of this disease was so great that there was no roome in the Church-yards to bury the dead and many finding themselues infected with this disease being out of all hope of recouery would presently sow themselues in sheetes looking when death would come to separate the soule from the body These were the whips that God vsed in a generalitie for punishment of sinnes But what would we speake of diseases when Plinie and others write that in two thousand yeeres to their time they haue discouered aboue three hundred diseases to which men are subiect we may say with the Poet Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus 〈◊〉 Prima fugii subeunt morbi tristisque senectus Et labor durae rapit inclementia mortis The best dayes of vs miserable men The first are that make haste from vs and then Diseases come with sorrowfull old age Labour and lust Deaths implacable rage Let vs descend to some particular matter which hath happened to men either by the secret iudgement of God or by some rare accidents Popyelus King of Polonia a man of euil life would often wish that he might be deuoured of mice At last as he was sitting at dinner banquetting and 〈◊〉 a company of great mice set vpon him which came from the carkasses of his vncles which he and the Queene his wife had killed with poyson These mice in great heapes assaulted him his wife and children as they sate feasting and neuer left gnawing vpon them day and night though his guard and souldiers did all they could to driue them away great fires were made and the King his wife and children placed in the middest yet notwithstanding the Mice ran thorow the fire and fell to their gnawing againe Then they went into a ship and prooued what the water would doe the Mice followed them and gnawing continually vpon the Ship the Mariners seeing themselues in danger of drowning the water comming in at the holes which the Mice made brought the Ship to land where another companie of Mice ioyned with these and molested them more then before when his followers saw these things perceiuing it to be the Iudgement of God they all fled The King seeing himselfe left alone and those departed that should defend him he went vp into an high tower but the Mice climbed vp and deuoured him his wife and two sonnes By which it appeareth that there is no policie nor power to be vsed against God The Emperour Arnolphus was likewise eaten vp with Lice his Physicions being vnable to giue him any remedy Hotto Bishop of Ments in Germanie perceiuing the poore people in great lacke of victuals by the scarcitie of corne gathered a great many of them together and shut them into a barne and burnt them saying That they differed little from Mice that consumed corne and were profitable to nothing But God left not so great a crueltie vnreuenged for he made Mice assault him in great heapes which neuer left gnawing vpon him night nor day he fled into a Tower which was in the midst of the Riuâ—…r of Rhyne which to this day is called the Tower of Mice of that euent supposing hee should be safe from them in the midst of the Riuer But an innumerable companie of Mice swam ouer the riuer to execute the iust Iudgement of God and deuoured him The like happened to a Bishop of Strasbrough who was also deuoured with mice When Harold King of Denmarke made warre vpon Harquinus and was ready to ioyne battell there was a dart seene in the aire flying this way and that way as though it sought vpon whom to light And when all men stood wondering what would become of this strange matter euery man fearing himselfe at last the dart fell vpon Harquinus head and slew him An Italian Gentleman being vniustly condemned to die as it was thought by Pope Clement the fift at the request of Philip the faire King of France seeing them both out of a window speaketh to them aloud in this sort Thou cruell Clement for as much as there is no iudge in the world before whom a man may appeale from that vniust sentence which thou hast pronounced against me I appeale from thee as from an vniust Iudge to the iust Iudge Iesus Christ before whom I summon thee and likewise thee King Philip at whose suite thou hast giuen iudgement of death vpon me within one yeere to appeare before the Tribunall seat of God where I shall plead my cause which shall be determined without couetousnesse or any other passion as yee haue done It chanced that about the end of the time by him prefixed both the Pope and the King dyed The like happened to Ferdinando the fourth King of Castile who puttìng to death two knights rather through anger then iustice whose fauour could not be obtained neither by weeping and lamenting nor by any petitions they summoned the King to appeare before the Tribunall seat of Christ within thirtie daies the last of which the King died A Captaine likewise of the Gallies of the Genowayes tooke a vessell the Captaine whereof neuer did harme to the Genowayes yet for the hatred that the Captaine of the Genowayes did beare to his Nation he commanded him to be hanged And when no petitions nor prayers would be heard nor excuses allowed nor any mercy would be found hee said to this cruell Captaine that he did appeale to God that punisheth the vniust and summoned him to appeare at a certaine day appointed to render account before God of the wrong he had done him the very same day that he appointed the Captain of the Genowayes dyed of like went to yeeld his account A strange example likewise by a false accusation of an Archbishop of Mentz called Henry This man was indued with many vertues and had great care of his flocke and would punish seuerely publike sinners which procured the hatred of many wicked persons who accused him to the Pope as a man insufficient for his charge laying many faults against him The Pope holding a good opinion of the Bishop aduertised him of it who to purge himselfe and to declare his innocency made choise among all his friends of one Arnand whom he loued dearely and aduanced to many dignities to go to Rome This man being rich intending to depriue his master and to occupie his place suborned two wicked Cardinals with a great summe of money to fauour his practice when he came to answer for his master hee confessed how much bound he was to him yet he was more bound to God and to the truth then to men and said that the accusations laid against the Bishop were true By meanes whereof the Pope sent the two corrupted Cardinals to heate determine the Bishops cause when they came into Germanie they sent for the Archbishop and vpon hearing of his cause depriued him of his dignities and placed Arnand in his roome The Bishop being present at
spirituall essence and a bodily substance the body being made of clay most excellently compact together with a wonderful and vnspeakeable wisedome in which hee inclosed with a maruellous league of societie another spirituall nature that is the Soule the one sort hee called Angels the other Men. Both which he endued with a singular wisdome knowledge To this man he gaue for his habitation this goodly great Theater adorned with such variety of excellent things and placed him in the most delectable and pleasant place of all the earth which in respect of the florishing and fertile soyle beautified with goodly riuers and fountaines was called Paradise not to bee an inhabitor onely of this lower part of the world but to bee a spectator of his Creators wonderous works thereby first to know the great glory of his parent and progenitour and then to loue him aboue all things and the time being expired in which hee had appointed him here to liue hee should passe from hence to him where hee should continually enioy his glorious presence and life euerlasting But some of those Angels being puffed vp with pride through the goodly gifts wherewith God had adorned them so much forgot their due obedience that they thought themselues equall with him that made them Whereby they so greatly prouoked his displeasure that he expulsed them from the number of his ministers and reiected them from his presence This fall was so grieuous to them and the hatred so great which they conceiued against God for the same that they presently began to doe all things contrary to his commandement by all manner of meanes to offend him to derogate from his glory what they could and as much as they might to deface and corrupt this goodly frame of the world which hee with so great wisedome had made And when man persisted yet in the same estate in which he was placed from aboue supposing they had no better meanes to detract from the glory of God than if they could lay a plat to take man from him and draw him into their societie they presently put their deuice in practice and fraudulently deceiuing him with false promises and hope of greater preferment they made him reuolt from God and breake his commandement which he had giuen him to make proofe of his obedience and to follow that course and counsell which they had framed against God to his own ouerthrow When man had thus shaken off his obedience where before he led in this pleasant Paradise a most happy life free from all euill and hurtfull things the earth of its owne accord bringing forth all things plentifully hee was driuen out of this delectable place and with heauie cheare enforced to seeke another dwelling where hee must get his liuing with the labour of his body and with the sweat of his browes and fell into the punishment appointed by God for breach of his commandement that is death and damnation bereft of that rule and dominion and of all the principall ornaments which he had bestowed vpon him And where all the meane causes of things euen from the vppermost heauen vnto the lowest part of the earth depended each vpon other in such an exact order and vniformitie to the production of things in their most perfection and beauty so as it might well bee likened to that Aurea Catena as Homer calleth it by the grieuous displeasure which God conceiued against man hee withdrew the vertue which at the first hee had giuen to things in these lower parts and now through his curse the face of the earth and all this elementatie world doth so much degenerate from his former estate that it resembleth a chaine rent in peeces whose links are many lost and broken and the rest so slightly fastened as they will hardly hang together by meanes whereof the heauens and second causes do now farre otherwise work in mans corrupt nature and in this elementary world than they did before But the son of God hauing compassion vpon man that had thus grieuously sinned and was fallen into this miserable estate though by his own will yet not through pride or ambition nor by contempt of Gods commandement but was deceiued by the fraud and subtilty of the diuell cast himselfe down before his Father with all humilitie and besought him for mankinde and obtained this fauour that they should not be condemned to perpetuall punishment And yet to satisfie the iustice of God which was immutable hee offered himselfe to fulfill all that obedience which God required of man and so pacified his Father that hee procured him to make a decree to send him to bee a protector and defendor of mankinde against the tyrannie of the diuell When man was thus restored into fauour againe yet not with recouery of those goodly gifts and ornaments which he had lost the diuell beginneth to rage and to practise all manner of meanes to intrap him againe and when he perceiued that hee could not deceiue all hee handled the matter so that the benefit of this promise might come to a very few and that the greater part of the world should perish with him by drawing them from the true knowledge and worshipping of God to superstition and idolatrie Now to returne from whence we digressed seeing the felicitie or soueraigne good wee seeke for concerneth not the body only but the soule also and that the soule dyeth not but after it hath woond himselfe out of this prison it eyther liueth in perpetuall felicitie or infelicitie this happinesse cannot be taken for a temporall thing that is enioyed during this mortall life only but must be euerlasting and without end For what profiteth it a man to haue all the world saith Christ Iesus if hee lose his soule Whereby it appeareth that the Philosophers and Heathens that had not the true knowledge of God nor beleeued in him nor his promise could not attain to the felicity of man which in farre the greatest part consisteth in the ioyes of the heauenly life But contrariwise by their infidelitie they suffer eternall damnation and extreme misery And then it followeth necessarily that none but Christians and those which beleeued in the promise of his comming can attaine to this felicitie or soueraigne good which haue an assured hope to bee saued by the merits and passion of Christ. For they only that are regenerate and not the Heathens after the passage from this life are to enioy the heauenly life and then they to whom the things are giuen wherein that part of felicitie confisteth whilest we are in this world both being ioyned together are in the estate of perfect felicitie But first before wee come to shew our opinion of this soueraigne good or felicitie let vs peruse the course of mens liues that by obseruing what the things bee that men most desire in this life they may the more plainely discouer their errour and direct themselues to a better course Diogenes in a great
been said Man is immortall his soveraigne good or beatitude is not to bee had in this life but it is to bee joyned with God in heaven to which hee shall attaine if whilst he is here upon the earth he love and worship God with all his heart and bee obedient continually to his will But our first parent that was by nature free and capable of goodnesse revolted from God that is from his soveraigne good and by his rebellion was made a flave to sinne by means whereof he fell from God and from his beatitude And therefore except he find pardon by grace he is fallen into extreame misery which we call hell From this man wee derive our pedegree whose 〈◊〉 hath begotten our flesh and made us the servants of sinne as hee was made himselfe so that naturally we are to expect the reward of sin that is death for wee are heires to our father whose inheritance is death onely and damnation And we heape daily more coales upon our heads For no man performeth that to God which the law most justly requireth and therefore every one daily offendeth God many waies in thought word and deede so as they sinke continually deeper And against whom do wee commit these offences Against our Father our Creator that hath bestowed so many things upon us from whom we revolt to the deuill his enemy And as the offence doth multiply and encrease according to the respect of him against whom it is committed so doth the offence against his divine Majestie that is infinite deserve punishment In what case then are wee miserable creatures that dayly commit sinne upon sin except God himselfe discover some way how his justice may by satisfied and how wee may come into his favour againe In this distresse religion presenteth it selfe to us which sheweth us the true God But what is that but to present the guilty before the Iudge What doth religion then availe us It leadeth us to the Scripture which sheweth the expresse will of God to bee that we should love him with all our heart and our neighbour as our selfe and to them that obey his will he pronounceth eternall life to the disobedient eternall death Seeing the same Scripture sheweth that mankind is corrupted from the beginning and that all our imaginations and 〈◊〉 are wicked and seeing we all feele in our selves and in our members motions contrary to the will of God and therefore wee detest with horrour the botomelesse pit of hell But as this Scripture pronounceth against us our condemnation and a severe sentence of death so doth it also shew us a Mediator by whose helpe and meanes we may obtaine pardon and grace and be reconciled to God againe In which conjunction that beatitude and felicity may bee restored to us for which wee were created at the first And this is the third marke of the true religion for it is certaine that the religion which God hath so deepely engraven in our hearts is not in vaine Now he that will enter into himselfe and duely consider his owne insufficiency to performe the justice of the Lawe shall easily see how necessary it was for us to have a Mediaâ—…our to pacific Gods wrath and to satisfie his justice and how greatly we are bound to our Creator that would not reject or utterly destroy us as our demerits required but rather would leave us a meanes to returne into his favour againe without which wee must have all suffered eternall death and damnation which favour sheweth us plainely that as God is just so he is mercifull This Mediatour therefore must bee such as will not onely 〈◊〉 his wrath by fulfilling our obedience due to our Creator and purchase his grace and procure us his mercy but also satisfie his justice which is immutable And for as much as the offence is infinite and the punishment likewise being committed against the Creator which is infinite the satisfaction of the punishment must also be infinite If man should offer the world to God hee received it of God and by his owne fault hath lost it againe And seeing God made the world of nothing which must also have an end the world can bee no sufficient satisfaction for the offence that is infinite If man offer himselfe what doth hee offer but an unthankfull and rebellious mind blasphemous wordes and perverse deeds by which hee shall provoke the wrath of God and incense him the more against us If an Angell should intreat for us a creature will bee no sufficient Intercessor to pacifiethe the Creator and though hee bee good yet not being infinite hee cannot cover an infinite evill So that we must needs say that God must set himselfe between his justice and his mercy and that as hee created us at the first so he must new make us againe and as he created us in his favour so hee must absolve us from his wrath and as hee declared hi wisedome in creating us so hee must shew the same in restoring us But who then is that Mediator God against God Infinite against Infinite that can both cancel that infinit obligation satisfie that infinite punishment It is even Iesus Christ the only Sonne and wisedome of the eternall Father both God and man A man that he may be borne under the law God that he may fulfill the law a man that he may serve God that he may redeem a man that he may submit himselfe with all humility God that he may submit himself above all things a man that he may suffer God that he may overcome a man that he may die God 〈◊〉 hee may truimph over death It is also necessary to our salvation that our Mediatour be a man that he may suffer punishment for our sins and reconcile mankinde to God againe For except he were descended of the same kinde we are wee could not bee partakers in any sort of him nor he of us so should his satisfaction merits appertain nothing unto us therfore it is requisit that he should be borne of our progeny that he may be flesh of our flesh bones of our bones that as we be all in Adam the servants of sinne so we may be in the Mediatour free and discharged of the reward of sin that is from death againe he must overcom sin he must be without sin and because he must make us cleane he must be without spoâ—… for we are conceived in iniquity borne in filthiness and corruption insomuch that as it is necessary he should be a man so it is requisite hee should bee conceived in another sort than after the manner of men And after so many great miracles which God hath wrought we need not wonder at this that 〈◊〉 was conceived of the holy Ghost and brought forth by a Virgin Hee that could draw out a woman from a man without a man could also bring forth a man from a woman without a man Many things seeme unpossible if
assembly of people going backward of purpose and seeing euery one laughing him to scorne asked them alowd if they were not ashamed to mocke him for going backward when hee walked whereas they did so all the daies of their life As if hee should say that no man followed the right course of life but rather that all liued contrary to that they ought For all men desire to be in a happy estate Hecopus hic labor est But few take the right course to attaine to it It is commonly said that wise men differ from fooles in this that they set vp a marke to shoot at these shoot their arrows vp into the ayre at random without any certain marke And again that good men differ in this from the wicked that some propose to themselues a good end others an euill end some that which is good indeed others that which is good in shew only Many set vp no marke or end at all to which they should direct the course of their life but fall from one kinde of life into another as chance offereth without any certaine end or purpose Some direct the course of their life to some end as to a marke but because they mistake one thing for another they neuer attaine to that they desire Others though they see what the marke or end is to which they should direct the course of their life which is felicitie yet as men who vse to take vpon them blind-folded to finde out a post or hillocke or such like wander vp and down without finding that they secke so they being made blinde by their affections which as Plato saith bee very euill counsellers and clogged with worldly cares and carried away with vnsatiable desires bestow their labour in vaine and can neuer finde that they seeke for And though all men desire one thing that is a happy estate yet the great difference we see in the course of their liues argueth their mistaking some other thing for that they secke after by meane whereof they can neuer attaine to the end of their desires Let vs looke into mens labours and consider what the things bee for the obtaining whereof they imploy all their trauell and study for that seemeth the thing which they take for felicitie or a great meane to the attaining of it For euery man naturally desireth that which he thinketh to be good Three things I obserue that the most part of men greedily hunt after and leaue no stone vnturned as the prouerbe is to attaine to them Some desire to liue in pleasure many seeke for riches others labour for honour and glory in these things according to their seuerall inclinations they put their felicitie But how farre they are from the true felicitie shall hereafter if God will appeare rather by the common iudgment of men that will vse reason for their guide than by Logicall arguments and by examples of them whose miserable estate and vnfortunate end hath discouered the error of their disordered and licentious life that by seeking felicitie where it was not they found in felicitie where it was By whose example after Diogenes counsell wee may become wise by another mans harme for he is wise very late that is made wise by his own harme For as Seneca saith Longum iter per praecepta brene efficax per exempla The way by precepts is long by examples short and pithy And first to beginne with Pleasure wherein some learned men of account among the ancient Philosophers as Epicurus and others seeing how willingly men are drawne to pleasures held that felicitie or soueraigne good should consist They reasoned thus That action is the end or felicitie of man to which by nature of his own accord he is most willingly ledde But all men of their owne accord are most willingly led to pleasures Therefore Pleasure is the end or felicitie of man But the Epicures were in this greatly deceiued for man as in the substance of his body participateth with brute beasts so in his spirituall essence which is a reasonable soule hee participateth with Angels And though hee be by the worst part of his nature giuen to pleasure yet reason reprehendeth and blameth his brutish affections But the cause of this dissention in mans nature the Philosophers saw not only Christian Religion sheweth why his affections are repugnant to reason If felicitie as the Philosophers affirme bee the proper action of man then can it not bee in Pleasure for that is common with him and brute beasts but after them it must bee an action peculiar and proper to him alone And seeing that man is made of two distinct natures though by the great wisedome of the Creatour wonderfully vnited together it is more reason that his felicitie should bee agreeable with the best part of his nature which is a reasonable soule and resembleth the Angels that are made after the image of God than with the worst part of his nature which resembleth and is of the like substance to brute beasts But he that will enter into the due consideration of mans felicitie must haue respect to both his natures the body and the soule both which it must in a sort touch yet according to the proportion and difference of excellencie that is betweene them the one representing the image of God being immortall the other participating with brute beasts being subiect to death and corruption Such a felicitie as consisteth in the momentany pleasures of this life the Indian captiues may challenge The Indians haue a manner when they haue taken one of their enemies prisoner whom they meane not presently to cate not to imprison him as the vse is in these parts of the world but they bring him with great triumph into the village where hee dwelleth that hath taken him and there place him in a house of some man that was lately slaine in the warres as it were to re-celebrate his funerals and giue vnto him his wiues or sisters to attend vpon him and to vse at his pleasure They apparel him gorgeously after their manner and feede him with all the daintie meats that may be had and giue him all the pleasures that can be deuised When hee hath passed certaine moneths in all manner of pleasures like an Epicure and is made fat with daintie and delicate fare like a Capon they assemble themselues together at some festiuall day and in great pompe bring him to the place of execution where they kill him and eate him This is the end of this poore captiues pleasures and the beginning of his miseries whose case is nothing inferiour to theirs who enioying the pleasures of this life for a small time wherein they put their felicitie are rewarded with death and perpetuall torments For as he was taken prisoner by his enemies so are they captiued by the Diuell who feedeth their humours with variety of pleasures that he may at length deuoure and destroy them both body and soule Many examples are
to Rome and as we shal find our wiues imployed so wee shall have cause to judge of their disposition Every man allowed of the motion and taking their horses they forthwith galloped to Rome being dark-night and unawares to them went to visit their wiues whom they found feasting and passing the time in pleasures But when they came to Collatinos house they found the doores fast shut and Lucretia spinning in the middest of her maides Then was the sentence given by all their consents with Collatino they all commending the modestie of Lucretia Collatino then being victor invited them all to dinner the next day But after their returne to the campe the kings sonne being ravished with the beautie and modestie of Lucretia sought all meanes how to fulfill his lust And for that purpose comming to Rome on a time secretly in the evening he supped with Lucretia dissembling his intent lodged in her house When the d◅ad of the night was come he brake into her chamber and so craftily undermined her with threatnings of present death and perpetuall shame that abusing the simplicitie of the modest woman she suffered him to use his will When day was come and he gone she sent presently for her father her husband and kinsfolkes letting them to understand that a great misfortune had happened to her When they were come perceiving by her sad countenance that all was not well her husband asked whether all things were safe in the house shee like one in a trance stood silent unable to answere them a word But they urging still to know the cause of her heauinesse and what had befallen her after a little pause beeing come to her selfe her cheekes watered with abundance of teares What sayd she can bee accounted safe to a woman when her chastitie is lost Thy bedde my husband that hitherto hath been kept unspotted is now defiled by the kings sonne who comming to me yester-night to supper was curteously entertained of me as a guest lodged in my house as a friend altogether ignorant of his intent but when wee were all at rest he brake into my chamber and standing by my bed side with his dagger in his right hand and his left hand upon my brest hold thy peace quoth he Lucretia I am Tarquinius if thou speake any word this dagger shall be thy death Then began hee to discover his villanous minde and mingling threats with amorous words shewed me what paine and torment he had suffered for my sake But the Gods that never faile to strengthen them that carrie an honest mind gave me sufficient power to resist his treacherous temptations and by contempt of death to preferre an honest same before a shamefull life And when he perceived that I would neither bee enti◅ed with his amorous words nor terrified with his threats of death he altered his course and assured mee if I would not consent to his will hee would put a slave naked into my bedde and after he had killed us both he would make it knowne to the world that hee found us in adultery Then the feare of perpetuall shame and infamie to me and to all you my kinsfolkes prevailing more with me than the terror of death though my heart consented not my body yeelded to fulfill his lust And albeit I absolve my selfe of the fault yet I wil not remit to my selfe the paines of death lest any matron of Rome should hereafter take occasion by mine example to live when her honour is lost When shee had thus spoken and taken them all by the hand requiring them as they were men not to suffer this villany which reached also to them to passe unrevenged whilest they were cōforting of her and advising her not to take the matter so grievously seeing there was no fault where the heart consented not she tooke out a knife which shee had secretly hidden under her clothes and thrust it into her heart Then was there great cries lamentation by her husband and friends and Brutus one of them perceiving her dead drew the knife out of her body and kissing the same did solemnly sweare by the bloud of that modest woman he would not suffer that injurie to goe unrevenged nor that any king hereafter should reigne over the people of Rome whereunto when the rest condescended he carried the dead body into the market place and perswaded the yong men to joyne with him in revenge of this abhominable act and to expell their king wherunto they easily agreed armed themselves and would not suffer the king not any of his to enter any more into the citie and erected a new State translating the government from a Monarchy to a common wealth Thus by the incestuous act of this yong man Tarquinius lost his kingdome from himselfe and his posteritie By the like occasion of a libidinous desire after certaine yeares that the Romanes had changed their governement of two Consuls to ten principall men they returned it backe againe from them to two Consuls For Appius Claudius one of the ten governors was so extremely enamoured upon a yong virgin that was contracted to a yong Gentleman that when hee saw shee would not be enti◅ed with his faire promises and gifts he entered into a most odious wicked practice Hee caused a yong man that he had brought up as shee went forth of her fathers house into the towne who was then in the warres to challenge her for his slave and to bring her before him as hee sate in judgement that hee by adjudging her to him might by that meanes have his will of her This man according to his instructions claimed her openly in the Court and sayd that she was borne in his house and stolen from him and conveyed to the house of Virginius who falsely tooke upon him to be her father which hee offered to prove before him and desired justice that he might have his slave restored to him againe There was a great concourse of people to see the end of this tragedy and much murmuring against Appius whose wicked purpose they began to conjecture And as her friends desired him that for as much as her father was absent in service of the common-wealth the matter might bee stayed untill his returne Appius answered that he was contented to deferre judgement untill the next day yet so as he that challenged her might receive no prejudice which would be if he should lose the possession of her and therefore hee would take order that hee should put in sufficient suretie to bring the damsell in place againe when her father was come and then hee would judge her to him that should have best right At these words he that should be her husband pressed to come neare to lay hold upon his wife but beeing kept out by Appius commandement hee cried out upon his unjust sentence and told him hee would rather dye than suffer his wife to be taken from him and after many hot words Appius
riches when men of so great wisedome are so easily overcome by them Guevâ—…rra thus censureth the Duke of Veiar who in his life had gathered so much treasure that at his death he left foure hundred thousand duckets This is a matter saith he perillous to write and odious to heare But my judgement is he went to seeke care for himselfe envy for his neighbours spurres for his enemies a prey for theeves travell for his person anguish for his spirit scruple for his conscience perill for his soule law for his children and curses for his heires Amurath the great Turke a few yeares past sent Hassan a man that he favoured greatly as Bassa to Caire in Egypt where by all undue courses he would wring and extort rewards and bribes from every man By which sinister and corrupt dealing hee made himselfe so odious that it came to the kings care Who perceiving that neither Religion nor Love nor Iustice nor Reason could remove his covetous minde from bribing exâ—…rting upon his subjects and that these publike exclamations went dayly so far that it was now a shame for him to let them goe any further without due punishment he sent for him and cansed all the treasure which he had gathered to be taken from him with all the rest of his private substance and the same to be carried into the great store-house and himselfe to be 〈◊〉 up in prison But the Queene obtained pardon for his life and set him at liberty with the losse neverthelesse of all his treasure which he had unjustly scraped together which remained among the kings gold jewels When a Poet had reckoned up nobility of bloud great kindred stately palaces and such like things wherein men use to glorie and vaunt themselves as happy men he proceedeth also with riches and concludeth thus Sint tibi drvitia sit lâ—…rga 〈◊〉 supellex Esse taâ—… vel sic bestia magnapotes Deniq quicquider is nisâ—… sit prudentia tecum Magna quidem dico bestia semper 〈◊〉 Say thou hast wealth and stuffe both rare and dainty Thou may'st be a great beast for all this plenty Be any thing if of no wit possest Thou shalt be still a great beast at the best Covetousnesse teacheth to set all things to sale which overthroweth fidelitie and goodnesse two instruments of good counsell The regard of private commodity hath and will be alwayes hurtfull to publike counsells and is a strong poyson to a true affection and upright judgement To what thing may covetous men and uâ—…rers that hunt after gaine by alluring and deceiving the simple and plaine meaning men be moreaptly likened than to the fish Polipus that lying in wait for other fishes upon the rockes changeth his colour to the colour of the rocke or place where he resteth so as the other fishes not perceiving him are taken in his act which he hath naturally behind his head and can spread at his pleasure before they finde themselves in danger So can these men frame and alter their speech countenance when they finde one meete to prey upon as though it were not the same man untill they have drawne him into their net that he have no meane to escape Non possidentem multa vocaveris Recte beatum rectiâ—… occupas Nomen beati qui deorum Muneribus sapienter 〈◊〉 Duramque callet pauperiem pati Pejusque lethe flagitium â—…imet Thou canst not truely call him blest That of great substance is possest That title he may rather chuse Who Gods good gifts knows how to use That can broole want though bare and thiâ—…e And worse than death doth feare to sinne Sir Thomas Moâ—…e pleasantly derideth our estimation of vaine things which wee call riches in his common-wealth of Utopia as gold and silver pearles and precious stones and such like where they tye their bondmen with chaines of gold and none weare pearles and precious stones but little children as toyes of none account There chanced saith hee to come into Uâ—…pia from a farre countrey three 〈◊〉 with an hâ—…ndred servants all apparelled in changeable colours the most of them in silkes the 〈◊〉 themselves being noble men in cloth of gold and gold hanging 〈◊〉 their eares with gold rings upon their singers brooches and aglets of gold upon their caps which glistered full of pearles precious stones To be short trimmed and adorned with all those things which among the Utopians were either the punishment of bondmen or the reproach of infamed persons or else triâ—…es for yong children to play withall These Ambassadours with their traine advanced themselves jetted so much the more 〈◊〉 proudly as they perceived the Utopians who were all come forth into the streets to bee basely attired But contrary to their expectation when they looked for great honour the Utopians esteemed all that gorgiousnesse of apparell shamefull and reproachfull and them that were most abject and basely apparelled they reverently saluted for Lords passing over the ambassadours without any honour judging them by their wearing golden chaines to be bondman with which they found fault as serving to no use or purpose seeing a bondman would easily breake them and escape away being so weake and small And children that had cast away their pearles and precious stones when they saw them sticking upon the Ambassadours caps would push their mothers on the side and say Looke mother how great a lubber doth yet weare pearles precious stones as though he were a little child stil. Peace son would the mother say I thinke hee be some of the Ambassadours fooles But after a day or two when the Ambassadours understood how little the Utopians esteemed their gorgiousnesse they layd aside their brave attire and went more plainely and decently apparelled The covetousnesse of the Frenchmen and Portingals was not unaptly derided by an old fellow of Brasile who perceiving that their long and dangerous trauell to Brasile was to turne their wood they transported to gaine and â—…iches asked them whether rich men did not dye in their countrey which being granted who should possesse their goods after their death being answered their children or if they have none then their brethren or next kinsfolkes Now quoth he I see you are very fooles For what necessity is there in wearying your selves to passe these troublous dangerous seas to draw the occasion of so many evils to your selves If it be to seeke after riches for your children or kindred is not the earth that brought you up sufficient to bring up them also We have also children and kin that be deareunto us but when we consider that the same earth which nourished us up is sufficient also to nourish them we rest satisfied The Barbarous people likewise of Peru seeing the Spaniards that first planted themselves in their countrey given to be covetous and luxurious feared lest they would corrupt and alter their accustomed maners And therefore at their departure they railed and called them the
chosen by joyning together the Cardinals consent to make choice of the holyest man a matter of no small difficulty by corrupting the Cardinals with money which was no rare thing in those dayes was made Pope Which time and manners seemeth to agree with the Poets saying Aurea nunc vere sunt secula plurimus auro Venit honos This is the golden age not that of old For now all honour 's to be bought with gold Wherein they were greatly overseene so to discredâ—… the sinceritie of their election make themselves subject to obloquie that had alwayes the holy Ghost so ready at their commandement as it seemeth by the report of Paulus Iovius For when the generall Councell sate at Trent the posts went so fast betweene the Pope and them that it was commonly spoken by the Italians as they saw thâ—… passing by there goeth the holy Ghost inclosed in a boxe from Rome to Trent viz. to inspire the Councell what the Pope would have decreed The Emperour Charles the fifth and the French king sent the holy Ghost accompanied with Angels to Rome to the Cardinals to helpe elect the Popes that were chosen in their times as is reported The Divell shewed a strange example upon Benediâ—… the ninth who through his wickednesse â—…orcery was called Maledictus and was killed by the Divell 〈◊〉 a wood This Pope after he was dead or rather Sathan in his habit was met by a Hermit his body like a Beare tayle like an Asse a myter upon his head and a Cope upon his backe the Hermite knowing him by his habite and not by his face or forme which resembled so many kinds of bruit beasts asked him how it chanced that he was fallen into such a metamorphosis Because quoth he in my Popedome I lived without law I now wander like a beast Pope Sylvester the second called before Gilbert a Frenchman borne came by the Popedome as Platina Nauclerus Benno the Cardinall and others report by the help of the Divel In his youth he became a Monke but for saking the Monastery he followed the Divell to whom hee had wholly given himselfe and went to Hispalis a Citie in Spaine for learnings sake where his hap was to insinuate himself into the favor of a Saracen Philosopher skilfull in Magicke In this mans house he saw a booke of Necromancy which he was desirous to steale away But the booke being very warily and safely kept by the Saracens daughter with whom hee had familiar acquaintance at last hee wan her favour that hee might secretly take it away and reade it over Which when hee had gotten into his possession with promise to deliver it againe hee determined to depart thence fearing neverthelesse what danger hee might fall into by his theft After he had escaped this danger being overcome with ambition and a divellish defire to rule he obtained first by corruption the Archbishopricke of Reymes and afterward that of Ravenna and at last the Popedome as is sayd before by the helpe of the Divell upon condition that after his death hee should be wholly his by whose subtilty he had attained to that high dignitie And although in his Popedome he dissembled his Necromancy yet hee kept in a secret place a Brasen head of whom hee received answere of such things as he was disposed to demand of the Diuel At length when this Gilbert desirous to reigne long asked the Divel how long he should live Pope the wicked spirit answered him cunningly after his maner that if he came not to Ierusalem he should live long And as it happened him to say Masse after he had reigned foure yeares and somewhat more in a Church called the holy Crosse at Ierusalem he fel suddenly into an extreame fever and knew by the rumbling and noyse of the Divel who looked for performance of his promise that his time was come to dye But he falling into an earnest repentance openly confessing his impietie familiarity with the Divell to the people bewailed his grievous offence committed against God and exhorted all men to beware of ambition and the subtiltie of the Divell and to lead an honest and godly life When he perceived that death approached he desired that his hands tongue might be cut off because with them he had blasphemed God and sacrificed to the Divell and then that his mangled carkase as it had deserved might be layd in a cart the horses driven forth without any guide and where they did of their owne accord stay that there his body might be buried All which things being done the horses stayed when they came against a Church of Lateran where they tooke him forth and buried him Whereby men conjecture that through his repentance God had shewed him mercy Neverthelesse whatsoever became of his soule the Divell would not leave his old acquaintance with his body in many yeares after For their writers report that a little before the death of many Popes that succeeded him his bones should bee heard to rattle and his tombe would â—…weate By which signes men knew that a Pope would shortly dye But if a common custome had not altered the case and qualified the greatnesse of the fault it would have seemed strange that they which professe themselves to bee Vicars of Christ should bee so familiarly acquainted with the Divell For there were eighteene Popes Necromancers one succeeding another as some write Tantum exempla valent adeò est imitabilis error Examples are of such validity that even errours are imitated Bonifacius the eight relying upon his own crafty wit which hee thought was sufficient to bring him to the Popedome practised this device He used to put a rcede through a hole into Pope Celestinus chamber fast by his beds head in the night he would speake through the reede tell the Pope that if he meant to save his soule he must yeeld over his Popedome to such a man naming himself The simple Pope supposing he had bin warned by a voyce from heaven for his soules health called the Cardinals together told them that he was determined to give over his Popedome desired their consent to Bonifacius In this sort Bonifacius became Pope when he was dead there went a common proverbe of him that he crept in like a Foxe governed like a Wolfe died like a Dog And what was it but a desire to increase their glory reputation that invented their myters adorned with peatle precious stones other their masking garmâ—…s habits of strange forme though they preteÌ„d a vaine significatioÌ„ of things by theÌ„ in maintaining of which toyes they are so curious as sometime that hath miâ—…stred occasion of much controversie among them which children would take for trifler to play with Cornelius Agrippa reporteth of a contention betweene the Augustine Friars and other religious men whether Saint Augustine did weare a blacke stole upon a white weede or a white stole upon
bull being placed not far off hearing his voyce came running to him through the presse of peoply overthrowing divers of them and layd his head in Mahomets lap having the book tyed between his horns wherein the law was written called Alcoran the people beleeving the rather by Sergius perswaâ—… that God had sent the bull with the booke of the law because about the pigeoÌ„s necke they had fastned a little schedule wherein was written in golden letters he that can put a yoke upon the buls neck let him be king Sergius fetched a yoke and delivered it to Mahomet who put it â—…fily upon the buls nocke and was of the foolish people called King and sergius a Prophet By these kind of devices hee seduced the people and after hee had reigned tenne yeare being about foure or fiâ—… and thirtie yeares old it happened that one of his 〈◊〉 proofe whether or not whether he would 〈◊〉 againe the third day after his death and 〈◊〉 up to heaven as he had ofâ—…old told them he would doe after he had reigned ten yeares he 〈◊〉 gave him poyson to 〈◊〉 which when Mahomet had drunke his colour began to change and the poyson went presently to his heart and dispatched him as hee had well deserved A just judgement of God to punish the wicked by the wicked His body was diligently watched by his disciples looking for his reâ—…rre the third day as he had said But when the third day was past and that they saw he would not rise againe that his body began to stinke they let him lye 〈◊〉 and departed And the eleventh day after his death 〈◊〉 that poysoned him came againe to see how he lay and as one Lucas reporteth hee found his body eaten with dogges And gathering his bones together he tooke them with him and buryed them in a towne called Madinaraziell When the Arabians and others perceived how he had deceived them and that he rose not againe according to his promise many of them fell from him and would no longer hold of his religion But in his life annexed to his Alcoran some of his disciples 〈◊〉 strange things of his death and resurrection and 〈◊〉 that his body of himselfe after a miraculous fort hangeth on high under a vault of the Church at 〈◊〉 where indeed it is done by art a Load-stone 〈◊〉 up the Iron Coffen wherein his body or bones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though it did hang in the ayre But the Turkes and â—…hough of his sect beleeving that he hangeth there by â—…vine power goe thither yearely in pilgrimage as Christians doe to Ierusalem to the Sepulcher This was 〈◊〉 beginning and end of this glorious Apostle of 〈◊〉 whose holinesse was in his youth such that the Citiâ—… of Mecha condemned him to death for these whom now they adore for a high Prophet of God Such fruits the desire of glory wherein he put his felicity brought forth to the perpetuall torments of his owne soule and of infinite thousands besides But such an Epitaph had bin more meete for him than to be so exalted as was engraven upon the tombe of a Vice-roy of Sicilia by the people of that countrey in revenge of his tyrrannous governement Qâ—…i propter nos homines Et propter nostram salutem Descendit adinferos That is Who for us men And for our salvation Is gone downe into hell Salmoxes device to perswade the Gothes that the soule was immortall was more tolerable being done with better meaning Hee taught those people that neither himselfe nor any that lived nor they which were to be borne should dye for ever if they lived vertuously but they should goe into such a place where they should alwayes live and enjoy all good things and leade for ever a most happy life And when he had thus perswaded his followers he conveyed him secretly out of their sight into a building under the ground which he had before prepared for the purpose where hee remained three yeares leaving his followers lamenting sorrowing as if he had bin dead the fourth yere he returned to them againe they being sufficiently satisfied of the eternitie of the soule and the perpetuall reward of vertue By which device hee wan to himselfe such reputation and glory that he was accounted equall with the king who made him his companion in the governement of his kingdome But the death of Mahomet was not the end of much troubles and mischiefe that arose through his false doctrine in divers parts of the world For thereof ensued sundry sects according to the severall inclinations of the fantasticall heads of his disciples and followers in whom the Divell stirred up such a desire of glory that imitating their masters example and treading in his path some of them became little inferiour to him in riches and dominion Among the rest in our age Affrica that according to the old proverbe is accustomed alwayes to bring forth some new and strange thing raised up one of Mahomets disciples from a poore Hermit to be a Monarch of many goodly kingdomes and countries This man was borne among the famous mountaines of Atlas of very base poore parentage and became an Hermit which the Affricans call Morabuth that is a holy man This fellow began to preach his vaine doctrine in the yeare of Grace one thousand five hundred fourteene and would admit no glosse or interpreter of the Alcoran but followed simply the text He playd the hypocrite so kindly that by a counterfeit shew of holinesse and simplicity and austerity of life he was greatly esteemed and honoured And when hee saw himselfe well followed of the people of Fez Maroque where he made himselfe strong and that the multitude depended upon his word hee told them whom he best favoured that he had a desire to visit the King of Taphilletta because hee lived not according to the sinceritie of their law The cause 〈◊〉 he desired this kingdome was that if his deviâ—… tooke not that effect hee looked for it might serve him for a place of retreyt As hee travelled towards Taphilletta there was no village that hee passed by but he preached his doctrine into the great townes they would not suffer him to enter because of his 〈◊〉 and for feare of some tumult His travell was alwayes by the sea coast because that countrey was well peopled insomuch that within short time his traine resembled a huge army of above threescore thousand men strong The simple king of Taphistetta would needs heare this Hermit and talke with him of matter touching his conscience who was not so intentive in his Sermon as he was circumspect in viewing the kings forces and the meanes he had to defend himself At length he told his followers God had revealed to him that he must expell this king out of his kingdome as unworthy to reigne For confirmation whereof hee shewed them certaine false miracles By meane whereof they slue the king and made the Hermit
beauty of the flesh that as a flowre in May sheweth it selfe to day and to morrow withereth away and returneth to the earth againe from whence it came Vaine is beauty saith the wiseman deceivable is the grace of countenance Histories both divine and profane are full of many mischiefes that beauty hath brought to men Beauty is compared by holy men to a painted snake that is faire without and full of poyson within But what estimation should we have of that which a little scratch or scarre disfigureth a short sicknesse altereth a small blemish disgraceth a few years withereth and wrinckleth To all these and a great many more the most beautifull â—…ace that hath beene is subject The Prophet compareth man to a shadow that is nothing but an appearance which deceiveth the sight a false figure without substance which sometime sheweth great by and by little So happeneth it to a man which sometime seemeth to be great and yet hee is nothing but when hee is lifted up on high and placed in the highest degree of honour even then he perisheth suddenly and no man knoweth what is become of him no otherwise than a shadow when night is come Likewise the Psalmist saith I saw the wicked man mightie and flourishing like a greene bay tree I passed by him and he was no more there I sought for him but he was not to be found Likewise the glory we take in gorgeous apparell is vaine yea and more foolish than the rest The wife man saith See thou never glory in apparell And yet wherein doe men that are able to have it take more pleasure or pride than in gay apparell which was devised to cover our shame of nakednesse and other infirmities contracted by the fall of our first parent Adam And that which was invented for our necessitie is now used for pride and glory We rob almost all the creatures in the world to deck our bodies withall Neither are they sufficient that are upon the earth but we must borrow feathers of the fowles of the ayre and we must goe into the sea to rob the fishes of their pearle the sands of their precious stones And then we must dig into the ground for gold and silver as the Poet sayth Effediuntar opes irritament a malorum Wealth is digged up the incitement to all evill And all this forsooth to make our selves in our owne eyes shew to bee more goodly creatures by our vaine devices and fantasticall toyes than God hath made us by his great wisedome and specially to allure love and liking to bad intents and purposes And when they have attired themselves with the ornaments that God hath given to the creatures of the earth to the birds of the ayre to the fishes of the sea for their necessitie and beautie and with the stones and scurfe of the earth it selfe they jet it up and down be holding themselves and others in great bravery as though all this counterfeit beautie came naturally from their own persons yet all is not gold that glistereth their mindes be soyled with foule and filthy vices It is a strange thing to see the blindnesse of men that will not consider the great difference of excellencie that is between the body and the minde by the one of which we resemble and are like to the Angels that are immortall yea and to God himselfe and by the other to brute beasts that live after the motion of their senses and are subject to death and corruption And yet how carefull men are to decke the body that is but a lump of clay and to provide for his pleasures and how negligent to provide for the minde or soule that is immortall and of an Angelicall nature â—…an the Emperour was wont to say that it was unseemely for a wise man seeing he had a minde to hunt after praise from his body Saint Bernard speaking of the vaine curiositie of men to adorne and cherish their bodies saith Thou takest great paine to decke and nourish this body that is but a vessell of dung and a sepulchre of wormes and leavest thy poore soule which is the imaâ—…e of God hunger-starved and forsaken Kings in eldâ—… time made no great account of their outward habits making no difference betweene them and the common people by their apparell but by their minde and inâ—…rd furniture When Alphonsâ—… King of Arragon was admonished to weare more costly apparell I had rather said he excell my subjects in manners and authoritie than in a Diademe and purple Socrates being asked which was the most beautifull creature in the world A man quoth hee adorned with learning Plato being asked what difference was between the learned and the ignorant answered As much as is between the Physitian and the diseased And Aristotle to the same question said That there was as great difference between the learned and the unlearned as was between the living and the dead And as the sight receiveth light from the ayre that is round about it so doth the minde from learning And Ennius likeneth a wise man without learning to an uncleane glasse that is fit for nothing yet not he that knoweth many things but he that knoweth things fruitfull is wise When Alphonsus king of Arragon heard that a King of Castile should say that learning was not meete for noblemen and gentlemen hee exclamed and said These are the words of an oxe and not of a man That man saith Marcus Aurelius that taketh upon him to be a man and hath no learning what difference is there betweene him and a beast When the people of Mitylene were become masters of the sea they inflicted this punishment upon their colleagues that were revolted from them That they should not teach their children to reade nor the liberall sciences esteeming that to be of all kind of punishment the most grievous to passe their life in want of knowledge and the liberall sciences There is nothing more unjust than a man unlearned because hee thinketh nothing to bee right but what he doth himself Pythagoras engraved in a stone with his owne hand these words set it before his Acadâ—…my He that knows not that which he should know is a beast among men hee that knoweth no more than hee must needes is a man among beasts hee that knoweth all that may be knowne is a God among men If the gallants of the world were so carefull to adorne their mindes with vertue and learning as they are curious to garnish and set out their bodies with gay garments and new â—…angled fashions and vaine toyes to please their senses there would be no place for the Poets saying that speaketh thus of Courtiers Scorta placent fracti curvique é corporegressus Et 〈◊〉 crines tot nova nomina vestis The Congees Cringees and affected pace Of common strumpets are in most request And now the loose locks dangling 'bout the face With the new names of
nine dayes shee would not liue her husband being dead but before her breath went out of her body shee commanded her buriall to be with her husband thinking it no reason to be separated from her husband whom shee loued so dearely either by death or by buriall Pâ—…rcia the wife of Brutâ—…s loued her husband so dearely that when she heard of his death her friends hauing taken away all yron from her fearing shee would kill her selfe for sorrow tooke vp quicke coales of fire and ate them as greedily as others cate meate The Lacedemonians had condemned certaine men to death and committed them to prison when the night came as their manner was in which they should be executed their wiues obtained leaue of their Keepers to come into the prison to them to take as it were their last farewell who changed apparell with their husbands and sent them away and stayed behind themselues to die in their places Theopompus a Lacedemonian in like sort being in prison changed his apparell with his wife and by her meanes escaped and left her in the same danger hee was in When the wife of King Admetus that was grieuously sicke vnderstood the answer of the Oracle to be that he could not recouer except one of his best friends dyed for him shee preferâ—…ing her husbands life by a rare example before her owne killed her selfe A woman called Pisca seeing her husband pine away daily through an incurable disease she perswaded him to asswage his paine by death offering her selfe to beare him company whereunto her husband agreeing they embraced each other and cast themselues headlong into the Sea from the top of a rocke Solacium est miseris socios habere paenarum It is comfort to the miserable to have companions in their punishment And the number of wives and husbands that happen to some argueth the happie estate of marriage who otherwise would be after Chylons opinion one of the Sages of Greece warned to beware by the first he accounted him a very foole who having saved himselfe from a dangerous Shipwracke by painefull swimming would returne to Sea againe as though a tempest had not power over all Saylers meaning that hee which was deliuered from his first marriage would prooue himselfe a foole to marry againe But St. Hierome reporteth that he saw at Rome a man that had had twentie wives marry a woman that had had two and twentie husbands And after great expectation of the Romanes which of them should over-live the other the woman dyed whereupon the men crowned him with lawrell and caused him in token of victory to carry a branch of Palme in his hand at his wives funerals And this was a notable example of loue shewed by women towards their husbands When the Emperour Coâ—…radus the third made Warre vpon the Duke of Bauier this Emperour hauing besieged the Dukes Citie very straightly a long time and would by no intreatie nor perswasions vpon no conditions bee remooued from his resolution vtterly to raze and destroy the Citie the Noble and Gentlewomen of the towne came foorth to the Emperour and besought him to suffer them safely to depart foorth of the Citie with so much as they could carry vpon their backes which at length beeing granted by the Emperour they returned and brought foorth vpon their backes the Duke himselfe and their husbands and such as had none their parents and children at the sight whereof the Emperour tooke such pleasure that weeping for very ioy he laid aside all his anger and fury and spared the City and entered into friendshippe with his mortall enemie Diuers like examples are registred in Histories and a great many things more may bee said in commendation of marriage But because the scope of our intent is to search whether there be any estate of life voide of those evill things that detract from Felicity which evill beeing granted there is no happinesse or felicitie in this life for one droppe of poyson spoyleth a great quantitie of good wine let vs see what evill is said to bee in marriage for among sweete and pleasant dewes there falleth many times sharpe stormes of hayle The Athenians accounted a wise and politike people perceiuing how hard a matter it was to frame a woman to performe the part of a good wife to her husband by meanes of the infinite number of occasions of strife and contention that would rise betweene them ordayned in their Common-wealth certaine Magistrates which were called Reconcilers to make atonement betweene men and their wiues The Spartanes had the like officers to reforme the insolencie of women and to correct and compell them to the true obedience of their husbands Gueuarra after hee had excused himselfe and refused to describe the particular fancies of women because they are without limit placeth the things that women most desire and wherewith they hold themselues best contented in these foure To be gorgiously apparelled to be esteemed faire to goe whither they list and that men beleeue what they say To contract matrimony with a woman saith he is a thing very easie but to sustaine it to the end is a thing very difficult For those that marry without any other respect but onely for loue leade their life afterward with sorrow But this sauoureth something of the Spanish humour For God neuer fayleth to blesse them with sufficient that ioyne themselues together and liue in his seruice and feare If thou marry a rich wife she will be proud and shee will esteeme thee rather as her slaue then her husband and it may happen thee to be ashamed of her kindred if shee be poore she will be contemned and thy selfe the lesse esteemed if she be foule and euill-fauoured thou canst not loue her if she be faire thou wilt be iealous of her and in danger to fall into an vnnaturall metamorphosis Fastus inest pulchris sequitur superbia formam Arrogancy is in faire ones And pride attends on beauty If she be of great parentage in place of a wife thou shalt haue a seuere Mistresse and Commander and in place of kinsfolke and friends by her thou shalt haue Masters if she be honest and chaste she will feare the contrary in thee and vexe thee so that wealth maketh a woman proud beauty suspected and hardnesse of fauour lothsome A great many examples may be produced of the euils that haue happened to men by women But because there is matter enough besides we will passe them ouer and shew onely what hath bin said of them by wise and learned men Hypponactus hauing had experience of the Martyrdome of marriage saith that there are but two good dayes in one marriage the one is the day of the marriage the other the day of the wiues death Because the first day is passed in feasting and pleasure and the marriage new and fresh and therefore pleasant as of all kinds of pleasure the beginning most delighteth sacietie of all
vlciscitur orbem The euils of long peace Now luxury is held w'indure Amongst vs raging worse then Warre To auenge the conquered world Philemon in his Comedie bringeth in a plaine Countriman that derided the Philosophers disputing vpon their Summum Bonum one placing it in this thing another in that according to the diuersitie of their conceits Yee mistake the matter quoth this homely fellow to the Philosophers peace is the thing wherein the felicitie of man consisteth for nothing is better nor more desired or pleasant that God hath giuen to men then peace Yet notwithstanding wee doe see that a long continued peace engendreth luxuriousnesse and intemperance whereof ensueth beastly drunkennesse and an infinite number of diseases both of body and minde that besides many torments hasten men to their end it encreaseth riches which bringeth foorth couetousnesse pride vaine glory and ambition whereof ensueth vncharitable contention by law and effusion of innocent blood by ciuill Warres to the vtter ruine and destruction oftentimes of many goodly Kingdomes and Common-wealths Which was the cause that mooued Scipio to disswade the Romans from the destruction of Carthage lest by liuing securely in continuall peace without feare of any enemie they should at the length turne their weapons to their owne bodies which came euen so to passe Lodouicus Guicciardine in his description of the Low-Countrey seemed to presage the fall of Antwerpe before their Ciuill Warres began by reason of their abundance of riches wherein they were thought to exceed all the townes in Europe and luxuriousnesse security of life by their long peace Which may be a warning to other countries that finde themselues drowned in the like vices Cato said that luxuriousnesse and couetousnesse were two plagues that ouerthrow all great Empires Cyprian findeth fault with the corruption of his time by long peace Idlenesse saith he and long peace hath corrupted the discipline deliuered by the Apostles euery man laboureth to increase his patrimonie and is carried away with an insatiable desire to augment his possessions What would he haue said of the couetousnesse and greedy desires of these dayes Many examples may be produced out of Histories of the ouerthrow of Cities and countries by the vices gathered by long peace Euscbius reporteth that the long peace and rest which the Christians enioyed from the persecution that was in the gouernment of the Emperour Aurelian to the raigne of Dioclesian was the cause that the Christians manner of liuing began to be corrupted so as many iniquities did grow presently and the former old holinesse began to decrease and such disorders and dissentions began to be mooued among the Bishops and Prelates that as Eusebius saith God suffered the persecution of Dioclesiâ—… to serue in place of reuenge and chastisement of his Church which was so extreme and bloody and full of crueltie that neither is it possible for a pen to write not tongue to pronounce it So that whether wee liue in the warres or in peace each of them hath in them their infelicitie Occidit ignavus dum pralia pace quiescunt The slothfull dyes whil'st warres sleepe in peace Now if wee should prosecute in a generalitie this discourse of the miseries of man as wee haue done of their particular estates how many kinds of paines and torments hee suffereth in this life and how many wayes and in what miserable estate hee commeth by his death wee should rather lacke time then matter to write of But to follow the course that we haue already taken in other things let vs of an infinite number of examples select some few What paines and troubles men suffer in this life in labouring to attaine to their desires something hath beene said before and more shall be said hereafter Likewise what miseries men haue suffered by the warres hath beene touched already Now resteth to speake something of the calamities that happen to men by diseases and accidents which bring them to their end whereof we will recite some few examples of those that be rare and somewhat strange But first wee will adde one more to that which hath beene spoken before of famine a most miserable plague and horrible kinde of death one of the whips and scourges wherewith God vseth to punish the sinnes of men In the fourth booke of the Kings mention is made of a famine in Samaria in the time of Helizeus which was in all extremitie and when all their victuals were consumed the mothers did eate their owne children insomuch that a poore woman made her complaint to the King seeing him vpon the walles that a woman her neighbour would not performe a bargaine made betweene them which was that they should eate her childe first which said shee vnto the King I haue performed for wee sod and ate my childe and shee presently hath conueyed away her childe and hath hidden him that I should not eate my part of him which when the King heard his heart was ready for griefe to breake and leape out of his body and hee beganne to rent his garments and couered his flesh with sack-cloth saying God make mee so and as followeth in the Text. CHAP. IIII. Of sundry sorts of plagues and pestilence and great mortalities The Iudgements of God vpon diuers euill men Of Popyelus King of Polonia and his Queene Arnolphus and Hotto Bishop of Ments c. Other strange accidents concerning Gods great Iustice. The miraculous effects of feare sorrow and ioy approoued by History The instability of fortune instanced in the story of Policrates King of Samos His daughters ominous dreame His great prosperity and miserable end That no man can be said to be happy before death Of the vaine trust in riches and of rich and couetous men Auarice reprooued and punished c. CRedible Authors report that in Constantinople there was a strange kinde of pestilence in such manner as those which were sick therof thought themselues to be killed by other men and being troubled with that feare died madde supposing men did kill them Thucidides reporteth that there was a corruption of the aire in Greece that infinit numbers of people died without finding any remedy and such as recouered health lost their memory knowledge so as one knew not another not the father his child Certaine souldiers that were vnder the Lieutenant of the Emperour Marcus Anthonius being in Seleucia went into the Church of Apollo where they opened a coffer thinking to find some great treasure but the contagious aire that came forth of it first destroyed a great part of the people of Babylon then it entred into Greece and from thence to Rome whereof ensued such a pestilence that it destroyed a third part of the people In France there was such a disease at Aix that the people would die eating and drinking many would fall into a frenzie and drowne themselues in welles others would cast themselues out of their windowes and breake their neckes The mortalitie growing
sent from a Free State in Embassage to the Duke of Moscouia and as one of them kept his Cap vpon his head in the presence of the Duke he being therewith offended caused a nayle to be driuen thorow his Cap into his head Ludit in humanis diuina potentia rebus Et certam prasens vix habet hora fidem The Diuine power all humane things derides And scarce one certaine houre with vs abides The Emperour Marcus Aurelius meditating vpon the miserable condition of men spake in this sort I haue imagined with my selfe whether it were possible to find any estate any age any countrey any kingdome where any man might be found that durst vaunt he had not in his life tasted what manner of thing aduerse fortune is And if such a one might be found it would be such an ougly monster that both the quick and the dead would desire to see him Then he concludeth In the end of my reckoning I haue found that he which was yesterday rich is to day poore hee that was yesterday whole is to day sicke he that yesterday laughed to day I haue seene him weepe he that was yesterday in prosperitie to day I haue seene him in aduersitie he that yesterday liued I haue seene him by and by in his graue Saint Augustine entring deepely into the consideration of the miserable condition of men and wondering at their infelicitie maketh thus his complaint to God Lord after men haue suffered so many euill things mercilesse death followeth and carrieth them away in diuers manners some it oppresseth by feauers others by extreme griefe some by hunger others by thirst some by fire others by water some by the sword others by poyson some thorough feare others are stifled some are torne in pieces by the teeth of wild beasts others are peckt with the fowles of the ayre some are made meat for the fishes others for wormes and yet man knoweth not his end And when hee goeth about to aspire higher hee falleth downe and perisheth And this is the most fearefull thing of all fearefull things the most terrible of all terrible things when the soule must be separated from the body And what a miserable sight is it to see one lying in the pangs of death and how lothsome when he is dead And then followeth the dreadfull day of Iudgement when euery one must yeeld account of his life past This is the time when Monarkes and Princes must giue account whether they haue laid intolerable exactions vpon their subiects and beene the cause of the effusion of innocent blood to feede their ambitious humours This is the time when the Pastours and Prelates must giue vp a reckoning of their flocke and with what doctrine good or bad they haue fed them This is the time when Merchants must yeeld an account and all other Trades that stand vpon buying and selling for the falshood they haue vsed in vttering their Wares whose case is hard if it bee true the Poet saith Periurata sâ—…o postponit numina lucro Mercator Stygiis non nisi dignus aquis The periur'd Merchant will forsweare for gaine Worthy in Stygian waters to remaine This is the time when Lawyers will tremble how to answere the animating their poore Clyents to waste their goods to their great hinderance or vtter vndoing in continuing their suits in a wrong cause the end whereof is their owne gaine This is the time that Magistrates and Iudges must bee called to a reckning whether they haue administred iustice vprightly and indifferently without fauour or corruption This is the time when men of Warre must answer for their spoyles and rapines and intolerable outrages and cruelties vsed vpon euery sexe and age that Christ dyed for as well as for them This is the time that couetous men and vsurers must yeeld an account for their rapines and oppressions and for the vndoing of infinite numbers to enrich themselues with their excessiue and vnlawfull interest and gaines This is the time that Widowes and Orphanes and other afflicted people will cry out and present their complaints before God of the iniustice and wrongs they haue sustained and suffered This is the time when the wicked shall say quaking and trembling for feare and repenting too late Looke how yonder folkes which we had heretofore in contempt as base persons and of none account in respect of our selues are now exalted in the sight of God and are accounted among the Saints This is the time saith Saint Hierome when they that stut and stammer shall be more happie then the cloquent And many Sheepheards and Heardmen shall bee preferred before Philosophers many poore beggers before rich Princes and Monarkes many simple and grosse heads before the subtill and fine-witted Then shall the fooles and insensible persons saith Saint Augustine take hold vpon Heauen and the wise with their wisedome shall fall downe into hell where is the miserie of all miseries and such as the miseries of this world be pleasures and delights in respect of them This is the iudgement spoken of in Saint Matthew Goe yee cursed into hell fire where is nothing but lamenting and gnashing of teeth which is prepared for the Diuell and his angels before the beginning of the world where they shall bee tormented for euer and euer and shall wish for death but they shall not finde it they shall desire to die and death shall flie from them These miseries to which men are subiect made the Prophet Esay sorry that hee was not destroyed or styfled in his mothers wombe and murmured that his legges did hold him vp and complained vpon the paps that gaue him sucke â—…remie mooued with the like spirit considering that man is formed of the earth conceiued in sinne borne with paine and in the end made a prey for wormes and serpents wished that his mothers belly had serued him for a sepulchre and her wombe for a tombe The consideration of the miserable estate of this life brought in a custome to the people of Thracia to weepe and lament at the birth of their children and to reioyce when they dyed But the Philosopher Demosthenes discouered his conceit by a more particular passion For beeing demanded of the Tyrant Epymethes why he wept so bitterly for the death of a Philosopher being so strange a matter for a Philosopher to weepe To this Demosthenes answered I weepe not O Epymethes because the Philosopher dyed but because thou liuest being a custome in the Schooles of Athens to weepe more because the cuill doe liue then for the death of the good Seeing therefore wee haue perused the principall estates of life and can finde nothing in them worthy to be called Felicitie nor answerable to the thing which that word seemeth to purport but rather that they all defect so much from felicitie that they decline to infelicitie and miserie Let vs doe yet with a better minde as many now a dayes vse to doe
seeme to you happy or vnhappy I know not because I was neuer conuersant with him but what if you had had his company would you then know him Can you take knowledge of his felicity by no other meanes No truly Then it seemeth ô Socrates that you will say likewise I cannot tell whether the great King of Persia bee happy or not and so it is true for I know not how he is instructed with learning or with iustice Doth all felicity consists in this Truly by mine opinion for I account that man or woman that is honest and good to be happy and him that is vniust and vnhonest vnhappy Then according to your words Archelaus is vnhappy Yea surely if he be vniust and vnhonest Thus much of Socrates Yet negligence is to be auoided and prouidence without ouermuch care and possession without feare is necessary and requisite It is a wise mans part to put aside dangerous things before they come to do hurt for the losse or harme a man receiueth by his own fault is more grieuous then that which happeneth to him by another man Thucidides saith It is no shame for a man to confesse his pouerty but it is a shame to fall into it by his owne fault He must haue all things premeditate that happeneth to men and thinke the same may fall vpon him for the things that are foreseene before pierce not so deepely as that which commeth suddenly and taketh a man vnwares He that will make his life pleasant must not take ouermuch care to prouide for it neither can any man take full pleasure of any thing except he haue a minde prepared for the losse of it One proâ—…steth by long study to haue learned this to contemne mortall things and not to bee ignorant of his ignorance Death is to all men by nature terrible but to a Christian that knoweth with how great an aduantage hee changeth his estate it ought to bee had in contempt whereof the heathens that knew not God nor what should become of them made little account who for friuolous causes would offer themselues voluntarily to die whose examples though they be not to be followed but auoyded as an vnlawfull and vnnaturall act yet they may serue to perswade men the rather to discharge themselues of all feare of death that haue an assured hope certaine knowledge to possesse the vnspeakable ioyes of heauen when the Infidels through a vaine hope of a better life wherein neuerthelesse they were deceiued would often make choise of a voluntary death CleoÌ„brotus hauing read Plato his booke of the immortality of the Soule wherein he disswadeth men from the ouermuch loue of this life thinking he had found the ready way to deliuer his soule out of prison cast himselfe downe headlong from a high wall and brake his necke They haue a custome in Narsinga that when the men die their wiues be buried aliue with them that with great solemnity and ioy when the king is dead there is a pile of wood of a most pleasant sauour set on fire the kings carkeise carried into it and then all his concubines whereof he hath great store and all his familiar friends and fauourites and such of his seruants as were in estimation with him are likewise carried into that pile of wood to which place they go with such haste ioy to be burnt that to accompany their king in that kind of death they seeme to esteeme it the greatest honour and felicity that can happen to them The Indians by custome doe marry many wiues and when the husband is dead there is great contention among his wiues which of them he loued best that she may be buried with him then she that hath iudgement with her with great ioy merry countenance is led by her friends to the place and casting her selfe into the fire vpon her husband is burnt with him as a most happy woman the rest remaining leading a sorrowfull life There hath been a people dwelling by the mountaines called Rifei who hold this for a custome when they come to the age of 50 They make great piles of wood and put fire to them there burne themselues aliue and sacrifice to their gods and the same day the kinsfolke children make a great feast and do eate their flesh halfe burnt and drinke with wine the dust of their bones How much lesse then should Christians feare death when it pleaseth God to send for them that hope for a crowne of glory after this life They make a good bargaine that with the death of the body seeke the saluation of their Soule Plato saith All the life of wise men is the meditation vpon death that men ought not to be carefull to liue long but to liue well For the honourable age saith Saâ—…mon is not that which is of long time neither that which is measured by the number of yeeres but wisedome is the gray haire an vndefiled life is the old age And Euripides saith This life is life by name but in very deed labour Death is not a torment but a rest and end of all mans miseries and labours And Seneca Before old age come a man should learne to liue well and in old age to die well But the day of our death saith Gregory our Creator would not haue knowne to vs that the same being alwayes vnknown may be alwayes thought to be at hand and that euery man should be so much the more feruent in operation by how much hee is vncertaine of his vocation that whilest we be vncertaine when we shall die wee may alwayes come prepared to death And because that is so certaine a thing that no man can escape it shall bee good alwayes to thinke vpon death especially in the time of prosperity â—…or the thinking often thereof will bridle and restraine all other cuill thoughts and desires of worldly vanities for in prosperity we forget humane srailty It is reported that the Emperour Charles the fift fiue yeeres before he died euen when he was occupied in his greatest affaires caused a sepulcher to be made with all things appertaining to it that was necessary for his buriall being dead and that secretly lest it might be taken for ostentation or hypocrisie which things he had closely carried with him whithersoeuer he went fiue yeeres together some thinking there had been some great treasure in it some other that there had been bookes of old stories some thought one thing some another but the Emperour smiling said that he carried it about with him for the vse of a thing to him aboue all others most precious In that sort he seemed to set death alwayes before his eyes that the coÌ„tinuall remeÌ„brance therof might driue from his heart the vaine pompe pride of this world Let vs imagine that we see a maÌ„ of mean estate whose mind is cleansed from all perturbations vnquietnes that hath
honours and such like bringeth not felicity but the service of God Iugera non faciunt felicem plurima frater Non Tergestini dulcia musta soli Non Tyriae vestes Aurâ—… non pondera flavi Non ebur aut gemma non juvenile decus Non dulcis nati soboles non bellula conjux Non tenuisse suâ—… sceptra superbamanu Noveris rerum causas licet astra polique Et nostro quicquid sub Iove mundus habet At mea si quaeris quae sit sententia Frater Dicam vis felix vivere vive Deo Brother not many acres make thee blest Nor the sweet grapes in Tergestine prest Not Tyrian garments not thy golden treasure Not Ivory gemmes nor all thy youthfull pleasure Not thy faire issue not thy beauteous bride Not a proud scepter with thine hand to guide To natures secrets though thy skill extend And thou the starres and poles dost apprehend With all the world doth beneath Iove containe Yet if thou ask'st of me what thou shalt gaine By these I le speake if thou wouldst make thy ' boad In heaven so live that thou mayst live to God The end of the fifth booke THE FELICITIE OF MAN OR HIS SUMMUM BONUM THE SIXTH BOOKE CHAP. I. The Creation of Man and the estate he was in at the beginning before his fall Mans alteration after his fall how he participates with the nature of brute beasts All things made to serve man rebell against him Man only of all other Creatures declineth from his originall nature The reason why God suffereth evill to be committed The means that God hath given to man by which to escape the dangers into which he is fallen Of the three faculties of the soule vegetative sensitive and understanding c. IT appeareth by that which hath bin said what manner of felicitie men may enjoy in this life which is rather an usurped name and improperly so called than so indeed Now resteth to discourse upon the true end and felicity of man or beatitude and Summum bonum When God had created this goodly frame of the world being so called of his excellent and beautifull forme replenished with such varietie of creatures and placed the earth in the middest last of all he made man after his owne image which St. Paul interpreteth to bee justiâ—… and holinesse of truth who was after called Aâ—…am of the veine of red earth whereof hee was made And when God had finished this worke and made man hâ—… ceased from creating any more things and rested in him in whom hee delighted and would for ever after communicate himselfe his wisdome his justice and his joy and gave unto him a companion for his greater comfort and pleasure This man he adorned with many goodly gifts and placed him in Paradise which signifieth the best part of the earth and that estate of men in which they should have lived without sin and death In which place appointed for their habitation are the four fountaines of the goodly rivers of Euphrates Tigris Ganges and Nilus which they water passe through and containeth almost a third part of the earth But when this man by the temptation subtill practices of the Serpent tasted of the forbidden fruit withdrew himselfe from the due obedience of his Creator he lost many of those goodly ornaments wherewith God had endowed him and fell into the punishment appointed for his transgression eternall death and damnation But the son of God bearing a singular favour to man pacified his father to satisfie his justice which was immutable he took upon him to fulfill all that obedience 〈◊〉 God required of man and restored him into Gods favour againe though not with recovery of all his lost ornaments revealed the promise of God which he had also procured to send him to be a protector of mankind against the tyranny of the Divell therefore he is called the word because he revealed this secret decree out of the breast of the eternal Father And this was the first miracle that God wrought after his creation of the world and the creatures therin contained staying them that were to dye without the second causes and without that ordinarie course of life which before hee had established Iosephus writeth that Adam set up two tables of stone in which he wrote the beginning of the creation the fall of man and the promise Now if wee consider what a worthy and beautifull creature man was before his fall the very habitation temple of God without sinne and without death wee may easily judge what an ungrateful and unhappy creature he was to revolt from God to the Divell whereby he and his posterity became subject to sinne and death For first God made him after his own image likenes that is he made him most good uncorrupt holy righteous immortall furnished him with most excellent gifts that nothing might bee wanting unto him to all blessednesse in God His understanding was wholly divine his will most free most holy he had power of doing good evil a law was given him of God which shewed him what he should doe or what he should not doe For the Lord said Thou shalt not eate of the tree of knowledg both of good evil God simply required of him obedience faith that whole Adam should depend upon him that not constrained by necessity but should do it freely he told him also the perill willed him not to touch the tree lest he dye So that he left him in his own counsell whose will was then free might have chosen whether he would have broken Gods commandment or not Neither did â—…atan in the serpent compel him to eat but perswaded the womaÌ„ with hope of a more excellent wisedome who drew on her husband willingly to bee partaker of the same by the false and lying perswasion and promise of the divel by the delectable shew sightliness of the tree the fruit whereof after the woman had first tasted she gave to her husband also to eate By meanes whereof hee lost those goodly gifts ornaments which God had bestow'd upon him which gifts hee gave to Adam upon condition that hee would also give them to his posterity if himselfe did keep them but would not give them if hee by his unthankfulnes would cast them away so that by his transgression disobedience hee was cast out of Paradise that is out of that happy estate found al the elements lesse favorable His nature condition was alter'd from goodnes holines to sin and wickednes from sincerity to corruption the influences that descend from the stars and planets which are of themselves simply good through our sinnes and corruption turne to evill so as all things made for our use rebell and conspire together against us and our sinnes are the cause of all our evill Which fall and alteration of mans nature and his ingratitude towards
sensitive and understanding Now let us see in which of these wee may lay the end or felicity of mā The soul giveth life to the body the perfection of life is health If we respect nothing else in this life then he that was first created healthfull had nothing wherewith to occupy himselfe But if sithence our corruption our principall care ought to bee of our health what thing is more unhappy than a man whose felicity standeth upon so false and feeble a ground Seeing the body is subject to an infinite number of perils of hurts of mischances weak and fraile alwaies uncertaine of life and most certaine of death which commeth to him by many means and wayes who is he that is so sound of body or so feeble of mind that if his choise be given him will not rather chuse a sound mind in a sickely body than a little frenzie or imperfection of mind in a very healthful body In the mind therfore our chiefe good must be seeing we be willing to redeem the perfect estate of our mindswth the miseries of our bodies Next unto this is the sensitive part whose felicity seemeth to bee in pleasure but then were beasts more happy than men that feele pleasures more sweetly and fully And how soone are these pleasures ended with repentance also It pleased the gods said Plautus that sorrow should follow pleasure as a companion But wee seeke for the greatest or soveraigne good and if it be good it will amend men aud make them better But what doth more weaken and corrupt men than pleasures and what doth lesse satisfie men and more weary them But wee looke not for that which doth finish but that continueth our delight whereas these pleasures contrariwise soone decay and quickly spoyle us As Petrarke saith Extrema gaudii luctus occupat The extremity of joy and pleasure sorrow doth possesse The delight of the mind is greater and more meet for a man and more agreeable to his end than the pleasures of the senses And if choyce be given to him that hath passed all his life in pleasures and hath but a few houres to come either to enjoy the fairest curtisan in Rome or else to deliver his countrey who is so beastly or barbarous that will not presently chuse rather to delight his mind with so noble an act than to satisfie his senses with pleasure And to conclude the place of pleasures is in the senses which are decayed taken away by sicknesse by wounds by old age And if these pleasures that be exercised by the sensitive part will not sooner be abated yet death will utterly extinguish them But seeing man hath two kindes of life mortall and immortall the one of which he preferreth as farre the better before the other we must not seeke for such an end or good as perish both together but such as maketh men happy indeed everlasting and immortall which cannot be found in these transitory things Now followeth the third part of the soule which is understanding which is occupied sometimes in it selfe sometimes in the matters of the world and other while in the contemplation study of divine things Of these three operatiōs springeth three habits vertue prudence sapience And seeing that understanding is the most excellent thing in man let us see in which of these we may place our soveraigne good For in this part of the soul the end beatitude of man must needs consist for what thing can be imagined beyond man beyond the world beyond the Creator of both That vertue cannot be his end or soveraigne good hath bin shewed before For vertue is nothing but the tranquility quietnes of the affections what be affections but a sodaine tempest in the soule that are raised by a very smal wind which overthrow the mightiest ship that is in a moment and maketh the most skilfull mariners to strike saile and reason it selfe to give over the stern And if our end of felicity should be in vertue what were more miserable than man that must fight continually against his affections which neverthelesse will not be overcome as the mariners labour to save themselves in a tempest from the raging of the sea that gapeth every moment to devoure them So that in this life vertue cannot bring us to felicity and in the other life it can stand us in no stead where wee shall have no affections Therefore vertue cannot bee our end or Soveraigne good Neither is prudence the thing we seeke for which is nothing but the right use of reason in exercising the affaires of this world And what bee the affaires of this world but contention strifes sutes warres bloudshed spoile murders burnings and sackings of townes and countries with an infinite number of such like stuffe Neither can they that have the charge of government in common-wealths which are all subject to these things be accounted happy but they rather are happy that are defended from them by their cares and unqui◅nesse for the Physitians care is more profitable to the f◅che body than to himselfe Besides that men are turned to dust and the world will be destroyed but the soule liveth and forsaketh these kind of affaires Therefore prudence cannot bee the end and felicity of man that is included within the limits of this world CHAP. II. Divine co◅ the best wisedome That our greatest knowledge is ◅eere ignorance Of wonderfull and strange secrets in nature The excellency of faith Religion our reconciliation to God All nations acknowledge a supreame Deity That no vertues are vertues that swerve from religion and godlinesse Of the only true religion Salvation of man the only true beatitude Markes by which the true religion is knowne The necessity of a Mediatour Who and what our Mediatour is And that the soveraigne beatitude is onely to be attained unto by our blessed Saviour Christ Iesus the Righteous LEt vs now examine sapience after Morney as we have done the rest or that part of wisedome which is conversant in the contemplation of God and divine matters for that in all mens judgements seemeth to bee a mostexcellent thing By instinct of nature every man knoweth that there is a God for the workes of God doe present him continually to us But how should we enter throughly into the knowledge of the Creator of all things when we know not the things before our eyes Socrates confessed freely that he knew this one thing That he knew nothing Which confession as himselfe thought was the cause he was by the Oracle called the wisest man of his time And Porphyrius said that all Philosophy was but a conjecture or light perswasion delivered from one to another and nothing in it that was not doubtfull and disputable But he that knoweth God in this wherein is hee the more happy Reason sheweth us that God is good that he is just that hee loveth the good and hateth the evill Our conscience whispereth us in the
at 〈◊〉 if forthwith hee give us not what we desire For he refuseth not to heare us that he disliketh us but because hee will convert it into a better cause Hee knoweth what hee doth and wee understand it not He knoweth what he doth deny but we know not what we aske hee measureth all things with reason and we but with appetite Hee denyeth that which is hurtfull to us and granteth that which is profitable wee ought on him only to depend Qâ—…icquid facimus venit ex also To whatsoever we our selves apply Or doe or suffer all comes from on high A young sicke child seeth an Apple in another mans hand and desireth it but the parents denyeth it him or taketh it from him knowing it hurtfull A farre greater or rather incomparable proportion is there betweene the wisedome of God and that of men than is betweene the reason and knowledge of a child and that of a man For wee are as young children and sicke our nature beeing corrupt in respect of the exact knowledge and perfect wisedome of God And therefore he only knoweth what is good and meete for us A learned Heathen saith I see that my selfe oftentimes do things wherein my servants are blind and conceive no reason and little children will cast into the fire 〈◊〉 of great price and their fathers writings of great learning and wisedome for that they are not of capacitie to understand the value and worthinesse of the thing Let us leave then to set our joy in vanities and unsatiably to desire these worldly things that men have in such estimation and if they happen to us let us apply them to such uses for which they were of God ordained to serve our necessity and lift up our minds and 〈◊〉 by Christ to those heavenly joyes where our minds will be fully satisfied Non habit at templis manuum molimine factis Omnipotens The Omnipotent dwelleth not in temples made with hands And not to feare the losse of worldly things which unquieteth the wisest nor death it self which is terrible to all seeing death is not the destruction of the body but a renewing of it nor the extinguishing of nature but a steppe and gate towards the other life and the first passage to the heavenly Kingdome and entrance to eternity For hee that made all the world of nothing without the helpe of any matter can easily repaire and renew that which is fallen to decay Hee that made the body of man without any labour of nothing it is much easier for him to raise him from death and give him life againe not of nothing but of the like matter that is agreeable with his substance which is turned into ashes or by some other meanes is resolved into the ayre For as the Artificer that casteth mâ—…all can repaire or new make his worke that is broken or bruised of the same matter and give it a better forme so God will rayse up the resolved into dust in his due time and call him to life againe in the very same forme he was before but without any earthly mixture and uncleannesse And if wee marvell at an Artificer for some notable painted table or any other thing that is excellently well handled as was that of Gaditan wherin hee set forth exactly the historie of Livie how much more ought wee to wonder and reverence him that hath set before our eyes and presented to our mindes so many marvellous things which can neyther bee numbred nor by reason comprehended For to prove the renewing of mans body by the least things of nature A Grasse-hopper when hee is old casteth his skinne and becommeth new and lusty againe A Canker becommeth a flying Butterfly An Ant a Fly with wings A Silke-worme reviveth againe being dead The Phenix that riseth againe out of his ashes sheweth an example of our resurrection That which is in nature to lay the corne which men sow covered in the ground the same is in the resurrection to bury the body that which is there to spring up againe and grow into a lively stemme the same is a man to revive againe And as the seede or corne laide in the ground putrusieth and is turned into another forme or thing than it was before and afterward being sprung up becommeth the same thing againe so happeneth it to man that being buried putrifieth and is turned into another thing and yet afterward riseth againe and becommeth the same he was before And though the body bee put into the ground diversly affected and subject to putrifaction yet hee shall revive and rise againe with a lively countenance cleansed from all the defects and corruptions of nature A sicke man that is vâ—…xed with a grievous disease his colour is gone he looketh pale sallow and wanne his body is become so leane and bare like a dead carkasse and the vitall moysture of his body so consumed that he cannot be knowne to bee the same man but after hee hath received apt and appropriate medicines and used a wholesome diet hee receiveth his health againe his colour is come to him he is faire and fat and lusty as at any time before So in the resurrection the same body shall rise againe but more gorgeously in whom shall appeare nospot nor signe of the former corruption This example was first begunne in Christ who in nothing shewed his divinitie more effectually than by the tryumph of his resurrection the same things by his vertue shall happen to all men As St. Paul saith They that fall asleepe in Christ shall bee raised againe by the word of God and shall with him for ever and ever have the fruition of him and his joyes And as by the opinion of learned men one starre is more bright than another so will there be like difference in mens minds and one 〈◊〉 will be more glorious than another For as much then as our felicity and soveraigne good or beatitude is to be joyned with God in heaven from whence we are fallen by the transgression of our first parent and the way to return to him againe is true Religion which teacheth us to worshippe and serve the true God by his owne word and appointment and sheweth us our Mediatour Christ Iesus who onely can reconcile us to God againe let us reject all other religions and inventions of men as superstitious and idolatrous and all other mediations and meanes of reputed reconciliations and submit our selves wholly to the mercy of God by our Saviour Christ Iesus and cleave only to him who is able and will bring all them that with a right faith beleeve in him into Gods favour againe with him to enjoy our 〈◊〉 good and beatitude in his heavenly kingdome to which place God grant we may all come Now to conclude this discourse with a briefe repetition of the summe of that which hath bin said It appeareth by many reasons and examples that the felicity of man wee seeke for consisteth not