of the afflicted and that I may not know what it is to suffer by knowing what it is to love The Gospel upon Thursday the third week in Lent S. Luke 4. Jesus cured the Feaver of Simons Mother in Law ANd Jesus rising up out of the Synagogue entered into Simons house and Simons wives mother was holden with a great Feaver and they besought him for her And standing over her he commanded the Feaver and it left her And incontinent rising she ministred to them And when the Sun was down all that had diseased of sundry maladies brought them to him But he imposing hands upon every one cured them And Devils went out from many crying and saying that thou art the Son of God And rebuking them he suffered them not to speak that they knew he was Christ And when it was day going forth he went into a desart place and the multitudes sought him and came even unto him and they held him that he should not depart from them To whom he said That to other Cities also must I Evangelize the Kingdom of God because therefore I was sent And he was preaching in the Synagogues of Galilee Moralities 1. A Soul within a sick body is a Princess that dwels in a ruinous house Health is the best of all temporal goods without which all honours are as the beams of an eclipsed sun Riches are unpleasing and all pleasures are languishing All joy of the heart subsists naturally in the health of the body But yet it is true that the most healthfull persons are not always the most holy What profit is there in that health which serves for a provocation to sin for an inticement to worldly pleasure and a gate to death The best souls are never better nor stronger than when their bodies are sick their diseases are too hard for their mortal bodies but their courage is invincible It is a great knowledge to understand our own infirmities Prosperity keeps us from the view of them but adversity shews them to us We should hardly know what death is if so many diseases did not teach us every day that we are mortal Semiramis the proudest of all Queens had made a law whereby she was to be adored in stead of all the gods but being humbled by a great sickness she acknowledged her self to be but a woman 2. All the Apostles pray for this holy woman which was sick but she herself asked nothing nor did complain of any thing She leaves all to God who is onely Master of life and death She knew that he which gives his benefits with such bounty hath the wisdom to chuse those which are most fit for us How do we know whether we desiring to be delivered from a sickness do not ask of God to take away a gift which is very necessary to our salvation That malady or affliction which makes us distaste worldly pleasures gives us a disposition to taste the joyes of heaven 3. How many sick persons in the heat of a Feaver promise much and when they are well again perform nothing That body which carried all the marks of death in the face is no sooner grown strong by health which rejoyceth the heart and fils the veins with bloud but it becomes a slave to sin The gifts of God being abused serve for nothing but to make it wicked and so the soul is killed by recovery of the flesh But this pious woman is no sooner on foot but she serves the Authour of life and employes all those limbs which Jesus cured of the Feaver to prepare some provisions to refresh him He that will not use the treasures of heaven with acknowledgement deserveth never to keep them When a man is recovered from a great sickness as his body is renewed by health so on the other side he should renew his spirit by virtue The body saith Saint Maximus is the bed of the soul where it sleeps too easily in continual health and forgets it self in many things But a good round sickness doth not onely move but turn over this bed which maketh the soul awake to think on her salvation and make a total conversion Aspirations O Word Incarnate all Feavours and Devils flie before the beams of thy redoubted face Must nothing but the heat of thy passions always resist thy powers and bounties To what maladies and indispositions am I subject I have more diseases in my soul then limbs in my body My weakness bends under thy scourges and yet my sins continue still unmoveable Stay O benign Lord stay thy self near me Cast upon my dull and heavy eyes one beam from those thine eyes which make all storms clear and all disasters happie Command that my weakness leave me and that I may arise to perform my services due to thy greatness as I will for ever ow my salvation to thine infinite power and bounty The Gospel upon Friday the third week in Lent S. John 4. Of the Samatitan woman at Jacobs Well neer Sichar HE cometh therefore into a Citie of Samaria which is called Sichar beside the Mannor that Jacob gave to Joseph his son And there was there the fountain of Jacob. Jesus therefore wearied of his journey sate so upon the fountain It was about the sixth hour There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water Jesus saith to her Give me to drink for his Disciples were gone into the Citie to buy meats therefore that Samaritan woman saith to him How dost thou being a Jew ask of me to drink which am a Samaritan woman for the Jews do not communicate with the Samaritanes Jesus answered and said to her If thou didst know the gift of God and vvho he is that saith unto thee Give me to drink thou perhâps wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living vvater The woman saith to him Sir neither hast thou wherein to draw and the well is deep whence hast thou the living vvater Art thou greater than our father Jacob vvho gave us the well anâ himself drank of it and his children and his cattel Jesus answered and said to her Every one that drinketh of this vvater shall thirst again but he that shall drink of the vvater that I will give him shall not thirst for ever but the vvater that I will give him shall become unto him a fountain of vvater springing up unto life everlasting The vvoman saith to him Lord give me this vvater that I may not thirst nor come hither to draw Jesus said to her Go call thy husband and come hither The
approching near the light love their own darkness They hate the light of their salvation as the shadow of death and think that if you give them eyes to see their blindness you take away their life If they seem Christians they yet have nothing but the name and the appearance the book of Jesus is shut from them or if they make a shew to read they may name the letters but never can produce one right good word 4. Others destroy themselves by false lights who being wedded to their own opinions and adoring the Chimera's of their spirit think themselves full of knowledge just and happy that the sun riseth onely for them and that all the rest of the world is in darkness they conceive they have the fairest stars for conductours but at the end of their career they find too late that this pretended light was but an Ignis fatuus which led them to a precipice of eternal flames It is the worst of all follies to be wise in our own eye-sight and the worst of all temptations is for a man to be a devil to himself 5. Those ruin themselves with too much light who have all Gods law by heart but never have any heart to that law They know the Scriptures all learning and sciences they understand every thing but themselves they can find spots in the sun they can give new names to the stars they perswade themselves that God is all that they apprehend But after all this heap of knowledge they are found to be like the Sages of Pharaob and can produce nothing but bloud and frogs They embroil and trouble the world they stain their own lives and at their deaths leave nothing to continue but the memory of their sins It would be more expedient for them rather than have such light to carry fire wherewith to be burning in the love of God and not to swell and burst with that kind of knowledge All learning which is not joyned with a good life is like a picture in the air which hath no table to make it subsist It is not sufficient to be elevated in spirit like the Prophets except a man do enter into some perfect imitation of their virtues Aspirations O Fountain of all brightness before whom night can have no vail who seest the day spring out of thy bosom to spread it self over all nature will thou have no pitie upon my blindness will there be no medicine for my eyes which have so often grown dull heavy with earthly humours O Lord I want light being always so blind to my own sins So many years are past wherein I have dwelt with my self and yet know not what I am Self-love maketh me sometimes apprehend imaginary virtues in great and see all my crimes in little I too often believe my own judgement and adore my own opinions as gods and goddesses and if thou send me any light I make so ill use of it that I dazle my self even in the brightness of thy day making little or no profit of that which would be so much to my advantage if I were so happy as to know it But henceforth I will have no eyes but for thee I will onely contemplate thee O life of all beauties and draw all the powers of my soul into my eyes that I may the better apprehend the mystery of thy bounties O cast upon me one beam of thy grace so powerfull that it may never forsake me till I may see the day of thy glory The Gospel upon Thursday the fourth week in Lent S. Luke the 7. Of the widows son raised from death to life at Naim by our Saviour ANd it came to pass afterward he went into a Citie that is called Naim and there went with him his Disciples and a very great multitude And when he came nigh to the gate of the Citie behold a dead man was carried forth the onely son of his mother and she was a widow and a great multitude of the Citie with her whom when our Lord had seen being moved with mercy upon her he said to her Weep not And he came near and touched the Coffin And they that carried it stood still and he said Young man I say to thee Arise And he that was dead sate up and began to speak And he gave him to his mother and fear took them all and they magnified God saying That a great Prophet is risen among us and that God hath visited his people And this saying went forth into all Jewry of him and into all the Countrey about Moralities JEsus met at the Gates of Naim which is interpreted the Town of Beauties a young man carried to burial to shew us that neither beauty nor youth are freed from the laws of death We fear death and there is almost nothing more immortal here below every thing dies but death it self We see him always in the Gospels we touch him every day by our experiences and yet neither the Gospels make us sufficiently faithfull nor our experiences well advised 2. If we behold death by his natural face he seems a little strange to us because we have not seen him well acted We lay upon him sithes bows and arrows we put upon him ugly antick faces we compass him round about with terrours and illusions of all which he never so much as thought It is a profound sleep in which nature lets it self fail insensibly when she is tired with the disquiets of this life It is a cessation of all those services which the soul renders to the flesh It is an execution of Gods will and a decree common to all the world To be disquieted and drawn by the ears to pay a debt which so many millions of men of all conditions have paid before us is to do as a frog that would swim against a sharp stream of a forcible torrent We have been as it were dead to so many ages which went before us we die piece-meal every day we assay death so often in our sleep discreet men expect him fools despise him and the most disdainfull persons must entertain him Shall we not know and endeavour to do that one thing well which being once well performed will give us life for ever Me thinks it is rather a gift of God to die soon than to stay late amongst the occasions of sin 3. It is not death but a wicked life we have cause to fear That onely lies heavy and both troubles us and keeps us from understanding and tasting the sweets of death He that can die to so many little dead and dying things which makes us die every day by our unwillingness to forsake them shall find that death is nothing to him But we would fain in death carry the world with us upon our shoulders to the grave and that is a thing we cannot do We would avoid the judgement of a just God and that is a thing which we should not so much as think Let us clear our accounts
before we die let us take order for our soul by repentance and a moderate care of our bodies burial Let us order our goods by a good and charitable Testament with a discreet direction for the poor for our children and kinred to be executed by fit persons Let us put our selves into the protection of the Divine providence with a most perfect confidence and how can we then fear death being in the arms of life Aspirations O Jesus fountain of all lives in whose bosom all things are living Jesus the fruit of the dead who hast destroyed the kingdom of death why should we fear a path which thou hast so terrified with thy steps honoured with thy bloud and sanctified by thy conquests Shall we never die to so many dying things All is dead here for us and we have no life if we do not seek it from thy heart What should I care for death though he come with all those grim hideous and antick faces which men put upon him for when I see him through thy wounds thy bloud and thy venerable death I find he hath no sting at all If I shall walk in the shadow of death and a thousand terrours shall conspire against me on every side to disturb my quiet I will fear nothing being placed in the arms of thy providence O my sweet Master do but once touch the winding sheet of my body which holds down my soul so often within the sleep of death and sin Command me to arise and speak and then the light of thy morning shall never set my discourses shall be always of thy praises and my life shall be onely a contemplation of thy beautifull countenance The Gospel upon Friday the fourth week in Lent S. John 11. Of the raising of Lazarus from death ANd there was a certain sick man Lazarus of Bethania of the Town of Mâry and Martha her sister And Marie vvas she that anointed our Lord vvith ointment and vviped his feet vvith her hair vvhose brother Lazarus vvas sick his sisters therefore sent to him saying Lord behold he vvhom thou lovest is sick And Jesus hearing said to them This sickness is not to death but for the glorie of God that the Son may be glorified by it And Jesus loved Martha and her sister Marie and Lazarus As he heard therefore that he vvas sick then he tarried in the same place two dayes Then after this he saith to his Disciples Let us go into Jewry again The Disciples say to him Rabbi now the Jews sought to stone thee and goest thou thither again Jesus answered Are there not twelve hours of the day If a man vvalk in the day he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this vvorld but if he vvalk in the night he stumbleth because the light is not in him These things he said and after this he saith to them Lazarus our friend sleepeth but I go that I may raise him from sleep His Disciples therefore said Lord if he sleep he shall be safe But Jesus spake of his death and they thought that he spake of the sleeping of sleep Then therefore Jesus said to them plainly Lazarus is dead and I am glad for your sake that you may believe because I vvas not there but let us go to him Thomas therefore vvho is called Didymus said to his condisciples Let us also go to die with him Jesus therefore came and found him now having been four dayes in the grave And Bethania vvas nigh to Jerusalem about fifteen furlongs And many of the Jews vvere come to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother Martha therefore vvhen she heard that Jesus vvas come vvent to meet him but Mary sate at home Martha therefore said to Jesus Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died But now also I know that vvhat things soever thou shalt ask of God God vvill give thee Jesus saith to her Thy brother shall rise again Martha saith to him I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection in the last day Jesus said to her I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me although he be dead shall live And every one that liveth and believeth in me shall not die for ever Believest thou this She said to him Yea Lord I have believed that thou art Christ the Son of God that art come into this vvorld Moralities 1. OUr Saviour Jesus makes here a strong assault upon death to cure our infirmities at the cost of his dearest friends He suffered Lazarus whom he loved tenderly to fall into a violent sickness to teach us that the bodies of Gods favourites are not free from infirmities and that to make men Saints they must not enjoy too much health A soul is never more worthy to be a house for God than when she raiseth up the greatness of her courage the body being cast down with sickness A soul which suffers is a sacred thing All the world did touch our Saviour before his Passion The throng of people pressed upon him but after his death he would not be touched by S. Mary Maudlin because he was consecrated by his dolours 2. The good sisters dispatch a messenger not to a strange God as they do who seek for health by remedies which are a thousand times worse than the disease But they addressed themselves to the living God the God of life and death to drive away death And to recover life they were content onely to shew the wound to the faithfull friendship of the Physician without prescribing any remedies for that is better left to his providence than committed to our passion 3. He defers his cure to raise from death The delay of Gods favours is not always a refusal but sometimes a double liberality The vows of good men are paid with usury It was expedient that Lazarus should die that he might triumph over death in the triumph of Jesus Christ It is here that we should always raise high our thoughts by considering our glory in the state of resurrection he would have us believe it not onely as it is a lesson of Nature imprinted above the skies upon the plants or elements of the world and as a doctrine which many ancient Philosophers had by the light of nature but also as a belief which is fast joyned to the faith we have in the Divine providence which keeps our bodies in trust under its seal within the bosom of the earth so that no prescription of time can make laws to restrain his power having passed his word and raised up Lazarus who was but as one grain of seed in respect of all posterity 4. Jesus wept over Lazarus thereby to weep over us all Our evils were lamentable and could never sufficiently be deplored without opening a fountain of tears within heaven and within the eyes of the Son of God This is justly the river which comes from that place of all pleasure to water Paradise How could those heavenly
And if we must needs forsake this miserable body we then desire to leave it by some gentle and easie death This maketh us plainly see the generosity of our Saviour who being Master of life and death and having it in his power to chuse that manner of death which would be least hydeous being of it self full enough of horrour yet nevertheless to conform himself to the will of his heavenly Father and to confound our delicacies he would needs leave his life by the most dolorous and ignominious which was to be found among all the deaths of the whole world The Cross among the Gentiles was a punishment for slaves and the most desperate persons of the whole world The Cross amongst the Hebrews was accursed It was the ordinary curse which the most uncapable and most malicious mouthes did pronounce against their greatest enemies The death of a crucified man was the most continual languishing and tearing of a soul from the body with most excessive violence and agony And yet the Eternal Wisdom chose this kind of punishment and drank all the sorrows of a cup so bitter He should have died upon some Trophey and breathed out his last amongst flowers and left his soul in a moment and if he must needs have felt death to have had the least sense of it that might be But he would trie the rigour of all greatest sufferings he would fall to the very bottom of dishonour and having ever spared from himself all the pleasures of this life to make his death compleat he would spare none of those infinite dolours The devout Simon of Cassia asketh our Saviour going toward Mount Calvarie saying O Lord whither go you with the extream weight of this dry and barren piece of wood Whither do you carry it and why Where do you mean to set it Upon mount Calvary That place is most wild stony how will you plant it Who shall water it Jesus answers I bear upon my shoulders a piece of wood which must conquer him who must make a far greater conquest by the same piece of wood I carry it to mount Calvarie to plant it by my death and water it with my bloud This wood which I bear must bear me to bear the salvation of all the world and to draw all after me And then O faithfull soul wilt not thou suffer some confusion at thine own delicacies to be so fearfull of death by an ordinary disease in a doun-bed amongst such necessary services such favourable helps consolations and kindnesses of friends so sensible of thy condition We bemoan and complain our selves of heat cold distaste of disquiet of grief Let us allow some of this to Nature yet must it be confest that we lament our selves very much because we have never known how we should lament a Jesus Christ crucified Let us die as it shall please the Divine Providence If death come when we are old it is a haven If in youth it is a direct benefit antedated If by sickness it is the nature of our bodies If by external violence it is yet always the decree of Heaven It is no matter how many deaths there are we are sure there can be but one for us 2. Consider further the second condition of a good death which consists in the forsaking of all creatures and you shall find it most punctually observed by our Saviour at the time of his death Ferrara a great Divine who hath written a book of the hidden Word toucheth twelve things abandoned by our Saviour 1. His apparrel leaving himself naked 2. The marks of his dignitie 3. The Colledge of his Apostles 4. The sweetness of all comfort 5. His own proper will 6. The authority of virtues 7. The power of Angels 8. The perfect joys of his soul 9. The proper clarity of his body 10. The honors due to him 11. His own skin 12. All his bloud Now do but consider his abandoning the principal of those things how bitter it was First the abandoning of nearest and most faithfull friends is able to afflict any heart Behold him forsaken by all his so well-beloved Disciples of whom he had made choice amongst all mortal men to be the depositaries of his doctrine of his life of his bloud If Judas be at the mystery of his Passion it is to betray him If S. Peter be there assisting it is to deny him If his sorrowfull mother stand at the foot of the Cross it is to increase the grief of her Son and after he had been so ill handled by his cruel executioners to crucifie him again by the hands of Love The couragious Mother to triumph over her self by a magnanimous constancy was present at the execution of her dear Son She fixed her eyes upon all his wounds to engrave them deep in her heart She opened her soul wide to receive that sharp piercing sword with which she was threatened by that venerable old Simeon at her Purification And Jesus who saw her so afflicted for his sake felt himself doubly crucified upon the wood of the Cross and the heart of his dear Mother We know it by experience that when we love one tenderly his afflictions and disgraces will trouble us more than our own because he living in us by an affectionate life we live in him by a life of reason and election Jesus lived and reposed in the heart of his blessed Mother as upon a Throne of love and as within a Paradise of his most holy delights This heart was before as a bed covered with flowers But this same heart on the day of his Passion became like a scaffold hanged with mourning whereupon our Saviour entered to be tormented and crucified upon the cross of love which was the Cross of his Mother This admirable Merchant who descended from Heaven to accomplish the business of all Ages who took upon him our miseries to give us felicities was plunged within a sea of bloud and in this so precious shipwrack there remained one onely inestimable pearl which was his divine Mother and yet he abandons her and gives her into the hand of his Disciple After he had forsaken those nearest to him see what he does with his body Jesus did so abandon it a little before his death that not being content onely to deliver it as a prey to sorrow but he suffered it to be exposed naked to the view of the world And amongst his sharpest dolours after he had been refused the drink which they gave to malefactours to strengthen them in their torments he took for himself vinegar and gall O what a spectacle was it to see a body torn in pieces which rested it self upon its own wounds which was dying every moment but could not die because that life distilled by drops What Martyr did ever endure in a body so sensible and delicate having an imagination so lively and in such piercing dolours mixt with so few comforts And what Martyr did suffer for all the sins of the
Ambrose 207 His death 215 Ammon plotteth incest with his sister 407 He is counselled to this sin by Joadab ib. He dissembleth fickness ib. Thamars advise to him ib. He despiseth his dishonoured sister ib. He is slain 408 Anaâtatius fearing thunder is slain by a Thunder bolt 288 Angelical Aenigma's 56 Why bad Angels punished without mercy 23 Antipater his cunningness in geeting the kingdom of Judea 115 He calumniateth his brothers 130 He is thrown from the top of the wheel 132 His Conspiracy is discovered 133 His wofull event ib. His Accusation before his Father ib. His death 135 Wicked Antiothus punished 348 He is delivered Hostage to the Romanes 347 His manners 393 He warreth against Ptolomey ib. The war between them is ended by a marriage ib. Antonie's generous act 352 A trick of an Ape 43 Apes in the Court of Solomon 46 A pretty tale of an Ape ib. Intellectual Appetite faulty 37 Appetite of man infinite 436 Apple of discord 145 Arbogastus 210 Aristobulus taken prisoner by Pompey and Jerusalem become tributarie 115 His pitifull death 119 Arius and his qualities 251 Original of Arians ib. Their proceedings ib. Condemnation of Arius 154 End of Arius ib. Arts tributarie to Great-men 16 Astrologie the vanity thereof 360 Athanasius 254 Athenais her admirable adventure 141 She pleadeth her cause before Pulcheria 142 Her Conversion ib. She could not brook Pulcheria 145 Audas destroyeth a Pyraum 942 Sr. Augustine converted by Sr. Ambrose 188 His wit ib. His inclination ib. He studied Judicial Astrologie 189 His Religion ib. Curiositie Presumption and Love the three impediments in the conversion of Sr. Augustine 190 The Oeconomy of God in the conversion of S â Augustine 193 He is baptized by Sr. Ambrose 198 B THe Bat employeth her eyes to make her wings 382 An excellent Act of Bayard the Cavalier 227 Opinion concerning Beatitude 435 The essential point of Beatitude is union with God 437 Three acts of Beatitude ib. Three effects of Beatitude 438 Excellency of Beatike science ib. Beautie of beatike love as it is compared to the weakness of worldly love ib. Beautie condemned by Idolaters 9 Defence of Beautie as the gift of God 10 Natural Beautie of men praised by Poets ib. Beautie an instrument of God ib. Beautie of our Saviour ib. Power of Beautie 11 Beautie of Constantine 16 Abuse of Beautie damnable ib. Vanitie of Beautie 93 Tyrannie of the Belly 52 Binet a Reverend Father of the Church 174 Boetius his Nobilitie 276 His eminent wisdom and learning 278 He was stiled the Father and Light of his Countrey 287 His opinion of the providence of God 291 His death ibid. Boleslaus his notable act 5 Boniface martyred 380 C CAligula a great scoffer 47 The devils busied about Calumny 46 From whence it proceedeth 47 Horrour of Calumny ibid. Calumny plotted against the sons of Mariamne 128 Calumny of Fausta against her son Crispus 244 Her rage turned into pitie ibid. Her Calumny discovered ibid. Her death ibid. Camerarius his observation concerning the Heron. 405 The excellency of a brave Captain 217 The delight of Histories to praise Captains 218 Singular commendation of Cato 13 The praise of the strength and courage of Cato ibid. The Stone Ceraunia 7 Charity excellently displayed 2 Charity towards God and our neighbour defined 469 Charity in Conversation defined ibid. Charity with the acts thereof 91 An excellent passage of Charity ibid. Charls of Anjou is taken and put to death 402 Charlemaign his goodness and indulgence 403 Chastity defined 468 Three sorts of Chastity with the acts thereof 85 86 A royal act of Chastity in a Souldier 230 S. Paul calleth Chastity Sanctification 304 Excellent Instructions for Children 343 Chrysaphius an heretical Eunuch projecteth ruin to Theodosius his Court. 147 He entangleth the Emperour and his Wife in the heresie of the Eutyches 148 Christians Warfare delicate 2 To do good and suffer wrong the true Character of a Christian 48 Virtue of the first Christians 53 The happiness to be born a Christian 339 Solitude of Christian Religion ibid. Clergy reformed 149 Clotilda 309 Her birth and education ibid. Clodovaeus requireth her in marriage ibid. An Embassadour is dispatched to the King of Burgundie concerning the Marriage 310 Her first Request to King Clodovaeus her husband 312 How she behaved her self in the Conversion of her husband 313 She converteth her husband 315 How Clodovaeus behaved himself after Baptism 316 Communion without preparation what it is 72 What ought to be done in the day of receiving the Communion 73 Considerations for Communions ibid. Fruits of Communions ibid. General Confession of sin the beginning of spiritual life 69 Practice of ordinary Confession 70 Three sorts of Conscience from whence Impiety doth spring 26 Horrible estate of a sinfull Conscience 27 Bruitish Conscience ibid. Curious Conscience ibid. Nothing so pleasing as the house of a good Conscience 48 Constancy in Tribulation doth manifestly appear in the death of Sosia and Eleonora 411 Constantia her exceeding Clemency to the Son of Charls of Anjou being condemned to death 403 Constantine's Law 12 His greatness 233 His Nobility 235 His notable Moderation ibid. He was bred up in the Court of Diocletian 237 His first battel against Lycinius 242 His great victory 243 His first Marriage 244 The beginning of his Conversion 246 His absolute Conversion ibid. His Baptism ibid. The History of his Baptism drawn from the acts of Saint Sylvester is more easie piously to be believed than effectually proved 247 His Oration ibid. The great alteration of the world by his Oration and Example 248 His Piety Devotion and Humility 249 He made an Oration in the Assembly of Bishops 253 His Successours 259 Constantinople built 254 His death 274 Divers degrees of Contemplation 384 Contrition what it is 71 Cross of Nature what it is 52 Honour of the Cross 251 The Court full of Envie 17 Comparison between a Courtier and a Religious man 18 A Courtier frustrated of his hope how he is afflicted 352 Courage compared to the River Tygris 13 Baseness of Courage in some Noble-men 14 Crispus his death 245 Curiosity and the Description thereof 188 The whole world an enemy of Curiosity 405 Impious Curiosity pulls out both its eyes 27 Dangerous Curiosity 28 D PAins of the Damned are eternal 431 Three Reasons to prove the eternity of the Damned ibid. An excellent Conceit of Picus Mirandula concerning the punishment of the Damned 432 Strange Narration of Palladius concerning the Damned ibid. Souls of the Damned tormented by their lights ibid. Daniel and his Companions bred at Court 16 Daniel the Hermite having seen a Vision went to Constantine and spake to Eulogius 364 David his remedy against a malevolent Tongue 48 Day is precious 94 Motives to pass the Day well ibid. Every Day a Table of Life ibid. To provide in the evening for the Day to come 95 Three parts of the Day ibid. Five things to be practised in the Day ibid. Desperate
your self by the practise of retirement of penance of hair-cloth and fasting A holy maid of Alexandria was twelve years in a sepulchre Raderus to free her self from the importunities of concupiscence cannot you be there one hour so much as in thought Another had this stratagem to elude love for she seeing Speculum Anonymi a young man to be very much touched with her love who ceased not to importune her with all the violent pursuits which passion could suggest told him she had made a vow to fast forty dayes with bread and water of which she would discharge her self before she would think of any thing else and asked whether he pleased not to be a Party for the triall of his love which he accepted but in few dayes he was so weakned that he then more thought upon death then love Have not you courage to resist your enemy by the like arms your heart faileth you in all that is generous and you can better tell how to commit a sin then to do penance Then chuse out that which is most necessary and reasonable separation from that body so beloved which by Separation the first remedy its presence is the nourishment of your flames Consider you not that comets which as it is said are fed by vapours of the earth are maintained whilst their mother furnisheth them with food so love which shineth and burns like a false star in the bottome of your heart continually taketh its substance and sustenance from the face which you behold with so much admiration from the conversation which entertains you in an enchanted palace full of chains and charms Believe me unlose this charm stoutly take your felfe off dispute not any longer with your concupiscence fly away cut the cable weigh anchor spread sails set forward go fly Oh how a little care will quickly be passed over Oh how a thousand times will you blesse the hour of this resosolution Look for no more letters regard not pictures no longer preserve favours let all be to preserve your reason Ah! why argue you still with your own thoughts Take me then some Angel some Directour The counsel and assiduity of a good directour is an excellent antidote who is an able intelligent industrious couragious man resign your self wholly up to his advice he will draw you out from these fires of Gomorrha to place you in repose and safety on the mountain of the living God I adde also one advice which I think very essentiall which is infinitely to fear relapses after health and to avoid all that may re-enkindle the flame For Love oft-times resembleth a snake enchanted cast asleep and smothered which upon the first occasions awakeneth and becomes more stronger and more outragious then ever You must not onely fortifie your body against it but your heart for to what purpose is it to be chast in your members and be in thought an adulterer Many stick not to entertain love in their imagination with frequent desires without putting them in execution but they should consider that Love though imaginary makes not an imaginary hell and that for a transitory smoke they purchase an eternall fire § 10. Of Celestiall Amities BUt it is time we leave the giddy fancies of love to behold the beauties and lights of divine Charity which causeth peace in battails conquest in victories life in death admiration on earth and paradise in heaven it self It is a strange thing that this subject the most amiable of all proves somewhat dreadfull to me by the confluence of so many excellent Writers antient and modern who have handled it so worthily since thier riches hath impoverished their successions and their plenty maketh me in some sort to fear sterility They had much furtherance in their design they took as much stuffe as they thought good referring all that to the love of God which is in nature and above nature in grace and beyond grace They have enlarged themselves in great volumes the sight whereof alone seems to have much majesty and to please their own appetites they have said all they might possible But here forasmuch as concemeth my purpose I have reduced my self into contractions of great figures which will not prove troublesome if measures and proportions be therein observed and nothing forgotten of all that which is most essentiall to the matter we treat I find my self very often enforced to confine giants to Myrmecidia opera apud Aelianum the compasse of a ring and to cover ships under the wing of a fly drawing propositions out of a huge masse of thoughts and discourses to conclude them in a little Treatise not suffering sublimity to take ought away of their facility nativenesse of their majesty shadows of their lustre nor superficies of their dimensions Besides that which renders this my discourse the lesse pleasing is that speaking to men of the world I cannot disguise the matter in unknown habits splendid and pompous words conceptions extatick I cannot perswade them that a Seraphin hath penetrated rhe heart of one with a dart of fire and that another hath had his sides broken by the strength of the love of God I must pursue ordinary wayes and teach practises more nearly approching to our humanity I am then resolved to shew there are celestiall Amities which great souls contract with God that their condition is very excellent and most happy and that the practice of them must begin in this world to have a full fruition of them in the other Carnall spirits which onely follow animall wayes have much a-doe to conceive how a man can become passionate in the love of God and think there is no affection but for temporall and visible things It is a Love too high say they to transferre their affections into heaven It is a countrey wherein we have no commerce There comes neither letter nor message thence No ships arrive on that coast It is a world separated from ours by a great Chaos wholly impenetrable That there may be a celestiall amity by the commerce of man with God How would you I love God since he is all spirit and I a body He is Infinite I finite He so High and I so low It is a kind of insolency to go about to think of it Behold how spirits ignorant of heavens mysteries do talk But I maintain upon good grounds that we are made to place our love in the heart of God and that if we do not seasonably take this way well we may go on but never shall we arrive at repose First the Philosopher Plato hath worthily observed An exellent conceit of Plato Plato in Sympos Marlil Ficinus Amor memoria primi ac summi purissuni pulchri Appetitor artis desertor artificis amplectitur speciem eujus non miratur authorem S. Eucherius ep Paraenât that the love we have here below is a remembrance of the first fair sovereign and most pure of all beauties which is
care for affairs to cure their sadnesse It is the counsel which the Apostle gave to the Thessalonians We 1 Thes 4. entreat you my brethren to profit more and more and to endeavour to be peacefull and that attending your affairs you take pains with your hands as we have appointed you that you by your conversation may edific those who are none of ours and that you may need nothing The fore-alledged Authour notably deduceth this Text of Saint Paul with many other which he citeth shewing that a singular remedy for Sadnesse caused by Idlenesse is the occupation of the mind and body For my part I am perswaded that by this means The serupulous many scruples might be cured wherewith divers minds are now-adayes miserably turmoiled For they no sooner enter into the great representations of Gods judgement of sinnes and of the torments of the damned but they presently bear all Hell on their shoulders The thunders of the divine Justice roars not but for them and for them the lightning-slashes they build scaffolds in their heart whereon their imaginations walk they nail themselves on voluntary Crosses and bind themselves on racks making an executioner of their mind and a continuall punishment of their life All they think in their opinion is sin all they do nought but disorder and all they expect meer malediction They never have made a good Confession they have ever forgotten some circumstance they have not well summed up the number of their sinnes the Confessour hath not well comprised what they would say they must eternally begin again and for trifles of no value they must run and weary all the tribunals of Confession and employ more time then would be needfull for a man who should manage all the great affairs of France It is a pittifull thing and verily tyrants never invented so rigorous torments which superstition witty in the fruitfulnesse of its own tortures surpasseth not It so toileth the mind that the body is extremely weakned which is seen in a face discoloured and wan a brow heavy an eye troubled a heart sobbing a countenance ghastly a losse of sleep and appetite a forbearance of all recreations and pleasures of life To speak truly these poor souls are worthy of compassion for they are perpetually in most painfull Purgatories Remedies for scrupulous minds Efficaciously to comfort them they must be put into the hands of some prudent charitable and resolute man who may enter into their heart and may be as it were the soul of their soul They must be drawn from this indigested and too frequent devotion from all those generall confessions so often reiterated they must not be permitted to accuse themselves of all the vain imaginations of their interiour but of the transgressions which passe to their exteriour They must be made to account their doubtfull sinnes for not sinnes since ordinarily the scrupulous have a mind wakefull and adverse enough to themselves not to doubt of any grievous sinne great conceits must be put into them of the goodnesse and mercy of God their courage must be raised and they instead of sinnes caused to set down in writing or otherwise their good works and the favours they have received from God It is sometimes fit to change meditations into good broths to excite them with some generous thought to stirre them up some difference or suit if it be needfull to hold them in businesse interlaced with honest repose and convenient recreation to handle them sometimes a little severely to teach them to believe and to suffer themselves to be directed and to accustome them to brave this scrupulous conscience and to vaunt to have despised whatsoever it dictateth Lastly to perswade them there one is who hath answered for their soul before God and that if there be any ill in his direction he shall be damned for them and no hurt come to them thereby To commend them for their dociblenesse when they obey to let them see the fruit of their obedience in the consolation of their soul to exhilerate them to heighten them to take them from themselves and to turn them into other personages Many have been absolutely cured by these kinds of proceedings many much sweetned For there are of them who suffer all their life time their thoughts being as devils settled in some possession which never fully forsake them but they must be let to understand the crosses ordained them in this life and that undertaking a good resolution for patience they shall multiply their merits § 3. The remedy of Sadnesses which proceed from divers accidents of humane life HEnce I discover very long dilation of pleasures daily framed in so many divers occasions which makes it sufficiently appear unto us that as of all living creatures there is not any more delicate more sensible and which is waited on with such a train as man so there is none more exposed as a Butt for all accidents which are of power to occasion trouble then he Alas what is man who maketh a crime of his birth a slavery Miseries of Humane conditions of his life and an horrour of his death To salute day-light with his teares to come into the world to be instantly crucified his mouth open to cryes and hunger to bring a barren mind a frail body enraged concupiscences to be a beast so many years then an infant to feel his misery to see his poor liberty fettered to live under the fear of rods in a perpetuall restraint of will then to enter into adolescency followed by youth which causeth loud storms of passions to beare along with them the seeds of all his miseries After that a servitude of marriage an evill encounter of wives and husbands of affairs of cares of poverty of children of slanders of quarrels affronts of contumelies of bodily pains of faintnesse of spirit of ruines of families of poison of punishments of privation of all one loveth of vexations by all one hateth an old age contemptible sick and languishing Death a hundred times invoked to fly from the miserable and to lay hold of the fortunate With all this to see abysses of fire and torments prepared for sins ordinary in worldly life Who is it that trembleth not thinking upon all these objects and who saith not that one must be either well fortified with prudence to divert his evils or have patience to bear them Note that all which may afflict us is reduced to The subjects of our afflictions the losse of goods of credit of friends of incommodities of body or mind and that our miseries which we think to be infinite are confined within three small limits For all the Sadnesses which may arise from these five sources God hath given us five remedies Five remedies for all Sadnesses Sense Reason Time Necessity and Grace There are many dolouts which grow from the senses and are likewise cured by the senses We must not think all Sadnesses have ears patiently to hear the
discourses of Philosophers There is question how to help the soul by the body hundred shillings are of more worth then a hundred reasons to a poor wretch who hath need of sustenance and refreshment to solace his pains A little good usage meat apparel a Crosse upon gold or silver remedieth many Crosses of needy people If they to whom God hath given worldly wealth took the pain to imitate so many honourable personages and to accustome themselves to visit the shamefaced poor they would dayly do miracles they would drive away the devils of Melancholy bad humors spectres despairs and maladies they would pull millions of souls out of the hands of their evil fortunes and would be more to men then were the demy-Gods of Antiquity How many herbs simples compositions of physick how many lenitives what powerfull effects of Chyrurgery being well ordered do cure strange infirmities and do pluck one from out of the gates of death But as the cure and easing of the senses is neither present nor efficacious with all the world what should a man do who hath never so little heart but try to cure himself by reason It is it which God hath given unto The comfort derived from reason man instead of so many offensive and defensive armes born with other creatures why should we not use its help It is it which teacheth us that grief is nothing else but an apprehension of division and that Aug. l. 3. de liber at bitr cap 23. Quid est enim aliud dolor nisi quidam sensus divisionis vel corruptionis impatiens as we are out of excesse tyed to all pleasing things in the world so the want of them becomes very sensible in such sort that our Sadnesses ordinarily proceed from our love Experience sufficiently shewing that all such spirits as most are in love with themselves are the most tormented but if we come to lessen thoser geat affections which straightly tie us to conceits and account as lost all which may be lost there is no doubt but we shall begin to find a wholesome medicine for all the afflictions of life A mother greeved for the death of her Amabam misera periturum We most ardently love the things we most lose sonne said in Quintilian That all her evil came from loving too much what she might lose and that our passions are insensibly most ardent for things which must quickly be taken from us as if our grief were to take revenge upon the exorbitancy of our love It is reason that weakneth the opinion of evils which many times torment us more then their effect It which giveth light to things obscure order to confused vigour to languishing and resolution to despair there is nothing for which it finds not a lenitive if poverty make How it remedieth all humane accidents you sad why complain you Ignorant of thy self saith it unto us it is not poverty it is thy fancy which tormenteth thee No man is ever so poor as he is born Hast thou brought gold in thy veins and pearls Poverty in thy entrails that thou complainest of the change of thy condition why dost thou set thy self upon the rack for a thing whereof Jesus made boast and so many wise-men make vows Expect a little Death will make thee as rich as Croesus If thou thinkest thou art poor for that thou hast not what thy covetousnesse desireth it is an Illusion If thou wantest necessaries for life after thou hast lived commodiously and happily it is somewhat pitifull but make thy self a good poor man since God will have thee such suffer a while without murmuring and the divine Providence will not fail to raise for thee the mercy of some rich man to become thy steward Pray be patient endeavour take paines live meanly thou shalt become A suit rich by learning to live contented If a suit be lost what cares what apprehensions what pains what toils are in the same instant lost If it be according to Justice endure it if angainst Justice those who have lost their conscience in making thee lose thy cauie have more cause to be sorry then thou If thou hast lost much in game it is a lesson of wisdome to cure a folly If thou Losse of money hast lost all give thanks to God that thou shalt never lose any more so basely and that thou hast meanes to purchase a little in this occasion If fire and water winds and tempests harpies and theeves take away thy goods what wilt thou do against chance violence and iniquity but preserve submission and innocency The whole masse of worldly wealth is a torrent which swellerh now upon one side and then upon another let that go with patience which thou canst not hold by force If slander assail thy renown and condemne thee perhaps it doth that thou oughtest to do hadst Slander thou more virtues Many by despising themselves have prevented all contempts Tongues cannot hurt thy conscience we stand before God such as we are and all the teeth of calumny take not from us one sole atome of perfection Others have but one tongue to say and thou hast two hands to do Perfect thy life since it hath censures verity will force light through those vapours of maligne spirits derive glory out of thy proper confusion If thou beest discountenanced by great ones put thy self into the good favour of Disgrace God who is above all greatnesse and after thou hast made thy self a slave to men live a while a master over thy self Thou shalt find envy will have consecrated thee and that thy punishments will make a part of thy felicities If thou enterest into sadnesse for being frustrated of some expected good wherefore art thou so earnest in thy desires and so credulous in thy hopes and wherefore makest thou crosses to thy self out of thy own thoughts If it be for the absence Absence of friends of a beloved friend thinkest thou he must continually be tied to thee as if he were a second body It is in absence where our imaginations oftentimes render all that we affect most present we enter into the bottome of our soul and there find the images of our friends despoiled of matter and body we practise the best amities in mind where the envious watch us not the jealous observe us not and the troublesome interrupt not our discourses If this good friend be gone into the other world we every moment run after him and each hour draw near to him Let us be satisfied that his death is the cause that death hath nothing Death terrible for us and that for him we begin to desire what we most fear If we in body must suffer chains imprisonment Bodily pains maladies sharp pains hunger thirst the sword fire and all the hostility of nature we must needs say all which toucheth the skin toucheth us very near and that there are few charming words that can well cast
resemblance in Nature We have heretofore heard of a Prince who desirous to offer himself to death for rhe preservation of his subjects took the habit of a Peasant to steal himself from his greatnesse and facilitate his death All histories say he laid down his purple and crown and all the ensigns of Royalty retaining none but those of love which caused him to go into his enemies army where he left life to purchase an immortall trophey for his reputation But I must tell you he had a mortall life and in giving it he gave that tribute to nature which he owed to nature from the day of his birth and which of necessity he was to pay yea he gave it to buy the memory of posterity and to beg honour which is more esteemed by generous spirits then life But in what history have we read that a man glorious by birth immortall by condition necessarily happy hath espoused humility which all the world despiseth mortality which the most advised apprehend misery which the bravest detest for no other occasion but to have the opportunity to dy for a friend And this is it which Jesus Christ did He was by nature immortall impassible impregnable against all exteriour violencies he took not the habit of a peasant as Codrus nor a body of air as Abscondit purpuram sub miseriâ vestimentis ad lutum ubi jacebam inclinatur non mergitur the Angell-conductour of Tobias but a true body a flesh tender and virginall personally united to the word of God to quail it with toils to consume it with travails and lastly to resign it as a prey to a most dolourous death he casts tottered rags over his royall purple and takes pains to stoop down to pull me out of the mire where I lay and to take my miseries upon him not sullying himself in my sins My God! what a prodigie is this All ages have Abbas Guerricus observed a thousand and a thousand industries of men which they found out to avoid the pains and torments of life but never have we seen a man who sought to invent means and to offer violence to his own condition to become suffering and miserable according to the estimation of the world since there are day and night so many gates open to this path yet thou Oh God of Glory O mild Saviour hast done it Thou hast found a way how to accord infirmity with sovereign Mortem nec solus Deus sentire nec solus homo vincere poterat homo suscepit Deus vicit Faustus l. 1. de lib. arbitr The quality of the sufferings of our Saviour power honour with ignominy time with eternity and death with life It was not possible that sole God should endure death or that sole Man could vanquish it but man hath abided it and God hath overcome it As for the quality of pains it sufficeth to say that if men judged of the greatnesse of Gyants by one of their footsteps impressed on the sand and if we likewise measure the course of the sun by a small thread of shadow one may have some grosse knowledge of so great a mystery by the figures which forewent it Now all the sacrifices of the Mosaick law and so many travails and sufferings of the antient Patriarchs were but a rough draught of the passion of Jesus Christ from whence we may imagine what the originall was sith the Copies thereof were so numerous and different throughout the course of all Ages The perpetuall sacrifice which was evening and 3 Reg. 8. 63. 22000 bullocks and 120000 sheep sacrificed for the dedication of Solomon his Temple morning made in the Temple the twenty two thousand oxen and the hundred and twenty thousand sheep which were sacrificed by Solomon at one feast of the dedication of the Temple so much bloodshed that it seemed a red sea to those who beheld it was to no other end but to figure the blood of the immaculate Lamb and of all its members which have suffered after it But if so much preparation and profusion were needfull to expresse one sole shadow of his passion what may we conjecture of the body and the thing figured Besides if all the antient Patriarchs who were so persecuted in times past and all the Martyrs who since the death of our Saviour have endured torments almost infinite in number and prodigious in kinds made but an assay or tryall of the dolours of this King of the afflicted what an account shall we make of his pains which ever ought to be as much adored by our wills as they are incomprehensible to our understanding The Lamb was sacrificed from the beginning of the world saith Saint Apoc. 13. 8. Agnas accisus est ab origine mundi Our Saviour hath suffered in the person of all the just and the martyrs John He was massacred in Abel saith S. Paulinus tossed upon so many waves in the person of Noah wandring in that of Abraham offered up in Isaac persecuted in Jacob betraied in Joseph stoned in Moses bruised on a dunghill in the patience of Job blinded in Samson sawn in Esay flayed afterward in the person of S. Bartholmew roasted in that of Saint Laurence thrown out to Lions in that of Saint Ignatius burned in that of Saint Polycarp Confummatio abbreviata Isa 10 12. Unâ oblatione consummavit in sempiter num satisfactos Heb 10 14. Unigenitus Dei ad peragendum mort is suae sacramentum consummavit humanarum omne genus passionum Hilar. l. 10. de trinit pulled in picees by four horses and cast headlong into a ditch full of Serpents in that of Saint Tecla drowned in that of S. Clement exposed to wasps in that of many other Martyrs From whence it commeth that the passion of Jesus is called a short Consummation by the Prophet Esay and that Saint Paul hath said to the Hebrew That by one sole Sacrifice he hath consummated those which were to be sanctified for all eternity And S. Hilary clearly confesseth That Jesus Christ the onely Son of God desirous to fulfill this great and mysterious Sacrament of his pretious death did passe through all imaginable dolours which were as it were melted and distilled together to make of it a prodigious accomplishment Jesus is the stone with seven eyes whereof the Prephet Zachary speaketh which the heavenly Father says he hath cut and engraven with his own hand Zach. 39. thereon figuring all the most glorious characters of patience He is an Abysse of love of mercy of dolours of ignominies of blood of lowlinesse and greatnesse of excesse of admiration and amazement which swalloweth all thoughts dryeth up all mouths stayeth all pens and drencheth all conceptions Who now then will dare to complain that he suffereth too much that he doth too much that he is treated with lesse tendernesse then he deserveth O our coldnesse and remissnesse whence can it proceed but from not studying enough on this incomparable
Book which comprehends all secrets we at least should consider the divine Providence in the matter of the burdens of all the world to diminish our nicenesse to gain opinion and understanding which may alter our judgement A sage Roman shewing to an impatient man the Sence l. 3. nat quaest Praeferri scies quid deceat si cogitaveris orbem terrarum notare whole world surrounded in a great deluge of miseries said unto him I assure my self you would not so much play the milk sop nor have a soul so effeminate if you would think that the whole world swimmeth in a dreadfull sea of calamities All things conform themselves to the nature of their originall and we have elsewhere said that Bees bred in the dead body of a Bull Bees bear the figure of a ball on their bodies carry the resemblance of their Progenitour pourtrayed by certain little lineaments in their proper body The world hath produced us and Jesus Christ hath regenerated us by his Death and most precious Bloud never should we rest untill we carry upon us some token Glorisi care portate Deum in corpore vestro 1 Cor. 6. of nature wailing and of a God suffering according to S. Pauls precept Glorifie and hear the Image of God in your body § 6. Advice to impatient Souls IMpatient Souls to you I speak I ask you Is it a small motive to you to suffer that have the Universe for a Companion God for an Example and God for the Guerdon of your Patience All creatures saith S. Paul sigh groan and are as it were in labour Rom. 8. 22. expecting that day wherein all things shall be glorified in the resurrection of bodies and will you be of so Ad communem hanc Rempublicam quisque promodulo exsolvimus quod debemuâ quasi canonem passionum inferimus S. August in Psal abject a courage as to be like unprofitable burdens with arms acrosse in the midst of a suffering world and before the eyes of the God of suffering Is it not a scandall to the Religion we professe often to afflict our selves with great and heavy sadnesses for causes most light To see too you would make one think the Law the Sacraments and Jesus Christ himself were cast away Where is the Consolation of holy Scriptures the fruit of Preachings the sweetnesse of Prayers Where is that huge cloud of Examples of so many Patient ones whose courages you so often have admired where are good purposes good thoughts where are so many resolutions so well taken in the time of prosperity must the least adversity make you to shrink back Verily Ideots and silly women who have neither the wit nor knowledge which you have do many times bear no flight burdens with much courage and you after so many good instructions lay down arms and make it appear that stupidity hath more foree with them then all the precepts of wisdome have power over your weaknesse People who live according to nature find remedies for their sadnesse in nature it self Bathings Wine Playes Balls Hunting open Air and so many other recreations make them passe away their evil Is it possible but that the cosideration of the first verity and the divine Providence should mitigate yours What is it can have such power over you It is strange that things the most frivolous torment you Call back into your thoughts what I have said to you concerning the matter of your pleasures It greives you you have not thrived in this affair nor have had the successe of reputation which you exspected what a folly is this as if I should be troubled that the air and winds were not at my dispose Will you never cease from usurping that which appertaineth not to you will you never order your own house without taking care for things out of it You afflict you self for a word spoken of you wretched that you are to tie your felicity to the condition of tongues There would almost be Very true no slander if it were not made slander by thinking thereon you torment your self for the losse of health or of some other good which was very pretious with you Impute your crosse to your affection so excessively to have loved a blessing which you might lose and to have coveted all good things without you to have an ill guest within your own house You put your self upon the rack with the fear of the future why do you set your foot into the possession of another why do you not leave the future to the divine Providence why do you reap dolours in a field where you are not permitted to sowe you incessantly complain of poverty of sicknesse and other inconveniences of life if you think to live here free from pain you must build a world a-part and not be contented with the elements which served your ancestours turns God here distributeth burdens as the father of a family doth offices to all his domesticks every one must bear that which is allotted him otherwise if he do not he is a bastard and not a legitimate child and if having one he hear it Quod si extra disciplinam cujus participes facti sunt omnes ergo adulterini non fââii Heb. 12. 8. with a perpetuall vexation he deprives himself of the crown of patience the value whereof is as inestimable as the force thereof hath in all times been judged invincible Have you forgot what S. Paul said If you be saith he out of the number of those who live in a regular discipline and who daily have their petty charge in Gods family wherein they are subjects I assure you you are not used like children of the house but as very bastards left to live at randome Believe me our burdens are like the stone of the Sybils which to some weighed Dio. Chrys orat 13. Marvelous stone of Sybils like lead and to others as a feather oft-times the weight or lightnesse of your evils proceeds from nought but your own disposition Imagination hath made you believe it nice breeding which hath been bestowed on you and evil habits wherein you have been perpetually nousled fail not to accomplish your misery Accustome your self a little to do that work well for which you came into the world Learn that you must bear the miseries of mans condition since you participate of humane nature and that thanks be to God you are not a monster When you have learnt to suffer something you will begin to enter into the possession of your soul in which alone you shall find all felicities if so you be united to your beginning Courage poor impatient one raise your self a little above your self by the grace which is given you from on high and so many good assistances which you can never want The God of patience and Consolation will confirm you will fortifie you and will give you the reward of your fidelity The seventh Treatise Of HOPE § 1. The Description
Ungratefull Base and exorbitant in the excesse of bodily vices especially when those exorbitancies are waited on by shamefull punishments and publick infamy All this is able to confound one who hath any feeling of honour but if shame happen for sinne it must be driven away by virtue nay it is much better to take shame then to be taken by it for the one flyeth the sinne before it be committed and the other blusheth to have committed it There are others to be found who make a little account of grievous sinnes with which they defile their consciences and dishonour their reputation But if there be any blemish or some suspicion concerning the honour of their wife that thrusts them into despair as it happened to Valerius a man of eminent quality who was wounded with the most sensible arrow that ever he received when the Emperour Caligula Seneca de constantia sapientis reproached him at his table and in the presence of many with some very secret defects which he said were on his wives body which was indeed to publish an Adultery and the contempt of a Lord one of his dearest friends and of a man of his own nature fierce enough to take revenge as it happened a while after when the insolencies of this miserable Prince bare him to a violent and a direfull death Let us conclude with a third sort of Shamefac'tnesse which is absolutely bad and blame-worthy when one blusheth for Devotion for Chastity for Temperance and other Virtues which are not accounted of in the souls of Libertines and dissolute people How many are there who to comply with ill company attribute sins to themselves which they never committed and vaunt imaginary vices as if there were no Hell for them but in picture Others had rather be found in an ill place then to be often seen at the feet of a Priest or at the Communion-Table in a time when great spirits accustome not to observe Christian duties They fear lest the reputation of being devout may draw along with it some suspicion of weaknesse they are troubled that nature hath not made them impudent enough to shake off the stings of a good Conscience It is a monstrous shame to betray so good a Mistresse as Virtue and to esteem the services ignominious which are done her They who adulterate metals and potion the sources of lively fountains do lesse ill then such as corrupt the pure lights of the apprehensions we ought to have out of virtue But although it be many times ill to be shamefac'd yet there is not any thing more intolerable then to be impudent for that is it which putteth all vice into authority and all the noblest actions into a base and bad esteem § 3. The excellency of shamefac'dnesse and the uglinesse of Impudency I have alwayes made great account of a Curious note of Clemens Alexandrinus who observeth that at A notable observation of Clemens Alexandr S. Stromat Diospolis a City of Egypt on the gate of a Temple named Pylon were seen five figures To wit of a child of an old man a Hawk a Fish and of a Crocodile A child to signifie Birth an old man to denote death a Hawk to represent the eye of God A fish to be the Hieroglyphick of Hatred and the Crocodile of impudency And this excellent Authour addeth that these five statues onely meant this sentence O you who are born and shall dy Know God hateth impudency Shamefac'dnesse hath been so recommended by all The esteem antiquity had of shamfac'dnesse Vit pudens Antiquity that when one would praise a man of honour by a most speciall title he was called a man of shamefac'dnesse as we see in antient stiles and contrariwise to name a man impudent were to qualifie him with the titles of all vices The Scripture which is admirable in representing to the life the propriety of all things hath not forgotten this For willing in two draughts to give the picture of a bad man in the person of Antiochus it saith An impudent and a crafty king shall rise who shall Consurget Rex impudens facie intelligens propositiones Dan. 8. 23. seek to understand all manner of subtleties And it is a strange thing that going about to set forth a man who was a masse of ordures and bloud it is content to give him for the chief of his titles the term of Impudent in his countenance leaving us from that to conjecture that he had lost shamefac'dnesse the nurce of virtues and the Melissa disc 16. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Guardian of the Temple of Sanctity To this purpose the learned Melissa in the sixteenth discourse speaks two excellent words The first of all virtues is Innocency and the second Shamefac'dnesse He who hath once lost it hath nothing entire since he hath likewise broken the sacred instrument of all virtues Theophrastus de impudentia ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which is Conscience Thence we may easily understand that impudency which is no other then a neglect of reputation as Theophrastus a Disciple of Aristotle defineth it is a great evil Should I depaint it I would give it a brow of Brasse What is more impregnable The picture of impudency against blushing I would make it with the eyes of a Frog black and bloudy What is more inflexible to modesty And could I give a voice to my Table I would make the voice of Stentor to resound from its mouth who was the most open-throated of men For what is more filled with outcries or is more tumultuously clamorous I would give it hands of violence and rapine for what is more injurious Wandering feet for what is more straying I would set by its side liberty and hope of impunity which are two disorders that support and foment it Finally it should have all vices waiting on it since he who is not ashamed of doing ill is capeable to produce all manner of monsters I would figure at its seet a Crocodile for it is a creature which from the least of all proportionably becometh the greatest and impudencie which in its beginnings seems in children but a little spark doth in conclusion kindle a huge fire Besides I behold in the region Divers spirits subject to impudency of this unhappy passion divers subjects according to the diversity of age sex and conditions I there see little children to whom Nature hath given a veil of shamefac'dnesse which made their scarlet innocency appear upon the first object of malice And I perceive that Impudency by little and little breaks in upon them some have more of it some lesse but all instantly begin to prattle too freely and indifferently to take liberty by slight mis-becoming actions I see others of them at the age of eighteen and twenty who have shaken off the yoke of parents masters and kindred tearing away even in a moment the scarf of shamefac'dnesse and sucking in the breath of liberty as if they were
of Flanders with him He being very subtil sought to prevent the Virgin and to accommodate her to his likings wherein he could not prevail according to his wicked purpose and it is likewise thought she let him see presumptions pregnant enough against La Brosse his kinsman But he surprizing her by way of conscience enjoyned her silence saying It was not fit for her to speak since her speech might peradventure be the cause of the death of a man whom she could not expose to this danger without mortall sin The Abbot being come to acquit himself of his Commission found her wholly reserved and could get nothing out of her which made him to suspect some deceit Both of them returned to the Court where the Bishop being questioned by the King concerning his proceedings saith the religious woman had told him things under the secret of Confession which was not fit for him to reveal To which Philip readily replied that he sent him not to hear her Confession but to know the revelations she had from God in the discharge of Innocents The Abbot said aloud he well perceived there was jugling in the Bishops proceeding and that he went not sincerely to work which was the cause that a second Embassage was appointed to this religious creature whereof Theobald Bishop of Dol and Arnulph a Knight of the Templers had the Commission and they so well understood how to handle the matter that she spake in these terms Tell the King If any one hath spoken to him in an ill sense of the Queen his wife let him not believe it for she is truly and sincerely good and cordially faithfull towards him and his her virtue cannot be obscured by the darknesse of Calumny This answer cured Philips mind in the matter of suspicion against Mary and turned it upon his bad servants although the want of proof permitted him not to hazard the punishment was due to them But God who draweth brightnesse out of the bosome of darknesse discovered the mischief of La Brosse by a notable accident One of his trusty friends passing by the Abbey of S. Peter at Melun is surprized by a sharp sicknesse which made him think upon his last passage by the assistance of good Religious men of that Monastery and finding himself touched to the quick with remorse of conscience he declared his crime and gave a little Casket to a Religious man who heard his Confession charging him to give it to the King with his own hands and to no other which he very faithfully did and when they had opened this box of Pandora there were discovered all the mischiefs and practices of La Brosse and his hopes to be dissolved For he was presently put in prison and brought to his triall which was followed by a Sentence that condemned him to be hanged and strangled on a gallows of Felons Here it was where the ambitious desires of this disloyall soul were to determine who found that worldly fortunes in which God is not are grosse smokes that produce nought but tempests 6. To conclude we find in the last order bloudy The French revengers of ambition and furious ambitions which cause revolutions of Empire and shake the pillars of the earth Nicetas observeth one very terrible wherein the French were witnesses arbitratours and revengers During the expedition they made in the Land under Philip Gods-guift there appeared a strange accident and a horrible confusion in the state of the Eastern Empire Isaac Comnenus who held the reins of the Empire is menaced much misery by his nearest allies and those whom he had advanced to the greatest dignities He thereupon consulteth with a South-sayer who among popular spirits was in great reputation but who according to the opinion of Nicetas was a cheating Imposter that sought to passe for a Prophet although his words consisted of a thousand falshoods The Emperour with much courtesie having saluted him he disposed himself to leap and to expresse postures which savoured more of a man possessed and frantick then of a prophet notwithstanding without saying any thing else he threw his staffe at the Emperours Image and for an ill presage put out the eyes of it Isaac Comnenus making no account here of contemneth the Southsayer and in few dayes is deprived of the Empire and of his eyes by a horrible conspiracy of Alexius his nearest kinsman and in this condition confined to a loathsome prison all the rest of his life The tyrant who had put out his eyes takes his bloudy spoil and finding no resistance possesseth himself of the throne of Constantinople Alexis son of the Emperour made blind escaped The furious ambition of Alexius the Tyrant of Greece punished by the valour and Justice of the French out of the chains and hand of the parricide his uncle and goes to the French Camp where he made a lamentable narration of his disasters He prayes he beseecheth he conjureth these brave Conquerours by all things the most sacred to take pity upon a miserable Emperour and to succour his father against the most execrable treachery that ever was practised in the world saying It onely belonged to them to trample dragons and monsters under-foot Besides the glory of this action he promiseth them wonders arms ships munition to advance the design they had for the conquest of the holy Land The French were divided in opinion upon this businesse some desiring to pursue their journey others judging this occasion well deserved to stay them there being not any actions in the world more glorious then to do Justice to the afflicted dispossesse bloudy usurpers of Empires and to restore true Kings into that rank which nature and the consent of people had given them This Faction carried it and ours using the advantage which their first fervours afforded them put themselves presently in a readinesse to take Constantinople One who should well weigh the exploits of arms they did in six dayes would think their army had consisted of Giants who bare Mountains and piled them one upon another to over-look the strongest Citadels in the world What they did exceedeth ordinary prodigies and will scarcely find credit with posterity Two thousand foot separated from the rest of the army aided onely by five hundred horse entred into a city wherein there were threescore thousand horse and four hundred thousand souls able to bear arms This so filled minds with terrour that the tyrant as timorous in warre as he had been violent in peace leaves his place without resistance and putting his richest treasures into covert he goes to sea in an instant to change a great Empire into Banishment He went out at one gate and young Alexis entred in by the other causing his troups to march in good order and was with applause received by the chief Citizens who had used much compassion in the afflictions of his Father There was then seen a strange alteration when they went to take this poor blind Emperour out of prison to
affrightment in the towns and as many sackings as quarterings Those which sit at the Stern of Empires and Common-wealths are greatly accountable to God for that which hath past in this businesse Kings ought not onely to maintain Justice by their Arms but to teach it by their behaviour and to consecrate it by their examples The Doctour Navarrus hath set down divers sins against Justice by the which Princes Common-wealths and Lords may offend against God mortally as to take unlawfully the goods that belong not to them and to keep them without restitution To govern loosely and negligently their Kingdomes and Principalities To suffer their Countreys to be unprovided of victualls and defence necessary which may bring their Subjects in danger of being spoiled To wast and consume in charges either evil or unnecessary the goods which are for the defence of their estates To burden excessively their subjects with Imposts and Subsidies without propounding any good intent therefore and without having any necessity not pretended but true and reall To suffer the poor to die with famine and not to sustain them with their Revenues in that extremity Not to hearken to reasonable conditions for a just Peace and to give occasion to the enemies of the Christian name to invade their Lands and root out our Religion To dispense either with the Law of God or Nature To give judgement in the suits of their Subjects according to their own affection To deceive their creditours to suppresse the Liberty and Rights of the people to compell them by threatnings or importunate intreaties to give their goods or to make marriages against their wills or to their disadvantage To make unjust Wars to hinder the service of the Church to sell offices and places of Charge so dear that they give occasion to those that buy them to make ill use thereof To present to Benefices with Cure of Souls persons unworthy and scandalous To give Commissions and Offices to corrupt and unfit officers To tolerate and permit vices filthinesse and robberies by their servants and to condemne to death and cause to be slain unjustly without due order of Law and to violate the marriage-beds of their Subjects All these things and others which this Doctour hath noted cause great sins of Injustice in the persons of great ones unto which they ought especially to take heed and to prevent the same it is most necessary that they be instructed in the duties of their charge and in the estate of their affairs bending themselves thereto as the most important point of their safety and seeing that the passion of Hatred or Love which one may bear to some person will trouble the judgement and pervert Justice S. Lewis counselled the King his son strongly to keep his heart in quiet and in the uncertainty of any differences alwayes to restrain his own affection and to keep under all movings of the spirit as the most capitall enemy to Reason Many Princes have often lost both their life and Sceptre for giving themselves to some unjust action and there is no cause more ordinary for which God translates Kingdomes from one hand to another then Injustice as on the contrary those Princes which have been great Justiciaries do shine as the stars of the first magnitude within Gods Eternity and even their ashes do seem as yet to exhale from their Tombs a certain savour which rejoyceth people and keeps their memory for ever blessed But one cannot believe the rare mixture that Justice Goodnesse its Excellency and Goodnesse make joyned together Goodnesse is an essence profitable and helpfull which serves as a Nurse to Love it hath its originall in the Deity and from thence disperseth it self by little veins into all created Beings and mixeth it self with every object as the light with every Colour It drives away and stops up evil on every side and there is no place even to the lowest hell where it causeth not some beam of its brightnesse to shine Beauty which amazeth all mortall eyes is but the flower of its essence but Goodnesse is the fruit thereof and its savour is the savour of God which all creatures do taste and relish God which as Casiodore saith is the cause of all Beings the life of the senses the wisdome of understandings the love and glory of Angels having from all eternity his happinesse complete in his own bosome hath created man that he might have to whom to do good as Gregory Nyssen writes and S. Cyprian saith that this eternall Spirit did move upon the waters from the beginning of the world to unite and appropriate the Creature to its self and to dispose it for the loving inspirations of its Goodnesse The Prince which according to the obligement of his Charge would make himself an imitatour of God ought to be exceedingly good with four sorts of Goodnesse of Behaviour of Affability of Bounty and of Clemency I say first of Behaviour for that there is small hope of any great one which is not good towards God which keeps not his Law and rules not his life thereby if he have any virtues they are all sophisticate and if he do any good it is by ebbing and flowing by fits and for some ends No person can be truly good towards others which doth not begin with himself he must needs have Christian Love without which no man shall ever see God if he possesse this virtue he will first have a love of honour to those which have begot him a conjugall love for his wife a cordiall love to those of his bloud and all his kindred from thence it will spread it self over his whole house and through all his estate and will cause him to love his Subjects with a certain tendernesse as his own goods and as the good shepherd cherisheth his flocks He will imitate our Lord which looked from the top of the mountain upon the poor people of Judea that followed him and his heart melted for them with singular compassion Herein doth truly consist the virtue of Piety which gives so great a lustre to the life of Princes Now according to the Goodnesse that is in his heart he must needs pour it forth upon all his by these three conduit-pipes that I have said of Affability of Liberality and of Clemency Affability which is a well ordered sweetnesse both in words and converse ought to increase together with a Prince from his tender age This is a virtue which costeth nothing and yet brings forth great fruit it procures treasuries of hearts and wills which do assist great ones when need requires A good word that cometh forth of the mouth of a King is like the Manna that came from heaven and fell upon the desert It nourisheth and delighteth his Subjects it hath hands to frame and fashion their hearts as it pleaseth him it carrieth with it chains of gold sweetly to captivate their wills The command that cometh with sweetness is performed with strength invincible and every
body of the King with those of his three children and hung them upon the walls of Bethshan where they were seen untill the time that certain valiant men of his party took them away by night and gave them buriall Such was the end of this unhappy Prince whom impiety disobedience love of himself and the jealousie of State accompanied with his ordinary ragings threw head-long into a gulf of calamities At the same time that this unhappy battell was David receives the news thereof fought David was pursuing the Amalekites which in his absence had sacked the town of Ziklag which was the place of his retireing that Achish the King of the Philistims had bestowed upon him He was so happy that he overtook those robbers loaden with their prey and took out of their hands his two wives Ahinoam and Abigail whom they had taken away As he came from this battell a young Amalekite presents himself and brings him the news of the death of Saul of Jonathan and of his other sons affirming that he himself had stood by at the death of the King and had helped him to dye by order which he had received from him cutting off the thread of his life and delivering him from those deadly pains that caused him to languish and for a proof hereof he shewed him his Crown and his bracelet which he presented to David hoping for a great reward from him But this virtuous and wise Prince aswell for conscience sake as his reputation took great heed of receiving or manifesting any joy at this accident but on the contrary being moved with extream grief he tore his garments and put all his court in mourning he wept he fasted he made funerall Orations for the honour of Saul and Jonathan and set forth lamentations which caused as great esteem of his virtue as they moved pity to his countrey Not content herewith he caused the Amalekite that brought him the news of the death of Saul to dye by Justice which he himself had helped to confirm according as he had avouched by obedience and by compassion not enduring that he should lay hands upon a King for to take away his life from him by any pretence whatsoever that he could alledge It seemed that after the death of this unhappy Prince David should forthwith have taken possession of all his estates but wisdome hindred him from proceeding herein so hastily They knew that he had not assisted at the the battell for to help his people that he had retired himself into the hands of the capitall enemies of Israel and many might very justly think that he had born arms for Achish which might diminish much the great opinion that they had of his virtue Further also although that Saul was not so much loved in his life-time yet his death might very well have defaced that blemish of hatred that many had conceived against him They considered that he had sacrificed himself with his three sons for the publick safety and had spared nothing for his countrey They had pity on the evil usage that the Philistims had done unto his body his former good actions in time past the dignity of a King his laborious life and tragicall death did quell all the envie that any could have at his fortunes Hence it was that Abner his chief Captain who was a man sufficiently upright would not lose any time but seeing there remained yet a son of Saul named Ishbosheth aged fourty years although he was but of little courage and as little understanding he made him presently to come into the Camp and caused him to be declared the true and lawfull successour of the estates of Saul not so much for the esteem that he had of his sufficiency or for the love that he bore him as intending to reign by him and over him All the people gave unto him the oath of Allegiance except the kindred of Juda from which David was sprung which gathered together in favour of him and crowned him King in Hebron where he reigned about seven years before he possessed the whole power of the Empire The Kingdome of Judah was then one body with The kingdome divided by the ambition of the favourites two heads the house of Saul and David clashing against each other not so much by the inclination of the Masters as by the ambition of the Favourites and Servants which would reign at their costs Abner was high and courageous Joab also the Joab and Abner do seek for the government chief Captain of David stern and violent which would gain the favour of his Master by devouring him in the which he did not succeed well for that the spirit of David was not so feeble as to comply with such behaviour and it was nothing but necessity which caused him to passe by many things These two chief Captains full of jealousie the one Their combat over the other meeting together at the Fish-pond of Gibeon with the chief of the Nobility Abner began first and demanded a combat under pretence of play unto whom Joab which had no need of a spur easily consented Presently one might see the young men of each side nimbly to bestir themselves whose fingers did itch to be at it and did not fail quickly to surprise one another The sport growing hot by little and little came to a full combat and at last to a battell where many remained upon the place Joabs party was the stronger and that for twenty which he lost he killed three hundred and sixty of Abners men who was constrained to retire himself But Azael the brother of Joab a nimble runner followed The death of Azael by his rashnesse him lively with his sword at every turn ready to wound him the other which had no desire to slay him being not ignorant that if it should come to that it would prove the seed of an irreconcileable enmity between him and Joab his brother prayed him twice to depart from him and to content himself with the spoil of some other without being ambitious of his Azael would not hearken unto him but desired to make himself famous by getting the better of the Captain of the Army At last he seeing him insolent unto that extremity turned back and struck him through with his Launce Joab and Abishai his two brethren incensed with that his slaughter followed Abner with all their force who saved himself upon a hill where a great squadron of the family of Banjamin encompassed him and cryed with a loud voice unto Joab saying shall the sword devour for ever and would he make of a sport so deadly a tragedy as if he were ignorant that it was dangerous to drive them to despair Joab caused a retrait to be sounded making a shew to do that for courtesie which he agreed to for necessity Abner laying aside his warlike humour fell in love The disagreeing of Abner and Ishbosheth with a Concubine of Saul named Rispah which was a
servant for she had some good work in her heart for the safety of her Countrey and intreated that it might be recommended to the prayers of the whole Assembly without curiously inquiring what it was that God would do by her means Ozias answered her that she might go in peace and that he prayed that her action might succeed to the good of the universall people Here perhaps may some men be astonished that a woman should take the boldnesse to go and advise the Magistrates and the Priests and the severer sort of censurers will say that by right Judith should have been sent home to her distaffe They will alledge that the Jews give every day thanks to God in their Prayers for that he had not made them be born Women Antiently they were placed in the Churches on the North side from whence the Scripture makes all the evil of the world to come Chrysologus hath also said that woman was the Way of Death the Title of the Sepulchre and the Gate of Hell But this ought to be understood of those that follow the steps of the first of Women and not the wayes of the chief of Virgins Those who abandon themselves to luxury to vanity and to dissolute pleasures are no way fit for great affairs being too delicate for labour and too ambitious of honour But many others that have taken pains in the regulating of their passions have rendred great services to Kingdomes and Common-wealths Rome had never been Rome without the Sabine women The people of the North by the report of Tacitus have been governed in their Warres and in their Polities by women professing that they perceived in them a certain prophetick and divine spirit Plato in his Common-wealth hath judged them capable of Offices their souls being of the same species or kind as men's Wherefore then should we think it strange that God made use of a virtuous woman to counsel men and to deliver her countrey Before she undertook that great work she was a long time prostrated before God in her Oratory with sackcloth upon her back and ashes upon her head saying with an amorous heart My God the God of my Fathers to whom nothing is impossible look down now upon the camp of the Assyrians with that eye of lightnings and of thunders that thou heretofore didst cast upon the army of Egyptians when they were buried in the bottom of the Sea Let the same happen to those here that trust in their chariots of warre in their spears and in their swords and know not that thou art the God of heaven that breakest in pieces the mighty Powers of the earth with one sole look of thine eyes lift up that same arm that hath made it self renown'd from all antiquity by so many wonders and tread under-foot all their strength by thine for ever dreadfull forces Suffer them not to violate thy Temple and to sack the House where thy Name is from all time invoked Cause this barbarous Collonel who promises himself our spoils to be taken by me through the snares of his eyes that his own Coutel-ax may divide his soul and body Strike him with the grace that thy blessing shall make to flow upon my lips and with the cloquence that it shall give to my speeches animate my heart and stiffen my arm to make that great blow that shall be thine and carry away an eternall honour for having pulled down that Colossus by a woman's hand Thy strength is not in the multitude of souldiers nor in the valour of Cavaliers It is not those proud warriours that ought to expect the succour of thy arm but it is the Prayer of the humble that gains thy heart and draws thy forces to their protection God of the heavens creatour of the waters and the God of all nature hear thy poor servant that presumes nothing but from thy mercy Remember thy Covenant give counsel to my heart words to my mouth and strength to my hands for the defence of thy House and that all the Nations of the habitable world may know that there is not any other God but thee Such were the Arms and Engines of this excellent woman such was the confidence she had in the God of hosts After this Prayer she rises from her Oratory comes down from her chamber and calls her maid to dresse her She puts off the sackcloth she washes her self she perfumes her self and quitting the mourning habit which she wore in her widow-hood she puts on her gayest cloathing The tresses of her long hairs are combed out with a delicate hand and her head covered with a stately tyre her handsome body appeared a little taller by the favour of her patins she hangs on her pendants at her ears she puts on her bracelets her chain of pearls her rings certain jewels made in form of flower-de-Lis's and all her richest ornaments It seemed that God took a pleasure that day to render her fairer then ever she had been and that all the graces smiled in her countenance because she had adorned her self through virtue and not through wantonnesse She caused her meat and drink to be carried by her maid fearing to pollute her body with the viands of the Infidels and instantly she went out of her house and betook her self to the city gate where she found Ozias the Prince together with the Priests that were ravished with the lustre of her heavenly beauty Yet no body curiously enquired whither she was going but were contented to wish that God would make her designs succesfull that she might be one day the honour of Jerusalem and that her name might be put in the rank of those great and holy souls that had rendred to God most renowned services She departs out of the city calling again upon the name of God and reciting some prayers with her servant As she went down the mountain upon the break of day the souldiers having perceived her failed not to run to her and seeing her so excellently beautifull were at first dazled in their eyes more by the splendour of her visage then by the first rayes of the day that then was upon its birth They inform themselves of her countrey of her journey and of her intentions whereto she answered that she was of Bethulia and that she had that day forsaken that miserable city that was obstinate in its misery and that for having resisted the triumphant legions of the Assyrians deserved to be destroyed by the thunder-bolts of heaven and earth That she would have no share in their crime no more then in their disastres and that her desire was to present her self to Holophernes to reveal to him the secrets of the city and to teach him the means how to take it without losing any of his men These men were ravished at the hearing of these discourses and assured her that she had taken an excellent course to live in quiet and in honour and that she would be very welcome to their master of whom
the People with astonishment They removed themselves according to the Orders of their Legislatour to the foot of the Mountain Sinai with a prohibition to passe further All the Mountain smoaked as a great Fornace by reason that God was descended thither all in fire which made it extream terrible But Moses his dear favourite ascended to the highest top amidst the fires the darknesses and the flames in that Luminous obscurity where God presided that spake to him face to face as to his most intimate confident After all that thundering voyce of the Living God was heard that pronounced his Decrees and his Laws in that Chamber of Justice hung with fire and lights that trembled under the footsteps of his Majesty All this Law was set down in writing with a most exact care and is yet read every day in the five Books of the Law Now Religion being the Basis of all Policy without which great Kingdomes are but great Robbings This wise Law-giver applyed his whole care and travell to the rooting out of Idolatry and to the causing of the Adorable Majesty of God to be acknowledged in the condition of a worship truly Monarchicall and incommunicable to any other as appears in the punishment which he inflicted on those that had worshiped the golden Calf For the Scripture saith That when the Israelites perceived that Moses tarried a long time on the Mountain of Sinai in those amiable Colloquies that he had with God they grew weary of it and said to the high Priest Aaron That since that man that had brought them out of Egypt was lost they ought to dream no more of him but make in his place Gods that should march in the head of their Army Aaron that perperhaps had a mind to make them lose the relish of that design by the price to which it would amount demanded of them the Pendents of the ears of their Wives and of their Children to go to work about it but their madnesse was so great that they devested themselves freely of all that they had most precious to make a God to their own phansie Aaron accommodating himself to their humour through a great weaknesse made them a Statue that had some resemblance of the Ox Apis that was adored in Egypt As soon as they had perceived it they began to cry Courage Israel behold the God that hath drawn thee out of the slavery of Egypt Aaron accompanied him with an Altar and caused a solemn Feast to be bidden for the morrow after at which the people failed not to be present offering many sacrifices making good cheer and dancing about that Idol God advertised Moses of that disorder and commanded him to descend suddenly from the Mountain to remedy it although he intended to destroy them and had done it had he not been appeased by the most humble Remonstrances and Supplications of his servant He failed not to betake himself speedily to the Camp where he saw that Abomination and the Dances that were made about it which inflamed him so much with Choler that he brake the Tables of the Law written by the hand of God thinking that such a present was not seasonable for Idolaters and Drunkards He rebuked Aaron sharply who excused himself coldly enough and not intending that so abominable a crime should passe without an exemplary punishment He took the Golden Calf and beat it into dust which he steep'd in water to make all those drink of it that had defiled themselves with that sacrilege and to make them understand that sinne that seems at first to have some sweetnesse is extreamly bitter in its effects After which he commanded That all those that would be on Gods side should follow him and the Tribe of Levi as being the most interressed failed not to joyn with him whereupon seeing them all well animated he gave them order to passe through all the Camp from one door to the other with their swords in their hands and to slay all that they met without sparing their nearest kindred This was executed and all the Army was immediately filled with Massacres Rivers of blood ran on all sides accompanied with the sad howlings of a scared multitude that expected every minute the stroke of death God would have that this so severe a punishment be executed upon those miserable men to cause an eternall horrour of Idolatry which is the most capitall of all sins And to retein the worship of God a thousand pretty Ceremonies were practised after the structure of the Tabernacle of the Ark of Covenant of the Table of the Shew-bread of the Altars and after the institution of the Pontificall habits of the Offerings and of the Sacrifices that were celebrated with much order and a singular Majesty Moses also was indefatigable in rendring Justice sitting from the morning till the night on his Tribunall to hear the requests of all the particular men that came to him which Jethro his father in law that was come to visit him having perceived said to him that it was impossible for him to be long able to undergo so troublesome a labour and that he ought to choose amongst all the people some Puissant men fearing God true and enemies of covetousnesse to administer Justice and that it would be sufficient to reserve to himself the controversies that should be of greatest importance Moses believed his counsell and established an handsome order for the decision of the differences that should arise amongst the People He passed fourty years in the wildernesse in divers habitations partly in war against the enemies partly in preserving peace amongst his People and confirming all the laws which he established by the command of God In this exercise he lived to the age of an hundred and twenty years sepaparated himself from all things of the world and was so united to God that it seemed that even his Body it self passed into the nature and condition of an immortall Spirit In fine God having shewed him upon the mountain Nebo all the Land of Promise which he had got to by so many good counsells and so much pains he dyed in that view without entring into it was mourned for thirty dayes by the Israelites and interred of set purpose in a sepulchre unknown to the eyes of men for fear lest he should give an occasion of some Idolatry to that people that would have held him for a Deity Never had man a Birth more forlorn a Life more various or a Death more glorious of an exposed Infant he became a Kings son of a Kings son an Exile of an Exile a Shepheard of a Shepheard a Captain of a Captain a Prophet of a Prophet a Law-giver of a Law-giver a Sovereign the God of Kings and the King of all the Prophets Active at Court Devout in Solitude Victorious in War Happy in Peace Wise in his Laws Terrible in his Arms a man of Prodigies that opened Seas Manur'd Wildernesses Commanded things Sensible and Insensible and exercised an Empire on
all Nature He was Indefatigable in his Travels Zealous for the honour of God disobliged from his own interest in the punishment of the Sacrilegeous Patient in his own Injuries Familiar to Few Courteous to all a Companion of Angels the Favorite of God of a Life very long and of a Memory that shall have no end SAMUEL DANIEL SAMVEL DANIEL SAmuel that seemed to have been born for nothing but to pray and to passe away his life in the Tabernacle of God got very forward at Court and in the managing of the great affairs of State His Birth is a Miracle his Life an Example and his Death the immortality of his virtues He was one of those infants that are expected a long time before they come that are the sons of so many vowes and that pay the expectation of their Nativity by the happinesse of their Life It belongs onely to great things to be seen before they are by presages by desires by hopes and to make themselves be seen after they are no more by an eternall memory Hannah his mother barren in children but fruitfull in virtues conceived him rather by her sighs then by her pleasures He was a gift of the Tabernacle which she rendered to the Tabernacle and as she had obteined him by supplication she made of him a man of prayer devoted from his infancy to the Divine Ministeries and a Nazarite by expresse vow which lived in abstinence and had no other profession but contemplation It is by these exercises that God raises great Personages and we cannot choose but expect brave actions on earth from a man that hath much commerce with heaven So God began betimes to communicate himself to him and to make him partaker of his secrets He informed him of the destruction of his Master Eli the High-Priest and powerfully fitted him for his Service This Eli was a reverend old man a Judge of the People that had lived in an high reputation and great glory amongst the Israelites but his reign being too soft his children that were now great abusing his authority practised a petty Larceny even as far as unto the sacrifice it self and committed impurities and debaucheries of women which are most ordinarily two of the chiefest things that make a change of Government there being nothing that doth more exasperate the subject then the avarice and the luxury of those that rule the one making attempts upon their goods and the other upon their bed A grave father of the Church addressing a spirituall direction to a Governour admonishes him That it is not enough for him to be innocent if all his family doth not imitate him and form themselves according to his examples for what profit is it sayes he to a miserable people to have a Prince or Governour wise and moderate if while he absteins from things not permitted there be one of his servants that making use of his name and power takes occasion to satiate his Avarice These wicked sons of Eli Hophni and Phineas committed a thousand extortions under the authority of their father and dishonoured his gray hairs by the incontinence of their dissolute youth The complaints thereof came to their fathers ears but instead of depriving them of their Offices and Commissions which they held of him which would have been a means to wash away the stain that was imprinted on his renown he contented himself with giving them a weak admonition which having little force upon their passions had yet lesse effect upon their actions God then took the businesse in hand after a very strange manner for the Philistims the sworn enemies of the chosen people ran upon their Frontiers and put an army into the field which obliged the Israelites to arm to hinder the waste that they made but being come to the encountre they lost the Battell wherein 4000 men were slain upon the place The conquered people resuming heart and arms set on foot an huge Army that marched under the wings of the Ark of Covenant conducted by Hophni and Phineas to whom it apperteined by office But these debauched men and ill-train'd for war rather precipitated then gave a scond Battel and did their businesses in it so ill that thirty thousand men were cut in pieces and they themselves increased the number of the dead and were both slain in defence of the Ark that was taken and carried away by the Philistims This deplorable news being come to the ears of Eli gave him such a confusion of spirit that he let himself fall and dyed upon the place mourning for the Ark of Covenant above his own children His house fell into great contempt after his death as had been foretold him and none of his race came to old-age the hand of God not ceasing to revenge the Injuries of his Tabernacle and of his People to instruct great ones that are in Offices to look carefully to this that Religion and Justice as two sisters by an indissoluable knot be kept fast to one another The Affairs of the Jews were in a piteous estate after the losse of those two Battels and there was need of a puissant hand to repair those losses But the Sovereign Master lent his thereto and raised up Samuel to settle again all that the furies of the wars had shaken This good Pilot consecrated himself by a Tempest and took the Government when every rationall man would have thought of quitting it This was a sign that he entered into it by wayes very clean coming in a time when there was more matter for compassion then Ambition He had no other Love but that of the Publick good he knew no other Avarice but that of time nor other Pleasures but Businesses His first aime in the Government was to banish Idolatry and to put in vigour again the worship of the true God well knowing that the most fatall plagues of States come from the contempt of Religion He was a man of order of a great understanding and of a powerfull speech that never fell to the ground He caused ordinarily whatsoever he had a mind to establish surest to passe Generall Assemblies that what concerned the good of every man might be done by the advice of all the World One of the first functions that he exercised was to make an excellent Oration to the People and to tell them of their infidelity making them see That Gods forsaking them came from that they had forsaken God and that if they would enjoy the favours of his protection as their fathers did they ought necessarily to banish the strange Gods and to abolish eternally the names of Baal and Astaroth to whom many amongst them had devoted themselves that God the Sovereign Master could not endure any companion in his Throne and would not have to do with hearts divided to imaginary Deities That if they served him faithfully he hoped that he would deliver them from the hand of the Philistims and would exalt again the glory of their nation that had
that if Baal were God they ought to follow him but if there were no other God but that of Israel called upon from all times by their Fathers it was he to whom they ought to adhere with an inviolable fidelity To this the assembly made no answer there being none that was willing to set himself forward upon an uncertainty Then Elijah taking the word again said Behold four hundred and fifty Prophets of Baal on one side and I a Prophet of the true God all alone on the other part in this place here To make a tryall of our Religion let there be two Oxen given us for each of the two parties let them be cut in pieces and the pieces put upon a pile of wood without puting any fire to them either on one side or on the other we will expect it from heaven and the Sacrifice upon which God shall make a flame appear from on high to kindle it shall carry away the testimony of the true Religion To this all the people answered with a confused voyce that it was a good Proposition The Victims were brought sacrificed and put upon the wood to be consumed The Priests of Baal began first to invoke the heavenly fire and to torment themselves with great cryes and a long time without any effect It was already mid-day and nothing had appeared to their advantage whereat being very much astonished they drew out their Razors and make voluntary incisions upon themselves according to their custome thinking that a prayer was never well heard if it were not accompanied with their blood which the evil Spirit made them shed in abundance to satiate his Rage This nothing advanced the effect of their Supplications which gave occasion to Elijah to mock at the vanity of their Gods saying that Baal that gave no answer was asleep or busie or on a journey or perhaps drinking at the Tavern He remained either with security amidst so many enraged Wolves covered with the protection of the God of Hosts and began to prepare his Sacrifice taking twelve stones in memory of the twelve Tribes of Israel to erect an Altar to the name of God after which he divided the Offering into divers parts put them all upon the pile and that none might have any suspition that there was fire hidden in some part of them he caused abundance of buckets of water to be thrown upon the Sacrifice and all about it and then began to say Great God God of Abraham of Isaac and of Israel shew now that thou art the God of this people and that I am thy servant I have obeyed thee in all this resting my self upon thy word Hear me my God my God hear me and let this assembly learn this day of thee that thou art the true God and the absolute Master of all the universe and that it is thou that art able to reduce their hearts to the true belief Scarce had he ended his prayer when the Sacred fire fell down from heaven upon his Sacrifice and devoured the Offering and the Altar to the admiration of all the People who prostrating themselves on the ground began to cry That the God of Israel was the true God Take then sayes he the false Prophets of Baal let not one sole man of them escape us The People convinced by the Miracle and the voyce of Elijah without expecting any other thing fall upon those false Prophets takes them and cuts them all in pieces Ahab amidst all this stood so astonished that he durst not speak one onely word nor any way resist the Divine Command The Prophet bad him take his refection and go into his Coach for the so much desired rain was near and having said so retired himself to the top of the Mount Carmel and sent his servant seven times to the sea to see whether he could discover any clouds but he saw nothing till the seaventh time and then he perceived a little cloud that exceeded not the measure of a hand and yet he sends him to tell Ahab that it was time to Harnesse if he would not be overtaken with the rain He mounted instantly into his Coach to get to the City of Jezrael and Elijah ran before as if he had wings In the mean time the Heavens grew black with darknesse the clouds collect themselves the wind blowes and the Rain falls in abundance Ahab failed not to relate to Jezabel all that had been done desiring to make the death of those Prophets passe for a decree of heaven for fear lest that imperious woman should upbraid him with the softnesse of his courage But she not moved with those great miracles of fire and water that were reported to her began to foam with wrath and to swear by all her Gods that she would cause Elijahs head to be laid at her feet by the morrow that time The Prophet is constrained to fly suddenly to save himself not knowing to whom to trust so that having brought with him but one young man to accompany him in the way he quitted him and went alone into the wildernesse wherein having travelled a day he entred into a great sadnesse and laid him down under a Juniper-tree to repose himself and there felt himself very weary of living any longer and said to God with an amorous heart My God it is enough take mee out of this life I am not better then my fathers It is a passion ordinary enough to good men to wish for death that they may be no more obliged to see so many sinnes and miseries as are in the World and to go to the place of rest to contemplate there the face of the living God But this desire ought to be moderated according to the will of God As he was in that thought sleep that easily surprises a melancholy spirit and wearied with raving on its pains slipt into his benummed members and gave some truce to his torments But that great God that had his eyes open to the protection of so dear a person dispatched to him his guardian Angell who awaked him and shewed him near his head a cruse of water and a loaf of bread baked under the ashes for such are the banquets that the nursing Father of all Nature makes his Prophets not loving them for the delights of the body but contenting himself to give them that which is necessary to life he saw well that it was a Providence that would yet prolong his life He drank and ate and at length being very heavy fell asleep again But the Angel that had undertaken the direction of his way waked him and told him that it behooved him to rise quickly by reason that he had yet a long way to go Elijah obeyed and being risen found that he had gained a merveilous strength so that he journied fourty dayes and fourty nights being fortified with that Angelicall bread till such time as he came to the Mountain Horeb. There he retired himself into the hollow of a Rock unknown
did frequent her house Seneca was named amongst the foremost Calumny against Julia and Seneca and by calumny invelopped in the same accusation whether it was suspected that he had treated of love with her or whether it was thought that he was an accomplice in her excesses and had flattered her in her passion without giving her advice It is true that our Seneca was then in the flower of his age and was none of those fullen and stern Stoicks that had put the world into a fright He had a gentle spirit discreet and agreeable to women but he was too advised to let his passions flie so high as to commit any loose act in the house of the Cesars Dion his greatest enemy doth justifie him in this businesse and doth confesse that all this accusation was most unjustly grounded and that Messalina was so depraved and so corrupted with the inordinatenesse of filthy lusts that no credit was to be given to her Neverthelesse she ceased not to bear down the innocent with the weight of her power she condemned the Princesse to banishment and afterwards to death as Dion and Suetonius do affirm It did much afflict her that Seneca was alive who by divers sentences in the Senate was allotted to death but the good Emperour Claudius was most unwilling to extinguish in that Spirit the Glory of Eloquence and of the Empire desired his life of the Senate and was contented that he should be banished into the Isle of Corsica where at the beginning he was touched with a melancholy amazement to find himself separated from the pleasures of the Court to live amongst the rocks and people as ungentle as the rocks but he imployed all his Philosophy to comfort himself and to temper the eagernesse of his fortune with the tranquility of his mind Here his spirit being delivered from the noise and the tumults of Rome and the servitudes of the Court did altogether reflect upon it self and found there those Lights and those Treasures which before lay undiscovered to him Tribulation is to men as a spurre to incite them to the production of brave works and of generous actions and this appeared in Seneca who in this Seneca benished to Corsica where he composed excellent works place of banishment did write most excellent Treatises neither did his conversation with those rude inhabitants alter the graces or the beauty of his language He treated there with the Intelligences and dived into the Contemplation of the World He took off the vail from Nature that she might the better be seen in her majesty Howsoever in that solitary place he had sometimes his hours of affection beholding himself severed from his mother whom he tenderly loved and whom in that affliction he comforted w th a letter which might pass for a good book He passionately desired the company of his brothers and some personages of Honour who loved him with as much sincerity as profession There was some that think it strange in Seneca that he should desire and endeavour his return and that in his consolatory letter to Polybius he did write the praises of the Emperour Claudius who did banish Seneca did well to desire and procure his liberty him But have not they somthing to do who exact more perfection in Seneca a man at that time of the world then is required in a Prophet where is the bird that doth not sometimes beat his bill against the cage to find out the door to his liberty Jeremy was exceeding patient and yet he humbly besought K. Zedekiah to draw him out of prison where he had suffered much and much feared that he should be committed again unto it Doth not S. Paul say that liberty is better then slavery that one is to be supported by necessity and the other to be procured by reason What fault hath Seneca done that in his exile he wrote unto Polybius a great favourite a letter consolatory on the death of his brother and inserted in it a few good words to appease the Emperour Should he have spared a period or two to deliver himself from a banishment where he had continued for the space of eight years I should no way approve him for bestowing flatteries on a wicked man which should be an act unworthy of a Philosopher for a generous spirit had better to endure the extremity of evil then praise a tyrant and give applauses to his person You may observe how carefull he is in that Tract to give not so much as one Complement to Messalina who was a very bad woman although she had the command of all he onely praised an Emperour who in that time wherein he wrote his Consolation to Polybius was in good reputation and made the face of the Empire look farre otherwise then it did in the Reign of Caligula his predecessour He is so discreet that all the praises he doth give him are no more then wishes Let the Powers of Heaven preserve him long on The excellent Complement of Seneca earth Let him surmount the years and the acts of Augustus and as long as he shall be mortall let there not any die in his house Let him give us a long sonne to be Master of the Roman Empire having approved him by his long fidelity And let him have him rather for his Colleague then for his Successour Afterwards he addresseth himself to Fortune speaketh unto her Take heed O Fortune how thou makest thy approaches to him Let not thy power be seen in his person but by thy bounties Let him redresse the calamities of mankind and re-establish all that which the fury of his Predecessour hath ruined and made desolate Let that fair Starre which is risen when the world was falling into the Abysmes continue alwayes to illuminate the Universe Let him pacifie Germany and let him open England Let him gain and surmount the Triumphs of his Father His Clemency which is the first of his Virtues doth promise that I shall not be a Spectatour onely and that he hath not cast me down to raise me up no more But why say I cast down he hath upheld me from the hour that I fell into my misfortune when they would have thrown me headlong down he interposed and by the moderation of his divine hands he laid me gently on the earth He hath entreated the Senate for me and not content himself to give me life he hath desired it of others that I might enjoy the Grant with more assurance Let him deal with me as he pleaseth I assure my self that his Justice will find my cause to be good or his Clemency will make it so It is all one to me whether I am judged not guilty by his Equity or whether I am made innocent by his Bounty In the mean time I rejoyce in my miseries with a sensible consolation to see the course of his Mercy which goes through the Universe and which every day doth call forth the Banished from this
saith S. Dennis What a roaring of the Lion saith S. Hierome What a Flow of Learning what a Torrent of Eloquence who makes us to understand the Mysteries unknown in all Ages and that as much by his Admiration as his Words He wrote his Epistles with his Ear in Heaven and with a Style in the School of Paradise The feeblenesse of humane Words could not sustain the force of his Spirit In the Affective part he was filled with a Seraphick His Love Love with a fire drawn from the most pure flames of Heaven which was shut up within his heart and within his bones and did uncessantly burn him without consuming him On his mortified flesh he did bear the Characters of a suffering God which were his dearest Delights He was no more himself he was all and altogether transfigured into that amiable Word by a Deifick transanimation He lived on his Bloud he breathed not but by his Spirit he spake not but by his Words he thought not but by his Meditations yet neverthelesse in some manner he did leave God and the delicious School of Paradise to run unto his Neighbour to save his Soul and in this exercise of Charity he defied Tribulation Anguish Hunger Nakednesse Dangers Persecutions and bloudy Swords and burning Fagots and boiling Caldrons If Hell it self were portable he would adventure to have carried it on his back for the love of his Neighbour He looked upon the world as if every mothers son were of his begetting he carried in his heart Europe and Asia and Afâick and all the Provinces of the Earth to communicate the Light of the Gospel either by himself or by his children whom already he had begotten in Jesus Christ Nothing rebated him nothing hindred nothing stopped him He gave no bounds to his Love since God had given no limits to his Spirit With these fair and extraordinary qualities God gave him Successe in the preaching of the Gospel which did draw upon him the admiration of all the Apostles He marched in triumph through all Provinces and God was on his heart He was like unto that Ark of the Testament which is spoken of in the Revelations Apoc. 21. which at the same time that it was perceived did cause a Lightning to be seen a Voice to be heard the Hail to rattle and the Earthquakes to roar so wheresoever S. Paul did passe there were the Light of Learning the Oracles of Wisdome the impetuous Tempest of words of fire which made the Philosopers and Kings to tremble and even removed Nature it self Behold here the difference which was between S. Paul and Seneca which being well considered we shall forbear to admire wherefore one was so fruitlesse in the Court of Nero and the other had so great successe in Rome and amongst so many Nations After that Paul was for a season retired from Rome Saint Paul leaves Rome Nero grows worse and worse leaving unto Seneca a strong tincture of the Christian Faith Nero did every day grow worse and worse insomuch that having killed his brother his wife his mother this scourge of mankind in the wicked jollity of his heart had a plot in his head to set the City of Anno Neron 10. Chron. 66. Rome on fire which was almost wholly consumed with it whiles he from a high tower did behold it and laughing at the calamity did sing the burning of Troy the great which did so exasperate the spirits of his Subjects that on the year following the chief of the Empire did enter into a conspiracy against him in which were comprised Senatours Captains Colonels The Conspiracy against him detected Citizens Ladies and all the choicest personages in Rome but misfortune so would have it that the secret being dispersed amongst so many people it did not answer the event to which it was designed but being discovered it occasioned a bloudy butchery in Rome Nero like an enraged Tygre desiring nothing more then to bathe himself in bloud Seneca's name was entred at the last in the list of the The constant and the famous death of Seneca Conspiratours whether his Scholar had conceived a jealousie against him mistrusting his high Virtue and fearing lest he should tear the Diadem from his head or whether the insolence of his deportments had put him into that condition as not to indure the very shadow of a Tutor It was now a long time since this great personage overcome with grief at so many tragicall accidents did leade a retired life in his Countrey-house not farr from Rome There was not against him any manifest conviction to rank him amongst the Conspiratours as Tacitus hath observed It is onely said that one of that number named Natalis did depose before Nero that he was sent to Seneca by Piso who was the chief of the Conspiratours to complain that he would not suffer him to give him a visit and to meditate an enterview to which Seneca made answer that such a meeting in so dangerous and so fatal a time could be profitable neither to the one nor to the other and as for the rest that his life subsisted not but in the safety of the life of Piso On this the Tribune of the Emperours Guard was dispatched to Seneca to understand what answer he could make to the Deposition of Natalis On the evening he arrived at Seneca's house which he suddenly invironed with a troop of Souldiers He was no sooner entred but he found him at supper with his wife and two friends he presently acquainted him what he had in Commission from the Emperour on which Seneca confessed that Natalis indeed was sent unto him by Piso to intreat him to receive a visit from him but he excused himself by reason of indisposition and retirednesse without speaking one word more unto him adding that he had never so high an esteem of Piso as to judge that the safety of his life did depend upon him thar such flattery was not suitable to his disposition and that Nero knew it very well who by experience had alwayes found in Seneca more of Liberty then of Servitude The Tribune made a faithfull report of Seneca's answer in the presence of Poppea that impudent woman and Tigillinus that execrable villain who in those cruel designs were the onely two that were now of his Majesties sacred Counsel This barbarous Prince who had promised his Tutor that he would rather die then permit that any offence should be done unto him did bear that respect unto him as not to question him on that Conspiracy amongst so many other Senators peradventure he had not a brow of brasse enough to outface the reproaches of so eloquent a mouth He demanded of the Tribune if he did not prepare himself to a voluntary death who made answer That he observed not the least sign of it either in his countenance or discourse whereupon he was commanded to return to Seneca and to signifie unto him that he must die The Tribune
whether in reverence to the man or for fear to precipitate the death of such a Minister of the State by too hasty an execution demanded counsel of Fannius his Captain what in this case he ought to do who did advise him to execute the command of the Emperour and this was done by a sloth fatall to all of the Conspiracy some Ladies onely excepted who shewed themselves more courageous then the Senatours and the Cavalliers Howsoever he having not the heart to carry these heavy tidings did deliver his Commission to a Centurion who informed him with the last of all necessities Seneca without troubling himself desired so much liberty as to make his Will which was refused him On which he turned to his friends and said That since it was not permitted to him to acknowledge their merit that he would leave unto them the very best of all he had which was the Image of his Life in which if they would please to call to mind how he had passed it in so many commendable Exercises they should enjoy for their recompence the reputation of a faithfull and a constant friendship And this he spake not out of arrogance but as it were by the authotity of a Father when he bids his last Farewell unto his Children recommending to them to imitate him in what he had done well and so said S. Paul to his Disciples Be you imitatours of me as I am of Jesus Christ This made their hearts to melt and they began all to weep but he did endeavour to wipe away their tears mingling sweetnesse with reproaches What do you mean he said where are the Precepts of Philosophy where is that Reason so long prepared against all the chances of humane Life who is he that can be ignorant of the cruelty of Nero and who did not see that after the death of his mother and his brother there nothing remained but to adde unto it the murder of his Master and Governour After this Discourse which served for them all he embraced his wife gave her his last farewell and having fortified her against the terrours of the present dangers he did intreat and conjure her to moderate her grief and to sweeten the sorrows of her dear husband by the consideration of his life which was without reproach He loved most tenderly that virtuous Lady and did not cherish his own life but for her sake saying sometimes That he would spare himself a little the more becausâ in an old man there lived a young woman who deserved that he should take care for her and being not able to obtain from his dear Paulina that she should love him more fervently her love being in the highest degree of perfection she should obtain from him that he should use himself for her sake with the more indulgence This fair Lady observing all that had passed said That there was no longer life for her after the death of him whom she loved above all things in the world and that she would keep him company in the other world On that word he stood a little in a pause and would not contradict her as well for the glory of the action as for the love which he did bear her and for the fear he had to leave so dear a person to the affronts of an enemy be therefore said unto her My dear Love I have shewed you the sweetnesse and the allurements of life but I see you preferre unto it the honour of a generous death I will not envy the example of your Virtue and although the constancy in our death shall be equall in us both yet yours shall be alwayes more glorious then mine for you contribute unto it a courage which is above your sex Having said this they caused their veins to be opened by one hand in the presence one of the other and because the body of her husband was attenuated by great abstinence and the bloud did issue but slowly from him he gave order that there should be a new incision made in the veins of his legs and of his feet The poor old man did endeavour to put himself all into bloud and indured cruel dolours but more in the body of his dear wife then in his own which was the reason that he caused her to be conveighed into another chamber to mitigate a little the sorrows which one had for the other in beholding themselves to die with so much violence It is a wonderfull thing that this great man had so untroubled and so ready a spirit in so fatall an act He called his Secretary to whom he did dictate his last Thoughts which were full of a generous constancy In the mean time Nero having no particular hatred against Paulina and considering that the death of so innocent a Lady would but render himself and his cruelty more abhorred did command that her veins should be stopped and the bloud stanched which it appeared that she suffered to her greater grief both by the short time that she out-lived her husband and by the inviolable faith which she did bear unto his ashes and she looked ever after as she were some prodigy such abundance of bloud and so much spirits she had lost Seneca was yet remaining in the tedious pangs of death when upon advice he demanded poyson of his Physicians which had no operation at all his members being already cold and his body shut up against all the forces of the poyson He caused himself therefore to be carried to a Bath and taking some of the warm water he sprinkled his servants with it that stood about him saying according to Cornelius Tacitus That he offered that water to Jove the deliverer after which words he entred into the stove and was stifled with the vapour that did arise from it Many grave Personages have conceived that he died a Christian and though it is no easie matter to perswade those to this opinion who are possessed with another and who speak but with little consideration on this subject yet there are not wanting grounds to prove the truth thereof Flavius Dexter a most antient Historian who hath composed a small Chronicle from the Nativity of our Saviour unto the fourth Age affirmeth in expresse terms that in the sixty fourth year Seneca entertained good thoughts of Christianity and that he died a Christian although not a declared one S. Hierome in the Book of Ecclesiasticall Authours doth put him in the number of Saints that is to say of those who acknowledge and confesse Jesus Christ Tertullian a most grave Authour saith that he was one although not openly S. Augustine in the City of God alledgeth many excellent passages of a Book which Seneca undoubtedly did write against the Superstition of the Pagans in which he overthrows all the Heathenish Religion of Rome although he doth not vigorously perswade them to change it for fear of troubling the Estate This Book was afterwards condemned and burned by the Enemies of our Religion The holy Doctor doth
of all Interests to procure her death In stead of coming to the Court to be received there according to her birth and merit she found her self to be confined into a corner of a desart Island where in a new captivity she most unworthily was detained Her disloyal Brother the Vice-roy seeing her escaped from his bloudy hands did promise to himself to oppress with much ease by the circumventions of the Protestant Judges He laid anew for her the nets of his old Accusations and made use of all the falsities which had been invented to eclipse her honour Queen Elizabeth in stead of suppressing the unnatural insolence of her subjects gave them Commissions and an Order that a Process should be made against her The Puritans and the Lutherans the mortal Enemies of Queen Mary are now her Accusers her Judges and her Witnesses The number of honest men was here very few and the apprehension of the danger did stop the mouthes of those men which understood the truth but had not the courage to defend it Nevertheless amongst others there was a Scotch Gentleman the Viscount Herrin worthy of eternal Memory who presented himself to Elizabeth for the defence of his own Queen and said unto her MADAM THe Queen my Mistress who is nothing subject to A generous Compassion you but by misfortune doth desire you to consider that it is a work of an evil Example and most pernicious Consequence to give way that her rebellious Subjects should be heard against her who being not able to destroy her by arms do promise themselves to assassinate her even in your own breast under the colour of Justice Madam Consider the estate of worldly affairs and bear some compassion to the calamities of your poor Suppliant After the most horrid attempt on the King her husband the murder of her servants the cruel Designs on her sacred Person After so many prisons and chains the subjects are heard against their Queen the Rebels against their lawfull Mistress the guilty against the Innocent and the felons against their Judge Where are we or what do we do Though Nature hath planted us in the further parts and the extremities of all the earth yet she hath not taken the sense of humanity from us Consider she is your own bloud your nearest kins-woman she is one of the best Queens in the world for whom your Majestie is preparing bloudy Scaffolds in a place where she was promised and expected greatest favours I want words to express so barbarous a deed but I am ready to come to the Effects and to justifie the innocence of my Queen by witnesses unreproveable and by papers written and subscribed by the hands of the Accusers If this will not suffice I offer my self by your Majesties permission to fight hand to hand for the honour of my Queen against the most hardy and most resolute of those who are her Accusers In this I do assure my self of your Equitie that you will not deny that favour unto her who will acknowledge her self obliged to your bounty Elizabeth who found her advantages in the misfortunes of Mary made no account of these remonstrances and commanded the Commissioners who were the Dukes of Norfolk and of Sussex to proceed unto the Charge But there is a God who rules the Assemblies of men and oftentimes doth turn their Advice against their own consciences The greatest part of this Court were so transported that they had a Resolution to destroy Queen Mary Murray Morton the infamous Bishop of Orcades and the pernicious Buchanan with divers other Enemies of the Queen were now come and brought with them the most execrable inventions and blackest calumnies that ever were fetcht from hell to charge the Queen with the death of the King her husband nay Letters of love were produced which had been invented by some Puritans who with an insupportable impudence affirmed that they found them in a silver coffer of the Queens The Earl of Murray who in the beginning pretended The inhumane cruelty of ambition to wish better to no man than to Bothuel doth now declare himself the chief of this Accusation outragiously pursuing the death of his Sister alledgeing That she was the occasion of her husband's death in revenge of the murder of her Secretary that she never loved him afterwards that she never lamented his loss nor repented of her own sin That she altogether abandoned her self to the love of the Earl of Bothuel whom afterwards she married although he was the murderer of her husband Lesley the Bishop of Rosse Gordon Gauvin Baron and others who were there on the behalf of the Queen for she was present her self in person knowing the whole truth of the business and being incensed at the heart to see the foul treasons of this Judas did handle him according to his desert and did answer him by a very strong Apologie which was afterward presented to the Judges to consider of it at their leisure I will in this place insert the substance of it having some years since found it amongst the Acts of the Queen of Scotland MY LORDS IT is a great favour of Heaven to us that the Earl of Murray is an Accuser in this Cause since his name is able to justifie the greatest crimes much more to accuse the Innocent before persons so approved for their justice and their wisdom It is sufficiently known that by the ignominie of his mother he was the son of a Crime as soon as a son of Nature that he hath ever since lived by wickedness and is grown great by insolence The Queen his Sister hath but one fault which is that she hath advanced him against the intentions of the King her father who designed to him no Crown but what when he was to take Religious Orders the Barber should give him and now he hath usurped the Crown of the Realm His desire and endeavours are that the Diadem should be taken from the head of Mary in recompence to him for having cried her down by his calumnies dishonoured her by his outrages imprisoned her by his fury and dispossessed her by his tyranny Murray doth accuse the Innocent for having contrived her husbands death and he doth accuse her in a Court where there are Witnesses unreproveable that will presently be deposed upon Oath that having plotted this horrible murder he being in a Boat did say That the King should that night be cured of all his maladies And surely it was easie for him to presage it when he and his Accomplices had before decreed it and he had assigned them the place the time and the manner of the execution Murray hath made himself an Accuser to ravish the Kingdom and sway the Scepter imbrued with the bloud of the Queen his sister And we are not so much amazed at this for he hath sold his soul to work wickedness at a far cheaper rate Who had a deeper interest in the death of the King than a Monk for so
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
smiling she added some few words that she blamed Paulet and Deurey who guarded the Prisoner for not delivering her from that pain It is true that in the morning she sent one named Killigrew to Davison to forbid to put that command in Execution whether it were that her Remorse of Conscience had put her into some frights her sleeps being ordinarily disturbed with horrible Dreams which did represent unto her the images of her Crimes or whether it were an artifice to procure her the reputation of being mercifull in killing with so much treachery The Secretary came to her in the field and declared to her that the Order for the Queen of Scotland's death was now finished and sealed on which she put on the countenance of displeasure and told him that by the Counsel of wise men one might find out other expedients by which it is believed that she intended poison Nevertheless she now was commanded that the Execution should be delayed And as Davison presented himself to her three dayes afterward demanding of her if her Majesty had changed her advice she answered No and was angry with Paulet for not enterprising boldly enough the last of the Crimes And said moreover That she would find others who would do it for the love they did bear unto her On which the other did remonstrate that she must think well of him for otherwise she would ruin Men of great Merit with their posterity She still persisted and on the very same day of the Execution she did chide the Secretary for being so slow in advancing her Commands who as soon as he had discovered the affair the evil Counsellours did pursue the expedition with incredible heat for they sent Beal a Capital Enemy of the Catholicks with letters directed to certain Lords in which power was given them to proceed unto the Massacre who immediately repairing to the Castle of Fotheringhey where the Queen was prisoner they caused her to rise from her bed where the Indisposition of her body had laid her and having read unto her their Commission they did advertise her that she must die on the morning following 16. She received this without changing of her countenance and said That she did not think that the Queen her Sister Her death and miraculous constancy would have brought it to that extremity But since such was her pleasure death was most agreeable to her and that a Soul was not worthy of celestial and eternal joys whose body could not endure the stroke of the Hang-man For the rest she appealed to Heaven and Earth who were the witnesses of her Innocence adding that the onely Consolation which she received in a spectacle so ignominious was that she died for the Religion of her Fathers she beseeched God to increase her constancy to the measure of her afflictions and to welcome the death she was to suffer for the expiation of her sins After she spake these words she besought the Commissioners to permit her to conser with her Confessor which by a barbarous cruelty was refused a cruelty which is not exercised on the worst of all offendours and in the place for a Director of her conscience they gave her for her comforters the Bishop and the Dean of Peterborough whom with horrour she rejected saying That God should be her Comforter The Earl of Kent who was one of the Commissioners and most hot in the persecution of her told her Your life will he the death and your death will be the life of our Religion Declaring in that sufficiently the cause of her death whereupon she gave thanks to God that she was judged by her Enemies themselves to be judged an instrument capable to restore the ancient Religion in England In this particular she desired that the Protestants had rather blamed her effects than her designs After the Lords were retired she began to provide for her last day as if she had deliberated on some voyage and this she did with so much devotion prudence and courage that a Religious man who hath had all his Meditations on death for thirty years together could not have performed it with greater Justice And in the first place she commanded that supper should be dispatched to advise of her affairs and according to her custom supping very soberly she entertained her self on a good discourse with a marvellous tranquillity of mind And amongst other things turning her self to Burgon her Physitian she demanded of him if he did not observe how great was the power of the Truth seeing the sentence of her death did import that she was condemned for having conspired against Elizabeth and the Earl of Kent did signifie that she died for the apprehension which they had that she should be the death of the false Religion which would be rather her glory than a punishment At the end of supper she drank to all her Servants with a grave and modest chearfulness on which they all kneeled down and mingled so many tears with their wine that it was lamentable to behold As soon as their sobs had given liberty to their words they asked her pardon for not performing those services which her Majesty did merit and she although she was the best Mistress that ever was under heaven desired all the world to pardon her defects She comforted them with an invincible courage and commanded them to wipe away their tears and to rejoyce because she should now depart from an abyss of misery and assured them that she never would forget them neither before God nor men After supper she wrote three letters one to the King of France one to the Duke of Guise and the third unto her Confessor Behold the letter in its own terms which she wrote unto King Henry the Third SIR GOD as with all humility I am bound to believe A Letter unto Henry the Third having permitted that for the expiation of my sins I should cast my self into the Arms of this Queen my Cousin having endured for above twenty years the afflictions of imprisonment I am in the end by her and her Estates condemned unto death I have demanded that they should restore the papers which they have taken from me the better to perfect my last Will and Testament and that according to my desire my body should be transported into your Kingdom where I have had the Honour to be a Queen your Sister and ancient Allie but as my sufferings are without comfort so my requests are without answer This day after dinner they signified unto me the sentence to be executed on the next day about seven of the clock in the morning as the most guilty offendor in the world I cannot give you the discourse at large of what is passed It shall please your Majesty to believe my Physitian and my servants whom I conceive to be worthy of credence I am wholly disposed unto death which in this Innocence I shall receive with as much misprision as I have attended it with patience The
it not these poor miserable creatures desire nothing more than to give me my last Farewel and I am confident my Sister Elizabeth would not have refused me so small a courtesie seeing the Honour of my Sex demandeth that my Servants should be present I am her near kinswoman Grandchild to Henry the eight and Queen Dowager of France besides I have received the Unction of Queen of Scotland if you will not grant this courtesie to one of my quality let me have it at least for the tenderness of the heart of men On this consideration five or six of her ordinary Servants were permitted to accompany her to the place of Execution to which she now was going This Divine Queen whom France had seen to walk in such state and Triumph at the pomp of her marriage when she was followed with all the glory of that Kingdom doth now alas go with this poor train to render her neck unto the Hangman She came into the Hall hung round about with blacks and ascended the Scaffold which was covered with the same livery to accomplish this last Act of her long Tragedy What eyes of furies were not struck blind at the aspect of this face in which the dying Graces did shoot for the last light of their shining Glories As soon as she was sate in a chair prepared for that purpose one Beal did read the Command and the outragious Sentence of her death which she heard very peaceably suppressing all the strugglings of Nature to abandon her self to Grace in the imitation of her Saviour At last Fletcher the Dean of Peterborough one of her evil Counsellours did present himself before her and made a Pedantical Discourse on the condition of the life passed the life present and the life to come undertaking according to his power to pervert her in this her last conflict This was the most sensible to her of all her afflictions at the last minute of her life to hear the studied speech of an impertinent and audacious Minister wherefore she oftentimes interrupted him and besought him not to importune her assuring him that she was confirmed in the saith of the ancient Catholick and Roman Church and was ready to shed her last bloud for it Nevertheless this infamous Doctour did not cease to persecute her with his Remonstrances unto the shades of Death She looked round about the Hall if she could discover her Confessor to demand of him the absolution of her sins but he was so busie that he could not be found A poor Maid belonging to her having thrust her self with all her force into the Croud as soon as she was got through them and beheld her Mistress between two Hang-men did break forth into a loud crie which troubled those who were about the Queen to assist her But the Queen who had a spirit present on all occasions made a sign unto her with her hand that she should hold her peace if she had not a mind to be forced thence The Lords then made a semblance as if they would pray for her but she thanked them heartily for their good will saying that it would be taken as a crime to communicate in prayers with them Then turning to the multitude who were about three hundred persons she thus expressed her self It is a new spectacle to behold a Queen brought to die upon a Scaffold I have not learned to undress to unveil my self and to put off the Royal Ornaments in so great a Companie and to have two Hang-men in the place of the Grooms of my Chamber But we must submit to what Heaven is pleased to have done and obey the Decrees of the Divine Providence I protest before the face of the living God that I never attempted against the Life or Estate of my Cousin neither have I committed any thing worthie of this usage If it be imputed to my Religion I esteem my self most happie to shed even the last drop of my life for it I put all my confidence in him whom I see represented in this Cross which I hold in my hand and I promise and assure my self that this temporal Death suffered for his Name shall be a beginning to me of eternal Life with the Angels and most happie Souls who shall receive my bloud and represent it before the face of God in the Remission of all my Offences There was now a floud in every eye and amongst all her Enemies there were not above four who were able to contain their tears The Hang-man clothed in black velvet fell down on his knees and did demand her pardon which she most willingly granted and not to him onely but to all her persecutours After these words she kneeled down her self praying aloud in Latin and invoked the most holy Mother of God and the triumphant Company of Saints to assist her She repeated her most servent prayers for the Church for her Kingdom for France for her Son for her cruel murtherers for England for her Judges and for her Executioner recommending into the hands of the Saviour of the world her spirit purified as well by love as by affliction The last words of her Pravers were these As thy arms Lord Jesus were stretched forth on the Cross so receive me into the stretched forth arms of thy mercie She uncessantly kissed a Crucifix which she had in her hand whereat one that stood by being offended at the honour which she gave unto the Cross told her That she should carry it in her heart to whom she suddenly made answer Both in my heart and in my hand After this she disposed her self to the Block The Executioner would have taken off her Gown but she repelled him and desired that that office might be performed for her by her own maids who approched to her to prepare her for the stroke of Death And she her self did accommodate them in it as diligently as she could and laid open her neck and throat more white than Alabaster and too much alas discovered for so lamentable a Subject This being done she signed her own Attendants with the sign of the Cross kissing them and with a short smile did bid them farewel to shew that she died as comfortably as constantly making no more resistance than the flower doth against the hand that doth gather it Those poor creatures did weep most bitterly and with their sighs and sobs could have cleaved the rocks when the Queen reproved them saying Nay What do you mean Have I answered for your constancie and that your grief should not be importunate and do you suffer your selves to be thus transported with lamentation when I am going to exchange a temporal Kingdom full of miserie for an everlasting Empire filled with fellcitie It was discovered that she had a Cross about her of great value which she intended to have bestowed on one of her nearest friends promising the Executioner to recompence him some other way but this enemy of the Cross did force it from her to satisfie
famine 249 The qualities of the sufferings of our Saviour 60 Our Saviour hath suffered in all the persons of the just and Martyrs ibid. An excellent observation upon the terming our Saviour a Lamb. 88 The prudence of Saul 63 He found a Kingdome seeking his Fathers Asses 238 The excellency and defects that were in Saul 239 The resolute valour of Saul in relieving the men of Jabish ib. Saul being in great perplexity consulteth with the soul of Samuel 143 Saul cleared for a while again returns to his evil spirit 141 Saul marcheth against the Philistims and is overthrown in battell ibid. Sauls end ib. The shame of scoffing 82 The danger of Scoffing 118 The scoffs of certain rebellious Flemings severely punished by the generosity of Philip de Valois ib. Seneca by a lesse evil diverts a greater 272 From whence proceed the calumnies of Seneca 274 His birth ib. His education and spirit ib. He is banished to Corsica where he composed excellent works 275 His excellent complement ibid. He is in great repute 276 His manners ibid. He made a Libel against Claudius 277 His judgement on Nero. ibid. He is made minister of State ibid. He put the State in good order ib. His Maxims ibid. His opinion of the Soveraign good 278 His falling off from Agrippina ibid. Why Seneca having so many brave qualities did perform so little in reformation of manners 283 His constant and famous death 284 Sin corrupteth the goodnesse of Essence in intellectuall creatures 45 A civill shame doth hinder good designs 297 Shamefac'tness a reasonable passion 81 Its sources honour and conscience ibid. Three kinds of Shamefac'tness ib. The esteem the antients had of Shamefac'tness 83 The Queen of Sheba 154 Her quality ibid. The picture of Slander 94 There would be no Slander if it were not made Slander by thinking thereon ibid. Solomons entry into the Realm full of trouble 151 He is declared King ib. The bloudy entrance of Solomon after the death of David 152 Solomons rigour ibid. He cannot well be justified for the bloud of his brother ibid. The just punishment of God upon Solomon ibid. A wonderfull dream of Solomon 153 His knowledge ibid. The judgement of Solomon in the contention of the two women 154 Solomon his zeal to the building of the Temple ib. The fall of Solomon 155 The beginning of his debauchednesse ibid. Solomon is perverted in Religion 156 The estate of Solomon in the other world ibid. The prodigious course of some Stars 74 The evil opinion of the Stoicks to trust altogether to themselves without acknowledging the grace and assistance of God 283 The birth and education of Queen Mary Stuart 291 Her return into Scotland ibid. The death of Henry Stuart 294 Persecution of the Queen Mary Stuart by the Protestants 295 She comforts her self in prison and hopeth against hope 296 She escaped out of prison ibid. Her languishment in her imprisonment in England 301 Elizabeths hatred to her 304 The Processe against the Queen of Scotland ibid. Her invincible Apology 305 The unjust judgement given against her 307 The vain endeavour to delay her death 308 Queen Elizabeth chiefly to be charged for her death ibid. Her death and miraculous constancy 309 The Sunne is an hundred and fourty times bigger then the earth and in twenty four hours goeth more then twelve millions of leagues 74 T TWenty two thousand Bullocks and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep sacrificed for the dedication of Solomons Temple 3 Reg. 8. 63 Mervelsous Temples where Lions are tractable 46 The generosity of Theodora wife of Justinian 161 Procopius speaketh shamefully of Theodora but undeservingly 167 Her death 169 Theodat honoured by Amalazunta 162 His perfidiousness ib. He causeth Amalazunta to be strangled in a Bath ib. Theodat is put to death and Vitiges is chosen in his stead 163 Time stealeth away from us the sense of Evils 58 Timidity its causes and Symptomes 71 Remedies for Timidity in declaiming 72 Timidity sometimes turneth into insolency ibid. Remedies against accidentall fear or Timidity 64 Totilas is chosen king of the Goths 163 The carriage of Truth doth cost dear at Court 146 V VAlour of Charles the simple 117 Vagoa Chamberlain to Holophernes 185 Vashââ wise of Ahashuerus doth make a banquet for the women answerable to the King her husband 188 She is degraded and divorced ibid. The burning of Vesuvius in the year 1631. 73 Vigilius shamefully used 169 The slights of Vigilius to get the Popedome from Sylverius 168 He is again received into favour and afterwards dyed of the stone in Sicily ibid. The death of Uriah 146 W THe greatnesse of Wisdome 133 Humane Wisdome overthrown by the power of Heaven 140 Reasons for the modest love of women 7 Rare Amities of Women ibid. Modest amitie with women should alwayes be handled with much precaution 8 Observation of Jamblicus applyed to the amity of Women ibid. The opinion of Fathers concerning the Amity of Women 9 Shipwracks happening by the love of Women ibid. The love of Women dangerous 16 Hatred of Women 38 Humour of Women 45 Women among the Sabeans command over men 154 The artifice of Women 156 It s very dangerous to be observant to wicked Womenâ humours 167 What hindereth the production of admirable works 68 The attractives of the world are not very urgent 18 Z A notable speech of Zaleuchus 58 FINIS