that fear standing at the dore of our hearts would resist the entrance of sin into our souls and teach us to apply such a mean and moderation to all worldly endeavours that as the Apostle saith wee should use this world as though we us'd it not 1 Cor. 7.31 The latter means wherby we must make deaf our ears to the powerfull charms of the devils temptations is the meditation of our own end like the Serpent which stops her other ear with her tayl Which meditation may justly claim the exercise of our most serious thoughts since the devils suggestions are chiefly plotted for the undermining of this consideration Who is therefore likened to a Serpent which biteth the horses heels that he maketh him cast his rider mans body is this horse his soul the rider his heel his end the meditation whereof if the devill doe bereave us we are overthrown both horse and man There is no stronger bit to curb the temptations of our unbridled flesh than to consider what a dear price we shall pay for our pleasures in our death and at our judgement In all thy works remember the last things saith the wise-man and thou shalt never sin Eccles 7.40 The birds direct their passage through the ayr with their tayls so doe the Fishes in the Sea the rudders motion guideth the Ship and the beasts with their tayls beat away the flyes temptations are flyes whence the Devill is called Beelzebub which signifies the God or Father of flyes all which are repelled by the mediation of our end signified by the Serpents tayl and the course of our actions for which we embarque our selves thereby as by a rudder rightly steered to the Port of happiness When the devill tempteth us to pride our flesh to lust the world to vain delights if we did but allow this meditation of our end a full place in our thoughts that we must die one day we may dye this day and that after death commeth judgment wherein we must satisfie to the uttermost farthing the great debt of our sins and that in such a manner and measure as neither eloquence nor silence can express surely I think we should not as many doe run on in evil faster than the devill can drive them and dare him to present them with a temptation which they dare not execute but rather like the Peacock who when he looks upon the blackness of his feet le ts fall his Plumes and forgets the beauty of his train So wee casting our thoughts down upon our end should neglect all the delights that temptations promise in their sinfull satisfaction Every man when he is upon his bed of sickness when hee is counting his last sand when death is so neer him that hee cannot turn his eyes from it every one seeing it in his eyes then how many vows and promises doth he offer up of â—esisting all tempâ—ation unto sin unto which he hath formerly too easily consented if he may but by the return of his health renew again the almost expired league betwixt his body and his soul Yea even the devill himself as the old dâ—â—â—ich hath it when he waâ— sick would be a Monk and a holy man Aegrotat Daemon Monachus tunc esse volâ—bat Convaluit Daemon Daemon ut ante fuit The Devill was sick the Devill a Monk would be The Devill was well the Devill a Monk was he But if we did in our healths entertain this consideration of death and the day of judgement and make it as familiar and present to our minds as the approaches thereof are neer unto the sick no doubt but it would work in us the same never fayling effects If wee did make remembrance our Philips boy to ring the knell of mortality each morning in our ears and if with S. Jerome there were no action of our life in whose performance we did not think wee heard the sound of the Archangels trumpet proclaming this convocation in our ears Arise ye dead and come to judgement if we did remember these tormenting flames which God hath prepared for the devill and wicked men Isay 30.33 whose fuell is fire and much woâ—d the breath of our Lord like a torrent of brimstone enflaming it which though it torment them yet it shall not consume them as though they should have a period of their pains but like the Salamander they shall live still in the flame and be denyed with Dives a drop of water more than their tears which will be so far from asswaging their heat that the saltness thereof shall encrease their ames and yet in the high boyling of this their heat such conflicts of punishment shall meet in them that through extream cold they shall gnash their teeth for as our Saviour saith there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth If I say these meditations were in us and did abound surely they would strengthen us to strangle temptations in their conception and to resist the untimely birth of sin If the rich man mentioned in the Gospell had thought that his soul should have been hurried that night to hell he would never have dream'd of building his barns bigger Few men will steel at the gallows or speak treason on the rack but it is our putting the evill day far from us that makes every day evill to us We forget the evill of punishment which make us commit the evil of sin Wher wee may prevent our sins by remembring of the punishment then we think not on it and when we think on it which is not til we feel it then it is to late to prevent it O how humbly think you would the fallen Angels behave themselves if they were enthroniz'd in their antient glory O how abstemiously would our first Parents have walked by the forbidden fruit if they might have been repossessed of their earthly Paradice And how temperatly would Dives have used the pleasures of this life if hee might have been redeemed from hels tormenting flames Let us then be as carefull not to fall into their evils as they would bee if they were risen out of them which care the meditation thereof will mainly strengthen as the oyl of Scorpions doth heal their sting that while death and hell are in us by remembrance we may never be in them by sufferance For as 't is said if the Basilisk see a man first it kils him but if a man see that first he kils it So if death see and apprehend us first being unprepared it destroys us but if we see it first by meditation and preparation we kill it and become the death of death and may justly take up that joyfull acclamation of S. Paul 1 Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy victory O death where is thy sting Yet all must dye For deaths meditation though it take away the sting of death yet it takes not away the body of death But here 's the difference that death which is the wicked mans shipwrack is the good
the long tract of mens lives can wear out Thus did the private hatred betwixt Caesar and Pompey pull down ruine on the Roman Empire Thus Arius disdaining at his repulse in aspyring to a Bishoprick broacht such an heresie as overspread the whole Christian world yea death it self on the one party in some cannot destroy the hatred of the survivor witnesse the Story of Pope Stephen the sixt who caused the body of his Predecessor Formosus to be taken up and beheaded in the market place and afterwards cast into Tyber Yea death in both parties which hath killed the men yet hath not kild their malice if the story of Eteocles and Polynices be true which saith that when they had by mutuall wounds made windows for each others soul to fly out at their bodies being burnt together their very flames divided themselves as hating to be united in their dead bodies who were so divided in their living affections Thus homo homini Lupus one man is a Wolf unto another in whose hearts and hands and mouths are the instruments of mischief as the Prophet David saith Psal 13.3 Their throat is an open Sepulcher they delt deceitfully with their tongues the poyson of Aspes is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood Sorrow and unhappiness is in their wayes and the way of peace they have not known the fear of God is not before their eyes I have read that a string made of Wolfs guts laid amongst a knot of strings made of the guts of Sheep corrupts and spoyls them all it is a strange secret in nature and serves to insinuate the malice of these Lycant hropi these Wolf-turn'd men against the Sheep of Christs flock for which cause our Saviour gave us this commandement saying Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of Wolves be ye therefore prudent as Serpents and simple as Doves Simple as Doves 1 Pet. 3.9 not returning evill for evill nor curse for curse but on the contrary bless because you are called to this to be heirs of blessing as saith S. Peter S. Paul also saith Rom. 12.17.18.19 Render evill for evill to no man If it be possible as much as in you is have peace with all men Avenge not your selves but give place unto wrath for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay saith our Lord. And as it is reported of the wals of Bizantium that they were so smoothly and closely wrought that they seemed to be but one stone and of the building of Salomons temple that there was not so much as the noyse of a hammer to bee heard therein So should wee have all our thoughts our words our deeds so even so smooth so polisht that they should not send forth the least noyse of injury to our neighbour or sound of disaffection CHAP. IIII. YEt this is not enough to doe no evill but we must also doe good Christ cursed the fig-tree not for any hurt it did but because it did no good it brought forth no fruit And this exercise of good must not be centred in those only which either prevent or return us with an equall measure like the Scribes and Pharisees the Publicans and sinners but it must expatiate and diffuse it self like the impartiall Sun to all even to our enemies And so we shall be simple as Doves who besides that they doe no hurt to any living creature doe also indifferently nourish both their own and others young ones Now this practice of good must receive its form from the former prohibitions of evill to wit in thought word and deed First then in thought wee must have our hearts suppled and entendred with charity meekness gentleness humility and patience It was the greatest commendation of Moyses that he was stiled Num. 12.3 the meekest man upon earth for which cause God conversed with him more familiarly than ever he did with any as the Scripture saith Exod. 33.11 God talked with him face to face as a man talketh to his friend and our Saviour saith Math. 11.29 Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls The valleys are more fruitfull than the mountains and the weightiest ears of corn bow down their heads the lowest towards the ground such are the riches of humility disposing men like figures in arithmetique where the last in place is greatest in accompt Our charity likewise expecteth of us that we should breath forth nothing but desires of bliss unto our brethren not suspecting evill without great ground not beleeving evill without strong proof 1 Cor. 13.5 for charity thinketh no evill as saith the Apostle And God hath propounded himself for an example unto us to prevent our too easy taking up upon trust a prejudiciall report against our brethren in the eighteenth of Genesis where he saith speaking of Sodom and Gomorrha those wicked Cities Gen. 18.21 I will goe down and see whether they have done according to the cry that is come up unto me and if not so that I may know not as if God were ignorant of the truth of any thing but for our instruction it is thus written to teach us as Solomon saith that wee should not apply our hearts to all words that are spoken Eccles 7.22 nor by too hasty beleef doe that which must be undone again Our patience likewise in which our Saviour commandeth us to possess our souls Luke 21.19 claimeth of us an unresisting sufferance of evill though there be whole vollies of injuries discharged against us yet must our hearts be in ury-proof and our patience preserve us un-hurt unprovoked to anger hatred desire of revenge and their dangerous effects for as Salomon saith Eccles 7.10 anger resteth in the bosome of a fool And although the Apostle bids us be angry and sin not Ephes 4.26 yet it is but a permission not a command and I suppose it is easier not to be angry at all than to be angry and not sin at all For anger in mans brest is like fire in an Oven which if it be quite damd up is extinguished but having but a little vent is apt to rage too fiercely Wherefore the Apostle saith Ephes 4.32 Be ye courteous one to another and mercifull forgiviâ—g one another even as God for Christs sake forgave you Yea so far must our patience in injuries and our charitable return to those that have injured us proceed that we must not only cancell the debt of all their injuries so that not so much as in a thought may we wish them any evill as it is evill but also if any adverse accident doe befall them wee must be inwardly moved with a compassionate sorrow for the same As Job declaring his own innocence testifieth of himself Job 31.29 If I have rejoyced in the ruin of him that hated me or have exulted that evill found
if we had the heat of that love would reflect so strongly on our hearts clouded with sin that it would wholly dissolve them into tearfull sorrow even as the Sun printing hard his hot beams upon a gross thick cloud powrs it down into rain The Prophet David was of a far other temper and yet had an excuse as colourable as any one being a man and amongst men a souldier and amongst souldiers one of the hardiest whom no danger could reach to fear no temporall domage to grieve and yet such impression did sorrow make in his heart for sin that he saith I will wash my bed every night and water my Couch with my tears O faelices lachrymae quas beata manus conditoris absterget saith S. Bernard O those happy tears which the favourable hand of God shall wipe away And O those happy eys which have chosen rather to melt themselves into such tears than to lift themselves up with pride to look aside with disdain or asquint with envy These tears of Compunction and sorrow for our sins doe afford us the same refreshing that taking of soyl doth unto the hunted deer who being hotly pursued by hellhounds the Devill and his temptations and our hearts embost and panting under their pursute are wonderfully refresh'd and restor'd to our lost strength by washing our selves in the bath of our relenting tears into which who so enters as into the troubled waters of Bethesda's pool is assuredly healed of his sins If then the bitter sorrow for sin be the mother of such sweet and wished for effects let us seal up our desires with the words of S. Aug. Let repentance bitter repentance be the continuall companion of my days grief continuall grief the insatiate terror of my life and if I be not worthy to lift up my eys to heaven in prayer yet at least I am worthy to put them out with weeping CHAP. III. THe third thing required to the renewing of our lives is Confession The Dog when his stomack is surcharged with any hurtfull meat by eating grass vomits it up again so when we have burthened our consciences with ever-hurtfull sin wee must by eating the bitter herb of Contrition disgorge our sins at our mouths by Confession For as in a wound so long as the iron or steel or any part of that which gave the wound remains it obstructs the healing so doe the remains of sin in the Conscience through non confession control the influence of any remedy applyed thereunto as Solomon saith Prov. 28.13 He that hideth his sins shall not be directed but he that shall confess and forsake them shall obtain mercy An impostume breaking inwardly threatens death unto the party but outwardly it is a means to purge and cleanse the body So sin suppressed and smothered within our hearts doth empoyson and choak our souls but breaking out at our mouths by Confession it doth purge and clear the conscience and like the breaking out of the lips in an ague is a sign of our amendment So as S. Paul saith Rom. 10.10 With the mouth confession is made unto salvation Which Confession that it may be thus profitable must be also generall When a mans body sweats all over say the Physicians it is a sign of strength of nature but if it sweat in some parts and not in others it is a symptom of debility and weakness and no less testimony is it of the weakness and wickedness of the soul if wee doe not purge our souls universally of all our sins These parcell Confessors are like the children of Israel who cast out most of the heathen out of the land of Canaan yet suffered the Gibeonites to remain and made a league with them who thereby became as nails in their eys Num. 33.55 and spears in their sides so the least sin that remains with us uncast out by Confession will be a prick unto our consciences and an instrument of our destruction Now Confession as it must be accompanied by universality so it must be ushered by examination whereby looking back into the book of our consciences wherein the names of all our sins are written we must awaken the remembrance of all our thoughts words and deeds and muster them up together that so by Consession they may be cast forth as a sick man who being about to take a Purge first takes a Preparative to open the passages that so by the purge they may be the more easily ejected And that we may amongst the millions of our actions know which of them are to be superscribed with the title of sin we must have recourse unto the word of God as it is expounded unto us by the Church and the Pastors thereof which like the Mariners card and compass will demonstrate unto us how neer or far off our actions are from the immoveable North Pole of Gods commandemants And as when the Sun shineth not into a house the ayr seemeth clear but if it once enter in at the window it then appears full of motes and dust so the light of Gods word shining in our understandings will discover an infinite number of sins which before its access wee could neither perceive nor would we believe And as the word of God doth shew us our faults so also doth it cleanse them like unto a bason of water wherein a man may both see the spots in his face and wherewith he may wash them away as the Psalmist saith Ps 118 9. How shall a young man amend his way by keeping of thy words In this word of God therefore this river of the Sanctuary in imitation of the Serpent must we wash our selves which not unlike a certain water in Macedonia which being drank by the Sheep maketh them white so this received into our hearts doth blanch our souls with the whiteness of innocence Now where the Well of Gods word is deep and a stone rowled on the mouth thereof that is is hard to be understood with Rachel mentioned in the scripture Gen. 2.9 we must get some Jaacob to remove it that is some one that hath wrestled with God as the name of Jaacob signifies and that hath thereby obtained his assistance unto his studies and endeavours that so he may administer unto us But let us beware above all things that wee doe not drink down the water of Gods word with the abusive interpretation of heretiques for then contrary to the former effect of the Macedonian water it will be like that water in the troughes for the sheep wherein Jaacob laid his pilled rods which made them bring forth spotted lambs so will this make us bring forth opinions erroneous black and foul The serpent as I said in the beginning after his fasting his eating a bitter herb his casting up a poysonous humour and his bathing himfelf in water seekes some narrow hole through which drawing himself he slips off his old skin and drying his slipperinesse in the sun recovers a new one so
others posterity who like Jaacob and Esau struggle in the worlds womb the earth as if so little a room were too streight a dwelling for so great enemies Which enmity unveiled it self in the worlds infancy betwixt Cain and Abell who as the Poets feign like the serpents teeth sown by Cadmus were no sooner grown up but the one destroyed the other Ismael scoffed at his brother Jsaac Micol laughed at her husband David and king Ahab hated the Prophet Micaiah and the reason was because he told the truth It is the godlies goodnesse that purchaseth them hatred for as likenesse is the cause of liking so the contrariety of manners produceth contrary affections God is light the godly are enlightned God is truth the godly are true the devill is the Prince of darkness the wicked are darkned the devill is the Father of lyes the wicked are lyars what communion then betwixt light and darknesse truth and falshood Christ and Belial John 15.19 God and the devill Because yee are not of the world saith our Saviour therefore the world hateth you Now this hatred discovers it self either against our bodies or our souls either as the Scripture speaketh like the great Bulls of Bason they encompasse us on every side or like the little foxes they destroy Gods vineyard Thus in the dawning of the Churches day by the tyranny of the wicked did the Prophets and holy men of God fall like the morning dew and the seeds of grace which themselves had sown they watred with their own blood Thus the holy Christian Martyrs in the noontide of the Churches day when the sun of persecution reflected on them as hotly as the noon-sun on Jonas head did calmly bleed oyl to the Apostles lamps whose bright flames yet serve to light Posterity to heaven Thus also these latter ages in some places and at some times have paid as large a tribute of patience to heaven and sufferance in the world as any that went before them and have constantly kept the faith untill they lost themselves in keeping it like Naboth who kept his possession with the losse of his blood And thus in all ages have the diamonds of the world the godly who were made to be pretiously set in the esteem of men been brought to the extremest degree of calamity that witty cruelty could invent or unrelenting malice execute And thus also did the non-such of well-doing and evill suffering our Saviour Jesus Christ by the malice and cruelty of the Jews surrender up a life more spotless than innocence unto a death most shamefull and ignominious even to the death of the Cross the horror of whose torments left not where to adde unto it by the wishes of his enemies And if they doe these things in the green wood saith he himself Luke 23.31 what shall be done in the dry Nor doth the malice of the devill and wicked men stint it self here or satisfie it self with the suffering of our bodies then were their assaults little their victories less seeing that the vertuous like the palm tree spring up by pressing and like the Vine spread further by pruning The rod of persecution like Aarons rod that budded doth encrease the godly both for number and goodness making them both more and better Therefore doth the devill lay siege unto our souls by the temptations of prosperity and pleasure also hoping that as it is in the fable of the Wind and Sun striving who should make the wayfaring man put off his cloke what foul means cannot fair means may effect In which his two main engines are the flesh and the world the flesh within us the world without us The flesh he corrupteth with bliss-promising suggestions which like a treacherous Citizen betrayeth the fort of our will into the hand of him our enemy and thus a mans enemies are as our Saviour said they should be Mat. 10.36 those of a mans own house But with no better success then Tarpeia the Vestall Nun betrayed the Capitoll bargaining for the bracelets on the enemies hands who when they were entred did not cast their bracelets only but their bucklers also into her lap which with their weight prest her to death Even so the devill many times over-satisfying mens unlawfull fleshly desires with their sinfull weight presseth their souls into the pit of destruction The world also I mean the wicked men thereof he sets like so many lime-twigs and snares to entrap our souls and as fisher-men doe make one fish a bait to catch another so the devill doth make a bad man a bait to catch a good Wicked men are most pernicious creatures and easily pull down vengeance upon others either by the desert of their sin or by the infection who like men that have the plague out of a malignity of disposition which attends upon their disease desire to infect others and to draw them as the scripture saith to the same confusion of luxury 1 Pet. 4.4 with themselves Vicia ad vicinos serpunt contactu nocent saith Seneca Sin amongst men is like the rot amongst Sheep of a catching and infectious quality and he that thinks to partake the company of wicked men and not participate of their vices multiplies the miracles where walkers on the water with Peter are not drowned and in the fire with the three children are not burnt The nature of things is such saith S. Chrisostome that where a good man is joyned with a bad the bad is not bettered by the good but the good corrupted by the bad As sickness by accompanying the sick is derived to the healthy but not so health unto the sick And as the Salamander extinguisheth the fire and is not burnt therein so the wicked amongst the godly are ready to quench the heat of their vertue and not to be enflamed thereby Therefore saith the Apostle S. Paul Be not companions with them Joseph by living in the Court learned to swear by the life of Pharoah and Peter when he was amongst the high Priests servants denyed his master The warmer hee was by the high Priests fire the colder he grew in love towards God Psal 105.35 They were mingled among the Heathens saith the Prophet David of the children of Israel and what was the issue They learned their works Therefore as our Saviour adviseth us Beware of men First of men whose cruelty no meekness can asswage of men whose blood-thirstiness no lives can quench of men from whose persecutions no place is secure and if they persecute you in one City fly into another let a discreet fear give wings unto your feet and a godly confidence steel unto your hearts If opportunity open a way unto your flight refuse it not if not let an unrebated resolution arm you for sufferance Beware also of the company of wicked men who like bemyred dogs defile with fawning For howsoever fishes living in the salt water retain a fresh tast and savour not of the brinish quality of
mans harbour where striking sayl and casting anchor he returns his lading with advantage to the owner that is his soul fraught with good works unto God leaving his bulk still mored in the haven which is but unrig'd to be new built again and fitted for an eternall voyage And as that earth in which the men of China doe bury their clay after a hundred years doth render it purified and refined and fit out of it to form their choysest dishes so our graves after many years shall restore us again glorified and immortalized and fitted vessels for the house of God Of the simplicitie of the Dove CHAP. I. AS the Serpent is the wisest amongst the Beasts of the field and is therefore propounded as the pattern of our imitation in the vertue of wisdome so the Dove doth farre leave behind her the examples of all the brute creatures in the practise of simplicity And therefore the Holy Ghost who is the love of the Father which love is the Fountain of Simplicity deigned above others in the exhibition of his testimony of Christ to invest his Deitie with the form of a Dove Whose harmlesse simplicity on which our imitation must attend discovers it self as Pliny saith in these particulars First she hurts nothing with her clawes Secondly she hurts nothing with her bill Thirdly she wants a gall Fourthly she nourisheth and bringeth up both her own and others young ones Now these severall pieces of the Doves simplicity do teach us that as she hurts nothing with her clawes no more should we throw any evill upon others by our hands or actions Secondly as she hurts nothing with her bill no more ought we to prejudice any by our words Thirdly in that shee wants a gall it forbids us to give birth unto a thought which shall direct it self against the good of our neighbour The first noteth unto us the simplicity of our works the second of our words the third of our thoughts Fourthly in that she nourisheth others young-ones we are directed not only to doe no evill but also to doe good and that not to our own alone but also to our neighbours yea though they be our Enemies These are the particulars which shall bound this brief discourse All works are intimated by the hands as the principall instruments of working and therefore Pilat when he would assoyle himself of that impious act of Christs condemnation washed his hands And the Prophet David saith â—sal 25.6 I will wash my hands among the innocent Therefore did the Pharisees wear the Commandements written about their hands to intimate their performance Now they who are altogether barren in good works are like unto Jeroboam whose right hand was dryed up And they who interline their good works with bad are not unlike Nehemiahs builders who held a trowell in one hand to build and a sword in the other to destroy One evill action amongst many good ones corrupts the vertues of all the rest like Pharaohs lean kine that did eat up the fat or the Colloquintida in the young Prophets broth which made them cry out O thou man of God death is in thy pot 4 King 4.40 And not only to doe no wrong but even to doe no hurt though lawfull is very sutable to the Doves Simplicity Our Saviour who gave us this precept gave himself also for an example who amongst all his miracles enrowled in Sacred writ never did any that tended to destruction but only in cursing the barren figg-tree S. Aug. saith all justice is comprehended in this word innocence all injustice reprehended To the injustice of the hands or deeds is referred generally all actions that strike at the body or goods of our neighbour God saith by Moyses Exod. 22.21 22. Thou shalt doe no injurie to a stranger neither oppresse him ye shall not hurt the widdow nor fatherlesse child More particularly to the injustice of Magistrates of Lawyers and publick officers who corrupted through hope fear hatred or love hope of preferment fear of mens power hatred of their persons or love sometimes to their persons but most times to their mony have renewed the antient copies of injustice yea and augmented them Pleaders tongues being like the tongue of a ballance their hands the scales into one of which if you put one pound into the other two the tongue will alwaies incline to that which is the heaviest Who is there that in the generall execution of the place of Magistracy or the particular designation to the decision of a controversie in the giving of voyces in matters of Election or in their choyce unto places of dignity which rest in their particular power swerveth not from the rule of justice and simplicity measuring the merit of the person not the quantity of the gift or relation of kindred or acquaintance Like Titus Manlius who in a case of justice gave Sentence against his own Son O no Themystocles saying pleaseth them better who being requested to bear himself indifferently in his censure answered Be it far from me not to pleasure my friends in all things Princes Courts doe swarm with their flattering dependents who either bridled with the fear of their displeasure or spurred on with the hope of preferment doe bind themselves with the sale of the liberty innocency and simplicity of their consciences to run the same course with them in avowing all their enterprizes in obeying all their commands like Pilat who lest he should strike against the rock of Caesars offence condemned the innocent Lamb of God unto death and Judas who betrayed him for a piece of money The example of Martinus a Cardinall is very memorable who travelling on his way one of his horses fell lame which the Bishop of Florence supplied with the free gift of another which Bishop afterwards comming to Rome craved the Patronage of the Cardinall in a cause of his to whom he answered first let me redeem my liberty and gave him another horse and now saith he if your cause be just I am your Patron I would this were the practise of all the Clergy and that of Philoxenus of all Courtiers who as Plutarch reports being demanded of Dionysius the King of Syracusa what he thought of certain verses of his answered according to his opinion that they were naught whereat the King displeased condemned him to digge in the Quarry-pitts but by the intercession of friends being restored Dionysius demanded again what he thought of other verses of his but he knowing that they were naught and remembring his late punishment answered not a word but called to one of the Guard to carry him again to the Quarry-pitts And he that will not with Phyloxenus rather suffer evill then doe it may deservedly receive the just punishment of Syamnes a certain Judge who as Herodotus reports being corrupted by money to give wrong Sentence King Cambyses caused his skin to be pulled off and nayled to the Tribunall that they that succeeded terrified by his example might