Samuel when he saith How long wilt thou mourne for Saul God could not if one may say so endure his lamenting and not hearken to his suit These are those waters which in a manner offer violence to Heaven The Spirit of God moveth upon such waters and they make a river of oblivion in Paradise The tears which are shed the prayers which are said and the supplications which are sent up to God for others are as acceptable to God and more peradventure than if they were made for themselves They are esteemed of more merit at least in regard of the moralitie of the action Why thâ—â— doe some Princes perswade themselves that they satisfie the obligatios wherein they are obliged to some one when they yeeld him his suit which hee hath made for another Or to say more truly why doe some favourites beleeve that there is such an impiety in their Princes Let them call to minde that the office of a favourite is the office of an Angell and ought therefore to present the suits and supplications of the subjects to their Lord and to bring backe the gracious grants of the Lord unto the subjects he that doth the contrary is a Divell and no Angell Fill thy horne with oyle saith God to the Prophet and goe to Ishai the Bethleemite for amongst his sonnes I have provided mee a King Hee answers How can I goe for if Saul heare of it he will kill me THus he answereth not because he feareth death but because hee is desirous to doe service unto God he much prizes his life in that case wherein to die is not to obey Hence let those that are imployed by their Princes learne that the death of the servant is seldome the service of the Lord It ought indeed to bee received couragiously but never to bee encountred but when it is very usefull and when the dying is an obeying A man of worth is a high prized instrument of the greatnesse of his Prince if hee cares not to preserve himselfe for his owne sake yet hee ought to be careful of preservation for his Lord and Masters sake Every man that is fitted to die is not fit to doe service It is true also what I have said even in the common Souldier whose life rather than his brain is dedicated to the Princes service that he ought also to endevour to obey and not to die Hee that runnes headlong on death doth not spend his life to the advantage but casts it away to the losse of his Lord his service is to overcome and not to die and indeed they lose that are slaine To expose needlesly to death that body which can doe service to its Prince but whiles it lives is a most pernicious desire of vaine glory contrary to good policy against good military discipline and an affection full of deceit and flattery into which even the Generals whose life is most pretious doe often precipitate themselves as if it were a greater bravery to fight than to command But that Army is but in a bad taking pardon me this digression whose safety consisteth in the arme not in the braine of the Generall To know how to command well in warre is a part of the imaginative faculty The imagination to worke well requireth a good measure of heat whose contrary is feare which how little so ever it bee the other abates and how little so ever that abates the imagination is disturbed whence it comes to passe that to bee afraid and to command well cannot stand together But how many are there that incited more by Honour than by Courage do both fight and feare these may handle the sword well but yet not apt for command The heating of the braine is not in our owne power as is the managing of the hands wee have no command over that howsoever 〈…〉 dominion we have over 〈…〉 for otherwise 〈…〉 not blame 〈…〉 nature necessarily in us Thence it followes that there is no greater or surer signe of a brave courage than to command well in a battell where both Reputation and life yea and many times the State it selfe comes upon the stage The Lord willeth Samuel to take him a calfe out of the flock and to say that hee is come to doe sacrifice BEcause God could succour him by ordinarie meanes hee would not have recourse to extraordinary If hee should alwayes bee doing of miracles men would not thinke his Providence so great in creating the second causes and if hee never used miracles hee should not perhaps be knowne to bee Almightie Where God worketh many miracles there is commonly great need of them and where there is such need there is but little faith When hee is not knowne by his Impression stamp or Image which hee hath imprinted in the things by him created then he findeth it requisite to make himselfe seene in the workes of his Omnipotencie Samuel obeyeth the Lord goeth and calleth Ishai and his sonnes to the sacrifice and looking on Eliab supposeth him to bee the man whom hee should annoynt because hee is the tallest and the goodliest of person Had the Prophet beene of the opinion of those Philosophers who have censured men of great stature to bee void of wisdome hee would not at the first sight so much have respected the talnesse of stature I for my part am not of that opinion but doe hold it to bee most false IF those Philosophers beleeved the neerenesse of the braine to the stomack doth trouble the operations of the understanding and if they have also imagined to themselves that the vitall spirits which ascend from the heart may bee made animall spirits for the service and operation of the Braine are unapt for such effect unlesse they bee first somewhat cooled because of the incompatibilitie of wisedome with heat wherefore have they not also affirmed the taller sort of men to be wiser than the little as having their Braine farther distant from the perturbations of the stomack and their spirits not so hot by reason of their long way and larger distance from their Originall Peradventure they are deceived in that they beleeve that men are alwayes great by the forming Power through the superabundance of matter not observing that many times there concurreth with it as a principall Instrument the Quantitie of heat as it is commonly verified in those whose talnesse is accompanied with slendernesse It hath therefore been noted as a true observation that the tall men that have little heads and the little men which have great have more Braine than the rest which commeth to passe not as many have thought because the little head in the great body and the great in the little maketh a mediocrity in the ordinarie stature of men which is false if wee measure the mediocritie of the part in respect of the whole of which it is a part But because the little head in a great man is a signe that the extension did proceed of heat and by consequence that the
of proceeding cannot alter it because it is naturall to them others will not because they have prospered with it and those ought never to change whose demeanour hath ever beene vertuous That power which is rising because it riseth cōmonly by the meanes of reputation must beware of losing it and preferre it even before life for therewith all its good is lost Politicians have esteemed this rule to be so true that they have made it an universall one and will have a Prince rather to hazard his estate and life than to lose by meanes of Peace Truce or tribute his reputation I subscribe not to their opinion yet doe I agree that if the greatnesse of a Prince consist in his reputation hee ought rather to die than to lose it but if it be founded on store of money and people which are his subjects let him yeeld to the time make peace and truce ever though it bee with disadvantage of reputation let him become tributary though it be to an inferior nation and leave not any thing undone how meane soever so it be not against Gods Law rather than to adventure his estate for any thing is better than to put that in jeopardy If that be not lost it is never out of season to recover whatsoever is lost Its prudence in Princes and no infamy they ought not to abhorre any thing that may augment or maintaine their dominion Private men write such weake rules because they measure them by their owne compasse Every degree of men hath his proper and peculiar kinde of reputation differing each from other so farre forth that many things accounted infamous in one degree are well reputed in another A Prince that hath a great estate never loseth his reputation if he lose not his estate for his estate is his reputation The world is in a confusion in such sort that men of one degree leaping into that of others by confounding the divers degrees have confounded all the world The Merchant will take upon him the Gentleman and the Gentleman the part of the Prince the religious that of the souldier and where the reputation of the one consists in suffering and forgiving of injuries hee leapes into that of the other whiles he seekes to require and revenge I am to be excused if I am long in this matter which is the cause of great errours in the world for if every one would follow his owne profession it would soone be knowne that reputation consists in knowing well how to performe his owne profession David being on one side of a mountaine seeing Saul on the other calleth unto him and sheweth him his garment assuring him of his good will complaineth that he is persecuted but blameth the Kings Ministers and not the King himselfe Saul hearing that malice is imputed to his servants doth not excuse himselfe by them but layeth the fault on himselfe IT is an ordinary thing of male-contented men to complain though not of the Prince himselfe yet of his Ministers That when David doth here out of modesty is done often by others out of subtilty To rise against the government makes the name of a rebellion the lesse odious deceives the people yea many times the Princes themselves for a while who sometimes discerne not at the first the ambition that commeth masked under discontentment Princes ought therefore to have their Ministers about them of singular goodnesse and of tried prudence that upon the first rumor they may be wel assured of the falsehood of such complaints and breake the heads of such horrible Serpents at their first appearing The reverence that the people beare toward the Prince is so great that it would be a difficult thing to stirre them up against him but by first beguiling them and though it bee all one to rise against the government and to rebell against the Prince because either the Prince is hee that governeth or hee that governes is the Princes Minister yet it appeares not at first with so foule a face It is true indeed that an insurrection of the people is occasioned by a bad Minister in which case the Prince doth alwayes amisse to chastise him In the people there is not alwayes one desire covered under another but if the great ones arise against the governement it is not because they are not well governed but because they would be governors themselves to satisfie their demands were to consent to lose the Soveraignty seeing such will not bee satisfied till they obtaine it Samuel dieth hee is buried with honour and is by the people most tenderly bewailed I Know not whether mourning for the dead proceedeth of piety or of meere interest It may favour peradventure of piety to bewaile when hee dieth but not after hee is dead who would not have compassion of his friend while he sees him or imagines tormented with the grievous agonies of death Men are certainly in very great paine for they are in the paine due to a very great fault And who would not after rejoyce to see him departed victorious over humane frailty and to triumph over death it selfe without having left any other spoyle in that conflict than his body and that for a very short time To lament the dead if one may say is then most impious when it seemes most pious and then ought most to bee done when it seemes not due at all The death of the righteous at which wee ought to rejoyce makes us to mourne and that of the wicked which we ought most to lament doth rejoyce us It is no friendly but an envious part to be grieved at the death of that friend whose life may make us beleeve that he injoyes his deserved glory But it is a part of piety to be sory at their death whose wickednesse doth make us doubt that they are cast headlong into hell The world is so full of snares that the good should not desire to bee in it because there they may be corrupted and so great is the mercy of the Lord our God that the wicked should desire to bee therein that they may be amended But if we are grieved in regard of our owne interest is it not more available that our friends pray to God for us than to men He that thinkes he hath lost his friend when he dieth if he beleeve the immortality of the soule and doth not thinke him damned must then beleeve that the Characters of his vertues are lost with God O how true it is that all our errours doe spring and grow from our muddy senses They acknowledge no interest but earthy no happinesse but worldly and albeit man is elevated by his better part unto a more excellent knowledge yet he cannot desire it as hee ought because he cannot know it as it is David went unto the wildernes of Rachan and understanding that there dwelt neere thereabout a man exceeding rich in flockes and other possessions whose name was Nabal he sent unto him on the day of sheep-shearing to
there would be no tides and ebbes in the world but hee that was once the greatest should alwayes so continue seeing hee could not be overcome by a lesser The Politicians would alleage Disdaine to be the cause hee that despiseth his enemie doth not strive with all his might but employing some part only and that with no great heed is often overcome by one who being weaker than hee opposeth him with the utmost of his strength and cunning One of the greatest errours that I have observed in great Potentates hath beene to see how applying their forces on an enterprise they have rather taken measure of the enemie than themselves opposing against him only so much of their strength as they conjectured to bee answerable to the present affaires and whereas with a greater power they might have beene sure of victory with an equall one they have either lost it or at least prolonged the warres with more expence of men and money It is very difficult to measure the proportion of things by their Beginnings Childrens garments must be allowed to be somewhat larger than themselves lest they growing greater the garments become too little It is enough for a meaner man if at the beginning hee bee enabled to resist a greater that so he may but get him reputation and by the meanes thereof hee can procure himselfe adherents and protectors The Giant was no sooner slaine but the Army of the Philistims being discomfited betakes it selfe to flight and the Israelites pursue and slay them THat Armie whose trust is in the straightnesse of some passage in the height of any situation in the strength of their Trenches in the valour of a man or in any one speciall thing of good defence is easily overcome by him who shall be assuredly perswaded that if he can but overthrow such a part or slay such a man or passe through the difficulties of such a hill or such fortifications he shall find no other resistance and therefore shall hee set forward very stoutly and couragiously Because men having once lost that by which they were confident they should overcome being dejected thinke there is nothing left that can defend them against the valour of their enemies But that Armie which relies upon it intire selfe equally throughout is in a manner invincible It may peradventure bee routed utterly discomfited it cannot Every one will fight to the Death because every one trusting in himselfe will not distrust of the victory untill he hath lost his life The slaughter being ended David returnes with the Giants head Saul enquires of Abner who he is Abner not knowing him goes to meet him and brings him unto Saul He askes him whose sonne hee is hee answers he is the Sonne of Ishai SEe how fading or how displeasing the memory of benefits is in Princes either Saul did not remember David or else hee was not willing to remember him Hee that but a little before had found so much favour in his sight hath now lost it both in his sight and memorie The memory of a benefit lasts well if it lasts as long as the benefit and the respect that is begotten thereby often dies before its Father If Reasons may bee rendered for the affection of a Prince towards a Courtier bee they drawne of Profit or out of Pleasure or whether accompanied with Honestie yet is it a thing but of small continuance If it follow Reason it formes a habit of which commeth satietie and if it be not grounded on Reason the ground of such affection faileth It is a vanity to thinke our selves able to yeeld a reason of the affectionate favours of Princes Those are great and slowly will they end for which there can no reason be given how they came to begin There are starres which incline them thereunto by their influences neither are those loves alwayes happie for neither are the aspects of these alwayes favourable In this manner haply that great scholler meant it though hee was not so understood when hee seemed to doubt whether any reason could be given of the Inclinations of Princes or whether they depended on the Course of their Nativitie And whereas in all other occurrents hee had shewed himselfe a friend unto reason hee never spake of this Argument or matter but made a present recourse unto Destinie which having once coupled and conjoyned with the course of the Nativity there is no doubt but he meant it by the operation of the starres Politicians may cease to teach the waies to obtaine the favour of Princes men must be borne to it not taught it A man may by his valour and wisedome make himselfe well esteemed but yet not beloved When hee had made an end of speaking the soule of Ionathan was knit with the soule of David in a knot of Amitie WOnderfull things are Friendship and Love whence they proceed with all respect and far from all presumption be it spoken men have not yet well declared for all their Philosophie Some have thought them to bee the daughters of Abundance and of Want but this were a taxing of Love and Amitie with imperfection and to deny the prime and chiefe love which wee call the holy spirit for in the three divine Persons there can bee no defect The rest of the Philosophers have deduced the originall from the similitude of the parties loving some from the Heaven some from the starres some from the temper some from the Manners some finally from the features yet peradventure they have all mistaken for if love came from the resemblance a man should rather love the male than the female and whereas Love is but seldome reciprocall it should be alwayes answered with like affection seeing one thing cannot be said to bee like another but that the other must also be like to it I beleeve that there are some Constellations conducing to Friendship and others to Love which produce in their subject a kind of lovely Character which commeth not of the Temper but rather of some I know not what celestiall impressions which the Heavens and starres with their operations have left imprinted in that tender body and that hee is most beloved that hath most thereof and that hee who hath lesse cannot be the object of Love but onely of good will or respect The reason whereof is because Beautie is the object of Love Yet not Beauty which is like unto ours but that which is greater otherwise there would not no not in Patria be any love towards God And if sometimes here we love our equall it is either because then wee see none more worthy or because wee doe not reflect thereon But onely that excellence which is in God is the adequate object of Love because that onely which is in God is the adequated object of our will and if wee could see him as hee is hee should infallibly make us love with him But because wee are here as but in Via he is not so represented to us we turne our
they would not goe with lesse danger if they were separated from whence may bee taken an instruction for them that wil fortifie themselves in a place that they have regard to accommodate in such manner that the fortification it selfe may be able to withstand the incursion of a multitude or otherwise not thinke their strength sufficient to maintaine it with neither fire nor shot David askes counsell of the Lord thereupon what shall bee done and suddenly turnes to follow the steps of the Amalekites THis is the best way to withdraw himselfe out of danger to divert an angry multitude to the true object of their anger that thereby they may forsake the false They finally finde out the Amalekites fight with them and overcome them recovering the prey with the prisoners and the spoile which they had taken David will have divided with those that kept the baggage and were not at the fight THe Captaine of a male-contented company had need bee both valorous and circumspect That heat that stirres up a multitude whether for love to their leader or anger against their Prince groweth soone cold and then gives place to a comparison to which succeedeth repentance the consequence whereof is either the killing of their Captaine or the abandoning of him Neither is it sufficient for the eschewing of such a danger to have once gotten a great reputation time consumeth it and how great soever it be reduceth it to nothing It is necessary to linke it into a chaine not suffering the report of a great action to cease without renewing it with another as great or greater David because his flying from Saul might take from him the reputation hee had gotten in subduing the Giant no sooner begins to flie but hee fights and overcomes the Philistimes that had sacked â—eilah and because that flight is an argument of feare and that feare brings a losse of reputation he makes it knowne that he could twice have killed the King to give his flight the title of reverence and to take away the imputation of feare Afterward being returned to Ziklag that the malecontented might not have leisure to make any reflections on him to his harme and desirous to maintaine his reputation hee oftentimes with honour and profit to himselfe assaulteth the infidels and finally vanquisheth the Amalekites and recovereth that reputation the diminution whereof had brought him into the perill of being stoned The Philistimes fight with the Israelites and have broken the body of their army and slaine three of the Kings sonnes the strength of the whole charged Saul when he turning to his Armour-bearer prayes him to kill him that he might not be a derision to the uncircumcised which when he refused Saul sets his owne sword against his breast and falling on it kills himselfe I Know not how the description of death to bee the utmost of all terrible things should bee understood If in this life the utmost of all delectable things be not to be had why should the utmost of the terrible One of the contraries cannot bee admitted but the other must also bee granted Now to live not being the utmost of delectable things teacheth that to dye is not the utmost of the terrible The not finding in this our world any object that is the last of delectable and of terrible things if we will not suppose the powers without an object makes us beleeve that it is in the other world and in that other world is God seene and not seene But he that described death the last of all terrible things meant it of things in this world which would be true if spoken of the last in number and not in weight for otherwise if it be such in it selfe it must then be alway such unto all And yet we read of many men that have imbraced it to eschew some other thing which wee must needs beleeve was more terrible to them He that wonders at a resolution so extravagant as makes a man kill himselfe may marvell at nature also which being sometimes terrified at death doth prevent it The Armour-bearer of Saul seeing what his Lord had done drawes out likewise his sword and kils himselfe Some Writers are of opinion that this was Doeg the Edomite Sauls favourite who lest hee should bee punished by his successor killed himselfe THe favorites of a Prince that hath a successour if they die not before Saul yet they die often with Saul I know not how to steere them from this rocke there hath beene one that seeing no other remedy made at the soveraignty it selfe and was just there destroyed There hath beene also that turned his backe to the West and sate his eyes toward the East and towards those rayes that would have beene deadly to him had not that Sun beene then under the line of the Horizon As the sons of Princes cannot endure any companion in domination no more will Princes in their love He that thinkes there is no envie betwixt the father and the son is deceived The honours done to the sonne if they increase that of the father doe rejoyce him but if they diminish his they make him sorrowfull which because it falls out but seldome men suppose there is no such thing When the favorite hath hope that by course of nature hee shall survive the Prince it is a hard matter for him not to have an eye to the future toward which if he cast a look he loseth that which is present but hee deserves no favour that desires or thinkes to out-live his Lord The greatest felicity that may befall the former it being not lawfull for any violently to charge upon death would be to end his life just when the latter dieth It is hard to die before him because it is no easie thing to leave one that is his Patron and his Love He that blames Princes for having favorites would have them inhumane and vile What thing is a man that hath no love or wherein may a Prince shew gracious unto others or see himselfe his owne greatnes but in advancing of others and how or why should he advance them if he doth not love them Would they have him alwayes masked would they not allow him any to whom he may unstrip himselfe and discover the secrets of his heart He that will give to Princes that which surely they ought to have leave to descend sometimes from their throne of Majestie and to conferre their inward cogitations with any one hee must allow a favorite If the Prince lay aside his Majestie withall he would grow contemptible if his secrets should bee imparted unto many they could not bee secrets but if he be familiar but to one open but to one hee is then the favorite It is wished by them that are not beloved above the rest that the Prince would love all alike but why should he love all alike since he is not beloved himselfe of all alike A well devoted subject ought to bee grieved that any one loveth his
Lord more than he and not that his Lord loves another more than himselfe This would bee a desire to tyrannize over the affections of Princes which men ought to reverence He that could make his love more fervent than that of the favorite might peradventure make himselfe the greater favorite but commonly men strive to unhorse him by malice and not by vertue because it is more easie to envy than to love Give me leave also further to affirme if without offence I may that it cannot be any blame to have a favorite unlesse men will say that Christ our Lord was to be blamed whose favorite was Saint Iohn One passing by chance neere unto Saul who longed to die and asked him whence he was and the other answering that hee was an Amalekite Saul prayeth him to kill him which hee excuseth O The unspeakable providence of God! he peradventure permitted not Saul to kill himselfe he consented that his sin should kill him One of the Amalekites whom against the will of God hee had saved alive God will have to put him to death That sinner spoke for al sinners spake divinely that said My sin is alwayes against me We have no enemies but we make some nor is Saul alone slaine by his sinne for there be but few men that are not also killed by theirs And it is very particular that one particular should kill them seeing it was the same that brought death into all the world O how pleasant and how profitable are the precepts of God! He is a Physitian under favour be it spoken not onely for the soule but for the body also He hath left us better rules in a few leaves to preserve our health than are contained in the great volumes of the bookes of the Gentiles King Saul dieth after he had reigned many yeeres and with the King dieth a great part of the people which had demanded a King FAvours are not therefore demanded of God that he may doe them but because he will doe them hee doth them by meanes of our prayers they are obtained with the Optative not with the Imperative mood Hee that will command them deserves then only to bee heard when it is to his harme to have beene heard to teach him that is God neither to bee taught nor to be commanded Wherefore then it was that Saul did lose his life and wherefore the Kingdome of Israel went out of his Progeny is easily resolved by them who omitting the manifold other causes have recourse to that alone which is the first and chiefe and prime cause from whose well all the rest proceed But why God willeth the destruction of Kings and Kingdomes would bee easie also to shew were it not the will of God is not alwayes effective but sometimes also permissive Hee wills that such as forsake him lose their kingdomes and that they that follow him obtaine them Moreover how and when it comes to passe that hee permitteth sometimes those that follow him to be abased and those that abandon him to bee exalted I doe not know and others peradventure know as little Those Princes then that are not in Gods favour let them alwayes feare how prosperous soever they are Being not able to alledge any cause of their happinesse they must needs be afraid if they be great they know not why they are so and it is to be doubted that such greatnesse cannot long endure whereof no cause can bee given for which it began He who hapning to come into the house of a fortunate man did suddenly depart thence certainly hee meant it not of them that God maketh happy and successefull but of those whom God permitteth so to be The ruine of Saul came peradventure of his owne great prosperity his being from a base estate exalted to a kingdome confirmed and setled therein with happy successe in stead of making him the more devout made him more confident yea more rash and unadvised Let us not make it lawfull to serve him the lesse who hath prospered us to the end wee should serve him the more as if the gifts or graces which God vouchsafeth us were but for our pleasure and not for his glory A great sort of men offend their God in their prosperity and pray unto him in their adversity yet is hee still the same God when he delivereth us out of misery and distresse and when he overturneth our fortunate courses and proceedings It may seeme peradventure that to deliver out of disasters doth more manifest the Divinity than to abase prosperous fortunes whence it is that men are more confident in his mercies than fearfull of his vengeance There is no man how wicked soever but doth some good thing whereunto he afterward ascribes the cause of his good successe and equivocating betweene the reward and the grace given him hath no feare of losing what he pretends to have deserved On the contrary there is no man so good but he committeth some evill whereunto for the most part he attributeth the cause of his misfortune and equivocating betweene Gods chastising and his exercising of him sends up sometimes his supplications to God when he should rather have sent thanksgivings as if the world which is the place of meriting and demeriting were the place also of rewarding and punishing To conclude let us pray his divine Majestie that he will be alwayes pleased to end the persecutions of the Davids with the death of the Sauls And all to the glory and honour of his great Name in which I end this Booke as I desire also to end my life FINIS Vid. Daâ—