heart be also saith our Sauiour Whence a reason may be rendred why Achitophel despairing of any portion among the Saints in heauen set his minde to dispose of his possessions here on earth Riches which the wisest sort of Philosophers haue esteemed no other than the complement of temporall felicitie are the maine of their ambition while the fruition of the eternall ioyes in heauen stands as doubtfull in their hopes as vnsettled in their opinion But this prouidence in disposing worldly affaires at the best can be reputed no other than the childe of Nature whose Mole-eyes through the glimmering light of humane reason can hardly pierce so farre as its owne spheare much lesse through the clouds of humane ignorance and the worlds contagious fogs open to it selfe a passage to that eternall glory to which none but the light of grace can direct or command an entrance No maruaile then if worldly men hauing all their cares bounded in this world runne alwayes in the same circle and respect onely their owne center disdaining as it were any interest in any superior Orbe This they esteeme their highest heauen without the which with Aristotle they can imagine neither Locus nor Tempus neither place to containe their treasure nor time to adde to their mortality if at any time by the permissiue indulgence of Almighty God some sparkle of grace presents itselfe it is but as the lightning no sooner seene but lost enough to shew it selfe but too little to giue direction enough for their curiosity to dispute but too much for their faith to apprehend And therefore rather resolue they to set vp their rest in this world which they know than to hazzard themselues on so dangerous a discouery wherein they should shew themselues at least diffident if not desperate This seemes to haue been the resolution of wicked Cain who although shut out from Gods presence sought out a place in the land of Nod to build a Citie which might beare his name and preserue his family Himselfe as it were branded with the blacke coale of reprobation he quickly submitted to perdition in this desperate resolution My sinne is greater than can be forgiuen me His posterity he committed rather to chance and policy than to Gods protection as though his owne care had been sufficient to vndermine the Diuine prouidence or at least he had proued so good a proficient in the schoole of policie as to work his owne desperate fortunes to his sons aduantage Amongst many such examples of this kinde which in this age of ours are too too frequent I finde none more remarkable than of a certaine Lawyer whom Bellarmine as himelfe reports in the time of his sicknesse comming to visite and vrging vnto praier and confession replyed That he could wish that prayer were made for his wife and children whose welfare in this world he greatly tendred for himselfe as lost and desperate he gaue ouer to perdition Bellarmines obseruation of this desperate man might me thinkes haue opened his eyes to haue seene that mysterie of iniquity closed vp in their Babylonish Hierarchie How many thousand soules whom they ought to purchase vnto Christ sell they daily vnto Sathan to buy their owne gaine or greatnesse as if they conspired all in one to shipwracke their hopes of another life in heauen to bolster vp a Papall Monarchie here on earth Their fire of Purgatorie had long since been extinct had it not maintained the Popes kitchin Their Indulgences had long since waxed stale and laine vpon their hands had not the costly marriages of the Popes Nâ—…eces or rather Daughters set them out in a new Edition to make them vendible The â—…doll of their pretended Supremacie had wanted adoration and Peters imaginary Chairâ—… been broken and hurled to the ground had not couetousnesse on the one side pompe and ambition on the other as two supporters laboured to keep it vpright And little could St. Paul himselfe effect by his powerfull preaching among such Athenians with whom there is neuer wanting a Demetrius a siluer Smith who lest his shrines should want sale will stoutly stand vp for the honour of Diana's Temple Well may we call that a meere politick religion or rather a masked Atheisme wherin Gods pretended seruice is set vp as a pillar to vnderprop an Antichristian Hierarchie and Religion which should command our best obseruance becomes the slaue and seruant to ambition Herein Achitophels designe seemes to fall short of their industry He sets his house in order for ought we find without any sense of Religion or preiudice to Gods Church These men vse the sword of the Church against Religion constraining her at once both to inflict and smart at her owne wounds Achitophel left the common-wealth in a combustion to set his owne house in order but these fire-brands of State set their owne houses in order first that they may the more easily disturbe the good temper of a settled Common-wealth Achitophel for ought we know shut vp all his treacherous designes in his owne execution leauing as hereditary rather the staine than the guilt of his odious treason to posterity But these Iesuiticke factours vnwilling to cut off the entaile of their traiterous inclinations either by despaire or repentance like a brood of Vipers bequeath a legacie of their venemous quality vnto their off-spring in which as out of a Cockatriceâ—… egges is hatched preserued and multiplied the accursed spawne of treachery and sedition Which last clause leades our discourse to a second point to wit the consideration of Achitophels death in that he hanged himselfe which comes next in order to be handled 7. In Achitophels death you may with me obserue two especiall points 1. The cause 2. The manner Thâ—… cause grounded on the motiue fore-mentioned in my former exercise was Despanre The manner of his death as shamefull and ignominious as his life and action To begin with Despaire we shall finde it an infirmity of mans nature rather deseruing mens pitie than indignation A childe it is whom the guilt of sinne begets on an euill conscience which no sooner beholds the light but couets darknesse as if it made no more vse of life than to instruct him the next way to death In this bottomlesse pit of despaire wherein no passenger could cast anchor Achitophel now finds himselfe plunged and therefore as arrested by deaths immediate sergeant prepares for his next appearance Better dye once than feare alwaies and shut vp all mischiefes in one death than spin out life in many mischiefes Those lofty Scenes of State wherein Achitophel hath either hitherto acted himself or prompted others must now shut vp in an ill Catastrophe and who sitter to end than hee who began this Stately Tragedy To liue at another mans beneuolence seemes the smallest priuiledge of a subiect to dye at his owne command the greatest prerogatiue of a King A base headsman must not share so great a glory as the chopping off a head enriched with so much policy
between Christian and worldly policie The one counsailes vs to make vp the breach of our sinnes by a sincere repentance the other to enlarge it with greater villany Binde not two sinner together for in one thou shalt not scape vnpunished saith the wisest of Kings But these Politicians holding themselues wiser than the wisest hold repentance base and perseuerance in sinne generous Nobler they suppose it to aduenture forward with danger than retire backe with shame as though they meant to shew themselues industriously resolute to sell their part in heauen and purchase their owne damnation But these we must leaue a while to their owne resolutions perhaps we shall find them againe with Achitophel hanging on the gallowes whose second and last counsaile offers it selfe in the next place to our examination 8 Hitherto hath Achitophels care bin to strengthen the faction both to secure himselfe and vnite the hearts of Israel more firmely to Absolon their leader His second Direction concernes the speeding of the execution Let me now choose out quoth Achitophel twelue thousand men and I will arise and pursue after Dauid this night and I will come vpon him while he is wearie and weake-handed and make him affraid and all the people which are with him shall flie and I will smite the King onely and I will bring back all the people vnto thee The man whom thou seekest is as if all returned So all the people shall be in peace In which politicke aduice of Achitophels three remarkeable circumstances offer themselues to our obseruation which by reason of the scantling of time and your wronged patience I shall be constrained rather to touch than handle In the first place his desire was to haue as well as his Head in the conspiracie so his Hand in the execution perhaps because hee hated Dauid hee was ambitious to shew himselfe the executioner of his owne reuenge and Dauids ruine perhaps out of vaine-glorie that he might seeme as able to act as wise to proiect a mischiefe perhaps out of an officious flattery to engage Absolons thankfulnesse by a doâ—…ble seruice But that which seemes to mee most probable was his extreame iealousie not daring to trust so young an experience with a matter of so great moment Absolons youth seemed perchance too shallow to entertaine the depth of his directions his bloud too neare to out-face the frowns of a fathers anger or the awe of filiall duety could not be supposed a fit actor in Dauids Tragedie The hardest Iron at the first touch of the Load stone is restored to its first temper and conceiues a Magneticke inclination And why might not Dauids fiery assault or gracious countenance in his rebellious sonne Absolon enforce nature to return vnto herselfe and kindle in him the sparkes of filiall duty and obedience Here may a man reade the state and condition of wicked poâ—…icie exposed to a thousand dangers and subiect to a thousand iâ—…alousies Well may such men as Damocles at Dionysius Table feed their hopes with the choisest dainties yet Gods fearfull iudgements as a sword pendulous ouer their heads is alwaies ready to threaten a destruction 'T is not then a good but an euill conscience which makes men cowards Onely hee who wants guilt wants feare and nothing but a cleare conscience can challenge true mother-hood in a couragious resolution The second point we obserue in Achitophels counsaile was a stratagem of Diuersion His quarrell was not against the people but Dauid his purpose to preserue the Kingdome but destroy the King and therefore thought it not so meete to hew out his passage to Dauids ouerthrowe through the bloud of the subiects as by the Kings forfeit to purchase them to Absolons obedience His first care was to strike at the roote it selfe well knowing the branches would fall of their owne accord and the peoples alleageance once dead in Dauid would soone quicken againe in Absolon The strength of Israel is shut vp in the Princes palace and the same power which conquers the one is soone master of the other This counsaile seemes to partake as well of good as bad with the death of one to redeem the life of many in the rigorous lawes of hostility seemes not a duety but a great courtesie But to sell a King to buy a kingdome and stake one Prince for many subiects is lesse than courtesie and more than cruelty Neither was this course affected by Achitophel to spare the liues of innocents or auoide a greater mischiefe but that he found it an easier way to conquer Dauid and reduce the people vnder the yoake of Absolons iurisdiction The good which politicians vse to pretend commonly swels in shew but shrinkes in substance as the Ocean they would seeme to flow in their kindnesses and embrace vs with twining armes as the waues the continent but seeking to lay hold on them we find them commonly to ebbe into nothing and snatch backe their owne with some aduantage If they chance to be authors of any good it serues only to flatter opinion and deceiue simplicity not that they loue good but that they may be the better armed to worke mischiefe To commit euill for a good end seemes to beare a better pretence before men than excuse before God but to suffer or act some good for an euill end is the height of mans wickednesse and the Diuels institution The third and last circumstance in this Achitophels counsaile was by a suddaine and vnexpected assault to take the best aduantage of his owne strength and Dauids weaknesse I will saith he suddenly fall on Dauid while he is wearie and weake-handed and the people shall flie To ioyne with mens misfortunes and adde to misery serues rather basenesse of the man than confidence of the cause and to second Gods afflictions with our owne reuenge is a marke of Gods instrument but the Diuels seruant The apprehension of an apt opportunity is of it selfe I confesse a matter indifferent as well to good as wicked policie Yet hasty and vnexpected actions commonly carry with them a greater suspicion of guilt than discretion as that which seekes to preuent a tryall and feares discouery Time the father of truth would questionlesse haue betrayed Absolons cause to common examination and reduced the discontented Commons to their first temper Dauid might haue giuen satisfaction allegeance haue reuiued in his subiects hearts Necessity which perhaps begat the effects of ill gouernment might haue vrged the causes and reason which at the first seemed to fawne on their discontent might afterwards be taught to correct her errors and suppresse their insolence All this Achitophel knew right wel and therfore chose rather to take aduantage of the peoples sudden passion than their maturer iudgements as one who had good cause to shunne a legall â—…ury where he could promise himselfe no other than losse in the fatall verdict Hitherto beloued haue we traced the foote-steps of our grand traytour Achitophel through all his politicke counsailes and
as critically directed to some especiall end or other in the State But admit his sinnefull proiects had laine open to discouerie yet sauouring of a reaching wit or seasoned with discretion they might seeme rather amongst vulgar iudgments the fruits of politicke preuention than humane weaknes Our intellectuall gifts we commonly value aboue our Morall vertues and therefore hold it a smaller disparagement to be taxed of d◅shonesty than indiscretion As if wee rather coueted an inheritance here amongst the children of this world than to haue our names enrolled with the children of light Thus far Achitophel had carried his matters in such fashion as might speak his wisedome though not his honesty Had Absolon through his aduice aduanced himself to the Throne of Israel his notorious treason had passed for profound policy neither could the world euer tearme that act treason which is of a King or for a Kings promotion Had Achitophels proiect falne below expectation as he did afterward it was Absolons weaknesse to reiect aduice not Achitophels to suggest the best counsell But shift the Scene and let the selfe same Theater which euen now found him plotting Absolons aduancement contriuing the meanes and manner of his owne death and you would imagine him all this while but to haue personated a wise man and now in the end to resume his proper habit like a certain beast of Scythia recorded by Pliny in his naturall history whom he reports to be able to change himself into all variety of shapes colours yet returning to his owne forme expresses the resemblance of an Asse A good embleme of a wicked politician who sitting as it were at the sterne of state holding the helme in his hands must of necessity vary himself a thousand wayes to obey all winds second all tides But Nature which is the worst dissembler of guilty actions will one time or other betray it selfe to discouery or atleast plain-dealing Death wil strip him naked lay him open vnto shame leaue him as a fool to mens cōtempt Gods vengeance Shame reproach the most vnwelcom guests to Achitophel in his life are here inuited as friends to bear him to his sepulchre the kind maner of death most odious to God man is thought the safest and sweetest in his foolish choice Among so many waies wherby euery man may make himself a passage to death he must needs chuse the worst to dye as a dogge on a tree and make himself guilty aswel of his shamefull death as the ignominious motiue Death is the cōmon destinie of mankind to feare or wish for death is the mark of a coward shame of a man To end our course of life in a warm bed is natures tribute and the crown of siluer haires to cancell cares in the field by the hand of an enemy is the chance of war the honour of a souldier To die by the sentence of iustice stroke of the executioner is a satisfaction of the law expiation of the guilt But to die out of cowardise despair to die by the enforced violence of our own hands to die as a theefe on a tree not expiating the guilt of sin by giuing satisfaction to the law or affording nature any right in expectation which is more than all the rest to quit the vexations of this world to incurre greater in the next to treade with vnresolued feet that vnknown path of death whose cōmon entrance shuts vp in as doubtfull an end as celestiall ioyes infernall torments what settled iudgement will not brand with the odious blot of extreamest folly in sight and comparison of which the greatest vanitie in the world should lose her name seeme discretion Here may we see the weaknes of humane wisedom tutored by temptation directed by the cōmon enemy of mankind as the strength of Sampson ouer mastred by the wiles of Dalilah which cōmonly affords the owner no greater courtesie than confusion their names and memorie no other Trophee than a liuing shame or a lying sepulchre Which by occasion directs our enquiry to the third last action preordained as it seemes by himselfe in his life but executed by his friends after death his pompous buriall Hee was buried in the Sepulchre of his Fathers 9 Whether this last action of Achitophel bee rather to bee ascribed to Achitophel himselfe as prescribed by his last Will Testament or to his children as their last duty obligation to their dead Parent we will make no long dispute It seemes an act of both wherin either partie may share an interest as commanded by the one executed by the other From each obseruation may be copied out vnto vs some vseful doctrine for instruction In Achitophels prouidence in seeking to preserue his name memorie in so fleight a Trophee as a stone or statue we may reade the shallow reach of many politicians of our age ambitiously setting vp their garnished sepulchres in Churches high places as idols of admiration to bee worshipt by ignorant spectators which notwithstanding in a iudicious censure liue only for a time to vpbraid their folly and fall after a time into the dust ashes as the rotten bones they shrowd vp in obliuion Enuious time which hath eaten out the workemanship of so many famous Architects left not so much as stones or ruines for antiquitie to boast or posterity to admire by the mouth of History his best Secretary might hane discouered the weaknesse of such considence as grounds it self on such vncertainties Babel the greatest ambition of humane industry vndertaken as it were by the ioynt handicraft of mankinde neither by disparitie of religions or difference of languages as yet diuided into factions wherein as Philo Iudaeus notes and holy Scriptures not obscurely intimate the chiefest men of ranke and estimation in engrauen stones sought to preserue their memory what other legacie in her fal hath shee bequeathed to our obseruation than the want of discouery the whetstone of diligent Antiquaries tortures of the most curious inquisition How much better is the content of a quiet conscience grounded on the assurance of Gods promises for future happines than such painted sepulchers which present in a maner nothing to posterity but their own ruines and their founders weaknesse Neuerthelesse from this officious care of Achitophels children toward their deceased Father may Christians bee taught the reuerend respect they owe to the ashes of their dead ancestors The raising vp of monumentall statues to the memory of others ought we rather to interpret the duety of Posterity than the ambition of our deceased parents yet in such wise that they ought rather to humble vs with the thought of mortality than puffe vs vp with glory of our Parents Nobility Neither can such monuments besids shame infamie if erected to wicked men expresse any other than the common Epithaph of mankinde That he liued and died The greatest Tyrant in the world can command no more the poorest beggar can challenge to himselfe no lesse Hitherto Beloued hath my discourse seconded by your fauourable attention followed Achitophel through the by-paths and indirect passages of his life actions from the beginning of his conspiracy with Absolon to his shamefull death and pompous sepulchre whose story deseruing a more able discouery than my poore discription out of all these circumstances will minister this one true and vndoubted Corrolary That honesty is the best policie When worldly policy commonly hides her selfe in darknes and Proteus like transformes her selfe into a thousand shapes to auoide discouery this one only dares boldly aduenture in the light and iustifie all her actions this one couets no other likenesse than her owne as not ashamed to present her face to view and censure Finally this alone is sufficient to preserue a competent estate in this life and after death aduance vs to Christs glorious Kingdome where we shall raigne with him for euer amongst the Saints in heauen To which Kingdome c. Deo Triuni laus in aeternum FINIS Part◅ ◅ Part Part 3.